2 5 b . m . al chalabi bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2000) 9 (2):5-8 notes on some mites under certain field crops in central iraq zahida al-douri iraq natural history museum, university of baghdad. baghdad, iraq abstract a study of some mite species of alfalfa. wheat, and barley was conducted in central iraq. the mites were extracted using a tullgren funnel method. twelve species were recorded. 10 of them belong to suborder trombidiformes and 2 belong to suborder sarcoptiforms. three mites, irnpar(pes hystricinus, scutacarus longitarsus, and rhizoglyphus echin opus are new records for iraqi mite fauna, and 11 are new host records in alfalfa soil. introdition the mite fauna of cohort tarsonemina and family acaridae were rather neglected in iraq. except for mahmood (1987) who studied family acaridae were associated with stored grain in baghdad although they were extensively studies all over the world by many authors such as cross (1965). mahunka (1970), bulanova-zakhvatkin (1975). vainshtein (1978). sevastianov (1986) and al-douri (1988). therefore it is fund necessary to make a survey of the different species of tarsonemid and acaridid mites in the soil of certain field crops (alfalfa. wheat and barley) in central iraq. materials and method a total of 260 soil samples of alfalfa. wheat and barley from three localities in central iraq (baghdad city, suwaira and musiba) were taken and once a week when possible during october, november and december 1990 and 1991. the soil samples were collected from the surface layer (0-10 cm) using the aid of an iron sampler (10 x 10 x 10cm). mites were extracted in the laboratory though a tullgren funnel extractors kept in 70% ethyl alcohol. the mite were cleared in 10% koh, washed with distilled water, mounted in hoyers medium on glass slides, and then carefully examined, under a stereoscopic binocular microscope. results table i summerizes the result of a survey of soil samples in central iraq. it is found that iniparipes hysticinus berlese, 1903 and scutacarus longitarsus (berlese. 1905) {trombidiformes} and rhizogiyphus echiniopus (fumouse et robin) {saroptiformes} consitute first record for the iraq mite fauna. eleven species of mite extracted from alfalfa soil and one mite extracted from both wheat and barley soil are new host record. discussion al-douri (1988) studied the mite of cohort tarsonemina in musayid and suwaira areas in the soil of wheat and barley. she described 4 new species and reported 19 species as new record for iraq. with the present two newly recorded mites for iraq of this study the list of tarsonemid fauna become include (21) species. the group tarsonemid was neglected in iraq become of its minute size delicate structure which is very different to deal with, although it is 6 inheritance of dark head assumed to play a role in decomposing organic material as they are fungivorous or phytophagous (gurney-husy 1967.suski 1967. wicht 1970 and al-douri 1988). mahmood (1987) in her study of mite associated with stored grain in baghdad reported three species of acaridae. the total number of species of family acaridae become four with recording rhizoglyphus echinopus (funouze et robin) in the present study. so it seems important to carryout future studies on this mite family. literature cited al-douri. z.n. 1988. mites chort tarsonemine (trombidiformes fauna of barley and wheat in various parts of ussr and iraq. ph. d. thesis in s.zool.acd.sci ussr p. 85-89. baker e.w. and wharton g.w.1952. an introduction to acarology mc millan company new york. bulanova-zakhvatkina, em.1975. {super family eremuloidae} 161-165. itlustr in: gilyarov. m.s. {ed} {identification key of soil inhabiting mites.sarcoptiformes} nauka,moscow 1-491.(in russian). cross e.a. 1965 the generic relation ships of the family pymotidae (acarina. trombidiformes)\\univrsity of kansas. science bull. 45. -p.25-275. gurney. b-husey. n. w.1967 pygmephorus species (acarian: pyemotidae) associated with cultivated mushroms. acarology. g.353-358. mahunka s.1970 consideration on the systemation of the tarsonemine and the description of new europaen taxa (acari: trombidiformes)\\acta zool.acad.sci hung.. 16. 137.147. sefatianov .v.d 1986 mites cohort tarsonemia (trombidiformes) fauna of wheat. m:science.pp. 105-1 14. souhaila .h.mahmood. 1987 mites associated with stored grain in baghdad. biol. sci-res. vol.18 (2). 67-76. suski, z.w. 1968 polish mites of the family tarsonemidae (acarina.heterostigmata) tarsonemus idaeus n.sp. bull.acad. pol. sci.ser.sci. biol.. 16110. 637-642. vainshtein, ba., kuznetsov. n.n.,livshits j.z.and sosnina e.f .l9784family bdellidae.i:133-143 in; gilyarov .m.s. [ key of soil inhabiting mites. trombidiformes.1 nauka, moscow: 1-270. (in russian). wicht. mc. 1970 three new species of pyemotid mites associated with commercial mushrooms. acarology, 12\2, 262—268. 7 b . m . al chalabi table 1: results on species, localities (given as numbers) and field crop soil collected in central iraq. mite species alfalafa barley wheat order acarifomes subord. trombidiformes fam. pygmophoridae bakerdania centriger(cooreman) 1 2 3 bak. grasilis (krczal) 1 2 3 bak. tarsalis (hirst) 1 2 3 brennandania sp. 1 mesopotamiphorus bobylonicus sevastianov et zahida al-douri 2 3 fam. scutacaridae imparipes hystricinus (berlese) pygmodispus sp. 1 scutacarus quadrangularis (paoil) 1 scu. longitarsus (berlese) 1 2 3 scutacarus sp. 1 fam. tarsonemidae 3 tarsonemidae spl tarsonemidae sp2 1 2 subord:sarcoptiformes 2 fam. acaridae rhizoglyphus echinopus(fumouze 1 2 3 et rodion) tyropagus spl 1 tyropagus sp2 2 3 localities: no. i: baghdad no. 2: musiab 80 km southwest of baghdad city no. 3: suwaira 60-km south baghdad 8 inheritance of dark head bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2000) 9 (2):5-8 bull 179 ali haloob bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2016) 14 (2): 179-184 short communications a new record of ziziphora species (lamiaceae) for iraq ali haloob ministry of agriculture of iraq, directorate of seed testing and certification, plant department, national herbarium, baghdad, iraq e-mail: biology_a2000@yahoo.com abstract ziziphora persica bunge is recorded as a new study in iraq. this species has been collected from jabal sinjar in nineveh province in the north western part of iraq. the morphological characters, habitat and geographical distribution of the species with a key to ziziphora l. species in iraq have been provided. key words: iraq, jabal sinjar, lamiaceae, new record, ziziphora. introduction ziziphora comprises some 25-30 species of annual and perennial herbs, distributed throughout africa, asia and europe (li and hedge, 1994). boissier (1879) in flora orientalis recognized one taxon belong to ziziphora in iraq which is z. clinopodioides var. canescens (benth.) boiss. later blacklock (1948) listed 4 taxa that distributed in iraq: z. capitata l., z. clinopodioides var. canescens, z. clinopodioides var. dasyantha (m.b.) boiss. and z. tenuior l, then zohary (1950) in his study ”the flora of iraq and its phytogeographical subdivision” listed 4 species z. canescens benth., z. capitata, z. abd-elasisii hand.-mazz.and z. tenuior, while al-rawi (1964) collected all taxa that were mentioned in previous studies and he listed 6 taxa that are recorded from iraq, however, the first revision of ziziphora in iraq was made by al-bayati (2001) in her thesis, she recognized only 6 taxa: z. capitata subsp. capitata, z. capitata subsp. orientalis samuelsson ex rech. f., z. tenuior, z. clinopodioides subsp. rigida (boiss.) rech. f., z. clinopodioides subsp. kurdica (rech. f.) rech. f. and z. clinopodioides subsp. elbursensis (rech. f.) rech. f., edmondson (1982) in flora of turkey mentioned 5 species and reported that only 2 of them are distributed in iraq which are z. capitata and z. clinopodioides. while rechinger (1982) in flora iranica mentioned 14 taxa (4 species and 10 subspecies) and recorded that 6 taxa distributed in iraq which are z. clinopodioides subsp. rigida, z. clinopodioides subsp. kurdica, z. clinopodioides subsp. elbursensis, z. capitata subsp. capitata, z. capitata subsp. orientalis and z. tenuior. during the time of writing, the account of the genus ziziphora for the flora of iraq, the author observed one specimen identified as ziziphora acutifolia montbret & aucher ex benth. collected from jabal sinjar in northwestern iraq at the national herbarium of iraq (bag). after closer examination with the flora of turkey (edmondson, 1982) and flora iranica (rechinger, 1982), it was identified as z. persica. the present study aims to report the occurrence of z. persica in flora of iraq for the first time and to study morphological characters, habitat and geographical distribution of the species. 180 a new record of ziziphora species taxonomic treatment ziziphora persica bunge, labiat. persic.: 39 (1873). (figure 1) synonyms: faldermannia persica (bunge) nevski, trudy bot. inst. akad. nauk s.s.s.r., ser. 1, fl. sist. vyssh. rast. 4: 328 (1937). ziziphora acinoides l., sp. pl.: 22 (1753). ziziphora thymifolia salisb., prodr. stirp. chap. allerton: 72 (1796), nom. superfl. ziziphora subcapitata hausskn. & bornm., mitth. thüring. bot. vereins, n.f., 6: 67 (1894). annual herb. stem erect-ascending, 9-15 cm long, branches at each node below the inflorescences, dense eglandular white pubescent-villose hairs. leaves lanceolate-linear or ovate, 8-25 × 3-10 mm, margin entire or obsolescent serrulate, apex acute, base attenuate or cuneate, eglandular puberulent hair with sessile yellow glands; petiole 1-2 mm. inflorescences dense oblong terminal spike, 3-8.5 cm long, verticillasters 2-6 flowered; bract with ± 1 mm long petiole, ovate-broad lanceolate, 6-14 × 3-6 mm, margin ciliate, apex acuteacuminate, base obtuse-rounded. calyx tubular, swollen at base, 7-8 mm long, throat hairy, upper lip 3-toothed, 1 mm long, lower lip 2-toothed, 1.5-2 mm long, teeth connivent in fruit, dense eglandular hirsute and puberulent hairs with dense sessile yellow glands between veins outside. corolla pink, 8-10 mm long, tube slightly exserted, upper lip 2-lobed, 1.5-1.7 mm long, apex emarginate, lower lip 3-lobed, c. 2 mm long, lateral 2-lobed broader and shouter than the middle one, tube hairy inside, with the dense puberulent eglandular hair outside. stamens 2, anthers without appendage. style branches unequal (figure 1). specimen seen (bag). iraq: jabal sinjar n slope, 5/6/1979, al-kaisi, al-khayat & f. karim 50917. habitat: rocky mountain; alt. 1100 m. distribution: turkey, iran, turkmenistan and transcaucasia (edmondson, 1982; rechinger, 1982). therefore our specimen show range extension for this species (figure 2). key to ziziphora species in iraq 1. perennial herbs…………………….………...………...…………..…..…z. clinopodioides 1. annual herbs …..............................................................................................2 2. inflorescence crowded terminal capitate, bracts broad ovate …………...……..z capitata 2. inflorescence spicate, bracts ovate or lanceolate-linear ……………………...………… 3 3. corolla 12-15 mm long, twice as long as the calyx…………………………….z. taurica 3. corolla 8-10 mm long, slightly longer than calyx…………………………….………… 4 4. bracts ovate-broad lanceolate, apex acute. anthers not appendiculate.……….z. persica 4. bracts lanceolate-linear, apex acuminate. anthers appendiculate .…………….. z. tenuior http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/namedetail.do?name_id=83936 http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/namedetail.do?name_id=83936 http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/namedetail.do?name_id=215818 http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/namedetail.do?name_id=215906 http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/namedetail.do?name_id=215898 181 ali haloob figure (1): ziziphora persica bunge (50917 bag); a: habit; b: bracts; c: calyx. 182 a new record of ziziphora species figure (2): distribution map of z. persica in iraq. literature cited al-bayati, m.k. 2001. a comparative systematic study to species of the genera mentha l., micromeria benth, thymbra l., thymus l. and ziziphora l. (labiatae) in iraq. ph d thesis.coll. of sci., uni. of baghdad, iraq. al-rawi, a.h. 1964.wild plants of iraq with their distribution. tech.bull.14, dir gen of agr.res. iraq.tech. plant.,15.gover. bull .press, baghdad,109 pp. blacklock, r.a. 1948. the rustam herbarium, iraq. part (1) kew bulletin, 4: 517-553. boissier, p.e. 1879. flora orientalis, vol. 4. geneva et basileae. apud h. george. biliopolan lungdunt. edmondson, j. r. 1982. ziziphora l. in: davis, p.h. (ed.), flora of turkey and east aegean island. vol. 7. edinburgh university press, edinburgh. li, h.w. and hedge, i.c. 1994. lamiaceae in: wu, z.y. & p.h. raven, (ed.), flora of china. vol. 17. science press, beijing, and missouri botanical garden press, st. louis. rechinger, k.h. 1982. flora iranica. vol. 150. akademische druck und verlagsanstalt, graz. 183 ali haloob zohary, m. 1950. the flora of iraq and its phytogeographical subdivision. dep. agr. iraq. bull. the government press, baghdad. 184 a new record of ziziphora species bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2016) 14 (2): 179-184 في العراق ziziphora (lamiaceae) جديد للجنسنوع تسجيل علي حالوب المعشب الوطني/ قسم النبات / دائرة فحص وتصديق البذور / وزارة الزراعة بغداد -العراق الخالصة حيث تم كنوع جديد للعراق، ziziphora persica bungeسجلت الدراسة الحالية وقد قدمت الدراسة . جمع هذا النوع من جبل سنجار في محافظة نينوى شمال غرب العراق وصف للصفات المظهرية الخارجية والبيئة والتوزيع الجغرافي للنوع مع مفتاح تصنيفي .النواع الجنس في العراق 1 1 k. n. abdul-ameer & a. s. obaid bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2011) 11 (3): 1-5 recording of the monogenetic trematode silurodiscoides mediacanthus (achmerow, 1952) for the first time in iraq on the gills of the cyprinid fish barbus luteus kefah n. abdul-ameer and aisha s. obaid department of biology, college of education (ibn al-haitham), university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq abstract this paper describes the first occurrence of the monogenetic trematode silurodiscoides mediacanthus (achmerow, 1952) in iraq from gills of the cyprinid fish barbus luteus from diyala river, diyala province, iraq. the description and measurements of this parasite were given. in addition, key for the identification of the three species of silurodiscoides, so far recorded from freshwater fishes of iraq, is included. introduction silurodiscoides spp. belongs to the family dactylogyridae, order dactylogyridea, class monogenea, phylum platyhelminthes. these monogenean parasites which complete their life cycles on one host are common gill parasites infecting freshwater fishes (dujin, 1973). they have small seven pairs of embryonic type of marginal hooks and two pairs of median hooks. dorsal median hooks are long, generally lacking external process, usually with welldeveloped accessory pieces. dorsal median hooks with unpaired dorsal connecting bar and ventral median hooks with paired connecting bar. two pairs of eye spots present. copulatory organ chitinoid, consisting of tube and support apparatus silurodiscoides included 26 species from the previous soviet union freshwater fishes (gussev, 1985). in iraq, the extensive studies resulted in recognition of only two species of this genus which were both recorded from gills of silurus triotegus. these were: s. vistulensis (siwak, 1932) which was recorded for the first time in iraq from tigris river in salah al-dien province (abdul-ameer, 1989) as ancylodiscoides vistulensis and s. siluri (zandt, 1924) which was recorded from hemrin lake in diyala province (balasem et al., 2000) as a. siluri. the present investigation deals with newly recorded monogenetic trematode, silurodiscoides mediacanthus (achmerow, 1952) from the gills of b. luteus in iraq. materials and methods a survey work was carried out to detect the ectoparasites of fishes sampled from diyala river, diyala province, during february 2010. a total of 23 freshwater fishes belonging to five species was collected and brought to laboratory. examination of fishes for external parasites was undertaken as soon as possible. skin, buccal cavity and gills smears were prepared and microscopically examined. care was taken to isolate and flatten the specimens, which were then stained with aqueous neutral red and permanent slides were prepared with glycerin. 2 recording of the monogenetic trematode the parasites were identified according to gussev (1985). drawings were done by using a camera lucida. results and discussion the present investigation showed the existence of the monogenetic trematode silurodiscoides mediacanthus (achmerow, 1952) infecting the gills of three males b. luteus ranging from 25-30 cm. in total length. the following is a brief description and measurements of this parasite (in mm.) as shown in fig. (1) and (2): large worm, length 0.07-1.01(0.54), width 0.18-0.21(0.19), length of marginal hooks 0.0120.015 (0.013), total length of ventral median hooks 0.023-0.026(0.024), dorsal median hooks 0.098-0.011(0.054), accessory pieces 0.008-0.012(0.01) × 0.03-0.032(0.031), ventral connecting bar 0.029-0.032(0.03) × 0.02-0.027(0.023), dorsal connecting bar 0.0060.007(0.006) × 0.03-0.032(0.031). length of tube of copulatory organ 0.095-0.11(0.1), diameter 0.004-0.005(0.005), vaginal armor funnellike 0.01-0.012(0.011) in length. the measurements of the present s. mediacanthus are agreed with those reported by gussev (1985). the present report of this monogenetic trematode represents is first record in iraq according to the index-catalogue of parasites and disease agents of fishes of iraq (mhaisen, 2010). identification key the following key is constructed to differentiate the three species of silurodiscoides so far recorded from freshwater fishes of iraq. 1. tube of copulatory organ without loops…………...................................... s. mediacanthus. 1. tube of copulatory organ with loops………………………………......…. 2 2. tube of copulatory organ relatively broad, short and describing 2-3 loops in central portion, with funnellike origin, chitinoid vaginal armor absent …….……….…………….…… s. siluri 2. tube of copulatory organ slender, long, describing numerous loops (not less than 4) in midportion with wineglasslike initial portion. chitinoid armor of vaginal duct generally present. ………………………………………………………………………....…s. vistulensis finally, it is appropriate to mention here that four other ancyrocephalid species are also known in freshwater fishes of iraq (mhaisen, 2010). these included ancyrocephalus vanbenedeni (parona et perugia, 1890) from liza abu from tigris river at al-zaafaraniya, south of baghdad (mhaisen et al., 2003), ancyrocephalus polymorphus (gussev, 1955) from aphanius dispar from shatt al-arab river (kadhim, 2010), ancylodiscoides parasiluri (yamaguti, 1937) from s. triostegus from al-hammar marshes (jori, 2006) and bychowskyella qharui (tripathi, 1955) from s. triostegus from al-hmmar marshes (jori, 2006). acknowledgements thanks to prof. dr. furhan t. mhaisen, department of biology, college of education (ibn al-haitham), university of baghdad for his help in parasite identification, permission to use his index-catalogue of parasites and disease agents of fishes of iraq and his critical reading of the manuscript. thanks to prof. dr. mohammad k. mohammad, mrs. azhar a. al-mossawi 3 k. n. abdul-ameer & a. s. obaid and miss hanaa h. al-saffar, iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad for their help in use the camera lucida literature cites abdul-ameer, k. n. 1989. study of the parasites of freshwater fishes from tigris river in salah al-dien province, iraq. m. sc. thesis, coll. sci., univ. baghdad: 98 pp. (in arabic). balasem, a. n.; mohammed-ali, n. r.; adday, t. k.; ali, a. k. and waheed, i. k. 2000. parasitological survey on fishes in hemrin dam lake, province of diyala. j. diyala, 18(1): 104-114. (in arabic). duijn, van jnr. c. 1973. diseases of fishes, 3rd edn., iliffe books, london: 372pp. gussev, a. v. 1985. parasitic metazoans: class monogenea. in: bauer, o. n. (ed.) key to the parasites of freshwater fish fauna of the u. s. s. r. nauk, leningrad, 2: 424 pp. (in russian). jori, m. m. 2006. parasite study on the asian catfish silurus triostegus (heckel, 1843) from al-hammar marshes, basrah, iraq. ph. d. thesis coll. agric. univ. basrah: 192pp. kadhim, a. h. 2009. disease agents of four fish species in basrah province. m. sc. thesis, coll. agric., univ. basrah: 100pp. (in arabic). mhaisen, f. t. 2010. index-catalogue of parasites and disease agents of fishes of iraq. (unpublished data: mhaisenft@yahoo.co.uk). mhaisen, f. t.; balasem, a. n.; al-kateeb, g. h. and asmar, k. r. 2003. recording of five monogenetic trematodes for the first time in iraq. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus., 10(1): 31-38. mailto:mhaisenft@yahoo.co.uk) 4 recording of the monogenetic trematode fig. 1: a camera lucida drawing of haptor parts and copulatory organ (scale bar = 0.02 mm.). fig. 2: photomicrograph of haptor parts (scale bar = 0.025 mm.). ap: accessory piece; co: copulatory organ; dcb: dorsal connecting bar; dmh: dorsal median hook; hl: hooklet; vcb: ventral connecting bar; vmh: ventral median hook. silurodiscoides mediacanthus from b. luteus 5 k. n. abdul-ameer & a. s. obaid bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2011) 11 (3): 1-5 تسجيل المخّرم أحادي المنشأ silurodiscoides mediacanthus (achmerow, 1952) barbus luteus ألول مرة في العراق من غالصم أسماك الحمري كفاح ناصر عبد األمير وعايشه سليمان عبيد التربية (إبن ألهيثم)، جامعة بغدادقسم علوم الحياة، كلية اخلالصة silurodiscoidesتــــــم فــــي هـــــذا البـحث وصـف ظـهور املخــّرم أحــادي املنـشـــــأ mediacanthus (achmerow, 1952) ألول مرة يف العراق من غالصم أمساك احلمري barbus luteus دياىل. مت إعطاء وصف وقياسات هذا املأخوذة من ر دياىل يف حمافظة silurodiscoides الطفيلي. كما تضمن البحث مفتاحًا تشخيصيًا لألنواع الثالثة من اجلنس املسجلة حلد اآلن من أمساك املياه العذبة يف العراق. bull 61 khansaa r. majeed bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2014) 13 (1): 61-66 morphological and anatomical study of asphodelus microcarpus khansaa rashed majeed iraq natural history research center & museum / university of baghdad, iraq abstract the genera and species of liliaceae show a considerable structural diversity of leaves and especially stems. this paper presents a morphological and anatomical study of the leaves and stems of asphodelus microcarpus. the results showed that the investigated species had typical morphological characters. and also that it could be distinguished from another plant not only by its morphological but anatomical characters as well. introduction asphodelus is a genus of mainly perennial plants native to iraq and some other countries. asphodels are popular garden plants, which grow in well-drained soils with abundant natural light. now placed in the family xanthorrhoeaceae, subfamily asphodeloideae, like many lilioid monocots, the genus was formerly placed in the lily family (liliaceae). liliaceae includes mostly perennial herbs with starchy rhizomes, corms, or bulbs comprising about 250 genera and 3500 species (satıl & akan, 2006). they are naturally distributed in the tropical and temperate regions. the plants are hardy herbaceous perennials with narrow tufted radical leaves and an elongated stem bearing a handsome spike of white or yellow flowers (shuka et al., 2010). asphodelus albus and asphodelus fistulosus have white flowers and grow from 1½ to 2 ft. high; asphodelus ramosus is a larger plant, the large white flowers of which have a reddish-brown line in the middle of each segment. the leaves are used to wrap burrata, an italian cheese. the leaves and the cheese last about the same time, three or four days, and thus fresh leaves are a sign of a fresh cheese, while dried out leaves indicate that the cheese is past its prime ( lifante, 2000). asphodelus microcarpus is a perennial herb,1 m high , its hab. on hill slopes , wadi sides , floodplains of mountain streams, usually on alluvial soil . distrib. occasional, locally dominant in the lower forest and upper moist-steppe zones of iraq and mediterranean europe to greece , cyprus, turkey, syria, lebanon, palestine, jorden , sinai, egypt, n. africa . there are few morphological and anatomical studies on the different species of the genus asphodelus (rizk et al., 1992). anatomical studies have been used successfully to clarify taxonomic status and help in the identification of different species. in the past anatomical studies incorporation with morphological studies for the resolution of taxonomic problems of monocots have been used (ocak et al., 2004). although asphodelus microcarpus is of economic and ecological importance, little attention has been given to the structural and cytological aspects of the male and female gametophyte ( kosenko, 2000). the objective aims to investigate the morphological and anatomical properties of asphodelus microcarpus collected from north of iraq. material and methods the collection of the botanical material and the field observations of asphodelus microcarpus were carried out in north of iraq in april . the taxonomic description of the 62 morphological and anatomical study of asphodelus microcarpus species followed townsend (1985). some plants were prepared as herbarium materials, and voucher specimens were deposited in the iraq natural history research center & museum / university of baghdad, others were fixed in 70 % ethyl alcohol for anatomical studies. fresh and herbarium specimens were used to determine the morphological characteristics of the species and the biometric measures of bulbs, stems, leaves, and floral organs. for anatomical studies, the material was stored in 70 % alcohol. the transverse sections of stem, and leaf. cell wall lignification tests were performed by phloroglucinol-hcl reaction. sections were placed on slide in a drop of 0.1 g phloroglucinol in 10 ml of 95 % alcohol and covered with a coverslip. some of the solution was evaporated and then 25 % hcl was diffused at the edge of the coverslip. the stained and unstained sectionswere mounted in glycerin-gelatin to make permanent preparations (jensen, 1962). the slides were investigated with an olympus bh2 microscope, and the selected images were photographed with a progress c12 (jenoptik) digital camera. results morphological features perennial herb, c. 1m. high. leaves ensiform, acuminate , triquetrous, up to 50 cm. long and 3cm. broad, glabrous, margin smooth. scape terete, glabrous, solid. inflorescence racemosepaniculate. bracts ovate-caudate, scarious with a dark central nerve, somewhat longer than the 4-6 mm. long flowering pedicals. perianth tubular-campanulate , segments 12-16 mm. long, pinkish or white with a violet to dirty greenish center nerve. anthers orange, included. style shortly exserted. capsule 8-9 mm. long, obovate, truncate-hexagonous, with transverse ribs. seed blackish, c.7 mm. long. anatomical features stem the transverse sections of the stem of asphodelus microcarpus showed epidermis with a thick cuticle (9.5 μm) composed of single-layered ovoid, or spheroid cells. cortex was multilayered. it comprised a monolayer collenchyma close to the epidermis and spherical parenchymatous cells with intercellular spaces. the stem contained 44–49 vascular bundles of various size in the vascular cylinder. they were embedded in a disorderly manner in the parenchyma of the stem. vascular bundles comprising the xylem and phloem were collateral in type. the pith consisted of parenchymatous cells. the stem had sparse single-celled, nonglandular hairs . leaf there was single-layered epidermis on both sides of the leaf. the upper epidermis had a thicker cuticle than the lower one. epidermal cells were orbicular in cross section. the mesophyll was unifacial, about 1024 μm thick. it comprised 10–12 layers of round-shaped parenchyma cells. vascular bundles had different size and were arranged in one row. the xylem faced the upper surface, while the phloem faced the lower epidermis. sclerenchyma fibers were absent in the vascular tissue. the leaf was amphistomatic. the stoma type was anomocytic, and the stoma cells were located on the same level as the other epidermal cells. the stomata index was 30 for the upper epidermis and 35 for the lower epidermis. discussion the family liliaceae was formerly a paraphyletic group that included a great number of genera now contained in other families, including asphodelaceae. the present paper aims a better characterising of the endemic asphodelus microcarpus species which is an important plant of economic and medicinal value ( fig.1. ) in the past taxonomic information of this 63 khansaa r. majeed genus was based largely on morphological markers, which leads to certain taxonomic confusion. anatomical studies could be an important tool to resolve taxonomic problems of this genus, as anatomical studies showed variation in this study deals with the morphological and the anatomical features of the plant , the morphological characters of the studied plant species were examined externally by the naked eye and their characters were outlined. according to the results in this study, the morphological features of asphodelus microcarpus in this study are similar to those given by (townsend, 1985). the result indicated that a small number of specific morphological traits are enough to detect variation and adequately define plant morphology in many aspects and these traits could be distinguished this spesies from another plant not only by their morphological but anatomical characters as well ( adinolfi et al. 2002). since morphological traits are very plastic, any recorded variation should not necessarily be interpreted as genetic variation. however, some anatomical characteristics of the stem were studied. in the early works on plant anatomy, the entire epidermal layer was conceived as the plant cuticle ( pantis, 2005). asphodelus microcarpus is similar anatomically to asphodelus aestivus. the stem cortex of the first has a monolayer collenchyma under the epidermis ( sawidis, 2005). anatomical features of the leaf of asphodelus microcarpus were similar to the examined asphodelus aestivus (pantis , 2011 )( fig. 2. a,b). the mesophyll is not differentiated into a palisade and a spongy parenchyma ( fattah, 2002). it is composed of isodiametric parenchymatic cells. some differences related to anatomical properties have been found. fig. 1: the morphology of asphodelus microcarpus http://www.google.iq/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&docid=z6wbielhnaa7ym&tbnid=sfqw_6e50zzudm:&ved=0cauqjrw&url=http://floranelsalento.blogspot.com/2012/01/blog-post_984.html&ei=v_lcu_iolyowpzwdgcgi&bvm=bv.64125504,d.zwu&psig=afqjcnfujsrxmrahc3b1mxcwnfccl1dxyw&ust=1396984497457493 64 morphological and anatomical study of asphodelus microcarpus literature cited adinolfi, m.; corsaro, m.; lanzetta, r.; parrilli, m.; scopa, a. 2002. a bianthrone cglycoside from asphodelus ramosus tubers. phytochemistry, 28: 284-288 fattah, a. and el-halim, o. 2002. the cytogenic of asphodelus aestivus tubers. alex. j. pham. sci., 11; 77-81 jensen, w.a. 1962. botanical histochemistry: principles and practice. edinburgh univ. press. london. kosenko, v. and sventorzhetskaya, o. 2000. pollen morphology in the family asphodelaceae (asphodeleae, kniphofieae). grana 38: 218–227. lifante, d. 2000. reproductive biology of asphodelus albus (asphodelaceae). plant systematics and evolution, 200: 177– 191 ocak, a., alan, s. & ataşlar, e. 2004. morphological, anatomical and ecological studies on asphodelus microcarpus (liliaceae). – turk. j. bot., 28(4): 427-434. pantis, j. ; sgardelis, s. and stamou, g. 2005 . asphodelus aestivus, an example of sychronization with the climate periodicity. international journal of biometeorology, vol.32, 87-91. pantis, j. 2011. biomass and nutrient allocation patterns in the mediterranean geophyte asphodelus aestivus brot. (thessaly, greece). acta ecologica, vol.14, 489-500. 65 khansaa r. majeed rizk, a.; hammouda, f.; abdel-gawad, m. 1992. anthraquinones of asphodelus microcarpus. phytochemistry, 11: 2122-2125. satıl, f. & akan, h. 2006. anatomical studies on some endemic and rare geophytes of liliaceae family. – ekoloji, 15(58): 21-27(in turkish). sawidis, t. ; kalyba, s. and delivopoulos, s. 2005. the stem anatomy of aspodelus aestivus. flora 200: 332–338. shuka, l., tan, kit & silyak-yakovlev, s. 2010. tulipa albanica (liliaceae), a new species from northeastern albania. – phytotaxa, 10: 17–25. townsend,c. 1985. flora of iraq. the whitefriars press ltd, tonbridge. 66 morphological and anatomical study of asphodelus microcarpus bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2014) 13 (1): 61-66 asphodelus microcarpusدراسة مظهرية وتشريحية للـ خنساء رشيد مجيد جامعة بغداد/ مركز بحوث ومتحف التاريخ الطبيعي الخالصة هاا ا الدراسااة . واألنااوال للعاةلااة الزنبأيااة تنهااري تنااول ألااي تركيااق األورا والسااا األجنااا تنهاري النتااةإ ا األناوال القتحأا . تنهري دراساة مظهرياة وتشاريحية لساا وتورا ها ا الناول والتاي تيااا تا تقياز النبااي ياه ميارا ماه النباتااي لاي ألأا . منها تقلك صفاي مظهرية نقوذجياة .ألي الصفاي التشريحية تياامظهريا و نقا bull 5 mohammad k. mohammad bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2014) 13 (1): 5-14 the current status of the vertebrate diversity in al-dalmaj marsh, al-diwaniya province mohammad k. mohammad iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad, bab al-muadham, p.o. box 59028, baghdad, iraq email: amarmkm82@yahoo.com abstract a survey conducted at dalmaj marsh, al-diwaniya province during 2013 revealed that the marsh encounters a considerable part of the iraqi vertebrate fauna including 147 species belonging to five classes; pisces, amphibia, reptilia, aves and mammalia. some species are of globally conservation importance. the present results are discussed with the pertinent literature. introduction the global temperature increase may led to changes in the hydroclimatic parameters and have profound impacts on the physical and biological components of the ecosystems in the euphrates-tigris basinas well as on the socio-economic developments of the basin countries (bozkurt and sen, 2013). so, studying the biological components of dalmaj marsh area ecosystems seems necessary to provide a reliable data to compare with during next years which may have more obvious impacts of the global temperature increase. al-dalmaj marsh is a large isolated marsh situated at the heart of the mesopotamian alluvial plain with estimated area of 100000 ha and altitude of less than 20 m (nature iraq, 2013), lies to the west of the tigris river approximately 35 km southwest of kut city, wasit province (evans, 1994) and about 65 km north east to al-diwaniya city, al-diwaniya province. it constitutes an open water lake and marsh with dense reed beds of phragmites and typha in addition to the submerged plants and the plants along the edge of the marsh. it receives water from the main outfall drain (mod) and discharges again to the mod with no stable water-level (salim et al.,2009). the depth of water ranges from less than 0.5 m in the banks of marshy areas to about 1.5-2 m in the center of the lake. al-dalmaj marsh is an important area for the iraqi biodiversity since it lies within a semidesert area and comprises terrestrial and aquatic habitats allowing a wide range of biodiversity components. the vertebrates are the most prominent group in the marsh especially birds and fishes and for a lesser extent reptiles and mammals. however, it is still poorly studied and further scientific work is required to understand the biodiversity and the relationships among the biotic and abiotic factors in the area (nature iraq, 2013). the aim of this work is to throw a light on the current situation of vertebrates living in the area, and to provide assessment notes on certain species from the conservation point of view. materials and methods site description: the following brief description depends mainly on nature iraq (2013). dalmaj wetland is located 40 km east of diwaniya city and 40 km southwest of kut city. it 6 vertebrate diversity dalmaj marsh includes both terrestrial habitats ranging from arid areas to true desert with sand dunes, and a large body of water that can be divided into an open-water lake reaching depths exceeding 2 m and true marshes with dense reed beds and shallower water (less than 1 m). embankments surround the marsh to contain the body of water. the southern section of dalmaj is mainly mudflats, featuring phragmites and typha reed beds in addition to submerged plants with occasional dry ground scattered with bushes and terrestrial species. the eastern part of the site includes much of the open and deeper dalmaj lake that lies within the embankment. to the east of the embankment there are shallow, salty marshes with a dense strip of reed beds and tamarix bushes. the freshwater marshes in the northern part of the site are defined by rich plant cover, such as phragmites and typha reed beds and tamarix in drier areas. these marshes have clear, transparent waters and submerged plants, which provide excellent protection for juvenile fish and offer high oxygen production eight field trips (2/season) of 2-3 days each were conducted to al-dalmaj marsh lies within the al-diwaniya province during the year 2013 to report on the vertebrate species present in the area. the data presented here is mainly the author's personal observations, direct collection of specimens, photographing, observing species in the field with naked eyes or by the aid of a binocular, examining of remains and traces of vertebrates and interviews with hunters and locals in the area. specific identifications were possible following coad (2010) for fishes, khalaf (1959) for herpetofauna, salim et al. (2006) for birds, and harisson (1968, 1981) for mammals. results and discussion table 1 shows that the vertebrate groups in dalmaj marsh comprise five classes, class pisces, class amphibia, class reptilia, class aves and class mammalia. this would includes 147 species of vertebrates. fishes: 1-carasobarbus luteus 2barbus xanthopterus 3mesopotamichthyes sharpeyi 4cyprinus carpio* 5tilapia zilli** 6liza abu 7silurus triostegus amphibians: 8bufo viridis 9rana ridibunda reptiles: 10maurymes caspica 11laudakia persica 12acanthodactylus sp. 13gymnodactylus scaber 14mabuya aurata 15natrix tessellata 16eryx jaculus 7 mohammad k. mohammad birds: 17tachybaptus ruficollis 18phalacrocorax carbo 19pelecanus onocrotalus 20botaurus stellaris 21ixobrychus minutus 22nycticorax nycticorax 23egretta garzetta 24ardeola ralloides 25bubulcus ibis 26ardea cinerea 27ardea purpuria 28ciconia ciconia 29plegadis falcinellus 30anser erythrops 31anser anser 32tadorna ferruginea 33tadorna tadotna 34anas penelope 35anas strepera 36anas crecca 37anas platyrhynchos 38anas acuta 39anas clypeata 40marmaronetta angustirostris 41netta rufina 42aythya nyroca 43aythya ferina 44milvus migrans 45neophron percnopterus 46circus aeruginosus 47buteo rufinus 48aquila clanga 49falco tinnunculus 50francolinus francolinus 51rallus aquaticus 52gallinula chloropus 53fulica atra 54porphyrio porphyrio 55grus grus 56chlamydotis undulata 57himantopus himantopus 58recurvirostra avosetta 59glareola pratincola 60charadrius dubius 61charadrius alexandrinus 62hoplopterus spinosus 63hoplopterus indicus 64chettusia leucura 65calidris minuta 66calidris temminckii 8 vertebrate diversity dalmaj marsh 67calidris alpina 68gallinago gallinago 69limosa limosa 70tringa totanus 71tringa stagnatilis 72tringa nebularia 73tringa ochropus 74tringa glareola 75larus ridibundus 76larus genei 77larus armenicus 78sterna caspia 79sterna hirundo 80chlidonia hybridus 81chlidonia leucopterus 82pterocles alchata 83columba livia 84columba palumbus 85streptopelia decaocto 86streptopelia turtur 87streptopelia senegalensis 88athene noctua 89tyto alba 90caprimulgus aegyptius 91halcyon smyrnensis 92ceryle rudis 93alcedo atthis 94merops superciliosus 95coracias benghalensis 96upupa epops 97ammomanes deserti 98galerida cristata 99calandrella brachydactyla 100riparia riparia 101hirundo rustica 102anthus trivialis 103anthus spinoletta 104motacilla flava 105motacilla alba 106pycnonotus leucogenys 107hypocolius ampelinus 108erithacus rubicula 109saxicola rubetra 110saxicola torquata 111oenanthe deserti 112cisticola juncidis 113prinia gracilis 114acrocephalus griseldis 115hippolias pallida 116sylvia mystacea 117phylloscopus collybita 9 mohammad k. mohammad 118turdoides altirostris 119turdoides caudatus 120lanius collurio 121lanius nubicus 122corvus frugilegus 123corvus corone 124sturnus vulgaris 125passer domesticus 126passer hispaniolensis 127passer moabiticus. 128carduelis carduelis 129carduelis chloris 130rhodospiza obsoleta 131emberiza hortulana 132emberiza schoeniclus 133miliaria calandra. mammals: 134pipistrellus kuhlii 135taphozous nudiventris 136hystrix indica 137mus musculus 138rattus rattus 139rattus norvegicus* 140lepus capensis 141canis aureus 142canis lupus 143vulpes vulpes 144hyaena hyaena 145herpestes auropunctatus 146meles meles 147sus scrofa *exotic species **invasive species dalmaj is rich in biodiversity, being a wintering ground for numerous waterfowl and a main breeding area for marbled duck marmaronetta angustirostris, ferruginous duck aythya nyroca, and red-crested pochard netta rufina, three of the four known breeding ducks in iraq, and a major breeding site for the endangered basra reed warbler (nature iraq, 2013). the list of species included in table 1 indicates that the marsh contains a considerable part of the iraqi avifauna which counts to more than 400 species. the number of the recorded birds in this study is 117 while nature iraq (2013) mentioned that 140 migratory and resident birds were seen in the marsh. in general, it seems that the biodiversity components of the marsh is rather in a good condition. some species in table 1 are of certain conservation importance including tilapia zilli (gervais, 1848), marmaronetta angustriostris (menetries, 1823) l. reichenbach, 1853, aythya nyroca and acrocephalus griseldus. tilapia zilli: (fig. 1), this is an invasive fish. it is considered a potential competitor with native fish for food and spawning areas (molnar, 2008). in dalmaj marsh, the author was able to observe it is widely distributed along the marsh shore. on 28.5.2013 a couple of male and http://www.itis.gov/servlet/singlerpt/refrpt?search_type=author&search_id=author_id&search_id_value=71217 10 vertebrate diversity dalmaj marsh female fishes were surrounded with a 30 cm diameter ball of hundreds of apparently newly hatched fishes just 1.5-2 m off the shore. the author countred 7 pairs of parents with their juvenile balls in about 50 m distance of the shore. the parents ran away only a little when thrown with a stone and the juvenile ball tends to decrease the diameter and become denser, but sooner the parents return back to their juveniles defending them. fig. 1: tilapia zilli from al-dalmaj marsh. marmaronetta angustirostris: it is a resident bird in suitable habitats in the middle and south and for a lesser extent in the north, and breeds from may to july (allouse, 1960). iucn red list for the year 2012 considered this duck globally vulnerable (a2cd+3cd+4cd ver 3.1) with decreasing population trend (salim et al., 2009; birdlife international, 2012). the marsh proved to be a suitable breeding site for this species and the author was able to take pictures of duckling with parents (fig. 2). however, severe hunting practices is going on in the area and thousands of this duck was brought to local markets during the period from september to march (fig. 3). the hunting pressure is extremely critical during september to end of november at which hunting was practically targeted this duck since it the only available game bird in reasonable number. 11 mohammad k. mohammad fig.2: mother marbled teal marmaronetta angustirostris and eight ducklings in dalmaj marsh fig. 3: marbled teals brought from dalmaj marsh sold at a local market in baghdad city. aythya nyroca: (fig. 4) it is considered globally near threatened ver 3.1 with a decreasing populatioin trend (iucn, 2013). the author's personal observations indicated that this duck breeds in al-attariya marsh southeast of baghdad not far from dalmaj marsh since the 70s decade of the last century. george and vielliard (1970) recorded only 31 individuals, then scott and carp (1982) could not find this species in their survey to iraqi marshes. it was proved later that it breeds in some other sites in the middle and south of iraq including dalmaj http://www.iucnredlist.org/static/categories_criteria_3_1 12 vertebrate diversity dalmaj marsh marsh and southern iraqi marshes. howeverm salim et al. (2009) stated that further surveys will show this duck to be more common and more widespread in the mesopotamian marshes. fig. (5) shows hundreds of ferruginous ducks captured in al-dalmaj marsh and sold at a local market in baghdad city. fig 4: male ferruginous duck aythya nyroca fig. 5: hundreds of ferruginous ducks brought from dalmaj marsh sold at a local market in baghdad 13 mohammad k. mohammad acrocephalus griseldis: the basra reed warbler is a globally endangered bird (iucn, 2013). iraq is known to encounter more than 90% of the world population of the bird (richardson and hussain, 2006). nature iraq (2013) counted up to 900 breeding pairs in dalmaj marsh. many nests were noted by the author among reed beds in the marsh. literature cited bozkurt, d. and sen, o. l. 2013. climate change impacts in the euphrates–tigris basin based on different model and scenario simulations. journal of hydrology, 480: 149–161. coad, b. w. 2010 freshwater fishes of iraq. pensoft. sofia-moscow, 274 pp. evans, m. i. 1994. important bird areas in the middle east. cambridge: birdlife international. george p. v. and vielliard j. 1970. midwinter observations on birds of central and south iraq.1968. baghdad, iraq: iraq natural history museum bull. vol. iv (4). harisson, d. l. 1968 the mammals of arabia. ernest benn ltd., london, 3vols. harisson, d. l. 1981 the mammals of the arabian gulf. george allen and unwin, london, 92pp. iucn 2013. iucn red list of threatened species. version 2013.2. <www.iucnredlist.org>. khalaf, k. t. 1959 reptiles of iraq with some notes on the amphibians. arrabitta press, baghdad, 96 pp. molnar, j. l., gamboa, r. l., revenga, c. and spalding, m. d. 2008. assessing the global threat of invasive species to marine biodiversity. frontiers in ecology and the environment 6: 485–492. nature iraq 2013. available online: http://www.natureiraq.org/uploads/9/2/7/0/9270858/dalmaj_me10_22_ma anna.pdf. richardson, c.j., and n.a. hussain. 2006. restoring the garden of eden: an ecological assessment of the marshes of iraq . bioscience 56 (6):477-489. salim, m., porter, r. and rubec, c. 2009. a summary of birds recorded in the marshes of southern iraq, 2005–2008. biorisk 3: 205–219. doi: 10.3897/biorisk.3.14. www.pensoftonline.net/biorisk. salim, m. a., porter, r. f., christensen, s. schiermacker-hansen, p. and al-jbour, s. 2006. field guide to the birds of iraq. amman: nature iraq & birdlife international. (in arabic). scott, d. a. and carp, e. 1982. a midwinter survey of wetlands in mesopotamia, iraq: 1979. sandgrouse, no. 4. http://www.iucnredlist.org/ 14 vertebrate diversity dalmaj marsh bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2014) 13 (1): 5-14 الواقع الحالي لتنوع الفقريات في هور الدلمج، محافظة الديوانية محمد كاظم محمد ، 82095. ب. مركز بحوث ومتحف التاريخ الطبيعي، جامعة بغداد، باب المعظم، ص بغداد، العراق email: amarmkm82@yahoo.com الخالصة بان هذا الهور يشتمل 9002محافظة الديوانية خالل عام بين مسح اجري في هور الدلمج نوعا تعود الى خمسة 041على جزء مهم من المجموعة الحيوانية الفقرية العراقية ويضم تبين ان بعض االنواع . اصناف هي االسماك والبرمائيات والزواحف والطيور واللبائن نوقشت النتائج الحالية في ضوء . ظةالمسجلة ذات اهمية من ناحية االهمية العالمية للمحاف .البحوث ذات العالقة bull 285 saman r. afrasiab et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2017) 14 (4): 285-293 research notes on recording some rare vertebrates from kurdistan, iraq saman r. afrasiab* mohammad k. mohammad and amer m. hussain iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq *corresponding author email: s_lahony@yahoo.com received date: 12 march 2017 accepted date: 13 september 2017 abstract a mounted specimen of a mustelid animal deposited in the kurdistan museum of natural history, salahaddin university, erbil proved to be mustela erminea (linnaeus, 1758) and represents a new record for the mammalian fauna of iraq. its measurements and some biological noted are provided. also, two passerine birds; the red-headed bunting, emberiza bruniceps brandt, 1841(family, emberizidae) and the variable wheatear, oenanthe picata (blyth, 1847) (family, muscicapidae) were recorded for the first time in iraq. furthermore, the tree frog hyla savignyi audouin, 1829 was found in two locations north east of iraq with spotted dorsum and having interesting behavior in having the capability of body inflation and hiding the head downward. key words: emberiza bruniceps, iraq, kurdistan, mustela erminea, oenanthe picata. introduction the fauna of iraq still require further attention to collect more data from the ecosystems, for discovering more fauna and flora of this part of the world. the present study gives an insight for previewing some of the hidden knowledge about some of the rare and important vertebrate species. according to afrasiab (2007) the iraqi kurdistan zoogeography may be subdivided into five ecozone categories: alpine ecozone: more than1500 m. a.s.l. covered by dwarf shrubs and rich in vegetation with prominent and specific animal diversity; irano-turanian ecozone: between 300-1500m. it’s the most important zone. it is rich in biodiversity, human population and man-made orchards with rather a plenty of water resources; foothills up to 300m. the area is arid except in the valleys where rivers and streams pass through which mostly used for agriculture; steeps between the mountains and foothill: most of these steeps used for agricultures and human settlement; river sides: the main rivers covered by this project zalem river from halabjah, serwan (diyala) river and tigris river. each of the above subdivisions has special faunal diversity which differs from the other parts of iraq; for example, wild goat capra aegagrus, chukar partridge alectoris chukar kurdistanica, transcaucasian rat snake zamenis hohenackeri, caucasus frog rana camerani from alpine ecozone. for irano-turanian ecozone, the prominent mammal: squirrel sciurus http://dx.doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2017.14.4.0285 286 research notes on recording some rare vertebrates anomalus, birds: a. chukar asoica and garrulus glandarius, reptile: timon princeps kurdistanica, amphibian neurergus microspilotus-kurdistan newt. for foot hill steppe region and river side the important mammals are otter lutra lutra and persian gazelle gazella subgutturosa, birds: chukar a. chukar werae, black partridge francolinus francolinus kurdistanicus and great bustard otis tarda. amphibians, frogs pelophylax ridibundus and hayla sp. and reptile snake dolicophis jugularis (allouse, 1962; guest and al-rawi, 1966; harrison, 1968; leviton et al., 1992; afrasiab and al-rawi, 2010; afrasiab and mohamad, 2011). the present expedition is focusing on rare uncommon vertebrate species of iraqi kurdistan and comparing them with those in other regions of iraq. materials and methods this paper is one of the results of a project undertaken to define the rare vertebrates of kurdistan, iraq. the work was achieved during 2014-2015, it was supported and financially covered by ministry of higher education and scientific research, republic of iraq. data of this work depend on a specimen of stoat kindly provided by dr. sarbaz i. mohamad director of kurdistan museum of natural history of salahaddin university who has collected it from halgurd mountain north of erbil. the other source is the field observation of birds conducted by authors at some parts of iraqi kurdistan region. on the other hand, eight specimens of two collections of hyla savignyi audouin, 1829 from two different locations (bakrajo south of sulaymaniyah , 21 march 2014; and from south diyala ,january 2014 northeastern baghdad) were transported alive and represented the material of laboratory work observations on the tree frog, while the field observations were taken immediately at collection sites. results and discussion first record of stoat, short-tailed weasel mustela erminea (linnaeus, 1758) (mamalia mustelidae) from iraqi kurdistan (pl. 1). raza (2013) photographed a mustelid from barzan wildlife reserve north of erbil, of winter white color pattern and assigned it to be mustela nivalis. the present observations reveal that weasel m. nivalis distributed in irano-turanian ecozone and also in foothills between 300m to less than 1500m a.s.l. while the stoat m. erminea in alpine ecozone more than 1500 m a.s.l. covered by snow in winter, the color is changed to white probably for mimicry in harmony with the surrounding snow for protection from larger predators and also to help in catching the prey. 287 saman r. afrasiab et al. plate (1): mustela erminea collected from halgurd peak, hasarost mountain north east of erbil kept in kurdistan museum of natural history, salahaddin university (date of collection was not recorded). for many times we observed this stoat at alpine ecozone of kurdistan mountains of altitude more than 2000m at winter of 2014-2015 especially of winter color turned to white and tail with clear black tip. unfortunately we could not catch any of them. measurements: body length 253mm, tail length 90mm, hind foot broken about 40mm. color: upper side yellowish brown, ventral yellowish white, tail tip black. subfamily mustelinae in iraq represents three genera and species: martes foina, mustela nivalis and vormela peregusna; and all of these are common in irano-turanian ecozone of iraqi kurdistan (al-sheikhly et al., 2015). they were found previously in anab village north of halabjah, altitude 700m a.s.l. (lahony et al., 2013). workers on iraqi mammals did not record stoat mustela erminea in iraq (hatt, 1959; harrison, 1968; mahdi and georg, 1969; amr, 2009; al-sheikhly et al., 2015). of genus mustela, only weasel mustela nivalis had been recorded so far from iraq (raza, 2013; lahony et al., 2013; al-sheikhly et al., 2015) . al-sheikhly et al. (2015) stated that it is confined to the mountains of northern iraq recording it in shirin mountain in barzan area, erbil province and hawraman mountain, sulaymaniyah province. the stoat m. erminea was recorded in this study from halgurd peak, hasarost mountain, northeast of erbil. csurhes and markula (2010) mentioned that the stoats are habitat generalists found wherever suitable prey is available and their habitats include forest-edge, scrub, alpine meadows, and riparian woodlands. only deserts and dense forests are avoided (reid and helgen, 2008). it has a circumboreal range of distribution throughout northern temperate, subarctic, and arctic regions of europe, asia and north america, from greenland and the canadian and siberian arctic islands south to about 35º n (king, 1983; fagerstone, 1987; reid and helgen, 2008); it was only recently reported from turkey (reid et al., 2016). place of collection of present specimen is halgurd peak at hasarost mountain (pl. 2) near the iranian border at 36ᵒ 43' 47”n in the ecoregion zagros mountains forest steppe (pa0446) and falls within the distribution range of the stoat given by (king 1983; fagerstone, 1987; reid and helgen, 2008), this mountain retains some snow throughout the summer (nature iraq, 2013). 288 research notes on recording some rare vertebrates plate(2): halgurd peak, hasarost mountain with snow at end of july. the two species of genus mustela recorded in iraq could be differentiated depending on their size and tail; according to mise (2013) the weasel mustela nivalis is the smallest of the small mustelids and the smallest of all the carnivores, it has short legs and a slender body (1724cm). the tail is very short (3-6cm) and often hard to see with uniform chestnut brown color and no black tip. the stoat m. erminea is slightly larger (20-30cm) than the weasel and has a longer tail (7-12cm) with a distinctive black tip covering the rearmost third. if live animals are seen, the black tail tip is a key identifying feature. so, although there is quite a difference in size between weasels and stoats, the black tip to the stoat’s tail (which is always present, even in white winter coat) is usually the only visible difference when an animal is seen at a distance. records of two passerine birds (aves, passeriforms) from kurdistan region of iraq family emberizidae, red-headed bunting, emberiza bruniceps brandt, 1841: it breeds in central asia and wintering in india and western europe and northern iran (byers et al., 2013). at the time of migration, it may reach to some parts of middle east, for example it was recorded from kuwait and iran (birdlife international, 2016a) and we observed it in kurdistan of iraq from two locations north of halabja city. first one was in anab village in april (altitude 400m a.s.l.) and the second in zarelahall in may (altitude 700m a.s.l.), both of them were at the time of maturing white mulberry, which seems to feed on its fruits, also it was the time of breeding season of the bird itself. this may suggest it is breeding in the area. this is regarded the first confirmed record for this bunting in iraq. it was not recorded by allouse (1962) but he mentioned that it may be found in iraq. salim et al. (2006) did not mention it in their list of iraqi birds also. family muscicapidae, variable wheatear, oenanthe picata (blyth, 1847): a single male specimen was seen among small stones in uncultivated agricultural field to the west halabja city on april 2014. the following remarks were observed: the underwing is almost gray in color, the breast looks very dark in flight and the black color nearly covers belly. unfortunately, we could not take a picture for it at that moment. according to birdlife international (2016b) this species has extremely wide range. recording this bird in iraq is not surprising since it was reported from israel (shirihai, 2012) who could not get a photo and this would far extend its distribution from the east regions of iran toward the eastern banks of 289 saman r. afrasiab et al. the mediterranean sea. however, nothing could be said about its status in iraq now until more information will be available. notes on color variation and behavior of spotted tree frog hyla savignyi (ampibia-hylidae) from northeastern of iraq hyla savignyi audouin (amphibia, hylidae), reed and marx (1959) and balleto (1985) reported that the distribution of tree frog hyla savignyi is restricted by area altitude. disi (2002) restricted the distribution for jordanian populations to temperature and water body, but for iraq we have a collection of tree frogs from all zoogeographic zones (high mountains, foothill, semi deserts, and extreme southern marshes of amara and basrah). in eastern population it shares habitat with bufotes surdus and pelophylax ridibundus while the population of south and north it shares habitat with b. viridis and p. ridibundus (afrasiab and ali, 1988) wherever water body is found. also, they showed that the breeding season would start from december, but we ascribe it to temperature for example for sulaymaniya north east of iraq and other kurdistan provinces breeding starts in normal case from the last third of march immediately after hibernation, while in extreme south probably there is no hibernation from early december, instead, sometimes in hot summer day when some part of the marsh dried they enter aestivation. in one stream from south of diyala north of baghdad we collected hyla, bufo, and pelophylax in early december. color variation: in two collections of hyla savignyi from two different locations (bakrajo south of sulaymaniyah and from south of diyala, northeastern of baghdad) it was seen that they have dorsal color pattern with three series of dorsal spots unlike the other populations which have uniform green dorsal color. the lateral strips wider and covers the invisible tympanum (pl. 3,4,5). on transporting to laboratory aquarium they rapidly change the dorsal green color to yellow brown with spots. there is an interesting behavior in these frogs; they have the capability of inflation of the body, the body inflates to appear larger in size if it is disturbed and hiding the head downward. the authors could not be able to notice such a behavior previously in any of the iraqi frogs. measurements of largest male, head body length = 4.6cm, head width = 1.9cm, femur = 2cm, tarsus+digits = 3cm. plate(3): spoted hyla savignyi from bakrajo south sulaymaniyah north eastern of iraq(21march 2014). 290 research notes on recording some rare vertebrates plate (4):spoted hyla savignyi in aquarium plate (5): spoted hyla savignyi , from southern diyala inflate its body (january2014). acknowledgements the authors would like to express their profound thanks to dr. sarbaz i. mohamad, director, kurdistan museum of natural history, salahaddin university, erbil for his kindness and generosity in allowing us to examine and photograph the stoat in his museum's collection of mammals. thanks, are also extended for the ministry of higher education and scientific research, republic of iraq for their financial support of the project. 291 saman r. afrasiab et al. literature cited afrasiab, s. r. 2007. ecology, breeding, systematics and behavior of chukar partridge, alectoris chukar (aves-galliformes) from iraq. m. sc. thesis, university of baghdad-college of sciences,157pp. afrasiab, s. r. and ali, h. a. 1988. a new record of bufo surdus boulenger (amphibia bufonidae) from iraq with preliminary key for iraqi amphibians. bulletin iraq natural history museum, 8(1): 115-123. afrasiab, s. r. and al-rawi, m. a. 2010. new sub-species of chukar partridge alectoris chukar (gray, 1830) (phasianidae, galliformes). from north east of iraq. bulletin iraq natural history museum, 11 (1): 57-67 afrasiab, s. r. and mohamad, s. i. 2011. first record of the rat snake, zamenis hohenhockeri (struch, 1873), from north-eastern iraq with notes on other colubrid snakes. zoology middle east, 54: 19-22 . allouse, b. e. 1962. birds of iraq. iii: passeriformes, ar rabita press, baghdad, 288 pp. (in arabic). al-sheikhly, o. f., haba, m. k., barbanera, f., csorba, g. and harrison, d. l. 2015. checklist of the mammals of iraq (chordata: mammalia). bonn zoological bulletin, 64 (1): 33–58. amr, z. 2009. draft mammals of iraq. publication no. ni-0209-002. nature iraq, sulaimani, kurdistan­iraq, 11pp. balletto, e. m., cherchi, m. a. and gasperetti, j. 1985. amphibians of the arabian peninsula. fauna of saudi arabia, 7:318-392. birdlife international. 2016a. emberiza bruniceps. the iucn red list of threatened species 2016: e.t22720993a89315759. http://dx.doi.org/10.2305/iucn.uk.20163.rlts.t22720993a89315759.en. 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(2017) 14 (4): 285-293 العراق, مالحظات بحثية حول تسجيل بعض الفقريات النادرة من كردستان محمد كاظم محمد و عامر متعب حسين ,سامان روستم أفراسياب مركز بحوث ومتحف التاريخ الطبيعي ,جامعة بغداد, العراق 20/30/1322 :تاريخ القبول 21/30/1322 :تاريخ االستالم الخالصة ألول من فصيلة السراعيب mustela erminea (linnaeus, 1758)النوع سجل النماذج المحفوظة في متحف كردستان للتاريخ مرة للبائن المجموعة الحيوانية العراقية, من لهذا اعطيت القياسات وبعض المالحظات الحياتية ,أربيل -جامعة صالح الدين -الطبيعي .النوع الدرسة حمراء وهما العراق مرة في ألولكما تم تسجيل نوعين من الطيور العصفورية emberizidaeمن عائلة الدرسة emberiza bruniceps brandt, 1841الرأس من عائلة خاطفات الذباب oenanthe picata (blyth, 1847) واألبلق المتغير muscicapidae . في audouin, 1829 hyla savignyiدع االشجاروجد ضف عالوة على ذلك, الذي يتميز بظهر مبقع وسلوك مميز بامتالك القدرة على ,منطقتين في شمال شرق العراق .تضخيم الجسم واخفاء الرأس نحو االسفل bull 41 hassan, et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2015) 13 (4): 41-49 antagonistic succession of trichoderma against rhizoctonial dampingoff on tomato in composted media wazeer ali hassan, ibrahim esa taher*, khadeeja ahmed saido and ali sami ali university of duhok faculty of agriculture department of plant protection/ kurdistan region of iraq. *ibrahim.esa@uod.ac abstract the results revealed that the incidence of rhizoctonial damping-off of tomato was 65% and 67% in both rotations. substrates of pine leaf litter and mushcom 2 suppressed infection reaching 59 and 60%. mushcom1 restricted disease occurrence to 53%. in contrast, formulated th + b. subtillus revealed a noticeable disease reduction reaching 33.16%, due to nutrients incited from mushroom thallus. the highest occurrence of damping-off (92 and 94 %) was found in control (sandy loam soil) during rotations. however, partial suppressive of trichoderma spp. against r. solani was detected in different substrates. mortality was 90% in control (non-amended soil). finally, a comparable reduction of disease observed on tomato grown in mushcom 1 and mushcom 2 during rotations particularly when amended with t.h. b. subtillus. keywords: rhizoctonia solani, tomato, compost, tichoderma spp. introduction trichoderma pers. ex., refer to deuteromycotina, hyphomycetes, phialasporace, hyphales , dematiaceae has gained immense importance, since its ability as biological control, contrary to many phytopathogens. bio-control mechanisms must be independently operated in any microbial interaction (joshi et al., 2010). trichoderma is a fast growing, secondary opportunistic invader; sporulation is strong, produce antibiotics and cell wall degrading enzymes (francesco et al., 2008). the success of strains as bio-control agents is due to their high reproductive ability, survive adverse conditions, utilize of nutrients efficiently, rhizosphere modifying capacity, aggressiveness against plant pathogenic fungi and improving plant growth. therefore, trichoderma spp. are the most investigated fungal bicontrol agents are available commercially as biopesticides (harman, 2000). trichoderma species t. viride, t. harzianum, t. longibrachiatum, t. hamatum, t. koningii, t. polysporum, and t. pseudokoningii are very useful against several plant pathogenic fungi such as sclerotinia sclerotium, fuzarium oxysporum, pythium ultimum, and rhizoctonia solani (rojo et al., 2007). worthily, the distribution of each species is influenced by different soil properties including: soil ph, chemical components, salt and organic matter content and presence of soil microflora (kredics et al., 2003). however, trichoderma isolated from soil, decayed wood and different plant organic matters and grow rapidly in culture and the conidia produce in huge number that have varying shades of green characteristic fungus colonies are amber, yellow, or yellow-green, buff in the reverse side of colonies and many species produce 42 antagonistic succession of trichoderma against in submerged mycelium prodigious quantities of thick-walled chlamydospores (gams and bisset, 1998). recently, bio agents of trichoderma spp. were used to improve the efficacy of organic amendments against some diseases such as red rot of sugarcane (singh et al., 2008 a, b). improvements in uptake of nutrients and growth due to application of trichoderma were also noticed (yadav et al., 2008). in india about 50-55% canes were found free from red rot disease due to the application of trichoderma multiplied culture (tmc) and / or culture filtrate (metabolites) obtained from t. harzianum th37 (singh et al., 2009). application of trichoderma associated with its performance and organic matter (compost) application realized more benefits for soil structure including: improving of physical condition of soils such as water holding capacity, water filtration, preventing soil aggregation and crusting, thus improve soil aerations, root penetration and the soil buffering capacity, reduce effects of soil alkalinity and acidity, moreover enhancing soil texture and increasing nutrients availability (panahian et al., 2012). the present work aimed to estimation efficacy of the local strains of trichoderma cultures and commercial formulation for the control of damping-off of tomatoes grown in composted media. materials and methods 1preparation of substrates: substrates used for sowing tomato seeds included: mushroom’s compost1 (mushcom 1) that consist of wheat straw, chicken manure 30%, urea (trace), calcium carbonate 15%, gypsum 3% and mushroom’s compost 2 (mushcom 2) composed of chopped wheat straw, wheat bran 5% and gypsum 5%. other substrates including chopped pine leaf litter, and sandy loam soil 1:4 (v/v) as control. 2pathogen’s inoculum: virulent isolate of r. solani (kuhn) was obtained from the laboratory of plant pathology, department of plant protection, college of agriculture, univ. of duhok, iraq. pathogen's inoculum was prepared by using, millet seeds-sand medium (broken maize or barley 5.0g, sand 100g, tap water 20.0 ml) which was put into 600 g glass bottles and autoclaved then inoculated with mycelia discs (5mm) a week old grown on pda culture of r. solani (one disc/bottle) before incubation at 28°c for 10 days. the bottles content were thoroughly mixed, during incubation period. 3preparation of antagonistic fungi: commercial product (bio health of t. harzianum plus bacillus subtillus 10% with humic acids 75% and seaweed extracts 5%) manufactured by humintech gmbh, hecrdterlandstr., dusseldorf, germany. used at 10g/kg seeds. another isolates of t. harzianum (riafi) strain (kh. 20) and t. viride were obtained from plant protection dept., college of agric. & forestry, univ. of mosul, iraq. the examined isolates of t. harzianum grown in two liter conical flasks containing 250g mushroom’s compost, 250g wheat barn 250g and millet seeds and 250 ml autoclaved pda medium, incubated for 25 days, and thoroughly mixing at 5 days interval to certify inoculum distribution. flasks content were transferred to aseptic plastic, left to air dry then blended thoroughly and kept in sterilized polyethylene container at room temperature until used at 0.5%. colony forming unit’s adjusted at 3 107cfu/g as described (sallam et al., 2008). spore 43 hassan, et al. suspension of t. viride at 3 107cfu/g prepared from fresh cultures grown at 28°c for 10 days. twenty ml was drenched, container with 15 cm diameter used. untreated substrate with bio-control used as control. an experiment replicated three times with three pots for each. 4efficacy of formulated and trichoderma cultures in suppressing damping off: the composted substrates of mushcom 1, mushcom 2, pine leaf litter and control (sandy loam soil) were autoclaved and blended with 2% (w/w)=100g inoculum of r. solani. infested substrate (1kg) was poured into pots (15 cm) and incubated at 28°c room temperature subjected to darkness for seven days before planting. tomato seeds (mustakbel cv.) were surface disinfested in 2% naocl for 3 min., washed three times in sterilized distilled water, and dried between filter papers. inoculated (10 seeds) were sown in potting sterilized soil infested with any of tested biocontrol agents as described before. untreated seeds were sown in infested soil used as control. four replicates were placed in lath house and watered as required. data were recorded after 20 days for damping-off. after taking data from the first rotation, the container medium was replanted with tomato seeds and disease incidence was rated again after another 20 days. samples from control and amended treatments were collected for opportunistic fungi counts based on dilution plating 10-4 .total fungi were enumerated colony forming units (cfu) for each rotation. statistical analysis: data were subjected to analysis of variance (anova) and pooled together after test of homogeneity of variance (p≤0.05). data were analyzed using statistical analysis systems software (sas version 8, institute, inc., and means compared by duncan test). results and discussion 1effect of container substrates on rhizoctonial damping off: occurrence of rhizoctonial damping-off of tomato did not noticeably affected in both two rotations. this result demonstrated that r. solani colonized container media at 20 days rotation period interval, therefore, the incidence of damping off was 65% and 67% in both rotations respectively (fig.1). substrates of pine leaf litter and mushcom. 2 were significantly increased the suppression of pathogen to 59 and 60% respectively. fig.1: incidence of rhizoctonial damping-off of tomato in both rotations. 65.99 a 67.55 a 0 20 40 60 80 100 d am p in g o ff % rotation 1 rotation 2 44 antagonistic succession of trichoderma against the component of mushcom. 1 of calcium carbonate, gypsum, and chicken manure 30% considered use a key composition for formulation of container media suppressive to r. solani when inhibits the incidence of damping-off to 53% compared to 93% in the control sandy loam soil (fig.2). apparently, the suppression of a pathogen in the amended composts of wheat straw and chicken manure differs in compost age and dynamics of microflora population (kuter et al., 1988; nelson and hoitink, 1983). fig.2: incidence of rhizoctonial damping-off of tomato in different substrates. 2soil amendments: soil amendments of commercial product t. harzianum plus bacillus subtillus at 10g/kg seed resulted a significant reduction of seedling mortality (33.16%) (fig.3). however, mushcom and its substrate are unique slow nutrient releasing substrates to trichoderma because of the presence of chitin rich mushroom mycelia mat and slowly degrading lingocellulose straw (sing et al., 2014). production of container media that were consistent manner suppressive to r. solani required not just applying of antagonists, but also the introducing of the antagonist into environments that suitable for antagonism theory (chung and hoitink, 1990; craft and nelson, 1996). fig. 3: effect of several amendments on the occurrence of damping-off. 45 hassan, et al. 3effect of organic substrates on the dampingoff: the occurrence of r. solani on tomato was high (92-94%) when grown in sandy loam soil during two rotations (table 1). however the media of mushcom. 1 and 2 decreased disease incidence to (37 and 42%) respectively. the components of organic matter in formulated cultures may have direct harmful effects on soil-borne pathogens, but some composted media and urban wastes may increase the substrate ph and concentration of nh4 + n2 reached maximum 10 days after amendment this results also confirmed by (lee et al., 1997), observed that r. solani colonization released nh4 + n2 at high concentration from degradation of the rich media. table (1): effect of substrates during two rotations on the occurrence of damping-off. substrate rotation forest litter mushroom substrate 1 mushroom substrate 2 sand ( control) rotation 1 56.77 d 69.94 c 42.58 e 94.67 a rotation 2 61.4 d 37.91 e 78.7 b 92.22 a 3effect of amended substrates on the dampingoff: results of (table 2) revealed a partial inhibitory effect of trichoderma spp. for r. solani on tomato grown in different composted treatments particularly when cultivated in mushcom. 1 though the diseased seedlings were (43–50%) compared to (90–96%) in the control treatments. both substrates of mushcom consisted more cellulosic materials of wheat straw and bran thus, become highly preferred and efficiently utilized by trichoderma due to its ability in higher secretion of chitinase, legninase, hemicellulase and cellulase enzymes (kaviyarsan and siva, 2007; ali et al., 2011). table-2: effect of substrate and amendments on the occurrence of damping-off. substrate amendment forest litter mushroom substrate 1 mushroom substrate 2 sand ( control) t.harzianum+bacillus + r.solani 52.18 d-g 50.43 fg 60.03 b-f 90 a t.harzianum+ r. solani 63.05 b-d 43.88 g 57.77 c-f 94.43 a t.v + r. solani 64.43 bc 50.9 e-g 61.65 b-e 92.67 a r. solani(control) 56.67 c-f 70.48 b 63.1 b-d 96.67 a the sites of necrotic tissues caused by r. solani were noticeable when reduced tomato root growth cultivated in the control sandy loam soil. however, strains of trichoderma improved more activity of protease against such different pathogens as r. solani (szekeres et al., 2004), salt tolerance for control of f. oxysporum (mohamed and haggag, 2006) and of pesticide polyresistant strains (hatvani et al., 2006). result suggests that trichoderma used in this trial didn’t play major role in preventing the damages made by r. solani due to the fact that most plants exhibit moderate signs of necrotic 46 antagonistic succession of trichoderma against lesions. therefore specific interactions may be developed between the host and bio-control agent, and this was observed on the tomato (santander et al., 2003). data represented in (table 3) demonstrated that the variance of inhibitory impacts of amended substrates on the incidence of disease during both rotations were clarified a comparable reduction on tomato grown in different amended mushcom 1 in both rotations. the favorable substrate has been shown to encourage t. h. and b. subtillus to produce high levels of cellulase enzyme that hydrolyzes the cell walls of several such pathogenic fungi as f. oxysporum and r. solani (rini and sulochana, 2007). on the other hand the viability of rhizoctonial sclerotia decreased after 30 days of incubation by reducing their germination to more than 70% when investigated by (mello and faull, 2000; montealegre et al., 2010). table (3): effect of substrate and amendments on the occurrence of damping-off during two rotation. conclusion we conclude that disease incidence coincides by re-colonization of opportunistic fungi and b. subtillus after both rotations of tomato seedlings with a rapid decline of the soil microbial in the second one. therefore, the suppression of r. solani and other soil-borne pathogens required not only the 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(uk), 26: 28-33. 49 hassan, et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2015) 13 (4): 41-49 ضد مرض موت trichoderma ماتأثير التضادي لفطر الترايكوديرال على الطماطة النامية rhizoctonial damping-offالبادرات الرايزكتونية في وسط العضوي وزير علي حسن و ابراهيم عيسى طاهر و خديجة احمد سيدو و علي سامي علي قسم وقاية النبات –كلية الزراعة -جامعة دهوك خالصة rhizoctonialالرايزكتونية تاإلصابة بمرض موت البادرا نسب كشفت النتائج أن damping-off نسبة الألصابة . في مرحلتي الزراعة ،% 56و % 56الطماطم كانت في وصل إلى mushcom2 في اوساط الزراعة المستخدمة كل من أوراق الشجر الصنوبر و في المقابل، اضافة . % 65 علىحدوث المرض اقتصر mushcom1وفي. %56و 65 t.h. +b. subtillus تصل إلى لبصورة واضحة قد ادت الى انخفاض نسبة األصابة التربة )في معاملة السيطرة % 59و 59 ، أعلى نسبة األصابة وصل الى% 55.35 ضد فطر trichoderma ومع ذلك كان هناك تأثير تضادي لفطر ،(الرملية المزيجية في اوساط المختلفة و ان معدل موت البادرات في معاملة السيطرة r. solaniالممرض الطماطم انخفاض االصابة بهذا المرض على براداترا لوحظت وأخي. % 56 كان خالل دورتين زراعيتين بصورة خاصة mushcom 2 و mushcom 1المزروعة في . .t.h. + b. subtillusعند خلطها مع bull 315 hayder b. ali bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2017) 14 (4): 315-328 seasonal population abundance of the chrysanthemum aphids (homoptera, aphididae) in the middle of iraq with pictorial key to species hayder b. ali department of biology, college of science, university of baghdad, iraq hayder.ali1130@yahoo.com received date: 20 november 2017 accepted date: 02 december 2017 abstract this study was based on the determination of aphid species that infested chrysanthemum sp. (asterales, asteraceae) in the middle of iraq; five aphid species belong to subfamily aphidinae were recorded: aphis fabae scopoli, 1763, aphis gossypii glover, 1877, coloradoa rufomaculata (wilson, 1908), macrosiphoniella sanborni (gillette, 1908) and myzus persicae (sulzer, 1776). a. gossypii was the most dominant species throughout the study period while m. persicae is the lesser species. a summary of the main taxonomic characters is presented here and a pictorial key which was designed to separate aphid species colonizing chrysanthemum sp. is also presented. key words: aphididae, aphid key, chrysanthemum, hemiptera, iraq. introduction chrysanthemum l. (asterales, asteraceae) was one of the first ornamental plants to be domesticated more than 2000 years ago, the common chrysanthemum is native to asia and it is used for gardens in china and japan (kluepfel and scott, 2005). there are many insects that can attack chrysanthemums plants, aphids are the most common species that infest them. aphids affect on these ornamental plants by sucking from the phloem of the vascular bundles of young shoots and leaves (schread, 1956). plant parts affected by aphids will wilt, discolour or deform (blackman and eastop, 2006). aphids are usually found in colonies on plant tips, shoots of new growth, or flowers. aphids multiply so fast on favorable situations that a light infestation may increase to alarming proportions in a week. they are generally more numerous during cooler months when the most serious damage occurs. the seasonal abundance of aphid is significantly influenced by the environmental factors such as temperature, relative humidity and rainfall. it is not much than other factors, temperature is an important environmental variable that affects the rate of aphid development, reproduction, mortality, survival and subsequently its population increase (dixon, 1987). more than 15 species are known to colonize cultivated and wild chrysanthemum (miller and stoetzel, 1997). aphid fauna of iraq are almost poorly known, they are known mainly by surveillance lists such as bodenheimer and swirski (1957), daoud and el-haidari (1968 and 1969) and al-ali, (1977). ali et al. (2012) recorded three aphid species colonized chrysanthemum sp., in iraq; although it is important to have a good understanding about aphid http://dx.doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2017.14.4.0315 316 seasonal population abundance of the chrysanthemum population dynamics for the management of these aphid pests. in iraq, there is no study has been conducted about aphids population dynamics on chrysanthemum sp., where this ornamental plant is widespread. thus, the present study examined the seasonal abundance of the chrysanthemum aphids under greenhouses and outfield condition in the middle of iraq, with an identification pictorial key. materials and methods aphid specimens colonizing cultivated chrysanthemum plants were collected from different regions of the middle provinces of iraq: baghdad (al-jadiriya, abu ghraib, taji, almansour, alzuofrania); babylon ( al neal village); kerbala (aal jabas, khan alroba, al hussiania) and diyala (khan bani saad) over a period of seven months from 2.11.2016 to 29.05.2017. aphids were collected from cultivated chrysanthemums plants with a fine brush and preserved in 70% alcohol. the collecting and preserving technique was based mainly on eastop and van emden (1972) method, for slides preperation, maceration and clearing of the specimens with a simple procedure for preparing balsam mounts is as follow martin (1983). the aphids were systematically classified based on the catalog of remandiére and remandiére (1997); keys from blackman and eastop (2006) were principally referred for the identification of collected species. all measurements of the aphid were fixed as millimeter (mm) (tab. 1), the parameters measured were adopted according to ilharco and van harten (1987), except body length (bl) that is always measured to the base of the cauda and does not include any projecting cauda (blackman and eastop, 2006). aphid specimens were deposited in the collection of iraq natural history research center and museum / university of baghdad / baghdad, iraq. all discriminates used in the key are morphometric characters, key couplets may offer a choice between two ranges of measurements or ratios, these ratios are shown in table (1), for reliable identifications we examined a series of 10 or more alate and apterous adults. table (1): comparisons between morphometric characters or ratios used in the key. results and duscussion abundance of aphid species colonizing about 735 plants samples of chrysanthemum sp. during period from nov. 2016 to may 2017 were studied here, five aphid species were determined in related to subfamily aphidinae, namely aphis fabae scopoli, a. gossypii glover, coloradoa rufomaculata (wilson), macrosiphoniella sanborni (gillette) and myzus comparisons ant(i–vi) / body length longest hair on ant iii / ant iii(bd) processus terminalis / base antennal vi ultimate rostral segment / ht ii (length) siph / body length siph / cauda (length) cauda / body length 317 hayder b. ali persicae (sulzer). whereas there are at least 15 species known to colonize cultivated and wild chrysanthemums in the united state (miller and stoetzel, 1997). the average of chrysanthemum plants infection by aphid showed in diagram (1), the maximum abundance of all these species were during spring (first week of march to the second week of april) which the weather in these areas is the most optimizing period of plant growth furthermore aphid occurrence in this period, while minimum abundance was founded in the beginning of summer at baghdad city shows an extreme climate, with the maximum temperature in summer reaching 52°c and a winter temperature of 2°c. the average mean temperatures and relative humidity for baghdad province, considering it in the middle of studying regions during the periods of study, are shown in diagram (2). a. gossypii was the most dominant species throughout the study periods, while m. persicae is the least, these two species are considered perhaps as tentative or important aphid pests in iraq (ali et al., 2012). the two species are highly polyphagous being particularly evident during the dry season in hot countries (blackman and eastop, 2006). diagram (3) shows the percentage of infection, m. sanborni , a. gossypii and combination infection with these two aphid species was the highest percentage of infection while coloradoa rufomaculata , myzus persicae and combination infection by a. fabae and m. persicae was the lowest infection. 318 seasonal population abundance of the chrysanthemum 319 hayder b. ali diagram (2): average mean temperatures and relative humidity for the duration of nov. 2016 to may.2017, baghdad province, iraq. diagram (3): percentage of chrysanthemum sp. infection by aphids in baghdad province from nov. 2016 to may 2017. aphis gossypii glover, 1877 small to medium-sized, body length in apterous 1.05-1.90 mm, in alate 1.05-1.77 mm; highly variable in color even within the same colony, ranging from light yellow to dark green, with dark siphunculi and a pale or dusky. this species is polyphagous and very damaging to many economic importance plants; ali et al. (2012), recorded this species infested chrysanthemum sp. in baghdad, the infection was associated with m. sanborni. aphis fabae scopoli, 1763 small to medium-sized, body length in apterous 1.60-2.25mm, in alate 1.80-2.6 mm dull greenish black to black; found on young leaves, stems and inflorescences of many plants, mainly leguminosae, chenopodiaceae and compositae (blackman and eastop, 2006), so it is not strange that the present study records this aphid species on chrysanthemum sp. coloradoa rufomaculata (wilson, 1908) small, body length in apterous 1.0-1.5 mm, in alate 0.9-1.5 mm; green, sometimes with yellow spots at siphunculi base; found on the stem and underside of leaves of 8.7 14.8 3.6 18.1 3.4 10.3 3.8 6.9 16.7 6.5 7.2 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 pe rc en ta ge o f in fe ct io n aphid species 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 nov. 2016 dec.2016 jan.2017 fab.2017 mar.2017 apr.2017 may. 2017 te m pe ra tu re c hu m id ity % period\week humidity % avg. mean te mp. c 320 seasonal population abundance of the chrysanthemum chrysanthemum sp.this aphid species has presented by ali et al. (2012) as a new record for iraq aphid fauna. macrosiphoneilla sanborni (gillette, 1908) small to medium-sized, body length in apterous 1.40-2.20 mm, in alate 1.40-2.30 mm; shiny, dark red-brown to blackish brown, broadly spindle-shaped, with black, relatively short and thick siphunculi. the members of this species are found on young stems and undersides of leaves of chrysanthemum sp.; bodenheimer and swirski (1957) are the first authors who record this aphid species in iraq on chrysanthemum sp. myzus persicae (sulzer, 1776) small to medium-sized, body length in apterous 1.65-2.35 mm, alate 1.90-2.45 mm; whitish green, pale yellowish green, greyish green, mid-green or pink, rather uniformly coloured, not shiny, alate have a black central patch on the dorsal surface of the abdominal. 321 hayder b. ali keys to species of aphids that collected from the chrysanthemum species in current investigations: a: key to apterous form aphids ant tubercles well developed, with parallel inner sides; siph slightly to moderately swollen distally…………………….myzus persicae ant tubercles undeveloped, if developed with divergent inner sides; siph not swollen.………2 siph with reticulate sculpture of several rows of hexagonal cells on the distal part; ant(i–vi) 1.00-1.35 x body length.....macrosiphoniella sanborni siph without reticulate sculpture, sometimes with only a few transverse cells near flange; ant(i–vi) less than 1.00 x body length……………………………..3 322 seasonal population abundance of the chrysanthemum dorsal body hairs with fanshaped apex; abd terg i and vii without mtu…………… coloradoa rufomaculala dorsal body hairs with acuminate, acute or blunt apex; abd terg i and vii with mtu………………………………..…..….4 longest hair on antiii 0.54-0.65 x antiii bd; siph 1.45-1.77 x cauda, which bearing 5-7 hairs …............................ aphis gossypii longest hair on antiii more than 1.35-1.49 x antiii bd; siph 1.05-1.30 x cauda, which bearing 11-14 hairs .…….aphis fabae 323 hayder b. ali b: key to alate form aphids abdominal dorsum with large central sclerite on abd terg iiivi; siph slightly to moderately swollen distally………….…myzus persicae abdominal dorsum without large central sclerite on abd terg iii-vi; siph not swollen..............................2 siph with reticulate sculpture of several rows of hexagonal cells on the distal part ….………….macrosiphoniella sanborni siph without reticulate sculpture, sometimes with only a few transverse cells near flange……….……...……3 324 seasonal population abundance of the chrysanthemum dorsal body hairs with fan-shaped apex; urs stiletto-shaped with six accessory hairs …..…… coloradoa rufomaculala dorsal body hairs with acuminate, acute or blunt apex; urs never stiletto-shaped and with only two accessory hairs………………….......….4 ant iii with 16-25 secondary rhinaria; siph 1.18-1.40 x cauda, which bearing 12-14 hairs……………….. aphis fabae ant iii with 5-9 secondary rhinaria; siph 1.40-1.63 x cauda, which bearing 6-7 hairs……………aphis gossypii 325 hayder b. ali table (2): morphometric characters (mm) and comparisons of adult morphs of apterous viviparae female of aphids infested chrysanthemum sp. m. persicae m. sanborni c. rufomaculala a. gossypii a. fabae characters (1.90-2.45) (1.40-2.30) (0.90-1.5) (1.05-1.77) (1.80-2.6) bl (1.9-2.4) (2.00-2.40) (0.75-1.05) (0.90-1.25) (1.30-1.65) ant(i–vi) (length) (0.50-0.62) (0.55-0.70) (0.18-0.25) (0.19-0.32) (0.34-0.41) ant iii (length) (0.020-0.028) (0.01750.028) (0.017-0.012) (0.0200.025) (0.01750.025) bd iii (0.48-0.60) (0.50-0.61) (0.19-0.25) (0.24-0.36) (0.30-0.40) ant pt (length) (0.160-0.195) (0.11-0.16) (0.11-0.14) (0.10-0.13) (0.12-0.145) ant vi b )10-14) (20-33) (10-14) 5-9)) (16-25) ant iii secondary rhinaria (0.01000.0125) (0,0300.040) (0.010-0.013) (0.0100.0175) (0.020-0.035) longest hair on ant iii (length) (0.105-0.12) (0.125-0.16) (0.080-0.105) (0.09-0.11) (0.12-0.14) urs (length) (2-4) (6-8) (6) (2) (2) urs (accessory hairs) (0.11-0.14) (0.11-0.14) (0.075-0.095) (0.0780.095) (0.110-0.128) ht ii (length) 3,3,3 3-3-3 3.3.2 3,3,2 3,3,2 ftc (0.35-0.46) (0.21-0.33) (0.16-0.23) (0.16-0.23) (0.20-0.28) siph (length) (0.21-0.27) (0.22-0.37) (0.110-0.155) (0.11-0.15) (0.165-0.195) cauda (length) (5-6) (14-18) (4-5) (6-7) (12-14) caudal hairs (0.92-1.05) (1.00-1.43) (0.70-0.82) (0.67-0.85) (0.62-0.75) comparisons ant(i–vi) / bl (0.40-0.52) (1.43-1.75) (0.75-0.84) (0.74-0.88) (1.15-1.47) longest hair on ant iii / bd iii (2.8-3.2) (3.90-4.65) (1.70-1.80) (2.38-2.88) (2.42-2.89) ant pt / ant vi b (0.84-0.96) (1.12-1.15) (1.00-1.15) (1.05-1.20) (1.05-1.17) urs / ht ii (0.16-0.20) (0.11-0.14) (0.15-0.18) (0.11-0.153) (0.102-0.115) siph / bl (1.67-1.72) (0.85-0.95) (1.40-1.50) (1.40-1.63) (1.18-1.40) siph / cauda (0.10-0.12) (0.15-0.17) (0.10-0.13) (0.0820.112) (0.073-0.092) cauda / bl 326 seasonal population abundance of the chrysanthemum table (3): morphometric characters (mm) and comparisons of adult morphs of alate viviparae female of aphids infested chrysanthemum sp. m. persicae m. sanborni c. rufomaculala a. gossypii a. fabae characters (1.90-2.45) (1.40-2.30) (0.90-1.5) (1.05-1.77) (1.80-2.6) bl (1.9-2.4) (2.00-2.40) (0.75-1.05) (0.90-1.25) (1.30-1.65) ant(i–vi) (length) (0.50-0.62) (0.55-0.70) (0.18-0.25) (0.19-0.32) (0.34-0.41) ant iii (length) (0.0200.028) (0.0175-0.028) (0.017-0.012) (0.020-0.025) (0.01750.025) bd iii (0.48-0.60) (0.50-0.61) (0.19-0.25) (0.24-0.36) (0.30-0.40) ant pt (length) (0.1600.195) (0.11-0.16) (0.11-0.14) (0.10-0.13) (0.120.145) ant vi b )10-14) (20-33) (10-14) 5-9)) (16-25) ant iii secondary rhinaria (0.01000.0125) (0,030-0.040) (0.010-0.013) (0.0100.0175) (0.0200.035) longest hair on ant iii (length) (0.105-0.12) (0.125-0.16) (0.080-0.105) (0.09-0.11) (0.12-0.14) urs (length) (2-4) (6-8) (6) (2) (2) urs (accessory hairs) (0.11-0.14) (0.11-0.14) (0.075-0.095) (0.078-0.095) (0.1100.128) ht ii (length) 3,3,3 3-3-3 3.3.2 3,3,2 3,3,2 ftc (0.35-0.46) (0.21-0.33) (0.16-0.23) (0.16-0.23) (0.20-0.28) siph (length) (0.21-0.27) (0.22-0.37) (0.110-0.155) (0.11-0.15) (0.1650.195) cauda (length) (5-6) (14-18) (4-5) (6-7) (12-14) caudal hairs (0.92-1.05) (1.00-1.43) (0.70-0.82) (0.67-0.85) (0.62-0.75) comparisons ant(i–vi) / bl (0.40-0.52) (1.43-1.75) (0.75-0.84) (0.74-0.88) (1.15-1.47) longest hair on ant iii / bd iii (2.8-3.2) (3.90-4.65) (1.70-1.80) (2.38-2.88) (2.42-2.89) ant pt / ant vi b (0.84-0.96) (1.12-1.15) (1.00-1.15) (1.05-1.20) (1.05-1.17) urs / ht ii (0.16-0.20) (0.11-0.14) (0.15-0.18) (0.11-0.153) (0.1020.115) siph / bl (1.67-1.72) (0.85-0.95) (1.40-1.50) (1.40-1.63) (1.18-1.40) siph / cauda (0.10-0.12) (0.15-0.17) (0.10-0.13) (0.082-0.112) (0.0730.092) cauda / bl 327 hayder b. ali literature cited al-ali, a.s. 1977. phytophagous and entomophagous insects and mites of iraq. bulletin of the iraq natural history museum, 33:142 pp. ali, b.h., agarwala, b. k. and kaddou, i. k. 2012. new records of aphids of the subfamily aphidinae (homoptera: aphididae) infested herbaceous plants and shrubs for aphid fauna of iraq. advances in bioresearch, 3 (4): 6675. blackman, r.l and eastop, v.f 2006. aphids on the world’s herbaceous plants and shrubs. (volume 1: host lists and keys / volume 2: the aphids), john wiley and sons, ltd., chichester, 1024 pp. bodenheimer, f. and swirski, e. 1957. aphidoidea of the middle east. weizmann science press, jerusalem, 378 pp . daoud, a. k. and el-haidari, h.s. 1968. recorded aphids of iraq. iraq natural history museum, publication, no. 24, 37 pp. daoud, a. k. and el-haidari, h.s. 1969. new aphid records from iraq. bulletin of the iraq natural history museum, 4(i): 10-14. dixon, a.f.g. 1987. cereal aphids as an applied problem. agricultural zoology reviews. 2: 1–57 eastop, v.f. and van emden h.f. 1972. the insect material. in van emden hf (ed.) aphid technology, pp 1-45. academic press, london and new york. ilharco, f.a. and van harten, a. 1987. systematics. pp.51-77 in minks, a.k. & harrewijn, p. (eds.) aphids, their biology, natural enemies and control, vol. a. elsevier, amsterdam. kluepfel, m. and scott, j. m. 2005. chrysanthemum diseases & insect pests. (available at: http://www.clemson.edu/extension/hgic) martin, j. h. 1983. the identification of common aphid pests of tropical agriculture. tropical pest managemen, 29: 395-411. miller , g. l. and stoetzel, m.b. 1997. aphids associated with chrysanthemums in the united states. the florida entomologist, 80(2): 218-239. remandière, g, and remandière, m. 1997. catalogue des aphididae du monde/catalogue of the world’s aphididae . homoptera, aphididae. inra edditions versailles paris, 478 pp. schread, j. c. 1956. systemic insecticides to control mealybug, scale, aphids and cyclamen mite on ornamentals. the connecticut agricultural experiment station, new haven, 18 pp. 328 seasonal population abundance of the chrysanthemum bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2017) 14 (4): 315-328 الوفرة السكانية الموسمية لحشرات من الداوودي (homoptera: aphididae) في وسط العراق مع مفتاح مصور لألنواع حيدر بدري علي جامعة بغداد/ كلية العلوم / قسم علوم الحياة 20/10/0212 :تاريخ القبول 02/11/0212 :تاريخ االستالم الخالصة وسط في ت هذه الدراسة على جمع وتحديد أنواع المن التي تصيب نبات الداوودياستند aphis 1763وهي aphidinae العراق، اذ سجلت خمسة أنواع من عويلة fabae scopoli, ،aphis gossypii glover, 1877 ، coloradoa rufomaculata (wilson, 1908)، myzus persicae (sulzer, 1776) و macrosiphoniella sanborni (gillette, 1908) النوع كان؛ اذa. gossypii . األنواع سيادةً اقلهو m. persicaeأكثر األنواع سيادةً طوال فترة الدراسة بينما النوع ألبرز الصفات التشخيصية الرئيسية لألنواع المدروسة عرض في هذه الدراسة ملخص .مصور لعزل أنواع المن التي تصيب نبات الداووديوتصميم مفتاح 4 27 a. a. al-moussawi bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2010) 11 (1):27-38 first record in iraq of tanqua anomala (linstow, 1904) from the dice snake, natrix tessellata tessellata (laurenti, 1768) azhar a. al-moussawi iraq natural history museum, baghdad university, baghdad, iraq bab al-muadham, p.o. box 59038 abstract tanqua anomala (von linstow,1904) specimens were recovered, from the lining wall of the gastro-intestinal tract of the dice snake natrix tessellate tessellate (laurenti, 1768) collected in baghdad city, central iraq. measurements of the males, females and a comparison of the nematode with other studies tabulated. reporting of tanqua anomala from this snake represents the first record for iraq as well as a new host record. introduction reptiles are commonly infected by a wide range of parasites, serving either as their definitive or intermediate hosts. reptiles of iraq encountered a hundred species, including forty one species of snakes (reed and marx, 1959; mahdi and george, 1969; afrasiab, 1987;afrasiaband ali, 1988; 1989 a, b and leviton et al., 1992). surprisingly, little attention had been paid to their parasites, the papers on parasitic fauna of iraqi reptiles are rather few and fragmentary. marinkelle and al-mahdawi (1980) described the protozoan trypanosoma turcici from the gecko hemidactylus turcicus. al-barwari and nassir (1983) recorded the nematode thelandros sp. from hemidactylus flaviviridis and h. persicus. kugi and mohammad (1988) described the cestodes: oochoristica nupta from the lizard agama nupta and isolated oochoristica agama from uromastix microlepis. hassan and abdullah (1989) isolated the cestodes: oochoristica truncata from agama ruderata and ophisops elegans; the cestode oochoristica tuberculata and the two nematodes thelandros micipsae and thelandros sp. were isolated from ceratopodium scaberium (=gymnodactylus scaber). salih and rahemo (1989) recovered cysticercoid of joyeuxiella sp. from the wall lizards: c. scaberium and phyllodactylus elisae. rahemo and ami (1993) isolated the cestode ophiotaenia europea from natrix tessellata. fattohy and al-zubaidy (1994) reported the protozoa balantidium duodeni from hemidactylus flaviviridis and the cysticercoid of the genus joyeuxiella from trapelus (= agama) ruderata; h. flaviviridis; ophisops elegans and phyllodactylus elisae and thelandros micipsae from t. ruderata; c. scaberium; h. flaviviridis and o. elegans; and thelandros sp. from t. ruderata; c. scaberium and o. elegans and the nematode salobrella sp. from c. scaberium; h. flaviviridis and o. elegans. al-hadithi and abdl-majeed(1989) 28 first record in iraq of tanqua nomala recovered the nematodes, pharyngodon laevicauda from h. turcicus, thelanderos micipsae from c. scaberium; h. flaviviridis and physalopteroid sp. from h. turcicus. al-zako (1999), reported four nematodes from three reptilian hosts: camallanus sp. from the tortoise testudo graeca; neopharyngodon sp. from the geckos c. scaberium and thelandros vittata and trispiculascaris sp. from the lizard mabuya vittata. al-saadi (2002) isolated the nematodes: thelandros micipsae from c. scaberium; h. flaviviridis and h.turcicu;thelandros sp. from h. turcicus and c. scaberium and the nematode neopharyngodon sp. from h. flaviviridis and c. scaberium. among four reptilian hosts al–hashimi (2006) reported six parasites, two trematodes: telorchis cyclemmids from mauremys (=clemmys) caspica and bilorichis indicum from rafetus euphraticus; two cestodes oochoristica sp. and crepidobothrium sp. from natrix tessellata and two nematodes camallanus sp. and trispiculascaris sp. from mabuya aurata. from seven species of iraqi reptiles, nine species of helminthic parasites were encountered by al-barwari and saeed (2007), the digenetic trematode telorchis stunkardi from the turtle mauremys c. caspica; the cysticercoid of diplopylidium nolleri from the geckos: asaccus elisae, hemidactylus flaviviridis, h. persicus and from thes nake spalerosophis d. cliffordi; and 7 nematode species, angusticaecum holopterum and atractis dactyluris from the tortoise testudo g. iberia (= terrestris) ;camallanus microcephalus from mauremys c. caspica; falcaustra japonensis from the turtle rafetus(=trionyx) euphraticus; tachygonetriani colleri from testudo g. terrestris; thelandros sp. from acanthodactylus elisae, h. flaviviridis, h. persicus and microtetrameres sp. from h. flaviviridis., the nominate dice snake, natrix tessellate tessellata (laurenti, 1768), distributed from middle and southern europe through western asia to western china including india, persia, iraq, syria and egypt (boulenger, 1920 ; arnold and burton, 1978 and baran and atatu¨r, 1998). it is present throughout iraq with remarkably wide distribution in rivers, lakes, channels and marshes (khalaf, 1959 and mahdi and george,1969). the studies of parasite communities of this snakein iraq are rare and scanty. this paper deals with recording the nematode tanqua anomala from the gastro-intestinal tract of this snake for the first time in iraq and it also constitutes a new host record as well. materials and methods a total of 28 adult specimens of the dice snake natrix tessellate tessellate were collected at diyala bridge, baghdad city, central iraq during the period january to november 2008. the snakes were transferred to the laboratory a live, sacrificed and dissected as soon as possible. all viscera were removed and each placed in petri dish with normal physiological saline. the recovered nematodes fixed and stored in 70% alcohol and cleared by lactophenol. helminth identification was based on (yamaguti, 1961;york and maplestone, 1962). all measurements of the nematodes are with millimeters (mm) unless otherwise stated. images were taken with digital camera; drawings were made with aid of a camera lucida. helminth specimens were deposited in the collection of iraq natural history research center and museum \university of baghdad \ baghdad \ iraq. 29 a. a. al-moussawi results and discussion gnathostomidae genus:tanqua blanchard, 1904 tanqua, r. blanchard, 1904 (= ctenocephalus, v. linst., 1904) (baylis, 1916). tanqua anomala (v.linst.) baylis,1916 tanqua anomala (linstow 1904) synonyms: heterakis anomala vonlinstow,1904(baylis, 1939) blanchard (1904) erected the genus tanqua to accommodate the nematode ctenophorus tiara (originally named ascaris tiara). baylis(1916) reviewed and amended von linstow’s description of t. tiara, described t. anomala and confirmed that t. diadema linstow,1904 was a valid species, and gave a key to separate between t. tiara and t. diadema. the species belong to the genus tanqua were identified in several monitors (jacobson, 2007). worldwide, nine species of this genus have been described from reptilian and amphibian hosts: tanqua bainae; t. geoclemydis; t. gigantica; t. herpestis; t. occlusa; t. ophidis; t. tiara; t. sindensis and tanqua sp. twenty males and eighteen females of tanquaanomala were collected from the gastrointestinal tract of 28 snakes. the worm is of medium sizefound embedded its head in the inner mucous lining wall of the gastro-intestinal tract of the snake.head with two relatively large lips, dorsal and ventral, each bearing on its inner side three rounded tooth – like projections, head –bulb is relatively small, divided externally into two swellings separated by lateral longitudinal grooves, the head bulb is provided with rows of thorn-like spines which help this nematode to attach with the host tissue, that makes its removal rather difficult. there is a cuticular collar behind the head – bulb, there are four elongated cervical sacs extend from anterior margin of cervical collar they appears to open separately upon the surface of the swellings at the base of the lips, the esophagus long, simple slender increasing gradually in diameter posteriorly (fig.1 a&b) posterior end of the body provided with series of muscle-bands on each side of the ventral surface, ending at front of the anus. measurements of 20 male and 18 female worms were done with an ocular micrometer and means were tabulated. male fig.(2):twenty males were isolated from the gastrointestinal tract of the snake, the body is attenuated towards the posterior ends. on the tail there are eight pairs of ventro-laterally sessile caudal papillae, they are different in sizes: three preanals, one adanal and four postanals, the last pair is very small; the largest pair is the seventh from posterior end. the two curved ventrally spicules are with blunt ends, they are similar, equal in length and spiny, tail tapering to point with caudal alae. female: fig. (3): eighteen females were isolated from the snake. they are larger than males. posterior end of the body has a short tail, which bears a pair of papillae, the vulva is nearer for the posterior end, it situated at about the posterior third of the body, oviparous, eggs oval, with thin shells and fine granulations, tail is short, tapering and pointed. 30 first record in iraq of tanqua nomala table 2 shows a slight differences in present nematode measurements from that of baylis (1939) and dewi et al.,(2008), it could be due to the difference of host species and their habitat ecosystems since the nematodes of baylis (1939) were isolated from the water snake tropidonotu spiscator in india and ceylon and specimens of dewi et al., (2008) were isolated from the intestine of the semiaquatic snake acrochordus javanicus in south sumatra/indonesia. the description of t. anomala by baylis (1916) was brief for the nematode which isolated from the stomach of tropidonotu spiscator in ceylon, and confirmed that t. diadema linstow, 1904 is a valid species for t. anomala, and gave a key to separate between t. tiara and t. diadema. in 1939 from the same host in india and ceylon baylis described t. anomala and gave detailed descriptions and dimensions for males and females. table.1: measurements of t. anomala (von linstow, 1904)baylis1939; dewi et al.,2008 and the present study. measurements t. anomala (baylis, 1939) t. anomala (dewi et al., 2008) t. anomala (present study) body length ♂ ♀ 26.5 – 50.0 30.1 – 56.0 25.0 – 39.5 33.6 – 43.9 30 (12-42) 38 (27-50) body maximum width ♂ 0.8-2 0.95-2 0.49– 0.89 0.67–0.94 0.79 – 1.09 0.89 -1.22 oesophagus ♂ ♀ 3.0 – 5.3 (not separated between ♂ and ♀) 3.224 – 5.798 3.454 –4.238 2.8823.118 3.5754.195 spicules 1.3 – 1.7 0.745 – 1.326 0.520-1.65 vulva (from posterior end) 1/3 1/3.72 1/3.44 eggs (µm) 65 x 50 50 x 38 70 x 50 this worm was reported from the water snake natrix piscator (=tropinodonotus piscator) (baylis,1939;sinha and sahay, 1972; soota and chaturvedi, 1974; rao et 31 a. a. al-moussawi al., 1977; naidu, 1978; kalyankar and kankal,1980; lakshmi, et al., 1985 and kankal, 1989) from the snake natrix stolatus (soota and chaturvedi, 1973; saharan and sinha, 1974), nama (1974) reported a single immature female tanqua anomala from the body-cavity of amphibian host rana tigrina. from the snake cerberus rhyncopus it was isolated in pakistan (bilqees and rehana, 1975), from the stomach of natrix sp. by gupta and duggal (1981) and in india from the colubrid snake atretium schistosum by lakshmi et al. (1985). table 2 shows that females generally larger than males. recently dewi et al.(2008) isolated and redescribed t. anomala from the intestine of the semi-aquatic snake acrochordus javanicus in south indonesia and to resolve the confusion of the status of t. anomala and to clarify the taxonomic position of the two species(t.anomala and t.ophidis) they used the scanning electron microscopy (sem), and as a result of comparison between these two species according to the morphological features they confirmed that t. anomala as a valid species and tanqua ophidis johnston & mawson, 1948 falls in synonymy with it. this agree with gupta and duggal, (1981) who regarded that t. ophidis is as junior synonym for t. anomala. table.2: means of measurements for males and females of t.anomala (von linstow, 1904). measurements males females body (l x w) 30 x 7.0 38 x 1.0 head (l x w) 0.23 x 0.25 0.25 x 0.30 oesophagus(l x w) 3.0 x 0.40 3.7 x 0.44 cervical sac (l) 0.50 0.54 excretory pore from anterior end 0.72 0.83 nerve ring (l x w) 0.09 x 0.18 0.09 x 0.19 nerve ring from anterior end 0.40 0.44 spicule 1.08 eggs (l x w) (µm) 70 x 50 vulva (from posterior end) 13 tail(l) 0.60 0.80 32 first record in iraq of tanqua nomala acknowledgements the author would like to thank kartika dewi and amir hamidy from the museum zoologicum bogoriense, bogor/ indonesia, to dr. isam saeed from the university of copenhagen / denmark, and to prof. farhan t. mhaisen for sending papers. from iraq natural history research center and museum / university of baghdad, the author is very grateful to prof. mohammad k. mohammad, the director, for supporting the diagnosis of nematodes, khalida ibrahim for her kind assistance in laboratory work and to mohammad i. ghazwan, for collecting the snakes. literature cited afrasiab, s.r. 1987 first record of stenodactylus affinis (murray) marsh geckos (reptilia: gekkonidae) in iraq.j. biol. sci. res. 18 (1):231-233. afrasiab, s.r. and ali, h.a. 1988.a new record of toad bufo surdus boulenger (amphibia, bufonidae) from iraq, with a preliminary key for iraqi amphibian. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 8: 115-123. afrasiab, s.r. and ali, h. a. 1989. a report on a collection of reptiles from rumaila desert, south of iraq. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 8(2): 65 – 73. afrasiab, s.r. and ali, h.a. 1989b. a new record of the snake lytorbychu skennedyi schmidt (reptilia: colubridae) from iraq. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 8(2): 157-159. al-barwari, s.e. and nassir, j.k. 1983first record of ten species of helminthic parasites from vertebrates in iraq. iraqi j science, 24: 101-108. al-barwari s.e. and saeed, i. 2007.on the helminthfauna of some iraqi reptiles.türkiye parazitoloji dergisi, 31(4): 330-336. al-hadithi, i.a.w. and abdl-majeed, m. i. 1989 some helminth parasites from jeckos in basrah, iraq. al-mustansiriya j. sci. vol. 9(1): 19-22. al –hashimi, s.f.a. 2006. parasitic worms of alimentary canal of some reptile species in al-ramadi city. msc. thesis. edu. univ. al-anbar: 77pp. (in arabic) al-saadi, a.a.j. 2002. incidence of three nematode species from the digestive tract of three lizard species in baghdad city. diyala journal, 13: 385-391. al-zako, s.s.h. 1999. a survey on intestinal nematodes of some amphibians and reptiles in ninevah province with special reference to the histology of ascaridiagalli(schrank, 1788)freeborn, 1923.ph.d. thesis, edu. univ. mosul: 193 pp. (in arabic) 33 a. a. al-moussawi arnold, e.n. and burton, j.a. 1978. a field guide to the reptiles and amphibians of britain and europe, collins, london: 272 pp. baran, i., and atatu¨r,m. k. 1998, turkish herpetofauna (amphibians and reptiles). publication board of the ministry of environment, ankara, turkey: 214 pp. baylis, h. a. 1916the nematode genus tanqua r. blanchard. annals and magazine of natural history, series 8, vol.17: 223–232. baylis, h.a. 1939 the fauna of british india. nematoda’, vol.2 (filarioidea, dioctophymoidea and trichinelloidea). taylor and francis, london,:198–202. bilqees, f. m. and rehana, r. 1975a record of helminth parasites from snakes of sind, pakistan. acta parasitologica polonica vol.23 no. 41/51: 485-492. blanchard, r. 1904tanqua, n. g., remplaçant ctenocephalus vonlinstow. archives de parasitologie, 8: 478. boulenger, g.a. 1920. a list of snakes from mesopotamia collected by members of the mesopotamian expeditionary force, 1959 to 1919.journal of mombay natural history society. vol.27 no.2: 25-28. dewi,kartika, jones, hugh, and hamidy, amir 2008. the status of tanqua anomala (von linstow, 1904 (nematoda: gnathostomatoidea) transactions of the royal society of south australia, volume 132, number 1, may , pp. 713(7) fattohy, z.i. and al-zubaidy, a.b. 1994.parasites of some lacertidae in baghdad province,iraq.j.educ.sci.vol. 18: 12-25 (in arabic). gupta, n. k. and duggal, c. l. 1981. on the redescripton of tanqua anomala (v. linstow, 1904) baylis, 1916 (nematoda: gnathostomatidae) and discussion on the synonymy of t. ophidian johnston and mawson, 1948. research bulletin of the panjab university, vol. 30 (1-4): 61-64. hassan, i.s. and abdullah, i.a. 1989.helminth parasites of the digestive tract of lizards in ninevah district, ira. j. educ. and sci.vol.9:88-99. jacobson, e.(ed.) 2007. infectious diseases and pathology of reptiles: color atlas and text. university of florida college of veterinary medicine gainesville, florida.crc press, taylor & francis group, llc,716 pp. 34 first record in iraq of tanqua nomala kalyankar, s. d. and kankal, n. c. 1980 preliminary study on the effect of diet deficiency of certain biochemical compounds on the host infected by the nematode parasite. rivista di parassitologia vol. 41 no. 2 pp. 165-169. kankal, n. c. 1989histochemistry of tanqua anomala a nematode parasite of water snake tropidonatu spiscator. rivista di parassitologia, 4 (48), 2, pp 175184 khalaf, k. t. 1959. reptiles of iraq with some notes on the amphibians, ar –rabitta press, baghdad,: 96 pp. kugi g. and mohammad, k. 1988cestodes of the genus oochoristica from iraqi lizards. jps. j. parasito., 37(6): 405-409. lakshmi, b.b., hanumantha,rao, k. and shyamasundari 1985.'the nematode fauna from reptiles of andhra pradesh.' indian journal of helminthology (new series), meerut 2(1&2): 115-125. leviton, a.e.; anderson, s.c., adler, k. and minton, s.a. 1992. handbook to middle east amphibians and reptiles. society for the study of amphibians and reptiles: 252 pp. mahdi, n. and george, p.v. 1969a systematic list of vertebrates of iraq. iraq natural history museum, publication, no. 26.university of baghdad, alawqat press: 104 pp. marinkelle, c.j. and al-mahdawi, s.k. 1980.trypanosoma turcici sp. n. (trypanosomatida) from the meditettanean gecko, hemidactylus turcicus from iraq. bull nat. hist. res. centre, 7: 73-79. naidu, t. s. v. 1978. observations on tissue changes caused at the sites of attachment of the nematodes, tanqua anomala and dispharynx nausta. current science pp. 788-789. nama, h. s. 1974. on the occurrence of tanqua anomala (nematoda: gnathostomatidae) from rana tigrina. journal of the zoological society of india, vol. 25 (1/2): 157-158. rahemo, z.i.f. and ami, s.n. 1993ophiotaenia europea(cestoidea:protocephalidae) from water snake natrix tessellata in iraq. mutah journal for research and studies. vol. 8(3): 101 – 110. rao, k. h.,shyamasundari, k. and kumari, b. v. 1977.on nematode cleavage pattern with special reference to tanqua anomala (v.linstow, 1904) 35 a. a. al-moussawi (gnathostomatidae) from the water snake natrix piscator schneider. current science. 46 (16) 565-566. reed c. a. and marx, h. 1959 a herpetological collection from northeastern iraq. transactions of the kansas academy of science, vol. 62 (1): 91-122. saharan, r. k. and sinha, r. m. p. 1974 on the occurrence and heavy infection of a spirurid nematode tanqua anomala (von linst) in a new host. indian journal of helminthology, 24 (2): 2165-67. salih, n.e. and rahemo, z.i.f. 1989.cysticercoid of joyeuxiella sp. from the wall lizards in iraq with special reference to its cyst wall. rivista parasitologia, 6: 239-244. sinha, a. and sahay, u. 1972. on the redescription of atrophocaecum indicum simha, 1958 (acanthostomidae poche, 1926; emend. nicoll, 1935). indian journal of animal research , 6 (1): 39-41. soota, t. d.andchaturvedi, y. 1973. systematic studies on some more nematodes from the unnamed collections of the zoological survey of india.records of the zoological survey of india. 67(1/4): 121-137. soota, t. d.andchaturvedi, y. 1974.the nematode fauna of goa. pt. ii. indian journal of helminthology. vol. 24 no. 1: 22-35. yamaguti, s. 1961 systema helminthum vol.3 the nematodes of vertebrates. intersci. pub. inc., new york,779 pp. york,w. and maplestone p.a. 1962.the nematode parasites of vertebrates. haf. pub.com., new york: 536 pp. first record fig.1: aanterior end of tanqua anomala. bhead –bulb. 36 first record in iraq of tanqua nomala -a -b anomala. fig. 2: posterior end of male tanqua fig. 3: posterior end of female tanqua anomala 37 a. a. al-moussawi tanqua anomala. tanqua anomala 38 first record in iraq of tanqua nomala bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2010) 11 (1): 27-38 ش ن ن تسجیل ألول مرة في العراق tanqua anomala (linstow, 1904) م المدورة natrix tessellata tessellata (laurenti, 1768) الماء الموسويأزھار أحمد مركز بحوث و متحف التأریخ الطبیعي العراق –بغداد -جامعة بغداد ahmeda_09@yahoo.com: البرید االلكتروني الخالصة حنش الماء حیة من الغشاء المبطن للقناة الھضمیة ل تم عزل الدودة المدورة tanqua anomala تم وصف ھذه المدورة .وسط العراق بغدادمدینة من ومقارنة القیاسات بین الجنسین كما تمت مقارنتھا مع القیاسات المذكورة لھا في ھذه المدورة ھو األول في العراق كما لیعتبر تسجی .الدراسات العالمیة السابقة .سجلت في ھذه الدراسة الحیة كمضیف جدید لھا mailto:ahmeda_09@yahoo.com bull 53 basim a. abd ali bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2014) 13 (1): 53-60 variations of wood elements in main stem of albizia lebbeck (l.) benth. growing in baghdad city, iraq basim a. abd ali natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad, iraq e-mail: basimali2000@yahoo.com abstract as albizia lebbeck is one of the important species in iraq and the region, its wood has subjected to investigation through the assessment of differences in its element dimensions and specific gravity under baghdad conditions. variations of fiber length, fiber width, cell wall thickness, vessel diameter, and density of wood were examined along the stem and horizontally. results showed that fiber lengths were within the normal range, but their widths were narrower than common range of hardwoods. there were little increase in fiber length, width, wall thickness as the height position increased. vessel diameter has been affected contrarily. no significant effects of height on specific gravity could be observed. radial variability appeared to be height dependence. while heartwood possessed longest fibers at stem uppermost, maximum value of width and wall thickness have existed in the heartwood too but at lowermost of stem. the substantial difference was in specific gravity when heartwood had the superiority upon sapwood. introduction the genus albizia is a member of the family fabaceae and subfamily mimosoideae. it comprised of many species most of them are of an extreme economical and environmental importance in many parts through out the world. it is a pantropical genus that includes at least 470 names (rico et al, 2008). one of the most important species is albizia lebbeck (l.) benth..it is fast growing tree with feathery foliage and spreading crown. it produces a tall and straight pole. it is native to asia, africa, northern australia and india. it is cultivated in the tropical and subtropical regions of north africa, the west indies, south america, and southeast asia. many of its habitats are characterized by extremes of climate, e.g., long, hot, and dry summers and cold winters with mean temperatures ranging from 5 to 46°c. (mohiuddin. 1994). because of its adaptability to a wide range of environments, this species grows well in conditions ranging from humid to semiarid. in india it is planted as a shade tree for plantation crops such as tea and coffee in the humid tropical areas in the southwestern part of the country ( daniel et al.1994).. this tree is nitrogen-fixing, and tolerates acidity,alkalinity, heavy and eroded soils, waterlogged soils, and drought. (ctsp, 2004). the plant is useful in many disease conditions and is known for its anti-inflammatory, antihistaminic, anti-anaphylactic, anti-asthmatic and anti-microbial etc. activities (shyamlal et al, 2011).many others worked on the plant for its medical uses ( kumar et al, 2010; gupta, et al, 2004, al-maliky, 2013) . albizia lebbeck (woman’s tongue) is a recognized fodder tree in india and australia and it is one of a few tree species with record of leaf with a low content of toxin, tannin and 54 variations in albizia wood elements phenolic compounds and through its relatively higher content of n, ca but not p, appears to have potential as supplemented on animal feeding mature pasture grass or crop residues (kennedy et al.,2002). it can attain a height of 30 m and a diameter of 1m; more often it is 1520 m tall with a diameter of 50 cm (lewis and rico arce, 2008). pods are yellowish brown with 6-10 seeds. mature pods remain on the tree for long period and are available till mayjuly (shyamlal,2011). wood characteristics are identical features although some variations are involved depending on environmental variations. wood element dimensions and specific gravity are the most important among them. wood of this species is moderate heavy with whitish or yellowish-white of sapwood and brown with dark streak heartwood. specific gravity is about 640 at 12% mc., grains; straight to wavy or interlocked; texture is coarse (nazma, et al, 1981). it is termite resistant, well seasoning, and difficult to saw and machine (mahony, 1990). it can be used to produce good-quality pulp by mechanical, semi-chemical or chemical processes. because of its light colour, only a little bleaching is required to achieve good white paper (lewis and rico arce, 2008). they also affirmed that it has also been used for the manufacture of viscose rayon. the average fiber dimensions and corresponding morphological indices were investigated by (khider et al, 2011). they found that fiber length, fiber diameter, cell wall thickness, and specific gravity were 0.983mm, 25.6. (μm), 4.96 (μm), and 508 kg/m3 respectively. importance of this species is coming from its suitability to most of iraqi lands, and secondly from multiuses it possesses. accordingly, this research has suggested to explore the effect of baghdad climates and soil on wood elements and their variation vertically and horizontally. materials and methods two trees of albizia lebbeck were cut from the garden of natural history research center and museum, baghdad. main stem was divided into 1.5 m -length segments. at the base of each segment a complete disc 5 cm thickness was taken. four radial strips with a width of 3 cm were cut from each disc. after removing of pith, the strip was divided into 3 parts; inner, middle, and outer blocks. the middle part was rejected, the two other parts were used for determining wood elements dimensions, and specific gravity for heart wood and sap wood. inner or outer wood blocks of all strips for a specific height was collected together and subdivided into smaller pieces. some of them were randomly selected for maceration, others were used for specific gravity determination. maceration was carried out according to franklin (1945). wood element dimensions were studied using light microscope fitted with a calibrated ocular micrometer. the calibration was achieved by mounting the stage micrometer on the stage of the microscope and aligning its zero-mark with that of the ocular. fiber length, fiber width, wall thickness, vessel element diameter were measured. specific gravity was calculated by displacement method on the basis of 12% moisture content. data were statistically analyzed as factorial crd experiment of 2 factors; vertical: 5 levels, horizantal: 2 levels, and 3 replications. for each one of the 30 experimental units 10 samples for specific gravity were used. for any element character 30 measurements were taken to represent a specific experimental unit. duncan multiple range test has used for testing significant differences between levels. 55 basim a. abd ali result and discussion fiber dimensions of a. lebbeck wood gave an indication that the wood of trees growing in iraq has some different properties from that of same species growing under other conditions. mean of fiber length was 0.8930 mm (table 1), it is not far from that obtained by khider et al (2011), but much less than that of nasroon and al-shahrani (1998) which was abnormal length. table 1: dimensions of wood elements and specific gravity as affected by height on main stem. height (m) fiber length (mm) fiber width (µm) wall thickness (µm) vessel diameter (µm) specific gravity 0.5 0.8538 (b) 9.64 (ab) 3.34 (ab) 180.38 (a) 711.1 (a) 2.0 0.8375 (b) 9.11 (b) 2.99 (b) 165.13 (ab) 711.3 (a) 3.5 0.8757 (b) 9.52 (ab) 3.33 (ab) 149.25 (b) 720.5 (a) 5.0 0.9041 (ab) 10.08 (ab) 3.61 (a) 164.13 (ab) 695.6 (a) 7.5 0.9940 (a) 10.44 (a) 3.85 (a) 148.63 (b) 713.1 (a) mean 0.8930 9.76 3.42 161.51 710.3 note: values having same letter are not statistically different at p≤0.05. fiber length at lower position of stem (0.5, 2.0 m) was about 5% less than average, while that at upper elevation (7.5 m) possessed about 10% excessive length. some authors found unfixed pattern to the effect of height on fiber length (bhat et al., 1989; idu and ijomah, 1996; jorge et al., 2000). the width of fiber appeared less than normal width of hard wood fibers. dry conditions especially in harsh summer conditions could be the reason. the species is native to tropical and subtropical regions of asia and africa (khider et al, 2011), so the semi-arid conditions of iraq and saudi arabia might be not optimum; the reason of obtaining slim fibers. corresponding trend was observed in case of fiber width and cell wall thickness. the second level (2.0 m) showed lowest value, after which gradual increase with height has obtained. fiber wall thickness followed the pattern of fiber diameter. it was maximum at the highest stem position. mean value (3.42µm) indicates to thin walled fibers although relatively it comprises 35% from fiber diameter. such values result in obtaining high runkel ratio which means less suitability for pulp production. vessel did not follow the same behavior of fibers. generaly, vessel diameters were smaller than ordinary. laxmi and dayal, (1985) found that vessel maximum diameter of this species is 280µm. in relation to height position, some contrary trend to that of fibers could be observed. highest stem level (7.5m) possessed thinner vessels by about 22 µm than lowest level .jiang et al. (2003) found that variation in all poplar vessel dimensions showed no significant relationship with tree height. specific gravity showed no significant differences among height levels. mean value was more than normal densities of albizias. narrow lumen with relatively thick wall with no 56 variations in albizia wood elements doubt leads to have more dense wood. laxmi and dayal (1985) found that specific gravity of this species in india was 580 and vessel maximum diameter was 280µm. slow rate of growth resulting from the effect of climatic conditions might be the reason in wood densification. morales (1987) demonstrated that specific gravity of the wood showed considerable differences between species within each region and between two regions. also, he confirmed that trees from the drier region showed a higher average density. once again, the trend of height position effect on specific gravity is not fixed. results of espinoza (2004) showed that no correlation was found between specific gravity and height, whilethe higher value was noticed by pande and singh, 2005 at breast height, thereafter it decline and again increased up. kamala et al. (2000) indicated that average specific gravity increases with height. table 2: fiber dimension of a. lebbeck wood as affected by height and radial position. height (m) fiber length (mm) fiber width (µm) wall thickness(µm) heart w. sap w. heart w. sap w. heart w. sap w. 0.5 0.8665 (b) 0.8410 (b) 10.09 (ab) 9.19 (b) 3.51 (abc) 3.17 (bc) 2.0 0.8240 (b) 0.8510 (b) 9.31 (b) 8.91 (b) 3.12 (bc) 2.88 (c) 3.5 0.8388 (b) 0.9128 (b) 9.13 (b) 9.91 (ab) 3.17 (ab) 3.50 (abc) 5.0 0.8970 (b) 0.9113 (b) 9.70 (ab) 10.46 (a) 3.21 (ab) 4.02 (a) 7.5 1.0650 (a) 0.9230(b) 10.52 (a) 10.36 (ab) 3.88 (ab) 3.82 (ab) mean 0.8983 0.8878 9.75 9.77 3.38 3.48 note: values having same letter are not statistically different at p≤0.05. difference in mean values of fiber length, fiber width, and wall thickness between heartwood and sapwood were not substantial, mostly not significant. only heartwood of the uppermost level showed significant increase upon others in regards to fiber length (tab. 2). the same level showed highest width of fiber and wall thickness but still not far from other means. general trend of relation between these traits and transvers position indicated that these dimensions increase as the distance increases from pith (zha et al., 2005; choudhury, et al. 2009; ohshima et al., 2003), while others referred that variations were non-significant except for fiber-diameter (pande et al. (2008) tree of leucanealeucocephala), but ishiguri, 2009 found that diameter of wood fibers was an almost constant value from pith to bark for the species paraserianthes falcataria. radially, vessel diameter showed similar response to that of fiber diameter. almost comparable mean values were obtained (tab. 3). sapwood of highest stem position revealed a maximum diameter. . literatures indicated that trends vary from pith to periphery depending upon the species and anatomical features. jiang et al. (2003) reported in their study on i-214 poplar that vessel tangential diameter showed rapid and then gentle increase from pith to outwards. significant effect has observed on specific gravity. heart wood showed higher specific gravity by about 9% than that of sap wood. the result can be interpretive by the deposition of extractives in such case where little or no horizontal variations in cell diameter and cell wall thicknesses. heartwood was easily differentiated through its dark color from pale sapwood. the difference between heartwood and sapwood was at maximum in the lowermost level where the stem diameter and horizontal distance between samples were the longest. in gmelina arborea, espinoza, (2004) found a contrary result when he found that specific gravity increased from pith to bark. 57 basim a. abd ali table 3: dimension of vessel elements and specific gravity as affected by height and transverse position. height (m) vessel diameter (µm) specific gravity heart wood sap wood heart wood sap wood 0.5 140.75 (b) 159.50 (ab) 764.0 (a) 662.3 (c) 2.0 172.25 (ab) 156.00 (ab) 725.3 (abc) 666.0 (c) 3.5 166.00 (ab) 132.50 (b) 752.5 (ab) 688.5 (bc) 5.0 163.50 (ab) 166.75 (ab) 727.0 (abc) 695.5 (abc) 7.5 173.50 (ab) 187.25 (a) 745.5 (ab) 676.8 (c) mean 163.20 160.40 742.9 677.8 literature cited al-maliki, a. a. matter. 2013. isolation and identification of three alkaloids compounds from albizia lebbeck l. leaves and study of their antimicrobial activity against pathogenic bacteria of urinary tracts inflammatory in vitro. j.thi-qar sci., 3 (4) : 99-111. bhat, k. m.; k. v. bhat; and t. k. dhamodaran. 1989. variation in stem and branches of eleven tropical hardwoods. iawa bulletin, 10 (1): 63-70. choudhury, md. q., ishiguri, f., lizuka, k., hiraiwa, t., matsumoto, k., takashima, y., yokota, s., yoshizawa, n. 2009. wood property variation in acacia auriculiformis growing in bangladesh, wood and fiber science, 41 (4): 359-365. ctsp, 2004. cambodian tree species, albizialebbeck (l.) benth., taxonomy and commercial grade. fa, danida, pp 51-54. daniel j. n.; n. g. hedge, and l. l. relwani. 1994. performance of albizia lebbeck in semiarid india 1994, proceedings,international workshop on albizia and paraserianthes species workshop ,bislig, surigao del sur, philippines, establishment and use of albizia and paraserianthesspeciespp. 23-26. espinoza, j. a 2004. within-tree density gradient in gmelina arborea in venezuela. new forest 28: 309-307 . franklin g. l. 1945. preparation of thin sections of synthetic resins and wood-resin composites, and a new macerating method for wood, nature 155, 51-59. gupta, rs; kachhawa jb and chaudhary r. 2004. antifertility effects of methanolic pod extract of albizia lebbeck benth. in male rats. asian j. androl. 6 (2): 155-159. idu, m. and ijomah, j. u. 1996. wood anatomy of some savanna fabaceae species: dimensional variation in fiber and vessel elements of afzelia africana sm.ianthes falcataria annals of forestry, 4 (2): 119-122. ishiguri, f.; t. hiraiwa; k. iizuka; s. yokota; d. priadi; n. sumiasri and n. yoshizawa. 2009. radial variation of anatomical characteristics in paraser ianthes falcataria planted in indonesia. iawa journal, vol. 30 (3), 2009: 343–352. 58 variations in albizia wood elements jiang, x. m.; yin, y. f. and urakami, h. 2003. variation within tree of wood anatomical properties and basic density of i-214 poplar in beijing area and their relationship modeling equations. scientia silvae sinicae, 39 (6): 115-121. jorge, f.; quilho t. and pereira, h. 2000. variability of fiber length in wood and bark in eucalyptus globules. iawa journal, 21 (1): 41-48. kamala, b. s.; kothiyal, v. and sharma, s. k. 2000. assessment of wood quality of grevillearobustafrombanglore, karnataka.indian forester, 126 (6): 625-633. kumar s, bansal p, gupta v, sannd r, rao mm. 2010. clinical efficacy of albizia lebbeck stem bark decoction on bronchial asthma, international journal of pharmaceutical science and drug research. 2 (1):48-50. kennedy, p.m.; lowry, j.b.; coates, d.b., and perlemans, j. 2002. utilization of tropical dry season grass by ruminants feeding on fallen leaves of siris (albizia lebbeck). anim. feed sci. tech., 96:175-192. khider, tarigosman, osman taha elzaki, and safaa hassan omer, 2011. soda and sodaanthraquinone pulping of albizia lebbeck from sudan:suranaree journal science technology 18(4): 299-303. laxmi chauhan and r. dayal,1985. wood anatomy of indian albizias iawa bulletin n.s., vol. 6 (3). lewis, g.p. and rico arce, l. 2005. tribe ingeae. in: lewis, g.,schrire, b., macinker, b. & lock, m. 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(2014) 13 (1): 53-60 benth.albizia lebbeck (.l) تباينات عناصر الخشب في ساق اشجار اللبخ امية تحت ظروف مدينة بغدادالن باسم عباس عبد علي العراق –جامعة بغداد / مركز بحوث ومتحف التاريخ الطبيعي e-mail: basimali2000@yahoo.com الخالصة المهمة في العراق والمنطقة فقد اخضع الى من االنواع albizia lebbeckنظرا لكون النوع البحث من خالل فحص التغييرات الحاصلة في عناصر الخشب ووزنه النوعي والناتجة عن نموه . تحت الظروف الطبيعية لمنطقة بغداد تم فحص التباينات في طول الليف وقطره وسماكة الجدار، وعلى قطر الوعاء والوزن النوعي بينت النتائج ان أطوال االلياف الشجار البحث كانت ضمن المديات الطبيعية في حين كانت . للخشب كانت هناك زيادة طفيفة في طول الليف . أقطارها ضيقة ودون المدى االعتيادي لالخشاب الصلدة لم . طره وفي سماكة الجدارمع زيادة االرتفاع في الساق في حين ان قطر الوعاء قد قل لنفس السببوق .يظهر تأثير معنوي لالرتفاع على الوزن النوعي للخشب ففي الوقت الذي كانت فيه اطوال . أما االختالف القطري فقد ظهر انه مرتبط بعامل االرتفاع بي عند أعلى الساق، كان القطر االكبر اللياف الخشب القلبي ايضا االلياف في أقصاها للخشب القل وقد جاء االختالف االكبر في صفة الوزن النوعي حيث تفوق الخشب القلبي . ولكن عند أسفل الساق .كثيرا على نظيره العصاري bull 101 ibrahim j. abed et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. july, (2018) 15 (1): 101-111 genotype versus phenotype to determine the definitive identification of the genera chlorella beijerinck, 1890 (chlorellaceae) and coelastrella chodat, 1922 (scendesmaceae) ibrahim j. abed* ghusoon a. abdulhasan and ali m. najem department of biology, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq * corresponding author: ibrahimabed95@yahoo.com received date: 27 april 2018 accepted date: 11 june 2018 abstract conventional identification of three coccoid green algae isolates was attempted to characterize the studied algae morphologically under compound microscope, which demonstrated confusional phenomenal convergence; all were classified microscopically as the green alga chlorella vulgaris beijerinck, 1890. phylogenetic studies were conducted to settle the argument about the phenotype by studying the genotype. genotype the promising field in advance classification by using 18s rrna and compared to genbank database using to search the related sequences. the determined sequences showed high a similarity to the strains registered in genbank. phylogenetic tree of its within 18s rna were analyzed: the phylogram separated into two clusters, the first cluster included c1-its-iraq and c2-its-iraq and put with coelastrella chodat, 1922 which was well supported in bootstrap tests (86-100%), while the second cluster included c3-its-iraq and put with c. sorokiniana shihira and krauss, 1965, which have bootstrap value 100% with the mentioned species. however, in this study, the green alga colestrella was identified as new record genus in iraqi freshwater belonged to the order sphaeropleales. keywords: algae, chlorella, coelastrella, genotype, phylogenetic tree. introduction “little green balls" refer to the green coccoid shape planktonic with their small size and morphological simplicity, which often were recorded as chlorella beijerinck or chlorella vulgaris beijerinck, 1890. these simple and common green algae of this genus are classified below the order chlorococcales and family chlorellaceae (hoek et al., 1995). doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2018.15.1.0101 102 genotype versus phenotype to determine the definitive identification multi industrial and agricultural utilities of coccoid green algae had been progressed exponentially, in addition to the vast economic benefits from exploiting these algae in biofuel technology and single cell protein manufacturing for humans and animals (soeder, 1976; abbott and cheney, 1982). confusional similarities in morphology have created a sort of dilemma to researchers by depending on the phenotypes or the morphological characters of these algae, in addition to variations in physiological characteristics which frequently varied according to changes in environmental conditions; furthermore, the morphological traits of chlorella do not differentiate from the morphological traits of other similar algae (shihira and krauss, 1965). so, the identification of this group of algae became one of the most difficult tasks in the systematics in the 20th century because its classification remains enigmatic due to conflicts between molecular phylogenetic and morphological approaches (krientiz et al., 2004). scenedesmaceae is a large family of chlorophyta which have 54 genera, every one exhibiting a large morphological variability, maintained by genetic relationships resulting from autospores that support all other mutations. coelastrella, named by chodat (1922), shows a distribution in korean rivers, australian soil, rock surfaces, bulgarian soil, and an alpine zone in new zealand. its habitats range from aerial to terrestrial with or without a relative humidity (40 %) and at high altitudes (ancona canche et al., 2017). revolutionary scientific methodologies in the last decades made remarkable progressing in systematic classification of micro algae, such as using many approaches of serological, physiological and biochemical studies to identify chlorella species, though the cell size and the shape are markedly changed in responding to environmental parameters of the ambient (john et al., 2004). likewise, molecular phylogenetic studies and electron microscopic test for cell wall structures led to shifts of genera to or from scenedesmaceae experiments; that created more difficulties because these studies did not always come to an agreement (krienitz et al., 2003). acutodesmus (hegewald) tsarenko, 2001, coelastrum nägeli, 1849, enallax pascher, 1943, scotiella fritsch, 1912, scotiellopsis vinatzer, 1975, and pectinodesmus hegewald, wolf, keller, friedl and krienitz, 2010 belong to family scenedesmaceae that were featured by ridges emerging from inner layer of the cell wall (tschaikner et al., 2007; hegewald et al., 2010). molecular methods such as pcr techniques are useful for evaluating the genetic variations and also for accurate identification of algae (wongsawad and peerapornpisal, 2014). 18s rrna is one of the most important molecular markers used for phylogenetic analysis and biodiversity screening (meyer et al, 2010). based on 18s rrna, chlorella species reduced to four true species, including c. vulgaris, c. kessleri fott & nováková, 1969, c. lobophora andreyeva, 1973 and c. sorokiniana shihira and krauss, 1965 (luo et al, 2006). hence, this study aimed to spotlight on the distinctions between classical taxonomy of morphology depending classification and the systematic 103 ibrahim j. abed et al. classification by using molecular phylogenetic traits for three coccoid green algae isolated from fresh water in iraq, and to an emphasis on the importance of genotype to achieve the definition in the identification of algae with convergent phenotypes. materils and methods the specimens collection the specimens were taken from the tigris river in al-jaddria region, baghdad province, and were collected from the higher superficial layer 20-30cm deep from the river; these specimens were transported immediately to the laboratory. media and culture conditions unialgal cultures of the coccoid green algae were obtained using serial dilution method with 1ml of specimen inoculated into 9 ml of chu-10 nutrient solution; the procedures were repeated many times with microscopic examination until one species was obtained; the unialgal culture was then transferred to chu-10 medium and incubated in illuminated incubator. the flasks were shaken well and incubated. culturing was carried out with proper light (50 – 75 μe m-2 s-1) and incubation with temperature (23c). morphological characterization the specimens were observed under microscope; the cell shape and size were monitored, measured by micrometry and documented as microphotograph. identification of the specimens carried out by using the taxonomic publication of prescott (1982). dna extraction extraction of genomic dna was performed from the microgreen algae isolates according to the protocol of g-spin dna extraction kit, intron biotechnology/korea. electrophoresis has been done on agarose gel (1%) to determine the quality of dna, the concentration and purity of dna was measured via nanodrop. primers selection the set of forward primer for its 1(5-tccgtaggtgaacctgcgg-3) and reverse primer for its 4(5-tcctccgcttattgatatgc-3) was used for amplification of 18s rrna for the detection of microgreen algae at the gene level (white et al., 1990). polymerase chain reaction the pcr mixture was set up in a total volume of 25 μl and included 5μl of taq pcr premix (intron, korea), 1 μm of each primer and 2ng/µl of template dna with purity 1.7, and then the remaining volume was completed with nuclease free water. pcr protocol involved an initial denaturation for 3 min at 95ºc; 35 cycles of denaturation for 45 sec at 95ºc, annealing for 1min at 52ºc, extension for 1min at 72ºc then final extension for 7 min at 72ºc. after pcr amplification, agarose gel electrophoresis was adopted to confirm the presence of amplification. 5μl of pcr product was separate in 1% agarose gel electrophoresis stained with ethidum bromide and visualized on a uv transilluminator; the sizes of amplified 104 genotype versus phenotype to determine the definitive identification products were compared with the 100 pb dna ladder to determine the exact size of these products. sequencing pcr products were sent for sanger sequencing of 18s rrna which was performed by the national instrumentation center for environmental management (nicem), biotechnology lab, using dna sequencer 3730xl (applied biosystem). homology search was conducted using basic local alignment search tool (blast) program which is available at the national center biotechnology information (ncbi) online at (http:// www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov). mega7 sequence analyzing software with 1000 bootstrap value was used for constructing the phylogenetic tree. results and discussion at the present time, classical morphology based on light microscope and molecular based phylogenetic analysis are used for the identification of three coccoid green algae, which are widely distributed in fresh water in iraq. all the studied coccoidal green algae, which microscopically examined are thought to be chlorella that appeared under compound microscope as unicellular, solitary or aggregated in irregular clumps; round or ellipsoid; variable in size in the same habitat. chloroplast parietal cup or merely plate, with or without a pyrenoid; this small alga may be confused with species of chlorococcum, a soil or subaerial genus and it is very simalr also to many other unicellular coccoid green algae and may be confused with motionless zoospores of some genera. the cells of c. vulgaris under microscopic seem as spherical cells (pl. 1) with parietal chloroplasts, cells 5 to 8.5 µmin diameter or sometimes reach to 10µm (prescott, 1982). morphological characteristics varied noticeably depending on many parameters such as environmental and nutritional represent by cultured media; azaman et al. (2017) proved that mixotrophic cultured medium and light intensity trigger morphological variations among both c.sorokiniana and c. zofingiensis; normal size of c. sorokiniana under standard growth conditions was 2 to 4 mm, and this size doubled when this alga grew under mixotrophic medium and under the higher light intensity with a result of increasing the size to approach even 9 mm due to an increase of cell contents. in another study, george et al. (2014) demonstrated several changes in shape and size of cells growing in culture medium under 150 mmol photons; chokshi et al.(2015) have recorded that cells morphology varied due to the introduction of glucose to algae culture medium and the size of these cells increased 1-2 folds regardless of microalgae species. the classification of algae depending on biochemical and physiological characteristics is difficult due to certain characteristics that are not specific to species. additionally, the shape and cell size of chlorella spp. are changeable and largely depended on nutrition, age of cell and environmental factors (wu et al., 2001). coelastrella members do not always show morphological traits identical with coelastrella descriptions because of the high plasticity of phenotype, which interferes with taxonomic assignments based only in morphology (anconacanche et al., 2017). 105 ibrahim j. abed et al. izumo et al. (2007) have found that pyrenoid and stroma starch changed according to the co2 concentration during growth of chlorella spp. chlorella sorokiniana coelastrella sp.1 coelastrella sp.2 plate (1): photomicrographs of the three coccoid green algae isolates under study. its region of the nuclear rrna is one of the most extremely utilized regions for phylogenetic analysis at the species and generic levels (coleman, 2003); primers specific for its1 and its4 within18s rrna gene were amplified from three coccoid green algae and resulted in 650 bp fragments visualized in electrophoretic gel (pl.2). 10 µm 10 µm 10 µm 106 genotype versus phenotype to determine the definitive identification plate (2): pcr product of the 18s rrna gene (650 bp) of three coccoid green algae isolated from freshwater samples. the product was electrophoresis on 2% agarose at 5 volt/cm2. 1x tbe buffer for 90 min. lanes 1-3: freshwater samples. m:100 bp dna ladder. phylogenetic studies were conducted using 18s rrna which explained a significant diversity in the green algae genes chlamydomonas (buchhein et al., 1997). the sender nucleic acid sequences of the 18s rrna gene were compared withgenbank database using blast in ncbi website to search for the related sequences. the determined sequences showed high similarity to the strains registered in genbank (tab. 1).c1-its-iraq (1) and c2-its-iraq (2) observed 97% and 99% homology respectively to coelastrella sp. whereas c3-its-iraq observed 97% homology to c. sorokiniana. table (1): coccoid green algae isolates identified according to the results of a blast on the genbank database in ncbi. isolates accession number in genbank closest species in genbank database similarity index score(bit) e-value identity gap c1-its-iraq (1) km061471.1 coelastrella sp. 800 0.0 97% 0% c2-its-iraq (2) kx940913.1 coelastrella sp. 1153 0.0 99% 0% c3-its-iraq km514851.1 c. sorokiniana 937 0.0 97% 0% 650bp 500bp 107 ibrahim j. abed et al. phylogenetic tree of its within 18s rrna were analyzed. the phylogram was separated into two clusters (diag. 1). the first cluster included c1-its-iraq and c2-its-iraq and was put with coelastrella species which was well supported in bootstrap tests (86-100%) while the second cluster included c3-its-iraq and was put with c. sorokiniana which have bootstrap value 100% with the mentioned species. the employ of molecular techniques to estimate the species diversity of environmental samples has been used in many fields such as taxonomy, ecology, and oceanography; many of 18s rdna sequences are available in the genbank and provide a major source for the selection of a target dna region; indeed, 18s rdna was used to classify algae such as those belonging to trebouxiophyceae and chlorophyceae that are allowed to locate the phylogenetic positions of closely related taxa (haddad et al., 2014). according to the molecular classification, the genus coelastrella is not recorded in iraqi freshwater in the checklist of algae of maulood et al.(2013); however, this coccoid green alga was identified as new record genus in iraqi freshwater belonged to the order sphaeropleales. diagram (1): neighbor-joining phylogenetic analysis 18s rrna for three coccoid green algae; the analysis performed using mega7. 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(2018) 15 (1): 101-111 النمط الوراثي مقابل النمط المظهري لتحديد التشخيص النهائي للجنسين chlorella beijerinck, 1890 (chlorellaceae) coelastrella chodat, 1922(scendesmaceae) و غصون علي عبد الحسن و علي مؤيد نجم, إبراهيم جابر عبد .بغداد , العراق ,جامعة بغداد ,كلية العلوم ,قسم علوم الحياة 00/46/74402: تأريخ القبول 72/40/7402: تاريخ االستالم الخالصة التقليدي لثالث عزالت من الطحالب الخضراء الكروية شخيصتلل همحاول اجريت المركب الضوئي الدقيقة والتي شملت وصف الطحالب المدروسة شكليا تحت المجهر جميعها على أساس انها الطحلب وقد ُشخصت فيما بينها, والذي أظهر التقارب الهائل beijerinck, 1890 vulgaris .chlorellaاألخضر أجريت دراسات للتطور الوراثي لتفسير الحجة حول النمط المظهري من خالل دراسة النمط ومقارنتها مع قاعدة بيانات 18s rrna الوراثي والذي يمثل الحقل الواعد في التصنيف باستخدام رت التسلسالت المحددة تشابهاً عالياً أظه , اذباستخدام البحث في التسلسالت ذات الصلةبنك الجينات . الجينات مع السالالت المسجلة في بنك ؛ وقسم المخطط التطوري إلى 18s rrnaضمن its تحليل الشجرة التطورية لمنطقة جرى مع وتم تشخيصها c2-its-iraq و c1-its-iraq األولى العيناتضّمت المجموعة , مجموعتين bootstrapو التي تم دعمها بشكل جيد في اختبارات chodat, 1922 coelastrella جنس مع النوعوضعت c3-its-iraq في حين ضمت المجموعة الثانية عينة( 68-011٪) shihira and krauss, 1965 chlorella sorokiniana وبقيمة bootstrap 011 % مع قد ُسّجل في هذه الدراسة كجنس جديد في المياه coelastrella, علما ان الطحلب النوع المذكور sphaeropleales.العذبة العراقية والعائد الى رتبة bull 31 aqeel abbas al-zubaidi bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. july, (2018) 15 (1): 31-40 facies analysis and new discovery of a mastodont from injana formation (late miocene) near tharthar lakemiddle of iraq aqeel abbas al-zubaidi iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq corresponding author: aazubaidi@yahoo.com received date: 09 january 2018 accepted date:04 february 2018 abstract the study area comprises injana formation (late miocene), exposed on the hills nearby of tharthar lake and about 120 km north of baghdad city. this study depends on sedimentologic and facies analysis to recognize paleoenvironment and recognize the kinds of vertebrate bone fossils during late miocene. sedimentologic and facies analysis showed many sedimentary facies: facies (se) of scoured erosional surface, facies of (sp) cross bedded sandstones, facies (fs) of fine sandstone facies, facies of (fc) claystone, and facies of (c) calcareous clay. facies analysis referred to the sub environments which are: point bar, over bank and floodplain in addition to fining upward cycles of deposition, which refers to meandering fluvial depositional environment. large vertebrate bone fossils were collected from the study area; the studied bone fossils probably are related to proboscidea, mastodont of hemrin, which is named (hemrin mastodont). the current study considered the studied bone fossil as a new discovery of proboscidea, mastodont, which can be named (tharthar mastodont) after the name of the collection site of tharthar lake, from injana formation (late miocene), middle of iraq. it was living near meandering fluvial environment which provided also plant diversity for herbivores. key words: bone fossils, facies analysis, injana formation, iraq, proboscidea, mastodont. introduction injana formation (late miocene) comprises claystone, siltstone, mudstone and sandstone rock units (bellen et al., 1959). many authors studied its paleocurrent (kukal and saadallah, 1970), stratigraphy and sedimentology (al-naqib, 1959; basi, 1973; al-mubarak and youkhana, 1976; al-sammarai, 1978; jassim et al., 1984; al-rawi et al., 1993; al-zubaidi, 2004). facies analysis of its exposures, north baghdad between baiji and sammarraa, showed many fining upward cycles of meandering fluvial system (basi, 2007). many sites were studied in countries of the region, such as: two species of proboscidean fossils of late miocene in the axion valley, macedonia-greece (konidaris and koufus, 2013); mammalian site in akkasdagi in turkey, l. miocene (valli, 2005.); proboscidea in addition to many vertebrate fossils in maragheh formation, northwest iran (berner et al., 1996, 2001). some vertebrate fossil sites were discovered in iraq (piveteau, 1935; al-naqib, 1959; bellen, et al., 1959; al-zubaidi and jan, 2015). some mastodont species, of order proboscidea were doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2018.15.1.0031 32 facies analysis and new discovery of a mastodont recognized beside 20 types of vertebrate bone fossils within sandstone beds of injana formation (thomas et al., 1981). occurrence and history of proboscidea: the earliest genera of the order proboscidea appeared at north africa during early miocene, about 50 million years ago. mastodonts were expanded, about 20 mya, from africa into asia, europe, then after to north america (haynes, 1991). nowadays there are two living genera, locally restricted, of the order proboscidea: the african elephant loxodonta africana (blumenbach, 1797) and the asian elephant elephaus maximus (linnaeus, 1758), (gohlich, 1999). two genera of mammuths (brookes, 1828) and mammut (blumenbach, 1799), synonyms of mastodonts or gomphotheres that disappeared from europe, north asia and north america. three genera of mastodonts (gomphotheres) were also extinct from the world (haynes, 1991). this study aims to determine the paleoenvironment, according to sedimentological facies model, and to recognize vertebrate bone fossils in l. miocene site on the hills nearby tharthar lake, west sammarraa city. materials and methods location: the study area is located in the hills nearby the tharthar lake beach, about 120 km north of the baghdad city (map 1). field surveys and lithofacies descriptions included sedimentary structures and grain size were done on the rock bed units within injana formation (late miocene) exposed on the hills nearby tharthar lake beach. lab and office works implicated facies analysis of lithofacies and prediction of facies model. some large and small vertebrate bone fossils presences within cross-bedded sandstone were collected by fishermen from tharthar lake and were presented to the iraq natural history research center and museum. photos of bone fossils were taken and sent to three world authorities in vertebrate bone fossils taxonomy to confirm identification: dr. william j. sanders, paleontology museum, university of michigan, usa. dr. andrea m. valli, vector higo research centre, france and afifi h. abdul gafar, geological museum, egypt. results and discussion sedimentology: best exposed sections, on hills, more than 15 meters in high, nearby tharthar lake beach, about 50 kilometers west sammarraa city, of injana formation were described; facies is a term used previously to describe grain size and sedimentary structures for rocks and sediments (moore, 1949; teichert, 1958). in the present study, five facies were recognized, following miall (1977, 1978, 1988) from injana formation (tab. 1, diag. 1) as follow: 1facies (se), scoured erosional surface: this surface resulted from erosion on old sediments occurred on channel floor and coincided with high flow regime and discharge during flood and rainy season. on this surface there were coarse and very coarse sandstone, mud balls, claystone fragments in addition to large and small pieces of vertebrate bones were deposited. involved surface formed by erosion on old bed, during fluvial flood and rainy seasons which caused high flow regime of fluvial system (stream current), (maill, 1978; oplustil et al., 2005; basi, 2007). 2facies (sp), crossbedded sandstone facies: this facies often overlain facies (se) and composed of cross-bedded sandstone up to 1.2 meters in thickness, grain size range from medium to coarse grains and contains mud ball and small fragments of claystone and bone (diag. 1). it is resulted from sand dune migration as a bedload on channel floor or 33 aqeel abbas al-zubaidi as a channel lag deposits. this facies is similar to that described by allen (1964) and selley (1977) and it represents the lower part of river point bar sub environment. 3facies (fs), fine sandstone: it comprises of fine sandstone with silty and clayey materials, and reaches 2.6 meters in thickness, very fine sandstone alternated with mudstone and claystone. the main sedimentary structures, in this facies, are the parallel and cross laminations; this facies is underlain by facies (sp) and overlain by (fc) mudstone or claystone. facies (fs) are deposited from suspension materials due to presence of mudstone and claystone in addition to cross and parallel laminations (diag. 1). it represents either upper part of point bar or overbank sub environment (maill, 1978; oplustil et al., 2005). 4facies (fc), claystone facies: it is composed of a massive or a parallel lamination of claystone and mudstone and ranges from 1.9 – 4 meters in thickness (diag. 1). the abundance of massive claystone and mudstone and the presence of parallel laminations refer to quite water environment of deposition (miall, 1978). involved facies refer to vertical accression of suspended clay materials on floodplain basin. 5facies (c), limy mud: it is composed of very fine layers of limy mud sediments, up to 0.3 meters in thickness and has gray to light gray color (diag. 1). it reflects lakstrineriver sediments under arid climate conditions of backswamp and/or oxbow lake, located on floodplain sub environment (basi, 2007). table (1): lithofacies and interpretation of injana formation (late miocene). facies code lithofacies sedimentary structures interpretation se erosional scours with mud balls and large bone fragments crude cross beddings scoured fill (high flow regime and discharge) resulted from river flood and rainy seasons sp mediumv. coarse sand with small mud ball and small bone fragments planar cross bedded sand dune, (low flow regime), lower part of point bar fm fine sandstone with silty and clayey materials parallel and cross laminations upper part of point bar or overbank sub environment fc claystone and mudstone massive or parallel lamination of claystone and mudstone vertical accression of suspended clay materials on floodplain basin c limy mudstone massive to laminated backswamp and/or oxbow lake on flood plain rock bed succession of injana formation (late miocene) at studied area composed of: facies (se) scoured erosional surface resulting during fluvial flood and rainy season to increase discharge and flow energy and transported bone of died animals and deposited on the scoured surfaces. facies (se) are overlain by facies (sp) crossbedded sand stone; the later facies are deposited on scoured surface to form lower part of point bar, followed by facies (fs) fine sandstone of upper part of point bar and / or overbank sub environment, then facies (fc) 34 facies analysis and new discovery of a mastodont are claystone deposited on floodplain basin, and facies (c) limy mud are deposited from shallow lakstrineriver of backswamps and/ or oxbow lakes during arid climatic conditions. facies analysis of injana formation near tharthar lake shows three subenvironments: river channel, over bank and flood plain, that all refer to the meandering river environment (diag. 2), resemble to the facies of the model by allen (1964) and miall (1977, 1978, 1988); it agrees also with basi (2007) work on the subsurface section on injana formation near sammarraa, and with al-banna (1982) work on the same formation in the north of iraq, who concluded meandering or braided environment of deposition of upper part. the main direction of involved paleocurrents of fluvial system were from north east to south east (kukal and saadallah, 1970) which resulted from zagros belt uplift, and was caused by plate tectonic convergence of arabian and iranian plates. vertebrate bone fossils: small and large fragments of vertebrate bone fossils were collected from facies (sp) exposed on the hills nearby tharthar lake. large bone fossil was more than 40 cm in length and 22 cm in thickness (pl. 1), and was presented by fishermen, near tharthar lake, about 50 km west sammarraa city. it is well known that the wooly mammuths lived in the cool and dry environments of northern hemisphere (lister and sher, 2001; bravo et al., 2008), while the studied bone fossil was deposited from meandering fluvial system at semi dry and warm climate during late miocene. bone fossils included small and large pieces which refer to medium distance of transportation during multicycle of deposition. photos of bone were taken and sent to three world authorities of vertebrate bone fossils. w. j. sanders and a. h. abdul gafar who mentioned that the large bone (pl. 1) represented femur of order proboscidea. andrea m. f. valli, who referred to some important notes on the photo of studied large fossil, “it must be the distal part of a femur of large mammal; i think it belong to a proboscidian, but i can not specify the species; may be a mastodont; do you know kind of species you have in your country at this period”. litreture surveys on mastodont occurrence in iraq showed complete skulls, some isolated molars and post cranial elements of choerolophodont mastodont genus, named injana mastodont, which were discovered on the north east flanks of hemrin southern anticline within rock bed unit of mukdadiya formation (pliocene) (thomas, et al., 1981); in addition, another bone of mastodont was found, by h. al-hashimi in 1977, (buday, 1980) within mukdadiya formation (pliocene), but he did not mention the collection site. the studied femur bone fossils found within facies (sp) crossbedded sandstone of injana formation (late miocene) near tharthar lake may be related temporally and spatially to the hemrin mastodont, which is not far away from the studied site. according to sedimentological and facies analysis, the studied tharthar mastodont was lived near meandering fluvial system which includes river channel, overbank and floodplain sub environments (diag. 2); all provide water and suitable plants for vegetarian animals particularly for mastodont. paleocurrent of injana rivers flow from north east high-land zagros thrust belt toward south west low-land (mesopotamian basin now); since the gradient increased due to uplifting, folding and thrusting which resulted from the collision of arabian and iranian plates. conclusions facies analysis of injana formation (late miocene) exposed on the hills near tharthar lake, about 50 km west sammarraa city, middle of iraq, showed meandering fluvial environment that includes: river channel, overbank and flood plain sub environments. the mentioned river flows from zagros fold belt at the northeast, to the foreland basin at southeast (now middle of iraq); when the gradient was increased due to uplifting, folding and thrusting resulted from collision of arabian and iranian plates and closing of tethys sea. sub 35 aqeel abbas al-zubaidi environments of meandering river systems contributed to enhance wide plant diversity and provide water, food and place for living and reproduction of mastodont. during high rate rainy seasons, the above mentioned rivers flooded and increased discharge and flow energy to produce facies (se), and the transporting bone of died mastodont was deposited within facies (sp) cross-bedded sandstone as a bed load on the facies (se) to form lower part of point bar. map (1): location map of study area. 36 facies analysis and new discovery of a mastodont diagram (1): vertical facies succession of injana formation at study area, near tharthar lake, middle iraq. 37 aqeel abbas al-zubaidi diagram (2): block diagram shows the paleoenvironment of injana formation at study area, near tharthar lake, middle iraq. plate (1): bone fossil, femure of proboscidea, mastodonts (in two views) was collected from injana formation near tharthar lake middle of iraq (scale: 15 cm). acknowledgement the author wish to acknowledge prof. dr. mohammad k. mohammad for his review of the manuscript and comments. literature cited al-banna, n. y. m. 1982. sedimentological study of the upper. fars formation in selected areasnorthern iraq. m. sc. thesis. mosul university, 177 pp. al-mubark, m. and youkhana, r. 1976. report on the regional geological mapping of alfathamosul area. geosurv, internal report no. 753. 38 facies analysis and new discovery of a mastodont al-naqib, k. m. 1959. geology of southern area of kirkuk liwa. technical publication, international petroleum company, 50 pp. al-rawi, y. t., al-sayyab, a. s., jassim, j. m., tamaragha, m. y., alsammarai, a. l., karim, s. a., basi, m. a., dhiab, s. h., faris, f. m. and anwar, j. f. 1993. new names for some of the middile miocenepliocene formations of iraq (fatha, injana, mukdadiya and bai hassan formations), iraqi geological journal, 25(1): 1-17. al-sammarai, k. i. 1978. petrology of the upper fars sandstones and the origin of their cement. m. sc. thesis, university of baghdad, 141 pp. al-zubaidi, a. a. 2004. mineralogical and geochemical study of rocks of injana formation from selected area, central iraq, and assessment of utilization for ceramic industries. ph. d. thesis. department of geology, university of baghdad, 140 pp. (in arabic). al-zubaidi, a. a. and jan, s. k. 2015. vertebrate fossils in fatha, injana and mukdadiya formations in iraq. iraqi journal of science, 56(3a): 1983-1988. allen, j. r. l. 1964. studies in fluviatile sedimentation of six cyclothems from the lower old red sandstone, anglowelsh basin. sedimentology, 3:163138. basi, m. a. 1973. geology of injana area, hemrin south. unpub. m. sc. thesis, university of baghdad, 141 pp. basi, m. a. 2007. subsurface sedimentological study of injana formation (late miocene) in the area extended from baiji to sammarra cities. central iraq. iraqi bulletin of geology and mining, 3 (2) :4351. bellen, r. c. v., dunnington, h. v., wetzel, r. and morton, d. m. i. 1959. lexique stratigraphique international. 03 10asie, iraq, 333pp. bernor, r. l., solounias, n., swisher iii, c. c. and van couvering, j. a. 1996. the correlation of three classical “pikermian” mammal faunasmaragheh, samos and pikermi-with the european mn unit system. in: the evolution of western eurasian neogene mammal faunas, bernor, r. l., fahlbusch, v. and mittmann, h. w.(eds.). columbia university press, new york, pp137-156. bernor, r. l., fortelius, m. and rook, l. 2001. evolutionary biogeography and paleoecology of the oreopithecus bambolii faunal zone (late miocene,tusco-sardinian province). bolletino della società paleontologica italiana, 40(2): 139-148. buday, t. 1980. the regional geology of iraq: stratigraphy and paleogeography. in: geosurvey of iraq, kassab, i. i. m. and jassim , s. z. 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(eds.), sedimentary facies in geological history. geol. soc. amer. memior 39: 134. in: a. d. miall, 2016. stratigraphy: a modern synthesis, a comprehensive review of modern stratigraphic methods. springer, 454 pp. nogúesbravo, d., rodriguez, j., hortal, j., batra, p. and araujo, m. b. 2008. climate change, humans, and the extinction of woolly mammoth. plos biology, 6 (4): e 79. opluštil, s., martínek, k. and tasáryová, z., 2005. facies and architectural analysis of fluvial deposits of the nýřany member and the týne formation (westphalian d– barruelian) in the kladnorakovník and pilsen basins. bulletin of geosciences, 80(1): 45–66. piveteau, j. 1935. mammiferes du pontien de iraq. bulletin of geological society of france, 5(5): 468470. selley, r. c. 1977. an introduction to sedimentology. academic press london, new york, 408 pp. teichert, c. 1958. concept of facies. american association of petroleum geologist bulletin, 42: 27182744. thomas, h., behnam, h. a. m. and ligabue, g. 1981. new discoveries of vertebrate fossils in the "bakhtiari formation", injana area, hemrin south, iraq. journal of geological society of iraq, 14 (1): 43-53. valli, a. m. f.2005. taphonomy of the late miocene mammals locality of akkasdagi, turkey. geodiversitas, 27 (4):793-80. 40 facies analysis and new discovery of a mastodont bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2018) 15 (1): 31-40 التحليل السحني واكتشاف جديد للماستودونت من تكوين انجانة وسط العراق -قرب بحيرة الثرثار (مايوسين متأخر) عقيل عباس الزبيدي جامعة بغداد ،ومتحف التاريخ الطبيعي العراقيمركز بحوث aazubaidi@yahoo.com 90/98/8902 :تاريخ القبول 90/90/8902 :تاريخ االستالم الخالصة الذي ينكشف على التالل القريبة من ( مايوسين متأخر)تهتم هذه الدراسة بتكوين انجانة وتعتمد على تطبيق علم . كم الى الشمال من مدينة بغداد 021بحيرة الثرثار التي تبعد بحوالي الرسوبيات سيما التحليل السحني لتحديد البيئة الترسيبة القديمة، وتشخيص نوع الفقريات . ايوسين المتأخرخالل الم سحنة : اشار علم الرسوبيات والتحليل السحني الى وجود عدة سحنات رسوبية، مثل (se ) سطح التعرية المتعرج، وسحنة(sp ) الصخور الرملية ذات التطبق المتقاطع، وسحنة (fs ) الصخور الرملية الناعمة، وسحنة(fc ) الصخور الطينية، وسحنة(c) الصخور الحواجز : وقد اشار التحليل السحني الى وجود البيئات الثانوية االتية. لجيريةالطينية ا اللسانية، وفوق الضفة، والسهل الفيضي؛ الى جانب وجود دورات التناعم الى االعلى، التي وتم جمع عظام متحجرات كبيرة من منطقة . تشير الى البيئة الترسيبية لالنهار االلتوائية . تصويرها وارسالها الى عدد من المتخصصين في علم المتحجراتالدراسة، والتي تم ولوحظ بان العظام المتحجرة قيد الدراسة ذات عالقة بالماستودونت من الخرطوميات في اسة الحالية تشير الى ان روبذلك فان الد ؛(ماستودونت حمرين)حمرين والذي يطلق عليه ميات، الماستودونت، والذي يمكن ان العظم المتحجر المدروس هو اكتشاف جديد للخرطو في وسط العراق، قرب ( المايوسين المتأخر)من تكوين انجانة ( ماستودونت الثرثار)تسميته . توائية التي توفر التنوع النباتي الى الحيوانات عشبية التغذيةلبيئة االنهار اال 2 7 lahony, et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2013)12 (4): 7-34 fauna and flora of hawraman mountain (part one) hawraman lowest zone, kurdistan province north east of iraq saman r. afrasiab lahony, mohammad k. mohammad, hasan h. ali, azhar a. almoussawi and mohammad s. abd al-rasul natural history museum and research center, baghdad university baghdad iraq abstract in this study we try to make a first step for making a new list for fauna and flora of kurdistan in particular and iraq in general. this is very important study of biodiversity of iraq. we recognize 52 migratory and resident birds including alectoris chukar asoica which is recently described. also, 20 amphibians and reptiles including two snakes recently recorded zamenis hohenackeri and platyceps ladacesis, a new form of asaccus sp. and subspecies of varanuns griseus caspeius for the first time in iraq, with many rare specimens. thirteen different species of mammals were recognized, with comments on 5 species of freshwater fishes, 12 species of ticks and 7 species of butterflies. for the flora, 8 wild large trees and 70 flowering plants identified including some rare and important species for the first time in this area. figures are also given for the rare species. introduction kurdistan of iraq is a mountainous area situated at the northern and north eastern parts of iraq, varying from some 500-800 m in altitude in the lowest valleys to from 2000-3600 m at the summits of the highest ranges, and it is with a cold winter and relatively high rainfall upwards to 800 mm and the mountains above approximately the 1800 m level are snowbound for several months and snow often falls in the valleys, while the summer though hot and dry, is comparatively of shorter duration than on the other parts of iraq (guest and alrawi, 1966). these factors contribute to richer biodiversity situation especially the floral components. this area seems unique since it represents the irano-tranian and alpine ecozone extension reaching the iraqi territories with rather rich fauna and flora. bisan valley and daray mar, halabja, sulaimaniya province, as a part of mountainous region is of special interest. it rests just beyond high mountains of hawraman which provide a plenty of water, both from rains and ice and springs. the wild forests of quercus, pistacia, crataegus, prannus and amygadalus sp. are intersected by strips of deforested cultivated land. many important caves are found in daray mar vale in one of the caves named hamashwana we found stone age painting, fig. (1) its approximately of 30, 000 years ago. as a valley, the area is with a relatively higher temperature and more water supplies, compared with surrounding heights, the two factors that play important role in providing suitable habitats for the diversification of life forms. 8 fauna and flora of hawraman mountain (part one) on the other hand, iraq officially joined the cbd (convention on biological diversity) agreement in 2009 that ask the parties to prepare lists of their own national biodiversity. combination of these two mentioned subjects seems vital to put a step in fulfilling the requirements of that international agreement. the aim of this manuscript is to study natural heritage provide systematic lists of fauna and flora of bisan-tawera and daray mar valley as an introductory effort to prepare more comprehensive lists for kurdistan of iraq, a project that iraq natural history museum currently undertakes results and discussion why this two valley: this two valley is a sample of all irano-turanian ecozone of iraqi kurdistan mountain, also it’s one of the most beautiful natural heritage place, rich in biodiversity with a plenty of water. edmonds 1945 visit this area as the guest of afrasiab beg asenior member of the lahon family, and he said about orchard and walnet groves, he didn't seen such arrangements not in iraq and not in persia. abdulla goran famous kurdish poet was with hem and he described the nature of those valleys by his famous poetry (a trip to hawraman) edmonds (1957). ecological succession: there is two type of secondary ecological succession occurs in valley besan-tawera through past three years. 1. secondary ecological succession occurs by the effect of global warming and dryness specially in winter season even if there is aplenty of spring rainfall, many plant dose not grow at all and others week and does not give healthy fruit for example in 2007 there was many flouring plant such us , arum sp. fig. ( ), allium calocephalum, allium subhirutum, and iris. but disappear in 2008 and 2009 or very week and short. the large trees as walnut, pyrus, pomegranate and grape in the 2010 do not give strong and healthy fruit because of the same reason. 2. the most clear secondary succession occurs in besan–tawera when the valley catch fire the last summer many bushes and grasses which was good for pasture disappear or clear reduction in its population. such as frulogo, hordeum and poa bulbosa instead some other plant become dominant such as echinops, silybum, cirsium, carlina, adonis `campanula, papaver. also some arthropods as ticks was in high population density after the fire it disappear in this valley. humans population: there was 16 village distributed in this area, at the time of sadam forced the people of this village to migrate to the town and camps, and destroying all the villages even after removing of sadams pour most of the families dos not return to villages because they adapted to city's life. mr. lahony said with a deep sorrow, nothing will return back as it was, he said it was march 1973, at sun set, i was sitting on that hill, the clouded sky little cold with drizzle the ground was painted with green, yellow, purple and red wild spring flowers and grasses. the shepherd comes back from the mountain with sheep's and goats to the village. each pretty young girls of the village with beautiful kurdish dress caring cooking pot and there young limb to milking there sheep's, each one calling her sheep's by a name ( galawez, kazal …etc) the shepherd potting his tea pot on the fire for making tea later play on his clarinet with beautiful tune, from the other side of the front mountain a man was working in grape fields and singing a famous sia-chamana song, near the top of the mountain chukar partridge covey calling (kakak kowa), the limb calling for their mother, the cock of the village crowing, the mosque of the village calling allah akber. all these was mixing together 9 lahony, et al. forming a wonderful heaven symphony i was feeling at that time the sprite of god and angels was very close to me. so do you think this will return back again ?. the caves: there is many important caves in this area and they have names. 1-hama shwana cave also called sanctuary of bawanawos its very important cave because we found inside the stone age paint belonging to archic-homosapiens more than 30, 000 year b. p. 2-ashkawte gawaran, this is a mysterious cave and there is an old stairway about 50 m. high from the 1st step to the opening of the cave. its history still critic and doubtful thy said probably place of prayer and contemplate of zardashte religious. 3-ashkawte chlgaze. it is about 40 meter deep. 4ashkawte khan ahmad khan it is large and wide cave. 5-. ashkawte afrasiab bag. 5ashkawte momea each of these caves have its own history. biodiversity: below is a decline of the scientific name of some fauna and flora of this partecular zone. birds we depend mainly on allouse (1960-1962), vauri (1959) and salim, et al. (2006) for identification. resident, common. alectoris chukar asoica, lahony and rawi, 2010., asoi chukar. ammoperdix griseogularis (brandt, 1830) seesee partridge. coracias garrulus l. 1758., europpean roller. dendrocopos syriacus (emprich and ehrenberg, 1833) syrian woodpeckers pica pica (l. 1850) magpie. garrulus glandarius (l. 1758) jay. corvus corone l. 1758., hooded crow. corvus corax l. 1758., raven. galerida cristata l. 1758., cristed lark. passer domesticus (l. 1758) house sparrow. parus caeruleus l. 1758. blue tit. sitta tefronota sharpe, 1872. rock nuthatch. carduelis carduelis l. 1758, goldfinch. columba livia gmelin, 1789. rock dove. cuculus canorus l. cuckoo. two pares were seen in 25 april clamator glandarius, l. 1758, great spotted cuckoo. it is resident. otus scops, l. 1758, scops owl. athene noctua, scopoli, 1769, little owl. common migratory: autumn and winter. aquila chrysaetos, l. 1758, golden eagle. milvus migrans, boddaert, 1758, black kite. neophron percnopterus, l. 1758, egyptian vaulture. falco tinnunculus l. 1758, kesttral. falco columbarius, l. 1758. merlin. 10 fauna and flora of hawraman mountain (part one) bubo bubo. l. 1758. eagle owl. scolpax rusticola, l. 1758. woodcock. columba palumbus. l. 1789. wood pigeon. streptopelia turtur, l. 1758. turtle dove. merops apiaster, l. 1758, european bee-eater. upupa epops, l. 1758, hoopoe. troglodytes troglodytes, l. 1758, wren. lanius nubicus, lichtenstein, 1823, masked shrike. turdus viscivorus l. 1758. mistle thrush. turdus merula, l. 1758. blackbird. parus major, l. 1758. great tit. parus lugubri, temminck, 1820. sombre tit. phoenicurus phoenicurus, l. 1758. redstart. erithacus rubecula, l. 1758. robin emberiza melanocephala, scopoli, 1769. blackheaded bunting. petronia petronia, l. 1766. rock sparrow. sturnus roseus, l. 1758. rosecolourd starling. oriolus oriolus, l. 1758. golden oriol. aluda arvensis, l. 1758. skylark. muscicapa hypoleuca, pallas, 1764. pied flycatcher. motacila flava, l. 1758. yellow wagtail. silvia hortensis, gmelin, 1789. orphean warbler. silvia conspicillata, temminck, 1820. spectacled warbler silvia communis, latham, 1758. whitethrroat. phylloscopus collybita, viellot, 1817. chiffchaff. mammalia we depend on harrison (1964-1972), amr (2000), brink (1967) and hatt (1959) for identification. canis aureus linnaeus, 1758. asiatic jackel . vulpes vulpes l. 1758. common red fox. martes foina, erxleben, 1777. ston marten. vormela peregusna, guldensaedt, 1770. marbled polecat meles meles, l. 1758. badger mustela nivalis, l. 1766. weasel sus scrofa l. 1758. wild boar lepus capensis, l. 1758. brown hair. sciurus anomalus, guldenstedt, 1785. squirrel hystrix indica, ker, 1792. indian crested porcupine mus musculus, l. 1758. house mouse microtus socialis, pallas, 1773. social vole: was infected by nematodes, entrobius vermicularis. spalax leucodon, nordmann, 1840. mole rat. amphibians and reptilians we depend on leviton, et al. (1992), anderon (1999), latifi (1991) and afrasiab and mohamad (2009, 2011) in identification. bufo viridis toad rana ridibanda frog hyla savignyi audouin, 1812: it has some color variation as all the hyla of eastern iraq has a series of dark spots on dorsal side of the body. 11 lahony, et al. testudo graeca ibera land tortoise laudakia nupta de filippi, 1843 ophisaurus apodus, (pallas, 1775) fig. (1). asaccus griseonotus, dixon and s. anderson, 1973 the hawramans asaccus has some variation with griseonotus it required more study. cyrtopodion scaber (heyden, 1827) lacerta sp. single specimens collected was dead and half of the body was eaten by wasps, this specimens is differ from other iraqi lacerta, in having longer tail about three time of body length, with strongly keeled imbricate dorsal scale, and 5th chin shield large and well develop. it need more collection and more study. ophisop elegans, menetries, 1832, this lizard was seen active in a cold weather, in early march. it’s the only lizard seen at this time. eumeces schneiderii, ( eichwald, 1839) varanus griseus caspius, (eichwald) fig. no. (2). this is a new record for this sub-species of varanus in iraq posterior tail compressed and narrow in cross section, keeled above, back with 6 sepia bars. tail with 27 bars. large, total length 156 cm. it's very close to description giving by anderson (1974). coluber jugularis, linnaeus, 1758. when we catch this snake, it was swallowing two juvenile snake one of vipera lebetina and other was rhynchocalamus sp. coluber rodorachis ladacensis, (anderson, 1871). fig: (5) we believed c. ladacensis is a separate species as it described in (afrasiab and mohamad 2011 ). we found it inside the daray mar cave searching for geckos from the roof of the cave its good climber. zamenis hohenackeri (strauch, 1873) this snake recently recorded by afrasiab and mohamad 2011. malpolon sp. fig no. (3). there is a color variation between our specimen and m. insignita (geoffroy, 1827) afrasiab and mohamad 2011. it has yellow green dorsal, and ventral entirely white. habitat in cultivated forest (orchards) and in between vegetation near streams. natrix tessellate, ( laurenti, 1765) eryx jaculus, (linnaeus, 1758) vipera lebetina obtusa, dwinubsky, 1832. fig. no. (4) is a most common poisonous snake of this vale. pisces the common fishes recognized from the streams and fountain of this zone are: 1barbatula panthera (heckel, 1843). 2chondrostoma regium (heckel1843). 3varicorhinus ( capoeta) barroisi barrois 1804. 4barbus luteus (heckel 1843). 5acanthobrama marmid heckel 1843. some insects of this region: -vanesa cardui. -euplagia quadriputaria . -brintesia circe. -gonepteryx farinose . -chazara prieuri . -cicada, pltypleura sp. moths and wasps. -ticks: hyalomma aegyptium, h. anatolicum, h. excavatum, h. detritum, haemaphysalis parva, ixodes tatei, rhipicephalus leporis, r. sanguineus, r. turanicus, r. (boophilus) annulatus, r. (boophilus)microplus, and r. (boophilus) kohlsi. 12 fauna and flora of hawraman mountain (part one) flora for identification we depend on flora of iraq guest et al. (1966-1968). all volumes, flora iranica, rechinger all the volumes, 1963-1982. flora of saudi arabia by migahid, 1978. flora of turkey, by davis 1972., for mediterranean, by pollunin and huxley, 1965. of the british isles by roles, 1957 and for kurdistan by shahbaz, 2010. for some species we gave only genus because we were not sure of the species and variety. trees and bushes also there is some change in plant genus which is varied from auther to others, for example in flora iranica giving the name of the genus amygadalus but shahbaz place it in the same genus of prunus : quercus aegilops, l. this large quercus is mostly found near graves. quercus infectoriae oliv, pistacia atlantica kurdica pistacia khinjuk stock crataegus azarolus l. prunnus microcarpas, c. a. meyer (1833) this prunnus fig. (1). more than three meter high. have some variation especially in its fruit it has elongated fruit instead of round. prunus oriantalis ( mill) amygadalus brachuica prunus webbi= amygadalus webbi (spach) vierh. flowers araceae arum elongatum (steve., 1857). fig. (5). one meter and 90cm. high, we found it in early april, that year was cold and rainy at spring time. but unfortunately next year was dry and hot with very poor rain, it was not growing in such climate. it seem to be its growing connect with amount of rainfall. rechinger, 1963 reported it in iran and kurdistan with ought giving exact location in kurdistan. ranunculaceae: anemone coronaria ranunculus neocuneatus c. c. townsend 25 april. ranuncula sericeus, banks. ranunculus cornutus, dc. papaveraceae: papaver rhoeas, l. papaver fugax, poir. papaver glaucum, boiss. petals dark red, blotched at the base. adonis aestivalis parviflora (fisch. exdc) adonis aestivalis, l. scrophylariacea: digitalia nervosa delphinium micranthum, in july iridacea : iris sp. locally thy term it mountain star, its star shaped it comes out in february. fig.(2), its close related to iris cabulica, in general shape it has short stem, storage root much swollen, the distribution of i. cabulica is in afgaghanistan very far from our collection rechinger, 1975. also it has some relation with i. pseudocaucasica. but it differ in coloration and in having two types of flowers, one large three to four lobes, and three to four small flower, with flap-like lip in between the lobs of the large lobs. gladiolus atroviolaceus boiss. gladiolus segetum ker-gawl, 1804 13 lahony, et al. fritillaria sp. ixiolirion tataricum. gagea arvensis. campanulaceae: campanula reuterana, boiss and bal. campanula trachellium, l., the plant is stiff-haired with toothed leaves are heart –shaped. it found in woods near streams banks on clay soil, in shade places. the flower dark purplish blue in july-august. campanula acutiloba vatke, linnaea. (1875) in between the rocks of mountain slops of daray mar valli alt. 700m. august and september. campanula luristanica freyn – morgan campanula strigosa bank, found end of april gentiniacea gentiana sp. probably (olivier) anthemis tinctoria yellow and white. anthemis chia anthemis cotula leguminosae: vicieae villosa, roth. viceae variabillis, fregn and sint. trifoliium purpurcum, lois. . trifolium fragiferum hymenocrater sp. it’s a small plant with good odder compositae: scorzonera sp. yellow and violet fig( ) scorzonera pseudolanata grossh. tragopogon longirostris bisch dipsacaceae: ⚝achillea eriophora. liliaceae : ornithogalum monttanum, cyr. ornethogalum nutans, l. rosaceae: umbilicus sp. cruciferae : savignya parviflora, additional records of this plant from karbala desert, near razaza lake, and also it found in arabian peninsula. labiata salvia indica, l. salvia brachyantha (bordz) pobed. -siami ziziphora clinopodiodes kurdica. phlomis olivieri, benth. eremostachy macrophylla, moutbr and aucher. hymenocrater sessilifolius benth. gramineae: caryophyllaceae : vaccaria pyramidata, med. kohlrauschia sp. geraniaceae: geranum tuberosum, l. geranum sp. 14 fauna and flora of hawraman mountain (part one) dipsacaceae scabious family scabiosa sp. umbelliferaceae : ferulago stllata boiss. ferulago sp. . (?) this collection is very important, its regard a new record for this plant in iraq. previously its recorded from western turkey but no one announced to be present in iraq or kurdistan. it has hairy stem and flower with glandular hair. we send samples two british museum for conferm. ferula orientalis, l. 1753. smyrnium cordifolium boiss., diagn. alliaceae : allium subhirsutum alum calocephalumv, windelbo malvaceae: alcea kurdica (schlecht) and grasses, hordeum sp., vulpia sp., bromus sp. economical trees : juglans regia l. walnut. pyrus malus l. apple. morus alba l. white mulberry تو morus nigra blak mulberry rubus caesius l. تو تركdewberry punica granatum l. ھھ نارpomegranate. acknowledgment we want to thank particularly prof. dr. ali mosawe from baghdad university for his helping in some plant identification and mr. saman a. ahmad from herbarium of agriculture college of sulaymanyah university for identification of plants with (⚝) marks and to sabah haj rafat and serwan lahony from anab village for helping in filed collection. literature cited afrasiab s. r. and s. i. mohamad, 2009 a study on cavedwelling geckos in iraq. with the description of a new species from saffine mountain. zoology in the middle east 47, 2009: 49-56. heidelberg, germany. afrasiab s. r. and s. i. mohamad, 2011 first record of the rat snake, zamenis hohenackeri (struch, 1873), from north-eastern iraq with notes on other colubrid snakes. zoology in the middle east v. 54 p. 19-22 kasparek verlag, heidelberg, germany. afrasiab lahony s. r. and m. a. al-rawi 2010, new sub-species of chuker partridge alectoris chuker(gray, 1830)(phasianidae, galliformes). from north east of iraq. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. vol. 10. iraq. baghdad. anderson, s. c. 1999 the lizards of iran. contribution to herpetology 15: 1-441. allouse, b. e. 1962, birds of iraq. arrabita press. baghdad iraq, 3 vol. amr z. s. 2000 mammals of jordan. united nation environment program, prepared by the national library. jordan. 15 lahony, et al. brink v. d. 1972., a field guide to the mammals of britain and urope. houghton mifflin company boston, the riverside press cambridge. britain. davis p. h., 1972. flora of turkey. edinburgh, university press, vol. 4. edenburgh. north america. guest e. and a. al-rawi, 1966., flora of iraq. pob. by ministry of agriculture of republic of iraq. iraq. baghdad. vol. 1. harrison d. l. 1964, 1968, 1970. the mammals of arabia, 3 vol. e. benn. london. hatt, r. t. 1950. the mammals of iraq. miscellaneous publicaton of museum of zoology. michigan university, no. 106: 1-113. latifi m. 1991. the snake of iran. pub. smithonian instituation. tehran, iran. leviton, a. e., s. c. anderson, k. adler & s. a. minton (1992). handbook to the middle east amphibians and reptiles. ithaca, new york 252pp. migahid, a. m. 1978. flora of saudi arabia vol. 1 riyadh university publication. saudi arabia. polunin, o. and a. huxly., 1965., flowers of the mediterranean. chatto and windus. london. rechinger, k. h. 1963-1982., flora iranica. akademische druck-u. verlagsanstalt, grazaustria. salim, m. a., r. porter and c. christensen, 2006. field guide to the birds of iraq, . institution of nature of iraq. united nation programme for wild birds protection. shahbaz s. e. 2010. trees and shrubs ( a field guide to the trees and shrubs of kurdistan region of iraq. poblication of universitty of duhok. townsend c. c. and guest e. 1980. flora of iraq. vol. 4. ministry of agriculture & agrarian reform. republic of iraq. vaurie c. 1965., bird of palearctic fauna h. f. and g. witherby ltd, 61-62. watling street, london. england. 16 fauna and flora of hawraman mountain (part one) 17 lahony, et al. 18 fauna and flora of hawraman mountain (part one) 19 lahony, et al. 20 fauna and flora of hawraman mountain (part one) 21 lahony, et al. 22 fauna and flora of hawraman mountain (part one) 23 lahony, et al. 24 fauna and flora of hawraman mountain (part one) 25 lahony, et al. 26 fauna and flora of hawraman mountain (part one) 27 lahony, et al. 28 fauna and flora of hawraman mountain (part one) 29 lahony, et al. 30 fauna and flora of hawraman mountain (part one) 31 lahony, et al. 32 fauna and flora of hawraman mountain (part one) 33 lahony, et al. 34 fauna and flora of hawraman mountain (part one) bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2013)12 (4): 7-34 الحیاة الحیوانیة والنباتیة في جبل ھورامان )الجزء االول( العراق –ھورامان، شمال شرق اقلیم كردستان منطقة المنخفضة في جبل ال سامان رستم افراسیاب لھوني و محمد كاظم محمد و حسن حسین علي حمد الموسوي و محمد صالح عبد الرسولاو ازھار العراق -بغداد –جامعة بغداد –متحف التاریخ الطبیعي الخالصة قائمة جدیدة للنباتات و الحیوانات في حاولنا في ھذا الدراسة كخطوه األولى لعمل ي في حیائتنوع االالمھمة جدا في دراسة الدراسة ھذه . عامة والعراقخاصة ستاندكر الطیور المھاجرة والمستوطنة نوع من ٥٢ تشخیصھذه الدراسة على تمكنا في. العراق نوع من البرمائیات ٢٠و تم تشخیص. حدیثاً ي تم وصفھ ذھا نویع القبج االسویي النبضم فیھ بعض بریص الكھوف نوع من ابوویع جدید من األراول ونتسجیل ھانوالزواحف بضم نوع من ١٣ولوحظ وجود .مع بعض أنواع النادرة ،االختالفات عن انواع االخرى المعرفة نوعاً ١٢اللبائن كما اعطیت بعض المالحظات عن خمسة انواع من اسماك المیاه العذبة و نوع ٧٠اشجار بریة و ٨و في النباتات تم تشخیص .القراد وسبعة انواع من الفراشاتمن .عرضت صور لألنواع النادرةو. زھریة تحتوي بعض انواع النادرة والجدیدةمن النباتات ال bull 29 al-barazengy, et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2015) 13 (4): 29-40 updated list of amphibians and reptiles in iraq 2014 ali n. al-barazengy* 1 , adel o. salman**, farah t. abdul hameed** *iraqi ministry of environment/center of sustainable management for natural ecosystem-biodiversity unit 1 corresponding author: email: ali_bio_84@yahoo.com ** iraqi ministry of environment/center of sustainable management for natural ecosystem-cites unit abstract the present work provides a list of all amphibians and reptiles recorded from iraq up to 2014. it includes 115 species (105 species of reptiles and 10 species of amphibians) dating back to 25 families (20 families of reptiles and 5 families of amphibians). conservation status of each species was mentioned. keywords: amphibians, reptiles, iraq, biodiversity, herpetofauna introduction reptiles and amphibians are an important part of the biodiversity, which are spreading across the land of iraq. iraq natural history museum's publication no: 26 in 1969 is the list that included all vertebrate animals in iraq in that time, including the herpetofauna in iraq which consisted of 91 species of reptiles and 6 species of amphibians mahdi and georg (1969), then nature iraq (non-governmental organization) issued a draft list of reptiles and amphibians of iraq (amr, 2009). in this list of herptofauna species of iraq consist of (115) species distributed to (105 species of reptiles and 10 species of amphibians) dating back to 25 families (20 families of reptiles and 5 families of amphibians). these families include many genera but the species in this list located under 69 genera (61 of them of reptiles and 8 genera of amphibians). the studies of herpetofauna in iraq need more researches and explorations of species and subspecies located in it. iraq is a rich and fertile area of biodiversity, in fact, there is hardly no place devoid of biodiversity in the different environments from the north to the far south, but although the herpetology in iraq did not have extensively of studied, in the middle of the last century, some herpetologists have been published there note on herpetology of iraq like hass (1957) and khalaf (1959), but the big role and more importantly is to the iraq natural history research center and museum in record and add many species of reptiles and amphibians to the herpetofauna list of iraq, afrasiab and ali (1989) recorded their list for romaila reptiles, south of iraq also nature iraq (non-governmental organizations interested in the environment of iraq ) issued a draft list of reptiles and amphibians in iraq in 2009, followed by addition a number of species of snakes in iraq and update the subspecies by the iraq natural history research center and museum, this list included all of these updates and recently additions species. 30 updated list materials and methods this checklist is the latest update on species of herpetofauna of iraq. it includes all available and reliable information published of herpetofauna species, which has been confirmed its occurrence in iraq. the information on the list of species collected by reviewing of previous the old and new studies, literatures and the lists herpetofauna species of iraq like garstecki and amr (2011) and some neighboring countries, which indicated species that spread in a common environment between them and iraq like arnold (1986) and the publication of iraq natural history research center and museum. in addition to the latest papers published of the species recorded for the first time in iraq. results and discussion updated list of amphibians and reptiles in iraq 2014 conservation status english name scientific name amphibia family: salamandridae vu mountain newt, azerbaijan newt, lake urmia newt neurergus crocatus cope, 1862 cr kurdistan newt neurergus microspilotus (nesterov, 1916) lc common fire salamander, fire salamander salamandra salamandra semenovi nesterov, 1916 lc southern banded newt, banded newt, striped eft ommatotriton (triturus) vittatus (gray, 1835) family: bufonidae lc iranian earless toad, iranian toad, pakistan toad pseudepidalea (bufo) surdus (boulenger, 1891)*1 dd green toad pseudepidalea (bufo) viridis (laurenti, 1768)*2 family: hylidae lc middle east tree frog hyla savignyi (audouin, 1829) family: pelobatidae lc eastern spadefoot, syrian spadefoot pelobates syriacus boettger, 1889 family: ranidae lc rana camerani boulenger, 1886 *3 lc eurasian marsh frog pelophylax (rana) ridibundus ridibundus (pallas, 1771) *1 afrasiab and ali (1988) *2 leviton et al. (1992) reported occurrence of bufo viridis in iraq, it also reported by mohammad et al. (2010) and jasim (2008). disi et al. (1999) noted its presence in jordan, but according to iucn (2014a) it did not mapped in the range of these countries instead of that pseudepidalea (bufo) variabilis (pallas, 1769) mapped and referred to its presence in iraq and jordan *3 recorded by kevork (1972) in iraq and it considered a synonym to rana macrocnemis, there is ongoing discussion regarding the taxonomic distinctiveness of r. camerani according to iucn (2014b). 31 al-barazengy, et al. reptilia family: cheloniidae en loggerhead sea turtle caretta caretta (linnaeus, 1758) en green turtle chelonia mydas (linnaeus, 1758) cr hawksbill turtle sub-species eretmochelys imbricata bissa (rüppell, 1835) vu olive ridley lepidochelys olivacea (eschscholtz, 1829) family: dermochelyidae cr leather back sea turtle subspecies dermochelys coriacea schlegelii (garman, 1884) family: emydidae ne caspian pond turtle, stripnecked terrapin mauremys caspica caspica (gmelin, 1774)*1 ne caspian pond turtle, stripnecked terrapin mauremys caspica siebenrocki wischuf & fritz, 1997*2 family: testudinidae vu spur-thighed tortoise testudo graeca ibera pallas, 1814 family: trionychidae en euphrates softshell turtle rafetus euphraticus (daudin, 1801) family: amphisbaenidae ne anatolian worm lizard blanus strauchi aporus (werner1898) family: trogonophidea lc zarudnyi's worm lizard diplometopon zarudnyi nikolsky, 1907 *3 family: agamidae ne large scaled-rock agama laudakia nupta nupta (de filippi, 1843) lc starred agama, roughtail rock agama stellagama (laudakia) stellio (linnaeus, 1758) ne black tailed toed agama, spotted toad-headed agama phrynocephalus maculatus longicaudatus haas, 1957 ne brilliant agama, steppe agama trapelus agilis agilis (olivier, 1807) ne pale agama trapelus pallidus haasi (y.werner, 1971)*4 lc trapelus persicus fieldi (haas & werner, 1969)*5 lc horny-scaled agama, oliver's agama, anderson's agama, baluch ground agama, persia agama trapelus ruderatus (olivier, 1804) *5 *1 recorded by leviton et al. (1992) *2 recorded by amr (2009) * 3 diplometopon shueaibi niazi, 1979 was recorded a synonym to diplometopon zarudnyi nikolsky, 1907 by leviton et al. (1992). * 4 trapelus agnetae was treated as a synonym of t. pallidus until disi et al. (2001) found it to be identical to the subspecies t. p. haasi, and thus t. p. haasi should be considered a junior synonym of t. p. agnetae. subsequent molecular research found t. p. pallidus to be synonymous with t. mutabilis, but that t. p. agnetae belonged to a separate clade (wagner et al., 2011). these authors therefore resurrected t. agnetae as a full species. *5 this account follows anderson (1999) and disi (2002) in including trapelus blandfordi within t. persicus, itself now a junior synonym of t. ruderatus (rastegar-pouyani, 2000). trapelus ruderatus baluchianus (olivier, 1804) is now included within trapelus megalonyx (günther, 1864), following rastegar-pouyani (2000). 32 updated list family: gekkonidae lc werner’s leaf-toed gecko asaccus elisae (werner, 1895) lc grey spotted leaf-toed gecko, gray-marked gecko asaccus griseonotus dixon & anderson, 1973 ne caves gecko asaccus saffinae afrasiab & mohamed, 2009 lc baluch rock gecko, arabian desert gecko, southern tuberculated gecko bunopus tuberculatus blanford, 1874 lc keeled rock gecko, roughtailed gecko, rough thin-toed gecko, rough bent-toed gecko cyrtopodion scabrum (heyden, 1827) dd iraqui eyelid gecko eublepharis angramainyu anderson & leviton, 1966 ne yellow-bellied house gecko, northern house gecko hemidactylus flaviviridis rüppell, 1835 ne persian hecko, persia leaf-toed gecko hemidactylus persicus anderson, 1872 lc mediterranean hecko, turkish hecko, turkish warty hecko hemidactylus turcicus (linnaeus, 1758) dd iraqui keel-scaled hecko, iraqui gecko mediodactylus (carinatogecko) heteropholis (minton, anderson & anderson, 1970) ne blandford’s rough scaled gecko, asia minor thin-toed gecko mediodactylus (cyrtopodion) heterocercum mardinensis (mertens 1924) lc kotschy’s gecko mediodactylus (cyrtopodion) kotschyi syriacus (stepanek 1937) ne common fan-footed gecko, yellow fan-fingered gecko, hasselquist’s fan-footed gecko ptyodactylus hasselquistii (donndorff, 1798) ne levante fan-fingered gecko ptyodactylus puiseuxi boutan, 1893 lc murray’s comb-fingered gecko, iranian short-fingered gecko stenodactylus affinis (murray, 1884) lc doriae’scomb-fingered gecko, middle eastern short-fingered gecko, sand gecko stenodactylus doriae (blanford, 1874) lc stout gecko, jordan shortfingered gecko stenodactylus grandiceps haas, 1957 lc slevin's short-fingered gecko stenodactylus slevini haas, 1957 family: lacertidae ne bosc’s fringe-toed lizard, bosk's fringe-fingered lizard acanthodactylus boskianus (daudin, 1802) lc giant fringe-toed lizard, mesopotamian fringe-toed lizard acanthodactylus grandis boulenger, 1909 33 al-barazengy, et al. lc arnold’s fringefingered lizard, snake-tailed fringetoed lizard acanthodactylus opheodurus arnold, 1980 lc acanthodactylus orientalis angel, 1936 lc robust fringe-fingered lizard acanthodactylus robustus werner, 1929 lc schmidt’s fringe-toed lizard acanthodactylus schmidti haas, 1957 ne nidua fringe-fingered lizard, hardy’s fringe-fingered lizard acanthodactylus scutellatus hardyi haas, 1957 lc anatolian rock lizard apathya cappadocica muhtari (eiselt 1979) lc anatolian rock lizard apathya cappadocica urmiana (lantz & suchow 1934) ne aralo-caspian racerunner eremias persica blanford, 1875 lc three-line lizard, giant green lizard lacerta media media lantz & cyrén, 1920 lc caspian green lizard, striated lizard lacerta strigata eichwald, 1831 lc blandford’s short-nosed desert lizard mesalina brevirostris blanford, 1874 ne small-spotted lizard mesalina guttulata (lichtenstein, 1823) ne olivier's sand lizard mesalina olivieri (audouin, 1829) ne snake-eyed lizard ophisops elegans ménétriés, 1832 lc siirt lizard, zagrosian lizard timon princeps kurdistanicus suchow, 1936 family: scincidae lc european snake-eyed skink ablepharus kitaibelii kitaibelii (bibron & bory, 1833) ne asian snake-eyed skink ablepharus pannonicus (fitzinger, 1824) ne ocellated skink chalcides ocellatus (forsskål, 1775) ne schneider's skink eumeces schneideri princeps (eichwld, 1839) ne common sandfish scincus scincus conirostris blanford, 1881 ne common sandfish scincus scincus meccensis wiegmann, 1837 lc levant skink trachylepis (mabuya) aurata aurata (linnaeus, 1758) ne levant skink trachylepis (mabuya) septemtaeniata (reuss, 1834) lc bridled mabuya, bridled skink trachylepis (mabuya) vittata (olivier, 1804) family: uromastycidae vu egyptian spiny tailed lizard uromastyx aegyptia (forskål, 1775) lc mesopotamian spiny tailed lizard, small spiny tailed lizard, iraqi mastigure, iraqi spiny-tailed lizard saara (uromastix) loricata (blanford, 1874) 34 updated list family: varanida ne desert monitor varanus griseus griseus (daudin, 1803) family: leptotyphlopidae lc long-nosed worm snake, hooked thread snake myriopholis (leptotyphlops) macrorhynchus (jan, 1860) family: typhlopidae ne brahminy blind snake, flowerpot snake ramphotyphlops braminus (daudin, 1803) ne blind snake species typhlops vermicularis (merrem, 1820) family: boidae ne javelin sand boa eryx jaculus familiaris eichwald, 1831 ne javelin sand boa eryx jaculus jaculus (linnaeus, 1758) lc saudi arabian sand boa, arabian sand boa eryx jayakari boulenger, 1888 family: colubridae lc large whip snake dolichophis (coluber) jugularis (linnaeus, 1758) lc collared dwarf snake eirenis collaris (ménétriés, 1832) lc crowned dwarf snake eirenis coronella coronella (schlegel, 1837) lc eirenis coronelloides sivan & werner, 2003 lc narrow-striped dwarf snake eirenis decemlineata (duméril, bibron & duméril, 1854) ne eirenis lineomaculata schmidt, 1939 ne dark-headed dwarf racer eirenis persicus (anderson, 1872) ne asian racer, coin-marked snake hemorrhois (coluber) nummifer (reuss, 1834) ne spotted wipe snake hemorrhois (coluber) ravergieri (ménétriés, 1832) lc common leaf-nosed snake lytorhynchus diadema gaddi nikolsky, 1907 lc common leaf-nosed snake lytorhynchus diadema kennedyi k. schmidt, 1939 lc montpellier snake malpolon monspessulanus insignitus (geoffroy st-hilaire, 1809) lc tessellated water snake, natrix tessellata tessellata (laurenti, 1768) lc grass snake natrix natrix persa (pallas 1814) ne raid snake, jan’s cliff racer platyceps ladacensis perry, 2012 lc dahl's whip snake platyceps (coluber) najadum dahlii (fitzinger 1826) ne glossy-bellied racer, hardwicke's rat snake platyceps (coluber) rhodorhachis (jan, 1865) lc rogers' racer platyceps (coluber) rogersi (anderson, 1893) http://www.catalogueoflife.org/col/details/species/id/13210112 http://www.catalogueoflife.org/col/details/species/id/13207759 http://www.catalogueoflife.org/col/details/species/id/13207759 http://www.catalogueoflife.org/col/details/species/id/13207760 35 al-barazengy, et al. ne gray's desert racer, hardwicke's rat snake, glossybellied racer platyceps (coluber) ventromaculatus gray, 1834 ne hooded malpolon, moila snake rhagerhis (malpolon) moilensis (reuss, 1834) ne afro-asian sand snake psammophis schokari (forsskål, 1775) lc black-headed rhynchocalamus rhynchocalamus melanocephalus satuni (nikolsky, 1899) ne diadem snake spalerosophis diadema cliffordii (schlegel, 1837) en zebra snake spalerosophis microlepis jan, 1865 lc black headed snake telescopus nigriceps (ahl, 1924) lc soosan tiger snake telescopus tessellatus martini (schmidt, 1939) lc caucasian rat snake, transcaucasian rat snake zamenis hohenackeri (strauch, 1873) family: elapidae lc desert cobra, desert black snake walterinnesia aegyptia lataste, 1887 family: viperidae lc arabian horned viper cerastes gasperettii leviton & anderson, 1967 ne saw-scaled viper echis carinatus sochureki stemmler, 1969 nt caucasus viper montivipera (vipera) raddei kurdistanica (nilson & andren 1986) nt blunt-nosed viper macrovipera lebetina obtuse (dwigubsky, 1832) lc field's horned viper pseudocerastes fieldi schmidt, 1930 lc persian horned viper pseudocerastes persicus (duméril, bibron & duméril, 1854) family: hydropfiidae lc hook-nosed sea snake, beaked sea snake enhydrina schistosa (daudin, 1803) lc slender sea snake, graceful small headed sea snake hydrophis gracilis (shaw, 1802) cr= critically endangered en= endangered vu= vulnerable nt= near threatened lc= least concern dd= data deficient ne= not evaluated the information local conservation status of the fauna in iraq are very few so that of the herpetofauna in iraq, in this list we used the global conservation status for each species according to the iucn (2014c) red list, the conservation status consist of critically endangered (cr), endangered (en), vulnerable (vu), near threatened (ne), least concern https://www.google.iq/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=13&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0chsqfjam&url=http%3a%2f%2fwww.inaturalist.org%2flisted_taxa%2f1287269&ei=wjoyu-dfk6nhywp2mik4dg&usg=afqjcngrtmun8vfviig-q5lzfj-ew5sfba&sig2=ua4nck9p0j-aklxtqjyvwq&bvm=bv.68693194,d.bgq 36 updated list (lc), data deficient (dd) and not evaluated (ne) for the species that did not have a category in the iucn (2014c) red list yet. this list includes the new records of reptiles in iraq one of them is the caves gecko asaccus saffinae which discovered for the first time in the world in iraq by afrasiab and mohamad (2009) in one of the caves of saffine mountain near erbil province. another species recently recorded for the first time in iraq and we add it to the list which consists of one species of lizards and four species of snakes, as are shown in below: striated lizard lacerta strigata recorded in iraq according to three specimens collected from gelki islam near the khapoor river and the road to kanimase, zakhow district, western kurdistan, in fact that records restricted to described areas so that this species of lizard may have been introduced from the mountains of eastern turkey by flooding of the khapoor river afrasiab et al. (2013). the rat snake zamenis hohenackeri and snake platyceps ladacensis recorded in northeast of iraq by afrasiab and mohamad (2011), found at the foot of hawraman mountain in erbil province in kurdistan iraq, which represents the first record of iraq, also the rare and endangered snake spalerosophis microlepis record for the first time in iraq in serine mountain, northern of erbil province by afrasiab and mohamad (2014). the snake natrix natrix persa was recorded for the first time in iraq by afrasiab et al. (2012) located near dialah bridge, 10 km east of baghdad. the occurrence of the black tailed toed agama phrynocephalus maculates longicaudatus have been confirmed and its presence observed in the south-west of iraq in muthanna province near of alkhuder city and in semi desert on the side of sawa lake by albarazengy (2015), there were neither specimens of phrynocephalus maculates in iraq natural history research center and museum nor published searches of its distribution in iraq leviton et al. (1992), anderson (1999), also there were no reliable local and realistic data about its distribution in iraq abu-baker et al. (2005). many species in this list was updated which are placed under another genera. also two subspecies placed to be a separated species according to rastegar-pouyani et al. (2008), international union for conservation of nature (iucn) and the official website the reptile database, as follows: the updated genera of the amphibians are: ommatotriton (triturus) vittatus, pseudepidalea (bufo) surda, pseudepidalea (bufo) viridis, pelophylax (rana) ridibundus ridibundus. the updated genera of the reptiles are: stellagama (laudakia) stellio, mediodactylus (carinatogecko) heteropholis, mediodactylus (cyrtopodion) heterocercum, mediodactylus (cyrtopodion) kotschyi syriacus, trachylepis (mabuya) aurata aurata, trachylepis (mabuya) septemtaeniata , trachylepis (mabuya) vittata, saara (uromastix)loricata, myriopholis (leptotyphlops) macrorhynchus, dolichophis (coluber) jugularis, hemorrhois (coluber) nummifer, hemorrhois (coluber) ravergieri, platyceps (coluber) najadum dahlia, platyceps(coluber) rhodorhachis, platyceps (coluber) rogersi, platyceps (coluber) ventromaculatus, rhagerhis (malpolon) moilensis, montivipera (vipera) raddei kurdistanica. 37 al-barazengy, et al. the placed subspecies to be separated species, pseudocerastes fieldi and pseudocerastes persicus. recently the species of the spiny tailed lizard uromastyx egyptia and saara (uromastix) loricata are separated and placed to be under an isolated family: uromastycidae after it was under the family of agamidae (rastegar-pouyani et al., 2008; gholamifard et al., 2012). the english names of amphibians and reptiles species in this list collected from many references and websites specializing in herpetology. acknowledgements we would like to extend our thanks and gratitude to all of: iraqi ministry of environment (imoe), for support the field surveys in iraq, saman r. afrasiab: herpetologist in iraq natural history research center and museum for reviewed the list, we thank our colleagues in the center of sustainable management for natural ecosystem (imoe): ali haloob botanist and reserves division official for advice and support, zeinab khalil ibrahim director of the center for support and oversee the list, rana asadullah hassan biodiversity division official for moral support during preparation of the list. literature cited abu-baker, m., siroky, p., amr, p., and modry, d. 2005. discovery of a population of phrynocephalus maculates anderson in hashemit kingdom of jordan, herpetozoa, 18(3/4): 107-113. afrasiab, s.r. and ali, h.a., 1989. report on collection of reptiles from rumaila desert south of iraq, bull. iraq nat. hist. mus, 8:65-73. afrasiab, s.r. and ali, h.a. 1988. a new record of toad bufo surdus boulenger (amphibia, bufonidae) from iraq, with preliminary key for iraqi amphibia. bull. iraq nat. mus, 115-123. afrasiab, s.r. and mohamed, s.i. 2011. report first record of the rat snake, zamenis hohenackeri (strauch, 1873), from north eastern iraq with notes on other colubrid snakes, zoology in the middle east, 54: 19-22. afrasiab, s.r. and mohamed, s.i. 2009. a study on cave-dwelling geckos in iraq, with the description of a new species from saffine mountain, zoology in the middle east, 47: 49-56. afrasiab, s.r., sarbaz, i. m. and raza, h.h. 2013. a review of the lacertini of iraq in iraqi collections, herpetozoa, 25 (3/4): 93-100. afrasiab, s.r. and mohamed, s. i. 2014. new record of snake from iraq (reptilia colubridae), zoology in the middle east, 54: 19-22. afrasiab, s.r., al-ganabi, m.i. and al-fartosi, k. 2012. snake species new or rare to the herpetofauna of iraq, herpetozoa, 24 (3/4): 179-181. 38 updated list al-barazengy, a.n. 2015. first observations on phrynocephalus maculatus longicaudatus haas, 1957 (squamata: sauria: agamidae) in iraq, bull. iraq nat. hist. mus, 13 (3): 1-7. amr, z. 2009. nature iraq species checklist reptiles and amphibians of iraq, sulaimani, iraq: nature iraq. publication no. ni-0209-003. anderson, s.c. 1999. the lizards of iran, society for the study of amphibians and reptiles, oxford, ohio. 442 pp. arnold, e.n. 1986. a key and annotated check list to the lizards and amphibians of arabia, fauna saudi arabia, 8:378-384. disi, a.m. 2002. jordan country study on biological diversity: herpetofauna of jordan, united nations environment programme (unep), amman. disi, a.m., modry, d., bunian, f., al-oran, r.m. and amr, z.s. 1999. amphibians and reptiles of the badia region of jordan, herpetozoa, wien, 12 (3-4): 135-146. disi, a.m., modry, d., necas, p. and rifai, l. 2001. amphibians and reptiles of the hashemite kingdom of jordan: an atlas and field guide edition chimaira, frankfurt. 408 pp. garstecki, t. and amr z. 2011. biodiversity and ecosystem management in the iraqi marshlands – screening study on potential world heritage nomination, amman, jordan: iucn. 978-2-8317-1353-3. gholamifard, a., rastegar-pouyani, n. and esmaeili, h.r. 2012. annotated checklist of reptiles of fars province, southern iran, iranian journal of animal biosystematics, 2: 155-167. jasim, s.y. 2008 some nematode parasites of the green toad bufo viridis laurenti, 1768 in baghdad area, central iraq. bull. iraq nat. mus.,10 (3): 37-43. haas, g. 1957. some amphibians and reptiles from arabia, proceedings of the california academy of sciences, fourth series, 29 (3): 47-86. iucn. 2014a. pseudepidalea viridis in international union for conservation of nature the red list of threatened species. version 2014.1. downloaded on 20 aug, 2014 available at http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/155333/0. iucn. 2014b. rana macrocnemis in international union for conservation of nature the red list of threatened species. version 2014.1. downloaded on 20 aug, 2014 available at http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/58651/0. iucn. 2014c. in international union for conservation of nature the red list of threatened species. version 2014.1. downloaded on 20 aug, 2014 available at www.iucnredlist.org. 39 al-barazengy, et al. kevork, o.k. 1972. rana camerani boulenger from iraq, bulletin iraq natural history museum, 5(3): 9-15. khalaf, k. t. 1959 reptiles of iraq, with some notes on the amphibians, ar-rabitta press, baghdad. vii+96p. iraq. leviton, a.e., anderson, s.c., adler, k. and minton, s.a. 1992. hand book to the middle east amphibians and reptiles, ithaca, newyork, ssar, 252 p. mahdi, n. and georg, p. v.1969. systematic list of iraqi vertebrates. iraq nat. hist. mus. publication no, 26 : 1-104. mohammad, m.k., al-moussawi, a.a. and jasim s.y. 2010. helminth parasites of the green toad bufo viridis laurenti, 1768 in baghdad area, central iraqegypt. acad. j. biolog. sci, 2 (1): 17-25. rastegar-pouyani, n. 2000. taxonomic status of trapelus ruderatus (olivier) and t. persicus (blanford), and validity of t. lessonae (de filippi), amphibiareptilia 21(1): 91-102. rastegar-pouyani, n., kami, h.g., rajabzadeh, m., shafiei, s. and anderson, s.c. 2008. annotated checklist of amphibians and reptiles of iran, iranian journal of animal biosystematics (ijab), 1:43-66. wagner, p., melville, j., wilms, t. m. and schmitz, a. 2011 opening a box of cryptic taxa – the first review of the north african desert lizards in the trapelus mutabilis merrem, 1820 complex (squamata: agamidae) with descriptions of new taxa, zoological journal of the linnean society, 163: 884-912. 40 updated list bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2015) 13 (4): 29-40 4102القائمة المحدثة للبرمائيات والزواحف في العراق لعام **دعبد الحمي طهفرح ** سلمان عمرانعادل * علي نعمة البرزنجي شعبة التنوع –مركز االدارة المستدامة للنظم البيئية الطبيعية / وزارة البيئة العراقية * االحيائي ali_bio_84@yahoo.com: البريد االلكتروني * شعبة سايتس –مركز االدارة المستدامة للنظم البيئية الطبيعية / وزارة البيئة العراقية ** الخالصة عام حتى العراق في المسجلة والزواحف البرمائيات بجميع قائمة هذا البحث ستعرضي التي( البرمائيات من انواع 01 و الزواحف من نوعا 011) نوعا 001 ضماذ ت ,4102 .حفظها حالة وذكر(. عائلة 1 والبرمائيات الزواحف من عائلة 41) عائلة 41 إلى عودت bull 41 ahmed hamed mahde shugran et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. july, (2018) 15 (1): 41-55 list of insects associated with macrofungi in tikrit city, salahadin governorate, iraq ahmed hamed mahde shugran* razzaq shalan augul** and talib owaid al-khesraji* *department of biology, college of education for pure sciences, tikrit university, salahadin, iraq **department of entomology and invertebrate, iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq **corresponding author: razzaqshalan@gmail.com received date: 21 january 2018 accepted date: 20 february 2018 abstract in this survey, there are 14 species belonging to 14 genera, nine families and two orders, collected on macrofungi from tikrit city, salahadin governorate, north central of iraq. the members of coleoptera were more abundant than flies on macrofungi. the family of ciidae and leiodidae (order, coleoptera), mycetophilidae (order, diptera), and 6 species are recorded for the first time for insect fauna of iraq. key words: coleoptera, iraq, macrofungi, saladin governorate, survey. introduction insects, mainly dipteran and coleopteran species, are the most frequently utilized resources from fungi compared with other animals (komonen, 2003; amat-garcía et al., 2004). fungi being rich in proteins and carbohydrates (gooday, 1995), as well they have a large amounts of biologically important elements, such as phosphorous and nitrogen (watkinson et al., 2006), which may speed up the growth of the larvae of beetles (martin, 1979). on the other hand, basidiomes may as well contain high concentrations of toxins, for example: phenols, pyrones, and heterocyclic nitrogen complexes; therefore, there is great selective pressure for coleopteran members to develop mechanisms to avoid intoxication against these substances, while using them as sources of food or habitat (martin, 1979). the two most important mycophagous insect orders: diptera (hackmann and meinander, 1979) and coleoptera (hammond and lawrence, 1989); the larvae of first order are dominant on the mushroom, especially the sciaridae. although they are wide food spectra, and cause damage to mushroom production in the world (shin et al., 2012). donisthorpe (1935) was the first author to list the proper names of the fungi with which beetles associate. adult and larval stages can be fungivorous or mycophagous; in the doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2018.15.1.0041 42 list of insects associated with macrofungi in tikrit superfamily staphylinoidea, the following families include mycophagous species: ptiliidae, leiodidae, staphylinidae and possibly agyrtidae; probably many thousands of coleopteran species are exclusively mycophagous; much remains to be revealed, particularly in the tropical species, including the precise food source of at lesser facultative fungus-feeders, and dead-wood-associated beetles (hammond and lawrence, 1989). generally, the earlier studies on this matter have determined three categories of fungusassociated insects as follow: (1) obligatorily dependent species (2) regular but not obligate users of the fungal resource, including predators of mycophagous dipteran larvae (3) accidental species (scheerpeltz and höfler, 1948; benick, 1952; graves, 1960; klimaszewski and peck, 1987). in iraq, the insect fauna on fungi are unknown; therefore this study is proposed to identify the insects associated with macrofungi. materials and methods the adult insects were collected by different tools: aerial net (flies), aspirator (small beetles) and forceps (big and small size beetles) from tikrit city, salahadin governorate, north of central iraq, during the period from november 2016 to march 2017. the big size specimens are mounted with insect pins, whereas the small and fine insects are preserved in 75% alcohol; complete information, including the localities and dates of corm the families, genera and species, we used many different keys; for the diagnosis of the beetles: joy (1932), crowson (1956), klimaszewski and watt (1997), el-torkey et al. (2007), telfer (2012), hackston (2013; 2015; 2016a, b; 2017a, b, c); while in flies we utilized tuomikoski (1966), (1970) and hackston (2016c). also the identification of the current specimens was assured by comparison with collection of the iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad. the new recorded species are deposited in the collection of entomology and invertebrates department, iraq natural history research center and museum. results and discussion during the current investigation, there are 14 species belonging to 14 genera, nine families and two orders were identified; the beetles were the most abundant, especially the family of staphylinidae compared with flies associated with macrofungi. the list of species, distribution and with a short description of new records given below: (a) order, coleoptera (1) family, ciidae the members of ciidae are characterized by: head bent to downward or not clearly if it seen from above, with an obviously fronto-clypeal ridge, this is in male sometimes forming a tubercles or horns. antennae is with 8-10 segments, with usually the last three segmented composing a club; pronotum somewhat hooded head from above; outer edge of tibiae often with spines. previously, this family was not recorded in iraq. cis multidentatus (pic, 1917) materials examined (3♂♂ specimens): al-difsha from al-alam district, 11.xii.2016. http://sciaroidea.info/biblio?f%5bauthor%5d=681 43 ahmed hamed mahde shugran et al. distribution: germany, italy and malta (lohse and reibnitz, 1991; lopes-andrade, 2008); iran (amini et al., 2014); it is newly recoded in iraq. diagnosis: the male (pl. 1) is with slightly dark brown color (cis chinensis lawrence, 1991 with obviously blackish brown color also the antennae and legs are light brown); anterior margin of front is composed of four strongly and elevated teeth; antennae with 10 segments, anterior margin of pronotum with two distinct horns; body length 2.1 mm. (2)family, cryptophagidae cryptophagus affinis sturm, 1845 materials examined (2♀♀ specimens): al-ifri farm, al-alam district, 1 specimen at 11.xii.2016; 1 specimen, 11.i.2017. distribution: australia, europe, north africa (cotton and good, 1937); iraq (derwesh, 1965). (3)family, erotylidae triplax scutellaris charpentier, 1825 materials examined (2♀♀ specimens): al–defsha farm, al-alam district, 11.xii.2016. distribution: europe and middle asia (franc, 2001); newly record in iraq. diagnosis: length 4.5 mm; antennae black, with segments 1-4 paler; pronotum wholly reddish, with hind margin without a ridge; elytra with uniform black color and clearly narrowing towards the apex; abdomen red color under the elytra; ventral surface of body with reddish color (pl.2). (4)family, leiodidae according to newton (2016), this family is a worldwide distribution, moderately large and diverse group of some 4,135 species belonging to 374 genera organized into 6 subfamilies and 18 tribes; the species of these beetles are commonly called "round fungus beetles" because they have globular shape of many species, although some members are with more elongated shaped; generally, these beetles are small or very small beetles having body less than 10 mm in length; antennae clubbed shaped in most species. adults and larvae of these beetles generally feed on fungi in rotting plant or animal material. ptomaphagus hellwig, 1795 materials examined (2♂♂ specimens): al–difsha farm, al-alam district, 11.xii.2016. distribution: holarctic region, north oriental and north neotropical (wang et al., 2016); this genus is registered for the first time in iraq, however, the specimen identified as tachinus sp., because we need more additional specimens to recognize the species. diagnosis: genus of ptomaphagus hellwig, 1795 is determined by: eight segment of antenna smaller than seven and nine segments; head directly behind the compound eyes sharply angled, broader than the anterior margin of pronotum; pronotum and elytra with a microsculpture that consist of distinct networks. fore tarsi dilated in male, mid coxae divided by a process of the mesosternum (pl. 3). (5)family, nitidulidae carpophilus obsoletus erichson, 1843 materials examined (2 ♀♀ specimens): al–defsha farm, al-alam district, 21.xii.2016. distribution: africa: algeria, egypt, morocco, and tunisia. europe: croatia, cyprus, greece, italy, malta, portugal, spain, turkey. asia: taiwan (cotton and good, 1937); iran (modarres awal, 1997); china, india, iraq, israel, japan, lebanon, saudi arabia, syria, uae and yemen (lasoń and ghahar, 2013). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/antenna_(biology) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/larva https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/fungus 44 list of insects associated with macrofungi in tikrit urophorus humeralis (fabricius, 1798) materials examined (1♂, 2♀♀ specimens): al–defsha farm, al-alam district, 11.xii.2016. distribution: tropical and africa, tropical asia, europe, usa (cotton and good, 1937); iran (williams et al., 1983); according to mifsud and audisio (2008) this species is subcosmopolitan, and cosmopolitan distribution (lason and ghahari, 2013). (4) family, staphylinidae creophilus maxillosus (linnaeus, 1758) materials examined: 1 ♀ specimen collected from al-ifri farm, al–alam district at 11.i.2017. distribution: north america, west indies and palaearctic region (newton et al., 2000); chile and argentina (navarrete-heredia et al., 2002); peru (asenjo and clarke, 2007); in iraq, this species is registered by augul et al. (2015). gabrius splendidulus (gravenhorst, 1802) materials (4♀♀ specimens): 3 specimens, al-ifri farm, al–alam district, 11.xii.2016; 1 specimen, al-ifri farm, al – alam district at 11.i.2017. distribution: europe, russia, caucasus, canada, usa (herman, 2001a). in iraq this species was registered by hadi (2015). phloeopora corticalis (gravenhorst, 1802) materials examined (3♂♂ specimens): 2 specimens, al-difsha farm, al-alam district, 19. xi.2016; 1 specimen at 11.xii.2016. distribution: west palaearctic region (assing and schülke, 2006). europe: turkey, cyprus, canary islands and madeira; africa: algeria and morocco (bordon, 2010); this species is registered for the first time in iraq. diagnosis: head is constricted at posterior margin forming a neck, somewhat narrower compared with anterior part of pronotum; body is with parallel sides; body surface from above with fine and densely punctures, according to webster et al. (2012) this species with less pubescences especially on pronotum and more glossy than related species, body length 3.1 mm (pl. 4). lordithon trinotatus (erichson, 1839) materials examined (3♂♂ specimens): 1 specimen, al-difsha farm, al-alam district, 11. xi.2016; 2 specimens, 11.xii.2016. distribution: transpalaearctic (bacal and derunkov, 2010); newly recorded in iraq. diagnosis: body length is 4.2 mm; reddishbrown color, head blackish brown, first antennal segment with somewhat curved and narrower; elytra with darker wide spots and usually dilated towards apex; hind of body is strongly tapering, six sternite of male with a slightly longitudinal keel at middle (pl. 5). tachinus gravenhorst, 1802 materials examined (1♀ specimen): al-difsha farm, al-alam district, 11. xi.2016. distribution: holarctic, oriental region and less distribution in neotropics (herman, 2001b). notes: the specimen identified as tachinus sp., because we need more additional specimens to recognize the species. 45 ahmed hamed mahde shugran et al. (5) family, tenebrionidae tribolium castaneum (herbst, 1797) materials examined (2 specimens): al-difsha farm, al-alam district, 11. xi.2016. distribution: iraq (derwesh, 1965); cosmopolitan (cotton and good, 1937). (b) order, diptera (1)family, mycetophilidae mycetophilids are species of small fungus-gnats, generally with a combination of yellow, brown and black colors in adults (hutson et al., 1980). adults are found in shady, damp woods, tunnels and root part of trees, and are especially common in cavities under tree roots; larvae usually feed on the mycelium and sporophores penetrating hyphae; but there are many species diverging biology, being associated with decaying organic matter (hutson et al., 1980; ševčík, 2010). adults of this family are determined by having wings that consist of 9 longitudinal veins / branches attainment the wing margin. delicate, humped-back flies; with long, threadlike antennae and all apex of tibia with a pair spurs (hutson et al., 1980). anatella winnertz, 1863 materials examined (3♂♂, 5♀♀ specimens): 1 specimen, al-difsha farm, al-alam district, 11.xi.2016; 7 specimens: al-ifri farm, al–alam district, 4 specimens, 11.xii.2016 and 3 specimens, 19.xii.2016. distribution: holarctic region (zaitzev, 1989). diagnosis: the species of this genus are small, 1.5-3 mm in length; color bright brown; antennae relatively long also with elongated legs compared with the body. mesepimeron is without any black dot, strong bristles absent on mesanepisternum; costa clearly produced beyond the tip of r5 (pl. 6). in our investigation, the specimen is identified as anatella sp., because we need more information about identification key to species about this genus to recognize the species. (2)family, phoridae megaselia rondani, 1856 materials examined (12♂♂, 20♀♀ specimens): all specimens are collected from al-kharifi farm, al-alam district, 12.iii.2017. distribution: cosmopolitan (zumpt, 1965). in the present study, the specimens are identified as megaselia sp., because we need more information about identification key to species about this genus to recognize the species. 46 list of insects associated with macrofungi in tikrit plate (1): male of cis multidentatus; (a) dorsal view, (b) lateral of anterior parts that shown antenna, (c) lateral side of whole body showing processes. 47 ahmed hamed mahde shugran et al. plate (2): female of triplax scutellaris; (a) dorsal view (showing posterior margin of pronotum), (b) ventral view. plate (3): male of ptomaphagus sp.; (a) dorsal view, (b) ventral view (showing that: antenna, fore tarsus and mid coxae). 48 list of insects associated with macrofungi in tikrit plate (3): male of ptomaphagus sp.: (a) dorsal view (b) ventral view (showing that: antenna, fore tarsus and mid coxae). plate (4): male of phloeopora corticalis; (a) dorsal view, (b) ventral view. 49 ahmed hamed mahde shugran et al. acknowledgements the authors are grateful to prof. m. s. abdul-rassoul, iraq natural history research center and museum, uni. of baghdad, for helping in the identifications of some species; and also we are thankful to asst. prof. dr. hanna hani al-saffar for helping in taking photos of specimens. literature cited amat-garcía, e. c., amat-garcía, g. d. and henaom, l. g. 2004. diversidad taxonómica y ecológica de la entomofauna micófaga en un bosque altoandino de la cordillera oriental de colombia. ecología, 28: 223-231. amini, s., sheikhnejad, h. and hosseini, r. 2014. the first report of cis multidentatus (coleoptera: ciidae) for the fauna of iran. the 21th conference of iranian plant plate (5): male of lordithon trinotatus; (a) lateral view, (b) ventral view, (c) dorsal view of the body at anterior parts. plate (6): female of anatella sp.; (a) lateral view of habit, (b) lateral view of the body at anterior parts with fore wing. 50 list of insects associated with macrofungi in tikrit protection congress, at university of urmia, iran. (abstract). available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/267449072_the_first_report_of_cis_multid entatus_coleoptera_ciidae_for_the_fauna_of_iran asenjo, a. and clarke, d. 2007. first record of creophilus maxillosus (linnaeus, 1758) (staphylinidae) for peru. coleopterists bulletin, 61(4): 551. assing v. and schülke, m. 2006. systematic catalogue of the entomofauna of the madeira archipelago and selvagens islands. staphylinoidea, staphylinidae (coleoptera). vol. ii, part 2. boletim do museu municipal do funchal, história natural, supplement 11: 5-167. augul, r. s., al-saffar, h. h., ali, h. b. and abdul-rassoul, m. s. 2015. first record of hairy rove beetle, creophilus maxillosus (linnaeus), 1758 (coleoptera; staphylinidae) for iraq. international journal of current microbiology and applied science, 4(4): 82-85. bacal, s. and derunkov, a. 2010. contributions to the knowledge of rove beetles (coleoptera: staphylinidae) from “plaiul fagului” state nature reserve, republic of moldova. travaux du muséum national d’histoire naturelle «grigore antipa», 53: 217-221. benick, l. 1952. pilzkäfer und käferpilze. ökologische und statistische untersuchungen. acta fennica, 70: 250 pp. bordon, a. 2010. catalogue of the staphylinidae of cyprus and asia minor (coleoptera). fragmenta entomologica, roma, 42 (1): 35-348 cotton, r. t. and good, n. e. 1937. annotated list of the insects and mites associated with stored grain and cereal products, and of their arthropod parasites and predators. united state department of agriculture, miscellaneous publication, 258: 81pp. crowson, r. a. 1956. coleoptera, introduction and keys to families. handbook for the identification of british insects. royal entomology society of london, iv (i): 59 pp. derwesh, a. i. 1965. a preliminary list of identified insects and arachnids of iraq. director general agriculture research projections baghdad, bulletin, 121:123 pp. donisthorpe, h. 1935. the british fungicolous coleoptera. the entomologist's monthly magazine, 71: 21-31. el-torkey, a. m., el-gharbawy, a. a. and abdel-dayem, m. s. 2007. a review of silken fungus beetles in egypt (coleoptera: cryptophagidae). bulletin of the entomological society of egypt, 84: 85-101 franc, v. 2001. beetles of the family erotylidae (coleoptera) in the slovakian fauna. acta zoologica universitatis comenianae, 44: 63-69. gooday, g. w. 1995. cell walls. in: the growing fungus. gow, n. a. r. and gadd, g. m. 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(diptera, mycetophilidae of the fauna of the ussr. entornologicheskoye obozreniye, 68: 809820. zumpt, f. 1965. myasis in man and animals in the old world. butterworths, london, 267pp. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=webster%20rp%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=22577319 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=klimaszewski%20j%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=22577319 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=sweeney%20jd%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=22577319 55 ahmed hamed mahde shugran et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2018) 15 (1): 41-55 لفطريات الكبيرة في مدينة تكريت، محافظة صالح لقائمة بالحشرات المرافقة الدين، العراق *و طالب عويد الخزرجي** ، رزاق شعالن عكل*احمد حامد مهدي جامعة تكريت، كلية التربية للعلوم الصرفة، قسم علوم الحياة* و متحف التأريخ الطبيعي مركز بحوث، قسم الحشرات و الالفقريات** جامعة بغداد، العراقي 11/11/1122 :تاريخ القبول 12/12/1122: تاريخ االستالم الخالصة من رتيبتينعوائل و تسعة، جنسا 41نوعا تنتمي إلى 41اظهرت الدراسة الحشرات، جمعت على الفطريات الكبيرة من مدينة تكريت، محافظة صالح كان بوفرة عالية مقارنة دت التحريات ان التنوع بالخنافس العراق؛ وج الدين، .بأنواع الذباب ، (رتبة غمدية االجنحة) leiodidaeو ciidaeسجلت العوائل mycetophilidae (رتبة ثنائية االجنحة)أنواع من مجموع االنواع ستة، و .مرة للمجموعة الحشرية العراقية ألولالكلي 27-32 27 a.f. mekhlif & m. s. abdulrassoul bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2002) 9(4): 27-32 efficiency of parasitoids of pea leafminer phytomyza horticola goureau and their appearance time in the field *a. f. mekhlif and **m. s. abdul-rassoul *department of biology, college of education, mosul university, mosul ** iraq natural history museum, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq. abstract eleven hymenopterous species: two braconids, seven eulophids and two pteromalids parasitized the larvae of phytomyza horticola goureau. the activity of the parasites began at the end of april and evidently increased during may. the female of the parasites fed and parasitized mostly on the second and third larval instars of p. horticola. diglyphus iseae walker and cirrospilus vittatus walker were dominant larval parasites. chrysocharis pentheus walker and pediobius acantha walker were main pupal parasites. introduction the pea leafminer phytomyza horticola (diptera, agromyzidae) is a polyphagous species (griffiths, 1976), and it may be of economic importance (spencer, 1973). in iraq, more than 40 host plant of this pest have been known, including some crops and ornamental plants (alazawi, 1967 and mekhlif, 1984). female of many hymenopterous parasites kill the host, either by oviposition or feeding on host fluids, since reproduction is impossible without protein in their diet (bartell and pass, 1978; sugimoto et al., 1983). however, the growing emphasis on biological control in pest management, demands a greater knowledge of important parasites (bartella and pass, 1978). takada and kamijo (1979); drea et al. (1982) investigated the parasitic complex of p. horticola and its effective parasitoids in japan and europe respectively. however, in iraq p. horticola was found to have 15 parasites (al-azawi, 1967, 1971; mekhlif, 1984). therefore, the aim of this work was to know the effective parasitoids and the time of their appearance in mosul. materials and methods in spring of 1988 and 1989 regular collection of immature stages of p. horticola from various host plants were conducted in order to determine its mortality, parasitism and parasites identification. adult parasites were obtained by caging the host leaves containing immature stage of the pest during april and may. larval ectoparasites were confirmed through the dissecting microscope. pupal endoparasite and larva-pupal endoparasite were determined by the scar on the host pupa. the dead larvae due to host-feeding were clear and their contents were extruded by female parasites. results and discussion 1. host mortality in march, the activity of the parasitoids had not begun, so that, the mortality of immature stages of p. horticola were very low. yet, in april and in the beginning of may, mortality 28 parasites of pea leaf miner started and increased (table 1). this observation was also reported by mekhilf and khazraji (1989). most of the moralities were due to host-feeding and parasitization. table 1 also shows that the larval mortality was higher than the pupal mortality. drea et al., (1982) and sugimoto, (1979) reported that larval parasites were vary aggressive for some agromyzid leafminers, which one of them p. horticola. most of larval mortality probably was due to host-feeding of parasites as well as parasitization. table 1: mortality of immature stages of p. horticola in the field. * numbers in paranthesis indicate the mortality of larvae or pupae. date of sampling no. of hosts examined no. of dead hosts total mortality % larvae pupae larvae pupae 1989 18.3 354 2 3(0.8)* 0(0)* 0.8 31.3 369 143 0(0) 0(0) 0.0 20.4 294 144 264 (89.8) 5 (3.5) 61.4 30.4 675 56 596 (88.3) 3 (5.4) 81.0 7.5 906 21 887 (98.0) 9 (42.9) 96.7 10.5 218 3 216 (99.0) 1 (33.3) 98.2 2. selection of the host instar female parasites evidently attacked second and third host instar larvae more than the first instar (table 2). sugimoto (1979) observed that chrysocharis pentheus experimentally fed on and parasitized second and third instars of runuculus leafminer, p. ranunculii (schr.) this may be attributed to the parasites in having not enough ability to distinguish first instar larvae insides mines. table 2 also reveals that the first instar larvae were rarely parasitized, on the other hand nearly half of the second instar larvae were parasitized. parasites oviposited in most of third instar larvae causing their death. perhaps the parasites preferred third instar larvae to ensure enough nutrients for their progeny to complete their development. table 2: parasitism of p. horticola in different larval instars. host instar no. of hosts found killed no. of hosts parasitized parasitism % i 50 4 8 ii 71 37 52 iii 118 99 83.9 3. parasitisum mode of dominant parasites it was found that eulophid parasites d. iseae and c. vittatus completed their life-cycle on the host larvae (table 3) and p. acantha and c. pentheus were pupal endoparasites. these observation were also reported by takada and kamijo (1979), for the same host, and ibrahim and madje (1979) for the host p. syngensiae (hardy). the braconid opius sp. is larval-pupal endoparasite, which lays its eggs on the host lavra, and completes its development up to the adult stage inside the host pupa . opius spp. are also found as larval-pupal endoparasites of liriomyza munda (frick hardling, 1965. 29 a.f. mekhlif & m. s. abdulrassoul table 3: parasitizing phase of dominant parasites. ect., ectoparasite, end., endoparasite. parasites developmental stage of host at oviposition emergence mode of parasitism diglyphus iseae walker larvae larvae ect. cirrospilus vittatus wlk. larvae larvae ect. pediopius acantha wlk. pupa pupa end. chrysocharis pentheus wlk. pupa pupa end. opius sp. larva pupa end. 4. effective parasites in the field, the efficiency of the parasite is mostly depended upon the period of its appearance, the parasite abundance in a given area and the ability of the female parasite to attack various host species, either for feeding or parasitization. table 4 reveals the field appearance of the eulophid parasites d. iseae and c. vittatus during april and may and opius sp. during april but was not obtained in may. the parasites dacnusa sp. and halticoptera circulus (welker) appeared for a short time in samples collected at late april and first third of may. the parasites; chrysonotomya formosa westwood, p. acantha, c. pentheus and tetrastichus strobilanae were obtained throughout may while c. formosa at first week of the same month. table 4: parasitic efficiency of p. hotrticola during april and may as indicated by parasitism of each parasitoid. family and species no. of parasites emerging / rearing date 20.4 30.4 7.5 10.5 15.5 braconidae dacnusa sp. 3(0.4) 1(0.6) opius sp. 14(8.3) 1(0.2) eulophidae chrysocharis pentheus 5(3.2) 5(9.6) chrysonotomya formosa 1(0.2) cirrospilus vittatus 1(0.6) 2(0.2) 8(1.4) 13(8.2) 1(1.9) diglyphus iseae 154 (91.1) 817 (99.2) 555 (97.0) 121 (76.7) 15 (28.8) d. crassinervis 1(0.2) 1(0.6) 1(0.6) pedicbius acantha 2(0.3) 5(3.2) 27(52) tetrastichus strobilanae 1(0.2) 1(1.9) pteromalidae halticoptera circulus 2(0.2) 3(0.5) 3(1.9) spegigaster sp. nr. orobnchiae 2(3.9) larvae and pupae of host examined 438 731 927 221 60 according to drea et al., (1986); ibrahim and madje (1979); takada and kamijo (1979) d. iseae and c. vittatus were the main larval ectoparasites of various agromyzid leafminers. the present study confirms this observation, for the parasite d. iseae, its percentage to total parasites was more than 98% during april and first week of may, contrary c. vittatus rarely reared in some samples at the same time (table 4). the low number of c. vittatus may be attributed to competition between the larvae of d. iseae and c. vittatus. d. iseae is a multiple 30 parasites of pea leaf miner parasite and as many as four parasites was emerged from one host (mekhlif, 1984). table 4 also confirm this observation, thus, at 30th april collection, the number of d. iseae adults were only more than immature stage of the examined host. the main pupal parasites were p. acantha and c. pentheus, parasitizing nearly all the host pupae during the second half of may (table 4) which agrees with ibrahim and madje (1979); kamijo (1978) they recorded that chrysocharis spp. are main pupal parasites of many leafminers of diptera, lepidoptera and hymenoptera. the braconid parasite opius sp. was active only during april (table 4), but latter disappeared. it is probable that the larval ectoparasite d. iseae kills the host and opius sp. larvae which needs alive host larva to continue its development. literature cited al-azawi, a.f. (1967) agromyzid leafminers and their parasites in iraq. bull. ent. res., 57(2):285-287. al-azawi, a.f. (1971) parasites of agromyzid leafminers in iraq. bull. iraq nat. his. mus., 5(1):35-37. bartell, d.p. and b.c. pass (1978) morphology, development and behaviour of the immature stages of the parasite bathyplectes curculionis. ann. ent.soc. amer., 7(1):2329. drea, j.j., d. jeandel and f. gruber (1982) parasites of agromyzid leafminer. (diptera; agromyzidae) on alfalfa in europe. ann. ent. soc. amer., 75:297-310. drea, j.j. and r.m. hendrickson (1986) analysis of a successful biological control project: the alflfa blotch leafminer (diptera; agromyzidae) in the northeastern united states. environ. entomol., 15(3):448-455. griffiths, g.c.d. (1976) studies on boreal agromyzidae (diptera) phytomyza chromatomyia mines on astereae (compositae). quaest. ent., 12(3):239-278. hardling, j.a. (1965) parasitism of the leafminer liriomyza munda in the winter garden area of texas. j. econ. ent., 58:442-443. ibrahim, a.g. and d.s. madje (1979) parasitization of the chrysanthemum leaf-miner phytomyza syngenesiae (hardy) (dip.; agromyzidae), by diglyphus iseae (walker) (hym.; eulophidae). ent. mon. mag., 114:71-81. kamijo, k. (1978) chalcidoid parasites (hymenoptera) of agromyzidae in japan, with description of a new species. kontyu, tokyo, 46:455-469 mekhlif, a.f. (1984) aspects of the biology of the pea leafminer, phytomyza horticola goureau (dip.; agromyzidae) infecting the leaves of wall-flower cheiranthus cheiri l. msc. thesis, coll. of sci., mosul univ. (in arabic). mekhlif, a.f. and a.t. khazraji (1989) the importance of sonchus aspar (compositae) and sisymbrium irio (crusifera) in distribution of pea leafminer, phytomyza horticola. j. educ. and sci., 9:85-97. (in arabic). 31 a.f. mekhlif & m. s. abdulrassoul spencer, k.a. (1973) agromyzidae (diptera) of economic importance. series entomological. g.junk, the hague, pp. 1-405. sugimoto, t. and m. ishii (1979) mortality of larvae of rununculus leafmining fly, phytomyza ranunculi (dip.; agromyzidae), due to parasitization and hostfeeding by its eulophid parasite, chrysocharis pentheus (hym.; eulophidae). appl. ent. zoll. 14:410-418. sugimoto, t.t. imoara and h. tsuji (1983) oosorption in eulophid wasp chrysocharis pentheus welker (hym.; eulophidae). app. ent. zoll., 18:287-289. takada, h. and k. kamijo (1979) parasitic complex of the garden pea leaf-miner, phytomyza horticola in japan. kontyu, 47:18-37. 32 parasites of pea leaf miner bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2002) 9 (4): 27-32 ل حق ورها ف ال خ ه ال وت ري ز ور البا ت فار ط يليا فعالي ف خل هللا ف د طا د ا رسول ع ح ب ص ل حمد م متحف التاريخ الطبيعي قسم علوم الحياة، كلية التربية جامعة الموصل جامعة بغداد الخالصة لوحظ نشاط أحد عشر طفيليًا من رتبة غشائية األجنحة، تقضي على األطوار غري الكاملة يبــدأ نشــاط الطفيليــات يف ايــة نيســان ويــزداد بشــكل .phytomyza horticolaحلفــار ورق البــازالء غالبــًا مــا تتغــذى إنــاث الطفيليــات وتتطفــل علــى الريقــات وهــي يف الطــورين . واضــح خــالل مــايس أهــم و ، cirrospilus vittatusو diglyphus iseaeاكثــر الطفيليــات الريقيــة فعاليــة . الثــاين والثالــث .pediobius acanthaو chrysocharis pentheusالطفيليات اليت اجم العذارى bull 329 m. s. abdul-rassoul and t. t. mahmoud bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2017) 14 (4): 329-334 new record of the parasitoid wasp monodontomerus obscurus westwood, 1833 (hymenoptera, torymidae) in iraq m. s. abdul-rassoul* and t. t. mahmoud** *iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq **department of plant protection, college of agriculture, dohuk university, dohuk, kurdistan region-iraq *corresponding author: msabr_1942@yahoo.com received date: 10 december 2017 accepted date: 27 december 2017 abstract this article reveals the first record of the parasitoid wasp, monodontomerus obscurus westwood (hymenoptera, torymidae) from iraq. a total of 27 specimens were emerged from mud nests of sphecoid wasp of sceliphron sp. (hymenoptera, sphecidae), that collected from a wall at a residential garden in dohuk province. a short morphological description is presented. keywords: dohuk, iraq, monodontomerus obscures, parasitoid, sphecoid wasp. introduction monodontomerus obscures westwood, 1833 (hymenoptera, torymidae) was first described by westwood (1833) from britain; it is now widely distributed in the palaearctic, nearctic, neotropical and oriental regions (grissell, 1995; zerova and seryogina, 2002; noyes, 2017). in the palaearctic region, it was recorded from the following countries: azores, bulgaria, croatia, czech republic, denmark, egypt, france, germany, hungary, iran, israel, italy, kazakhstan, lebanon, macedonia, moldavia, netherland, romania, russia, slovakia, spain, sweden, switzerland, turkey, turkmenistan, ukraine, united kingdom and central asia; nearctic: canada, united state of america; neotropical: chile; oriental: india and pakistan (noyes, 2017). m. obscures is gregarious parasitoid reared from cocoons and larvae of different species of coleoptera, family curculionidae; diptera, family stratiomyiidae; families hymenoptera: apidae, chrysididae, diprionidae, sphecidae, and vispidae; lepidoptera, family gelechiidae, lymantriidae and tortricidae (noeys, 2017). it is reported in the palaearctic region from the following hosts: hoplitis (hoplitis) adunca (panzer, 1798) and osmia rufa (linnaeus, 1758) (hymenoptera, megachilidae) in france (steffan, 1952); from eumenes pomiformis (fabricius, 1781) (hymenoptera,vespidae) in the nest of chlicodomas sp. (family, megachilidae) and from sceliphron destillatorium (illiger, 1807) (hymenoptera, sphecidae), in italy (bouček, 1970); from megachile willughbiella (kirby,1802) (hymenoptera, megchilidae) in denmark (holm and skou, 1972); xylocopa fenestrata (hymenoptera, anthophoridae) in india (sihag, 1992). http://dx.doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2017.14.4.0329 330 new record of the parasitoid wasp monodontomerus obscurus the reported nearctic hosts include: osmia cornuta (latreille, 1805), o. lignaria say, 1837 and alfalfa leafcutter bee, megachile rotundata (fabricius, 1787) (family, megachilidae) (grissell, 1995). recently gözüaçık and şimşek (2015) reported m. obscures from larvae of the cereal weevil, pachytychius horrdei (brulle, 1832) (coleoptera: curculionidae) in turkey. m. obscures has not been recorded from iraq until now; however, it is present in two neighboring countries; turkey (oncuer, 1991) and iran (lotfalizadeh and gharali, 2005), and now we are presenting here for the first time the occurrence of this parasitoid species in iraq from specimens have been recently obtained from mud nests of sphecoid wasp, sceliphron sp. from dohuk province. materials and methods a total of 15 mud nests of sphecoid wasp, sceliphron sp. (hymenoptera, sphecidae) were collected. the nests were found in sheltered places attached to electrical wires and walls in residential garden during the month of may, 2013 and 2014 in dohuk province north of iraq; these nests were taken to the laboratory and placed in plastic boxes in order to get either the adult sphecoid wasp or the parasitoid. the emerged adult parasitoids were kept in vials containing ethanol alcohol 75% for the purpose of identification. results and discussion examination of the specimens, which was conducted by the first author, revealed the presence of an unidentified species of the genus monodontomerus in iraq; according to the literature available, keys and descriptions given by gahan (1941), zerova and seryogina (2002) and grissell (1995), this species is identified as m. obscures westwood, 1833. this result is considered as the first record of this parasitoid in iraq. diagnosis: the m. obscures westwood, 1833 can be separated from the other species of malar furrow with a combination of the following characters: frenal area of scutellum with fine striation on smooth shiny background. ovipositor as long as gaster. fore wing at least somewhat infumate around stigma. inner hind tibial spurs with different length. punctured border line of scutellum apex not interrupted medially. hind femoral tooth represented by more or less acute spine. antennal scape in both sexes slender (not expanded). lower margin of clypeus straight. malar furrow present and complete; face flat or nearly so, at least not markedly swollen. propodeum laterad of median depression very weakly sculptured, practically smooth; eyes conspicuously pilose. description: a short morphological description is given here based on the iraqi specimens for easy identification. female (pl. 1): body length 3.0-3.5 mm plus 2.5-3.0 mm ovipositor (together 5.5-6.5 mm). body color dark green to blackish green; antenna with scape testaceous, darker toward apex; pedicel brownish; flagellum black; coxae and femora blackish tined with green, tibiae and tarsi reddish; wings hyaline, with a weak infuscation around, veins brown. gaster black, base beneath often more or less testaceous, tergite dorsally slightly greenish, ovipositor sheaths black. head from above: width and length in ratio 9:4; head in frontal view: width: height ratio about 6:5, moderately clothed with white whitish hairs, face transverse in outline ; malar furrow present and complete; clypeus straight; eyes conspicuously pilose. 331 m. s. abdul-rassoul and t. t. mahmoud antennal scape subcylndrica, nearly reaching to lower margin of anterior ocellus; pedicel a little less than twice as long as wide; ring segment about two-third as wide as long; first funicular segment subequal in length to pedicel but distinctly thicker, a little longer than wide; other segments of funicle subquadrate and not wider than first; club as wide as funicle and about as long as two preceding segments combined. thorax with parapsidal grooves sharply impressed; scutellum distinctly longer than wide, punctured border line of scutellum apex not interrupted medially, frenal area of scutellum with fine striation on smooth shiny background. propodeum laterad of median depression very weakly sculptured, practically smooth. fore wing: costal cell above with complete row along anterior margin, below with 1 to 2 complete setae rows along anterior margin; stigma somewhat squarish, stigma vein faintly stained around stigma; postmarginal vein twice as long as stigma, hind femur about 3 times as long as wide, hind femur tooth triangular; inner hind tibial spur of different length. gaster longer than thorax, and ovipositor as long as gaster. male (pl. 2): body length 2-4 mm. similar to female, except that antenna with dark scape, first funicular segments not longer than wide, other funicular segments more transverse slightly wider than long; gasteral tergites short. materials examined dohuk 14♀♀, 3♂♂ may.2013, and 2014 ex. mud nest of sceliphron sp. plate (1): female of m. obscurus 1 332 new record of the parasitoid wasp monodontomerus obscurus plate (2): male of m. obscurus acknowledgments i would like to express my sincere thanks to my colleague prof. dr. razzaq shalan augul of iraq natural history research center and museum for his help in photographing the specimens. litreture cited bouček, z. 1970. contribution to the knowledge of italian chalcidoidae based mainly on a study at the institute of entomology in turin, with description of some new european species (hymenoptera). memorie della societa entomologica italiana, 49: 35-102. gahan a.b. 1941. a revision of the chalcid-flies of the genus monodontomerus in the united states national museum. proceedings of the united states national museum, 90: 461–482. gözüaçık, c. and şimşek, z. 2015. larval parasitoids of the cereal weevil, pachytychius hordei (brulle, 1832) (coleoptera: curculionidae) at mardin province in turkey. egyption journal of biology pest control, 25(1): 7-10. grissell, e.e. 1995. toryminae (hymenoptera: chalcidoidea: torymidae): a redefinition, generic classification and annotated world catalog of species. memoirs on entomology, international, 2: 474pp. 1 333 m. s. abdul-rassoul and t. t. mahmoud holm, s. n. and skou, r. 1972. studies on trapping nesting and rearing of some megachhile species (hymenoptera: megachilidae) and on their parasites in denmark. entomologica scandinavica, 3: 169-180. lotfalizadeh, h. and gharali, b. 2005. introduction to the torymidae fauna( hymenopter: chalcidoidea) of iran. zoology in the middle east, 36: 67-72. noyes, j. s. 2017. universal chalcidoidea database. world wide web electronic publication. (available at: http://www.nhm.ac.uk/chalcidoids) (accessed 22nd nov. 2017). oncuer, c. 1991. a catalogue of the parasites and predators of insect pests of turkey. ege universitesi ziraat fakultesi yaynlar, 505: 354 pp. sihag, r.c. 1992. behavior and ecology of the subtropical carpenter bee, xylocopa fenestrate f. 4. parasites, predators nest destroyers. indian bee journal, 53: 30-33. steffan, j. r. 1952. note sur les especes europeen nes et norda fricaines du genere monodontomerus westw. (hym.: torymidae) et leurshotes. bulletin du museum national d’histoire naturelle, paris (2), 24(3): 288-293. westwood, j.o. 1833. descriptions of several new british forms amongst the parasitic hymenopterous insects. philosophical magazine, 2(3): 443 zerova, m. d. and seryogina, l.y. 2002. a revision of old world monodontomerus (hymenoptera: chalcidoidae: torymidae), pp. 33 separate issue, national academy of sciences of ukraine i.i. schmalhausen institute of zoology, kiev . 334 new record of the parasitoid wasp monodontomerus obscurus bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2017) 14 (4): 329-334 monodontomerus obscurusتسجيل جديد للزنبور المتطفل westwood, 1833 (hymenoptera, torymidae) في العراق **و طالل طاهر محمود* عبد الرسول محمد صالح مركز بحوث و متحف التأريخ الطبيعي، جامعة بغداد* قسم وقاية النبات ، كلية الزراعة ، جامعة دهوك** 7202107172: تاريخ القبول 7202107102:تاريخ االستالم الخالصة ,monodontomerus obscurus westwood سجلت الدراسة الزنبور المتطفل 72كنوع جديد للعراق؛ وقد جمعت torymidaeرتبة غشائية االجنحة، عائلة 1833 من رتبة غشائية االجنحة، .sceliphron spعينة من الطفيلي من أعشاش الطين لزنبور .؛ التي تم جمعها من جدار في حديقة سكنية في محافظة دهوك sphecidaeعائلة . زودت النتائج بوصف مختصر الهم الصفات التشخيصية للنوع اعاله bull 1 k. n. abdul-ameer & a. j. al-saadi bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2013) 12 (3): 1-9 on the occurrence of the[ monogenean gyrodactylus taimeni ergens, 1971 for the first time in iraq on gills of the common carp cyprinus carpio kefah n. abdul-ameer and abid ali j. al-saadi department of biology, college of education (ibn al-haitham), university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq abstract the monogenean gyrodactylus taimeni ergens, 1971 was recorded in this study for the first time in iraq from gills of the common carp cyprinus carpio linnaeus, 1758. the description and measurements of this parasite as well as illustration were given. in addition, a list of species of gyrodactylus so far recorded from c. carpio in iraq is also included together with a list of all other hosts recorded for each gyrodactylid species. introduction monogenean flatworms of the genus gyrodactylus occur on a wide array of fishes, possess a high degree of host-specificity (buchmann, 2012). species of this genus are parasites of freshwater and marine teleosts (bykhovskaya-pavlovskaya et al., 1962). all the species of gyrodactylus are viviparous with embryo already containing a further developing embryo. these parasites have a specific birthing process of two daughters. the first daughter is created asexually from a ball of cells within the parent and then released through the birth pore. the second daughter and all subsequent daughters develop from an oocyst and enter the uterus after the previous daughter is born (szczembara, 2011). species of gyrodactylus are seen especially in teleost fishes, infect and live ectoparasitically on the skin, fins and gills (koyun and altunel, 2011). the worm attaches to the fin or skin surface of the host by inserting 16 marginal hooklets and one pair of median hooks into the epidermis. this action is clearly associated with injuries to the epithelial cells. also feeding activities of the worm impose epithelium damage (buchmann, 2012). the parasites cause excessive mucous secretion and potential hemorrhagic lesions (johnsen and jensen, 1991). salmon skin samples showed a reduced mucous cells concentration and epidermis was thinner than in uninfected fishes (sterud et al., 1998). the disease resulting from gyrodactylus infection is called gyrodactylosis which has been reported to be responsible for death of a wide variety of fishes (szczembara, 2011). gyrodactylus salaris malmberg, 1957 was recognized as a virulent pathogen on atlantic salmon parr (salmo salar) populations in norway since 1975, the economic loss caused by this parasite amount to 480 million euros (bakke et al., 2002; rokicka et al., 2007). in iraq, 21 gyrodactylus species have been described from freshwater fishes from different water bodies, 17 species of which were recorded from the common carp c. carpio. the first study in iraq concerning gyrodactylus was that on g. elegans (ali and shaaban, 1984), after which several studies were carried out, among which some reported new records of gyrodactylus species in iraq (ali et al., 1988b; salih et al., 1988; abdul-ameer, 1989; mhaisen et al., 1990; al-zubaidy, 1998; abdullah, 2002; jori, 2006; al-zubaidy, 2007; mama, 2012; abdul-ameer and al-saadi 2013, abdullah, 2013). 2 on the occurrence of the monogenean the present investigation deals with the record of the monogenean g. taimeni which parasitizes c. carpio as no previous record on this parasite in iraq was documented (mhaisen, 2013). materials and methods a total of 63 specimens of the common carp c. carpio were collected from different fish markets in baghdad city during the period from november 2011 till march 2012. the fishes were brought alive to the laboratory and freshly examined for ectoparasites. skin and gill smears were microscopically examined. care was taken to isolate and flatten the parasite specimens which then were stained by aqueous neutral red and fixed in glycerine. drawing was done by using a camera lucida. parasite identification was performed according to two taxonomical accounts (bykhovskaya-pavlovskaya et al., 1962; gussev, 1985). the information on the previous account records of parasites was checked by using the index-catalogue of parasites and disease agents of fishes of iraq (mhaisen, 2013). results and discussion out of the 63 common carp, three fishes were infected with the monogenean gyrodactylus taimeni. the parasites were found on the gills of examined fishes. the measurements were based on four specimens of parasites. the following is a brief description and measurements of this parasite (in mm) as shown in fig. (1). small worm, length 0.25-0.3 (0.27), width 0.07-0.09 (0.08). overall length of median hooks 0.061-0.064 (0.062), basal median hook lengh 0.047-0.05 (0.048) and point 0.0240.028 (0.026). ventral connecting bar 0.004-0.006 (0.005) × 0.025-0.027 (0.026), length of membranoid extension 0.014-0.016 (0.015). marginal hooks total length 0.049-0.054 (0.051), shaft 0.036-0.04 (0.038), sickle 0.012-0.014 (0.013). the measurements of the present g. taimeni are in agreement with these of the holotype of the parasite from mongolia (gussev, 1985). according to the index-catalogue of parasites and disease agents of fishes of iraq (mhaisen, 2013), the present report of this monogenean represents its first record in iraq, as no previous record was given for this parasite from fishes of iraq. by recording g. taimeni of the present study, a total of 18 gyrodactylus species become known from c. carpio in iraq. the following is a list of these species (arranged alphabetically) together with their hosts in iraq. due to the existence of 82 reports on the occurrence of gyrodactylus species in iraq (mhaisen, 2013); only the first report for each host will be given here. 1. gyrodactylus baicalensis bogolepova, 1950: this parasite was recorded for the first time in iraq from c. carpio by salih et al. (1988). the other seven hosts known in iraq are: acanthobrama centisquama (balasem et al., 2003), barbus sharpeyi (mhaisen et al., 1997), carasobarbus luteus (ali et al., 1988a), carassius auratus (asmar et al., 2003), chondrostomum regium (mhaisen et al., 1995), cyprinion macrostomum (ali et al., 1988a) and liza abu (mhaisen et al., 1995). 3 k. n. abdul-ameer & a. j. al-saadi 2. gyrodactylus barbi ergens, 1976: this parasite was recorded for the first time in iraq from c. carpio by mama (2012). so far, no more hosts are reported from iraq for this parasite (mhaisen, 2013). 3. gyrodactylus cyprini diarova, 1964: this parasite was recorded for the first time in iraq from c. carpio by mama (2012). so far, no more hosts are reported from iraq for this parasite (mhaisen, 2013). 4. gyrodactylus elegans nordmann, 1832: this parasite was recorded for the first time in iraq from both c. carpio and liza abu by ali and shaaban (1984). the other 20 hosts known for this parasite in iraq are: acanthobrama centisquama (ali et al., 1987), acanthobrama marmid (mhaisen et al., 1995), alburnus orontis (al-sa’adi, 2007), aspius vorax (asmar et al., 1999), barbus belayewi (al-jawda et al., 2000), barbus esocinus (asmar et al., 1999), barbus grypus (ali et al., 1986), barbus luteus (al-awadi, 1997), barbus sharpeyi (khalifa, 1989), barbus xanthopterus (ali et al., 1986), carassius auratus (asmar et al., 2003), carassius carassius (mhaisen et al., 2003), chondrostoma regium (mhaisen et al., 1995), ctenopharyngodon idella (salih et al., 1988), cyprinion macrostomum (al-jadoaa, 2002), garra rufa (mhaisen et al., 1995), heteropneustes fossilis (ali et al., 1987), hypophthalmichthys molitrix (mohammad-ali et al., 1999), mastacembelus mastacembelus (mhaisen et al., 1999) and silurus triostegus (aljawda et al., 2003). 5. gyrodactylus gobioninum gussev, 1955: this parasite was recorded for the first time in iraq from c. carpio by mama (2012). so far, no more hosts are reported from iraq for this parasite (mhaisen, 2013). 6. gyrodactylus kherulensis ergens, 1974: this parasite was recorded for the first time in iraq from c. carpio by ali et al. (1988b). the other two hosts known in iraq are: c. idella (al-zubaidy, 1998) and s. triostegus (abdullah, 2013). 7. gyrodactylus lavareti malmberg, 1956: this parasite was recorded for the first time in iraq from c. carpio by abdul-ameer and alsaadi (2013). so far, no more hosts are reported from iraq for this parasite (mhaisen, 2013). 8. gyrodactylus longoacuminatus zitnan, 1964: this parasite was recorded for the first time in iraq from c. carpio by mama (2012). so far, no more hosts are reported from iraq for this parasite (mhaisen, 2013). 9. gyrodactylus malmbergi ergens, 1961: this parasite was recorded for the first time in iraq from both c. carpio and h. molitrix by al-zubaidy (1998). so far, no more hosts are reported from iraq for this parasite (mhaisen, 2013). 10. gyrodactylus markevitschi kulakovskaya, 1952: this parasite was recorded for the first time in iraq from varicorhinus trutta by abdulameer (1989). the other four hosts known for this parasite in iraq are: aphanius dispar (kadhim, 2009), barbus grypus (al-sa’adi, 2007), cyprinion kais (al-sa’adi, 2007) and c. carpio (al-zubaidy, 1998). 4 on the occurrence of the monogenean 11. gyrodactylus medius kathariner, 1893: this parasite was recorded for the first time in iraq from c. carpio by alzubaidy (1998). the other host known in iraq is barbus luteus (al-sa’adi, 2007). 12. gyrodactylus menschikowi gvosdev, 1950: this parasite was recorded for the first time in iraq from from both c. carpio and l. abu by alzubaidy (2007). so far, no more hosts are reported from iraq for this parasite (mhaisen, 2013). 13. gyrodactylus molnari ergens, 1978: this parasite was recorded for the first time in iraq from c. carpio by abdullah (2013). so far, no more hosts are reported from iraq for this parasite (mhaisen, 2013). 14. gyrodactylus paralatus a.gusev, 1955: this parasite was recorded for the first time in iraq from both c. carpio and h. molitrix by al-zubaidy (1998). no more hosts are reported from iraq for this parasite (mhaisen, 2013). 15. gyrodactylus salaris malmberg, 1957: this parasite was recorded for the first time in iraq from c. carpio by al-zubaidy (1998). so far, no more hosts are reported from iraq for this parasite (mhaisen, 2013). 16. gyrodactylus sprostonae ling, 1962: this parasite was recorded for the first time in iraq from c. carpio by al-zubaidy (1998). the other five hosts known in iraq are alburnus orontis (al-sa’adi, 2007), carassius auratus (abdullah, 2013), carassius carassius (al-sa’adi, 2007), chalcalburnus sellal (al-sa’adi, 2007) and cyprinion kais (al-sa’adi, 2007). 17. gyrodactylus taimeni ergens, 1971: this parasite was recorded for the first time in iraq from c. carpio of the present study. 18. gyrodactylus vicinus bykhovskii, 1957: this parasite was recorded for the first time in iraq from c. carpio by al-zubaidy (1998). the other two hosts known in iraq are b. luteus and l. abu which were both reported by al-nasiri (2000). acknowledgements thanks are due to prof. dr. furhan t. mhaisen for confirming the identification of g. taimeni, permission to use his index-catalogue of parasites and disease agents of fishes of iraq and critical reading of the manuscript. also, thanks are due to mrs. azhar a. al-moussawi of the iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad for her help in using the camera lucida. 5 k. n. abdul-ameer & a. j. al-saadi fig. 1: gyrodactylus taimeni ergens, 1971 1a: photomicrogragh of the haptor (scale bar= 0.01mm.). 1b: camera lucida drawing of the haptor (scale bar= 0.01mm.). 1c: photomicrogragh of the marginal hook (hooklet) (scale bar= 0.01mm.). 1d: camera lucida drawing of the marginal hook (scale bar= 0.01mm.). dcb= dorsal connecting bar, h= hooklet, m= membranoid extension, mh= median hook. 6 on the occurrence of the monogenean literature cited abdul-ameer, k. n. 1989. study on parasites of freshwater fishes from tigris river, salah aldien province, iraq. m. sc. thesis, univ. baghdad: 98pp. (in arabic). abdul-ameer, k. n. and al-saadi, a. a. j. 2013. the first record of monogenetic trematode gyrodactylus lavareti malmberg, 1957 on the gills of the common carp cyprinus carpio. 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(eds.). fish parasites: pathobiology and protection. cab int., wallingford: 193-208. bykhovskaya-pavlovskaya, i. e.; gusev, a. v.; dubinina, m. n.; izyumova, n. a.; smirnova, t. s.; sokolovskaya, i. l.; shtein, g. a.; shul'man, s. s. and epshtein, v. m. 1962. key to parasites of freshwater fish of u.s.s.r. akad. nauk, s.s.s.r., moscow: 727pp. (in russian). gussev, a. v. 1985. parasitic metazoans: class monogenea. in: bauer, o. n. (ed.). key to the parasites of freshwater fish fauna of the u.s.s.r. nauka, leningrad, 2: 1-424 (in russian). johnsen, b. o. and jensen, a.j. 1991. the gyrodactylus story in norway. aquaculture, 98: 289-302. jori, m. m. 2006. parasitic study on the asian catfish silurus triostegus (heckel, 1843) from al-hammar marshes, basrah, iraq. ph. d. thesis, univ. basrah: 192pp. kadhim, a. h. 2009. disease agents of four fish species in basrah province. m. sc. thesis, coll. agric., univ. basrah: 102pp. (in arabic). khalifa, k. a. 1989. incidence of parasitic infestation of fishes in iraq. pak. vet. j., 9(2): 6669. 8 on the occurrence of the monogenean koyun, m. and altunel, f. n. 2011. prevalence of two monogenean parasites on different length groups of crucian carp (carassius carassius linnaeus, 1758). not. sci. biol., 3(1): 17-21. mama, k. s. 2012. a comparative study on the parasitic fauna of the common carp cyprinus carpio from ainkawa fish hatchery (erbil) and lesser zab river in kurdistan region, iraq. m. sc. thesis, univ. salahaddin: 89pp. mhaisen, f. t. 2013. index-catalogue of parasites and disease agents of fishes of iraq. (unpublished: mhaisenft@yahoo.co.uk). mhaisen, f. t.; al-saadi, a. a. j. and al-shamma’a, a. a. 1999. some observations on fish parasites of habbaniya lake. ibn al-haitham j. pure appl. sci., 12(1): 62-67. mhaisen, f. t.; al-yamour, k. y. and allouse, s. b. 1995. parasites of some freshwater fishes from tigris river at al-rashidia, north of baghdad, iraq. arq. mus. bocage, nova série, 2(32): 547-554. mhaisen, f. t.; ali, n. m.; abul-eis, e. s. and kadim, l. s. 1990. parasitological investigation of the grass carp (ctenopharyngodon idella) of babylon fish farm, hilla, iraq. j. biol. sci., res., 10(1): 89-96. mhaisen, f. t.; al-khateeb, g. h.; balasem, a. n. and mutar, a. j. 1997. on a collection of some fish parasites from euphrates river, anbar province, iraq. babylon univ. j., pure appl. sci., 2(3): 267-272. mhaisen, f. t.; al-khateeb, g. h.; balasem, a. n.; al-shaikh, s. m. j.; al-jawda, j. m. and mohammad-ali, n. r. 2003. occurrence of some fish parasites in al-madaen drainage network, south of baghdad. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus., 10(1): 39-47. mohammad-ali, n. r.; balasem, a. n.; mhaisen, f. t.; salih, a. m. and waheed, i. k. 1999. observations on the parasitic fauna in al-zaafaraniya fish farm, south of baghdad. vet., 9(2): 79-88. rokicka, m.; lumme, j. and zietara, m. s. 2007. identification of gyrodactylus ectoparasites in polish salmonid farms by pcr-rflp of the nuclear its segment of ribosomal dna (monogenea, gyrodactylidae). acta parasitologica, 52(3): 185-195. salih, n. e.; ali, n. m. and abdul-ameer, k. n. 1988. helminthic fauna of three species of carp raised in ponds in iraq. j. biol. sci. res., 19(2): 369-386. sterud, e.; harris, p. d. and bakke, t. a. 1998. the influence of gyrodactylus salaris malmberg, 1957 (monogenea) on the epidermis of atlantic salmon, salmo salar l., and brook trout, salvelinus fontinalis (mitchill): experimental studies. j. fish dis., 21(4): 257-263. szczembara, a. 2011. gyrodactylus salaris (on-line), animal diversity web at http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu./accounts/gyrodactyl-ussalaris/. 9 k. n. abdul-ameer & a. j. al-saadi bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2013) 12 (3): 1-9 ألول مرة في gyrodactylus taimeni ergens, 1971 أُحادي المنشأظهور cyprinus carpio عتياديإلالعراق من غالصم أسماك الكارب ا كفاح ناصر عبد األمير وعبد علي جنزيل الساعدي ، جامعة بغداد(بن الهيثمإ)قسم علوم الحياة، كلية التربية الخالصة ألول مرة في gyrodactylus taimeni ergens, 1971سجل أحادي المنشأ تم إعطاء .cyprinus carpioالعراق من غالصم أسماك الكارب اإلعتيادي فضالً عن . الطفيلي باإلضافة إلى الرسم التوضيحي له مواصفات وقياسات هذا المسجلة لحد اآلن في gyrodactylusذلك، تم تضمين قائمة بأنواع الجنس العراق من أسماك الكارب اإلعتيادي مع أنواع المضيفات األخرى لكل نوع . منها 5 39 n. k. al-salim and a. h. ali bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2010) 11 (2): 39-53 first record of five nematode species in some water birds from al-hammar marsh, south of iraq nadirah k. al-salim and atheer h. ali* department of fisheries and marine resources, college of agriculture, basrah university, basrah, iraq. (*atheer_h_ali@yahoo.com ) abstract parasitological investigation of piscivorous birds in al-hammar marsh south of iraq during december-february 2004 and december 2005 were revealed that water birds infected with five nematode species, which belong to three different superfamilies, desmidocercella numidica(seurat, 1920) (superfamily: aproctoidea) from three piscivorous birds including grey heron ardea cinerea, bittern botaurusstellaris, and small white heronardeola ralloides; avioserpens sp. 1 and avioserpens sp. 2 (superfamily: dracunculoidea) from small bittern ixobrychus minutus and black glossy ibis plegadisfalcinellus respectively; baruscapillaria sp. and baruscapillarinae gen. sp. (superfamily: trichinellida) from grey heron and little egret egrettagrazetta respectively. all these parasites were described and recorded for the first time in iraq, furthermore aproctoidea and dracunculoidea were recorded for the first time in iraq. introduction aproctoid nematodes genus desmidocercella cram, 1927 parasites of piscivorous birds and used aquatic invertebrates and freshwater fishes as intermediate and transport hosts respectively in their life cycle (baruset al., 1978), dracunculoid nematode avioserpens wehr et chitwood, 1934 mature in subcutaneous tissues and body cavity of water birds in eurasia and north america (moravec, 2006a), and the threadlike nematode baruscapillariamoravec, 1982 parasite of birds and mammals in different parts of the world (moravec, 1982). in iraq no works carried out related to the members of aproctoidea and dracunculoidea and very few works on trichinellida that constricted with the genus capillaria zeder, 1800 parasitized in water birds from mid country (al-aloosi, 1985 and mhaisen and abul-eis, 1992), and basrah water bodies (abdullah, 1988; al-hadithi and mustafa 1991 and aldarajiet al., 1998). because of no study related to the helminths parasite of water birds in restored southern marshes in iraq, this study designed for this purpose. materials and methods six water birds including 12 grey heron ardea cinerea; 7 bittern botaurus stellaris, 7 little egret egretta grazetta, 5 small white heronardeola ralloides, 5 black glossy ibis plegadis falcinellus and 2 small bittern ixobrychus minutus were collected from two stations in the al-hammar marsh, east al-hammar (30º 40´ n 47 º 33´ e) north of basrah province and west al-hammar (30º 51´ n and 40º 46´ e) near suq al-shuyukh north thiqar province during december-february 2004 and december 2005. all bird species were collected from west al-hammar station except grey heron that collected from east hammar station. birds were shot by gun and preserved separately in plastic bags with crush of ice until arrived to the laboratory for immediate examination for parasites or live birds captured and transferred to the laboratory then killed and dissected searching for parasites. birds identification followed mailto:atheer_h_ali@yahoo.com 40 first record of five nematode species allouse (1960) and porter et al.(1996), nematodes which were collected from dissected birds were fixed in hot 4 % formaldehyde and preserved in 70 % ethanol, for examination they cleared in glycerin. drawings were made with aid of a camera lucida fixed on compound microscope type yaseen. the specimens deposited in the collection of department of fisheries and marine resources, college of agriculture, basrahuniversity. all measurements were in micrometres unless otherwise stated. results five nematodes species were recorded from six water birds, the parasites and their site of infection in each host were explained in table (1). table (1): distribution of parasitic nematodes according to hosts and site of infection parasite host site of infection desmidocercella numidica ardea cinerea esophagus, trachea botaurus stellaris air sac ardeola ralloides body cavity avioserpens sp. 1 ixobrychus minutus trachea avioserpens sp. 2 plegadis falcinellus esophagus baruscapillariasp. ardea cinerea mid intestine baruscapillarinae gen. sp. egretta grazetta cloaca bellow the description of each species which were recorded in the present study: 1-desmidocercella numidica (seurat, 1920) figure 1-2 general description (20 specimens) small nematode, finely striated cuticle, blunt anterior end have number of cephalic papillae, vestibule short and slender, esophagus divided into short muscular part and relatively long glandular part, brown to black in colour, which distinguished from other part of body (figure 1-1), nerve ring situated in posterior third of muscular parts (figure 2-1), excretory pore in the first third of glandular esophagus (fig. 2-2). vulva situated at esophagusintestine junction level (fig. 2-1), the esophagus opened in intestine by short valve, anterior testis reach close to valve level (fig. 1-1), posterior end of both sexes rounded and the tail was short and curved ventrally (fig. 2-3 and 2-4), that heavily in the males (fig. 2-2), anus was protruded (fig. 2). male (10 specimens) body length 3339-4644 (4133), maximum width 126-198 (172) in midbody, width of body 61-81 (68) at nerve ring level, and 74-90 (82) at cloaca level, nerve ring and excretory pore 115-137 (124) and 160-306 (207) respectively from anterior end, vestibule 20-27 (24) in length and 7-11 (9) in width, muscular esophagus 94-151 (124) in length and 18-34 (25) in width, glandular esophagus 369-459 (387) in length and 40-72 (55) in width, ratio of 41 n. k. al-salim and a. h. ali muscular esophagus to glandular esophagus 1:2.5-3.6 (1:3.1), whole esophagus length represented 10.9-13.2 (12.2) % from body length, valve 11-13 (12) in length and 30-39 (34) in width, spicules dissimilar and unequal (fig. 1-2), longer spicule (right) slender with pointed sharp distal end, shorter spicule (left) twisted with ventrally curved distal end. length of right spicule 207-416 (355) about 6.2-10.8 % from body length, left spicule 110-160 (135) in length about 2.9-4.2 % from body length, ratio of spicules 1:1.9-3 (2.5) %. tail length 56-72 (66) and has single sessile subventral pair postcloacal papilla situated bellow cloaca. female (10 specimens) body length 4370-5562 (5138), maximum width 144-245 (204) in midbody, width of body 48-94 (76) at nerve ring level, 144-189(158) at vulva level and 54-81 (75) at anus level, nerve ring and excretory pore 85-144(120) and 180-220(199) respectively from anterior end, vestibule 18-27 (22) in length and 7-12(9) in width, muscular esophagus 119-189 (143) in length and 25-36 (30) in width, glandular esophagus 360-427 (401) in length and 56-63 (60) in width, ratio of muscular esophagus to glandular esophagus 1:2.5-6.4 (1:3.3), whole esophagus length represented 9.4-11 (10.2) % from body length, valve 11-14 (12) in length and 27-40 (35) in width, vulva was protruded in anterior half of body (prequatorial) 414-792 (603) from body length, vagina muscular 362-882 (621), uterus empty from the eggs, tail 40117 (81) in length. 2-avioserpens sp. 1 general description (fig. 3) small nematode with rounded anterior extremity without peribuccal sclerotized ring, esophagus consist of two parts (very short muscular and long glandular parts), the anterior of the latter part was swollen, gubernaculums, a few post cloacal papillae were present. male (one specimen) fig. 3-1 total length 8043, maximum width 152 in posterior quarter of the body, excretory canal very clear and situated exactly anterior to the swollen part of glandular esophagus and opened by excretory pore about 48 from anterior extremity, muscular esophagus 180 in length and 63 in width, length of swollen portion of esophagus 216, nerve ring 342 from anterior extremity, glandular esophagus 1170 in length and 90 in the width. total esophagus 1278 about 15.9% from body length, the tail conical tapering toward distal part, turned ventrally and has nodular appendage at its tip. spicules was dark red in colour, well sclerotized, similar and equal, 441 in length proximal end was broad and the distal end was pointed, gubernaculum present well sclerotized pin in form 35 in length, postcloacal papillae four large pairs, the first, second and the last pairs lateral while the third was subdorsal, the first and the second behind the cloacal opening, the third in mid tail and the last one close to tail tip. 3avioserpens sp. 2 male (one specimen) fig. 3-2 and 3-3 total length 7478, maximum width 141 in posterior quarter of the body, six large cell nuclei situated anterior part of muscular esophagus, muscular esophagus 128 in length and 40 in maximum width, swollen part of esophagus 435, glandular esophagus 1799 in length and 100 in width, total esophagus 1927 about 25.7 % from body length, tail conical tapering toward distal end ventrally curved 225 in length, spicules 357 with blunt proximal end and pointed distal end, gubernaculum well sclerotized with striped proximal end and pointed distal end 128 in length, postcloacal papillae five pairs in different size, first one close to the cloaca, 2-4 pairs close to each other conforming triangle appearance, the last pair posterior to the previous pairs. single pair of phasmid close to the tip of the tail. 4baruscapillaria sp. 42 first record of five nematode species genral description (10 females and two posterior parts of males) thread like nematode with narrow and rounded anterior extremity, esophagus in two parts, anterior one narrow and long and expanded posteriorly, nerve ring in the first third of the esophagus, posterior part of the esophagus (schistostome) consist of a single row of cells (schistocytes), schistocytes was long and externally segmented into anumber of annuli, each schistocyte has a giant nucleus in mid of it, two oval gland cell are situated in esophagus intestine junction. cloaca and anus were subterminal. male (posterior part of two specimens) fig. 4 posterior part of body 964 and 2628 for first and second specimens respectively, maximum width 30-34 (32) in posterior part of esophagus, schistocytes five and 30 in the number respectively, 90-144 (117) in length and 22-23 (22) in width, spicule well sclerotized, smooth 522-587(554) in length, proximal end bifurcated, width of spicule 7.8-9 (8.4), 4.1-4.5 (4.3) and 3.4-3.9 (3.6) at proximal, middle and distal parts respectively. posterior end of body was rounded and has short bursa 9 in length and 14-16 (15) in width, also has big pair of papilla that not reach to the posterior terminal of bursa. spicular sheath smooth 124 in length and 8-9 (8) in width. female (10 specimens) fig. 4 body length 4761-6848 (5960), maximum width 41-45 (44) in third quarter of the body, muscular esophagus 171-306(237) in length and 9 in width, schistostome 1944-2583 (2280) in length and13-31 (24) in width and has 26-35 (30) schistocytes. schistocytes 45-90 (63) in length and 11-27 (18) in width and consist of 7-13 (10) annuli, annuli 9-16 (13) in length and 7-9 (8) in width, nerve ring 34-63 (47) from anterior extremity, total esophagus 2115-2880 (2496) about 40.3-44.5 (41.6) % from body length. rectum 38-67 (54), vulva elevated prequatorial about 40.5-48 (42.6) % from body length and 49-103 (78) from posterior end of the esophagus and has vulval appendage 2122-3006 (2557) in length and 16 in the width, matured eggs oval and thick-walled have plugs in each polar 43-46 (44)×20-22 (21). 5baruscapillarinae gen. sp. male (one specimen) body length 11413, maximum width 63 in mid body, muscular esophagus 459 in length and 15 in width, schistostome3323 in length and 32-45 in width and has 34 schistocytes. schistocytes 90-124 in length and 22-31 in width and consist of 8-16 (13) annuli, gland cells 20 in the length and 13 in the width, nerve ring 38 fromantererior extremity, total esophagus 3682 about 32.5 % from body length, spicule well sclerotized, smooth 2124 in length about 18.6 % from body length, proximal end bifurcated (un equal in length), width of spicule 22.5 and 10.2 at proximal and distal parts respectively. posterior end of body was rounded and bursa with two lobes. papillae on bursa was not clear. spicular sheath was wrinkled, 921 in length and 22 in width. discussion 1d. numidica by having the nematode short body, compact two lips, presence of vestibule, divided esophagus, spicules unequal and dissimilar, vulva equatorially fall this nematode in the family desmidocercidae cram, 1927, short esophagus in compared to body length, precence of cloacal papillae and the tail of both sexes was without filiform papillae fall in genusdesmidocercella yorketmaplestone, 1926 (see baruset al., 1978). according to yamaguti (1961) the genus posses eight species three of them parasites of cormorants phalacrocorax spp. the rest species were known from ardeidae, two of them 43 n. k. al-salim and a. h. ali found in grey heron vis. d. numidica from algeria and volga delta in the america and d. lubimovi gschanskaja, 1954 from russia, but chabaud (1957) confirmed that the latter species was synonym of type species. baruset al. (1978) reproved the latter opinion by consider the genus have four species only. moravec et al. (1988) redescribedd. incognita solonitsin, 1932 from air sacs of cormorant p. carbo in past czechoslovakia, vicenti et al.(1995) recorded d. ardeae (nawrotzky, 1914) from body cavity of heron ardea cocoi in brazil, pinto et al.(2004) found the latter species from buccal cavity of greet white heron in west-central of brazil. nogueserolaet al.(2002) recorded present species from air sacs of three species of herons in spain. it is clear that the previous record of desmidocercella in two water birds families both mainly piscivorous birds, hence the probably of the fish considered as transport host for this nematode, baruset al.(1978) found from literature review that the larva of type species (d. numidica) infected eyes of many freshwater fishes in the wild environment, and fish infected with these larva have been fed to grey heron passed successfully to matured in stomach of grey heron. moravec (1994) showed the description of third and fourth larval stage of this species that infected eyes of freshwater fishes in europe and recorded from asia, africa and north america. valtonen et al. (2001) recorded larval stage of unidentified species from fresh water fish lota lota in the northeastern baltic sea and they considered this parasite allogenic parasite which it used the fishes as intermediate host and the bird and mammals as final hosts and have the chance of wide distribution to new places. our materials have morphological criteria agree with that of the same species in barus et al.(1978) except the present females relatively small, probably they are non gravid (uterus was empty from the eggs) hence we return them to this species. from above this species was not done recorded or described in iraq, furthermore the superfamily aproctoidea was recorded new to the fauna of iraq. the water birds grey heron, squacco heron and little egret were new hosts record in iraq. 2 avioserpens sp. 1 by having present material filarid body with esophagus divided into short muscular part and very long glandular one, the latter has swollen anterior portion, nerve ring encircling glandular esophagus behind swollen portion put it in the family dracunculidae stiles, 1907, by absence of peribuccal ring and parasite of bird fall it in genus avioserpenswehr et chitwood, 1934 (see moravec, 2006a). so this genus has many species which were inadequate in their description, hence led moravec (2006a) to reduce its species to four. present species shared with a. denticulophasma wehr et chitwood, 1934 and a. galliardichabaudetcampana, 1949 in final host (family areidae), but differ from the first one in geographic distribution in the new world instead of old world, avioserpens sp.1 similar to a. galiardi in length of spicules, but our species has short and un-rod gubernaculum and four post cloacal papillae. the presence of nodular appendage on tail tip in our species did not found in any species of avioserpens except that found in matured females of a. taiwana (sugimoto, 1919), but the latter species parasitized of another family (anatidae). nogueserolaet al. (2002) recorded a. galliardi from esophagus of purple heron, little egret, night heron and small bittern in spain. the third larval stage was recorded from body cavity of many freshwater fish in europe and these fishes considered transport host to the parasite (moravec, 1994). moravec (1994) reviewed the life cycle of a. galliardi in europe that contained many copepod species as intermediate host which swallow the first larval stage of parasite found in the faeces of infected final host, the larvae was developed to the third larval stage in copepod, these larvae have infected both transport host such as dragonflies or fishes and final hosts (water birds), if these hosts swallowed them. the third larval stage of these nematode 44 first record of five nematode species recorded in fishes was very minute about 0.39-0.48 mm, which get explanation why did not recorded these nematodes from freshwater fishes in iraq yet. according to above details our species distinct from all species of the genus and may be new species, but consolidation this idea depending on availability of other specimens including females. 3 avioserpens sp. 2 present species differ from a. taiwana by length of spicules (357 in compared to 185-218 in a. taiwana), shape and length of gubernaculum (pini shaped 128 in compared by ploughshareshaped and 35-78 in the latter) and in the final host (thereskiornithidae in compared with areidae in the latter) and in presence of postcloacal papillae in compared with lacking it in the latter. present species differ from a. galliardi by the length of spicules (357 in compared with 380-450) shape and length of gubernaculum (pin shape with stripped proximal end and 128 in compared with smooth of proximal end and 110-115 ) and presence of cloacal papillae in compared with lacking them and in final host (thereskiornithidae in compared with areidae, anatidae and gavidae). our species differ from a. denticulophasma in geographical distribution and final host in compared with the latter restricted in areidae and anatidae in south america). our species differ from a. mosgovoyisupryaga, 1965 by length of spicules (357 in compared with 165190) and shape and length of gubernaculum (pin shape and 128 in length in compared with cuneiform with many spines and 80-108 in length), number and arrangement of post cloacal papillae (five lateral pairs not series in compared to three subventral series postcloacal with pair adanal papilla, tail tip (smooth tip in compared with three spines on tip) and final host (thereskiornithidae in compared to anatidae, gavidae and podicipidae). avioserpens sp. 2 differs from avioserpens sp.1 of present study by arrangement of cloacal papillae and in the final host. according to above details and information until 2006 it no recorded any species of avioserpens from thereskiornithidae in the world, and so unavailability the females and the presence of a single male let us reservation it as new species description in the present time. this is the first record of the parasite in iraq at least and black glossy ibis p. falcinellus consider as a new host record in the world. 4baruscapillaria sp. most researchers including yamaguti (1961) were consider the family capillaridae had one genus capillariazeder, 1800 with more than 300 species with great variations and parasitic in all vertebrates. that confusion encourage some parasitologists to essential make a new genera for those species, some attempts from brazilians and russians during 1959 until 1966 resulting on arrangement of the species on ten genera, but validity of those genera based on un suitable morphological criteria hence many species may fall in previous described genera (moravec, 1982). moravec (1982) was made revision of capillaridae, designed new systematic style and established 16 genera including two new genera, which agree with some previous researchers when he had gave important value to the caudal end of male for distinguished different genera were not described adequately in previous studies, led difficult to transferred many species to right genus, also added new taxonomic characteristics and left others had been used previously. the birds were consider final host to eight genera of nematode belong to capillaridae, from these only four genera had smooth spicule's sheath, aonthotheca lopez-neyre, 1947, baruscapillaria moravec, 1982, ornithocapillaria barus et sergeeva, 1990 and pseudocapillaria freitas, 1959. aonthotheca had caudal alae, poor sclerotized spicule and 45 n. k. al-salim and a. h. ali presence of elongated lobular projections in the tail in compared to baruscapillaria had not caudal alae, well sclerotized spicule and absence of lobular projections in the tail, ornithocapillaria very similar to baruscapillaria, but the former one had complex bursa in compared to simple one in the latter. pseudocapillaria had not bursa in the male. our materials agree in morphology and measurement of the genus baruscapillaria, tentatively this genus posses 23 species parasitic in intestine and stomach of the birds and mammals (moravec, 1982), barus and sergeeva (1990a) transferred two species of baruscapillaria to genusornithocapillaria, barus and sergeeva (1990b) made revision of baruscapillaria and reduced its species to 13 valid species. moravecet al.(1994) verified the validity of b. carbonis (rd., 1819) and changed the authority and described new species b. rudolphi from cormorant p. carbo, then frantova (2001) designed keys to capillarid nematodes parasite cormorant including redescribed b. carbonis (dobinin et dobinina, 1940). our specimen similar to b. rudolphi in shape of female's tail, shape of bursa in the male, but differ from it by body length, body width, ratio of esophagus length to body length, nerve ring distance to anterior extremity, number and measurement of schistocytes, shape of different parts of spicule and its length and in the final host ( ciconiformes in compared to plecaniformes), according to our acknowledgment the only one species was known from ardeidaeb. herodiae (boyd, 1966) described from ardea herodias in north america, but it's length about l15.3 mm for male and 8.3 mm for female, the female have not vulval appendage. previous record for capillaridae from the birds in iraq were limited to the genus capillaria , al-aloosi (1985) isolated c. contorta (creplin, 1819) and c. laricola (vasilkova, 1930) from larus ridibundus from mid of the country, however now the latter species was synonym of the former (barus et al., 1978). abdullah (1988) and al-hadithi and mustafa (1991) were recorded female of capillaria sp. from fulica atra in the zijri marsh north-west of basrah province and from l. ridibundus in shatt al-arab river respectively, mhaisen and abul-eis (1992) found c. contorta from l. icththyaetus, l. genei and chettusia leucura in babylon fish farm in mid of country, al-darajiet al. (1998) was recorded thominix contorta (creplin, 1839) from l. canus in the bond north of basrah, however the genus thominix diujadin, 1845 was considered synonym of capillaria ( moravec, 1982 and moravec, 2006b). according to the above details the description and recording this parasite was the first in iraq. 5baruscapillarinae gen. sp. barus and sergeeva (1990a) erect the genus ornithocapillaria by possessed four species in that time, two of them transferred from baruscapillaria and one from pseudocapillaria. moravecet al. (2000) added three species including two species transferred from baruscapillaria and one species from capillaria. our specimen impossible confinement generic status so morphlogical characters between baruscapillaria and ornithocapillaria depending mainlyon lobed structure of caudal end in male, in case of presence of two ventrolateral lobes in caudal end and presence of vulval appendage in the female agree with ornithocapillaria, and because caudal details not clear especially ventral view in our single specimen (illustrations was appeared the dorsal and lateral views only) and unavailability of female prevent us for made the generic status of the specimen, although our specimen have morphological characters similar to that of b. rudolphi, but differ from it by situation of nerve ring, shape of proximal end of spicule. however our species may beornithocapillaria if take into account the specialization in site of infection (cloaca), as o. phalocrocoraxi(borgarenko, 1875) was recorded from cloaca of pygmy cormorant in tachekistan (moravec et al., 2000), as well as relatively advanced of bursa in lateral view. 46 first record of five nematode species according to above details the description and record of the present nematode species considered at least the first in iraq, also little egret consider as a new host record. literature cited abdullah, b. h. (1988). a study on parasites of some aquatic birds in basrah. m. sc. thesis. university of basrah. 118 pp.(in arabic). al-aloosi, j. a. a. (1985). a survey of alimentary canal helminths of two birds: gull (larusridibundus) and wood-pigeon (columba palambus) from baghdad and baiji regions. m. sc. thesis, university of baghdad, 124 pp. (in arabic). al-daraji, s. a. m. ; salim, y. a-k. and abdel-razak, a. t. (1998). newly recorded nematodes parasitizing the common gull (laruscanus l., 1758) from basrah province, iraq. basrah j. sci., 16(1): 63-68. al-hadithi, i. a. and mustafa, f. a. (1991). some helminth parasites of two species of aquatic birds anasplatyrhynchos and larusredibundus) from basrah, iraq. basrah j. agric. sci., 4(1&2): 245-253. allouse, b. e. (1960). birds of iraq.vol.1. al-rabitta press, baghdad. 276 pp.( in arabic). baruš, v. and sergeeva, t. p. (1990a). a new genus of capillariids from birds, ornithocapillariagen. n. (nematoda: capillariidae). fol. parasitol., 37: 237–248. baruš, v. and sergejeva, t. p. (1990b). capillariids parasitic in birds in the palaearctic region (3) genus baruscapillaria. acta scientiarum naturalium academiae scientiarum bohemoslovacae – brno, 24 (no. 10): 1–53. barus, v., sergeeva, t. p., sonin, m. d., & ryzhikov, k. m. (1978). helminths of fish-eating birds of the palearctic region. i. nematoda.prague academia. 318 pp. chabaud, a. g. (1957). note sur les nematodes du genra desmidocercella. ann. par., 32(3): 342-343. (cited from baruset al., 1978). frantova, d. (2001). capillarid nematodes (nematoda: capillaridae) parasitic in the common cormorant (phalocrocoraxcarbo) with redescription of baruscapillariacarbonis (dubininetdubinina, 1940). fol. parasitol., 48: 225-230. mhaisen, f. t. and abul-eis, e. s.(1992). parasitic helminthes of eight species of aquatic birds in babylon farm, hilla, iraq. zoology in the middle east, 7: 115-119. moravec, f. (1982). proposal of a new systematic arrangement of nematodes of the family capillariidae. fol. parasitol. 29: 110-132. moravec, f. (1994). parasitic nematodes of freshwater fishes of europe. prague: academia, and dordrecht: kluwer academic publishers, 473 pp. moravec, f. (2006a). dracunculoid and anguillicoloid nematodes parasitic in vertebrates. academia, prague, the czech republic, 634 pp. 47 n. k. al-salim and a. h. ali moravec, f. (2006b). m. l. sood: nematode parasites of birds (including poultry) from south asia. book review. fol. parasitol., 53: 76. moravec, f.; nasincova, v. and scholz, t. (1988). new records of hemilminth parasite from cormorants (phalocrocoraxcarbo l.) in czechoslovakia. fol. parasitol., 35: 381-383. moravec, f. ; salgado-maldonado, g. and osorio-sarabia, d. (2000). records of the bird capillariid nematode ornithocapillariaappendiculata (freitas, 1933) n. comb. from freshwater fishes in mexico, with remarks on capillariapatzcuarensis osorio-sarabiaet al., 1986. syst. parasitol., 45: 53–59. moravec, f. ; scholz, t. and našincová, v. (1994). the systematic status of trichosomacarbonisrudolphi, 1819 and a description of baruscapillariarudolphii n. sp. (nematoda: capillariidae), an intestinal parasite of cormorants. syst. parasitol., 28, 153158. nogueserola, m. l. ; navarro, p. and liuch, j. (2002). helmintos de ardeidae en valencia (espana). anales de biologia, 24: 139-144. pinto, r. m. ; barros, l. a. ; tortelly, l. ; teixeira, r. f. and gomes, d. c. (2004). prevalence and pathology of helminths of ciconiiform birds from the brazilian swamplands. j. helminthol., 78: 259-264. porter, r. f. ; christensen, s. and schiermacker-hansen, p. (1996). birds of the middle east. helm. field guids. t and ad. poyster publ., london, 460 pp. valtonen, e. t. ; pulkkinen, k. ; poulin, r. and julkunen, m. (2001). the structure of parasite component communities in brackish water fishes in the northeastern baltic sea. parasitology, 122: 471-481. vicente, j. j. ; pinto, r. m. ; goncalves, d. n. l. (1995). nematode parasites of brazilian ciconiiformes birds: a general survey with new records for the species. mem. inst. oswaldo cruz rio de janeiro, 90(3): 389-393. yamaguti, s. (1961). systemahelminthum vol. 3: the nematodes of vertebrates. part 1+2. inter sci. publ., new york, 1261 pp. 48 first record of five nematode species figure (1): male of nematode desmidocercellanumidica (1) anterior part, abr. muscular esophagus (m), glandular esophagus (g), intestine (i), anterior testis (t), (2-3) posterior end of different specimens, abr. spicule (s), postclocal papilla (p), (4) distal end of long spicule, scale bar (1)= 1mm, (2)=450µm, (3)= 90 µm, (4)= 45 µm. 49 n. k. al-salim and a. h. ali figure(2): female of desmidocercellanumidica (1-2) anterior part, (3-4) posterior end, (5) esophagus-intestine junction, anus(a), excretory pore(e), glandular esophagus (g), intestine(i), muscular esophagus (m), nerve ring(n), vulva(v), vagina (v), vestibule (ve). scale bar: (1,3)=450µm, (2,4,5)=90 µm. 50 first record of five nematode species figure(3): avioserpens sp.1 (1-3) anterior part, abr. muscular esophagus(m), glandular esophagus(g), swollen part of glandular esophagus(s),excretory pore(e) (4) posterior part (5) distal end of spicule (6) avioserpens sp. 2: anterior part (7) the same posterior part, abr. spicules (sp), gubernaculum(gu), scale bar: (1)= 1mm, (2)=450µm, (3,4,6,7)= 90 µm, (5)=45 µm. 51 n. k. al-salim and a. h. ali figure (4): baruscapillaria sp. (1) anterior part of the female (2) schistostomes of female, (3) posterior end of female, (4-5): vulva region in the female, abr. schistostomes (sc), gland cell(g), vulvalur appendage (a),intestine (i), (6) the egg, (7) posterior part of the male, abr. papilla (p), spicule(s), spicular sheath(ss), scale bar: (1-5 and 7)= 90µm, (6)=45 µm. 52 first record of five nematode species figure (5): baruscapillaria gen. sp. male (1) anterior part, (2) posterior part, abr. papilla(p), (3) posterior end, abr. spicule(s), spicular sheath(ss), scale bar: (1-2)=90µm, (3)= 45 µm. 53 n. k. al-salim and a. h. ali bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2010) 11 (2): 38-53 تسجیل أول لخمسة أنواع من الدیدان الخیطیة في بعض الطیور المائیة من ار جنوب العراقمھور الح نادرة كاظم السالم و أثیر حسین علي قسم األسماك والثروة البحریة، كلیة الزراعة، جامعة البصرة، البصرة، العراق الخالصة ور الحم ار جن وب الع راق أثناء الدراسة الطفیلیة للطیور األكل ة لألس ماك ف ي ھ و ف ي ك انون الث اني ٢٠٠٤خ الل الفت رة الممت دة م ن ك انون األول حت ى ش باط أظھرت الطیور المائیة إصابتھا بخمسة أنواع من الدیدان الخیطیة تعود ٢٠٠٥ ف وق ( desmidozercellanumidica(seurat, 1920)الى ثالث ة ف وق عوائ ل مختلف ة ثة انواع من الطیوراالكل ة لألس ماك تض منت مال ك من ثال) aproctoideaالعائلة وال واق االب یض botaurusstellarisوال واق ardeacinereaالح زین الرم ادي و ال دودة الخیطی ة avioserpens sp.1الدودة الخیطیة ؛ardeolaralloidesالصغیر avioserpens sp.2) ف وق العائل ة(dracunculoidea م ن ال واق الص غیر ixobrychusminutus و ابومنجل االسودplegadisfalcinellus ال دودة . على التوالي فوق ( .baruscapillarinaegen. spوالدودة الخیطیة .baruscapillaria spالخیطیة م ن مال ك الح زین الرم ادي والبیوض ي الص غیر عل ى )trichinellidaالعائل ة ً ع ن إن جمیع الطفیلیات توصف وتسجل ألول م . التوالي رة ف ي الع راق، قض ال تس جالن ألول م رة ف ي dracunculoideaوف وق العائل ةaproctoideaف وق العائل ة .العراق bull 135 m.s. abdul-rassoul bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2016) 14 (2): 135-139 new host plants record for the brown soft scale coccus hesperidum linnaeus, 1758 (hemiptera: coccidae) in baghdad province, iraq m.s. abdul-rassoul iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq corresponding author: msabr_1942@yahoo.com abstract an investigation was provided in this work for the host range of brown soft scale coccus hesperidum linnaeus in baghdad province. five plant species were found infected by this insect, three of these species, citrusaurantium l. (rutaceae); nerium oleander l. (apocynaceae); ficuscarica l. (moraceae) reported earlier, and the remaining two, dahlia pinnata cav. (asteraceae) and myrtuscommunis l. (myrtaceae) are recordedhere for the first time as host plants for this pest. key words: coccidae, coccus hesperidum, hemiptera, iraq, new host. introduction the brown soft scale, coccus hesperidum linnaeus, 1758 (hemiptera; coccidae) is a cosmopolitan species with distributional range that cover six zoogeographical regions of the world (kozar and ben-dov, 1997). it is highly polyphagous pest species that infest about 90 plant families (ben-dov, 1993), and it is considered as a serious pest of fruit trees, particularly citrus and a wide variety of field plants, ornamental plants, house plants and greenhouse plants. it has been reported around the northeast africa-southwest asia in afghanistan, iran, lebanon, saudi arabia, libya, israel, turkey, cyprus, ethiopia, iraq, syria, egypt, somalia and tunisia (gentry, 1965). the first record of c. hesperidum in iraq was reported by bodenheimer (1943) on citrus aurantium (rutaceae). after that, al-ali (1977) reported nerium oleander (apocynaceae); ficuscarica (moraceae) as a host for c. hesperidum in addition to citrus (rutaceae). the females and nymphs of this insect were observed on the lower leaf surface near the main vein, cause both direct and indirect damage to the plants. the direct damage caused by their piercing-sucking mouth parts, that is used for sucking sap from the plant that resulting stunting, distortion, chlorosis, and defoliation (abdul-rassoul, 1970, al-rawy et al., 1977; smith et al.,1997). damage also, occurs by excrete honeydew, which provides a suitable medium for the growth of black sooty mold fungi. the black sooty mold fungi are detrimental to plants because they cover leaves, thus reducing photosynthesis and inducing plant stress (al-rawy et al., 1977; malais and ravensberg, 1992). this study wasconducted to determinedahlia pinnata (asteraceae) and myrtuscommunis (myrtaceae) as a host plants for coccus hesperidumfor the first time in iraq. 136 new host plants record for the brown soft scale materials and methods in this study, infested plants dahlia pinnata (asteraceae) and myrtuscommunis (myrtaceae) by scale insects were collected from a private garden in various locations in baghdad province during may and june, 2013. the scale specimens were carefully removed from the leaf surfaces and were put into a tube which contained 75% alcohol. scales were mounted on microscope slides using the method given by kosztarab and kozar (1988), and the identification was carried out by the author using key provided by mohammad and moharum (2013). information about the characters and illustration were compiled from the previous authors. mounted slides are deposited in the collection of iraq natural history museum. results and discussion in may and june 2013, during my investigation on our faunistic survey on the iraqi insects, i have found several dahlia pinnata (asteraceae) and myrtuscommunis (myrtaceae) plants in addition to the three previous species mentioned before were heavily infested by scale insects growing in private gardens in baghdad. plant samples were taken to the laboratory and the pest was identified as soft brown scale, coccus hesperidum linnaeus, which easily recognized by the following characters: body broadly oval to round; flat to slightly convex in lateral view; light brown to yellowish-green in color with brown stippling, and 2.5 to 4.0 mm long and 2.0 mm wide (fig.1). dorsal tubular ducts present in a small number; sub marginal tubercles less than 10 on each side; stigmatic setae different from other marginal setae. antennae and legs are normal; trochanter distinct; stigmatic setae exist in only one row. the dorsal surface of body without bilocular, trilocular or quadrilocular disc pores. figure (1): soft brown scale, coccus hesperidum linnaeus on dahlia pinnata leaf 137 m.s. abdul-rassoul the current study recorded dahlia pinnata (asteraceae) and myrtuscommunis (myrtaceae) as a host plant for c. hesperidum for the first time in iraq. this finding is met with the results of granara de willink (1999) who record this scale on d. pinnata in argentine when he provided a list of c. hesperidum host plant. on the other hands, our finding of this scale on myrtuscommunis (myrtaceae) agrees with the results of green (1928) in britain and ben-dov (1971) in israel. literature cited abdul-rassoul, m.s. 1970. notes on nipaecoccus vastator (maskell) (coccidae: homoptera). a serious pest of citrus trees and various plants-first record from iraq. bulletin of the iraq natural history museum, 4(4): 105-108. al-ali, a.s. 1977. phytophagous and entomophagous insects and mites of iraq. natural history research center publication, no. 33: 142 pp. al-rawy, m.a., kaddou, i.k. and al-omar, m.a. 1977. the present status of the spherical mealybug, nipaecoccusvastator (maskell) (homoptera: pseudococcidae) in iraq. bulletin of the biological research center (baghdad), 8: 3-15. ben-dov, y. 1971. an annotated list of the soft scale insects (homoptera: coccidae) of israel. israel journal of entomology, 6: 23-34. ben-dov, y. 1993. a systematic catalogue of the soft scale insects of the world (homoptera: coccoidea: coccidae). sandhill crane press, gainesville, fl. 536 pp. bodenheimer, f.s. 1943. a first survey of the coccoidea of iraq. government of iraq, ministry of economics, directorate general of agriculture, bulletin, 28: 1-33. gentry, j.w. 1965. crop insects of northeast africa-southwest asia. united states department of agriculture, agriculture handbook, no. 273: 210 pp. granara de willink, m.c. 1999. soft scale insects of argentina (homoptera: coccoidea: coccidae) las cochinillasblandas de la república argentina (homoptera: coccoidea: coccidae). contributions on entomology, international, 3(1): 1-183. green, e.e. 1928. observations on british coccidae. xi. with descriptions of new species. entomologist's monthly magazine, 64: 20-31. kosztarab, m. and kozar, f. 1988. scale insects of central europ. dr. w. junk publishers, bodapest, 650pp. kozár, f. and ben-dov, y. 1997. zoogeographical considerations and status of knowledge of the family. in: ben-dov, y., hodgson, c.j. (eds.), soft scale insects, their biology, natural enemies and control, vol. 7a. elsevier, amsterdam, 213-228. malais, m.h. and ravensberg, w.j. 1992. knowing and recognizing the biology of glasshouse pests and their natural enemies. reed business information, doetinchen, the netherlands, 288 pp. 138 new host plants record for the brown soft scale mohammad, z.k. and moharum, f.a. 2013. key to the species of family coccidae in egypt (hemiptera, coccoidea, coccidae). egyptian academic journal of biological sciences, 6(2): 145-158. smith, d., beattie, g.a.c. and broadley, r. 1997. citrus pests and their natural enemies: integrated pest management in australia, queensland. department of primary industries series q197030, 272 pp. 139 m.s. abdul-rassoul bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2016) 14 (2): 135-139 سجيل جذيذ للىباحاث المضيفً للحشزة القشزيت السمزاءث coccus hesperidum linnaeus, 1758 (hemiptera: coccidae) محافظت بغذاد، العزاقفي محمذ صالح عبذ الزسُل جامعت بغذاد-مزكز بحُد َ مخحف الخأريخ الطبيعي الخالصت الىباحيت للحشزة القشزيت السمزاء الذراست الحاليت لغزض الخحزي عه المضايف أجزيج coccus hesperidum linnaeusمحافظت بغذاد في . citrus aurantium الىاروج : مىٍاثالثت وباحيت حصيبٍا ٌذي الحشزة أوُاعحبيه َجُد خمست (rutaceae) الذفلت َ nerium oleander (apocynaceae) َالخيه ficus carica (moraceae) َ dahlia pinnata (asteraceae) الىُعيه المخبقييه َ المخمثالن بالذاليا أماسجلج سابقا مزة كمضايف وباحيت لٍذي ألَلفأوٍما يسجالن myrtus cummunis (myrtaceae) اآلس . العزاق فيالحشزة bull 161 ali f. reshag et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2016) 14 (2): 161-170 morphological and histochemical study of harderian gland of domestic pigeon (columba livia domestica) ali f. reshag* ilaf hassan hadi** and hadaf h. mohammed* *department of anatomy and histology, college of veterinary medicine university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq ** department of anatomy, college of medicine, al-iraqia university, baghdad, iraq corresponding author: dr0ali1961@gmail.com abstract the aim of this work was to study the histological and histochemical structure of the harderian gland in indigenous pigeons. samples were obtained from 10 males and 10 females of adult healthy pigeons. hematoxylin and eosin, alcian blue (ph 2.5), periodic acid-schiff and promo phenol blue, stains were used for paraffin section examination. the gland was teardrop like in shape, light brown to pink in color, capsulated with thin connective tissue. it was multilobular compound acinotubular in structure and lined by columnar epithelial cells. lymphocyte, plasma cells and plasma cells with russell bodies were present underneath the epithelia of central collecting duct and around the secretory unite. histochemically; the epithelial cells of both secretory unites and their ducts contained acidic mucins. russell bodies gave positive reaction with periodic acid schiff reagent. the present of immunoglobulin was proved in the cytoplasm of plasma cells with russell body. there were no differences in harderian gland in both sexes. in conclusion, the harderian gland of pigeon was histologically and histochemically well developed, and it is immunological effective secondary lymphatic organ, and it had few differences from the gland of other birds. key word: columba, harderian gland, histochemical study, russell bodies, pigeon. introduction the harderian gland is compound multilobular ocular gland that located at the orbital cavity. it possess single duct that open in the inner angle of the eye at the base of the nictitating membrane. it present in most terrestrial vertebrates such as amphibian, reptiles, birds and some mammals (weaker, 1981; baccari et al., 1990; payne, 1994; shirama et al., 1996). the harderian gland in some animal is large and more developed than the lacrimal gland (sakai, 1989).the functions of the gland are diverse with animal species (buzzell, 1996). it is involved in the protection of the eye against bright light and play role in photodynamic process (reis et al., 2005; funasaka et al., 2010). the gland may have endocrine function (pradidarcheep et al., 2003). in avian the gland has great role in response to infection and vaccination (salam et al., 2003; zakeri and kashefi, 2011). materials and methods twenty of pigeon harderian glands were used in this study that included 10 females and 10 males. the birds were sacrificed by decapitation and their heads were quickly removed and the glands were fixed direct by injection of fixative solution (10%formalin, bouin´s solution) in to the orbital cavity, then the heads as whole were immersed in the same fixative solution 162 morphological and histochemical study of harderian gland for 48 hours. for anatomical study of the eyeball, including harderian gland and muscles were carefully dissected after removing of the cranial bone, brain and the lower jaw. each head was divided into two equal parts by using a sharp blade; the cut line was passed sagittal through the septa between the orbital cavities. for microscopic study the harderian gland was prepared for paraffin embedding and sectioned serially at 6µm. the tissue sections were stained with hematoxylin & eosin and alcian blue (ph 2.5), periodic acid-schiff and bromophenol blue for basic protein (vacca, 1985). results and discussion macroscopic observations: the harderian gland of pigeon located at the orbital cavity lying at the ventromedial aspect of eye behind the eyeball. it was extended from the origin of the optic nerve passing inferiorly covered with the external ocular muscles (fig.1). it is in agreement with the results of wight et al. (1971a) in domestic fowl and the result of dimitrov (2012) in pheasants. the gross observations revealed that gland was light brown to pink in color, and look like tear drop in shape had narrow anterior end and wide posterior end with curved flat body and had single main duct (fig.1). the gross features of the gland in pigeon were similar to those observed by kozlu et al. (2010) in osprey. where in domestic fowl and sparrow harderian glands were different in which the gland appeared irregular in shape (wight et al., 1971a; payne, 1994). microscopic results: the histological examination revealed that the harderian gland of pigeon was compounded acinotubular gland. the glandular acini were at the peripheral region of the lobes and continued with the tubular portions of the secretary units. many of ducts were drained in to central collecting duct of the wide irregular lumen. the glandular units were lined with simple columnar epithelium which possessed round to oval darkly stained nuclei. the gland was covered with thin connective tissue capsule which sends many septa dividing the gland into many lobes (fig.2, 3). the general histological structure of the pigeon harderian gland was incompatible with those of domestic fowl and turkey (burns and maxwell, 1979; maxwell et al., 1986). it was also compounded acinotubular and lined with high columnar cells. similarly the harderian gland of fowl, duck and turkey possessed central collecting duct that lined with simple columnar secretory epithelium (burns and maxwell, 1979). where in domestic duck the gland was compound tubular (brobby, 1972), the gland observed compound tubuloalveolar in domestic geese, osprey and quail (boydak and aydin, 2009; kozlu et al., 2010; kozlu and altunay, 2011). myoepithelial cells with darkly stained flat nucleus were noticed, it surrounding the secretary cells (fig.4). the presence of these cells was mentioned by cacho et al. (1991) and mobin (2012) in the harderian gland of chicken and by altunay and kozlu, (2004) in ostrich. histochemical results: most of the epithelial cells that lined the secretary units and ducts had positive reaction towered alcian blue (ph 2.5), the cytoplasm of columnar cells stained blue which indicating the presence of acid mucopolysaccharides (fig.4). the current histochemical finding of this study are in parallel with the results of wight et al. (1971b) in domestic fowl and with results of boydak and aydin (2009) in domestic geese, they detected acidic mucous secretions in harderian gland of those birds. on other hand, in domestic duck and native chicken the glandular secretion of this gland have given positive result to alcian blue ph 2.5 and periodic acid schiff reagent that mean the cells contained both acidic and neutral mucopolysaccharids (brobby, 1972; mobini, 2012). in osprey and quail the harderian gland secretion found mainly neutral mucopolysaccharid (kozlu, et al., 2010; kozlu and altuna, 2011). 163 ali f. reshag et al. the current result showed the presence of lymphocytes, plasma cells, as well as polymorph cells in the structure of harderian gland. these cells were densely aggregated in the central regions of the lobules underneath the lining columnar cell epithelium in addition to individual cells in the interstitial connective tissue that surrounding the acini and tubules (fig.5), this result was in agreement with those of schramm (1980) and the histological structures of harderian gland in different birds such as, burns and maxwell (1979) in fowl ,duck and turkey, altuany and kozlu (2004) in ostrich, boyak and aydin (2009) in geese, kozlu and altuany (2011) in quail, mobini (2012) in chicken. the harderian gland plasma cells were proliferated from the lymphocytes as a result for the elaboration of a factor which acted like a lymphokine (scott and savage, 1996). the present result showed the presence of plasma cells with different sizes .some of these cells, which contained russell bodies (mott cells) were large with a small, darkly stained nucleus with pink cytoplasm (fig.5). the russell bodies were in different size and occupied the majority of the cell. the russell bodies give a positive reaction with periodic acid schiff reagent (fig.6); these findings were in accordance with those of wight et al., (1971a) in a domestic fowl, burns (1975) in rook and bejdic et al. (2014) in laying hens. the russell bodies in the plasma cells have stained deep blue with bromophenol blue stain (fig.7), and such observation proved that the cytoplasm of the plasma cells with russell bodies contained globulin as basic protein, which gave the harderian gland an important role in immune response, the latter issue was in agreement with what reported by matthews (1983), baba et al. (1990), oliveira et al. (2006), khan et al. (2007) and ginkel et al. (2009), this investigation revealed that there were no differences between genders. which was not parallel with the results of boydak and aydin (2009) in domestic geese, kozlu and altunay (2011) in quail and mobini (2012) in native chicken. figure (1): the eye of pigeon (posterior view) showing: harderian gland (star), external ocular muscles (white arrows), optic nerve (yellow arrow), eyeball (e), main duct (red arrow). 164 morphological and histochemical study of harderian gland figure (2): longitudinal histological section of harderian gland showing: thin connective tissue capsule (red arrows). central collecting duct (black arrow).glandular acini (a) lobe (b). (h& e stain x4) figure (3): longitudinal histological section of harderian gland shows: thin connective tissue capsule (red arrow). secretory acini (a). secretory tubule (b). main duct (c). (h&e. 40x) 165 ali f. reshag et al. figure (4): histological section shows: russell bodies paspositive (purple red) (black arrows). lining epithelia ab-positive (blue) (red arrow). pas-ab stain.x4o figure (5): histological section shows, a-columnar cells lining the central canal (a). secretory unite (b).plasma cells with russell bodies (arrows) (h & e stain. x100). 166 morphological and histochemical study of harderian gland figure (6): histological section shows russell bodies (black arrow) which gives positive reaction to pas stain. acidic mucopolysaccharid (red arrow) (pas-ab stain.x400) figure (7): histological section shows the globulin protein in the cytoplasm of plasma cells (russell bodies) stains deep blue bromophenol blue stain.x1000. 167 ali f. reshag et al. literature cited altunay, h. and kozlu, t. 2004. the fine structure of the harderian gland in the ostrich (struthio camelus). anatomia histologia embryologia, 33: 141-45. baba, t., kawata,t., masumoto, k. and kajikawa,t. 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raven press, new york, 578 pp. weaker, f.j. 1981. light microscopic and ultrastructural features of the harderian gland of nine-banded armadillo .anatomical journal, 133(1): 49-65. wight, p.a., burns, r. b., rothwell, b. and mackenzie, g.m. 1971a. the harderian gland of domestic fowl. 1-histology,with reference to genesis of plasma cells and russell bodies. journal of anatomy, 110(2): 307-315. wight, p.a., mackenzie, g.m. rothwell, b. and burns, r.b. 1971b. the harderian gland of domestic fowl. ll-histochemistry. journal of anatomy, 110(3): 323-333. zakeri, a. and kashefi, p. 2011. the comparative effects of five growth promoters on broiler chickens humoral immunity and performance. journal of animal and veterinary advances, 10(9): 1097-1101. 170 morphological and histochemical study of harderian gland bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2016) 14 (2): 161-170 ّطجُت ىغذة اىهاردرَاُ فٍ اىذَاً اىذاجِءدراضت شنالُّت ومَُُا columba livia domestica * و هذف هاشٌ ٍذَذ**، إَالف دطِ هادٌ*ػيٍ فارش رشل فرع اىخشرَخ و االّطجت، ميُت اىطب اىبُطرٌ، جاٍؼت بغذاد، بغذاد، اىؼراق* ، بغذاد اىؼراق اىجاٍؼت اىؼراقُت،ميُت اىطب ح،فرع اىخشرٌ** اىخالصت اىهذف ٍِ اىبذذ ىذراضت اىخرمُب اىْطجٍ واىنَُُاء اىْطجُت ىغذة هاردَاُ ىطُىر حٌ اضخخذاً صبغت . ٍِ ػشرة رمىر و ػشرة اّاد ٍِ اىذَاً اىباىغجَؼج ىؼُْاثاىذَاً ، وماشف داٍض (2.5االش اىهادروجٍُْ )اىهَُاحىمطُيُِ واالَىزَِ واىشُاُ األزرق ماّج اىغذة حشبه اىذٍؼت فٍ اىشنو، راث ىىُ َخراوح بُِ . شُف وصبغت اىبرٍىفُْىه األزرق ٍفصصت ٍبطْت بخالَا اىظهارَت ػَىدَت ٍخخيفت االرحفاع وٍذاطت بَذفظت ، اىىردٌ واىبٍْ .رقُقت ٍِ اىْطُج اىضاً اىخالَا اىيَفاوَت، خالَا اىبالزٍا وخالَا اىبالزٍا اىذاوَت ػيً جطَُاث راضو حخجَغ حذج ظهرث اىصابغاث و ا ة؛اىظهارة اىَبطْت ىيؼْباث اإلفرازَت و اىقْاة االفرازَت اىَرمسٌ ػيً ٍخاط داوَت هااىنَُُاء اىْطجُت اُ اىخالَا اىَبطْت ىيؼْباث االفرازَت واىقْىاث جَُغ ؛ ػالوة ػيً اٍا جطَُاث راضو اظهرث حفاػو ٍىجب ٍغ ماشف شُف اىذاٍض،داٍضٍ ىٌ َالدع اٌ اخخالف ، مَا حٌ ارباث ادخىاء جطَُاث راضو ػيً اىنيىبُىىُِ اىَْاػٍرىل . فٍ شنو وحرمُب غذة اىهادرَِ اػخَادا ػيً اىجْص وحؼذ ػضىىَفاوٌ ث اىذراضت اُ غذة اىهادرَِ فٍ طائر اىذَاً جُذة اىخطىرحجاضخِ . واُ هْاك بؼض االخخالف ػِ اىغذة فٍ اىطُىر االخري ، راّىٌ ٍؤرر فٍ ٍْاػت اىطائر 1 1 al-saffar, et al bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2012) 12 (1): 1-9 occurance of adult muscid flies on sticky traps in some iraqi provinces h.h. al-saffar* razzaq sh. augul* hayder b. ali** m. s. abdul – rassoul* *iraq natural history museum ** baghdad university college of science department of biology abstract muscid flies musca domestica l., m. biseta hough, m. crassirostris stein, m. sorbens wied., muscina stabulans (fallen), atherigona orientalis schiner, atherigona sp. and limnophora quaterna (loew) were captured by using yellow sticky traps from different provinces of iraq during november 2010. the results showed the highest percentage of all collected species were recorded in babylon (48.33%), while the lowest percentage was observed in baghdad (4.88%). musca domestica was the predominant species and was ranked first in overall prevalence in all provinces studies, while m. biseta was the lowest abundant species. introduction muscid flies small to medium size, usually dull colored, the squamae medium or large size, hypopleural bristles absent, the second antennal segment (pedicel) with dorsal longitudinal fissure, arista plumose, pubescent, or bare, eyes of males holoptic but of females dioptic, frontal bristles always present, intrafrontals frequently present. abdomen composed of four segments in the male while five in the female (curran, 1965; oldroyd, 1970).while scudder and cannings (2006) referred to these flies are slender to stocky, 2 to 14 mm long and usually bristly. their color ranges from yellowish to grey or black, but some are metallic blue or green. in a few cases the flies are brightly setulose.the wings are usually unmarked, but some have dark cross veins.the head is usually higher than long with the frons in males narrow to broad and its central plate sometimes strongly reduced, but in females is at least 25% as wide as the head with the central plate always distinct and normally wider than the fronto-orbital area. there are one to many frontal bristles curved inwards. the parafacial area is usually bare, but the vibrissa is normally strong. this family worldwide distributed, contains many numbers of species which assigned to several subfamilies and tribes, and a vast number of genera. in general appearance they are often very similar to members of the calliphorid flies (zumpt, 1965), so was written about the house fly as a carrier of disease and pest of domestic animals and also make attention to man (curran, 1965; pont, 1991), on the other hand zumpt (1965) assured that muscid flies can be involved in myiasis cases. because the flies feeds on filth of all kinds and visits our foodstuffs, lighting with impunity upon the things we would eat, it is particularly loathsome. it is attracted to almost anything that is moist, such as sputum, feces, garbage, etc., and may fly directly from any of these to food used for human consumption. flies were implicated in the direct and indirect mechanical transmission of a number of pathogens responsible for human disease, especially those causing diarrheal illness; the 2 occurance of adult muscid flies common factor in the ecology of several species of flies are their utilization of decomposing organic materials as food sources for the adults and as developmental media for their larvae. considering that these materials are often carrion, feces and food wastes (all with associated pathogens) (white, 2006) furthermore there are many species of flies can be lay their eggs in open wound of man and animals causing myiasis disease (zumpt, 1965). the following species were reported in iraq; musca determinate walker, m. humilis wied., m. vitripennis meigen, m. tempestiva fallen, philaematomyia crassrostris stein, stomoxys calcitrans (l.), lyperosia exigue degeer, l. minuta bezzi and described musca mesopotamiensis as a new species patton(1920), while khalaf (1957) was recorded species muscina stabulans (fall.), graphomya maculate (scope.), musca sorbens wied., musca domestica vicina macq., m. domestica nebulo fab., m.domestica complex, limnophora sp. and daysphora hirsutoculata (macq.), also lispe assimilis l. and l. longicollis (meigen)were recorded by (khalaf, 1963more ever hussain (1963) recorded the species: musca vicina macq., m. sorbens wied., and muscina stabulans fall.. furthermore (derwesh, 1965) was referred that the following species found in iraq were: musca domestica lin., m.crassirostris stein, m. stabulans, stomoxys calcitrans (l.) and limnophora sp., whereas kaddou (1967) recorded that atherigona orientalis sch., lispe leucospila wied. and muscina assimilis (fall.) , abdul-rassoul (1969) showed the species of north of iraq were: musca larvipara protsch, morellia simplex (loew), dasyphora sultum rond., pyrellia cadivera l. muscina pablorum fall. and myiospla meditabunda; el-haidari et al (1972) recorded the species atherigona varia mgn., helina duplicata mgn. and dasyphora asiatica zimin; whereas khalaf and al-omar (1974) reported atherigona soccata rond., coenosia attenuta stein, c. tigrina fall., coenosia sp., lispe pygmaea fall., musca larvipara portsch and m. tempestival fall. recently, al-saffar (2003) studied the taxonomical aspects of this family in the middle of iraq and the following three species are recorded for the first time as new records in iraq: musca autumnalis de geer, atherigona leavigata (loew) and a. theodori hennig. the aim of this study was to determine the presence of the fly species as their captured by sticky traps near livestock in some provinces of iraq. materials and methods many samples were collected from sticky traps from iraq state board for veterinary services during november 2010, fly populations were monitored using 50 x 24.5 cm yellow sticky traps (starkeys products) figure -1, traps consist of attractive lure which composed of several chemicals as showed in table 1; these samples represent some areas of some provinces of iraq. the provinces were baghdad (tagi); babylon (alexandria); najaf (al-kifal); missan (ali al-gharbi); nainava (kokagi) and diyala (baqubah). the flies were examined with the aid of dissecting microscope after removing them from the traps by xylol. then using keys for diagnosed them such as pont (1991) and al-saffar (2003), in addition the samples compared with specimens which kept at iraq natural history museum. the temperature and relative humidity through this study obtained from iraqi meteorological office. the distribution or presence of flies was recorded. 3 al-saffar, et al figure 1: yellow sticky trap (starkeys products) table 1: the composition of attractive lure used in the sticky trap amounts compounds no. 12gm benzoic acid 1 12 gm indole 2 187 ml secbutyl alcohol 3 187 ml isobutyl alcohol 4 102 ml acetic acid (1.7n) 5 82 ml butyric acid 6 82 ml valeric acid 7 50 ml phenol 8 50 ml p-cresol 9 187 dimethyl disulfid 10 results and discussion: the following species were captured in the sticky traps: musca domestica, m. biseta m. crassirostris, m. sorbens, muscina stabulans, atherigona orientalis, atherigona sp. and limnophora quaterna, the last one appeared to be a new record for iraq their prevalence, temperatures and relative humidity were recorded in table 2. 4 occurance of adult muscid flies table-2: species record of muscid flies which recorded in some provinces of iraq through november 2010 % rh% temp. oc no. species province max. min. 4.88 46 27.7 10.1 69 musca domestica baghdad 7 m. sorbens 10 atherigona orientalis 8 limnophora quaterna 48.33 49 27.8 11 779 musca domestica babylon 143 m. sorbens 1 m. biseta 8 m. crassirostris 9.76 41 28.3 12.9 175 musca domestica nijef 9 m. sorbens 3 m. crassirostris 1 m. biseta 9.98 51 29.4 12.2 140 musca domestica missan 50 muscina stabulans 2 atherigona sp. 18.49 48 28.3 11.4 335 musca domestica diyala 8 muscina stabulans 13 athrigona sp. 8.56 56 14.7 6.1 155 musca domestica l. nainava 10 muscina stabulans furthermore table-2 showed the estimated total number of muscid flies during the month of the study, the highest percentage of all collected species prevalence in babylon (48.33%), while the lowest percentage was in baghdad (4.88%). whereas in nijef, missan, diyala, and nainava were (9.76, 9.98, 18.49, 8.56) % respectively. the provinces which showed the lowest percentage of flies could be due to the dusty climate which caused lower fly catch rates and indicated that dust accumulation on traps may reduced trap efficiency (kaufman, et al. 2001) and may be resulted in decreasing the activity of flies flying. the survey showed that the house fly, musca domestica was the predominant species and it had the first ranked in overall prevalence in all provinces under studies (figure 2). the house fly was commonly found wherever man has established himself, therefore it can be found in abundance at fisheries, slaughterhouses, garbage disposal sites, vegetable farms, market places and poultry farms (sulaiman et al., 1988). the high numbers of m. domestica recorded in the current study was similar to previous studies of flies associated with waste in other countries (imai, 1985; essa & el sibae, 1993, nurita et al. 2008). however, goulson et al. (1999) reported low proportions of m. domestica in flies emerging from garbage in landfills. the abundance of collected species was: in baghdad as the follows atherigona orientalis, limnophora as illustrated in table 2 and figure (3 a), this results in agreement with the results of abul-hab (1980); aboul-hab and ka domestica and m. sorbens. these authors they did not associated with carcasses but in babylon the collected species and m. biseta., the percentage of these collected species were musca domestica percentage of these species as in table 2 and figure (3 c). while in missan species were musca domestica these species as recorded in table 2 and figure (3 d). in diyala the collected species stabulans, the percentage of these specie collected species were musca domestica two species as illustrated in table 2 and figure (3 f). 5 al-saffar, et al abundance of collected species was: in baghdad as the follows musca domestica, , limnophora quaterna, and m. sorbens, the percentage of these types as illustrated in table 2 and figure (3 a), this results in agreement with the results of hab and kassal, (1998) and abdul-rassoul et al. (2009) for m. . these authors could not recorded the other two species because did not associated with carcasses but they were agricultural pests. the collected species were musca domestica l., m. sorbens, m. crassirostris, the percentage of these species as in table 2 and figure (3 b). in nijef the musca domestica l., m. sorbens, m. crassirostris, and m. biseta, the as in table 2 and figure (3 c). while in missan the collected l., muscina stabulans, and atherigona sp., the percentage of these species as recorded in table 2 and figure (3 d). species were musca domestica l., athrigona sp. and muscina percentage of these species as in table 2 and figure (3 e). finally in nainava musca domestica and muscina stabulans, only the percentage of these two species as illustrated in table 2 and figure (3 f). , , the percentage of these types as illustrated in table 2 and figure (3 a), this results in agreement with the results of m. could not recorded the other two species because , the he the collected the percentage of muscina in nainava the percentage of these 6 occurance of adult muscid flies 7 al-saffar, et al literature cited abdul-rassoul, m. s. 1969. some new records of diptera from iraq. bull.iraq nat.his.mus., (1): 8-9. abdul-rassoul, m. s.; augul, r. s. and al-saffar, h. h. 2009. seasonal abundance of adult fly species on the exposed carcasses in baghdad city. ibn al-haitham j. appl. sci., 22 (4): 16-25. abulhab, j. k. 1980. a list of arthropoda of medical and veterinary importance recorded from iraq. bull. biol. res. cent., 12 (1): 9 -39. abulhab., j. k. and kassal, s. 1998. filth flies vector of flith diseases in baghdad area. iraq j .comm. med. , 11 (1): 10-13. al-saffar, h. h. 2003. the taxonomic study of the family muscidae (insecta: diptera) in the middle of iraq. a thesis of m. sc. in biology, college of science, university of baghdad. 194 pp. (in arabic). curran, c. h. 1965. the families and genera of north amerca diptera. 2nd ed. hinry tripp. 515 pp. derwesh, a.i.1965. a preliminary list of identified insects and some arachnids of iraq. direct. gen. agr. res. proj. baghdad , bulletin, 121:1-123. el-haidari, h.; fattah ,y. m. and sultan, j. a. 1972. contribution of the insect fauna of iraq. (part 4), min. agr. iraq. bull.no.18:17pp. essa, n. a. and el-sibae., m. m. 1993. population dynamics of some synanthropic fly species in different habitats in buraydah saudi arabia. journal of the egyptian society for parasitology. 23: 133-140. goulson, d.; hughes, w. o. h. and chapman, j. w. 1999. fly populations associated with landfill and composting sites used for household refuse disposal. journal of entomological research, 89: 493-498. hussain, a. a. 1963. provitional list of insect pests and bibliography of insect fauna of iraq. bull. coll. sci., 7: 43-83. imai, c. (1985). a new method to control houseflies musca domestica at waste disposal sites. researches on population ecology , 27: 111-124. kaddou, i. k. 1967. check list of some insect fauna of iraq. publ. bio. res. cent., 1:1-44. kauhan, p. e.; rutz, d.a. and frisch, s. 2001. sticky traps for large scale house fly (diptera: muscidae) trapping in new york poultry facilities. j. agric. urban entomol. 18 (1): 43-49. khalaf, a. n. and al-omar, m. a. 1974. a second list of insects from iraq. scientific research foundation publ. biol. res. cent., no. 2: 41pp. 8 occurance of adult muscid flies khalaf, k. t. 1957. diptera from iraq. iraq nat.hist.mus.publ. , 13:13-15. khalaf, k. t. 1963. faunistic notes in iraq. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus., 2(8) :112. nurita, a. t., abu hassan, a. and nur aida, h. 2008. species composition surveys of synanthropic fly populations in northern peninsular malaysia. tropical biomedicine, 25(2): 145–153. oldroyd, h. 1970. diptera: introduction and key to families, handbooks for the identification of british insects. royal entomol. soc. of london, vol. ix. part 1. 104 pp. patton, w. s.1920. some notice on the arthropoda of medical and veterinary importance in mesopotamia and on their relation to diseases. part 2, mesopotamian house flies and the allies indian. j. med. res., 7:751-777. pont, a. c. 1991. a review of the fanniidae and muscidae (diptera) of the arabian peninsula . fauna of saudi arabia , 12 : 312-365 . scudder, g. c. e. and cannings., r. a. 2006. the diptera families of british columbia. http://www.for.gov.ca/hfd/library/fia/html. sulaiman, s.; sohaidi, a. r.; hashim., y. and iberahim, r. 1988. the role of some cyclorrhaphan flies as carriers of human helminthes in malaysia medical veterinary entomology 2: 1-6. white, g. b. 2006. filth flies: significance, surveillance and control in contingency operations, technical guide no. 30. published and distributed by armed forces pest management board, washington, 54 pp. zumpt, f. 1965. myiasis in man and animal of the world. a textbook for physician, veterinarians and zoologists. butterworths, london, xvi+267 pp. http://www.for.gov.ca/hfd/library/fia/html 9 al-saffar, et al bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2012) 10 (1): 1-9 دراسة التواجد لكامالت عائلة الذباب المنزلي على اللواصق الجاذبة في بعض محافظات العراق *و رزاق شعالن عكل *ھناء ھاني الصفار *و محمد صالح عبد الرسول** علي بدريوحیدر العراقيمتحف التاریخ الطبیعي * قسم علوم الحیاة –كلیة العلوم –جامعة بغداد ** الخالصة ، استخدمت اللواصق الجاذبة الصفراء لجذب كامالت عائلة الذباب المنزلي :حیث تم اصطیاد االنواع االتیة musca domestica l., m. biseta hough, m. crassirostris stein, m. sorbens wied., muscina stabulans (fallen), atherigona orientalis schiner, atherigona sp. من عدة محافظات limnophora quaterna (loew) افة إلى النوعضا سجلت محافظة بابل اعلى نسبة كلیة للذباب ، عراقیة طیلة شھر تشرین الثاني و التي سجلت في ٤.٨٨%نسبة بینما كانت اوطأ ٤٨.٣٣ % حیث بلغت على musca domestica كما أكدت الدراسة على سیادة النوع. محافظة بغداد ً m. bisetaباقي األنواع، أما النوع . فكان األقل تواجدا 8 67 m. a. swail bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2009)10(4): 67-72 distinction between two species of the genus exochomus redtenb. (coleoptera : coccinellidae) in iraq m. a. swail college of scince, university of wasit, wasit abstract the present paper attempts to establish a distinction between exochomus negripennis (er.) and e. quadripustulatus l., depending on the characters of femoral line, male genitalia and spermatheca. introduction the genus exochomus redtenb. belongs to tribe chilocorini subfamily chilocoriniae family coccinellidae (furch, 1979). the species of this genus are predaceous beetles feeding on small bodied insects, including especialy aphids, scale insects and mealybug; because of their predatory habits, they are considered highly benificial. the species e. negripennis and e. quadripustulastus are a predators of the aphids thelaxes suberis delgo. (stary and kaddou, 1975). e. flavipes (thunb.) is a predator of the aphids rhopalosiphum madis fitch and aphis faba theobald in pakistan (irshad, 2001). e. flavipes is a predator of dactylopius confusus ckll. (homoptera : dactylopidae) and ferrisia virgita (ckll.) (homoptera : pseudococcidae), and the species e. lituratus gorh. is predator of adelges joshii s.o. and s. (homoptera : adelgidae) and dioryctria abetella schiff (lepedoptera : pyralididae) in pakistan (irshad 2001). e. nigromaculatus (goeze) is a predator of the aphid hylopteerus pruni (goeffroy) in eastern turkey (atlihan and ozgokce, 2002). the species e. negripennis is recorded for iraq by (khalf, 1963) and the species e. quadripustulatus are recorded for iraq by (roberts, 1972) and for the aim of distinction between these two species this work has been done. material and methods twenty male of e. negripennis were collected by the asperator and killed by freezing. four male of e. quadripustulatus were borrowed from entomology department-iraq natural history museum, baghdad. the morphological characters of the two species were checked by dissecting and some parts of the specimens which show morphological differences between the two species like femoral line, male genitalia, apex of siphon, spermatheca were drawn applying cameralucida. the work was based on illustrated keys by (pope, 1963) and (bielawiski, 1984). results and discussion exochomus negripennis (er.) shape almost circular and convex (fig.1). head reddish-brown in some specimens; labrum, clypeus and frons dark-brown; pronotum reddish-brown; elytra dark-brown except humeral angles, external borderes and apex reddish-brown. legs brownish, under side body reddishbrown except first and second exposed abdominal sternite dark. 68 distinction between two species femoral line almost makes half-circle reaching to three-fourths of the length of sternite and ends in anterior border (fig.2). male genitalia (fig.3). penis has a wide base and narrowed toward apex which appears acute, its length reaching to half of paramer. paramer has a short deep narrowness at the point of the reaching with the basal piece, then beginning to be wide toward apex, which appears circular and wide. apex of siphon as in (fig.4). spermatheca (fig.5). with anterior nodule makes obtuse angle with posterior cornu which appears slightly widened. the specimens of these species have been collected from jadiriah-baghdad in 1985, kut in 1986, 2005 and baquba in 2001, which feed on aphid insects. exochomus quadripustulatus l. shape almost circular and evenly convex (fig.6). head black except labrum; clypeus and frons reddish-brown; its pronotum black except anterior border, angles and lateral sides reddish-brown; scutellum black; elytra black except the base border, external and internal borders of elytron dark-brown, with two reddish-brown spots on each, anterior spot surrounds humeral tubercle, its size varies in some specimens, posterior spot usualy slightly widdened transversly. legs black except tarsi brownish. underside of body black except the external border of 1-4 sternites and all ultimate abdominal sternites reddish-brown. femoral line almost make half circle reaching three-fourths length of sternite, with two notches in its posterior half, and ends in anterior border of sternite (fig.7). male genitalia (fig.8). penis with a wide base and narrowed toward apex and slightly notched before apex, which curved and narrowed, its length reaching beyond three-fourths length of paramer; paramer narrow reaching to half of its length, then begining slightly widdened toward apex which appears slightly circular. apex of siphon as in (fig.9). spermatheca (fig.10). with anterior nodule makes acute angle with posterior cornu which appear strongly widden. the specimens of this species have been collected from shaqlawa (arbil) 1985 feed on aphid. comparative notes: it differs from e. negripennis (er.) in the following characters; colour of body is black and reddish-brown in e. negripennis, femoral line with two notches in its posterior half and there is no notches in the femoral line of e. negripennis, penis length reaching beyond three-fourths length of paramere and reaching to half of paramere in e. negripennis, spermatheca with anterior nodule makes acute angle with, posterior cornu which a ppear strongly widden and with anterior nodule makes obtuse angle with posterior cornu which a ppear slightly widden in e. negripennis. literature atlihan, r. and ozgokce, m. s. 2002. development,fecundity and prey consumption of exochomus nigromaculatus feeding on haloptrus pruni. phytoparasitica, 30(5): 332339. bielawski, r. 1984. coccinellidae (coleoptera) of mongolia. annal. zool., 38(14): 282-460. fursch, h. 1979. insect of saudi arabia, coleoptera: fam. coccinellidae. fauna saudi arabia, 1: 235-248. irshad, m. 2001. aphids and their biological control in pakistan. pakis. jour. of biol. sci, 4(5): 537-541. 69 m. a. swail --------------. 2001. distripution, hossts, ecology and biotic potential of coccinellids of pakistan. pakis. jour. of biol. sci. 4(10): 1259-1263. khalf, k. t. 1963. faunistic notes in iraq. bull. iraq .nat. hist. mus., 2(8): 1-12. pope, r. d. 1963. hand books for the identification of british insects. coleopteracoccinellidae and sphindidae london r. ent. soc. 5pt.7, 12pp. roperts, h. 1972. forestry resarch, demonatration and traning. arbil, iraq. forest entomology-fao technical report 6. 145pp., rome, fo: dp/irq/68/518. stary, p. and kadou, i. k. 1975. records of aphidophagous insects in iraq. bull. of the biol. res. center baghdad, publ.,3: 16pp. 70 distinction between two species figs.1-5: exochomus negripennis (er.). 1. outline and pattern of body. 2. femoral line. 3. male genitalia. 4. siphon. 5. spermatheca. 71 m. a. swail figs.6-10: exochomus quadripustulatus l. 6. outline and pattern of body. 7. femoral line. 8. male genitalia. 9. siphon. 10. spermatheca . 72 distinction between two species bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2009)10(4): 67-72 س جلن ن ا ني م ني ن ع م يز ب الت exochomus redtnb (coleoptera : coccinellidae) ر ق ع يف ال ل س سوي ي عبا هد م وم سط –كلية ا عل مع وا جا ة ص اخلال ع و ني الن متي زا ب ث ح ن ال م ض وع exochomus negripennis (er)يت exochomus والن quadripustulatus l. مد د ا ت التمييز على دراسة املظهر اخلارجي،اخلط الفخذي وق .سوءة الذكرية واملستودع املنوي ،ال bull 11 mohammad, et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2015) 13 (4): 11-20 intestinal helminth parasites of the eurasian marsh frog pelophylax ridibundus (pallas, 1771) (amphibia: ranidae) collected in al-diwaniya city, middle of iraq mohammad k. mohammad*, habeeb w. k. shubber** and ali b. m. al-waaly** *iraq natural history museum, university of baghdad, bab al-muadham, baghdad, iraq **department of biology, college of science, al-qadisiya university, aldiwaniya, iraq *corresponding author: amarmkm82@yahoo.com abstract the eurasian marsh frog pelophylax ridibundus is a widespread species in iraq. examination of intestine of 25 marsh frogs collected in al-diwaniya city, middle of iraq during the period from september to november 2014 revealed the presence of nematotaenia dispar (cestoda), cosmocerca commutata and cosmocercoides variabilis (nematoda). infection rates and intensity have been presented in this paper. keywords: cosmocerca commutata, cosmocercoides variabilis, helminth parasites, iraq, nematotaenia dispar, pelophylax ridibundus. introduction iraq, generally, is considered poor in amphibian species due to the arid nature of most of its parts with a number of species not exceeds eleven (unep, 2003). among them, the eurasian marsh frog pelophylax ridibundus which is a widespread species in western, central and eastern europe and ranges as far eastwards as eastern kazakhstan (kuzmin et al., 2009). it is native and relatively common also in suitable aquatic areas from north to south of iraq (khalaf, 1959). the parasitic fauna of amphibians in iraq is rather poorly studied and few fragmentary works had been carried out and dealt only with the two most common species bufo viridis and pelophylax ridibundus collected mostly from northern areas. saoud and roshdy (1969, 1970) recovered the digenetic trematodes opisthioglyphe endoloba and halipegus alhaussaini from rana esculenta in basrah, southern iraq respectively. dauood (1974) examined rana ridibunda, hyla arborea and bufo viridis in nineveh province, north of iraq and recovered eight species of protozoan parasites, nine species of digenetic trematodes and one species of monogenetic trematodes. hamad (1985) found 8 species of digenetic trematodes in r. ridibunda collected in erbil province, north of iraq. al-barwari and nassir (1988) reported one nematode from rana ridibunda; and one cestode and four nematodes from bufo viridis in baghdad area, middle of iraq. molan et al. (1989) examined blood smears of 319 specimens of rana ridibunda collected from erbil, sulaimaniya, mosul and kirkuk in the north of iraq and found seven species of protozoan parasites in addition to larval nematode, microfilaria. al-alousi (1994) examined b. viridis in nineveh province, north of iraq and found unidentified plerocercoid larvae (spargana). rahemo and ami (1995) found microtetramers 12 intestinal helminth parasites sp. larvae (nematoda: tropisuridae) encysted in the stomach wall of toad, bufo viridis in mosul city. hassan and mohamed (2007) examined intestines, lungs and urinary bladders in 50 specimens of r. ridibunda in kirkuk and found three digenetic trematodes haematoloechus medioplexus, pleurogenoides medians and gorgoderina vitelliloba. saeed et al. (2007) studied the incidence and intensity of metazoan parasites in 3 species of iraqi amphibians and found 24 species of helminths including 16 trematodes, 1 cestode and 7 nematodes. jasim (2008) recovered the nematodes cosmocercoides variabilis and oswaldocruzia filiformis from the green toad bufo viridis collected in baghdad area, middle of iraq. abdulrahman et al. (2012) founded the cestode proteocephalus sp. and the nematodes cosmocercoides variabilis and rhabdias bufonis in the toad bufo viridis collected in erbil city. recently, jarallah (2013) examined r. ridibunda collected in basra marshes and found two digenetic trematodes and two nematodes. the purpose of the present work is to investigate about the intestinal parasitic helminthes of the marsh frog pelophylax ridibundus in al-diwaniya city, middle of iraq. materials and methods a total of 25 marsh frogs were collected from pools and irrigation canals in al-diwaniya city during the period of september to november 2014. then each frog dissected in the lab to open the intestine and searched for helminthes. the recovered parasites were kept in 70% ethanol. cestodes were first stained with acetocarmine and dehydrated in a series of 70, 80, 90, and 100% ethanol for 15 minutes for each rinse, then put in 1:1 by volume of ethanol and xylene for 5 minutes, cleared in xylene and finally mounted in canada balsam, while nematodes were cleared with lactophenol. photomicrographs were taken with micros microscope and infinity lite k-100 digital camera. results and discussion examination for parasites showed that the intestine of 17 (68%) out of 25 specimens of the marsh eurasian frog pelophylax ridibundus were infected with one or more of the parasites nematotaenia dispar, cosmocerca commutata, and cosmocercoides variabilis. mixed infections were two only and both of them were with n. dispar, the first with c. varaiablis and the second with both nematodes. results on incidence and intensity of parasites were summarized in table 1. table 1: parasite species, intensity, no. of males and females and infection rate of total sample. parasite species no. hosts infected intensity no. males no. females % infection rate of total sample cosmocerca commutate 3 1 2 12 cosmocercoides variabilis 14 2.43 4 30 56 nematotaenia dispar 2 1 8 nematotaenia dispar (goeze, 1782) (order cyclophyllidea, family nematotaeniidae) (figs.1&2). al-barwari and nassir (1988) reported that 25% of hyla arborea and 7% of bufo viridis were infected with this cestode. saeed et al. (2007) found it in 20% and 21% of b. viridis and 16.7% and 15% of h. arborea in males and females respectively from the northern 13 mohammad, et al. region of iraq. mohammad et al. (2010) recorded an infection rate of 12% in b. viridis from baghdad. these figures are in disagreement with the present finding and rather confusing and reflect the variations in host species and collection sites which represent different habitats. this cestode was reported from the intestine of various amphibians in europe, africa, north america, and india and it was found in bufo bufo, b. viridis, hyla arborea, pleobatus fuscus, rana esculenta, r. tempraraia, salamandra salamandra, and s. atra (reichenbachklinke and elkan, 1965). it was reported also from the gray monitor varanus griseus (reptilia, varanidae) in saudi arabia (al-mohammed, 2009). in iraq it was recorded in the small intestines of hyla arborea and bufo viridis in central and northern iraq (al-barwari and nassir, 1983; mohammad et al., 2010). saeed et al. (2007) confirmed absence of this cestode in pelophylax (rana) ridibundus. yildirimihan et al. (2001), dusen (2011), and dusen and oz (2013) found this parasite in caucasian salamander mertensiella caucasica, bufo viridis,and p. ridibundus respectively in turkey. so, reporting n. dispar from p. ridibundus constitutes a new host record for iraq. according to wardle and mcleod (1952), this cestode is with numerous paruterine organs each containing several uterine capsules and arranged in two parallel rows separate from one another. this is not the situation in this case they look overlapped more than paralleled (fig. 2). however, jones (1987) considered this cestode as a variable species which covers a wide geographical range. so, it is clear that this matter may need more investigation. cosmocerca commutata (diesing, 1851) (ascaridida; cosmocercidae) (figs.3&4). it is widely distributed parasite of toads and frogs (anderson, 2000). saeed et al. (2007) and mohammad et al. (2010) found it in rana ridibunda and bufo viridis respectively in the north and middle of iraq. more recently, jarallah (2013) reported this nematode from r. ridibunda collected in basrah marshes, south of iraq. sattmann (1986) reported this nematode from rana temporaria in germany. dusen (2011) and yildirimihan et al. (2001) reported it from bufo viridis and mertensiella caucasica respectively in turkey. the infection rate and intensity noticed in this study were 12% and 1% respectively. these are far from that reported by saeed et al. (2007) who found 3.2 % and 1.8% infection rate for males and females respectively and 3.6 and 4.3 for intensity, while mohammad et al. (2010) reported 28% and 4 respectively. these figures reflect the difference in vector potentiality between the two collection sites as well as the difference in regard to their final hosts. cosmocercoides variabilis (harwood, 1930) (order ascaridida, superfamily cosmocercoidea, family cosmocercidae) (figs. 5&7). males with 14 pairs of papillae present on tail. females with long and gradually tapering tail. this nematode is a parasite of gut of amphibians and reptiles. in iraq, it was reported from the green toad bufo viridis by jasim (2008) and mohammad et al. (2010) in baghdad area and by abdulrahman et al. (2012) in erbil city. to the best of our knowledge this is the first time in iraq that this nematode reported from p. ridibundus. joy and bunten (1997) reported it from bufo a. americanus in usa. 14 intestinal helminth parasites fig. 1: nematotaenia dispar scolex fig. 2: nematotaenia dispar gravid segments 15 mohammad, et al. fig. 3: cosmocerca commutata anterior end fig. 4: cosmocerca commutata male posterior end 16 intestinal helminth parasites fig. 5: cosmocercoides variabilis anterior end fig. 6: cosmocercoides variabilis male posterior end 17 mohammad, et al. fig. 7: cosmocercoides variabilis female trunk with eggs acknowledgements the authors would like to express their profound thanks to prof. dr. john m. kinsella for his help in confirming the specific identity of some parasites. thanks are extended also to mrs. khalida i. hasson from iraq natural history museum, university of baghdad for her help in lab work. lterature cited al-barwari, s. e. and nassir, j. k. 1983. first record of ten species of helminthic parasites from vertebrates in iraq. iraqi j science, 24: 101-108. abdulrahman, h. i., sharif, k. a., and abdullah, s. m. a. 2012. parasitic fauna of frog bufo viridis (laurenti, 1768) from erbil city-kurdistan region-iraq. 1st scientific conference of biology department, college of science, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq. al-alousi, t. i. 1994. biological and morphological studies on spargana isolated from toads (bufo viridis). iraqi j. vet. sci., 7: 207-212. al-barwari, s. e. and nassir, j. k. 1988. first record of ten species of helminthic parasites from vertebrates in iraq. iraqi j science, 24: 101-108. al-mohammed, h. i. 2009. description of nematotaenia dispar from gray monitor (varanus griseus) a new record in saudi arabia. j. egypt soc parasitol., 39(1): 317-320. anderson, r. c. 2000. nematode parasites of vertebrates: their development and transmission. 2nd edition. cabi publishing, wallingford, oxon (uk), 650 pp. dauood, k. s. 1974. studies on the protozoan and trematode parasites of some amphibians from nienava district, northiraq. m. sc. thesis, mosul university, mosul, iraq. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=al-mohammed%20hi%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=19530630 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19530630 18 intestinal helminth parasites düşen, s. 2011. the helminth parasites of the two bufonid toads, european common toad, bufo bufo (linnaeus, 1758) and european green toad, bufo (pseudepidalea) viridis laurenti, 1768 (anura: bufonidae), collected from denizli province, inner-west anatolia region, turkey. helminthologia, 48 (2): 101-107. düşen, s. and öz, m. 2013. helminth fauna of the eurasian marsh frog, pelophylax ridibundus (pallas, 1771) (anura: ranidae), collected from denizli province, innerwest anatolia region, turkey. helminthologia, 50 (1): 57-66. hamad, n. r. 1985. a taxonomic study of digenetic trematodes of some iraqi vertebrates. m. sc. thesis, salahaddin university, erbil, iraq. hassan, h. f. and mohamed, s. a. 2007. first record of digenetic trematodes of frogs rana ridibunda ridibunda collected from kirkuk, iraq. kirkuk univ. bull. (sci. stud.), 2 (1): 34-42. jarallah, h. m. 2013. intestinal parasites of the marsh frog rana ridibunda from basrah marshes, south iraq. j. env. bio-sci., 2013: vol. 27 (1): 1-3 jasim, s. y. 2008. some nematode parasites of the green toad bufo viridis laurenti, 1768 in baghdad area, central iraq. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus.,10 (3): 37-43. jones, m. k. 1987. a taxonomic revision of the nematotaenidae luhe, 1910 (cestoda: cyclophyllidea). systematic parasitology, 10: 165-245. joy, j. e. and bunten, c. a. 1997. cosmocercoides variabilis (nematoda: cosmocercoidea) populations in the eastern american toad, bufo a. americanus (salienta: bufonidae), from western west virginia. j. helminthol. soc. wash. 64 (1): 102105. khalaf, k. t. 1959. reptiles of iraq with some notes on amphibians. baghdad (ar-rabitta press), 96 pp. kuzmin, s.; tarkhnishvili, d.; ishchenko, v.; dujsebayeva, t.; tuniyev, b.; papenfuss, t.; beebee, t.; ugurtas, i. h.; sparreboom, m.; rastegar-pouyani, n.; disi, a. m. m.; anderson, s.; denoël, m. and andreone, f. 2009. pelophylax ridibundus. the iucn red list of threatened species. version 2014.3. <www.iucnredlist.org>. mohammad, m. k.; al-moussawi, a. a. and jasim, s. y. 2010. helminth parasites of the green toad bufo viridis laurenti, 1768 in baghdad area, central iraq. egypt. acad. j. biolog. sci., b. zoology: 2 (1): 17-25. molan, a. l.; saeed, i. s. and miyata, a. 1989. haemoprotozoa detected in rana ridibunda in iraq. proc. japn. soc. syst. zool., 40: 3-21. rahemo, z. i. f. and ami, s. n. 1995. microtetramers sp. larvae (nematoda: tropisuridae) encysted in the stomach wall of toad, bufo viridis in iraq. revue roumaine de biologie-biologie animale, 40: 19-23. 19 mohammad, et al. reichenbach-klinke, h. and elkan, e. 1965. the principal diseases of lower vertebrates. academic press inc. published by elsevier inc. 600 pp. doi: 10. 1016 / b978-1-4832-3303-1.50002-0. saeed, i., al-barwari, s. e. and al-harmni, k. i. 2007. a metazoan parasitological research of some iraqi amphibians. türkiye parazitol derg., 31 (4): 337-345. saoud, m. f. a. and roshdy, m. a. 1969. opisthioglyphe endoloba (dujardin, 1845); a parasite of the frog, rana esculenta in iraq. curr. sci., 38: 515-516. saoud, m. f. a. and roshdy, m. a. 1970. on halipegus alhaussaini n. sp. (trematoda: halipegidae) from rana esculenta in iraq, with notes on halipegus and related genera. j helminth, 44: 349-356. sattmann, h. 1986. über die helminthenfauna von triturus alpestris laurenti 1768 und rana temporaria l. aus almtümpeln in oberösterreich (amphibia, plathelminthes und nemathelminthes). ann. naturhist. mus. wien, 87 b: 193-196. unep. 2003.earth trends, country profiles. http://earthtrends.wri.org wardle, r. a. and mcleod, j. a. 1952. the zoology of tapeworms. univ. minn. press, minneapolis. 780 p. yildirimihan, h. s.; aydogdu, a.; ugurtap, y. h. and altunel, f. n. 2001. helminth fauna of mertensiella caucasica (amphibia) in turkey. the sixth national conference of parasitology, sofia, 5-7 october 2001: 28. 20 intestinal helminth parasites bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2015) 13 (4): 11-20 الديدان المعوية في ضفدع االهوار االوراسي pelophylax ridibundus (pallas, 1771) (البرمائيات) المجموع في مدينة الديوانية وسط العراق دمحم كاظم دمحم * **حبيب وسيل كاظم شبر ، علي بستان محسن الوائلي، ** * العراق، بغداد، جامعة بغداد، متحف التاريخ الطبيعيمركز بحوث و العراق، الديوانية، جامعة القادسية، كلية العلوم، قسم علوم الحياة** الخالصة من االنواع واسعة االنتشار pelophylax ridibundusاألهوار االوراسيان ضفدع من النماذج التي جمعت في مدينة الديوانية في وسط 52اظهر فحص امعاء . في العراق وجود دودة شريطية واحدة هي 5102العراق خالل الفترة بين ايلول الى تشرين الثاني nematotaenia dispar ن الخيطية هما واثنين من الديداcosmocerca commutata .وقد تم ادراج نسب االصابة وشدتها في هذا البحث. cosmocercoides variabilisو 11 67 b . m . al chalabi bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2000) 9 (2): 67-70 records of host plants of pea leaf miner, p1-f ytomyza horticola goureau (diptera: agromyzide) in iraq atellah f. mekhlif department of biology, college of education. mosul university. mosul abstract it was found that pkvtomyza horticola goureau infested 36 plants belonging to 11 families of dicotyledons. only two of which belong to monocotyledons. most of plants species are from compositae and cruciferae families. intrudoction phytomyza horticolla goureau. 1851 is a widespread all over the word, with the exception to neotropical regions (spencer, 1964). it has caused serous damage to various field crops and ornamental plants (atwal, et al, 1969: srivastiva and singh. 1972). spencer (1964) has reported that p. horticola occurs widely on dicotyledons plants and it has been also found on a ilium from monocotyledons. trehan and sehgal (1969) and mekhlif(1984) have found that major host plants of p. horticola are compositae and cruciferae. the survey of the host plants of the insect in iraq is recorded in the present study. the hosts listed by al-azawi (1967) and mekhlif(1984) have been recorded, too. materials and methods leaves infested by p. horticola were collected from various areas in ninevah and al-anbar provinces, during the springs of 1988-1992. the leaves were isolated in petri-dishes for about 20 days to obtain adults. pea leaf miner can be distinguished by serpentine-shaped mine and specific faecal pattern in the mine. results and discussion in this study. p. horticola infested 36 plants sp as well as 43 host plants listed by al azawi (1967) and mekhlif(1984) from different parts of iraq. pea leaf miner infested 34 plants belonging to dicotyledons whereas only two plants were from monocotyledons (table i). this result goes with spencer’s (1964) summary. this study also shows that two thirds of the host plants were weeds, one sixth was ornamentals. four host plants were vegetables and the later two hosts were crops. this dominance of weeds infestation could be attributed to the existence of the weeds in the same places. therefore, the infestation can easily take place. table (2) indicates that half of the hosts belongs to compositae. and the second half belongs to remaining families. this tendency of infesting plants from compiositae was surveyed by trehan and of infestation was not observed by al-azwi (1967). (table 2). mekhlif (1984) recorded five hosts from mosul which were formerly listed by al-azwi from the middle the south of iraq. 68 inheritance of dark head table (1) host plants of p. horticola order! family species dicoivledons amarantaceae anemone silvestris l. borraginaceae borrago offlicina/is l. cornpsitae anthemis carpatica w. a. cota l. b. tinctoria l. cardaus nutans l. centaurea ca/c/traps l. centaurea cailcitrapa l. c. sollstitia/is l. chrysanthemum indicum l. cirsium lanceolatum (l.) scop erigeron acer l. e. atticus viii. e. podolicus bess haiianthus annuus l. h. tuberus l onoprdum acanthium l. o. illyricum l si/ybum marianum (l) gartn. sonchus arvensis l. s. nymani tin. cruciferae brass/ca juncea (l) czern. a. nigral. lepidiurn sativum l. raphanus raphanistrurn l. sinapis arvensis l. sisvrnbriurn orientaie l. order! family species gentianaceae nymphoides orbiculata gilib labiatae mentha aquatica legumenosae capseiia integrefoiia dc. mel/lotus officinalis l. tr repens l. malvaceae ma/va pu//ia with. papaveraceae papaver dub/urn l. umbelliferae apiurn graveoiens l. monocotolydons liliacea all/urn porrum l. a. cepa l. 69 b . m . al chalabi table (2). number of host plants of p. hosticola which are recorded in present and preceding studies in iraq. family al-zawi,967(baghdad) no. of host plants / family mekhlif.1984 (mosul) present study amarantaceae 1 borraginaceae 1 chenopodiaceae 1 1 compositae 2 12 18 convolvulaceae 1 i cruciferae 4 6 6 cucurbitaceae 1 gentianaceae 1 labiata 1 leguminosae 5 4 3 liliaceae 2 linaceae 1 malvaceae 1 2 1 papavaraceae 1 papilionaceae 1 scrophulariaceae 1 2 solonaceae 1 1 umbelliferae -1 total 16 32 36 references al-azawi. a.f. 1967. agromyzid leafminers and their parasites in iraq. bull. ent. res., 57:285-287. atwal. as.. chaudhory, j.p. and ramazan. m. 1969. studies on. the biology and control of pea leafminer., phytomyza atricornis mg. (dip.: agromgzidae). j. res. punjab agric. univ., 6:163-196. mekhlifa.f. 1984. aspects of the biology of the pea leafminer. p/tvtoniyza horticola goureau (diptera: agromyzidae) infecting the leaves of wall-flower cheiranth chieri l. m.sc. thesis, coil. of sd., mosul univ. srivastiva. a.s. and singh. y.p. 1972. bionomics and control of pea leafminer. phytomyza atricornis (dip.; agromyzidae). z. agrew. entomal.. 70:437-440. spencer. k.a. 1964. the species host relationship in the agromyzidae (diptera) as an aid to texonomy. 12 international congress of entomology. london l3july:l-6. teehan. k.n. and sehgal. v.k. 1963. range of host plant and larval feeding in phytomyza atricornis meigen (diptera; agromyzida). entomol. mon. mag.. 24:1-3. 70 inheritance of dark head bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2000) 9 (2): 67-70 تسجيل اضافي لعوامل حفار ورق البازالء في العراق عطا اهللا فهد مخلف كلية التربية/ قسم علوم الحياة جامعة الموصل الخالصة لسـت وثالثـني phytomyza horticola goureanلوحظ اصابة حفار ورق البازالء نبتة، تنتمي اىل احدى عشرة عائلة نباتية، عشرة منها تعود لذوات الفلقتني وواحدة لذوات الفلقة .معظم نباتات ذوات الفلقتني تعود للعائلتني املركبة والصليبية. الواحدة 2 7 wand kh. ali bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2011) 11 (4): 7-15 the level of sunn pest oophagous parasitoids (hymenoptera: scelionidae) in infested wheat fields of northern governorate in iraq with an identification key of trissolcus specis wand kh. ali salahaddin university, erbil college of education scientific, biology department email: wand2iq@gmail.com abstract surveys has done for collecting sunn pest which been parasitized by oophagous parasitoids in infested wheat fields of villages around erbil, sulimanya and dohuk governorates from april to the end of may 2010, the result showed that a high rat of eggs hatching was 96.3% within erbil governorate and its cleared from results that not all laid eggs had been hatched normally . the percentage ratio of egg parasitism in general was low in most studied villages. in this study: trissolcus grandis thompson, trissolcus semistriotus nees., and telenomus sp. on sunn pest eggs has been observed. identification keys supported with figures were formulated to identify of these species. keyword: sunn pest, oophagous parasitoids inroduction sunn pest eurygaster integriceps puton (hemiptera , scutelleridae) is a very damaging pest of wheat in west and central asia and eastern europe (javahery , 1995). iraq has been considered by many authors’ as among the middle eastern countries which suffered through time from serious damage to its cereals annual production by sunn pest (voegele; 1996). since 1989 sunn pest has been considered as an economic pest on wheat and barley grown in rain-field regions in the northern governorate of iraq (mohammed et al. 1998). control by chemical insecticides is virtually the sole method currently used in iraq, however, sunn pest populations could be reduced by scelionid egg parasitoids in nature, but its vary among regions and from year to year( kivan and kilic , 2005). the most important biological control agent of sunn pest is the egg parasitoid that can cause high levels of mortality under natural conditions (kodan & gurkan , 2007). according to radjabi and nazari (1989) the field rates of parasitism by trissolcus grandis thompson in iran reached 90%, and the most common and effective egg parasitoids in turkey was t. semistriatus nees (69.3%) followed by t. grandis (9.4%) (koçak and kilincer, 2001), while the field rates of parasitism was ranged between 28.5-50% in syria (abdulhai , 2003). in iraq, several scelionids like: t. semistriatus; t. grandis.; t. rufiventris mayer.; t. vassilievi mayer., and telenomus spp. has been determined by many authors’ as a biological control agents (ali 1970; al-azawi et al .1990; zuwain and al-khafaji 1993; ali 1995). there is no evidence to suggest that egg parasitoids in northern iraq has played a significant role in population control, therefore the objective of this study were to estimate the level of sunn pests egg parasitoid in infested wheat fields in northern governorate of iraq with attempts to identify them. mailto:wand2iq@gmail.com 8 the level of sunn pest oophagous parasitoids materials and methods area description the region (that is the borders with turkey and iran) is dominated by the northern end of the zagros mountains, with the range running approximately nw se through the region. these mountains reach a height of 3000 m above sea level at the maximum, the south of the mountain are foothills, reaching heights of 15002000 m. below the foothills are large plains areas, which have served for many years as a major source of cereals for the region and provides ideal conditions for the development of e. integriceps. this area is between 300m and 700m above sea level. climatic conditions: northern iraq is subject to continental weather patterns. cold winters and extremely hot summers modified in the hills and mountain areas by altitude. in the winter the plains areas, the winter temperature can decline below 0 c ̊ and snow has been noted in this area. the average annual rainfall varies throughout the region. the main' area of wheat cultivation has an average annual rainfall of 400mm, with a pronounced dry season june, july, august and september. egg mass collection: surveys had been done for collecting sunn pest parasitized eggs in the infested wheat fields in villages around erbil , sulimaniya and duhok governorates during april to end of may in 2010. the egg mass of e. integriceps were transferred to the laboratory and replaced into 9 cm petridish held at 25 ±1c ̊ and 60 ± 5%rh, they were noticed daily until the appearance of the parasites, the percentage of parasitism in each village was estimated, with preserving the emerged adult egg parasitoids in alcohol 70% containing 5% glycerol. the identification is made depending on javahery (1968), johnson (1985); and kocak and kilincer (2003). specimens were sending to the iraqi natural history museum for confirming its identification. results & discusion study the level of parasitism in restricted areas of northern governorate show that there were high rate of egg hatching ranged from zero (grdchal/erbil and qpakean/erbil) to 100% (hanara and naw kandan/ erbil), while the rate of egg parasitism by the oophgous parasitoids was ranged from zero in most villages to 96.3% (qpakean) and 65.8% (korkacheen) within erbil governorate as its shown in table (1). it's clear from these results that not all the laid eggs of eurygaster integriceps which has been collected from studied fields will be hatched normally in which some of them remain unhatched due to their parasitization by the oophagous parasitoids and unknown reasons which could be related to entopathogenic fungi or bacteria. the result in table (1) clarified that the rate of egg parasitism in general was low in most villages and this probably resulted by highly using of chemical insecticide against the overwintering adult of sunn pest in all studied governorate. zwain and al-khafaji (1993) indicated that insecticide applications for controlling sunn pest expanded in iraq, in 1999 the treated area within sulimaniya governorate only was reached 216.510 donm (mohammed, 2000).this over wide and non programmed use of insecticide will affect on the population of oophagous parasitoids and lasted several years (rosca et al. 1993) . even that the high parasitism were observed in some districts in which reached100% in sarkand – khelani as its shown in table (1) and this result can be explained by the fact that these areas were not treated with insecticides. this ratio of parasitism suggests that sunn pest population can be effectively suppressed by natural enemies occurring in north of iraq. however, the results should be verified and more work should be done, also in this study three oophagous parasites has been identified as its shown in table (2). 9 wand kh. ali table (1) level of parasitism of eurygaster integriceps put. eggs by oophagous parasitoids in infested areas of northern governorate of iraq. governorate surveyed villages area topography total no. of collected eggs % egg hatching non-hatching eggs % egg parasitism % other reasons erbil salahaddin district berbean plain 14 85.8 0 14.2 zraw hill 33 45.4 27.3 27.3 grdchal hill 17 0 9.4 90.6 zabarok plain 19 78.9 0 21.1 perbetan hill 81 66.6 30.8 2.6 karakacheen hill 41 31.7 65.8 2.5 wsomerean hill 55 65.4 25.4 9.2 qpakean hill 27 0 96.3 3.7 sarkand khelani hill 28 57.2 42.8 0 hanara hill 14 100 0 0 razgakhelan hill 39 48.8 25.6 25.6 sewarook hill 42 78.6 0 21.4 nawkandan hill 40 100 0 0 darband said hill 98 91.8 0 8.2 khabat district molan hill 52 88.5 0 11.5 ifraze plain 42 83.4 0 16.6 sulimaniya khormal / deikon plain 145 86.9 7.2 5.9 halabja / serwan plain 136 51.3 0 48.7 duhok bardarash plain 14 57.2 0 42.8 zakho hill 28 50 7.2 42.8 table (2) oophagous parasitoid observed on eurygaster integriceps puton egg mass that were collected from northern governorate of iraq. governorate scientific name erbil, sulimaniya, dhouk trissolcus grandis thompson. erbil trissolcus semistriotus nees. erbil telenomus sp. 10 the level of sunn pest oophagous parasitoids all recorded species belong to the family scelionidae within order hymenoptera in which the main taxonomic characters were summarized as follow: genus trissolcus ashmead trissolcus ashmead, 1893 synonym: asolcus nakagawa microphanurus kieffer the genus trissolcus is one of the two main groups in the subfamily telenominae (hymenoptera: scelionidae). all species are egg parasitoids of bugs of the super family of pentatomoidea. many of these hosts are economically important pests; there has been interest in species of trissolcus for use as biological agents, many telenomine species possess character states usually attributed to trissolcus, viz. notauli present, frons sculptured, female antennal clava with six closely articulated antennomeres, and bare eyes. however, these species are extremely unusual in other respects, so in this paper we try to simplified this character and formulate a simple key to identify the species observed. key to genera 1-elongate, with two distinct sub median rows of setae on the frons below the anterior ocellus (fig 1a) ………….… telenomus sp. -short,stout without these setal rows (fig 1b,c) …. trissolcus sp. …… (2) key to trissolcus species 2flagellomere 1of 1 of male 1.5 times longer than its width and slightly longer than pedicel. flagellomere 1 of female 2-2.5 times longer than its width (figure2 a, b) .... trissolcus grandis thomson flagellomere 1 of male 2 times longer than its width and 1.5 times longer than pedicel. flagellomere 1 of female 4 times longer than its basal width and 3 times longer than its apical width (figure 2c, d) ……………….…….. trissolcus semistriatus nees 11 wand kh. ali figure(1): the adult of sunn pest egg parasitoids observed in northern iraq. b. trissolcus grandis thompso (20x) c. trissolcus semistriotus nees. (20x) a . telenomus sp. ( 20x) 12 the level of sunn pest oophagous parasitoids figure (2): antennae of trissolcus species; t. grandis thom . (a: male; b: female) and t.semistriotus nees.(c. male, d. female) 13 wand kh. ali literature cited abdulhai, m. (2003) a taxonomical survy and biological study of sunn pest egg parasitoids and the search for sources of resistance to euryqaster integriceps puton (hemiptera: scutelleridae). m. sc. thesis. aleppo university, aleppo, syria. al-azawi, a. f.; i. k. kadao and h. s. el-haidary (1990) the economic entomology. ministry of higher education and scientific research, iraq. 625pp. [in arabic] ali, a. r. (1970) report on sunn pest in iraq. iraqi agricultural journal, vol: 25 (72): 49-68. ali, w. kh. (1995) biological and behavioral studies on sunn pest insect eurygaster integniceps put. (hemiptera, scutelleridae) in erbil governorate iraq. msc. thesis college of science university of salahddin. javahery, m. (1968). the egg parasite complex of british pentatomidae (hemiptera): taxonomy of telenominae (hymenoptera: scelionidae). javahery, m. (1995) a technical review of sunn pests (heteroptea : pentatomidae) with special references to eurygaster integriceps put. fao regional office for the near east, cario, egypt. johnson, n. f. (1985) systematic of the new world trissolcus (hymenoptera: scelionidae): species related to trissolcus basalis. can. ent. 117: 431-445. kivan,m. and n. kilic (2005) effects of some plants on parasitization of eurygaster integriceps eggs by trissolcus semistriatus. trakya univ. j. sci., 6(1): 41-44. kocak, e. and n. kilincer (2001) trissolcus species (hymenoptera: scelionidae) parasitoids on the eggs of sunn pest eurygaster spp., across turkey. plant protection bulletin, 41 (3-4): 167-181. koçak, e. and n. kilinçer (2003) taxonomic studies on trissolcus sp. (hymenoptera : scelionidae), egg parasitoids of the sunn pest in turkey. turkish journal of zoology, 27 (4): 301-317. kodan, m. and m. o. gurkan (2007) mass production and storage of trissolcus grandis (thomson ) (hymenoptera : scelionidae ). in: sunn pest management, a decade of progress 1994-2004. b. l. parker, m. skinner, m. el bouhssini and s. g. kumari (eds.) arab society for plant protection, p. 295-301. mohammad, s, m; a. a. hussain and s. n. abobaker (1998) seasonal abundance of sunn pest in erbil govemorate. zanko journal of pure and applied science, sajahddin university. mohammed, s. m. (2000) some comprehends on sunn pest in northern iraq. lera publishersulimaniya iraq. p. 39. radjabi, g. h. and m. amir, nazari (1989) egg parasitoids of the sunn pest in the central part of iranian plateau. entomologie et phytopathlogie appliques, 56: 1-8. 14 the level of sunn pest oophagous parasitoids rosca, i.; popov. c.; brabulescu. a.; vonica, i. and fabritius, k. (1993) the role of natural parasites in limiting the level of sunn pest populations. fao/icarda expert consultation on sunn pest and its control in the near east region, alppo syria.transactions of the royal entomological society of london, vol. 120, pt. 19; 417-436. voegele j. (1996) review of biological control of sunn pest. in: sunn pests and their control in the near east. r. h. miller and j. g. morse (eds.) fao plant production and protection paper. no. 138, rome, fao. zuwain, q. k. and a. al-khafaji (1993) sunn pest in iraq. fao/icarda expert consultation on sunn pest and its control in the near east region, alppo syria. 15 wand kh. ali bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2011) 11 (4): 7-15 حنطة ل ل و حق ونة ي رة ال ش ت ى فيلي ستو نم م ش الية ت ل حافظا م ي ل ة ف صاب ال س جن ع ي ألن ا ص خي مع مفتاح ش ق trissolcus الع ا عل خال يون دين ة صالح ال ع م لعلمية–كلية ال ربية /جام سا ألق حياة-ا وم ا عل ة ص الخال مت إجراء مسح دف مجع بيوض حشرة السونة املصابة بطفيليات البيض من حقول احلنطة سليمانية ودهوك مشال العراق خالل شهر نيسان وحىت اية -يف القرى التابعة حملافظات اربيل أظهرت النتائج ان اعلى نسبة مئوية لفقس البيض تراوحت من صفر اىل . ٢٠١٠شهر ايارلسنة حمافظة اربيل واوضح النتائج انه ليس كل البيض اليت تضعه حشرة السونة يف% ٩٦.٣حوايل سوف يفقس بشكل طبيعي كما ان النسبة املئوية للتطفل بشكل عام كانت قليلة يف معظم وسجلت بعض طفيليات البيض التابع لعائلة ,. حقول احلنطة للقرى املشمولة بالدراسة scelionidae لنوعهاووضع مفتاح تشخيصى. 4 29 m. k. mohammad & a. a. al-moussawi bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2012) 12 (1): 29-36 blood parasites of some passeriform birds in baghdad area, central iraq mohammad k.mohammad* and azhar a. al-moussawi iraq natural history research centre and museum, university of baghdad, bab al-muadham, baghdad, iraq. *email: amarmkm82@yahoo.com abstract examining of passeriform birds collected in baghdad area revealed presence of seven species of blood parasites belonging to three genera, haemoproteus, leucocytozoon, and plasmodium. records of microfilariae (larval nematodes) were also indicated. results showed wide distribution of plasmodium relictum among passerine hosts. introduction some of free living passerines have become highly adapted for living in the urban environments and sometimes have become avian pests, and they are, also, common near animal agricultural settings (morishita et al., 1999). on the other hand, avian haematozoa, especially haemosporidia, including species of haemoproteus, leucocytozoon and plasmodium are transmitted by blood-sucking dipteran insects (krizanauskiene et al., 2006), and with few exceptions, these parasites occur worldwide, irrespective of climatic barriers (wiersch et al., 2007). they are supposed to have negative fitness consequences for their hosts as they decrease reproductive success (marzal et al., 2005). also, the sexually selected characters and other evolutionary traits are more likely to exhibit strong correlation with haematozoan prevalence (scheuerlein and ricklifs, 2004). order passeriformes in iraq encounters 161 species (allouse, 1962; salim et al., 2006).of them, 118 species recorded from the central and southern parts. shamsuddin and mohammad (1980) were the first to report on haematozoa of some iraqi birds. they examined 37 passeriform species recording 5 species of haemproteus , 1 of plasmodium and records of microfilariae from 6 passerine hosts. then mohammad (1990) examined 15 species of them recording 6 species of haemoproteus, 2 of leucocytozoon, and records of trypanosoma and microfilariae from 2 and 4 passerine hosts respectively. later, two papers devoted to haematozoa of 3 species of endemic passeriform birds, hypocolius ampelinus, turdoides alterostris and t. caudatus which are considered to be of conservation concern describing 2 new species of haemoproteus and one species of leucocytozoon in addition to record another species of haemoproteus (mohammad, 2002, 2003). the aim of the present work is to investigate about the incidence, infection rate and distribution among hosts of the blood parasites of passeriform birds collected in baghdad area, central iraq. mailto:amarmkm82@yahoo.com 30 blood parasites of some passeriform birds materials and methods a total of 190 birds of the order passeriformes, belonging to 13 families, 23 genera and 30 species were randomly mist-netted from different areas in and around baghdad city, central iraq, during the years 2009 to 2011. thin blood smears were made immediately from each bird, air dried, fixed in absolute methanol or ethanol, and stained with giemsa's stain at strength 1:10 at ph 7.2 for one hour. the parameters used for identification of parasites, were determined following the methods of bennett and campbell (1972) as modified by forrester et al. (1977) and mohammad (1990). photomicrographs were taken with a digital camera attached to micros mcx100 compound microscope. results and discussion table 1 summarizes the results of examining the periphery blood of the studied birds. this would show that 20 out of 190 birds (10.5%) were infected with one or more of blood parasites belonging to genera haemoproteus, leucocytozoon, and plasmodium. records of microfilariae (filarial nematodes) infections were only recorded as positive or negative since it was not possible to verify their generic as well as specific identities due to the absence of mature forms in the periphery blood. table 1 reflects low overall infection rate of 2.2% for all of four haemoproteus spp. shamsuddin and mohammad (1980) and mohammad (1990) reported 13.9% and 12.8 respectively. these results may reflect the differences in environmental conditions of collection sites of their studies. it also shows that four species of haemoproteus, namely, h. turdoidus from babblers (timaliidae), h. hypocolius from grey hypocolius (hypocoliidae), h. fringillae from masked shrike (laniidae) and h. danilewsky from house sparrow (ploceidae) are recorded. infection intensity of h lanii (fig. 1) is severe and with high parasitemia. this is in accordance with mohammad (1990) who found severe infection of h. lanii in shrikes. combination the findings of the present results and that of mohammad (1990) suggests that this haemoproteid is well established in iraq. only one leucocytozooid, leucocytozoon fringillinarum (fig. 2) is recorded from house sparrow (ploceidae), chiffchaff (sylviidae), common redstart (turdidae) and white-cheeked bulbul (pycnonotidae) with an overall infection rate of 6.3%. gill and paperna (2005) found that 79% of house sparrows of jordan valley infected with this parasite. this is almost equal to 12.5 times the present result. this is may be because that they examined visceral rather than peripheral blood. however the present infection rate is not far from 4.3% and 4.8% recorded by shamsuddin and mohammad (1980) and mohammad (1990) respectively. results also show that the lesser short-toed lark calandrella rufescens is infected with plasmodium relictum (fig. 3). bennett et al. (1982) found no parasites in blood smears of the same host. shamsuddin and mohammad (1980) examined 3 species of larks in iraq and found no haematozoa, while mohammad (1990) examined 5 species of larks and recovered haemoproteus alaudae, leucocytozoon fringillinarum and l. majoris, but no report on any plasmodium species. although 11 specimens of larks were examined in this study, no record of haemoproteus was reported. this agrees with the findings of shamsuddin and mohammad (1980) who examined 10 specimens of larks and found no species of haematozoa. however, mohammad (1990) who examined 37 specimens belonged to 5 species of larks found haemoproteus alaudae in all of the examined host species. it seems that present results reflect smaller sample size used in this study as well as that of shamsuddin and mohammad (1980). on the other hand, plasmodium relictum is reported here from phoenicurus phoenicurus, pycnonotus leucogenys, turdoides altirostris, t. caudatus and passer domesticus, which 31 m. k. mohammad & a. a. al-moussawi belong to another 4 avian families of order passeriformes. it is a common mosquitotransmitted blood protozoan of wild birds that has a worldwide distribution. it has been reported from at least 411 avian species from 67 avian families in 83 countries and is considered to be relatively non-pathogenic and non-invasive (glushchenko, 1962, 1963; burtikashvili, 1971, 1978; subkhonov, 1972; yakunin, 1972, cab international, 2011). identification of this parasite in this study depends mainly on morphic, morphometric and staining characteristics, and it seems necessary to re-examine these parasites with advanced methods like protein electrophoresis, gene sequence, pcr etc.. to clarify their taxonomic status more precisely. however, the present results are in general agreement with bennett et al. (1982) who found p. relictum in 270 species belong to 51 avian families. according to them it was recorded from alaudidae, anatidae, phasianidae, cuculidae, irenidae, columbidae, ploceidae, paridae, strigidae, campephagidae, spheniscidae, and falconidae. they emphasized that plasmodium spp. occur over a range of several avian families and especially p.relictum, p. circumflexum and p. vaughani have extensive host ranges encompassing a number of avian families and orders. the overall infection rate for p. relictum is 3.7% from the total sample. this seems high compared with 1.4% of shamsuddin and mohammad (1980) and 0% in mohammad (1990), but it is very low when compared with 28.2% of bennett et al. (1982). the most likely reason for this is the environmental differences and the availability of insect vectors of plasmodium spp. literature cited allouse, b. e. 1962 birds of iraq vol. 3 (passeriformes). ar-rabitta press, baghdad, 288pp. bennett, g.f. and campbell, a.g. 1972 avian haemoproteidae. i. description of haemoproteus fallisi n. sp. and a review of the haemoproteids of the family turdidae. can. j. zool., 50: 1269-1275. burtikashvilil, l.p. 1971 [blood parasites of passeriformes birds from georgia]. materialy pervogo s’’ezda vsesoyuz. obshch. protozoologov. baku: 19-21. (in russian). burtikashvilil, l.p. 1978 [blood parasites of wild birds in georgia]. metsniereba, tbilisi, 1: 1123. (in russian). cab international 2011 invasive species compendium (beta) (www.invasivespecies.net). forrester, d.j., greiner, e.c., bennett, g.f., and kigaya, n.k. 1977 avian haemoproteidae. 7. a review of the haemoproteids of the family ciconiidae (storks) and descriptions of haemoproteus brodkorbi sp. nov. and h. peircei sp. nov. can. j. zool., 55: 12681274. gill, h. and paperna, i. 2005 leucocytoozonosis in the isreali sparrow, passer domesticus biblicus hartert, 1904. parasitol. res., 96: 373-377. glushchenko, v.v. 1962 [new data on the seasonal dynamics of blood parasites of birds from the kiev forest]. zb. pr. zool. muz. akad. nauk. ukr ssr,31: 56-62. (in russian). glushchenko, v.v. 1963 [principles of the distribution of avian blood parasites in relation to the ecology of their hosts]. materialy do vivchennya fauni ukraini. zb. pr. zool. muz. akad. nauk. ukr ssr,32: 57-63. (in russian). http://www.invasivespecies.net) 32 blood parasites of some passeriform birds krizanauskiene, a., hellgren, o. kosarevt, v., sokolov, l., bensch, s. and valkiunas, g. 2006 variation in host specificity between species of avian hemosporidian parasites: evidence from parasite morphology and cytochrome b gene sequences. j. parasitol., 92(6): 1319-1324. marzal, a. de lope, f., navarro, c. and m ّ◌ller, a. p. 2005 malarial parasites decrease reproductive success: an experimental study in a passerine bird. oecologia, 142: 541–545. mohammad, m.k. 1990 blood parasites of some iraqi wild birds. iraqi j. sci., 31(supplement):31-39. mohammad, m.k. 2002 blood parasites of the babblers of iraq. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus., 9(4): 33-40. mohammad, m.k. 2003 haematozoa of the grey hypocolius hypocolius ampelinus bonaparte (aves: hypocoliidae) in kerbala province, middle of iraq. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus., 10(1):49-57. morishita, t.y., aye, p.p., ley, e.c. and harr, b.s. 1999. survey of pathogens and blood parasites in free-living passerines. avian diseases, 43:549-552. salim, m.a, porter, r.f. christensen, s. schiermacker-hansen, p. and al-jbour, s. (2006). field guide to the birds of iraq. amman: nature iraq & birdlife international. (in arabic). shamsuddin, m. and mohammad, m.k. 1980 haematozoa of some iraq birds with description of two new species, haemoproteus pterocles and leucocytozoon nycticoraxi (protozoa: haemosporina). bull. nat. hist. res. centre, 7(4): 111-154. subkhonov, m. 1972 [malaria parasites in the birds of tadzhikistan] in: voprosy zoologii tadzhikistana (m. n. narzkiulov and i. a. abdusalyamovl, eds.). trudy inst. zool. i parazitol.an tadzh. ssr.donish, dushanbe: 279-286. scheuerlein, a. and ricklefs, r.e. 2004 prevalence of blood parasites in european passeriform birds. proc. r. soc. lond., b 271: 1363-1370. wiersch, s.c., lubjuhn t., maier, w.a. and kampen, h. 2007 haemosporidian infection in passerine birds from lower saxony. j ornithol, 148: 17–24. yakunin, m.p. 1972 [blood parasites of the wild birds of southeast kazakhstan]. tr. inst. zool. akad.nauk. kaz. ssr, 33: 69-79. 33 m. k. mohammad & a. a. al-moussawi table 1: family, species, common name, number of examined and infected birds and parasite species. family and species common name parasite alaudidae alauda arvensis sky lark 2 ammomanes cincturus bar-tailed desert lark 1 calandrella rufescens lesser short-toed lark 2 1 plasmodium relictum galerida cristata crested lark 4 melanocorypha bimaculata bimaculated lark 2 family hirundinidae riparia riparia sand martin 3 hirundo rustica barn swallow 3 family corvidae corvus frugilegus rook 1 family timaliidae turdoides altirostris iraq babbler 8 1 plasmodium relictum turdoides caudatus common babbler 23 2 haemoproteus turdoidus, plasmodium relictum pycnonotidae pycnonotus leucogenys white-cheeked bulbul 28 2 leucocytozoon, plasmodium relictum family turdidae cercotrichas galactotes rufous bush robin 1 phoenicurus phoenicurus common redstart 2 2 leucocytozoon, plasmodium relictum oenanthe oenanthe northern wheatear 1 oenanthe deserti desert wheatear 1 saxicola torquata stonechat 3 turdus merula black bird 2 family sylviidae hippolias pallida olivaceous warbler 3 prinia gracilis graceful prinia 2 phylloscopus collybita chiffchaff 3 2 leucocytozoon family motacillidae motacilla alba white wagtail 4 family hypocoliidae hypocolius ampelinus grey hypocolius 6 1 haemoproteus hypocolius family laniidae lanius collurio red-backed shrike 3 lanius isabellinus isabelline shrike 1 lanius nubicus masked shrike 3 1 haemoproteus lanii, h. fringillae, 34 blood parasites of some passeriform birds microfilaria family sturnidae sturnus vulgaris starling 12 family fringillidae emberiza citrinella yellowhammer 1 family ploceidae passer domesticus house sparrow 55 7 haemoproteus danilewsky, leucocytozoon fringillinarum, plasmodium relictum passer hispaniolensis spanish sparrow 1 1 microfilaria passer moabiticus dead sea sparrow 9 total 190 20 35 m. k. mohammad & a. a. al-moussawi fig. 1: haemoproteus lanii from the masked shrike lanius nubicus. fig. 2: leucocytozoon fringillinarum from the house sparrow passer domesticus. fig. 3: plasmodium relictum from the lesser short-toed lark calandrella rufescens. 36 blood parasites of some passeriform birds bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2012) 10 (1): 29-36 طفیلیات الدم في بعض الطیور العصفوریة في منطقة بغداد وسط العراق الموسويأزھار احمد و *محمد كاظم محمد متحف التاریخ الطبیعي العراقي، جامعة بغداد، باب المعظم، بغداد، العراق *email: amarmkm82@yahoo.com الخالصة اظھر فحص الطیور العصفوریة التي جمعت من منطقة بغداد وجود سبعة انواع و haemoproteusمن طفیلیات الدم تعود الى ثالثة اجناس ھي leucocytozoon وplasmodium . كما تم ایضا تسجیل وجود بینت النتائج توزیعا واسعا للطفیلي ). یرقات دیدان خیطیة(المایكروفالریا plasmodium relictum بین المضائف العصفوریة. mailto:amarmkm82@yahoo.com bull 267 saman r. afrasiab et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2017) 14 (4): 267-273 color variation of streptopelia decaocto (avis, columbidae) with some notes on endoparasites saman r. afrasiab * azhar a. almoussawi and mohammad k. mohammad iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq * corresponding author: s_lahony@yahoo.com received date: 23 march 2017 accepted date :04 may 2017 abstract the present paper includes a study of color variation in iraqi collared dove streptopelia decaocto. three different populations have been recognized: the southern population which belongs to the indian race, the northern population to the eurasian race; the dark and light color variation occurs in the baghdad population because of hybridization between the two races, found infected with two cestodes, raillietina echinobothrida found in most of our specimens, while the dark face found beside r. echinobothrida infected with idiogenes sp. getting it probably from vertebrate sources. we believe that most of the baghdad population was intermediate between north and south races. reduction of population density of this dove in baghdad area was caused by diseases, hybridization and competition. key words: collar dove, indian race, iraq, streptopelia decaocto, variation. introduction previously the doves recorded in iraq were collared dove streptopelia decaocto (frivaldsky)., turtle dove s. turtur l., palm dove s. senegalensis (l.), s. orientalis (latham) and nemaqua dove (long tailed) oena capensis (allous, 1962 ; mahdi and georg, 1969; bunni, 1988; lepage, 2014 ; salim et al. 2006). the bird is lilac for head and there is dun-brown narrow black collar encircles the side and back of the neck; the under parts are pinkish –mauve, rather blue on the abdomen; the tail is white below black at the base shoulder is blue-gray (allouse, 1962). palm dove was a rare bird in iraq, but now it is found all over the country (lahony et al., 2008); s. orientalis was recorded by bunni (1988) depending on a single specimen of museum collection; it seems to be vagrant. long tailed dove oena capensis distribution range extends to arabian peninsula, including kuwait, so its distribution may reach the extreme south of iraq (south of basrah). collard dove, s. decaocto is one of the most common birds of iraq, from north to the south. this dove was introduced into iran and expanded westward to iraq, turkey, balkan and europe, and it's still spread (vaurie, 1965). now its distribution extends to north america. http://dx.doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2017.14.4.0267 268 color variation of streptopelia decaocto baicich and harrison, (1997) said that collard dove could breed many times in the year, and it had smooth white egg 30x23mm, incubation 14-16 day. nine cestode species were found in the alimentary canal of streptopelia decaocto from iraq: aporina delafondi, aporina sp., choanotania infundibulum, cotugnia digonopora, cotugnia sp., raillietina echinobothrida, raillietina tetragona, raillietina sp. retinometra serrata (al saffar, 2009; shubber et al., 2010; al-rammahi et al., 2013). within the past 20 years some color variation appears in collared dove of baghdad population, in this study we discuss the variation in iraqi collared dove and give some notes on endoparasites. materials and methods seven bird specimens were collected from baghdad, middle of iraq; 4 were from the south, diwaniyah province and 2 from the north of iraq, kurdistan region, sulaymaniyah province for a systematic study and were immediately checked for their endoparasites, in addition to 4 specimens of the collection of the iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad were used for comparisons. cestodes were identified according to wardle and mcleod (1952). results and discussion we divided the collared dove population of iraq, according to the coloration into three main regions. the north population: has light dorsal and ventral color. baghdad province: the population has two types of coloration, one with light dorsal and ventral, and the other one with dark dorsal and nearly black ventral. the south population is smaller in size and little darker than that of northern population. table (1) gives the variation within the different populations. most of our specimens found infected with the cestode raillataena echinobothrida and some of the dark face of the baghdad population was infected with idiogena sp. found beside to r. echinobothrida. table (1): measurement of different s. decaocto,. tl=total length,. w= wing,. b= bile,. t=tarsus. museum collection sulaymaniyah museum collection, baghdad baghdad dark face male & female diwaniyah male & female baghdad light face male & female 32.0 30.0 29.5-29.9 29-29.5 31-32 t. l. (cm) 18.0 17.6 17.5-17.6 16.5-17.2 17.5-18 w. (cm) 17.0 15.0 17.0 14.0 17.0 b. (mm) 27.0 27.0 27.0 26.0 27.0 t. (mm) 139.0 129.0 135.0 130.0 135.0 tail (mm) 269 saman r. afrasiab et al. the collared dove streptopelia decaocto distributed all over the world, there is no marked variation between the different populations except for s.d. intercedens from india (vaurie, 1965). in our collection of the diwaniyah, south of iraq, they have a wing length of 16.517.5cm. and dorsal color little darker than that of the north; its description is given by vaurie (1965) for indian race, so it must be s. d. intercedens. the prominent color variation will be seen in the baghdad population, about a quarter of the baghdad population has a dark dorsal with nearly black breast and ventral side and a gradation in the color, some are black and other with lighter coloration and the measurement of wing is between 17-18cm; this is found in the northern and southern population. there is no identical color variation in any part of the world, white (2007) mentioned for breeding between domestic white ring neck dove and eurasian collared dove; the result was white ringed, she said this new hybrid couldn't survive in the field.we believed that this was intermediate between northern and southern subspecies, this agrees with mayr (1969). it has an amazing parasite infection, beside of cestodes raillietina echinobothrida, which is a common parasite of the iraqi dove; it was isolated from the rock dove columba livia (alshaibany, 2008 and alsaffar, 2009), and found in the house sparrow, passer domesticus biblicus (mohammad and al-moussawi, 2013). we found that some of the dark face collared dove was infected also with the intestinal cestode idiogenes sp.; this parasite is mostly found in birds of prey as goshawk, buzzards and sparrow hawk, all are carnivores and maybe our dark dove got infection by feeding on a vertebrate diet of rubbish and garbage, for instance some dead and decomposed rodent or birds beside its normal diet. there is no difference in behavior and reproduction if compared with other population. the northern population color and measurements is the same as eurasian population streptopelia decaocto decaocto (pl.1). there are probabilities for this color variation : 1-hybrids, but hybrid do not exist in the field, return back to the normal color. 2-intermediate subspecies between northern and southern races. the hybrid does not exist in the fields, return to the normal color or die (mayr, 1969 ).we feel that in iraq, the reduction in population density is a realits because of hybrid and also because of the impact of computation with recently distributed streptopelia senegalensis, always we found dead collared dove in the gardens and also in the fields (pl.2). mayr (1969) described this phenomena, and he said that intermediate subspecies in a narrow line occur between two different population, recognized by the gradation of the color and measurement some as (a) population and other as (b) population. 3-effect of diseases and parasite infection. 4-they are exposed to some source of radiation. we believe that the 2nd and 3rd are most likely to be in the same line. 270 color variation of streptopelia decaocto a b plate (1): dead collared dove streptopelia decaocto with normal color (a) dorsal view (b) ventral view plate (2) : color variation in streptopelia decaocto, right; light face, left; dark face. acknowledgment special thanks are to dr. habeeb shubber from diwaniyah for his cooperation and supplying us with specimens we need. 271 saman r. afrasiab et al. literature cited allouse, b. e. 1962. birds of iraq, vol. 3 (passeriformes). ar-rabitta press, baghdad, 288pp. (in arabic). al-rammahi, h.m., al-hasnawy, m.h. and abbas, a.k. 2013. concurrent infection of cestodes with trichomoniasis in domestic and wild columbides birds in babylon province.the iraqi journal of veterinary medicine, 37(2): 192-198. al-saffar, n.s.j. 2009. diagnostic study of intestinal helminths of some kinds of columbidae in baghdad city.m.sc. thesis, university of baghdad, college of veterinary medicine, 111pp. al-shaibany, k.t. 2008. isolation and identification of ectoparasites and helminthes parasitic in digestive system of rock pigeon columba livia (gmelin 1789) in aldiwaniya city. iraq. m.sc. thesis, college of education, university of al-qadisiya, 160 pp. baicich, p. j. and harrison, c.j.o. 1997. a guide to the nests, eggs, and nestlings of north american birds. second edition. academic press, san diego, ca, 347 pp. bunni m.k. 1988. first record of rufous turtle dove., streptopelia orientalis (latham) for iraq. bulletin of the iraq natural history museum, 8 (1): 131-134. lahony, s.r., mohammad, m. k. and ali, h.a. 2008. a new record of gosh hawk (baz) accipiter gentilis l. (aves-falconiforms) with short notes on distribution of laughing dove., streptopelia senegalensis (aves, columbiformes) in iraq. bulletin of the iraq natural history museum,10 (3): 45-47. lepage, d. 2014. avibase, the world bird databasebird checklist of the world (iraq). at: http://avibase.bsc-eoc.org/checklist.jsp?region=iq&list=howardmoore (accessed 16 february 2017). mahdi, n. and georg, p.v. 1969. systematic list of iraqi vertebrates, birds. bulletin of the iraq natural history museum, 26: 34-63. mayr, e.1969. principles of systematic zoology. mcgraw-hill, new york, 428 pp. mohammad, m. k., al-moussawi, a.a. 2013. raillietina echinobothrida (megnin,1881) (cestoda: cyclophyllidea) from the house sparrow passer domesticus biblicus hartret, 1881 collected in baghdad city, central iraq. bulletin of the iraq natural history museum, 12 (3): 31-36. salim, m.a, porter, r.f., christensen, s., schiermacker-hansen, p. and aljboor, s. 2006 field guide to the birds of iraq. nature iraq and birdlife international (edit.), 284 pp. (in arabic). shubber,h. w. k., al-waali, a. b. and al-maihy, f. s. 2010. study of the helminthes parasite of digestive tract of the bird (streptopelia decaocto) in al-najaf city. journal of al-qadisiyah for pure science, 15(40):1-7. 272 color variation of streptopelia decaocto vaurie, c. 1965. the birds of palearctic fauna. non – passeriformes. h. f. & g. witherby, london, 763 pp. wardle, r. a. and mcleod, j. a. 1952. the zoology of tapeworms. univ. manttoba, winnepeg, canada,779 pp. white, h. 2007. eurasian collared dove, at: http:// www.diamonddove.info/bird. (accessed 20 february 2017). 273 saman r. afrasiab et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2017) 14 (4): 267-273 streptopelia decaoctoالتغاير في لون الفاختة المطوقة يةمع بعض المالحظات حول الطفيليات الداخل( رتبة الحماميات ) أزهار أحمد الموسوي و محمد كاظم محمد ،سامان روستم افراسياب جامعة بغداد ،مركز بحوث و متحف التاريخ الطبيعي العراقي 30/30/3302: تاريخ القبول 32/32/3302 :تاريخ االستالم الخالصة streptopelia decaoctoيتضمن هذا البحث دراسة تغاير اللون في الفاختة المطوقة النويعالتجمع الجنوبي يعود إلى ؛تم التعرف على ثالث تجمعات سكانية مختلفة .في العراق األوروبي و بينهما تجمع آخر في بغداد فيه تغاير في النويعالهندي و التجمع الشمالي إلى .(الفاتح و الغامق)األلوان وجدت غالبية العينات في الدراسة الحالية مصابة بالدودة الشريطية من النوع raillietina echinobothrida ، إلىإضافة فأنه مصابة بنوع اخراما النوع الغامق يعتقد إذ، .idiogenes sp المتمثل بطفيلي النوع النوع المذكور من الديدان الشريطية و .يبت بها نتيجة تناولها لغذاء حيوانيأصقد الفاختة المطوقة بأن ألنويع الموجود في بغداد يحمل نأب الدراسة الحالية إليهاترجح النتائج التي توصلت يعود االنخفاض و.جنوب العراقو في شمالالموجودين ينألنويع وسطية بينصفات . التنافس في منطقة بغداد إلى اإلصابة باألمراض و وجود الهجين و له السكاني 4 25 wand kh. ali bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2011) 11 (3): 25-33 a new species of rhyncomya rob.-desvoidy, 1830 (diptera : calliphoridae) from iraq * n. a. mawlood** and m. s. abdul-rassoul *** **education college diyala university ***iraq nature museum history baghdad university abstract this research includes a detaile description of new species rhyncomya irakensis sp. nov. from iraq. localities distribution, host plants and data of collection were recorded. introduction rhyncomya rob.-desvoidy is one of small genus from family calliphoridae which contains 18 species (peiris, 1951; rognes, 1998). some species unknown bionomics, the other visted the flower (kurahashi et al., 1997). taxonomic revision of the genus carried out by (zumpt, 1956; zumpt and tasacas, 1976; deeming, 1996; fan, 1997). rhyncomya irakensis sp. nov. body: gry yellowish, 7.4 6.0 mm length. 2.8 2.2 mm width. male: head (fig. 1a) yellow; inner vertical bristles slightly curved; postvertical bristles short and equal one-third of length of inner ones; compound eyes holoptic, dark brown, oval shaped, 2.0 1.8 mm length, 1.1 0.9 mm width, occupy about third-fourth of the anterior region of the head, narrow point is in quarte apical 0.06 0.03 mm; frons redish -redish brown with pale yellow dust; parafrontal narrow with pale yellow dust and 3 2 shorte setae, each sides with 8 7 of bristles; frontal stripe wide from the basal, 0.26 0.21 mm length and gradually tappering forward the vertex, its narrow pointed is in qurter apical 0.03 0.01 mm; face yellow with yellow dust and 3 2 setae; parafacial yellow with yellow dust and 3 2 shorte setae, its upper surface with small, circular, and black spot without dust; antenna (fig. 1b) yellow with yellow dust, 1st segment cup shaped with numerous of short setae, 2nd segment cup shaped longer twice and half time than 1st ones, its outer margin with a pair row of short setae and one long bristle, 3rd segment cylinderical shaped, 0.42 0.38 mm length; arista pubescent very long 0.91 0.87 mm lenght; vibrissae slightly curved and non-crossed; epistoma yellow; oral margin with a row of long bristles; maxillary palp(fig. 1c) clup shaped, 0.91 0.84 mm length, outer margin of apical half with a row of bristles; mentum (fig. 1d) dark brown, nearly triangle shaped, with moderate dense of bristles and brown setae. * part of ph.d. thesis 26 the knowledgeo of the genus chalcophorella labrum-epipharynx (fig. 1e) cone shaped, with 10 9 bristles, its apodeme yellow, 1.1 1.0 mm length; oral lobs small, oval shaped with different length of long, yellow setae; prestomal teeth yellow. femal head similar to the male but outer vertical bristles is present; 1 pair of reclinate and 2 pairs of proclinate fronto-oribital bristle; compound eyes cirular shaped, 1.7 1.6 mm length, 0.8 0.7 mm width; frontal stripe wide. thorax: scutum grey, scutellum yellow, each with slivery dust and moderate, dense, short and black setae; chaetotaxy:acrostichal bristles. 2+3; dorsocentral bristles 2+3; notopleural bristles 2; humeral bristles 3; posthumeral bristles 2; intra-alar bristles 1+2; supra-alar bristles 2; presuture bristle 1; post-alar bristles 2; scutellum bristles 3+1; propleural bristle 1; stigmatal bristle 1; sternopleural bristles 1:1; pleuron grey with dark slivery dust; mesothracic spiracels oval shaped, yellow, 0.56 0.49 mm length; prosternum grey, with slivery dust and long, crinkley, pale white setae; mesopleuron grey, with dark slivery dust and without setae, its lower margin with 4 3 long bristles; hypopleuron with dark slivery dust, its lower margin with a row (7 6) long bristles, metathoracic spiracels yellow, circular shaped; sunbanal knob kidney shaped with dark slivery dust. wings: hyaline, basicosta yellow; dorsal surface of stem vein with a row of short yellow setae; subcostal sclerite without setae; node without setae; apical cell very narrow 0.05 -0.03 mm length; thoracic squqma circular shaped with fine yellow pubescent; upper squama similar to the thoracic squama but smaller; tympanic membrane with comb of long pale yellow setae; halters yellow. legs: yellow, fore femure with a pair rows of long bristles on the posterodorsal surface, a row of long bristles on the posteroventral surface; fore tibia with a row of moderate dense bristles on anterodorsal surface, 1bristle on the anteroventral surface; mid femure with a row of bristles on the posteroventral surface; mid tibia (fig. 2a,b) with 3bristles on the anterodorsal surface, one bristle on each anteroventral and posteroventral surface; hind femure with a row of bristles on the anterodorsal surface, and non-complete row on anteroventral surface; hind tibia (fig. 2c,d) with arow of bristles on anterodorsal surface, tow bristles on posterodorsal surface. abdomen: dark yellow witj grey dust; posterior margin of t1+2 without bristles; posrerior angle of each tergits with circulrr black spot; sternites in male (fig. 2e) dark yellow with grey dust, 1st nearly cup shaped without setae; st 2 nearly triangle shaped; st 4 3 oval shaped; st 4 2 with moderate dense of black setae and 5 4 of long bristles; st 5 with deep incision posteriory and formed bilobed sclerite with moderate dense, long, black bristles; abdomen in female similar to those in male but differ by tergites without black spots, 5 st oval shaped. male terminalia: tergite 6 (fig. 3a) yellow, its hind margin with 5 4 long bristles; sternite 6 (fig. 3b) nearly ring shaped, its left arm reach to the syntergosternite 7+8, right arm is short and failing to reach to the syntergosternite 7+8; syntergosternite 7+8 (fig. 3c) with lowestly dense of short bristles and four very long bristles; tergite 9 (fig. 3d) short, its arms strongly curved, the distance among its apical 0.09 0.05 mm; paralobs (fig. 3e) semiparrel, cyliderical shaped, its one-third basal with dark yellow of long bristles, and its one-third apical with 5 4 very short dark yellow bristles; anal cerci (fig. 3f) with a broad basal which strongly tapper forword the apical, its one-third 27 wand kh. ali basal with dark yellow of long bristles; phalloapodeme (fig. 3g) cylinderical shaped, with antero median flange, 0.35 0.31 mm length, pregonite (fig. 3h) with a row of bristles on posterior margin and apex. postgonite (fig. 3i) cylinderical shaped, with one long bristle near the apex; phallus (fig. 3j) striaght, short, 0.09 0.05 mm length, basiphallus recatingle shaped, 0.17 0.12 mm length, epiphallus nearly hook shaped, equal to length of basiphallus, paraphallus 0.42 0.35 mm length, paraphallus process l -inversed shaped, 0.31 0.24 mm length, its apical pointed and curved, membrane distance among basiphallus and paraphallus process very short 0.05 0.03 mm, hypophallus oval shaped, its outer margin with minute teeth which directed to the upper, acrophallu very short, cylinderical shaped; ejaculatory sclerite short 0.26 0.22 mm and moderately expanded. female terminalia: segments short, teloscopic, tergite 6 (fig. 4a) yellow, its posterior edge with a row of different length bristles, spiracles 6 and 7 located in this tergite; sternite 6 (fig. 4b) yellow nearly recatangular shaped, its posterior edge with a row of short bristles and with four long bristles on one-third apical; tergite 7 (fig. 4c) is composed essentialy of two oval longitudinal plates, which may be widely separated, fused at their posterior medial ends, which provided with a row of short bristles; sternite 7 (fig. 4d) with oval shaped basal, its surface with moderate dense of short bristles; tergite 8 (fig 4 e) consist of two cup shaped plates which flanks the ovipositor, their surface without bristles; sternite 8 (fig. 4f) triangle shaped, with numerous of short bristles; epiproct (fig. 4 h) triangular shaped, with fine brown pubescent, its surface with 12-10 short bristles and four long bristles; hypoproct (fig 4i) triangular shaped, with fine brown pubescent, its surface with 36-34 short bristles, anal cerci (fig. 4j) oval shaped, its half apical with moderate dense of bristles; spermatheca yellow, oval shaped, 0.260.21 mm length, without a nipple-like projection. rhyncomya irakensis sp. nov. closely realted to r. peusi zumpt but differ from it by the following characters :-acrostichal bristles 2+3; dorsocetral bristles 2+3; intra-alar bristles 1+2, supra-alar bristles 2, scutellum bristles 3+1; fore tibia with 3 bristles on the anterodorsal surface, ibristle on each anteroventral and posteroventral surface; paralobs equal to length of anal cerci; epiphallus hook-like, membrane distance among basiphallus and paraphallus process narrow. host plant : weeds material examination 1 ♂ (holotype), 1 ♀ (paratype) coll. 15 / 5 / 1999 (leg. n. a. mawlood) the types were preserved in iraq natural history museum. literature cites deeming, j. c. 1996. the calliphoridae (diptera : cyclorrhapha) of oman. fauna of saudi arabia 15: 264-279. fan, z. 1997. fauna sinica. insecta vol. 6. diptera: calliphoridae. science press, beijing. ixii + 707pp. (in chinese with english. summary of keys and new taxa). kurahashi, h.; benjaphong, n. and omar, b. 1997. blow flies. (insecta: diptera: calliphoridae) of malaysia and singapore. raff. bull. zool., 5, 1-88. 28 the knowledgeo of the genus chalcophorella peris, s. v. 1951. descriptiones preliminares de nuevos rhiniini (diptera : calliphoridae). eos, madrid 27: 237-247. rognes, k. 1998. contribution to a manual of palaearctic diptera. vo: 3, higher brachycera. published by science herald, budapest. 617-648. zumpt, f. 1965. myiasis in man and animals of the old world. a textbook for physians. veterinarians and zoologists london. iv +267 pp. zumpt, f. and tsacas, l. 1976. the rhynchomya callpis-group sensu seguy (diptera; calliphoridae). j. nat. hist. 10: 347 -349. 29 wand kh. ali 30 the knowledgeo of the genus chalcophorella 31 wand kh. ali 32 the knowledgeo of the genus chalcophorella 33 wand kh. ali bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2011) 11 (3): 25-33 rhyncomya rob.-desvoidy, 1830نوع جديد من (diptera : calliphoridae) العراق في ***أ. د. محمد صالح عبد الرسول ** وأ. د. نبيل عبد القادر مولود جامعـة ديـالـى/ قسم علوم الحياة / كلية التربية** جامعـة بـغداد /متحف التاريخ الطبيعي*** لخالصـةا -.rhyncomya irakensis robيتضمن هذا البحث وصف تفصيلي لنوع جديـد للعلم desvoidy يخ مجعهار سجلت مناطق توزيع احلشرة وعوائلها النباتية وتا .يف العراق. bull 81 al-asady, et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2014) 13 (1): 81-88 a new species of grape-vine leafhoppers, genus arboridia zakhvatkin, 1946 (homoptera: cicadellidae) from iraq hassan s. al-asady*, abdulbaset m. amin**, sara dasco younis** *department of biology,college of education for pure science,ibn alhaithm,baghdad/iraq **department of hortculture and forests,college of agriculture,university of salahddin, erbil province, kurdistan/iraq. abstract among a collection of leafhoppers from erbil province in kurdistan/iraq, a new species of the genus arboridia zakhvatkin, 1946 was designated and described here as a new species to the science. the erection of this species was mainly built on the external characters included the male genitalia. sites and dates of collections so as the host-plants were verified. keywords: description, cicadellidae, homoptera, new species. introduction the genus arboridia zakhvatkin, 1946 (typhlocybinae:erythroneurini) contains small, slender fragile and attractively colored and patterned leafhoppers. it was erected by zakhvatkin, 1946. the overall length of males and females ranges from 2.5-3.4 mm. members of this genus can be recognized by the inner apical cell of the forewing which is elongated with oblique base; two prominent circular deep brown spots on the vertex (zakhvatkin,1946; young,1952 and lequesne and payne,1981). the taxonomic status of this genus in iraq is still poorly known, while the only taxonomic works were made by ghuari,1964 and alasady,1999 who described with illustrations two new species arboridia hussaini ghari,1964 and arboridia amalae al-asady,1999. materials and methods a small collection of leafhoppers was collected from some regions of erbil province in kurdistan district. the specimens were identified on the bases of their external motphological characters. they were compared with the leafhoppers collection kept in the iraqi natural history museum. taxonomic keys were used in the examination and identification such as: dlabola(1958) ; ribaut(1936) and young(1952). the genitalia were dissected then mounted and preserved in glycerine. they were kept in microvial then pinned accompanying to the holotype. examination and identification of specimens were done under dissecting stereomicroscope supplied with squared ocular micrometer for drawings under different suitable magnifications. specimens of leafhoppers under study were collected by using sweeping net from grape trees in different localities of shaqlawa, koyia and kalak of erbil province. 82 a new species of grape-vine leafhoppers arboridia kurdistani sp.nov. the name of the new species has been derived from name of kurdistan district of republic of iraq. body: small, slender, ground color varies from dusty to light brown with pale yellowish tinge. the overall length of males and females ranges from 2.3-3.1 mm. vertex (fig.1a ): bright yellow, smooth, its anterior margin distinctly arched and slightly protruded anteriorly away from the compound eyes; two prominent deep brown circular spots situated along the middle line between the compound eyes; posterior margin convex and wider than the anterior one; compound eyes large deep brown and some-times with faintly brown irregular spot. face (fig.1b): triangular in shape; compound eyes appear protruded laterally; both frons and clypeus are smooth and bright yellow; labrum absent; gena elongated and slightly waving along its external and internal lateral margins including the genal suture; epistomal suture distinct, lorum enlarged, smooth, pale yellow and cup-like. pronotum (fig.1c): smooth bright yellow the anterior margin narrow and approximately truncate; the posterior margin slightly waving and wider than the anterior one with notch on its middle; two large deep brown slightly oval spots each one attached to the lateral margin. forewing (fig.2a): elongated; its base narrower than the apex which appear obtuse and slightly inclined internally; corium approximately small and faintl brown; corio-claval suture thick and deep brown; clavus varies from faintly brown to pale yellow; the inner apical cell much longer than the median and outer apical cells separately and its base oblique reaching the end of corioclaval suture; the median apical cell longer than the outer apical cell which is enlarged and appear bigger than inner and median apical cells; the subouter apical cell faintly brown and semicircular; the apical third including veins and cell are whitish. pterothorax (fig.2b): enlarged varies in colors of spots distributed on mesonotum and metanotum, but in general each two spots are identical in shape, size and coloration; in mesonotum both prescutum and scutum are crescent like and the former is much deep brown and wider meddialy and smaller than scutum; the scutellum is cone like. male genitalia (fig.3) genital style (fig.3a): elongated; its apex forked in two similar in shape different in size processes, the inner one is bigger and beak like, while the outer one is smaller; the base of the apical third is narrow while that of the basal third is wider; the middle third contains enlarged tinge in its inner lateral margin. genital plate (fig.3b): 83 al-asady, et al. short flattened; its apex rounded; the base obliquely truncate; the inner lateral margin slightly invaginated in its middle, no spines and bristles neither on the surface nor along the surface. connective (fig.3c): triangular; its apex narrow with small slightly deep invagination; the whole surface smooth and whitish. aedeagus (fig.3d): much smaller; a tubular part slightly narrowing apically to form pointed apex; its base surrounded by an envelope like chitinized structure, the upper apical end of this envelope is concave in which the aedeagus resting while its lower basal margin convex bearing a small tubular process which inters in the invagination of the apex of the connective. comparison notes: the studied new species is closely related to arboridia hussaini ghuari,1964 but it differs by the following characters: 1.two prominent spots on the pronotum. 2.the presence of subouter apical cell in the forewing. 3.no anal veins on the corium. 4.genital plate without spines and bristles. 5.vertex distinctly arched. 6.no lateral processes originated from the phallaus. 7.the aedeagus smaller, narrow with pointed apex. examined specimens: holotype: 1 male paratypes: 4 males and 5 females the holotype and paratypes preserved in the department of invertebrate and insects/iraqi, natural, hisrory, museum, university of baghdad. the specimens were collected by using sweeping net. sites of collection: shaqlawa, kala and koyiah, erbil province, kurdistan/iraq. dates of collection: 21, 23 and 24 of november 2013. host-plant: vitis vinifera l. acknoledgements we are very much grateful to the authority of iraqi, natural, history, museum for making available their collection and library. we would like to thank asistant professor dr. razzak.sh.augul and lecturer dr. h.h.al-saffar the keepers of the cicadellidae collection in the department of invertebrate and insects of the iraqi, natural history museum for allowing us in comparing and examination of specimens. literature cited al-asady, h.s. (1999). a new species of grape-vine leafhopper of the genus arboridia zakhvatkin, 1946 (homoptera:cicadellidae) from iraq. bull. iraq. nat. hist. mus. 9(1):41-59. 84 a new species of grape-vine leafhoppers dlabola, j. (1958). a reclassification of palaearctic typhlocybinae (homoptera: auchenorrhyncha) cas.csl.spol.ent.(acta.soc.ent.cst). 55:44-57. ghuari, m.k.s. (1964). a new species of grape-vine leafhopper (homoptera: cicadellidae) from iraq. iraq. ann. mag. brit. nat. hist. mus. 6 (ser.13) 281-283. le quesne, w.j. and payne. k.r. (1981). cicadellidae (typhlocybinae) with a checklist of the british auchenorryncha (hemiptera:homoptera). handbook for the identification of british insects. 2(2c). royal entomological society of london. 99pp. ribaut, h, (1936). homopteres. auchenorrhynqes.i. (typhlocybinae). faund de france. 31:1231. young, d.a. (1952). a reclassification of western hemisphere typhlocybinae (homoptera:cicadellidae). university of kansas science bulletin. 35(1): 3-217. zakhvatkin, a.a. (1946). studies on the homoptera of turkey. trans. royal. ent.soc.london. vol.97, 149-176. 85 al-asady, et al. 86 a new species of grape-vine leafhoppers 87 al-asady, et al. 88 a new species of grape-vine leafhoppers bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2014) 13 (1): 81-88 عائلة arboridia zakhvatkin, 1946نوع جديد من قفازات األوراق جنس cicadellidae , رتبة متشابهة األجنحة homoptera في العراق. **و سارة ديسكو يونس **عبد الباسط محمد أمين محمدو *حسن سعيد األسدي العراق بغداد/ جامعة بغداد-ابن الهيثم/كلية التربية للعلوم الصرفة/قسم علوم الحياة* العراق اقليم كردستان/ جامعة صالح الدين/كلية الزراعة/قسم البستنة والغابات** الخالصة تم . جمعت العينات من مناطق مختلفة من محافظة أربيل في أقليم كردستان العراق أعتمد في عملية . كنوع جديد للعلم .arboridia kurdistani sp.novوصف النوع تم تحديد . التشخيص والوصف على صفات المظهر الخارجي مع التأكيد على السؤة الذكرية .نباتيمناطق و تواريخ الجمع والعائل ال .وصف, قفازات االوراق, متشابهة االجنحة , نوع جديد : لكلمات المفتاحيةا bull 57 razzaq shalan augul bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. july, (2018) 15 (1): 57-75 study on diversity of bees (hymenoptera, apoidea) from different regions of iraq razzaq shalan augul iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq corresponding author: razzaqshalan@gmail.com, dr.rsha@nhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq received date: 11 february 2018 accepted date:06 march 2018 abstract the fauna of bees (hymenoptera, apoidea) from different regions of iraq is surveyed in this study; there were 16 species, 13 genera that belong to four families which are collected in this investigation. also, all the species that are recorded for iraq in previous investigations are revised; totally there are 110 species, 32 genera belonging to five families: apidae, andernidae, colletidae, halictidae and megachilidae were listed. key words: apoidea, bees, diversity, fauna, hymenoptera, iraq. introduction the higher classification of bees has changed recently; gauld and bolton (1988) recognized only two families, sphecidae and apidae in the superfamily apoidea, they classified all bees within apidae in different subfamilies; whereas michener (1993) recognized 11 families of bees within an informal series apiformis of apoidea: apidae, andrenidae, anthophoridae, colletidae, ctenoplectidae, fidellidae, halictidae, megachilidae, melittidae, oxaeidae and stenotritidae; but later reduced the number of families to seven by michener (2000, 2007), these families included: melittidae, megachilidae, apidae, andrenidae, colletidae, stenotritidae, and halictidae. bees are thought to have played an important role in the diversification of the angiosperms in the early to mid-cretaceous (grimaldi, 1999); and also they played a role with other insect′s pollination in ecosystem service: fruits, vegetables or seeds production from 87 of the 115 leading global food crops depend upon animal pollination (klein et al., 2007). to addition, in agriculture, pollination is an important input of crop production, comparable to any other input such as fertilizers and pesticides; similar to the worldwide values, the only studies that have tried to measure pollination contribution to commodity at national levels also have produced inconsistent values. for example, in the united state of america alone, the value of pollination has been reported to range from us$ 4.5 billion in the 1960s to us$18.9 billion in the late 1980s (o’grady, 1987; robinson et al., 1989; morse and calderone, 2001). doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2018.15.1.0057 58 study on diversity of bees (hymenoptera, apoidea) in iraq, previous studies in this concern were very few and scarce, for example, hassan (2007) studied the pollinators (apoidea) that pollinated alfalfa plant in babylon governorate; augul (2016) conducted a survey of flower pollinators, including the apiformis from different localities; whereas ahmed (2017) studied the taxonomic aspects of the species that belong to this guild from northern iraq. so, the current investigations have been made to survey the wild bee species that belong to series of apiformis from the different localities, followed by a revised checklist of the species registered in previous studies. materials and methods the specimens were collected from different parts of iraq during 2015 and 2017; the whole specimens studied were labeled and stored in the iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad. the collected specimens were identified to the lowest taxonomic rank using different keys such as: amiet et al. (2004); michener (2007); karunaratne and edirisinghe (2008); eardly et al. (2010); sheffield et al. (2011); nadimi et al. (2013), in addition, compared with identified species stored in insects collection of iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad to assure the diagnosis. the synonymized of name species depended on sakagami and ebmer (1987), ebmer (1988), pauly (1999), bwars (2012), kuhlmann et al. (2015), salem and el-azab (2017) and ascher and pickering (2018). results and discussion in present investigation, there were 16 species, 13 genera belonging to 4 families, which were collected from different regions of iraq; also we revised the species registered previously in the checklists as below: family, andrenidae andrena albifacies alfken, 1927 global distribution: egypt, israel, libya and iraq (grace, 2010). andrena albopicta radoszkowski, 1874 global distribution: turkey, iraq and iran (grace, 2010). andrena cordialis morawitz, 1877 global distribution: iraq (derwesh, 1965); greece, crete and turkey (grace, 2010). andrena flavipes panzer, 1799 materials examined (3♀♀ specimens): baghdad province, al-madaen, 1, 18.iv.2015. wasit province: al-zubaidiya, 2, 20.x.2017. global distribution: iraq (derwesh, 1965); europe, north africa, turkey, china, nepal, india and uzbekistan (huan–li and tadauchi, 2008). andrena morio brullé, 1806 global distribution: iraq (khalaf and al–omar, 1974); germany, hungary, north africa and central asia (warncke and scobiola-palade, 1980); whereas grace (2010) listed this species in: greece, rhodes, crete, cyprus, turkey, syria, lebanon, egypt, libya, and israel. 59 razzaq shalan augul andrena sigiella gusenleitner, 1998 global distribution: iraq, jordan, syria and israel (grace, 2010). andrena viridescens viereck, 1916 =andrena cyanescens nyl. global distribution: this species is listed to fauna of iraq by derwesh (1965) under the synonym of andrena cyanescens nyl.; romania and central europe (warncke and scobiolapalade, 1980); greece and turkey (grace, 2010). andrena vetula lepeletier, 1841 global distribution: iraq (derwesh, 1965); greece, turkey, cyprus, syria, lebanon, israel, palestine, egypt and libya (grace, 2010). family: apidae amegilla albigena (lepeletier, 1841) =anthophora albigena lep. global distribution: in iraq it was listed by derwesh (1965) under the name of lasius (anthophora) albigena. greece, cyprus, turkey, syria, jordan and egypt (grace, 2010); algeria, armenia, croatia, czech republic, italy, spain, portugal, france, slovakia, greece, macedonia, uzbekistan, morocco, egypt, afghanistan, india, iran, israel, lebanon, nepal, tajikistan and turkmenistan (insctoid.info, 2018). amegilla harttigi (alfken 1926) global distribution: iraq (grace, 2010) and saudi arabia (ascher and pickering, 2018). amegilla quadrifasciata (de villers, 1789) materials examined (3 ♀♀ specimens): wasit province: aziziyah, 3, 3.x.2017. global distribution: palaearctic region (baldock, 2014); in iraq this species was listed by khalaf and al–omar (1974) under the name anthophora quadrifasciata vill. ancyla holtzi friese, 1902 global distribution: iraq, greece, cyprus, turkey and iran (grace, 2010). ancyla orientalica warncke, 1979 global distribution: iraq, greece, turkey and syria (grace, 2010). anthophora atriceps (pérez, 1879) global distribution: iraq (khalaf and al–omar, 1974); egypt (grace, 2010); morocco, algeria, syria, tunisia iran, israel, switzerland (inectoid.info, 2018). anthophora orientalis morawitz, 1877 global distribution: in iraq, this species was listed by khalaf and al–omar (1974); croatia, greece, italy and spain (rasmont and dehon, 2015 a). anthophora salviae (panzer, 1804) =anthophora crinipes smith, 1854 global distribution: in iraq, this species was registered under the name anthophora crinipes smith, 1854 by khalaf (1958) and derwesh (1965); europe (rasmont et al., 1995). 60 study on diversity of bees (hymenoptera, apoidea) anthophora fulvitarsis brullé, 1832 global distribution: iraq (khalaf, 1958); austria, france, greece, hungary, italy, portugal, romania, spain, ukraine (rasmont and dehon, 2015 b). anthophora sulaimanensis (mawlood & amin, 2017) global distribution: iraq (mawlood and amin, 2017). apis florea fabricius, 1787 global distribution: iraq (glaiim, 1992); iran; israel, uae, saudi arabia, ethiopia, sudan, pakistan, india, sri lanka, china, thailand, vietnam, singapore and indonesia (ascher and pickering, 2018). apis mellifera linnaeus, 1758 materials examined (118 workers): baghdad province: jaddria, 11, 29.iii.2017, 13, 14.iv.2017; al taji, 10, 22.iv.2017; al radhwania, 7, 3.v.2017. wasit province: al-suwaira, 13, 30.vi.2017; al-zubaidiya, 15, 1.ix.2017, 12, 2.ix.2017, 3, 3.ix.2017. babylon province: al qasim, 16, 2.ix.2016; shomali, 3, 3.ix.2017. maysan province: hawizeh marshes, umm an-ni'aaj, 9, 9.iii.2017. diyala province, baqubah, 6, 18.xii.2017. global distribution: cosmopolitan except for antarctica (mortensen et al., 2017). bombus fervidus (fabricius, 1798) global distribution: el – haidari et al. (1971) was listed to iraq; although this species is native in north america: canada, mexico and united states (hatfield et al., 2015a). bombus vosnesenskii radoszkowski, 1862 global distribution: el – haidari et al. (1971) listed this species to iraq; although it is native in canada, mexico and united states (hatfield et al., 2015b). certaina laevifrons morawitz, 1894 material examined (1♂, 3♀♀ specimens): wasit province, aziziyah, 2♀♀, 4. x. 2017; baghdad province; bab al-mudham, 1♀, 29.ix.2017. kerbela province, kerbela, 1♂, 27.vii.2017. global distribution: iraq (derwesh, 1965); turkmenistan, central asia, southern of iran to northern of kazakhstan and from caspian sea to kyrgyzstan (terzo and rasmont, 2011). ceratina nigrolabiata friese, 1896 global distribution: iraq (derwesh, 1965); turkey (terzo and rasmont, 2011); south and central europe from portugal to greece, including european part of russia; azerbaijan, georgia, syria (ascher and pickering, 2018). ceratina schwarzi kocourek, 1998 global distribution: iraq, greece, cyprus, turkey, syria, iran and israel (grace, 2010). certaina tibialis morawitz, 1895 = ceratina ahngeri kokujev, 1905 global distribution: iraq (derwesh, 1965); israel, turkey, syria, iran, azerbaijan, tajikistan, turkmenistan (terzo, 1998). eucera bidentata pérez, 1887 material examined (1 ♂, 1♀ specimens): baghdad province: jaddria, 11.ix.2017. global distribution: iraq (derwesh, 1965); greece on lesbos and cyprus (grace, 2010). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/oktawiusz_radoszkowski 61 razzaq shalan augul eucera clypeata erichson, 1835 global distribution: iraq, greece, turkey, syria, israel, palestine, jordan, iran and north africa (grace, 2010). eucera cypria alfken, 1933 global distribution: iraq, greece and cyprus (grace, 2010). eucera distinguenda (morawitz, 1875) = tetralonia distinguenda morawitz, 1875 global distribution: iraq (derwesh, 1965); india, kazakhstan, pakistan, turkmenistan (insectoid.info, 2018). eucera alborufa (radoszkowski, 1871) =tetralonia radoszkowskii morawitz,1875 global distribution: this species was listed to iraq by khalaf and al–omar (1974) under the name tetralonia radoszkowskii mor.; but there is no information about this species globally. eucera longicornis linnaeus, 1758 global distribution: iraq (derwesh, 1965); europe (excluding the far north) and transcaucasia (aliyev and maharramov, 2015). eucera tibialis (morawitz, 1837) global distribution: iraq and turkey (grace, 2010). nomada basalis herrich-schaeffer, 1839 global distribution: iraq, greece, syria, israel, palestine, turkey and iran (grace, 2010). nomada collarae schwarz, 1964 global distribution: iraq and turkey (grace, 2010). nomada fenestrata lepeletier, 1841 global distribution: iraq, turkey, israel, jordan, iran and egypt (grace, 2010); pakistan, tunisia, morocco, canary islands, spain and france (ascher and pickering, 2018). nomada fucata panzer, 1798 global distribution: iraq (derwesh, 1965); north east turkey (grace, 2010); austria, belgium, czech republic, france, germany, poland, greece, italy, kazakhstan, spain, sweden, united kingdom and denmark; africa: egypt; asia: iran, israel, kyrgyzstan (insectoid.info, 2018). nomada mauritanica lepeletier, 1841 global distribution: iraq, greece, cyprus, turkey and israel (grace, 2010). nomada tigridis morice, 1921 global distribution: iraq (derwesh, 1965). 62 study on diversity of bees (hymenoptera, apoidea) pasites maculates jurine, 1807 global distribution: iraq (khalaf and al–omar, 1974); algeria, cyprus, czech republic, france, slovakia, italy, greece, hungary, austria, bulgaria, spain, china, iran, israel, pakistan and south korea (inectoid.info, 2018). thyreus ramosus (lepeletier, 1841) =crocisa ashabadensis radoszkowski, 1893 global distribution: in iraq this species was listed by derwesh (1965) under the name of crocisa ashabadensis radoszkowski; central and southern europe, northeast africa, arabia, west asia, himalaya and china (beaumont, 1939; rasmont, 2014). tetraloniella glauca (fabricius, 1775) global distribution: in iraq this species was listed by grace (2010) under the name tetralonia olivieri (lepeletier, 1841); iran, cyprus and turkey (ascher and pickering, 2018). thyreomelecta dimidiatipuncta (spinola, 1838) global distribution: iraq, libya, egypt (grace, 2010). xylocopa aestuans (linnaeus, 1758) global distribution: in iraq this species was listed by khalaf and al–omar (1974); globally, it distributes in united arab emirates (harten, 2005); saudi arabia (hannan et al., 2012); southeast asia, indochina, the malay peninsula and indonesia (pauly, 2016). xylocopa fenestrata (fabricius, 1798) material examined (2♂♂, 9♀♀ specimens): baghdad province: bab al-muadham, 1♂, 2♀♀, 13.vi.2016; 1♂, 4 ♀♀, 11.viii.2017. wasit province: al-zubaidiya, 2♀♀, 3. ix.2017. maysan province: hawizeh marshes, umm an-ni'aaj, 1♀, 14.iii.2017. global distribution: iraq (derwesh, 1965); turkey (warncke, 1982); afghanistan, burma, china, india, iran, madagascar, mauritius, nepal, pakistan, sri-lanka and reunion (ascher and pickering, 2018). xylocopa pubescens spinola, 1838 global distribution: iraq (swailem et al., 1974); afghanistan, algeria, burma, egypt, ethiopia, india, iran, israel, morocco, nepal, pakistan, turkey, syria, senegal, sudan, kenya, mozambique and tanzania (warncke, 1982; ascher and pickering, 2018). xylocopa olivieri lepeletier, 1841 global distribution: iraq (derwesh, 1965); turkey (warncke, 1982); israel (guershon and ionescu-hirsch, 2012); albania, azerbaijan, greece, crete, cyprus, iran, kyrgyzstan, macedonia, syria and turkmenistan (ascher and pickering, 2018). xylocopa rufa friese, 1901 global distribution: iraq (derwesh, 1965); caucasus, turkestan, pakistan, sudan, israel and iran (warncke, 1982); armenia, kyrgyzstan, tajikistan, turkmenistan, india and china (ascher and pickering, 2018). xylocopa violacea (linnaeus, 1758) global distribution: iraq (swailem et al., 1974); europe, north africa and western asia (warncke, 1982). 63 razzaq shalan augul family, colletidae colletes nanus friese, 1898 global distribution: iraq (derwesh, 1965); egypt, jordan, israel, libya and syria (grace, 2010). hylaeus cornutus curtis, 1831 =prosopis cornutus sm. global distribution: west and central asia: iraq, caucasus, turkey, israel, iran and turkestan; great britain, denmark; north africa: morocco, algeria and egypt (celary and dylewska 1988). it distributes also in armenia, azerbaijan, syria and russia (proshchalykin and dathe, 2017). hylaeus klugii (friese, 1898) global distribution: iraq, egypt, iran, israel and khuzestan (grace, 2010); according to the previous author, the subspecies of h. klugii mesopotamae (warncke, 1992) is described in iraq. hylaeus nyroca (warncke, 1992) global distribution: iraq (grace, 2010). hylaeus pictus (smith, 1853) global distribution: in iraq this species is listed under the name of hylaeus damascenus magretti by derwesh (1965); also it distributes in turkey, israel and iran (grace, 2010). hylaeus trinotata pérez, 1895 global distribution: iraq, turkey; in iraq the subspecies of h. t. mesopotamica collected from sumel district, dohuk (grace, 2010). family: halictidae ceylalictus punjabensis (cameron, 1907) =nomioides excellens saunders, 1908 global distribution: in iraq the species was listed under the name of nomioides excellens by derwesh (1965); iran, india, egypt, saudi arabia, cape verde, jordon, israel, morocco, senegal, djibouti, tunisia, afghanistan, niger, uea, mauritania, pakistan, sudan, kenya and libya (ascher and pickering, 2018). ceylalictus variegatus (olivier, 1789) = andrena variegata olivier, 1789 = nomioides variegata (olivier, 1789) global distribution: this species is listed in iraq under the name nomioides variegata (olivier, 1789) by derwesh (1965); eastern europe, cyprus, mediterranean basin, middle east, sardinia and sicily (balzan et al., 2016). dufourea nodicornis (warncke, 1979) global distribution: iraq, egypt, libya, israel, jordan and syria (grace, 2010). halictus fatsensis blüthgen, 1936 global distribution: iraq, cyprus, israel, jordan and turkey (grace, 2010); egypt (ebmer, 2014). 64 study on diversity of bees (hymenoptera, apoidea) halictus cephalicus morawitz, 1874 global distribution: iraq, afghanistan, iran, israel, syria, russia, southeastern europe, caucasus, turkey (astafurova et al., 2017). halictus lucidipennis smith, 1853 halictus varipes morawitz, 1876 global distribution: derwesh (1965) listed this species in iraq under the name halictus varipes; pauly et al. (2002) also listed it in: algeria, cape verde, chad, egypt, ethiopia, morocco, tunisia, libya, senegal, gambia, mali, burkina-faso, niger, cameroon, sudan, eritrea, djibouti, kenya, arabia, oman, yemen, jordan, iran, turkey, israel, turkmenistan, uzbekistan, tajikistan, kyrgyzstan, kazakhstan, afghanistan, bhutan, burma, india, pakistan, sri lanka, nepal, thailand and china. halictus mongolicus morawitz, 1880 global distribution: iraq (derwesh, 1965); china, turkistan and mongolia (ze-qing et al., 2004). halictus scabiosae (rossi, 1790) global distribution: iraq (derwesh, 1965); greece and turkey (grace, 2010); western palaearctic with western mediterranean, from morocco to rhodes and bosphorus, from the atlantic ocean to the north, to belgium and channel island jersey (ebmer, 1988); in addition, balzan et al. (2016) listed this species in sardinia and sicily. halictus senilis (eversmann, 1852) materials examined (3♂♂, 4♀♀): wasit province, aziziyah, 2♂♂, 2♀♀, 3.x.2017. kerbela province, kerbela, 1♂, 2♀♀, 27.vii.2017. global distribution: iraq (khalaf, 1958); turkey, jordan and libya (grace, 2010); spain, tunisia, egypt, iran, mongolia, eurasia from southeast russia to turkestan, afghanistan, pakistan, israel (pauly et al., 2016). halictus tectus radoszkowski, 1875 =halictus sogdianus morawitz, 1876 global distribution: in iraq this species is listed by derwesh (1965) under the name of halictus sogdianus morawitz; eurasia from southern france, also iberia to mongolia (ebmer, 1988); greece (grace, 2010). halictus tetrazonianellus strand, 1909 halictus leucognathus morice, 1921 global distribution: in iraq this species is listed under the name of halictus leucognathus morice, 1921 (derwesh, 1965); bulgaria, greece, moldova, ukraine, turkey to turkmenistan, israel and jordan (ebmer, 2014). halictus vestitus lepeletier, 1841 global distribution: iraq (derwesh, 1965); china; mongolia; former ussr; france and austria (ze-qing et al., 2007). lasioglossum carneiventre (dours, 1872) global distribution: iraq, algeria, egypt, iran, israel and syria (ebmer, 2014). 65 razzaq shalan augul lasioglossum aegyptiellum (strand 1909) global distribution: in iraq the checklist of derwesh (1965) listed this species under the name of halictus platysectus dours.; according to ebmer (1988) this species distributes in mediterranean-west asian, from morocco to iran and turkmenia; also pauly (2016) listed this species for croatia, minor asia to iraq and iran, israel and egypt, lasioglossum leucozonium (schrank, 1781) = halictus leucozonius kirby materials examined (1♂): wasit province, al zubaidiya district, 1♂, 20.x.2017. global distribution: in iraq this species registered as halictus leucozonius kirby by derwesh (1965). holarctic region (mcginley, 1986; and ebmer, 1988); greece, turkey, iran, cyprus (grace, 2010). lasioglossum malachurum (kirby, 1802) =halictus longulus smith, 1848 = halictus malachurus kirby global distribution: derwesh (1965) listed this species in iraq under the name of halictus longulus smith; west-palaearctic: from the azores to iran, from morocco north to england and denmark (ebmer, 1988); in addition grace (2010) listed this species in: greece, cyprus, turkey, israel, palestine, jordan and egypt. lasioglossum mandibulare (morawitz, 1866) global distribution: iraq, france, portugal, turkmenistan, kazakhstan, israel, romania, austria, ukraine (ebmer, 2014). lasioglossum marginatum (brullé 1832) =halictus kervilleanus perez, 1910 global distribution: this species is listed in iraq by derwesh (1965) under the synonym; greece, cyprus, turkey, syria, lebanon, israel, jordan and iran (grace, 2010). lasioglossum picipes (morawitz, 1876) =halictus amaranus morice, 1921 global distribution: this species is listed in iraq by derwesh (1965) under the synonym of halictus amaranus; israel and iran (grace, 2010). lasioglossum politum schenck 1853 global distribution: iraq, greece, turkey, iran, israel, jordan and egypt (grace, 2010). lasioglossum scheherezade ebmer, 2000 global distribution: iraq (grace, 2010). lasioglossum vagans (smith, 1857) = halictus chaldaeorum morice, 1921 global distribution: this species is registered in iraq by derwesh (1965) under the name halictus chaldaeorum; turkey, lebanon, jordan, israel and egypt (grace, 2010). nomiapis bispinosa (brullé, 1832) materials examined (1♂ specimen): maysan province, hawizeh marsh, umm an-ni'aaj, 1♂, 9.vi.2015. global distribution: this species is registered in iraq under the name of nomia rufiventris, spinola (derwesh, 1965).crete, cyprus, turkey and egypt (grace, 2010); portugal, spain, 66 study on diversity of bees (hymenoptera, apoidea) italy, southern france, sardinia, former yugoslavia, greece, hungary, southern russia and pakistan (michez et al., 2013). nomioides ino (nurse, 1904) global distribution: iraq, iran, turkey and jordan (grace, 2010); turkmenistan, uzbekistan, tajikistan, mongolia (pauly, 2017). nomioides turanicus morawitz, 1876 global distribution: iraq, egypt, turkey and iran (grace, 2010). pseudapis edentata (morawitz 1876) materials examined (2♂♂, 6♀♀): maysan province, umm an-ni'aaj, 1♂, 2♀♀, 9.vi.2015.wasit province, al-shahabi, 1♂, 4♀♀, 10.vi.2015. global distribution: in iraq, derwesh (1965) listed this species under the name nomia edentata morawitz; turkey, iran and egypt (grace, 2010). pseudapis innesi (gribodo, 1894) materials examined (2♀♀): maysan province, hawizeh marsh, umm an-ni'aaj, 9.vi.2015. global distribution: iraq and egypt (grace, 2010). pseudapis nilotica (smith, 1875) global distribution: in iraq, it was registered by khalaf and al–omar (1974) under the name of nomia savignyi kohl; also distributes from morocco and mauritania to pakistan; egypt, jordan, israel and iran (grace, 2010) sphecodes sp. material examined (2♀♀): baghdad province; bab al-muadham, the specimens collected at 22.vi.2017. global distribution: the genus of sphecodes latreille, 1804 distributes in holarctic region and north to the subarctic (astafurova and proshchalykin, 2014). family: megachilidae anthidium florentinum (fabricius, 1775) global distribution: iraq (khalaf and al–omar, 1974); greece, macedonia, crete, turkey, iran and israel (grace, 2010). anthidium tessellatum klug, 1832 global distribution: in iraq this species is listed by derwesh (1965); egypt (warncke, 1980); israel, jordon, lebanon (grace, 2010). anthidiellum strigatum (panzer, 1805) global distribution: in iraq this species is listed under the name of anthidium strigatum panzer by derwesh (1965); central asia, cyprus, europe, greece, iran, lebanon, north africa, palestine, russia, syria, turkey (warncke, 1980); israel and libya (grace, 2010); the last author is listed the subspecies a. s. crassepunctatum popov, 1935 for iraqi fauna. coelioxys afra lepeletier, 1841 global distribution: iraq (derwesh, 1965); africa (pasteels, 1977); algeria, egypt, kyrgyzstan, morocco, russia, tunisia, turkmenistan, uzbekistan (warncke, 1992); south, eastern and central europe, uk, asia minor (banaszak and romasenko, 1998); western 67 razzaq shalan augul europe to china and indonesia (proshchalykın and lelej, 2004); greece, cyprus, turkey, israel and egypt (grace, 2010) and iran (khaghaninia et al., 2010). coelioxys coturnix pérez, 1884 global distribution: iraq (derwesh, 1965); palaearctic region (ortiz-sánchez, 2014). it was introduced to the usa. coelioxys decipiens spinola, 1838 global distribution: iraq (derwesh, 1965); also this species distributed from north africa towards cyprus, crete, turkey, asia minor and central asia, until the himalayas (ornosa et al., 2007, ortiz-sánchez et al., 2009, grace, 2010). coelioxys haemorrhoa forster, 1853 materials examined (1♂, 4♀♀ specimens): maysan province: hawizeh marshes, umm anni'aaj, 1♂, 3♀♀, 9.vi.2015; baghdad province: bab al-muadham, 1♀, 10.ix.2017. global distribution: iraq (derwesh, 1965); also distributes in southern europe, from the iberian peninsula to austria; north africa to central asia (ornosa et al., 2007). coelioxys obtusa pérez, 1884 global distribution: iraq (derwesh, 1965); turkey (özbek and van der zanden, 1994); egypt, morocco, france, greece, croatia, caucasus, spain italy, poland, iran, turkmenistan (ascher and pickering, 2018). coelioxys ruficauda lepeletier, 1841 global distribution: iraq, crete, turkey and egypt (grace, 2010). megachile apicalis spinola, 1808 materials examined: maysan province, hawizeh marsh, umm an-ni'aaj, 1♀, 9.vi.2015. global distribution: iraq (khalaf and al–omar, 1974); eurasia, united states (james and pitts-singer, 2008); cyprus, turkey, israel, greece, rhodes, north africa although not reported for egypt and libya (grace, 2010). megachile argentata (fabricius, 1793) materials examined (3♂♂, 5♀♀): baghdad province: al-madaen, 1♂ and 4♀♀, 29.ix.2017.wasit province: al-zubaidiya, 2♂♂, 1♀, 3.x.2017. global distribution: iraq (derwesh, 1965); europe (özbek and van der zanden, 1994); north-eastern china, caucasus, north africa, north america (proshchalykin, 2007); syria (grace, 2010) algeria and hungary (balzan et al., 2016). megachile babylonica rebmann 1970 global distribution: iraq (grace, 2010). megachile concinna smith, 1879 materials examined (1♂, 1♀): maysan province, hawizeh marsh, umm an-ni'aaj, 1♀, 1♂, 9.vi.2015. global distribution: iraq (insectoid.info, 2018); holarctic region (ascher and pickering, 2018). 68 study on diversity of bees (hymenoptera, apoidea) megachile farinosa (smith, 1853) global distribution: grace (2010) listed this species in iraq under the name of chalicodoma farinosa (smith, 1853); also it distributed in egypt, turkey (grace, 2010; ascher and pickering, 2018). megachile flavipes (spinola, 1838) global distribution: iran (morice, 1921), iraq (derwesh, 1965) and turkey (warncke, 1992). megachile minutissima radoszkowski 1876 global distribution: iraq (derwesh, 1965); egypt, turkey and israel (grace, 2010). megachile rotundata (fabricius, 1787) materials examined (1♂, 2♀♀): maysan province, hawizeh marsh, umm an-ni'aaj, 2♀♀, 9.vi.2015; wasit province, kut, 1♂, 27.v.2017. global distribution: iraq, iran, greece, cyprus and turkey (grace, 2010). megachile schnabli radoszkowski, 1893 global distribution: iraq (derwesh, 1965); iran, turkmenistan and tajikistan (ascher and pickering, 2018). megachile squamosa rebmann, 1970 global distribution: iraq (grace, 2010). megachile striatella rebmann, 1968 global distribution: egypt, iraq, iran, greece and libya (grace, 2010). osmia indigotea morawitz, 1875 global distribution: iraq (derwesh, 1965). osmia brevicornis (fabricius, 1798) =osmia panzeri morawitz, 1869 global distribution: in iraq this species is listed by derwesh (1965) under the synonym; romania (ban-calefariu, 2009). protosmia paradoxa (friese 1899) global distribution: in iraq, this species is listed by khalaf and al–omar (1974) under the synonym of osmia paradoxa fr.; greece, cyprus, turkey, lebanon, palestine, israel, jordan and syria (grace, 2010). stelis phaeoptera (kirby, 1802) global distribution: iraq (derwesh, 1965); greece, israel, egypt and libya (greece, 2010). stelis signata (latreille, 1809) global distribution: iraq (derwesh, 1965); cyprus, greece, israel, lebanon and turkey (grace, 2010); in addition to, the last author listed the subspecies s. s. eremica alfken 1938 in iraq. 69 razzaq shalan augul literature cited ahmed, h. 2017. taxonomic study of bees (hymenoptera: apoidea) in some localities of kurdistan region-iraq. msc. in plant protection, college of agriculture, salahaddin university, erbil, iraq. 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(2018) 15 (1): 57-75 ( فوق عائلة النحليات ،األجنحةرتبة غشائية )دراسة التنوع في النحل لمناطق مختلفة من العراق رزاق شعالن عكل جامعة بغداد ،مركز بحوث ومتحف التأريخ الطبيعي العراقي 00/03/2012 ألقبولتاريخ 11/02/2012 :تاريخ االستالم خالصةال من مناطق مختلفة في ( hymenoptera, apoidae)اجري مسحا لمجموعة النحل 4جنسا تعود الى 61، نوعا 61العراق؛ اذ بلغ عدد االنواع التي جمعت خالل التحريات . عوائل للمجموعة العراقية؛ المسجلة سابقا لألنواعنتشار االمراجعة للتسمية العلمية و اجريت :جنسا تعود الى خمسة عوائل هي 13نوعا، 661 االشارة الىاجماال تم apidae، andernidae،colletidae ، halictidae وmegachilidae. 14 113 abed, et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2014) 13 (2): 113-120 the status and conservation of the vulnerable marbled teal marmaronetta angustirostris, menetris (aves-anseriformes) in al-dalmaj wetlands, iraq. salwan ali abed*, maysoon m. altaey**, mudhafar a. salim*** *department of biology, college of science, baghdad university, baghdad, iraq. **department of biology, college of science, babylon university, babil, iraq. ***national biodiversity expert, technical director, nature iraq org., iraq. *email: salwan_ali2000@yahoo.com abstract this study is considered the first effort of its kind in iraq and in the middle east towards studying the marbled teal marmaronetta angustirostris that was carried on in hor al-dalmaj, southern iraq. the findings of this effort illustrate its importance as it paves the way for further study and observation for the bird and this important wetland itself. this study tackles the all possible aspects of the ecological and biological statuses of marbled teal (threatened – vulnerable bird species – iucn redlist) by means of field surveys and systematic monitoring that were conducted along the four seasons over the years 2013-2014 in one of the ecologically important and prominent and poorly-known wetlands in the middle euphrates, that is hor aldalmaj, as a highly important wetland on the national, regional and global levels that holds key biodiversity areas (kba), important bird areas (iba), and important plant areas (ipa). keywords: marbled teal, marbled duck, iraq, waterfowl conservation, dalmaj, wetlands. introduction marbled teal was discovered by ( menetris, 1832) and was referd to the genus anas, but recent this genus divide to angustirostris put with genus marmaronetta. the marbled teal marmaronitta angustirostris is a globally threatened species that undergoing a rapid population decline (green 1993, 1996; collar et. al.,1994). in iraq, the species is a resident breeder and wintering in different wetlands in iraq over the two lower thirds of the country (salim, 2012). hor al-dalmaj contains suitable habitat for this bird species on the national and regional (middle east) levels. the results of the current study approved that this wetland provides marbled teal good feeding ground and breeding shelter as well; nevertheless, the bird faces different threats. the area demonstrates good factors for the species in case it get managed in the proper way. al-dalmaj wetlands are vast wetlands at the middle euphrates area. the northern part of dalmaj is located around 120 km southeast to baghdad city, 40 km northwest of kut city, and 40 north east to diwaniya city (direct distances). it consists of relatively deep-water lake with vast marshland habitat of dense and scattered reed beds (salim, 2010). the wetlands of dalmaj include considerable diversity in the fauna species including the richness in the waterfowl species during winter as well as the existence of many threatened and endemic bird species that made it eligible to be considered as a key biodiversity area (kba) and important bird area (iba) (imoe & nature iraq, 2014). mailto:salwan_ali2000@yahoo.com 114 the status and conservation of the vulnerable marbled teal methdology five field observation sites have been chosen based on specific criteria of which mostly that they represent different wetlands habitat landscapes in order to have as through idea as possible about the status of the bird in hor al-dalmaj and the identification of the environmental parameters favored by the bird, like water quality and vegetation cover, etc. field observation were including “area-count methodology” in each of these selected sites, and it includes using 12x45mm binoculars and, wherever required, 40x field-telescope. 4x4 fieldtruck was used in order to secure better observation over the five sites. a garmin gps was used in locating the sites, and also a 1:100,000 scale maps were used. recent satellite image shows the five sampling sites in al-dalmaj wetlands results and discussion marbled teal status in dl-1: based on the field observation over the period of the survey that covered twelve months, generally seems that dl-1 area provide good habitat for the occurrence and distribution of the marbled teal in dalmaj wetlands. the bird was found over all the survey time, it was not absent in any of these twelve months. it also observed that there is noticeable variation in the population of marbled teal over the twelve months. the highest number was found in october, as 134 individuals were found in the area, followed by 72 individuals in november (figure1). october and november observation represent the peak of the marbled teal occurrence in dl1 and this might be due to suitability of this part of the marsh for the bird in addition to the arriving of the wintering populations to iraq in general and to dalmaj and this area specifically (scott & carp, 1982). it is also noticed that, away of october and november, the population of marbled teal takes comparatively lower grade of the rest of the months of the period january-september; the highest population that was recorded in dl-1 was 21 individuals (in june), while the lowest count in this period was recorded in august – 2 individuals. in december the count was 33 individuals (figure 1). the summer observations represent the lowest in the occurrence of the individual birds, and this examples the fact that was described by salim being the poorest season in the occurrence of the marbled teal in the wetlands of iraq (salim, 2010). figure-1 : the counts of mar marbled teal status in dl-2: field observation over the period of the survey that covered twelve months in this site, generally show that dl-2 area provide a good habitat for the occurrence and distribution of marbled teal as well. the bird was found over all the survey period, and it was not absent in any of these twelve months. it also observed that there is noticeable variation in the population of marbled teal over the twelve months. the highest number was found in november, as 94 individuals were found in the area, followed by 71 individuals in september. october and november observations represent the peak of the marbled teal occurrence in dl could be due to suitability of this part of the marsh for the bird in additio wintering populations to iraq in general and to this area in particular. it was also noticed that the population of marbled teal takes comparatively lower grade in the rest of the months of the period as the highest populatio individuals (in october), while the lowest count in this period was recorded in august individuals. figure-2 : the counts of marbled teal in dl 0 50 100 150 count 0 50 100 jan feb mar apr may 115 abed, et al. ons represent the lowest in the occurrence of the individual birds, and this examples the fact that was described by salim being the poorest season in the occurrence of the marbled teal in the wetlands of iraq (salim, 2010). 1 : the counts of marbled teal in dl-1 field observation over the period of the survey that covered twelve months in this site, 2 area provide a good habitat for the occurrence and distribution of he bird was found over all the survey period, and it was not absent in any of these twelve months. it also observed that there is noticeable variation in the population of marbled teal over the twelve months. the highest number was found in november, as 94 individuals were found in the area, followed by 71 individuals in september. october and november observations represent the peak of the marbled teal occurrence in dl-2 and this could be due to suitability of this part of the marsh for the bird in addition to the arriving of the wintering populations to iraq in general and to this area in particular. it was also noticed that the population of marbled teal takes comparatively lower grade in the rest of the months of the period as the highest population that was recorded in dl-2 was 65 individuals (in october), while the lowest count in this period was recorded in august – 18 2 : the counts of marbled teal in dl-2 count may jun jul aug sept oct nov dec count count ons represent the lowest in the occurrence of the individual birds, and this examples the fact that was described by salim being the poorest season in the occurrence field observation over the period of the survey that covered twelve months in this site, 2 area provide a good habitat for the occurrence and distribution of he bird was found over all the survey period, and it was not absent in any of these twelve months. it also observed that there is noticeable variation in the population of marbled teal over the twelve months. the highest number was found in november, as 94 individuals were found in the area, followed by 71 individuals in september. october and 2 and this n to the arriving of the it was also noticed that the population of marbled teal takes comparatively lower grade in 2 was 65 18 116 the status and conservation of the vulnerable marbled teal marbled teal status in dl-3: field observations over the period of the survey that covered twelve months, generally suggest that dl-3 area provide a humble habitat for the occurrence and distribution of marbled teal. it also observed that there is noticeable variation in the population of marbled teal over that period. the highest number was found in june as 30 individuals were found in the area, followed by 22 individuals in may (figure 3). june and may observations represent the peak of the marbled teal occurrence in dl-3 and this might be due to suitability of this part of the marsh for the bird. it is noteworthy that the population of marbled teal is comparatively low in dl-3 as it was only 10 individuals found in july, while the lowest count in this period was recorded in january, december, august and september – 0 individuals. the summer observations represent the highest in the occurrence of the individual birds, and this might be due to the suitability of this area for the birds in this time of the year. figure-3 : the counts of marbled teal in dl-3 marbled teal status dl-4: it generally seems from the field observations over the period of the survey that covered twelve months, that dl-4 area provide a humble habitat for the occurrence and distribution of marbled teal. the bird was found through eight months of the total survey time, it was absent in february, august, october and december. it also observed that there is noticeable variation in the population of marbled teal over the survey period. the highest number (25 individuals) was found in june, followed by 19 individuals in may (figure 4). may and june observations represent the peak of the marbled teal occurrence in dl-4. it is also noticed that the population of marbled teal takes comparatively lower grade in january, march, april, september and november. the highest population, aside from may/june counts, that was recorded in dl-4 was 11 individuals in july, while the lowest count in this period was recorded in january – 1 individual. 0 10 20 30 40 jan feb mar apr may jun jul aug sept oct nov dec count count 117 abed, et al. figure-4 : the counts of marbled teal in dl-4 marbled teal status in dl-5 dl-5 area in general provides good habitat for the occurrence and distribution of the marbled teal. the bird was found over all the survey time, it was not absent in any of these twelve months. it also observed that there is noticeable variation in the population of marbled teal over the twelve months. the highest number (120 individuals) was found in february, followed by 72 individuals in january (figure 5). the observations of these two months represent the peak of the marbled teal occurrence in dl-5 and this might be due to suitability of this part of the marsh for the bird in addition to the arriving of the wintering populations to iraq in general and to this area specifically (imoe & nature iraq, 2014, salim, 2011). the population of marbled teal takes comparatively lower grade of the rest of the months of the period (march through december). the highest population that was recorded in dl-5 was 64 individuals (in december), while the lowest count in this period was recorded in august – 5 individuals. the summer observations represent the lowest in the occurrence of the individual birds, and this is consistent with the fact that was described by salim in (2010) as summer being the poorest season in the occurrence of marbled teal in the wetlands of iraq. figure-5 : the counts of marbled teal in dl-5 0 10 20 30 jan feb mar apr may jun jul aug sept oct nov dec count count 0 50 100 150 jan feb mar apr may jun jul aug sept oct nov dec count count 118 the status and conservation of the vulnerable marbled teal the data of the figures dl-1, dl-2, dl-3, dl-4, dl-5 shows the reduction in teals population in feb. mar. apr., because of the breeding season, each couples separate from the covey for building the nest in between the dens bushes. the exception is in figure -2 and figure-5. the young will grow, the juvenile of two or more nest make a new covey in july, august, september and november general statement generally, and based on the one-year surveys in dalmaj area, it seems that this area is important area for biodiversity, and this means the richness in the species and the abundance in the numbers of these species that the vast are of this key wetland provides. the marbled teal in dalmaj is doing very well in terms of their life circle in breeding, movements, and wintering unless it being disturbed (seriously in some places) and this disturbance affects their natural life circle in the area. definitely, the numbers shown above does not represent the actual population in this area because the sampling sites were only five with a total surveying/observations are that does not exceeds 5% of the entire area of dalmaj waterbody; so, there definitely very much numbers higher than the counts. we think that is would be of benefit that some of the locals and hunters that “sometime the numbers became up to more than 20,000 individuals especially during winter”, and this is not impossible as other team (kbas team) have recorded up to 12,000 individuals in the central marshes, southern iraq (imoe, 2014). conservation of marbled teal in delmaj wetlands in spite of the ecological importance of hor al-dalmaj, it is under different kinds of pressures and threats like the unstable of the hydrological scheme, agricultural expansion and intensification, pollution, disturbance, and over-hunting (clap-nets, shotguns). these threats are interchanging in their impacts as they affect marbled teal and its life in hor al-dalmaj, so the wetland and species both suffer the impacts of these pressures. the area is characterized by many features that make it unique from the ecological and recreational perspectives. hence, it is recommended to establish a management plan that covers the hydrological, ecological and developmental preservation for hor al-dalmaj and the diversity of flora and fauna it nourishes. this can go side by side with certain activities on the part of the authorities like the enforcement of the iraq environmental legislations and the application of the international and regional convention, especially those related to the establishment and sustaining of protected areas. literature cited collar, n. j., crosby, m. j. and stattersfield, a. j. (1994). birds to watch 2: the world list of threatened birds. cambridge, u.k.: birdlife international (birdlife conservation series no. 4). green, a. j. (1993). the status and conservation of the marbled teal marmaronetta angustirostris. international waterfowl and wetlands research bureau, slimbridge, u.k. wetlands international (iwrb spec. publ. 23). green, a. j. (1996). international action plan for the marbled teal marmaronetta angustirostris. pp. 99-117. in: heredia, b., rose, l., painter, m. (eds.). globally threatened birds in europe. action plans. council of europe publishing, strasbourg. 119 abed, et al. iraqi ministry of environment & nature iraq (2014). inventory of key biodiversity areas of iraq. baghdad, iraq: iraqi ministry of environment & nature iraq. salim, m.a. (2010). current status of marbled duck marmaronetta angustirostris in iraq, conservation approach. nature iraq. salim, m.a. (2011). biodiversity of the middle euphrates: current status and potentials for conservation action plan, nature iraq. scott, da & e carp. 1982. a midwinter survey of wetlands in mesopotamia, iraq: 1979. sandgrouse 4: 6–76. 120 the status and conservation of the vulnerable marbled teal bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2014) 13 (2): 113-120 marmaronetta angustirostrisالوضع الراهن وحالة الصون لطائر احلذف املعرق املهدد يف منطقة هور الدملج، العراق ***، مظفر عبد الباقي سامل**ميسون مهدي الطائي ،*سلوان علي عبيد *email: salwan_ali2000@yahoo.com الخالصة ھذه الدراسة ھي أول جھد من نوعھ في العراق والشرق األوسط لطائر الحذف المعرق تعد angustirostris marmaronetta وتستمد أھمیة . في منطقة ھور الدلمج جنوبي العراق تعرض ھذه . ھذا الجھد لكونھ یمھد الطریق لمزید من الدراسة والمراقبة للطیور والمنطقة من األنواع المھددة والمعرضة (الدراسة كل الظروف البیئیة واألحیائیة لطائر الحذف المعرق -٢٠١٣ظمة طوال الفصول االربعة في سنھ بواسطة المسح الحقلي والمراقبة المنت) للخطر أجري المسح في واحد من اھم وابرز األراضي الرطبة التي لم تأخذ حقھا من . ٢٠١٤ الدراسات الكافیة اال وھو ھور الدلمج والذي یعتبر من اھم المسطحات المائیة على مستوى سیة والمناطق المھمة العراق والمنطقة والعالم وفقا لمعاییر مناطق التنوع األحیائي الرئی یوفر ھور الدلمج موطن طبیعي ومناسب لھذا الطائر على . للطیور والمناطق المھمة للنبات نتائج الدراسة الحالیة . المفرخة والمھاجرة: مستوى العراق والشرق األوسط لكال المجتمعین ثالیة إلستمراریة توافق وتؤید بأن ھذه المسطحات المائیة تزود طائر الحذف المعرق البیئة الم الفعالیات الطبیعیة كالتغذیة والتكاثر، على الرغم من أن الطیور تواجھ أنواع مختلفة من التھدیدات، كذلك تم اقتراح جملة من التوصیات نحو إدارة جیدة لمنطقة ھور الدلمج في .المستقبل mailto:salwan_ali2000@yahoo.com 1 1 al-awadi et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2010) 11 (1): 1-9 parasitic fauna of fishes in bahr al-najaf depression, mid iraq haytham m. h. al-awadi*, furhan t. mhaisen** and fadhil f. al-joborae*** * dept. biol., coll. educ., univ. kufa, najaf, iraq ** dept. biol., coll. educ. (ibn al-haitham), univ. baghdad, baghdad, iraq *** dept. histol. embryol., coll. med., univ. babylon, hilla, iraq abstract during a period of two years, from january 1995 till december 1996, the first survey on fish parasites in bahr al-najaf depression, mid iraq, was achieved. a total of 6992 fishes, belonging to 11 species, were collected and inspected for external and internal parasites. these fishes were infected with three protozoans (ichthyophthirius multifiliis, trichodina domerguei and myxobolus pfeifferi), two monogeneans (dactylogyrus cornu and gyrodactylus elegans), two digenetic trematodes (clinostomum complanatum and ascocotyle coleostoma), one nematode (contracaecum sp.) and one acanthocephalan (neoechinorhynchus iraqensis). five fish species were recorded as new hosts in iraq for four helminth species of the present study. introduction during the last 25 years or so, marine fishing in iraq was ceased due to the war circumstances. also, fish culture industry was decreased due to the economic blockade. hence, hopes were focused on inland fisheries. wholeyear surveys on parasites of fishes in different parts of inland waters of iraq are numerous (mhaisen, 2009). some surveys covered one or more major groups of parasites. some were restricted to one or more fish species. most of such surveys were done on fishes from different localities of iraqi rivers. among such surveys, works concerned with more than one major group of parasites and more than one fish species from inland waters of iraq (other than rivers) will be mentioned here. these included those of al-daraji (1986) in al-hammar marshes, al-saadi (1986) in al-tharthar lake, al-alusi (1989), asmar et al. (1999) and balasem et al. (2003) in al-qadisiya dam lake, abdullah (1990) in dokan lake, mhaisen et al. (1999) in al-habbaniya lake, balasem et al. (2000) in hemrin dam lake, mhaisen et al. (2003) in al-madaen drainage network and abdullah (2005) in darbandikhan lake. from the above information, it is clear that no study was done on the parasitic fauna of fishes in bahr al-najaf depression. therefore, the present investigation was focused on this area as the detailed knowledge of the parasitic fauna is necessary for any attempt to improve the stocks of valuable commercial fisheries in inland waters (shul’man, 1961). 2 parasitic fauna of fishes materials and methods bahr al-najaf depression (the sampling area of the present study) lies southwest of alnajaf al-ashraf city. this area is located between 31° 45′ and 31° 57′ north latitude and 44° 7′ and 44° 16′ east longitude (abul-fatih, 1970). many desert streams flow southward from the euphrates river and discharge their flood water into bahr al-najaf depression. this depression also receives drainage waters from the southern cultivated area. springs in the region are considered as another source of water in this depression (personal communication with al-najaf irrigation and agrarian directorate). this depression includes a terrestrial habitat and an aquatic habitat. fish specimens were collected during the period from january 1995 till december 1996. they were caught with the aid of a small cast net and a hand net. fishes were directly transported to the laboratory where they were measured, weighed and sexed. coad’s (1991) list was followed for the scientific names of fishes. skin and gill smears, eye lenses, body cavity, musculature and all internal organs were inspected according to amlacher (1970). mhaisen’s (2009) index-catalogue of parasites and disease agents of fishes of iraq was followed to indicate the number of previous host records for each parasite species in order to minimize number of references for each parasite. percentage incidence of infection was calculated as defined by margolis et al. (1982). parasite identification was done according to bykhovskaya-pavlovskaya et al. (1962) and amin et al. (2001). results and discussion during the two years period of the present study, 6992 fishes were captured. these belong to seven families and 11 species as demonstrated below with their numbers: family cyprinidae 253 barbus grypus heckel, 1843 322 barbus luteus (heckel, 1843) 155 barbus sharpeyi günther, 1874 197 barbus xanthopterus (heckel, 1843) 82 carassius carassius (linnaeus, 1758) family bagridae 88 mystus pelusius (solander in russell, 1794) family siluridae 65 silurus triostegus heckel, 1843 family heteropneustidae 113 heteropneustes fossilis (bloch, 1794) family cyprinodontidae 2158 aphanius dispar (rüppell, 1828) family poeciliidae 701 gambusia affinis (baird et girard, 1853) family mugilidae 2858 liza abu (heckel, 1843) nine parasite species were detected in the present investigation. table (1) shows a list of the recorded parasites (phylogenetically arranged) and their hosts together with their percentage incidence of infection and site of infection. the following is a brief account on the occurrence of these parasites. 3 al-awadi et al. table (1): parasitefish host list in bahr al-najaf depression. parasite species fish host % incidence site of infection * ichthyophthirius multifiliis barbus luteus 13 g barbus sharpeyi 12 g heteropneustes fossilis 9 g mystus pelusius 15 g liza abu 22 g trichodina domerguei barbus sharpeyi 11 s, g heteropneustes fossilis 15 s, g liza abu 8 s, g myxobolus pfeifferi barbus luteus 15 s, g liza abu 17 s, g dactylogyrus cornu barbus luteus 12 g liza abu 13 g gyrodactylus elegans barbus luteus ** 13 s heteropneustes fossilis 10 s liza abu 7 s ascocotyle coleostoma heteropneustes fossilis 13 s clinostomum complanatum aphanius dispar 12 s barbus luteus 12 s gambusia affinis 15 s heteropneustes fossilis 17 s liza abu ** 11 s contracaecum sp. aphanius dispar ** 52.6 k, l, m barbus grypus 15 k, l, m gambusia affinis ** 12 bc liza abu 62.2 i, k, l, m, sp neoechinorhynchus iraqensis barbus xanthopterus ** 9 i liza abu 39.8 i * site of infection: bc= body cavity, g= gills, i= intestine, k= kidneys, l= liver, m= mesenteries, s= skin, sp= spleen. ** new host record in iraq protozoa – ciliophora two ciliated protozoans (ichthyophthirius multifiliis and trichodina domerguei) were recorded in the present study (table 1). ichthyophthirius multifiliis was recorded from gills of five fish species of the present study (b. luteus, b. sharpeyi, h. fossilis, m. pelusius and l. abu. herzog (1969) recorded i. multifiliis for the first time in iraq from mugil dussumieri in tigris river at baghdad city. according to 4 parasitic fauna of fishes mhaisen (2009), a total of 28 fish host species are so far known for this parasite in iraq, inclusive of the five fish species of the present study. this parasite is a dangerous pathogen, especially under intensive fish culture as it causes the white spot disease (duijn, 1973). trichodina domerguei of the present study was recorded from skin and gills of three fish species (b. sharpeyi, h. fossilis and l. abu). its first record from iraq was by shamsuddin et al. (1971) from eight fish species (b. esocinus, b. grypus, b. luteus, b. sharpeyi, b. xanthopterus, cyprinus carpio, l. abu and s. triostegus) taken from different fish markets in baghdad city. now, it has 33 fish hosts in iraq inclusive of the three species of the present study (mhaisen, 2009). according to amlacher (1970), this parasite exerts little pathological effects on its host. however, rogers and gaines (1975) claimed that trichodiniasis is oftenly associated with other parasitic infections, and hence it is difficult to determine the actual cause of the disease. protozoa – myxozoa only one species (myxobolus pfeifferi) was recorded from the skin and gills of both b. luteus and l. abu of the present study. this parasite was recorded for the first time in iraq by fattohy (1975) from acanthobrama marmid in tigris river at mosul city. this is a common parasite in different parts of iraq as it has, so far, 33 host species (mhaisen, 2009). this parasite is known to attack different fish organs (amlacher, 1970; duijn, 1973). mhaisen et al. (1989) demonstrated different degrees of petrification and degeneration of l. abu ovaries in a fish farm in babylon province due to this parasite. monogenea two species of monogenetic trematodes were recorded in the present study. these were dactylogyru cornu and gyrodactylus elegans (table 1). dactylogyrus cornu was recorded from gills of both b. luteus and l. abu of the present study. its first record in iraq was by ali et al. (1986a) from six fish species (b. belayewi, b. grypus, b. luteus, b. xanthopterus, chondrostoma regium and s. triostegus) in diyala river. six more hosts were then reported for this parasite in iraq (mhaisen, 2009) inclusive of l. abu of the present study. gyrodactylus elegans of the present study was recorded from the skin of three fish species (b. luteus, h. fossilis and l. abu). its first record in iraq was by ali and shaaban (1984) from c. carpio and l. abu in al-zaafaraniya fish farm, south of baghdad. so far, it has 22 fish hosts in iraq, inclusive of b. luteus of the present study, which represents a new host record (mhaisen, 2009). it is necessary to mention here that asmar et al. (1999), mohammad-ali et al. (1999), al-nasiri (2000), salih et al. (2000) and al-awadi (2003) had reported this parasite from b. luteus before the publication of the present paper. trematoda metacercariae of two species of digenetic trematodes were recorded in the present study. these were ascocotyle coleostoma and clinostomum complanatum (table 1). metacercariae of a. coleostoma of the present study were recorded from the skin of h. fossilis. these metacercariae were reported for the first time in iraq by ali et al. (1986b) from h. fossilis in diyala river. so far, this species was reported from 22 fish hosts in iraq (mhaisen, 2009). the adult worm was detected from the intestine of the grey heron, ardea cinerea in babylon fish farm (now euphrates fish farm) near hilla city (mhaisen and abul-eis, 1992). metacercariae of c. complanatum of the present study were recorded from the skin of five fish species (a. dispar, b. luteus, g. affinis, h. fossilis and l. abu). these metacercariae were recorded for the first time in iraq by khamees (1983) from aspius vorax and b. luteus in mehaijeran creek, south of basrah. a total of 16 fish hosts are, so far, known to harbor this 5 al-awadi et al. species in iraq including a. dispar, h. fossilis and g. affinis (mhaisen, 2009). so, l. abu of the present study represents a new host record for c. complanatum in iraq. it is adequate to indicate here that jori (1998), abdul-rahman (1999), al-niaeem (2006) and al-saadi (2007) had reported this species from l. abu before the publication of the present paper. c. complanatum infects the skin, gills and muscles of freshwater fishes and causes the yellow grub disease (amlacher, 1970). the adult worm lives in the mouth and pharynx of piscivorous birds such as herons and bitterns (duijn, 1973). nemathelminthes the third larval stages of the nematode contracaecum spp. were found encysted in kidneys, liver and mesenteries of both a. dispar and b. grypus, in the body cavity of g. affinis and in the intestine, kidneys, liver, mesenteries and spleen of l. abu (table 1). these larvae were reported for the first time in iraq by herzog (1969) from 10 species of fishes in different parts of iraq (a. vorax, b. esocinus, b. grypus, b. luteus, b. sharpeyi, b. xanthopterus, h. fossilis, l. abu, m. pelusius and s. triostegus). this is the commonest fish helminth parasite in inland waters of iraq as its host list consists of 35 species including the two new records of the present study (a. dispar and g. affinis) according to mhaisen (2009). the final hosts for contracaecum spp. in iraq are some aquatic birds (shamsuddin et al., 1971; al-hadithi and habish, 1977; al-hadithi and abdullah, 1991; awad et al., 1994; al-awadi, 1997). acanthocephala one species of spinyheaded worms (neoechinorhynchus iraqensis) was recorded from the intestine of both b. xanthopterus and l. abu. according to mhaisen (2002), this species was erroneously identified as n. agilis in most iraqi literature prior to the nomination of n. iraqensis by amin et al. (2001). the first record of n. agilis (as a synonym of n. iraqensis in iraqi literature) was by habash and daoud (1979) from mugil hishni (a synonym of l. abu) in shatt al-arab river. now, the host list of n. iraqensis (together with n. agilis) comprises 17 fish species inclusive of b. xanthopterus, which represents a new host record for n. iraqensis in iraq (mhaisen, 2009). no more reports are available on the occurrence of n. iraqensis in b. xanthopterus in iraq. in intensive infection, n. iraqensis is known to cause intestinal blockage as indicated by khamees (1983) for l. abu in mehaijeran creek, south of basrah. literature cited abdullah, s.m.a. 1990. survey of the parasites of fishes of dokan lake. m. sc. thesis, univ. salahadden: 115pp. (in arabic). abdullah, s.m.a. 2005. parasitic fauna of some freshwater fishes from darbandikhan lake, north of iraq. j. dohuk univ., 8(1): 29-35. abdul-rahman, n.m. 1999. parasites infection in fish from garmat ali river and its relation with food items. m. sc. thesis, univ. basrah: 103pp. (in arabic). abul-fatih, h.a. 1970. the vegetation of saline swampy area of bahr al-najaf, iraq. m. sc. thesis, univ. baghdad: 87pp. al-alusi, m.a. 1989. a study of alimentary canal helminths of some species of iraqi fishes from al-qadissiya dam lake. m. sc. thesis, univ. baghdad: 110pp. (in arabic). al-awadi, h.m.h. 1997. some ecological aspects of the parasitic faunae of fishes and aquatic birds in bahr al-najaf depression, iraq. ph. d. thesis, univ. baghdad: 71pp. 6 parasitic fauna of fishes al-awadi, h.m.h. 2003. parasitic faunae (protozoa and monogenea) of six species of fish from euphrates river near kufa district (najaf al-ashraf province, iraq. babylon univ. j., pure appl. sci., 8(3): 529-532. al-daraji, s.a.m. 1986. survey of parasites from five species of fishes found in al-hammar marsh. m. sc. thesis, univ. basrah: 130pp. (in arabic). al-hadithi, i.a.w. and abdullah, b.h. 1991. some helminth parasites from three species of aquatic birds in basrah, iraq. basrah j. agric. sci., 4: 261-271. al-hadithi, i.a.w. and habish, a.h. 1977. observations on nematode parasite (contracaecum sp.) in some iraqi fishes. bull. basrah nat. hist. mus., 4: 17-25. ali, m.d. and shaaban, f. 1984. some species of parasites of freshwater fish raised in ponds and in tigrisal-tharthar canal region. abst. 7th sci. conf. iraqi vet. med. assoc., mosul: 23-25 oct. 1984: 62-63. ali, n.m.; al-jafery, a.r. and abdul-ameer, k.n. 1986a. new records of three monogenetic trematodes on some freshwater fishes from diyala river, iraq. j. biol. scs. res., 17(2): 253-266. ali, n.m.; al-jafery, a.r. and abdul-ameer, k.n. 1986b. new records of three digenetic trematodes on some freshwater fishes from diyala river, iraq. proc. 4th sci. conf., sci. res. coun., 5(1): 10-19. al-jadoaa, n.a.a. 2002. the parasitic infections and pathological changes of some local and cultured fishes from al-qadisiya and babylon provinces. ph. d. thesis, univ. alqadisiya: 158pp. (in arabic). al-nasiri, f.s. 2000. parasitic infections in a manmade lake at al-amiriya region, baghdad. m. sc. thesis, univ. baghdad: 133pp. (in arabic). al-niaeem, k.s.k. 2006. infection distribution of fish parasites in basrah province and pathological effects of saprolegnia sp. and its susceptibility to some plant extracts. ph. d. thesis, univ. basrah: 172pp. (in arabic). al-saadi, a.a.j.j. 1986. a survey of alimentary canal helminths of some species of iraqi fishes from tharthar lake. m. sc. thesis, univ. baghdad: 94pp. (in arabic). al-saadi, a.a.j.j. 2007. ecology and taxonomy of parasites of some fishes and biology of liza abu from al-husainia creek in karbala province, iraq. ph. d. thesis, univ. baghdad: 155pp. (in arabic). amin, o.m.; al-sady, r.s.s.; mhaisen, f.t. and bassat, s.f. 2001. neoechinorhynchus iraqensis sp. n. 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(in arabic). balasem, a.n.; mohammad-ali, n.r.; adday, t.k.; ali, a.k. and waheed, i.k. 2000. parasitological survey on fish in hemrin dam lake, province of diyala. j. diyala, 1(8 part 1): 104-114. (in arabic). bykhovskaya-pavlovskaya, i.e.; gusev, a.v.; dubinina, m.n.; izyumova, n.a.; smirnova, t.s.; sokolovskaya, i.l.; shtein, g.a.; shul’man, s.s. and epshtein, v.m. 1962. key to parasites of freshwater fish of the u. s. s. r. akad. nauk s. s. s. r., moscow: 727pp. (in russian). coad, b.w. 1991. fishes of the tigriseuphrates basin: a critical checklist. syllogeus, 68: 149. duijn, van c. jnr. 1973. diseases of fishes, 3rd edn. iliffe books, london: 372pp. fattohy, z.i. 1975. studies on the parasites of certain teleostean fishes from the river tigris, mosul, iraq. m. sc. thesis, univ. mosul: 136pp. habash, a.h. and daoud, y.t. 1979. neoechinorhynchus agilis (rudolphi, 1819) acanthocephala a new record from mugil hishni found in shatt al-arab, basrah, iraq. the arab gulf, 11(1): 213-215. herzog, p.h. 1969. untersuchungen über die parasiten der süβwasserfische des irak. arch. fischereiwiss., 20(2/3): 132-147. jori, m.m. 1998. study of the parasites of two mugilid fish species and the effect of some on the blood parameters. m. sc. thesis, univ. basrah: 136pp. (in arabic). khamees, n.r. 1983. a study of the parasites of carasobarbus luteus (heckel), liza abu (heckel) and aspius vorax heckel from mehaijeran canal, south of basrah. m. sc. thesis, univ. basrah: 148pp. (in arabic). margolis, l.; esch, g.w.; holmes, j.c.; kuris, a.m. and schad, g.a. 1982. the use of ecological terms in parasitology (report of an ad hoc committee of the american society of parasitologists). j. parasitol., 68(1): 131-133. mhaisen, f.t. 2002. literature review and check lists of acanthocephalans of fishes of iraq. al-mustansiriya j. sci., 13(1): 13-25. mhaisen, f.t. 2009. indexcatalogue of parasites and disease agents of fishes of iraq. (unpublished). 8 parasitic fauna of fishes mhaisen, f.t. and abul-eis, e.s. 1992. parasitic helminths of eight species of aquatic birds in babylon fish farm, hilla, iraq. zool. mid. east, 7: 115-119. mhaisen, f.t.; al-saadi, a.a.j. and al-shama’a, a.a. 1999. some observations on fish parasites of habbaniya lake. ibn al-haitham j. pure appl. sci., 12(1): 62-67. mhaisen, f.t.; ali, n.m.; abul-eis, e.s. and kadim, l.s. 1989. protozoan and crustacean parasites of the mugilid fish liza abu (heckel) inhabiting babylon fish farm, hilla, iraq. j. biol. sci. res., 20(3): 517-525. mhaisen, f.t.; al-khateeb, g.h.; balasem, a.n.; al-shaikh, s.m.j.; al-jawda, j.m. and mohammad-ali, n.r. 2003. occurrence of some fish parasites in al-madaen drainage network, south of baghdad. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus., 10(1): 39-47. mohammad-ali, n.r.; balasem, a.n.; mhaisen, f.t.; salih, a.m. and waheed, i.k. 1999. observations on the parasitic fauna in al-zaafaraniya fish farm, south of baghdad. vet., 9(2): 79-88. rogers, w.a. and gaines, j.l. 1975. lesions of protozoan diseases in fish. in: ribelin, w.e. and migaki, g. (eds.). the pathology of fishes. univ. wisconsin press, madison: 117141. salih, a.m.; balasem, a.n.; al-jawda, j.m.; asmar, k.r. and mustafa, s.r. 2000. on a second survey of fish parasites in al-zaffaranya fish farmbaghdad. j. diyala, 1 (8 part 1): 220-238. (in arabic). shamsuddin, m.; nader, i.a. and al-azzawi, m.j. 1971. parasites of common fishes from iraq with special reference to larval form of contracaecum (nematoda: heterocheilidae). bull. biol. res. centre, baghdad, 5: 66-78. shul’man, s.s. 1961. specificity of fish parasites. in: dogiel, v.a.; petrushevski, g.k. and polyanski, yu.i. (eds.). parasitology of fishes (engl. transl.). oliver and boyd, edinburgh and london: 104-116. 9 al-awadi et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2010) 11 (1): 1-9 المجموعة الحيوانية المتطفلة على األسماك في منخفض بحر النجف، وسط العراق هيثم محمد حمادي العوادي* فرحان ضمد محيسن** فاضل فرهود الجبوري*** النجف األشرف، العراق * قسم علوم الحياة، كلية التربية، جامعة الكوفة، ** قسم علوم الحياة، كلية التربية (إبن الهيثم)، جامعة بغداد، بغداد، العراق *** فرع األنسجة واألجنة، كلية الطب، جامعة بابل، الحلة، العراق الخالصة األمســاك يف ، نفــذ أول مســح لطفيليــات 1996وحــىت كــانون األول 1995علــى مــدى عــامني مــن شــهر كــانون الثــاين نوعـــا وفحصـــت حبثـــا عـــن الطفيليـــات اخلارجيـــة 11مسكـــة تعـــود إىل 6992مـــنخفض حبـــر النجـــف، وســـط العـــراق. مجعـــت ، ichthyophthiriusmultifiliisوالداخليــة. كانــت هــذه األمســاك مصــابة بثالثــة أنــواع مــن احليوانــات اإلبتدائيــــــة ( trichodina domerguei و myxobolus pfeifferi ( ـــــة املنشـــــأ ـــــوعني مـــــن املخّرمـــــات أحادي ون )dactylogyrus cornu وgyrodactylus elegans ونــــــوعني مــــــن املخّرمــــــات ثنائيــــــة املنشــــــأ ( )clinostomum complanatum وascocotyle coleostoma ونــوع واحــد مــن الديــدان اخليطيـــــــة ( )(contracaecum sp. ) ونـوع واحـد مـن الديـدان شـوكية الـرأسneoechinorhynchus iraqensis.( سجلت مخسة أنواع من األمساك مضيفات جديدة يف العراق ألربعة أنواع من الديدان يف الدراسة احلالية. bull 15 mohammed. s. abdul-rassoul bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2014) 13 (1): 15-18 a new host record for tomato leaf miner tuta absoluta (meyrick, 1917) in baghdad province, iraq mohammad. s. abdul-rassoul iraq natural history museum, university of baghdad e-mail: msabr_1942@yahoo.com abstract in 2010, the tomato leaf miner tuta absoluta (meyrick, 1917) was reported for the first time in iraq. the larvae can feed on all parts of tomato plants and can damage all the growth stages. the main host plant is tomato, lycopersicon esculentum, but it can also attack other plants in solanaceae family. in this study it was found attacking alfalfa plants, medicago sativa in baghdad province. this finding reveals that alfalfa also serves as a host plant for t. absoluta in iraq. introduction the tomato leaf miner tuta absoluta (meyrick) (lepidoptera, gelechiidae) is one of the most devastating pests of tomato in south america (barrientos et al. 1998; miranda et al. 1998). this pest was initially reported in eastern spain in late 2006 (urbaneja et al. 2007), and has subsequently spread throughout the mediterranean basin and europe (potting, 2009). since the time of its initial detection, the pest has caused serious damages to tomato in invaded areas (germain et al. 2009), and it is currently considered as a key agricultural threat to european and north african tomato production (desneux et al. 2010). the tomato leaf miner, t. absoluta was first reported for iraq by abdul –razzak et al. (2010).the pest was found near rabia, ninava province northern part of iraq, neighboring syria, during autumn, 2010, on tomato. this newly introduced pest spread rapidly throughout the tomato growing areas in greenhouses and open field, and is now well established in iraq. tomato, lycopersicon escolentum is the main host plant of t. absoluta which attacks its leaves, buds, stems, and fruits. the larvae feed vigorously upon the plant producing large galleries in leaves, and it is capable of causing a yield loss of 100% (apablaza, 1992). this pest also attacks other crop plants of the solanaceae family including potato, solanum tuberosum, eggplant, solanum melongena and pepper, capsicum annum. it is known from many solanaceous weeds including datura stramonium, lycium chilense, solanum nigrum and nicottiana glauca in bulgaria (harizanova et al., 2009). recently eppo, 2009 reported that t. absoluta shifted to host plants other than solanaceae which was found on beans, phaseolus vulgaris (fabaceae) in sicil. the same findings were reported by abdul-ridha et al.2012 which they detected that broad bean, vicia faba, cowpea, vigna unguiculata (fabaceae) and willd radish, raphanus raphanistrrum (brassicaceae) are alternative host plants for t. absoluta in iraq, additionally to eggplant, s. melongena and tomato, l. escolentum. most recently, portakaldali et al .2013 determined, field bindweed, convolvulus arvensis (convolvulaceae) and lambs-quarters, chenopodiuum elbum (chenopodiaceae) as host plants for t. absoluta in turkey. the aim of the study is to determine alfalfa plant, medicago sativa as a new host plant for t. absoluta in iraq. 16 a new host record for tomato leaf miner materials and method in may 2011, during my investigation on the lesser alfalfa blotch leaf miner, agromyza nana meigen (diptera, agromyzidae) i have found several alfalfa plants growing in abughraib fields near baghdad. these were infested by the tomato leaf miner, tuta absoluta according to its blotch mines, which has a blotch with single line of frass. to ensure the identity of this insect a number of infested leaves of alfalfa plant reared in the laboratory to the adult stage. later on, adults emerged, and was identified by the author as t. absoluta based on male genitalia according to brambila et al. ( 2010). results and discussion the detection of tomato leaf miner, tuta absoluta on alfalfa, medicogo sativa reveals that this plant serves as host plant recorded for the first time in iraq and this result goes with eppo, 2009; harizanova et al., 2009; abdul-ridha et al., 2012 and portakaldli et al., 2013, that there is a shift in host plants from the main host solanaceae to other families particularly the fabaceae. literature cited abdul razzak, a.s.; al-yasiri ,i.i.,and fadhil, h.q. 2010. first record of tomato borer (tomato moth) tuta absoluta (meyrick) (lepidoptera: gelechiidae) on tomato crop in iraq. arab and near east plant protection newsletter. no. 51, p 31. abdul-ridha, m.; alwan, s.l.; helal, s.m. and aziz, k.a. 2012. alternative hosts of south american tomato moth tuta absoluta (gelechiidae: lepidoptera) in some tomato farms of najaf province. euphrates journal of agriculture science, 4(4): 130-137. apablaza, j. 1992. la polilla del tomate y su manejo. tattersal , 79: 12–13 barrientos z.r; apablaza h.j; norero s.a and estay, p.p 1998. temperatura base y constante te´rmica de desarrollo de la polilla del tomate, tuta absoluta (lepidoptera: gelechiidae). ciencia e investigacio´n agraria, 25: 133–137. brambila, j.; lee,s.; and passoa, s. 2010. tuta absoluta the tomato leafminer. field screening aid. usda cooperative agricultural pest survey (caps). 2010. national agricultural pest information system (napis). accessed march 15, http://www.ceris.purdue.edu/caps/files/screening_aids/tuta_absoluta_screening _aids_for_caps.pdf. desneux , n.; wajnberg , e.; wyckhuys, k.a.g.; burgio ,g. ;arpaia ,s. c. a.; narva´ezvasquez,s.c.a; lez-cabrera , j.g.; ruescas ,d.c.;tabone , e.; frandon , j.; pizzol,j.; poncet ,c.; cabello ,t. and urbaneja,a. 2010. biological invasion of european tomato crops by tuta absoluta: ecology, geographic expansion and prospects for biological control. j. pest sci., 83:197–215. eppo, 2009. tuta absoluta found on phaseolus vulgaris in sicilia (it) (no. 8). eppo service. 16pp. germain, j.f.; lacordaire ,a.i.; cocquempot ,c.; ramel,j.m. and oudard ,e. 2009. un nouveau ravageur de la tomate en france: tuta absoluta. phm-revue horticole, 512: 37–41. 17 mohammed. s. abdul-rassoul harizanova, v.; steva, a.and mohamedova, m. 2009. tomato leaf miner, tuta absoluta (povolny) (lepidoptera; grlechiidae)first record in bulgaria. agriculural science and technology, 1 (3): 95-98. miranda, m.m.m.; picanco ,m.; zanuncio ,j.c.and guedes ,r.n.c. 1998. ecological life table of tuta absoluta (meyrick) (lepidoptera: gelechiidae). biocontrol sci technol 8: 597–606. portakadali, m.; oztemiz, s. and kutuk, h. 2013. a new host plant for tuta absoluta (meyrick) (lepidoptera: gelechiidae) in turkey. j. entomol. res. soc., 15(3): 21-24. potting, r. 2009 . pest risk analysis, tuta absoluta, tomato leaf miner moth. plant protection service of the netherlands, 24 pp. www.minlnv.nl. urbaneja, a.; vercher, r.; navarro, v.; garcı´a marı´, f.and porcuna. j.l. 2007. la polilla del tomate, tuta absoluta. phytoma espan˜a, 194:16–23. 18 a new host record for tomato leaf miner bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2014) 13 (1): 15-18 في محافظة بغداد، tuta absoluta (meyrick, 1917) تسجيل جديد لمضيف حافرة الطماطم العراق محمد صالح عبد الرسول جامعة بغداد –متحف التاريخ الطبيعي العراقي الخالصة الول مرة في العراق عام tuta absoluta (meyrick, 1917)سجل حفار اوراق الطماطة لوحظ ان الدور اليرقي له القابلية على ان يتغذى على جميع اجزاء نبات الطماطة مسبباً التلف .0202 في جميع مراحل النمو، كما لوحظ ان للحشرة القابلية على مهاجمة مجموعات متعددة من النباتات باالضافة الى تطفله على المضيف الرئيسي له و المتمثل بنبات الطماطة solanaceaeالعائدة لعائلة lycopersicon esculentum. medicagoلوحظ في هذه الدراسة ان لهذا الطفيلي القابلية على التغذي على نبات الجت sativa الدراسة الى تشير نتائج هذه.مالحظته على التبات المذكور في محافظة بغداد من خالل .العراق في t. absoluta ان الجت يمكن ان يعد واحد من مضائف النوع 7 61 g. a. shaker bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2010) 11 (2): 61-68 identification of pathogenic fungi associated with water hyacinth in selected regions in the middle and south of iraq goner a. shaker iraq naturalhistory museum,university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq abstract to identify the fungi associated with water hyacinth (eichhornia crassipes [mart.] solms), an aquatic weed, which presents in tigris river from baghdad south ward. five regions from middle and south of iraq (al-noumanya, saeid bin-jubier, al-azizia, al-reyfay and al-hay) were selected for this study. twelve fungal species were isolated. alternaria alternata, acremonium sp and cladsporium herbarum, were the most frequently species (91.66 % ,50 % and 25 %) respectively. the fungi alternaria alternata, acremonium sp and phoma eupyrena were more aggressive to water hyacinth as (91.66%,83,33%, and 75%) in pathogenicity test. introduction water hyacinth is one of tropical and semitropical plants, its first apperance in iraq in the mid of eighties of the 20th century, and entered as ornamental plant in the some nurseries in baghdad province, and had been taken from nurseries on the riverbank of (kanat al-gaish) east of baghdad, which drain in diala river near of its firth in tigris river south of baghdad and then gradually transferred to diala river and at last to the colum of tigris river. the plant is known as aquatic weed belonged to the monocotyledonous family pontederiaceae (alison, 2000). the amazon basin, indicated by many authors as the center of origin of this plant (barreto,1991).it infested approximately 62,000 ha of water resources in mexico, the chemical and mechanical control have been used in mexico since 1958 to manage water hyacinth (martnies et al. 1998). several fungal pathogens have been reported to attack water hyacinth in various parts of the world (alison,2000 butt et al, 2001 el-morsy, 2004 martnies and charuattan,1998 naseema et al,2008 and praveena&naseema, 2004). the aim of this study is to isolate and identify the fungi associated with water hyacinth (eichhornia crassipes [mart.] solms) in the middle and south of iraq and evaluate their pathogenicity. materials and methods isolation: the isolation of fungal species from infected parts of the plant such as leaves, swollen leaf bases were collected from (al-noumanya, saeid bin-jubier, al-azizia, alreyfay and al-hay) in middle and south of iraq, the plant samples stored in plastic tanks in the laboratory and then infected samples were subjected for isolation technique ,briefly; small pieces (2-3)mm2 surface sterilized in 1.5% sodium hypochlorite solution for (1-2) minutes, rinsed with sterile water and then cultured on potato dextrose agar (4 pieces/plate) and incubated at 27°c.fungal growth checked for purity, the fungi were subculture to serve as inoculum source. 62 identification of pathogenic fungi associated pathogenicity test: based on koch postulate healthy leaves of water hyacinth plants, cleaned spotless of similar size leaves were collected, washed with tap water and placed on surface of wet-cotton in perti-dish, a (5 mm diam.)inoculum's plugs of each fungi culture placed reversely on the bottom of the leaf, each fungus isolate was replicated three times and the control treatment used (pda) plug only, and then left in room temperature until the symptoms were appeared, the data had been recorded, and the treated specimens were ranked on the basis of the disease severity and assessed as follows: 0= leaves healthy ,1= a few spots or slight necrosis as (1-25%) from leaf size, 2= the spotting take over (26-50%), 3= the spotting take over (51-75%), 4= blighting take over (76-100%) (el-morsy, 2004). disease index (di) = . × ….. . × . × . × 100 (praveena and naseema, 2004). results and discussion identification: twelve fungi were isolated and indentified depending on the keys for each fungus, and depending on the morphology on conidia and conidiophores (fig. 2) which formed on the pure fungal growth in petri-dishes (barnett et al., 1972, booth, 1971, and ellis,1971). the most common known species were alternaria alternata, acremonium sp, cladosporium herbarum, and fusarium oxysporum.of these fungi, alternaria alternata (91.66% of colonies) in alnoumanya, (66.66%) in al-aziza as represented in (table 1.). this is the first survey for fungi associated with water hyacinth in iraq. table 1.the fungi species isolated from leave blades and swollen leaf bases of water hyacinth from selected regions of middle and south of iraq. 5 4 3 2 1 localities l s l s l s l s l s (x) fungal pathogen 41.66 16.66 50 16.66 100 33.33 50.00 acremonium sp 66.66 100 33.33 50 50 16.66 100 91.66100 alternaria alternata 16.66 25 cladosprium herbarum 0.33 25 chaetomium sp 0.33 phoma eupyrena 16.66 0.33 thielaviopsis sp 0.33 geotrichum sp 0.33 nigospora sp 16.66 rhizoctonia solani 16.66 0.33 stemphyllium botryosum 41.66 0.33 25 fusarium oxysporum 33.33 rhizopus sp 1=al-noamanya, 2=saeid bin jubeier, 3=al-hay, 4-al-reyphay5-al-azizia. l =leaf blades, s=swollen leaf blades. 63 g. a. shaker pathogenicity test: the fungi alternaria alternata, acremonium sp and phoma eupyrena, infected the inoculated leaves and showed the symptoms (fig.3) and they are efficient agent as result of (di), alternaria alternata (91.66%), phoma eupyrena (83.33%) and acremonium sp (75%), in comparing with the rest fungi (table.2), and the yellowing and blighting of the leaves are more than others. according to (butt et al., 1971), fungi have damaged effect to water hyacinth and are considered to be as potential bioherbicide agent, and more extensive and wide researches needed to determine the best and more effective fungal pathogens economically and ecologically. (x) = isolation frequency calculated according the following formula: the no. pieces colonized by the fungus x 100total no. cultured pieces table 2.disease index of fungi on the leave blades invitro condition. (di) = . × ….. . × . × . × 100 acknowledgement i appreciate and thank dr. mohammad kadhum mohammad from the museum for his efforts and helping and to provide the samples to carry out the research. literature cited alison, w. 2000. an evaluation of fungal isolates for the biological control of water hyacinth, eichhorniacrassipes.uf journal of undergraduate research,1(8):, issue 8may 2000. barnett, h.l. and hunter, b. b., 1972.illustrated genera of imperfect fungi. burgess pub. co., minneapolis, minnesota, usa. booth, c. 1971. the genus fusarium –commonwealth mycological institute, kew, surrey, england.pp-237. butt, t.m., jackson, c., and magon, n. 2001. introduction – fungal biological control agents: problems and potential. cab international. ellis, m. b., 1971. dematiaceoushyphomycetes.commonwealth mycological institute, kew, survey, england.pp608. el-morsy, e. m. 2004.evaluation of micro fungi for the biological control of water hyacinth in egypt.fungal diversity, damietta province, egypt. fungal diversity 16:35-51. species (di) % alternaria alternata 91.66 phoma eupyrena 83.33 acremonium sp 75 chaetomium sp 50 stemphyllium botryosum 50 64 identification of pathogenic fungi associated martines, m.jimenez and charuattan, r. 1998. survey and evaluation of mexican native fungi for potential biocontrol of water hyacinth – journal aquat. plant manage. 36: 145 – 148. nassema, a., dhanya, b., anjanadevi, i.p., sheena, k.g., and swapna alex. 2008. isolation and regeneration of protoplasts from the mycelium of fusariumpallidoroseum – a potential biocontrol agent of water hyacinth [eichhorniacrassipes (mart.) solms]. journal of tropical agriculture 46(1 – 2): 55 – 57 praveena, r. and naseema, a. 2004.fungi occurring on water hyacinth [eichhorniacrassipes(mart.) solms] in kerala.jornal of tropical agriculture 42(1-2): 21-23. 65 g. a. shaker 66 identification of pathogenic fungi associated 67 g. a. shaker 68 identification of pathogenic fungi associated bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2010) 11 (2): 61-68 المناطق من وسط بعض شب النیل فيالتي تصیب عتشخیص الفطریات وجنوب العراق كونر عبدالوھاب شاكر جامعة بغداد -مركز بحوث و متحف التاریخ الطبیعي الخالصة waterعشب النیل اجري ھذا البحث لتشخیص الفطریات التي تصیب نبات hyacinth (eichhornia crassipes [mart.] solms) ، ھو دغل مائي یتواجد في اختیرت لھذه الدراسة خمسة مواقع من وسط . نھر دجلة باتجاه جنوب بغداد تم ). العزیزیة، الرفاعي، الحي، سعید بن جبیر، النعمانیة(وجنوب العراق alternaria alternata, acremonium andوكانت الفطریات ، فطر) ١٢(عزل cladsporium flvum, 25 و% 50 و % 91.66( ھي االكثر تكرارا % ( . على التوالي acremonium sp., phoma eupyrena alternaria ,اظھرت الفطریات alternata, امراضیة اشد في نبات عشب النیل وبالنسب .على التوالي%) ٧٥، ٨٣.٣٣، ٩١.٦٦( bull 1 salih muhammad awadh bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2016) 14 (1): 1-11 outstanding universal values of the sawa lake as a world natural heritage salih muhammad awadh department of geology, college of science, university of baghdad, iraq e-mail: salihauad2000@yahoo.com abstract this work has been accomplished through a dense field work on the sawa lake. the aim of this work is to highlight on characteristics that are consistent with outstanding universal values to be a new iraqi site belongs to the world natural heritage. this study sorted many unique characteristics might ensure that sawa lake as a world natural heritage sites. this study shows that the lake had met four natural criteria of the outstanding universal values: (1) the seventh criterion which states to contain superlative natural phenomena or areas of exceptional natural beauty and aesthetic importance. (2) the eighth criterion which stated to be outstanding example representing major stages of earth's history, including the record of life, significant on-going geological processes in the development of landforms, or significant geomorphic or physiographic features. (3) the ninth criterion which stated to be outstanding examples representing significant on-going ecological and biological processes in the evolution and development of terrestrial, fresh water, coastal and marine ecosystems and communities of plants and animals. (4) the tenth criterion which state to contain most important and significant natural habitats for in-situ conservation of biological diversity, including those containing threatened species of outstanding universal value from the point of view of science or conservation. key words: sawa lake; natural heritage; outstanding values; chemical process introduction the sawa lake is a one lake with specific characteristics among iraqi lakes; it is located about 23 km to the west of al-samawah governorate, southern iraq. it represents an impressive geological site for the iraqi peoples, because it has unique properties at the local, regional and global levels. unesco has been constantly on the search for such sites in order to announcing a world heritage sites. for this purpose, a specific criteria represents outstanding universal values of the natural and cultural world heritage has been developed to assess such those sites. the list of the world heritage of unesco includes of 1931 monuments and sites that include the cultural and natural heritage of the world consisting of 802 cultural sites and 197 monuments and natural sites and 32 mixed and collectively called world heritage sites are found in 163 countries (zimmerli et al., 2010). it is interestingly to present specification that are matching the required criteria to be a world natural heritage site. a ground water provides salt to the lake (al-rawi and al-hadithi, 1968) that has been formed due to the structural activity in the area (alnaqash et al., 1977). this study aims to provide convincing evidence of outstanding universal values that characterize sawa lake. 2 outstanding universal values of the sawa lake materials and methods location, nature of sawa lake, geological exposures, and sediments sampling were done through field work during march 2012 to determine the effective sampling sites. consequently, 20 sites were chosen. location and lake nature the sawa lake is located between longitudes (44° 59 29 and 45° 01 46.61) and latitudes (31° 17 42 and 31° 19 49.8), 23 km to the west of al-samawah town (figure 1). there is no surface water inlet feeding the sawa lake and no outlet as well. the source of its water may be groundwater of the euphrates and dammam aquifers through system of joints, cracks and fissures (al-rawi, 1975). despite the seasonal fluctuation in the water level, but has an equilibrium state between water feed up and evaporation (jamil, 1977), so it doesn't dry up completely. it is a land-locked lake with maximum length of 4.74 km and maximum width of 1.77 km isolated by gypsum barrier with total path of 12.5 km surrounding the lake. the lake has an elongated shape with nw-se trend parallel to the abu-jir fault zone. figure 1: location, sampling sites and shape of sawa lake. geology the geological exposures around sawa lake are presented in figure 2. according to the reports of geosurv (1983), the lithostratigraphy in the study area from oldest to youngest was order as: rus formation (e. eocene) which deposited in lagoon environment with thickness of about 82 m (jassim and goff, 2006) consisting of anhydrite, marl, and limestone, chalky limestone and dolomite (buday, 1980). this formation does not crop out in the study area, but it has outcrops along the saudi-iraqi border, where called jil formation the equivalent of rus formation at outcrop where the anhydrite has been dissolved. dammam formation (e-l. eocene) represents a shallow neritic environment overlaying the rus formation comprising of karstified limestone, dolomitic limestone, nodules chert with chalky and marly limestone. the study area represents a complex hydrogeological unit within different aquifers extend regionally with hydraulic connection (geosurv, 1983). on the top of the stratigraphic succession, the facies unconformably changes to oolitic-chalky limestone containing corals and shell coquinas; it is represented by the euphrates formation (e. 3 salih muhammad awadh miocene) with thickness of 30-50 m. the study area is covered by the quaternary sediments which consist of gypecrete, sabkha, and aeolian deposits (sand sheet and sand dune). figure 2: geological map of the study area and the surrounding areas (after sissakian, 2000) sampling, analysis and measurements different locations along the shore line of sawa lake were chosen to be sampling sites. consequently, a total of 20 sediment samples were collected from these sites (figure 1). these samples are stored in plastic bags, then transferred to the laboratory for studying. thin sections were prepared in the workshop of the department of geology, college of science, university of baghdad. mineralogical study (polarized microscope, xrd technique and clay mineralogy) was done to determine the mineralogical components. global positioning system (gps) was used to determine the water level in the sawa lake, adjacent area, and euphrates river. theoretical background of the world heritage criteria selection a total of 10 criteria of the world heritage selection; they called criteria of outstanding universal values. for any site to be included on the world heritage list, it must meet at least one of those criteria. six of those criteria are relevant to the cultural heritage, while the remnant four criteria are specific for natural heritage. according to the unsco instructions, badman et al. (2008) mentioned the ten selection criteria (the first six are cultural criteria, but the others are natural criteria). it is preferable to list the natural criteria rather than the cultural criteria as follows: 4 outstanding universal values of the sawa lake 1. the vii criteria: to contain superlative natural phenomena or areas of exceptional natural beauty and aesthetic importance. 2. the viii criteria: to be outstanding examples representing major stages of earth's history, including the record of life, significant on-going geological processes in the development of landforms, or significant geomorphic or physiographic features. 3. the ix criteria: to be outstanding examples representing significant on-going ecological and biological processes in the evolution and development of terrestrial, fresh water, coastal and marine ecosystems and communities of plants and animals. 4. the x criteria: to contain the most important and significant natural habitats for in-situ conservation of biological diversity, including those containing threatened species of outstanding universal value from the point of view of science or conservation. results and discussion age description depending on the previous studies, ages of rus, dammam and euphrates formations were presented on geological time scale. the relative ages were illustrated in figure 3. the age estimation of the rus formation was early eocene, meaning of about 56-48 ma., while the dammam formation was younger and estimated as of middle-late eocene (48-34 ma.). the relative age of the euphrates formation was early miocene ranging between 23-16 ma. the euphrates formation as well as quaternary sediments were hosted the depression of the sawa lake. consequently, it was believed that age of this lake is younger than the euphrates. then, however, it is reasonable to say that the lake is formed after middle miocene. basically, it must be formed after faulted area by the abu-jir fault zone (ajfz). the faulting zone crosscuts the dibdibba formation in the adjacent areas and it is clear at najaf and karbala in the central iraq. as the dibdibba formation belongs to the age of pliocene-pleistocene, so the age of sawa lake should be post of this age. pliocene started before 5.3 ma and ended before 10000 years which marked by holocene. accordingly, it is a logic to suggest that the age of the sawa lake corresponds to the beginning of the holocene (10000 years) approximately. 5 salih muhammad awadh figure 3: the relative ages of some formations in the study area. mineralogy the evaporate lithofacies is the main mineralogical facies (awadh and muslim, 2014) in the lake, where it is represented by gypsum that forms an amount varies between 67.5% and 97.5% with average of 87% from the total lake sediment (table 1). the water body in the sawa lake is considered as a super-saturation solution that mainly contains calcium and sulfates. a direct precipitation from water was the chemical process acting in the lake. it precipitates throughout the lake area, but the chemical precipitation rate at costal line of the lake being more than at deeper areas near the lake center due to the shallow water. chemical crystallization happened directly depending on the ion concentration and temperature. the common feature of gypsum in the lake is identified as a concentric circles forming a massive balls similar to the cauliflower flower. the xrd well identified and showed that gypsum is 6 outstanding universal values of the sawa lake the main mineral (figure 4). gypsum masses sometime contain algae and black spots that are attributed to the organic matter. because of the high solubility of halite, so it stays dissolved in solution. consequently, a very little amount of halite (0.3% -2.7% with 3% in average) was detected. quartz probably has been transported by wind from quaternary sediments and/or dust storms. the quantity of quartz is restricted between 0.0 -15%, and reaches 4.5% in average. total clay minerals in the sediments of sawa lake ranges between 1.5-19% with average of 5.5%. table 1: mineralogical composition (%) of the sawa lake sediments. figure 4: a: cross section of gypsum mass show the internal structure as concentric circles; sample no. 11s-t; b and c: microphotographs under polarized microscope; d represents xrd diffractogram. sample number gypsum halite quartz clay minerals % 3s-t 97.3 1.2 0.0 1.5 5s-t 77.8 15 0.0 1.0 9s-t 97.5 1.5 0.0 1.0 14s-t 95.3 2.7 0.0 1.5 19s-t 96.5 1.5 0.0 2.0 7s-t 91.7 0.3 4.0 4.0 10s-t 67.5 2.4 11.0 19.0 12s-t 77.1 1.9 11.0 10.0 14s-t 72.3 2.7 15.0 10.0 range 67.5-97.5 0.3-2.7 0.0-15 1.5-19 average 87.0 3.0 4.5 5.5 7 salih muhammad awadh water level the water level in the lake is one of the manifestations of the lake, which gives something of aesthetic and strangeness. strangeness reflected the fact that the water level in the lake is higher than the adjacent land around the lake by 1-4 meters (figure 5). add to that, the water level of the lake is also higher than the water level of the euphrates river by 5-7 meters which flow near the lake to the east side and the shat al-arab and arabian gulf by 17-20 m. this means a possibility and ease of emptying the lake and drain its water to the low land. such a proposal is discussed for the purpose of highlighting the strange manifestations in the lake, but does not recommend for that, so to prevent the natural environment. figure 5: water level comparison among sawa lake, adjacent land, river and sea waters. origin of sawa lake depression structural factors along with chemical action together created sawa lake. the structural factor is specifically represented by ajfz extended in direction of nw-se crosscutting the samawa lineament extended sw-ne. a weak zone has been created as a respond to the faults intersection. the fault planes formed secondary permeability, allowing deep-water ascension upwards. the rise of water from confine aquifer from site beneath the lake accelerates the speed of water movement, which eventually causes expedite the dissolution rate, especially for layers of gypsum and anhydrite belong to the russ formation. the dissolution processes caused eventually a depression that has been formed due to cavities, interconnected fractures and expanding karst in the russ formation. a collapse occurred as a response to the gravitational force for the unstable masses. deep groundwater ascends upwards and mixes with water to less depth; then it reaches the surface filling the depression with water forming the lake body. the unique characteristics of the lake it has a superlative natural phenomena of exceptional natural beauty and aesthetic importance. it is a land locked lake in iraq with no inlet and outlet flow. it doesn't have a clear geometrical shape, but it tends to be pear-like shape with maximum length 4.74 km and 8 outstanding universal values of the sawa lake maximum width 1.77 km. gypsum barrier with total path of 12.5 km surrounds and isolates lake from the adjacent land. lake is free of mechanical sediments. it feeds by groundwater at different levels via fractures, fissures and joints. the water level in the lake depends regionally on the recharged area, doesn't locally (awadh and muslim, 2014). the height of the wall surrounding the lake is about 6 m. the mechanism of the wall construction is closely linked to the process of evaporation of saturated solution with the slow simultaneous feeding from the bottom. the process of building the gypsum wall begins by directly precipitation of gypsum from solution and crystallization on the bottom. it considered as an outstanding natural features and landscapes. crystallization is active in the shallow sites that represent the boundary of the lake. gypsum grows with time and rises upward to be higher than the water level; hence capillary process absorbs water upward to the surface of crystallized gypsum nuclei then evaporate under high temperature forming strange shapes of gypsum masses resembling cauliflower (awadh and muslim, 2014). lake derives water from groundwater reservoir sets that are located underneath. its level fluctuates between summer and winter by 1 to 3 meters approximately. it feeds by groundwater at different levels via fractures, fissures and joints. the water level in the lake is higher than the level of the adjacent land, the atshan and euphrates rivers, where it elevates of about 17 to 20 m above the sea level. to prevent water spillage and overflow, lake has ability to build up a water-hosting barrier formed mainly from gypsum around the water body. the barrier of gypsum which represents the wall of the lake contains caves formed by the dissolution processes. in case of unbalanced masses, caves get collapse causing increase the area of the lake. the mechanism of the wall construction is closely related to geochemical processes which considered as significant ongoing geological processes in the development of landforms, or significant geomorphic or physiographic features which is a one of the outstanding universal values. the process of building the gypsum wall begins by directly precipitation of gypsum from solution and crystallization on the bottom (awadh and muslim, 2014). this process is active in the shallow sites that represent the boundary of the lake. gypsum grows with time and rises upward to be higher than the water level; hence capillary process absorbs water upward to the surface of crystallized gypsum nuclei then evaporate under high temperature forming strange shapes of gypsum masses resembling cauliflower. the chemical sediments along the coast represent a natural sculpture exhibition. it is beautiful sculptures extend around the lake, especially the southern and eastern coasts which faced the wind. this criteria is of universal outstanding value. the aquatic environment characterized by saline water with average tds 33500 mg/l, it represents a restricted marine environment in the desert. a similarity to the case of sea water encourages us to call it the sea of iraq. in general, mechanical processes is very restricted, except that fine particles derived either from the geological formations or from atmosphere (hassan, 2007), whilst, chemical processes are active and predominant. fish and algae are the most importance aquatic organism (awadh and muslim, 2014). fish characterized by soft appearance, small size, they do not exceed 10 cm, and eyes that quickly disappear after the death may be attributed to the water pressure. it classified as aphanius dispar species belongs to genus aphanius, cyprinodontidatae family, cyprinodontiformes order, actinoptrygii class, chordata phylum of animalia kingdom. this species of fish is unknown in the iraqi aquatic environments. this study proposes that the fish eggs were transported from the red sea or mediterranean sea via groundwater, and therefore fish origin is of sea environment. consequently, sawa lake contains significant natural habitats for insitu conservation of biological diversity, including those containing threatened species. fossils of pomatiopsis tryon which is gastropoda genus lives in brackish water from oligocene to recent also was found at the lake bottom. from geological point of view, sawa lake recorded a part of the earth history through the continuing chemical dissolution, which are dissolving gypsum and anhydrite from the russ formation from depth transporting it to 9 salih muhammad awadh the water body on the surface; and then using it spontaneously for building its wall under equilibrium state ion concentration, evaporation and precipitation. conclusions despite the sawa lake has a unique characteristics, it also meets the outstanding universal values. this study diagnosed four natural criteria (vii, viii, ix and x) of outstanding universal values, that help in the selection of the sawa lake as an iraqi sites belongs to the world natural heritage. the descriptions of these criteria are summarized below: 1. the sawa lake is characterized by natural beauty, in terms of the diversity of appearances, as it has a natural wall of exceptional importance due to containing a lot of geometric shapes such as picturesque blocks of gypsum, along with a lot of small caves that have different beautiful shapes. the gypsum wall embraces the very serene water gives the lake a natural beauty. natural sculptures formed by geological processes are beautiful and help to bring visitors and tourists. consequently, the coast of the sawa lake looks like as a natural landform gallery along with the spectacular view of lake. hence, sawa lake meets the 7th criterion (vii) that requires the availability of superlative natural phenomena of exceptional natural beauty and aesthetic importance. 2. sawa lake is an outstanding example representing major stages of earth's history, including significant on-going geological processes in the development of landforms, or significant geomorphic or physiographic features. therefore, it meets the 8th criteria (viii): it can be considered as an outstanding natural features and landscapes. a selfconstruction of the gupsuferouse natural barrier that is synchronously building up prevents water overflow formed by dissolution and precipitation processes. these geological processes are considered as geochemical processes (dissolution and precipitation) represents natural mechanisms rarely occur in the world. in case of unbalanced masses, the unstable masses of wall got collapsed causing increase the surface area of the lake. the mechanism of the wall construction is closely related to geochemical processes which considered as a significant on-going geological process in the development of landforms, or significant geomorphic or physiographic features which is a one of the outstanding universal values. 3. the biological activity of algae plays an important role in development the terrestrial and coastal ecosystem. the algae contribute to build gypsferouse barrier after death becomes they have a body-like sponge of high capacity to absorb water. the algae action along with capillary action represents a dynamic balance of the ecological elements. they raise water through the gypsum masses that were precipitated under the effect of ion concentration and atmospheric temperature. this mechanism causes growth of massive gypsum in the shallow water near the lake coast. the harmonic action of algae with the environment participates in a new terrestrial ecosystem. for this reason, the example that representing significant on-going ecological and biological processes in the development of terrestrial, coastal ecosystems and communities of plants and animals is available in sawa lake. 4. the most importance aquatic organism are fish and algae. fish belongs to aphanius dispar species, genus aphanius, cyprinodontidatae family, cyprinodontiformes order, actinoptrygii class, chordata phylum of animalia kingdom is of marine environment and unknown in the iraqi aquatic environments. sawa lake provides a significant natural habitat for in-situ conservation of this type of fish. fossils of pomatiopsis tryon which is gastropoda genus lives in brackish water from oligocene to recent also was found at the lake bottom. the 10th criteria (x), sawa lake provides an outstanding example of the most important and significant natural habitats for in-situ conservation of biological 10 outstanding universal values of the sawa lake diversity, including those containing threatened species of outstanding universal value from the point of view of science or conservation. literature cited al-naqash, a.b., banat k. and al-shamee f. 1977. geological, hydrochemical and sedimentological petrographical study of sawa lake. bull. coll. sci., 18: 199-220. al-rawi, i.a. and alhadithi n.o. 1968. geological investigation of samawa salt deposit, internal report, som. lib., bagh., 46p. al-rawi, n.n. 1975. hydrogeology of samawa salt deposit internal report, som. lib. baghdad, 52p. awadh, s.m. and muslim r.e. 2014. the formation models of gypsum barrier, chemical temporal changes and assessments the water quality of sawa lake, southern iraq, iraqi journal of science, 55(1): 161-173. badman, t., bomhard b., fincke a., langley j., rosabal p. and sheppard d. 2008. outstanding universal value: standards for natural world heritage. gland, switzerland: iucn. 52p. buday, t. 1980. stratigraphy and paleogeography in kassab, i.m. and jassim, s.z. (eds.). the regional geology of iraq. vol. 1, geol. surv. and miner. invest. baghdad, iraq, 445p. geosurv, 1983. hydrogeology, hydrochemistry and water resources in the southern desert (blocks 1, 2, 3). geosurv, int. rep. no. 1250-1256. hassan, w.f. 2007. the physio chemical characteristic of sawa lake water in samawa cityiraq. marina mesopotamica, 22: 167-179. jamil, a.k. 1977. geological and hydrochemical aspects of sawa lake s. iraq, bull. coll. sci., 18(1): 221-253. jassim, s.z. and goff j.c. 2006. geology of iraq. published in heritage oil corporation, 337p. sissakian, v.k. 2000. geological map of iraq. scale 1: 1000000, 3rd edit. geosurv, baghdad, iraq. zimmerli, w.ch., offenhäußer d., and albert m. 2010. world heritage and cultural diversity. german commission for unesco. germany, 267p. 11 salih muhammad awadh bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2016) 14 (1): 1-11 المعايير العالمية االستثنائية لبحيرة ساوة بوصفها تراث طبيعي عالمي صالح دمحم عوض العلوم, جامعة بغداد, العراق كلية, قسم علم األرض salihauad2000@yahoo.com: البريد اإللكتروني الخالصة الهدف من هذا العمل هو . تم إنجاز هذا العمل من خالل عمل حقلي كثيف أجري على بحيرة ساوة عراقيا تسليط الضوء على خصائص البحيرة التي تتفق مع المعايير العالمية االستثنائية لتكون موقعا فرزت هذه الدراسة العديد من الخصائص الفريدة التي . جديدا ينتمي إلى التراث الطبيعي العالمي اسة ان البحيرة قد لبت أربعة درلقد بينت هذه ال. تضمن أن بحيرة ساوة هي موقع تراث طبيعي عالمي إأن يحتوي على "ينص على المعيار السابع الذي (1): معايير طبيعية من المعايير العالمية األستثنائية المعيار الثامن (2)". ظواهر طبيعية خالبة أو مناطق ذات جمال طبيعي استثنائي وأهمية جمالية أن تكون مثاال بارزا يمثل المراحل الرئيسية من تاريخ األرض, بما في ذلك سجل "الذي ينص على ". تضاريس, أو مالمح شكل األرضالحياة, وذا أهمية للعمليات الجيولوجية المستمرة في تطوير ال أن تكون أمثلة بارزة تمثل أهمية العمليات االبيئية واألحيائية "والمعيار التاسع الذي ينص على (3) . ة والحيوانيةيفي رقي وتطور االنظمة القارية والمياه العذبة والساحلية والبحرية والمجتمعات النبات ية للحفظ الموقعي مالمواطن الطبيعية ذات األهمية العالأن يحتوي على "المعيار العاشر وينص (4) للتنوع األحيائي, بما في ذلك القيمة العالمية االستثنائية لتلك األنواع المهددة باالنقراض من وجهة .نظر العلم أو الحفظ .العمليات الكيميائية ,المعايير االستثنائية ,التراث الطبيعي ,بحيرة ساوة: الكلمات الدالة 3 19 hasan, et al bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2012) 12 (1): 19-27 occurrence of entomopathogenic and other opportunistic fungi in soil collected from insect hibernation sites and evaluation of their entomopathogenic potential wazeer a. hasan*, lazgeen haji assaf* and samir khalaf abdullah** *plant protection department, faculty of agriculture, school of plant production, department of plant protection, duhok university, iraq **biology department, faculty of science, zakho university,duhok, iraq. abstract a survey of entomopathogenic and other opportunistic fungi isolated from soil samples collected from insect hibernation sites in different habitats in kurdistan region of iraq was carried out during october to december 2009. by using dilution plate method, two entomopathogenic species (beauveria bassiana (bals.) vuill.and isaria javanica (friedrichs & bally) samson & hywel-jones) were detected with isolation percentage (38.46%) each. other opportunistic fungi such as alternaria alternata, aspergillus flavus, a.niger, penicillium glabrum, p. digitatum, rhizopus stolonifer and syncephalastratum racemosum were also isolated. b. bassiana was the most virulent fungus and showed complete mortality (100%) on two aphid species hyalopterus pruni geoff. and aphis pomi de greer after six days of inoculation, followed by i.javanica with 66.67% and 75.59% mortality respectively. i. javanica was isolated for the first time from iraq. a brief description along with photographs is provided for the newly recorded species. key words: entomopathogenic fungi, soil, iraq. correspondence; samer_abdalh@yahoo.com introduction entomopathogenic fungi were occurred naturally as infections in insect or arachid hosts, and several of these fungi only occurred as infections in living hosts for a relatively short period of time during their life cycle. the remainder of the life cycle of these species presumably lurk as dormant propagules in the soil, in the vicinity of the dead host cadaver. thus, the chances of finding good candidates to be used as biocontrol agents in these soils are very high (olivares-bernabeu and lopez-llorca, 2002). most fungi from the order hypocreals are only known in their anamorphic life cycle, thus only mitosporic conidia are formed. the dead host cadavers will mostly fall to the ground, and thus, a reservoir of fungal material is present in the soil environment. further, dispersal from cadavers as focal points presumably occur due to weather (wind and rain), soil manipulation and also insect activity (meyling et al., 2006). soil factors (temperature, ph, or organic content, relative moisture or mineral, organic or biotic factors) can affect fungal persistence and activity (charnley, 1997). in the laboratory, however, the conidia from hypocrelean entomopathogenic fungi can also germinate and grow on artificial media, and need to come in contact with susceptible host in mailto:samer_abdalh@yahoo.com 20 occurrence of entomopathogenic order to grow and proliferate successfully. these two methods of germination are manipulated for isolation of entomopathogenic fungi from the soil ( goettel and inglis,1997). in order to monitor the fate of applied fungal material in the soil, a selective media originally described by strasser et al. (1996) were used for detection of survival beauveria spp. metarhizium spp., and paecilomyces spp., bacteria can be inhibited by the application of broad-spectrum antibiotics such as chloramphenicol, tetracycline, or streptomycin (goettel and inglis, 1997). however, to exploit the ability of the fungi to infect host, the insect bait method can be used (zimmermann, 1986). in the present work we have analyzed the presence of entomopathogens, mainly fungi, in soil samples collected from insect hibernation sites in different ecosystems of duhok province such as natural forests of quercus rotundifolia, agricultural soils and grape orchards and to evaluate their entomopathogenic potential on two aphid species. materials and methods sampling sites and colleton of soil samples thirteen soil samples were collected from three insect hibernation sites in duhok province,north iraq during october to december 2009. the sites included fields with agricultural soil at barway bala (4 sampls), natural forests mainly qurcus rotundifolia at gara mountain (6 samples) and from grapevine yard at siara tooka (3 samples). soil samples about (500 g each) were taken from the depth of 0-10 cm with a trowel after removing litter or weed plants that insects hidden beneath then, placed in plastic bags and brought to the laboratory. samples were subjected for fungal isolation within 2 days of collection. fungal isolation and identification: initial dilution was made by mixing 10g of soil with 90 ml of sterilized distilled water in 250 ml conical flask. flasks were shaken for 3 minutes on an electrical shaker. serial dilutions up to 104 were made in the same method. one ml. of 104 dilution was poured in each plate and mixed with 20 ml. of potato dextrose agar medium (himedia laboratories,ltd. india) supplemented with 0.28 mg/l chloramphenicol to avoid bacterial growth. six plates per replication were used. the plates were incubated at 25 c for 7 days. the isolates were purified and growing colonies were identified depending on their morphological characteristics of their reproductive structures with the aid of several taxonomic references (samson 1974; domsch et al.1980; goettel and inglis, 1997; tzean et al., 1997). isolation percentage of a particular species in soil was calculated using the formula: isolation percentage = number of positive soil samples for a particular species/ total number of all samples × 100 (abdullah and mohamed, 2009). pathogenicity bioassay: the pathogenicity trial was performed according to (ali-shtayeh et al., 2002). the tested fungal isolates were grown on pda plates for 10 days. sterile water (5 ml.) was powered on each plate containing fungal colony to obtain spore suspension, adjusted their concentrations at 1 x 108 conidia/ ml. twenty adults of each of two aphid species (hyalopterus pruni (geoff.)) and aphis pomi (degreer) were sprayed with 10 ml of spore suspension for few seconds for each isolate and then transferred into a sterile plates containing two pieces of moistened filter papers and two host plant leaves. plates were sealed with parafilm to maintain the humidity and then incubated in darkness at 25 oc. infected dead insects were 21 hasan, et al inspected and counted daily. mortality percentage caused by each isolate was assessed after 2, 4 and 6 days. the experiment was conducted as a completely randomized design with four replicates for each isolate. differences between the treatments were determined by anova and duncan test at p ≤ 0.05 with sas software (sas, 1999). results a total of 9 species assigned to 7 genera were recovered from 13 soil samples by the dilution method (table 1). penicillium glabrum was the most frequent species detected from all soil samples, followed by aspergillus niger with 76.92% isolation rate .the two entomopathogenic fungi (beauvaria bassiana and isaria javanica) and rhizopus stolonifer were each detected with 38.96% isolation rate. other opportunistic fungi such as alternaria alternate, a. flavus, penicillium digitatum and syncephalastratum racemosus were also isolated with isolation rates varying between 7.67% 30.77%. the present study revealed that entomopathogenic and other opportunistic fungi are common inhabitant of soil at insect hibernation sites, however, their diversity is relatively low as indicated by the isolation of two entomopathogenic species and seven opportunistic fungi. isaria javanica was isolated from iraqi soil for the first time. the newly recorded species is described and illustrated. phenotypical characterization of isaria javanica (frieder. & bally) samson & hywel-jones. mycol.res.109, 588 (2005). fig.1(a-b). colonies on pda, growing slowly reached a radial of 4.6 mm in 14 days at 25 c, powdery to floccose, at first white becoming cream-coloured with age. hyphae hyaline, septate, branched, smooth walled, 2-3um wide. conidiophores erect, hyaline, simple or branched, up to 50 um long and 2-2.5um wide, forming verticillate branches with phialides in whorls of 2 to 3. phialides 10-16 x 2-3 um, consisting of cylindrical basal portion tapering into a thin distinct neck. conidia hyaline, smooth, one celled, fusiform, sometimes cylindrical, 5-6.5 x 2-2.3 um. chlamydospores not observed. the pathogenicity test (table 2) showed that b. bassaiana was the most virulent species causing 100% mortality to both aphid species (hyalopterus pruni and aphis pomi) after six days, followed by i. javanica (66.7% and 75.6% mortality) to both aphid species respectively. discussion in our study we have isolated surviving entomopathogenic and opportunistic fungi from diversely soil environments. this indicates that these fungi can be naturally found close to phytophagous insects host. most fungi found in iraq during this work have been reported from other parts of the world (vanninen,1995; meyling and eilenberg, 2006). regarding the entomopathogenic fungal species, b.bassiana was among the most frequently isolated fungi from soil at insect hibernation sites. this result is in agreement with several other studies, revealing that b. bassiana was encountered from a variety of agricultural and natural soils (ali-shtayeh et al.2002; meyling and eilenberg, 2006; quesadamovaga et al. 2007; sun and lin.2008; sun et al.,2008). moreover, the fungus seems has a wide distribution over the country and has been repeatedly isolated from different soils in iraq 22 occurrence of entomopathogenic as well as from different insect hosts (khalaf et al.1997, 1998; assaf, 2007, 2009; abdullah and mohamed, 2009; assaf et al.2011). isaria javanica (frieder.&bally)samson & hywel-jones (formerly known as paecilomyces javanicus (frider & bally) a. h. s. brown&g.smith) and was originally described by friederich & bally (1923) as spicaria javanica. the species is isolated from diverse soils at insect hibernation sites for the first time in iraq. the description of our isolate is in agreement with samson (1974), tzean et al. (1997) and shimazu and takastuka (2010). our isolate of i. javanica did not form synnemata, however, samson (1974) described that p. javanicus occasionally produces a few synnemata which was not reported by other authors (brown and smith, 1957; tzean et al.1997; shimazu and takatsuka, 2010). performance of pathogenicity test for our isolate on two aphid species (h.pruni and a.pomi) caused 66.7% and 75.6% mortality respectively. most reported host insects for i.javanica are members of either lepidoptera or coleoptera (tzean et al. 1997; chen et al.2007; hu et al. 2007; spacht et al., 2009; shimazu and tketsuko, 2010). the pathogenicity of the fungus was also proved on insects in hemiptera (scorselli et al., 2008) and in hymenoptera (hu et al. 2011). the species was also reported as an entomopathogenic fungal endophyte being isolated from peduncles of coffe plants (vega et al. 2008). several species in the genus isaria (formerly paecilomyces) such as i. farinosa (holmsk.) fr. and i. fumosorosea wize, are well known insect pathogens and frequently isolated from soil (ali-shtayeh et al.2002; meyling and eilenberg, 2006; sun and liu,2008; hu et al.2010). i. farinosa have been previously reported from iraq as p. farinosus on sunn pest and aphids (assaf, 2007, 2009). aspergillus flavus and a.niger isolated in the present study have previously been isolated as insect pathogens by several authors ((sur et al., 1999; abdullah et al.2001,2002; sun and liu, 2008; abdullah and mohamed, 2009 and assaf et al., 2011). several other fungal species including penicillium glabrum, p. digitatum, alternaria alternata, syncephalastratum racemosum and rhizopus stolonifer were detected with different isolation percentage. though we considered these species as secondary colonizers, but these opportunistic fungi were proved their pathogenicity on different insect orders (gunde-cimerman et al., 1998; abdullah et al.2002; ali-shtayeh et al., 2002; sun et al., 2008 and abdullah and mohamed, 2009). in conclusion, the present study provides the first report of i. javanica from iraq as an entomopathogenic fungus, extending our knowledge of the occurrence and distribution of entomopathogenic fungi in iraqi soil. literature cited abdullah s.k., mohamed a.m. 2009. occurrence of insect associated fungi in cultivated soil in basrah, iraq. proceeding of the 1st scientific conference of biological sciences 22-23 april, (2009.), mosul, iraq. pp 222-227. abdullah s.k., hassan k.s., mansour z.f. 2001. mycoflora associated with the subterranean termite micocerotemes diversus in basrah, iraq. iraqi j.biol.1:109-116. abdullah s. k., hassan k. s., mansour z. f. 2002. pathogenic potential of five fungal isolates on the termite microcertemes diversus. iraq. j. biol. 2:42-54. (in arabic) 23 hasan, et al ali-shtayeh m.s.; mara a.b.m., jamous r.m. 2002. distribution, occurrence and characterization of entomopathogenic fungi in agricultural soil in palestinian area. mycopathologia, 156: 235-244. assaf l. h. a. 2007. ecological study and evaluation of activity of beauveria bassiana (bals.) vuill. and paecilomyces farinosus (dicks ex fr.) on some biological aspects of sunn pest on wheat . ph.d. thesis, college of agriculture and forestry, mosul university, 231pp. (in arabic) assaf l.h. 2009. the efficiency of beauveria bassiana (bals.) vuill. and paecilomyces farinosus (dicks ex fr.) for biological control of bean aphid aphis fabae scopli. 4th conference on recent technologies in agriculture, cairo, egypt. p. 14-20. assaf l.h., haleem r.a., abdullah s.k.2011. association of entomopathogenic and other opportunistic fungi with insect dormant locations. jjbs 4:87-92. brown a.h., smith g.1957. the genus paecilomyces bainier and its perfect stage byssochlamys westling. trans.br. mycol.soc.40:17-89. charnley a. k. 1997. entomopathogenic fungi and their role in pest control. (in) d.t. wicklow, b. soderstroma (eds.). the mycota iv. environmental and microbial relationships, springer, berlin heidelberg, 185-201. chen c.c., kumar h.g.a.,kumar s., tzean s.f., yeh k.w .2007. molecular and cloning characterization and expression of a chitinase from the entomopathogenic fungus paecilomyces javanicus. curr.microiol.55:8-13. domsch k.h.,gams w., anderson.t.h.1981. compendium of soil fungi. academic press, london. 893pp. friedrichs k., bally w.1923. over de parasitische schimmels die den koffiebessenboebok dooden. koffie bessenboebock-fonds,mededeingen 6:103-147. goettel m.s., inglis g.d. 1997. fungi: hyphomycetes. (in) l.a. lacey (ed.) manual of techniques in insect pathology. academic press, san diego, 213-249. gunde-cimermann., zale p., jeram s.1998. mycoflora of cave creket troglophlus negletus cadavers. mycopathologia 141:111-114. hu q.; ren s.x.,; an, x.c., qian m.h.2007. insecticidal activity influence of destructions on the pathogenicity of paecilomyces javanicus against spodptera litura. j. appl. entomol. 131:262-268. hu q.;liu s.,yin f.;cai s.;,zhon g., ren s.2011. diversity and virulence of soil-dwelling fungi isaria spp and paecilomyces spp. against solenopsis invita (hymenoptera:formicidae). biocont. sci. technol.21:225-234. khalaf j.m., dewan m.m., abdullah s.k. 1997. laboratory biological control on larvae of musca domestica l. by some fungal isolates. basrah j. agric. sci. 10:29-33. 24 occurrence of entomopathogenic khalaf j.m., dewan m.m., abdullah s.k. 1998. laboratory biological control on pupae of musca domestica l. by some fungal isolates. basrah j. agric. sci. 10:51-58. (in arabic) meyling n.v., elinberg j. 2006. occurrence and distribution of soil-borne entomopathogenic fungi within a single organic agroecosystem. agric. ecosyst. environ. 113:336-341. meyling n. v., pell j. k., eilenberg j. 2006.. dispersal of beauveria bassiana by the activity of nettle insects. invertebr. pathol. 93:121-126. olivares-bernabeu c., lopezllorca l.v. 2002. fungal egg-parasites of plant parasitic nematodes from spanish soil. rev. iberoam micol. 19: 104-110. queseda-morgan n.,novas-cortes j.m., maranhao e.a.,ortiz-urquiza, a., santiago-alvrez c.2007. factors affecting the occurrence and distribution of entomopathogenic fungi in natural and cultivated soils. mycol.res.111:947-966. samson r.a. 1974. paecilomyces and some allied hyphomycetes. stud. mycol. 6:1-119. sas. 1999. sas/stat user s guide.version 8.2, 1st printing.vol.2. sas institute inc. north carolina. scorsetti a.c., humber r.a., de gregore c., lopez-lastra c.c.2008. new records of entomoathogenic fungi infecting bemisa tabaci and trialeurodes vaporarorum pests of horticultural crops in argentina. biocontrol 53:787-796. shimazu m., takatsuka j. 2010. isaria javanica (anamorphic cordycipitaceae) isolated from gypsy moth larvae, lymantria dispar (lepidoptera:lymantriidae), in japan. appl. entomol. zool. 45:497-504. spacht a., lacio-azeredo j., lima e.,boldo j.t., martinus m.k., lorini l.m., barros n.m.2009. occurrence of the entomopathogenic fungus isaria javanica (frieder.& bally) samson & hywell-jones (fungi,srdariomycete) infecting lonomia oblique walker (lepidoptera, saturniidae, hemileucinae). rev. bras.entom. 53:493-494. strasser h., forer a., schinner f. 1996. development of media for the selective isolation and maintenance of virulence of beauveria brongniartii. (in) t.a. jackson, t.r. glare (eds.). microbial control for soil dwelling pests. ag. research, lincolin, new zealand. 125-130. sun bing-da., ya h.y., chen a.j., liu x.z. 2008. insect associated fungi in soil of field crops and orchards. crop prot. 27: 1421-1426. sun bing-da., ya h.y., liu x.z. 2008. occurrence and diversity of insectassociated fungi in natural soils in china. appl. sci. ecol. 39: 100-108. sur b., bihari v., sharma a., basu s.k. 1999. survey of termite inhabited soil and mosquito breeding insects in lucknow, india for potential mycopathogens of anopheles stephensi. mycopathologia, 144: 77-80. 25 hasan, et al tzean s.s., hsieh l.s., wu w.j. 1997. atlas of entomopathogenic fungi from taiwan. council of agriculture, taiwan, r.o.c. 214 pp. vanninen i. 1995. distribution and occurrence of entomopathogenic fungi in finland: effect of geographical location, habitat type and soil type. mycol. res. 100: 93-101. vega f.e.,posada f., catherine aime m., pava-ripoll m.,infante,s., rehner s.a.2008. entomopathogenic fungal endophytes. biol.cont.46:72-82. zimmermann g. 1986. the galleria bait method for detection of entomopathogenic fungi in soil. j. appl. entomol. 102:213-215. table 1: isolation % of entomopathogenic and opportunistic fungi isolated from soil samples. fungal species n˚ positive samples isolation % alternaria altenata 1 7.69 aspergillus flavus 2 15.38 a. niger 10 76.92 beauveria bassiana 5 38.46 isaria javanica 5 38.46 penicillium digitatum 4 30.77 p. glabrum 13 100.0 rhizopus stolonifer 5 38.46 syncepalastratum racemosum 1 7.69 table 2: pathogenicity trial of fungal isolates on h. pruni and a. pomi. fungus species insect species % mortality 2 days 4 days 6 days control h. pruni 0 e * 0 e 10 e a. pomi 5 de 10 de 15 de b. bassiania h. pruni 45 a 85 a 100 a a. pomi 31.58 ab 88.89 a 100 a p. javanicus h. pruni 20 bc 55 b 66.67 b a. pomi 26.32 bc 50 b 75.59 b a. nigur h. pruni 15 cd 25 c 27.78 cd a. pomi 5.26 de 22.22 cd 35.29 c penicillium glabrum. h. pruni 15 cd 30 c 33.33 c a. pomi 21.05 bc 27.78 c 29.41 cd * means followed by the same letters in each column are not significantly different (p = 0.05). 26 occurrence of entomopathogenic 27 hasan, et al bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2012) 10 (1):19-27 تواجد الفطریات الحشریة واالنتھازیة فى ترب مواقع تشتیة الحشرات وتقیم القابلیة االمراضیة *سمیر خلف عبدهللا *لزكین حجى عساف *وزیر على حسن العراق جامعة دھوك -لزراعھ والغابات كلیة ا -قسم وقایة النبات * العراق جامعة زاخو -كلیة العلوم -قسم علوم الحیاة * الخالصة تم عزل الفطریات الممرضھ للحشرات واالنتھازیھ من عینات تربھ جمعت من اماكن تشتیة الحشرات فى بیئات مختلفھ فى كردستان العراق خالل الفتره تم عزل نوعین منى الفطریات . ٢٠٠٩كانون األول -من تشرین االول الحشریة beauveria bassiana (bals.) vuill.and isaria javanica (friedrichs & bally) samson & hywel-jones. تم عزل . لكل فطر% ٣٨,٦التربة بأستخدام طریقة التخفیف وبتردد من :فطریات اخرى انتھازیة االمراضیة مثل alternaria alternata, aspergillus flavus, a.niger, penicillium glabrum, p.digitatum, rhizopus stolonifer and syncephalastratum racemosum. على كال % ١٠٠كان االكثر ضراوة واحدث نسبة قتل b. bassiana الفطر نسبة قتل تراوحت مابین i. javanicaاظھر الفطر . النوعین من الحشرات تم عزل . على كال النوعین من الحشرات على التوالي% ٧٥,٥٩و% ٦٦,٦٧ تم وصف النوع المسجل مع . الول مرة في العراق i. javanicaوتسجیل النوع .التوضیح بالصور الفوتوغرافیة 8 91 goner a. shaker bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2016) 14 (1): 91-97 isolation and identifiction of fungi infecting aloe vera plant goner a. shaker iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq e-mail: gonerwahhab@yahoo.com abstract this study included isolation and identification of the fungi associated with aloe vera (l.) in nurseries and plant gardens. the results showed that the fungi alternaria alternata, fusarium oxysporum, fusarium solani, nigrospora oryzae, cladosporium herbarum, stemphylium botryosum, aspergillus niger, penicillium sp. were isolated from the diseased leaves of aloe vera showing spots and blight symptoms. the percentages of disease incidence in march, jun and august were found to be 5, 50 and 60 %, respectively. pathogenicity test of alternaria alternata, fusarium oxysporum, nigrospora oryzae and cladosporium herbarum showed that disease index were 50, 25,25and 12.5 %, respectively. the fungi isolated on aloe vera in this study have not been published previously in iraq. key words: aloe vera, fungi, gardens, isolation, nurseries. introduction aloe vera (l.) burn.f belongs to family aloaceae, is perennial, succulent plant with a height of 60-100 cm,stemless sessile herb, leaves 30–50 cm long and 10cm broad, color peagreen bright yellow tubular, flowers arranged in a slender loose spike (youngken, 1950). four hundred species of aloe have been reported worldwide, a. vera is the most extensively cultivated as a medicinal plant. it is adapted widely all over the world, in the tropics to temperate regions especially. aloe leaves are filled with gel which is the most important constituent of the plant and has great medicinal value. a. vera has been reported to contain amino acids, anthraquinones, enzymes, lignin, minerals, mono and polysaccharides, salicylic acid, saponins, sterols and vitamins (barcroft and myskja, 2003). a. vera plants have been entered in many herbal drugs for the keeping of good health. in cosmetic industries aloe is used in the production of soap for bathing, shampoo, hair wash, toothpaste and body creams (daodu, 2000). a. vera gel has been reported very effective for the treatment of sore and wounds, skin cancer, skin disease, cold and cough, constipation, piles, fungal infection, asthma, ulcer and diabetes (daodu, 2000; djeraba and quere, 2000; olusegun, 2000; davis and moro, 1989). aloe vera has a long history of popular and traditional use. it is used in traditional indian medicine for constipation, colic, skin diseases, worm infestation, and infections .in chinese medicine, it is often recommended in the treatment of fungal diseases (heber, 2007). a total of 15 fungi, including fusrium roseum, fusarium oxysporum, alternaria alternate, alternaria dianthi, aspegillus niger, aspergillus fumigatus, drechslera australiensis, curvularia senegalensis, colletotrichum dematium, nigrospora oryza,and trichoderma viride were isolated from the leaves samples of a.vera collected from different areas(singh et al., 2014).surveys have shown that the common disease on the a.vera plants was leaves spots which causes harmful effects on the medical value of the plant parts, and mailto:gonerwahhab@yahoo.com 92 isolation and identifiction of fungi infecting other fungi fusarium solani, aspergillus niger, penicillium spp. were recorded (chavan and korekar, 2011). the purpose of this study is to identify the pathogenic fungi infecting aloe vera plants in some nurseries in the baghdad area. materials and methods isolation: aleo vera infected leaves showing ,were collected from the department of drugs and medicinal plants, pharmacy college university of baghdad and some nurseries, the leaves were washed with water, cut off to parts of 2-5 mm length, surface sterilized in 1.5% sodium hypochlorite solution for (1-2) minutes, rinsed with sterile water and then cultured on potato dextrose agar (4 pieces/plate) and incubated at 27±2°c. fungal growth was purified by the single hyphal tip method and subculture on pda to serve as inoculum source. identification of the pathogen: the identification of fungi was made by preparing slides of the fungal growth and observing them under a compound microscope. pure cultures of fungi were prepared and maintained on potato dextrose agar (pda) slants. the fungi mounted on slides, stained with lacto phenol-cotton blue and examined under microscope diagnosis based on morphological characteristics of the colonies and spore and preserved in slants at 4-5 c°. estimation the disease incidence: the disease percentage was reported from surveys, visiting the plant garden and the nurseries cultivated with aloe vera plants and examined the infected plants twice in onset and the end of the season. one of the main symptoms that appeared on the diseased plants include a small superficial necrosis, brown spots on leaves, sometimes these spots connect together and cause to dying the leaf entirely and become deepened and more darker under wet conditions, and blight seem on the tip and edges of the leaves or all the leaf, and sometimes appears white color on spotting area resulting from the fungus mycelium, and rotting the basis of the leaves near the soil, which cause the death of the little seedlings as all or death many of leaves in old seedlings (fig. 1, 2, 3) which is similar to the symptoms mentioned by kawuri et al. (2012). the percentage of disease incidence was estimated by using the following formula: the percentage of disease incidence = no. of diseased plants no. of all plants × 100 the pathogenicity test: based on koch postulate pathogenicity studies was conducted on healthy leaves of aloe vera plants, cleaned spotless of similar size leaves were collected, washed with tap water and placed on the surface of wet-cotton in a petri dish. inoculums plug (5 mm diam.) of alternaria alternata, fusarium oxysporum, nigrospora oryzae, cladosporium herbarum cultures were placed on the leaves. plugs of pda only were placed on another leaves for control. three replications of each treatment were used. the plates were maintained at room temperature until the development of symptoms the data had been recorded, and the treated specimens were ranked on the basis of the disease severity and assessed as follows: 0leaves healthy, 1a few spots or slight necrosis as (1-25%) from leaf size, 2the spotting take over (26-50%), 3the spotting take over (51-75%), 4blighting takes over (76-100%) (el-morsy, 2004). disease index (di) = . × ….. . × . × . × 100 93 goner a. shaker results and discussion identification: results of isolation and identification depending on the keys of each fungus and on the shape of conidia and conidiophores that formed on the fungal growth on pda (booth, 1971; ellis, 1971; barnett and hunter, 1972), revealed that the fungi alternaria alternata, fusarium oxysporum, fusarium solani, nigrospora oryzae, cladosporium herbarum, stemphylium botryosum, aspergillus niger, penicillium sp. were found associated with the infected leaves of aleo vera. disease incidence: the results in table (1) showed that the disease incidence during march, june and august months were estimated to be 5, 50, and 60 %, respectively. the injury on the plants is more common in nurseries and became more clear and severe in climatic conditions appropriate to infection, high temperature in the atmosphere associated with high humidity in the soil. significant variation in the ability of fungi to cause the disease between june, september and august were observed. similar results concerning the disease incidence and injury were reported in west bengal state throughout the year from january to december caused by alternaria brassicae with infection percentages 83.28% 95.71% (ghosh and banerjee, 2014). table (1): disease percent on aloe vera leaves nurseries. the months %disease percent march 5 jun 50 august 60 the pathogenicity test: the results in table (2) indicated that the disease index of the fungi alternaria alternata, fusarium oxysporum, nigrospora oryzae and cladosporium herbarum were estimated to be 50, 25, 25,12.5 %,respectively, compared with 0% in control. leaf spots, similar to those observed on infected aleo vera in the nursery were manifested on the leave is used in the test after 20 days of inoculation. the same fungal isolates were re-isolated from the inoculated leaves of a. vera. it was reported that among many fungi recorded to infect a. vera, f. oxysporum was fond the most dominant that representing 90 %, followed by drechslera australiensis 73.3% trichoderma viride 66.6% and alternaria alternate 33.3% (singh et al., 2014). another study ilondu (2013) showed that f. oxysporum was the more virulent and followed by pestalotia psidii and cladosporium herbarum. several previous studies reported similar results concerning the pathogenic fungi infecting aleo vera plant in the world as leaf spots on aloe vera caused by nigrospora oryzae in china was recorded by zhai et al. (2013). fungi associated with the base rot disease of aloe vera (aloe barbadensis) were investigated by ayodele and ilondu (2008) in nigeria and found the percentage frequency were as aspergillus verocosa 28.03%, fusarium oxysporium 24.24% and torula herbarium 15.15%. table (2): disease index of pathogenicity test on aloe vera leaves in vitro condition. species (di) % alternaria alternata 50 cladosporium herbarum 25 fusarium oxysporum 25 nigrospora oryzae 12.5 control 0.0 94 isolation and identifiction of fungi infecting figure (1): symptoms of yellowing, browning on aloe vera leaves surfaces and bases near the soil, then turn to blights causing rapid death to entire leaves. figure (2): symptom of necrotic tissue formed on aloe vera leaves, the spots often are small and enlarge and deepen. 95 goner a. shaker figure (3): symptoms of dark brown spots on leaves margins of aloe vera and then turn to a large patch, quickly turn to brown blighting . literture cited ayodele, s. m. and ilondu, e. m. 2008. fungi associated with base rot disease of aloe vera (aloe barbadensis). african journal of biotechnology, 7(24): 4471-4474. barcroft, a. and myskja, a. 2003. aloe vera nature’s silent healer. baam publishing ltd. london. 317pp. barnett, h. l. and hunter, b.b. 1972. illustrated genera of imperfect fungi. 3ed edition. burgess pub. co., minneapolis, minnesota, usa. 241pp. booth, c. 1971. the genus fusarium–commonwealth mycological institute, kew, surrey, england. 237pp. chavan, s. p. and korekar, s. l. 2011.a survey of some medical plants for fungal diseases from osmanabad district of maharashtra state. recent research in science and technology, 3(5): 15-16. daodu, t. 2000. aloe vera, the miracle healing plant. health field corporation, lagos, p. 36. davis, r. h. and moro n. p. 1989. aloe vera and gibbrellin, anti-inflammatory activity in diabetes. journal of the american podiatric medical association; 79(1): 24-26. djeraba, a. quere, p. 2000. in vivo macrophage activation in chicken with acemannan, a complex carbohydrate extracted from aloe vera. international journal of immunopharmacology, 22(5): 365-372. 96 isolation and identifiction of fungi infecting ellis, m. b. 1971. dematiaceous hyphomycetes. commonwealth mycological institute, kew, survey, england. 608pp. el-morsy, e. m. 2004. evaluation of microfungi for the biological control of water hyacinth in egypt. fungal diversity, 16:35-51. ghosh, s. kr. and banerjee, s. 2014. first report of alternaria brassicae leaf spot disease of aloe vera and its disease intensity in west bengal. european journal of biotechnology and bioscience, 2(1): 37-43. heber, d. 2007. physicians’ desk reference for herbal medicines. thomson health care, montvale. 4th ed. pp. 515-518. ilondu, e. m. 2013. pathogenicity of mycoflora of tip-rot disease of aloe vera (syn aloe barbadensis miller). common medicinal plant in abraka, delta state, nigeria. african journal of microbiology research , 7(33): 4271-4275. kawuri, r.; suprata, d. n.; nitta, y. and homma, t. 2012. destructive leaf rot disease caused by fusarium oxysporum on aloe barbadensis miller in bali. agricultural science research journal, 2(6): 295-301. olusegun, a. 2000. one hundred medicinal uses of aloe vera. good health inc. lagos, p. 76. singh, j.; gupta, s.; mishra, p. and kori, i. p. 2014. screening of bio-control agent for the eco-friendly management of fungal diseases of aloe vera. international journal of science and research, 3(7):123-126. youngken, h. w. 1950. textbook of pharmacognosy. 6th ed. philadelphia, blakiston publ. co. new york. 1063pp. zhai, l. f.; liu, j.; zhang, m.x. and hong, n. ; wang, g. p. and wang, l. p. 2013. the first report of leaf spots in aloe vera caused by nigrospora oryzae in china. plant disease, 97(9): 1256. 97 goner a. shaker bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2016) 14 (1): 91-97 aloe vera عزل و تشخیص الفطریات التي تصیب نبات كونر عبد الوھاب شاكر ، بغداد، العراقجامعة بغداد -مركز بحوث و متحف التأریخ الطبیعي aloe vera (l.) الَصبِر الحقیقي او األلََوة الحقیقیة نبات ترافقشملت الدراسة عزل وتشخیص المسببات الفطریة التي و اظھرت النتائج بان الفطریات، في المشاتل والحدائق النباتیة fusarium oxysporum, fusarium solani, nigrospora oryzae, cladosporium herbarum, stemphylium botryosum, aspergillus niger, penicillium sp. أشھر في وكانت النسبة المئویة لالصابة .اللفحة و أعراض التبقع علیھا والتي المصابة األوراقھي التي عزلت من وأظھرت نتائج اختبار القدرة االمراضیة لكل من الفطریات .على التوالي) ٪٦٠، ٥٠، ٥(آذاروحزیران وآب alternaria alternata, fusarium oxysporum, nigrospora oryzae, cladosporium herbarum aloe vera من نبات عزلت التي الفطریات ان .٪، على التوالي١٢.٥ ، ٢٥،٢٥، ٥٠ وان نسبة الدلیل المرضي كانت .العراق فيسابقا لم تنشر ھذه الدراسة في 4 31 m. k. mohammad and a. a. al-moussawi bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2013)12 (3): 31-36 raillietina echinobothrida (megnin,1881) (cestoda: cyclophyllidea) from the house sparrow passer domesticus biblicus hartret, 1881 collected in baghdad city, central iraq mohammad k. mohammad* and azhar a. al-moussawi iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad, bab al-muadham, baghdad, iraq. *email: amarmkm82@yahoo.com abstract the widespread house sparrow passer domesticus biblicus has a close association with humans and inhabits almost all ecosystems near human settlements in iraq. it is exposed to different kinds of parasites in its habitats. examining of house sparrow for the cestode parasites revealed that 25 specimens of 56 were infected with raillietina echinobothrida. intensity among infected male and female hosts with this cestode and its description is provided and discussed. the present finding constitutes the first record for this parasite in house sparrow in iraq. introduction the house sparrow is a synanthropic bird species of historical commensal relationship with man and has followed his colonization of the majority of the earth (vincent, 2005). the house sparrow is primarily associated with areas modified by humans including agricultural land, villages and urban centers (summers-smith, 1988; lowther and cink, 1992). it occurs naturally in most of europe, the mediterranean region and much of asia (summers-smith, 1988;vincent, 2005). it was accidentally or intentionally introduced to many regions including australia, africa and the americas may be because of its potentiality to adapt with a wide range of new conditions (summers-smith, 1988; martin and fitzgerald, 2005) and the extent of its range made it the most widely distributed wild bird on the planet (anderson, 2006). this will contributes to much more exposure to new parasites as well as its role in spreading new parasites into new regions and hence could affect the native fauna. in iraq, it inhabits almost all ecosystems near human settlements except the deep interior of deserts (allouse, 1962; al-dabbagh and jiad, 1988; salim et al., 2006). works on parasites of this species are rather few and fragmentary including that of shamsuddin and mohammad (1980), mohammad (1990) and mohammad and al-moussawi (2012a) on haematozoa; abdulabas (2005) and mohammad and al-moussawi (2012b) on helminthes. the aim of the present study is to provide examination results about the cestode helminthes infect the house sparrow in baghdad city, central iraq. materials and methods a total of 56 individuals of house sparrow (36 males and 20 females) were collected in bab-al-muadham, baghdad city by mist net during the period from march to december 2011. birds were immediately dissected and the intestines were searched carefully for the cestode mailto:amarmkm82@yahoo.com 32 raillietina echinobothrida helminthes. the recovered cestodes were cleane, stained with acetocarmine, passed through a series of alcohol concentrations 70, 80, 90 and 100%, and mounted in canada balsam. micrographs were taken with digital camera (infinity lite-k 100) attached to compound microscope (micros mcx 100). all measurements are in millimeters unless otherwise stated and expressed as mean followed by range in parentheses. identification of the cestode was possible following the available keys and descriptions of wardle and mcleod (1952), yamaguti (1959), and sawada (1965). results results of examining 56 house sparrows for the cestode parasites would show that 25 specimens (44.6%) were infected with one cestode species, raillietina echinobothrida (megnin, 1881). cyclophyllidea, davaienidae. (figs. 1-3). description: scolex width 0.189 (0.137-0.292), rostellum diameter 0.095 (0.025-0.128) with a double crown of 200-250 hooks, each hook of 0.010-0.013 long, sucker diameter 0.089 (0.050-0.156) with 8-10 circles of small spines, neck width 0.162 (0.100-0.240), strobila length 28.378 (16.00-42.48), width 0.903 (0.4501.560), genital apertures unilateral, length of cirrus pouch 0.096 (0.050-0.162), testes number 22 (20-30), egg sacs differ in the number of eggs 6 (2-14), egg diameter 6.8 µ (2-9) with a hexacanth onchosphere of length 4-6µ. the general intensity of the cestode among male and female hosts is 6.24 (1-35). among the infected hosts, there are 17 males with intensity of 6.06 (1-35) and 8 females with intensity of 6.63 (1-35). discussion recording of one species and probably another unidentified one which belongs to the same genus only, is mostly related to collection of all examined in one point at one area, a garden in bab al-muadham district, baghdad city, a totally intense human settlement region, which seems not offering the suitable conditions for different kinds of parasitic helminth species to thrive. marzluff (1997) suggested that urban settlement can change ecosystem processes, habitat, food, predators, competitors, and disease. another factor may play role in this, is the rich food supply in human settlements which has an effect on the ability of nestlings to withstand parasitism (vincent, 2005). however, apparently another species of raillietina was recovered from the intestine of one host. the specific identification could not be possible due to distortion of specimens. although the house sparrow is frequently reported to be infected with a wide variety of cestodes, for example; sawada (1965) recorded raillietina neplais, baugh and saxena (1976) found five species of cestodes and saxena and baugh (1978) who found two cestodes. raillietina echinobothrida was not reported in all of these papers and most of the material examined in the previous records were collected from suburban and rural areas. however, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first record for this parasite in passer domesticus biblicus in iraq. results show that the intensities of infection with r. echinobothrida in male and female hosts are almost the same. this may, partly at least, related to biparental care nature of incubation in house sparrow (bartlett et al., 2005) which needs both mates to exert almost equal efforts in incubation period as well as to be exposed for the same parasite vector during the feeding of nestlings. 33 m. k. mohammad and a. a. al-moussawi acknowledgements the authors wish to express their deep gratitude to mrs. khalida ibrahim and mrs. hind dhiaa of parasitology section, iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad for their help in lab preparations. literature cited abdulabas, s. k. 2005. identificational study of parasitic fauna on three species of passeriformes family and its physiological effects in al-najaf al-ashraf governorate. m.sc. thesis , college of science, university of kufa, 85pp. al-dabbagh, k.y. and jiad, j.h. 1988. the breeding biology of the house sparrow in central iraq. intern. stud. sparrows 15: 22-43. allouse, b. e. 1962 birds of iraq vol. 3 (passeriformes). ar-rabitta press, baghdad, 288pp. anderson, t. r. 2006 biology of the ubiquitous house sparrow: from genes to populations. oxford: oxford university press. bartlett, t. l., mock, d. w. and schwagmeyer, p. l. 2005 division of labour: incubation and biparental care in house sparrows (passer domesticus). the auk, 122(3):835–842. baugh, s. c. and saxena, s. k. 1976 on cestodes of passer domesticus i. choanotaenia, raillietina and proparuterina. angew parasitol.,17(3):146-60. lowther, p. e. and cink, c. 1992. house sparrow. a. poole, p. stettenheim, and f. gill (eds). the birds of north america. no. 12. the american ornithologists' union and the academy of natural sciences of philadelphia, philadelphia, pennsylvania, usa. martin, l. b., ii, fitzgerald, l. 2005 a taste for novelty in invading house sparrows, passer domesticus. behavioral ecology 16 (4): 702–707. marzluff, j. 1997 effects of urbanization and recreation on songbirds. songbird ecology in southwestern ponderosa pine forests: a literature review. (block, m. and finch, d. m.). general technical report rm-gtr 292. (usda forest service). mohammad, m.k. 1990 blood parasites of some iraqi wild birds. iraqi j. sci., 31(supplement):31-39. mohammad, m. k. and al-moussawi, a. a. 2012a blood parasites of some passeriform birds in baghdad ardea, central iraq. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus.,12 (1): 29-36. mohammad, m. k. and al-moussawi, a. a. 2012b gizzard nematodes of the house sparrow passer domesticus hartret collected in baghdad city, central iraq. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus., 12 (2): 25-37. salim, m.a, porter, r.f. christensen, s. schiermacker-hansen, p. and al-jbour, s. 2006 field guide to the birds of iraq. amman: nature iraq & birdlife international. (in arabic). 34 raillietina echinobothrida sawada, i. 1965. on the genus raillietina. fuhrmann 1920 (ii). j. nara gakuge "iniv. (nat.). ( 13): 5-38. saxena, s. k., bauch, s. c. 1978 on cestodes of passer domesticus ii. anonchotaenia and mathevotaenia. angew parasitol.,19(2):85-106. shamsuddin, m. and mohammad, m.k. 1980 haematozoa of some iraq birds with description of two new species, haemoproteus pterocles and leucocytozoon nycticoraxi (protozoa: haemosporina). bull. nat. hist. res. centre, 7(4): 111-154. summers-smith, j. d. 1988. house sparrow. pages 114-162 in the sparrows. t. & a. d. poyser limited, calton, england. vincent, k. e. 2005 investigating the causes of the decline of the urban house sparrow passer domesticus population in britain. ph. d. thesis, de montfort university, u. k., 302 pp. wardle, r. a. and mcleod, j. a. 1952 the zoology of tapeworms. hafner pub. co., london. 780 pp. yamaguti, s. 1959 systema helminthum.. vol. ii. the cestodes of vertebrates. intersci. publ. inc., new york. 878 pp. fig. 1: raillietina echinobothrida, scolex. 35 m. k. mohammad and a. a. al-moussawi fig. 2: raillietina echinobothrida, mature segments. fig. 3: raillietina echinobothrida, gravid segments with egg capsules. 36 raillietina echinobothrida bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2013)12 (3): 31-36 المتطفلة في العصفور raillietina echinobothridaالدودة الشریطیة الدوري في مدینة بغداد وسط العراق محمد كاظم محمد و أزھار أحمد الموسوي جامعة بغداد، باب المعظم، بغداد، -مركز بحوث ومتحف التاریخ الطبیعي العراق الخالصة صلة وثیقة passer domesticus biblicusللعصفور المنزلي و یتواجد في اغلب النظم البیئیة قرب التجمعات البشریة في العراق ، باإلنسان .ویتعرض ھذا الطائر إلى اإلصابة بالطفیلیات في بیئتھ من مجموع ٢٥تبین إصابة ،ئرأثناء البحث عن الدیدان الشریطیة في ھذا الطا raillietinaبالشریطیة%) ٤٤٫٦(فردا منھ وبنسبة إصابة ٥٦ echinobothrida . تمت مناقشة شدة اإلصابة في كال جنسي الطائر ووصف فور المنزلي ھو األول في یعتبر تسجیل ھذه الدودة في العص .للدودة الشریطیة .العراق bull 275 nazih wayes zaid bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2017) 14 (4): 275-284 seasonal changes on epididymal histology and testosterone receptors in iraqi dogs nazih wayes zaid department of surgery and obstetrics, college of veterinary medicine, university of baghdad, iraq email: nazih_keplan@yahoo.com received date:12 march 2017 accepted date:10 july 2017 abstract the present study was carried out on forty eight epididymis of sexually mature dogs to elucidate light microscope features and the presence of testosterone receptors inside epididymis in different seasons. twenty four dogs aged 3 years were used during the periods from 1/2/2015-1/2/2016. the epididymis were carefully dissected from the testis after orchidectomy operations and fixed, dehydrated, clarified and embedded in paraffin. sections were stained with hematoxylin and eosin and periodic acid schiff. as well as, paraffin embedded cytoimmunochemistry technique was used for detection of testosterone receptors. muscular coats showed no significant differences during different seasons or among segments. epithelial height, stereocilia length, total diameter and luminal diameters indicated presence of significant differences among segments and seasons. there were morphological changes in epithelial cells during seasons. the folding was noticed during winter only. imunoreactivity of testosterone receptors were demonstrated during all seasons in all epididymal segments. the study concluded that there were seasonal variations in dogs' epididymis being highest reproductive activity during spring and lowest during summer. keywords: dogs, epididymis, histology, receptors, testosterone. introduction there was a long history of cohabitation between human and dogs but there was little information and many aspects of canine reproductive concerning the effect of breeding season (gavrilovic et al., 2008; van den berghe et al., 2012). seasonal changes in semen parameters were observed in undomesticated canids and the testosterone production reach peak during breeding season (strzezek et al., 2015). there were seasonal variations in reproductive activity in dogs inside iraq (zaid, 2015). several functional and structural modifications take place in spermatozoa during its migration as well as its storing in epididymis (varesi et al., 2013). testosterone was required for accomplishment of meiosis and differentiation of spermatids (de-gier et al., 2012). cytoimmunochemistry staining was widely used in basic research to understand the distribution and localization of proteins in different parts of tissues (bishop et al., 2013). this study was the first trial conducted in iraq to evaluate the effect of season on epididymal histology and testosterone receptors presence in dogs. materials and methods a total of twenty four mature dogs, aged 3 years were used, these animals were caged at college of veterinary medicine, university of baghdad during the periods from 1/2/2015 to http://dx.doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2017.14.4.0275 276 seasonal changes on epididymal histology 1/2/2016. orchidectomy operations were done all over the year (six in each season). then epididymis were carefully dissected from the testis and fixed in 10% formalin, dehydrated in graded ethanol, clarified in xylene, embedded in paraffin, sectioned at 4-5µm in glass slides and stained with hematoxylin and eosin (h&e) and periodic acid schiff (pas). the cytoimmunochemistry technique for paraffin embedded sections was used for testosterone receptors detection. sections were incubated with 10% normal goat serum, then incubated with primary antibody (1:1500) and secondary antibody. the primary antibody was determined using sequencing of genes according to ncbi (2015). the cytoimmunochemistry technique was done by using santa cruz kits. examination using light microscope and measurements with oculometer was done; photographs (mdc2000 microscope camera) were taken. the measurements included the examination of two sections for each epididymis and twenty tubes from each section were selected and examined at magnification of 100 and 400 to determine cells appearance, types and diameters. total diameter of epididymal ducts was measured for each tube at right angles to each other, epithelial height measures, stereocilia length and muscular coats measurement were done using the same forty tubes at four points at 0, 90, 180, 270 and luminal diameter was measured by subtracting total diameter from epithelial height. all obtained data (mean ± standard error) were calculated from the forty tubes of each epididymis was listed and analysis of variance test and least significant differences was done according to (spss, 2001). results and discussion the epididymal duct is divided into three main segments (caput, corpus and cauda). the widest diameter was observed in the cauda segment. the entire epididymis duct exhibits a pseudostratified epithelial lining, with or without stereocilia, wrapped by a lamina propria and circular smooth muscle layer coat. the whole height of epithelium was decreased significantly during summer (p<0.01) in caput and corpus as compared with other seasons, meanwhile, the cauda during summer show significant increase than caput (tab. 1). the epithelium consists of four cell populations: principal, apical, basal (pl.1). this study revealed the presence of apoptosis cells (pl. 2 and 3). plate(1):histological section stained showing the corpus segment during winter. notice the stereocilia (black arrows) principal cells (red arrows), apical cells (blue arrows), basal cells (white arrows) and muscular coat (yellow arrows). h&e 100. plate(2):histological section stained showing the corpus segment during winter. notice the nuclei of principal cell (yellow arrows) and apoptotic cell (red arrow head). h&e 400. 277 nazih wayes zaid table (1): epithelial height (µm) in different segments of the dog's epididymis in different seasons. seasons segments caput corpus cauda spring (march, april and may) 36±5 ab 38±6 a 38±4 a summer (june, july and august) 26±6 c 29±4 bc 34±7 ab autumn (september, october and november) 35±5 ab 37±6 a 36±4 ab winter (december, january and february) 34±9 ab 38±8 a 41±4 a least significant differences 7.6  numbers represent mean ± standard error.  the similar small letters represent no significant differences between means.  the different small letters represent significant differences between means at level of p<0.01. the thickness of mucosal coat showed no significant differences between epididymis segments in different seasons (tab. 2). table (2): muscular coat thickness (µm) in different segments of the dog's epididymis in different seasons. seasons segments caput corpus cauda spring (march, april and may) 17±11 a 13±1 a 19±10 a summer (june, july and august) 16±5 a 22±2 a 7±1 a autumn (september, october and november) 16±11 a 12±1 a 18±9 a winter (december, january and february) 25±4 a 7±3 a 30±3 a  numbers represent mean ± standard error.  the similar small letters represent no significant differences between means. the length of stereocilia also exhibits significant difference (p<0.01) between caput and corpus during winter, as well as, summer season was decrease significantly (p<0.01) than other seasons in dogs epididymis (tab. 3). 278 seasonal changes on epididymal histology table (3): length of stereocilia (µm) in different segments of the dog's epididymis in different seasons. seasons segments caput corpus cauda spring (march, april and may) 10±1 ab 10±2 ab 9±1 ab summer (june, july and august) 0±0 c 0±0 c 0±0 c autumn (september, october and november) 10±1 ab 10±2 ab 8±1 ab winter (december, january and february) 6±1 b 12±5 a 8±1 ab least significant differences 4.5  numbers represent mean ± standard error.  the similar small letters represent no significant differences between means.  the different small letters represent significant differences between means at level of p<0.01. the total diameter of epididymal ducts showed seasonal differences among segments. the caput during winter season recorded the largest diameters (675±255 µm) comparing to other seasons. the cauda during summer (280±90 µm) was the lowest than other seasons. the caput in spring and winter had a significant greater than other segments, while the cauda during summer showed a significant lesser than other segments (tab. 4). table (4): total diameters (µm) in different segments of the dog's epididymis in different seasons. seasons segments caput corpus cauda spring (march, april and may) 500±289 b 365±168 cd 465±120 bc summer (june, july and august) 553±275 ab 380±106 cd 280±90 d autumn (september, october and november) 490±280 bc 360±160 cd 460±120 bc winter (december, january and february) 675±255 a 380±154 cd 495±125 bc least significant differences 172  numbers represent mean ± standard error.  the similar small letters represent no significant differences between means.  the different small letters represent significant differences between means at level of p<0.01. on the other hand, the luminal diameters did not exhibit differences among seasons except in summer cauda being lesser than other seasons. generally, the widest summer caput 279 nazih wayes zaid increased significantly (p<0.01) than other segments, the same in winter caput which increased more than corpus (tab. 5). table (5): luminal diameters (µm) in different segments of the dog's epididymis in different seasons. seasons segments caput corpus cauda spring (march, april and may) 412±265 abc 303±156 bcd 390±170 abc summer (june, july and august) 438±280 ab 262±76 cd 168±90 d autumn (september, october and november) 410±260 abc 300±150 bcd 400±170 abc winter (december, january and february) 475±251 a 250±147 cd 405±172 abc least significant differences 162  numbers represent mean ± standard error.  the similar small letters represent no significant differences between means.  the different small letters represent significant differences between means at level of p<0.01. the difference in surface cellular modification indicated the presence of seasonal variations. in all seasons, the principal cells display important morphological changes from one season to another. the oval nuclei of the principal cells during spring, autumn and winter were deep blue with heterochromatin mainly in all segments state of apoptosis to regenerate the cells (pl. 2 and 3). the cytoplasmic vacuoles in all epididymal segments demonstrated in all seasons (pl. 4). the basal cells showed no changes among segments during different seasons. in general, the apoptotic cells increased during summer seasons than others (pl. 2 and 3). the sperms demonstrated inside epididymal lumen in all seasons (pl. 1 and 2), except summer caput and corpus (pl. 5). folding phenomenon was demonstrated during winter season only (pl. 6). plate(3): histological section stained showing the caput segment during summer. notice the nuclei of principal cells (red arrow), cell division (yellow double arrow) and apoptotic cell (white arrow). h&e 400. plate (4): histological section stained showing the cauda segment during autumn. notice the cytoplasmic vacuoles (white arrow). h&e 400. 280 seasonal changes on epididymal histology plate(5): histological section stained showing the caput segment during summer. notice the absence of sperms inside epididymis lumen (black stars). h&e 100. plate (6): histological section stained showing the caput segment during winter. notice the folding of epididymis lumen (black arrows). h&e 100. plate(7):histological section stained showing the corpus segment during spring. notice the attachment of sperms with stereocilia (black arrows). h&e 400. plate(8):histological section stained showing the cauda segment during winter. notice the apical projection in epididymis lumen (black arrows). pas 400. 281 nazih wayes zaid the cytoimmunochemistry study clearly indicated that the testosterone receptors present in all seasons of segments parts inside dog epididymis (pl. 9). plate(9): immunohistochemistry staining of formalin–fixed, paraffin-embedded for testosterone receptors. notice the distribution of brown colour (testosterone receptors) inside all the epididymis segments during spring (sp), summer (su), autumn (au) and winter (wi). 40× seasonal effect on epididymal histology and testosterone receptors distribution in dogs has not been reported before; the epididymis plays an important role in maturation and storage of male spermatozoa (zayed et al., 2012). the epididymis, exhibits variable structures and functions along its length (schimming et al., 1997). concerning the epithelial height, muscular coat, stereocilia height, total diameter and luminal diameters, observations currently were similar to previously mentioned by schimming et al. (1997) and schimming and vicentini (2001) in dogs epididymis. the epithelium represents the absorbable power of the epididymis segments (zayed et al., 2012). in this consideration, previous reported that 90% of fluid entering the epididymis will be absorbed again (whelly et al., 2012). the law height of the caput and corpus may be due to decrease secretary activity during summer season. the muscular coat helps in strength the movement of sperms inside epididymis and in ejaculation (junqueira and carneiro, 2009). the cilia support the movement of molecules in and out of the cells (junqueira and carneiro, 2009); these findings indicated that the summer exhibited a low absorptive function of the epididymis. in all seasons, except summer season, there were increases in total and luminal diameters in caput and slightly narrowing in corpus segment then rewinding in cauda. 282 seasonal changes on epididymal histology in our opinion, the decrease of cauda diameter during summer season may be related to decrease the capacity storage of spermatozoa due to low testicular production. the presences of sperms were demonstrated in all seasons except summer, this may due to the decrease of testicular activity in dogs during summer (zaid, 2015). cellular structures of epididymis epithelium display seasonal changes showing decrease activity in summer and increase activity in other seasons; the most affected cells are the principal cells, these cells contain oval nuclei with light stained that indicate increase metabolic activity, while the dark stained nuclei signs decrease activity in summer, this fact was in agreement with zayed et al. (2012) in his seasonal study in camel. moreover, the presence of apoptosis cells, which is dying cells represents decrease activity during summer; these cells firstly, reported in this study and varied with zayed et al. (2012) who regarded these cells as dark cells. the study hypothesized that any dead cell eliminated through the tube lumen. the increasing basal cells, which create principal cells as a stem forming cells during winter coincide with increasing total and luminal diameters. this is due to increasing building up requirement during next highly reproductive spring season. this is in agreement with (schimming et al., 1997. this is attendant with inwards folding which is a mark for increasing numbers of principal lining cells as a preparation steps for next spring season. the accumulation of dense lysosomal bodies inside principal cells exhibits active digestion of sperms and epithelial cells, this finding agreed with zayed et al. (2012). vacuoles may be representing the lyses of secretory product during routinely dehydrating, clarifying process; the apical projection and sperm attachment were firstly noticed presently (pl. 7 and 8). whereas, the intraepithelial gland which describe by zayed et al. (2012) in camel epididymis was not seen in this study. there are immunelocalization of testosterone receptors in all segment parts in all seasons of the years; there is marked immunostaining in epithelial, muscular coat, stereocilia of epididymis of the dogs, this indicated that the epididymis affected by testosterone all over the year. this result agreed with the findings of ibrahim and zaid (2015) and zaid (2015) who found that the testosterone show no seasonal changes in iraqi dogs, so that the immunoreactivity of testosterone receptors inside epidiymis is ready for reproduction in all seasons. conclusion: the dog epididymis showed seasonal reproductive variations in iraq with highest activity during the spring and adverse lowest activation during summer and the testosterone hormone control epididymis activity in all seasons. literature cited de-gier, j., buijtels, j.j., albers-wolthers, c.h., oei, c.h., kooistra, h.s. and okkens, a.c. 2012. effects of gonadotropin-releasing hormone administration on the pituitarygonadal axis in male and female dogs before and after gonadectomy. theriogenology, 77 (5): 967-978. bishop, m.l., fody, e.p. and schoeff, l.e. 2013. clinical chemistry: principles, techniques, and correlations. 7th ed. lippincott williams & wilkins, north american, 784pp. gavrilovic, b.b., andersson, k. and forsberg, c.l. 2008. reproductive patterns in the domestic dog-a retrospective study of the drever breed. theriogenology, 70: 783794. 283 nazih wayes zaid ibrahim, n.s. and zaid, n.w. 2015. effect of the season on male dog testosterone, ssh, lh level in iraq. indian journal of research, 4(8): 332-333. junqueira, l.c. and carneiro, j. 2009. basic histology: text and atlas. 11th ed. mcgraw-hill medical, new york. ncbi. 2015. national center for biotechnology information. (avaliable at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/). schimming, b.c. and vicentini, c.a. 2001. ultrastructural features in the epididymis of the dog (canis familiaris, l). anatomia, histologia and embryologi, 30 (6): 327-323. shimming, b.c., vicentini, c.a., orsi, a.m., franceschini-vicentini, i.b. and abreu-rays m.a. 1997. regional histology of the ductus epididymis in the dog (canis familiaris, l.). revista chilena de anatomia, 15(1): 512. spss. 2001. software for windows. ibm spss statistics version 22. strzezek, r., szemplinska, k., filipowicz, k. and kordan, w. 2015. semen characteristics and selected biochemical markers of canine seminal plasma in various seasons of the year. polish journal of veterinary science, 18 (1): 13-18. van den berghe, f., paris, d.p.p.b., van soom, a., rijesselaere, t., van der weyde, l., bertschinger, h. j. and paris, m.c.j. 2012. reproduction in the endangered african wild dog: basic physiology, reproductive suppression and possible benefits of artificial insemination. animal reproduction science, 133: 1-9. varesi, s., vernocchi, v., faustini, m. and luvoni, g.c. 2013. quality of canine spermatozoa retieved by percutaneous epididymal sperm aspiration. journal of small animal practice, 54: 87-91. whelly, s., johnson, s., powell, j., borchardt, c., hastert, m.c. and cornwall, g.a. 2012. nonpathological extracellular amyloid is present during normal epididymal sperm maturation. plos one, 7 (5): 1-8. zaid, n. w. 2015. effect of seasons on some testicular parameters in male iraqi dogs. ph.d. thesis in college of veterinary medicine, university of baghdad. zayed, a.e.z., aly, k., ibrahim, i.a.a. and abd el-maksoud, f.m. 2012. morphological studies on the seasonal changes in the epididymal duct of the one-humped camel (camelus dromedarius). veterinary science development, 2(3): 7-14. 284 seasonal changes on epididymal histology bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2017) 14 (4): 275-284 الموسمية في نسيج البربخ ومستقبالت الشحمون الخصوي في تأثير التغيرات الكالب العراقية نزيه ويس زيد فرع الجراحة والتوليد، كلية الطب البيطري، جامعة بغداد، العراق 23/30/1320 :تاريخ القبول 21/30/1320 :تاريخ االستالم الخالصة أجريت الدراسة الحالية باستخدام ثمانية وأربعون بربخ لكالب بالغة جنسياً لغرض تقييم التغيرات النسيجية ووجود مستقبالت الشحمون الخصوي داخل البربخ بواسطة المجهر سنوات خالل المدة 3تم استخدام أربعة وعشرون كلباً بعمر . الضوئي خالل المواسم المختلفة . 1/2/2212-1/2/2211الممتدة من فصل البربخ بعناية عن الخصية بعد أجراء عملية األخصاء الجراحي و ثبت البربخ ومن ثم أجري األنكاز والترويق وطمره في شمع البرافين، صبغت المقاطع النسيجية بصبغة الهيماتوكسلين واأليوسين وكاشف شف الدوري؛ وكذلك استخدمت تقنية التحري المناعي أظهرت النتائج أن الغطاء . ي الكيميائي عن مستقبالت هرمون الشحمون الخصويالنسيج أشارت . العضلي لم يظهر فرقاً معنوياً خالل المواسم المختلفة وما بين القطع المختلفة الدراسة الحالية إلى ارتفاع الظهارة، ارتفاع األهداب، القطر الكلي وقطر األنبوب إلى وجود وجدت كذلك تغيرات شكليائية في الخاليا الظهارية خالل . لقطع والمواسمفرقاً معنوياً بين ا لوحظ وجود فعالية . وتم مالحظة ظاهرة االنطواء خالل موسم الشتاء فقط. المواسم المختلفة .مناعية لمستقبالت الشحمون الخصوي خالل المواسم األربعة في كل قطع البربخ المدروسة ختالف تناسلي موسمي في بربخ الكلب وسجل أعلى ارتفاع استنتجت هذه الدراسة وجود ا .في الفعالية التناسلية للبربخ خالل موسم الربيع واألقل أثناء موسم الصيف 1 1 a. a. al-moussawi bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2008) 10 (3): 1-7 first record in iraq of two nematode parasites from the blue-cheeked bee-eater merops superciliosus persicus pallas, 1773 azhar a. al-moussawi iraq natural history research centre and museum, university of baghdad, bab al-muadham, baghdad, iraq e-mail: ahmeda_09@yahoo.com abstract thirty three specimens of the blue-cheeked bee-eater were collected at central and southern iraq from april 1997 to october 2000. two nematodes hadjelia truncata and syphaciella capensis, were recovered from the alimentary tract. reporting these two nematodes represents the first record for iraq as well as a new host record. introduction the blue-cheeked bee-eater merops superciliosus persicus pallas, 1773 is one of the most common summer visitors in central and southern iraq and for a lesser extent in the north. it is widely distributed in the middle east countries including palestine, syria, iran, egypt, kuwait and saudi arabia (allouse, 1961). it breeds in the suitable areas of central and southern parts of the country sometimes in huge colonies beyond freshwater vicinities which provide winged insect diet. the bird was designated as a threatened species by the international union for conservation of nature (bird life international, 2004). information data on biology, distribution, parasites, ecology and population dynamics of this bird in iraq are rather few, scanty and fragmentary, such as allouse (1961), jennings (1981), cramp (1985) and fry (1991). however, only two papers were published so far on it. mohammad & al-naeimi (2000) reported on the haematozoa and described a new species of the protozoan blood parasitic genus haemoproteus (sporozoa : apicomplexa), then mohammad et al. (2002) studied the breeding biology as well as some ecological aspects of this bird in central iraq. this paper deals with recording of two nematodes from the alimentary tract of this bird for the first time in iraq and they also constitute new host records as well. materials and methods during the period from april 1997 to october 2000 a total of 33 specimens including 15 males and 18 females of the blue-cheeked bee-eater were collected mainly from central and southern iraq with only few representatives from northern and western parts of the country. specimens were either dissected directly in the field or transferred to the laboratory as soon as possible and then dissected. the alimentary tracts were carefully separated and stored in 70% methanol. the recovered nematodes were immersed overnight in lactophenol at room temperature for clearing. measurements are in millimeters unless otherwise stated. drawings were made with the aid of camera lucida. mailto:ahmeda_09@yahoo.com 2 first record in iraq of two nematode parasites results and discussion only two host specimens (6.1%) were found infected with heitherto unrecorded nematodes for iraq, one female bird host was infected with three female specimens of the nematode hadjelia truncata (crepl., 1825) recovered underneath the tunic of gizzard with percentage infection rate of 3.1% and intensity of 3 parasites/host, while another one male bird host was found infected with one female specimen of the nematode syphaciella capensis monnig, 1924 which recovered from the caeca of the bird with infection rate of 3.1% and intensity of one parasite/host. the sample size as well as the number of infected hosts are very low and make it practically impossible to obtain any conclusion in regard to the correlation of host sex to the percentage infection rate and the intensity or to compare between the results of two parasite species. the parasitic nematode fauna of this bird is rather poorly known. gupta & kumar (1976) reported the nematode histocephalus tridens gendre, 1921, in lucknow, india. borgarenko (1990) reported seven nematodes: geopetitia sp.; stellobronema acuariana gushanskaja, 1937; stellobronema ryzhikovi borgarenko, 1961; tetrameres sp.; torquatella balanocephala (gendre, 1922), physocephalus ellobii schulz, 1927 and oxyspirura petrovi (skrjabin, 1929) in tadzhikistan. so, recovering these nematodes represent new host record for this bird as well. hadjelia truncata (crepl., 1825) (fig. 1 a & b) female: body cylindrical attenuated at extremities, 14.00 to 15.22. (14.62) long, 0.168 to 0.199. (0.183) wide, cuticle transversely striated, mouth with large well developed trilobed lips without teeth with two wings set on external surface of each. head separated from body by a slight constriction, 0.048 to 0.052 (0.050) in diameter, mouth leads to a cylindrical vestibule. oesophagus consists of two parts an anterior short, narrow and muscular 0.512 to 0.57 (0.54) long, 0.016 to 0.052 (0.042) wide; and posterior longer, wider and glandular 0.589 to 0.622 (0.605) long, 0.036 to 0.057 (0.0465) wide. nerve ring 0.003 to 0.024 (0.015) long, 0.020 to 0.048 (0.034) wide. tail short and rounded 0.113 to 0.150 (0.132) long, 0.020 to 0.060 (0.040) wide, eggs thick -shelled, slightly thickened at the poles. the parasite is well recognized as an avian parasite but is rarely reported as pathogenic although appleby et al. (1995) described in an occasional record severe disease in cyprus pigeons due to this parasite. it was reported from a wide range of vertebrate (avian) and invertebrate hosts scattered among different families and orders. it was reported from the starling sturnus vulgaris l, sturnidae, passeriformes (hair& forrester, 1970), from pigeons columba livia, columbidae, columbiformes (al-attar & abdul-aziz, 1985; appleby et al., 1995), from hoopoe upupa epops and upupa sp., upupidae, from indian roller coracias beneghalensis, from coracias sp., coraciidae, coraciiformes (singh, 1949; yorke and maplestone, 1962); and from a beetle phylan abbreviatus, tenebrionidae, coleoptera (yamaguti, 1961). reporting this species from the blue-cheeked bee-eater in this study is not surprising since it was frequently reported from coraciiform bird. syphaciella capensis monnig, 1924 (fig.2a , b&c) female: this worm is small 4.108 long, 0.223 wide with a transversely striated cuticle, the head 0.040 diameter bears three lips, vestibule 0.014 long, oesophagous 0.416 long, 0.046 wide, slightly enlarged posteriorly and separated from the globular bulb by a constriction, bulb 0.093 long 0.039 wide, it opens into the intestine. taxonomic position of this genus is not settled yet since monnig (1924) erected this genus in the family oxyuridae to accommodate the species s. capensis from eremialector bicinctus and pteroclurus namaqua from the transvaal. the genus then moved to the family 3 a. a. al-moussawi cosmocercidae, after that it was placed in the subfamily syphaciellinae erected for it alone (skrjabin and schikhobalova, 1951) in its turn the species of the genus syphaciella is rather confusing also, hugot (1989) stated that this genus includes six very closely related species and specific to the avian hosts genus pterocles, stating that its geographical range from south africa and madagascar to india. this is in contradiction with khalil (1963) who described s. sudanica from omdurman, central sudan far north of the given range. hugot et al. (1991) concluded that this genus parasitizing birds only. yamaguti (1961) and york & maplestone (1962) reported syphaciella capensis from avian genera pterocles and pteroclurus. however, the present record constitutes a new host record and a new record for the iraqi helminth fauna as well. its finding in this host is coincide with the route of its migration to iraq. it comes to our country from south africa and eastern coasts of africa after spending winter therewith the beginning of march (fry, 1991; mohammad et al., 2002). acknowledgments i am indebted to prof. m. k. mohammad, director, iraq natural history research centre and museum university of baghdad for collecting the birds and supporting the diagnosis of nematodes. literature cited al-attar, m. a., abdul-aziz t. a. 1985 hadjelia truncata in pigeons. vet. rec., 117 (20) :535. akhtar s.a.1940. on some nematode parasites from afghanistan proc. indian acad. sci., sec., b., vol.5 (5):287-291. allouse, b. e. 1961. birds of iraq. vol. 2, ar-rabitta press, baghdad, 280pp. (in arabic). appleby e. c., gibbons l.m., and georgiou k. 1995. distortion of the gizzard in cyprus pigeons (columba livia) associated with hadjelia truncata infestation. the veterinary record, vol.136 issue 22: 561-564. birdlife international 2004 merops superciliosus in iucn red list of threatened species www.iucnredlist.org. borgarenko, l. f., 1990 [helminths of birds of tadzhikistan. book 3. nematodes.] pp. 260 pp. izdatel'stvo donish, dushanbe. cramp, s. 1985. birds of europ the middle east and north africa, the birds of the western palearctic .vol.4, oxford univ. pre. oxford new york. fry, c. h.1991. the bee-eaters.t. & a. d. poyser, ltd., london: 304pp. gupta, s. p. and kumar, p. 1976. studies on some nematode parasites of birds from uttar pradish. ind. j. helminth., 28(2): 86-109. hair, j. d. and forrester d. j. 1970. the helminth parasites of the starling (sturnus vulgaris l): a checklist and analysis. the american midland naturalist, vol. 83(2): 555564. http://www.iucnredlist.org 4 first record in iraq of two nematode parasites hugot, j. p. 1989. etude morphologique de syphaciella madagascariensis vassiliadès (nematoda, heteroxynematidae) parasite depterocles personatus (aves, pteroclididae), j. system. parasit., 14(1).:43-52. hugot, j. p., sutton, c. a., and morand, s. 1991. morphological study of eudromoxyura aspiculuris (nematoda, heteroxynematidae) from the tinamou eudromia elegans (aves, tinamidae), j. system. parasit., 19 (1):61-72. jennings, m. c. 1981. birds of the arabian gulf, bidd. ltd, guildford, surrey, great. britain: 167pp. khalil, l. k. 1963. on some nematodes from the sudan with the description of a new species. j. helminth. , 37: 221-234. mohammad, m. k. & al-naeimi t. m. 2000. blood parasites of two bee-eaters in iraq. bull. iraq nat. his. mus., 9 (2): 73-79. mohammad, m. k., al-naeimi t. m. and al-ali, a. m. 2002. breeding biology of the bluecheeked bee-eater merops superciliosus persicus pallas 1773. al-fath bull. (diayala univ.), 15: 308-327. monnig, h. o. 1924. on some new south africa parasitic nematodes. trans. r. soc. s. a fr., 11, 105. singh, s. n. 1949. studies on the helminth parasites of birds in hyderabad state. nematoda 3. j. helminth. , 23(1/2): 25-38. skrjabin, k. i.; schikhobalova n.p., 1951 cited in [khalil, l. k. 1963]. 4 yamaguti, s. 1961 systema helminthum vol.3 the nematodes of rtebrates. intersci. pub. inc., new york: 779 pp. york, w. and maplestone, p. a. 1962. the nematode parasites of vertebrates. haf. pub. com., new york: 536 pp. 5 a. a. al-moussawi 6 first record in iraq of two nematode parasites 7 a. a. al-moussawi bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2008)10 (2): 1-7 ي راق ر لو وار ا ع ن طائ ق و مر في العرا مدورة أل ديد ن ل ن ل ل ن عين م جي س ت blue-cheeked bee-eater merops superciliosus persicus pallas, 1773 ي وسو أزهار أ مد ا م حو ط ي يمرك ب ري ال ح التأ و مت ث داد ة بغ د جامع غدا ق ب العرا ي ون ال كتر fp_sci@yahoo.com: البريد ا لخالصةا ي ٣٣مت ع طائر ال روار ال راق ن م م وس و blue-cheeked bee-eaterعينة رتة ق لف عرا ب ل ر ( جنو ذا ل ١٩٩٧آ ألو شري ا ذا ا طا ر ) ٢٠٠٠ت هل قنا اهلضمي من ا و ني ل املدور جي س ذا syphaciella capensisو truncata hadjelia مت ت ويع رب ه ه ذ ه س ل يف م عرا ك يف ل ني ن ل فيلي هلذي ف الت ج ل ه األ ضي كم ط ر الدرا ة ال د هل .ماج ي mailto:fp_sci@yahoo.com bull 73 muhammad. i. g. al-janabi bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2014) 13 (1): 73-79 a description study of two local fish himri carasobarbus luteus (heckel, 1843)(cypriniformes: cyprinidae) and hishni liza abu (heckel, 1843) (mugiloidei : mugilidae) by bones staining method muhammad. i. g. al-janabi iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad, bab al-muadham, baghdad, iraq abstract two local fish himri carasobarbus luteus (heckel, 1843) and hishni liza abu (heckel, 1843) were stained with alizarin red and featured some anatomical qualities which cleared the difference of the muscular and skeletal fabric for each fish. since clear histologic differences appeared in these two species, it was intended from this study the possibility of adopting a diagnosis between local fish species by staining bones and tissues. key words : carasobarbus luteus; liza abu; cyprinidae; mugilidae; baghdad; iraq. introduction the method of staining bones is one of the means adopted in the study of tissue and bone, and organs too, through which taxonomic studies can be conducted among species of fish as stated by (potthoff,1984).as well as differences between taxonomic species of fish known and conventional. whole fish or some parts of the body such as staining bones and connective tissue could be stain in two colors and clear as pointed out in (dingerkus and uhler, 1977). this protocol was originally modified from klymkowski and hanken (1991) for amphibians. although both cartilage and bone in the same specimen could be stain. it is better to stain bone and cartilage in different specimens of the same developmental stage, (jonathan knight, 2009). green (1952) stated that alizarin staining method for the preparation of whole skeletons has proved very useful for the study of bones of embryos and small animals. it has certain advantages over methods in which the carcass is macerated and the bones are separated and dried. among these advantages are: (a) there is no chance of losing the small bones, (b) all bones are retained in their original position, (c) there is no chance of wrongly identifying similar bones, (d) in the finished preparations the bones, after identification, may be disarticulated and examined from all angles, equally as well as in dried preparations, and (e) many animals may be processed together without danger of mixing their bones, a great saving in time and effort. the main purpose of conducting this study is to identify the possibility of textile and structural differences between two local iraqi fishes using staining with alizarin red. materials and methods ten local himri carasobarbus luteus (heckel, 1843) fish brought from the local market at baghdad city at period of collection, total length of these fish was (12 cm ± 1.5 cm), and 74 a description study of two local fish himri average weight (65 g ± 5 g). also brought ten local hishni liza abu (heckel, 1843), the averaged of total length was (14.5 cm ±1 cm) and average of weight (70 g ± 2 g). the fishes were put in ice water with small ice cubes, preparing a solution of formalin concentration (10%), to ease the formalin concentration (37%) to the concentration (10%) with adding 3 portion of distilled water to 1 part solution of formalin to get the concentration of formalin (10%), the fish flooded with a solution of formalin diluted group for more than 48 hours with continuous monitoring, then they washed with water for a full hour to get rid of the remnants of the diluted solution of formalin. then potassium hydroxide solution was prepared by dissolving koh (60 g) koh crystalls in 1 liter of distilled water, with the preparation of dye alizarin dissolving (0.1 g) in (100 ml) of distilled water. the fish was flooded with a solution of koh and then added alizarin dye the fish gradually until the arrival of the amount of dye to 50 ml, which is added to a solution of koh submerging the fish. after that the fish left in staining solution for two days, the scales were removed full of body and quietly and back again to the same koh solution to stay for other 5-6 days. a solution of pure glycerine of more than (70%), was prepared to be placed where the fish is. immediately after the end of six days in a solution of koh staining with red alizarin, leaving the fish in glycerine for 3-4 days. then bottles were brought to save fish to create an imaging process after shedding and create the appropriate lighting. results and discussion the two studied fishes were identified according to (khalaf, 1961; mahdi, 1962 and forese and pauly, 2004). the results showed differences in the distribution of the staining on the bones of both fishes. figure (1) shows the distribution of the staining on the skeleton of c. luteus. figure (2), shows the distribution of the stain on the skeleton of l.abu. figures (1) and (2) shows differences textile and distribution of the stain on the skeleton of each species. l.abu shoed with pink to red, in addition to the brightness of the color dark purple on the bones of it, while a variation was observed in the distribution of color of bone between the different species, as seen in (1), just like what it was in (potthoff,1984). the author can distinguish the species of fish from the stain of bone only, as seen from figure (3). severity of staining in the bone area near the tail in c.luteus which shows the different bone tissue of these fish from l.abu as in figure (4). it was also noticed that the difference in coloration of the bones of the head of each studied fish as it was more pronounced in the first of the second, as in figure (5). this shows that the discrepancy in the distribution of the stain between the species probably may be due to the differences of bone tissue between fish species, as show in (potthoff,1984). while (klymkowsky and hanken, 1991) pointed to the raise of the level of clarity when staining, for we can keep the fish in a solution of koh concentration (1 %), after being placed in formalin and the duration depends on the size of the model, then the possibility of removing the scales and even the skin gently, to raise the level of staining bones and increase the clarity which was enhanced as stated by (potthoff,1984) knowing that the second pointed to the possibility stain even fish larvae without resorting to remove scales or remove the skin due to their small size. as for the rest of the small vertebrates such as fish, it was placed in a solution (20 ml acetic acid plus a 80 ml alcohol and 15 mg alcian blue) then used immediately after immersion to dilute formalin (10%). 75 muhammad. i. g. al-janabi lewis and witten (2004) referred to the possibility of stain connective tissue and cartilage without muscle tissue after the change in the concentration of formalin and potassium hydroxide and adoption glycerine purity of up to (100%), and the different periods of immersion fish with the removal of muscle tissue gently to one aspect of the fish intended for study, and came this way also identical with source (klymkowsky and hanken, 1991) as in figure (6), which shows the degree of clarity and form in this way. (lewis and witten, 2004) with the length of the fish immersion in staining solution, if the length of the fish is between (1cm 8cm) dive for a one-day staining solution, but if the length of the fish is between (8cm 20cm), two days, but if the length of the fish above (20cm) the period should be 4 days of immersion and above depending on the size and the length of the form, in this study the fish dive in staining solution for two days and after removing the scales for 5 more days. each of the sources (klymkowsky and hanken, 1991) and (jonathan, 2009), point out to the different ways of staining for the previous method, and at the same time for a way to hold staining in this study. gavaia and cancela (2000) noted that the accuracy and clarity of the models are due to differences in the concentrations of the chemicals used, and when additives are used, then tend to promote the work and raise the level of clarity of form for a taxonomic studies on the fish species studied. literature cited dingerkus, g., uhler, l. d. 1977. enzyme clearing of alcian blue stained whole small vertebrates dor demonstration of cartilage. stain technology 52(4): 229-232. forese,r. and pauly,d. 2004. fishebase.world wid web electronic publication.www.fishbase.org,version (02/2014). gavaia, p. j., sarasquete, c., cancela, m. l.2000. "detection of mineralized struc tures in early stages of development of marine teleostei using a modified alcian bluealizarin red double staining technique for bone and cartilage. biotechnic and histochemistry 75(2): 79-84. green, margaret c.1952. a rapid method for clearing and staining specimens for the demonstration of bone. the ohio journal of science. v52 n1 (january, 1952), 31-33. jonathan k. 2009. a simple whole-mount staining protocol for bone and or cartilage in adults and larvae. from zebrafish book 5th edition, university, canada) and after discussions with p.e. witten (the institute of aquaculture research in sunndalsøra, norway). khalaf, k. t. 1961. the marine and freshwater fishes of iraq. ar-rabitta press, baghdad. 164 pp. klymkowsky mw, hanken j. 1991. whole-mount staining of xenopus and other vertebrates. methods in cell biology 36:419-441. lewis, l. m., lall, s. p. witten, e. p. 2004. morphological descriptions of the early stages of spine and vertebral development in hatchery-reared larval and juvenile atlantic halibut (hippoglossus hippoglossus). aquaculture 241(1-4): 47-59. http://zebrafish.org/zirc/orders/buybookq.php?item=book&id=book&detail=the%20zebrafish%20book 76 a description study of two local fish himri mahdi, n. 1962. fishes of iraq. ministry of education, baghdad. 82 pp. potthoff, t. 1984. clearing and staining techniques. in: ontogeny and systematics of fishes (based on an international symposium dedicated to the memory of elbert halvor ahlstrom). moser,h.g., richards,w.j., cohen,d.m., fahay,m.p., kendall,a.w., jr., and richardson s.l., eds. lawrence, ks, special publication 1, american society of ichthyologists and herpetologists, allen press, pgs. 35-37. fig.1: carasobarbus luteus (heckel, 1843). fig.2: liza abu (heckel, 1843). 77 muhammad. i. g. al-janabi fig.3: the distribution of the stain and coloration in the tail of c. luteus (heckel, 1843). fig.4: the distribution of the stain and coloration in the tail of l. abu (heckel, 1843). 78 a description study of two local fish himri fig.5: the distribution of the stain and the clarity of head bones of a. l. abu and b. c. luteus fig.6: the degree of staining clarity association of tissues and bones, (klymkowsky and hanken, 1991). 79 muhammad. i. g. al-janabi bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2014) 13 (1): 73-79 ,carasobarbus luteus (heckel دراسة وصفية لنوعي االسماك الحمري : liza abu (heckel, 1843) (mugiloideiو الخشني (1843 mugilidae) المحلية بطريقة تصبيغ العظام محمد عناد غزوان الجنابي جامعة بغداد-مركز بحوث ومتحف التاريخ الطبيعي muhammadinad@yahoo.com الخالصة ,carasobarbus luteus (heckelتم تصبيغ كل من االسماك المحلية الحمري االليزارين و ظهرت بعض بصبغة liza abu (heckel, 1843)والخشني (1843 الصفات التشريحية التي يمكن من خاللها دراسة التنوع و االختالف بالنسيج العضلي و الهيكل العظمي لكل من هذين النوعين المحليين ، كان الهدف من هذه الدراسة امكانية اعتماد .التشخيص بين االنواع السمكية المحلية بطريقة تصبيغ العظام و االنسجة bull 51 farhad h. aziz and srwa b. qadir bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2016) 14 (1): 51-68 common and new records of lichens from iraqi kurdistan region, iraq farhad hasan aziz* and srwa burhan qadir environment department, college of science, university of salahaddin erbil, iraqi kurdistan region, iraq *email: farhad.aziz1948@gmail.com abstract based on collections made during march to september 2012. a totals of 58 species belong to 33 genera were identified from extra north to extra south of erbil governorate, among them 30 species are registered as a new record to flora of iraq. most attention was paid to the most common and abundant lichens that present almost in most locations, which were collema cristatum, diploschistes scruposus, lecanora dispersa, lecanora murales, pertusaria flavicunda, placidium lacinulatum, thelomma californicum and verrucaria maura. keywords: common, erbil, iraq, kurdistan, lichens, new records. introduction lichens are photosynthetic, non vascular, dual microorganisms. they are composed of fungal (mycobiont) and algal (phycobiont) species growing in symbiotic relationships (brodo et al., 2001). the body of lichen is called thallus; the mycobiont and photobiont are either stratified in distinct layers or intermixed (goward et al., 1994). the thallus may assume a variety of forms depending on the fungal and algal partners involved (hawksworth and rose, 1979). the photobiont is completely surrounded by mycobiont in the lichen thallus, while the mycobiont normally form the greater part of lichen thalli, the phycobiont accounting for no more than 20% (hale, 1974; purvis, 2000). the mycobionts of lichens are mainly ascomycetes but a few basidiomycetes, while the sphycobiont generally belongs to cyanophyceae or sometimes to chlorophyceae (hawksworth and rose, 1979; nash, 2008). the most frequent are the green algae trebouxia sp. and trentepholia sp., and the blue green algae are mostly nostoc sp. (lahham and el oqlah, 1986). the algae provide the fungus with carbohydrate nutrients while it gain mechanical protection from fungal filaments, thus each member depends on other for its survive in nature (aziz, 2005). on the basis of their morphology, the lichens are classified into five forms crustose (forming a crust over the surface they grow on), squamulose (with many scale-like lobes), leprose (powdery in appearance), foliose (leaf-like) and fruticose (bushy or upright with many stems, pendent or mat-forming (hale, 1974; dobson 2005). reproduction and dispersal mechanisms of lichens are carried out by means of vegetative fragmentation, so fragments can be broken off easily and transported by wind or by animals (aziz, 2005). several lichens produce stalk-like structure termed isidia (brodo et al., 2001). a further means of reproduction is by production of special units termed soridia which is a powdery mass located near the center surface of the thallus consists of algal cells and fungal hyphae (bendre and kumar, 2010). in sexual reproduction most lichens produce apothecia or perithecia ascospores containing asci in a number of ascomycota. economically, lichens are useful for animals and birds as food, especially in winter and for nesting materials (aziz, 2005). 52 common and new records of lichens lichens are extremely slow-growing organisms, many increasing in size no more than 1mm to 1cm per year and can live for very long times (dobson, 2005). they are also extremely widespread in nature, ranging from arctic to antractic and from rocky shores of the sea to near the summits of the highest mountains (lahham and el oqlah, 1986; pandey and upreti, 2000). they grow on a variety of habitats, and are common on rocks, bark of trees, etc; many of them grow under extreme conditions of cold, humidity and drought (nash, 2008). these organisms are perennial and maintain a uniform morphology over time. all these features make lichens interesting and significant in environmental and economical terms (zsigmond and urak, 2011). many natural factors have shown to affect the growth characteristics of lichens and influence their survival, include rainfall, moisture status, light and topography (batts et al., 2004). the economic importance of lichens includes formation of soil as most crustose lichens growing on rocks dissolve and disintegrate them into soil particles. lichens have been used as food by man, and they are common food for insects and slugs. they are also used in making dyes, perfumes, brewing, distillation, cosmetics, tanning, etc. (nash, 2008). lichens also have a long and continuing history of use in medicines for many purposes like headaches and toothaches, tuberculosis, diabetes, and asthma, as well as the lichen extracts has been used as antibiotics to treat tuberculosis and some skin diseases (batts et al., 2004). finally, there is a long history of using lichens as indicators of air pollution assessment and biomonitoring (berryman et al., 2009). materials and methods description of the studied area: erbil governorate is located in the north of iraq. geographically erbil is elevated by about 411m above sea level. erbil governorate covers an area of 164840 km2 in the north of iraq. erbil governorate longitude is 42o15´e to 46o30´e and latitude 34o 25´n to 37o50´n. average temperatures in erbil range from above 48oc to below freezing. precipitation occurs in the spring and winter, while heavy snowfall occurs in the mountains and at higher altitudes during the winter (wfp, 2002). ten locations were selected from the north to south of erbil governorate barzewa village, kawlokan area, zargali area, sisawa village, aquban village, baraka village, sulawk village, safin-kawanian mountain, dibaga village and qarajugh mountain. geologically, erbil situated within recent sediment which belongs to palaeocian age that represents old river sedimentation, which came from backtiaric formation (wfp, 2002). the stone of these sediments differ and compose of lenticels and stereographs with stone, sand, silt and alluvial, the thicknesses of the sediments vary largely within erbil governorate (muhammad, 2003). the soil of kurdistan region of iraq is calcareous because it is originated from limestone and dolomite of different formation, generally gravelly, sandy with clay and of a brownish color. chemically, soil ph is alkaline, rich in organic matter more than 2% and rich in caco3 and mg co3. the climate of erbil governorate (tables 1 and 2) is most closely approaches the irano -turanian type, and it similar to that of the other parts of kurdistan region and the other northern parts of iraq, which is semi-arid and characterized by hot dry summer and moderately rainy cold winters. the higher altitude parts of the area have colder winters and receive more precipitation than the area of lower elevations (wfp, 2002). usually, precipitation occurs during the months from september until april, rainfall and humidity play a great role on the climate, all together with temperature. the climate is characterized by the assurance of four seasons, cold winter and mild growth period of spring, hot dry summer and autumn pointed out that period from june to the end of january is rainless, whereas the wettest months are between december and april (guest,1966; aziz, and al http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/dye http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/perfume http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/traditional_medicine 53 farhad h. aziz and srwa b. qadir dabbagh, 2009). as shown in table (1) monthly mean air temperature values was 28.4oc for the study locations within erbil governorate during study period from march, apr and mayjul, aug and sep, 2012. table (1): monthly mean air temperature values for study locations within erbil governorate during period from march, apr and may – jul, aug and sep, 2012. month location wet condition dry condition mar apr may jul aug sep choman district 6.2 14.6 20.8 31 28 25.9 soran district 7.4 17.4 22.7 31.3 31.1 27.4 rwandiz district 6.9 16 22 30.3 31.1 27 harir district 6.5 16.3 24.5 31.2 33.8 29.9 shaqlawa district 6.5 15.7 19.6 28.1 28 23.3 salahaddin sub district 11.2 21.95 27.1 35.9 35.15 30.8 makhmour district 12.3 25.05 28.3 37.05 36.7 32 mean 8.14 18.14 23.57 32.12 31.98 28.04 source: meteorological center of erbil, lsd (p<0.01) =7.44 table (2): monthly relative humidity (%) and rainfall value of the studied locations within erbil governorate during periods from march, apr and may to jul, aug and sep, 2012. month location humidity % rainfall m ar a p r m ay ju l a u g s ep m ar a p r m ay ju l a u g s ep choman district 74.2 64.8 59.6 53.3 31.7 51.3 126.4 52.6 17.3 0 0 0 soran district 71.7 64.4 62 52.2 53.3 55.6 108.3 51.2 17.1 0 0 0 rwandiz district 73.1 66.2 63 53 52 51.3 123 52.3 17.7 0 0 0 harir sub district 61.1 53 32.5 19 18.9 18.5 165 32.3 6.7 0 0 0 shaqlawa district 64.7 54 43.5 21 18.9 18.5 167 34.5 12 0 0 0 salahaddin sub district 62 50 42 22 29 29 72.1 14.5 26.8 t.r 0 0.2 makhmour district 53 40 30 25 25 28 26.5 8 3.3 0 0 t.r mean 65.7 56.1 47.5 35.1 32.7 36.0 112.6 35.1 14.4 0 0 0.03 54 common and new records of lichens figure (1): map of study area including iraq, erbil and study locations. 55 farhad h. aziz and srwa b. qadir lichens collection: for the purpose of identification, different epilithic lichen species (lichens growing on rocks and on soil surface) were collected from periods of march, april and may, 2012 (wet season) and july, august and september, 2012 (dry season) in the 10 selected locations within erbil governorate. only the most abundant lichen species were collected. lichen samples were sampled from roadside located in about 1km from main roads of the below mentioned locations. samples were scraped off with a knife and hummer with a chisel to chip off the some crustose species, put in news papers. lichens identification and classification: identification of lichen species have been done as proposed by lichenologists (hall,1979; goward et al., 1994; purvis et al., 1992; purvis; 2000; brodo et al., 2001; aziz, 2004; aziz, 2005 and dobson, 2005). based on studying morphological characteristics, specific lichen keys, chemical analyses (spot tests), type of phycobiont partnership. lichen classification was made according to coppins (2002). results in this study the most common and abundant lichen species in ten locations of the study area have been collected within erbil governorate. the total of 58 species has been identified in 33 genera in which 30 species were new records to iraqi and kurdistan flora (list 1). the variation of species richness between studied locations was observed which was between 10 to 22 species. the highest number of species was found in safin-kawanian mountain, the species richness at this mountain may be due to significant weather variation as high relative humidity, rainfall, and low to moderate temperature degrees all over the year. followed by kawlokan (20 species), whereas the lowest number of species were recorded in qarajugh may be due to low humidity and high temperature degrees at this mountain, followed by dibaga and sulawk location. the most common lichen species that selected for this study were abundant in most studied locations (fig. 1). list (1): lichens flora recorded in study locations. 1. acarospora impressula th. fr. * 2. acarospora strigata (nyl.) jutta 3. aspicilia caesiocinerea (nyl.ex malbr.) arnold* 4. aspicilia calcarea (l.) mudd. 5. aspicilia candida (anzi) hue. 6. aspicilia leprosences (sandst.)* 7. buellia spuria (schaer.) anzi 8. caloplaca auranta (pers.) hellbom 9. caloplaca citrina (hoffm.) th. fr.* 10. caloplaca feracissima h.magn. 11. caloplaca ochracea (schaer.) flagey* 12. caloplaca thallincola (wedd.) du rietz* 13. caloplaca verruculifera (vainio) zahlbr. 14. coccocarpia erthroxyli (sprengel)* 15. collema cristatum (l.) f.h.wigg 16. collema flaccidum (ach.)ach.* 17. dermatocarpon miniatum (l.) w. man n. 18. diploschistes caesioplumbeus (nyl.) vain.* 19. diploschistes scruposus (schreb.) norman 56 common and new records of lichens 20. dirina catalinarie (hasse)* 21. fulgensia fulgens (sm.) elenkin 22. lecanora dispersa (l.) sommerf.* 23. lecanora garovaglii (korber) zahlbr. 24. lecanora murales (schreb.) rabenh. 25. lecidea atrobrunnea (lam. & dc.) schaer. 26. lecidea fuscoatra (l.) ach* 27. lecidella stigmatea (ach.) hertel & leuckert 28. leproloma vouauxii (hue)j.r. laundon* 29. neofuscelia pulla (ach.) essl.* 30. pannaria rubiginosa (ach.) bory 31. parmelina quercina (willd.) hale* 32. pertusaria aspergilla (ach.) j.r. laundon* 33. pertusaria flavicunda tuck. 34. pertusaria lactea (l.) 35. physcia aipolia (ehrh. ex hump.) furnr. 36. physcia biziana (a.massal) zahlbr. 37. physcia caesia (hoffm.) furnr. 38. placidium lacinulatum (ach.) breuss* 39. psora decipiens (hedwig) hoffm. 40. psora lurida (ach.) dc.* 41. rhizocarpon chioneum (norman) th. fr. 42. rhizocarpon disporum (naegeli ex hepp.) mull. 43. rhizocarpon hochstetteri (korb.) vain.* 44. rhizocarpon reductum th. fr* 45. rhizocarpon richardii (nyl.) zahlbr* 46. rinodina atrocinerea (hook.) korb.* 47. rinodina bolanderi h. magn. 48. squamarina crassa (hudson) poelt 49. tephromela grumosa (pers.) hafellner & cl. roux* 50. thelomma californicum (tuck.) 51. trapelia placodioides coppins & p. james* 52. umbilicaria americana (poelt & t. nash)* 53. verrucaria amphibia clemente * 54. verrucaria baldensis a. massal.* 55. verrucaria maura wahlenb 56. xanthoparmelia plittii (gyeln.) hale* 57. xanthoria elegans (link) th. fr.* 58. xanthoria parietina (l.) th. fr.* *: new records description of new records: acarospora impressula th. fr. (pl.1, fig.1): thallus dark red-brown to almost black, thin, with even, small, angular areoles (less than 2mm wide) forming colonies up to 3 cm across, looking like crazy paving (plate 1). apothecia 0.2-0.4 mm, almost black, innate, spores 3-4 x 2-2.25 µm (dobson, 2005, p.52). 57 farhad h. aziz and srwa b. qadir aspicilia caesiocinerea (nylex malbr) arnold. (pl.1, fig.2): thallus bluish to brown-grey, thick and cracked or with areoles having flat to slightly concave tops, sharp edges and a slightly rough surface, usually surrounded by a dark grey prothallus. apothecia up to 1.5 mm diam., immersed, somewhat sessile (dobson, 2005, p.72). aspicilia leprosescens (sandst) hav. (pl.1, fig.3): thallus areolae, pale to mid grey, consisting of an indistinct crust or of loosely attached areoles, often limited by a greenish grey prothallus. apothecia were uncommon, up to 1mm diameter, innate becoming somewhat raised. spores are 8 per ascus, 14-30 x 7-16µm (dobson, 2005, p.75). caloplaca citrina (hoffm) th fr. (pl.1, fig.4): thallus dark yellow to yellow-orange, consisting of irregularly shaped areoles that become granular sorediate starting at the edges, often reducing the entire thallus to a leprose crust. apothecia rare, with sorediate margins (brodo et al., 2001, p. 198). caloplaca ochracea (schaer) flagey. (pl.1, fig.5): thallus is matt, patchy light yellow to pale golden yellow with grayish areas, superficial, almost granular, flattened, thin, mosaic-forming. margin is thick and slightly paler. spores 12-15 x 5-7µm (dobson, 2005, p.106). caloplaca thallincola (wedd) du rietz. (pl.1, fig.6): thallus placodioid, usually forming neat rosettes, bright orange, lobes long, very convex, may be slightly flattened near the tips. apothecia up to 1mm diam, in center of the thallus, convex, orange with paler margins. spores often lemon-shaped, type 3, 10-15 x 8-12µm (dobson, 2005, p.107). coccocarpia erthroxyli sprengel. (pl.2, fig.1): thallus is blue-gray, with rounded shell-like lobes, mostly 2-7mm wide, upper surface often having concentric ridges, otherwise smooth and even shiny, without isidia. lower surface is pale to dark brown. brown convex apothecia, 1-4 mm in diameter (brodo et al., 2001, p. 280). collema flaccidum (ach.) ach. (pl.2, fig.2): thallus is dark green-brown to black and leaf-like, not greatly swelling when wet. lobes up to 3 mm long, ragged, incised, crumpled, raised towards the margins. isidia become flattened and lobate as they mature. rarely fertile, apothecia to 2.5mm diam, with smooth margins. spores 24-36 x 6-7µm, 3-5 septate (goward et al., 1994, p. 48) diploschistes caesioplumbeus (nyl) vain. (pl.2, fig.3): thallus mid to dark leaden-grey, craked areolae, smooth, slightly shiny, often with a grey prothallus. apothecia immersed, looking like the ostioles of perithecia, several often found in each areole. mature apothecia mainly pruinose and under 0.3mm diam. spores becoming dark, muriform, 30-50 x 10-25µm (dobson, 2005, p.166). dirina catalinarie (hasse) (pl.2, fig.4): thallus variable, milky white to brownish gray, smooth to cracked areolae to verrucose, rarely becoming partially fruticose at the margins of some areoles, usually producing round, and hemispherical soralia with coarse, granualer soredia (brodo et al., 2001, p. 305). 58 common and new records of lichens lecanora dispersa (l) sommerf (pl.2, fig.5): thallus usually growing between the rock crystals and absent from view. apothecia 0.41.2mm in diameter, round or somewhat angular, crowded or dispersed, pale to dark yellowbrown or pinkish brown, without pruina when mature, usually with prominent white margins; spores ellipsoid, 8.5-14 x 3.5-7µm (brodo et al., 2001, p. 380). lecidea fuscoatra (l) ach. (pl.2, fig.6): thallus is craked into areoles to 3mm wide, uniform, limited by a black prothallus, reddish brown to grey. apothecia normally present, up to 2mm diam, innate, with a black, often white-pruinose disc, sometimes convex with a persistent proper margins (dobson, 2005, p.235). leproloma voluoxii. (pl.3, fig.1): thallus yellow-white to pale grey-green, thick, puckered, consisting of powdery granules up to 0.5mm across, often eroded and then showing the white medulla. margins is not or is only weakly lobed, and it has a poorly developed hypothallus (dobson, 2005, p.245). neofuscelia pulla (ach) essl. (pl.3, fig.2): thallus large, up to 15cm diam, grey-brown to dark brown, rinkled, lobes adpressed and not widening at the apices, under surface black with sparse, simple rhizines that sometimes become branched, light brown and bare towards the margins. apothecia dark brown (dobson, 2005, p.278). parmelina quercina (willd) hale. (pl.3, fig.3): thallus grey, smooth and more or less shiny, adpressed. lobes rounded with crenulate tips. under-surface black with simple rhizines which grow almost to the tips of the lobes. usually fertile. apothecia with red-brown discs and thick margins. the under-surface of the apothecia frequently has black rhizines (dobson, 2005, p.306). pertusaria aspergilla (ach) jr laundon. (pl.3, fig.4): thallus is thin, grey, cracked, sometimes with a pale grey to white prothallus. white punctiform soralia 0.5-1 mm diam were evenly scattered over the surface. it is very rarely with small isidia. not known fertile (goward et al., 1994, p. 106) placidium lacinulatum (ach) breuss. (pl.3, fig.5): thallus consisting of thick red-brown squamules, green when wet, whithout any pruina, dispersed or contiguous but rarely overlapping, with black dots, scattered over the surface; squamules approximately 2-3 mm across, some lifting at the edges; lower surface pale of light brown (brodo et al., 2001, p. 570). psora lurida (ach) dc. (pl.3, fig.6): thallus green to coffee or dark chestnut-brown, under-surface often dark and attached to the substratum by a pale hyphal net. squamules imbricate, to 5mm wide, convex and contorted, often forming a thick crust. apothecia up to about 1mm, crowded, black or dark brown margins (goward et al., 1994, p. 173) rhizocarpon hochstetteri (korb) vain. (pl.4, fig.1): thallus pale to dark brown, very thin, usually smooth and continous, apothecia 0.9-1.5mm in diameter, broadly attached and flat to convex, black to dark brown with thin, usually persistent margins the same color as the disk, spores colorless (brodo et al., 2001, p. 636). 59 farhad h. aziz and srwa b. qadir rhizocarpon reductum th fr. (pl.4, fig.2): thallus grey to mouse-brown, cracked-areolae, often with a thin black prothallus. apothecia innate becoming sessile, black, almost flat, about 1 mm diam, with a persistent, thick, proper margin. this was often paler on the inner side (brodo et al., 2001, p. 389). rhizocarpon richardii (nyl) zahlbr. (pl.4, fig.3): thallus cholate-brown to brownish grey with a purplish tinge, areolate-cracked, often with a fimbriate brown-black prothallus. apothecia about 1mm diam. innate, flat, black, with a thin proper margin. epithecium dark green to grey. rinodina atrocinerea (hook) korb. (pl.4, fig.4): thallus light grey, sometimes yellowish, with a conspicuous black prothallus continuting between the areoles, very angular-areolate. apothecia up to 1 mm across, becoming sessile. thalline margin even, thin. disc dark brown to black. spores thick-walled, 1-septate, locules not angular, 16-12 x 9-14µm (hale, 1974, p. 102). tephromela grumosa (pers) hafellner & cl roux. (pl.4, fig.5): thallus light to medium grey, smooth or warted, often with a thin dark prothallus. usually fertile, mainly with apothecia in the more central part of the thallus. apothecia large, up to 3mm diam, immersed becoming sessile, disc black with a thick margin. when mature the disc is flat with a grey contorted and crenulate margin (hale, 1974, p.142). trapelia placodioides coppins & p james. (pl.4, fig.6): thallus creamy white to pinkish white, often continuous, forming patches, cracked in the centre and almost placodioid at the margins. yellow-green to cream soralia erupt from the edges of the areoles, these may coalesce to form lines of soredia. apothecia were very rare (hale, 1974, p.144). umbilicaria americana (poelt & t nash) . (pl.5, fig.1): thallus pale gray or brownish gray, usually with a coarse white pruina over the surface, thick and rather stiff, 2-7cm in diameter; lower surface covered with a velvet-like nap of closely packed, unbranched or forked, black rhizines, each one coated with a layer of black granules. apothesia uncommon, convex, with disks having concentric ridges (brodo et al., 2001, p. 699). verrucaria amphibia clemente. (pl.5, fig.2): thallus black, greenish in shade, green and slightly translucent when wet, thin to thick, almost lobate. numerous narrow, radiating ridges scattered over the surface of the thallus. surface was less regularly cracked and often more glossy. often forming neat patches up to 5cm diam. usually fertile, perithecia about 0.4mm, with a flat or more usually dimpled and/or crenulate, volcano-like top. spores 10-15 x 7-10µm (hale, 1974, p.151). verrucaria baldensis a massal. (pl.5, fig.3): thallus white to pale grey, thin, smooth, or immersed, usually wih a dark, narrow prothallus. thallus crowded with many small immersed perthecia. up to about six very fine cracks extend from the ostiole, often resembling a hot cross bun. involucrellum almost flat, like a man-hole cover, the perthecia leaving empty pits when they fall out. spores 15-21 x 710µm. it seems to take longer to colonize gravestones (hale, 1974, p.133). 60 common and new records of lichens xanthoparmelia plittii (gyeln) hale. (pl.5, fig.4): thallus closely or loosely attached to the rock, pale to dark brown or mottled (never black) lower surface. lobes fairly narrow, 1-3mm wide, crowded and often overlapping, with spare to dense globular to branched cylindrical isidia on the upper surface (brodo et al., 2001, p. 735). xanthoria elegans (link) th fr. (pl.5, fig.5): thallus foliose to almost crustose, very closely attached, with narrow, convex, radiating lobes, 0.4-1mm wide, extremely variable in color, from pale yellowish orange to dark redorange, rarely pruinose, soredia and isidia absent, but some forms can produce papillate outgrowths on the lobe surface; lower surface white, wrinkled, without rhizines. apothecia can be abundant, 1-3mm in diameter (brodo et al., 2001, p. 744). xanthoria parientina (l.) th. fr. (pl.5, fig.6): thallus yellow-orange to orange, with shade forms that are gray-green with orange patches, forming large rosettes up to 10 cm in diameter; lobes broad, 0.7-3.2mm across, flat to wrinkled and somewhat concave at the tips, without soredia or isidia; lower surface white, attached to the substrate by the lower cortex, with broad holdfasts, or with spare, short rhizines. apothecia almost always present, broad, flat to concave, with dark orange disks and thallus-colored margins (brodo et al., 2001, p. 746). 61 farhad h. aziz and srwa b. qadir plate (1): new records of lichen species at studied locations. 62 common and new records of lichens plate (2): new records of lichen species at studied locations. 63 farhad h. aziz and srwa b. qadir plate (3): new records of lichen species at studied locations. 64 common and new records of lichens plate (4): new records of lichen species at studied locations. 65 farhad h. aziz and srwa b. qadir plate (5): new records of lichen species at studied locations. 66 common and new records of lichens literature cited aziz, f.h. 2004. some observations on the lichens flora in mountain area of hawler province iraqi kurdistan region, iraq: in hasan beg mountain area. zanco. the sci. j. of pure and appl. sci. salahaddin univ. erbil. iraq. 17(2): 89-117. aziz, f.h. 2005. some observations on the lichens flora in mountain area of hawler province iraqi kurdistan region, iraq: in saifn, jundian, kawlokan, haji omaran and kawshan., zanco. the sci. j. of pure and appl. sci. salahaddin univ.erbil. iraq.17 (2): 79-119. aziz, f.h. and al-dabbagh, j.j. 2009. evaluation of outdoor and indoor dust deposition as environmental pollution in erbil province. air pollution, 157. wit press, southampton, boston. uk. batts, j.e, calder, l.e. and batts, b.d. 2004. utilizing stable isotope abundances of lichnes to monitoring environmental change. chemical geology 204, 345-368. bendre, a.m. and kumar, a. 2010. a text book of practical botany-1. rastogi publication. new delhi, india. berryman, s., straker, j. and d. 2009. using lichnes as bio-indecators of air pollution deposition near remote mining operations. stantee ltd. sedny. brodo, i.m., sharnoff, s.d. and sharnoff, s. 2001. lichens of north america. yale university press, new haven and london. 795 pp coppins, b.j. 2002. checklist of lichens of great britain and ireland. british lichen society. dobson, f.s. 2005. lichens. an illustrated guide to the british and irish species. richmond publishing co ltd; 5th illustrated edition, england. 450pp. goward, t., mc cune, b and meidinger, d. 1994. the lichens of british columbia illustated keys. ministry of forests research program. guest, e. 1996. flora of iraq. no.1. ministry of agricultural, baghdad. hale, m.e. 1974. the biology of lichens. 2nd ed. edward arnold ltd., london. hall, m.e. 1979. how to know the lichens, 2nd ed. dubuque, lowa w. c. brown. usa. hawksworth, d.l. and rose, f. 1979. lichens as pollution monitors. edward arnold ltd., london. lahham, j.n. and el-oqlah, a.a.c. 1986. common lichens of jordan. biological research center, council for scientific research, no.6:1-26. muhammad, s.f. 2003. ecological study on some air pollutants impact on human health, nerium olender l. and phragmits australis l. plants within hawler city. m. sc. thesis, college of education, university of salahaddin-hawler. 67 farhad h. aziz and srwa b. qadir nash, t.h. 2008. lichen biology. 2nd ed. cambridge university press, cambridge. purvis, o.w. 2000. lichens. smithsonian institute press and natural history museum, london. purvis, o.w., coppins, b.j., hawksworth, d.l., james, p.w. and moore, d. m. 1992. the lichen flora of great britain and ireland. natural history museum publication with the british lichen society. london. upreti, d.k. and pandey, v. 2000. determination of heavy metals in lichens growing on different ecological habitats in schirmacher oasis, east antarctica. spectroscopy letters, 33(3), 435–444. wep. (world food program) 2002. statistical report on population of iraqi kurdistan region. un. who. (world health organization) 2007. health risks of heavy metals from long range trans boundary air pollution. zsigmond, a.r. and urák, i. 2011. assessment of heavy metal content of lichens and soil collected from the hasmas mountains, romania, biharean biologist, 5(1): 69-72. 68 common and new records of lichens bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2016) 14 (1): 51-68 العراق ،كردستاناقليم سائدة والجديدة فيالاالشنات سروة برهان قادر *فرهاد حسن عزيز اربيل/ الدين جامعة صالح/ كلية العلوم/ قسم البيئة *email: farhad.aziz1948@gmail.com الملخص من اقصى الشمال الى اقصى الجاوب 2102ايلول -ارذا المدةخالل التي جمعت نشاا االاعتمادا على نوعا جديدا ألول مرة للعراق 31سجل ؛جاسا 33 تعود الىانواعا 85 نشخصت العياا الى لمحافظة اربيل، الدراسة على االنواع السائدة والتي تتواجد بكثرة في معظم المااطق المختارة ركز نتائج . من بين المدروسة lecanora وdiploschistes scruposus و ,collema cristatum ,و من ضماهم dispersa وlecanora murales pertusaria flavicunda و thelomma californicum و verrucaria maura . 2 11 awatif a. hamodi bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2012) 12 (1): 11-17 new record of predator melanthrips pallidior priesner (thysanoptera: melanthripidae) in baghdad iraq awatif abdul-fatah hamodi dept. of plant protection college of agriculture baghdad university baghdad iraq abstract the predator melanthrips pallidior priesner regarded as a new record in baghdad. the specimens were collected from alfalfa field during april 2010 to april 2011 in abu-gharib. morphological characters of different body parts were studied and compared with other specimens by using taxonomic keys. introduction alfalfa medicage sativa l. one of perennial plant that regarded as a good media for pests and their natural enemies in the world. the natural enemies are an important biological factors that balancing and limiting the outbreak of pests. thrips belong to the order thysanoptera are divided into two suborders, suborder terebrantia and suborder tubuilifera (haliday, 1836) depending on number of antennal segments and shape of sense cones, shape a tip of fore wing and number of setae on the two veins, these two suborders include over 6000 species belong to 9 families and six subfamilies (mound & marullo. 1996; mound & morris. 2007a; mound. 2007). there are many species of thrips feed on insects and mites and small size arthropods. melanthrips pallidior priesner was record a predator on insects of bean flowers in turkey (akakan.2008), also in europe, africa and north america on wheat (alavie & zurstrasn & bagherami. 2007) and on tulipa gesneriana l. and pyrus zommunis l. (kirk. 2007; mound and morris, 2oo7; nichle, 2003, raspudic, ivezic,. brmez, trdan, 2009) the pupate found under the soil inside a fine cocoon (de borbon, 2009). material and methods specimens were collected weekly from alfalfa field in baghdad/ abu-gharib from april 2010 april 2011 by using a sweeping net about 30 sweeps from crossing lines were taken (15 sweeps from each line). the collected insects by the net were brought to laboratory for isolating, thrips mounted on a slides for identification by using keys for higher category as suborders , super families , families , genera and species ( mound and walker, 1982; mound & marullo. 1996; priesner, 1936, 1949). the specimens were compared with species that described and recorded previously. body parts of the specimens were drawing by camera lucida (drawing scale for antenna was 0.001, and for the rest of body parts was o.o1) and approximately as pictures. the specimen was sand to csior in australia / canberra to dr. l.a. mound to conferan their identity. material studies: 6 adult female collected on xi 2010 – i. ii 2011. 12 new record of predator result and discussion family melanthripidae result showed that the species under study was belong to suborder terebrantia and family melanthripidae, this species was recorded previously under family aeolothripidae and subfamily melanthripinae, then transferred to family melanthripidae. their characters are: antenna 9 segments with linear sensory area on third and fourth segments, number and distribution of the setae on head a rounded the ocelli (post and pre ocular setae), number of longitudinal veins with across vein on fore wing, number of setae on posterior margin of pronotum, ovipositor curved upward, all of species in this family are predators, the family included 4 genera and 63 species (mound. 2007). melanthrips pallidior priesner.1919 female (fig. 1) body 1.1 1.3 mm in length, dark brown -black in color, yellow fore tibia brown tarsi, body seats is dark, antenna 0.389 0.391 mm in length sensory area liner on third and fourth segments (fig. 3). head is 1.5 time longer than width , compound eye prolonged, pairs of ocular seats 1,2,3 present with a series of four setae behind eye. prothorax width is 1.3 time wider than the length with three pairs of setae on each sides of pronotum and one pair of setae on posterior angle, posterior margin of pronotum with 5 pairs of setae and one pair on pre-posterior margin. fore wing (fig.5) 0.95-0.99 mm in length shaded with grey color with rounded apex reaching at eighth or ninth abdominal segments, veins on fore wing present with one across vein at half nearest at the base. the abdominal segments 3-9 convex toward their sides (fig.6) (fig.4 a, b, c, d, e). the seventh antennal segment is modified and enlarged in comparison to the others and branched into 2 small segments (fig.2). this species is a new record in iraq. synonyms according to priesner (1920) three synonyms for this species were recorded: *melanthrips fuscus var.pallidior .sitzgsb, priesner 1919a (priesner. 1919a) * melanthrips fuscus., priesner. 1920 (priesner, 1920) * melanthrips fuscus., priesner. 1926 (priesner, 1926) the predator which identified in this study represents an important factor in the predation in ecosystem the predator feeds on small insects and mites, and prefers a warm weather and feathery wind. therefore, it`s necessary to know how to suggest its occurrence for long time in the field, and to determine its preys and seasonal occurrence, it is very important to know the life cycle of this predator under different environmental factors and the possibility of entering the predator in biological control program. literature cited akakan, e. 2008. thrips (thysanoptera) species occurring in winter vegetable crops in cukurova region of turkey. j. act phylopathological entomlolgica. 43(2) dec.: 227234. akakan, e.; uygur, s. 2005. winter and spring abundance of frankiniella spp and thrips tabaci lend. (thysanoptera: thripidae) on weed and host plant in turkey. of applied. ento. 129. issue 1, february. 17-26. alavi, j.; zur strassen.r. bagherami, n. 2007. thrips (thysanoptera) species associated with wheat and barley in iran. entomological society of iran. 27(1): 1-28. 13 awatif a. hamodi de borbon, c.m. cm. 2009. a redefinition of dorythrips (thysanoptera: melanthripidae) with a description of a new species from argentina. zootaxa 2121: 17-26. haliday, a.h. 1836. an epitome of the british genera in the order thysanoptera with indications of a few of the species. ent. mag. 3(5):439-451. kirk,w.d.j. 2007. the medical effects of thrips .p:28, in 2th symposium palaearcite thysanoptera 18-20 sept. slovenia. book of abstract. mound l.a. and walker, a. 1982. fauna of new zealand, no. i, terebrantia (insecta: thysanoptera) 1, 113 pp. mound la & marullo r. 1996. the thrips of central and south america: an introduction. memoirs on entomology, international 6: 1-488. mound, l. a. and morris, d.c. 2007a. the insect thysanoptera classification versus systematic. zootoxin. 1668: 395-411. mound, l.a. (2007a) thysanoptera (thrips) of the world checklist. http://www.ento.csiro.au/thysanoptera/ worldthrips.html. mound,l.a. and morris, d. c. 2oo7 b.world thysanoptera in china, in annual checklist the integrated taxonomic introduction of host ranges of thrips in and around hawaiian pineapple field. proc. haw. ento. soc. ix, no 3. nichle, d.a. 2003. achecklist of commonly intercepted (thysanoptera)from europe mediterranean and africa of u.s. ports-of entry (1983-1999).proceeding of the entomological society of washington. 105(1):80-99. priesner, h. 1936. a preliminary review of the non-fossil species of genus melanthrips hal. bulletin de la societe royale entomology d egypte. 19:29-54. priesner, h. 1949.genera thysanopterorum, keys for idenrification of the genera of the order thysanoptera. bull.soc. fouad 1er entom.33(31): 31-157. priesner, h.. 1920. musralber linz. 78:51. priesner, h.. 1926.thysanoptera european p94. priesner. h 1919a. sitzgsb, alad. wisshnton wien. 128: p119. raspudic, e.;ivezic,m. brmez,m.; trdan,s. 2009. distribution of thysanoptera species and their host plant in croatia. act agric. slovenica. 93(3): 275-283. http://www.ento.csiro.au/thysanoptera/ (fig.1) female, (fig.2) modifcation of 7 (fig.3) segments 3 1sensory area from ventral surface 14 new record of predator (fig.1) female, melanthrips pallidior priesner (400x) modifcation of 7th antennal segment (1000x) segments 3rd and4th of antenna with sensory area, sensory area from ventral surface (1000x) 15 awatif a. hamodi (fig.4) melanthrips pallidior priesner a-antenna (1000x). bsegments 3rd and4th of antenna with sensory area 1sensory area from ventral surface (1000x) (scale draw:0.001 ). chead. 1-pairs of post ocular seats .2pairs of preocular seats (400x). dprothorax. 1plural seats, 2 post marginal seats , 3anterior angle setae. eabdominal segments 8,9,10, (400x) (scale draw: 0.01 ) 16 new record of predator (fig.5) melanthrips pallidior fore wing showing the veins and the cross vein (200x) (fig.6) melanthrips pallidior lateral curved of abdomen (400x) 17 awatif a. hamodi bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2012) 10 (1): 11-17 melanthrips pallidiorتسجیل جدید للمفترس (thysanoptera:melanthripidae) العراق / في بغداد عواطف عبد الفتاح حمودي كلیة الزراعة/ قسم وقایة النبات العراق -بغداد –جامعة بغداد الخالصة ألول مرة في بغداد ، melanthrips pallidior priesnerتم تسجیل المفترس درست ٢٠١١نیسان ٢٠١٠جمعت الحشرات من حقل الجت خالل نیسان الصفات المظھریة ألجزاء الجسم المختلفة وقورنت الصفات مع ما ذكر في . المفاتیح التصنیفیة 7 69 h. w. shubber bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2010) 11 (1): 69-75 distribution of hadjelia truncata creplin, 1825 (habronematidae,spiruridea) among members of the avian family columbidae in al-diwaniya province, central iraq habeeb waseel kadhum shubber college of science, alqadysia university abstract a total of 28 birds were examined to investigate about the distribution of the nematode hadjelia truncata among some members of the avian family columbidae in al-diwaniya province, central iraq. the percentages of the infection rate with this nematode were 27.27, 37.5, 14.28 and 0 in columba livia, c. palumbis, streptopelia decaocto, and s. turtur respectively. reporting hadjelia truncata from streptopelia decaocto constitutes a new host record. introduction the nematode hadjelia truncata creplin, 1825 (habronematidae, spiruridea) is a parasite of gizzard of wide range of birds from different families and orders, as well as vast geographical distribution throughout africa, asia, and europe (chabaud and campana, 1950; yamaguti, 1961; yorke and maplestone, 1962; tadros and iskander, 1975; esmaeil, 2004;junker and boomker, 2007; razmi et al., 2007; junker et al., 2008; al-moussawi, 2008; al-saffar, 2009). in iraq, it was reported from the rock dove, columba livia by al-attar and abdul-aziz (1985) and al-saffar (2009), then from the blue-cheeked bee-eater, merops superciliosus persicus (coraciiformes) by al-moussawi (2008). since the avian family columbidae is well established in iraq with 8 species belonging to 3 genera and widely distributed throughout the country except for the recently recorded namaqua dove, oena capensis which has rather a limited but steadily growing range of dispersion in the far most southern borders of iraq with kuwait (allouse, 1961; salim et al., 2006), the present work is designed to investigate about the distribution of the nematode hadjelia truncate among some members of the avian family columbidae in al-diwaniya province, central iraq, in which seven columbid species were recorded. materials and methods a total of 28 columbid birds representing 11 rock doves, columba livia; 8 wood pigeons, c.palumbus; 7 collared dove, streptopelia decaocto; and 2 turtle doves, s. turtur were captured alive or shot around al-diwaniya city at the period between july 2008 and november 2009. the birds were immediately dissected and their alimentary tracts were removed and searched carefully for the parasites. the recovered hadjelia truncata specimens were washed and cleaned with 0.9% saline and then immersed in lactophenol for clearing. the other parasites were kept for future study. 70 distribution of hadjelia truncata creplin results and discussion the nematode hadjelia truncata (figs. 1-3) is easily recognized by its mouth has two large trilobed lips with two small rather triangular crests on the external surface (yorke and maplestone, 1962), and the caudal region of male is characteristic of spirurid-type with two unequal spicules (razmi et al., 2007). table.1 summarizes the results on the examined birds, infection rate, parasite burden and range. this would show that the percentage of the infection rate with this nematode are 27.27, 37.5, 14.28 and 0 in the hosts c. livia, c. palumbis, s. decaocto, and s. turtur respectively. these results differs drastically from that reported by al-saffar (2009) who mentioned infection rate of 1.3% in c. livia collected at baghdad city. this is may be related to the smaller sample size of the present study. reporting hadjelia truncata from streptopelia decaocto in this study considered to be first time for the parasite to be reported from this host, therefore it constitutes a new host record. table 1: bird species, no. examined, no. infected, % infection, parasite burden and range. surprisingly, al-shaibany (2008) who examined the alimentary tracts of 200 specimens of wild rock doves from al-diwaniya area found no hadjelia specimens. the probable reason for this was he paid no attention to search under the lining of the gizzard of his examined birds. macroscopic examination showed that the infected gizzards were distorted. this is rather in accordance, partly, with appleby et al. (1995) and razmi et al. (2007) who noticed severe disease, enlargement, distortion, and necrosis of the infected gizzards of c. livia. the present results on the distribution of hadjelia truncata among columbid birds suggests that this parasite is more frequently infect members of columba spp. compared with streptopelia spp. however, the small sample size of the present study does not allow withdrawing a firm conclusion from this result. in regard to the intermediate host/s of this nematode, it is known that members of the family columbidae eat, sometimes, small insects (allouse, 1961). this may be correlated directly to the fact that the larval beetles act as intermediate hosts (anderson, 2000; esmaeil, 2004). however, more work is needed to reveal the specific identity of the local intermediate host/s in the iraqi environments. parasite burden (range) % infection no. infected no. examined bird species 6(5-7) 27.27 3 11 columba livia 3 37.5 3 8 columba palumbis 2 14.28 1 7 streptopelia decaocto 0 2 streptopelia turtur 71 h. w. shubber literature cited al-attar, m. a. and abdul-aziz, ta 1985 hadjelia truncata in pigeons. vet. rec., 117 (20):535. allouse, b. e. 1961 birds of iraq (in arabic). arrabitta press, baghdad. 279 pp. al-moussawi, a. a. 2008 first record in iraq of two nematode parasites from the bluecheeked bee-eater merops superciliosus persicus pallas, 1773. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus, 10 (2): 1-7 al-saffar,n. s. j. 2009 diagnostic study of intestinal helminths of some kinds of columbidae in baghdad city. m. sc. thesis. college of veterinary medicine, university of baghdad. al-shaibany, k. t. 2008 isolation and identification of ectoparasites and helminthes parasitic in digestive system of rock pigeon columba livia (gmelin 1789) in al-diwaniya city. , iraq. m. sc. thesis, coll. edu. univ. al-qadisiya. anderson, r. c. 2000. nematode parasites of vertebrates their development and transmission. 2nd. ed., cabi publishing, 650 pp. appleby, e. c., gibbons, l. m. and georgiou, k. 1995 distortion of the gizzard in cyprus pigeons (columba livia) associated with hadjelia truncata infestation. the veterinary record, 136 ( 22): 561-564. chabaud, a.g. & campana, y. 1950 notes sur le genre hadjelia seurat, 1916 (nématodesspiruridae). annales de parasitologie humaine et comparée, 25:435–440. esmaeil, g. m. 2004 role played by some arthropods in transmission of some parasitic diseases to birds in assiut governorate. dept. of parasitology, faculty of medicine, assiut university. ph.d. thesis. junker.k. and boomker, j. 2007 helminths of guineafowls in limpopo province, south africa onderstepoort journal of veterinary research, 74:265–280 junker, k., debusho, l., and boomker, j. 2008 the helminth community of helmeted guineafowls, numida meleagris (linnaeus, 1758), in the north of limpopo province, south africa. onderstepoort j vet res.,75 (3):225-35. razmi, g. r., kalidari, g. a. and maleki, m. 2007 first report of the hadjelia truncata infestation in pigeons of iran. iranian journal of veterinary research, university of shiraz, 8 (2): 175-177. salim, m. a., porter, r. christensen, s., shermaker-hansen, b. and al-jboor, s. 2006 field guide to the iraqi birds (in arabic). nature iraq, 284 pp. tadros, g. and iskander, a. r. 1975 hadjelia truncata, a new parasite of pigeons in egypt and its pathogenicity. j. egyptian vet. med.assoc., 35: 283-301. 72 distribution of hadjelia truncata creplin yamaguti, s. 1961 systema helminthum. vol. iii. the nematodes of vertebrates, intersci. publ, new yourk, 1261pp. yorke, w. and maplestone, p.a. 1962 the nematode parasites of vertebrates. hafener publ., new york. 73 h. w. shubber fig.1: the anterior extremity of h. truncata. fig. 2: the posterior extremity of male h. truncata 0.1 mm 0.1 mm 74 distribution of hadjelia truncata creplin fig. 3: the posterior extremity of female h. truncata 0.1 mm 75 h. w. shubber bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2010) 11 (1): 69-75 العائلة الحمامية أفرادبين hadjelia truncata انتشار الدودة الخيطية في الديوانية وسط العراق حبيب وسيل كاظم شّبر كلية العلوم/ جامعة القادسية الخالصة منوذجا من الطيور من املناطق احمليطة مبدينة الديوانية دف التعرف على مدى ٢٨مت مجع بني افراد العائلة احلمامية. بينت الدراسة ان hadjelia truncata انتشار الدودة اخليطية % و ١٤،٢٨% ، ٣٧،٥% ، ٢٧،٢٧النسبة املئوية لالصابة ذا النوع من الطفيليات كانت % يف كل من احلمام الطوراين، الطبان، الفاختة املطوقة و القمري على التوايل . ٠ وقد بينت الدراسة ان تسجيل هذا النوع من الديدان اخليطية من طري الفاختة املطوقة يعترب تسجيل مضيف جديد. 3 17 saman r. a. lahony bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2011) 11 (3): 17 -24 cave dwelling animals in iraq part 2: systematic notes on the nuthatch of the family sittidae (avespasseriformes) in iraq with adding some important knowledge to the nest building of sitta tephronota sharpe, from besan vale hawraman slope. iraqi kurdistan saman r. afrasiab lahony natural history research center and museum university of baghdad abstract this paper is a review of the genus sitta in iraq, five species of this genus are recognized sitta kurdistanica, s. neumayr, s. europaea, s.dresseri and s. tephronota. geographical distribution and systematic nots were given for separation and identification, also some notes on nest building and nest sites of s. tephronota supporting by figures are presented. introduction there is some confusion in previous systematic studies of nuthatches in iraq. this because of position of iraqi land, it like a lands bridge between three large zoogeographical zones,i.e. palearactic, indian, and ethiopian region,(hawramany,2007). this create a great diversity of species and sub-species in this particular area. the previous authors are mostly depended on literature for their work, (allous, 1960. mahdi and george,1962., lepage, 2004. salim, etal. 2006.)they mentioned to three species of nuthatch to be found in iraq: sitta europaea l.,1758., s. tefronota,sharpe,1872., s. neumayer, michaelles,1830. ticehurst(1923) and zarudny and buturlin (1906) described some variety of this family. kinnear(1949) recorded two species of nuthatch in india and bruun (1969), gave three species to be found in europe. wall creeper tichodroma m. muraria (l.) is not cover by this study, since they put it in a separate family (tichodromidae). allous(1960) and mahdi and george(1962) neglected variation giving by other authors such as vaurie (1959) who described some variety. also the study include some information on nest building of rock nuthatch depending on field observations and on berger,1961., in besan-tawera valley, hawraman slope north east of iraq. this paper is a part of larger project (cave dwelling animals in iraq). material and methods this study based on collection of the natural history museum of baghdad university, and on four specimens of nuthatch collected by author from besan-tawera valley (600-1200 m.a.s). figures were taken by photo camera (canon) and video camera. literatures, were used too. 18 cave dwelling animals in iraq result and discussion the study of mlikovsky (2007), on s. neumay complex classified some variety as a separate species. in our collection we faced some confusion and problem, if we follow mlikovesky we can solve some of these problems. fig.1: sitta tephronota from besan –tawera valley hawraman step north east of iraq. 19 saman r. a. lahony table.1: measurements of nuthatch sitta sp. collected by museum staff and author randomly according to collection site, t. l. = total length table (1) showed the measurements of sitta sp. collected from different localities mapping in fig.(8). color variation could be seen in fig.1,2,3, and 4. sitta kurdistanica,ticehurst.1923.fig3,and table 1. sitta neumayer kurdistanica. ticehurst: = this is a small nuthatch does not reach more than 11cm. the bill (2-2.6cm.) short and weak, shorter than the other species of the family. this nuthatch differs from s. neumayer in size and nesting in tree holes. it is distributed in all kurdistan mountains, our specimens of dihok regarded as a topotype for this species. this nuthatch was classified by ticehurst 1923 as s. neumayer kurdistanica, but mlikovsky, 2007. refer it to separate species sitta kurdistanica and she said it's one of the neumayer complex depending on type study. sitta europaea. linnaeus,1758.: two specimens were studied from gali ali bag, north of erbil, its recognized by presence of white spots on tail. sitta neumayer, michahelles,1830. its known by lacking white spots on tail, and differs from s. kurdistanica in size and habitats. there are two specimens from zakho and another captured by a citizen alive from chwarta north of sulaymanyah fig.(7). tail tarsus wing bill t.l. 5-6cm. 3cm. 9-10 cm. 3cm. 13.8-14cm. besantawera valley 5.5-6 2.9-3 8.9-9 3 13.25 zakhow 5 2.5 7.5 2.6 12 dohok -amadiah 5 2.2 8.5 3 11 injanahhamrin mountain 4.9-5.5 3 9.5-9.2 3 13.5 gali ali bagarbil 4.5 2-2.5 7.9-7.5 2-2.2 10.5 dohok prov. 6 3 9 3 13.5 chwarta – sulaymanyah 20 cave dwelling animals in iraq sitta dresseri, zarudny & buturlin, 1906.fig.,3: this nuthatch in the size of s.kurdistanica,, but its existence is located in hamraen mountain east of iraq south of kurdistan of iraq, which's in the distribution range of s.dresseri in shushtar iranian side of zagros mountain, type locality. it has stronger bill than that of s. kurdistanica. dorsal color light grey with faint brown wash posterior on the large feather of the wing and posterior half of the ventral side. sitta tephronota, sharpe,1872.fig.1,3. place of collection: besan-tawera valley,hawraman step. sulaymanyah. it is little larger than the other member of the family in iraq table (1), easily recognized by white color of first and last large feather of the tail, and presence of black spot on the wings cover. flanks and underside of the tail with dark chestnut color. nest building: in the case of s. tephronota the sexes pair for life and remain together throughout the year. both sexes sharing in the nest building. about one month is required for repairing the destroyed nest. through all the year they add to the nest. they build the nest mainly from mud strengthen it by pieces of dry grass,tree leaves and other materials. they build the nest attached to the rock of caves in mountain slopes and on the trees,fig.2, 4,5.the size of the round nearly black opening of the nest,6 cm. and 1.5 cm. thick, it is very good designer for hiding and mimic the surrounding rocks and trees, 1.5-2meter high from the ground, mostly the female stay at night inside the nest and the males near the opening. female lays 5-6 white egg,20×15mm., differ than that of s. europaea which given by hanzak,1978, in lacking of spots on shell and the number of the eggs. they are suffering from mans by capturing young and adult also destroying the nest.in a valley 2km. 10 nest was destroyed by man fig.6 plate1. plate: 1 figure (2) figure (3) 21 saman r. a. lahony figure (4) figure (5) figure (6) figure (7) plate 1: fig.2: nest of sitta tephronota from besan-tawera valley hawraman step, fig.3: from right to left.s. kurdistanica, from dihok, s. neumayer,from zakhow,s. europaea from gali alibag north irbil, s. dresseri.from inganah hamrain mountain. fig.4: nest attached to tree. fig.5: nest attached to rock of the cave. fig.6: destroid nest. fig.7: capturd s.neumayer. from chwarta north of sulaymanyah. acknowledgements special thanks to mr. osama mohammad and haider salman, from natural history museum, for helping in typing and scanning the figures and to sabah rafaat from anab village for helping me in field and collection. literature cited allous, b. e. 1961, birds of iraq.vol.1. arrabita press baghdad iraq. berger, a. j. 1961. bird study. dover publication, inc, new york. bruun b., 1969. britsh & european birds. paul hamlyn publishing group, london. 22 cave dwelling animals in iraq hanzak, j. 1978. birds egg and nests. the hamlyn publishing group limited. printed in czechoslovakia. hawramany, s. r. afrasiab, 2007,. ecology, behavior, reproduction and classification of alectoris chukar, in iraq. thesis submitted to college of science. university of baghdad iraq. kinnear, n. b. 1949. popular handbook of indian birds. fourth edition gurney and jackson pub. london. lepage, d., 2004. avibase the world database. mahdi, n. and georg, p. v. 1969. sistematic list of iraqi vertebrates. iraq nat. hist. mus. pub. 26. baghdad iraq. mlikovsky, j. 2007. type specimens and type localities of rock nuthatches of sitta neumayer species complex (aves-sittidae). journal of the national museum (prague). vol.176(6): 91-115. czech republic. salim, m. a., r. porter and c. christensen c. s. 2006. field-guide to the birds of iraq,. institution of nature of iraq. united nation programme for wild birds protection. ticehurst, c. b. 1923. description of new races of iraq and indian birds bolletien of the british ornithologists club, 44: 28-29. vauri, c. 1959. the birds of pale arctic fauna: witherby, london. zarudnyi, n. a. and s. a. buturlin, 1906. sitta dresseri, spec. nov. ornithologische monatsberichte. 14-132. 23 saman r. a. lahony 24 cave dwelling animals in iraq bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2011) 11 (3): 17-24 في العراق مع إضافة معلومات sittidaeمالحظات تصنيفية لطائر كاسر الجوز من عائلة ي سان على وادي بفي s. tephronotaمهمة عن تعشيش كاسر الجوز الصخري الكبير حافة جبل هورامان في كردستان العراق سامان روستم افراسياب لهوني جامعة بغداد –مركز بحوث و متحف التاريخ الطبيعي الخالصة تتضمن هذه الدراسة مراجعة تصنيف فصيلة كاسر اجلوز يف العراق. مت التعرف على مخس و s. europaea و s. neumayr و sitta kurdistanicaأنواع تابعة هلذه الفصيلة وهي s. dresseri و s. tephronota توزيع اجلغرايف و مواصفات تصنيفية أعطيت من اجل تشخيص . s.tefronotaو التفرقة. باإلضافة إىل بعض املعلومات عن العش و مكا ا لنوع bull 197 razzaq shalan augul bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2017) 14 (3): 197-204 taxonomic study of genus cerceris latreille, 1802 (hymenoptera, crabronidae) in iraq razzaq shalan augul iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq email: razzaqshalan@gmail.com received date: 31.january.2017 accepted date: 16.april.2017 abstract this study provides a key to the species of cerceris latreille, 1802 (hymenoptera, crabronidae, philanthinae) that were collected from different areas in iraq. this is followed by a distribution list, including total species which had been registered for iraq. also this study includes some observations about the species that were recorded in previous checklists. key words: cerceris, crabronidae, hymenoptera, iraq, philanthinae. introduction sphecidae, a large family and a paraphyletic entity based on some phylogenetic analysis, was subdivided into four families: heterogynaidae, ampulicidae, sphecidae and crabronidae (bohart and menke, 1976; brothers, 1999; melo, 1999). these wasps can be diagnosed by the posterior edge of the pronotum which is a straight line which terminates laterally into a rounded lobe that does not reach the tegula (bohart and menke, 1976). members of cerceris latreille, 1802 (hymenoptera; crabronidae), is the largest genus of this family, with over 864 described species (pulawski, 2017). the genus has a cosmopolitan distribution, with species on every continent (genaro, 2004). according to bohart and menke (1976), roche and gadallah (1999) and guichard (1986) this genus was characterized from other forms by many morphological features: abdomen not petiolate, compound eyes without notch or they emarginated internally, prestigmal length of first submarginal cell much less than half total cell length, hind ocelli normal, recurrent veins 1m-cu and 2 m-cu received by the second and third submarginal cell respectively, apex of hind femur truncate or flattened, second submarginal cell of forewing with distinctly petiolate, medial vein of hind wing diverging after vein of cu-a. many species of cerceris are solitary, but some of them are nesting sites or nesting communally; generally, the females of this genus dig a nest in the soil and provide it with living prey items that had been paralyzed with venom; their prey are usually beetles, and sometimes bees (alexander and asis, 1997; genaro, 2004). the aim of this study is to resolve the mistakes in some previous checklists and to design a key to the species which are collected during the current investigation. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2017.14.3.0197 http://dx.doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2017.14.3.0197 198 taxonomic study of genus cerceris latreille materials and methods the wasps were collected from different localities of iraq that include the provinces of: baghdad, dohuk, erbil, maysan and wasit during 2016. adult of wasps were collected by sweep nets, then mounted with insect pins and kept in insect boxes to be diagnosed. the genus of cerceris and species were identified by using several taxonomic keys such as: bohart and menke (1976); richards (1980); schmidt (2000); kazenas (2001) and gadallah and assery (2004); also they were compared with the diagnosed species stored in the iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad. the plates had been taken with a samsung galaxy s4, gt-19500 and used binocular dissecting microscope (mb. mariobroma.srl, roma) to magnificent the morphological features. results and discussion in the present paper, a diagnostic key to species was made depending on the specimens collected in current investigations; these species include: cerceris sabulosa, c. hortivaga, c. bupresticida and c. rubida. the other species that have not been obtained throughout the period of the investigations were referred to as a checklist and global distribution only. key to the collected species of cerceris latreille: 1. basal of second gasteral sternites with semicircular plate (pl. 1) ....................................…2 . basal of second gasteral sternites simple …...........…………………………………….…. 3 2. propodeal enclosure slightly ridged and less shinny (pl. 2d). male: mesopleuron and first gasteral tergite black (t1) (pl. 2 c, d); fourth gasteral tergite (t4) bicolored, black anteriorly and yellow posteriorly (pl. 2a) ………………....…….. c. sabulosa (panzer) . propodeal enclosure smooth and shiny, especially at adjacent of median sulcus (pl. 3c); male: mesopleuron yellow (pl. 3b); first gasteral tergite (t1) ferruginous (pl. 3c); fourth gasteral tergite (t4) completely black (pl. 3a); …………… c. hortivaga kohl 3. propodeal enclosure ridged; scutellum black (pl. 4a)……………. c. bupresticida dufour . propodeal enclosure punctate; scutellum yellow (pl. 4 c)…....................c. rubida (jurine) the checklist of species including other species that were recorded previously from iraq: cerceris bupresticida dufour, 1841(pl. 4 a, b) cerceris bupresticida dufour, l., 1841: ann. sei. nat. zool. (2) 15: 353 distribution: iraq (morice, 1921); southern europe, caucasus, north africa, israel, iran, afghanistan, central asia, kazakhstan and libya (schmidt, 2000); mongolia and north china (tsuneki, 1971). materials examined (3 males only): dohuk province, amadiya: 2 specimens, 31.vii.2016. erbil prov., rawanduz: 1 specimen, 2.viii.2016. cerceris chlorotica spinola, 1839 cerceris chlorotica spinola, m., 1839: ann. soc. ent. france 7: 496 distribution: iraq (morice, 1921); north africa, sudan, israel (schmidt, 2000). note: morice (1921) and derwesh (1965) referred to this species from iraq under the name of cerceris lutea taschenberg, 1875. 199 razzaq shalan augul cerceris hortivaga kohl, 1880(pl. 3) cerceris hortivaga kohl, f. f. 1880: z. ferdinand. innsbruck, (3) 24: 223. distribution: iraq (kaddou, 1967); east siberia, china, korea, japan; in europe this species distributes from south russia to bulgaria and south tyrol, north to the czech republic and alsace (schmidt, 2000(. materials examined (1 male only): erbil prov., rawanduz: 1 specimen, 2.viii.2016. cerceris luxuriosa dahlbom, 1845 cerceris luxuriosa dahlbom, a. g. 1845: hymenoptera europaea, lund: 498. distribution: southern egypt, sudan and iraq (morice, 1921); libya (guiglia, 1932). note: this species was registered from iraq by morice (1921) and derwesh (1965) under the name of cerceris subimpressa schletterer, 1887. cerceris pallidula morice, 1897 cerceris pallidula morice, f. d. 1897: trans. ent. soc. london 1897: 302. distribution: egypt, israel; iraq morice (1921); morocco, algeria, tunisia (schmidt, 2000). notes: this species was registered from iraq by morice (1921) and derwesh (1965) under the name cerceris annexa kohl, 1898; while this species currently is a subspecies under the species of c. pallidula (pulawski, 2017). cerceris quadricincta (panzer, 1799) philanthus quadricinctus panzer, g. w. f. 1799: faunae insectorum germaniaeinitia. nürnberg. 6. jahrg. heft 63:14. distribution: iraq (beaumont, 1961); this species distributes in southern and central europe, north to great britain and northern germany; morocco, tunisia, turkey, israel, iraq, iran, afghanistan, central asia, kazakhstan, also in corsica and sardinia (schmidt, 2000). cerceris rubida (jurine, 1807) (pl. 4 c, d) philanthus rubidusjurine, l., 1807: nouvelle möthode de classer les hyme'nopteres. genf. tom. i: taf. 10. distribution: iraq (derwesh, 1965); south europe, central europe (slovakia, hungary),turkey, cyprus, ukraine, russia, caucasus, morocco, israel, syria, iran, afghanistan, central asia, mongolia, china and japan(schmidt, 2000). note: this species was recorded from iraq by derwesh (1965) under the subspecies c. nubida conjuncta schiff.; but this subspecies is a synonym to subspecies c. rubida conjuncta schletterer, 1887(pulawski, 2017); as well the subspecies cerceris rubida pumilio giner marí, 1945 which is also distributed in iraq, jordan, syria, iran, israel, cyprus and southern turkey (schmidt, 2000). materials examined (13 males only): dohuk province, amadiya: 4 specimens, 30.vii.2016; sersank, 4 specimens, 31.vii.2016. erbil prov., rawanduz: 5 specimen, 2.viii.2016. cerceris sabulosa (panzer, 1799) (pl. 2) philanthus sabulosa panzer, 1799: fauna germaniae, 12: 63. distribution: iraq (morice, 1921); saudi arabia (guichard, 1993); south and central europe, north to south england, caucasus, iran, central asia, mongolia, north china, korea (schmidt, 2000); armenia, austria, bulgaria, egypt, france, germany, hungary, italy, russia, spain, tajikistan, turkey and ukraine (gadallah and assery, 2004). note: derwesh (1965) referred to this species in his checklist under the species synonyms philanthus emarginatus panzer, 1799 and cerceris emarginata (panzer, 1799). materials examined (15 specimens): baghdad province, bab al-mudham: 2 males, 1 female, 31.ix.2016. erbil prov., rawanduz: 1 male, 2 females, 2.viii.2016.dohuk prov. solaf, 2 200 taxonomic study of genus cerceris latreille females, 30.vii.2016. maysan province, 3 females. wasit province: al-zubaidiya, 4 females, 11.ix.2016. cerceris spinipectus f. smith, 1856 cerceris spinipectus smith, f. 1856: catalogue of hymenopterous insects. iv: 443. distribution: iraq (morice, 1921); arabia, central asia, caucasus, armenia, iran, greece, north africa, egypt, israel, cyprus, turkey, palestine, uzbekistan, turkmenistan and afghanistan (schmidt, 2000). cerceris tricolorata spinola, 1839 cerceris tricolorata spinola, m. 1839: ann. soc. entomol. france 7: 493 distribution: iraq (morice, 1921); arabian peninsula (guichard, 1993); north africa, chad, israel, pakistan (schmidt, 2000). note: this species was recorded from iraq by morice (1921) and then derwesh (1965) under the name of cerceris insignis klug, 1845; while beaumont (1961) referred to its presence in iraq under the current name. plate (1): male of cerceris sabulosa (a) and c. hortivaga. (s: sternite; spl: semicircular plate) 201 razzaq shalan augul plate (2): cerceris sabulosa (a) male, (b) female (c) lateral view of thorax (yellow pointer on mesopleuron) (d) dorsal surface of propodeum and first gasteral tergite. (t: tergite; de: dorsal enclosure) plate (3): male of cerceris hortivaga (a) habit, (b) lateral view of thorax (red pointer on mesopleuron) (c) dorsal surface of propodeum and first gasteral tergite. ) t: tergite; de: dorsal enclosure) 202 taxonomic study of genus cerceris latreille literature cited alexander, b.a. and asis, j.d. 1997.patterns of nest occupancy and provisioning in cerceris rufopicta smith (hymenoptera: sphecidae). journal of insect behavior, 10(6): 871-93. beaumont, j.de. 1961. sphecidae de l'iraq (hym.). opuscula zoologica (münchen), 56:1-5. bohart, r.m. and menke, a.s. 1976. sphecidae wasps of the world: a generic revision. university of california press, berkeley, los angeles, london, 695 pp. brothers, d.j. 1999. phylogeny and evolution of wasps, ants and bees (hymenoptera: chrysidoidea, vespoidea, and apoidea). zoologica scripta, 28:233-249. derwesh, a.i. 1965. a preliminary list of identified insects and arachnids of iraq. director general agriculture research projections baghdad, bulletin,121:123pp. genaro, j.a. 2004. a new species of cerceris from hispaniola, west indies (hymenoptera: crabronidae: philanthinae). journal of the kansas entomological society, 77(4):761-64. plate (4): male of cerceris bupresticida (a) dorsal view of posterior surface of thorax (b) habitat; male of c. rubida (c) dorsal view of posterior surface of thorax (d) habitat. (sc: scutellum; de: dorsal enclosure) 203 razzaq shalan augul gadallah, n.s. and assery, b.m. 2004. a review of the sphecidae (with the exception of larrinae) of the jeddah region (west of saudi arabia), with a checklist of the species known from saudi arabia. linze biologischen beiträge , 36(1):215-239. guichard, k.m. 1986. hymenoptera: fam. sphecidae of arabia. key to the arabian genera of hunting wasps. fauna of saudi arabia, 8: 343-351. guichard, k.m. 1993. the genus cerceris (hymenoptera: sphecidae) in arabia. fauna of saudi arabia, 13: 152-169. guiglia, d. 1932. spedizione scientificaall'oasi di cufra (marzo-luglio 1931). imenotteri aculeati. annalidel museocivico di storianaturale giacomo doria, 55: 466-486. kaddou, i.k. 1967. checklist of some insects fauna of iraq. biological research centre, publication,1: 1-44. kazenas, v.l. 2001.key to the identification of cerceris latreille (hymenoptera, sphecidae) of kazakhstan and middle asia. tethys entomological research, 3: 115-134. melo, g.a.r. 1999. phylogenetic relationships and classification of the major lineages of apoidea (hymenoptera), with emphasis on the crabronid wasps. university of kansas natural history museum, 14: 1-55. morice, f.d. 1921. annotated lists of aculeate hymenoptera (except heterogyna) and chrysids recently collected in mesopotamia and north-west persia. journal of the bombay natural history society, 28: 192-203. pulawski, w.j. 2017.catalog of sphecidae. at: https://www.calacademy.org/scientists/projects/catalog-of-sphecidae. (accessed 10 january 2017). roche, g.c. and gadallah, n.s. 1999. the sphecid wasps of egypt hymenoptera: sphecidae): introduction and generic key. egyptian journal of biology, 1:104-117. richards, o.w. 1980. scolioidea, vespoidea and sphecoidea (hymenoptera, aculeata). handbooks for the identification of british insects, royal entomological society of london, vi (part 3(b)): 104 pp. schmidt, k. 2000. bestimmungstabelle der gattung cerceris latreille, 1802 in europa, demkaukasus, kleinasien, palästina und nordafrika (hymenoptera, sphecidae, philanthinae). stapfia, 71: 1-325. tsuneki, k. 1971. ergebnisse der zoologischen forschungen von dr. z. kaszab in der mongolei. 259. sphecidae (hymenoptera). iii. acta zoologica academiae scientiarum hungaricae, 17: 409-453. 204 taxonomic study of genus cerceris latreille bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2017) 14 (3): 197-204 cerceris latreille, 1802 تصنيفية للجنس دراسة (hymenoptera, crabronidae) في العراق رزاق شعالن عكل ، بغداد، العراقجامعة بغداد/مركز بحوث و متحف التأريخ الطبيعي العراقي 132117122 :تأريخ القبول 132112102 :تأريخ االستالم خالصةال hymenopteraمن رتبة cerceris latreille, 1802مفتاح لعزل انواع الجنس صمم التي جمعت من مناطق مختلفة من العراق ، philanthinae عويلة crabronidae عائلة االنواع في العراق مع مالحظات عن المسجلة سابقا لألنواعخالل هذه الدراسة، تاله قائمة .في القوائم السابقة ةالمذكور bull 251 ibrahim esa taher et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2017) 14 (3): 251-259 first record of mycetophagous nematode aphelenchus avenae in iraq with description and testing their propagation on different fungus culture ibrahim esataher* sulaiman naif ami raed abduljabbar haleem and barin sidqi shareef department of plant protection, college of agriculture, university of duhok, duhok, kurdistan region, iraq *corresponding author: ibrahim.esa@uod.ac received date: 26.december.2016 accepted date: 2.may.2017 abstract aphelenchus avenae was isolated from the wheat crown in summel distractduhok, kurdistan region-iraq infected by a crown rot disease which is caused by fusarium spp; wheat's crown culturing on potato dextrose agar (pda) and incubating at 25°c a. avenae was found associated with fungal culture which meant that fungal nematode was parasitic on crown rot fungi on wheat crown, this species was described for the first time in iraq. fungal nematode incubated with fusarium graminearum, f. oxysporum and verticillium dahliae reproduce in both solid and liquid media, best results of nematode reproduction were recorded on f. graminearum followed by f. oxysporum and v. dahlia respectively. the nematode a. avenae did not reproduce on the liquid media of these fungi. keywords: aphelenchus avenae, iraq, mycetophagous, nematode, summel. introduction aphelenchus avenae bastian, 1865 feeds on a variety range of fungi (mankau and mankau, 1963; giannakis and sanders, 1989; okada and ferris, 2001) and has a wide range of fungal host in both phyto-pathogenic and saprophytic species in different conditions. a. avenae is a mycophagous nematode which can't parasitize on higher plant (barnes et al., 1981), and there is no record of real parasitism, damage or feeding of this nematode on the plant, thus a. avenae is called fungal nematode. there are many studies on development, growth and feeding of a. avenae on fungi culture media, its growth on fusarium solani and rhizoctonia solani has been studied by barnes et al. (1981). this nematode has been recorded in many countries worldwide in different soil types (okada and ferris, 2001). this nematode is capable to the growth and propagation on culture media of fungi grown on pda in different amount of potato dextrose solution when incubated at 25°c; propagation of a. avenae in semisolid substrate also studied (ishibashi et al., 2000). a. avenae was used as a bio-control agent against soil-born fungal pathogen in many studies, using the different population size of a. avenae in infested soil with different pathogenic fungi such as r. solaniag-4, fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lagenariae, pythium sp. and phytophthora nicotianae var. parasitica showed that this nematode had a noticeable effect on the survival of cucumber plants, thus a. avenae is considered as a good biological control agent for those fungi (barnes et al., 1981). doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2017.14.3.0251 http://dx.doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2017.14.3.0251 252 first record of mycetophagous nematode aphelenchus avenae in iraq the attraction of a. avenae to plant roots also impedes colonization of plant-parasitic nematodes (matsunaga et al., 1996). the penetration of pratylenchus coffeae and meloidogyne incognita of cucumber transformed hairy roots on agar plate decreased the incidence of a. avenae (ishibashi, 2005). this study aims to indicate the first record and description of a. avenae in iraq and to study its growth on different culture media and various soil born-fungi. materials and methods aphelenchus avenae is collected from wheat crown in summel distractduhok, kurdistan region-iraq infected by crown rot disease and is caused by fusarium spp. after culturing wheat's crown in potato dextrose agar (pda) and incubated at 25 °c. nematodes were extracted from culture media and collected according to grewal et al. (2005) then added again to culture media for reproduction. then nematode was picked and mounted on slide to study it's for identification. more than 30 slides were made for each of female, male and eggs. following morph metrical measurements and body, ratios were calculated (machado et al., 2010): l=total body length. v=distance from vulvae to posterior end. st= total stylet length. f= total esophagus length. v-a= distance between vulvae and tail. t=total tail length. study of aphelenchus avenae reproduction in different fungus culture: three pure fungal cultures of f. graminearum, f. oxysporum and v. dahliae were used as host for fungal nematode, two type of medium, used both pda solid medium and malt extract liquid media were used with three petri dish for each replication. after calculating number of a. avenae in solution using counting dish, then 50 a. avenae was added by pipette to fully grow fungal culture and was incubated at 25°c for two weeks then nematodes was extracted again from each culture to calculate number of nematode to know the propagation rate of nematode on each fungal culture. data were analyzed using sas program and means were compared according to duncan’s multiple range test, p=0.05(sas, 1999). results and discussion family of aphelenchidae fuchs, 1937, steiner, 1949 syn. paraphelenchidae (goodey, 1960) are characterized by large obvious median bulb (metacarpus) and occupied more than 75% of body width in the located part. body of a. avenae usually large has plump lips, form flat cap, slightly offset, median bulb round slight elongate nerve ring just behind bulb, stylet long with or without small basal knobs, rectum lumen considerably widened just behind sphincter, anus and rectum can be seen very obviously near to the end of body so a. avenae has short tail. a. avenae fungal feeder nematode can grow and develop on different fungi (okada and ferris, 2001). aphelenchus avenae bastian, 1865 description and identification: female: (pl.1, a, b, e, g) body tapers slightly at head region narrowing abruptly behind vulva, there is no constriction or rarely constriction occurs behind anus. tail short rounded rarely slightly flattened at terminal, tail is conical. stylet knob less, junction conical parts is less than 1/2 of its length. median bulb round to slight elongated, esophageal lumen narrows and widens into intestine, dorsal gland overlapping intestine, usually on left side as can be seen under compound microscope. anus 253 ibrahim esa taher et al. transverse 1/3 body width, anterior lip slightly protruding. vulva oval, vagina has thick wall (bastian, 1865). eggs: a. avenae eggs are similar to other nematode species and are oval shape to elongated transparent, embryogenesis process can observe inside eggs. length and width of eggs were as follow: eggs length= 98.75μm. width=40.93 μm female morphometrical measurements and body ratios: l=1.2 mm. v= 220.95μm. st= 20.76μm. f= 54.91μm. v-a= 219.37μm. t=56.49 μm. c= 21.24. b= 21.85. a=35.03. male: anterior part is similar to female body shape straight at rest (pl.2, a b and c). it has two spicules cephalated near to tail. gubernaculum v shape. tail is taper; most studies mentioned that male rate is very rare (1:10000) or absent, but in our culture male ratio was approximately 1: 100 females (bastian, 1865). l= 0.6 mm. spicules= 31 μm. t=60.25 μm. c=9.87. a= 19.59 μm aphelenchus avenae propagation in different fungus culture: diagram (1) illustrates that after two weeks of incubation a. avenae propagated and increased in number at the huge level on f. graminearum number of nematode reached to (114233) while f. oxysporum was secondly preferred by a. avenae and number of nematodes were (47013). this means that a. avenae was also propagating well on f. oxysporum and these results agreed with many researchers who stated that a. avenae could feed on different species of fusrium (okada, 2006; karuri et al., 2014). a. avenae incubated in v. dahlia increased in number to 15000, lower nematode reproduction on v. dahlia as compared with two other species of fusarium is possibly due to the thinner width of v. dahliae hyphae, rather than the length of nematode stylet (okada, 2006). these results illustrate that a. avenae can propagate very quickly and increase in number to reach a huge number in a short time when incubated on preferable fungi to feed on hyphal tissue (pl. 3) which make it effective bio-control agents. number of a. avenae didn't increase and nematodes were dead while incubated on liquid culture of the same fungi after two weeks. this result agreed with the idea that a. avenae could not propagate and living in liquid substrate cause nematode need to perpendicularly attach their stylet to the hyphal tissue to feed (grewal et al., 2005). in all fungal culture nematode destroyed and hydrolyzed fungal mycelium during their feeding (pl.4) which means that a. avenae secrete hydrolytic enzymes to dissolve and feed on hyphae tissues(ishibashi et al., 2005). diagram (1): increasing in a. avenae population on fusarium graminearum, f. oxysporum and verticillium dahlia cultures grew on pda after two week of incubation. 254 first record of mycetophagous nematode aphelenchus avenae in iraq plate (1): aphelenchus avenae: a) female; b) anterior portion show esophagus, medium bulb and stylet. c and d) vulva in ventral and lateral side. e) tail region show rectum and anal opening. f) female in egg laying stage, eggs can be seen inside body and vulva opened for egg laying. g) eggs in different embryogenesis stage. 255 ibrahim esa taher et al. plate (2): aphelenchus avenae : a. male; b. c.d. posterior end of male show spicules and tail region. d 256 first record of mycetophagous nematode aphelenchus avenae in iraq plate (4): fungi culture after two week on incubation with a. avenae and fungi culture without a. avenae, water added (control) shows hydrolysis of fungi mycelium. plate (3): show anterior portion of a. avenae and its stylet during feeding on fungi hayphae. 257 ibrahim esa taher et al. literature cited barnes, g.l., russel, c.c., foster, w.d. and mcnew, r.w. 1981.aphelenchusavenae, a potential biological control for root rot fungi. plant diseases, 65:423-424. bastian, h.c. 1865. monograph on the anguillulidae or free nematoids, arine, land, and freshwater; with descriptions of 100 new species. transactions of the linnean society of london, 25: 73-184. giannakis, n. and sanders, f.e. 1989. interactions between mycophagous nematodes, mycorrhizal and other soil fungi. agriculture, ecosystems and environment, 29: 163167. goodey, j.b. 1960. rhadinaphelenchus cocophilus (cobb, 1919) n. comb., the nematode associated with "red-ring" disease of coconut. nematologica, 5: 98-102. grewal, p.s., ehlers, r-u. and shapiro-ilan, d.i. 2005. nematodes as biocontrol agents.wallingford, uk: cabi publishing.505pp. ishibashi, n. 2005. potential of fungal-feeding nematodes for the control of soil-borne plant pathogens.in p.s. grewal, r.-u ehlers and d.i. shapiro-ilan (eds.) nematodes as biocontrol agents. cabi publishing cab international 875 wallingford-oxfordshire ox10 8de cambridge, uk, 470-472 pp. ishibashi, n., ali, m.d. and saramoto, m. 2000. mass-production of fungivorous nematode, aphelenchus avenae bastian 1865, on industrial vegetable/animal wastes. japanese journal of nematology, 30: 8-17. ishibashi, n., takayama, s. and kondo, e. 2005. propagation and feeding behavior of the mycetophagous nematode, aphelenchus avenue, on four species of soil fungi. nematological research (japanese journal of nematology), 35(1): 13-19. karuri, h.w., amata, r., amugune, n. and waturu, c. 2014. interaction of fusarium oxysporum f. sp. vasinfectum and the fungal feeding nematode aphelenchus avenae on bt cotton. journal of plant pathology, 96 (1), 183-188. machado, a.c.z., kercya maria, s. and jeronim vieira, f. 2010. methods and techniques in plant nematology. vdm, usa, p 101-103. mankau, r. and mankau, s.k. 1963. the role of mycophagous nematodes in the soil. the relationships of aphelenchus avenae to phytopathogenic soil fungi. pp 271-280. in. j doeksen and j van der drift, eds. soil organisms, p 271-280. the netherlands: northholland publishing co. matsunaga, t., wang, x.d. and ishibashi, n. 1996. interference by entomopathogenic and fungivorous nematodes of root invasion by plant parasitic nematodes. japanese journal of nematology, 26: 1-11. okada, h. 2006. ecology of fungivorous nematodes and their use for suppression of plant diseases. bulletin of the national agricultural research centre for tohoku, 105:155197. (published in japanese with english summary). https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/af06s010shsikskgmnhyj?chshnmhkwtsh=sachiko+takayama https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/af06s010shsikskgmnhyj?chshnmhkwtsh=eizo+kondo https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/af06s010srytophyj?srycd=jjn&novol=35&noissue= 258 first record of mycetophagous nematode aphelenchus avenae in iraq okada, h. and ferris, h. 2001. temperature effects on growth and nitrogen mineralization of fungi and fungal-feeding nematodes. plant and soil, 234:253-262. sas. 1999.sas/stat user’s guide, version 8.2, 1st printing. vol. 2.sas institute inc, sas campus drive, gray, north carolina. 259 ibrahim esa taher et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2017) 14 (3): 251-259 للدودة الخيطية المتطفلة على الفطرياتاول تسجيل aphelenchus avenae في العراق لفطرياتل اوساط زراعية مختلفةو وصفها ودراسة تكاثرها و تطفلها على حليم عبدالجبار رائد ، سليمان نايف عمي ،م عيسى طاهر ابراهي بارين صدقي شريف و اقليم كردستان العراق ،دهوك ، جامعة دهوك ،كلية الزراعة ،قسم وقاية النبات 02.71510 :تأريخ القبول 02.21.0102: تأريخ االستالم الخالصة من تاج نباتات aphelenchus avenae طية المتطفلة على الفطرياتتم عزل الدودة الخي قضاء في .fusarium spp من بأنواعبمرض تعفن التاج نتيجة اصابته هالقمح المصاب بعد زراعة تاج نباتات القمح في الوسط . العراق -محافظة دهوك، اقليم كردستان -سميل a. avenae الدودة الخيطية ، وجدت°م 52و تحضينه عند درجة حرارة pdaالغذائي تاج المصاحبة لتعفنكانت متطفلة على الفطريات انهامما يشير الى للفطريات مصاحبة . الحنطة، و اشارت النتائج الى انها تسجل ألول مرة في العراق و f. oxysporumو f. graminearum الفطريات معa. avenae حضنت verticillium dahliae لدراسة تكاثرها و تطفلها على هذه الفطريات في اوساط صلبة ثم graminearum. f الفطرعلى كان للدودةافضل تكاثر وجد بأنوسائلة، f. oxysporum و v. dahlia لم تتكاثر الدودة الخيطية .على التوالي a. avena في .السائلة لهذه الفطرياتالمزارع bull 15 asmaa hassan al-hashmi et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. july, (2018) 15 (1): 15-29 key to the species of the orthetrum newman, 1833 (odonata, libellulidae) with a new record species in iraq asmaa hassan al-hashmi * hana h. al-saffar ** and razzaq shalan augul ** * department of biology, college of science, al mustansiriyah university, baghdad, iraq ** iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq corresponding author: asmaa_alhashmi80@yahoo.com* *asmaa_alhashmi80@uomustansiriyah.edu.iq received date: 09 january 2018 accepted date: 21 january 2018 abstract this paper provides an identification key to the species of orthetrum newman, 1833 (odonata, libellulidae), including six species that were collected from different localities in iraq. the species of o. anceps (schneider, 1845) is registered as a new record in iraq; the most important characters which are used in diagnostic key are included. key words: iraq, libellulidae, new record, odonata, orthetrum. introduction the dragonfly insects belonging to the odonata, are abundant and of worldwide distribution (corbet, 1980); the genus of orthetrum newman, 1833 under the guild of anisoptera in libellulidae family, is the biggest one of dragonfly world-wide (manwar et al., 2012), and this genus is a very large one, spread across the old world (watson et al., 1991). the genus of orthetrum contains about sixty of species worldwide (dijkstra and kalkman, 2012). this genus is characterized by: sectors of arculus in fore wings with a differentiated merger before encounter arculus; bases of hind wings without blackish-brown markings; ever any accessive cross-veins to the bridge (fraser, 1936). it is already typified in iraq by the following fives species: o. brunneum (fonscolombe, 1837), o. coerulescens (fabricius, 1798), o. sabina (drury, 1773), o. taeniolatum (schneider, 1845), o. trinacria (selys, 1841) according to the list (kalkman, 2006). there are no detailed studies of this genus in iraq, but there are found on other genera of the same family, for example: abd and al-asady (2012, 2014), abd (2013), ali and khidhir (2015). from the other hand, augul et al. (2016) were re-description of o. chrysostigma (burmeister, 1839) and referred to it as a new record from iraq, although previously is none doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2018.15.1.0015 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/old_world 16 key to the species of the orthetrum newman, 1833 specifically mentioned by askew (1988); therefore, this paper was conducted to design a key to species under the genus of orthetrum in iraq. materials and methods specimens collection and identification a lot of specimens belonging to orthetrum species (odonata, libellulidae) were collected from several provinces of iraq by using air net during 2017. the specimens were killed by freezing for few hours, and mounting by insect pins. the date and localities of collecting samples were recorded. the members of genus orthetrum were diagnosed by using different taxonomic keys such as: fraser (1936), dumont (1991), kalkman (2006) and degabriele (2013). the specimens were capturing photo by the dino-light microscope used with scale of measurements; in addition, some plates were taken with a samsung galaxy s4, gt-19500 and used binocular dissecting microscope (mb. mariobroma.srl, roma) to magnificent the morphological features. the collecting materials were compared with spacemen's stored at the iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad. the newly collected species were deposited in the insect collection of the department of entomology and invertebrates at iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad. abbreviations following the abbreviations of the diagnostic features that used in the present key: ab. s : abdominal segment me : membranula alo : anal loop mspl : nervulus between cu &ma ala : anterior lamina nod : nodus anc : transverse antenodal nurvulus pnc : transverse postnodal nurvulus arc : arculus ppt : paraproct c : costal vein pt : pterostigma cn : transverse cubital nurvulus ri : 1st radius vein cuii : cubital vein rii : 2nd radius vein df : discoidal field riii : 3rd radius vein em2 : mesoepimerum riv : 4th radius vein em3 : metaepimerum rs : radius vein glo : genital lobe rspl : nervulus between lriii & riv h : hook sap-cr : superior anal appendage ha : hamula sc : subcosta vein hs : humeral suture sn : subnodus ht : humeral triangle sp : spine ia : anal vein st : sub triangular cell iapept : inferior anal appendage su1 : suture 1 iriii : 1st radius vein branch su2 : suture 2 lo : lobe t : triangular cell ma : median arculus vs : vulvar scale 17 asmaa hassan al-hashmi et al. results and discussion in the present study, an identification key to species was made depending on the morphological characters, and followed by geographical distribution; these species included: o. anceps, o. brunneum, o. sabina, o. taeniolatum, o. chrysostigma and o. trinacria ; the first one is registered as a new record in iraq. key to the species of orthetrum newman, 1833: 1membranula pure white (pl. 1 a, b )…………………………………….............. 2 membranula dark or dark brown (pl.1 c, d, e, f )……..……………………….. 3 2all cells between iriii and rspl in fore wing are not doubled (pl.2 a ) ; cubital vein (cuii) in hind wing emerging from the rear angle of discoidal cell (pl. 2 b); secondary genitalia as in plate (4 a); female vulvar scale as in plate (a5) ………………………………………………………………o. anceps (schneider) four or more cells between iriii and rspl are doubled in both wings (pl. 3 a1); cubital vein in hind wing emerging from the ulterior side of discoidal cell (pl. 3 a2) ..…….…………………..……………….… o. brunneum (b. de fonscolombe) 3base of abdomen ( s2 – s3) bulbously swollen and thence abruptly skinny and compacted laterally to the end, s7 -9 expanded and broader than s4 6; black marked with greenishyellow (pl 6 c ); appendages yellow (pl.7 c ); secondary genitalia as in plate (4 c) with orange hairs on the anterior lamina; female vulvar scale as in plate (5 b )………………………………………………………..… o. sabina (drury) base of abdomen (s2 – s3) expanded but not bulbously swollen, never very skinny nor compacted laterally (pl.6 d, e, f); mostly with pruinosed abdomen and thorax; less than four cells are doubled between iriii and rspl (pl.3 c, d, e ); appendage dark (pl.7 d, e, f)…………………………………..……………………………..….4 4small species in plate (10b), with total length less than 4 cm; cubital vein in hind wing emerging from the rear angle of discoidal cell (pl.3 c ); membranula very narrow and dark brown bordered with white (pl.1 d ); side of thorax with two pale stripes one behind the humeral suture in mesoepimerum and one behind the second suture in metaepimerum (pl.8 d ) ………………………………………………………. o. taeniolatum (schneider) moderately large species in plate (10 c), total length not exceeding 5 cm; cubital vein in hind wing emerging from the ulterior side of discoidal cell (pl.3 d ); side of thorax with one pale stripe behind the humeral suture in mesoepimerum (pl.8 e ); the abdominal is characterized by having waisted between abdominal segments 3 and 4 (pl.6 e ) .…………………………….……………….………..… o. chrysostigma (burmeister) large species in plate (10 d), total length exceeding 5 cm; cubital vein in hind wing emerging from the ulterior side of discoidal cell well afar from its rear angle (pl.3 e ); side of thorax without any pale stripe (pl.8 f ); the male superior anal appendage twice as long as in inferior (pl.7 e); female vulvar scale as in plate (5 c) ………………………………………………………….……. o. trinacria (selys) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/edward_newman_(entomologist) 18 key to the species of the orthetrum newman, 1833 orthetrum anceps (schneider, 1845) materials examined: (4 specimens 2♂♂, 2♀♀) dohuk province, zawita, 1♂, 2♀♀), 26.ix.2010; karbala province, ain al tammer, 1♂, 25.ix.2010. distribution: europe to india, northern africa (itis, 2017), newly recorded in iraq. note: the male genitalia of this species compared and agreed with (klingenberg and martens, 1996). orthetrum sabina (drury, 1773) materials examined: (22 specimens 8♂♂, 14♀♀) wasit province, az aziziya, 5♂♂, 8♀♀) 2.v.2013; maysan province, hawiza marshes, 1♂, 3♀♀, 14.vi.2015; baghdad province, madaen, 2♂♂, 3♀♀, 3.x.2016. distribution: iraq, egypt, libya, kuwait, saudi arabia, united arab emirates, jordan, lebanon, syria, qatar, oman, yemen, bahrain, sudan, tunisia, eritrea, iran, turkey, turkmenistan, afghanistan, lao, algeria, brunei, armenia, greece, australia, cyprus, bangladesh, azerbaijan, bhutan, cambodia, darussalam, chad, ethiopia, georgia, hong kong, india, japan, kazakhstan, malaysia, indonesia, myanmar, nepal, new caledonia, pakistan, thailand, papua new guinea, philippines, russia, singapore, solomon islands, timor-leste, somalia, china, sri lanka, taiwan, israel, uzbekistan, tajikistan and viet nam (mitra, 2013). orthetrum brunneum (fonsclombe, 1837) materials examined: (2 specimens 2♂♂) sulaymaniyah province, zalan district, 14.vii.2010 distribution: mediterranean region, central europe, north africa, middle east and mongolia (ebrahimi et al., 2013). orthetrum taeniolatum (schneider, 1845) materials: (5 specimens 5♂♂) baghdad province, baghdad province, madaen, 3♂♂, 20. iv.2015; rashidayia, 2♂♂, 3.v.2017. distribution: afghanistan, middle east, nepal, northern africa southwards to nigeria and ethiopia, northern india, pakistan (ebrahimi et al., 2013). orthetrum trinacria (selys,1841) materials examined: (3 specimens 2♂♂, 1♀) maysan province , hawiza marshes, 1♂, 14.vi.2015; baghdad province, yossifiya, 1♂, 1♀, 3.x.2016. distribution: iraq, saudi arabia, syria, egypt, jordan, kuwait, libya, libya, tunisia, morocco, south sudan, turkey, iran, algeria, ethiopia, namibia, angola, cameroon, botswana, burkina faso, cape verde;, niger, côte d'ivoire, gabon, malta, ghana, israel, greece, italy, kenya, liberia, madagascar, zimbabwe, malawi, tanzania, mauritania, south 19 asmaa hassan al-hashmi et al. africa, mayotte, nigeria, portugal, rwanda, senegal, mali, somalia, congo, spain, mozambique, gambia, swaziland, togo, zambia and uganda (boudot et al., 2016a). orthetrum chrysostigma (burmeister, 1839) materials examined: maysan province, hawiza marshes, 1♂, 14.vi.2015; baghdad province, karrada, 3♂♂, 4.x.2017. distribution: egypt, jordan, lebanon, libya, syria, saudi arabia, united arab emirates, yemen, oman, sudan, palestine, tunisia, mauritania, morocco, eritrea, iran, turkey, algeria, ethiopia, angola, benin, uganda, botswana, somalia, burkina faso, cameroon, zimbabwe, gambia, chad, swaziland, congo, côte d'ivoire, mali, guinea, kenya, nigeria, liberia, ghana, mozambique, namibia, portugal, rwanda, senegal, zambia sierra leone, south africa, greece, tanzania, spain, togo, and malawi (boudot et al., 2016 b). plate (1): base of hind wing; (a) o. anceps, (b) o.brunneum, (c) o. sabina, (d) o. taeniolatum, (e) o. chrysostigma, (f) o. trinacria. 20 key to the species of the orthetrum newman, 1833 plate (2): wings of orthetrum anceps; (a) fore wing, (b) hind wing. 21 asmaa hassan al-hashmi et al. plate (3): wings of orthetrum; (1) fore wing, (2) hind wing. (a) o.brunneum, (b) o. sabina, (c) o. taeniolatum, (d) o. chrysostigma, (e) o. trinacria 22 key to the species of the orthetrum newman, 1833 plate (4): secondary genitalia of orthetrum; (a) o. anceps, (b) o.brunneum, (c) o. sabina, (d) o. taeniolatum, (e) o. chrysostigma, (f) o. trinacria. 23 asmaa hassan al-hashmi et al. plate (5): vulvar of orthetrum; (a) o. anceps, (b) o. sabina, (c) o. trinacria. plate (6): abdomen of orthetrum; (a) o. anceps, (b) o.brunneum, (c) o. sabina, (d) o. taeniolatum, (e) o. chrysostigma, (f) o. trinacria. 24 key to the species of the orthetrum newman, 1833 plate (7): appendages of orthetrum; (a) o. anceps, (b) o.brunneum, (c) o. sabina, (d) o. taeniolatum, (e) o. chrysostigma, (f) o. trinacria. plate (8): synthorax of orthetrum; (a) o. anceps, (b) o.brunneum, (c) o. sabina, (d) o. taeniolatum, (e) o. chrysostigma, (f) o. trinacria. 25 asmaa hassan al-hashmi et al. plate (9): adults; (a) o. anceps, (b) o. brunneum. 26 key to the species of the orthetrum newman, 1833 literature cited abd, i. f. 2013. morphological study of diplacodes nebulosa (fabricius) (odonata: libellulidae), new record to iraq. journal of madent alelem college, 5: 24-33. (in arabic). abd, i. f. and al-asady, h. s. 2012. external morphological study of diplacodes triviales rambure (odonata: libellulidae) new record to iraq. ibn al-haitham journal for pure and applied science, 25(2): 70-82. (in arabic) plate (10): adults; (a) o. sabina, (b) o. taeniolatum, (c) o. chrysostigma, (d) o. trinacria. 27 asmaa hassan al-hashmi et al. abd, i. f. and al-asady, h. s. 2014. external morphological study of selysiothemis nigra (van der linden, 1825) (odonata: libellulidae). journal of karbala university, the 2nd scientific conference for college of science, (special issue): 31-41. (in arabic). ali,w. k. and khidhir, a. s. 2015. morphological study of the sympetrum arenicolor jödicke, 1994 (odonata: libellulidae) collected in kurdistan région-iraq. entomology, ornithology & herpetology, 4 (4):1000168. augul, r. s., al-hashmi, a. h. and al-saffar, h. h. 2016. new record of the epaulet skimmer: orthetrum chrysostigma (burmeister) (odonata:libellulidae) from iraq. journal of biodiversity and environmental sciences, 8(5): 233-238. askew, r. r. 1988. the dragonflies of europe. harley books, martins, great horkesley, colchester, essex, england, 291 pp. boudot, j. p., clausnitzer, v., samraoui, b., suhling, f. and dijkstra, k. d. b. 2016a. orthetrum trinacria. the iucn red list of threatened species 2016: e.t59965a83859517. http://dx.doi.org/10.2305/iucn.uk.20163.rlts.t59965a83859517.en. (downloaded on 07 january 2018) boudot, j. p., clausnitzer, v., samraoui, b., suhling, f., dijkstra, k. d. b. and schneider, w. 2016b. orthetrum chrysostigma. the iucn red list of threatened species 2016: e.t59954a83856823. http://dx.doi.org/10.2305/iucn.uk.20163.rlts.t59954a83856823en. (downloaded on 07 january 2018) corbet, p. 1980. biology of odonata. annual review of entomology, 25: 189-217. degabriele, g. 2013. an overview of the dragonflies and damselflies of the maltese islands (central mediterranean) (odonata). bulletin of the entomological society of malta, 6: 5–127. dijkstra, k. d. b. and kalkman, v. j. 2012. phylogeny, classification and taxonomy of european dragonflies and damselflies (odonata): a review. organisms diversity and evolution, 12(3): 209-227. dumont, h. j. 1991. odonata of the levant, fauna palestinae v. jerusalem, israel: academy of sciences and humanities, 297 pp. ebrahimi, a., mohammadian, h. and madjdzadeh, s. m. 2013. the dragonflies of family libellulidae (odonata: anisoptera) of the khabr national park (kerman province, south-east iran). far eastern entomologist, 270: 7-11. 28 key to the species of the orthetrum newman, 1833 fraser, f. c. 1936. the fauna of british india including ceylon and burma. odonata, 3, taylor and francis ltd., london, 461 pp. itis, 2017. catalogue of life: 20th december 2017. available at: http://www.catalogueoflife.org/col/details/species/id/9696016 kalkman, v. j. 2006. key to dragonflies of turkey, including species known from greece, bulgaria, lebanon, syria, the trans-caucasus and iran. brachytron, 10: 3-82. klingenberg, k. and martens, a. 1996. record of an intermediate form between orthetrum coerulescens (fabricius) and o. anceps (schneider) in southern spain (anisoptera: libellulidae). advances odonatology, supplement 1: 117-121. manwar, n. a., rathod, p. p. and raja, i. a. 2012. diversity and abundance of dragonflies and damselflies of chatri lake region, in pohara–malkhed reserve forest, amravati, maharashtra (india). international journal of engineering research and applications, 2(5): 521-523. mitra, a. 2013. orthetrum sabina. the iucn red list of threatened species 2013: e.t165470a17533255. http://dx.doi.org/10.2305/iucn.uk.20131.rlts.t165470a17533255.en. (downloaded on 07 january 2018) watson, j. a. l., theischinger, g. and abbey, h. m. 1991. the australian dragonflies: a guide to the identification, distributions and habitats of australian odonata. melbourne: csiro, 278pp. 29 asmaa hassan al-hashmi et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2018) 15 (1): 15-29 الجنسمفتاح ألنواع orthetrum newman, 1833 (odonata, libellulidae) مع تسجيل نوع جديد للعراق **رزاق شعالن عكل و **، هناء هاني الصفار*أسماء حسن الهاشمي العراق ،بغداد ،مستنصريةالالجامعة ،كلية العلوم ،قسم علوم الحياة* العراق ،بغداد ،جامعة بغداد، مركز بحوث ومتحف التأريخ الطبيعي** 80/90/8902 :تاريخ القبول 90/90/8902: تاريخ االستالم الخالصة orthetrum اعد خالل هذه الدراسة مفتاحا تشخيصيا ألنواع الجنس newman, 1833 رتبة الرعاشات، عائلةlibellulidae انواع 6 ، متضمنا .من مناطق مختلفة في العراق تجمع o. anceps (schneider, 1845) شارت النتائج الى تسجيل النوعأ مرة في العراق، زود المفتاح بالصور التوضيحية ألهم الصفات المظهرية ألول .المعتمدة في التشخيص bull 261 m.s. abdul-rassoul bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2017) 14 (3): 261-265 first record of apoleptomastix bicoloricornis (girault, 1915) (hymenoptera, encyrtidae), as parasitoid of the rice mealybug, brevennia rehi (lindinger, 1943) (hemiptera, pseudococcidae) in iraq m. s. abdul-rassoul iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq e-mail: msabr_1942@yahoo.com received date: 03.may. 2017 accepted date: 22.may.2017 abstract here we report for the first time the presence of apoleptomastix bicoloricornis (girault, 1915) (hymenoptera, encyrtidae), as parasitoid of the rice mealybug, brevennia rehi (lindinger, 1943) (hemiptera, psedococcidae) in iraq. brief notes are provided in distinguishing the parasitoid from other closely allied species. keywords: apoleptomastix, brevennia, echinochloa, encyrtidae, iraq. introduction the rice mealybug, brevennia rehi (lindinger, 1943) (hemiptera, pseudococcidae), is a widely distributed insect throughout rice growing areas. it has a huge host range, particularly in the family poaceae and occurs in all of the zoogeographic regions of the world (ben-dove et al., 2015). it was first reported in iraq by bodenheimer (1943) under rhizoecus cynodontis bodenheimer (1943) on cynodon dactylon (l.) pers. (poaceae) at basra province south of iraq. beside its distribution, recently it was collected from baghdad at al-khadraa district where it is common on echinochloa colona (l.) nink (poaceae) plant that used to grow in a residential garden. echinochloa colona, which is a weed, grows widely in iraq in moist places, lawns, gardens, vegetable patches, irrigated fields and along irrigation ditches (hassawy et al., 1968). in this work, we report the first record of apoleptomastix bicoloricornis parasitizing brevennia rehi on echinochloa colona in baghdad, iraq. materials and methods the mealybug host was identified as brevennia rehi (lindinger, 1943) using the taxonomic key by williams and granara de willink (1992). in this study, specimens of encyrtid parasitoids were reared from the rice mealybug feeding on twigs of echinochloa colona. a total of parasitoid adults 49 female sand 36 males were emerged on september 2002. it was identified as apoleptomastix bicoloricornis (girault, 1915) (hymenoptera, encyrtidae) based on the taxonomic characters of the adult female giving by noyes and hayat (1994). doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2017.14.3.0261 262 first record of apoleptomastix bicoloricornis the plates were taken with a samsung galaxy s4, gt-19500 and used binocular dissecting microscope (mb. mariobroma.srl, roma) to magnify the morphological features. mounted specimens are deposited in the collection of iraq natural history museum. results and discussion reviewing the literature revealed that apoleptomastix bicoloricornis was originally described in australia by girault (1915) under the name leptomastix bicoloricornis and synonymized by kerrich (1982) as apoleptomastix bicoloricornis. this species is an endoparasitoid of mealybugs, widely distributed in the afrotropical, australian and oriental regions where it is common on coccidohystrix insolita (green, 1908) (shamim and shafee, 1984); brevennia rehi (noyes and hayat, 1994); heterococcus nigeriensis williams, 1961 (noyes, 2017). more recently, it was reported from tajikistan, egypt and saudi arabia (hayat et al., 2014). the following are the diagnostic characters of the parasitoid apoleptomastix.bicoloricornis: female (pl.1): length 1.70-2.10 mm. body completely dark brown or black; thorax with scutellum, tegulae and mesopleuron completely black or dark brown. flagellum with dark and pale segments; scape cylindrical, with a pattern of dark brown and whitish markings; pedicle shorter than first funicular segment , at least about four times as long as broad; funicle sixsegmented; club three –segmented; all funicular segments longer than wide. forewings uniformly hyaline or lightly infuscate, without distinct darker areas basally; marginal vein longer than wide; linea clava not reaching half way across wing, broadly closed posteriorly. legs with at least hind femora dark brown. gaster mostly dark brown; ovipositor sheath short or hidden. male (pl.2): length 1.00-1.20 mm; generally similar to female except antenna clothed with setae. aknowledgment i would like to thank my colleague prof. dr. razzaq shalan augul of iraq natural history research center and museum for photographing of these specimens. plate (1): apoleptomastix bicoloricornis female https://war.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/williams_(awtor) 263 m.s. abdul-rassoul plate (2): apoleptomastix bicoloricornis male literature cited ben-dov, y., miller, d. r. and gibson, a. p. 2015. scalenet. ( available at:. http://www.sel.barc.usda.gov/scalenet/scalenet.htm/ .accessed july 2015). bodenheimer, f. s. 1943. a first survey of the coccoidae of iraq. directorate general of agriculture. baghdad, bulletin, no. (28): 33 pp. girault, a.a. 1915. australian hymenoptera chalcidoidea-vii. the family encyrtidae with descriptions of new genera and species. memoirs of the queenland museum, 4: 152. hassawy, g.s., tammimi, s.a. and al-izzi, h. 1968. weeds in iraq. ministry of agriculture botany division. technical bulletin, no. 167: 256pp. hayat, m., ahmad, z. and khan, f. r. 2014. encyrtidae (hymenoptera: chalcidoidea) from the kingdom of saudi arabia. zootaxa, 3793 (1): 001059. kerrich, g.j. 1982. further systematic studies on tetracnemine encyrtidae (hym., chalcidoidea) including a revision of the genus apoanagyrus compere. journal of natural history, 16: 399-430. noyes, j. s. 2017. universal chalcidoidea database. world wide web electronic publication. available at: http://www.nhm.ac.uk/chalcidoids. (accessed 6 may 2017). noyes, j. s. and hayat, m. 1994. oriental mealybug parasitoids of the anagyrini (hymenoptera: encyrtidae). cab international, wallingford. oxon. viii+554p. 264 first record of apoleptomastix bicoloricornis shamim, s. m. and shafee, s. a. 1984. four new species of encyrtidae (hymenoptera) from bihar, india. indian journal of systematic entomology, 1: 23-28. williams, d.j. and granara de willink, m.c. 1992. mealybugs of central and south america. cab international, london, england. 635 pp. 265 m.s. abdul-rassoul bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2017) 14 (3): 261-265 apoleptomastix bicoloricornis (girault, 1915) تسجيل جديد رتبة غشائية االجنحةمن للطفيلي (hymenoptera, encyrtidae) في العراق محمد صالح عبد الرسول جامعة بغداد ، بغداد، العراق ،مركز بحوث ومتحف التاريخ الطبيعى 3.5.01033: تأريخ القبول 3.5.0102: تأريخ االستالم الخالصة ,apoleptomastix bicoloricornis (giraultالطفيلىالزنبور تم تسجيل تواجد 1915) (hymenoptera, encyrtidae) على البق للمرة االولى في العراق متطفلا ,brevennia rehi (lindinger, 1943) (hemiptera الدقيقى للرز، pseudococcidae) ،مع ذكر ملحظات موجزة لتمييز هذا النوع عن في محافظة بغداد .االنواع القريبة له فى نفس الجنس bull 99 abid ali j.j. al-saadi and rabab a. rasheed bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2016) 14 (2): 99-108 the occurrence of three monogenean parasite species for the first time in iraq on gills of the common carp cyprinus carpio linnaeus, 1758 (cypriniformes, cyprinidae) abid ali j.j. al-saadi and rabab a. rasheed department of biology, college of education (ibn-al-haitham) for pure science, university of baghdad, iraq corresponding author: abidali_alsaadi@yahoo.com abstract the monogeneans gyrodactylus dzhalilovi ergens & ashurova, 1984, g. magnus konovalov, 1967 and g. matovi ergens & kakachava-avramova, 1966 were recorded in this study for the first time in iraq from gills of the common carp cyprinus carpio linnaeus, 1758 collected from tigris river in baghdad city. the description, measurements and illustrations of these parasites were given. key words: cyprinus carpio, gyrodactylusdzhalilovi, gyrodectylus magnus, gyrodactylus matovi, iraq, monogenea. introduction all living organisms, including fishes in nature or farms can be exposed to the infection with the parasites. fishes in nature are infected with a great variety of parasites, includes protozoans, monogeneans, trematodes, cestodes, nematodes, acanthocephalans and crustaceans (price and tom, 2005). the class monogenea (phylum platyhelminthes) includes ectoparasites on the skin, fins and gills of a largest group of fishes with direct life cycle. like other flatworms, monogeneans have no true body cavity (coelom), lack respiratory, skeletal and circulatory systems and have a simple digestive system (hoole et al., 2001; woo, 2006). gyrodactylus nordmann, 1832 occur on a wide array of fishes, possess a high degree of host-specificity (buchmann, 2012). species of this genus are parasites of freshwater teleosts (bykhovskaya-pavlovskaya et al., 1962). gyrodactylus species are seen especially in teleost fishes, infect and live ectoparasitically on skin, fins and gills (koyun and altunel, 2011). in the genus gyrodactylus, the ventrally directed opisthaptor is equipped with two median hooks and 16 marginal hooklets. the most prominent character is the uterus in which the embryo develops. the parasite is viviparous which produces a young that may already has its own embryo (buchmann, 2012). these worms cause irritation and excessive mucus productions which create an open window for bacterial invasion (reed et al., 1996). 100 the occurrence of three monogenean parasite species the disease resulting from gyrodactylus infection is called gyrodactylosis which has been reported to be responsible for death of a wide variety of fishes (szczembarra, 2011). in iraq, some reports were available on the description of some gyrodactylus species for the first time in iraq (ali and shaaban, 1984; ali et al., 1988; salih et al., 1988; abdulameer, 1989; mhaisen et al., 1990; al-zubaidy, 1998; abdullah, 2002; jori, 2006; alzubaidy, 2007; mama, 2012; abdul-ameer and al-saadi, 2013a; 2013b; abdullah, 2013; nasraddin, 2013; al-salmany, 2015). so, more surveys on fish parasites are needed to recognize more species and for increasing the information on the parasitic fauna of freshwater fishes of iraq. in this paper, the occurrence of g. dzhalilovi ergens & ashurova, 1984, g. magnus konovalov, 1967 and g. matovi ergens & kakachava-avramova, 1966 infecting gills of the cyprinidfish c. carpio is documented for the first time in iraq. materials and methods a total of 61 specimens of the common carp cyprinus carpio linnaeus, 1758 were collected from different locations along tigris river near al-shawwaka region in baghdad city. sampling was done weekly twice during the period from december 2015 to april 2016. fishes were transported alive, placed in container containing local river water and immediately transferred to the laboratory of parasitology, college of education for pure science (ibn-al-haitham). the fishes were identified according to coad (2010). in the laboratory, the fishes were examined externally for parasites of skin, fins and buccal cavity. smears were prepared by slight scraping and examined under a light compound microscope. the gill arches from both sides were separated, placed in petri dish containing tap water and examined for ectoparasites. pieces of gill filaments were tiered by needle. worms (after leaving the gills) were removed from the water by a small pipette and placed on a slide, with a very small amount of water. they were covered with a cover slip with glycerin-gelatin. a piece of melted glycerin-gelatin was dropped with cover slip onto worm. the cover slip was dried with a blotting paper carefully and the worms in glycerin-gelatin were cautiously thickened (kritsky et al., 2004). drawings of the sclerotized pieces of the haptor were made by using a camera lucida. measurements of the parasites were done by using a micrometer. parasites identification was performed according to three taxonomical accounts (bykhovskaya-pavlovskaya et al., 1962; gussev, 1985; pugachev et al., 2010). the information on the previous account records of parasites were checked by using the index-catalog of parasites and disease agents of fishes of iraq (mhaisen, 2016). results and discussion out of the 61 common carps, one fish was infected with the monogenean g. dzhalilovi so, the prevalence of infection was 1.6% and the mean intensity was 1; one fish was infected with g. magnus so, the prevalence of infection was 1.6%and the mean intensity was 2 and one fish was infected with g. matovi,so, the prevalence of infection was 1.6% and the mean intensity was 1. these parasites were found on the gills of examined fishes. the following is a brief description and measurements of these parasites (in mm) as shown in figures (1-3). 101 abid ali j.j. al-saadi and rabab a. rasheed gyroductylus dzhalilovi ergens & ashurova, 1984 (fig. 1): small worms, body length 0.5. total length of marginal hooks 0.030, hooklet 0.005. overall length of median hook 0.059, main part 0.045, point 0.021, inner root 0.019. size of ventral bar 0.004 x 0.020. size of dorsal bar 0.0009 x 0.010. gyroductylus magnus konovalov, 1967 (fig. 2): small worms body length 0.53-0.66 (0.60). total length of marginal hooks 0.042-0.056 (0.049), hooklet 0.009-0.011 (0.010). total length of median hooks 0.071-0.079 (0.075), main part 0.067-0.078 (0.073), point 0.040-0.044 (0.042), inner root 0.028-0.033 (0.031). size of ventral bar 0.010-0.015 (0.013) x 0.037-0.044 (0.041), membrane 0.020-0.023 (0.022). size of dorsal bar 0.003-0.006 (0.005) x 0.024-0.036 (0.030). g. matovi ergens & kakacheva-avramova, 1966 (fig. 3): small worms, body length 0.36. total length of marginal hooks 0.032, hooklet 0.005. total length of median hook 0.063, main part 0.044, point 0.028, inner root 0.022. size of ventral bar 0.005 x 0.028, membrane 0.012. size of dorsal bar 0.002 x 0.024. the measurements of the present parasites g. dzhalilovi, g. magnus and g. matovi are in agreement with these of the holotypes of these parasites (gussev, 1985; pugachev et al., 2010). in this paper, g. dzhalilovi, g. magnus and g. matovi infecting gills of the cyprinid fish c. carpio, are described for the first time in iraq. 102 the occurrence of three monogenean parasite species figure (1): gyrodactylus dzhalilovi a: photomicrograph of the haptor (40x). b: camera lucida drawing of the marginal hook and haptor. dcb: dorsal connecting bar, h= hooklet, vcb: ventral connecting bar. 103 abid ali j.j. al-saadi and rabab a. rasheed figure (2): gyrodactylus magnus a: photomicrograph of the haptor (40x). b: camera lucida drawing of the marginal hook and haptor. dcb: dorsal connecting bar, h= hooklet, m= membranoid extension. vcb: ventral connecting bar. 104 the occurrence of three monogenean parasite species figure (3): gyrodactylus matovi a: photomicrograph of the haptor (40x). b: camera lucida drawing of the marginal hook and haptor. dcb: dorsal connecting bar, h= hooklet, m= membranoid extension, vcb: ventral connecting bar. 105 abid ali j.j. al-saadi and rabab a. rasheed acknowledgements thanks are due to prof. dr. furhan t. mhaisen for checking the present records with his index-catalogue of parasites and disease agents of fishes of iraq and for his critical reading of the manuscript. literature cited abdul-ameer, k.n. 1989. study of the parasites of freshwater fishes from tigris river in salah al-dien province, iraq. m. sc. thesis, coll. sci., univ. baghdad: 98pp. (in arabic). abdul-ameer, k.n. and al-saadi, a.a.j. 2013a. first record of the monogenean gyrodactylus lavareti malmberg, 1957 in iraq on gills of the common carp cyprinus carpio. ibn al-haitham journal for pure and applied science, 26(2): 44-49. abdul-ameer, k.n. and al-saadi, a.a. j. 2013b. on the occurrence of the monogenean gyrodactylus taimeni ergens, 1971 for the first time in iraq on gills of the common carp cyprinus carpio. bulletin of the iraq natural history museum, 12(3): 1-9. abdullah, s.m.a. 2002. ecology, taxonomy and biology of some parasites of fishes from lesser zab and greater zab rivers in north of iraq. ph. d. thesis, coll. of educ. for pure sci. (ibn al-haitham), univ. baghdad: 153pp. (in arabic). abdullah, y.s. 2013. study on the parasites of some fishes from darbandikhan lake in kurdistan region, iraq. m. sc. thesis, fac. sci. & sci. educ., univ. sulaimania: 116pp. ali, m.d. and shaaban, f. 1984. some species of parasites of freshwater fish raised in pond and in tigris-al-tharthar canal region. seventh sci. conf. iraqi vet. med. assoc., mosul: 23-25 oct.: 44-46. 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(unpublished: mhaisenft@yahoo.co.uk). mhaisen, f.t., ali, n.m., abul-eis, e.s. and kadim, l.s. 1990. parasitological investigation on the grass carp (ctenopharyngodon idella) of babylon fish farm, hilla, iraq. iraqi journal of biological sciences, 10(1): 89-96. nasraddin, m.o. 2013. some ecological aspects of monogenean infections on some fishes from lesser zabriver, near koysinjaq city, kurdistan region, iraq. m. sc. thesis, coll., sci., univ. salahaddin: 108pp. price, r. and tom, p.d. 2005. parasites in marine fisheshttp://seafood.ucdavis.edu/pubs/parasite.htm. 107 abid ali j.j. al-saadi and rabab a. rasheed pugachev, o. n., gerasev, p. i., gussev, a. v., ergens, r. and khotenowsky, i. 2010. guide to monogenoidea of freshwater fish of palaearetic and amur regions. ledizioni ledipublishing, milano: 567pp. reed, p., francis-floyd, r., klinger, r.e. and petty, d. 1996. monogenean parasite of fish. (this document is fa28, one of a series of the fisheries and aquatic sciences department, florida cooperative extension service), institute of food and agricultural sciences. university of florida. salih, n.e., ali, n.m. and abdul-ameer, k.n. 1988. helminthic fauna of three species of carp raised in ponds in iraq. journal of biological science research, 19(2): 369386. szczembara, a. 2011. gyrodactylus salaris (on-line). animal diversity web at http://animaldversity.ummz.umich.edu/accounts/gyrodactyl-ussalaris. woo, p.t.k. 2006. fish diseases and disorders, volume 1: protozoan and metazoan infections. second ed. cab international, wallingford: 791pp. 108 the occurrence of three monogenean parasite species bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2016) 14 (2): 99-108 ظهىر ثالثت أنىاع ين انطفٍهٍاث ين أحادٌت انًنشأ ألول يزة فً انعزاق ين linnaeus, 1758cyprinus carpio غالصى أسًاك انكارب اإلعخٍادي (انزحبت انشبىطٍت، انعائهت انشبىطٍت) عبذ عهً جنزٌم جبارة انساعذي ورباب عبذ انزحٍى رشٍذ ، جايعت بغذاد (إبن انهٍثى)قسى عهىو انحٍاة، كهٍت انخزبٍت نهعهىو انصزفت انخالصت & gyrodactylus dzhalilovi ergens سجـهـج ثالثت طفٍهٍاث أحادٌت انًنشأ هً ashurova, 1984و gyrodactylus magnus konovalov, 1967 ألول يزة gyrodactylus matovi ergens & kakachava-avramova, 1966و فً ين نهز دجهت cyprinus carpioفً انعزاق ين غالصى أسًاك انكارب اإلعخٍادي حى إعطاء يىاصفاث وقٍاساث هذه انطفٍهٍاث باإلضافت إنى انزسى انخىضٍحً . يذٌنت بغذاد . نها 13-17 13 n. m. alsandouk bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2003) 10 (1): 13-17 the abdominal nerve ganglia of some carabidae (coleoptera) of iraq n. m. al-sandouk college of education, ibn al-haitham, university of baghdad abstract the abdominal nerve cord of some species of iraq carabids has been studied to evaluate the variation in the number of the abdominal ganglia among the species and to find out relation of these variations with the classical taxonomy of the family carabidae into tribes. introduction brandt (1879) found that there are some differences in the number of the abdominal nerve ganglia in the different families of coleoptera. all the species were found to have supra and infra oesophageal centers, three thoracic separated ganglia and number of abdominal nerve ganglia in which the first one is fused or very close to the metathoracic ganglia. the last abdominal nerve centre is larger than the other ganglia, representing the fused hind ganglia. it is usually elongated giving several nerves laterally and posteriorly as the number of the free abdominal ganglia decreases among the tribes the last nerve mass in the nerve cord increases in size. jeaunel (1941) elevated the classical tribes of carabidae into families based only on the number of the penultimate segment of the labial palp. while lindroth (1960) believed that there is a close relation of the external characters of these tribes. ali (1966) made keys for the tribes, genera and species of the carabidae of iraq comprising 229 species. the higher classification of this family still in some confusion. many supertribal names have been proposed by different authors and all have been based merely on the external characters. ali (1967) showed that no single character in the internal anatomy of adult carabids have been found to support the classical sub-families carabinae and harpalinae or any of other proposed groups above the tribal level. the present work has been conducted on 13 species of iraq carabid, collected from different localities to further knowledge in finding the correlation between the external features of this group of insects and their internal characters, in this case form of the abdominal nerve cord. (fig. 1). materials and methods specimens were collected from the field mostly by pit fall. they were identified by the author. some of the trapped were both of sexes while others were only of one sex. they were kept in 70% alcohol and many of them were dissected directly. after removal of wings and legs including the coxae, the metanotum was taken off. the abdominal terga and sterna were then removed to expose the internal system and to clear them from the fat body. after this prothoracic pleura were out and the pronotum was removed, then the thoracic sterna were separated from their respective ganglia, followed by dissection of the head. diagrams were made with the aid of an ocular grid and squared paper measurements were done with an ocular micrometer. 14 the abdominal nerve ganglia species studied: 1tribe carabini 1-calosoma auropuntatum (herbst) 2-carabus elivieri dej 2-tribe notiophilini 3-notiophilus aquaticus (fourc.) 3-tribe bembidiini 4-bembidion megaspilum walk. 5-bembidion niloticum dej. 4-tribe harpalini 6-acinopus khalisensis ali. 7-acinopus laevigatus hentr. 8-acupalpus mesopotamicus ali. 9-ophonus cribrellus reiche. 10-harpalus oaiphus reiche. 5-tribe chlaeniini 11-chalenius coeruleus (stev.) 12-chalenius flavipes menetr. 13-chalenius richardsi ali. results carabus and calosoma have four free ganglia between the first, which fused with the metathoracic ganglion and the posterior mass. this is found to be the most generalized case among all the genera studied in the present work. both genera represent the tribe carabini, which is considered by all worker of this group as the most primitive tribe in carabidae. although the tribe notiophilini is based on the unique type of striation of the elytra, it has a very peculiar type of reproductive system (ali, 1967). the position of this tribe among the sub-family carabinae is uncertain since the number of free abdominal ganglia is reduced to three and the reproductive organs are peculiar. in the tribe bembidiini it seems that there is a maximum case of specialization in the nervous system in which all the abdominal ganglia except the first, which is fused, with the last thoracic ganglion form one mass. this reduction in the number of the abdominal ganglia may be induced by the small size of the insect body. the genera bembidion, tachys and asaphidion which form the tribe bembidiini have also a unique type of the female reproductive organs (ali, 1967). this suggest that the tribes bembidiini and trechini should be put among the highly specialized carabidae. chlaenius was taken as a typical example for the tirbe chlaeniini in this work. this genus comprises a large number of species arranged in many subgenera. the present of only two free ganglia between the fused posterior ones and the first abdominal which is united with metathoracic ganglia suggests that this tribe is nearer to the amarini and pterostichini. from the point of the external morphology these tribes are very near to each other and they have been separated only on the basis of the number of setae in the penultimate segment of labial palp. there are some important variations in the abdominal ganglia of nervous system exhibited in the nerve cord of carabidae. the most generalized type is found in the tribe carabini where four free abdominal ganglia are present. in all the tribes studied in this work it seems that the first ganglion belonging to the first abdominal segment is fused with the metathoracic ganglion. (fig. 1). it is found that the number of abdominal ganglia is reduced in some genera among this family and this reduction may be correlated with evolutionary status of these tribes. the following grouping of abdominal ganglia may help in the separation of some tribes of the 15 n. m. alsandouk family carabidae: 1-four free and well separated abdominal ganglia present between the first which is fused or close to the third thoracic ganglion and posterior fused ganglia……. carabini 2-three free abdominal ganglia present in the nerve cord ………………... notiophlini 3-two free abdominal ganglia present between the first and the fused posterior ones …………………………….. chlaeniini + amarini 4-the abdominal nerve cord with a single ganglion between the first and the fused posterior ones…………………………………….. harpalini 5-all the abdominal ganglia except the first, which fused to the third thoracic one fused together forming a single mass ……….. bembidiini. literature cited ali, h. a. 1966 a key to the carabidae (insecta: coleoptera). iraq nat. hist. mus.publ., xxiii, 38 pp. ali, h. a. 1970 an odd reproductive system in carabidae (insecta: coleoptera). bull. college science, univ. basrah, 1:13-20. brandt, e. 1879 vergleichend anatomische untersuchungen uber nervensystem der hemipteren. horae soc. ent. ross. jeannel, r. 1941 coleopteres carabque premiere partie. (fauni france, xxxix, pp. 1-571). lindroth, c. h. 1960 the ground beetles carabidae evel. cicinde of canada and alaska. opuscula ent. suppl. xx(2):1-200. 16 the abdominal nerve ganglia bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2003) 10 (1): 13–17 ط صبي الب ق الع ع ةال ر قي ع ة ال رضي أل ض الخناف ا ع نية لب ق دو ه ي ال ن م ل ضا ن ن ا هيثم رب ة اب داد–كلية ا ت ة بغ جامع ة ص الخال راقـ ة ية لع ـ ر أل س ا خلنـ ف ض ا ط ين لـب الب يب ـ ع ل ال حلب ة س را د ت ة . مت ـ را د ل ـم ا ر ن الـغ ا ب وج ل مب ىل قبائ ف ال ائل ص ي ت بت ذه لتغا را ه القة ى د وم ع بية د ال د ال ق د ع غا ر اجياد الت ة عائل ه ال ذ هل ي د ف الت لي صني .الت 17 n. m. alsandouk bull 1 ali n. al-barazengy bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2015) 13 (3): 1-7 first observations on phrynocephalus maculatus longicaudatus haas, 1957 (squamata: sauria: agamidae) in iraq ali n. al-barazengy iraqi ministry of environment / center of sustainable management for natural ecosystem-biodiversity unit email: ali_bio_84@yahoo.com phone: +9647703211822 abstract the present paper confirmed the presence of phrynocephalus maculatus longicaudatus haas, 1957 in iraq and recorded the first observations of this taxon in al-muthanna province southwestern of iraq. the existence of the species is yet uncertain in iraq. the habitat and morphological characteristics of this species were reviewed. key words: reptilia, squamata, sauria, agamidae, phrynocephalus maculatus, observation, southern iraq, taxonomy. introduction phrynocephalus maculatus anderson, 1872 is widely distributed from south west pakistan, south afghanistan, through iran to eastern arabia and south east jordan sindaco and jeremcenko (2008) and schultz et al. (1992). phrynocephalus maculatus maculatus anderson, 1872 distributed the central plateau of iran, at elevations from 500-3000 meters east through southern afghanistan and baluchistan as far as nushki, pakistan, and phrynocephalus maculatus longicaudatus haas, 1957 is found along the gulf coast of saudi arabia leviton et al. (1992) and anderson (1999). the occurrence of p. m. maculatus in iraq was reported by khalaf (1959) without further information. for these reasons there were some doubts on its occurrence because there are neither museum specimens nor published records on this species in iraq leviton et al. (1992). afrasiab and ali (1989) did not record phrynocephalus in their list for romaila reptiles, south of iraq. also it was not included in the family agamidae in the check list of reptiles and amphibians of iraq that giving by amr (2009). furthermore, there are seven species of phrynocephalus has been recorded in iran including p. maculatus rastegar-pouyani et al. (2008), and two species of phrynocephalus has been recorded in jordan, p. maculatus and p. arabicus abu-baker et al. (2005). materials and methods sawa lake is an enclosed lake located northern of al-muthanna province and alwuhashih hill a desert area located to the east of al-muthanna province (30 km south of alkhader city). these two sites are regularly surveyed to study the wild birds in the province. most habitats in those sites are semi desert and sandy desert. adult of p. maculatus was photographed for the first time in area called um al-rouge (fig.1) (a sandy area on the road leading to al-wuhashih hill (n: 31.0384°, e: 45.57053°, altitude approximately (2 m) in 14 may 2013). the other p. maculatus was photographed once more near sawa lake (fig.2) (n: 31.32123°, e: 45.03544°, altitude approximately (10 m) in 28 aug 2013). 2 first observations on p. m. longicaudatus haas two canon eos camera bodies is used (canon eos 450d and canon eos 550d) equipped with lenses canon ef 100-400 mm (f 4-5.6), canon ef 400 mm (f 5.6) and canon efs 18-55mm (f 3.5-5.6) to take close-up photos to confirm field identifications for the species, and to take a landscape photographs the area which the agama was presented there. we also used a garmin etrex gps device to record locations (longitude, latitude, and elevation). phrynocephalus maculatus longicaudatus haas, 1957 diagnosed depending on haas (1957), leviton et al. (1992) and anderson (1999). results and discussion in summer 2013 the iraqi ministry of environment carried out a field survey to study the wild birds in the important biodiversity areas in al-muthanna province, which is one of the largest provinces south west part of iraq. most of the province is located in ecoregion: arabian desert and east sahero-arabian xeric shrublands (pa1303) according to world wildlife fund (wwf, 2014), and the encyclopedia of earth (2015). the biodiversity of this region is the least known in iraq (iraq fourth national report to the convention on biological diversity 2010). many sites north, south, east and west the province were surveyed, during which two specimens of p. maculatus were collected, for the first time in late spring to the south of al-khader city (40km southeast of al-samawah city) in the part of sandstone north and northeast of the province; the other one seen in mid-summer sandy area eastern of sawa lake (28km southeast of al-samawah city). fig.1: habitat of p. maculatus at um al-rouge area-al-muthanna province / south west iraq. photographs by ali n. al-barazengy/ may 2013 fig.2: habitat of p.maculatus, eastern sawa lake –al-muthanna province / south west iraq. photographs by ali n. al-barazengy/ august 2013 3 ali n. al-barazengy observations in our surveys we found one p. maculatus in each site. the first was climber on plant haloxylon salicornicum, the other was procumbent on the sand. the phenotypic characteristics of the tow specimens coincide with diagnosis of p. m. longicaudatus haas, 1957, (figs. 3, 4). the head is short and broad, roughly looks like a heart on top view. forehead convex, with slightly enlarged scales, slot big mouth, no cutaneous folds at angle of mouth, no fringe of scales on posterior border of thigh and side of tail, side of head and neck without projecting fringe-like scales, dorsal scales homogeneous, no enlarged scales along flanks, scales on vertebral region considerably larger than those on flanks, nostrils are separated by one to three scales. differs from p. m. maculatus in having posterior supraorbital scales strikingly flattened and enlarged, longer than wide, and larger than mid-dorsal scales; a few dorsal scales are keeled or with an indication of mucronation; nostrils are directed forward instead of upward; tail is longer than twice the distance from the gular fold to the vent; dark coloration of the distal part of the tail is pronounced ventrally. fig.3: (a) female phrynocephalus maculatus longicaudatus haas, 1957. (b) side view of the head showing 5 rows of scales between eye and lip. and have enlarged posterior supraorbital scales larger than mid-dorsal scales typical for ssp. longicaudatus haas, 1957. (c) rearward view showing no fringe of scales on posterior border of thigh and side of tail. photographs by ali n. albarazengy um al-rouge area al-muthanna province in may 2013. coloration individual that located in um al-rouge area is colored by silver-grey on dorsum, barred transversally with five wide light brown bars ended on vertebral region of the back, each bar ended with dark brown spot on dorsum. the belly, under head and under tail was white. toes 4 first observations on p. m. longicaudatus haas barred with dark grey strips. tail barred with seven dark strips and thin zigzag strips inbetween, the ventral end of the tail was black. the other individual that located in eastern sawa lake is colored by pale light grey to sandy color on dorsum and toes spotted with tight brown, the head paler than dorsum. the belly, under head was white, under tail has orange coloration from the vent across the anterior half of its length. tail barred and spotted with dark grey and the tip of tail is black. habitat um al-rouge area is located in south east al-samawa city, the site is small sandy dunes in wide shrubs desert, the growing plants in the site are mostly of one species haloxylon salicornicum (fig.1). the other site is sawa lake is a small enclosed lake with neither input nor output water sources surrounded with shrubs desert. sahara in the east and west side of the lake is sandy shrub desert most plants in eastern side are salicornia europaea, bienertia cycloptera, suaeda vermiculata, cornulaca leucantha sp., neurada procumbens (fig. 2). fig.4: (a) adult phrynocephalus maculatus longicaudatus haas, 1957. (b) dorsal view of the head showing enlarged posterior supraorbital scales, typical for ssp. longicaudatus haas, 1957 (c) rearward view showing no fringe of scales on posterior border of thigh and side of tail. (d) frontal view showing the nostrils separated by three scales, directed forward instead of upward. (e) side view of the head showing 4 rows of scales between eye and lip. photographs by ali n. al-barazengy, eastern sawa lake -muthanna province, aug 2013 5 ali n. al-barazengy key to the species of the genus phrynocephalus in the middle east fringes of pointed scales on toes strong, scales surrounding nostrils typically in contact on midline; often 3or 4 rows of scales between eye and lip; usually brownish above with some yellow or orange in pattern ………………………………….…... phrynocephalus arabicus. fringes of pointed scales on toes moderate; scales surrounding nostrils typically separated from each other on midline; often 5 or 6 rows of scales between eye and lip; dorsal with five dark crossbars…………...………………..... phrynocephalus maculatus longicaudatus. acknowledgements i would like to extend my thanks and gratitude to all of: iraqi ministry of environment (imoe), for support the field surveys in south iraq, saman r. afrasiab herpetologist in iraq natural history research center and museum/ baghdad university for his comments on phrynocephalus maculatus in iraq. omar f. al-sheikhly a zoologist in college of science/ university of baghdad, for his comments on phrynocephalus maculatus in iraq. ali haloob a botanist in center of sustainable management for natural ecosystem (imoe), for his help graciously in the classification of plants in the region. farah t. abd alhamid a biology in center of sustainable management for natural ecosystem (imoe), mohamed abbas natural systems division / al-muthanna environment directorate. literature cited abu-baker m.p.; siroky, z.; amr. and modry d. (2005). discovery of a population of phrynocephalus maculatus anderson in hashemit kingdom of jordan. herpetozoa 18 (3/4): 107-113. afrasiab, s.r. and ali, h. a. (1989). report on collection of reptiles from rumaila desert, south of iraq. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 8: 65-73. amr, z. (2009). nature iraq species checklist reptiles and amphibians of iraq. sulaimani, iraq: nature iraq. publication no. ni-0209-003: 1-9. anderson, s.c. (1999). the lizards of iran. society for the study of amphibians and reptiles. oxford, ohio. 442 pp. haas, g. (1957). some amphibians and reptiles from arabia. proceedings of the california academy of sciences fourth series 29 (3): 47-86. khalaf, k. t. (1959). reptiles of iraq, with some notes on the amphibians. ar-rabitta press, baghdad. vii+96pp. iraq. leviton, a. e.; anderson, s.c.; adler k . and minton s.a. (1992). hand book to the middle east amphibians and reptiles. ithaca, new york, ssar: 252 pp. ministry of environment, republic of iraq (2010). iraq fourth national report to the convention on biological diversity. retrieved 10 july 2014 from: http://www.cbd.int/doc/world/iq/iq-nr-04-en.pdf 6 first observations on p. m. longicaudatus haas rastegar-pouyani, n.; kami h.g.; rajabzadeh, m.; shafiei, s. and anderson, s. c. (2008). annotated checklist of amphibians and reptiles of iran-iranian journal of animal biosystematics (ijab) 1: 43-66. schultz, s.; siegenthaler, f.; radspieler, c. and wilms, th.m. (2013). a new locality record of phrynocephalus maculatus anderson, 1872, from jordan [short note] herpetozoa 25. sindaco, r. and jeremcenko, v. k. (2008). the reptiles of the western palearctic. 1. annotated checklist and distributional atlas of the turtles, crocodiles, amphisbaenians and lizards of europe, north africa, middle east and central asia. edizioni belvedere, latina: 579 pp. the encyclopedia of earth. arabian desert and east sahero-arabian xeric shrublands, retrieved 25 january 2015 from: http://www.eoearth.org/view/article/150161/ wwf. ecoregions. world wildlife fund, retrieved 11 july 2014 from http://www.worldwildlife.org/science/ecoregions/item1847.html. retrieved 8 february 2010. 7 ali n. al-barazengy bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2015) 13 (3): 1-7 في phrynocephalus maculatus longicaudatus haas, 1957املشاهدات ألاولى للحرذون العراق علي نعمة البرزنجي مركز الادارة املستدامة للنظم الطبيعي/ وزارة البيئة ali_bio_84@yahoo.com: البريد الالكتروني 9647703211822+: الهاتف الخالصة في phrynocephalus maculatus longicaudatus haas, 1957يوضح هذا البحث حالة وجود النوع ويعتبر هذا النوع من , العراق وتسجيل املشاهدات ألاولى له في محافظة املثنى في الجزء الجنوبي الغربي من العراق الزواحف التابعة لفصيلة الحرذون وهو من ألانواع غير مؤكدة الوجود في العراق ولم يصف أي أحد من قبل مكان . لذي وجد فيه والصفات املظهرية للنوعكذلك يستعرض املوئل ا, تواجده في العراق حتى أالن 4 27 m. k. mohammad & s. y. jassim bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2011) 11 (4): 27-31 distribution of hard tick species among sheep ovis aries l. in al-anbar province, western desert of iraq mohammad k. mohammad* and suhad y. jassim iraq natural history research centre and museum, university of baghdad, bab al-muadham, baghdad, iraq *email: amarmkm82@yahoo.com abstract the middle east fat tailed sheep ovis aries l. examined within the boundaries of al-anbar province, western iraq was found to acquire seven species of ixodid ticks namely, hyalomma anatolicum, h. excxavatum, h. marginatum turanicum, h. detritum, hyalomma sp., rhipicephalus turanicus and r. s. sanguineus. the results discussed with the pertinent literature. introduction al-anbar province occupies most of the western desert area and constitutes a very important pasture land for domestic animals. thalen (1979) considered western desert district as one of five divisions of physiographical zones of iraq. it has a subtropical, continental and arid climate. rainfall is mainly in winter and early spring (november-april). summer is dry and hot. temperature is 45ºc in july and august, while in december and january frost is regularly recorded. the middle east fat tailed sheep ovis aries, goat capra hircus and camel camelus dromedarius are the most important domestic animals raised by local bedouins. the estimated number of sheep is 5.582 million according to 1971 statistics. no current estimation is available now. family ixodidae (hard ticks) is the largest family of ticks and contains 713 valid species (barker and murrell (2004), some of them play major role, as vectors, in spreading different diseases of livestock and human beings throughout the world (kakar and kakarsulmenkhel, 2008). works on ixodid tick fauna of iraq is rather fragmentary and scanty, most of them represent surveys from domestic animal with a very small part of attention to the ticks of wild vertebrates. this includes early works of hubbard (1955), hoogstraal and kaiser (1958), robson and robb (1967), robson et al. (1968 a, b, c; 1969 a, b, c) in series of publications composed of seven papers deal with examination of domestic animals infestation in baghdad, kut, amara, basra, hilla, karbala, diwaniya, nasiriya and mosul provinces, but surprisingly, they did not examined any from al-anbar province. two decades later, shamsuddin and mohammad (1988) in their survey for ticks in al-anbar province mentioned presence of four ixodid tick species: boophilus kohlsi, hyalomma a. anatolicum, rhipicephalus leporis, r. turanicus as well as hyalomma nymphs. they found that 88.6% of sheep in whole iraq were infested with six species of hard ticks belonging to hyalomma, rhipicephalus and boophilus genera. while abdul-rassoul and mohammad (1988) in their work on the ticks of desert in iraq found sheep infested with six ixodid tick species, five of them belong to hyalomma and mailto:amarmkm82@yahoo.com 28 distribution of hard tick species among sheep one to phipicephalus. then mohammad (1996) found that sheep of western desert were infested with four hyalomma spp. and two rhipicephalus spp. the aim of this work is to investigate about hard ticks infest the sheep in al-anbar province as the sheep are the most important animals raised by locals. materials and methods this study depends on 490 specimens of ixodid ticks of the collection of iraq natural history research center & museum and the personal collection of the authors collected through filed trips to the area achieved during 2004-2009. results and discussion table (1) summarizes the results of this study. this would show that 36.7% of collected specimens belong to hyalomma excavatum, 30.6% to h. anatolicum, 16.3% to h. marginatum turanicum, 8.1% to rhipicephalus s. sanguines, 2% to r. turanicus and 4% to hyalomma sp. this in general agreement with the findings of abdul-rassoul & mohammad (1988) although there are some differences in the values of infection rates. they found that h. excavatum was the most dominant species. they found also that 93% of examined specimens belong to geuns hyalomma, while this study shows that 89.9% belong to hyalomma. table (1): species, number of specimens, percentages of ticks infesting sheep in al-anbar province. tick species number of ticks % of total ticks hyalomma anatolicum 150 30.6 h. excavatum 180 36.7 h. detrium 10 2 h. marginatum turanicum 80 16.3 hyalomma sp. 20 4 rhipicephalus turanicus 10 2 r. s. sanguineus 40 8.1 mohammad (1996) mentioned that hyalomma was considered to be the most dominant genus and widely distributed in the western desert. this may because they are less specific to their hosts in addition its adaption to the arid environment and high temperature at this region. reporting hyalomma marginatum turanicum and h. detritum from sheep with relatively low rate of infestation agrees with abdul-rassoul & mohammad (1988) and shamsuddin & mohammad (1988) except for the second species which was absent from the list of ticks infest sheep provided by later paper. al-khalifa et al. (2007) in their study on ticks infesting camels in saudi arabia found that infestation rate with hyalomma excavatum exceeded that of h. anatolicum. this is in agreement with the present results. they thought that host preference was the reason for their findings. however, it is justified to say that it is true also to assume that h. excavatum is more adapted to desert environment than h. anatolicum. the same finding was observed by nabian and rahbari (2008) in their paper on the occurrence of soft and hard ticks on ruminants in zagros mountainous areas of iran. presence of five species out of seven found in this study belong to genus hyalomma is rather not surprising and the studied area, with its arid environment, is not an exception. 29 m. k. mohammad & s. y. jassim kolonin (2009) in his book "fauna of ixodid ticks of the world" stated that the genus hyalomma is a small flourishing group of ixodid ticks well adapted to living in arid biotopes, and a high degree of adaptation to hot and dry open habitats becomes apparent in the morphology (well developed spherical eyes, high legs), physiology (successful metamorphosis under reduced humidity) and behavior (active search of host) of species of this genus, he added also that ticks of this genus occur only in dry areas of the old world. on the other hand, the results show that 10.1% of ticks belong to genus rhipicephalus. two species of this genus are recorded in this study namely, rhipicephalus s. sanguinus and r. turanicus with infestation rate of 8.1% and 2% respectively. this is rather surprising from two points of view, first is the previous studies in iraq which showed higher infestation rate, for example abdul-rassoul and mohammad (1988) found it 19.9%, while al-khalifa et al. (2007) in saudi arabia found it ranging between 86.2%-89.2% in a two years study. this somewhat hard to explain but more extensive collection of ticks from sheep may reveal the actual situation of these two species in this area. the second surprise is that infestation rate of rhipicephalus s. sanguineus exceeds that of r. turanicus. this may be correlated to the continuous presence of guard dogs to the herds of sheep all the time, day and night. it is known that the first species (the brown dog tick) usually infests dogs while the second infests sheep and goats. liteature cited abdul-rassoul and mohammad (1988). ticks (ixodoidea , acarina) of desert in iraq. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus., 8(1): 11-24. al-khalifa, m. s., khalil, g. m. and diab, f. m. 2007 a two-year study of ticks infesting camels in al-kharj in saudi arabia. saudi journal of biological sciences 14(2): 211-220. hoogstraal, h. and kasier, m. (1958). the ticks (ixodoidea) of iraq: keys, hosts and distribution. j. iraqi med. professions, 6; 58-84. hubbard, c. a. 1955. some ticks from iraq. ent. news, 66: 189-190. kakar, m. n. and kakarsulemankhel, j. k. 2008. re-description of hyatomma anatolicum excavatum koch, 1844 (metastigmata, ixodidae). pak. entomol., 30(2): 141-146. kolonin, g. v. 2009 fauna of ixodid ticks of the world (acari, ixodidae), moscow. mohammad. m. k., 1996 a bio-taxonomic study on the hard ticks (acari: ixodidae) of some domestic and wild animal from iraq. ph. d. thises, college of science, university of baghdad. nabian s. and rahbari, s. 2008 occurrence of soft and hard ticks on ruminants in zagros mountainous area of iran. iranian journal arthropod-borne dis, (2008), 2(1): 16-20. barker, s. c. and murrell, a. 2004 systematics and evolution of ticks with a list of valid genus and species names. parasitology, 129: 15-36. robson, j. and robb, j. m. 1967 ticks (ixodoidea) of domestic animals in iraq: spring and early summer infestation in the liwas of baghdad, kut, amara and basra.j. med. ent.,4(3): 289-293. 30 distribution of hard tick species among sheep robson, j. and robb, j. m. and al-wahayyib, t. 1968a ticks (ixodoidea) of domestic animals in iraq. part 2: summer infestation in the liwas of hilla, karbala, diwaniya and nasiriya. j. med. ent., 5 (1): 27-31. robson, j. and robb, j. m. and hawa, n. j. 1968b ticks (ixodoidea) of domestic animals in iraq. part 3: autumn infestations in the liwas of kut, amara and basra; winter and summer infestations in the liwa of baghdad .j. med. ent., 5 (2): 257-261. robson, j. and robb, j. m. and hawa, n. j. 1968c ticks (ixodoidea) of domestic animals in iraq. part 4: a comparison of infestation in winter and early summer in liwa of mosul. j. med. ent., 5 (2):261-264. robson, j. and robb, j. m. and hawa, n. j. 1969a ticks (ixodoidea) of domestic animals in iraq. part 5: infestations in the liwas of diwaniya and nasiriya (spring), karbala (winter), and hilla (autumn and winter). j. med. ent., 6 (2): 120-124. robson, j. and robb, j. m., hawa, n. j. and al-wahayyib, t. 1969b ticks (ixodoidea) of domestic animals in iraq. part 6: distribution. j. med. ent., 6 (2): 125-127. robson, j. and robb, j. m., hawa, n. j. and al-wahayyib, t. 1969c ticks (ixodoidea) of domestic animals in iraq. part 7: seasonal incidence on cattle, sheep and goats in the tigriseuphrates plain. j. med. ent., 6 (2): 127-130. shamsuddin, m. and mohammad, m. k. 1988 incidence, distribution and host relationships of some ticks (ixodoidea) in iraq. j. univ. kuwait (science), 15: 321-330. thalen, d. c. p. 1979 ecology and utilization of desert shrub rangelands in iraq. dr. w. junk b. v._ publishers, the hague, 448 pp. 31 m. k. mohammad & s. y. jassim bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2011) 11 (4): 27-31 في محافظة االنبار، .ovis aries lتوزیع انواع القراد الصلب بین الضأن صحراء العراق الغربیة سھاد یاسین جاسم ومحمد كاظم محمد جامعة بغداد، باب المعظم، بغداد، الطبیعيمتحف التاریخ مركز بحوث و العراق الخالصة ضمن حدود محافظة االنبار، غرب العراق .ovis aries lتم فحص الضأن :ووجد بانھا تصاب بسبعة انواع من القراد الصلب وھي hyalomma anatolicum, h. excxavatum, h. marginatum turanicum, h. detritum, hyalomma sp., rhipicephalus turanicus and r. s. sanguineus. .نوقشت النتائج في ضوء البحوث ذات العالقة bull 23 mohammad k. mohammad bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2015) 13 (3): 23-30 distribution of ixodid ticks among domestic and wild animals in central iraq mohammad k. mohammad iraq natural history museum, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq email: amarmkm82@yahoo.com abstract a total of 228 domestic and wild animals, including sheep, goats, cows, buffaloes, camels, horses, donkeys, dogs, cats, wild hares, asiatic jackals, and red foxes were examined for ixodid ticks in the central region of iraq. nine species of ixodid ticks belong to two genera namely hyalomma anatolicum koch, 1844, h. excavatum koch, 1844, h. turanicum pomerantsef, 1946, h. scupense delpy, 1946, h. dromedarii koch, 1844, h. schulzei olenev, 1931, rhipicephalus annulatus (say, 1821), r. turanicus pomerantsef & al., 1940 and r. leporis pomerantsef, 1946 were recovered. their distribution among hosts and infestation rates were discussed with the pertinent literature. keywords: ixodidae, ticks, domestic animals, wild animals. introduction ticks are obligatory parasites of terrestrial vertebrates including mammals, birds, reptiles and few records from amphibians (morel, 1967; maldonado-capriles and medina-guad, 1977; woods and sergile, 2001, dantas-torres et al., 2008). the ixodids or hard ticks are with a cosmopolitan distribution, especially in the temperate regions (service, 2012). they are of extreme medical and veterinary importance in view of transmitting many protozoal, bacterial and viral disease agents to man and animals. in iraq, a review of ixodid ticks studies is rather well documented in shubber et al. (2014); however most of these studies are of general survey type for whole iraq and concentrated mainly on domestic hosts with few exceptions that confined to a selected area or dealt with wild animals (mohammad, 1996). the central region of iraq falls in its most areas in the tigris-euphrates alluvial salt marsh ecoregion (pa 0906) which is characterized by marshlands and seasonally inundated plains bounded by deserts and dry shrub land and its vegetation is dominated by aquatic plants such as reeds phragmites australis and rushes typha sp. (anonymous, 2010). the aim of the present study is to know the distribution of the ixodid tick species parasitizing the domestic as well as wild animals in central provinces of iraq. materials and methods the study area lies approximately between 44ᵒ-48ᵒ longitude and 30ᵒ-33ᵒ latitude including baghdad, kerbala, wasit, babil, and al-qadisiya provinces (fig. 1), it is of continental 24 distribution of ixodid ticks climate. the mean annual precipitation ranges 60-200mm and the temperature exceeds 50ᵒ c in the long dry summer and rarel drops elo 0 c in the short wet winter (iraq ministries, 2006). this survey was undertaken from january 2014 to december 2014. the animals examined were 93 sheep ovis aries, 26 goats capra hircus, 50 cows bos taurus, 10 buffaloes bubalus bubalis, 15 camels camelus dromedarius, 8 horses equus caballus, 6 donkeys equus asinus, 6 dogs canis familiaris, 3 domestic cats felis catus, 4 wild hares lepus capensis, 4 asiatic jackals canis aureus and 3 red foxes vulpes vulpes. the recovered ticks were removed carefully from the infested animal by hand with the aid of forceps and kept in 70% alcohol. identification was done following the keys provided by mohammad (1996) and shubber (2014). fig. 1: map of iraq showing the study area in central of iraq. results and discussion table 1 summarizes the results of surveying the domestic and wild animals for ixodid ticks in central iraq. this would shows that 97 (42.5%) out of 228 animals examined were infected with one or more species of ticks. this result was in general agreement with shubber (2014) and shubber et al. (2014) who found that the infestation rate in the middle provinces was 46.36%. present results showed that the infestation rates in the examined wild animals exceed those recorded for the domestic hosts, the same conclusion had been suggested by shamsuddin and 25 mohammad k. mohammad mohammad (1988), abdul-rassoul and mohammad (1988), mohammad (1996), shubber et al. (2013), shubber (2014) and shubber et al. (2014). it may be related to the better sanitation conditions of the domestic animals provided by owners especially for dogs, cats, horses and donkeys. table 1: host common names, no. examined and no. infested animals with ixodid ticks in central iraq. in regard to tick species, nine were recorded (table 2), six of them belong to genus hyalomma namely h. anatolicum koch, 1844, h. excavatum koch, 1844, h. turanicum pomerantsef, 1946, h. scupense delpy, 1946, h. dromedarii koch, 1844, h. schulzei olenev, 1931, h. anatolicum was found to be the most common tick species parasitizing the examined domestic animals and successfully survives in diverse habitats extending from central parts of the sudan to north africa, southern europe, the middle east, russia, china and india, and economically important tick species (latif et al., 2005; haque et al., 2011; jafarbekloo et al., 2014). the rest three species belong to genus rhipicephalus namely, r. annulatus (say, 1821), r. turanicus pomerantsef & al., 1940 and r. leporis pomerantsef, 1946. for sheep and goats, results show that they were infested with five tick species namely hyalomma anatolicum, h. excavatum, h. turanicum, h. scupense and rhipicephalus turanicus. this is in accordance with mohammad and jassim (2011) but differs from omer et al. (2007) who studied the ticks of cattle, sheep and goats in the dohuk governorate, far north of iraq and differs also from awad and abdul-hussein (2006) who found that the sheep in basra in the extreme south of iraq were infected with r.turanicus and r. annulatus only. this is probably because of the wide difference in the study areas. the infestation rates in sheep and goats are almost equal from 32.3% and 30.8% respectively. this is in disagreement with muhaidi et al. (2010) who found that the infestation rates for sheep and goats in falloja, about 60km west of baghdad were 57% and 53% respectively. it disagrees also with shubber (2014) and shubber et al. (2014) who found that infestation rates were 48.6% and 22.7% in sheep and goats respectively in the middle region of iraq. present results of zangana et al. (2013) are in disagreement also with shubber (2014) and shubber et al. (2014). they found 46.7% and 34.9% of sheep and goats in duhok in the far north of iraq infested with ticks respectively. on the other hand, hussien and yaqub (2010) and hasson and al-zubaidi (2012) recorded 7.6% and 18.9% infestation rates respetively. these are low rates of infestation compared to present results and those of tuama et al. (2007), muhaidi et al. (2010), kadir et al. (2012), and zangana et al. (2013). this is probably related to different animal name ex. inf. % sheep 93 30 32.3 goat 26 8 30.8 cow 50 31 62 buffalo 10 2 20 camel 15 12 80 horse 8 1 12.5 donkey 6 1 16.7 dog 6 1 16.7 domestic cat 3 1 33.3 wild hare 4 3 75 asiatic jackal 4 4 100 red fox 3 3 100 total 228 97 42.1 26 distribution of ixodid ticks animal raising conditions between different ecosystems of the studied areas of previous works as well as climate fluctuation from year to another. cows were infested with h. anatolicum, h. turanicum, h. scupense, and r. (boophilus) annulatus. this is in accordance with shubber (2014) and shubber et al. (2014). infestation rate in the present study is 62%. this is near the rate of 54.3% recorded by al-ramahi (2011) but differs from 48.2% of tuama et al. (2007) and from 27.8% of hasson (2012). this fluctuation in infestation rate may be a result of animal raising practices and treating or no treating the animals with acaricides, difference in plant cover from year to year and the ecological conditions in the collection sites. buffaloes were found infested with two species only h. anatolicum and h. turanicum, these species were recorded by shubber (2014) and shubber et al. (2014). the infestation rate in the present study is 20%. this differs from 38.5% and 42.2% infestation rate recorded by shubber et al. (2013, 2014) in the middle of iraq. camels were infested with h. anatolicum, h. excavatum, h. turanicum, h. dromedarii, and h. schulzei. the infestation with the two latter species in this study is confined to camels only. the infestation rate in camels is very high (80%) indicating that camel acquires more parasitic load of ticks because the type of life practiced by bedouins who raise huge number of camels and wondering throughout the different ecosystems of the study area including true deserts, semi deserts, alluvial plain, marshes, farms, orchards, villages, towns, and cities making the animal collect high number of ectoparasites and many species of ixodid and argasid ticks. this result is in agreement with hussein and al-fatlawi (2009) who reported infestation rate of 83% in al-qadisiya province, and with champour et al. (2013) who recorded infestation rate of 85.5% in iran, but it relatively differs from that of shubber (2014) and shubber et al. (2014) who found that 65.77% of camels were infested. however, the present study, shubber (2014), and shubber et al. (2014) reached to same conclusion that the camel attains the highest tick infestation rate among other domestic animals. the horses and donkeys were found infested with one species only r. annulatus. this tick was recorded by shubber (2014) and shubber et al. (2014) from horses and donkeys, the infestation rates were 12.5% and 16.7% in horses and donkeys respectively. this result differs from that of shubber et al. (2013) who recorded 50% and 20% respectively. also dogs and cats were infested with one species r. turanicus, the infestation rates were 16.7% and 33.3% respectively. these rates for cat seem high in comparison with shubber (2014) who recorded 4.9% infestation, and the rate for dogs seems much lower since he recorded a rate of 61.5%. this may related to smaller sample size of this study and this does not reflect the actual infestation rate of these animals. both studies examined relatively small numbers of hosts and a further study of enough sampling host number is necessary. 27 mohammad k. mohammad table 2: distribution of tick parasites species among their domestic and wild hosts. h o st n am e h . a n a to li cu m h . ex ca va tu m h . tu ra n ic u m h . sc u p en se h . d ro m ed a ri i h . sc h u lz ei r . a n n u la tu s r . tu ra n ic u m r . le p o ri s sheep + + + + + goat + + + + + cow + + + + buffal o + + camel + + + + + horse + + + donke y + dog + cat + hare + jackal + + fox + + for the infection in wild animals the infection is represented by two species of genus rhipicephalus, wild hares were infected with r. leporis while the asiatic jackal and the red fox were infected with r. turanicus and r. leporis. this result was recorded by mohammad (1996) and shubber et al. (2014). the infestation rates in wild hare, asiatic jackal, and red fox were 75%, 100%, and 100% respectively. this is in accordance with shamsuddin and mohammad (1988), shubber (2014), and shubber et al. (2014). acknowledgements i would like to express my deep gratitude for dr. habeeb waseel kadhim and dr. ali bustan mohsen from college of science, al-qadisiya and mrs. khalida ibrahim hasoon and miss zainab alwan from iraq natural history museum, university of baghdad for their assistance in the field and lab work. literature cited abdul-rassoul, m. s. and mohammad, m. k. (1988). ticks (ixodoidea , acarina) of desert in iraq. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus., 8(1):11-24. al azawi, b. and al obeidy, t. (1988). ticks acarina from domestic animals in central iraq. bull. endem. dis., 29: 45-50. al-ramahi, h. m. 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(1967). les tiques des animaux sauvages des antilles (acariens, ixodoidea). acarologia, 9: 341-352. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=dantas-torres%20f%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=19265581 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=oliveira-filho%20ef%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=19265581 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=soares%20fa%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=19265581 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=souza%20bo%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=19265581 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=valen%c3%a7a%20rb%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=19265581 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=s%c3%a1%20fb%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=19265581 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19265581 29 mohammad k. mohammad muhaidi, m.j.; alkubaisy, a.b.h.; ahmed, m.n. and. hamed, m.a. (2010). study of prevalence of ticks genus hyalomma spp. and boophilus spp. of mammals in villages al-fallouja city. al-anbar bull. vet. sci., 3 (1): 30-36. omer, l.t.; kadir, m.a.; seitzer, u. and ahmed, j.s. (2007). a survey of ticks (acari: ixodidae) on cattle, sheep and goats in the dohuk governorate, iraq. parasitol. res.; 101 suppl 2: s179-s181 shamsuddin, m. and mohammad, m.k. (1988). incidence, distribution and host relationships of some ticks (ixodoidea) in iraq. j. univ. kuwait (science), 15: 321-330. shubber, h.w.k. (2014). taxonomic, anatomic, and molecular study of ixodid ticks parasitizing some mammals and birds in the middle and south of iraq. ph.d. thesis, college of education, al-qadisiya university, iraq. shubber, h.w.k.; mohammed, m.k. and al-hassani, n.a.w. (2013). ixodid ticks of water buffalo bubalus bubalis in the middle and south of iraq. adv. biores., 4 (3): 58-63. shubber, h.w.k.; al-hassani, n.a.w. and mohammad, m.k. (2014). ixodid ticks diversity in the middle and south of iraq. ijrsr, 5 (9): 1518-1523. service, m. (2012). medical entomology for students, fifth edition, cambridge university press doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/cbo9781139002967. tuama, s.j.; al-zihiry, k.j.k. and al-maliky, h.k. (2007). ticks infesting some domestic animals in thi-qar province, southern iraq. j. missan res., 4 (7): 1-12. woods, c.a. and sergile, f.e. (2001). biogeography of the west indies. patterns and perspectives. crc press, boca raton (2): 15-33. zangana, i.k.; ali, b.a. and naqid, i.a. (2013). distribution of ectoparasites infested sheep and goats in duhok province, north iraq. bas. j. vet. res., 12 (1): 54-64. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=omer%20lt%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=17823824 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=kadir%20ma%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=17823824 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=seitzer%20u%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=17823824 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=ahmed%20js%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=17823824 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17823824 30 distribution of ixodid ticks bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2015) 13 (3): 23-30 انتشار القراد الصلب في الحيوانات ألاليفة والبرية في وسط العراق دمحم كاظم دمحم جامعة بغداد، بغداد العراق-متحف التاريخ الطبيعي email: amarmkm82@yahoo.com الخالصة فردا من الحيوانات الاليفة والبرية مشتمال على الضأن واملاعز والبقر 222تم فحص ما مجموعه والجاموس والجمال والخيول والحمير والكالب والقطط والارانب البرية وبنات آوى والثعالب الحمر بحثا : ى جنسين وهيتم الحصول على تسعة انواع تعود ال. عن القراد الصلب في منطقة وسط العراق hyalomma anatolicum koch, 1844 وh. excavatum koch, 1844 وh. turanicum pomerantsef, 1946 و h. scupense delpy, 1946 و h. dromedarii koch, 1844 و h. schulzei olenev, 1931 وrhipicephalus annulatus (say, 1821) وr. turanicus pomerantsef & al., 1940 وr. leporis pomerantsef, 1946 . نوقش انتشار الانواع بين املضائف .ونسب الاصابة في ضوء البحوث ذات العالقة bull 119 ali n. al-barazengy bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2014) 13 (2): 119-125 first observations on phrynocephalus maculatus longicaudatus haas, 1957 (squamata: sauria: agamidae) in iraq ali n. al-barazengy iraqi ministry of environment/center of sustainable management for natural ecosystem-biodiversity unit email: ali_bio_84@yahoo.com phone: +9647703211822 abstract the present paper confirmed the presence of phrynocephalus maculatus longicaudatus haas, 1957 in iraq and recorded the first observations of this taxon in al-muthanna province southwestern of iraq. the existence of the species is yet uncertain in iraq. the habitat and morphological characteristics of this species were reviewed. key words: reptilia, squamata, sauria, agamidae, phrynocephalus maculate, observation, southern iraq, taxonomy introduction phrynocephalus maculatus anderson, 1872 is widely distributed from south west pakistan, south afghanistan, through iran to eastern arabia and south east jordan sindaco and jeremcenko (2008) and schultz et al. (1992). phrynocephalus maculatus maculatus anderson, 1872 distributed the central plateau of iran, at elevations from 500-3000 meters east through southern afghanistan and baluchistan as far as nushki, pakistan, and phrynocephalus maculatus longicaudatus haas, 1957 is found along the gulf coast of saudi arabia leviton et al. (1992) and anderson (1999). the occurrence of p. m. maculatus in iraq was reported by khalaf (1959) without further information. for these reasons there were some doubts on its occurrence because there are neither museum specimens nor published records on this species in iraq leviton et al. (1992). afrasiab and ali (1989) did not record phrynocephalus in their list for romaila reptiles, south of iraq. also it was not included in the family agamidae in the check list of reptiles and amphibians of iraq that giving by amr (2009) and. furthermore, there are seven species of phrynocephalus has been recorded in iran including p. maculatus rastegar-pouyani et al. (2008), and two species of phrynocephalus has been recorded in jordan, p. maculatus and p. arabicus abu baker et al. (2005). materials and methods sawa lake is an enclosed lake located northern of al-muthanna province and alwuhashih hill a desert area located to the east of al-muthanna province (30 km south of al-khader city). these two sites are regularly surveyed to study the wild birds in the province. most habitats in those sites are semi desert and sandy desert. adult of p. maculatus was photographed for the first time in area called um al-rouge (fig.1) (a sandy area on the road leading to al-wuhashih hill (n: 31.0384°, e: 45.57053°, altitude approximately (2 m) 120 first record of bostrichuscapucinus in 14 may 2013). the other p. maculatus was photographed once more near sawa lake (fig.2) (n: 31.32123°, e: 45.03544°, altitude approximately (10 m) in 28 aug 2013). two canon eos camera bodies is used (canon eos 450d and canon eos 550d) equipped with lenses canon ef 100-400 mm (f 4-5.6), canon ef 400 mm (f 5.6) and canon efs 18-55mm (f 3.5-5.6) to take close-up photos to confirm field identifications for the species, and to take a landscape photographs the area which the agama was presented there. we also used a garmin etrex gps device to record locations (longitude, latitude, and elevation). phrynocephalus maculatus longicaudatus haas, 1957 diagnosed depending on haas (1957), leviton et al. (1992) and anderson (1999) results and discussion in summer 2013 the iraqi ministry of environment carried out a field survey to study the wild birds in the important biodiversity areas in al-muthanna province, which is one of the largest provinces south west part of iraq. most of the province is located in ecoregion: arabian desert and east sahero-arabian xeric shrublands (pa1303) according to world wildlife fund (wwf), and the encyclopedia of earth. the biodiversity of this region is the least known in iraq (iraq fourth national report to the convention on biological diversity 2010). many sites north, south, east and west the province were surveyed, during which two specimens of p. maculatus were collected, for the first time in late spring to the south of alkhader city (40km southeast of al-samawah city) in the part of sandstone north and northeast of the province; the other one seen in mid-summer sandy area eastern of sawa lake (28km southeast of al-samawah city). fig.1: habitat of p. maculatus at um al-rouge area-al-muthanna province / south west iraq. (photographs by ali n. al-barazengy/ may 2013) 121 ali n. al-barazengy fig.2: habitat of p.maculatus, eastern sawa lake –al-muthanna province / south west iraq. (photographs by ali n. al-barazengy/ august 2013). observations in our surveys we found one p. maculatus in each site. the first was climber on plant haloxylon salicornicum, the other was procumbent on the sand. the phenotypic characteristics of the tow specimens coincide with diagnosis of p. m. longicaudatus haas, 1957, (figs. 3, 4). the head is short and broad, roughly looks like a heart on top view. forehead convex, with slightly enlarged scales, slot big mouth, no cutaneous folds at angle of mouth, no fringe of scales on posterior border of thigh and side of tail, side of head and neck without projecting fringe-like scales, dorsal scales homogeneous, no enlarged scales along flanks, scales on vertebral region considerably larger than those on flanks, nostrils are separated by one to three scales. differs from p. m. maculatus in having posterior supraorbital scales strikingly flattened and enlarged, longer than wide, and larger than mid-dorsal scales; a few dorsal scales are keeled or with an indication of mucronation; nostrils are directed forward instead of upward; tail is longer than twice the distance from the gular fold to the vent; dark coloration of the distal part of the tail is pronounced ventrally. fig.3: (a) female phrynocephalus maculatus longicaudatus haas, 1957. (b) side view of the head showing 5 rows of scales between eye and lip. and have enlarged posterior supraorbital scales larger than mid-dorsal scales typical for ssp. longicaudatus haas, 1957. (c) rearward view showing no fringe of scales on posterior border of thigh and 122 first record of bostrichuscapucinus side of tail. (photographs by ali n. al-barazengy um al-rouge area al-muthanna province in may 2013). coloration individual that located in um al-rouge area is colored by silver-grey on dorsum, barred transversally with five wide light brown bars ended on vertebral region of the back, each bar ended with dark brown spot on dorsum. the belly, under head and under tail was white. toes barred with dark grey strips. tail barred with seven dark strips and thin zigzag strips inbetween, the ventral end of the tail was black. the other individual that located in eastern sawa lake is colored by pale light grey to sandy color on dorsum and toes spotted with tight brown, the head paler than dorsum. the belly, under head was white, under tail has orange coloration from the vent across the anterior half of its length. tail barred and spotted with dark grey and the tip of tail is black. habitat um al-rouge area is located in south east al-samawa city, the site is small sandy dunes in wide shrubs desert, the growing plants in the site are mostly of one species haloxylon salicornicum (fig.1). the other site is sawa lake is a small enclosed lake with neither input nor output water sources surrounded with shrubs desert. sahara in the east and west side of the lake is sandy shrub desert most plants in eastern side are salicornia europaea, bienertia cycloptera, suaeda vermiculata, cornulaca leucantha sp., neurada procumbens (fig. 2). fig.4: (a) adult phrynocephalus maculatus longicaudatus haas, 1957. (b) dorsal view of the head showing enlarged posterior supraorbital scales, typical for ssp. longicaudatus haas, 1957 (c) rearward view showing no fringe of scales on posterior border of thigh and side of tail. (d) frontal view showing the nostrils separated by three scales, directed forward instead of upward. (e) side view of the head showing 4 rows of scales between eye and lip. (photographs by ali n. al-barazengy, eastern sawa lake -muthanna province, aug 2013). 123 ali n. al-barazengy key to the species of the genus phrynocephalus in the middle east fringes of pointed scales on toes strong, scales surrounding nostrils typically in contact on midline; often 3or 4 rows of scales between eye and lip; usually brownish above with some yellow or orange in pattern …………... phrynocephalus arabicus. fringes of pointed scales on toes moderate; scales surrounding nostrils typically separated from each other on midline; often 5 or 6 rows of scales between eye and lip; dorsal with five dark crossbars……... phrynocephalus maculatus longicaudatus. acknowledgements i would like to extend my thanks and gratitude to all of: iraqi ministry of environment (imoe), for support the field surveys in south iraq, saman r. afrasiab herpetologist in iraq natural history research center and museum/ baghdad university for his comments on phrynocephalus maculatus in iraq. omar f. al-sheikhly a zoologist in college of science/ university of baghdad, for his comments on phrynocephalus maculatus in iraq. ali haloob a botanist in center of sustainable management for natural ecosystem (imoe), for his help graciously in the classification of plants in the region. farah t. abd alhamid a biology in center of sustainable management for natural ecosystem (imoe), mohamed abbas natural systems division / al-muthanna environment directorate. literature cited abu-baker m. .p. siroky. ,z. amr., & d. modry 2005. discovery of a population of phrynocephalus maculatus anderson in hashemit kingdom of jordan. herpetozoa 18(3/4): 107-113. afrasiab, s.r. &ali, h. a., 1989. report on collection of reptiles from rumaila desert, south of iraq. bull. iraq nat.hist. mus. 8:65-73. amr, z. 2009. nature iraq species checklist reptiles and amphibians of iraq. sulaimani, iraq: nature iraq. publication no. ni-0209-003: 1-9. anderson, s. c., 1999. the lizards of iran. society for the study of amphibians and reptiles. oxford, ohio. 442 pp. haas, g. 1957. some amphibians and reptiles from arabia. proceedings of the california academy of sciences fourth series 29 (3): 47-86. khalaf, k. t. 1959. reptiles of iraq, with some notes on the amphibians. ar-rabitta press, baghdad. vii+96pp. iraq. leviton, a. e., anderson, s.c., adler k . & mintons.a.1992. hand book to the middle east amphibians and reptiles. ithaca, new york, ssar: 252 pp. ministry of environment, republic of iraq 2010. iraq fourth national report to the convention on biological diversity. retrieved 10 july 2014 from: http://www.cbd.int/doc/world/iq/iq-nr-04-en.pdf 124 first record of bostrichuscapucinus rastegar-pouyani, n., h.g. kami, m. rajabzadeh, s. shafiei, & anderson, s. c. 2008. annotated checklist of amphibians and reptiles of iran-iranian journal of animal biosystematics (ijab) 1: 43-66. schultz, s., siegenthaler, f., radspieler ,c., and wilms, th.m. 2013. a new locality record of phrynocephalus maculatus anderson, 1872, from jordan [short note] herpetozoa 25 sindaco, r. and jeremcenko, v. k. 2008. the reptiles of the western palearctic. 1. annotated checklist and distributional atlas of the turtles, crocodiles, amphisbaenians and lizards of europe, north africa, middle east and central asia. edizioni belvedere, latina: 579 pp. the encyclopedia of earth. arabian desert and east sahero-arabian xeric shrublands, retrieved 25 january 2015 from: http://www.eoearth.org/view/article/150161/ wwf. ecoregions. world wildlife fund, retrieved 11 july 2014 from http://www.worldwildlife.org/science/ecoregions/item1847.html. retrieved 8 february 2010. 125 ali n. al-barazengy bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2014) 13 (2): 119-125 phrynocephalus maculatusالمشبٌذاث األَلى للحشرَن longicaudatus haas, 1957فً العشاق علً البشصوجً َصاسة البٍئت الخالصت phrynocephalus maculatus ٌُضح ٌزا البحث حبلت َجُد الىُع longicaudatus haas, 1957 ًفً العشاق َتسجٍل المشبٌذاث األَلى لً ف ٌَعتبش ٌزا الىُع مه , محبفظت المثىى فً الجضء الجىُبً الغشبً مه العشاق الضَاحف التببعت لفصٍلت الحشرَن ٌَُ مه األوُاع غٍش مؤكذة الُجُد فً كزلك , العشاق َلم ٌصف أي أحذ مه قبل مكبن تُاجذي فً العشاق حتى أالن ٌستعشض المُئل الزي َجذ فًٍ َالصفبث المظٍشٌت للىُع bull 185 rami m. idan bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2017) 14 (3): 185-195 total organic carbon (toc) prediction from resistivity and porosity logs: a case study from iraq rami m. idan department of geophysics, college of remote sensing and geophysics, al-karkh university of sciences, baghdad, iraq email: ramisc3@kus.edu.iq received date:11.octber.2016 accepted date: 22.feberaury.2017 abstract the open hole well log data (resistivity, sonic, and gamma ray) of well x in euphrates subzone within the mesopotamian basin are applied to detect the total organic carbon (toc) of zubair formation in the south part of iraq. the mathematical interpretation of the logs parameters helped in detecting the toc and source rock productivity. as well, the quantitative interpretation of the logs data leads to assigning to the organic content and source rock intervals identification. the reactions of logs in relation to the increasing of toc can be detected through logs parameters. by this way, the toc can be predicted with an increase in gamma-ray, sonic, neutron, and resistivity, as well as a decrease in the density log. in calculating toc content, sonic/resistivity overlay technique was used. the results detected that the upper and lower parts (33003460 and 3570-3700 respectively) of the formation were the principal source rock in this location. the toc results from logs are ranged respectively from 1-6 and 1-4 wt % for the upper and lower parts from the formation. these results are compared with toc from (58) samples of rock -eval pyrolysis, which showed a close pattern of increasing and decreasing in toc values. this comparison was made so as to enhance the results of this technique. in addition, this tool revealed the possible lithology of the studied intervals, where the logs originally would give an indication to the lithology, as such high toc is significant to relatively low energy environments. toc calculation showed that the upper and lower packages represent source-seal rocks, while the middle had good reservoir properties. this relation may indicate a locally stratigraphic trap, and a need for further detailed studies. key words: resistivity logs, southern iraq, toc prediction, zubair formation, δt log r. introduction the assessment of source rocks for any basin studies in various geological settings needs to grow the uses of logs techniques to enhance the database, especially when geochemical information is restricted. these uses provide an integrated assessment of source rock ability for volumetric determinations. source rocks are mainly formed of finegrained sediments like mudstones and shale (tissot and welte, 1984). the important component of source rocks is the organic matter (om), which expresses the total organic carbon (toc). the later have to be more than 1% to be worthy in the doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2017.14.3.0185 http://dx.doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2017.14.3.0185 186 total organig carbon (toc) prediction from resistivity and porosity logs source rock studies (hunt, 1996). in organic geochemical studies and petroleum exploration, the toc is the main indicator of the quantitative parameters of any source rock, in addition to s2 and the qualitative once (peters et al., 2005). forasmuch, due to the value of toc is the main parameter to expect the quantity and quality, this paper focuses on the method of how to get the real values or to be closer (leckie et al., 1988 and dymann et al., 1996). a number of logs data have been prepared and predestined to use in determining variations and absolute quantities of toc. in this work, two main logs have applications in quantifying organic content from wire line logs. the resistivity and porosity, in addition to the gamma ray and calibre logs, are established for determining the toc in the evaluated units as shown by (passey et al., 1990). in south east in the mesopotamian zone of iraq in euphrates subzone precisely, is the area of interest and is considered as one of the promising regions (map 1). the case study was from southern oilfield, well x was chosen due to the integration of data. the total depth of this well is (4700 m) from sea level. the interval of interest is located from (3300-3700 m) which represents the zubair formation. the formation is comprised from alternation of sandstone, siltstone, and shale, representing the delta and pro delta facies, while limestone is restricted to the upper part, of the formation, which represents transgressive phase deposits (buday and jassim, 1980). it is divided into three units; upper, middle, and lower zubair formation. the shale packages become thinner toward the western area of the study while the coarse clastic packages become thinner within and toward the eastern parts (jassim and goff 2006). such differences in the thickness of the packages must be due to progradation of the delta sand bodies. on the other hand, euphrates subzone lies in the west of mesopotamian zone. it is the shallowest unit but has thicker quaternary deposits compared with the tigris subzone (aqrawi et al., 2010). materials and methods logs of resistivity, porosity, gamma ray, and calibre were converted from hard formula into digital data to be possibly used in calibration by excel software. this operation was made by the didger program. primarily, the logs of resistivity (ild) and the sonic (δt) are superimposed to be in one harmonic track, where each 50 µsec/ft from δt equal one logarithmic ild cycle (passey et al., 1990). the gamma ray (gr) log is synchronous to delineate the shale base line. as shown in detail in diagram (1) (shayesteh, 2011), the ild and δt baselines (which represent the overlapping between them in non-source, clay rich rocks based on relatively high values of gr) specified and appointed to equal 30.71 ohm.m and 81.43 µsec/ft respectively at the interval 3500-3550 m. then the equation (1) was run in excel software as below: δ log r = (r/r baseline) +0.02(δt δt baseline) ............ (1) where: r is the resistivity measured from log, δt is the transit time from log, r baseline (30.71 ohm.m) is the resistivity corresponding to the δt baseline value (81.43 µsec/ft) when the curves overlap in non-source, clay rich rocks, and 0.02 is based on the ratio of (50) µsec/ft for each resistivity cycle. the resulted δ log r, as well, entered to the excel software to calculate the total organic carbon (toc) as shown in equation (2). toc = (δ log r)*10 exp (2.297 0.1688 * lom)............ (2) where: toc is the total organic carbon measured in wt%, lom is the level of organic maturity. depending on the calculated ro and comparing with (hood et al., 1975); the lom value 187 rami m. idan is eight (8) for this research as shown in table (1) and diagram (2), which means of ro had ranged from 0.5-0.6 depending on (jarvie, 1991), the other numbers are constant. in each practical study, the resulted values have to be realized and ensured for their certainty, wherefore; fifty eight (58) samples of cutting were analyzed to determine the geochemical parameters of rock-eval pyrolysis techniques. the samples were selected as far as possible from the shale intervals of different depths as shown in table (1). these data were inverted from the south oil company (soc) in basra governorate. finally, all the collected logs data were used to describe the organic richness in the interval of interest. furthermore, the toc results from rock eval pyrolysis were represented in a log curve and superimposed with toc resulted from equations, as in diagram (3). table (1): the organic geochemical parameters obtained from rock-eval pyrolysis with calculated ro according to the equation of jarvie (1991). no. depth toc s2 tmax cal. ro no. depth toc s2 tmax cal. ro 1. 3306 1.3 1.11 429 0.562 30. 3528 0.74 1.03 433 0.634 2. 3312 0.96 0.55 429 0.562 31. 3532 0.83 0.87 434 0.652 3. 3316 0.92 1.03 429 0.562 32. 3537 0.51 0.37 441 0.778 4. 3324 1.07 1.05 432 0.616 33. 3542 0.58 0.38 429 0.562 5. 3332 1.65 2.88 425 0.49 34. 3550 0.66 0.66 440 0.76 6. 3338 0.6 0.79 424 0.472 35. 3554 0.76 0.58 431 0.598 7. 3346 1.24 1.4 430 0.58 36. 3562 1.28 1.25 425 0.49 8. 3358 0.97 1.66 422 0.436 37. 3567 0.45 0.38 435 0.67 9. 3366 0.74 0.5 430 0.58 38. 3570 0.54 0.59 438 0.724 10. 3388 0.4 0.2 435 0.67 39. 3578 0.58 0.24 429 0.562 11. 3392 0.86 0.39 431 0.598 40. 3582 0.67 0.48 435 0.67 12. 3399 0.49 0.25 439 0.742 41. 3588 1.19 0.9 433 0.634 13. 3408 0.92 0.57 429 0.562 42. 3592 1.52 0.27 427 0.526 14. 3414 0.46 0.14 423 0.454 43. 3598 0.5 0.17 429 0.562 15. 3422 1.01 1.31 432 0.616 44. 3604 0.54 0.41 440 0.76 16. 3430 0.87 1.07 433 0.634 45. 3610 0.5 0.23 440 0.76 17. 3435 0.82 0.59 428 0.544 46. 3618 0.76 0.59 434 0.652 18. 3442 0.74 0.43 427 0.526 47. 3624 0.72 0.53 430 0.58 19. 3456 1.02 0.83 433 0.634 48. 3628 0.53 0.31 432 0.616 20. 3470 0.85 0.96 435 0.67 49. 3636 0.75 0.41 432 0.616 21. 3476 1.13 1.71 431 0.598 50. 3640 0.74 0.45 437 0.706 22. 3482 0.82 0.93 433 0.634 51. 3644 0.95 0.54 438 0.724 23. 3488 1.9 3.56 431 0.598 52. 3650 1.8 0.48 441 0.778 24. 3493 3.17 10.61 431 0.598 53. 3656 0.64 0.16 439 0.742 25. 3500 1.17 0.98 430 0.58 54. 3666 1.1 0.36 428 0.544 26. 3506 1.16 1.13 434 0.652 55. 3676 1.03 0.38 430 0.58 27. 3512 0.85 1.16 432 0.616 56. 3682 1.52 0.45 440 0.76 28. 3516 0.64 0.37 434 0.652 57. 3688 1.55 0.66 435 0.67 29. 3524 1.54 1.01 431 0.598 58. 3695 2.6 1.75 435 0.67 188 total organig carbon (toc) prediction from resistivity and porosity logs results the main results of this paper are: 1. the toc can be calculated from the right integration of porosity and resistivity logs. these results are supported by comparison with toc from the rock-eval pyrolysis. 2. toc is a good indicator for the lithology of different intervals. as well as, the studied section is divided into three rock packages in respect to the toc, and as a result, to the lithology. these three rock packages started in 33003460m (160m), 3460-3570m (110m), and 3570-3700m (130m) from top to bottom respectively. 3. similar to these studies can be used and applied in the promising areas that lack geochemical data. 4. the correlation between the toc results from log and core analyses is important to determine and prove the success of the logs techniques in organic geochemistry evaluation. in well x, the correlation between the calculated and the measured toc reflects a good obvious similarity between them (diag. 3). thus, the overlay proved real tools for quantitative determination of toc in this well. discussion wire line logs of sonic and resistivity overlays are applied for the certain interval of interest (zubair formation) in the well x. one overlay is drawn for the well, combining both of the calculated toc values and the gr log (diag. 3). this type of presentation may help in identifying the organic rich rocks and evaluating the organic richness in a whole formation or intervals that have no enough data to study the geochemical properties. the sonic resistivity overlays of the formation can be presented as in (diag. 3).this overlay reflects the dominant of a good δ log r separation with high percentage of the toc (wt %) in the upper (3300-3460m) and lower (3570-3700m) parts of zubair formation. the calculated toc range between 1-6 wt % in the upper formation, while 14 wt % in the lower, indicating the prevalence of organic matter in these two intervals. this result refers to good source rock quantity parameters, which may indicate a possible source rock, and can provide oil and/or gas to the nearby reservoir rocks. the middle zubair formation (3460-3570m) showed a decrease in the toc values. this may indicate good reservoir characteristics in the studied area as shown in (diag. 4). rock characteristics are dominantly solid and have good total porosity as expected by the company of porosity, resistivity, and gamma ray, in addition to calibre log; this may mean the consistence of pure sandstone as assigned by (idan et al., 2015). the resulting ideas may suggest three different rock packages, the middle of them diagnosed to be the cleaner sandstone reservoir trapped between two shale-rich intervals acting as source-seal stratigraphic trap or complete petroleum system as explained in (idan, 2012). this conclusion may be enhanced by several later studies for the promising area, concerning with reservoir characterization (porosity, permeability, and water saturation) and oil habitat. conclusions logs method is considered as the up-to-date to the identification and quantification source rock. the evaluation method primarily starts by exposing the responses of the logs gr, δt, and ild, in addition off course to the neutron and density, to increasing toc. 189 rami m. idan map (1): the tectonical zonation and the area of study representing the target oil fields (al-ameri et al., 2011). increase of gr, δt, neutron, resistivity and decrease of density may indicate increasing in toc but this is not necessarily always true in all cases (diag. 4). porosity/resistivity tool shows that logs can be used to identify organic-rich formations. as in this case, the calculated toc ranged from 1-6 wt %. this result is close to the rock-eval analysis which means that the studied interval is considered as source-seal rock in the study area. to detect that log, analysis may really evaluate and be applied for quantitative determination of toc, it is essential to correlate with rock-eval pyrolysis data. results from the overlay showed a generally accepted compatible with core data in estimating toc in this area (diag. 3). as a result, these calculations can be used in intervals that lack of geochemical data to obtain an overview in exploration. acknowledgment the south iraqi oil company (soc) is acknowledged for the supply of logs and rocks samples analyses as well as other information related to this paper. 190 total organig carbon (toc) prediction from resistivity and porosity logs d ia g ra m ( 1 ): s o n ic /r es is ti v it y o v er la y , sh o w in g δ l o g r s ep ar at io n i n t h e o rg an ic r ic h i n te rv al s. g am m a r ay ( in a p i u n it s) i s co n te m p o ra n eo u s to f in d o u t th e sh al e b as e li n e in t h e st u d ie d c as e. 191 rami m. idan diagram (2): level of organic maturity or metamorphism (lom) explains how the lom value has been chosen depending on the vitrinite reflectance (ro), which calculated as jarvie (1991), modified from hood et al. (1975). 192 total organig carbon (toc) prediction from resistivity and porosity logs d ia g ra m (3 ): r ep re se n ti n g t h e re su lt ed t o c f ro m l o g o v er la p p ed b y t h e t o c f ro m r o ck e v al p y ro ly si s to c o m p ar e th e re su lt s. 193 rami m. idan diagram (4): full set of resistivity, porosity, gr, and calibre of the interested interval, showing the petrophysical properties of the formation. note that middle section (3460-3570m) behaves relatively different than upper and lower parts. 194 total organig carbon (toc) prediction from resistivity and porosity logs literature cited al-ameri, t.k., zumberge, j. and markarian, z.m. 2011. hydrocarbons in the middle miocene jeribe formation, diyala region, ne iraq. journal of petroleum geology, 34(2): 199 – 216. aqrawi, a., goff, j., horbury, a. and sadooni, f. 2010. the petroleum geology of iraq, scientific press ltd, 1st edition, 424pp. buday t. and jassim s.z. 1980. the regional geology of iraq stratigraphy and palaeogeography. state organization for minerals, baghdad, iraq, 445pp. dymann, t.s., palacos, j.g., tysdal, r.g., perry, w.j. and pawlewicz, m.j. 1996. source rock potential of middle cretaceous rock in south western montana. aapg bulletin, 80: 1177-1184. hood, a., gutjahr, c. c. m. and heacock, r. l. 1975. organic metamorphism and the generation of petroleum. aapg bulletin, 59(6): 986-996. hunt, j.m. 1996. petroleum geochemistry and geology. w. h. freeman: new york, 1996, 743pp. idan, r.m. 2012. the petroleum system of zubair formation in selected oil fields-southern iraq, unpublished ph.d. thesis, university of baghdad, 200pp. idan, r. m., al-rawi, d., nasser, m. e. and almashaekhy, d.a. 2015. reservoir properties and seal efficiency in the zubair formation in euphrates subzone, southern iraq. arabian journal of geosciences, 8(2): 773-780. jarvie, d.m. 1991. factors affecting rock-eval derived kinetic parameters. chemical geology, 93: 79-99. jassim, s.z., and goff, j.c. 2006. geology of iraq. published by dolin, prauge and moravian museum, brno, 1st edition, 341pp. leckie, d.a., kalkreuth, w.e. and snowdon, l.r. 1988, source rock potential and thermal maturity of lower cretaceousa strata. aapg bulletin, 72: 820-838. passey, q.r., creaney, s., kulla, j.b., moretti, f.j. and stroud, j.d. 1990. a practical model for organic richness from porosity and resistivity logs. aapg bulletin, 74(12): 1777-1794. peters, k.e., walters, c.c. and moldowan, j.m. 2005. the biomarker guide, 2nd edition, volume i, biomarkers and isotopes in petroleum systems and human history, united kingdom at the cambridge university press, 471pp. shayesteh, m. 2011. source rock analysis from well logs in the southern dezful embayment. the 2nd south asain geoscience conference and exhibition, geo india, 12-14th jan, 2011,gearter noida, new delhi, india. tissot, b.p. and welte, d.h. 1984. petroleum formation and occurrence. springer, berlin, 2nd ed. http://link.springer.com/journal/12517 195 rami m. idan bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2017) 14 (3): 185-195 دراسة حالة :التنبؤ بكمية المادة العضوية الكلية من خالل مجسات المقاومية والمسامية من العراق رامي محمود عيدان جامعة الكرخ للعلوم, بغداد, العراق ,اءلية التحسس النائي والجيوفيزيك ,قسم الجيوفيزياء 162211111: تأريخ القبول 1620126122 :تأريخ االستالم الخالصة x للبئر تم تطبيق معلمات مجسات المقاومية والمجس الصوتي ومجس اشعة كاما لغرض تحديد كمية المادة , في شبه نطاق الفرات العائد لنطاق سهل مابين الرافدين لقد ساعد التفسير الرياضي للمجسات .العضوية الكلية في تكوين الزبير جنوبي العراق فأن , لكاضافة لذ. في كشف عن كمية المادة العضوية وانتاجية الصخرة المصدرية لمجسات قاد الى المحتوى العضوي وتحديد اعماقه في ا التفسير الكمي لمعلومات يمكن الكشف عن العالقة بين استجابة المجسات لزيادة كمية المادة . الصخرة المصدرية بهذه الطريقة ممكن استنتاج المادة العضوية عند . العضوية من خالل المعطيات الرقمية وبالتاكيد انخفاض قرائة مجس , زيادة المجسات كاما والصوتي والنيتروني والمقاومية الصوتي في حساب كمية المادة / ومة القد استخدمت تقنية تراكب مجسي المق. الكثافة و 0643-0033)العضوية وقد اظهرت النتائج ان الجزء العلوي والسفلي من التكوين لقد . هما الصخرة المصدرية الرئيسية في هذا الموقع( على التوالي 0753-0533 للجزئين % وزن 6-1و 4-1مية المادة العضوية من المجسات ما بين تراوحت ك عينة 75ومن ثم قورنت هذه النتائج مع نتائج تحاليل . العلوي والسفلي على التوالي صخرية لنفس التكوين تم تحليلها بجهاز تقييم الصخور المصدرية والتي اظهرت نمطا جائت هذه المقارنة . ية المادة العضويةمقاربا للزيادة والنقصان على حد السواء في كم باالضافة لذلك فقد كشفت هذه الطريقة عن الصخارية . لتعزيز نتائج تقنية المجسات حيث اعطت المجسات بصورة متأصلة توقع , المحتملة للفترة العمقية موضوع الدراسة داللة حول الطبيعة الصخرية للتكوين حيث يعتبر المحتوى العالي من المادة العضوية اظهرت حسابات كمية المادة العضوية ان الحزمة . على بيئات الترسيب الهادئة نسبيا غطاء بينما مثلت الحزمة الوسطية -الصخرية العليا والسفلى تمثل صخور مصدر هذه العالقة قد تدل على وجود مصائد طباقية . صخرة مصدرية ذات خواص مكمنية جيدة .لية كثيرة الحقامحلية تحتاج الى دراسات تفصي bull 141 israa k. aneed et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2016) 14 (2): 141-159 redescription and some polymorphism notes in workers of camponotus xerxes forel, 1904 (hymenoptera: formicidae; formicinae) israa khalaf aneed* razzaq shalan augul** and layla jabbar mohammed al-bahadyli* *dep. of biology, college of science, al-mustansiriya university, baghdad, iraq **iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq corresponding author: razzaqshalan@gmail.com abstract the specimens of camponotus xerxes forel, 1904 were collected from different localities in iraq; the purpose of morphological study of this species in details throughout the present study. the description was based on major workers belonging to this species, also some notes of polymorphism in workers have been mentioned; the most important of morphological features are illustrated and figured. key words: camponotus, formicidae, formicinae, hymenoptera, polymorphism, redescription. introduction formicidae is a family of order hymenoptera, which also includes sawflies, bees, and wasps; this family within vespoidea superfamily, which are composed with the apoidea and chrysidoidea a guild of aculeata, and follow to the suborder of apocrita (goulet and huber, 1993). ants are an important and ubiquitous component of the fauna on all terrestrial habitats, except the poles, with about 140 million years of evolutionary history (moreau and bell, 2013). there are currently more than 13,000 ant species recognized worldwide (bolton, 2014). they play crucial ecological roles as predators, soil engineers, seed dispersers, plant symbionts, nutrient cycles and more (del toro et al., 2012). in tropical forests; the ants are represented, simultaneously with termites, a major proportion of the animal biomass (fittkau and klinge, 1973). formicinae has the characteristics that distinguish it from other subfamilies belong to formicidae: ocelli always present; petiole with a distinct single node or scale; gaster without a projecting sting, first and second gasteral tergite not separated by a distinct constriction, apex of gaster with a circular orifice, in some genera a protruding tube fringed with setae (collingwood and agosti, 1996). 142 redescription and some polymorphism notes the genus of camponotus mayr, 1861 are recognized by many features such as: antenna 12-segmented, antennal insertion with clearly distant from clypeal margin, dorsal surface of thorax clearly curved in lateral view (collingwood, 1985; collingwood and agosti, 1996). the previous studies that deal with ants in iraq, especially with respect to taxonomic studies of this genus, are very few, for example khalaf (1958) listed the species of camponotus compressus (fabricius), while abdul-rassoul et al. (1978) reported c. xerxes forel (mistakenly written as c. tertes), and then abdul-rassoul et al. (1988) listed the species c. festai emery, c. giedeli pisarski, c. kurdistanicus emery and c. thoracicus f. for the fauna of iraq. recently, in the catalogue of borowiec (2014) were listed many species for iraq that belonging to genus of camponotus, namely: c. cilicius emery, c. evansi crawely, c. fellah dalla torre, c. gestroi emery, c. kurdistanicus emery, c. oasium forel, c. riedeli pisarski, c. shaqualavensis mayr; c. staryi pisarski, c. vogti forel and c. xerxes forel. the aim of the present study is a redescription of the major workers of camponotus xerxes with some observations on their morphological polymorphism in workers. materials and methods collecting and preserving insects: there were two methods to collect the workers of ants; the first one, large specimens were captured by forceps and brush; whereas the smaller specimens were collected by aspirator; then put them in test tubes and small plastic containers, and transferred to the laboratory to complete the conservation and diagnosed. the specimens were preserved in two groups as follows: 1. conservation by alcohol: some of specimens were preserved in plastic tubes containing 75 % ethyl alcohol; the date and localities of collection were provided. 2. mounting of the specimens: others were mounted on cardboards. the preparation of microscopic slides: some diagnostic characters cannot be studied or drawn and figured easily, so these parts were mounted on permanent slides. the slides were prepared in two methods: (1)the direct method: most parts of the ants were mounted directly such as: antennae, mandibles and legs; and adding appropriate amount of canada balsam and covered by cover slips. (2)the indirect method: the parts of specimens were put in potassium hydroxide (koh) concentration of it 10 % for 24 hours to make samples softer and transparency. under dissecting microscope, the head was placed in a watch glass and removed the mouthparts; these parts were washed 3 by distill water and then washed in the 70 to 96 % ethyl alcohol, respectively for 3 minutes. the parts were dried by filter papers and placed in a watchglass that filled with glacial acetic acid to remove the remains of alcohol, then mounted on the slides. diagnosis of specimens and the examination of characters: the camera lucida was used with binocular dissecting microscope to illustrate some parts; furthermore, the samsung galaxy s4, gt-19500 was used for taking photos with using a binocular dissecting microscope. 143 israa k. aneed et al. the specimens were identified by using keys provided by collingwood (1985), collingwood and agosti (1996), mohamed et al. (2001), ionescu-hirsch (2009), karamanand and aktaç (2013), taylor (2015); also were compared with previously determined species deposited in the iraq natural history research museum collection. the measurements: according to collingwood and agosti (1996), the following abbreviations of measurements (in millimeters) were used: ci (cephalic index): hw×100/hl el (eye length): the maximum diameter of the eyes. hl (head length): the length of head, with the excepting of mandibles, measured in a straight midline. hw (head width): the maximum width of head, excluding eyes. ph (petiole high): the maximum high at node. pl (petiole length): the length of petiole from its attachment with propodeum to gaster. si (scape index): sl×100 / hw. sl (scape length): the straight line length of antennal scape not including basal neck. tl (total length): the total outstretched length of the individual. results and discussion the morphology of the major workers general description: color (plate 1): black, semi-shining with exception of the following parts: flagellum, pedicel and legs reddish brown; lower part of thorax including propodeum and petiole dark brown. generally, body covered with fine and moderately densely pubescences. measurements: tl: 13-16 mm, si: 80.0-83.1, ci: 73.0-98.7; el: 0.83-0.90 mm, hl: 3.70 3.75 mm; el/hl: 0.22-0.24, hw: 3.453.60 mm; pl: 1.0-1.3mm; ph: 1.51.9 mm; sl: 2.76-3.00 mm. head (plate 2, figure 1): head quadrate shaped in frontal view; three small ocelli; compound eyes relatively large, oval shaped, with flat surface; clypeus semi oblong with convex surface, particularly upper two-third; apical margin of clypeus straight with brown setae varying in length, extended with longitudinal axis of head, lateral sides of apical margin with rightangled not extend under genae (figure 1, plate 2). frontal line very clear; lower half of frons with very distinctly frontal carinae, wshaped like and exceeds antennary pits. antennal insertions distant from fronto-clypeal suture; in frontal view, face with five pairs of black erect setulae arrange into rows varying in length along sides of frontal line. in general, head with fine scattered pits leaving very wide distance in many parts; covered with very fine scattered pubescences that appeared clearly at vertex. vertex with flat edge in frontal view, slightly elevated on side; genae consist of wide area, foramen magnum near at upper part of head surrounding by occipital carina in upper half; labium and maxillae are settled in oral fossa, upper parts of oral fossa surrounding by hypostoma. posterior side of head glabrous (plate 2 b, c) this characters is very useful to determine this species from closely species c. fallah dalla torre, 1893; in dorsal view occiput consist of widely area that extended from behind vertex to occipital carina. 144 redescription and some polymorphism notes antennae (plate 3): geniculate filiform type; scape slightly bent and elongated compared with length of other parts, narrowed at the base, covered with fine moderately densely pubescences, also with short, scattered and paler hairs, vary in length and formed sharp angle with scape that inclined with acute angle toward apex of scape. pedicel short, cylindrical segment and 1.25 times longer than first segment of flagellum. flagellum composed of 10 segments that called flagellomeres; length of first, second and third equal; the diameter of flagellomeres decreases gradually toward apex of flagellum, remaining segments decreased gradually in length, but apical segment elongated and acuminated with a rounded tip; flagellomeres covered with dense and scattered micro-pubescences. mouth parts: mandible (plate 4 a, b): mandibles strong, wide and resembling foot shaped in internal side, sickle shaped in dorsal view; covered with scattered, brown setae, varying in length on dorsal surface, setae become longer and stronger near the teeth, internal margin with seven teeth including apical extension; teeth different in sizes and shaped, generally most of teeth triangular shaped; apical tooth long with slightly acuminated apex, three teeth that following apical tooth large and triangular, shorter and wider than apical; remaining teeth smaller and varying in sizes. maxilla (figure 2): cardo shorter and smaller sized than second part of maxilla, base of cardo articulates with hypostoma, apical part joined with stipes; stipes large and elongated, concave toward internal side, external surface corrugated or wavy, carrying on its apex rest of maxilla parts that include maxillary palp and galea. maxillary palp placed on outer apex of stipes, consist from six segments, first segment short, second longer than rest; remaining segments, with length gradually decreases as well as diameters, covered with fine and short hairs. galea located at internal side of stipes apex, fleshly and enlarged portion, apex rounded, clothed with fine and densely hairs, lacinia absent. labrum (plate 4a): base of this portion wide and articulated with clypeus, but narrowed laterally at median, anterior margin or free edge with invagination vshaped like; covered with fine and dense hairs. labium (figure 3): located at lower of previous of mouth parts, consists of following parts: submentum; small and semi-triangular shaped, base connected with hypostoma, apex slightly concave and attached with mentum and prementum. mentum and prementum integrated with each other, fleshly, oval and elongated shaped; clothed with scattered fine hairs; other parts of labium located at its apex. labial palps: placed on both sides of mentum-prementum apex; each of this part composed of four segments, covered with little and fine hairs. glossae: combined as one structure, swollen and oval shaped, base sclerotized dark area with dense, short and fine hairs. paraglossae: located on either side of glossae, narrowed and tape shaped; surfaces of these parts covered by dense, short and finer hairs. 145 israa k. aneed et al. alitrunk (plate 5, figure 4, 5): dorsal surface of alitrunk curved in lateral view; semi-shining, without clearly sculptures, although, we can identify microsculptures in high power that similar to fingerprints. generally, alitrunk in worker of ants consists of following parts: prothorax: this part is large; and like other hymenoptera, it does consists of pronotum and propleuron, prosternum reduced, and not clear. pronotum: wide and semi-triangle in lateral view; middle of dorsal surface convex in lateral view and with three long and erect setae on each side; anterior part of pronotum with depression and narrow dorsally to form neck in association with small area from apex of propleuron. propleuron: narrowed in lateral view, striped shaped and elongated, acuminated toward neck. in ventral view, consist from semi-elongated two triangular shaped portions, and separated by median longitudinal line, each portion wide at near coxae, but acuminated or narrowed in anterior parts; propleuron clothed with erect and vary hairs. mesothorax: dorsal surface curved and continuous with prothorax in lateral view; convex in dorsal view; this part narrower than pronotum in dorsal view; first sclerite continuous laterally, dorsal surface with one pair of erect and similar to that setae, which located on dorsal surface of pronotum and another single behind anterior, but slightly shorter; dorsal surface of mesonotum becomes narrowed toward posterior part at near metanotum. mesopleuron elongated and narrowed toward mid coxae that semi-oblong shaped like. metathorax: dorsal surface much narrower than other parts of thorax, metanotum very narrow and reduced in lateral view, it's appeared as inverted triangle shaped. at lower area of this part can be determined second thoracic spiracles, these spiracles with semi-oval shaped. metapleuron similar to mesopleuron, but narrower, extended from under metathoracic spiracles, slightly widened at near hind coxae. sternites of thoracic segments reduced. propodeum: dorsal surface curved and continue with previous parts; declivity abrupt; dorsal surface with group of erected long setae, one pair situated in middle and three setae located at near of declivity, although slightly decrease in length, especially in last three and bend at apex toward anterior parts of body; at end of lateral sides of propodeum with distinct pair of propodeal spiracles with two opposite lips like shaped. the legs (plate 6): legs varying in length, and increase gradually from fore to hind legs, but inverse, thickness of legs gradually decreases. coxae very closely in ventral side of thorax, so that sternites of thoracical segments not obvious. fore legs: coxae like semi conical shaped with wide base and narrowed at apex, anterior side with three varying in length and erect setulae located at apical half of coxae; posterior side of surface with row composed of various setulae, thinner than previous setulae, these setulae separated by different distance and found at apical half of segment. trochanter, clothed with scattered setulae, erect and shorter than setulae on posterior surface of coxae. femur cylindrical shaped, elongated; apex half with depression along of ventral or inner side; inner side of two third of base part with a row of five setulae, moderate in length and with wide and varying in distance that separated from one each to other, apex of femur with many short and strong of setae on outer side. tibia shorter and clearly thinner than femur, but diameter increase at apex; inner surface with a row of short, erect and varying in thickness of 146 redescription and some polymorphism notes setulae; apex of tibia with long spur like a thumb shaped on inner side, inner side of spur with a row of very fine and closely of hairs; and there are many spines located at near spur. tarsus consists of five tarsomeres, basitarsus cylindrical like shaped, elongated with clearly depressed on side that opposite of tibial spur, concave or depression on base of basitarsomere covered by a row of fine hairs; length of tarsomeres decreases from second to fourth tarsomere that very shorter than basitarsus, while fifth slightly longer than second tarsomere; last tarsomere or fifth segment carrying a pair of claws, apex with arolium medially, apical of this tarsomere with many setulae that varying in length and thicker. generally, tarsomeres from first to fourth spinous especially basitarsomere but spines located at apices of rest tarsomeres. mid legs: coxae shorter and smaller than fore coxae, also conical form; posterior side with three to four erect setulae and varying in length. trochanter similar to fore leg in shaped, but with two erects and short of hairs. femur similar to shape of fore leg, but thinner and slightly longer; posterior surface contained three moderately, wide separated, erect setulae on basal half; apical part of femur with short several spinules, and located around apex. tibia thinner and longer than fore leg, basal part narrowed than apex; ventral surface with row of strongly and short setae, and length increase toward of tibial apex, separated by widely distance from one to others; apical part of tibia with pair of spinules, one on ventral and other on outer side, these spinules with medium length; also ventral side of apex with long and straight spur and different by shaped compared with spur on apical part of fore tibia, also this spur contain short, fine and very closely hairs on side that opposite of depression side of basitarsus. tarsus similar to description of fore leg with exception basitarsus with slightly concave on inner side. hind legs: coxae similar to previous coxae but elongated and less swollen than fore coxae and clearly larger than mid coxae; hind coxae glabrous. trochanter cup shaped, with single hair at median part of posterior surface. femur longer than fore and mid femur, but thinner, with scattered, short and erect setulae; basal half straight, but apical half slightly curved, and accuminate toward apex; ventral surface of apex with several short spinules. tibia cylindrical and elongated; ventral surface very important for diagnostic of this species, there is a row of setae and separated by different distance, this row contains from 8-13 pairs of spiny hairs on inner surface or side, near to apical half of tibia; apex with long spur compared to spur on mid tibia. tarsus such as previous tarsi, but tarsomeres longer than fore and mid tarsi. the abdomen: petiole (plate 5,7, figure 4): petiole composed of single nod, slightly higher than long, anterior surface curved, posterior surface flattened with six long and erect setulae, three on top of anterior side and others located at top posterior surface; apex of node accuminate and slightly rounded in dorsal view. on ventral side; anterior base of petiole with a group of setulae that characterized by erect, short and different length; median of lateral sides with small and rounded spiracles. gaster (plate 7): semi-pear shaped like; gaster consists from five segments called gasteral segments or abdominal segments; size of segments decreased toward posterior end. sculptures as of thorax, similar to fingerprints in high magnification. each gasteral segment composed of gasteral tergite and sternite, but pleuron reduced; generally anterior region of gasteral tergites with pair of spiracles at lower parts. posterior margin of t1-t3 with clearly shining narrow stripe line; gasteral tergites covered with regular, dark and moderately density of micropubescences that leaving wide distances. two rows of long and erect setae found on surface of tergites and sternites, first row located at anterior of tergites, second row located at near of posterior margin and separated by clearly and widely distances, these setae 147 israa k. aneed et al. concentrated in middle parts of sternites and become more density, especially at near of acidopore, but they don't compose like a brush. diagnostic characters: el/hl > 0.2, ocelli absent, pronotum normally, genae and posterior head without hairs, dorsum of alitrunk entirely black, dorsal surface of petiole rounded and squamiform shaped. specimens examined: (161major workers): the specimens were collected from outdoor places that containing gardens and agricultural fields. baghdad province, babal mudham (103 specimens), 21, 14.i.2016, 29, 28.i. 2016, 14, 4. iv.2016, 2, 14.v. 2016, and 1 specimen was collected at 29.vi.2016; palestine street, 3 specimens were collected in 20. iii. 2016; alsadder city, 16 specimens were collected in 13. ii. 2016; gherai'at, 10 specimens were collected in 18. iii.2016; taji, 4 specimens were collected in 13.ii.2016; sha'ab district, 10 specimens were collected in 6. iii. 2016; hayy al-bnouk, 6 specimens were collected in 27. iii.2016. maysan province: ali al-gharbi, 6 specimens were collected in 5. ii.2016. basra province; al-midaina district, 33 specimens, 23, 13.ii.2016 and 10 specimens were collected at 26. ii.2016. dhi qar, al refai district, 6 specimens were collected in 17. iii. 2016. distribution: saudi arabia, united arab emirates, egypt, iran, iraq, israel, oman, qatar, turkey, turkmenistan and uzbekistan (borowiec, 2014). plate (1): worker of camponotus xerxes; adorsal view blateral view 148 redescription and some polymorphism notes plate (2): head of c. xerxes; aanterior view bposterior view c-lateral view ant: antenna, anp: antennary pit, ce: compound eye; cl: clypeus; fl: frontal line, crn: carina, fc: frontal carina, fcs: frontoclypeal suture or margin, fm: foramen magnum, ft: frontal triangle, hps: hypostoma, mdb: mandible, gn: gena, ocp: occiput, of: oral fossa, stu: setula, vet: vertex plate (3): antenna of c. xerxes flg: flagellum, ped: pedicel, scp: scape (the numbers refer to the flagellomeres) 149 israa k. aneed et al. figure (1): head of c. xerxes (anterior view) anp: antennary pit, ce: compound eye, cl: clypeus, crn: carina, fc: frontal carina, fcs: fronto-clypeal suture or margin, fl: frontal line, fs: frons, ft: frontal triangle, sta: setae, stu: setula, vet: vertex 150 redescription and some polymorphism notes plate (4):some of mouth parts in major worker of c. xerxes; aanterior view for lower parts of head that showed the mandible and labrum bmandible b1, dorsal surface b2, ventral surface (sta: seta) figure (2): maxilla of c. xerxes 151 israa k. aneed et al. figure (3): labium of c. xerxes plate (5): lateral side of alitrunk and some parts of abdomen in major worker of c. xerxes gas: gaster, mesn: mesonotum, mespl: mesopleuron, metpl: metapleuron, nk: neck, petl: petiole, pron: pronotum, prop: propodeum, propl: propleuron, pros: propodeal spiracle, sths: second thoracic spiracle 152 redescription and some polymorphism notes figure (4): lateral side of alitrunk and petiole in c. xerxes hr: hairs, mesn: mesonotum, mespl: mesopleuron, meta: metanotum, metpl: metapleuron, petl: petiole, pron: pronotum, prop: propodeum, propl: propleuron, pros: propodeal spiracle, sta: seta, sths: second thoracic spiracle figure (5): dorsal view of alitrunk in c. xerxes dp: declivity of propodeum; mesn: mesonotum, metn: metanotum, pron: pronotum, prop: propodeum, sta: setae, stu: setulae 153 israa k. aneed et al. plate (6): legs of c. xerxes; afore leg bmid leg chind leg 154 redescription and some polymorphism notes plate (7): abdomen of c. xerxes ac: acidopore; pet: petiole; s: sternite; sta: setae; t: tergite 155 israa k. aneed et al. polymorphism the polymorphism in species of c. xerxes is clearly seen in workers cast, and appears morphological different, especially in the size and behavioral aspects. throughout the present study, the workers are collected in three types depending on sizes: major, medium and minor; these results are agreed with busher et al. (1985). below a brief of some of the polymorphism note from one to the other of these workers: major workers (as in the above description): this type was seen at closer to the colony. medium workers: general description (plate 8): color: generally, like to the major with exception the legs and antennae slightly lighter. the alitrunk with fewer setae compared with majors. pedicel in length is similar to the first and second flagellomeres; apex of head rounded. measurements: tl: 7.0-8.5 mm, si: 126.3, ci: 90.47; el: 0.6 mm, hl: 2.1 mm; el/hl: 0.28, hw: 1.9 mm; pl: 0.9 mm; ph: 0.6 mm; sl: 2.4 mm. specimens examined: (58 workers): baghdad province, babal mudham (23 specimens), 9, 14.i.2016, 8, 28.i. 2016, 4, 4. iv.2016 and 2 specimens were collected at 29.vi.2016; taji, 2 specimens were collected in 13.ii.2016; sha'ab district, 3 specimens were collected in 6. iii. 2016; hayy al-bnouk, 5 specimens were collected in 27. iii.2016. maysan province: ali algharbi, 2 specimens were collected in 5. ii.2016. basra province; al-midaina district, 15 specimens, 13, 13.ii.2016 and 2 specimens were collected in 26. ii.2016. dhi qar, al refai district, 8 specimens were collected in 17. iii. 2016. minor workers: general description (plate 9): color: head brown, alitrunk yellowish brown, gaster dark brown with except the first gasteral segment is lighter than rest, antennae and legs light brown. pedicel 1.2 times longer than the first and second flagellomeres. the setae found on propodeum only; apex of head rounded in frontal view that similar to medium workers. measurements: tl: 5-6 mm, si: 152.84, ci: 72.35; el: 0.58 mm, hl: 1.70 mm; el/hl: 0.34, hw: 1.23 mm; pl: 0.76 mm; ph: 0.64 mm; sl: 1.88 mm. specimens examined: (99 workers): baghdad province, babal mudham (44 specimens), 16, 14.i.2016, 9, 28.i. 2016, 5, 4. iv.2016, 11, 14.v. 2016, and 3 specimens were collected in 29.vi.2016; gherai'at, 10 specimens were collected in 18. iii.2016; sha'ab district, 6 specimens were collected in 6. iii. 2016; hayy al-bnouk, 5 specimens were collected in 27. iii.2016. maysan province: ali al-gharbi, 15 specimens were collected in 5. ii.2016. basra province; al-midaina district, 10 specimens, 23, 13.ii.2016. dhi qar, al refai district, 9 specimens were collected in 17. iii. 2016. 156 redescription and some polymorphism notes plate (8): medium worker of c. xerxes; adorsal view blateral view clateral view of thorax that shown the setae on alitrunk plate (9): small worker of c. xerxes; adorsal view blateral view cfrontal view of head that shown the rounded apex dlateral view of thorax that shown the setae on propodeum 157 israa k. aneed et al. literature cited abdul-rassoul, m.s., dawah, h.a. and othman, n.y. 1978. records of insect collection (part-i) in the natural history research centre, baghdad. bulletin of the iraq natural history museum, 7(2): 1-10. abdul-rassoul, m.s., dawah, h.a. and othman, n.y. 1988. records of insect collection (part-ii) in iraq natural history museum. bulletin of the iraq natural history museum, 8(1): 1-10. bolton, b. 2014. an online catalog of the ants of the world. available from http://antcat.org. (accessed at: 20 may 2016). borowiec, l. 2014. catalogue of ants of europe, the mediterranean basin and adjacent regions (hymenoptera: formicidae). genus – monograph, 25(1-2): 1-340. busher, c.e., calabi, p. and traniello, j.f.a. 1985. polymorphism and division of labor in the neotropical ant camponotus sericeiventris guerin (hymenoptera: formicidae). annals of the entomological society of america, 78: 221-228. collingwood, c.a. 1985. hymenoptera: formicidae of saudi arabia. fauna of saudi arabia, 7: 230-302. collingwood, c.a. and agosti, d. 1996. formicidae (insecta: hymenoptera) of saudi arabia (part 2). fauna of saudi arabia, 15: 300-385. del toro, i., ribbons, r.r. and pelini, s.l. 2012. the little things that run the world revisited: a review of ant-mediatedecosystem services and disservices (hymenoptera: formicidae). myrmecological news, 17: 133-146. fittkau, e.j. and klinge, h., 1973, on biomass and trophic structure of the central amazonian rain forest ecosystem, biotropica, 5: 2-14. goulet, h. and huber, n.b. 1993. hymenoptera of the world: an identification guide to families. research branch agriculture canada publication 1894/e. 668pp. ionescu-hirsch, a. 2009. an annotated list of camponotus of israel, with a key and descriptions of new species. israel journal of entomology. 39: 57-98. karaman, c. and aktaç, n. 2013. descriptions of four new species of camponotus mayr (hymenoptera: formicidae), with a key for the worker caste of the camponotus of turkey. journal of the kansas entomological society 86(1): 36-56. khalaf, k.t. 1958. some hymenoptera and coleoptera from iraq. iraq natural history museum, publication no. 14: 1-3. mohamed, s., zalat, s., fadl, h., gadalla, s. and sharaf, m. 2001.taxonomy of ant species (hymenoptera: formicidae) collected by pitfall traps from sinai and delta region, egypt. egyptian journal of natural history, 3:40-61. 158 redescription and some polymorphism notes moreau, c.s. and bell, c.d. 2013. testing the museum versus cradle tropical biological diversity hypothesis: phylogeny, diversification, and ancestral biogeographic range evolution of the ants. evolution, 67: 2240-2257. taylor, b. 2015.the ants of (sub-saharan) africa (hymenoptera: formicidae).twelfth edition. http://www.antsofafrica.org/. (access at: 9 jun 2016) ward, p.s. 2007. phylogeny, classification, and species-level taxonomy of ants (hymenoptera: formicidae). zootaxa, 1668: 549-563. 159 israa k. aneed et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2016) 14 (2): 141-159 لتعدد االشكال في عامالتاعادة الوصف المظهري مع بعض المالحظات camponotus xerxes forel, 1904 النوع من رتبة غشائية االجنحة، عائلة النمل *ليلى جبار محمد البهادليو **رزاق شعالن عكل ، د*سراء خلف عنيإ قسم علوم الحياة، كلية العلوم، الجامعة المستنصرية* جامعة بغداد مركز بحوث و متحف التأريخ الطبيعي العراقي،** الخالصة من مناطق مختلفة camponotus xerxes forel, 1904جمعت عينات النوع للعراق، لغرض دراسة هذا النوع مظهريا و بشكل مفصل خالل الدراسة الحالية. شارة لتعدد ، كما تم األت الكبيرة التي تعود لهذا النوعستند الوصف على العامالأذ إ ذ رسمت و صورت الصفات المظهرية الرئيسية و المهمة لدعم إفي طبقة العامالت، شكال األ النتائج الحالية. u0627u0632u0627u0644u0629 u0627u0644u0627u0644u0648u0627u0646 u0648u0639u0645u0644 u0628u064a u062fu064a u0627u0641 95 furhan t. mhaisen and kefah n. abdul-ameer bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2014)13 (2): 95-111 checklists of diplozoid species (monogenea) from fishes of iraq furhan t. mhaisen* and kefah n. abdul-ameer** *tegnervägen 6b, katrineholm 641 36, sweden **department of biology, college of education (ibn al-haitham), university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq e-mail: mhaisenft@yahoo.co.uk abstract surveying 59 references concerning the occurrence of the monogeneans of the family diplozoidae parasitizing fishes of iraq showed the occurrence of 15 valid species of this family which included one species of diplozoon, one species of eudiplozoon and 13 species of paradiplozoon. in addition to these species, some unidentified adult and larval (diporpa larvae) specimens of the genus diplozoon were reported from 12 fish hosts among which four fish species showed no infection with any of the nominated diplozoid species while the others showed mixed diplozoid infections. these diplozoids were reported from 27 fish host species in iraq. all the diplozoids were recorded from freshwater habitats except one dipolzoon sp. which was recorded from a marine habitat. hosts recorded for each of these diplozoids ranged from a minimum of one host in case of both p. ergensi and p. tadzhikistanicum to a maximum of 13 hosts in case of p. kasimii. among the infected fishes, 13 hosts harbored only one diplozoid species each while a maximum of 10 diplozoid species were reported from both leuciscus vorax and cyprinion macrostomum. introduction members of the class monogenea include small hermaphroditic flat worms that parasitize fishes and other aquatic animals. they infect fins, skin and gills of freshwater and marine fishes (duijn, 1973). the class monogenea, used to be known as monogenetic trematodes, includes skin and gill flat worms with direct life cycles (amlacher, 1970). the monogeneans are important fish pathogens, especially for carp fingerlings under extensive fish culture practice and their direct life cycles and fish crowding are good conditions for their easy spread among fishes (bauer et al., 1969). according to their attachment organs that are found in the posterior part of their bodies (haptor), monogeneans are divided into two subclasses: monopisthocotylea which are provided either with hooks and hooklets and polyopisthocotylea which are provided with clamps (gussev, 1985). according to pugachev et al. (2009), these two subclasses are considered as polyonchoinea and oligonchoinea, respectively. the class monogenea includes 62 families, of which the family diplozoidae has seven genera (monodb, 2014). the range of the family diplozoidae includes eurasia (except siberia) and the afro-tropical regions (aioanei, 1996). each individual of the two young fused diplozoid worms, forming a cross (fig. 1), differentiates into two parts (pugachev et al., 2009): the anterior foliate part, which lies before mailto:mhaisenft@yahoo.co.uk 96 checklists of diplozoid species from fishes of iraq the cross, contains the vitellaria and bulk of intestine. the posterior part, which lies behind the cross, is differentiated into three sections: anterior section carrying the genital gland, mid section with termination of intestine trunk and posterior section with ventral surface bearing attachment clamps. the posterior part can have folds and dilations of different shapes which are used to differentiate different genera (fig. 2). in iraq, since the detection of the first diplozoid species from fishes of iraq (fattohy, 1975), many surveys were achieved which contributed in recording more diplozoids in iraq. results of such surveys are scattered in different local scientific journals, m. sc. and ph. d. theses as well as in one report and one conference abstract. some of such diplozoids have been misidentified or given with wrong authorities and some parasite names are misspelled. some of the infected fishes were given in synonymous names. for these reasons, it was decided to review these surveys in accordance with list of fishes of iraq (coad, 2010) as well as with upto-date fish scientific names (froese and pauly, 2014), to correct scientific names and authorities of the concerned diplozoids according to some major taxonomical references and a web sites (gussev, 1985; gibson et al., 2005; pugachev et al., 2009; monodb, 2014) and to provide a hostdiplozoid checklist. the monogeneans of fishes of iraq constitute 30.5% of the total items of the parasitic species of fishes of iraq (mhaisen, 2014). the present checklist is the second checklist on monogeneans of iraq, a continuation to a previous one concerned with gyrodactylids of fishes of iraq (mhaisen and abdul-ameer, 2013). sources and methods a total of 59 references (34 research papers, 19 m. sc. theses, four ph. d. theses, one report and one conference abstract) with information concerning diplozoids of fishes of iraq were used to prepare the present review and checklists. data from such references was gathered to provide diplozoid list and fishdiplozoid list. names and authorities of these diplozoids were checked according to some taxonomical accounts (bykhovskaya-pavlovskaya et al., 1962; gussev, 1985; khotenovsky, 1985; pugachev et al., 2009) as well as some well known specialized electronic sites (gibson et al., 2005; monodb, 2014). the scientific names of fishes were reported as they appeared in the reviewed iraqi literature but they were then checked with the recent account on freshwater fishes of iraq (coad, 2010), but the valid names used here were based on a well-known electronic site (froese and pauly, 2014). results and discussion surveys achieved on diplozoids of fishes in iraq: the review of available iraqi literature indicated that since the description of the first diplozoid species from fishes of iraq (fattohy, 1975), many surveys were achieved in different inland waters and fish farms and ponds which contributed in recording more diplozoids. the records of diplozoids of fishes of iraq can be grouped into eight major categories according to localities of inspected fishes. these are: 1tigris river (fattohy, 1975; rahemo, 1980; ali et al., 1987; abdul-ameer, 1989; rasheed, 1989; rahemo and ami, 1991; balasem et al., 1993; al-niaeemi, 1997; rahemo and alkallak, 1998; adday et al., 1999; rahemo and al-niaeemi, 2001; al-jawda et al., 2003; alnasiri, 2009, 2010; al-nasiri and mhaisen, 2009a,b; al-jubori, 2013; rahemo and ami, 2013) as well as some tributaries of tigris river which included greater zab river (ali, 1989; abdullah, 2002; abdullah and mhaisen, 2004) and lesser zab river (abdullah, 2002; abdullah and mhaisen, 2004; nasraddin, 2013). 2euphrates river and its branches (mhaisen et al., 1997; al-awadi, 2003; al-waaly, 2005; al-jadoa and al-waaly, 2007; al-saadi, 2007; al-sa’adi, 2007; hussain, 2007; al-saadi et al., 2009, 2010). 97 furhan t. mhaisen and kefah n. abdul-ameer 3the region of shatt al-arab river, basrah which included garmat ali river (al-ali, 1998; abdul-rahman, 1999; al-salim and al-ali, 2000; al-niaeem, 2006; al-janae’e, 2010), alsalihiya river (al-janae’e, 2010) and mehaijeran creek (khamees, 1983; mhaisen et al., 1986). 4some lakes, depressions and marshes: these included surveys from kasnazan lake, erbil (abdullah, 2004), darbandikhan lake (abdullah, 2013), dokan lake (abdullah, 1990; abdullah and rasheed, 2004), al-qadisiya dam lake (asmar et al., 1999; balasem et al., 2003) and al-hammar marsh (al-daraji, 1986; al-daraji and al-salim, 1990). 5some drainage networks (balasem et al., 2002; asmar et al., 2003; mhaisen et al., 2003; al-waaly, 2005; al-jadoa and al-waaly, 2007). 6khor al-zubair estuary in southern iraq (mhaisen and al-maliki, 1996). 7fish hatcheries (mama, 2012; mama and abdullah, 2012a,b). 8fish ponds and farms which included some from sulaimania (ali, 2002), al-amiriya region, baghdad (al-nasiri, 2000, 2003), babylon (al-zubaidy, 1998; muhammed, 2000; al-taei, 2013) in addition to some floating cages at shatt al-hilla (al-taei, 2013). diplozoids recorded from fishes in iraq: the review of literature indicated that a total of 15 valid diplozoid species, belonging to genera diplozoon, eudiplozoon and paradiplozoon are so far known from fishes of iraq in addition to some unidentified specimens of the genus diplozoon. table (1) shows an up-todate list of all diplozoids so far recorded from fishes of iraq. as the identification of the three diplozoid genera was confused in some iraqi literature, the following key, modified from seddon (2004) and pugachev et al. (2009), is given to fulfill their exact and easy recognition. 1(2). there are no dilations of the middle part of the posterior end of the body ………………………………………………………………..…… paradiplozoon 2(1). the middle part of the posterior end of the body toward the posterior end has dilations of different shapes ………………..……………………………………….…………...… 3 3(4). dilations of the middle part of the posterior end of the body have large folds …………………………………………….…...…………...…..…… eudiplozoon 4(3). dilations of the middle part of the posterior end of the body are without folds ..…………………...………………………………………………...…. diplozoon the following is an account of the alphabetical list of such parasites in iraq. diplozoid names and their authorities are checked according to some major taxonomical accounts and web sites (gussev, 1985; gibson et al., 2005; pugachev et al., 2009; monodb, 2014). the alphabetically arranged names of hosts for each parasite are quoted as they appeared in their original literature but the valid names have been updated according to froese and pauly (2014) and the full authority of each valid fish host is shown in the hostdiplozoid list. references on records of each host infected with each diplozoid species are chronologically arranged but references of the same year are alphabetically arranged. 1diplozoon paradoxum von nordmann, 1832: this parasite was reported for the first time in iraq from barbus luteus, which is a synonym of carasobarbus luteus, from al-husainia creek, karbala province by al-saadi (2007). now, it has five hosts (mhaisen, 2014). these are: aspius vorax, which is a synonym of leuciscus vorax (al-sa’adi, 2007), b. luteus, which is a synonym of c. luteus (al-saadi, 2007; al-saadi et al., 2009; 2010), cyprinion macrostomum (al-nasiri, 2009; al-jubori, 2013), cyprinus carpio (al-sa’adi, 2007; al-taei, 2013) and liza abu (al-sa’adi, 2007). 98 checklists of diplozoid species from fishes of iraq 2diplozoon spp.: different adult specimens of unidentified diplozoon were reported from different parts of iraq from the following 11 fish hosts (mhaisen, 2014). these are: alburnus caeruleus (aljawda et al., 2003), alburnus capito, which is a synonym of a. mossulensis (al-jawda et al., 2003), a. vorax, which is a synonym of l. vorax (abdul-rahman, 1999), b. luteus, which is a synonym of c. luteus (al-waaly, 2005; al-jadoa and al-waaly, 2007), c. macrostomum (abdullah, 2004), c. carpio (abdul-rahman, 1999; muhammed, 2000; ali, 2002), heteropneustes fossilis (abdul-rahman, 1999), leuciscus lepidus, which is a synonym of squalius lepidus (abdullah, 2004), l. abu (abdul-rahman, 1999), mastacembelus mastacembelus (abdul-rahman, 1999) and periophthalmus waltoni (mhaisen and al-maliki, 1996). the above record of diplozoon sp. from p. waltoni is the only record of diplozoids from marine fishes of iraq. in addition to the above mentioned records of adult unidentified diplozoon specimens, larval stages (diporpa) of unidentified diplozoon species were reported from three fish hosts in iraq. these are: a. vorax, which is a synonym of l. vorax (al-daraji, 1986; al-ali, 1998; alsalim and al-ali, 2000), b. luteus, which is a synonym of c. luteus (al-nasiri, 2000) and silurus glanis (al-niaeemi, 1997; rahemo and al-niaeemi, 2001). 3eudiplozoon nipponicum (goto, 1891): this parasite was recorded for the first time in iraq from c. carpio by al-nasiri (2003) as diplozoon nipponicum but then, it was reported as e. nipponicum by all subsequent researchers. so far, three hosts are known for e. nipponicum in iraq (mhaisen, 2014). these are: a. vorax, which is a synonym of l. vorax (al-jubori, 2013), barbus sharpeyi, which is a synonym of mesopotamichthys sharpeyi (al-saadi, 2007; al-saadi et al., 2010) and c. carpio (al-nasiri, 2003 as d. nipponicum; al-sa’adi, 2007; al-jubori, 2013; al-taei, 2013). 4paradiplozoon amurense (akhmerov, 1974): this parasite was recorded for the first time in iraq from c. macrostomum by al-nasiri (2010) and then from the same host as well as from b. luteus, which is a synonym of c. luteus by al-jubori (2013). it is appropriate to mention here that both al-nasiri (2010) and al-jubori (2013) had stated the specific name as amurensis instead of amurense and al-nasiri (2010) erroneously stated the authority of this parasite without brackets. according to gussev (1985), pugachev et al. (2009) and a personal communication between the senior author of this paper and dr. david i. gibson of the british museum (natural history) on 24th april 2014, the specific name should be amurense and not amurensis as it was erroneously stated (al-nasiri, 2010; al-jubori, 2013). also, the authority should be inside the brackets (gussev, 1985, gibson et al., 2005; pugachev et al., 2009). 5paradiplozoon barbi (reichenbach-klinke, 1951): this parasite was reported for the first time in iraq from chondrostoma nasus, c. regium (erroneously reported as c. regius) and c. carpio by rasheed (1989) as diplozoon barbi reichenbach-klinke, 1951. also, all the subsequent records in the iraqi literature referred to this parasite as d. barbi. according to khotenovsky (1985), d. barbi is a synonym of p. barbi. eight hosts are so far known for this parasite in iraq (mhaisen, 2014). these are: acanthobrama marmid (abdullah, 2002; abdullah and mhaisen, 2004), barbus esocinus, which is a synonym of luciobarbus esocinus (rahemo and ami, 2013), b. luteus, which is a synonym of c. luteus (rahemo and al-kallak, 1998; al-saadi, 2007; al-saadi et al., 2010), c. nasus (rasheed, 1989), c. regium (rasheed, 1989; abdullah, 2002; abdullah and mhaisen, 2004), c. macrostomum (ali, 1989; al-nasiri, 2009), c. carpio (rasheed, 1989; al-zubaidy, 99 furhan t. mhaisen and kefah n. abdul-ameer 1998; al-saadi, 2007; al-nasiri, 2009; al-saadi et al., 2010) and leuciscus spurius, which is a synonym of squalius spurius (ali, 1989). 6paradiplozoon bliccae (reichenbach-klinke, 1961): this parasite was reported for the first time in iraq from both c. macrostomum and c. carpio by al-nasiri (2009). later on, it was recorded from both c. macrostomum and l. abu by al-jubori (2013). so, three hosts are so far known for p. bliccae in iraq. 7paradiplozoon cyprini khotenovsky, 1982: this parasite was reported for the first time in iraq from barbus grypus (al-nasiri and mhaisen, 2009a). later on, it was reported from the same host (al-nasiri and mhaisen, 2009b) as well as three other hosts: b. luteus, which is a synonym of c. luteus (al-jubori, 2013), c. macrostomum (al-jubori, 2013) and c. carpio (mama, 2012; mama and abdullah, 2012a, b; nasraddin, 2013). 8paradiplozoon ergensi (pejčoch, 1968): this parasite was reported for the first time in iraq from a. vorax, which is a synonym of l. vorax by al-jubori (2013). no more records are so far available in iraq (mhaisen, 2014). 9paradiplozoon homoion (bychowsky & nagibina, 1959): this parasite was reported for the first time in iraq from barbus xanthopterus, which is a synonym of luciobarbus xanthopterus by al-saadi (2007). later on, it was reported from a. vorax, which is a synonym of l. vorax (al-sa’adi, 2007), b. xanthopterus, which is a synonym of l. xanthopterus (al-sa’adi, 2007; al-saadi et al., 2009, 2010), c. macrostomum (nasraddin, 2013) and c. carpio (al-sa’adi, 2007). 10paradiplozoon kasimii (rahemo, 1980): this parasite was reported for the first time in iraq from c. macrostomum, erroneously reported as c. macrostomus, from tigris river in mosul by fattohy (1975) and published by rahemo (1980) as diplozoon kasimii. khotenovsky (1985) transferred this parasite to the genus paradiplozoon and considered it as a species inquirenda as in its description it was unknown about the presence or absence of folds on the ventral posterior part of the body, a clamp structure, size and shape of the median hooks, sizes of suckers and eggs form. now, p. kasimii has 13 fish hosts in iraq (mhaisen, 2014) although all references concerned with this parasite in iraq still refer to it as d. kasimii. these hosts are a. caeruleus (asmar et al., 2003; mhaisen et al., 2003), a. vorax, which is a synonym of l. vorax (balasem et al., 1993; mhaisen et al., 1997; abdul-rahman, 1999; asmar et al., 1999; al-janae'e, 2010), b. esocinus, which is a synonym of l. esocinus (asmar et al., 1999), b. luteus, which is a synonym of c. luteus (al-daraji and al-salim, 1990; abdul-rahman, 1999; asmar et al., 1999; al-awadi, 2003; al-waaly, 2005; al-jadoa and al-waaly, 2007; al-saadi, 2007; al-saadi et al., 2010) in addition to c. luteus (khamees, 1983; al-daraji, 1986; mhaisen et al., 1986), b. sharpeyi, which is a synonym of m. sharpeyi (abdul-rahman, 1999; balasem et al., 2002), b. xanthopterus, which is a synonym of l. xanthopterus (asmar et al., 1999; hussain, 2007), carassius carassius (abdul-rahman, 1999), chalcalburnus sellal, which is a synonym of alburnus sellal (abdul-rahman, 1999), c. macrostomum (fattohy, 1975; rahemo, 1980; ali et al., 1987; abdul-ameer, 1989; abdullah, 2002; abdullah and mhaisen, 2004; hussain, 2007), c. carpio (abdul-rahman, 1999; al-niaeem, 2006), garra rufa (balasem et al., 2002), l. abu (al-janae'e, 2010) and liza subviridis which is a synonym of chelon subviridis (abdulrahman, 1999). 100 checklists of diplozoid species from fishes of iraq 11paradiplozoon leucisci khotenovsky, 1982: this parasite was reported for the first time in iraq from both hemiculter leucisculus and s. lepidus by abdullah (2013). no more records are so far available in iraq (mhaisen, 2014). 12paradiplozoon megan (bychowsky & nagibina, 1959): this parasite was reported for the first time in iraq from both a. vorax, which is a synonym of l. vorax and b. xanthopterus, which is a synonym of l. xanthopterus, by al-saadi (2007). later on, it was reported from the above two hosts (al-saadi et al., 2009, 2010) as well as from b. luteus, which is a synonym of c. luteus (al-sa’adi, 2007). 13paradiplozoon pavlovskii (bychowsky & nagibina, 1959): this parasite was reported for the first time in iraq from a. vorax, which is a synonym of l. vorax by khamees (1983) under the name diplozoon pavlovskii. some other reports referred to it as d. pavlovskii (mhaisen et al., 1986; abdul-ameer, 1989; abdullah, 1990; rahemo and ami, 1991; adday et al., 1999; al-nasiri, 2000; abdullah, 2002; balasem et al., 2003; abdullah and mhaisen, 2004; abdullah and rasheed, 2004) but some other reports referred to it under its valid name p. pavlovskii (al-daraji, 1986; al-daraji and al-salim, 1990; alniaeemi, 1997; abdul-rahman, 1999; rahemo and al-niaeemi, 2001; al-saadi, 2007; alnasiri, 2009; al-saadi et al., 2010; abdullah, 2013; al-jubori, 2013). the overall hosts for this parasite and its synonyms (indicated with an asterisk) are so far 11 hosts in iraq (mhaisen, 2014). these are: a. vorax, which is a synonym of l. vorax (khamees, 1983*; al-daraji, 1986; mhaisen et al., 1986*; al-daraji and al-salim, 1990; abdul-rahman, 1999; adday et al., 1999*; al-nasiri, 2000*; al-saadi, 2007; al-saadi et al., 2010), barbus barbulus (abdullah, 1990*; 2002*; abdullah and mhaisen, 2004*), b. luteus, which is a synonym of c. luteus (abdul-ameer, 1989*; al daraji and al-salim, 1990; abdul-rahman, 1999; balasem et al., 2003*; al-saadi, 2007; al-saadi et al., 2010), c. luteus (al-daraji, 1986), b. sharpeyi, which is a synonym of m. sharpeyi (balasem et al., 2003*), b. xanthopterus, which is a synonym of l. xanthopterus (abdullah, 2002*; balasem et al., 2003*; abdullah and mhaisen, 2004*; alsaadi, 2007; al-saadi et al., 2010), c. carassius (abdul-rahman, 1999), c. regium (abdulameer, 1989*; adday et al., 1999*; al-nasiri, 2009; abdullah, 2013), c. macrostomum (abdullah, 1990*; abdullah and rasheed, 2004*; al-nasiri, 2009; al-jubori, 2013), c. carpio (al-nasiri, 2009), s. glanis (al-niaeemi, 1997; rahemo and al-niaeemi, 2001) and varicorhina trutta, which is a synonym of capoeta trutta (rahemo and ami, 1991*). 14paradiplozoon rutili (gläser, 1967): this parasite was reported for the first time in iraq from both a. vorax, which is a synonym of l. vorax and c. macrostomum by al-jubori (2013). no more records are so far available in iraq (mhaisen, 2014). 15paradiplozoon tadzhikistanicum (gavrilova & dzhalilov, 1965): this parasite was reported for the first time in iraq from c. trutta by nasraddin (2013). it is appropriate to mention here that nasraddin (2013) erroneously reported the name as p. tadjikistanicum while the correct name is p. tadzhikistanicum (gussev, 1985; khotenovsky, 1985; aioanei, 1996; gibson et al., 2005) and she didn’t put the authority inside the brackets. the second name in the authority of this parasite was given as djalilov by pugachev et al. (2009) and nasraddin (2013) while it was stated as dzhalilov by gussev (1985) and gibson et al. (2005). no more records are so far available for this parasite in iraq (mhaisen, 2014). 101 furhan t. mhaisen and kefah n. abdul-ameer 16paradiplozoon vojteki (pejčoch, 1968): this parasite was reported for the first time in iraq from b. xanthopterus, which is a synonym of l. xanthopterus by al-saadi (2007). later on, it was reported from the same host (al-saadi et al., 2009, 2010) as well as from a. vorax, which is a synonym of l. vorax (alsa’adi, 2007; al-jubori, 2013) and b. luteus, which is a synonym of c. luteus (al-jubori, 2013). it is appropriate to mention here that gibson et al. (2005) and pugachev et al. (2009) spelled the authority name of this parasite as pejcoch instead of pejěoch. fish-diplozoids list: the following list shows which diplozoids are so far recorded from fishes of iraq. fish scientific names, both valid and synonymous, are alphabetically arranged. the full authorities of the valid hosts only are also cited according to froese and pauly (2014). diplozoid species reported from each valid fish species, together with diplozoids of fish synonym (when applicable) were gathered within the valid host and also alphabetically arranged. to minimize the size of this article, references for each diplozoid species from each host are not provided here. such references can be easily obtained from the relevant diplozoid species mentioned earlier in this paper. acanthobrama marmid heckel, 1843: paradiplozoon barbi. alburnus caeruleus heckel, 1843: diplozoon sp. and paradiplozoon kasimii. alburnus capito: see alburnus mossulensis. alburnus mossulensis heckel, 1843, reported as a. capito: diplozoon sp. alburnus sellal heckel, 1843, reported as chalcalburnus sellal: paradiplozoon kasimi. aspius vorax: see leusiscus vorax. barbus barbulus heckel, 1847: paradiplozoon pavlovskii. barbus esocinus: see luciobarbus esocinus. barbus grypus heckel, 1843: paradiplozoon cyprini. barbus luteus: see carasobarbus luteus. barbus sharpeyi: see mesopotamichthys sharpeyi. barbus xanthopterus: see luciobarbus xanthopterus. capoeta trutta (heckel, 1943), also reported as varicorhinus trutta: paradiplozoon pavlovskii and p. tadzhikistanicum. carasobarbus luteus (heckel, 1843), also reported as b. luteus: d. paradoxum, diplozoon sp. (adult and diporpa larva), paradiplozoon amurense, p. barbi, p. cyprini, p. kasimii, p. megan, p. pavlovskii and p. vojteki. carassius carassius (linnaeus, 1758): paradiplozoon kasimii and p. pavlovskii. chalcalburnus sellal: see alburnus sellal. chelon subviridis (valenciennes, 1836), reported as liza subviridis: paradiplozoon kasimii. chondrostoma nasus (linnaeus, 1758): paradiplozoon barbi. chondrostoma regium (heckel, 1843): paradiplozoon barbi and p. pavlovskii. cyprinion macrostomum heckel, 1843: diplozoon paradoxum, diplozoon sp., paradiplozoon amurense, p. barbi, p. bliccae, p. cyprini, p. homoion, p. kasimii, p. pavlovskii and p. rutili. cyprinus carpio linnaeus, 1758: diplozoon paradoxum, diplozoon sp., eudiplozoon nipponicum, paradiplozoon barbi, p. bliccae, p. cyprini, p. homoion, p. kasimii and p. pavlovskii. garra rufa (heckel, 1843): paradiplozoon kasimii. hemiculter leucisculus (basilewsky, 1855): paradiplozoon leucisci. heteropneustes fossilis: diplozoon sp. leusiscus lepidus: see squalius lepidus. leusiscus spurius: see squalius spurius. 102 checklists of diplozoid species from fishes of iraq leusiscus vorax (heckel, 1843), reported as aspius vorax: diplozoon paradoxum, diplozoon sp. (adult and diporpa larva), eudiplozoon nipponicum, paradiplozoon ergensi, p. homoion, p. kasimii, p. megan, p. pavlovskii, p. rutili and p. vojteki. liza abu (heckel, 1843): diplozoon paradoxum, diplozoon sp., paradiplozoon bliccae and p. kasimi. liza subviridis: see chelon subviridis: luciobarbus esocinus heckel, 1843, reported as b. esocinus: paradiplozoon barbi and p. kasimii. luciobarbus xanthopterus heckel, 1943, reported as b. xanthopterus: paradiplozoon homoion, p. kasimii, p. megan, p. pavlovskii and p. vojteki. mastacembelus mastacembelus (banks & solander, 1794): diplozoon sp. mesopotamichthys sharpeyi (günther, 1874), reported as b. sharpeyi: eudiplozoon nipponicum, paradiplozoon kasimii and p. pavlovskii. periophthalmus waltoni koumans, 1941: diplozoon sp. silurus glanis linnaeus, 1758: diplozoon sp. 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(eds.). 2014. fishbase. world wide web electronic publication. www.fishbase.org. (version april 2014). gibson, d. i.; bray, r. a. & harris, e. a. (compilers). 2005. host-parasite database of the natural history museum, london. url. gussev, a. v. 1985. parasitic metazoans: class monogenea. in: bauer, o.n. (ed.). key to the parasites of freshwater fish fauna of u.s.s.r., vol. 2. nauka, petersburg: 1-424. (in russian). hussain, h. t. 2007. survey of ectoparasites of some fishes of al-hilla river in babylon province. j. babylon univ., sci., 14(3): 228-232. 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(2014). index-catalogue of parasites and disease agents of fishes of iraq (unpublished: mhaisenft@yahoo.co.uk). mhaisen, f. t. & abdul-ameer, k. n. 2013. checklists of gyrodactylus species (monogenea) from fishes of iraq. basrah j. agric. sci., 26 (spec. issue 1): 8-25. mhaisen, f. t. & al-maliki, n. s. 1996. parasites, diseases and food of the dark-blotched mudskipper periophthalmus waltoni (perciformes: gobiidae) in the khor al-zubair estuary (iraq). zool. mid. east, 13: 85-87. mhaisen, f. t.; al-salim, n. k. & khamees, n. r. 1986. the parasitic fauna of two cyprinids and a mugilid fish from mehaijeran creek, basrah. j. biol. sci. res., 17(3): 63-73. http://www.fishbase.org mailto:mhaisenft@yahoo.co.uk) 107 furhan t. mhaisen and kefah n. abdul-ameer mhaisen, f. t.; al-khateeb, g. h.; balasem, a. n. & mutar, a. j. 1997. on a collection of some fish parasites from euphrates river, anbar province, iraq. babylon univ. j., pure appl. sci., 2(3): 267-272. mhaisen, f. t.; al-khateeb, g. h.; balasem, a. n.; al-shaikh, s. m. j.; al-jawda, j. m. & mohammad-ali, n. r. 2003. occurrence of some fish parasites in al-madaen drainage network, south of baghdad. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus., 10(1): 39-47. monodb 2014. monodb.org. a web-host for the monogenea. 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(in arabic). rahemo, z. i. f. & ami, s. n. 1991. helminth parasites of some teleost fishes from tigris river. mesopot. j. agric., 23(3): 9-14. (in arabic). rahemo, z. i. f. & ami, s. n. 2013. studies on the freshwater fish (bizz), barbus esocinus caught from mosul dam lake, iraq. j. univ. zakho, 1(a), no. 2: 692-698. rasheed, a.-r. a.-m. 1989. first record of diplozoon barbi reichenbach-klinke, 1951 from some freshwater fishes from tigris river, baghdad, iraq. zanco, 2(3): 5-15. seddon, l. 2004. aspects of the morphology and ecology of a diplozoon species (monogenea) from the gills of labeo umbratus in the vaal dam and vaal river barrage, gauteng, south africa. m. sc. diss., fac. sci., rand afrikaans univ., johannesburg: 98pp. 108 checklists of diplozoid species from fishes of iraq ___________________________________________________________________________ table (1): an updated list of diplozoids of fishes of iraq* ____________________________________________________________________________ phylum platyhelminthes class monogenea subclass polyopisthocotylea order mazocraeidea suborder discocotylinea family diplozoidae subfamily diplozoinae diplozoon paradoxum von nordmann, 1832 diplozoon spp. (adults and diporpa larvae) eudiplozoon nipponicum (goto, 1891) paradiplozoon amurense (akhmerov, 1974) paradiplozoon barbi (reichenbach-klinke, 1951) paradiplozoon bliccae (reichenbach-klinke, 1961) paradiplozoon cyprini khotenovsky, 1982 paradiplozoon ergensi (pejcoch, 1968) paradiplozoon homoion (bychowsky & nagibina, 1959) paradiplozoon kasimii (rahemo, 1980) paradiplozoon leucisci khotenovsky, 1982 paradiplozoon megan (bychowsky & nagibina, 1959) paradiplozoon pavlovskii (bychowsky & nagibina, 1959) paradiplozoon rutili (gläser, 1967) paradiplozoon tadzhikistanicum (gavrilova & djalilov, 1965) paradiplozoon vojteki (pejěoch, 1968) ___________________________________________________________________________ * according to khotenovsky (1985) and pugachev et al. (2009). 109 furhan t. mhaisen and kefah n. abdul-ameer fig. (1): illustration of paradiplozoon bliccae showing the typical cross of two fused diplozoid specimens (after pugachev et al., 2009). aanterior part of the body, bposterior part of the body, 1suckers, 2pharynx, 3 vitellaria, 4testis, 5ovary. 110 checklists of diplozoid species from fishes of iraq fig. (2): comparative illustrations of three genera of diplozoids from fishes of iraq (after gussev, 1985). 1diplozoon paradoxum, 2eudiplozoon nipponicum and 3 paradiplozoon pavlovskii. (aposterior part of body, bclamp structure, c egg with operculum vesicle, dcentral hook). 111 furhan t. mhaisen and kefah n. abdul-ameer bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2014)13 (2): 95-111 العراق أسماك من) المنشأ أحادیة صنف( diplozoidaeعائلة ألنواع مرجعیة قوائم ** عبداألمیر ناصر وكفاح* محیسن ضمد فرحان السوید كاتریناھولم، 6b ، 641 36بنایة * العراق بغداد، بغداد، جامعة ،)الھیثم إبن( التربیة كلیة الحیاة، علوم قسم ** mhaisenft@yahoo.co.ukmail: -e الخالصة مصدرا معنیا بظھور الدیدان أحادیة المنشأ العائدة لعائلة دبلوزویدي ٥٩أظھر إستعراض diplozoidae نوعا شرعیا من ھذه العائلة ضمت نوعا ١٥المتطفلة على أسماك العراق وجود نوعا من الجنس ١٣و eudiplozoonونوعا واحدا من الجنس diplozoonواحدا من الجنس paradiplozoon .یرقات (ضافة لھذه األنواع تم تسجیل بعض النماذج البالغة والیرقیة وإ مضیّفا من األسماك ١٢من diplozoonغیر المشخصة من الجنس )diporpa larvaeالدایبوربا من ضمنھا أربعة أنواع من األسماك لم تظھر بھا إصابة بأي من أنواع الدبلوزویدات المشخصة في سجلت ھذه الدبلوزویدات من . حین أظھرت المضیّفات الباقیة حصول إصابات مختلطة بالدبلوزویدات من بیئات مائیة عذبة بإستثناء نوع سجلت كل ھذه األنواع . نوعا مضیّفا من األسماك في العراق ٢٧ تراوح عدد أنواع المضیّفات . مسجل من بیئة بحریة diplozoonواحد غیر مشخص من الجنس p. ergensiالمسجلة لكل من ھذه الطفیلیات من مضیّف واحد كحد أدنى في كل من الطفیلي .pعا في حالة الطفیلي نو ١٣إلى أقصى عدد من المضیّفات وھو p. tadzhikistanicumوالطفیلي kasimii . مضیّفا نوعا واحدا من الدبلوزویدات لكل منھا ١٣من ضمن ھذه األسماك المصابة، آوى في حین سجل أقصى عدد وھو عشرة أنواع من الدبلوزویدات في كل من سمكة الشلك والبنیني كبیر .الفم mailto:mhaisenft@yahoo.co.uk bull 89 afkar m. hadi & azhar a. faraj bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2014) 13 (1): 89-94 role of domestic cats felis catus as reservoir hosts of internal parasites and protozoa in baghdad afkar m. hadi٭ and azhar a. faraj٭٭ natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad/iraq ٭ veterinary medicine collage, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq٭٭ abstract examining of 80 feces samples showed that 31 samples of the house and stray cats harbored either single or mixed infection with eight species of parasites and protozoa with a total infection rate 38.75 %.the results on parasite classes are: toxocara cati (5%), ancylostoma tubeforme (3.75%), capillaria felis(3.75%), isospora sp.(10%), cryptosporidium parvum(3.75%), cryptosporidium muris (6.25%), toxoplasma gondi (3.75%), giardia sp.(2.5%) infection from feces of cats that showed single, double and triple infections. our findings revealed the risk for public health, thus preventive measures should be implemented. keywords: stray cat; intestinal parasites, helminth, protozoa, cryptosporidium; giardia; capilaria. introduction cats are domestic animals frequently infected by intestinal parasites. moreover, several feline intestinal parasites are zoonotic and are considered important to public health. although dogs and cats are often considered family members by their owners, it is important to emphasize that they may be vectors of intestinal parasites. all intestinal protozoan parasites have an oral-fecal transmission cycle and a major component for the spread of these parasites is the shedding of oocysts or cysts into the environment (claerebout et al., 2009). cats in iraq enjoy close association as pets or as stray cats(nihad et al. 1989), therefore those animals provide a potential reservoir as well as definitive hosts of helminth parasites especially in rural areas, they are reservoir for many zoonotic infections such as hookworms and ascariasis (calvete et al. 1998; fisher,2003). the transmission of zoonotic agents could be through indirect contact with animal secretions and excretion, infected water and food, and through direct contact with the animal (bugg et al., 1999). surveys of gastrointestinal helminthes of cats in different countries indicated that cats can harbor a wide range of nematodes and cestodes (abomahdi et al.2008; palmer et al.2008) and the predominate species found were toxocara cati, ancylostoma tubaeforms, diplopylidium nolleri, taenae taeniaeformis (changizi et al 2007). the aim of this study is identification of gastrointestinal parasites and protozoa in cats. materials and methods a total of 80 feces samples from house and stray cats to investigate gastrointestinal parasites and protozoa were collected in baghdad from march to october 2013, (10 samples/month). fecal samples were concentrated by the formalin ether sedimentation method. fecal smears of the sediment were made and stained by the modified zeal nelson technique. the complete surface of the smear was examined for cryptosporidium oocysts. smear of the feces 90 role of domestic cats felis catus were prepared and stained with trichrome stains to detect cysts or trophozoites of giardia and entamoeba. also, fecal samples were examined using flotation technique in saturated sodium chloride solution. measurements and color photographs of eggs, cysts and oocysts were taken using ocular micrometer calibration. diagnosis followed: (al-joobori 2002; thienpont et al 1986; edward & marietta 1959; who, 2004). results examining of the studied samples showed that 31 samples feces of the house and stray cats harbored either single or mixed infection with eight species of parasites and protozoa with a total infection rate 38.75 %. the results on parasite identifications are shown in table1. the results on the mode of infection showed that only eight samples acquire single infections with either egg of helminthes or protozoan parasite and comprised 10% of the total sample and (25.8% of the infected). the double infection with protozoa and helminthes, appear in 4 samples and comprised 5% (12.9% of the infected). the triple infection appeared in 5 samples and comprised 6.25% (16.1% of the infected), table2. table 1: prevalence of individual parasites in 80 samples of feces of cats. parasites no. of infected samples % from total samples % from infected samples toxocara cati 4 5 12.9 ancylostoma tubeforme 3 3.75 9.6 capillaria felis 3 3.75 9.6 isospora sp. 8 10 25.8 cryptosporidium parvum 3 3.75 9.6 cryptosporidium muris 5 6.25 16.1 toxoplasma gondii 3 3.75 9.6 giardia sp. 2 2.5 6.45 total 31 38.75 table2:prevelance of single and mixed infection of parasites in 80 feces samples of cats. infection no. of samples % from total samples(80) % from infected samples(31) the single infection 8 10 25.8 the double infection 4 5 12.9 the triple infection 5 6.25 16.1 discussion the results obtained indicated that the percentage of infection with gastrointestinal parasites and protozoa is high (38.75 %). the reason may be some factors such as geographical location, status of animal ownership, sampling protocols, demographic factors, anthelmintic usage, and diagnostic techniques are responsible for the wide range of endoparasite prevalence (mundim et al., 2007). this study revealed toxocara cati, ancylostoma tubaeforme and capillaria sp. that similar to al – obaidi (2012) in mosul province. the finding of toxocara eggs and larvae indicated their importance for public health especially children who play there in soil, that similar 91 afkar m. hadi & azhar a. faraj findings have been reported previously from iraq (woodruff 1980), jordan(abo-shehada 1989) and iran (motazedian2006). isospora sp. with relatively high prevalence (10%). this is higher than the prevalence previously found in nova scotia 6.4% (malloy 1978) and less than from iran 15,17% (bahrami 2011) these may be due to the differences in temperatures and socioeconomic environment between these regions. two species of cryptosporidium appeared in current study and their rates 3.75% for c. parvum and 6.25% for c. muris, these results are similar to bahrami (2011). cyst of giardia appeared in two samples 2.5% at this study which is less than bahrami (2011) who reported 25% at female, 14.28% at male and this may be due to the smaller size of samples. toxoplasma oocyst shed in cat (the definitive host) feces sporulate in the soil under warm, humid conditions and could contaminate water and food, especially fruits and vegetables. about 20% to 90% of the world’s adult population in different regions are reported to have had contact with the parasite toxoplasma (galván-ramirez et al., 1998). the first record of toxoplasmosis in iraq was by machattie (1938) from the spleen of wild dogs in baghdad, after that the diagnosis of the disease by serological tests were applied at slaughtered sheep and goats at al-dura and al-shualla in baghdad that appeared with high infection rate 84.5% as examined by complement fixation test (cft) and indirect haemagglutination test (ihat) (rasheed, 1984). in another study, sheep and goat also recorded 43.3%; positive cases with ihat 38.7% and positive cases with ifat 33.14% (mehdi, 1988). the infection rate of toxoplasmosis in aborted women in baghdad 34.7% by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (elisa), immunofluorescence technique (ifat) (aldejaly,1988). the overall prevalence of single and mixed infection of parasites in current study related to local conditions that can have a great effect on the prevalence of parasites in a cat population. if the cats are hunters and spend a good deal of time outdoors, they will develop parasite infections different from those of the indoor cat; furthermore in iraq most cats are outdoor (house or stray). at our results the eight species of gastrointestinal worms and protozoa from feces of house and stray cats with infection rate 38.75% was risk. for this reason, preventive measures should be implemented. these could include health education of the public, good personal hygiene practices, control of stray cats and their exclusion from public places and children’s playgrounds by fencing and should be apply all treatment and vaccine orders for houses cats. literature cited abo-mahdi m.a.; 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(2014) 13 (1): 89-94 دور القطط كمضائف خازنة لبعض الطفيليات واالوالي المعوية في بغداد **و ازهار علي فرج *أفكار مسلم هادي جامعة بغداد، باب المعظم، بغداد، العراق مركز بحوث ومتحف التاريخ الطبيعي،* بغداد، العراق ابو غريب، كلية الطب البيطري، جامعة بغداد،** الخالصة صممت هذه الدراسة لبحث دور القطط االليفة والسائبة في نقل بعض انواع الطفيليات عينة 80م فحص ت. العراق لما له من تاثير على الصحة العامة/ واالوالي المعوية في بغداد عينة منها احتوائها على ثمانية انواع من الطفيليات واالوالي المعوية بنسبة 31براز اظهرت :وكانت كمايلي %38.75اصابة كلية toxocara cati(5%), ancylostoma tubeforme(3.75%), capillaria felis(3.75%), isospora sp.(10%), cryptosporidium parvum(3.75%), cryptosporidium muris(6.25%), toxoplasma gondi(3.75%), giardia sp.(2.5%). bull 31 goner a. shaker & hany s. alhamadany bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2015) 13 (3): 31-38 isolation and identification of fungi which infect fennel foeniculum vulgare mill. and its impact as antifungal agent goner a. shaker and hany s. alhamadany iraq natural history museum, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq abstract the study included isolation and diagnosis of fungi that infect foeniculum vulgare mill planted in the department of drugs and medicinal plants, pharmacy college university of baghdad, different symptoms such as wilting and yellowing, stunting on the plants were observed fungi: alternaria alternata, rhizoctonia solani, phoma herbarum and fusarium oxysporum, the disease incidence ranging between 5-10%. studied the effect of foeniculum vulgare plant seeds extract against alternaria alternata, rhizoctonia solani, phoma herbarum and fusarium oxysporum,where tested the concentrations 0,2.5 and 5% of alcoholic extract of fennel seeds showed effectiveness noticeable trend all fungal isolates and showed significant differences between different levels of concentrations, at p = 0.01 and p = 0.05. introduction the studies are looking for new products with little residues in order to comply with food safety standards, and various industries are now looking to alternative sources for a number of reasons, including natural and environmentally friendly antimicrobials, antibiotics, antioxidants and crop protection agents (1), the use of fungicides is more harmful in the postharvest period because of the short time between treatment and consumption, however, these chemicals will be terminates in the near future due to their potential adverse impact on the environment. some fungus have shown resistance against fungicides, such as benzimidazoles, imazalil and prochloraz due to repeated usage and some of them such as mucor and rhizopus are not sensitive and need especial fungicides to be controlled. (2). foeniculum vulgare mill, commonly known as fennel an aromatic and medicinal plant, it is refer to family umbellifarae (apiaceae). it is an indigenous herb mediterranean sea, is a very popular spice as well as an important traditional chinese medicine. (3,4). is an annual, biennial or perennial herbs (5). the f.vulgare is believed to be one the oldest medicinal plant, because it has been known from the time the first prophet, adam (6). fennel is chiefly known as culinary herb but it is a commonly used household remedy for various medicinal purposes (7,8). an analysis of fennel shows it to consist of moist 6.3%, protein 9.5%, fat 10 %, minerals 13.4%, fiber18.5% and carbohydrates 42.3%. it is mineral and vitamin contents are calcium, phosphorous, iron, sodium, potassium, thiamine riboflavin, niacin, and vitamin c. (9). recently, essential oils of the fruits of egyptian fennel showed high antimicrobial and antioxidant activities,18 major monoterpenoids in essential oils as trans-anethole,estragole, fenchone and limonene were highly abundant in all examind oils.(10) it is a well-known medicinal plants within a broad stimulant, diuretic, carminative and sedative and galactagogic, emmenagogic, expectorant and antispasmodic (4). essential oil of fennel has been reported to possess antifungal activity (11). fennel essential oils could also be used as possible bio fungicides alternative to synthetic fungicides against phytopathogenic fungi as it has been reported to reduce the mycelial growth and germination of sclerotinia sclerotiorum (12). 32 isolation and identification of fungi fennel crop suffer from many diseases causing by fungi pathogens, such as rhizoctonia solani, pythium aphanidermatum, cercospera sp, sclerotinia sclerotiorum, alternaria alternata and fusarium oxysporum (13). our study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of inhibitory alcoholic extract against fungi that infect the plant because of the available benefits to foeniculum vulgare and its effectiveness. materials and methods 1-sampling: the samples of foeniculum vulgare were collected from the department of drugs and medicinal plants, pharmacy college university of baghdad, which showed symptoms of yellowing and wilting and stunting and death of the seedling, collected the samples of f. vulgare seeds harvested in the previous season and brought to the laboratory and kept in the refrigerator degree1 25 c°. 2-isolation: washed the plant samples collected which are leaves, stems and roots, with water, cut off to parts of a length of 2-5 mm, and sterilized with sodium hypochlorite 1.2% and then washed with sterilized distilled water and dried by sterilized filter papers and then transferred to the potato dextrose ager plate and incubated in the incubator at 1 25 c° until the pathogen growth emergence. 3morphological diagnosis: purified fungal isolates by transfer from the end of the isolated fungal culture by sterile needle the fungi mounted on slide, stained with lacto phenol-cotton blue and examined under microscope diagnosis based on morphological characteristics of the colonies and spores depending on taxonomic keys cited by (14,15) and preserved in slants at 4-5 c°. 4-estimation the disease incidence:: the survey have been done, in order to determine the infection percentage and follow from the first stages of the growing of the beginning of october until the harvest in june, f. vulgare was planted in two boards and the percentage of wilting infection and seedling damping off calculated depending on the equation: the percentage of disease infection no. of diseased plants / no. of all plants 100 5-assays the efficiency of f. vulgare alcoholic extract as antifungal: adopted a f. vulgare seeds collected from the previous planting season after cleaned, washed and dried and milled by electric mill and preserved in a sterile polyethylene bags. preparation alcoholic extract: attended the alcoholic extract 5 gm of f. vulgare seeds powder was soaked in 50 ml of alcohol ethanol 95% overnight at room temperature and then the extract was centrifuged at (7000 rpm) for 20 minutes and the extract was filtered by using whatman no 0.1 filter papers and the alcoholic extract of fennel seeds was stored at 4 c° till further use (16) to increase the required size of the alcoholic extract of the seeds of f. vulgare will be on the basis of (v/v) ratio of the same material. testing the effectiveness of alcoholic extract: alcoholic extract was added to the media pda before solidification, three concentrations of extract were prepared, zero, 2.5, 5%, shake the media before it pour (in order to homogenize) in a sterile petri dish 9 cm in diameter and 33 goner a. shaker & hany s. alhamadany leave at room temperature to next day, three replicates of each concentration were inoculated by placing 5 mm diameter discs of alternaria alternata, fusarium oxysporum, rhizoctonia solani and phoma herbarum and incubated at temperature1 25 c° until the mycelia growth appears and measuring the linear growth. the percentage inhibition of mycelia growth was calculated by using the formula (17): % inhibition of mycelia growth dc. dt. / dc. 100 dc. diameter of control, dt. diameter of test (treatment) results and discussion 1-isolation and morphological diagnosis: the fungi were purified, identify and diagnosis as alternaria alternata, rhizoctonia solani, phoma herbarum and fusarium oxysporum. the study (13) indicated that rhizoctonia solani, fusarium oxysporum and fusarium moniliforme are pathogens attack the fennel plant causing diseases such as root rot, wilting and blight. 2-estimation the fungal disease incidence: it is clear in the fig. 1. that the percentages of disease incidence in the months january, march and may (5,7,10%), respectively, the diseases more common in nurseries and be clear and severely when the condition is favorable, high moisture in soil and a little are exposed to sunlight. figure (1): the percentage of disease incidence of foeniculum vulgare. 3-testing the efficiency of f.vulgare alcoholic extract: the antifungal activities of the tested plant extract (foeniculum vulgare) were investigated at different concentrations table (1) and fig.2. the results clearly revealed that fennel extract could cause growth inhibition on the four tested fungi, although the rate of inhibition of tested fungi shows that two concentrations 2.5 and 5% were found to be inhibitory to mycelia growth and the rate of inhibition increased generally by increasing the concentration, and 5% concentration was the most effective on the mycelia growth of alternaria alternata, rhizoctonia solani, and phoma herbarum and fusarium oxysporum, were 1.31, 1.56, 1.13 and 1.65 cm, respectively fig.1 compared to the treatment of control where the concentration was 0% the rates of fungal growth diameter was 2.4, 9, 2.5 and 2.63 cm, and shown the existence significant differences between mycelia growth rates in the dishes and between concentrations of alcoholic extract of f. vulgare and at p 0.01 and p 0.05, the same results obtained from study (18) indicated the fennel (f. vulgare) seed is a potential source of natural antioxidant of the both water and ethanol seed extracts, and (19) showed that foeniculum vulgare extract which was the one of the 49 medicinal plants extracts inhibited both fungal growth and production of afs b1 and g1 producing of aspergillus parasiticus and intentioned to use this plant as effective antimicrobial to protect foods and feeds from 0 5 10 jan march may %disease incidence 34 isolation and identification of fungi toxigenic fungus growth and subsequent (af) aflatoxin contamination. the reasearcher (20) the main constituents were e-anethol (92.9%), p-alylanisol (2.2%), z-α-biosabolene (1.8%) for anise oil and e-anethol (71.2%), limonene (8.2%), fenchone (8.53%), methylchavicol (7.01%) for fennel oil and especial antifungal activities arise from interaction of components or complexity of the oils. the study (10) suggests that antioxidant activity is mostly related to the concentration of trans-anethole. the major component the volatile oil was trans-anethole (70.1%) and showed complete zone inhibition against aspergillus niger, aspergillus flavus, fusarium graminearum and fusarium moniliforme (21). aqueous and ethanol extract of f.vulgare were used showed significant inhibition of growth of fusarium solani, rhizoctonia solani and macrophomina phaseolina (22). the aqueous and alcoholic seed extract of f. vulgare were evaluated for their antifungal activity against a. alternata, mucor rouxii and aspergillus flavus (neet et al. 2013). concentrations of 10, 20 and 30% extracts of f. vulgare reduced the fungal biomass production in all tested pathogenic fungal species especially in initial growth stage (23). figure (2): the activity of f.vulgare alcoholic extract on the mycelia growth of alternaria alternata, rhizoctonia solani, phoma herbarum and fusarium oxysporum (from right to left), at the concentration 0, 2.5, 5 %( from up to down). table (1): effect of extract of f. vulgare plant on the linear growth (cm) of alternaria alternata, rhizoctonia solani, and phoma herbarum and fusarium oxysporum. ethanol extract concentrations fungi species 0 % 2.5% 5% 2.4* 2 1.31 1-alternaria alternata 9 4.8 1.56 2rhizoctonia solani 2.5 1.81 1.13 3-phoma herbarum 2.63 2.13 1.65 4-fusarium oxysporum * the three rate readings with significant differences at probability 0.05 and 0.01, and value of lsd fungi = 7.3, lsd conc. = 8.2 and lsd fungi x conc. = 5.5. 35 goner a. shaker & hany s. alhamadany table (2): the percentage inhibition of mycelia growth by fennel seed extract of alternaria alternate, rhizoctonia solani, phoma herbarum and fusarium oxysporum. inhibition of mycelia growth % fungi species extract conc.5% extract conc.2.5% 45.30 14.06 1-alternaria alternata 70.55 25.55 2rhizoctonia solani 46.66 13.33 3-phoma herbarum 32.85 21.41 4-fusarium oxysporum literature cited abdelaaty, a. shahat, abeer y. ibrahim, saber f. hendawy, elsayed a. omer, faiza m. hammouda, fawzia h. abdel-rahman and mahmoud a. saleh. 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(2015) 13 (3): 31-38 وتأثيره بذوره foeniculum vulgare millعزل وتشخيص الفطريات التي تصيب نبات كمضاد فطري كونر عبدالوهاب شاكر و هاني صابر الحمداني جامعة بغداد/ مركز بحوث ومتحف التاريخ الطبيعي الخالصة ، املزروعة foeniculum vulgare millشملت الدراسة عزل وتشخيص الفطريات التي تصيب نبات حبة الحلوة ها حاالت من أعراض الاصفرار يجامعة بغداد، وشوهدت عل -الطبية، كلية الصيدلة في قسم العقاقير والنباتات :وتم تشخيص الفطريات ،والذبول والتقزم alternaria alternata, rhizoctonia solani, phoma herbarum وfusarium oxysporum وكانت نسبة إلاصابة ,alternariaضد foeniculum vulgareكما وتم دراسة تأثير املستخلص الكحولي لبذور نبات .٪01-5تتراوح بين rhizoctonia, phoma وfusarium من املستخلص الكحولي لبذور نبات حبة 5و 5.5، 1، حيث اختبرت التراكيز ٪ معنوية ما بين املعامالت ما الحلوة وأظهر فعالية ملحوظة اتجاه جميع العزالت الفطرية من خالل ظهور فروقات .p 0.05و p 0.01بين الفطريات والتراكيز عنداحتمال bull 77 saman r. afrasiab et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. july, (2018) 15 (1): 77-92 annotated checklist of reptilian fauna of basrah, south of iraq saman r. afrasiab* azhar a. al-moussawi and hind d. hadi iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq *corresponding author: s_lahony@yahoo.com received date: 03 january 2018 accepted date: 02 april 2018 abstract basrah province is situated at the extreme south of iraq, it has an interesting reptile fauna (squamata and serpentes) and represents a land bridge between three different zoogeographical regions ( oriental, palaearctic and ethiopian). this situation gave basrah province a topographic specific opportunity for raising its own faunal diversity including reptiles; in this study basrah province was divided into four main zones: the cities and orchards, marshes and wetlands (sabkha), the true dessert, the seashore and shat al-arab. forty nine reptile species were recorded including snakes, sea and fresh water turtles, and lizards; brief notes and descriptions for the rare and important species were provided and supported by plates. key words: basrah, squamata, serpentes, turtles, zoogeography. introduction there are some previous lists for iraqi herpetofauna (boulenger, 1920 a, b) and for snakes corkill (1932), khalaf (1959), mahdi and georg (1969) and habeeb and rastegar-pouyani (2016); most of them depended on references, there is no specific collection list for basrah province except that of afrasiab and ali (1989a) for west basrah. the basrah province is a very important area from the geographical point of view because it is a triple bridge connecting three different zoogeographical regions, at south east the oriental penetration, at south west the arabian and ethiopian penetration and from north the dominant palaearctic region. also it is in contact with arabian gulf (leviton, 1986; disi, 2002; hawramany, 2007), these situations gave a rich biodiversity and species diversity. materials and methods the present study depended on the collection of the iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad (inhrcm) and the basrah natural history museum, university of basrah, basrah province with some recently specimens collected by the authors, doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2018.15.1.0077 78 annotated checklist of reptilian fauna of basrah brief descriptions and necessary measurements were presented along with specific descriptions and definitions for some important specimens. along with present study on survey of reptiles (squamata and serpentes) of this province, we will try to connect each collection with penetrations of these zoogeographical zones in this particular area within reptile diversity. resulsts and discussion some species are adapted to diurnal type of life while the others are nocturnal. the western reptilian fauna are adapted to desert life, others beneath houses and orchards; but the northern and eastern groups are adapted to marshes and wet lands mainly fresh water. from the other hand the seashore and shat al-arab also have its own biodiversity related to brackish to marine water. remark: if any species is recorded as a common in a specific zone this does not mean that it's not found in other zones, but it means that it may be common in one habitat and rare in others. (1)the cities and orchards zone: the lizards (a) family, gekkonidae 1-hemidactylus flaviviridis ruppell, 1840 2-cyrtopodion scabrum (heyden,1827) according to khalaf (1959) and leviton et al. (1992) its synonyms reported as gymnodactylus scaber (heyden, 1827) cyrtopodion scaber (heyden,1827), respectively; then afrasiab and mohamad (2009) announced that c. scabrum (heyden,1827) as a valid name in iraq. this is the only cyrtopodion found in this area, nader and jawdat (1976) recorded c. hetrocercus in their list from basrah; however, leviton et al. (1992) stated that this gecko is found in elevation more than 1000 meters. (b) family, lacertidae 1-acanthodactylus opheodurus arnold,1980 2-mesalina brevirostris blanford, 1874 (pl. 1) plate (1): preserved specimens of m. brevirostris; collected from the north of basrah province. 79 saman r. afrasiab et al. (c) family, scincidae mabuya aurata (linnaeus,1758) (=trachylepis auratus) the snakes (a) family, typhlopidae ramphotyphlops braminus (daudin, 1803) (=typhlops braminus) this small blind snake was known as a rare and the smallest snake of iraq; boulenger (1920a), corkill(1932) and khalaf (1959) recorded it from basrah, they thought it was of indian origin and introduced by ships. however, afrasiab and ali (1996) recorded it from baghdad about 550 km north to studied area. body color dark brown–black and length does not exceed 10cm with 20 scales around midbody, nasal divided; mostly found in old houses. remark: it is a good example for oriental penetration in basrah province because it is of an indian origin. (b) family, leptotyphlopidae leptotyphlops macrorhynchus (jan,1861) (c) fmily, boidae eryx jaculus jaculus (linnaeus,1758) (pl. 2, 8) plate (2): eryx jaculus jaculus; from north of basrah province. (d) family, colubridae platyceps ventromaculatus gray, 1834 (pl. 3) this snake is one of the critic species of snakes; its distribution is from india (khan, 1997). schatti and schmitz (2006) mentioned that the iraq and north arabian species is not p. ventromaculatus, instead it is one of platyceps rhodorachis complex and they explained that it may belongs to coluber chesneii martin,1838 of northern arabia. afrasiab and mohamad (2011) announced that this snake is distributed from foothill to basrah and it is common in baghdad city. 80 annotated checklist of reptilian fauna of basrah plate (3): platyceps ventromaculatus; from north of basrah province. (2) marshes and wetland (sabkha) zone this ecosystem has a specific reptilian diversity as follow: the lizards (a) family: gekkonidae stenodactylus affinis (murray,1884) (pl. 4) the marsh gecko was always found in the sabkha land beside marshes, it was previously recorded in iraq from kahla area south of amara city (southern iraq) and from karbala (central iraq) (afrasiab, 1987). this gecko is easily recognized from stenodactylus grandiceps by having two enlarged preanal scale with pores, three rows of granular scales under the toes and differ from s. slevinii in lacking the v shaped mark on the head and anal pores. plate (4): stenodactylus affinis; from north of basrah province. 81 saman r. afrasiab et al. (b) family: lacertidae 1-acanthodactylus boskianus (daudin,1802) 2-acanthodactylus grandis boulenger,1909 (c) family: scincidae 1-ablepharus pannonicus fitzinger,1823 this lizard has been listed with rumaila’s lizards ( afrasiab and ali, 1989a), unfortunately the authors could not found it in this collection, but it is common in baghdad. 2-mabuya aurata septemtaeniata (reuss,1834) (=trachylepis septemtaeniata) (pl. 5) some authors regarding m. septemtaeniata a separate species from m. aurata (leviton et al., 1992; rastegar-pouyani et al., 2008); others mention it as a subspecies of aurata (khalaf, 1959; mahdi and george, 1969). this mabuya (=trachylepis) is recognized by parietal scales not in contact and having smooth nuchals. plate (5): mabuya aurata septemtaeniata; from north of basrah province. the snakes family, colubridae 1-natrix tessellata tessellata (laurenti,1768) (pl. 6 ) this polymorphic snake is the most common snake of this area hence there is huge color variation even in the same locality; there, it is spotted with red ventral's others have olive dorsal with white and black ventral's; some are dark gray without spots but all have ventral plates with black margin. this snake is recognized by inversed v shape mark on the back of the head ventral black spots and 19 rows of strongly keeled dorsal scale. there is another species of the same genus natrix natrix persa recently recorded from baghdad province (afrasiab et al., 2012) which differs from n. tessellata in dorsal coloration and having two dorsolateral light lines and in having only one preocular, these snakes are of palaearctic origin (leviton et al., 1992). 82 annotated checklist of reptilian fauna of basrah plate (6): natrix tessellata tessellate; right dark phase, left reddish phase, from north of basrah province. 2-dolichophis jugularis (linnaeus,1758) the authors could not collect this snake from basrah province in the present study, but it was previously recorded by boulenger (1920a) from this area. habeeb and rastegar-poyani (2016) put basrah within its distribution. afrasiab et al. (2016) described dolichophis mesopotamicus, as a new species of the same genus from upper mesopotamia, so the dolichophis population of basrah province requires more collection and more taxonomic study. 3-spalerosophis diadema cliffordii (schlegel,1837) the snake s. diadema cliffordii is one of the three large snakes of iraq; recently the snake s. microlepis was recorded from iraqi kurdistan (afrasiab and mohamad, 2014). the species of spalerosophis in basrah have some variation, it looks like the specimen found in collection from goor, south of jordan (lahony et al., 2002). the dorsal scales are with light brown spots, and less number of sub-caudal scales, more specimens are needed for further studies. this snake is recognized by the presence of an elongated spot on the front of the head and the side of the neck, prefrontal and loreal scales are broken down to several small scales; 27 dorsal scales, supralabial scale does not touch the eyes. 4malpolon monspessulana ( hermann,1804) (pl.7) this large opisthoglyphous snake is with back fang mildly poisonous, adult about more than 150cm in length, its uniform color of dark olive or gray, that differs from northern population of m. monspessulana insignita (geoffroy st. hilaire,1809) which is spotted laterally and green in color ( afrasiab and mohamad, 2011); that recognize by convex head, with two loreal scales and 17 dorsal scale rows. plate (7): malpolon monspessulana; north of basrah province. 83 saman r. afrasiab et al. family, elapidae walterinnesia morgani (mocquard, 1905) it was previously known that the iraqi hoodless cobra belongs to w. aegyptia (corkill, 1932; khlaf, 1959), but later nilson and rastegar-pouyane (2005) decided that the iraqi and the eastern population belong to w. morgani. its juvenile is not uniform black (pl. 8) from taq taq south eastern erbil. hence, it is most probably that all of the northern population belong to w. aegyptia, while the south and southwest population belong to w. morgani. boulenger (1920a) mentioned it as naja morgani mooquard. unfortunately no collection of w. morgani was available to authors. plate (8): uniform black juvenile of walterinnesia aegyptia; from taq taq south eastern erbil (photographed by dr. sarbaz ibrahim mohamad of kurdistan nat. hist mus., university of salahaddin). family, viperidae echis carinatus sochureki stemmler, 1969 (saw-scaled viper) (pl. 9) it is the most dangerous poisonous snake in iraq because it always found near human settlements; it is common in thi qar province but rare in basrah province (afrasiab et al., 2012). 84 annotated checklist of reptilian fauna of basrah plate (9): echis carinatus sochureki; north of basrah province. turtles family, trionychidae rafetus euphraticus (daudin,1802) (pl.10) plate (10): rafetus euphraticus; mounted specimen in the exhibition hall of the inhrcm. family, emydidae mauremys caspica caspica (gmelin, 1774) it is a common fresh water turtle in iraq and found even in the deserts wherever water is found (afrasiab and ali, 1989 a); true desert of western zobair and south rumaila habitat, this area is very rich in reptile diversity. eighteen reptilian species were recorded and some of them proved to be specific for this habitat, most of lizards and snakes are nocturnal and active at the night or early morning or late evening to avoid sun heat; at the rest of the day time they burrow themselves under loose sand. 85 saman r. afrasiab et al. the true dessert zone the lizards family, gekkonidae 1-stenodactylus slevini haas, 1957 (pl.11) plate (11): stenodactylus slevini; from rumaila desert western basrah province (preserved in inhrcm) 2-stenodactylus doriae (blanford, 1874) 3bunopus tuberculatus blanford, 1874 family, agamidae 1trapelus persicus fieldi (hass and y. werner, 1969) afrasiab and ali (1989a) (pl.12) plate (12): trapelus persicus fieldi; rumaila desert, west of basrah province. 86 annotated checklist of reptilian fauna of basrah 2-trapelus pallidus haasi (y. werner,1971) 3-phrynocephalus arabicus anderson, 1894 two specimens of p. arabicus in the collection of inhrcm were collected from basrah province, without naming the exact locality. al-barazengy (2015) recorded phrynocephalus maculates anderson, 1872 from samawa district, muthanna province, the north of the present studied area, these lizards are recognized by the rudimentary ear not clear and lacking pre anal or femoral pores. 4-uromastyx aegyptius microlepis (blanford,1874) afrasiab and ali (1989a) founded dead urmastyx animals more than the alive ones in rumaila area because of pollution caused by petroleum industry activities in the area. family, lacertidae 1-acanthodactylus schmidti haas,1957 (pl.13). this is one of the beautiful lizards in this area. it is recognized by 3 large supraoculars, the forth is divided into dorsolateral scale larger than mid-dorsal scales 12-16 ventral plates and 32-54 keeled dorsal scale rows. plate (13): acanthodactylus schmidti; rumaila desert west of basrah province (from collection of inhrcm) 2-acanthodacylus scutellatus hardyi haas,1957 family, scincidae scincus scincus blanford,1881 family, trogonophidae diplometopon zarudnyi nikolsky, 1907. this burrowing limbless lizard is recorded by afrasiab and ali (1989a) from rumaila desert, west of basrah province. niazi (1979) described diplometopon shueaibi a new species from karbala . rudayni et al. (2017) discoursed the variation within the saudi arabian trogonophidae and they did not refer it to d. shueaibi niazi, we believe that d. shueaibi is a valid name for central arabia and west karbala of iraq. 87 saman r. afrasiab et al. the snakes family, boidae eryx (pseudogongylophis) jayakari boulenger, 1888 (pl.14) this snake has been recorded from rumaila desert by afrasiab and ali (1989a).it is recognized by position of the eyes visible from above, presence of mental groove 37-51 dorsal scale rows. plate (14): eryx jayakari; rumaila desert, west of basrah province. (preserved in inhrcm) family, colubridae 1-malpolon moilensis (reuss,1837) (pl.15) this snake when feels a danger will raise the anterior part of the body as in cobra; dorsal scales are smooth in 17 rows. head is convex with two black spots on each side, it is opisthoglyphous. plate (15): malpolon moilensis; rumaila desert (preserved in inhrcm). 2-lytorhynchus diadema gaddi nikolsky,1907 this snake was recorded from rumaila desert, west of basrah province (afrasiab and ali, 1989a), it is one of two snakes in genus lytorhynchus recorded so far from iraq. the second species is lytorhynchus kennedyi schmidt from al-qa'im district, al anbar province ( afrasiab and ali,1989b). 88 annotated checklist of reptilian fauna of basrah 3psammophis schokari (fosskal,1775) plate (16): psammophis schokari; rumaila west of basrah province. family, viperidae cerastes cerastes gasperettii leviton and anderson,1967 (pl.17) in the same area, this is a poisonous horned viper; some individuals have horns while others without horns; most of the day time it is hidden under the soft sand or bushes. plate (17): cerastes cerastes gasperettii; from rumaila desert west basrah province ( preserved in inhrcm). the seashore and shat al-arab zone there are few records of sea turtles and sea snakes from these areas, but there is a collection of only two sea snakes, enhydrina schistosa and hydrophis cyanocinctus; and one plaster model of the sea turtle dermochelys coriacea schlegelii in inhrcm with measurements taken from real specimens from basrah province. furthermore, in this study only sea turtles and sea snakes, recorded by mahdi and george (1969) and leviton et al. (1992), that listed here: 89 saman r. afrasiab et al. turtles family, cheloniidae 1-ertmochelys imbricate (linnaeus,1766) 2-dermochelys coriacea (linnaeus,1766) ( pl.18) the species above were found in seashore. 3-rafetus euphraticus ( daudin, 1802) this species was found in shat al-arab. plate (18): dermochelys coriacea; plaster model in the inhrcm (it is a copy of real one dead in basrah province). sea snakes: family, hydrophiidae 1-enhydrina schistosa (daudin, 1803) 2-hydrophis gracilis (shaw, 1802) 3-hydrophis spiralis (shaw, 1802) 4-h. cyanocinctus (daudin, 1803) 5-h. ornatus (gray, 1842) 6-h. lapemoides ( gray,1849) 7-pelamis platurus (linnaeus,1766) 8-lapemis curtus (shaw, 1802) acknowledgements the authors wish to thank dr. khidher abbas al-kinani, director of the marsh land division, for providing some photographs. sincere thanks are due to mrs. khalida, laboratory staff of the iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad for her technical help, and also profound thanks to the basrah natural history museum, university of basrah, basrah province, and the kurdistan natural history museum, university of salahaddin, erbil province for their invaluable help. 90 annotated checklist of reptilian fauna of basrah literature cited afrasiab, s. r. 1987. firs record of stenodactylus affinis (murray) (marsh gekkoes) (reptilia: gekkonidae) in iraq. journal of biological sciences research, 18(1): 231-233. afrasiab, s. r. and ali, h. a. 1989a. report on a collection of reptiles from rumaila desert, south of iraq. bulletin of the iraq natural history museum, 8 (2):65-73. afrasiab, s. r. and ali, h. a. 1989b. a new record of the snake lytorhynchus kennedyi schmidt (reptilia, colubridae) from iraq. bulletin of the iraq natural history museum, 8(2): 157-159. afrasiab, s. r. and ali, h. a. 1996. notes on scolecophidians (blind snakes ) reptiliaserpentes,of iraq. bulletin of the iraq natural history museum, 8(4): 31-39. afrasiab, s. r. and mohamad, s. i. 2009. a study on cave-dwelling geckos in iraq, with the description of a new species from saffine mountain. zoology in the middle east, 47 (1): 49-56. afrasiab, s. r. and mohamad, s. i. 2011. first record of the rat snake, zamenis hohenackeri (strauch, 1873), from north-eastern iraq with notes on other colubrid snakes. zoology in the middle east, 54 (1):19-22. afrasiab, s. r., alganabi, m. i. and al-fartosi, k. 2012. snake species new or rare to the herpetofauna of iraq. herpetozoa, 24(3/4): 179-181. afrasiab, s. r. and mohamad, s. i. 2014. new records of snakes from iraq (reptilia: colubridae). zoology in the middle east, 60 (1): 92-94. afrasiab, s. r., mohammad, m. k. and husein, a. m. 2016. description of a new species of the genus dolichophis gitstel from the upper mesopotamian plain-iraq (reptiliaserpentes-colubridae). journal of biodiversity and environmental sciences, 8(4):15-19. al-barazengy, a. n. 2015. first observation on phrynocephalus maculates longicaudatus hass,1957 (squamata: sauria: agamidae) in iraq. bulletin of the iraq natural history museum,13(3):1-7. boulenger, g. a. 1920 a. a list of snake from mesopotamia, collected by members of the mesopotamian expeditionary force 1915-1919. journal of the bombay natural history society, 27: 347–350. boulenger, g.a. 1920 b. a list of lizards from mesopotamia, collected by members of the mesopotamian expeditionary force 1915-1919. journal of the bombay natural history society, 27: 351–353. corkill, n. l. 1932. snakes and snake bite in iraq. bailliere, tindall and cox, london, ix+ 51pp. disi, a. 2002. jordan country study on biological diversity.the herpetofauna of jordan. university of jordan, amman, 336pp. 91 saman r. afrasiab et al. habeeb, i. n. and rastegarpoyani, n. 2016. geographical distribution of the snake of iraq. mesopotamia environmental journal, 2(3): 67-77. hawramany, s. a. 2007. ecology of alectoris chukar (gray) behavior, reproduction and systematic. m.sc. thesis in biology, college of sciences, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq: 76 pp. khalaf, k. t. 1959. reptiles of iraq, with some notes on the amphibians. ar-rabitta press, baghdad. vii+96pp. khan, m. s. 1997. taxonomic notes on pakistani snakes of the coluber karelini rhodorachis ventromaculatus species complex. a new approach to the problem. asiatic herpetological research, 7: 51-60. lahony, s. r., khleifat, k., al-tarawneh, k. a., abboud, m. m., al-oran, r. m., altarawneh, a. a. and homady, m. h. 2002. variations in five species of jordanian reptiles with new record of land tortoises testudo floweri (testudinidae: chelonia). pakistan journal of zoology, 34(1):.43-49. leviton, a. e. 1986. description of a new species of coluber (reptilia: serpentes: colubridae) from the southern tihama of saudi arabia, with comments on the biogeography of southwestern arabia. fauna of saudi arabia, 8: 436-446. leviton, a. e., anderson, s. c., adler, k. and minton, s. a. 1992. handbook to middle east amphibians and reptiles (contribution to herpetology). society for the study of amphibians and reptiles, oxford, ohio, 252pp. mahdi, n. and george, p. v. 1969. a systematic list of the vertebrates of iraq. iraq natural history museum, publication no. 26: 104pp. nader, i. a. and jawdat, s. z. 1976. taxonomic study of the geckos of iraq (reptilia: gekkonidae). bulletin of the biological research centre, 5: 1-41. niazi, a. d. 1979. the arabian worm lizard: its ecology, morphology with description of a new species. iraq journal of biological sciences, 7:13-29. nilson, g. and rastegar-pouyani, n. 2005. walterinnesia aegyptia lataste,1887 (ophidia: elapidae) and the status of naja morgani mocquard 1905. russian journal of herpetology, 14 (1): 7-14. rastegar-pouyani, n., kami, h. g., rajabzadeh, m., shafiei, s. and anderson, s. c. 2008. annotated checklist of amphibians and reptiles of iran. iranian journal of animal biosystematics,4(1): 43-66. rudayni, h. a., al-sadoon, m. k. and paray, b. 2017. morphological characteristics of worm lizard, diplometopon zarudnyi (squamata: trogonophidae) in the central rejoin of saudi arabia. saudi journal of biological sciences, 24 (4): 966-971. schatti, b. and schmitz, a. 2006. re-assessing platyceps ventromaculatus (gray,1834) (reptilia: squamata: colubrinae). revue suisse de zoologie,113(4): 747768. 92 annotated checklist of reptilian fauna of basrah bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2018) 15 (1): 77-92 جنوب العراق ,قائمة مرجعية للزواحف في محافظة البصرة أزهار احمد الموسوي وهند ضياء هادي ,سامان روستم افراسياب مركز بحوث و متحف التاريخ الطبيعي جامعة بغداد 38/30/8302 :تاريخ القبول 30/30/8302: تاريخ االستالم الخالصة تقع محافظة البصرة في أقصى جنوب العراق وتمتلك ميزة خاصة في -حيوانيةبين ثالثة مناطق وهي تشبه جسر( العضايا والحيات)تنوع الزواحف أعطى هذا الموقع ,(الشرقية, القطبية القديمة و االثيوبية) جغرافية عالمية . الزواحفتنوع اإلحيائي ومن بينها خصوصية في ال ألبصرهلمحافظة ورئيسة البصرة إلى أربعة مناطق قسمت محافظةمن اجل تسهيل الدراسة ساحل والصحراء الحقيقية , والمستنقعات األهوار ,البساتينو المدينة :هي .البحر وشط العرب من الزواحف تتضمن الحيات نوعا 94 تسجيل استعرضت الدراسة أعطي الوصف واهم ألمالحظات .والعضايا البحريةوسالحف المياه العذبة و .األنواع النادرة معززا بالصور التصنيفية لبعض 3 21 mohammad, et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2013)12 (3): 21-30 the biodiversity of bahr al-najaf depression, al-najaf al-ashraf province mohammad k. mohammad, hassan h. ali, basim a. a. ali and afkar m. hadi iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad, bab al-muadham, baghdad, iraq abstract the tentative list of the biodiversity (plants and vertebrates) of bahr al-najaf depression is found to comprise 104 vertebrate species including 2 fishes, 14 reptiles, 73 resident and migratory birds and 15 mammals. the flora consists of 31 species, mainly of plants well adapted to desert conditions that dominate the area, besides few examples of water plants. the salinity was found, through chemical analysis of the lake water, to be of high value which reduces the diversity of aquatic animal and plant diversity. introduction bahr al-najaf is a wetland depression area located to the west and south-west of holy najaf city. it extends at north west-south east direction of an area about 360-750 km2, of coordinates longitude 43˚ 40 44˚ 25 e and latitude 31˚ 40 32˚ 10 n and altitude elevation of about 11 m a. s. l. (al-atia, 2006, benni and al-tawash, 2011). it is composed of a lake or marsh-like area with limited cultivated orchards beyond and surrounded by vast desert or semi desert areas. the area is classified as a part of the arabian desert and east saheroarabian xeric shrub lands ecoregion (pa1303) (bachmann et al., 2011). historically, it was a part of very wide water surface joined with arabian gulf by water canals which served transportation between ancient levant and europe via syria (al-hakeem, 2004). although some researchers referred to the drying of najaf sea (bahr al-najaf) had occurred at 1915 (37), it is believed, according to (38) that the draught was started since 1887 when water authorities blocked euphrates canals preventing feeding the depression. since that the area was subjected to substantial changes both in its nature and forms of life that it supports. studies on the biodiversity of the area rather few and fragmentary including that of hatt (1959), abul faith (1970), thalen (1979) and al-awadi (1997). the aim of this work is to provide a preliminary report on the present status of biodiversity issues of this unique area of iraq. materials and methods data on the biodiversity of the area was retrieved either through direct collection of biological material, photographing, or through interviews with hunters and locals through visiting the area twice each season during the period from january to december 2012. the specific identification was possible following the available pertinent keys and field guides including those of al-hassan (2006) for plants, coad (2010) for fishes, khalaf (1959) for herpetofauna, salim et al. (2006) for birds, and harisson (1968, 1981) for mammals. 22 the biodiversity of bahr al-najaf depression results and discussion field observations revealed that the studied area is distinct from the adjacent desert and semi desert areas. it includes cultivated orchards, salty lake, marshy area and semi desert strips ecosystems. this multiple system complex contributes to the enriching the biodiversity elements. the estimated area is varied according to authors and years, for example al-atia (2006) consider it as 750 km2 while benni and al-tawash (2011) reduced the number by more than one half into 360 km2. this is may be related to the active evaporation during the six years period between the two studies. however, chemical analysis of the lake water clearly indicates that the water is should be classified as saline (table 1), a situation which does not support living of many freshwater species of fishes and other animals, and perhaps because of pollution resulted from the natural drainage of old najaf city waste water into the lake due to the nature of topography of the area. this salinity may be due to the high rate of evaporation accompanied with unprecedented temperature levels and absence of continuous water resources feeding into the lake, while it is restricted now to the runoff of precipitation, which it is already low of mean about 97.1 mm annually for the period between 1975-2006 (ali, 2008), accumulated in the neighboring valley. moreover, the agricultural practices just adjacent to the lake depend mainly on the random well drilling which yields salty water drained finally with its contents of salt into the lake and subsequently increasing salinity level. our results are in agreement with al-aboodi (2008) who mentioned that the water type of the bahr al najaf area is of marine origin preserved in semi-confined basin. table 1: chemical analysis for some parameters of a water sample from the lake of bahr al najaf. parameter lab. analysis ph 8.4 tds (gm/l) 18.8 salt (%) 3.23 c (%) 0.03 k (%) 0.20 ca (%) 0.65 sand (%) 0,48 flora: it is found that the plants comprise 25 species belong to15 families (table 2). table 2: a systematic list of plants recorded in this study from bahr al-najaf. family amaranthaceae 1. amarathus blitoides family capparidaceae 2. capparis spinosa family ceratophyllaceae 3. ceratophyllum demersum family chenopodiaceae 4. chenopodium vulgaria 5. haloxylon salicornicum 6. salsola cycloohylla 7. suaeda fruticosa family convolvulaceae 8. convolvulus arvensis family cucurbitaceae 9. citrullus colocynthis family fabaceae 23 mohammad, et al. 10. albizia amara 11. alhagi maurorum 12. astagulus spionsus family gentaceae 13. ephedra alata family graminae 14. aeluropus lagopoides 15. aeluropus littoralis 16. cynodon dactylon 17. imperata cylindrica 18. phragmites communis family juncaceae 19. juncus arabicus family plantaginaceae 20. plantago boissier family polygonaceae 21. rumex cyprius 22. rumex dentatus family rutaceae 23. peganum harmala family tamaricacaea 24. tamarix aphylla family typhaceae 25. typha domingensis most of plants listed above are belonging to the arabian subzone of the saharosindian phytogeografical zone (zohary, 1973). light intensity or scattering of plants is might be a result of successive dry years, livestock grazing, and extensive human activities. some plants are aquatic. the increase of water salinity of the lake negatively affected the biodiversity either inside water or in the adjacent areas in contact with the lake. the exception was in some borders where few of fresh water seep into the depression causing partial improvement of plant diversity. fauna: in regard to vertebrate fauna, results show presence of only two species of fishes; liza abu of small size only and black bream acanthopagrus perda. this is expected in view of poor water quality. al-awadi et al. (2010a) published a paper on parasites of 11 fish species collected in the area in 1995. this gives how the fish diversity was going decreased with a downward trend since that year. for the herpetofauna, 13 reptlian species were reported from the area including 6 snakes, 6 lizards and one turtle (table 3). except for the dice snake natrix tessellata and the soft shelled turtle rafetus euphraticus, the rest of species seem well adapted to xeric conditions which dominate the studied area now. however, continuous presence of n. tessellata and r. euphraticus in this saline water reflects high degree of tolerance to physiological as well as environmental pressure resulted from the ecological stress of poor water condition. this conclusion is in general agreement with ahmadzadeh (2011) and ioannidis and mebert (2011) for the dice snake and karami et al. (2006) and ghaffari et al. (2008) for the soft shelled turtle. the birds comprise the largest faunistic group of bahr al-najaf with 72 species many of them are migratory birds (table 3). on comparison with the records of the iraq natural history research center and museum/university of baghdad for the last four decades the collective number of bird species showed decrease in the number of species especially the waterfowl 24 the biodiversity of bahr al-najaf depression which dropped sharply from 69 species frequently reported with relatively high individual numbers according to the records of the museum into 35 species only with rather small numbers of individuals within the their populations. this result could be directly linked to the deterioration of the lake water quality. however, al-awadi (1997) and al-awadi et al. (2010b) listed 53 bird species, belonging to 21 families, in bahr al-najaf depression stating that it attracts a large number of aquatic birds. the mammals comprise 15 species without any representative of water habitat dweller (table 3). all of them are known to be animals of desert and semi desert areas. in general, the vertebrate fauna of bahr al-najaf comprise 104 species. this is rather reflects the poor environmental conditions of the area, especially those linked to water habitat. it is of worthy to note the absence of amphibian representatives from the lake of bahr al-najaf. table 3: a systematic list of vertebrate fauna reported in this study from bahr al-najaf. class pisces family mugilidae 1liza abu family sparidae 2acanthopagrus perda class reptilia family trionychidae 3rafetus euphraticus family agamidae 4uromastix microlepis family gekkonidae 5alsophylax tuberculatus 6stenodactylus affinis 7s. doriae family lacertidae 8messalina brevirostris 9ophisops elegans family boidae 10eryx jaculus family colubridae 11malpolon moilensis 12natrix tessellata 13psammophis schokari 14platycepis ventromaculatus 15splaerosophis cliffordi family viperidae 16cerastes cerastes class aves family phalacrocoracidae 17phalacrocorax carbo* family ardeidae 18ardea cinerea* 19egretta garzetta 20ixobrychus minutes* 21nycticorax nycticorax family ciconiidae 22ciconia ciconia* 25 mohammad, et al. family phoenicopteridae 23phoenicopterus ruber family anatidae 24aethya ferina* 25anas acuta* 26a. clypeata* 27a. crecca* 28a. penelop*e 29a. platyrhynchos* 30a. strepera* 31marmaronetta angustriostris 32netta rufina* 33tadorna ferruginea* family accipitridae 34buteo rufinus* 35circus aeruginosus 36milvus migrans* 37neophron percnopterus family falconidae 38falco tinnunculus family phasianidae 39francolinus francolinus family rallidae 40fulica atra 41gallinula chloropus 42porphyrio porphyrio 43rallus aquaticus* family charadriidae 44charadrius alexandrines 45chettusia leucura 46hoplopterus indicus 47h. spinosus family scolopacidae 48calidris alpine* 49c. minuta* 50gallinago gallinago* 51lymnocryptes minimus* 52tringa tetanus* family recurvirostridae 53himantopus himantopus family laridae 54larus canus* 55l. genei 56l. ridibundus* 57sterna albifrons* 58s. hirundo* family columbidae 59columba livia 60columba palumbus 61-streptopelia decaocto 62s. senegalensis 26 the biodiversity of bahr al-najaf depression family tytonidae 63tyto alba family meropidae 64merops superciliosus* family coraciidae 65coracias benghalensis family upupidae 66upupa epops* family alaudidae 67ammomanes deserti 68galerida cristata family hirundinidae 69hirundo rustica* family motacillidae 70anthus spinoletta 71motacilla alba* family pycnonotidae 72pycnonotus leucogenys family laniidae 73lanius collurio* 74l. nubicus* family hypocoliidae 75hypocolius ampelinus family turdidae 76oenanthe oenanthe* 77saxicola torquata* 78phoenicurus phoenicurus* family timaliidae 79turdoides caudatus family sylviidae 80hippolias pallid* 81prinia gracilis 82cisticola juncidis 83sylvia mystacea family corvidae 84corvus corone 85c. frugilegus family sturnidae 86sturnus vulgaris* family ploceidae 87passer domesticus 88p. hispaniolensis* 89p. moabiticus class mammalia family emballonuridae 90taphozous nudiventris family vespertilionidae 91pipistrellus kuhlii family canidae 92canis aureus 93c. lupus 27 mohammad, et al. 94vulpes vulpes family mustelidae 95meles meles family viverridae 96herpestes auropunctatus family hyaenidae 97hyaena hyaena family felidae 98felis chaus family suidae 99sus scrofa family leporidae 100lepus capensis family hystricidae 101hystrix indica family muridae 102mus musculus 103nesokia indica 104rattus rattus ____________________________ *migratory bird a wide range of invertebrates forms were noted in the area including insects, scorpions, centipedes, millipedes, spiders, ticks, mites, crustaceans, molluscans, and annelids will be studied later in a separate paper. literature cited abul-fatih, h.a. 1970. the vegetation of saline swampy area of bahr al-najaf, iraq. m. sc. thesis, univ. baghdad: 87pp. ahmadzadeh, f., mebert, k., ataei, s., rezazadeh, e., allah gholi, l. and bohmem, w. 2011 ecological and biological comparison of three populations of the dice snake (natrix tessellata) from the southern caspian sea coast, iran. mertensiella, 18: 403-413. al-aboodi, a. h. 2008 hydrochemical classification of groundwater in bahr al-najaf, western desert, iraq. j. basrah researches (sciences), 34 (2): 23-32. al-atia, m. j. 2006 the najaf land: history, geological heritage and natural wealth. 1st edition. al-nibras foundation for printing, publication and distribution.al-najaf. al-awadi, h.m.h. 1997. some ecological aspects of the parasitic faunae of fishes and aquatic birds in bahr al-najaf depression, iraq. ph. d. thesis, univ. baghdad: 71pp. al-awadi, h. m. h., mhaisen, f. t. and al-joborae, f. f. 2010a parasitic fauna of fishes in bahr al-najaf depression, mid iraq. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus., 11 (1): 1-9 al-awadi, h. m. h., mhaisen, f. t. and al-joborae, f. f. 2010b helminth parasitic fauna of aquatic birds in bahr al-najaf depression, mid iraq. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus., 11 (2): 7-15 28 the biodiversity of bahr al-najaf depression al-hassan, h. o. 2006 wild plants of the northern region of the kingdom of saudi arabia (field guide with photographs), ministry of agriculture, ksa in collaboration with fao-un, 264 pp. al-hakeem, h. e. 2004 bahr al-najaf and its role in joining iraq with the world. kufa studies center j., 1 (2):7-22. (in arabic). ali, m. f. 2008 the geographical analysis of the reality of drought and the climatic water deficit and the proposed potentials for its treatment. adab al-kufa, 1 (2): 207-245. (in arabic). bachmann, a., chappell, b., elliott, n., matti, n. (eds.) 2011 key biodiversity survey of iraq, 2010 site review. nature iraq report no. 0311-01p, 100pp. batanouny, k.h. 1991. vegetation of the summan (arabia): pattern and process as affected by human impact and modern technology. ivth. internationl rangeland congress, montpellier, france. 4: 310-314. benni, t. j. and al-tawash, b. s. 2011 palynological evidences on paleoclimate and paleoenvironmental changes during late quaternary of bahr al-najaf depression, central iraq. iraqi bulletin of geology and mining, 7 (2): 1-28. (in arabic). coad, b. w. 2010 freshwater fishes of iraq. pensoft. sofia-moscow, 274 pp. furati, 1931. water in najaf. arab language magazine, 10, 457-458, quoted from (alhakeem, h. e., (2004) (in arabic). ghaffari, h., taskavak, e. and karami, m. 2008 conservation status of the euphrates softshell turtle, rafetus euphraticus, in iran. chelonian conservation and biology, 7 (2): 223-229. harisson, d. l. 1968 the mammals of arabia. ernest benn ltd., london, 3vols. harisson, d. l. 1981 the mammals of the arabian gulf. george allen and unwin, london, 92pp. ioannidis, y. and mebert, k. 2011 habitat preferences of natrix tessellata at strofylia, northwestern peloponnese, and comparison to syntopic n. natrix, mertensiella: 18, 302-310. karami, m., riazi, b., ghaffari, h. and taskavak, e. 2006 the study of mesopotamian softshell turtle (rafetus euphraticus) and its habitat in iran. j. env. sci. tech., 27: 7485. khalaf, k. t. 1959 reptiles of iraq with some notes on the amphibians. arrabitta press, baghdad, 96 pp. salim, m.a, porter, r.f. christensen, s. schiermacker-hansen, p. and al-jbour, s. 2006 field guide to the birds of iraq. amman: nature iraq & birdlife international. (in arabic). 29 mohammad, et al. thalen, d. c. p. 1979 ecology and utilization of desert shrub rangelands in iraq. dr. w. junk, b. v.-publishers, the hague, 448pp. zohary, m.1973. geobotanical foundation of the middle east. (2 vols.) gutav fische verlag. stuttgart, germany. 30 the biodiversity of bahr al-najaf depression bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2013)12 (3): 21-30 التنوع اإلحیائي لمنخفض بحر النجف، محافظة النجف األشرف علي وباسم عباس عبد علي محمد كاظم محمد وحسن حسین وأفكار مسلم ھادي جامعة بغداد، باب المعظم، بغداد، -مركز بحوث ومتحف التاریخ الطبیعي العراق الخالصة بحر النجف، باإلضافة إلى تتألف القائمة المؤقتة للتنوع اإلحیائي لمنخفض تتضمن نوعین من الفقریات ١٠٤العدید من أشكال الحیوانات الالفقریة، من من الطیور المقیمة او المھاجرة ، و ٧٣نوعا من الزواحف، ١٤من األسماك، نوعا متكیفة جیدا ٢٩تتكون المجموعة النباتیة من . نوعا من اللبائن ١٥ للظروف الصحراویة التي تغلب على المنطقة، إلى جانب أمثلة قلیلة من ئي لمیاه البحیرة إن الملوحة كانت بینت نتائج التحلیل الكیمیا. النباتات المائیة .عالیة مما یقلل من تنوع الحیوانات والنباتات المائیة bull 171 m.s. abdul-rassoul and i.m. al-mallo bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2016) 14 (2): 171-178 first record of nigra scale, parasaissetia nigra (nietner, 1861) (hemiptera; coccidae) as a pest of fig trees in iraq m.s. abdul-rassoul* and i.m. al-mallo** *iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq **department of plant protection, college of agriculture, university baghdad, baghdad, iraq of msabr_1942@yahoo.com corresponding author: abstract the nigra scale, parasaissetia nigra (nietner, 1861) (hemiptera, coccidae) recorded as a new insect pest attacking fig trees, ficus carica (moraceae) in iraq. it was observed during april 2014 in residential garden at al-hurriyah district in baghdad. key words: coccidae, fig, hemiptera, iraq, nigra scale. introduction fig tree, ficus carica linnaeus, 1758 (moraceae) is one of the most economically important fruit crops in iraq, its fruits are consumed as both fresh and dried forms. these trees are distributed throughout all iraqi provinces, particularly dohuk and nineveh, which got the biggest number (al-azawi et al., 1990). fig trees in iraq are reported to be attacked by more than 38 arthropoda species belonging to 13 families of 6 orders. the order coleoptera was represented by the highest number of species (18 species), followed by hemiptera (10), acarina (5), lepidoptera (3), diptera (1), and thysanoptera (1) among which 7 were scale insects (al-ali, 1977). according to the ministry of planning, the total number of trees planted during 2014 was about 416770 (central statistical organization, 2014). the total fig production of iraq was about 9457 tons, thus the mean production rate reached about 22.7 kg per tree. it seems that this production rate is very low in comparison with neighbor countries, this decline in production can be attributed to the agricultural arthropod pests which are considered one of the most important factors affecting figs production (al-azawi et al., 1990). during april, 2014 we have obtained specimens of unfamiliar soft scale insects infesting leaves and fruits of the fig tree from al-hurriyah district in baghdad. these soft scales were identified by the second author as parasaissetia nigra (nietner, 1861). a study of the literature concerning this scale shows that the species has an african origin (eppo, 2002), originally described by nietner in 1861 from specimens collected from a coffee plant in sri lanka. it has at least 12 common names known in various parts of the world such as nigra mailto:msabr_1942@yahoo.com 172 first record of nigra scale scale and black scale (smith, 1940) and has many synonyms and various combinations (ben-dove and miller, 2016). in spite of its african origin (eppo, 2002) p. nigra is now widely distributed in all the zoogeographical regions of the world. it is present in 121 countries (ben-dov and miller, 2016) including the middle eastern countries such as saudi arabia (matile-ferrero, 1984; cabi , 1997); israel (ben-dove, 1993); turkey (cebeci and selmi, 2004; kaydan, et al., 2007); iran (cheraghian ,2014), and cyprus (ulgenturk et al., 2015). it is now found in iraq and perhaps this pest has entered iraq from neighboring countries with infested plants. parasaissetia nigra is polyphagous, feeding on host plants from 92 families (ben-dov and miller, 2016), particularly on ornamental plants of tropical origin. several agricultural crops are attacked, including avocado, citrus, coffee, cotton, fig, guava, mango, pomegranate and other plants. scales often infest leaves, branches and fruits (hamon and williams, 1984). observations on the type of damage showed that the nymphs and females of nigra scale p. nigra cause damage to the host plants with their piercing sucking mouthparts, by sucking sap and nutrients from leaves stem veins eventually affecting on plant growth, which often become stunted, distorted with reduced vigor in addition, the scale causes indirect damage by excreting honeydew which provides a medium for the growth of black molds, which covers the surfaces of the leaves, reducing photosynthesis causing further injury to the plant (smith, 1944). reproduction in p. nigra is entirely parthenogenetic. the female lays 800 or more eggs in a cavity under her body and there are no males (smith, 1944). it has one generation per year outdoors (gill, 1988) while ben-dov (1978) recorded up to 6 generations per year in greenhouses in israel. there are three nymphal stages, the first stage individuals are transparent green at first and turn transparent yellow-pink. the aim of this study was to determine the occurrence of nigra scale, parasaissetia nigra for the first time on the fig tree in iraq. materials and methods infested leaves and fruits of fig trees by the nigra scale, parasaissetia nigra were collected from a private garden at al-hurriyah district in baghdad province during april, 2014. the nigra scales were carefully removed from the leaf and fruit surfaces and were mounted on microscope slides using the method given by sirisena et al. (2013). the identification was made by the second author using key prepared by mohammad and moharum (2013) and the mounted slides are kept in the personal collections of the second author. results in the present work, we report for the first time the nigra scale, parasaissetia nigra (hemiptera, coccidae) in iraq, which was collected from fig trees that grow in private garden during april, 2014 at al-hurriyah district in baghdad. diagnostic characters. the nigra scale, parasaissetia nigra recognized by the following characters(figure 1): adult females 3.0-4.5 mm long, 3.5-4.0 wide, oval to elongate oval and flat to rounded, javascript:void(0); javascript:void(0); 173 m.s. abdul-rassoul and i.m. al-mallo usually convex in lateral view; dark brown to purple-black in color. dorsum with reticulate pattern, without raised dorsal “h” pattern, marginal setae slightly enlarged, fimbriate. antennae usually 8-segmented; legs obvious, without tibiotarsal sclerosis; claws without denticle. ventral tubular ducts in submarginal band around body margin; setae on dorsal surface with 4 subapical setae on each anal plate; anal with fringe setae; multioculars pores near valvar area and submarginal; preopercular pores in small numbers on apical anal. immature stages and young adult translucent yellow in colour, with two black eyes placed anterolaterally; males are not known; ovisacs absent, eggs laid under body of female. remarks: parasaissetia nigra is similar to species of saissetia by having a reticulate pattern on the dorsum but differs by lacking “h” pattern on dorsum. figure (1): parasaissetia nigra (nietner) ventral surface: 1-antenna, 2marginal setae, 3tarsus, 4ventral tubular ducts, 5multiloculars pore, 6anal plates. dorsal surface: 7anal plates, 8preopercular pores, 9-seta. 174 first record of nigra scale plate (1): female adults of p. nigra on leaves of figs plate (2): female adults of p. nigra aggregates along the twigs of fig tree 175 m.s. abdul-rassoul and i.m. al-mallo discussion this is the first record of p. nigra in iraq, where it was found on the leaves of the fig tree in baghdad. it had been most probably introduced accidentally to iraq by the trade of fruit trees and ornamental plants. the infestation appeared during april, soon after leaves emerged, and gradually increased with the advancement of plant growth. the highest infestation rate was observed during october. the scale pest fed on the aerial parts of the plant mainly the leaves, where it was found on the lower and upper surfaces or along leaf veins (plate -1) and was also aggregated along the twigs and branches of the plant (plate 2 ). although this pest affects several agricultural crops in different part of the world, it had been observed only on fig trees in iraq up to date. this finding is met with the results of hall (1923), ezzat and hussein ( 1969) in egypt; bodenheimer (1924), ben-dov ( 1978) in israel; ali (1971) in india matile-ferrero and noveillerd ( 1984) and in saudi arabia where it is known to feed on fig trees, ficus carica. acknowledgents authors are thankful to dr. mohammad abedkhadom of the baghdad veterinary hospital, ministry of agriculture for his providing us specimens of the scale insects literature cited al-ali, a.s. 1977. phytophagous and entomophagous insects and mites in iraq. natural history research centre (iraq) publication no . 33, 142pp. al-azawi, a.f., khaddou, i.k. and el-haidary, h.s. 1990. economic entomology. baghdad university, 652pp. (in arabic). ali, s.m. 1971 a catalogue of the oriental coccoidea (part v) (insecta: homoptera: coccoidea) (with an index). indian museum bulletin, 6: 7-82. ben-dov, y. 1978. taxonomy of the nigra scale, parasaissetia nigra (nietner) (homoptera: coccoidea: coccidae), with observations on mass rearing and parasites of an israeli strain. phytoparasitica, 6: 115-127. ben-dov, y. 1993. a systematic catalogue of the soft scale insects of the world. sandhill crane press, 536 pp. ben-dov, y. and miller, d.r. 2016. systematic database of the scale insects of the world. (version dec 2004). in: species 2000 & itis catalogue of life, 23rd december 2016 (roskov y., abucay l., orrell t., nicolson d., bailly n., kirk p., bourgoin t., dewalt r.e., decock w., de wever a., nieukerken e. van, eds). digital resource at www.catalogueoflife.org/col. species 2000: naturalis, leiden, the netherlands. 176 first record of nigra scale bodenheimer, f.s. 1924. the coccidae of palestine. first report on this family. zionist organization institute of agriculture and natural history, agricultural experiment station bulletin, 1: 1-100. cab international. 1997. parasaissetia nigra (nietner). distribution maps of pests, series a, agricultural map no. 573: 5 pp. cebeci, h. and selmi, e. 2004 the coccidae species of turkey. orman fakultesi dergisi/review of the faculty of istanbul, 54(1): 207-228. central statistical organization. 2014. annual abstract of statiscs. republic of iraq, ministry of planning. cheraghian, a. 2014. a guide for diagnosis & detection of quarantine pests. pomegranate scale parasaissetia nigra (nietner, 1861) hemiptera: coccidae. islamic republic of iran ministry of jihad-e-agriculture, plant protection organization. eppo. 2002. diagnostic protocols for regulated pests, parasaissetia nigra. bulletin oepp/eppo bulletin, 32: 293-298. ezzat, y.m and hussein, n.a. 1969 redescription and classification of the family coccidae in u.a.r. (homoptera: coccoidea). bulletin de la societe entomologique d'egypte, 51: 359-426. gill, r.j. 1988. the scale insects of california. part i. the soft scales (homoptera: coccoidea: coccidae). tech. serv. in agrie. biosystematics and plant pathology, california dept. food and agrie. 1: 1–132. hall, w.j. 1923. further observations on the coccidae of egypt. bulletin, ministry of agriculture, egypt, technical and scientific service, 36: 1-61. hamon, a.b. and williams, m.l. 1984. the soft scale insects of florida (homoptera: coccoidea: coccidae). arthropods of florida and neighboring land areas, vol. 11. gainesville, florida, u.s.a. 94 pp. kaydan, m.b., ulgenturk, s. and erkiliç, l. 2007. turkiye’ningozdengecirilmis coccoidea (hemiptera) turlerilistesi. [checklist of turkish coccoidea species (hemiptera)]. yuzuncuyil universitesi ziraat fakultesi, tarim bilimleri dergisi, 17(2): 89-106 matile-ferrero, d. and nonveiller, g. 1984. coccoidea. catalogue commente et illustre des insectes du cameroun d'interetagricole (apparitions, reparition, importance). memoires.institut pour la protection des plantes. beograd, 210 pp. mohammad, z.k. and moharum, f.a. 2013. key to the species of family coccidae in egyot (hemiptera: coccoidea: coccidae). egyptian acadmic journal of biological science, 6(2): 145-158. 177 m.s. abdul-rassoul and i.m. al-mallo nietner, j. 1861. observations on the enemies of the coffee tree in ceylon. published at the “ceylon times” office, ceylon, 31 pp. sirisena, u.g.a.i., watson, g.w., hemachandra, k.s. and wijayagunasekara, h.n.p. 2013. a modified technique for the preparation of specimens of sternorryncha for taxonomic studies. tropical agriculture research, 24(2): 139-149. smith, r.h., 1940. common names of the scale insect saissetia nigra (nietn.). calif. dep. agric. mon. bull. 29: 125-127. smith, r.h. 1944. bionomics and control of the nigra scale, saissetia nigra. hilgardia, 16: 225-288. ulgenturk, s., kaydan, m.b. and hocali, s.s. 2015. new scale insect (hemiptera: coccomorpha) records for the turkish republic of northern cyprus. turkish bulletin of entomology, 5(2): 115-120. 178 first record of nigra scale bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2016) 14 (2): 171-178 تسجيل جذيذ للحشزة القشزيت السىداء parasaissetia nigra (nietner, 1861) (hemiptera; coccidae) كآفت علً أشجار التيي في العزاق **و ايواى هحوذ الوالى *هحوذ صالح عبذ الزسىل هزكز بحىث و هتحف التؤريخ الطبيعي، جاهعت بغذاد * قسن وقايت الٌباث، كليت الزراعت، جاهعت بغذاد ** الخالصت parasaissetia nigra (nietner, 1861) (hemiptera: coccidae)الحشزة القشزيت السىداء .تسجل في هذا البحج ألول هزة كآفت حشزيت علً أشجار التيي في العزاق علً أوراق وحوار التيي في 4102شىهذث هذٍ الحشزة خالل شهز ًيساى هي عام .بغذاد -إحذي الحذائق الوٌزليت في هذيٌت الحزيت bull 51 jalili, et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2015) 13 (4): 51-62 descriptive osteology study of alburnus amirkabiri (cypriniformes: cyprinidae), a newly described species from namak lake basin, central of iran pariya jalili*, soheil eagderi (1) *, manouchehr nasri** and hamed mousavi-sabet*** *department of fisheries, faculty of natural resources, university of tehran, karaj, iran. **department of animal sciences, faculty of agriculture, lorestan university, khorramabad, lorestan province, iran. ***department of fisheries sciences, faculty of natural resources, university of guilan, sowmeh sara, p.o. box 1144, guilan, iran. (1) corresponding author: soheil.eagderi@ut.ac.ir abstract this study was conducted to provide a detailed description of the osteology features of alburnus amirkabiri from the qareh chai river, markazi province, iran. for this purpose, eight specimens of a. amirkabiri were collected from the qareh chai river by electrofishing and fixed in 4% buffered formalin after anesthesia. the specimens were cleared and stained for osteological examination and its detailed osteological characterizations and differences with available osteological data of other members of the genus alburnus were provided. keywords: cyprinidae, alburnus amirkabiri, osteology, fish skeleton. introduction the genus alburnus (rafinesque, 1820), a member of family cyprinidae, is widespread in europe and the northern parts of southwest asia (bogutskaya et al., 2000; kottelat and freyhof, 2007; jouladeh-roudbar et al., 2015). coad (2014) listed thirty-nine species of the genus are known (coad, 2014) with 8 species recorded from iranian interior waters, including a. alburnus (linnaeus, 1758), a. chalcoides (güldenstaedt, 1772), a. filippii (kessler, 1877), a. hohenackeri (kessler, 1870), a. caeruleus (heckel, 1843), a. atropatenae (berg, 1925), a. mossulensis (heckel, 1843) and a. amirkabiri (mousavi-sabet et al., 2015). members of this genus are characterized by an elongated and compressed body of small to moderate size, a terminal mouth, no barbels, moderated scales, short dorsal fin without a thickened ray, long anal fin and a fleshy keel between the bases of the pelvic. recently, alburnus amirkabiri (mousavi-sabet et al., 2015) was described from qarehchai river. there is no information available about biological features of this species, and its systematic position is unclear. osteological characteristics are the useful features to study the taxonomy and phylogenetic relationships among fishes (ramaswami, 1951; howes, 1982; bogutskaya, 1994; mafakheri et al., 2014, 2015; jalili et al., 2015a). since, a complete overview of the osteological characteristic of a. amirkabiri is absent; therefore, this study was 52 descriptive ostrology of alburnus amirkabiri conducted to provide a detailed description of its osteological features as a basis for further taxonomic researches of this species. materials and methods for this study, eight specimens of a. amirkabiri with a mean standard length of 147.68 ± 10.045 mm were collected from qareh-chai river (fig. 1) by electrofishing in and fixed in 4% buffered formalin. the specimens were cleared and stained with alizarin red s and alcian blue according to the protocol of taylor and vandyke (1985) for osteological examination. the cleared and stained specimens were studied under a stereomicroscope (leica mc5); and different skeletal elements were dissected and scanned by a scanner equipped to a glycerol bath (epson v700). drawings of the skeletal elements were performed from obtained images using corel draw x6 software. the nomenclatures of the skeletal elements were followed (howes, 1982; rojo, 1991). results and discussion the neurocranium was sub-triangular (fig.2 a) and its anterior half was narrower and shallower than the posterior half (fig.2 d). the ethmoid region consisted of a paired lateral ethmoid, preethmoid-i and nasal and two unpaired supraethmoid and vomer. the supraethmoid bears a shallow notch at the middle and two pointed processes anterolaterally (fig. 2a). two tube-like nasal bones were located in the lateral part of the supraethmoid and the supraorbital canal run through the nasal bones. the anterior part of the vomer is v-shaped, and its lateral part attached to the preethmoid-i. the posterior part of the vomer was pointed, and its ventral surface covered by the anterior part of the parasphenoid (fig. 2b). the lateral ethmoid was concave anteriorly and posteriorly, flattened ventrally and pointed lateroventrally. this bone was attached to the supraethmoid and frontal dorsally, vomer and parasphenoid ventrally and orbitosphenoid posteriorly (fig. 2a and b). there was a large pore at the contact between the supra-ethmoid and frontal bones. the orbital region comprised the frontal, parasphenoid, ptersphenoid, orbitosphenoid and circumorbital bones. this region was the largest part of the neurocranium. the frontals were trapezoid in shape and connected to the orbitosphenoid and ptersphenoid ventrally. two orbitosphenoid bones fused to each other and form a blade process along the ventral border. the ventral part of this process was attached to the parasphenoid (fig. 2d). the petersphenoid was a concave bone and had some pores in its middle part located between the orbitosphenoid and sphenotic bones. the parasphenoid was elongated and possesses two wings in its middle part bend dorsally connecting to the prootic (fig. 2b). the circumorbital series was consisted of five infra-orbital and one supra-orbital elements (fig.2 c). the first infra-orbital was lachrymal and oval shaped possessing a pointed process in the posterodorsal part. the 3rd infra-orbital is elongated, and its posterior part was wider than the anterior part (fig.2 c). the 5th infra-orbital was the smallest element. the supraorbital was crescent-shaped and situated in the lateral part of the frontal (fig.2 a and c). the number of infraorbital bones was different in a. chalcoides from 4 to 7 as a result of fusions or separations of bone elements (musavi-sabet et al., 2014). this character demonstrates intraspecific variability. the otic region is composed of the parietal, epiotic, sphenotic, pterotic and prootic. the rectangular parietal has a serrated margin posteriorly having some small pores (fig.2 a). the parietal is attached to the pterotic and sphentic laterally and epiotic and supraoccipital dorsally; the supratemporal commissure runs along the posterior edge of the parietal bones. 53 jalili, et al. the sphenotic has an anterolateral process, which is connected to the posterolateral edge of the frontal (fig.2 a). the sphenotic is ventrally connected to the ptersphenotic and prootic and posteriorly to the pterotic. the pterotic possesses a dorsolateral process connecting to the exoccipital. the large prootic bones form the ventral surface of the otic region (fig.2 b); these bones are attached to each other ventrally and connected to the parasphenoid via a descending process. two relatively large pores are observed in the anterior part of the prootic which has a protuberance in its dorsolateral part (fig.2 b). the nuerocranium is articulated with the hyomandibular by two articulatory facets. the ptersphenoid, sphenotic and prootic bones form the first facet. the second facet is longer than the first one and formed by the pterotic, sphenotic and prootic bones. the occipital region consisted of the supraoccipital, exoccipitals and basioccipital bones. in the middle part of the supraoccipital, a blade-shaped crest was present (fig.2 a). the exoccipital is concaved and had a large foramen in its middle part. the basioccipital had a pointed pharyngeal process and a concaved masticatory plate pointing laterally (fig.2 b). fig.1: lateral view of a. amirkabiri. 54 descriptive ostrology of alburnus amirkabiri figure 2. neurocranium of a. amirkabiri from dorsal (a), ventral (b) and lateral (c) views (boc-basioccipital; bpp-basioccipital posterior projection; bs-basisphenoid; epoepiotic; exo-exoccipital; fro frontal; ica-intercalar; io1-infra orbital1 (lachrymal); io2-infra orbital2 (jugal); lep-lateral ethmoid process; let-lateral ethmoid; lpslateral process of sphenotic; me-mesethmoid; mppp-masticatory plate of pharyngeal process; nas-nasal; opf-optic foramen; os-orbitosphenoid; paparietal; pot-post temporal; pre-pre ethmoid; pro-prootic; ps-parasphenoid; ptrpterotic; scb-sclerotic bones; scl-supra cleithrum; seth-supraethmoid; soc: supraorbital sensory canal stf-subtemporal foramen; suc-supraoccipital crest; suo-supra orbital; v-vomer). in the branchiocranium, the upper jaw consists of the premaxillary and maxillary. the maxillary is a long bone and bears an ascending process in the middle and a descending process anteriorly. the lateral part of the maxillary is wide and bears a small notch. the premaxillary is located under the maxillary and has a rostral process tilted upwardly. a free 55 jalili, et al. kinethmoid bone was situated between two maxillary in the front of the vomer. the dorsal part of the kinethmoid was wider than its ventral part (fig.3 a). the lower jaw comprised the dentary, angular and retroarticular (fig.3 b). a coronoid process in the posterior part of the dentary was developed and slightly bended dorsally. there were two pores at the middle part of the dentary and connected to the angular and retroarticular posteriorly. the retroarticular was a triangular element which its dorsal part was attached to the angular. in a. mirkabiri and other species of the genus alburnus, including a. chalcoides and a. hohenackeri, the dentary was a deep bone with perpendicular coronoid process, whereas in a. atropatenae this bone was shallow, and its coronoid process was wide and oriented posteriorly (musavi-sabet et al., 2015; jalili et al., 2015b). the suspensorium consistd of the hyomandibular, ectopterygoid, endopterygoid, metapterygoid, symplectic, quadrate and palatine (fig.3 c). the hyomandibular was triangular in shape. the quadrate had a posterior process and was anteriorly connected to the ectopterygoid, dorsally to the endopterygoid and posteriorly to the metapterygoid and symplectis (fig.3 c). the symplectic was an elongated bone extending upto the ventral part of the hyomandibular. the palatine possesses an anterodorsal process and was anteriorly connected to the preethmoid-i and vomer and posteriorly to the endopteygoid. the endopterygoid was enclosed by the ectopterygoid, metapterygoid, quadrate and palatine. the posterior part of the endopterygoid was wider than the anterior part. the metapterygoid was almost the pentagon in shape. in a. amirkabiri, a. chalcoides, and a. hohenackeri entopterygoid and metapterigoid bones were larger and wider than the same bones of a. atropatenae (mousavi-sabet et al., 2015). the ectopterygoid was a small bone bearing an anterodorsally pointed process (fig.3 c). the opercular series composed of the opercle, preopercle, interopercle and subopercle (fig.3 d). the opercle had an articulatory facet for connection to the hyomandibular anterodorsally and its ventral margin superimposes the dorsal edge of the subopercle. the anterior part of the subopercle was wider than the posterior part. the preopercle was a thin and l-shaped bone, and its ventral border superimposes the posterior edge of the interopecle (fig.3 d). 56 descriptive ostrology of alburnus amirkabiri figure 3. anetrior view of the upper jaw (a), lateral view of the lower jaw (b), suspensurium (c) and opercle series (d) in a. amirkabiri (anangular; asdarticular surface of dentary; crpcoronoid process; dfdentary foramen; dndentary; msc mandibular sensory canal; raretroartecular; ecpectopterygoid; enp entopterygoid; hyhyomandibular; hy.fhyomandibular joint face; ihyinterhyal; iopinteropercular jfpjoint face of palatine; kethkinethmoid; met metapterygoid; mdepmaxillary dessending process; mdpmaxillary distal process; mmapmaxillary mid_lateral ascending process; mscmandibular sensory canal; opjopercular joint; opopercular; oppopercular prominent process; oscopercular sensory canal; ppalatine; poppreopercular; psc preopercular sensory canal; pmxpremaxilla; qquadrate; qafquadrate artecular face; raprostral assending process sopsubopercular; sy symplectic). the branchial apparatus included four pairs of the ceratobranchial, four pairs of the epibranchial, three pairs of the hypobranchial, two pairs of the phrapharyngobranchial and three unpaired basibranchial bones (fig.4 a). the basibrachial-3 was longer than basibranchial 1-2. the hypobaranchial-3 had an elongated and ventrally oriented process, whereas the 57 jalili, et al. hypobranchial 1 and 2 were round in shape. the phrapharyngobranchial-2 was semicircular in shape and larger than other one (fig.4 a). the hyoid arch consisted of the paired epihyals, hypohyals and ceratohyals, the unpaired urohyal and basihyal and three pairs of the branchiostegal rays (fig.4 b). the basihyal was a thin and long bone situating between the hypoyals posteriorly. the urohyal consisted of the vertical and horizontal parts. the posterior margin of the horizontal part of the urohyal was sharply concaved and wider than its anterior part. the posterior margin of the vertical part of this bone was also concaved and bifurcated anteriorly. the interhyal was a small and rounded bone articulating with dorsal part of the epihyal. the posterior part of the ceratohyal was wider than its anterior part that was bifurcated and attached to the hypohyal. the pharyngeal teeth of a. amirkabiri were arranger in three rows with a formula of 2.4.1-1.5.2 (fig.4 c). figure 4. dorsal view of branchial (a) and hyoid arch (b) and pharyngeal teeth (c) in a. amirkabiri (bb – basibranchial; bhybasihyal; brsbranchiostegals; cb – ceratobranchial; chy ceratohyal; eb – epibranchial; gr gill rakers; hb – hypobranchial; hhyhypohyal; ihyinterhyal; pb – pharyngobranchial; uhy urohyal). 58 descriptive ostrology of alburnus amirkabiri the pectoral girdle consisted of the cleithrum, supracleithrum, coracoid, mesocoracoid, scapula, posttemporal, supratemporal and radials of the pectoral fin (fig.5 a). the clietherum is l-shaped and its horizontal part was wider than the vertical part that was attached to the coracoid and scapula. the scapula possessed a large foramen on its middle face and a fossa on its posterior face which articulates with the first unbranched ray. the mesocoracoid was articulated dorsally to the cleithrum and ventrally to the coracoid and scapula (fig.5 a). the coracoid bears a large foramen in the posterior part. the supracleithrum was a long bone and attaches to the epiotic dorsally and to the cleithrum ventrally; and its middle part is the widest part. the pectoral girdle had four radials that the first and forth ones are wider than others. the pectoral fin had 1 unbranched and 12 branched rays. the pelvic girdle included the paired basipterygium, meta-pterygium and lateral-pterygium. the pelvice fin had 1 unbranched and 8 branched rays. the paired basipterygium was attached to each other in anterior and posterior parts (fig.5 b). there was a deep hollow in the anterior part of the basipterygium. a free paired lateral-pterygium present in the lateral side of the basipterygium and 3 pair of the meta-ptrygium were located behind the basipterygium and the latero-external one is largest and two other is connected to each other. figure 5. middle view of the pectoral girdle (a) and dorsal view of the pelvic girdle (b) in a. amirkabiri (actactinost; clecleithrum; cocoracoid; dpdistal process; mco mesocoracoid; mlpmid_lateral process; popposterior process; scascapula). 59 jalili, et al. the dorsal fin had 3 unbranched and 8-9 branched rays, 9 pterygiophores and one stay (fig.6 a). the first pterygiophore was the largest one and supports the unbranched rays. in front of the dorsal fin, nine free supraneural bones present. the first supraneural was largest and supraneural 3-9 are thin and long. the anal fin possessed 3 unbranched and 11branched rays, 12 pterygiophores and a small stay (fig. 6 b). the largest pterygiophore supports 2 unbranched rays. the dorsal fin originates at 15th vertebra in a. amirkabiri and at 14th vertebra in a. atropatenae, anal fin originates at 22nd and 21st vertebrae in a. amirkabiri and a. atropatenae, respectively (mousavisabet et al., 2015). figure 6. dorsal (a) and anal fines (b) skeleton in a. amirkabiri (afsanal fin spine; c 15 centrum 15; c 22centrum 22; dfsdorsal fin spine; dptdistal petrigiophore; mptmedian petrigiophore; nucneural complex; pptproximal pterigiophore; stystay; sunsupraneural). 60 descriptive ostrology of alburnus amirkabiri figure 7. lateral view of the weberian apparatus (a) and caudal fin skeleton (b) in a. amirkabiri (ansaccessory nural spine; claclaustrum; epuepural; fvcfirst vertebra centrum; hfhypural foramen; hpuhypural; hsphemal spine; nf neural foramen; nsneural spine; nuaneural arch; osssuspensorium; pah parhypural; pfparhypural foramen; plspleurostyle; pupreural; pu1+upreural 1+urostyle; pufpreural flange; ribribs; rnarudimentary neural arch; sca scaphium; sunsupraneural; tritripus; unuuroneural). in the axial skeleton, the number of the vertebrae was 40; the cranial and caudal parts of the vertebral column have 22 and 18 centra, respectively. the weberian apparatus was formed by the first four anterior centra with four pair ossicles, including tripus ،intercalarium, scaphium, and claustrum (fig.7 a). the first centrum had a small pleural rib and the pleural rib of the second centrum is long and is bended dorsally. the pleural rib of the 3rd centrum was absent and pleural rib of the 4th centrum was long and bifurcated. the number of vertebrae in a. atropatenae, a. chalcoides and a. hohenackeri was 42, 42-45 and 37-41, respectively (mousavi-sabet et al., 2015; jalili et al., 2015b). the skeleton of the caudal fin was composed of the epural, parhypural, pleurostyle, uroneural and six hypurals bones (fig.7 b). the caudal fin of a. amirkabiri has 19 branched rays and various numbers of the procurrent rays. 61 jalili, et al. lterature cited bogutskaya, n. g. 1994. a description of leuciscus lepidus (heckel, 1843) with comments on leuciscus and leuciscinea spinine relationships (pisces: cyprinidae). annalen des naturhistorischen museums in wien, 96(b): 599-620. bogutskaya, n. g., kucuk, f. and unlu, e. 2000. alburnus baliki, a new species of cyprinid fish from the manavgat river system, turkey. ichthyologic exploration of freshwaters, 11(1): 55-64. coad, b. 2014. fresh water fishes of iran. available at http://www.briancoad.com howes, g. j. 1982. anatomy and evolution of the jaws in the semiplotine carps with a review of the genus cyprinion heckel, 1843 (teleostei: cyprinidae). bulletin of the british museum (natural history: zoology), 42 (4): 299-335. jalili, p., eagderi, s. and mousavi-sabet, h. 2015a. descriptive osteology of the endemic spined loach cobitis linea from iran. aacl bioflux, 8(4): 526-534. jalili, p., eagderi, s., azimi, h. and mousavi-sabet, h. 2015b. osteological description of the southern king fish, alburnus mossulensis from iranian part of the tigris river drainage. abah bioflux, 7(2): 113-121. jouladeh-roudbar, a., vatandoust, s., eagderi, s., jafari-kenari, s. and mousavi-sabet, h. 2015b. freshwater fishes of iran; an updated checklist. aacl bioflux, 8(6): 855909. kottelat, m. and freyhof, j. 2007. handbook of european freshwater fishes. kottelat, cornol, switzerland and freyhof, berlin, germany. 646 pp. mafakheri, p.; eagderi, s.; farahmand, h. and mousavi-sabet, h. 2014. osteological structure of kiabi loach, oxynoemacheilus kiabii (actinopterygii: nemacheilidae). iranian journal of ichthyology, 1(3): 197-205. mafakheri, p., eagderi, s., farahmand, h. and mousavi-sabet, h. 2015. osteological structure of kiabi loach, oxynoemacheilus kiabii (actinopterygii: nemacheilidae). iranian journal of ichthyology, 1(3): 197-205. mousavi-sabet, h., vatandoust, s., khataminejad, s., eagderi, s., abbasi, k., nasri, m., jouladeh, a. and vasileva, e. d. 2015. alburnus amirkabiri (teleostei), a new species of shemaya from the namak lake basin, iran. journal of ichthyology, 55(1): 40-52. ramaswami, l.s., 1951. skeleton of cyprinoid fishes in relation to phylogenetic studies. proceedings of the national institute of science, india, 18(2): 125-140. rojo, a.l. 1991. dictionary of evolutionary fish osteology, crc press. taylor, w.r. and van dyke, g.c. 1985. revised procedures for staining and clearing small fishes and other vertebrates for bone and cartilage study. cybium, 9: 107-119. 62 descriptive ostrology of alburnus amirkabiri bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2015) 13 (4): 51-62 : رتبة الشبوطيات) alburnus amirkabiriوصفية للنوعدراسة عظمية وسط إيران ،حوض بحيرة ناماكحديثاً من ف ووصم، ال(عائلة الشبوطيات سهيل إجديري و* باريا جاللي (1) حامد موسوي و ** مانوشهر ناصري و * ***سبيت .قسم االسماك، كلية الثروات الطبيعية، جامعة طهران، كاراج، إيران* قسم علم الحيوان، كلية الزراعة، جامعة لورستان، خورم آباد، والية ** .لورستان، إيران قسم علوم االسماك، كلية الثروات الطبيعية، جامعة جويالن، سوميسارا، *** .، جويالن، إيران1111. ب.ص sohil.eagderi@ut.ac.ir (1) الخالصة من alburnus amirkabiriوصف شكل العظام للنوع أجريت هذه الدراسة الثبات .a لهذا الغرض، جمعت ثمان نماذج من النوع . نهر كاري شاي والية مركزي، إيران amirkabiri محلول % 1من نهر كاري شاي بواسطة الصيد الكهربائي و وضعت في . فورمالين متعادل بعد التخدير سجي العظمي وتفاصيل االوصاف العظمية و مقارنة النتم صبغ وتهيئة النماذج للفحص .alburnusاالختالفات مع ما متوفر من بيانات العظام المثبتة العداد من الجنس bull 43 mohammad k. mohammad bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2016) 14 (1): 43-50 ixodiod tick fauna infesting sheep and goats in the middle and south of iraq mohammad k. mohammad iraq natural history museum, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq email: amarmkm82@yahoo.com abstract a total of 215 sheep and 87 goats were carefully searched for ixodid ticks from january to december 2015 at different regions of the middle and south of iraq. the detached ticks count 1533 ticks from sheep with intensity of 8.4 and count 332 ticks from goats with intensity of 6.8. tick species recovered from sheep and their incidence rates were: rhipicephalus turanicus (39%), hyalomma anatolicum (28%), r. (boophilus) annulatus (11%), hyalomma sp. (9%), h. turanicum (6%), h. excavatum (6%) and r. leporis (1%) while the tick species recovered from goats and their incidence rates were: r. turanicus (64%), h. anatolicum (24%), h. turanicum (6%), and hyalomma sp. (6%). the results were discussed with the pertinent literature. key words: ixodidae, hyalomma, rhipicephalus, sheep, goat, iraq introduction tick fauna of domestic animals are rather well documented in iraq (hoogstraal and kaiser, 1958; robson and robb, 1967; robson et al., 1968a,b,c,, 1969a,b,c; abdul-rassoul and mohammad, 1988; al-azawi and al-obeidy, 1988; shamsuddin and mohammad, 1988; mohammad, 1996; muhaidi et al., 2010; mohammad and jassim, 2011; hasson, 2012; shubber et al., 2013; shubber, 2014; shubber et al., 2014; mohammad, 2015). all of these works were of general survey type dealing mainly, with few exceptions, on domestic mammals. only few papers focused on certain animal species like that of hasson and yaqub (2010), al-ramahi (2011), al-rammahi et al. (2013), and mohammad and jassim (2011). papers devoted for sheep very few including of hasson and yaqub (2010) mohammad and jassim (2011) and kadir et al. (2012), but none was devoted for goats. on the other hand, sheep ovis aries linnaeus, 1758 and goat capra hircus (linnaeus, 1758) are major domestic animals in iraq and raised in large numbers throughout the country for their meat and for a lesser extent for milk and wool. they both play an integral in the agricultural economy in iraq. hard ticks as blood sucking ectoparasites and also vectors of human and animal diseases are considered as one of the most important arthropods (sarani et al., 2014). like any other mammal, these two animals, sheep and goats, are subject of tick infections with both ixodid and argasid ticks (mohammad, 1996). tick infestation may leads to infestations with babesia, thaleria, rickettesia and many viral diseases causing severe losses in regard to their meat, milk and skin or even animal's death (ameen et al., 2012). the goal of this paper is to determine the specific identity of the ixodid tick fauna and their distribution among sheep and goats in the middle and south of iraq. 44 ixodiod tick fauna infesting materials and methods the study area in the middle and south of iraq lies between 44ᵒ-48ᵒ e and 30ᵒ-33ᵒ n and includes provinces of baghdad, kerbala, wasit, babil, al-qadisiya and al-muthana provinces (fig. 1), the general climate conditions are as follows: continental climate, annual precipitation > 200mm, temperature ranges 0-50°c, summer dry and long about 6 months while winter wet and short (iraq ministries, 2006). material examined: collection of ticks was undertaken from january 2015 to december 2015. the animals examined were 215 sheep and 87 goats in different regions of the middle and south of iraq. following schauff (2015), the examined animals were carefully searched and all ticks were removed from each individual animal, then the ticks were kept in 70% ethanol or methanol. identification was done following the keys provided by hoogstraal and kaiser (1958), mohammad (1996) and shubber (2014). fig.1: map of iraq showing the studied area in the middle and south of iraq 45 mohammad k. mohammad results and discussion a total of 302 animals including 215 sheep and 87 goats were examined for infestation with ixodid ticks. the infested hosts of the two species of animals were 231 and the overall infestation percentage rate came to 76.5%. this rate seems high in comparison with zangana et al. (2013) who found 68.3% in duhok province, and from hasoon and al-zubaidi (2012) who found it 50% in wasit province. this is probably because of different climatic and ecological conditions among different regions of studies and also the difference in animal care practices as well. it also differs from shubber et al. (2014) who found it 41.4% although both studies were carried out in middle and south of iraq. this may be related to the difference in climatic conditions of the years of their works, 2012 for the former and 2015 for the present work especially in annual rainfall rates. biu et al. (2012) found a noticeable effect of humidity on the egg laying of ticks in nigeria. it was found that 182 out 215 (84.7%) of sheep were infested with ixodid ticks, while 49 out of 87 (56.3%) of goats were found infested. this is in general agreement with many other studies on ruminants which found that sheep acquired more infestation rate as well as tick burden than goats in iraq and abroad (abunna et al., 2012; hasoon and al-zubaidi, 2012; zangana et al., 2013; shubber et al., 2014; mohammad, 2015; shah et al., 2015; sultana et al., 2015). the difference in infestation rates between the two animals is related to the nature of body structure between both animals which is characterized by thin body skin in the ear and large fat tail area in sheep which provide relatively wide area for ticks for attachment and to get larger number of ticks than goats. this is true especially for tick species incidence and not necessarily tick burden since it is affected by macro-environment such as climatic condition and plant cover in the field rather than micro-environment like the location of infestation on the host body. composition of tick community depending on developmental stages collected from animals (table 1) showed almost no difference between the two studied animals, except for percentage of larvae being higher in goats (1.2%) compared with 0.05% in sheep. this is may be attributed to smaller sample size of goats in this study which inflates this ratio. male numbers in both animals always exceed those of females. the probable reason for collecting more males than females is that females usually dropped off after getting the host blood meal to produce and lay eggs away from the host while males usually stay attached. in regard to intensity in sheep and goats it was found 8.4 and 6.8 in sheep and goat respectively, and in general agreement with robson and robb (1967) robson et al. (1968a,b,c; 1969a,b,c). locations of infestations are the same for animals including anus, ear, tail (fat-tail in sheep) femur, udder, head and around eyes. table 1: tick fauna structure according to developmental stages of ixodid ticks infestations in sheep and goats. developmental stage sheep goats no. ticks % of total no. ticks % of total male 875 57.1 170 51.2 female 543 35.4 134 40.4 nymph 108 7 24 7.2 larva 7 0.05 4 1.2 46 ixodiod tick fauna infesting on the other hand, table 2 showed the tick species infested the studied animals. it would show that sheep were infested with 7 species belonging to 2 genera, hyalomma and rhipicephalus while goats infest with 4 species belonging to 2 genera hyalomma and rhipicephalus also with absence of h. excavatum, r. (boophilus) annulatus and r. leporis. hyalomma excavatum was usually recorded from sheep and goats at very low infestation rate (moshavirinia et al., 2012; shubber et al., 2014) and since number of goats relatively low, so its absence in goats was not surprising. rhipicephalus (boophilus) annulatus was recorded from wide range of domestic animals including sheep and goats and its absence could be attributed to the low number of examined goats. presence of r. leporis may be accidental on sheep. it was usually recorded from wild animals only like wild hares, foxes and jackals. the table would show also that r. turanicus had the highest infestation in both hosts but with far different rates. it was only 39% in sheep and 64% in goats. this result may be explained in view of host preference of this tick. hyalomma turanicum is a tick of arid regions (geevarghese and dhanda, 1987). it was reported in iraq with rather low infestation rates (ameen et al., 2012; zangana et al., 2013; shubber et al., 2014). table 2: tick species and their percentage of tick community in sheep and goats. tick species % incidence sheep goats hyalomma anatolicum 28 24 hyalomma excavatum 6 hyalomma turanicum 6 6 hyalomma sp. 9 6 rhipicephalus (boopilus) annulatus 11 rhipicephalus leporis 1 rhipicephalus turanicus 39 64 acknowledgements i would like to express my profound thanks and deep gratitude to mrs. khalida i. hasoon, from the invertebrates laboratory, iraq natural history museum-university of baghdad for her continuous help in the lab preparations during the course of study. thanks are extended to dr. habeeb w. k. shubber, dr. ali m. al-waaly, and dr. firas s. al-mayahi from the department of biology, college of science, al-qadisiya university, al-diwaniya city, iraq, for their kind assistance in the field work. literature cited abdul-rassoul, m.s. and mohammad, m.k. 1988. ticks (ixodoidea, acarina) of desert in iraq. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus., 8(1): 11-24. abunna, f., tura, j. and regassa, a. 2012. status of tick infestation in small ruminants of bedelle district, oromia region, ethiopia. global veterinaria 8(5): 459-462. al-ramahi, h.m. 2011. study of acariasis in cattle and ticks resistance against cypermethrin in al-najaf province kufa journal for veterinary medical sciences, 2(2): 110. al-rammahi, h., mohammad, k.m. and mohammad, h.m. 2013. ticks infestation of hares (lepus capensis) in alqasim. disractbabylon, iraq. euphrates j. agr. sci., 5(1): 8-14. 47 mohammad k. mohammad al azawi, b. and al obeidy, t. 1988. ticks acarina from domestic animals in central iraq. bull. endem. dis., 29: 45-50. ameen, k.a.h., abdullah, b.a. and abdul-razaq, r.a. 2012. seroprevalence of babesia bigemina and anaplasma marginale in domestic animals in erbil, iraq. iraqi journal of veterinary sciences, vol. 26, supplement iii, 2012 (109-114). proceedings of the 6th scientific conference, college of veterinary medicine, university of mosul, 109. biu, a.a., abdulkadir, m.a. and isadu, t.h. 2012. effects of temperature and relative humidity on the egg laying pattern of rhipicephalus sanguineus (koch, 1844) infesting sheep in semi-arid region of nigeria. sokoto j. vet. sci., 10(2): 1820. geevarghese, g. and dhanda, v. 1987. the indian hyalomma ticks (ixodoidea: ixodidae). indian council of agricultural research, krishi anusandhan bhavan, new delhi, 119 pp. hasson, r.h. 2012. tick distribution and infestation among sheep and cattle in baghdad’s south suburb. kufa j. vet. med. sci., 3(1): 77-90. hasson, r.h. and al-zubaidi, h.h. 2012. sheep and goats tick's infestation in wasit's districts. proceeding of the eleventh veterinary scientific conference, 2012; 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(accessed on january 2015). shah, a., shah, s.r., rafi, m.a., shah, m.n. and mitra, m. 2015. identification of the prevalent ticks (ixodid) in goats and sheep in peshawar, pakistan. journal of entomology and zoology studies , 3(2): 11-14. shamsuddin, m. and mohammad, m.k. 1988. incidence, distribution and host relationships of some ticks (ixodoidea) in iraq. j. univ. kuwait (science), 15: 321-330. shubber, h.w.k. 2014. taxonomic, anatomic, and molecular study of ixodid ticks parasitizing some mammals and birds in the middle and south of iraq. ph. d. thesis, college of education, al-qadisiya university, iraq. 49 mohammad k. mohammad shubber, h.w.k., mohammed, m.k. and al-hassani, n.a.-w. 2013. ixodid ticks of water buffalo bubalus bubalis in the middle and south of iraq. adv. biores., 4(3): 58-63. shubber, h.w.k., al-hassani, n.a.w. and mohammad, m.k. 2014. ixodid ticks diversity in the middle and south of iraq. ijrsr, 5(9): 1518-1523. zangana, i.k., ali, b.a., and naqid, i.a. 2013. distribution of ectoparasites infested sheep and goats in duhok province, north iraq. bas.j.vet.res., 12(1): 54-64. 50 ixodiod tick fauna infesting bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2016) 14 (1): 43-50 مجموعة القراد الصلب المتطفل على األغنام في وسط وجنوب العراق دمحم كاظم دمحم جامعة بغداد-متحف التاريخ الطبيعي العراق, بغداد amarmkm82@yahoo.com: البريد االلكتروني الخالصة في الفترة رأسا من الماعز بعناية بحثا عن القراد الصلب 87رأسا من الضأن و 215تم فحص بلغ عدد القراد . من مختلف المواقع في وسط وجنوب العراق 5102كانون االول –بين كانون الثاني قرادة من الماعز 332مضيف و /قرادة 8.4قرادة من الضأن وبشدة اصابة تبلغ 1533المستحصل :كاآلتي كانت االنواع المستحصلة من الضأن ونسب تواجدها. مضيف/قرادة 6.8بشدة اصابة تبلغ rhipcephalus turanicus (39%), hyalomma anatolicum (%28), r. (boophilus) annulatus (11%), hyalomma sp. (9%), h. turanicum (6%), h. excavatum (6%) and r. leporis (1%). :اما في الماعز فكانت كاآلتي r. turanicus (64%), h. anatolicum (24%), h. turanicum (6%) and hyalomma sp. (6%). .وقد نوقشت النتائج في ضوء البحوث ذات العالقة 1 1 m. s. abdul-rassoul bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2011) 11 (4): 1-5 some ormyridae (hymenoptera , chalcidoidea) from iraq m. s. abdul-rassoul iraq natural history museum, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq abstract this work deals with five species of ormyridae from iraq. of them ormyrus mesoptamicus is described as new to science. introduction the family ormyridae has been very much neglected by workers and only two species has been recorded so far from iraq. the present study, based mainly on my collection, deals with five species, of which one is new to science. the new species is described together with notes on locality data, host records, distribution and taxonomical remarks for all the species. ormyrus gratiosus (forster, 1860) monobaeus gratiosus forster, 1860, ver. preuss, rheinlande, 17: 95. ormyrus gratiosus (forster), boucek, 1977, acta entom. jugosl. 13 (suppl.): 27. i have identified our specimens by comparison with the material in the hungarian natural history museum and considered that they belong to this species. specimens studied: iraq: baghdad, waziriya, 6♀♀, 4♂♂, em. april, 1973, ex. galls of isocolous sp. (cynipidae) on carthamus tinctorius (compositae); arbil, kora, 1♀, 1♂, 21. iv. 1977; merawa, 1♀, 28. v. 1979, (leg. abdul-rassoul). distribution: widely distributed in europe except in north. biology: this species has been recorded as a parasite of allax spp. (cynipidae) causing galls on centaurea spp. and other plants (erdos, 1955; bouoek, 1977; zerova, 1985). reared in iraq from galls of isoclous sp. on carthamus tinotorius (compositae). ormyrus nitidulus (fabricius, 1804) chalcis nitidula. fabricius, 1804, syst. piezat. :163. ormyrus nitidulus (fabricius); bouoek, 1977, acta entom. jugosl. 13 (suppl.):123. ormyrus tubulosus (fonscolombe); bouoek, 1977, acta entom. jugosl. 13 (suppl.):123. this species is one of the commonest and most frequently come upon species in northern part of iraq, where oak is widely grown. it has been previously recorded from iraq by derwesh (1965) as ormyrus tubulosus (fonsc.). this species is remarkably variable, and in all the localities, in which i have collected it in iraq, shows considerable individual differences in size and colouration. specimens studied: iraq: dohuk, sarsang, 1♂, em. 22. xii. 1976; 1♂, em. 11. xii. 1976; 2♂♂, em. 7. iv. 1977; 1♂, em. 11. iv. 1977; 1♀, em. 16. iv. 1977; 2♀♀, 1♂, em. 26. iv. 1977, ex. 2 some ormyridae from iraq galls of cynips quercusfolii l. on oak; 1♀, em. 12. x. 1976; 1♀, em. 12. x. 1976; 1♂, em. 23. xii. 1976; 2♀♀, 1♂, em. 19. iv. 1980, ex. galls of cynips sp. on oak; 1♀, em. 22. ii. 1977; 1♀, em. 30. v. 1979; 1♀, em. 19. iv. 1980, ex. galls of andricus coriaria hart on oak; 5♀♀, em. 4. iii. 1979, ex. galls of andricus sp.; pankir, 1♀, em. 26. i. 1977, ex. galls of synergus sp. on oak; tal al-anab, 1♀, em. 3. v. 1979, ex. galls of andricus sp. on oak, (leg. abdul-rassoul). arbil, seri-rash, 2♀♀, em. 14. v. 1979; 4♀♀, 1♂, em. 17. v. 1979, ex. galls of andricus sp. on oak, (leg. abdul-rassoul); 4♀♀, em. 15. iv. 1980; 1♀, em. 20. v. 1980, ex. ga1ls of andricus sp. on oak, (leg. dawah); salahaddin, 4♀♀, em. nov. 1981; shaqlawa, 1♂, em. 25. iv. 1982; 3♀♀, em. 3. v. 1982, ex. galls of andricus coriaria on oak, (leg. abdul-rassoul). sulaimaniya, sitek, 9♂♂, em. 16. xii. 1977, 2♂♂, em. 21. xii. 1977; 4♂♂, em. 27. xii. 1977, ex. galls of synergus sp. on oak, (leg. abdul-rassoul). distribution: recorded from southern and central europe, north africa, asia (iraq). biology: it has been recorded as a parasite of various cynipid species causing galls on oak (boucek, 1977; zerova, 1985). reared in iraq from galls of different species of cynipid on oak. ormyrus orientalis walker, 1871 ormyrus orientalis walker, 1871, notes on chalcid., p. 4: 68. ormyrus hungaricus erdos; boucek, 1977, acta entom. jugosl. 13 (suppl.):123. this is probably the commonest iraqi species of ormyridae, it is widely distributed, occurring from south to north, reported previously from iraq by boucek (1977). specimens studied: iraq: baghdad, abu-ghraib, 2♂♂, em. 7. v. 1977, ex. puparia of acanthiophilus heliathi rossi on carthamus tinctorius, 5♀♀, 2♂♂, em. may, 1985, ex. puparia of a. helianthi on centaurea cyanus, (leg. abdul rassoul). mosul, aloka, 2♀♀, 2♂♂, em. 10. vii. 1979, ex. puparia of chaetorellia jaceae rob.-desv on carthamus oxycanthus; kirkuk, altun-kopri, 1♂, 26. v, 1979; arbil, merawa, 1♀, 27. v. 1979; diyala, sudur, 1♀, 25. iv. 1984, (leg. abdul rassoul). distribution: widely distributed in mediteranean countries and central europe, asia (ceylon, iraq). biology: it has been reported as a parasite of trypetidae (diptera) on compositae plants (erdos, 1955; bouoek, 1977). in iraq this species is a common parasite of puparia of acanthiophilus helianthi rossi and chaetorellia jaoeae rob.-desv. (diptera, tephritidae) on flowerheads of carthamus tinctorius and centaurea cyanus (compositae). ormyrus punctiger westwood, 1832 ormyrus punctiger westwood, 1832, lond. and edib. phil. mag., 3rd ser i(2), 127. i have compared our material with erdos specimens of this species in hungarian natural history museum. our material consists of specimens which are rather smaller size and darker colour. specimens studied: iraq: dohuk, sarsang, 1♀, em. 29. xi. 1976, 1♀, em. 8. xii. 1976, ex. galls of cynips sp. on oak, 1♀, em. 24. xi. 1976, 2♂♂, em. 24. x. 1976; pankir, 1♀, em. 12. i. 1977, ex. galls of synergus sp. on oak; arbil, seri-rash, 2♂♂, em. dec. 1978, ex. galls of synergus sp. on oak, (leg. abdul-rassoul). 3 m. s. abdul-rassoul distribution: reported from all over europe. biology: this species has been recorded as a common parasite of several cynipid galls on oaks (erdos, 1955; boucek, 1977; zerova, 1985). in iraq i have reared this species from cynipid galls caused by cynips sp.and synergus sp. on oak. ormyrus mesopotamicus sp. n. predominantly dark green species; hind margin of first and second tergites and distal gastral tergites all over blackish. antennae with flagella dark brown; legs concolorous with body, kness and apices of tibiae redish; femora and tibiae dark testaceous, tarsi whitish except last segment, brown. wings hyaline, venation yellowish or whitish. femalelength 2.2-3.5 mm. head in front view transverse, slightly wider than hight and about as wide as mesoscutum, with reticulate-striate surface sculpture, sparsly punctate between eyes; height of vertex above eyes to height of eye as 1:8; head from above about twice as wide as long; pol:ool as 4: 1; length of temple to length of eye as 1:6; eyes nearly rounded, prominent, 2.6 times as long as wide. malar space to height of eye as 1:2. antennal scrobes shallowly concave; antennae inserted slightly above level of ventral margin of compound eyes; clypeus smooth, with ventral margin truncate. antennae with scape seven times as long as its maximum width, hardly reaching median ocellus, nearlly as long as four following flagellar segments combined; pedicel about twice as long as its maximum width; first ring segment thin, and transverse; second ring segment transverse, wider than first ring segment; first funicle segment distinctly shorter than pedicel and slightly longer than wide; second segment nearly as long as first; third segment slightly shorter than second, following segments subequal; club as long as two preceding segments combined. head in posterior vie with occipital carina well developed. thorax almost 1.2 times as long as width of mesoscutum; mesoscutum and scutellum closely transversely striated, and convex, its apex rounded and projecting posteriorly above propodeum. propodeum, with longitudinal striate surface sculpture, and with distinct median smooth area, limited laterally by raised carina. fore wing with discal cilia almost pale; post marginal vein distinctly longer than stigmal vein. gaster oval, compressed laterally, more than twice as long as head and thorax combined, without longitudinal keel on its dorsal surface; first gastral tergite consist one-sixth the gaster, shallowly reticulate punctured; second tergite covered by first tergite; third, fourth and fifth tergites strongly and deeplly punctate at base; seventh tergite ( hypogydium) elongate, distinctly longer than its maximum height, and somewhat directed obliguely upward; ovipositor sheaths cylindrical, distinctly directed upward in relation to longitudina axis of gaster, as long as preceding segment. male.length 1.1-1.9 mm. similar to female, but usually darker in colour; gaster wholly metallic, long oval, slightly longer than thorax and head combined. antennae more stout, subcylindrical, slightly tapering to apex; scape not reaching median ocellus; first ring segment thin and transverse; second segment twice as wide as long; all funicular segments transverse, first segment twice as wide as long; second segment more than twice as wide as long and wider than first segment. specimens studied: iraq: dohuk, sarsang. 1♀ (paratype) emerged on 1.vi.1979; 2♂♂ (paratype) em. 10. vi. 1979; 3♀♀, 1♂ (paratype) em. 27. vi. 1979; 5♀♀, 1♂: (l♀ holotype and 4♀♀ paratypes) em. 29. vi. 1979; 1♂ (paratype) em. 30. vi. 1979; 2♀♀, 3♂♂ (1♂ 4 some ormyridae from iraq alotype and 2♀♀, 2♂♂ paratypes) em. 28. vi. 1979; 1♀, 2♂♂ (paratypes) em. 2. vii.1979; 1♀ (paratpe) em. 3. vii. 1979; 1♀, 2♂♂ (paratypes) em. 4. vii. 1979; 1♀ (paratype) em. 8. vii. 1979; all ex. seeds of salivia trichoclada, (leg. abdul-rassoul). the female holotype, the male allotype and two paratypes (1♂ + 1♀) are deposited in the hungarian natural history museum, budapest. two paratypes (1♀ + 1♂) are in the: british museum (natural history), london, and 20 paratypes (12♀♀ + 8♂♂) in the iraq natural history museum, baghdad. biology: reared from seeds of salivia trichoclada containing bruchid beetle bruchidius retusus (baudi) and eurytomid parasite eurytoma sp. ormyrus mesopotamicus sp. n, belongs to the species-group of ormyrus westw. in which the females possess no median keel on the dorsal surface of the gaster. it is closely allied to the common european ormyrus wachtli mayr, 1904 which develops in seeds of salivia officinalis containing the cynipid aylax saliviae girand and to the ormyrus longicornis boucek, 1970. it differs from the first species mainly in having a much longer antennae in both sexes, particularly in female, and a strong occipital carina present on the head. from the latter species it differs mainly by having a much longer hypogydium and longer ovipositor in females, and in males by having a shorter antennae. literature cited bouoek, z. 1970. on some new or otherwise interesting torymidae, ormyridae, eurytomidae and pteromalidae (hymenoptera), mainly from the mediterranean subregion. boll. lab. ent. agr. porti 27: 27-54. ..............., 1977. a faunistic review of the yugoslavian chalcidoidea (parasitic: hymenoptera). acta ent. yugoslavica. 13, suppl., 145pp. derwesh, a. i. 1965 a preliminary list of identified insects and arachnids of iraq. direct. gen. agr. res. proj. baghdad, bull. no. 121, 123pp. erdos, j. 1955. hyrmenoptera 2. femfurkeszek. chalcidoidea, i. magyarorszdg allat. 12:1-48. zerova, m. d. 1985. new species of the parasitic hymenoptera genus ormyrus (hymenoptera, ormyridae) from arid areas of the palearctics. vestn. zool., no. 1: 11-19. 5 m. s. abdul-rassoul bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2011) 11 (4): 1-5 من العراق) الكالسیدرتبة غشائیة االجنحة، زنابیر (بعض حشرات ارومیردي محمد صالح عبد الرسول جامعة بغداد –متحف التاریخ الطبیعي الخالصة من العراق النوع ormyridaeھذا البحث یضم دراسة خمسة اناع من عائلة ormyrus mesoptamicus وصف كنوع جدید للعلم. 3 35 naser, et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2013)12 (4): 35-41 new record of nanosesarma sarii (naderloo and yurkay, 2009) (crustacea: decapoda: brachyura: sesarmidae) from knor al-zubair, south of iraq murtada d. naser, khalid kh. s. alkhafaji, amaal gh. yasser and haider sh. darweesh marine science centre, university of basrah, basrah, iraq abstract specimens of the sesarmid crab nanonsesarma sarii (naderloo and türkay 2009) were collected from the intertidal zone of khor al-zubair, basrah, iraq 2012 far from the arabian gulf coasts. morphological features of this species are highlighted and a figure is provided. keywords: sesarmid crab; nanonsesarma sarii; brachyura; khor al-zubair; iraq introduction nanonsesarma sarii was described by naderloo and türkay (2009) from the arabian gulf. earlier records of the genus from the arabian gulf area was from kuwait by jones (1986) and apel (2001) as nanosesarma minutum de man, 1887, while were referred to it as new species by naderloo and türkay (2009). nanosesarma sarii is the most common species in the intertidal zones of the arabian gulf, found in variety of habitats including rocky, cobble, oyster banks, muddy, and mangroves. nanosesarma jousseaumi nobili, 1905, is the only conger of the species known from the arabian gulf (naderloo & türkay, 2009; naderloo 2011). this species is usually found sympatrically with n. sarii in the intertidal rocky/cobble habitat, but it was not found in the present studied area. the present paper deals with new record for iraq of nanonsesarma sarii from khor al-zubair far from the coast of the arabian gulf. it is the first report of this species outside the arabian gulf. materials and methods the specimens were collected from khor al-zubair (fig. 1). the specimens were collected during low tide at the intertidal zone of khor al-zubair, and crabs were picked up by hands. some physico-chemical parameters recorded from the area on the khor al-zubair during the collections made in january 2012 are: water temperature, 14°c; ph, 8.47; salinity, 24.7 psu; dissolved oxygen, 7.55 mg/l. specimens were preserved in 96% alcohol and have been deposited in marine zoology, forschungsinstitut senckenberg, germany and in the marine science centre, university of basrah, iraq (msc, 33). study area khor al-zubair is an extension of the arabian gulf waters in the lower reaches of mesopotamia (fig. 1) it has a length of approximate 42 km, and a width of 1km at low tide, with an average depth of 10-20 m. in 1983 this water body was connected to an oligohaline marsh (hor al-hammar), by the shatt al-basrah canal changing the environment of lagoon of the khor from a hypersaline to an estuary (hussain and ahmed, 1999). the topography of the khor al-zubair looks like a spindle with tapering ends at the northern and southern ends. 36 new record of nanosesarma sarii the northern end receives fresh water influx of average 700 m3/sec throughout the tidal cycle. the current in the khor is characterized by one direction throughout the tidal cycle towards the southern end (arabian gulf), with velocity exceeding 2m/sec during ebb tide and 0.66 m/sec in flood tide. at the southern end, the water discharge reaches 10000m3/sec with velocity range of 0.8-5.78 m/sec and with big tidal range at the umm-qasar reaching 4.3m (al-badran et al., 1996). results and remarks sesarmidae nanosesarma tweedie, 1950 nanosesarma sarii naderloo & türkay, 2009 (figs. 1, 2, 3) nanosesarma sarii naderloo & türkay, 2009: 2912, figs. 1, 2, 3. nanosesarma (nanosesarma) minutum tirmizi & ghani 1996: 159, figs. 61. nanosesarma minutum jones 1986: 160, pl. 46 nanosesarma sarii naderloo 2011: 18, figs. 8a–g, 9a, 11a, 12a. material examined (msc, 33) carapace measurements are length × breadth respectively. three males (8.50×9.60 mm, 8.30 × 9.20 mm, 8.50 × 9.70 mm), all collected by second author khalid kh. salih al-khafaji (marine science centre) january 2012 from the intertidal zones of khor al-zubair. carapace square (fig. 2a), slightly broader than long (cb/cl = 1.12), convex, covered with short, plumose setae. frontal edge sinuous, with 2 wide lobes, lobes convex, moderately produced. regions well-defined, gastric region defined by deep groove; cardiac region with shallow groove. anterolateral margin with 2 teeth including exorbital angle, first broadly triangular; second small triangular, with pointed tip, lateral margin behind second tooth slightly convergent (fig. 2a). male abdomen (fig. 2b) elongately triangular; sixth somite slightly more than twice as broad as long, lateral margins converging; telson markedly elongate, about 1.6 times as long as broad. chelipeds subequal; inner margin of merus proximally crenulated; manus slightly swollen, outer surface (fig. 2c) with large patch of dense setae, covering whole manus above lower row of granules, extending to proximal half of fingers. first male gonopod (fig. 2d) nearly straight, corneous distal part slightly directed outwards, genital opening distally on posterior surface, corneous part completely covered with long setae. habitat nanonsesarma sarii was collected from khor al-zubair, found under artificial stones (fig. 3), some under decaying wood, or under old boats at the intertidal zone. geographical distribution northwestern indian ocean, arabian gulf, iran, kuwait, gulf of oman and iraq ( khor alzubair). 37 naser, et al. literature cited al-badran, b, al-sadoon, b. and jassim, t. 1996 flow characteristic measurement of shatt al-basrah canal, south of iraq, marina mesopotamica, 11(2): 299-310. apel, m. 2001 taxonomie und zoogeographie der brachyura, paguridea und porcellanidae (crustacea: decapoda) des persisch-arabischen golfes. ph.d. thesis, johann wolfgang goethe-universität, frankfurt am main, pp. 1–268. hussain, n.a. and ahmed, s.m. 1999 influenced of hydrographic conditions on the interaction between ichthyoplankton and macrozooplankton at khor al-zubair lagoon, iraq, arabian gulf. qatar university science journal, 18:247-259. jones, d.a. 1986 a field guide to the sea shores of kuwait and the arabian gulf. blandford press, university of kuwait. 192 pp.. naderloo, r. 2011 grapsoid crabs (decapoda: brachyura: thoracotremata) of the persian gulf and the gulf of oman. zootaxa, 3048:1–43. naderloo, r. & türkay, m. 2009 a new species of the genus nanonsesarma ( crustacea: decapoda: brachyura: sesarmidae), and redescription of nanonsesarma jousseaumei (nobili, 1905), including new records from the persian gulf. journal of natural history, 43: 2911-2923. figure legend fig1: sampling site, indicating the position of the khor al-zubair in the northern part of the arabian gulf. fig2: nanosesarma sarii naderloo & türkay, 2009, male (٨.50 × 9.60): a, posterior view of whole crab, male; b, male ventral view; c, cheliped of male, outer surface; d, dorsal surface (first gonopod). photos taken by murtada.d.naser, marine science centre. fig 3: habitat of nanosesarma sarii naderloo & türkay, 2009. 38 new record of nanosesarma sarii fig. 1 39 naser, et al. fig. 2 new record of nanosesarma 40 new record of nanosesarma sarii fig.3 41 naser, et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2013)12 (4): 35-41 nanosesarma sarii(naderloo and türkay 2009)تسجیل جدید لـ ، جنوب العراقرمن خور الزبی مال غازي یاسر آمرتضى دبیج ناصر و خالد خصاف صالح الخفاجي و وحیدر شاكر درویش الخالصھ nanosesarma sarii(naderloo and türkay 2009) جمعت نماذج من السرطان سواحلعن بعیداً ٢٠١٢في من منطقة المد والجزر في خور الزبیر، البصرة، العراق ووضع صورة والقي الضوء على الصفات المظھریھ لھذا النوع المدروس. الخلیج العربي . لھ bull 223 ilaf h. hadi bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2017) 14 (3): 223-233 effect of honey on sperm characteristics and pregnancy rate in mice ilaf hassan hadi department of anatomy, college of medicine, al-iraqia university, baghdad, iraq e-mail: ilaf.hadi014@gmail.com received date: 30/11/2016 accepted date:27/4/2017 abstract the aim of the current study is to demonstrate the effect of honey on the sperms characteristics (sperm concentration, sperm motility, grade of activity and sperm normal morphology) as well as pregnancy rate in mice. sperms were obtained from caudal epididymis of male mice and prepared by adding10% of honey to the ivf medium using direct sperms activation technique for 30 minute incubation period before artificial insemination. the study revealed a significant (p > 0.05) increase in active sperm motility (grade a and grade b) 49% and pregnancy rate 53.3% in female mice artificially inseminated with sperms. on the other hand, there were no significant differences in sperm concentrations and normal sperm morphology. in conclusion, the honey was beneficial in improving male fertility of mice by enhancing sperm motility and pregnancy rate of female mice. keywords: honey, mice, pregnancy, sperm characteristics, sperm motility. introduction honey is a natural product of many floral nectar, its flavors and activity varies based on its origin and processing methods (mahaneem et al., 2010).honey has many nutrient sources like those available in fruits which become alkaline in stomach (bradley, 2010). honey has been used as nutritive sweetener and a healing agent from ancient times, (estevinho et al., 2008). it contains sugars, trace amount of minerals as well as vitamins (syazana et al., 2011). recently, many studies have reported the valuable effects of honey on surgical and medical treatments. honey has been demonstrated to have many biological advantages such as antibacterial, antifungal, antiseptic and anti-inflammatory (tan et al., 2009) , and it also contains many components thought to serve as antioxidants (viuda-martos et al., 2005). it has also wound healing properties, burns and the treatment of diabetic ulcers (cooper, 2001, eddy and gideon, 2005) histological studies have been reported that application of honey to wounds reduces inflammation in superficial and deep wounds (postmes et al., 1997) as well as in burns (burlando, 1978).honey is said to have increased thickness of vaginal epithelium and muscle, without effecting circulating hormones, such as testosterone or gonadotropins (mahaneem et al., 2008), and is useful to treat vaginal dryness and atrophy in postmenopausal women (mahaneem et al., 2007). regarding male reproduction semen quality can be affected by genetic, behavioral, physiological (skakkebaek et al., 1994) and environmental factors (sikka and wang, 2008). honey contains fructose and glucose which provide body with energy, thereby increasing testosterone and libido (austin, 2012) and improving sexual doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2017.14.3.0223 http://dx.doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2017.14.3.0223 224 effect of honey on sperm characteristics and pregnancy rate in mice virility (bradley, 2010). honey was reported to enhance spermatogenesis in rats if given at the appropriate dose (mahaneem et al., 2007) and reduce the toxicity of cigarette smoke during spermatogenesis (mahaneem et al., 2008). honey affects spermatogenesis by activating sorbitol dehydrogenase (sdh) and inhibiting lactate dehydrogenase (ldh) (salam et al., 2008). world health organization (who) sperm analysis criteria (world health organization, 1999) stated that concentration of 20x10 sperms/ml or higher, percentage of normal sperm not lower than 30 and 50% of progressive motile sperm or more within 1hour of ejaculation are compatible with male fertility. the objective of the current study was to determine the influence of honey on sperm function parameters and pregnancy rate by adding 0.1ml of honey suspension to 0.9ml of sperm’s culture media. materials and methods sperm collection twenty mature male mice and 60 female mice (balb/c st can br strain) of 8-12 weeks old were included in the current study at al-iraqia university-college of medicine from may 2015 to november 2015. sperms were pooled from male mice, sacrificed by cervical dislocation. two caudal epididymis were dissected and minced in1 ml of ivf medium with 30-gauge needle syringe to permit the sperms to swim-out (pl.1) (erbach et al., 1994). the spermatozoa suspensions were divided into two parts. sperms activation in vitro the first part (control group): the caudal epididymis sperms were allowed to swim-up through 30 minutes in incubator at 37 ºc in 5%co2 with 1 ml of ivf medium. then the sperms were counted and used to inseminate the control group (erbach et al., 1994). honey-media preparation ten percent concentration of honey were prepared by adding 0.1ml of honey suspension to 0.9ml of ivf media, filtered using filters with pore size 0.45μm (mahaneem et al., 2010), and permit the second part of spermatozoa suspensions to swim-out. sperms were examined under the high-resolution objective of light microscope to evaluate the final motile sperm concentrations and morphology (pl. 2) and prepared for inseminated the treated group (duselis and vrana, 2007).the motility of each spermatozoon encountered was graded: •alinear and rapid progressive motility. •b rapid nonlinear or nonrapid progressive motility. •c-localized motility. •dimmotile. artificial insemination the pregnancy rate was gained by dividing the number of pregnant mice on the total number of inseminated mice. there were 30 female mice inseminated by the sperms activated with10% honey-ivf medium (treated group . rti icial semi ati as per rmed duri estr us p ase. lu t au e eedle s ri e .5 i c l as eeded t sperm admi istrati . 0 bend was placed about 3/4th the way down the needle. an assistant is 225 ilaf h. hadi used to hold the female in the suitable position, the needle up to the bend was inserted into the vagina and 0.025-0.05mls of sperms suspensions injected (pl. 3) (duselis and vrana, 2007). statistical analysis: data of mice sperm fluid analysis for the treated and for the control groups were expressed as mean ±se and were analyzed using paired sample t-test. while chi-square test was used to compare the pregnancy rate values from treated and control groups. p-value< 0.05 was considered for significant means (sorlie, 1995). results the results of sperm characteristics (sperm concentration, sperm motility, grade of activity and sperm normal morphology) following in vitro activation and incubation of caudal epididymis region for 30 min using ivf medium with and without 10% honey were observed in table (1).the sperm concentrations (x106sperm/ml) following direct activation with 10% honey-ivf medium showed no significant difference as compared with the honey-free ivf medium. active sperm motility (grade a and grade b) in treated group was 49% significantly higher as compared with the control group. the percentage of normal sperms morphology in treated group was 33%. however, the differences between two groups lacked significance. the pregnancy rate in treated group was 53.3% (16 pregnant mice out of 30 inseminated mice), while it was 40% (12 pregnant mice out of 30 inseminated mice) for control group. t ere as si i ica t p≤0.05 i crease i pre a c rate et ee t r ups ta . 1). table (1): comparison between control and treated groups with 10% honey-ivf medium on certain sperm properties and pregnancy rate in mice (means ± se). g ro u p in g w it h a n d w it h o u t h o n ey in vitro sperm activation p re g n an cy r at e sperm concentration (106 /ml) sperm motility grade a (%) sperm motility grade b (%) progressive motility (a+b)% normal morphol ogy (%) control group 27.62±5.301 15.30±2.203 21.22±1.201 36.52±1.202 32.72±1 .531 12/30 (40%) treated group 28.22±5.351 20.30±0.021 29.20±2.105 49.50±3.032 33.12±4 .103 16/30 (53.3%) p-value ns s s s ns s s: significant at 0.05 levels ns: non-significant at 0.05 levels 226 effect of honey on sperm characteristics and pregnancy rate in mice discussion the present study, showed that the adding of honey at 10% to the culture media improves sperm parameters following 30 minutes, mainly total sperm motility, percentage and grade activity of forward progressive movement. culturing of the semen sample with 10% honeyivf medium before insemination result in a significant increase in the percentages of sperm motility and grade activity of forward movement to reach in the last one to 49% (grade a+ grade b) of the semen sample. honey is rich in sugars such as fructose and glucose, in addition to the minerals like potassium, magnesium, calcium, sodium chloride, sulfur, ferrous, zinc, phosphates and vitamins c, b1, b2, b3, b5 and b6. all these substances stimulate sperm motility and the grade activity of forward movement (estevinho et al., 2008 and syazanaet al., 2011). minerals especially ca+2 are known to inhibit the enzyme phosphate diestrase, and these will prevent camp degradation and consequently increase sperm motility (nassar et al., 1998). furthermore, honey contains carbohydrates and also has sugars like: glucose, fructose (estevinho et al., 2008), and these sugars are considered to be a source of energy for sperm motility. abdul-ghani et al. (2008) suggested that honey can affect the spermatogenesis by activating testicular marker enzymes like sorbitol dehydrogenase by 31% and inhibited lactate dehydrogenase by 48%, which has been indicated to increase its activity in infertility cases (eliasson and virji, 1985). during carbohydrate metabolism, sorbitol dehydrogenase converts sorbitol, the sugar alcohol form of glucose, into fructose (el-kabbani et al., 2004). honey is rich in fructose, which is an important marker in the seminal fluid, and provides energy and nutrients for the sperm and maintain perfect alkaline medium for their viability and motility. honey is full of enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidants, and contains pinostrobin, pinocembrin, ascorbic acid, vitamins e, diastase, glucose oxidase (erejuwa et al., 2012). it acts against lipid peroxidation and oxidative stress by ros such as, hydrogen peroxide, super oxide, and prevents oxygen contact with unsaturated fatty acids in the sperm plasma membrane (syazana et al., 2011). the data of the study also demonstrated that, there is no significant difference in the normal morphological sperms between the treated and control groups, and the mean was close to 33% as an average. these results are consistent with the improvements in sperm grade activity of forward movement; because it is very difficult to make any improvement on either sperm parameters when the semen sample is considered morphologically abnormal (coetzee et al., 1998). the results of this study showed a significant increase in the pregnancy rate, and the differences in the means were 13% between the treated and control groups. hence it is a good percentage of difference in the fields of experimental embryology and arts, and there were a lot of factors that might meddle with this observation; the study found that, there is a significant increase in the total active sperm after direct activation with 10% honey-ivf medium; all the female mice in this study were inseminated with the similar sperm concentrations. therefore, the differences in pregnancy rate here are not due to the improvements in the sperm concentrations but it may belong to the effect of the direct activation technique with 10% honey and to the decrease in the insemination volume (0.0250.05mls) injected to each female (insemination volume was reduced to overcome with that present). this reduction may decrease the decapacitation factors and contamination from the seminal plasma, such as cellular debris, mycoplasmas, chlamydia, trichomonas, bacteria, and 227 ilaf h. hadi different blood cells, such as rbcs and wbcs (jeyendran and zhang, 2003).the other important factor is sperm motility. the study showed that the pregnancy rate increases with an increasing sperm cell motility. this finding agreed with kasai et al. (2002), who demonstrated that one of crucial parameter that could provide treatment outcome was the percentage of motile sperm after proper preparation. other vital parameter is sperm morphology that may assume a part to acquire the high rate of fr. sperm normal morphology had been proven as a good indication for in vivo fertilization (menkveld et al., 1990; van zyl et al., 1990) and assisted reproduction (coetzee et al., 1998). many studies had reported a significant relationship between sperm ability to penetrate the zonapellucida and its morphology and motility (liu and baker, 1992); and also it found a powerful correlation between the acrosome reaction and normal sperm morphology and successful fertilization (menkveld et al., 2003), and increased fertility percentages consequently. t e direct activati tec ique did ’t pr vide imm tile, dead sperm and residual cytoplasmic droplet washing. thus, even in the samples with good sperm morphology, there was high level of ros, and that agreed with keating et al. (1997) who correlated with the extensive production of ros and presence of a residual cytoplasmic droplet that significantly affected sperm fertilizing ability. moreover, the cytoplasmic residues cause a higher content of cytoplasmic enzymes, such as glucose6-phosphate dehydrogenase or creatine kinase (gomez et al., 1996), which promote the generation of free radicals in the sperm cells themselves (aitken et al., 1997). the other factor that may meddle with the increments in pregnancy rate was the addition of 10% of honey to the insemination medium which provided a wide range of active ingredients that gave a nourishment and/or protection to the oocytes and early cleaved embryos. honey has antioxidant properties (viuda-martos et al., 2005). antioxidant compounds may counteract the action of ros on epididymal sperm parameters and therefore on fertilization rate, the balance between ros generation and antioxidant capacity in the semen plays a crucial role on sperm functions parameter, fertilization and pregnancy procedures (agarwal et al., 2005).this observation is in line with pasqualotto et al. (2000), who confirmed that infertile patients did not only have excessive production of ros, but also have a defect in the antioxidant system. the present study showed that adding of 10 % honey to the culture media increased semen quality through improving the sperm parameters following 30 minutes of activation, and improving post insemination pregnancy rate. thus, honey furthermore varies advantages, also has positive effects on the male reproductive system. 228 effect of honey on sperm characteristics and pregnancy rate in mice plate (1): mincing the caudal epididymis plate (2): sperms under a microscope after activation 229 ilaf h. hadi plate (3): artificial insemination literature cited abdul-ghani, a.s., dabdoub, n., muhammad, r., abdul-ghani, r. and qazzaz, m. 2008. effect of palestinian honey on spermatogenesis in rats. journal of medicinal food, 11 (4):799-802. agarwal, a., gupta, s. and sharma, r.k. 2005. role of oxidative stress in female reproduction. indian journal of experimental biology, 3:28-31. aitken, r.j., fisher, h.m. and fulton, n. 1997. reactive oxygen species generation by human spermatozoa is induced by exogenous nadph and inhibited by the flavoprotein inhibitors diphenyleneiodonium and quinacrine. molecular reproduction and development, 47: 468-482. austin, s. 2012. sexual performance natural supplements for boost sexual libido. human reproduction update, 2: 62-71. bradley, p.r. 2010. raw honey and cinnamon. bournemouth, british herbal medicine association, 1:145-148. burlando, f. 1978. glucose and the culture of human embryos. fertility sterility, 113: 699706. coetzee, k., kruger, t.f. and lombard, c.j. 1998. predictive value of normal sperm morphology: a structured literature review. human reproduction update, 4: 7382. cooper, r. 2001. how does honey heal wounds? in: honey and healing (munn p, jones r, eds.). ibra international bee research association, cardiff, uk, 27-34. 230 effect of honey on sperm characteristics and pregnancy rate in mice duselis, a.r. and vrana, p.b. 2007. harvesting sperm and artificial insemination of mice.archives of andrology, 1 (3):184. eddy, j.j. and gideon, m.d. 2005. topical honey for diabetic foot ulcers. journal of fam practical, 54: 533-535. eliasson, r. and virji, n. 1985. ldh-c4 in human seminal plasma and its relationship to testicular function ii.clinical aspects. international journal of andrology, 8(3): 201-214. el-kabbani, o., darmanin, c. and chung, r.p.t. 2004. sorbitol dehydrogenase: structure, function and ligand design. current medicinal chemistry, 11(4): 465-476. erbach, g.t., lawitts, j.a., papaioannou, v.e. and biggers, j.d. 1994. differential growth of the mouse preimplantation embryo in chemically defined media. biological reproduction, 50:1027-1033. erejuwa, o.o., sulaiman, s.a. and wahab, m.s.a.b. 2012. honey: a novel antioxidant. molecules, 17: 4400-4423. estevinho, l., pereira, a., moreira, l., dias, l. and pereira, e. 2008. antioxidant and antimicrobial effects of phenolic compounds extracts of northeast portugalhoney. food and chemical toxicology, 46: 3774-3779. gomez, e., buckingham, d., brindle, j., lanzafame, f., irvine, d.s. and aitken, r.j. 1996. development of an image analysis system to monitor the retention of residual cytoplasm by human spermatozoa: correlation with biochemical markers of the cytoplasmic space, oxidative stress and sperm function. journal of andrology, 17: 276287. jeyendran, r.s. and zhang, x.j. 2003. sperm processing methods. in: jeyendran r.s. (ed.): sperm collection and processing methods: a practical guide. cambridge university press, 107-110. kasai, t., ogawa, k. and mizuno, k. 2002. relationship between sperm mitochondrial potential, sperm motility and fertility potential. asian journal of andrology, 4: 97-103. keating, j., grundy, c.e., fivey, p.s., elliot, m. and robinson, j. 1997. investigation of the association between the presence of cytoplasmic residues on the human sperm midpiece and defective sperm function. journal of reproduction and fertility, 110: 71-77. liu, d.y. and baker, h. 1992. morphology of spermatozoa bound to the zonapellucida of human oocytes that failed to fertilize in vitro. journal of reproduction and fertility, 94: 71-84. mahaneem, m., siti, m., yatiban, k. and hasnan, j. 2007. effect of tualang on spermatogenesis in rats (abstract). malay journal of medical science, 14(1): 126. 231 ilaf h. hadi mahaneem, m., siti, a.s., islam, m.n., zolizhar, m.i.,yatiban, m.k. and nasir, a. 2008. a pilot study to compare the effect of honey on spermatogenesis in rats exposed to cigarette smoke (abstract). malay journal of medical science, 14(1): 126. mahaneem, m., sulaiman, s., jaafar, h., sirajudeen, k., ismail, z. and islam, n. 2011. effect of honey on testicular functions in rats exposed to cigarette smoke. journal of apiproduct and apimedical science, 3(1): 12 17. menkveld, r., el-garem, y., schill, w.b. and henkel, r. 2003. relationship between acrosomal function and sperm morphology. journal of assisted reproduction and genetics, 20: 432-438. menkveld, r., stander, f.s., kotze, t.j., kruger, t.f. and van zyl, j.a. 1990.the evaluation of morphological characteristics of human spermatozoa according to stricter criteria. human reproduction, 5: 586-592 nassar, a., mahony, m., blackmore, p., morshedi, m. and ozgur, k. 1998. increase of intracellular calcium is not cause of penteoxifylline-induced hyperactivation or acrosome reaction in human sperm. fertility sterility, 69: 745-749. pasqualotto, f.f., sharma, r.k., nelson, d.r., thomas, a.r. and garwal, a. 2000. relationship between oxidative stress, semen characteristics, and clinical diagnosis in men undergoing infertility investigation. fertility sterility, 73: 459464. postmes, t.j., bosch, r., dutrieux, r., and hoekstra, m.j. 1997. speeding up the healing of burns with honey.an experimental the healing of burns with honey.an experimental biopsies. in: mizrahi, a., lensky, y., eds. bee products: properties, applications and apitherapy. new york: plenum press, p27-37. sikka, s.c. and wang, r. 2008. endocrine disruptors and estrogenic effects on male reproductive axis. asian journal of andrology, 10:134-145. skakkebaek, n.e, giwercman, a. and de-krester, d. 1994. pathogenesis and management of male infertility. the lancet, 343: 8911. sorlie, d.e. 1995. medical biostatistics: examination and board review. norwalk. connecticut. appleton and lang, p 47-88. syazana, n.s., hashida, n.h., majid, a.m., sharifah, h.a.d. and kamaruddin, m.y. 2011. effects of gelam honey on sperm quality and testis of rat. sains malaysiana, 40(11):1243-1246. tan, h.t., abdul rahman, r., gan, s. h., halim, a. s., hassan, s. a., suleiman, s.a. and kirpin-kaur, b.s. 2009. antibacterial properties of malaysian tualang honey against wound and enteric microorganisms in comparison to manuka honey. bmc complementary and alternative medicine, 9 (1):34-45. van zyl, j.a., kotze, t. and menkveld, r. 1990. predictive value of spermatozoa morphology in natural fertilization. in: acosta, a.a., swanson, r.j., ackerman, s.b., kruger, 232 effect of honey on sperm characteristics and pregnancy rate in mice t.f., van zyl, j.a. and menkveld, r. (eds.): human spermatozoa in assisted reproduction. williams & wilkins. baltimore, 319-324. viuda-martos, m., navajas, y.r., fernandez-lopez, j. and perez-alvarez, j.a. 2005. functional properties of honey, propolis and royal jelly. journal of food science, 73(9):r117-r124. world health organization. 1999. who laboratory manual for the examination of human semen and sperm cervical inverse interaction, 4. edition, cambridge university press, cambridge. 233 ilaf h. hadi bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2017) 14 (3): 223-233 في خصائص النطف ومعدل الحمل لدى الفئران تأثير العسل إيالف حسن هادي ، بغداد، العراقالجامعة العراقية ،كلية الطب، فرع التشريح 026217102: تأريخ القبول 0261166102: تأريخ االستالم الخالصة الى الوسط الزرعي % 01إضافة العسل بتركيز أجريت الدراسة بهدف بيان تأثير الخاص بتنشيط النطف على تركيز النطف ونشاطها والمظهر الخارجي لها وعلى معدل الفئران استخدمت وقد، النطف المنشطة بالطريقة المباشرةاناث الفئران المحقونة ب الحمل في واستخدم تم الحصول على النطف من ذيل البربخ لذكور الفئران .للبائن تجريبي كموديل لمدة الزجاج في النطف تنشيط عند ivfالزرعي الوسط مع والممزوج %01العسل بتركيز .يقة التلقيح االصطناعيثم حقن النطف بطرساعة نصف حركة على يجابيا إ تأثيرا ثرأقد الزرعي الوسط الىالعسل اضافة انأظهرت النتائج عن وجود زيادة معنوية فضال .السيطرة مجموعة مع مقارنة ((%49 التقدمية النطف 0.05)>(p ناث الفئران الملقحة بالنطف المنشطة بإضافة أعند (%53.3)في معدل الحمل في تركيز النطف وجود زيادة معنوية عدمفيما اظهرت الدراسة .العسل الى الوسط الزرعي .والمظهر الخارجي لها والمعادن و الكاربوهيدرات وخاصة المختلفة العسل مكونات أن الدراسة شارتأ يمكن الدراسة لذا معايير مختلف نتائج على يجابيا إ ثرتأ قد. االكسدة ومضادات الفيتامينات عزز حركة النطف ونشاطها قد بالنطف الخاص الزرعي للوسط العسل اضافة بأن ستنتاجاال في االخصاب لبرامج عداداإل عند النتائج هذه من ستفادةاال يمكن .الفئران ومعدل الحمل في .اللبائن bull 1 george simon bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2014) 13 (1): 1-3 first record of bostrichus capucinus ( l.) ( coleoptera: bostrichidae ) in iraq george simon department of biology, college of science, diyala university, diyala, iraq abstract the species bostrichus capucinus (l.) (coleoptera:bostrichidae) was reported as a new record for iraq. diagnostic characters and some information are given . key word: bostrichidae, bostrichus, capucinus, first record, iraq. introduction bostrichidae is a medium sized (~ 500 species) family of beetles, often referred to as powder-post beetles because of their ability to reduce wood or bamboo to thin external shell covering the frass produced by the boring activities of the adult and larvae (roger et al 2011). the borers (bostrichidae, curculionidae, platyponidae, and scolytinae) attack the wood at all stages from log to seasoned wood and furnished products (findlay, 1985 ). the species bostrichus capucinus (l.) is found in all europe (except in norway, sweden, scotland, ireland and northern russia), mediteranian islands, morocco, algeria and northern tunis, asia minor, syria and caucasus (fisher, 1950). in 1843, du boys presented to a coleopterous insects, also the soclete d agriculture of limoges some stereo typed plates composed as is known, of very hard alloy formed of antimony and lead which had been pierced and riddled with holes by 2 specimens of bostrichus. the holes were seventh of an inch in diameter, by 2 inches in depth. before this, parts of leaden roofs at la rochelle had been noticed not only gnawed but pierced from one side to the other by the larvae of bostrichus capucinus (figuier, 1968). experiments indicating that larvae of b. capucinus developed faster in roots than in branched (pranter , 1960). during field study carried out in diyala governorate, middle of iraq in 2011, we collected unknown insects from branches of pomegranate trees from gesub village in khalis directorate (about 15 km north of baquba city). the insect has been identified by dr. m. s. abdul-rassoul and dr. r. s. augul at iraq national history research center and museum, according to the letter no. 488 on 7th april 2013 as bostrichus capucinus (l.) (coleoptera: bostrichidae). it is important to mention that this is the first record to this species in iraq. diagnostic characters the descriptions given below are based on those of fisher, 1950: male: elongate, slightly depressed, black,except elytron and four posterior abdominal sternites, which are red, antenna palpi, labrum and tarsi reddish brown. 2 first record of bostrichus capucinus head much narrower than pronotum, uneven, sometimes with more or less distinct longitudinal groove on vertex, coarsely confluently, rugosely punctate, sparsely clothed with long, erectate and inconspicuous hairs. pronotum slightly wider than long. widest near middle, strongly deflexed on apical half. surface uneven, densely, irregularly punctate, coarsely confluently, granulose between punctures with numerous, irregularly placed, broad, rasplike teeth at sides on anterior half, and a transversely arcuate ridge. which is interrupted at middle, near anterior margin, rather densely clothed with long, erect, brownish hairs, at sides and long anterior margins. elytron at base subequal in width, to pronotum at middle with narrow, smooth, costa, extending along lateral margins, surface glabrous shining, denes, deeply coarsely punctate. body beneath densely , finely punctate, sparsely clothed with long, semierect hairs on sternum and apex of last abdominal sternite, with very short and recumbent inconspicuous hairs on abdomen, posterior tarsi armed on under side with long silky, brown hairs. female: different from the male in not having the long, silky, brown hairs on the underside of the posterior tarsi. length : 7.5 -16 mm, width 2.5 – 5.5 mm. literature cited figuier, l. 1968. full text of “the insect world : being popular account of the orders insects, together with a description of the habits and economy of the some of the most interesting species “ chapman and hall .193 picadilly , london 538 pp. findlay, w.p.k. 1985. presentation of the timber in the tropics, martinus nijhoff/w. j. unk publishers, dordecht, the netherland. 237 pp. fisher, w.s. 1950. a revision of the north american species of beetles belonging to the family bostrichidae. united states department of agriculture, miscellaneous publication no. 698. washington d.c. 53-57. pranter, w. 1960. the natural physiology of bostrichus capucinus-. zeitschrift fur angewandte zoologia . 47 ( 4 ): 385 – 430 . roger, a. beaver, wisut, s. and lan-yu liu, 2011. a review of the powder –post beetles of thailand.( coleoptera : bostrichidae ) . tropical natural history 11(2) : 135-158 . 3 george simon bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2014) 13 (1): 1-3 ألول مرة في ( bostrichus capucinus (l.) (coleoptera:bostrichidae))لـ تسجيل جديد العراق جورج سيمون قسم علوم الحياة/ كلية العلوم/ جامعة ديالى ديالى -العراق الخالصة ألول مرة في bostrichus capucinus ( l. )تضمنت الدراسة الحالية تسجيل الحشرة .العراق مع ذكر الصفات التشخيصية للنوع ومعلومات اخرى عنه bull 109 amer m. hussin and yahia y. khudhayer bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2016) 14 (2): 109-116 a comparative histological study of thyroid tissue in carp fish cyprinus carpsio and mice swiss albicans amer m. hussin* and yahia y. khudhayer department of anatomy and histology, college of veterinary medicine, baghdad university, iraq * corresponding author: amer_hussin42@yahoo.com abstract this histological study was carried out to compare between the thyroid gland of mice (as a model of the mammals) and the thyroid tissue of fish. unlike mice, the thyroid gland of fish can't be recognized by naked eye. the present study revealed that the thyroid of mice varied from that of fish by the location and the histological structure. the study classified the physiological state of the thyroid of mice into three states and that of the fish into only two states. accordingly, the study concluded that the metabolism of thyroid fish was of moderate type. key words: carp fish, histological, metabolism, mice, thyroid. introdction in adult vertebrates, the thyroid gland is a butterfly-shaped endocrine organ that consists of right and left lobes binding by intermediate isthmus (dellmann and brown, 1987). it is located in the cervical region dorsolaterally next to the trachea near (inferior to) the level of the larynx. it is covered by a connective tissue capsule that internally branches into very narrow septae that divides it into lobes (kameda et al, 2007; steinberg, 2008). the thyroid parenchyma is composed of two cell types: the follicular cells which lines each follicle, and the para follicular cells which exists between adjacent follicles. these cells are also referred to as c cells or clear cells because of their pale staining cytoplasm (aughey and frye, 2010).the size of the thyroid follicle ranges from 50 to 200 um in diameter (samuelson, 2007; mesher, 2010). on the other hand, the thyroid tissue in the fishes is organized as diffuse follicles with a few exceptions (genten et al, 2009), rather than as an encapsulated gland as it is found in most other vertebrate species. the follicles of thyroid gland migrate to distant unusual locations such as liver, kidney, eye, gut, spleen, gonad etc (pandey and shukla, 2007). the shape of thyroid was variable depending on various fish group. in cyclostomes, it takes the form of follicles. in many teleosts it becomes like diffused structure as small masses of follicles. in elasmobranches and bony fishes, thyroid is compact structure (oguri, 1990; geven et al., 2007). the molecules components of the hypothalamic-pituitary-thyroid (hpt) axis in fish correspond closely to those of mammals (blanton and specker, 2007). power et al. (2001) revealed that the thyroid hormones are present in high quantities in fish eggs and presumably of maternal origin. evidences are presented that thyroid hormones can modify the pattern and magnitude of stress response in fishes as it modifies either its own actions or the action of stress hormones (peter, 2011; silva, 2006). the aim of this study is to focus the light on the developmental histological differences of thyroid between the fish and mice. 110 a comparative histological study of thyroid tissue materials and methods samples of thyroid gland from sub-pharyngeal region, head kidney and kidney of six adult female carp fish were obtained from tigris river. samples from thyroid glands of eight adult female mice were also collected from iraq natural history museum in baghdad. both samples were collected in spring of 2015; all samples were fixed in neutral buffered formalin 10% for two days. tissue samples were dehydrated in a graded series of ethanol, embedded in paraffin, sectioned at 7 um thick, stained with hematoxylin & eosin and pas stains. (suvarna et al., 2013). light microscope was used in inspection. all the images were uploaded into a computer by means of a digital camera (mem 1300) through the microscope (ballesteros et al., 2012). results and discussion the current study found that the building up of the thyroid gland of mice was more developed than that of fish. it was a single compact gland consisting of right and left lobes linked by intermediate isthmus located on the ventral surface of the trachea and covered by a connective tissue capsule (fig.1). on the other hand, the thyroid tissue of fish was not localized compact structure, their thyroid follicles were scattered on more than one organ across the body (fig.2 &3) especially the renal tissue and the subpharyngeal regions (around the ventral aorta). they appeared as diffuse small masses rather than encapsulated localized gland., despite the similarity between the general fundamental building of the thyroid in both mice and fish, the building up of the thyroid follicles in fish was more simple (fig. 3). these follicles were variable in size and shape and were separated by a fine loose fibrovascular connective tissue. the shapes were mostly spherical or ovoid, the sizes were small, medium or large .unlike mice, the follicular epithelium was not well-established. however, the thyroid follicular cells of carp fish form tight uniform epithelium. most follicular cells of carp fish were only of squamous or cuboidal type, columnar cells were not recorded. parafollicular clear cells (ccells) were clearly observed in both mice and fish (fig.4 & 5). reabsorption vacuoles were seen on the luminal surfaces of active follicular cells of mice (fig.4). unlike mice, clear basement membrane was not observed around the thyroid follicles of carp fish (fig.6). the thyroid follicles presented different physiological states in the shape, height of the follicular cells, and amount and consistency of colloid. within each follicle of mice, we can see more than one cellular height, and consequently, the three physiological statuses (hypoactive, active, and hyperactive) were recorded (ganong, 2005; samuelson, 2007). this is rarely observed in the follicle of carp fish. the functional unit of thyroid gland in carp fish had only two states, hypoactive and active, hyperactive state was not registered. the hypoactive state had flattened to squamous epithelium and the follicles were mostly filled with dense eosinophilic colloid. the active state whose follicular cells were low to high cuboidal and the follicles were nearly-filled with slightly basophilic diluted colloid. the study confirmed by the findings of genten et al. (2009) and al-adhami and albakri (1999) who revealed that the thyroid of carp fish was of diffused type and its activity was judged by its histology and the follicles increase in size by coalescence between each other. the study believed that the simplicity of the circulatory system in carp fish may explain the unique distribution of the thyroid tissue in this way. this could be attributed to the fact that any ductless endocrine glands need abundant blood supply to transport their secretion far away from the site of release from the thyroid tissue to the different organs of the body. the heart of the fish composed only of two chambers and the circulatory system includes only one circulation and the blood passes through the blood capillaries to the gills and then to the tissues of the body, this is called the single circulation. the endocrine glands whose cells secrete their products directly into the blood stream need abundant blood supply to transport their secretion to the target organs (dellmann and brown, 1987). the thyroid tissue possibly 111 amer m. hussin and yahia y. khudhayer was scattered into different thyroid structures as an ecological adaptation to supply the hormone into different regions of the body. on the other hand, oxygen is more readily available to terrestrial vertebrates than it is to fishes as air contains much more oxygen that can dissolve in an equivalent volume of water. figure (1): thyroid gland of mice contained many follicles surrounded by well developed connective tissue capsule (long arrow). note the hyaline cartilage of trachea (short arrow). (x200. h&e stain). figure (2): thyroid gland of fish filled with homogenous colloid thyroid follicles embedded in the parenchyma of head of kidney. notice the absence of connective tissue capsule. (x100. h&e stain). 112 a comparative histological study of thyroid tissue figure (3): thyroid of carp fish shows small, medium and large thyroid follicles (small arrows) in the sub pharyngeal region filled with homogenous colloid, the building of follicular cells were weak. notice the relationship between one follicle and the blood vessel (large arrow). (x400. h&e stain). figure (4): thyroid follicles of mice. note the prominent basement membrane around each follicle (doublehead arrow). the absorptive vacuoles are seen over the luminal surface of the follicular cells (short arrows). x400. pas stain. 113 amer m. hussin and yahia y. khudhayer figure (5): thyroid follicles of mice filled with colloid. note the c-cell (arrows) lies among the follicles. (x400 h&e stain). figure (6): two large thyroid follicles of fish. notice many clear cells (ccells) lie near the follicles (arrows). notice the weak building of the follicular cells. 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(2016) 14 (2): 109-116 دساسح وسجٍح مقاسوح تٍه الغذج الذسقٍح فً أسماك الناسب cyprinus carpio َالفأس swiss albicans عامش مرعة حسٍه َ ٌحٍى ٌاس خضٍش فشع الرششٌح َ االوسجح، ملٍح الطة الثٍطشي، جامعح تغذاد، العشاق الخالصح َتٍه الىسٍج (مأومُرج للثائه) أجشٌد ٌزي الذساسح للمقاسوح الىسجٍح تٍه دسقٍح الفأس فإن دسقٍح ، أظٍشخ الذساسح أوً خالفا لما مُجُد فً الفأس. الذسقً فً أسماك الناسب ذخرلف دسقٍح الفأس عه دسقٍح اسماك الناسب . األسماك ال ٌمنه مشاٌذذٍا تالعٍه المجشدج صىفد الذساسح الىشاط الُظٍفً فً دسقٍح الفأس الى ثالز . فً المُقع َالرشمٍة الىسجً َفً األسماك الى حالرً وشاط فقظ َطثقا لزلل إسرىرجد الذساسح إن األٌض فً ، حاالخ . أسماك الناسب ٌنُن مه الىُع المعرذه bull 77 sarbaz i. mohamad and saman r. afrasiab bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2015) 13 (3): 77-83 two new records of dwarf snakes of the genus eirenis jan, (repttilia, colubridae) in iraqi kurdistan (north and northeastern of iraq) with annotated checklist, for the genus eirenis in iraq sarbaz i. mohamad and saman r. afrasiab kurdistan museum of natural history arbil, iraq & iraqi natural history museum, baghdad, iraq; email: s_lahony@ yahoo.com abstract two dwarf snakes were discovered, eirenis thospitis schmidtler & lanza from sereen mountain, north east of arbil and e. rothii jan from saffin mountain north of arbil city north of iraqi kurdistan. supported by description and important notes on variation. in addition summarized list for 9 species of the genus eirenis jan in iraq is also presented. key words: colubridae, eirenis, kurdistan, iraq, museum. introduction the dwarf snakes of the genus eirenis are one of the critical genus of the colubrine snakes. the presented paper bring new country records for two eirenis species and provides an updated annotated list of eirenis species known up to date from iraq. in addition, brief characteristics and morphological data are given for the examined eirenis specimens. materials and methods this checklist based on collection of iraqi natural history museum of baghdad university (imnh), collections of kurdistan museum nat. hist. of salahaddin universit (kmnh) and collection of garmean university of kalar. morphology data taking from above collection and for the list on our collection and litterateur. important and necessary notes also giving for some species of iraqi eierenis. results and discussion eirenis (pediophis ) thospitis schmidtler & lanza, 1990. locality: northern and north east arbil, of iraq, 2106m. a.s.l. (n 36º 2´8´ 23´´o e .o o 44º 59´ .26´´.2). fig., (1,2). single male no. (331rs) kmnh. total length 415 mm., tail length 85mm. coloration: dorsal uniform pale olive grey anterior scale on the nape and around the neck region with dark margin and spots fused in the nape to form four elongated strips disappear along the dorsal of the body. dark spots on posterior of parietals frontal and upper labial shields with dark margins , ventral pail yellow. scalation: dorsal scale rows 15. nostrils in single nasal, touching the 1st and 2nd upper labials. 1pre and two post ocular upper labials 7, 3rd and 4th in contact with the eye. lower labial 9. small rectangular loreal higher than length touching 2nd and 3rd labials. gularia and 4 of lower labials in contact with anterior chin shields (fig. 2b) ventral scales 183, subcaudal scales 63, anal plate divided. dorsal scale with single apical pit. 78 two new records of dwarf snakes habitat: oak forest. kandeel mountain which covered by the snow most of the year as a barrier between our collection site and turkish localities of e. thospitis also for close related species e. hakkariensis. figure 1: eirenis thospitis. from serene mountain north east arbil altitude 2106 m.asl. a b figure.2: alateral view of the head of the e. thospitis, showing undivided nasal and loreal. bchin shields. 79 sarbaz i. mohamad and saman r. afrasiab table.1: comparison between nominated variety of e. thospitis total maximum length subcaudal scales coloration nasal scale and nostril position locality 540 mm. 48-58 verticals and horizontal thin bars on nape and neck nostrils in between two nasals eirenis thospiis van,turky 415mm. 63 small transverse strips on the nape in one nasal eirenis thospitis iraqi kurdistan 560 mm. 52-68 uniform no bars and spots one nasal and fused with loreal eirenis hakkarinsis hakkari, turky eirenis (pediophis) rothii jan, 1863. fig.3 this regards a new records for this snake in iraq. reed and marx (1959) reported this snake from north of arbil, most of the authors they had reservation about their being e.rothii. (leviton, et al. 1992), mahdi and georg, (1969). the specimens kept in (imnh) of baghdad university under the name of e. collaris. collected from aen zala northwest of mosul and aradin-duhuk. the second new location for this snake fig.3, collected by 1st author from north of arbil, saffin mountain 1600m. a.s.l, no. 332 rskept in, kmnh, salahadin university, arbil. measurement: eirenis rothi is a small tiny snake, total length 217312mm. tail length 1672mm. coloration: head with dark nasal, frontal and parietal band the dark blackish extend to upper labials, dark band on the neck 3-4 scale width. the body uniform pale olive grey. in iraqi materials. the yellow of black collar margin and head is not prominent, it has faint yellow margin. scalations: 15 dorsal scale rows. 157-167 ventral plate and 58-60 subcaudal. one pre and two post ocular. small loreal scale present. 8 supralabial 3rd and 4th touching the eye. figure.3: eirenis (pediophis) rothii collected by first author from saffin mountain north of arbil. 80 two new records of dwarf snakes eirenis (pseudocyclophis ) persicus. (anderson, 1872). distribution in iraq: this snake distributed in north and north east, three from saffin mountain north of arbil, one from south east of sulaimanyah. fig.4. comments: coloration of the head and dorsal bands varies from intens black (estern specimens) to dark yellowish brown (most of od the arbil specimens) the dark band of the head of arbils e. persicus broken to spots but of east sulimaniyah the black spot of the head fused with the necks band, dorsal strips of eastern one three scales width. according to terentyev & chernove (1949). e. p. walteri boettge,1888a, is found in north east, iraq. the collection of arbil have the e. p. nigrofasciata nikolsky 1907. mahlow et al. (2013) giving 98 dorsal strips for e. persicus nigrofasciata fits with arbil collections but collection of eastern sulaimanya does not exceed 60. figure.4: eirenis(psedocyclophis) persicus, nigrofasciatus nicollsky,1907. from northern arbil. eirenis (eoseirenis) decemlineatus (dumeril, bibron &dumeril. 1854) a specimens from north of arbil, kept in kmnh of arbil. another collection from hamzica, dohuk pov. 15-6-75 no.223z6. eirenis (pediophis) panctatolineatus (boettger, 1892) distrebution in iraq: north arbil north and north east of sulaimaniyah. no museum specimensare available, all records are represented bypublished data only. eirenis (pediophis) lneomaculatus schmidt, 1939. two specimens from north of arbil kept in kmnh. eirenis(pediophis) collaris (menetries 1832) distribution in iraq: north eastern iraq sulaimanyah, dukan, kirkuk, common in old houses of sulaimanyah city. diala and khanakeen east of iraq. we did not have 81 sarbaz i. mohamad and saman r. afrasiab any specimens from baghdad but boulenger, (1919) and corkil (1932) mentioned baghdad us an iraqi locality of this species. eirenis (pediophis) coronella (schlegel,1837) distributions in iraq western desert. south eastern iraq. eirenis (pediophis) coronelloides (jan, 1862). distribution in iraq north of arbil and rutba west of anbar. figure.5: eirenis (pediophis ) coronelloides jan from north west arbil north of iraq. comments: this snake for the first time recorded in iraq by afrasiab and mohamad (2014) previously reed and marx, (1959) and mahdi & georg (1969) assigned to eirenis brevicaudus nikolsky for northern iraq, also thy said its synonyms of e. coronelloids jan. diisi, (2002), disi et al. (2001) consider e. fasciatus jan us a synonyms of e.coronella. nilson and rastigar-pouyani (2011) refer such pattern to e. coronelloids for iranian specimens because of scale number with dark dorsal band and head pattern. acknowledgements profound thank to mss khalida ibrahiem of iraqi natural history museum of baghdad university for taking photo for the head of e. thospity. also we appreciate the revisers for their valuable help and advice. literature cited afrasiab s.r. and mohamad s.i., (2014): new records of snakes from iraq (reptilia: colubridae) zoology in the middle east, 2014.vol. 60, no.1. haidelburg germany. boulenger, g. a. (1919): a list of snakes from mesopotamia. collected by members of the mesopotamian expeditionary force,1915 to 1919. journal, bombay natural hist. society, fd, xxvii. corkill, n. l. (1932): snakes and snake bite in iraq. london: bailliere , tindall and cox. 82 two new records of dwarf snakes disi, a.; modry m.; necas d. and rifai, l. (2001): amphibian and reptiles of hashemite kingdom of jordan edition chimaira. frankfurt am main. disi, a.m. (2002): jordan country study on biological diversity .the herpetofauna of jordan. (336)p. the hashemit kingdom of jordan, the general corporation for the environment protection. leviton, a.e.; anderson, s.c.; adler, k. & minton, s.a. (1992): handbook to middle east amphibians and reptiles. ithaca (new york): society for the study of amphibians and reptiles oxford, ohio. mahdi, n. & georg, p.v. (1969): systematic list of iraq vertebrates. iraq nat. hist. mus. publications 26 (baghdadiraq). mahlow, k.; tilack, f.; schmidtler, j.f. & muller, j. (2013): an annotated checklist, description and key to the dwarf snakes of the genus eirenis jan,1863 (reptilian: squamata: colubridae) with special emphasis on the dentition . vertebrate zoology . 63. 41-85. nilson, g. and rastigar-pouyani, n. ( 2011): on the occurrence of eirenis coronelloides (jan,1862) in western iran (reptilia: colubridae) . zoology in the middle east, 54, 133-135. reed, c.a. & h. marx (1959): a herpetological collection from north eastern iraq. transactions of the kansas academy of sciences 62:91-122. terntyev, p.v. & chernov s.a., (1949): key to the amphibians and reptiles. 3rd enlarged translation, smithsonian institution washington, dc serpents, p.p 193-315. 83 sarbaz i. mohamad and saman r. afrasiab bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2015) 13 (3): 77-83 في eirenis jan, (repttilia, colubridae)تسجيلين جديدين لحيات القزمة لجنس في العراق( eirenis)مع قائمة للجنس ( شمال وشمال الشرقي في العراق)كردستان العراق **و سامان رستم افراسياب* سرباز ابراهيم دمحم العراق -اربيل –متحف كردستان للتاريخ الطبيعي * العراق -بغداد –جامعة بغداد –متحف التاريخ الطبيعي ** الخالصة eirenis thospitis schmidtler & lanzaمن حيات القزمة الول مرة في العراق اكتشقت نوعين في جبل سفين شمال مدينة اربيل في شمال e. rothii jan في جبل سيرين شمال شرق مدينة اربيل و .العراق دعمت بوصف ومالحظات مهمة عن التغيرات مع اضافة قائمة مصنفة لتسهة انواع من جنس eirenis jan الموجودة في العراق. 3 17 afkar m. hadi bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2011) 11 (4): 17-25 isolation and identification of intestinal parasites from vegetables from different markets of iraq. afkar m. hadi iraq natural history research center and museum. university of baghdad abstract this investigation was designed to determine the occurrence of intestinal parasites in fresh vegetables(apium graveolense, lepidium aucheri and allium porrum), from different markets as a primary effort in iraq. eight genera and species of intestinal parasites appear in vegetables, they were as follow: echinococcus sp. 50%,oxyuris equi 45%,habronema sp. 45%,parascaris equroum 31.6%,strongyloides westrei 30%,toxocara sp. 18.3%,ascaris lumbricoides 11.6% and hymenolepis sp. 8.3% .the scarcity of fresh water has meant that urban gardeners are increasingly irrigating their plots with wastewater. this poses a threat to public health in addition of roaming dogs in open farms. all studied areas showed high rates of eggs .no significant difference noticed between total rates of north and middle of iraq. there were highly significant differences in the species of parasites among areas. introduction since 1973, who considered reuse of wastewater is special health issue (who 1973).in investigations on pathogenic organisms in wastewater and sludge, parasites have received the least attention (who 2004). in iraq, a few studies reported in the literature on parasites transmitted through wastewater and sludge. the total contamination rate with parasites in sewage water was 60% at five regions in baghdad (al-dura, hi-almaalf, hi-al-jehad, alshabab, and al-baya'a) ( hadi . 2008) this investigation (as primary effort) was designed to determine the occurrence of intestinal parasites in some vegetables which are eaten fresh together in iraq(apium graveolense, lepidium aucheri and allium porrum), from different markets of iraq. materials and methods a total of 60 sample of vegetable groups (apium graveolense, lepidium aucheri and allium porrum) each one weigh 500 gm during study months (november 2009 – april 2010). the samples were collected from markets of north region (arbil & kirkuk) and middle region (baghdad, najif &diwania). the samples were tested according to bariden, (1980). generally, this method use sedimentation to concentrate the eggs on centrifugal force. photographs were taken for eggs, then they diagnosed with the help of some professors. results echinococcus sp. showed the highest rate 50% (30) then oxyuris equi and habronema sp. 45% (27) (table 1). total rates of pollution with the eggs of parasites were 67.3%(97)in the middle area of iraq compared with 32.6%(47) in the north area ( table 2). brief description and measurements of each helminthes is given below (table 3). 18 isolation and identification of intestinal table 1: genera &species of parasites isolated from fresh vegetable groups 60/500mg. final host % of total no. of veg. positive parasites dog horse horse horse horse dog &cat man man 50% 45% 45% 31.3% 30% 18.3% 11.6% 8.3% 30 27 27 19 18 11 7 5 echinococcus sp oxyuris equi habronema sp. parascaris equorum strongyloides westeri toxocara sp. ascaris lumbricoides hymenolepis sp table 2: distribution of parasites in the north and middle of iraq. middle 40 specimens north 20 specimens parasites 26 15 15 11 9 9 7 5 4 12 12 8 9 2 0 0 echinococcus sp. oxyuris equi habronema sp. parascaris equorum strongyloides westeri toxocara sp. ascaris lumbricoides hymenolepis sp 97 67.3% 47 32.6% total table.3: measurements and brief description of parasites eggs from vegetables. parasites eggs measurements descriptions of eggs contains echinococcus sp. 30 -36 µ spherical, thick, smooth shell. fig.1 hexacanth embryo. oxyuris equi 85 -45 µ ovoid, slightly asymmetrical, dissimilar sidewalls. fig.2 larva habronema sp. 45 16 µ cylindrical, strongly elongated, thick shell. fig.3 larva parascaris equorum 95 -90 µ nearly spherical, brown yellowish. thick albominous shell covered with fine dots. one or two cells strongyloides westeri 45 -30 µ ovoid, side walls are symmetrical. similar, wide poles.fig.5 short thick larva toxocara sp. 75 -80 µ nearly spherical, thick rough, pitted shell.fig.6 brown to black granular contents 19 afkar m. hadi ascaris lumbricoides 55 -45 µ ellipse to round , golden brown thick, rough albuminous outer wall.fig.7 thin yolk membrane hymenolepis sp. 38 µ round, grayish, transparent. smooth, thin membranous shell. fig.8 oncosphere is 24 µ by 16 µ discussion factors affect the occurrence and concentrations of helminthes eggs and protozoan cysts observed in raw wastewater, include the endemicity of disease within the indigenous animal and human population ( grimason 1995). in current study, a large number of parasites 8 genera and species from fresh vegetable groups this result conjugated with level of incidence of parasitic infection in the community and concentrations of parasitic organisms, such as intestinal nematodes eggs, in the wastewater of such a community ( dixo 1993). study shows high rates of pollution with echinococcus sp and toxocara sp. eggs of dogs and cats which means high risk to community since holly (2008) indicated that they may not only be most pathogenic to their specific host, they may also be the major causes of zoonosis. in iraq, the agriculture of study vegetable groups in open farms where dogs and cats roaming there, which they really risk for human. the presence of many species of horse helminthes (oxyuris equi, habronema sp., parascaris equorum and strongyloides westeri) in vegetable groups came probably as a result of reuse of feces of equine for manuring. this is accordance with ram (2009) who found that the reuse of equine feces in farms lead to re infection with these parasites for horses and unknown results when human ingested them! in england nearly all horses are infected with nematodes. (thienpont et. al.1986), while in iraq faraj & shabban (2007) found that the total equine infection rate 50.45%. the presence of round worms (ascaris lumbricoides ) and tapeworm (hymenolepis sp.) in vegetable groups mean that, they are all readily transmitted by the agricultural use of raw or insufficiently treated excreta and wastewater, indeed, they are the excreted pathogens of greatest public health concern in agricultural reuse schemes. there are highly significant differences p<0.01 among the species of parasites between the two studied areas , echinococus sp. and toxocara sp.of dogs were recorded high rates in middle, compared with north area , this result is conjugated with number of roaming dogs in farms. this is similar to sultan (1997) who showed that infection rate with toxocara canis 46% of dogs in najif area. moreover, in basrha al-emara and yakub (1999)found that total dogs infection 35.2% with three nematodes: toxocara canis, toxocara leonine and ancylostoma caninum, thus contaminated soil 25% and contaminated gardens grasses 10% from funfair in basrha. aside from, infected rate in mousel area (in north) 25.7% with same parasites (al-kalidi, 1983). 20 isolation and identification of intestinal the study shows that infection with eggs of equine worms are high in the north of iraq, this may be due to prevalence of equines (horse and mules) in villages and mountains of north area. on the other hand, absence of human parasites (ascaris lumbricoides and hymenolepis sp.) in the north area may indicate decreased level of wastewater reuse. finally, according to present results and in response to claim, who (2004) wastewater must use in irrigation of crops to be eaten cooked, sport field, public parks; cereal crops; industrial crops; fodder and trees; not for crops eaten raw. acknowledgements the author wishes to thank prof. mohammad k. mohammad (iraqi natural history museum and researches center) and wish to thank prof. joop boomker (department of veterinary tropical diseases, university of pretoria) for diagnosis the eggs. i also thank dr. mike kinsella. missoula. mt. america for supporting and helping in diagnosis the eggs of parasites. references al-emara, g. yakub. 1999. epidemiology study of nematode in digestive tract of dogs in basrha area. msc. thesis. coll. vet. med. uni. baghdad. al-kalidi, n. w.; daoud, m.s.; shubber, a. h. and al-alousi; t. i. 1983. a survey for internal and external parasites in dogs in mosul(iraq). iraq. j. vet. sc., (1-2): 9-14. bariden, k. (1980). factors modifying the prevalence of bovine ostertagiasis with special reference to infective larvae in soil. m. tyysc. thesis, university of glasgow, u. k. dixo, n. g., gambrill, m. p., catunda, p. f. and van haandel, a. c. (1993). removal of pathogenic organisms from the effluent of an up flow anaerobic digester using waste stabilization ponds. proc. 2nd iawq special conference on waste stabilization ponds and the ruse of effluents. brazil. faraj, a. a.; shabban f. (2007). prevalence of internal parasites (stomach &intestine) in horses in iraq. iraq. j. vet, sc., vol. 31 no.2. grimason, a.m., smith, h. v., young, g. and thitai, w. n. (1995). occurrence and removal of ascaris spp. ova by waste stabilization ponds in kenya. 3rd iawq international specialist conference and workshop "waste stabilization ponds technology and application". brazil, preprint volume. hadi, a. m.; faraj, a. a. (2008). distribution of intestinal parasites in drinking water in some regions in baghdad. al-qadisiya journal of vet. med. sci. vol.17 no.12 2008. holly n., (2008). roundworms (toxascaris leonine, toxocara cati). veterinary services department, drs. foster and smith , inc. pet education.com ram chandra s. (2009). a report on prevalence of helminthes parasites in mules of brick kiln of lalitpur district. www.animalnepal.org/documents/donkey/ sultan, b. e. (1997). epidemiology study of toxocara canis in najef area. phd. thesis. coll. vet. med. uni. baghdad. http://www.animalnepal.org/documents/donkey/ 21 afkar m. hadi thienpont e., rochette f., vanparijs o. f. j.(1986). diagnosing helminthiasis by coprological examination. turnhoutsebaan 30, 2340 beerse, belgium). available from: vet lab services, unit 11. station road, south water, sussex rh 13 7hq. world health organization (1973). reuse of effluents: methods of wastewater treatment and health safeguards. technical report series no.517. world health organization (2004). integrated guide to sanitary parasitology. regional office for the eastern mediterranean. regional center for environmental health activities ammanjorden 2004. 22 isolation and identification of intestinal fig.1: eggs of echinococcus sp fig.2: egg of oxyuris equi. fig.3: egg of habronema sp. 23 afkar m. hadi fig.4: egg of parascaris equorum. fig.6: egg of toxocara sp. fig. 5:strongyloides westeri. 24 isolation and identification of intestinal fig.7: egg of ascaris lumbrecoides. fig.8: egg of hymenlepois sp. 25 afkar m. hadi bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2011) 11 (4): 17-25 ض ن بع م م وية ت ال ط يليا ص ال خي ل وت ن عز م ختلفة و ق ن أس ت ضروا ال ق .العرا ي هاد كا مسل أف ي ف التار خ ال بيع ح ث ومت ح ز ب داد -مرك ة بغ جامع ة ص الخال ل ؤك وا ال ت ضر خل ع ا ت ن ب ط يليا ص ال خي ش ع ل ت س ب درا ذ ال ه م اهت ق را يف ل عا ث(م كرا د ال س الرشا كرف ث ) ال راق ي ع يف ا ول م ة خم ل ة و ق وا س ن م ة وية ا ختلف ت ملع ف ليا ع م الط وا ا و ن ة أجن سة اني را د رت ا ه ظ ي أ مايل :وك echinococcus sp. 50%, oxyuris equi 45%, habronema sp. 45%, parascaris equroum 31.6%, strongyloides westrei 30%, toxocara sp. 18.3%, ascaris lumbricoides 11.6% and hymenolepis sp. 8.3% . وت س ن وبن ب مت ا ب واخليو واإلن ك ص ب ال يت ت وهذا بسبب الزراعة املفتوحة و جتوال ةال مل يف قي ا ة ت ال ائل عما ا خلف ست دة ع إعا ضال ة في ا ف ب ل ائب جة ال ال عا نتي زرو ة ذب ص امليا لع زارع النق وأي ا تس يد ا عا ة ة ل ى لصح عل سي ا ج ط ا ل خ ك ذا ي وه تب ت احلي انا ال ض ق .ف ق لعرا ضر مناط خل ث ا ت ل يف عدال س رتفا ا را ت لد ظهر ة (أ مالي ش ال ى ط س الخ الفا) والو ض ع ء مع ب ت تعلى حد وا فيليا ط و ع ل ني أن ة صائي ح إل .ا 2 11 i. m. al-malo and m. s. abdul rassoul bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2010) 11 (1): 11-16 *notes on some armored scale insects (hemiptera:diaspididae) of iraq iman mohammed al-malo** and mohammed saleh-abdul rassoul*** **department of plant protection, college of agriculture, university of baghdad, abu-gharb, baghdad, baghdad, iraq ***natural history museum, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq abstract sixteen species of armored scale insects were recorded from baghdad city during 20012005. three of these are reported here for the first time abgrallaspis cyanophylli (signoret, 1869), aonidiella citrina (craw,1870) and chrysomphalus aonidium (linnaeus,1758). the other thirteen species were recorded earlier aonidiella aurantii(maskell), aonidiella orientalis(newstead), chrysomphalus dictyospermi(morgan), diaspidiotus ostreaeformis (curtis), diaspidiotu perniciosus(comctock), hemiberlesia lataniae (signoret), lepidosaphes beckii(newman), lepidosaphes conchiformis(gmelin), lepidosaphes ulmi(linnaeus), mercetaspis halli(green), parlatoria blanchardi(targioni-tozzetti) , parlatoria crypta mckenzie, parlatoria pergandii comstock. localities, date of collection and host plants were given for all species. introduction diaspididae is considers as a member of the homoptera which has an economic importance. the number of the species of this family are 2200 species belonging to 400 genera and widespread in the world (ben-dov,1990),causing damage to some trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants, and they affect 189 plant families. the adults and nymphs, suck the plant sap from all the plant parts, and thier feeding causes direct damage to tissues mainly through that toxicity by the saliva injected during feeding(mcclure,1990). these insects cause necrosis and chlorosis of leaves , and cansequently leaves fall and sometimes they can kill a host plant.adult females are small insects: their length has a range from 1.0to2.0mm; covered by an infuse scale ,legs absent, antennae reduced to stumps; abdominal segments 5-6 fused into a pygidium which is important in the diagnosis of species. the pygidium bears a complex of specialized structures , tubular ducts , marginal lobes, plates, gland spines and the anus lies on the dorsal surface.(mckenzie 1956, gill 1997, watson 2002). the most important scales insects in iraq are: aonidiella orientalis found on citrus, rosa, ziziphus and,populus. parlatoria blanchardi on date palm and lepidosaphes beckii on citrus. the first study on the scale insects in iraq was by green (1922),followd by bodenheimer (1943-1944) who reported 32 species of diaspididae. hussian (1963) recorded 17 species, derwesh (1965) added two species and al-ali(1977) added five species. this study was conducted to investigate new species of the armored scale and their biology. * part of phd degree by the first author. 12 notes on some armored scale insects materialss and methods a field survey on the host plants of the armored scale was carried out in different region of baghdad province during 2001-2005.samples of infected plants were collected randomly in a petri dish bags and stored in the freezer to make slides identification. adult females was inspected under binocular dissecting microscope to make slides according to watson (2002).insects sample also inspected under compound microscope by using a ocular micrometer to measure length of the armored scale, drawing of each sample by camera lucida.identification keys of mckenzie (1956),gill(1997) and watson(2002), were used to identify species collected during this study. results list of species reported in this study: abgrallaspis cyanophylli (signoret,1869) materials examined : 20 female,grayait (baghdad),10.v.2004,on leaves of centaurea cyanus l. 10 female grayait, mansoor (baghdad) 10.v.2004, 21.ix.2004,on leavesof matthiola incana l. five female, grayait and new baghdad ,10.v.2004, 21.ix.2004 on leaves of diospyros kaki l.f. distribution in iraq : baghdad aonidiella aurantii (maskell,1879) materialss examined : 200 female, grayait, alathamia (baghdad), al-yarmok(baghdad), abugharib(baghdad), jadyria (baghdad),20.ix.2003, 4.ix.2004, 2.iv.2004, 10.v,2004, 10.x.2004, 15.v.2005, on stem and branches on rosa spp. 50 female, grayait, al-kadra (baghdad),4.ix.2004,15.v.2005 on leaves of buxus spp. 100 female, grayait, alathamia, mansoor, al-yarmok,10.v.2004, 4.ix.2004, 20.ix.2005, on leaves of cycas circinalis l. distribution in iraq : baghdad ,basra (gauhar et. a l ,1980) aonidiella citrina (craw,1880) materialss examined : 10 female, al-rashidia(baghdad), new baghdad ,alyarmok,20.v.2004, 10.v.2004, 10.x.2004, on leaves and stem of rosa spp. six female, grayait,15.v.2005,on leaves of buxus spp distribution in iraq : baghdad aonidiella orientalis (newstead ,1894) materialss examined : 20 female, mansoor,20.ix.2004, on leaves of alterathera bettyichiana l. seven female, grayait, gadyria, al-athamia,20.viii.2004, 1.v.2004,on leaves of celosia cristata l. 10 female, grayait, abugharb,14.ix.2003,10.x.2004, on leaves of zizphus spina-christi (l.) 50 female, alyarmok, allatifia(baghdad), new baghdad,20.ix.2002,12.viii.2004, 25.ix.2005, on leaves of populus sp. 20 female, al-kadra,15.v.2004, on leaves of ricinus communis l. 13 i. m. al-malo and m. s. abdul rassoul 50 female, grayait, mansoor, gadyria,20.ix.2002,12.viii.2004,1.ix.2004,on rosa spp. 100 female, abugharb,20.ix.2002, on leaves of dalbergia sissoo roxb. 200 female , grayait, mansoor,20.ix.2002,20.viii.2004, on leaves of ficus spp. 30 female, grayait, alyarmok,20.ix.2004,20.x.2005, on leaves of cycas sp. 10 female, grayait, mansoor,12.v.2004, 1.ix.2004, on leaves of hedera sp. five female, allatifia ,25.ix.2005, on leaves of ficus carica l. 400 female, grayait, allatifia, gadyria,20.ix.2002, 12.v.2004, 25.ix.200, on leaves, branches and fruits of citrus aurantium l.,c. sinensis l.,c. reticulate l. five female, grayait, 12.v.2004, on leaves of vitis vinifera l. 10 female , alyarmok, 12.viii.2004, on leaves of jasminum sambac ait. three female , grayait,20.viii.2004, on leaves of mangifera sp. distribution in iraq : baghdad, basra(bodenheimer,1943), ramadi (al-ali,1977). chrysomphalus aonidum (linnaeus,1758) materialss examined : 30 female, al-dora(baghdad), allatifia,19.v.2004, 10.ix.2004,on leaves of ficus carica l. distribution in iraq : baghdad chrysomphalus dictyospermi (morgan,1889) materialss examined : 10 female, al-rashidia, grayait, mansoor, 20.v.2004, 20.viii.2004,10.ix.2004, on leaves and fruits of citrus aurantium l. distribution in iraq : baghdad. diaspidiotus ostreaeformis (curtis,1843) materialss examined : eight female, al-yousfia(baghdad), 12.viii.2002, 18.viii.2002 , on leaves of populus sp. distribution in iraq : baghdad. diaspidiotus perniciosus (comstock,1881) materialss examined : six female, mansoor, al-kadra,10.v.2004, 4.ix.2004, on leaves of pyrus communis l. distribution in iraq : baghdad. hemiberlesia lataniae (signoret,1869) materialss examined : four female, grayait,15.v.2004, on leaves of dactylic glomerata l distribution in iraq : baghdad, ramadi (bodenhiemer,1943). lepidosaphes beckii (newman,1869) materialss examined : seven female, al-rashidia, allatifia,20.v.2004, 5.ix.2004, on leaves and fruits of citrus aurantium l. distribution in iraq : baghdad. 14 notes on some armored scale insects lepidosaphes conchiformis (gmelin,1789) materialss examined : 20 female, al-dora, al-latifia,10.v.2004, 5.v.2004,20.viii.2005,on leavesof ficus carica l. distribution in iraq : baghdad. lepidosaphes ulmi (linnaeus,1758) materials examined : seven female, mansoor,20.viii.2005,on branches and fruits of malus spp. distribution in iraq : baghdad, chuarta (sulaimaniya)(bodenhiemer,1943). mercetaspis halli (green,1923) materials examined : 20 female , al-kadra,10.v.2004, on leaves of prunus armeniaca l. distribution in iraq : baghdad, mousul,sulaimaniya (bodenhiemer,1943). parlatoria blanchardi (targioni-tozzetti,1868) materials examined : 300 female, grayait, gadyria, abugharb,2.iv.2004, 10.v.2004, 6.vi.2005, on leaves of phoenix dactyliphera l. five female, grayait,2.iv.2004, on leaves of zizyphus spina-christi (l.) distribution in iraq : baghdad, basra(bodenheimer,1943), (al-ali,1977). parlatoria crypta mckenzie,1943 materials examined : eight female, alyarmok,20.vi.2005, on leaves of jasminum sambac ait. distribution in iraq : baghdad, ramadi, shatt al arab(basra) (bodenheimer,1944). parlatoria pergandii comstock,1881 materials examined : four female, gadyria,10.xi.2005, on leaves and fruits of citrus mandarin l distribution in iraq : baghdad, basra, ramadi, ashar(mosul) (bodenheimer,1943). conclusion field survey revealed the presence of 16 species of armored scale, three of them, abgrallaspis cyanophylli (signoret, 1869), aonidiella citrine(craw,1870) and chrysomphalus aonidium (linnaeus,1758). considered to be a new records in iraq. literature cited al-ali, a.s.,1977.phytophagous and entomophagous insects and mites in iraq.nat. hist. res. centre (iraq), publ. no.33, 142pp. 15 i. m. al-malo and m. s. abdul rassoul ben-dov, y., 1990.status of our knowledge of diaspidoid systematics. in: armoured scale insects, their biology, natural enemies and control. world crop pests.(ed.) d. rosen, else.ams.,the netherlands 4a:81-84. bodenheimer, f.s., 1943. a first survey of the coccoidea of iraq. dir. gene. agr. bull. 28:133. bodenheimer,1944. additions to the coccoidea of iraq, with description of two of new species. (hemiptera: homoptera) bull. soc. fouad l er ent. eygpt. 28:81-84. derwesh, a.i. 1965 a primary list of identified insects and same arachnids of iraq. direct. gen. agr. res. proj. baghdad. bull.,121:1-123. gauhar, k. a.; k. a. rashid and z. noory. 1980. population density of the red scale insect aonidiella aurantii mask (diaspididae, homoptera) on citrus trees in basrah, iraq. iraqi j. agric. sci., 6:77-88. gill, r.j., 1997. the scale insects of california part3. the armored scales (homoptera: diaspididae). california pep. food and agri.sacr., california, usa.307pp. green, e.e., 1922. on a small collection of coccidae from mesopotamia, with description of new species. bull. ent. res. lond., 13:496-470pp. hussain, a.a., 1963. provisional list of insects pests and bibliography of insects fauna of iraq. bull. coll. sci., 7:43-83. mcclure, m.s., 1990. impact on host plants in: armored scale insects, their biology, natural enemies and control. world crop pests.(ed.)d..rosen, else. ams. the netherlands 4a :289-292. mckenzie, h.l. 1956. the armored scale insects of california.bull. cali. ins. sur. 5:1-209. watson, g.w., 2002. arthropods of economic importance: diaspididae of the world. an illustrated identification guide and information source. cd.rom. expert center from taxonomic identification (eti),uni. ams., the netherlands. isbn no. 90-75000-48-0. 16 notes on some armored scale insects bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2010) 11 (1): 11-16 ) hemiptera:diaspididae( الحشرات القشرية المدرعةمالحظات عن بعض في العراق **و محمد صالح عبد الرسول *المالو حمدمايمان العراق ابو غريب، بغداد ،، جامعة بغدادكلية الزراعةقسم وقاية النبات، * العراق-باب المعظم، بغدادمتحف التاريخ الطبيعي، جامعة بغداد، ** الخالصة ٢٠٠١نوع من احلشرات القشرية املدرعة ىف مدينة بغداد خالل سنة ١٦مت تسجيل ٢٠٠٥. ثالثة أنواع سجلت ألول مره يف العراق وهىِ aonidiella citrina (craw,1870), abgrallaspis cyanophylli (signoret, 1869), chrysomphalus aonidium (linnaeus,1758). وثالثة عشر نوع مسجله سابقا هي : aonidiella orientalis(newstead), aonidiella aurantii (maskell), diaspidiotus ostreaeformis (curtis), chrysomphalus dictyospermi (morgan), hemiberlesia lataniae (signoret), diaspidiotus perniciosus(comctock), lepidosaphes ulmi (linnaeus), lepidosaphes conchiformis(gmelin), lepidosaphes beckii (newman), parlatoria blanchardi(targionitozzetti) , mercetaspis halli (green), parlatoria crypta mckenzie, parlatoria pergandii comstock. مجعها والعوائل النباتية لكافة األنواع. اريخحددت مناطق مجع العينات وت bull 215 hanaa h. al-saffar bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2017) 14 (1): 215-222 a revised checklist of the robber fly genera (diptera, asilidae) from iraq hanaa h. al –saffar iraq natural history research center and museum / university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq email: hanaahani2014@gmail.com received date: 19.march.2017 accepted date: 26.april.2017 abstract a revised checklist of the robber fly genera (diptera, asilidae) was given during this study in iraq. the investigation showed (21) genera belonging to seven subfamilies, two genera new recorded to entomofauna of iraq (promachus loew, 1848 and genus: dysmacus loew, 1860). eight genera showed in this investigation and eleven genera were recorded previously to iraq. key words: asilidae, brachycera, diptera, genera, iraq, robber fly. introduction asilidae is one of the most important families of order diptera and called robber flies which belonging to super family asiloidea likely originated close to 200 million years ago (wiegmann et al., 2003). adults of this family attack insects of the most orders, such as: bees, other flies, odonata, dragonflies and homoptera, grasshoppers; even some spiders are eaten by the robber flies (lavigne et al., 1978; lavigne, 2001). robber flies are particularly abundant in space, dry and sunny shining localities, which get best conditions in which to show their many forms and behaviors (shurovnekov, 1962). females deposit egg, white / yellow and brown on low-lying plants and some weeds, in the sand, bark or wood. the larval growth is good in hottest regions but many asilid members live no longer than one year (cannings, 1998; geller-grimm, 2005). the species belonging to this family are cosmopolitan (worldwide distributed), with more than 7187 described species in eleven subfamilies and 821 genera, and one of the most largest family belonging to order diptera (geller-grimm, 2008). papavero (1973) proposed eight subfamilies: "apocleinae, asilinae, dasypogoninae, laphriinae, laphystiinae, ommatiinae, stenopogoninae, and trigonomiminae". according to the taxonomist, up to an additional four subfamilies were added by the early 2000s: "atomosinae, dioctriinae, megapodinae and stichopogoninae" (artigas and papavero, 1988; bybee et al., 2004; dikow and gellergrimm, 2004; geller-grimm, 2003a and 2004; lehr, 1969, 1977and1996). the diagnosis characters of aslidae are: vertex usually distinctly excavated between eyes; ocellar tubercle below the dorsal level of compound eyes; compound eyes never holoptic. face relatively long, with a cluster or row of long bristles. proboscis stout and polished; doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2017.14.3.0215 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/cosmopolitan_distribution http://dx.doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2017.14.3.0215 216 a revised checklist of the robber fly genera labella reduced and inconspicuous; hypopharynx protrusible, strongly developed for piercing, the previous characters accepted by the authors (essig, 1947; comstock, 1948; curran, 1965; cole, 1969. oldroyd, 1970; unwin, 1981; scudder and cannings, 2006). materias and methods many specimens of robber flies were collected by sweeping net in various habitats from several regions of iraq during 2016; also i used the unidentified species that stored in iraq natural history museum. then the flies were killed by freezing for 24 hours. specimens were mounted with insect pin and kept in insect collection boxes till diagnosed. used several taxonomic keys identification and diagnosed genera such as: engel, 1930; curran, 1965; geller grimm 2003b, 2008; londt, 2005; lehr et al. 2007 and hayat et al. 2008. the specimens were deposited in department of entomology and invertebrates, iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad. results and discussion in this study the survey showed 10 genera belonging to 6 subfamilies; also the other genera that have not been gotten throughout the period of the current work were referred to them and global distribution had been as fallow: 1. subfamily: apocelinae papavero, 1973 genus: apoclea macquarit, 1838 in iraq this genus represented as apoclea femoralis (wiedemann, 1828) recorded by janssens (1961) and elhaidari et al. (1972) as apoclea sp. distribution: afrotropical, oriemntal and palearctic regions (geller-grimm, 2003a). material examined: two male specimens were collected from baghdad on 15 april 2016. genus: philodicus loew, 1847 in iraq this genus represented as philodicus ponticus (bigot, 1880), is recorded to iraq by khalaf and al-omar, 1974. distribution: afrotropical , oriental , and palearctic regions (geller-grimm, 2003a). material examined: one male specimen was collected from baghdad on 7 august 2016. the species philodicus bimaculatus beck., recorded to iraq by elhaidari et al.( 1972). genus: promachus loew, 1848 distribution: australian, afrotropical, neotropical, nearctic, oriental and palearctic regions (geller-grimm, 2003a). material examined: as promucus sp. two male specimens examined which collected from dohuk province and stored in iraq natural history on august 2013. this genus as new record for iraq. 2-subfamily: asilinae latreile, 1802 genus: aneomochtherus lehr, 1996 distribution: afrotropical, oriental and palearctic regions (geller-grimm, 2003a). the species aneomochtherus mesopotamicus (janssens, 1961), recorded to iraq by (janssens, 1961; lehr, 1988). genus: dysmacus loew, 1860 distribution: neotropical and palearctic regions (geller-grimm, 2003a) material examined: there were two male specimens which collected from baghdad at june 2016, this genus as a new record to iraq. 217 hanaa h. al-saffar genus: eccoptopus loew, 1860. in iraq this genus represented as eccoptopus longitarsis (macquart, 1838) recorded by khalaf and al-omar, (1974). distribution: palearctic region (geller-grimm, 2003a). material examined: three specimens were collected from baghdad during 16 june 2016. genus: eutolmus loew, 1848 distribution: palearctic region (geller-grimm, 2003a). eutolmus mordax (loew, 1848) this species was recorded to iraq by (khalaf and al-omar, 1984). genus: machimus loew, 1849 in iraq this genus represented as machimus sp. by elhaidari et al, 1974 distribution: afrotropical, nearctic, neotropical, oriental and palearctic regions (gellergrimm, 2003a). material examined: one samples was collected from messan at 6, june 2016 as machimus sp. according to jannens (1961), the species machimus chaldaeus, jannens 1961 was found to insect fauna of iraq. genus: neomochtherus, osten sacken, 1878 distribution: palearctic, nearctic, oriantal and afrotropical regions (insectoid info.). the species neomochtherus mesopotamicus janssens, 1961 was found of iraq (jannens, 1961). genus turkiella lehr, 1996 distribution: palearctic region (geller-grimm, 2003a). the genus was represented as turkiella cervinus (loew, 1850) in iraq (insectoid info.). 3subfamily: dasypogoninae macquart, 1838 genus: dasypogon meigen, 1803 distribution: palearctic and oriental regions (geller-grimm, 2003a). material examined: one specimen was collected from diyala province at 4may 2016 as dasypogon sp. previously, ghahari et al. (2014) was referred to the species dasypogon magisi tomasovic 1999 was found in iraq. genus: saropogon loew, 1847 distribution: palearctic, nearctic, afrotropical and neotropical regions (geller-grimm, 2003a). the species of saropogon albicans janssens, 1961 was found in iraq (janssens, 1961). 4subfamily: laphriinae macquart, 1838 genus: laphria meigen ,1803 distribution: nearctic, neotropical and palearctic regions (geller-grimm, 2003a). material examined: one specimen was collected from wasit province, kut at 7 june 2016 as laphria sp. ghahari et al. (2014.) referred to the species laphria dizonias loew, 1847 found in iraq. genus: nusa walker, 1851 218 a revised checklist of the robber fly genera distribution: indo-australian region, afrotropical, oreintal, palearctic and neotropical regions (geller-grimm, 2003a). nusa ramicosa loew, 1971 (ghahari et al., 2014). genus: psilocurus loew, 1874 distribution: nearctic, neotropical and palearctic regions (insectoid info.). in iraq the species of psilocurus hypooygialis (paramonov, 1930) (ghahari et al., 2014). 5subfamily: laphystiinae hendel , 1936 genus laphystia loew, 1847 distribution: oriental, nearctic , neotropical, afrotropicl and palearctic regions (gellergrimm, 2003a). material examined: the specimens as laphystia erberi schiner, 1866; one from al tagi, baghdad on 5 april 2016, one from al-hussaynia, karbala province on 10 may 2016 and one from al-najaf at 15 april 2016. this species recorded to iraq by (el-haidary et al., 1971). furthermore, the species of laphystia kuehlhorni janssens, 1961 was recorded by janssens (1961) for iraq. genus: perasis hermann, 1906 distribution: afrotropical, nearctic, neotropical and palearctic regions (geller-grimm, 2003a). this genus was founded in iraq as perasis sp. (elhaidarei et al.,1971) 6subfamily: stichopogoninae hardy, 1930 genus: rhadinus loew, 1856 distribution: palearctic and afrotropical regions (geller-grimm, 2003a); this genus represented as the species r. megalonix loew, 1865 was found in iraq (insectoid info.). genus: stichopogon loew, 1847 distribution: afrotropical, australian, nearctic, neotropical and palearctic regions (gellergrimm, 2003a). material examined: two specimens as stichopogon scaliger loew, 1847 were collected from mayssan at 14 july 2016 (khalaf and al-omar, 1974 showed to the species in iraq). 7subfamily: stenopogoninae hull, 1962 genus: galactopogon engel, 1928 distribution: palearctic region (insectoid info.). the species of g. fumipennis janssens, 1961 was found in iraq (janssens, 1961). genus: stenopogon loew, 1847 distribution: palearcitc, neotropical, indoaustralian region and afrotropical regions. in iraq, according to references the species of s. junceus wide. 1820 was recorded by elhaideri (1972), and s. abdulrassuli lehr, 1984 was listed by insectoid info. literature cited artigas, j.n. and papavero, n. 1988. the american genera of asilidae (diptera): keys for identification with an atlas of female spermathecae and other morphological details. ii. key to genera of dasypogoninae macquart, with description of new genera and species and new synonymies. gayana zoologica, 52: 199–260. 219 hanaa h. al-saffar bybee, s.m., taylor, s.d., nelson, c.r. and whiting, m.f. 2004. a phylogeny of robber flies (diptera: asilidae) at the subfamilies level: molecular evidence. molecular phylogenetics and evolution, 30: 789–797 cannings, r.a. 1998. robber flies (insecta: diptera: asilidae). (available at http://www.eman-res.caeman/reports/publications/99-montane/robber_f/intro.html. cole, f.r. 1969. the flies of western north america. university of california press berkeley and los angeles, 693 pp. comstock , j.h. 1948. an introduction to entomology. ninth edition revised. ithaca, new york comstock publishing company inc 1064 pp. (diptera,chapter 38 : 77 – 876. ) curran, c.h. 1965. the families and genera of north american diptera. 2nd rev. ed. henry trip, 515 pp. dikow, t. and geller-grimm, f. 2004. information on robber fly phylogeny: introduction with a brief history of former studies. (available at http://www.geller grimm.de/genera19.htm). engel, e.o. 1930. asilidae. pp. 336-362. in: lidner, e. (eds.), naturaliensammlung: die fliegen der palaearktischen region. stuttgart. ericson, r.o. 1961. a glossary of some foreign–language terms in entomology. agricultural handbook, no. 218, u. s. government printing office, 59 pp. essig, e.o. 1947. collage entomology. new york the macmillan book company, 900 pp. ( order : diptera, chapter 35 :728 – 818 ). geller-grimm, f. 2003a. a world catalogue of the genera of the family asilidae (diptera). studia dipterologica, 10, 473–526. geller-grimm, f. 2003b. photographic atlas and identification key to the robber flies of germany (diptera: asilidae) fotoatlas und bestimmungsschlüssel der raubfliegen deutschland (diptera: asilidae). halle (saale): ampyx publishing house. geller-grimm, f. 2004. key to the subfamilies of asilidae (diptera) after artigas and papavero, 1988. (available at http:// www.geller-grimm.de/subfam.htm). geller-grimm, f. 2008. robber flies (asilidae) database, species. (available at http: //www.geller grimm.de/catalog/species.htm) ghahari, h., hayat, r., lavigne, r.j. and ostovan, h. 2014. an annotated checklist of iranian asilidae (insecta: diptera: brachycera: asiloidea) linzer biology beitrate, 46(2): 1379-1446. hayat, r., ghahari, h., lavigne, r. and ostovan h. 2008. iranian asilidae (insecta: diptera). turkish journal of zoology, 32: 175-195. insectoid.info: available at: http://insectoid.info/flies/robber-flies/ 220 a revised checklist of the robber fly genera janssens, e. 1961. sur quelques dipteres (asilidae) de l’iraq. bulletin institut royal des sciences naturelles de belgique, 37: 1-8. khalaf, a.n. and al-omar, m.a. 1974. a second list of insects from iraq. biological research center publication, no. 2, 41pp. lavigne, r.j. 2001. predator-prey database for the family asilidae (hexapoda: diptera) (available at: http://www.geller-grimm.de/catalog/lavigne.htm). lavigne, r., dennis, s. and gowen, j.a. 1978. asilid literature update 1956-1976 including a brief review of robber fly biology. university of wyoming agricultural experiment station science monograph 36. 134 pp. (available at: http://www.uwyo.edu/ces/rangemgt.htm). lehr, p.a. 1969. an ecological and morphological analysis of robber flies (dipt., asilidae), communication ii. entomological review, 48: 341–357. lehr, p.a. 1977. robber flies from the subfamilies atomosiinae and laphriinae (diptera, asilidae) from central asia and kazakhstan. entomological review, 56, 123–131. lehr, p.a. 1988. asilidae, pp. 197-326. in: soos a. and l. papp (eds), catalogue of palearctic diptera. elsevier science publishing co. inc. amsterdam, 476 pp. lehr, p.a. (1996) robber flies of subfamily asilinae (diptera, asilidae) of the palearctic: ecological and morphological analysis, taxonomy and evolution. dalnauka, vladivostok, 184 pp. (in russian). (cited in steve and barnes, 2011). lehr, p.a., ghahari h. and ostovan h. 2007. a contribution to the robber flies of subfamilies stenopogoninae and asilinae (diptera: asilidae) from iran. far eastern entomologist, 173: 1-14. londt, j.g.h. 2005. an annotated key to the genera of afrotropical apocleinae, with descriptions of six new genera (diptera: asilidae). tijdschrift voor entomologie, 148:39 62. oldroyd, h. 1970. diptera, introduction and key to the families. handbookof identification of britsh insects. royal entomological society of london, volume 9, part 1: 104 pp. papavero, n. 1973. studies of asilidae (diptera) systematics and evolution. i. a preliminary classification in subfamilies. arquivos de zoologia (são paulo), 23: 217–274. scudder, g.g.e. and cannings, r.a. 2006. the diptera families of british colombia. 1-158. shurovnekov, b.g. 1962. field entomophagous predators (coleoptera, carabidae, and diptera, asilidae) and factors determining their efficiency. entomological review, 41: 476-485. stevene, d. and barnes, j.k. 2011. tentative key to robber fly (diptera: asilidae) subfamilies based on pupal cases. zootaxa, 3031: 37–46 221 hanaa h. al-saffar unwin, d.m. 1981. a key to the families of british diptera. field studies, 5: 513-553. wiegmann, b.m., yeates, d.k., thorne, j.l. and kishino, h. 2003. time flies, a new molecular time‐scale for brachyceran fly evolution without a clock. systematic biology, 52:745‐756. 222 a revised checklist of the robber fly genera bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2016) 14 (1): 215-222 مراجعة لقائمة اجناس عائلة الذباب السارق asilidae في العراق هناء هاني عبد الحسين الصفار جامعة بغداد/ مركز بحوث و متحف التاريخ الطبيعي الخالصة خالل هذه family asilidaeان المراجعة لقائمة اجناس عائلة الذباب السارق سجل جنسين جديدان الى المجموعة .جنسا تعود الى سبع عويالت(12)الدراسة أظهرت :االعراقية و هم (promachus loew, 1848 and dysmacus loew,1860) تمت دراسة ثمانية اجناس تعود الى العائلة فضال عن احد عشر جنسا تسجيلها مسبقا . عينات من مناطق مختلفة من العراقتم جمع ال. لدراسات سابقة للعراق bull 307 afkar m. hadi and ahlam j. taher bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2017) 14 (4): 307-313 new record of protozoan nyctotherus hardwickii (janakidevi, 1961) from rough-tailed gecko cyrtopodion scabrum in baghdad, iraq afkar m. hadi* and ahlam j. taher** * iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq **department of biology, college of education for pure sciences (ibn alhaitham), university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq *corresponding author: afkar_hadi_iraq@yahoo.com received date: 12 november 2017 accepted date: 03 december 2017 abstract the ciliate species isolated from midgut and hindgut of rough-tailed gecko cyrtopodion scabrum (heyden, 1827), identified as nyctotherus hardwickii was collected from many regions of baghdad, iraq. the current study deals with a description and comparison of the morphology and morphometric characters of this species for the first time in iraq. key words: ciliates, morphmetric, morphology, nyctotherus hardwickii, protozoan. introduction rough-tailed gecko is a species of gecko cyrtopodion scabrum (heyden, 1827), its synonyms are :gymnodactylus scaber, cyrtodactylus scaber and stenodactylus scaber (roughscaled gecko) that distributed in turky, iraq, iran, qatar, jordan, afghanistan, saudi arabia, oman, united arab emirates, sudan, ethiopia, eritrea, india, pakistan, egypt, kuwait, usa (introduced to texas) (rosler, 2000) . in iraq mahdi and georg (1969) recorded this roughtailed gecko in many regions, but there are few studies about their protozoan and other parasites infected by them. recordings of nyctotherus sp. are few in the world at large and in iraq in particular; that satbige et al. (2017) recorded from two pet turtle were presented with a history of diarrhea, dehydration, weight loss and passage of undigested food in the faeces. ze`phyrin et al. (2013) described two species of nyctotheridae in bufo regularis (amphibia: anura) from the northwest of cameroon. rataj et al. (2011) recoded nyctotherus sp. in spiny-tailed lizards uromastyx hardwickii and uromastyx dispar. in iraq, al-mayali et al. (2010) recorded n. ovalis in cockroach periplaneta americana (l.) in al-diwaniya province. the current study describes the ciliate species of n. hardwickii isolated from the gut of rough-tailed gecko cyrtopodion scabrum for the first time in baghdad capital of iraq. http://dx.doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2017.14.4.0307 308 new record of protozoan nyctotherus hardwickii materials and methods the rough-tailed gecko (cyrtopodion scabrum) were collected from different localities of baghdad city in may to october 2016. all gecko were diagnosed in the iraqi natural history museum and researches center where it is the place of this work. hosts were dissected and removed their digestive systems were removed, midgut, hindgut were taken out separately and kept in different watch glasses containing saline (0.6% nacl) in distilled water solution. the gut smears were first examined under a light microscope and then a permanent preparation was made. fixation was done by canada balsam after staining with aceto carmine stain. results and discussion during the present study 28 gecko were dissected only 16 were positive for the presence of n. hardwickii in their guts; the infection rate was 57.14%. classification kingdom: protozoa phylum: ciliophora class: polyhymenophorea order: heterotrichida family: nyctotheridae genus: nyctotherus leidy, 1849 species: hardwickii janakidevi, 1961 morphology the body of the present ciliate is short elongate as short pearlshape. it is wide at posterior and narrow at the anterior. the body is covered with the numerous cilia which are all the same length and same distribution but increase in the peristome (tab. 1). the boundary between the ectoplasm and the endoplasm is clear. ectoplasm is more homogenous and transparent, while endoplasm is opaque due to multiple organelles. macronucleus is cup-shape, lies in anterior part, often having very large spherules chromatin. micronucleus is spherical dote, superimposed on the macronucleus on the right. peristome started up at middle of the body; cytopharynx is almost straight and uniform in diameter, it may reach to the posterior region with obtuse angle. many glycogen bodies were distributed in endoplasm, giant form of glycogen body in anterior region, hence brown to black brown (pl.1). there is a caudal projection in mid posterior end that eject and disappear during emotion containing cytopyge slit like which lead to contractile vacuole (fig.1). plate (1):light micrograph directly smear of n. hardwickii without stain, 400x. 309 afkar m. hadi and ahlam j. taher figure (1): general morphology of n. hardwickii, drawing . abbreviations: cv-contractile vacuoles, cycytopyge, cyp-cytopharanx, gb-glycogen body, infinfundibulum, mamacronucleus, mi-micronucleus, peperistome. the movement the cilia is forward and then moves a rotational motion, decentralized and turns its body in different directions; this shows a difference in the shape and location of the macronucleus (pl.2). plate (2): a difference in the shape and location of the macronucleus during the movement. 310 new record of protozoan nyctotherus hardwickii type of the host: the rough-tailed gecko, cyrtopodion scabrum type of the locality: adhamiya middle of baghdad capital of iraq. habitat: mid and hindgut. type of the specimens: permanent preparation belonging to this species are kept in the department of parasitology, iraq natural history researches center and museum, university of baghdad, iraq. table (1): comparison description of the species n. hardwickii comparative characters n. hardwickii according to janakidevi (1961) n. hardwickii according present author body shape pear-shaped with plastic pellicle short pearl shape dimensions length 110.0–190.0µ, average 153.4 µ; range of breadth 60.0– 111.0 µ, average 86.0 µ length 3.9 3.7 mm and 3.1 3 mm width macronucleus cup-shaped and suspended by two short karyophores. big cup-shape micronucleus superimposed on the macronucleus spherical dote, superimposed on the macronucleus peristome started up middle of the body cytopharynx long and almost reaching the posterior end of body and lined with membranelles on one side only almost straight and uniform in diameter, it may reach to the posterior region with obtuse angle contractile vacuole single, leading into a cytopygeal canal single, leading into a cytopygeal canal cytopyge slit like which lead to contractile vacuole glycogen body a densely granulated area in front of macronucleus in anterior region, hence brown to black brown host uromastix hardwickii cyrtopodion scabrum locality india, maharashtra. baghdad, iraq description: the ciliate lives in the middle and posterior intestine of the rough-tailed gecko, collected from many regions of baghdad capital of iraq. the cell is pearl-shape, with the anterior end narrower than the posterior end. it measures about 3.9 3.7 mm length, 3.1 3 mm width, macronucleus 2.2 2 mm length, 0.6 0.8 mm width, glycogen body 0.3 0.4 mm length, 0.4 0.5 mm width, peristome length about 1.8 – 2 mm with obtuse angle 130 º -125 º (tab. 2) table (2): morphometric characters of n. hardwickii. cell length (mm) cell width (mm) mn. length (mm) mn. width (mm) gb. length (mm) gb. width (mm) pe. length (mm) aip(º) max 3.9 3.1 2.5 0.6 0.3 0.3 1.8 130 mean 3.8 3.05 2.35 0.7 0.35 0.4 2 127.5 min 3.7 3 2.2 0.8 0.4 0.5 2.2 125 sd 0.1 0.5 0.15 0.1 0.5 0.2 0.2 2.5 311 afkar m. hadi and ahlam j. taher notes. aip-angle infundibulumperistome in degree, gb-glycogen body, max-maximum, min-minimum, mnmacronucleus, pe -peristome, sdstandard deviation. the current study revealed a high rate of infection with intestinal protozoa in gecko 57.14% when compared with the previous studies. in turkey, nurkan et al. (2001) recorded 31.25% rate of infection with n. hardwickii in the spinylizard, laudakia stellio stellio, by rectal contents. this difference may be due to the way of which the samples were obtained. however, rayyan et al. (2013) recorded 90% rate of infection with n. hardwickii of 67 the roucktail rock agama, laudakia stellio from gaza strip, palestine. this difference is due to the difference of sample sizes. there is no pre-study in iraq about the gecko being infected with this ciliate protozoan. therefore, there is no comparison in the rates of infection in iraq. accordingly, this study is considered the first record of the n. harwickii in iraqi gecko. acknowledgements the authors wish to thank mr. saman r. afrasiab (iraq natural history researches center and museum) for diagnosis the geckos. literature cited al-mayali, h. m., muhammed, h. s. and al-yaqoobi, m.2010. parasites of cockroach periplaneta americana (l.) in al-diwaniya province, iraq. journal thi-qar sciences, 2 (3): 93-104. janakidevi, k. 1961. a new ciliate from the spiny tailed lizard. z. parasitenk., 21 : 155-158. (cited by : mahabal, a. and sharma, r.m. 2012. fauna of maharashtra, state fauna series, 20(part-2). published by the director, zoological survey india, kolkata, 673pp. mahdi, n. and georg, p. v. 1969. a systematic list of the vertebrates of iraq. university of baghdad, iraq natural history museum, publication, no. 26: 1-104. nurkan, u., bayram, g. and semih, u. 2001. protozoa living in the rectum of the spinylizard, laudakia stellio stellio (linnaeus, 1758) (reptilia: lacertilia) and their structures. türkiye parazitoloji dergisi, 25 (1): 79-83. rataj, v. l., renata, l.k., ksenija, v., urška, m. and alenka, d. 2011. parasites in pet reptiles. acta veterinaria scandinavica, 53(33):10-20. rayyan, a. , al-zain, b. and al-hindi, a. 2013. gastrointestinal parasites of the rock tail rock agama, laudakia stellio from gaza strip, palestine. journal of biology, 1(2): 439. rosler, h. 2000. die postanale beschuppung bei cyrtodactylus gray 1827 und cyrtopodion fitzinger 1843 funktionelle und taxonomische aspekte (sauria: gekkonidae). gekkota, 2: 154-207. satbige, a. s., kasaralikar, v. r., halmandge, s. c. and rajendran, c. 2017. nyctotherus sp. infection in pet turtle: a case report. journal parasitic diseases,41(2):590-592. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=satbige%20as%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=28615885 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=kasaralikar%20vr%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=28615885 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=halmandge%20sc%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=28615885 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=rajendran%20c%5bauthor%5d&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=28615885 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28615885 312 new record of protozoan nyctotherus hardwickii zéphyrin, f., paul, a.n., pierre, n., geneviève, b., philippe, b. bernard, v. and télesphore, s. 2013. description of two new species of sicuophoridae and nyctotheridae (heterotrichina), endocommensal in the rectal ampulla of bufo regularis (amphibia: anura) from the northwest of cameroon. protistology, 8 (1): 16–21. 313 afkar m. hadi and ahlam j. taher bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2017) 14 (4): 307-313 nyctotherus hardwickii (janakidevi, 1961)تسجيل جديد للهدبي العراق، في بغداد cyrtopodion scabrumمن الوزغ خشن الذيل أفكار مسلم هادي * و احالم جاسم طاهر ** بغداد جامعة الطبيعي، التاريخ ومتحف بحوث مركز* بغداد جامعة التربية ابن الهيثم للعلوم الصرفة، كلية** 13/21/1122 :تاريخ القبول 21/22/1122 :تاريخ االستالم الخالصة cyrtopodionعزل احد انواع الهدبيات من القناة الهضمية للوزغ خشن الذيل scabrum و شخص على انه ،(janakidevi, 1961) nyctotherus hardwickii . لفة من محافظة بغداد، العرقلنماذج جمعت من مناطق مخت وصف هذا النوع مع اجراء مقارنة للشكل الخارجي له، كما تم اخذ القياسات لهذا النوع . ألول مرة في العراق 2 7 augul et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2012) 12 (2): 7-13 occurrence of hemipteran species on alfalfa plant in baghdad razzaq sh. augul * nassreen n. mzhr** m. s. abul-rassoul * * baghdad university /iraq natural history museum **al-mustansiriyah university/ college of science abstract hemipteran species of alfalfa plant surveyed in abu ghraib, baghdad during the months of april, may and october of 2010. the study was registered, eight species belonging to eight genera and six families. the results showed that deracoris sp. kirschbaum,1855 and campylomma diversicornis reuter, 1878 the most abundant species while lygaeus pandurus scop. and pyrrhocorius apterus (linnaeus 1758) were the lowest during the study period. introduction medicago sativa, (family: legminosae), is the most important forage crop. alfalfa is a perennial legume with high protein content dense foliage. a stand alfalfa sometimes lives for as long as 30 years and therefore, provides a relatively stable and favorable habitat for a large number of insects and arthropods. (al suhaibani, 1996). hemiptera known as true bugs, it is a very large and diverse order. they are found all over the world; there are 80,000 described species in 37 families (forero, 2006). the defining feature of hemipterans is their possession of mouthparts where the mandibles and maxillae have evolved into a proboscis, sheathed within a modified labium to form a beak or rostrum which is capable of piercing tissues (usually plant tissues) and sucking out the liquidstypically sap. they may be held roofwise over the body, or held flat on the back, with the ends overlapping, the hind wings are entirely membranous and are usually shorter than the fore wing, the antennae in hemiptera are typically five segmented, and the tarsi of the legs are three segmented or shorter (schuh and slater, 1995). they pierce tissues of plants and feed on their juices (knight,1941; mcgavin, 1992), live as entomophagous (hassanzadeh et al.,(2009) and many of them are serious plant pests and pollinating (safavi, 1973). many species of bugs catch other insects and hence beneficial from an agricultural point of view (linnavuori and hosseini, 2000). the aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of the hemipteran species which were founded on alfalfa in baghdad. material and methods specimens were collected from alfalfa field of abu-ghraib in april, may, october (2010) by standard sweeping net and held aspirator, insect specimens of large and medium size were mounted on pin while small insects were preserved in 70% alcohol. locality and date of collection were provided and using keys for diagnosed them such as falamarzi, et al.(2009); priesner, and alfieri, (1953); triplehorn and johnson, (2005); parshley, (1915); steill and meyer, (2003) and anufriev, (2001). 8 occurrence of hemipteran species in addition they compared with specimens which kept at iraq natural history research center and museum university of baghdad/ baghdad iraq. result and discussion in this study which have been taken for gathering and identification of the bugs in the field of alfalfa in abu-ghraib in 2010, totally (8) specie. these species, belonging to (8) genera and (6) families have been collected (table1), figure (1). these species and their particular features were as follows: 1-miridae (the plant bug): there are small to medium, terrestrial insect, usually oval-shaped or elongate and measuring less than 12mm in length. in this family 3 genera and 3 species contain deracoris sp., campylomma diversicoruis reuter, 1878, and creontiales pallidus. in this investigation the species deracoris sp. was registered in high population. it was predator and they have an important role in decrease of aphid population and nymphs of phytophagous lygus; the lygus is the most important alfalfa pest in the flower stage (conti and bin, 2001; khanjani, 2005). this result was agreement with mirab-balou, et al. (2007). 2-anthocoridae (the minute pirate bugs): members of anthocoridae are relatively small (15 mm) having an oval or elongate-oval shape, most are brownish in-general coloration, wing marking or shading gives some species a checkered appearance. body somewhat flattened, and may be either glabrous or pubescent. the head prolonged interiorly, rostrum apparently three segmented, held away from the lower surface of head. antennae four segmented; a pair of ocelli present or absent; hemi elytra with both cuneus and embolium separated by a distinct fracture; tarsi three segment, no ariolia. male genitalia asymmetrical and ovipositor present, often reduced or absent. (horton, 2008; kelton, 1978). the species of orius albidipennis was collected only this species was registered in high population like the species deracoris sp. mirab-balou et al. (2007) mentioned that orius species were crowded and predator of phytophagous mite, insect eggs, aphids thrips and small caterpillars. 3-geocoridae (big-eyed bugs): small,oblong-oval having the head broader than long, and prominent eyes that curve backward and overlap the front of pronotum. a distinguishing feature of adult big-eyed bugs is the very short or absent claval commisure, the insects vary mottled, striped, and black species, these insects are very common in many types of agricultural fields (mead, 2004). geocoris which is worldwide in distribution, included 124 described species. of this family geocoris pallidipearis was collected. this bugs feeds upon smaller insects, butterflies eggs, the nymphs of phytophagous bugs, aphids and mites geocorius sp., are among the most abundant and important predaceous insects in many cropping systems geocorius sp. are known to feed on plants, however they rarely cause economic damage, their most distinguishing characteristic is their large, bulging eyes. (hagler and cohen, 1991). 4rhopalidae (scentless plant bugs): small to medium sized insects that are heavily punctuate and pubescent, and small spines on the head, pronotum and legs, these bugs resemble the coreid bugs, but are smaller and have a greatly reduced ostiole. or scent gland opening, prescence of numerous viens. in this family just liorhyssus hyalinus was collected. 9 augul et al. 5-lygaeidae (seed bugs): the lygaeidae are one of the larger and more diverse families in the hemiptera, with over 4000 species in 5000 genera, and are commonly known as seed bugs even through a number of species do not feed on seed; some are predators on other insects and others feed blood (hematophagy) (schuh and slater, 1995). of this family lygaeus pandurus scop. was collected in lowest population. 6-pyrrohcoridae (red bugs): body medium-sized to large (6-30 mm), more or less elongate oval, rarely ant-mimetic. colour frequently bright red or yellow and black, sometimes dark. head usually simple; clypeus surpassing mandibular plates; ocelli lacking; antenna and labium four-segmented. pronotum trapeziform, usually with well developed anterior collar, lateral margins frequently more or less widely, calli present; metathoracic scent gland ostioles more or less reduced. scutellum triangular, small, shorter than clavus. fore wings with distinct claval commisure; membrane of macropterous morphs usually with two basal cells and 78 branching longitudinal veins. legs usually without modifications, femora unarmed or at most with small spines or denticles ventrally; tarsi three-segmented. (schun and slater, 1995). of this family pyrrhocorius apterus (linnaeus 1758). was collected. this insect feed on the seed, plants fallen on the land and from the other insect, but there are not injurious in alfalfa field. table (1): the percentage of the presence of hemipteran species on alfalfa field. species percentage % miridae deracoris sp. campylomma diversicornis crenotiales pallidus 31.6% 30 % 5.4% anthocoridae orius albidipennis 31.6% geocoridae geocoris pallidipearis 0.5% rhopalidae liorhyssus hyalinus 0.5% lygaeidae lygaeus pandurus 0.2% pyrrhocoridae pyrrhocoris apterus 0.2% literature cited alsuhaibani, a. m. (1996). entomofauna of alfalfa in riyadh, saudi arabia. j. king saud univ. agr. sci. 8(2): 269-277. 10 occurrence of hemipteran species anufriev, g. a.; danzig, e. m.; emeljanov, a. f.; golub, v. b.; kanyukova, e. v.; kerzher, i. m.; konovalova, z. a.; pashchenko, n. f.; tshernova, g. p. and vinokurov, n. n.(2001). keys of the insects of far east of the ussr homoptera and heteroptera volume ii. nauka pull. house. 232pp. conti, e. and f. bin, (2001). native lygus spp. (heteroptera: miridae) damaging introuduced hibiscus cannabinus in italy. j. econ. entomo., 94: 648-657. falamarzi, sh.; asadi, gh. and hosseini, r. (2009). species inventory preys and host plants of anhocoridae sensu lato (hemiptera: heteroptera) in shiraz and envirous (iran, fars province). act. entomol. mus.nat. pragae 49(1): 33-42. forero, d.(2006). new heteroptera (insect: hemiptera) record from colombia .caldasia, 28(1): 125-128. hagler,j.r. and cohen,a.c.(1991).prey selection by in vitro-and field-reared geocorius punctipes.entomol.exp.appl.59:201-205. hassanzadeh, m.; pourabad, r. f.; gharaat, m. and beykpor, a. r. 2009. a study on the heteroptera fauna of shend abad region and environ (iran). mun. ent. zool. 4(2): 527-530. horton, d. r. (2008). minut pirate bugs (hemiptera: anthocoridae). encyclo. entomol. http://springerlink.com/content/k753v6020t2r6628/fulltext.html. kelton, l. a. (1978). the anthocoridae of canada and alaska heteroptera: anthocoridae. the insect and arachnids of canada part (4) .agri. canada res. pub.: 101pp. knight, h. h. 1941. the plant bugs or miridae of illinois. bull. illinois natural histroy survey. 22: 1-234. linnavuori, r. f. and hosseini, r. (2000). heteroptera of guilan part1. guilan university. 94pp. parshley, h. m. (1915). systematic papers on new england hemiptera, psyche 22: 88-93. priesner, and alfieri, a. (1953). review of hemiptera heteroptera known to us from egypt. bull. soc. fouad entom. (1):1-119. safavi, m. 1973. cle de determination des families d’ hemipteres heteroteres de l iran. j. e.s.i. 1(1): 3-11. schuh, r. t. and slater, j. a. 1995. true bugs of the world (hemiptera: heteroptera) classification and natural history. cornell unive. press, ithaca, ny and london. p.336. steill, j. and meyer, j. (2003). the rhopalidae of florida. insect classification project. 4(30): 1-23. triplehorn, c. a. and johnson, n. f.(2005). borror and delongs introduction of the study of the insects. 7th edition, thomson. united state of america. 864pp. http://springerlink.com/content/k753v6020t2r6628/fulltext.html 11 augul et al. mead, f. w. (2004). big-eyed bugs, geocorius spp. (insect: hemiptera) lygaeidae. http:// entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/creatures. mcgavin, g. c. 1992. insects of the northern hemisphere, richard lewington. dragons world ltd. published. 192pp. mirab-balon, m.; khanjani, m. and zolfaghari, m. (2007). the preliminary study of true bugs (hemiptera: heteroptera) fauna in the alfalfa field of hamadan province (western iran). pak. entomol. 29 (1): 5-8. 12 occurrence of hemipteran species figure (1): hemipteran species which is found on alfalfa field in baghdad. [a: deraecoris sp, b: campylomma diversicornis, c: creontiales pallidus, d: orius albidipennisv, e: geocoris pallidipearis, f: lygaeus pandurus, g: pyrrhocorius apterus, h: liorhyssus hyalinus] 13 augul et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2012) 12 (2): 7-13 تواجد أنواع نصفیة األجنحة على نبات الجت في محافظة بغداد *محمد صالح عبد الرسول و** نسرین نوري مزھر و* رزاق شعالن عكل متحف التاریخ الطبیعي، جامعة بغداد* الجامعة المستنصریة،كلیة العلوم ** الخالصة المتواج دة ) (order: hemipteraاجري مس ح ألن واع رتب ة نص فیة األجنح ة م ایس و بغ داد خ الل األش ھر نیس ان ، ف ي حق ول الج ت لمنطق ة أب ي غری ب وق د س جل خ الل الدراس ة ثمانی ة أن واع تع ود ال ى ٢٠١٠وتش رین األول لس نة campylomma ثمانی ة أجن اس تق ع ض من س تة عوائ ل كم ا س جل النوع ان diversicornis reuter,1878 و deraecoris sp. . و.lygaeus pandurus scop بینم ا ك ان النوع ان ، بأع داد كبی رة pyrrhocorius papterus( linnaeus 1758) بأع داد قلیل ة ج دا خ الل فت رة .الدراسة 1 1 abdul-rassoul & et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2009)10 (4): 1-9 seasonal abundance of third instar larvae of flies (order: diptera) on the exposed carcasses m. s. abdul-rassoul, razzaq sh. augul, hana ◌a h. al-saffar iraqi natural history museum abstract the study aims to identify the third instar larvae of fly species (order : diptera) feeding on carcasses (fishes and rabbits). two families (calliphoridae and sarcophagidae), were recorded with highest rate in calliphoridae species. the following species had been registered in accordance with their prevalence respectively; calliphora vicina rob.-desvoidy, chrysomya albiceps (wiedmann), chrysomy megacephala (fabricius), sarcophaga sp. and lucilia sericata (meigen). the highest rate has been registered calliphora vicina during february, november, december and january at rate 100%, the larvae of this fly have not been observed during july, august, september and october. the highest rate of chrysomya albiceps during october, whereas it didn’t appear during february, march, july, november, december and january. as for the appearance of ch.megacephala, was highest registered during july, but there was no incidence of its appearance during february, march, april, november, december and january. sarcophaga sp. had been registered at high rate in summer, the highest rate in august, but there was no observation during cold month. third instar larvae of lucilia sericata were registered in lowest rate compared with other species, was highest rate in march, whereas have not been registered during february, may, july, august, september, october, november, december and january. this study was concluded the total number of the larvae of these species collected on carcasses was less in months of summer compared than other months. introduction dipterous larvae are soft-bodied, generally with no clear distinction between thorax and abdomen often the mouthparts, with two pairs of spiracles (anterior and posterior). these are the only, practical means of identifying larvae, especially among the smooth maggots of the cyclorrhapha (zumpt, 1965). there are three larval instars in this group of diptera, but the third one much longest; therefore it is the most useful tools for identification. the body is consist of eleven apparent segments, the integument is not sclerotized and appears as a white, tough and wrinkled skin, with some areas of small spines that give a roughened appearance, the spines are not always black and, if colourless, are difficult to see (smith, 1973). sometimes the form of the spiracles are the most useful single character for identifying maggots, in the mature larva (third instar) the hind spiracles normally has three slit-like openings, which are most commonly straight, or nearly so (zumpt, 1965; fao, 1991). the larvae of flies should be regarded as being biologically independent of the a adults, if the fly lived two completely different lives, with different structures, physiology, senses and different powers of movement, all flies live in an environment totally different from that of their larvae (smith, 1973). 2 seasonal abundance of third instar larvae carrion, dead or decaying flesh, serves as a breeding and feeding habitat for carrionfeeding insect species; therefore, when an organism dies, it remains form an important habitat (john, 1975). examples of carrion feeding insects are flies, the most common fly species is the blowfly (putman, 1977). in addition to the blow fly, flesh flies (sarcophaga sp.) also feed on carrion, and lay live larvae on decaying matter (roback, 1956), and are found worldwide in various environments. studies on carrion-breeding diptera (order of fly species) showed that species specialize along niche dimensions of season, carcass size, or state of decomposition (kneidel, 1984). in calliphoridae; the species: lucilia sericata (meig.), calliphora vicina rob.-desvoidy , chrysomya albiceps (wied.) and pollenia sp. (derwesh, 1965), in addition to, ch. megacephala (fab.) (spradbery, 1991). mawlood (2001) studied of this family in iraq. following sarcophgid species was recorded in iraq by khalaf (1957): sarcophaga argyrostoma rob.-desv., s. haemorrhoidalis (= s. africa) fall., s. carnaria linn., s. hirtipes wied. and s. melanura meig. as a result to the medical and veterinary importance of larvae, a seasonal prevalence on exposed carcasses in baghdad city has been studied. materials and methods a survey of larvae was undertaken during the period from february 2006 to january 2007. seasonal field studies on rabbits and fishes carrion decomposition. its associated diptera larvae fauna were conducted in the botanical garden of the iraq natural history museum, university of baghdad, bab al – muadham. the rabbits were killed by strangulation (by chloroform) to avoid external bleeding and to maintain their bodies intact. the carcasses (rabbits and fishes) were placed in the cage according to denno & cothran (1976) with some modification and exposed to direct sunlight. collection and sampling were performed randomly among the carcasses, according to greenberg (1990), postfeeding larvae of sarcosaprophagous flies normally wander considerable distances from carcasses or burrow in the soil beneath carcasses, the larvae (third instar) were collected with forceps. a portion of the collected larvae were killed by dropping them into warm water (40-50 c°) to avoid shrinking them by alcohol. (smith, 1986). the remaining specimens were reared to obtain the adults for sure species identification. portion one of larvae cleared in 10% koh for 10-15 minutes and stored in glycerin during identification for detailed study of cephalopharyngeal skeletons, spine bands and types, anterior and posterior spiracles ( greenberg and szyska, 1984 ). many keys to identify larvae such as: (roback, 1951; zumpt, 1965; smith, 1973; wells et al., 1996; mawlood, 2001). results and discussion two families of diptera with larvae fed on carcasses (calliphoridae and sarcophagidae) were collected during this study. among calliphoridae : calliphora vicina robineaudesvoidy, lucilia sericata (meigen), chrysomya megacephala (fabricius) and chrysomya albiceps (wiedemann), prevalence rates of them are: 45.52, 1.2, 18.47 and 23.28% respectively. table (1), whereas in family sarcophagidae, was 11.6% for sarcophaga sp. the results showed that calliphorid species have highest rates compared with species of sarcophagidae. in accordance with present results leccese (2004) mentioned mentioned that insect that first colonize a dead body usually belong to the order diptera and in particular to the families calliphoridae and sarcophagidae. tantawi et al. (1996) found the third instar larvae of ch. albiceps, l. sericata and c. vicina and also sarcophaga sp. (such as s. argyrostoma) but in lowest rate on exposed rabbit carrion. these results were in agreement with results in our study. wolff et al. ( 2004 ) collected third instar larvae of ch. albiceps and 3 abdul-rassoul & et al. muscid species on rabbit carcass too, also arnaldos et al. (2004 ) registered of sarcophaga africa and c. vicina. table (1) show that calliphorid species were appeared in highest rate compared sarcophagidae species, and this may be due to that, the ovoviviparous sarcophagid females have much less fecundity than the oviparous calliphorid female (hanski, 1987 a). unlike calliphorid females, sarcophagid females do not deposit all their larvae in one carcass but spread them evenly over many carcass as they fly between bouts of larviposition (hanski, 1987 b), although the early use of carrion by sarcophagid larvae. however, cannot be explained by an early adult arrival at the carcass, sarcophagidae arrive shortly after the calliphoridae species, but can exploit the resource immediately because they are ovoviviparous (denno and cothern, 1975). figure (1) showed the monthly appearance of third instar larvae of species were recorded during the course of time study. the minimum and maximum temperatures and relative humidity. the results find direct correlation between the appearance of flies with temperature and relative humidity. amendt et al. (1999) stated the ambient temperature is one of the main factors influencing the developmental rate of necrophagous insects. the results showed that c. vicina had the highest rate (100%) in february, november, december and january, the lowest rate (1.69) in may, whereas it was (91, 50, 36%) in march, april and june respectively, no larvae of this species were observed in july, august, september and october. greenberg and povolny (1971) stated that c. vicina occurs in winter in the subtropics and in the spring and fall in temperate zone, so & dudgeon (1989) assured that carrion decomposition rate and arthropod succession are influenced by many factors, the more important are temperature, humidity, rain fall and abundance of insects. tantawi et al. (1996) concluded that c. vicina species was well represented in carrion in winter only, indicative of a preference for cooler temperatures, whereas greenberg (1991) noted that while higher temperature ~ 30cº accelerate the development of feeding instars at c. vicina. leccese (2004) assumed that ovipostion of c. vicina, occurring in late april. these differences of results may be due to the difference of strain fly. like wise, lucilia sericata was also influenced by temperate condition, the highest rate 9% in march (at temperature 11.5 ċ – 26.6 ċ max , 43% r.h.), the lowest rate 1.3% was in june (25.5 ċ min – 44.2 ċ max , 20% r.h.), while it was 3.13% in april, this species had no incidence in other months. hanski (1987 a) found that maggots of the calliphorid lucilia sericata were the 1st to occupy the carcasses in spring, this species was able to breed successfully in carrion in fall, winter and spring, also the species had only few third instar were observed on carcasses in summer during july (tantawi et al., 1996), these notes were similar to ullyett (1950) who found that species breeding in carrion occurred mainly in winter . in chrysomya albiceps, the highest rate 80% in october (18.5 ċ min – 34.0 ċ max, 43% r.h.), the lowest rate 10.36 %, was in august (26.5 ċ min – 42.7 ċ max , 23 r. h.), whereas it was; 46.87, 40.67, 28.9, 72.6% in april, may, june and september respectively. the larvae of this species have not been observed during other months. this species common in summer, although in lower number than in autumn (arnolds et al. 2001). results in our study were in accordance with arnolds et al. (2004) who noted that ch. albiceps was by far the most abundant species of diptera found in autumn, while in winter its presence is extremely rare , also, ullyett (1950) mentioned that chrysomya albiceps is summer carrion breeder. third instar larvae of ch. megacephala had been registered in highest rate (73.52%) during july (27.0 ċ min – 45.3 ċ max , 22% r.h.), whereas its lowest rate was 1.4% in september (20.9 ċ min – 40.0 ċ max , 28% r.h.), but they were (35.59, 46.95, 57.75, 6.5%) in may, june, august and october, respectively, whereas they were abseint during february, march, april, november, december and january. this species prefered very warm conditions 4 seasonal abundance of third instar larvae (das et al, 1978), while al-zubydi (2000) noted that optimal temperature for egg deposition of ch. megacephala was 25 cº. in sarcophagidae there was only one species recorded in this study, sarcophaga sp. the highest rate 31.89% during august (26.5 ċ min – 42.7 ċ max – 23% r.h.), whereas it's lowest rate was 13.5% during october. in may, june, july and september the rate it was: 22.05, 19.25, 26.48 and 26.0% respectively. the results indicated that sarcophaga sp. prefered warm conditions. tantawi et al. (1996) were registered two species of sarcophaga on rabbit carcasses, s. argyrostoma and s. aegyptica, actually bred in carrion, where they acted as primary flies in warmer temperate and tropical regions (early and goff,1986), whereas they are secondary species in cooler regions (rodriguez and bass, 1983), also tantawi et al. (1996) assured that the species above bred successfully in carrion only in fall although a few maggots and puparia of the former species were observed in winter, also, as sam (2006) stated, sarcophaga sp. larvae were exposed to the outside environments cold temperature. finally, the total number of third instar larvae collected on carcasses (fishes and rabbits) was less in months of summer compared with other months. table (1): the total appearance (%) of species on exposed carcasses from feb.-2006 to jan.2007 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 feb-06 mar-06 apr-06 may-06 jun-06 jul-06 aug-06 sep-06 oct-06 nov-06 dec-06 jan-07 c. vicina l.seriacata ch. albiceps ch. megacephala sarcophaga sp. figure (1): the monthly appearance (%) of third instar larvae of fly species on carcasses (fishes and rabbits) (feb.2006-jan.-2007) order species total percent calliphoridae l. sericata (meigen) c. vicina rob.-desvoidy ch.megacephala (fabricius) ch. albiceps (wiedemann) 1.20 45.52 18.47 23.28 sarcophagidae sarcophaga spp. 11.6 5 abdul-rassoul & et al. ta bl e( 2) : t he te m pe ra tu re a nd re la tiv e hu m id ity th ro ug h th e stu dy m on th s ( a cc or di ng to ir aq i m et eo ro lo gi ca l o ff ic e) 6 seasonal abundance of third instar larvae literature cited al-zubydi, r. sh. a. 2000. comparative study of some biological and ecological aspects between old world screw worm fly chrysomya bezziana vill. and big headed secondary myiasis fly ch. megacephala (fab.) 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(cited by tantawi et al. 1996. 7 abdul-rassoul & et al. hanski, i. 1987 b . colonization of ephemeral habitats, pp. 155-185. in a. j. gray, m. j. crawley, and p. j. edwards (eds.), colonization, succession, and stability. blackwell. london (cited by tantawi et al. 1996). johnson, m. d. 1975. seasonal and microseral variation in the insect populations on carrion. j. amer. midland natural. 93: 79-90. kneidel, k. a. 1984. influence of carcasses taxon and size on species composition of carrion breeding diptera. j. american midland natural. 111: 57-63. leccese, a. 2004. insects as forensic indicators: methodological a speets. aggrawa ُ◌l internet j. of forensic medicine and toxicology, 5(1): 26-32. mawlood, n. a. 2001. taxonomic study of the blow flies (diptera : calliphoridae) in middle of iraq. a thesis of ph.d., college of agriculture, university of baghdad. putman, r. j. 1977. dynamics of the blowfly, calliphora erythrocephala within carrion. j. animal ecology, 46: 853-866. roback, s. s. 1951. a classification of the musscoid calyptrate, diptera. ann. entomol. soc. am. 44: 327-361. roback, s. s. 1956. the evolution and taxonomy of the sarcophaginae (diptera : sarcophagidae). the quarterly review of biology, 31: 309-310. rodriguez, w. c. and bass, w. m. 1983. insect activity and its relationship to decay rates of human cadavers in east tennessee. j. sam, s. 2006. a study of the effect of temperature on the developmental rate of flesh flies, sarcophaga sp. saint martin ُ◌s university biology j. 1: 233-243. smith, k. g. v. 1973. insects and other arthropods of medical importance. british museum (natural history, london. 561 pp.). so, p. m. and dudgeon, d. 1989. life history responses of larviparous boettcherisca formosensis (diptera : sarcophagidae) to larval competition for food, including comparisons with oviparous hemipyrellia ligurriens (calliphoridae). eco. entomol. 14: 349-356. tantawi, t. i., el-kady, e. m.; greenberg, b. and el-ghaffar, h. a. 1996. arthropod succession on exposed rabbit carrion in alexandria, egypt. j. med. entomol. 33(4): 566-580. ullyett, g. g. 1950. competition for food and allied phenomena in sheep blow fly populations. philos. trans. r. soc. lond. (b)234: 77-174. wells, j. d.; byrd, j. h. and tantawi, t. i. 1996. key to third-instar chrysomyinae (diptera : calliphoridae) from carrion in the continental united states. j. med. entomol. 36(5): 638-641. 8 seasonal abundance of third instar larvae wolff. m.; builes, a.; zapata, g.; morales, g. and benecke, m. 2004. detection of parathion (o, o – diethyl o – (4-nitrophenyl) phosphorothioate by hplc aggrawal ُ◌s internet j. of forensic medicine and toxicology, 5(1): 6-11. zumpt, f. 1965. myiasis in man and animals in world, london; butterworth. 9 abdul-rassoul & et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2009)10 (4): 1-9 ة وف ش ك ث لم جث ل ال ع د ج مت ا ذبا ال و الثال لل ط ت ال م لي قا س مو د ل التواج ل د ا رسو ح ب ص ل حمد ل و م ك ع سين و رزا شعال ح د ا ي ب ه ن هناء ي ح الت ر خ ال بيع مت ث و ح ز ب داد /مرك ة بغ جامع ة ص الخال يف مدينـة واألمسـاكدراسة إىل معرفة يرقات الطور الثالث للذبابيات اليت تعيش علـى جثـث األرانـب دف ال حيــــــــث مت تســــــــجيل عــــــــائلتني مــــــــن رتبــــــــة ثنائيــــــــة ٢٠٠٧كــــــــانون الثــــــــاين – ٢٠٠٦بغــــــــداد للفــــــــرتة مــــــــن شــــــــباط وعائلـــــــة ذبـــــــاب اللحـــــــم calliphoridae، مهـــــــا عائلـــــــة الـــــــذباب األزرق dipteraاألجنحـــــــة sarcophagidae مت تشخيص األنـواع . وبنسبة مئوية للظهور كانت أعلى للعائلة األوىل خالل تلك الفرتة chrysomya albiceps , calliphora vicina، ch.megacephala sarcophaga sp., وlucilia sericata سـجل .األقل نسـبة خـالل الفـرتة أعـالهمن األعلى إىل % ١٠٠سبة له يف األشهر شباط ، تشرين الثاين ، كانون األول وكـانون الثـاين بنسـبة بأعلى ن c. vicinaالنوع ch.albicepsكانـــت أعلـــى نســـبة لنـــوع .متـــوز ، آب ، أيلـــول وتشـــرين الثـــاينبينمـــا مل يظهـــر خـــالل األشـــهر لثـاين ، كـانون شباط ، آذار ، متـوز ، تشـرين ا( خالل شهر تشرين األول ، ومل يتم تسجيل هذا النوع لألشهر كانت أعالها يف متوز ومل يظهر ch.megacephala أما النسبة املئوية لظهور النوع) . األول ، كانون الثاين فيمـا سـجل ) .شباط ، آذار ، نيسان ، تشرين الثاين ، كـانون األول ، كـانون الثـاين ( النوع خالل األشهر الباردة الصــيف وكانــت أعالهــا يف آب ومل يســجل لألشــهر البــاردة بــوفرة خــالل أشــهر .sarcophaga spالنــوع بنسـب l.sericataفيمـا سـجل النـوع ). ، نيسـان، تشـرين الثـاين، كـانون األول، كـانون الثـاين آذار شـباط،( شباط ، أيار ، متوز ، آب ، أيلول ، تشرين األول، تشـرين ( واطئة كانت أعالها يف آذار ومل يسجل يف األشهر ) . ، كانون األول ، كانون الثاين الثاين باألشــهراســتنتجت الدراســة بــأن أعــداد الريقــات املســجلة لألنــواع أعــاله كانــت أقــل خــالل أشــهر الصــيف مقارنــة .األخرى 4 43 zare khormizi, et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2013)12 (4): 43-51 the faunistic survey of lady beetles (coleoptera, coccinellidae) in the mehriz region(yazd province), iran zare khormizi, m.*, a. biranvand* and j. shakarami** *department of entomology, science and research branch, islamic azad university, fars, iran, e-mail: persian7002@yahoo.com. **department of plant protection, faculty of agricultural, lorestan university, khorramabad, iran. abstract in this study the faunistic of lady beetles (coleoptera, coccinellidae) was studied in mehriz region (yazd province) during 2009-2010. the total number of specimens of coccinellid beetles were collected from 6 different localities having altitudes from 1420-2420 m. altogether 11 species from 8 genera, 3 tribes and 3 subfamilies were collected and identified. external characters plus characteristics male and female genitalia were used in order to diagnose species. seven species were recorded for the first time from yazd province (marked*). many species were predacious, preying on various species of aphids, mites and coccids. some species were also sent to dr. helmut fursch in germany for identification or confirmation. the collected species are: 1coccinella septempunctata (linnaeus) * 2coccinella undecimpunctata (linnaeus) 3hippodamia variegata (goeze) * 4coccinula elegantula (weise) * 5adalia bipunctata (linnaeus) 6oenopia oncina (olivier) * 7oenopia conglobata ( linnaeus) 8chilocorus bipustulatus (linnaeus) 9exochomus quadripustulatus (linnaeus) * 10exochomus nigripennis (erichson) * 11scymnus syriacus marseul * key words: coccinellidae, fauna, mehriz region, iran introduction the species of coccinellidae are commonly known variously as ladybirds (english english, australian english, and south african english), ladybugs (north american english), lady beetles or coccinellid beetles (preferred by scientists).the family name comes from its type genus, coccinella. most of them are bright shining colors with a pattern of spots or patches against a contrasting background. many appear to be distasteful to birds and their conspicuous appearance is an example of warning coloration (moreton, 1969). they belong to superfamily cucujoidea and are a large family with about 6,000 species described worldwide (iablokoffkhnzorian, 1982; vandenberg, 2002). mailto:persian7002@yahoo.com 44 the faunistic survey of lady beetles in general, the ladybird species are grouped in four categories according to certain features such as: the basic colours of red, black, yellow and brown on the elytra (brakefield, 1985). the species are small to medium size, oval, oblong to hemi spherical (majerus, 1994). they are predators and major biological control agents of hemipteran pests such as aphids, mealybugs and scale insects, as well as thrips (thysonoptera) and mites (acarina) in all parts of the world (moreton, 1969;hawkeswood, 1987; majerus, 1994). some are specific in their food choice, while many are polyphagous. the introduction of the vedalia ladybird, rodolia cardinalis mulsant, from australia into california in 1888 to control cottony cushion scale, icerya purchasi, which threatened the citrus industry, is widely regarded the most successful instances of biological pest control (majerus, 1994). borumand (2000) listed 52 species of coccinellids in iran. the present study was done to explore and prepare an inventory of the predacious coccinellid, found on different altitudes in mehriz region at 31° 04' 34" to 31° 57' 25"n latitude and 54° 13' 01" to 54° 55' 07" e longitude (figure 1). this covers an area of 6,700 km2,while the total cultivated area was 14,000 hectares, wheat, alfalfa, pistachio, almond, pomegranate, walnut, apricot and peach are the major crops, the climate of mehriz is temperate. the whole mehriz region has many rare species of flora and fauna. the goal of this paper is faunistic survey of ladybeetls (coleoptera, coccinellidae) in the mehriz region. materials and methods the study was conducted to collect coccinellid beetles from 6 localities at different altitudes (1420 to 2420 m) in the mehriz region. each locality was repeatedly sampled throughout 18 month (april,2009 through septamber, 2010). samples were collected from a wide variety of terrestrial habitats throughout in each locality to ensure that the overall landscape of that locality was represented .adult specimens were collected with a standard sweeping net and a hand-held aspirator. in some localities more than one method were used in collection. adult insects collected from various habitats and were killed in a cyanide bottle and pinned. each specimen was tagged with the information too. to protect the specimens from the insect pests, naphthalene tablets were put in collection boxes. immature stages were collected directly from the habitats and preserved in 70% ethyl alcohol in bottles. each bottle was labeled with information of host, area and date from which it was collected. the mehriz region is divided into six regions. two sites in each region were chosen. these are shown in table 1 along with the altitude of each site. table 1. locations and altitudes of collection sites. altitudes (meter) collection sites 1502 mehriz 1520 khormiz 2420 manshad(miankoh) 1420 saryazd 1480 bahadoran 2245 tange chenar identification of specimens the collected ladybirds were taken to laboratory .the adults of each species were carefully studied for all details under binocular microscope. the insects were separated into different 45 zare khormizi, et al. species with the help of available keys (chapin, 1965 a, b; leeper, 1976); (gordon, 1985; pope, 1988) ; (fürsch, 1981 and 1989 ; majerus and kearns, 1989). the samples, which could not be identified in the laboratory, were sent to dr. helmut fursch in germany . figure 1. locations of coccinellid species collected in the mehriz region. 46 the faunistic survey of lady beetles table 2. coccinellid species collected from the mehriz region. results and discussion eleven species of beetles belonging to three different tribes (chilocorini, coccinellini and scymnini), and three sub-families, coccinellinae latreille 1807,chilocorinae mulsant 1846 and scymninae mulsant 1846 the coccinellidae family, were identified from the mehriz region, iran (figure 1, table 2). all identified species were recorded for the first time from mehriz region and seven species from these were recorded for the first time from yazd province. family:coccinellinae latreille tribe:coccinellini latreille coccinella septempunctata linnaeus length 6.50 to 7.80 mm. head black with 2 well separated pale spots; pronotum with anterior margin black at middle with ventral pale spot small, extending posteriorly 1/3 as far as dorsal spot; elytron with 3 black spots in addition to scutellar spot(gordon, 1985). coccinella septempunctata was found in all localities from altitudes ranging 1420 to 2420 m. it was collected while feeding on aphids and scale insects on alfalfa, walnut, broad bean, pistachio and wheat. c. septempunctata was previously reported from iran by a number of authors (farahbakhsh, 1961; naiem,1349); duverger (1983) and fatemi (1983) recorded c. septempunctata from isfahan. hippodamia variegate goeze length 3.60 to 5.00 mm, width 2.50 to 3.40mm.head yellow; pronotum black, with variable maculated, sometime with convergent spots on anterior and lateral sides and the number of these spots variability (iablokoff-khnzorian, 1982). the second most frequent species after c. septempunctata was hippodamia variegate, which was found in all the selected localities and sub family tribe species scymninae scymnini scymnus syriacus marseul chilocorinae chilochorini exochomus nigripennis (erichson) exochomus quadripustulatus (linnaeus) cholocoros bipustulatus (linnaeus) coccinellinae coccinellini hippodamia variegate (goeze) adalia bipunctata (linnaeus) coccinula elegantula (weise) coccinella septempunctata (linnaeus) coccinella undecimpunctata (linnaeus) oenopia conglobata (linnaeus) oenopia oncina (olivier) 47 zare khormizi, et al. at all altitudes (1420–2420m). this species was collected from afalfa, wheat, pistachio and walnut. adalia bipunctata (linnaeus) length 3.50 to 5.20 mm, width 2.80 to 4.0 mm. dorsal color pattern highly variable (gordon, 1985).this species was collected from the mehriz site and khormiz, manshad and saryazd site on alfalfa, pomegranate, walnut, peach and feeding on wheat aphids. coccinella undecimpunctata (linnaeus) length 4.0 to 5.0 mm. more elongate and less convex than any other species of genus coccinella. head black with 2 well separated pale spots; pronotum with anterior margin black at middle, ventral pale spot large, extending posteriorly nearly as far as dorsal spot; elytron usually with 5 black spots and a small scutellar spot(gordon, 1985). this species was collected from in all localities altitudes ranging 1420 to 2420 m. it was collected while feeding on aphids and scale insects on walnut, alfalfa and wheat. oenopia conglobata linnaeus length 3.20 to 4.20, width 2.40 to 3.20mm;form oval, convex. head and pronutum light color; 7 dark spots usually on pronotum; elytron light color with 8 dark spots(iablokoffkhnzorian, 1982).this species was collected from the mehriz site and khormiz, manshad and saryazd sites on alfalfa, pomegranate, walnut, grape, peach, pistachio and wheat. kuznetsov(2001) earlier reported this species from far eastern russia. oenopia oncina (olivier) length 3.10 to 4.20, width 2.70 to 3.20 mm; form oval, convex. head black; labrum,antenna and mouthparts yellow; pronotum black, anterior margin and anterolateral angle yellow; elytron yellow with joinining black spots(iablokoff-khnzorian, 1982).this species was also collected from mehriz and khormiz site on alfalfa and broad bean. coccinula elegantula weise length 2.30 to 2.60mm, width 1.70 to 2mm; form oval, convex. dorsal surface glabrous. head light yellow to cream (yaghmaee and kharazipakdel 1995). this species was also collected from mehriz sit on alfalfa. family:chilocorinae mulsant tribe:chilocorini mulsant chilocorus bipustulatus (linnaeus) length 3.0 to 4.50 mm, width 3.10 to 4.0 mm. form oval, tapered posteriorly, moderately convex. light to dark brown dorsally, elytron with narrow irregular band of 3 partially connected spots on disc, external spot often free (fig. 537d), venter light brown to black except prosternum, mesosternum, and metasternum usually black. dorsal surface smooth, polished, punctures fine (gordon, 1985).this species was collected from the mehriz and khormiz site on alfalfa, almond and peach. exochomus quadripustulatus (linnaeus) length 3.60 to 4.80 mm, width 2.85 to 4.0 mm. form oval, lateral margin of elytron strongly beaded and somewhat explanate. head and pronotum black except anterior margin and angle of pronotum narrowly yellow; elytron with comma-shaped yellow or orange humeral spot (spot sometimes rectangular) and spot on suture just behind middle. ventral surface black except inner l/2 of epipleuron in basal 1/2 and broad border around abdomen 48 the faunistic survey of lady beetles reddish yellow. dorsal surface smooth, punctures fine, distinct; epipleuron moderately descending, obliquely inclined(gordon, 1985). this species was also collected from saryazd sit on peach. exochomus nigripennis (erichson) length 3.0 to 4.0mm, width 2.50 to 3.40mm.form oval, convex; dorsal surface shinning and glabrous. head black; mouthparts, antennae and legs yellow; pronotum yellow completely; elytron black (fursh, 1979). this species was collected from the mehriz and bahadoran site on broad bean and pistachio. family: scymninae mulsant tribe: scymnini mulsant scymnus syriacus marseul length 1.65 to 2.30mm, width 1.15 to 1.60mm. dorsal surface covered with bright pubescence. head light brown; mouthparts, antennae, and legs orang, to light brown; pronotum brown, anterior margin and anterolateral angle yellow; elytron light to dark brown, with one spot on middle, around spot yellow and cycle shape hole(fursch, 1989). this species was collected from the mehriz, khormiz and manshad site on apricot, walnut, almond and peach. conclusion the results of this study suggest that the coccinellid community structure in the six study sites with different ecosystems and altitudes. the present study was the first attempt to describe the coccinellid fauna of the mehriz region.the object of this study was to explore,identify and prepare inventory of predatory coccinellid species in the mehriz region, which will be helpful for the future researchers working on predatory coccinellid species of this region. according to the results 11 different species from 9 genera belonging to subfamilies coccinellinae, chilocorinae and scymninae existed in the area. the species were, coccinella septempunctata, coccinella undecimpunctata, hippodamia variegata,coccinula elegantula, adalia bipunctata,oenopia oncina, oenopia conglobata, chilocorus bipustulatus, exochomus quadripustulatus exochomus nigripennis and scymnus syriacus. further survey is needed of those areas that were not covered in this study to fully explore predatory coccinellids fauna of mehriz. the total area of mehriz region is approximately 6700 km2, which is mostly desert. acknowledgements we would like to express our gratitude to prof. h. ostovan head, department of entomology, fars science and research branch, islamic azad university, fars province, marvdasht, iran, for providing the necessary facilities. we are highly thankful to dr. m. dehghani, principal scientist, plant protection, i.a.u.y, yazd and dr. helmut fursch in germany for identification. literature cited borumand, h. 2000. insect of iran. the list of coleoptera in the insect collection of plant pests & disesases research institute, coleoptera: cucujoidea: coccinellidae, 44pp. brakefield, p.m. 1985. polymorphic müllerian mimicry and interactions with thermal melanism in ladybirds and a soldier beetle: a hypothesis. biol. j. linn. soc. 26: 243–265. 49 zare khormizi, et al. chapin, e.a. 1965 a. the genera of the chilocorini (coleoptera, coccinellidae. bulletin of the museum of comparative zoology, 133(4): 227-271. chapin, e.a. 1965 b. coleoptera: coccinellidae. insects of micronesia, bernice p. bishop, hawaii, 16(5): 189-245. duverger, c. 1983. contribution to knowledge of the coccinellidae of iran. nouvelle revue d’ entomologie, 13(1):73-93. farahbakhsh, gh. 1961. a checklist of economically important insects and other enemies of plant and agricultural products in iran. dep. of plant protection ministry of agr.1:120-121. fatemi, h. 1983. the fauna of coccinellidae in esfahan. entomol. phyt. appliq, 50:21-25. fürsch, h. 1981. eine neue nephus art aus iran (coleoptera, coccinellidae). kundid, p. 137139. fürsch, h. 1989. the arabian species of the scymnus (pullus) guimeti group (coleoptera, coccinellidae). fauna of saudi arabia,10:113-122. fürsch, h. 1979. insects of saudi arabia coleoptera: fam coccinellidae. fauna of saudi arabia, l: 235-248. gordon, r.d. 1985. the coccinellidae (coleoptera) of america and north of mexico. jou. new york entomol. soc., 93:1-912. hawkeswood, t. 1987. beetles of australia. angus and robertson, sydney, australia, 248pp. iablokoff-khnzorian, s.m. 1982. les coccinelles. coléoptères-coccinellidae. société nouvelles éditions boubée, paris, 568 pp. korschefsky, r. 1931. coleopterorum catalogus. pars 118. coccinellidae. l. berlin, 224pp. kuznetsov, n.v. and zakharov, v.e. 2001. distribution of the lady beetle (coleoptera coccinellidae) in plant formations in the russian far east, spec. japan coleopt. soc. osaka, (1):167-164 june 11, 2001. leeper, j.r. 1976. a review of the hawaiian coccinellidae. proceedings, hawaiian entomological society 12(2), 279-306. majerus, m. and kearns, p. 1989. ladybirds naturalists’ handbooks 10. slough: richmond publishing. 103 pp. majerus, men. 1994. ladybirds. harper collins london. 359pp. moreton, b.d. 1969. ladybirds and spider mites. in: beneficial insects and mites. her majesty, stationary office london. ministry of agriculture, fisheries and food. bulletin, 20:15-20. naeem, a. 1971. the fauna of iranian coccinellidae (1). entomologie et phytopathologie appliquees, 31:11-14. 50 the faunistic survey of lady beetles pope, r.d. 1988. a revision of the australian coccinellidae (coleoptera). part 1. subfamily coccinellinae. invertebrate taxonomy, 2: 633-735. vandenberg, n.j. 2002. coccinellidae latreille 1807. in: arnett, r.h. jr. (†), thomas, m.c., skelly, p.e. & frank, j.h. (eds), american beetles 2, polyphaga: scarabaeoidea through curculionoidea. crc press, boca raton, london, new york, washington, pp. 371-389. yaghmaee, f. and kharazipakdel, a. 1995. a faunistic survay of coccinellids in mashhad region. proceeding of the 12th iranian plant protection congress, p. 307. 51 zare khormizi, et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2013)12 (4): 43-51 في منطقة مھرز coleoptera coccinellideaدراسة تواجد الخنفساء السیدة ایران –في محافظة یزد **شاكارامي. و جي* بیرانفاند. وأي* زیر خورمیزي. أم .معة آزاد اإلسالمیة، فارس، إیرانقسم الحشرات والعلوم وفرع البحوث، جا* . persian7002@yahoo.com: البرید اإللكتروني .الزراعة، جامعة لورستان، خرم آباد، إیرانقسم وقایة النبات، كلیة ** الخالصة المتواجدة في منطقة coleoptera coccinellideaدرست الدعاسیق . ٢٠١٠-٢٠٠٩في ھذه الدراسة خالل ) محافظة یزد(مھرز جمع العدد الكلي لعینات الدعاسیق من ستة مواقع مختلفة ذات مرتفعات من ً من ثمانیة اجناس، ثالث عوائل ١١م، جمعت وشخصت ٢٤٢٠-١٤٢٠ نوعا .وثالث عویالت استخدمت صفات خارجیة باالضافة الى صفات السوءات الذكریة واالنثویة انواع . سجلت سبعة انواع الول مرة من محافظة یزد. في تشخیص االنواع . كثیرة كانت مفترسات وفرائس على انواع مختلفة من المن والحلم والدعاسیق :واالنواع التي جمعت ھي .االنواع لتشخیصھا او تاكیدھابعض 1coccinella septempunctata (linnaeus) * 2coccinella undecimpunctata (linnaeus) 3hippodamia variegata (goeze) * 4coccinula elegantula (weise) * 5adalia bipunctata (linnaeus) 6oenopia oncina (olivier) * 7oenopia conglobata ( linnaeus) 8chilocorus bipustulatus (linnaeus) 9exochomus quadripustulatus (linnaeus) * 10exochomus nigripennis (erichson) * 11scymnus syriacus marseul * mailto:persian7002@yahoo.com 3 15 jan et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2012)12 (2): 15-24 microfacies analysis of shiranish formation at hijran sectionne iraq saadi k. jan*, aqeel a. alzubaidi*, salam i. aldulaimi** *natural history research centre and museum, university of baghdad. **department of geology, college of science, university of baghdad. abstract shiranish formation (late campanianmaastrichtian) that cropping out north east iraq, is studied by microfacies analysis of 52 thin section collected from hijran section, about 10 km west shaqlawa town, governorate of erbil. according to petrography, mineralogy and organic contents, rocks are subdivided to crystalline carbonate and microfacies units (biowackstone, packstone, and mudstone facies). biowackstone facies have high ratio of the rock components, while the other facies have low ratio. microfacies analysis led to relatively quiet deep marine environment. introduction shiranish formation (late campanian-maastrichtian) was first described at shiranish islam near zakho, by henson (1940) in (bellen et al., 1959), consisting of marl and thin bedded marly limestone contains planktonic foraminifera. it's thickness at hijran section about 100m (abahussan, 1983). the lower contact is conformable with bekhme formation (bellen et al., 1959); (buday, 1980) and the upper contact is conformable with aaliji formation (abahussan, 1983). it is deposited at basional environment far away from beach during transgressive cycle (bellen et al., 1959; buday, 1980; aba-hussain, 1983). it is exposed in most areas of north and north east iraq, and also at subsurface sections when the drilled wells reaching the upper cretaceous rock units (bellen et al., 1959) particularly at ain zala oil field (daniel, 1954; dunnington, 1958). tectonic activities during upper cretaceous affected on the type and distribution of rock units as well as changed thickness of shiranish formation (alnaqib, 1959). the formation was subdivided into many subzones according to planktonic foraminifera's contents (al-kassab, 1979). many authors emphasized that the age of the formation is late campanianmaastrichtian (bellen et al., 1959; buday, 1980; jassim and goff, 2006). this study attempt to determine the deposional environment of shiranish formation at hijran section (fig. 1). material and methods fifty two rock samples were collected from shiranish formation, hijran section. thin sections were prepared to study them, from the lower to the upper contact. thin sections were studied by polarized microscope and analyzed by microfacies technique to recognize them according to dunham classification (1962) that is modified by wilson (1962) and flugel (2010), to determine the environment of deposition. results and discussion the results reflect the following: 1crystalline carbonate: this lithofacies which is resulted from diagenetic process composed of dolostone. it is occurred at the lower part and has 6% of the total 16 microfacies analysis of shiranish thickness. it contains dolomite of equidimentional crystal, named sugary texture (plate 1a). this texture produces from replacement diagenetic processes on the carbonate sediments. crystal size shows coarsening upward which reflects more mature diagenetic processes (fuechtbauer, 1977) and have high permeability due to late dolomitization. the absence of organic content reflect supratidal environment. 2packstone facies: this facies occurred at the lower and middle part of the formation and have 10% of the total thickness. it contains planktonic foraminifera, globotruncana sp. (plate 1-b) which consider index fossil of upper cretaceous age (cushman, 1969) and quiet deep marine environment (milliman, 1974) and also contains cubic pyrite (plate 1 c). availability of micrite refers to the absence of high energy current and lack of pores, which allow to the carbonate solution to pass through it and deposited as sparite (folk, 1974). iron oxides were deposited at the pores of matrix (plate 1d). this facies similar to the s. m. f. 4, zone f. z (flugel, 2010). fz 4 slope setting: distinctly inclined sea floor (commonly 5˚to nearly vertical) seaward of platform margins. very narrow facies belt. biota: slope benthos and some deep-water benthos and plankton. 3biowackstone facies: this facies occurred at the upper part of the formation, and have 78% of total thickness, and recognized by available of the planktonic foraminifera such as globogerina sp. and globotruncana sp. (plate 2a), and fossil chamber filled by spary cement which are coincided with scholle and scholle (2003), pyrite also recognized at the chamber of some planktonic foraminifera (plate 2b) and at fossil's pores which consider ideal condition to the pyrite precipitation due to availability of organic matter that makes alkali reducing environment promote crystallization of pyrite (siesser, 1967). micrite change upward to microsparite which is reflects the change from quite deep marine environment to the less depth marine environment. this facies similar to the standard facies (s. m. f. 3) zone (f. z. 3) (flugel, 2010). fz 3 toe-of-slope apron (deep shelf margin) setting: below wave base and barely at oxygen level. moderately inclined sea floor (over 1.5˚) basin ward of steeper slopes. water depths similar to fz 2 and perhaps 200 to 300 m. narrow facies belt. biota: some deep-water benthos and plankton. 4-mudstone facies: this facies occurred at the upper part of the formation and have 6% of the total thickness. it's matrix contains micrite that partly or completely transformed to microspare (plate 2c) and less than 10% planktonic foraminifera. fossils chamber filled by cement or micrite (plate 2-3) and sometimes by pyrite (plate 2d). carbonate mudstone characterized by the lack of fossils due to the high amount of clay materials which prevents production of organic carbonate (wilson, 1975). this facies similar to the standard facies (s. m. f. 3) zone (f. z. 1) (flugel, 2010). fz 1b cratonic deep-water basin setting: below wave base, below the euphotic zone. water depth about 30 m to several 100s m. wide facies belt. 17 jan et al. biota: predominantly nekton (e.g. ammonites) and plankton (radiolarians, pelagic foraminifera, calpionellids, coquinas of thin-shelled bivalves). occasionally benthos (abundant sponge spicules). conclusion 1four microfacies were subdivided from lower to upper contact: crystalline carbonate, packstone facies, biowackstone facies and mudstone facies. 2planktonic foraminifera composed the main component of the framework and the micrite composed the main component of the matrix, led to quite deep marine environment. 3diagenitic processes are limited and confined to dolomitization and cementation. 4the change of the rocks from lower to upper are: crystalline carbonate, packstone facies, biowackstone facies and mudstone facies which was resulted from the high speed of grain production relative to carbonate accumulation. 5wilson model refers to relatively nearly quiet deep marine deposional environment. litereature cited aba-hussan , a. a., 1983. petrography and geochemistry of shiranish formation in selected area-northern of iraq, unpub. m. sc. thesis (in arabic), univ. of baghdad, baghdad.163p. al-kassab, i. i., 1979. the genus globotruncana cushman from the upper cretaceous of northern iraq. jour. geol. soc. iraq. v.13, pp 27-127. al-nanqib, k. m., 1959. geology of the southern area of kirkuk liwa, iraq. iraq petroleum co. technical pub., london. 50p. bellen, r. c. van; dunnington, h. v.; watzel., and morton, d. m., 1959. lexique stratigraique international, asie.v.3, fasc, 10a, iraq, paris 333p. buday, t. 1980. the regional geology of iraq. vol.1, stratigraphy and paleography, edit by kassab, i. and jassim, s. z., geosurv, baghdad, 445pp. cushman, n., j. a., 1969. foraminifera their classification and economic use. cambridge, harvard university press, 4th ed., 605p. daniel, e. j. a., 1954, fractured reservoir of middle east. bull. aapg. v.38, p. 77815. dunnington, h. v., 1958. generation, migration, accumulation and dissipation of oil in northern iraq, in week: l. g. (ed.), habitat of oil, a symposium aapg. spec. pub., 1194-1251. 18 microfacies analysis of shiranish dunham, r. t. 1962. classification of carbonate rocks according to depositional texture. in ham pp. 108-121. fluegel, e., 2010. microfacies of carbonate rock, analysis, interpretation and application. 2nd edition, 984 p. folk, l., 1974. petrology of sedimentary rocks. hemphill, texas, 182 p. fuechtbauer, 1977. sedimente und sedimentgesteine, schweizerbartische verlags buchhandlung. stuttgart. 784 pp. henson, f. r. s., 1940. shiranish formation (cretaceous). unpub. report. in bellen, r. c. van; dunnington, h. v.; watzel., and morton, d. m.,1959. lexique stratigraique international, asie.v.3, fasc, 10a, iraq, paris 333p. jassim, s. z. and goff, j. c., 2006. geology of iraq. dolin, prague and moravian museum, brono, czech republic, 341p. milliman, j. d., 1974. marine carbonates. berlin, springer verlag.375 p . siesser, w. g. 1967. authigenic pyrite and gypsum in south west african contenetal slop, sedimentology, vol. 23, p.579. scholle, p. a. and scholle, d. s. u., 2003. a color guide to the petrography of carbonate rocks: grains, textures, porosity, diageneses. aapg memoir 77, tulsa, oklahama, usa, 459p. wilson, j. l. 1975. carbonate facies in geologic history. springer verlag, pub.1., berlinheidelberg-new york 471 p. 19 jan et al. 20 microfacies analysis of shiranish 21 jan et al. 22 microfacies analysis of shiranish 23 jan et al. 24 microfacies analysis of shiranish bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2012)12 (2): 15-24 شمال شرق العراقالسحنات الدقیقة لتكوین شیرانش مقطع حجران **الدلیميسالم اسماعیل و *عقیل عباس الزبیدي و *سعدي خان جان .مركز بحوث ومتحف التاریخ الطبیعي ، جامعة بغداد * .قسم علم االرض، كلیة العلوم، جامعة بغداد ** الخالصة الذي تنكشف ) ماسترختیان كامبانیان متأخر(درس تكوین شیرانش صخوره في شمال شرق العراق، بطریقة تحلیل السحنات الدقیقة بعد تحضیر كم عن مدینة ١٠جمعت من مقطع حجران الذي یبعد شریحة صخریة، ٥٢ استناداً الى الصخاریة، والمعدنیة، والمحتوى . شقالوة في محافظة اربیل الحیاتي قسمت طبقات صخور التكوین الى صخور جیریة متبلورة و سحنات سحنة الحجر الجیري الواكي الحیاتي ، وسحنة الحجر الجیري المرزوم، (دقیقة ؛ واشار تحلیل السحنات المجھریة الدقیقة )الجیري الوحلي وسحنة الحجر ً . للتكوین الى انھ ترسب في بیئة بحریة عمیقة ھادئة نسبیا bull 93 m. s. abdul-rassoul bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. july, (2018) 15 (1): 93-100 first record of aenasius arizonensis (girault, 1915) (hymenoptera, encyrtidae), a parasitoid of phenacoccus solenopsis tinsly, 1898 (hemiptera, pseudococcidae) in iraq m.s. abdul-rassoul iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq corresponding author: msabr_1942@yahoo.com received date: 25 march 2018 accepted date:30 april 2018 abstract this article reports the first record of aenasius arizonensis (girault, 1915) (hymenoptera, encyrtidae) parasitizing the recently introduced species of cotton mealybug, phenacoccus solenopsis tinsly (hemiptera, psedococcidae) infesting lantana camara l. (verbeneceae) as well as other ornamental plants in baghdad province, iraq. a short morphological description is also presented. key words: aenasius, baghdad, encyrtidae, iraq, phenacoccus. introduction the cotton mealybug, phenacoccus solenopsis (girault) (hemiptera, psedococcidae), is an important pest of cotton and ornamental plants; this species is a polyphagus and has been reported to be feeding on at least 219 host plant species that belong to 53 plant families (bendov et al., 2017). some of these hosts are considered economically important plants, such as cotton and horticulture crops in both indoor and outdoor productions (culik and gullan, 2005; hodgson et al., 2008; afzal et al., 2009; wang et al., 2009; yi-yong et al., 2011); infestation by this mealybug causes huge yield loss; reducing the cotton yield by up to 40-50 % as was reported from some infested fields in india (jhala et al., 2008). so far, this mealybug had been reported from 37 countries in various biogeographical zones such as south east asia, north africa and the mediterranean (ben-dov et al., 2017). phenacoccus solenopsis was found for the first time in iraq in 2014, in baghdad province (abdul-rassoul et al., 2015) on eleven host plant species that belong to nine families. several species of hymenoptera have been found associated with cotton mealybug, phenacoccus solenopsis namely: acerophagus coccois smith, 1880, aenasius bambawalei hayat 2009, anagyrus aligarhensis agarwal & alam, 1959, anagyrus diversicornis (howard, 1894), anagyrus kamali moursi 1948 and leptomastix epona (walker, 1844) (encyrtidae); promuscidea unfasciativentris girault, 1917 (pteromalidae) in different parts of the world (ben-dov et al., 2017). ram et al., (2009) indicated that the parasitoid aenasius arizonensis (=a. bambawalei) was very active against the mealybug, p. solenopsis in india and they observed that the doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2018.15.1.0093 94 first record of aenasius arizonensis (girault, 1915) parasitization on cotton and other host plants was 37.6% and 47.2% during 2008 and 2009 respectively. this study is conducted to determine the parasitoids of the invasive mealybug, phenacoccus solenopsis in iraq; also this investigation reports the first record of a. arizonensis as a parasitoid of the mealybug p. solenopsis in iraq. materials and methods plant part samples of common purslane, portulaca oleracea l. (portulaceae), moss-rose purslane, portulaca grandifloria hook. (portulaceae), lantana, lantana camara l. (verbenaceae), pilea, pilea serpyllacea (kunth) wedd (urticaceae), alternanthera, alternanthera amoena (lem.) voss (amaranthaceae), and aster, aster tripolium l. (asteraceae) bearing mealybug mummies of phenacoccus solenopsis were collected from private gardens in two locations in baghdad province that included: al-ghadir and al karrada al-sharqiya during 2014 and 2015. each sample was placed in a plastic bag and brought to the laboratory for examination and kept in glass jars provided with a gauze cover for proper ventilation for the emergence of parasitoids; these jars were kept under observation to record emergence of the adult parasitoids at room temperature (range 25-35cº), and relative humidity of 35±5%, by using the hygrothermograph. the emerged parasitoids were mounted on small card, and identified by the author according to available literature given by girault (1915); noyes, (1980); noyes and ren (1995); hayat (2009); poorani et al. (2009) and was determined as aenasius arizonensis (girault, 1915) (=aenasius bambawalei hayat, 2009). photographs were made using the camera of samsung galaxy a5, and using a binocular dissecting microscope (wild m5, switzerland) to magnify the morphological features. results and discussion a natural parasitoid aenasius arizonensis of the mealybug, phenacoccus solenopsis appeared in baghdad during 2014 and 2015 on different host plants such as common purslane, portulaca oleracea l. (portulaceae), moss-rose purslane, portulaca grandifloria hook.(portulaceae), lantana, lantana camara l. (verbenaceae), pilea, pilea serpyllacea (kunth) wedd (urticaceae), alternanthera, alternanthera amoena (lem.) voss (amaranthaceae), and aster, aster tripolium l. (asteraceae). this parasitoid was first described and named by girult from u.s.aarizona in 1915, as chalacspis arizonensis (girult, 1915); noyes and woodlley in 1994 transferred this parasitoid to the genus aenasius walker, 1846. hayat (2009) described a. bambawalei from india, and later fallahzadeh et al. (2014) synonymized it with a. arizonensis; this parasitoid is known as a solitary nymphal endoparasitoid of cotton mealybug, phenacoccus solenopsis, which induces up to more than 80 percent parasitization in india (ram et al., 2009). diagnosis: aenasius arizonensis is easily recognized from the other species of aenasius by the following characters: antenna with scape cylindrical, about six times as long as wide; fore wing with a hyaline streak adjacent to the postmarginal and stigmal veins; costal cell with one line of setae dorsally. the following is a short morphological description given here based on the iraqi specimens for the simple identification; moreover the female of a. arizonensis is easily separated from the male by having different shape of antenna. 95 m. s. abdul-rassoul female (pl.1): length: 1.08-1.62 mm. body short and broad, shiny black with metallic reflections. legs are metallic green except the tarsi and tips of the middle tibiae which are reddish like the scape. antennae are reddish except the bulb of scape and the pedicel, which are metallic dark green; club sometimes blackish. head wider than thorax, with thimblelike punctures; anterior part of vertex wide, at narrowest point about half as wide as head; malar space longer than length of eye; occipital margin sharp; mandibles bidentate. antennae (pl.2) club-shaped, scape cylindrical, are about six times as long as wide, upper margin of scape markedly bowed downward before middle; flagellum clavate; pedicel somewhat longer than wide; funicle with six segments and transverse, subequal in width, broadening towards clava, sixth largest. clava large, obliquely truncate, longer than funicle segment together and usually much wider than funicle. tegulae large; mesoscutum very short, only half as long as scutellum, with a sculpture very similar to that of head. scutellum slightly wider than long; axillae separated by a rather long median suture. fore wings (pl.3) of normal length, exceeding apex of gaster; fore wings basally infuscate, distal half and costal cell hyaline, with a hyaline streak adjacent to the postmarginal and stigmal veins. marginal vein very short; postmarginal vein as long as stigmal; costal cell with one line of setae dorsally; hind wings hyaline. hypopygium reaching apex of gaster. male (pl.4): length: 0.271.27mm; differs from the female in its generally smaller size, more uniformly black with less metallic in color, in antennal structure, and wings venation. funicle with two segments much wider than long. clava one-segmented, long, curved bannashaped. fore wigs hyaline, venation as in female. materials examined: baghdad province, al-ghadir, 1♀ 15.viii.2014 ex. phenacoccus solenopsis on portulaca oleracea (portulaceae), 2♀♀,1♂ 2.ix.2014 on iresine herbstii (amaranthaceae), 3♀♀,1♂ 7, 16.xii.2014, 2♀♀, 1♂ 1.v.2915 on lantana camara (verbenaceae) 1♀ 8.v.2015, 4♀♀,4♂♂ 1.vi.2015, 1♂ 14.vi.2015 on pilea serpyllacea (urticaceae), 2♀♀, 6♂♂ 1.vi.2015 on iresine herbstii (amaranthaceae), 26♀♀, 47♂♂ 14, 25, 26.vi. 2015 on lantana camara (verbenaceae); al-ghadir 2♀♀,6♂♂ 11.viii.2015 on lantana camara (verbenaceae), 2♂♂ 24.viii.2015 on aster tripolium (asteraceae). karrada al-sharqiya 2♀♀, 3♂♂ 26.vi.2015 on lantana camara (verbenaceae); 2♀♀,1♂ 1, 24, 27.vii.2015 on lantana camara (verbenaceae), 5♀♀, 2♂♂ 21, 23.vii.2015 on portulaca oleracea (portulaceae), 4♀♀, 4♂♂ 26.vii, 2015 on portulaca gradifloria (portulaceae); 1♀, 1♂ 11.viii.2015 on lantana camara (verbenaceae) and on aster tripolium (asteraceae). distribution: the parasitoid aenasius arizonensis is widely distributed in india, pakistan, china, u.s.a. (noyes, 2017) and newly reported from iran fallahzadeh et al. (2014) where it is common on phenacoccus solenopsis and pseudococcus longispinus (noyes, 2017). biology: in addition to the taxonomic characters, some observations were made on the biology of the parasitoid, the laboratory rearing of the field collected mummies on different host plants showed that maximum mummies were collected from lantana camara (verbenaceae) followed by iresine herbstii (amaranthaceae), and portulaca oleracea (portulaceae). it attacks the third instar nymphs of the host and kills the host before reaching maturity and this met with ashfaq et al. (2010). the parasitoid took 10-12 days to complete its development in the host and caused transformation of parasitized mealybug into reddishbrown mummies which could be easily identified on the plants and can easily be distinguished from the healthy colony. it turns the mealybug into barrel-shaped mummy (pl.5) with dark brown in color. this result is in agreement with jhalal et al. (2008), ram et al. (2009) and prasad et al. (2011). 96 first record of aenasius arizonensis (girault, 1915) this mealybug and its parasitoid were observed for the first time in iraq simultaneously, so it is possible that this parasitoid is transferred with the mealybug into the newly invaded countries as was also noticed by muniappan, 2010; solangi and mahmood, 2011. comments: our specimens of aenasius arizonensis quite agree with the description which were given by girult (1915) in describing his new species of chalacspis arizonensis (=aenasius arizonensis), and fit with the characters which were given by hayat (2009) and poorani et al. (2009) by having a hyaline streak adjacent to the postmarginal and stigmal veins in the fore wing. however, our specimens disagree with other authors who used some characters such as the color of the antennal segments. this character is probably unreliable according to noyes and ren (1995). therefore, in this study, reliable characters were used to define this species. plate (1): the female of a. arizonensis. plate (2): antenna in the female of a. arizonensis. 97 m. s. abdul-rassoul plate (3): fore wing in the female of a. arizonensis. plate (4): the male of a. arizonensis. plate (5): the mealybug phenacoccus solenopsis and their mummy. 98 first record of aenasius arizonensis (girault, 1915) literature cited abdul-rassoul, m. s., al-mallo, i. m. and hermiz, f. b. 2015. first record of solenopsis mealybug, phenacoccus solenopsis tinsley, 1898 (hemiptera, pseudococcidae) from iraq. journal of biodiversity and enviromental sciences, 7(2): 216-222. afzal, m., rehman, s. u. and siddiqui, m. t. 2009. appearance and management of a new devastating pest of cotton phenacoccus solenopsis tinsley, in pakistan. beltwide cotton conference, san antonio, texas, pp 5-8. ashfaq, m., shah, g. s., noor, a. r., ansari, s. p. and mansoor, s. 2010. report of a parasitic wasp (hymenoptera: encyrtidae) parasitizing cotton mealybug (hemiptera: pseudococcidae) in pakistan and use of pcr for estimating parasitisation levels. biocontrol science and technology, 20(6): 625-630. doi 10.1080/09583151003693535. ben-dov, y., miller, d. r. and gibson, a. p. 2017. scale net. available at: http://www.scale.info/catalogue/phenococcus%20solenopsis/ (accessed june 2017). culik, m. p. and gullan, p. j. 2005. a new pest of tomato and other records of mealybugs (hemipreta: pseudococcidae) from espírito santo, brazil. zootaxa, 964: 1-8. fallahzadeh, m., japoshvili, g., abdimaleki, r. and saghaei, n. 2014. new records of tetracneminae (hymenoptera, chalcidoidea, encyrtidae) from iran. turkish journal of zoology, 38: 515-518. girault, a. a. 1915. new chalcidoid hymenoptera. annals entomological society of america, 8: 279-284. hayat, m. 2009. description of a new species of aenasius walker (hymenoptera: encyrtidae), parasitoid of mealybug, phenacoccus solenopsis tinsley (homoptera: pseudococcidae). biosystematica, 3: 21–25. hodgson, c. j., abbas, g., arif, m. j., saeed, s. and karar, h. 2008. phenacoccus solenopsis tinsley (sternorrhyncha: coccoidea: pseudococcidae), a new invasive mealybug damaging cotton in pakistan and india with a discussion on seasonal morphological variation. zootaxa, 1913: 1-35. jhala, r. c., bharpoda, t. m. and patel, m. g. 2008. phenacoccus solenopsis tinsley (hemiptera: pseudococcidae), the mealybug species recorded first time on cotton and its alternate host plants in gujarat, india. uttar pradesh journal of zoology, 28 (3): 403-406. muniappan, r. 2010. three alien invasive mealybugs are on the march in asia. iapps newsletter. no. x october 2010. noyes, j. s. 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https://www.icac.org/tis/regional_networks/asian_network/meeting_5/documents/pa pers/papsolangigs-et_al.pdf wang, y. p., wu, s. a. and zhang, r. z. 2009. pest risk analysis of a new invasive pest, phenacoccus solenopsis to china. chinese bulletin entomology, 46: 101-106. yi-yong, z., fung, h. and yao-bin, l. 2011. bionomics of mealybug, phenacoccus solenopsis tinsley (hemiptera: pseudococcidae) on cotton. acta entomologica sinica , 54(2): 246-252. 100 first record of aenasius arizonensis (girault, 1915) bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2018) 15 (1): 93-100 تسجيل اول للطفيلي aenasius arizonensis (girault, 1915) (hymenoptera, encyrtidae) على البق الدقيقي للقطن phenacoccus solenopsis tinsly, 1898 (hemiptera, pseudococcidae) في محافظة بغداد، العراق محمد صالح عبد الرسول ة بغداد جامع/ متحف التأريخ الطبيعي و مركز بحوث 03/30/5302تاريخ القبول 5302/ 52/30 :تاريخ االستالم الخالصة ,aenasius arizonensis (girault تتضمن هذه الدراسة اول تسجيل للطفيلي 1915) (hymenoptera, encyrtidae) على النوع الدخيل البق الدقيقي للقطن phenacoccus solenopsis tinsly, 1898 (hemiptera, psedococcidae) ، اضافة الى نباتات lantana camara l. (verbeneceae)والتي تصيب نبات الزينة .قدمت الدراسة وصفا مظهريا مختصرا للطفيلي .زينة اخرى في محافظة بغداد، العراق bull 295 i. m. al-mallo and m.s. abdul-rassoul bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2017) 14 (4): 295-300 host plants and distribution of some whiteflies species (hemiptera, aleyrodidae) in the middle of iraq* i. m. al-mallo** and m.s. abdul-rassoul*** **department of plant protection, college of agriculture, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq ***iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq **** corresponding author: msabr_1942@yahoo.com received date: 25 september 2017 accepted date: 20 november 2017 abstract ten species of whiteflies (hemiptera, aleyrodidae) representing six genera were studied from a collection from different localities in the middle of iraq. these species are acaudaleyrodes rachipora (singh, 1931); bemisia afer (priesner and hosny,1934); bemisia tabaci (gennadius, 1889); dialeurodes citri (ashmead,1885); dialeurodes kirkaldy (kotinsky, 1907); neomaskellia andropogonis corbett, 1926; siphoninus phillyreae (haliday, 1835); trialeurodes ricini (misra, 1924); trialeurodes vapovariorum (westwood,1856) and trialeurodes irakeensis (al-malo and abdul-rassoul, 2000). notes are given on their localities, date of collection and host plants. key words: aleyrodidae, distribution, host plants, iraq, whiteflies. introduction whiteflies are small insects belonging to the family aleyrodidae order hemiptera; it comprised 1556 species in 161 genera from all over the world (evans , 2007); they feed on about 164 plant families (mound and halsey, 1978 ). duffus and flock (1982) indicated that as a result of their feeding they transmit about thirty viral diseases, in addition to this the secretion of the honeydew causes fungi growth. at that time, there was no taxonomic study for this family in iraq, but there were recorded some species such as hussain (1963) who reported bemisia tabaci (gennadius,1889); followed by derwesh (1965) who added two more species acaudaleyrodes rachipora (singh, 1931) (= acaudaleyrodes citti (priesner and hosny, 1934)) and trialeurodes sp.; two further species were reported by mound and halsey (1978) namely trialeurodes rara singh, (1931) and trialeurodes ricini (misra, 1924). subsequently, one species was added by swailm et al. (1974) namely siphoninus granati (priesner and hosny, 1934),which was a synonym of s. phillyreae (mound and halsey, 1978) and five spices were added to the iraqi fauna by farag and amine (1982). these were aleyrodes proletella (linnaeus, 1758), bemisia afer (priesner and hosny, 1934), bemisia hanocki (group), siphoninus phillyreae (haliday,1835), and trialeurodes porosus (priesner and hosny, 1934). *this paper is part of m.sc. thesis by the first author. http://dx.doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2017.14.4.0295 296 host plants and distribution of some whiteflies it appeared later that one of these species t. porosus was a synonym of aleuroclava porosus (priesner and hosny, 1937) (evans, 2007), al-malo and abdul-rassoul (2000) described trialeurodes irakeensis as a new species to the science. materials and methods pupal cases of whitefly have been collected from infected plant leaves during the years 1986 to 1988, in the central region of iraq; the specimens were collected from about 50 species of host plants belonging to 25 plant families, and kept in the petri dishes. the infected leaves by the whitefly were examined by a binocular dissecting microscope to distinguish the pupal case with a fine needle, pupal cases were mounted on slides according to bink (1979), and examined under a compound microscope by using an ocular micrometer to measure length of the insect. identification keys of mound (1965, 1966), habib and farag (1970) and sampson and drews (1956) were used to identify species collected during this study. results and discussion list of species reported in this study: acaudaleyrodes rachipora (singh,1931) (=a. citri priesner and hosny, 1934) materials examined: 12 pupal case, baghdad 21.ii.1987, 26. v.1987, 9.iv.1988 on leaves of zizyphus spina-christi (linne.) wild. (rhamnaceae); 4 pupal case, karbala, 10.iii.1988, 1.iv.1988 on leaves of zizyphus spina-christi (linne.) wild. (rhamnaceae); 2 pupal case, baghdad, 27.xii.1987 on leaves of punica granatum linne. (lythraceae); 3 pupal case, diyala, 3.ii.1988 on leaves of punica granatum linne. (lythraceae). bemisia afer (priesner and hosny, 1934) materials examined: 16 pupal case, baghdad, 4,10.vii.1988 on leaves of rosa sp. (rosaceae); 6 pupal cases, baghdad, 9, 25.iv.1988, 26.v.1988 on leaves of zizyphus spinachristi (linne.) wild. (rhamnaceae); 3pupal case, karbala, 14.vi.1988 on leaves of zizyphus spina-christi (linne.) wild. (rhamnaceae); 6 pupal case, baghdad, 23, 27.iv.,1.v., 14.vii.1988 on leaves of citrus sp. (rutaceae); 4 pupal case, diyala, 4.v, 4.vii., 16.vi.1988 on leaves of citrus sp. (rutaceae); 2 pupal case, baghdad, 27.iv.1988 on leaves of vitis vinifera linne.(vitaceae); 1 pupal cases, baghdad, 7.vi.1988 on leaves of punica granatum linne. var. nana (punicaceae); 1 pupal case, baghdad, 18.vi.1988 on leaves of lagerstroemia indica linne.( lythraceae). bemisia tabaci (gennadius, 1889) materials examined: 3 pupal case,baghdad, 21.viii.1987 on hibiscus esculentus l. (malvaceae); 10 pupal case,baghdad, 20.viii.1978, 22. vi.1988 on cucumis sativus l. (cucurbitaceae); 3 pupal case,baghdad, 10.vii.1987 on gossypium hirsutum l. (malvaceae); 8 pupal case,baghdad, 1.ix., 22.xii.1987, 14.iv.1988 on hibiscus rosasinensis l. (malvaceae) ; 9 pupal case,baghdad, 20.v.1987, 2, 4.iv1988 on zinnia elegans jacq (asteraceae); 5 pupal case,baghdad, 30.vi.1988 on cynanchum acutum l. (ascclepiadaceae); 10 pupal case, baghdad, 20.viii.1987, 18.ix.1988 on helianthus annuus l. (asteraceae); 4 pupl case, baghdad,9, 10, 13.iv. 1988 on zizyphus spina-christi (linne.) wild. (rhamnaceae); 2 pupl case, baghdad, 30.vi. 1988 on prunus armeniaca l. (rosaceae); 3 pupl case, baghdad, 7.v.1988 on capparis spinosa l. (capparaceae); 2 pupl case, baghdad, 10.vii.1988, on verbena hybrid v. (verbenaceae); 3 pupal case, baghdad, 21.viii.1987, on ricinus communis linne. (euphorbiaceae); 5 pupl case, baghdad, 20.ix.1987 on sonchus communis l. (asteraceae); 3 pupl case, baghdad, 26.vi.1988 on cardaria draba (l). desv. (brassicaceae); 3 pupl case, baghdad, 18.vi.1988 on plantago lanceolata l. (plantaginaceae); 5 pupal case baghdad, 28.vi.1988 on convolvuus arvensis l. 297 i. m. al-mallo and m.s. abdul-rassoul (convolvulaceae); 5 pupal case baghdad, 21.viii.1988 on solanum melongena l. (solanaceae); 7 pupal case baghdad, 21.viii.1988 on solanum tuberosum l. (solanaceae); 5 pupal case baghdad, 30.viii.1988 on capsicum grossum l. (solanaceae); 3 pupal case baghdad, 30.vi.1988 on citrus sp. (rutaceae); 5 pupal case baghdad, 20.vii.1987 on amaranthus atropurpureus roxb. (amaranthaceae); 5 pupal case baghdad, 18.iv.1988 on rosa sp. (rosaceae); 4 pupal case baghdad, 20.vii.1987 on phanera purpurea (l.) benth. (fabaceae); 2 pupal case , baghdad, 15.v.1987 on punica granatum var. nana (lythraceae); 3 pupal case , baghdad, 16.vi .1988 on bougainvillea sp. (nyctaginaceae); 3 pupal case , baghdad, 16.vi.1988 on bougainvillea sp. (nyctaginaceae); 2 pupal case , baghdad, 27.iv .1988 on ficus carica l. (moraceae); 6 pupal case , baghdad, 3.x .1988 on nicotiana tabacum l. (solanaceae); 5 pupal case , hila, 8.x .1987 on hibiscus esculentus l. (malvaceae); 6 pupal case , anbar, 21.viii .1987 on chrozophora tinctoria (l.) juss. ( = chrozophora varbascifolia (wild.) juss. (euphorbiaceae); 4 pupal case , anbar,10.x.1987 on tagetes sp. (asteraceae); 4 pupal case , anbar,10.x.1987 on solanum melongena l. (solanaceae); 4 pupal case , anbar,15.x.1987 on ipomoea batatas (l.) poir (convolvolaceae); 4 pupal case , anbar,3.xi.1987 on nicotiana tabacum l. (solanaceae); 7 pupal case , anbar,10.x.1987 on helianthus tuberosus l. (asteraceae); 3 pupal case , diyalar,10.x.1987 on solanum nigrum l. (solanaceae); 4 pupal case , diyala,3.x.1987 on chrozophora tinctoria (l.) juss. (euphorbiaceae); 5 pupal case , diyalar,3.x.1987 on euphorbia helioscopia l. (euphorbiaceae); 3 pupal case , diyala,3.x.1987 on zinnia elegans jacq. (asteraceae); 3 pupal case , wasit, 3.vi., 4.vii.1988 on zinnia elegans jacq. (asteraceae); 7 pupal case , wasit, 29.vi.,20.vii., 23.vii.1987 on hibiscus rosa sinensis l. (malvaceae); 7 pupal case , karbala, 20.vii.1987 on brassica napus l. (brassicaceae); 3 pupal case, karbala, 20.vii.1987 on helianthus annuus l. (asteraceae). dialeurodes citri (ashmead, 1885) materials examined: 7 pupal case, baghdad, 17.iv. 1988, 4.v.1988 on leaves of jasminum sambac (l.) aiton . (oleaceae). dialeurodes kirkaldyi (kotinsk, 1907) materials examined: 11 pupal case, baghdad, 17, 19.iv., 14.vii.1988 on leaves of jasminum sambac (l.) aiton. (oleaceae). neomaskellia andropogonis corbett, 1926 materials examined: 14 pupal case, anbar, 30.x.1987 on imperata cylindrica (linne.) p.beauv (poaceae). siphoninus phillyreae (halliday, 1835) materials examined: 13 pupal case, baghdad, 20.viii.1987, 24.iv, 5.vi., 4.vii.1988 on pyrus communis linne. (rosaceae); 8 pupal case, baghdad, 12.vi., 10.vii.1988 on punica granatum linne. (lythraceae); 10 pupal case, anbar, 7.vi.1988 on punica granatum linne. (lythraceae); karbala, 24.v.1987 on citrus sp. (rutaceae); 12 pupal case diyala, 12.v.1987 on citrus sp. (rutaceae). trialeurodes ricini (misra, 1924) (=t. rara signh, 1931) materials examined:43 pupal case, baghdad, 4, 9.iv.1988 on zizyphus spina-christi (linne.) wild. (rhamnaceae); 21 pupal case, baghdad, 22.xii.1986, 24.iii,1987, 4.v.1988 on citrus sp. (rutaceae); 4 pupal case, baghdad, 25.iii., 4.iv.1988 on rosa sp. (rosaceae); 7 pupal case, 25.iii.1987, 72 pupal case, baghdad, 25.x.1987 on ricinus communis linne. (euphorbiaceae); 7 pupal case, baghdad, 6.iv. 1988, 14.vii.1988 on rosa sp. (rosaceae); 3 pupal case, baghdad, 28.vi.1988 on hibiscus rosa-sinensis linne. (malvaceae); 3 pupal case, 298 host plants and distribution of some whiteflies baghdad, 29.x.1987 on celosia cristata linne. (amarantaceae); 5 pupal case, 25.i.1987, 6 pupal case, 4, 24.v.1987 karbala on citrus sp. (rutaceae); 2 pupal case, karbala, 3.x.1987 on ricinus communis linne. (euphorbiaceae); babil , 20.xii.1986, 4.vii.1988, 8.v.1988 on citrus sp. (rutaceae); 2 pupal case, wasit, 23.v.1987on citrus sp. (rutaceae); 5 pupal case, diyala, 3, 4.iv.1988 on rosa sp. (rosaceae); 3 pupal case, anbar, 8.iii.1988 on rosa sp. (rosaceae). trialeurodes vaporariorum (westwood, 1856) materials examined: mounting (rutaceae); 3 pupal case, diyala, 17.iv.1987 on citrus sp. (rutaceae). trialeurodes irakeensis al-malo and abdul-rassoul, 2000 materials examined: 4 pupal case, baghdad, 3.iv.1987 on hibiscus rosa-sinensis linne. (malvaceae). litereture cited al-malo, i.m. and abdul-rasoul, m.s. 2000. a new species of genus trialeurodes cockere from iraq (homoptera, aleyrodidae). bulletin of the iraq natural history museum, 9(2): 19-23. bink, f. a. 1979. methods for mounting aleyrodidae specimens. entomologische berichtea (amsterdam), 39(10): 158-160. derwesh, a. i. 1965 . a preliminary list of identified insects and some arachnids of iraq . directorate general of agriculture research and projects , baghdad , bulletin, 121pp . duffus, j.e. and flock, r.a. 1982. whitefly -transmitted disease complex of the desert southwest, california. agriculture, 36: 4-6. evans, g.a. 2007. the whiteflies (hemiptera: aleyrodidae) of the world and their host plants and natural enemies, 708pp. farag, a.f. and amin, a.h. 1982. new record of six species of whiteflies in iraq, with numerical density study for the cotton whitefly bemisia tabaci (genn.) on economically important crops. mesopotamia journal of agriculture, 16 (1): 93104. (in arabic). habib, a.l. and farag, f.a. 1970. studies on nine common aleurodids of egypt. bulletin of the entomological society of egypt, 54: 1-41. hussain, a . a . 1963. provisional list of insect pests and bibliography of insect fauna of iraq. bulletin of the college of science , baghdad , 7 : 43 – 83 . mound, l.a. 1965. an introduction to the aleyrodidae of western africa (homoptera). bulletin of the british museum of natural history, 17(3): 113-160. mound, l.a. 1966. a revision of the british aleyrodidae (hemiptera: homoptera). bulletin of the british museum of natural history, 17(9): 397428. 299 i. m. al-mallo and m.s. abdul-rassoul mound, l.a. and halsey, s.h. 1978. white fly of the world. british museum and john wiley and sons, 340 pp. sampson, w.w. and drews, e.a. 1956. keys to the genera of the aleyrodidae and notes on certain genera (homoptera: aleyrodidae). annals and magazine of natural history, series 12, 9: 689-697. 300 host plants and distribution of some whiteflies bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2017) 14 (4): 295-300 المضايف النباتية واالنتشار لبعض أنواع الذباب االبيض (hemiptera, aleyrodidae) في وسط العراق محمد صالح عبد الرسول و *إيمان محمد المالو جامعة بغداد، كلية الزراعة ،قسم وقاية النبات* جامعة بغداد، مركز بحوث ومتحف التاريخ الطبيعي .10..91..0: تاريخ القبول 91.7102..0 :متاريخ االستال الخالصة ( عائلة الذباب االبيض: رتبة نصفية االجنحة)سجلت عشرة انواع من الذباب االبيض :وهي تعود الى ستة اجناس، جمعت من مناطق مختلفة في وسط العراق، acaudaleyrodes rachipora (singh, 1931); bemisia tabaci (gennadius,1889); bemisia afer (priesner and hosny, 1934); dialeurodes kirkaldy (kotinsky, 1907); dialeurodes citri (ashmead,1885); siphoninus phillyreae (haliday,1835); neomaskellia andropogonis corbett, 1926; trialeurodes vapovariorum (westwood) 1856; trialeurodes ricini (misra,1924) trialeurodes irakeensis almalo and abdul-rassoul ,2000. .كما سجلت مناطق التوزيع، وتاريخ الجمع و المضايف النباتية لكل نوع منها bull 1 amer m. hussin bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2015) 13 (4): 1-9 study on the effect of royal jelly of bees (apis mellifera) on the morphology and sperm function parameters in mice (swiss albino) amer m. hussin assist. prof. dr., college of veterinary medicine, baghdad university, iraq. abstract the objective of this study was to investigate the effect of royal jelly rj on morphology and motility of mice sperms. sperms were collected from the cauda region of the epididymis of each 10 mice from the treatment and control groups. direct activation techniques and evaluation of sperm morphology were carried out. dhino microscope was used for sperm measurement. the inspection was carried out in salamatic laboratory for pathological analysis in 2015.the result revealed that all of the sperm function parameters registered significant activation in the treatment group. there was a significant increase in both the percentage of the sperm motility grade a and the progressive motility (a+b) of the treatment group. spermatozoon with different lengths were noticed. the study explains that this difference may be due to the presence of different sperm developmental stages and not to the increase in the number and sizes of mitochondria in the mid-peace during activation or not to the sliding movement of microtubules in the axon of spermatozoon. these findings provide evidence that rj can play an important role only in improving the male mice motility and which may open the way for further researches to demonstrate the possibility of using rj in artificial insemination in field animals. key words: apis mellifera, bees mice, sperm morphology royal jelly. introduction royal jelly is a substance that is secreted from worker honey bees. it is the main food source for only the first 3 days of worker larva. one larva that is to be the queen bee is fed only rj its entire life, so that bee worker alives only for 6 months while queen alives for 2-7 years. this exclusive feeding triggers the full development of her ovaries which is needed to lay the millions of eggs she will lay in her lifetime. this may be related to the extremely high nutritional contents of the rj. (mishima et al., 2005), (narita et al., 2006), (okuda et al., 1988), and (taylor, 2004). royal jelly is rich in amino acids, lipids, simple sugars (monosaccharides), some enzymes, antibacterial and antibiotic components, vitamins such as pantothenic acid (vitamin b5), vitamin b6 (pyridoxine), high levels of vitamins d and e. it contains ample levels of iron and calcium, fatty acids and most importantly, proteins. rj also contains acetylcholine, which is needed to transmit nerve messages from cell to cell (viuda-martos et al., 2008). also the objective of this study is to examine the in vitro effect of rj on morphology and motility of sperms. similar literature on this rasped were not available. the aim of this study is to investigate the effect of (rj) in morphology and activity of sperms in mice. 2 study on the effect of royal jelly of bees on sperm activity materials and methods experimental animals: twenty mature apparently healthy male mice (balb/c st can br strain) 8-12 weeks old were purchased from the higher institute for the diagnosis of infertility & techniques of assisted production of al-nahrain university in 2015. mice were divided into control and treatment groups. 1sperms collection: animals were sacrificed by cervical dislocation, the caudal region of the epididymis were removed aseptically and placed immediatly into 1ml of in vitro fertilization (ivf) medium in a 35-mm culture dish. the collected pieces of epididymis were minced by using forceps and scissors. the sperms were allowed to disperse by gently shaking the dish by hand for 3 to 5 minutes at room temperature. the sperms suspension was divided into two parts. 2in vitro sperm activation technique: direct activation technique was used where the sperms were allowed to swim-up through the medium for at least 60 minutes at 37 by 5% co2 incubation (cross and overstreet 1987). this technique for sperm activation is characterized by direct effect of the culture medium on sperm parameters (fig.1). then the sperms were counted. 3royall jelly preparation: royal jelly was used as 10% concentration, was prepared by adding 0.1ml of rj suspension to 0.9 ml of mouse ivf media (gain medium., fertipro nv, industriepark noord 32,8730 beernem, belgium v.c1). the 10% solution was filtered with pore size 0.45μm and 0.22 μm, and then ph was adjusted to reach 7.2-7.4 with hcl one molar (cybow 10, dfi co., ltd. korea). then activate the sperms using direct activation technique that described previously. 4-sperm concentration, motility, grade of activity and normal morphology: the motility of spermatozoa were graded according to (mishima et al. 2005): a-rapid linear progressive motility, b-rapid nonlinear or linear non rapid progressive motility, c-non progressive motility (localized) and dimmotile. 5-evaluation of sperm morphology: sperms recovered from the treatment and control groups were fixed in zinker's fluid. the nigrosin-eosin stain was used for examining the sperm morphology. live sperms appear does not take the eosin stain and looks colorless under light microscope; whereas dead sperms take up eosin and appear pinkish in color (graham, 2004). the lengths of sperms from each of the treatment and control were examined and measured by digital microscope dinocapture 2.0 (made in taiwan) (check et al., 1992). results in vitro sperm activation technique: (table 1) revealed that the mean sperm concentration (x106 sperm/ml) following direct activation with 10% r.j-ivf medium was significantly (p<0.05) higher than before activation. active sperm motility (grade a and grade b) was significantly (p<0.05) increased. the percentage of morphologically normal sperms following the addition of 10% r.j-ivf medium showed no significant (p< 0.05) difference when compared with the r.j-free ivf medium. the morphological results: with the digital dino microscope, the sperm appears to consist of only two portions: the head and tail. the measurement of the different parts of 3 amer m. hussin spermatozoa was difficult as the head of mice sperm was irregular and characterized by severe polymorphism. although, the morphological study couldn't detect any apparent increase in the head of treated spermatozoa, we could observe a non significant total elongation in the length of treated mice sperm (71±0.98) compared to control ones (67±1.07) (table 2). . fig. 1: sperms before activation. head of sperm (short arrows), tail of sperm (long arrow). x400. eosin-nigrosin stain. fig. 2: sperms after activation. head of sperm (short arrows). tail of sperm (long arrow). x400. eosin-nigrosin stain. 4 study on the effect of royal jelly of bees on sperm activity fig. 3: sperms after activation. head of the sperm (short arrows). tail of the sperm (long arrow). x400. eosin stain. table (1): comparison between control and treatment groups with 10% r.j-ivf medium on certain sperm function parameters following in vitro direct activation. (mean se) in vitro sperm activation grouping with and without r.j. after 1 hour incubation mean± se significance sperm concentration (106/ml) without r.j 25.22±1.405 s with r.j 36.32±4.323 sperm motility grade a (%) without r.j 12.40±2.315 s with r.j 18.73±0.918 sperm motility grade b (%) without r.j 21.33±2.622 s with r.j 30.73±2.472 sperm motility grade c (%) (localized) without rj 26.14±0.05 s with rj 36.21±0.123 sperm motility grade d (%) (immotile) without rj 40.13±0.04 s with rj 14.33±0.984 progressive motility (a+b)% without r.j 33.73±4.362 s with r.j 49.07±3.065 morphologically normal sperms(%) without r.j 30.43±4.410 ns with r.j 31.93±3.084 5 amer m. hussin table (2). morphometric measurement (μm) of the spermatozoon with and without adding rj. head tail & middle piece total without rj 4±0.17 63±1.56 67±1.07 ns with rj 4±0.42 67±1.92 71±0.98 ns discussion in the current study, the results referred to the improvement of sperm motility in the treatment group. this is confirmed by (rodriguez, 2007) who reported that (rj) increase libido and supports egg and sperm health. this may be related to the components of the rj present in the activation fluid (svoboda et al. 1986). the presence of different lengths of the sperms taken from the treatment may be attributed to the different developmental stages of spermiogenesis and not due to the proliferation of mitochondria and proteinaceous materials present in the mid-piece and principal part of the tail respectively (ganong, 2005) or the slide movement of microtubules (samuelson, 2007). this is confirmed by the finding of (noguchi and koizumi, 2011). this could also be in agreement with (lercker et al., 1982) who stated that mitochondria aggregate around the proximal part of each flagellum, forming a thickened region known as the middle piece, the region where the atp for flagellar movements of spermatozoa is generated. however the present findings were within the limits of the spermatozoon length of domestic species (samuelson, 2007). further studies under electron microscope might shade more light on the effect of rj on the mitochondria or other structures that are involved in the sperm motility. the current study shows that increased sperm length is unlikely to be driven by selection for increased swimming speed, and that the relative lengths of a sperm's constituent parts, rather than their absolute lengths are likely to be the target of selection. all else being equal, we suggest that a simple measurement of the ratio of head to tail length should be used to assess the possible link between morphology and speed. however, this is mostly likely to be the case for external fertilizers in which females have relatively limited opportunity to influence a sperm's motility. in this study, there was an enhancement in certain sperm function parameters, and that was attributed firstly to the direct activation technique with ivf medium. the medium provided the same culture components which found in the female genital tract and that will trigger the sperm hyperactivity motility (mishima et al., 2005). the technique sustains the epididymal sperms to get rid of the decapacitating factors in the seminal plasma and makes the sperm ready for successful fertilization in vitro (tournaye et al., 2003). secondly, adding of rj to the culture media enhances different sperm function parameters following 60 minutes of activation, mainly sperm concentration, total sperm motility percentage and grade activity of forward progressive movement. the results of the present study found that, in vitro activation of caudal epididymal sperms by direct activation technique with 10% rj-ivf medium resulted in a significant increase in the concentration of the recovered spermatozoa by swim-out after 60 minutes of incubation. the differences in sperm concentration between rj-free ivf and 10% rj-ivf medium may be explained by the booster effect of r.j one epididymal sperms to move out and to release from the epididymal tissue. moreover, culturing of the semen sample with 10% rj-ivf medium result a significant increase in the percentages of sperm motility and grade activity of forward movement to reach in the last one to 50% (grade a+grade b) of the semen sample. 6 study on the effect of royal jelly of bees on sperm activity results of this study also showed that, there was no significant difference in the morphologically normal sperms between the treated and control groups, and the mean was near 30% as an average. these results were compatible with the improvements in sperm concentration and grade activity of forward movement; because it was very difficult to make any enhancement on either sperm parameters when the semen sample considered morphologically abnormal (coetzee et al., 1998). it was concluded from the present study that the addition of rj to the culture media of sperm can enhance the sperm quality in mice. this result can be utilized for other mammalian ivf programs. lterature cited al-dujaily, s. s.; al-janabi, a. s. and nori, m. 2006. effect of glycyrrhiza extract on in vitro sperm activation of asthenospermic patients. journal of babylon university, 11(3): 477-483. al-jarah, i. a. n. 2002. study of some exogenous hormones on sperm in vitro activation of asthenozoospermia patients. msc thesis. college science. university of babylon, iraq. check, j. h; adelson, h. g.; schubert, b.r. and bollendrof, s. 1992. evaluation of sperm morphology. 28.1 p: 15-17. claire, l. borg. 2009. phenotyping male infertility in the mouse: how to get the most out of a' non-performer'. hum. reprod. update, 16 (2): 205-24. coetzee, k.; kruger, t. f. 1998. predictive value of normal sperm morphology: a structural literature review. human reproduction update.73-82. cross, n. l. and overstreet, j. w. 1987. glycoconjugates of the human sperm surface: distribution and alterations that accompany capacitation in vitro. gamete res., 16 (1):23–35. dellman, h. d. and brown e. m. 1976. veterinary histology. land febiger. philadelphia, 300pp. ganong, w. f. 2005. medical physiology, 22th, lange; 425-426. graham, j. k. 2004. effect of adding cholesterol to bull sperm membranes on sperm capacitation, the acrosome reaction and fertility. biol. reprod. 1(2): 522-7. hassan, a. a. 2009. effect of royal jelly on sexual efficiency in adult rats. iraqi journal of veterinary sciences, vol. 23, supplement π .pp:155-160. proceeding of the 5th scientific conference, college of vet. medicine, university of mosul. hidaka, s.; okamoto, y.; uchiyama, s.; nakatsuma, a.; hashimoto, k. and ohnishi, s.t. 2006. royal jelly prevents osteoporosis in rats: beneficial effects in ovariectomy model and in bone tissue culture model. evid based complement alternat med., 3:339. 7 amer m. hussin katja, m. wolski; gerard m. gibbs; moira k. o'bryan; anna, g. sabatini; gian, l. marcazzan; maria, f. caboni; stefan, b. l.; bicudo and de almeida-muradian. 2009. quality and standardization of royal jelly, journal of apiproduct and apimedical science, 1(1): 1-6. koya-miyata, s.; okamoto, i.; ushio, s.; iwaki, k.; ikeda, m. and kurimoto, m. 2004. identification of a collagen production-promoting factor from an extract of royal jelly and its possible mechanism. biosci biotechnol biochem, 68: 767-73. [pubmed] lercker, g.; capella, p.; conte, l. s.; ruini, f. and giordani, g. 1982. components of royal jelly ii. the lipid fraction, hydrocarbons and sterols. j. apicult res, 21:178-84. mateescu, c. and barbulescu, d. 1999. enhanced nutritive, functional and therapeutic action of combined bee products in complex food supplements. roum biotechnol lett, 4: 163-72. mesher, a. l. 2010. junqueira's basic histology. 12ed. mac graw hill medical, 373-378. mishima, s.; miyata, t.; suzuki, k .m.; araki, y.; akao, y. and isohama, y. 2005. estrogenic effects of royal jelly. j. tradit med. 22: 171-5. mishima, s.; suzuki, k. m.; isohama, y.; kuratsu, n.; araki, y. and inoue, m. 2005. royal jelly has estrogenic effects in vitro and in vivo. j. ethnopharmacol, 101: 21520. [pubmed] nagy, a.; gertsenstein, m.; vintersten, k. and behringer, r. 2003. manipulating the mouse embryo, a laboratory manual. 3rd ed. cold springer harber press. new york, 31-61pp. narita, y.; nomura j.; ohta s.; inoh y.; suzuki k.m. and araki y. 2006. royal jelly stimulates bone formation: physiologic and nutrigenomic studies with mice and cell lines. biosci biotechnol biochem, 70:2508-14. nassar, a.; mahony, m.; blackmore, p.; morshedi, m. and ozgur, k. 1998. increase of intracellular calcium is not cause of penteoxifylline-induced hyperactivation or acrosome reaction in human sperm. fertility sterility, 69: 745-749. noguchi, t. and koizumi, m. 2011. sustained elongation of sperm tail promoted by local remodeling of giant mitochondria in drosophila. current biology, 21 (10): 805814. okuda, h.; kameda, k.; morimoto, c.; matsuura, y.; chikaki, m. and jiang, m. 1998. studies on insulin-like substances and inhibitory substances toward angiotensinconverting enzyme in royal jelly. honeybee sci. 19: 9-14. (in japanese). rodriguez, h. 2007. fertility super food-royal jelly, natural fertility info. com/royaljelly.html. sabatini, a. g. 2009. quality and standardization of royal jelly. journal of api product & api medical science, 1(1): 16-21. 8 study on the effect of royal jelly of bees on sperm activity samuelson, d. a. 2007. textbook of veterinary histology. saunders elsevier, china, 427428. suzuki, k.; isohama, y.; maruyama, h.; yamada, y.; narita, y.; ohta, s.; araki, y.; miyata, t. and mishima, s. 2008. estrogenic activities of fatty acids and a sterol isolated from royal jelly. evidence 30-based complementary and alternative medicine, 5(3): 295-302. svoboda, j. a.; herbert, e. w. jr.; thompson references m. j. 1986. sterols of organs involved in brood food production and of royal jelly in honey bees. insect biochem. 16: 479-82. tamir, s.; eizenberg, m.; songen, d. m.; shelach, r.; kaye, a. and vaya j. 2000. estrogenic and anti-proliferative properties of glabridin from licorice in human breast cancer cells. cancer research, 15(60): 5704. taylor, l. 2004. database file for licorice. rain tree nutrition inc. (home page on the internet) (cited: 14 august, 2007). tournaye, h.; verheyen, g. and albano, c. 2003. intracytoplasmic sperm injection versus in vitro fertilization: a randomized controlled trial and a meta-analysis of the literature. fertility sterility, 78: 1030-1037. viuda-martos, m. y.; ruiz-navajas, j.; fernández-lópez and pérez-álvarez, j. a. 2008. functional properties of honey, propolis, and royal jelly. journal of food science, 73: 117-124. 9 amer m. hussin bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2015) 13 (4): 1-9 على شكلياء ومعايير apis mellifera عسللنمل االغذاء الملكي ل دراسة تأثير swiss albinوظيفة نطف ذكور الفأر السويسري عامر متعب حسين العراق بغداد, ,جامعة بغداد, كلية الطب البيطري, فرع التشريح واألنسجة الخالصة صممت هذه الدراسة للمقارنة بين نتائج متغيرات النطف قبل وبعد التنشيط بالغذاء عشرة لكل من )الفئران البالغة إستخدم في هذه التجربة عشرون من ذكور. الملكي للنحل والتي جمعت من بيت الحيوان في المعهد العالي لتشخيص (مجموعتي التجربة والسيطرة أجريت التجربة والتحليالت في . العقم والتقنيات المساعدة على االنجاب بجامعة النهرين . أخذت النطف من ذيل البربخ. 5102الرصافة مختبر سالمتك للتحليالت المرضية ببغداد , والنسبة المئوية لنشاط النطف, ف المتحركةوالنسبة المئوية للنط, تم تقييم تركيز النطف تم تسجيل األبعاد الشكليائية للنطفة في الحالتين . والنسبة المئوية لشكلياء النطف الطبيعي أظهرت نتائج الدراسة الحالية . تم تحليل النتائج إحصائيا. باستخدام الميكروسكوب نوع داينو خارج )مجموعة المعاملة بعد التنشيط في متغيرات النطفة في ( p<0.05)تحسن معنوي بمادة الغذاء الملكي مقارنة بمجموعة السيطرة حيث حصلت زيادة معنوية ( الجسم (p<0.05 ) بعد تنشيط النطف لكل من الحركة التقدميةa للنطف والحركة التقدمية الكلية (a+b )و أظهرت الدراسة وجود أطوال مختلفة للنطف في مجموعتي السيطرة . للنطف تعزي الدراسة هذه الزيادة , التجربة وزيادة غير معنوية في أطوال النطف لمجموعة التجربة بسبب إزدياد أعداد وأحجام المتقدرات وليسإلى المراحل التطورية المختلفة لنشأة النطف الموجودة في المنطقة الوسطية للنطفة بعد التنشيط أو بسبب حركة ألنبيبات الدقيقة أإلنزالقية ترى الدراسة أن إضافة الغذاء الملكي الى الوسط الزرعي . لموجودة في محور النطفةا وإمكانية إستخدامه لزيادة نشاط النطف , حركتها وقد يؤدي إلى زيادة نشاطها للنطف يحفز .في التلقيح االصطناعي في الحيوانات الحقلية 4 25 m. k. mohammad & a. a. al-moussawi bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2012) 12 (2): 25-37 gizzard nematodes of the house sparrow passer domesticus biblicus hartert collected in baghdad city, central iraq mohammad k. mohammad* and azhar a. al-moussawi iraq natural history research centre and museum, university of baghdad, bab al-muadham, baghdad, iraq *email: amarmkm82@yahoo.com abstract acuaria skrjabini ozerskaya, 1926 and dispharynx nasuta (rudolphi, 1819) stiles and hassall, 1920, were found embedded in the mucosa of the gizzards of 26.97% of house sparrows, passer domesticus biblicus collected in baghdad city. their morphometric and meristic features were expressed and compared with that reported in other studies. introduction the house sparrow, passer domesticus biblicus hartert is a synanthropic species with natural distribution throughout europe, the mediterranean region and most asia. it had been introduced intentionally or accidentally into many parts of the world, and these introductions in addition to the expansion of the distribution of species after the break-down of biogeographic barriers by humans (globalization of biodiversity) have altered host and parasite diversity throughout the world (poulin and morand, 2004; taraschewski, 2006). in iraq, it is a very common resident bird and its distribution includes all kinds of ecosystems (allouse, 1962; salim, 2006) except, perhaps, the deep interior of deserts. surprisingly, only few works had been carried out on house sparrow parasites in iraq including shamsuddin and mohammad (1980) and mohammad (1990) who investigated for blood parasites only while abdulabas (2005) examined three passerine birds including house sparrow in al-najaf alashraf governorate and found two cestode species in the intestine of the house sparrow, but none on gizzard nematodes. the aim of this work is to provide information on the incidence, identification, intensity and necessary measurements of males and females of gizzard nematodes in house sparrows collected in baghdad city. materials and methods a total of 56 specimens of house sparrow (36 males and 20 females) were collected in baghdad city by mist net during the period march to december 2011. birds were immediately dissected and the recovered gizzards were searched carefully for the nematodes underneath the lining wall. the recovered nematodes were washed thoroughly with normal saline then kept in 70% alcohol and rinsed in lactophenol before examining for clearing. micrographs were taken with digital camera infinity lite-k100 attached to compound microscope micros mcx100. all measurements are in millimeters unless otherwise stated. mailto:amarmkm82@yahoo.com 26 gizzard nematodes of the house sparrow results table 1 summarizes the results of examining 56 house sparrows for endoparasites. it would show that 15 (26.97%) were infected with either acuaria skrjabini ozerskaya, 1926 or dispharynx nasuta (rudolphi, 1819) stiles and hassall, 1920. all cases are single infections except one case of a female harbored both infections. there are no double infection cases with these two nematodes. table 1: examination of bird hosts and findings on a. skrjabini and d. nasuta. no. bird examined no. infected % infected no. hosts acuaria skrjabini infected % no. hosts dispharynx nasuta infected % male 36 6 16.7 3 8.3 3 8.3 female 20 9 45 9* 45 0 total 56 15 26.8 12 21.4 3 5.4 *one female of double infection with 13 larval stage of a spirurid nematode. the results show that female hosts acquire higher rate of infection (45%) than males (16.7%) with both parasites. it shows also that infection rate is higher with a. skrjabini (21.4%) compared with only 7.1% in case of d. nasuta. acuaria skrjabini (figs. 1-3): anterior end without vesicular swelling, with two small triangular lips, four short straight cordons beginning from mouth angles. males with asmmytrical caudal alae. caudal papillae pedunculated, preanals 4 pairs, postanals 7 pairs. females are longer than males by 5 times (table 2). table (2) : morphological and meristic features for males and females of acuaria skrjabini ozerskaya , 1926 in the present study and other studies . m= male, f= female 27 m. k. mohammad & a. a. al-moussawi dispharynx nasuta (figs.4-6): only three females were isolated from the gizzards of p. domesticus. body stout, two pseudolabia present, buccal capsule short , four distinct cordons convoluted, beginning at dorsal and ventral sides of oral opening, extending to posterior part of muscular esophagus, recurrent to anterior part of muscular esophagus, transversely striated. esophagus clearly divided into short anterior muscular part and long posterior glandular part. table 3: d. nasuta morphometric features of females in comparison with other studies. morphometric features in pinto et al. , 2004 from phasianuscolchicus (mm) in zhang et al. , 2004 from passerine birds in the present study um total body length 5.134-6.902 (5.705) 3.26-7.84 mm (5.13 mm) 4.160-7.875 (6.094) maximum body width 0.306-0.578 (0.401) 252-607 (402) mm 0.375-0.441 (0.410) buccal capsule length 0.097-0.119 (0.109) 95-152 (125) 0.105-0.109 (0.107) buccal capsule width 0.018-0.216 (0.021) ------------- 0.020-0.022 (0.021) cordon ascending length 0.115-0.252 (0.191) 441-1051 (765) 0.1100.269 (0.194) muscular esophagus length × width 0.476-0.700 (0.588) 444-761 (570) × 52-118 (89) 0.501-0.806 (0.687) × 0.076-0.098 (0.089) glandular esophagus length 1.302-2.030 (1.646) 1.12-2.00 (1.63) × 111-236 (147) 1.460-1.560(1.510) × 0.201-0.237(0.219) nerve ring from the anterior end 0.254-0.349 (0.292) 220-403 (3 13) 0.210-0.286(0.252) vulva opening from the posterior extremity 0.966-1.386 (1.170) 0.67-1.41 (1.11) 1.770-2.100 (1.954) eggs length 0.0280.032 (0.0324) 33-40 (37) 0.322-0.036(0.034) eggs width 0.01800.0216 (0.021) 17-26 (21) 0.020-0.023(0.022) anus from the posterior extremity 0.0828-0.1260 (0.1044) 114-156 (133) 0.121-0.130(0.124) thirteen spirurid (3rd stage) larval specimens were isolated from under lining of the gizzard of passer domesticus (figs. 7-8). measurements: 3.410 to 4.412 (4.000) long, body width at nerve ring 0.060 to 0.100 (0.076), body width at the junction of oesophagus and with intestine 0.090 to 0.125 (0.102), nerve ring from anterior end of the body 0.080 to 0.155 (0.109), buccal capsule 0.025 to 0.050 (0.044) long, oesophagus 1.325 to 1.625 (1.471) long, tail 0.050 to 0.087 (0.072) long. 28 gizzard nematodes of the house sparrow stomach contents examination reveals presence of rice grains, egg shell fragments, different seeds, insect remains mainly grasshoppers, unidentified grains, plant remains, green algae and different sized small stones. to the best of our knowledge this work constitutes the first record for these two gizzard nematodes to be reported in iraq. discussion the high infection rate with a. skrjabini (21.4%) of the total hosts examined compared to d. nasuta (5.4%) (table 1) may be explained by being the passerine birds are the principal hosts. mawson (1972) and zhang et al. (2003) mentioned that acuaria spp. are widely distributed among passerine birds, while dispharynx nasuta had been described in numerous avian hosts, primarily from the columbiformes, galliformes, and passeriformes with isolated records from anseriformes, charadriformes, ciconiformes, cuculiformes, falconiformes, gruiformes, piciformes and psittaciformes (bollette, 1998). the morphology of the present specimens of a. skrjabini is almost related to that of its original description (ozerskaya,1926 [cited in sato et al., 2005]) and also of that of baylis and daubney (1926) and sato et al. (2005). house sparrow passer domesticus diet consists mostly of weeds, grass seeds, grains and insects. where available, it also feeds on cultivated grains, fruits and vegetables. it forages mostly on the ground in open areas in urban areas, garbage constitutes a significant part of the birds diet (summers-smith, 1963, issg, 2010). (http://www.issg.org/database/species/ecology). however, stomach contents show no large difference in the main components of diet in both britain and iraq, but the presence of insect remains mainly grasshoppers could be directly correlated with presence of helminthes including our two gizzard nematode species. the recovery of 13 larval stage specimens of a spiruroid nematode in one female host (1.8% infection rate of total number of hosts) did not enabled the authors to withdraw a suitable conclusion in regard to their incidence or their specific identity. further study is needed to get a clear idea about these nematodes. the absence of double infection cases in these two studied gizzard nematodes may be related to active antagonism between these species. this is in general agreement with moore and simberloff (1990) who found intraspecific relationships between parasitic helminthes of northern bobwhite collinus virginianus. acuaria skrjabini was recorded in the gizzards of long-tailed finch poephila acuticauda, plum-headed finch aidemosyne modesta and red-faced parrot finch erythrura psittacea in australia (mcorist et al., 1982); from tree sparrow passer montanus and gray starling sturnus cinereaceus in japan (sato et al., 2005). dispharynx nasuta was frequently reported from different avian orders around the world. it was reported in usa from pigeon columba livia (columbiformes) causing severe pathological changes in proventriculus (hwang et al., 1961); in captive princess parrot polytelis alexandrae (psittaciformes) (bollette, 1998); in california quail callipepla californica (galliformes) (moore et al., 1988); in african jacanas actophilornis africana http://www.issg.org/database/species/ecology) 29 m. k. mohammad & a. a. al-moussawi (charadriiformes) (yvonne schulman, 1992); in ruffed grouse bonasa umbellus, ringnecked pheasant phasianus colchicus, peafowl pavo cristatus, hungarian partridge perdix p. perdix, eastern bobwhite collinus v. virginianus, prairie grouse tympanuchus spp., greater prairie chickens tympanuchus cupido pinnatus, attwater's prairie chicken tympanuchus cupido attwateri, wild turkeys meleagris gallopavo (galliformes), eastern crow corvus b. brachyrhynchos, catbird dumetella carolinensis, eastern robin turdus m. migratorius, eastern bluebird sialia s. sialia, starling sturnus v. vulgaris, house sparrow passer domesticus and eeastern cowbird molothrus a. ater (passeriformes) (goble and kutz, 1945; maxfield et al., 1963; harper et al., 1967; kellogg and prestwood, 1968; moore and simberloff, 1990; peterson, 1996, 2004; williams et al., 2000); in bleeding heart pigeon gallicolumba luzonica (columbiformes) (lindquist and strafuss, 1988); in red-bellied woodpeckers melanerpes carolinus (piciformes) (foster et al., 2002). in canada it was reported from hungarian partridge (galliformes) (bendell and lisk, 1957). it is also reported in brazil from house sparrow; in red-crested cardinal. paroaria coronata (passeriformes) (mascarenhas et al., 2009; calegaro-marques and amato, 2010); in ring-necked pheasant (galliformes) (pinto et al., 2004); in guira cuckoos guira guira and smooth-billed ani crotophaga ani (cuculiformes) (bartmann and amato, 2009); and reported from costa rica in thrauois episcopus, turdus grayi, caryothrau stespoliogaster, platyrinchus cancrominus, ramphocaenus melanurus, vemivora peregrine and geothlypis poliocephala (passeriformes) (zhang et al., 2004). in morocco it was reported from chickens gallus gallus (galliformes) (hassouni and belghyti, 2006). in spain it was reported from the common kestrel falco tinnunculus (falconiformes) (acosta et al., 2010). in palawan, philipines it was reported from chiken gallus gallus (schmiddt and kuntz, 1970). the specific identification of the spirurid larvae could not be possible at this stage and needs more advanced examination, probably, with molecular procedures. to the best of our knowledge, acuaria skrjabini and dispharynx nasuta recovered from passer domesticus biblicus are recorded here for the first time in iraq. litereature cited abdulabas, s. k. 2005. identificational study of parasitic fauna on three species of passeriformes family and its physiological effects in al-najaf al-ashraf governorate. m. sc. thesis, department of biology, kufa university. acosta, i.; hernandez, s.; gutiérrez, p. n.; martinez-cruz, m. s.; hernandez, e.; buffoni, l. and martinez-moreno, f. j. 2010. acuaroid nematodes in the common kestrel (falco tinnunculus) in the south of spain. the veterinary journal 183: 234–237. allouse, 1962 birds of iraq. vol. 3. passeriformes (in arabic). arrabitta press, baghdad, 288 pp. bartmann, a. and amato, s. b. 2009. [dispharynx nasuta (nematoda: acuariidae) in guira guira and crotophago ani (cuculiformes: cuculidae) on rio grande do sul state, brazil]. ciencia rural, santa maria, 39 (4):1152-1158. baylis, h. a. and daubney, b. 1926. a synopsis of the families and genera of nematoda. british museum , london: pp. 30 gizzard nematodes of the house sparrow bendell, j. f. and lisk, r. d. 1957. dispharynx nasuta in hungarian partridge in ontario. j. wildlife management, 21 (2): 238. bollette, d. p. 1998. dispharynxiasis in a captive princess parrot. j. wildlife dis., 34 (2): 390-391. calegro-marques, c. and amato, s. b. 2010. helminths of introduced house sparrows (passer domesticus) in brazil: does population age affect parasite richness?.iheringia, ser. zool., porto alegre, 100 (1): 73-78. foster, g. w.; kinsella, j. m.; walters, e. l.; schrader, m. s. and forrester, d. j. 2002. parasitic helminths of red-bellied woodpeckers (melanerpes carolinus) from the apalachicola national forest in florida. j. parasitol., 88(6): 1140-1142. goble, f. c. and kutz, h. l. 1945. the genus dispharynx (nematoda:acuariidae) in galliform and passeriform birds. j. parasitol., 31 (5): 323-331. harper, g. r.; klataske, r. d.; robel, r. j. and hansen, m. f. 1967. helminths of greater prairie chickens in kansas. the journal of wildlife management, 31 (2): 265-26. hassouni, t. and belghyti, d. 2006. distribution of gastrointestinal helminths in chicken farms in the gharb region-morocco. parasitol res., 99: 181–183. hwang, j. c.; tolgay, n.; shalkop, w. t. and jaquette, d. s. 1961. case report: dispharynx nasuta causing severe proventriculitis in pigeons. avian dis., 5 (1): 60-65. issg (2010). (http://www.issg.org/database/species/ecology). kellogg, f. e. and prestwood, a. k. 1968. gastrointestinal helminths from wild and penraised bobwhites forest. the journal of wildlife management,32 (3): 468-475. lindquist, w. d. and strafuss, a. c. 1980 (dispharynx nasuta) may cycle within avian zoo populations. j. zoo. an. med., 11: 120-122. mascarenhas, c. s.; krüger, c. and müller, g. 2009. the helminth fauna of the red-crested cardinal (paroaria coronata) passeriformes: emberizidae in brazil. parasitol res., 105:1359–1363. mawson, p. m. 1972. the genus acuaria bremser (nematoda: spirurida) in australia. trans. r. soc. s. aust., 96 (3): 139-147. maxfield, b. g.; reid, w. m. and hayes, f. a. 1963 gastrointestinal helminths from turkeys in southeastern united states. the journal of wildlife management, 27 (2): 261271. mcorist, s.; barton, n. j. and black, d. g. 1982. acuaria skrjabini infection of the gizzard of finches. avian diseases, 26 (4): 957-960. mohammad, m. k. 1990. blood parasites of some iraqi wild birds. iraqi j. sci., 31 (supplement): 31-39. http://www.issg.org/database/species/ecology) 31 m. k. mohammad & a. a. al-moussawi moore, j.; freehling, m.; crawford, j. and cole, p. 1988. dispharynx nasuta (nematoda) in california quail (callipepla californica) in western oregon. j. wildlie dis., 24 (32): 564-567. moore, j. and simberloff, d. 1990. gastrointestinal helminth communities of bobwhite quail. ecology, 71 (1): 344-359. peterson, m . j. 1996. the endangered attwater's prairie chicken and an analysis of prairie grouse helminthic endoparasitism. ecography, 19: 424-431. peterson, m. j. 2004. parasites and infectious diseases of prairie grouse: should managers be concerned?. wildlife society bulletin, 32 (1): 35-55. pinto, r. m.; mendezes, r. c. and gomes, d. c. 2004. first report of five nematode species in phasianus colchicus linneaus (aves, galliformes, phasianidae) in brasileria de zoologia, 21 (4): 961-970. poulin and morand, 2004. parasite biodiversity. washington, smithsonian books. 216p. [cited in calegro-marques and amato, 2010]. salim, m. a.; porter, r.; christensen, s.; schiermacker-hansen, p.; christensen, c. and aljboor, s. 2006. field guide to birds of iraq (in arabic). nature iraq and birdlife international. 1st ed. 284 pp. sato, h.; osanai, a.; kamiya, h. and une, y. 2005. gizzard spirurid nematode acuaria skrjabini in japanese tree sparrows and a gray starling from tokyo. j. vet. med. sci., 67: 607-609. schmidt, g. d. and kuntz, r. e. 1970. research note: nematode parasites of oceanica. vii. new records from wild and domestic chickens (gallus gallus) from palawan (philippine islands), sabah (malaysia), and taiwan. avian diseases,14 (1): 184187. shamsuddin, m. and mohammad, m. k. 1980. haematozoa of some iraq birds with description of two new species, haemoproteus pterocles and leucocytozoon nycticoraxi (protozoa: haemosporina). bull. nat. hist. res. centre, 7(4): 111-154. summers-smith, 1963. the house sparrow. new naturalist (1st. ed.). london: collins. taraschewski, 2006. hosts and parasites as aliens. journal of helminthology 80:99-128 [cited in calegro-marques and amato, 2010]. williams, c. k.; davidson, w. r.; lutz, r. s. and applegate, r. d. 2000. health status of northern bobwhite quail (colinus virginianus) in eastern kansas. avian diseases, 44 (4): 953-956. yvonne schulman, f.; montali, r. j. and citino, s. b. 1992. pathology, diagnosis and treatment of synhimantus nasuta infection in african jacanas (actophilornis africana). j. zoo and wildlife med., 23 (3): 313-317. 32 gizzard nematodes of the house sparrow zhang, l.; brooks, d. r. and causey, d. 2003. two species of acuaria bremser, 1811 (nematoda: acuarioidea:acuariidae), in passerine birds from the area de conservacion guanacaste, costa rica. j. parasitol., 89 (5): 1039-1043. zhang, l.; brooks, d. r. and causey, d. 2004. two species of synhimantus (dispharynx) railliet, henry and sisoff, 1912 (nematoda: acuarioidea:acuariidae), in passerine birds from the area de conservacion guanacaste, costa rica. j. parasitol., 90 (5): 1133-1138. 33 m. k. mohammad & a. a. al-moussawi fig. 1: acuarioa skrjabini anterior end. fig. 2: acuaria skrjabini male posterior end. 34 gizzard nematodes of the house sparrow fig.3: acuaria skrjabini female posterior end. fig. 4: dispharynx nasuta female head and cordons. 35 m. k. mohammad & a. a. al-moussawi fig. 5: dispharynx nasuta female posterior region. fig. 6: dispharynx nasuta female vulva. 36 gizzard nematodes of the house sparrow fig. 7: larval stage spirurid nematode anterior end. (10). fig. 8: larval stage spirurid nematode posterior end. (4). 37 m. k. mohammad & a. a. al-moussawi bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2012) 12 (2): 25-37 العراق الخیطیة في العصفور الدوري في مدینة بغداد وسط دیدان القانصة محمد كاظم محمد و أزھار احمد الموسوي المعظم،بغداد،العراق بحوث ومتحف التاریخ الطبیعي، جامعة بغداد،باب مركز الخالصة dispharynxو acuaria skrjabiniوجدت الدیدان الخیطیة العائدة للنوعین nasuta من افراد العصفور الدوري % ٢٦،٩٧في الغشاء المبطن للقانصة في اخذت الصفات المقاسة والمعدودة . وسط العراق -التي جمعت في مدینة بغداد .وقورنت مع المسجلة في الدراسات السابقة 1 1 hanaa h. al-saffar bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2013)12 (4): 1-5 survey of brachycera flies on alfalfa hanaa h. al-saffar baghdad university / iraq natural history museum abstract brachycerous dipteran species on alfalfa plant medicago sativa surveyed in several regions of iraq from march to november 2012. the study was registered 14 species belonging to nine genera and four families. the results showed that limnophra quaterna, atherigona laevigata and atherigona theodori as new records to iraq and new pests of alfalfa. keywords: alfalfa, brachycera species, pests, medicago sativa. introduction medicago sativa, (family: legminosae), is the most important forage crop. alfalfa is a perennial legume with high protein content dense foliage. a stand alfalfa sometimes lives for as long as 30 years (oklahoma s. u., 1982) and therefore, provides a relatively stable and favorable habitat for a large number of insects and arthropods. (al suhaibani, 1996). brachycera diptera is a large group of species which diagnosed by short antennae consists of three segments and flagellum compact to along joint bears an aristate or stylate. the palpi are porrect and one or two jointed; the first anal cell is either closed or narrowed towards the margin of wing. (comstock, 1948). brachycera was devided into two sections: orthorhapha and cyclorhapha according to the presence or absence of ptilinum suture (oldroyd, 1970). the latter is devided into other sections are: calyptrate and acalyptrae flies (roback, 1951; brues et. al 1954; ross, 1956; curran, 1965; unwin, 1981; scudder and cannings, 2006). calyptrate flies characterize from these features; the second segment of antennae (pedicle) has longitudinal fissure, frontal linule has ptilinum suture, vebrissae present; mesothorax with complete transverse suture and the most diagnostic character is the presence of large squamae., such as muscid flies. acalptrat flies can diagnosed from the absence of: long tudinal fissure of pedicle, vabrissae, and squamae, but the transvers suture at mesothorax is incomplete, such as tefritid flies. the previous records of brachycera flies of alfalfa in iraq derwesh, 1965; el-haderi et al 1972; al-ali 1977 and alsaffar 2003, 2011 announced to some flies associated with alfalfa. the aim of this study was to determine the prevelance of brachycera flies species which were founded on alfalfa plant in several region of iraq. 2 survey of brachycera flies on alfalfa material and methods specimens were collected from alfalfa field of several regions of iraq in period from february to november (2012) by standard sweeping net and collecting leaf miners by bring the infested leaves to laboratory and put them in petri dishes until the adult impressed. some of alfalfa brachycerous dipteral are mounted by insects̕ pins and smallest others were preserved in small capsules. locality and date of collection were recorded and keys were used for diagnosed as follows: spencer, 1972; pont, 1991; pont &magpayo 1995. in addition the specimens were compared with collecting specimens were kept in the department of entomology at iraq natural history museum-university of baghdad. results in this study which have been taken for gathering and identification of brachycerian flies in alfalfa fields in several regions of iraq in 2012, totally 14 species. these species belonging to nine genera and four families have been collected. these species and their particular features were as follow: 1-family musidae (house flies) there are small to median size flies, bodies grey-whitish grey, the main diagnostic characters are: the arista of flagellum plumose, pubescent and bare; hypopleural bristle absent; first anal vein 1st a1 not reach to wing margin; hind tibia without true sub median dorsal bristle. this family is calyptrate flies. pont 1986;imms, 1977. in this case there are eight species belong to three genera musca domestica l., its wiedly distributed and collected from baghdad, (taji); kerbala; kut; nejef; basra, abul-khaseeb, at march, april, may, to october musca sorbens wiedemann. collected from taji at october . five species of genus atherigona rondani were collected from many regions, and easily diagnosed from the quadrate shaped of head in side view. flagellum long and arista bare. the species are atherigona orientalis schiner collected from baghdad, al-taji on june, a. laevigata (loew) collected from kufa, nejef on october and november, as new record and new pest of alfalfa. a. theodori hennig collected from kut on may as new recod too. a. soccata rondani collected from abo-ghraib, al-taji on april and may. a. varia (meigen) collected from abu-ghraib at november. it was agree with el-haidari 1972. limnophora quaterna (loew) collected from abu-ghraib on april, as new record for iraq. 2family tephritidae (fruit flies) species of fruit flies were small to median size and diagnosed from vibrassae absent, wings with attractive spots or lines or both of them, subcosta short and bend towads costal vein at right angl and not reach the wing margin. cole 1969. three species belong to two genera, trupanea auger (frauenfeld) collected from abu graib on march, from abulkhaseeb, basrah on 21st of march. trupanea amoena (frauenfeld) from kerbalaa on july. acanthiophilus helianthi rossi collected from baghdad, abu ghraib on march, may. abul khaseeb, al basrah on march. 3family agromyzidae (leaf miner) small flies 24 mm soft not dark, acalyptrat flies, arista bare, wing hyline without spoted. in this study there were three species belonging to three genera. agromyza nana meigen collected from baghdad, abu graib, taji on march. liriomyza bryioniae kitb. collected from abu ghraib on may. phytomyza atricornis megin collected from kerbalaa on may. 3 hanaa h. al-saffar 4family syrphidae (flower flies) small to big species with attractive colores dignosed from the superior vein on wing. syrphus sp. as pollinators collected on march from baghdad. litereature cited al-ali, a. s. 1977. phytophogous and entomophagous insects and mites of iraq. nat. his. res. cent., publ. no. 33, 142pp. al-saffar, h. h. 2003. the taxonomic study of the family muscidae (insecta: diptera) in the middle of iraq. msc thesis of biology department, collage science, baghdad university, 194 pp. al-saffar, h. h. 2011. the taxonomic study of fruit flies family: tephritidae (insecta: diptera) from some governorate of iraq. phd. thesis of biology department, collage science, baghdad university. 179pp. alsuhaibani, a. m. 1996. entomofauna of alfalfa in riyadh, saudi arabia. j. king saud univ. agr. sci., 8(2): 269-277. brues, c. t.; melander, a. l. and carpenter, f. m. 1954. classification of insects. keys to the living and extinct families of insects, and to the living families of other terrestrial arthropods. bull. mus. comp. zool. at harvard college. vol. 108, cambridge, mass. u. s. a., printed for the museum, 917 pp. (diptera: 305-538). cole, f. r. 1969. the flies of western north america. university of california press berkeley and los angeles, 693 pp. comstock, j. h. 1948. an introduction to entomology. ninth edition revised. ithaca, new york comstock publishing company inc 1064 pp. (diptera, chapter 38: 773-876.) curran, c. h. 1965. the families and genera of north american diptera. 2nd rev. ed. henry trip, 515 pp. derwesh, a. i. 1965. a preliminary list of identified insects and arachnids of iraq. direct. gen. agric. res. proj. baghdad, bull. no. 121: 123pp. el-haidari, h.; fattah, y. m.; sultan, j. a. 1972. contribution to the fauna of iraq. director general of plant protection, part 4, bull. 18 (4): 1-17 pp. imms,, a. d. 1977. classifications and biology. in: general textbook of entomology. richard, o. w. and davies, r. c. (eds) chapman and hall ltd. london, 1345pp. oklahoma state university. " alfalfa production and pest management in oklahoma ". coop. ext. seav., div. of agric. circular e-826 oklahoma state univ. oldroyd, h. 1970. diptera, introduction and key to families. handbk. ident. british insects. 1 (1): 1105. 4 survey of brachycera flies on alfalfa pont, a. c. 1986. family fanniidae and family muscidae: 41 -215. in: catalogue of the palaearctic diptera, volum 11, scatopsidae, hypodermatidae, ed. by soons, a. and l. papp, budapest,. 436 pp. pont, a. c. 1991. a review of the fanniidae and muscidae (diptera) of the arabian peninsula. fauna of saudi arabia, 12: 312-365. pont, a. c. and magpayo, f. r. 1995. muscidae of shoot flies of the philippines islands (diptera: muscidae) genus atherigona rondani. bull. ent. res. suppl. (3): 1 -123. roback, s. s. 1951. aclassification of the muscoid calyptrate diptera. ann. ent. soc. amer. 44(3): 327-361. ross, h. h. 1965. a text book of entomology. 3rd ed. john wiely &sons, inc. new york, 539 pp. (diptera: 361-391) . scudder, g. g. e. and cannings, r. a. 2006. the diptera families of british colombia. the diptera families of british colombia. 1-158. spencer k. a. (1972) diptera: agromyzidae. handbooks for the identification of british insects 10 (5). royal entomological society of london. 136 pp. unwin, d. m. 1981. a key to the families of british diptera. field studies, 5: 513-553. aidgap tested 5 hanaa h. al-saffar bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2013)12 (4): 1-5 مسح للذباب قصیر قرون االستشعار على نبات الجت ناء ھاني الصفارھ العراق –بغداد –جامعة بغداد –متحف التاریخ الطبیعي الخالصة medicagoدرست انواع الذباب ذو القرون القصیرة على نبات الجت sativa في عدة مناطق من العراق للفترة من آذار الى تشرین الثاني عام ً تعود ى تسعة اجناس واربع عوائل ١٤وسجلت ھذه الدراسة ٢٠١٢ نوعا atherigonaو limnophra quaternaوأظھرت النتائج ان laevigater وatherigona theodori ھي تسجیالت جدیدة للعراق وآفات .الجت جدیدة على نبات 6 57 s. r. lahony & m. a. al-rawy bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2010) 11 (1): 57-67 new sub-species of chukar partridge alectoris chukar (gray 1830) (phasianidae, galliformes) from north east of iraq with biological observations saman r. lahony* and mohamad a. al-rawy** *natural history museum, baghdad university, baghdad, iraq **biology department, baghdad university, baghdad, iraq abstract chukar partridge alectoris chukar (gray, 1830) is the only species of the 46 species of the genus alectoris to be found in iraq. at least there are fourteen subspecies of chukar were described from east europe, the middle east and west asia, two of them were known to be found in iraq, a.c. kurdestanica (meinertzhagen, 1923) from alpine bio-geographical zone of altitude more than 2000m high, and a.c. werae zarundny and loudon, 1904, from the foothills of altitude not more than 400m. in between these two regions, there is another biogeographical region known as the irano-toranian zone 400-2000m high. using morphological, ecological, behavioural, reproduction and hybridization criteria this study discovered a new subspecies a. c. asoica ssp. n. in irano-toranian zone. the new subspecies differs from a.c. kurdestanica and a.c. werae in voice , migration, chick coloration, egg size and certain aspects of ecology. also this study recorded for the first time the subspecies a.c. sinaica bonaparte 1858, in the area between jezira and western desert, the penetration of the jordanian irano-toranian zone. the taxonomic status of the new subspecies a. c. asoica ssp.n. has been discussed according to the most common and widely accepted species concept, biological species concept (bsc) and phylogenetic species concept (psc). introduction the genus alectoris consists of 46 species and the asian partridges and chukars are 7 species. the chukar, alectoris chukar (gray 1830) is a eurasian upland game bird in the pheasant family phasianidae of the order galliformes, gallinaceous birds. this partridge has its native range in asia from pakistan and kashmir, into the republic of india and afghanistan in the east to southeastern europe in the west and is closely related and similar to its western equivalent, the red-legged partridge, alectoris rufa. it has been introduced to the unitd states, canada, new zealand, hawaii and great britain. it is the only species of the genus alectoris to be found in iraq. at least there are 13 subspecies of chukar described from different parts of the world (vaurie, 1965) or 14 subspecies (cramp and simmons, 1980). in iraq there are two subspecies, namely, a.c. kurdestanica (meinertzhagen, 1923) from the alpine bio-geographical zone of altitude more than 2000m high, and a.c. werae zarundny and loudon, 1904, from the foothills of altitude not more than 400m. meinertzhagen (1923) described a. graeca kurdestanica from the alpine region of kurdestan mountains in the north of iraq. zarundy and lodun (1904) discovered a.c. werae from foothills of zagross mountain. allous (1962) reported that a.c. graeca was to be found in iraq. however, there is no study of the population of a. chukar in the bio-geographical region known as irano-toranian zone 400-2000m. watson (1962), stokes (1961) and cramp et al., (1980) reported in their studies of the distribution of alectoris species that only a. chukar was found in iraq. mahdi and george (1969) results agreed with vaurie finding. goodwin 58 new sub-species of chukar partridge (1953) study the call and behaviour of a. rufa. the aim of this study was (1) to investigate the taxonomic status of the irano-toranian zone populations of a. chukar using morphological, ecological, behavioural and reproduction critera (2) to compare the populations of a. chukar the irano-toranian zone with those already described subspecies in iraq, a.c. kurdestanica and a.c. werae and the newly recorded subspecies in this study a.c. sinaica bonaparte, 1858, in the area between jezira and the western desert, the penetration of the jordanian iranotoranian zone. materials and methods the besan valley from hawraman mountain was selected as the study area. a shelter was build using stone and bushes and then we put a cage with a male chukar at a distance about 10 meters from the shelter. the rally call helped to attract the other chukar in the area to come and fight with the chukar under this experiment. in order to study the a. chukar morphology and behaviour, 4 male and 6 females were kept in the open. our collection of a. chukar were compared with reliable specimens of a. chukar in the natural history museum, university of baghdad, iraq. to record our data we used, canon camera, t50-binocular, altimeter and vernier calliper. results results from investigation of morphological, ecological, and reproduction (e.g., altitude, throat wash weight, dorsal colour, migration, egg size and voice: rally call) suggest that the population of a. chukar in the irano-toranian z one represents a new subspecies. detailed descriptions of the new subspecies alectoris chukar asoica ssp.n and criteria to separate it from other subspecies which are known from iraq and the newly recoded subspecies a.c. sinaica are given in table 1. table 1. comparison between the four subspecies of a. chukar found in iraq. a.c. kurdestanica a.c. asoica ssp.n a.c.werae a.c.sinaica altitude more than 2000 m. 400-2000 m. less than 400m. desert,less than 400m. throat wash white gray white buffish white buffish white weight(gm) can reach more than 700 gm. dose not reach this size not more than400gm. more than 700 gm. dorsal color brownish gray dark or olive gray. buffish gray buffish gray migration not more than 4 km. more than 50 km. no migration record no migration egg size(mm.) 45 × 39 37 × 26 39× 27 40 × 30 voice (rally call) chukak kra chukak kwa or mixing voice chukaklik or whstling chukak kra alectoris chukar asoica ssp.n.: holotype: no.3418 male fig (1) locality: hawraman mountain, besan valley, northeast of iraq. fig (2) 59 s. r. lahony & m. a. al-rawy diagnosis; medium size, weight 550gm., total length 345mm. dark olive grey dorsal. grey white throat, black mask surrounding the eye and throat, gradually meeting with the throat colour. ventral coloration light brown. flanks with 11 brownish black bars 3mm. wide. bill length depends on the ground on which it lives, the upper part of the bill of captive birds become distinctly longer than usual. biotype and habitat: a.c. asoica lives on rocky mountain slopes of the irano-turanian biogeographical zone altitude 1800m., of besan valley of hawraman mountain, which covered with grasses trees and bushes (prunus, quercus, pistacia, crategus) (fig. 3). source of water is shallow streams and small waterfalls. call: a.c. asoica utter two specific calls which are not found in any chukars. watson (1962) considers the call as a basic matters for separation between the sibling species of alectoris sp. the rally call: a.c. asoica utter (chukukkwa) instead of (chukukkra). the rally call: a. c. asoica utter (chukukkwa) instead of (chukukkra). mixing call: start with steam engine call, changing immediately to ground-alarm call. then to rally call later to food call again to rally call (chak.chak chak, tscher chak tscher, chukukkwa, chukukkwa, tchik, tchik, tu, tu, chukukkwa, chukukkwa). uttering such mixing call, have more effect on gathering and attracting other chukars because it indicates that there are more than one birds in that place. nest and eggs: female lays 12-20 eggs in a nest between bushes and grasses (fig. 5). sometimes 30 eggs in one nest from two female one of them juvenile. the eggs are incubated by the female or male or both. egg size 26x 36. the juvenile does not know how to build a nest they lays the egg randomly or in the nest of another adult female. chick coloration: light grey, wing and tail feathers firstly appear which remain the same colour in adulthood (fig. 4). migration: most of the juveniles and some of the adults, at the end of november, migrate more than 50 km. from hawraman mountain to a warmer mountain of zemnako. they return back to hawraman mountain at the end of february and a competition occurs between resident chukar and migratory chukar for on shelter and food. at the time of migration the covey of chukar move to the top of the mountain and fly to the other southern top until they reach zemnako mountain. discussion the question arose in this study: does the population of a. chukar in the irano-toranian zone represent a new subspecies or do the three subspecies a.c. kurdestanica, a.c. werae and a.c. asoica which are recorded from iraq represent three sibling species? mayden (1997) listed 22 species concepts a common feature of all these concepts is that the species is an entity within which gene exchange can occur but is closed to gene exchange with other species (also see claridge et al., 1997). the barriers to gene exchange have been called isolation mechanisms (dobzhansky, 1937) or specific mate-recognition systems (paterson, 1985). the most common and widely accepted species concept are the biological species concept (bsc: species are groups of actually or potentially interbreeding natural populations 60 new sub-species of chukar partridge which are reproductively isolated from other such groups (mayr, 1963) and phylogenetic species concept (psc: the smallest population or group of populations within which there is a parental pattern of ancestry and descent and which is diagnosable by unique combinations of character-states (eldredge and cracraft, 1980). under the bsc, diagnosably distinct populations will sometimes be recognized as separate, monotypic species, but often those populations are united together under a single species name if the diagnosable differences are not judged to be significant. with the text of the psc, on the other hand, diagnosably distinct populations would always be accorded specific status. therefore, the subspecies concept is widely applied in bsc and not relevant in psc (cracraft, 1997). also biological species are defined in terms of reproductive isolation (genetic) while phylogenetic species are defined in terms of diagnosability (morphological or non-populational). the taxonomic status of the population of the new subspecies a.c. asoica in the irano-toranian zone depends on which species concept applies in this case. this is means that the populations of a. chukar in the irano-toranian zone would represent a new species according to psc and a subspecies according to bsc. in recent years support for the bsc within ornithology has waned as systematists have adopted a phylogenetic species concept (psc) (cracraft, 1997). subspecies is a geographically defined aggregate of local populations which differs from other populations of the species taxonomically that is, by diagnostic morphological characters or it is the rank of the species group below species (mayr 1942; nichols, 1989). how great this taxonomic difference ought to be can be determined only through agreement among taxonomists. the subspecies has had a long history in taxonomy. in the linnaean period it was called variety and no distinction was made between individual and geographical varieties and later it was used to designate geographical varieties. therefore, the term subspecies was a replacement for “variety”. it is often good practice to reduce species to subspecies, so that their names indicate their nearest relatives. therefore, for the time being this study concludes that the population of a. c. asoica in the irano-toranian zone is a new subspecies and not raise it or other subspecies in iraq to species level despite the fact that some sort of isolation or barrier between the three subspecies found in iraq in their, ecology, behaviour, vocalisation, and the hybrid between captive or cage birds, and wild one (can be differentiated from each other by having very thin and weak bills like a pigeon bill, and irregular colour variation. fig:6. the conclusion that the population of a. c. asoica in irano-toranian zone can be regarded as subspecies is based on (1) it produce intermediate one in the captive birds if interbreed with a. c .kurdestanica.(2) it is not known if this subspecies use their acoustic signal for conspecific mating? or use other means? (3) among birds sibling species are rarer than even mammals (mayr, 1963), (4) subspecies have been widely used in birds and are a valuable when applied to allopatric taxa that differ only to a degree that is commonly found within interbreeding populations. further studies on genetics using sensitive molecular markers such as microsatellites, breeding tests, habits, the number or the kind of parasites they carry, morphometric analysis to confirm their taxonomic status. acknowledgements profound thank to prof. hassan a. dawah .cardiff school of biosciences. cardiff university, u.k. for revising the manuscript, and for adding some valuable information to the discussion. 61 s. r. lahony & m. a. al-rawy literature cited allouse, b.e. (1962) birds of iraq. volume 2, al-rabitta press, baghdad iraq. cracraft, j (1997) species concepts in systematics and conservation – an ornithological viewpoint, in: species: the units of biodiversity (eds m.f. claridge, h.a. dawah and m.r. wilson) chapman & hall, london, pp. 325-339. cramp s. and simmons, e.l. (1980) handbooks of the birds of europe, the middle east and north africa. volume 2, oxford university press, oxford. claridge, m.f., dawah, h.a. and wilson, m. (ed.) species: the units of biodiversity. london: chapman & hall. dobzhansky, t. (1937) genetics and the origin of species. new york: columbia university press. eldredge, n. and cracraft, j. (1980) phylogenetic analysis and the evolutionary process, new york: columbia university press. goodwin, d. (1953) observation on voice and behaviour of red-legged partridge alectoris rufa. ibis?????????, volume 95, number 4. mahdi n. and george, p.v. (1969) systematic list of iraq vertebrate. iraq natural history museum. publication number 26. mayden r.l. (1997) a hierarchy of species concepts: the denouement in the saga of the species problem, in: species: the units of biodiversity (eds m.f. claridge, h.a. dawah and m.r. wilson) chapman & hall, london, pp. 381-424. mayr, e. (1942) systematics and the origin of species, columbia university press, new york. mayr, e. (1963) animal species and evolution. harvard university press cambridge, massachusetts. meinerizhagen, r. (1923) new races of pyrrh, ulauda, ammomanes, alectoris, tehitrrea petrocles. bulletin of british ornithology ci, london, 43, 156-160. nichols, s. w. (1989) the torre-bueno glossary of entomology. published by the new york of entomological society and american museum of natural history. paterson, h.e. (1985) the recognition concept of species. in: species and speciation. transvaal museum monograph (ed. e.s. vrba), 4, 21-29. stokes, a.w. (1961) voice and social behaviour in the chukar partridge. the condor,vol. 63, 111-127. 62 new sub-species of chukar partridge vaurie, c. (1965) the birds of the palaearctic fauna. witherby ltd, london, e.c. 4, 268278. watson, a. (1962) three sibling species of alectoris partridge. ibis?????, 104, 353-367. zarudny, n. and loudon, h. (1904) caccabis chukar werae subspecies .nov. ornithologisches jahrbuch. xv, t.c., 225-226. 63 s. r. lahony & m. a. al-rawy 64 new sub-species of chukar partridge 65 s. r. lahony & m. a. al-rawy 66 new sub-species of chukar partridge 67 s. r. lahony & m. a. al-rawy bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2010) 11 (1): 57-67 رتية الدجاجيات فصية التدرج من شمال alectoris chukar نويع جديد لطائر القبج شرق العراق مع مالحظات حياتية سامان رستم لهوني و محمد عمار الراوي الخالصة نوع تابع جلنس ٤٦النوع الوحيد من بني chukar partridge (gray, 1830)قبج alectoris نويع لطائر القبج يف اوربا والشرق االوسط ١٤املوجود يف العراق. مت تشخيص وغرب اسيا، فقط اثنان منهم عرفت سابقاً با ا موجودة يف العراق. تنتشر يف املناطق a.c. kurdestanica (meinertzhagen, 1923) يع الكردستاينو ن a.c. weraeم. ونويع ٢٠٠٠و اليت تزيد ارتفاعها عن alpineاجلغرافية املعروفة بااللياين (zarundny and loudon) من املنطقة اجلغرافية املعروفة بـ (اقدام التاللfoothills اليت ( م هناك ٢٠٠٠-٤٠٠م. وبني هذين املنطقتني اجلغرافينني اي بني ٤٠٠ال تزيد ارتفاعها عن منطقة معروفة بـ (ايراين توراين) وباستخدام دراسة لشكل اخلارجي والبيئة والسلوك والتكاثر مع a. c. asoica ssp مالحظة وجود فراد من هجني مت وصف نويع جديد اليت هو نويع آسيوي من حيث a.c. werae ونويع a.c. kurdestanicaوالنويع اجلديد خيتلف عن نويع الصوت واهلجرة ولون الفراخ وحجم البيض وعوامل اخرى بيئية. وهذه الدراسة ايضًا تشمل الول مرة يف العراق من مدخل املنطقة a.c. sinaica (bonaparte 1858)تسجيل نويع .aيداجلغرافية ايراين توراين االردين الواقع بني اجلزيرة والصحراء الغربية. ونوقش تصنيف النويع اجلد c. asoica ssp.n (bsc). حسب اكثر النظريات شيوعًا حسب جانب البايولوجي ملفهوم .)psc( ع واملفهوم التتشخيص للنوعالنو bull 67 hanaa h. al-saffar bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2014) 13 (1): 67-71 survey of the genus phytomyza fallen,1810 (diptera: agromyzidae) of iraq hanaa h. alsaffar iraq natural history research center and museum, baghdad university email: hanaahani2014@gmail.com abstract the aim of this study to survey the leaf miner phytomyza fallen of iraq, many leaf plants which infested by leaf miners were collected from several regions of iraq. the paper showed there are four species of this genus during the work: phytomyza horticola gourear,1840; ph. atricornis meigen, 1838; ph. rufipes meigen,1830; ph. ranunculi (schrank,1803) key words: leaf miners, agromyzidae, plantshosts, phytomyza , iraq fauna introduction agromyzidae is commonly referred to as the leaf –miners, for the feeding habit of larvae, most of which are leaf miners on various plants, some of them are stem borer of galls maker .the family is widely distributed through the world but with significantly loss species in the southern hemisphere than in the temperate areas of the palaearctic and nearctic regions, then was studied in different region of the world, (spencer, 1961,1963,1972and 1973). a worldwide family of approximate 3000 species belonging to 30 genera about 1165 species (shahreki et al 2012), small, some with wing length. the maximum size is 6.5 mm. most species are in the range of 2to3mm. adults agromyzids can be recognized by the distinctive sclerotization of head. the upper part of frons, above the ptilinal suture is lightly sclerotized and lacks setae, while the lower part of frons and the dorsal area of head tends to be much more heavily sclerotized and setaceous. thus the frontal vita often forms a distinctive patch on the head different in color and texture to the rest of head and it has 1-7 frontal bristles so the vibrissae are present. compound eyes are usually oval and feirly small although in some species they are larger and more circular. the wings are usually hyaline although those of a few tropical species have darker makings. costal break present at the apex of subcostal vein; cell cup small, first anal vein not reached wing margin; pre genital sclerites of male with a simple (fused) tergal complex (tergites 6-8) with only two spiracles between tergites 5 and the genital segment; and anterior part of abdominal segment 7 in female forming an oviscape, (hennig, 1958; curran, 1965; oldryd,1970; borrer and white, 1970; spencer,1972, 1987;. unwin, 1981; scudder and canning, 2006). phytomyza is beyond to subfamily phytomyziae which diagnosed by subcostal vein becoming a fold distally and ending in costal vein separately and based of r1 (first radial vein), (spencer,1961,1963,1972,1973) and it is the largest genus of agromyzid flies which includes over 530 species (winker et al, 2009). 68 survey of the genus phytomyza fallen typically agromyzid larvae are cylindrical in shape, tapering interiorly; with projections bearing the anterior and posterior spiracles, the former positioned on the dorsal surface of the prothorax, the latter backwardly directed at the rear; prominent, strongly sclerotised mouthparts, the mandibles with its longitudinal axis at oblique or right angles to the rest of the cephalopharyngeal skeleton and usually bearing two or more pairs of equally sized teeth, directed anteriorly, the ventral cornua (the posteriorly directed “arms”) commonly shorter than the dorsal ones (spencer, 1972). adults of phytomyza species are distinguishable from other agromyzidae by the combination of the following morphological characters: fronto-orbital setae proclinate , costa extending only to the vein r4+5 and cross vein dm-cu usually absent (spencer and steskal, 1986; spencer,1987). in addition,the medial vein (m) is usually much weaker than branches of the radial vein(r), adding to the distinctive appearance. in iraq the genus was announced at(al-azawi 1967and 1971; el-haidari et al. 1972; al-ali, 1977; mekhlif and abdul-rassoul,2002). material and methods many infested leaf of plants were collected from different region of iraq (25-50) leaves per each plants. the leaf plants are of many plant families such as solanaceae, cucuribtae, cruciferae, leguminosae, and weeds compositae species from the provences: baghdad, (abu – ghraib, bab al—muadham, al-kadhumyia), kerbala, nejef, and basrah (abu al khaseeb, al – buradheiaya), during february to may, (2012, 2013), but on october (2012) from north of iraq, duhok. the infested leaves were collected and brought to the laboratory, then kept in petri dishes at room temperature, the dishes were numbered, the date and locality were recorded. after 21-30 days the adukt flies were impressed. the adults were collecting by sweeping net from the field of alfalfa and different weeds. the flies were diagnosed by using identification keys by (spencer. 1961, 1972 and 1973). results and discution this study is showed foure species of phytomyza they are:ph.horticola goureau, 1840; ph. atricornis meigen 1838; ph. rufipes meigen,1830; ph. ranunculi (schrank,1803) the larvae feed mostly in the upper part of the leaf, mining through the green palisade tissue. mines are usually off-white, with trails of brass appearing as broken black strips along their length. repeated convolutions in the same small part of the leaf will often result in discoloration of the mine with dampened black and dried brown areas appearing, usually as the result of plant-induced reactions to the leaf miner, but the young larvae of ph. rufipes makes a true mine towards the nearest nein and then feeds inside this downward the midribs and petiole where the main feeding takes place. table (1) showed some host plants of phytomyza spp. phytomyza horticola is widely distributed and it has more than 40 hosts thus it is economically pest , (spencer,1973; mecklif and abdulrassoul 2002). it caused damage to cultivated crops and vegetables.the other specis showed lower economic importance on plants. phytomyza atricornis: is widely distributed in but lesser than ph. horticola. 69 hanaa h. al-saffar phytomyza rapa: its particularly infested the family crusifereae in different regions (spencer,1973). phytomyza ranunculus: it has special host from the family ranunculacea. (pakalniškis, 2004) table (1):showed leaf miners phytomyza falle'n spp. and theire hosts in iraq. leaf miners phytomyza hosts locality date of collection ph. horticola brassicae rapa citrulus vulgaris mentha sp. pisum sativum trifolium veryandium lycopersicum esculentum cucuribta moschata baghdad,basra, kerbala, nejif baghdad,kerbala baghdad, nejif nejif baghdad duhok febrauary feb. -march febmarch febrauary feb. april october ph. atricornis medicago sativa pisum sativum helianth anuus melilotis indicus btassicae rapa baghdad basra, kerbala, baghdad baghdad baghdad baghdad marchmay march april feb.-april march ph. rufipes brassicae oleracea var botrylis brassicae oleracea var capitata brassicae rapa baghdad, kerbala baghdad, kerbala baghdad, nejif kerbala, basra feb. april march, fabrauary ph.ranunculi anemon cornaria ranunculus sp. baghdad baghdad, april april literature cited al-ali, a. s.(1977). phytophagous and entomophagous insects and mites of iraq.nat. hist. res. center,publ.33:142pp. alazawi, a. f. (1976).agromyzid leafminers and their parasitites in iraq. bull. entomol. res., 57(2): 285-287. alazawi, a. f. (1971). parasites of agromyzid leafminers in iraq. bull.iraq nat.hist. mus., 5(1): 35-37. borrer, d. j. and white, r. e. (1970). a field guide to the insects of america north of mexico. houghton mifflin company boston. xi +404pp. curran, c. h. (1965). the families and genera of north american diptera.2nd rev. ed. henry trip, 515pp. el-haidri, h.; fattah,y. m. and sultan, j. m. (1971). contribution to the insect fauna of iraq. part3,bulletin no. 9:20 pp. 70 survey of the genus phytomyza fallen hennig, w. (1958). die familien der dipteral scizophora und ihre phylogenetischen verwandschafstsbeziehug. beiträge zur entomologie,8:505-688. oldroyd, h. (1970). diptera, introduction and key to families. handbk. identif. br. insects, r.entomol. soc. lond., vol.9 pt1, 104pp. mekhlif, a. f. and abdul –rassoul, m. s. (2002). efficiency of parasitoids of pea leaf miner phytomyza horticola goureau and their appearance time in the field. bull. iraq nat.hist.mus., 9(4):27-32. pakalniškis, s. (2004). the agromyzidae (diptera) feeding particlalarities on some genera of ranunculaceae. latvijas entomologs, 41:93-99. scudder, g. g. e. and cannings, r. a. (2006). the diptera families of british colombia. the diptera families of british colombia. 1-158. shaherki, z,; rakhsh, e. and sasakawa, m.(2012). a contribution to the agromyzid leaf miner (diptera: agromyzidae)of iran. spencer, k. a. (1961). a synopsis of the oriental agromyzidae (diptera). trans. r. entomol. soc. lond.,. 113 pt. 4: 55-100. spencer, k. a. (1963). a synopsis of the neotropical agromyzidae (diptera). trans. r. entomol. soc. lond.,. 115 pt. 12: 291-389. spencer, k. a. (1972). diptera: agromyzidae . handbooks for the identification of british insects 10 (5):r. entomol. soc. london 136pp spencer, k. a. (1973). agromyzidae (diptera) of economic important.dr. w. junk.series entomologica,vol.9 b.v. publisher the huge 414pp.. spencer, k. a. (1987). agromyzidae. manual of nearctic diptera (ed)by j. f. mc alpine, b. v.petrson g.e. shewell,h,j. tesky, j. r. vokeroth and d. m. wood. agriculture canada monograph. 28:869-87.(cited in winkler et al. 2009). spencer, k. a. and steyskal, g. c. (1986). manual of the agromyzidae (diptera) of the united states usd agriculture handbook (638):478pp. (cited in winkler et al., 2009). unwin, d. m. (1981). a key to the families of british diptera. field studies, 5:513-553. winkler, i.; scheffer, s.j. and mitter, c. (2009).molecular phylogeny and systematic of leafmining flies (diptera:agromyzidae) delimitation of phytomyza fallén sens lato and included species groups, with new insights on motphological and host – use evolution. systematic entomology,34:260-292. 71 hanaa h. al-saffar bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2014) 13 (1): 67-71 في العراق phytomyza fallén,1810مسح النواع الجنس هناء هاني الصفار جامعة بغداد/ مركز بحوث و متحف التاريخ الطبيعي الخالصة جمعت . في العراق phytomyza fallénالهدف من البحث هو مسح النواع الجنس و من خالل ،العديد من االوراق النباتية المصابة بهذا الحفار لمناطق مختلفة من العراق :البحث وجدت االنواع التالية phytomyza horticola gourear,1840; ph. atricornis meigen 1838; ph. rufipes meigen,1830; ph. ranunculi (schrank,1803). 35-41 35 h. f. hassan & i. s. saeed bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2001) 9 (3): 35-41 light and electron microscope studies of the adult of pleurogenoides medians (olsson, 1876) (trematoda: lecithodendriidae) from iraqi marsh frogs rana ridibunda husain f. hassan and isam s. saeed department of biology, college of education, university of salahaddin, arbil, iraq. abstract the morphology of the pleurogenoides medians from rana ridibunda in iraq was studied by light and scanning electron microscopy. the light microscopical studies confirmed the original observations with the ventral sucker being smaller than the oral sucker and the genital pore being laterally situated. electron micrographs of adult p. medians revealed that the body surface had a rough appearance by hand-like spines, which are more sparsely distributed towards the posterior end with a presumed function in nutrient absorption. introduction pleurogenoides medians (olsson, 1876), a digenian lecithodendriid trematode , parasitizes numerous aquatic vertebrate species including frogs, fresh water fishes, urodeles and anurans (smyth and smyth, 1980). frogs infection with p. medians has been reported worldwide and this trematode is the most common encountered frog intestinal parasite in europe and asia (dawes, 1968; cox, 1971; hristovski and less, 1973; brooks, 1976; gupta and chopra, 1985). the life cycle of p. medians had been studied in detail by buttner (1951), while that of other related species in the same genus namely p. japonicus, p. tener and p. orientalis were studied by shibue (1953), macy (1964) and madhavi et al. (1987) respectively. certain differences concerning the intermediate host and the structure of larval stages have been visualized. in fact to date, the helminth parasites occuring in iraqi frogs rana ridibunda are poorly known. except of some early works on trematodes (saoud and roshdy, 1970; dauood, 1974; hamad, 1985), no comprehensive list of pleurogenoides species has been published. the present study undertaken to open the way for more detailed investigations of trematodes of frogs from iraq to help in the elucidation of the morphology of adult worms and to establish the special adaptations of individuall species within their host. materials and methods adults of p. medians were obtained from the intestine of frogs rana ridibunda sulaimanya, iraq. the flukes were fixed in afa solution under coverglass pressure and stained with alum carmine according to standard protocols outlined by humason (1972). diagrams were drawn with the aid of a camera lucida and all measurements were in millimeters and were based on stained specimens. scanning electron microscopy (sem): adult worms were fixed for 2-3 hr in 2.5% glutaraldehyde buffered with cacodylate to ph 7.4, washed in buffer and postfixed for 1-2 hr 36 light and electron microscope studies in cacodylate-buffered osmium tetraoxide, dehydrated in ethanol and freeze-dried. the mounted specimens were coated with gold and examined in a jeol 840 scanning electron microscope. results the morphology of the adult form of p. medians is best illustrated in fig. 1. the body is small, oval and 1.52-2.16 mm by 1.10-1.43 mm in size. the tegument is spinulate with spines densely distributed over the anterior surface. the oral sucker is subterminal and 0.27 mm; the ventral sucker measures 0.14 mm is smaller than the oral sucker and situated slightly above the middle of the body. the pharynx is globular and measures 0.06 mm in diameter; the oesophagus is short (0.07 mm) and bifurcates into two short ceca (0.51 mm) which are terminated at level of the ventral sucker. testes symmetrical, situated near the cecal termination, right testis measures 0.3x0.28 mm whereas the left testis measures 0.29x0.27 mm. the genital pore is lateral and situated near the right body margin at the level of pharynx. the cirrus sac is elliptical, running obliquely from the front margin of the ventral sucker to the genital pore and encloses the seminal vesicle, the well developed prostatic complex and the cirrus. the ovary measures 0.22x0.20 mm, is submedian to left testis and situated to the left of the ventral sucker. the vitellaria follicular are extracaecal and extends from the level of pharynx to a level slightly beyond the ovary. uterus is much coiled and the coils occupy the posterior half of the body. eggs are small, oval, operculate, amber coloured and measures 0.018x0.010 mm. as illustrated in figs. 2-10 throughout the worm body. the tegument is carpeted with regularly arranged flattened hand-like spines and each spine is composed of 5-8 finger-like appendages (figs. 9-10). no structures corresponding to the microvillus-like projections or knobs were seen. it appears that the spines are more densely arranged towards the anterior end and more sparsely distributed towards the posterior end, although the spines all over the body surface are of similar size. it is to be note that the spines occur in association with suckers as well as genital pore but not with excretory pore at the extreme posterior end. discussion the digenean trematode belonging to pleurogenoides found in the present study resemble and corresponds morphologically to p. medians described by mathias (1924), neuhaus (1941), vojtkova (1974) and smyth and smyth (1980). the present form, however, differs from those described by these authors as well as from the rest known species of pleurogenoides in having: (i) an ovary which is situated to the left of the ventral sucker, (ii) a genital pore which is present near the right body margin at the level of pharynx. the differences noted above appear to be sufficient to treat the form described here as a new variety of p. medians for which the name pleurogenoides medians var. sulaimanialis is being proposed. this is the first time that p. medians has been recovered in rana ridibunda in iraq. there have not, however, been any reports on the tegumental surface of p. medians nor indeed of its function, although there is an indication that the morphologically similar tegument of the echinostome trematodes and nematodes have pinocytic activity and a digesting effect on the host cells (smales and blankespoor, 1984; koie, 1986, 1987; imai et al., 1989). nevertheless, this is the first attempt to study the tegumental surface in p. medians with scanning electron microscope and various conclusions can be made. the highly increased tegumental surface due to the densely arranged spines suggests that the tegument is likely to be active in absorption of nutrients and probably also in digestion of host cells. it is possible that the digestive system of the adult worm probably does not function 37 h. f. hassan & i. s. saeed or only to a very limited degree, in the absorption of nutrients as indicated by the presence of short intestinal caeca and this may result in the increment of the tegumental surface area that could probably have a possible role in pleurogenoides nutrition. future studies should give more critical attention to this possibility . acknowledgement we are grateful to mrs. e. a. harris, parasitic worm section, british museum (natural history) for identification of the worm and to dr. d. tetley (glasgow university, scotland) for suggestions in the preparation of the material for scanning electronscopy and to the dept. biology, coll. education, univ. salahaddin, iraq for financial support. literature cited brooks, d. r. 1976 parasites of amphibians of the great plains. part 2. platyhelminthes of amphibians in nebraska,usa. bull. univ. nebr. state mus., 10: 1-92. buttner, a. 1951 la progenese chez le trematodes digenetiqes. research personelles sur deux especes progenetiques deja connues. ratazia joyeuxi (brumpt, 1922) et pleurogenes medians (olss., 1876). ann. parasitol. hum. comp., 22: 319-323. cox, f. e. 1971 parasites of british amphibians. j. biol. educ., 5: 35-51. dauood, k. s. 1974 studies on the protozoan and trematode parasites of some amphibians. m. sc. thesis, mosul university. dawes, b. 1963 the trematoda. cambridge university press, london. gupta, n. k. and chopra, r. 1985 on digenetic trematodes of amphibians from india. part ii. res. bull. punjab univ.(science), 35: 11-18. hamad, n. r. 1985 taxonomic study of digenetic trematodes of some vertebrates, northern iraq. m. sc. thesis, salahaddin university. hristovski, n. d. and lees, e. 1973 the helminth fauna of rana temporaria in relation to that of europe generally. acta parasit. jugosl., 4: 93-98. humason, g. l. 1972 animal tissue techniques. wh freeman and co., san francisco . h . f . hassan &i . s . saeed imai, j., akahane, h., horiuchi, s., maruyama, h. and nawa, y. 1989 gnathostoma doloresi: development of the larvae obtained from snakes, agkistrodon hyals, to adult worms in a pig. jpn. j. parasitol., 38: 221-225. imai, j. ; akahane , h . ; horiuchi , s . ; maruyama ; h . and hawa , y . 1989. gnathostoma doloresi : development of the larvae obtained from snake , agkistrodon halys , to adult worms in a pig . jpn. j . parasitol. , 38 : 221 – 225 . koie, m. 1986 the life history of mesorchis denticulatus (trematoda, echinostomatidae). z. parasitenkd, 72: 335-343. 38 light and electron microscope studies koie, m. 1987 scanning electron microscopy of redia, cercariae, metacercariae and adults of mesorchis denticulatus (trematoda, echinostomatidae). parasitol. res., 73: 5056. macy, r. w. 1964 life cycle of the digenetic trematodes pleurogenoides tener (looss, 1898)(lecithodendriidae). j. parasitol., 50: 564-568. mahadiv, r., dhanumakumari, c. and ratnakumari, t. b. 1987 the life history of pleurogenoides orientalis (srivastava, 1934)(trematoda, lecithodendriidae). parasitol. res., 73: 41-45. mathias, p. 1924 contribution a letude du cycle evolutif d un trematode de la famille de pleurogenetinae loss. bull. soc. zool. fr., 49: 375-377. neuhaus, w. 1941 entwickung and bioloie von pleurogenes medians olss. zool. jahrb. syst., 74: 207-242. saoud, m. f. a. and roshdy, m. a. 1970 on halipegus alhaussaini n. sp. (trematoda: halipegidae) from rana esculenta in iraq with notes on halipegus and related genera. j. helminthol., 44: 349-356. shibue, h. 1953 the first intermediate host of a frog trematode pleurogenes japonicus yamaguti. jpn. j. med. sci. biol., 6: 213-220. smalea, l. r. and blankespoor, h. d. 1984 echinostoms revolutum and isthiophora melis (echinostomatinae:digenea).: scanning electron microscopy of the tegumental surfaces. j. helminthol., 58: 187-195. smyth, j. d. and smyth, m. m. 1980 frogs as host-parasite systems. the macmillan press ltd., london. vojtkova, l. 1974 the trematodes of amphibia in czechoslovakia. folia fac. sci. nat. ujep brun biol., 45: 1-131. 39 h. f. hassan & i. s. saeed bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2001) 9 (3): 35-41 بالمجهر الضوئي واإللكتروني pleurogenoides mediansدراسة المثقبة البالغة rana ridibundaالمتوسم من الضفادع العراقية حسين فاضل حسن و عصام سعد اهللا سعيد العراق –أربيل –جامعة صالح الدين –كلية التربية –قسم علوم الحياة الخالصة وطن أمعـــاء الـــيت تســـت pleurogenoides mediansمت دراســـة بنيـــة الديـــدان البالغـــة باســــتخدام ا هــــر الضــــوئي وا هــــر pleurogenoides medians الضــــفادع العراقيــــة اإللكرتوين املتوسم وقد تبني باستخدام ا هر الضوئي بان للدودة البالغة حمجماً بطنيـاً وأمـــــا باســـــتخدام ا هـــــر . أصـــــغر مـــــن احملجـــــم الفمـــــي وفتحـــــة تناســـــلية جانبيـــــة املوقـــــع بــان اجلســم مغطــى بأشــواك شــبيهة بأصــابع اليــد والــيت تقــل يف اإللكــرتوين فقــد لــوحظ كثافتهــــا باجتــــاه النهايــــة اخللفيــــة ويعتقــــد بأ ــــا تــــؤدي دوراً وظيفيــــاً يف امتصــــاص املــــواد .الغذائية 40 light and electron microscope studies fig. 1: adult worm pleurogenoides medians var. sulaimanialis drawn from testis; tl, left testis fig. 2: scanning electron micrograph of pleurogenoides medians var. sulaimanialis showing spinulate surface (bar=0.5um). gp, genital pore; os, oral sucker; vs, ventral sucker. 41 h. f. hassan & i. s. saeed fig. 3-6: scanning electron micrograph of leurogenoides medians var. sulaimanialis. fig. 3 (bar=1um) showing the ventral side; fig. 4 bull 59 h. h. al-saffar and razzaq shalan augul bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2015) 13 (3): 59-69 survey of brachycera; diptera from several regions of iraq hanaa h. al-saffar* and razzaq sh. augul** iraq natural history research center and museum, baghdad university; baghdad, iraq. *hanaahani2014@gmail.com **razzaqshalan@gmail.com abstract a total of 533 specimens were collected in survey of brachyceran species from different regions of iraq during february to november 2014 .this study was reported 16 species belonging to 13 genera and 7 families, the results showed that dicranosepsis duda, 1926 (family; sepsidae) is recorded the genus for the first time in iraq. key word: brachycera, diptera, fauna, iraq, survey. introduction the diptera, commonly called true flies or two-winged flies, are a familiar group of insects that includes, among many others, black flies, fruit flies, horse flies, house flies, midges, and mosquitoes. the diptera are among the most diverse insect orders, with estimates of described richness ranging from 120,000 to 150,000 species (colless and mcalpine, 1991; schumann, 1992; brown, 2001; merritt et al., 2003) and the number of species were increased to 152,956 under 10000 genera belonging to 150 families (thompson, 2008; chapman, 2009). the diptera are diverse not only in species richness, but also in their structure, habitat exploitation, life habits, and interactions with humankind (hennig 1973, mcalpine et al.,1987; pape, 2009; papp and darvas, 2000; brown, 2001; skevington and dang, 2002). a large number of fruit flies (tephritidae) are capable of causing considerable economic damage to fruits and vegetables, making these flies perhaps the most important dipteran family to agriculture (dowell and wange, 1986; mcpheron and steck, 1996). the agromyzidae, well known for the plant-mining habits, also contain a number of important plant pests (spencer, 1973 and 1990). the families calliphoridae, oestridae, and sarcophagidae are the major producers of myiasis. the species of oestridae are involved in dermal, enteric, and nasopharyngeal myiasis of animals and sometimes humans. the larvae of cattle grubs migrate through the host’s body and eventually reach the upper back where they cut a small opening in the hide and remain there until ready to pupate. economic losses result from reduction in milk production, weight loss, and damage to hides (zumpt, 1965; scholl, 1993). the aim of this study is to determine the prevalence of brachyceran species which were founded from several regions in iraq. 60 survey of brachycera materials and methods specimen collection: in the present study there were different methods used for collecting adult brachyceran flies such as: carcasses, fields of alfalfa plant and light traps; to capture the specimens were used variant instruments: direct colleting by forceps, aspirators, yellow sticky traps, sweeping and aerial nets; also we utilized some of the non identification collection of iraq natural history museum at baghdad university. morphological observation was made with a dissecting microscope and figured by dino lite, digital microscope. identification: variant keys were used for diagnosis them such as: curran (1965), zumpt (1965), oldroyd (1970), unwin (1981), pont (1991), mawlood (2001), al-saffar (2003), scudder and cannings (2006) and letana (2014). in addition to compare with identified specimens which kept at iraq natural history museum. results and discussion family: tabanidae one species only was collected in current study; members of this family that habitually attack humans and livestock are widely regarded as pests because of the bites that of most species inflict, and the diseases and parasites that some species transmit (wilkerson and butler, 1984). tabanus autuminalis linnaeus, 1761 material examined: two specimens collected from baghdad, abu ghraib at 16.vii.2014. distribution: northern africa (morocco, algeria, tunisia, egypt), turkey, iran, iraq, syria, israel (theodor, 1965) and jordan (al-talafha et al., 2004). family: sepsidae the specimens belong to this family were collected from a rat carcass in decay stage. this family commonly called the black scavenger flies or ensign flies. there are over 300 species worldwide; they are usually found around dung or decaying plant and animal materials (ang and meier, 2010). genus: dicranosepsis duda, 1926 (figure (1)) material examined: 2 specimens collected from baghdad, bab al-mouadham at 24.iii.2014. distribution: oriental, australasian, afrotropical region. newly recorded to iraqi fauna. briefly description: body length: 3-4mm color: body shining black with exception: face, thoracic pleura, antennae, veins and fore legs are brown; mid and hind legs dark brown; wings hyaline. humerals and postoculars present; first and second basal cells of wing separated; microsetae present, and often macrosetae on abdomen; orbital bristles lacking or very small;, strongly constricted behind second tergite; usually two dorsocentrals. diagnostic characters: distance between eyes at level of vibrissae significantly larger than the width of postpedicel, 2-3 vibrissae; occipital sclerite with several setae. arista bare; abdomen of both sexes without distinct macrochaetae, although sometimes with somewhat stronger hairing on 61 h. h. al-saffar and razzaq shalan augul tergal margins and with strong anal bristles; wing darkened along costa basally; sternopleura shining anteroventrally. calliphoridae in our investigations, most of specimens belong to this family were collected by using rat carcasses, these species are usually the first insects come to carrion because they have the ability to odor dead animal matter from up to 1 mile (1.6 km) away (smith, 1986; greenberg, 2004); therefore, they are the primary and, most accurate forensic indicators of time of death and their development rates are needed to allow more, precise pmi estimates (grassberger and reiter, 2001). chrysomya megacephala (fabricius, 1794) material examined: 43 specimens were collected from baghdad province, bab almouadham: 3, 1.iv.2014; 1, 2.iv.2014; 4, 3.iv.2014; 4, 28.iv.2014; 5, 29.iv.2014; 3, 2.v.2014; 5, 2.v.2014; al-madaen district: 9 specimens, 2.v.2014; saladin province, tuz khormato: 1, 23.iv.2014 and 8 specimens from qaddissya province, diwaniyah at 11.xi.2014. distribution: australia, africa, palearctic region, south and north america (zumpt, 1965; tomberlin et al., 2001; williams and villet, 2006). ch. albiceps (wiedemann, 1819) material examined: 77 specimens were collected from baghdad: bab al-mouadham; 2, 1.iv.2014; 10, 1.iv.2014; 16, 2.iv.2014; 7, 29.iv.2014; 7, 30.iv.2014; 3, 2.v.2014; 6, 2.v.2014; 2, 16.vi.2014; al-mada′in district 4, 17.vi.2014 and 20 specimens from qaddissya province, diwaniyah at 11.nov.2014. distribution: widely distributed in the southern palearctic, northern oriental and afrotropical regions and central and south america (baum-gartner & greenberg, 1984; grassberger et al., 2003; verves, 2004; richards et al., 2007). calliphora vicina robineau-desvoidy, 1830 material examined: 143 specimens were collected from baghdad, bab al-muadham: 14, 3.iii.2014; 5, 4.iii.2014; 12, 5.iii.2014; 23, 6.iii.2014; 7, 17.iii.2014; 19, 18.iii.2014; 16, 19.iii.2014; 3, 21. iv.2014, 4, 24.iii.2014, 1, 25.iii.2014; 2, 27.iii.2014; 5, 31.iii.2014; 6, 1. vi.2014, 7, 2.iv.2014; 1, 3.iv.2014; 6, 2.vii.2014 and 12 specimens from al-qaddissya province, diwaniyah at 11.nov.2014. distribution: worldwide (rognes, 2007). lucilia cuprina (wiedemann, 1830) material examined: 25 specimens were collected from baghdad: bab al-mouadham 5, 31.iii.2014; 3, 25.iv.2014, 4, 28.iv.2014, 3, 29.iv.2014; 6, 16.vi.2014 and 4 specimens at 17.vi.2014. distribution: this species is almost worldwide in the tropics and warmer climates; it is found in southern united states, uruguay and northern argentina (james, 1970); also found it in peru (baumgartner & greenberg, 1985). mariluis et al. (1994) found it in argentina, colombia, and paraguay. whitworth (2010) recorded it in the west indies, cuba, haiti, jamaica, puerto rico, trinidad, and virgin islands. this species possible occurrence in all countries of the middle east (akbarzadeh et al., 2015). lucilia sericata (meigen, 1826) 62 survey of brachycera material examined (17 specimens): baghdad, al-madaen district: 12, 17.iv.2014 and 5 specimens were collected from qaddissya province collected at 13.xi.2014. distribution: nearctic region (hilburn, 1994; whitworth, 2010), wide distribution in all countries of the middle east (akbarzadeh et al., 2015). sarcophagidae this family is attracted to many types of dead vertebrate remains, including humans (nishida, 1984); this family has a worldwide distribution and is one of the most biologically diverse families of calyptrate flies, containing sarcosaprophagous and parasitic species (pape, 1996). sarcophaga africa (wiedemann, 1824) material examined: 20 specimens were collected from baghdad: bab al-mouadham 1, 5.iii.2014; 2, 27.iii.2014; 1, 2.iv.2014; 3, 3.iv.2014; 1, 8.iv.2014; 2, 29. iv.2014; 4, 30.iv.2014; 1, 2.v.2014; 3, 16.vi.2014 and 2 specimens collected at 17.vi.2014. distribution: nearctic, palearctic, afrotropical, neotropical, oriental and australian regions (meiklejohn, 2012). ravinia pernix (harris, 1780) material examined: 7 specimens were collected from baghdad: bab al-mouadham 1, 25.iii.2014; 1, 27.iii.2014; 1, 8.iv.2014; 2, 29.iv.2014; 1, 30.iv.2014 and 1 specimen collected at 2.v.2014. distribution: austria, belarus belgium, britain, bulgaria, canary is., corsica, cyprus, czech republic, denmark, estonia, finland, france, germany, greece, hungary, italy, latvia, lithuania, malta, norway, poland, portugal, romania, slovakia, spain, sweden, switzerland, the netherlands, turkey, ukraine, (kara and pape, 2002). muscidae in this survey the specimens were collected from field of alfalfa, weeds, filth and decay substances. musca domestica linn. 1758 material examined (155 specimens): 68 specimens were collected from baghdad province: bab almuadham 37, 22.ii.2014; kadhumyia 31, 10.iii.2014; 30 specimens from karbala province, karbala on 11.v.201; 20 specimens from basra, abu alkhaseeb at 25.iii. 2014; 27 specimens from alnajaf province, najaf at xii.6.2014 and ten specimens from al qaddissya province, al -diwaniyah at 5.xi. 2014. distribution: europe, america, asia: lebanon, syria, iraq, palestine, turkey, iran, afghanistan, mongolia, korea, china, japan, north africa: morocco, algeria, tunisia, libya, egypt, azores, madeira, canary islands (pont ,1986,1991). muscina stabulans (fallen, 1817) material examined (20 specimens): eight specimens collected from baghdad province: al madaen, 4 at 17.iv.2014; al-jaddria 4 at 2.v.2014; 6 specimens from diyala at 10.x.2014; karbala province, karbala 5 at 2. xi. 2014; and one specimen collected from al-najaf province, najaf at 10.xi .2014. 63 h. h. al-saffar and razzaq shalan augul distribution: europe, asia: iraq, syria, occupied palestine, turkey, afghanistan mongolia, korea, china, japan, north africa: morocco, algeria, tunisia, egypt; azores, madeira, canary islands. (pont, 1986) musca albina wiedemann, 1830 material examined: 3 specimens from karbala at 24 .iv.2014. distribution: ussr. uk. asia: syria, iraq, saudi arabia, palestine, iran, afghanistan, china, north africa, tunisia, egypt, oriental and afro-tropical regions (pont,1986). atherigona soccata rondani, 1871 material examined: 10 specimens were collected from baghdad province: al taji, 3 at 23.iii, 2014, al-jaddria 5 at 11.xi.2014 and two specimens were collected from alkadhumyia at 15.xi.2014. distribution: europe, asia: iraq, palestine, turkey, afghanistan, china, north africa: morocco, libya, egypt, oriental and afro tropical regions (pont, 1986). graphomya maculata (scapoli, 1763) material examined (3 specimens): two specimens were collected from baghdad, tarmia at 4.xi.2014 and one specimen was collected from alqaddissya province, al-diwaniyah at 15. xi. 2014. distribution: europe, asia: lebanon, iraq, palestine, syria, turkey, iran, mongolia, korea, china, japan; north africa: morocco, algeria, tunisia, egypt, canary islands, oriental and australian regions (pont, 1986). family syrphidae: hoverflies are important pollinators of flowering plants in a variety of ecosystems worldwide. adult of these flies are frequent flower visitors to a wide range of wild plants as well as agricultural crops and are often considered the second most important group of pollinators after wild adults are often found near plants, their principal food source being nectar and pollen (larson et al., 2001). sphaerophoria scripta (linnaeus, 1758) material examined (4 specimens): two specimens were collected from baghdad province, al-jaddria at 22.iii.2014 and two specimens collected from karbala province, karbala at 28.iii, 2014. distribution: mediterranean region, canary islands, north africa, asia (dousti and hayat, 2006). family anthomyiidae this family is a large and diverse family of muscoidea flies, most look rather like small house flies, but are commonly drab grey. the genus anthomyia, in contrast, is generally conspicuously patterned in black and white or black and silvery-grey, most are difficult to identify, apart from a few groups such as the kelp flies that are conspicuous on beaches (suwa, and darvas, 1998). 64 survey of brachycera delia antiqua (meigen, 1826) material examined: two specimens were collected from baghdad province, bab alat 28.iv.2014. distribution: northern america, western europe, china, japan, korea and central asia (martinson et al., 1988). finally; there are many species have been not been recorded during this study, might be due to lack of coverage of all regions of iraq during this study, as well as to the families there are studied in previous investigations such as: al saffar (2011) on tephritidae and augul et al., (2013) on bombyliidae. figure 1: genus of dicranosepsis duda a) adult. b) head. c) wing and abdomen. 65 h. h. al-saffar and razzaq shalan augul literature cited akbarzadeh, k.; wallman j. f.; sulakova, h. and szpila, k. 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(2015) 13 (3): 59-69 مسح للذباب قصير قرون الاستشعار من رتبة ثنائية ألاجنحة (brachycera; diptera) في بعض مناطق العراق هناء هاني الصفار و رزاق شعالن عكل جامعة بغداد/ مركز بحوث و متحف التأريخ الطبيعي الخالصة عينة خالل الدراسة املسحية للتحري عن انواع الذباب قصير قرون الاستشعار من مناطق مختلفة 355جمعت 7جنسا و 05نوعا تعود الى 01سجل خالل الدراسة . 4102تشرين الثاني -من العراق خالل الفترة من شباط عوائل، اظهرت النتائج تسجيل الجنس dicranosepsis duda, 1926 (family; sepsidae) .الول مرة للمجموعة الحيوانية في العراق bull 27 azhar a. al-moussawi bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2014) 13 (1): 27-34 stomach nematodes of the shoveler anas clypeata linnaeus, 1758 (anseriformes:anatidae) wintering in iraq azhar a. al-moussawi iraq natural history museum, university of baghdad, bab al-muadham, baghdad, iraq e-mails: azhar.nhm@gmail.com; ahmeda_09@yahoo.com abstract three spirurid nematodes: amidostomoides acutum (lundahl,1848) seurat, 1918, epomidiostomum uncinatum (lundahl,1848) seurat, 1918 and tetrameres sp. creplin,1846 were isolated from the stomach (provenrticulus and gizzard) of the shoveler anas clypeata from central iraq. a brief description, morphometric and meristic characters for the nematodes were provided.incidence of the three nematodes discussed with pertinent literatures. key words: iraq, shoveler, spirurid nematodes, amidostomoides acutum,epomidiostomum uncinatum, tetrameres sp. introduction the shoveler, anas clypeata linnaeus, 1758 is a widespread duck. it is a very common visitor in iraq, and constitutes the second most wintering duck in number after anas crecca (salim et al. 2006). worms of tetrameres are among the most common parasites of waterfowl (bergan et al., 1994; cole and friend,1999), as well as the species of amidostomoides and epomidiostomum. gizzard worm infection is considered as contributing factor for losses in birds (herman and wehr,1954),because mature worms feed on blood (fedynich & thomas,2008) causing death for birds at high intensity of infection, for example a. acutum (cole and friend,1999). little is known about the parasites harbored by a.clypeata in iraq, it was found infected with four trematodes: echinostoma sp., e. revolutum, notocotylus sp. and n. urbanensis (mhaisen,1994; mizhir,2002 and al-awadi et al.,2010). this study aims to investigate the stomach helminthes of this wintering bird in iraq. materials and methodes twenty two of the shoveler (10 males and 12 females) were collected in baghdad during the period from september to november, 2012. birds were identified according to (allouse,1962) and salim et al.(2006). the provenrticulus and gizzard for each duck separated and examined for parasites by the dissecting microscope (kruss) and the compound microscope (olympus bh). three nematode species were isolated, killed and preserved in 70% ethanol, cleared by lactophenol and identified according to (yamaguti,1961) and yorke and maplestone(1962). measurements are in millimeters given as means followed by the range in parentheses, 28 stomach nematodes of the shoveler calculated using ocular and stage micrometers. photomicrographs were taken with a digital camera infinity lite-k100. results amidostomoides acutum (fig.1) synonyms: strongylus acutus lundahl, 1848 (cram,1927), amidostomum anatinum sugimoto 1928, a. fuligulae maplestone 1930, a. orientale rijikov et pavlov 1959(czapliński, 1962a). fourteen worms were isolated from the koilin lining of the gizzards in the present study. it is reddish worm, body cylindrical, attenuated interiorly, cuticle transversely striated. mouth opening surrounded with four papillae, the conical tooth at the apex is situated on dorsal plate of bottom of buccal capsule. pharynx cylindrical widening toward back. male:eight males were isolated. body 9.70 (9.22 -10.62) long, 0.17 (0.14-0.19) wide, dorsal tooth 0.0040 (0.003 -0.005) long, internal diameter of buccal capsule 0.012 (0.011-0.013), its depth is 0.010 (0.009 – 0.015). pharynx 0.612 (0.5660.740) long, 0.038 (0.032-0.056) width. nerve ring distance from anterior end 0.321(0.264-0.374). spicules equal or almost equal, with three branches 0.131(0.129 0.158) long. female: six females were isolated. they are larger than males 16.44(14.31-18.11) long, 0.19 (0.15 0.25) wide. dorsal tooth 0.007 (0.0070.008)long. internal diameter of buccal capsule 0.013 (0.0120.014), its depth 0.015 (0.012-0.017). nerve ring distance from anterior end 0.321 (0.2900.397).vulva distance from posterior end of the body 2.98 (2.653.99). eggs 0.072 (0.053-0.104) x 0.059(0.0380.0936). tail length 0.342 (0.3120.424). epomidiostomum uncinatum (fig.2) synonyms: epomidiostomum anatinum skrjabin,1916; amidostomum anatinum baylis,1928; strongylus uncinatus lundhal, 1848 (czaplinski, 1962b; yorke and maplestone, 1962). seven worms were isolated. it is a slender worm. mouth directed straight towards, the oral opening surrounded with 6 cephalic appendages. buccal capsule short. male: four males were isolated, shorter and thinner than female. body 6.72(6.62-7.95) long, 0.150 (0.1530.245) wide. inner diameter of buccal capsule 0.009(0.007-0.010), its depth 0.008 (0.006-0.009). pharynx 0.870 (0.744-0.890) long, 0.050 (0.048-0.067) wide. excretory pore at 0.382 (0.378-0.400) from the anterior end of the body. the nerve ring 0.070 (0.056-0.078), it distance 0.234 (0.227-0.250) from anterior end. two brown equal or nearly equal spicules 0. 124(0.1170.135) long, the distal end of each one is cleaved into three unequal branches. female: three females isolated. body 10.42(9.67-11.21) long, 0.223 (0.200-0.276)wide at vulva region. pharynx 1.036(0.890-1.122) long, 0.065(0.050-0.087) wide. excretory pore at 0.386 (0.340-0.450) from the anterior end of the body. nerve ring 0.054(0.0500.062), at a distance 0.322 (0.275-0.437) from anterior end. the vulva is smooth, behind the middle of the body, it placed at a distance of 2.45 (2. 423.00)from the posterior end. eggs 0.75(0.67-0.77)long, 0.040 (0.037-0-055) wide. body narrows behind the anus rapidly. 29 azhar a. al-moussawi tetrameres sp. (fig.3) synonyms: yamaguti (1961) considered the genus tetrameres as a synonym of tropisurus. description: the description of this worm based only on a single male found free in the lumen of the proventriculus of one shoveler female. it is white and filiform with spines on the cuticle. body cylindrical, with pointed posterior end, 3.912 long, 0.096 wide,gold-brown to dark-brown irregular artifacts were noticed distributed on the body, concentrated in the first anterior quarter of it. four longitudinal series of spines on the body, commence at the level of the posterior end of the buccal capsule at the distance of 0.024 from anterior extremity. nerve ring located at 0.022 from anterior extremity. two unequal spicules, the spicules lengths are 0.090 and 0.225. gubernaculum absent. tail pointed posteriorly. postanal papillae or spines seems five or six pairs in addition to few spines. discussion in the present study the specimens of a. acutum were more than those of e.uncinatum. this result agrees with kinsella and forrester(1972) and fedynich and thomas(2008). also there are three cases of double infection for a.clypeata with the gizzard nematodes a. acutum and e. uncinatum. multiple infection with genera and species of gizzard worms can occur within a single individual bird(tuggle and crites,1984). the present finding agrees with (hussen et al., 2012), and (kavetska et al., 2012) who had confirmed the presence of mixed nematode infection,including amidostomoides and epomidiostomum in their study. the present findings of a. acutum agree with czaplinski (1962a)who gave the first detailed description of the morphology for a.acutum after the original description of lundahl 1848. it was isolated from anas clpeata, a. crecca, a.fuligula, a. fusca, a. mollissima, a. nigra, a. penelope, a. platyrhynchos, a.querquedula, a.strepera, anser anser, eider molissimus, melanitta fusca, nettion crecca, oidemia nigra, fuligula fuligula, fulica atra (cram, 1927; czaplinski,1962a; broderson et al.,1977; borgsteede, 2005 and kavetska et al.,2011). in iraq, a. acutum was found in the gizzards of netta rufina and anas platyrhynchos by shubber (2006) and mohammad and al-moussawi (2011) respectively. e.uncinatum was recorded by mohammad and al-moussawi(2011) from anas platyrhynchos. hamza (2009) recorded epomidiostumum sp. in local chickens. the most features of tetrameres specimen in the present study agree with t.fissispina of cram (1927) and johnston and mawson(1950). however, decision on specific identify of the worm to the species level needs more male and female specimens. tetrameres spp. are cosmopolitan, the most hosts are aquatic birds. they were found in anseriform birds: t. fissispina isolated from anas superciliosa, t. crami from a. clypeata, t. pavonis found in aythya marila and a. fuligula, t.somateriae in melanitta fusca,t. spinosa observed exclusively in aythyini (johnston and mawson,1950, broderson et al.,1977 and kavetska et al., 2012), and in birds of other orders: ardeiformes, charadriiformes, galliformes,gruiformes and passeriformes (cram,1927; johnston and mawson,1950; broderson et al.,1977, kinsella and forrester, 2008 and kavetska et al.,2012). in iraq tetrameres sp. was recorded from anas strepera, anas querquedula, aythya ferina, fulica atra, gallinula chloropus, netta rufina and porphyrio poliocephalus (abdullah, 1988; al-mayah, 1990; mizhir, 2002; shubber, 2006 and al-awadi,et al., 2010). 30 stomach nematodes of the shoveler in view of the present findings, it is obvious that the shoveler and other waterfowl birds as well as other iraqi birds need more attention and more detailed studies. acknowledgements the author is grateful to prof. dr. mohammad k. mohammad, iraq natural history museum, university of baghdad for checking the text. thanks are due to hind diya, khalida ibraheem and zainab alwan, for their kind help in laboratory preparations. literature cited abdullah,1988 cited in mhaisen, f.t. 1994. helminth parasites of aquatic birds of basrah province marshy area, iraq. jpn. j.parasitol.,43(4): 274-279. al-awadi, h.m.h; mhaisen, f.t. and al-joborae, f.f. 2010. helminth parasitic fauna of aquatic birds in bahr al-najaf depression, mid iraq. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 11 (2): 7-15. allouse, b.e.1961. birds of iraq. ar-rabitta press, baghdad: 280pp. (in arabic). al-mayah, s.h.1990. helminths of some aquatic birds and notes about swimmer’s itch in basrah. m. sc. thesis, univ. basrah: 103pp. (in arabic). bergan, j.f., radomski, a. a., pence, d. b. and rhodes, o.e.,jr. 1994. tetrameres (petrowimeres) striata in ducks. journal of wildlife diseases. 30(3): 351-358. borgsteede, f. h. m. 2005. the gizzard worn, amidostomum acutum (lundahl, 1848) seurat, 1918 in common eiders (somateria mollissima l.) in the netherlands. helminthologia, 42: 215 -218. broderson, d.; canaris, a. g. and bristol, j. r. 1977. parasites of waterfowl from southwest texas: ii. the shoveler, anas clypeata. journal of wildlife diseases,13: 435439. cole, r. a. and friend,m. 1999. parasites and parisitic diseases (field manual of wildlife diseases). wildlife disease and zoonotics. other publications in zoonotics and wildlife disease. university of nebraska: 188-258 pp. cram, e.b.1927 bird parasites of the nematode suborders strongylata, ascaridata, and spirurata.bulletin / smithsonian institution, united states national museum:140pp. czapliński, b. 1962a. nematodes and acanthocephalans of domestic and wild anseriformes in poland. i. revision of the genus amidostomum railliet et henry, 1909.acta parasitol. pol., 10: 125-164. czapliński, b. 1962b. nematodes and acanthocephalans of domestic and wild anseriformes in poland. ii. nematoda (excl. amidostomum) and acanthocephala. acta parasitol. pol., 10: 277-319. fedynich,a. m. and thomas, n. j. 2008. cited in atkinson, c. t.; thomas,n. j. and hunter, d. b. (edit.). parasitic diseases of wild birds. wiley a. j. & sons, ltd., publication: 595pp. 31 azhar a. al-moussawi hamza, h.m. 2009 prevalence and distribution of gastro-intestinal helminthes in local chickens in al-diwaniya region. wasit j. sci.&med., 2(1): 53 74. herman, c. m. and wehr, e. e. 1954. the occurrence of gizzard worms in canada geese. the journal of wildlife management 18 (4): 509-513. hussen, h., chaka, h., deneke, y. and bitew, m. 2012. gastrointestinal helminths are highly prevalent in scavenging chickens of selected districts of eastern shewa zone, ethiopia. pak. j. biol. sci., 15(6): 284-289. johnston, t. h. and mawson, p. m. 1950. some nematodes from australian hosts, together with a note on rhabditis allgeni.transactions of the royal society of south australia 73:63-71. kinsella, j. m. and forrester, d. j. 1972. helminths of the florida duck, anas platyrhynchos fulvigula. proceedings of the helminthological society of washington, 39:173–176. kinsella, j. m. and forrester, d. j. 2008. cited in atkinson, c. t.; thomas,n. j. and hunter, d. b.(edit.) kavetska,k. m.; królaczyk, k.; stapf, a.; grzesiak,w.; kalisińska,e. and pilarczyk, b. 2011. revision of the species complex amidostomum acutum (lundahl, 1848) (nematoda: amidostomatidae). parasitol. res, 109:105–117. kavetska, k. m., królaczyk,k., pilarczyk1, b. and kalisińska, e. 2012. stomach nematodes of wild ducks (subfamily anatinae) wintering in the north-western poland. bull vet inst pulawy 56: 27-31. mhaisen, f.t. 1994. helminth parasites of aquatic birds of basrah province marshy area, iraq. jpn. j. parasitol., 43(4): 274-279. mizhir, a.h. 2002 cited in al-awadi,h.m.h; mhaisen, f.t. and al-joborae, f.f. 2010. helminth parasitic fauna of aquatic birds in bahr al-najaf depression, mid iraq. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 11 (2): 7-15. mohammad, m. k. and al-moussawi, a. a. 2011 prevalence and infection rate of three gizzard nematodes in the mallard anas platyrhynchos l., 1758 collected in aldiwaniya and diyala provinces, central iraq. ibn alhaitham j. pure appl. sci., 24(3): 15-24. salim, m.a., porter, r.f., christensen, s., schiermacker -hansen, p. and al -jbour, s. 2006. field guide to the birds of iraq. amman, nature iraq and birdlife international: 284pp.(in arabic). shubber, h. w. k. 2006 the parasitic helminths of the digestive tract of the ducks netta rufina and anas crecca. m. sc. thesis, univ. al-qadisyia (in arabic). tuggle, b. n. and crites. j. l. 1984. cited in atkinson, c. t.; thomas,n. j. and hunter, d. b. (edit.). yamaguti, s. 1961. systema helminthum.vol.3: the nematodes of vertebrates. intersci. pub. inc., new york: 779pp. 32 stomach nematodes of the shoveler yorke,w. and maplestone, p.a. 1962. the nematode parasites of vertebrates. haf. pub.com., new york: 536pp. 33 azhar a. al-moussawi 34 stomach nematodes of the shoveler bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2014) 13 (1): 27-34 الُمَشّتي في أ anas clypeata linnaeus, 1758(أبو مجرف)الديدان الخيطية في معدة العراق أزهار أحمد الموسوي مركز بحوث ومتحف التاريخ الطبيعي، جامعة بغداد، باب المعظم، بغداد، العراق ;azhar.nhm@gmail.com; ahmeda_09@yahoo.com :البريد االلكتروني لخالصةا anas clypeata تم الحصول على ثالثة أنواع من الديدان الخيطية من معدة أبو مجرف amidostomoides acutum (lundahl,1848) :وهي ، المجموع من وسط العراق seurat, 1918 وepomidiostomum uncinatum (lundahl,1848) seurat, .tetrameres sp. creplin,1846و 1918 هم الدراسات المحلية ألتم توضيح أهم الصفات الشكلية المستخدمة في التشخيص، و إستعراض .للديدان الثالثة ومناقشتها ومقارنتها مع الدراسات االخرى bull 39 al-dabbas1, et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2015) 13 (3): 39-50 the chemistry of the leaves of plant eucalyptus camaldulensis as environmental contamination indicator of selected locations at kirkuk iraq moutaz a. al-dabbas*, lamyaa abdulameer ali** and adnan h. afaj** *college of science, university of baghdad, profaldabbas@yahoo.com postal address: iraq-baghdad aljaderia baghdad university post office p. o. box: 47138. **ministry of science and technology, iraq-baghdad. abstract the environmental contamination by the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (pahs) and heavy metals (pb, cu, ni, cr, and cd) concentrations in the leaves of plant eucalyptus camaldulensis were determined at the city of kirkuk in 15 selected locations using gps. the pickings up of samples were carried out in two periods october 2010 and march 2011. compared with results of other studies, the concentration levels of determined heavy metals show values within these studies results. the average total concentration of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (pahs) in the leaves of plant eucalyptus camaldulensis indicated 37.1 ppb in october, while in march 165.2 ppb. the model of cumulative effects of heavy metals and pahs, which were determined by gis for both sampling periods showed distribution of concentration towards wind directions and away from the site of kirkuk oil refinery at the south east direction and that the refinery was not the only contamination source but there were other sources such as the kirkuk main vehicle station on the edge of the urban areas. key words: plant eucalyptus camaldulensis leaves, contamination, heavy metals, pahs, kirkuk, iraq. introduction there is a high probability of contamination by the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (pahs) and heavy metals, due to the availability of sources of pollution. plant’s leave receives pollutants from a variety of sources, including automobile exhaust gases, and emissions of factory chimneys, household electric power generators and dust storm (habib, et al., 2012). also, tire friction adds some metals, particularly cadmium, the motor oils consumed contain heavy metals, oil burning, waste incineration (thorpe and harrison, 2008). heavy metals are that elements having specific gravity that is at least five times the specific gravity of water which is expressed as 1 at 4°c and refers to metallic elements with an atomic weight greater than iron (55.8 g/mol). the composition and quantity of chemical matrix of road, highways dust and cement plants are indicators of environmental pollution with high concentration of pb, cu, ni, cr, and cd (kabata, and pendias, 2001; al-sayegh and al-yazichi, 2001; awadh, 2009 and 2014). 40 the chemistry of the leaves of plant determination of chemical composition of plants is one of the most frequently used methods of monitoring environmental pollution. various plants have been used as bioindicators to assess the impact of a pollution source on the vicinity which is due to high metal accumulation of plants (lawal et al., 2011, assadi et al., 2011). generally, the climate of kirkuk is semi-arid with maximum temperature up to 53ºc in julyaugust. kirkuk has experienced rapid growth in population and urbanization over the last few decades. it is estimated that between 2003 and 2012 a huge number of vehicles were registered in kirkuk. besides, the used cars which are second hand remained in service. this exerts a heavy pressure on its urban environment. exposure to heavy metals in road dust can occur by means of ingestion, inhalation include respiratory system disorders, nervous system interruptions, endocrine system malfunction, immune system suppression and the risk of cancer in later life (ferreira-baptista and miguel, 2005). because the plants are collectors for all air pollutants, and their chemical composition may be a good indicator for contaminated-areas. eucalyptus camaldulensis tree species were chosen. it has relatively high growth rate in kirkuk and it attains heights between 25 and 35 m (mohammed, 2009; al-edany, et al, 2012). heavy metals are non-biodegradable, hence are not readily detoxified and removed by metabolic activities once they are available in the environment. this may subsequently lead to their build up to toxic levels or bioaccumulation in ecosystem (al-hamadani 1987; jan et al., 2000; buszewski et al., 2000; yongzhen et al., 2011). the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (pahs) in the environment largely are a product of the incomplete combustion of petroleum, oil, and coal. sources in the urban environment include industrial emissions and wastes, power plants, vehicles, mineral/crude oil extraction and petroleum refining processes and the majority of pahs are suspensions (masitah et al., 2007; kluska 2013). polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (pahs) were ranked as the ninth most threatening compounds to human health. it is conceivable that faster deposition of exhaust aerosol droplets occurs close to the highway; while further spreading mediated by their adsorbed form on the dust particles that are distributed with wind, affects other media (e.g. air, water, soil and plants) (samimi et al., 2009; habib et al., 2012). researchers had identified 16 different "priority pollutants" pahs which have stronger toxicity than others and can be adsorbed by the leaves of plants (venkataraman et al., 2002; bari et al., 2011). plants’ leaves may accumulate an immense amount of pollutants, including heavy metals and pahs. most of these compounds are transported by air with particles of dust. (bryselbout et al., 2000; zitka et al., 2012). many researchers who studied soil, water and plants in kirkuk have detected high heavy metals concentration in different sampling media (haqus and hammed, 1986; al-khashman, 2007; awadh, 2009; ali, 2013). this work is expressed as geochemical study for further contribution of the local environmental pollution; it is going to discuss the concentration and distribution of the heavy metals and pahs in kirkuk plant eucalyptus camaldulensis leaves in attempt for revealing the source of heavy metals. the importance of this research lies in the risk pollutants and their impact on the public health. therefore, it aims to measure the concentration of heavy metals (pb, cu, ni, cr, and cd) and pahs in the leaves of plant eucalyptus for two periods october 2010 and march 2011, as well as the assessment of environmental impacts of the kirkuk city. 41 al-dabbas1, et al. fig. 1: the topographic map of iraq showing the location of kirkuk governorate and the sampling sites. materials and methods a-the heavy metals in the leaves of plant eucalyptus camaldulensis were analyzed. fifteen different sampling sites inside and outside kirkuk oil refinery have been selected between latitudes (35° 24'' – 35° 29'') to the north and longitude (44° 20'' – 44° 26'') to the east, (fig.1). the site selection of the leaves of plant eucalyptus sampling in kirkuk oil refinery and around takes into consideration the prevailing wind direction that is an important factor in pollutants distribution, as well as the nearby populated sectors within kirkuk city. the concentrations of the heavy metals (pb, cu, ni, cr, and cd) were analyzed using atomic absorption spectrometry equipment (buszewski et al., 2000). b-the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (pahs) in the leaves of plant (eucalyptus) were determined by using hplc (high performance liquid chromatography) and gc-ms (gas chromatography mass) of the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon compounds according to henner et al., (1997) and husain (2003) procedures. the used standards for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons analysis were of sigma-aldrich company with high purity (not less than 99.5%). a mixture of the 16 compound with a different concentrations for each standard materials, (naphthalene, acenaphthene, acenaphthylene, fluorene, phenanthrene, fluoranthene, chrysene, anthracene, benzo (a) anthracene, benzo (k) fluoranthene, benzo (b) fluoranthene, pyrene, dibenzo (a,h) anthracene, benzo (a) pyrene, benzo (g,h,i) perylene, indeno (1,2,3-cd) pyrene were used, (henner et al., 1997; ali, 2013). c-the geographic information systems (gis) was applied. arc gis 10 modeling of measurements of heavy metals and the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (pahs) accumulated on the leaves of plant eucalyptus camaldulensis was applied for the cumulative effects of both sampling periods october 2010 and march 2011. 42 the chemistry of the leaves of plant results and discussion heavy metals analyses in plant obviously, the leaf plant tissues store the greater quantity of heavy metals. nickel (ni) can be found in high concentration around areas contained nickel-cadmium batteries and as product of diesel fuel. cobalt (co) can be found in diesel and gasoline fuel; in sludge, and commercial fertilizers that use, in addition to that many industrial sites occurring in kirkuk as well as kirkuk oil refining. the vehicle exhausts in heavy traffic are the main source of pb and cd (mohammed, 2009). the anthropogenic sources of cd compounds are production processes of zinc, copper and lead combustion processes of oil and incineration. road dust receives varying inputs of heavy metals from diversity of mobile or stationary sources such as vehicular emission, industrial plants, power generation plants, oil burning, waste incineration, as well as re-suspension of surrounding contaminated soils (ahmed and ishiga, 2006; alkhashman, 2007). nickel compounds are mainly emitted by combustion (heavy residual oil burning units). nickel compounds such as nickel sulfate, oxidic nickel, and nickel metal are the predominant species in stack fly ash from oil-fired combustion. the anthropogenic source of pb is leaded gasoline in most as well as the other varied sources emitting from fuel combustion, and shops of radiator repairer. the range and the mean concentrations of heavy metals in the leaves of plant eucalyptus camaldulensis for october 2010 and march 2011 samples are shown in table 1. the results during october 2010 reflect that the mean concentration of pb, cu, ni, cr, and cd were 3.4, 4.1, 6.1, 54.2, and 12.0 ppm respectively, with the descending order of heavy elements in plant leaves as cr > cd > ni > cu > pb. while during march 2011, the mean concentration of them was 1.4, 3.0, 37.7, 46.3, and 6.6 ppm respectively, with the descending order of heavy elements in plant leaves as cr > ni >cd > cu > pb. the results indicate that the studied heavy metals were relatively lower in march than in october, (table 1). it is believed that such finding is obvious due to high wind speed and rainfall during the winter months (i.e. march) which wash and remove the pollutants from the leave surface. comparison of the studied heavy metals with other studies on other plants results (khuwaidem, 2007; habib, et al., 2012) referred that they are within or lower than their concentrations, table 1. table 1: heavy metals concentrations (ppm) in the leaves of plant eucalyptus camaldulensis for october 2010, and in march 2011, compared with results of other studies. heavy metals conc. sample no. pb ppm cu ppm ni ppm cr ppm cd ppm october 2010 range 0.2-10.0 0.02-10.0 1.0-18.0 0.01-104.5 4.3-17.8 mean 3.4 4.1 6.1 54.2 12.0 march 2011 range 0.01-4.0 0.01-10.3 16.3-54.8 20.7-88.4 3.6-10.5 mean 1.4 3.0 37.7 46.3 6.6 khuwaidem , 2007 range 4-42 10-35 5-14 4-12 7-13 mean 21.5 22 9 8.1 10 habib, et al., 2012 dates leaves range 20-40 30-60 12-20 mean 30 45 16 43 al-dabbas1, et al. applying arc gis 10 model of heavy metals concentrations on the leaves of plant eucalyptus camaldulensis for the cumulative effects of both sampling periods october 2010 and march 2011, shows that the concentrations of these pollutants distribute away from the refinery toward the wind direction and the refinery is not the only contamination sources, as in sampling site 4 and site 12 that represent the chorao control site and baba gurgur hotel site respectively figure 2. moreover, the distribution of heavy metal concentration is displayed around garage in which the gases from automobiles are continuously emitting; this led to suggest that the garages and crowded traffic area were a point and non point source respectively. these heavy metals could come from many different sources. these sites indicate maximum recorded values due to traffic intensity as they represent the main bus and cars station sites, where the vehicle exhausts contain heavy metals concentrations and can be directly deposited on the leaves of eucalyptus camaldulensis, figures 1 and 2. it is clear that the pollutant affected by the prevailing wind direction (nw) was a controlling factor in transferring the pollutants. pollutants (pb, cu, ni, cr, and cd) are added to the road-side dust in quantities equivalent to the amount of gas emitted from automobiles, corrosion and wear of vehicle parts as well as atmospheric additives. the distribution pattern of the pollutants depends on the energy and direction of the wind. fig. 2: arc gis cumulative model for total heavy metals in the leaves of plant eucalyptus camaldulensis for both periods october 2010 and march 2011. total pahs in plant: the results of the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (pahs) concentrations in the leaves of plant eucalyptus camaldulensis show the existence of sixteen hydrocarbons, these are naphthalene, acenaphthene, acenaphthylene, fluorene, phenanthrene, anthracene, fluoranthene, pyrene, benzo (a) anthracene, chrysene, benzo (b) fluoranthene, benzo (k) 44 the chemistry of the leaves of plant fluoranthene, benzo (a) pyrene, dibenzo (a, h) anthracene, benzo (g, h, i) perylene, indeno (1,2,3-cd) pyrene, table 2. the 16 epas priority pahs detected in the studied area were varied in concentration within the sites of measurements due to the physicochemical properties of these compounds. most of pahs minimum values were less than 1.0 ppb during october 2010, except five naphthalene 13.0 ppb, acenaphthene 2.4 ppb, phenanthrene 1.0 ppb, benzo (a) pyrene 2.3 ppb and dibenzo (a,h) antracene 2.3 ppb .while, most of their maximum values were less than 15.0 ppb except for six naphthalene 67.7 ppb, acenaphthene 75.0 ppb, fluorine 33.2 ppb, phenanthrene 15.3 ppb, pyrene 27.4 ppb and dibenzo (a,h) antracene 22.5 ppb, table 2. in march, 2011, most of pahs minimum values were less than 6.0 ppb, except two naphthalene 49.7 ppb, and acenaphthene 18.4 ppb. while, most of their maximum values were less than 15.0 ppb except for six naphthalene 63.7 ppb, acenaphthene 129.4 ppb, fluorine 187.5 ppb, phenanthrene 28.9 ppb, pyrene 45.2 ppb and dibenzo (a,h) antracene 17.2 ppb, table 2. table 2: total polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (pahs) concentrations (ppb) on the leaves of plant eucalyptus camaldulensis for october 2010 and march 2011. no. pahs october 2010 march 2011 min max min max 1. naphthalene nap 13.0 67.7 49.7 63.7 2. acenaphthylene acy 0.0 3.8 0.0 3.5 3. acenaphthene ace 2.4 75.0 18.4 129.4 4. fluorine flu 0.3 33.2 5.3 187.5 5. phenanthrene phe 1.0 15.3 2.3 28.9 6. anthracene ant 0.01 2.0 0.02 5.0 7. fluoranthene flua 0.07 3.6 0.1 8.7 8. pyrene pyr 0.7 27.4 0.2 45.2 9. benzo(a)anthracene b(a)a 0.3 4.4 1.2 4.3 10. chrycene chr 0.3 3.1 0.5 4.0 11. benzo(b)fluoranthene b(b)f 0.4 1.0 0.07 6.1 12. benzo(k)fluoranthene b(k)f 0.6 6.2 0.02 1.0 13. benzo(a)pyrene b(a)p 2.3 9.0 0.6 12.9 14. dibenzo(a,h)antracene dib(ah)a 2.3 22.5 3.8 17.2 15. benzo(g,h,i)perylene b(ghi)p 0.5 7.0 2.2 7.3 16. indino(1,2,3-cd)pyrene ind p 0.0 0.03 0.0 1.4 the total accumulated pahs in the leaves of plant eucalyptus camaldulensis of each sampling sites are shown in table 3. most of total pahs values were less than 20.0 ppb during october 2010, except for sites 4, 8, 10, 13 ,14 and 15 that their values reach 153.1, 67.8, 105.7, 59.2, 32.6 and 83.5 ppb respectively. in march, 2011, most of total pahs values were less than 50.0 ppb, except for sites 1, 5, 6, 9, 12 and 15 were the pahs values reach 50.6, 78.2, 99.4, 298.5, 221.0, and 51.3 ppb respectively, table 3. the maximum concentration of pahs as a total accumulation in the leaves of plant eucalyptus camaldulensis at october was 153.1 ppb at site no.4 (chorao control site). while, the lower value of pahs was 0.0 ppb at site no.2 (first unit at the refinery), with average 165.2 ppb, table 3. 45 al-dabbas1, et al. the maximum concentration of pahs as a total accumulation in the leaves of plant eucalyptus camaldulensis at march was 298.5 ppb at site no.9 (baba residential area). while, the lower concentration of pahs was 15.3 ppb at site no.13 (people’s action area), with average 37.1 ppb, table 3. the total concentrations of pahs at march (165.2 ppb) was higher than at october (37.1 ppb) which could be due to the decreasing of the air temperatures winter, and evergreen plants scavenge the majority of emitted pahs (jan et al., 2000). comparison of the total pahs on the leaves of plant eucalyptus camaldulensis of each sampling site with other studies results indicates that the results were within the range or less than the other studies results ,table 3, (slaski et al., 2000; ideriah et al., 2011). table. 3: total pahs concentrations (ppb) in the leaves of plant eucalyptus camaldulensis for october 2010 and march 2011. sampling site no. total pahs conc. in plant october 2010 total pahs conc. in plant march 2011 1. 4.0 50.6 2. 0.0 47.1 3. 15.8 27.1 4. 153.1 20.7 5. 17.9 78.2 6. 4.4 99.4 7. 4.4 15.7 8. 67.8 20.3 9. 14.2 298.5 10. 105.7 16.2 11. 2.3 16.2 12. 4.6 221.0 13. 59.2 15.3 14. 32.6 33.8 15. 83.5 51.3 range 0.0-153.1 15.3-298.5 average 37.1 165.2 slaski, et al., 2000 range 40-477 ideriah, et al., 2011 range 142.4-582.2 moreover, arc gis 10 modeling of measurements of total accumulated pahs in the leaves of plant eucalyptus camaldulensis was applied for the total cumulative pahs effects of both sampling periods october 2010 and march 2011, figure 3. the result shows that the kirkuk oil refinery was not the main source of the pahs pollutants that distribute away from the refinery toward the south west direction but also ,it is noticed that pahs increased in site no.4 (chorao control) and site no.13 (people’s action area) which reflect the pahs high values due to traffic intensity as they represent the main bus and cars station sites, where, the vehicle exhausts contain pahs concentrations and can be directly deposited on the leaves of eucalyptus, figure 3. also, the meteorological condition (e.g. rainfall, wind direction and dust storms) plays an important role in distributing the total pahs on the leaves of plant eucalyptus camaldulensis. 46 the chemistry of the leaves of plant fig. 3: arc gis model of total pahs accumulation in the leaves of plant eucalyptus camaldulensis at the studied area of both periods october 2010 and march 2011. conclusions 1-comparison of the averages of the heavy metals pb, cu, ni, cr, and cd with other studies referred that they are within or lower than the references values. 2-the results of pahs indicate that in march 2011 (165.2 ppb) was higher than at october (37.1 ppb) due to the increase of fuel combustion operations accruing at the location such as the operations of the power plant that functions increasingly during the winter months and atmospheric contaminants (dust and smoke) are cumulated on the plant surface. comparison of the total pahs in the leaves of plant eucalyptus camaldulensis of each sampling site with other studies indicate that this study results were within the range or less than the other studies results. 3-the cumulative effects model of pahs by using gis for both sampling periods shown the distribution at the direction away from the refinery mostly at the south east direction and that the refinery was not the only contamination source but there were other sources such as the kirkuk main vehicle station and electrical generators exhausts. literature cited ahmed, f. and ishiga, h. (2006). trace metal concentrations in street dusts of dhaka city, bangladesh, atmos. environ. 40: 3835-3844. 47 al-dabbas1, et al. al-edany, t.y. and al-saadi, s.a. (2012). taxonomic significance of anatomical characters in some species of the family myrtaceae, american journal of plant sciences, 3, 572-581. al-hamadani, r. (1987). industrial pollution by heavy metals on soil and plant, m.sc. thesis, college of medicine, university of baghdad (arabic) iraq, pp. 100-111. ali, l. a. (2013). environmental impact assessment of kirkuk oil refinery, unpub. , ph.d. thesis, college of science, university of baghdad. al-khashman, o.a. (2007). the investigation of metal concentrations in street dust samples in aqaba city, jordan, environ. geochem. health 29: 197-207. al-sayegh, a. and al-yazichi, k. (2001). car exhausts pollution in mosul city", rafidain journal of science, college of science, university of mosul, (in arabic); 12, 2, 122123. assadi, a.; pirbalouti a. g.; malekpoor f.; teimori n. and assadi l. (2011). impact of air pollution on physiological and morphological characteristics of eucalyptus camaldulensis den. journal of food, agriculture & environment vol.9 (2): pp. 676679. awadh s.m. (2009). atmospheric pollution of baghdad city, iraq. proceeding of 3rd scientific conference of college of science, university of baghdad. iraqi j sci 1: 1727-1740. awadh, s.m. (2014). assessment the potential pollution of cadmium, nickel and lead in the road-side dust in the karkh district of baghdad city and along the highway between ramadi and rutba, west of iraq, arab j geosci, vol. 7, in press (accepted on line 2014). bari, m.; baumbach g.; kuch b. and scheffknecht g. (2011). particle-phase concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in ambient air of rural residential areas in southern germany, springer quotes. bryselbout, c.; henner, p.; carsignol, j. and lichtfouse, e. (2000). polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in highway plants and soils. evidence for a local distillation effect, analusis, 2000, 28, no. 4. buszewski, b.; jastrzębska a.; kowalkowski, t. and górna-binkul, a. (2000). monitoring of selected heavy metals uptake by plants and soils in the area of torun, poland. polish journal of environmental studies vol. 9, no. 6, 511-515. ferreira-baptista, l. and de miguel, e.d., (2005). geochemistry and risk assessment of street dust in luanda, angola: a tropical urban environment. atmos. environ. 9: 4501-4531. habib, r.h., awadh, s. m., and muslim, m.z. (2012). toxic heavy metals in soil and some plants in baghdad ,iraq, journal of al-nahrain university, science, vol.15 (2), pp. 1-16. 48 the chemistry of the leaves of plant haqus, m. d.; hammed, h. a.(1986). lead content of green forage growing adjacent to express ways and road connecting arbil city (n iraq)". jour. bio. sci. res.; 17, 153164. henner, p., schiavon, m., morel, j. and lichtfouse, e. (1997). polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (pah) occurrence and remediation methods. analysis magazine 25, m56-m59. husain, k.i. (2003). separation and determination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in iraqi environmental samples. phd. thesis, college of education ibn al-haitham, university of baghdad.104 p. ideriah, t., emerhi, e., abere, s. and trinya, w. (2011). levels of total hydrocarbon contents in plants along selected roadsides in port harcourt metropolis, nigeria, j. of agri. and bio. sci., vol.2 (3), pp.65-70. jan, j. et al., (2000). evaluation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (pah) accumulation in plants, the potential use of pah accumulation as a marker of exposure to air emissions from oil and gas flares. isbn 0-7785-1228-2. report prepared for the air research users group, albert environment, edmonton, alberta. kabata, a. and pendias, h. (2001). trace elements in soils and plants"; (3rd ed.), crc press, washington, d.c., 550p. kluska, m. (2013). soil contamination with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the vicinity of the ring road in siedlce city, polish journal of environmental studies vol. 12, no. 3 (2003), 309-313. khuwaidem, k.h. (2007). study of environmental situation in al-basra governorate, unpub. ph.d. thesis, college of science, university of baghdad, iraq, pp. 9094p. lawal, a.o., batagarawa, s.m., oyeyinka, o. d. and lawal m. o. (2011). estimation of heavy metals in neem tree leaves along katsina – dutsinma funtua highway in katsina state of nigeria. j. appl. sci. environ. manage. vol. 15 (2) 327330. masitah, a., zaini, h., and lee, s. k. (2007). pm10 and total suspended particulates (tsp) measurements in various power stations, the malaysian journal of analytical sciences, vol 11, no 1: 255-261. mohammed, f. a. (2009). pollution caused by vehicle exhaustes and oil trash burning in kirkuk city, iraqi journal of earth sciences; 9, 2, 39-48. samimi, s., akbar, r. and ghanizadeh, f. (2009). polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon contamination levels in collected samples from vicinity of a highway, iran j. environ. health. sci. eng., 2009, vol. 6, no.1, pp.47-52. slaski, j., daniel, j. and li, x. (2000). evaluation of pahs accumulation in plants, alberta research council, alberta. thorpe, a. and harrison, r.m. (2008). sources and properties of non-exhaust particulate matter from road traffic: a review. sci. total environ. 400(1-3):270-282. 49 al-dabbas1, et al. venkataraman, c. negi, g. sardar, s.b. and rastogi, r. (2002). size distributions of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in aerosol emissions from biofuel combustion, j. of aerosol science, 33: 503-518. yongzhen long, guoxiang chi, hairuo qing, tagen dai, qianhong wu (2011). sources of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in street dust from the chang-zhu-tan region, hunan, china, journal of environmental protection, 2011, 2, 1331-1340. zitka, o., babula, p., sochor, j., kummerova, m., krystofova, o., adam, v., havel, l., beklova, m., hubalek, j. and kizek, r. (2012). determination of eight polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and in pea plants (pisumsativum l.) extracts by high performance liquid chromatography with electrochemical detection. int. j. electrochem. sci., 7, 908-927. 50 the chemistry of the leaves of plant bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2015) 13 (3): 39-50 العراق –كيميائية اوراق نبااتت الكالبتوس كامالدولينسيس كدليل للتلوث البيئي ملواقع خمتارة يف مدينة كركوك **و عدانن حسن عفج **و ملياء عبد االمري علي* معتز عبد الستار دمحم الدابس 83714صندوق بريد –جامعة بغداد –كلية العلوم * العراق –بغداد –وزارة العلوم والتكنولوجيا ** اخلالصة واهليدروكوربوانت العطرية املتعددت احللقات ( pb,cu,ni,cr,cd)لقد مت حتديد التلوث البيئي ملعدل تراكيز العناصر الثقيلة (pahs ) الـ موقعاً خمتاراً من مدينة كركوك ابستخدام 31اوراق نبات الكالبتوس كامالدولينسيس املاخوذ من يف مناذجgps . ان مجع .0233وآذار 0232النماذج كان لفرتتني هي تشرين االول 1773كامالدولينسيس كان الكالبتوس يف مناذج اوراق نبات ( pahs)ان معدل تركيز اهليدروكوربوانت العطرية املتعددة احللقات .جزء من البليون 3.170كان 0233ويف آذار 0232جزء من البليون يف تشرين لفرتيت الدراسة ابن gisاظهرت النتائج استخدام اتثري اهليدروكوربوانت العطرية املتعددة احللقات الرتاكمي حددت بتطبيق برانمج جنو الشرقي مبتعدة عن املفف وان املفف م يكن املفدر الوحيد للتلوث حي تلع تراكيزها تنتشر ابجتاه الرايح السائدة اىل .حمطة وقوف السيارات والباصات العامة الواقعة عل جان املناطق السكنية دوراً كبرياً يف زايدة التلوث 1 1 m. s. abdul-rassoul bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2010) 11 (2): 1-5 tumbling flower beetles (coleoptera, mordellidae) of iraq mohammad saleh abdul-rassoul iraq natural history museum, baghdad university, baghdad, iraq abstract the present study was undertaken to determine the species of tumbling flower beetles (coleoptera, mordellidae) found in iraq. specimens have been collected from different localities of iraq since 1970. results show that the tumbling flower beetles (mordellidae) are represented with a total of 13 species belonging to four genera of three tribes, two of these species were described by dr. horak (1985,1990) as new species for iraq mediimorda maceki horak and mordellistena bolognahorak; two were previously reported stenalia escherichi schilsk and mordellistena pumila (gyllenhal) and ten are new records for iraq.stenalia araxicola khnzorian, stenalia brunneipennis mulsant, variimorda fasciata (fabricious), variimorda holzschuhi horak, mordellistena horaki pino., mordellistena kraatzi emery, mordellistena sp. prob. micans gemar, mordellistena sp. near microspmelicte ermish, mordellistena paraepisterna ermisch and mordellistena pseudorugipennis ermisch. introduction tumbling flower beetles or mordellidae is a large and widely distributed family in order coleoptera. it includes approximately 1500 species in 113 genera (lisberg and young, 2003). commonly called tumbling flower beetles because their tumbling movements in attempting to escape capture (borror and delong, 1964).the adults are small 2.0 to 8.0 mm in length, humpbacked beetles with long pointed abdomen (jackman, 1993). most mordellids are black or mottled grey in color and the body is covered with a dense pubescence (borror and delong, 1964). they are commonly found on flowers of many taxonomically diverse plants particularly compositae and umbelliferous flowers, on which they feed. larvae are stem and woodborers and their food consists largely of pithy plant stems and rotten wood (lisberg and young, 2993). the mordellid beetles of iraq have been very poorly studied and are known only from scattered faunastic lists. the first work was given by schilsky (1898) who described a new species from north of iraq (kurdistan) anaspiskonigischilsk. csiki (1915) listed this species in his catalogue to mordellidae. blair (1923) described pseudopentaria (= pentaria) mesopotamica (blair) as a new species among other heteromerouscoleoptera. scott (1929) reported mordellistena pumila (gyllenhal) among other insects from north of iraq. roubal (1932) recorded one species form baghdad which has been determined only to the genus level pentaria sp. horak described two new species from iraq among mordellid specimens sent to him by me in 1984for determination. the first one was mediimorda maceki in 1985 and the second one was mordellistena bologna in 1990. the anaspini species anaspis konigi schilsky and pentaria mesopotamica (blair) previously included within the mordellidae, now in the family scraptiidae. thus, only two species remain within family mordellidae. therefore, the present study was carried in order to determine the composition and the distribution of the mordellidae species in iraq , hoping to provide basis for future work. 2 tumbling flower beetles materials and methods a survey of iraqi tumbling flowers beetles (mordellidae) were conducted from field samples and literature cited. specimens were collected from different localities in iraq since 1970. adults were collected by a sweeping net and aspirator from flowers of various plants particularly umbellifera such as daucus carota linn., ammi majus linn. and ammi visnaga (linn.) lum. identification of these specimens was kindly done by dr. j. horak. data for these species including localities and date of collection are given on the list. the number of examined specimens is given in parenthesis. the distribution of the species is marked on the map (figure 1). the whole materials including the paratypes of the new species meriimorda maceki horak and mordellistena bologna horak are deposited in the entomology section of iraq natural history museum. species marked with an asterisk are new record for iraq. results a total of 13 species belonging to four genera in three tribes of the family mordellidae have been found so far in iraq. of these only one was listed from the literature and the rest were collected from the fields. first list of iraqi mordellidae family mordellidae (leach, 1815) subfamily mordellinae latereille, 1802 tribe stenaliini ermisch, 1956 1. stenalia araxicola khnzorian, 1957 (1) jendian (arbil) 28. v. 1979 2. stenalia brunneipennis mulsant, 1856 (1) aradin, 26. v. 1979; (3) sarsang (dohuk) , 28. vi. 1979; (3) salahaddin, 21. v. 1983; (1) hiran, 27. v. 1979; (1) pastora, 19. v. 1983; (4) merawa (arbil) 28. v. 1979; (1)kirkuk, 19. v. 1983. tribe mordellini smith, 1882 3. mediimorda maceki horak, 1985 (2) hassarost mts. (arbil), 15. vii. 1971; (1) aradin ;zawita(dohuk),27.vi. 1979; (4) sarsang (dohuk), 28.vi. 1979. 4. variimorda fasciata (fabricius, 1775) (1) shaqlawa (arbil) , 4. vii. 1953 5. variimorda holzschuhi horak, 1984 (1) sarsang (dohuk), 28. vi. 1979 tribe mordellisteniniermisch ,1941 6. mordellistena bologna horak, 1990 (1) mearawa (arbil) ,28. v. 1979; (1)pastora (arbil), 19. v. 1983 7. mordellistena horaki pino, 1985 (2) aradin (dohuk), 26. vi. 1979; (2) sarsang (dohuk), 28.vi. 1979. 8. mordellistena kraatzi emery, 1876 (1) pastora (arbil) 21. iv. 1977; (1)kora (arbil), 20. v. 1983 9. mordellistena sp. prob. micans germar, 1817 (2) jadriya (baghdad) 27. v. 1968 3 m. s. abdul-rassoul 10. mordellistena sp. near microscopicermisch, 1977 (1) rashdia (baghdad), 4. iv. 1983 11. mordellistena paraepisternalis ermisch, 1963 (9) adhaim (diala) 27. iii. 1977; (6) wajihiya (diala), 25.iv. 1983. 12. mordellistena pseudorugipennis ermisch, 1963 (1) kora (arbil), 20. v. 1983; (1) seri-rash (arbil) 21. v. 1983. 13. mordellistena pumila (gyllenhal, 1810) reported by scott (1929) from north of iraq and derwesh (1965) without data. discussion as a result of the specimens collected by the author and the literature cited on iraqi tumbling flower beetles (coleoptera, mordellidae) , the number of the species has been increased to thirteen ; of these two are new species (described by horak, 1985,1990) for the country. most of these species are restricted to the northern part of iraq. the foregoing account is the first attempt to list the tumbling flower beetles of iraq and the short list of the species reported will undoubtedly be extended when the fauna of western and southern part of iraq is better known. acknowledgement i am extremely grateful to dr. j. horak for his identification of our mordellidae species. literature cited blair, k.g. 1923. new species of heteromerouscoleoptera from mezopotamia.ent. month. mag. , london, 59: 118-126. borror, j.b. and delong, m.d. 1964. an introduction to the study of insects.revised edition. holt, rinchart and winston, new york , 819 pp. csiki, e. 1915.mordellidae. (in junk, w. etschenkling, s.: coleopterorumcatalogus, pars 63:84 pp. w. junk. berlin). horak, j. 1985. ergebnisse der tschechos-lowakisch-iranischenentomologischen expedition nach iran 1970, 1973 und 1977 coleoptera: mordellidae. entomologischeabhandlungen, 49(1): 1-25. jackman, j.a. 1999. annotuted checklist of mordellidae from rio bravo conservation and management area, orang walk district, belize. lisberg, a.e. and young, d.k. 2003a.an annotated checklist of wisconsin mordellidae (coleoptera).insecta mundi, 17 (3-4): 195-202. roubal, j. 1932. sur quelquescoleopteres des environs de bagdad. bull. soc. ent. france, 37: 59-64. schilsky, j. 1898. die kafer europa's heft xxxv. nurnberg. scott, hugh. 1929. an entomological tour in kurdistan. ent. month. mag. , london, 45: 69 4 tumbling flower beetles figure (1): map of localities mentioned in text 1.zawita.2.sarsang.3.aradin (dohuk). 4.seri-rash 5.salahaddin.6.pastora 7.hiran.8.shaqlawa 9. kora 10.merawa. 11.jindian. 12.hassarost mts.(arbil). 13.kirkuk (kirkuk).14.wajihiya. 15.adhaim (diyala). 16.jadriya 17.rashdia (baghdad). 5 m. s. abdul-rassoul bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2010) 11 (2): 1-5 خنفساء األزھار البھلوانیة في العراق محمد صالح عبد الرسول بغداد / جامعة بغداد / متحف التاریخ الطبیعي العراقي الخالصة اخذت الدراسة الحالیة على عاتقھا الكشف عن أنواع خنافس األزھار . التي وجدت في العراق )coleoptera : mordellidae(البھلوانیة أظھرت النتائج . ١٩٧٠من العراق منذ مختلفةجمعت العینات من مواقع ً تعود الى اربعة اجناس لثالث قبائل ، نوعان منھا قد ١٣ان ھناك نوعا ً جدیدة) ١٩٩٠، ١٩٨٥( وصفت من قبل الدكتور ھوراك : يھ انواعا mediimorda maceki hork وmordellistena bologna horak و اثنان و stenalia escherichi schilsk: مامنھما قد وصفت مسبقا ھ mordellistena pumila ( gyllenhal ) تسجیال جدیدا للعراق و عشرة انواع ، stenalia araxicola khnzorian ،stenalia brunneipennis mulsant: ھي variimorda fasciata (fabricious ) ،variimorda holzschuhi horak ، mordellistena horaki pino ،mordellistena kraatzi emery ، mordellistena sp. prob. micans gemar ،mordellistena sp. near microspmelicte ermish ،mordellistena paraepisterna ermisch و mordellitena pseudorugipennis ermisch . . 5 47 s. k. j. kaka bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2010) 11 (1): 47-56 sedimento logical study of shiranish formation well dd-1 (n-iraq) sadi kan jan kaka iraq natural history research center and museum ,university of baghdad, bab al-muadhum, baghdad, iraq abstract shiranish formation has been divided into two microfacies units: 1-marly biowacke stone facies 2-biogenic pack stone facies these microfacies reflected marine deep shelf margin in the upper part of the formation, the lower part was deeper. 238 slides were investigated depending on mineralogical, compositional and biological processes, which reflect deep shelf margin at upper part of the formation, but at the lower part open sea environment. the age of the formation is estimated depending on the recognized biostratigraphic zone using the index fossils to be uppermiddle maestrichtian. inroduction shiranish formation was first defined by henson 1940 in (buday et, al., 1980) from the high folded zone of northern iraq near the village of shiranish islam, northeast of zakho . the formation consists of blue marls in the upper part and marly limestone and dolomite in the lower part. the present well is located in the northern part, 25 km west of erbil city (fig.1). the aim of the study is to identify lithology and fossil groups present in the rock. a total of 238 slides of rock cutting and core are examined for comparison purpose. the thickness of an ideal section in shiranish formation near shiranish village in north east of zakho is about (225) m. and the average of this thickness is changed in other areas from (100) m to (400) m. (van bellen, etal.,1959) has described shiranish formation and divided it into two parts: bottom part that consists of marly limestone and is rich with fossils, and upper part that consists of blue marls considering the formation as an open environment. shiranish formation has been described by (al-shaibani, 1973) in asmer area, 15 miles north sulaimaniya and he described the formation as consisting of blue, yellow and orange marls overlapped with layers of marly limestone. ( kassab, 1973) has also studied shiranish formation in the ideal section in shiranish area to the north east of (zakho) and he has found that it consists of limestone of different shades varies from light gray to brown, leady and dark gray with marls vary from gray to blue. he has, also, limited the age of the formation to upper-middle maastrichtian. (kaddouri, 1989) has, also, studied the formation in the north west of iraq and north east of syria and confirms that shiransh formation is located on the (kometan) in the iraqi wells. as for (yahya al-shammary, 1993), he has studied shiranish formation and (tanjero) in shaqlawa in north iraq and divided the formation into four units. 48 sediment logical study of shiranish microfacies the rocks of shiranish formation in the northern iraq, west of erbil is divided into two micro sedimentary facies after examining (238) thin sections by polarized microscope depending on (dunham 1962) specification which modified by (wilson 1975) depending on litho logical component and some fossils (fig.2 ) a sketch of distributing microfacies for sedimentary basin of the formation has been drawn according to ( wilson model 1975 ) (fig.3) . the sedimentary microfacies are as follows: 1marly biowackestone facies : this facies lies in the upper part of the formation, with thickness of ( 120 ) m and constitutes 90% of the thickness of the formation , the most important fossils: hetrohelix glabrans , globigerinelloides , rugoglobigerina reichellli , globotruncana aegyptica , globotruncana stuarti plate(1-1) and echinoderms plate(1-2). . the matrix composed of micrite rich in clay. the most important diagenetic process is the precipitation of cement inside shells and cracking in foraminifera,and the alteration of micriticmatrix by recrystallization in which rhombic dolomite substitute the matrix leaving the fossil chambers empty of these dolomite plate (1-3). this reflects the autogenic dolomitzation since the dolomite crystals grains magnesium ions from the same place growing on it (fuechtbauer 1977) . this facies is similar to the (s.m.f. 3) of the facies zone (f.z.3) which indicates to deep shelf margin 2-biogenic pack stone facies this facies lies in the lower part of the formation with thickness of (13) m and constitute 10% of the bulk formation. the skeletal components composed of plank tonic foraminifera in the matrix-micrite like globotruncana conica , globotruncana duwi , globotruncana gansseri . the most important digenetic process is the alteration of micritic matrix by recrystallization in which rhombic dolomite substitute the matrix leaving the fossil chambers empty of these rhomboid. this reflects the autogenic dolomitzation since the dolomite crystals grains magnesium ions from the same place growing on it plate (2-1) (fuechtbauer 1977). precipitation of drossy cement was also observed in some parts of plank tonic foraminifera . these processes increase the lower part of this facies with the appearance of autogenic pyrite (2-2) and glauconite in the micritcmatrix) in side some shells. this facies is equivalent to standard microfacies (s.m. f.2) zone (f.z. 2) which indicates to open sea on normal salinity. conclusions a – shiranish formation is divided into two micro facies 1marley biowacke stone facies 2biogenic pack stone facies b-some autogenic minerals are present, like glauconite accompanied with pyrite in the upper part of the formation. this means that its formation occurred in the strom wave base. cthe deposition of shiranish formation represented by packstone facies in the lower part then changed into wackestone facies in the upper part. this reflects the change in environment from high energy of low energy environment, that it means as a deepening upward cycle. 49 s. k. j. kaka literature cited al-shibani,s.k.1973, microfossils from shiranish formation in northeastern iraq (sulimania, asmer region), jour.geol. soc..iraq, vol.pp 49-65. buday, t. 1980 the regional geology of iraq. v.1. stratigraphy and paleography, 445pp. dunham, r.j.1962 classification of carbonate rocks according to depositional texture in ham, w, w.e.(ed): classification of carbonate rocks : aapc memoir 1,pp 108-121 fluegel, e. 1982 microfacies of limestone . berline – heidel berg –new york: springerverlag,633pp. fuechtbauer, h.1977 sedimente und sedimentgestine , e. schweizerbartsche verlagbuch hanlung . 784 pp. henson, f.r.s.1950 cretaceous and tertiary reef formation, and associated sediments in middle east. bull .amer . assoc. petrol. geol., 238 pp. kaddouri,n., 1989, stratigraphy of the mesozoic and cenozoic sediments in sinjar depression , jour. geol. soc. iraq , vol. 22,no.2 kassab,i.i.m. 1973, planktonic foraminifera of the shiranish formation type –locality ( northern iraq ), jour. geol. soc.iraq, vol. 6. wilson, j.l.1975 carbonate facies in geologic history: springer – verlag, pub l . , berlin heidelberg – new york, 471 pp. yahya,n.a. and al-shammary, t.a., 1993, sedimentary features and depositional processes in the shiranish and tanjro formation , shaqlawa area arbil , n. iraq , iraqi geological journal, vol.26, no. 3. pp.135-154 . 50 sediment logical study of shiranish 51 s. k. j. kaka 52 sediment logical study of shiranish fig. 3 w ilson m odel 53 s. k. j. kaka plate (1) 1-planktonic foraminifera in wackestone 40x facies 2-echinoderms in micritic-matrix 100x 3the chambers of globotruncana filled with rhomboid dolomite 40x plate (2) 1-rhombohedral dolomite in micritic-matrix 40x 2-autogenic pyrite is in the chamber of the plank tonic foraminifera 40x 54 sediment logical study of shiranish plate ( 1 ) ٢ 2 1 3 55 s. k. j. kaka plate ( 2 ) 2 1 56 sediment logical study of shiranish bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2010) 11 (1): 47-56 (شمال العراق) -١-دراسة رسوبية لتكوين الشيرانش فى بئر دمرداغ كاكا سعدى خان جان ، جامعة بغداد، باب المعظم، بغداد، العراقمركز بحوث ومتحف التاريخ الطبيعى الخالصة مت تقسيم صخور تكوين الشريانش اىل وحدتني سحنية باستخدام الشرائح الرقيقة املعمول لنماذج اللباب والفتات الصخرى وذالك باالعتماد على املتحجرات املميزة باالضافة اىل نوعية النسيج الصخري والذي تتواجد فيه املتحجرات سحنة احلجر اجلريي الواكي العضوي املاريل . -١ نة احلجر اجلريي املرصوص العضوي .سح -٢ تعكس هذه السحنات ظروف بيئية حبرية عميقة يف اعلى التكوين واجلزء االسفل أكثر عمقَا يف بيئة ساحل البحر املفتوح . وقد مت حتديد عمر تكوين الشريانش يف املنطقة اليت مشلها الة ب ( املاسرتخيت) األعلى والوسطى.البحث استناداَ إىل النطاق الطبقي لتواجد املتحجرات الد 1 1 i. j. ai-jboory et al bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2004)10 (2):1-7 new record of some biological enemies of citrus leafminer phyllocnistis citrella stainton (lepidoptera: gracillaridae) in iraq ibrahim j.ai-jboory *mohammad s. abdul rassoul ** seba j.saleh university of baghdad ,college of agriculture, baghdad ,iraq iraq natural history museum abstract an extensive survey of citrus leaf miner (clm) , phyllocnistis citrella stainton parasites and predators was conducted during 1998 and 1999 in citrus orchards and nursuries in baghdad, diyala and wasit .five eulophid parasites were recorded for the first time on citrus leaf miner larvae , prepupae and pupae viz. cirrospilus sp, pnigalio sp ., ratzburgiola incompleta , tetrasticus sp. and, neochrysocharis formosa. parasitism rate was ranged from 15% to 63% chrysopa carnea , orius albidipennis , amblyseius sp . were observed as predators on clm . introduction citrus leaf miner (clm) is considered to be one of the most important pest of citrus species clm larvae form mines predominantly in leaves, but also in succulent stems and sometimes fruits . clm was first described from calcutta, india by stainton in 1856. dc villiers (1994) stated that clm is now known from china (1915), philippines (1915), pakistan (1916), australia (1918) , japan (1927),taiwan (1985), during 1993 and 1994 the invasion of clm was expanded to include another countries viz florida , bahamas ,cuba, costa rica , spain puerto rico , palestine occupied ,jordan , egypt ,algeria , morocco, italy, syria, mexico , louisiana and texas (knapp et al l995and fao l996 .it was reported from iraq by gentry ( 1965 ) . this insect became very serious pest in all citrus orchards and nursuries in a very short period (al-jboory 1992; abas and al-jboory 1994 ،al-barak 1994 . natural enemies of clm were studied and evaluated in the areas in which clm became pest lasalle and schauff (1996) reported on 36 genera of calcidoid parasitoids in six families identified from the clm from around the world including areas in which the clm has recently invaded.heppner (1993) listed 26 eulophid parasitoids attacking clm in asia batra and sandhu (1981) found the eulophids cirrospilus guadristriatus and tetrstichus phylloenistoides attacking the clm in punjab , with maximal mean parasitism ranging from 30-47% in august and september browning and pena (1995) arid pena et at.(1996)identified the following native parasitoids all eulophidae, on clm in florida during 1993 and 1994 : cirrospilus sp, pnigalio minio, closterocerus cinctipennis, horismenus sp, , elasmus tischeriae ,sympiesis sp. and zagrammosoma multilineatum the parasitism level achieved by native parasitoids varied , ranging up to 60% . pena (1996) stated that the most important aspect of clm management is biological control . while in many cases , the diversity of natural enemies of the leaf miner ( hymenopterous parasitoids , predacious arachnids,ants and lacewings ) accounts for significant reduction of the clm population, in other case their presence and activity are low . introduction of exotic parasitoids from the area of origin has proven to be successful in australia , florida and syria ( fao,1996) the objectives of this 2 new record of some biological enemies study was to survey the natural enemies of the clm in citrus nursuries and orchards in baghdad , diyala and wasit provinces . survey of the clm parasitoids and predators was conducted in the citrus nursuries and orchards in baghdad ( greaat , doora ,. abu-ghraib ,. salman pak , rashdiya ) diyala (ba,quba) and wasit (suwaira ) during 1997 and 1998 . a sample of 100 clm infested leaves were picked up and brought to the laboratory for counting natural enemies . the parasitism level was determined and the parasitoids and predators were identified using the keys given by erdos (1971) and prinsloo (1984) some biological observation was studied in the laboratory for the most dominant species cirrspilus sp. and pnigalio sp. on 20°c ond 25°c. results and discussions the survey of citrus leaf miner in baghdad, diyala and waist showed presence of some parasitoids and predators feeding on clm. the parasitism level achieved by eulophids ranging up to 63% in doora to ١٥ % in salman pak and rashdiya (table 1) while parasitism was 29% , 32% ،٤٠ % and 41% in ba,quba , suwaira , abu-ghraib and greaat respectively the survey revealed that some eulophids are dominant in comparison to others cirrospilus sp . and cirrospilus sp. were dominant in ba’quba، rashdiya ‘suwaira and , salman pak while pnigalio sp. c. verigatus and ratzburgiola incompleta boucek were dominaut in greaat. p. sp .nr soemius c. verigatus , and tetrasticus sp were found in abu-ghraib . p. sp .nr soemius c. verigatus tetrasticus sp and neochrysocharis formosa westwood which were found in doora a. pnigalio and cirrospilus were the most dominant parasitoids which were found during survey period 1998 and 1999 in all citrus areas. the eulophids are external hymenopterous parasitoid they lay their eggs on larva, prepupa and pupa after paralyze their host by their sting. .eggs are gray to white color , the female of cirrospilus and pnigalio laid 1-3 eggs on the clm. the incubation period is 1.25 and 1.75 days on the temperature 25°c and 20 °c respectively . the hatched larvae are crystal white , and transparent they feed either on the parasitoid eggs when present or on clm larvae fluids . finally the clm larvae became black and die. one parasitoici could complete its life on one larva the duration of larval instars are 6 and 8.5 days on 25 °c and 20°c respectively. the larvae are pupate either besides the host or inside the clm . the average 2 of pupa are 5.5 and 9.5 days on 25 °c and 20°c respectively (tabl 2) the results which are achieved agreed with beattie and simth (1993 ) and hoy and nguyen (1997). several predators , among them lacewing larvae chrysopa carnea , flower bug orius albidipennnis, phytoseid mite amblyseius sp. have been found feeding on clm larvae. it is believed that these predators may be provide a complimentary control together with parasites . this results agreed with the findings of de villiers (1994) and knapp (1995) . surveys in the middle of iraq showed that studies are needed to determine the role of indigenous parasitoids and predators . it seems that a great potential are available for the recorded parasitoids to start a biological control program. 3 i. j. ai-jboory et al 4 new record of some biological enemies 5 i. j. ai-jboory et al references abbas m.a.and al-jboory , i.j 1994. anatomical damages of sour arange leaves caused by citrus leaf miner. 1bn al-haithern j.pure & app!. sci. albarak , h.t. 1994 .ecological and biological studies of citrus leaf miner phylloenistis citrella stainton ,msc thesis , university of baghdad , college of agriculture .5ipp. ( in arabic ) . batra, r.c. and sandhu g.s. .1981, differential population of citrus leaf miner and its parasites on some commercial citrus . cultivars j . res.punjab agric 18 :170-176. beatlie , g.a.c and smith , d . 1993 biological control of citrus leaf miner introduction and release of natural enemies . hrdc find report : citrus leaf miner , new south wales ,australia l9pp. de villiers ,e . a . 1994 citrus leaf miner phyllocnstis citrella stainton .subtropica. 15(5): 17-20. erdos , j. 1971. chalcidoidea viii .fauna hung .104 ,xli,hymenopt. 11,8-suzet ,252 pp. fao 1996 .workshop on citrus leaf miner and its control in the near east. safita (tartous ), syria , 30 sept. —30 oct. 1996 34pp. gentry , i . w . 1965 . crop insects of northeast africa – southwest asia . heppner ,j . b . 1993 . citrus leaf miner phyllocnistis citrella in florida (lepidoptera : gracillaridae ).trop lçpid .4:49-64. hoy m . a . and nguyen r .1997 .classical biological control of the citrus leaf miner phullocnistis citrlla stainton (lepidoptera: gracillaridae ):treory , practice ,art and science .tropical lepdoptera . 8 (1) 1-19. ishii , t . 1953 . a report of the studies the parasite wasps of injuriosinsects .bull fac. agric. tokyo univ. agric tech 1 : 1 10 (cited after pena 1996) knapp , j . l . 1995 .citrus leaf miner ,phyllocistis citrella staunton :current status in florida 1994 .citrus leaf miner workshop , university of florida , feb 8-9, 1995, 26pp. la salle , j . and schauff , m . e . 1996 . the genera of chalcid parasitoids (hymenoptera : chaleidoidea )of citrus leaf miner ,phyllocnistis citrella stainton ( lepidoptera : (gracillaridae ): a workshop presentation .in m . a . hoy (ed.), managing the citrus leaf miner , proc.intern .conf.,orlando, florida, april 23-25, 1996, 60. gainesville: univ. florida , 119 pp. pena , j . jorge , duncan r . and browning h .1996.seasonal abundance of phyllocnstis citrel!a (lepidoptera: gracillaridae) and its parasitoids in south florida citrus.environ entomol . 25( 3 ) : 608-702. prinsloo ,g.l. 1984. an illustrated guide to the parasitic wasps associated with citrus pests in the prepublic of south africa. department of agriculture science bull . no. 402, 119 pp. 6 new record of some biological enemies smith j. m . and hoy m . a . hoy 1995 pearing methods for ageniaspis citricola and cirrospilus aunadristriatus released in a classical biological control program for the citrus leaf miner phyllocnistis citrella . florida entomologist 48 (4). 7 i. j. ai-jboory et al bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2004)10 (2):1-7 ت م يا ف ر أورا الح ح وية ل ح د ء ال ألع جي ل ل تس و ( lepidoptera : gracillaridae )أ phyllocnistis citrella staintion ل و رس ح عب ال صا د حم م ي جد ع ال بور هي صبا عفر الح إبرا داد ة بغ عة –جامع ة غداد كلية ال را ع م جا ي ع ري بي ف لتا ح عة –مت كلية ال را ص ال ةالخ ة يـــــ ء ا يو ا د ــ ألعــ ل ح م ـــــ ي جـــــر ت ( أ ســـــا رت ف ت وم يـــــا ل ي ف ت يف ) ط يا ــــ ـض تل ا م ا و شـــــ ني ات ــــ ـس يف ب سـجلت مخسـة طفيليـات تنتمـي ١٩٩٩و ١٩٩٨حمافظات بغداد ، واسط ودياىل خالل عـامني ألول مـرة يف العـراق متطفلـة علـى يرقـات وطـور مـا قبـل العـذراء والعـذراء eulophidaeإىل عائلة : يات هذه هي حلفار أوراق احلمض rrigalio near somemus , cirrospilus verigatus neochrysocharis formosa , tetrastius sp , ratzburgiola incomplete . وبقــة chrgsopa careenوســجلت املفرتســات % ٦٣ -% ١٥وبلغــت نســبة التطفــل بــني . amblyseius spلم املفرتس واحل orius albidipennis األزهار bull 69 ismail, et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2016) 14 (1): 69-75 study the effect of different types of stress on some blood constituents and plasma biochamicals in male rats muna m. ismail rabab a. naser hanin a. muhammed diyala university, college of veterinary medicine corresponding author: 73muna@gmail.com abstract the objective of this work was to determine and compare the physiological changes in some: blood components (packed cell volume and hemoglobin) and plasma biochemical parameters (glucose, total protein, albumin, cholesterol and triglycerides) under 3 day of different types of stress: water deprivation, starvation, overcrowding and handling stress. twenty five male wister rats weighted 100-120 gm, were divided randomly into five groups: control, water deprivation, starvation, overcrowding and handling stress. on the third day of stress the animals anesthetized for blood collection; the results of blood component revealed a significant increase in pcv and a significant decrease in hb of water deprivation group and starvation group respectively. the biochemical changes showed a significant elevation in glucose concentration of starved rats; also there was a significant increase in total proteins of starved rats and overcrowding group, beside there was a significant increase in albumin concentration of water deprivation group, finally the cholesterol and triglycerides showed a significant increase in starved rats. in conclusion the starved rats showed more changes in blood and biochemical parameters followed by water deprivation group, overcrowded and handling stress respectively. key words: blood component, handling, rats, starvation, stress, water deprivation. introduction physiological or biological stress is an organism's response to a stressor such as an environmental condition or a stimulus (ulrich-lai and herman, 2009). according to the stressful event, the body's ways respond to stress by sympathetic nervous system activation which results in the fight-or-flight response. the body cannot keep this state for long periods of time; afterwards the parasympathetic system returns the body's physiological conditions to normal. in humans, stress typically describes a negative condition or a positive condition that can have an impact on a person's mental and physical well-being (kloet et al., 2005). animals have to endure many stressors in their natural environments. for example, they experience food shortages, dwell in areas where predator or parasite densities are high, engage in conflicts with neighbors or group members, and face fluctuations in food and water availability and temperature (mcewen and wingfield, 2003). physiologists define stress as how the body reacts to a stressor, real or imagined a stimulus that causes stress. acute stressors affect an organism in the short term; chronic stressors over the long term. general adaptation syndrome (gas), developed by hans selye, is a profile of how organisms respond to stress; the general adaptation syndrome is characterized by three phases: a nonspecific mobilization phase, which promotes sympathetic nervous system activity; a resistance phase, during which the organism makes efforts to cope with the threat; and an exhaustion phase, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/stressor http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/stimulus_(physiology) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/sympathetic_nervous_system http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/fight-or-flight_response http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/human http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/mind http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/quality_of_life 70 study the effect of different types of stress which occurs if the organism fails to overcome the threat and depletes its physiological resources (viner, 1999). hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis: basic hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis summary (corticotropin-releasing hormone=crh, adrenocorticotropic hormone=acth).the hpa axis is a multi-step biochemical pathway where information is transmitted from one area of the body to the next via chemical messengers. each step in this pathway, as in many biochemical pathways, not only passes information along to stimulate the next region, but also receives feedback from messengers produced later in the pathway to either enhance or suppress earlier steps in the pathway, this is one way a biochemical pathway can regulate itself, via a feedback mechanism (aldwin, 2007).when the hypothalamus receives signals from one of its many inputs (e.g., cerebral cortex, limbic system, visceral organs) about conditions that deviate from an ideal homeostatic state (e.g., alarming sensory stimulus, emotionally charged event, energy deficiency), this can be interpreted as the initiation step of the stress-response cascade. the hypothalamus is stimulated by its inputs and then proceeds to secrete corticotropinreleasing hormones. this hormone is transported to its target, the pituitary gland, via the hypophyseal portal system (short blood vessels system), to which it binds and causes the pituitary gland to, in turn, secrete its own messenger, adrenocorticotropic hormone, systemically into the body’s blood stream. when adrenocorticotropic hormone reaches and binds to its target, the adrenal gland, the adrenal gland in turn releases the final key messenger in the cascade, cortisol. cortisol, once released, has widespread effects in the body. during an alarming situation in which a threat is detected and signaled to the hypothalamus from primary sensory and limbic structures, cortisol is one way the brain instructs the body to attempt to regain homeostasis – by redistributing energy (glucose) to areas of the body that need it most, that is, toward critical organs (the heart, the brain) and away from digestive and reproductive organs, during a potentially harmful situation in an attempt to overcome the challenge at hand (o'connor et al.,2000). after enough cortisol has been secreted to best restore homeostasis and the body’s stressor is no longer present or the threat is no longer perceived, the heightened levels of cortisol in the body’s blood stream eventually circulate to the pituitary gland and hypothalamus to which cortisol can bind and inhibit, essentially turning off the hpa-axis’ stress-response cascade via feedback inhibition. this prevents additional cortisol from being released. this is biologically identified as a normal, healthy stress mechanism in response to a situation or stressor – a biological coping mechanism for a threat to homeostasis (o'connor et al., 2000). it is when the body’s hpa-axis cannot overcome a challenge and/or is chronically exposed to a threat that this system becomes overtaxed and can be harmful to the body and brain. a second major effect of cortisol is to suppress the body’s immune system during a stressful situation, again, for the purpose of redistributing metabolic resources primarily to fight-orflight organs. while not a major risk to the body if only for a short period of time, if under chronic stress, the body becomes exceptionally vulnerable to immune system attacks. this is a biologically negative consequence of an exposure to a severe stressor and can be interpreted as stress in and of itself–a detrimental inability of biological mechanisms to effectively adapt to the changes in homeostasis (o'connor et al., 2000) . this study is made to shed the light on the stress effect on following blood parameters in adult male rat: 1.blood packed cell volume 2.hemoglobin 3.blood glucose 4.plasma total protein 5.plasma albumin 6.plasma cholesterol 7.plasma triglycerides. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/hpa_axis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/biochemical_pathway http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/chemical_messenger_(disambiguation) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/feedback_mechanism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/feedback_mechanism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/cerebral_cortex http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/limbic_system http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/visceral_organs http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/biochemical_cascade http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/hypophyseal_portal_system http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/digestion http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/reproductive_organs http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/feedback_inhibition 71 ismail, et al. materials and methods experimental animals and protocol: thirty albino mature male rats have been used in this research. they were divided into five groups (5/group with the exception of overcrowding group was 10 animals). the animals weight range from (100-120) gm. they were housed in suitable cages (45× 35× 15) cm at temperature between 22-28c˚and dark light cycle (12:12) in the animal house (4m× 5m) at the collage of vet. medicine / diyala university. experimental design: the animals were exposed to different stressful conditions for 72 hours according to their groups as belonging: 1. control group: this group was fed ordinary pellet diet and water with normal environmental conditions. 2. water deprivation group: five male rats were water with held . 3. starvation group: ten male rats were food with held. 4. overcrowding group: ten male rats were kept in one cage. 5. handling stress group: five male rats were exposed to manual physical stress episode twice daily lasts for 5 mints. blood sampling: at the end third day of exposed stress and under general anesthesia (use of ketamine xylazin anesthetic) blood samples were obtained via cardiac puncture by use of disposable syringe treated with heparin. the blood samples were used first to measure pcv% and hb gm/dl, and then centrifuged at 3000 rpm for 15 mints. the plasma used in estimation of biochemical parameters such as plasma cholesterol mg/dl by enzymatic colorimetric method, triglycerides mg/dl by enzymatic colorimetric, glucose mg/dl by a quantitative method, total proteins gm/dl by biuret method, albumin gm/dl by bromcresol green colorimetric method. statistical analysis: the data were analyzed by f test one way (steel and torrie, 1988). results and discussion packed cell volume (pcv): according to table 1, the results shown a significant increase in pcv of water deprivation group as compared to control, besides there was non-significant increase in other groups, since the pcv is the percent of red blood cell to plasma volume, therefore the water deprivation stress caused a reduction in plasma volume and in carcass water, this results agree with kutscher (1971). haemoglobin (hb): the data pertaining in table 1explain there was a significant increase in water deprivation group and overcrowding as compare to control in spite of a significant decrease in food deprevated as compared to control, the increasing of hb concentration may be come as consequences of decrease plasma volume in water deprevated rats in overcrowding group lead insufficient water supply which lead to decrease plasma volume this explanation agree with khnissi et al . (2013). glucose concentration: table (1) illustrated there was a significant increase of glucose in food deprivation rats as compared to control. this elevation may be due to that food 72 study the effect of different types of stress deprivation correlated with glucose metabolism and decrease in insulin concentration and an increase in other hormones associated with increase processes of glycogenolysis, gluconeogesis and absorption like glucagon, cortizon and thyroid hormones, this finding agree with fevold and petersen (1987). total protein concentration: reveled there was a significant increase in the concentration of overcrowding and food deprivation groups as compared to control. these results may be attributed to that starvation lead to exhausted the energy sources (carbohydrate and lipid) and directed to protein catabolism as (proteiolysis) when there is huge demand for protein for cell mass recovery especially in the gut, this outcome was agreed with edward (1991). plasma albumin concentration: the present study demonstrates the elevation in albumin concentration in water deprivation group as compare to control, this result may be come from the consequences of decrease plasma volume and impairment of kidney function, this finding was agree with abdelatif et al. ( 2010). plasma cholesterol and triglycerides concentration: the effect of different types of stress on the cholesterol concentration present in table 1 revealed a significant increase in cholesterol and triglycerides in the food deprivation group as compared to control. metabolic stress like starvation involved with thyroid gland, which lead to severe increase in thyroxine hormone which increase lipolysis of adipose tissues, this result was agree with wodzickatomaszewska et al. (1982) and marrino et al. (1987). table (1): effect of different type of stress: water deprivation, food starvation, overcrowding and handling for 3days on some blood constituents and plasma biochemical parameters in male rats handling stress overcrowdi ng stress food starvation stress water deprivation stress control groups parameters 33±0.39 35±0.34 33±0.82 37±0.72 a 32±0.979 pcv% 11.1±0.894 12.03±0.33 9.5±0.919 b 12±0.73 a 10.7±1.1 hb gm/dl 98.1±29.1 137.2±11.9 218.2±53.7 a 88.1±7.2 96.8±19.7 glucose mg/dl 4.3±1.00 10.7±0.318 a 10.6±3.409 a 7.1±0.100 6.44±0.403 total proteins gm/dl 3.1±1.19 4.9±0.503 5.1±1.179 6.5±1.50 a 4.8±0.309 albumin gm/dl 221.8±10.7 151±11.8 609.1±134 a 178±25.5 164±16.9 cholesterol mg/dl 407.4±40.0 367.23±60.7 804.5±38.6 a 506.8±53.9 327.9±44.9 triglycerides mg/dl values expressed as mean±se. conclusions starvation stress is more effective stress followed by water deprivation, overcrowding and handling stress respectively. 73 ismail, et al. literature cited abdelatif, a.m.; elsayed, s. a. and hassan, y. m. 2010. effect of state of hydration on body weight, blood constituents and urine excretion in nubian goat. world journal of agriculture science, 6(2): 178-188. aldwin, c.m. 2007. stress, coping, and development: an integrative perspective. second edition, new york. the guilford press, 432 p. edward, b.a. 1991. the distribution of water in the intracellular and extracellular compartments and lipid and protein composition of the mongolian grerbil (meriones unguiculatus) during water deprivation. comparative biochemistry and physiology part a: physiology , 100 (4): 901-906. fevold, h.r. and petersen, t.a. 1987. liver glycogen and plasma insulin and glucagon levels in food and water deprivation black tailed prairie dogs (cynomys ludovicianus). comparative biochemistry and physiology part a: comparative physiology , 88(3): 387-390. khnissi, s., lassoued, n., ben salem, h. and rekik, m. 2013. blood parameters and feed intake in pregnant and lactating barbarine ewes subjected to water deprivation. in : ben salem h. ( ed.) , lópez-francos a. ( ed.) . feeding and management strategies to improve livestock productivity, welfare and product quality under climate change. zaragoza : ciheam / inrat / oep / iresa / fao, pages: 289-292. kloet, e.r., joëls, m. and holsboer, f. 2005. "stress and the brain: from adaptation to disease". nature reviews neuroscience, 6(6): 463–475. kutscher, c.l. 1971. hematocrit, plasma osmolaruty, and plasma protein concentration as estimators of plasma volume in hooded rats during food and water deprivation. physiology and behavior, 7(2): 283-285. marrino, p., gavish, d., shafrir, e. and eisenberg, s. 1987. diurnal variation of plasma lipids, tissue and plasma lipoprotein lipase and vldl secretion rates in rat. a model of studies of vldl metabolism. biochemical biophysica acta (bba), 920(3): 277284. mcewen, b.s. and wingfield, j.c. 2003. the concept of allostasis in biology and biomedicine. hormones and behavior, 43: 2-15. o'connor, t.m., o'halloran, d.j., and shanahan, f. 2000. the stress response and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis: from molecule to melancholia. qjm: monthly journal of the association of physicians, 93(6): 323–333. steel, r.g. and torrie, j.h. 1988. principle of statistic a biometrical approach 2nd edition. mcgraw-hill, new york: 693-696. ulrich-lai, y.m. and herman, j.p. 2009. "neural regulation of endocrine and autonomic stress responses". nature reviews neuroscience, 10(6): 397–409. 74 study the effect of different types of stress viner, r. 1999. putting stress in life: hans selye and the making of stress theory. social studies of science, 29(3): 391–410. wodzicka-tomaszewska, m., stelmasiak, t. and cumming, r.b. 1982. stress by immobilization with food and water deprivation, causes changes in plasma concentration of triiodothyronine, thyroxine and corticosterone in poultry. australian journal of biological sciences, 35(4) 393 – 402. 75 ismail, et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2016) 14 (1): 69-75 دراسة تأثير انواع مختلفة من االجهاد على بعض مكونات الدم والبالزما في ذكور الجرذان منى دمحم اسماعيل رباب عبد االمير حنين عزاوي دمحم كلية الطب البيطري /جامعة ديالى الخالصة حجم ) التغيرات الفسلجية في بعض مكونات الدم كان للتحديد ومقارنة الدراسة ه هذ الغرض من البروتين ,الكلوكوز)المعايير الكيميائية الحيوية للبالزما ( كريات الدم المرصوص والهيموكلوبين , أيام تحت عدة أنواع مختلفة من اإلجهاد3لمدة ( الكولسترول والدهون الثالثية ,األلبومين,الكلي ألجل اليوم الثالث تم تخدير الحيواناتفي . وإجهاد المعاملةحام االزد, التجويع, الحرمان من الماء .جمع عينات الدم وص ونقصان ملحوظ في زيادة ملحوظة في حجم كريات الدم المرص اظهرت نتائج مكونات الدم في مجموعة الحرمان من الماء و مجموعة التجويع على التوالي, وكانت التغيرات الهيموكلوبين الكيميائية الحياتية مرتفعة بشكل ملحوظ لتركيز الكلوكوز والبروتين الكلي في الجرذان المصومة, والمزدحمة وكان هنالك زيادة ملحوظة في تركيز األلبومين في مجموعة الحرمان من الماء أخيرا يمكن االستنتاج من هذه . رول والدهون الثالثية أظهرت زيادة واضحة في الجرذان المصومةالكولست الدراسة بأن إجهاد التجويع احدث تغيرات في مكونات الدم وفي القياسات الكيميائية الحيوية يليه .إجهاد التعطيش ومن ثم إجهاد االزدحام والمعاملة على التوالي 3 39 s. k. jan bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2004) 10 (2): 39-47 microfacie study of subsurface section of bekhme formation(north iraq) sadi kan jan iraq natural history museum university of baghdad baghdad , iraq abstract bekhme formation, dernir dagh well -1 has been divided into two facies units using core sample slides and depending on sedimentary structures and diagenetic processes .the facies reflect the environment of the foreslope.this work proves the absence of bekhme formation in dernir dagh well1 as a tongue as reported by the oil exploration company. some species and genera of bentonic foraminifera were identified. the age of bekhme formation was estimated depending on the recognized index fossils to be lower maastrichtian. inroduction bekhme limestone formation was first defined and described by wetzel (1950) in a gorge of the greater zab river in the high folded zone. bellen et al . ( 1959) mentioned that the bekhme formation in its upper division composed of bituminous secondaryt dolomites, replacing organic detrital limestone; in its middle division as reef detrital limestone ,alternating with reef shoal limestone and its lower division as basal breccia conglomerates. the studied area situated 25 km west of arbil city, north of iraq (fig. 1) .the aim of the present study is the identification of the sedimentary facies of bekiune formation and to know the litholoicain nature and the fossil groups present in the rocks to determine the environment of bekhme formation. a total of 41 thin section slides were examined. biostrtigraphy most of the fossils present in bekhme formation are rudists and species of bentonic foraminifera as cosinella sp. cuneolina cytcylindrica , dictyoconella complanata, ephidicella multiscissuriata, dicyclina schumbergeri. in addition, fragments of echinoid spines, ostracods and mussel shells, are present. microfacies bekhme formation was divided, depending on sedimentary structures and diagenetic processes, into diagenetic and non diagenetic sedimentary facies as descrided by wilson (1975) and fluegel (1982). 1. bioclast packstone with rudists -echinodermis fragments facies : thickness of this facies 95 ft and represents 56 . 5% of the total thickens of the formation. it contains a high ration of rudists and broken fragments of echindenns , ostracods and mollusca shells, the extraclast presents in a small ratio this facies is affected by cementation of some shells especially ostracods filled with cement -b. in the upper part of the formation with thickness of 24 ft , the authogenic dolomite scattered in a micritic matrix . the 40 microfacie study of subsurface section authogenic glauconite is also observed . this facies represents the standard microfacies (smf-3)of the facies zone (fz-3) fore slope. 2. recrystallized rudists echinoderms fragments : the thikness of this facies is 73 ft and represents 43.5% of the total thickness of the formation . it contains broken fragments of rudists echinoderms . and some bentonic foraminifera and mollusca. this facies composed of recrystallized microsparite as it appeared in some indefinite fossils because of filling their chambers with sparite. this facies characterized -with presence of authigenic minerals as glauconite which increased in ratio with the depth until it become 5% in the bottom of the formation . the presence of glauconite indicates a marine environment with a very slow deposition. there is also pyrite spreaded in all of the formation parts filling cracks as inoldic pyrite. the stylolite is also observed in the formation bottom ,it intersects minerals initiated after diagenetic processes like calcite cement and secondary dolomite. this facies represents the standart microfacies (smf-4) of the facies zone (fz-4) fore slope,fig.2.shows the distribution of microfacies in the well. conclusions 1. the bekhme formation in demir dagh well-i is not present as tongue as it reported by the oil exploration company. 2. the separation limit between bekhme formation and shiranish formation is estimated at the depth 5540 ft; and between bekhme formation and kometan formation at the depth of 5708 ft. 3. the bekhrne formation is divided into two facies ;a-bioclast packstone with pudistenechinoderms fragments, b-recrystallized rudisten-echinoderms packstone. 4. the stylolite present in the bottom of the formation filled with pyrite was formed after solidification since the stylolite intersects minerals formed after the diagenetic processes like cacite-cement and secondary dolomite. 5. the most important diagenetic processes is the affection of micritic matrix by the recrystallization. the dolomite rhompoides appear to replace mnicritic matrix, and the fossil chambers remain empty of these rhomboides this indicate authigenic dolornization since dolomitetcrystals extracted magnesium ions from the same place growing on. 6. the age of the bekhme formation , depending on index fossils, is estimated to be lower maasrichtian.. literature cited bellen, v. r. 0. 1959 lexique stratigraphiqua international . paris .333 pp. buday,t. 1980 the regional geology of iraq nol. 1 stratigraphy and paleography 7445 pp. dunham,r.t. 1962 classification of carbonate rocks according to depositional texture. in ham p.108121. dunnington,h.v .1955 micropaleontology. vol.1 ,no.3, dept. micropaleontology-ny,2 l9pp. dunnington,h v.1954 stylolite development , vol.24, no.1, journal of sedimentary petrology,iraq petroleum company .pp49 engelhardt,w.v. 1973 die bildung von sedimente und sedimentgesteinen.berlin-heidelberg. 41 s. k. jan flugel,e. 1982 microfacies analysis of limestone .berlin-hei’delberg-new york; spriger verlag,633pp. fuechtbauer, h. 1977 s edi inente und sedi mentgestei nen . e. scheizerbartsche. verlagsbuchhandlung, 784pp. krurnbein,w.c.,sloss,l.l. 1963 stratigraphy and sedimentation .2..aufl., san franciscolondon 660pp. stehli,f.g. ,hower,j. 1961 mineralogy and early diagenetic of carbonate sediments.tulsa 371 pp. wilson,j.l 1975 carbonate facies in geologic history; springer verlag pub.,berlin heidelberg-new york, 471 pp. wetzel,r. 1950 stratigraphy of the amadiya region .mpc.report ,inoc library,no. tr/rw 12, bagdad. 42 microfacie study of subsurface section 43 s. k. jan 44 microfacie study of subsurface section 45 s. k. jan 46 microfacie study of subsurface section plate 1: 1. recrystalliaed echinoderms packstone 20x 2. j3iociast packitone with )ctraclat 20x plate 2 : 1. moc).atic paokstone with rudists.-echinoderms fragment and glauconite grains 20z 2. sty)olith in il:5critio ma’c 20x 47 s. k. jan bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2004) 10 (2): 39-47 طع ق ف م خمة ن لب كوي ري لت جه م ت ل حنا س س ا ي درا ت طح راق(تح ل ا ع ما )ش خا جان سعد ي خ ال بيع ري ف ال ا ح مت داد ة بغ جامع ة ص الخال دام ال رائح الرقي ة حنيت با ت س ني ىل وح ت رداغ ا م يف بئ مة خ ور ال خ ص م سي ق مت ت العمولة لنماذج اللباب الصخري وذلك باالعتماد على نوعية الريب الصخري والعمليات .التحويرية لقد امكن من اثبات عدم تواجد تكوين البخمة يف بئر دمرداغ على شكل لسان كما هو وارد يف تقرير احلفر النهائي لشركة االستكشافات النفطية، لقد امكن من متييز عدد من انواع واجناس اسرتخيت الفورامينغريا العلمية، ومت تقدير عمر تكوين البخمة يف املنطقة اليت مشلها البحث اىل امل .االسفل bull 301 m. s. abdul-rassoul and s. m. mohammed bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2017) 14 (4): 301-306 first record of adontomerus amygdali (boucek, 1958) (hymenoptera, torymidae): a parasitoid of the almond fruit wasp, eurytoma amygdali enderlein, 1907 (hymenoptera, eurytomidae) in erbil provence, iraq m. s. abdul-rassoul* and s. m. mohammed** *iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq **faculty of science and health, koya university erbil, kurdistan region-iraq. *corresponding author: msabr_1942@yahoo.com received date: 16 october 2017 accepted date: 20 november 2017 abstract adontomerus amygdali (boucek, 1958) (hymenoptera, torymidae) is recorded for the first time in iraq, parasitizing almond fruits wasp, eurytoma amygdali enderlein, 1907 (hymenoptera, eurytomidae) infesting fruits of almond trees prunus dulcis (mill.) d. a. webb (=amygdalus communis linn.) growing in koysinjaq district, erbil, iraq. a short morphological description of this species is presented. key wards: adotomerus amygdali, almond pest, eurytoma amygdali, iraq, parasitoid. introduction the almond fruit wasp eurytoma amygdali enderlein, 1907 (hymenoptera, eurytomidae) is one of the most important pest of almond, prunus dulcis (mill.) d. a. webb (=amygdalus communis linnaeus) (rosaceae); this pest is a widely distributed insect throughout almond growing areas in the southeastern part of europe, some of the countries of the former soviet union and the middle east countries (syria, turkey, iran, lebanon and cyprus) (noyes, 2017). it was first recorded for iraq by hussain (1957) from almond trees, prunus dulcis growing in the northern part of iraq, in addition it affects apricot, prunus armeniaca l. and plum prunus domestica l. in mosul and baghdad (al-ali, 1977). it causes a great reduction in yield, the percentage of infestation and damage losses to almond fruits were estimated to be 23.2% and 18.8% respectively, in 2012 (mohammed, 2013). four species belonging to three families of hymenoptera: eulophidae, pteromalidae and torymidae and two belonging to acarina family pyemotidae have been recorded to parasitize almond fruit wasp throughout the world (noyes, 2017). these species were the eulophid, aprostocetus bucculentus (kostjukov, 1978) in turkey and the former ussr (graham, 1978); iran (yefremova et al. (2007); syria (abo alsel, 2010), the pteromalid, gogoliza bademia doganlar, 2004 in turkey (doğanlar and bolu, 2004); iran (lotfalizadeh and gharali, 2008), syria (abo alsel, 2010), and the torymid adontomerus amygdali (boucek, 1958) in jordan (boucek,1958),turkey ( doganlar et al., 2006), syria (abo alsel, 2010), torymus eurytomae (puzanowa-malysheva, 1936) (= syntomaspis eurytomae) in russia (puzanowa-malysheva, 1936), ukraina (tertyshny, 1997), u.s.a.(herting, 1977). the pyemotid species were http://dx.doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2017.14.4.0301 302 first record of adontomerus amygdali (boucek, 1958) pyemotes muraiae mahunka and mahunka-papp (1998) from hungary (mahunka and mahunka-papp (1998) and pyemotes amygdale cobanglu and dogaanlar (2006) in turkey (cobanglu and dogaanlar, 2006). the aim of this study is to determine adontomeros amygdali (boucek, 1958) as a parasitiod of almond fruits wasp, eurytoma amygdali enderlein in iraq. materials and methods in this study, specimens of parasitoids were reared by the second author from the larvae of almond fruit wasp eurytoma amygdali feeding inside fruits of almond amygdalus communis linn. in kanikand (chinarok) village at koysinijaq district, erbil province. a total of 20 adult parasitoids (17 females and 3 males) were collected on may 2012. it was identified as adotomerus amygdali (bouceck, 1958) (hymenoptera,torymidae) according to keys and description given by (boucek, 1958; peck et al., 1964; grissell, 1995) . results and discussion this investigation is presented the first record of adontomerus amygdali (boucek, 1958) parasitizing eurytoma amygdali that infested fruits of almond in erbil province, iraq. according to available literatures it was revealed that adotomerus amygdali (bouceck, 1958) was first described by boucek from the fallen fruits of p. dulcis (rosaceae) infested with eurytoma amygdali (eurytomidae) from jordan in 1958, under the name plastotorymus amygdali boucek, 1958. later boucek (1965) transferred this species to the genus paraholaspis masi, 1921 and in 1976 to the genus antistrophoplex crawford, 1914 (now a synonym of microdontomerus crawford, 1907); then grissell (1995) placed this species in the genus adontomerus nikolskaya, 1955 based on its partially developed occipital carina, single anellus, and wing venation and listed it within his new tribe microdontomerini of the subfamily toryminae. this parasitoid is known as gregarious ectoparasitoid which attacks the fourth instar larvae of e. amygdali and was observed by doganlar et al. (2006) to be the most effective hymenopterous parasitoid of former species in turkey. diagnostic characters: the parasitoid adontomerus amygdali (boucek, 1958) is easily recognized from the other species of adontomerus by the following characters: hind femur ventrally not clearly notched; fore femur broadly widened. fore wing with marginal vein three times as long as stigmal vein; antenna with funicular segments quadrate hardly transverse; ovipositor longer than thorax and gaster. the following is a brief description concerning this parasitoid: female (pl.1): body length 3.0-3.5 mm plus 2.5-3.0 mm ovipositor (together 5.5-6.5mm); body color is dark blue to bluish black, especially the face and sides of pronotum; abdomen also almost black; antennae blackish, legs as body bluish black, tibiae somewhat very barely lighter, tarsi yellowish; wings colorless, veins brown, with short brown hairs. head is slightly wider than thorax before tegula (41: 37), seen from above strongly transverse (41:20; in the middle ratio 41: 15), temple behind eyes are rounded, head from front nearly rounded (41: 34); cheeks beneath not conspicuously converging; face quite flat. eyes with inner margin slightly diverging in the upper half by shining stripes accompanied with sculpture, otherwise net-like rather fine-meshed in the near the ocellus. 303 m. s. abdul-rassoul and s. m. mohammed scape of antenna as long as pedicel, is slightly curved, reaching front edge of the ocellus; pedicel inverted conical shape, about 2.3 times as long as wide, ring segment 1.5 times wider than long; funicular segments quadrate hardly transverse; club a little longer than two preceding segments. thorax is not too slim (37:57), hairy from above; pronotum conical; scutellum posteriorly, slightly flat with posterior third most prominent; propodeum almost smooth in the middle otherwise with fine-wrinkled-dotted at posterior margin . hind femur ventrally is not clearly notched; fore femur broadly widened. fore wing with marginal vein three times as long as stigmal vein. abdomen is with long, but rather sparsely hairy, ovipositor barely longer than thorax and abdomen. male (pl.2) : body length is 2.0-2.5mm, and resembling female except for the small abdomen. antenna is not strongly hairy and not thickened; funicular segments distinctly transversely and more widened toward apex ; first slightly transverse not wider than the pedicel , seventh (last) segment twice wider than long. first tergite of abdomen is with posterior margin incised. materials examined: koysinijaq (erbil) 17♀♀, 3♂♂ may. 2012, ex. eurytoma amygdali on p. dulcis aknowledgments i would like to thank my colleague prof. dr. razzaq shalan augul of iraq natural history research center and museum for photographing of these specimens. plate (1): adontomerus amygdali female plate (2): adontomerus amygdali male literature cited abo alsel, a.a. 2010. study of some integrated control elements to almond fruit wasp (eurytoma amygdale end.) in almond fields sweeda in syria. m. sc. thesis, department of plant protection, faculty of agriculture, damascus university, 86pp. alali , a. s. 1977 . phytophagous and entomophagous insects and mites in iraq . natural history research centre ( iraq ) publication, no . 33: 142 pp . boucek, z. 1958. plastotorymus amygdali, n.sp., eine neue torymidae au mandelkernen des nahen ostens. acta entomologica musei nationalis pragae, 32: 583586. 304 first record of adontomerus amygdali (boucek, 1958) boucek, z. 1965. synonymic and taxonomic notes on some chalcidoides (hymenoptera), with corrections of my own mistakes. sbornik entomologickeho oddeleni narodniho musea v praze , 36: 543-554. boucek, z. 1976. changes in the classification of some african chalcidoidea. journal of the entomological society of southern africa, 39: 345-355. cobanoglu, s. and doganlar, m. 2006. a new pyemotes (acari; pyemotidae) reared from the almond seed wasp, eurytoma amygdali (hymenoptera: eurytomidae) from hatay, turkey. zoology in the middle east, 39: 101-106. doğanlar, m. and bolu, h. 2004. a new species of gugolzia delucchi and steffan 1956 (hymenoptera, chalcidoidea, pteromalidae) from turkey, as a parasite of eurytoma amygdali enderline 1907 (hymenoptera, eurytomidae). zoology in the middle east, 32: 75-78. doganlar , o., yidirim, a. e. and doganlar, m. 2006. natural enemy complex of eurytoma amygdali enderlein, 1907 (hymenoptra: eurytomidae) in esstern mediteranean region of turkey; notes on their interaction and effectiveness. research journal of agriculture and biological sciences, 2(6): 282-286. graham, m.w.r. de v. 1978. a reclassification of the european tetrastichinae (hymenoptera, eulophidae), with a revision of certain genera. bulletin of the british museum natural history, entomology , 51:1-392. grissell, e.e. 1995. toryminae (hymenoptera: chalcidoidea: torymidae): a redefinition, generic classification and annotated world catalogue of species. memoirs on entomology, international, 2, 474pp. herting, b. 1977. hymenoptera. a catalogue of parasites and predators of terrestrial arthropods. section a. host or prey/enemy. commonwealth agricultural bureaux, institute of biological control, 4: iii+ 206 pp. hussain, a. a. 1957. insect pests of iraq. directorate general of agriculture, baghdad, 188pp. (in arabic) kostyukov, v.v. 1978. hymenoptera ii. chalcidoidea 13. eulophidae (tetrastichinae). in opredelitel’ nasekomykh evropeiskoi chasti sssr, tom iii, ed. medvedev, g.s., leningrad: nauka, 430467. lotfalizadeh, h. and gharali, b. 2008. pteromalidae (hymenoptera: chalcidoidea) of iran: new records and a preliminary checklist. entomofauna, 29(6): 93-120. mahunka, s. and mahunka-papp, l. 1998. pyemotes muraiae sp.n. (acari: heterostigmata : pyemotidae): parazitsing a hymenoptera larva. parasitologia hungarica, 31: 47-51. mohammed, s.m. 2013. seasonal occurrence of the different stages of almond fruit wasp eurytoma amygdali end. (hymenoptera: eurytomidae) and damage percentage in koysinjaq district, erbil province. journal of koya university, 26:289-298. 305 m. s. abdul-rassoul and s. m. mohammed noyes, j. s. 2017. universal chalcidoidea database. world wide web electronic publication. avaliable at: http://www.nhm.ac.uk/chalcidoids (accessed 6th may, 2017). peck, o., bouček, z. and hoffer, a. 1964. keys to the chalcidoidea of czechoslovakia (insecta: hymenoptera). memoirs of the entomological society of canada, 34: 120 pp. tertyshny, a.s. 1997. plum eurytoma (eurytoma schreineri schr.) and its control in eastern ukraine. journal of fruit and ornamental plant research, 5(1): 35-41. yefremova, z., ebrahimi, e. and yegorenkova, e. 2007. the subfamilies eulophinae, entedoninae and tetrastichinae in iran, with description of new species (hymenoptera: eulophidae). entomofauna, 28(30): 405-440. 306 first record of adontomerus amygdali (boucek, 1958) bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2017) 14 (4): 301-306 adontomerus amygdali (boucek, 1958)تسجيل جديد لطفيلي (hymenoptera, torymidae) من رتبة غشائية االجنحة العراق-في محافظة اربيل **وسالم معروف محمد* محمد صالح عبد الرسول العراق -بغداد ،جامعة بغداد / مركز بحوث ومتحف التاريخ الطبيعى* -اقليم كوردستان -اربيل ،كويهجامعة / سم الغاباتق/ فاكلتي العلوم والصحة** العراق 71/66/7162: تاريخ القبول 61/61/7162:تاريخ االستالم الخالصة adontomerus amygdali (boucek, 1958) الطفيلىالزنبور تم تسجيل تواجد (hymenoptera, torymidae) الولى في العراق متطفالً على زنبور ثمار اللوزللمرة ا enderlein, 1907 eurytoma amygdali (hymenoptera, eurytomidae) المزروعة في قضاء prunus dulcis (mill.) d. a. webbمصيبا ثمار اللوز .محافظة اربيل، مع وصف موجز لتمييز هذا النوع -كويسنجق 12 71 b . m . al chalabi bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2000) 9 (2): 71-77 blood parasites of two bee-eaters in iraq mohammad k. mohammad* and taha m. alneaimi** *iraq natural history museumuniversity of baghdad. baghdad **state board of plant protectionministry of agriculture. baghdad abstract examination of 241 specimens of two bee-eater species, merops apiaster and merops superciliosus persicus reveal recording of haemoproteus meropis (zagar, 1945) emend. bennett, 1978 and h. manwelli bennett, 1978 for the first time in iraq. a new species haemoproteus hudaidensis sp. nov. is described. microfilariae are also infected the two host species. the results are discussed with the pertinent literature and the necessary comparision of morphometric measurements of the recorded parasites with that previously reported is provided along with a taxonomic key including the newly described haemoproteid. introduction three species of bee-eaters represent family meropidae (coraciiformes, ayes) in iraq. they are: the european bee-eater meropas apiaster l., the blue-cheeked bee-eater .1!. superciliosus persicus pallas. 1945. and the little green bee-eater m. orientalis latham, 1801. these birds are exclusively entomophagous especially on bees and wasps and have destructive effect on apiculture. they are summer visitors in iraq from march to november and breeding in the north (european bee-eater), and in the middle and the south (persian bee-eater) while the status of the little green bee-eater in the far south is obscure. practically, no attempts had been done to study the parasites of these birds in iraq except for the negative results of examining only two specimens of bee-eaters for their blood parasites reported by shammsuddin and mohammad (1981.( internationally,bennett et al (1994) in their checklist of the valid avian species of haemoproteus, leucocytozoon and hepatozoon considered only three species of haemoproteids. a substantial collection of blood films from two bee-eaters (european and persian) was available through a project achieved by the state board of plant protection l ministry of agriculture to study their biology of bee-eaters in iraq and to evaluate their impact on apiculture. examining this collection indicates presence of haemoproteus spp. and microfilaria infections. materials and methods a total of 241 bee-eaters belonging to the european bee-eater merops apiaster l. and blue checked bee-eater merops superciliosuspersicus pallas were collected either by shooting or capturing by digging off the nests at different localities in the north, middle, and south of iraq during the period between january 1997 and june 1999. thin blood films were taken immediately from the brachial vein of the bird or sometimes heart, air-dried, fixed in absolute methanol or ethanol, stained with giemsa’s solution at strength of 1:10 at ph 7-7.2 for one hour. the morphometric parameters of both parasites and host cells were determined following the methods of bennett and campbell (1972) as modified by forrester et al. (1977) and mohammad (1991). drawings were made with the aid of camera lucida. the number of 72 inheritance of dark head examined material indicated by n, while the nuclear displacement ratio by ndr. all measurements are presented as means followed by standard deviation in parentheses. results results are summarized in table 1. this would show that 1.7% of the total sample is infected with haemoproteus spp. while 2.9% of it is infected with microfilaria. the infection appeared singly in all cases, this make the infection reaches to 4.9% of the total number of both bird species. the rate of infection in the european bee-eater merops apiaster is higher in all cases of infection with haemoproteus spp. and microfilaria than that of the persian bee-eater merops superciliosus persicus. examining blood smears of the haemoproteid infection cases revealed that one specimen of m apiaster (2.6% of the european bee-eater sample) has been infected with h. meropis. the prevalence of the parasite is light. one specimen of m. s. persicus (0.5% of the persian bee eater sample) has been infected with h. manwelli bennett, 1978. the prevalence of the parasite is light to moderate. table 2 provided a comparison of measurements between haemoproteus nieropis and h. manwelli recorded by bennett (1978) and those recorded in the present study. two specimens of h. s. persicus have been found infected with hitherto undescribed species. the description of the new haemoproteid is given below. the prevalence of the new taxon is moderate. haemoproteus hudaidensis sp. nov. figs. 1-10,table3 type host: blue checked bee-eater ,merops superciliosus persicus pallas type locality: al-hudaid village, 50 kms northeast of baghdad city, diyala province immature gametocytes (figs. 1-2): youngest forms seen initiate development mostly lateral to the host cell nucleus or, sometimes, polar to the host cell nucleus. the parasite amoeboid, extending lateral to the host cell nucleus as it matures. macrogametocytes (figs 3-6): the parasite is halteridial in shape with one end flexing around one pole of the erythrocyte nucleus; outline entire, cytoplasm faintly granular staining blue with giemsa’s stain; pigment granules golden brown, medium sized and scattered throughout the parasite, averaging 19.2 granules per parasite; parasite nucleus submedian and subtriangular; averaging 2.9 um in length, 2.1 um in width and 4.9 urn2 in area, staining deep pink with giemsa’s stain; parasite averages 14.8 um in length, 3.5 urn in width and 49.8 um2 in area, constituting about 70% of the host-parasite complex. the host cell nucleus only slightly displaced laterally, ndr= 0.85. microgametocytes (figs. 7-10): the parasite is halteridial in shape with one end enclosing the pole of the erythrocyte nucleus; outline entire; cytoplasm faintly granular staining pale blue with giemsa’s stain; parasiter nucleus large, diffuse and ill-defined. other characters as for macrogametocytes. syntype material: blood film no. nb 1027 from m. s. persicus shooted at al-hudaid village on 27.8.1998. the slide is deposited in the collection ofv invertebrates and parasitology section, iraq natural history museum, university of baghdad. paratype material: blood films nos. nb 1028 and nb 1029. the same data as for syntype material. the infection of the two bird species with microfilariae constitutes 2.9% of the total sample. the infection rate of the european bee-eater is 5.1%. this is more than twice than that recorded for the persian bee-eater, which is 2.5%the prevalence of the parasite/s is moderate to high.the microfilariae seen in the periphery blood are frequently sheathed. the unsheathed forms are seen sometimes also. 73 b . m . al chalabi discussion recording of haemoproteus meropis and h. manwelli constitute the first record of these haemoproteids to the iraqi parasitic fauna, and reporting them from the hosts merops apiaster and m. s. persicus represents new host record. cramp (1985) and fry (1991) gave excellent reviews for both species encountered in this study in regard to their biology and ecology, but they did not pay attention to the blood parasites. the infection rates of the european bee-eater with both kinds of parasites may be related to the smaller sample size compared with that for the persian bee-eater since the number of examined specimens of the former bird is 39 while it is 202 for the latter species (table i). comparing the morphometric measurements of haemoproteus meropis recorded by bennett (1978) from asian and african meropids with those of the present study revealed that the iraqi specimens are more allied to african ones (table 2), while the differences noted between some morphometric parameters among the specimens of the present study and that reported by bennett (1978) may be due to, in part, to their presence in different species of host birds. on the other hand, the same parameters showed less fluctuation between the african and iraqi specimens of haemoproteus manwelli. this reflects more stability of the morphic characters of this haemoproteid. the present new species haemoproteus hudaidensis sp. nov. is related to h. meropis in that they have a halteridial shape and their outlines are entire, but differs from it in that the microgametocyte always has one of its ends around one pole of the host cell nucleus and has more pigment granules of medium size instead of prominent ones. the host bird seems to acquired the initial infection here since different stages of maturation are seen in the single blood film including very small early immature gametocytes. with the description of h. hudaidensis sp nov. the haemoproteids of the family meropidae become four in number. the following key is based partially on that provided by bennett (1978) and modified to include the new haemoproteid: 1most mature gametocytes in enucleate erythrocytes ……………………….. h. lairdi 1mature gametocytes in nucleated red cells only …………………………………..(2) 2mature parasites markedly displace host cell nucleus laterally (ndro.l)……..h. manwelli 2mature parasites only slightly displace host cell nucleus …………………………(3) 3pigment granules prominent, average 14 ……………………………………h. meropis 3pigment granules of medium size, average 19 ……………………………….h. hudaidensis in regard to the infection with microfilariae, the rate of infection seems high and it is not obvious wether the birds acquired the infection in iraq or at their winter habitats. however, the high infection rates reflect high intermediate arthropod vector potentiality. it is customary to report only microfilaria positive or negative hosts in the survey reports since the generic or specific identification is impossible in view of the absence of their adult forms. literature cited bennett, g. f. 1978 avian haemoproteidae. 8the haemoproteids of the bee-eater family (meropidae). can. i zool., 56:1721-1725 bennett, g. f. and campbell, a. g. 1972 avian haemoproteidae. 1description of haemoproteus fallisi n. sp. and a review of the haemoproteids of the family turdidae. can. i zool., 50:1269-1275 bennett. g. f., peirce, m. a. and earle, r. a. 1994 an annotated checklist of the valid avian species of haemoproteus, leucocytozoon (apicomplexa:haemosporida) and hepatozoon (apicomplexa:haemogregarinidae). systematic parasit., 29:61-73 74 inheritance of dark head cramp. s. 1985 handbook of birds of europe, the middle east and north africa. vol.4, oxford university press. oxford 960pp. forrester. d. j., griener, e. c., bennett, g. f. and kigaya, m. k. 1977 avian haemoproteidae. 7a review of the haemoproteids of the family ciconiidae (storks) and descriptions of haemoproteus brodkorbi sp. nov. and h. peircei sp. nov. can. i zool., 55:1268-1274. fry, c. h. 1991 the bee-eaters. t. and a. d. poyser, ltd., london, 304 pp. mohammad, m. k. 1991 blood parasites of some iraqi wild birds. iraqil sci., 31:31-39 shamsuddin, m. and mohammad, m. k. 1981 haematozoa of some iraqi birds with description of two new species ,haemoproteus pteroclis and leucocytozoon nycticoraxi (protozoa:haemosporina). bull. nat. hist. res. centre,7(4):1 11-154 75 b . m . al chalabi table 1: bird species, no. of examined and infected birds and percentage of infection. % bird species no. collected no. infected with haemoproteus % no. infected with microfilaria % no. total with infected % meropsapiaster 93 1 2.6 2 5.1 3 7.7 m. s. persicus 202 3 1.5 5 2.5 8 4 total 241 4 1.7 7 2.9 11 4.9 table 2: morphometric parameters of haemoproteus meropis and h. manwelli reported by bennett (1978) compared with those reported in this study. parameter h. meropis h. manwelli asia africa iraq africa iraq uninfected erythrocyte n=50 n=20 n=30 n=40 n=30 host cell length 11.9 12.5 13.1 12 13.1 (0.68) (0.85) (0.9) (0.9) (1) width 7.1 6.8 7 6.8 6.2 (0.47) (0.5) (0.4) (0.58) (0.4) area 57.1 60.3 69.6 57 58.3 (5.6) (6.3) (7.1) (7.5) (8.3) host cell nucleus length 5.9 5.7 6 5.7 6 (0.65) (0.24) (0.3) (0.64) (0.5) width 2.1 2.1 2.3 2.1 2.2 (0.34) (0.21) (0.2) (0.47) (0.5) area 9.2 9.3 9.8 8.9 9.2 (2) (1.3) (1) (2.3) (1.7) ndr parasitized erythroycyte 1 1 1 1 1 host cell length 13.4 15.2 14.9 12.5 12.7 (0.69) (1.4) (1.5) (1) (1.1) width 6.9 7 7 6.9 7.1 (0.63) (0.56) (0.8) (0.87) (0.5) area 64.8 78 73.5 59 62.2 (7) (8.8) (8) (7.2) (8) host cell nucleus length 5.3 5.4 5.8 4.7 5.1 (0.73) (0.7) (0.3) (0.52) (0.3) width 2.1 2 2.3 2.1 2.2 (0.34) 76 inheritance of dark head 77 b . m . al chalabi bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2000) 9 (2): 71-77 طفيليات الدم في نوعين من طيور الوروار في العراق **و طه محسين النعيمي* محمد كاظم محمد جامعة بغداد، باب المعظم، بغداد –متحف التاريخ الطبيعي وزارة الزراعة، أبو غريب، بغداد –الهيأة العامة لوقاية المزرواعات ** الخالصة مها الوروار االوريب ) أبو اخلضري(من طيور الوروار منوذجاً تعود لنوعني ٢٤١أظهرت نتائج فحص والوروار العراقي وجود نوعني من طفيليـات الـدم االوايل يسـجالن الول مـرة مـن العـراق ومت وصـف كمـا وجـدت املراحـل الريقيـة للديـدان اخليطيـة يف دم هـذين . نوع جديد للعلم من هـذه الطفيليـات مناقشـة النتـائج ععلـى ضـوء البحـوث ذات العالقـة واجريـت املقارنـات الضـرورية بـني متت . النوعني .النماذج العراقية من الطفيليات وتلك املسجلة سابقاً 3 17 wand kh. ali bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2010) 11 (2):1726 contribution to the knowledge of the genus chalcophorella kerr. 1903(coleoptera: buprestidae) in the north of iraq (kurdistan region) wand kh. ali salahaddin university, erbil college of education, scientific departments, biology department e-mail:wand2iq@gmail.com abstract in this study an illustrated key for the identification of the iraqi species of the genus chalcophorella kerr. is given with information about general distribution for each species. information is also given about period of collection, plants on which the specimens were collected. the real host plant if they are available and known are also given referring to the previous works. key words: coleoptera, buprustidae, chalcophorella introduction the buprestidae of iraq has been very poorly studied and is known only from a few faunal lists. the first list made by holdhous (1919) identified 16 species of jewel beetles, while obenberger (1926,1930,1934,1935,1936,1937) within his six volume catalogue (coleopterorum catalogue) mentioned about 51 species and subspecies distributed in mesopotamia .since the publication of obenbergers work there is no catalogue for the buprestid fauna of iraq but from time to time a few species were recorded by various authors such as (sage,1961; hussain,1963 ; derwesh,1962,1965 ; kaddou,1967 ; shalaby et al.,1970 ; knopf,1971 ; khalaf and al-omar,1974 ; swailem et al.,1974 ; selim et al.,1975 ; abdulrassoul,1976 ; al-ali,1977 ; bily, 1980 ; abdul-rassoul et al.,1988; and ismail,1994) and the only work that deals with general morphology of this family in iraq made by ali (2007) without the genus chalcophorella, therefore there is need for detailed study and preparing identification key for the species of this genus . it is hoped that this contribution will be a step towards a (buprestid fauna) of the iraq and at the same time, will stimulate the publication of further collections. materials and methods area description iraqi kurdistan regarded as a mountain region, bounded by the n. and n.e frontiers of iraq, with turkey and iran respectively. the region includes some mountain valleys where the elevation falls well below the 500m contour, the climate of kurdistan characterized by wide diurnal and annual ranges of temperature with a higher annual rainfall, the mountains above 1800m level are snow-bound for several months and snow often falls in the valleys. the vegetation here does not begin to develop much before the end of march and the main growing period is from april to june onwards. survey and morphological study specimens were collected from the different parts of kurdistan governorates (erbil, sulaimanyia, dohuk) during april 2008 to the end of november 2008 by the beating and sweeping net or directly with hands on trees, after that specimens were killed then pinned, mailto:mail:wand2iq@gmail.com 18 the knowledge of the genus chalcophorella labeled and prepared for identification, dried specimens of chalcophorella spp. were relaxed in warm water for about 20 minutes, then dissected into several large parts, which were further softened and cleared of non-chitenous material in a 10% solution of warm koh.the genitalia of species were dissected. this was carried out by pulling the genitalia through the opening between the last plates. the specimens were examined by using a binocular microscope and all diagrams were made with the aid of camera lucida and measurements were done with an ocular micrometer. the scale of figures was fixed for all diagrams with 1mm. results and discusion genus chalcophorella kerr. kerremans,1903,wytsm.gen.fasc.12,bupr.p.79 type species: buprestis stigmatica schöenherr the genus chalcophorella belonging to the subfamily chalcophorinae lacordaire 1857 but it has been recently transferred to the subfamily chrysochroinae laporte,1835 and according to bellamy (2003,2008)the genus chalcophorella include three subgenera as follows: subgenus chalcophorella kerremans 1903 subgenus rossiella obenberger 1942 subgenus stigmatophorella toyama1986 the genus chalcophorella is represented in iraq by only four species (ali 2007) c. stigmatica (schöenherr,1817), c. bagdadensis (laport and gory,1836),c.quarioculata (redtenbacher,1843) and c. morgani théry,1925. only three of them has been collected and studied in this paper. key to the species of genus chalcophorella in kurdistan region. 1. compound eye separated from the anterior edge of the prothorax (fig 2a.,3a), pronotum with levigated spaces mesally (fig2c.,3c).elytra black or dark its base with white hollow surrounding with two dark spots (fig2d.,3d.). mentum irregular (fig2b.) metacoxal plate distinctly notched with sparse foveae and slant or straight apex (fig2g.), wedge cell closed with long apex (fig2e.,3e.) male genital basal plate delicate (fig2h.) and parameres with or without constriction near apex (fig2h.,3h.)………………………………...……………….2 compound eye very close to the anterior edge of the pothorax (fig1a.), pronotum rough without levigated spaces mesally (fig1c.). elytra bronze or brown with two irregular white foveae, one at the base large and the other small near apex (fig1d.). mentum straight (fig1b.) metacoxal plate distinctly notched with numerous foveae and straight apex (fig1g.),wedge cell closed with short apex (fig1e.), male genital basal plate vast and paramers constricted near apex (fig1h.)…………………………..………… c. stigmatica 2pronotum with two unequal black spots at each side, one large and one small (fig2c.) elytral base with two approximate black oval shaped spots located within the white halo (fig2c.). apex of last abdominal sternite in female with notch (fig2f.), paramers wider at the base without constriction near apex (fig2h.) …..…………………..… c. bagdadensis -pronotum without black spots (fig3c.)elytral base with two separate black circular shaped spots located within the white halo(fig3d.) ِ◌ ِ ◌apexoflast abdominal sternite in female without notch(fig3f.), paramers with constriction near apex(fig 3h.)…….c. quadrioculata 19 wand kh. ali chalcophorella stigmatica (schöenherr, 1817) buprestis stigmatica schöenherr, syn.ins.i,1817p.232 synonym: buprestis quadrinotata klug,1829 uprestis lefebvrei laport &gory,1836 buprestis quadrimaculata redtenbacher,1867 chalcophorella biimpressa pic,1916 chalcophorella smoliki obenberger, 1936 general distribution: extending from perisa and syria westwards at least to albania and dalmatia (obenberger, 1926 ; niehuis,1989), sardinia, greece,turkey, cyprus,syria,lebanon, israel, jordan, egypt, georgia(volkovitsh,2004). distribution in iraq: dohuk, mousl and sulaminyia during may and june (kheri,1974 ; alali,1977),erbil during june (mohammed et al.,2006) also specimens were collected by the author from erbil (choman, koesinjac,nazanin and shaqlawa ) during june and july, sulaimanyia (doukan ) during june. dohuk (zawita ) during june. host plant: almond, prunus amygdalus, apple, pyrus malus (kheri,1974 ; al-ali,1977); paliurus spp.( mühle et al.2000) ; quercus aegilops (mohammed et al.2006) also adults were captured by the author on pear, pyrus communis and peach, prunus persica. chalcophorella bagdadensis (laporte&gory,1836) buprestis bagdadensis cast.& gory, monogr.i,1836,p.125 synonym: chalcophorella amarensis obenberger 1942 chalcophorella aureoscripta mandl& pochon 1957 chalcophorella berhauti mandl&pochon 1957 general distribution: mesopotamia and baghdad,iraq (obenberger,1926)and the ssp. freyi is recorded from localities in iran (bily,1983). distribution in iraq: mousul, baghdad, kut ,wasit during march-july (kheri,1974 ; alali,1977; abdul-rassul et al.,1988) dohuk, sarsang during march, april and june ( knopf,1971 ; saad and ameen,1983 ) also specimens were collected by the author from erbil (askikalak, nazanin, koesinjac), dohuk (zawita) and sulaimanyia (bazean) during april, june and july. host plant:morus alba, fraxinus and wild pistachio (knof,1971)turpentine tree, pistacia mutica, fig, ficus carica, apricot, prunus armenica (kheri,1974 ; swailem and almaroof,1981) mulberry and elm ( al-ali,1977; saad and ameen,1983) also adults were captured by the author on turpentine tree, apple, almond, oak, fraxinus and some wild plants. chalcophorella quadrioculata (redtenbacher,1843) buprestis quadrioculata redtenbacher.russegg.reise ii,1843,p.993 synonym: chalcophorella akbesiana cobos,1957 general distribution: asia minor and syria (obenberger,1926) turkey(niehuis,1989). distribution in iraq: erbil-khanzad during april (knopf,1971) mousl and dohuk during march-june (kheri,1974; swailem and al-maroof, 1981; saad and ameen, 1983) also specimens were collected by the author from erbil (koesinjac),sulaimanyia(khormal,beara) during june and july. host plant: willow (knopf,1971)apricot, apple, pistacia and turpentine tree (kheri, 1974) apple, mulberry, pomegranate, willow (al-ali, 1977; saad and ameen,1983) also adults were captured by the author on almond,apple and pear. 20 the knowledge of the genus chalcophorella literature cited abdul-rassoul, m. s. 1976. check list of iraq natural history museum insects collection. nat. hist. res. publ. no. 30: 41pp. abdul-rassoul, m. s.; dawah, h. a.; othman, n. y. and al-gailany, h. b. 1988. records of insect collection (part ii) in iraq natural history museum. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 8(1):1-10 alali, a. s. 1977. phytophagous and entomophagous insects and mites of iraq .nat. hist. res. center iraq, publ. no.33: 142 pp. ali,w.kh. 2007. taxonomic study of the flat headed steam borers (coleoptera:buprestidae) in iraqi kurdistan. ph.d. dissertation, sci. coll. baghdad univ.209 pp. bellamy, c. l. 2003. an illustrated summary of the higher classification of the superfamily buprestoidea (coleoptera). folia heyrovskyana supplementum 10. 197 pp. bellamy, c. l. 2008. a world catalogue and bibliography of the jewel beetles (coleoptera : buprestoidea). pensoft, sofia-moscow 606 pp. bílý, s. 1980. taxonomical notes on anthaxia from the palaearctic and oriental regions, with description of new taxa (coleoptera: buprestidae). acta ent. bohemoslovaca, 77: 400-407. -----------1983. result of the czechoslovakiranian entomological expedition to iran. coleoptera: buprestidae. acta ent. mus. nat. pragae, 41: 29-89. derwesh, a. i. 1962. a preliminary list of coleoptera from iraq. direct. gen. agr. res. proj. baghdad, tech. bull. no. 13: 38pp. derwesh, a.i. 1965. a preliminary list of identified insects and some arachnids of iraq. direct. gen. of res. & agric. proj., minist. agric. bull. no. 121: 123 pp. holdhous, k. 1919. koleopteren aus mesopotamien. ann.nat. mus.wien 38:40-49. hussain, a. a. 1963. provisional list of insect pest and bibliography of insect fauna of iraq. bull. coll. sci. univ. baghdad, 7: 43-83 . ismail,s.e.1994. keys for identification species of the family buprestidae in iraq. journal of the college of teachers no.1 pp202-215. kaddou, i. k. 1967. check-list of some insect fauna of iraq. biol. res. center, publ. no. 1: 44pp. khalaf, a. n. and al-omer, m. a. 1974. a second list of insects of iraq. biol. res. center, publ. no. 2: 41 pp. kheri, e.m.1974. some steam borers of fruited trees.ministry.agric.bull.no.211,45 pp. 21 wand kh. ali knopf, h. e. 1971. contribution to the knowledge of the insect fauna of trees in iraq: part i. coleoptera. zeitschrift für angewandte entomologie 69: 82-87. mohammed, a.m.;hana, h. m.;wand,kh. a.,nawzad,b. q. rostam,t. kh. and saman,b. q. 2006. survey of the most important insect pest in some localities of erbil governorate –iraq.zanco, journal of pure and applied sciences-salahaddin university-hawler 18 (1):21-35. mühle, h.; brandl, p. and niehuis, m. 2000. catalogus faunae graecicae coleoptera:buprestidae . augsburg; selbstverlag.254pp. niehuis, m. 1989. contribution to the knowledge of jewel beetles (coleoptera: buprestidae) of the near east. zoology in the middle east 3:73-110. obenberger, j. 1926. buprestidae i. in: junk, w. & schenkling, s., coleopterorum catalogus, 84: 1-212. eds. w. junk berlin w. 15. -------------------1930. buprestidae ii. in: junk, w. & schenkling, s., coleopterorum catalogus, 111: 215-568. eds. w.junk berlin w. 15.26. iv. -------------------1934. buprestidae iii. in: junk, w. & schenkling, s., coleopterorum catalogus, 132: 571-781. eds. w. junk berlin w.15. 3-i. -------------------1935. buprestidae iv.in: junk, w. & schenkling, s., coleopterorum catalogus, 143: 785-934. eds. w.junk śgravenhage 15.vi. -------------------1936. buprestidae v. in: junk, w.& schenkling, s., coleopterorum catalogus,152:935-1246. eds. w. junk śgravenhage 14. xii. -------------------1937. buprestidae vi. in: junk, w.& schenkling, s., coleopterorum catalogus,157:1247-1714.eds.w.junk ś-graveenhage 31.xii. saad,a.h. and ameen,a.h.1983.economic insects in north of iraq. ministry of high. edu. and sci. res. univ. of mousle. sage, b. l. 1961. notes on some coleoptera collected at khanaqin, iraq. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus., 1(5): 1-3. selim, a. a.; swailem, s. m. and amin, a. h. 1975. a contribution to the study of the insect fauna of hammam al-alil. part ii. mesopt. j. agri., 10(1-2): 41-48. shalaby, f.; elhaidari, h. and derwesh, a. i. 1970. contribution to the insect fauna of iraq. bull. soci. ent. egypte, 54: 101-109. swailem, s. m. ; selim, a. a. and amin, a. h. 1974. a contribution to the study of the insect fauna of hammam al – alil. mesopt. j. agri., 9(1-2): 119-141. swailem,s.m. and al-maroof,i.n.1981. forest entomology. ministry of higher edu.and sci.res.312pp. 22 the knowledge of the genus chalcophorella volkovitsh, m. g. 2004. new records of buprestidae (coleoptera) from israel with description of a new species. israel j. ent., 34:109-152. 23 wand kh. ali 24 the knowledge of the genus chalcophorella 25 wand kh. ali 26 the knowledge of the genus chalcophorella bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2010) 11 (2): 1726 chalcophorella kerr. 1903اثراء المعلومات حول الجنس )coleoptera:buprestida( إقلیم كوردستان -في شمال العراق وند خالص علي أربیل-جامعة صالح الدین -كلیة التربیة-قسم علوم الحیاة الخالصة تم إعطاء مفتاح موضح بالرسوم لتشخیص األنواع المتواجدة في العراق و مع المعلومات الخاصة بالتوزیع الجغرافي لكل chalcophorellaالتابعة للجنس نوع إضافة للمعلومات الخاصة بتاریخ الجمع و النباتات التي جمعت علیھا مع .اإلشارة إلى العائل النباتي حسب المعلومات المتوفرة bull 19 saadi k. jan & aqeel a. al-zubaidi bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2014) 13 (1): 19-26 sedimentary study of shiranish formation at hijran sectionnorth iraq saadi k. jan and aqeel a. alzubaidi natural history research center and museumuniversity of baghdad abstract shiranish has been studied at hijran section near erbil city, ne iraq. fifty two thin-sections were prepared to study them under polarized microscope, to determine the petrographic component, organic content and digenetic processes. rock units subdivided into four rock beds, as follows: dolostone, foraminiferal biomicrite, poorly washed biomicrite and micrite. vertical succession of shiranish formation refers to off-shore quite marine environment. introduction shiranish formation cropping out at the highfolded zone north iraq, and also within subsurface sections during the wells reaching upper cretaceous (dunnington,1958). it’s thickness about 225 m in type section near shiranish islam village north east zako, dahuk governorate and comprises blue marl and thin bedded marly limestone. it has conformable lower contact with beckme limestone formation, and upper contact with aliji formation that seem to be conformable surface, but there is fossils break indicate to cretaceoustertiary boundary (bellen, et al. 1959). bed rocks of this formation enriched by planktonic foraminifera that refer to offshore depositional environment (bellen, et al., 1959); (buday, 1980). this study aims to determine paleoenvironment according to petrography, organic content and diagenitic processes. materials and method fifty two rock samples were collected from shiranish formation at hijran section near shaqlawa town, erbil governorate, north iraq. sample interval ranged from 11.5 meters (kidwell and holland, 1991) and thinned section (voelkel, 1967) to study the petrography, organic content and diagenetic processes by polarized microscope. results and discussion shiranish formation has been subdivided to four beds according to petrography, organic content and digenetic processes (folk, 1974), as follow: 1dolostone bed: this bed composed of sugary dolomite of equal sizes and similar texture (plate 1-1), which composed by diagenetic replacement of carbonate sediments, so this bed considers secondary origin (schoole, 2003). secondary dolomite indicates postdepositional replacement of limestone or calcareous sediment by the progressive slow growth. secondary dolomite characterized by sugary texture may be formed at different diagenetic stages. the boundaries of dolomite may cross original texture, thereby can't preserve depositional interpretations (nichols and silbering, 2010). dolostone bed deposits under supra tidal environment due to organic absence and composed the lower part of shiranish formation (moore, 2001). 2foraminiferal biomicrite bed: it is characterized by the abundance of planktonic foraminifera at micrite (plate 1-2), spary calcite cement filled chambers of some fossils but 20 sedimentary study of shiranish formation at hijran rarely appeared between skeletal grains. cement was deposits within fractures and joints during late diagenetic processes due to tectonic uplift (bathrust, 1975). the abundance of planktonic foraminifera and micrite of brown to dull color refer to quite deep marine environment (flugel, 2010). iron oxside has been observed in the some pores, and also pyrite as cubic shape (plate 1-3), and as scattered in micrite and in fossil chambers (siesser, 1976). 3poorly washed biosparite bed: this bed characterized by the abundance of planktonic foraminifera such as globotruncana sp. (plate 1-4) and gobigerina sp. chambers of most fossils filled by micrite (plate 2-1), while the pores of micrite filled by iron oxides (2-2). this refers to quite deep marine environment (wilson, 1975). this bed composed the main component of the formation. 4micrite bed: this bed composed mainly of partly or completely recrystalized micrite (plate 2-3) and transformed to microspare under newformism process and minor amount of unidentified skeletal grains are present. the pores are filled by pyrite (plate 2-4). planktonic and benthonic foraminifera are the most important fossils of this bed (pisera, 2002). conclusions shiranish formation at hijran section subdivided into four beds: dolostone bed, foraminiferal biomicrite bed, poorly washed biosparite bed and micrite bed. some of beds containes planktonic foraminifera, and the main diagenetic processes are the cementation and recrystalization. this formation deposited at quite marine environment. references al-kassab, i.i., 1979. the genus globotruncana cushman from the upper cretaceous of northern iraq. jour. geol. soc. iraq. v.13, pp 27-127. alnanqib, k. m., 1959. geology of the southern area of kirkuk liwa, iraq. iraq petroleum co. technical pub., london. 50p. bathurst, r.g.c., 1975. carbonate sediment and diagenesis, develoment in sedimentology 12, 2 anded., elsevier pub. co. 659 p. bellen, r.c.van, dunnington, h. v. wetzel, w. and morton, d. m., 1959. lexique stratigraphique international, asie, fasc.10a, iraq, center nat. rech, sci., paris, 333p. buday, t.1980. the regional geology of iraq. stratigraphy and paleography, vol. 1. geosurv, baghdad, iraq. daniel, e. j. a., 1954. fractured reservoir of middle east. bull. aapg. v.38, pp. 77815. dunnington, h. v., 1958. generation, migration, accumulation and dissipation of oil in northern iraq, in week: l.g. (ed.), habitat of oil, a symposium aapg. spec. pub., 1194-1251. fluegel, e. 2010. microfacies analysis of limestone. springer. berlin. 984. folk, l. 1974. petrology of sedimentary rocks. hemphill, texas, 182 p. 21 saadi k. jan & aqeel a. al-zubaidi kidwell, s. m. and holland, s. m., 1991. field description of coarse bioclastic fabrics. palaios, 6, 426-454. moore, c., 2001. carbonate reservoires. elsevier, amsterdam, 460 p. nicgols, k. m. and silberling, n. j. (2010). eogenetic dolomitization in the pretertiary of the great basin. sepm, special publication, no. 28, 237246. pisera, a., 2002. fossil "lithistids". in: hooper, j. n. a. and van soest, r. w. m. (eds.). systema porifera. a guide to the classification of sponges, new york. 1, 388 402. . scholle, p. a. and scholle, d.s.u., 2003. a color guide to the petrography diagenesis . aapg memoir 77, tulsa, oklahama, usa, 459p. siesser,w. g.,1967. authigenic pyrite and gypsum in south west african contenental slop. sedimentology ,vol. 23, pp 567. voelkel, h., 1967. allgemeine ueber die anfertigung von dueschliffe und anschlifften der praeparator. bonn. 13, 155-169. wilson, j. l., 1975. carbonate facies in geologic history. springer –verlag. berlin. 471p. 22 sedimentary study of shiranish formation at hijran fig. 1: study area on the map of iraq. 23 saadi k. jan & aqeel a. al-zubaidi fig. 2: lithologic section of shiranish formation at hijran. 24 sedimentary study of shiranish formation at hijran plate-1 1sugary texture 100x. 2planktonic foraminifera in micrite 100x. 3cubic pyrite in foraminiferal biomicrite bed 100x. 4chambers of planktonic foraminifera, glopotruncana sp. filled by calcite 100x. 25 saadi k. jan & aqeel a. al-zubaidi plate2 1foraminiferal chamber filled by micrite in the poorly washed biosparite bed 100x. 2-iron oxides filled pores in micrite 100x. 3-recrystalized micrite 100 xs. 4-pores filled by pyrite 100x. 26 sedimentary study of shiranish formation at hijran bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2014) 13 (1): 19-26 شمال العراق دراسة رسوبية لتكوين شيرانش في مقطع حجران عقيل عباس الزبيدي وسعدي خان جان جامعة بغداد –مركز بحوث ومتحف التاريخ الطبيعي الملخص درس تكوين شيرانش في مقطع هجران قرب مدينة اربيل، شمال شرق العراق، بعد شريحة رقيقة ثم درست تحت المجهر المستقطب، لتحديد المكونات الصخرية، 25تحضير : لى اربع طبقات صخرية هيوبعد ذلك قسمت ا. والمحتوى االحيائي والعمليات التحويرية طبقة الحجر الدولومايتي، وطبقة الحجر المكرايتي الحياتي الفورامنيفري، وطبقة الحجر اشار التتابع العمودي لطبقات صخور . الحياتي ضعيف الغسل، وطبقة الحجر المكرايتي .تكوين شيرانش على انها مترسبة في بيئة بحرية هادئة بعيدة عن الساحل 3 17 a. a. hamodi & m. s. abdul-rassoul bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2010) 11 (1): 17-26 *four new species of thrips (thysanoptera: thripidae) from middle of iraq awatif abdul-fatah hamodi** and mohammad saleh abdul-rassoul*** **department of plant protection, college of agriculture, university of baghdad, baghdad iraq ***1raq natural history museum, university of baghdad, baghdad iraq abstract four new species of thrips (thripidae) chirothrips imperatus sp. nov. ; frankliniella megacephala sp. nov. ;retithrips bagdadensis sp. nov; taeniothrips tigridis sp. nov. ; from middle of iraq, are described and illustrated with their hosts. chirothrips imperatus sp. nov. female, (fig.1) 1.12 –1.14 mm. color brown, head, thorax, antennae, legs and abdomen pale yellow. 3rd antennal segment paler shaded with a grayish, lateral pterothorax brown to pale orange. head 75-79 μ in length, 100-104 μ width, eye 48-50 μ in length; anteocular setae very short, ocelli near at third part, check 13-14 μ in length, head extended at front (lengthens 13-15 μ) between antennal bases. antennae eight segmented, short, 2nd segment without prolonged external margin, 3rd segment with circular sides; sense cone on segments 3 and 4 simple, segments 3,4 and 5 constricted at base, appeared on steps, total antennal length 117135 μ. mouth cone short, reaching to prosternum, rounded at apex, maxillary palp three segments, labial palp two segments. pronotum 141-143 μ in length, width 114-115 μ at anterior margin, 188-190 μ at posterior margin with 5-6 pairs of setae, and two setae on each posterior angle length 41-42 μ, with short setae between them about 10-12 μ. fore femur and tibia elongated with few teeth on outer margin. wing 669-671 μ in length pale reaching to 8th abdominal tergite, wing has 23-24 setae on costal margin, first vein with 4-5 (3 on basal wing), 3 on second vein. pterothorax 231-236 μ in length. abdomen long, cylindrical, constricted toward the tip, posterior margin of abdominal segments 28 provided with structure like teeth, comb absent on eighth segment, with a pair of setae on the tergium, inner seta 16-17 μ in length, outer 20-22 μ, the sense pore upper the inner setae, four pairs setae on ninth segment, that’s on posterior margin 41-43 μ, the lateral 49-50 μ in length. ten segment split above provided with four setae that’s 73-75 7 2-75 μ, in length. male: (fig.2) apterous, small in size, 0.7 mm, color of mouth part, prothorax, pterothorax, legs, abdominal segments 1-8 and antennal segments 14 pale yellow, with rest body brown, setae dark. head 60 μ in length, 64 μ width, lengthen the extended part between antennal base10 μ. eyes 22-24 μ in length, ocelli absent, with 3 anteocular pairs of setae, postocular setae 2 pairs. antennae eight segmented. that 1,2,4 and 6, elongated, sense cone simple on 3,4 segments total length 206 μ . pronotum 104 μ in length (anterior margin 80 μ, ,posterior margin 140 μ) provided with eight setae, one pair of setae on each posterior angle, the outer 20 μ, inner 22 μ in length) with a microtricha on pronotal disk, four legs dented, with fine teeth, fewer than in the female. wings wanting. abdomen 426-429 μ in length with genitalia, 18 four new species of thrips glandular area circular, small on terbium 2-7, with a short line on the external wall began from 1st abdominal segment to 8th and became nearly with others. material examined: iraq; baghdad, abu-gharib, six ♀; one ♂ on imperata cylindrica l. holotype one♀, allotype 1♂, paratype 5♀, in march 2000, kept at iraq natural history museum and with the author. this species is closely related to both chirothrips meridionalis bagnall and chirothrips hamatus trybom, in the characters of head and thorax, but differs from the former by the presence of a structural like teeth on posterior margin of 2-8 abdominal segments, and from the latter by the presence of fewer teeth on the outer margins of both the fore femur and tibia. taeniothrips tigridis sp. nov. female (fig.3) 1.0-1.1 mm. color brown yellowish, front dark, eyes black with paler yellowish lateral edge, ocelli creamy, antennal segments 3,4 and 5 yellow shaded with brown, mouth cone black at apex, prothorax pale yellow, pterothorax and abdomen brown yellowish. fore legs pale yellow, all tarsi pale brown, middle and hind tibiae shaded with pale brown, wings pale grayish shaded brown at middle area, apex of abdomen brown, setae body brown. head small, 79-82 μ in length, 120-125 μ width, with a structure likes a bridge on front. eyes large and prominent with pale margin extended lateral head, six facts appeared on lateral margin, distance between eyes 31-32 μ, first ocellus behind bridge, others near inner eye’s angel. anteocular setae 30-32 μ anterior third ocellus, postoculur setae present arranged in serial 10-12 seta, check short strongly convex toward mouth cone. mouth cone large extends between procoxae rounded at apex. maxillary palp three segment first and second equal in length, third longer, labial palp two segments. antennae eight segmented 188-208 μ in length sense cone forked on third and fourth segments. pronotum 115-118 μ in length, width 149154 μ anterior margin proved with six short setae, posterior margin with three pairs of seta, one pair at middle longer than the others, posterior angle carried one pair on each sides, the outer 32-36 μ, inner 37-39 μ, with microtrichia on pronotum. legs normal. wings 648-657 μ in length reaching eight abdominal segment, veins prominent, setae on coastal margin 26-27, first vein with, 9-10 (3+3) dark setae at base and mid wing, 34 distal setae, second vein 1113 serial seta abdomen 679-686 μ in length, segment 1-7, cylindrical, strongly broad in eight segment, then conspicuous at 9-10, comb absent, pore sense near inner setae, nine segment carried three long pairs setae, and one short pair . ten segment conical, split above with two pairs long seta and one short pair. male: unknown. material examined: iraq; baghdad – abu-gharib, 3 ♀♀♀ on lycopersicum esculentum l. holotype one ♀, paratype two ♀♀, on 30-6-1999, kept at iraq natural history museum and with the author. this species is very allied to taeniothrips gowdeyi bagnall, but differs from it by the following characters: presence of a serial fact on anterior margin of eyes, comb absent on posterior margin of eight abdominal segment. frankliniella megacephala sp. nov. female (fig.4) 1.19-1.2 mm. general color brown yellowish, anterior and lateral head pale, dark in middle, eyes black, ocelli pale yellow, antennae pale, segment 6th-8th dark, 1st – 5th, base 3rd pale. prothorax brownish-yellow with orange pigment. lateral pterothorax and legs pale brown, dark in sides. wings pale, abdomen pale yellow at segments 1 7, apex darkness, setae dark. head 113-115 μ in length, 131-135 μ width, with circular sides, eyes 43-45 μ in length, distances 29-30 μ from head sides, 1st pair of anteocular seta 18-20 μ in length raised 19 a. a. hamodi & m. s. abdul-rassoul anterior ocelli, 2nd pairs 23-25 μ in length . check strongly convex toward at apex. mouth cone long reaching procoxa. maxillary palp 3 segments .0, labial palp 2 segments. antennae eight segmented 125-243 μ in length, sense cone forked on third and fourth segments, total antennae. pronotum 117-118μ in length, 148-150 μ width, and their side’s circular at anterior and posterior angles. one pair seta on anterior angle their length 28-30 μ, one pair on anterior margin lengthen 9-10 μ. posterior margin carried 3 pairs setae, one at middle 11-12 μ lengthen, one pair at each posterior angle the outer 53-55 μ, the inner 61-63 μ. wings 600-692 μ length, reaching to eight abdomenal segments, seta’s veins: 26-27 on coastal margin, 18-19 on first vein, second vein 14-15 arranged serially at both. abdomen cylindrical, segments carried two short seta pairs at posterior margin, comb absent, the sense pore between the seta on 8th segment. ninth segment with four a long pairs seta (100-102 μ). tenth segment conical, length one –half times as width with three long setae pairs. male: unknown. material examined: iraq; baghdadabu-gharib 11♀, on flowers of convolvulus arvensis l. holotype one ♀, paratype ten ♀ and amaryll1s sp.in 26-8-1999, and from dyalia in 6-101999 on flowers hibiscus esculentum l., this species lived group inside the flower ( six-seven insects), kept at iraq natural history museum and with the author. this species is similar to frankliniella unicolor morgan and frankliniella schultize trybom with the former by the following characters: distance between eyes from head sides wider, body longer with more number of seta. and differ from the latter by the following characters: the check more convex, head more elongated, their sides extended outwardly, eyes smaller. retithrips bagdadensis sp. nov. female (fig.5) 1.49-1.53 mm, colors brown reddish with golden yellow. head, prolegs, posterior margin of prothorax, pterothorax sides and abdomen dark brown to black. tarsi pale yellow, eyes black, tubular ocelli nearly orange. first antennal segment, baseal segments third-fifth pale, 2nd orange, the rest gray in color. fore wing brown shaded with gray-reddish, middle abdomenal segments shaded with red. head width 1.5 time as long as length, 148-154 μ (length) 225-232 μ (width),. eyes length 70-75 μ with a pale margin, front extended between antennal base lengthed 49-59 μ. check 20-25 μ, mouth cone short, broad at apex, maxillary palp three segments, the 1st short, broad elongated, 2nd longer than 1st, 3rd segment shorter, labial palp tow segments. antennae eight segmented 277-317 μ, in length sense cone simple and short on 3rd and normal 4th segments. pronotum wide 1.5 time as long 95-104 μ in length, 279-286 μ width. pterothorax 388-393 μ in length, metathorax carried tow pairs of seta, inner pairs 91-96 μ, outer 103-111 μ (1n length). wings 739-743 μ in length, with three callosities on coastal margin, 1st small, circular, distance 25-29 μ from coastal margin, 2nd normal, 3rd near wing apex. veins conspicuous, fringes long, reaching 7th abdomenal segment. abdomen 881-900 μ in length, cylindrical, little broad at 2nd -6th segments convex towards apex. posterior margin provided with structure chitin like teeth reaching to middle margin for each side. comb present, ninth segment carried a pair of strong setae on posterior margin. tenth segment with thick vshape structure, tip a little broader. male: unknown. material examined: iraq, baghdad-abu-gharib, 21 ♀ in june 1999 on leaves vitis vinifera l. holotype 1♀. paratype 20 ♀ kept in iraq natural history museum, and with the author. this species is similar to r. syriacus (mayet); r. aegypticus marchal; r. javanicus mayet; but differs from the first species by the following characters: sense cone on segment antennae 3rd, 4th simple, antennae longer, seta on metasternium longer and callosities differs in 20 four new species of thrips arrangement on coastal margin for fore wing. it differs form second species by forked sense cone on antennal segments 3rd ,4th, and also by arrangement the callosities on coastal margin for fore wing. while differs from the third species by presence of two callosities on coastal margin for fore wing. literature cited bagnall, r.s.1919. brief descriptions of newthysanoptera.10. ann. mag. nat. hist. london, 14 (9): 253-275. marchal, p.1910. communication-sur.un noveae. thrips vivant-sur la vigne, en egypte. bull. soc. ent. egypte, 16:17-20. morgan, a c.1925. six new species of frankliniella karny and a key to the american species. canad. ent. 57:136-147. priesner, h.1949a. studies on the genus chirothrips haliday. bull. soc. ent. egypt. 33:159174. priesner, h.1949b. genera thysanoptera. key for the identification of genera of the order thysanoptera. bull. soc. ent. egypt. 33:31-157. rivany, e.1939. studies in biology and ecology retithrips syriacus (mayet) with species atteation in palestine. bull. soc. ent. egypt. 23:150-181. stinweden, j.b.1933. key to all known species of the genus taeniothrips amyot & serville. trans. amer. ent. soc. 59(978): 269-295. 21 a. a. hamodi & m. s. abdul-rassoul (fig.1): chirothrips imperata sp. nov. female aprothorax (400x). bforelegs (400x) 1,2 the dentate on femur and tibia. cfore wing (400x). 22 four new species of thrips (fig. 2) chirothrips imperata sp. nov. male. aprothorax (400x). bforelegs (400x) 1,2 the dentate on femur and tibia. cthe abdominal segment 9, 10 and the ganital.1adeagus 2phallopase 3hypandrium 4-parameres 5 23 a. a. hamodi & m. s. abdul-rassoul (fig.3) teaniothrips tigridis sp.nov. ahead (400x) 1serial of ommatidia around the compound eye. bantenna (400x). cthe prothorax (400x). 24 four new species of thrips ( fig.4) frankliniella megacephala sp.nov. ahead (400x) bantenna (1000x) cthe pronotum (400x) 25 a. a. hamodi & m. s. abdul-rassoul (fig.5) retithrips bagdadensis sp. nov. a-a short sense cones on the 3rd and 4th antenna (400x). bfore wing show the first spot far from the anterior margin (200x) .1the ambient vein. 26 four new species of thrips bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2010) 11 (1): 17-26 *) من وسط العراقthysanoptera: thripidaeللعلم (جديدة أنواع أربعة ***محمد صالح عبد الرسولو **حموديعواطف عبد الفتاح جامعة بغداد، بغداد، العراق، كلية الزراعة، المزروعات**قسم وقاية باب المعظم، بغداد، العراق***متحف التاريخ الطبيعي، جامعة بغداد، الخالصة ;.thripidae (chirothrips imperatus sp. nov(جديدة للعلم أنواع أربعة frankliniella megacephala sp. nov.;retithrips bagdadensis sp. nov; taeniothrips tigridis sp. nov.; ،مع ذكر صنفت و درست ، مجعت من وسط العراق أنواعها. ـــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــ .*حبث مستل من أطروحة الدكتوراه للباحث األول bull 51 azhar a. al-moussawi & hany s. al-hamdany bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2015) 13 (3): 51-58 parasitic helminths of the starling sturnus vulgaris linnaeus, 1758 in baghdad city, central iraq azhar ahmed al-moussawi* and hany saber al-hamdany iraq natural history museumuniversity of baghdad, bab al-muadham *azhar.nhm@gmail.com, ahmeda_09@yahoo.com abstract twenty-two of the starling sturnus vulgaris linnaeus, 1758 were collected in baghdad city during the period from january to september, 2014, and examined for endoparasites. ten (45.45%) were found infected with either the cestode passerilepis crenata (goeze, 1782) (31.81%) or the nematode dispharynx nasuta (rudolphi, 1819) (13.63 %). morphometric and meristic features for these worms were expressed. d. nasuta is recorded here for the first time from s. vulgaris for iraq. key words: starling, sturnus vulgaris, passerilepis crenata, dispharynx nasuta, baghdad, iraq. introduction the worldwide spread starling sturnus vulgaris linnaeus, 1758 is native in africa, asia and europe (linz et al., 2007). it is a common winter visitor in iraq (allouse, 1962 and salim et al. (2006). it harbors and spreads parasites for other birds (pearl, et al., 1915). the widespread cestode passerilepis crenata (goeze, 1782), which usually infects land birds, was recorded from sturnus in africa, asia, europe and australia (yamaguti, 1959). in iraq, many helminthes were isolated from s. vulgaris: the cestode choanotaenia musculosa by molan et al. (1986), the cestodes dilepis longisaccata; d. undula and passerilepis acollaris by sawada et al. (1987), the nematode diplotriaena sturni by chabaud and mohammad (1988), the nematode microtetrameres inermis and the acanthocephala prosthorhynchus gracile by abdullah et al. (1993), the cestode passerilepis crenata was isolated by (abdullah et al., 1993; abdal-razak, 1998 and abdulabas, 2005), also the trematode brachylaema fuscata, the cestode choanotaenia muscolosa, the nematode diplotriaena tricuspus and the acanthocephalan plagiorhynchus sp. were isolated by saeed et al. (2003) and the nematode diplotriaena tricuspus by abdulabas and hammadi (2008). the cosmopolitan nematode dispharynx nasuta, found parasitizing several orders of birds: passeriformes, galliformes and columbiformes with widespread geographical distribution: asia, america and europe (goble and kutz, 1945; anderson, 2000). in iraq, d. nasuta was previously isolated from local chickens in al-diwaniya by al-mayali (2009) and from passer domesticus biblicus in baghdad by mohammad and al-moussawi (2012). this paper aims to throw light on the parasitic helminthes in s. vulgaris which collected in baghdad city. 52 parasitic helminths of the starling sturnus vulgaris materials and methodes twenty-two specimens of the starling s. vulgaris were collected in baghdad city by mist net during the period from january to september, 2014. birds were identified according to allouse (1962) and salim et al. (2006), dissected and the recovered elementary canals were searched carefully for the nematodes and cestodes. the recovered nematodes were washed thoroughly with normal saline then kept in 70% alcohol and cleared with lactophenol before examining, cestodes were stained with acetocarmine, dehydrated with graduated alcohol concentrations, fixed on slides with canada balsam. parasites identified according to yamaguti (1959, 1961) and york and maplestone (1962). measurements are in millimeters given as means followed by the range in parentheses, calculated using ocular and stage micrometers. micrographs were taken with digital camera infinity lite-k100 attached to compound microscope micros mcx100. results and discussion the results of examining 22 starlings for endoparasites showed that ten (45.45%) were infected with either the cestode p. crenata (goeze, 1782) or the nematode d. nasuta. passerilepis crenata (goeze, 1782) (fig.1a, b, c&d) synonyms: hymenolepis phasianina fuhrman, 1907 (eunis, 2014), mayhewia serpentulus sehrank, 1788 (spassky and spasskaya, 1964). seven (31.81%) of s. vulgaris found infected with twenty p. crenata. small to medium cestode, 10.83 (8.93-13.3) long. head 0.140 (0.10-0.15) long, 0.185 (0.17-0.21) wide. suckers unarmed 0.084 (0.073-0.097) long, 0.08 (0.06-0.10) in diameter. neck 0.261 (0.12-0.288) long. rostellum with 10 small wrench-shaped hooks, each 0.024 (0.020-0.0264) long. rostellar sac 0.120 (0.100-0.126) long, 0.084 (0.080 -0.120) wide. cirrus sac on one side, opens in the half of the segment 0.20 (0.164-0.210) long, 0.022 (0.019-0.026) in diameter. three testis, arranged in a triangle. the lobed ovary is located in the middle of the segment almost 0.082 (0.068-0.089) long, 0.098 (0.065-0.010) wide. dispharynx nasuta (rudolphi, 1819) (fig.2 a, b & c) synonyms: d. spiralis molin, 1858; filaria nasuta (rudolphi, 1819) schneider, 1866, spiroptera nasuta rudolphi, 1819 and acuaria (dispharynx) nasuta (rudolphi, 1819) railliet, henry and sisoff, 1912 (goble and kutz, 1945). only three starlings (13.63%) found infected with three females of d. nasuta. body stout, two pseudolabia present, four recurrent cordons, beginning at dorsal and ventral sides of oral opening, extending posteriorly to posterior part of muscular esophagus, recurrent anteriorly to anterior part of muscular esophagus. buccal capsule cylindrical, transversely striated. esophagus consisting of two parts, short anterior muscular and long posterior glandular (yamaguti, 1961; zhang et al., 2004). body 5.510 (3.81-7.34) long. 0.403 (0.306-0.533) wide. buccal capsule 0.108 (0.102 0.121) long, 0.021 (0.020-0.022) wide. ascending cordon 0.203 (0.2220.247) long. muscular esophagus 0.516 (0.431-0.732) long, 0.078 (0.073-0.085) wide. glandular esophagus 1.602 (1.294-1.74) long, 0.187 (0.140-0.225). nerve ring at distance of 0.310 (0.2280.346) from anterior end. vulva in the posterior part of the body. eggs thick shelled 0.030 (0.230-032) long, 0.021 (0.022-0.0216) wide. anus at a distance of 0.121 (0.103-0.127) from body posterior end. tail short, 133(114-156) long. 53 azhar a. al-moussawi & hany s. al-hamdany examination for stomach contents of s. vulgaris reveals presence of fruits, grain seedlings and arthropods remains (insect: flies, bees, bugs and beetles) which acts as intermediate hosts for d. nasuta and p. crenata (alicata, 1964; gubanyi et al.,1993; anderson, 2000 and halajian et al., 2011). this explain being s. vulgaris a host for these helminths in the present study. severe infections with d. nasuta may lead to the host death, as cleared in the results of goble and kutz (1945) who found that 32.5% of infected cases in the adults of grouse were fetal. earlier, two species belong to the genus passerilepis found in s. vulgaris in iraq, p. acollaris reported by sawada et al. (1987) at arbil province and p. crenata which isolated by abdullah et al. (1993) at basrah province with lower infection rate than it in the present study. to the best of our knowledge, d. nasuta is recorded here for the first time from s. vulgaris for iraq. literature cited abdal-razak, a. t. (1998). pathological changes in the alimentary canal of sturnus vulgaris l. due to infection with prosthorhynchus gracile (acanthocephala) and passerilepis crenata from basrah, iraq. basrah. j. sci., 14 (1) pp: 1-6. (in khudair, s., al-awadi, h. m. h., abdulabas s. k. and hammadi h. m. ( 2008) new record of diplotriaena tricuspus nematode parastized in corvus frugilegus and sturnus vulgaris in al-najaf governorate; iraq. j. kerbala univ., 6 (2): 7-10 (in arabic)). abdulabas, s. k. (2005) identificational study of parasitic fauna on three species of passeriformes family and its physiological effects in al-najaf al-ashraf governorate. m. sc. thesis, college of science, kufa univ.: 81 (in arabic). abdulabas, s. k. and hammadi,h.m. (2008) new record of diplotriaena tricuspus nematode parasitzed in corvus frugilegus and sturnus vulgaris in al-najaf governorate; iraq . j.kerbala univ., 6(2): 7-10 (in arabic). abdullah, b. h., abdal-razak, a. t. and al-hadithi, i. a. (1993) some helminth parasitized on the european starling (sturnus vulgaris l.) in basrah, iraq. basrah j. agric. sci., 6: 311-318. alicata, j. e. (1964) parasitic infections of man and animals in hawaii. hawaii agric. exp. stn. tech. bull., 61:138pp. allouse, b. (1962) birds of iraq. vol. 3. passeriformes. arrabitta press, baghdad: 288 pp. (in arabic). al-mayali, h. m. h. (2009). prevalence and distribution of gastrointestinal helminthes in local chickens in al-diwaniya region. wasit j. sci. & med., 2(1): 53-74. anderson, r. c. (2000) nematode parasites of vertebrates. their development and transmission, 2nd ed. cabi pub., wallingford: 650 pp. 54 parasitic helminths of the starling sturnus vulgaris chabaud, a. g. and mohammad, m. k. (1988) validity of diplotriaena sturni rud. 1809 a parasite of the starling sturnus vulgaris. bull. du mus. nat.d' hist. naturelle sec. a zool. biol. ecol. anim. 10(2): 371-374. eunis (the european nature information system) (2014) hymenolepis phasianina fuhrmann, 1907-synonym of passerilepis crenata. http://eunis.eea.europa.eu/species/229039/linkeddata goble, f. c. and kutz, h. l. (1945) the genus dispharynx (nematoda: acuariidae) in galliform and passeriform birds. j. parasitol., 31 (5): 323-331. gubanyi, a., meszaros, f., murai, e. and soltesz, a. (1993) studies on helminth parasites of the small field mouse apodemus microps and the common vole microtus arvalis from a pine forest in hungary. parasitol. hung. 25: 37-51. halajian, a., eslami, a., mobedi, i., amin, o., mariaux, j., mansoori, j. and tavakol, s. (2011) gastrointestinal helminths of magpies (pica pica), rooks (corvus frugilegus) and carrion crows (corvus corone) in mazandaran province, north of iran. iran. j parasitol. 6(2): 38-44. linz, g.m., homan, h.j., gaulker, s. m., penry, l. b. and bleier, w. j. (2007) "european starlings: a review of an invasive species with far-reaching impacts". managing vertebrate invasive species. paper 24: 378-386. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nwrcinvasive/24 mohammad, k. m. and al-moussawi, a. a. (2012) gizzard nematodes of the house sparrow passer domesticus biblicus hartert collected in baghdad city, central iraq. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 12(2): 25-37. molan, a. i., isam, s., kusai. m. and saeed, a. r. k. (1986) a survey for parasitic helminthes in the digestive tract and body cavity of the migrating birds (st. vulgaris) in arbil city, iraq. proc. 4th sci. con. sci. res. council: 267-278. in saeed, a.r. kh.; ibrahim, z.a.s. and babban, a.f. (2003) primilinary investigation for the parasitic helminthes of the starling (sturnus vulgaris) in al-rashidia district (baghdad). bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 10(1):89-95. pearl, r., surface, f. m. and curtis, m. r. (1915) diseases of poultry: their etiology, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention. new york, the macmillan company: 342 pp. saeed, a. r. kh., ibrahim, z. a. s. and babban, a. f. (2003) premilinary investigations for the parasitic helminths of the starling (sternus vulgaris) in al-rashdia district (baghdad). bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 10(1): 89-95. salim, m. a., porter, r., christensen, s., schiermacker-hansen, p., christensen, c. and al jboor, s. (2006) field guide to birds of iraq (in arabic). nature iraq and birdlife international: 284 pp. sawada, i., molan, a. l. and saeed, i. s. (1987) a survey on avian cestodes from iraq with descriptions of two new species. jap. j. parasitol., 36(6): 417-423. 55 azhar a. al-moussawi & hany s. al-hamdany spassky, a. a. and spasskaya, l. p. (1964) the genus passerilepis and the genus variolepis (cestoda: hymenolepididae). cesk. parazitol. 11: 247-255. in deardorff, t. l. and brooks, d. r. (1978) passerilepis schmidti sp. n. (cestoidea: hymenolepididae) from the blue jay, cyanocitta cristata l. in nebraska. proc. helmintholog. soc., 45(2): 190-192. yamaguti, s. (1959) systema helminthum vol. ii the cestodes of vertebrates. intersci.publi., inc., new york: 860 pp. yamaguti, s. (1961) systema helminthum vol. iii parts 1& 2. nematodes of vertebrates. intersci.publi., inc., new york. yorke, w. and maplestone, p. a. (1962) the nematode parasites of vertebrates. haf. pub.com., new york: 536 pp. zhang, l., brooks, d. r. and causey, d. (2004) two species of synhimantus (dispharynx) railliet, henry and sisoff, 1912 (nematoda: acuarioidea: acuariidae), in passerine birds from the area de conservacion guanacaste, costa rica. j. parasitol., 90 (5): 1133-1138. 56 parasitic helminths of the starling sturnus vulgaris fig.1 : photomicrographs of passerilepis crenata (goeze, 1782) aanterior end, brotellum with rostellar hooks. cmature segment. dgravid segment. 57 azhar a. al-moussawi & hany s. al-hamdany fig. 2: photomicrographs of female of dispharynx nasuta (rudolphi, 1819) acephalic region with cordons. bvulva region. cposterior end. 58 parasitic helminths of the starling sturnus vulgaris bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2015) 13 (3): 51-58 وسط العراق, الديدان املتطفلة للزرزور الشائع في مدينة بغداد و هاني صابر ألحمداني* سوسسو املأزهار أحمد -باب املعظم -جامعة بغداد -مركز بحسوث و متحف التاريخ الطبيعي العراق -بغداد azhar.nhm@gmail.com , ahmeda_09@yahoo.com: *البريد الالكتروني الخالصة الذ تم sturnus vulgaris linnaeus, 1758أظهرت نتائج البحث عن الديدان املتطفلة في الزرزور الشائع فردا منه بنسبة 44من مجمسوع 01إصابة 4102جمعه في مدينة بغداد للفترة ما بين كانسون الثاني وأيلسول من العام او %( 10.10)بنسبة إصابة passerilepis crenata (goeze,1782)اما بالدودة الشريطية %(24.24)إصابة بلغت %(. 01.31)بنسبة إصابة dispharynx nasuta (rudolphi, 1819)بالدودة الخيطية .dيعتبرهذا هسوالتسجيل ألول مرة للدودة الخيطية . اسة واملعدودة للديدان الطفيليةتم تقديم الصفات املق nasuta من الزرزور الشائع في العراق. bull 205 mohammad k. mohammad and azhar a. al-moussawi bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2017) 14 (3): 205-213 the spotted sandgrouse, pterocles senegallus (linnaeus, 1771) as a new host for the spirurid nematode hartertia gallinarum (theiler, 1919) in iraq mohammad k. mohammad and azhar a. al-moussawi* iraq natural history research centre and museum, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq *corresponding author: azhar.nhm@gmail.com received date: 16.march.2017 accepted date: : 24.april.2017 abstract in this work, the spirurid nematode hartertia gallinarum was reported in the intestine of the spotted sandgrouse, pterocles senegallus, collected in three different locations: ga'ara depression, iraqi western desert, zurbatiyah and al-attariyah, middle of iraq. description and measurements of the nematode were given. the role of termites in the infection of p. senegallus with h. gallinarum was discussed. occurrence of h. gallinarum in p. senegallus represents a new host record. key words: hartertia, iraq, pterocles, spotted sandgrouse, termite. introduction the spotted sandgrouse pterocles senegallus is a common and widely distributed bird (bolster, 1922) found in north africa and middle east, and it is a native bird in iraq (birdlife international, 2016). it inhabits mainly sand deserts and semi deserts with scattered plants and breeds nesting on ground in suitable areas of the middle and southern iraq (salim et al., 2006). this species is considered as one of the most popular game birds in its distribution range in iraq. the nematode hartertia gallinarum (theiler, 1919) is distributed in south and west africa and asia. it causes host diarrhea, weight loss, weakness and decreased egg production and losses of the bird host (kaufmann, 1996). in iraq, al-hubaity (1976) found h. gallinarum in fowl gallus gallus domesticus in mousl, north of iraq. then it has been isolated from the caecum of rock partridge, alectoris graeca and from the gizzard, proventriculus, intestine and liver of seesee partridge, ammoperdix griseogularis in the gara-area, rutba, western desert district respectively (mohammad, 1996; mahmoud et al., 2000). later, khoshnaw and abdullah (2013) recorded it in the caecum of chukar partridge alectoris chukar in shaqlawa district, kurdistan region, north of iraq. the present paper deals with recording the nematode h. gallinarum from the intestine of p. senegallus for the first time in iraq. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2017.14.3.0205\ http://dx.doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2017.14.3.0205/ 206 the spotted sandgrouse, pterocles senegallus (linnaeus, 1771) as a new host materials and methods a total of 16 spotted sandgrouse, pterocles senegallus (10 males and 6 females) were collected in three different locations; ga'ara depression, iraqi western desert (7 males and 4 females), zurbatiyah (1 male and 1 female) and al-attariyah (2 males and 1 female), middle of iraq (map 1). collection of birds was done during january-december 2016 in zurbatiyah and al-attariyah while those of ga'ara were previously collected during the years 2003-2004. gastrointestinal tracts of the collected animals were excised, opened longitudinally and nematodes were removed, washed with physiological saline, fixed in 70% alcohol, cleared in lactopheno and identified morphologically based on the available keys and descriptions (cram, 1927; yamaguti, 1961). all measurements are in millimeters given as means followed by ranges in parentheses. photomicrographs were taken with a digital camera infinity litek100 attached to compound microscope micros mcx100. map (1): showing the collection sites of host birds from different regions of iraq. results and discussion order spirurata family spiruridae genus hartertia seurat, 1915. hartertia gallinarum (theiler, 1919) cram, 1927. synonym: filaria gallinarum theiler, 1919. (cram, 1927). only specimens of the spotted sandgrouse, p. senegallus from ga'ara depression were infected with 29 specimens of h. gallinarum, 3 males and 26 females with an infection rate of 100% while the rest of the host samples yielded no parasites. the total infection rate was 207 mohammad k. mohammad and azhar a. al-moussawi 68.75% with intensity of 2.64. according to encyclopedia of life (2017), gbif (2017) and fauna europaea (2017), this nematode belongs to the order spirurata and the family hartertiidae. it has one synonym which is filaria gallinarum theiler, 1919. the worm is filiform attenuating at each extremity. cuticle thick is finely striated transversely. head small with a slight constriction. two lips are trilobed and each lip toothed, with a lateral papilla and lined by a thick cuticle. two cervical papillae just behind the lips. the pyriform vestibule is short. esophagus is divided into two parts; the anterior one is short and muscular. the posterior is longer and glandular. male (pl. 1, 2 and 3): three males were isolated, each with symmetrical caudal alae. six pedunculated papillae, four pairs are preanal. measurements of three specimens were: body is 16.003 (15.351-16.642) long x 0.79 (0.63-0.90) maximum wide. cephalic papillae is situated at a distance of 0.052 (0.052-0.052) far from the anterior extremity of the body. pyriform vestibule is 0.128 (0.120-0.135) long x 0.161 (0.145-0.182) wide. oesophagus reaches 2.625 long in one specimen in which body length was 15.351. oesophagus length as a proportion of body length is 0.171. nerve ring 0.038 (0.031-0.047) long x 0.184 (0.166-0.197) wide, at a distance of 0.3032 (0.208-0.400) far from anterior extremity. six pairs of pedunculated papillae, of which four precloacal and two postcloacal and group of very small sessile papillae present at tip of the tail. spicules unequal, right spicule is 0.4108 (0.3224-0.468), the left spicule is (measurements for two specimens only) 1.522 (1.510-1.534) long. tail length is 0.529 (0.5096-0.546). tail length as a proportion of body length is 0.033 (0.0306-0.0356). female (pl. 4, 5): twenty-six females were isolated. they are larger than males. body is 18.385 (9.807-28.455) long x 0.758 (0.260-1.523) maximum wide. head is 0.089 (0.0570.119) long x 0.187 (0.130-0.244) wide. tooth at a distance of 0.094 (0.050-0.124) from anterior extremity of the body. cervical papillae are situated at a distance of 0.0349 (0.0260.0468) from anterior extremity. the vestibule is 0.143 (0.022-0.218) long x 0.161 (0.1140.234) wide. excretory pore is situated at 0.451 (0.338-0.546) from anterior extremity. oesophagus is 3.077 (2.654-3.675). oesophagus as a proportion of body length is 0.179 (0.147-0.209). nerve ring is 0.055 (0.026-0.13) long x 0.204 (0.145-0.296) wide, at distance of 0.316 (0.208-0.520) from anterior extremity. vulva distance from anterior extremity is 11.485 (5.612-16.720). the embryonated eggs have thick double shell. tail is conical, rounded at its end and 0.408 (0.025-1.575) long. the morphology of h. gallinarum in the present study did not show differences from h. gallinarum found in cram (1927) but there are some differences in measurements between the present specimens and those of cram (1927) as well as with those of the other local studies by (al-hubaity, 1976; mohammad, 1996; mahmoud et al., 2000; khoshnaw and abdullah, 2013) which had been isolated from different bird species belonging to another order. presence of the same species of parasites in different host species may induce some morphological variations (hildebrand et al., 2015) and / or physiological variations (mehlhorn, 2016). it is worth to mention that mohammad (1996) had reported this nematode from alectoris graeca. this host was proved later to be a. chukar according to salim et al. (2006). so, the hosts examined by mohammad (1996) and khoshnaw and abdullah (2013) were actually the same bird species (a. chukar). occurrence of h. gallinarum in p. senegallus of the present investigation represents a new host record in iraq and to the best of our knowledge it is the first time that this parasite has ever been recorded from members of the family pteroclididae (order, pterocliformes). regarding transmitting of h. gallinarum to its present host which depends only on small seeds (bolster, 1922), we have now only indirect evidence that the 208 the spotted sandgrouse, pterocles senegallus (linnaeus, 1771) as a new host spotted sandgrouse p. senegallus eats ants and termites during its breeding season (campbell and lack, 1985) probably because protein is required for egg laying, incubation activities and chick growing. it is necessary to reveal this subject through crop analyses of a good number of male and female individuals of this bird collected from different parts of its distribution range in iraq. it seems necessary also to investigate about another species of parasites infecting this game bird from the human health viewpoint since large numbers of the bird are eaten every year by humans. the nematode h. gallinarum infects chicken and other birds (baker, 1973). to complete its life cycle, it requires termites (kaufmann, 1996). babaeian and zangiband (2014) found that this nematode needs the termite anacanthotermes ubachi for its development. a. ubachi (found in ga'ara depression) and two other anacanthotermes species: a. vagans and a. sawensis were previously recorded in iraq by al-alawy (1987). plate (1): anterior end of male of hartertia gallinarum. 209 mohammad k. mohammad and azhar a. al-moussawi plate (2): head of male of h. gallinarum (lateral view) plate (3): tail of male of h. gallinarum 210 the spotted sandgrouse, pterocles senegallus (linnaeus, 1771) as a new host plate (4): anterior end of female of h. gallinarum plate (5): posterior end of female of h. gallinarum 211 mohammad k. mohammad and azhar a. al-moussawi literature cited al-alawy, s.a. 1987. taxonomical and ecological studies on termites “insecta, isoptera” in iraq. ph. d. thesis, department of plant protection, college of agriculture, university of baghdad, 223pp. al-hubaity, i.a. 1976. studies on the parasites of fowl gallus gallus domesticus in mousl district, iraq. mesopotamia journal of agriculture, 14(1): 197-204. babaeian, a. and zangiband, p. 2014. a study of gastrointestinal helminth parasites of wild red-legged partridges (alectoris rufa) from kurdistan province, iran. 8th international congress of clinical microbiology, tabriz-iran 30 sep 2 oct 2014. baker, d.g. 1973. flynn’s parasites of laboratory animals. blackwell publishing publications, oxford, 813pp. bird life international, 2016. pterocles senegallus. the iucn red list of threatened species 2016:e.t22692994a93377532. http://dx.doi.org/10.2305/iucn.uk.2016-3.rlts.t22692994a93377532.en. (accessed 12 march 2017). bolster, r.c. 1922. the occurrence, habits and breeding of the spotted sandgrouse (pteroclurus senegallus) in the bahawalpur state, punjab. the journal of the bombay natural history society, 28: 807-809. campbell, b. and lack, e. (eds.) 1985. a dictionary of birds. buteo books. published for the british ornithologists's union. 1st ed., t. and a. d. poyser, ltd., carlton, uk,700pp. isbn 0-931130-12-3. cram, e.b. 1927. bird parasites of the nematode suborders strongylata, ascaridata and spirurata. bulletin of the united states national museum, 140: 464pp. eol. 2017. encyclopedia of life on-line database, http//www.eol.org. (accessed 18 april 2017). fauna europaea 2017. accessed via http://www.gbif.org/species/123246499 on 2017-04-18. doi: 10.15468/ymk1bx. gbif. 2017. accessed via http://www.gbif.org/species/4557376 on 2017-04-18. doi: 10.15468/39omei. hildebrand, j., adamczyk, m., laskowski, z. and zaleśny, g. 2015. host-dependent morphology of isthmiophora melis (schrank, 1788) lühe, 1909 (digenea, echinostomatinae): morphological variation vs. molecular stability. parasite and vectors, 8: 481. kaufmann, j. 1996. parasitic infections of domestic animals: a diagnostic manual. springer basel, xvi + 423pp. 212 the spotted sandgrouse, pterocles senegallus (linnaeus, 1771) as a new host khoshnaw, z.o.i. and abdullah, s.m.a. 2013. study on the parasites of chukar partridge alectoris chukar from shaqlawa district, kurdistan region, iraq. tikrit journal of pure science, 18(3): 26-30. mahmoud, s.s., mohammad, m.k. and ali, s.y. 2000. intensity and histopathological effects of the nematode hartertia gallinarum (theiler, 1919) on seesee partridge, ammoperdix griseogularis (brandt, 1843) collected from qaara area, west of iraq. bulletin of the iraq natural history museum, 9(2): 45-55. mehlhorn, h. 2016. animal parasites: diagnosis, treatment, prevention. springer international publishing, xvii, 719pp. mohammad, m.k. 1996. intestinal helminth parasites of the rock partridge alectoris graeca in g'ara area, west of iraq. bulletin of the iraq natural history museum, 8(4): 89101. salim, m.a., porter, r.f., christensen, s., schiermacker-hansen, p. and al-jbour, s. 2006. field guide to the birds of iraq. nature iraq and bird life international, amman, 284 pp. (in arabic). yamaguti, s. 1961. systema helminthum. vol. 3. the nematodes of vertebrates, part i + ii. interscience publisher, inc., new york, 1261pp. 213 mohammad k. mohammad and azhar a. al-moussawi bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2017) 14 (3): 205-213 كمّضيف جديد للدودة pterocles senegallus (linnaeus, 1771) القطا المرقط hartertia gallinarum (theiler, 1919)الخيطية في وسط العراق هللا محمد كاظم محمد و ازهار احمد سعد جامعة بغداد، بغداد، العراقي، ركز بحوث و متحف التأريخ الطبيعم 610312162: تأريخ القبول 610317102: تأريخ االستالم الخالصة من أمعاء القطا hartertia gallinarum هذا البحث معني بظهور الدودة الخيطية الذي جمع من منخفض القعرة في غرب العراق ومن pterocles senegallusالمرقط كما ألقي أعطي وصف وقياسات تلك الدودة الخيطية،. زرباطية والعطارية في وسط العراق في إصابة القطا المرقط anacanthotermes ubachiالضوء على دور النمل األبيض بموجب الدراسة الحالية يعتبر القطا المرقط مضيّفا جديدا لهذه الدودة . الدودة الخيطيةتلك ب .الخيطية في العراق bull 235 aqeel abbas alzubaidi et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2017) 14 (3): 235-249 the importance of geodiversity on the animal diversity in huwaiza marsh and the adjacent areas, southeastern iraq aqeel abbas alzubaidi*  mohammad k. mohammad* and muaid j. rasheed*** * iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq ***department of geology, college of science, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq  corresponding author: aazubaidi@yahoo.com received date: 27.januray.2017 accepted date: 30.april.2017 abstract geodiversity is the variety within abiotic natural elements that include: rocks, minerals, landforms, soil types, and water resources. recently ecologists and naturalists recognized that there is close relationship between geodiversity and ecosystems. huwaiza marsh is located south eastern iraq within lower mesopotamian plain. the main rock bed units which crop out north east of the studied area comprises many types of rocks: conglomerate, sandstone, mudstone, siltstone and claystone belong to bai hassan, mukdadiya and injana formations. the general elevation of the area ranges around 5 meters (a. s. l.) near the marsh and increase northeast to more than 100 meters (a. s. l.) and the land forms are: cuesta, oxbow lakes, flood plain, water lake, shallow marshes, mud flats, and sand dunes. soil (sediments) usually derived from north east rock bed units and from rivers, which are composed of gravel, sand, silt and silty clay. huwaiza marsh is provided by water resources from musharah and kahlaa distributaries in addition to alteeb and duwaireeg rivers which enter alsanaf seasonal marsh, then after to huwaiza marsh. the later has 1377 km2 during rainy season and 650 km2 during dry season. geodiversity created diverse ecosystems such as: desert (including sand dune), salt flat (sabkha), mud flats and aqueous ecosystem that provided good flora and fauna diversity of which wide range of plant and animal species use the area. such geodiversity formed the foundation in creation three main terrestrial ecoregions in this area of iraq. huwaiza marsh and adjacent area can be used for scientific researches, education, traditional agricultural, ecotourism and for other sustainable developments. vertebrate biodiversity comprises 27 mammals, 81 birds, 6 reptiles, 3 amphibians, and 9 freshwater fishes. the characteristic vertebrates of each habitat of huwaiza marsh were indicated. of interest among them is the presence of african darter anhinga rufa in deep-water marsh habitat; basra reed warbler acrocephalus griseldis, goliath heron ardea goliath, and smooth coated otter lutrogale perspicillata maxwelli in shallow water marsh habitat. key words: biodiversity, geodiversity, huwaiza marsh, iraq, mesopotamia. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2017.14.3.0235 http://dx.doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2017.14.3.0235 236 the importance of geodiversity on the animal diversity in huwaiza marsh introduction this study depends on two important world conventions: ramsar convention (1971) which is focused on the wetland and convention on biodiversity (cbd) (1992). today many conferences held overall the world to explain the wise use and management of water. water flows are controlled by topography which is considered part of geodiversity. the later describes the variety within abiotic nature which includes: rocks and minerals, land forms, soil type and water resources (gray, 2004), provides the framework for life on earth (stanley, 2002) and is considerd the foundation of the ecosystem. geodiversity and other abiotic resources are sustaining ecosystem and biotic resources (santucci, 2005). recent ecologist and naturalist recognized the importance of geodiversity on the biodiversity and ecosystem (jackova and romport, 2008; hart, 2012; petrisor and sabro, 2010; gray et al., 2013; mohammad and alzubaidi, 2014; alzubaidi et al., 2014). the biodiversity of the huwaiza marsh in comparison with other southern marshes is rather rich both in the number of species and the number of individuals of each species. the aim of this study is to investigate the correlation aspects of geodiversity factors: rock and minerals, land form and surface processes, type of soils and water resources; and their importance on vertebrate biodiversity components in huwaiza marsh and adjacent areas. materials and methods geodiversity and biodiversity data of this study depend on the field surveys to the huwaiza marsh and adjacent areas. geodiversity surveys were undertaken during the period from 2007-2008 to identify the abiotic factors. data on biotic material of this study came from the collection or sighting of animal and plant samples, remains of animals, footprints, previous records of the iraq natural history museum staff, and the relevant on this area like salim et al. (2006), al-sheikhly and haba (2014), and nature iraq (2017). identification of biotic elements was done depending on available literature and keys in the library of the iraq natural history museum, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq. location: 54 (map 1). its area reaches to 1377 km2 during rainy seasons and about 650 km2 during dry seasons. 237 aqeel abbas alzubaidi et al. map (1): location of huwaiza marsh and other iraqi southern marshes. after al-lami et al. (2014) climate: according to the world climatic classification, the study area is categorized into dry arid climate as showed in table (1) (imo, 2006). table (1): climatic conditions near huwaiza marsh (iom, 2006) station max. temp. c min. temp. c annual ppt. ml./year highest evap. ml./ year lowest evap. ml./ year highest humidity % lowest humidity % amara 36.9 13.5 116.84 1455 155.7 54 18.1 basra 34.6 14.1 81.28 1251.2 187.7 69.2 36.2 results and discusion field survey to the huwaiza marsh and adjacent areas shows clear intrinsic relationship between geodiversity, habitat and biodiversity. geodiversity geodiversity of huwaiza marsh and adjacent areas comprises different rock bed units with quaternary sediments, natural processes, topography (land forms), soil type, and water resources. rock bed units with quaternary sediments: many ecologists and naturalists consider the rock bed units as a foundation of the ecosystem which composed of abiotic and biotic factors. rock beds units of huwaiza marsh and adjacent areas belong to injana (l. miocene), mukdadiyah (e. pliocene), bai hassan (l. pliocene) which comprises some type of rocks 238 the importance of geodiversity on the animal diversity in huwaiza marsh cropping out north east of huwaiza marsh such as: mudstone, clayey mudstone, sandstone, claystone, silty sandstone, pebbly sandstone and conglomerate in addition to glacial deposits and quaternary sediments (bellen et al., 1959; buday, 1980; jassim and goff, 2006; jassim, 2009) (tab.2). table (2): rock bed units of huwaiza marsh and adjutant areas. formation age thickness description quaternary holocene aeolian, depression fill, flood plain and sheet run off deposits. glacial deposits pleistocene clastic sediments of alluvial fan deposits and sheet run off deposits. bai hassan late pliocene sandstone, claystone, siltstone, conglomerate mukdadiyah early pliocene 20-75 m. near badra sandstone, claystone, siltstone, conglomerate injana late miocene 620 m. type section mudstone, claystone, sandstone. land forms: landforms of studied area includes: marsh, mud flat, rivers, alluvial fan and sand flat. marsh: contains water canal about 2 meters depth, 25-30 meters width and flows from north to south; open k k “b ”; p k “ ”; wet soil and seasonal marsh, shallow water and dry areas (abdulhasan, 2009). mud flats: it is transitional zone between marsh water and dry land which is fluctuated between aqueous and subaqueous area. rivers: there are many rivers in the studied area such as: tigris river and its distributaries, mushrah and kahlaa which are on the west side; in addition to teeb and dwaireej ephemeral streams on the north east. alluvial fan: there are two alluvial fans: teeb and dwaireej which were formed during rainy periods of pleistocene, but these fans are not active now due to climatic changes and lack of precipitation. sediments of these fans are composed of sand 26.30, 5.05% , silt 49.60, 65.05% and clay 24.10, 29.90% in teeb and dwaireej respectively. sand flats: it is present at the north part of studied area, which includes sand dunes as a barchans and sand cover. sand sediments may be derived from parent rocks as well as from fluvial and alluvial fan sediments. type of soil: the soil of studied area eroded, transported and deposited from many streams flowing either from northwest from iraqi side via tigris distributaries such as: kahlah and musharah, or from north east from iran side such as karkha, teeb and dwereege streams (buring, 1960; kukal and saadalah, 1971). later rivers derived high percent ratio of sediments from parent rock bed units of injana (late miocene), mukdadiya (early pliocene), bai hassan (late pliocene), and from glacial deposits (pleistocene) and quaternary (holocene). the above mentioned rivers are classified as an old age rivers which are characterized by low energy, low discharge and always transports fine suspended sediments particularly at the marsh. soil comprises silty clay, silt, clay and very low amount of fine to very fine sand (k 2 6). g f ten soil samples show the 239 aqeel abbas alzubaidi et al. range of sand from 0.8010.10 %, silt from 31.0060.90 % and clay from 29.0066.00. according to fuchtbouer (1974), the soil samples of huwaiza marsh can be classified into clayey silt and silty clay. high ratio of the soil may be derived from parent rocks bed units of injana (l. miocene), mukdadiyah (e. pliocene) and bai hassan (l. pliocene) formations in addition to the others may be recycles and deposits from tigris river tributaries. x-ray diffraction (xrd) analysis shows that the soils composed of calcite, quartz, halite, dolomite and clay minerals. the later includes smectitechlorite, palygorskiteillite and kaolinite (rasheed, 2008). water resources: huwaiza marsh is fed mainly from kahla and musharah rivers, distributed from tigris river. kahlah river is subdivided into ummu zubair, altous, and husaiji, which flow to huwaiza marsh. it is also fed from north east from teeb and dwaireej ephemeral streams via sannaf seasonal marsh. the main outlet of huwaiza marsh is the kassara drainage which reconnects with the tigris river near kassara village. another outlet is the swayb which flows into shatt alarab, south of qurnah city. habitats habitats of huwaiza marsh could be classified into the following categories according to the availability and location of water around the year. deep-water marsh habitat: situated at the center of marsh and characterized by the permanent water throughout the year like um elniaaj area. flora: mainly floating and submerged plants. fauna: mesopotamichthyes sharpeyi (günther, 1874), arabibarbus grypus (heckel, 1843), luciobarbus xanthopterus heckel, 1843, porphyrio poliocephalus (latham, 1801), anhinga rufa (daudin, 1802), larus spp., sterna spp., pelicanus oncrotalus linnaeus, 1758, fulica atra linnaeus, 1758, tachybaptus ruficollis (pallas, 1764), anas spp., anser spp., cygnus sp., natrix tessellate (laurenti, 1768). shallow-water marsh habitat: encircled the center of the marsh, the water is shallower and its area fluctuate from a year to another according to amount of water income. flora: mainly reed and typha beds. sometimes an isolated accumulation of reeds surrounded by open water areas represents an ideal site for nesting of the endangered acrocephalus griseldis (hartlaub, 1891). fauna: mesopotamichthyes sharpeyi, arabibarbus grypus, luciobarbus xanthopterus, exotic coptodon zillii (gervais, 1848), bufo viridis(laurenti,1768), pelophylax ridibundus (pallas, 1771), natrix tessellata, mauremys caspica (gmelin, 1774), threatened rafetus euphraticus daudin, 1802, ceryle rudis (linnaeus, 1758), egretta spp., nesting sites for marmaronetta angustriostris (menetries, 1832) and aythya nyroca (güldenstädt, 1770), rare ardea goliath cretzschmar, 1827, endangered a. griseldis, endemic subspecies of tacypabtus ruficollis iraquensis, lucinia svecica (linnaeus, 1758), the rare resident breeders threskiornis aethiopicus (latham, 1790), plegadis falcinellus linnaeus, 1766 and platella leucorodia linnaeus, 1758, endangered lutrogale perspicillata maxwelli hayman, 1957, lutra lutra (linnaeus, 1758). another outstanding example of fauna in this area is the snail gyraulus huwaizaensis glöer & naser, 2007 (molluska) which was originally described from this area (gloer and naser, 2007) and probably endemic to iraq though a small part of the marshes also stretch out into iran living on submerged aquatic vegetation ceratophyllum demersum l. together with the snails bithynia spp., radix spp. and physella acuta (draparnaud, 1805) (damme, 2014). this type of habitat constitutes the typical environment for this invertebrate. inland river habitat: this habitat is represented by al-teeb and duwireej rivers from the north side which come from iran and al-kahlaa and al-msharah rivers from the west side coming from tigris. this habitat is characterized by absence of macroflora. fauna: 240 the importance of geodiversity on the animal diversity in huwaiza marsh mesopotamichthyes sharpeyi, arabibarbus grypus, luciobarbus xanthopterus, silurus triostegus heckel, 1843, exotic coptodon zillii, bufo viridis, pelophylax ridibundus, natrix tessellata, mauremys caspica, and rafetus euphraticus. river banks habitat: with riparian vegetation which is represented by bank areas of alkahlaa and al-msharah rivers; this habitat is characterized by presence of sparse shrubs with relatively dense grasses due to highly fertile soil and continuous availability of freshwater. fauna: canis aureus linnaeus, 1758, sus scrofa linnaeus, 1758, gerbillus mesopotamicus harrison, 1956, tatera indica (hardwicke, 1807), herpestes javanicus (é. geoffroy sainthilaire, 1818), felis chaus furax de winton, 1898, nycticorax nycticorax (linnaeus, 1758), egretta garzetta (linnaeus, 1766), circus aeruginosus (linnaeus, 1758), falco tinnunculus linnaeus, 1758, porzana porzana (linnaeus, 1766), streptopelia turtur (linnaeus, 1758), ceryle rudis, pycnonotus leucogenys (gray, je, 1835), hypocolius ampelinus bonaparte, 1850, erithacus rubecola (linnaeus, 1758), prinia gracilis lichtenstein, 1823, cisticola juncidis (rafinesque, 1810), passer domesticus (linnaeus, 1758), stenodactylus affinis (murray, 1884), natrix tessellata, mauremys caspica, rafetus euphraticus, bufo viridis and pelophylax ridibundus. mud flats: it is with shallow water and relatively poor vegetation. fauna includes sus scrofa, pipestrellus kuhlii (kuhl, 1817), himantopus himantopus (linnaeus, 1758), charadrius dubius scopoli, 1786, charadrius alexandrinus linnaeus, 1758, mauremys caspica, rafetus euphraticus. marsh banks: it is characterized with the presence of the crustacean species sphaeroma annadalei stebbing, 1911 (pl. 1) which burrows in the muddy banks of the marsh for sheltering and feeding (mohammad, 2014). ali et al. (2007) could not find it in huwaiza marsh. mauremys caspica and rafetus euphraticus use these banks for their reproduction and then lay and bury their eggs beneath the banks. sand sediment plain: it is characterized with rather poor biodiversity components. insects and spiders were the main groups found in the area. reptiles include trapelus persica fieldi (haas & werner, 1969), mesalina sp., acanthodactylus sp., and some snakes like eryx jaculus (linnaeus, 1758) and pseudocerastes persicus fieldi k.p. schmidt, 1930. birds include burhinus oecidnemus saharae (reichenow), chlamydotis macqueenii (j.e. gray, 1832), pterocles spp., columba spp., streptopelia spp., upupa epops linnaeus, 1758, galerida cristata (linnaeus, 1758), calandrella sp., tyto alba (scopoli, 1769), falco spp., and aquilla spp. mammals include the gazella subguttorosa (güldenstädt, 1780), lepus capensis linnaeus, 1758, vulpes vulpes (linnaeus, 1758), canis lupus linnaeus, 1758, hyaena hyaena (linnaeus, 1758) and nesokia sp. rocky hills of adjacent area: it is characterized with probable existence of the toad bufotes surdus (boulenger, 1891) which has a very limited distribution in the east of iraq (afrasiab and ali, 1988). other animals include reptiles such as mesalina sp., acanthodactylus sp., and pseudocerastes persica (a.m.c. duméril, bibron & a.h.a. duméril, 1854). birds include passerine birds, doves, shrikes, owls, and falcons. mammals will include gazella subguttorosa, canis lupus, hyaena hyaena, mellivora capensis (schreber, 1776), hystrix indica kerr, 1792 and meriones sp. the iconic animal of the marshes in iraq is the water buffalo bubalus bubalis (linnaeus, 1758) (pl. 2). it represents the most economically important animal for the arab marshes and it has accompanied them since sumerian time several thousand years ago. it utilizes mainly shallow-water marsh habitat to graze on the soft parts of reed phragmites australis (cav.) trin. ex steud. 241 aqeel abbas alzubaidi et al. biodiversity in comparison with other marshes of southern iraq, the biodiversity of the huwaiza marsh is rather richer both in the number of species and the number of individuals of each species. this is due to, at least partly, to the continuous existence of water around the year and relatively good quality of the water in regard to salt content. vertebrate biodiversity comprises 27 mammals, 81 birds, 6 reptiles, 3 amphibians, and 9 freshwater fishes (list1). many species of invertebrates were recorded from the huwaiza marsh including insects, crustaceans, ticks, scorpions, centipedes, mollusks. list (1): vertebrate diversity recorded in huwaiza marsh during the course of the study. mammals: 1long-eared hedgehog, hemiechinus auritus (s. g. gmelin, 1770). 2etruscan shrew, suncus etruscus (savi, 1822). 3naked-rumped tomb bat, taphozous nudiventris (cretzschmar, 1830). 4kuhl's pipestril, pipestrellus kuhlii (kuhl, 1817). 5assiatic jackal, canis aureus (linnaeus, 1758) (pl. 3). 6gray wolf, canis lupus (linnaeus, 1758). 7red fox, vulpes vulpes (linnaeus, 1758). 8honey badger, mellivora capensis (screber, 1776) (pl. 4). 9eurasian otter, lutra lutra (linnaeus, 1758). 10smooth coated otter, lutrogale perspicillata maxwelli (i. geoffroy saint-hilaire. 1826). 11small asian mongoose, herpestes javanicus pallipes (i. geoffroy saint-hilaire. 1818). 12striped hyaena, hyaena hyaena (linnaeus, 1758). 13wild cat, felis silvestris (schreber, 1777). 14jungle cat, felis chaus (schreber, 1777). 15goiterred gazelle, gazella subguttorosa (guldenstaedt, 1780). 16wild boar, sus scrofa(linnaeus, 1758) . 17european hare, lepus europeas (pallas, 1778). 18indian crested porcupine, hystrix indica (kerr, 1792). 19euphrates jerboa, allactaga euphratica (thomas, 1881). 20lesser egyptian jerboa, jaculus jaculus (linnaeus, 1758). 21house mouse, mus musculus (linnaeus, 1758). 22black rat, rattus rattus (linnaeus, 1758). 23brown rat, rattus norvegicus (berkonhaut, 1769). 24short tailed nesokia, nesokia indica (gray, 1830). 25baluchistan's gerbil, gerbillus nanus (blanford, 1875). 26libyan jird, meriones libycus (lichtenstein, 1823). 27indian gerbil, tatera indica (hardwicke, 1807). birds: 1little grebe, tachypabtus ruficollis (pallas, 1764) (pl. 5). 2great crested grebe, podiceps cristatus (linnaeus, 1758). 3black-necked grebe, podiceps nigricollis brehm, 1831. 4cormorant, phalacrocorax carbo (linnaeus, 1758) (pl.6). 5pygmy cormorant, microcarbo pygmaeus (pallas, 1773). 6darter, anhinga rufa (daudin, 1802). 7white pelican, pelecanus oncrotalus linnaeus, 1758. 8bittern, botaurus stellaris (linnaeus, 1758). 9little bittern, ixobrychus minutes (linnaeus, 1766). 10night heron, nycicorax nycticorax (linnaeus, 1758). 242 the importance of geodiversity on the animal diversity in huwaiza marsh 11squacco heron, ardeola ralloides (scopoli, 1769). 12cattle egret, bubulcus ibis (linnaeus, 1758) (pl. 7). 13little egret, egretta garzetta (linnaeus, 1766). 14great white egret, egretta alba linnaeus, 1758. 15grey heron, ardea cinerea linnaeus, 1758. 16purple heron, ardea purpurea (linnaeus, 1766). 17glossy ibis, plegadis falcinellus linnaeus, 1766. 18spoonbill, platalea leucorodia linnaeus, 1758. 19greater flamingo, phoenicopterus ruber linnaeus, 1758. 20graylag goose, anser anser (linnaeus, 1758). 21shelduck, tadorna tadorna (linnaeus, 1758). 22gadwall, anas strepera linnaeus, 1758. 23common teal, anas crecca linnaeus, 1758. 24mallard, anas platyrhynchos linnaeus, 1758. 25pintail, anas acuta linnaeus, 1758. 26garganey, anas querquedula linnaeus, 1758. 27shoveller, anas clypeata linnaeus, 1758 (pl. 8). 28marbled teal, marmaronetta angustirostris (menetries, 1832). 29common pochard, aythya ferina (linnaeus, 1758). 30black kite, milvus migrans (boddaert, 1783). 31marsh harrier, circus aeruginosus (linnaeus, 1758). 32long-legged buzzrd, buteo rufinus (cretzschmar, 1829). 33kestrel, falco tinnunculus linnaeus, 1758. 34black francolin, francolinus francolinus (linnaeus, 1766). 35water rail, rallus aquaticus linnaeus, 1758. 36spotted crake, porzana porzana (linnaeus, 1766). 37moorhen, gallinula chloropus (linnaeus, 1758) (pl. 9). 38coot, fulica atra linnaeus, 1758. 39purple gallinule, porphyrio poliocephalus (latham, 1801). 40houbara bustard, chlamydotis macqueenii (j.e. gray, 1832). 41black-winged stilt, himantopus himantopus (linnaeus, 1766). 42avocet, recurvirostra avoceta linnaeus, 1758. 43collared pratincole, glareola pratincola linnaeus, 1766. 44little ringed plover, charadrius dubius scopoli, 1786 . 45kentish plover, charadrius alexandrinus linnaeus, 1758 (pl. 10). 46spur-winged plover, hoplopterus spinosus (linnaeus, 1766). 47red-wattled lapwing, hoplopterus indicus (boddaert, 1783). 48white-tailed lapwing, vanellus leucurus (lichtenstein, 1823) (pl. 11). 49lapwing, vanellus vanellus (linnaeus, 1758). 50little stint, calidris minuta (leisler, 1812). 51temmnick's stint, calidris temminckii (leisler, 1812). 52common snipe, gallinago gallinago (linnaeus, 1758). 53redshank, tringa tetanus (linnaeus, 1758). 54slender-billed gull, larus genei (breme, 1839). 55common gull, larus canus linnaeus, 1758. 56common tern, sterna hirundo linnaeus, 1758. 57white-winged black tern, chlidonia leucopterus (temminck, 1815). 58pin-tailed sandgrouse, pterocles alchata (linnaeus, 1766). 59rock dove, columba livia gmelin, 1789. 60wood pigeon, columba palumbus linnaeus, 1758. 61collared dove, streptopelia decaocto (frivaldszky, 1838). 243 aqeel abbas alzubaidi et al. 62turtle dove, streptopelia turtur (linnaeus, 1758). 63barn owl, tyto alba (scopoli, 1769). 64egyptian nightjar, caprimulgus aegyptius lichtenstein, 1823. 65white-breasted kingfisher, halcyon smyrnensis linnaeus, 1758. 66common kingfisher, alcedo atthis (linnaeus, 1758). 67pied kingfisher, ceryle rudis (linnaeus, 1758) . 68blue-cheeked bee-eater, merops superciliosus linnaeus, 1766. 69indian roller, coracias benghalensis (linnaeus, 1758). 70crested lark, galerids cristata (linnaeus, 1758). 71barn swallow, hirundo rustica (linnaeus, 1758). 72white wagtail, motacilla alba linnaeus, 1758(pl. 12). 73white-cheeked bulbul, pycnonotus leucogenys (gray, je, 1835) (pl. 13). 74grey hypocolius, hypocolius ampelinus bonaparte, 1850. 75graceful prinia, prinia gracilis lichtenstein, 1823. 76basra reed warbler, acrocephalus griseldis (hartlaub, 1891). 77iraq babbler, turdoides altirostris (hartert, 1909). 78rook, corvus frugilegus linnaeus, 1758. 79mesopotamian crow, corvus cornix capellanus (p.l. sclater, 1877). 80starling, sturnus vulgaris linnaeus, 1758 (pl. 14). 81house sparrow, passer domesticus (linnaeus, 1758). reptiles: 1euphrates shell turtle, rafetus euphraticus daudin, 1802. 2caspian turtle, mauremys caspica (gmelin, 1774). 3marsh gecko, stenodactylus affinis (murray, 1844). 4dice snake, natrix tessellata (laurenti, 1768). 5acanthodacylus sp. 6mesalina sp. amphibians: 1iranian earless toad, bufotes surdus (boulenger, 1891). 2green toad, bufo viridis (laurenti, 1768). 3marsh frog, pelophylax ridibundus (pallas, 1771). fishes: 1binni, mesopotamichthyes sharpeyi (günther, 1874). 2shabboot, arabibarbus grypus (heckel, 1843). 3mesopotamian himri, carasobarbus luteus (heckel, 1843). 4qattan, luciobarbus xanthopterus heckel, 1843. 5khishni, liza abu (heckel, 1843). 6common carp, cyprinus carpio linnaeus, 1758. 7shiliq, leuciscus vorax (heckle, 1843). 8jirri, silurus triostegus heckel, 1843 (pl. 15). 9tilapia coptodon zillii (gervais, 1848) (exotic) (pl. 16). 244 the importance of geodiversity on the animal diversity in huwaiza marsh plate (1): burrows of sphaeroma annandalei annandalei in the muddy banks of huwaiza marsh. plate (2): water buffaloes, bubalus bubalis plate (3): road killed, canis aureus plate (4): honey badger, mellivora capensis plate (5): little grebe, tachypabtus ruficollis plate (6): cormorant, phalacrocorax carbo 245 aqeel abbas alzubaidi et al. plate (7): cattle egert bubulcus ibis plate (8): shoveller, anas clypeata plate (9): moorhen, 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(in arabic). santucci v.l. 2005. historical perspectives on biodiversity and geodiversity. geodiversity and geoconservation, 22 (3): 29-34. stanley, m. 2002. geodiversity-linking people, landscapes and their culture. abstract for natural and cultural landscapes conference. royal irish academy, dublin, 14pp. u. n. 1992. convention on biological diversity. www.cbd.int/convention/. 249 aqeel abbas alzubaidi et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2017) 14 (1): 235-249 في هور الحويزة والمناطق المجاورة، حيوانيع الجيولوجي على التنوع الاهمية التنو جنوب شرق العراق **دو مؤيد جاسم رشي *محمد كاظم محمد ،*عقيل عباس الزبيدي ، بغداد، العراقجامعة بغداد/متحف التاريخ الطبيعيمركز بحوث و * ، بغداد، العراقجامعة بغداد -كلية العلوم -قسم الجيولوجي** .1.210700 :تأريخ القبول 1.2102011 :تأريخ االستالم الخالصة الصخور والمعادن، عناصر الطبيعية الالحية التي تضمهو تنوع ال التنوع الجيولوجي ة الى وجود ويؤكد علماء البيئة والطبيع. واالشكال االرضية، وانواع التربة، والموارد المائية يقع هور الحويزة جنوب . عالقة وثيقة بين التنوع الجيولوجي واالنظمة البيئية الطبيعية والوحدات الصخرية المنكشفة شمال شرق منطقة . شرقي العراق ضمن سهل ما بين النهرين صخور المدملكات، والصخور الرملية، والوحلية، والغرينية، والطينية؛ ة منالدراسة مكون 5ويتراوح االرتفاع العام للمنطقة بين . عود الى تكوين باي حسن، والمقدادية، وانجانةالتي ت الشمال متر فوق مستوى سطح البحر في 011متر قرب ضفاف الهور، و اكثر من كويستا، بحيرات هاللية، وسهل فيضي، واهوار :واهم االشكال االرضية هي. الشرقي مشتقة في الغالب من ( الرسوبيات الحديثة)والتربة . رمليةضحلة، ومسطحات طينية، وكثبان شرق هور الحويزة؛ وكذلك من رواسب االنهار حدات الصخرية الواقعة الى شمال الو ويتغذى هور الحويزة من مياه . المكونة من الحصى، والرمل، والغرين، والطين الغريني ب ودويريج اللذين يصبان في فروع نهر دجلة، المشرح والكحالء ، وكذلك من نهري الطي كم 0711 هور السناف الموسمي وبعد ذلك الى هور الحويزة الذي تبلغ مساحته 2 في كم 051الفصول المطيرة، و 2 ساهم التنوع الجيولوجي ،المكون من . في الفصول الجافة مياه الهور مياه الهور العميقة، و: العناصر المذكورة اعاله، في تشكيل االنظمة البيئية االتية الضحلة، انهار خارج االهوار، ضفاف االنهار، المسطحات الطينية، ضفاف االهوار، 21: الرسوبيات الرملية، التالل الصخرية؛ التي ساهمت في نشوء تنوع بيولوجي جيد يضم . من االسماك 9من البرمائيات، و 7من الزواحف، و 0من الطيور، و 10من اللبائن، و ستفادة من هور الحويزة والمناط المجاورة له الررا البحوث العلمية، وبذلك يمكن اال والتعليمية، والزراعة التقليدية، والسياحة البيئية، واستعماالت اخرى تلبي شروط التنمية ان التنوع االحيائي في هور الحويزة عند مقارنته مع اهوار العراق الجنوبية . المستدامة يشتمل التنوع . ث عدد االنواع وكذلك عدد االفراد من كل نوعاالخرى يعتبر رنيا من حي وقد اشرت انواع . برمائيات 7زواحف و 0طيرا و 10لبونا و 21االحيائي للفقريات على من االنواع المثير لالهتمام تواجد الوردة . الفقريات المميزة لكل بيئة من بيئات هور الحويزة تواجد هازجة قصب البصرة ومالك الحزين الجبار والقضاعة في بيئة المياه العميقة و( الزقة) . ناعمة الفرو في بيئة المياه الضحلة 1 1 abdul-rassoul et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2012) 12 (2): 1-5 first record of red-back spider latrodectus scelio thorell, 1870 (araneae:theridiidae) in baghdad, iraq mohammad saleh abdul-rassoul*, basman h. al-jalely **, khawla taha al-nuaimi** and luay khahtan al-ani ** *iraqnatural history research and museum, baghdad university **department of plant protection agricultural collage, baghdad university abstract two females of the red-back spider, latrodectus scelio thorell, 1870 were first recorded in iraq, short description with figure was provided introduction about 40,000 spiders have been recognized in the world and this is less than half of the expected number of 100,000 to 200,000 species. most of the species have not yet been described (ellis et al. 2005). widow spiders of the genus latrodectus are found worldwide (graudins et al. 2001). red-back spiders, l.(= hasselti) scelio thorell, are widow spiders (stallybrass, 1969) and are the most medically importance spiders all over the world, and certainly in australia (clark et al. 1992; vetter and visscher, 1998; isbister and gray, 2002). the dangerous red-back, l. scelio, belongs to theridiidae family and these spiders are famous for having neurotoxin venom. its bite is usually mild and frequently may not be felt. symptoms may arise up to an hour after biting and start as a reddish lump with red streaks publishing out from it. typical envenomations of red-backed spider being the most toxic cases of all the member of the genus latrodectus and only the female bite is dangerous. the venom affects directly on the nerves, causing in release and consequently depletion of neurotransmitters (cariaso, 1967); red-back spiders are most commonly found in urban areas, preferring the shelter human habitats provide from unfavorable weather. they inhabit urban and suburban areas, preferring tropical and temperate areas. they are less common in savanna, chaparral and desert areas and are not found at the continent's highest elevations. the appearance of red-backs in japan shows that they are also capable of surviving at very low temperatures (-3 degrees c). (nihei et al., 2003; vink et al., 2010). red-back spiders are bilaterally symmetrical, cold-blooded spiders belonging to the family theridiidae. their closest relative is the north american southern black widow spider (latrodectus mactans), which is distinguishable from red-back spiders by the absence of a red dorsal stripe. female red-backs average 10 mm in length, with body sizes as large as a pea, and are significantly larger than males (which average 3-4 mm). females are typically black with a red stripe, sometimes broken, on the dorsal surface of the upper abdomen (crossing parallel to the length of the body), and a red hourglass-shaped spot on the ventral side of the abdomen. young female red-backs have additional white markings on their abdomens that they lose as adults. male red-backs are typically light brown in color with a dorsal red stripe and a paler hourglass shape on the ventral side of the abdomen, both of which are similar to, but less distinct than, female markings. males also retain the white markings on the upper side of the abdomen through adulthood. each sex has slender legs and is venomous. (garb et al., 2004; vink et al., 2010). 2 first record of red-back spider materials and methods we obtained two adult females in this investigation; the first specimen collected in 3rd april 2012 hiding under a bee hive in a farm that is about 13 km, south east to baghdad center, 135m away from diyala river before it meets tigris river with 14 km. the area called (diyala new bridge) the second specimen collected in 17 december 2012 from tarmyia, alfarouk quarter (residential area) about 45 km north west of baghdad center. the first specimen was brought to plant protection department at the college of agriculture, baghdad university, by a small bee queen cage, then put in a glass plate with a wet piece of cotton that was covered by a fresh cucumber leaf (replaced daily) with aphids and mites on it for feeding the spider which was noticed later. seven days later, a yellowish white sac was seen under silk tissue, and then abdomen became small in size with less feeding during guarding the sac and touching it with it′s legs. on the 6th may, the sac was opened from a tiny hole at the tip and 250-300 individuals were released so the plate was transferred to a 30×30×24 cm. glass cage covered with same kind of tissue and same procedures for feeding and humidity were conducted. the second specimen put in 70% alcohol and kept at iraq natural history research center and museum. results and discussion the female is easily recognizable by her black body with a prominent red stripe on the upper surface of abdomen it is about 1 centimeter in length (fig.1). the female red-back has a round body about the size of a large pea, with long, slender legs, body is a deep black colour, often containing an obvious orange to red longitudinal stripe on the upper surface of abdomen, and has a body about the size of a large pea and slender legs. widow spiders of the genus latrodectus have worldwide distribution (graudins et al. 2001). red-back spiders, l. scelio, are widow spiders (stallybrass, 1969). generally; for the first time in iraq, two females of red-back spider were found in baghdad city. the presence of l. scelio in baghdad, and its possible spread to other provinces, is of human health significance, and the species may also impact on native biodiversity. acknowledgment authors are grateful to alice wells of fauna team, australian biological resources study for the identification of specimens, and thanks to mr. abdul – haq ismael ahmed his provide facilities literature cited cariaso, b. l. 1967. a biology of the black widow spider, latrodectus hasselti thorell (araneida: theridiidae). philippine agr sci. 51: 171–180. clark, r. f.; wethern-kestner, s. and gerkin vance, m. v. 1992. clinical presentation and treatment of black widow spider envenomation: a review of 163 cases. ann j. emerg med. 21: 782–787. 3 abdul-rassoul et al. ellis, r. m.; sprivulis, p. c.; jelinek, g. a.; banham n. d.; wood, s. v.; wilkes g. j.; siegmund, a. and roberts, b. l. 2005. a double-blind, randomized trial of intravenous versus intramuscular antivenom for red-back spider envenoming. emerg. med. aust. 17(2):152–156. garb, j., a. and gonzalez, r. gillespie. 2004. the black widow spider genus latrodectus (araneae : theridiidae): phylogeny, biogeography, and invasion history. molecular phylogenetics and evolution, 31: 1127-1142. graudins, a.; padula, m.; broady, k. and nicholson, g. m. 2001. red-back spider (latrodectus hasselti) antivenom prevents the toxicity of widow spider venoms. ann j. emerg med. 37(2): 154–160. isbister, g. k. and gray, m. r. 2002. a prospective study of 750 definite spider bites, with expert spider identification. quarterly j. med. 95: 723–731. nihei, n., m.; yoshida, m.; kobayashi, h.; kaneta, r. and shimamura, n. agui. 2003. geographic information systems (gis) analysis of the distribution of the redback spider latrodectus hasseltii (araneae: theridiadae) in osaka, japan. medical entomology and zoology, 54: 177-186. stallybrass, f. c. 1969. spider bites. lancet.15, 1: 572. vetter, r. s. and visscher, p. k. 1998. bites and stings of medically important venomous arthropods. international j dermatol. 37:481-496. vink, c. j.; derraik c. and phillips p. sirvid. 2010. the invasive australian red back spider, latrodectus hasseltii thorell 1870 (araneae: theridiidae): current and potential distributions, and likely impacts. biological invasions, 13: 1003-1019. 4 first record of red-back spider figure (1) female of latrodectus sceliothorell 5 abdul-rassoul et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2012)12 (2): 1-5 latrodectus scelio السوداءتسجیل جدید لعنكبوت االرملھ thorell, 1870 (araneae:theridiidae) العراق-في بغداد **خولة طھ النعیميو **الجلیلي و بسمان حسیب *محمد صالح عبدالرسول **و لؤي قحطان العاني جامعة بغداد -مركز بحوث ومتحف التاریخ الطبیعي* جامعة بغداد –كلیة الزراعة -قسم وقایة النبات ** الخالصة ,latrodectus scelio thorellتسجیل جدید ألنثى عنكبوت االرملھ السوداء 1870 ً .بالصورة كما تم وصفھا موضحا bull 77 aqeel a. alzubaidi and sadi kan jan bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2016) 14 (1): 77-89 earth surface processes and land forms of south west razzaza lake-central iraq aqeel abbas alzubaidi* and sadi kan jan natural history research center and museumuniversity of baghdad *corresponding author e-mail: aazubaidi@yahoo.com abstract land forms are a result from interaction between lithosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere and biosphere. lithosphere composed of lithologic units and the main units of the study area are: limestone, marl, marley limestone, sandstone, pebbly sandstone, mudstone, claystone and secondary gypsum in addition to quaternary sediments. landforms of the study area can be subdivided according to their origin into many units: 1structuraldenudational: plateau, mesas, hills, cliffs and wadis; 2denudational: desert pavement and mushroom rock; 3-mass movements; 4solution: lake, salt marsh, piping caves; 5springs; 6fluvial: terraces, alluvial fan, infilled wadi, flood plain; 7drainage units; 8-evaporational: sabkha, secondary gypsum; 9aeolian: sand dune and sand sheets; 10biogenic: agamidae caves, wasp nest and termite nest; and 11anthropogenic origin. key words: earth surface processes, iraq, land forms, lithologic units, razzaza lake. introduction land forms response to the earth surface processes which resulted from interaction between lithosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere and biosphere. lithosphere, part of the earth, is composed of the hard outer layer (williams, 2012) which includes rock bed units. the main earth surface processes include erosion, transportation and deposition (merritts et al., 2010). land forms and earth surface processes are very important for engineering constructions, and publicsafety issues such as: landslides, debris flow, river flood and storm surges. earth scientist can’t understand the shaping of landforms without study and analysis of depositional environments to interpret the origin of some ancient sedimentary deposits (bridge and demicco, 2008). recent landforms and sedimentary deposits can be used to reconstruct the paleogeography and paleoclimate. it can be used to determine the lifestyle, habitats and life evolution of past organisms according to fossil evidence preserved in the rock bed units (bridge and demicco, 2008) in addition to study and interprets the reason of desertification and sand dune migration in arid areas. land forms and other geodiversity components: rocks, soils and water resources are considered the link between landscape and foundation of the ecosystem (santucci, 2005). the ecologist and natural resources specialist focus their interesting on the relationship between geodiversity components and biodiversity (stanley, 2002; gray, 2004; jackova and romportl, 2008; parks and mulligan, 2010; petrisor and sabro, 2010; mohammad and alzubaidi, 2014; alzubaidi et al., 2014). the aim of this study is to identify the land forms and earth surface processes to interpret their origin south west razazza lake. 78 earth surface processes and land forms materials and methods data collection depended on many field trips and field surveys to razazza lake and surrounded areas at the last five years to identify and recognize physical properties, chemical compositions of rocks in the field as a hand specimen or at the lab of rocks and minerals at the department of geology, college of science, university of baghdad. as well as monitoring the interaction between physical, chemical and biological factors and evolution of earth surface processes and land forms. in addition to using geologic and topographic maps, picture shot. location: razazza lake is located south west karbala city, between 32° 15' and 32° 45' north and 43° 25' and 44° 00' east (fig. 1). climate: the area is characterized by a semi-arid environment of hot dry summer, cold dry winter with annual rainfall (109 – 122 mm) mainly during january to april and annual evaporation (3194.3 – 3332.7 mm) (table 1). table (1): climatic data at karbala and najaf stations (according to igomi, 2000) station temp. max. (°c) temp. min. (°c) annual rainfall (mm) annual evaporation (mm) karbala 43 6.4 109 3332.7 najaf 44 6.4 122 3194.3 geologic setting: tectonically, the studied area is located on the abu jireuphrates fault zone, which extended from hit town to alsalman town. occurrence of tens of water springs considered a good indicator of active fault zone (sissakian et al., 2015).the footwall on the east of the fault coincided with karbala plateau, which are topographically highland area, while hanging wall on the west of the fault coincided with razazza lake and surrounded lowland areas. rock beds units of different lithology, exposed at studied area belong to tertiary (from older to younger) are: dammam, euphrates, nfayil, injana and dibdibba formations (sissakian, 2000 ; hassan, 2007) (table 2). quaternary sediments covered wide area near the lake such as gypcrete, sabkha, depression fill, flood plain and aeolian sediments (fig. 1). table (2): age, thickness and description of tertiary formation south west razazza lake (hassan, 2007; sissakian and mohammed, 2007). age formation thickness description quaternary aeolian, depression fill, flood plain gypcrete and sabkha. pliocene pleistocene dibdibba 118 m it’s exposed at the upper part of plateau near tar al-sayyed. consists of sandstone and pebbly sandstone. late miocene injana 31 m its crop out at the cliff of tar al-sayyed and at the adjacent isolated hills. consists of alternation of claystone, sandstone, silty claystone, thin bed of marly limestone and secondary gypsum. middle miocene nfayil 27 m its cover lowland areas adjacent to tar alsayyed. consists of cyclic alteration of limestone and marl. early miocene euphrates 4057 m the upper part exposed and the lower part below the surface. consists of medium bedded fossiliferous limestone. late eocene dammam upper member only is exposed in the studied area. consists of thick bedded limestone, marl and very rare lenses of chert. 79 aqeel a. alzubaidi and sadi kan jan figure (1) : geologic map of the study area ( cited by sissakian (2000)). results and discussion landforms of the study area can be subdivided according to their origin into many units: structuraldenudational, denudational, solution, fluvial, evaporational, aeolian, biogenic, anthropogenic origin. 80 earth surface processes and land forms 1. structuraldenudational origin: there are 5 types; plateau, mesas, hills, cliffs and wides. plateau: karbala (tar alsayyed) plateau (plate 1a) is the only plateau in the studied area which formed part of karbalanajaf alluvial fan. the length of the karbala plateau cliff is more than 105 kilometers, maximum high is more than 21 meters and its direction is nesw covered by gypcret (sissakian et al., 2015) and the rock bed units exposed on the cliff are belong to injana and dibdibba formation. karbala plateau is dissected by many flat dry wadis, with a few tens of meters length, and has gentle to medium slope. mesas: some mesas developed within nfayil formation. the top rock of these mesas composed of hard limestone. hills: some hills belong to injana formation isolated from the plateau by erosion, range in high from few to more than 20 meters which consist of claystone, sandstone and mudstone. other hills belong to nfayil formation occurred far away to the west of the plateau, range in high from few to more than 10 meters which consist of limestone and marl. cliffs: many cliffs developed on the western sides of the karbala plateau within upper part claystone of injana formation (plate 1b). these cliffs are usually vertical because it is the result from the intersection of two sets of joints perpendicular to the horizontal bedding plains. cliffs suffering from the pass movement. wadis: the plateau dissected by many flat, gentle slopes wadis (plate 1c), that declines to the west toward razazza lake. rainy water cannot flows on these wadis due to lack of rain fall and percolation of water in the friable sandstones of dibdibba formation on the plateau and in the aeolian sand sediments deposited on the wadis. 2. denudational origin: there are two types: desert pavement and mushroom rock. desert pavement: it is desert surfaces covered with closely packed subangular to sub rounded pebbles, which formed by the gradual removal of medium, fine and very fine particles of sand and leave the pebbles, about 5 centimeters in length, which originated from dibdibba formation or from karbalanajaf alluvial fan. desert pavement is developed on the surface of the some hills west of and on the eastern part of karbalashithatha road (plate 1c) particularly, against alqatara. mushroom rocks: it is look likes mushroom, from which its name was derived, naturally formed when the wind agent bears and moves sand particles on the earth surface, up to 50 centimeters in high, to abrasion the clayey limestone and marly claystone of the upper part of injana formation (plate 1d) which crop out on the plateau on the both sides of qatarat al imam ali wadi and other wadis near altar caves. 3. mass movement: according to varnes (1978) and summerfield (1991) in gray (2004), some mass movements observed in the study area such as: rotational slide, fall and subsidence (plate 1b) (table 3). 81 aqeel a. alzubaidi and sadi kan jan table (3): mass movements of studied area. mechanism type of mass movement materials nature of movement rate of movement slide, rotational slump of rocks mudstone rotational movement of rocks on the concave plain moderate or slow fall fall of rocks separated blocks vertical fall of blocks, like column extremely rapid subsidence cavity collapse mudstone and marly limestone collapse of soil and mud rocks on the cave bottom extremely slow 4. solution origin: there are three types; lake, salt marsh and piping caves. lake: there are three groups of lineaments affected and fractured rock bed units of the study area to form razazza depression in addition to habbaniya and tharthar depression in the north. lineament trends are: eastwest, north eastsouth west and north westsouth east (al kubaisi et al., 2014). one of the lineaments trend is parallel to the razazza depression trend, north westsouth east. rock bed units underlined razzaza depression consists mainly of carbonate rocks belong to nfayil formation (m. miocene) and/ or euphrates formation (e. miocene). then after the depression fed by underground water via fractures and from surface water of ephemeral streams to form razazza lake. water chemical analysis of near shore and off shore samples shows sulphitechloride type, and shows sodiumcalcium for near shore and sodiumcalciummagnesium type for off shore, and ph of near shore and off shore samples are alkaline 8.11and 7.19 respectively. the t. d. s. for near shore and off shore is 2917 ppm. and 29956 ppm. respectively (jassim and alzubaidi, 2013). salt marsh: some small lowland filled by spring water to form salt marshes which cover by reeds (plate 2-b). locals used them for buffalo breeding and used water for washing building sand. piping caves: it is irregular caves with different sizes (plate 1b), developed by solutions effect on claystone (hassan and alkhateeb, 2005) or by karstification on marly limestone (sissakian, 2016) of the upper part of injana formation that occurred on karbala plateau. 5. springs: more than 20 water springs structurerally controlled by euphrates (abu jir) fault zone, occurred in studying areas such as: seeb, zarga (blue), hamra (red) and lubruca, plenty of water (plate 2a) on which ain altamur town (shithatha) was established. involved springs dried after 2003 when the local gardeners digging deep water wells, more than 150 meters. in spite of chloride and sulphate water type, but it is used for irrigation of fruit gardens and vegetable farms. mentioned springs related to euphrates and dammam reservoirs, which feed by precipitation fall on the west area near iraqi border with saudi arabia. 6. fluvial origin: there are five types of fluvial origin land form; terraces, alluvial fan, infilled wadi and flood plain. terraces: wadi terraces are developed on large ephemeral wadis such as wadi alubaidh. alluvial fans: alluvial fan topography is common on some ephemeral wadis west of shithatha plain such as tabbal and alubaidh. the involved fan coalesced together to form 82 earth surface processes and land forms bajada on the plain, comprise poorly sorted and poorly cemented sediments which include gravels consist of limestone and chert (hamza, 2007). infilled wadis: the infilled wadis developed on main ephemeral wadis like; tabal, ubaidh and ghadaf. involved wadis trends usually parallel to each other because they are controlled by the same topographic slope direction from the west to the east. thickness of the involved sediments ranges from some centimeters till few meters, in wadi alubaidh (hamza, 2007). flood plain: large ephemeral stream is subjected to periodic flood, then after fine sediments are deposited on the wadi sides such as sand, silt and clay. sediment thickness varies from less than one meter to few meters (hamza, 2007). 7. drainage units: many ephemeral streams drain from the west into the razazza lake, such as: ubaidh (plate 2a), the nearby one, hzimi, ghadaf, abu mindhar, meela, tabbal, hamir and saffawiyat (sissakian, 2007). 8. evaporational origin: there are two types; sabkha and secondary gypsum. sabkha: it consists of sulphatechloride types, resulted from the high rate of evaporation and developed as a thin laminae on recent sediments or among particles of muddy and sandy soil on beach of razazza lake (jassim and alzubaidi, 2013), and on the lowland which seasonally filled by water west of shithatha plain. the source of the brine is the saturated water of razazza lake (hamza, 2007), underground and spring water. secondary gypsum: it is related to sandstone rock bed units of injana formation, exposed on the cliff (plate 2c). calcium sulphate may be derived from nfayil formation, underline injana formation, by solution, then after deposits after a high rate of evaporation. 9. aeolian origin: the land form result from aeolian processes is sand sediment such as trapped dune, shadow dune, barchans and sand sheet. aeolian sand sediments resulted from the accumulation of sand grains on three areas: dry beach, wadis and plateau. on dry beach sand sediments accumulated near the lower part of the wadis particularly near al-qatara (qatarat al-imam ali), (plate 2d) trapped by tamarix tree to form trapped dunes or deposited behind it to form shadow dunes or far away to form barchans with thickness range from a few centimeters to more than 2 meters. on the wadi, sand sediments move upward like fluid flow in channel, controlled by wind direction (nw), from downstream to upstream as a sand sheet; or hanging on the gentle slope topography. on the top of plateau sand sediments trapped by haloxylon salicornicum to form trapped and shadow dunes in addition to sand sheet, thickness of mentioned sediments up to 1 meter. 10. biogenic origin: organism when move on the earth surface produce trails and trucks or makes tunnels and burrows for food, reproduction and shelters. phanerozoic sedimentary rocks contain track ways and burrows which called trace fossils. recent biogenic structures (land forms) control by many factors: grain size and composition of sediments, temperature, water level, salinity, food supply and habitats (bridge and demmico, 2008). the biogenic landforms occurred in the study area produced by vertebrates and invertebrates organisms are: uromastyx microlepis (agamidae): it has predilection for burrow a shelter on the top of karbala plateau among dibdibba formation and quaternary sediments which comprises coarse sand and pebbles on flat open environment of sparse trees of haloxylon salicornicum. 83 aqeel a. alzubaidi and sadi kan jan sediments are consolidated by gypcret to be suitable substrate for digging by animals and not collapse (plate 1a). the shelter has a perimeter wall composed of excavated sediments. above mentioned habitat similar to mahazat assyd, in saudi arabia (willms et al., 2010). wasp nest: it is observed on the friable fine sandstone of the middle part of injana formation on the west side of altar cave hill on karbala plateau. the females of the sphecid wasps burrows its nest in sand and soil or in wood (murray, 1940; gillot, 2005; augul, 2013). termite nest: termite workers build and maintain their nest or a house for colony. it uses sand, soil, mud, chewed wood, saliva and faeces to produce an elaborate structure to protect living spaces and void water (harris, 1956). the nest of ground dweller termite is connected with underground structure to get proper temperature and humidity, which may be tens of meters long, to reach the ground water level (ptacek et al., 2013). termites nest observed on the tamarix tree branch occurred on the dry beach between razazza lake and plateau. the wall structure of the nest around the branch is built by coarse sand, and connected with ground for saving life and breeding. 11. anthropogenic origin: human activities, regarded as anthropogenic factor, alter the earth surface, in addition to abiotic and biotic factors (lorant, 2012), and also influence and accelerating alterations of natural environment directly (excavation, quarries, dams, tunnels, waste dumps, landfills, embankments and others) or indirectly (grazing, deforestation and irrigation). anthropogenic landforms result from changes on the earth surface by human due to his daily needs (ursu et al., 2011). anthropogenic landforms include: nontanogenic (mining), industrogenic, (industrial), urbanogenic (settlement), traffic, water management, agrogenic, tourism and sports (szabo et al., 2010). such approach needs to use gis techniques to achieve such structures. acknowledgments the authors are grateful to varoujan k. sissakian (private consultant geologist) for his critical reading of the manuscript. 84 earth surface processes and land forms 85 aqeel a. alzubaidi and sadi kan jan 86 earth surface processes and land forms literature cited al-kubaisi, m.s.; 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(2016) 14 (1): 77-89 وسط العراق –االشكال االرضية جنوب غرب بحيرة الرزازة السطحية والعمليات عقيل عباس الزبيدي وسعدي خان جان * جامعة بغداد -مركز بحوث ومتحف التاريخ الطبيعي *e-mail: aazubaidi@yahoo.com خالصةال والغالف تتكون االشكال االرضية من تفاعل مجموعة من االغلفة مثل الغالف الصخري، ويتكون الغالف الصخري من الوحدات الصخرية . ، و الغالف البيولوجيالجوي، و الغالف المائي المارلية، الصخور الكلسية، والمارلية، والكلسية : واهم هذه الوحدات في منطقة الدراسة هي والرملية، والرملية الحصوية، والغرينية، والطينية، والجبسم الثانوي، الى جانب رواسب العصر : ويمكن تقسيم االشكال االرضية لمنطقة الدراسة استنادا الى اصل نشوءها الى عدة وحدات. الرباعي ، والجروف الصخرية، التعروية، مثل الهضاب الكبيرة والمتوسطة، والتالل -الوحدات التركيبية -1 وحدات حركة -3. الصحراوي، وصخور شبيهة الفطر الوحدات التعروية، مثل البالط -2. والوديان . وحدات الينابيع -5. وحدات المحاليل، مثل البحيرة، واالهوار الملحية، والكهوف االنبوبية -4. الكتل . ديان المملوءة، والسهول الفيضيةالوحدات النهرية، مثل المصاطب، و المراوح الغرينية، والو -6 الوحدات الهوائية، -9. الوحدات التبخرية، مثل السبخة والجبسم الثانوي -8. وحدات التصريف -7 وحدات من اصل بيولوجي، مثل كهوف االرول، -11. مثل الكثبان الرملية، والصفائح الرملية ى وتهدف هذه الدراسة ال. انوحدات من اصل االنس -11. واعشاش الزنابير، واعشاش االرضة . و االشكال االرضية الناتجة منها تحديد العمليات السطحية 3 17 m. k. glaiim bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2009)10(4): 17-30 hunting behavior of the oriental hornet, vespa orientalis l., and defense behavior of the honey bee, apis mellifera l., in iraq murtadha k. glaiim department of plant protection, college of agriculture, kerbala university, karbala, iraq e-mail: murtadha_kareem@yahoo.com abstract when the guard honey bees, apis mellifera l., form a clump at the hive entrance or on the flight board, the oriental hornet, vespa orientails l., either creeps toward the clump or hovers over it in order to take a bee. once the hornet creeps, only few bees facing the hornet become alert, rock their heads and antennae, open their wings, and take a posture of defense. the rest of the clump stays listless without any signal of concern. however, the clump stays dense and the defending bees do not detach themselves neither from the rest of the clump nor from each other. for this reason, it is very difficult for the hornet to grab a bee unless the latter makes a “mistake” by detaching herself from other adjacent bees. if the hornet grabs such a bee, the other defending bees will not attack the hornet to free that bee even when the latter is one centimeter from the others. the defending bees can capture the hornet only when the latter grabs one of them which stands very close to the others. the hornet seems very “aware” of such a situation; hence she seldom becomes a captive. on the other hand, hovering over the clump makes it easier for the hornet to grab a bee. the hovering puts all the clump, rather than part of it, on alert. if the hornet is persistent, which is not often the case, then the clump will no longer be dense. the bees will panicly disperse all over the flight board; hence the hornet can find a detached bee and grabs it easily. the hornet also waits on wing in front of the hive to capture an outgoing or incoming flying bee but the latter usually maneuver to escape. also, foraging bees reduce their activity during main hours of hornet presence. among the main factors reducing the hornet impact are the continuous chasing of hornets to each other and the non-persistent attempts of the hornets when they attack bee clumps. introduction matsuura and sakagami (1973) cited that the genus vespa was only confined to the old world before vespa crabro was accidently introduced in the eastern north america and established there. at the present time; however, dvorak (2006) cited that the present number of vespa species introduced into americas is three: vespa crabro, v. orientalis, and v. simillima. the world distribution of vespa orientalis comprises northern part of africa, south eastern europe, south west asia across turkey and arabian peninsula to india and nepal, the sahara, ethiopia and madagascar, ( ishayet al., 1967 ). fell (1997) cited that it is distributed from the mediterranean to japan. dvorak (2006) stated that he received one worker of v. orientalis found at cozumel island, mexico in 1998. he believes that this find of v. orientalis from mexico represents the first known locality of this species in the americas. mailto:murtadha_kareem@yahoo.com 18 hunting behavior of the oriental hornet the oriental hornet, v. orientalis l., is one of the most important pests attacking honey bee colonies in many countries (ishayet al., 1967; klein and adler, 1996; gomaa and abd elwahab, 2006; haddadet al., 2006). a part from the damages in the bee colonies, the hornet causes a damage to grape and date fruits (ibrahim and mezid, 1967). the apiaries are places where the hornet can find the best combination of proteins from animal origin (bees and larvae) and carbohydrates (nectar and honey). beekeepers in all regions of iraq are familiar with the fact that this hornet is one of the key pests attacking honey bee colonies, apis mellifera l., beside the bee eater, merops spp., and the introduced mite, varroa jacobsoni. the present study, as far as we know, represents the first attempt in iraq to reveal the stratigies carried out by the hornet when attacking honey bee colonies and the latter stratigies for defense under the local conditions in iraq. revealing such stratigies of attack and counterattack may help in controlling this key pest. many studies have been conducted a broad on this subject but they involved other geographical races of apis mellifera (ishayet al. 1967; mastura and sakagami, 1973; haddadet al., 2006; papuchristoforou,et al. 2007). these studies revealed that different species and races of honey bees exhibit different types of behavior of counterattack against different species of hornets. materials and methods the study was carried out in central iraq where the honey bee, apis mellifera l., is kept in modern langstroth hives. the honey bee race found in this area is not pure. it is a random cross between the native race and introduced races, respecially apis mellifera carnica which was introduced at large scale state projects in the 1970’s and 1980’s from egypt. it is worth mentioning that brother adam believes that the native race of honey bee in iraq is a subdivision of a. m. syriaca (abdellatifet al. 1977). the study was conducted during 1988-1990 in baghdad, diyala, and al-anbar provinces. it is well known that summer season in these areas is very dry and hot, for maximum temperature may reach about 50 ْc with no rain at all. the notes on attack and counterattack behaviors were recorded through direct visual observations and by using video camera films. in all cases these behaviors were recorded as they took place naturally in the field without any kind of interruption or interference. results and discussion it is very common to see the workers of the oriental hornet, vespa orientalis l., in the bee yards during the day time in summer and fall seasons in iraq. worker hornets; however, do not spend all the time in hunting activity. they could be seen either flying in front of the hives, standing on the ground, chasing each other, attacking honey bees, or seeking dead bees and hornets. we may conclude that there are two behavioral factors minimizing the danger of the hornet on honey bee colonies. first, it seems that the hornet is usually cautious, hesitant and not that persistent in every one of the above mentioned activities. second, worker hornets spend a lot of time chasing each other. if the hornets were persistent and cooperative, or at least did not chase each other, they could cause a much more catastrophic damage to beekeeping industry. on the other hand, the local honey bee in iraq exerts a modest strategy of defence. this strategy is not that keen and effective such as that used by the japanese honey bee, apis cerana cerana, but it seems more effective than that of the italian race of honey bee, apis mellifera ligustica, as it will be discussed later. the hornets fly in the bee yard in a zigzag or undulating path as though they try to avoid barriers standing in their way. also, they suddenly stop or change their flight direction for unclear reason. when they stand or walk on the ground, they seem busy as though they are searching for something on the ground. this behavior takes place even when they are found on a bare ground devoid of any potential source of food such as dead bees and / or remnant of sugar syrup, etc. 19 m. k. glaiim the hornets face no difficulty at all in grabbing and taking creeping bees in front of the hives since these bees are usually cripple or sick such as those heavily infected by the ectoparasitic mite, varroa jacobsoni. dead honets of the same species and dead bees are also collected to be used as food. the hornets that are mechanically killed by the beekeepers are taken very quickly by the hornets. we disagree with ishayet al. (1967) who stated that dead bees are totally preferred to dead hornets to the extent that, “dead hornets were collected only after all bees had been collected”. when we killed hornets, honey bees, small grasshoppers, and dragonflies and put them near each other on the ground, we noticed that the hornets took them indiscriminately. the hornet alights on the ground before she grabs and takes a creeping bee or a dead bee or hornet. we have never observed a hornet taking a prey on wing as far as this prey is standing, walking, or lying on the ground or any support. chasing of hornets to each other takes place wheather they are walking or flying. in most cases, this antagonism does not lead to death of the hornets since they are not persistent in their chasing process. it seems that the hornets tend only to expel other rival ones rather than killing them. in one rare occasion, we observed two hornets that fought each other until one of them was killed and used as a food by the other. ishayet al. (1967) found that this antagonism takes place only among hornets belonging to different nests while the hornets of the same nest cooperate with each other in their hunting process. the hornets wait on wing in front of the hives during the time of foraging activity of the bees. they grab and take the bees while both of them are on wing. however; the success of hunting in this case is not guaranteed for two reasons. first, many bees are able to free themselves after being grabbed by the hornets. it seems that a hornet needs to stand on the ground or any support to insure a successful grasp of a bee. second, the bees usually avoid flying in a straight line when they find hornets waiting in their flight path. furthermore; worker honey bees are faster than worker hornets. ishayet al. (1967) found that the speed of flight of the worker hornets was about 2.6-3.8 m/sec the same authors reported that a honey bee on a windless day will fly at a speed of 7.5 m/sec unloaded and at 6.5 m/sec while carrying a load. however; we found that the hornets were more successful in capturing the bees when the latter were flying rather than standing and forming clumps on the flight boards or at hive entrances, especially when these clumps were large. the foraging bees usually reduce or even cease their flight when the number of hornets increases in the bee yard, and this is considered as an indirect effect of this pest. the other easy means for the hornets to capture bees are through waiting at small openings and crevices in the hives and through hunting at water sources. the openings and crevices in the hives are used by some bees as hive entrances instead of the main ones. the hornets can capture the bees entering or leaving such openings easily since no guard bees are found at them. also, we found that the smaller the opening or crevice is, the higher the opportunity a hornet has to capture a bee since the latter has a little chance to maneuver or escape. the hornets come to water sources either to drink water or to capture bees. some of these hornets were found to visit these sources only for hunting. in residential areas where people keep honey bees, it is common to see bees, hornets and other species of wasps at the water sources such as water taps, leaky water tanks (figure 1) and evaporative air coolers. the most difficult situation for the hornets is when they try to capture bees forming a dense clump at the hive entrance, (figure 2), especially when the colony is strong and populous. the hornets in such a situation follow one of two ways. they either creep up on the flight board toward the clump or hover over it. when a hornet creeps, all the clump bees stay very close to each other, and only few bees that face that hornet become alert and ready for counterattack. the rest of the clump stay listless as though the attack do not concern them. when the hornet becomes very close to the clump, ca. 2cm., these few bees take a gesture of defense. they rock their heads and antennae and open their wings, but they do not detache themselves neither from each other nor from the rest of the clump. when the hornet move closer toward 20 hunting behavior of the oriental hornet these bees, ca. 0.5cm, the latter raise their forelegs and protrude their mandibles. one or more of these bees move cautiously in very short and hesitant steps toward the hornet. also, some of these bees retreat and enter the center of the clump while other bees volunteer to replace them in facing the hornet, and so on. this continuous replacement of defending bees might be due to the “panic” imposed upon the bees by the hornet. however; the hornet can not usually capture a bee unless she distances herself at least one cm from the rest of the defending bees. we could not observe a hornet that captured a bee as long as she stood very close to other bees. but, once a bee makes a “mistake”, she becomes an easy prey since she can not resist the hornet that overwhelmingly overpowers her. if the hornet grabs such a bee, she will not find a help from her mates to free her even when she is about one cm from them. the defending bees can capture the hornet only when the latter grabs one of them which stands very close to the others. it seems that the hornet “realizes” this fact; hence she seldom becomes a captive. but, sometimes the hornets become too “desperate” and commit the mistake which leads to their capture. the hornet can not be captured unless more than one bee attack her at the same time. she tries vigorously to free herself, but she is usually encircled very quickly by more bees that are encouraged to participate in the counterattack. the bees usually pull the hornet inside the hive, but the hornet tries to pull herself together with the engaging bees far away from the clump. if she succeeds in this attempt, especially when she and the attacking bees fall down on the ground, the hornet usually succeeds not only in freeying herself but also in grabbing and taking one of the attacking bees. it seems that the bees use their legs and mandibles to grab and pull the hornets. when we inspected dead hornets after they were killed by the bees, we did not find bee stings on their bodies. papachristoforouet al. (2007) stated, “asian honeybees have been shown to kill hornets by thermo-balling, in which they surround a hornet to from a ball within which the temperature increases to a lethal level. we report here that cyprian honeybees, apis mellifera cypria, kill their major enemy, the oriental hornet, vespa orientalis, in a different way-by asphyxiaballing, in which the cyprian honey bees mob the hornet and smother it to death”. this mechanism explains how the bees kill the hornets, since the bees can not penetrate the hornet’s tough armour with their stings. we have already mentioned that the hornets are not that persistent in their course of attack on bee clumps. they usually give up their attempts after a while and leave the scene, especially when they face a serious resistance. but, we could observe in one occasion a single hornet that spent seven consecutive minutes in a persistent and continuous attack until she was finally able to capture a bee. there were about 50 bees making a dense clump at the hive entrance. the hornet creeped toward the clump and started her attempt to capture a bee in vain, since the defending bees were very close to each other. after about five minutes, the bees started a retreat movement into the hive, for it seems they could not withstand such an unusual persistent attack. however, their retreat was gradual and organized, except one bee that failed to be close enough to her mates. she was less than one centimeter from the nearest bee; hence the hornet pounced on this bee and grabbed her easily. the other way used by the hornets to capture bees making a dense clump on the flight board is by hovering over the clump. in most cases, hovering lasts only a few seconds since the hornets give up their attempts and alight far away from the clump. once a hornet hovers over the clump, most of the bees are put on alert in contrast to the situation when a hornet creeps toward them. the bees also rock their heads and antennae and open their wings. however, hovering for few seconds does not separate the bees from each other. but, if the hornet is persistent and hovers for a longer time, then the clump will no longer be dense (figure 3). some bees, especially those found at the edge of the clump, chase the hovering hornet, and they even reach the edge of the flight board far away from the clump core (figure 4). while the bees are busy in their chasing movement, they separate themselves from each other; hence the hornet alights and take one of them. when more than one hornet hover over 21 m. k. glaiim the clump, the latter is divided into many small groups (figure 5). sometimes, the clump takes the shape of a long strip (figure 6). we noticed that hovering hornets tend to retreat backward toward the edge of the flight board to entice the bees following them far away from the hive entrance where the core of the clump is usually found. ishayet al. (1967) described the defense behavior of both the syrian race, apis mellifera syriaca and italian race, a. m. ligustica, against the attack of vespa orientalis in palestine. it seems that the behavior of the honey bees in iraq resembles that of the syrian race. on the other hand, the behavior of the italian race is less effective. ishayet al. (1967) stated, “in most cases, the hornet will approach to within 1.5cm. of one of the bees standing at the entrance of the bee hive. it will then entice the bee to chase after it by executing sharp movements of retreat. the bee leaves its hive-mates and follows the retreating hornet, gradually closing the gap between them. the hornet suddenly pounces on the bee, grabs it with its legs and soars straight up”. haddadet al. (2006) confirmed previous observations of a reduced flight activity of honey bees elicited by the attack of v. orientalis in jordan. they also found that a.m. syriaca had superior ability to withstand hornet attacks compared with a. m. ligustica. they also found that traditional bee hives in jordan might be better suited to withstand attacks compared to modern langstroth hives. in japan, matsuura and sakagami (1973) stated that the japanese honey bee, apis cerana cerana, has developed an excellent defense against vespa mandarinia, while the introduction of the european honey bee, apis mellifera, offered a “ golden ” opportunity to this hornet. the hornet never visits colonies of the japanese honey bees placed near those of the european species. these authors found that a. mellifera defends its colony through solitary counterattack while a. cerana cerana developed two skillful and effective defense techniques, both not possessed by a. mellifera. one of the techniques is passive, the absence of solitary counterattack while the other is active, a rapid mass attack. ironically, the japanese honey bee is unable to resist the pillage by the european honey bee! subbiah and mahadevan (1958), however, mentioned that vespa cincta and v. tropica var. haematodes are serious pests of the indian honey bee, apis cerana in south india. they carry off the workers of the bees in great numbers from the hive entrances. in pakistan, muzaffar and ahmed (1986) stated that vespa basalis and v. velutina pruthi wait on wings in front of the hives and carry the bees of apis cerana to their nests since they overpower these bees during their flight. the hornets of vespa orientalis and v. tropica are fought back and defended upon by these bees. however; apis mellifera is more susceptible to hornet attack than a. cerana. unfortunately, all these workers did not mention the races of apis mellifera involved in these three countries. when a hornet grabs a bee with her legs, she flies rapidly in a straight line and alights on nearest tree branch or a grass or a thin stick of those covering the hive shade. if there is nothing of these materials, the hornet alights on any grass found in the vicinity. after alighting, the hornet, with her head down, hangs with one or two hind legs and starts to cut the bee head, wings, legs and abdomen and takes only the thorax to her nest. the same description was also mentioned by ishayet al. (1967). caron and schaefer (1986) found that vespa carbro also keeps only the thorax for the flight back to the nest. if the prey is too heavy, the hornet will chew up and fetch the meat while both hornet and the prey are on the ground. when we killed adult grasshoppers and put them on the ground in front of the hives, the hornets alighted beside them quickly and started attacking them. absconding of honey bee colonies is one of the results of hornet attack. when the colonies are heavily attacked they dwindle until they either perish or desert their hives. we found many hives, that were occupied by bee colonies before only few days, devoid totally of adult bees. when we opened these hives we found only worker hornets taking the food. 22 hunting behavior of the oriental hornet muzaffar and ahmed (1986) stated that at islamabad the european honey bee, apis mellifera, colonies having normal or even clipped queens abscond their hives when these colonies are heavily attacked by vespa spp. including v. orientalis. references abdellatif, m. a.; a. m. abou-elnaga; m. h. ali; p. m. shakir and m. k. al-jalili. 1977. biometrical studies on iraqi honey bees. j. apic. res. 16: 143-144. caron, dewey m. and paul w. schaefer. 1986. social wasps as bee pests. amer. bee j. 126: 269-271. dvorak, libor. 2006. oriental hornet vespa orientalis linnaeus, 1771 found in mexico ( hymenoptera, vespidae, vespinae ). entomological problems, 36:80. fell, r. d. 1997. insects: hymenoptera ( ants, wasps and bees ). in morse, r., flottum, k. (eds.), honey bee pests, predators and diseases. a. i. root company; ohio, usa: pp. 165-200 (3rd edition). gomaa, a. m. and t. e. abd el-wahab. 2006. seasonal abundance and the efficiency of yeast liquid culture (candida tropicalis) as bait for capturing the oriental wasps (vespa orientalis l.) under egyptian environment. j. appl. sci. res.2: 1042-1046. haddad, n.; s. fuchs and ahmed batainha. 2006. decrease of flight activity caused by vespa orientalis at the flight entrance of apis mellifera syriaca in jordan.proc.2nd. europ. conf. of apidology eurbee, prague (czech rep.) 10-16 sept., 2006. p. 77. ibrahim, mohammad m. and mahmoud m. mezid. 1967. studies on the oriental hornet. j. agric. res., minis. agric., cairo 2:115 – 130 ( in arabic ). ishay, j., h. bytinski-salz, and a. shylov. 1967. contribution to the bionomics of the oriental hornet (vespa orientalis fab.) isr. j. entomol. 2: 45-106. klein z. and h. adler. 1996. wasps and their control in israel. the joint int. conf. faopma-cepa on pest control in the 21st century. tel aviv, israel. 8-12 may, 1996. p.254. matsuura, makoto and shoichi sakagami. 1973. a. bionomic sketch of the gaint hornet, vespa mandarinia, a serious pest for japanese apiculture. j. fac. sci. hokkaido univ., ser. ii, zool. 19:125-162. muzzaffar, nasreen and rafiq ahmed. 1986. studies on hornets attacking honey bees in pakistan. pakistan j. agric. res.7: 59-63. papachristoforou, alexandros; agnes rortais; georgia zafeiridou; george theophilidis; lionel garanery; andreas thrasyvoulou and gerard arnold. 2007. smothered to death: hornets asphyxiate by honeybees. current biology 17:r795-r796. subbiah, m. s. and v. mahadevan. 1958. vespa cincta fabr. – a predator of the hive bees and its control. ind. j. vet. sci. 27: 153-154. 23 m. k. glaiim 24 hunting behavior of the oriental hornet 25 m. k. glaiim 26 hunting behavior of the oriental hornet 27 m. k. glaiim 28 hunting behavior of the oriental hornet 29 m. k. glaiim bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2009)10(4): 17-30 مر ي(سلوك لزنبور ألح شرق ي .vespa orientalis l) ال ألو ب سل ا ح ال ي مها مة ن ف apis mellifera l. ق را ف الع حل ك الن ذل ي ل ع و ا دفا سل وال م كري غلي ض رت م ت ة ال با وق ي م س عة/ ق كلية ال را الء ق جامعة كرب العرا ة ص الخال سل ل الع ح س لن ر حلا شغا ت ا م ال ج ا تت م يب عند خل .apis mellifera lاألور عند د ر مح أل و ا ة الز ب ن غال ن فإ ري ط حة ل و ى ل و عل ي(اخللي أ شرق أما .vespa orientalis l) ال ت ال شغا ك ا م تل دة ح ص و و ه م أ ل اقتن حت م ف ج ع أ جتاه ه ا الت ة ب ف ز ح قدم حاملا . تت ن ف ط م دًا ج ال دً قلي د ف فإن ع ز زنبو بال ش ع ا ك ي ق الة ذل د ج يت ت وا و ل سة ت ا ار ال ش ا ال الزنبور تدخل يف حالة تنبه أو إنذار حيث تشاهد وهي ز رؤوسها وقرون استشعارها وتفتح أجنحتها وتتخذ وقفة تأهب للدفاع يف حني تبقى بقية التجمع ساكنة وال تصدر عنها أية إشارة تجمع يبقى متماسكًا كما إن الشغاالت اليت لغاية هذا احلد فإن ال. تدل على االهتمام مبا جيري ً عن بعضها البعض أو عن بقية التجمع وهلذا دخلت يف حالة اإلنذار ال تفصل نفسها سواء السبب فإنه يصبح من الصعب جداً على الزنبور أن ميسك بإحدى النحالت إال إذا اقرتفت تلك ميسك الزنبور ويف حالة كهذه وعندما . بابتعادها عن النحالت ااورات هلا " غلطة " النحلة بتلك النحلة فإا سوف لن جتد من يبادر لنجدا واهلجوم على الزنبور من كل النحالت األخريات يف التجمع مبا يف ذلك النحالت الداخالت يف حالة التأهب واإلنذار حىت لو كانت لقد لوحظ بأن النحالت. تلك النحلة ال تبعد سوى سنتمرتاً واحداً فقط عن حافة التجمع الداخالت يف اإلنذار ال تقوم بالقبض على الزنبور املذكور إال إذا قام مبسك حنلة تقف مالصقة ملوقف كهذا ولذلك فإنه نادراً ما يقع يف أسر تلك " مدرك " لبقية النحالت ويبدو إن الزنبور 30 hunting behavior of the oriental hornet سبيًا من جهة أخرى ، فإن قيام الزنبور باحلوم فوق ذلك التجمع يسهل األمر عليه ن. النحالت لإلمساك بإحدى النحالت إذا ما قورنت تلك احملاولة مبحاولة االقرتاب زحفًا ذلك ألن حوم وإذا ما كان الزنبور . الزنبوم يدخل كل التجمع وليس قسمًا منه فقط يف حالة تأهب وإنذار ماسكًا احلائم مصراً ومثابراً يف مسعاه هذا ، وهو أمر غري مألوف عادة ، فإن التجمع لن يبقى مت وسرعان ما ينفرط عقده حيث إن حنالت التجمع تتفرق لع وتنتشر على عموم لوحة الطريان وهذا ما يسهل على الزنبور العثور على حنلة قد ابتعدت قليالً عن زميالا ويقوم عندئذ باإلمساك تظاره حملقًا امام أما الطريقة الثالثة اليت يتبعها الزنبور يف القنص فتتمثل بان. ا بسهولة ويسر اخللية من أجل اصطياد إحدى النحالت العائدات من طلعة سروح وهي ما تزال يف اجلو ولكن يضاف إىل . مثل هذه النحلة عادة ما تلجأ للمناورة يف خط طرياا لكي تفلت من االقتناص د فيها ذلك فإن النحل السارح يلجأ أيضًا إىل خفض معدالت سروحه خالل الساعات اليت يشت إن من بني العوامل اليت تقلل وطأة تأثري الزنبور هي كثرة انشغال أفراده . التواجد املكثف للزنبور يف مطارداا املستمرة لبعضها البعض من جهة وضعف اإلصرار أو املطاولة اليت تبديها تلك .رى األفراد عندما تقوم مبهامجة جتمعات النحل احلارس عند مدخل اخللية من جهة أخ bull 117 modhafer a. hamodie bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2016) 14 (2): 117-133 a vegetational study of the love creek nature center bfrr1en county, michigan historical, physical and ecological features modhafer a. hamodie osouleldeen university college, baghdad, iraq mhamodie@yahoo.com abstract the love creek nature center, one of the three nature centers located within the boundaries of berrien county, is owned and operated by the county for public enjoyment and instruction of nature. the 44.5 ha study area, located seven km east of berrien springs, and two km southwest of berrien center, on huckleberry road, in t6s, r17w, sections 16, 17 (lat. 41° 56' n; long. 86° 18' w) is made up of deciduous woods and abandoned fields at various stages of succession. it is bounded on the east by the berrien county dog pound and huckleberry road, to the north by cultivated berrien county land and the berrien general hospital, to the west by the recently closed berrien oronoko township landfill dump; and to the south by private property. love creek flows east to west across the length of the property and forms its curved western boundaries. it eventually empties into the nearby st. joseph river. the vegetation cover is represented by four distinctive communities of deciduous forests and four others: the marsh, the stream sides, the dry meadow, the disturbed area and trail sides. because of continued disturbance from all sides of the nature center, there is danger that considerable change in the vegetation may be forthcoming. this study is the first attempt to consolidate the known information about the love creek nature center area and to document its vegetation for future reference. key words: berrien county, forest, love creek, michigan, vegetational study. introduction in 1838, berrien county officials felt the need to purchase a "poor farm" for the needy individuals of the region. it was not, however, until 1847 that the berrien county board of commissioners purchased the property where the love creek nature center and berrien general hospital are now located. the first frame dwelling to be erected on the "poor farm" was completed in july of 1847. in 1869 the first brick structure was built on the portion of the property where the berrien general hospital is located today (ellis and ensign, 1880). to provide water for the "poor farm" complex, two dams were constructed on love creek: one small dam on the south fork just east of the confluence of the northern and southern tributaries of love creek, and a large one a short distance west of the confluence of the two streams. the construction date of the two dams is not known for certain, but the date 1903 was inscribed in the cement of the larger dam. how long the dams were in use is not known (charles barnes, former director of the center, pers. comm.). 118 a vegetational study of the love creek in 1962, a building to house the berrien county dog pound was built on huckleberry road. it is believed that the surrounding forest was cleared at that time (charles barnes, pers. comm.) and put into cultivation. apple trees were planted too, as old apple trees have been found in the area. the next known alteration of area took place in april 1970 when black walnut trees juglans nigra l. were logged from western portion of the property (anonymous, 1970). the full extent of the logging is not known. the center was dedicated and fenced as a public park in 1976. it was not, however, until 1977 that the center, with proper staff, was opened to the public. very little scientific information has been gathered about the area; two previous limnological studies by jackson and johnson (1974) and rule (1976) were concerned specifically with the microflora and fauna of love creek on a seasonal basis, and with various chemical and physical properties of the stream. more recently, kron (1982) has studied the indian bowl wet prairie region located one km northwest of the center. due to the proximity of lake michigan on the west side of berrien county, the climate of the county tends to be milder than would normally be expected at the same latitude. areas at the same latitude of michigan inland lower peninsula normally fluctuates in temperatures. the prevailing westerly winds produce cool spring and summer days, and mild autumn and winter temperatures. colder temperatures are generally associated with easterly and northerly winds. weather data from 1974 -85, from the nearest reporting station at eau clair, ml, located approximately seven km north of the center (at 42° 10' n, 86° 25' w), showed that the mean temperature for the warmest month, july, was 22.5c while the coldest month, january, was 5.8c. the highest average precipitation occurred in june (9.7 cm), with the lowest in december (1.3 cm). the love creek nature center is 1,552 m long and consists of three major sections: eastern, middle and western. the eastern section is the largest (26.5 ha) with a length of 576 m and a width of 430 m. the middle region is the smallest and narrowest having a length of 322 m, with a width of 137 m in the east, while being only 80 m across at the western end. the western section of the study area has a semicircular shape, with the middle portion being widest. this section is 644 m long and 279 m wide. the area of both the middle and the western sections is 18 ha. the topography of the area consists of rolling hills separated by moist, wooded valleys (fig. 1). flat ridges, moderately steep slopes, and stream valleys are found throughout the entire length of love creek and its tributaries. the maximum elevation (230 m or 760 ft) is reached at the southeastern corner, whereas the minimum elevation is located at the extreme western end (197 m or 650 ft). lowlands bordering love creek slope from east to west. the north-eastern section is relatively level, with a southward slope towards the creek. the southeast section is characterized by a lowland marsh bordered on the east by a ridge, which also represents the eastern border of the center. the middle section is relatively low compared with the eastern and western ones; the western segment includes an elevated area that slopes steeply towards love creek. it reaches to the lowest point of nature center at the love creek western exit. seven soil types exist within the love creek nature center, based on information from the soil conservation service (fig. 2). the physical and chemical characters associated with the soil types are given in table 1. 119 modhafer a. hamodie the majority of the forest communities in love creek nature center are located on major well drained soil types: riddle oshtemo soil complex and/or the oshtemo sandy loam. the imperfectly drained monitor loam, abscota, and the poorly drained cohoctah soils are minor units of the succession forest soil. the marsh pond community is growing on the aquents and histosols soils whereas the stream community runs through a mixture of various soil types: oshtemo sandy loam, monitor loam, cohoctah, spinks loam and udorthents and udipsamments soils. the communities of the exposed habitats, the north division of the dry meadow, and the disturbed areas are growing on oshtemo sandy loam and riddle oshtemo soil complex respectively. the former soil type is located in a limited portion of the disturbed area (3), which appears as a continuous extension of the mesic deciduous forest soil while the latter soil type is in the south division of the dry meadow. the forested areas of the nature center are rich with a mixture of deciduous, beech-maple forest, and herbaceous elements which characterize southwestern michigan wood. some studies in such woods include sandhill woodlot (frye, 1976 a, b) and baker woodlot (beach and stevens, 1980) in east lensing in ingham co., toumey forest (schneider, 1966), sandford natural area (beaman, 1970), cooper's glen woodlot in kalamazoo county (zager and pippen, 1977), the sand dunes along lake michigan (wells and thompson, 1982), and warren woods (billington, 1924; braun, 1950; donnelly, 1986; donnelly and murphy, 1987) in berrien county, niles township (kee, 1982) and robinson preserve (carter, 1972; reiss, 1986). the disturbed areas and the dry meadow of the center have a composition similar to other dry meadows of southwestern michigan such as a tract studied by brewer et al. (1969). the marsh and the streamside communities are conspicuously devoid of submerged and floating aquatic plants, except for duckweed, lemna minor l. which is occasionally present in the marsh. materials and methods the arborescent vegetation was analyzed by the point-centered quarter method (cottom and curtis, 1956). because of the short distance between the trees, parallel compass lines with sampling points, every 10 m, were adequate for sampling. all transects were initiated 10 m from the edge of each stand except in the forest strip along the northern edge of the marsh (fig. 3). because of its narrowness, an east -west transect through the middle part of this formation was made. the number of sampling points in each forest community was proportional to the area with 73 points in the upland deciduous forest, 63 points in the mesic deciduous forest, 19 points in the forest strip along the northern edge of the marsh, and 169 points in the succession forest. only individuals with a stem diameter at breast height (dbh) of at least 5 cm, and taller than 3 m, were considered as trees. important value (iv) was calculated by summing up relative density, relative frequency, and relative dominance. the shrub and herbaceous layers were not studied quantitatively due to lack of time. the relative abundance of individual species however was recorded using visual estimation according to the following abundance scale after tansley and adamson (1913) and phillips (1959). d = dominant (i.e. gregarious as to occupy and control any layer of vegetation) c = common (never or rarely out of sight) f = frequent (frequently observed) o = occasional (occasionally observed) r = rare (solitary, found only after thorough exploration). identification and nomenclature are based on gleason and cronquist (1963). 120 a vegetational study of the love creek results following preliminary observations eight habitats were chosen because their vegetation was relatively distinct. these were: upland deciduous forest, mesic deciduous forest, the forest strip along the northern edge of the marsh, succession forest, marsh, stream side, dry meadow and the disturbed areas and trail sides (fig. 3). list of distinctive species for the four forests were made as in tables 2 to 5 whereas a brief description for the ground cover of the whole communities are given as below. 1. the upland deciduous forest: the well-developed understory consisted various herbaceous plants like the canada violet, viola canadensis l.; water leaf, hydrophyllum canadense l., and h. appendiculatum michx, which were tolerant of the cool, shaded and low light intensity conditions in this forest. these conditions were ideal for the pteridophytes, narrow-leaved spleenwort, athyrium pycnocarpon (spreng.) tidest and ground-cedar, lycopodium complanatum l. which were found only in this habitat. ginseng, panax quinquefolium l. was also, only observed in this forest. 2. the mesic deciduous forest : tulip tree, liriodendron tulipfera l. (31.61) tended to occur with higher frequency in the waterlogged zone near the marsh and at the base of the slope; a habitat where this species is usually observed in michigan (thompson, 1981). one large tree of chestnut, castanea dentata (marsh.) borkh (dbh 30.7 cm), and several saplings in apparent good health, were observed but not encountered in sampling. during spring, the forest floor was a lush carpet of dominant trillium, trillium grandiflorum (michx.) salisp. it was also ideal for other species like viola canadensis l.; may-apple, podophyllum peltatum l.; false mermaid, florkea proserpinacoides willd.; sweet cicely, osmorhiza claytonia (michx.) clark; jack in the pulpit, arisaema triphyllum (l.) schott. and many others. swamp saxifrage, saxifraga pensylvanica l. was only seen in this habitat. 3. the forest strip along the northern edge of the marsh: the herbaceous layer was comprised of skunk cabbage, symplocarpus foetidus (l.) nutt; stinging nettle, urtica dioica ssp. gracilis (ait) selander; hedge-nettles, stachys hispida pursh. sensitive fern, onoclea sensibilis l. and species of sedge carex. this habitat also harboured species from the adjacent marsh and dry meadow communities. 4. succession forest: herbaceous plants, in various degrees of abundance, made up the ground cover. they included arisaema triphyllum (l.) schott; trillium grandiflorum (michx.) salisb; aster cordifolius l.; frost aster, a. pilosus l.; crinkleroot, dentaria diphylla michx.; lopseed, phryma leptostachya l.; grape fern, botrychium spp.; beech-drops, epifagus virginiana (l.) bart.; rattlesnake plantain, goodyera pubescens (willd.) r.br. and many others. 5. the marsh: the vegetation of the marsh appeared to be determined by the depth of water. in muddy shallow canals isolated stands of the species, arrowhead, sagittaria latifolia willd.; monkeyflower, mimulus ringens l.; blue vervain, verbena hastate l.; marsh marigold, caltha palustris l.; bur-reed, sparganium americanum nutt. were encountered. the largest area of the marsh is composed of raised, decaying organic mat which included cat-tails, typha latifolia l. and cut grass, leersia oryzoides (l.) sw. 121 modhafer a. hamodie the most common herbaceous species in the marsh were redstem aster, aster puniceus l.; boneset, eupatorium perfoliatum l.; joy-pye weed, e. maculatum l.; swamp-milk weed, asclepias incarnate l. and willow-herb, epilobium palustre l. 6. the stream sides: love creek originates from a swampy area near the village of berrien center and empties into the st. joseph river after leaving a flood plain wet prairie fen area known as "indian bowl" (barnes and kohring, 1978). the greatest portion of the creek lies within sections 16 and 17 of berrien county. the average width of the stream in the nature center was approximately 50 cm wide with a depth of 15 to 40 cm. the water is cool and flows fast in a narrow and shallow channel. small, open, shallow areas occur along the sides of the north fork. it was here that horsetail; equisetum hyemale l. was dominant. various species of carex and grasses were found in more open areas. the grasses included red top, agrostis gigantean roth.; reed meadow grass, glyceria melicaria (michx.) f.t.hubb. and roughstalked meadow grass, poa trivalis l. the soft rush, juncus effuses l. and path rush, j. tenuis willd. were occasionally distributed on both sides of the stream. they were found most abundantly in lowland floodplains where the north and south fork join each other. 7. the dry meadow: this, the driest habitat of the nature center, is located in the east central portion. a ridge of planted red pin, pinus resinosa ait. divides the meadow into two unequal, north and south divisions. the smaller southern division is located along the northwest side of the marsh and is separated from the marsh by the forest strip along the northern edge of the marsh. this division of the dry meadow is a grassy area dominated by bromus inermis leyss. and cheat, b. secalinus l., while the larger, northern division, is dominated by aster pilosus l.; wild carrot, daucus carota l., and canada goldenrod, solidago canadensis l. the dry meadow has been greatly disturbed by man. forty-five years ago, the area was planted for agricultural crop (charles barnes, pers. comm.). in the southwest part of the meadow, there is a small successional stand of young trees; white ash, fraxinus americana l.; prunus serotine ehrh.; the american linden, tilia americana l.); ulmus americana l., and the vine, riverbank grape, vitis riparia michx. 8. the disturbed area and trail sides: disturbed areas occupy two parts of the love creek nature center. the first site is located near the old abandoned northern entrance and parking lot of the nature center, while the second disturbed location is gently rolling from huckleberry road, on the east, to the dry meadow on the west. cultivated shrubs and seedlings planted near each of the entrances of the center, the parking lots and the information office include: balsamfir, abies balsamea (l.) mill.; acer saccharum marsh.; redbud, cercis canadensis l.; cornus stolonifera michx.; the cork-winged euonymus, euonymus alata (thunb.) sieb.; common privet, ligustrum vulgare l.; the colorado spruce, picea pungens engelm.; white pine, pinus strobus l.; white poplar, populus alba l.; japanese yew, taxus cuspidate sieb & zucc., and the american arbor-vitae, thuja occidentalis l. the whole area was subjected to recent disturbance; hence various annual, biennial, and perennial weeds exist. the dominant herbs in the disturbed areas are ragweed, ambrosia artemisiifolia l.; aster pilosus l., the common orchard grass, dactylis glomerate l.; daisy fleabane, erigeron annuus (l.) pers.; wild strawberry fragaria virginiana duchesne; evening primrose, oenothera biennis l.; and solidago canadensis l. occasional species were corn cockle, agrostemma githago l.; bouncing bet, saponaria officinalis l., butterfly-weed, asclepias tuberosa l., and wild-bergamot, monarda fistulosa l. patches of epilobium palustre l., were found in moist marginal locations in the disturbed habitats. 122 a vegetational study of the love creek a few plants from the main disturbed areas were introduced accidentally along some of the nature trails. the common plants were: sweet rocket, hesperis matronalis l.; motherwort, leonurus cardiac l.; common plantain, plantago major l.; common dandelion, taraxacum weber); hedge-bindweed, convolvulus sepium l.; and black nightshade, solanum nigrum l. contour interval 10 feet (3 meters) datum is mean sea level figure (1): topography of the love creek nature center, berrien county, michigan (from a topographic map of berrien springs, dept. interior geological survey, u.s.g.s. and u.s.c. & g.s., u.s.a. 1971) figure (2): soils map of the love creek nature center, berrien county, michigan (after larson, 1980) 1, 3, 6 = riddles-oshtemo complex 4,5,2,8 = oshtemo sandy loam 13, 12 = spinks loamy sand 11 = udorthents and udipsamments 9 = aquents and histosols 10 = monitor loam 7 = cohoctah-ahscota sandy loam. 123 modhafer a. hamodie 124 a vegetational study of the love creek 125 modhafer a. hamodie 126 a vegetational study of the love creek table (2): upland deciduous forest composition in the love creek nature center determined by point centered quarter method. data are based on 73 sample points. species relative density relative frequency relative dominance importance value (1.v.) acer saccharum marsh. 26.03 23.15 23.71 72.89 ulimns rubra muhl. 13.01 14.29 10.44 37.74 prunus serotine ehrh. 11.30 12.81 12.75 36.86 rohinia pseudoacacia l. 10.27 9.85 15.35 35.47 liriodendron tulipifera l. 6.85 7.88 11.33 26.06 fagus grandifolia ehrh. 7.88 6.90 7.66 22.44 quercus borealis michx. 4.79 4.43 5.90 15.12 fraxinus americana l. 5.14 5.91 3.23 14.28 sassafras albidum (nutt.) nees 2.40 2.96 2.98 8.34 carpinus caroliniana walt. 2.74 3.94 0.94 7.62 ostrya virginiana (mill.) k. koch 2.40 2.46 1.12 5.98 celtis occidentalis l. 1.71 1.48 1.18 4.37 asimina triloba (l.) dunal 1.37 1.48 0.42 3.27 carya cordiformis (wang.) k.koch 0.68 0.99 0.82 2.49 juglans nigra l. 0.68 0.49 0.94 2.11 ulmus americana l. 0.34 0.49 0.95 1.78 crataegus holmesiana ashe 0.68 0.49 0.27 1.44 note: the mean distance between trees was 3.84 m. 127 modhafer a. hamodie table (3): mesic deciduous forest composition in love creek nature center determined by point centered quarter method. data are based on 63 sample points. species relative density relative frequency relative dominance importance value (1.v.) ulmus rubra muhl. 32.15 27.88 27.30 87.33 prunus serotine ehrh. 20.24 21.82 27.82 69.88 liriodendron tulipifera l. 11.11 12.12 8.38 3 31.61 carya cordiformis (wang.) k.koch 7.54 6.67 5.22 19.43 acer saccharum marsh 5.56 7.88 4.27 17.71 fraxinus americana l. 5.16 6.06 3.72 14.94 quercus borealis michx 5.16 4.85 4.86 14.87 fagus grandifolia ehrh. 3.17 3.64 4.82 11.63 juglans nigra l. 1.59 0.61 3.53 3.73 tilia americana l. 1.59 2.42 1.21 5.22 asimina triloba (l.) dunal. 1.98 1.21 1.02 4.21 populus tremuloides michx 1.19 1.21 0.77 3.17 celtis occidentalis l. 0.79 1.21 0.61 2.61 ostrya virginiana (mill.) k.koch 0.40 0.61 0.26 1.27 carpinus caroliniana walt. 0.40 0.61 0.23 1.24 note: the mean distance between trees was 3.20 m. 128 a vegetational study of the love creek table (4): the forest strip along the northern edge of marsh composition in the love creek nature center determined by the point centered quarter method. data are based on 19 sample points. species relative density relative frequency relative dominance importance value (1.v.) prunus serotine ehrh. 27.63 25.00 25.27 77.90 acer saccharum marsh 18.42 15.39 27.32 61.13 ulmus rubra muhl. 21.05 17.31 17.16 55.52 fraxinus americana l. 6.58 9.62 9.00 26.20 acer rubrum l. 5.26 5.77 2.54 15.66 populus tremuloides michx 5.26 5.77 2.47 13.57 carpus caroliniana walt. 3.95 5.77 2.47 12.19 salix amygdaloides anderss. 2.63 3.85 5.60 12.08 liriodendron tulipifera l. 1.32 1.92 2.67 5.91 querus borealis michx. 1.32 1.92 1.74 4.98 carya cordiformis (wang.) k.koch 1.32 1.92 1.59 4.83 fagus grandifolia ehrh 1.32 1.92 1.10 4.34 morus rubra l. 1.32 1.92 0.84 4.08 note: the mean distance between trees was 3.14 m. 129 modhafer a. hamodie table (5): succession forest composition in the love creek nature center determined by the point centered quarter method. data are based on 169 sample points. species relative density relative frequency relative dominance importance value (1.v.) fraxinus americana l. 22.85 25.45 23.51 71.81 prunus serotine ehrh. 23.29 23.94 21.13 68.56 ulmus rubra muhl. 26.11 14.85 24.44 65.40 quercus borealis michx. 7.57 9.09 7.12 23.78 acer saccharum marsh. 3.56 5.45 5.56 14.57 liriodendron tulipifera l. 2.52 3.95 3.67 10.12 tilia americana l. 2.08 3.94 1.74 7.76 juglans nigra l. 0.89 1.52 4.35 6.76 salix exigua nutt. 1.04 1.82 1.41 4.27 carya cordiformis (wangenh.) k. koch 1.19 1.82 1.21 4.22 asimina triloba (l.) dunal. 1.19 1.49 0.75 3.43 sassafras albidum (nutt.) nees 0.74 1.52 0.52 2.78 fagus grandifolia ehrh. 0.59 0.91 1.19 2.69 rhus typhina l. 1.04 0.91 0.54 2.49 ostrya virginiana (mill) k.koch 0.59 0.91 0.89 2.39 carpinus caroliniana walt 0.74 0.91 0.62 2.27 salix rigida muhl. 0.59 0.30 0.61 1.50 celtis occidentalis l. 0.30 0.60 0.26 1.16 pyrus malus l. 0.15 0.30 0.35 0.80 morus rubra l. 0.15 0.30 0.14 0.59 note: the mean distance between trees was 2.86 m. 130 a vegetational study of the love creek discussion topographic diversity, differences in soil moisture and drainage, the history of the site and the seed source, the disturbances of some areas in the center, and the introduction of some plants are all factors that have contributed to the local variation of the vegetation. the vegetation of love creek nature center is still subject to some disturbances. the task now is to consider carefully the nature and extent of the use made of the area and to apply protective measure where necessary. uncontrolled disturbance will lead to serious loss of rare and sensitive species and the introduction of additional "weeds". the general defacement of the environment will inevitably lead to an alteration of the flora. following this survey a management plan for the center can be constructed ensuring the continuation of a diverse association of plants on its grounds. management activities that would maintain both the heterogeneity within each of the four woods and the high number of plant species in each community (see checklist in hamodie 2016 in prep.) are necessary to apply. it would be desirable not to obstruct the present water flow in order to keep the marsh and the streamside's communities in their present state. the challenge of the love creek nature center, the local people, and the staff of the center is to respond to the needs of present and future land use in a way that will maintain both the center's beauty and usefulness for generations to come. note: a set of voucher specimens has been deposited in babylon university herbarium, iraq (bln) acknowledgement my appreciation to mr. khalid j. rasheed for his assistance in typing this manuscript. literature cited anonymous. 1970. berrien county parks and recreation commission, minutes (apr. 16, 1970). barnes, c.r. and kohring, m. 1978. indian bowl wet prairie and area site plan and environmental impact assessment. preliminary study. unpublished report. 44pp. beach, j.h., and stevens, w.d. 1980. a study of baker woodlot. ii. description of vegetation. michigan botanist, 19: 3-13. beaman, j.h. 1970. a botanical inventory of sandford natural area i. the environment., 9: 116-139. billington, c. 1924. the flowering plants and ferns of warren woods. berrien county, michigan. pap. michigan acad. sci., 4(1): 81-110. braun, e.l. 1950. deciduous forests of eastern north america. hafner publishing co., inc., new york. 596pp. 131 modhafer a. hamodie brewer, r., raim, a. and robins, j.d. 1969. vegetation of michigan grassland and thicket. occasional papers c.c. adams, center for ecological studies. dept. of biology. western michigan university. kalamazoo, 29pp. carter, j.w. 1972. an overstory floristic analysis and mapping study in the robinson reserve unpublished m.a. thesis, biology dept., andrews univ., berrien springs, mi. cottam, g. and curtis, j.t. 1956. the use of distance measures in phytosociological sampling. ecology, 37: 451-460. donnelly, g.t. 1986. forest composition as determined by canopy gap dynamics: a beechmaple forest in michigan. dissertation, dept. of botany and plant pathology, michigan state university, east lansing. donnelly, g.t. and p.g. murphy. 1987. warren woods as forest primavalia comparison of forest composition with pre-settlement beech-sugar maple forests of berrien county, michigan. michigan botanist, 26(1): 17-24. ellis, f. and ensign, d.w. 1880. history of berrien and van buren counties, michigan. j.b. lippincott and co., phil. 548pp. frye, d.m. 1976a. a botanical inventory of sandhill woodlot, ingham county, michigan. i. the vegetation. michigan botanist, 15(3): 131-140. frye, d.m. 1976b. a botanical inventory of sandhill woodlot, ingham county, michigan. ii. checklist of vascular plants. michigan botanist, 15(4): 195-204. gleason, h.a., and cronquist, a. 1963 manual of vascular plants of northeastern united states and adjacent canada. van nostrand reinhold co., new york. 810pp. jackson, g. and johnson, d. 1974. biological investigations of love creek. unpublished report of the michigan bureau of water management and fisheries division, dept. of natural resources. 12pp. kee, j. 1982. a floristic study of a natural area along ontario road, niles township, berrien county, michigan. unpublished m.s. thesis. biology dept., andrews univ., berrien springs, mi. 83pp. kron, k. 1982. the vegetation of indian bowl wet prairie and its adjacent communities. unpublished m.s. thesis. dept. of botany and plant pathology, michigan state university, east lansing. 139pp. larson, j.d. 1980. soil survey of berrien county, michigan. u.s.d.a. soil conservation service and michigan agricultural experiment station. 192pp. with 90 soil maps. phillips, e.a. 1959. methods of vegetation study. henry holt and co. inc. n.y. 107pp. 132 a vegetational study of the love creek reiss, a.h. 1986. a floristic study of the robinson preserve chikaming township, berrien county, michigan. unpublished m.s. thesis. biology dept., andrews univ., berrien springs, ml. rule, c.t. 1976. a winter to summer limnological survey of love creek. m.a. thesis. andrews university, berrien springs, mi. 47pp. schneider, g. 1966. a twenty-year ecological investigation in a relative undisturbed sugar maple-beech stand in southern michigan. michigan agric. exp. sta. res. bull. 15: 6lpp. tansley, a.g. and adamson, r.s. 1913. reconnaissance in cotteswolds and the forest of dean. j. ecol., 1(2): 81-89. thompson, p.w. 1981. vegetational studies on tuliptree stands in southwestern michigan. michigan botanist , 20(1): 27-31. wells, j.r. and thompson p.w. 1982. plant communities of the sand dunes region of berrien county, michigan. michigan botanist , 21 (1): 3-38. zager, p.e. and pippen, r.w. 1977. fifteen years of change in a southwest michigan hardwood forest. michigan botanist, 16(4): 201-211. 133 modhafer a. hamodie bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2016) 14 (2): 117-133 كريكدراسة الغطاء الخضري في المركز الطبيعي لوف (love creek nature center )بيرين كاونتي الواليات المتحدة –مشيغان مظاهر تاريخية وطبيعية وبيئية مظـفــر عبـــود حمـــــودي كلية أصول الدين الجامعة بغداد ةصالخال المركز الطبيعي لوف كريك هو واحد من ثالث مراكز طبيعية يقع ضمن حدود بيرين كاونتي تعود ملكيته وادارته الى الحكومة المحلية في بيرين كاونتي والغرض من اقامته هكتار ويبعد سبعة كيلومترات الى 44..مساحة المركز . للمتعة للناس ودراسة الطبيعة لومترين الى الجنوب الغربي من مركز القرية بيرين، يقع الشرق من بيرين سبرنكز و كي 56خط عرض) 61و 61ضمن القسمين t6s, r17wعلى شارع هاكلبري في / 41 o 18شماال، خط طول / 86 o مكون من غابات نفضية وحقول في مراحل مختلفة من (. غربا يحده من الشرق مركز لسكن الكالب السائبة للكاونتي وشارع هاكلبري، . التعاقب الخضري والى الشمال ارض مزروعة مملوكة لبيرين كاونتي ومستشفى عام بيرين والى الغرب جدول الماء . ذات ملكية خاصةمطمر نفايات بلديتي بيرين واوراناكو والى الجنوب ارض لوف كريك يجري من الشرق باتجاه الغرب قاطعا المركز الطبيعي عرضيا ليكون الجزء المنحني منه حدود المركز الطبيعي غربا وفي النهاية يصب في نهر سانت جوزيف القريب .منه زة عن بعضها يتمثل الغطاء النباتي بوجود اربعة مجتمعات نباتية لغابات نفضيه متمي إضافة الى اربعة مجتمعات نباتية أخرى هي مجتمع الهور ومجتمع نباتات تنمو على ضفتي الجدول المائي ومجتمع الحقل الجاف ومجتمع مناطق تعرضت للعبث وعلى جانبي ممرات بسبب العبث المستمر المتمثل بقطع األشجار ورمي النفايات واإلساءة الى البيئة . سير الناس . لخطر يهدد الغطاء الخضري لمركز لوف كريك الذي قد يحصل مستقبالفان ا هذه الدراسة هي المحاولة االولى لجمع معلومات معروفة عن المركز الطبيعي لوف .كريك ودراسة الغطاء الخضري للتوثيق كمرجع مستقبلي 4 31 a. a. hamodi & m. s. abdul-rassoul bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2009)10(4): 31-37 *new record of thrips species (thysanoptera: thripidae) from middle of iraq awatif abdul-fatah hamodi** and mohammed saleh abdul-rassoul*** **department of plant protection, college of agriculture, baghdad university ***iraq natural history museum baghdad university, baghdad, iraq abstract nineteen thrips species recorded in center of iraq during 1999-2001, four of them was recorded by el-haidari & daoud, 1967; thrips tabaci lindeman, retithrips syriacus (mayet), parascolothrips prieseri mound, anaphthrips sudanensis trybom. fifteen species are recorded for the first time in iraq, thrips meridionalis (priesner), microcephalothrips abdominils(crawford), scolothrips pallidus (beach), scolothrips sexmaculatus (pergande), scritothrips mangiferae priesner, frankliniella schultzie trybom, frankliniella unicolor morgan, frankliniella tritici bagnall, retithrips aegypticus marchal, retithrips javanicus mayet, taeniothrips gowdeyi (bagnall),chirothrips meridionalis bagnall, chirothrips mexicanus crawford, chirothrips hamatus trybom, on different plants, with locality and date, all the specimen was keeped in iraq nat.hist. mus. and buy author. introduction there are no more study for thrips in iraq except thrips tabaci (al-faysali, 1980) and (elhaidari & daoud, 1971). thrips is an important insects, which are causes adamge for plant, and its wailed distribution on many plants (ullman&german, 1997), transparent a pathogens, (bacteria, fungus, virus), appearing as a pest (gentry, 1965), as onion thrips and vein thrips (rivany, 1939). a smaller size, plant speciestion, parthenogenesis, helped to easy distributed (morison, 1957). but there are some benifianal species predator another small arthropoda; mite, white fly, insects egg, as parascolothrips priesneri mound in iraq, and scolothrips sexmaculatus priesner. al-ali, 1971 was recorded some of these. result: *thrips tabaci lindeman thrips tabaci lindeman, 1888. bull. mosc. 61-75. 42 female, from baghdad collected in may 1999march 2000, on, gossypium sp.; lycopersicum esculentum; medicago sativa; solanum tuberosum; rosa regosa; allium cepa; anethum graveolens; punica granatum; and from dylia ,oct. 1999; babylon in june 2000, on the same plants. *thrips meridionalis (priesner) taeniothrips meridionalis (pri.) 1926. did thysanoptera europas 2:301. thrips meridionalis (priesner); bhatti, 1978. oriental insect. 12(2): 191-193. 50 females from baghdad collected in dec. 1999 – fab. 2000. on cucumis sativus; amaryllis sp.; rosa regosa; vicia faba; allium cepa; cardaria lepidium; silybum marianum. * apart of m. sc. thesis of the first author. 32 new record of thrips species *microcephalothrips abdominalis (crawford) (composite thrips) thrips abdominalis crawford, 1910. pomana coll. j. ento. 2:157. microcephalothrips abdominalis (crawford); bailey, 1937. canada. ent. 66:122. 16 females from baghdad collected in 10-8-1999 on chrysanthemum sp.; sorghum vulgare; and from dylia in 6-16-1999, on helianthus annuus. *parascolothrips priesneri mound parascolothrips priesneri mound, 1967, bull. ent. res.57: 315-317. 6 females from baghdad /abu-gharib collected in 28-10-1999, on pyrus communis predator stephanits pyri fab. (author). *scolothrips pallidus (beach) thrips pallidus beach, 1896. iowa. ac. 3:226. scolothrips sexmaculatus (beach) ;hinds, 1902, proc. u.s. nat. hist. 26,no. 1310:157. 3 females from baghdad /abugharib collected in 9-10-1999, on pyrus communis; nerium oleander. *scolothrips sexmaculatus (pergandes) thrips sexmaculatus pergande, 1894. trans. st. louis. acad. p. 542. nec.scolothrips sexmaculatus . acutt. 3 females from baghdad collected in 7-6-1999 on lagernaria sicoraria. *scirtothrips mangiferae priesner scirtothrips mangiferae priesner, 1932. bull. soc. ent. egypt. 16:141-155. 3females from karblia, collected in 3-4-2000,on althea rosea; punica granatum. *anaphothrips sudanensis trybom grass thrips anaphothrips sudanensis trybom, 1911. results sweed. zool. expe. egypt. 4:1-4. 16 females from baghdad collected in august 1999, on leaf sheet of zea mays, and from dylia in vigna radita; zea mays, in leaf sheet and flowers tip; and on sorghum vulgare in dec. 1999, collected from karblia in 2000 on hordeum glaucum. *retithrips syriacus (mayet) heliothrips syriacus mayet, 1890. insects’ de la vigne: 451. retithrips syriacus (mayet); marchal, 1910. bull. soc. ent. egypt. 1:17-20. 100 females, 10 males collected from baghdad in june 1999 on upper surface vitis vinifera leafs. *retithrips javancius mayet retithrips javancius mayet, 1890. . insects’ de la vigne: 451. 12 females, 6 males from baghdad in june 1999 on vitis vinifera leafs and lantana sp.; rosa regosa. *retithrips aegypticus marchal retithrips aegypticus marchal, 1910. bull. soc. ent. egypt.2: 17-20. 20 females, from baghdad sep. 1999 on upper surface vitis vinifera leafs ;citrus aurantium. *farnkliniella schultzie (trybom) farnkliniella schultzie trybom, 1910. denksch med. naturw. ges. jena 16:151-154. 33 a. a. hamodi & m. s. abdul-rassoul 16 females, collected from baghdad, dylia during summer &august on many plants. this species wild distribution, have a forms, those in iraq f. sulphurea. *farnkliniella tritici bagnall frankliniella varcorne bagnall, 1919. ann. mag. nat. hist. 4:268-270. farnkliniella tritici f. varcorne bagnall,; moulton, 1948. revta. ent. rio.dej. 19:55-114. 6 females, collected from baghdad in dec. 1999, on medicago sativa; rosa regosa; nerium oleander, have a forms, those in iraq f. varcorne. *farnkliniella unicolor morgan farnkliniella unicolor morgan, 1925. canada. ent. 57:136-147. 14 females, collected from baghdad in 6-9-1999 on nerium oleander; chrysanthemum sp.; cuscata palaestina; helianthus annuus. *taeniothrips gowdeyi (bagnall) ceratothrips gowdeyi bagnall, 1919. ann. mag. nat. hist. (9)4:254-255. taeniothrips debilis (bagnall);bagnall, 1926. ann. mag. nat. hist. 18:105-106. 6 females collected from baghdad in 30-6-1999, on flowers of lagernaria sicoraria. *chirothrips meridionalis bagnall chirothrips meridionalis bagnall, 1927. ann. mag. nat. hist. (9)21:566. 6 females, 5 males, collected from baghdad in 18-10-1999 on sorghum halepense flowers tip. *chirothrips hamatus trybom chirothrips hamatus trybom, 1895. ent. tidskr. 15:41-58. 7 females, collected from baghdad in 18-10-1999, on flowers tip of phragmites communis. *chirothrips mexicanus crawford chirothrips mexicanus crawford, 1910. pomona. coll. j. ent. 1(4):114-115. 2 females, collected from baghdad/ abu-gharib in sept.1999 on sorghum halepense. references thrips tabaci lindemanدراسـة بیئیة لحشرة ثربس البصـل . ١٩٨١الفیصلـي، عبد الحسیـن مویت، (thripidae:thysanoptera) جامعة بغداد / كلیة العلوم / رسالة ماجستیر . في العراق. al-ali, a. s. 1977. phytophagous and entomophagus insects and mites of iraq. nat.hist.res. center iraq. pub1. no.33, 142pp. andre, f. 1941. two new species of chirothrips haliday with notes on chirothrips frontalls williams (thysanoptera:thripidae). ann. ent. soc. amer. 34(2):451-457. bagnall, r. s. 1913. brief descriptions of new thysanoptera. 1 ann. mag. nat. hist. london. 12(8):290-299. ----------------1916. brief descriptions of new thysanoptera. 7. ann. mag. nat. hist. london 17(8): 213-222. ----------------1919. brief descriptions of new thysanoptera. 10. ann. mag. nat. hist. london 4(9): 253-275. ----------------1923. brief descriptions of new thysanoptera. 13. ann. mag. nat. hist. london 12(9): 624-629. 34 new record of thrips species ----------------1933. a contribution towards a knowledge of the european thysanoptera – 4. ann. mag. nat. hist. london 11(20): 651-655. ---------------1934. a contribution towards a knowledge of thysanoptera – 5. ann. mag. nat. hist. london 14(10): 491-493. bailey, s. f. 1937.the composite thrips microcephalothrips abdominalis (crawford). canad. ent. 69(1): 121-126. ------------1957. the thrips of california part 1: suborder terebrantia. bull. calif. ins. surv. 4(5): 142-220. bhatti, j. s. 1978. systematics of anaphothrips uzel. 1895 sensu latu and some related genera (insecta:thysanoptera:thripidae). senckenbergiana biol. 59(1-2):85-114. bhatti, j. s. 1980. species of genus thrips from india (thysanoptera). systematic ent. 5(2): 109-166. bryan, d.e. and smith, r.f. 1956. the frankliniella occidentalis (pergande) complex in california (thysanoptera:thripidae). univ. calif. public. ent. 10(6):359-410. el-haidari, h.s. and daoud, a.k. 1971. on a collection of thrips from iraq. bull. iraqi. nat. hist. mus. 5(1): 23-25. gentile,a.g. &bailey.s.f.;1968; arevision of the genus thrips linnaeus in the new world with a catalogue of the world species (thysanoptera:thripidae).univ.calif. publi. ent. 51: 1-80. haliday, a.h. 1836. an epitome of the british genera in the order thysanoptera with indications of a few of the species. ent. mag. 3(5):439-451. heming, b. s. 2000. check list alberta thysanoptera – thrips. internet. hinds, w. e. 1902. contribution to a monograph of the insects of the order thysanoptera, inhabiting north america. proc. u.s. nat. mus. 26(1310): 79-180. hood, j.d. 1915. an outline of the subfamilies and higher groups of the insect order thysanoptera proc. bio. soc. wash. 28: 53-60. ------------1932. new species of the genus thrips from centeral africa and egypt. bull. soc. ent. egypt. egypte. cairo. 21: 115-140. ------------1938. on some european soecies chirothrips (thysanoptera). ent. mon. mag. 74: 158-164. linnaeus, c. 1758. systema naturae 10th ed. batavia. 457 p. marchal, p. 1910. communications-sur. un. un nouveaa. thrips vivantsur la vigne, en egypte. bull. soc. ent. egypte. 16: 17-20. marullo, r. 1993. le specie italiane del genera frankliniella karny. in for matore fitopatologico 11: 37-44. morgan, a.c. 1913. new genera and species of thysanoptera with notes on a distribution and food plant. proc. u.s. nat. mus. 46(2008): 1-55. ----------------1925. six new species of frankliniella karny and a key to the american species. canad. ent. 57: 136-147. 35 a. a. hamodi & m. s. abdul-rassoul morison, g.d. 1930. on a collection of thysanoptera from south australia. bull. ent. res. 21: 9-14. -----------------1957. a review of british glasshous thysanoptera trans. r. ent. soc. london 109: 476-521. moulton, d. 1931. a new taeniothrips on gladiolus. canad. ent. 63: 20-21. mound, l.a. 1967. a new genus and species of thysanoptera predatory of mites in iraq. bull. ent. res. 57: 315-319. ----------------1968. a review of r.s. bagnall’s thysanoptera collections. bull. br. mus. nat. hist. (ent.). suppl. 11: 1-181. ----------------1980. phylogentic relationships between the families of recent thysanoptera (insecta). zoological j. linn. soc. 96(2): 111-141. ----------------1981. identification, distribution and host plant of the pest species of scirtothrips (thysanoptera:thripidae). bull. ent. res. 71: 467-479. mound, l.a. and walker, a.k. 1982. terebrantia (insecta: thysanoptera) no.i fauna of newzealand, 1, 113 pp. --------------; 1997. in lewis, t. (ed.). thrips as crop pests cab. international walling ford. 6. biological diversity. pp. 197-215. --------------; 1999. saltatorial leaf feeding thysanoptera dendrothripidae from australia and newcaledonia, newly recorded pests of ferns fing and mulberries. aus. j. ent. 38: 257-273. priesner, h. 1932. preliminary notes on scirtothrips in egypt with key and catalogue of the scirothrips species of the world. bull. soc. ent. egypt. 16: 141-155. -------------1937. contribution towards a knowledge of the thysanoptera of egypt. 9. bull. soc. ent. egypt. 21: 208-210. -------------1949a. genera thysanoptera, keys for the identification of the genera of the order thysanoptera. bull. soc. ent. egypt. 33: 31-157. -------------1949b. studies on the genus chirothrips haliday. bull. soc. ent. egypt. 33: 159174. -------------1950. studies on the genus scolothrips hinds. bull. soc. ent. egypt. 34: 39-67. ------------1951. on some new genera and species of thysanoptera from oriental region. indian j. ent. 13: 183-188. rivany, e. 1939. studies in the biology and ecology of retithrips syriacus mayet with species attention to its occurrence in palestine. bull. soc. ent. egypt. 23: 150-181. 36 new record of thrips species ------------1944. studies on some indian thysanoptera. proc. r. ent. soc. london, b. 13: 142-156. ------------1945. studies on the systematics of indian thysanoptera-terebrantia. indian j. ent. 7: 147-188. speyer, e. r. and parr, w.j. 1941. the external structure of some thysanoptera larvae. trans. r. ent. soc. london. 91(2): 559-635. steinweden, j. b. 1933. key to all known species of the genus taeniothrips amyot & serville. trans. amer. ent. soc. 59(978): 269-295. stephens, j. f. 1829. a systematic catalogue of british insects. 11:388 pp. london. terherne, r. c. 1924. thysanoptera known to occur in canada. canad. ent. 56: 82-88. uzel, h. 1895. monographie der ordnung thysanoptera. 11:472 pp. koniggratz. watts, j. g. 1972. description and new description records of chirothrips (thysanoptera:thripidae). ann. ent. soc. amer. 56(1): 589-594. 37 a. a. hamodi & m. s. abdul-rassoul bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2009)10(4): 31-37 س دة من الترب د ت ج ال جي س ق (thysanoptera : thripidae)ت ط الع ا س و ي ف حمو فت ح د ل عب ف يعوا س ل *د عبد الر صال د م ح **و م عة، جامعة بغدادقسم وقاية البنات، كلية الزرا* بغداد، العراق متحف التاريخ الطبيعي العراقي، جامعة بغداد، باب المعظم،** الخالصة ج ل رتة ١٩مت تس ل ف خ را س يف و ط الع رتب ة. ٢٠٠١١٩٩٩نوعً م ال ها أربع من ل ا ت ن ب داس ل ي ١٩٦٧ود حلي ر و :وه thrips tabaci lindeman, retithrips syriacus (mayet), parascolothrips prieseri mound, anaphthrips sudanensis trybom. ت شر وعا سج ع ي ألولو مخس وه ر ق ع يف ال :مرة thrips meridionalis (priesner), microcephalothrips abdominils(crawford), scolothrips pallidus (beach), scolothrips sexmaculatus (pergande), scritothrips mangiferae priesner, frankliniella schultzie trybom, frankliniella unicolor morgan, frankliniella tritici bagnall, retithrips aegypticus marchal, retithrips javanicus mayet, taeniothrips gowdeyi (bagnall),chirothrips meridionalis bagnall, chirothrips mexicanus crawford, chirothrips hamatus trybom. مجعت من نباتات خمتلفة وسجل مكان وتاريخ اجلمع، كل النماذج حفظت يف متحف .التاريخ الطبيعي العراقي وعند الباحث full page photo bull 1 huda jasim m. al-tameme bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. july, (2018) 15 (1): 1-13 estimation of genetic variations in different taxa in brassicaceae by rapd and issr analysis huda jasim m. al-tameme department of biology, college of science for women, university of babylon, babylon, iraq. corresponding author: huda_jasim@yahoo.com received date: 13 december 2017 accepted date:09 january 2018 abstract twelve species from brassicaceae family were studied using two different molecular techniques: rapd and issr; both of these techniques were used to detect some molecular markers associated with the genotype identification. rapd results, from using five random primers, revealed 241 amplified fragments, 62 of them were polymorphic (26%). issr results showed that out of seven primers, three (issr3, ubc807, ubc811) could not amplify the genomic dna; other primers revealed 183 amplified fragments, 36 of them were polymorphic (20%). the similarity evidence and dendrogram for the genetic distances of the incorporation between the two techniques showed that the highest similarity was 0.897 between the varieties red cabbage and red ornamental cabbage, meanwhile the lowest similarity index was between the varieties red radish and green ornamental cabbage (0.169); thus these rapd and issr markers have the possibility for the identification of species or varieties and the description of genetic variation within the varieties. furthermore, it could be concluded that the brassicaceae taxa have a suitable amount of genetic variance and a wide range in the genetic principle of the studied genotypes which can be used for output improvement. keywords: brassicaceae, genetic similarity, issr, polymorphism, rapd. introduction although many of families in flora of iraq have been examined morphologically and phytochemically in some detail (harborne et al., 1971), there are many open inquiries concerning the classification of particular genera within tribes and subfamilies. molecular information enhances or even permits the illustration of phylogeny, and provides the fundamental information for comprehension taxonomy, breeding, and advancement of plants. molecular techniques are being used increasingly in plant systematic (soltis et al., 1992). in addition; the improvement of pcr-based molecular marker manner has prompted expanding the utilization of molecular marker technologies in many fields of science, including systematic studies. in this relation, randomly amplified polymorphic dna (rapd) and intersimple sequence repeat (issr) techniques have drawn much attention in a wide variety of organisms, especially in plants. therefore, this study chooses the brassicaceae family because it is typical of families to compare it with other molecular and evolutionary studies (franzke et al., 2011) for the following reasons: firstly, the consideration of arabidopsis thaliana (l.) heynh. which is a protrude model amongst the most vital plants in molecular studies (meinke doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2018.15.1.0001 2 estimation of genetic variations in different taxa et al., 1998) as well, as many studies on brassica spp.; secondly, it investigated for different sides of botany for example, biotic and abiotic stress tolerance, genome development (vekemans et al., 2014) and thirdly, it encountered entire genome duplications and organismal radiation in its underlying formative history (edger et al., 2015). mustard family (brassicaceae or cruciferae) is a fourth large and natural family which can be easily morphologically diagnosed by scrupulous flowering actinomorphic form, cruciform corolla and silique fruits. it has a global apportionment predominately in the moderate area of the northern hemisphere (al-shehbaz, 1984); most of the members of the understudied family are economically important and include vegetables such as cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli, oilseed from brassica napus l., and b. rapa l., fodder, ornamental mainly in b. oleracea var. acephala (ornamental cabbage), and condiment plants like brassica nigra (l) w. d. j. koch. and b. juncea (l.) czern, (gomez-campo and prakash 1999). brassicaceae are divided into three to nineteen tribes and twenty to thirty subtribes, the phylogeny and ranking of the familial level like genera and tribe are still suspicious (appel and al-shehbaz, 2003). this obstruction was performed in a lack of understanding of the number and limits of phylogenetically established tribes and genera and gave rise to various distinct classification systems which have been submitted previously (warwick et al., 2010). later, al-shehbaz (2012) has estimated the number of tribes as approximately 51 which included 321 genera and 3660 species. description of the plant with the utilization of molecular markers is a typical way to memorize plant genetic assets and molecular depiction helps to determine the breeding behavior of species (prasad, 2014). in this way the objective of the present investigation is to estimate the degrees of relationship between different varieties and species of different taxa within the brassicaceae by using random primers in rapd and issr techniques a further important use of these markers are to distinguish between genotypes materials and mathods plant materials and extraction of genomic dna: twelve taxa which used in this study are listed in table (1) and plate (1). fresh leaves, were cleaned and triturated then treated with liquid nitrogen carefully in mortar and pestle until being a fine powder. genomic dna was isolated from leaves according to the method protocol of the genomic dna mini kit (geneaid biotech. ltd; taiwan company). checking of the rapd and issr primers: the amplification reactions were performed by five decamer oligonucleotide primers from (opc2, opc8, opc14, opb11 and opb18 for rapd analysis) and seven oligonucleotide primers (bh10, bh11, bh14, issr1, issr3, ubc807 and ubc811 for issr analysis ) (tab. 2). polymerase chain reaction: 25 µl a final volume of amplification reactions containing 5 µl of dna, 1µl of primer (50 pmol), 12.5 µl of the master mix including (dntps, pcr buffer, taq dna polymerase (5u/µl), mgcl2) and 6.5µl deionized water. pcr reaction was carried out in thermal cycler pcr system (verity, applied biosystem); the subsequent different trials for upgrading the best fitting conditions, a program for pcr response was standardized with following settings according to table (3). then amplified dna were separated by electrophoresis in 1.3 % agarose gels (stained with 0.3 µl of ethidium bromide at 3-4 hr on 70v). 3 huda jasim m. al-tameme data analysis: rapd and issr markers produce dna amplification signals that can be changed over into a measurement of similarity or dissimilarity dna electrophoretic pattern containing visible bands at a specific position in the individual lane. the banding patterns were transformed into binary characters where the appearance of a band was given the number (1) while the absence of the band was given the number (0). a square symmetric matrix of similarity was acquired using jaccard’s similarity coefficient to draw the dendrograms. the unweighted pair group method with arithmetic average (upgma) was applied for cluster analysis using past software ver. 1.92 (hammer et al., 2001), and calculated the percentage of polymorphism, efficiency and discriminating power of primer as the following equation: polymorphism% = (no. the polymorphic bands of random primer / the total number of bands of the same primer) × 100. efficiency of primer = (no. the polymorphic bands to each primer / total number of bands to the same primer) × 100 discriminating power of primer = no. the polymorphic band to each primer /total number of the polymorphic band to all primer x 100 %. according to (grudman et al., 1995). table (1): species and varieties included under study from brassicaceae family with common names and tribes. no. scientific name common name tribe 1. raphanus sativus var. longipinnatus l. h. bailey white radish brassiceae 2. raphanus sativus l. red radish brassiceae 3. raphanus raphanistrum l. wild radish or fihaila brassiceae 4. lepidium sativum l. cress or rashad lepidieae 5. cardaria draba (l.)desv. hoary cress or qunaibra lepidieae 6. sisymbrium irio l. rocket mustard sisymbrieae 7. brassica oleracea var. botrytis l. cauliflower or qarnabît brassiceae 8. brassica oleracea var. italic l. broccoli brassiceae 9. brassica oleracea var. capitata l. green cabbage-lahana brassiceae 10. brassica oleracea var. capitate l. red cabbage brassiceae 11. brassica oleracea var. acephala dc. green ornamental cabbage brassiceae 12. brassica oleracea var. acephala dc. red ornamental cabbage brassiceae 4 estimation of genetic variations in different taxa plate (1): species and varieties included under study from brassicaceae family. 5 huda jasim m. al-tameme table (2): list of primers are used in rapd and issr techniques and their sequences. primer sequences 5' to 3' primer primer sequences 5' to 3' primer gagagagagagacc bh10 issr gtgaggcgtc opc2 rapd gtgtgtgtgtgtcc bh11 tggaccggtg opc8 ctcctcctcgc bh14 tgcgtgcttg opc14 tctctctctctctctcc issr1 gtagacccgt opb11 gggtggggtggggtg issr3 ccacagcagt opb18 aga gag aga gag aga gt ubc 807 gag aga gag aga gag ac ubc 811 table (3): pcr amplification rapd and issr conditions. name of primer initial denaturation denaturation annealing extension final extension temp cº time (s) temp cº time (s) temp cº time (s) temp cº time (s) temp cº time (s) opc2 opc8 1 44 1 94 60 94 30 40 60 72 120 72 300 opc14 1 40 1 94 240 94 60 36 60 72 120 72 120 opb11 opb18 1 45 1 95 300 94 60 36 60 72 120 72 240 bh10 bh11 bh14 1 40 1 49 240 94 60 40 60 72 120 72 300 issr1 issr3 1 35 1 94 300 94 35 47 40 72 35 72 300 ubc 807 ubc 811 1 40 1 94 300 94 60 45 72 60 72 300 results and disscusion genetical variation indicates any alteration in nucleotides, gene and chromosomes or entire plant’s genome (kurane et al., 2009), this variation in dna sequence (polymorphism) can result in different banding patterns which are assessed by agarose gel electrophoresis (williams et al. ,1990). thus, twelve primers were used to twelve individuals of brassicaceae family for dna amplification; the outcomes demonstrated various primers made distinctive fragment numbers and length of dna amplification products as seen in table (4) and (5). an overall of 413 polymorphic amplified products were gained from five rapd primers and seven issr primers distributed into 241 and 183 bands respectively; the total number of the amplified rapds produced by each primer varied from a minimum number of 21 amplified products by primer opc14 to a maximum of 76 amplified products by primer opc8. the polymorphic fragments number varied between 12 in opc2, opc8 and opb18 to 13 in opc14 and opb11 from total 62 fragments were polymorphic thus generating 26% 6 estimation of genetic variations in different taxa polymorphism and the lower value of primer efficiency is 9% in opc14 and higher value is 32% in opc8, also the results revealed the same value of primer discriminatory power in all rapd primers approximately 19% except primer opc14 is 21%. (tab. 4, pl. 2). the issr profiles of the amplification products showed out of seven primers, three (issr3, ubc807, ubc811) could not amplify the genomic dna, the primer issr1 accord the lowest number of fragments (11), while the largest number of fragments (67), was amplified with primer bh11. the minimum number of polymorphic bands was 5 with bh10, which appeared the polymorphism (8%) and 6 polymorphic bands in issr1 that represented (55%), bh11 and bh14 showed the largest number of polymorphic bands 12 and 13 in 18% and 33 % respectively, and converged percentages of the efficiency of the primers bh10 and bh11 by 33% and 36%, and decreased ratio to 22% in bh14. on the other hand, the primer discriminatory power in the last primer has a higher value to 36% but a lower value was 14% in bh10. it is remarkable that all used primers do not contain monomorphic bands except the primer bh10 which explained three bands have the same genotype (tab. 4 and pl. 2); also from table (5) and diagram (1) explained maximum number of polymorphism bands appeared in green cabbage and green ornamental cabbage but minimum bands in red and white radish, some polymorphisms were easy to register whereas other bands appeared to produce nuclear fragments (williams et al., 1990). the best primers will output more than three clear bits, the number of fragments produced depends on the primer sequence rather than the nucleotide length. in general, show spacious whilst various studies have reported that of the vegetable brassicas parental lines have emerged from a limit genetic base (gray, 1993). furthermore, kurane et al. (2009) have emphasis the issr markers proved to be very useful for accurate plant identification by recognized the intra and interspecies difference; issr strategies are almost indistinguishable to rapd strategies exclude that sequences of issr primer are non-randomly outlined from microsatellite regions and the annealing temperatures applied are higher than utilized for rapd markers. a difference of results was normal since just seven issr primers were utilized against five primers in the rapd data analysis; notwithstanding, the average number of bands amplified per issr primer was higher. 7 huda jasim m. al-tameme table (4): rapd and issr amplifications in twelve species and varieties in brassicaceae. p ri m er d is cr im in at o ry p o w er ( % ) p ri m er ef fi ci en cy (% ) p o ly m o rp h is m % n o . o f m o n o m o rp h ic b an d s n o . o f p o ly m o rp h ic b an d s n o . o f to ta l am p li fi ed b an d s p ri m er 19 25 20 0 12 60 opc2 rapd 19 32 16 0 12 76 opc8 21 9 62 0 13 21 opc14 19 14 39 0 13 33 opb11 19 21 24 0 12 51 opb18 26 0 62 241 total 14 36 8 3 5 65 bh10 issr 33 37 18 0 12 67 bh11 36 22 33 0 13 40 bh14 17 6 55 0 6 11 issr1 0 0 0 0 0 0 issr3 0 0 0 0 0 0 ubc 807 0 0 0 0 0 0 ubc 811 20 3 36 183 total 3 98 424 total rapd+issr table (5): rapd and issr band sharing in twelve species and varieties in brassicaceae. in this screening, rapd markers were effectively exercised to distinguish 12 taxa of brassicaceae from each to another and data from molecular markers display a good basis for better conservation approaches (prasad, 2014). thus, on the basis of rapd, the discoveries of this investigation are closely resembling the notice of hu and quiros (1991) were demonstrated the use of rapd-pcr in comparison of broccoli and cauliflower cultivar. the put markers of rapd and issr together found a rising rank of distinction in the genetic relationship; the similarity coefficients extend from 0.169 (between varieties red radish and green ornamental cabbage) to 0.897 (between varieties red cabbage and red ornamental cabbage ) (tab. 6). 8 estimation of genetic variations in different taxa plate (2): banding patterns of rapd and issr fragments of brassicaceae individuals. (lane l molecular size marker one step 100 bp ladder (promega). lane 1-12 species under study (1white radish, 2red radish, 3wild radish or fihaila, 4cress or rashad, 5hoary cress or qunaibra, 6rocket mustard, 7cauliflower, 8broccoli, 9green cabbage-lahana, 10red cabbage, 11green ornamental cabbage and 12 red ornamental cabbage). diagram (1): rapd and issr band sharing in twelve species and varieties in brassicaceae. 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% opc2 opc8 opc14 opb11 opb18 bh10 bh11 bh14 issr1 9 huda jasim m. al-tameme table (6): similarity matrix computed with jaccard coefficient. 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0.26 8 0.23 8 0.27 5 0.23 4 0.32 6 0.35 9 0.25 5 0.28 2 0.27 5 0.30 9 0.39 3 1 1 0.22 9 0.16 9 0.23 5 0.18 6 0.26 3 0.29 4 0.25 0 0.20 6 0.21 7 0.26 0 1 2 0.28 8 0.36 0 0.27 1 0.35 5 0.37 3 0.35 1 0.31 0 0.32 1 0.34 8 1 3 0.32 7 0.39 7 0.30 8 0.39 1 0.34 5 0.27 3 0.22 9 0.21 8 1 4 0.31 7 0.29 0 0.29 3 0.30 6 0.43 9 0.34 1 0.29 1 1 5 0.28 1 0.30 3 0.30 9 0.31 6 0.36 8 0.39 6 1 6 0.62 9 0.43 1 0.69 7 0.42 4 0.77 1 1 7 0.69 4 0.55 4 0.76 5 0.51 7 1 8 0.43 1 0.75 8 0.43 9 1 9 0.89 7 0.47 3 1 1 0 0.43 9 1 1 1 1 1 2 an indistinguishable outcome was expressed in the dendrogram where two noticeable bunches were gotten the tree-cluster analysis explains the allocation of genotypes in two main clusters and genetic similarity among the 12 species ranged from 0.169 to 0.897 (diag. 2). cluster i which was divided into group and subgroup, the first group included three subgroups, red cabbage and red ornamental cabbage were represented as the first sub-group, the second sub-group consisted of genotypes labeled as cauliflower and broccoli, and third subgroup included green cabbage and green ornamental cabbage. then cress or rashad and wild radish combined together with the first group, then qunaibra and rocket mustard attached with the previous group respectively. cluster ii comprised of two genotypes including white and red radish; thus the dendrogram showed the genetic relationships among species brassica seem very closely related together which return to brassiceae tribe. for the results of the current study agreed with the study yang et al. (1999) that confirmed the genus brassica is a monophyletic group within the brassicaceae very closely related to model crucifer plant arabidopsis thaliana except their genomes are more complex because of nature of polyploidy. also the combined rashad which belong to lepidieae tribe with the brassica group concurred with zunk, et al. (1999) that indicated the current molecular systematic research reveals that exclusive brassiceae and lepidieae’s tribes might to be counted a naturalistic composition; so the white and red radish seem closely related together in the tree relationship because they have the same morphological and taxonomic feature and agreed with cruz et al. (2014) when demonstrated that rapd and issr biochemical and molecular markers are effective and promising when differentiating cultivars of the radish. 10 estimation of genetic variations in different taxa diagram (2): upgma dendrogram indicating the genetic relationships among brassicaceae taxa, based on rapd and issr markers. 1-12 species under study: 1white radish, 2red radish, 3wild radish or fihaila, 4cress or rashad, 5hoary cress or qunaibra, 6rocket mustard, 7cauliflower, 8broccoli, 9green cabbagelahana, 10red cabbage, 11green ornamental cabbage and 12red ornamental cabbage. conclusions our investigation revealed significant variation in terms of rapd and issr fingerprinting among the closely related species thought to be devoid of molecular variation and there by successfully drawing the interspecific phylogenetic relationships. literature cited al-shehbaz, i. a. 1984. the tribes of cruciferae (brassicaceae) in the southeastern united states. journal of the arnold arboretum, 65: 343–373. al-shehbaz, i. a. 2012. a generic and tribal synopsis of the brassicaceae (cruciferae). taxon, 61( 5):931-954. appel, o. and al-shehbaz, i. a. 2003. cruciferae. in: kubitzki, k. and bayer, c. (eds.), families and genera of vascular plants. 5: 75-174. springer-verlag, berlin, heidelberg. cruz, s. m., nery, m. c., pinho, é. d. v. d. r. and laia, m. l. 2014. molecular characterization of radish cultivars. revista ciência agronômica, 45(4): 815-822. http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/iapt/tax;jsessionid=dop8aop6o84ha.alice 11 huda jasim m. al-tameme edger, p. p., heidel-fischer, h. m., bekaert, m., rota, j., glöckner, g., platts, a. e., heckel, d. g., der, j. p., wafula, e. k. and tang, m. 2015. the butterfly plant arms-race escalated by gene and genome duplications. proceeding of the national academy of sciences of the united state of america, 112: 8362–8366. franzke, a., lysak, m. a., al-shehbaz, i.a, koch, m. a. and mummenhoff, k. 2011. cabbage family affairs: the evolutionary history of brassicaceae. trends plant sciences, 16: 108–116. gray, a. r. 1993. broccoli: brassica oleracea (italica group). genetic improvement of vegetable crops. in kalloo, g. and bergh, b. o.(eds.), pp 61-86. gomez-campo, c. and prakash, s. 1999. origin and domestication. in: gomez-campo c. 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(2018) 15 (1): 1-13 تقدير التغايرات الوراثية لمراتب تصنيفية مختلفة من العائلة الصليبية باستخدام issrو rapdتحليل هدى جاسم محمد التميمي العراق ،بابل ،جامعة بابل ،العلوم للبناتكلية ،قسم علوم الحياة 00/03/1032 :تاريخ القبول 31/31/1037 :تاريخ االستالم الخالصة من العائلة الصليبية باستخدام اثنين من التقنيات درست اثنا عشر نوعا استخدمت كل من هذه التقنيات للكشف إذ ؛ issrو rapdالجزيئية المختلفة عن بعض الواسمات الجزيئية المرتبطة مع تحديد النمط الجيني اذ اظهرت ، من استخدام rapdنتائج تضاعف العشوائي المتعدد االشكال لسلسلة الدنا متعددة منها كانت 21حزمة مضخمة، 192ات عشوائية، تمييزخمسة بادئ (. ٪12)األشكال من أصل سبعة بادئات، issrتكرار التسلسالت البسيطة أظهرت النتائج لم يظهر اي تضخيم للحامض ( issr3 ،ubc807 ،ubc811)ثالثة منها كانت 12 حزمة مضخمة، 281النووي الجيني، وكشفت البادئات األخرى وتبين ان مؤشرات التشابه والمخطط التشجيري (٪12)متعددة األشكال بين 29840للمسافات الوراثية عند الجمع بين الطريقتين أن أعلى التشابه كان أصناف الملفوف األحمر والملفوف الزينة األحمر، بينما ظهر أدنى مؤشر اي ان ؛(29224)ينة األخضر للتشابه بين أنواع الفجل األحمر والملفوف الز األصناف / لديها القدرة على تحديد األنواع issrو rapd عالمات يمكن أن نستنتج أن انواع أيضا وتوصيف االختالف الجيني داخل األصناف العائلة الصليبية لها كمية كافية من التنوع الوراثي ومجموعة واسعة في القاعدة الدراسة والتي يمكن استخدامها لتحسين الوراثية للتراكيب المستخدمة في .المحاصيل 31-38 31 f. t. mhaisen et al bull. iraq nat. hist mus. (2003) 10 (1): 31-38 recording of five monogenetic trematodes for the first time from fishes of iraq furhan t. mhaisen*, abbas n. balasem, ghassan h. al–khateeb and kasim r. asmar ministry of sciences and technology, al-jadereah, baghdad, iraq *dept. biol., coll. educ. (ibn alhaitham), univ. baghdad, iraq summary a total of 589 fishes, belonging to 23 species were collected from eight different localities in north and mid iraq during 1993. the parasitological inspection of such fishes revealed the presence of 59 parasite species and two fungi. among such parasites, five monogenetic trematodes were recorded on the gills of some fishes for the first time in iraq. these included:ancyrocephalus vanbenedenii on liza abu from tigris river at al-zaafaraniya, south of baghdad; dactylogyrus anchoratus on cyprinus carpio from tigris river at al – zaafaranya d. minutus on c. carpio from both tigris river at al-zaafaraniya and euphrates river at al-qadisiya dam lake; discocotyle sagittata on l. abu from both the drainage system at al-madaen district, south of baghdad and euphrates river at al-qadisiya dam lake and ancylodiscoides gomitus on silurus triostegus from tigris river at al-zaafaraniya. introduction mnogenetic trematodes are known to cause harmful damage to fish gills and skin (roberts, 1989). they have direct life cycles, which enable them to transmit easily from one host to another, especially under conditions of intensive fish culture (bauer et al., 1969). detailed information on the parasitic fauna has a special importance for purposes of increasing the productivity of fish ponds or to improve the stocks of valuable commercial fisheries in natural waters (shul’man, 1961). gaining of such information comes from continuous surveys and inspection of fishes from different farms and water bodies. according to mhaisen (unpublished), 213 parasite species are so far known to infect fishes of iraq. among such parasites, 64 species belong to the monogenetic trematodes (abdullah and mhaisen, 2000). however, this number is increasing as new surveys add new items to this group of fish parasites. the present paper reports the occurrence of five monogenetic trematodes for the first time in iraq from the gills of three fish species. materials and methods a total of 589 fish specimens were collected, with the aid of cast nets, from eight localities in north and mid iraq during the period from march to september 1993. these localities were: 1tigris river at mosul, neinava province. 2tigris river at tikreet, salah al-deen province. 3tigris river at al-zaafaraniya, baghdad province. 4diyala river at al-rustamiya, baghdad province. 5euphrates river at al-qadisiya dam lake, al-anbar province. 32 recording of five monogenetic trematods 6euphrates river at faluja and baghdadi towns, al-anbar province. 7northern part of the main drainage at al–mahmudia, baghdad. 8drainage network at al-madaen, baghdad province. the scientific names of the sampled fishes together with their numbers are alphabetically listed as given below: 14 acanthobrama marmid heckel, 1843 14 alburnus caeruleus heckel, 1843 8 alburnus capito heckel, 1843 21 aspius vorax heckel, 1843 17 barbus barbulus heckel, 1849 24 barbus belayewi menon, 1956 15 barbus esocinus (heckel, 1843) 33 barbus grypus heckel, 1843 2 barbus kersin heckel, 1843 34 barbus luteus (heckel, 1843) 18 barbus sharpeyi günther, 1874 1 barbus subquincunciatus günther, 1868 55 barbus xanthopterus (heckel, 1843) 1 carassius carassius (linnaeus, 1758) 83 chondrostoma regium (heckel, 1843) 67 cyprinus carpio linnaeus, 1758 17 garra rufa (heckel, 1843) 1 heteropneustes fossilis (bloch, 1794) 12 leuciscus lepidus (heckel, 1843) 132 liza abu (heckel, 1843) 3 mystus pelusius (solander in russell, 1794) 5 silurus triostegus heckel, 1843 12 varicorhinus trutta (heckel, 1843) most fishes were preserved in 5% formalin but some were brought alive to the laboratory. fish inspection was achieved as soon as possible. skin and gill smears were prepared and examined. parasites were fixed either with 5% formalin or hot 70% alcohol. they were identified according to bykhovskaya-pavlovskaya et al. (1962). coad’s (1991) list was followed for the scientific names of fishes. results and discussion the parasitological examination showed that 59 parasite species and two fungi occurred in/on fishes of the present investigation. the present paper deals only with five newly recorded monogeneans in fishes of iraq. details of the remaining parasites were given in separate articles. the newly recorded monogeneans are arranged here according to bykhovskaya-pavlovskaya et al. (1962). family dactylogyridae dactylogyrus anchoratus (dujardin, 1845) dactylogyrus minutus kulwiec, 1927 ancyrocephalus vanbenedenii (parona et perugia, 1890) ancylodiscoides gomitus (jain, 1952) family discocotylidae discocotyle sagittata (leuckart, 1842) the following is a brief account on the description and occurrence of these parasites. 33 f. t. mhaisen et al dactylogyrus anchoratus (dujardin, 1845) fig. (1) dactylogyridae. two pairs of head organs and four eyes present. small worms, length up to 0.5mm., width 0.10mm. the attachment organ (haptor) has 14 small marginal hooks and two strong median hooks. length of marginal hooks 0.014-0.035mm. median hooks long and thin, with no external (outer) root but with long internal (inner) root in form of continuation of somewhat curved base portion. total length of median hooks 0.092-0.130mm. one small but massive connecting bar present, about 0.008 x 0.018-0.029mm. tube of copulatory organ almost straight cylindrical; supporting bar with uncinate process surrounding tube; vaginal chitinoid armor absent; total length of copulatory organ 0.020-0.032mm. this species was detected in the present study from the gills of c. carpio from tigris river at al-zaafaraniya during 1993. however, later reports on the occurrence of d. anchoratus from some fishes of iraq were published before the existence of the present article. these included reports from c. carpio (adday et al., 1999; al-aubaidi, 1999; al-aubaidi et al., 1999; mhaisen et al., 1999; mohammadali et al., 1999; sadek, 1999; salih et al., 2000; al-tamimi, 2001; al-tamimi et al., 2001), from aspius vorax (mohammad-ali et al., 1999), from carassius auratus (salih et al., 2000) and from c. carassius (mhaisen et al., 1999; mohammad-ali et al., 1999; salih et al., 2000). dactylogyrus minutus kulwiec, 1927 fig. (2) dactylogyridae. two pairs of head organs and four eyes present. small worms, length up to 0.48mm, width 0.11mm. the haptor has 14 small marginal hooks and two median hooks. length of marginal hooks 0.013-0.023mm. median hooks relatively short, with well developed external root and internal root recurving from base. total length of median hooks 0.039-0.049mm. one large connecting bar present, almost straight with rounded and enlarged ends, about 0.003-0.004 x 0.025-0.032mm. tube of copulatory organ smooth-walled, relatively short, straight or falcate; vaginal chitinoid armor absent; total length of copulatory organ 0.028-0.045mm. d. minutus of the present article was detected from gills of c. carpio from tigris river at al-zaafaraniya and from euphrates river at al-qadisiya dam lake during 1993. however, later reports of this parasite were published before the existence of the present article. these included reports from c. carpio (al-zubaidy, 1998; adday et al., 1999; al-aubaidi, 1999; al-aubaidi et al., 1999; asmar et al., 1999; mohammad-ali et al., 1999; sadek, 1999; al-nasiri, 2000; balasem et al., 2000; salih et al., 2000; al-tamimi, 2001; al-tamimi et al., 2001; al-nasiri et al., 2002), from a. vorax and b. esocinus (mohammad ali et al., 1999), from b. grypus (salih et al., 2000), from b. xanthopterus (al nasiri, 2000; salih et al., 2000), from c. auratus (salih et al., 2000), from c. carassius (mohammad-ali et al., 1999), from c. idella (mohammadali et al., 1999; salih et al., 2000) and from l. abu (salih et al., 2000). ancyrocephalus vanbenedenii (parona et perugia, 1890) fig. (3) dactylogyridae. it is characterized with two pairs of eye spots, three pairs of head organs and an opisthohaptor distinctly set off from body proper, with seven pairs of small marginal hooks and two pairs of median hooks each with one connecting bar. intestinal crura not uniting posteriorly. testis oval to elliptical. genital pore post bifurcal. ovary simple, anterior to testis. vagina present. a. venbenedenii was detected from the gills of l. abu from tigris river al al-zaafaraniya, baghdad. although this is typically marine parasite (bykhovskaya-pavlovskaya et al., 1962), its occurrence on l. abu (the only freshwater species of the marine fish family mugilidae in iraq) is attributed to the entrance of some estuarine and even marine fishes from the arab 34 recording of five monogenetic trematods gulf to shatt al-arab river and from there to other inland waters of iraq where l. abu is so abundant. recently, ho et al. (1996) found some typically estuarine ergasilid crustaceans on gills of l. abu from shatt al-arab river. later reports of this parasite were published before the existence of the present paper. these included its occurrence only from l. abu from both tigris river at al-zaafaraniya (adday et al., 1999) and from a man-made lake at baghdad (al-nasiri, 2000). ancylodiscoides gomitus (jain, 1952) fig. (4) dactylogyridae. body elongate. opisthohaptor somewhat set off from body proper by a slightly constricted peduncle with 14 small marginal hooks and two pairs of median hooks, the dorsal hooks are similar in shape to, but much larger than the ventral hooks, each hooks supported by a transverse bar. two pairs of eyes present. intestinal limbs without diverticula, confluent posteriorly. ovary and testis near middle of body. vas deferens not looped around intestinal limb. cirrus tubular, with accessory piece. vagina presents, opening on right body margin. a. gomitus of the present study was detected from gills of s. triostegus from tigris river at al-zaafaraniya, baghdad. adday et al. (1999) reported a. gomitus of the present study (as haplocleidus gomitus) while surveying parasites of fishes from tigris river at al-zaafaraniya. discocotyle sagittata (leuckart, 1842) fig. (5) discocotylidae. body lanceolate, flat, length 6-9 mm., width 1.7-2mm. anterior end narrow to vaginal pores, then expands. opisthohaptor well set off from body proper, with four pairs of equally developed clamps and a pair of median crooked hooks on a short terminal lappet. intestinal crura reaching to terminal haptoral lappet, with offshoots. testes abundant, divided into numerous follicles, in posterior half of the body. copulatory organ in form of chitinoid tube. genital sucker absent. ovary near anterior end of testes. vagina y-shaped, with two marginal pores. vitellaria massive, extending in lateral fields between vagina and posterior end of body proper. d. sagittata of the present paper was detected from gills of l. abu from both euphrates river at al-qadisiya dam lake and the drainage network at al-medaen, south of baghdad. this is the first detailed report on d. sagittata in iraq. however, asmar et al. (1999) mentioned the occurrence of d. sagittata while surveying the parasites of fishes from alqadisiya dam lake. d. sagittata is a haemophagous parasite causing anemia in mass infestations of up to 100 specimens per fish as well as some pathological effects and death (bykhovskaya-pavlovskaya et al., 1962). literature cited abdullah, s.m.a. and mhaisen, f.t. 2000. monogenetic trematodes parasitizing on freshwater fishes of iraq. abst. 2nd sci. conf., dept. biol., coll. educ. (ibn al-haitham). baghdad: 10-12 oct. 2000. adday, t.k.; balasem, a.n.; mhaisen, f.t. and al-khateeb, g.h. 1999. a second survey of fish parasites from tigris river at al-zaafaraniya, south of baghdad. ibn alhaitham j. pure appl. sci., 12(1): 22-31. al-aubaidi, i.k. 1999. ectoparasites of the common carp (cyprinus carpio l.) in alzaafaraniya fish farm in baghdad and treatment of their infection with the monogenetic trematodes. m. sc. thesis, uinv. baghdad: 80pp. (in arabic). 35 f. t. mhaisen et al al-aubaidi, i.k.; mhaisen, f.t. and balasem, a.n. 1999. the external parasites of the common carp (cyprinus carpio) in alzaafaraniya fish farm, baghdad. ibn al-haitham j. pure appl. sci., 12(1): 32-40. alnasiri, f.s. 2000. parasitic infections of fishes in a manmade lake at al-amiriya region, baghdad. m. sc. thesis, univ. baghdad: 133pp. (in arabic). al-nasiri, f.s.; mhaisen, f.t. and al-nasiri, s.k. 2002. parasitic infections of the common carp, cyprinus carpio in a manmade lake at baghdad region. iraqi j. agric. (spec. issue), 7(1): 175-181. al-tamimi, s.s.j. 2001. efficacity of formalin, chemogos insecticide and some plant extracts in treating the common carp, cyprinus carpio, infested with monogenetic trematodes. ph. d. thesis, univ. baghdad: 99pp. (in arabic) al-tamimi, s.s.; mhaisen, f.t. and balasem, a.n. 2001. effect of dactylogyrosis and treatment with formalin on some blood parameters of the common carp cyprinus carpio. ibn al-haitham j. pure appl. sci., 14(3): 10-14. al-zubaidy, a.b. 1998. studies on the parasitic fauna of carps in al-furat fish farm, babylon province, iraq. ph. d. thesis, univ. babylon: 141pp. (in arabic). asmar, k.r.; balasem, a.n.; mhaisen, f.t.; al-khateeb, g.h. and al-jawda, j.m. 1999. survey of the parasites of some fish species from al-qadisiya dam lake, iraq. ibn al-haitham j. pure appl. sci., 12(1): 52-61. balasem, a.n.; mohammad-ali, n.r.; adday, t.k.; ali, a.k. and waheed, i.k. 2000. parasitological survey on fishes in hemrin dam lake, province of diyala. j. diyala, 1 (8 part 1): 106-114. (in arabic). bauer, o.n.; musselius, v.a. and strelkov, yu. a. 1969. diseases of pond fishes. izdat. kolos, moscow: 220pp. (in russian). bykhovskaya-pavlovskaya, i.e.; gusev, a.v.; dubinina, m.n.; izyumova, n.a.; smirnova, t.s.; sokolovskaya, i.l.; shtein, g.a.; shul’man, s.s. and epshtein, v.m. 1962. key to parasites of freshwater fish of the u.s.s.r. akad. nauk, s.s.s.r., moscow: 727pp. (in russian). coad, b.w. 1991. fishes of the tigris-euphrates basin: a critical checklist. syllogeus, 68: 149. ho, j.-s.; khamees, n.r. and mhaisen, f.t. 1996. ergasilid copepods (poecilostomatoida) parasitic on the mullet liza abu in iraq, with the description of a new species of paraergasilus markevich, 1937. syst. parasitol., 33: 79-87. mhaisen, f.t. index-catalogue of parasites and disease agents of fishes of iraq. (unpublished). mhaisen, f.t.; al-saadi, a.a.j. and al-shamma’a, a.a. 1999. some observations on fish parasites of habbaniya lake. ibn al-haitham j. pure appl. sci., 12(1): 6267. 36 recording of five monogenetic trematods mohammad-ali, n.r.; balasem, a.n.; mhaisen, f.t.; salih, a.m. and waheed, i.k. 1999. observations on the parasitic fauna in al-zaafaraniya fish farm, south of baghdad. vet., 9(2): 79-88. roberts, r.j. 1989. fish pathology, 2nd ed., bailliere tindall, london: 318pp. sadek, a.a. 1999. ectoparasites of the common carp (cyprinus carpio l.) fingerlings intensively stocked during autumn and winter. m. sc. thesis, univ. baghdad: 100pp. (in arabic). salih, a.m.; balasem, a.n.; al-jawda, j.m.; asmar, k.r. and mustafa, s.r. 2000. on a second survey of fish parasites in al-zaafaraniya fish farm-baghdad. j. diyala, 1 (8 part 1): 220-238. (in arabic). shul’man, s.s. 1961. specificity of fish parasites. in: dogiel, v.a.; petrushevski, g.k. and polyanski, yu.i. (eds.). parasitology of fishes (engl. transl.). oliver and boyd, edinburgh and london: 104-116. 37 f. t. mhaisen et al bull. iraq nat. hist mus. (2003) 10 (1): 31-38 خّر سة م خم ل جي س ح دية ت أ ن ما م مرة ألول شأ راقأال ن ك ا ع ما س ن س حي ضمد م ن حا غسان هاشم الخطيب عباس ناجي بالسم، ،*فر سمرأوقاسم رضيوي غدادبوزارة العلوم والتكنولوجيا، الجادرية، ، جامعة بغداد)بن الهيثمإ(كلية التربية قسم علوم الحياة، * الخالصة ة ت ـود 589مجعت ك ىل مس ً نوـع 23إ ام ـ ء ا ق أثـ ط الع را ـ ل و ا ـ يف ة ـ ل خمت ق ط من ا ن ا ـ ن ـم ن جــــود .1993 عــــ مســ ـ ك أل ا ــــ ه ه يف ث حـــ ب ف ل شــــ عــــ 59ك و ً ن ت ا ل ــــ طفي ن ال نــــ مــــ ن و و مـــ ني ع ت ا ريــ ط ف ّ .ال ر خ ن مل ا يـ د د ن ال ع مــ وا ســ نــ مخ ل ســ ي ت ت ا طف ليــ ل ه ا ذ هــ ني ن ــ شــأ مــ مل يــة ا ح د مــة أ يف ة ر ول مـ ـــ أل ك ا مســــ أل ا عــــ ض ب م صــ ــ ى غ قع ـــــ ّ .العـــــرا ر خ مل ا هـــــ ه ت كـــــ لــــ ـــــ ت ً م ن مـــــ ancyrocephalus vanbenedenii على مسكة اخلشين من ر دجلة عند على الكارب االعتيادي dactylogyrus anchoratusالزعفرانية جنوب بغداد والنوع على الكارب االعتيادي من كل من ر d. minutusمن ر دجلة عند الزعفرانية والنوع discocotyle النوع دجلة عند الزعفرانية ور الفرات عند حبرية سد القادسية و sagittata على اخلشين من كل من منظومة املبازل عند قاطع املدائن جنوب بغداد ور ري على اجل ancylodiscoides gomitus الفرات عند حبرية سد القادسية والنــوع .اآلسيوي من ر دجلة عند الزعفرانية 38 recording of five monogenetic trematods 6 45 saman & et al chalabi bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2008)10 (3): 45-47 a new record of gosh hawk (baz) accipiter gentilis (aves-falconiformes) with short notes on distribution of laughing dove slreptopelia senegalensis (aves. columbiformes) in iraq saman r. lahony, mohammad k. mohammad and hussian a. ali iraq natural history museum, university of baghdad summary the present paper is very important for study of biodiversity of iraq , to know how the changes going and how the laughing dove s. senegalensis was a rare species in iraq and now is common and also the (baz) gosh hawk a. gentilis is common and the most famous 6rd of pray in iraq, till now missing from ornithologist and bird watcher to record it introduction the avian data base of iraq, still unclear, because of very poor study on this important part of biodiversity the war and military action for past 30 years made a great problem for ornithologists and bird watchers, they cannot have a free movement to prepare a complete observation, all the references are very old as boswel and tylgr (1957), allous (1960-62), mahdi and georg (1969), bunni (1979), denis lepage avihase (2005). no one of them announced to accipiter gentlis to be found in iraq, and they put laughing dove streptopelia senegalensis as a rare bird of iraq. disi ( 1987) and shafae ( 1998) announced that both a.geniilis and s. senegalensis found in jordan and syria. for this matter this study is important to declare some of changes on iraqi biodiversity. materials and method this study depends on personal field observations within past 30 years. observation and discussion accipiter gentilis linnaeus., gosh hawk (haz) total length 19-24 inches. color brownish above chest and ventral white with dark strip and yellow eyes. morphologically similar to sparrow hawk hut much larger. distribution in iraq, nearly countrywide, one specimen was collected by the authors in spring from halabjah district, sulaimaniya province. north east of iraq. two other birds where collected by hoshmand aljaf in winter from baladroz east of baghdad , and another one collected by m. k. mohammad 20 km. west of rutba western desert district in may 1984, another one was seen by the authors south of kut prov. remark: this eautiful bird is the most common bird of pray in iraq. specially in kurdistan north of the country, it is frequently seen in many old stores and legend. strepropelia senegalensis, l. (laughing dove or palm dove). table no.1 this dove was very rare in iraq until 1960 the only observation by ticehurs et al. (19211922). they saw one bird at a stormy day it was probably vagrant missing his way, 46 a new record of gosh hawk (baz) allous( 1962), mentioned dove was not found in north of iraq up to 1970, later on some pairs were seen in sulaimaniyah, prov. north east of lraq. in 1980 a became common bird of this area, and rare in kerkok and erbil west of sulaemanyah. in 1990 become common in both of these two cities and some pairs recognized in baaqoba toward the south. in 2005 we found many pairs in al-sadr city in the east and aadameah and taje in the north of baghdad prove its clear from above distribution that this dove was coming from iran toward north east of iraq, and from this point it was spread all over the country. remark: s. senegalensis builed a large and denseness on the roof and windows, and it’s a common bird of jordan and syria, shafeae (1998), disi (1987). bsy adding this dove to iraqi fauna it become four doves: slreptopelia decaocto, s. senegalensis s. turtur; and s.orienralis the last one recorded by bunni m.k. (1988) depending on single specimens, no more information on this dove was available. acknowledgements profound thanks to mr. hoshmand al-jaf, falcon hunter, for helping us by taking measurement of his hawks. table 1: distribution of streptopelia senegalensis in iraq: 1960 1970 1980 1990 2004 sulaymanyah -----rare commom com. com. kerkok ----------rare com. com. erbil ----------rare com. com. baaquba ---------------rare rare baghdad --------------------rare literature cited allouse, b, e. (1969-1962). bids of iraq. arrabita press. baghdad, 3vol. bunni, m. k., (1979). competition for nesting holes in feral pigeon columba livia and house sparrow, passer domesticus, bull ,nat. hist. res. center. bunni m. k. (l988). first record of rufous turtle dove streptopelia orientalis (latham) for iraq, bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. disi, a. bouran a. (1987). acheck list of the birds of the hashemite kingdom of jordan, u niv. of jordan amman. mahdi, n. and georg p. v. 1969. systematic list of iraqi vertebrates. iraq nat. hist. mus. puh. 26. shafae, d. (1998). wiiled birds of jordan, yermok univ.pob. jordan. tice hurcet, c. b. buxton, p. a. and chesman, r. e. (1921-1922). the birds of mesopotamia bombay nat. hist. soc., 28: 210-250, 381-427, 650-674, 937-956. denis lepage, avibase (2004). the word bird database-bird checklist of the world (iraq), from internet http://avibase.bsc-eoc.org/checklist.jsp?region=iq&list=howardmoore . http://avibase.bsc-eoc.org/checklist.jsp?region=iq&list=howardmoore 47 saman & et al chalabi bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2008)10 (3): 45-47 ز ديد طائر البا ج ل جي س شار accipiter gentilisت ع ان صير ظ ت ق الح ر م م م ول ال ة ك ح ضا ه ال ق streptopelia senegalensisالفاخت ع ا ي ال ف س ال ن ع ا ح ي ح د و د اظم حم م ل و ي و ن ر ت يسا ا عل ي ع خ ال بي ري ف ال ا ح ، بغداد، العراقجامعة بغداد، مت الخالصة اليت حتصل فيه هلذا البحث امهية كبرية يف دارسة التنوع احليايت يف العراق، وملعرفة كيفية التغريات اليت كانت نادرة يف بالدنا streptopelia senegalensis وكيفية انتشار الفاخته الضاحكة من الطيور الشائعة ومل يوثق accipiter gentilisوطائر الباز . واآلن تنتشر يف كل احناء العراق .تسجيلها من قبل الباحثني ومراقيب الطيور يف العراق 41-49 41 mohammad et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2002) 9 (4): 41–49 the parasitic fauna of the moorhen gallinula chloropus chloropus l. in the middle of iraq mohammad k. mohammad azhar a. al-moussawi mohammad k. jasim iraq natural history museumuniversity of baghdad , bab al-muadham, p.o. box 59037 baghdad, iraq abstract examination of the blood and the alimentary canal of moorhens in two sites around baghdad area in the middle of iraq showed that 38% of the examined birds were infected with one or more of the following parasites, haemoproteus baghdadensis, h. gallinulae (protozoa), cyclocoelum mutbile (trematoda), diorchis inflata, ligula intestinalis (cestoda), amidostomum fulicae and porrcaecum sp. (nematoda) .the stomach analysis revealed that the bird is omnivorous in feeding including wid range of invertebrate animals with some plant origin food items. introduction works on parasites of iraqi birds are rather few and scanty. except for chickens ( alhubaity, 1976; al-hubaity and al-habib, 1979 ) and some pigeons ( al-janabi et al., 1980; zankana, 1982; mustafa, 1984; al-aloosi,1985; sawada et al.,1987; sawada and mohammad, 1989), most works deal with only some common birds scattered over a wide range of avian orders ( mohammad, 1990 ,1991, 1996, 2002; mahmoud and mohammad, 1989; mahmoud et al., 2000). mahmoud and mohammad (1989) was the only report on parasites of rallidae in iraq. they studied the helminths of the coot, fulica atra l. in baghdad area and reported four helminthes. the avian family rallidae comprises eight species in iraq ( allouse, 1961) among them the moorhen which is wide spread throughout middle and south of iraq since it has wide tolerance to rainfall, humidity, temperature and wind strength. it causes some damage to vegetable crops in the middle and south (yousif, 1979). it inhabits lakes, swamps and marshy areas especially with dense reed and prefers waters sheltered by woodland or tall emergent plants and exploits wide range of both natural and man-made wetlands and adapted to both still and moving water (cramp, 1980; ritter and savidge, 1999). it is an opportunistic breeder in freshwater habitats of arabia (jennings, 1999). its populations in iraq are either breeders or winter visitors in suitable areas in the middle and south of the country. the present work deals with the parasitic fauna of the moorhen in the middle region of iraq including notes on some biological aspects. materials and methods a total of 50 specimens of moorhen were collected from swamps and small marshy areas around baghdad city and suwairawasit province during 1998-2002. blood films were often taken immediately from brachial vein or sometimes from the heart, air-dried, fixed in absolute methanol and stained with giemsa’s stain at strength of 1:10. then the birds were dissected, the coelom of the body was searched carefully and the intestine kept in 70% alcohol and transferred to the laboratory. the trematodes and cestodes were stained with acetocarmine, 42 parasites of moorhen cleared in xylene and mounted in canada balsam, while nematodes cleared and examined in lactophenol. results and discussion table 1 summarizes the results on the incidence of parasites in the moorhen in this study. it shows that 22 specimens (44 %) of the total sample harbored either single or mixed infections with one or more species of parasites. infection with haemoproteus spp. ranks first among other parasites with rate of 12% for both of h. baghdadensis mohammad , 2000 (figs 1-2) and h. gallinulae (figs. 3-4). shamsuddin and mohammad (1981) found no haematozoa in the blood of the two moorhens they examined while mohammad (2000) found that only 3.6% of the moorhens were infected with h. baghdadensis but without mixed infections with other species of haemoproteus. however, acquiring infection of relatively high rate with two haemoproteids may reflects the fact that the two collection sites (swamps and marshy areas around baghdad city and suwaira wasit province) are of high vector potentiality. this is especially true for that different stages of growth of the parasites could be detected easily in the same blood film, which reveals that the birds are continuously bitten by vector/s during the course of the year especially during the hot and moderate seasons which last for about nine months in iraq. although the present parasite specimens from different birds are keyed well to be h. gallinulae, some taxonomic measurements (table 2) seems smaller than that provided by bennett (1980). this may represents physiological differences among their allopatric hosts. cucco et al. (1999) and van duyse et al. (1999) confirmed presence of geographical differences among moorhens. the moorhen is omnivorous and this makes it a potential host for a wide variety of endoparasites. pollock and ohalloran (1995) found that feeding was the most important activity of the bird and represents 38% of the time utilization. this activity apparently not affected by the colder and warmer periods of a day ( acquarone et al., 2001). preliminary observations on stomach contents showed presence of spiders, larvae of insects, snails of the species; lymnaea auricularia , monacha obtusata and physa acuta, and the earthworm allolobophora sp. along with some plant-origin food items including seeds, fruits and pieces of leaves. however, gregarious breeding of this bird may contributes to the diversity of parasitic fauna during the reproduction season ( macrae, 1995, 1997, 1998; mcrae and burke, 1996; post and seals, 2000). the termatode cyclocoelum mutabile (zeder, 1800) is found in the body cavity of the bird with infection rate of 2% (table 1). this is in accordance with mahmoud and mohammad (1988) who found the coot fulica atra examined in baghdad area were infected with this trematode. this parasite and some other species of cyclocoelum were frequently reported in the body cavity of moorhens in europe, egypt, india and americas (bhutta and khan, 1975; kinsella et al., 1975; iskova, 1978; el-naffar, 1979 a, b; fernandes, 1979). the cestode ligula intestinalis (l.) (pseudophyllidea: diphyllobothridae) is widely distributed throughout the northern hemisphere. yamaguti (1959) reported adults from 16 genera of birds and mentioned that fishes belong to 27 genera and copepods (crustacea) act as intermediate hosts for larval stages of this cestode. on the other hand, the cestode diorchis inflata (rud.) (cyclophyllidea: hymenolepididae) was frequently reported from ducks and coots in europe and asia (yamaguti, 1959; macko, 1968; olszewaska, 1979; volkonuova, 1979; pojmanska, 1982; mahmoud and mohammad, 1989). in iraq, mahmoud and mohammad (1989) found this cestode the most common among other parasites of the coot fulica atra l. in baghdad area and concluded that the intermediate host is more common in the diet of the host. 43 mohammad et al. the nematode amidostomum fulicaes ( rud. ) was reported in iraq from fulica atra under the lining of stomach ( mahmoud and mohammad, 1989 ) . reporting it from moorhen is not surprising since it shares the coot almost the same food requirements . the other nematode porrocaecun sp. was reported in europe and north america from a wide range of avian hosts including gallinula spp. ( yamaguti , 1961 ; yorke and maplestone , 1962 ) . the authers tentatively identified this nematode because only two specimens were available for examination . laval forms were found in earthworms belonging to genera lumbricus and octolasium (yamaguti , 1961) . however earthworms belong to genus allolobophora constitute one of the food items utilized by this bird as revealed by stomach analysis in this study . reporting of h. gallinulae constitutes the first record for iraq while reporting of diorchis inflata, ligula intestinalis and amidostomum fulicae represent new host records. presence of h. baghdadensis , c. mutabile, diorchis inflata and amidostomum fulicae in the middle area of iraq in the coot (mahmoud and mohammad, 1988;mohammad 2000) and in the moorhen in this study may be related partially to their sympatric coexistence. cramp (1980) pointed that the distribution of the two birds overlaps along the margins of lakes and rivers with cover and open areas readily accessible from water, and since they share almost the same food and have close ecological requirements, so it is not of surprise that they share some species of their parasite burden. table 1: parasite species, intensity infection and range number of parasites. range (mean) no. parasite sp. no. birds inf. % of inf. % of total parasite/bird protozoa: apicomplexa h. baghdadensis 3 * 15.8 6 many h. gallinulae 6 31.5 12 many platyhelminthes trematoda c. mutabile 1 5.3 2 1 cestoda diorchis inflata 5 26.3 10 1-11 (3.7) ligula intestinalis 2 10.5 4 1-2 (1.5) aschelminthes nematoda amidostomum fulicae 3 15.8 6 3-13 (6.7) porrocaecum sp. 2 10.5 4 2-4 (3) total 22 44 ____________________________________ * mixed infection with h. gallinulae 44 parasites of moorhen table 2: measurements of h. gallinulae in um followed by standard deviation in parentheses. measurements macrogametocyte microgametocyte parasite (n=10) length 11.6 (0.81) 11.6 (0.88) width 3.49(0.64) 3.2 (0.75) area 39.08 (4.8) 38.55 (5.75) % erythrocyte-parasite complex 71.62 72.05 parasite nucleus (n=10) length 2.62 (0.49) 3.5 (1.14) width 2.38 (0.45) 2.38 (0.46) area 4.35 (1.42) 6 (1.8) % area of parasite 11.77 13.12 no. of pigment granules 26.89 26 literature cited acquarone, c., cucco, m. and malacarne, g. 2001 daily and seasonal activity of moorhen studied by motion-sensitive transmitters water birds. 24(1) : 1-7 al-aloosi ,j. a.1985 a survey of alimentary canal helminthes of two birds gull (larus ridibundus) and wood pigeon (columba palumbus) from baghdad and baiji regions . m.sc.thesis ,college of science ,university of baghdad . al-hubaity , i. a. 1976 studies on the parasites of gallus gallus domestica in mosul district, iraq . m.sc. thesis (mosul univ. ,iraq ) al-hubaity, i. a. and al-habib, w. i. s. 1979 a survey of the helminth parasites of the domestic fowl (gallus gallus domesticus) in mosul district / iraq. mesopotamia j.agric.,14 (1):197-204 al-janabi , b. m. , al-saadi ,h. i. and hayatee , z. g. 1980 some parasites of pigeon from mosul province . j. coll vet . med . mosul , 1(2) : 15 –26 . allouse, b.e.1961 birds of iraq vol .2 (in arabic) arrabitta press , baghdad . bhutta, m. s. and khan , d. 1975. digenetic trematodes of vertebrates from pakistan .bull. dep. zool. univ. panjab (n.s) no. 8 :1-175. cramp ,s. 1986 hand book of the birds of europe , the middle east and north africavol.2. oxford university press , oxford. cucco m., lingua, g., bocchio, d., acquarone, c. and malacarne g. 1999 sex identification in the moorhen gallinula chloropus by flow cytometry and morphometric analysis .ital. j. zoolog 66(1): 1-6.. 45 mohammad et al. el-naffar , m.k. 1979 a parasites of the egyptian moorhens. 1-diplostomum magnicaudum sp.nov. with part of its life cycle . journal egypt . soc. parasit. 9(2) : 349-358 . el-naffar, m .k. 1979 b parasites of the egyptian moorhens. 2.cyclocoelum microstomum kossack and cyclocoelum problewaticum var. gallinulae n.var. journal egypt..soc. parasit. 9(2):359-368. fernandes , b.m.m. 197 sobre as espécies brasilaras da familia cycloeoelidae kossak 1911 (trematoda , cycloroelidae) . memorias inst. oswaldo cruz 74 (3-4): 289-294 . iskova, n. i. 1978 on the nomenclature of some species of the genus cyclocoelum brandes, 1892 parasitising in rallidae and charadiiformes. vestnik zool (6): 59-63. jenings, m.c. 1999 atlas of breeding birds of arabia ( electronic media). ( e mail ; arabian birds @ dial .pipex .com ) kinsella , j.m. ; hon , l.t. and reed ,p.b., jr. 1975 a comparision of the helminth parasities of the common gallinule (gallinula chloropus cachinnans) and the purple gallinule( porphyrula martinica) in florida american . midl. nat. 89(2): 467-473. macko , j.k. 1968. uber eningo morphologischae besonderheiten und abonormitaten bei arten der gatting .diorchis clere, 1903 (cestoda) aus dem wirt ( fulica atra) .biolgia bratish., 23 : 148-153 . mahmoud , s. s. and mohammad, m. k. 1989 helminth parasites of the coot fulica atra l. (aves , rallidae) in baghdad area iraq . bull. iraq nat . hist. mus. , 8(2): 131-145. mahmoud, s. s., mohammad, m. k. and ali , s. y. 2000 histopathological effects of hartertia gallinarum on the rock partridge alectoris graecca in qa’ra region, west of iraq. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus., 9(2): 41-50 mcrae, s. b. 1995 temporal variation in responses to intraspecific brood parasitism in the moorhen . animal behaviour . 49(4):1073-1088 mcrae, s. b. 1997 a rise in nest predation enhances the frequency of intraspecific brood parasitism in a moorhen population .journal of animal ecology 66(2):143-153 mcrae, s.b . 1998 . relative reproductive success of female moorhens using conditional strategies of brood parasitism and parental care. behav. ecol, 9(1): 93-100. 46 parasites of moorhen mcrae s.b. and burke t. 1996 . intraspecific brood parasitism in the moorhen-parentage and parasite – host relationships determined by dna fingerprinting. behavioral ecology and sociobiology . 38(2): 115-129 mohammad, m. k. 1990 helmith parasites of the black partridge francolinus f rancolinus arabistanicus in baghdad area , iraq . bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. , 8 ( 3 ) : mohammad, m. k. 1991 blood parasites of some iraqi wild birds.iraqi j. sci. ,31: 31-39 mohammad , m. k. 1996 intestinal helminth parasites of the rock partridge ، alectoris graeca in qa’ra area , west of iraq . bull. iraq nat . hist . mus., 8(4): 89101. mohammad , m. k. 2002 haemoproteids of the avian family rallidae in iraq with description of a new species . bull . iraq nat hist . mus ., 9(4) : (under publiccation). mustafa , f.a.a. 1984 epidemic study on some cestodes infecting the alimentary canal of pigeons , iraq. m.sc . thesis, basrah univ. , iraq. olszewska, g.m.1979. topospecificity of three cestode species of the genus diorchis parasitizing fulica atra (l.). 97-101. in :bezubic, b. and czaplinski , b. (eds) materials of the international conference on hymenolepididae warszawa 14-16 sept. 1973. polish academy of sciences, parasitolgical committee, warszawa 1973 : i-xvi, 1-157. pojmanska. t. 1982 the co-occurrence of three species of diorchis clerc, 1903 (cestoda:hymenolepidiidae) in the european coot, fulica atra l. parasitology, 84:414 –429. pollock, c. m.and ohalloran, j. 1995 the winter behavior of the moorhen gallinulla chloropus l. (gruiformes , rallidae ) at cork lough biology and environment proceedings of the royal irish academy , 95b(1): 59-64. post, w. and seals, c. a. 2000 breeding biology of the common moorhen in an impounded cattail marsh. j. field. ornithol . 71(3): 437-442. ritter, m. w. and savidge, j. a. 1999 a predictive model of wetland habitat use on guam by endangered mariana common moorhens . condor . 101 (2) : 282287. sawada, i. and mohammad , m. k. 1989 on some avian cestodes collected in iraq. bull. nara. sangyo university, 5: 179-186. shamsuddin, m. and mohammad, m.k. 1981 haematozoa of some iraqi birds with description of two new species, haemoproteus pteroclis and leucocytozoon nycticoraxi (protozoa:haemosporina). bull. nat. mist. res. centre, 7(4): 111155 47 mohammad et al. van duyse, e., galbusera, p., schenck, t., pinxten, r. and eens, m. 1999 estimating isolation and genetic differentiation in two belgian populations of moorhens gallinulla chloropus by using minisatellite and microsatellite dna markers. belg. j. zoology . 129 (1):113-123 volkonuova, j. 1979 . cestodes in domestic and wild ducks. ziua, 27: 22. yamaguti, s. 1959 systema helminthum vol. ii the cestodes of vertebrates, interscience publishers, inc., new york, 860 pp. yamaguti, s. 1961 systema helminthum vol. iii parts 1& 2. nematodes of vertebrates, interscience publishers , inc., new york. york, w. and maplestone, p. a. 1962 the nematode parasites of vertebrates, hafner publish . co., new york . yousif, n. 1979 identification of harrmful avian species to crops and agricultural activities in iraq with description of there qualitative and quantitative damage .college of agriculture / sulaimaniya university ,169 pp.(in arabic) . zangana, p.m. 1982 study on the parasites of domestic pigeon columba livia domestica in nineva and some areas of erbil and duhouk provinces. .m.sc .thesis,college of science ,university of mosul . 48 parasites of moorhen bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2002) 9 (4): 41-49 ق ط العرا و ء في ما جا ا طير د ف و ة ا طف لية م ج الم م ظم جاس د كا حم ي م وسو د أزهار أ مد ا م حم ظم م مد كا مح ي ع خ ال بي ري ف ال ا ح دادجا مت عة ب م -م ظ ب ال ع د –با غدا ق –ب العرا ة ص الخال أظهرت نتائج فحص الدم والقناة اهلضمية لنماذج من طري دجاج املاء يف موقعني يف وسط : مــــن الطيــــور املفحوصــــة كانــــت مصــــابة بواحــــد او اكثــــر مــــن الطفيليــــات اآلتيــــة% ٣٨العــــراق إن haemoproteus baghdadensis وh. gallinulae )و ) األوايلcyclocoelum mutabile و amidostomum fulicaeو ) الشريطيات( ligula intestinalisو diorchis inflataو ) احملجميات( porracaecum sp. )اخليطيات.( 49 mohammad et al. full page photo full page photo full page photo 7-11 7 s. i. al – dulaimi bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2002) 9 (4): 7-11 predation by the mite macrocheles glaber (müller) (acarina: macrochelidae) on the house fly musca domestica l. with some notes on its biology sabah i. al-dulaimi girls education college, al-anbar university, al-anbar, iraq. abstract macrocheles glaber (müller) is one of several mites that feeds on eggs, newly hatched & small larvae of house fly musca domestica l. this mite was reared in the laboratory on house fly frozen eggs at constant conditions of 28°c±1 and 90% relative humidity using sterilized horse dung substrate. the predation rate of adult female and male on frozen eggs was (18, 3) eggs/mite/day respectively, the number of frozen eggs destroyed by adult female through its life was 185.6 eggs. the mean duration of adult female from egg to adult stage was 2.67 days, the longevity of female was 27.8 days, the mean daily egg production was 2.7 egg with total egg productivity of 72.1 egg. introduction several species of the family macrochelidae (acarina: mesostigmata) are predacious on house fly musca domestica eggs and first instar larvae, they also feed on nematodes, collembola and other small arthropods as alternative food in the absence of house fly immature stages (rodriguez and wade, 1961; evanse et al., 1961).pereira and castro (1945) were the first to report macrochelid mites feed on eggs and first stages of house fly. axtell (1961) and kinn (1966) reported the rate of predation on house fly eggs and larvae by many species of macrochelidae. mean while the biology and ecology of the macrochelid mites have been studied by many workers (axtell, 1961, 1963, 1966; axtell and edwards, 1983; fillipponi, 1955, 1960; keiback, 1978; mahunka, 1971; o’donell and axtell, 1965; rodriguez and wade, 1961). in iraq the only available information on the mites of macrochelidae were that reported by mahmood and al-dulaimi (1986, 1988 and 1989) but the necessity for more basic studies in this field still desirable to clarify the role of macrochelid mites in controlling house fly populations. therefore, this study was conducted to provide more information on the biology of m. glaber to determine whether this mite is capable of being an efficient biological agent in controlling house fly. materials and methods macrocheles glaber(müller) was collected from poultry houses in baghdad area during 1992, several individuals of this mite for the stock culture were isolated and transfered to petri-dishes (7 cm diameter) containing sterilized horse dung moistened with water and placed in a dessicator in which a constant relative humidity of 90%. then the desicator was maintained and kept in an incubator at 28°c±1, frozen fly eggs have been supplied daily as a food. musca domestica adults were maintained and allowed to lay eggs on cellucotton saturated with milk-water solution and placed in petri-dish (7 cm diameter) ,then confined to cubic cages (18 cm) wire framed completely covered with netting withlong sleeve at one 8 mites predators of musca domestica side,the hatching larvae were transfered to a round plastic containers (13.5x5.5 cm) containing sterilized horse dung, yeast and malt (600, 22 and 200) gms respectivly, the constituents were mixed well and moistened with 200 ml water, then the culture was covered with organdy and kept in an incubator at 30°c. small cells were used to follow the life development of the mites, each cell consisted of small glass containers (2.5x3 cm) in which 0.5 gm of sterilized horse dung was placed, 0.3 ml of water was added and allowed to stand until all the water absorbed evently, then the substrate was packed down in half of cell bottom to facilitate observation of various stages of the mites within the rearing cell. many pairs of mites were transferred from the stock culture to lay eggs into individual cell containing the same substrate, sealed with para-film and kept under the same conditions as the stock culture for 24 hours. twenty-three of known age mite eggs of each treatment were transferred carefully into rearing cell using a small-flattened needle. each egg was placed into an individually numbered cell and then sealed with para-film. observations were made hourly until hatching occurred and then every six hours until the mites reached mortality. ten of the females which completed their development in the rearing cell were taken for fecundity studies, each one was placed in a new cell with male chosen from the stock culture, each unit was numbered and kept under the experiment conditions. cells were examined twice daily under low power binocular microscope to count the number of eggs laid by each female. the mites were transferred to a new cell having the same number after each examination. the counting of the eggs continued until the death of females. the mites were fed on the house fly frozen eggs. to determine the number of house fly eggs destroyed per mite, the same rearing cells were used. forty fly frozen eggs were placed in each cell provided with one newly emerged adult mite starved for 24 hours, the number of frozen eggs destroyed by m. glaber were determined at each twenty four hours by microscopic examinations. results and discussion predation potential: table 1 showed that the daily mean number of frozen eggs destroyed by adult female and male of m. glaber were (18, 3) eggs respectively, so the male had much lower predation rate compared with the female. table 1: predation rates of adult macrocheles glaber on the house fly frozen eggs in 28°c±1 and 90% relative humidity. sex number of frozen eggs destroyed per mite per day mean range s. e. female 18 12-27 ±4.39 male 3 2-4 ±0.94 from table 2, the mean total number of frozen eggs destroyed by female through its life was 185.6 eggs with daily average of 6.7 egg. this result was less than that reported by mahmood and al-dulaimi (1986), which they found that 32.5 eggs was destroyed daily by adult m. muscaedomesticae female, while o’donell and axtell (1965) gave 24.8 eggs and larvae destroyed by this mite per day at 26.8-28°c . the present work together with previous reported study on m. muscaedomesticae and latent studies on other macrochelid mites might be give some important information to control house fly. 9 s. i. al – dulaimi table 2: number of fly frozen eggs destroyed by adult m. glaber female during its life cycle in 28°c±1 and relative humidity 90%. number of frozen eggs destroyed per day total number of frozen eggs destroyed through mite life range 5.3-8.0 100-301 mean 6.7 185.6 s. e. ±0.87 ±65.86 life cycle: macrocheles glaber has only one larval and two nymphal stages, the mean duration of preadult stages of female together with their standard error are given in table 3. the mean incubation period and larval stage duration were 1.43 and 0.3 days respectively, while the mean duration of the protonymph and deutonymph stages were 0.73 and 1.65 days respectively. table 3: average duration in days of the developmental stages of m. glaber female at 28°c±1 and 90% relative humidity. egg larva protonymph deutonymph total range 1.00-1.75 0.25-0.5 0.5-1.0 1.0-2.0 2.0-3.25 mean 1.34 0.3 0.73 1.65 2.67 s. e. ±0.26 ±0.10 ±0.14 ±0.36 ±0.35 from table 4, the female life spane was 27.8 days with a range of 17-51 days, the mean numbers of eggs produced by a female was 2.7 egg/female/day with a range of 1.7-4.2, the mean longevity of the female was 27.8 days with range of 17-51 days, while the mean productivity was 72.1 eggs with a range of 40-94 eggs. table 4: mean fecundity and longevity for 10 females of m. glaber at 28°c±1 and 90% relative humidity. number of eggs /day longevity (days) total egg productivity range 1.7-4.2 17-51 40-94 mean 2.7 27.8 72.1 s. e. ±0.83 ±10.39 ±18.10 acknowledgements the author is very grateful to dr. souhaila h. mahmood, natural history museum, for reviewing the manuscript and offering many helpful suggestions. literature cited axtell, r.c. 1961. new records of north american macrochelidae (acarina: mesostigmata) and their predation rates on the house fly. ann. ent. soc. amer., 54(5):748. axtell, r.c. 1963. effects of macrochelidae (acarina: mesostigmata) on house fly production from dairy cattle manure. j. econ. ent., 56(3):317-321. axtell. r.c. 1966. comparative toxicities of insecticides to house fly larvae and macrocheles muscaedomesticae a mite predator of the house fly. j. econ. ent., 59(5):11281130. 10 mites predators of musca domestica axtell. r.c. and edwards, t.d. 1983. efficiency and nontarget effects of larvadex as a feed additive for controlling house flies in caged-layer poultry manure. poultry science 62(12):2371-2377. evans, g.o.; sheals, j.g. and macfarlane, d. 1961. the terrestrial acari of the british isles. an introduction to their morphology, biology and classification vol. 1. introduction and biology. london (british museum) nat. hist., 1-219. fillipponi, a. 1955. sullanatura dell asso ciazione tra macrocheles muscaedomesticae and musca domestica. riv. parassitol. 16(2):83-102. fillipponi, a. 1960. macrochelidi (acarina: mesostigmata) foreticidi nosch. risultati parziali di una indagine ecologica in carso nell agro pontino. parasitologia. 2(1-2):167172. keilback, r. 1978 termination of the aplagae of the little house fly (fannia canicularis) by the foratic macrocheles muscaedomesticae in small animal pers. parasitologia, 19(4): 221-223. kinn, a. n. 1966 predation by the mite macrocheles muscaedomesticae (acarina: macrochelidae) on three species of flies. j med. ent., 3(2): 221-223. mahmood, s. h. and al-dulaimi, s. i. 1986 biological studies on the mite macrocheles muscaedomesticae (acarina: macrochelidae). j. biol. sci. res., 17(2): 329-338. mahmood, s. h. and al-dulaimi, s. i. 1988 ecological study of iraqi predator mites developing in animal manure. j. biol. sci. res. 19(suppl.): 865-876. mahmood, s. h. and al-dulaimi, s. i.1989 a survey of the acari fauna in cattle and horse manure. j. biol. sci. res., 20(3): 463-473. mahunka, s. 1971 investigations on coprophilous and stercoricolous macrochelidae (acarina: gamasina) in hungary, as possible agents in control of synanthropous flies. parasit. hung., 4: 215-226. o’donell, a. e. and axtell, r. c. 1965 predation by fuscoropoda vegetans (acarina:uropodidae) on house fly musca domestica. ann. ent. soc. amer., 58(3): 403-404. pereiera, c. and de castro, n. p. 1945 contribuicao para o conhesimento da especie tipo de macrocheles muscaedomesticae (scolopi, 1772). emend. arg. inst. biol. (sao paulo), 16:153-186. rodriguez, j. g. and wade, c. f. 1961 the nutrition of macrocheles muscaedomesticae (acarina: macrochelidae) in relation to its predatory action on the house fly eggs. ann. ent. soc. amer., 54: 782-788. 11 s. i. al – dulaimi bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2002) 9 (4): 7-11 م س ة للحل را الفت :macrocheles glaber (müller) (acarinaالكفا ة ا macrochelidae) م زلي ب ال ذ ا ى ال ض .musca domestica lعل ع ع م ه حياتيت عل ظا ح ال م ال مي م ال لي هي ح إب ا صبا ت ة ل بنا ربي ة ا ت ال بار جا/ كلي ة ا ع ر/م النبا ق/ ا العرا ة ص الخال م حلـل ض macrocheles glaber (müller)ا و ى بيـ ى علــ ذ غـ يت ت واع الــ أل ــ ن ا ـم رية غ ـ ـص س ال قــ ة لف ديثــ ح قاتــ ر يل ي نــز ب مل ذبا ريب هــذا احللــم يف املختــرب علــى البيــوض امــدة . الــ مال روث اخليــل املعقـــم باســتع% ٩٠ورطوبــة نســبية ١ ±م° ٢٨للــذباب املنــزيل يف درجــة حــرارة .كوسط للرتبية وقد أظهرت النتائج بان معدل االفرتاس اليومي لإلناث والذكور الكاملة على البيوض امدة كما وجد بان معدل عدد بيوض الذباب املنزيل امدة اليت . بيضة على التوايل ٣و ١٨كان ووجد أيضًا بان معدل دورة . بيضة ١٨٥.٦تغذت عليها إناث احللم الكاملة خالل حياا كان وأظهرت النتائج أيضًا بان طول عمر . يوم ٢.٦٧ة األنثى من الفقس حىت طور الكاملةحيا بيضة، وقد بلغ معدل ٢.٧يوم وكان معدل اإلنتاج اليومي من البيوض ٢٧.٨اإلناث كان .بيضة خالل فرتة حياا ٧٢.١اإلنتاج الكلي من البيوض bull 9 hussain zaydan ali bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2015) 13 (3): 9-21 geostatistical analysis and mapping of ozone over iraq hussain zaydan ali ministry of science and technology-baghdad-iraq e-mail: hussainzayali53@yahoo.com abstract the ozone monitoring instrument (omi) measures the reflected solar radiation in the ultraviolet and visible part in the spectral range that is between 270 and 500 nm, using two channels with a spectral resolution of about 0.5 nm. ground-level tropospheric ozone is one of the air pollutants of most concern. in the troposphere, near the earth's surface, human activities lead to ozone concentrations several times higher than the natural background level. to evaluate the ozone distribution over iraq, the ozone data from omi were analyzed using geostatistical techniques. theoretical spherical models provided the best fit for all monthly experimental variograms. the parameters of these variograms (sill, range and nugget) were evaluated. finally, predictive ozone maps were derived for all points of the study area, by use of geostatistical algorithms (kriging). high prediction accuracy was obtained in all cases as cross-validation showed. keywords: pollution, geostatistical analysis, kriging, tropospheric ozone mapping. introduction data from the ozone monitoring instrument (omi) onboard the aura satellite (from 2005 to 2012) all processed using geoststistical analyst. the ozone monitoring instrument (omi) flies on the national aeronautics and space administration’s earth observing system aura satellite launched in july 2004 (figure (1)). omi is a ultraviolet/visible (uv/vis) nadir solar backscatter spectrometer, which provides nearly global coverage in one day with a spatial resolution of 13 km 24 km. trace gases measured include o3, no2, so2, etc. omi’s unique capabilities for measuring important trace gases with a small footprint and daily global coverage will be a major contribution to our understanding of stratospheric and tropospheric chemistry and climate change. omi’s high spatial resolution is unprecedented and will enable detection of air pollution on urban scale resolution. omi measures the reflected solar radiation in the ultraviolet and visible part in the spectral range that is between 270 and 500 nm, using two channels with a spectral resolution of about 0.5 nm. the light entering the telescope is spatially pseudo-depolarized using a scrambler and then split in two channels: the uv channel (full performance range 270–365 nm) and the vis channel (full performance range 365–500 nm) [1, 2 and 5]. 10 geostatistical analysis and mapping of ozone over iraq figure (1): omi measurement principle. the uv channel consists of two sub channels with the following full performance ranges: the uv-1, ranging from 270–310 nm, and the uv-2 ranging from 310-365 nm. the spectral and spatial sampling of the uv-1 are reduced by a factor of two compared to the uv-2. the full performance range of the vis-channel ranges from 365–500 nm. ground-level tropospheric ozone is one of the air pollutants of most concern. it is mainly produced by photochemical processes involving nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds in the lower parts of the atmosphere. ozone levels become particularly high in regions close to high ozone precursor emissions and during summer, when stagnant meteorological conditions with high insolation and high temperatures are common. ground ozone levels is a topic of considerable environmental concern, since excessive level of ozone are taken as indicative of high pollution. human activities have led to much higher ground-level ozone concentrations. in the troposphere, near the earth's surface, human activities lead to ozone concentrations several times higher than the natural background level. too much of this ground-level ozone is “bad” as it is harmful to breathe and also damages the environment. when ozone mixes with other air pollutants, especially nitrogen oxides and particulate matter, it can form harmful smog. this smog occasionally takes place in polluted city areas. in addition, ozone is a greenhouse gas which may have important global climatic consequences. ozone is a natural component of the troposphere, produced by photochemical reactions of nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds (voc), and collectively called ozone precursors, enhanced by temperature and sunlight. emissions from car exhausts, power plants and industrial facilities are the major sources of nitrogen oxides and voc [1, 12, 13 and 14]. in this study the ozone data for iraq were analyzed using geostatistical techniques in arcgis. thus, first, during the exploratory analysis of data, it was revealed that they were distributed normally, which is a desirable property for the subsequent stages of the geostatistical study. secondly, during the structural analysis of data, theoretical spherical models provided the best fit for all monthly experimental variograms. the parameters of these variograms (sill, range and nugget) were calculated. finally, predictive ozone maps were derived for all points of the study area (iraq), by use of geostatistical algorithms (kriging). high prediction accuracy was obtained in all cases as cross-validation showed. many studies about the temporal and spatial variability of 11 hussain zaydan ali ground level ozone were conducted [1, 17 and 18]. this study aimed to determine the best method (lowest cross validation error) for interpolating the spatial distribution of ozone data over iraq. methodology the presence of a spatial structure where observations close to each other are more alike than those that are far apart (spatial autocorrelation) is a prerequisite to the application of geostatistics. the experimental variogram measures the average degree of dissimilarity between unsampled values and a nearby data value, and thus can depict autocorrelation at various distances. the value of the experimental variogram for a separation distance of h (referred to as the lag) is half the average squared difference between the value at z (xi) and the value at z (xi h): where n (h) is the number of data pairs within a given class of distance and direction. if the values at z (xi) and z (xi h) are auto correlated the result will be small, relative to an uncorrelated pair of points. from analysis of the experimental variogram, a suitable model (e.g. spherical, exponential) is then fitted, usually by weighted least squares, and the parameters (e.g. range, nugget and sill) are then used in the kriging procedure [7, 11 and 16]. fitting a variogram model. the variogram must be expressed as a mathematical function before being used for kriging. this is typically achieved by fitting a suitable function to the experimental variogram. each function is defined in terms of a small number of parameters that are selected to best-fit the function to the experimental variogram. in this study we use two functions, namely spherical and circular. below the spherical function adopted, which is defined by: where c0 is the nugget variance, c+c0 is sill, h is the lag and a is the range. all variograms computed in this study are all fitted with spherical model. the spherical model is the most commonly used model for experimental data. this function is expressed in terms of three parameters, namely; a range of spatial correlation, c0 the nugget effect and c1 the sill value. when a variogram is plotted using discrete experimental data points, it is called an experimental or sample variogram. a theoretical model can be fitted through the experimental data points to quantify spatial patterns. the shape and description of a “classic” variogram is shown in figure (2). 12 geostatistical analysis and mapping of ozone over iraq figure (2): the variogram. there are three key terms in each model, the sill, the range, and nugget variance. the sill corresponds to the overall variance in the dataset and the range is the maximum distance of spatial autocorrelation. the nugget variance is the positive intercept of the variogram and can be caused by measurement errors or spatial sources of variation at distances smaller than the sampling interval or both [9, 15 and 19]. with the wide and increasing applications of the spatial interpolation methods, there is also a growing concern about their accuracy and precision. as any other statistical modeling techniques, the spatial interpolation methods also produce a certain degree of errors associated with the estimation. the statistics of the differences (absolute and squared) between the measured and predicted values at sampled points are often used as an indicator of the performance of an inexact method. several error measurements have been proposed. commonly used error measurements include: mean error (me), mean absolute error (mae), mean squared error (mse) and root mean squared error (rmse). i am used for determining the degree of bias in the estimates, often referred to as the bias but it should be used cautiously as an indicator of accuracy because negative and positive estimates counteract each other and resultant me tends to be lower than actual error. rmse provides a measure of the error size, but it is sensitive to outliers as it places a lot of weight on large errors. mse suffers the same drawbacks as rmse. whereas mae is less sensitive to extreme values and indicates the extent to which the estimate can be in error. mae and rmse are argued to be similar measures, and they give estimates of the average error, but they do not provide information about the relative size of the average difference and the nature of differences comprising them. of course, we can also use cross-validation in together with these measurements to assess the performance of both exact and inexact methods. rmse and mae are argued to be among the best overall measures of model performance as they summarize the mean difference in the units of observed and predicted values [4, 9, 10 and 17]. the purpose of geographic information system (gis) is to provide a spatial framework to support decisions for the intelligent use of earth’s resources and to manage the man-made environment. biologists, botanists, planners, petroleum engineers, foresters, and corporate executives are increasingly relying on gis to help them make critical decisions. by putting spatial data in an integrated system where it can be organized, analyzed, and mapped, patterns and relationships that were previously unrecognized may emerge. the air pollution continues to be a significant environmental problem in many countries. geostatistical analysis methods have been available for several decades, but were not integrated into any gis modeling 13 hussain zaydan ali environments. a newly released software package, geostatistical analyst links gis and geostatistical analysis methods. with geostatistical analyst a continuous surface (a map or a distribution model) can be created from measured sample points. data collection usually can only be conducted at a limited number of point locations due to logistical and financial limitations; however scientists and managers are increasingly interested in continuous surface estimates. in order to generate such a surface some type of interpolation method must be used to estimate data values for those locations where no samples were taken. geostatistical methods, such as kriging apply regionalized variables and describe spatial dependencies between the instances of random variables by using variograms. a variogram is a graphical display of a variance of measurements over the distance between the measurement sites. if there are spatial dependencies the variance between the observations on two points normally increases with increasing distance until at a specific range a maximum value is reached. kriging is considered to be the most sophisticated geostatistical method as it can potentially provide the most accurate results [3, 6, 8 and 16]. in this work an application of the geostatistical analyst for development of o3 distribution models will be discussed. results and discussion many studies have employed distance weighting methods, but kriging is the only one which incorporates the spatial correlation into its estimation algorithm. kriging has been used more widely due to its many advantages. although kriging requires an abundance of sample points to be an accurate spatial interpolation method, even when relative small data sets and not exhaustive samplings are available it is a reliable technique for investigating the distribution of tropospheric ozone. maps were constructed using the geographic information system (gis) software and the geostatistical analyst extension (esri). the kriging method for surface interpolation method was used. in this method, a value is estimated by averaging the values of sample data points in the vicinity around it. the closer a sample point is to the point being estimated, the more influence, or weight, it has in the process. the produced ozone maps are shown in figures (3) to (8). fig (3): ozone map january 2005 14 geostatistical analysis and mapping of ozone over iraq fig (4): ozone map july 2005. fig (5): ozone map january 2006. 15 hussain zaydan ali fig (6): ozone map july 2006. fig (7): ozone map january 2012. 16 geostatistical analysis and mapping of ozone over iraq fig (8): ozone map july 2012. cross validation is used to compare measured values with interpolated values using only the information available in the sample data set. a cross validation study can help to choose between different weighting procedures, between different search strategies, or between different estimation methods. the sample value at a particular location is temporarily discarded from the sample data set; the value at the same location is then estimated using the remaining samples. once the estimate is calculated, the calculated value can be compared with the true value that was initially removed from the sample data set. this procedure is repeated for all available sample values. in this study all parameters of methods were optimized for minimum cross validation error. table (1) below shows the cross validation errors for months: january and july, for the years: 2005, 2006, and 2012. table (1): cross validation results criteria january 2005 january 2006 january 2012 july 2005 july 2006 july 2012 mean -.0057 -.00285 -.0126 -.00575 -.00827 -.00984 root-meansquare .7913 .7436 1.204 .6503 .6226 .6723 average standard error 5.733 8.775 7.812 1.295 1.293 1.389 mean standardized -.00053 -.00029 -.00087 -.003283 -.0040 -.004229 root-meansquare standardized .1295 .0797 .1415 0.4875 .4711 .4773 17 hussain zaydan ali since a strong spatial dependence between ozone data is observed, the geostatistical algorithms, particularly the ordinary kriging, provide accurate estimates, as cross validation confirmed. predictions errors are fair indicators of the variability in predictions, as cross validation revealed, and normality is apparent, probability maps were finally generated. they are very useful tools for hazard assessment and decision support, as presented in figures (9) to (13). fig (9): measured vs. predicted ozone data in january 2005. fig (10): measured vs. predicted ozone data in january 2006. fig (11): measured vs. predicted ozone data in january 2012. 18 geostatistical analysis and mapping of ozone over iraq fig (12): qqplot of ozone data in january 2006. fig (13): qqplot of ozone data in january 2012. conclusion global monitoring of ozone is essential as it plays an important role in the chemical processes occurring in the atmosphere and has a major impact on the climate. tropospheric and stratospheric ozone are highly variable in both space and time and thus in order to correctly quantify its effect on stratospheric chemistry, air quality and radiative forcing it is necessary to develop accurate global measurements. the main health concern of exposure to ambient ground-level ozone is its effect on the respiratory system, especially on lung function. several factors influence these health impacts, including the concentrations of ground-level ozone in the atmosphere, the duration of exposure, average volume of air breathed per minute (ventilation rate), and the length of intervals between short-term exposures. the main goal of interpolation is to discern the spatial patterns of ozone data by estimating values at unsampled locations based on measurements at sample points. geostatistics provides an advanced methodology to quantify the spatial features of the studied variables and enables spatial interpolation, kriging. in addition, geographical information systems (gis) and geostatistics have opened up new ways to study and analyze spatial distributions of regionalized variables, 19 hussain zaydan ali i.e. distributed continuously on space. moreover, they have become useful tools for the study of hazard assessment and spatial uncertainty. without a gis, analysis and management of large spatial data bases may not be possible. the ground-level ozone in an urban environment must be studied by means of high-resolution ozone maps, which are essential tools to properly diagnose and propose control measures with the aim of minimizing its effects. in this work, geostatistical techniques are considered to model the ambient air ozone distribution over the experimental area. although the real spatial complexity of ozone surfaces can not be captured, the proposed techniques provide some reliable surfaces at enough spatial resolution to correctly visualize the spatial patterns of this pollutant. polluted areas in iraq have to be delimited. future actions against ozone should be particularly aimed at reducing the high levels in these zones. consequently, the ozone maps can influence decisions concerning airquality policy, which, in turn, affect the attitudes and behaviors of the general public. acknowledgment the author is grateful to dr. ali m. al-salihi and zahraa m. hassan, atmospheric sciences department, college of science, al-mustansiriyah university for providing the data. literature cited al-salihi, ali m. and hassan, zahraa m. (2014). “analysis of temporal and spatial patterns of ozone over iraq”, m.sc. thesis, atmospheric sciences department, college of science, al-mustansiriyah university. bodeker, ge.; scott, jc.; kreher, k. and mckenzie, rl. (2001). global ozone trends in potential vorticity coordinates using toms and gome intercompared against the dobson network: 1978-1998. j geophysical res; 106, 23029-42. burrough, p. and mcdonnell, r. (ed.). (1998). principles of geographical information systems. oxford university press. cressie, n., (1985). fitting variogram models by weighted least squares, mathematical geology, 17(5), 563-586. crutzen pj. (1971). ozone production rates in an oxygen-hydrogen nitrogen oxide atmosphere. j geophysical res; 76: 7311-27. esri (ed.). (2001). using arcgis geostatistical analyst. esri press. goovaerts p., (2001). “geostatistical modeling of uncertainty in soil science,” geoderma, vol. 103, pp. 3-26. isaaks, e. and srivastava, r. (ed.). (1989). an introduction to applied geostatistics. oxford university press. johnston, k.; ver hoef, j. m.; krivoruchko, k. and lukas, n. (2003). using arcgis geostatistical analyst, esri, 300 pp. kravchenko, a. and bullock, d. (1999). a comparative study of interpolation methods for mapping soil properties. agronomy journal, 91, 393-400. 20 geostatistical analysis and mapping of ozone over iraq lark, r.m., (2002). optimized spatial sampling of soil for estimation of the variogram by maximum likelihood, geoderma, 105 (1-2): 49-80. lelieveld, j. and denterner f.j. (2000). what controls tropospheric ozone? journal of geophysical research, vol. 105, pp. 3531-3551. logan j.a., (1985). tropospheric ozone: seasonal behavior, trends, and anthropogenic influence, journal of geophysical research, vol. 90, pp. 10463-10482, 1985. monks, p.s., (2000). a review of the observations and origins of the spring ozone maximum, atmospheric environment, vol. 34, pp. 3545-3561. wahba, g. and wendelberger, j. (1980). some new mathematical methods for variational objective analysis using splines and cross-validation. monthly weather review 108: 1122–1145. warrick, a.w. and myers, d.e. (1987). optimization of sampling locations for variogram calculations, water resources research, 23 (3), 496-500. webster, r. and oliver, m.a. (2001). geostatistics for environmental scientists. brisbane, australia: john wiley & sons ltd. zeigler, m. (1999). modeling our world. the esri guide to geodatabase design. esri press, redlands, ca. zimmerman, d.; pavlik, c.; ruggles, a. and armstrong, m. (1999). an experimental comparison of ordinary and uk and inverse distance weighting. mathematical geology, 31, 370-395. 21 hussain zaydan ali bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2015) 13 (3): 9-21 لتحليل الجيواحصائي وإنتاج خرائط ألاوزون فوق العراقا حسين زيدان علي العراق -بغداد -وزارة العلوم والتكنولوجيا الخالصة إلاشعاع الشمس ي املنعكس من الجزء الطيفي الفوق البنفسجي ( omi)يقيس جهاز مراقبة ألاوزون يعتبر . نانومتر 2.0باستخدام قناتين بقابلية تحليل طبقية حوالي , نانومتر 022و 072واملرئي بين في طبقة التروبوسفير . على مستوى سطح ألارض من ملوثات الهواء ألاكثر اهتماما ألاوزون التروبوسفيري وقرب سطح ألارض تقود النشاطات البشرية إلى تركيز لألوزون عدة مرات أكثر من مستوى الخلفية تم تحليلها باستخدام omiفان بيانات ألاوزون من , لتقدير توزيع ألاوزون فوق العراق . الطبيعي variogramsالــ كروية النظرية أفضل تطابق لكل لقد وفرت املوديالت ال. ات الجيواحصائيةالتقان ــإن معامالت هذه . الشهرية العملية قد تم تقديرها nuggetو sill, rangeوالتي تتضمن variograms الـ دام الخوارزميات باستخ, وتم اشتقاق الخرائط املتوقعة لألوزون لكل نقاط منطقة الدراسة ,أخيرا .تم الحصول على توقعات دقيقة لكل الحاالت كما بينت نتائج التدقيق املتقاطع(. كرجنج)الجيواحصائية .إنتاج خرائط ألاوزون التروبوسفيري ,كرجنج ,تحليل جيواحصائي ,تلوث :الكلمات الدالة full page photo 8 37 b . m . al chalabi bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2000) 9 (2): 37-43 uttilization of lipids as source of energy during hibernation of rana ridibunda pallas, 1771 alwan j. el-wailly and ehsan f. al-jawhary department of biology, college of education (ibn-hhaitham) university of baghdad. baghdad, iraq abstract the aim of this study is to calculate the ene expenditure from fatty substance contents of the frog. rana ridibunda during its hibernation. it was found that, almost, all frogs enter hibernation during the last week of december and emerge from hibernation during the first week of march. hence, january and february are considered the hibernation period. december is the pre-hibernation period and march is the post-hibernation period. the reduction in percent of body lipid during the hibernation period was 4.8% in males and 7.7% in females. the reduction in percent of lipid of fat bodies during the hibernation period was 2.758% in males and 0.733% in females. the calorific value of r. ridibunda lipid amounted to 12338.5 cal/gm. therefore, energy loss from lipid content of body tissue was 10.04 cal/gm! day in males and 16.10 cal/gm! day in females. energy loss from fat bodies during hibernation was 5.77 cal/gm of mass in males and 1.53 cal/gm of mass in females. the total energy losses during hibernation for r. ridibunda. in baghdad. on dry weight basis, averaged 15.81 cal/gm! day in males and 17.63 cal/gm! day in females. introduction it is now well established that amphibians utilize fat as a source of energy during dormancy (savage, 1961;sherwin. 1965: mazur. 1967: brenner. 1969: fitzpatrick. 1976). several workers made invetigations on changes in lipid weight of some organs in several species of anurans. it was found that fat bodies and other energy depots cover metabolic requirements before as well during and after hibernation. kaloyianni et al. (1993) worked on the effect of adenosine on glucose metabolism of r. ridibunda erythrocytes. seymour (1973) found that about half of the energy required during dormancy came from the fat bodies in spadefoot toads (scaphiopus). beurden (1980) has formulated an energy model to predict survival of frogs the pattern of utilization of energy depots varies greatly both between individuals within a population of frogs and between populations inhabiting varies localities. it also varies from year to year, probably depending upon prevailing feeding conditions (jorgensen et al.. 1979). behrisch & rauch (1981) and bradford (1983) gave good information regarding oxygen relation and energy metabolism of dormant amphibians. storey & storey (1985) found that freezing exposure of the grey tree frog i-iyla versicolor resulted in using of anaerobic glycolysis for energy production. it is widely believed that the body lipid and the most conspicuous site of fat storage in the fat bodies, in anurans, serve as an energy depot primarily during hibernation. mazur (1967) has obtained the calorific values of the tissues and fat at different time of the year for bufo bufo (l.) and rana arvalis nilss. this author found that energy loss during the winter-spring period due to disappearance of fatty and non-fatty substances. 38 inheritance of dark head the present study was undertaken to calculate the energy expenditure (cal/gm/dry body weight/day) from body tissue lipid and from the lipid of fat bodies during hibernation of male and female frog rana ridibunda. it is hoped that this work should add useful informations for the adaptive physiology of amphibians. materlals and methods a total of 445 individuals (218 males and 227 females) of r. ridibunda were collected from baghdad and its suburbs each month from october 1988 to the end of may 1989. during each sampling, water and air temperature was measured. fat bodies were excised and weighed with accuracy of 0.001 gm. animal were weighed. excluded fat bodies, with the stomachs empty. with an accuracy of 0.01 gm. frogs and fat bodies were dried at 70 c to a constant weight, then they weighed to determine dry weight. rose’s (1967) method was used as a basis for extracting fat. fat was extracted from the dry material h means of a hot mixture of chloroform and methanol until a clean extract was obtained. all calculation of fat content are presented as a percentage of the dry mass. the percentage of fat contents found for each sample and the mean value calculated. the caloric value (cal/gm/dry weight) of frog fat was obtained by means of burning in an oxygen bomb calorimeter. the student ‘t” test was applied for ascertaining differences between mean figures for the content of fat in particular periods of investigations. results table (1) and fig. (1) show air and water mean temperature during the period from october 1988 till may 1989. the lowest mean temperature was in january (5.7 c° i6.5 of air and 4 c° + 6.5 of water). in february. the mean temperature was 9.7 c° +3.8 of air and 8.3 c° +4 of water. then, the temperature was increased during march. april and may. frogs entered hibernation at the end of the last week of december and emerged during the first week of march. hence, january and february are considered as the period of hibernation. december is the per-hibernation period and march is the post-hibernation period. table (2) shows means of dry body weight of males and females and the percent lipid content of body tissue (december and march) and the variation in percent lipid content in the fat bodies (october-may). the percent lipid content of body tissue of r. ridibunda was high in both sexes during december (14.3% in males and 16.2% in females). in march, lipid content of body tissue amounted 9.5% in males and 8.5% in females. table (2) and fig. (2) show the cyclic changes in lipid content of bodies. in december. the content of fat body lipid was higher in males (3.73% +0.5073) than in females (1.56% +0.3436). the difference in means was highly significant (p< 0.05). in general, both in males and females, the lipid content of fat bodies decreased in february (0.730%+-0. 1924 in males and 0.177% +-0.627 in females). in march, however, on difference in fat body lipid weight was observed between the sexes (0.973% +0.3379 in males and 0.83 l%+-0.3975 in females). the mean value in both were decreased in april. in may, the content of fat body lipid in male was significantly higher than in females (2.380% +-0.7248 in males and l.076%+-0.3346 in females). the percentage of lipid contents consumed during hibernation was determined from the difference between and the amount of lipid calculated in march. the calorific value of r. ridibunda lipid was 12,338.5 cal/gm. table (3) shows energy losses from lipid content of body tissue during hibernation, the percent lipid consumed during this period was 4.8% gm in males and 7.7% gm in females. therefore, the percent of lipid consumed from the lipid of body tissue per gm/day was 0.56% in males and 0.8 1% in females. thus, the energy consumed during hibernation is 10.04% cal/gm! dry body weight! day for males and 16.10 cal/gm dry body weight! day for females. 39 b . m . al chalabi table (4) shows energy losses from lipid content of fat bodies during hibernation. it was 5.77 cal!gm dry body weight! day for males and 1.53 cal/gm dry body weight! day for females. therefore, the total energy losses during hibernation for r. ridibunda. on dry weight basis. averaged 15.81 cal!gml day for males and 17.63 cal!gmlday for females. table (1): air and water mean temperature (c°) in baghdad during 1988 and 1989 month air temperature water temperature october 1988 25.8+2.8 23.0 +-2.7 november 19.8+-1.3 16.6+-l.7 december 17.3+-5.1 l4.7+-3.2 january 1989 5.7+-6.5 4.0+-6.5 february 9.7+-3.8 8.3+-4.0 march 26.7+-9.1 23.7+-6.4 april 29.5+-3.5 24.0+-7.l may 32.0+-l.4 29.0+-2.l table (2): means of weights of dry body, percent body tissue lipid and percent fat body lipid of rana ridibunda during 1988 and 1989. month no. sex dry body weight(gm) lipid content of body tissue (%gm dry body weight) lipid contentof fat bodies (%gm dry body weight) october 25 m 6.25+-2.57 2.404+-0.4630 21 f 9.33+-4.15 1.906+-0.552l november 42 m 6.13+-2.l0 1.650+-0.2815 f 7.95+-3.70 1.079+-+0.1755 december 20 m 7.i0+-2.00 14.3 3.731+-0.5073 23 f 9.70+-3.16 16.2 1.564+-0.3436 january 6 m 4.27+-0.98 0.984+-0.3070 8 f 6.12+-2.79 0.697+-0.2167 february 36 m 7.22+-2.29 0.730+-0.1924 36 f 9.22+-5.21 0.l77+-0.0627 march 50 m 5.77+-1.91 9.5 0.973+-0.3379 27 f 6.86+-3.37 8.5 0.83 l+-0.3975 april 22 m 6.88+-1.79 0.424+-0.1270 20 f 10.57+-5.23 0.659+-0.2640 may 14 m 6.82+-l.35 2.380+-0.7248 35 f 7.80+-2.82 1.076+-0.3346 table (3): energy losses from lipid content of body tissue (cal/gm/dry for body weight/day) of rana ridibunda during hibernation. sex lipid content of body dry body weigh)tissue (%gm lipid consumed during hibernation energy losses (cal/gm/ dry body weight! day) december march m 14.3 9.5 4.8 10.004 f 16.2 8.5 7.7 16.10 40 inheritance of dark head table (4): energy losses from lipid content of fat bodies (cal/gm dry body weight/ day) of rana ,-idibunda during hibernation. sex lipid content of fat bodies (%gm dry body weight) lipid consumed during hibernaticth energy losses (cal/gm dry body weight/day) december march m 3.731 0.973 2.758 5.77 f 1.564 0.831 0.733 1.53 discussion storage and utilization of body lipid as energy source during hibernation is influenced by the environmental temperature as well as physiological changes within the animal (savage, 1961: brenner, 1969). the lowest mean temperature of air and water (in baghdad during 1988 1989) was recorded during january and february. hence, these two months are considered as the period of hibernation for r. ridibunda (table 1 and fig. i). table (2) shows the percent lipid content of body tissue (excluded the lipid of fat bodies). in december. it was 14.3% in males and 16.2% in females and the percent lipid content in march (after hibernation) was 9.5% in males and 8.5% in females. therefore, during both sexes utilization lipid, but the amount of lipid consumption per day was higher in females than in males. previous worker showed that oogenesis continues throughout dormancy in amphibia and fat reserves are essential for normal egg development (smith,1950: bush. 1963: mizell. 1964: brenner. 1969). rose (1967) showed in r. nigroniaculata relative weight of ovaries tripled during hibernation while no significant development was observed testes (maruyama, 1979). lipid content in fat bodies of r. ridibunda fluctuates in both sexes. in december. the content of fat body lipid was significantly higher in males than in females (table 2 and fig. 2). fat bodies of both sexes were approximately equal in march and than decreased in april (breeding season). in may (after the breeding season), an increase in fat body weight is observed. studies on annual cycles in amphibian fat bodies support the idea that the fat bodies in temperature zone anurans reach minimum size around the breeding time or after the spawning period and reach their maximum size in autumn or before hibernation (jorgensen et al.. 1979). smith (1950) found that fat body of r. temporaria attains maximum development in october (before hibernation). this being followed by a decrease through the winter and it fall to a minimum at the spawning season. tables (3 and 4) show the energy losses from lipid content of body tissue and of fat bodies. respectively. the total energy losses during hibernation averaged 15.8 cal/gm day in males and 17.63 cal/gm! day in females. from the investigation of mazur (1967). concerning total energy losses during the winter and the breeding season for b. bufo and r. arvalis with wet weight averaged 47.99 cal/ 24 hours of b. bufo and in r. arvalis 14.00 cal/ 24 hours. however, it most be noted that mazur (1967) used known caloricity of frog fat (9361.96 cal/gm). and he did not take in consideration the sex of the investigated amphibians. literature cited behrish.h.w. & rauch. j.c. 1981. ketone bodies: a source of energy during hibernation. can. .1. zool., 59(5): 754-760. beurden. e.k. 1980. energy metabolism of dormant australisn water-holding frogs cvclorana platycephalus. copeia, no. 4:787-799. 41 b . m . al chalabi bradford. d.f. 1983. winter kill oxygen relation and energy metabolism of a submerged dormant amphibian rana muscosa. ecol., 64(5): 1171-1183. brenner, f.j. 1969. the role of temperature and fat deposition in two species of frog. herpetological. 25:105-1 13. bush. f.m. 1963. effect of light and temperature on the gross composition of the toad, bufo fowleri. i. exp. zool., 153:1-13. fitzpatick, l.c. 1976. life history of a storage and utilization of lipid for energy in amphibian. amer. zool., 16:725-732. jorgensen, c.b. larseen. l.o. & lofts, b. 1979. annual cycles of fat bodies and gonads in the toad bufo bufo bufo (l.) compared with cycles in other temperature zone anurans. biol. skr.. 22(5): 1-37. kaloyianni. m.; michaelidis, b. & moutov, k. 1993. effect of adenosine on glucose metabolism of rana ridibunda erythrocytes. i exp. biol.. 177:41-50. krawzyk. s. 1968. fat and water content in some organs of the common frog rana temporaria l. in the middle period of hibernation. acta biol. cracove zool., 11:282-294. maruyama. k. 1979. seasonal cyckes in organ weights and lipid composition in the liver, fat body and gonads of rana esculenta. boll. zool.. 50:227-23. mazur. 1. 1967. seasonal variations in the energy reserves of bufo bufo (l.) and rana arvalis nilss. anura in poland. ekol. pol., l5(ser. a): 607-6 13. mizell. s. 1964. seasonal differences in spermatogenesis and cogenesis in rana pipiens. nature, 30(4935); 875-876. morton, m.l. 1981. seasonal changes is in total body lipid and liver weight in the yosmite toad. copeia, no. 1:234-238. rose. f.l. 1967. seasonal changes in lipid levels of the salamander amphiuma means. copeia, no. 3:662-666. savage, r.m. 1961. the ecology and life history of the common frog. rana temporaria temporaria. pitman, london. seymour. r.s. 1973. energy metabolism of dormant spadefoot toad (scaphiopus). copeia, no. 3 :43 5-445. sherwin. m. 1965. seasonal changes in energy reserves in the common frog. rana pip/ens. .1. cell coinp. physiol., 66:25 1-258. smith, c.l. 1950. seasonal change in blood sugar. fat body, liver glycogen and gonads in the common frog, rana temporaria. i exp. biol. .26:412-429. storey. j.m. & storey, k. b. 1985. adaptations of metabolism for freeze tolerance in the grey tree frog, hyla versicolor. can. i ool,. 63 :49-54. 42 inheritance of dark head 43 b . m . al chalabi bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2000) 9 (2): 37-43 ranaاستهالك الدهون كمصدر للطاقة خالل فترة سبات ضفادع المستنقعات ridibunda علوان جاسم الوائلي و احسان فليح الجوهري قسم علوم الحياة، كلية التربية ابن الهيثم، جامعة بغداد الخالصة تا نتيجـة ان الغرض من هذه الدراسة هـو قيـاس مقـدار الطاقـة الـيت يسـتهلكها ضـفدع املسـتنقعا وقد اظهرت الدراسات بان معظم الضفادع تقريبـاً . استهالك الدهون اجلسمية خالل فرتة السبات تدخل فـرتة السـبات خـالل االسـبوع االخـري لشـهر آذار، وعلـى ذلـك اعتـرب كـل مـن شـهري كـانون ر آذار كما اعترب كانون االول فرتة ما قبـل السـبات وشـه. الثاين وشباط فرتة السبات هلذا الضفدع .فرتة ما بعد السبات يف % ٧,٧بلــغ اخنفــاض يف النســبة املئويــة يف دهــون االجســام الدهنيــة خــالل فــرتة الســبات و يف الذكور % ٢,٧٥٨وبلغ اخنفاض النسبة املئوية يف دهون االجسام خالل فرتة السبات . االناث كميــــة الســــعرات احلراريــــة لكــــل غــــرام دهــــين مــــن دهــــون ضــــفدع املســــتنقعات وبلغــــت ٠,٧٣٣و .سعره ١٢٣٣٨,٥ ســـعره ببـــذكور و ١٠,٠٤ومـــن هـــذا بلغـــت كميـــة الطاقـــة املفقـــودة مـــن دهـــون انســـجة اجلســـم امــا الطاقــة املفقــودة مــن دهــون االجســام الدهنيــة اثنــاء فــرتة . سـعرة لالنــاث يف اليــوم الواحــد ١٦,١ سـعره لالنـاث يف اليـوم لكـل غـرام مـن وزن احليـوان ١,٥٣سعره للذكور و ٥,٧٧السبات فبلغت ومن هذا نستنتج ان مقدار الطاقة الكلية املفقودة اثناء فرتة سبات ضفدع املستنقعات يف . اجلاف سـعره لالنـاث يف ١٧,٦٣سـعره للـذكور و ١٥,٨١بغـداد، نسـبة اىل وزن احليـوان اجلـاف، بلغـت .اليوم الواحد 2 9 a. a. hamodi et al bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2004) 10 (2): 9-37 *keys for identification of genera and species of thrips (thysanoptera: thripidae) from midle of iraq **awatif abdul-fattah hamodi and ***mohammad saleh abdul-rassoul **department of plant protection, college of agriculture, baghdad university *** iraq natural history museum, baghdad university, baghdad, iraq abstract keys for 22 species representing 10 genera of thripidae were provided collection of samples carried out during 1999-2001 in different localities in the middle of iraq. of them four species are described as new to science, frankliniella megacephala sp. nov; retithrips bagdadensis sp. nov; chirothrips imperatus sp. nov; taeniothrips tigridis sp. nov; another fourteen species are recorded for the first time in iraq; thrips meridionalis (pri.); microcephalothrips abdominils (crawford scolothrips sexmaculatus (pergande),);scolothrips pallidus (beach); scritothrips mangiferae pri.; frankliniella tritici bagnall; frankliniella schultzie trybom; frankliniella unicolor morgan; retithrips aegypticus marchal; retithrips javanicus mayet; taeniothrips gowdeyi (bagnall); chirothrips meridionalis bagnall; chirothrips mexicanus crawford; chirothrips hamatus trybom; and four species reported previously for iraq; thrips tabaci lindeman; retithrips syriacus mayet; parascolothrips priesneri mound; anaphothrips sudanensis trybom; on different plants. introduction family thripidae is one of the largest thysanoptera families, included four subfamilies, and 1710 species (mound, 1997; heming, 2000). in iraq no more studies to identification thrips, found in filed, garden, green house, a wild distribution, and need different temperature and humidity, some species can found on one plant as microcephalothrips abdomenalis (crawford) called (a composite thrips) and anaphothrips sudanensis trybom (called a grass thrips) and chirothrips spp. a (gramany thrips). result diagnostics characters of family thripidae: antennae eight-nine segments, sense cone on third and fourth segments simple or forked, maxillary palp two-three segment, legs normal tarsi with one-two segment some times with a claw, reticular only on pterothora10. pronotum with a micro seta on a disk, each hind angle carried pair of consumption seta, wings pale with two-three longitude veins on fore wing only, upper vein elongate behind anterior marginal wig (coastal wing), hind wing pale without ____________________________________________ * apart of m. sc. thesis of the first author. 10 key for identification veins, abdomen normal, posterior margin of eight segment carried a comb, some times absent. to ideated insects use the keys in references as bailey, 1937. bhatti, 1978. bryan, and smith, 1956. gentile, and bailey, 1968. hood 1932; marullo1993. morgan, 1925. si10 mound, 1967. mound, 1968. mound, and walker, 1982. priesner1932. 1949a. 1949b. 1950. rivany, 1939.; steinweden, 1933. the family divided to four subfamilies: panchaetothripinae, thripinae, sericothripinae and dendrothripinae. 1subfamily panchaetothripinae: reticulum on whole body, antennae heliothripod, and eight segments longer than seventh segment. wings broad at base, first vein fused with coastal margin and content the ambient vein. apex of abdomen provide with a spiny or strongly seats. there are 33 genera and 120 species beyond to this subfamily. in this study recorded only genus retithrips. 2subfamily sericothripinae: pale yellowish in color, small in size, antennae eight segmented sense cone on third and fourth segments forked, seta of wing sperted on first vein, and a serial on seconded vein, hind angel of pronotum carried one seta at each side, whole body covered with a micro seta’s specially on abdominal segmented one-eight and became less at segments nine and ten (mound & walker, 1982), in this study recorded genus scritothrips. 3subfamily thripinae: it is the largest one for this family, different in their characters, the reticulum weakly on pterothorax only, antennae six-eight or nine segmented, the apex segmented small or some time equal in length, wings vein prominent, apex of abdominal segment provide with long, strong seta some times a spiny. divided to two tribe : chirothripini; thripini (mound & walker, 1982). atribe chirothripini: head e1ongted between antennae basic, antennae eight segmented, seconded segmented with a projection at outer side, sense cone on third and fourth segments simple or forked, pronotum not equal in anterior and posterior margin the lateral as 1.2 – 1.3 times as the first. abdomen provide with a strong seta at apex, as in genus limothrips, in iraq recorded only genus chirothrips. btribe thripini: antennae six-eight or nine segmented, sense cone on third and fourth segmented simple or forked. pronotum equal in there anterior and posterior margins, different in habit, feeding on wild host plant, some of them are predator, feeding on small arthropod, in iraq recorded the genera; thrips; microcephalothrips; scolothrips; parascolothrips; anaphothrips; taeniothrips; frankliniella. 11 a. a. hamodi et al key to the iraqi genera of family thripidae: 1reticulum at whole body, antennae heliothripod, pronotum equal at anterior and posterior margins, more longer that the lateral, three callosities on fore wing, ambient vein present, posterior margin of abdominal segmented with a strongly structure like teeth on each sides, comb present, dark brown color on vitis leaf (fig.1) ……………………………………………………..retithrips marchal not as above……………………………………………………...2 2antennae 7 segmented………………………………………..…3 antennae 8-9 segmented………………………………………..5 3 hind angel of pronotum with one pair of short seta, posterior margin with 4-5 pairs of micro seta , posterior margins of abdomenal segment 1-8 with chitin structure, wings seta few, distance at arranged, brown-yellowish in color. on sunflower, (fig.2) …………………………………..microcephalothrips abdominals bagnall. hind angel of pronotum with two pairs of long seta, consumption, more than 5 pairs seta on posterior margin, posterior abdomenal segmented smooth, color and size different……………………………….…4 4antennae segmented carried micro seta, maxillary palp 3 segmented, comb present, abdomenal segment cylindrical in shape, wild distribution (fig.3)...……………………………………….…thrips linn. antennae segmented without micro seta, maxillary palp 2 segments, fore wing with 3 brown spots, comb absent, posterior abdominal margin not slightly, and pale brown in color, predator on small insects. (fig.4) ………………………………...parascolothrips priesneri mound. 5pronotum symmetrical in shape, hind angle with 1-2 seta or none.2nd antennal segment symmetrical, sense cone on segment 3,4 forked, head normal,…………………………………………………….….6 pronotum a symmetrical, hind margin with 1.2 – 1.3 times as fore margin,2nd antennal segment asymmetrical with projected at the outer side, sense cone on segments 3,4 forked or simple, head e1ongend between antennae basal (fig.5)………………………..…chirothrips haliday 6fore and hind pronotum angels provide with 1-2 long seta, abdomenal segmented carried a micro seta or none……………….……..9 fore pronotum angels without seta, hind angel with 1-2 prominent seta, that’s on tip abdomenal strong………………………………...7 7one seta at each hind angel of pronotum or none, comb present, different in size and color……………………………………………8 2 seta at each hind angel of pronotum, no micro seta at abdomenal segment, brownyellowish in color (fig.6)………taeniothrips amyot & serville 8 one seta at each hind angel of pronotum, abdomen covered with micro seta, seta on abdomenal segments 9 and 10 long, pale (fig.7)…………….…scirtothrips shull ( as scir.mangiferae pri ) hind angels of pronotum without seta, that’s on abdomenal segmented 9-10 strong and long (fig.8)………….anaphothrips uzel (as ano sudanensis trybom) . 9bodies seta long, pale, fore wing with three brown spots, setae of veins a few, distances 12 key for identification arrange, pale brown-yellowish in color, predator (fig.9)……………………………………………..scolothrips hinds bodies seats shorter, dark or brown, fore wing pale, setae of veins arranged in a serial on veins, color and size different (fig.10)………….frankliniella karny key to the iraqi species of thrips l. 1abdomenal sternites 2-8 provide with a ccsossary seta, lateral target of abdomenal segment without micro seta, ovipositor short, base of sixth antennal segment convex, large species 1.4-1.5 mm in length, brown-yellowish in color (fig,11)………………..meridionalis(priesner) abdomenal segmented without a ccsossary seta, lateral target with micro seta, ovipositor long, base of sixth antennal segment circular, o.9-1.5 mm in length, pale yellowish, brownyellowish in color, wild distribution (fig.3)……………………………………………tabaci lindeman key to the iraqi species of scolothrips hinds 1first spot’s wing attach the fore margin, antennae segmented 2-8 shaded with grayish color, lateral segments 3, 4 not circular (fig.12)…….……………………………sexmaculatus (pergande) first spot’s wing not attaches the fore margin, antennal segments 2-8 not shaded, lateral segmented 3, 4 circular (fig. 9)………….pallidus (beach) key to the iraqi species of retithrips marchal 1fore wing with three callosities, sense cone on segments 3, 4 simple or forked……………………………………………………..2 fore wing two callosities, sense cone simple (fig.13)……..javanicus karny 2-all callosities at straight…………………………………...3 callosities not at a straight, sense con on 3rd antennal segment very short (fig.14)………………………………………..bagdadensis sp.nov. 3-sense cone on segments 3, 4 forked (fig.15)………aegypticus marchal sense cone simple, normal in length (fig.1)……….syriacus (mayet) key to the iraqi species of frankliniella karny 1comb present, abdomenal segmented 9 with 4 long seta, that’s on wings; 23:18:15, dark brown in color (fig.16)………..….tritici bagnall comb absent, more than 4 seta on abdomenal segmented 9, setae of wing different, color and size different ………………………..……2 2tubular ocelli present, eyes close at head side, anteocular setae airside at front, setae of wing; 20:18:14 (fig.10)…………schltzie trybom tubular ocelli wanting, eyes far away from head sides, anterocular seta different in placed, setae of wing different ………………….……3 3eyes distance 9-10 m from head sides, anterocular seta within it, setae of wing; 25:17:12 (fig.17)……………………………..unicolr morgan 13 a. a. hamodi et al eyes distance 28-30 m, anterocular seta airside at anterior ocelli, setae of wing; 27:19:15 (fig.18)…………………………….megacephala sp. nov. key to the iraqi species of taeniothrips amyot & serville 1 ommatidia not arranged as serial on outer margin of eyes, primary comb present, setae of wing;23:11:13 (fig.6)…….…..gowdeyi(bagnall) ommatidia arranged as serial on outer margin of eyes, comb absent, setae of wing; 27:10:13 …(fig.19)……………………...tigridis sp. nov. key to the iraqi species of chirothrips haliday 12nd antennal segment with a projection at outer side………2 2nd antennal segment normal…………………………………3 2sense cones on antennal segments 3,4 forked, head not elongate between antennal basal, scallopus on pterothorax weakly, posterior margin of abdomenal segmented 2-8 provided with chitin structure, male winged, glandular area circular, small in size (fig.20)…..meridionalis bag. sense cones on antennal segmented 3,4 simple, head elongate between antennal basal, scallopus strongly on pterothorax, posterior margin of abdomenal segmented 2-8 smooth (fig.2......…..mexicanus crawford 3-fore tibia dented in sex, male wingless, ocelli absent, (fig.22) …………………...imperatus sp. nov. -fore tibia not dented, male unknown (fig.5)…………………………………….hamatus trybom refereneces bailey, s.f 1937. the composite thrips microcephalothrips abdominalis (crawford). canad. ent. 69(1):121-126. bhatti, j.s. 1978. systematic of anaphothrips uzel. 1895 sensu latu and some related genera (insecta:thysanoptera:thripidae). senckenbergiana biol. 59(1-2):85-114. bryan, d. e. and smith, r.f. 1956. the frankliniella occidentalis (pergande) comple10 in california (thysanoptera:thripidae). univ. calif. public. ent. 10(6):359-410. gentile, a.g. and bailey, s.f. 1968. a revision of the genus thrips linnaeus in the new world with a catalogue of the world species (thysanoptera: thripidae). univ. calif. publi. ent. 51:1-80. hood, j.d 1932. new species of the genus thrips from central africa and egypt. bull. soc. ent. egypt. egypt. cairo. 21:115-140. marullo, r. 1993. le specie italiane del genera frankliniella karny. in for matore fitopatologico 11:37-44. morgan, a.c. 1925. si10f new species of frankliniella karny and a key to the american species. canad. ent. 57:136-147. mound, l. a. 1967. a new genus and species of thysanoptera predatory of mites in iraq. bull. ent. res. 57:315-319. ----------------1968. a review of r. s. bagnall’s thysanoptera collections. bull. br. mus. nat. hist. (ent.). suppl. 11:1-181. mound, l.a. and walker, a.k. 1982. terebrantia (insecta: thysanoptera) no. i fauna of newzealand, 1, 113 pp. 14 key for identification priesner, h. 1932. preliminary notes on scirtothrips in egypt with key and catalogue of the scirothrips species of the world. bull. soc. ent. egypt. 16:141-155. -------------1949a. genera thysanoptera, keys for the identification of the genera of the order thysanoptera. bull. soc. ent. egypt. 33:31-157. -------------1949b. studies on the genus chirothrips haliday. bull. soc. ent. egypt. 33:159174. -------------1950. studies on the genus scolothrips hinds. bull. soc. ent. egypt. 34:39-67. rivany, e. 1939. studies in the biology and ecology of retithrips syriacus mayet with species attention to its occurrence in palestine. bull. soc. ent. egypt. 23:150-181. steinweden, j.b. 1933. key to all known species of the genus taeniothrips amyot & serville. trans. amer. ent. soc. 59(978):269-295. 15 a. a. hamodi et al (a) (b) fig. 1 retithrips syriacus (mayet) (a) – a metasternum. 1-long seta (400x) b-fore leg,4the dentate c-fore wing, 2 the three spots on the anterior m 16 key for identification fig. 2 microcephalothripa abdominalis bagnall 7th ,8th abdominal segment aon tergum, bon sternum argin, 3the ambient. (b)a head. bantenna cpronotum,(400x) 17 a. a. hamodi et al fig.3 thrips tabaci lind. apronotum (400x). bfore leg (400x), 2coxa, 3trochnter, 4fumer, 5tibia, 6 tarsus ,7bladder. cfore wing (400x). 18 key for identification (a) (b) fig.4 parascolothrips priesneri mound (a) ahead with tubular oclli (400x) . bantenna (1000x). (b) apronotum (400x). bfore wing (200x). 19 a. a. hamodi et al fig.5 chirothrips hamatus trybom aprothorax (400x). bfore leg (400x), 1the dentate on outer fumer margin, (400x). cfore wing (400x). dabdominal segment 8-10 (400x). 20 key for identification fig.6 teaniothrips gowdeyi (bagnall) apronotum (400x). bfore wing (200x). 21 a. a. hamodi et al fig.7 scirtothrips mangiferae priesner afore wing (200x). babdominal segment 7-10 (100x) 22 key for identification fig.8 anophthrips sudanesis uzel afore wing (200x). babdominal segment 8-10 (400x). 23 a. a. hamodi et al (b) (a) fig.9 scolothrips pallidus (beach) (a)ahead (400x). bantenna (1000x). cprothorax (400x). (b)a fore wing (200x). babdominal segment 8-10 (400x). 24 key for identification fig.10 franklinella schultzie (trybom ) apronotum (400x). bfore wing (200x). 25 a. a. hamodi et al (b) (a) (fig.11) thrips meridionalis (pri.) (a)antenna (1000x). (b)8th abdominal segment 26 key for identification (fig.12) scolothrips sexmaculata (pergande) a-pronotum (400x). bfore wing (200x). c8th, 9th abdominal segment. 27 a. a. hamodi et al (fig.13) retithrips javanicus mayet aantenna (1000x). bfore wing (200x), 1the ambient vein. 28 key for identification (fig.14) retitheips bagdadensis sp.nov. a-antenna. (400x). bfore wing (200x), 1the ambient veiv. 29 a. a. hamodi et al (fig. 15) retithrips aegypticus marchal aantenna with forced sence cones on 3rd ,4th segments (400x). bfore wing, 1the ambient vein (200x). 30 key for identification (fig. 16) frankliniella tritici bagnall. bpronotum (400x). cabdomen segment 8,9 (400x). 31 a. a. hamodi et al (fig. 17) frankliniella unicolor morgan. ahead (400x). cpronotum (400x). 32 key for identification (fig.18) frankliniella megacephala sp.nov. ahead (400x). cpronotum (400x). 33 a. a. hamodi et al (fig.19) teaiothrips tigridis sp.nov. a-head, 1-serial ommatidia. 2the bridge on frons.(400x). cprothorax (400x). 34 key for identification (b) (a) (fig.20) chirothrips meridionalis bagnall aantenna (1000x). babdomen segment 8,9,10 (400x). 35 a. a. hamodi et al (a) (b) (fig.21) chirothrips mexicanus crawford (a)head (400x). (b)the scallopus on prterothorax from tergum (400x). 36 key for identification (fig. 22) chirothrips imperatus sp.nov. (a)prothorax (400x). (b)fore leg (400x), 1,2 the dentine on fumer and tibia. 37 a. a. hamodi et al bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2004) 10 (2): 9-37 ص * خي ش ح ت سمفتا جنا واع أ س وأن رب ن (thysanoptera: thripidae) الت م ق ط ال را س و ي و ** ح ود فت ح ف ع د ال د ا رسول***ع اط ح ب ص ل حمد م قسم وقاية النبات، كلية الزراعة، جامعة بغداد** متحف التاريخ الطبيعي، جامعة بغداد، بغداد، العراق*** ص خي ح ل ش م اتي ت ضع ىلنوعا تعود ٢٢و س إ رتب من ل شرة جن س ن . ع م ت مجع ال ماذ ل مناط خمتلف ق خ ط ال را س و علم . ٢٠٠١-١٩٩٩ة يف ة نواع ديدة لل ت ربع ف ص و ها ومن ي :وه frankliniella megacephala sp. nov; retithrips bagdadensis sp. nov; chirothrips imperatus sp. nov; taeniothrips tigridis sp. nov. ي ه ق و ل مرة للع ا ت ال ر نوع ً س ل ش ة ع :وار ع thrips meridionalis (pri.); microcephalothrips abdominils (crawford scolothrips sexmaculatus (pergande),);scolothrips pallidus (beach); scritothrips mangiferae pri.; frankliniella tritici bagnall; frankliniella schultzie trybom; frankliniella unicolor morgan; retithrips aegypticus marchal; retithrips javanicus mayet; taeniothrips gowdeyi (bagnall); chirothrips meridionalis bagnall; chirothrips mexicanus crawford; chirothrips hamatus trybom. ي ه ق و ع ا سابقً لل جل س ع م و ة ان :وار ع thrips tabaci lindeman; retithrips syriacus mayet; parascolothrips priesneri mound; anaphothrips sudanensis trybom. ث * ح ة ال ا ن اطروح م لجزء ألو ه ا د الدك ورا .لنيل شها 2 11 h. f. hassan bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2013)12 (3): 11-19 zoophthora phytonomi (zygomycetes: entomophthoraceae) a new record in iraq hassan f. hassan dept of plant protection, college of agriculture, baghdad, iraq abstract morphological and phonological studies of fungal pathogen infecting alfalfa weevil hypera postica (gyllenhal) indicating that infection has been shown to develop along two distinct physiological lines, each culminating in the production of either conidial or resting spores, in host cadavers which are morphologically distinct. the percent of infection and epizootic development appeared to be dependent on host density. farther evidence to entail proper correlation between conidia and resting spores suggest that these two forms of spores are stages in the development of one pathogen. introduction taxonomy the class zygomycetes of the subdivision zygomycotina is comprised of three, or possibly four orders. one of them, the entomophthorales, is characterized by the presence of sexual spores, believed to be sporangia, that have evolved to function as single conidia and which are forcibly discharged at maturity (benjamin 1979; heseltine & ellis 1973). batko’s classification, as well as other schemes derived from his work by ben zeev and kenneth (1982), recognize three families in this order: entomophthoraceae warming 1884; basidiobolaceae engler & glig 1924, and ancylistaceae ubrizy & voro 1966. several systems of classification were devised for the arthropod-attacking species of the family entomophthoraceae, allocating them to genera based on morphological and cytological characters (lakon 1919; nowakowski 1883; thaxter 1888). however, most authorities agree that the most comprehensive, distinctive classification was that developed in several steps by batko (1964a, b, c; 1966a, b; batko & weiser 1965). batko (1964b) restricted entomophthora to a few obviously related species, and proposed three new genera including zoophthora (batko 1964). the last step in batko’s classification was to rearrange the species previously classified in the genus zoophthora (batko 1964c; 1966a) into four groups of subgeneric level: z. (zoophthora), z. (erynia), z. (pandora), and z. (furia). later, taxonomic criteria for entomophthorales classification were revised by ben zeev and kenneth (1982). the major feature-criterion considered in this classification were: vegetative nuclei, conidial nuclei number, structure and function of primary conidia, production of secondary conidia, rhizoid structure, and the morphology of primary conidia. however, another classification system for entomophthoraceae was developed by remaudiera and hennebert (1980), and remaudiera and keller (1980), which was also derived from batko’s system. the classification scheme of remaudiera and co-worker was based mainly on the external morphology of the primary conidia, giving less importance to the nuclear number in the conidia. 12 zoophthora phytonomi the recognition of two genera, zoophthora bakto (1964) and erynia nowakoski (1881), separated principally by formation of secondary conidia, by remaudiera and hennebert (1980), had raised a problem in synonymy. humber (1981a, b; 1982), ben zeev (1980), and ben zeev and kenneth (1981a, b; 1982) find no basis for the separate and simultaneous use of both zoophthora and erynia. a possible resolution to this synonymy problem would be to take erynia nowakowski as the correct name of the genus. the genus erynia nowakowski (entomophthorales: entomophthoraceae) is limited to species having uninucleate, bitunicate primary conidia born on (digitately and apically) branched conidiophores and forcibly discharged by the evection of the basal papilla. however later publications referred to the fungal pathogen as zoophthora phytonomi (parr et al. 1993; giles & obrycki 1997; kuhar 1999). phenology erynia epizootic behavior among alfalfa weevil (aw) populations have been reported to be depend on critical biological and physiological factors. these factors govern the initiation, progression, and determination of an epizootic under field conditions and its effect on prevalence of parasitism by b. curculionis and b. anurus, both of which attack the larval stage that markedly affect aw populations.( puttler et al. 1961; hagan & manglitz 1967; dysart & day 1976; berbert & gibson 1976; gonzales et al. 1980; millstein, et. al. 1982; norden, et. al. 1983; oloumi et al. 1993; parr et al. 1993; giles et al. 1994; berberet & bisges 1998). materials and methods 1. microscopic study alfalfa weevil larvae, displaying tan-brown color symptoms typical of the “type a” syndrome as described by ben zeev and kenneth (1982), were field collected and placed in 0.5 1 cartons, then brought to the laboratory. those cadavers which had attached to stems or leaves by rhizoids, and which had discharged, or were about to discharge conidia, were assayed for the presence of the pathogen using wet mount preparation. this involved placing larval tissue on a glass slide in a drop of cotton blue (aniline-blue in lacto-phenol). the tissue was then smeared, covered with coverslip, and examined under a compound microscope at 320x magnification. a similar series of wet mounts were prepared, but a synthetic orecin stain was used (2.0g synthetic orecin, 50.0 ml of 85% lactic acid, and 50.0 ml glacial acetic acid). spores from dead cadavers exhibiting “type a” symptoms were also examined using third instar field-collected larvae, and in a manner similar to that described by millstein et. al. (1983) in which larvae were selected on the basis of rhizoid attachment, and the presence of emerged conidiophores. this was necessary to ensure that only those larvae likely to discharge conidia with 24 hours would be used in the experiment. spore-containing cadavers, singly, were attached ventrally to the insides of filter paper-lined 10x1.5 cm glass petri dish lids. these lids were then placed inside humidity chambers (100% r. h.) in such a way that the cadavers were suspended above the water. at intervals, a glass slide was placed on the porcelain support beneath the cadavers to collect any discharged conidia. the conidia were then stained and prepared as wet mount slides as described previously, and examined under compound microscope at 320x magnification. blackened cadavers, typical of larvae containing resting spores referred to by ben zeev and kenneth as “type b” syndrome, were field collected and examined in the laboratory. cadavers were placed singly in a hand held tissue homogenizer with 1.0 ml. sterile distilled water (sdw), then ground until spores were completely dispersed. spores were then flushed out 13 h. f. hassan and cleaned by three alternate centrifugation and sdw washes, then prepared as wet mounts, covered with slips, and examined under compound microscope at 320x magnification. representative photographs of the above preparations were obtained using a wild mps 51 camera mounted on zeiss universal compound microscope. 2. field study a study area was established in a three-hectare alfalfa field. the actual sampling area (plot) in the field was restricted to one hectare (100x100 m.), which was subdivided into nine (33x33 m.) subplot of equal size, resulting in 3x3 subplot grid. to determine the disease mortality and epizootic development of fungal pathogen, samples consisting of 10 alfalfa stems from each subplot were taken twice weekly throughout aw activity season. these stems were then brought to the laboratory, and inspected for dead larvae which had discharged or were about to discharge conidia, or black cadavers thought to contain resting spores. such cadavers were counted and examined. likewise, all alive aw larvae were removed from the stem, counted and then placed individually in ventilated, 1 oz. cups with fresh alfalfa foliage. larvae were provided with fresh alfalfa and examined daily for disease symptoms. larvae exhibiting tan to brown color disease symptoms were placed singly on water agar (15 g/l water) in 3.5xl cm. sterile disposable petri dishes, held at 20 + 1 c and 14:10 (l:d) photoperiod, and observed daily for the presence of conidial spores. all black larvae were placed singly in petri plates and examined under binocular microscope (60x) to determine if they had produced internal resting spores. result and discussion 1. microscopic study infection of fungal pathogen has been shown to develop along either of two distinct physiological lines, each culminating in the production of different morphological types of spores, and in host cadavers which are morphologically distinct. conidial stage specimens infected with conidial stage of the pathogen are light tan to creamy-brown in color, and are usually attached to the central area of leaf, or curled across the leaf edge, or coiled around the stem (fig. 1a). usually these cadavers are covered with a dense growth of mycelia. the conidiophores appear palisade-like and are white to beige in color; almost white when first develop, and darkening with time. they may cover all but the ventral portion of the body. mycelium in wet mount observation, mycelia appear to be coenocytic, and divided into large branched hyphal bodies. the hyphae are uniform in size, hyaline, and extensively branched, and the contents are finely granular in appearance with vacuoles of different sizes. nuclei are easily distinguished being large (5 u in dia.) ovoid, granular in appearance, and without prominent nucleolus. nuclei are numerous, and are frequently evenly spaced in linear sequence (fig. 1c). 14 zoophthora phytonomi rhizoids upon death, some of the hyphae in the thoracic region aggregate and push out from the ventral surface of the larval body where come in contact with solid surface fan out into funnel-like structure which serve to anchor the larva securely to leaf surface (fig. 1a). the appearance of rhizoids is indicative of the completion of vegetative growth within host, and this face is soon followed by development of conidiophores, or by the development of resting spores. conidial spores primary conidia are elongated and oval with round apexes. they appear slightly constricted above the conspicuous collar of the blunt triangular papilla marking the ring of attachment to the conidiophores (fig. 1d). conidia are uniform in size, hyaline, uninucleate, and bitunicate (with a separable outer wall layer except over the basal papilla). the cytoplasm is evenly and finely granular, and non-vacuolated in newly formed spores. a single nucleus, oval, 3 to 4 u in dia., and centrally located, is always present (fig. 1e). conidial spores show high affinity to cotton blue stain (fig. 1d), thus the nucleus is not readily distinguishable when using this stain. resting stage specimens containing this stage of the pathogen are black, shriveled, and usually coiled on upper portion of stems and branches, or laying flat on leaf (fig. 1b), and filled with a brownish-black fluid. additionally, the integument of the host may be seen in various stages of disintegration, and in time may become no more than an empty leathery integument containing a black fluid which is packed with resting spores. the same symptoms found is blackened prepupae inside their cocoons (fig. 1b), whereas tan-brown symptoms of conidial stage infection were not found in the cocoon stage. the black fluid contains rough-walled spores, black in gross observation, yet yellowish-brown to dark brown when viewed singly under a compound microscope at (320x) magnification (fig. 1f). resting spores resting spores are usually spherical or globose in shape, averaging 34 u in diameter, with two thickened cell wall layers. the outer wall is up to 5 u thick; the episodes is thin, and difficult to separate from endospore, variously ornamented, and is budded terminally from parental hyphae. the contents of the spore consist of granular particles and oil globules as observed under 320x magnification (fig. 1f). 2. field study the epizootic progression pattern and host density are similar in their step like incremental progress and percent of infection (fig. 2 ). the epizootic initiation was in range of 340 dd, although it is difficult to predict if the disease progression is necessarily depend on dd. however, comparison of host densities versus the size of epizootic showed no obvious correlation in many instances (nordin et. al. 1983). however, in this instance, the percent of infection and epizootic development appeared to be dependent on host density. this relationship has not been well documented by several research, probably due to different techniques used to determine the incidence of the disease in the field. unfortunately, most workers have calculated the percent incidence of mortality at given time from the number of diseased larvae that showered or appeared ready to exhibit a conidial shower in the field. this method does not give the actual percent of infection and mortality of the pathogen, but rather over estimates disease incidence as diseased larvae could be accumulated and counted more than once at separate sampling intervals, and yet not have showered because of improper environmental conditions in the field. on the other hand, our method is based on rearing 15 h. f. hassan population aliquots in the laboratory, in addition to observing and recording diseased larvae in the field. figure1. erynia phytonomi, a: conidial stage, b: resting stage, c: mycelium, d: conidial spores, e: conidial spore (cotton blue), f: resting spore 16 zoophthora phytonomi figure 2. population of alfalfa weevil density and percent of erynia phytonomi infection. in order to provide farther evidence to entail proper correlation between conidia and resting spores, and support previous suggestion that these two forms of spores are stages in the development of one pathogen, we monitored the epizootic of pathogen regardless of spore type produced. based on data presented in figure 3, all larval instars are equally susceptible, and produced similar epizootic patterns. this is unlikely to be observed if the small and large larvae are infected by different pathogens, and forming different types of spores. figure 3. mortality of alfalfa weevil in different larval instars 17 h. f. hassan literature cited batko, a. 1964a. notes on entomophthoraceous fungi in poland. entomophaga, mem. hors. ser. 2: 129-131. batko, a. 1964b. remarks on the genus entomophthora fresenius 1856 non nowakowski 1883 (phycomycetes: entomophthoraceae). bull. acad. polon. sci. ser. sci. biol. 12: 319-321. batko, a. 1964c. on the new genera: zoophthora gen. nov., triposolium (thaxter) gen. nov. and entomophaga gen. nov. 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(ed. g. c. answorth, f. k. sparrow, and a. s. sussman) vol. ivb. academic press. 18 zoophthora phytonomi humber, r. a. 1981a. an alternative view of certain taxonomic criteria used in the entomophthorales (zygomycetes). mycotaxon 13: 191-245. humber, r. a. 1981b. erynia (zygomycetes: entomophthorales) validation and new species. mycotaxon 13” 471-480. humber, r. a. 1982. strongwellsea vs. erynia: the case for a phylogenetic classification in the entomophthorales (zygomycetes). mycotaxon14: 431-453. kish, l. p. and g. e. allen. 1978. the biology and ecology of nomuraea rileyi and program for predicting its incidence on anticarsia gemmatalis in soybean. fla agric. exp. st. tech. bull. 795. 48 pp. lakon, g. 1919. die insektenfeinde us der familie entomophthoracean. z. angew. ent. 5: 161-216. cited in ben zeev and r. g. kenneth. 1981. phytoparasitica 9: 33-42. los, l. m. and w. a. allen. 1983. incidence of zoophthora phytonomi (zygomycetes: entomophthorales) in hypera postica (coleoptera: curculionidae) larvae in virginia. environ. entomol. 12: 1318-1321. millstein, j. a., g. c. brown and g. l. nordien. 1982. microclimatic humidity influence on conidial discharge in erynia sp. (entomophthorales: entomophthoraceae), an entomopathogenic fungus of alfalfa weevil (coleoptera: curculionidae). environ. entomol. 11: 1166-1169. norden, g. l., g. c. brown, j. a. millstein. 1983. epizootic phenology of erynia disease of the alfalfa weevil, hypera postica (gyllenhal) (coleoptera: curculionidae), in central kentucky. environ. entomol.12: 1350-1355. nowakowski, l. 1883. entomophthoraceae. przyczynek do zanajomosci pasorzytnych grazybkow 8: 153-183.cited by ben-zeev< i. and r. g. kenneth. 1982. mycotaxon 14: 456-475. oloumi-sadeghi, h., k. l. steffey, s. j. roberts, j. v. maddox, and e. armbrust. 1993. distribution and abundance of two alfalfa weevil (coleoptera: curculionidae) larval parasitoids in illinois. environ. entomol. 22: 220-225. parr, j. c., b. c. pass and g. l. nordin. 1993. compatibility of zoophthora phytonomi (entomophthorales: entomophthoraceae) and bathyplectes anurus (hymenoptera: ichneumonidae) in kentucky alfalfa fields. environ. entomol. 22: 674-678. remaudiere, g. and g. l. hennebert. 1980. revision systematique de entomophthora aphids hoffm. description de deux nouveaux pathogens d aphides. mycotaxon 11: 269-321. remaudiere, g. and s. keller. 1980. reconsideration systematique geners d entomophthoraceae a potentialite entomopathogenes. mycotaxon. 11: 323-338. 19 h. f. hassan bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2013)12 (3): 11-19 الدراسة الفطریة والتطوریة للفطر الممرض الذي یصیب سوسة phytonomiالجت حسن فرحان حسن جامعة بغداد/ كلیة الزراعة/ قسم وقایة النبات العراق-بغداد الخالصة الدراسة الفطریة والتطوریة للفطر الممرض الذي یصیب سوسة كدلیل الصابة تظھر تطور خطین تطوریین phytonomiالجت لتنتج اما سبورات الكوتیدیة او باقي السبورات في العائل والتي تتمیز ان نسبة االصابة وتاثیرھا في العائل تعتمد على كثافة . مظھرھا عالوة على ان الدلیل او الترابط بین الكیدتیدیا وباقي . العائل رات ومراحل في تطور فطر السبورات یعتمد انھا شكلین من السبو .واحد 10 57 b . m . al chalabi bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2000) 9 (2): 57-66 notes on trogoderma species (coleoptera, dermestidae) of iraq n. a. mawlood* and m. s. abdul-rassoul *department of community health. technical institute of baqubah. diyala. iraq. **iraq natural history museum. university of baghdad. baghdad. iraq. abstract five species of trogoderma berthold are reported from iraq. these are: i inclus,n lecont. t. granarium everts, t. variable ballion. i. bactrianum zantiev and t. irroraturn reitter. a key to the species is presented, with redeseriptions and illustrations of all species. introduction trogoclernia berthold is one of the largest genus in the family dermestidae. it includes more than 120 species (morcskowski. 1968). some of them are economically important. several work have been done on the species of this genus in different part of the world such as hinten (1945). beal (1954) and zantiev (1976). in iraq no work has been done on this group except that some species appeared in faunistic lists such as hussain (1963). who reported i granarium everts. and i versicolor creuts. ( i inclusum lecont.). el-haidari et al. (1972( recorded t inclusurn and thompson (1977) reported i. variable ballion. mawlood (1985) classified three specie i inclusum, t granariuni and i irroratun. and abdul-rassoul (1996) added t. bactrianun zantiev for the iraqi lists. this work presents redescription and distinguishing five species of tregoderma so far have been found in iraq. materials and methods the specimens were collected during march to august 1989 from different localities in baghdad. diyala. erbil and mosul. the specimens were placed in boiling water for ten minutes to soften their parts. then the parts were.seperated by two fine pins, to remove parts and put in 10% koh which placed in water bath for five to fifteen minutes. after that placed in distilled water for few more minutes in order to neutralise the alkali. the parts are placed in ethyl alcohol 75% and dissected under microscope, then these parts were placed in canada balsam to support slides for subsequent examination under microscope. results and discussions key to species of adult trogoderma berthold found in iraq 1first abdominal sternite with femoral lines (fig. 5). compound eyes rounded. with inner margin strongly emarginated …………………………………………t. inclusun -. first abdominal sternite without femoral lines (fig. 16). compound eyes oval or rounded. with inner margin feebly or not emarginated ………………………………………………….2 2elytra unicolours. reddish brown or with darker vaguely defined markings surface (fig. 8). antennal club with five segments in male (fig. i). lateral part of bridge joining paramers in male genetalia broader than its transversal part (fig.11) ………………………... t. granariuln 58 inheritance of dark head -.elytra bicolours. reddish brown to black with pale or reddish brown bands or spots. antennal club with more than five segments in male. lateral part of bridge joining paramers about as broad as its transversal part ………………………………………. 3 3antennal club with eight segments in male (fig. 12). ninth abdominal tergite with proximal margin of broader part clearly sinute (fig. 15) ……………………….. t. variable -. a.ntennal club with six or seven segments. ninth abdominal tergite with proximal margin of its broader part straight or slightly sinute (fig. 21.26)……………………………….4 4terminal segment of antennal club longer than ninth and tenth segment compained (fig. 18). anterior edge of eighth abdominal tergite clearly sinute (fig. 20). aeadegus clearly shorter than paramers (fig. 22) ……………………………………….t. bactrianum -terminal segment of antennal club shorter than ninth and tenth segments compained (fig. 23). anterior edge of eighth abdominal tergite slightly sinute (fig. 25). aeadegus slightly shorter than paramers (fig. 27) ……………………………….t. irroraturn trogoderina inclusurn leconte adult.length. 2.5-5.0 mm.; breadth. 1.2-2.5mm. body oval. head as seen from dorsal view, small. usually defiexed. most of it hidden underneath pronotum: its surrface with rounded or irregulary shaped punctures. which are as coarse as facet: of eye; inner margin of compound eyes strongly emarginated. antenna with eleven segments: antennal club consist of six or seven segments in male, and four or five segment in female: terminal segment of club twice as long as broad in male (fig. i) and not longer than broad in female. mentum with anterior margin less imarginated. pronotum black to reddish brown with vague pale lateral maculatus and with punctures as fine as or finer than facet of eye, and with patch of white or nearly white hairs on middle of its base and sides. elytra (fig. 2) bicolours with black to reddish brown bands and spots and with punctures slightly but distinctly coarser than those of pronotal disc. prosternum with broad and low median longitudinal carina on process or with process flat or feebly convex. mesonternum with elevated part on both sides of sulcus as wide as or wider than long. metasternum with latero-discal striae distinct. legs dark to pale brown. with tarsi usually pale but rarely dark. abdomen always with five segments clearly visible from ventral side: first abdominal sternite with lateral discal striae extending obliquely outward from inner margins of metacoxal cavities (fig. 5). transversal part of bridge joining paramers in male genitalia shallower than its lateral part (fig. 6). eighth abdominal tergite with lateral margin straight and trapesoidal in shape, setae along margin sensser, but sparse or lacking medially (fig. 8). ninth tergite with anterior margin of broader part stright or slightly sinuatte (fig. 4). specimens studied: iraq: baghdad, may 1983: erbil. november. 1989 from dried insect collections and from cereal products. trogodernurn granariun7 everts adult: body. small oblong-oval: length, 1.6-3.0mm.. braedth. 0.91.7mm. head with punctures distinctly finer than facets of eye. inner margin of compound eyes feebly emarignate. autennal club with five segment in male and four segments in female: terminal segment a long as broad in male (fig. 7), and not longer than its width in female. mentum with anterior margin shallowly to emarginate. pronotum drak brown, sometimes nearly black with indistinct patches of yellowish or white hairs on both sides and its middle base. elytra (fig. 8) unicolours. with reddish brown or with darker vaguely defined markings: its surface with punctures shallow rounded and four times coarser than facets of eye. prosternum with process not carinate but with median gibbosity on apex. mesosternum with latero-discal striae absent or very short and indistinot. legs pale 59 b . m . al chalabi brown; first abdominal sternite without lateral discal striae. transversal part of bridge joining paramers in male genitalia broader than its lateral part (fig. 11). eight abdominal tergite with lateral margin rounded in shape and with more or less sclerotised setae along sometime tending to be grouped medially (fig. 9). ninth abdominal tergite with proximal of its broader part u in shape (fig. 10); tenth tergite with many long steae. specimens studies: iraq: baghdad, march. 1983: mosul. august. 1983 from cereals. trogoderma variable balion about: body oval; length 3.0-4.5mm.: breadth 1.0-1.9mm. head with punotures on anterior part of fnons and clypeus shallow and twice as coarse as facets of eye. inner margin of compound eyes striaght or vary slightly emarinate. amtennal club consists of eight segment in male and four segments in female: terminal segment of club slightly shorter than eight. ninth and and tenth segment combined (fig. 12) in male. mentum with antherior margin slightly emarginated. 4 pronotum black, covered with dark hair and with large patch of golde-brown hairs on both sides; its surface with punctures about as coarse as facets of eye. elytra bicolours. reddish brown to black with yellow red to reddish brown spots. prosternum with process moderately narrow: mesosternum with elevated part on either side of sulous as long. metasternum not marked with discal striae. legs with feora dark brown, tibiae and tarsi light. first abdominal sternite without lateral discal striae (fig. 16). transversal part of bridge joining paramers in male genitalia with slioght inward curve and about as broad as its lateral part (fig. 17). eighth abdominal tergite almost semicirucular in shape. more evenly selerotised. setae along margin sparser tending to be shorter medially (fig. 14). ninth tergite with proximal margin of broader part clearly sinuate (fig. i 5). tenth tergite with few short setae (fig. 10). specimens studied: iraq: baghdad. may. 1984 from insect collection. trogoderma bactrianitrn zantiev adult: body oval to subparallel: length. 2.5-4.8mm.: breadth. 2.0-2.5mm. head with puntures as coarse as facets of eye. inner margin of compound eyes striaght. antennal club consists of seven segments in male and five segments in female: terminal segment of club slightly longer than ninth and tenth segments combined (fig. 18) in male. mentum with anterior margin nearly striaght. pronotum dark brown, sometimes nearly black, with punctures finer than facets of eye. elytra (fig. 19) bicolours. reddish bands and spots: its surface with puncyures twice as coarse as facets of eye. prostrenum with process rather narrow: mesosternum with elevated part on both side of sulcus oval in shape, about twice as long as wide. metasternum with both sides having short striae. legs light brown. first abdominal sternite without lateral discal striae. transversal part of bridge joining paramers in male genitalia slightly broader than its lateral part (fig. 22). paramers with dense hairs. eighth tergite with lateral margin circular in shape. setae along margin denes. ninth tergite with proximal margin of broader moderatly sinute (fig. 21). tenth tergite with few long setae (fig. 21). specimens studied: iraq: baghdad. june. 1978 from dead insect collection. trogoderma irroratuin reitter adult: body’ oval; length 2.2-2.8mm.: breadth. 1.2-1.5mm. head small. with punctutres finer than facets of eye. inner margin of compound eyes straight. antennal club consists of six or seven segments in male, and tenth segments togeather in male (fig. 23). mentum with anterior margin nearly straight. pronotum black with vague pale maculatus on each side: its surface with punctures finer than facets of eye. elytra (fig. 24) black with three reddish brown bands and few small spots: its surface with punctures as coares ass facets of eye. transversal part of bridge joining paramers 60 inheritance of dark head in male about ass its lateral part and tending to be straight (fig. 27). eighth abdominal tergite with lateral margin rounded in shape and with many long sertae (fig. 25). ninth tergite with proximal margin of broader section clearly sinute (fig. 26). tenth tergite with few short setae (fig. 26). specimens studies: iraq: baghdad. february. 1983 and november. 1984: erbil. may’ 1988. from box of dead insects and arachnid collection. literature cited abdul-rassoul. m.s. 1969. insect pests infesting animal museum collection in iraq bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 8(4):1-7. beal. r.s. 1954. biology and taxonomy of the n species of trogoclernia (coleoptera: dermestidae). univ. call. pubi. ent.. 10(2):35-102. el-i-iaidari. h.s.:: fattah. y.m. and sultan. j.a. 1972. contribution to the insect fauna of iraq. iraq mins. agric.. tech. bull. no. 18:1-17. hinton. h.e/ 1945. a monograph of the beetles associated with stroed products. vol. i. london. brit. mus. nat. hist.. viii+443pp. hussain. a.a. 1963. provisional list of insect pest and bibliography of insect fauna of iraq. bull. coil. sci. univ. baghdad. 7:43-83. mawlood. n.a. 1985. traxonomic study of the beetles family dermestidae (insecta. coleoptera) in iraq. m.sc. thesis submitted to baghdad university. mrocskowski. m. 1968. distribution of dermestidae (coleoptera) of the world with a cantalogue ofallknown species. ann. zoo.. warszawa. 26(3): 15-191. thompson. j. 1977. first recorded of trogodern2a variabile ballion (coleopera. dermestidae) in britain. ent. mon. mag.. 113:29. zantiev. r.d. 1976. leather beetles (family: dermestidae) of the fauna of u.s.s.r.. i82pp. 61 b . m . al chalabi 62 inheritance of dark head 63 b . m . al chalabi 64 inheritance of dark head 65 b . m . al chalabi 66 inheritance of dark head bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2000) 9 (2): 57-66 7-18 7 b.a. alni’ma & a. h. al khay’yat bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2001) 9 (3): 7-18 check list of iraqi bryoflora b. a. basheer al-ni’ma* and abdul husain al-khay’yat** *dept. biology, coll. of sci.. univ. of mosul **dept. of plan. prot., coll. of agric., univ. of baghdad introduction the pioneer contributions included a sign for iraqi bryoflora were those of (juratzka & milde) and schiffner published at the end of the 19th century i.e. (1870 & 1897) respectively. however, throughout the whole next century, the 20th, only few papers, by different authors, have been published separately. they are schiffner (1913); handel-mazzetti (1914); froelich (1959); vondracek (1962 & 1965); agnew &townsend (1970); agnew ( 1973 ) ; agnew & vondracek (1975); long (1979); al-ni’ma (1994). the most comprehensive work among them was the “moss flora of iraq” by agnew & vondracek (1975). it included a description of 54 genera and 145 species with an identification key in addition to notes on the climate, topography and soil of the country. this flora is of a great scientific value. it forms a major basic source of information not only about iraq flora but for adjacent regions also. some of these researchers deposited their specimen as follows: agnew in baghdad university herbarium and british museum, vondracek in baghdad university herbarium, handle-mazzetti at natural history museum in vienna and al-ni’ma in the herbarium of the college of science, mosul university. in the end of the 20th century, the idea has come ot unify the previously recorded taxa in a single issue to be available for the next generation in the beginning of the new century. arrangement of the list: the present list includes 12 orders with 23 families, 70 genera and a total of 218 species, out of which only 12 species belong to 4 orders of liverworts. mosses were arranged following that of agnew & vondracek (1975), while the liverworts arranged according to watson (1968). each taxon followed by an abbreviated citation including collectors’ names and distribution’s district. important note: the districts of, only, handel-mazzetti species will not be given since this author referred to the ecological habitat of his taxa without denotation of location’s names. to remind the reader with this important note a star (*) was added after (han) throughout the list. a/ collectors’ names and their abbreviation 1. schiffner ( 1897 )……………………………( s18 ) 2. schiffner ( 1913 )……………………………(s19 ) 3. handel – mazzitti ( 1914 ) ………………….( han ) 4. froelic ( 1959 ) ……………………………..( fro ) 5. vondracek ( 1962 ) ………………………….( v62 ) 6. vondracek ( 1965 ) …………………………( v65 ) 8 bryoflora of iraq 7. agnew ( 1973 ) …………………………….( agn ) 8. agnew& vondracek (1975 )………………..( a & v ) 9. long ( 1979 ) ………………………………( lon ) 10. alni’ma ( 1994 ) ………………………..( aln ) b/physiographic districts and their abbreviations amadiya district:……………….(mam) rowanduz district:…..………….(mro) sulaimainya district:…...………..(msu) jabal singar district:...…………...(mjs) upper jazira district:…...………...(fuj) nineveh district:………..………...(fni) arbil district:…………………….(far) kirkuk district:………….………..(fki) prsian foothills district…………..(fpf) lower jazira district:……………..(dlj) ghurfa-adhaim district:………...(dga) western desert district:………...(dwd) southern desert district:………...(dsd) eastern alluvial plain district:..…(lea) central alluvial plain district:..…(lca) southern march district:………...(lsm) basra estuarine district:……..…..(lba) these physiographic districts of iraq were used throughout the flora of iraq by guest (1966). we prefer to use it here also rather than the distribution in “moss flora of iraq”, since it depends upon administrative units. (i.e.) liwa or province. names and borders of these units are probably subject for changes with times as it was already took place. a-class musci subclass bryales i. order fissidentales i. a. family fissidentaceae 1.1fissidens arnoldi ruthe [for:mam; a&v:far, msu, mam] 1.2f. bryoides hedw. [a&v:msu] 1.3f. crassipes wils. [a&v:mam] 1.4f. crassipes var. submarginatus fleisch et warnst. [s19:mjs; han:*; a&v:mjs] 1.5f. mnevidis amann [a&v:mro, far] 1.6f. persicus ruthe et milde [a&v:mjs, msu] 1.7f. viridulus (web. et mohr) [a&v:mro, msu] ii. order dicrinales ii. a. family ditrichaceae 2.1distchium capillaceum (hedw.) b. s. g. [a&v; mro] 2.2d. capillaceum var. compactum [huben.)(fro; rementioned in a&v][far,aro] 3.1cheilothela chloropus (brid.) lind. [a&v;mro] 9 b.a. alni’ma & a. h. al khay’yat ii, b. family dicranaceae 4.1anisothecium varium (hedw.) mitt. [a&v;mro ] iii. order pottiales iii. a. family encalyptaceae 5.1encalypta intermedia jur. [s19; fuj;han:*; fro: msu;a&v;msu,mro,fuj,mam] 5.2e. rhadocarpa swchwaegr. [a&v:mjs] 5.3e. vulgaris hedw. [a&v: mro,far,mam,fni,msu] iii. b. family pottiaceae iii. b./i subfamily trichostomea 6.1barbula acuta (brid.) brid. [han:*;a&v: diyala province (jebel hamrin &diyala weir),mro,fki,mam,fni] 6.2b. fallax hedw. [fro:msu;a&v:msu] 6.3b. hornschuchiana schultz [han:*;a&v:far,mro,mam,fni] 6.4b. hornschuchiana var. pseudorevoluta reim. [a&v:fpf (jebel hamrin)] 6.5b. icmadophila schimp [a&v:mro] 6.6barbula revoluta brid. [han:*;a&v:mro,msu] 6.7b. rigidula (9hedw.) mitt. [s19: mam;han:*] according to smith (1978) they mentioned the synonyme didymodon rigidulus hedw. 6.8b. tophaceae (brid.) mitt. [fro:fki;a&v:lea,far,mro,msu] the 1st author mentioned the synonym didymodon tophaceae. 6.9-b. tophaceae f. lingulata moenkm. [a&v: lea,mro] 6.10b.trifaria (hedw.) mitt. [v62: mro] 6.11b. trifaria var. desertorum (froehlich) s. agnew comb. nov. [fro:lea,fpf,lsm,tib river fpf/lea/lsm;a&v:tib river dga,lea,fpf,dwd,mro,fki,fuj,fni,mam]. the 1st author mentioned the synonym barbula rigidula var. desertorum. 6.12b. unguiculata hedw. [fro:msu,a&v:lea,mro,msu,fni] 6.13b. vienalis brid. [s19: mam, mjs, fuj; han:*;a&v:fpf jebel hamrin, lea,mro,dwd,far,msu,mam,fuj,dlj,mjs] 6.14b. vienalis var. cylindrica boul. [a&v: mro, fni, mam, msu] 7.1hydrogonium ehrenbergii (lorentz) jager et sauerb. [han:*; a&v: mro,mam,] the 1st author mentioned the synonym didymodon ehrenbergii. 8.1streblotrichum convolutum (hedw.) p. beauv. [a&v: mam] 9.1hymenostylium recurvirostrum (hedw.) dix. [a&v: mro] 10 bryoflora of iraq 10.1anoectangium aestivum (hedw.) b. s. g. [a&v: msu] 10.2a. handelii schiffn [han:*; a&v: mam,msu] 11.1-eucladium verticillatum (brid.) b. s. g. [fro: msu, mro, v62:mro;a&v:mro,fpf,fni,mam,msu] 11.2e. verticillatum var. angustifolium jur. [a&v: mro] 12.1hymenostomum tortile (schwaegr.) b. s. g. [s19: mjs;han:*;a&v: mro,msu,fni,mjs,fuj] 13.1weissia controversa var amblydon (brid.) c. jens. [v62: mro; rementioned in a&v]. it seems that both authors referred to the same specimen since they were collected it from helgurd mountain, but the variety was mentioned only in (a&v). 14.1w. crispata (nees & hornsch.) c. mull. [han:*] 14.2weissia fallax sehlm. [a&v: mro, msu, mam] 15.1gymnostmum aeruginosum smith [a&v: mro, dlj, msu] 15.2g. calcareum nees & hornsch [v62: mro; a&v: mro, fki, msu] 15.3-g mosis (lor.) jur. at milde [a&v: fpe (jebeljamrin),mro,fki,msu,dlj,fni,mam,dsd] 15.4g. rupestra schleich [han:*;v62:mro] 16.1gyroweisia tenuis (hedw.) schimp. [s19: mam; han:*;a&v:lea,fp (diyala weir),lba,dwd,msu,mam] 17.1timmiella barbuloides (brid.) moenk. [s19: fuj,mjs;han:*;a&v:mro,fki,msu,mam,fni,fuj,mjs] 18.1trichostomum crispulum var. elatum schimp. [a&v: mro, msu, mam] 19.1tortella tortuosa (hedw.) limpr. [v62: mro;a&v:mro,mam,msu] 20.1pleurochaete squarrosa (brid.) lindb. [a&v: msu, mam] iii. b/ii subfamily pottieae 21.1acaulon triquetrum (spruce) c. mull [a&v: lea] 22 .1pteryouneurum ovatum (hedw.) dix.[han:*; a&v: fuj, dga, lea, dwd, lca, msu] the 1st author mentioned the synonyme p. cavifolium. 23.1pottia commutata limp [han: *; a&v: fuj, lca, (baghdad) lea, msu, fni] 23.2p. davalliana (smith) broth.[a&v: lca, lea (baghdad). msu, fuj] 23.3pottia lanceolata (hedw.) c. mull. [han: *; a&v: mro, mam] 23.4p. mutica ven [s19: fuj; han: *; a&v: fki, msu, dlj, fuj] *; a&v: fki, msu, dlj, fuj] 23.5p. recta (sm.) mitt.[a&v: lca/lea (baghdad)] 23.6p. strakeana (hedw.) c. mull. [a&v: dlj] 11 b.a. alni’ma & a. h. al khay’yat 24.1phascum cuspidatum hedw. [lon: fpf] 24.2phascum piliferum [han: *] 25.1aloina ambigua (b.s.g) limpr [a&v: dsd, fpf, mro, fki, msu, dlj, fni, mam] 25.2a. rigida (hedw.) kindb. [fro: fpf, a&v: lea, dwd, dlj, fuj] 25.3a. rigida var. pilifera b.s.g. [a&v: lca, lea (baghdad), dga, fpf, dwd, dlj, lca, fki, fuj] 25.4a. stellata [han: *] 26.1crossidium chloronotus (brid.) limpr. [han: *; a&v: lea] 26.2c. griseum jur. [s19: mjs; han: *] 26.3c. squamigerum (viv.) jur. [han: *; a&v: tip river fpf/lea/lsm, dwd, fki] 26.4c. squamigerum var. pottioideum (de not.) moenkm. [a&v: dsd, fpf, diyala weir, dwd, mro, lca, mjs, fni, mam, msu] 27.1trichostomopsis aaronis (lor.) s. agnew & townsend [a&v: dga, lea, fpf, dwd, mro, lca, dlj, mam, fuj, dwd] 27.2t. haussknechtii (jur. et milde) s. agnew & towsend [a&v: lea (diyala weir), fki] 28.1tortula alpina (b.s.g.) bruch [s19: fuj; han: *] 28.2t. atrovirens (smith) lindb. [a&v: dsd, lea, msu, fni] 28.3t. brevissima (schiffn.) [s19: fuj; han: *; a&v: a&v: dsd, lca/lea (baghdad), lea, fpf, lca, dwd, fki, fuj, dlj, mosul] 28.4t. desertorum broth.= t. bronmulleri schiffn. [s19: fuj, mjs; han: *] 28.5t. fioroo (vent.) roth. [s19: fuj, dlj, han: *; fro: tib river fpf/lea/lsm, fpf; a&v: tib river, dga, lea, fpf, dwd, dlj, lca, fki, fuj] 28.6t. handelii schiffn. [han: *] 28.7t. inermis (brid.) mont. [s19: fuj, mjs, kurdistan 250-1100m; han: *; fro: msu] 28.8t. marginata (b.s.g.) spruce [a&v: mro, fni, msu] 28.9t. montana (nees) lndbg. [han: *; fro: mam] 28.10t. muralis hedw. [han: *; a&v: mro, msu, mam] 28.11t. muralis var. aestiva (p. beauv) brid. [han: *; a&v: mro, mam] the 1st author mentioned the synonyme tortula aestivia 28.12t. muralis f. brevifolia (schiffn.) podp. [s19: mjs; a&v: mjs, fni] the 1st author mentioned the synonyme t. aestive var. brevifolia 28.13t. princeps de not. [frp: mam] 28.14t. ruralis (hedw.) gaertn [han:*] 28.15t. subulata hedw. [han:*] 12 bryoflora of iraq 28.16t. vahlianas (schultz) mont. [lon: fpf] 29.1syntrichia alpina (b. s. g.) jur. [v62:mro; rementioned by a&v] 29.2s. desetorum (broth.) amann [a&v: fpf, dwd, mro, fki, fuj, mjs] 29.3s. hadacii vonderacek [v65: dlj; a&v: dlj] 29.4s. handelii (schiffn.) podp. [a&v: mro, mam, msu] 29.5s. inermis (mont.) huben [a&v: mro, msu, fuj, mam] 29.6s. laevipila brid [a&v: mro, mam, msu] 29.7s. montana nees et esneb [v62: m ro, mjs, mam, msu] 29.8s. montana var. calva (dur. et sag.) amann [a&v: msu] 29.9s. papillosissima (coppey) loeske [a&v: mro] 29.10s. princeps (de not.) mitt. [a&v: mro, msu, mam, fuj, dwd] 29.11s. pseudodesertorum froehlich [a&v: fpf, dwd, fki, dlj, fni] 29.12s. pseudohandelii froehlich [v65:msu; a&v: mro, fki, fni, fuj, dlj, msu]. the 1st author mentioned the synonym s. handelii var. pseudodesertorum. 29.13s. pulvinata (jur.) jur. [a&v: msu] 29.14s. ruralis brid. [a&v: mro, mam, msu] iii.b/iii subfamily cinclidoteae 30.1cinclidotus fontinaloides (hedw.)p. beauv. [a&v: mro, mam, msu] 30.2c. nigricans (brid.) loeske [a&v: mam] 30.3c. riparius (brid.) arnott. [han:*] iv. order grimmiacea iv. a. family grimmiaceae 31.1coscindon cribrosus (hedw.) spruce [han:*] 32.1schistidium apocarpum var. atrofuscum (schimp.) husnot [s19: mjs; han:*;v62: mro,; a&v: mro, msu, mjs, mam]. the 1st & 2nd authorsmentioned the synonym grimmia singarensis. 33.1grimmia anodon b. s. g. [s19: mjs; han:*; a&v: mro, mjs, msu] 33.2g. apiculata hornsch. [a&v: mro] 33.3g. apocarpa hedw. [han:*] 33.4g. campstris hook. [han:*] 33.5g. commutata hub. [han:*; fro: msu; v62: mro; a&v: mro, msu] 33.6g. crinita brid. [fro: tib river fpf/lea/lsm, dsd; a&v: fpf< fki, msu, dsd] 13 b.a. alni’ma & a. h. al khay’yat 33.7g. gibbosa s. agnew [agn: fki; rementioned in a&v] (tuz khurmatil bridge over lesser zab river and in ain dibbis). note: altone kopri is located on lesser zab not tuz khurmatil as the author mentioned. 33.8g. laevigata (brid.) brid. [a&v: mro] 33.9g. mesopotamica schiffn. [s19: dwd; han:*; a&v: fpf, diala weir, dwd, lca, fpf] 33.10g. orbicularis bruch [s19 on calcareous rocks. it is the most abundant mosses in north mesopotamia and kurdistan 400-1250 m; fro: mam; a&v: fpf, mro; fki, mam, fni, mjs, fuj, dlj, mam, msu] 33.11g. orbicularis var. persica schiffn. [s19:dwd, fuj,mjs; and rementioned in (han) & (a&v)] 33.12g. ovalis var. simplex vondracek [v65: mro; a&v: mro] 33.13g. pulvinata (hedw.) sm. [han: *; a&v: mro, msu, mam] 33.14g. subcaespitica schiffn. [han:*;a&v: mro] 33.15g. lergestina tomm. [han:*; a&v: mro, mjs, fni, msu 33.16g. trichophylla grev. [fro: msu; rementioned in a&v] v. order funariales v. a. family funariaceae 34.1-physcomitrella patens (hedw.) b. s. g. [v65: lsm; a&v: lea (baghdad)] 34.2p. patens var. marginata vondracek [a&v: lsm] 35.1entosthodon angustifolius jur. et milde [a&v: fki, mjs] 35.2e. handelii schiffn. [s19: mentioned the synonym funaria handelii on calcareous rock in north east mesopotamia and middle kurdistan 250-1800 m; han: fuj; a&v: mro, fuj, mam, fni, dsd] 35.3e. templetoni (smith) schwaegr. [a&v: mro, fuj, mam] 36.1steppomitra hadacii vondracek [v65: fuj; rementioned in (a&v)] 37.1funaria hygrometrica hedw. [han: *; a&v: lca (baghdad), mro, mam, fuj, msu] 37.2f. mediterranea lindb. [han: *; a&v: mro, fni, fuj] v. b family splachnaceae 38.1tayloria lingulata var. acutifolia [han: *] 14 bryoflora of iraq vi. order eubryales vi. a family bryaceae 39.1mniobrium albicans (wahib.) limpr. [s19: mjs; han: *; a&v: lca (baghdad), mro, msu] 39.2mniobrium delicatrulum (hedw.) dix [a&v: lca, mro, mam, msu, fpf, mjs] 39.3m. latifolium schiffn. [han: *; a&v: mro] 40.1pohlia cruda (hedw.) lindb. [a&v: mro] 41.1bryum sp. sterile specimen [han: *] 41.2bryum sp. [fro: dsd] 41.3b. alpinum brid. [fro: msu; a&v: mro, mam, msu] 41.4b. argentum hedw. [a&v: mro, msu] 41.5b. argentum var. lanatum (p. beauv.) b.s.g. [fro: msu; a&v: fki, msu] 41.6b. bicolor dicks [lon: fpf] 41.7b. badium bruch ex ruthe [han: *; a&v: far, mam, msu] 41.8b. caespiticum hedw. [han: *; fro: mam; a&v: mam, msu] 41.9b. capillare hedw. [han: *; a&v: mro, mam, fuj, msu] 41.10b. capillare f. flaccidum b.s.g. [a&v: msu] 41.11b. capillare var. torquescens (b.s.g.) husn. [s18: mro; fro: msu; a&v: mro, mam, msu] the 1st & 2nd author mentioned the synonyme bryum torquescens 41.12b. cirratum hoppe et hornsch. [a&v: mro] 41.13b. donianum grev. [a&v: msu] 41.14b. funkii schwaegr. [han: *; v62: mro; a&v: lba, lca (baghdad), dwd, fni, msu, lea] 41.15b. pallens (brid.) rohl. [a&v: mro] 41.16b. pallescens schleich. [v62: mro; a&v: msu, mro, fpf, dwd, lca] 41.17b. pseudotriquetum (hedw.) schwaegr. [v62: mro; a&v: mro] 41.18b. schleicheri schwaegr. [a&v: mro, msu] 41.19b. syriacum lor. [han: *; fro: mro; rementioned in a&v] 41.20b. ventricosum [han:*] vi. b. family mniaceae 42.1mnium longirostrum brid. [v62: mro; a&v: mro] 15 b.a. alni’ma & a. h. al khay’yat vi. c. family bartamiaceae 43.1anacolina webbii (mont.) schimp. [a&v: mro] 44.1philonotis caespitosa wils. [a&v: mro, mam] 44.2p. calcaera (b. s. g.) schimp. [han:*; v62:mro; a&v: mro, mam] 44.3p. fontana (hedw.) brid. [fro: mro; a&v: mro, msu] 44.4p. fontana f. laxifolia moenk. ap. loeske [a&v: mro] 44.5p. marchia (hedw.) brid. [han:*] 44.6p. seriata (mitt.) lindb. [fro: mam; rementioned in a&v] 44.7p. tomentella mol. [han:*; v62: mro,; a&v: mro] vii. order isobryales vii. a. family fontinalaceae 45.1fontinalis mesopotamica [han:*] vii. b. family orthotrichaceae 46.1orthotrichum affine brid. [a&v: mro, mam, msu] 46.2o. cupulatum brid. [fro: mam; a&v: mro, mam, msu] 46.3o. cupulatum var. papillosum gronv. [a&v: mro, msu] 46.4o. cupulatum var. bistratosum [han:*] 46.5o. lyellii hook et tayl. [a&v: mro, mam, msu] 46.6o. octoblephare [v62: mro] 46.7o. rupestre schleich [han:*; v62: mro; a&v: mro] 46.8o. schimperi hammar[a&v: mro, mam, msu] 46.9o. soeciosum nees [a&v: msu] 46.10o. strumii [han:*] vii. c. family leucodontaceae 47.1antitrichia breidleriana schiffn.[han:*; a&v: mro] viii. order hypnobryales viii. a. family fabroniaceae 48.1fabronia pusilla radi [a&v: mro, mam] 16 bryoflora of iraq viii. b. family hypnaceae viii. b/i. subfamily amblystegiaceae 49.1cratoneuron commutatum (hedw.) roth. [han:*; a&v: mro, mam] 49.2c. commutatum var. falcatum (brid.) moenkm.[fro: mro; v62: mro; a&v: mro, msu] 49.3c. commutatum var. sulcatum(lindb.) monk. [v62: mro] 49.4c. decipiens (de not.) loeske [han:*; v62: mro; a&v: mro 49.5c. decipiens var. napaeforme [han:*] 49.6c. filicinum ( hedw. ) roth . [fro : msu; a&v:mro, mam,msu] 50.1amblystegium juratzkanum schimp. [a&v: mro]. smith (1978) treated this taxon as a synonym of a. serpens as it is quite impossible to separate the two taxa. 50.2a. kurdicum [han:*] 50.3a. serpens (hedw.) b. s. g. [a&v: mam] 50.4a. tenax (hedw.) c. jens=hygroamblystegium irriguum [han} this author mentioned the synonym hygroamlystegium irrguum but smith (1978) following nyholm (1954-69) included hygroamblystegium in amblystegium and use the new name a. tenax. 50.5a. varium (hedw.) lindb. [a&v: mro, msu] 51.1amblystegiella jungermannioides (brid.) giacomini [a&v: mro] 51.2a. spruci (bruch) loeske [v62: mro] 52.1leptodictyum riparium (hedw.) warnst. [a&v: msu] 53.1drepanocladus aduncus (hedw.) moenkm. [a&v: mro] 54.1acrocladium cuspidatum (hedw.) lindb. [a&v: mro] 55.1calliergon cuspidatum = calliergonella cuspidata [v62: mro]. the 1st name is the new name, after smith (1978). viii. b/ii subfamily brachytheciaceae 56.1homalothecium philippeanum (spruce) b.s.g. [han: *; a&v: mro,mam] 56.2h. seriaceum (hedw.) b.s.g. [han: *; a&v: mro, msu] 57.1scorpiurum circinnatum (brid.) fleisch [han: *] 58.1camptothecium lutescns (hedw.) b.s.g. [fro: mam, mro; rementioned in a&v] 59.1brachythecium collinnum (schleich.) b.s.g. [han: *; a&v: mro, mam, msu] 59.2b. olympicum [han: *] 59.3b. rivulare (bruch) b.s.g. [v62: mro; a&v: mro, mam, msu] 59.4b. rutabulum (hedw.) br. eur. [han: *] 17 b.a. alni’ma & a. h. al khay’yat 59.5b. salebrosum web. et mohr b.s.g. [a&v: mro. mam] 59.6b. trachypodium [han: *] 59.7b. velutinum (hedw.) b.s.g. [v62: mro; a&v: mro, mam, msu] 60.1euryhynchium confertum (dicks.) milde [a&v: mro] 60.2e. riparioides (hedw.) p.w. richards [a&v: mro, mam, msu] 60.3e. speciosum (brid.) milde [a&v: mam] 61.1rhynchostgiella curviseta (brid.) limpr. [a&v: mam] b-class heapatice i. order sphaerocarpales i.a. family sphaerocarpaceae 1.1sphaerocarpous michelil bellardi [aln: mosul city fuj/fni] ii. order marchantiales ii. a. family targiolaceae 2.1targionia hypophylla l. [fro: msu, mro] ii. b. family reboulla ceae 3.1reboulia hemisphaerica (l.) raddi [fro: mam] ii. c. family marcantiaceae 4.1conocephalum conicum (l.) underw. [v62: mro] 5.1lunularia cruciata (l.) dum. [han: *; a&v: mosul city fuj/fni] 6.1marcantia polymorpha var. alpestris [han: *] ii. d. family ricclaceae 7.1riccia crystallina l. [aln: mosul city fuj/fni] 7.2r. frostii [s19: fni, fuj; han: *] 7.3r. frostii var. major [s19: dwd] 7.4r. sorcarpa bisch [s19: dwd] 18 bryoflora of iraq iii. order metzgeriales iii. a. family pellaceae 8.1pellia endiviifolia dicks. [han: *; fro: msu; aln: mosul city fuj/fni] 1st & 2nd author mentioned the synonme p. fabbroniana iv. order jungermanniales iv. a. family southbyaceae 9.1southbya nigrella (de not.) henriques [lon: jebel hamrin fki/fpf] literature cited agnew, s. 1973 a new middile eastern grimmia j. bryol., 7:339-342. agnew, s., & townsend, c.c. 1970 trichostomopsis card., a moss genus new to asia israel j. bot., 19: 254-259. agnew, s., & voudracek, m. 1975 moss flora if iraq. feddes repertorium, 86: 341-489. al-ni’ma, b.a. b. 1994 new records of liverworts from mosul-iraq. j. of educ. & sci., 20:36-44. froechlich, j. 1959 bryophten aus vorderosien” ann. naturhist. mus. wien, 63:31-32. guest, e. 1966 flora of iraq. ministry of agric., republ. of iraq (baghdad). vol. (1):213. handel-mazzetti, h. 1914 die vegetation sverhaltnisse von mesopotamien und kurdistan. ann. naturh. mus. wien, 28: 48-111. juratzka, j. & milde, j. 1870 beitrag zur moosflora des orientes. verh. zool.-bot. gesellsch. wien, 20:589-602 (1870). long, d.g. 1979 some additions to the bryophyte flora of iraq. rev. bryol. lichen., 45:103105. schiffner, v. 1897 musci bronmuelleriani. osterr. bot. z., 47:125-132. schiffner, v. 1913 bryophyta aus mesopotamiem und kurdistan, sowie, rhodos, mytilini und prinkipo. ann. naturhist., mus., wien, 27:1-34. smith, a.j.e. 1978 the moss flora of britain and ireland. cambridge university press: 706. vondracek, m. 1962 new bryophyte for the iraqi flora. bull. iraq. nat. hist. inst., 2:9-10. vondracek, m. 1965 some new mosses from iraq. collected by e. hadac. bull. soc. amis. sci. lettres poznan, ser. d., 6:117-122. watson, e.v. 1968 british mosses and liverworts . 2nd ed. cambridge university press : 495. full page photo 6 55 a. a.hamodiand m. s.abdul-rassoul bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2010) 11 (2): 55-59 on some species of tubuliferous thrips (thysanoptera: phlaeothripidae) from baghdad, iraq* awatif abdul-fatah hamodi** and mohammed-saleh abdul -rassoul*** **deptartment of plant protection, college of agriculture, baghdad university * iraq natural history museum, baghdad university, baghdad, iraq abstract twelve species of tubuliferous thrips, of the family phlaeothripidae had been reported from iraq. two of these were reported previously, haplothrips cerealis priesner, by elhaidari and daoud 1971.and haplothrips tritici kurdjumov by al -ali 1977, and the rest were recorded for the first time : these are haplothrips hukkineni priesner; haplothrips subtilissimus (haliday) ؛ haplothrips reuteri karny; haplothrips jasonis priesner; haplothrips sallloumensis priesner ; haplothrips pharao priesner ; phlaeothrips sycomri priesner; karnyothrips flavipus (jones); karnyothrips melaleucus (bagnall) ; dolicholepta micrurus (bagnall). number of insect's specimens, localities, date of collection and host plants were given. introduction thrips are small insects 1-8 mm in length, dark-brown to black in color, with narrow bodies, commonly found feeding on leaves and stems. they are important insects, causing a serious damage to the plants. the adult and larval stages feed by their modified mouthparts sucking the contents of plant cells, this kind of feeding causes white or brown spots on the leaves. some of these feeding on dead wood or fungi mycelium (mound, 2005: mound and morris, 2005) transfer pathogens vectors, (bacteria, fungus, virus). but some are beneficial species which feed on another small arthropod etc. mite, white flies and, insect eggs, such as leptothrips mali fitch (lewis, 1997). the last abdominal segment long, tube like in shape and the ovipositor unapparent. the eggs are laid on plants or near the food, hunching to small larva or its hutching inside the body of female (mound& walker, 1986; cott, 1956; pitkin, 1976). many species are found on the plant families graminacae and composites. result data of the present study resulted the identification of the following species: haplothrips cerealis priesner. 1939 material examined: 7 females, abu-gharib (baghdad), 25.xii. 2001. on triticum aestivum. habitat: graminivorous. distribution: spain (berzosa, 1983), russia, egypt, syria, sudan, turkey (tunc,1992) and the oriental region (priesner,1950). male: unknown. haplothrips hukkineni priesner. 1950 material examined: 6 females, abu-gharib (baghdad), 23.xi.2001.on imperata cylindrica l. * apart of ph d thesis of the first author 56 on some species of tubuliferous habitat: graminivorous. distribution: egypt, cyprus, albania, yugoslavia, hungrier (priesner, 1950). new record in iraq. haplothrips subtilissimus (haliday, 1836) material examined: 20 females, abu-gharib (baghdad), 2.x.2004, on sorghum vulgare, 6 female, baghdad/abu-gharib, 2.x.2004, on ,zea mays, 9 females baghdad/ bab al-madam. 3. iv. 2005 on undetermined weeds. habitat: graminivorous. distribution: africa and europe inside the flower-bud (priesner,1960) new record in iraq. haplothrips reuteri karny 1907 material examined: 8 females and one male, bab al-madam (baghdad). 6. iv.2005, on helianthus annuus, 1 female on ornamental plant zinnia flower. habitat: flower of composite. distribution: europe, siberia, egypt, middle asia, palestine, sudan, yamane and india ( priesner, 1960). new record in iraq. haplothrips tritici kurdjumov. 1913. material examined: 9 females and 3 males. abu-ghraib (baghdad). spring 2002. on the lolium temulentum l. habitat: graminivorous. distribution: europe, siberia, russia, vietnam, chain, pakistan, iran, syria, palestine, north africa ( egypt, morocco) ( priesner, 1960). haplothrips jasonis priesner, 1950 material examined: 1 female and 1 male. abu-ghraib (baghdad). 6. viii.2005, on cotton habitat: gossypium hirisutum l distribution: egypt, austere, england (priesner,1950). new record in iraq. haplothrips salloumensis priesne. 1935 material examined: 16 females and 3 males. abu-ghraib (baghdad). 17. iiv.2005. on hordeum glaucum steud (wild barely). habitat: graminivorous. distribution: slalom city, media desert (priesner,1960). new record in iraq. haplothrips pharao priesner, 1930 material examined: 3 females. abu-ghraib (baghdad). 10.iv.2004 on undetermined weeds growing with cotton. habitat: unknown distribution: egypt, east desert, alba mountain, yemen, al-hejaze. (priesner, 1950). new record in iraq. karnyothrips flavipus (jones, 1912) material examined: 3 females and 1 male. abu-ghraib (baghdad). in 15 / 6 /2001 on the yellowish flowers of amyerlies. habitat: flowers of amyerlies. distribution: europe, africa, egypt, sudan (priesner, 1960). new record in iraq. karnyothrips melaleucus ( bagnall, 1911) material examined: 2 females. al-escan (baghdad). 23. iii.2005 on rose. habitat: flower of rose and date palm (phoenix dactylifera l.) predator the scale insects parlatoria blanchardii( targ. –tozz.) distribution: oriental region / india, palaearctic region / europe, danish, kenya, hawaii island, brazil, east asia vietnam, china, west malaysia, palestine /java (priesner,1960). new record in iraq. phlaeothrips sycomori priesner, 1936 material examined: 2 females abu-ghraib (baghdad). 5 .xi.2000. on imperata cylindrica l. 57 a. a.hamodiand m. s.abdul-rassoul habitat: graminivorous. distribution: egypt, sudan( priesner, 1936) . new record in iraq. dolicholepta micrurus (bagnall), 1914 material examined: 3 females, al-zafranyia (baghdad). 12 .xi. 2002.and 7 female and 3 male. baghdad / al-zafranyia, 12 .xi. 2002. habitat: imperata cylindrica l., zizyphus spina-christi (l.) wild leaves, feeding on fungi. distribution: egypt/ cairo, and sudia arabia, sudan, europe, and the nearctic region, oriental region / india (mound, 1968). new record in iraq. literature cited al-ali, a.s. 1977. phytophagus and entomophagus insects and mites of iraq. nat. hist.res.center iraq. pupl.no.33, 142pp. berozsa.j.1983.tisanoptederos.de la sierra de guadarrama. iv. phlaeothripidae uzel, graellaia, 29: 127-137. cott, h.e. 1956. systematics of the suborder tubulifera (thysanoptera) in california. unv. california publications in entomology. 13:1-216. el-haidari, h.s. and daoud, a.k. 1971. on a collection of thrips from iraq. bull. iraqi. nat. hist. mus. 5(1): 23-25. lewis, t. 1997. thrips as crop pests, cab. international walling ford. 740 pp. mound l.a .and walker.a. 1986. fauna of new zealand no.10: tubulifera (insecta: thysanoptera). mound l.a. 1968. a review of r.s. bagnall’s thysanoptera collections. bull. br. mus. nat. hist. (ent.). suppl. 11:1-181. mound l.a. and morris, d.c. 2005. gall inducing thrips: an evolutionary perspective. acacia thrips. in rama,a. schaefer,cw & withers,t.m. (eds).biology, ecology and evolution of gall-inducing arthopods. science publishers,inc. , enflield (nh).usa.pp.59-72. mound.l.a. .2005. thysanoptera: diversity and interactions. annu. rev. entomlo. 50: 247-269. pitkin.b.r. 1976. arevision of the indian species of haplothrips and genera. mus. (nat. hist.) entomology. london. 34(4): 221-280. priesner, h. 1950. further studies in haplothrips and allied genera. bull. soc. fouad 1st. entom. 34: 69120. priesner, h.1936. studies on the genus haplothrips serv. bull. soc. ent . egypt. 20:6175. priesner, h.1960. amonograph of the thysanoptera of the egyptian deserts. publications de l`institut du desert d`egypte. 533 pp. 58 on some species of tubuliferous tunc.i.1992. studies on the thysanoptera of antalyav.phlaeothripidae uzel with an overall account. 16(3) : 135-146. 59 a. a.hamodiand m. s.abdul-rassoul bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2010) 11 (2): 55-59 phlaeothripidae( تسجیل بعض أنواع الثربس األنبوبي البطن* thysanoptera:( العراق/ في بغداد ***محمد صالح عبد الرسولو **عواطف عبد الفتاح حمودي قسم وقایة المزروعات، كلیة الزراعة، جامعة بغداد، بغداد، العراق** جامعة بغداد، باب المعظم، بغداد، العراقمتحف التاریخ الطبیعي، *** الخالصة َ من الثربس األنبوبي البطن تعود إلى عائلة تم تسجیل اثنا عشر phlaeothripidae ، ھي. في العراق ً نھا مسجلة سابقا ِ النوع االول : اثنان م haplothrips cerealis priesner، ِبل ألحیدري ن ق ِ . ١٩٧١وداود عام م ، ١٩٧٧سجلھ العلي عام haplothrips tritici kurdjumov الثاني والنوع ل ألول مرة في ھذه الدراسة وھي : والبقیة تسُجّ haplothrips hukkineni priesner; haplothrips subtilissimus (haliday); haplothrips reuteri karny; haplothrips jasonis priesner; haplothrips sallloumensis priesner; haplothrips pharao priesner; phlaeothrips sycomri priesner; karnyothrips flavipus (jones); karnyothrips melaleucus (bagnall); dolicholepta micrurus (bagnall). سجل كذلك عدد الحشراتِ، مكان وتاریخ الجمع وكذلك العائل النباتي . الذي جمعت منھ ـــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــ .بحث مستل من أطروحة الدكتوراه للباحث األول* full page photo full page photo full page photo 1-6 1 h. s. al-asady bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2002) 9 (4):1-6 external morphological study of the leafhopper empoasca decedens paoli (homoptera: cicadellidae) from iraq h. s. al-asady department of biology, college of education / ibn al-haitham, baghdad, iraq abstract this work presents external morphological study of the leafhopper empoasca decedens paoli, 1932 particularly male genitalia, which were dissected and illustrated. the genus empoasca walsh (typhlocybinae: empoascini) contains small, slender, fragile and generally green leafhoppers. the overall length ranges from 3-3.5 mm. members of this genus are charachterized by their uniformly green color, inner and outer apical cells of forewing not attaining wing apex, second and third apical cells are sessile or triangular or even short stalked, submarginal vein of hindwing extends around wing apex and turned beneath costal margin, apical thirds of tibiae and tarsal segments including claws are prominently green while other parts of legs are yellow (ribaut, 1936;young, 1952; dlabola, 1958; le quesne and payne, 1981). inspite of the many check lists appeared about the insect fauna in iraq, members of this genus are still poorely understood taxonomically. derwesh (1965) was the only one to include e. decedens within the insect fauna of iraq. empoasca decedens paoli, 1932 body small, slender, general coloration green with yellow tinge.total length of males and females 3.1 to 3.3 mm. vertex (fig.1) bright yellow; median anterior margin rounded slightly protruded anteriorly; pair of permanent faint to deep green crescent-like spots are present; posterior lateral angles pointed; posterior margin convex anteriorly; coronal suture distinct; compound eyes reddish brown relatively large in respect to size of vertex. head (fig.2) from facial aspect the general coloration excluding anteclypeus is bright yellow sometimes with faintly brown markings restricted to the frontoclypeus; anteclypeus with blue markings their density decreases anteriorly toward anteclypeal suture; frontoclypeal suture extend anteriorly parallel to gena and ending at the ocelli. pronotum (fig.3) bright yellow; apex truncate; lateral margins converging gradually from the posterior margin toward apical margin to make the later narrower than former; posterior lateral angles obliquely truncate. mesonotum (fig.4) narrowing anteriorly and posteriorly; broad at its distal third; apex truncate; yellowish brown; scutum with large faintly brown spots close to the lateral margins; scutellum triangular distinctly elevated; multicolor: apex broad truncate; base pointed; median part green surrounded by brown triangular margin which is in turn surrounded by green triangular margin. forewing (fig.5) uniformely green with yellowish tinge; costal margin curved; apex rounded; median and inner apical veins are approximately of same length but both are longer 2 morphology of empoasca decedens morphology of empoasca decedens than outer apical vein; radial vein ended nearly at the middle while median vein ended at the apical third. hindwing (fig.6) whitish with bright silvery veins; apex narrow rounded; base wide obliquely truncate; submarginal vein extends around wing apex and confluent to apex of fusion of veins r+m; anal folds are indicated by two invaginations. male genitalia: aedeagus (fig.7) consists of the aedeagal shaft which is broad cylindrical with spherical base extends apically to a narrow tube ending to the apex which slightly protrude upward to a small process; the aedeagus of this species is charachterized by the presence of l-like projection situated laterally and slightly beneath the apex. the shaft is attached firmly to the basal sclerotized part which is consist of two plates at both sides of the aedeagal base while from the dorsal side the aedeagal base is supported by an elongated plate extends basally to a capitate-like apex. genital style (fig.8) elongated; the apical half is narrow tube with a lateral flange near the anterior end; this is in a shape of small narrower process provided by 5 spines; the distal half is a carrot-like. genital ;plate (fig.9) elongated and approximately of same width; apex rounded obliquely turned internally; base slightly invaginated anteriorly; the middle and apical outer third are provided with strong irregularly shaped and sized and oriented setae; the inner margin and apex are provided with regular small spines. host plants and distribution: ricinus communis l., botanical garden/college of education: 18.7.1993, 28.7.1993, 15.9.1993; petroselinum hortense hoffm., abu-ghraib, 8.4.1993, 22.4.1993, baghdad, 1.5.1993; apium graveolens l., baghdad, 8.4.1993, 22.4.1993, kadmyiah, 20.5.1993, 27.5.1993. literature cited derwesh, a. i. 1965 a preliminary list of identified insects and some arachnids of iraq. iraq minist. agric. bull., 121:1-123. dlabola, j. 1958 a re-classification of palaearctic typhlocybinae (homoptera: auchenorrhyncha). cas. csl. spol. ent. (acta soc. ent. cst.), 55: 44-57. lequesne, w. j. and payne, k. r. 1981 cicadellidae (typhlocybinae) with a check list of the british auchenorrhyncha (hemiptera: homoptera). handbooks for the identification of british insects. 2(2c). royal entomological society of london, 95 pp. ribaut, h. 1936 homopteres auchenorrhynqes. 1. (typhlocybinae). fauna de france, 31: 1231. young, d. a. 1952 a reclassification of western hemisphere typhlocybinae. (homoptera: cicadellidae). univ. kansas sci. bull., 35(1): 3-217. 3 h. s. al-asady bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2002) 9 (4):1-6 ورق ر ال ج لحفا ر خا ه ال مظ ة ال س درا د ا سدي س ي حسن ل م ال ياة ع م س ن ا هيثم –ق رب ة اب داد –كلية ا ت ة بغ د –جامع غدا ق –ب العرا ة ص الخال ة س ث را ح دم ذا ال صـلة يق ف ج م ر ه اخلا مظ ز الــي ل فــــلل ورق ــا empoasca decedens paoli ل كا شــ أل زت ب ز ث ــ حيــ ة ريـ ك ذ ة ل ؤ ســ صــة ا خا و ة حي وضي . الت 4 morphology of empoasca decedens morphology of empoasca decedens 5 h. s. al-asady 6 morphology of empoasca decedens morphology of empoasca decedens 4 29 a. a. hamodi and m. s. abdul-rassoul bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2008)10 (3): 29-35 *keys for identification for genera and species of thrips (thysanoptera : thripidae) from middle of iraq awatif abdul-fatah hamodi** and mohammed saleh abdul-rassoul*** **department of plant protection, college of agriculture, baghdad university *** iraq natural history museum, baghdad university, baghdad, iraq abstract keys for 22 species representing ten genera thripidae collection carried out during 19992001 in different localities in the middle of iraq. of them four species are described as new to science, frankliniella megacephala sp. nov; retithrips bagdadensis sp. nov; chirothrips imperatus sp. nov; taeniothrips tigridis sp. nov; another thirteen species are recorded for the first time in iraq; thrips meridionalis (pri.); microcephalothrips abdominils (crawford); scolothrips pallidus (beach); scritothrips mangiferae pri.; frankliniella tritici bagnall; frankliniella schultzie trybom; frankliniella unicolor morgan; retithrips aegypticus marchal; retithrips javanicus mayet; taeniothrips gowdeyi (bagnall); chirothrips meridionalis bagnall; chirothrips me10icanus crawford; chirothrips hamatus trybom; and four species reported previously for iraq; thrips tabaci lindeman; retithrips syriacus mayet; parascolothrips priesneri mound; anaphothrips sudanensis trybom; scolothrips se10maculatus (pergande), on different plants. introduction thripidae is one of the largest thysanoptera families, included four subfamilies, and 1710 species (mound, 1997; heming, 2000). in iraq no more study to identification thrips, that species wailed distribution, different at needed a temperature, humidity, lived in filed, garden, green house. hardly seen a species on one plant as microcephalothrips abdomenalis (crawford) called (a composite thrips) and anaphothrips sudanensis trybom (a grass thrips), chirothrips spp. a (gramany thrips). result characters for family thripidae: antennae 8-9 segments, sense cone on 3,4 simple or forked, maxillary palp 2-3 segment, legs normal tarsi 1-2 segment some times with a claw, riticulium only on pterothora10. pronotum with a micro seta on a disk, each hind angle carried pair of consumption seta, wings pale with 2-3 longitude veins on fore wing only, upper vein e10tend behind anterior marginal wig (coastal wing), hind wing pale without veins, abdomen normal, posterior margin of eight segment cared a comb, some times absent. the family divided to four subfamilies: panchaetothripinae, thripinae, sericothripinae and dendrothripinae (mound & walker, 1982). 1subfamily panchaetothripinae: riticulium in whole body, antennae heliothripod, 8 segmented the last segment longer than 7 segment. wings broad at base, first vein fused with coastal margin and content the * apart of m. sc. thesis of the first author. 30 keys for identification ambient vein. apex of abdomen proved with a spiny or strongly seats. there are 33 genera and 120 species beyond to this subfamily. here find only genus retithrips. 2 subfamily sericothripinae: pale yellowish in color, small size, antennae 8 segmented sense cone on 3rd, 4th forked, wing’s seta sperted on first vein, and a serial on 2nd vein, hind angel of pronotum carried one seta at each side, whole body covered in a micro seta’s specially on abdomenal segmented i – 8 and became less at segmented 9, 10 (mound & walker, 1982), find only genus scritothrips. 3subfamily thripinae: it is a largest one for this family, different in their characters, riticulium weekly on pterothorax only, antennae 6-8 or 9 segmented the apex segmented small or some time equal7 segmented in length, wing veins prominent, apex of abdominal segment proved with long, strong seta some times a spiny. divided to two tribe: chirothripini; thripini (mound&walker, 1982). tribe chirothripini: head e10tend between antennae basic, antennae 8 segmented, 2nd segmented a projection at outer side, sense cone on 3, 4 simple or forked, pronotum not equal in anterior and posterior margin the lateral as 1.2 – 1.3 time as the first. abdomen proved with a strong seta at apex, as in genus limothrips, in iraq find only genus chirothrips. tribe thripini: antennae 6-8 or 9 segmented, sense cones on 3, 4 segmented simple or forked. pronotum equal in there anterior and posterior margins, different in habit, feeding on wild host plant, some of them are predator, feeding on small arthropod, in iraq find the genera; thrips; microcephalothrips; scolothrips; parascolothrips; anaphothrips; taeniothrips; frankliniella; key to the iraqi genera of family thripidae: 1 rriticulium at whole body, antennae heliothripod, pronotum equal at anterior and posterior margins, more longer that the lateral, three callosities on fore wing, ambient vein present, posterior margin of abdomenal segmented with a strongly structure like teeth on each sides, comb present, dark brown color on vitis leaf (fig.1) …………..retithrips marchal not at above…………………………………………..……….………...…………….……...2 2 antennae 7 segmented………………………...……………………….………………...…3 -antennae 8-9 segmented………………………....…………………………………….…...5 3one short pair seta on hind angel of pronotum, 4-5 pairs microseta’s on posterior margin, 1-8 chitin structure on posterior abdomenal margins, wing seta few, distance at arranged, brown-yellowish in color. on sunflower,(fig.2) ……..…….microcephalothrips bagnall. two long pairs seta on hind angel of pronotum, consumption, more than 5 pairs seta on posterior margin, posterior abdomenal segmented smooth, color and size different…...…4 4antennae segmented carried microseta, maxillary palp 3 segmented, comb present, abdomenal segment cylindrical in shape, wild distribution (fig.3)..………...…thrips linn. antennae segmented without microseta, maxillary palp 2 segment, 3 brown spots on fore wing, comb absent, posterior abdomenal margin not slightly, pale brown in color, predator a anther small insects. (fig.4) ………………………………...….parascolothrips mound. 5pronotum symmetrical in shape, hind angle with 1-2 seta or none.2nd antennal segment symmetrical, sense cone on 3,4, forked, head normal,………………………...…………..6 31 a. a. hamodi and m. s. abdul-rassoul pronotum a symmetrical, hind margin 1.2 – 1.3 time as fore margin,2 antennal segment asymmetrical a projected at the outer side, sense cone on 3,4 forked or simple, head e10tended between antennal basal (fig.5)…………………….....……chirothrips haliday 6fore and hind pronotum angels proved 1-2 long seta, abdomenal segmented carried a microseta or none………………………………………………………......……..………..9 fore pronotum angels without seta, hind angel with 1-2 prominent seta, that’s on tip abdomenal strong……………………………………………………………………..……7 7one seta at each hind angel of pronotum or none, comb present, different in size and color…………………………………………………………..…………….…………...…8 2 seta at each hind angel of pronotum, no microseta at abdomenal segment, brownyellowish in color (fig.6)………………………….………taeniothrips amyot & serville 8one seta at each hind angel, abdomen coverd by microseta, seta on 9 –10 long, pale(fig.7)……………………………………………….……….………scirtothrips shull hind angels of pronotum without seta, that’s on 9-10 abdomenal segmented strong and long (fig.8)………………………………….…………………………..anaphothrips uzel 9bodies seta long, pale, three brown spots on fore wing, seta’s vein a few, distances arrange, pale brown-yellowish in color, predator (fig.9)…………..…..…………scolothrips hinds body’s seats shorter, dark or brown, fore wing pale, seta’s vein arranged in a serial on veins, color, size different (fig.10)……………….......….…………….frankliniella karny key to the iraqi species of thrips l. 1abdomenal sterinat 2-8 proved with a ccsossary seta, lateral target of abdomenal segment without microseta, ovipositor short, base antennal vi segment convex, large species 1.4-1.5 mm, brown-yellowish in color ig,11)………………………………...….meridionalis(priesner) abdomenal segmented without a ccsossary seta, lateral target with microseta, ovipositor long, base antennal vi segment circular, o.9-1.5 mm in length, paleyellowish, brown-ellowish in color, wild distribution (fig.3)…………………………………………..…tabaci lindeman key to the iraqi species of scolothrips hinds 1first spot’s wing contact at fore margin, 2-8 antennae segmented shaded with grayish color, lateral segment 3,4 not circular (fig.12)………….………………sexmaculatus (pergande) first spot’s wing not contact at fore margin, antennae segment 2-8 not shaded, lateral segmented 3,4 circular (fig. 9)…………………………………………….pallidus (beach) key to the iraqi species of retithrips marchal 1three callosities on fore wing, sense cone on segment 3,4 simple or forked………………2 two callosities on fore wing, sense cone simple (fig.13)………….………..javanicus karny 2-all callosities at straight…………………..……………………………….…………….…..3 callosities not at a straight sense con on 3rd segment very short (fig.14)…bagdadensis sp.nov. 3-sense cone on segment 3,4 forked (fig.15)……………….…….………aegypticus marchal sense cone simple, normal in length (fig.1)……………………..…………..syriacus (mayet) key to the iraqi species of frankliniella karny 1 comb present, abdomenal segmented 9 with 4 long seta, that’s on wing; 23:18:15, dark brown in color (fig.16)……………………………………………………….tritici bagnall comb absent, more than 4 seta on abdomenal segmented 9, seta’s wing different, color and size different ……………………………………………………………….….…………..2 2tubular ocelli present, eyes close at head side, anteocular setae airside at front, seta’s wing; 20:18:14 (fig.10)……………………….………………………………..schltzie trybom 32 keys for identification tubular ocelli wanting, eyes far away from head sides, anterocular seta different in placed, seta’s wing different …………………………………………………………….……..….3 3 eyes distance 9-10 m from head sides, anterocular seta within it, seta’s wing; 25:17:12 ……(fig.17)……………………….……………………………unicolr morgan eyes distance 28-30 m, anterocular seta airside at anterior ocelli, seta’s wing; 27:19:15 ………(fig.18)……………..……………………….…….megacephala sp. nov. key to the iraqi species of taeniothrips amyot & serville 1 ommatidia un arranged as serial on outer margin of eyes, primary comb present, seta’s wing;23:11:13 (fig.6)………………………………………………….…gowdeyi(bagnall) ommatidia arranged as serial on outer margin of eyes, comb absent, seta’s wing; 27:10:13 …(fig.19)………………………………………….…………….tigridis sp. nov. key to the iraqi species of chirothrips haliday 12nd antennal segment with a projection at outer side…………………....………….…..…2 2nd antennal segment normal……………………………………..……………..……….…3 2sense cones on antennal segments 3,4 forked, head not e10tended between antennal basal, scallopus on pterothorax weakly, posterior margin of abdomenal segmented 2-8 provided with chitin structure, male winged, glandular area circular, small in size (fig.20)………………………………………………………..………...meridionalis bag. sense cones on antennal segmented 3,4 simple, head e10tended between antennal basal, scallopus strongly on pterothorax, posterior margin of abdomenal segmented 2-8 smooth (fig.21)………….…………………………………………………me10icanus crawford 3 fore tibia dented in both sex, male wingless, ocelli absent,(fig.22) …….imperatus sp. nov. fore tibia un dented, male unknown(fig.5)……………………..………….hamatus trybom references bailey, s. f. 1937. the composite thrips microcephalothrips abdominalis (crawford). canad. ent. 69(1): 121-126. ------------1957. the thrips of california part 1: suborder terebrantia. bull. calif. ins. surv. 4(5): 142-220. bhatti, j. s. 1978. systematics of anaphothrips uzel. 1895 sensu latu and some related genera (insecta:thysanoptera:thripidae). senckenbergiana biol. 59(1-2):85-114. bhatti, j. s. 1980. species of genus thrips from india (thysanoptera). systematic ent. 5(2):109-166. bryan, d. e. and smith, r.f. 1956. the frankliniella occidentalis (pergande) comple10 in california (thysanoptera:thripidae). univ. calif. public. ent. 10(6): 359-410. gentile, a. g. and bailey, s. f. 1968. a revision of the genus thrips linnaeus in the new world with a catalogue of the world species (thysanoptera: thripidae). univ. calif. publi. ent. 51: 1-80. heming, b. s. 2000. checklist alberta thysanoptera – thrips. internet. hood, j. d. 1932. new species of the genus thrips from central africa and egypt. bull. soc. ent. egypt. egypte. cairo. 21: 115-140. 33 a. a. hamodi and m. s. abdul-rassoul marullo, r. 1993. le specie italiane del genera frankliniella karny. in for matore fitopatologico 11: 37-44. morgan, a. c. 1925. si10 new species of frankliniella karny and a key to the american species. canad. ent. 57: 136-147. morison, g. d. 1957. a review of british glasshous thysanoptera trans. r. ent. soc. london 109: 476-521. mound, l. a. 1967. a new genus and species of thysanoptera predatory of mites in iraq. bull. ent. res. 57: 315-319. ----------------1968. a review of r. s. bagnall’s thysanoptera collections. bull. br. mus. nat. hist. (ent.). suppl. 11: 1-181. ----------------1980. phylogenetic relationships between the families of recent thysanoptera (insecta). zoological j. linn. soc. 96(2): 111-141. ----------------1981. identification, distribution and host plant of the pest species of scirtothrips (thysanoptera:thripidae). bull. ent. res. 71: 467-479. mound, l.a. and walker, a.k. 1982. terebrantia (insecta: thysanoptera) no. i fauna of newzealand, 1, 113 pp. ----------------, 1997. in lewis, t. (ed.). thrips as crop pests cab. international walling ford. 6. biological diversity. pp. 197-215. priesner, h. 1932. preliminary notes on scirtothrips in egypt with key and catalogue of the scirothrips species of the world. bull. soc. ent. egypt. 16: 141-155. -------------1949a. genera thysanoptera, keys for the identification of the genera of the order thysanoptera. bull. soc. ent. egypt. 33: 31-157. -------------1949b. studies on the genus chirothrips haliday. bull. soc. ent. egypt. 33: 159174. -------------1950. studies on the genus scolothrips hinds. bull. soc. ent. egypt. 34: 39-67. rivany, e. 1939. studies in the biology and ecology of retithrips syriacus mayet with species attention to its occurrence in palestine. bull. soc. ent. egypt. 23: 150-181. singh, s. 1942. a contribution to our knowledge of indian thysanoptera. indian j. ent. 4(2): 122-135. ------------1944. studies on some indian thysanoptera. proc. r. ent. soc. london, b. 13: 142-156. ------------1945. studies on the systematics of indian thysanoptera-terebrantia. indian j. ent. 7: 147-188. 34 keys for identification speyer, e.r. and parr, w.j. 1941. the e10ternal structure of some thysanoptera larvae. trans. r. ent. soc. london. 91(2): 559-635. steinweden, j.b. 1933. key to all known species of the genus taeniothrips amyot & serville. trans. amer. ent. soc. 59(978): 269-295. watts, j.g. 1972. description and new description records of chirothrips (thysanoptera:thripidae). ann. ent. soc. amer. 56(1): 589-594. 35 a. a. hamodi and m. s. abdul-rassoul bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2008)10 (3): 29-35 صية خي واع –مفاتيح ش ق وأن را ط الع س في س الترب ي ود د ال تاح حم ف عب د ا رسول و *عواط ح ب ص ل حمد **م م و اية * س تاق مزروعا داد/ ةكلية ا زراع/ ل ة بغ جامع ي** خ ال بيع ري ف ال ا ح داد/مت ة بغ د/ جامع غدا ق/ ب العرا ة ص الخال ل ة صي ش ي ح ت س ) ٢٢(م اتي رت ن عائل ال س م ج ا ود لع رة ا ع ا ت ع مجعت )thripidede(نو د دة ٢٠٠٠-١٩٩٩خالل ج كان اع ت م ها ص ربعة ق ط ا عرا س خمتل ة يف ق من من ط عل يلل :م و megacephala sp. nov; retithrips bagdadensis sp. nov; chirothrips imperatus sp. nov; taeniothrips tigridis sp. nov.; م ـب ش ق ة فت م الب ي) ١٣(ا ق وه ر يف الع ل م ة ل ال ج س :نوعً ت thrips meridionalis (pri.); microcephalothrips abdominils (crawford); scolothrips pallidus (beach); scritothrips mangiferae pri.; frankliniella tritici bagnall; frankliniella schultzie trybom; frankliniella unicolor morgan; retithrips aegypticus marchal; retithrips javanicus mayet; taeniothrips gowdeyi (bagnall); chirothrips meridionalis bagnall; chirothrips me10icanus crawford; chirothrips hamatus trybom; را وهي ة ابقًا للع جل س م ع س انوا :ومخ thrips tabaci lindeman; retithrips syriacus mayet; parascolothrips priesneri mound; anaphothrips sudanensis trybom; scolothrips se10maculatus (pergande). full page photo full page photo full page photo bull 27 farhad hasan aziz and balqis haji rasoul bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2016) 14 (1): 27-42 thirty two algae new records reported in ponds at gwer sub-district, erbil -kurdistan region, iraq farhad hasan aziz* and balqis haji rasoul** *environment dept. college of science, salahaddin university-erbil **biology dept., college of science, soran university abstract this study was carried out from february to october 2012 in six semi salty ponds in gwer sub-district which is the first work in the area. a total of 32 species and 2 genera of algae where reported as the new records. mostly the non diatoms are belonging to cyanophyta, chlorophyta, euglenophyta, cryptophyta, chrysophyceae, while diatoms or bacilariophyceae are belong to pennalsorder. keywords: algae, erbil, kurdistan, iraq, new records, region. introduction one of the main types of microorganisms in aquatic ecosystems is algae including phytoplanktons which are microscopic photosynthetic organisms some of them extremely resistance to unsuitable environmental condition and widely distributed such as cyanophyta, algae are living as epipelic, epilithic, epiphytic and free-floating in open or surface waters, they are found in unicellular, colonial, coenobic and filamentous forms (banyasz, 2011). in iraqi kurdistan region a phycolimnological study were carried out from 1978 to 2012 a total of (1341) species were recorded in algal check list in kurdistan ( aziz, 2011). while the first paper was that of maulood and hinton (1978), and the last one more recently have done (abdulwahid, 2012; aziz, 2014 and aziz et al., 2014). the aim of the present work is algal study in parallel with same physical and chemical water parameters of such water ponds to increasing the knowledge about algal distribution and abundance in iraqi kurdistan region. materials and methods study area: the study area is situated in the iraqi kurdistan region on the gwer sub-district in south west of erbil governorate, between the latitudes 38˚ 03' to 38˚ 11' n and longitudes 44˚ 38' to 44˚ 60' e. the climate of studied area is not departure for iraqi climate condition may be defined as being subtropical, characterized by a mild winter and dry hot summer. factors that influence the hydrology of ponds include precipitation, catchment size, ground water flow, surface flow, permeability of sediments (macdonald et al., 1997). in gwer sub-district the selected sites consist of different type of ponds, they are shallow rich in aquatic plants, and consequently the sites (1, 3, 4, 5 and 6) within the studied area were man-made ponds, while site 2 was a natural pond. as mentioned by darbandi (2013), the range of water parameters were as follows: ph (6.7-8.31), ec (965-5667ms.cm), tds (6273683mgl-), alkalinity(102-410mg caco3l-), acidity 20.01-25.75mgcaco3l-. total hardness (100-722 mgl-), cl-(151-989mgl-), salinity (0.272-10787mgl-). according to clvalues the waters of pond no.1 and 6 are brakish. 28 thirty two algae new records sample collection and algal identification algae samples were collected in vials and preserved in lugol’s solution (bony, 1975), also formalin solution (4-10%) was used for algal preservation by adding 3-4 drops to 100ml of sample (al-nimma, 1982). saturated solution of cuso4 was prepared and adding a few drops of it to the sample for remaining algal true colour (apha, 1999). non-diatom algae were identified with the help of available literature (smith, 1950; desikachary, 1959; prescott, 1970; lind and brook, 1980; bold and whyne, 1985; bando et al., 1989; komarek and anagnostidis, 2005; john et al., 2011). diatoms were identified after cleaning according to many references such as: patrick and riemer (1966); weber (1971); benson and rushforth (1975); hustedt (1985); witkowski et al., (2000); krammer (2002, 2003); lavoi et al. (2008) and komarek and anagnostidis (2005). results and disscution it is obviously appear from table 1 that a total of 292 taxa of algae were identified belong to 85 genera, 43 families, 28 orders, 10 classes and 8 divisions recorded in the study sites, among the total identified algal taxa, 32 species were new records to iraqi algal flora as a whole. the recording of such new record species contributed to the habitat and nature of the study ponds, which was the first study carried out in the area (aziz, 2011). species composition: table (1): total number of recorded algal species with their percentage % during the studies period. division classes orders families genera species % cyanophyta 1 3 5 22 67 23.44 chlorophyta 1 9 12 18 62 21.03 euglenophyta 1 1 1 4 23 7.87 cryptophyta 1 1 1 1 1 0.29 pyrrophyta 1 1 2 2 4 1.76 chrysophyceae 1 1 1 1 1 0.29 xanthophyceae 1 1 1 1 1 0.29 bacillariophyceae 3 11 20 36 133 45.54 total 10 28 43 85 292 100 29 farhad hasan aziz and balqis haji rasoul 30 thirty two algae new records descriptions of new recorded algae: non diatoms: dactylococcopsis acicularis lemm. 1900, ber. (pl. 1, fig. a). periphyton solitary acicular or straight cells and pointed poles, in gelatinous envelope; cells 2-3μm in diameter, 45-60 μm in long. (presscot, 1970; pl. 105, fig. 2). ocillatoria refringens gardner, 1927 (pl. 1, fig. b). cells bright green 9-10 µm wide, cells shorter than wide, not constricted cells somewhat enlarged, rounded with thickened outer cell wall, freshwater and marin among water plant. (komarek and anagnostidis, 2005; fig. 901, p. 601). ocillatoria leavittae buell 1938 (pl. 1, fig. c). trichomes straight, tapering toward ends, greenish grey to violet, 7.5 – 11.5 µm, wide, constricted, apical cells flattened, not capitates. (komarek and anagnostidis, 2005; fig. 897, p608). phormidium etevirence gonzalez guerrero (pl. 1, fig.d) cells bright blue-green, trichomes long, cells 3-4 μm long; 2.5-3μm wide, not attenuated towards ends, but apical cells longer, conical, pointed and hyaline. (komarek and anagnostidis, 2005; fig. 566, p. 404). phormidium karakalpakense muzaffarov (pl. 1, fig. e) trichome solitary, pale blue-green, cells 4.5-5μm wide, 1-2.5 μm long, apical cells capitat. (komarek, and anagnostidis, 2005; fig. 555., p. 402). romeria hieroglyphica (komarek and anagnostidis, 2005; pl. 1, fig. f) trichomes solitary, floating, usually with 12 – 24 cells, constricted with narrow, diffuse, envelop colorless, irregularly and intensely wavy and zig-zag coiled; cells cylindrical, pale greyish blue-green, 4.5-9-2µm long, 1-1.3µm wide.( komarek and anagnostidis, 2005; fig. 30. p. 598). spirulina corakiana playfair (pl. 1, fig. g.) trichomes solitary, pale blue green, (0.5) 0.70.8 µm wide, short, loosely regularly spirally coiled, attenuated, 25-70 µm long, with left – handed rotation, coils sinistral, 1.5-2.5 µm wide, (2.8 – 3.5) 4-10 µm high (i.e., distance between coils). apical cells rounded. (komarek and anagnostidis, 2005; fig. 169). spirulina tenerrima kutzing (pl. 1, fig. h) trichomes solitary, pale bright bluegreen, 0.3-0,6µm wide, densely spirally coiled, with intense righthanded rotation, coils dextral, 1.21.7 µm wide, distance between coils 0.81 (1.2 -2)µm. apical cells rounded. (komarek and anagnostidis, 2005; fig. 166, p. 144). anabaena circinalis var. crassa ghose ( pl. 1, fig. i) trichome free-swimming, semi-circular, cells spherical, shorter than broad, 5-7μm in diameter, heterocysts globos up to 8 μm broad: spores not seen, (deskachary, 1959; pl. 77, fig. 5). euglena spathirhyncha skuja (pl. 1, fig.j) cells (12-)16-20μm wide, 66-85μm long, spindle –shaped frequently flattened in middle part, looks like a spinning top, cell slightly truncate at anterior end; tapering and passing into a thin, sharp tail-piece at posterior end.(john et al., 2011;pl. 48a,b, p. 193). 31 farhad hasan aziz and balqis haji rasoul euglena geniculata (f. schmitz) dujardin (pl. 1, fig. k) cells 9.5 -12.5 (22) μm wide, 50-85 μm long, nearly cylindrical to bluntly spindle shaped; anterior end rounded, posterior end narrowing to a sharp tail – piece; pellicle very finely and closely striated, chloroplast 2, pyrinoid present, eye spot small, but visible, nucleus between 2 chloroplast groups euglenoid movment occurs and cells sometime twist, (john et al., 2011; pl. 47c, p. 192). lepocinclis playfairiana deflander (pl. 1, fig. 1) cells 19-26 μm wide, 32-49μm long, widely spindle-shaped, anterior end slightly narrowed into a slender tip or point (rostrate), posterior end with a tailpiece 7-12μm long; pellicle smooth; paramylon body 2, long circular or oval rings (john et al., 2011; pl. d,e 50, p. 200). phacus alatus g.a. klebs (pl. 1, fig. m) cells 19 -34 μm wide, 24 -45μm long, widely oval, with 2 unequal halves, wing-like in appearanc posterior end terminating in a short, tail-piece, pellicle longitudinally striated, paramylon bodies large, 2 in each cell. (john et al., 2011; pl. 52e, p. 206). phacus pyrum (ehrenb.) stein (pl. 1, fig. n) cells ovoid, posteriorly narrowed, finely pointed caudus; rounded anteriorly, periplast spirally ribbed; paramylon bodies 2 ring-like plates, cells (7)-15.5-21μm long. (prescott, 1970; pl. u, v788, fig. 22). cryptomonas marssonii skuja (pl. 2, fig. a). cells (10-)1345 μm long, (5-) 6-17 μm wide, ovoid –ellipsoid, convex in dorsal margin in, flagella equal or sub equal, shorter than cell; chloroplast 2 per cell, very variable in colour but never blue-green, without eyespot (john et al., 2011; pl. 63e, p. 248). 32 thirty two algae new records plate (1): a. dactylococcopsis acicularis. b. ocillatoria refrringens. c.ocillatoria leavitta janei. d. phormidium etevirence. e. phormidium karakalpakens. f. romeria heroglyphic. g. spirulna corakiana. h. spirulna tenerrima. i. anabaena circinalis var. crassa. h. euglena spathirhyncha. k. euglena geniculata l. lepocinclis playfairiana. m. phacus alatus. n. phacus pyrum (40x). 33 farhad hasan aziz and balqis haji rasoul synuropsis janei (bourrelly) wujek (pl. 2, fig. b) cells pear to club shaped, 9 μm in width and to 21 μm long in spherical colonies of about 60 cells; chloroplasts parietal and 2 per cell, often with an eyespot. (john et al., 2011; pl. d, pl.79, p. 304). quadrigula closterioides (bohlin) printz, 1915 (pl. 2, fig. c) cells long, straight, margin slightly curved, cylindrical, in the mid-region, tapering to sharply rounded apices, arranged in longitudinal bundles of 4 within a fusiform colonial envelop; chloroplast parietal, with a median notch; 1 pyrenoid; cells 4-6μm in diameter, 2235-(45) μm long (presscot, 1970; pl. 58, fig.9). staurastrum laevispinum bissett (pl. 2, fig. d) cells small, sinus obtuse and nearly rectangular, with a minute excavation at its apex; semi cells somewhat lunate, angle produced into thick, slightly attenuated, cells 25-30 μm long and 32-39μm wide, while, breadth of isthmus 9μm. (west and west, 1908; pl. cxli, fig. 18 from west and west, 1971a). staurastrum pachyrhynchum nordst (pl. 2, fig. e) cells somewhat small, as long as broad, constricted, sinus open, sub rectangular or acuteangled; semicells or elliptic sub-rectangular, dorsal margin sub-truncate, sides concave, angles rounded obtuse, cells 28-45μm long and 22-45μm wide, isthmus 8-15μm. (west and west, 1912; pl. cxxi, fig. 9 from west and west, 1971a). cosmarium sexnotatam gutw. (pl. 2, fig. f) cells small, almost 1 times as long as broad, constricted, sinus narrowly linear; semi cells sub semicircular with a flat base, apex sub truncate and 4-crenate, with a single series of small granules in the margin, side view of semi cell sub circular, chloroplast axile, with a central pyrenoid. cell 25μm long, breadth 19 μm wide of isthmus 5 μm, (west and. west, 1908; pl. 10, fig. 7 from west and west,1971b). oedogonium inclusum hirn (pl. 2, fig. g1, 2) cells cylindrical or somewhat capitellate, 8-12.9µm in diameter, (33)-62.9-150µm long. oogonia solitary; oblong-ellipsoid or fusiform, with lateral walls much thickened; operculate opening superior; 2430 µm in diameter, 48-55-(62)µ long. (prescott, 1970; fig. 5, p. 730). oedogonium gelatinosum kam. (pl. 2, fig. h1, 2) cells capitellate, those of female filaments 2030µm long; oogonia single or up to 6seriate, globose-ellipsoid, 45-60µm in diameter, 55-60µm long operculate, oospore ellipsoid, filling the oogonium 42-58µ in diameter, 56-58µ long. (gonzalves,1981; fig. 272) oedogonium spurum hirn.acta (pl. 3, fig. i1, 2) vegetative cells capitellate, 7-13µ in diameter, 20 -55 µ long; basal cell elongate; terminal cell obtuse or truncate, oogonium single, 26-30 µm in diameter, 23-33µm long. (gonzalves, 1981; fig. 20, p. 157). spirogyra chakiense kolkwitz & krirger (pl. 3, fig. a1,2) vegetative cells 93 – 104 80 – 116 µm; end walls plane; chloroplasts 4-8, conjugation scalariform; zygospores ellipsoidal with more or less rounded ends 50-66 73-122µm; (randhawa, 1959; fig. 338, p. 340). a c 34 thirty two algae new records spirogyra pellucida (hassall) kutzing (pl. 3, fig. b1, 2) cells 40–50 100–400 µm, with plane end walls; 3-4 chloroplasts straight, or making 0.5 to 4 turns. conjugation scalariform, zygospores lenticular 77-86 µm in diameter. (randhawa, 1959; fig. 488, p. 408). spirogyra subreticulata fritsch (pl. 3, fig. c1, 2) vegetative cells 50-54x150-400μm, with plane end walls; 3-4 chloroplasts, making 0.5 to 3 turns. conjugation scalariform; tubes formed by both gametangia; zygospores ellipsoid to somewhat ovoid, 42-54 x 60-124μm, (randhawa, 1959; fig. 30, p. 336). spirogyra turfosa gay (pl. 3, fig. d1,2) vegetative cells 68 –78 68–350 µm; end walls plane; chloroplasts 3-4 making 1.5 to 4 turns, conjugation scalariform, tubes formed by both gametangia, zygospors ellipsoid, pointed, 65 –75 120-140µm.(randhawa, 1959; fig. 297, p. 329). 35 farhad hasan aziz and balqis haji rasoul plate (2): a. cryptomonas marssonii b. synuropsis janei c. quadrigula closterioides d.staurastrum laevispinum e.staurastrum pachyrhynchum f. cosmarium sexnotatum g1. 2-oedogonium inclusum h1.h2-oedogonium gelatinosum i1. 2-oedogonium spurum. (40x) 36 thirty two algae new records plate (3): a1. 2-spirogyra chakiense. b1. 2-spirogyra pellucid. c1. 2-spirogyra subreticulata. d1. 2-spirogyra turfosa. (40x) diatoms navicula rostellata kutzing (pl. 4, fig. a) valves are lanceolate with well defined sub-rostrate apices, valve length 34-50 μm, valve width 7-10 μm, number of striae 11-15 in 10 μm. raphe fissures hooked over the apices,striae is clearly radiated over most of the valve, (lavoie et al., 2008; pl. 21, p. 106). gomphonema micropus ( kutzing) (pl. 4, fig. b) valves symmetrical to transapical axis (heteropolar), symmetrical to apical axis, cells only slightly wedge-shaped in girdle view, 25-43 µm long, 6-9 µm wide. apices broadly subrostrate (occasionally rostrate, raphe slightly sinuous, striae coarse, central area with one short absent stria (lavoie et al., 2008; pl. 40, p. 144). 37 farhad hasan aziz and balqis haji rasoul nitzschia reversa w.smith (pl. 4, fig. c) the valves are spindle shaped, with parallel margins and abruptly tapering apices with the ends turned in opposite directions, 79 µm long, and 4-5 µm wide. the fibulae are small and evident along the length of the valve, with a density of 14-20 in 10 µm. (lavoie et al., 2008; pl. 61, p. 186). didmosphenia geminata (lyngbye) w.m. schmidt (pl. 4, fig. d) valves slightly asymmetric to the apical plane, transapically more or less twice constricted, capitate ends, 60-135 µm long, and 2543 µm wide, raphe almost in the middle line of the valves moderately wide; terminal nodules distant from the ends, transapical striae about 10 in 10 µm, radial, coarsely punctata, 9-14 puncta in 10 µm. (lavoie et al., 2008; pl. 43, p. 150 ). diatoma moniliformis (kutzing) (pl. 4, fig. e) valves are 10-40 µm in length and 2.5-6.0 µm in width, frustules are rectangular in girdle view, valves are elliptical to lanceolate with rounded to subrostrate apices, transapical ribs number 6-11 in 10 µm, striae are uniseriate, 50-60 in 10 µm, axial area is linear, narrow, (lavoie et al., 2008; pl. 2, p. 68). cymbella excise kützing (pl. 4, fig. f) valves lanceolate-lunate, dorsal margin convex, ventral margin slightly concave to straight, striae uniseriately punctate, slightly radiate, dimension: 7-16 × 20-70 μm, striae 7-12 in 10. (lavoie et al., 2008; pl. 33, p. 130). encyonema silesiacum (bleisch in rabenhorst) (pl. 4, fig. g) valves dorsiventral and symmetrical to the transapical axis, dorsal margin arched ventral margin straight, valves are 10-39 µm in length and 5-9µm in width striae 12-14 in 10, raphe more-or-less straight. (lavoie et al., 2008; pl. 32, p.128). 38 thirty two algae new records plate (4): a. navicula rostellata b. gomphonema micropus c. nitzschia reversa d. didmosphenia geminate e. diatoma moniliformis f. cymbella excise. g. encyonemo silesiocum scale bars: 10μm 39 farhad hasan aziz and balqis haji rasoul literature cited abdulwahid, s.j. 2012. algal flora on some springs within sherman mazn subdistrict, erbil-kurdistan region of iraq. j. of advanced laboratory research in bio. 3(4): 293-301. al-nimma, b.a.b. 1982. a study on the limnology of the tigris and ephrates river. m.sc thesis, univ. of salahaddin, iraq. aziz, f.h. 2011. checklist of the algal survey in iraqi kurdistan region-iraq with particular references to habitats. zanco. j. of pure and applied. sci. salahaddin unvi. 23(3): 30-72. issn2218-0230. aziz, f.h. 2015. new record of the genus porphyridium purpureum from kurdistan. journal advanced laboratory research in biology. 3(2):16-19. aziz, f.h.; hassan, f.m. and darbandi, b.h. 2014. an ecological observation on inland water system inn erbil iraqi kurdistan with particular reference to blue green algae glaucospira. baghdad for sci. 11(3):1387-1395. (cited by: international conference of diversity for tigris and and euphrates rivers area in comparison with ministry of environment iraq. held in baghdad, 18-19, 2014). apha: american public health association 1999. standard methods for the examination of water and wastewater. 20th. ed. american public health association. 1015 fifteenth street. nw. washington, dc. 2005-2605. banyasz, d. 2011. longterm changes of the benthic diatom assemblages in the shallow lake balaton, hungary.contrbutii botanice xl vi: 73-82. boney, a.d. 1975. phytoplankton. edward arnold publisher. london, u.k.116pp. bold, h.c. and whyne, m.j. 1985. introduction to the algae. 2nd. ed. printerhall. inc. new york, u.s.a. bando, t.; nakano, t. and watanabe, m. 1989. the desmids flora of kathmandu, nepal. bull. nat. sci. mus., tokyo, ser. b. 15(1): 1-25. benson, c.e. and rushforth, s.r. 1975. the algal flora of huntington cyanon utah, u.s.a. bibiliotheca phycologica. band 18. strauss and cramer, germany. darbandi, b.h.r. 2013. astudy of algal communitiesand some environmental parametars in six ponds within gwer area near greater zab riverin erbil provence kurdistanregion –iraq.m.sc. thesis, salahaddin universityerbil, desikachary, t.v. 1959. cyanophyta. indian council of agric. res., new delhi, india. gonzalves, e.a. 1981. oedogoniales, indian councial of agricultural research, new delhi. huber pestalozzi, g. 1955. des phytoplankton des subwassers. 4 euglenophyceen stuttgart: scheizerbatsche. 40 thirty two algae new records hustedt, f. 1985. the pennate diatoms. strauss and gramer gmbh, 6945 hirschberg 2. germany. john, d.m., whitton b.a., and brook a.j. 2011. the freshwater algal flora of the british isles, 2ed edition printed in cambridge university press. komarek, j. and anagnostidis, k. 2005. cyanoprokaryota, 2. teil: oscillatoriales. in, budel, b.; gartner, g., krienitz, l. and schagerl m. (eds.) süßwasserflora von mitteleuropa begründet von a. pascher 19/2, (elsevier) münchen. the british isles, 2ed edition printed in cambridge university press. krammer, k. 2002. cymbella. in lange-bertalot, h. (ed.), diatoms of europe. diatoms of the european inland waters and comparable habitats, 3. a.r.g. gantner verlag k.g. krammer, k. 2003. cymbopleura, delicata, navicymbula, afrocymbella gomphocymbellopsis. in: lange-bertalot, h. (ed.), diatoms of europe. inland waters and comparable habitats, 4. lavoie, i.; hamilton, p.b.; campean, s.; grenier, m. and dillon, p.j. 2008. guide d'identification des diatomees des rivieres de i'est du canada. presses univ. du quebec. lind, e.m. and brook, a.j. 1980. a key of the commoner desmids of the english lake district. sci. publication no. 42. maulood, b.k. and hinton, g.c.f. 1978. an ecological study on sarchinar water, chemical and physical aspects. zanco. sci. j. univ. sulaymaniyah, iraq. series a. 4(3): pp.93-117. maulood, b.k. and toma, j.j. 2004. check list of algae in iraq, journal, babylon university. series 1-3, pure andaapplied science 9(3):1-70. macdonald, l.h.; anderson, d.m. and dietrich, w.e. 1997. paradise threatened: land use and erosion on st. john us virgin islands. environ manage 21: pp.851-863. ephrates river. m.sc. thesis, univ. of salahaddin, iraq. patrick, r. and reimer, c.w. 1966. the diatoms of united states.1. monger. acad. nat. sci. new york, u.s.a. prescott, g.w. 1970. algae of the western great lakes area. 6th. ed. william c. brown co., publishers. dubuque, lowa. prosser, i. p.; rutherfurd, i. d. randhawa, m.s. 1959. zygnemaceae. icar, new delhi. smith, g.m. 1950. the freshwater algae of united states. mcgraw-hill book com. london, u.k. weber, i. 1971. a guide to the common diatoms of water pollution, surveillance system station. u.s.a. environmental protection agency. nation environmental research analytical quality control laboratory cincinnati, ohio, u.s.a. 41 farhad hasan aziz and balqis haji rasoul west,w.and west, g.s. 1904. a treatise of the british freshwater algae. cabridge.univ. presss west,w.and west, g.s. 1971a. a monograph of the british desmidaceae.vol.1. johinson reprint corporaton.usa. west,w.and west, g.s. 1971b. a monograph of the british desmidaceae.vol.3. johinson reprint corporaton.usa. witkowski, a.; lange-bertalot, h. and metzeltin, d. 2000. diatom flora of marin coasts i. a.r.g. gartner verlag k. g. germany. 42 thirty two algae new records bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2016) 14 (1): 27-42 اقليم / في محافظة اربيلمن الطحالب في برك قصبة الكوير " تسجيل اثنان وثالثون نوعا جديدا كوردستان العراق **و بلقيس حاجي رسول*فرهاد حسن عزيز اربيل/جامعة صالح الدين-كلية العلوم-قسم العلوم البئية* جامعة سوران-كلية العلوم-قسم علوم الحياة** الخالصة ستة برك مائية صغيرة شبه في 2102ا البحث اعتبارا من شهر التشرين الثاني التشرين االول هذتم اجراء نوعا مع ( 22)حيث تم تسجيل اثنان و ثالثون . مالحة من قصبة الكوير وهو اول بحث يجري في المنطقة وان اغلبية الطحالب الجديدة المسجلة تعود الى الطحالب الخضراء . جنسين من الطحالب الول مرة في العراق فيما يخص الدايتومات فأنها تعود الى الطحالب غير . خضراءالمزرقة واليوغلينة والكريباتية و الصفراء وال .الدائرية .العراق ,اربيل,منطقة كردستان, انواع جديدة, الطحالب :الكلمات الدالة 57-61 57 mohammad et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2001) 9 (3): 57-61 haematozo`a of the avian family phasianidae in iraq mohammad k. mohammad mohammad k. jasim azhar a. almoussawi iraq natural history museum-university of baghdad, bab al-muadham, p.o.box 59037 baghdad, iraq abstract a collection of 118 specimens of iraqi phasianid birds belong to four species was examined for haematozoa. results show that 21.2% of them were infected with one or more of four species of blood parasites; haemoproteus danilewskyi, h. santosdiasi, plasmodium sp. and microfilaria. haemoproteus danilewskyi is reported here for the first time in iraq. introduction members of the avian family phasianidae are widely distributed throughout iraq. this family includes five wild species, black partridge of two subspecies, francolinus francolinus arabistanicus zarudny and harms in the middle and south and f.f. francolinus zarudny and harms in the north; seesee partridge ammoperdix griseogularis (brandt) in the north, middle and west; rock partridge alectoris graeca (meisner) in the north, west and east; quail coturnix coturnix (l.) which is a spring and autumn visitor throughout iraq; and snowcock tetraogallus caspius (gmelin, 1784) in the extreme heights of the north east mountains. these species constitute the major game birds and are subject to severe hunting almost during the whole course of the year. surprisingly, although their helminths are rather well studied (sawada and mohammad, 1989; mohammad, 1990, 1996; mahmoud et al., 2000) their haematozoa are poorly studied and fragmented among few works, including only shamsuddin and mohammad (1981), mohammad (1990,1991,1996). the aim of this work is to investigate the haematozoa among four species of iraqi phasianids with regard to their incidence, prevalence and some biological pertinent notes. materials and methods a total of 118 phasianid birds were collected either by shooting or capturing at different localities in the north, middle, and south of iraq during the period between january 1999 and june 2002. thin blood films were taken immediately from the brachial vein of the bird or sometimes heart, air-dried, fixed in absolute methanol or ethanol, stained with giemsa’s solution at strength of 1:10 at ph 7-7.2 for one hour. the morphometric parameters of both parasites and host cells were determined following the methods of bennett and campbell (1972) as modified by forrester et al. (1977) and mohammad (1991). drawings were made with aid of camera lucida. results and discussion table 1 summarizes the results on the incidence of blood parasites among the specimens studies in this work. this would show that 25(21.2%) phasianid birds were infected with one or more species of haemoproteus, plasmodium and microfilaria. two species of haemoproteus were found to infect both seesee partridge and rock partridge. these are h. santosdiasi son and h. danilewskyi kruse. infection with haemoproteids represents 18.6% of 58 haematozoa of phasianidae the total sample . this is generally in accordance with bennet et al. ( 1982 ) who found that 44out of 185species of phasianidae examined internationally were infected with haemoproteus spp. reporting of h. danilewskyi (fig.1) constitutes the first record for iraq while h. santosdiasi was reported by shamsuddin and mohammad (1981) from the same host, the seesee partridge. table 1: parasite species and infection rates in four iraqi phasianid hosts. bird species no. exam hp. inf. % p. inf. % mf. inf. % total inf. % ammoperdix griseogularis 42 13 30.9 1 2.4 14 33.3 alectoris graeca 47 6 12.8 6 12.8 francolinus francolinus 23 4 17.4 4 17.4 coturnix coturnix 6 1 16.7 1 16.7 total 118 19 16.1 1 0.8 5 4.2 25 21.2 hp.= haemoproteus, p.=plasmodium, mf.= microfilaria. infection rate of h. santosdiasi of this study in seesee partridge seems lower than that reported by shamsuddin and mohammad (1981) which represents 75%. this may be explained by that their material comes from one site, badra in the eastern frontiers which contains a wide network of irrigation canals and heavy cultivation that support the vector/s potentiality, while the source of this bird in this study is western desert district, the eastern foothills of diyala province and attariya about 45 km southeast of baghdad city. another reason may be added that the number of their examined birds is only four while it is 42 in this study which may represents more accurate infection rate. infection with plasmodium sp. constitutes 0.8% of the total sample. this is not surprising since infection rates with this parasite were the lowest in shamsuddin and mohammad (1981) and mohammad (1991) who studies the haematozoa of iraqi wild birds. specific identity of this parasite could not be determined since only one specimen of seesee partridge was infected with a very low parasitemia of immature stages mainly. infection with microfilaria seems very low compared with the results of shamsuddin and mohammad (1981) and mohammad (1991). this may reflect the fact that the studied birds prefer more arid terrestrial habitats than those examined by the above-mentioned author. however, identification of microfilariae in the examined birds of this study to the specific level practically impossible in view of absence of adult forms. the blood inhabiting microfilariae represent only larval stages of nematodes. absence of leucocytozoon infection is surprising since this parasite ranks third of the total infection in many studies in iraq and abroad (mcclure et al., 1978; shamsuddin and mohammad, 1981; bennett et al., 1982; mohammad, 1991). bennitt et al., (1994) in their review of the valid avian species of haemoproteus, leucocytozoon and hepatozoon considered six species of leucocytozoon in the family phasianidae. this result is rather hard to explain in view of the present data and needs more investigations. literature cited bennett, g.f. and campbell, a.g. 1972 avian haeomproteidae. 1. description of haemoproteus fallisi n. sp. and a review of the haemoproteids of the family turdidae. can. j. zool., 50:1143-1147. 59 mohammad et al. bennett, g.f., peirce, m.a. and earle, r.a. 1994 an annotated checklist of the valid avian species of haemoproteus, leucocytozoon (apicomplexa: haemoporida) and hepatozoon (apicomplexa: haemogregarinidae). systematic parasit., 29:61-73. bennett, g.f., whiteway, m. and woodworth-lynas, c.b. 1982 host-parasite catalogue of the avian haematozoa. memorial university of newfoundland, occasional papers in biology, no. 5,243 pp. forrester, d.j., greiner, e.c., bennett, g.f. and kigaye, m.k. 1977 avian haemoproteidae. 7. a review of the haemoproteids of the family ciconiidae (storks) and descriptions of haemoproteus brodkorbi sp. nov. and h. peircei sp. nov. can. j. zool., 55: 1268-1274. mcclure, h. e., poonswad, p., greiner, e. c. and laird, m. 1978 haematozoa in the birds of eastern and southern asia. international reference center for avian haematozoa, memorial university of newfoundland press, 296 pp. mohammad, m. k. 1990 helminth parasites of the black partridge francolinus francolinus arabistanicus in baghdad area, iraq. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus., 8(3): 155-165. mohammad, m. k. 1991 blood parasites of some iraqi wild birds. iraqi j. sci., 31:31-39. mohammad, m. k. 1996 intestinal helminth parasites of the rock partridge alectoris graeca in qa’ra area, west of iraq. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus., 8(4): 89-101. mahmoud, s. s., mohammad, m. k. and ali, s. y. 2000 histopathological effects of hartertia gallinarum on the rock partridge alectoris graeca in qa’ra region, west of iraq. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus., 9(2): 41-50. sawada, i. and mohammad, m. k. 1989 on some avian cestodes collected in iraq. bull. nara sangyo univ., 5: 179-186. shamsuddin, m. and mohammad, m. k. 1981 haematozoa of some iraqi birds with description of two new species haemoproteus pteroclis and leucocytozoon nycticoraxi (protozoa: haemosporina). bull. nat. hist. res. centre, 7(4): 111154. 60 haematozoa of phasianidae bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2001) 9 (3): 57-61 طفيليات الدم في طيور العائلة الدجاجية في العراق محمد كاظم محمد و محمد كاظم جاسم و أزهار أحمد الموسوي العراق بغدادباب المعظم -جامعة بغداد متحف التاريخ الطبيعي الخالصة ت أظهـر . منوذجـاً مـن الطيـور الدجاجيـة تعـود ألربعـة أنـواع ١١٨فحصت جموعة مؤلفـة مـن كانـت مصـابة بواحـد او اكثـر مـن طفيليـات الـدم األربعـة الـيت شخصـت يف % ٢١,٢النتائج بـان .ألول مرة من العراق haemoproteus danilewskyiوقد سجل الطفيلي . هذه الدراسة 61 mohammad et al. bull 163 abbas j. al-faisal and falah m. mutlak bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. december, (2018) 15 (2): 163-177 survey of the marine fishes in iraq abbas j. al-faisal* and falah m. mutlak marine science centre, university of basrah, basrah, iraq *corresponding author: abbasjsm71@yahoo.com received date: 19 april 2018 accepted date: 28 august 2018 abstract a survey of fish species in the iraqi marine waters was carried out for the period from november 2014 to march 2018. the list included 214 species representing 75 families. the family carangidae dominated the marine fishes in iraq, which was represented by 24 species, followed by haemulidae with 11 species, and then serranidae and sparidae with nine species for each, while 34 families contained a single species only. key words: checklist, fish species, iraq, marine waters, survey. introduction the arabian gulf is a semi-enclosed shallow sea located in the subtropical climate. the gulf is considered biologically impoverished, due to its environmental characteristics, in addition to its young age (randall, 1995; jabado et al., 2015). the environments of iraqi marine waters are fairly different in comparison with other parts of the arabian gulf; the shatt al-arab river, which is formed by the confluence of the euphrates and tigris rivers, is considered as a major fresh water discharge into the northwest arabian gulf. the potential sources of nutrients and organics in the northwestern arabian gulf are shatt al-arab river and its associated marshes (al-yamani, 2008; al-mudaffar and mahdi, 2014). the shatt alarab estuary plays an important role as feeding, nursery and protective grounds for many fish species (hussain et al., 1999). the fish species recorded in the arabian gulf were derived from the indian ocean, besides demonstrating that the indian ocean species cover the entire gulf and reaching even its most northern range (hussain and naama, 1989). the fish fauna of the arabian gulf have been identified by several systematic works (blegvad and løppenthin, 1944; kuronuma and abe, 1986; randall, 1995; assadi and dehgani, 1997, carpenter et al., 1997; bishop, 2003; iwatsuki et al., 2013). the previous studies in the iraqi marine waters could be divided into two parts, the first dealing with species composition and seasonal fluctuations either in the inland iraqi marine waters, like in khor al-zubair (ali, 1985; hussain et al., 1988; hussain and naama, 1989; ali and hussain, 1990; hussain et al., 1994) and khor abdullah (younis, 1990; hussain and younis, 1997), and the second dealing with classification of fishes or checklist in the regional iraqi waters (khalaf, 1961; mahdi, 1962; mahdi and georg, 1969; al-daham, 1982; mohamed et al., 2001). http://dx.doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2018.15.2.0163 164 survey of the marine fishes the aim of the present study is to update the list of marine fish species based on a survey in them from the iraqi marine waters for the period from november 2014 till march 2018. materials and methods fish samples were collected from the iraqi marine waters (29° 46' 50"n 48° 39' 46" e to 29° 78' 83"n 48° 75' 78"e) (map 1), northwest of the arabian gulf during the period from november 2014 to march 2018, by using a fishing boat supplemented by trawl net; also the fish samples were collected from commercial fisheries, through coordination and cooperation with fishermen of the region, which used different fishing nets, benthic trawl nets, fixed gill nets, gill nets (mesh 78×78 mm, 67×67 mm, 57×57 mm, 48×48 mm, 42×42 mm, 33×33 mm, 30×30 mm and 28×28 mm), traps with different circular base (2 m, 2.5 m and 4 m) and fish hooks, as well from commercial fishery of al-nasr society for the fishing and marketing of marine fish in al-faw district, 100 km south of basrah city. fish species were identified depending on kuronuma and abe (1986); carpenter et al. (1997) and froese and pauly (2018). the fish images were taken by canon sx600 hs. the arrangement of higher taxa (classes, orders and families) of fishes followed nelson (2006). map (1): fishing area in the iraqi marine waters. 165 abbas j. al-faisal and falah m. mutlak results and discussion a total of 214 species belonging to 75 families and 21 orders were recorded from the iraqi marine waters (tab. 1), (pl.1 and 2 showed some species). the number of cartilaginous fish species (class: elasmobranchii) was 16 species and the number of bony fish species (class: actinopterygii) was 198 species; the order perciform dominated the ichthyofauna of the iraqi marine waters, which is represented by 36 families and 132 species. a total of 34 families contained a single species only, 16 families contained two species and seven families contained three species, the remaining families were represented by more than three species. the most successful fish families are carangidae (11.21%) which contains 24 species, followed by haemulidae (5.14%) with 11 species, while serranidae and sparidae (4.20%) in the third place each is represented by nine species per each, then sciaenidae and lutjanidae (3.73%) with eight species each. the previous studies have developed a database for the identification of marine fish species in iraqi marine waters, but they have been based on fisheries or have been short term studies. the most prominent study about ichthyofauna of iraqi marine waters was carried out by mohamed et al. (2001) for the period 1995-1999, by using two fishing boats; they recorded 116 species belonging to 58 families. the present study is the next study of mohamed et al. (2001) about ichthyofauna of the iraqi marine waters; the number of species reached 214 which belong to 75 families; the increase in fish species in the present study could be due to using different fishing gears at different depths by the fishermen. on the other hand, this increase in the number of species may be due to modifications in iraqi marine habitat outside its control. the quantity of freshwater discharges into the northwest arabian gulf varies from time to time, as the construction of dams on the tigris and euphrates rivers in turkey and decreased the discharge of karun river; the various species were distributed in the northwestern arabian gulf as could be expected in view of salinity variations, different topography and muddy substratum (mohamed et al., 2001). the perciform is considered to be the largest order within the teleost fishes (nelson, 2006), this order dominates the ichthyofauna in northwest of the arabian gulf (khalaf, 1961; mahdi, and georg, 1969; al-daham, 1982; kuronuma, and abe, 1986; bishop, 2003), and which is represented by 36 families and 132 species in the present study. the most successful fish family in the iraqi marine waters was carangidae, represented by 24 species, this number is likely to increase, where were occurrence 32 species in kuwait (bishop, 2003) and 40 species in the arabian gulf (carpenter et al., 1997). this applies to the rest of families as haemulidae, serranidae, sparidae and sciaenidae. this study provided an updating list of the ichthyofauna of iraqi marine waters as to be a base for various studies in the future. 166 survey of the marine fishes table (1): list of fish species from the iraqi marine waters. order family species orectolobiformes hemiscylliidae chiloscyllium arabicum gubanov, 1980 rhincodontidae rhincodon typus smith, 1828 carcharhiniformes carcharhinidae carcharhinus leucas (müller & henle, 1839) rhizoprionodon acutus (rüppell, 1837) sphyrnidae sphyrna mokarran (rüppell, 1837) rhinopristiformes pristidae pristis zijsron bleeker, 1851 rhinobatidae glaucostegus granulatus (cuvier, 1829) myliobatiformes dasyatidae brevitrygon imbricata (bloch & schneider, 1801) brevitrygon walga (müller & henle, 1841) himantura uarnak (gmelin, 1789) maculabatis gerrardi (gray, 1851) pastinachus sephen (forsskål, 1775) pateobatis bleekeri (blyth, 1860) gymnuridae gymnura poecilura (shaw, 1804) myliobatidae aetobatus flagellum (bloch & schneider, 1801) aetobatus narinari (euphrasen, 1790) anguilliformes muraenesocidae muraenesox cinereus (forsskål, 1775) clupeiformes chirocentridae chirocentrus dorab (forsskål, 1775) chirocentrus nudus swainson, 1839 clupeidae anodontostoma chacunda (hamilton, 1822) nematalosa nasus (bloch, 1795) sardinella albella (valenciennes,1847) sardinella gibbosa (bleeker, 1849) sardinella longiceps valenciennes,1847 tenualosa ilisha (hamilton, 1822) dussumieriidae dussumieria acuta valenciennes, 1847 engraulidae thryssa dussumieri (valenciennes, 1848) thryssa hamiltonii gray, 1835 thryssa sp. thryssa vitrirostris (gilchrist & thompson, 1908) thryssa whiteheadi wongratana, 1983 pristigasteridae ilisha compressa randall, 1994 ilisha melastoma (bloch & schneider, 1801) gonorynchiformes chanidae chanos chanos (forsskål, 1775) siluriformes ariidae plicofollis dussumieri (valenciennes, 1840) netuma bilineata (valenciennes, 1840) netuma thalassina (rüppell, 1837) plotosidae plotosus lineatus (thunberg, 1787) aulopiformes synodontidae saurida tumbil (bloch, 1795) saurida undosquamis (richardson, 1848) gadiformes bregmacerotidae bregmaceros neclabanus whitley, 1941 ophidiiformes ophidiidae neobythites steatiticus alcock, 1894 batrachoidiformes batrachoididae allenbatrachus grunniens (linnaeus, 1758) mugiliformes mugilidae liza carinata (valenciennes, 1836) liza klunzingeri (day, 1888) planiliza subviridis (valenciennes, 1836) http://www.fishbase.org/summary/orderssummary.php?order=orectolobiformes http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?genid=1451 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?spid=6590 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?genid=816 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?spid=26330 http://www.fishbase.org/summary/orderssummary.php?order=myliobatiformes http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?genid=11477 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?spid=7274 http://www.fishbase.org/summary/familysummary.php?id=501 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?genid=9399 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?spid=7273 http://www.fishbase.se/summary/orderssummary.php?order=anguilliformes http://www.fishbase.se/summary/orderssummary.php?order=clupeiformes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/william_john_swainson http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/getref.asp?id=4303 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?genid=2032 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?spid=25943 http://www.fishbase.se/summary/speciessummary.php?id=1508&genusname=sardinella&speciesname=gibbosa http://www.fishbase.se/summary/speciessummary.php?id=589&genusname=thryssa&speciesname=hamiltonii http://www.fishbase.se/summary/speciessummary.php?id=594&genusname=thryssa&speciesname=mystax http://www.fishbase.se/summary/speciessummary.php?id=602&genusname=thryssa&speciesname=vitrirostris http://www.fishbase.se/summary/speciessummary.php?id=603&genusname=thryssa&speciesname=whiteheadi http://hbs.bishopmuseum.org/staff/randall.html http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/getref.asp?id=21649 http://www.fishbase.se/summary/orderssummary.php?order=gonorynchiformes http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?genid=10832 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?spid=4711 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?genid=2431 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?spid=45813 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?genid=2431 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?spid=53634 http://www.fishbase.org/summary/orderssummary.php?order=aulopiformes http://www.fishbase.org/summary/orderssummary.php?order=gadiformes http://www.fishbase.org/summary/orderssummary.php?order=ophidiiformes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/alfred_william_alcock http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/getref.asp?id=89 http://www.fishbase.org/summary/orderssummary.php?order=batrachoidiformes http://www.fishbase.org/summary/familysummary.php?id=189 http://research.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?tbl=genus&genid=10453 http://research.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?tbl=species&spid=64018 http://www.fishbase.org/summary/orderssummary.php?order=mugiliformes 167 abbas j. al-faisal and falah m. mutlak mugil cephalus linnaeus, 1758 valamugil speigleri (bleeker, 1858) beloniformes belonidae ablennes hians (valenciennes, 1846) strongylura strongylura (van hasselt, 1823) tylosurus crocodilus (péron & lesueur, 1821) hemiramphidae hemiramphus marginatus (forsskasl, 1775) hyporhamphus limbatus (valenciennes, 1846) rhynchorhamphus georgii (valenciennes, 1846) beryciformes monocentridae monocentris japonica (houttuyn, 1782) gasterosteiformes pigasidae pegasus volitans linnaeus, 1758 syngnathiformes syngnathidae hippocampus kuda bleeker, 1852 scorpaeniformes platycephalidae platycephalus indicus (linnaeus, 1758) grammoplites scaber (linnaeus, 1758) pseudosynanceia melanostigma day, 1875 minous monodactylus (bloch & schneider, 1801) synanceia nana eschmeyer & rama-rao, 1973 perciformes acanthuridae acanthurus sohal (forsskål, 1775) apogonidae apogonichthyoides taeniatus (cuvier, 1828) ariommatidae ariomma indica (day, 1870) carangidae alectis ciliaris (bloch, 1787) alectis indica (rüppell, 1830) alepes djedaba (forsskål, 1775) alepes kleinii (bloch, 1793) alepes melanoptera (swainson, 1839) alepes vari (cuvier, 1833) atropus atropos (bloch & schneider, 1801) atule mate (cuvier, 1833) carangoides armatus (rüppell, 1830) carangoides bajad (forsskål, 1775) carangoides chrysophrys (cuvier, 1833) carangoides malabaricus (bloch & schneider, 1801) caranx sexfasciatus quoy & gaimard, 1825 decapterus russelli (rüppell, 1830) gnathanodon speciosus (forsskål, 1775) megalaspis cordyla (linnaeus, 1758) parastromateus niger (bloch, 1795) scomberoides commersonnianus lacepède, 1801 scomberoides tol (cuvier, 1832) selar crumenophthalmus (bloch, 1793) seriolina nigrofasciata (rüppell, 1829) trachinotus baillonii (lacepède, 1801) trachinotus mookalee cuvier, 1832 uraspis helvola (forster, 1801) chaetodontidae chaetodon gardineri norman, 1939 drepanidae drepane longimana (bloch & schneider, 1801) drepane punctata (linnaeus, 1758) echeneidae echeneis naucrates linnaeus, 1758 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/carl_linnaeus http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/getref.asp?id=2787 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?genid=8042 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?spid=16937 http://www.fishbase.org/summary/orderssummary.php?order=beloniformes http://www.fishbase.org/summary/orderssummary.php?order=beryciformes http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?genid=421 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?spid=32781 http://www.fishbase.org/summary/orderssummary.php?order=gasterosteiformes http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?genid=159 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?spid=14683 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/carl_linnaeus http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/getref.asp?id=2787 http://www.fishbase.org/summary/orderssummary.php?order=syngnathiformes http://www.fishbase.org/summary/orderssummary.php?order=scorpaeniformes http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?genid=5194 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?spid=42879 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?genid=427 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?spid=15023 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?genid=6771 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?spid=15200 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?genid=745 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?spid=15346 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?genid=745 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?spid=15347 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?genid=1573 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?spid=15440 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?genid=1573 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?spid=48369 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/alepes_melanoptera https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/william_john_swainson http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?genid=1573 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?spid=34597 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?genid=929 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?spid=34511 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?genid=5816 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?spid=34615 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?genid=2100 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?spid=59622 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?genid=2100 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?spid=45629 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?genid=2100 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?genid=2100 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?genid=2089 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?spid=20141 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?genid=2104 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?spid=15426 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?genid=3356 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?spid=20563 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?genid=468 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/bernard_germain_de_lac%c3%a9p%c3%a8de http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/getref.asp?id=2710 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?genid=468 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?spid=15437 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?genid=2101 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?spid=15439 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?genid=7799 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?spid=34988 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?genid=598 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?spid=34734 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/georges_cuvier http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/getref.asp?id=1000 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?genid=2298 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?spid=34406 http://www.fishbase.se/summary/speciessummary.php?id=12534&genusname=chaetodon&speciesname=gardineri http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/john_roxborough_norman http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/getref.asp?id=6556 168 survey of the marine fishes ephippidae ephippus orbis (bloch, 1787) platax teira (forsskål, 1775) gerreidae gerres infasciatus iwatsuki & kimura, 1998 gerres limbatus cuvier, 1830 gerres longirostris (lacepède, 1801) gerres oyena (forsskål, 1775) gobiidae acentrogobius dayi koumans, 1941 bathygobius fuscus (rüppell, 1830) boleophthalmus dussumieri valenciennes, 1837 cryptocentrus lutheri (klausewitz, 1960) periophthalmus waltoni koumans, 1941 trypauchen vagina (bloch & schneider, 1801) haemulidae diagramma pictum (thunberg, 1792) plectorhinchus pictus (tortonese, 1936) plectorhinchus sordidus (klunzinger, 1870) pomadasys aheneus mckay & randall, 1995 pomadasys argenteus (forsskål, 1775) pomadasys kaakan (cuvier, 1830) pomadasys maculatus (bloch, 1793) pomadasys olivaceus (day, 1875) pomadasys punctulatus (rüppell, 1838) pomadasys stridens (forsskål, 1775) pomadasys taeniatus mckay & randall, 1995 labridae cheilinus lunulatus (forsskål, 1775) lactariidae lactarius lactarius (bloch & schneider, 1801) leiognathidae leiognathus equulus (forsskål, 1775) leiognathus oblongus (valenciennes, 1835) nuchequula gerreoides (bleeker, 1851) photopectoralis bindus (valenciennes, 1835) lethrinidae lethrinus borbonicus valenciennes, 1830 lethrinus microdon valenciennes, 1830 lethrinus nebulosus (forsskasl, 1775) lutjanidae lutjanus argentimaculatus (forsskål, 1775) lutjanus ehrenbergii (peters, 1869) lutjanus fulviflamma (forsskål, 1775) lutjanus lutjanus bloch, 1790 lutjanus malabaricus (bloch & schneider, 1801) lutjanus russellii (bleeker, 1849) lutjanus sanguineus (cuvier, 1828) pristipomoides filamentosus (valenciennes, 1830) menidae mene maculata (bloch & schneider, 1801) mullidae parupeneus cyclostomus (lacepède, 1801) parupeneus margaritatus randall &gueze, 1984 upeneus doriae (günther, 1869) upeneus tragula richardson, 1846 upeneus vittatus (forsskål, 1775) nemipteridae nemipterus bipunctatus (valenciennes, 1830) nemipterus japonicus (bloch, 1791) http://www.fishbase.se/summary/speciessummary.php?id=14295&genusname=gerres&speciesname=limbatus http://www.fishbase.se/summary/speciessummary.php?id=14295&genusname=gerres&speciesname=limbatus http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/getref.asp?id=996 http://www.fishbase.se/summary/speciessummary.php?id=5996&genusname=gerres&speciesname=oyena http://www.fishbase.se/summary/speciessummary.php?id=46432&genusname=acentrogobius&speciesname=dayi http://www.fishbase.se/summary/speciessummary.php?id=7201&genusname=bathygobius&speciesname=fuscus http://www.fishbase.se/summary/speciessummary.php?id=6533&genusname=boleophthalmus&speciesname=dussumieri http://www.fishbase.se/summary/speciessummary.php?id=6533&genusname=boleophthalmus&speciesname=dussumieri http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/getref.asp?id=1006 http://www.fishbase.se/summary/speciessummary.php?id=46408&genusname=periophthalmus&speciesname=waltoni http://www.fishbase.se/summary/speciessummary.php?id=4897&genusname=trypauchen&speciesname=vagina http://www.fishbase.se/summary/speciessummary.php?id=4465&genusname=diagramma&speciesname=pictum http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?genid=476 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?spid=52184 http://www.fishbase.se/summary/speciessummary.php?id=7626&genusname=plectorhinchus&speciesname=sordidus http://www.fishbase.se/summary/speciessummary.php?id=4447&genusname=pomadasys&speciesname=maculatus http://www.fishbase.se/summary/speciessummary.php?id=5518&genusname=pomadasys&speciesname=olivaceus http://www.fishbase.se/summary/speciessummary.php?id=46379&genusname=pomadasys&speciesname=punctulatus http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?genid=515 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?spid=35792 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?genid=7171 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?spid=47566 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?genid=10856 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?spid=15510 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?genid=357 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?spid=15550 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?genid=357 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?spid=15565 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?genid=357 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?spid=35147 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?genid=571 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?spid=35029 http://fishbase.org/summary/speciessummary.php?genusname=upeneus&speciesname=tragula http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/john_richardson_(naturalist) http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/getref.asp?id=3742 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?genid=1552 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?spid=58175 169 abbas j. al-faisal and falah m. mutlak nemipterus peronii (valenciennes, 1830) nemipterus randalli (russell, 1986) scolopsis taeniata (cuvier, 1830) polynemidae eleutheronema tetradactylum (shaw, 1804) polydactylus sextarius (bloch & schneider, 1801) pomacanthidae pomacanthus maculosus (forsskål, 1775) pomacentridae neopomacentrus sindensis (day, 1873) priacanthidae priacanthus hamrur (forsskål, 1775) priacanthus tayenus richardson, 1846 rachycentridae rachycentron canadum (linnaeus, 1766) scaridae chlorurus sordidus (forsskål, 1775) scarus ghobban forsskål, 1775 scatophagidae scatophagus argus (linnaeus, 1766) sciaenidae argyrosomus hololepidotus (lacepède, 1801) johnius amblycephalus (bleeker, 1855) johnius belangerii (cuvier, 1830) johnius dussumieri (cuvier, 1830) nibea maculata (bloch & schneider, 1801) otolithes ruber (bloch & schneider, 1801) pennahia anea (bloch, 1793) protonibea diacantha (lacepède, 1802) scombridae euthynnus affinis (cantor, 1849) rastrelliger kanagurta (cuvier, 1816) scomberomorus commerson (lacepède, 1800) scomberomorus guttatus (bloch & schneider, 1801) serranidae cephalopholis hemistiktos (rüppell, 1830) epinephelus areolatus (forsskål, 1775) epinephelus bleekeri (vaillant, 1878) epinephelus coioides (hamilton, 1822) epinephelus diacanthus (valenciennes, 1828) epinephelus epistictus (temminck & schlegel, 1842) epinephelus malabaricus (bloch & schneider, 1801) epinephelus polylepis randall & heemstra, 1991 epinephelus stoliczkae (day, 1875) siganidae siganus canaliculatus (park, 1797) sillaginidae sillago arabica mckay & mccarthy, 1989 sillago attenuata mckay, 1985 sillago sihama (forsskål, 1775) sparidae acanthopagrus arabicus iwatsuki, 2013 acanthopagrus berda (forsskål, 1775) acanthopagrus bifasciatus (forsskål, 1775) argyrops spinifer (forsskål, 1775) crenidens crenidens (forsskål, 1775) diplodus kotschyi (steindachner, 1876) rhabdosargus haffara (forsskal, 1775) http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?genid=912 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?spid=19579 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/peter_forssk%c3%a5l http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/getref.asp?id=1351 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/peter_forssk%c3%a5l http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/getref.asp?id=1351 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/peter_forssk%c3%a5l http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/getref.asp?id=1351 http://hbs.bishopmuseum.org/staff/randall.html http://www.fishbase.se/summary/epinephelus-polylepis.html http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/getref.asp?id=19601 http://www.fishbase.se/summary/speciessummary.php?id=4456&genusname=siganus&speciesname=canaliculatus http://www.fishbase.se/summary/speciessummary.php?id=8494&genusname=sillago&speciesname=arabica http://www.fishbase.se/summary/speciessummary.php?id=8497&genusname=sillago&speciesname=attenuata http://www.fishbase.se/summary/speciessummary.php?id=4544&genusname=sillago&speciesname=sihama http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/peter_forssk%c3%a5l http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/getref.asp?id=1351 http://www.fishbase.se/summary/speciessummary.php?id=67314&genusname=acanthopagrus&speciesname=arabicus http://www.fishbase.se/summary/speciessummary.php?id=5526&genusname=acanthopagrus&speciesname=berda http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/peter_forssk%c3%a5l http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/getref.asp?id=1351 http://www.fishbase.se/summary/speciessummary.php?id=4543&genusname=acanthopagrus&speciesname=bifasciatus http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/peter_forssk%c3%a5l http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/getref.asp?id=1351 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/peter_forssk%c3%a5l http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/getref.asp?id=1351 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/peter_forssk%c3%a5l http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/getref.asp?id=1351 170 survey of the marine fishes rhabdosargus sarba (forsskål, 1775) sparidentex hasta (valenciennes, 1830) sphyraenidae sphyraena obtusata cuvier, 1829 sphyraena qenie klunzinger, 1870 stromateidae pampus argenteus (euphrasen, 1788) terapontidae terapon jarbua (forsskål, 1775) terapon puta cuvier, 1829 terapon theraps cuvier, 1829 pelates quadrilineatus (bloch, 1790) trichiuridae trichiurus lepturus linnaeus, 1758 pleuronectiformes cynoglossidae cynoglossus arel (bloch & schneider, 180) cynoglossus kopsii (bleeker, 1851) paralichthyidae pseudorhombus arsius (hamilton, 1822) pseudorhombus javanicus (bleeker, 1853) psettodidae psettodes erumei (bloch & schneider, 1801) soleidae brachirus orientalis (bloch & schneider, 1801) solea elongata day, 1877 solea stanalandi randall & mccarthy, 1989 zebrias captivus randall, 1995 tetraodontiformes balistidae abalistes stellaris (bloch & schneider, 1801) molidae ranzania laevis (pennant, 1776) monacanthidae paramonacanthus choirocephalus (bleeker, 1851) paramonacanthus oblongus (temminck & schlegel, 1850) thamnaconus modestoides (barnard, 1927) tetraodontidae arothron stellatus (anonymous, 1798) lagocephalus lunaris (bloch & schneider,1801) triacanthidae triacanthus biaculeatus (bloch,1786) pseudotriacanthus strigilifer (cantor, 1849) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/peter_forssk%c3%a5l http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/getref.asp?id=1351 http://www.fishbase.se/summary/speciessummary.php?id=4458&genusname=terapon&speciesname=jarbua http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/peter_forssk%c3%a5l http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/getref.asp?id=1351 http://www.fishbase.se/summary/speciessummary.php?id=7946&genusname=terapon&speciesname=puta http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/carl_linnaeus http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/getref.asp?id=2787 http://www.fishbase.org/summary/orderssummary.php?order=pleuronectiformes http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?genid=1026 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?spid=48392 http://hbs.bishopmuseum.org/staff/randall.html http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/getref.asp?id=23283 http://www.fishbase.org/summary/orderssummary.php?order=tetraodontiformes http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?genid=1520 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatget.asp?spid=51589 171 abbas j. al-faisal and falah m. mutlak plate (1): cartilaginous fish species from the iraqi marine waters 172 survey of the marine fishes plate (2): bony fish species from the iraqi marine waters. 173 abbas j. al-faisal and falah m. mutlak 174 survey of the marine fishes 175 abbas j. al-faisal and falah m. mutlak litereature cited al-daham, n. k. 1982. the ichthyofauna of iraq and the arab gulf: a check-list. publications of the basrah natural history museum, 4:1-102. ali, t. s. 1985. preliminary study on the nature of bony fish assemblage in khor al-zubair. m. sc. thesis, college of science, university of basrah, 108 pp. (in arabic) ali, t. s. and hussain, n. a. 1990. composition and seasonal fluctuations of intertidal fish assemblage in khor al-zubair, northwest arabian gulf. journal of applied ichthyology, 6(1): 24-36. al-mudaffar, n.f. and mahdi, b. a. 2014. iraq’s inland water quality and their impact on the north-western arabian gulf. marsh bulletin, 9 (1): 1-22. al-yamani, f.y. 2008. importance of the freshwater influx from the shatt-al-arab river on the gulf marine environment, 207-222. in: abuzinada, a., barth, h., krupp, f., böer, b. and al-abdessalaam, t.z (eds.). protecting the gulf’s marine ecosystems from pollution. birkhäuser basel publisher , 1st edition, xvi+ 285pp. assadi, h. and dehgani, r. p. 1997. atlas of the persian gulf & the sea of oman fishes. iranian fisheries research and training organization, tehran,vol. 1, xx+226 pp. bishop, j. m. 2003. history and current checklist of kuwait’s ichthyofauna. journal of arid environments, 54: 237-256. blegvad, h. and løppenthin, b. 1944. fishes of iranian gulf. danish scientific investigation in iran, copenhagen, 247 pp. carpenter, k. e.; krupp, f. ; jones, d. a. and zajonz, u. 1997. fao species identification guide for fishery purposes. the living marine resources of kuwait, eastern saudi arabia, bahrain, qatar, and the united arab emirates. rome, fao, 293 pp. froese, r. and pauly, d. (eds.) 2018. fishbase. world wide web electronic publication. available at: www.fishbase.org (version 02/2018). hussain, n. a., ali, t.s. and naama, a. k. 1994. the effect of a heavy river flood on the fish assemblage structure in khor al-zubair, northwest arabian gulf, iraq. acta ichthyologica et piscatoria, 24 (2): 25-34. hussain, n. a., mohamed a. r. m. and ali. t. s. 1999. the seasonal formation of thermocline, halocline and water masses in the iraqi marine waters. marina mesopotamica, 14(2): 299-312. hussain, n. a. and naama, a. k. 1989. survey of fauna of khor al-zubair, northwest arabian gulf. marina mesopotamica, 4 (2): 161-197. hussain, n. a., naama, a. k. and al-hassan, l. a. j. 1988. annotated checklist of the fish fauna of khor al-zubair, north west of the arabian gulf, iraq. acta ichthyologica et piscatoria, 18 (1): 17-24. 176 survey of the marine fishes hussain, n. a. and younis, k. h. 1997. fish assemblage of khor shettana, northwestern arabian gulf, iraq. marina mesopotamica, 12 (2): 331-356. iwatsuki, y., jawad, l. a., tanaka, f., al-busaidi, h., al-mamry, j. m. and al-kharusi, l. h. 2013. omani fishes collected in the vicinity of mutrah, gulf of oman and madrakah, southern oman through 3 to 13 october 2010. bulletin of faculty of agriculture, university of miyazaki, 59:29-43. jabado, r. w., al ghais, s. m., hamza, w., shivji, m. s. and henderson, a. c. 2015. shark diversity in the arabian/persian gulf higher than previously thought: insights based on species composition of shark landings in the united arab emirates. marine biodiversity, 45(4): 719-731. khalaf, k.t. 1961. the marine and freshwater fishes of iraq. al rabbita press. baghdad, 104pp. kuronuma, k. and abe, y. 1986. fishes of arabian gulf. kuwait institute for scientific research, 357 pp. mahdi, n. 1962. fishes of iraq. ministry of education, baghdad, 82 pp. mahdi, n. and georg, p. v. 1969. a systematic list of the vertebrates of iraq. iraq natural history museum, publications, no 26:1-104. mohamed, a. r. m., hussain, n. a. and ali, t. s. 2001. estuarine components of the ichthyofauna of the arabian gulf. marina mesopotamica,16(2): 209-224. nelson, j. s. 2006. fishes of the world. 4th edition. john wiley & sons inc., new jersey, xiv + 601 pp. randall j. e. 1995. coastal fishes of oman. crawford house publishing pty ltd., hawaii, 456 pp. younis, k. h. 1990. a study of fish assemblage in the north of khor abdullah. m. sc. thesis, marine science centre., university of basrah, 95 pp. (in arabic) https://scholar.google.com/scholar?oi=bibs&cluster=925697744934038685&btni=1&hl=en https://scholar.google.com/scholar?oi=bibs&cluster=925697744934038685&btni=1&hl=en https://scholar.google.com/scholar?oi=bibs&cluster=925697744934038685&btni=1&hl=en 177 abbas j. al-faisal and falah m. mutlak bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. december, (2018) 15 (2): 163-177 األسماك البحرية في العراق مسح ألنواع فالح معروف مطلك جاسم الفيصل وعباس العراق ،البصرة ،جامعة البصرة ،مركز علوم البحار 82/42/8492: تاريخ القبول 91/40/8492: تاريخ االستالم الخالصة األسماك المتواجدة في المياه البحرية العراقية للمدة من تشرين الثاني اجري مسح ألنواع .عائلة 75نوعاً تعود الى 214 الدراسة تسجيلشملت . 2018ولغاية اذار 2014 نوعاً ثم تلتها عائلة 24هي االكثر سيادة وتمثلت بـ carangidaeعائلة وجدت haemulidae نوعاً ثم عائلتي 11بـserranidae و sparidae ،بتسعة انواع لكل منهما .فقط اً واحد اً عائلة نوع 34 العوائل الـ بينما ضمت full page photo 9 45 b . m . al chalabi bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2000) 9 (2): 45-55 intensity and histopathological effects of the nematode hartertia gallinarum(theiler, 1919) on seesee partridge, ammoperdix griseogularis ( brandt, 1843)collected from qa’ ra area, west of iraq. mahmoud, s. s * mohammad. m. k * * and au. s.y.* *college of education for women, univ. baghdad. baghdad. iraq **iraq natural history museum. univ. baghdad. baghdad. iraq abstract this work deals with the description of histopathological effects of the nematode hartertia gallinarurn theiler. 1919 on the digestive system of the seesee partridge collected from qa’ra area in the western desert district of iraq. along with some notes on intensity fluctuation of the parasite according to the seasons. it is found that the major effects of the nematode are necrosis and fibrosis of gizzard: granulomatous reaction. necrosis and mononuclear infiltration of proventriculus: damage of mucosal lining of intestine and lymphocytic infiltration of liver. introduction qa’ra is a large open depression some 60 km e -w by 20 km n-s situated about 60 kms north of rutba ( 33° 30’ n. 40° 15’ e) in the western desert district of iraq (guest and al-rawi . 1966 ) . the resident birds of this area are mainly seesee partridge. .4rninoperdix griseogularis and chukar partridge. . graecca that are found in large numbers. presently, the area is being considered as a site for a national park. so. an introductory effort is needed to study the nematodes. which constitute the most important group of helminth parasites. nematodes so far exceeds the trematodes and cestodes in the amount of damage done to the host (ruff, 1978). the present work is undertaken to investigate the intensity and the histopathological effect of the most dominant parasite on the native seesee partridge, which is found to be heavily infected with the nematode ,hartertia gallinarurn. some informations are available abroad on the intensity and histopathological effects of the nematodes on their phasianid hosts. these include works of cram (1927): cram et al. (1931); fernando et al. (1971): vetesi et al. (1976). and weiner and soulsby (1976). in iraq alhubaity and al-habib (1979) isolated the nematode heteakis gallinaruni from domestic fowl in mosul vicinity without studying its effects on the host، materials and method a total of 42 seesee paridge birds were collected from qa ra region during the period between may 87 to feb. 88. the birds were dissected immediately and the worms along with the infected organs such as intestine, proventriculus and liver were removed, washed with warm normal saline, then kept in 70% alcohol. sections of paraffin embedded tissue samples were cut at 5 um thick and stained with haemtoxylene-eosine for detailed examination. 46 inheritance of dark head results the intensity of parasites and date of collection are shown in table i. the mean important measurements of 10 male and female parasites each are as following: hartertia gallinarurn ( theiler , 1919 ) ( spiruoidea. spiruridae ) (figs . 13 ) . male: total length 35 mm, maximum width 0. 49 mm left spicule 2 mm. right spicule 0.48 mm. the posterior extremity tubercular. female: total length 57 mm. maximum width 0. 71 mm eggs 35x22 um. the worms were recovered mostly from the intestinal lumen of infected birds that were blocked in some cases (fig. 4), some worms were located under the gizzard lining (fig. 5) and liver parenchyma. certain worms were also observed in other foci such as the mesenteries. histopathological effects gizzard: many worms were found under the lining of the gizzard (fig. 6). the worms were encapsulated. sometimes forming superficial nodules (fig.7). necrosis and fibrosis were also observed. proventriculus: many granulomatous reactions and necrosis around ova of the parasite were found (fig. 8) with many mononuclear inflation in the site of infection (fig. 9-10). intestine: damage of most of the mucosal lining of intestine (fig. ii). small intestinal mucosa showed inflammation cells composed of lymphocytes. plasma cells and heterophils (fig. 12), but there is no infiltration of the muscular coat. liver: worms were seen in liver parenchyma (fig. 13). cellular infiltration composed mainly of lymphocytes (figs. 14-15). no other specific lesions were seen. necrosis and fibrosis of lesser extent were observed in different sites of the liver. preliminary examination of the crops of the dissected birds showed that ants were the most common animal food utilized by these birds. in addition, a minor infection with the cest raillietina tetragona was observed among some infected hosts of this study. discussion the nematode hartertia gallinarum is well known as a spiruroid parasite of the small intestine of chickens in africa and transmitted to the final host by the workers of ants and termites (kotlan . 1960 chandler and read , 1961 yamaguti 1961 ) . as shown in the results the ants were the most common animal food, this may explain the high infection rate of the total bird sample (61. 9%) and the high intensity of the parasite (table i). it is the first time that this nematode is recorded in iraq and its reporting from seesee partridge constitutes a new host record. specimens of the parasite of this study are slightly smaller than those reported by kotlan (1960) but they fit well in other characters. the intensity of the parasite fluctuates according to the seasons. it is very high in fall and of lesser extent in spring and summer, while it is very low in winter. this is in accordance with chricton and welch (1972) who found that the intensity of nematodes infecting certain ducks in canada was high in autumn, spring and summer, and this may be related to the abundance and activity of the invertebrate intermediate host during seasons. the tissue reaction to nematode parasites probably have not been studied as extensively as the reactions to other infective agents ( poynter, 1966) although the nematodes constitute the most important group of helminth parasites ( ruff. 1978 ) . the considerable reaction of host tissues found in this study indicates that the association between the parasite and host lead to acute reaction. types of these reactions seem to be similar in certain areas of digestive tracts of different hosts infected with different parasites. for example. in the intestine, the acute inflammation of small intestinal mucosa found in this study was observed by khatoon and ansari (1985) in pigeons infected with ascaridia colurnbae and also by kodzoilka (1960) in chickens infected with certain ascarids 47 b . m . al chalabi histological examination of the intestine and liver revealed intense cellular infiltration of leukocytes around the trapped worms and damage of epithelial lining, necrosis and fibrosis. similar observations were made by (bertram. 1966: mohan, 1973: weiner and soulsby. 1973). the effects on gizzard and proventriculus are caused by the presence of encapsulated parasites. which were accompanied with fibrosis and g reaction around ova. cornwell (1963) and chricton and welch (1972) who studied the pathogenicitv of echinuria uncinata on certain anatid hosts also observed such effects. however, the amount of the damage in each organ is correlated with the number of parasites harbored. acknowledgements we are grateful to dr. d. i. gibson of the british museum (natural history) for the identifijing the nematode identity. literature cited al-hubaity . i . a. and al-habib. w . n. s. 1979 a survey of the helminth parasites of the domestic fowl ( gallus ga/los dornesticus ) in mosul district . iraq. mesopotainia j. agric. , 14( 1): 197 204 bertram . d. s . 1966 dynamics of parasite equilibrium in cotton rat filiariasis . in ben dawes ed . ) advances in parasitology. academic press. london and new york. 255319. chandler . a. c. and read, c. p. 1961 introduction to parasitology with special reference to the parasites of man i0 ed . john wiley and sons. inc . . new york. 822 pp. chricton . v. f . j . and welch, h . e. 1972 helrninths from the digestive tracts of mallards and pintails in the delta marsh. manitoba. can. i. zoo/. . 50 : 633-637 cornwell, g. w. 1963 observations waterfowl mortality in southern manitoba causwd by echinuria uncinata (nematoda acuariidae) can . i. zool. . 41: 699-703 cram . e . b . 1927 bird parasites of the nematode suborders strongylata. ascaridata and spirurata. bull. v. s. nac. washington. 140: 465pp. cram . e . b . j ones • m . f . and allen , e . a . 1931 internal parasites and parasite diseases of the bobwhite ,in stoddard. h.. the bobwhite quail. new york.229-313 fernando, m. a. p., stockdale h. g. and remmeler. 0. 1971 the route of migration development and pathogenesis of syngamus trachea ( montagu 1811) chapin, 1925 . in pheasants . j. parasitol.. (1): 107-116. guest and alrawi 1966 flora of iraq. vol . 1: introduction to the flora. ministry of agriculture, iraq, university press. glasgow 213 pp. khatoon w. h . and ansari j . a. 1985 histopathological studies on ascaridia columbae gomelin. 1790 in pigeons jnca helniinthol. .37(2): 84-88 48 inheritance of dark head kodzoilka. a . 1960 histopathological studies on the tissue test in experimental asc aaridiasis of chickens. actaparasit. pa1. .8:315-334. kotlan . a. 1960 helminthogie . akademiai kiado. budapest. 63 1 pp. mohan 1973 pathological changes in white ratsinfected with litoinosoides carinii. trans.r.soc. trop.hyg. .67:883-884. poynter. d. 1966 some tissue reactions to the nematode parasites of animals. i dawes, b . (ed . ) advances in parasitology. 4 : 32 1-383 academic press . london and new york. ruff. m. d. 1978 nematodes and acanthocephala. in: hofstad et al (eds.) diseases of poultry, chapter 28 .the iowa state univ. press. ames. iowa. vetesi. f. phuc, d. v. and varga, i. 1976 histopathological changes in the gizzard of goslings. ducklings and chickens experimentally infected with ainidostoniurn anseris. acta. vet. hung. 26(i):ll3-128. weiner d. j. and soulsby. e. j. l. 1976 fate of litornosides carinii adult transplanted into pleural and peritoneal cavity of infected and naïve multimammate rats (mastoinys natalensis) j. parasit, 62(6): 886-893. yamaguti. s. 1961 systema helminthum volume iii. the nematodes of vertebrates. 2 parts. interscience publishers, inc.. new york. london. 49 b . m . al chalabi table i: intensity and rate of infection of hartertia gallinarurn from seesee partridge in qa’ra area, rutba, west of iraq. date of collection no. birds examined no. birds infected % infection no. nematodes harbored nematode/ host 2.5. 1987 10 7 70 151 21.6 27.8.1987 10 5 50 132 26.4 1.10.1987 18 12 66.6 918 76.5 12. 2. 1988 4 2 50 7 3.5 50 inheritance of dark head fig . 1 : harteria gallinarurn , anterior end of female fig. 2 : hartertia gallinaruni , posterior end of female fig. 3 : hartertia gallinarum , posterior end of male fag. 4 intestine of seesee partridge blocked with hartertia gallinarurn fig . 5 : gizzard of seesee partridge with h gallinarurn under gizzard lining fig. 6. 7 : c.s. of gizzard with h. gallinarurn encapsulated under lining fig. 8 : c.s. of proventriculus with h. gallinaruin . necrosis around ova fig. 9. 10 : c.s. of proventriculus with h. gallinarurn . mononuclear infiltration. fig. 11: c.s. of intestine with h. gallinaruni . damage of mucosal lining. fig . 12 : c.s. of intestine with h. gallinaruin . inflammation cells in small intestinal mucosa. fig . 13 c.s. of liver with h. gallinaruin . a worm in liver parenchyma fig . 14 c.s. of liver with h. gallinarun1 cellular infiltration 51 b . m . al chalabi 52 inheritance of dark head 53 b . m . al chalabi 54 inheritance of dark head 55 b . m . al chalabi bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2000) 9 (2): 45-55 1-5 1 h. s alasady and h. b.d. alghailany bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2003) 10 (1): 1-5 external morphological study of the leafhopper neoalitarus fenestratus herrich-schaeffer 1964(homoptera: cicadellidae) from iraq h. s. al-asady and h. b. d. al-gailany department of biology, college of education/ibn al-haitham, baghdad, iraq abstract the present work introduces, external morphological study of the leafhopper neoalitarus fenestratus herrich-schäeffer (deltocephalinae:oposiini), particularly the male genitalia which were dissected and illustrated. introduction the genus neoalitarus belongs to the subfamily deltocephalinae.this is a large subfamily, worldwide distribution. its largest number of species in the palaearctic and nearctic regions. the majority of species feed on grasses, clovers and other low plants thus they transmit viral diseases to them, although few found on trees and bushes (le quesne, 1969). members of this genus are characterized by a pair of ocelli on the transition between frons and vertex; green to red brown color; posterior tibia and apex of femur with strongly developed spines; forewing without punctuation or with it only at base; veins of corium forked or linked by cross veins (ribaut, 1952; emel’yanove, 1962 and le quesne, 1969). the species neoalitarus fenestratus herrich-schäeffer 1964 was firstly recorded in iraq by (dlabola, 1946) although derwesh (1965) included the species in his list of some identified insects and arachnids in iraq. materials and methods specimens were collected using light trap. they were mounted and preserved in insect box. they were put in a beaker with suitable amount of water, care was taken in that the specimens should be not in touch with water. they were left for 48 hours to wet and soften body parts. forewing, hindwing, head, pronotum and mesonotum were isolated and mounted separately on suitable sized rectangular hard paper for examining and drawing. abdomen and genital capsule were separated and dissected each alone using 70% alcohol and watch glass to isolate the abdominal apodemes and genital parts, which were preserved in glycerin after drawing. dissecting microscope, insect micropins and squared eyepiece with ocular micrometer were used for dissection and illustrations. results neoalitarus fenestratus herrichschäeffer 1964 (=circulifer fenestratus herrichschäeffer 1834) body small, slender; general coloration deep brown with red tinge; total length of males and females 3.9 to 4.5 mm. vertex (fig. 1) deep brown with reddish tinge; arch like; anterior margin rounded and slightly protruded medially; lateral posterior angles narrow and slightly pointed; posterior 2 morphology of neoalitarus fenestratus margin strongly concave medially; permanent white spots mostly regular in shape and size occupy the area between compound eyes. face (fig. 2) deep brown with reddish tinge; a pair of light yellowish brown ocelli situated at the tip of frontal suture close to the transition area between frons and vertex ; frons with permanent white spots mostly regular in shape and size much densely toward vertex ; lorae deep brown oval and distinctly elevated. pronotum (fig. 3) deep brown; anterior margin obtuse; lateral posterior margin obliquely truncate; posterior margin narrow in respect to anterior one; concave interiorly; spotting pattern as explained in vertex and face. mesonotum (fig. 4) mostly light brown; apex rounded and slightly protruded interiorly; lateral median margins distinctly pointed; parapsidal sutures distinct, their posterior ends close together; prescutum rounded and interiorly protruded; scutellum deep brown. forewing (fig. 5) mostly deep brown; appendix distinct running close and round apex; the latter rouded; apical third with irregularly shaped and sized whitish patches; veins of distal third forked and linked by cross veins. hindwing (fig. 6) white with silver ting so as the veins; base narrow; apex wide and obliquely truncate; peripheral vein distinct goes around apex ending at the joinment between c and sc1; anal folds are clearly indicated by two notches. male genitalia: aedeagus (fig. 13) oval, narrowing at both ends; its apex biforked; the connective at the base of aedeagus biforked posteriorly. genital plate (fig. 12) triangular; its outer lateral margin with a row of mostly identical spines. genital style (fig. 11) elongated, its apex pointed and directed externally; lateral flange at the distal third of the outer lateral margin; the socle small and wide, strongly sclerotized situated opposite to the flange; first and second abdominal apodemes, male and female abdominal sterna are shown in figures 7, 8,9 and 10 respectively. acknowledgements we would like to thank dr. m. s. abdul-rassoul (iraq natural history museum) for his kindly help in lending specimens of leafhoppers. also we are grateful to mr. m. h. shukri for his effort in collection of leafhoppers. finally we are indebted to dr. m. r. wilson (national museum of wales, u. k.) for his help and support in the confirmation of species. literature cited derwesh, a. i. 1965 a preliminary list of identified insects and some arachnids of iraq. minist. agric. bull., 121:1-123. dlabola, j. 1946 n’ar. museum, praha. popisyz novy’ch druhu krisu r cech. agine’ vy zancne naiezy zu’zemi csr; (homopt. auchenorrhyncha). description de deux nouvelles espoces et plusierurs remar ques sur les espoces peu connues d’europe. central’(homopt. auchenorrh). vol. xxiv: 28-37. emel’yahove, a. f. 1962. new tribes of leafhoppers of the subfamily euscelinae.(auchenorrhyncha: cicadellidae). ent. obozr.,41: 388-397. lequesne, w. j. 1969. hemiptera. cicadomorpha. (deltocephalinae). in handbooks for the identification of british insects. vol. ii part (2b). 148pp. ribaut, h. 1952 fauna de france, 57. homopt’res auch’e’norrhynques. vol. ii (jassidae). paris. 3 h. s alasady and h. b.d. alghailany bull. iraq nat. hist. mus (2003) 10 (1): 1-5 ورق ز ال ج لقفا ر خا ه ال ظ م ة ال س -neoalitarus fenestratus herrich درا schäeffer ق ع ا ن ال م ك الني ي وهد ر ال س ال سن ا ح ة ص الخال ق ور ز لــ ا ق ــ جي ل ر خلـ ا ر ا ظ ــ ة امل درا ــ ث ا ال حــ ذ م ــ د neoalitarus fenestratusيقــ herrich-schäeffer حية ضي ل الت ش ا أل ت با ح ث ع ز ك ية ذ س ءة ال صة ال خا .و 4 morphology of neoalitarus fenestratus 5 h. s alasady and h. b.d. alghailany bull 35 furhan t. mhaisen & kefah n. abdul-ameer bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2014) 13 (1): 35-51 checklists of diplozoid species (monogenea) from fishes of iraq furhan t. mhaisen * and kefah n. abdul-ameer ** * tegnervägen 6b, katrineholm 641 36, sweden ** department of biology, college of education (ibn al-haitham), university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq. e-mail: mhaisenft@yahoo.co.uk abstract surveying 59 references concerning the occurrence of the monogeneans of the family diplozoidae parasitizing fishes of iraq showed the occurrence of 15 valid species of this family which included one species of diplozoon, one species of eudiplozoon and 13 species of paradiplozoon. in addition to these species, some unidentified adult and larval (diporpa larvae) specimens of the genus diplozoon were reported from 12 fish hosts among which four fish species showed no infection with any of the nominated diplozoid species while the others showed mixed diplozoid infections. these diplozoids were reported from 27 fish host species in iraq. all the diplozoids were recorded from freshwater habitats except one dipolzoon sp. which was recorded from a marine habitat. hosts recorded for each of these diplozoids ranged from a minimum of one host in case of both p. ergensi and p. tadzhikistanicum to a maximum of 13 hosts in case of p. kasimii. among the infected fishes, 13 hosts harboured only one diplozoid species each while a maximum of 10 diplozoid species were reported from both aspius vorax and cyprinion macrostomum. introduction members of the class monogenea include small hermaphroditic flat worms that parasitize fishes and other aquatic animals. they infect fins, skin and gills of freshwater and marine fishes (duijn, 1973). the class monogenea, used to be known as monogenetic trematodes, includes skin and gill flat worms with direct life cycles (amlacher, 1970). the monogeneans are important fish pathogens, especially for carp fingerlings under extensive fish culture practice and their direct life cycles and fish crowding are good conditions for their easy spread among fishes (bauer et al., 1969). according to their attachment organs that are found in the posterior part of their bodies (haptor), monogeneans are divided into two subclasses: monopisthocotylea which are provided either with hooks and hooklets and polyopisthocotylea which are provided with clamps (gussev, 1985). according to pugachev et al. (2009), these two subclasses are considered as polyonchoinea and oligonchoinea, respectively. the class monogenea includes 62 families, of which the family diplozoidae has seven genera (monodb, 2014). the range of the family diplozoidae includes eurasia (except siberia) and the afro-tropical regions (aioanei, 1996). each individual of the two young fused diplozoid worms, forming a cross (fig.1), differentiates into two parts (pugachev et al., 2009): the anterior foliate part, which lies before the cross, contains the vitellaria and bulk of intestine. the posterior part, which lies behind the cross, is differentiated into three sections: anterior portion carrying the genital gland, mid 36 checklists of diplozoid species portion with termination of intestine trunk and posterior portion with ventral surface bearing attachment clamps. the posterior part can have folds and dilations of different shapes which are used to differentiate different genera (fig. 2). in iraq, since the detection of the first diplozoid species from fishes of iraq (fattohy, 1975), many surveys were achieved which contributed in recording more diplozoids in iraq. results of such surveys are scattered in different local scientific journals, m. sc. and ph. d. theses as well as in one report and one conference abstract. some of such diplozoids have been misidentified or given with wrong authorities and some parasite names are misspelled. some of the infected fishes were given in synonymous names. for these reasons, it was decided to review these surveys in accordance with list of fishes of iraq (coad, 2010) as well as with upto-date fish scientific names (froese and pauly, 2014), to correct scientific names and authorities of the concerned diplozoids according to some major taxonomical references and a web site (gussev, 1985; gibson et al., 2005; pugachev et al., 2009; monodb, 2014) and to provide a hostdiplozoid checklist. the monogeneans of fishes of iraq constitute 30.5% of the total items of the parasitic species of fishes of iraq (mhaisen, 2014). the present checklist is the second checklist on monogeneans of iraq, a continuation to a previous one concerned with gyrodactylids of fishes of iraq (mhaisen and abdul-ameer, 2013). sources and methods a total of 59 references (34 research papers, 19 m. sc. theses, four ph. d. theses, one report and one conference abstract) with information concerning diplozoids of fishes of iraq were used to prepare the present review and checklists. data from such references was gathered to provide diplozoid list and fishdiplozoid list. names and authorities of these gyrodactylids were checked according to some taxonomical accounts (bykhovskaya-pavlovskaya et al., 1962; gussev, 1985; khotenovsky, 1985; pugachev et al., 2009) as well as some well known specialized electronic sites (gibson et al., 2005; monodb, 2014). the scientific names of fishes were reported as they appeared in the reviewed iraqi literature but they were then checked with the recent account on freshwater fishes of iraq (coad, 2010), but the valid names used here were based on a well-known electronic site (froese and pauly, 2014). results and discussion surveys achieved on diplozoids of fishes in iraq. the review of available iraqi literature indicated that since the description of the first diplozoid species from fishes of iraq (fattohy, 1975), many surveys were achieved in different inland waters and fish farms and ponds which contributed in recording more diplozoids. the records of diplozoids of fishes of iraq can be grouped into eight major categories according to localities of inspected fishes. these are: 1tigris river (fattohy, 1975; rahemo, 1980; ali et al., 1987; abdul-ameer, 1989; rasheed, 1989; rahemo and ami, 1991; balasem et al., 1993; al-niaeemi, 1997; rahemo and al-kallak, 1998; adday et al., 1999; rahemo and al-niaeemi, 2001; al-jawda et al., 2003; al-nasiri, 2009, 2010; al-nasiri and mhaisen, 2009a,b; aljubori, 2013; rahemo and ami, 2013) as well as some tributaries of tigris river which included greater zab river (ali, 1989; abdullah, 2002; abdullah and mhaisen, 2004) and lesser zab river (abdullah, 2002; abdullah and mhaisen, 2004; nasraddin, 2013). 2euphrates river and its branches (mhaisen et al., 1997; al-awadi, 2003; al-waaly, 2005; al-jadoa and al-waaly, 2007; al-saadi, 2007; al-sa’adi, 2007; hussain, 2007; al-saadi et al., 2009, 2010). 37 furhan t. mhaisen & kefah n. abdul-ameer 3the region of shatt al-arab river, basrah which included garmat ali river (alali, 1998; abdul-rahman, 1999; al-salim and al-ali, 2000; al-niaeem, 2006; aljanae’e, 2010), al-salihiya river (al-janae’e, 2010) and mehaijeran creek (khamees, 1983; mhaisen et al., 1986). 4some lakes, depressions and marshes: these included surveys from kasnazan lake, erbil (abdullah, 2004), darbandikhan lake (abdullah, 2013), dokan lake (abdullah, 1990; abdullah and rasheed, 2004), al-qadisiya dam lake (asmar et al., 1999; balasem et al., 2003) and al-hammar marsh (al-daraji, 1986; al-daraji and al-salim, 1990). 5some drainage networks (al-waaly, 2005; al-jadoa and al-waaly, 2007; balasem et al., 2002; asmar et al., 2003; mhaisen et al., 2003). 6khor al-zubair estuary in southern iraq (mhaisen and al-maliki, 1996). 7fish hatcheries (mama, 2012; mama and abdullah, 2012a,b). 8fish ponds and farms which included some from sulaimania (ali, 2002), alamiriya region, baghdad (al-nasiri, 2000, 2003), babylon (al-zubaidy, 1998; muhammed, 2000; al-taei, 2013) in addition to some floating cages at shatt alhilla (al-taei, 2013). diplozoids recorded from fishes in iraq the review of literature indicated that a total of 15 valid diplozoid species, belonging to genera diplozoon, eudiplozoon and paradiplozoon are so far known from fishes of iraq in addition to some unidentified specimens of the genus diplozoon. table (1) shows an up-todate list of all diplozoids so far recorded from fishes of iraq. as the identification of the three diplozoid genera was confused in some iraqi literature, the following key, modified from seddon (2004) and pugachev et al. (2009), is given to fulfill their exact and easy recognition. 1(2). there are no dilations of the middle part of the posterior end of the body ……...……………………………………………………………..… paradiplozoon. 2(1). the middle part of the posterior end of the body toward the posterior end has dilations of different shapes …………………………………………………….…………...… 3. 3(4). dilations of the middle part of the posterior end of the body have large folds…………………………….………………….…...…………...……… eudiplozoon. 4(3). dilations of the middle part of the posterior end of the body are without folds………………………………………………………………………….…. diplozoon. the following is an account of the alphabetical list of such parasites in iraq. diplozoid names and their authorities are checked according to some major taxonomical accounts and web sites (gussev, 1985; gibson et al., 2005; pugachev et al., 2009; monodb, 2014). the alphabetically arranged names of hosts for each parasite are quoted as they appeared in their original literature but the valid names have been updated according to froese and pauly (2014) and the full authority of each valid fish host is shown in the host-diplozoid list. references on 38 checklists of diplozoid species records of each host infected with each diplozoid species are chronologically arranged but references of the same year are alphabetically arranged. 1diplozoon paradoxum von nordmann, 1832: this parasite was reported for the first time in iraq from barbus luteus, which is a synonym of carasobarbus luteus, from al-husainia creek, karbala province by al-saadi (2007). now, it has five hosts (mhaisen, 2014). these are: aspius vorax (al-sa’adi, 2007), b. luteus, which is a synonym of c. luteus (al-saadi, 2007; al-saadi et al., 2009; 2010), cyprinion macrostomum (al-nasiri, 2009; al-jubori, 2013), cyprinus carpio (al-sa’adi, 2007; altaei, 2013) and liza abu (al-sa’adi, 2007). 2diplozoon spp.: different adult specimens of unidentified diplozoon were reported from different parts of iraq from the following 11 fish hosts (mhaisen, 2014). these are: alburnus caeruleus (aljawda et al., 2003), alburnus capito, which is a synonym of a. mossulensis (al-jawda et al., 2003), a. vorax (abdul-rahman, 1999), b. luteus, which is a synonym of c. luteus (alwaaly, 2005; al-jadoa and al-waaly, 2007), c. macrostomum (abdullah, 2004), c. carpio (abdul-rahman, 1999; muhammed, 2000; ali, 2002), heteropneustes fossilis (abdulrahman, 1999), leuciscus lepidus, which is a synonym of squalius lepidus (abdullah, 2004), l. abu (abdul-rahman, 1999), mastacembelus mastacembelus (abdul-rahman, 1999) and periophthalmus waltoni (mhaisen and al-maliki, 1996). the above record of diplozoon sp. from p. waltoni is the only record of diplozoids from marine fishes of iraq. in addition to the above mentioned records of adult unidentified diplozoon specimens, larval stages (diporpa) of unidentified diplozoon species were reported from three fish hosts in iraq. these are: a. vorax (al-daraji, 1986; al-ali, 1998; al-salim and al-ali, 2000), b. luteus, which is a synonym of c. luteus (al-nasiri, 2000) and silurus glanis (al-niaeemi, 1997; rahemo and al-niaeemi, 2001). 3eudiplozoon nipponicum (goto, 1891): this parasite was recorded for the first time in iraq from c. carpio by al-nasiri (2003) as diplozoon nipponicum but then, it was reported as e. nipponicum by all subsequent researchers. so far, three hosts are known for e. nipponicum in iraq (mhaisen, 2014). these are: a. vorax (al-jubori, 2013), barbus sharpeyi, which is a synonym of mesopotamichthys sharpeyi (al-saadi, 2007; al-saadi et al., 2010) and c. carpio (al-nasiri, 2003 as d. nipponicum; al-sa’adi, 2007; al-jubori, 2013; al-taei, 2013). 4paradiplozoon amurense (akhmerov, 1974): this parasite was recorded for the first time in iraq from c. macrostomum by al-nasiri (2010) and then from the same host as well as from b. luteus, which is a synonym of c. luteus by al-jubori (2013). it is appropriate to mention here that both al-nasiri (2010) and al-jubori (2013) had stated the specific name as amurensis instead of amurense and alnasiri (2010) erroneously stated the authority of this parasite without bracket. according to gussev (1985), pugachev et al. (2009) and a personal communication between the senior author of this paper and dr. david i. gibson of the british museum (natural history) on 24th april, the specific name should be amurense and not amurensis as it was erroneously stated (al-nasiri, 2010; al-jubori, 2013). also, the authority should be inside the brackets (gussev, 1985, gibson et al., 2005; pugachev et al., 2009). 39 furhan t. mhaisen & kefah n. abdul-ameer 5paradiplozoon barbi (reichenbach-klinke, 1951): this parasite was reported for the first time in iraq from chondrostoma nasus, c. regium (erroneously reported as c. regius) and c. carpio by rasheed (1989) as diplozoon barbi reichenbach-klinke, 1951. also, all the subsequent records in the iraqi literature referred to this parasite as d. barbi. according to khotenovsky (1985), d. barbi is a synonym of p. barbi. eight hosts are so far known for this parasite in iraq (mhaisen, 2014). these are: acanthobrama marmid (abdullah, 2002; abdullah and mhaisen, 2004), barbus esocinus, which is a synonym of luciobarbus esocinus (rahemo and ami, 2013), b. luteus, which is a synonym of c. luteus (rahemo and al-kallak, 1998; al-saadi, 2007; al-saadi et al., 2010), c. nasus (73), c. regium (73; abdullah, 2002; abdullah and mhaisen, 2004), c. macrostomum (ali, 1989; al-nasiri, 2009), c. carpio (73; al-zubaidy, 1998; al-saadi, 2007; al-nasiri, 2009; al-saadi et al., 2010) and leuciscus spurius, which is a synonym of squalius spurius (ali, 1989). 6paradiplozoon bliccae (reichenbach-klinke, 1961): this parasite was reported for the first time in iraq from both c. macrostomum and c. carpio by al-nasiri (2009). later on, it was recorded from both c. macrostomum and l. abu by al-jubori (2013). so, three hosts are so far known for p. bliccae in iraq. 7paradiplozoon cyprini khotenovsky, 1982: this parasite was reported for the first time in iraq from barbus grypus (al-nasiri and mhaisen, 2009a). later on, it was reported from the same hosts (al-nasiri and mhaisen, 2009b) as well as three other hosts: b. luteus, which is a synonym of c. luteus (al-jubori, 2013), c. macrostomum (al-jubori, 2013) and c. carpio (mama, 2012; mama and abdullah, 2012a, b; nasraddin, 2013). 8paradiplozoon ergensi (pejčoch, 1968): this parasite was reported for the first time in iraq from a. vorax by al-jubori (2013). no more records are so far available in iraq (mhaisen, 2014). 9paradiplozoon homoion (bychowsky & nagibina, 1959): this parasite was reported for the first time in iraq from barbus xanthopterus, which is a synonym of luciobarbus xanthopterus by al-saadi (2007). later on, it was reported from aspius vorax (al-sa’adi, 2007), barbus xanthopterus, which is a synonym of luciobarbus xanthopterus (al-sa’adi, 2007; al-saadi et al., 2009, 2010), c. macrostomum (nasraddin, 2013) and c. carpio (al-sa’adi, 2007). 10paradiplozoon kasimii (rahemo, 1980): this parasite was reported for the first time in iraq from c. macrostomum, erroneously reported as c. macrostomus, from tigris river in mosul by fattohy (1975) and published by rahemo (1980) as diplozoon kasimii. khotenovsky (1985) transferred this parasite to the genus paradiplozoon and considered it as a species inquirenda as in its description it was unknown about the presence or absence of folds on the ventral posterior part of the body, a clamp structure, size and shape of the median hooks, sizes of suckers and eggs form. now, p. kasimii has 13 fish hosts in iraq (mhaisen, 2014) although all references concerned with this parasite in iraq still refer to it as d. kasimii. these hosts are a. caeruleus (asmar et al., 2003; mhaisen et al., 2003), a. vorax (balasem et al., 1993; mhaisen et al., 1997; abdulrahman, 1999; asmar et al., 1999; al-janae'e, 2010), b. esocinus, which is a synonym of l. esocinus (asmar et al., 1999), b. luteus, which is a synonym of c. luteus (al-daraji and alsalim, 1990; abdul-rahman, 1999; asmar et al., 1999; al-awadi, 2003; al-waaly, 2005; al-jadoa and al-waaly, 2007; al-saadi, 2007; al-saadi et al., 2010) in addition to c. 40 checklists of diplozoid species luteus (khamees, 1983; al-daraji, 1986; mhaisen et al., 1986), b. sharpeyi, which is a synonym of m. sharpeyi (abdul-rahman, 1999; balasem et al., 2002), b. xanthopterus, which is a synonym of l. xanthopterus (asmar et al., 1999; hussain, 2007), carassius carassius (abdul-rahman, 1999), chalcalburnus sellal, which is a synonym of alburnus sellal (abdul-rahman, 1999), c. macrostomum (fattohy, 1975; rahemo, 1980; ali et al., 1987; abdul-ameer, 1989; abdullah, 2002; abdullah and mhaisen, 2004; hussain, 2007), c. carpio (abdul-rahman, 1999; al-niaeem, 2006), garra rufa (balasem et al., 2002), l. abu (al-janae'e, 2010) and liza subviridis which is a synonym of chelon subviridis (abdulrahman, 1999). 11paradiplozoon leucisci khotenovsky, 1982: this parasite was reported for the first time in iraq from both hemiculter leucisculus and s. lepidus by abdullah (2013). no more records are so far available in iraq (mhaisen, 2014). 12paradiplozoon megan (bychowsky & nagibina, 1959): this parasite was reported for the first time in iraq from both a. vorax and b. xanthopterus, which is a synonym of l. xanthopterus, by al-saadi (2007). later on, it was reported from the above two hosts (al-saadi et al., 2009, 2010) as well as from b. luteus, which is a synonym of c. luteus (al-sa’adi, 2007). 13paradiplozoon pavlovskii (bychowsky & nagibina, 1959): this parasite was reported for the first time in iraq from a. vorax by khamees (1983) under the name diplozoon pavlovskii. some other reports referred to it as d. pavlovskii (mhaisen et al., 1986; abdul-ameer, 1989; abdullah, 1990; rahemo and ami, 1991; adday et al., 1999; al-nasiri, 2000; abdullah, 2002; balasem et al., 2003; abdullah and mhaisen, 2004; abdullah and rasheed, 2004) but some other reports referred to it under its valid name p. pavlovskii (al-daraji, 1986; al-daraji and al-salim, 1990; al-niaeemi, 1997; abdulrahman, 1999; rahemo and al-niaeemi, 2001; al-saadi, 2007; al-nasiri, 2009; al-saadi et al., 2010; abdullah, 2013; al-jubori, 2013). the overall hosts for this parasite and its synonyms (indicated with an asterisk) are so far 11 hosts in iraq (mhaisen, 2014). these are: a. vorax (khamees, 1983*; al-daraji, 1986; mhaisen et al., 1986*; al-daraji and al-salim, 1990; abdul-rahman, 1999; adday et al., 1999*; al-nasiri, 2000*; al-saadi, 2007; alsaadi et al., 2010), barbus barbulus (abdullah, 1990*; 2002*; abdullah and mhaisen, 2004*), b. luteus, which is a synonym of c. luteus (abdul-ameer, 1989*; al daraji and alsalim, 1990; abdul-rahman, 1999; balasem et al., 2003*; al-saadi, 2007; al-saadi et al., 2010), c. luteus (al-daraji, 1986), b. sharpeyi, which is a synonym of m. sharpeyi: (balasem et al., 2003*), b. xanthopterus, which is a synonym of l. xanthopterus: (abdullah, 2002*; balasem et al., 2003*; abdullah and mhaisen, 2004*; al-saadi, 2007; al-saadi et al., 2010), c. carassius (abdul-rahman, 1999), c. regium (abdul-ameer, 1989*; adday et al., 1999*; al-nasiri, 2009; abdullah, 2013), c. macrostomum (abdullah, 1990*; abdullah and rasheed, 2004*; al-nasiri, 2009; al-jubori, 2013), c. carpio (al-nasiri, 2009), s. glanis (al-niaeemi, 1997; rahemo and al-niaeemi, 2001) and varicorhina trutta, which is a synonym of capoeta trutta (rahemo and ami, 1991*). 14paradiplozoon rutili (gläser, 1967): this parasite was reported for the first time in iraq from both a. vorax and c. macrostomum by al-jubori (2013). no more records are so far available in iraq (mhaisen, 2014). 15paradiplozoon tadzhikistanicum (gavrilova & dzhalilov, 1965): this parasite was reported for the first time in iraq from c. trutta by nasraddin (2013). it is appropriate to mention here that nasraddin (2013) erroneously reported the name as p. 41 furhan t. mhaisen & kefah n. abdul-ameer tadjikistanicum while the correct name is p. tadzhikistanicum (gussev, 1985; khotenovsky, 1985; aioanei, 1996; gibson et al., 2005) and she didn’t put the authority inside the brackets. the second name in the authority of this parasite was given as djalilov by pugachev et al. (2009) and nasraddin (2013) while it was stated as dzhalilov by gussev (1985) and gibson et al. (2005). no more records are so far available for this parasite in iraq (mhaisen, 2014). 16paradiplozoon vojteki (pejčoch, 1968): this parasite was reported for the first time in iraq from b. xanthopterus, which is a synonym of l. xanthopterus by al-saadi (2007). later on, it was reported from the same hosts (al-saadi et al., 2009, 2010) as well as from a. vorax (al-sa’adi, 2007; al-jubori, 2013) and b. luteus, which is a synonym of c. luteus (al-jubori, 2013). it is appropriate to mention here that gibson et al. (2005) and pugachev et al. (2009) spelled the authority name of this parasite as pejcoch instead of pejěoch. fish-diplozoids list the following list shows which diplozoids are so far recorded from fishes of iraq. fish scientific names, both valid and synonymous, are alphabetically arranged. the full authorities of the valid hosts only are also cited according to froese and pauly (2014). diplozoid species reported from each valid fish species, together with diplozoids of fish synonym (when applicable) were gathered within the valid host and also alphabetically arranged. to minimize the size of this article, references for each gyrodactylid species from each host are not provided here. such references can be easily obtained from the relevant diplozoid species mentioned earlier in this paper. acanthobrama marmid heckel, 1843: paradiplozoon barbi. alburnus caeruleus heckel, 1843: diplozoon sp. and paradiplozoon kasimii. alburnus capito: see a. mossulensis. alburnus mossulensis heckel, 1843, reported as a. capito: diplozoon sp. alburnus sellal heckel, 1843, reported as chalcalburnus sellal: paradiplozoon kasimi. aspius vorax heckel, 1843: diplozoon paradoxum, diplozoon sp. (adult and diporpa larva), eudiplozoon nipponicum, paradiplozoon ergensi, p. homoion, p. kasimii, p. megan, p. pavlovskii, p. rutili and p. vojteki. barbus barbulus heckel, 1847: paradiplozoon pavlovskii. barbus esocinus: see luciobarbus esocinus. barbus grypus heckel, 1843: paradiplozoon cyprini. barbus luteus: see carasobarbus luteus. barbus sharpeyi: see mesopotamichthys sharpeyi. barbus xanthopterus: see luciobarbus xanthopterus. capoeta trutta (heckel, 1943), also reported as varicorhinus trutta: paradiplozoon pavlovskii and p. tadzhikistanicum. carasobarbus luteus (heckel, 1843), also reported as b. luteus: d. paradoxum, diplozoon sp. (adult and diporpa larva), paradiplozoon amurense, p. barbi, p. cyprini, p. kasimii, p. megan, p. pavlovskii and p. vojteki. carassius carassius (linnaeus, 1758): paradiplozoon kasimii and p. pavlovskii. chalcalburnus sellal: see alburnus sellal. chelon subviridis (valenciennes, 1836), reported as liza subviridis: paradiplozoon kasimii. chondrostoma nasus (linnaeus, 1758): paradiplozoon barbi. chondrostoma regium (heckel, 1843): paradiplozoon barbi and p. pavlovskii. 42 checklists of diplozoid species cyprinion macrostomum heckel, 1843: diplozoon paradoxum, diplozoon sp., paradiplozoon amurense, p. barbi, p. bliccae, p. cyprini, p. homoion, p. kasimii, p. pavlovskii and p. rutili. cyprinus carpio linnaeus, 1758: diplozoon paradoxum, diplozoon sp., eudiplozoon nipponicum, paradiplozoon barbi, p. bliccae, p. cyprini, p. homoion, p. kasimii and p. pavlovskii. garra rufa (heckel, 1843): paradiplozoon kasimii. hemiculter leucisculus (basilewsky, 1855): paradiplozoon leucisci. heteropneustes fossilis: diplozoon sp. leusiscus lepidus: see squalius lepidus. leusiscus spurius: see squalius spurius. liza abu (heckel, 1843): diplozoon paradoxum, diplozoon sp., paradiplozoon bliccae and p. kasimi. liza subviridis: see chelon subviridis: luciobarbus esocinus heckel, 1843, reported as b. esocinus: paradiplozoon barbi and p. kasimii. luciobarbus xanthopterus heckel, 1943, reported as b. xanthopterus: paradiplozoon homoion, p. kasimii, p. megan, p. pavlovskii and p. vojteki. mastacembelus mastacembelus (banks & solander, 1794): diplozoon sp. mesopotamichthys sharpeyi (günther, 1874), reported as b. sharpeyi: eudiplozoon nipponicum, paradiplozoon kasimii and p. pavlovskii. periophthalmus waltoni koumans, 1941: diplozoon sp. silurus glanis linnaeus, 1758: diplozoon sp. (diporpa larva) and paradiplozoon pavlovskii. squalius lepidus heckel, 1843, also reported as leuciscus lepidus: diplozoon sp. and paradiplozoon leucisci. squalius spurius heckel, 1843, reported as leuciscus spurius: paradiplozoon barbi. varicorhinus trutta: see capoeta trutta. acknowledgements thanks are due to dr. david i. gibson of the british museum (natural history), london for his declaration about the specific name of the monogenean paradiplozoon amurense. also, thanks are due to dr. delane c. kritsky of the idaho state university for his comments and prof. dr. erhan soylu of marmara university, turkey for sending the senior author a copy of khotenovsky’s (1985) paper. literature cited abdul-ameer, k. n. 1989. study of the parasites of freshwater fishes from tigris river in salah al-dien province, iraq. m. sc. thesis, coll. sci., univ. baghdad: 98pp. (in arabic). abdullah, s. m. a. 1990. survey of the parasites of fishes of dokan lake. m. sc. thesis, coll. sci., univ. salahaddin: 115pp. (in arabic). abdullah, s. m. a. 2002. ecology, taxonomy and biology of some parasites of fishes from lesser zab and greater zab rivers in north of iraq. ph. d. thesis, coll. educ. 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(in arabic). rahemo, z. i. f. & ami, s. n. 1023. studies on the freshwater fish (bizz), barbus esocinus caught from mosul dam lake, iraq. 1st int. sci. conf., univ. zakho, 2325 april 2013: in press. rasheed, a.-r. a.-m. 1989. first record of diplozoon barbi reichenbach-klinke, 1951 from some freshwater fishes from tigris river, baghdad, iraq. zanco, 2(3): 5-15. seddon, l. 2004. aspects of the morphology and ecology of a diplozoon species (monogenea) from the gills of labeo umbratus in the vaal dam and vaal river barrage, gauteng, south africa. m. sc. diss., fac. sci., rand afrikaans univ., johannesburg: 98pp. 48 checklists of diplozoid species ______________________________________________________ table (1): an updated list of diplozoids of fishes of iraq* ___________________________________________________________________________ phylum platyhelminthes class monogenea subclass polyopisthocotylea order mazocraeidea suborder discocotylinea family diplozoidae subfamily diplozoinae diplozoon paradoxum von nordmann, 183 diplozoon spp. (adults and diporpa larvae) eudiplozoon nipponicum (goto, 1891) paradiplozoon amurense (akhmerov, 1974) paradiplozoon barbi (reichenbach-klinke, 1951) paradiplozoon bliccae (reichenbach-klinke, 1961) paradiplozoon cyprini khotenovsky, 1982 paradiplozoon ergensi (pejcoch, 1968) paradiplozoon homoion (bychowsky & nagibina, 1959) paradiplozoon kasimii (rahemo, 1980) paradiplozoon leucisci khotenovsky, 1982 paradiplozoon megan (bychowsky & nagibina, 1959) paradiplozoon pavlovskii (bychowsky & nagibina, 1959) paradiplozoon rutili (gläser, 1967) paradiplozoon tadzhikistanicum (gavrilova & djalilov, 1965) paradiplozoon vojteki (pejěoch, 1968) ___________________________________________________________________________ * according to khotenovskii (1985) and pugachev et al. (2009). 49 furhan t. mhaisen & kefah n. abdul-ameer fig. (1): illustration of paradiplozoon bliccae showing the typical cross of two fused diplozoid specimens (after pugachev et al., 2009). aanterior part of the body, bposterior part of the body, 1suckers, 2pharynx, 3vitellaria, 4testis, 5ovary. 50 checklists of diplozoid species fig. (2): comparative illustrations of three genera of diplozoids from fishes of iraq (after gussev, 1985). 1diplozoon paradoxum, 2eudiplozoon nipponicum and 3 paradiplozoon pavlovskii. (aposterior part of body, bclamp structure, cegg with operculum vesicle, dcentral hook). 51 furhan t. mhaisen & kefah n. abdul-ameer bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2014) 13 (1): 35-51 العراق أسماك من)المنشأ أحادية صنف) diplozoidaeعائلة ألنواع مرجعية قوائم محيسن ضمد فرحان * عبداألمير ناصر وكفاح ** السويد كاتريناهولم، 6b ، 641 36 بناية * العراق بغداد، بغداد، جامعة ،)الهيثم إبن) التربية كلية الحياة، علوم قسم ** e-mail: mhaisenft@yahoo.co.uk الخالصة مصدرا معنيا بظهور الديدان أحادية المنشأ العائدة لعائلة دبلوزويدي 95أظهر إستعراض diplozoidae نوعا شرعيا من هذه العائلة ضمت 29المتطفلة على أسماك العراق وجود نوعا 21و eudiplozoonونوعا واحدا من الجنس diplozoonنوعا واحدا من الجنس وإضافة لهذه األنواع تم تسجيل بعض النماذج البالغة واليرقية . paradiplozoonمن الجنس 21من diplozoonالمشخصة من الجنس غير (diporpa larvaeيرقات الدايبوربا) مضيفا من األسماك من ضمنها أربعة أنواع من األسماك لم تظهر بها إصابة بأي من أنواع الدبلوزويدات المشخصة في حين أظهرت المضيفات الباقية حصول إصابات مختلطة . اقنوعا مضيفا من األسماك في العر 12سجلت هذه الدبلوزويدات من . بالدبلوزويدات سجلت كل هذه األنواع من بيئات مائية عذبة بإستثناء نوع واحد غير مشخص من الجنس diplozoon تراوح عدد أنواع المضيفات المسجلة لكل من هذه . مسجل من بيئة بحرية .pوالطفيلي p. ergensiالطفيليات من مضيف واحد كحد أدنى في كل من الطفيلي tadzhikistanicum نوعا في حالة الطفيلي 21إلى أقصى عدد من المضيفات وهوp. kasimii . مضيفا نوعا واحدا من الدبلوزويدات 21من ضمن هذه األسماك المصابة، آوى لكل منها في حين سجل أقصى عدد وهو عشرة أنواع من الدبلوزويدات في كل من سمكة .الشلك والبنيني كبير الفم 85-87 85 m .s. abdul rassoul and f . i . aziz bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2001) 9 (3): 85-87 new record of ground pearls, porphyrophora tritici (bod.) (homoptera, margarodidae) as a pest of wheat in iraq m. s. abdul-rassoul* and f. i. aziz** * iraq natural history museum, baghgdad university, iraq. ** jerash university, college of agriculture and science, jordan. abstract the ground pearls, porphyrophora tritici (bod.) is a new insect pest on wheat recorded for the first time from mousl province, north of iraq. wheat triticum aestivum is one of the most important crops in iraq. it is attacked by several insect pests of which the most important one is the sunn pest eurygaster integariceps puton (hemiptera, scutelleridae). during spring, 1993, wheat plants of mousl farms were reported to be damaged by heavy attack of unfamiliar insects. these insects were observed infesting roots and lower parts of the plant. specimens of these insects were collected and passed to the first author for determination from dr. f. i. aziz of the department entomology, general body of plant protection, ministry of agriculture. a survey of the literature concerning wheat pests, shows that there are two species of ground pearls, porphyrophora tritici (bod.) and porphyrophora polonica (l.) distributed throughout the wheat and barely growing areas of western and central asia (miller,1991). p. tritici has been originally described from turkey by bodenheimer (1941), it is also reported from iran by gentry (1965). in syria , the species p. polonica was reported by gentry (1965), while p .tritici was reported by duran (1971). the presenet specimens of ground pearls were in agreement with the description of bodenheimer (1941) for the species p. tritici . since this species has not been previously known to be occur in iraq (bodenheimer, 1943, 1944; derwesh, 1965 and alali, 1977). it is believed to be the first record for iraq. it is most probably that it transmitted to iraq from neighboring countries . observation on the nature of damage by ground pearls showed that the female oviposite in the soil close to wheat roots. the eggs hatch into young nymphs attached themselves to the roots of wheat during its seedling stage. the infestation of wheat root results in stunting and loss of yield due to the constant sucking of plant sap by the nymphs and adult females and may finally lead to death. eggs of ground pearls of p. tritici are very small, red in colours , found in the soil inside a cottony masses or sacs near the roots of the host-plants. the first instar nymph is small, red in colour, 0.5-2.0 mm. in length, found on the roots at base of the host plants. it has five segmented antenna, and the legs are terminated in a single claw. the second instar nymph is enclosed in hard waxy cases, red or purple in colour, with particles of soil adhering to them, measuring 3-5 mm. in diameter, found at the base of the host-plant. adult female is oval in shape, red in colour and measuring 5-6 mm. in length. adult male was not seen here. short communication 86 new recorded of pearls , porphyrophora tritici literature cited al-ali, a.s. 1977. phytophagous and entomophagous insects and mites of iraq. nat. hist. res. cent. pub. no. 33; 142 pp. bodenheimer, f. s. 1941. seven new species of coccidae from anatolia. rev. fac. sci. univ. istanbul (b) 6: 65-84. ----------------------- 1943.a first survey of the coccidae of iraq. direct. gen. agri. baghdad, bull. no.28, 33pp. + 9pp. arabic abst. ----------------------- 1944. additions on the coccidae of iraq, with descriptions of two new species. (hemiptera – homoptera ). bull. soc. fouad l er ent. egypt, 28: 81-84. darwesh, a. i. 1965. a preliminary list of identified insects and some arachnids of iraq. direct. gen. agr. res. proj. baghdad, bull. no. 121, 133pp. duran, m. 1971. investigations on ground pearls ( margarodes (porphyrophora) tritici bodenheimer), a grain pest in central anatolia. bitki koruma bulteni vol.1, suppl.1 (in turkish with english summary). gentry, j. w. 1965. crop insects of northeast africasouthwest asia. u.s. d. a. agr. handbook, no. 273, ii+ 210pp. 87 m .s. abdul rassoul and f . i . aziz bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2001) 9 (3): 85-87 porphyrophora tritici (bod.)تسجيل جديد لآللىء االرض كآفة على الحنطة في العراق **و فاروق ابراهيم عزيز * محمد صالح عبد الرسول معة بغداد ـ العراقمتحف التاريخ الطبيعي ـ جا* جامعة جرش ـ كلية الزراعة و العلوم ـ االردن** الخالصـة آفة حشرية جديدة على porphyrophora tritici (bod.)آلىلء االرض . احلنطة ُتسجل الول مرة يف املوصل ، مشال العراق full page photo 25-30 25 n. a. mawlood and m. s. abdul rassoul bull. iraq nat. hist mus. (2003) 10 (1): 25-30 description of three new species of the genus anthrenus geoffory (coloeoptera, dermestidae) from iraq* n. a. mawlood** and m. s. abdul rassoul*** **department of community health, diyala, iraq. *** iraq natural history museum, baghdad university, baghdad, iraq. abstract the present work represents description of three new species of genus anthrenus geoffory from iraq, these are : a. aradensis sp. nov., a. fabrici sp. nov. and a. unicolor sp. nov. locality, host plants and date of collection were given. introduction anthrenus geoffory is one of the largest and most important genus in the family dermestidae, some species caused damage in dried animals and insect specimens, which kept in museum. several works have been done on the species of this genus in different part of the world such as hinton (1945), marocoskowski (1966) and zantive (1976). anthrenus aradensis sp. nov. adult: length 1.6-2.4 mm; breadth 0.9-1.5 mm; head with milky scales, compound eyes with inner margin not emarginated (fig. 1a ) , antenna with nine segments, antennal club consist of three segments, second club segment in both male and female (fig. 1b,c ) distinctly longer than the first one, labrum(fig.1d ) with straighted posterior margin. pronotum with oval whitish subtriangular and oval scales (fig. 1e ) , antennal cavity (fig. 1f ) oval shaped, elytra narrow with milky scales, fore tibia (fig. 1g ) with 12-13 spines. abdominal sternites without femoral lines (fig. 1h ) , paramers longer than aedeagus, aedeagal apodemes short and not extending out of the phallobase, phallobase subtriangular shaped, bridge joining parameres strongly encurved (fig.1 i). anthrenus aradensis sp. nov. is closely related to a. flavipes lecont but differs from it by the following characters: compound eyes with inner margin straight(not emarginated); paramers distinctly longer than the aedeagus. host: from the flowers of euphorbia sp. (euphorbiaceae). material examined: 1♂(holotype), 1♀ (allotype), 10♂, 4♀ (paratype), dohok, iraq. coll. 4.7.1983 (leg. n. a. mawlood). the types were deposited in iraq natural history museum. anthrenus fabrici sp. nov. adult:length 1.9-2.3 mm, breadth 1.4-1.7 mm, head with whitish scales and with small spot of brown sales on its apical part, compound eyes with inner margin emarginated (fig. 2a), antenna with 11 segments, antennal club consist of three segments, second club segment in both male and female slightly longer than first one ( fig. 2b,c ), labrum ( fig. 2d ) with posterior margin slightly emarginated ( fig. 2d). pronotum with oval whitish scales and with both male and female slightly longer than first one ( fig. 2b,c ), labrum ( fig. 2d ) with posterior margin slightly emarginated ( fig. 2d). pronotum with oval whitish scales and with 26 new species of anthrenus longitudinal spots of brown scales, ( fig. 2e ), antennal cavity circular shape (fig. 2f ), fore tibia (fig. 2g) with 4-5 spines. abdominal sternites with femoral lines (fig. 2h), parameres broad and slightly longer than aedeagus , aedeagal apodemes long and extending out of phallobase , phallobase circular shaped, bridge connecting paramers moderately encurved (fig. 2i). anthrenus fabrici sp. nov. is closely related to a. flavipes lecont but differ from it by the following characters: pronotum with whitish scales and with longitudinal spots of brown scales, parameres broad and slightly longer than aedeagus. host: ammi majus l. (umbelliferae). material examined: 1♂ (holotype), 1♀ (allotype), 4♂ (paratype), baghdad, iraq. coll. 14.8.1984. (leg n. m. mawlood). the types were deposited in iraq natural history museum. anthrenus unicolor sp. nov. adult: length 2.9-2.2 mm, breadth 1.6-2.0 mm, head with milky scales, compound eyes with inner margin striaghted (not emarginated)(fig. 3a), antenna with 11 segments, antennal club consist of three segments, second antennal club in male about 1.5 time as long as first one (fig. 3b), second antennal club in female slightly longer than the first one (fig. 3c), labrum (fig. 3d) with straighted posterior margin. pronotum with subtriangular milky scales (fig. 3e), antennal cavity oval shaped (fig. 3f), elytra moderately wide covered with milky scales, fore tibia with 8-9 spines (fig. 3g), abdominal sternites with femoral lines, parameres very narrow, and slightly longer than aedeagus, aedeagal apodemes long and extending out of phallobase, phallobase nearly circular shaped, bridge connecting paramers feebly encurved (fig. 3h). anthrenus unicolor sp. nov. is closely related to a. flavipes lecomt but differ from it by the following characters: dorsal surface of body covered with milky subtriangular scales, compound eyes with inner margin straight (not emarginated), paramers very narrow, bridge connecting paramers feebly encurved. host: euphorbia sp. (euphorbiaeace). material examined: 1♂ (holotype), 1♀ (allotype), 10♂ (paratypes). dohok, iraq. coll, 4/7/1983, (leg n. a. mawlood). the types were deposited in iraq natural history museum. literature cited hinton, h.e. 1945. a monograph of the beetles associated with stored products. vol. 1., brit. mus. nat. hist. viii+443pp. mawlood, n. a. k. 1985 taxonomic study of the beetles family dermestidae (insects, coleoptera) in iraq. m. sc. thesis, university of baghdad, 163 pp. mroczkowski, m. 1968. distribution of dermestidae (coleoptera) of the world with a catalogue of all known species. ann. zoo., warszaw. 26 (3):15-191. zantiev, r.d. 1976. leather beetles (family demestidae) of the fauna of ussr. moscow university. 182pp. 27 n. a. mawlood and m. s. abdul rassoul bull. iraq nat. hist mus. (2003) 10 (1): 25-30 س ن جن دي ة م ج ال ة انو ع ف ث ص مدية ( anthrenus geofforgو غ *من العراق) االجنحة، عائلة درمستدي ***محمد صالح عبد الرسول** نبيل عبد القادر مولود قسم صحة المجتمع، ديالى، العراق** متحف التاريخ الطبيعي، جامعة بغداد، بغداد، العراق*** الخالصة س ن جــــن د مــــ يــــ د ج ثــــة نــــوا ال ف صــــ و حــــ ب ل ذ ا anthrenusميثــــل هــــ geofforg ي ق هـ را ـع ن ل .a. aradensis., a. fabrici and a: مـ unicolor ة قــــ ل ع ت ا ت مــــا و ت ا عل يــــ ط ع ما نكــــبإ جل ا خ ا ري ا ـ وتــ ف ي ات ا ضــــ وال بــــ ع مــــ ع جلم .ا 28 new species of anthrenus 29 n. a. mawlood and m. s. abdul rassoul 30 new species of anthrenus bull 71 basim a. abd ali and hassan h. ali bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2015) 13 (3): 71-76 appropriateness of eucalyptus camal / dulensis, casuarina equisetifolia and olea europaea trees in shelterbelt of alashraf najaf city basim a. abd ali and hassan h. ali natural history research center and museum university of baghdad, iraq abstract the research has conducted on shelterbelt of al-ashraf najaf city to explore suitability of four eucalyptus camaldulensis dehnh. forms and two other tree species; casuarina equisetifolia and olea europaea to the local dominant sever conditions. development in growth was studied through the interval of five years. growth parameters included height, dbh stem diameter, main stem height, crown diameter, and stem girth were investigated. distance from water supply was inspected, too. results showed superiority of e. camaldulensis upon other species. investigations showed weakness in growth of c. equisetifolia where most of trees could not resist because of their position in opposite to sandy wind stream that deposited sand on plants. so survival percentage was lower than that of the two other species. o. europaea trees did not show a rate of growth required for such purpose but it might be beneficial for an economic objectives through olive fruit production. forms of e. camaldulensis revealed lesser relative differences in growth parameters than observed before five years. form no. ii possessed distinctive tree height and stem diameter, while form iii gave smallest growth traits. other form parameters did not different significantly. the most effective factor was the distance from water source where far trees (300 m) had smaller growth traits than those located at 200 m and 100 m distances, that’s might because inefficiency of the used drip irrigation system. introduction shelterbelt is a single or multiple rows of trees or shrubs that are established mainly for environmental purposes. they are generally founded to protect or shelter nearby leeward areas from troublesome winds. they reduce wind erosion, protect growing plants (crops and forage), managed snow, and improve irrigation efficiency. they also protect livestock, provide wildlife habitat, improve aesthetics, and provide tree or shrub products. in addition, when used as a living screen, they control views and lessen noise (nrcs, 1997). they are placed on the windward side of the land to be protected, and are most effective when oriented at right angles to the prevailing winds. very dense windbreaks may do more harm than good since they will tend to create strong turbulence that will scour the soil on the windward side and damage crops on the leeward side. conversely, gaps in the trees will channel the wind, actually increasing the velocity on the leeward side and promoting soil erosion and damaging crops (ramachandran nair, 1993). large portion of iraqi areas are desserts or semi desserts with arid and semi-arid dominant climates. sand dunes are present in territories adjacent to the west dessert; they are forming as a result to wind erosion of naked surface soil. experimental and practical attempts were conducted for dun fixation since 70th of last century. some of applications were succeeded in 72 appropriateness of e. camal stopping sand crawling, as in project of baiji among salahaddin governorate. unstable conditions in the country that were dominant during the last three decades negatively affected these projects, so most of them were completely destroyed. since few years, some cities and towns started doing shelterbelts by planting a number of tree rows around them, holy najaf and karbala were the pioneers in this field. these two cities are lying on alnajaf plateau; a part from western plateau which is an extension to the dessert of arab peninsula. it takes triangle shape with karbala and alrazzaza lake represent its northern heads, while on southern end lies alnajaf city (alabbasi, 2013). the whole area of karbala-najaf plateau is about 3000 km2, najaf governorate possesses 1750 km2 of it with maximum elevation of (176 m) above sea level (ali and alwan, 2013). dominant climate is that of semi dry regions with almost sand soil which can be satisfied requirements of colored glass industry (al-ajeel et al, 2010). main species in the shelterbelt is eucalyptus camaldulensis dehnh. which comprises about 90% from the hole project till now. it is perennial, single-stemmed, large-boled and mediumsized to tall tree to 30 m high (bren and gibbs, 1986). it exhibits considerable morphological variation throughout its range, and consequently a number of infra-specific taxa have been described (csiro, 2004, brooker, et al. 2002). chemical and genetic variation has also been recorded in e. camaldulensis (doran and brophy, 1990; stone and bacon, 1994; butcher et al., 2002). the variation in trees of studied area could not be considered as hybrid or a clonal variation since they belonged to the same species, and not propagated vegetative. such individuals with minor form variation within the same species could be regarded as forms. mccomb, 2007 differentiated a group of e. camaldulensis individuals by a specific number referred to a certain form. these variations were the subject of study, so, in addition to growth investigation of casuarina equisetifolia l. and olea europaea l., aim of study was to explore the most suitable form of e. camaldulensis to the local environmental conditions in order to be selected and propagated for further planting processes in the region. materials and methods shelterbelt of holy najaf city is a planting project extending to a distance of 14 km length in northern margin of the city. it is divided in to seven stages; 2 km for each, characterized by the presence of 30 rows of e. camaldulensis and two rows of c. equisetifolia planted at the northern edge of the belt opposite to prevailing wind direction, and two other rows of o. europaea in midway from the two edges. project has been started at 2007, using ground water by drip irrigation with spacing of 2 x 4 meters. selected trees in shelter belt were subjected to study since 2009. there were 4 forms that could be distinguished and recognized according to phenotype (alkinany, et al., 2010). this research is dealing with variations in growth and other changes in shelterbelt composition after five years from first study. the effects of species, form, and location on growth parameters were investigated. five trees from each form of e. camaldulensis were marked in each location. three locations different in distance from water source (100, 200, and 300 m) were inspected. trees were measured for height, stem diameter, crown diameter, main stem height, and girth diameter. height was measured by long wooden measure stick, diameter by caliper; main stem height, stem girth, and crown diameter were measured by measuring tape. average of two perpendicular measures were taken for each of stem and crown diameters. difference between the three species has discussed without statistical analysis because it has no mean since variations were too large and incomparable. analysis was performed on forms e. camaldulensis where data were analyzed statically using factorial crd design for testing 73 basim a. abd ali and hassan h. ali two factors; first e. camaldulensis forms (4 levels), and second the location (3 levels) with four replications for each treatment combination. duncan multiple range test was applied for test differences between variables. results and discussion after five years from first investigation of al-najaf shelterbelt status, it was easily observed that significant variations occurred between species. c. equisetifolia which comprised two rows facing to wind direction were the worst. although some of trees of the species were died at 2009, others could not resist during last five years. survived plants were scattered, weak, and small-sized plants. in some visits, it was noticed that crawling sand raised and covered high part of plant stems especially after days of strong northern wind blowing, the reason that forced project managers to do frequent removal processes of deposited sand. in case of o. europaea trees were healthy, dense-branched, with height range of 230-280 cm and crown diameter range of 175-185 cm. position of o. europaea lines is not optimum for wind breaking since there are many lines of larger e. camaldulensis trees before them in opposite to wind stream. certainly, they can enhance opportunities of project success by offering additional income through fruit and seed production. in general, mean of e. camaldulensis forms showed no significant differences in growth traits after seven years of development (tab. 1). in previous investigations at 2009, al-kinany, et al., 2010 observed some distinct variations between tree forms; it seemed that after five years of additional growth these variations were declined. interaction between form and tree location has occurred. in location (a), form ii showed superiority in tree height upon others, i.e. when availability of water is there, this form could doing best. in contrast, trees of table 1: differences in tree height and stem diameter of e. camaldulensis trees according to form and distance from water source. note: mean values having same letter are not different significantly at p≥ 0.05. form iii in same location (a) had lowest height despite water availability. similar trend was found in stem diameter, form ii in location (a) resulted in 55% higher diameter than form iii, but when taken as a mean of the three locations the difference between two forms was about h ei g h t o f t re e (m ) location tree form mean i ii iii iv a 7.84(ab) 8.03(a) 5.90(b) 7.32(ab) 7.18(a) b 7.43(ab) 6.83(ab) 7.73(ab) 7.17(ab) 7.29(a) c 6.25(ab) 5.70(b) 7.03(ab) 6.10(ab) 6.27(b) mean 7.06(a) 6.86(a) 6.89(a) 6.85(a) 6.91 s te m d ia m et er (c m ) a 9.55(ab c) 11.72(a) 7.52(bcd) 9.60(abc) 9.59(a) b 10.37(a b) 8.35(bcd) 7.63(abc) 8.08(bcd) 8.61(a) c 6.17(d) 6.95(cd) 7.65(bcd) 7.43(bcd) 7.05(b) mean 8.69(a) 9.00(a) 7.60(b) 8.37(ab) 8.42 74 appropriateness of e. camal 18%. these two interactions (a ii), and (a iii) were distinctive in main stem height, crown diameter, and stem girth, too (tab 2, 3). the first produced trees with 2.10 m main stem, 4.22 m crown diameter, and 35.7 cm of stem girth. in contrast, the second interaction (a iii) resulted in 1.52 m, 2.91 m and 24.7 cm for main stem, crown diameter and girth of stem, respectively. the most significant factor was the distance from water source. first two locations (a and b) revealed comparable results. they both significantly differed from the faraway location (c) which produced shorter and thinner trees comparing with first two. height of tree, stem diameter, crown diameter, and stem girth at location (c) were lower than that of location (a) by 15%, 36%, 34%, and 32% and that of location (b) by 16%, 22%, 22%, and 29%, respectively. table 2: differences in main stem height and crown diameter of e. camaldulensis trees according to form and distance from water source. m ai n s te m h ei g h t (m ) location tree form mean i ii iii iv a 1.81(ab) 2.10(ab) 1.52(ab) 1.87(ab) 1.82(a) b 1.42(b) 1.58(ab) 1.62(ab) 1.70(ab) 1.57(a) c 1.66(ab) 2.23(a) 1.70(ab) 1.47(ab) 1.76(a) mean 1.63(b) 1.97(a) 1.61(b) 1.68(b) 1.72 c ro w n d ia m et er (m ) a 3.59(b) 4.22(a) 2.91(bc) 3.88(a) 3.65(a) b 3.69(ab) 2.65(bc) 3.68(ab) 3.28(abc ) 3.33(a) c 2.59(bc) 2.38(c) 3.16(abc ) 2.78(bc) 2.72(b) mean 3.29(a) 3.08(a) 3.27(a) 3.32(a) 3.23 note: mean values having same letter are not different significantly at p≥ 0.05. height of main stem did not show significant differences between the three locations. field notifications referred that moist areas around trees were smaller in location (c) i.e. less amount of water. depression in water pressure with distance normally shortened the share of plant from irrigation water. table 3: differences in stem girth diameter of e. camaldulensis trees according to form and distance from water source. s te m g ir th d ia m et er ( cm ) location tree form mean i ii iii iv a 30.33(a) 35.67(a) 24.67(bc) 31.33(abc) 30.50(a) b 34.67(ab) 26.33(abc) 31.67(ab) 27.33(abc) 30.00(a) c 20.67(c) 22.33(c) 25.00(abc) 24.66(bc) 23.16(b) mean 28.56(a) 28.11(a) 27.11(a) 27.78(a) 27.89 note: mean values having same letter are not different significantly at p≥ 0.05. 75 basim a. abd ali and hassan h. ali literature cited alabbasi, a. mousa (2013). the geological agents that made al-najaf plateau as place of flooding. jour. thi-qar univ.: 8 (4): 74-84. ( in arabic). alajeel, a. w.; nawfal a.; hammodi s.; abdulla, z. and sabbar, b. a. (2010). evaluation of sands from dibdibba formation in al-najaf plateau, central iraq, for colored glass manufacturing. iraqi bulletin of geology and mining, 6 (1): 139-145. ali, t. h. and alwan, h. o. (2013). afforestation of dessert areas in najaf city-case study and analysis. the iraqi jour. agric, sci., 44(6): 754-762. alkinany, a. i.; abd ali, b. a. and ali h. h. (2010). evaluation the growth and suitability of some tree species in shelterbelt project in holly najaf city. alustath, no. 137, 199216. (in arabic). bren, l. j. and gibbs, n. l. (1986). relationships between flood frequency, vegetation and topography in a river red gum forest. australian forest research 16, 357-370. brooker, m. i. h.; connors, j. r.; slee, a.v. and duffy, s. (2002). eucalypts of southern australia (cd rom), euclid, csiro publishing, collingwood. butcher, p. a.; otero, a.; mcdonald, m.w. and moran g.f. (2002). nuclear rflp variation in eucalyptus camaldulensisdehnh. from northern australia heredity, 88, 402-412. csiro, (2004). eucalyptus camaldulensis dehnh. river red gum taxon. attribute profiles . water for a healthy country. http://www.cpbr.gov.au/cpbr/wfhc/eucalyptuscamaldulensis/. doran, j. and brophy j.j. 1990. tropical gums-a source of 1, 8-cineole-rich eucalyptus oil. new forest., 4: 157-178. duncan, d. b. (1955). multiple range and multiple f. test. biometrics 11:1-42. nrcs, (1997). natural resources conservation service, usda, 1997. windbeak/shelterbelt. conservation practice job sheet 380. ramachandran n. (1993). an introduction to agroforestry, kluwer academic publisher in cooperation with icraf. 499 pp. stone, c. and bacon, p. e. (1994). relationships among moisture stress, insect herbivory, foliar cineole content and the growth of river red gum eucalyptus camaldulensis. journal of applied ecology 31: 604-612. 76 appropriateness of e. camal bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2015) 13 (3): 71-76 equisetifolia، كاسوارينا camal / dulensisمدى مالئمة أشجار األوكالبتوس االشرف في الحزام مدينة النجف europaeaوأوليا باسم عباس عبد علي و حسن حسين علي متحف التاريخ الطبيعي الخالصة (forms) أجري البحث على الحزام االخضر لمدينة النجف االشرف لدراسة مالئمة أربعة أشكال الكازورينا مع نوعين اخرين هما .eucalyptus camaldulensis dehnh من اليوكالبتوس casuarina equisetifolia l. والزيتون olea europaea l. للظروف القاسية السائدة في (dbh) تم قياس التطور الحاصل في نمو االشجار من حيث ارتفاع الشجرة ، قطر الساق. المنطقة ابقة ، طول الساق الرئيسي، محيط الساق وقطر التاج خالل فترة خمس سنوات من بعد دراسة س اظهرت . كما تم البحث في تاثير بعد الشجرة عن مصدر المياه على نموها . أجريت على الموقع النتائج تفوق اليوكالبتوس على النوعين اآلخرين وظهر التأثير الكبير على اشجار الكازورينا النجاة فيها أقل المواجهة للريح السائدة التي أدت أحيانا الى تغطية اجزاء النبات بالرمال فكانت نسبة لم يعط الزيتون نموا وحجما بؤهله لالستخدام في هذا المجال اذا ما اغفلنا . من النوعين اآلخرين .الجانب االنتاجي المتمثل بدعم المشروع اقتصاديا من خالل انتاج ثمار الزيتون س سنوات قد بينت النتائج ان التباينات في النمو بين أشكال اليوكالبتوس التي ظهرت قبل خم من ناحية طول ii انخفضت بحيث تقاربت بيانات النمو من بعضها مع تميز ملحوظ للشكل رقم أقل القيم من حيث معدالت النمو ولم تظهر اشكال iii الشجرة وقطرها في حين أعطى الشكل رقم المياه حيث التأثير المعنوي الواضح كان لبعد الشجرة عن مصدر. اليوكالبتوس االخرى فروقا معنوية أقل من نظيراتها لالشجار متوسطة البعد والقريبة من ( م 033)كانت بيانات النمو لالشجار البعيدة .المصدر ربما بسبب كفاءة نظام الري بالتنقيط المستخدم في المشروع 5 37 s. y. jasim bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2008)10 (3): 37-43 some nematode parasites of the green toad bufo viridis laurenti, 1768 in baghdad area, central iraq suhad y. jasim iraq natural history research centre and museum, university of baghdad, bab al-muadham, baghdad, iraq email: suhad_jassim@yahoo.com abstract this work deals with the nematode parasitesfrom the midgut of (16) specimens of green toad (bufo viridis) laurenti, 1768 collected from baghdad area,central iraq. the parasites are:cosmocercoides variabilis (cosmocercidae) that considered as the first report in iraq on it and oswaldocruzia filiformis (molineidae). introduction the green toad bufo viridis laurenti, 1768 is an important component of local ecosystems (vashetko and siddikov, 1999). except for the interior of western deserts, it is widely distributed in iraq among other seven species of amphibians that have, in general, relatively limited distribution (mahdi and george, 1969). it plays an important role, through predation, in the regulation of the numbers of insect pests of economic plants. however, little is known about the amphibian parasites in our area (al-sorkhy and amr, 2003). only few papers are available on the parasites of the amphibians in iraq, including saod and roshdy (1970), albarwari et al. (1980), al-barwari and nassir (1983) and al-zako (1999). the aim of this work is to investigate about the nematode fauna parasitizing the alimentary tract of the green toad specimens collected in baghdad vicinity. materials and methods a total of 16 specimens of the green toad bufo viridis were collected at bab al-muadham, baghdad city, central iraq through the period from may 2006 to may 2007. toads were immediately transferred to the laboratory, dissected and their alimentary were put in an isotonic normal saline or sometimes tap water. their tracts were opened under dissecting microscope and the recovered nematode parasites were isolated and placed in 70% alcohol. specimens were immersed in lactophenol solution overnight for clearing and then examined for identification. results and discussion nematodes and few cestodes were recovered from this collection of specimens. this study will be devoted for nematode parasites and the results on the cestodes will be discussed in a separate paper. table 1 summarizes the results on the nematode parasite species identity, sex and number of hosts, percentage of infection and the number, intensity, and range of nematodes. this would show that 7 specimens (5 males and 2 females) are infected with either cosmocercoides variabilis (harwood, 1930) or oswaldocruzia filiformis (goeze, 1782) travassos, 1917 or both in a single case of double infection. the sample size in this study is relatively small and not allows reaching reasonable conclusions on the actual incidence, mailto:suhad_jassim@yahoo.com 38 some nematode parasites prevalence, host sex effect and distribution status of these parasites among the members of their hosts. however, it seems that c. variabilis is more common than the other nematode since it is found in all of the seven infected hosts. table 1: parasite species, hosts sex, infection rate, parasite intensity and range. parasite sp. host sex no. examined no. infected % infection no. parasites intensity range cosmocercoides variabilis ♂ 10 5 50 10 2 1-6 ♀ 6 2 33.3 2 1 1 oswaldocruzia filiformis ♂ 10 1 10 5 5 ♀ 6 total 16 7 43.75 1.06 cosmocercoides variabilis: (figs. 1a, 1b, 2) belongs to order ascaridida, superfamily cosmocercoidea, family cosmocercidae which contains parasites of the gut of amphibians and reptiles. female: body cylindrical attenuated at extremities, length 4.8, width 0.34, cuticle smooth, mouth with three small lips, esophagus with a short pharynx and posterior bulb , length of esophagus 0.34, bulb length 0.12, excretory pore anterior to esophageal bulb, tail long and tapering, vulva behind the middle of the body ,anus-tail distance 0.24, oviparous, eggs elliptical ,thin-shelled, egg size 0.03x0.08, male:posterior extremity obliquely truncated ventrally,body length 4,width 0.2 ,esophagus length 0.5 ,tail long tapering;a number of simple papillae present on tail.no bursate caudalalae.bulb length 0.11 ,anus-tail distance 0.12. the present species is a common parasite of the rectum mainly of bufonidae but also of hylidae and miceohylidae (vanderburgh and anderson, 1986, 1987; baker, 1987; joy and bunten, 1997; anderson, 2001). anderson (2000) correlated nematode infection of toads with eating of snails by the toads. in iraq jaffar (1980) listed 14 species of aquatic snails. in addition ,another two terrestrial snails monacha obstructa and agriolimax sp. are widely distributed throughout central & southern iraq (shamsuddin and al-barrak,1988) .hence most of the 16 snail species constitute a possible fragment of toad diet and ,eventually ,a possible vector of c. variabilis. to the best of my knowledge it is the first time to report this parasite from iraq in this study. oswaldocruzia filiformis: (figs. 3a, 3b) belongs to order strongylida, family molineidae: head with cuticular vesicle, cuticle with transverse striation and longitudinal ridges, mouth with indistinct lips, esophagus short. female: body length 12.60, width 0.25, esophagus length 0.6 anus-tail distance 0,6 ,egg size 0.08x0.1. male: body length 9.5, width 0.16 length of esophagus 0.6, bulb length 0.11, anus-tail distance 0.17, caudal alae absent. it is a common parasite of intestine of a wide range of amphibian and reptilian hosts including the genera anguis, bombina, bufo, colubes, coronella, eremiae, hyla, lacerta, natrix, ophisaurus, pelobtus, rana, salamandra, tachydromus, talescopus, triturus and vipera mostly in the old world (yorke &maplestone,1962; baker, 1987; griffin, 1989; yildirimhan, 1999; sanchis et al., 2000; anderson, 2000; sharpilo et al., 2001; bursey et al., 2005 yildirimhan et al ;2006). in regard to results on measurements, it falls within the range given by walton (1933) for the same species. acknowledgements profound thanks to dr.mohammad k. mohammad iraq natural history research centre and museum, university of baghdad, bab al-muadham, baghdad, iraq for his great help in achievement this work, and azhar a. almossawi for her kind assistace. 39 s. y. jasim literasture cited al-barwari, s.e., ali, h. j., ismail, m. a. and mahmoud, s. n. 1980 observations on the incidence of the nematode cosmocerca ornata in the frog rana ridibunda from iraq, and the host-sex effects on parasitization. bull. endem. dis., baghdad (cited in alberwari and nasser, 1983). al-barwari, s. e. and nassir, j. k. 1983 first record of ten species of helminthic parasites from vertebrates in iraq. iraqi j. sci., 24 (2): 101-108. al-sorkhy, m.k. and amr, z. 2003 platyhelminth parasites of some amphibians in jordan. tr. j. zool., 27: 89-93. al-zako, s.s.h. 1999 a survey on intestinal nematodes of some amphibians and reptiles in ninevah province with special reference to histology of ascaridia galli (schrank, 1788) feeborn, 1923. ph. d. thesis, univ. mosul, 195 pp. (in arabic). anderson, r. c. 2000 nematode parasites of vertebrates. their development and transmission. 2nd edition. cabi. publishing, wallingford, oxon, u.k. 650 pp. baker, m. r. 1987 synopsis of the nematode parasitic in amphibians and reptiles. memorial university of newfoundland occasional papers in biology, no. 11, 325 pp. bursey, c. r., goldberg, s. r. and telford jr. s. r. 2005 plagiorchis taiwnensis (digenea: plagiorchiidae), kurilonema markovi (nematyoda: rhabdiasidae) and other helminths in eumeces latiscutatus (scincidae) and takydromus tachydromoides (lacertidae) from japan. comparative parasitology, 72: 234-240. griffin, c. t. 1989 oswaldocruzia filiformis (nematoda: trichostrongyloidea) in frogs (rana temporaria) from three locations in ireland, journal of helminthology,63(1):53-62. jaffer, i. a. 1980. aquatic snails in iraq. part.1. salman al-aadhami, press, baghdad, 49pp.( in arabic). joy, e. j and bunten, c. a. 1997 cosmocercoides variabilis (nematoda, cosmocercoidea) populations in the eastern american toad bufo. mahdi, n. and george, p. v. 1969. a systematic list of the vertebrates of iraq. iraq nat. hist. mus. publ. no. 26, 104 pp., baghdad. sanchis, v., roig, j. m., carretero, m. a., roca, v. and llorente, g. a. 2000 host-parasite relationships of zootoca vivipara (sauria: lacertidae) in the pyrenees (north spain). folia parasitologica, 47: 118-122. saod, m. f. a. and roshdy, m. a. 1970 on halipegus alhaussaini n. sp. (trematoda: halipigidae) from rana esculenta in iraq, with notes on halipegus and related genera. j. helminthol., 44: 349-356. shamsuddin, m. and al-barrak, n. s. h. 1988 observations on monacha obstructa (helicidae) and its larval trematodes (brachylaemidae) frome iraq. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 8 (1) : 67-87 . 40 some nematode parasites sharpilo, v. p. biserkov, v., kostadinova, a.., behenke j. m. and kuzmin y. i. 2001 helminths of the sand lizard, lacerta agilis (reptilia, lacertidae), in the palaearctic: faunal diversity and spatial patterns of variation in the composition and structure of component communitie . vanderburgh, d. c. and anderson, r.c. 1986. the relationship between the nematodes of the genus cosmocercoides wilkie, 1930 (nematoda: cosmocercidae) in toads (bufo americanus) and slugs (deroceras leave). canad. j. zool., 65: 1650-1662. vanderburgh, d. c. and anderson, r. c. 1987. seasonal changes in prevalence and intensity of cosmocercoides dukae (nematoda: cosmocercidae) in deroceras leave (mollusca). canad. j. zool., 65: 1662-1665. americanus (salientia: bufonidae) from western virginia. j. helminth. soc. wash., 64: 102105. vashetko, e. v. and siddikov, b. h. 1999. the effect of the ecology of toads on the distribution of helminthes. tr. j. zool., 23: 107-110. walton, a. c. 1933. the nematode as parasites of amphibian .journal of parasitology.1: 133. yildirimhan, h. s. 1999. reseaches on parasitic helminths of bufo viridis laurenti, 1768 (anura; amphibia). turk. j. zool., 23: 177-196. yildirimhan, h. s., altunel, f. n. and ugurtas, i. h. 2006. bursa, edirne ve sakarya dan toplanan hyla arborea (linneaus, 1758) (agac kurbagas1) n1n helmint paraziteri turkiye parazitoloji dergisi, 30(1): 56-59. yorke, w. and maplestone, p. a. 1962. the nematode parasites of vertebrates. hafner pupl., inc. new york. 41 s. y. jasim 42 some nematode parasites 43 s. y. jasim bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2008)10 (3): 37-43 ر ض جوم ا خ عل ة لل خيطي ت ال طفيليا ض ا ي من قة بغ اد bufo viridisبع قف ط ال را س و سم جا ن سهاد ياسي مركز بحوث ومتحف التاريخ الطبيعي، جامعة بغداد، باب المعظم، بغداد، العراق الخالصة ظ ية ـل هل قن ة ا يف ال ج دة ط ة املو خلي ت ا ف ل ا ط ث ال ل الب جو ١٦ تن و م ا عل ج رم منوذ ض األخ green toad bufo viridis ) ( داد يف د نة غ ت يت ع .وال ص ل ني مت احل ع ى و لعل ألو cosmocercoides variabilis (cosmocercidae): ا ين و الثا ل oswaldocruzia filiformis (molincidae) :والن ج ويس cosmocercoides variabilis ث ح ق ه ا ا ب عرا م ة م ل ل .ألو full page photo full page photo 19-22 19 m. a. y. alshukur bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2001) 9 (3): 19-22 changes of cuticular properties in adult ephestia cautella (walker) lepidoptera: pyralidae, developed after cessation of eggs growth m.a.r.y. al-shukur department of biology, college of education (ibn al-haithem) univ. of baghdad abstract both normally developed insects and insects developed after cessation of eggs growth were used in this work. cessation of eggs growth occurred following abnormal conditions, which lasted for 3.5 months before developing into adults, due to the war led by the u.s. and her alliances against iraq. these insects showed low rates of water contents and an active response to water loss. therefore their tolerance of desiccation was weak. in addition, they had an active ability to restore their water loss quickly, after return them to a culture, this indicates that some changes occurred in their integumentary properties were not permanent and took their turn within one population only, but may or may not serve this population. that depends on the climatic factors. introduction the first physiological study concerning water-relations of ephestia cautella (walker), was carried out by al-rubbaiee (1989). in his work, the effects of temperature and humidity on water loss were observed. moreover, the active means of water loss and the role of endocrine control were investigated. in 1992, al-windawi studied the role of cephaloendocrine control on water content, loss of water at relative humidity stress. in their studies, they have used insects reared in a good-condition culture (food was a available as well as optimal temperature and humidity). females laying eggs after 3-5 days of mating. eggs took 2-3 days for hatching. in the present study, eggs growth delay occurred and lasted from 17th, jan, 1991 to the end of april 1991. the influence of growth delay on the insects water balance properties has not been studied yet, thus this work is an attempt toward the study of the effects of this delay. materials and methods as a result of the gulf war in 1991, eggs of ephestia cautella (walker) remained in a continuous darkness and a temperatyre below 15 °c, inside an incubator, for three and a half months before hatching. after electricity repair works, eggs were reared in incubator of 25 °c and 75-76% relative humidity. adults developed after cessation of eggs growth delay mentioned above, were used in this work to study the following parameters:( a) water content: water content of males and females (10 specimens of each) was measured by drying them at 60 °c until a steady weight was obtained. (b) amount of water loss: two sets of males and females (10 specimens of each) were used. insects were kept individually in a closed perforated polythene polypots, which were weighed, both empty and with the specimen inside, reweighed after 24 hours of desiccation in a large glass desiccator over silica gel. this was to find out the amount of water 20 cuticular proparaties of ephestia cutela loss of each individual. perforated polypots lost insignificant weight and could be reduced to 0.00003-0.00005gm.(c) to lerance period of insects: groups of insects, similar to those used above, were used. these individuals were kept at a very low relative humidity (5-8%) until reaching death. the prolonged time (days) was recorded. (d) the ability of recovering water content: three groups of males (10 individuals of each) and three groups of females (10 individuals of each) were used. a group of males and another of females were used to find out their water content, immediately. the second group of males (10 specimens) and females (10 specimens) were subjected to a very low relative humidity (5-8%) over silica gel for 3 days. then, water content of each group was measured following the procedure applied and described in a. the last group of males and females (10 specimens of each) were kept in a very low relative humidity (5-8%) for three days and then, they were returned to normal-condition culture for 3 days before their water content was measured. all data obtained were compared with analogous data obtained at normal conditions, and considered as a control. results a) water content males females 1water content of insects developed from normally hatched eggs 69.07% 72.82% 2water content of insects developed from growthdelayed eggs 50.80% 60.99% b) amount of water loss 1amount of w. l. of insects developed from normally-hatched eggs 13.27% 7.34% 2-amount of w. l. of insects developed from growth delayed eggs 15.10% 9.21% c) tolerance period of insects 1-tolerance of insects developed from normally hatched eggs 5 6 2tolerance of insects developed from growth – delayed eggs 4 4 d) the ability of recovering water content 1water content of insects developed from normallyhatched eggs 62.10% 71.0% 2water content of insects developed from normallyhatched eggs, after(3) days of desiccation 54.18% 62.22% 3water content of insects developed from normallyhatched eggs, and predesiccated for (3) days, then fed for( 3) days 51.90% 61.74% 4-water content of insects developed from growthdelayed eggs 51.01% 61.17% 5water content of insects developed from growth delayed eggs after( 3) days of desiccation 40.75% 50.26% 6water content of insects developed from growthdelayed eggs after 3 days of feeding following (3) days of desiccation 71.34% 70.0% 21 m. a. y. alshukur discussion in a first physiological study on ephestia cautella (walker), al-rubaiee (1989) found that the water content of the adult males was 72.2%, and that of the adult females was 76.1%. moreover, he found that water loss from male adult insects was 21.5%, within 48 hours of desiccation. adult females lost 9.32% of their body water within the same period of diseccation. following this work, al-windawi (1992) studied the relation between water content, water loss and the cephalic neuroendocrine secretions. she found that the water content of the adult males was 63.1% and that of the females was 71.8%. both workers have used normally-developed individuals, which have already been used in this work as a control. these insects showed that amounts of water content were close to those found by al-rubaiee. these amounts were 69.07% for males and 72.8% for females. in addition, the data showed an obvious decrease in the water content of both males and females, developed from growthdelayed eggs, compared with the amounts of normally-developed eggs. the water content of the males was lowered to 50.8% and that of the females was lowered to 60.9%. all differences between the values of normally-developed eggs and those developed from normally-delayed eggs were significant at p<0.001. on the other hand, the decline in the water content mentioned above was accompanied withan increase of water loss (13.27% in normally-developed males and 15.1% in insects developed from growth delayed eggs, and 7.34% and 9.21% in females) respectively. the differences were found significant at p<0.001. in ephestia cautella, the most effective route of water loss was through the cuticle (alrubaiee, 1989). the cuticular water loss was a principle factor affecting the water content (al-windawi, 1992). she found that brain hormones plays (play) a role in the regulation of water content. therefore, the decrease in water content and the increase in water loss are both an indication of a weak building-up of the cuticle, which became more permeable to water. this may have resulted due to an alteration of the role of the cephalic endocrine regulation on integumentary water loss. the tolerance of insects developed from growth delayed eggs confirmed the above result. both males and females lasted for 4 days, whereas, males and females of normally-developed insects lasted for 5-6 days respectively. this is an indication of the fast loss of water and then the depletion of water content. investigation of the ability of the insects to recover their water content revealed an interesting result. although insects developed from normally-hatched eggs had higher amounts of water content and lost lesser amount of water (which is coincident with the data previously explained), but they failed to restore their water content within (3) days of feeding. this is in insects developed from growth-delayed eggs in which they had restored it. this could be interpreted that these change shad occurred after growth-cessation of eggs (diapause-like) and may take their role in one population which suffered abnormal conditions. finally, these alterations in the properties of the integument may or may not serve the population, this being dependent on the nature of the climatic conditions. literature cited al-rubaiee, a. 1989 a study of the effect of temperature, relative humidity and the probability of hormonal control on cuticular water loss in ephestia cautella (walker). m. sc. thesis, coll. of education (ibn-alhaitham), univ. of baghdad. al-windawi, t. 1992 effect of relative humidity stress and brain homogenate on water loss in ephestia cautella (walker). m. sc. thesis, coll. of science, univ. of baghdad. 22 cuticular proparaties of ephestia cutela bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2001) 9 (3): 19-22 ephestiaفي بالغات حشرة عثة التين ) الجليدية(تغير الخواص الكيوتكلية cautella (walker) lepidoptera: pyralidae والمتطورة من بيوض عانت توقفاً في النمو مروان عبد الرحيم ياس الشكر جامعة بغداد-كلية التربية ابن الهيثم-قسم علوم الحياة الخالصة ضـمن ephestia cautellaت بعـض الفحوصـات املتعلقـة بفقـدان املـاء مـن حشـرة عثـة التـني جر وقـــد اســـتخدمت يف هـــذا البحـــث حشـــرات منـــت وتطـــورت . حقـــل العالقـــات املائيـــة يف احلشـــرات ونصــف بســبب تــأثريات أشــهربشــكل اعتيــادي وحشــرات أخــرى تــأخر فقــس بيوضــها ملــدة ثالثــة قبـــل أن تنمـــو وصـــوًال ١٩٩١يف ســـنة تحـــدة وحلفائهـــا ضـــد العـــراقالـــيت قاد ـــا الواليـــات امل احلـــرب .للبالغات أبــــدت هــــذه احلشــــرات معــــدالت حمتــــوى مــــائي واطــــيء واســــتجابة فعالــــة لفقــــدان املــــاء قياســــاً اضــافة اىل ذلــك فا ــا أبــدت قــدرة . عيفاً هلــذا كــان حتملهــا للجفـاف ضــ. باحلشـرات الناميــة اعتياديــاً فعالة يف استعادة ماء جسمها بسرعة بعد اعاد ا اىل وسط جيد وهذا يشري اىل أن هـذه التغـريات يف اخلواص املشار هلا أعاله ليست دائمية، وتأخذ دورها خالل جيـل واحـد، ولكنهـا رمبـا ختـدم أو .املناخيةالختدم هذا اجليل، وهذا يعتمد على إىل العوامل bull 125 budiewi et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2020) 16 (2): 125134. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2020.16.2.0125 revision of the genus sinoxylon duftschmid, 1825 (coleoptera, bostrichidae) with new record of species in the middle of iraq ekhlas abdul jabbar budiewi* radhi f. al-jassany* and razzaq shalan augul** *department of plant protection, college of agriculture, university of baghdad, iraq **iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad, iraq corresponding author e-mail: abdekhlas1@gmail.com received date: 27 april 2020, accepted date: 6 july 2020, published date: 21 december 2020 abstract in this study; the genus of sinoxylon duftschmid, 1825 (coleoptera, bostrichidae) was revised. there were 3 species registered in our investigations: s. anale lesne, 1897; s. ceratoniae (linnaeus, 1758) and s. muricatum (olivier, 1790), the last species was redescribed as being found for the first time for the iraqi faunal insects. key to the species were constructed and supported by figures of the main diagnostic characters and some morphological features. keywords: auger beetles, bostrichidae, coleoptera, iraq, sinoxylon. introduction auger beetles (coleoptera, bostrichidae), also known as false powderpost beetles, are economically important and can extensively damage dried and seasoned wood and wooden artifacts through the boring behavior of both adults and larvae (ivie, 2002; peters et al., 2002; akhter, 2005); these beetles are frequently transported through countries, particularly in wood packing materials (haack, 2006); they are represented by 616 species in the worldwide (gbif secretariat, 2019). most wood-boring bostrichids attain nutrition from starch, enabling many species to utilize almost any dry wood material from an enormous host range (ivie, 2002). the genus sinoxylon duftschmid, 1825 contains 52 species that are worldwide distributed (gbif secretariat, 2019). the members of this genus are typically not considered primary pests; also they utilize a broad variety of hosts that contain numerous trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants (filho et al., 2006). sinoxylon damage is typically caused by the boring of adults and larvae in the stems, branches, or twigs of dead trees (nair, 2007). 126 revision of the genus sinoxylon duftschmid, 1825 this genus characterized by: intercoxal process of first abdominal sternite broader with a ventral face; metepisternum more broadly truncate from behind with metepimeron widely separated from metasternum; mandibles short and blunt, meeting along midline, with directly opposable cutting edges; antennal club with flabellate shaped or with strongly transverse segments; and declivity of elytra with two strong spines in middle close to or on suture (liu et al., 2008). in iraq, there are two species recorded only; sinoxylon anale lesne, 1897 (knopf, 1971) and s. ceratoniae linnaeus, 1758 (al-ali, 1977); this paper provides more details on the insect fauna of iraq. materials and methods specimens used in this investigation were collected during the surveys of some iraqi regions throughout 2019. totally 124 specimens were collected by the direct method and it involved the removal of the damaged parts of trees and shrubbery from different regions in baghdad, saladin and diyala provinces; the specimens were put in vials and transferred to the laboratory; 10 males for each species were dissected to separate the genitalia and examined under a dissecting microscope, named of the part of male genitalia according to borror et al. (1989); the rest specimens are mounted on small cards and stored in insect box. images of adults and genitalia were taken using a dino-lite digital microscope and samsung galaxy j713mp. the keys of lesne (1906), fisher (1950) and arnett et al. (2002) are used to identify the specimens, and reformulated to be compatible with the diagnosis of the species belonging to the genus of sinoxylon in iraq. all examined species are deposited in iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad. results and discussion during this investigation, there are three species registered: sinoxylon anale lesne, 1897; s. ceratoniae (linnaeus, 1758) and s. muricatum (olivier, 1790); the last species was redescribed as a new record to faunal insects of iraq. a key to the species of sinoxylon was constructed with a re-description of the new recorded species. key to species of sinoxylon: (1) declivity with three different tubercles on end of each elytron (pl. 1a) ………………………………………………………..………... s. muricatum declivity with one tubercle on each elytron (pl. 1 b, c)…… ……. 2 (2) declivity with clearly emarginated; elytra with distinct wide yellowish–brown color area (pl. 1b) ……….…………………………….……………...…..….... s. anale declivity without emarginated; elytra wholly black or without distinct colored area (pl. 1c) …………………………………………………………....…….. s. ceratoniae 127 budiewi et al. sinoxylon muricatum (linnaeus, 1767) synonyms: apate bidens fabricius, 1798 apate sexdentata (olivier, 1790) bostrichus chalcographus panzer, 1794 bostrichus sexdentatus olivier, 1790 dermestes muricatus linnaeus, 1767 sinoxylon sexdentatum (olivier, 1790) trypocladus sexdentatus (olivier, 1790) description: small beetles (pl. 2), length 4-5 mm; male and female similar in color and variation. head black, body dark-brown color with exception antennae and tarsi light-brown, but there were many variations in some specimens appeared less frequently: part of them reddish-brown while less specimens in black color. body covered with moderate density, relatively short and semi-erect whitish-yellow hairs, and appear more clearly on abdominal surface; hairs longer on front. eyes prominent spherical shaped; mandibles short and sharp; antennae lamellate and consist of 10 segments; lamellate part compose of three segments equal in length, first segment semi-triangular shaped, these segments more wide compared to their length (more twice than length) (fig. 1 a). pronotum clearly convex and sides broadly rounded, slightly wider than long; from above, pronotum appear consisting of two areas: anterior part equal 1.25 times than posterior part, and showed with unciform shaped and large teeth on anterio-lateral edges, smaller at the middle area, absent at near head, surface appeared roughly; posterior part with coarsely sculpture composed of moderate punctures, that leaving clearly and shiny and narrowed interspaces (fig. 1 b); scutellum triangular shaped. legs relatively short, generally covered with short and whitish-yellow hairs; fore coxae with flask-shaped; mid coxae semi-spherical and hind coxae with slightly triangle shaped; trochanters semi-triangular shaped; apical tibiae with two spines and spur, internal surface of fore tibiae clothed with golden, dense, thick and short decumbent setae that gradually increases in length towards the apical part. posterior surface with some teeth that vary in size and leave different spaces between them; tarsi with five segments, first tarsomere shorter, whereas the second longer than the others; pretarsus composed of two claws (fig.2). elytra longer about 1.5 times than pronotum; punctures of elytra slightly larger than pronotal punctures and leaving obviously interspaces; declivity of each elytron with one short costiform tubercles at anterior margin of apical declivity; and with two large conical tubercles located transversely at middle of declivity, inner one long and spiny-liked shaped, sharp and acute apically, whereas outer tubercle shorter, thicker and obtuse at apex (pl. 1a). abdomen of male with exposed seven tergites, the first six transversely shaped, third widest while the wide decrease from four toward terminal tergites; seventh tergite longest; eight tergite as elongated and narrowed wshaped like, with apical notch medially, ending with row and finely hairs (fig. 3a). ventrally, five sternites exposed, (first one combined 1+2 sternites); all sterna covered by dense, short and decumbent hairs (pl. 3 a). last exposed sternite distinctly acuminated and ended with row long hairs; seventh sternite with rounded apex, base with short and wide wshaped like; apical margin covered with hairs like as in 128 revision of the genus sinoxylon duftschmid, 1825 eighth tergite (fig. 3 b). male genitalia or aedeagus simple, elongated aedeagus, narrowed and question mark shaped-like which consist of three parts: basal piece, small, short and thick part; second part as a tube shaped called a tegmen containing inside it the third part, called median lobe, tegmen with tapering apical part covered with fine hairs (fig. 3 c). abdomen of female (pl. 3 b) different from male by: the last exposed sternite (5 th sternite) more transversely and clearly wider than male; also the different shape between the 8 th tergite and 7th sternite, moreover, abdomen of female with additional tergite and sternite; 9th tergites and 8th sternites (fig.4). female genitalia composed of three pairs of valves; outer, median and inner valves, the first pair characterized by a short part (pl. 4). materials examined: bagdad, al taji, on dry twigs of fig trees (pl. 5 a) 15♂♂, 35♀♀, 7.ix. 2019. saladin, balad, on dry twigs of fig trees, 20♂♂, 17♀♀, 26.viii. 2019. distribution: according to borowski and węgrzynowicz (2007), this species is distribute in: africa: algeria, egypt, libya, morocco, tunisia; europe: albania, austria, bosnia and herzegovina, bulgaria, canary islands, croatia, france, germany, greece, hungary, italy, portugal, russia, sardinia, sicily, spain, ukraine; north america: united states of america; asia: azerbaijan, cyprus, israel, syria, turkey. sinoxylon anale lesne, 1897 (pl. 1b) synonyms: apatodes macleayi blackburn, 1889 sinoxylon geminatum lesne, 1897 materials examined: baghdad, abughraib, collected from twigs of jujube trees (pl. 5 b), 18♂♂, 7♀♀, 25. vii. 2019; al taji, collected from dry twigs of fig trees, 5♂♂, 26.ix.2019. distribution: iraq (knopf, 1971); india, sri lanka, saudi arabia, southeast asia, south of china, philippines, australia, indonesia and new zealand, usa (lesne,1906; fisher, 1950); australia (borowski and wegrzynowicz, 2007). sinoxylon ceratoniae (linnaeus, 1758) (pl.1 c) synonyms: apate diaspis fairmaire in gestro, 1895 sinoxylon bicuspidatum ancey, 1879 scarabaeus ceratoniae linnaeus, 1758 materials examined: baghdad, abughraib, collected from twigs of jujube trees, 5♂♂, 25. vii. 2019; jaddria, collected from dry twigs of mulberry tree (pl. 5 c), 1♂, 26.ix.2019. diyala, al wajehiya, collected from dry twigs of fig tree, 1♂, 28.viii.2019. distribution: iraq (alali, 1977); africa: algeria, egypt, libya, morocco, tunisia, europe: germany, sweden, asia: oman, saudi arabia, united arab emirates, yemen (borowski and węgrzynowicz, 2007; löbl and smetana, 2007). 129 budiewi et al. plate (1): (a) sinoxylon muricatum, (b) s. anale, (c) s. ceratoniae. plate (2): variations of color in s. muricatum. (a, b, c from least to more frequent, sequentially) 130 revision of the genus sinoxylon duftschmid, 1825 plate (3): ventral view of abdomen in s. muricatum; (a) male, (b) female. (s: sternite) figure (1): s. muricatum; (a) antenna, (b) pronotum. figure (2): legs of s. muricatum; (a) fore leg, (b) mid leg, (c) hind leg. (co: coxa, sn: spine, sp: spur, tr: trochanter, ti: tibia, ts: tarsus, cl: claw) 131 budiewi et al. figure (3): male of s. muricatum (a) eight tergite; (b) seven sternite; (c) male genitalia. bp: basal piece ml: median lobe tg: tegmen)) figure (4): some parts of abdomen in female of s. muricatum; (a, b) 8th and 9th tergites, (c, d) 7th and 8th sternites. bp: basal piece ml: median lobe tg: tegmen)) plate (4): female genitalia of s. muricatum (iv: inner valve; mv: median valve; ov: outer valve) 132 revision of the genus sinoxylon duftschmid, 1825 literature cited akhter, k. 2005. preservative treatment of rubber wood (hevea brasiliensis) to increase its service life. the international research group on wood protection, 36th annual meeting, bangalore (india), 24-28 pp. alali, a. s. 1977. phytophagous and entomophagous insects and mites of iraq. natural history research center iraq, publication, 33: 1-142. arnett, r. h. jr, thomas, m. c., skelley, p. e. and frank, j. h. 2002. american beetles, volume ii: polyphaga: scarabaeoidea through curculionoidea. crc press, boca raton, 880 pp. borror, d. j., triplehorn, a. c. and johnson, n. f. 1989. an introduction to the study of insects, 6th ed. saunnders, philadelphia, 875pp. borowski, j. and wegrzynowicz, p. 2007. world catalogue of bostrichidae (coleoptera ). wydawnictwo mantis. olsztyn, poland, 247pp. filho, o. p., teixeira, e. p., bezerra, m. l. m., dorval, a. and filho, e. b. 2006. first record of sinoxylon conigerum gerstäcker (coleoptera: bostrichidae) in brazil. neotropical entomology, 35: 712-713. plate (5): damage of insects on trees; (a) s. muricatum on fig trees, (b) s. anale; on jujube trees, (c) s .ceratoniae on mulberry trees. 133 budiewi et al. fisher, w. s. 1950. a revision of the north american species of beetles belonging to the family bostrichidae. united states department of agriculture, miscellaneous publication, no. 698, 157 pp. gbif secretariat, 2019. gbif backbone taxonomy. checklist dataset. available at: https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via gbif.org on 2020-06-19. haack, r. a. 2006. exotic barkand wood-boring coleoptera in the united states: recent establishments and interceptions. canadian journal of forest research, 36: 269-288. ivie, a. 2002. bostrichidae latreille 1802. in: arnett, r. h. jr, thomas, m. c., skelley p. e. and frank, j. h. (eds) american beetles, volume 2. crc press, boca raton, p 233-244. knopf, h. e. 1971. contributions to the knowledge of the insect fauna of trees in iraq. part i. coleoptera. zeitschriftfür angewandte entomologie, 69 (1-4): 82-87. lesne, p.1906. revision des coléoptéres de la famille des bostrychides, 5 mémoire: sinoxyloniae. annales de la sociétéentomologique de france, 75: 445-561. (abstract in english). löbl, i. and smetana, a. 2007. catalogue of palearctic coleoptera, volume 4: elateroidea, derodontoidea, bostrichoidea, lymexyloidea, cleroidea and cucujoidea. 1st edition, apollo books, 935pp. liu, l. y., schönitzer, k. and yang, j. t. 2008. a review of the literature on the life history of bostrichidae (coleoptera). mitteilungen der münchner entomologischen gesellschaft, 98: 91-977. nair, k. s. s. 2007. tropical forest insect pests: ecology, impact, and management. cambridge university press, new york, 404 pp. peters, b. c., creffield, j. w. and eldridge, r. h. 2002. lyctine (coleoptera: bostrichidae) pests of timber in australia: a literature review and susceptibility testing protocol. australian forestry, 65: 107–119. 134 revision of the genus sinoxylon duftschmid, 1825 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2020) 16 (2): 125-134. sinoxylon duftschmid ،1825 مراجعة للجنس (coleoptera, bostrichidae) مع تسجيل نوع جديد في وسط العراق اخالص عبد الجبار بديوي*، راضي فاضل الجصاني* رزاق شعالن عكل** و العراق *قسم وقاية النبات، كلية علوم الهندسة الزراعية، جامعة بغداد، بغداد، يعي، جامعة بغداد، بغداد، العراق**مركز بحوث و متحف التأريخ الطب 21/12/2020 ، تأريخ النشر:06/07/2020، تأريخ القبول: 27/04/2020: تأريخ االستالم الخالصة sinoxylon duftschmid, 1825 جرى في هذه الدراسة مراجعة لجنس نواع ثالثة أ رع(؛ و سُجلتـــــــــــــة ثاقبات االفـــجنحة، عائلاأل )رتبة غمدية s. anale lesne, 1897، s. ceratoniae (linnaeus, 1758)شملت: األخير كتسجيل وصف النوع ذإ؛ s. muricatum (olivier, 1790)و .جديد ألول مرة للمجموعة الحشرية العراقية بالصور التوضيحية للصفات التشخيصية ُصمم مفتاح لألنواع مدعوما .المظهريةبعض االجزاء الرئيسية و تأريخ الاستلام: 27/04/2020، تأريخ القبول: 06/07/2020، تأريخ النشر: 21/12/2020 4 49 s. k. jan & a. a. al-zubaidi bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2004) 10 (2): 49-55 microfacies analysis of ghar formation (western desert of iraq) sadi kan jan and aqeel a. al-zubaidi iraq natural history museum university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq abstract ghar formation outcrop at the iraqi western desert was studied by microfacies analysis of (13) thin sections collected from wadi al-ratgha ( west of qaim ) . according to petrographic com position and organisms content ,rocks were subdivided into (4) microfacies units :bioclastic wackestone , mudstone , miliolids wackestone , and grainstone with aggregate grains microfacies .microfacies units reflect shallow marine environment of low circulation of very warm water at the middle part . the lower and middle part interbedded with quite open marine environment below the wave base . the upper part was deposited at shallow marine environment of low circulation . the main diagenetic processes were the transformation ( type of neomorphism) and precipitation of calcite in the fractures and fossil chambers . introduction ghar formation consist of sand and gravels , rare sandy limestone ,clay and anhydrite deposited in the littoral or party deltaic environment that was first described by owen and naser ( 1958 ) at the well zubair no. 3 ( van bellen et al,. 1958 ) . ghar formation cropped out at the iraqi western , represented by quartz sandstone and sands interbedded with sandy limestones ( aljumaily, 1974 ) . alhashimi and amer ( 1985 ) concluded that the formation was deposited at fluviomarine environment , alzubaidi et al.(in press) observations led to near shore high energy , off shore low energy environment and transitional environment using grain size , sorting and winnowing as an indicator to the environment . the age of the formation was miocene ( van bellen et al ., 1959 ) or late lower miocene ( budy 1980 ) . the aim of this study is to show the environment of deposition by using microfacies analysis of ( 13 ) thinned section from ( 13,5 )m thickness of ghar formation exposed in wadi alratgha (west alqaim ) iraqi western desert , fig. 1 microfacies analysis petrographic studied of ( 13 ) thinned section , using a polarized microscope led to the recognition of the following microfacies according to ( wilson 1975 ) and (fluegel 1982) fig.2 . 1bioclastic wackestone facies : the thickness of this facies is (5,3) m which have ( 40,7% ) of the total thickness . it contains broken shell, gastropoda and less than ( 1% ) of miliolids and limestone component (interclast and pellets ) in addition to quartz grains of moderatly sorted. the matrix composed of microsparite –micrite . the main diagenesis processes were calcite–cement precipitation in fractures and fossil chambers plate(1-1), along within situ transformation of aragonite to calcite such as primary broken shell of 50 microfacies analysis of ghar formatiom aragonite tansformed to secondary broken shell of calcite (schmidt 1956) . the transformation of aragonite to calcite happens at the shallow marine water of high ratio of mg:ca (fuechtbauer and goldschmidt 1964 ) .this facies is similar to the smf( 9 ) zone ( 7 ) which is zone of shallow marine water with open circulation . 2mudstone facies: the thickness of this facies (2.8) m which have 21.5% of the total thickness . this facies plate(1-2) contains broken shell with rare amount of gastropoda and also contains detrital qartz grains 1-5 % which refer to eolian transporation in quiet marine environment without relation to high energy water ( plumley et al . ,1962) . the main diagenesis process were the precipitation of spary calcite inside the broken shell . this facies similar to the smf (3) zone( 3 ) which indicated to quiet open marine environment below the wave base 3miliolids wackestone facies : the thickness of this is (1.2)m wich have 9.2% of total thickness . this facies recognized by miliolids of quinqueloculina 40% plate (1-4) and presence of gastropoda . broken shell and very rare ostracods and less than 1% quartz grains . the main diageneses processes were the precipitation of calcite cement during late diagenesis processes due to tectonic uplift (chilinger et al., 1967) and also precipitated within fossils chambers . this facies similar to the smf(19) zone( 8 ) which indicated to the lakes and lagoons of restricted water. 4-grainstone with aggregate grains facies : the thickness of this facies is (3.7)m which have 28.4 % of the total thickness . this facies recognized by aggregate grains plate (1-3) within coarse sparite crystals wich precipitated at intertidal shallow marine environment more than (10)m depth . the aggregate grains coposed insitu from lime component which found at the micrite ,this facies indicated agitated water of low water circulation ( winland and mattews 1974 ) .quartz grains ,rounded to well rounded and well sorted of 40% were present at this facies which refer to near shore sediments ( fluegel 1982 ) and high energy environment wich caused the complete washing of limemud and precipitated the spary calcite . the rounded cherty gravel ( 10 ) cm at the upper part of the outcrop of studied area refer to fluvial abundance of near shore marine environment .the diagenesis process was mixing of cement ( a ) and (b ) this facies similar to the smf ( 17 ) zone( 8 ) which refered to very warm shallow marine of restricted circulation . microfacies distribution of ghar formation arranged in wilson model as show in fig.3 . environment of deposition microfacies study of ghar formation showed that the lower part composed of bioclastic wackestone facies ( 1 ) which reflect shallow marine environment (open circulation ) followed by mudstone facies( 2 ) . which deposited in open marine environment below the wave base i.e. transgression of sea level . after that the miliolids bioclastic wackestone facies ( 3 ) which deposited in lagoons of restricted water . the upper part of the ghar formation composed of grainstone with aggregate grains facies ( 4 ) refered to shallow marine environment of warm water with low circulation . conclusions 1four microfacies were typified from lower to upper contact : bioclastic wackestone facies ,mudstone facies , miliolids wackestone facies and grainstone with aggregate grains facies . 2high percent of fossils were presence such as miliolids ( 40% of fossils ) while rare amount of gastropoda, broken shell and ostracods also presence in wackestone facies . 51 s. k. jan & a. a. al-zubaidi 3the main diagenesis processes were calcite-cement precipitation in the fractures and fossil chambers besides the transporation which are type of neomorphism. 4the succession of the identifield microfacies and their zones of deposition reflects the dominance of shallow marine environment beside the quiet open sea below the wave base litrature cited al-hashimi. h.a.j. and amer .r.a. 1985 . tertiary micrfacies of iraq . state organization for minerals , baghdad , 56 p. aljumaily, r.m., 1974 .report on the regional geological mapping of the area between iraqi –syrian bordor –t. 1 . oil pumping , s.o.m .library . baghdad . alzubaidi, a.a., kahn jan .s. and alamiry, j.a. 1999, grain size and sorting as indicators of energy of depositional environment of ghar formation ( late lower miocene ) . buday .t. 1980 , regional geology of iraq v. 1 , stratigraphy and paleogeography .state organization for minerals. baghdad, 445 p. chilinger, g.v. , bissell.h.j . and fairbridge, r.w. , 1967 , carbonate rocks ( origin , occurrence and classification ) . elsevier pub. com. 471 p fluegel.e. ,1982 microfacies analysis of limestone , springerverlag ,berlin, 633p. fuechtbauer and goldschmidt,h., 1964, ein zechsteinanhydritprofil mit einlagerungen von montmorillonit und einer abweichenden serpentin vareetaetheidelberg . beitr. miner. petrogr. v.5 ,pp 187-203. fuechtbauer,h.,and mueller, g., 1977, sediment-petrologie. e. schweizer-bartisch verlags buchhandlung , 784p. owen,r.m.s. and naser , s.n. 1958 the stratigraphy of kuwait –basrah area , in weeks, l.g ( ed.) , habitat of oil , a a pg pub. 252-1278 plumley,w.j . ,risley,g.a. ,graves., r.w. and kaley, m.e. 1962 energy index for limestone interpretation and classification . mem . amer .ass. petrol., geol 85-107 schmidt,v.1965 facies diagenesis and related reservoir properties in giqashed (u. jurassic. northwestern germany ) ,in pray, r.c. (ed) dolomitization and limestone diagenesis, sepm. spec. pub. no.13 van bellen,r.c. , dunnington. h.v. witzel. r. and morton , d. 1959 lexique stratigraphique international asie, iraq v.3,face.10a,333p wilson,j.l.1975 carbonate facies in geologic history. 471 p berlin .springer-verlag winland,h.d. and mattews , r.k. 1974 origin and significance of grabstone , bahama island , j.sed. pet. v. 4. pp. 927 52 microfacies analysis of ghar formatiom 53 s. k. jan & a. a. al-zubaidi 54 microfacies analysis of ghar formatiom plate-1 1. secondary broken shell 40x 2. mudstone facies 40x 3. aggregate grains facies 40x 4. some species of miliolid 100x 1 2 3 4 55 s. k. jan & a. a. al-zubaidi bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2004) 10 (2): 49-55 ر ن الغا ق لتكوي دقي سحنا ال ل ال حلي ة (ت ء الغربي حرا ص )ال دي حم ال بي س ا عب عق ل ن و جا خا ي د سع ي ع خ ال بي ري ف ال ا ح مت داد ة بغ جامع ة ص الخال ر قية غربي الع ء ل ص را ف ىف ال ك ى ين ذ ر ل وي الغا ك س ت ر دقيقة د ت ل ل ال نا ة لي ريق ط ب خرية ) ١٣( ـل رحية لقد قسم صخور التكوين ) . غرب القائم ( مت مجعها من وادى الردكة ،ش :اىل اربعة سحنات دقيقة اعتمادا على احملتوى الصخرى والعضوى وهى احلجر اجلريى الواكى الوحلى احلياتى واحلجر اجلريى الوحلى واحلجر اجلريى الواكى ان السحنات الدقيقة للتكوين تعكس . املليوليدى واحلجر اجلريى احلبيىب احلاوى على الركام ن بيئة حبرية ضحلة ذات دوران مفتوح ىف اجلزء االسفل من التكوين وبيئة حبرية ضحلة ذات دورا واما اجلزء االسفل واالوسط يتدخل مع رواسب بيئة حبرية . قليل ملياة دافئة جدا ىف اجلزء االوسط اما اجلزء االعلى من التكوين فقد ترسب ىف بيئة حبرية .مفتوحة هادئة حتت مستوى املوجة ) مورفزم نوع النيو ( االنتقالية : العمليات التحويرية الرئيسية هى . ضحلة ذات دوران قليل . باالضافة اىل ترسيب الكالسا يت ىف الكسور وغرف املتحجرات 19-23 19 s. h. mahmood bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2003) 10 (1): 19-23 new records of some mite species inhabiting soil in baghdad souhaila h. mahmood iraq natural history museum, university of baghdad, bab al-muadham, baghdad, iraq abstract the soil acari fauna of citrus orchards of baghdad in jadiriya area was studied in a total of forty-eight samples. twenty-two species were recorded during the present study of which eight species were first records to iraq. the ordinal composition of the soil acari fauna was predominantly mesostigmata. this fauna represents diverse trophic groups. the most abundant groups were the predacious and the microphytophagus, while the less abundant groups were the predacious/ microphytophagus, macrophytophagus, and panaphytophagus. the most abundant and frequent species were rhizoglyphus sp. tyrophagus putrescentiea (scrank), pachylaelaps longisetis halbt. and stratiolaelaps miles berl. introduction it is well known that the soil arthtropoda play an assential part in the biological fertility of soil. their activity contributes greatly to organic decomposition, the synthesis of humus, the restitution of biogenic element and the stimulation of fungal and bacterial metabolism, the mesofauna which includes subclass acari are involved both directly (berthet, 1963 and macfadyen, 1964) and indirectly (witkamp, 1960) in this process. the acari fauna of soil has been studied extensively by many workers among them (ford, 1935;wies-fogh, 1948; sheals, 1957; block, 1965; wood, 1967; longworth, 1977; curry, 1979; and luxton, 1983). investigation on soil acari fauna in iraq is scarce. the only work on this fauna that which reported by mursi et al. (1966) from palms-citrus orchards and the checklist by abul-hab (1984). the main objective of this study is to investigate the soil acari fauna in baghdad providing more information regarding the checklist of this fauna. materials and methods a total of 48 samples were collected from the soil of citrus orchards, in baghdad (jadiriya) over a period of six months from october 1992 to march 1993. all the samples were taken from the top of 10 cm by a steel core-sampler with case hardened cutting edge (macfadeyn, 1961). it consisted of a 6.3 cm diameter cylinder narrowing to 5.8 cm at the cutting edge, to avoid compression of soil sample. these samples were individually extracted in the laboratory through a modified tullgren funnels extractor. the extracted mites were cleared by heating in 50% lactic acid then mounted in hoyer’s medium on glass slides, and examined under a phase-contrast microscope. the analysis of soil where the samples were taken showed that it was silty-loam with a relatively high organic matter about 2.2 percentage. 20 new records of mites tale 1: a systematic list of identified mites with their dominancy and frequency of occurrence in soil of citrus orchards. * species and genera were first records to iraqi fauna. species occurrence % frequency dominancy order astigmata family acaridae acarrus sire l. 4.2 1.3 caloglyphus berlesi (michael) 8.6 3.1 rhizoglyphus sp. 33.3 17.7 tyrophagus sp. 8.5 3.1 tyrophagus putrescentiae (schrank) 14.0 10.9 order cryptostigmata family ceratozetidae *ceratozetes gracilis (michael) 2.1 0.8 family hypochthoniidae *hypochthonius sp. 2.1 0.1 family malaconthriidae *malaconthrius sp. 12.5 2.7 family oribatulidae oribatula sp. 4.2 2.1 family stenoobelbidae *stenobelba sp. 4.5 2.1 order mesostigmata family laelapidae *hypoaspis lubrica voigts & oudms. 8.6 7.3 *stratiolaelaps miles (berl.) 14.2 10.9 family macrochelidae *geholaspis nr. longispinosus (kr.) 2.1 0.6 family pachylaelapidae *pachylaelaps longisetis halbt. 45.8 20.7 family parasitidae *holoparasitus pallicipatus (berl.) 4.2 2.3 *paragamasus crassipes (linn.) 2.1 2.4 family uropodidae *trematura jacksoni hughes 2.1 1.2 urobovella marginata (c. l. k.) 8.5 6.4 order prostigmata family bdellidae bdella sp. 2.1 0.2 family camerobiidae camerobia sp. 2.1 0.2 bakerdinia 4.2 3.1 family tydidae *triphtydeus 2.1 0.8 21 s. h. mahmood results and discussion twenty-two species of mites were recorded during the present work. of these 8 species and 4 genera were new records to iraqi fauna, while the remaining species were previously reported from iraq (mursi et al., 1966; abul-hab, 1984; mahmood, 1987; and mahmood and aldulaimi, 1988). the identified species were classified into different orders, 8 of the recorded species were of the order mesostigmata, 5 species of each of astigmata and cryptostigmata, and the last four species were of prostigmata (table 1). the dominancy and frequency of occurrence of these species varied from one species to another, the most common and abundant species were rhizoglyphus sp., tyrophagus putrescantiea (scrank), pachylaelaps longisetis halbt., stratiolaelaps miles berl. the species occurred in 33.3%, 14%, 45.8%, 14.2% and 8.5% of the total samples respectively. it is recognized from the present results that the acari fauna of soil represents diverse trophic groups (table 2). the classification of each species into their trophic groups was made by reference to the literature (krantz, 1978 and luxton, 1982). table 2: the percentage contribution of trophic groups to the total acarina fauna in the soil of citrus orchards with the number of species represented by each group. trophic group % of abundance number of species predacious 50.8 8 microphytophagus 44.9 10 predacious/microphytophagus 2.8 2 panaphytophagus 0.2 1 macrophytophagus 1.3 1 the most abundant group was predacious, which occurred in 50.8% of the total acari and represented by 8 species. the second most abundant group was the microphytophagus, which occurred in 44.9% and represented by 10 species. the less abundant groups were the predacious/microphytophagus, which represented by three species, macrophytophagus and panaphytophagus, each of them represented by one species only. these results could be a reflect of well developed microflora associated with abundant supply of decaying organic matter (animal manure was added regularly to the orchard’s soil) and also to the presence of a wide range of preys in the soil particularly collembola and nematodes, since it were observed in the examined samples in a respectable numbers. similar phenomenon was reported by mursi et al. (1966) from palm-citrus orchards and luxton (1982) from grassland. the most interesting aspect of this work is the presence of many important predacious mites such as p. longisetis, s. miles, h. lubrica and u. marginata in a relatively high numbers. this may have important indirect effects on decomposition process and mineral cycling through their interaction and through litter combination (witkamp, 1971 and luxton, 1972). literature cited berthet, b. 1967 the metabolic activity of oribatid mites acarina in different forest floors in secondary productivity of terrestrial ecosystems. ed. k. petruse wtz. warsaw: pp. 709-725. block, w. c. 1965 distribution of soil mites acarina on the moor house national nature reserve, westmoreland, with notes on their numerical abundance. pedobiologia, 5: 244-251. 22 new records of mites curry, j. p. 1979 the arthropod fauna associated with cattle manure applied as slurry to grassland. proc. r. irish. acad. section b,79. ford, j. 1935 the animal populations of a meadow near oxford. j. anim. ecol., 4:195-207. jalil abu-hab 1984 further contribution to the acarina fauna of iraq. internat. j. acarol., 10(1):43-44. krantz, g. w. 1978 a manual of acarology. 2nd edition. oregon state university book stores, inc., corvallis, oregon. longworth, t. j. 1974 some aspects of the ecology of the acari of virgin and reclained blanket big at glanamoy, co. mayo. ph. d. thesis, national university of ireland. luxton, m. 1972 studies on the oribatid mites of a dunish beech wood soil. pedobiologia,12: 434-463. luxton, m. 1982 studies on the invertebrate fauna of new zealand peat soils. iv. pedobiologia, 24: 297-308. luxton, m. 1983 studies on the invertebrate fauna of new zealand peat soils. v. pedobiologia, 25: 135-148. macfadeyn, a. 1961 improved funnel-type extraction for soil arthropods. j. anim. ecol., 30: 171-182. macfadeyn, a. 1964 realations between mites and microorganisms and their significance in soil biology. proc. 1st int. cong. acar., 147. mahmood, s. 1987 mites associated with stored grain in baghdad. j. biol. sci. res., 18: 2 mahmood, s. and al-dulaimi, s. i. 1988 ecological study of new records of iraqi predator mites developing in animal manure. j. biol. sci. res., 19:865-876. mursi, a. a., hussain, a. a. and kassim, b. m. 1966 soil insects and mites of palm orchards in iraq. bull. soc. ent. egypt, l:71-78. wies-fogh, t. 1948 ecological investigations on mites and collembola in the soil. nat. jutland., 1: 135-270. witkamp, m. 1971 soils as components of ecosystems. a rev. ecol. , sist., 2: 85-100. wood, t. g. 1967 acari and collembola of moorland soils from yorkshire, england. vertical distribution in four grassland soils. oikes, 18: 137-140. 23 s. h. mahmood bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2003) 10 (1): 19-23 د غدا ة ف ب ق ن ال رب ي ت حلم ا ت ع ا ض ان ا دة لب ج ي ال جي س ت مود ح وي م حيا سهيلة ي ع خ ال بي ري ف ال ا ح داد -مت ة بغ م -جامع ظ ب ال ع د با غدا ق –ب العرا ة ص الخال يف غداد ت ض ا حلم ب ا م اليت صي ت م عة احلل رس ل د ال ن خ جلادرية وذجاً ٤٨منط ة . ت جل د ٢٢س ل ال عً خ و قن يف ا عرا ل رة الو ل ج س وا ت سة ا ا ية نها مثاني ان .را ت رتبة .هي الشائعة بني اموعات التقسيم حللم الرتبة mesostigmataكان و predaciousمتثـــــــــــــل هـــــــــــــذه اموعـــــــــــــةجماميع غذائيـــــــــــــة واســـــــــــــعة، كانـــــــــــــت اـــــــــــــاميع microphytophayus االوسع انشاراً بينما كانت ااميعpanaphytophagus و macrophytophagus rhizoglyphus tyrophagus putrescentiea, pachylaelaps longisetis stratiolaelaps miles . 1 1 m. s. abdul-rassoul bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2000) 9 (2):1-4 a new species of liodontomerus gah. from iraq (hymenoptera, torymidae) m. s. abdul-rassoul iraq natural history museum. baghdad university.baghdad .iraq abstract a study of the torymid collection of iraq. resulted in undescribed species of the genus liodontonierus gah. l. longicorpus sp. n. with 2 figures. liodontornerus longicorpus sp.n. (text—figs. 1.2) head and thorax metalic green with purplish tint. anennae dark brown. scape coppery green, sides of thorax and legs dark violet .tip of tibiae and tarsi yellowish, claws black; gaster dark violet all over with metalic green tint at base : wings hyaline .venation yellowish female. length 3.43.7mm. head transverse, slightly broader than thorax, clearly longer than broad; vertex finely reticulate, shining, dorsal ocelli nearly twice as far from other as eye margin: eyes bare, less than twice as long as broad: cheeks somewhat half length of eyes; front strongly shining, finely reticulate; antennal groove deep. reaching anterior ocellus, about as wide as a third of width of front; antennae inserted just above lower eye margin, flagellum clavate , scape slender . slightly compressed from sides and three times as long as pedicel ;pedicel more than one and half times as long as broad: funicle with two ring-like segments; rest segments quadrate ; club as long as two preceding segments combined. thorax somewhat slim, more than twice as long as broad, finely reticulate. shining, covered with short hairs: propodeum abruptly declining strongly shining and nearly smooth with sharp reticulation on both sides: fore and middle coxae nearly smooth, hind ones sharply reticulate at outer side: fore femur finely reticulate. strongly shining, fore and hind femora distinctly swollen: wings hyaline. marginal vein four as long as postmarginal vein and more than four times as long as stigmal vein: postmargin vein one and half as long as stigmal one. gaster distinctly longer than thorax and head combined, nearly bare above, finely and densely reticulate at sides , first tergite deeply incised at hind margin . second tergite slightly incised at hind margin , distal margin of each tergite with transverse row consisting of some few bristles male. -length 2.4-2.5mm. metalic green with purplish tint: all femora dark violet, tibiae yellowish, fore and hind femra distinctly swollen gaster much shorter than thorax, truncate behind: antennae less clavate. segments subquadrate. otherwise as female. host-unknown. material examined. -iraq, diyala.. adhaim 1+ (holotype). l>(allotype ) and 9.++. i> (paratypes). coil. 27.iii.1977, (leg. m.s.adbul-rassoul). the types were deposited in iraq natural history museum. liodontomerus longicorpus sp. n. differs from all the known members of the genus (see szelenyi, 1959: erdos, 1960 and 1964; boucek. 1970; subba rae° and bhati. 1961) by the elongate body particularly thorax (hence the specific name). and the character of the antennae. 2 inheritance of dark head literature cited boucek,z. 1970. on some new or otherwise interesting torymidae. ormyridae. eurytomidae and pteromalidae (hymenoptera). mainly from the mediteranean subregion. bull. lab. ent.. agr. filippo silvestri 27: 27-54. erdos. j.1960. chalcidoidae ii. fauna hungariae 52 (3): 1-230. ------------------.1964. chalcidoidae nova in gallia et numidia inventa. bull. soc. ent. france, paris 69: 89-100. subba rao, b.r. and bhatia, s.k. 1961. liodontonierus indictis new species ( hymenoptera. torymidae ) a parasite of systole albipennis walk. indian fern., new delhi 23:125127. szelenyi. g. 1959. two new species of liodontonierus gah. (hym., chalcidoidea). acta zool. acad. sci. hung. 5:141-146. 3 m. s. abdul-rassoul figs. 1,2. liodontomerus longicorpus sp. n. 1. female antenna. 2. forewing. fig.1 fig.2 4 inheritance of dark head bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2000) 9 (2):1-4 2 11 a. n. balasem & et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2009)10(4): 11-16 record of two species of the monogenetic trematodes genus dactylogyrus for the first time in iraq on gills of the cyprinid fish alburnus caeruleus abbas n. balasem, furhan t. mhaisen*, kasim r. asmar, jawdat m. al-jawda and thamir k. adday ministry of science and technology, aljadereah, baghdad, iraq * dept. biol., coll. educ. (ibn alhaitham), univ. baghdad, iraq abstract for the first time in iraq, two species of monogenetic tretamtodes of the genus dactylogyrus were recorded from gills of alburnus caeruleus from tigris river at alzaafaraniya, south of baghdad during june 1995. the first species, dactylogyrus sphyrna is characterized by having the seventh pair of marginal hooklets almost twice as large as other marginal hooklets, powerful inner and outer processes of median hooks especially the inner one which is expanded terminally, one connecting bar and long spirally twisted copulatory organ. the second species, daclytogyrus phoxini differs from the first one by having marginal hooklets of the same size, inner and outer processes of median hooks are not powerful, two connecting bars present, the second one of them is t shaped and tube of copulatory organ is curved and c shaped. with the present record, the total number of dactylogyrus species in freshwater fishes of iraq reached 51 species. introduction monogenetic trernatodes are ectoparasites of skin, fins and gills of marine and freshwater fishes. they possess one or more acetabuli and hooks for fixation (amlacher, 1970). under conditions of intensive fish farming and severe infection, monogeneans are responsible for notable skin opacity, often with inflamed and reddened areas and great damage to gill filaments (roberts, 1989) which may lead to fish death (schmahl, 1991). in iraq, monogeneans are considered as the major group of parasites of freshwater fishes (mhaisen, 2006). since the finding of the first monogenean in fishes of iraq (diplozoon kasimii) by fattohy (1975) and its publication (rahemo, 1980), many surveys were done which brought the total number of monogeneans to 78 species (abdullah and mhaisen, 2000). recent studies on the parasites of freshwater fishes of iraq (al-nasiri et al., 2002; al-nasiri, 2003; asmar et al., 2004; kritsky et al., 2004; hussain, 2005; abdul-ameer, in press) revealed eight additional monogeneans. to gain information on the parasitic fauna of freshwater fishes of iraq, more surveys and inspection of fishes are needed. with such task, it is expected to discover more parasites. the present article deals with the record of two monogeneans (dactylogyrus sphyrna and d. phoxini) for the first time in iraq. materials and methods routine collection of fishes from tigris river at al-zaafaraniya, south of baghdad city was done during the whole year of 1995 with the aid of cast nets. fishes were brought alive to the laboratory where they were inspected for parasites. skin and gill smears were stained with aqueous neutral red and permanent slides were prepared. parasite identification was done according to bykhovskaya-pavlovskaya et al. (1962) and gussev (1985). mhaisen’s (2006) 12 record of two species of the monogenetic trematodes index catalogue of parasites and disease agents of fishes of iraq was followed to make comparison with other related dactylogyrus species so far recorded from fishes of iraq. results and discussion among the examined fishes for ectoparasites, one specimen of the cyprinid fish alburnus caeruleus heckel, 1843 with a total length of 12.5 cm and a total weight of 16.6 gm was infected with two gill dactylogyrids which were not previously recorded in iraq. the following is a brief account on their description and measurements. dactyogyrus sphyrna linstow, 1878 (fig.1): datylogyridae. large worms up to 1.4 mm long and 0.2 mm wide. median hook with powerful processes, particularly the inner process which expanded terminally and larger than the basic portion of the median hook. basal portion of base only 2-2.5 times as long as outer process. overall length of median hook 0.055 0.069 mm. one connecting bar present, 0.007 x 0.03 mm. seventh pair of marginal hooklets almost twice as long as others (up to 0.052 mm for the seventh pair and 0.2-0.28 mm for the others). tube of copulatory organ long, spirally twisted, describing more than two turns. overall length of copulatory organ 0.052-0.06 mm. the above description of d. sphyrna is in agreement with that of the holotype of this parasite (bykhovskaya—pavlovskaya et al., 1962). two dactylogyrids having median hooks with powerful processes were previously recorded from freshwater fishes of iraq. these were d. polylepidis from leuciscus lepidus from lesser zab and greater zab rivers, north of iraq and d. vistulae from chondrostoma regium of the same localities (abdullah. 2002). however, d. sphyrna of the present investigation is characterized by having the seventh pair of marginal hooklets almost twice as large as other marginal hookiets while in both d. polylepidis and d. vistulae the seventh pair is frequently not more than one and a half times as large as rest marginal hookiets (bykhovskaya—pavlovskaya et al., 1962; gussev, 1985). dactylogyrusphoxini malevitskaya, 1949 (fig. 2): dactylogyridae. small or moderately sized worms, length up to 0.54 mm. outer process of median hook no more than two thirds as long as inner process. two connecting bars present. primary connecting bar 0.004 x 0.0220.028 mm. supplementary bar in form of inverted t, 0.003-0.006 x 0.015 — 0.02 mm. overall length of median hook 0.04 — 0.047 mm. marginal hookiets of the same size, with a length of 0.016 — 0.03 1 mm. tube of copulatory organ c shaped and smoothly curved. overall length of copulatory organ 0.021 — 0.026 mm. the above description of d. phoxini of the present study is in agreement with that of bykhovskaya-pavlovskaya et al. (1962). d. phoxini is most similar to d. porpinquus which was recorded for the first time in iraq by al-zubaidy (1998) from cyprinus carpio of al-furat fish farm, hilla, mid iraq. however, they differ in the shape of the tube of copulatory organ: being c-shaped in d. phoxini and inverted l-shaped in d. porpinquus (bykhovskayapavlovskaya et a!., 1962; gussev, 1985). previously, two dactylogyrid species were reported from a. caeru!eus in iraq. these were d. vastator from tigris river at al-zaafaraniya, south of baghdad (balasem et al., 1993) and d. intermedius from a private sector fish farm at al-madaen, south of baghdad (asmar et a!., 2004). so, the present study added two additional dactylogyrids for this fish in iraq and increased the total number of dactylogyrus species in iraq to 51 species (mhaisen, 2006). as a. caeruleus is known to enter some fish farms of iraq via inlet water (mohammad—ali et a!., 1999; asmar et al., 2004), the danger of parasite transmission by this fish from rivers to fish farms is expected. hence, the importance of the present record strengthen previous conclusion that wild fishes may represent a threat to farm fishes in iraq in this respect (mhaisen, 1 993). 13 a. n. balasem & et al. literature cited abdu-ameer, k. n. in press. on the occurrence of the monogenetic trernatode dactylogyrus wegeneri for the first time in iraq on gills of the common carp cyprinus carpio. accepted for publication in babylon j., pure appi. sci. abdullah, s. m. a. 2002. ecology, taxonomy and biology of some parasites of fishes from lesser zab and greater zab rivers in north of iraq. ph. d. thesis, univ. baghdad: l53pp. (in arabic). abdullah, s. m. a. and mhaisen, f. t. 2000. monogenetic trematodes parasitizing on freshwater fishes of iraq. abst. 2nd sci. conf., dept. biol., coil. educ. (ibn alhaitham), univ. baghdad: 10-12 oct. 2000. al-nasiri, f. s. 2003. first occurrence of the monogenetic trematode dip/ozoon nipponicum goto, 1891 in iraq from common carp cyprinus carpio (pisces). iraqi j. agric., 8(6): 95 -99. al-nasiri, f. s.; mhaisen, f.t. and al-nasiri, s.k. 2002. first occurrence of the monogentic trematode dactylogyrus capoetae jalali, papp et molnár, 1995 in iraq on gills of the cyprinid fish barbus /iiteus. j. diyala, 13: 421-425. al-zubaidy, a. b. 1998. studies on the parasitic fauna of carps in al-furat fish farm, babylon province, iraq. ph. d. thesis, univ. babylon: l4lpp. (in arabic). amlacher, e. 1970. textbook of fish diseases. t.f.h. pub!., jersey city: 302pp. asmar, k. r.; balasem, a.n.; ai-jawda, j.m. and adday, t.k. 2004. recording of parasitic and fungal infections in three fish farms, south of baghdad. iraqi j. aquacult., 2: 117-132. (in arabic). balasern, a. n.; mhaisen, f.t.; a1-shaikh, s.m.j.; al-khateeb, g.h.; asmar, k.r. and adday, t.k. 1993. survey of fish parasites form tigris river at al-zaafaraniya, south of baghdad, iraq. mar. mesopot., 8(3): 226-23 5. bykhovskaya-pavlovskaya, i. e.; gussev, a.v.; dubinina, m. n.; izyurnova, n. a.; smirnova, t. s.; sokolovskaya, i. l.; shtein, g. a.; shulman, s. s. and epshtein, v. m. 1962. key to parasites of freshwater ñsh of the u.s.s.r. akad. nauk, s.s.s.r., moscow: ‘727pp. (in russian). fattohy, z. i. 1975. studies on the parasites of certain teleostean fishes from the river tigris, mosul, iraq. m. sc. thesis, univ. mosul: l36pp. gussev, a. v. 1985. parasitic metazoans: class monogenea. in: bauer, o.n. (ed.). key to parasites of freshwater fish fauna of the u.s.s.r. nauka, leningrad, 2: 1424. (in russian). hussain, h. t. 2005. ectoparasitic infections of the common carp and silver carp fingerlings stocked during winter in al-shark al-awsat fish farm, babylon province. m. tech. thesis, al-mussayab tech. coil., found. tech. educ.: lo6pp. (in arabic). 14 record of two species of the monogenetic trematodes kritsky, d. c.; pandey, k.c.; agrawal, n. and abdullah, s.m.a. 2004. monogenoids from the gills of spiny eel (teleostei: mastacernbelidae) in india and iraq, proposal of mastacembelocleidus gen. n., and status of the indian species of actinocleidus, urocleidus and haplocleidus (monogenoidea: dactylogyridae). fol. parasitol., 51: 29 1-298. mhaisen, f. t. 1993. the role of wild fishes in fish farms of iraq from parasitological and pathological points of view. iraqi j. vet. med., 17: 126-136. mhaisen, f. t. 2006. index-catalogue of parasites and disease agents of fishes of iraq. (unpublished). mohammad-ali, n. r.; balasem, a. n.; mhaisen, f. t.; salih, a. m. and waheed, i. k. 1999. observations on the parasitic fauna in a1-zaafaraniya fish farm, south of baghdad. vet., 9(2): 79-88. rahemo, z. i. f. 1980. dzplozoon kasimii new species from a freshwater teloeost fish, cyprinion macrostomus heckel. bull. biol. res. cent., 12(1): 109-114. roberts, r. j. 1989. fish pathology, 2nd edn., bailliere tindall, london: 3 l8pp. schmahl, g. 1991. the chemotherapy of monogeneans which parasitize fish: a review. fol. parasitol., 38: 97-106. 15 a. n. balasem & et al. 16 record of two species of the monogenetic trematodes bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2009)10(4): 11-16 ل سجي ن ت ت لنوعي ر ا خ ن الم ةم دي حا س أ جن من شأ ي ألول dactylogyrus الم مر ف ة شبوطي سم ة ا ش م ال خيا ى ع alburnus caeruleus العراق مد ض حا و فر سم ي ب ج سنمعبا نا ت مو * حي ج د سم أ م و ك. ق ة و ثامر جود ي. ا دا ع وزارة العلوم والتكنولوجيا، الجادرية، بغداد، العراق ، جامعة بغداد، بغداد، العراق)ابن الهيثم(كلية التربية -قسم علوم الحياة* الخالصة ت ألول ن ا ث با ني م جيل و مت س يف ا عر ق ةمرة حادي أل س ا جن dactylogyrusالتاب ة لل ن طيةم شبو سمكة ا شيم ا جنوب من ر دجلة يف منطقة الزعفرانية alburnus caeruleus خيا .١٩٩٥العراق خالل شهر حزيران بكون حجم الزوج السابع من الكليبات الطرفية daclylogyrus sphyrna األولميتاز النوع واخلارجية، الكليبات الوسطية يبلغ ضعف الكالليب احلافية االخرى وضخامة الربوزات الداخلية واليت متتد طرفيًا وبوجود حاجز رابط واحد وبكون عضو اجلماع طويل سيما الداخلية منها وال .حلزوين الشكل وذو ختصرات بكون الكليبات األولفانه خيتلف عن النوع daclylogyrus phoxiniين النوع الثا أما الطرفية هلا نفس اجلسيم وان الربوزات الداخلية واخلارجية للكليبات الوسطية غري متضخمة عضو اجلماع منحين أنبوبويكون tوبوجود حاجزين رابطة ويكون الثاين فيها بشكل حرف .cعلى شكل حرف نوعًا بضمنها ٥١يف امساك املياه الغدية العراقية dactylogyrusجنس الـ عأنوا يصل عدد .التسجيل اجلديد 69-76 69 h . a . sheriff & r . a . delool bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2001) 9 (3): 69-76 a comparative study of ecological and genetical adaptation of three iraqi fresh water snails in respect to heavy metal pollution h. a. sheriiff* and r. a. delool** *biology dept., education college for women, university of baghdad **biology dept., college of science, university of baghdad abstract a comparative study was carried out on ecological and genetical adaptation of three iraqi freshwater snails, physa acuta, melanopsis buccinoidea and melanoides tuberculata, in respect to acute toxicity of heavy metals (zn, cd and hg). longevity are used as poisoning tolerance criterion. lt 50 and lt 100 were determined for the studied snails at (0.5, 1, 5, and 10 ppm), for the three metals. results indicated that physa acuta had a higher tolerance than melanopsis buccinoidea and melanoides tuberculata, which was the lower one. previous exposure to heavy metals in the original habitat was affecting on experimental tolerance and no relationships of physical and chemical factors (total hardness, temperature, d. o. and sulphate) between original and experimental exposuring has been occurred. results indicated no ability of the three species for genetical adaptation on experimental bioassays, except for lower concentrations (0.5, 1 ppm), since physa acuta managed to give more than two healthy new generations, whereas melanopsis buccinoidea was disabled to give more than one weakling generation.the species melanoides tuberculata showed a complete disability to give any generation . the present study suggested a new wide experiment to be design, not only by acute toxicity but with chronic toxicity, in order to determine the interference between the ecological and genetical adaptation and the previous exposure to many environmental pollutants. introduction little attention has been paid to the adaptation of iraqi mollusca, especially the freshwater snails. najim (1959) gave an important notes on the distribution of molluscs in iraq. further notes on distribution of molluscs in iraq with a first record of physa has been given also by najim (1961). most of these studies were focusing on larval trematode parasites of freshwater molluscs in iraq (watson, 1950). one of the best and pioneer studies on ecology of the freshwater mollusca of iraq has been given by harris (1965). new attention appears recently on distribution and dispersal of freshwater snails in respect to some heavy metals pollution (sheriff, 1992; sheriff and delool, 1993). the biological effects of increasing amount of metal ions in aquatic system have been, in recent years, the concern of large number of environmentalists (patrick, 1973). the degree or extent of the effects of the environmental changes on aquatic life varies with the type and amount of pollutant and the character of the receiving water. in most waters the concentrations of heavy metals are very low (riley and chester, 1971). mortality studies of adult organisms over a given period of time have generally been the only standard bioassay techniques in pollution studies. consequently, such techniques have played a major role in setting standards (vernberg et al., 1971). tolerance experiments conducted in connection with water pollution research or control usually have one or both of 70 a comparative study of ecological and genetical adaptation two immediate objectives. one is to establish the relationship between survival time, usually median survival time of a species and lethal factor level. this relationship can be used to estimate the length of time the species could tolerate any given level of the lethal agent, or the level that could be tolerated for any given exposure period (warren, 1971). the aims of the present study is to compare the effectes of zinc, cadmium and mercury on ecological and genetical adaptation of three iraqi freshwater snails, physa acuta, melanopsis buccinoidea and melanoides tuberculata. the first species is from heavily polluted drainage canal, the second species is from sulferous springs habitat and the third is from slightly polluted drainage canal. longevity experiments were carried out to evaluate the lt 50 and lt 100 of these three freshwater snails in respect to heavy metal pollutants, such criteria represents the poisoning resistance. we usually know very little about the concentration of toxic substances that may in nature have deleterious effects on the survival, reproduction, growth and ecogenetical adaptations of living organism. materials and methods all experiments were conducted during 1992. test organisms were the adults of three iraqi freshwater snails, physa acuta snails were collected from saklawiya drainage canal which was heavily polluted. melanopsis buccinoidea were collected from shathatha (ain altamor) springs (50 km southwest of karbalaa) which were slightly sulferous water and melanoides tuberculata from hikmat drainage canal (2 km northeast of baghdad), it was representing a slightly polluted water. aqueous stock solutions (10 ppm of metal ion) of zinc (znso4.h2o), cadmium (cdcl2.2 ½ h2o) and mercury (hgcl2) have been prepared. in order to obtain the experimental concentrations of 5ppm, 1 ppm and 0.5 ppm, diluted concentrations from the stock solutions were prepared also. all concentrations refer to ppm of the metal ion in solution at the start of the experiments, and were calculated by atomic weights. it was not possible to monitor the concentrations of heavy metals during the course of an experiment because of the lack of suitable recording equipment, but it was assumed that these initial concentrations of metal would not alter significantly over a 5-day period as well-washed pyrex containers were used throughout. after an acclimation period for at least 2 weeks, samples each consisting of 100 standardsized individuals were placed in 5 liter experimental media. these were maintained at constant temperature of 15±1°c. glass aquaria containing 5 liter distilled water alone were used as controls. three replicates of each solution were used. a photoperiod of natural daylight was employed throughout the bioassays. experimental animals were checked at ½ , 1, 3, 6, 12 and 24 hours and any dead specimen removed and recorded. since all three species live in lotic water, the tanks were aerated in all experiments. all specimens were starved throughout the bioassays, so that solutions were changed every 24 hours. the toxicity results are plotted as the total mean percentage mortality at the end of 96 h of three replicate experiments, together with the standard deviations, where 50% mortality occurred, the lt50, lt100 values have also been calculated. any specimen which failed to respond when touched with perspex needle were considered to be dead and were removed. the number of dead animals found at each inspection was recorded. standard methods for the examination of water and waste water (a. p. h. a., 1976) were used for d.o, so4 = and water hardness. temperature was recorded at natural habitats. heavy metals (zn, cd and hg) were analysed using sp9 spectrophotometer. since o.5 ppm and 1 ppm zinc concentrations were almost nearest to natural concentrations in three species habitats, only for this metal further breeding experiments conducted to determine the genetic adaptation by testing the number of generations succeeded on the three species. 71 h . a . sheriff & r . a . delool results and discussion table 1 shows the longevity of the three treated species with different metals poluttants. the results indicated that physa acuta had a highest tolerance for the three experimental metals. concerninig the concentrations of these three metals in natural habitats (table 3), we found that all three concentrations were higher in saklawiya drainage canal (the natural habitat of this species) than the other two habitats (ain altamor and hikmat drainage canal). literature on development of tolerance to metals reported that in same species increased tolerance to the toxic effectes of some metals can be acquired by previous exposure to sublethal concentrations. several examples of this have been given by sprague (1970), for fish. llolyed (1960) found that rainbow trout salmo gairdneri were more resistant to lethal concentrations of zinc following exposure to sublethal concentrations, and in the same species sinley et al. (1974) showed that more tolerance fish were produced from zinc-treated eggs. when adults brine shrimp artemia salina were exposed to 0.1 ppm of copper for three weeks, the median lethal time in 1ppm was approximately double that of untreated animals (saliba and ahsanullah, 1973). data from table 3 shows that zinc concentration in aim altamor was higher than in hikmat drainage canal (mean concentration 0.55 ppm and 0.16 ppm respectively). this could explain the higher resistance of melanopsis buccinoidea to zinc pollution in contrast with melaneides tuberculata to (table 1). the same data showed a higher original concentrations of cd and hg in hikmat drainage canal in contract with the same metals concentration in ain altamor (0.023 ppm and 0.000224), (0.00034 ppm and 0.00019 ppm) for cd and hg respectively, these differences may explain the higher resistance of melanoides tuberculata in contract with melanopsis buccinoidea, (see table 1). in conclusion, resistance order for the three species can be arranged in respect to the metals as following: acuta > buccinoidea> tuberculata for cd and hg concentreations tegether. data from table (2). shows the differences of some chemical and physical factors between water of the original habitats and the experimental water. water hardness, temperature and water sulphate were lower than experimental water, whereas dissolved oxygen was higher in experimental water than original habitats. results showed that there was no effect of previously exposure to these factors on altering the tolerance of all three studied species. in conclusion the response for poisoning concentrations constricted only with previously metals exposures and depending also on ecological and genetical adaptations criteria. results from further breeding of the three studies species in 0.5 ppm and 1 ppm of zinc media showed a successful genetical adaptation of physa acuta, since it yield two active generations or may be more, whereas melanopsis buccinoidea yield only one weakling generation, no successful breeding or culture occurred with melaneides tuberculata in these two concentrations. although the effects of metals on the genetic materials of cells is still unclear, but no doubt, certain metals have an effect on dna and rna . (passe et al, 1961). there was a suggestion of genetic adaptation to heavy metals in many kinds of fauna. (vernberg and vernberg, 1974). genetic changes need to be more fully investigated with a large series of metals under a wide spectrum of condition in the freshawater organisms. the high tolerance and successful of ecological and genetical adaptation of physa acuta from the present study could give a possible precaution on wide levels of distribution and new habitats invasion by this species, especially in those habitats which have a little heavy metals contaminations. bioassays data showed a low concentration of cd and hg in ain altamor water in comparison with higher concentration of zinc, which could explain the large abundance of melanopsis buccinoidea, in regarding of zinc role on growth rater and its importance in animal nutrition and enzymes. (macan, 1980) (table 3). results obtained from such acute toxicity still confirming the poisoning order of the three studied metals as following: (hg > cd > zn). freshwater snails as a part from invertebrates 72 a comparative study of ecological and genetical adaptation are considered excellent indicator organisms because of their capability in concentrating metals, among other pollutants. beside measuring the concentrations of those metals in aquatic ecosystems, there is a need not only for acute toxicity but also for effects of chronic toxicity on such important molluscs. in conclusion, one can say that although there has been a great deal of interest in and considerable research on metal pollution during the last few year as a result of human and other fauna poisoning, there is still much to be learned about the effects of metals on aquatic organisms and our ecosystems. if we are to be able to manage our renewable resources properly in the face of growing technology and industrial production, such new learning must be acquired soon. table 1: longevity of the three studied species on different metal pollutants. species polluta nt lt hours concentrations (ppm) 0.5 1 5 10 physa acuta zn lt50 >96 >96 63 47 lt100 >96 >96 >96 93.5 cd lt50 90 74 52 36 lt100 96 96 63 54 hg lt50 44 33 28 22 lt100 67 41 35 28.5 melanopsis buccinoudea zn lt50 >96 >96 60 40.5 lt100 >96 >96 >96 78.5 cd lt50 45 39 30.5 27 lt100 67 50 42.5 30 hg lt50 22 16 12.5 9.5 lt100 29 21 18 14.5 melanoides turberculata zn lt50 >96 >96 48 35.5 lt100 <96 >96 72 54 cd lt50 57 53 48 30.5 lt100 74 66 56.5 44 hg lt50 38 27.5 21 17.5 lt100 52.5 35 30 24 table 2: some chemical and physical factors in different habitats habitat factors ain altamor springs saklawiya d. canal hikmat d. canal experimen tal media hardness mg/l as caco3 average 955 563 346 215 range 327-1302 484-622 292-466 dissolved oxygen mg/l average 5.4 3.9 6.2 6.8 range 4.6-6.5 3.2-5.9 5.1-6.8 temperature c° average 24.5 21.4 18.8 15±1 range 20-28 14.6-26.3 9.6-25.2 sulphate so4 = average 6071 3112 2156 78.5 range 6022-6080 1675-3860 1842-2332 73 h . a . sheriff & r . a . delool table 3: metal concentrations in the original habitats. metals ain altamor springs saklawiya d. canal hikmat d. canal zinc ppm average 0.55 0.74 0.16 range 0.35-0.62 0.52-0.83 0.10-0.22 cadmium ppm average 0.0024 0.046 0.023 range 0.00180.0040 0.031-0.063 0.015-0.028 mercury ppm average 0.00019 0.0030 0.00034 range 0.00027-0.00010 0.0017 – 0.0044 0.00022-0.00055 literature cited a.p.h.a 1976 standard methods for the examination of water and westwater. 14th ed. a.p.h.a., 1015 eighteenth street. n.w. washungten. d.c. 20030. 1193 pp. harris, s.a. 1965 ecology of the freshwater molluscs of iraq. canadian. j. zoology. vol, 43. pp. 509-524. lloyd, r. 1961 the toxicity of zinc sulphate to rainbow trout. annuals of applied biology, 48, 84-94. macan. t.t. 1980 freshwater ecology. longman group. ltd. second edition pp. 343. najim, a.t. 1959 notes on the distribution of some molluscs in iraq. proc. malacol. soc. london, 33: najim, a.t. 1961 further notes on distribution of malluscs in iraq, with a first record of physa. proc. malcol, soc. london, 54: 299-301. passe, w.h., rothstein, a. and kiarkson. t.w. 1961 the general pharmacology of the heavy metals. pharmacological review. (13: 185-224). partrick, p.h. 1973 bioaccumulation of zinc and cadmium in the stream systems. a dissertation of m. sc, unviersity of durham. 85 pp. riley, j. and chester, r. 1971 introduction to marine biology. academic press, new york and london. 362 pp. saliba, l.j. and ahsanullah, m. 1973 acclimation and tolerance of artemia saline and dphryetrocha labronica to copper sulphate. marine biology, 23, 297-302. sheriff, h.a. 1992 an autecological study on freshwatersnail physa acuta in respect to heavy metal polution. (accepted for publication in ibn al haetham journal for pure and applied sciences. 1992. sheriff, h.a. and delool, r.ab.h 1993 a study on dispersal ability of sulferous snail melanopsis buccinodea, in respect to ecological and genetical adaptations to 74 a comparative study of ecological and genetical adaptation some environmental factors (in arabic) – accepted for publication in education college for women journal, 1993. sinley, j.r., goettl, j.p. & davies, p.h. 1974 the effects of zinc on rainbow truout (salmo gairdneri) in hard and soft water. bulletin of environmental contamination and toxicology, 12, 193-201. sprague, j.b. 1970 measurment of pollutants toxicity to fish. ii. utilizing and applying bioassay results. water research, 4, 3-32. vernberg, f.j. and vernberg, w.b. 1974 pollution and physiology of marine organisms. academic press. new york. san francisco, london, pp. 59. vernberg, w.b., decoursev, p.j., kelly, m. and johns, d.m. 1977 effects of sublethal concentrations of cadmium on adult palaemontes pugie under static and flowthrough condition. bull. envi. cont. and tox.,17(1), by spring. verlag. new york inc. warren. ch.e. 1971 biology and water pollution control. w.b. saunders company. philadelphia. watson, j.m. 1950 studies on billharziasis in iraq, habitat of the vector snail bulinus trancatus, and its distribution in relation to the irrigation system. j. roy. fac. med. iraq, 14, 148-186. 75 h . a . sheriff & r . a . delool bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2001) 9 (3): 69-67 دراسة مقارنة للتكيفات البيئية والوراثية لثالثة أنواع من قواقع البيئة المائية العراقية بالعالقة مع ملوثات المعادن الثقيلة **و رياض عبد الحسين دلول* حسين أحمد شريف جامعة بغداد-كلية التربية للبنات قسم علوم الحياة* تنصريةالجامعة المسكلية العلوم-قسم علوم الحياة** الخالصة مت اجراء الدراسة املقارنة للتكيف البيئي والوراثي لثالثة أنـواع مـن قواقـع امليـاه العذبـة العراقيـة physa acuta وelanopsis buccinoidea وmelanoides tuberculata الزنــك (مللوثــات املعــادن الثقيلــة ) قصــري األمــد(بالعالقــة مــع التعــرض احلــاد ) longevity(وقـد مت اسـتخدام معيـار مقاومـة السـمية بداللـة التعمـري ). الكـادميوم والزئبـقو أظهرت الدراسة وجود التباين يف . lt100والكلي lt50واحتساب الوقت املميت النصفي ,5 ,1 ,0.1(مسية العناصر الثقيلة تنازلياً، الزئبق فالكـادميوم فالزنـك، والـيت اسـتخدمت برتاكيـز 10 ppm .( وقد كان اكثر األنواع مقاومة وأفضلها يف التكيف البيئي والوراثي النوعphysa acuta يليهmelanopsis buccinoidea مثmelanoides tuberculata ولقـــد أظهـــرت الدراســـة وجـــود عالقـــة بـــني التعـــرض الســـابق للكـــائن اىل املعـــادن الثقيلـــة يف بيئتـــه . األصلية وبني املقاومة التجريبية، ومل يكن الختالف بعض العوامـل الفيزياويـة والكيمياؤيـة التجريبيـة ملثيال ــا يف عــن التعــرض الســابق) العســرة الكليــة واحلــرارة واالوكســجني املــذاب والكربيتــات( مثــل وقــد أظهـرت النتــائج عـدم قـدرة األنــواع الثالثـة للقواقــع . البيئـة األصـلية أي تــأثري يـذكر يف املقاومـة ) ppm 1 ,0.5(علـى التكيـف الـوراثي يف الرتاكيـز التجريبيـة باسـتثناء الرتاكيـز الواطئـة للزنـك األصحاء بينما عجز من انتاج اكثر من جيلني من األفراد physa acutaحيث متكن النوع أمـا النـوع . عن انتاج اكثر مـن جيـل واحـد ضـعيف melanopsis buccinoideaالنوع 76 a comparative study of ecological and genetical adaptation melanoides tuberculata لقـد اقرتحــت . فقــد فشـل متامـاً يف انتـاج أي جيــل بـذكر فقـط وامنـا بـالتعرض ) قصـري األمـد(الدراسة التوسع يف اجراء البحوث اخلاصة لـيس بـالتعرض احلـاد وذلك لتحديد التداخل بني التكيف البيئي والـوراثي املسـبق للكـائن ومـديات ) طويل األمد( املزمن .حتمله ملختلف امللوثات يف البيئة 4 13 b . m . al chalabi bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2000) 9 (2): 13-17 on a new cestode from the avocet recur virostra avocetta l. collected in iraq mohammad k. mohanimad iraq natural history museum, university of baghdad, bab al-muadham، baghdad, iraq abstract several specimens of the avocet, recurvirostra avocetta l. are found infected with himantocestus gigantivcus sp. nov. ( cestoda , diploposthidae) . this cestode is related to h. blanksoni ukoli 1965 but easily differentiated from it in having longer and wider strobila, larger size of testes but lesser in number, cirrus situated in the middle of mature segment histead of anterior third and slightly posterior to the middle in gravid segment instead of the middle , ovary and vitelline gland are larger , and the uterus has more branches. introduction the avocet recurvirostra avocetta l. is present in iraq most of the year and breeds in small numbers in some suitable areas during summer ( allouse, 1961). the bird inhabits the muddy shores and shallow water bodies searching for its food mainly the benthic invertebrates (olney,1967; sills,1981) which are capable of tran5mitting different kinds of parasites. to the best of my knowledge , there is no report on the helminth parasites of this bird in iraq. only few works were carried out abroad like that of baear (1968), burt (19679,1980), and gabrion and macdonald (1980) who reported only one cestode species. materials and methods eleven birds were shot at al-zubaidiya area, wasit province, middle of iraq during march 1994 to august 1995 . the birds were dissected immediately. the cestodes were put in 1% wami saline to allow them to expand , then kept in 40% acetic acid diluted by 70% ethanol, stained with acetocarmine , cleared in xylene and then mounted in canada balsam. drawings were made with the aid of camera lucida. results ten birds ( 91%) were found infected with 2-7 (mean = 3.1) specimens of hitherto undescribed cestode, its description as follows: himantocestus giganticus sp. nov. the strobila is broad and thick, measuring 165 mm in length and 7.1 mm in maximum width. all segments are wider than long. the scolex is small, bibbed and not demarcated from neck(flg. 1) measuring 0.48 aim in length and 0.68mm in breadth. the rostellum is knoblike, measures 0.14 mm in length and 0.045 mminmaximumwidth,armedwith 18 hooks . the suckers measure 0.30-0.329 (0.31) mm in diameter. the immature segment with primordia of the male organs( fig. 2) . genital pores bilateral located in the middle of the margin of the mature segment ( fig. 3) and slightly posterior to the middle in the gravid segment( fig. 4). testes are 40-52(44) arranged in-a bundle in the middle of the segment. the testis is subspherical , 0.06-0.08 mm. there are two cirrus pouches, one on each side of the gment . in 14 inheritance of dark head the immature segment they extend internally beyond the excretory canals( fig. 2) in the mature segment they just touch the canals( fig. 3) , while in the gravid segment they do not reach the canals (fig. 4) .the cirrus pouch of the mature segment measures 0.23-0.26 x 0.100.12 mm. the cirrus of the mature segment is large , conspicuous and always protruded . the everted part measures 0.076 mm in length with fme closely set spines which have a linear arrangement. the ovary is bibbed, situated medially near the posterior border of the segment, measuring 0.67 mm across . the vitelline gland is compact, spherical and situated anterior to the ovary, measuring 0.02 mm. the vagina is absent. the uterus develops early . at the beginning it is in the form of a simple transverse tube, then later it attains the form of a narrow tranverse tube stretching across the middle of the segment between the excretory canals, with large sac-like diverticula from anterior to posterior margins. the ripe egg ( fig. 5) measures 0.122 x 0.047mm. type host: avocet recurvi rostra avocetta l. additional host: black-winged stilt, himantopus himantopus himantopus ( l.) type locality: a1-zubaidiya area, wasit province, middle of h-aq ( 45 10, 32 45) site of infection: small intestine type series: holotype hib 139, paratypes hib 140. types are deposited in the collection of the invertebrates and parasitology section, iraq natural history museum, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq. discussion ukoli (1965) erected the genus himantocestus for his new cestode h. blanksoni depending on the strength of differences between his new genus and the other genera of family diploposthidae. he redefined the family diploposthidae to include the new genus. spasski and spasskaya (1968) objected ukoli’s suggestion considering the morphological criteria were imperfect. they also analysed the description of h. blanksoni from the duodenum of h. h. himantopus in ghana, and consider the family diploposthidae to be synonymous with hymenolepididae, although there is some confusion in regard to generic position of some taxa of diploposthidae, the present cestode is clearly belonged to genus himantocestus and the present species differs from the genotype h. blanksoni in attaining larger size of strobilae; larger size of testes, almost double ( diameter 0.113 mm); less number of testes with mean of 44 instead of 60 in h. blanksoni ; cirrus situated in the middle of mature segment instead of anterior third and slightly posterior to the middle in the gravid segment instead of the middle; ovary and vitelline gland are larger; and fmally it has more uterus branches. literature cited allouse, b. e. 1961 birds of iraq. vol.2 arrabitta press, baghdad, 278 pp. baear, j. c. 1968 eurycestus avoceti clark 1954 (cestode, cyclophyllidien )parasite de l’avocette en camergue. vie milien , 19 1-c: 189 198 burt, d. r. r. 1979 new cestodes of the genus eurycestus clark 1954 from the avocet recurvirostra avoricaea gmelin 1788. zoological 3. linn. soc., 65(1): 71 82 15 b . m . al chalabi ___________ 1980 intraspecific variation in diplophallus polymorphus ( rudoiphi, 1819) ( cestoda: acoelidne) from avocets and stilts ( recurvirostridae) in north america. zoological 3. linn. soc., 68 (4): 387-397 gabrion, c. and macdonalds, g. 1980 artemia’ sp. ( crustacea , anostrace) , hote intermediate d’eurycestus avoceti clark 1954 ( cestode, cyclophyllide) parasite de l’avocette en camargue. anna/es parasit. hum. comp.,55: 99 olney, p. 1. s. 1967 avocets their prey and predators. ibis, 189:474 sills, n. 1981 shrimp soup. birds rsfs iviag. (summer):26 spasski, a. a. and spasskaya, l. p. 1968 on the imperfectness of morphological criteria of the genus himantocestus ( gyrocoelinae, diploposthidae). helmintholoia, 9:5375 39 ukoli, f. m. a. 1965 three cestodes from the families diploposthidae poche 1926 dioecstidae southwell 1930 and progynotaenidae fuhrmann 1936 found in the black wionged stilt himantopus himantopus himantopus (linn.,1758)in ghana. 3. helminth. ,34(4):383-398 16 inheritance of dark head 17 b . m . al chalabi bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2000) 9 (2): 13-17 6 49 s. k. jan bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2009)10(4): 49-58 microfacies study of hadiene formation (north iraq) sadi kan jan iraq natural history museum, university of baghdad, bab al-muadham, baghdad abstract in the region of the north of iraq using the method of analyzing thin section microfacies to 38 of rockyslices which were gathered from a place near aqra city. these slides are divided into seven microfacies depending on lithologcal component and fossils. 1) dolostone facies. 2) recrystallized bioclastic wackestone facies. 3) bioclastic packstone microfacies 4) sucrosic dolomite facies. 5) bioclastic grainstone in microfacies. according to water energy, these facies were divided to three zone: a) low energy environment. b) transitional zone. c) high energy environment. introduction hadiene formation was first described by (wetzel, 1950), north west of iraq. this formation was divided into three parts. the lower part is formed of dolomite limestone in addition to few conglomeratic rocks. the middle part of the formation is formed of (silt), calcareous marls, (sandy limestone) and grains from (chert). the upper part of the formation is formed of (conglomeratic) and fragmental limestone with some little of grains of quartz. (bellen et al., 1959) have described the most important fossils in this formation (clobotru ncana sp.) and (inoceramus inconstans), (globigerina ssp.) and (orbitoides media). the age of the formation was determined as upper companion with a possibility of maastrichtian in the top. (budy, 1980) span on the other hand has let the name of the formation and its definition as it is without any change. the recent study concentrate on division of the micro lithiologal facies of this formation. microfacies hadiena formation in the north of iraq was divided as in fig.1 into seven facies units after the test of the thin sections by polarized microscope, depending on the classification of (dunham, 1962) and according to the specification of (fluegel, 1972) wich is modified by (wilson, 1975). the process is done depending on lithological components and some fossils (fluegel, 1978) (fig.2) also divided the microfacies, depending on water energy, into three zones: a) low-energy environment. b) transitional zone. c) high-energy environment. 50 microfacies study of hadiene formation the sedimentary microfacies and its water energy was as follow: 1) doloslone facies. this facies lies in the lower formation where the dolomite is formed as a shown in plate (1-1) as result of the reciprocal modification process of the calcite precipitate therefore,this facies is considered of secondary origin. it exists in the shape of rhombohydral of different size and of different clarity whose percentage reaches. more than 90%, it consists of rounding quartz, which indicates its precipitation in regions near the coast. this facies represents the standard microfacics (s.m.f21) in the zone (f.z.8). 2) recrystallized bioclastic wackcstone microfacies. this facies is characterized by (he abundance of (planktonic foram.) like (glohotruncana sp.) which destroyed the most of them because of the recrystallisation plate (1-2), there is also the metal of precipitate pyrite in some of areas and chambers of (planktonic foram.), the last one represents a suitable precipitate environment for the precipitate (pyrite). this facies represents the standard microfacics (s.m.f.9) of the zone (f.z.2) below normal wave base open water circulation. the water energy of this facies lies within (a) because of the existence of micrite and bad rounding. 3) bioclastic packstone microfacies. this facies consists of (milliolids), (echinoderms), and the (plaktonic foram.) chambers fullin with calcite cement. plate (1-3) and (cortoids) which came from by transport from high in matrix-micrite. the water energy of (his facies lies within zone (a). this facies represents the standard microfacies (s.m.f.4) of the zone (f.z.4) for slope. 4) sucrosic dolomite facies. this facies lies in the lower formation. the rocks of this facies sucrosic dolomite with equal crystal plate (l-4) there are some traces of (planktonic forams.). especially (globigerina sp.). this facies is deep shelf margin below the wave base directed by the open sea. this facies represents the standard microfacies (s.m.f.3) of the zone. (f.z.3). the facies later faced the process of dolomization because of the passing of magnesium loaded iiquids. the water energy of this facies lies within zone (b) because of the good sorting of the grains and the non existence of micrite. 5) crianstone microfacies with pellets. this facies is characterized by the plentiful presence of pellets plate (2-1) in addition to little quantity (planktonic forams.), some of its chambers are filled (cemen (-b)). the water energy of this facies is (c). because of the non existence of (micrite-matrix) and the very good sorting advance of the grains in addition to the very good rounding as well as non fine grain materials. this facies represents the standard microfacies (s.m.f.16) of the zone (f.z.8), that is to say in very warm water with only moderate water circulation zone. 6) dolomitized foraminiferal packstone microfacies. the most important fossils which are existed in this facies is (planktonic forams.) like (globotruncana sp.), (globigerina sp.) plate (2-2) and there is also (echinodcrms, lithoclast) plate (2-3) q, which is precipitated in some of its chambers calcite cement and (pyrite), in addition to (dolomite rhombohydral) which are scattered in matrix-micrite whose quantity increases in the upper part of this facies. finally there is a little presence of (chert). this facies was equivalent to the standard microfacies (s.m.f.4) in the zone facies (f.z.3). the water energy of this facies lies within zone (b) because of the partial presence of fine micro grains and the sorting is enclosed between bad and medium g. 7) bioclastic grainstone microfacies. this facies consists of (echinoderms) in addition to (milliolids) and very little of (phaktonic forams.) in the base of (sprite). as well as (chert) and (quartz) which indicates the effect of the mainland on this facies, also we found (interclast) and (pellets) plate (2-4). the most important diagentic processes are the precipitation of calcite cement and (pyrite) 51 s. k. jan in petrified chambers amid there is also some little of dolomite mineral in this facies. this facies was equivalent to the standard microfacies (s.m.f.11) in the zone facies (f.z.6). in other word the precipitation in an area with a consistent the water movement. the water energy of this facies lies within zone (c) because of the good sorting advance of the grains as well as the non existence of micrite, fein grain material in addition to the good rounding of these grains. conclusion the limestone were divided into seven micro sedimentary facies so as to from a hadiena formation they are: 1) dolostone facies. 2) recrvstallized bioclstic wackestone facies. 3) bioclastic packstone microfacies. 4) sucrosic dolomite facies. 5) grianstone microfacies with pellets. 6) dolomitized foraminiferal packstone microfacies. 7) bioclastic grainston. these facies was divided according to water energy into three zones low (a), middle (b) and high (c). the most important diagenesis processes were crystallization and deposit of calcite cement in fossils chambers and late dolomatization process. references bellen, v. r. g. 1959. lexique straigrapluique international paris. 333p. budy, r. t., 1980. the regional geology of iraq vol.1. stratigraphy and paleography edited by kassab and jassim geosurvy baghdad. dunham, r. j., 1962. classification of carbonate rocks according to despositional texture apg. 1, 108-121, tulsa. fluegel, e., 1982. microfacies analysis of limestone, springerverlag, berlin. 633p. wetzei, r. 1950. stratigraphy of the amadiya region, mpc. willson, j. i., 1973. carbonate facies geologic histoiy. spriger verlag. 52 microfacies study of hadiene formation 53 s. k. jan 54 microfacies study of hadiene formation 55 s. k. jan 56 microfacies study of hadiene formation 57 s. k. jan 58 microfacies study of hadiene formation bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2009)10(4): 49-58 ق ما العرا ي ش دي ف ن ه ك ي حنا الد يق لت س ال خا جان سعد متحف التاريخ الطبيعي ، جامعة بغداد، باب المعظم، بغداد، العراق الخالصة ق ـل دقي ت ل حنا ر قة ل ط ق ب ع ا ل ال يف ا ن دينة وي ك ر ت ة صخ ية مت ) ٣٨(د ش حي سيمها ىلتق ب م إ مت مجع ا بال ر صخ ي ت حن س مت ت سس عة د م ي ة ع رة و ىليمها ن عة إ سب وهي ض ي ع ي وال ر صخ ك ن ال ى امل م د عل قة باالعت ت دقي حن :س دول )١ ة ل حن تو س .ماي ي املعا د ال بلور )٢ ك وا ي ال ري جل حل ر ا ة ا حن .س ضوي )٣ ت ا ع ف ا م لل حلا ص ص ا ري املر جل حنة ا جر ا .س كري )٤ س ت ا ولوماي حنة ا د .س حنة )٥ ق س جل ي احلب يب احلا ل لل مال جر ا حل .ا فرا )٦ ف رامي ي م لل حلا حلبي ا ري ا جل جر ا حل ة ا حن .س ضوي )٧ ت ا ع ف ا م لل حلا حلبي ا ري ا جل حنة ا جر ا .س ح ا طاقة مل ئية سيم مت ق د ىلوق ة إ الث قث ط :ةان ة )١ طئ ة ال ا ة ال اق .بيئ ة )٢ ط س مل و ة ا .بيئة ال اق ة )٣ ة ال الي ة ال اق .بيئ 51-56 51 m . k . mohammad bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2001) 9 (3): 51-56 haemoproteids of the avian family rallidae in iraq with description of a new species mohammad k. mohammad iraq natural history museum, university of baghdad, bab al-muadham, baghdad, iraq abstract a survey of haemoproteids among the eight species of iraq rallids were carried out in the middle, south, and west of iraq. two haemoproteods were recorded, haeomproteus porzanae (galli-valerio, 1907) as a new record for iraq and the new species h. baghdadensis described from fulica atra l. collected in the middle of iraq. introduction the family rallidae comprises eight species in iraq (allouse, 1962). five of them are winter migrants while the rest are residents. they inhabit mainly marshes, lakes, and banks of rivers. these ecosystems in iraq support high vector potentiality in view of the presence of dense vegetation and relatively high temperature. bennett (1980), in his study of haemoproteids of rallidae collected from different parts of the world, reported only two species; haemoproteus gallinulae de mello, 1935 and h. porzanae (galli-vallerio, 1907). since that no further information were available. it is of interest to study the haemoproteid parasites of iraq rallids as a good number of specimens were available through the filed trips achieved by the staff of iraq natural history museum. materials and methods a total of 236 rallid birds belonging to eight species were collected throughout middle, south and west iraq during the period march1992 to july 1997. thin blood smears were made from brachial vein or sometime heart of each bird, air dried, fixed in absolute methanol, and stained with giemsa’s stain according to protocols of bennett (1970). the morphometric parameters of both parasites and red blood cells were determined following the methods of bennett and campbell (1972) as modified by forrester et al. (1977) and mohammad (1996). drawings were made with the aid of camera lucida. the number of examined materials is indicated by n, while the nuclear displacement ratio by ndr. all measurements are presented as means following by standard deviation in parenthesis. results table 1 summarizes the results on examining blood smears of rallid birds. this would show that seven species of the examined birds were infected with haemoproteids. the infected birds constitute 8.5% of the total sample. haemoproteus porzanae (l.) was found infected the rallids, rallus aquaticus l., crex crex (l.), porzana porzana (l.), and porzana parva (scopoli). prevalence of the parasite is light to moderate. the other haemoproteid seems to be new, its decription as follows: haemoproteus baghdadensis sp. nov. type host: fulica atra l. type locality: al-attariya, 45 km se baghdad city, middle of iraq (44◦ 45′ e, 33◦ 15′ n). 52 haemoproteids of ralidae date of collection: august 12, 1995. immature gametocyte: (figs. 1-2). youngest forms seen initiate growth in fully mature erythrocytes, mostly lateral but sometimes polar to erythrocyte nucleus in position. the parasite shape is amoeboid. macrogametocyte: (figs. 3-4 , table 2 ). parasite small, dumbbell-shaped and almost attached to the lateral margin of erythrocyte. fully mature macrogametocyte with entire borders and the ends tapering gradually at both ends. cytoplasm finely granular staining deep blue with giemsa’s stain. pigment granules of medium size distributed througout cytoplasm. parasite nucleus of small size, compact, usually submedium, and staining deep pink with giemsa’s stain. microgametocyte: (fig. 5-6, table 2) general shape as macrogametocyte with the usual sexual dimorphic staining characters. pigment granules of large size distributed throughout cytoplasm. parasites nucleus of large size, diffuse and ill-defined. type material: blood film no. nb527 deposited in the collection of invertebates and parasitology section, iraq natural history muesum, university of baghdad taken from coot fulica atra l. by the author. paratype material: blood film no. nb229 from gallinula chloropus chloropus (l.) collected by the author on feb. 22, 1996 at khalis city, diyala province, middle of iraq; and blood film no. nb691 from purple gallinule porphyrio porphyrio (l.) collected by the author on may 17,1996 at hilla city, babil province, middle of iraq. the necessary measurements of parasitized and unparasitized erythrocytes, to examine the hypertrophy, were presented in table 3. table 1: species, number, and percentage of infection of rallid birds with haemoproteids. bird species no. exam. no. inf. % inf. parasite sp. rallus aquaticus 12 2 16.6 haemoproteus porzanae crex crex 19 3 15.8 haemoproteus porzanae porzana porzana 17 2 11.8 haemoproteus porzanae porzana parva 16 2 12.5 haemoproteus porzanae porzana pusilla 2 fulica atra 67 6 9 haemoproteus baghdadensis gallinula chloropus 83 3 3.6 haemoproteus baghdadensis porphyrio porphyrio 22 2 9.1 haemoproteus baghdadensis table 2: measurements of macroand microgametocytes of haemoproteus baghdadensis sp. nov. (figures represent mean of 50 parasites, sd in parentheses). measurements macrogametocytes microgametocytes parasite length 13.23 (1.5) 12.10 (2.0) width 2.15 (0.3) 2.85 (0.4) area 27.65 32.65 % erythrocyte-parasite complex 55.60 63.42 parasite nucleus length 2.8(0.2) 5.33(0.6) width 2.6 (0.1) 3.1 (0.2) area 5.95 18.45 % area of parasite 6.50 8.32 no. pigment granules 12.5 (1.5) 11.2 (1.6) 53 m . k . mohammad table 3: comparision of unparasitized and parasitized erythrocytes (no.=50). measurements unparasitized erythrocytes parasitized erythrocytes macromicro erythrocyte length 12.15(0.2) 13.30(0.3) 13.9(0.2) width 7.25(0.1) 8.55(0.2) 8.78(0.1) area 61.65(7.8) 73.35(6.5) 73.20(4.6) erythrocyte nucleus length 5.8(0.1) 5.5(0.1) 5.3(0.1) width 2.4(0.1) 2.1(0.1) 2.2(0.1) area 9.55(1.5) 8.85(1) 10.05(1.5) % area of nucleus to total area 16.33(2.1) 13.45(1.5) 18.25(2.5) ndr 0.82 0.60 discussion in view of lacking the necessary information on the distribution of haemoproteid parasites among the members of the avian family rallidae in iraq and with describing some other haemoproteid species abroad which proved later to be in synonomy with the previous described ones, this paper is devoted to study the situation of haemoproteids within the iraqi rallids. reporting haemoproteus porzanae constitutes a new record for iraq, while reporting it from the hosts rallus aquaticus, crex crex, porzana porzana, and porzana parva are new host records. the haemoproteids status of family rallidae is of some confusion. three species were described, haemoproteus porzanae (galli-valerio, 1907) from porzana pusilla in tunisia, h. gallinulae de mello, 1935 from gallinula chloropus in india, and h. fulicae da fonseca, 1938 from fulica atra in india. all of the original descriptions lacked the necessary measurements and also the authors provided no illustrations except for h. gallinulae. later, bennett (1980) in his review of the haemoproteids of family rallidae ascribed only two species, haemoproteus gallinulae and h. porzanae, considering h. fulicae as a synonym of h. gallinulae. in iraq shamsuddin and mohammad (1980) found no haematozoa in the blood of gallinula chloropus and fulica atra. table 1 showed that four of the winter migratory rallids are infected with haemoproteus porzanae, while the three resident ones are infected with h. baghdadensis sp. nov. this pattern of infection may be because that the migrants acquired the initial infection in their summer environments and the appropriate intermediate host is not found in iraq, while the infection of the residents with h. baghdadensis sp. nov. only may suggests that the vector of this parasite is confined to our area. reporting the present new species from three resident rallid hosts shows strong host-vector interaction and the parasite seems endemic to the local habitat. haemoproteus baghdadensis sp. nov. is related to but differs from h. porzanae in that, it slightly hypertrophied the parasitized erythrocyte(table 3) and in having more medium size pigment granules instead of large ones. 54 haemoproteids of ralidae literature cited allouse, b. e. 1961 birds of iraq. vol. 2. ar-rabitta press, baghdad, 280 pp. bennett, g. f. 1970 simple techniques for making avian blood smears. canad. j. zool., 48(3): 585-586. bennett, g. f. 1980 avian haemoproteidae. 14. the haemoproteids of the avian family rallidae. canad. j. zool., 58(3):321-325. bennett, g. f. and campbell, a. g. 1972 avian haemoproteidae. 1. description of haemoproteus fallisi n. sp. and a review of the haemoproteids of the family turdidae.canad. j. zool., 50:1269-1275. forrester, d. j., greiner, e. c., bennett, g. f. and kigaye, m. k. 1977 avian haemoproteidae. 7. a haemoproteidae . 7 . a review of the haemoproteids of the family ciconiidae (storks) and descriptions of haemoproteus brodkorbi sp. nov. and h. peircei sp. nov. canad. j. zool., 55:1268-1274. mohammad, m. k. 1996 haemoproteus burhinus. a new species from the stone curlew, burhinus oecidnemus saharae (reichenow) in iraq. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus., 8(4): 103-111. shamsuddin, m. and mohammad, m. k. 1981 haematozoa of some iraqi birds with description of two new species, haemoproteus pteroclis and leucocytozoon nycticoraxi (protozoa, haemosporina). bull. iraq nat. hist. res. centre, 7(4):111-154. 55 m . k . mohammad bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2001) 9 (3): 51-56 في طيور العائلة المرعية في العراق مع وصف ) الهيموبروتيوس(طفيليات األوالي الدموية نوع جديد محمد كاظم محمد العراق –بغداد باب المعظمجامعة بغدادمتحف التاريخ الطبيعي الخالصة املرعيـة يف يف مثانية أنواع من الطيور ) اهليموبروتيوس(اجري مسح لطفيليات األوايل الدموية العـراق يفسـجل اثنـان مـن االوايل الدمويـة أحـدمها سـجل ألول مـرة . وسط وجنوب وغرب العراق haemoproteus porzane فهــو نــوع جديــد للعلــم أمــا اآلخــرh. baghdadensis الــذي وصــف مــن .طري الغر الذي مت مجعه من وسط العراق 56 haemoproteids of ralidae 6 25 b . m . al chalabi bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2000) 9 (2): 25-29 an abnormal genitalia in ciojndela aulice dej. (coleoptera: cicindelidae) from iraq n. m. al-sandouk dept. of biology, college of education. ibn al-haitham university of baghdad abstract phenomena of an abnormal genitalia was among some specimens of cicindela aulica dej. collected from iraq. the fore tarsi of male were asymmetrical having its basal three segments dilated and clothed beneath with fine bristles as in normal male. while those of the right leg were found simple as in normal females. dissection of the genialia of these specimens showed that they were of two types of both male and female structures. introduction the male and female genitalia of most coleoptera have not been revealed. most species were described externally only. the general variations in the male genitalia of some species were firstly revealed by sharp and noir(1912), while the female genitalia of few other species were comparatively studied by tanner (1927). pormeroy (1932), ali (1967) described and illustrated both male and female genitalia of scarites eulytus fisch (carabidae). the species of the family cicindelidae of iraq have not been investigated from this point. only the male genital tube of eight newly described ali (1978) studied species of cicindelidae from iraq. the families cicindelidae have long been treated as a distinct family. however some working such as crowson (1955) and lindroth (1974) have suggested that the cicindelids should be a subfamily of the carabidae. material and method specimens of cicindela aulica dej. were collated from iraq during summer 1993, therefore eight dried specimens were used for the present study. the specimens were relaxed in warm water for about 20 minutes. the abdomen was dissected out was further softened and cleared for 10 minutes in 10% warm koi-i solution. the ginitalia were dissected by pulling the aedeagus out through the opening between the last abdominal solerites. pressure was applied on the basal part of median lobe to event the internal sac while pulling this sac through the median orifice. examination was made in methyl benzoate under a binocular microscope. diagrams were performed with aid of an ocular grid and squared papers. measurements were done with occular micrometer. 26 inheritance of dark head results and discussion normal in females of this fore tarsi of male in some specimens were found to be asymmetrical having the left leg with basal three tarsal segments and clothed beneath with fine bristles as in normal males. those of the right leg were all simple as found in species (fig. i and 2). male genitalia, the male genital tube of cicindelid as figured here for comparison (fig. 3) and to illustructures. the median lobe is tubular and curve upward. swollen along the distal two thirds and narrowed toward basal end: median orifice being as a slit along ventral side of the distal end the lobe, while the median foramen as a circular opening receiving the ejaculatory duct at basal end of the median lobe (aedeagus). lateral lobes slender styliform and tapering at their distal end, each lobe has a small swollen at the point where it connects to the arms of the basal piece. internal sac large membranous and coiled when not evaginated and when everted through the median orifice it shows small sclerites at the distal end, some of these sclerites have serrate margins. it is found that the male genitalia of the specimens studied here were well developed (fig. 3). the genital tube consists of a tubular lobe, and has a silt the median at the ventral side toward the distal end, through which the internal sac is evaginated. lateral lobes or the parameres as have been called by snodgress (1935) are slender and pointed apically. both lateral lobes on left side of the aedeagus. basal piece v-shaped. small and connected to the lateral lobes about halfway from their origin, basal piece and the lateral lobes are connected b a membrane encloses the basal end of the aegeagus. the lateral lobes are giabrous at their distal end. having no hairs as in carabidae lindroth (1957). the female genitalia are not well developed in the abnormal specimens there are being located as a half set of the genital appendages on the right side of the male genital tube, they consist of a short stylus and a coxite with a very short rudimentary vulva. the proetiger and the paraprocts may represent the tenth tergite respectively. this case of combined male and female genital appendages in the came specimen represents a gynandromorphic form in the species. a biological and ecological studies are needed for the future to reveal more informations on this interested case in field. references ali. ha. (1967) the external morphology of sca,’i eurvtus fisch. (colaoptera: carabidae) bull. biol. res. centre baghdad 3:17-41. ------------(1978) faunistic study of the cicindelidae(lnsecta: coleoptera) of iraq and southwest asia coleotera. coleop. bull. 32: 1-20. crawson, r. a. (1955). the natural classification of the families of coleotera. e.w. classey ltd. hampton 214pp. lindroth, oh. (1954). the principle terms used for male and female genitalia in coleoptera. opuscula ent. 22:24 1-256. pomeroy. m. a. and muir. f. (1932). african betties of the family carabidae. trans. ent. soc. lond. 80:77-102. sharp. m. a. and muir. f. (1912). the comparative anat of the male genital tube in coleoptera. trans. soc. lond. on 477-642. snodgrass. r. e. (1935). principles of insect morphology. new york. and london. 667pp. tanner. v.m. (1927). a preliminary study of the genitalia of female. trans. amer. ent. soc. 53:5-50. 27 b . m . al chalabi 28 inheritance of dark head 29 b . m . al chalabi bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2000) 9 (2): 25-29 23-27 23 s . m . arif and z. a .a . ibrahim bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2001) 9 (3): 23-27 survey on the prevalence of intestinal parasites among orphan children inhabit two statehomes in baghdad city saad m. arif and zaman a. a. ibrahim technical institute/ al-mansur/ baghdad abstract 230 stool samples were collected from 2 state homes for (males and females) to investigate the infection of different intestinal parasites (pathogenic and non-pathogenic). the infection rate was higher among males 15.7% than females 6%, these rates were increased when concentration method was employed up to 54.8% for males and 8.7% for females significantly. most infected orphans were found to harbor single parasite followed by double, triple parasites. the highest rate of infection was found among young age group (1-5) years old, while the older age groups got lowest rates. of helminthes, the commonest parasite was hymenolepis nana 5.7% and of protozoa, the commonest intestinal parasite was giardia lamblia 7.4%. introduction statehomes are one of establishments which concern with orphan children who suffering of social and financial problems. this study is extended to evaluate the healthy state of the beneficiaries who inhabits these homes and it is truly considered the first study which was done on statehomes orphans and children in baghdad city. many studies were carried on school and pre-school children in different ages and sexes some of these were done in baghdad city and its provinces (al-jeboori and shafiq, 1976; ali et al., 1989; ibrahim et al., 1994) while others were done in other cities and in different parts of iraq (molan and faroq, 1989; dwiach et al., 1992). materials and methods 230 stool samples were collected from two statehomes (males and females) in baghdad city in clean, dry, covered plastic cups labeled with child name, sex, age and some clinical symptoms and all the samples were examined by two laboratory techniques: a-direct smear method: with two slides per each stool sample using saline and iodine with a little amount of stool and examined microscopically. b-concentration method: using normal saline to concentrate ova and oocycts, then the deposites examined microscopically using lugol’s iodine. all stool samples were collected from (8-10 a. m.) approximately (25) samples/day and examined after (1 hr) from time of collection. chi-square applied on the data which was obtained. 24 survey on the prevalence of intestinal parasites results and discussion from table (1 and 2) the study show that orphan child could be infected with different intestinal pathogenic and non-pathogenic parasites at different ages and sexes with different rates. of 230 stool samples, 73 (31.7%) were positive for intestinal parasite. giardia lamblia was the most common 17 (7.4%) pathogenic parasite, but this rate is lower than that reported by (ali et al., 1989; molan and faroq, 1989; mohmood, 1992). the infection rates with this parasite vary greatly from district-to-district, due to many factors such as (district nature, level of personal sanitation and whether family, school, hospital child) (al-jeboori and shafiq, 1976), while (abdel-hafez et al. 1986) said that highrate of giardiasis is due to person-to-person transmission in the same place. table 1: prevalence of intestinal parasites among orphans children inhabit two statehomes for males and females. parasite name total cases statehome (m) statehome (f) no. % no. % no. % entamoeba histolytica 3 1.3 3 1.3 0 0 giardia lamblia 17 7.4 15 6.5 2 0.87 entamoeba coli 23 10 22 9.6 1 0.4 endolimax nana 4 1.7 1 0.4 3 1.3 trichomonas hominis 7 3 5 2.1 2 0.87 enterobius vermicularis 5 2.1 5 2.1 0 0 hymenolepis nana 13 5.7 11 4.8 2 0.87 strongyloides stercoralis 1 0.4 1 0.4 0 0 total no. exam. =230 73 31.7 63 27.5 10 4.4 these results were obtained by using concentration method. table 2: total infection rates using both methods (direct and concentration) in accordance with age groups, sexes, pattern of infection. age groups (years) total no. exam. direct method concentration method no. + % no. + % 1-5 83 16 7 49 21.3 6-10 90 7 3 17 7.4 11-15 57 2 0.8 7 3 sexes total no no. + % no.+ % males 115 18 15.7 63 54.8 females 115 7 6 10 8.7 pattern of infection no.+ % no.+ % single infection 21 9.1 49 21.3 double infection 3 1.3 20 8.7 triple infection 1 0.4 4 1.7 total no. exam. 230 25 10.8 73 31.7 25 s . m . arif and z. a .a . ibrahim the infection rate with hymenolepis nana is 5.7% which is much lower than that reported by ( al-hannon and mukhlis 1982) 7.9%, mohmood (1992) 19.4% and higher than that reported by dwiach et al. (1992) 3.6% and ibrahim et al. (1994) 2.3%. the infection with h. nana may be either due to auto-infection (al-abiady, 1988) or could be child hands contaminated with mouse piles (dwiach et al., 1992) or may be accidental ingestion of mouse piles (mohmood,1992). the infection rate with entamoeba histolytica is 1.3% which is lower than that reported by (al-hannon and mukhlis, 1982) 6.7%, (ibrahim et al., 1994) 7.4% and this low rate either faecal-contamination with parasite is low (al-jeboori and shafiq, 1976) or, the prevalence of this parasite among adults more than in children (dwiach et al., 1992). young children especially under 2 years old got lower infection rates because of the defence mechanism which transmitted from mother through breast milk (asma et al., 1988). the prevalence rate of strongyoides stercoralis was the lowest rate 0.4%, this rate reflect the fact that parasitic infection through soil is very low (al-jeboori and sahafiq, 1976; mahdi and jassim,1987). on the other hand, the results indicated that the males got higher rate 15.7% than females 6% and these rates increased significantly (p< 0.01) when we used concentration method. this fact reflects the better hygienic and sanitory precautions (it was observed very clearly) among females than males statehome and it means that there is better an intensive care among females statehomes than males. this fact could be explained by the playing-nature of males outdoors & indoors make them exposed to contamination more than females and as it was observed clearly that the free behavior of males outdoor make them indirect contact with contaminated foods, this fact was affirmed by (dwiach et al., 1992; jaafer, 1995). the results indicated that orphan child could be harbour and infected with more than one parasite concurrently (single, double, triple infection) and this is due to either agreat risk of exposure to mixed infection (al-jeboori & shafiq, 1976) or due the mixed infection occur commonly via faeco-oral (mahdi & jassin, 1987) while (ali et al., 1990) said that the mixed infection is due to responsiveness of child to be infection with one parasite give a chance to other parasite to survive longer in same host & same time. the highest infection rates with different parasites was found among young age group orphan (1-5) years old while old age group children (not adults) (6-10) (11-15) years old got lower rates of infection because orphans hans among young age much more exposed to contaminate dirt due to play nature which keep them in direct contact with contamination (alabiady, 1988), while (al-hanoon & mukhlis, 1982) said that young ages are more liable for infection than older ages . finally non-pathogenic. parasites were exist in some stool samples in different rates entamoeba coil 10%, endolimax nana 1.7% trichomonas hominis 3% and the existence of these parasites in stool samples is an indication for a faecal contamination of hands, foods, water (al-jeboori & shafiq 1976, ibrahim et al, 1994). conclusion generally, we can say that the total rate of infection with different intestinal parasites is low, and this rate could be increased & extended to involve un-infective children especially among males statehome, unless all sanitory and medically precausions must be well developed in both statehomes . acknowledgements a great and sincere regards to all statehomes staff, managements, members, social supervisors, guardman for their great help. 26 survey on the prevalence of intestinal parasites our sincere thanks to dr. shakeer mohmood for his clinical diagnosis and for dr. talal a. mohy for his cooperation in doing statistical analysis of the results. literature cited abdel-hafez, m.m.; el-kady, n.; bolbol, as.; and baknina, m.h. 1986. prevalence of intestinal parasitic infection in riyadh district, saudi arabia anns, trop med. & paras 80(6):631-634 al-abiady, n.a. 1988. the correlation of hielminth ova & protozoa cysts in human and industs in & around houses in some villages around mosul-iraq. m.sc. thesis. al-hanoon, z., and mukhlis s. 1982, prevalence of intestinal parasites among secondary school students in mosul-iraq. j.fact. med. baghdad. 24(4):225-230. ali, n.m.h.; mohamed, y.h.; dakeel, s.h., and ali, a.a. 1989. prevalence of intestinal parasites among primary school student in al-rahmaniya-sector baghdad iraq. j.tech. res. suppliment. (accepted for publication, in press). ali. n.m.h.; al-kawa’s, i.a., hann; f., and ali, a.a. 1990. prevalence of h. nana mong primary school children in rahmaniya sector-baghdad-iraq. proceeding of 2nd. tech. conference (fti):150-163. al-jeboori, t. l. and shafiq, m. a. 1976 intestinal parasires in baghdad city. a survey in two districts. j. fact. med. baghdad, 18(3&4): 161-170 asma, i.; barbara, j. s.; inger, l.; jostna, b.; hazzara, n. and gunnel, h. 1988 the prevalence of e. histolytica in lactating women and their infants in bangladesh. trans. roy. soc. trop. med. & hyg.,82: 99-103. dwiach, r. n.; hussain, a. j. and rahhi, a. a. 1992 .prevalence of intestinal parasites among primary school children in kut. accepeted for 3rd tech. conference. j. tech. res. (in press). ibrahim, z. a. a. , saeed, a. k. and jaber, m. s. 1994 prevalence of intestinal parasites among primary school children in al-russafa sector baghdad. accepted for 4th tech. conference. j. tech. res. (in press). jaafer, e. h. 1995. prevalence of intestinal parasites among primary-school children in aldoorah area, baghdad, iraq. j. al-mustansyria science (accepted for publication, in press). mahdi, n. k. and jassim, a. h. 1987. intestinal parasitic infection of primary school children in three regions of southern iraq. med j. basrah univ., 6(1): 55-60. mohamed, a. f. b. 1995 prevalence of amoebic dysentry in saddam city, baghdad. j. tech. res. (accepted for publication, in press). mohmood, s. a. 1992. prevalence of intestinal parasites among primary school children in shualah city, baghdad. j. tech. res. (accepted for publication, in press). molan, a. l. and faroqq, a. m. 1989 prevalence of intestinal parasites in school children of arbil, northern iraq. saud. med. j., 10(2):107-110. 27 s . m . arif and z. a .a . ibrahim bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2001) 9 (3): 23-27 مسح حول انتشار الطفيليات المعوية بين األطفال األيتام في اثنين من دور الدولة في مدينة بغداد إبراهيم. أ. عارف و زمان أ. سعد م بغداد-المنصورالمعهد الفني الخالصة للكشـــف عـــن اخلمـــج ) للبنـــات والبنـــني(عينـــة بـــراز الثنـــني مـــن دور الدولـــة ٢٣٠لقـــد مت مجـــع ).املمرضة والغري ممرضة(طفيليات املعوية ملختلف ال أظهرت النتائج إن نسبة اخلمج بني الذكور بصورة عامة اكـرب مـن اإلنـاث حيـث بلغـت النسـبة لإلناث، وقد زادت هذه النسبة عند استخدام طريقة الرتكيز حيث بلغت % ٦للذكور و% ١٥,٧ .لإلناث بصورة معنوية% ١٨,٧للذكور و % ٥٤,٨ لقـد أظهــرت النتــائج بــان اخلمــج املفــرد هــو الـنمط الشــائع، ويــأيت بعــده اخلمــج املــزدوج، اخلمــج سنة بني األطفال األيتام اكثر الفئات عرضة للخمـج ) ٥-١(الثالثي، وان الفئات العمرية الصغرية .من الفئات العمرية الكبرية حيـث بلغـت giardia lambliaهـي لقد تبني بان اكثـر الطفيليـات املعويـة االبتدائيـة شـيوعاً حيــث hymenolepis nana، ومــن الــديان هــي الديــدان الشــريطية القزمــة %٧,٤نســبة اخلمــج %.٥,٧بلغت النسبة 7 79 m. s. zaynal bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2004)10 (2):79-89 detection of subsurface cavities by the electromagnetic method (case study at haditha area) mohammad s. zaynal iraqi natural history research center and museum. university of baghdad. baghdad, iraq. abstract two em techniques, terrain conductivity and vlf-radiohm resistivity (using two different instruments of geonics em 34-3 and emi6r respectively) have been applied to evaluate their ability in delineation and measuring the depth of shallow subsurface cavities near haditha city. thirty one survey traverses were achieved to distinguish the subsurface cavities in the investigated area. both em techniques are found to be successfiul tools in study area. introduction the development in iraq has necessitated a new vast areas for housing, construction and agriculture. most of the new land is characterized by high gypsum content and various geotechnical problems. so the obtaining of the required subsurface geotechnical informations prior to the erection of any large engineering construction are very important from both economic and safety point of view. for this reason. geophysical methods play an increasingly important role in the providing of this informations (such as assessment of the top layers; location, trend and depth of the shallow subsurface anomalies features). of the many different surface geophysical methods; the one which has been used in the present study is the electromagnetic method. it falls in two categories: the fixedsource technique and moving source-receiver technique. these techniques have several advantages over other geophysical surveys. the most important of these do not require the use of potential field and current electrodes as in the gravity survey and resistivity sounding. therefore; field measurements are very rapid and data acquisition includes low cost, easy operation, speed and accuracy. also the instruments give readings directly in mappable units. the most of successful applications of these two em techniques were published in different parts of the world including different studies such as: stewart (1982), ritsema (1983), baker and zaynal (1985,1986 & 1987), baker and abdul razzak (1985,1986 a&b), stewart and bretnall (1986), zaynal and tobia (1989), al-naib et al (1989), al-omari et al (1989). this work has investigated location and depth of the subsurface cavities (filled with water) in haditha area within the skin depth through using the electromagnetic method. the electrornainetic method and the measuring instruments electromagnetic induction methods utilize current flow induced in the subsurface material by a surface transmitter. an alternating electric current produced in a transmitter coil generates an alternating magnetic field, which in turn induces current flow through the earth material. the secondary magnetic field generated by the induced current is sensed by a receiver coil. the secondary field sensed at the coil depends on the strength of the primary 80 detection of subsurface cavities field, current frequency, distance between the transmitting and receiving coils and on the ground conductivity. in general, the secondary field which is picked up by a suitable receiver coil, will differ from the primary field in intensity, phase and direction and can reveal the presence of conductors. however, the detailed discussions of the electromagnetic methods and their theories of operation are given in many text books such as telford et al (1976), griffiths and king (1981), and parasins (1983). two different electromagnetic techniques have been used in this study: namely the em terrain conductivity and the vlf-radiohrn em resistivity measurements. the former is the moving source-receiver method and the latter is the fixed-source method. the instrument used with the em terrain conductivity measurements is the geonics em34-3. it consists of two portable coils: one to transmit a magnetic field and the other is to receive this field and the magnetic filed is excited by conductors in the earth. the em34-3 instrument is entirely portable, requiring only two persons for field operation. a direct reading of conductivity in mmhos/m is obtained while the transmitting and receiving coils are held in a coplaner orientation (either horizontal or vertical plane) at one of three possible coil separations: l0m, 20m, or 40m for which cables are supplied by the manufacture. the transmitter operates at a fixed frequency for each of the three coil separations (6400hz; 1600hz and 400hz respectively). the effective depth of penetration increases with increasing coil separation. depth of penetration, as well as current distribution, can also be varied by alternating between the horizontal and vertical coil orientations. more detailed descriptions of terrain conductivity and principles of operation are given in mcneill (1980) and stewart (1982). in the second em technique; the selected instrument is the geonics emi6r because of its low weight and simplicity of operation. the instrument was described by collett and beker (1968). it requires only one operator. it uses very low frequency (vlf) radio waves (10-30 khz) transmitted from distant stations as the primary magnetic filed. the em16r is mainly a radio receiver, measuring the ratio and the phase angle between the horizontal electric and magnetic fields. when the instrument is well oriented with respect to the vlf radio station, the apparent resistivity of the earth can be derived from the ratio between the horizontal electric field in the direction of the radio station and the horizontal magnetic field perpendicular to that direction using a magneto-telluric relation given by cagniard (1953). the measurement of the phase angle between the horizontal electrical and magnetic fields of the wave that radiates from these radiostations gives information about the vertical variation of resistivity. a homogeneous earth produces a (45°) phase angle, while a two layer case produces phase angles greater or less than (45°). a high conductivity lower layer produces a phase angle more than (45°), whereas a phase angle less than (45°) is interpreted as indication for high resistivity lower layer. (arcone. 1979). the exploration depth with this method is source limited because the depth of penetration depends on the frequency of the signal and the resistivity of the top layer. therefore. the depth will be equal to the skin depth. (grant and west. 1965). location and field work procedure the survey area was located at about (26 km) nw of haditha city (fig.l). the marker point for the area is located on lat. (34° 11 ́22˝) and long. (42° 7 ́ 30˝). the cavity of interest runs in the euphrates limestone formation ( early miocene ) fig(2). the geology of the area and the formation of cavities are not to he discussed in this paper. the em survey covered (651) stations over an area of (200 x600) meters. the survey has been executed with em terrain conductivity and vlf-radiohm em resistivity measurements 81 m. s. zaynal respectively. they have been carried out along (31) traverses with (20m) separation and (l0m) grid interval. in the first em technique. the coils of the (em 34-3) instrument were set at (20) meters spacing and held in a horizontal plane while in the second em technique (using em 16r instrument) and at the start of the field work the transmitting station was chosen to be the british rugby station (gbr) with frequency (16khz). field results and interpretation: the results obtained during the em survey are presented as contoured maps, (fig.3&4). the em apparent conductivity measurement map (fig.3) clearly shows three zones of high conductivity values (240 mmhos/m) that lie in the left and central part of the study area.. these conductivity values are coincident in position with that of low resistivity data obtained from the second em technique (i.e. high conductivity values reflect low resistivity values 40 ohm.m, flg.4). the observed phase angle over these zones is greater than (45°) as shown in (fig.5); indicating a resistive layer over a conductive layer. this means that resistivity decreases with depth at these zones. these anomalies could possibly be considered as water filled cavities as revealed by the drilling in this area. the depth to top of these cavities was calculated by using the observed resistivity profiles (fig.5) and the geonics standared curves (1979) and found to be a round (20) meters. conclusions the two techniques used in this study have proved to have the potential of becoming an effective and efficient diagnostic tool for field geophysical prospecting. they offer a rapid means for delineating area of subsurface anomalously high electrical conductivities. however; result that can be obtained with these techniques depend mainly on the conductivity contrast, i.e., in this case contrast between the water filling the cavity and the surroundings. also, the size depth relation will have a direct effect on the results. references al-naib, s. b., majeed, a. h., and said, s. a., 1989. delineation of shallow variations in gypsiferous soil using vlf-em radiohrn resistivity method. proceedings of the 5th. scientific conference of scientific research council. building research. seismology and applied geophysics. vol. 4. part 4., pp. 162-173. (7-11 oct. 1989). baghdad-iraq. al-omari, m.l., al-naib, s.b., al-hamddani, z.k., and zaynal. m.s., (1989). geotechnical site evaluation using vlf-em radiohrn resistivity method. proceedings of the 5th. scientific conference of scientific research council. building research. seismology and applied geophysics. vol.4, part 4., pp. 174186. (7-11 oct. 1989) baghdad-iraq. arcone. a.a., 1979. resolution studies in airborne resistivity surveying at vlf. geoph. vol.44. no. 5. pp. 937-946. baker, h.a., and abdul razzak. m.i., 1985, a study of the applicability of vlf-radiohrn resistivity method in underground cavity resistivity location. j.geol. soc. iraq., vol. 18. no.1. pp. 26-37. baker. h.a., and abdul razzak, m.i., 1986 a. the first application of vlf-em method in iraq. j. geol. soc. iraq., vol. 19. no.1. pp. 99-108. 82 detection of subsurface cavities baker, h.a., and abdul razzak. m.i., 1986 b. the use of vlf-em method in geological mapping and mineral exploration. brc. pubi., rp. 103/86., 37 pp. baker, h.a. and zaynal, m.s. 1985. the application of radiohm method in ground water prospecting. j. geol. soc. iraq., vol. 18.no.l. pp 66-76. baker, h.a., and zaynal. m.s., 1986. reconnaissance survey for the ground water by electromagnetic terrain conductivity measurements. j. geol. soc. iraq., vol. 19. no.2. pp. 81-92. baker, h.a., and zaynal. m.s. 1987. delineation of buried water channels by electromagnetic conductivity measurements. j. of. agric. and w.r.r.c. vol. 6. no.3, pp. 97-107. cagniard, l. 1953. basic theory of magneto-telluric method of geophysical prospecting. geoph. vol. 18. pp. 605-635. collett, l.s .and beker, a. 1968. radiohm method for earth resistivity mapping. canadian patent. no. 795-919. canadian patent office, ottawa. geonics standard curves. 1979. emi6r operating manual. geonics ltd., toronto. grant, f.s. and west. g.f. 1965. interpretation theory in applied geophysics. mcgraw hill, new york. griffiths, d. h., and king. r. f., 1981. applied geophysics for geologist and engineers. 2nd. edition. 230pp. mcneill, j. d. 1 980. electromagnetic terrain conductivity measurements at low induction numbers. technical note tn-6. geonics ltd. mississauga. ontario. canada, l5pp. parasnis, d.s.,1983. mining geophysics. elesvier scientific publishing co., new york, 395pp. ritsema, i.l., 1983. electromagnetic resistivity profiling for the determination of lateral variation in lithology or ground water quality. the netherlands. in. symp. noordwijker hout. netherlands. unesco (may 1983). stewart, m. t., 1982. evaluation of electromagnetic method for rapid mapping of salt water interfaces in coastal aquifers. ground water vol. 20. no.5. pp.538-545. stewart, m., and bretnall. r., 1986. interpretation of vlf-resistivity data for ground water contamination surveys. ground water monitoring review vol. 6. no. 1. pp. 71-75. telford, w. m., geldart. l.p., sheriff, r.e. and keys. da., 1976. applied geophysics. cambridge university press. new york. 860pp. zaynal, m.s., and tobia. f.h., 1989. the application of em methods for rapid mapping of shallow conductive clay layer. 83 m. s. zaynal proceedings of the 5th. scientific conference of scientific research council. agricultural researchs. water resources. vol. l., part 3, pp. 156-168. ( 7-11 oct. 1989). baghdad iraq. 84 detection of subsurface cavities 85 m. s. zaynal 86 detection of subsurface cavities 87 m. s. zaynal 88 detection of subsurface cavities 89 m. s. zaynal bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2004)10 (2):79-89 د حدي فت ه ك تالت ة ا حي سط حت سيالت طي غنا ر م ه ري ة الك دام الط خ ست ةبا سة ( ديثةدرا ط ة ي من )حالة ل كري زين مد ش ح م ي ف التار خ ال بيع ح ث ومت ح ز ب داد –مرك ة بغ د –جامع غدا ق –ب العرا ة ص الخال ة سي م ناطي و كهر ة ال ق طري ت ال م خد ست نيا سلوب ل بأ ألو ن ممنه ا با ك و سل س بأ ل قيا صي التو ي هربائ ك ز (ال جها دام ست س ) em 34-3با سل ب قيا ن ا كا ة والث ين ومة ال هربائي قا م (امل خدا باست ز جه ن ) em 16rا ض ت ييم ذي ر ك غ نيذل سلوب أل س ع ق ا وق ا د حت ي ت يف كهفا ن الت م ال ريبة ع ق يف م ط ة ت ح س ةال ديث ح .بالقر م ع مجي عل عً سارًا موز وث ثني م وا د ي ط س مغنا كه و ح ال ضم امل ءت حنا سة أ درا طقة ا من توقد ج أثبت ه لطر نتائ ى قة يهذ نيجناح كفاءة ذين عل سلوب أل تيف حت ا ك فا د الت دي ة حي سط .التحت 5 57 m. k. mohammad bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2008)10 (2): 57-63 the haemoproteids of the avian family scolopacidae in iraq with description of a new species mohammad k. mohammad iraq natural history museum, university of baghdad, bab al-mudham, baghdad, iraq abstract three scolopacids out of 150 are found infected with haemoproteus scolopaci gallivalerio 1929 and h. tringae n. sp. a detailed description of the new taxon is presented along with a comparison of the diagnostic measurements between the two species. introduction the avian family scolopacidae comprises 24 species in iraq (allouse, 1961), this constitutes 30% of the total number of the scolopacid species of the world. nineteen of them are winter migrants while the rest are spring and autumn visitors. the scolopacids, usually, do not leave water and they tend to aggregate and make flocks. this will increase their infection although the prevalence of their blood parasites is extremely low. in iraq, shamsuddin and mohammad (1981) examined eight scolopacid specimens belonging to 5 species and found no parasites. recently, a good deal of specimens was available through the field trips achieved by the staff of iraq natural history museum – university of baghdad during the years 1992-1997. therefore, it seems of interest to study the haemoproteids of these birds. materials and methods a total of 158 birds belonging to 7 genera and 20 species were collected throughout middle and south of iraq during the years 1992-1997. blood smears were made immediately from each bird, air dried, fixed in absolute methanol or ethanol, and stained with giemsa’s stain. the morphometric parameters of both parasites and red blood cells were determined following the methods of bennett and campbell (1972) as modified by forrester et al. (1977) and mohammad (1990). drawings were made with aid of camera lucida. the number of examined erythrocyte was indicated by n, while the nuclear displacement ratio by ndr. all measurements are presented as means followed by standard deviation in parenthesis. results table 1 shows the results of examining 20 species of scolopacid birds for haemoproteid parasites. this would show that 1.9% of the sample was infected with haemoproteus spp. one of each of capella g. gallinago and limosa l. limosa was infected with haemoproteus scolopaci galli-valerio, 1929 with infection rates of 9% and 6.3% respectively. the necessary morphometric and meristic measurements are presented in table 2. other morphic and staining characters are the same as reported by bennett (1979). also, one specimen of tringa totanus was infected with hitherto undescribed species. the description of the new species is as follows: type host: redshank, tringa totanus (l.). type locality: kut city, wasit province, middle of iraq. 58 haemoproteids of scolopacidae date of collection: september 24th , 1993. immature gametocytes: youngest forms are not seen. only premature parasites are infrequently seen (fig. 1). macrogametocytes:( figs. 2-3, table 2) parasite halteridial with the ends flexing about the erythrocyte nucleus. the parasite outline entire. cytoplasm granular, staining deep blue with giemsa’s stain. pigment granules of medium size scattered throughout the cytoplasm averaging 10.1 per parasite. parasite nucleus submedian, triangular in shape and staining deep pink. the necessary measurements are presented in table 2. microgametocytes: (figs. 4-5, table 2) parasite halteridial with ends flexing about the erythrocyte nucleus. the parasite outline entire. cytoplasm granular, staining faint blue with giemsa’s stain. pigment granules of medium size scattered throughout the cytoplasm averaging 9.9 granules per parasite. parasite nucleus ill-defined staining faint pink and representing 25% of the parasite area. the necessary measurements are presented in table 2. type material: blood film no. nb861 from tringa totanus, deposited in the collection of the invertebrates and parasitology section, iraq natural history museum, university of baghdad, baghdad. table 1: species of scolopacidae and the number of examined and infected birds. bird species no. examined no. infected calidris alpina alpine 5 c. minuta 17 c. temmincki 9 c. testacea 2 capella g. gallinago 11 1 c. media* 3 limosa l. lapponica 2 l. l. limosa 16 1 lymnocryptes minimus 6 numenius arquata 2 n. p. phaeops* 1 philomachus pygnax 3 tringa cinerea* 2 t. erythrops 4 t. glareola 5 t. hypoleucos 13 t. nebularia 11 t. ochropus 21 t. stagnalis 6 t. tetanus 19 1 total number 150 3 • spring-autumn visitor, the rest of species are winter migrants. discussion members of the family scolopacidae inhabit water bodies most of their life spans. this is reflected by the concentration of collection sites in the middle and south of iraq which include vast areas of marshes, lakes, rivers, and temporary and permanent ponds and streams. 59 m. k. mohammad table 2: a comparision of morphometric parameters of haemoproteus scolopaci gallivalerio, 1929 and h. tringae n. sp. parameter h. scolopaci h. tringae uninfected erythrocytes n 50 50 length 12.1(0.9) 11.9(0.9) width 6.3(0.9) 6.5(0.9) area 55.9(6.3) 56.5(7.2) erythrocyte nucleus length 5.4(0.2) 5.7(0.4) width 2.1(0.3) 2.2(0.4) area 10.1(0.8) 10.9(0.2) % area of total cell 18.1 19.3 erythrocyte parasitized by macrogametocyte n 25 20 length 12.7(0.7) 12.9(1.1) width 6.6(0.3) 7.3(0.4) area 62.1(7.4) 70.8(6.8) % hypertrophy: atrophy of host cell length +5 +8.4 width +9.5 +12.3 area +11 +25.3 host cell nucleus length 5.2(0.4) 5.8(0.3) width 1.9(0.1) 2.1(0.2) area 8.2(1.0) 10.2(0.2) % area of host-parasite complex 13.2 14.4 % hypertrophy: atrophy of host cell nucleus length -3.6 +1.8 width -9.5 -4.5 area -18.8 -6.4 ndr 0.70 0.75 macrogametocyte length 18.1(1.3) 19.2(3.1) width 2.7(0.1) 2.9(0.7) area 40.2(2.2) 43.6(4.9) % area of host-parasite complex 64.7 61.6 no. pigment granules 16.5(1.5) 10.1(0.3) macrogametocyte nucleus length 4.1(0.9) 3.8(0.2) width 2.2(0.2) 2.1(0.2) area 4.9(0.5) 6.1(0.1) % area of parasite 12.2 14 erythrocyte parasitized by microgametocyte n 25 20 length 12.1(0.9) 12.5(0.6) width 6.2(0.9) 6.5(0.8) area 56.1(5.9) 61.1(6.3) 60 haemoproteids of scolopacidae % hypertrophy: atrophy of host cell length 0 +5 width -1.6 0 area +3.6 +8.1 host cell nucleus length 5.3(0.6) 5.0(0.3) width 1.7(0.3) 1.8(0.1) area 7.9(1.1) 8.9(1.0) % area of host-parasite complex 14.1 12.9 % hypertrophy: atrophy of host cell nucleus length -1.8 -3.5 width -24 +18.1 area -21.7 -18.3 ndr 0.72 0.78 microgametocyte length 15.1(2.1) 17.9(3.7) width 2.6(0.9) 3(0.9) area 35.5(6.7) 39.1(5.5) % area of host-parasite complex 63.2 69.2 no. pigment granules 15.7(2.1) 9.9(0.4) microgametocyte nucleus length 5.2(0.7) 5.1(0.2) width 2.4(0.5) 2.3(0.3) area 10.3(1.8) 9.8(0.7) % area of parasite 30 25.1 note: linear measurements in micronmeters, areas in squared micrometers, hypertrophy as +, atrophy as -, standard deviation in parenthesis. this study is devoted to haemoproteids only because of the lack of infection of these birds with other parasites in the examined material. table 1 shows that the total infection rate among the scolopacid birds encountered in this study is extremely low and only 1.9%. this is not surprising in that the family scolopacidae is well known to be infrequently infected as explained by griener et al. (1975), and as seen through the results of mohammad and al-taqi (1975) in kuwait and shamsuddin and mohammad (1981) and mohammad (1990) in iraq. internationally, the infection rate was less than 1% in north america (griener et al., 1975), 2.9% in the neotropics (white et al., 1979), 2.1% in southeast asia (mcclure et al., 1978). furthermore, bennett (1979) stated that the prevalence of haemoproteids appear to be virtually absent from scolopacids in the new world and africa. the high percentage of infection rates among c. g. gallinago and l. l. limosa which are infected with haemoproteus scolopaci of 9% and 6.3% respectively and it is of 5.3% in tringa tetanus infected with h. tringae seems to be related with small sample size in this study. the infection of the three species of scolopacidae with haemoproteid parasites seems acquired at their breeding habitats. as they are winter migrants, the period between their arriving to iraq and the date of collection left no enough time to get fully mature gametocytes in the periphery blood if the initial infection was acquired here, this is in accordance with the 61 m. k. mohammad complete absence of youngest forms of the haemoproteids recorded in this study. so, it seems reasonable to assume that initial infection was acquired at the breeding period as they were weak and the vectors were active during april-may. the measurements of the specimens recorded in iraq of haemoproteus scolopaci from c. g. gallinago and l. l. limosa (table 2) are slightly smaller than these given by bennett (1979). this may represents geographical race of h. scolopaci, or may be because of presence in different host species. this is supported by bennett (1979) who stated that although the scolopacidae are cosmopolitan, their haemoproteid parasites show a marked geographic localization. haemoproteus tringae n. sp. could be distinguished from the other three haemoproteids recorded from scolopacidae in that it differs from h. rotator bennet 1979 by not rotating the host cell nucleus and from h. contortus bennet 1979 by being typical halteridial in shape and its borders are entire. the present new taxon is related to h. scolopaci by its typical halteridial shape with ends flexing about the erythrocyte nucleus, but differs from it in the number and size of pigment granules, the gametocytes less displaced the host cell nucleus and hypertrophied the host cell almost more than twice that of h. scolopaci. literature cited allouse, b. e. 1961 birds of iraq. vol. 2. ar-rabitta press, baghdad, 280 pp. (in arabic) bennett, g. f. 1979 avian haemoproteidae. 10. the haemoproteids of the avian family scolopacidae. canad. j. zool., 57: 901-907. bennett, g. f. and campbell, a. g. 1972 avian haemoproteidae. 1. description of haemoproteus fallisi n. sp. and a review of the haemoproteids of the family turdidae.canad. j. zool., 50:1269-1275. forrester, d. j., greiner, e. c., bennett, g. f. and kigaya, n. k. 1977 avian haemoproteidae. 7. a review of the haemoproteids of the family ciconiidae (storks) and descriptions of haemoproteus brodkorbi sp. nov. and h. peircei sp. nov. canad. j. zool., 55:1268-1274. griener, e. c., bennett, g. f., white, e. m. and coombs, r. f. 1975 distribution of the avian haematozoa of north america. canad. j. zool., 53: 1762-1767. mcclure, h. n., ponswood, p. griener, e. g., and laird, m. 1978 haemaotozoa in the birds of eastern and southern asia. ircah dept. of biology, memorial university of newfoundland, canada. occasinal papers in biology, no. 5: 1-234. mohammad, m. k. 1990 blood parasites of some iraqi wild birds. iraqi j. sci., 31:31-39. mohammad, a. h. h. and al-taqi, n. n. s. 1975 a general survey of blood parasites of birds from kuwait. j. univ. kuwait (sci.),2:167-177. shamsuddin, m. and mohammad, m. k. 1981 haematozoa of some iraqi birds with description of two new species ،haemoproteus pteroclis and leucocytozoon nycticoraxi (protozoa, haemosporina). bull. iraq nat. hist. res. centre, 7(4):111154. white, e. m., griener, e. c., bennett, g. f. and herman, c. m. 1978 distribution of the haematozoa of new tropical birds. rev. biol. trop., 26: 43-102. 62 haemoproteids of scolopacidae 63 m. k. mohammad bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2008)10 (2): 57-63 ديد ج ف وع ص و مع ق را ض ي لع ألر ج جا س ي يور ائلة د ت لهي وب وتيو فيل ا ط حمد ظم م حمد كا م ي خ ال بيع ري ف ال ا ح دادمت ة بغ م جامع ظ ب ال ع د –با غدا ق –ب العرا ة ص الخال ن جمموع ر د م ال ة أف ت ث ن ١٥٠وجد ـ ني وع ة بنـ صـاب م زاقي ة زق ل ة ا عائـل اـئ ة لل ع ور ال ن لطيـ م ا مهــ س و وتـي يم بر هل هــو haemoproteus scolopaci galli-valerio, 1929: ا ديـ د ج .hونــ ع tringae n. sp. . ت ا ميــزة قي سـا ت لل ا قا ـن مل ا ض عـ ع ب د مـ جل يـ ع ا ي للنـ و ل ـ ي ف ف الت صـ ي ا و طــ أع ني ع و كل ن ذي لن ع و .للن bull 623 al-warid et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2021) 16 (4): 623-634. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2021.16.4.0623 accumulation of some heavy metals in larvae of contracaecum sp. and their host tigris catfish silurus triostegus heckel, 1843 in baghdad, iraq harith saeed al-warid * ahmed saad aldhamin *♦ and azhar ahmed al-moussawi ** * department of biology, college of science, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq. ** iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq. ♦corresponding author: e-mail: ahmed.aldhamin@sc.uobaghdad.edu.iq received date: 06 nov. 2021, accepted date: 08 december 2021, published date: 20 december 2021 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract this study was achieved to investigate the accumulation of some heavy metals included: cadmium, lead and nickel in the tissues (gill, intestine, liver, muscles and skin) of silurus triostegus heckel, 1843 (siluriformes, siluridae) and its larval stage of the nematode contracaecum sp. (rhabditida, anisakidae). as well as to assess the infection patterns of contracaecum among s. triostegus specimens which were purchased fresh from the local market in baghdad. one hundred and nine nematodes specimens in larval stage were recovered from the fish host; the overall prevalence of contracaecum sp. was 38.6%. the sex of the host was not significantly (p ˃ 0.05) associated with the infection of this nematode. results showed that the overall mean intensity of contracaecum sp. was 6.41; mean intensity did not differ significantly (p ˃ 0.05) between the fish sexes.the lead (pb) was the only element detected in all fish tissues investigated as well as in the parasite, while the cadmium and nickel elements were not detected in all specimens. skin and muscles of the fish, as well the parasite contracaecum sp. contained the lowest lead levels compared to other fish tissues (gill, intestine and liver), although no significant differences were noticed among all investigated tissues and the parasite regarding the concentration of pb. keywords: accumulation, contracaecum, heavy metals, iraq, silurus triostegus. introduction extreme action in the industrial and agricultural has undoubtedly boosted heavy element concentrations in natural water streams; as a result, determining the amounts of heavy metals https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2021.16.4.0623 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 624 accumulation of some heavy metals in larvae in fish, especially those which are widely consumed by human, has lately got some attentions. it is critical to determine the potential harm of fish consumption to human health (djedjibegovic et al., 2020). many researches on heavy metal levels in the aquatic ecosystem have been published (pandey, 2006). a wide range of creatures have been studied to see if they can be used as biological markers of various types of pollution in the aquatic environment (el-shafei, 2015). certain species have been discovered as being very sensitive to aquatic contaminants, either in terms of their functional response or their propensity to accumulate certain poisons in a dose-time dependent manner (vinodhini and narayanan, 2008). tigris catfish, silurus triostegus (siluriformes, siluridae) has been used to identify heavy metal pollution in freshwater environments and can be considered a reliable bioindicator for biomonitoring (karadede et al., 2004; rasheed, 2012; jawad et al., 2020). as seen by various reviews, there has recently been growing attention to the interaction between parasitism and pollution in the aquatic ecosystem (mackenzie et al., 1995; aldhamin et al., 2021). heavy metal concentrations in fish parasites have been discovered to be quite high, primarily in adult acanthocephalan worms, but also to a lesser extent in the adult cestodes (aldhamin et al., 2021). limited investigations were achieved regarding the accumulation of heavy metals in parasites and their fish hosts in iraq. the current study was conducted to compare the accumulation of some haevy elements in the different tissues of s. triostegus and in its nematode contracaecum sp., as well as to investigate the infection patterns of nematode in tigris catfish. materials and methods specimens' collection tigris catfish, silurus triostegus (n=44) were purchased fresh from some local markets in baghdad during the period between july to december 2020. using a cooling box, the fish specimens were transferred to the laboratory in iraq natural history research center and museum within 24 hours. the fish was identified following coad (2010); weight and total length were recorded for all obtained fish. the fish body weights were between 0.664 and 1.680 kg and the total lengths were between 43 to 63 cm. the sex was identified for each fish (female, n=25; male, n=19). all fish carcasses were dissected. approximately 5 g of the skin, gills, muscles, intestine and liver of the fish were dissected, washed by double deionized distilled water, dried with filter paper, weighed, and kept at – 20 oc until analysis (el-shafei, 2015). identification of nematodes the mesenteries and intestine tract of each fish were isolated, then opened and checked for nematodes. the isolated larvae of the nematodes were collected separately from body cavity and intestine of each fish, washed with saline solution (0.9% nacl), fixed in 70% ethyl alcohol, cleared with lactophenol, and identified microscopically to a genus level according to 625 al-warid et al. the morphological description of anderson (2000). all nematodes were weighted, washed, dried and preserved frozen until subsequent analysis. heavy metal analysis the analyses of the heavy metals (nickel, cadmium and lead) were done according to the procedure described by lazarus et al. (2013). after thawing, 4 to 5 g wet weight of homogenized fish tissues and up to 1.1 g of nematodes were weighed into reaction vessels, followed by 2.5 ml hydrogen peroxide (30% h2o2) and 1.3 ml nitric acid (65% hno3). using the microwave digestion method, the vessels were cooked for 90 minutes at around 175°c. after digestion, the clear sample solution was transported to a 10 ml volume with deionized distilled water in a glass container. subsequently, the concentrations of nickel, cadmium and lead were analyzed using spectrometry (carbolite, england). data analysis infection prevalence was calculated as a percentage of infected/examined hosts (bush et al., 1997). using fisher's exact tests and the chi-square test in quantitative parasitology 3.0 (rózsa et al., 2000), differences in prevalence between male and female hosts were investigated. bush et al. (1997) defined infection intensity as the number of parasites in an infected host divided by the number of infected hosts, with 95 percent cis of mean intensity calculated using bootstrap testing (rózsa et al., 2000). using a mood's median test, mean infection intensities were statistically compared between males and females. the variance/mean ratios (s2/m) were used to determine parasite aggregation among hosts. qp 3.0 was used to conduct all statistical evaluations of intensity and aggregation. the variations in heavy metals accumulation among different host tissues and contracaecum sp. were compared using a one-way anova. statistical package for the social sciences was used to conduct the analysis (spss inc, chicago il, usa). p value of less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant in all statistical analyses. results and discussion the examination of the body cavity and intestine of the fish revealed that contracaecum railliet & henry, 1912 (rhabditida, anisakidae) was the only genus identified. seventeen out of 44 fish specimens (38.6%) were found parasitized with the larval stage of contracaecum sp. (pl. 1). this nematode taxa has been previously reported from the tigris catfish, silurus triostegus in different parts of iraq (abdulkarim and abdullah, 2010; al-moussawi et al., 2018; mhaisen and abdul-ameer, 2021). mhaisen and abdul-ameer (2021) showed that s. triostegus was detected as a host of contracaecum species larvae in 22 local studies, as well as, contracaecum species has been recorded from other fish species such as planiliza abu (heckel, 1843), acanthobrama marmid heckel, 1843, arabibarbus grypus (heckel, 1843), capoeta trutta (heckel, 1843), carasobarbus luteus (heckel, 1843), and chondrostoma regium (heckel, 1843) (mhaisen et al., 1988; abdullah et al., 2021). adults of different species of the genus contracaecum were also reported from some bird species in iraq such as ardea alba linnaeus, 1758, ardea purpurea linnaeus, 1766, ardeola ralloides (scopoli, 1769), botaurus stellaris (linnaeus, 1758), ceryle rudis (linnaeus, 1758), egretta garzetta 626 accumulation of some heavy metals in larvae (linnaeus, 1766), and phalacrocorax carbo (linnaeus, 1758) (al-awadi et al., 2010; almoussawi and mohammad, 2011; alqaisi et al., 2020). sex of the host was not significantly associated with the occurrence of contracaecum sp. (x2=2.14; df=1; p=0.143), although the occurrence of contracaecum sp. among the females was higher (48%) than of the males (26.3%) (tab.1). this result was likely due to slight differences in exposure or resistance between the sexes to some infective stages of parasites, and no differences in the diet and what containing of the possible intermediate hosts of both sexes. one hundred and nine nematodes larvae were recovered from fish specimens (range= 2-13 nematode larvae/fish). the overall mean intensity of contracaecum sp. was 6.41. for subsets of hosts (tab. 2, diag. 1), the mean intensity did not change significantly between sexes (t = 0.4; bootstrap p = 0.711), although the intensity of contracaecum sp. was slightly higher in males than females. similarities in host susceptibility or host contact with the parasite in the same group are likely to generate such a pattern of intensity (moravec and jirků, 2014).variance /mean for the larval stage of contracaecum sp. showed an aggregated distribution of the parasite across examined fish (tab. 2, diag. 2). the aggregation of contracaecum sp. showed to be high (5.64) across the fish. moreover, the aggregation was higher in males (7.62) than females (4.72). parasites were aggregated across the host population, with the majority (74/109, 67.88%) of the parasite population concentrated into a minority (7/44, 15.9%) of the host population. the distribution of contracaecum sp. across the fish host in the present study is similar to the distribution of most macro parasites among their hosts (wilson et al., 2002). the lead was the only element detected in all fish tissues investigated as well as in the parasites, while other elements (cd and ni) were not detected in all samples which is likely due to their low concentrations. this result agreed with karadede and unlu (2000), who did not detect the levels of three heavy metals in addition to cd and pb in the muscles of six studied cyprinids collected from the atatürk dam lake on euphrates river in turkey, acanthobrama marmid heckel, 1843, capoeta trutta (heckel, 1843) , carasobarbus luteus (heckel, 1843), chalcalburnus mossulensis (heckel, 1843) (synonym of alburnus mossulensis heckel, 1843, chondrostoma regium (heckel, 1843) and cyprinus carpio linnaeus, 1758. current result was also agreed with suhendan et al. (2010) who showed cadmium was not detected in silurus triostegus and other six cyprinid fish species: acanthobrama marmid, aspius vorax, capoeta trutta, carasobarbus luteus, chalcalburnus mossulens and cyprinus carpio. the lead concentrations in tigris catfish tissue samples and contracaecum larvae specimens are illustrated in table (3). it is evident that the skin, muscles and the nematode contracaecum sp. biomass contained the lowest lead levels (1.16 ± 1.4) ppm, (1.4 ± 1.3) ppm and (1.4 ± 0.99) ppm respectively, compared to other tissues (intestine, liver and gills), although no significant differences (f-test= 1.32, p value= 0.26) were noticed among all 627 al-warid et al. investigated tissues and the parasites regarding the concentration of pb. of all the tissues investigated, the mean value of lead accumulation was maximum in the intestine followed by gills and liver. lower accumulations were seen in contracaecum sp. this result agreed with some other investigators who showed that the parasitic nematode anguillicola crassus has less accumulated lead concentrations than their fish hosts (sures et al., 1994; zimmermann et al., 1999). tenora et al. (1999, 2000) found higher amounts of metals in nematodes than in their fish hosts in their experiments. additional influences that may affect metal accumulation include the parasite's developmental stage and the length of time it has been present in a particular host (bergey et al., 2002). the properties of the parasite, its stage, the heavy element, the parasite's position in the host, and the host species are likely to cause differences in accumulation levels. finally, it is concluded that contracecum sp. is highly aggregated in silurus triostegus as well as this worm has the ability to accumulate pb in low levels comparing to the tissues of fish. plate (1): anterior (a) and posterior (b) extremity of contracaecum larvae recovered from s. triostegus (100x). table (1): the infection rate of contracaecum sp. among the males and females of s. triostegus. population number of examined fish number of infected fish (%) all 44 17 (38.6%) female 25 12 (48%) male 19 5 (26.3%) x2=2.14; df =1; p=0.143 table (2): the mean intensity and variance/mean ratio of contracaecum sp. among males than females of s. triostegus. population number of fish examined mean intensity var/mean ratio all 44 6.41 5.64 female 25 6.17 4.72 male 19 7 7.62 t = 0.4; bootstrap p = 0.711 628 accumulation of some heavy metals in larvae diagram (1): the intensity of contracaecum sp. (larval stage) collected from s. triostegus. diagram (2): distribution of contracaecum sp. abundance (number of parasites per host, including uninfected hosts) among n = 44 s. triostegus examined. 629 al-warid et al. table (3): the mean ± sd of pb concentrations in different tissues of s. triostegus and of contracaecum sp. tissue pb concentration ± sd (ppm) skin 1.16 ± 1.4 gills 1.9 ± 1.16 muscles 1.4 ± 1.3 intestine 2.08 ± 1.2 liver 1.7 ± 1.2 nematodes 1.4 ± 0.99 f-test= 1.32, p value= 0.26 conflict of interest statment "the authors have no conflicts of interest to declare". literature cited abdulkarim, a. s. and abdullah, s. m. 2010. endoparasites of the asian catfish silurus triostegus (heckel, 1843) from greater zab river-kurdistan region-iraq. journal of dohuk university, 13(1):172-179. abdullah, y. s., abdullah, s. m. a. and hussein, r. h. 2021. ultramorphology and molecular studies of contracaecum larvae (nematoda: anisakidae) collected in five cyprinid fish species from 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processes. the ecology of wildlife diseases, 44: 6-44. zimmermann, s., sures, b. and taraschewski, h. 1999. experimental studies on lead accumulation in the eel-specific endoparasites anguillicola crassus (nematoda) and paratenuisentis ambiguus (acanthocephala) as compared with their host, anguilla anguilla. archives of environmental contamination and toxicology, 37(2): 190-195. 633 al-warid et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2021) 16 (4): 623-634. .contracaecum spتراكم بعض العناصر الثقيلة في يرقة الدودة الخيطية silurus triostegus heckel, 1843 ومضيفها سمكة جري دجلة بغداد، العراق في **و أزهار احمد املوسوي *احمد سعد الضامن ،حارث سعيد جعفر الورد* .عراققسم علوم الحياة، كلية العلوم، جامعة بغداد، بغداد، ال* .مركز بحوث و متحف التاريخ الطبيعي، جامعة بغداد، بغداد، العراق** 2021/ 12/ 20، تاريخ النشر: 2021/ 12/ 08، تاريخ القبول: 2021/ 11/ 06تاريخ االستالم: الخالصة أجريت هذه الدراسة للتعرف على تراكم بعض املعادن الثقيلة )الكادميوم انسجة )الخياشيم واألمعاء والكبد والعضالت والجلد( والرصاص والنيكل( في بعض silurus triostegus heckel ,1843 (siluriformes, siluridae)سمكة جري دجلة املعزولة contracaecum sp. (rhabditida, anisakidae)والطوراليرقي للدودة الخيطية االصابة بالدودة من التجويف الجسمي واالمعاء لهذه االسماك. تم تقييم أنماط والتي تم شراؤها من السوق املحلي في s. triostegus من اسماك عينة( 44الخيطية في ) من هذه .contracaecum spيرقات الدودة الخيطية عينة ل( 109) و عزل بغداد ظهر ، و ٪38.6 الدودة الخيطية االسماك. بلغت النسبة املئوية لالصابة بيرقات ُ لم ت بين جنس االسماك و االصابة بيرقة الدودة الخيطية ) ً معنوية ً (.p ˃ 0.05النتائج عالقة . لم6.41كما أوضحت النتائج أن متوسط كثافة االصابة بيرقة الدودة الخيطية بلغ ( ً ( بين الجنسين. كان الرصاص هو p 0 ˃.05يختلف متوسط شدة االصابة معنويا 634 accumulation of some heavy metals in larvae شافه في جميع أنسجة األسماك التي خضعت للفحص العنصر الوحيد الذي تم اكت وكذلك في يرقة الدودة ، بينما لم يتم اكتشاف العناصر األخرى في جميع العينات. على أقل مستويات .contracaecum spاحتوى جلد وعضالت األسماك ، وكذلك الرغم الرصاص مقارنة بأالنسجة األخرى لالسماك )الخياشيم واألمعاء والكبد( ، على ( بين جميع األنسجة التي تم فحصها واليرقة p ˃ 0.05من عدم وجود فروق معنوية ) فيما يتعلق بتركيز الرصاص. 7 59 n. a. mawlood & m. s. abdul-rassoul bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2009)10(4): 59-65 a new species of the genus pollenia rob.-desvoidy, 1830 (diptera : calliphoridae) from iraq* **n. a. mawlood and ***m. s. abdul-rassoul **college of edujcatio, diyala university ***iraq museum natural history, baghdad university abstract this research includes a detailed morphological description of the pollenia mesopotamica sp. nov. in iraq. locality, host plant and data of collection were given. introduction pollenia rob.-desvoidy is one of the important genera of family calliphoridae which as conceived at present has more than 100 members vairously distribution in nearctic, palaearctic, oriental and australian (dear, 1986; rognes, 1987). some species are parasites or predatores in larval stages on earthworms specially allolobophora chiorotica (savigny) and lumbricus terrestris l. seguy (1941) keyed and illustrated various feature of this species. taxonomic revision of this genus has been carried out by (rohdendrof, 1935; seguy, 1941; schumann, 1986 and rognes, 1987, 1992, 1998). pollenia mesopotomica sp. nov. body: obovate, non bright black, length 80-70mm, width 3.2-2.8mm. male: head (fig.1a) circular, vertex narrow, black, with a pair of inner vertical bristles, moderately strong and slightly curved, postvertical bristles weak and similar in length to inner ones; compound eyes oval ,dark brown length 2.1-1.9mm, width 1.3-1.1mm and occupy nearly 3/4 of anterior region of the head with densely slivery pollen, and a row of postocular bristles; ocular trianguler promenin, black with a pair of ocullar bristles equal to length of inner vertical bristles and with a few number of short setae; oceli dark brown; frontal stripe black with eight bristles; parafrontal black with densely silvery pollen and numerous of setae; face redish with yellow pollen and numerous black and yellow setae; parafacial brown-black with silvery pollen with a few of yellow setae; facial groove concave with prominent carina; facial ridge with seven bristles; epistoma; redish; vibrissae well developed; gena reddish, with yellow setae; antenna (fig.lb) with three segments, first segment deeply brown with 6-5 setae second segment reddish with 14-12 setae, and long bristles, third segment reddish, all segments with silvery pollen; maxillary palp reddish, clavate shaped, its apical half with different length of moderate densely bristles; mentum (fig.1c) dark brown, oval shaped with different length of setae and two long bristles; labrum-epipharynx cone shaped, its apodeme rod, strongly sclerotized, 0.59-0.52mm length; oral lobes dark brown, its surface with different length of densely of yellow bristles and setae; prestomal teeth yellow and very short head in female similar to that of the male except outer vertical bristles well developed, frons wide with 2 proclinate and 1 reclinate fronto-orbital bristles. thorax: scutum black , with fine silvery pollen and short moderately length of black setae * part of ph. d. thesis 60 a new species of the genus pollenia and very fine long yellow crinkly setae chaetotaxy as follows acrostichal bristles 2+3; dorsocentral bristles 2+3; notopleural bristles 2; humeral bristles 2; posthumeral bristle 1; intra-alar bristles 1+2 post-alar bristles 2; supra-alar bristles 3; scutellum bristles 4+1 stigmatal bristle 1; propleural bristle 1; stemopleural bristles 1:1 presuture bristle 1; ventral surface of thorax black, with fine slivery pollen; prostemum and propleuron without setae; mesothoracic spiracles redish, oval shaped, mesopleuron with long, dense, and yellow crinkly setae; anal ridge of mesopleuron with 7-6 bristles; subanal knob black, kidney shaped, with fine silvery pollen; pteropleuron vestiture with long, dense, crinkly and yellow setae; metathoracic spiracles redish, circular shaped. wings: hyaline, veins dark brown, basicosta dark yellow, its upper surface without setae; subcostal sclerite with setae, dorsal and ventral surface of node with 10-9 dark yellow , fine and short setae apical cell is wide open, 0.17-0.12mm; thoracic squama square shaped, with yellow pollen and without setae; lower squama similar to the thoracic squama but smaller in size. legs: dark brown, with slivery pollen, fore tibia with a row of bristles on anterodorsal surface and 1 bristle on posteroventral surface; mid tibia (fig.2a,b) with 4-3 bristles on each posterodorsal and anteroventral surface; hind tibia with 2 bristles on each anterodorsal and anteroventral surface. abdomen: black, with silvery pollen, hind margin of tergites with 5-3 bristles; ventral surface of abdomen in male (fig.2c) black, with silvery pollen; first srternite small, nearly cup shaped, second sternite e larger, nearly oval shaped, the third and fourth sternites oval shaped, the sternites 2-4 are with moderate densely of long setae and with 12-8 bristles. fifth sternites are deeply clefted posteriorly and forming to elongated ovaly lammella which is covered with dense, short moderately length of setae and 6-5 long bristles. male terminalia: tergite 6 (fig.2c) black, with 4-3 bristles, sternite 6 (fig.2d) globular shaped, its left arm long and connected firmly to fifth sternite, right arm short and failing to reach to same sternites syntergosternite 7+8 (fig.2e) black, dome shaped with moderate densely bristles, its posterior margine emarginated; hypandrium (sternite 9) reddish, its posterior arms slightly bend, and middle surface with chitinous arch; empandrium (tergite 9) nearly square shaped, its apical half with moderate densely long setae, and its basal half with lowest densely setae; paralobs (fig.3a) nearly cylinderical shaped, with densely ,short bristles; anal cerci (fig.3b) with broad base, united toghter basaly forming v-shape and separated near the one third of apical part, its basal surface with densely and long bristles so that reduced gradually toward its apical part phalloapodeme(fig.3c) oval shaped, 0.66-0.59 mm length, broad from the apical and gradually tapering toward the base, its apical surface with two broad chitinous band; pregonite (fig.3d) hook-like with 76 bristles; postgonite (fig.3e) cylinderical shaped, its ventral surface with 7-6 bristles and one bristle on its inner margin; phallus (fig.3f) 0.98-0.87 length, basiphallus rectangle shaped, 0.17-0.12 length, epiphallus slightly bend, 0.25-0.21 mm length, paraphallus sword shaped, its apical triangle shaped and its outer margin near the apical without teeth, paraphallus process sword shaped, the distance between the basiphallus and paraphallus process is narrow 0.11-0.09mm, hypophallus oval shaped, its outer margin of basal half with very fine tooth. ejaculatory sclerite (fig.3g) nearly cup shaped, 0.30-0.26mm in length. pollenia mesopotamica sp.nov. is closely related to p. dasypoda protschinsky but differs from it by the following: characters: the dorsal surface of thorax with three humeral bristles and posthumeral bristles; basicosta black; node with 5-4 setae; apical half of epandrium surface with two chitinous arch; one fourth of apical part of paraphallus strongly bended, paraphallus 61 n. a. mawlood & m. s. abdul-rassoul process cylindrical of paraphallus strongly bended, paraphallus process cylindrical shaped, its length is shorter than the phallus. host plant: peach, prunus persica. material examined: kirbla. > (holotype), 1+ (paratype). coll. 10 / 6 / 1970 (leg. m.s. abdul-rassoul). the types were preserved in iraq natural history museum references dear, j. p. 1986. calliphoridae (insecta : diptera) . fauna of new zealand .8: 1-86. rognes, k. 1987. the taxonomy of pollenia rudis species-group in the holarctic region (diptera : calliphoridae) . syst. ent. 12: 475-502. rognes, k. 1992. revision of the cluster-flies of the pollenia venturii species-group, with a cladistic analysis of palaearctic species of pollenia robineau-desvoidy (diptera: calliphoridae). ent. scand. 23: 233-248. rognes, k. 1998. contribution to a manual of palaearctic diptera vol.3, higher brachycera. published by science herald, budapest: 617-648. rohdendrof, b. b. 1935. sarcophaginae. in lindner fliegender palaearkischen region, stuttgrat., 64h: 49-128. schumann, h. 1986. family calliphoridae. vol.12, pages 11 58, in soos, a. and papp, l. (eds): catalogue of palaearctic diptera, calliphoridae-sarcophagidae. akademiai kiado budapest, 265p. seguy, e. 1941. etude biologique et systematique des sarcophagines myiasigenes du genere wohlfahrtia. ann. parasit. hum. comp., 18: 220-232. 62 a new species of the genus pollenia 63 n. a. mawlood & m. s. abdul-rassoul 64 a new species of the genus pollenia 65 n. a. mawlood & m. s. abdul-rassoul bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2009)10(4): 59-65 س ع ج يد ن جن سج ل و ت pollenia rob.-desvoidy, 1830 (diptera : calliphoridae) ق ع ا ي ال ف د و ر ول ق د ل بد ال عبد الرس ل *نبي صال د م ح **و م عل م ال ياة* م س عة ديالى/ كلية ال ربية/ ق م جا ي** ع خ ال بي ري ف ال ا ح داد/ مت ة بغ جامع ة ص الخال ن م علميتض د ل جي ل وع دي ر ظهر ا ا ي ل م صيل ف ت ث ص ح ذا ا ب ه pollenia mesopotomica sp. nov ر ق ع .يف ال عائ تها ا نبايت حلش ة و خ مجع وتار ق ط م ا ت جل .س 1-6 1 b . m . al chalabi bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2001) 9 (3):1-6 inheritance of dark head and siphon in the larvae of culex quinqefasciatus say badia’a m. al-chalabi department of biology, college of education, university of al-qadisiya abstract a new spontaneous mutation (dh) is described for culex quinquefasciatus say. this phenotype was observed in the second generation to cause complete coloration of the head capsule and the siphon of the larvae. this character is mainly detectable in the larval stage and slightly in the adult stage. the reciprocal mass matting between mutants from f2 generation and normal wild type sibs, revealed that the mode of inheritance can be controlled by an autosomal recessive gene(s). this happened for both sexes with slightly variability in their expression. no significant larval mortalities were found in all crosses. introduction culex quinquefasciatus say a species of pipiens complex is well known, medically important mosquito. it transmits virus diseases in several parts of the world, also it is involved in the epidemiology of filariasis in many tropical area as well as st. louis encephalitis. among mosquito species, culex quinquefasciatus is one of the wildly distributed one in the world. no records on diseases transmitted by this species has been reported for iraq so far. several investigators; chong (1972), guptavanij & barr (1979,82) and vandehey (1967) have studied relationship between the infection agent and the genetics of culex mosquitoes to provide a basis of control for this species. in culex pipiens complex. barr (1975) listed 47 mutants affecting larval, pupal and adult stages. others; dubash et al. (1982), sharma et al. (1977) and subbaraw &adak (1978) have also found several mutants. although a large number of mutations have been reported for this complex there is a striking lack of phenotypic markers for culex quinquefasciatus which are essential in may genetic studies. mutants affecting eye and body color extensively studied by sakai et al. (1980), shetty & chowdaiah (1976) and subbaraw & adak (1978). in iraq only two mutants of this species were found to affect larval growth (ouda et al., 1986 and ouda & mehdi, 1988). the purpose of this study is to describe a new spontaneously isolated for this species and its mode of inheritance. materials and methods several samples of mosquito larvae were collected and brought from jadiriyah square/baghdad in 1992. the samples then reared in the laboratory. the dark head and siphon larvae were isolated from a second generation of an inbreed line. this is considered as a mutant of the larvae. the later caused complete coloration of the head capsule and the siphon. however, the scape of the antenna and an area around the eyes were pale in color. the head capsule of the mutant larva was rather spherical and wider than normal (fig. 1). this character is mainly detectable in the larval stage and slightly in the adult stage, moreover the mutant larvae were easy to distinguish from normal individuals. although the 2 inheritance of dark head larval instars of the mutants were all pigmented, separation of the mutant phenotype was not easily accomplished with first instar due to their size. in order to determine the mode of inheritance, recoprocal mass mating were made between mutants from f2 generation and normal wild type sibs. the egg rafts were isolated and reared as individual families in a half litter plastic dishes. the larvae were fed on rabbit chaw reared in a glass door incubator at 28-1c°. the crosses were reported between individual of three successive generation. results and discussion the breeding scheme fig(2) shows reciprocal crosses between mutant individual and normal phenotypes. the later is the progeny of mass crosses of mutants for the wild types. the off springs of both crosses had dark head individuals, but had vary little sex linkage to the (dh) gene or sex influenced expressions. this finding is incontrast to results obtained by vandehey (1967). his results showed that similar phenotype in culex pipiens is inherited as sex linked-gene. inbreeding of the progenies of normal phenotype individuals resulted from the crosses for the two generations produced similar ratios of wild to mutant phenotype in both f2 and f3 progenies (fig. 3). the dark head that yielded from the above inbreeding had fewer individuals in f2 and f3, and their percent were 1.9 and 5.2 respectively. the inbreeding of dark line in two crosses produced few wild phenotype individuals in their f1 and f2. this indicates that the expression of the character is slightly low. when a reciprocal mass mattings between the mutants of f2 generation and the normal wild type sibs, were made few dark head individuals resulted from their f3 progenies (13.9% and 4.3%) in fig. 4. the results presented in table 1 revealed that this phenotype is probably controlled by an autosomal recessive gene (s) with incomplete penetrance in both sexes and with slightly variable expression. the homozygous conditions of the mutant is variable in both sexes, but a phenotype of slow growing larvae was also observed in most families of all generation in various frequencies. larval mortalities in most of the crosses were not significantly different. to determine the linkage group of the gene(s) and its mode of inheritance, further analysis should be made using large number of follow-up crosses as well as its interaction and/or linkage to other genes that already mapped for this species. such mutations could be valuable tool for genetic control of this vactor. fig.1: the mutant larvae c. quinquefasciatus with dark, small and round head capsule ( 5 left ) compared with normal larvae ( 3 right ). 3 b . m . al chalabi 4 inheritance of dark head table 1: summary of crosses showing that dark head and siphon (dh) is a recessive trait with incomplete penetrance and variable expression. cross parental phenotype no. of families progeny phenotype % larval mortality female male + dh a dh f1(dhxdh+) 10 441 206 24.9 b f1(dhxdh+) dh+ 9 222 180 29.8 c dh dh 19 37 1485 d f1(dhxdh+) f1(dhxdh+) 12 678 178 e + dh 12 605 158 14.2 f dh + 3 173 28 15.1 g f2dh f2dh 6 23 422 4.3 h f2(dhxdh+) dh 2 339 141 16.8 i f2(dhxdh+) f2(dhxdh+) 6 342 142 26.8 j dh f2(dhxdh+) 7 446 73 22.8 k + + 3 198 9 15.2 linkage to other genes that already mapped for this species. such mutations could be valuable tool for genetic control of this vector. acknowledgement special appreciation is expressed to dr. nazar a. ouda –department of biology, education college for women, university of baghdad, also to dr. abdulameir ali yassen – department of biology, college of education, university of al-qadisiya, for their help. literature cited barr, a. r. 1975 culex. p. 374-375. in: king, r. c. (ed.) handbook of genetics, 3. invertebrates of genetic interest. plenum press, new york. 874 pp. cheng, m. l. 1972 the inheritance of pigmented-paddle in culex pipiens. . m. sc. thesis, univ. calif. los angeles, p. ix-79. dubash, c. j., sakai, r. k. and baker, r. h. 1982 two new body color mutants in the mosquito. j. heredity, 73: 340-344. guptavanij, p. and barr, a. r. 1979 plum-eye, a marker for the third linkage group in culex pipiens (diptera:culicidae). j. med. entomol., 16 (3): 219-222. guptavanij, p. and barr, a. r. 1982 two sex-linked mutants, blond (bl) and maroon eye (mar), in culex pipiens (diptera: culicidae). j. med. entomol., 19 (4): 394-398. ouda, n. a., al-chalabi, b. m. and dikran, b. b. 1986 observation on slow-growth larvae: a new character in the mosquito culex quinquefasciatus say (diptera: culicidae). j. biol. sci. res., 17 (1): 211-217. ouda, n. a. and mehdi, n. s. 1988 black larvae a recessive lethal mutation in culex quinquefasciatus say. j. biol. sci. res., 19 (3): 675-679. 5 b . m . al chalabi sakai, r. k., chaudhry, m. and baker, r. h. 1980 an ems-induced mutant, rose eye in culex quinquefasciatus. j. hered., 71:136-139. sharma, v. p., mani, t. r., adak, t. and ansari, m. a. 1977 colorless eye, a recessive autosomal mutant of anopheles stephensi. mosquito news, 37: 667-669. shetty, n. j. and chowdaiah, b. n. 1976 tests for allelism among certain larval colour mutants of culex quinquefasciatus. mosquito news, 36 (4): 477-482. subbaraw, s. k. and adak, t. 1978 genetic mapping of a larval colour mutant greenish larva with the help of male linked translocations and ruby-eye marker in culex quinquefasciatus. mosquito news, 38 (1): 47-51. subbaraw, s. k. and adak, t. 1978genetic analysis of a larval color mutant, greenish larva, in anopheles stephensi. mosquito news, 38 (1): 51-53. vandehey, r. c. 1967 inheritance of pigmented larval head capsules in culex pipiens. mosquito news, 27 (1): 69-73. 6 inheritance of dark head bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2001) 9 (3):1-6 culex quinquefasciatus say توارث صفة السواد في الرأس والسيفون لبعوضة بديعة محمود الجلبي جامعة القادسيةكلية التربية-قسم علوم الحياة الخالصة وقد لوحظت هذه الصفة الول culex quinquefasciatusمت وصف طفرة جديدة لنوع البعوض هذه الطفرة التلون الكامل لرأس الريقات والسـيفون بلـون غـامق عـدا الثاين حيث مييزمرة يف اجليل قاعدة قرون االستشعار يف الرأس إضافة إىل كون رأس الريقات الطافرة غالباً اكثر استدارة من رأس ولقـد مت إجـراء تزاوجـات متعاكسـة مجاعيـة بـني األفـراد الطـافرة مـن اجليـل الثـاين . الريقات االعتيادية العتياديـة أظهـرت النتـائج بـان املظهـر املوصـوف قـد يكـون مسـيطراً عليـه بواسـطة جـني أو واألفراد ا جينات جسمية متنحية مع احتمال وجود حالة عدم النفوذ الكامل يف كال اجلنسني وتعبري متغاير .إىل حد ما full page photo 3 9 b . m . al chalabi bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2000) 9 (2): 9-12 a new species of carabidae (nsecta: coleoptera) from iraq h. a. au iraq natural history museum abstract aniera desert/cola was found new to science and to the iraqi fauna. the description was mainly based on external features and male genit introduction the carabidae of iraq were very poorly studied and were only known from faunastic. the first list made by heyden(1888), comprised only six specie one of which determined only to genus. holdhaus (1919) identified 18 species in a collection of iraqi carabids. 5 of these were described as new. raubal (1932) recorded seven species from baghdad and described one as new. andrewes (1927) identified 18 species in a collection from arabian gulf ali (1966) made an extensive work on iraqi carabidae identified and keyed in the department of entomology of british museum (n.h.). fauna of iraq still need further investigation which may introduce more records and new species. materials and methods small collection of carabids containing 12 specimens were taken by the author to the dept. of entomology of the british museum (n. h.) in 1990. where this species was isolated. compared and named. the genitalia were described by pulling the aedeagus through the opening between the last abdominal plates. the genitalia were then softened in warm 10% in solution of koh. to evert the interval sac of the aedeagus, pressure was applied to the banal part of the median lobe while pulling the internal sac through the median orifice. the genitalia were preserved in glycerin in a microvial and pinned with the type specimen which have been kept in the british museum (n.h.). arnara desert/cola sp. n. male-length 11.5 mm. width 4.5mm. head length 2.4mm. width 2.2mm. pronotum 2mm. width 2.5mm. body uniformly pale yellow. head convex, smooth with small but prominent eyes. front foveae short and fairly deep. pronotum with convex disk, apex slightly emarginate. base truncate sides rounded in front and strongly contracted behind forming with basal margin right angles, median line fine and distinct. both pronotal apex and base punctate. sides with two marginal setae. elytra oval, with fine distinct setae. punctuations of striae slightly separated and marked by black dots. lateral border of elytra angulate at shoulders. scutellary striole present. striae 6 and 7 not reaching the basal margin of elytra. intervals flat and smooth. the whole ventral side of abdomen smooth and glabrous except the presence of a transverse row of setae a long the hind margin of the last abdominal sterna. the anal margin of the last abdominal sterna has 3 fixed setae on each side. 10 inheritance of dark head distrihution —holotype from a mud desert south of baghdad march 1935. (brihish museum) comparative notesainasa deserticola sp. n. is closest to a. rut/iena tsch. from arabia can be distinguished by having flat elytre with shallow striae a. deserticola can also de differentialed by its yellowish white color while a. ruthena being yellowish red. a. deserticola has distinctive male genitalia (fig.l). holotye> paratype 11 specimens > & ♀ acknowledgements i am very grateful to the authority of the british museum (n. h.) for giving space to do this study in the dept. of entomology. indeed i wish to express my thanks to mr. p. m. hammand for providing me the materials and his valuable suggestions. literature cited ali h. a. 1966 a key to the carabidae (imsecta, coleoptera) of iraq. iraq. nat. hist.mus. pubi. no.23. andrews. h. e. 1927 zur efraschung des peosischen golfis .caraleidae (col.) ent.mitt.l6:142 148. holdhous, k. 1919 koleopteren aus mesopotamian. ann.nat.mus. wien..xxx11 :40-49. heyden, l. von. 1888 neue and insteressante coleoperen aus malatia in mesopotamian dtsch.ent.z.xxx1 1:72-78. roubal, j.(1932) sur quelques coleopteres des environs de baghdad. bull. soc. ent. fr.37:59 64. list of abbreviations b.m.=basal membrane b.p.=basal piece e.d.=ejaculatory duct i.s.lnternal sac l. p.=lateral paramere m.l.=median lobe m.o.=median orifice 11 b . m . al chalabi bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2001) 9 (3):1-6 list of ablreviation b.m. = basal meulrane b.p. = basal piece e.d. = ejaculatary duct i.s. = internal sae l.p. = lateral paranera m.l. = median labe m.o. = median orifice 12 inheritance of dark head bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2000) 9 (2): 9-12 full page photo 19-25 19 n. a. mawlood bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2002) 9 (4): 19–25 description of a new species of leucostoma meigen (diptera: tachinidae) from iraq nabeel abdul-kader mawlood technical institute of baquba, department of community health abstract this work includes a detailed description of the leucostoma nigricorpuris sp. nov. from iraq. locality, host plants and data of collection were given. introduction leucostoma meigen is one of a small and an important genus of family techinidae. some species are endoparasites on some lygeidae, correidae, and nabidae (thompson, 1934). few works have been done on the species of this genus in different parts of the world such as dupuis (1953); emden (1954); lilijesthrom (1981) and tachersnig and rechter (1998). leucostoma nigricorpuris sp. nov. body:-bright black, length 3.2-5.4mm. male:-head (fig. la) narrower than its height, vertex narrow with pairs of inner vertical bristles moderately strong and slightly curved and its length about 1.5 times of 3rd antennal segment, postvertical bristles weak, slightly shorter than the inner ones. front black with 1011 pairs of frontal bristles. parafrontal black, with bright shining whitish pollinose and with single row of short bristles outside the frontal row. ocellar triangle black, with pairs of ocellar bristles, which are as long as inner vertical bristles. ocellar dark brown, compound eye red brown oval in shape, holoptic occupy nearly the whole of the anterolateral region of head, face black, with densely white pollinose and single row (4-5) proclinate bristles, parafacial black, bare, with densely whitish pollinose, lunula black, antennal groove black elongate, moderately sunk, without carina, thinly whitish pollinose, facial ridge black, with 4-5 bristles at its basal part, occipital bristles extending to the lower edge of eyes, gena black, short about one-fourth of eyes height, with numerous genal bristles on its surface and clothed with whitish pollinose, epistoma black, vibrissa strongly developed and crossed. antenna (fig. 1b) black, first segment short with 3-4 short bristles anteriorly, second segment is cup in shape with cleft on the outer surface and bear long bristle with 6 -7 setae,the third segment is oval in shape does not reach to the oral margin and about two times as long as of second antennal segment , arista bare, thickened on basal one-fifth, about two times as long as of third antennal segment , ¼ of its basal part black and remaining part is red brown. fulcrum (fig. 1c) dark brown, lateral plate triangular in shape, proximal cornua are long and slightly curved, distal cornua is very short and not prominent. maxillary palp (fig. 1d) clavate in shape, 0.200.26 mm in length, its half distal surface with different length of bristles. labrum–epipharynx (fig. 1e) nearly oval in shape, 0.28-0.34 mm in length, epipharynx tubular in shape deposited on ventral wall of labrum, labrumepipharynx , apodeme 0.24-0.30mm length, rod in shape, strongly sclerotized, its apex cup in shape. mentum (fig. 1f) 0.22-0.28mm length, a truncated in shape, dark brown, its dorsal surface with two pairs of long bristles and moderate densely of different length of seta, mentum groove oval in shape, with black lateral ridge. 20 a new species of leucostoma head in female is similar to that of male except frons wide, 0.30-0.40mm, and with 7-8 frontal bristles, parafrontal with pairs of reclinate fronto-orbital bristles and two pairs of proclinate fronto-orbital bristles. thorax:-mesonotum is bright black, prescutum and scutum with a pair of longitudinal stripe of whitish pollinose, its dorsal surface provided with several various bristles. acrostichal bristles 3+3; dorsocentral bristles 2+3; notopleural bristles 2; humeral bristles 2; posthumeral bristles 1; intra-alar bristles 1+2; post-alar bristles 2; supra-alar bristles 2; scutellar bristles 2+1; pleural region bright shining black, with very thinly whitish pollinose, and various bristles: stigmatal bristles 2; propleural bristles 2; sternopleural bristles 1:1, anal ridge of mesopleural with 4-5 bristles; hypopleural bristles 5-7; depressed part of proepisternum bare, sternopleuron setose, ptoropleuron with 5-6 setae, subanal knob black, oval in shape, without setae, mesothoracic spiracles black, oval in shape. metathorcic spiracels dark brown, subcircular in shape. wing:(fig. 2a) hyaline, veins brown, tegula black, basicosta red brown, stem vein bare, costa with two costal spines, subcostal sclerite bare, vein r1 bare, node of fourth vein r4+5 with two bristles, apical cell r5 closed, veins m1+2 sharply sloping, joined with veins r4+5 before wing tip at distance of stalk equaled as 0.26-0.36mm, veins 1a and 2a short, both do not reach wing margin. thoracic squama (fig. 2b) circular in shape, pale yellow, clothed with yellow pollinose and without seta. lower squama (fig. 2b) similar to the thoracic squama but smaller in size. halters reddish yellow. legs:-dark brown-black with some whitish pollinosity on coxa, femora, and tibia, fore tibia (fig. 2c) with one posterodorsal bristle, mid tibia (fig. 2d) with one anteroventral and posteroventral bristle and two posterodorsal bristles, hind tibia (fig. 2e) with two anterodorsal and posterodorsal bristles, tarsi black, first segment two times as long as the second, the last segment slightly shorter to the fourth segment, claw short, slightly shorter than the last tarsal segment. abdomen:black, subcylindrical in shape but tapering posteriorly. tergite 1+2 combined without marginal bristles, third tergite with a pair of strong median marginal bristles, fourth and fifth tergites with row of strong marginal bristles, fifth tergite with transverse row (5-6) median discal bristles, tergite 1+2 with thinly whitish pollinose, and the remaining tergites clothed with densely whitish pollinose, all tergites with modrately dense hairs. the first abdominal sternite (fig. 2f) nearly cup in shape. the second sternite nearly rectangular in shape, the third and fourth sternites are nearly similar in shape, oval, but the last is slightly larger in size, fifth sternite is deeply cleft posteriorly and forming two oval lamellae, all sternites except the first with 8-9 long bristles. abdomen in female is similar to that of male but differs from it by that the tergites widened, third and fourth sternites (fig. 2g) ovaly elongated in shape, fifth sternite nearly oval in shape without cleft posteriorly. male terminalia:tergite 6 (fig. 3a) black, with 7-8 strong bristles. the left arm of sternite 6 (fig. 3b) is long, strongly sclerotized, with a wide flange articulated with anterior end of the left inferior border of syntergosternite 7+8, the right arm is short and does not articulated with right inferior of syntergosternite 7+8. syntergosternite 7+8 (fig. 3c) dome in shape, its posterior border may be deeply emarginate dorsally, so that the sclerite is divided into parts, its surface with moderate densely of strong bristles. empandrium (tergite 9)( (fig. 3d) dark brown-black, its apical half with a pair of very long bristles and moderate densely setae. hypandrium (sternite 9)(fig. 3e) red to red-brown, its posterior arms strongly bend, the distance among its apical is short 0.1-0.16 mm. 21 n. a. mawlood paralobes (fig. 3f) dark brown, nearly tubular in shape, without bristles its basal is broad and gradually tapering toward apex, the distance among its terminal apex is 0.08-0.12 mm. anal cerci (fig. 3g) dark brown, narrowly tubular in shape, united together basely and forming nearly u-shape, and separated near the half of its part, one-fourth of its basal part with moderate densely of long bristles. phalloapodeme (fig. 3g) with an antero-median flange, strongly sclerotized, intermediate plate membrane, cylindrical in shape. pregonite (fig. 3h) cylindrical in shape, slightly sclerotized, with single long bristle. postgonite (fig. 3j) nearly cup in shape, slightly sclerotized, with single long bristle at the apex. phallus (fig. 3k) black moderately curved, 0.36-0.46 mm in length, basiphallus red, moderately sclerotized, rectangle in shape, epiphallus red, dagger in shape, slightly sclerotized, slightly longer than the basiphallus. 0.08-0.12 mm in length, paraphallus sword in shape, strongly sclerotized, broad in its basal so that gradually tapering toward its distal part, paraphallic process short, about one-third of paraphallus length, it is sharply curved forward of paraphallus, hypophallus elongated ovaly in shape, strongly sclerotized, with a row of denticles on the outer margin, acrophallus short. ejaculatory sclerite (fig. 3i) small, fan in shape, strongly sclerotized, 0.06-0.10 mm in length. leucostoma nigricorpuris sp. nov. resembles the l. simpplex fallen but differs from it by the following characters: parafrontal and parafacial are covered with shining whitish pollinose, third antennal segment oval in shape and two times as long as second segment, frontal stripe with 10-11 pairs of frontal bristles, stalk slightly longer and equaled 0.26-0.36 mm faraway to the tip of the wing, fifth abdominal tergite with discal bristles, epiphallus slightly longer than basiphallus, paraphallus process sharply curved forward of paraphallus. host: unknown but adults are collected by sweeping net from alfalfa medicago sativa and clover trifolium alexandrium. material examined: diala, baquba. 1♂(holotype), 1♀ (allotype), and 2♂, 2♀ (paratype). coll. 20/5/2002 (leg. n. a. mawlood). types are preserved in iraq natural history museum. literature cited dupuis, c. 1953. contribution a letude des phasiinae cimicaphages. xv. dennecs sur les leucostomatinae et. on particulier, leucostoma analis (meigen). ann. parasit. hum. comp., 23: 62-79. emden, f. i. van, 1954 diptera cyclerrhapha calyptrata (1), section (a) tachinidae and calliphoridae. handbook ident. br. insects, 10, pt. 4(a), 133pp. liljesttrom, g. 1981 a remarkable new leucostomatinae (diptera:tachinidae) from madagascar. annals natal mus., 24(2): 501-505. thompson, w. r. 1934 the tachinid parasites of woodlice. parasitology, 26: 378-448. tschorsnig, h. p. and richter, v. a. 1998 contributions to a manual of palaerctic diptera, vol. 4, higher brachycera. published by science heral budapest: 691-828. 22 a new species of leucostoma bull. iraq nat. hist. mus (2002) 9 (4):19–25 س ف ن ع ديد ن ا جن ص ن ر بة leucostoma meigenو م ق را ع ن ال ال نحة م ة ا ثنائي د و ر ول ق د ل بد ال نبي ي د التقن ه ع م ة /ال عقوب ع/ ب ة الم تم ح ص م س ق ة ص الخال م ديد للعل ع و ي لن ف يل ف ت ص ث و ح ذا لب ن ه م ض يت ر ق ع . يف ال leucostoma nigricopuris sp .nov. وا ل ا الن اتية حل رة و ع مجع ا خ و تار ق ا من ت جل .س 23 n. a. mawlood 24 a new species of leucostoma 25 n. a. mawlood full page photo 2 9 r. sh. augul bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2008)10 (3): 9-20 description of the third instar larva of sarcophaga africa (= s. haemorrhoidalis) fall. (diptera: sarcophagidae) razzaq sh. augul iraqi natural history museum abstract sarcophaga africa fall. considered to be medical and veterinary importance, therefore, its third larval instar was described by digital camera under compound and dissecting microscope. this description includes spines type, shaped and cephalopharyngeal skeleton. furthermore the anterior and posterior spiracles were also studied. introduction the immature stages of the majority of dipterous families remain poorly known (henning, 1968). in the case of the sarcophagidae relatively few papers have appeared dedicated to the larval morphology of the family (zumpt, 1965; aspoas, 1991; ebejer, 2000; kirk-spriggs, 2000). the larval stages of many species of sarcophagidae are necrophagous and for this reason those species termed "flesh – flies" are significant in forensic entomology (sukontason et al. 2001). larvae normally develop in decaying meat but are also known as parasitoids of various animals (povolny and verves, 1997). flies belonging to the sarcophagidae have received much attention due to their myiasis potential and vector for pathogens (greenberg, 1971). the larvae present a number of useful characters which aid in distinguishing the species; one has only to compare the structure of the cephalopharyngeal sclerites of the different known species to appreciate the morphological variations of this structure in sarcophagid group. the more important characters used in the descriptions, in addition to the cephalopharyngeal skeleton, are: size and general appearance of the larvae; shape, size and distribution of spines and size, and shape of posterior spiracles. other less important diagnostic characters are the size of the posterior cavity and size and number of the papillae on the border, general appearance of anal area, and structure of the first apparent or cephalic segment (kinpling, 1936, zumpt, 1965). recently, attention has been focused on the sarcophagidae because of their use in medicocriminal entomology (byrd and bulter, 1998; introna et al. 1998; benecke, 1998; wells et al. 2001). in iraq this species was reported by derwesh (1965) and kaddou (1967); in addition to that studies on this species in iraq is very scarce. as a result to the above; this study was suggested. materials and methods (a) specimens collection as bait we employed rabbit carcass; it was placed in a metal cage and left out in the garden of iraqi natural history museum. this bait was placed directly on the soil which is put in the 10 description of the third instar larva container; the bait attracted sarcophagid and other flies for deposit eggs or larvae (especially sarcophagid females). after larval development on carcass was complete, maggots left the carcass and drop its self on the soil, then penetrated to few millimeter for pupation. these larvae were collected by forceps and put it in test tube. larvae brought to the laboratory and divided in to (2) lots: one was fixed in hot water (40 – 50 co) to avoid shrink, when it will be stored in alcohol. the other lot was placed in container (full by sand) to obtain the pupae. these pupae were reared in incubator at (30±1 co) and relative humidity (r. h.) 70% (according to peterson (1953)). after adults emerged from these pupae, the adult and larva specimens were identified according to, roback (1951) zumpt (1965) and salem (1936). (b)taxonomic aspect of 3rd instar larvae: the larvae were cleared in boiling 10% koh and stored in lactophenol for detailed study of cephalopharyngeal skeletons, spine bands and spine types, anterior and posterior spiracles, and tubercle size and arrangement; the description above of the characters were supply be camera digital and lucida under compound and dissecting microscope. results and discussion the results indicated that the length of postfeeding larvae was 1.82 cm in average (1.5-2.2 cm). larvae appeared to have 12 segments; spines of each segments (2-12) are similar and they were 2-12 (figure 1,2), shortly unpigmented and toward to anal. segment-1 (head region) have a rows of feeble spines (figure 3), darkling and strong, around ending area of head segment. segment-2 have anterior spinuos annuli only; the spines are similar to those of head segment and have pair of anterior spiracles. in other segments 3-12 have densely spinulose in dorsal and lateral view but in ventral view this spines are found in anterior and posterior region only; this characters were in agreement with zumpt (1965) observation, distributed of these spines are equal, except in near of tubercles area; we found no spines. in dorsal view, segments 3-11 have six small tubercles (figure 2) three on each side of the median line, which are close together on the more anterior segments but spread a part posteriorly, especially on segments 10 and 11, and larger tubercles on each side of the median group and separated from it by a distinct interval. the lateral group consists of two tubercles, a smaller dorso-lateral and a larger lateral. in ventral view, the tubercles are found on segment (4-11), these tubercles are very similar to those found in dorsal view. anterior spiracles (figure 4) with short stalk and consist from 11-14 branches (mostly 13 branched), these result assured by walker (1937). figure (5) showed the posterior spiracles; surrounded by incomplete ventrally, lightly sclerotized peritreme; it is nearly straight on the mesial side, but is strongly curved or bent laterally, in addition to, the peritreme without button , also its extended between slits in upper region, the slits are not straight. the posterior spiracles pit is deep (figure 6), surrounded by a thick ended ridge bearing six pairs of tubercles, three above and three below, of the three upper pairs are equal in size and distance between one to other, while the tubercles below are deferent in size; outer and median are equal and largest if compared with the inner tubercles. the distance between inner tubercles in above and below is equal. on the other hand the pit surrounded by rows of spines pigmented and feeble or needled shaped (singles and groups) (figure 3) also the spines are similar to the spines in head region. in posterior view of ending larvae, showed that larvae consist in ventral region from pair of anal protuberance; these anal protuberance are covered by spines as similar to these spines which are found on other segments. the cephalopharyngeal skeleton as showed in fig.7,8 that have been already described by zumpt (1965) but in shortly, in this present study refigured in detail, the mouth hooks arise 11 r. sh. augul each form a thick base with a prominent dorsal angle and a blunt ventral process. the rudiment of the dental sclerite is seen just behind the ventral process. the hypostomal sclerite is h-shaped as viewed dorsally. the parastomal sclerites are seen in lateral view, there have a two slender rods projecting forward from the pharyngeal sclerite over the hypostomal sclerite. the pharyngeal sclerite, as indicated by the broader lateral plates and heavily sclerotized dorsal and ventral cornua and bifid clearly in dorsal cornua, while in ventral cornua; the bifid is not clearly, this result is in agreement with zumpt (1965). on the other hand, the bifid is very clearly in wohlfahrtia sp. (walker, 1937). litretature cited aspoas, b. r. 1991. comparative micromorphology of third instar larvae and the breeding biology of some afrotropical sarcophaga (diptera : sarcophagidae ). medical and veterinary entomology, 5: 437-445. benecke, m. 1998. six forensic entomology cases: description and commentary. j. forensic sci: 43: 797-805. byrd, j. h. and bulter, j. f. 1998. the effects of temperature on s. haemorrhoidalis (diptera; sarcophagidae ) development. j. med. entomol. 35: 694-698. derwesh, a. i. 1965. a preliminary list of identified insects and some arachnids of iraq. direct. gen. agr. res. pro. baghdad, bulletin, no. 121: 1-123. ebejer, m. j. 2000. description of third instar larva and puparium of blaesoxipha calliste pape (diptera:sarcophagidae). studia dipterologica, 7(1): 121-124. grenberg, b. 1971. flies and disease. vol.11: biology and disease transmission. princeton (nj): princeton university press. hennig, w. 1968. die larvenformen der dipteren, einebersicht ber die bisher bekannten jugendstadien der zweiflgeligen inseckten. 3. teil. akademie verlag berlin, (vii) + 628pp. introna, f., campobasso, c. p. and di-fazio, a. 1998. three cases studies on forensic entomology from southern italy. j. forensic sci., 43: 210-214. kaddou, i. k. 1967. check – list of some insect fauna of iraq. biological res. centre, no.1.: 144. kinpling, e. f. 1936. a comparative study of the first –instar larvae of the genus sarcophaga (calliphoridae, diptera), with notes on the biology. the journal of parasitology., 22(5): 417-454. kirk-spriggs, a. h. 2000. the immature stages of sarcophaga forceps blackith (diptera sarcophagidae), reared from the flesh of a decomposing cowrie shell in sulawesi, indonesia. studia dipterologica. peterson, a. 1953. a manual of entomological techniques, 7th ed., edward brothers, inc., michigan (usa). 12 description of the third instar larva povolny, d. and verves, y. 1997. the flesh flies of central europe (insecta: diptera; sarcophagidae). spixiana suppl. 24: 217-218 (cited in: awad a.; abdel – salam, s.; abou el-ela, r.; abdel-a. and mohamed, d. 2003. ultra structure comparison of the sensory morphology of the first– and third– instar larvae of parasarcopgaga argyrostoma, (robineau–desvoidy), (diptera : sarcophagidae). egyptian j. of biology, 5: 148-154. sukontason, k.; sukontason, k. l. and piangjai, s. 2003. scanning electron microscopy of third-instar sarcophagid (diptera : sarcophagidae) recovered from a mummified human corpse in thailand. rev. inst. med. trop. sao. paulo, 45: 95-98. walker, e. m. 1937. the larval stages of wohlfahrtia vigil (walker). j. of parasitology, vol. 23: 163-174. wells, j. d.; pape, t. and sperling, f. a. h. 2001. dna – based identification and molecular systematic of forensically important sarcophagidae. j. forensic sci.; 46(5): 10981102. zumpt, f. 1965. myiasis in man and animals in the world, london: butterworth’s. 13 r. sh. augul 14 description of the third instar larva 15 r. sh. augul 16 description of the third instar larva 17 r. sh. augul 18 description of the third instar larva 19 r. sh. augul 20 description of the third instar larva bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2008)10 (3): 9-20 ذ ابة لحم ث ل ت ال ور الث ل ف قا .sarcophaga africa fall وص ( sarcophagidae diptera; ) ل ك ع رزا شعال ح الت ي امت ع اق ي ال ط يع خ ال جامعة بغداد ،ري الخالصة م ح رية ل بابة لل ط و ا ب طبية ة ا مهي أل را ، اقرتحت هذه .sarcophaga africa fall نظ ف يرقات الطور الثالث باستخدام كامريا رقمية و لوسيدا حتت اهر املركب و الدراسة لوص نوع األشواك و توزيعها ، اهليكل البلعومي الرأسي باإلضافة إىل : تضمن الوصف . التشرحيي .الفتحات التنفسية األمامية و اخللفية 5 19 b . m . al chalabi bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2000) 9 (2): 19-23 a new species of genus trialeurodes cockere form iraq (homoptera, aleyrodidae)* *i. m. al and **m.s .abdaul *department of plant protection, college of agriculture. university of baghdad. **lraq natural history museum. university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq. abstract trialeurodes irakensis sp. n. is describe and illustrated from iraq. t.vaporariorurn (westwood) is reported and for the first time for the iraqi fauna. a ke to species of trialeurodes found in iraq is presented. introduction during an extensive survey of whiteflies (homotera. aleyrodidae) in the middle of iraq, four species belonging to the genus trialeurodes cockerel were noticed amongst the collection. tow of which t.rara singh. 1931 and tricini (misra. 1924) have been reported for iraq by mound and halsey (1978). the third species t.vaporartiorunni (westwood. 1856) has not been reported so far from this .country. the present work records for the first time the occurrence of this species from iraq. the fourth species compared with allied species of the genus trialeurodes proved that it is quite distinct from all other species and is described here as a new species. trjaleurodes irakensis sp. n. (text-fig. 1) pupal case. colour, yellowish white with dark brown pigment on dorsal side. body. oval in shape, surrounded by waxy filament. length, 0.69-0.72mm. breadth, 0.45-0.47mm. margin. smoothly crenulate; thoracic tracheal pores apparently indicated by a few differentiated marginal teeth. submarginal papillae all equal in size, usually arranged in a single row: small poores present beneath each papilla. dorsal surface. logitudinal molting suture nearly reaches middle of dorsal disc. transversal molting bends posteriorly, then directed anteriorly area. abdomen with eight visible segments: vasiform orifice in shape, lateral with tooth-like ridges: operculum rectangular in shape. occupies half vasiform orifice: lingual exposed, lingual tip clearly lobed with paired terminal setae. sometime extending well beyond posterior margin of orifice. three pairs of major setae. on cephalic region, first and eight abdominal segment. ventral surface. meso-and metathoracic legs each with one pair or more of small setae: prothoracic leg with one setae. *part of a master’s thesis submitted by the first author in 1988 to the college of agriculture, university of baghdad 20 inheritance of dark head specimens studied. iraq: baghdad. one pupal case (holotype) on hibiscus rosasinensis. 3.iv.1987: three pupal case (paratype) on hibiscus rosasinensis. and 3.iv.1987. (leg almalo). the types were deposited in iraq natural history museum. trialeurodes irakensis sp. n. is closely allied to t ricini but differs from it by the following character: operculum rectangular in shape fills half or less than of vasiform orifice: lingula exposed and extending up to tip of vasiform orifice or more. trialeurodes vaporariourn (westwood. 1 856) specimens studied. iraq: baghdad, three pupal cases. on citrus spp. 24.iii.1987: kardala, six pupa cases, on citrus spp., 24.v.1987 diyala. three pupal cases, on citrus spp.iv.1987: (leg. al-malo). according to mound and halsey (1978) arid literature cited, this species has not been recorded so far from iraq. therefore, the present specimens constitute the first report of its occurrence in this country. the following key may separate the four species of trialeurodes found in iraq: 1. submarginal papillae all equal in size, usually arranged in single row (figs.1,2)………… 2 submarginal papillae not equal in size, and not arranged in a singal row (figs.3,4)……….. 3 2operculum rectangular in shape fills half or less than half of vasiform orifice: lingual exposed and extended up to tip of vasiform orifice or more (figs.i) …t. irakensis sp. n. operculum cordate or subcircular in shape fills more than half of vasiform orifice, and exposing subapical of lingula (figs. 2) t ricint (misra. 1924) 3. subdorsal papillae rounded in shape, not more than three pairs. submarginal papillae nearly triangular in shape, with shape tip (fig. 3)…………………………… i rara singh.1931 subdorsal papillae large and rounded in shape, usually four pairs or more (fig.4)…………………. t. vaporariorm (westwood. 1856) litereature cited al-malo. i. m. 1988. taxonomic studies on whiteflies (homoptera. aleyrodidae) in the middle of iraq. m. sc. thesis submitted to the college of agriculture. university of baghdad. misra. c. s. 1924. the citrus whitefly, dialeurodes citri in india and its parasite, together with the life history of aleurodes ricini n. sp. rep. proc. ent. meet. india, 12:1 pusa 1923:129-135. mound, l. a. and halsey, s. h. 1978. whitefly of the world. british museum (natural history) and john and sons, chichesternew york — brisbane — toronto. 34opp. sing. k. 1931. a contribution towards our knowledge of the aleyrodidae (whiteflies) of india. mem. dep. agric. 98. westwood, j. 0. 1856. the new aleyrodes of the greenhouse. gdnr’s chron. 1856:852pp. 21 b . m . al chalabi 22 inheritance of dark head 23 b . m . al chalabi bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2000) 9 (2): 19-23 7 31 b . m . al chalabi bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2000) 9 (2): 31-36 comparative ecoloy of two species of bivalve corbicula fl uminea and corbicule fl uminalis in shatt al-arab y. t. daoud department of biology. university of babylon abstract some aspects of population dynamics of both corbicula species inhabiting intertidal zone of shatt al-arab are described. these informations are explained in accordance with the possible occurrence of competition between the two related species. introduction the two asian clams corbiculafluminalis (muller. 1974) and corbiculaflurninalis (muller. 1974) are very common species in shatt alarab river. the two species are also recorded in habbanya and razzaza lake (zahadin, 1965) and (britton, 1977.( the genus corbicula plays an important role in transforming the energy and removing the suspended organic material from the water column to increase the natural precipitation of organic material (prokopovich. 1969.( it appears that the two species had similar ecological requirements. therefore they might be competition. however an explanation of their coexistence was given in this investigation through the study of dynamic of their populations. study area shall al-arab river is one of the main water bodies in iraq. it is 139 km long from the point of the confluence of the tigris and euphrates rivers to mouth north of the arabian gulf. the river is under tidal effect from the gulf and at low tide a wide strip of substratum on the two sides of the river become exposed. the chosen site for the study was part of this area and situated close to basrah city. the intertidal area of shatt al-arab in general. including the study site. is covered with water plants for most part of the year forming a green mat over its sandy mud substratum. the dominate plants are phragniitis austvalis (cay.): tvpha doiningensis pers: cvperus longus l:. potarnogeton schweinfurthii l.; and ceratophyllurn dernersum. another abuadant plant is the cladophora glornerata (l.). chemico-physical condition of the shatt al-arab river had been reported by several workers. a water temperature varies between 10-32 c (marina. in press). water salanities showed seasonal and variations and differed between the parts of the river. the lower regions had salanities of typical of an estuary and much higher that those of the upper regions. values recorded at the sampling site were between 0.5 and 1 .2%0 (marian. in press). the hydrogen ion concentration ranged between 7-8 without vertical variations (al-saheb. 1989). dissolved oxygen in the river was invariably near saturation which calcium was always much higher 32 inheritance of dark head than minimum concentration required for gastropod survival (>100 mg-i) (daud. at al. in press). material and methods monthly sampling were collected from nov. 1985 to october 1986. on each sampling occasion, fifteen quadrates (1/6 m-2) were taken from the intertidal area of the river. this position of a replicate was determined randomly’ a line transect running perpendicular to the water flow of the river. individual replicates of each sample were carried in polyphone bags to the laboratory. they sorted by washing through a 0.4mm sieve. the number of clams per replicate was recorded and the length of each individual was recorded to nearest 0.1mm. results and discussion this study concerns with the population dynamic and growth of c.flurninea and c/loin/na/is as revealed by changes in length of the shell. the shell of each species is thick and distinct. growth rings usually assist in the assignment of individuals to age grouping. the shell dimensions of c.flurninea and c.flurninalis from shatt al-arab are given in fig 1. which may assist in any subsequent study of population of the same or of different species. monthly mean densities per replicate (0.0625% m-2) were calculated from 15 samples. the population of c.flurninea was at its maximum in december (21.66 per 1/16 m-i). number then declined sharply until may. this could be due to the death of reproducing animals in early spring. after may mortality was relatively high and accounted for the reduction in number observed in july (2.2 per 1/16 m-l). in august again the density of population increased following by sharp in september. the density fluctuations c.flun2ina/is were or less follow the same general pattern of that of c.fluminea except that firstly, the mean density was significantly (p> 0.01) lower than that of c.fluniinea, secondly the two peaks of densities for c.flzirninalis were recorded with time leg of one and three month after the peaks of c.flurninea respectively. this might be attributed to avoid interference between the two corbicula species. in recent years (1990-1992), unpublished data indicated that when the salanities were increased in shaft al-arab (50%). the densities of c.flwninslis become significantly (p>0.01) more than the densities of c.flurninea. kado & murata(1974) reported that cjlurninea is more adaptable to fresh water than cf/urn/na/is. analysis of population structure of both species of carbicu/a in sail al-arab as revealed by series of length frequency histograms suggest that at most of the year population comprised four age groups (0-year, 1-year. 2-years. 3-years) with average of shell length for c.flurninea and cf/urn/na/is (2mm. 14.3mm. 20.3mm. 26mm) and (1.6mm. 15.8mm. 19mm. 21mm) respectively. the common feature revealed by the size class distribution of both corbiczila species was the change in number of animal in each size class (fig. 2). this change was attributed to growth. in november the dominant age groups c.fluminalis population were 1 and 2-year age group while for c. fluininea 2 and 3 year age group were dominant. in junyary. and february. both species showed an increasing number of 0-year age group while the percentage of 3-year age group particularly for c.fluniinea was increasing in comparison with proceeding months. from april to june both species showed a considerable growth and may individuals of both species joined the 3-year age group. during the period from july-agust, the population of both species underwent postreproductive moralities, it is clear that the number of individuals of 30year age group was declined. to analyses the population structure from the competition point of view between the two related species, it could be noted that there is an obvious difference between the percentages of different age groups in certain months during the study period. morton (1977) states that 33 b . m . al chalabi each of corbicula species may possess intrinsically different life cycles. further more it was found that the growth rate of c.fluininalis was faster than that of c.fluminea. according very few individuals of c.jlurninalis reached 3-year age group. britton and morton (1977) reported the same conclusion. both populations also showed a continuous breeding which began in february and lasted until october. as sampling program for the percent study designed for one year. it would be difficult to given a complete picture about their life history. however morton (1977) in plove core reservoir in hong kong reported that life history of cordiculafluininea lasted for about 3-years. references al-saheb. l.m.a. 1989 life history and production of tow species freshwater bivalve corbicula fluminea (muller, 1974) and corbiculaflurninalis (muller. 1974) in shaft al-arab region. unpublished m.sc. thesis. univ. of basrah, iraq. britton. j.c. and morton, b.s. 1977. corbicula in north america: the evidence and reviewed and evaluated proceeding of the first international corbicula symposium. fort worth 1977. texas christian univ. research foundation, fort worth. pp. 249-287. daold, y.t., maring, b.a. and shihab. a.f. (in press) life history and production of the gastropod theoduxusjordani in the shatt al-arab river. kado, y. and murata, h. 1974 reponses of brackish and fresh water clams corbiculajaponica and c./eana, to variations in salanity.j. sci. hiroshima univ.. serb.. divi. 25: 217-224. marina, b.a.daold, y.t. and shihab,a.f. (in press) population biology and production of melanopsispraernorsa l. (gastropoda) in the shatt al-arab river. morton, b.s. 1977 the population dynamics of corbiculaflurninea (bivalvia:corbiculacea) in plover cove reservoir hong kong. j.zool. lond. 181: 21-42. pokopovich, n.p.1969 deposition of elastic sediments by clams. j. sed. petrology. 39: 891901. zhadin, vi. 1965 mollusks of fresh and brakish water of the u.ss.r. academy of sciences of the union of soviet socialist republics. 34 inheritance of dark head 35 b . m . al chalabi 36 inheritance of dark head bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2000) 9 (2): 31-36 8 57 a. k. nasser and s. k. jan bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2008)10 (3): 57-68 the study of mineralogical and microfacies analysis shiranish formation well (kh-6) ansab area in southern iraq ali k. k. nasser* and sadi k. jan** *college of sciences, university of baghdad **natural history museum, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq abstract the study of shiranish formation rocks in southern part of iraq at ansab area well (kh-6) were carried out. the formation is tongued with tayarat formation, which bounded from top and bottom, the upper tongue at thickness 49m. and tongued at depth (476-525m.) the lower tongue at thickness 4m. tongued at (541-537m.). the rocks of this formation were divided into three sedimentary microfacies: 1dolomitized formininferal wackestone facies. 2dolomitized formininferal mudstone facies. 3dolostone facies. 34 slides were investigated depending on mineralogical, compositional and biological processes and compared diagenesis which reflect open marine shelf at lower part of formation (f.z.2) (s.m.f.8), but at the top represent deep shelf margin environment. the most important diagenesis is neomorphism and spary calcite cement deposits within fossils (intragranular) with late dolomitie stage special in dolostone facies (third facies). introduction the shiranish carbonate formation is considered as one of the rock stratigraphic unit with wide regional extension in the north of iraq and syria, represented as one of upper cretaceous formation and it was studied in many surface and subsurface sections in different areas of iraq, but first described by (henson, 1940) in islam shiranish village near zakho city in the north of iraq, latitude north 37°-11¯32˝and east 42° -5¯-30˝. rocks of the shiranish formation was divided in type section into two units by (bellen, r. c., 1959);, (buday, r.t., 1980) and (kassab, i. j. m. 1973)in 1986, al-qayim divided the type section of the formation into three units depending on rocks compostion, petrographic analysis and chemical properties also the formation divided into three by secondary units in singar mountain area(maala, k. a. 1977), (ai-shibani, s. k. 1973), (youkana, a. k. 1976) and (kassab, et al.1986) depending on foraminifera. some researches were pointed into extension to the mid and south of iraq, (a1-naqib, 1967) in (darmoian, s. 1974 b.) considered qurna formation in the southern area equivalent to shiranish formation as in (bellen, r. c., 1959) . . . .etc. and ( buday, r. t., 1980) considered as a large tongue for shiranish formation, (darmoian, s. 1975 b.)confirmed that he considered the marine facies of qurna formation in the area which described by (owen, r. m. s., 1985) in zubair well-3 equivalent for shiranish and it was fixed by (al-mashhadani, a. 1984) the existence of marine facies in the direction of sudia arabia boundary in suggested distribution sedimentary facies maps, also tamar-agha (al-janabi, safa, a. a. f. 1986) mentioned the existence of this formation in the southern desert wells, it has been studied one of this well. 58 the study of mineralogical we draw a sketch of distributing microfacies for sedimentary basin of the formation according to wilson model 1975 (wilson, j. l., 1975) as in fig. 3 and the facies were: 1dolornitized forarniniferal wackestone facies: these facies located at the lower part of the formation (lower tongue) in depth (537-541m.) and in the upper part (upper tongue) the depth (522-525m.) which recognized by the abundant of planktonic foraminiferal (globigerinelloides escheri, heterohelix reussi, rugoglobigerina rugosa) plate (1-1) inaddidition to echinoderms and shell fragments. chambers of some fossils were filled by spary calcite cement (intragranular) plate (1-2), rhombohedral shape of dolomite mineral were noticed in matrix of this facies and pyrite appeared in some planktonic foraminifera chamber plate (1-3) and the last represented local suitable environment for mineral pyrite deposition because of abundant organic matter that made reduction alkaline condition and this represented the best location for the crystallization of pyrite mineral (siesser, w. g., 1967). this facies equivalent to the standard microfacies (s.m.f.8) in facies zone (f.z.2), represented on marine shelf with open water circulation below wave base and normal salinity (30-40%) according to the existence of echinoderms (wilson, j. l., 1975). 2 dolomitized foraminifera mudstone facies: these facies were represented in depths (494-522m.), (482-490m.) and in depth (476478m.), the matrix of this facies composed of partially or completely micrite alteration to micro spar plate (1-4) in which the complete faces of dolomite crystal (anhedral) were scattered plate (2-1) because the burial mud deposit under water by the action of pressure that made confined connate water out of pores contributed in magnesium enrichment which necessary for the late dolomite process (wilson, j. l., 1975). formed mineral dolomite process in this facies supposed to be late dolomitic process because the size of dolomite mineral particle larger than 0.02 ml, also no combination with gypsum and did not contain fossils that indicate lagonal environment (fuchtbauer and goldscmidt, h., 1956) and the percentage of fossils in this facies less than 10% represented by planktonic foraminiferal genus aegyptice globotruncana and g-diwi also echinoderms and shell fragment plate (2-2), many fossils in this facies were affected by neomorphism process such as recrystallization and some of their chamber were filled by calcite cement and pointed the existence of numlite genus plate (2-3) less than 1% in micrite-matrix, this indicated that it comes by transportation from high energy environment into low energy environment and this fades equivalent to standard microfacies (s.m.f.3) in the zone (f.z.3) in which deposited in deep shelf margin environment. 3 dolostone facies. this facies found in depth (490-494m.) and (478-482 m.), dolomite mineral with sugar texture and equal crystal sizes represented high percentage more than 75% in matrix plate (2-4) that formed by the action of diagenesis substitution process in carbonate deposits, in which dolomite mineral crystal formed completely faces (enhedral) medium sizes between (0.55-0.93mm) particles sizes were increased upward that indicate the diagenesis process becomes more intense (fuchtbauer and goldscmidt, 1956) the facies has high porosity as a result of late diagenesis process and reflected condition of supratidal environment because the lack of fossils in this facies. the percentage of crystal dolomite minerals in this facies identified and determined through x-ray diffraction scheme (xrd), dolomite weight % is calculated by using royse method (royse, et al, 1971) fig.4, the percentage of dolomite mineral more than 75% that indicate the rocks of this facies was dolomite from mineralogical andlithological point of view. 59 a. k. nasser and s. k. jan conclusions 1 shiranish formation rocks were intertongue with tayarate formation in well (kh-6) into three sedimentary mineralogical microfacies: (a) dolomitized foraminiferal wackestone facies. (b) dolomitized foraminiferal mudstone facies. (c) dolostone facies. 2 these facies reflected open marine shelf at the lower part of formation (f.z.2) (s.m.f.8) but at the upper part represented deep shelf margin environment. 3these facies assure the existence of diagenesis processes such as neomorphism (recrystallization) and late dolomite process in different degrees, which alter to dolomite rocks or dolostone facies. 4 diagram of microfacies distribution of sedimentary basin were drawn according to wilson model -1975. 5these described facies closer to qurna formation in the studying that has been done southern oil well co., then we can consider that shiranish formation in this area (southern iraq) has a type of facies different from the formation in northern iraq, under the effect of dominated tectonic condition and water depth in this area. 6 the thickness of this formation considered less in comparison with thickness of shiranish formation in the other part f iraq, the studying pointed to the average thickness formation in the range (100-400 m.) which the thickness reached about 53 m. in ansab area. references al-janabi, s. a. a. f. (1986). sedirnentology and petrological studies of the upper cretaceous kh-6 at ansabarea in south iraq, m. s. c. thesis, university of baghdad (unpublished). a1-mashadani, a., 1984, geadynamic evolution of iraqi sedimentary basin, consequence on the distribution of fluid, dsc. thesis bordeaux. university. france 320p. al-shibani, s. k., 1973. microfacies from shiranish in north eastern (sulamania asmar region jour. soc., iraq, vol.6, pp. 49-65). al-qayim, b., habib, h. k., and aal-dyni, n., 1986. petrolgy and geochemistry of shiranish formation (type section) towards sedimentary facies interpretation. jour. geol. soc. iraq, vol.19. no3 (7thigc) pp. 123-136. bellen, r. c., dunnigton, h. v., wetzel, r. and morton, d. h. 1959 lexique stratigraphique, international, asie, iraq, vol.3 ,fasc10a. buday, r. t., 1980, the regional geology of iraq vol. stratigraphy and paleogeography. edited by kassab and jassim geosurvy baghdad. darmoian, s. 1975b. stratigraphy and micro-paleontology of the apper cretaceouse arumas, supper group, south eastern iraq jour. geol. soc. iraq. specissue, pp. 89-l 16. dunham, r. j., 1962: classification of carbonate rocks according to depositional texture. aapg. 1,108-121, tulsa. fluegel, e., 1982: microfacies analysis of limestone, springer-verlag, berlin, 633p. 60 the study of mineralogical fuchtbauer und goldscmidt, h., 1956: ein zechstein anhydrite-profil mit ein1agerunge von montmorillonit and einer abweivhenden serpentin. vareetaet-heidelberg beitr.miner.petrogr. , 5, 187-203. fuchtbauer, h., muller, g., 1977; sedimente and sedimentgesteine, e. schweizerbartsche verlags buchhandlung. stuttgart. 784p. kassab, et al., 1986, the cretaceouse-tertiary boundary in iraq, jour. geol. soc. iraq. vol.19, no.2 (7th igc), 7p. 129-167. kassab, i. j. m., 1973, plankfonic foraminiferida of shiranish formation type loca1ity north iraq). jour, geol. soc. iraq, vol. 19.no3 (7th igc)pp. 123-136. maala, k. a., 1977. the regional geological mapping of singar area, d. geo. sur. min., inv., baghdad (unpub. rep. no-860). mchargue, t. r., and price, 21982: dolomite from clay in argillaceoue or shale associated marine carbonates: jour. sed. petrolgy, vol.52, no.3, p. 873-886. owen, r. m. s. and nasir, s. n. 1958. the stratigraphy of the kuwait-basrah area, in week, l. g. (ed), habitat of oil, asymposium, aapg. pub, p. 2521278. siesser, w. g. 1967: authigenic pyrite and gypsum in south west african contenetal slop sedimentology, vol.23, p. 579. wilson, j. l., 1975: carbonate facies in geologic history. springer-verlag, berlin. 471 p. youkhana, a. k., 1976. foramini fera and biostratigraphy of some late cretaceouse marine sediments of northeast iraq, univ. wales. (ph. d. thesis) 318p. 939pis. 61 a. k. nasser and s. k. jan fig.1: location map of stuied well 62 the study of mineralogical 63 a. k. nasser and s. k. jan 64 the study of mineralogical 65 a. k. nasser and s. k. jan 66 the study of mineralogical 67 a. k. nasser and s. k. jan 68 the study of mineralogical bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2008)10 (3): 57-68 ش بئر را و الشي خ ص ق ل ي وال حني الد ي را ة التحلي المع ن منطقة )kh-6(د ب صا الن ب ا عراق -ا جنو صر م ا ف ك ظ ي ل ي ان ج ن* عل **و س د وم* داد-كلية ا عل ة بغ جامع ي** خ ال بيع ري ف ال ا ح داد-مت ة بغ جامع ة ص الخال ص ور ة ت د اس جمت يف ش ريا ب ئر بت و ن الش صا الن ب لعراق ، واليت يظهر )kh-6(و ُ الطيارات الذي حيمع تكوين )صقتال(فيها التكوين على هيئة متالصقة واألسفل األعلىمن ده م يتداخل ٤بسمك م ولسان سفلي ٥٢٥-٤٧٦من عمق م يتداخل ٥٣علوي بسمك لسان .م٥٤١-٥٣٧من العمق :ثالث وحدات سحنية رسوبية دقيقة هي إىلقسمت صخور هذا التكوين .سحنة احلجر الواكي احليايت املتدملت .١ .سحنة احلجر الطيين احليايت املتدملت .٢ .سحنة احلجر الدولومايت .٣ شرحية اعتماداً على املكونات الصخرية ٣٤فحص الشرائح الرقيقة البالغة وذلك من خالل هذه السحنات تعكس بيئة رف أنوقد وجد واملعدنية، واملتحجرات والعمليات التحويرية الالحقة بيئة فتمثل األعلىيف اجلزء أما) s.m.f.8()f.z.2(من التكوين فلاألسالبحر املفتوح يف اجلزء التبلور إعادةوان اهم العلميات التحويرية هي ) deep shelf margin(حافة الرف العميق )neomorphism ( النيومورفزم وترسبات معدن الكالسايت السباري داخل حجرات ).السحنة الثالثة(ولسنون املتحجرات وعملية الدملتة املتأخرة خاصة يف الد 5 39 s. k. jan bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2009)10(4): 39-48 microfcies of tel hajar formation in south-west iraq sadi kan jan iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad, bab al-muadham, baghdad, iraq abstract the tel hajar formation in the studied area has been divided into five microfacics units: 1) fine hiogenic dolomite facies. 2) sandy rich dolomite facies. 3) dolomite diagenetic facies. 4) recrystal1ized wackestone in microfacies. 5) mudsione facies. microfacics reflect shallow marine water with open circulation in the lower part of the formation and the environment of the upper is enclosed between upper tide and tide. the most important diagenesis was recrystallization and spary calcite deposit inside fossils chambers and pores. introduction tel hajar formalion was first described by (kaddouri 1979) at the well tel hajar (30) km south-west of sinjar town (fig.1) a new cenomanian-lower turonian stratigraphic unit from north-west iraq called the tel hajar formation. this new formation has been recorded from other part of iraq (ain zahal well no.16) (kaddouri 1979). the section is reprsentcd in u.t.m. 729 428 .4.e 4001 971 n. in iraq, and also in the n-e part of syria. there was a regression towards the end of the cretaccous and general erosion of the upper beds of the maastrichtian (dunnington 1955), tel hajar well was drilled on the tel hajar structure. the formation lies between drilling depths (2574m) and 2681m and consists of (107m) of thicknes .in the tel hajar well section, the formation underlies glohigerina, oligosteginal marly limestone of the kometan formation (late sate turonian-early campanian age), the contact being unconformable. the base of the tel hajar formation overlies the qamchuqa formation uneonformably. in part of the palmyra mountains (n-e syria) it is believed that there was continuous sedimentation from cretaceous to the tertiary (dubertret 1959) like in the well tell hajar-1. (kaddouri 1979) described the formation that consists of conglomerate, limestone, dolostone pebbles with reworked fossils. microfacies tel hajar formation rocks in north-west sinjar were divided after examining (69) thin sections by polarized microscope depending on (dunham 1962) classilication and according to (fluegel 1972) specifications which modified by (wilson 1975) depending on litholoical component and some fossils (fig.2) into live microsedimentary facies then drawing a sketch of microfacics distribution for sedimentaty basin of the formation according to (wilson 1975) as in (fig.3). the sedimentary microfacies were as follow: 1) fine biogenic dolomite facies this facies lies in the upper formation and consists of line ciystal of dolomite platc (1-1), some pores which appear arc resultant from the melting as the passing of the 40 microfcies of tel hajar formation unsaturated liquids.the existing detrital quartz and lack of fossils indicates that this facies is near the coast.according to this peculiarities the environment of this facies it is enclosed between upper tide and tide. this facics similar to the(s.m.f.21) zone (f.z.8). 2) sandy rich dolomite facies this facies almost is spreading through all parts of the formation, the facies contain of coarse dolomite crystal pale (1-2) which some of them are idiomorph. the rocks of this facies are exposed entire dolomitation and melting processes from the solutions, the base of this facies containing pyrite through the dolomite crystals plate (l-3) as well as including broken shell. becouse of the existing of deterital quartz grains and blioclast all these refer to depositing this facies in an environment exposed to wave, and this is evailable in mid tide coaster environment. this facies represents the standard micofacies (s.m.f.24) zone (f.z.8). 3) dolomite diagenctic facies this facies lies in the middle of the formalion, this facies characterized by lacking of fossils, but there are some of (ostracod) and (shell fragment) plate (1-4) thy are fractures in the base which tilled with pyrite, the fractures consociate a suitable lokal environment to deposite the pyrite metal, as well as they are a little of quartz which indicates near the coast. this facies is similar to the (s.m.f. 19) zone (f.z.8) which indicated to the lakes and lagoons of restricted waler. 4) rccrstallized wackestone facics this facies lies in the middle and lower of the intormation and the matrix composed of (osrtacod). the skeletal componets of (shell fragments). the most important diagenesis in the alteration of micrite matrix by recrystallization which destoryed the most of them as well as deposit of calcite cement in fossils chambers plate (2-1). and there are also (quartz) and some little of dolomite rhombohydral in the matrix. this facies represents the standart microfacies ((s.m.f.9) zone (f.z.7) which is the zone of shallow marine water with open circulation. 5) mudstone facies this facies lies in the lower formation. there are a little of (planktonic forams.) in the matrix-micritc plate (2-2), thcre is metal of precipitate pyrite in fractures and pores .this facies equivalent to standard microfitcies (s.m.f.3) zone (f.z.3)’ which indicated to quiet open marine environment below the wave base. conclusion a) tel hajar were divided into live microlacies they are 1) fine biogenic dolomite facies. 2) sandy rich dolomite facies. 3) dolomite diagenetic facies. 4) recrystallized wackestonc facies. 5) mudstone facies. b) the most important diagcncsis processes were recrystallization and deposit of calcite cement in fossils chambers. references dubcrtret, l. 1959. contributions a ia stratigraphie eta ia paleontologie du cretace et du nunimulitique de ia marge nw de ia peninsula arabique. stratigraphie. notes et minioires sur le moycn-orient 7. 193-220. 41 s. k. jan dunham, r. j. 1962. classification of carbonate rocks according to depositional texture. in ham p. 108-121. dunnington, h. v. 1955. close zonation of upper-cretaceous globigcrinal sediments by abdundance rations of. fluegel, e.1972. microfacies of limestone. berlin-heidelberg newyork. springer verlag. kaddouri, n. 1979. micropaleontologial study o the cretaceous and tertiary serics in well s faiya no.3: inoc. baghdad internal report. kaddouri, n. 1980. deparnient of geological studies. iraq oil petroleum exploration enterprisc, baghdad iraq. wilson, j. l. 1975 carbonate facies in geologic history, spriger verlag pub., berlin, heidelberg ncwyork. 471 pp. 42 microfcies of tel hajar formation 43 s. k. jan 44 microfcies of tel hajar formation 45 s. k. jan 46 microfcies of tel hajar formation 47 s. k. jan 48 microfcies of tel hajar formation bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2009)10(4): 39-48 ق ر العرا غ ب و جن ي جار ف ل ال قة لت وين ت حنا ال قي س ال خا جان سعد متحف التاريخ الطبيعي ، جامعة بغداد، باب المعظم، بغداد، العراق الخالصة ة الدرا ة ) أ طق يف من ن ت احلجا كوي م ت سي ىلمت تق دقيق هي إ حنا س س :مخ 1) fine hiogenic dolomite facies. 2) sandy rich dolomite facies. 3) dolomite diagenetic facies. 4) recrystal1ized wackestone in microfacies. 5) mudsione facies. م) ب ي أه ه رة وي ت ال ح مليا ةال تتال إعاد جرا ت املت ج ا ح ب دا ل ر ي وت .بلور full page photo full page photo bull 425 marwa azeez akoul and suha abdul-khaliq al-jowari bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2019) 15 (4): 425-441 comparative anatomical and histological study of some organs in two fish species cyprinus carpio linnaeus, 1758 and mesopotamichthys sharpeyi (günther, 1874)(cypriniformes, cyprinidae) marwa azeez akoul* and suha abdul-khaliq al-jowari** * department of biology, college of science, anbar university, al-anbar, iraq. **department of biology, college of science, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq. ** corresponding author: suhaaljwari@gmail.com received date: 27 july 2019, accepted date: 14 october 2019, published date: 26 december 2019 abstract the present study aims to give some details about the normal anatomical and histological structure of the liver, pancreas and gall bladder in cyprinus carpio linnaeus, 1758 and mesopotamichthys sharpeyi (günther, 1874). anatomical results revealed that the liver of c. carpio is a reddish-brown in color, located in the anterior part of abdominal cavity and dispersed between most of the intestines, which is divided into two lobes, while in m. sharpeyi the liver is light brown in color located in the anterior part of abdominal cavity and extends to the end of the intestinal tract with two lobs. the gallbladder situated in the right side of the liver. histological results in both species showed that the liver consists of hepatocyte arranged radially around a central vein, separated by blood sinusoids, not divided into distinct hexagonal lobules, no portal traids as in higher vertebrates. the wall of gallbladder consisted of three distinct layers: tunica mucosa, tunica muscularis and tunica serosa. microscopic results showed that exocrine pancreatic tissue was diffused type in both species located in liver and consists of acini as "hepatopancreas " however pancreatic tissue diffused between the intestinal coiling in c. carpio and the internal surface of the liver in m. sharpeyi. endocrine parts of pancreas were observed in few numbers of cell masses in various sizes among exocrine pancreatic cells. key words: cyprinus, histology, liver, mesopotamichthys, pancreas. introduction the liver is the major and the important organs in alimentary tract, and is an indicator of health in the fish body (sarvestani, 2017). the liver in teleost is a relatively large, dense organ located ventral in the cranial part of the general cavity (taddese et al., 2014). its shape, size and volume are adapted to the space available between other visceral organs (vicentini et al., 2005). the gall bladder in fish is an accessory organ of the digestive system that secretes and stores concentrated bile (holt, 2011); it is usually found within the liver somewhere, a hollow structure of the fundus at the end of the sac and body as well as the neck that opens in the cystic duct (mohammed, 2001). the anatomy of the organs, including the pancreas, greatly https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2019.15.4.0425 426 comparative anatomical and histological study of some organs in two fish species varies among different species of fish, the pancreas of fish, similar to that of all vertebrates, has two main components: an exocrine and an endocrine component (farrell et al., 2011). the pancreas of teleosts fish was classified into disseminated, compact and diffuses within liver or spleen; pancreas in many teleosts becomes quite reduced, and diffuse in the adults (mokhtar, 2017). the digestive system in fish shows marked variety in its anatomy and function; this is associated with the taxonomy and various feeding behaviors, as well as the shape of the body (abdulhadi, 2005). morphological documents on the digestive system can provide a better understanding of species performance in their biological ecosystems or in fish farming, and may provide bioindicators of environmental alterations (fagundes et al., 2016). the cyprinidae family is one of the largest and most important freshwater families spread all over the world involving iraq, also occupies the first place in iraq economically (ibrahim et al., 2013(. cyprinus carpio linnaeus, 1758 characterized with, rapid growth, high fertility, disease resistant acceptability and tolerance to abnormal conditions and is found to be appropriate for many farming system (mohapatra and patra, 2014). there are few studies associated with the normal histological structures of the digestive system of fish, in particular glands in the digestive system, so it has been a motivation for the design of the current study. thus, this work objectives to understand the anatomical and histological structure of liver, pancreas and gall bladder in both fish species c. carpio and mesopotamichthys sharpeyi (günther, 1874). materials and methods ten of healthy adult females of c. carpio were collected from fish farm in saqlawiya in alanbar province during the period of october to december 2018. the length mean was 41.300± 0.9781 cm, and the mean of body weight 1600.000 ± 77.824 g, also ten of healthy adult females of m. sharpeyi were collected from al-tharthar lake with average of length 46.600 ± 0.5416 cm and average of body weight 1434.000 ± 34.00 g. all specimens were dissected immediately; the liver and gall bladder were exposed through a longitudinal incision in the abdominal wall. gross pictures were taken to recognize the shape, position and color and its relation to other organs; all these observations were photographed with camera (microscope camera, eyepiece kopa/ china). specimens were dissected at 1x1x.05 cm, and were immediately fixed in formalin solution 10%. the fixed materials were dehydrated in an ascending series of ethanol (70% to 100%), cleared in xylene, then embedded in paraffin; sections 5μ were stained with routine hematoxylin and eosin according to bancroft and stevens's method (1982). sections were observed in the microscope (olympus, japan). results and discussion anatomical observations liver: the anatomical results of the present study which concerned with liver showed that the liver of the c. carpio was relatively large, reddish-brown in color, longitudinal in shape, hepatic tissues that surrounded and dispersed between most of the intestine (pl.1), these results come in parallel with what has been mentioned by farag et al. (2014). the liver is divided into two lobes, a large part of liver is located in the right side of the body cavity in contact with a gallbladder, and the left lobe presses up against the spleen. 427 marwa azeez akoul and suha abdul-khaliq al-jowari these results were agreed with, faccioli et al. (2014) who described the liver of hemisorubim platyrhynchos (valenciennes,1840) and with mokhtar (2018) who described the liver of ctenopharyngodon idella (cuvier & valenciennes, 1844) which have two lobes, while disagree in paddlefish polyodon spathula (walbaum,1792), the liver has three principle lobes (weisel, 1973). plate (1): cyprinus carpio; (a) habitat, (b) the right side of carp showing the coiling of the intestine, was overlapped with the liver, (c) liver at the left side. the liver of carp rest below the transverse septum; at the right side is large extending in the right lateral part of the cavity, spreading and overlapped with the intestine. liver of m. sharpeyi, which is also known by its synonymous name barbus sharpeyi günther, 1874, is light brown in color; the tissue of the liver is very soft tissue, with both left and right lobs, has a thickest form at the interior part, and the thin at the posterior part. the right lobe is at the right side of the abdominal cavity along the gonads, and the left lobe is at the left side of the abdominal cavity. both lobes combine at the posterior end of the body (pl.2), these observation similar in nile tilapia oreochromis niloticus (linnaeus,1758) liver is a large organ and has only two lobes (vicentini et al., 2005), but differ of what was reported by krishnan (2018) the liver of etroplus maculatus was trilobed and united anteriorly. 428 comparative anatomical and histological study of some organs in two fish species plate (2): mesopotamichthys sharpeyi; (a) habitat, (b) abdominal cavity opened and liver, and gallbladder were observed. gall bladder: the gallbladder in c. carpio, is a large oval or pear sac, greenish – yellow in color, situated in the right side of the liver (pls.3, 4), these results agree with mohammed (2001) who described the shape of gall bladder pear shaped in silurus triostegus (heckel), and with hassan (2013) in epinephelus chlorostigma (valenciennes, 1828). whereas the gallbladder m. sharpeyi showed an elongated form located under the right lobe of the liver (pls.3, 4). these results were agreed faccioli et al. (2014) who described the gallbladder in hemisorubim platyrhynchos (valenciennes, 1840) possesses elongated shape. the gallbladder divided into three main sections, fundus, body and neck. plate (3): the gallbladder; (a) c. carpio, (b) m. sharpeyi plate (4): parts of gallbladder; (a) c. carpio, (b) m. sharpeyi. 429 marwa azeez akoul and suha abdul-khaliq al-jowari pancreas: the pancreas showed many differences in its structure, anatomy and morphology among the teleosts (ghosh and chakrabarti, 2016). in the present study showed that the pancreatic tissues in c. carpio, were observed in diffused form with liver as hepatopancreas being attacked by the mesentery in contact with the intestine. pancreatic tissues showed a diffuse type in the different regions; in the liver in the anterior part, and located between the coils of intestine, and in the spleen as spleenpancreas. these results in agreement with a study of nejedli and gajger (2013) as well as fortin et al. (2015). in m. sharpeyi , like to c. carpio and many of teleoste the liver is a composite of the liver and pancreas elements as called hepatopancreas, pancreatic acini observed in the internal surface of the liver or at the dorsal side of intestinal tract, and near the gall bladder, exocrine pancreas spreads around the branches of the hepatic portal veins within the tissue of the liver, these results are similar in pangasius sanitwongsei smith, 1931 (sayrafi et al., 2011). the pancreas also observed within the spleen as spleenpancreas, and these results were similar to the other fishes as in luciobarbus pectoralis heckel, 1843 (mahabady et al., 2012), barbus grypus (mohsin, 2016), barbus luteus (karim, 2017). but these results in both species differ from pimelodus maculatus lacepede, 1803 which the pancreas is compact, enclosed by a thin layer of connective tissue and is attached to the stomach and intestine wall as small masses of glandular tissue (vicentini et al., 2005). histological description liver: the histological preparation of the liver, stained with hematoxylin and eosin, of the investigated species of fish revealed that the liver in both species consisted of a continuous mass of large hepatic cells. hepatic cells were roundish or polygonal in shape containing spherical nucleus located centrally, surrounded by a narrow layer of cytoplasm, the hepatocytes were arranged radially around of central vein, similar in other fishes that described by ribeiro and fanta (2000), petcoff et al. (2006), faccioli (2014), nazlić et al. (2014) and lakshmaiah (2016). the hepatic parenchyma in c. carpio was made up of two cellular plates surround the sinusoids, the hepatocytes were organized in tubular form and looked as plates, two or more hepatocytes in thick; kupffer cells were seen in the liver of m. sharpeyi within sinusoids (pls. 5, 6). (a) (b) plate (5): liver of c. carpio; (a) hepatocytes (arrow head), sinusoids (blue arrow), vacuole of glycogen (arrow), (b) central vein (arrow) (h&e 40x). 430 comparative anatomical and histological study of some organs in two fish species (a) (b) plate (6): liver of m. sharpeyi; (a) vacuoles of glycogen (arrow), hepatocyte (arrowhead) and kupffer cell (double arrow), sinusoids (yellow arrow) (h & e 10x), (b) central vein (arrow) (h & e 40x). there are no distinct hexagonal structural lobules were found, as they are in livers of higher vertebrates (pls. 5, 6); these results resembled that described by vicentini et al. (2005), ikpegbu et al. (2012), noskor et al. (2013), krishnan (2018) and mokhtar (2018). glycogen vacuoles have also been detected in both species in the hepatocytes. our results showed the bile duct in both species c. carpio and m. sharpeyi, had the isolated type and other combined with the portal-tract type (pl. 7); these results are consistent with what found by noskor et al. (2013) and mohsin (2016) showed the bile duct was located separately or isolated type in the hepatic tissues. 431 marwa azeez akoul and suha abdul-khaliq al-jowari plate (7): bile duct in portal tract type; (a) c. carpio, (b) m. sharpeyi, bile duct (arrow), bile ductule (blue arrow), artery (arrow head), vein (double arrow), (c and d) isolated type c. carpio and m. sharpeyi, a bile duct was located alone in the hepatic tissues. (a, b, d: h&e 10x; c: h&e 40x). the current study showed that the bile duct associated in the hepatic tissue with hepatic portal vein and hepatic artery in both species, and surrounded by hepatocytes. however; it cannot be considered "a true hepatic triads" or portal traid (pl.7 a, b). these results compatible with vicentini et al. (2005), ikpegbu et al. (2012), faccioli et al. (2014) and krishnan (2018). histologically, the diffuse pancreas was seen in the studied fishes as acinar arrangement separated from hepatic parenchyma by a thin layer of connective tissue; the pancreas tissues were invaded the liver around blood vessels, these results agreement with sayrafi et al. (2011) and nejedli and gajger (2013). pancreas: a typical feature of the pancreas in teleost was a diffuse exocrine pancreas, which expanded through the mesentery, or disseminated within the intraperitoneal adipose tissue (gonzález et al., 1993). the present study showed that the exocrine cells are tall and columnar have a dark cytoplasm, distinct nuclei, and many zymogen granules that deposited heavily in the cells (pl.8a). these observations agreed with sinha (1986), petcoff et al. (2006), faccioli et al. (2014), nazlić et al. (2014), ebrahimi (2015) and alonso et al. (2015). 432 comparative anatomical and histological study of some organs in two fish species pancreas of c. carpio within liver tissue showed: exocrine acinar cell, islet of langerhans and hepatic portal vein; intralobular pancreatic duct and interlobular pancreatic duct (pl. 8). plate (8): pancreas of c. carpio within the liver tissue; (a) exocrine acinar cells (arrowhead), nucleus (yellow arrow), (b) islet of langerhans (arrow) and portal vein (double arrow), intralobular pancreatic duct (yellow arrow), interlobular pancreatic duct (blue arrow), (c) pancreas diffused around the bile duct (black arrow), bile duct (blue arrow), (d) centroacinar cells (arrow). (a, b: h&e 40x), (c, d: h&e 10x). the pancreatic tissues in c. carpio which observed within the spleen as "spleenopancreas ", the exocrine acinar cells in the form of numerous clusters around a blood vessel in the spleen were also noted (pl. 9). these results were similar to the investigations of grass carp ctenopharyngodon idella (mokhtar, 2015) and labeo calbasu f. hamilton, 1822 (ghosh and chakrabarti, 2016). 433 marwa azeez akoul and suha abdul-khaliq al-jowari a b plate (9): the spleen in c. carpio; (a and b) showed diffuse pancreas located as apart within the spleen as (spleenopancreas), pancreatic cells (whit arrow), splenic tissue (yellow arrow), intralobular pancreatic duct (black arrow), blood vessel (arrow head). (h & e 40x). m. sharpeyi possess a diffuse pancreas which also similar to what exists in c. carpio, the exocrine pancreas compounds acinar cells diffused within the hepatic tissue, around the branches of the portal vein, and around the bile duct, also acini or secretory units scattered within spleen as "spleenopancreas" (pl.10), these results were compatible with mahabadyj et al. (2012) in b. pectoralis. 434 comparative anatomical and histological study of some organs in two fish species plate (10): pancreas of m. sharpeyi; (a) within liver tissue (hepatopancreas) showed exocrine acinar cell (black arrow), islet of langerhans (arrow head) and hepatic portal vein (double arrow), hepatocyte (yellow arrow), intralobular pancreatic duct (green arrow), (b) the pancreas diffused around the bile duct (arrow), (c) centroacinar cells (arrow), (d) showed diffuse pancreas (arrow) located as apart within the spleen as (spleenopancreas), spleen (yellow arrow). (a: h&e 40x; b, c, d: h & e 10x). in agreement with hale (1965), the main concentration of exocrine tissue lies around the bile and pancreatic ducts in both species, as shown in the above (pls. 8c, 10b). the endocrine pancreas in both species distributed within exocrine pancreatic tissue in the liver. the endocrine pancreatic cells of c. carpio are mainly distributed among the intestinal coils. similar findings were also observed by ghosh et al. (2016) in labeo bata hamilton, 1822. in m. sharpeyi, endocrine pancreas surrounded by exocrine located in the anterior part of the liver lobs. the islets vary in size, there are small and medium, as well as differ in shape, islets are rounded and irregular. endocrine pancreatic cells are either round or oval which appears as purple in histological section and have distinct nuclei (pls.8 b, 10a). karim (2017) described the endocrine pancreas in barbus luteus was represented by a large and irregular islet surrounded by a number of islets that seem small in size. in some species, there is one major islet, known as the brockmann body (mumford et al., 2007). 435 marwa azeez akoul and suha abdul-khaliq al-jowari gall bladder: gallbladder wall in the c. carpio and m. sharpeyi are made of three layers: the tunica mucosa, the tunica muscularis, and the outer layer (tunica serosa). the mucosal surface layer of c. carpio and m. sharpeyi exhibits simple columnar epithelium, cells are narrow and elongated. the epithelial cells posse deeply stained spherical nuclei, and a thin layer of lamina propria under epithelial cells, these results agree with mohammed (2001) and nazlić et al. (2014). the muscular layer occupies more than half of the wall width and consists of longitudinal and oblique smooth muscle fibers (pls.11, 12), this results compatible with gilloteaux et al. 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(2019) 15 (4): 425-441 الكارب الاعتيادي دراسة تشريحية مقارنة لبعض الاعضاء في نوعين من ألاسماك cyprinus carpio linnaeus, 1758 والشبوط mesopotamichthys sharpeyi (günther, 1874) (cypriniformes, cyprinidae) **وسهى عبد الخالق الجواري * مروة عزيز عاكول ، الانبار، العراققسم علوم الحياة، كلية العلوم، جامعة الانبار* كلية العلوم، جامعة بغداد، بغداد، العراق قسم علوم الحياة،** 72/07/7702: شر، تأريخ الن 01/07/7702: ، تأريخ القبول 72/72/7702: تأريخ الاستالم الخالصة هدفت هذه الدراسة إلى إعطاء بعض التفاصيل حول التركيب التشريحي والنسيجي للكبد والبني cyprinus carpio linnaeus, 1758والبنكرياس وكيس الصفراء في سمكتي الكارب mesopotamichthys sharpeyi (günther,1874) مكة الكارب بينت النتائج التشريحية أن كبد س يكون ذو لون بني محمر، يقع في مقدمة التجويف البطني ويتألف من فصين يمتدان بين ألامعاء، بينما في سمكة البني لونه بني فاتح يقع في الجزء ألامامي من تجويف البطن ويمتد حتى نهاية الامعاء ويتكون د في كال النوعين ويكون بيضويا في يقع كيس الصفراء في الجزء ألايمن من الكب. من فصين ايمن وأيسر أظهرت النتائج النسيجية لكال النوعين أن الكبد يتكون من خاليا كبدية . الكارب ومتطاوال في البني مرتبة بصورة شعاعية حول الوريد املركزي، وليست مقسمة إلى فصوص سداسية متميزة كما هو الغشاء املخاطي، : يتكون جدار كيس الصفراء من ثالث طبقات مميزة. العليا الحال في الفقاريات . والغاللة املصليةوالطبقة العضلية أظهرت نتائج الفحص املجهري أن أنسجة البنكرياس الخارجية هي من النوع املنتشر اي يتواجد في رياسية، لوحظ البنكرياس انسجة الكبد والطحال حول الاوعية الدموية ويتكون من عنيبات بنك الكارب وكذلك في الجزء الامامي من الكبد اما في سمكة البني ةمنتشرا بين التفافات الامعاء في سمك اما جزء الافراز . يتواجد البنكرياس في السطح البطني للكبد في الفص الامامي منه وقرب كيس الصفراء كال مختلفة محاطة بخاليا البنكرياس خارجية الداخلي فقد لوحظ عدد قليل من الخاليا بأحجام واش .الافراز full page photo bull 207 thanh et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. december, (2018) 15 (2): 207-223 rock slope failure blocks and their relation to tectonic activity: a case study in 3b highway, xuathoa area, backan province, vietnam phi truong thanh * phi hong thinh ** and nguyen viet ha *** * hanoi university of natural resources and environment, hanoi, vietnam ** university of transport and communications, hanoi, viet nam *** hanoi university of mining and geology, hanoi, viet nam *corresponding author: thanhgislab@gmail.com received date: 22 october 2018 accepted date: 24 december 2018 abstract this paper presents the results of the slope failure analyses from fracture distributions and their relation to tectonic activity; the analytical results have indicated that the phenomena of plane failure, wedge failure and toppling failure can occur at almost of the survey sites within the study area. the statistical data show that the fracture orientation mainly develop in the e-w, n-s and nw-se due to the influence of tectonic activity. the occurrence of them together with the rock slope surface orientation has formed plane failure on the slope surface of the 3b highway in the e-w direction and the types of wedge failure and toppling failure on the slope surface of the highway in the n-s and nw-se direction. keywords: fracture, plane failure, toppling failure, wedge failure, 3b highway. introduction the slope failure occurs quite commonly along roads in the mountainous provinces of vietnam; their occurrence is not only affects economic activities but also threatens the lives of people, impact negatively on the environment. the cause of the slope failure is mainly due to the imbalance of rock mass on the slope surface along with the occurrence of storms and underground water (do and nguyen, 2013). at present, the slope failure along the road is one of the most important problems that the localities in the mountainous provinces of vietnam are facing; the slope failure researches in vietnam have been conducted since the early 2000s. however, they are almost project; there are very few papers published at this time. after that, most studies were conducted on the basis of processing satellite image, terrain, geomorphology, etc. to build the zoning map and forecast risk of landslide (truong et al., 2011; nguyen et al., 2012; tran et al., 2013; bui et al., 2016; nguyen, 2016). from the other hand, the above studies do not take into account the relationship between landslide and fracture, caused by tectonic activity in the earth’s crust, while the other studies on the relationship between fractures and failure have also considered by wittke (1965), muller (1968), markland (1972), hocking (1976), haines and terbrugge (1991). some studies specifically addressed the landslide related to the tectonic movement (youd, 1978; harp and noble, 1993; harp et al., 2003). recently, the other authors of vietnam have http://dx.doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2018.15.2.0207 208 rock slope failure blocks and their relation developed the block theory of goodman and shi (1985) to analyze slope failure based on fracture orientation and slope surface direction (nguyen and phi, 2014). the aim of this paper is to analyse the results of the relationship between the formation of failure blocks on the slope surface and tectonic activity along the 3b highway in xuathoa area, backan province, vietnam by using hoek and bray’s application (2004). materials and methods materials data sources used are the fracture orientations, which selected from 33 survey sites on the slope surface along the 3b highway in xuathoa area, backan province, vietnam. the collection data were measured randomly using compass at each survey site (map1, tab.1). table (1): location of the survey sites, number of fractures and rock slope surface orientation. no. survey sites longitude (degree) latitude (degree) slope surface orientation fracture number geological age 1. bk-01 105.8799510 22.0818890 140/70 73 d1ml1 2. bk-15 105.8981390 22.0938610 345/65 127 d2-3th 3. bk-17 105.8997780 22.0942220 250/75 103 d1-2nq2 4. bk-21 105.8984440 22.0971670 280/75 23 d2-3th 5. bk-26 105.8989440 22.0988330 320/75 116 d2-3th 6. bk-27 105.8999440 22.0997500 350/70 122 d2-3th 7. bk-28 105.9011000 22.0998200 356/75 96 d2-3th 8. bk-30 105.9019440 22.0995000 370/75 137 d2-3th 9. bk-34 105.9054170 22.1006940 370/75 96 d2-3th 10. bk-35 105.9064170 22.1010830 325/75 105 d2-3th 11. bk-41 105.9130280 22.1041940 350/75 188 d2-3th 12. bk-50 105.9226940 22.1042780 340/75 136 d2-3th 13. bk-52 105.9245000 22.1025830 90/75 113 d1-2nq2 14. bk-53 105.9252220 22.1012780 45/60 135 d1-2nq1 15. bk-57 105.9290830 22.0981670 15/75 71 d1ml2 16. bk-58 105.9300280 22.0980830 60/80 90 d1ml2 17. bk-59 105.9304440 22.0972500 80/80 79 d1ml2 18. bk-61 105.9305000 22.0957220 115/70 165 d1ml2 19. bk-62 105.9306390 22.0949440 10/75 76 d1ml2 20. bk-63 105.9318330 22.0948330 350/75 65 d1ml2 21. bk-66 105.9334720 22.0950830 30/75 104 d1ml2 22. bk-68 105.9343060 22.0939440 65/70 120 d1ml2 23. bk-69 105.9350580 22.0929720 60/70 103 d1ml2 24. bk-72 105.9354720 22.0920830 50/70 70 d1ml2 25. bk-74 105.9374440 22.0922500 25/70 119 d1ml2 26. bk-75 105.9405560 22.0913330 210/70 99 d1-2nq1 27. bk-76 105.9421670 22.0910280 210/70 128 d1-2nq1 28. bk-78 105.9439170 22.0908890 180/70 152 d1-2nq1 29. bk-79 105.9449440 22.0909170 210/70 155 d1-2nq1 30. bk-80 105.9455830 22.0912420 260/75 158 d1-2nq1 31. bk-81 105.9460000 22.0890560 230/70 172 d1ml2 32. bk-82 105.9470000 22.0885000 145/75 215 d1ml2 33. bk-83 105.9478060 22.0877500 190/75 102 d1ml2 209 thanh et al. map (1): geological map, minimized from scale 1: 200.000 and survey locations. (followed by nguyen et al. (2000)) where: d2-3th: tam hoa formation: polymictic conglomerate, gritstone, lay shale and limestone bearing; d1ml2: mia le formation: clayish siltstone, marlaceous shale; d1-2nq1: na quan formation: marlaceous shale; d1-2nq2: na quan formation: shale interbedded with gram. method of slope failure analysis the analyses of plane failure, wedge failure, toppling failure and circular failure were carried out by hoek and bray’s application (2004), based on the fracture orientation; the analytical results will indicate the types of plane failure, wedge failure, toppling failure and circular failure on the rock slope surface as shown in the figures below. 210 rock slope failure blocks and their relation plate (1): (a) plane failure, (b) wedge failure, (c) circular failure, (d) toppling failure ( followed by hoek and bray (2004)). diagram (2): (a) plane failure, (b) wedge failure and (c) toppling failure (followed by hoek and bray (2004)). results and discussion results the slope failure analysis and their relation to tectonic activity were conducted according to hoek and bray’s application (2004) at 33 survey sites with 3813 fracture orientations along the 3b highway in xuathoa area, backan province, vietnam (map. 1). the slope failure analysis at each survey site was conducted with the input parameters as the fracture orientation measurement, slope surface orientation and friction angle. in this case, the friction angle for the marlaceous shale is determined to be 250; the analytical results indicated that almost survey sites can occur plane failure, wedge failure and toppling failure, such as the survey site bk-82 (diag. 2). in this status, the number of fractures that can occur plane failure is 32, wedge failure is 45 and toppling failure is 21. 211 thanh et al. diagram (3): the analytical results according to hoek and bray’s application (2004) at the survey site bk-82; (a) plane failure, (b) wedge failure, (c) toppling failure. similarly, the analysis is also considered for total other survey sites along the 3b highway in xuathoa area, backan province, vietnam (maps: 2-4 and tabs: 2-4). plane failure table (2): the statistical results of the number and percentage of fractures at the survey sites can occur plane failure along the 3b highway in xuathoa area, backan province, vietnam. no. survey sites number percentage (%) no. survey sites number percentage (%) 1 bk-01 8 10.96 18 bk-61 7 4.24 2 bk-15 35 27.56 19 bk-62 23 30.26 3 bk-17 18 17.48 20 bk-63 14 21.54 4 bk-21 5 21.74 21 bk-66 34 32.69 5 bk-26 7 6.03 22 bk-68 29 24.17 6 bk-27 43 35.25 23 bk-69 21 20.39 7 bk-28 18 18.75 24 bk-72 32 45.71 8 bk-30 57 41.61 25 bk-74 18 15.13 9 bk-34 18 18.75 26 bk-75 19 19.19 10 bk-35 25 23.81 27 bk-76 14 10.94 11 bk-41 69 36.70 28 bk-78 45 29.61 12 bk-50 45 33.09 29 bk-79 13 8.39 13 bk-52 29 25.66 30 bk-80 29 18.35 14 bk-53 19 14.07 31 bk-81 16 9.30 15 bk-57 13 18.31 32 bk-82 32 14.88 16 bk-58 24 26.67 33 bk-83 10 9.80 17 bk-59 33 41.77 212 rock slope failure blocks and their relation map (2): the survey sites can occur plane failure according to analyzing fracture orientations along the 3b highway in xuathoa area, backan province, vietnam. wedge failure table (3): the statistical results of the number and percentage of fractures at the survey sites can occur wedge failure along the 3b highway in xuathoa area, backan province, vietnam. no. survey sites number percentage (%) no. survey sites number percentage (%) 1 bk-01 5 6.85 18 bk-61 51 30.91 2 bk-15 9 7.09 19 bk-62 0 0.00 3 bk-17 4 3.88 20 bk-63 35 53.85 4 bk-21 6 26.09 21 bk-66 40 38.46 5 bk-26 7 6.03 22 bk-68 50 41.67 6 bk-27 24 19.67 23 bk-69 9 8.74 7 bk-28 10 10.42 24 bk-72 28 40.00 8 bk-30 19 13.87 25 bk-74 16 13.45 9 bk-34 6 6.25 26 bk-75 39 39.39 10 bk-35 20 19.05 27 bk-76 39 30.47 11 bk-41 52 27.66 28 bk-78 24 15.79 12 bk-50 8 5.88 29 bk-79 29 18.71 13 bk-52 56 49.56 30 bk-80 58 36.71 14 bk-53 55 40.74 31 bk-81 27 15.70 213 thanh et al. 15 bk-57 44 61.97 32 bk-82 45 20.93 16 bk-58 07 7.78 33 bk-83 20 19.61 17 bk-59 14 17.72 map (3): the survey sites can occur wedge failure according to analyzing fracture orientations along the 3b highway in xuathoa area, backan province, vietnam. toppling failure table (4): the statistical results of the number and percentage of fractures at the survey sites can occur toppling failure along the 3b highway in xuathoa area, backan province, vietnam. no. survey sites number percentage (%) no. survey sites number percentage (%) 1 bk-01 13 17.81 18 bk-61 7 4.24 2 bk-15 5 3.94 19 bk-62 6 7.89 3 bk-17 4 3.88 20 bk-63 3 4.62 4 bk-21 0 0.00 21 bk-66 0 0.00 5 bk-26 1 0.86 22 bk-68 10 8.33 6 bk-27 3 2.46 23 bk-69 6 5.83 7 bk-28 5 5.21 24 bk-72 2 2.86 8 bk-30 4 2.92 25 bk-74 4 3.36 9 bk-34 9 9.38 26 bk-75 10 10.10 10 bk-35 7 6.67 27 bk-76 12 9.38 214 rock slope failure blocks and their relation 11 bk-41 2 1.06 28 bk-78 09 5.92 12 bk-50 10 7.35 29 bk-79 17 10.97 13 bk-52 1 0.88 30 bk-80 20 12.66 14 bk-53 7 5.19 31 bk-81 20 11.63 15 bk-57 1 1.41 32 bk-82 21 9.77 16 bk-58 7 7.78 33 bk-83 14 13.73 17 bk-59 5 6.33 map (4): the survey sites can occur toppling failure according to fracture orientations along the 3b highway in xuathoa area, backan province, vietnam. 215 thanh et al. the analytical results of percentage of plane failure, wedge failure and toppling failure in the tables 2 to 4 are plotted in diagram (3). diagram (3): the graph of fracture percentage can occur the plane failure, wedge failure and toppling failure at each survey site along the 3b highway in xuathoa area, backan province, vietnam. the slope failure analysis is conducted based on the statistical percentage of fracture orientations which can occur the plane failure, wedge and toppling failure at each survey site along the 3b highway in xuathoa area, backan province, vietnam. in diagram (3), the fracture percentage lies within the region that can occur the plane failure varies slightly among the survey sites; the largest percentage value belongs to the survey sites: bk-27, bk30, bk-41, bk-59, bk-72 and bk-78. similarly, the intersection percentage of the conjugate fractures lies within the region that can occur the wedge failure varies slightly from survey sites bk-01 to bk-50, from bk-72 to bk-83 and the largest change at the survey sites: bk-52, bk-53, bk-57, bk-63, bk-66, bk72, bk-75, bk-80; the fracture percentage lies within the region can occur the toppling failure varies slightly at total survey sites along the 3b highway in xuathoa area, backan province. the comparison results among the three types of failures in diagram (3) indicate that the survey sites from bk-01 to bk-50 and from the survey sites bk-69 to bk-83, the fractures can occur plane failure and wedge failure together. however, the fracture percentage can occur the wedge failure is smaller than the fracture percentage that can occurs the plane failure, particularly for the survey sites from bk-78 to bk-83, the plane failure, wedge failure and toppling failure can occur together. discussion the 3b highway belongs to xuathoa area, backan province, vietnam cut through the ancient rock of the devon system with the main component is marlaceous shale (nguyen et al., 2000). these rocks were severely broken due to the tectonic activities of the indianaustralian plate move toward the north and the pacific plate move toward the west, forming the compressed and extended area (phung et al., 1996). some the other research results 216 rock slope failure blocks and their relation suggested that the northeastern region of vietnam, including the 3b highway in xuathoa area, backan province (map 5) occurs two major phases of tectonic activity in the cenozoic era (nguyen, 1991; phung et al., 1996). the early phase was determined as occurrence from eocene to late miocene period and late phase occurs during the pliocene quaternary period (vu, 2002). the first tectonic phase caused the left-lateral motion of the nw-se fault system and the late phase caused the right-lateral motion of this fault system. the left-lateral motion of the red river fault system was the results of the india-eurasia plate collision (tapponnier et al.,1986) and it occurred during within 30 ma to 5.5 ma, corresponding to the oligocene-miocene period, from analytical results of the seismic data (rangin et al., 1995). the another analytical result of seismic profiles in the north area of the red river sedimentary basin also identified one phase of left-lateral motion that occurred about before 21 ma within the song lo and song chay river fault zone, belong to the red river fault system (nguyen, 2003). besides, the study also indicated one different tectonic activity phase with the ne-sw compression direction, caused the inversion of nw-se trending fault during 10.5 k.y 5.5 k.y. in addition, the analyzing geological structure of oligocene sedimentary rocks on bach long vi island also determined three maximum compression phases: e-w, ne-sw and nw-se during the cenozoic era (phung et al., 2007). recently, the analyzing tributaries of the red river fault system from quaternary alluvial fans, river valley on landsat and spot satellite images, detailed topographical maps and field observation determined right-lateral offsets of stream channels range between 150 and 700m (phan et al., 2012). this is the results of the stress state of n-s compression direction; e-w extension direction caused the right lateral strike-slip along the red river fault system and probably, began in the pliocene time. the tectonic phase also was clearly visible on the red river fault system and the dien bien phu fault from the analyses of landsat and spot satellite images (lacassin et al., 1994; phan et al., 2012). the phan et al. (2012) analyses also recognized that cao bang tien yen (cb-ty) fault which is located in the ne of the red river fault system is right lateral strike-slip fault, results from the n-s compression direction using landsat and spot satellite images, aerophotographs and 1:50.000 scale topographic maps. the relation to dextral strike-slip motion of the red river fault system in the episode of pliocene-quaternary also confirmed in study of witold (2013). the result of tectonic-geomorphic studies indicated that the amount of quaternary dextral offset of the red river fault system in vietnam, calculated from offset and deflection of the tributary valleys of the red river, ranges between 400m and 5.3km. the axis of maximum horizontal compression associated with dextral slip of the fault zone were aligned from nnw-sse to n-s. similarly, the kasatkin et al. (2014)’s study indicated that predominantly sinistral strike slip of red river fault system formed as a result of ene regional compression (80°) during the oligocene-miocene period and dextral strike slip of the red river fault system formed as a result of nnw regional compression 330-350° during the pliocene-quaternary. 217 thanh et al. map (5): trajectories of the maximum compressive stress within the indochina peninsula during the oligocene (a) and at the present time (b). the legend in the map (5) is described as follows: (1) trajectories of the maximum compressive stress are directly related to the indo-eurasian plate collision (a) and its far-field effects (b); (2) faults and directions of displacement (arrows); (3) zone of continental collision; (4) subduction zone; (5) extension structures; (6) spreading zones; (7) current position of the land; red river fault system (rrfs); cao bang tien yen fault (cb-ty) (kasatkin et al., 2014). the failure blocks on rock slope surfaces are formed by the intersection of fractures, faults in different directions and rock slope surfaces. the fractures, faults are the result of tectonic activities in the earth’s crust. initially, the rock blocks are formed by the intersection among fractures in steady status; after being excavated, they lose their equilibrium status and can slide on the rock slope surface, causing plane failure, wedge failure or toppling failure. the statistical data in the study area showed that the fracture orientations, which collected at survey sites developed in three main directions: e-w, nw-se, n-s (diag. 4). 218 rock slope failure blocks and their relation diagram (4): the contour graph and rose graph of 3813 fractures at 33 survey sites along 3b highway in xuathoa, backan province, vietnam. the percentage value of fracture direction of the total survey sites is recorded in table (5) and diagram (5). table (5): the percentage value of the fracture direction at the total survey sites along 3b highway in xuathoa area, backan province, vietnam. no orientation (degree) percentage (%) no orientation (degree) percentage (%) 1 0-10 4.38 10 271-280 6.08 2 11-20 5.51 11 281-290 6.03 3 21-30 3.80 12 291-300 6.43 4 31-40 3.25 13 301-310 6.06 5 41-50 3.38 14 311-320 5.80 6 51-60 4.20 15 321-330 6.71 7 61-70 5.61 16 331-340 7.79 8 71-80 6.48 17 341-350 7.87 9 81-90 4.67 18 351-360 5.95 219 thanh et al. diagram (5): the graph of percentage value of the fracture direction of the total survey sites along 3b highway in xuathoa area, backan province, vietnam. the intersection of the different fracture orientations and the slope surface along the 3b highway in xuathoa area, backan province, vietnam have formed a series of blocks that can occur plane failure, wedge failure and toppling failure. in the direction of e-w, the survey sites bk-27, bk-30, bk-41, bk-59 và bk-72 clearly reflect that high plane failure potential may occur in the e-w orientation fracture system; in the direction of nw-se, the survey sites bk-52, bk-53, bk-57, bk-63, bk-66, bk68, bk-72, bk-75, bk-80 clearly reflect that the high wedge failure potential can occur in the nw-se orientation fracture system. the analytical results of this study also indicate the relationship between the fracture orientation, which formed due to the tectonic activity and the direction of the rock slope surface and the formation of the types of failure blocks. conclusions by analyzing 3813 fracture orientations at 33 survey sites on the marlaceous shale belong devon formation, along the 3b highway in xuathoa area, backan province, vietnam, the analytical results have also indicated that the phenomena of plane failure, wedge failure and toppling failure can occur at almost survey sites within the study area. the statistical data also show that the fracture orientation mainly develop in the e-w, n-s and nw-se due to the influence of tectonic activity; the occurrence of them together with the rock slope surface direction has formed the type of plane failure for the 3b highway in the ew direction and the type of wedge failure and some toppling failure for the 3b highway in the n-s and nw-se direction. the results of this study have important significance in planning the highway design and tunnel construction; because, this way will be excavating in the next time. acknowledgements this research is supported by the project of “research on the application of block theory to assess the risk of slope failure along the highway. case study from km 0 to km 80 on the 3b highway”, code: tnmt.2018.03.18 of ministry of natural resources and environment, within the time 2018-2020. 220 rock slope failure blocks and their relation literature cited bui, t. v., nguyen, s. h. and nguyen, h. t. 2016. assessment of slope stability in a landslide area in b’laoward, bao loc city, lam dong province and solutions to prevent landslides. science and technology development, 19: 76-85. 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(30): 52-79. english translation in imperial college rock mechanics research report no. 6, july, 1971. youd, t. l. 1978. major cause of earthquake damage is ground movement. civil engeering, asce, april, 47-51. 223 thanh et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. december, (2018) 15 (2): 209-223 دراسة للطريق السريع : المنحدر الصخري وعالقتها بالفعالية البنائية التكتونية فشل بلوكات منطقة كزاثوا ، مقاطعة باكان ، فيتنام 3ب ***و نكوين فيت ها** ، في هونغ ثن*في ترونغ ثان جامعة هانوي للمصادر الطبيعية والبيئة ، هانوي ، فيتنام* فيتنام جامعة االتصاالت والنقل ، هانوي ،** ولوجي والمناجم ، هانوي ، فيتنامجامعة هانوي للجي*** 24/12/8102: تاريخ القبول 22/01/8102: تاريخ االستالم الخالصة التكتوني؛ يعرض البحث نتائج تحاليل فشل الميل من توزيعات الكسر وعالقتها بالنشاط وقد أشارت النتائج التحليلية إلى أن ظواهر الفشل بالمستوى االفقي والعمودي واإلخفاق في 3للطريق السريع ب االنقالب يمكن أن تحدث في مواقع المسح تقريباً داخل منطقة الدراسة .منطقة كزاثوا ، مقاطعة باكان ، فيتنام غرب –الكسر يتطور بشكل أساسي باتجاه شرق تشير البيانات اإلحصائية إلى أن اتجاه .جنوب شرقي -جنوب و شمال غربي–و باتجاهات شمال تحدث ظواهر الفشل الثالثة بسبب تأثير النشاط التكتوني البنائي للقشرة االرضية مع اتجاه سطح االنحدار الصخري بتكوين مستوى ضعف وفشل على سطح المنحدر للطريع غرب، و بانواع فشل عمودية وتدية ومنقلبة على سطح –باتجاه شرق ب3السريع .جنوب شرقي -جنوب و شمال غربي–المنحني للطريق السريع باتجاهات شمال full page photo 77-84 77 m . a . swail bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2001) 9 (3): 77-84 aphid predators of the genus coccinella l. (coleoptera: coccinellidae) mahdi abbas swail department of biology, college of education, wassit abstract this study deals with aphid predators of the genus coccinella l. recognized in different regions of the world. they have been arranged systematically according to korschefsky’s catalogue (1931). the list includes sites of study and the reference (works) that consider coccinellids as predator. the study has revealed that there are thirteen aphid predator species belonging to the genus coccinella l. in different places of the world, although there might be other species that were not recorded by this work. systematic list of aphid predators of the genus coccinella l. many individuals of the genus coccinella l. were recognized as predators to aphids in different parts of the world. in this work the individuals have been listed in a classification list according to korschefsky (1931). the list includes sites of the study and the references. no. predator reference place 1 coccinella ancoralis germ. botto et al, 1979 buenos aires, field studies 2 c. arcuata f. franzman, 1973 broadly and rogers, 1978. bhumannaver and thontadarya, 1983. pangola grass in north queensland, field studies. north queensland pastures. karnataka. 3 c . californica manne roitberg et al, 1979. lves, 1981. res. station, canada. 4 c. hieroglyphica (l.) hippa et al, 1984. kevo subarctic res. station. 5 c. novemnottata hbst. d. carroll and hoyt, 1984. res. station in north-central washington. 6 c. prolongata cr. carroll and hoyt, 1984. res. station in north-central washington. 7 c. quatuordecimpus tulata (l.) kaczmarek, 1973 koszalin adminstrative district, poland. 8 c. quinquepunctata l. galecka, 1969 kaczmarek, 1973 warsaw, poland. poland. 78 aphid predators of coccinella 9 c. repanda thamb franzman, 1973 patnaik et al, 1977 carver, 1978 corcoran & ironside, 1981 chambers et al, 1983 saharia, 1985 north queensland, field studies. india. australia. queensland. 10 c. septempunctata l. awadallah & khalill, 1970 saxena et al, 1970 rautapaa, 1972 stary & kaddou, 1975 radike et al, 1977 gumovskaya, 1982 mohammad & abdulla, 1985 nakamata & satio, 1985 hammam al-alil, iraq. indian agric. res. institue, new delhi. agric.res.cen. tikkurila,finland iraq. india u.s.s.r. saladdin, iraq. japan. 11 c. transversoguttata fald. carroll & hoyt, 1984 res. station in north-central washington. 12 c. trifasciata l. frazer & gilbert, 1976. british colombia 13 c. undecimpunctata l. ibrahim, 1955 stary & kaddou, 1975 honek, 1981 bates & miln, 1982 el-heneidi & abbas, 1984 ghanum, 1984 egypt. iraq. new zealand. giza, egypt. mansoura, egypt. 79 m . a . swail aphids preyed upon by coccinella l. no. predator reference place prey 1. coccinella ancoralis germ. botto et al, 1979 buenos aires metapolphium dirhodum (walker) 2. c. arcuata f. bhumannaver & thontadary, 1983 broadly & rogers, 1978 franzman, 1973 karnataka north queensland north queensland dactynotus composita schizaphis hypersiphonata basu s. graminium (rond.) 3. c. californica roitberg et al, 1979 canada acrythosiphon pisum harris 4. c. hieroglyphica (l.) hippa et al, 1984 kevo subarctic res. station myzus persica (sutz). 5. c. novemnottata hbst. d. carroll & hoyt 1984 north-central washington artemisia tridentata 6. c. prolongata cr. carroll & hoyt 1984 north-central washington aphis pomi 7. c. quatuordecim pustulata (l.) kazcmarek, 1973 poland 8. c. quinquepunctat a l. galecka, 1969 warsaw, poland acyrthosiphon pisum harris, aphis fabae, a. nasturtii kalt myzus persicus (sulz.), rhopalosiphum padi (l.) 9. c . repanda thanb. franzman, 1973 patniak et al., 1977 carver, 1978 carcoran & ironside 1981 chambers et al., 1983 broadly & rogers 1978 north queensland india australia queensland nroth queensland north queensland schizaphis graminum (rond.) melanaphis sacchari (zhnt.) toxoptera aurantii boyer, t. citricidae (kirkald) aphis kondi shinji, therioaphis trifoliiformmaculata (buckt) metopolophium derhodium (wik.) schizaphis hypersiphonata basu. 80 aphid predators of coccinella 10 c. septempunctata l. awadalla & khalil, 1970 saxena et al., 1970 rautapaa, 1972 stary & kaddou, 1975 radike et al., 1977 gumovskaya, 1982 mohammad & abdullah, 1985 nakamata & saito, 1985 hammam alalil, iraq new delhi finland iraq india u.s.s.r. saladdin, iraq japan aphis faba scop . aphis craccivora koch macrosiphum avenae f . rhopalosiphus padi ( l . ) aphis faba hyalopterus pruni rhopalosiphum maidis ( fitch ) aphis faba scop phylloxera quercus boyer myzus persicae 11. c. transversuguttat a fald carrol & hoyt, 1984 north-central wash. acyrthosiphon pisum harris, aphis citricola van., a. fabae scop., chromaphis juglandicola (kalt.), myzus persica (subz.), 12. c. trifasciata l. frazer & gilbert, 1976 british colombia acyrthosiphon pisum harris. 13. c. undecimpunctat a l. ibrahim, 1955 stary & kaddou, 1975 honek, 1981 egypt iraq aphis gossypii clov., a. labrum kalt., a. maidis fitch, a. sorghi theo. aphis craccivora, brachycauvus amigdalinus, sapaphis mali, aphis nerii fons., macrosiphoniella artemisiae (boy.) microlophium carnosum (buckt.), m. tapaska (hot. & fris.) 81 m . a . swail bates & miln, 1982 el-heneidy & abbas, 1984 ghanim , 1984 new zealand giza, egypt mansoura, egypt aphis condi, a. pisum rhopalosiphum maidis fitch macrosiphum avenae r., schizaphis graminium (rond.) discussion as the abovementioned list of aphids preyed upon by coccinella l. shows, the most predominant species of predators are c. septempunctata l., c. repandathanb. and c. undecimpunctata l. respectively, and they are polyphagous. this feature helps to increase the spread of the species and reduces the ability of using it in biological control because the monophagous species are more responsive to their preys and tend to limit the spread of the species. literature cited awadallah, k.t. and khalil, f.m. 1970. insect predator in cotton and clover fields with special refernce to the efficiency of coccinella septempunctata l.mesopotamo j. agric., 14:173-180. bates, l.h. and miln, a.j. 1982. parasites and predator of lucern aphids at flock house new zealand weed and pest control society ins. :123-126. (cited in rev. of appl. en to., 71 (4):317-1983). bhumannavar,b.s. and thonabarya, t.s. 1983. biology of the safflower aphid, dactynotus compositae theobald on safflower in karnataka. j. of ento. res.,5 (2):163-168 (cited in rev. of appl. ento. 71(11)878.1983). botto, e.n.; hernadez, m.c. and bogiatto, m.e. 1979. (preliminary results of bioecological studies on the yellow cereal aphids metophophium dirhodum (walker) carried out at casteral, buenos aires, during 1976 to 1979 . field studies). revista dela sociedad entomological argentian, 38 (4):37-46. broadly, r.h. and rogers, d.j. 1978. pest of pangola grass in north queensland pastures. queensland agric. j., 10 4 (4):320-324(cited in rev. of appl. ento., 6 7 (6):278.1979). carroll, d.p. and hoyt, s.c. 1984. biological control of appl. aphid. environ. ento., 1 3 (2):471-473. 82 aphid predators of coccinella carver, m.1978. the black citrus aphids toxoptera citricida (kirkald) and t. aurantii (boyre). j.of the australian ento. soc., 17(3):263-270 (cited in rev. appl. ento.67(7):348. 1979). chambers, r. j.; suderland, k. d.; wyatt, i. j. and vickerman, g. p. 1983 effects of predator exclusion and caging on cereal aphid in winter wheat. j. appl. ecol., 2 0 (1):209-224(cited in rev. of appl. ento., 71(6):505 1983). corcoran, r. j. and ironside, d. a. 1981 lucerne aphids and their natural enemies. queensland agric. j., 107(4):xxii xxiv (cited in rev. appl. ento.,71(5):329. 1983). el-heneidy, a. h. and abbas, m. s. t. 1984 population dynamics of certain insect predators associated with aphids in maize fields in the giza region. beitrage zur tropischen landwirtschaft und veterinarmedizin, 22(4):407-413 (cited in rev. appl. ento., 73(8):658 1985). franzman, b. a. 1973 field studies of aschizaphids on pangola grass. queensland j.of agric. and anim. science, 30(1):85-89 (cited in rev. appl. ento., 63(2):129 1975). fraser, b. d. and gilbert, n. 1976 coccinellids and aphids a quantitative study of the impact of adult lady birds (col. coccinellidae) preying on field population of pea aphids. j.of ento. soc. british colombia, 73:33-56. galecka, b. 1969 aphid and coccinellid numbers in crops with a four-field rotation system. liszbonosc mszyc biedronck w upra wach nalezaeych do cztropolowki polskie pismo. entomo. 39(2):429-430 (cited in rev. appl. ento., 60(4):203. 1972). ghanim, a e. b. 1984 studies on the occurrence of cereal aphids and their predators in winter wheat stand in mansoura. archiv fur phytopatologie and pflanzemschutz,20(3):261-267. gumovskaya, g. n. 1982 the rule of lady birds in the suppression of the beet aphid. zaschchita rastenii, 5: 29-30. hippa, h., koponen, s. and roine, r. 1984 larval growth of c. hieroglyphica feed of aphids and primaginal stages of galerucella sagittarae. reports from the kevo subarctic res. station,19:67-70 (cited in rev. appl. ento.,73(4) 1985). honek, a. 1981 aphidophagus coccinellidae and chrysopidae on three weeds factor determining the composition of populations. acta. ento. bohmoslovaca, 78(5):303-310 (cited in rev. appl. ento.,70(6) 1982. ibrahim, m. m. 1955 studies on coccinella undecimpunctata. reich. bull. soc. ento. egypte, xxxix (5):251. ives, p. m. 1981 feeding and egg production of two species of coccinellid in the laboratory condition. entomologist, 113(11):999-1005(cited in rev. appl. ento.,70(6) 1982). 83 m . a . swail kaczmarek, s. 1973 stidies on the aphidophagus coccinellidae of cultivated fields in the koszalin adminstrative district. ekologia polska,21(26):377-403. korschefsky, r. 1931,1932 coleopterorum catalogus, parts 118,120 coccinellidae 1,11,224 and 435 pp., berlin. mohammad, m. a. and abdullah, a. a. 1985 ecological studies on a corn aphid phyloxera quercus boyer. iraqi j. agric. sci.”zanco” , 3(1):69-76. nakamota, k. and saito, t. 1985 recognition of aphid preyed by the lady beetle coccinella septempunctata bruckii mulsant. appl. ento. and zool.,20(4):479-483. patnaik, n. c., satpathy, j. m. and bhagat, k. c. 1977 note on the occurrence of aphidophagus insect predators in puri district and their predation on the sorgum aphid melanaphis sacchari (zhnt.). indian j. agric. sci.,47(11):585586. radke, s.g., barwad, w. l. and mundiwale, s. k. 1977 influence of age of predator coccinella septempuctata l. and population densities of the host phopalssiphum maidis (fitch) on the rate of predation. indian j. agric. sci.,47(6):305-308. rautapaa, j. 1972 the importance of c. septempunctata in controlling cereal aphids and the effect of aphids on the yield and quality of barley. ann. agric. fenniae,11:424-436. roitberg, b. d., myers, j. h. and fraser, b. d. 1979 the influence of predators on the movement of apterus pea aphids between plants. j.of ann . ecol.,48:111-112. saxena, h. p.; sircar, p. and phokela, a. 1970 predation of coccinella septempunctata l. and ischiodon scutellaris f. on aphis chraccivora koch. indian j.of ento. 32(1):105-106. saharia, d. 1985 field evaluation of some granular systemic insecticides on lipaphis erysmi (kltb.) and its predator c. repanda. j.of res. assam agric. university, 3(2):181-185. stary, p. and kaddou, i. k. 1975 record of aphidophagus insects in iraq. bull. biol. res. centre, baghdad, publ., 3:16 pp. 84 aphid predators of coccinella bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2001) 9 (3): 77-84 رتبة غمدية االجنحة، عائلة الدعاسيق .coccinella lمفترسات المن من الجنس مهدي عباس سويل واسط –كلية التربية –قسم علوم الحياة الخالصة الـيت سـجلت مـن منـاطق .coccinella lتتعلق هذه الدراسة مبفرتسـات املـن مـن جـنس تشـمل القائمـة مواقـع ). ١٩٣١(وك كورشـفكي خمتلفة من العامل حيث رتبـت تصـنيفياً طبقـاً لكتـال نــوع مـــن ١٣كشـــفت الدراســة وجــود كــل دراســة واملصــادر الـــيت اعتــربت الدعاســيق كمفرتســات، يف اماكن خمتلفـة مـن العـامل مـع احتمـال وجـود .coccinella lمفرتسات املن تعود للجنس .انواع لن تسجل يف هذه الدراسة 43-50 43 n . a . mawlood & m . s . abdul – rassoul bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2001) 9 (3): 43-50 a new species of wohlfahrtia brauer and bergenstamm (diptera, sarcophagidae) from iraq n. a. mawlood* and m. s. abdul-rassoul** *department of community health technical institute of baquba, diyala, iraq **iraq natural history museum, baghdad university, baghdad, iraq. abstract wohlfahrtia longicorpuris sp. nov., from iraq described, illustrated and distinguished from related species. the adults were reared from larvae collected from ulcer of a human face. wohlfahrtia brauer and bergenstam is one of most important genus,which contains 19 species (pape, 1998), some of these produce myiasis in mammals (verves,1985).taxonomic revision of this genus has been carried out by the following authors: rohdendrof (1956), zumpt (1965) and pape (1996). wohlfahrtia longicorpuris sp. nov. body: robust, length10.0-14.0 mm, grey-blackish, covered by densely whitish grey pollinose. male: head (fig 1a) usually narrower than its height; vrtex narrow with pairs of inner vertical bristles; outer vertical bristles absent; post vertical bristles weak and about 1/3 length of inner vertical bristles;ocellar triangle often slightly raised, with a pair of ocellar bristles; lower pair twice as longer as upper ones; ocelli brown in color; frons dark brown-black with golden pollinose, frons semi-narrow, without proclinate orbital bristles, with 10-11 pairs of frontal bristles; parafrontal, facial and parafacial dark to brown-black and covered with densely whitish pollinose; lower half of parafacial posses a row of setae; facial groove concave without carina; facial ridge with 4 -5 bristles in its 1/5 basal part; epistoma dark brown; antenna (fig 1b) with the three segments reddish brown in color, length o third segment about twice as long as second segment; arista pubescent, thicked at the base then gradually tapering toward apex; its basal half covered with very short hairs. the maxillary palps (fig 1c) are nearly clavate in shape, reddish in color, their distal two thirds are provided with strong short and long bristles. labrum-epipharynx (fig 1d) cone in shape, its apodeme strongly sclerotized, filiform, its apical part cub shaped; mentum (fig 1e) brown, truncate cone in shape, provided with long and short bristles, especially near the apex. head in female (fig 1f) similar to that of male except frons is wider; vertex with outer vertical bristles and with proclinate and reclinate fronto-orbital bristles. thorax: with mesonotum grey, provided with three black longitudinal stripes and covered with whitish pollinose; and provided with several and variuos bristles;acrostichal bristles 0+1; dorsocentral bristles 2+2;notopleural bristles 4; posthumeral bristle 0; humreal bristles 3; intra-alar bristles 1+1; post-alar bristles 2; supra-alar bristles 2; scutellum bristles 3+1; sternopleural bristles 2:1;stigmatal bristle 1; propleural bristle 1 (fig 2a). anal ridge of mesopleural plate with 6-7 bristles, mesothoracic spiracles ovate in shape and grey in color. depressed part of proepisternum bar; prosternum and metasternum setose; subanal knob circular in shape, black in color and pubescent. metathoracic spiracles subtriangular in shape, 44 a new species of wohlfahartia dark brown in color. legs black; femur with complete posterodorsal and posteroventral rows of bristles; fore tibia (fig 2b) with one posteroventral bristle. middle femura with anterior row of short bristles extending towards middle; middle tibia (fig 2c) with one anteroventral bristle and two posterodorsal bristles; hind tibia with three anterodorsal and posterodorsal bristles. wings hyaline, stem vein and subcostal sclerite bare; dorsal surface of r 4+5 with8-9 setae extending to distance more than half way to cross vein r-m; ventral surface of r4+5 with 4-5 setae occurred only on the node; apical cell of r5 opened; vein m1+2 bends forwards with slightly angle; basicosta yellow; vein cua1 bare. lower squama broad, whitish in color with yellow margin and without setae and covered with micropubescent. upper squama similar to that of lower squama but smaller in size.tympanic membrane with yellow tuft of setae. abdomen: grey with three black circular and cone spots on each segment; tergite 1+2 combined without marginal bristles (fig 2d); the first sternite in male small (fig 2e), the second sternite which is the largest; third and fourth sternites are nearly similar in shape, and nearly conical in shape; posterior margin of fifth sternite deeply cleft; abdominal sternites except first one provided with 4-5 bristles at their distal end. abdomen in female similar to that of male and differ from it by that of fifth sternite (fig 2f) which is rectangular in shape and without cleft posteriorly. male terminalia: tergite 6 reduced; sternite 6 (fig 3a) y-shaped, connected firmly to syntergosternite 7+8; syntergosternite (fig 3b) with anterior ventral margin produced anteriorly, with two rows of bristles posteriorly; empandrium (tergite 9) dome shaped (fig 3c); posterior arms of hypandrium (sternite 9)(fig 3d) strongly bend; paralobs small with many short bristles (fig 3e); anal cerci (fig 3f) slightly curving anteriorly; united together basely and separated near the 1/3 apical part; ¾ of its basal part covered with densely long bristles. phalloapodeme (fig 3g) elongate and flattened dorsoventrally. pregonite (fig 3h) cylindrical in shape without bristles; postgonite (fig 3i) large and hook-like, its interior margin with one long bristle; phallus (fig 3j) strongly sclerotized; its tube widened distally to form a cavity, housing acrophallus; basiphallus without apiphallus; paraphallus swollen, curved and strongly sclerotized; hypophallus globular like in shape tapering at its distal part; ejaculatory duct (fig 3k) circular in shape, moderately sclerotized in its basal half. female terminalia: segments short,non-telescopic; tergite 6 (fig 4a) long with a row of bristles posteriorly; spiracles 6 and 7 located on this tergite; sternite 6 (fig 4b) large, globular like in shape with some bristles on its dorsal surface; tergite 7 (fig 4c) composed of two oval plates which widely separated from each other; its dorsal surface without bristles . sternite 7 (fig 4d) rectangular in shape, moderate sclerotized laterally and with some bristles. tergite 8 (fig 4e) y-shaped without bristles. sternite 8 (fig 4f) nearly rectangular in shape, with moderate densely bristles on its dorsal surface. epiproct (fig 4g) triangular in shape, with few bristles, one of which is longer than the rest; hypoproct (fig 4h) triangular with densely bristles; anal cerci (fig 4i) oval shaped with densely long bristles; spermatheca (fig 4j) nearly spherical in shape. wohlfahrtia longicorpuris sp. nov. is closely related to w. nuba (wiedemann) but differs from it by the following characters: parafrontal, face and parafacial covered with whitish pollinose; mesonotum covered with whitish pollinose; with 3+1 scutellar bristles; quarter apical of hypophallus strongly tapering to apical word; basal half of ejaculatory duct moderately sclerotized in basal half; and body length moderate 5.2-9.1 mm. host: minced meat and ulcer of human face. 1♂(holotype), 1♀ (allotype) and 6♀(paratype) coll. 10.2.2001 (leg. m. s. abdul-rassoul). types are deposited in iraq natural history museum collection. 45 n . a . mawlood & m . s . abdul – rassoul literature cited pape, t. 1996 a catalogue of the sarcophagidae of the world (insecta:diptera). memoirs of entomology, international 8:1-558. pape, t. 1998 contribution to a manual of palaearctic diptera, vol. 4. higher brachycera. published by science heral budapest: 649-687 . rphdendrof, b.b. 1956 palaearctic species of the genus wohlfahrtia (diptera:sarchophagidae). ent. obozr. 35: 201-229. verves, yu. g. 1985 64th. sarcophaginae. vol.ii, pages 297-440, in linder, e. (ed.): fliegen der palaearktischen region (lieferung 330). wiedemann, c. r. w. 1830 aussereuropaische zweiflugelige insekten. 2:xii,296. zumpt, f. 1965 myiasis in man and animals of the old world. a textbook for physician, veterinarians and zoologists. london. butterworths, london. xv+267 pp. 46 a new species of wohlfahartia bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2001) 9 (3): 43-50 في ) عائلة ذبابة اللحم : رتبة ثنائية االجنحة ( wohlfahrtiaنوع جديد من جنس .العراق **و محمد صالح عبد الرسول * نبيل عبد القادر مولود العراق –المعهد الفني في بعقوبة ، ديالى –قسم صحة المجتمع * العراق –بغداد –جامعة بغداد –متحف التاريخ الطبيعي ** خالصةال عـن wohlfahrtia longicurpuris النـوع اجلديـد و اعطاء الرسوم و متييز مت وصف .االنواع القريبة . مجعت من تقرح يف وجه احد األشخاص ربيت البالغات من يرقات نوعاً بعضها يسـبب التدويـد يف ١٩احد اهم االجناس و حيتوي wohlfahrtiaيعترب جنس جعة التصنيفية هلذا اجلنس من قبل كل منمتت املرا. اللبائن pape ( 1996 ) وzumpt ( 1965 ) وrohdendorf ( 1956) . 47 n . a . mawlood & m . s . abdul – rassoul 48 a new species of wohlfahartia 49 n . a . mawlood & m . s . abdul – rassoul 50 a new species of wohlfahartia 3 21 glaiim & et al bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2008)10 (3): 21-27 testing the efficacy of some methods recommended abroad for controlling the oriental hornet, vespa orientalis l., attacking honey bee, apis mellifera l., colonies in iraq murtadh k. glaiim* huda a. mahdi** hassan a. ibrahim** *department of plant protection, college of agriculture, kerbala university, iraq. **state board for agricultural research, ministry of agriculture, iraq. abstract some methods recommended abroad to control the oriental hornet, vespa orientalis l., attacking the honey bee, apis mellifera l., colonies were tested, with some modifications, for the first time under the iraqi conditions. one of these methods was carried out by covering the hive entrance with a piece of queen excluder to prevent the hornet from entering the hive. also, the position of hive stand was reversed to deprive the hornet from using the flight board as a stage for waiting and creeping toward the defending bees. the second method was carried out by fixing a cardboard cone as a bee passage at the hive entrance to hinder the entry of the hornet into the hive. both of these methods were found to be unsuccessful to control the hornet. also, the use of vinegar traps had an adverse effect, for only worker honey bees and dipterous insects, rather than the hornets, were trapped in large numbers. introduction the oriental hornet, vespa orientalis l., is a key pest attacking honey bee colonies in many countries (ishay et al. 1967; klein and adler, 1996; gomaa and abd el-wahab, 2006; haddad et al., 2006). beekeepers in different countries including iraq have practiced many measures invented by the beekeepers themselves to control all the species of the genus, vespa. these measures include the extermination of queen hornets in early spring to get rid of thousands of would-be enemies in summer and fall, the crush of worker hornets flying at the apiaries after these workers are caught by hand nets or beaten by wooden sticks with flat heads, etc., and the destruction of hornet nests by applying insecticides or fire after dusk. although these measures are effective, they are tedious and costly. scientific studies on hornets including their control are rare when compared with those on other pests and diseases attacking honey bees. however, workers in different countries have tested and / or suggested some methods and ideas to control this hornet as well as other species of the genus, vespa. the use of baited and not baited traps placed at the apiaries and traps attached to the front of the hives represent well-known kinds of these methods. however, the efficacy of these traps is controversial. while ibrahim and mezid (1967) had highly recommended the use of this method in egypt, matsuura and sakagami (1973) stated that the corresponding author: murtadha k. glaiim, college of agriculture, kerbala university 22 testing the efficacy of some methods traps in japan did not always function efficiently. during the last decade many workers abroad have highly recommended the use of baited traps for controlling vespa orientalis and vespa germanica. in palestine klein and adler (1996) stated that using poisoned meat baits was very effective method. they used the organic phosphate, acephate. bacandritsos et al. (2006) cited that the use of wood-glue trap in combination with the fish as a non-toxic bait in greece was a reliable solution for controlling these wasps in apiaries. in egypt, gomaa and abd el-wahab (2006) said, “application of liquid yeast culture (candida tropicalis) as bait is efficient procedure to capture the oriental wasps by the recommended traps”. in india, subbiah and mahadevan (1958) suggested the idea of pushing the hive bodies to the very front of the bottom board, thereby not providing any spaces in front for the bees and the hornets to alight. the application of this idea was mentioned to hinder the hornets from snatching off the bees. the results of our another study have also encouraged us to include this idea in our present study (glaiim, unpublished date). in japan, mastuura and sakagami (1973) reported the practice of using protective screens such as wire fishing nets to cover hive entrances. muzzaffar and ahmed (1986) mentioned that a wire-gauze tube fixed as a bee passage at hive entrance reduced the frequent entry of vespa spp. in pakistan. beljavsky (1937) mentioned that vinegar traps were very effective for hornet and wasp control in italy. the present study was based on our another study on the hornet attack behavior (glaiim, unpublished data), as well as on some ideas suggested by foreign investigators. materials and methods the study was carried out at an apiary located ca.30 km north of baghdad. it was initiated in early august and terminated in late november, 1989, for most of the damage caused by the hornet to honey bee colonies occurs in this period. all honey bee colonies involved were housed in wooden langtroth hives. the honey bee colonies are of a random cross between the native race and introduced races, especially apis mellifera carnica. brother adam (as cited by abdellatif et al. 1977) believes that the local race in iraq is a sub-division of a. m. syriaca. the nests of the hornet in the vicinity of the apiary were not subjected to any kind of control during the period of study. methods no.1 and no.2 were applied in 15 bee-occupied hives each. untreated (regular) bee-occupied hives of the same number were used as a test control. method no.1 was applied as follows: the hive entrance was covered with a piece of metal queen excluder to prevent hornet entry. the next step was made to prevent both the hornets and bees from alighting in front of the hive. for this reason, the position of the hive stand was reversed, hence the flight board became in the rear of the hive rather than in front of the hive entrance. also, the narrow strip of the bottom board extending in front of the hive entrance was cut, hence the hive body was moved to the very front of the bottom board. method no.2 was implemented by fixing cardboard cone as a bee passage at the hive entrance to lessen frequent entry of the hornet into the hive. the length of the cone was 20cm and the diameter of its distal round opening was 2cm. the cone broad base was flattened in order to be inserted into the 0.95 x 8.0cm hive entrance. also, five 250cm3-glass flasks filled with vinegar up to one fourth of their height were hung at different sites at the apiary to examine their efficacy as hornet traps. the vinegar used was made of dates. 23 glaiim & et al results and discussion method no.1 the start of the present study was by applying this method only. but after about one month of daily basis observations, we reached a conclusion that the results were discouraging and the method would not be promising for hornet control. however, the application of this method was not totally devoid of some positive sides. first, the hornets were not able to enter the hive through the openings of the queen excluder, hence they could not attack bees inside the hive. it is well known that when the hornets find no enough number of bees guarding the colony at the hive entrance, especially in weak colonies, they enter the hive easily, hunt adult bees, and take the colony-reserve of honey. under such a condition, the colony either perishs or deserts. second, the reversion of the hive stand position and the elimination of the bottom board narrow strip deprived the hornets from using the flight board and the strip as a stage for waiting and creeping toward the bees gathering at the hive entrance and on the flight board. it has been found that such a tactic is sufficiently used by vespa orientalis (ishay et al., 1967; glaiim, unpublished data). despite these positive sides, the application of this method showed some drawbacks that highly affected its efficacy for hornet control. because the flight board and the narrow strip of the bottom board were absent, the hornets were alighting and waiting on the queen excluder itself to hunt incoming and outgoing bees. at such a situation and when a bee was trying to leave the hive through an opening of the queen excluder, she would be easily grabbed by a waiting hornet. the latter usually catches the bee head and pulls her out. also, since the openings of the queen excluder are relatively narrow, the bees find no opportunity for maneuvering to retreat or escape the hornets. incoming bees were also grabbed easily by waiting hornets since these bees usually alight on the queen excluder before entering the hive. it is well known that the bees in hot climates, especially at afternoon, evening, and early hours of night, partially evacuate the hive to alleviate heat stress in the colony. in regular hives the evacuating bees gather on the flight board and the front strip of the bottom board, and such a gathering makes the bees more vulnerable to hornet attack (glaiim, unpublished data). but, the problem of this vulnerability still existed despite the elimination of the narrow strip and flight board, for the bees were gathering on the queen excluder and the outer surface of the front wall of the hive body. in addition to this vulnerability, we believe that the queen excluder and the vertical hive body wall are not as convenient as the sloping flight board and horizontal narrow strip as supports for both bee evacultion and bee counterattack (glaiim, unpublished data). in india, subbiah and mahadevan (1958) stated in a very brief article, “it was observed that the wasps did not enter the hives when the hive bodies were pushed to the very front, while they continued to snatch off the bees from the hives having the usually space in front to serve as alighting board for the bees”. however, the wasps involved were vespa cincta and v. tropica attacking the indian honey bee, apis cerana. also, these authors did not mention any further information on how that practice prevented the hornets from entering the hive and / or snatching the bees. in japan, matsuura and sakagami (1973) reviewed many practices for controlling the giant hornet, vespa mandarinia, attacking the japanese honey bee, apis cerana cerana. one of these practices was the use of protective screens such as wire or fishing nets covering hive entrances. the outcome of this practice seems simillar to what we found, for these authors stated, “all these screens gradually become less effective to experienced hornets, which stay on these obstacles and catch bees, either those making counterattacks or those leaving from or returning to hives with decreased flight velocity ”. 24 testing the efficacy of some methods method no.2 the application of this method was initiated after we had terminated our observations on the previous method. the initiation was at the beginning of september while the termination was at the end of november when no more worker hornets were found at the apiary. in iraq, all hornet colony individuals, but the queens, perish by the beginning of winter. at the beginning we tried to test the idea mentioned by muzzaffar and ahmed (1986) who fixed a 2 x 17cm-wire gauze tube as a bee passage at the hive entrance. but, instead of using such a tube we used a wire-gauze cone as it was described above. we believe it is unappropriate to reduce the diameter of hive entrance to 2cm, especially in hot climate such as that of iraq where maximum ambient temperatures exceed 45 ْ ◌c. after fixing the cones we found that the flight activity of the bees reached a very low level compared with that of control colonies. instead of moving forward toward the cone distal opening, the bees were gathering at the bases of the inner surfaces of the cones as if they were trying to find an access through the tiny openings of the cone surfaces. we believe the bees were attracted to the nearest site where the sun was shining, i.e. to the cone base. it was assumed; however, that the bees would gradually learn how to use this new passage appropriately, but we faced another problem. worker hornets were alighting on the cone outer surface and trying to pull out the bees gathering and / or walking on the inner surface. of course, worker hornets could not do so, but they did hurt the bees by cutting their forelegs, antennae, and even their heads. for this reason, we replaced these cones with cones made of cardboard. the outcome of using this method was as follows: 1. although the presence of the cones minimized the rate of hornet entry into the hives to a very low level, it did not prevent the hornets from finding other accesses to reach their victims. the hornets were waiting at the cone entrances to pounce upon unaware outgoing or incoming bees. we noticed that the foraging bees were sometimes reluctant to enter the cone when they find a hornet waiting at the cone entrance. these bees were hovering around the hive for a while before trying the entry again. from time to time, the bees were seen gathering as a clump at the cone entrance either to partially evacuate the hive or to defend the colony. the hornets were either creeping on the cone itself toward the clump or hovering over it. although the entry of hornets in the cones was rare, we did notice some of them entering these cones, especially when there were no bees at the cone distal opening and during the times when the bees lessen their flying activity. the fate of these hornets as well as their hunting success varied according to the condition in the hive involved. in most cases the hornets were returning without hunting success. we believe that the presence of the cone impaired the hornet ability for maneuvering compared with those attacking the bees in control hives. sometimes, however, we noticed some of the returning hornets that were able to bring bees with them. on the other hand, some of the hornets entering the cones could not return; they must have been caught and killed by the bees in the hives. 2. in addition to its failure in minimizing hornet impact, the use of cones had also an adverse effect on the activity of bee colony itself. to evaluate this effect, we measured adult bee populations and sealed worker brood areas in both kinds of hives. after one month of fixing the cones, there were 63.4 and 41.3 percent average reductions in adult bee population per colony in cone-supplied hives and control hives, respectively. average areas of workers sealed brood per colony were 96.0 and 567.1 cm2 in the two kinds of hives, respectively. by the end of november, there was a loss of one-third of bee colonies in the cone-supplied hives, i.e. 5 out of 15 colonies. three of them deserted their hives while the other two colonies perished. in control hives there was a loss of two colonies, one deserted its hive while the second perished. we believe that this adverse effect resulted from the effect of cone presence on two components of thermoregulation process, the partial evacuation of bees and ventilation. it was 25 glaiim & et al found that the size of bees evacuating the hive was remarkably smaller than that in control hives. furthermore, it is well known that in nature, bees stand at the hive entrance and on the bottom board, and by fanning their wings vigorously they set up outgoing air current through the hive entrance; hence they cool the hive. the cone presence may have affected this exchange of air currents, for cone entrances were narrow and relatively far from the sites where fanning bees were found. on the contrary, the bees in control hives were performing the process of thermoregulation without such obstacles. it should be kept in mind, however, that the reduction in honey bee activity during this period in iraq is not reffered only to the attack of the oriental hornet and heat stress, but also to other important factors including the attack of the bee eater, merops superciliosus persicus pallas and the infection of the introduced parasitic mite, varroa jacobsoni oud. in pakistan, muzzaffar and ahmed (1986) stated, “the use of bee guards or fixing of a wire-gauze tube, 1.5cm x 17cm, as a bee passage at entrance of the hive reduced the frequent entry of v. basalis, vespa orientalis, and v. veluting, but did not lessen losses because bees were caught and killed by them during their flights. this result agrees with what we found, but these authors did not mention any further information concerning hunting behavior at the tube and the effect of such a practice on the activity of the bee colony itself. the use of vinegar trap the results of present study concerning the use of vinegar trap totally disagree with what belkavsky (1937) mentioned. in the five vinegar traps hung at the apiary for 24 hours we found no single hornet or wasp in any of these traps despite the remarkable presence of the hornet at the apiary. ironically, it was the honey bees rather than the hornets that were trapped in large numbers. beside the bees, dipterous insects of different species were trapped in large number as well. after 24 hours of hanging these traps we found 80, 54, 45, 42, and 30 worker honey bees in the five traps, respectively. in italy, belkavsky (1937) stated, “the scent of vinegar attracts wasps and hornets and they perish in large quantities . . . . . the writer noticed that vinegar does not attract bees at all”. it is worth mentioning that we have not found any mention for this method of hornet control in all other bee literature. there were three reasons behind testing these three methods in iraq. first, they seem reasonable and very easy to be applied. second, they were mentioned without clear judgment showing their useful and / or adverse effects of their application. third, some of these ideas were suggested in countries where different species of hornets and different species or races of honey bees are found. of course, different species of hornets exhibit different strategies of hunting behavior while different species and / or races of honey bees exhibit different strategies of counterattack behavior. references abdellatif, m. a., abou-elanga, a. m., ali, m. h., shakir, p. m. and al-jalili, m. k. 1977. biometrical studies on iraqi honey bees. j. apic. res. 16: 143-144. bacandritsos, nicoloaos; iosif papanastasiou; costas saitanis and erigylli roiniot. 2006. three non-toxic insect traps useful in trapping wasps enemies of honey bees. bulletin of insectology 59: 135-145. beljavsky, a. g. 1937. the hornet (vespa crabro l.) as an enemy of bees. bee world 18: 7577. 26 testing the efficacy of some methods gomaa, a. m. and el-wahab, t. e. a., 2006. seasonal abundance and efficiency of yeast liquid culture (candia tropicalis) as bait for capturing the oriental wasps (vespa orientalis l.) under egyptain environment. j. appl. sci. res.2: 1042-1046. haddad, n., fuchs, s., and ahmed batainha. 2006. decrease of flight activity caused by vespa orientalis at the flight entrance of apis mellifera syraica in jordan. proc. 2nd. europ. conf. of apidology eurbee, prague (szech rep.) 10-16 sept, 2006. p. 77. ibrahim, mohammd m. and mahmoud mezid. 1967. studies on the oriental hornet. j. agric. res., minis. agric., cairo 2: 115 – 130 (in arabic). ishay, j., h. bytink-salz and shulov, a. 1967. contributions to the bionomics of the oriental hornet (vespa orientalis fab.). isr. j. entomol. 2: 45-106. klein, z. and adler h. 1996. wasps and their control in israel. the joint int. conf. of fadpma-cepa, tel aviv, israel, 8-12 may, 1996. p. 254. matsuura, makoto and shoichi sakagami-1973. a bionomic sketch of the giant hornet, vespa mandrinia, a serious pest for japanese apiculture. j. fac. sci. hokkaido, univ., ser. v, 2001. 19: 125-162. muzzaaffar, nasreen and rafiq ahmed. 1986. studies on hornets attacking honey bees in pakistan. pakistan j. agric. res. 7: 59-63. subbiah, m.s. and mahadevan, v. 1958. vespa cincta fabr.– a predator of the hive bees and its control. ind. j. vet. sci. 27: 153-154. 27 glaiim & et al bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2008)10 (3): 21-27 ي ورب أل سل ا ل الع ح ف ن ة طوائ ج لحماي ي ال ار ف ى بها موص طرق ال ض ال ة بع ء ر كفا ختبا ا apis mellifera l. أل مر ج م الزنب ر ا ي(من ه شرق .vespa orientalis l) ال ق ع ا ي ال ف غلي رت ى كر م ي *مم ر هد ج ا د ال ى ب هللا إبر هيم **هد د ا ن عب س **ح امعة كربالء ، العراقلزراعة ، جقسم وقاية النبات ، كلية ا* الهيئة العامة للبحوث الزراعية ، وزارة الزراعة ، العراق** الخالصة اختربت ، وألول مرة يف الظروف البيئية واحلياتية السائدة يف العراق ، كفاءة بعض الطرق اليت اقرتحها خمتصون يف من أجل محاية طوائف حنل العسل ) مع بعض التعديالت والتحويرات اليت أجريت على قسم منها ( اخلارج متثلت إحدى هذه . .vespa orientalis lمن هجوم الزنبور األمحر .apis mellifera lاألوريب وباإلضافة إىل . الطرق بتغطية مدخل اخللية بقطعة من حاجز امللكات لضمان عدم دخول أفراد الزنبور يف اخللية املثبتة عليه لوحة الطريان قد وضع حتت اخللية باجتاه معكوس وذلك من أجل ) الكرسي ( ذلك فإن حامل اخللية أما الطريقة . حرمان الزنبور من استخدام تلك اللوحة كمنصة يستخدمها لالنتظار والزحف باجتاه مدخل اخللية عند باب اخللية لكي ) كارتون ( ق الثخني املقوى الثانية فإا متثلت بتثبيت خمروط من السلك املشبك أو الور كان اهلدف من تثبيت ذلك املخروط ، الذي ثبتت ايته العريضة . يستخدم كممر خلروج ودخول النحل السارح عند مدخل اخللية ، هو إعاقة دخول الزنبور يف اخللية على أمل أن األمر سيكون سهالً على النحل احلارس من غرباء ، ومن بينها الزنبور األمحر ، خالل الفتحة الدائرية الطرفية الصغرية للمخروط ذات السنتمرتين مراقبة دخول ال أثبتت نتائج الدراسة فشل كل من الطريقتني املذكورتني يف صد هجوم اآلفة املذكورة من جهة كما والتأثري . قطراً متثلت الطريقة الثالثة بتعليق مصائد خل . السليب لكل منهما على نشاط طوائف النحل نفسها من جهة أخرى كانت نتائج هذه الطريقة سلبية متامًا ؛ ألن ما مت اصطياده هي شغاالت . يف أرجاء املنحل الصطياد أفراد الزنبور .!لذباب بدالً من الزنبور األمحرالنحل وأنواع من ا full page photo 7 49 n. a. mawlood and m. s. abdul-rassoul bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2008)10 (3):4956 a new species of cosmina rob.-desvoidy, 1830 iraq (diptera : calliphoridae)* **n. a. mawlood and ***m. s. abdul-rassoul ** college of education, diyala university ***iraq nature museum history abstract this study includes a detailed morphological description of cosmina baghdadensis sp. nov. from iraq. many characters are used in identification especially chaetotaxy and male genetalia. locality, host plant, and data of collection were given. introduction cosmina rob.-desvoidy is a small genus of family calliphoridae which contain nine species membred by peris, 1952; zumpt, 1956 and deeming, 1992. taxonomic revision of the genus has been carried out by rohdendrof, 1935; kurahashi et al., 1976 and rognes, 1998. cosmina baghdadensis sp. nov. male: dark green, body length 12.5-8.1 mm, width 3.7-2.2mm. head: vertcx (fig.1a) black, inner vertical bristles long, slightly curved postvertical bristles very short, equal to one-fourth of inner ones; eye holoptic, oval, 2.6-2.1mm length and 1.3-1.0mm weidth, occupy nearly third-fourth of anterior region of the head and with a row of postocular bristles; ocular triangle black with slivery pollen; frontal vitta dark brown broad in the base 0.52-0.42mm and gradually tappering forward the apical and with 12-13 bristles; parafrontal dark brown-black with silvery pollen and two rows of black setae; face and parafacial dark brown with slivery pollen and lower densely of setae reached to the fifth basal of eyes; facial carinae prominent gena dark brown-black with silvery pollen, its lower margin with long white setae; antenna (fig.lb) redish-redish brown with silvery pollen, arista plumose on its third apical, maxillary palp (fig.1c) club shaped , its basal half paler red and apical half dark brown-black with black setae; mentum (fig.1d) dark brown (fig.1d) dark brown nearly triangular shaped, with moderate densely of setae and bristles and a pair of very long bristles. labrum-epipharynx (fig.1e) cone shaped, its apodeme slender, with cup-like apex, 0.84-0.73 length; folds of oral lobe with moderate densely of yellow setae; prcstomal teeth yellow and very short. head in female is similar to those of male except frons which is broad; outer vertical bristles well developed; parafrontal with 1 proclinate, 2 reclinate fronto-orbital bristles; frontal vita with 12-13 bristles. thorax: scutum shinnying dark brown, with slightly silver pollen; chaetotaxy acrostichal bristles 0+2; dorsocentral bristles 0+2; notopleural bristles 2; humeral bristles 2; posthumeral bristle 1; intra-alar bristles 0+2; post-alar bristles 2; supra-alar bristles 3; scutellum bristles 4+1; propleural bristle 1; stigmatal bristle 1; sternopleural bristles 1:1; pleuron dark green with slightly silver pollen; mesothracic spiracles circular dark brown-black; anal ridge of mesopleural plate with a row of bristles and densely of * part of ph.d. thesis 50 a new species of cosmina long, fine golden setae; pteropleuron with acomb of long, thick black setae; hypopleuron with a row of long bristles; mctathoracic spiracles dark brownblack ;circular shaped; subanal knob dark brown, kidney shaped with slightly sliver pollen and without setae. wings: hyaline, basicosta dark brown, suhcostal sclerite orange,without setae, its dorsal surface with7-8 setae, node with 4-3 bristles on each dorsal and ventral surface, apical cell is narrow open 0.17-0.12 mm; thoracic squama paler yellow, without setae, its hind margin with height denselyin size, yellow and fine setae; upper squama is similar to that of thoracic sqama but smaller. legs: coxae, trochanters and femora dark green; tibiae and tarsus red-red brown; fore femora with a pair rows of long bristles on the posterodorsal surface and a row bristles on the posteroventral surface; for tibia with a row of bristles on the anterodorsal surface; 2 bristles on the anteroventral surface; mid femur with a row of bristles on the posterventral surface; mid tibia with 1 bristle on each anteroventral and posteroventral surface (fig.2a) and 2 bristles on each anterodorsal and posterodorsal surface (fig.2b); hind femur with a row of long bristles on anterodorsal surface; hind tibia with a row of bristles on the anterodorsal surface (fig.2c) and 2 bristles on anteroventral surface (fig.2d). abdomen:dark green, with white pollen, hind margin of tergites with a row of bristles, 5th tergite with numerous of long bristles; sternites in male (fig.2e) dark green with white pollen, 2nd sternite sequar shaped 3rd sternite nearly triangular shapcd, 4th similar to the 3rd one, sternites 4-2 with dark brown setae and numerous of long bristles; 5th sternite with deep incision posteriorly forming two oval lobs with height densely long dark brown bristles; abdomen in female (fig.2f) similar to that of male but differ from it by that of 5th sternite is rectangular shaped. male terminalia:tergite 6 (fig.3a) dark brown, its hind margin with a row of bristles; sternite 6 (fig.3b) ring shaped, its right arm long with short and dose not join edith right inferior of syntergosternite 7+8; syntergosternite (fig.3c) dark brown with moderate densely different length black bristles; tergite 9 (fig.3d) elongated ovaly shaped, its half basal surface with hieght densely of bristles, one-fourth of apical without bristles; sternite 9 (fig.3e) with hind margin deeply emarginated, its apodeme moderately bend, the distance among its apical 0.26-0.21mm paralobs (fig.4a) nearly cylindrical shaped, its basal half with moderate dense of setae; anal cerci (fig.4b) slightly curved, united together in half region, basal half with densely long setae, phallus (fig.4c,d,e) 0.80-0.66 length, basiphallus nearly sequare shaped, 0.3 1-0.24 mm; epiphallus tubely shaped, 0.28-0.21mm; paraphallus 0.49-0.42mm with pin and curved apex; hypophallus oval shaped, its outer margin toothed, acrophallus short; pregonite (fig.4f) hook-like, its outer margin with a row of short dark brown bristles; postgonite (fig.4i) cylinderical shaped, its apical with long bristle; phalloapodeme (fig.4h) nearly cylindrical shaped, its anterior surface with chitinous band which occupying half of the region; ejaculatory sclerite (fig.4i) nearly cup shaped, 0.520.42mm length. cosmina bagkdadensis sp. nov. is closely related to c. clarpennis rob.-desvoidy but differ from it by following characters chaetotaxy:dorsocentral bristles 4+1; posthumeral bristles 2-3; intra-alar bristles 1+2; scutellum bristles 3+0; mid tibia with 2bristles on postventral surface, antero-lateral of basiphallus non emarginate, epiphallus shorter than basiphallus, the distansce among basiphallus and paraphallus process. is wide. host: weed 1 ♂ 1 holotype, 4 ♀ paratype 51 n. a. mawlood and m. s. abdul-rassoul coll. 10.5.1999, (leg. n. a. mawlood) types are deposited in iraq natural history museum. references deeming, j. c. 1996. the calliphoridae (diptera : cyclorrhapha) of oman. fauna of saudiarabia, 15: 264-279. kurahashi, h., benjaphongm, n., and omar, b. 1976. blow flies (insecta : diptera : calliphoridae) of malaysia and singapore. raf. bull. zool., 5: 1-88. peris, s. v. 1952. la subfamilia rhiniinae (diptera : calliphoridae) anales de la estacion experimental de aula dei., 3: 1-224. rognes, k. 1998. contribution to a manual of palaearctic diptera. vol 3, higher brachycera. published by science herald, budapest, :617-648. rohdendrof, b. b. 1935. sarcophaginae. in lindner fliegen der palaearktischen region, stuttgrat., 64 h :49-128. zumpt, f. 1956. calliphorinae. in linder fliegen der palaearktischen, region. stuttgrat., 641: 1-140. 52 a new species of cosmina 53 n. a. mawlood and m. s. abdul-rassoul 54 a new species of cosmina 55 n. a. mawlood and m. s. abdul-rassoul 56 a new species of cosmina bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2008)10 (3): 49-56 س ن جن جدي م ف نو ص و cosmina rob. desvoidy, 1830 (diptera : calliphoridae) ق ع ا ي ال ف د. د.أ و ر ول ق د ل بد ال د ا رسول. د.أ نبي ح ب ص ل حمد م عل م ال ياة م س جامعة / كلية ال ربية/ ق ى ديال ي ي ال راق خ ال بيع ف ال اري ح داد/ مت ة بغ جامع خ الصةال م ديد للعل ع ي لنو خلار ه ا ظ صيل َا للم صفا تف را ة و ذه لد ن ه م ض cosminaتت baghdadensis sp. nov. ر ق ع .يف ال عوائل ا الن اتية حل رة و مجع ا خ وتاري ق ا من ت جل .س full page photo 13-18 13 a. j. el wailly bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2002) 9 (4): 13-18 seasonal changes of the testes in the marsh froge rana ridibunda pallas, 1771 alwan j. el-wailly biology department, college of education ibn al-haitham, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq abstract samples of marsh frog included 148 sexually mature males were collected in baghdad from december 1992 to december 1993 to december 1993. the testis weight was expressed as percentage of the body weight. the percent mean weights of testis were at their minimal weight (0.255%) during april (spawning period). testis weight has increased until reached its greatest average weight in august (0.785%). during the winter there is a slight decrease in weight with a more obvious fall at the spawning months. from the results obtained from the present work on rana ridibunda and from the observations on annual cycle in testis weight of some temperate zone anurans we notice that testes tend to be lowest after spawning and the testis cycle seems to be correlated with geographic range of distribution. introduction amphibia usually respond adaptively to the thermal changes. frogs retreat to hibernation on the approach of cold weather and reappear on the advent of spring warmth (noble, 1931). numerous studies devoted to the hibernation of amphibians and particularly to role and effect of the environmental temperature on spermatogenesis (mizell, 1964; brenner, 1969; cooke, 1977; maruyama, 1979; jorgensen etal., 1979; christopher et al., 1993). liver glycogen contents appear to be closely corrected to the change in gonad weight of frogs (mizell, 1964) and lizards (raheem and dehlawi, 1989). a number of authors, among them was van oordt (1960), have demonstrated that control of spermatogenesis is directly related to the gonadotropic hormones of the pituitary gland in amphibia. van oordt (1960) has distinguished two basic types of reproductive patterns, in anurans, which may be termed as continuous and discontinuous cycle. in the subtropical mediterranean frogs (ex.r. esculenta), the spermatogenetic cycle is continuous, but in the more northern parts of their distribution range the production of spermatozoa becomes interrupted during the colder winter months. to my knowledge no information about spermatogenetic cycle of marsh frog in iraq is found in the literature. the present work provides the first detailed analysis of the annual cycle of testis with a population of rana ridibunda living under natural condition as far possible. materials and methods samples of frogs were obtained monthly from december 1992 to december 1993. the animals included 138 sexually mature males of the marsh frog caught in baghdad and its suburbs. frogs were killed with ether fumes, the testes were immediately dissected out and weighed. the testis weights were expressed as percentage of the body weight. the body weight of the studied frog does not include the weight of the stomach contents. testis weights 14 seasonal changes of mash frog were deducted from the total body weight. differences in mean testis weights of all animals were evaluated by the student (t) test at level of 0.05 (significant). results observations of frogs in the field indicated that almost all frogs had disappeared from the study field in late december 1992 and reappeared around the sixteenth of march 1993. the temperature of the air reached the minimum in january (7.1 + 3.2 ºc) and in february (10.5 + 5.4 ºc). the seasonal changes in weight of the testis are shown in fig (1). the percent mean weights of testis were at of their minimal weight during april (spawning period) (0.255%). testis weight has continuously increased in may sample until reached its greatest average weight in august (0.785%) table (1): mean percent testis weight (g) of the marsh frog rana ridibunda. month no. weight of testes as percent body wt. mean se jan. 1993 9 0.323 0.022 feb. 11 0.316 0.034 mar. 17 0.306 0.007 apr. 15 0.255 0.004 may 19 0.474 0.066 june 9 0.477 0.044 july 9 0.665 0.064 aug. 10 0.785 0.093 sept. 8 0.533 0.059 oct. 16 0.411 0.002 nov. 14 0.457 0.078 dec. 11 0.425 0.039 from august to december, the relative weight dropped then remained almost constant till march. during the winter there is a slight decrease in weight, with a more obvious fall at the spawning months (march and april). mean testis weights collected in october to december do not differ from those of male obtained during hibernation (january and february) and during the breeding season (march and april) (p > 0.05). mean testis weight collected in august was significantly different than those the breeding season. discussion the pattern of annual testicular cycle as observed in the marsh frog in baghdad, seem to be similar to some anurans of temperate zone. the general cycle of testis development agrees closely with that found by other workers (smith, 1950; van oordt, 1956) on rana temporaria and (lofts, 1964) on rana esculenta. the maximum testis mean weight of both species was observed in august. from august to december the relative weight dropped then remained almost constant till a minimum weight in march for r. temporaria and in may for r. esculenta. the present work shows, almost, the same pattern of cycle. during the winter there is a slight decrease in weight with a more obvious fall at the spawning period (march and april). this is due, probably, to the transfer of spermatozoa to the vesicula seminalis and to the intense spermiation during this time. histological examination by jorgensen et al. (1979) revealed that sections of testis from frogs taken in august contain mature spermatozoa and spermatide fill almost the entire testis. sections of testes at the spawning period show few spermatozoa. 15 a. j. el wailly the increase in weight of testis from april-august, which was observed in r. ridibunda, probably caused by a wave of spermatogenetic activity of germinal cysts packing the seminiferous tubules. from august to december is a phase marked by the decline of spermatogenesis (jorgensen et al., 1979). the best comparison of gonadal cycles was given by jorgensen et al. (1979). the mean weight of testes of r. esculenta in switzerland (1901) was 0.35% in august and the minimum (after spawning) was 0.2% in june. in germany (1923) the maximum was 0.43% in july and the minimum (after spawning) was 0.19% in may. in holland (1964) the maximum was 0.27% in august and the minimum (after spawning) was 0.14% in janury. the maximum mean weight of testes of r. nigromaculata in china was 0.16% in sept. and the minimum was 0.07% in june-july. from these observations on the annual cycle in testis weight of some temperate zone anurans and the results obtained from the present work on r. ridbunda we notice that testes tend to be lowest after spawning and the testis cycle of anurans seems to be correlated, in general, with geographic range of distribution. literature cited brenner, f. j. 1969 the role of temperature and fat deposition in hibernation and reproduction in two species of frog. herpetologica, 25:105-133. christopher, m. 1993 keeping and breeding amphibians: caecilians, newts, salamanders, frogs and toads. london: blanford, new york. starling pub. co. (u. s.) 224pp. col.ill. cooke, a. s. 1977 spawning dates of the frog (rana temporaria) and the toad (bufo bufo) in britain. br. j. herpet., 5: 585-589. jorgensen, c. b., larsen, l. o. and lofts, b. 1979. annual cycles of fat bodies and gonads in the toad bufo bufo bufo (l.) compared with cycles in other temperate zone anurans. biologiske skr.,22(5): 1-37. lofts, b. 1964 seasonal changes in the functional activity of the interstitial and spermatogenetic tissues of the green frog, rana esculenta. gen. comp. endocrinol., 4:550-562. maruyama, k. 1979 seasonal cycles in organ weights and lipid composition in the liver, fat body and gonads of rana esculenta. bolletino zool., 50:227-234. mizell, s. 1964 seasonal differences in spermatogenisis and oogenesis in rana pipiens. nature, 30 no. (4935): 875-876. noble, g. k. 1931 the biology of the amphibia. xviii. mcgraw hill book co., inc., new york. raheem, k. and dehlawi, g.1989 interrelation of fat bodies and liver to reproduction in female acanthodactylus boskianus. j. king abdulaziz univ., 5: 75-85. smith, c. l. 1950 seasonal changes in blood sugar, fat body, liver glycogen and gonads in the common frog rana temporaria.j exp. biol., 26:412-429. 16 seasonal changes of mash frog van oordt, p. g. w. j. 1956 the role of temperature in regulating the spermatogenic cycle in the common frog (rana temporaria). acta endocrinol., 23:251-264. 17 a. j. el wailly bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2002) 9 (4): 13 -18 ى ص خ ف لية ل ت ال غ را دع الت ت ضف ستنقعا م rana ridibundaال وائلي ج سم ا وان عل قسم علوم الحياة، كلية التربية، ابن الهيثم، جامعة بغداد الخالصة مجـ ع كــ ١٤٨مت ن د مـ غــ ا ب ن مـ سـ يًا جن ة ج ضــ ت ال ا عا ق سـ تن امل ع د ف ضـ كــ ر ذ ن ج مـ ن منــ ذ و ان ة سن ول سنة ١٩٩٢أ ل ن و و ن . ١٩٩٣ولغ ية ان من وز ى ب لنسب امل وي ص ز اخل و ن ع لقد عّ م ســ جل ه . ا ى لـ و س ـت م دىن أ ن ــ كــا ى صـ خل ن ا و لــ يـ ة و ة ملئ ب ل ال ســ د م ــ ن هر %) ٠.٢٥٥(إ الل شــ خــ ن ســــا ج(ني و زا ة الت ـــ رت ى تـ ــد جييًا ). فــــ ـــ ـ خل ا ن ز زداد و ىل ب إ يف شــــهر آ ه ل لــــ د ى معــــ صــــل أ لــــ ن و إ ك%) ٠.٧٨٥( ر هنــا شـــه ل أ ال خــ حـ ظ ل م ط و بــ ه مـ ع ء شـ تا ال رتة فــ خــ ل ن يف الـ وز يــ ل ن قل صــا نق ج و ك . التزا وـك ل ت تن عا ـ ع مل د ـضف ى ث عـل ح ب ا ل ل ـذ ال ـ ن ليه ا ـم صل إ مت لتو يت ج ال الن ائ ن إ ة املعت لــة ملن ـقـ ا ت ربمائ ــا ل ى خل ــ ا وزن ة لـ ـ وي ـس ة ال ر و ت للـ د ا ـ ـ ح ال ن امل ى مــ صــ خل ن ا ن ز ظ إ حــ ال ن يف را قــ ة بـــال وزي ا غـــ ال ع هلـــا صـــ خ ل س ــن ية ل ال دورة ن الــ وا ج ز و تـــ ل ا عـــ لـــه ب ى ســـت م ىن ط ا أد ب هـــ ي ن حيوا .لل 18 seasonal changes of mash frog 33-40 33 m. k. mohammad bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2002) 9 (4): 33-40 blood parasites of the babblers of iraq mohammad k. mohammad iraq natural history museum, university of baghdad, bab al-muadham, baghdad, iraq abstract a survey of blood parasites among members of two species of iraqi babblers timaliidae, turodoides caudatus salvadori (de fillipi, 1865) and turdoides alterostris (hartert, 1909) was carried out in the middle and south of iraq. two species of haematozoa were recovered, haemoproteus turdoidus sp. nov. and plasmodium relictum grassi &felleti. the description of the new taxon is provided and discussed with pertinent literature. introduction the avian family timaliidae comprises 262 species. bennett et al. (1982) reported that 127 of them were examined for blood parasites in different areas of the world. in iraq, two species of babblers were recorded, the common babbler turdiodes caudatus salvadori (de fillipi, 1865) and the iraqi babbler t. alterostris (hartert, 1909). these two birds were resident inhabitants in the middle and south of iraq in the dense reed, bushes, orchards, and cultivated date-palm areas (allouse, 1962). such environments support high vector potentiality. al-dabbagh and bunni (1981) studied the breeding habits of the iraqi babbler in baghdad area without paying attention to the parasites of the bird. shamsuddin and mohammad (1981) did not examine the babblers in their survey of blood parasites among iraq birds, while mohammad (1991) could not find any parasites in the blood of these two species. recently, blood smears of these birds become available from different areas of middle and south of iraq through the field trips achieved by the staff of iraq natural history museum as a part of parasitological survey among the iraqi birds. materials and methods a total of 88 babblers belonging to the common babbler and the iraqi babbler were collected either by shooting or capturing by mist nets at three localities in the middle and south of iraq(ammara, 7th april project 45 km southeast of baghdad city (m) and tarmiya 50 km north of baghdad city )during the period june 1997 to august1998. thin blood films were taken immediately from the brachial vein of the bird or sometimes heart, air dried, fixed in absolute methanol, stained with giemsa’s solution at a strength of 1:10 at ph 7-7.2 for one hour. the morphometric parameters of both parasites and red blood cells were determined following the methods of bennett and campbell (1972) as modified by forrester et al. (1977). drawings were made with the aid of camera lucida. the number of examined material is indicated by n, while the nuclear displacement ratio by ndr. all measurements are presented as means followed by standard deviation in parentheses. results table 1 shows the results of examining 88 timaliids for blood parasites. this would show that the total infection rate is 11.4%. two species of parasites were found haemoproteus 34 blood parasites of babblers turdoidus sp. nov. and plasmodium relictum with infection rate of 6.8% and 4.5% respectively. the infection appeared singly in each case of both parasites. on comparing table 1: bird species, place of collection, number of bird, haemoproteus inf., plasmodium inf., and percent of infection. place of collection turdoidus caudatus salvadori turdoidus alterostris total 7th april project no. exam. 12 5 17 haem. inf. 1 1 2 plasm. inf. 1 1 % 16.7 20 17.6 tarmiya no. exam. 33 11 44 haem. inf. 2 1 3 plasm. inf. 1 1 % 9.1 9.1 9.1 ammara no. exam. 19 8 27 haem. inf. 1 1 plasm. inf. 1 1 2 % 10.5 12.5 11.1 total no. exam. 64 24 88 no. inf. 7 3 10 % 10.9 12.5 11.4 the present haemoproteid parasite with related species it is found that it represent a new taxon, its description is as follows: haemoproteus turdoidus sp. nov. figs. 1-24 type host: common babbler. turdoidus caudatus salvadori (de phillipi, 1865) type locality: 7th april project, 45 km southeast of baghdad city. date of collection:4 th december, 1997. immature gametocytes: the immature gametocytes are rarely seen develop in nucleated erythrocytes lateral to the cell nucleus. pigment granules in very young gametocyte absent, double infection is seldom seen, host cell nucleus slightly affected and infected cells are somewhat hypertrophied. measurements of 10 normal and infected erythrocytes with immature gametocytes are as follows: normal erythrocytes: cytosome, 14.1(0.2) x 6.8(0.3), nucleus 6.2(0.4) x 2.1(0.2); infected erythrocytes: 14.6(0.6) x 6.9(0.7), nucleus, 6.4(0.8) x 1.9(0.3). macrogametocytes: n=50. cytoplasm granular stains blue with very small vacuoles to virtually absent. parasites average 13.3(0.7) x 3(0.7) , 47.1(3.4) squared um in area and occupy about 62.8% (range: 53.4-73.6%) of the host cell-parasite 35 m. k. mohammad complex. parasite nucleus off centre usually located near one of end of the pole, triangular to subrectangular in shape staining pink to deep pink and measuring 2.85(0.86)(range: 2.1-4) x2 (0.14)(range: 1.9-2.2). erythrocyte nucleus displaced laterally, nuclear displacement ratio 0.58. host cell hypertrophied. pigment granules small, dark brown to black, scattered averaging 15.8(range: 14-17). microgametocytes: n=50. cytoplasm granular stains faint blue, vacuoles rarely present, parasites average 14.5(0.56) x 6.25(0.27), 43.2(6.6) squared um in area and occupy about 58.1%(range: 48.1-66.2) of the host cell-parasite complex. parasite nucleus dispersed, ill defined and not clearly distinguishable from the cytoplasm. nuclear displacement ratio ndr 0.73. other characters are the same as for macrogametocyte. vector: unknown. syntype slide: blood film no. 2128b deposited in the collection of the invertebrates and parasitology section, iraq natural history museum, university of baghdad, baghdad. paratype slides: blood films nos. 2129b-2131b. plasmodium relictum grassi and feletti, 1890 (figs. 21-27). the infected birds show intense parasitemia. the parasite cytoplasm faint blue with giemsa’s stain and finely vauolated. the developing gametocytes are frequently seen in the blood film and their number far exceeds than that of fully mature gametocytes. the parasite usually infects red blood cell (average measurements of 10 are: length13.2, width 3.10) develops gradually and then the host cell membrane ruptures and the fully mature gametocyte becomes naked (average measurements of 10 are: length 11.6, width 5.1). infection of white blood cells was seldom seen. discussion the infection of babblers with haemoproteids seems wide since bennett et al. (1982) recorded infection of 53 species (20.2% of the total number of species) with haemoproteus spp. this includes recording of haemoproteus danilewskyi grassi and feletti*** from garrulax albogularis (gould) and leothrix argentauris (hodgson) (plimmer, 1913); h. fallisi bennett and campbell from garrulax erythrocephalus (vigors) and leothrix argentauris (bennett and campbell, 1972); and h. orizivora anschutz from turdoides striatus (sykes) (nandi, 1978). the previously mentioned records seem confusing and misleading since both plimmer’s hosts were in captivity in a zoo. using of these records to interpret parasite distribution or host specificity should be approached with caution (bennett et al., 1982). haemoproteus danilewskyi is valid when limited to corvidae and it seems that its presence in timaliidae is not probable. the taxonomic status of haemoproteus orizivora reported by nandi (1978) from turdoides striatus is uncertain and needs redescription. however, this parasite was first described from ploceidae. haemoproteus fallisi is a valid species, but it was originally described from turdidae. phylogenitically, turdidae and timaliidae are far from each other. so, the record of bennett and campbell (1972) of h. fallisi from two timaliids seems unjustified. the present species, however, differs from the above mentioned haemoproteids as follows, from h. danilewskyi in that the mature parasite not encircling erythrocyte nucleus while in h. danilewskyi the mature parasite encircles erythrocyte nucleus; from h. orizivora in that the erythrocyte nucleus is moderately to markedly displaced to periphery while in h. orizivora the erythrocyte nucleus is not displaced to periphery; from h. 36 blood parasites of babblers fallisi in the length being 13.3-14.5 um while h. fallisi of length of 10.1 um and by smaller pigment granules. it differs also from h. timalus reported by bennett et al. (1994) in that the present parasite border is entire and not amoeboid as in h. timaluss and the number of pigment granules is 15.8 instead of 11. the present parasite differs from all above haemoproteids in that it has one of its ends always pointed off the erythrocyte nucleus. also, it differs from h. beckeri roudabush and coatney of the avian family mimidae which has some affinities with the turdidae in having smaller pigment granules with an average of 15.8(14-17) instead of 8.3(4-11). the avian plasmodial parasites had been attracted researchers more than all of the blood parasites combined. studies of garnham (1966) and griener et al. (1975) concluded that the host specificity does not exist among members of this genus. bennett et al. (1982) reported that most species occur over a wide range of several avian families and certain species, especially, p. relictum, p. circumflexum kikuth, and p. vaughani novy & macneal and have extensive host range encompassing a number of avian families and order. the specific identification, however, of plasmodium relictum was possible through the description and illustrations provided by garnham (1966). the host-parasite catalogue of the avian haematozoa of bennett et al. (1982) contained records of 127 species of timaliidae examined for blood parasites, 27 of them were found infected with eight plasmodium spp. they recognized six as valid species, these include plasmodium cathamerium hartmann, p. relictum and p. rouxi sergent et al. from ploceidae; p. circumflexum and p. vaughani from turdidae; and p. dissanaike de jong from psittacidae. they considered p. praecox grassi and feletti from ploceidae as a synonym of p. relictum and the only plasmodid parasite of timaliidae, p. tenue laveran & marullaz , as a doubtful species and requires review. their catalogue contained other records of plasmodium sp. from 14 ttimaliid hosts. this is the first record of p. relictum from timaliidae. all localities yielded presence of parasites with some difference in their rate of infection which may reflect different vector potentiality between the three different localities.two localities (al-tarmiya and 7th april project) situated near baghdad city, middle of iraq comprise semi-arid areas with presence of some irrigated lands and scattered shrubs and trees.the third locality (ammara) is a marshy area. the 7th april project area show higher rate of infection (17.6%) with moderate to intense parasitemia. literature cited al-dabbagh, k. y. and bunni, m. k. 1981 breeding habits of the iraqi babbler, turdoides alterostris (hartert). nat. hist. mus. res. center publication, no. 34, 109 pp. allouse, b. e. 1962 birds of iraq. vol. 3. ar-rabitta press, baghdad, 280 pp. ( in arabic ) bennett, g. f. and campbell, a. g. 1972 avian haemoproteidae. 1. description of haemoproteus fallisi n. sp. and a review of the haemoproteids of the family turdidae.canad. j. zool., 50:1269-1275. bennett, g. f., peirce, m. a. and earle, r. a. 1994 an annotated checklist of the valid avian species of haemoproteus, leucoctozoon (apicomplexa: haemosporida) and hepatozoon (apicomplexa: haemogregarinida). systematic parasitology, 29:6173. bennett, g. f., whiteway, m., and woodworth-lynas, c. b. 1982 a host-parasite catalogue of the avian haematozoa. memorial university of newfoundland, occasional papers in biology, no. 5, 243 pp. 37 m. k. mohammad forrester, d. j., greiner, e. c., bennett, g. f. and kigaye, m. k. 1977 avian haemoproteidae. 7. a review of the haemoproteids of the family ciconiidae (storks) and descriptions of haemoproteus brodkorbi sp. nov. and h. peircei sp. nov. canad. j. zool., 55:1268-1274. garnham, p. c. c. 1966 malaria parasites and other haemosporidia. blackwell, oxford. griener, e. c., bennett, g. f., white, e. m. and coombs, r. f. 1975 distribution of the avian haematozoa of north america. can. j. zool., 53: 1762-1787 mohammad, m. k. 1990 blood parasites of some iraqi wild birds. iraqi j. sci., 31:31-39. nandi, n. c. 1978 blood parasites of indian avifauna. ph. d. thesis, university of calcutta. plimmer (1913) cited in bennett et al. (1982). shamsuddin, m. and mohammad, m. k. 1981 haematozoa of some iraqi birds with description of two new species ،haemoproteus pteroclis and leucocytozoon nycticoraxi (protozoa, haemosporina). bull. iraq nat. hist. res. centre, 7(4):111-154. 38 blood parasites of babblers bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2002) 9 (4): 33-40 راق ف الع طي ر ال رث رة ي ف دم فيليا ا ط حمد ظم م حمد كا م ي خ ال بيع ري ف ال ا ح دادمت ة بغ م جامع ظ ب ال ع د -با غدا ر -ب ع قال ا ة ص الخال مت إجـــراء مســـح لطفيليـــات الـــدم يف النـــوعني اللـــذين ميـــثالن العائلـــة الثرثاريـــة يف العـــراق ومهـــا اثبــــت وجــــود نــــوعني مــــن . وذلــــك يف وســــط وجنــــوب العــــراقالثرثــــارة االعتياديــــة والثرثــــارة العراقيــــة الطفيليـــات الدمويـــة أحـــدمها جديـــد للعلـــم وقـــد أعطـــي الوصـــف للنـــوع اجلديـــد ومتـــت مناقشـــته مـــع .البحوث ذات العالقة 39 m. k. mohammad 40 blood parasites of babblers bull 287 fatima abd razak sheyaa and kefah naser abdul-ameer bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. june, (2019) 15 (3): 287-291 record of gyrodactylus bychowskianus bogolepova, 1950 (monogenea, gyrodactylidae) for the first time in iraq from gills of the cyprinid fish arabibarbus grybus fatima abd razak sheyaa and kefah naser abdul-ameer* department of biology, college of education for pure science, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq * corresponding author e-mail: kefahnaser59@yahoo.com received date: 30 november 2018, accepted date: 24 february 2019, published date: 27 june 2019 abstract the monogenean gyrodactylus bychowskianus bogolepova, 1950 is recorded in the present study for the first time in iraq from the gills of the cyprinid fish arabibarbus grypus (heckel, 1843); which was collected from the tigris river at al-taji beach north of baghdad province during the period from july until november 2018. keywords: arabibarbus, cyprinid, gyrodactylus, iraq, monogenea. introduction the genus gyrodactylus is one of 23 genera of the family gyrodactylidae, with 19 viviparous genera and four oviparous genera (bakke et al., 2007); this genus has the widest host range of any monogenean family, being found on 19 orders of bony fishes (bakke et al., 2002). species of gyrodactylus von nordmann, 1832 which have direct life cycle (without intermediate hosts) are common ectoparasites of fishes, living on the skin, fins and gills of many of teleost fishes and occur in freshwater and brackish and marine environments, but relatively few species are euryhaline (buchmann and bresciani, 2006). bakke et al. (2007) reported that some gyrodactylus species infect only the gill filaments, others may occur on gill arches and in the pharynx; the initial colonisation appears random (parasites attach anywhere on the body surface), followed by migration to a specific site, the caudal fin followed by the pectoral and pelvic fins. in iraq, the first gyrodactylid species, gyrodactylus elegans von nordmann, 1832 was reported from gills of both cyprinus carpio and planiliza abu (which was reported as liza abu) by ali and shaaban (1984); later on, many studies on parasites of fishes from different water bodies of iraq revealed the record of 51 species which have been described from different freshwater fishes (mhaisen, pers. comm.). therefore, more surveys on fish parasites are needed to identify more species and to match the growing information on the parasitic fauna of freshwater fishes of iraq. the present study reported gyrodactylus bychowskianus bogolepova, 1950 from gills of the cyprinid fish arabibarbus grypus (heckel, 1843) which was collected from the tigris river at al-taji beach of north baghdad for the first time in iraq. materials and methods during the period from july until november 2018, a total of ten specimens of arabibarbus grypus were collected weekly from the tigris river at al-taji beach north of baghdad https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2019.15.3.0287 288 record of gyrodactylus bychowskianus bogolepova province (33° 27' 19' n, 44° 20' 58' e). the fishes were transported alive to the laboratory and freshly examined for ectoparasites; skin and gill smears were microscopically examined; care was taken to isolate and flatten the parasite specimens which then were stained by aqueous neutral red, and permanent slides were prepared with glycerol-gelatin. the drawings of sclerotized pieces of the haptor were made by using a camera lucida (olympus). parasite identification was performed according to pugachev et al. (2009); all measurements used in the description are presented in the following order: minimum-maximum (mean) values; the fishes were identified according to coad (2010) and the scientific name of the fish was used according to harris et al. (2004). results and discussion gyrodactylus bychowskianus bogolepova, 1950 two out of 10 of arabibarbus grypus, were infected with this parasite which was found on the gills of the infected fishes; the measurements (in mm) were based on five specimens of parasites. the following is a brief description and measurements of this parasite as shown in plate (1). plate (1): gyrodactylus bychowskianus; (a) camera lucida drawing of the haptor, (scale bar = 0.017mm), (b) photomicrograph of the haptor (400 x). body length 0.39-0.43 (0.42); total length of marginal hooks 0.034-0.036 (0.035), hooklet 0.008; total length of anchor 0.08-0.084 (0.082), main part 0.074-0.076 (0.075), point 0.0220.026 (0.024); size of ventral bar 0.006 x 0.035-0.038 (0.036), membrane 0.012; size of dorsal bar 0.002 x 0.016-0.02 (0.018). the description and measurements of the present g. bychowskianus are in agreement with those reported by pugachev et al. (2009) from gills of cottocemephorus grewingkii and c. inermis, lake baikal. the present report of g. bychowskianus reports the first record in iraq, as no previous record has been given for this parasite from fishes of iraq; with the present record of gyrodactylus bychowskianus bogolepova, 1950 number of gyrodactylus species from the fishes of iraq so far reaches 52 species in different parts of iraq. 289 fatima abd razak sheyaa and kefah naser abdul-ameer in iraq, many species belonging to the genus gyrodactylus were so far reported from freshwater fishes from various water bodies, among which some were reported from a. grypus; the following is list of these species with the mention of only the first record for each gyrodactylus species from a. grypus: gyrodactylus elegans nordmann, 1832 from diyala river (ali et al., 1986), gyrodactylus markevitschi kulakovskaya, 1952 from the euphrates river in al-musaib city (al-sa’adi, 2007), gyrodactylus sprostonae ling, 1962 and gyrodactylus tincae malmberg,1957 from al-graiat region at tigris river at baghdad province (abdul-ameer and atwan, 2017), with the present record of g. bychowskianus, five of gyrodactylus species so far reported from a. grypus in iraq and the number of gyrodactylus species from fishes of iraq so far reaches 52 species in comparison with 25 gyrodactylus species which were known from fishes of iraq till 2013 according to mhaisen and abdul-ameer (2013). acknowledgements thanks are due to prof. dr. furhan t. mhaisen for his permission to use his index catalogue of parasites and disease agents of fishes of iraq to provide us the information on the previous account records of parasites in iraq and the number of gyrodactylus species from the fishes of iraq in different parts of iraq. literature cited abdul-ameer, k. n. and atwan, f. k. 2017. first record of four species of the genus gyrodactylus nordmann 1832 (monogenea: gyrodactylidae) from some iraqi freshwater fishes. sciences (proceedings of the third scientific conference of the faculty of veterinary medicine / university of kerbala on 10th april 2017): 289-297. ali, m. d. and shaaban, f. 1984. some species of parasites of freshwater fish raised in pond and in tigris-al-tharthar canal region. seventh scientific conference iraqi veterinary medicine association, mosul: 23-25, oct. 1984: 44-46. (abstract). ali, n. m., al-jafery, a. r. and abdul-ameer, k. n. 1986. new records of three monogenetic trematodes on some freshwater fishes from diyala river, iraq. journal of biological science research, 17(2): 253-266. al-sa’adi, b. a. -h. e. 2007. the parasitic fauna of fishes of euphrates river: applied study in al-musaib city. master of technology thesis, al-musaib technical college, foundation of technical education, 102 pp. (in arabic). bakke, t. a., cable, j. and harris, p. d. 2007. the biology of gyrodactylid monogeneans: the ‘‘russian-doll killers’’. advances in parasitology, 64: 161-376. bakke, t. a., harris, p. d. and cable, j. 2002. host specificity dynamics: observations on gyrodactylid monogeneans. international journal for parasitology, 32(3): 281-308. buchmann, k. and bresciani, j. 2006. monogenea (phylum: platyhelminthes). in: woo, p.t.k. (ed.); fish diseases and disorders, vol. 1: protozoan and metazoan infections, 2nd edition, cab international, wallingford, p297-344. coad, b. w. 2010. freshwater fishes of iraq. pensoft publisher, sofia, 274 pp. + 16 pls. harris, p. d., shinn, a. p., cable, j. and bakke, t. a. 2004. nominal species of the genus gyrodactylusv. nordmann 1832 (monogenea: gyrodactylidae), with a list of principal host species. systematic parasitology, 59: 1-27. 290 record of gyrodactylus bychowskianus bogolepova mhaisen, f. t. and abdul-ameer, k. n. (2013). checklists of gyrodactylus species (monogenea) from fishes of iraq. basra journal of agricultural sciences, 26 (spec. issue 1): 8-25. pugachev, o. n., gerasev, p. i., gussev, a.v., ergens, r. and khotenowsky, i. (eds). 2009. guide to monogenoidea of freshwater fish of palaearctic and amur regions. ledizioni-ledi publishing, milano, 567 pp. 291 fatima abd razak sheyaa and kefah naser abdul-ameer bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. june, (2019) 15 (3): 287-291 gyrodactylus bychowskianus bogolepova, 1950النوع تسجيل (monogenea, gyrodactylidae) arabibarbus grypus ألول مرة في العراق من غالصم سمكة الشبوط ألامير عبد ناصر كفاح وفاطمة عبد الرزاق شياع بغداد، بغداد، العراق جامعة الهيثم، إبن -الصرفة للعلوم التربية كلية الحياة، علوم قسم 82/30/8312: تأريخ النشر، 82/38/8312: تأريخ القبول ، 03/11/8312: تأريخ الاستالم الخالصة gyrodactylusسجل الطفيلي أحادي املنشأ الاعتياديأظهر فحص غالصم سمكة الكارب bychowskianus bogolepova, 1950 لعراق من غالصم سمكة في الدراسة الحالية ألول مرة في ا التي جمعت من نهر دجلة ،من العائلة الشبوطية arabibarbus grypus (heckel, 1843)الشبوط .8102تشرين الثاني عام و تموز بينعند منطقة شاطيء التاجي في مدينة بغداد في الفترة 39-47 39 f.t. mhaisen et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. ( 2003 ) 10 (1) : 39-47 occurrence of some fish parasites in al-madaen drainage network, south of baghdad furhan t. mhaisen*, ghassan h. al-khateeb, abbas n. balasem, sadik m. j. al-shaikh**, jawdat m. al-jawda and najah r. mohammad-ali ministry of science and technology, al-jadereah, baghdad, iraq * dept. biol., coll. educ. (ibn al-haitham), univ. baghdad, iraq ** dept. fish & poult. dis., coll. vet. med., univ. baghdad, iraq abstract seven fish species were collected from the drainage network at al-madaen region, south of baghdad with the aid of a cast net during the period from march to august 1993. these fishes were infected with 22 parasite species (seven sporozoans, three ciliated protozoans, seven monogeneans, two nematodes, one acanthocephalan and two crustaceans) and one fungus species. among such parasites, chloromyxum wardi and cystidicola sp. are reported here for the first time in iraq. in addition, 11 new host records are added to the list of parasites of fishes of iraq. introduction many small-sized private sector fish farms are scattered in the area of al-madaen, south of baghdad. also, fields of crops, cattle and poultry farms as well as some food processing pilots and allied factories are distributed there. water inflow comes either from tigris river or the lower reaches of diyala river. through practicing field trips to some of the fish farms at al-madaen area, many wild fishes (notably liza abu) were noticed in such farms. also, many fish specimens were found in the nearby drainage network. due to some administrative faults, escape of cultured fishes with the outlet water and entrance of some wild fishes through the inlet or even outlet water may occur especially with the absence of reliable fine-meshed screens at the inlets and outlets of such farms (mhaisen, 1996). such events result in parasite exchange which may affect health of cultured fishes (mhaisen, 1993). only three works were done on the parasitic fauna of fishes found in the main drainage system of mid iraq (balasem et al., 2002a, b; asmar et al., 2003). as no previous account was available on the parasitic fauna of fishes in the drainage network of al-madaen region except few remarks given by asmar et al. (2003), the present study was conducted to gain basic information on this topic due to its importance in the control of fish parasites on one side and human health on the other side as more people are often seen fishing in this area. materials and methods during the period from march to august 1993, fish specimens were collected from the drainage network system at al-madaen, south of baghdad. cast nets of different mesh sizes were used to capture these fishes. 40 occurrence of some fish parasites fishes were transported alive to the laboratory where they were examined for parasites. skin and gill smears, eye lenses, body cavity, musculature and all internal organs were examined according to amlacher (1970). the index-catalogue of parasites and disease agents of fishes of iraq (mhaisen, 2003 in press)was followed to indicate number of previous host records for each parasite in order to minimize number of references for each parasite species. results and discussion a total of 75 fish specimens belonging to seven fish species were collected from the sampling area of al-madaen drainage network. these fishes included one alburnus caeruleus, one barbus grypus, eight b. luteus, one carassius carassius, one chondrostoma regium, two cyprinus carpio and 61 liza abu. twenty-two parasite species and one fungus were recorded from these fishes. the following is a brief account on the occurrence of these parasites and fungus which are arranged here according to their major classification groups (table 1). protozoasporozoa seven sporozoans belonging to three genera (chloromyxum, myxidium and myxobolus) were recorded in the present study. chloromyxum wardi (fig. 1): chloromyxum wardi of the present investigation was recorded from kidneys of two l. abu. this is the first report on chloromyxum from fishes of iraq. so, the followings are some details on its description. sphaerosporidae. spores spherical with somewhat narrow anterior pole. suture line projects in form of wall. spore valves with ridges. four pyriform polar capsules present at apex of spore. the present specimens are much identical with c. wardi kudo, 1919 as explained by shul'man (1966) who gave the following measurements for c. wardi. vegetative form (plasmodium) 1838 micrometer. spore diameter 7.5-10.5 micrometer, larger polar capsules 45.2 x 3.6 micrometer and smaller polar capsules 34 x 3.2 micrometer. according to hoffman (1998), a total of 17 chloromyxum species are known in freshwater fishes of north america. shul'man (1966) reported 31 chloromyxum species from the former soviet union. chloromyxum parasites are coelozoic (rarely histozoic) in freshwater and marine fishes and exceptionally in amphibians (hoffman, 1998). myxidium pfeifferi was detected from the gall bladder of one b. luteus in the present study. this fish is considered now as the third host for m. pfeifferi in iraq (mhaisen, 2003 in press). myxobolus dispar of the present investigation was recorded from the spleen of one b. luteus and kidneys of one l. abu. now, b. luteus represents the twelfth host record for m. dispar in iraq (mhaisen, 2003 in press). three reports (al-nasiri, 2000; balasem et al., 2002b; asmar et al., 2003) were documented before the publication of the present study. myxobolus dogieli was recorded from the gills of one l. abu of the present study. it has eight hosts in iraq (mhaisen, 2003 in press) inclusive of l. abu which was known as the first host for m. dogieli in iraq (abdul-ameer, 1989). myxobolus nemachili was recorded from the kidneys of one b. luteus of the present study. b. luteus now adds a new host for the previous seven hosts in iraq for this parasite (mhaisen, myxobolus oviformis of the present investigation was recorded from different organs of three fish species (table 1) including c. carassius as a new host to be added to the previous 19 host species in iraq (mhaisen, 2003 in press). however, later reports on the occurrence of m. oviformis from c. carassius (abdul-rahman, 1999; mohammad-ali et al., 1999) were published before the present paper. 41 f.t. mhaisen et al. myxobolus pfeifferi was found in different organs of three b. luteus and six l. abu (table 1). this parasite is very common in freshwater fishes of iraq as its host list consists of 33 species (mhaisen, 2003, in press) including the two species of the present study. protozoaciliata three species of ciliates belonging to three genera (chilodonella, ichthyophthirius and trichodina) were recorded in the present study. chilodonella cyprini of the present investigation was recorded from the gills of two l. abu. this parasite was reported earlier from this fish from diyala river (al-shaikh et al., 1995). so far it has six hosts in iraq inclusive of l. abu of the present study (mhaisen, 2003, in press). ichthyophthirius multifiliis of the present study was recorded from the gills of one l. abu. its first report from this fish was from mosul (fattohy, 1975). so far, it has 23 fish hosts in iraq inclusive of the present host (mhaisen, 2003, in press). it is a dangerous parasite as it causes the white spot disease (duijn, 1973). trichodina domerguei was recorded in the present study from the skin and gills of two b. luteus as well as from the gills of one c. carassius, two c. carpio and two l. abu. among these fish species, c. carassius now represents a new host for t. domerguei to be added to the previous 27 hosts in iraq (mhaisen, 2003, in press). however, later reports on the occurrence of t. domerguei from c. carassius (mhaisen et al., 1999; mohammad-ali et al., 1999; salih et al., 2000; asmar et al., 2003, in press) were published before the present article. trematoda seven trematode species were recorded in the present study (table 1). these included five monogeneans (dactylogyrus vastator, diplozoon kasimii, discocotyle sagittata, gyrodactylus elegans and microcotyle donavini) and two digeneans (ascocotyle coleostoma and diplostomum sp.). d. vastator of the present study was recorded from the gills of five b. luteus, one c. carassius and one c. carpio (table 1). c. carassius is considered now as host number 29 for this parasite in iraq (mhaisen, 2003, in press). however, abdul-rahman (1999) and mohammad-ali et al. (1999) recorded this parasite from c. carassius before the publication of the present investigation. the twin fluke, diplozoon kasimii, was recorded on the gills of a. caeruleus. this fish now represents a new host for d. kasimii to be added to occurrence of some fish parasites the previous 11 host species (mhaisen, 2003, in press). it is necessary to mention here that asmar et al. (2003) reported d. kasimii from a. caeruleus before the publication of the present paper. the polyopisthocotyle discocotyle sagittata was recorded on the gills of 16 l. abu of the present study. this represents its first occurrence in iraq. a detailed account on occurrence of this parasite as well as four other monogeneans was given before the publication of this paper by mhaisen et al (2003, in press). gyrodactylus elegans of the present article was recorded on the gills of one c. carassius, two c. carpio and skin and gills of seven l. abu. previously, this parasite was reported from 20 fish host species in iraq exclusive of c. carassius (mhaisen, 2003, in press). so, c. carassius now represents a new host for this parasite in iraq. microcotyle donavini was recorded from the gills of two l. abu of the present study. previously, this parasite was reported from ten host species including l. abu from fish farms and inland waters in iraq (mhaisen, 2003, in press). metacercariae of the digenetic trematode ascocotyle coleostoma were found on the skin and gills of two l. abu of the present study. a total of 23 fish host species are so far known 42 occurrence of some fish parasites for this parasite in iraq including l. abu (mhaisen, 2003, in press). adults of this parasite infect some wild aquatic birds (hoffman, 1998). metacercariae of the digenetic trematode diplostomum sp. were found in the eye lenses of one fish each of three species (a. caeruleus, b. luteus and c. carpio). mhaisen (2003, in press) gave a detailed account on the occurrence of diplostomum spp. in freshwater fishes of iraq. he showed that 28 fish host species are known for seven species of diplostomum as well as 17 fish host species for unidentified species of this genus. adults of diplostomum are known in some piscivorous aquatic birds in some inland waters of iraq (mhaisen et al., 1990; al-awadi, 1997). nemathelminthes two phasmid nematodes were recorded during the present study (table 1). cucullanus pseudeutropi was recorded from the intestine of one l. abu which represents a new host record to be added to the two previous host records of this parasite in iraq (mhaisen, 2003, in press). the other spirurid phasmid nematode (cystidicola sp.) was found in the intestine of one l. abu. this is the first occurrence of cystidicola in fishes of iraq. therefore, a detailed account will be given here to cover its description. cystidicola sp. (fig. 2): cystidicolidae. pseudolabia small; oral opening dumbbell shaped, armed with two rows of teeth. buccal cavity long and slender; oesophagus divided into short, anterior muscular and long posterior glandular oesophagi. vulva slightly anterior to middle of body. tail of the female straight, short and blunt. fully-developed eggs bearing filaments. the present worm is similar to c. farionis fischer, 1798 as explained by yamaguti (1961). however, this is not quite certain due to the absence of males of this worm in the present study. acanthocephala only one thorny-headed worm (neoechinorhynchus iraqensis) was recorded from the intestine of 26 l. abu. according to mhaisen (2002), this parasite was erroneously identified as the marine n. agilis and all n. agilis records from fishes of iraq should be referred to n. iraqensis. therefore, n. iraqensis (and n. agilis in the iraqi literature) has so far 16 fish host species inclusive of l. abu (mhaisen, 2003, in press). crustacea two copepod crustaceans were recorded during the present investigation (table 1). ergasilus sieboldi was recorded from the gills of 13 l. abu. this crustacean has 18 fish host species in iraq including l. abu of the present study (mhaisen, 2003, in press). the fifth copepodal stage of the anchor worm lernaea cyprinacea was recorded on the gills of 13 l. abu. this parasite infects mainly cultured cyprinid fishes. however, it was so far reported from 24 fish host species from many fish farms as well as from many inland water bodies in iraq (mhaisen, 2003, in press). fungi only one fungus (ichthyophonus hoferi) was recorded in different organs of 22 l. abu (table 1). so far, this fungus is known from 19 fish host species including l. abu in iraq (mhaisen, 2003, in press). to sum up on the results of the present survey, it is clear that l. abu harboured 17 parasitic and fungus species (table 1). this fish (with its highest parasitic fauna) represents a real 43 f.t. mhaisen et al. threat to farm fishes as it can enter fish farms even through outlet water via the drainage network and hence can carry some parasites to farm fishes. this condition agreed with a conclusion reached by mhaisen (1993) while reviewing the role of wild fishes in fish farms of iraq. he stated that l. abu harboured 12 out of 13 parasite and fungus species recorded in wild fishes in fish farms and ponds of iraq. the other wild fish, b. luteus of the present study harboured eight parasite species (the second rank of importance). finally, none of the parasites recorded in the present study has any importance from zoonotical point of view and hence such fishes found in the studied drainage network have no adverse effect on human health in this respect. table (1): parasite and fungus species of some fishes from al-madaen drainage network, south of baghdad. site of infection* host species parasite group and species protozoa sporozoa k l. abu chloromyxum wardi + + gb + b. luteus myxidium pfeifferi sp + b. luteus myxobolus dispar k l. abu g l. abu myxobolus dogieli k + b. luteus myxobolus nemachili g, l, k, go b. luteus myxobolus oviformis h + c. carassius s, g, l, k, sp, h, gb l. abu g, k, l, gb, go b. luteus myxobolus pfeifferi gb, h, k, l l. abu protozoa ciliata g l. abu chilodonella cyprini g l. abu ichthyophthirius multifiliis s, g b. luteus trichodina domerguei g + c. carassius g c. carpio g l. abu trematoda s, g l. abu ascocotyle coleostoma g b. luteus dactylogyrus vastator g + c. carassius g c. carpio e a. caeruleus diplostomum sp. e b. luteus e c. carpio g + a. caeruleus diplozoon kasimii g + l. abu discocotyle sagittata g + c. carassius gyrodactylus elegans g c. carpio s, g l. abu g l. abu microcotyle donavini 44 occurrence of some fish parasites nemathelminthes i + l. abu cucullanus pseudeutropi i l. abu cystidicola sp. + + acanthocephala i l. abu neoechinorhynchus iraqensis crustacea g l. abu ergasilus sieboldi g c. carpio lernaea cyprinacea fungi g, s, l, sp, k, h, gb, i + l. abu ichthyophonus hoferi * site of infection: e= eyes, g= gills, gb= gall bladder, go= gonads, h= heart, i= intestine, k= kidneys, l= liver, s= skin, sp= spleen + new host record in iraq. + + new parasite record in iraq. literature cited abdul-ameer, k.n. 1989. study of the parasites of freshwater fishes from tigirs river in salah al-dien province, iraq. m. sc. thesis. univ. baghdad: 98pp. (in arabic). abdul-rahman, n.m. 1999. parasites infection in fish from garmat ali river and it's relation with food items. m. sc. thesis, univ. basrah: 103pp. (in arabic). al-awadi, h.m.h. 1997. some ecological aspects of the parasitic faunae of fishes and aquatic birds in bahr al-najaf depression, iraq. ph. d. thesis, univ. baghdad: 71pp. al-nasiri, f.s. 2000. parasitic infections of fishes in a man-made lake at al-amiriya region, baghdad. m. sc. thesis, univ. baghdad: 133pp. (in arabic). al-shaikh, s.m.; mhaisen, f.t.; al-khateeb, g.h.; balasem, a.n. and mansoor, n.t. 1995. collection of some fish parasites from the lower reaches of diyala river, mid iraq. j. environ. sci. health, a 30(8): 1707 1715. amlacher, e. 1970. textbook of fish diseases (engl. transl.). t.f.h. publ., jersey city: 302pp. asmar, k.r.; balasem, a.n.; adday, t.k. and al-jawda, j.m. 2003. parasitic infections in some lotic water systems in mid iraq. iraqi j. agric., 8(6): 59-65. (in arabic). asmar, k.r.; balasem, a.n.; al-jawda, j.m. and adday, t.k. 2003. recording of parasitic and fungal infections in three fish farms, south of baghdad. iraqi j. aquacult., 2: 117132 in press (in arabic). balasem, a.n.; mhaisen, f.t.; al-jawda, j.m. and asmar, k.r. 2002a. collection of some fish parasites from the northern sector of saddam's river, mid iraq. sci. j. i.a.e.c., 4(2): 186191. balasem, a.n.; mhaisen, f.t.; al-jawda, j.m.; asmar, k.r. and adday, t.k. 2002b. parasitic fauna of some fishes in northern sector of saddam's river at al 45 f.t. mhaisen et al. mahmoodiya city, iraq. al-tharwa al-samakia, 21: 4348. (in arabic). duijn, v.c. jnr. 1973. diseases of fishes, 3rd edn. iliffe books, london: 372pp. fattohy, z.i. 1975. studies on the parasites of certain teleostean fishes from the river tigirs, mosul, iraq. m. sc. thesis, univ. mosul: 136pp. hoffman, g.l. 1998. parasites of north american freshwater fishes, 2nd edn., cornell univ. press, ithaca: 539pp. mhaisen, f.t. 1993. the role of wild fishes in farms of iraq from parasitological and pathological points of view. iraqi j. vet. med., 17: 126 136. mhaisen, f.t. 1996. natural enemies of farm fishes with special emphasis on fish farms of iraq. al-tharwa al-samakia, 14: 9298. (in arabic). mhaisen, f.t. 2002. literature review and check lists of acanthocephalans of fishes of iraq. al-mustansiriya j. sci., 13(1): 1325. mhaisen, f.t. 2003. index-catalogue of parasites and disease agents of fishes of iraq (unpublished). mhaisen, f.t. 2003. worm cataract in freshwater fishes of iraq. ibn al-haitham j. pure appl. sci., 17(3): 2533 in press. mhaisen, f.t.; al-saadi, a.a.j. and al-shamma'a, a.a. 1999. some observations on fish parasites of habbaniya lake. ibn al haitham j. pure appl. sci., 12(1): 62-67. mhaisen, f.t.; khamees, n.r. and al-sayab, a.a. 1990. flat worms (platyhelminthes) of two species of gulls (larus ichthyaetus and l. canus) from basrah, iraq. zool. mid. east, 4: 113117. mhaisen, f.t.; balasem, a.n.; al-khateeb, g.h. and asmar, k.r. 2003. recording of five monogenetic trematodes for the first time from fishes of iraq. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus., in press. mohammad-ali, n.r.; balasem, a.n.; mhaisen, f.t.; salih, a.m. and waheed, i.k. 1999. observations on the parasitic fauna in al zaafaraniya fish farm, south of baghdad. vet., 9(2): 7988. salih, a.m.; balasem, a.n.; al-jawda, j.m.; asmar, k.r. and mustafa, s.r. 2000. on a second survey of fish parasites in al-zaafaraniya fish farmbaghdad. j. diyala, 1(8 part 1): 220238. (in arabic). shul'man, s.s. 1966. myxosporidia of the u.s.s.r. nauka, moscow (engl. transl.). amerind publ., new delhi: 632pp. yamaguti, s. 1961. systema helminthum, vol. iii: the nematodes of vertebrates, part i + ii. intersci. publ., new york: 1261pp. 46 occurrence of some fish parasites bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. ( 2003 ) 10 (1) : 39-47 بغداد ظهور بعض طفيليات األسماك في شبكة مبازل المدائن، جنوب ، غسان هاشم الخطيب، عباس ناجي بالسم،*فرحان ضمد محيسن ، جودت مجيد الجودة ونجاح رزاق محمد علي**صادق محمد جواد الشيخ وزارة العلوم والتكنولوجيا، الجادرية، بغداد، العراق ، جامعة بغداد، العراق)إبن الهيثم(ة قسم علوم الحياة، كلية التربي* فرع أمراض الدواجن واألسماك، كلية الطب البيطري، جامعة بغداد، العراق** الخالصة سبعة أنواع من األمساك من شبكة املبازل يف منطقة املدائن، جنوب بغداد خالل املدة مت ع مـــن الطفيليـــات " نوعـــا ٢٢كانـــت هـــذه األمســـاك مصـــابة بــــ . ١٩٩٣مـــن شـــهر آذار وحـــىت آب مــات، نـوعني مــن الديـدان اخليطيــة، نـوع واحــد ( ّ سـبعة بوغيـات حيوانيــة، ثالثـة هــدبيات، سـبعة خمر مـــن بـــني هـــذه . ونـــوع واحـــد مـــن الفطريـــات) الـــرأس ونـــوعني مـــن القشـــريات مـــن الديـــدان شـــوكية .cystidicola spو chloromyxum wardiالطفيليـات مت تسـجيل كـل مـن من " نوعا ١١عن ذلك فقد أضيف لقائمة طفيليات أمساك العراق " وفضال. ألول مرة من العراق .املضيفات اجلديدة 47 f.t. mhaisen et al. full page photo 51-60 51 a.i. shaheed bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2002) 9 (4): 51-60 correlative influence of seedling age, cotyledons and terminal buds on adventitious root formation in stem cuttings of mung bean abdullah ibrahim shaheed department of biol., coll. of sci., univ. of babylon, p. o. box 4, hilla, iraq abstract rooting response in stem cuttings of mung bean increased considerably with inresing seedling age, due to endogenous iaa or supplied iba. however, after the day 7or 8-old of seedling age. the cotyledons sheivel and drop-off spontaneously at day-8 of seedling age. so that cotyledons excision after cuttings were made during the period between seedling emergence (the day 4) and cotyledons dropping off (which starts at day 8 and its completion at day 10) causes decrease in rooting at any time during cutting treatment ,in particular, at zero time . in addition, results of this study revealed that terminal buds do not influence significantly adventitious root formation whether iba supplied or not. whereas in leafless cuttings, excision of terminal buds at any time enhance rooting of cuttings specially at zero time, compared with its presence. the correlative role of cotyledons and terminal buds as a source of endogenous iaa and rooting co-factors and their influence on seedling development and subsequently on rooting response of cuttings derived from them. in addition to role of leaves on uptake and subsequent transport of supplied iba have been discussed. key words: adventitious roots, auxin, stem cuttings, seedling age, cotyledons, terminal buds, correlative phenomena. introduction the promotory effect of leaves and buds on adventitious root formation (arf) has been published earilier by van der lek (1925).in contrast, decapitation and disbudding of terminal bud in pea cuttings have inhibitory effect on root formation (eriksen, 1973).these organs are considered as a source of iaa biosynthesis (moore, 1969). furthermore, eriksen and mohammed (1974) showed that auxin treatment of cuttings is capable of substituting for the effect of leaves and buds together partially or completely. on the other hand cotyledons also influence rooting and its excision from young seedlings of sunflower inhibit root formation (fabijan et al., 1981). however, varga and lenart (1974) have been suggested that auxin may be synthesized by cotyledons. it appears that leaves, cotyledons and terminal buds influence arf in terms of supply of both auxin and nutritional factors (katsumi et al., 1969; white and lovell, 1984). consequently the work presented here assesses the importance of the correlative influence of these vegetative organs on arf of mung bean cuttings as a response to endogenous iaa or exogenously supplied iba. materials and methods growth of stock plants: seeds of mung bean (phaseolus aureus roxb. var. local) were soaked overnight in running tap water. germination was done in fine granular sowdust moistened with tap water in small plastic trays (37x27x5 cm) perforated with small holes in the bottom. each small tray contained over 70 seeds in 6 rows each of 12 seeds which were covered with a layer of 52 adventitious root formation of mung bean sowdust 1 cm deep. each tray was placed in a large plastic tray (43x31x8 cm) containing 3 liters of tap water. the level of water in the large tray was maintained by daily addition after emergence of seedlings. seedlings were grown for 10 days in growth cabinate at 25±1°c under continuous irradiance supplied by warm white fluorescent tubes (64-66 lux) and a relative humidity of 65-70%. preparation of cuttings: stem cuttings were prepared according to hess (1961) from 10-day-old light-grown seedlings having one pair of expanded primary leaves, a small apical bud, the entire epicotyl and 3 cm of the hypocotyl after removal of the root system. cuttings were employed in one experiment with different physiological age (4-day-old seedling) with the same characteristics mentioned above. in all experiments cuttings were held under the conditions employed to raise the stock seedling. basal treatment of cuttings: indole butyric acid (iba) was initially dissolved in absolute ethanol to which d/h2o was added to prepare the required stock solution. ethanol was present at a final concentration of 2 ml/l. at these concentrations ethanol has no significant effect on rooting of mung bean cuttings (middleton et al., 1978a). for rooting tests twelve cuttings were used per treatment by placing 4 per glass vial (7.5x1.3 or 3.7x1.3 cm) containing 3 cm depth (=15 ml) of the appropriate solution for 24 hr, after which they were transferred to vials containing 15 ml of boric acid (10 ug/ml). this level was maintained by daily addition of d/h2o. a supply of borate is essential for formation of root primordia, as well as subsequent root growth (middleton et al.,1978b). root numbers were determined 6 days after transfer of cutting to borate on a rooting period. excision of cotyledons and terminal buds: cotyledons and terminal buds were excised from their bases with a fine forceps during different time intervals as mentioned in each experiment. determination of root number and statistical analysis: at the end of rooting period which was 6 days after transfer of cuttings to boric acid, root numbers were calculated. the mean root number was presented in terms of standard error (s. e.) of the mean root number per cutting for all treatment according to (spiegel, 1975). results and discussion data presented in figure 1 shows the rooting response of cutting to different concentrations of iba. few roots developed (14.9±2.2) when cuttings are not treated with iba. presumably those few roots which were formed in absence of exogenous auxins attributed to endogenous iaa and other hormones in their initiation. however, when cuttings are treated with iba then transferred to boric acid, substantially increased the number of roots per cutting. the lowest concentrations of iba employed, 10-8 to 10-6 m, had no effect on the number of roots per cutting compared with the control treatment, but the rooting response increased markedly with increasing conc. of iba up to 10-4 m. at this concentration the no. of roots per cutting was approximately 78, this represent 5 folds that of the control. with further increase in conc. of iba to 10-3 m, rooting response was totally inhibited, probably because of wilting and decaying of cuttings during the initial 24 h of auxin treatment as observed. studies in this field (e.g. haissig, 1974) have been emphasized the importance of auxins and their control on root formation in cuttings compared with all chemicals tested for their bioassay.however, middleton et al. (1980) suggested that the major effectof iba is in the leaves such that synthesis of endogenous iaa is promoted. shaheed (1987) confirmed such results by supplying iba to the base of cuttings, which enhanced basipetal transport of c14-iaa from primary leaves to the root initiation zone (hypocotyl). the latter worker showed that root 53 a.i. shaheed formation on the hypocotyl inhibited by local application of polar transport inhibitors such as triiodobenzoic acid (tiba) and morphactin when applied 3 mm above the base of epicotyl (coteledonary nodes). such treatments inhibit the accumulation of c14-iaa in hypocotyl when c14-iaa applied to primary leaves as described by morris et al. (1969) for movement of auxin from young leaves and apex. figure 2a shows the rooting response of cuttings in relation to seedling age in absence of supplied iba. root no. increase with increasing seedling age from which cutting were taken between 4and 8-day old of seedling age, which may be attributed to the presence of cotyledons as a source of nutritional factors (vargan and lenart, 1974). or coincides with expansion of primary leaves and may be related to high conc. of auxin which occurs during leaf enlargement (e.g. wetmore and jacobs, 1953). the decrease in rooting response of cuttings taken from older seedlings particularly after the day eight, could be resulted from a limited supply of auxin from the aging primary leaves (middleton et al., 1980). or may be associated with cotyledons when shrivels and drop-off spontaneously during the period between 8and 10-day old of seedling age. it represents the senescence phase of cotyledons characterized by depletion of nutritional storage (mohammed and al-mashhadani, 1976). the storage carbohydrate and protein of cotyledons is considered as essential prerequisite during initial growth of primary leaves and roots (lovell and moore, 1970). alternatively, the development of 1st trifoliated true leaf in older seedlings/cuttings may create a metabolic sink for competition on nutritional factors with developing roots (shaheed, 1995). in the presence of supplied iba as shown in figure 2b, the rooting response and its relation to seedling age does not differ from the general trend that observed in absence of iba (see figure 2a) except the marked increase in root number in all treatments as a response to supplied iba. generally, these foregoing findings confirm that obtained by jarvis and booth (1981) on stem cuttings of phaseolus aureus roxb, cv. berkin. the influence of cotyledons excision on root formation is shown in figure 3. cuttings were taken from 4-day-old stock plants to study this phenomenon as a special case for two reasons. first, because emergence of seedlings needs 4 days after seed germination (sowing time) , according to the environmental factors mentioned in metrology. second, cotyledons shrivels and drop-off spontaneously needs at least 8 day after sowing. on these bases, this phenomenon were studied during the time interval between the day 4 and 8 after sowing time. so, in absence of iba , data presented in figure 3a shows that cotyledons excision reduce rooting response at any time during the 1st 72 h after cuttings were made, such reductions increases whene cotyledons were excised earlier . excision of cotyledons at zero time after cutting were made reduce root no., of approximately 55% compared with its excision 72 h later (the root no. reduce from 10.1 ± 0.8 to 4.5 ± 0.2). when cotyledons lasting 72 h on cutting , the latter gives better rooting compared with any previous time for excision. this time associates with visible root emergence (72 h after cuttings were made) and emphasizes the necessity of cotyledons as a source of nutritional factors for root primordial development . furthermore , the decrease of rooting response at 96 h and there after coincide with the day 8 (4-dayold seedlings + 96 h after cuttings were made = 8 days), the time of cotyledons shrivels and drop-off spontaneously whether on cuttings or on seedlings before cuttings were taken. the correlative influence of cotyledons during this time on seedling growth and subsequently on arf on cuttings has been discussed above in figure 2a,b. in presence of iba (figure 3b), the influence of cotyledons excision on rooting response of cuttings supplied with iba has the same general trend as that dependent on endogenous iaa except that the response in terms of root number is higher due to iba application for all treatments. the response was continued approximately, in the same average, after 72 h, up to the end of experimental period. these results indicate that exogenous auxin is capable of substituting for cotyledons that already dropping off, which considered as a source of auxin biosynthesis (cotyledons are dropping off cuttings at 96 h and beyond). such results are in 54 adventitious root formation of mung bean agreement with fabijan et al. (1981) who mentioned that cotyledons affect root formation and its removal from young seedlings of sunflower inhibit rooting although they used different plants. however, vargan and lenart (1974) have been suggested that auxin considered as one of the endogenous cofactors, which synthesized by cotyledons, and the latter could be substituted by auxin treatment. table.1: the influence of terminal buds on rooting of mung bean cuttings in presence or absence of supplied iba. time of terminal bud excision mean root no./cuttings± s. e. coefficient of variation % -iba +iba -iba +iba no excision (control=144 h) 17.8±3.4 27.0±4.7 19.1 17.4 zero-time 17.8±2.5 28.6±4.0 14.0 13.9 24 h later 19.9±3.5 24.7±3.7 17.5 14.7 48 h later 16.4±2.7 25.8±4.8 16.3 18.6 72 h later 18.3±3.3 28.6±6.7 18.0 23.4 96 h later 22.7±4.6 31.0±2.8 20.2 9.0 table.1 shows the relation between terminal buds excision and rooting of stem cuttings. in absence of exogenous iba, excision of terminal buds at any time after cuttings has no significant effect on number of roots developed. the mean root number between (16.5±2.7) and (22.7±4.6) per cutting for all treatment. in presence of supplied iba, the rooting response was increased in all excision times, compared with its absence (table 1). such response had the same trend and has no significant differences. the foregoing findings indicate that the terminal buds had no influence on arf in stem cuttings of mung bean in presence or absence of supplied iba particularly in presence of primary leaves. the importance of leaves in root formation does not only attributed to produce leaf-cofactors which are important in rooting as suggested by audus (1963), but correlatively, leaves may control not only the uptake of auxin supplied to the base of cuttings through transpiration stream, but also its reloading into an appropriate transport system to the hypocotyl after its accumulation in leaves as proposed by jarvis and shaheed (1986). it is noteworthy that in case of leafless cuttings taken from 10-day-old seedlings, after dropping off cotyledons at day-8, is as shown in figure 4. the presence of terminal buds alone on stem cuttings until the end of rooting period (control) have inhibitory effect on rooting. whereas the root number increased when the terminal buds excised from cuttings at any previous time. however, no. of roots increased when terminal buds were excised earlier. for instance, the root no. when terminal buds were excised at zero time is (3.4±0.3) compared with presence of terminal bud to the end of experiment, 144 h (control, 1.9±0.3). these results are in agreement with biran & halvey ( 1973 ) . they shows that excision of growing terminal buds (vegetative or reproductive) from cuttings of dahlia increase their rooting response. the latter workers suggested that growing buds may effect root formation in two opposed direction. the first, inhibit rooting through their competition with developing roots on metabolites. the second, promote rooting by enhancing of cambial activity. data presented above suggested that although the presence of terminal buds on cuttings are suitable for rooting as demonstrated by (bachelard and stow, 1963), but terminal buds have no influence on rooting at least in mung bean cuttings in presence of primary leaves, since cotyledons have been shrivels and drop-off from 10-day-old seedlings before cuttings were taken. alternatively, terminal buds may retain some of iaa synthesized in leaves, hence 55 a.i. shaheed reduce the amount transported basipetally to hypocotyl (regeneration zone) (shaheed unpublished data). such retention should create metabolic sink in the terminal meristem distinguished by a high rate of growth by competing with the root for metabolites. consequently more critical approaches to the precise roles of cotyledons and terminal buds in arf with specific experimental system will be the subsequent study. acknowledgements i am indebted to prof. dr. a. a. k. mohammed, dept. of biol., univ. of babylon for reviewing the manuscript. literature cited audus, l. j. 1963 plant growth substances. leonard hill books ltd, london. bachelard, e. p. and stowe, b. b. 1963 rooting of cuttings of acer rubrum l. and eucalyptus camaldulensis dehn. aust. j. biol. sci., 16: 751-767. biran, i and halvey, a. h. 1973 stock plant shading and rooting of dahlia cuttings. scint. hortic., 1: 125-131. eriksen, e. n. 1973 root formation in pea cuttings. i. effectes of decapitation and disbidding at different developmental stages. physiol. plant, 28: 503-506. eriksen, e. n. and mohammed, s. 1974 root formation in pea cuttings. ii. the influence of iaa at different developmental stages. physiol. plant., 30: 158-162. fabijan, d., taylor, j. s. and reid, d. m. 1981 adventitious rooting in hypocotyls of sunflower (helianthus annus) seedling. ii. action of gibberellins, cytokinins, auxins and ethylene. physiol. plant., 53: 589-597. haissig, b. e. 1974 influence of auxins and auxin synergists on adventitious root primordium initiation and development. n. z. j. fores. sci., 4(2): 311-323. hess, c. e. 1961 the mung bean bioassay for detection of root promoting substances. plant physiol., 36:suppl. 21. jarvis, b. c. and booth, a. 1981 influence of indolebutyric acid, boron, myo-inositol, vitamin d2 and seedling age on adventitious root development in cuttings of phaseolus aureus roxb. physiol. plant., 53: 213-218. jarvis, b. c. and shaheed, a. i. 1986 adventitious root formation in relation to the uptake and distribution of supplied auxin. new phytol., 103:23-31. katsumi, m., chiba, y. and fukuyama, m. 1969 the roles of cotyledons and auxin in the adventitious root formation of hypocotyl cuttings of light-grown cucumber seedlings. physiol. plant., 22:993-1000. lovell, p. h. and moore, k. g. 1970 a comparative study of cotyledons as assimilatory organs. j. exp. bot., 21: 1017-1030. 56 adventitious root formation of mung bean middleton, w., jarvis, b. c. and booth, a. 1978a the effect of ethanol on rooting and carbohydrate metabloism in stem cuttings of phaseolus aureus roxb. new phytol., 81: 279-285. middletonn, w., jarvis, b. c. and booth, a. 1978b the boron requirement for development in stem cuttings of phaseolus aureus roxb.new phytol., 81: 287-297. middletonn, w., jarvis, b. c. and booth, a. 1980 the role of leaves in auxin and borondependent rooting of stem cuttings of phaseolus aureus roxb. new phytol., 84: 251-259. mohammed, a. m. s. and al-mashhadani, y. 1976 the effect of root formation on the levels of protein, chlorophyll, rna, dna and carbohydrates in excised cotyledons of cucurbita pepo. physiol. plant., 37: 195-199. moore, t. c. 1969 comparative net biosynthesis of indoleacetic acid from tryptophan in cellfree extracts of different parts of pisum sativum plants. phytochemistry, 8: 1109-1120. mooris, d. a., briant, r. e. and thomson, p. g. 1969 the transport and metabolism of c14labelled indoleacetic acid in intact pea seedlings. planta (berl.), 89: 179-197. shaheed, a. i. 1987 the control of adventitious root development in cuttings of phaseolus aureus roxb. ph. d. thesis, university of sheffield, u. k. shaheed, a. i. 1995 testing of four experimental systems to detect the role of cotyledons in adventitious root formation of mung bean cuttings. iraq j. sci., 36(1): 000-000. spiegel, m. r. 1975 theory and problems of probability statistics schaums otline series in mathmatic. mcgraw hill book company, new york. van der lek, h. a. a. 1925 root development in woody cuttings. meded landbouwhoogesch. wageningen, 28: 204-230. varga, m. and lenart, i. 1974 qualitative and quantitative study and biological importance of auxins occuring in cotyledons. acta argon. aced. sci. hing., 23: 275-284. wetmore, r. h. and jacobs, w. p. 1953 studies on abscission: the inhibitory effect of auxin. amer. j. bot., 40: 272-276. white, j. and lovell, p. h. 1984 factors influecing adventitious root production in cuttings of griselinia littoralis and griselinia lucia. ann. bot., 53: 443-446. 57 a.i. shaheed bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2002) 9 (4): 51-60 ي ف ة ضي ذور ال ر ك ين ا ج ى ت ة عل ط ف و الب ا م ال ف ق و ال ت در ر ال ا الزمي ل م ال اثير ال ش ت ا ما س ق نب ه م هيد عقل هللا ابرا عبد عل م ال ياة م س وم /ق ع بابل /كلية ا عل م جا ق / ٤. ب. ص –حلة العرا ة ص الخال ز ش ت ل املا يف ق ذير ج ج بة ل ست ن ا ة م هـا ا شتق ت امل ر الب درا م ع ب يادة اد م نويًا ذه . د ـ ن وا ي س الطبيع جاب تعزى ألوك ست ال و على الرغم من ذلك .) iba (هز خارجياأو ا (iaa)ا امـا الفلـق فاـا .الثامن من عمر البادرات/ بعد اليوم السابع ضفان هذه االستجابة تبدأ باالخنفا لـذا فـان ازالـة الفلـق خـالل الفـرتة . اليـوم الثـامن مـن عمـر البـادراتتبدأ بالذبول والتسـاقط ذاتيـًا يف الـذي يبـدأ يف اليـوم الثـامن ويتكامـل يف (وسـقوط الفلـق ) اليـوم الرابـع(احملصورة بـني بـزوغ البـادرات يسـبب اخنفـاض اسـتجابة جتـذير العقـل يف أي وقـت خـالل املعاملـة وخصوصـًا وقـت ) اليوم العاشر نتائج هذه الدراسة قد اثبتت بان الرباعم الطرفية ال تؤثر يف استجابة التجذير كما ان . اخذ العقل يف أي وقــت بينمــا يف العقــل الالورقيــة فــان ازالــة الــرباعم الطرفيــة او عدمــه ibaيف حالــة جتهيــز ان الــدور . حيفــز التجــذير وخصوصــًا يف وقــت العقــل، مقارنــةً بوجــود الــرباعم لوحــدها علــى العقــل وكــــذلك العوامــــل املرافقــــة ودورمهــــا يف منــــو وتكشــــف iaaلفلــــق والــــرباعم الطرفيــــة للـــــالتالزمــــي وا البادرات من جهة وانعكاس ذلك على استجابة التجذير يف العقل من جهة اخـرى، باالضـافة اىل دور االوراق يف حتفيـــــز التجـــــذير عنـــــد جتهيـــــز االوكســـــني خارجيـــــًا ودورمهـــــا االســـــاس يف امتصـــــاص .نتقاله الالحق قد نوقشاالوكسني وكذلك يف ا 58 adventitious root formation of mung bean 59 a.i. shaheed 60 adventitious root formation of mung bean bull 131 ali et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. december, (2018) 15 (2): 131-137 molecular identification and phylogenetic-tree analysis of moniezia species from sheep in aldiwaniyah city mansour jadaan ali monyer abdulameir abd alfatlawi * and azhar chafat karawan department of microbiology, college of veterinary medicine, university of al-qadisiyah, al-diwaniyah, iraq *corresponding author: monyerr.abd@qu.edu.iq received date: 09 april 2018 accepted date:29 may 2018 abstract the present study was performed to detect the molecular and the phylogenetic identification of species that belonging to the genus of moniezia blanchard, 1891 which affected intestines of sheep in al-diwaniyah city, iraq; fifty intestine samples were sought for the infestation of moniezia spp. from the city slaughterhouse from 1 october to 30 november 2017, this tapeworm was found to infest the intestines of 13 sheep. for morphological identify the genus of this tapeworm, eggs from one gravid proglottid of the thirteen worms were examined, polymerase chain reaction (pcr) and the pcr-productbased sequencing were applied on 4 moniezia tapeworms targeting a specific region of the 18s rrna gene. the sequencing has shown 2 species of moniezia, sp1 and sp2 ,these two species revealed close matching on the phylogenetic tree to an according to the current study findings, moniezia spp. affect on sheep in the city of al-diwaniyah, iraq, these findings give interesting information about the evolution history of this worm in the studied city. keywords: cestoda, moniezia, pcr, phylogeny, sheep. introduction the genus of moniezia are considered as high prevalent worms that infest sheep intestines, the disease conditions by these worms lead to risky-economic crises around the world (soulsby, 1982; mazyad and el-nemr, 2002). the characteristic scolex, neck, and strobili are the highly recognized parts of the worms. cyclophyllidea and anoplocephalidae are the order and the family of this genus respectively, each proglottid has repeated sexual parts for better differentiation of these worms; mites are considered the main intermediate hosts for moniezia species that provide a source of infestation via feeding on grass (denegri et al., 1998). monieziasis is the term of illness that is caused by species of moniezia, for this genus as a tapeworm has limited species such as m. expansa (rudolphi, 1810), m. benedeni (moniez 1879) and m. monarda (ohtori et al., 2015).m. expansa affects sheep (high incidence), cattle, goats, swine, and very rarely human (el-shazly et al., 2004; gómez-puerta, 2008). young animals appear to be the main targets for the infestation by m. expansa (wymann, 2008); http://dx.doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2018.15.2.0131 132 molecular identification and phylogenetic-tree several proglottids that have sensory-organ-based anterior-scolexes, neck, and the strobilus are the main parts of this species. according to brusca and brusca, (1990), the sensory parts are present along the body of the worm and used for tactile stimulation; metrics of the parasite could be expanded as 8-10 meters in length and 1.5 centimeters in width (chilton et al., 2007). to study the evolution history of moniezia species in the city of diwaniyah, iraq, the present study was initiated to evaluate the identity matching or mismatching of the city species with global species that belonging to this genus. materials and methods intestines from 50 sheep (22 male, 28 female; 20 with age ˂6 months, 18 with age 6 to ˂12 months and 12 with age ˃ 12 months) were examined for the infestation of moniezia spp. from the city slaughterhouse. to identify the genus of this tapeworm morphologically, eggs from one gravid proglottid of the thirteen worms were examined (rahif, 1998); sequencing of the polymerase chain reaction (pcr) products were applied on four moniezia tapeworms targeting a specific region of the 18s rrna gene (743bp).the protocol of gsyan dna extraction kit (gene aid, usa) was followed to extract the genomic dna from the mature proglottids of the worms. accu power tmpcr pre mix (bioneer, korea) was performed to prepare the master mix using the manufacturer’s instructions. the primers (ay752651.1),f: tgctacccgcatgatgttgt and r: acacagttggctgcactctt were used in this study. (wickström et al., 2005). the thermoc c er reactionased conditions were 1 c c e of initia denaturation at 5 c for 5min, 30 cycles of (denaturation at 5 c for sec, annea ing at 58 c for sec, and extension at 72 c for 1min), and 1 c c e of fina extension at 72 c for 5min. we had optimized these conditions previously to fulfill the amplification requirements for this study. electrophoresis was used to separate the pcr products on a 1.5% agarose gel at 100 volts and 80 amp for 1hour; a uv-light-based imager was used to identify these products in the gel. sequencing was applied on the positive-pcr products (macrogen company, korea) employing ab dna sequencing system. ncbi websites and mega 6.0 software were utilized to analyze the evolutionary history of the species included in this study. the phylogenetic tree was generated via the use of the maximum composite likelihood method by phylogenetic tree upgma method (saitou and nei, 1987; tamura et al., 2013). results and discussion fifty intestines were examined for the infestation of moniezia spp. in the city slaughterhouse; this tapeworm was found to infest the intestines of 13 sheep. genital pore, cirrus sac, vitelline gland, testes, and inter-proglottid gland were noticed on the mature segments of the tapeworm (pl.1). http://animaldiversity.org/accounts/moniezia_expansa/#eff1570a-25a5-48f3-8c4a-d225ddd2ae8c 133 ali et al. plate (1): mature segments of moniezia spp. (genital pore, cirrus sac, vitelline gland, testes, inter-proglottid gland) polymerase chain reaction (pcr) showed the product amplification at 743bp of the 18s rrna gene (pl.2); the pcr-product-based sequencing was applied on 4 moniezia tapeworms targeting a specific region of the 18s rrna gene. plate (2): agarose-gel-based electrophoresis. (sp 1 and 2 are positive for moniezia spp. vc 1 and 2 are negative controls, m is the ladder (2000-100bp)) the sequencing has shown 2 species of moniezia, sp1 (mh298620.1) and sp2 (mh298621.1), these species revealed close matching on the phylogenetic tree to an isolate from china (gu817405.1) (diag.1). m -vc1 -vc2 sp1 sp2 134 molecular identification and phylogenetic-tree k r 025526.1 m oniezia expansa isolate f 18s ribosom al r n a gene partial sequence g u 817405.1 m oniezia expansa isolate 2 18s ribosom al r n a gene partial sequence m oniezia sp1 18s ribosom al r n a gene m oniezia sp2 18s ribosom al r n a gene g u 817401.1 m oniezia benedeni isolate 1 clone 1 18s ribosom al r n a gene partial sequence g u 817404.1 m oniezia benedeni isolate 2 clone 2 18s ribosom al r n a gene partial sequence g u 817403.1 m oniezia benedeni isolate 2 clone 1 18s ribosom al r n a gene partial sequence g u 817402.1 m oniezia benedeni isolate 1 clone 2 18s ribosom al r n a gene partial sequence ef606904.1 m oniezia sp. b 1 18s ribosom al r n a gene com plete sequence ay752651.1 m oniezia sp. lm w -2004 18s ribosom al r n a gene com plete sequence d ia g ra m (1 ): p h y lo g en etic-tree an aly sis relied o n 1 8 s -rr n a -g en e sp ecific-reg io n seq u en cin g . t h e seq u en cin g h as sh o w n 2 sp ecies o f m o n iezia sp p ., s p 1 (m h 2 9 8 6 2 0 .1 ) an d s p 2 (m h 2 9 8 6 2 1 .1 ). t h ese tw o sp ecies rev ealed clo se m atch in g o n th e p h y lo g en etic tree to an iso late fro m c h in a (g u 8 1 7 4 0 5 .1 ). t h e co m p ariso n w as p erfo rm ed u sin g n c b i-b ased n u cleo tid e-n u cleo tid e w eb site. 135 ali et al. according to the present study, the moniezia spp. were found to be wide-prevalent and caused the infestation in sheep intestine, the morbidity of moniezia infestation in the current study was 26%, which indicates a risky situation in which the disease caused by these tapeworms may lead to economic crises in al-diwaniyah city (diop et al., 2015). in 2012, the species of this genus were detected in the intestines of camels, and that was according to a study performed by anisimova (2012), this study was estimated the rate of infestation to be as 32.35% and 15.38% in al-diwaniyah and al-najaf cities respectively. the present study gives information that agrees partially with fadl et al. (2011) who showed that the infestation of this tapeworm was 0.9% in sheep of baghdad sampled regions; the infestation prevalence of these tapeworms may go high during spring and summertime, especially when having high numbers of mites. identifying the morphology of the five moniezia tapeworms were performed using a modified carmen stain in which genital pore, cirrus sac, vitelline gland, testes, and interproglottid gland were noticed on the mature segments of the tapeworms, and these results agree with melhorn (2001). the pcr results showed the amplification of the specific region of the 18s rrna gene (743bp) in these tapeworms, and this agrees with (nguyen et al., 2012) who used the same technique; the results of the sequencing identified these tapeworms in the intestine of the tested sheep in the city, and the phylogenetic tree provided information that our species were matched up with a chinese strain; this matching may indicate a certain relation between our strain and the chinese one which could be as a result to have come from the same ancestor. according to the current study findings, moniezia spp. affect sheep in the city of aldiwaniyah, iraq; these findings give interesting information about the evolution history of this worm in the studied city. literature cited anisimova, e. i. and al-fatlawi, m. a. a. 2012. moniezia expansa (moniex, 1879) in camels (camelusdromedarius) in central iraq. kufa journal for medical veterinary sciences, 3(2): 111-116. brusca, r. and brusca, g. 1990. invertebrates. sunderland, m. a.: sinauer associates, 636 pp. chilton, n., o'callaghan, m., beveridge, i. and andrews, r. 2007. genetic markers to distinguish moniezia expansa from m. benedeni. parasitology research, 100: 1187. denegri, g., bernadina, w., perez-serrano, j. and rodriguez-caabeiro, f. 1998. anoplocephalid cestodes of veterinary and medical significance: a review. folia parasitologica, 45(1): 1-8. diop, g., yanagida, t., hailemariam, z., menkir, s., nakao, m., sako, y., tidiane ba, c. and ito, a. 2015. genetic characterization of moniezia species in senegal and ethiopia. parasitology international, 64(5): 256-260. el-shazly, a. m., morsy, t. a. and dawoud, h. a. 2004. human monieziasis expansa: the first egyptian parastic zoonosis. journal of the egyptian society parasitology, 34 (2): 380–381. http://animaldiversity.org/accounts/moniezia_expansa/#13b3c0e4-599f-42e3-9f69-d63c2fb8408a 136 molecular identification and phylogenetic-tree fadl, s. r., kalef, d. a. and abbas, s. m. 2011. prevalence of parasitic infection in sheep from different regions in baghdad. the iraqi journal of veterinary medicine, 1:204-209. gómez-puerta, d. 2008. occurrence of moniezia expansa in dometic pig. veterinary parasitology, 33: 191-194. mazyad, s. a. m. and el-nemr, h. i. 2002. the endoparasites of sheep and goats, and shepherd in north sinai governorate, egypt. journal of the egyptian society parasitology, 32(1):119-126. melhorn, h. 2001. encyclopedic reference of parasitology. berlin, springer,1062 pp. nguyen, t. d., le, q. d., huynh, v.v., nguyen, s. t., nguyen, t. v. and vu-khac, h. 2012. the development of pcr methodology for the identification of species of the tapeworm moniezia from cattle, goats and sheep in central vietnam. journal of helminthology, 86(4): 426-429. ohtori, m., aoki, m., and itagaki, t. 2015. sequence differences in the internal transcribed spacer 1 and 5.8s ribosomal rna among three moniezia species isolated from ruminants in japan. the journal of veterinary medical sciences, 77(1): 105-107. rahif, r. h. 1998. the modification in the preparation of classical carmen stain and there technique used for staining of platyhelminthes (cestodes and trematod). the veterinarian, 8(2):1-8. saitou, n., and nei, m. 1987. the neighbor-joining method: a new method for reconstructing phylogenetic trees. molecular biology and evolution, 4: 406–25. soulsby, e. j. l. 1982. helminths, arthropods and protozoa of domesticated animals. 7th ed. london, baillieretindall, 329 pp. tamura, k., stecher, g., peterson, d., filipski, a. and kumar, s. 2013. mega6: molecular evolutionary genetics analysis version 6.0., molecular biology and evolution, 30: 2725–2729. wickström, l. m., haukisalmi, v., varis, s., hantula, j. and henttonen, h. 2005. molecular phylogeny and systematics of anoplocephaline cestodes in rodents and lagomorphs. systematic parasitology, 62(2): 83-99. wymann, m. n. 2008. gastrointestinal parasite egg excretion in young calves in periurban livestock production in mali. research in veterinary science, 84(2):225-231. 137 ali et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. december, (2018) 15 (2): 131-137 من االغنام في مدينة moniezia ونوا الجن أل وءالتحديد الجزيئي وتحليل شجرة النش الديواونية ، منير عبد االمير عبد الفتالوي و ازهار جفات كروان منصور جدعان علي العراق، الديواونية، جامعة القادسية، كلية الطب البيطري، فر االحياء المجهرية 80/90/8902: تاريخ القبول 90/90/8902 :تاريخ االستالم الخالصة ي والجزيئي لديدان االونوا العائدة للجن التحديد النشوئاجريت الدراسة للكشف عن moniezia blanchard, 1891 التي تؤثر على امعاء االغنام في مدينة الديواونية ، . العراق معي اغنام للبحث عن االصابة بأونوا هذا الجن في مجزرة المدينة، اذ 05تم استخراج تشخيص المظهري لغرض ال فرداً من االغنام31ذه الديدان الشريطية في امعاء وجدت ه وناضجة بصبغة الكارمن مبينة االشكال صبغت خمسة قطع جسمية. لجن هذه الديدان .التناسلية البالغة لهذه الدودة عند تطبيق تفاعل اونزيم البلمرة المتسلسل ودراسة تعاقب القواعد النتروجينية الربعة ، حيث 16s rrnaالستهداف منطقة خاصة من جين moniezia ديدان من جن ؛ كما اظهر هذان النوعان sp2و sp1، اظهرت دراسة التعاقب ونوعان من هذا الجن فأن ، استنادا لنتائج الدراسة الحالية، تطابقا متقاربا في شجرة النشوء من عزلة من الصين تعطي هذه النتائج . العراق، تصيب االغنام في مدينة الديواونية .moniezia sppاونوا .قة الدراسةمعلومات ملفتة لالونتباه عن تأريخ التطور لهذه الدودة في منط bull 123 khamees et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. december, (2018) 15 (2): 123-130 occurrence and redescription of thryssa setirostris (broussonet, 1782) (clupiformes, engraulidae) from iraqi marine water n. r. khamees* t. k. adday and j. m. abed department of fisheries and marine resources, college of agriculture, university of basrah,basrah, iraq *corresponding author: khamees54@yahoo.com received date:19 march 2018 accepted date:15 may 2018 abstract nine fish specimens of thryssa setirostris (broussonet, 1782) were collected from the arabian gulf, during the period from july 2015 to april 2016. because of the scarcity of this fish and overlapping and ambiguous of its taxonomic characters with other thryssa spp., a detailed taxonomic study was conducted. the present study includes the most important meristic and morphometric characteristics. the mean of the total length of the specimens was 149.67 mm; dorsal fin consists of 12 rays, anal fin with 34-37 rays and pectoral fin with 12-13 rays; gill rakers were 4 upper,1 medial and10 lower. the most important character that isolates t. setiristis from other close thryssa spp. is the maxilla which is considered very long and reach beyond the tip of the pectoral fin. introduction clupeid fishes is a group of the most important global commercial fish, which include wellknown fishes as herrings, sardines and anchovies (li and orti, 2007); according to froese and pauly (2018) this group is divided into seven families dentricipidae, pristigasteridae, engraulidae, clupeidae, chirocentridae, dussumieriidae and sundusalangidae. engraulidae are distributed in all marine habitats, extended from 60 ° n to 50°s. they are abundant along the indo-pacific coasts, atlantic and indian oceans (whitehead et al., 1988; froese and pauly, 2018). the engrulids characterized by having prominent snout (overhanging the mouth), single dorsal fin without spines, maxilla well extends behind the eye and scutes are present in most species (young et al., 1994; carpenter et al., 1997). this family comprises 17 valid genera, including thryssa. this genus has 31 nominal species, mostly distributed in indo-pacific regions, and the indian ocean including gulf of oman; they are abundant in the arafura sea (froese and pauly, 2018). kuronuma and abe (1972, 1986) mentioned thryssa mystax in both studies, while the latter mentioned t, purava, t. malabarica and t. hamiltonii in the arabian gulf. carpenter et al. (1997) mentioned five species vis., t. baelama, t. dussumieri, t. hamiltonii, t. vitrirostris and t. whiteheadi. bishop (2003) mentioned six species of engraulidae off kuwait, including three species of thryssa but he didn’t mention t. setirostris. al-faisal (2012) published a taxonomic study of three species of thryssa including t. whiteheadi, t. mystax and t. vitrirostris. six species of thryssa were recorded in iraq, including t. setirostris (nader and jawdat, 1977; coad, 1991; http://dx.doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2018.15.2.0123 124 occurrence and redescription of thryssa setirostris adday, 2013). the present study deals with the occurrence of this rare species in the iraqi marine water and detailed merestic and morphometric measurements. materials and methods nine specimens of t. setirostris (broussonet,1782) were collected during the period from july 2015 till april 2016 from the north western arabian gulf (48° 44′ to 48° 46′ n; 29° 46′ to 29° 47′ e); fish specimens were caught by means of a trawl net, and kept in ice, then transferred to the laboratory where it was examined as soon as possible. morphometric and meristic measurements were achieved according to wangratana (1987). fine characters were detected under meiji dissecting microscope. total, fork and standard lengths were measured by scale measurement to the nearest 0.1 mm, lengths of different morphometric terms were measured using digital vernier; the ranges of measurements were given followed by means between parenthesis. results and discussion thirty nine parameters were detected from nine specimens of long jaw thryssa thryssa setirostris (pl. 1) from the iraqi marine water. plate (1):thryssa setirostris, 125 mm in standard length. the total length of the specimens ranged from 116-165 (149.67) mm; dorsal fin consists of 12 rays; anal fin with 34-37 rays (tab. 1). 125 khamees et al. table(1)*: meristic and morphometric characters of t. setirostris. biometric characters 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 total length 154 116 148 152 150 153 155 154 165 standard length 126 95 121 128 121 124 127 125 132 forked length 135 104 130 134 131 135 135 135 144 body d. d. 34.2 24.6 32.4 36.1 33.2 33.6 34.5 33.3 33.8 body d. a. 30.7 22.0 30.3 30.9 30.8 29.5 31.2 31.5 30.6 body width 12.1 8.6 11.2 12.0 11.5 11.6 12.2 11.2 11.3 head length 24.8 18.9 25.3 25.3 25.5 23.6 25.5 26.5 27.4 head depth 23.2 16.8 21.7 22.7 21.6 21.2 22.2 12 22.5 head width 9.3 7.8 10.4 11.3 10.5 10.1 10.8 10 10.4 int. orb. w. 5.5 4.7 5.5 6.2 5.6 5.8 5.8 5.9 5.8 eye diameter 6.5 5.9 6.8 6.7 6.6 6.9 7.2 7.1 7.0 snout length 2.53 2.4 2.5 3.1 3.01 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.4 post orb. length 16.7 10.7 15.4 16.7 15.8 15.4 16.3 16.4 17.5 up. jaw length 13.7 11.3 13.1 13.5 16 14.2 13.7 12.9 15.2 lo. jaw length 13.1 10.8 12.5 13.0 14.9 12.4 12.3 11.8 13.5 dorsal fin b. l. 11.9 11.6 12.3 12.8 12.3 12.5 14.3 12.5 13.4 dorsal fin h. 23.4 20.8 23.0 23.2 23.7 23.0 25.5 22.5 25.8 pect. fin b. l. 8.1 4.0 6.7 6.8 8.0 7.0 7.2 6.9 8.5 pectoral high 24.5 19.3 23.3 24.5 23.8 23.4 26.1 26.2 28.5 anal fin b. l. 38.2 31.0 36.5 38.2 40.5 38.5 40.2 38.6 38.7 anal fin high 17.3 13.9 16.4 17.2 17.8 17.2 18.3 17.6 19.5 pre-dorsal d. 60.8 43.8 62 65 16.7 62.2 62 63.2 63.9 pre-pelvic d. 46.9 37.7 48.2 48.3 46.3 47.7 50 49.2 54.4 pre-pectoral d. 24.4 20.2 23.6 23.3 24.4 22.7 23.4 23 26.8 pre-anal length 74.3 59.2 71.9 73.3 74.2 75.7 78.4 72.5 82.2 pre-anus length 71.0 56.4 68.2 70 72.2 72.4 74.8 69.1 79.0 pelvic anal d. 26.6 18.2 24.4 23.6 24.5 23.3 27 22.8 28.3 caudal p. l. 13.0 10.8 13.1 13.4 11.6 11.9 12 12.4 12.9 caudal p. d. 13.2 10.0 12.8 13.3 12.8 12.4 13.1 13.0 13.1 dorsal fin rays 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 anal fin rays 34 37 36 36 34 34 34 36 36 pect. fin rays i+ 13 i+ 12 i+ 12 i+12 i+12 i+12 i+12 i+12 i+12 pelvic fin rays i+ 6 i+ 6 i+6 i+6 i+ 6 i+6 i+6 i+6 i+6 total scutes 27 25 27 27 26 26 26 26 26 pre pel. scutes 16 16 17 17 17 17 17 17 17 bran. steg. rays 12 ? 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 gill rackers 4,1,10 4,1,10 4,1,10 4,1, 10 4,1,10 maxilla length 62.2 52.2 64.1 72.8 66.4 63.1 7.1.8 68.6 73.2 pv length 16.8 11.6 15.6 13.3 15.8 13.4 13.9 15.5 17.2 * body d. d.= body depth at dorsal fin; body d. a.= body depth at anal fin; int. orb. w.= interorbital width; post orb. length= postorbital length; up. jaw length= upper jaw length; lo. jaw length= lower jaw length; dorsal fin b. l.= dorsal fin base length; dorsal fin h.= dorsal fin high; pect. fin b. l.= pectoral fin base length; anal fin b. l.= anal fin base length; pre-dorsal d.= pre-dorsal fin body depth; pre-pelvic d.= pre-pelvic fin body depth; pre-pectoral d.= prepectoral fin body depth; caudal p. l.= caudal peduncle length; caudal p. d.= caudal peduncle depth; pect. fin rays= pectoral fin rays; pre pel. scutes= number of pre-pelvic scutes; bran. steg. rays= number of branchiostegal rays; pv. length= pelvic fin length. 126 occurrence and redescription of thryssa setirostris table (2): the ratio of parameters of t. setirosris to standard length total length/ standard length 122.555%, body depth/standard length 24.322%, head length/standard length 20.266% (tab. 2). t. setirostris has very short rounded snout with its tip lay on the equator of the eye, the maxilla being very long, reaches the tip of the pectoral fin (pl.1). in general, fish species diversity in the arabian gulf is rather irregular, mainly because the deplete of water temperature in winter is also irregular, thus the diversity of individual species in the gulf may fluctuate from year to another (krupp and müller, 1994). the arabian gulf is less biologically diverse than the adjacent indian ocean due to extreme environmental conditions (al-abdulrazzak et al., 2015); the engraulids are small to moderate size fishes. however, some records refer to considerable fish size (varghese et al., 2013). fricke et al. (2018) mentioned 24 species of thryssa, all distributed in tropical and subtropical marine environments around the world (froese and pauly, 2018); according to parameters % min. max. average sd total l./stan. l 118.750 125.000 122.555 1.739 fork l / stan. l 105.469 109.474 107.783 1.328 body d d / stan. l 25.606 28.203 26.885 0.784 body d a / stan. l 23.158 25.455 24.322 0.837 body w / stan. l 8.561 9.606 9.253 0.343 head l / stan. l 19.032 21.200 20.266 0.747 head d / stan. l 17.045 18.413 17.693 0.435 head w / stan. l 7.381 8.828 8.247 0.457 interorbit w / stan. l 4.365 4.947 4.632 0.192 eye diameter / stan. l 5.159 6.211 5.544 0.315 snout l / stan. l 2.008 2.800 2.469 0.270 post orb. l / stan. l 11.263 13.258 12.776 0.628 upper jaw l / stan. l 10.320 11.895 11.041 0.505 lower jaw l / stan. l 9.440 11.368 10.252 0.558 dorsal fin b. l / stan. l 9.444 12.211 10.386 0.831 dorsal height / stan. l 18.000 21.895 19.262 1.210 pect. fin b. l. / stan. l 4.211 6.612 5.708 0.736 pectral height / stan. l 18.871 21.591 19.978 0.924 anal fin b. l. / stan. l 29.318 33.471 31.037 1.348 anal fin height / stan. l 13.438 14.773 14.133 0.515 predorsal d. / stan. l 46.105 51.240 49.480 1.702 prepvelvic d. / stan. l 37.222 41.212 39.017 1.220 pre. pec. d. / stan. l 18.203 21.263 19.326 1.085 pre. anal d. / stan. l 57.266 62.316 60.261 1.892 pre anus d. / stan. l 54.688 59.848 57.650 1.991 pelvic anal d. / stan. l 18.240 21.439 19.872 1.252 caudal p. l. / stan. l 9.449 11.368 10.145 0.650 caudal p. d. / stan. l 9.924 10.579 10.354 0.240 maxilla / stan. l 49.365 56.875 54.088 2.535 pelvic length / stan. l 10.391 13.333 12.119 1.116 127 khamees et al. carpenter et al. (1997) there are five thryssa species in the arabian gulf excluding t. setirostris, this species was firstly recorded in the gulf by nader and jawdat (1977). there are reports of overlapping and ambiguous taxonomic characters among the species of engraulidae in general and especially in thryssa, this might be resulting in misidentification of species and presentation of incorrect data (ma et al., 2015; gangan et al., 2016). the identification of thryssa species is usually based on combination of some characters such as the length of maxilla which may either being short (reach the preopercular), or medium (reach gill slits), or long (reach base of pectoral fins), or some even very long (reach pelvic fin base or beyond) (whitehead et al., 1988). in most thryssa species the first supramaxilla is minute or lost while the second supramaxilla is prominent (ganga, 2015), those with or without first supramaxilla, and the level of tip of snout with a line drawn through mid-eye as in plate 1, comprises some species including t. setirostris (whitehead et al., 1988), t. setirostris differ from other species in this group by having very long maxilla. randall (1995) recorded t. setirostris (broussonet, 1782)from gulf of oman, he mentioned the number of rays of anal and pectoral fins which are in the same range with the specimens of the present study ; moreover, the rays of the dorsal fin in the present study are 12 while in randall (1995) they were 14-15 (tab. 3); from the other hand, ma et al. (2015) mentioned that the dorsal fin of t. setirostris (broussonet, 1782)of taiwan has 11-12 rays. iwatsucki (2013) stated that the meristic characters of fish may varied in different habitats,the dorsal rays of t. setirostris (broussonet, 1782) are different in number from that of t. whiteheadi wongranata, 1983 and t. vitirostris (gilchrist & thompson, 1908) (tab. 3), but has the same range of the dorsal rays of t. hamiltonii, gray,1835 and within the range of the number of rays of the anal fin of the same species (tab. 2). t. setirostris (broussonet, 1782)differ from t. hamiltonii gray,1835 by having very long maxilla (ganga, 2015), t. dussumieri (valenciennes, 1848) is very close in appearance to t. setirostris (broussonet, 1782), again the latter is different by having a very long maxilla. table (3):comparative measurements of fin rays and gill rackers of thryssa spp. *species identification confirmed by dr. uwe zajong, germany. species dorsal fin rays anal fin rays pectoral fin rays gill rackers references t.whiteheadi 13 42-46 14 18-21 richards, 2008 t. viterostris 13-15 34-43 13-14 18-24 richards, 2008 t. balamae 11-12 32-37 13-14 20-24 young et al., 1994; whitehead et al., 1988 t. hamiltoni 14-15 32-40 12-13 12-14 richards, 2008 t. seterostris 14-15 32-39 12-14 10-12 randall, 1995 t. seterostris37-34 12 ٭ i+12-13 4.1.10 present study 128 occurrence and redescription of thryssa setirostris acknoledgment thanks are due to dr. uwe zajong of senckenberg research institute and natural museum, germany who confirmed the identity of t. setirostris. literature cited adday, t. k. 2013. parasitic crustaceans of some marine fishes of basrah province, iraq. ph. d. thesis collage of agriculture. university of basrah, 302 pp. al-abdulrazzak, d., zeller, d., belhabib, d., tesfamichael, d. and pauly, d. 2015. total marine fisheries catches in the persian/arabian gulf from 1950 to 2010. regional studies in marine science, 2: 28-34. al-faisal, a. j. 2012. taxonomic study of three species of genus thryssa fishes from iraqi marine water. journal al-malik abdul-azeez for marine science. 23 (1): 147-163. bishop, j. m. 2003. history and current checklist of kuwait icthyofauna. journal of arid environment, 54: 237-256. carpenter, k. e., krupp, f., jones, d. a. and zajonz, u. 1997. the living marine resources of kuwait, eastren saudi arabia, bahrain, qatar and the united arab emarates. fao species identification field guide for fishery purpose, fao, rome, xvii + 293 pp. coad, b. w. 1991. fishes of the tigriseuphrates basin: acritical checklist. syllogeus 68, canadian museum of nature, ottawa, 49pp. fricke, r., eschmeyer, w. n. and vander lann, r. (eds.) 2018. catalog of fishes: genera, species, references. california academy of science, san francisco, usa. availableat: http// researcharchive. calademy. org/ research/ ichthyology/ catalog/ fishcatmain. asp. http://www.fishbase.org/identification/specieslist.php?genus=thryssa (accessed march, 2018). froese, r. and pauly, d. 2018. a clupiformes. fish base, world register of marine species. available at: www. marine species. ( accessed july, 2018) ganga, u. 2015. aspects of taxonomy and life history traits of engraulids in context of biodiversity conservation and fisheries management. central marine fisheries research institute, 18: 138-141. gangan, s. s., kumar, r., ramteke, k. k., kumar, a. p. and jaiswar, a. k. 2016. study of morphological variation discernible by multivariate analysis between the species of genus setipinna (teleostei: clupeiformes). ecology environment and conservation, 22 (suppl.): 11-16. iwatsuki, i. 2013. review of the acanthopagrus latus complex (perciform, sparidae) with description of three new species from indo-west pacific ocean. journal of fish biology, 83: 64-95. 129 khamees et al. krupp, f. and müller, t. 1994. the status of fish populations in the northern arabian gulf two years after the 1991 war gulf war oil spill. courier forsch-inst senckenberg, 10 (3): 67-75. kuronuma, k. and abe, y. 1972. fishes of kuwait. kuwait institute for scientific research,123pp. kuronuma, k. and abe, y. 1986.fishes of arabian gulf. kuwait institute for scientific research, 357pp. li, c. and orti, g. 2007. molecular phylogeny of clupiformes (actinopterygii) inferred from unclear and mitochondrial dna sequences. molecular phylogenetics and evolution, 44: 386-398. ma, c. y., ma, h.-y., ni, y., wang, w. and ma, l. b. 2015. molecular identification of the genus thryssa based on dna barcoding. genetics and molecular research, 14(4): 18580-18586. nader, i. a. and jawdat, s. z. 1977. new records of fishes from iraq. bulltin of the biological research centre, 8:73-87. randall, j. e. 1995. coastal fishes of oman. university of hawaii. press, honolula: 439 pp. richards, w. j. 2008. identification guide of the early life history stages of fishes from the waters of kuwait stages in the arabian gulf, indian ocean, lucky printing, 329 pp. richards, w. j. al-yamani, f. l. 2008. identification guide of the early life history stages of fishes from the waters of kuwait stages in the arabian gulf. al-yamani, f. l. (ed.), indian ocean, lucky printing, 329pp. varghese, m., thomas, v. t., sreekumar, k. m., suruthu, m. and joseph, s. 2013. large sized moustached thryssa, thryssa mystax (bloch & schneider, 1801) recorded from cochin coast in kerala. marine fisheries information service t& e., 217: 30. wangratana, t. 1987. two new species of anchovies of genus stolephorus (engraulidae), with a key to species of engraula, encrasicholina and stolephorus. american museum novitates, 2867: 1-8. whitehead, p. j. p., nelson, g. t. and wongratana, t. 1988. clupeoid fishes of the world (suborder. clupeoidei). an annolated and illustrated catalogue of the herrings, sardines, pilchards, sparts, shads, anchovies and wolf-herrings. fao fisheries synopsis, 7 (125), part 2, 579pp. young, s. s., chiu, t. s. and shen, s. c. 1994. a revision of the family engraulidae (pisces) from taiwan. zoological studies, 33(3): 217-227. 130 occurrence and redescription of thryssa setirostris bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. december, (2018) 15 (2): 123-130 اعادة وصف لسمكة الشيغة تواجد و thryssa setiroststris (broussonet,1782) (clupiforms,engraulidae) من المياه البحرية العراقية جاسم محسن عبد و ثامر قاطع عداي , نجم رجب خميس العراق ,البصرة ,قسم االسماك والثروة البحرية, كلية الزراعة, جامعة البصرة 91/01/8092: تاريخ القبول 91/03/8092: تاريخ االستالم الخالصة broussonet, 178 thryssa)جمعت تسعة نماذج من سمكة الشيغة setiroststris ولكون هذه ؛5102لغاية نيسان و 5102لمدة من تموز لمن الخليج العربي فقد صممت هذه ,thryssaالسمكة نادرة ولها صفات تتداخل مع صفات بقية انواع الجنس .الدراسة التشخيصية التفصيلية لها 05ملم, وعدد أشعة الزعنفة الظهرية 21..06كان معدل الطول الكلي للنماذج شعاع, أما الزعنفة الكتفية فلها 41-46شعاع, وتراوح عدد أشعة الزعنفة المخرجية من وواحدة علويةنت أربعة توزعت االسنان الغلصمية على القوس االول وكا. شعاع 05-04 .سفلية 01 في الوسط و thryssaو التي تفصله عن االنواع االخرى للجنس أهم صفة مميزة للنوع اعتبرت .الذي يمتد ليصل الى الخلف من قمة الزعنفة الكتفية علويهي طول عظم الفك ال 151 sarkaut hussein muhammed bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2020) 16 (2):151-160. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2020.16.2.0151 seasonal fluctuation of stink bug mustha spinulosa (lefebvre, 1831) (hemiptera, pentatomidae) on some trees in erbil city sarkaut hussein muhammed department of biology, college of science, university of salahaddein, erbil, iraq corresponding author e-mail: sarkaut.muhammed@su.edu.krd received date: 19 july 2020, accepted date: 19 august 2020, published date: 21 december 2020 abstract phytophagous stink bugs (hemiptera, pentatomidae) are economically important insect pests of fruit, vegetable, nut and field crops. this study was carried out during the season of 2013 in orchards within erbil city, to follow the stink bug mustha spinulosa (lefebvre, 1831) seasonal fluctuation on some fruit trees: olive, plum, apricot, pear, apple and almond. the stink bug reaches its maximum abundance throughout the second week of august (38.2/tree) coinciding with mean temperature and relative humidity of 33.40c and 28.14% respectively, and the highest total mean of the number of the insect was recorded on the olive trees (181.8/tree). the study reveals that the stink bug attacked 22 trees (fruit and forest) while it has not attack any herbal plant. key words: fruit trees, mustha spinulosa, pentatomidae, seasonal fluctuation, stink bug. introduction the stink bugs belong to the superfamily pentatomoidea, family pentatomidae of the order hemiptera, and suborder heteroptera (borror et al, 1989). they have a single generation annually and in almost all species the adult is the overwintering stage (dolling, 1991). the family is very important from an agricultural point of view; they feed by inserting their stylets into the food source to suck up nutrients so they cause injury to plant tissue, and consequently the plant wilts (panizzi et al., 2000). because some of them feed on several plant species of economic importance they are regarded as major pests, (panizzi and grazia, 2001). in erbil city, many kinds of fruit trees are grown due to the suitability of environmental conditions, such as trees of plum, apricot, apple, olive, almond and pear (rso, 2008). these trees are infested with many sap-sucking insects, the stink bugs are one of the common insects. the tree gets damaged due to sucking juices by these insects, later it becomes weak and vulnerable to other diseases (muhammed, 1994). 152 seasonal fluctuation of stink bug mustha spinulosa review of literature shows poor information about the stink bug mustha spinulosa (lefebvre, 1831), in which most of the previous data focused only on host recording. kirkaldy (1909) demonstrated in his catalogue that the genus mustha amyot & serville, 1834 had six species almost all from persia (iran); it is also recorded from many other areas such as iraq and pakistan, while stichel (1960) listed five species under mustha from palaearctic region. puchkov (1965) in his revising halyini, keyed five genera under tribe halyini i.e. mustha, apodiphus, iskenderia, halys and carcenoplistus from russia. according to ahmad and kamaluddin (1984) mustha apparently is a palaearctic genus and has been reported from yugoslavia, albania, bulgaria, greece, syria, cyprus, iraq, south russia, iran, and turkey. hoberlandt (1995) identified seven species of mustha in iran. bolu et al. (2005) in his study revealed that m. longispinis reuter, 1890 was the most important species among insects that attacks almond trees in turkey while ozgen et al. (2005) recorded that m. longispinis attacked pistachio trees, also they concluded that this species could be considered as one of the important pests among other pentatomid bugs species that should be considered in the future. in another study done in two provinces of turkey, tezcan and onder (2003) found that m. spinulosa was one of the injurious phytophagous insects that attacked cherry trees, while orçan and kivan (2017) found only one specimen from this insect on apple trees. linnavouri (2008) in his study in northern iran found m. spinulosa in hilly forests on deciduous trees such as quercus, prunus, crataegus and cupressus. muhammed and al-iraqi (2010) recorded numerous fruit and non-fruit trees as a host for this insect in erbil cityiraq. in this perspective, the present paper aims to clarify the seasonal fluctuation of m. spinulosa on some fruit trees in erbil city during the growing season 2013, and so this represents the first study on this genus in our area. materials and methods survey many orchards and parks which were planted with both forest and fruit trees within erbil city have been visited weekly; whole trees (both fruit and forest) were examined by visual searches to determine the host plants of stink bug m. spinulosa. the insect was identified by mr. linnavouri (personal contact) while the hosts were identified in herbarium section at the college of science, university of salahaddein-erbil. seasonal fluctuation the population of m. spinulosa, on fruit trees was monitored in orchards planted within erbil city, from january till december 2013; a weekly visiting through direct visual inspection of m. spinulosa on the infested trees under the study was done, from each orchard five trees similar in size and age were selected and the numbers of adults were recorded periodically, with calculating the mean number of bugs in specimen/week, for each type of olive, plum, apricot, pear, apple and almond taking into consideration the prevention the spraying of pesticides during the period of study. the daily average of temperature and relative humidity was obtained from the meteorological station of erbil city. 153 sarkaut hussein muhammed results and discussion survey of host plants the survey shows that the stink bug m. spinulosa feed on several host plants from forest and fruit trees. the stink bugs lay their eggs on the pine trees, after hatching the first nymph instar stays on the same tree. after 1st molting the nymph can crawl through branches to other trees which are planting near the pines such as cupressus sp., casuarina sp, and eucalyptus sp.; when the adults appear they fly to other hosts which are mentioned in the table (1), so as to start feeding on sap cells from the stems. the insect does not migrate to other places for hibernation like other stink bugs, but stay in the same environment. table (1): determination of fruit and forest trees attached by stink bug m. spinulosa during season 2013 in erbil city orchards and parks. host plants family feeding stage fruit trees mulberry moraceae adult olive oleaceae adult plum rosaceae adult apricot rosaceae adult apple rosaceae adult almond rosaceae adult pear rosaceae adult fig moraceae adult loquat rosaceae adult walnut juglandaceae adult sumac anacardiaceae adult forest trees cypress cupressaceae adult, nymph pine pinaceae adult, nymph she-oaks casuarinaceae adult, nymph blue gum myrtaceae adult, nymph oak fagaceae adult black locust fabaceae adult arborvitae cupressaceae adult neem meliaceae adult poplar salicaceae adult oriental plane platanaceae adult princess tree paulowniaceae adult the seasonal fluctuation on fruit trees the data in table (2) revealed that the stink bug m. spinulosa began to appear on olive trees from the first week of may with a low number (4 individuals/trees) coinciding with the mean temperature and relative humidity of 24.36c and 42.71% respectively. afterwards the maximum number of the insect was recorded during the first week of june (25.6 individuals/trees) under the average temperature 30.60c and relative humidity 38.86. then variable numbers are found till they disappeared during the first week of october. 154 seasonal fluctuation of stink bug mustha spinulosa table (2): mean number of stink bug m. spinulosa population on the studied fruit trees during season 2013 in erbil city orchard. date olive plum apricot pear apple almond total mean 07/05/2013 04.0 2.2 01.6 0 0 0 07.8 14/05/2013 09.4 2.4 03.4 0 0 0 15.2 21/05/2013 11.0 2.8 03.2 0 0 0 17.0 28/05/2013 19.4 2.2 02.4 1.0 0.6 0 25.6 04/06/2013 25.6 1.6 01.0 0.6 0.8 0 29.6 11/06/2013 09.0 2.4 01.4 1.0 1.0 0 14.8 18/06/2013 08.2 2.8 01.0 0.6 0.8 0 13.4 25/06/2013 05.2 3.6 02.0 0.6 0.4 0 11.8 02/07/2013 04.4 2.4 01.8 0.8 0.6 0 10.0 09/07/2013 04.0 2.0 02.2 0.6 1.0 0 09.8 16/07/2013 07.0 2.0 05.8 1.0 1.0 0 16.8 23/07/2013 10.0 1.8 06.4 1.6 1.2 1.4 22.4 30/07/2013 08.6 6.2 07.8 2.6 2.0 2.4 29.6 06/08/2013 12.6 7.0 08.0 2.4 2.4 4.0 36.4 13/08/2013 14.2 7.4 09.0 2.2 2.4 3.0 38.2 20/08/2013 11.0 8.8 09.4 2.6 2.0 2.8 36.6 27/08/2013 06.6 8.4 09.6 2.2 2.0 3.4 32.2 03/09/2013 04.2 6.2 10.2 4.0 1.6 3.8 30.0 10/09/2013 04.0 8.0 07.0 5.0 2.6 5.8 32.4 17/09/2013 01.8 2.6 03.4 3.4 1 4.6 16.8 24/09/2013 01.6 0 05.6 3.0 0 4.0 14.2 01/10/2013 0 0 04.0 2.0 0 2.4 08.4 08/10/2013 0 0 04.0 1.8 0 2.0 07.8 15/10/2013 0 0 0 1.0 0 0 01.0 22/10/2013 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 total 181.8 82.8 110.2 40 23.4 39.6 477.8 the individuals on the plum trees were represented by relatively low numbers during the first week of may (2.2 individuals/trees) coinciding with the mean temperature and relative humidity of 24.36c and 42.71% respectively. thereafter the number increased to reach the maximum during the third week of august (8.8 individuals/trees) under the average 155 sarkaut hussein muhammed temperature 34.39 c and relative humidity 28.00%. then the number decreased gradually and disappeared completely through the fourth week of september. on the other hand, the results indicated that the insects presence on apricot trees started at the first week of may (1.6 individuals/trees) coinciding with the mean temperature and relative humidity of 23.36c and 42.71% respectively. thereafter the numbers increased to reach the maximum during the first week of september (10.2 individuals/trees) under the average of temperature 35.06c and relative humidity 28.71%. then the number which it decreased and ended completely through the second week of september. the results also showed that m. spinulosa began to appear on pear trees from the fourth week of may (1.0 individual/trees) coinciding with the mean temperature and relative humidity of 33.39c and 32.63% respectively. after that the numbers varied and reached the maximum during the second week of september (5.0 individuals/trees) under the average of temperature 33.20c and relative humidity 30.14%. then the number which it decreased gradually and vanished completely through the third week of october. the results revealed that m. spinulosa began to appear on apple trees from the fourth week of the june (0.6 individual/trees) coinciding with the mean temperature and relative humidity of 33.39c and 32.63% respectively. after that the numbers fluctuated and reached the maximum during the second week of september (2.6 individuals/trees) under the average of temperature 33.20c and relative humidity 30.14%, and after one week, the insects completely disappeared the fourth week of september. the infestation of the almond trees was delayed, the stink bug appeared to attack trees at the third week of july (1.4 individuals/trees) coinciding with the mean temperature and relative humidity of 34.79c and 30.13% respectively. later, the numbers increased to reach the maximum during the second week of september (5.8 individuals/trees), under the average of temperature 33.20c and relative humidity 30.14%. then the number decreased gradually and went out of sight during the second week of october. panizzi and grazia (2001) found that the relationship between the pentatomids and their hosts depended on several factors involving: the life history of pentatomids, characteristics of the plant, and the abundant and their adaptation to the weather conditions. additionally, mouraa et al. (2017) mentioned that, phytophagous insects might choose host plants depending on the conditions that would enhance offspring performance. however, some insect species may also select plants based on attributes that enhance their performance regardless of the consequences for offspring survival. the host selection by phytophagous insects is often explained by the optimal oviposition theory. this hypothesis states that females should select host plants based on their capacity to provide suitable resources for offspring development, such as food and shelter (gripenberg et al. 2010). low densities of stink bug on apple trees suggest that it is an unsuitable developmental host (nielsen and hamilton, 2009). the obtained data in table (1) showed that the highest total number of the insects during the growing season was noticed on the olive trees (181.8 individuals/trees), followed by the 156 seasonal fluctuation of stink bug mustha spinulosa apricot trees (110.2 individuals/trees), while apple trees showed lowest numbers of insects (23.2 individuals/trees), and the number of insects oscillated along with seasonal growth on the fruit trees in the orchard of erbil city. the olive tree is a drought-tolerant species which can have an exceptionally long life-span. it is limited only by frost and high temperatures and to a lesser extent by soil fertility; additionally, olive trees have a huge branching which can used by the insect for hiding. sap cells may have a role in attracting the insects (mcghee, 1997). the highest number of the insects was recorded in the second week of august which was 38.2 individuals under the average of temperature 33.40c and relative humidity 28.14% and the lowest number was recorded in the second week of october which was (1.0 individuals/trees) under the average of temperature 27.39c and relative humidity 32.00%. based on the total mean numbers of m. spinulosa, it was found that the insect appearance on the fruit trees start from the first week of may (7.8 individuals) and continues along with june, july, august and september, and it will end in the second week of october. on the other hand the results indicated that the insect population reached their maximum numbers during the second week of august (38.2 individuals), coinciding with the mean temperature and relative humidity of 33.40c and 28.14% respectively. thereafter the stink bugs disappear and migrate to forest trees in the third week of october, coinciding with the mean temperature and relative humidity of 19.58c and 34.75% respectively (diag. 1). according to penn state ( 2006), the numbers of stink bugs present in trees at any given time during the season are greatly dependent on the weather, the surrounding vegetation (alternate host plants), the orchard history and chemical composition of sap cell which is changed according to the environmental condition and other factors. 157 sarkaut hussein muhammed diagram (1): total mean number of m. spinulosa population on the studied fruit trees at erbil city with temperature and relative humidity during season 2013. literature cited ahmad, i. and kamaluddin, s. 1984. re-description of mustha spinosulus and m. spinosus (hemiptera: pentatominae: halyini) from pakistan and their zoogeography and relationships. oriental insects, 18 (1): 187-194. bolu, h., ozgen, y. and fent, m. 2005. the investigations on almond pentatomidae (heteroptera) fauna in diyarbakir, elazyo and mardin province. available at: www.tarimdrgrisi.yyu.edu.tr borror, d. j., triplehorn, c. a. and johnson, n. f. 1989. an introduction to the study of insects. 6th ed. philadelphia: saunders college publishing, 340 pp. dolling, w. r. 1991. the hemiptera. oxford: oxford university press, 274 pp. gripenberg, s., mayhew, p. j. parnell, m. and roslin, r. 2010. a meta-analysis of preference–performance relationships in phytophagous insects. ecology letters. 13:383–393. (cited in mouraa et al. (2017)) hoberlandt, l. 1995. results of the entomological expeditions to iran (heteroptera, pentatomidae). acta entomologica musei nationalis pragae, 44: 216-233. (cited in memon (2002)). 158 seasonal fluctuation of stink bug mustha spinulosa kirkaldy, g. w. 1909. catalogue of the hemiptera (heteroptera) with biological and anatomical references, lists of food plants and parasites, etc. prefaced by a discussion on nomenclature and an analytical table of families, p182-205. (cited in memon, (2002)). linnavouri, e. r. 2008. studies on the acanthosomatidae, scutelleridae and pentatomidae (heteroptera) of gilan and the adjacent provinces in northern iran. acta entomologica musei nationalis pragae, 48 (1): 1-21. mcghee, p. s. 1997. biology, ecology, and monitoring of the pentatomidae (heteroptera) species complex associated with tree fruit production in washington. m.sc. thesis. washington state university, department of entomology, 70 pp. memon, n. 2002. a revision of the berry bugs (heteroptera: pentatomoidea: halyini) of indopakistan subcontinent with special reference to cladistic analysis of halyine genera. ph. d thesis. university of karachi, 409 pp. mouraa, r. r., ribeiroa, p. v. a., pereiraa, b. g., queroa, a., carvalhoa, r. l. and oliveirab, d. c. 2017. food, shelter or competitors? overlapping of life stages and host plant selection in a neotropical stink bug species. journal of plant interactions, 12(1): 560-566. muhammed, s. h. 1994. study of population density of some sap sucking insects on some fruit trees in erbil. m. sc. thesis, college of education, university of salahaddeinerbil. muhammed, s. h. and al-iraqi, r. a. 2010. occurrence and record of stink bug apodiphus amygdali (germar) (hemiptera: pentatomidae) on some fruit trees in certain localities of erbil governorate. kurdistan 3rd conference on biological sciences, 4-6 may, dohuk university. nielsen, a. l. and hamilton, g. c. 2009. seasonal occurrence and impact of halyomorpha halys (hemiptera: pentatomidae) in tree fruit. journal of economic entomology, 102:1133-1140. orçan, ö. s. and kivan, m. 2017. pentatomidae (hemiptera) species on fruit trees in saray district of tekirdag, turkey. global journal of advanced research, 4(10): 293-300. ozgen, i., gozuacik, c., karsavuran, y. and fent, m. 2005. investigations on the pentatomidae (heteroptera) fauna in apricot, cherry, olive and pistachio plantations in east and southeastern anatolia region (turkey). the journal of ege university, faculty of agriculture, 42 (2): 35-43. panizzi, a. r. and grazia, j. 2001. stink bugs (heteroptera, pentatomidae) and an unique host plant in the brazilian subtropics. iheringia série zoologia, 90: 21-35. 159 sarkaut hussein muhammed panizzi, a. r., mcpherson, j. e., james, d. g., javahery, m. and mcpherson, r. m. 2000. stink bugs (pentatomidae). p 421-474. in: scheafer, c. w. and pannizi, a. r., (eds) heteroptera of economic importance. boca raton: crc press, 828 pp. penn state. 2006. fruit production for the home gardener: a comprehensive guide. college of agricultural science, the pennsylvania state university, usa, 187 pp. puchkov, v. g. 1965. shield-bug of central asia (hemiptera, pentatomidae). inst. biol. frunze acad. sc. kirgiskoi, ssr. (in russian, cited in memon, (2002)). rso (regional statistics organizing). 2008. a survey of different fruit trees in kurdistan region. report prepared by ministry of planning (agricultural sector), kurdistan region. iraq. stichel, w. 1960. illustrierte bestimmungstabellen der wanzen. ii. europa (hemipteraheteroptera europae). vol.3. berlin-hermsdorf, 428 pp. tezcan, s. and önder, f. 2003. faunistical studies in ecological cherry orchards in izmir and manisa provinces of turkey: an evaluation on the species of heteroptera. anadolu journal, 13 (1): 124-131. 160 seasonal fluctuation of stink bug mustha spinulosa bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2020) 16 (2): 151-160. التباين الموسمي لحشرة البق النتن mustha spinulosa (lefebvre, 1831) (hemiptera, pentatomidae) نة اربيلعلى بعض االشجار في مدي سركوت حسين محمد قسم علوم الحياة،كلية العلوم، جامعة صالح الدين، اربيل، العراق 21/12/2020، تأريخ النشر: 19/08/2020، تأريخ القبول: 19/07/2020تأريخ االستالم: صةالـخال مققن hemipteraرتبققة pentatomidaeالبققا النققلن الققد يعققوئ القق عا لققة غديققة اللققي تكققين كققل مققن اكققوار الوواكقق ال ققر ات الحشققرات اباتيققة الل المكسققرات افقققاىة القق محاصقققيل حتليققةا اجريقققي بققدي الدراسقققة ىققي بسقققاتين ذلك لدراسة اللباين الموسمي للبا النقلن 2013 حدا ا مدينة اربيل خالل عام m. spinulosa ااقققوان مقققن اكقققوار الواكوقققةا الصيلقققو ا جقققا 6علققق المشمش العرموط اللواح اللوزا بلغققي ذر ة اشققاط البققا النققلن خققالل تواجققدي علقق اكققوار الواكوققة ىققي الحتققل كورة( باللصامن مع معد ت ئرجقات /2ا38خالل ا سبون الثااي من كور اب ) علقق اللققوالي ، اعلقق اسققبة % 14ا28 40ا33الحققرارة الرطوبققة النسققبية كورة(ا/8ا181للحشرة تم تسويلوا عل اكوارالصيلو ) عا ل )اكقوار ىاكوقة بابقات( ، 22اظورت الدراسة ا الحشرة تلغدى عل اعشبي لم تسول تغدية الحشرة عل ا ابات تأريخ الاستلام: 19/07/2020، تأريخ القبول: 19/08/2020، تأريخ النشر: 21/12/2020 29-34 29 a. j. elwaily bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2001) 9 (3): 29-34 annual cycle in liver weight of marsh frog rana ridibunda pallas, 1771 alwan j. el-wailly biology department, college of education (ibn al-haitham), university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq abstract the dry weight of the liver of rana ridibunda was expressed as percentage of the dry weight of the body. the female liver weight always exceeds that of the male, except in july and september. the difference between males and females for the whole year, regardless of months, was not significant. livers of both sexes were relatively large prior to hibernation (december), decreased during hibernation (january and february) until a minimum weight in march (post-hibernation). the increase of liver weight during december is apparently simply to meet the metabolic requirements for survival during hibernation. the percent reduction in liver weight during hibernation was 1.081% in males and 1.356% in females. the decrease in liver weight during the hibernation months may be attributed to the utilization of liver glycogen. the rise in mean weight from august to october indicates that marsh frogs, after spawning, were actively feeding. introduction the liver in amphibia represents an important organ, which stores depot substances. many workers have noted seasonal changes which occur in the liver of the frog. according to smith (1950), the first report on the occurrence of marked seasonal changes in glycogen contents of frogs was in 1899. the literature provides several works concerning the seasonal changes of liver weight (maruyama, 1979; morton, 1981), liver metabolism (schlaghecke and blum, 1978), lipid composition and protein content of the liver (milone et al., 1978, 1983), and cyclic changes in liver glycogen (byrne and white, 1975). experiments mostly were carried out on the biochemistry and physiology of r. ridibunda (conlon et al., 1993; munoz et al., 1993; vitanova et al., 1993). the objective of the present study is to through a light on the quantitative descriptive of the annual cycle in liver weight of the marsh frog r. ridibunda, as it appears that this frog is one of the most successful anurans in iraq. materials and methods frogs were collected from superficial waters, brooks, ponds and other places where the water is nearly stagnant, found in various parts of baghdad and its suburbs. a total of 167 specimens of r. ridibunsa (82 males and 85 females) were captured throughout the year 1994. no samples were collected in june. the collected frogs were transported to the laboratory for measurments and sex determination. liver and stomach contents were removed. all specimens and livers were dried at 70 oc until no further loss of weight occurred, usually 24 hours. the weight of the liver has been deducted from the total body weight. the dry weight of the liver was expressed as percentage of the dry weight of the body. the differences in the 30 a liver weight of marsh frog mean values were evaluated by the student t-test. the means are considered statistically significant at the 95% confidence level. results table (1) shows the mean percent liver weight of both males and females of marsh frog. the females’ liver weight always exceeded that of the males, except in july and september. however, the difference between males and females for the whole year, regardless of months, was not significant (p>0.05). in females, all mean weights in january, april and december were significantly greater than in males (p<0.5). the marsh frog, in baghdad 1994, entered hibernation during the last week of december and emerged during the first week of march. the mean temperature of january and february was 6.1 ± 7.2 °c and 8.6 ± 4.3 °c, respectively. livers of both sexes exhibited annual changes in relative weight. they were relatively larger prior to hibernation (december), 1.857% in males and 2.288% in females, decreased during hibernation (january and february) to reach a minimum weight in march (posthibernation), 0.786% in males and 0.932% in females. all mean weights of all individuals, regardless of sex, in december were significantly greater than those of march. the first obvious increase took place in april and may, decreased in july, than increased continuously until october. there was a significant change in liver weights between sexes in april but not in may. table (1): percent liver weight (gm) of r. ridibunda. month males females mean s. e. no. mean s. e. no. january 1994 1.492 0.322 7 2.019 0.467 6 february 0.950 0.227 5 1.168 0.236 5 march 0.786 0.183 8 0.932 0.145 10 april 1.222 0.338 9 1.843 0.503 8 may 2.038 0.480 11 2.337 0.407 12 june ------ july 1.985 0.745 7 1.438 0.415 8 august 1.927 0.329 9 2.200 0.257 11 september 2.372 0.431 8 2.268 0.347 7 october 2.741 0.231 6 2.896 0.107 6 november 1.573 0.337 8 1.755 0.308 7 december 1.867 0.199 4 2.288 0.296 5 dry liver weight * percent liver weight = ----------------------------------- x 100 dry body weight the liver weight shows a remarkable rise in october with a maximum weight (2.741% in males and 2.896% in females), than decreased in november and again increased in december (fig.1). in females, the mean weight in december was significantly greater than in males. 31 a. j. elwaily discussion the results show that livers in both sexes of r. ridibunda exhibited an increase in december (prehibernation). the increase of liver weight during this month is apparently simply to meet the metabolic requirements for survival during hibernation. it has been known from many years that fat and glycogen are accumulated in amphibians prior to hibernation (smith, 1950). the decrease in liver weight during the hibernation months (57.90% of liver weight in males and 59.25% in females) may be attributed to the utilization of liver glycogen. liver glycogen may be utilized to provide the energy needed for gametogenesis and for storage of food reserves in the ovary (smith, 1950). bush (1963) demonstrated that r. pipiens could metabolize, during hibernation, about 75% of liver carbohydrates before death. it is possible that the increase of liver weight during april and may (after reproduction) is the direct effect of food intake as most of the stomachs examined at this time were found to be full food materials. the rise in mean weight from august to october indicates that march frogs accumulate glycogen to serve them as energy supply for the next breeding season (morton, 1981). acknowledgements thanks are due to prof. dr. furhan t. mhaisen and dr. emad al-mukhtar of the college of education (ibn al-haitham), university of baghdad for their critical reading of the manuscript and their useful suggestions. literature cited bush, f.m. 1963. effect of light and temperature on the gross composition of the toad, bufo fowleri. j. exp. zool., 153:1-13. byrne, j.j. & white, r.j. 1975. cyclic changes in liver and muscle glycogen, tissue lipid and blood glucose in a naturally occurring population of rana catesbeiana. comp. biochem physiol., 50a:709-715. colon, j.m., tonon, m.c. & vaudry, h. 1993. isolation and structural characterization calcitonin gene related peptide from the brain and intestine of the frog, rana ridibunda. peptides, 14(3):581-586. maruyama, k. 1979. seasonal cycle in organ weights and lipid levels of the frog, rana nigromaculata. annot. zool. jap., 52(1):18-26. milone, m., caliendo, m.f., rostogi, r.k. & chieffi, g. 1978. annual variations in the total lipid and protein content of the liver, fat body, overy and plasma of the female frog (rana esculenta) j. endocr., 78:165-169. milone, m., caliendo, m.f., rostogi, r.k. & chieffi, g. 1983. seasonal lipid composition in the liver fat body and gonads of rana esculenta. boll. zool., 50:227-234. morton, m.l. 1981. seasonal changes in total body lipid and liver weight in the yosmite toad bufo canorus. copeia, 1:234-238. munoz, m., munoz, a. & gonzalez, a. 1993. distribution, morphology and central projections of the mesencephalic trigeminal neurons in the frog rana ridibunda. anat. rec., 235(1):165-177. 32 a liver weight of marsh frog schlaghecke, r. & blum, v. 1978. seasonal variation in liver metabolism of the green frog, rana esculenta (l.). experientia, 34:456-457. smith , c . l . 1950 seasonal changes in blood sugar , fat body , liver glycogen , and gonads in the common frog , rana temporaria .j. exp . bio. , 26: 412426 . vitanova, i., kunenova, p., ponova, e., mitova, i. & belcheva, s. 1993. comarative investgation of ratinal responses to brief light stimuli. 2-amino-4-phosphonobutyate studies. 1. frog ratina, rana ridibunda. comp. biochem. physiol., c. 104(2):289297. 33 a. j. elwaily bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2001) 9 (3): 29-34 rana ridibundaت السنوية لوزن كبد ضفدع المستنقعات التغيرا علوان جاسم الوائلي قسم علوم الحياة، كلية التربية، ابن الهيثم، جامعة بغداد الخالصة كـان وزن كبــد . اسـتخرج الـوزن اجلــاف لكبـد ضـفدع املســتنقعات نسـبة اىل وزن اجلسـم اجلــاف وبغــض النظــر عــن . أوزان كبــود شــهري آب و أيلــولاألنثــى دائمــاً يزيــد علــى وزن كبــد الــذكر عــدا أوزان كبـــود الضـــفادع خـــالل كـــل شـــهر علـــى حـــده مل ختتلـــف أوزان كبـــود الـــذكور عـــن أوزان كبـــود نسـبيا قبـل سـبا ا يف شـهر كـانون كبـرية كانت كبود اجلنسني. اإلناث خالل السنة اختالفا معنويا السـبات يف شــهري كـانون الثـاين وشـباط حـىت وصــلت اىل األول وقـد اخنفضـت أوزان الكبـود أثنـاء الزيـــادة يف وزن الكبـــد لشـــهر كـــانون األول اىل تعـــزى و . اقـــل وزن هلـــا بعـــد الســـبات يف شـــهر آذار بلغــت نســـبة اخنفـــاض وزن . البقـــاء علـــى قيــد احليـــاة خــالل فـــرتة الســـباتلبــات حاجــة احليـــوان ملتط ى نســبة اخنفــاض عــز يف اإلنــاث، وقــد ت% ١,٣٥٦يف الــذكور و % ١،٠٨١ الكبــد أثنــاء الســبات وزن الكبد أثنـاء اشـهر السـبات اىل اسـتهالك الكاليكـوجني املوجـود يف الكبـد ويعـود سـبب ارتفـاع معـدل وزن الكبــد مـن شــهر آب اىل تشـرين األول اىل إن ضــفدع املسـتنقعات كــان يتغـذى بنشــاط .بعد فرتة التناسل 34 a liver weight of marsh frog 13 79 b . m . al chalabi bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2000) 9 (2): 79-84 efficiency of al-rustamityah sewage plant and their consequences on the pollution of diyala river flassan ha. radhi, sadi k. jan*and ahmid m. azsiez** *iraq natural history museum. university of baghdad **ministry of irrigation baghdad abstract the present work initiated to eaiuate the efficiency of al-rustamivah sewage treatment plant as reflected by the quality of final effluent that is thrown to di ala river. weekly samples of wastewater and final effluent were collected between november 1994 and end of january 1995 and analyzed for different chemical and biological features. results ha e inidicated that al-rustamiyah sewage treatment plant could not be able efficiently to purify the raw sewage. the mean values of suspended solids. bod. cod dichromate and oil & grease effluents were felt to pass standard limits (98.4. 92.8. 125.2 and 39.1 ppm. respectiel). the atherse possible effects of pollution on diuala equatic life hae been also discussed in respect to final effluent quality. introduction it is well known that the major pollution problems caused by treatment plants are those of water pollution. however, the effluents from these plants present a high pollution load if not treated efficiently before disposal. it would cause death of lix ing organisms in river water. the treated wastewater quality is function of the treatment provided the rating stratgy emplo ed and the characteristics of raw wastewater. subsequentlx. treated wastewater exhibits wide variation in quality (bolton and keine. 1961). one major of pollution is the organic load of final sewage effluents. a significant proportion of organic contaminates carried by sewers derives from urban run—off consisting of story writer from roads. motor ways and paxed areas. in addition to industrial effluents when discharged to sewers (eganhouse et a!. 1981). the greatest impact of this load in the ens ironment is the reduced diversity of invertebrates (borowitzed. 1979: fitzgerald. 1978). the purpose of the present study is to elucidate the performance ofal-rustarniyah sewage treatment plant and the qualit of final effluents discharge to di ala river in respect to water pollution. materiels and nethods the first isit to al-rustarniyah sewage plant in baghdad was made on 8h ofnoxmber 1994 and obser ation were recorded. samples of w astew ater and final effluents weekly collected till 29t5 on january of 1995 sampling on storm and overflows were avoided. duplicate samples were analysed for ph. bod1. cod dichromate. suspended solids, total dissolved solids. cl. so4. p04. no1. nh1. oil & grease. iron (fe). copper (cu). cadmium (cd). chrome (cr). zinc (zn). nikle(ni). and lead(pb) according to the standard methods for examination of ater and \aste\\ater (american public health association. 1980). 80 inheritance of dark head resu lts observations recorded the foul-smelling sulphnetted hydrogen (h2s) was recognized in all time sampling before 3 km from plant (or more on nd direction). it is well known that hs is produced b fermentation of organic sulphur compound or by bacterial reduction of sulphate. the amount of this gas depends upon strength. age. temperature and sulphate content of the se age. methane was also produced in large quantities during aerobic action. methane gas has high calorific alue and collected in gas chamber and used for power production inside the plant. the se age treatment plant consists different units orking together to cons cit the raw se age to sludge. which can he disported in land. effluent s ith acceptable qualit\ here diaposte to water course, and gases to the atmosphere. fherefore an dis order in one or more of thee units will reduce the efflcienc of the plant. in such cirrcurnstances the sewage plant converts to a source of pollution. therefore, the efficiency of each unit in al-rustamivh seage treatment plant as considered. it was obvious that the economic blockade imposed agnist iraq and shortage of spare parts hae affocted the sewage treatment plant in all cities of iraq and al-rustamivh plant is one of them. therefore. gas chamber. detertins and chlorine house unit had been totalk disqualified in this plant. analysis of samples table (i) summarized the mean alues of all samples. die qualifications ofwasteater and final et’fluents as l’ollow: 1-ph l’he ph alue ‘as nearl neutral (7.2 and 7.4 for seage ater and in the acceptable limits respectively). hoever. these ph values canbe considered with in the acceptable limits of the iraqi standards (6-9.5). 2-bod and cod dichromate the rod and cod the wastewater sere 253.5 and 271.6 ppm. respectively. after puritication they reduced to 92.8 and 125.8 ppm respecti el. hlo%e\ er. the were aboe the standards (40 and 100 ppm for bod and cod respectively). 3-suspended and total dissolved solids the alue of suspended solids is one of the most important of all the for seage and treated effluents (bolton and klein. 1961). in this study the suspended solids was 216 ppm for the \asteater and 98.4 ppm for the final et’fluent. i he removal of suspended solids from raw sev.age is indeed one of the indication of the efficienc. the carefully operated well designed treatment should remove about 50-90 percent. although, the removal percent in alrustamivah plant as 54.400 (fig. i). but the suspended solids was oer the standard (60 ppm). the true solution of’ the astewater did not much been affected b treatment as might be expected h\ treatment as might he expected. fhe content of total dissolved solids reduced from 2009.3 to 1881.9 ppm after purification. while purification percent v as 6.3° 0 (fig. i). 4-cl and s04 soluable cl and so4 ere high in both ‘astesater and final effluents. ihe chloride content sas 464 and 381.7 ppm for astewater and final effluent. respectiek. the sulphate contents crc 851.4 and 792.1 pmm for wastewater and final effluent. respectively. these to alues of ci. and so4 can he accepted according to the standard (1200 ppm). 5-no. no2 and nh 81 b . m . al chalabi table (1) analx ses of wastewater and final effluents characteristies wastewater final effluent ph rng 1 7.2 7.41 bods 253.5 92.8 cod dichromate 271.6 125.2 suspended solids (s.s) 216 98.4 total dissolved solids (t.d.s) 2009.3 1881.9 chloride (cl) 464 381.7 sulphate (so4) 851.4 792.1 nitrate (no1) 12.5 28.8 nitrite (no2) 2.86 3.64 nrnmonia (nh5) 25.3 25.2 phosphate (p04) 3.59 4.34 oil & grease 75.9 39.1 iron (fe) 2.59 1.97 znic (zn) 0.243 0.029 cadmium (cd) 0.025 0.002 lead (ph) 0.080 0.049 chorme (cr) 0.009 0.005 nickle (ni) 0.120 0.050 copper (cu) 0.243 0.029 (fig.1) percent of purification achieved by treatment of wastewater characteristies 82 inheritance of dark head the concentration ofno3 and no2 were increased the purification process. no3 increased from 12.47 ppm in wastewater to 23.8 ppm in final effluent, and no2 from 2.86 to 3.64 ppm. the ammonia (nh3) also anexpectedk did not decreased diring treatment as a result of bacterial oxidation of ammonia to nitrates nh3 + 3o hno2 + h2o hno2 + o hno3 the nh3 contents were 25.3 and 25.2 ppm for wastewater and final effluent respectiek. 6-p04 the phosphate concentrewater was 3.59 ppm and to 4.34 ppm in the final effluent. so it was over the exceptable limit (3). the reactions place in the aerobic of organic matter could increased phosphorus as below: organic-phosphorus. p h3p04 (neutraed by base present). 7-oil & grease the wastewater samples content appreciable ammounts of oil & grease (75.9 ppm). the oil & grease should he remoed as much as possible in the earn stages of treatment. however, the concentration decreased to 39.1 ppm in final effluent but it was still much higher than allowable limit (4 ppm). 8-i1ea metals (fe. zn. cd. ph. cr. ni. and cu) the major sources of heavy metals in sewage come from trade wastes. if heavy metals reach the ner in appreciable content, they will damage the equatic life. the concentration of these metals were not high in wastewater (0.3 ppm) except for which was reatiely higher than other (table i). howeer. the concentration of all metals were reduced considerably after purification including fe (1.47 ppm). the concentration of hea\ metaks in final effluents were less than the standards. discussion the main removal mechanisms for pollutants acrose wastewater treatment plant are solatili,ation. biological oxidation and accumulation in the sludge. while the water conten (99.9°o or more) disposed as effluent to water course. although the present study concentrated on water pollution. the air poolution by h2s and methane has been clearly observed in the surrounded area as a result of dismantle of ges chamber in the sewage treatment plant. l’he emission of h25. methane and co2 would cause ad erse affects on local en ironment and global climte. the detritus unit which is for remo\ing the grits during the primary sidenmentation. the destructive detritus unit could not able to purify the final effluent from suspended solids. therefore, the percent as purification of suspended soils was 54.4°o (fig. i). and the final effluent felt to pase the standard the high content of suspended solids could cause damage to pumps and other mechanical equipment in sewage plant. it would also causes damage to fishes in the river after discharge to the river. the sewage treatment achieed by al-rustamiyah plant could not be able to reduce the organic content (bod3 and cod) to standard alues (40 and 100 ppm for bod5 and cod respectiel). in spite of the purification percentage were high for rod5 and cod (fig. i). ehe enrichment of river water by organic matter would cause decreased the dissoked oxygen. reducing the clissol ed oxy gen in ri er water w ould lead to putrefaction and foul odours due to ins formation. ehe high le el of oil & grease in wastewater in wastewater samples were o er the ability of treatments prox ided by al-rustamiy ah sewage treatment plant. therefore. the purification percent was only 48.5°c. the biological degradation of oil & grease (hydrocarbons) in river water would be \erv slow compard with other organic compound. hence, the bad effwcts of oil & grease will continue for long time and extend to long distance from out let point. the ability of oil & grease to from oils layer over the water surface and would present the gas exchange between water and air. chemicals coagulants can be used to settle out the oil & 83 b . m . al chalabi grease during the primar sedimentation. the other components studies of final effluent were the standard except for the phosphate. conclusions the main conclusions which can he derised from this study would clearl refer to pollution of diyala river which come from al-rustainiyah sewage treatment plant. suspended may be in the from of non-polar and hence have a er low water solubilit such compound therefore, to adsorb strongl on suspended particulate matter (herhes. 1977). this suggests that mechsincal processes by sedimentation not a chive substantia remosal of these materials from effluent as a result of stopping deteritus unit from working. many synthetic organic compounds. because of their non-polar and hvdrophic natur not one adsorb onto suspended solids, but also partition into non—polar fate and lipid material present in raw sewage. this components of the raw sewage including mineral oils. grease. waxes and surfactants. some ofwhich in varying degrees are resistant to degradation. could potebntiallv represent an important mechanisms for the concentration and transport of these material to the riser water. [‘he principal concern in disposing of final effluents contaminated with organic pollutant. this would exposure the equate environment to adverse ef0cts. in addition to exposure of the population to these substances either directly from the consumption of water or indirectly through the food chain, where biomanification may accrue. literature cited american public health association 1980 standard methods for the examination of water and wastewater. 15hh1 edition. apha — awwa wpcf. 1134 p. bolton. r.l and klein. l. 1961 sewage treatment. basic principles and trends. london bultuw orths pub. co. 161 p. borowiutzka. m.a. 1979 effects of sewage sludge on the benthic invertebrate community of the inshore. new york bight. east coast liar sci. 8.169-180. eganhouse. r.p.. simoneit. b.r.t and kaplan. l.r 1981 enifron-sci technol 15. 315-326 (c.f lester. in. 1988). fitzgerald. wi. 1978 environmental parameters influencing the growth of guam. bat. 11w’, 21. 207-220. herbs. se. 1977 water res.. ii. 413 (cf lester. in. 1988) lester. in. 1988 occurrence. beha jour and fate of organic mieropollutant during wastewater and sludge treatment processes. in ens ironmental effects of organic and inorganic contaminats in sewage sludge. ed by davis. rd. hucker. g and hemite. p.l dreidel publ. co. london. 257 p. 84 inheritance of dark head bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2000) 9 (2): 71-84 bull 139 kefah naser abdul-ameer & fatima khalaf atwan bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. december, (2018) 15 (2): 139-144 recording of two species of the genus dipartiella (raabe, 1959) stein, 1961 (cliophora: trichodinidae) for the first time in iraq from gills of the common carp cyprinus carpio kefah naser abdul-ameer and fatima khalaf atwan department of biology, college of education for pure science (ibn al-haitham), university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq e-mail: kefahnaser59@yahoo.com received date: 23 april 2018 accepted date: 21 may 2018 abstract the examination of gills of the common carp cyprinus carpio revealed the presence of two species of the family trichodinidae belonging to the genus dipartiella (raabe, 1959) stein, 1961 namely d. indiana saha and bandyopadhyay, 2017 and d. kazubski mitra and bandyopadhyay, 2009 for the first time in iraq from al-graiat location on the tigris river at baghdad city. this also represents the first record of the genus dipartiella from fishes of iraq. the descriptions and measurements of these two parasite species as well as their illustrations were given. key words: dipartiella, dipartiella kazubski, dipartiella indiana, trichodinids, tigris river, iraq. introduction trichodinid ciliophorans are among the greatest common and mostly spread groups of symbionts as parasites of aquatic invertebrate and vertebrate hosts (van as and basson, 1989). the ciliates of trichodinidae are characterized by proteinaceous cytoskeleton of the adhesive disc which consists of a ring of hollow conical elements, known as denticles, which although solid, consist of three distinct regions: a distal blade, a central part and a proximal ray. the denticles are inserted into each other subtended by a ring of fine skeletal rods, called radial pins. the disc is encircled by a moveable border membrane, reinforced by fine skeletal rays appearing as fine striations. the locomotory organelle consists of a compound wreath of oblique ciliary rows (basson and van as, 2006; el-tantawy and el-sherbiny, 2010). the morphology of the denticles in the adhesive disc has been widely used in species identification of trichodinids (van as and basson 1989, 1992). more than 300 trichodinid ciliophoran species, representing 11 genera have been reported from the gills, skin, fins, urinary bladder as well as reproductive system of different fish species in the world (asmat, 2014; özer et al., 2015). among the genera of trichodinidae the genus dipartiella (raabe, 1959) stein, 1961. species of this genus are described by denticle ring composed of tightly packed denticles, consisting only of blades and weakly developed central parts which do not extend into conical protrusions (basson and van as, 1989). according to the characteristic values of the denticles, dipartiella was confirmed to be the most primitive genus in the existing genera of trichodinidae (gong et al., 2005). only four species of this genus have http://dx.doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2018.15.2.0139 140 recording of two species of the genus dipartiella been described throughout the world (raabe, 1959; mitra and bandyopadhyay, 2009; saha and bandyopadhyay, 2017). as no previous record was given for any species of the genus dipartiella from fishes of iraq (mhaisen, 2018), the present study is concerned with the first record of this genus in iraq, as it is found to be represented with two species (d. indiana and d. kazubski) parasitizing gills of cyprinus carpio from al-graiat location in the tigris river at baghdad city. materials and methods fishes were collected weekly from tigris river in baghdad city near al-graiat location (33° 24' n, 44° 20' e), between july 2015 and march 2016. a total of 42 specimens of c. carpio were examined. skin and abstracted gills from fresh fishes were examined under a dissecting microscope. fresh skin and gill smears, which made from the hosts, were microscopically examined for the presence of trichodinids. smears with trichodinids were air-dried, fixed with absolute methanol and stained with giemsa stain in accordance with the method proposed by shuaib and osman (2015). the systematic descriptions used in the present study were based on the observations of living as well as giemsa stained specimens; method of measurements and the terminology were mainly made according to basson and van as (1989). drawings were done by using a camera lucida. all measurements used in the description are presented in micrometers in the following order; minimum-maximum (mean) values. by contact on the email, the information on the previous account records of trichodinids of fishes of iraq were checked wih the indexcatalogue of parasites and disease agents of fishes of iraq (mhaisen,2018). results and discussion two species of the genus dipartiella namely d. indiana and d. kazubski were found on the gills of the common carp c. carpio from al-graiat location on the tigris river at baghdad city. the following is a brief account on their description and measurements. dipartiella indiana saha and bandyopadhyay, 2017 this parasite was obtained from gills of c. carpio with a prevalence of 2.4 % and a mean intensity of 3. the following is an account on the description and measurements (in µm, based on five specimens) of this parasite as shown in plate (1). small trichodinid, measures 29.6-31.2 (30.4) in diameter. adhesive disc usually rounded 22.6-23.8 (23.2) in diameter which is encircled by finely striated border membrane 1.6-2.2 (1.9) wide. number of radial pins per denticle 3-4. diameter of denticle ring: 10.4-11.8 (11.1). number of denticles 21. span of denticle 3.4-4.2 (3.8). macronucleus u-shaped, external diameter 22.6-24.2 (23.4), length of area between ends of macronucleus 3.5-3.9 (3.7). micronucleus could not be noticed in any of the studied specimens. adhesive disc appeared uniformly blade elongated, anterior and posterior margins parallel, slightly curved towards y+1 axis, occupying most area between y-axes, distal margin extremely flat and truncated, runs parallel to the wide border membrane; tangent point blunt with rectangular end; central part reduced, ray absent. 141 kefah naser abdul-ameer & fatima khalaf atwan plate 1: dipartiella indiana. diagrammatic drawing. (scale bar= 3.2 μm), bphotomicrograph (1000x). the description and measurements of the present d. indiana is in agreement with those reported by saha and bandyopadhyay (2017) from gills of carassius auratus from fish farms of west bengal, india. dipartiella kazubski mitra and bandyopadhyay, 2009 this parasite was obtained from gills of c. carpio with a prevalence of 7.1 % and a mean intensity 2. the following is an account on the description and measurements (in µm, based on five specimens) of this parasite as shown in plate (2). small trichodinid, 18.2-19.8 (19.0) in diameter; adhesive disc usually rounded 14.2-15.2 (14.7) in diameter which is encircled by finely striated border membrane 1.0-1.6 (1.3) wide; number of radial pins per denticle 4. diameter of denticle ring: 9.6-10.0 (9.8); number of denticles 33, span length of denticle: 3.2-3.8 (3.5). macronucleus c-shaped, external diameter 13.4-13.8 (13.6), length of area between ends of macronucleus 2.0-2.4 (2.2). micronucleus could not be noticed in any of the studied specimens. adhesive disc mostly appeared oblong. blade broad, rectangular, anterior and posterior straight and parallel, slightly curved towards y+1 axis, occupies most area between y-axis, distal margin of blade truncated, remains in close proximity to border membrane and runs parallel with it. tangent point commonly like a point. anterior blade margin do not touches or extends beyond y+1 axis. posterior margin of blade almost straight. central part reduced, ray absent. 142 recording of two species of the genus dipartiella plate 2: dipartiella kazubski. a-diagrammatic drawing. (scale bar= 1.2 μm), bphotomicrograph (1000x). the descriptions and measurements of the present d. kazubski are in agreement with those reported by mitra and bandyopadhyay (2009) from gills of both batasio batasio and wallago attu of the river tista and the river churni, respectively, of west bengal, india. according to mhaisen (2018), the occurrence of the two parasites of the present study, dipartiella indiana and d. kazubski represents their first record in fishes of iraq as no previous record was given for these parasites from fishes of iraq. acknowledgements thanks are due to prof. dr. furhan t. mhaisen for permission to use his indexcatalogue of parasites and disease agents of fishes of iraq and his critical reading of the manuscript. thanks due to rana s. shellal, department of biology, college of education for pure science (ibn al-haitham) for providing some of the references of this study. literature cited asmat, g. s. m. 2014. record of trichodina gobii raabe, 1959 (ciliophora: trichodinidae) from dusky sleeper, eleotris fuska (forster, 1801) (perciformes: eleotridae) in west bangal, india. bonneprani-bangladish wildife bulletin, 7(2): 1-6. basson, l. and van as, j. g. 1989. differential diagnosis of the genera in the family trichodinidae (ciliophora: peritrichida) with the description of a new genus ectoparasitic on freshwater fish from southern africa. systematic parasitology, 13: 153-160. basson, l. and van as, j. g. 2006. trichodinidae and other ciliophorans (phylum ciliophora): 154-182. in: fish diseases and disorders, 2nd edn, vol. i, protozoan and metazoan infections (ed. woo, p.t.k.), cabi, wallingford, uk, 791pp. el-tantawy, s. a. m and el-sherbiny, h. a. e. 2010. ectoparasitic trichodinians infecting catfish clarias gariepinus inhabiting nile delta water of the river nile, dakahlia province, egypt. journal of american science, 6(9): 656-668. 143 kefah naser abdul-ameer & fatima khalaf atwan gong, y., yu, y., feng, w. and shen, y. 2005. phylogenetic relationships among trichodinidae (ciliophora: peritricha) derived from the characteristic values of denticles. acta protozoologica, 44: 237-243. mhaisen, f. t. 2018. index-catalogue of parasites and disease agents of fishes of iraq. (unpublished: mhaisenft@yahoo.co.uk). mitra, a. k. and bandyopadhyay, p. k. 2009. dipartiella kazubskisp. nov. (ciliophora: peritrichida), a new ectoparasitic trichodinid species from the gills of freshwater fishes in india. protistology, 6(1):33-38. özer, a., öztürk, t., kornyychuk, y. m. and yurakhno, v. 2015. trichodina gobii (ciliophora: trichodinidae) on whiting merlangius merlangus with a checklist from turkish and russian coasts of the black sea. acta zoologica academiae scientiarum hungaricae, 61 (2): 119-134. raabe, z. 1959. urceolariidae of gills of gobiidae and cottidae from baltic sea. acta parasitologica polonica, 7: 441-452. saha, m. and bandyopadhyay, p. k. 2017. occurrence of two new species of the genus dipartiella (raabe, 1959) stein 1961 (ciliophora: trichodinidae) isolated for the first time from ornamental fish. journal of parasitic diseases, 41(4): 940-946. shuaib, m.e. and osman, h.a. 2015. survey of internal protozoan parasites on freshwater fish oreochromis niloticus in white nile in sudan. direct research journal of agriculture and food science, 3(3): 62-69. van as, j. g. and basson, l. 1989. a further contribution to the taxonomy of the trichodinidae (ciliophora: pertrichia) and a review of the taxonomic status of some fish ectoparasitic trichodinids. systematic parasitology, 14(3): 157-179. van as, j. g. and basson, l. 1992. trichodinid ectoparasites (ciliophora: trichodinidae) of freshwater fishes of the zambesi river system, with a reappraisal of host specificity. systematic parasitology, 22: 81-99. 144 recording of two species of the genus dipartiella bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. december, (2018) 15 (2): 139-144 شعبة حامالت ) dipartiella (raabe, 1959) stein, 1961تسجيل نوعين من الجنس ألول مرة في العراق من غالصم سمكة الكارب اإلعتيادي ( ترايكودينيديعائلة : األهداب cyprinus carpio فاطمة خلف عطوانواألمير عبد ناصر كفاح بغداد، بغداد، العراق جامعة الهيثم، إبن -الصرفة للعلوم التربية كلية الحياة، علوم قسم 30/05/3402: تاريخ القبول 32/40/3402: تاريخ االستالم الخالصة وجود نوعين من cyprinus carpioأظهر فحص غالصم سمكة الكارب اإلعتيادي dipartiella (raabe, 1959) stein, 1961يعودان لجنس trichodinidaeعائلة من منطقة الكريعات على نهر العراق في مرة ألول d. kazubski و d. indianaوهما من األسماك dipartiellaوهذا يمثل أيضا أول تسجيل للجنس. دجلة في مدينة بغداد .لهما التوضيحية الرسوم عن فضالكال الطفيليين وقياسات مواصفات إعطاء تم. العراقية bull 145 hayder badry ali & ruia safwan kamal bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. december, (2018) 15 (2): 145-151 faunistic review of the genus chaitophorus koch, 1854 (aphididae, chaitophorinae, chaitophorini) with new record species for iraq aphid fauna hayder badry ali* and ruia safwan kamal department of biology, college of science, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq * corresponding author e-mail: hayder.ali1130@yahoo.com received date: 12 may 2018 accepted date: 26 june 2018 abstract a faunistic review of the genus chaitophorus koch, 1854, including four species in iraq is given; the distribution data of each species and their hosts have been recorded. in this investigation the poplar leaf aphid ch. populialbae (boyer de fonscolombe, 1841) is recorded here for the first time in iraq on popular trees populus euphratica oliv. during the period from november 2016 to april 2017 in baghdad province. a brief description for apterous viviparous female of this species is given; and a key to the species of the genus chaitophorus is constricted. key words: aphid fauna, aphididae, chaitophorinae, chaitophorus, iraq. introduction the subfamily chaitophorinae (homoptera: aphididae) divided into two tribes chaitophorini and siphini, comprises about 170 species within 12 genera (wieczorek et al., 2017); the distribution range of this subfamily is mainly in the palaearctic (about 80% of species), and nearctic region (wieczorek, 2010; zhu et al., 2017). most of the species of the tribe chaitophorini are monoecious holocyclic and infest plant families which belong to salicaceae (populus and salix) and aceraceae (blackman and eastop, 1994), there is a difficulty to distinguish between species of chaitophorinae based on their morphological characteristics, although the tribe chaitophorini has clear morphological differences between genera; separating between chaitophorus species using morphology has always been problematic because of the fact that the morphological differences between species within these genera are relatively slight (hille ris lambers, 1960; pintera, 1987; zhu et al., 2017). chaitophorus is a typical genus of the chaitophorinae: it is the largest genus in the subfamily and is well known from europe and asia (pintera, 1987); this genus consists of about 109 valid species (zhu et al., 2017) and distribution in the palaearctic and nearctic zoogeographical regions; in addition to the species of plant family salicaceae as a host some chaitophorus species infest limited host belongs to vitaceae, daucaceae and compositae (pintera, 1987). http://dx.doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2018.15.2.0145 146 faunistic review of the genus chaitophorus koch very little attention had been given to the study of this group in iraq; a total of four species are now known from the genus chaitophorus in iraq, these species are ch. euphraticus hodjat, ch. leucomelas koch and ch. nigritus hille ris lambers (kaddou, 1966; daoud and el-haidari, 1968; al-ali, 1977); in addition to ch. populialbae (boyer de fonscolombe, 1841) which recorded here as new record species to aphid fauna of iraq which are listed in the present study. materials and methods aphid specimens infested euphratic – poplar populus euphratica oliv.; the trees were collected from various locations of baghdad province, over a period from november 2016 to april 2017. aphids were collected from their host plants with a fine brush and put in a tube which contained 70% alcohol, the collecting and preserving technique was based mainly on van emden (1972) method. the aphids were systematically classified according to the catalog of remaudiére and remaudiére (1997); all measurements of the aphid are with millimeter (mm),the parameters measured are as in ilharco and van harten (1987), except for body length (bl) which is always measured to the base of the cauda and does not include any projecting cauda. aphid specimens were deposited in the collection of iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad. results and discussion during the current investigation, four species of the genus chaitophorus koch have been recorded to iraq aphid fauna; the records information for these species is compared with previous checklists as above in addition to our collection; the key to the species of this genus is designed as follows: key to chaitophorus species on iraq popular trees (apterous viviparae in spring): 1body oval, color in life dark green, blackish-brown to black……..................… ch. nigritus body short-bodied, to elongate oval, color in life pale green to yellowish white…………..2 2dorsum pale or with green irregular markings, siphunculi black…………. ch. leucornelas dorsum with black or dark green longitudinal pleural stripes, siphunculi pale ………...….3 3antennal segment vi processus terminalis (ant pt) / base of antennal segment vi base 2.4-3.0, ultimate rostral segment (urs) 1.0-1.28 × second segment of hind tarsus ht ii,……………………………………………………………………….…….ch. populialbae antennal segment vi processus terminalis ant pt / base of antennal segment vi base 1.52.0, ultimate rostral segment (urs) 0.9-1.0 × second segment of hind tarsus ht ii, …………………………………………………...…………………….…ch. euphraticus chaitophorus populialbae (boyer de fonscolombe, 1841) diagnostic characters: apterous viviparous female: color in life pale green to yellowish white, often with small green spots, head and tips of antennal segments and tarsi light brown (pl. 1) 147 hayder badry ali & ruia safwan kamal body 1.2-2.4 mm long (pl. 2a); antennae pale 0.80-1.0 mm long with six segment, 0.500.85 x as long as the body, third antennal segment (ant iii) 0.18-0.30 mm long with blunt or acuminate at apices hairs longest one 0.030.05 mm long. processus terminalis (ant pt) 0.22-0.31 mm long, 2.4-3.0 as long as base of antennal segment vi (ant vi b) (pl. 2b) which is 0.085-0.12 mm long; rostrum reaches hind coxae, ultimate rostral segment (urs) (pl. 2c) 0.095-0.138 mm long; 1.0-1.28 x as long as second segment of hind tarsus (ht ii) (pl. 2d) and bears 3-4 accessory hairs. abdominal dorsum faintly nodulose, hairs on dorsum of abdomen acuminate or furcated at apices; legs pale, hairs on tibiae fine, longest one on hind tibiae 0.070-0.080 mm long, 2.5-3.1 x as long as diameter at middle of hind tibiae, ht ii 0.09-0.128 mm long, first tarsal segments with 5, 5, 5 hairs. siphunculi (pl. 2e) pale, reticulated; 0.05-0.08 mm long; 0.0350.055 x as long as body; cauda (pl. 2f) pale, distinctly knobbed; 0.08-0.18 mm long; 0.050.08 x as long as body with 6-7 hairs. plate (1): ch. populialbae (boyer de fonscolombe) color variation in life. comments: as far as in diagnostic characters between our description of this study and previous literature related to this species, there are many differences, with respect to measurement of body length, ghosh (1980) determined smaller size than our specimens, as for the length of the antenna, pintera (1987) described longer antenna, while ghosh (1980) recorded shorter antenna, and other differences as length of second segment of hind tarsus (ht) that our specimens are significantly longer than that determined by ghosh (1980) and less clearly by hodjat (1981). the other characteristic, such as the length of siphunculi and cauda showed minor differences that do not count importantly in taxonomy, and perhaps they are due to geographical variation between different populations of this species. material examined: sixteen apterous viviparous female and several nymphs, baghdad province: aljadiriya, 22.xi.2016, 28.ii.2017; taji, 08.iii.2016; abu ghraib, 25.iii.2017; alzaifraniya, 02.iv.2017. 148 faunistic review of the genus chaitophorus koch global distribution: palaearctic region, parts of africa, and are introduced and widespread in north america (blackman and eastop, 1994), this species is new for the iraqi aphid fauna. chaitophorus euphraticus hodjat, 1981 global distribution: iran (hodjat, 1981), in iraq daoud and el-haidari (1968) recorded this species feed on euphrates poplar at baghdad province during april and july. chaitophorus leucomelas koch, 1854 (= chaitophorus versicolor koch, 1854) global distribution: widely distributed in europe (pintera, 1987; blackman and eastop, 2015); north africa (boukhris-bouhachem et al., 2007; laamari et al., 2013); asia including kazakhstan, mongolia, east siberia (pashchenko, 1988); north and south america (rubín de celis and ortiz, 1992; ramirez et al., 2004); in iraq daoud and el-haidari (1968) and al-ali (1977) recorded this species on populus euphratica in baghdad at august; diyala and baquba at october. chaitophorus nigritus hille ris lambers, 1966 global distribution: india (ghosh, 1980); pakistan and iran (pintera, 1987); turkey and iraq (blackman and eastop, 2015; güçlü et al., 2015). plate (2): chaitophorus populialbae: (a) mounted body, (b) sixth antennal segment (ant vi), (c) ultimate rostral segment (urs), (d) second segment of hind tarsus (ht ii), (e) siphunculi sihp, (f) cauda. 149 hayder badry ali & ruia safwan kamal litereature cited al-ali, a. s. 1977. phytophagous and entomophagous insects and mites of iraq. iraq natural history museum, publication, 33:142pp. blackman, r. l. and eastop v. f. 1994. aphids on the world’s trees. cab international, wallingford, 987 pp. blackman, r. l. and eastop, v. f. 2015. aphids on the world’s plants: an online identification and information guide. available at: http://www.aphidsonworldsplants.info/ boukhris-bouhachem, s., souissi, r., turpeau, e., rouzé jouan, j., fahem, m. and hullé, m. 2007. aphid (hemiptera, aphidoidea) diversity in tunisia in relation to seed potato production. annales de la société entomologique de france (ns), 43(3): 311–318. daoud, a. k. and el-haidari, h. s. 1968. recorded aphids of iraq. iraq natural history museum, publication, 24: 37 pp. ghosh, a. k. 1980. the fauna of india and the adjacent countries. homoptera, aphidoidea. part 1. general introduction and sub-family chaitophirinae. zoological survey of india, calcutta, 124 pp. güçlü, ş., kavaz, h., güçlü, c. and özdemir, i. 2015. aphids (hemiptera: aphididae) and their parasitoids on ornamental trees and shrubs in erzurum, turkey. türkiye entomoloji dergisi, 39 (1): 3-9. hille ris lambers, d. 1960. the genus chaitophorus koch in north america (homoptera, aphididae). tijdschrift voor entomologie, 103: 1-30. hodjat, s. h. 1981. two new aphids from iran and keys to related middle eastern species. journal of natural history, 15: 365-374 ilharco, f. a. and van harten, a. 1987. systematics. pp 51-77. in: minks, a.k. and harrewijn, p. (eds.) aphids, their biology, natural enemies and control, vol. a. elsevier, amsterdam. kaddou, i. k. 1966. aphidae from iraq. bulletin of biological research center, 2:21-35. laamari, m., coeur d’acier, a. and jousselin, e. 2013. new data on aphid fauna (hemiptera, aphididae) in algeria. zookeys, 319: 223-229 pashchenko, n. f. 1988. suborder aphidinea – aphids. in: lehr, p.a. (ed.) keys to the identification of insects of the soviet far east vol. 2, hemiptera and heteroptera. 'nauka', leningrad, pp 546-686. (in russian) pintera, a. 1987. taxonomic revision of the species of the genus chaitophorus koch in palaearctis (homoptera: aphidoidea). deutsche entomologische zeitschrift, 34 (4-5): 219-340. 150 faunistic review of the genus chaitophorus koch ramírez, c. c., zamudio, f., verduco, j. v. and nuñez, m. e. 2004. differential susceptibility of poplar hybrids to the aphid chaitophorus leu (homoptera: aphididae). journal of economic entomology, 97: 1965-1971. remaudière, g. and remaudière, m. 1997. catalogue des aphididae du monde. inra, paris, 473 pp. rubín de celis, v. e. and ortiz, m.s. 1992. chaitophorus leucomelas koch (homoptera: aphididae, chaitophorinae) nuevo registro para sudamérica. revista peruana de entomologia, 35: 53. van emden, h. f. (ed.) 1972. aphid technology. academic press, new york, 344pp. wieczorek, k. 2010. amonograph of siphini mordvilko, 1928 (hemiptera: aphidoidea: chaitophorinae). wydawnictwo uniwersytetu slaskiego, katowice, 297 pp. wieczorek, k., lachowska-cierlik, d., kajtoch, è. and kanturski, m. 2017. the relationships within the chaitophorinae and drepanosiphinae (hemiptera, aphididae) inferred from molecular-based phylogeny and comprehensive morphological data. plos one, 12(3): 1-31. zhu, x-c., chen, j., chen, r., jiang, l-y. and qiao, g-x. 2017. dna barcoding and species delimitation of chaitophorinae (hemiptera, aphididae). zookeys, 656: 25–50. 151 hayder badry ali & ruia safwan kamal bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. december, (2018) 15 (2): 145-151 مراجعة لفونا الجنس chaitophorus koch, 1854 (aphididae, chaitophorinae, chaitophorini) مع تسجيل جديد الحد انواع الجنس لفونا الَمن العراقية رؤيا صفوان كمال و حيدر بدري علي .العلوم، جامعة بغداد، بغداد، العراققسم علوم الحياة، كلية 12/52/1522: تاريخ القبول 21/50/1522: تاريخ االستالم الخالصة ، بما في ذلك اربعة chaitophorus koch, 1854اجريت مراجعة لفونا الجنس خالل هذا التحري، . بيانات توزيع كل نوع مع مضائفها أنواع في العراق، وقد تم تسجيل ch. populialbae (boyer de سجلت حشرة َمن أوراق شجرة الحور fonscolombe, 1841) على اشجار populus euphratica oliv. خالل الفترة من في محافظة بغداد للمرة األولى كإضافة للفونا 6102 إلى نيسان 6102تشرين الثاني . يوانية العراقيةالح اعطي وصف موجز لألناث العذرية غير المجنحة من هذا النوع، مع مفتاح لعزل انواع .في العراق chaitophorus الجنس bull 189 al-jaberi et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. december, (2018) 15 (2): 189-206 mineralogy and geochemistry of coral reef in iraqi marine environment in the north part of arabian gulf mohanad h. al-jaberi * moutaz a. al-dabbas ** abather j. bashar *** and munaf q. jaber *** * department of geology, college of science, university of basrah, basrah, iraq ** department of geology, college of science, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq *** marine science center, university of basrah, basrah, iraq ** corresponding author: profaldabbas@yahoo.com received date: 10 august 2018 accepted date: 19 november 2018 abstract coral reef area in northwest of the arabian gulf was investigated for mineralogy and geochemistry to throw lights on such unique iraqi marine environment; six specimens of two main species of coral reefs, platygyra pini and octocoral menella were collected at two sites. while eight samples of the surrounding sediments are chosen from other two sites. the mineralogy is determined by xrd, and reveals that calcite, low magnesium-calcite, and aragonite are the main minerals that comprise the octocoral menella in site 1, whilst aragonite and calcite are dominate in the p. pini coral reef at site 4. the non–carbonate fractions indicate that these coral reefs contain quartz, anorthite feldspare , halite, and gypsum; the highest content of aragonite was observed in the p. pini compared to calcite. the abundance of carbonate minerals (92.1%) in the p. pini is in contrast to (73.1%) in the menella. the main minerals in the sediments of site 2 are represented by chlorite and talc, whereas quartz and phengite are the most prominent minerals that diagnose in sediments of site 3; phengite mineral is a first discovery in the sediments of arabian gulf, whilst talc is a first detection in iraqi marine sediments. the concentration of cao is the most abundant oxide in all the analyzed specimens of the coral reef followed by sio2. there are high proportions of calcium oxide in p. pini chevalier coral (56.65 %) than the menella (48.81%). there are some special pattern of distribution for major and trace elements in coral reef area based on calcium content. most of the silica came from quartz, phengite and clay minerals; the highest concentrations of al2o3, fe2o3, k2o, na2o, mgo, sio2, tio2, v2o5, cr, ni, cu, rb and zr are found in the sediments of site 2 as opposed to the other sites. these results could affect the association of these elements with clay minerals through adsorption or absorption, the highest content of p2o5, ga, w and as in the sediments of site 3 may reflect the adsorption of these elements on surface of the quartz and phengite; from the other hand, the highest concentrations of sr, zn, br, sn, ta, and pb in the p. pini may indicate the relative effects of the environmental variation within the studied area. keywords: arabian gulf, coral reefs, iraq, menella, platygyra pini. http://dx.doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2018.15.2.0189 190 mineralogy and geochemistry of coral reef in iraqi marine introduction coral reefs are among the greatest keys to unlock our understandings of a marine ecosystem (perkol – fenkel and banayahu, 2007); this organism lives within exclusive temperature conditions and the sea water varieties survive between 14 to 34 0c (coles and fadlallah, 1991). coral reefs of the arabian gulf and oman sea are serious habitats of cultural, socio-economic, and scientific importance. the seven countries surrounding the arabian gulf – bahrain, kuwait, iran, iraq, qatar, saudi arabia and the united arab emirates – share a valuable ecosystem. corals particularly in the arabian gulf are exposed to great summer sea temperatures compared with other tropical regions, with temperatures above 34°c for several months annually and summer maxima rising above 36°c (coles and riegl, 2013; burt et al .,2015). salinity in the arabian gulf is also very high, generally between 3546 ppt in iraqi marine environments (al-dabbas and al-jaberi, 2015) , while in the shallow waters between bahrain and qatar, salinity often exceeds 50 ppt; these waters have the potential to offer important insights into how corals respond to temperature and salinity stress (smith et al., 2017). arabian gulf reefs are relatively geographically isolated from the indian ocean by the narrow (42 km wide) strait of hormuz, yet are relatively young current shorelines (reached ~6000 years ago) (lambeck, 1996); however it is unclear whether there has been enough isolation to support genetic adaptation to the local environment. around the world, reefs grow at temperatures of about 28°c and above a certain threshold, the corals start expelling the algae from their tissue in a phenomenon known as coral bleaching. bleached corals can sometimes recover, but, in many cases, die. in australia, corals start to bleach if the water reaches 31°c. however, in the arabian gulf, bleaching starts at 35 to 36°c . in most areas of the arabian gulf, corals do not form true reefs, but are better described as ‘coral carpets’, where separate colonies a raise on exposed rocky substrates rather than building on older dead coral skeletons (burt et al.,2015). seasonal changes in the intimate environment of coral reefs cause a physiological effect on these organisms ( eghtesadiaraghi, 2011); arabian gulf coral groups are on average, smaller in size relative to their counterparts living in more benign conditions outside the area (burt, 2013); the lack of larger sized colonies within the arabian gulf indicates that most individual colonies may not survive for the lengths of time they do in areas outside of the gulf, as a result of the harsh nature of the gulf environment (riegl and purkis, 2012). the arabian gulf coral reef communities can be classified according to place of growth in the water, (a) offshore deep water reefs and (b) near shore shallow water reefs burt et al. (2015) distinguishes two types of coral reef communities in qatar, shallow communities (600 m from the shore) at a depth of 3 m, and deep communities (40 km from the shore) at a depth of 25 m. pilcher et al. (2000) refers to the depth of near shore coral reefs in kuwait as ranging between 10 to 15 m, while the offshore coral reefs are surrounded by a 30 m depth. rezai and savari (2004) asserts that coral cover in the gulf of oman is typically 30-40% at depths of 4-12 m; the only significant population of living coral in bahrain is surrounded by 40 m deep sea water; comparatively coral reef communities in offshore and nearshore in iran range at 3 to 15 m (rezai and savari, 2004) . total coral reef area coverage in the uae which occurs primarily as shoals and which localises around the numerous offshore islands, ranges at less than 20 m deep (riegl, 2002). most coral reefs communities in the arabian gulf are near-shore shallow water reefs; coral reefs use calcium carbonate (caco3) from sea water 191 al-jaberi et al. to synthesize a hard and protective marine shells (kleypas et al.,1999; langdon et al., 2000; falter et al., 2001). in the ocean, where aragonite saturation decreases, the effect will tend to favor organisms that create the more stable forms of calcium carbonate, such as calcite and high magnesium calcite; aragonite-creating organisms, like corals, will in turn be subject to more dissolution and bio-erosion, calcification of all groups, however; is negatively affected by the decrease in the carbonate saturation of sea waters (feely et al., 2004). coral reefs in the northern and northwestern territories of the arabian gulf are exposed to a very heavy load of particles that derive their input from the shatt al-arab river of iraq; nine species of coral reefs we are discovered in the iraqi marine environment between september of 2012 and may of 2013 by marine science center (msc) of basrah, iraq and scientific diving center (sdc) of freiberg ,germany (pohl et al.,2014). this investigation aims to describe the mineralogy and geochemistry of iraqi coral reefs and the surrounding marine sediments. materials and methods iraqi coral reefs are offshore, distributed within a space of approximately 28 km2, at depths ranging between 7-20 m (pohl et al., 2014) (map 1). the study area is located in the northwest arabian gulf between 29°36'30´´n 29°39'20.94´´n latitude and 48°48'21.2´´e 48°49'89.1´´e longitude (map 2, tab. 1). this investigation aims to describe the mineralogy and geochemistry of iraqi coral reefs and the surrounding marine sediments. map (1): modified map of coral reefs distribution according to burt et al. (2015), with illustrating the iraqi coral reefs 192 mineralogy and geochemistry of coral reef in iraqi marine map (2): (a) regional map of the coral reefs area, (b) magnified map of the coral reef area illustrating the position of research sites. table (1): site coordinates of the study area site coordinates 1 29°39'20.94´´n 48°49'30.6´´e 2 29°36'30´´n 48°49'89.1´´e 3 29°38'02.8´´n 48°49'12.4´´e 4 29°36'59.0´´n 48°48'21.2´´e 193 al-jaberi et al. fourteen specimens from coral reefs and marine sediments are selected in four sites in the iraqi coral reefs area; all the specimens were collected by experienced scientific divers from msc in university of basrah. six from them represent deferent two species of coral reefs. three specimens collected from the menella species and another three from p. pini (sites 1 and 4). eight specimens are collected from the surrounding marine sediments in the coral reefs area (sites 2 and 3), four specimens from site 2, and four from site 3 as shown in map (2 b); specimens were taken in plastic boxes and transported to the geology laboratory in basrah university. mineral identification of the specimens took place with x-ray diffraction patterns obtained by means of a d-5000 x-ray diffractometer, using cukα sources in wavelength, v being 1.54056å at 40 kv and 30 ma between 5-65°. geochemical analyses for the major and trace elements were calculated by inductively coupled plasma – atomic emission spectrometry (icp-aes) method for major oxides (al2o3, sio2, cao, mgo , fe2o3, na2o, k2o, p2o5, tio2, v2o5, mno, and sro) , and inductively coupled plasma – mass spectrometry (icpms) method for trace elements (ni, cu , zn, as, ga, br, rb, zr, mo, sn,ta, w, pb, and cr) at the als laboratories in spain. results and discussion (a) mineralogical analysis coral contains the carbonate minerals from the coral skeleton, but also contains many minerals that are a natural chelate due to the zooxanthellae that grows on the coral (devnita, 2009); calcite, aragonite and dolomite create more than 90 % of carbonate minerals of coral reefs (scherer, 1986). they form as grains and cements in the body of corals (tucker and hollingworth, 1986); besides those minerals, there are also other minerals, which build coral reefs as minor components (schroeder and purser, 1986), the mineralogical composition of sediments around coral reefs is derived from the reef itself (devnita, 2009); the composition of the specimens in the studied sites has been recognized by x-ray diffraction analyses. the bulk mineral components and the relative abundance of each mineral have been considered on the basis of peak high measurements of a 100% reflection peak; the data attained are summarized in table (2) and selected x-ray diffractograms are provided in diagrams (1, 2, 3, and 4); carbonate minerals obtained in the menella sp.l (site 1) are calcite, low mg-calcite, and aragonite. calcite recorded here dominates over aragonite; the non – carbonate fractions show that the menella contain quartz, anorthite feldspar, and halite. however, these minerals are not the dominant minerals normally found in these reefs (tab. 2). aragonite and calcite could be the main carbonate minerals of the p. pini in site 4, it formed more than 92% from the total minerals of this reef, and recorded here dominates over calcite, quartz and halite are recorded at lower constituents regarding this species of coral reef. the abundance of carbonate minerals (92.1%) in the species of p. pini is in contrast to volumes present in the octocoral menella species (73.1%). the content of carbonate minerals in iraqi coral reefs are seemingly higher than the adjacent coral reefs in kuwait and saudi arabia (al-langawi, 2013; basyoni,1999). non-carbonate minerals attributed to these corals may indicate that rock fragments within the coral reef area stems not only from the origin of the reef, but also from other sources, since feldspar and quartz arise from igneous rocks. major minerals in the sediments of site 3 are quartz, phengite, and gypsum. the clay minerals, chlorite and talc comprise more than 96% of the total minerals in the sediments of site 2 (tab. 2). the phengite is the first recorded mineral in sediments of the arabian gulf, while talc has been the first detected in iraqi marine sediments. phengite is similar to muscovite, 194 mineralogy and geochemistry of coral reef in iraqi marine but with the addition of magnesium, iron and an overall high silica content (mookherjee and redfern, 2002). cibin et al. (2008) proposes that phengite is an aluminum true mica which contains a high amount of tetrahedral co-ordinated silica; most of the phengite have a fluorine content that uses an indicator for metamorphosed sediments (liu et al., 2009). talc is a hydrous silicate composed of magnesium, silica and water that is relatively pure in composition, but can contain small amounts of aluminum, iron, manganese and titanium; it ore from within the deposit originates from hydrothermal alteration processes involving of magnesium minerals, mainly olivine and orthopyroxenes, but may also occur from a process of regional metamorphism or contact with magnesium calcareous or ultrabasic rocks (pontes and almeida, 2005). this occurrence is associated with a mineral presence of biotite, chlorite, serpentine and carbonates (machado, 2016). in subduction zone metamorphism that leads to continuous reduction of water stored, hydrous minerals in metapelites are evident as potassic mica (phengite) , whereas other important hydrous phases in subdution zones are talc and chlorite as shown by schmidt and poli (2014). chen et al. (2017) mentioned the phengite is a critical carrier of water and potassium (k) in sediment as well as in the basaltic layers of subducted slabs; the data herein provides sufficient conclusions that the source of discovering the phengite, talc and chlorite in the sediments of coral reefs in the study area may be derived from metamorphic rocks that formed during subduction processes between arabian and persian plates. table (2): minerals are recognized within the research sites sites mineral chemical formula percentage % site 1 calcite caco3 31.8 mg-calcite ca0.9mg0.1co3 20.7 aragonite caco3 20.6 quartz sio2 16.6 anorthite feldspar al2ca0.2o8si2sr0.8 7.3 halite nacl 3 site 2 chlorite al0.865fe0.255h4mg2.292o9si1.588 80 talc h2mg3o12si4 16.5 gypsum cah4o6s 3.5 site 3 quartz sio2 57.5 phengite al9.12fe1.12f0.16h8k2mgna0.1o48si13 35 gypsum cah4o6s 7.5 site 4 aragonite caco3 63.8 calcite caco3 28.3 quartz sio2 5 halite nacl 2.9 195 al-jaberi et al. diagram (1): xrd of octocoral menella coral reef in site 1. diagram (2): xrd of marine sediments in site 2. 196 mineralogy and geochemistry of coral reef in iraqi marine diagram (4): xrd of platygyra pini coral reef in site 4 diagram (3): xrd of marine sediments in site 3. 197 al-jaberi et al. (b) geochemical analysis the mineralogical composition of coral reefs depends upon the organisms which composed them (schroeder and purser, 1986); coral reefs which are built by carbonate sedimentary rocks are comprised more than 50 % of carbonate minerals and these minerals contain co3 2 with one or more cations of calcium, magnesium and also iron (kerans et al., 1986). elements distribution in marine sediments reflects the range of chemical, oceanographic, and sedimentary controls on their supply to their distribution (clavert and pederson, 1993). the concentration of the major oxides (al2o3, sio2, cao, mgo , fe2o3, na2o, k2o, p2o5, tio2, v2o5, mno, and sro) and trace elements (ni, cu ,zn, as, ga, br, rb, zr, mo, sn, ta, w, pb, and cr) have been measured in the collected samples, and its data are presented in tables (3 and 4); the purpose of chemical analysis of the coral reef area is to identify the chemical variations in coral composition and surrounding marine sediments, calcium oxide is the most abundant oxide in all of the analyzed coral reef area followed by silica oxide . at site 4 reefs were found to contain higher proportions of calcium oxide in the p. pini (56.65 %) than the octocoral menella coral species (48.81%) at site 3, that actually confirmed the mineralogy study as mentioned in table 2. the interesting in the geochemical analysis of marine sediments in coral reef area is the larger percentages of calcium oxide than the other calcium contents in iraqi marine sediments; al-jaberi (2015) gave important information about the content of major and trace elements in iraqi marine sediments; stated that calcium oxide range in these sediments between 13.1-23%. whilst, the content of calcium oxide in the sediments of study area ranges between 35.22-39.61% as shown in table (3), which reflect the important role of coral reefs to provide the marine sediments at the studied area by carbonate minerals. however, there were some special pattern of distribution for major and trace elements in coral reef areas based on cao content; the distribution of major oxides and trace elements are listed in diagrams (5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10); cao is increase in studying sites with decrease sio2 (diag. 5), which indicates that silica oxides, mostly come from noncarbonate minerals represented by quartz, phengite and clay minerals in the sediments of the coral reef area. also, the relation between cao and mgo is belong to this group as well (diag. 5, 6). basyoni (1999) mentioned that the negative correlation between cao and mgo in coral reefs may be attributed to acid soluble carbonate (caco3) fractions and the mineralogical composition of the sediments; the largest values of major constituents: sio2, al2o3, mgo, fe2o3, k2o, na2o, tio2, v2o5 and mno, and trace elements (ni, cu, cr, rb, and zr) associated with clay minerals (chlorite and talc) are evident at site 2 as shown in diagrams (5, 6,7, 8, 9, 10) . on the other hand, the content of cao in this site is the lowest compared with the other sites; these results can be explained by the presence of these elements in the non carbonate constituents of clay minerals. alumina and silica in the sediments of this site can be considered as main constituents in the chemical composition of clay minerals; physiochemical exploration of marine sediments may provide a vision of a possible mechanism of trace elements accompanied with clay minerals, revealing adsorption on the surface or inclusion in the crystal lattice (kahn et al., 1992). in the site 3, sediments were found to contain a high proportion of silica oxide (20.25 %), and most of this oxide may relate to the content of quartz and phengite minerals. the highest p2o5, ga , w, and as concentrations were also encountered in this site ( diag. 7, 8, 9), as a result of their adsorption on the surface of the quartz and phengite. the content of the sro in p. pini was higher than the menella sp. (tab. 3, diag. 6). bathurst (1975) emphasized that the aragonite and calcite can hold some strontium level. the free energy of mixing of the strontium sr2+ in the aragonite is greater than in the calcite, thus preferring the aragonite 198 mineralogy and geochemistry of coral reef in iraqi marine (basyoni , 1999); deer et al. (1992) states that a major control on trace and minor elements in either calcite or aragonite is crystallochemical . the calcite structure accommodates ca² (ionic radius 1.00 å) as well as minor and trace elements having an ionic radius less than or equal to 1.00 å, the aragonite structure accommodates ca² together with minor and trace elements having radii close to or greater than 1.00 å; al-dabbas and al-jaberi (2015) confirm that elements which have ionic radii close to or more than 1 å are visible at higher concentrations in aragonite than in the calcite layer. this conclusion may probably enhance the results in table (3), which can be used to explain the highest content of sr, zn, br, pb, ta, and sn in the p. pini at site 4 compare to others; these elements have obvious positive relationships with calcium oxide as shown in diagrams (6, 8, 9,10). while, a high content of mo with octocoral menella coral reef ( diag. 10) is reflect the presence of this element in calcite layer. table (3):range and mean values of major oxides in studied sites. element % site 1 site 2 site 3 site 4 range mean range mean range mean range mean al2o3 1.125 2.0 1.56 3.08-3.12 3.1 2.0272.05 2.03 0.3480.35 0.349 sio2 10.43 – 10.56 10.45 24.3224.5 24.41 20.2520.32 20.28 2.75-2.81 2.78 cao 48.81 – 49.12 48.96 35.2235.27 35.24 39.41 39.61 39.51 56.6556.67 56.66 mgo 2.02.2 2.1 2.82-2.9 2.86 2.41-2.5 2.455 0.74-0.79 0.76 fe2o3 1.2421.25 1.24 1.9891.99 1.989 1.6081.62 1.61 0.2590.27 0.26 na2o 1.96 – 2.1 2.03 3.82-3.86 3.84 1.77-1.8 1.78 2.4132.43 2.42 k2o 0.239 0.242 0.24 0.6440.67 0.667 0.4090.42 0.41 0.0730.075 0.074 p2o5 0.1040.106 0.105 0.10070.1009 0.1008 0.1420.15 0.146 0.0440.05 0.047 tio2 0.1270.13 0.128 0.2660.27 0.26 0.1790.21 0.194 0.0340.042 0.038 v2o5 0.00430.0047 0.0045 0.00950.0098 0.0096 0.00740.0082 0.0078 0.00670.0072 0.0069 mno 0.02940.03 0.0297 0.0560.058 0.057 0.03990.043 0.041 0.006360.0068 0.0065 sro 0.2330.25 0.241 0.0770.079 0.078 0.09680.098 0.097 0.8410.871 0.865 l.o.i 33.533.54 33.52 27.3927.44 27.41 31.4631.52 31.49 35.7335.82 35.77 199 al-jaberi et al. table (4): range and mean values of trace elements in studied sites. element ppm site 1 site 2 site 3 site 4 range mean range mean range mean range mean ni 20.1-22 21 53.960.7 57.3 34.936.2 35.5 14.416.2 15.3 cu 20.3-25 22.6 28-29.8 28.9 2526.5 25.75 22.724.3 23.5 zn 32.9-35 33.9 46-49 47.5 59.260.6 59.9 196198 197 as 16.620.1 18.35 13.514.2 13.85 2224.2 23.1 13-16 14.5 ga 21.622.8 22.2 15-16.3 15.65 2829.3 28.6 12.313.5 12.9 br 43.448.8 46.1 11.612.8 12.2 26.828 27.4 71.472.6 72 rb 10.113.6 11.8 22.325.2 23.75 16.517.3 16.9 5.55.9 5.7 zr 1.4-2.3 1.85 53.955.1 54.5 44.645.8 45.2 1.42.2 1.8 mo 17.419.6 18.5 7.6-8.9 8.25 4.15.3 4.7 5.66.3 5.95 sn 3.7-5.8 4.75 3.9-4.8 4.35 1-2.3 1.65 16.918.2 17.5 ta 115-120 117 84.589.5 87 100105 102.5 177182 179.5 w 19.421.9 20.65 85.888.4 87.1 254256 255 88.489.5 88.9 pb 7-9.5 8.25 9.5-10.4 9.95 8.69.2 8.9 13.714.5 14 cr 55-62.5 58.75 200-212 206 178183 180.5 31.633.2 32.4 diagram(5): distribution of sio2 and cao in the studied sites. 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 site 1 site 2 site 3 site 4 sio2 cao 200 mineralogy and geochemistry of coral reef in iraqi marine diagram(6): distribution of al2o3, mgo, fe2o3, na2o, k2o, and sro in the studied sites. diagram(7): distribution of p2o5, tio2, v2o5 and mno in the studied sites diagram(8): distribution of br, ga, as, zn, cu, and ni in the studied sites. 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 al2o3 mgo fe2o3 na2o k2o sro site 1 site 2 site 3 site 4 0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 site 1 site 2 site 3 site 4 p2o5 tio2 v2o5 mno 0 50 100 150 200 ni cu zn as ga br site 1 site 2 site 3 site 4 201 al-jaberi et al. diagram(9): distribution of ta, w, and cr in the studied sites. diagram(10): distribution of pb, sn, mo, zr, and rb in the studied sites. conclusions the present study concluded the following: 1aragonite and calcite are the main minerals in the platygyra pini, the aragonite content at 63.8% higher than that of calcite at only 28.3%. 2calcite, low mgcalcite, and aragonite are the dominant minerals observed in the octocoral menella coral . 3quartz and phengite are the main minerals within the sediments of the study area at site 3, whereas chlorite and talc are most prominent at site 2. 4calcium oxide (cao) is the most abundant oxide in the study area followed by silica oxide (sio2). 5most proportions of calcium oxides in the sediments of coral reef area are providing from coral reefs itself. 6most of the silica oxides are obtained from quartz and clay minerals, whereas most calcium oxide observed in the coral reefs. 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 site 1 site 2 site 3 site 4 ta w cr 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 rb zr mo sn pb site 1 site 2 site 3 site 4 202 mineralogy and geochemistry of coral reef in iraqi marine 7some major and trace elements are associated with non-carbonate minerals are increased with decreased of cao. 8strontium and a few trace elements that have radii close to or greater than 1.00 å , have a 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(eds), reef diagenesis. springer – verlag. new york, pp 1– 7. smith, e. g., hume, b. c., delaney, p., wiedenmann, j. and burt, j. a. 2017. genetic structure of coral-symbiodinium symbioses on the world's warmest reefs. plos one 12:e0180169. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0180169 tucker, m. e. and hollingworth, t. j. 1986. the upper permian reefs complex (ez1) of north east england : diagenesis in marine evaporating setting. in: schroeder, j. h. and purser, b. h. (eds), reef diagenesis. springer – verlag. new york, pp 270–290. 205 al-jaberi et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. december, (2018) 15 (2): 189-206 جيوكيميائية الشعاب المرجانية في البيئة البحرية العراقية في الجزء الشمالي من معدنية و الخليج العربي *مهند حامد الجابري *** ، ابا ذر جبار بشار**، معتز عبد الستار الدباس ***و مناف قاسم جابر *قسم علوم االرض، كلية العلوم، جامعة البصرة، البصرة، العراق االرض، كلية العلوم، جامعة بغداد، بغداد، العراققسم علوم ** مركز علوم البحار، جامعة البصرة، البصرة، العراق*** 19/11/8800: تاريخ القبول 10/80/8800: تاريخ االستالم الخالصة دراسة معدنية وكيميائية منطقة الشعاب المرجانية في شمال غرب الخليج العربي تم ستة عينات من نوعين جمعت. الفريدةالبحرية العراقية إللقاء الضوء على هذه البيئة في حين تم . في موقعين menellaو platygyra piniرئيسيين من الشعاب المرجانية المعادن عن حددت. اختيار ثمانية عينات من الرواسب البحرية المحيطة من موقعين آخرين .للشعاب المرجانية والرواسب xrd الحائدة طريق األشعة السينية و low magnesium calcite و calcite اظهرت الدراسة المعدنية أن aragonite هي المعادن الرئيسية التي تتألف فيoctocoral menella 1في الموقع ، تشير المكونات ؛4 في الموقع p. piniفي calciteو aragoniteفي حين تهيمن معادن و quartzلمرجانية تحتوي على نسب من الغير الكربونايتية إلى أن هذه الشعاب ا feldspare وhalite وgypsum . أعلى محتوى من ان لوحظaragonite فيp. pini p. pini٪ في 1..1نسبة معادن الكربونايت تصل الى ان .calciteمقارنة مع وجود و chlorite تمثل معادن . ٪1..1و هي octocoral menellaمقارنة مع نسبتها في talc في حين أن .المعادن في رسوبيات الموقع ، quartz و phengite هما من أبرز ..الموقع سوبياتالمعادن في ر talcهو أول اكتشاف في رواسب الخليج العربي ، في حين أن phengiteمعدن ال ان . هو أول اكتشاف في الرواسب البحرية العراقية 206 mineralogy and geochemistry of coral reef in iraqi marine هو األكثر وفرة في جميع العينات التي تم تحليلها في منطقة الشعاب caoن تركيز ا مقارنة %p. pini (56.65 )في caoهناك أعلى نسب من ؛sio2المرجانية يليها هناك بعض أنماط التوزيع الخاصة للعناصر . %menella (48.81)بنسبتها في جاءت ؛في منطقة الشعاب المرجانية بناًء على محتوى الكالسيوم الرئيسية والعناصر النزرة . والمعادن الطينية phengiteو quartzمعظم نسب السيليكا من و na2oو k2oو fe2o3و al2o3نسب عالية من تراكيز تواجد هناك لوحظ mgo وsio2 وtio2 وv2o5 وcr وni وcu وrb وzr في رواسب الموقع. يمكن أن تعزى هذه النتائج الى ارتباط هذه العناصر بالمعادن ؛مقارنة بالمواقع األخرى و wو gaو p2o5أعلى محتوى من ان . الطينية عن طريق االمدصاص أو االمتصاص as معادن قد تعكس امتزاز هذه العناصر على اسطح .وكما في رواسب الموقعquartz و phengite . التراكيز العالية من قد تشيرsr، وzn br وsn وta ، وpb في الشعاب . إلى التأثيرات النسبية للتغير البيئي داخل المنطقة المدروسة platygyra piniالمرجانية bull 293 mhaisen et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. june, (2019) 15 (3): 293-318 checklists of parasites of fishes of al-diwaniyah province, iraq furhan t. mhaisen* hadi m. h. al-mayali** and hiba r. j. al-abodi*** *tegnervägen 6b, 641 36 katrineholm, sweden **department of biology, college of education, university of al-qadisiyah, al-diwaniyah, iraq ***department of environment, college of science, university of al-qadisiyah, al-diwaniyah, iraq *corresponding author e-mail: mhaisenft@yahoo.co.uk received date: 30 december 2018, accepted date: 24 february 2019, published date: 27 june 2019 abstract literature reviews of reports concerning the parasitic fauna of fishes of al-diwaniyah province, iraq till the end of december 2018 showed that a total of 43 parasite species are so far known from 13 valid fish species investigated for parasitic infections. the parasitic fauna included one euglenozoan, two myzozoans, six ciliophorans, three myxozoans, three trematodes, nine monogeneans, four cestodes, six nematodes, three acanthocephalans and six crustaceans. the infection with the trematodes, one monogenean, two cestodes and one nematode occurred with larval stages, while the remaining infections were either with trophozoites or adult parasites. among the inspected fishes, carasobarbus luteus was infected with the highest number of parasite species (20 parasite species), followed by planiliza abu (17 species) and cyprinus carpio (16 species) while two fish species (ctenopharyngodon idella and hypophthalmichthys molitrix) were infected with the minimum number of parasite species (three parasite species each). the ciliophoran trichodina domerguei and the crustacean lernaea cyprinacea were the commonest parasite species as they were reported from nine fish species each, followed by the monogenean dactylogyrus extensus and the nematode contracaecum sp. which were reported from eight and six host species, respectively, while the minimum number of one host species was reported for 22 parasite species. keywords: al-diwaniyah, checklists, fishes, iraq, parasites. introduction al-diwaniyah province is one of the iraqi provinces in the centre-south of the country. it shares boundaries with the provinces of babylon, al-najaf al-ashraf, al-muthanna, thi-qar and wassit (map 1). it is located between 31.17° and 32.24° north latitude and 44.24° and 45.49° east longitude. this province was used to be known as al-qadisiyyah province, but in 2004, its name was returned to its original name, al-diwaniyah province. the following information is available on rivers of this province according to solon (2018). the main inland waters of this province can be summarized in the following statement: shatt al-hilla enters al-diwaniyah province as al-dagharah river and al-diwaniyah river. al-dagharah river https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2019.15.3.0293 294 checklists of parasites of fishes passes through al-dagharah, sumer, afak (also spelled as afaq) and al-badair and then proceeds toward thi-qar province, while al-diwaniyah river enters al-saniyah, aldiwaniyah, al-sadair and al-hamzah and then it fades away into small branches in almuthanna province. al-shamiyah river enters al-diwaniyah province, passes through almuhanawiyah, al-salahiyah, al-shamiyah and ghammas and fades away into al-shanafiyah river which forms from the union of both al-shamiyah river and al-kufa river. it enters al-muthanna province and fades away there. each of such rivers is also known as shatt. the parasites of fishes of this province received little attention from fish parasitologists in iraq. herzog (1969) was the first one to report some parasites of fishes of iraq. he revealed the occurrence of 16 parasite species as well as three fungal species from 16 fish host species from many regions of iraq, but the exact locality was not stated for some host species and no data seemed to be from al-diwaniyah province. apart from two comprehensive surveys (aljadoaa, 2002; al-waaly, 2005), all the available reports were concerned with few parasite species from a single fish species or sometimes two fish species and rarely three fish species. the aim of the present article is to gather and review all literature in order to provide parasite-host list and host-parasite list for fishes of al-diwaniyah province. it is well known that such lists are so important for future studies. recently, some of such lists dealing with different groups of parasites and fishes of different regions in iraq were published; among them were those of mhaisen and abdullah (2016), mhaisen and al-rubaie (2016a, b), mhaisen and abdullah (2017), mhaisen et al. (2017a, b), mhaisen and al-rubaie (2018) and mhaisen et al. (2018a, b). this article also includes updating scientific names of all concerned parasites and their fish hosts. 295 mhaisen et al. map (1): map of iraq (above) showing al-diwaniyah province in a light blue colour and a detailed map of al-diwaniyah province (below) showing its cities and towns as well as the main rivers: 1al-dagharah, 2al-diwaniyah, 3al-shamiyah and 4 al-shanafiyah. this map was prepared by the second author of this article. materials and methods fourteen references (nine research papers, one higher diploma project, two unpublished m. sc. theses and two ph. d. theses) dealing with the parasites of fishes of al-diwaniyah province till the end of december 2018 were used to prepare the present checklists. data from such references were gathered to provide parasite-fish list and fish-parasite list based on some electronic sites concerned with classification (eol, 2018; gbif, 2018; global cestode database, 2018; itis, 2018; worms, 2018) as well as some relevant taxonomic references (gibson et al., 1996; amin, 2013). the layout and names of the major taxonomic groups of the concerned parasites (phyla, classes, orders and families) followed a checklist of fao fisheries technical papers (kirjušina and vismanis, 2007). for fishes, the scientific names were reported as they appeared in their original references but then they were checked with an account on freshwater fishes of iraq (coad, 2010). fish valid names and their authorities were corrected according to well-known specialized electronic sites (eschmeyer, 2018; froese and pauly, 2018). gbif (2018) was mainly followed for the systematics of these groups. the index-catalogue of parasites and disease agents of fishes of iraq (mhaisen, 2018) was used to show the first record of each parasite species from fishes of iraq as well as the number of host fish species so far recorded for each parasite species in the whole water bodies of iraq. 296 checklists of parasites of fishes parasitological investigations on fishes of al-diwaniyah province the following is a short historical account on different researches carried out on fishes of al-diwaniyah province for the investigation of their parasites. only a brief account on such surveys will be given here as the details will be given in the forthcoming parts of this review. al-jadoaa (2002) made a comprehensive investigation on the parasites of nine fish species from the northern sector of al-diwaniyah river which is situated between al-saniyah (misspelled as al-siniya) town center and al-diwaniyah city center, in addition to his investigation on the parasitic fauna of three carp species from al-furat fish farm in babylon province, which will be excluded from the contents of the present article. from the river, he detected one euglenozoan, five ciliophorans, three myxozoans, two trematodes, five monogeneans, one cestode, three nematodes, two acanthocephalans and three crustaceans. al-waaly (2005) investigated the parasites of the cyprinid fish carasobarbus luteus (reported as barbus luteus) from al-dagharah river and the nearby drainage network and detected two ciliophorans, one myxozoan, five monogeneans, one cestode, three nematodes, one acanthocephalan and three crustaceans. al-jadoa and al-wualy (2007) published an extracted article from al-waaly (2005) in which they compared the infection of carasobarbus luteus (reported as barbus luteus) from both al-dagharah river and the nearby drainage network with five monogeneans and the occurrence of one cestode species. it is relevant to state here that both names reported here (al-jadoa and al-wualy) were misspelled for al-jadoaa and al-waaly which were given before in this list of investigations. al-jadoaa (2008) examined 124 specimens of the mugilid fish planiliza abu (reported as liza abu) from local drainage network, north of al-diwaniyah province and detected three ciliophorans, one myxozoan, one monogenean, two nematodes, one acanthocephalan and one crustacean. enad (2009) detected the infection of the common carp cyprinus carpio from shatt aldiwaniyah at al-diwaniyah city center (from the plastic factory to the slaughterhouse) with three species of the monogenean dactylogyrus. yassin (2010) examined 64 specimens of c. carpio and 80 specimens of p. abu (reported as l. abu) from al-shinafiyah river and recorded two nematodes, one acanthocephalan and two crustaceans from these fishes. abd and abdul wahab (2011) examined three species of carps: the common carp c. carpio, the grass carp ctenopharyngodon idella and the silver carp hypophthalmichthys molitrix from some fish farms and from fish markets (from al-shamiyah river) and detected the occurrence of diplostomum sp., unidentified cestode, argulus sp. and lernaea sp. in addition to some bacterial diseases. all these parasites were not identified to the specific level and one was even just reported as a cestode. karawan et al. (2012) while inspecting 809 specimens of p. abu (reported as l. abu) from different rivers in al-diwaniyah city for parasites, detected one species each of myzozoan, nematode and acanthocephalan. al-mahi (2014) conducted a detailed study on the bio-accumulation of eight heavy metals in tissues of one cestode, one nematode and two acanthocephalans which were detected from 297 mhaisen et al. the intestine of the cyprinid fish arabibarbus grypus (reported as barbus grypus) and p. abu (reported as l. abu) from four rivers in al-diwaniyah province. it is appropriate to mention here that al-mahi (2014) is the same researcher yassin (2010). al-mahi and al-mayali (2015) published an extracted article from al-mahi (2014) concerned with the measurements of eight heavy metals in one cestode and one nematode species from both a. grypus (reported as b. grypus) and p. abu (reported as l. abu) from four locations in al-diwaniyah province. no mention was given to the specific name of these parasites in the whole article but they will be considered here as schyzocotyle acheilognathi and contracaecum sp., respectively. al-mahi and al-mayali (2016) published another extracted article from al-mahi (2014) concerned with record of three worms (cestode, nematode and acanthocephalan) from a. grypus (reported as b. grypus) as well as one nematode and one acanthocephalan from p. abu (reported as l. abu) in addition to the demonstration of some of the histopathological changes caused by such parasites without determination of such changes for each parasite species. mohammad (2016) investigated the parasites of the redbelly tilapia coptodon zillii (reported as tilapia zillii) from al-dalmaj marsh of al-diwaniyah province as well as from the central marshes in thi-qar province. his results showed that there is no infection in fishes of al-dalmaj marsh, while he recorded two parasite species from c. zillii of thi-qar province. shakir (2018) inspected the parasites of both coptodon zillii and p. abu from two stations in al-diwaniyah province (al-saniyah town and al-diwaniyah city center) as well as two stations in al-muthanna province. he detected the infection of both fish species from both provinces with two ciliophorans and two myzozoans. shakir and al-asadiy (2018) published an extracted article from shakir (2018) concerned with the record of two ciliophorans and two myzozoans from both c. zillii and p. abu from waters of both al-diwaniyah and al-muthanna provinces. results and discussion surveying literature concerning the parasites which were recorded from fishes of aldiwaniyah province till the end of 2018 showed the infection of 13 valid fish species with 43 parasite species. the full authority of each valid fish host species is shown in table (1). the parasitic fauna included one euglenozoan, two myzozoans, six ciliophorans, three myxozoans, three trematodes, nine monogeneans, four cestodes, six nematodes, three acanthocephalans and six crustaceans. table (1): list of fishes of al-diwaniyah province. ___________________________________________________________________________ class actinopterygii order cypriniformes family cyprinidae arabibarbus grypus (heckel, 1843) carasobarbus luteus (heckel, 1843) ctenopharyngodon idella (valenciennes, 1844) cyprinion macrostomum heckel, 1843 cyprinus carpio linnaeus, 1758 298 checklists of parasites of fishes garra rufa (heckel, 1843) hypophthalmichthys molitrix (valenciennes, 1844) leuciscus vorax (heckel, 1843) luciobarbus xanthopterus heckel, 1843 mesopotamichthys sharpeyi (günther, 1874) order siluriformes family bagridae mystus pelusius (solander, 1794) order perciformes family cichlidae coptodon zillii (gervais, 1848) order mugiliformes family mugilidae planiliza abu (heckel, 1843) parasite-host list species of the parasitic fauna of fishes of the al-diwaniyah province are grouped here into ten major groups (phyla for some species or classes for others) according to kirjušina and vismanis (2007). for each major group, a list of species will be given according to their systematic account. this will be followed by an alphabetical listing of each parasite species in each major group.the parasites listing will include alphabetically arranged fish hosts involved for each parasite. finally, for each parasite species, its first record in iraq will be indicated and the total number of its hosts, so far recorded from fishes of iraq will be declared depending on the index-catalogue of mhaisen (2018). major groups of parasites and their hosts as names of some major groups of parasites had been changed during the last few years, attention was paid to use the most recent names for the major parasite groups which infect fishes (eol, 2018; gbif, 2018; itis, 2018; worms, 2018). ten major parasite groups are reported in this study. these included the groups of euglenozoa, myzozoa, ciliophora, myxozoa, trematoda, monogenea, cestoda, nematoda, acanthocephala and crustacea. phylum euglenozoa the phylum euglenozoa is recognized with this name by eol (2018), gbif (2018) and worms (2018), but as sarcomastigophora by itis (2018). it is represented in fishes of aldiwaniyah province with one unidentified species of the genus trypanosoma as indicated in the following systematic scheme according to gbif (2018). phylum euglenozoa class kinetoplastea order trypanostomatida family trypanosomatidae trypanosoma sp. trypanosoma sp. was reported from the blood of c. luteus (reported as b. luteus) by aljadoaa (2002). so far, unidentified trypanosoma species were recorded from 13 fish host species in iraq in addition to nine identified species of this genus from fishes of iraq (mhaisen, 2018). 299 mhaisen et al. phylum myzozoa the phylum myzozoa (according to gbif, 2018; worms, 2018) is also known as apicomplexa (eol, 2018; itis, 2018). it is represented in fishes of al-diwaniyah province with one unidentified species each of the genera cryptosporidium and eimeria as indicated in the following systematic scheme according to gbif (2018). phylum myzozoa class conoidasida order eucoccidiorida family cryptosporidiidae cryptosporidium sp. family eimeriidae eimeria sp. cryptosporidium sp. oocysts were reported from the intestine of c. zillii by shakir (2018) and shakir and al-asadiy (2018), the intestine of p. abu (reported as l. abu) by karawan et al. (2012) and intestine of the same fish (p. abu) by shakir (2018) and shakir and al-asadiy (2018). in iraq, two identified cryptosporidium species in addition to some unidentified cryptosporidium species were so far recorded from three fish species (mhaisen, 2018). eimeria sp. was reported from the intestine of c. zillii by shakir (2018) and shakir and alasadiy (2018) and the intestine of p. abu by shakir (2018) and shakir and al-asadiy (2018). in iraq, ten identified eimeria species in addition to some unidentified eimeria species were so far recorded from eight fish species (mhaisen, 2018). phylum ciliophora the phylum ciliophora is represented in fishes of al-diwaniyah province with one species each of the genera apiosoma, chilodonella and ichthyophthirius and three species of the genus trichodina as indicated in the following systematic scheme according to gbif (2018). worms (2018) showed some alternative names for some ranks of some of these ciliophorans. such alternatives are indicated in brackets in the following systematic scheme. phylum ciliophora class oligohymenophorea order peritrichida (mobilida) family trichodinidae trichodina borealis shul'man and shul'man-albova, 1953 trichodina domerguei wallengren, 1897 trichodina nigra lom, 1961 family epistylididae apiosoma piscicola (blanchard, 1885) order hymenostomatida family ichthyophthiriidae ichthyophthirius multifiliis fouquet, 1876 class cyrtophorea (phyllopharyngea) order cyrtophorida (chlamydodontida) family chilodonellidae chilodonella cyprini (moroff, 1902) strand, 1928 apiosoma piscicola (blanchard, 1885) was detected from skin and gills of c. luteus by aljadoaa (2002). this parasite was reported for the first time in iraq from skin, buccal cavity 300 checklists of parasites of fishes and gills of c. idella, c. carpio and h. molitrix from al-suwairah and al-latifiah fish ponds (ali et al., 1988). it is appropriate to indicate here that worms (2018) considered the genus apiosoma within the order sessilida instead of the order peritrichida as with gbif (2018). however, it belongs to the same family and class mentioned in both gbif (2018) and worms (2018). eleven fish host species are so far known for a. piscicola in iraq (mhaisen, 2018). chilodonella cyprini (moroff, 1902) strand, 1928 was reported from gills of c. macrostomum by al-jadoaa (2002) and skin and gills of c. carpio by al-jadoaa (2002). this parasite was reported for the first time in iraq from skin, buccal cavity and gills of m. pelusius from tigris river at baghdad (ali et al., 1987a). so far, 12 fish host species are known for c. cyprini in iraq (mhaisen, 2018). ichthyophthirius multifiliis fouquet, 1876 was reported from gills and skin of c. luteus (reported as b. luteus) by al-jadoaa (2002) and al-waaly (2005), gills of g. rufa by aljadoaa (2002), gills of l. vorax (reported as a. vorax) by al-jadoaa (2002), gills of m. sharpeyi (reported as b. sharpeyi) by al-jadoaa (2002) and from fins, gills and skin of p. abu (reported as l. abu) by al-jadoaa (2002, 2008). i. multifiliis was recorded for the first time in iraq from skin and gills of planiliza subviridis (reported as mugil dussumieri) from tigris river at baghdad by herzog (1969). thirty-five fish host species are so far known as hosts for i. multifiliis in addition to some unidentified species of ichthyophthirius from four fish host species from fishes of iraq (mhaisen, 2018). trichodina borealis (dogiel, 1940) shul'man and shul'man-albova, 1953 was reported from gills of c. zillii and from gills of p. abu by shakir (2018) and shakir and al-asadiy (2018). the first record of this parasite in iraq was from gills of gambusia holbrooki (reported as gambusia affinis) from hilla river by hussain (2008) who gave neither description nor illustration of this parasite. three host species are so far known for this parasite in iraq (mhaisen, 2018). trichodina domerguei wallengren, 1897 was reported from gills and skin of c. luteus (reported as b. luteus) by al-jadoaa (2002) and al-waaly (2005), gills of c. zillii by shakir (2018) and shakir and al-asadiy (2018), fins, gills and skin of c. carpio, gills and skin of each of c. macrostomum, g. rufa, l. vorax (reported as a. vorax), m. sharpeyi (reported as b. sharpeyi) and m. pelusius by al-jadoaa (2002), gills of p. abu (reported as l. abu) by aljadoaa (2008) and gills of the same fish (p. abu) by shakir (2018) and shakir and al-asadiy (2018). it is appropriate to mention here that worms (2018) puts the authority of this parasite inside brackets in contrary to gbif (2018). the first record of t. domerguei in iraq was from skin and gills of eight freshwater fish species from tigris river, al-tharthar lake and fish markets in baghdad city (shamsuddin et al., 1971). so far, 39 fish host species are known for t. domerguei in iraq which makes it the most distributed ciliophoran species among fishes of iraq (mhaisen, 2018). trichodina nigra lom, 1961 was reported from gills and skin of both c. carpio and m. pelusius by al-jadoaa (2002) and gills and skin of p. abu (reported as l. abu) by al-jadoaa (2002, 2008). this parasite was reported for the first record in iraq from skin and gills of both c. carpio and h. molitrix from al-furat fish farm (al-zubaidy, 1998). nine fish host species are so far known for t. nigra in iraq (mhaisen, 2018). 301 mhaisen et al. phylum myxozoa the phylum myxozoa, according to gbif (2018), is considered within the phylum cnidaria according to eol (2018), itis (2018) and worms (2018). myxozoans of fishes of al-diwaniyah province included two species of myxobolus as well some unidentified species of the genus myxidium as indicated in the following systematic scheme according to gbif (2018). phylum myxozoa class myxosporea order bivalvulida family myxidiidae myxidium sp. family myxobolidae myxobolus ellipsoides thélohan, 1892 myxobolus pfeifferi thélohan, 1895 myxidium sp. was reported from gills, liver and ovaries of c. macrostomum by al-jadoaa (2002). this was the first record of unidentified myxidium species from fishes of iraq. five identified species of this genus are so far known from fishes of iraq (mhaisen, 2018). myxobolus ellipsoides thélohan, 1892 was reported from gills, intestine, spleen and kidneys of c. macrostomum by al-jadoaa (2002). this was the first record of this parasite in iraq. so far, three fish host species are known for m. ellipsoides in fishes of iraq (mhaisen, 2018). myxobolus pfeifferi thélohan, 1895 was reported from gills of c. luteus (reported as b. luteus) by al-waaly (2005), gills, intestine, liver and kidneys of l. xanthopterus (reported as b. xanthopterus), gills, liver, kidneys and ovaries of m. sharpeyi (reported as b. sharpeyi) by al-jadoaa (2002) and gills and liver of p. abu (reported as l. abu) by al-jadoaa (2008). m. pfeifferi was reported for the first time in iraq from gills of acanthobrama marmid from tigris river at mosul city (fattohy, 1975). so far, m. pfeifferi has 35 fish host species in iraq which makes it as the most distributed species within the genus myxobolus in fishes of iraq (mhaisen, 2018). phylum platyhelminthesclass trematoda the class trematoda of fishes of al-diwaniyah province includes one species each of the genera clinostomum and diplostomum as well as some unidentified species of diplostomum. these trematodes are as indicated in the following systematic scheme according to gbif (2018). phylum platyhelminthes class trematoda order diplostomida family clinostomidae clinostomum complanatum (rudolphi, 1819) braun, 1899 family diplostomidae diplostomum spathaceum (rudolphi, 1819) olsson, 1876 diplostomum sp. clinostomum complanatum (rudolphi, 1819) braun, 1899 was recorded as metacercaria from the gills of c. carpio by al-jadoaa (2002). this parasite was reported for the first time 302 checklists of parasites of fishes in iraq from gills of c. luteus from mehaijeran creek, basrah (khamees, 1983). so far, c. complanatum has 27 fish host species in iraq (mhaisen, 2018). diplostomum spathaceum (rudolphi, 1819) olsson, 1876 was recorded as metacercaria from eyes of c. carpio by al-jadoaa (2002). this parasite was recorded for the first time in iraq from the eyes of c. luteus (reported as b. luteus), c. macrostomum and c. carpio from dokan lake (abdullah, 1990). so far, 35 fish host species are known for d. spathaceum in iraq (mhaisen, 2018). diplostomum sp. metacercariae were detected from eyes of c. idella, c. carpio and h. molitrix by abd and abdul wahab (2011). mhaisen (2004) gave a detailed account on species of diplostomum causing worm cataract in freshwater fishes of iraq. so far, nine identified diplostomum species as well as some unidentified species of diplostomum from 27 fish host species are known in iraq (mhaisen, 2018). phylum platyhelminthesclass monogenea the class monogenea of fishes of al-diwaniyah province included one species each of genera gyrodactylus and paradiplozoon, five species of dactylogyrus as well as some unidentified species of the genera dactylogyrus and diplozoon. names of dactylogyrus species were according to gibson et al. (1996). lim et al. (2001) discussed the awareness of translating names of some russian and chinese authors, and hence this reference was followed for checking names of some russian authorities of some of the following monogeneans. list of monogeneans of fishes of al-diwaniyah province is indicated in the following systematic scheme according to gbif (2018). phylum platyhelminthes class monogenea order dactylogyridea family dactylogyridae dactylogyrus achmerowi gusev, 1955 dactylogyrus extensus mueller and van cleave, 1932 dactylogyrus gobii gvosdev, 1950 dactylogyrus minutus kulwiec, 1927 dactylogyrus vastator nybelin, 1924 dactylogyrus sp. order gyrodactylidea family gyrodactylidae gyrodactylus elegans von nordmann, 1832 order mazocraeidea family diplozoidae diplozoon sp. paradiplozoon kasimii (rahemo, 1980) khotenovsky, 1982 dactylogyrus achmerowi gusev, 1955 was recorded from gills of c. luteus (reported as b. luteus) by al-jadoaa (2002), al-waaly (2005) and al-jadoa and al-wualy (2007) and gills of c. carpio by al-jadoaa (2002). the first report of this parasite in iraq was from gills of c. carpio from al-wahda fish hatchery at al-suwaira and babylon fish farm (mhaisen et al., 1988). now, d. achmerowi has 13 host species in iraq (mhaisen, 2018). dactylogyrus extensus mueller and van cleave, 1932 was detected from gills of c. luteus by al-jadoaa (2002), al-waaly (2005) and al-jadoa and al-wualy (2007), gills of c. carpio by 303 mhaisen et al. al-jadoaa (2002), gills and skin of the same fish by enad (2009), gills of g. rufa, l. vorax (reported as a. vorax), l. xanthopterus (reported as b. xanthopterus), m. sharpeyi (reported as b. sharpeyi) and m. pelusius by al-jadoaa (2002) as well as gills of p. abu (reported as l. abu ) by al-jadoaa (2002, 2008). the first record of d. extensus in iraq was from the buccal cavity and gills of c. carpio from al-suwaira and al-latifiya fish farms (salih et al., 1988). d. solidus which was also recorded from the same host by salih et al. (1988) as well as by mhaisen and abul-eis (1991) and al-rubaie et al. (2007) from other parts of iraq is considered as a synonym of d. extensus according to gibson et al. (1996). d. extensus and its synonym d. solidus have so far 20 fish host species in iraq (mhaisen, 2018). dactylogyrus gobii gvozdev, 1950 was reported from fins, gills and skin of c. carpio by enad (2009) who misspelled the authority of this parasite as gvosdev instead of gvozdev. this monogenean was reported for the first time in iraq from gills of c. carpio at al-shark al-awsat fish farm, babylon province by hussain (2005). so far, this parasite has three fish hosts in iraq (mhaisen, 2018). dactylogyrus minutus kulwiec, 1927 was reported from fins, gills and skin of c. carpio by enad (2009). d. minutus was reported for the first time in iraq (in a conference abstract) from gills of c. carpio from tigris river at al-zaafaraniya, south of baghdad as well as from the euphrates river at al-qadisia dam lake (mhaisen et al., 1997), but the full paper was published later on (mhaisen et al., 2003). twelve fish host species are so far known for d. minutus in iraq (mhaisen, 2018). dactylogyrus vastator nybelin, 1924 was reported from gills of c. luteus (reported as b. luteus) by al-jadoaa (2002), al-waaly (2005) and al-jadoa and al-wualy (2007) as well as from gills of both c. macrostomum and m. sharpeyi (reported as b. sharpeyi) by al-jadoaa (2002). the first record of this parasite from iraq was from skin and gills of c. macrostomum from tigris river at baghdad (ali et al., 1987 b). so far, d. vastator was reported from 33 fish host species in iraq, which makes it as the most common dactylogyrus species among fishes of iraq (mhaisen, 2018). dactylogyrus sp. was reported from gills of m. sharpeyi (reported as b. sharpeyi) by aljadoaa (2002). so far, unidentified dactylogyrus species were recorded from 12 fish host species in iraq in addition to 82 identified species of this genus from fishes of iraq (mhaisen, 2018). diplozoon sp. was reported as diporpa larva from gills of c. luteus (reported as b. luteus) by al-waaly (2005) and al-jadoa and al-wualy (2007). in addition to one identified diplozoon species in iraq (d. paradoxum), ten fish host species are so far known for unidentified diplozoon species (mhaisen, 2018). gyrodactylus elegans von nordmann, 1832 was reported from fins and gills of c. luteus (reported as b. luteus) as well as from gills of c. macrostomum, l. xanthopterus (reported as b. xanthopterus) and m. sharpeyi (reported as b. sharpeyi) by al-jadoaa (2002). this monogenean was reported for the first time in iraq from both c. carpio and p. abu (reported as l. abu) from al-zaafaraniya and al-latifiya fish farms by ali and shaaban (1984). g. elegans has so far 23 fish host species in iraq (mhaisen, 2018). paradiplozoon kasimii (rahemo, 1980) khotenovsky, 1982 was reported as diplozoon kasimii from gills of c. luteus (reported as b. luteus) by al-waaly (2005) and al-jadoa and al-wualy (2007). this parasite was recorded for the first time in iraq as d. kasimii from gills 304 checklists of parasites of fishes of c. macrostomum (erroneously reported as c. macrostomus) from tigris river in mosul city by fattohy (1975) and published later on by rahemo (1980). khotenovsky (1985) transferred d. kasimii to the genus paradiplozoon and considered it as a species inquirenda. now, p. kasimii and its synonym have 13 fish host species in iraq (mhaisen, 2018). phylum platyhelminthesclass cestoda the class cestoda of fishes of al-diwaniyah province included one species each of genera eubothrium, ligula and schyzocotyle in addition to unspecified species of a cestode larva. names of all cestodes followed global cestode database (2018). these cestodes are indicated in the following systematic scheme according to gbif (2018). phylum platyhelminthes class cestoda order bothriocephalidea family bothriocephalidae schyzocotyle acheilognathi (yamaguti, 1934) brabec, waeschenbach, scholz, littlewood and kuchta, 2015 family triaenophoridae eubothrium salvelini (schrank, 1790) nybelin, 1922 order diphyllobothriidea family diphyllobothriidae ligula intestinalis (linnaeus, 1758) bloch, 1782 unidentified larval cestode eubothrium salvelini (schrank, 1790) nybelin, 1922 was reported from the body cavity of c. lutues (reported as b. luteus) by al-waaly (2005) who misspelled the generic name as eubotherium instead of eubothrium, this was the first record of e. salvelini in iraq. al-jadoa and al-wualy (2007) also reported this cestode from the same fish and also misspelled the generic name of this cestode as eubotherium instead of eubothrium. so far, only two fish host species are known for this cestode in iraq (mhaisen, 2018). ligula intestinalis (linnaeus, 1758) bloch, 1782 was reported as plerocercoid larva from body cavity of m. sharpeyi (reported as b. sharpeyi) by al-jadoaa (2002). the first report of this cestode in iraq was from the body cavity of l. vorax (reported as a. vorax) from shatt alarab river by al-hasani (1985). fifteen fish host species are so far known for l. intestinalis (mhaisen, 2018). schyzocotyle acheilognathi (yamaguti, 1934) brabec, waeschenbach, scholz, littlewood and kuchta, 2015 was reported as bothriocephalus acheilognathi from the intestine of a. grypus (reported as b. grypus) by al-mahi (2014), al-mahi and al-mayali (2015, 2016) and from the intestine of p. abu (reported as l. abu) by al-mahi (2014) and al-mahi and almayali (2015). the first report of this cestode (reported as b. acheilognathi) in iraq was from the intestine of c. carpio from some fish ponds near baghdad (khalifa, 1982). according to brabec et al. (2015), b. acheilognathi as well as two of its synonyms (b. gowkongensis and b. opsariichthydis) are considered as synonyms of s. acheilognathi. twenty-one host species in iraq are so far known for s. acheilognathi and three of its synonyms (b. acheilognathi, b. gowkongensis and b. opsariichthydis), in addition to the occurrence of some unidentified schyzocotyle species (reported as bothriocephalus sp.) from five fish host species in iraq (mhaisen, 2018). 305 mhaisen et al. unidentified cestode larvae were found in body cavity of c. idella from fish markets (caught from al-shamiya river) by abd and abdul wahab (2011). the provided photograph showed a similarity with plerocercoid of l. intestinalis. phylum nematoda the phylum nematoda of fishes of al-diwaniyah province included one species each of the genera cucullanus, kalmanmolnaria and rhabdochona in addition to some unspecified species of genera capillaria, contracaecum and rhabdochona as in the following systematic scheme. gbif (2018) was followed for arrangement of the higher taxonomic groups of these nematodes as in the following systematic scheme. worms (2018) showed some alternative names for some ranks of some of these nematodes. such alternatives are indicated in brackets in the following systematic scheme. phylum nematoda class adenophorea (enoplea) order trichocephalida (trichinellida) family trichuridae (capillariidae) capillaria sp. class secernentea (chromadorea) order ascaridida (rhabditida) family anisakidae contracaecum sp. larva family cucullanidae cucullanus cyprini yamaguti, 1941 order rhabditida family skrjabillanidae kalmanmolnaria intestinalis (dogiel and bychowsky, 1934) sokolov, 2006 family rhabdochonidae rhabdochona (r.) hellichi (šrámek, 1901) rhabdochona sp. capillaria sp. was reported from intestine of p. abu (reported as l. abu) by karawan et al. (2012). so far, ten fish host species are known to be infected with unidentified capillaria species in iraq (mhaisen, 2018). contracaecum species larvae were detected from the intestine of a. grypus (reported as b. grypus) by al-mahi (2014) and al-mahi and al-mayali (2015), body cavity of c. luteus (reported as b. luteus) by al-jadoaa (2002) and the intestinal wall of the same fish by alwaaly (2005), different locations (unspecified) of c. carpio by yassin (2010), intestine of both l. vorax (reported as a. vorax) and l. xanthopterus (reported as b. xanthopterus) by aljadoaa (2002), liver, spleen and body cavity of p. abu (reported as l. abu) by al-jadoaa (2002), intestine of the same fish by al-jadoaa (2008), from unspecified locations of the same fish by yassin (2010) and intestine of the same fish by al-mahi (2014) and al-mahi and almayali (2015, 2016). contracaecum spp. larvae were recorded for the first time in iraq from ten fish species from different inland waters of iraq (herzog, 1969). so far, a total of 40 fish host species are known for contracaecum spp. larvae in iraq (mhaisen, 2018). cucullanus cyprini yamaguti, 1941 was reported from the intestine of c. luteus (reported as b. luteus) by al-waaly (2005). this nematode was reported for the first time in iraq from the intestine of both alburnus caeruleus and l. xanthopterus (reported as b. xanthopterus) from 306 checklists of parasites of fishes al-tharthar lake by al-saadi (1986). so far 15 fish host species are known for c. cyprini in iraq (mhaisen, 2018). kalmanmolnaria intestinalis (dogiel and bychowsky, 1934) was reported as philometra intestinalis from the intestine of c. luteus (reported as b. luteus) by al-jadoaa (2002) and alwaaly (2005) as well as from intestine of both c. carpio and p. abu (reported as l. abu) by yassin (2010). according to gbif (2018), p. intestinalis is considered as a synonym of molnaria intestinalis. sokolov (2006) considered the genus molnaria moravec, 1968 as a homonym to fossile foraminiferan genus and therefore, he replaced the generic name from molnaria zalessky, 1926 to kalmanmolnaria sokolov, 2006. so far, a total of three fish host species are known for k. intestinalis and its synonym p. intestinalis in fishes of iraq. in all such host species, this parasite was also reported as p. intestinalis (mhaisen, 2018). rhabdochona (r.) hellichi (šrámek, 1901) was reported from the intestine of c. macrostomum by al-jadoaa (2002) who misspelled the specific name as bellichi instead of hellichi. the first record of this nematode (also erroneously spelled as r. belichii) in iraq was from the intestine and coelom of l. xanthopterus (reported as b. xanthopterus), h. fossilis and m. pelusius (reported as m. halepensis) from tigris river at baghdad by ali et al. (1987c). eight fish species are so far known for this parasite in iraq (mhaisen, 2018). rhabdochona sp. was reported from the intestine of p. abu (reported as l. abu) by aljadoaa (2008). so far, unidentified rhabdochona species were recorded from seven fish host species in iraq in addition to eight identified species of this genus (two species within the subgenus globochona and six species within the subgenus rhabdochona) from fishes of iraq (mhaisen, 2018). phylum acanthocephala the phylum acanthocephala of fishes of al-diwaniyah province included two species of neoechinorhynchus in addition to one unspecified species of the genus paulisentis as in the following systematic scheme according to gbif (2018). names and authorities of these acanthocephalans were checked in accordance with amin (2013). phylum acanthocephala class eoacanthocephala order neoechinocephalida family neoechinocephalidae neoechinorhynchus (n.) iraqensis amin, al-sady, mhaisen and bassat, 2001 neoechinorhynchus (n.) rutili (müller, 1780) hamann, 1892 paulisentis sp. neoechinorhynchus (n.) iraqensis amin, al-sady, mhaisen and bassat, 2001 was reported from intestine of a. grypus (reported as b. grypus) by al-mahi (2014) and al-mahi and almayali (2016), intestine of c. luteus (reported as b. luteus) by al-jadoaa (2002) and alwaaly (2005), intestine of c. macrostomum by al-jadoaa (2002) and intestine of p. abu (reported as l. abu) by al-jadoaa (2002), karawan et al. (2012), al-mahi (2014) and almahi and al-mayali (2016). it is appropriate to mention here that al-jadoaa (2008) reported n. agilis from the intestine of p. abu (reported as l. abu), but as demonstrated by mhaisen (2002), n. agilis was erroneously identified so and in fact it represented n. iraqensis. so far, 24 fish host species are known for this acanthocephalan in iraq. so, this acanthocephalan is the commonest acanthocephalan in fishes of iraq (mhaisen, 2018). 307 mhaisen et al. neoechinorhynchus (n.) rutili (müller, 1780) hamann, 1892 was reported from the intestine of c. luteus (reported as b. luteus) by al-jadoaa (2002), c. carpio by al-jadoaa (2002) and yassin (2010), l. xanthopterus (reported as b. xanthopterus) by al-jadoaa (2002) and p. abu (reported as l. abu) by al-jadoaa (2002) and yassin (2010). the first record of this acanthocephalan from iraq was from the intestine of p. abu (reported as mugil abu) from citscher oasis in fallujah (herzog, 1969). n. rutili has so far 16 fish host species in iraq (mhaisen, 2018). paulisentis sp. was reported from the intestine of a. grypus (reported as b. grypus) by almahi (2014) and al-mahi and al-mayali (2016), in both references, the generic name was misspelled as paulisentus instead of paulisentis. the first identified paulisentis in iraq (p. fractus) was reported by al-jawda et al. (2000). no more records are so far known on unidentified paulisentis species in iraq (mhaisen, 2018). phylum arthropodasubphylum crustacea the subphylum crustacea of the phylum arthropoda is represented in fishes of al-diwaniyah province with one species each of the genera argulus and lernaea, two species of the genus ergasilus as well as one unidentified species of argulus and ergasilus. gbif (2018) was followed to arrange the concerned taxonomic groups of the subphylum crustacea of this phylum down to the scientific names as in the following systematic scheme. phylum arthropoda subphylum crustacea class maxillopoda order arguloida family argulidae argulus foliaceus (linnaeus, 1758) jurine, 1806 argulus sp. class hexanauplia order cyclopoida family ergasilidae ergasilus mosulensis rahemo, 1982 ergasilus sieboldi von nordmann, 1832 ergasilus sp. family lernaeidae lernaea cyprinacea linnaeus, 1758 argulus foliaceus (linnaeus, 1758) jurine, 1806 was reported from gills of c. luteus (reported as b. luteus) by al-waaly (2005). this crustacean was reported for the first time in iraq from the skin of both c. luteus (reported as b. luteus) and c. carpio from al-habbaniyah lake by herzog (1969). a. foliaceus is a common fish louse in some farm fishes as well as in some inland waters in iraq, and it has so far 16 fish host species (mhaisen, 2018). according to worms (2018), this species belongs to the class ichthyostraca as well as the same abovenamed order and family. argulus sp. was reported from both c. carpio and h. molitrix by abd and abdul wahab (2011). so far, unidentified argulus species were recorded from three fish host species in iraq in addition to three identified species of this genus (mhaisen, 2018). ergasilus mosulensis rahemo, 1982 was reported from gills of c. luteus (reported as b. luteus) by al-waaly (2005). this crustacean was described as a new species from p. abu 308 checklists of parasites of fishes (reported as l. abu) from tigris river at mosul city (fattohy, 1975) and published later on by rahemo (1982). e. mosulensis has so far 24 fish host species in iraq (mhaisen, 2018). ergasilus sieboldi von nordmann, 1832 was reported from gills of c. carpio, g. rufa and m. pelusius by al-jadoaa (2002) as well as from gills of p. abu (reported as l. abu) by aljadoaa (2002, 2008). this crustacean was recorded for the first time in iraq from gills of l. vorax (reported as a. vorax) from al-habbaniyah lake by herzog (1969); e. sieboldi has so far 25 fish host species in iraq (mhaisen, 2018). ergasilus sp. was reported from gills of c. macrostomum by al-jadoaa (2002). so far, unidentified ergasilus species were recorded from 13 fish host species in iraq in addition to 11 identified species of this genus from fishes of iraq (mhaisen, 2018). lernaea cyprinacea linnaeus, 1758 was reported from skin of c. luteus (reported as b. luteus) by al-jadoaa (2002) as well as from skin and gills of the same fish by al-waaly (2005), skin of each of c. idella by abd and abdul wahab (2011), c. carpio by al-jadoaa (2002), yassin (2010) and abd and abdul wahab (2011), h. molitrix by abd and abdul wahab (2011), l. vorax (reported as a. vorax) by al-jadoaa (2002), l. xanthopterus (reported as b. xanthopterus), m. sharpeyi (reported as b. sharpeyi) and m. pelusius by al-jadoaa (2002) as well as p. abu (reported as l. abu) by yassin (2010). this crustacean was reported for the first time in iraq from seven fish species from al-zaafaraniya fish culture station, baghdad by al-hamed and hermiz (1973). it is the commonest crustacean parasite among fishes of iraq as it has so far 31 fish host species in different fish farms and hatcheries as well as in various inland waters (mhaisen, 2018). table (2): list of parasite species from fishes of al-diwaniyah province, iraq. parasite major groups fish host species phylum euglenozoa trypanosoma sp. carasobarbus luteus. phylum myzozoa cryptosporidium sp. coptodon zillii, planiliza abu. eimeria sp. coptodon zillii, planiliza abu. phylum ciliophora apiosoma piscicola carasobarbus luteus. chilodonella cyprini cyprinion macrostomum, cyprinus carpio. ichthyophthirius multifiliis carasobarbus luteus, garra rufa, leuciscus vorax, mesopotamichthys sharpeyi, planiliza abu. trichodina borealis coptodon zillii, planiliza abu. trichodina domerguei carasobarbus luteus, coptodon zillii, cyprinion macrostomum, cyprinus carpio, garra rufa, leuciscus vorax, mesopotamichthys sharpeyi, mystus pelusius, planiliza abu trichodina nigra cyprinus carpio, mystus pelusius, planiliza abu. phylum myxozoa myxidium sp. cyprinion macrostomum. 309 mhaisen et al. myxobolus ellipsoides cyprinion macrostomum. myxobolus pfeifferi carasobarbus luteus, luciobarbus xanthopterus, mesopotamichthys sharpeyi, planiliza abu. phylum platyhelminthesclass trematoda clinostomum complanatum* cyprinus carpio. diplostomum spathaceum* cyprinus carpio. diplostomum sp.* ctenopharyngodon idella, cyprinus carpio, hypophthalmichthys molitrix. phylum platyhelminthesclass monogenea dactylogyrus achmerowi carasobarbus luteus, cyprinus carpio. dactylogyrus extensus carasobarbus luteus, cyprinus carpio, garra rufa, leuciscus vorax, luciobarbus xanthopterus, mesopotamichthys sharpeyi, mystus pelusius, planiliza abu. dactylogyrus gobii cyprinus carpio. dactylogyrus minutus cyprinus carpio. dactylogyrus vastator carasobarbus luteus, cyprinion macrostomum, mesopotamichthys sharpeyi. dactylogyrus sp. mesopotamichthys sharpeyi. dipolzoon sp.* carasobarbus luteus. gyrodactylus elegans carasobarbus luteus, cyprinion macrostomum, luciobarbus xanthopterus, mesopotamichthys sharpeyi. paradiplozoon kasimii** carasobarbus luteus. phylum platyhelminthesclass cestoda eubothrium salvelini carasobarbus luteus. ligula intestinalis* mesopotamichthys sharpeyi. schyzocotyle acheilognathi arabibarbus grypus, planiliza abu. unidentified cestode* ctenopharyngodon idella. phylum nematoda capillaria sp. planiliza abu. contracaecum sp.* arabibarbus grypus, carasobarbus luteus, cyprinus carpio, leuciscus vorax, luciobarbus xanthopterus, planiliza abu. cucullanus cyprini carasobarbus luteus. kalmanmolnaria intestinalis carasobarbus luteus, cyprinus carpio, planiliza abu. rhabdochona (r.) hellichi cyprinion macrostomum. rhabdochona sp. planiliza abu. phylum acanthocephala neoechinorhynchus (n.) iraqensis arabibarbus grypus, carasobarbus luteus, cyprinion macrostomum, planiliza abu. neoechinorhynchus (n.) rutili carasobarbus luteus, cyprinus carpio, luciobarbus xanthopterus, planiliza abu. paulisentis sp. arabibarbus grypus. 310 checklists of parasites of fishes phylum arthropodasubphylum crustacea argulus foliaceus carasobarbus luteus. argulus sp. cyprinus carpio, hypophthalmichthys molitrix. ergasilus mosulensis carasobarbus luteus. ergasilus sieboldi cyprinus carpio, garra rufa, mystus pelusius, planiliza abu. ergasilus sp. cyprinion macrostomum. lernaea cyprinacea carasobarbus luteus, ctenopharyngodon idella, cyprinus carpio, hypophthalmichthys molitrix, leuciscus vorax, luciobarbus xanthopterus, mesopotamichthys sharpeyi, mystus pelusius, planiliza abu. * larva, ** species inquirenda. host-parasite list names of all fish host species infected with parasites in al-diwaniyah province (13 valid fish names and six synonyms) are alphabetically arranged in the following list. for each valid host species, parasite species are alphabetically arranged according to the sequence of their major groups which were demonstrated above. for fishes, the scientific names were reported as they appeared in their original references but they were then checked with an account on freshwater fishes of iraq (coad, 2010). as indicated earlier in the section of sources and methods, authorities of fish valid scientific names were checked according to eschmeyer (2018) and froese and pauly (2018). arabibarbus grypus (also reported as barbus grypus) cestoda: schyzocotyle acheilognathi (reported as bothriocephalus acheilognathi). nematoda: contracaecum sp. acanthocephala: neoechinorhynchus (n.) iraqensis, paulisentis sp. aspius vorax: see leuciscus vorax barbus grypus: see arabibarbus grypus barbus luteus: see carasobarbus luteus barbus sharpeyi: see mesopotamichthys sharpeyi barbus xanthopterus: see luciobarbus xanthopterus carasobarbus luteus (reported as barbus luteus) euglenozoa: trypanosoma sp. ciliophora: apiosoma piscicola, ichthyophthirius multifiliis, trichodina domerguei. myxozoa: myxobolus pfeifferi. monogenea: dactylogyrus achmerowi, d. extensus, d. vastator, diplozoon sp., gyrodactylus elegans, paradiplozoon kasimii (reported as diplozoon kasimii). cestoda: eubothrium salvelini. nematoda: contracaecum sp., cucullanus cyprini, kalmanmolnaria intestinalis (reported as philometra intestinalis). acanthocephala: neoechinorhynchus (n.) iraqensis, neoechinorhynchus (n.) rutili. crustacea: argulus foliaceus, ergasilus mosulensis, lernaea cyprinacea. coptodon zillii myzozoa: cryptosporidium sp., eimeria sp. ciliophora: trichodina borealis, t. domerguei. ctenopharyngodon idella trematoda: diplostomum sp. 311 mhaisen et al. cestoda: cestode larva. crustacea: lernaea cyprinacea. cyprinion macrostomum ciliophora: chilodonella cyprini, trichodina domerguei. myxozoa: myxidium sp., myxobolus ellipsoides. monogenea: dactylogyrus vastator, gyrodactylus elegans. nematoda: rhabdochona (r.) hellichi. acanthocephala: neoechinorhynchus (n.) iraqensis. crustacea: ergasilus sp. cyprinus carpio ciliophora: chilodonella cyprini, trichodina domerguei, t. nigra. trematoda: clinostomum complanatum, diplostomum spathaceum, diplostomum sp. monogenea: dactylogyrus achmerowi, d. extensus, d. gobii, d. minutus. nematoda: contracaecum sp., kalmanmolnaria intestinalis (reported as philometra intestinalis). acanthocephala: neoechinorhynchus (n.) rutili. crustacea: argulus sp., ergasilus sieboldi, lernaea cyprinacea. garra rufa ciliophora: ichthyophthirius multifiliis, trichodina domerguei. monogenea: dactylogyrus extensus. crustacea: ergasilus sieboldi. hypophthalmichthys molitrix trematoda: diplostomum sp. crustacea: argulus sp., lernaea cyprinacea. leuciscus vorax (reported as aspius vorax) ciliophora: ichthyophthirius multifiliis, trichodina domerguei. monogenea: dactylogyrus extensus. nematoda: contracaecum sp. crustacea: lernaea cyprinacea. liza abu: see planiliza abu luciobarbus xanthopterus (reported as barbus xanthopterus) myxozoa: myxobolus pfeifferi. monogenea: dactylogyrus extensus, gyrodactylus elegans. nematoda: contracaecum sp. acanthocephala: neoechinorhynchus (n.) rutili. crustacea: lernaea cyprinacea. mesopotamichthys sharpeyi (reported as barbus sharpeyi) ciliophora: ichthyophthirius multifiliis, trichodina domerguei. myxozoa: myxobolus pfeifferi. monogenea: dactylogyrus extensus, d. vastator, dactylogyrus sp., gyrodactylus elegans. cestoda: ligula intestinalis. crustacea: lernaea cyprinacea. mystus pelusius ciliophora: trichodina domerguei, t. nigra. monogenea: dactylogyrus extensus. crustacea: ergasilus sieboldi, lernaea cyprinacea. planiliza abu (also reported as liza abu) myzozoa: cryptosporidium sp., eimeria sp. ciliophora: ichthyophthirius multifiliis, trichodina borealis, t. domerguei, t. nigra. myxozoa: myxobolus pfeifferi. monogenea: dactylogyrus extensus. 312 checklists of parasites of fishes cestoda: schyzocotyle acheilognathi (reported as bothriocephalus acheilognathi). nematoda: capillaria sp., contracaecum sp., kalmanmolnaria intestinalis (reported as philometra intestinalis), rhabdochona sp. acanthocephala: neoechinorhynchus (n.) iraqensis, neoechinorhynchus (n.) rutili. crustacea: ergasilus sieboldi, lernaea cyprinacea. finally, by comparing number of parasitic species so far recorded from fishes of aldiwaniyah province, in the present article, with the parasitic fauna of fishes of two neighboring provinces; al-najaf al-ashraf (mhaisen and al-rubaie, 2016a) and babylon province, exclusive of fish farms (mhaisen and al-rubaie, 2018), it is clear that the parasitic fauna of al-diwaniyah province (43 parasite species from 13 fish species) is much less than that of babylon province (104 parasite species from 26 fish species), but higher than that of al-najaf al-ashraf province (20 parasite species from 14 fish species). however, the low number of studied fish host species in al-diwaniyah province for parasitic infections in comparison with that of babylon province (13 versus 26) is low and indicates that much more fish species are needed to be investigated. also, it seems from the present article that only one investigation (abd and abdul-wahab, 2011) included few notes on four parasite species of three carp species from local fish markets and fish farms in al-shamiyah city in spite of the presence of 10 earthen fish farms and 25 farms for floating cages in al-diwaniyah province according to ministry of agriculture (2018). so far, four parasite species are known from farm fishes of al-diwaniyah province in comparison with 92 parasite species from farm fishes of babylon province (mhaisen and al-rubaie, 2016b). hence, more parasite species are expected to be detected both from farm fishes and fishes in natural water bodies when more efforts will be paid. this is the task for future studies on the parasitic fauna of fishes of al-diwaniyah province. acknowledgements sincere thanks are due to dr. atheer h. ali of the university of basrah, iraq and dr. františek moravec of the institute of parasitology, biology centre of the academy of sciences of the czech republic for their comments on the nematode kalmanmolnaria intestinalis. thanks are also due to dr. mahdi t. al-qaisy, the technical deputy minister, ministry of agriculture, baghdad for providing us with recent information on fish culture in iraq. literature cited abd, a. a.-a. and abdul wahab, h. m. 2011. investigation of some diseases of carp at alshamiya city/iraq. kufa journal of veterinary medical sciences, 2(2): 51-59. abdullah, s. m. a. 1990. 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(in arabic). shamsuddin, m., nader, i. a. and al-azzawi, m. j. 1971. parasites of common fishes from iraq with special reference to larval form of contracaecum (nematoda: heterocheilidae). bulletin of the biological research center, 5: 66-78. sokolov, s. g. 2006. dracunculoid nematodes (spirurida: dracunculoidea) of fishes from the volga river delta. parazitologiya, 40(4): 355-362. (in russian). solon, j. (ed.) 2018. iraq provincial reconstruction team: observations, insights, and lessions. center for army lessons learned (call), leavenworth, kansas, handbook no. 11-03: 155pp. www.leavenworth.army.mil. worms 2018. world register of marine species at http://www. marinespecies.org. (accessed 30 dec. 2018). yassin, a. m. 2010. isolation and identification of the parasites of liza abu and cyprinus carpio in al-shenafya river. journal of wassit university for science and medicine, 3(1): 34-43. (in arabic). 318 checklists of parasites of fishes bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. june, (2019) 15 (3): 293-318 قوائم مرجعیة لطفيليات ألاسماك في محافظة الديوانية، العراق ***رياض جميل العبودي ةهب و **، هادي مدلول حمزة امليالي*فرحان ضمد محیسن كاتريناهولم، السويد ،6b ،641 36بناية * قسم علوم الحياة، كلية التربية، جامعة القادسية، الديوانية، العراق ** قسم البيئة، كلية العلوم، جامعة القادسية، الديوانية، العراق *** 12/30/1322: تأريخ النشر، 1322/ 31/ 12: ، تأريخ القبول 1322/ 21/ 03: تأريخ الاستالم الخالصة ظھر إستعراض املراجع املعنية باملجموعة الحيوانية املتطفلة على أسماك محافظة الديوانية، أ نوعا شرعيا من 04نوعا طفيليا لحد آلان مسجلة في 34وجود 8102العراق حتى نهاية العام ن إشتملت املجموعة املتطفلة على نوع واحد م. ألاسماك التي تم فحصها بحثا عن إلاصابات الطفيلية ثالثة أنواع من ،نوعين من املايزوزوا، ستة أنواع من حامالت ألاهداب ،اليوغلينيات الحيوانية أربعة أنواع من الديدان ، تسعة أنواع من أحادية املنشأ ،ثالثة أنواع من املخّرمات ،البوغيات املخاطية من الديدان شوكية الرأس وستة أنواع من ثالثة أنواع ،ستة أنواع من الديدان الخيطية ،الشريطية كانت إلاصابة باملخّرمات ونوعين من الديدان الشريطية ونوع واحد من الديدان الخيطية . القشريات من بين . قد حصلت باألطوار اليرقية، بينما كانت بقية إلاصابات إما بالطور الخضري أو بالطفيلي البالغ ، (نوعا طفيليا 81)ري مصابة بأكبر عدد من ألانواع الطفيلية ألاسماك املفحوصة، كانت سمكة الحم الكارب العشبي ) ننوعا، بينما كان (نوعا 01)وسمكة الكارب إلاعتيادي ( نوعا 01)تلتها سمكة الخشني كان حامل ألاهداب (. امثالثة أنواع لكل منه)مصابين بأقل عدد من ألانواع الطفيلية ( والكارب الفض ي trichodina domerguei والقشريlernaea cyprinacea أكثر ألانواع الطفيلية شيوعا لكون كل dactylogyrus extensusمنهما قد ورد تسجيله من تسعة أنواع من ألاسماك وتبعهما أحادي املنشأ حيث تم ورودهما من ثمانية، وستة أنواع من املضّيفات، على .contracaecum spوالدودة الخيطية 88 ـفي حالة إلاصابة بـ( نوع واحد من املضّيفات)في حين سجل أقل عدد من ألانواع املضّيفة التوالي، . نوعا من الطفيليات 7-11 7 ali et al bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2003) 10 (1): 7-11 diagnosis of some pathogenic fungi on selected local woods h. a. ali basim a. abd ali goner a. shaker natural hist. research cent. & museum baghdad university abstract to explore the durability of some local species of wood to fungal deterioration among the storage period, this research has conducted on three species eufcalyptus cammaldulensis, juglans regia, presence of some genus of fungi; aspergillus, penicillium,botryoderma, chaetomium, phoma, cladosporium and pacilomyces in different intensities. the two fungi aspergillus and penicillium appeared more dominants than others, therefore they were chosen for the pathogenicity test. the results showed that the two species of fungi preferred juglans wood firstly were the size of infection was more than 10 times of any of the other two woods. eucalyptus showed similar response to that of morus, but with aspergillus it was few better. introduction wood is an important raw material, which considers as a primary source of different products for multiple purposes and uses. it normally exposes to many factors that cause its deterioration. biological degradation is one of the most important factors that reveal to decrease the using age of wood. different types of organisms attack the wood inside buildings as well as at exterior places. it’s well known that wood under direct climatic condition changes should have more severe affects than that under covered areas. physical factors; temperature, humidity, direct sun light, winds…etc. act side by side with biological factors to accelerate aging of wood outside doors, especially when it has not been treated against these factors (kollmann and cote, 1968, abd ali et al., 1993). green wood should be seasoned either by air seasoning or by kilns before being manufactured or used. during air seasoning or among the storage period, while the ambient conditions are favorable, wood could be attacked by many species of fungi (f. p. l., 1974), that depends on to what extent the conditions are suitable and on the species of wood. in iraq, however, where no kilns drying being used, air seasoning is the dominant. therefore, wood in the seasoning areas and during the storage period should be attacked by these organisms (jagjit singh, 2001). hence, three species of local woods were chosen to check out (1): the species of fungi by which wood been infected, and (2): the resistance of these woods to the different species of fungi. materials and methods specimens collection: small bolts of three wood species; eucaluptus camaldulensis, juglans regia, and morus alba were selected from wood stores in mosul. the speciemens had passed a period of 12 to 18 months in the storage areas, i.e. they were being in the store during the four-year seasons. the symptoms were observed on the infected samples such as stain, rot and mold. also, the natural color showed different degrees of deviation from their normal colors. heart wood and sap wood zones could be recognized that age of the samples 8 diagnosis of some pathogenic fungi was not less than 20 years, as the annual ring referred. some of them showed marks or tunnels as evidence to prior borer insect attack especially at the heartwood region, at the time of studying they were free from insects. isolation: diagnosis has done by checking the hypha, mycelium and spores and fructification bodies in depending on the taxonomial keys. pathogenicity: three equal pieces were cut from each wood species to test the pathogenicity. the inoculation has prepared from the pure fungal culture of aspergillus and penicillium at a range of one petri dish for each wood piece, though three replications for each species were applied. then inoculated and kept in a deep vessels and covered with polyethlene sacs and irrigated every day with 10-15cm3of water per each vessel to keep the humidity in a proper levels. samples were left under the laboratory temperature (30-35) c° until getting results after 50-60 days. results resembled by the following symbols according to the degree of infection, (al-ma’arof, 1984): 0-no infection. 1infection 25% from the size of piece. 2infection 50% from the size of piece. 3infection 75% from the size of piece. 4infection 100% from the size of piece. the disease index (di) was calculated by the equation stated by (mickinney, 1923, komm and stevenson, 1978 and diwan, 1977 al-ma’arof, 1984): di = no. pieces in degree 0x0 + no. pieces in degree 1x1 + …no. pieces in degree 4x4 / no. all pieces of all degrees. results and discussion the isolation and diagnosis according to (barnett and barry, 1972) showed that both of variables affected the frequency of fungus presence in the wood (table 1). although the wood samples were being under the same storage conditions, quite a lot of difference could be observed between them. while penicillium was the dominant fungus on morus, it could not be isolated from eucalyptus wood. other isolations of fungi (except aspergillus on juglans) showed either no infection or 16.6 percent depending on the species of the two variables. table 1: the percentage of fungus infection on three wood species. wood species genus of fungi aspergillus penicillium botryo derma phoma chaetomium cladosporium pacidilo -myces juglans 66.6 16.6 16.6 eucalyptus 16.6 16.6 16.6 16.6 morus 16.6 83.3 16.6 the analysis of variance of diseases indexes in pathogenicity test (table 2) approved that fungus species as well as the species of wood were highly significant, so was the interaction between these two factors. 9 ali et al table 2: the effect of fungus and wood species on disease index source df mean square f cal a (fungus sp.) 2 6.565 39.369** b (wood sp.) 2 8.620 51.722** a*b 4 3.037 18.222** error 18 0.167 total 26 **: significant at 0.01 leve it is shown in table (3) that maximum disease index was obtained on juglans wood by penicillium. the same fungus had less than one-tenth this value on morus (0.30), few more had eucalyptus wood (fig. 1). with aspergillus the disease index followed the same different response, were eucalyptus had the best results. that means juglans is less durable within the three species followed by morus and then eucalyptus wood. this difference might be as a result to the differences in the structure of the wood such as size and number of vessels and pits, and to the percentage and type of wood extractives. table 3: the disease index in the pathogenicity test. rep. woods juglans eucalyptus morus p a c p a c p a c r1 4.00 3.50 0.00 0.50 1.00 0.50 0.00 1.50 0.00 r2 4.00 2.50 0.00 1.00 1.00 0.00 0.50 1.50 0.00 r3 3.00 3.00 0.00 0.00 0.50 0.00 0.50 0.50 0.00 total 11.00 9.00 0.00 1.50 2.50 0.50 1.00 3.50 0.00 mean 3.70 3.00 0.00 0.50 0.80 0.17 0.30 1.17 0.00 p = penicillium a = aspergillus c = control d is ea se in de x 10 diagnosis of some pathogenic fungi literature cited abd ali, b. a., kasir, w. a. and al-khaffaf, r. s. 1993 forest utilization. mosul univ. book house. 320 pp. al-ma’arof, i. g. 1984 deterioration of stone seed fruit trees caused by phytophthora drechsleri tucker. m. sc. thesis submitted to coll. of agric., baghdad univ. in arabic. barnett, h. l. and hunter, b. 1972 illustrated genera of imperfect fungi. third edition. diwan, m. m. 1977 diagnosis and the effect of agricultural management on the resistant to damping off and root rot of sugar beet. m. sc. thesis submitted to the coll. of agric., baghdad univ. in arabic. forest prod. lab. 1974 wood handbook. wood as an engineering material. forest service-u. s. dept .of agriculture, handbook no. 72. jagjit singh 2001 environmental monitoring and control. cathedral communication limited. (e-mail contact). kollmann, f. and cote, w. 1968 principles of wood science and technology. isolid wood. springer verlag, 592 pp. komm, d.a. and stevenson, w. r. 1978 tuber-borne infection of solanum tuberosum superior by collecorichum coccodes. plant dis. reprt., 62 (8): 687-689. mickinney 1923 influence of soil temperature and moisture on the infection of wheat by helminthosporium sativum. j. agric. res., 26: 125-217. 11 ali et al bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2003) 10 (1): 7-11 ة عين ة م م لي ب شا ى أ م ضة عل م طر ات ال ض أ واع ا ف ع ص ب خي ش ت علي عب عب س م عب س ال لي س سي كرگح ب ا و ا د ال ر ب ون ي ف التار خ ال بيع ح ث ومت ح ز ب داد -مرك ة بغ د –جامع غدا ق – ب العرا ة ص الخال ــدف معرفـــة أنـــواع الفطريـــات الـــيت تصــيب األخشـــاب يف املخـــازن، أجريـــت الدارســـة علـــى : ثالث أنواع من األخشاب احمللية هي eucalyptus cammaldulensis , juglans regia , morus alba : ة ومت عزل أجناس الفطريات التالي aspergillus, penicillium, botryoderma, chaetomium, phoma, pacidiomycetes, caladosprium. مهـا اكثـر االنـواع تكـراراً penicillium و aspergillus وقـد ظهـر إن الفطـرين أظهرت النتائج إن القدرة االمراضية للفطـرين . لذلك مت اختيارمها إلجراء اختبار القابلية االمراضية ــــر مــــن عشــــرة أضــــعاف مــــا حصــــل لكــــل مــــن خشــــب املــــذكورين علــــى خشــــب اجلــــوز كانــــت أكث تلــك الــيت يبــديها و ظهــر إن خشــب اليوكــالبتوس يبــدي اســتجابة مقاربــة ل. اليوكــالبتوس أو التــوت .كان أفضل بقليل aspergillus خشب التوت إال انه مع الفطر 63-68 63 z . h . mohsen et al bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2001) 9 (3): 63-68 field efficacy of three types of insecticides against larvae of musca domestica breeding in equine manure and their effects on predatory mites zohair h. mohsen, suhaila h. mahmood*, sabah i. aldulaimi and abdulkareem hashim state establishment for pesticide production, p. o. box 5367, baghdad, iraq *natural history museum, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq abstract the field efficacy of actellic (organophosphate), neporex (insect growth regulator) and ficam (carbamate), at the application rates of 2-4, 0.4-0.8 and 0.1-0.2 g ai/m2 respectively, was studied against the larvae of musca domestica l. results of treatments involving horse manure indicated that actellic and neporex produced sharp decrease of larval numbers (close to zero) for 21d. but there was a slight recovery in larval numbers 14 d following treatment with ficam. the populations of predator mites were not affected due to insecticidal applications. introduction equine manure piles in stables provide suitable habitat for breeding of many muscoid flies, in particular, the house fly musca domestica l. at seasonal peaks, m. domestica becomes a great nuisance to people and to the precious race horses. at peak times (marchoctober) control measures should be undertaken to reduce fly population densities to a minimum nonnuisance levels. the present practical method of choice for the control of flies which breed in different types of manure (horse, sheep, cattle, poultry) is the application of insecticides against larvae and adults (cunningham and eden, 1970; yates and sherman, 1970; hurd et al., 1979:mulla and axelrod,1983;mohsen et.al.,1986;killy et.al.,1987). many investigators stressed on the value of predatory mites, as biocontrol agent, while controlling fly populations by insecticides suggesting the approach of integrated fly control (axtell, 1963, 1966,1968, 1970; mohsen et al., 1986). mohsen et al. (1986) tested 9 insecticides and formulations against mixed populations of m. domestica and predator mite macrocheles muscaedomesticae (scopoli) and found that temephos, diflubenzuron and methoprene were selective in their effects against m. domestica producing no harmful effects on mc muscaedomesticae. this paper presents data on the efficacy of 3 types of insecticides against m. domestica breeding in equine manure and their effects on predatory mites under field conditions. materials and methods the insecticides tested in this study were: o actellic (primiphos-methyl 50% ec, organophosphate) [o-2-diethyl-amino-6 methylpyrimidin-4-yl oo-dimethyl phosphorothioate], supplied by ici, england. o neporex (cyromazine 50% wp, insect growth regulator) [2-cyclopropyl-amino-4,6diamino-s-triazine], supplied by ciba-geigy, switzerland. o facam (bendiocarb 80% w, carbamate) [2,2-dimethyl-1,3-bezodioxol-4 yl methylcarbamate], supplied by camco, england. 64 field efficacy of three insecticides field evaluation of the 3 inescticides against m. domestica was undertaken in 1988 (29 oct.-19 nov.) at the horse stables of the horsemanship club located 15 km west of baghdad. approximately 15 kg of fresh horse dung, containing numerous immature stages of m. domestica and predator mites, were placed in plastic containers (used to collect garbage), measuring 32 cm diameter and 45 cm high. the depth of dung was approximately 40 cm. the surface area of the dung was 805 cm2. each insecticide was applied by pouring 1 l of distilled water containing the necessary amount of chemicals plus 1 percent sugar to attain the final concentration per surface area (g ai/m²) of actellic (2-4), neporex (0.4-0.8) and ficam (0.10.2). the lower concentrations are the label recommended doses by the specific insecticide manufacturer. each treatment was replicated 2 times and was run with 1 control which received only l of distilled water. the efficacy of insecticides against larvae of m. domestica and their effects on predator mites were assessed by counting the number of larvae and mites at periods of pretreatment, 1-d, 7-d, 14-d and 21-d posttreatment in 250 g of surface (depth of 5-10 cm) horse dung samples. in the laboratory, larvae of m. domestica were stored and counted and each dung sample was extracted in picric acid by a modified tullgren funnels for mite collecting. the moisture content was determined for each dung sample. in the field, surface dung temperature was measured at each sampling date. results and discussion fauna of mites: the fauna of mites in the samples of horse dung was composed of 4 families and 9 species (table 1). species of macrochelidae and acaridae were most abundant throughout the experimental period followed by species of parasitidae and uropodidae.mahmood and aldulaimi (1988) listed 6 spaecies of predator mites collected from various animal manure and found that mc.muscaedomesticae, macrocheles glaber (muller) and macrocheles medarius (berl.) were most abundant in cattle, horse and sheep manure. in an earlier study, mahmood and al-dulaimi (1986) suggested that mc. muscaedomesticae may be used as a biocontrol agent against m. domestica breeding in manure due to its efficiency in destroying eggs and 1st instar larvae. table.1: fauna of mites present in the horse manure samples (250 g) and their relative abundance. species relative abundance family acaridae caloglyphus berlesei (michael)* +++ lardoglyphus sp.* +++ family macrochelidae macrocheles muscaedomesticae (scopoli) +++ macrocheles medarius (berl.) +++ family parasitidae parasitus consanguineus oudemans & voidts ++ parasitus fimetorum (berl.) ++ family uropodidae fuscoropoda vegetans (de geer) + poulodinychus sp. + *not predacious 65 z . h . mohsen et al efficacy of insecticides against house fly larvae: the results of efficacy study of actellic, neporex and ficam against larvae of m. domestica are shown in table 2. the number of larvae declined sharply to almost zero for 21 d after the application of actellic at 2 and 4 gai/m².neporex effect (at o.4 and 0.8 g ai/m²) started 7 d postreatment and the number of larvae remained at zero level for 21 d posttreatment (table 2).neporex is known to induce insect growth regulating effect (igr) in treated insects involving inhibition of pupation and eclosion (mulla and axelrod, 1983).careful examination, in our study, revealed that many neporex-treated larvae were dead prior to pupation with their integument darkened in a similar manner as described by mulla and axelrod (1983). mohsen and al-chalabi (1988) reported that neporex demeonstrated a broad-spectrum of lethal and developmental activity against the mosquito culex quinquefasciatus say when applied to larval medium at 0.05-0.1 ppm involving direct kill of larvae and pupae, significant delay in pupation and emergence and decrease of fecundity and egg hatchability. the application of ficam at 0.1 and 0.2 g ai/ m²) resulted in sharp decrease of larval numbers at d-7 but slight recovery commenced 21d post treatment table 2: average numbers of m. domestica larvae and predator mites (2 samples of 250 g) present in horse manure preand post treatment with actellic, neporex and ficam. insecticide/concentration ga/ m² average no. of larvae and predator mites per 250 g of horse manure posttreatment (d) pretreatment 1 7 14 21 m. domestica larvae control 50 51 70 33 18 actellic 2 4 45 0 0 0 0 36 0 0 3 2 neporex 0.4 0.8 33 46 0 1 0 80 81 0 0 0 ficam 0.1 0.2 137 0 5 0 4 24 0 2 12 7 predator mites control 700 1100 280 300 190 actellic 2 4 720 300 185 300 190 850 172 145 90 51 neporex 0.4 0.8 864 373 582 452 107 961 783 525 165 97 ficam 0.1 0.2 615 217 482 501 117 683 657 542 433 165 date 29/10 30/10 5/11 12/11 19/11 dung temperature(°c) 28 28 19 15 14 moisture content (%) 69 70 64 66 63 66 field efficacy of three insecticides effect of insecticidal application on mites: the average numbers of predator rmites in 250 g of horse manure samples preand posttreatment with actellic, neporex and ficam are presented in table 2. the population of predator mites was apparently less affected by insecticidal treatment when compared with the population of target fly. the decline in numbers of mites in all of the dung samples seems to be mainly due to temperature decrease rather than the insecticidal effect as figures show in table 2. with the large numbers of predator mites present in horse dung samples it is expected that the decline in numbers of m. domestica larvae is largely due to a combined activity of insecticides and predator mites (families macrochelidae, parasitidae and uropodidae). some of these mites, i.e., mc. muscaedomesticae and glyptholaspis confusa (fao) may produce more than 90 percent reduction in fly population alone without insecticidal application (axtell, 1963). predator mites may be successfully implemented in integrated fly control. axtell (1968, 1970) studied the effect of fly larviciding of dipterans breedingin poultry ranches and concluded that excellent fly control was possible with adulticiding rather that larviciding due to the detrimental effects of nonselective insecticides on predator mite populations . the results of the present study demonstrated that larviciding of m. domestica in horse manure with the supplier recommended doses of actellic, neporex and ficam provided fly control for 21 d with no harmful effect against predator mite population. literature cited axtell, r. c. 1963 effect of macrochelidae (acarina: mesostigmata) on house fly production from dairy cattle manure. j. econ. ent., 56(3): 317-321. axtell, r. c. 1966 comparative toxicities of insecticides to house fly larvae and macrocheles muscaedomesticae, a mite predator of the house fly. j. econ. ent., 59: 11281130. axtell, r. c. 1968 integrated house fly control: populations of fly larvae and predacious mites, macrocheles muscaedomesticae, in poultry manure after larvicide treatment. j. econ. ent., 61: 245-249. axtell, r. c. 1970 integrated fly-control program for caged-poultry houses. j. econ. ent., 63: 400-405. cunningham, h. b. and eden, w. g. 1955 toxicity of several insecticidse to house fly larvae. j. econ. ent., 48 (1): 109-110. hurd, m. a., olton, g. s. and ware, g. w. 1979 impact of stirofos oral larvicide on the seasonal abundance of house flies in dairy cow manure in central arizona. j. econ. ent., 72 (2): 184-187. killy, j. a., stubbs, m. s. and pinniger, d. b. 1987 laboratory evaluation of cyromazine against insecticide-resistant field strains of musca domestica. med. vet. ent., 1: 65-69. mahmood, s. h. and al-dulaimi, s. i. 1986 biological studies on the mite macrocheles muscaedomesticae (acarina: macrochelidae). j. biol. sci. res., 17(2): 329-338. 67 z . h . mohsen et al mahmood, s. h. and al-dulaimi, s. i. 1988 ecological study of new records of iraqi predator mites developing in animal manure. j. biol. sci. res., 19 (suppl.): 865-876. mohsen, z. h. and al-chalabi, b. m. 1988 lethal and developmental effects of cyromazine against culex quinquefasciatus. j. biol. sci. res., 19 (3): 665-673. mohsen, z. h., mahmood, s. h., al-dulaimi, s. i. and al-faisal, a. h. m. 1986 comparative toxicity of pesticides against house fly musca domestica and predator mite macrocheles muscaedomesticae under laboratory conditions. j. biol. sci. res., 17 (3): 207-214. mulla, m. s. and axelrod, h. 1983 evaluation of larvadex, a new igr, for the control of pestiferous flies on poultry ranches. j. econ. ent., 76 (3): 520-524. yates, j. r. iii and sherman, m. 1970 latent differential toxicity of insecticides to larvae and adults of six fly species. j. econ. ent., 63 (1): 18-23. 68 field efficacy of three insecticides bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2001) 9 (3): 63-68 muscaالفعالية الحقلية لثالث انواع من المبيدات الحشرية ضد يرقات الذباب المنزلي domestica في براز الخيول وتأثيراتها على الحلم المفترس التي تتكاثر ، صباح ابراهيم الدليمي، عبد الكرمي هاشم*زهري حسني حمسن، سهيلة حياوي حممود ، بغداد، العراق ٥٣٦٧. ب. الزراعية، صاملنشأة العامة النتاج مبيدات اآلفات متحف التاريخ الطبيعي، جامعة بغداد، العراق* الخالصة مبيـد مـنظم (، نيبـوركس )مبيد فوسفوري عضوي(درست الفعالية احلقلية للمبيدات أكتلك -٠,١(، )٠,٨-٠,٤(، )٤-٢(باســتخدام الرتاكيــز ) مبيــد كارباميــت(، فيكــام )لنمــو احلشــرات muscaغــم مــن املــادة الفعالــة لكــل مــرت مربــع علــى التــوايل ضــد يرقــات الذبابــة املنزليــة )٠,٢ domestica l. بينـــت النتـــائج ان اعـــداد . الـــيت تتكـــاثر يف بـــراز اخليـــول يف نـــادي الفروســـية يوم وذلك بعد رش املبيدين اكتلك ونيبوركس ٢١الذباب استمرت منخفضة قريباً من الصفر ملدة ومل يتــأثر . يــوم مــن املعاملــة ١٤يكــام فــان الــذباب اســرتجع نشــاطه بشــكل طفيــف بعــد أمــا املبيــد ف .احللم املفرتس بسبب املعاملة باملبيدات الثالث 6 65 m. k. mohammad bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2008)10 (2): 65-78 the parasitic fauna and the food habits of the wild jungle cat felis chaus furax de winton, 1898 in iraq mohammad k. mohammad iraq natural history museum, university of baghdad, bab al-muadham, baghdad, iraq abstract a total of 72 specimens of the wild jungle cat felis chaus furax de winton, 1898 were examined for the purpose of this study. the results show that 55.6% of the sample harbored either single or mixed infections with ectoand/ or endoparasites. the mode of infection shows that only four specimens( 5.6% of the total sample) acquire single infections, the double infections comprise 15.3%, the triple infections comprised 33.3%, while the quadruplicate infections comprised 1.4%. the systematic list of the parasites included six ectoparasites: ctenocephalides felis (insect), sarcoptes scabiei (mite), haemaphysalis adleri, rhipicephalus leporis, rhipicephalus turanicus and hyalomma anatolicum excavatum (ticks) and seven endoparasites: filaria felis n. sp., f. melis, toxocara canis (nematodes), mesocestoides sp., taenia crassiceps (cestodes), heterophyes dispar (trematode), and oncicola probably travassosi (acanthocephalan). the meal of this cat in iraq as revealed by the stomach analyses includes a wide variety of invertebrate and vertebrate preys belonging to 48 species of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fishes, insects, crustaceans, mollusks and scorpions as well as some fragments of vegetable food. introduction the wild jungle cat felis chaus furax de winton 1898 is generally associated with the well-vegetated water environments including reed swamps, riverine forests, and dense jungles of tamarisk (harrison, 1968). so, its expected distribution in iraq is wide spread except that in the interior of the desert (cheesman, 1920;pitman, 1922;sanborn, 1940; hatt, 1959; harrison, 1968). this species is not found in the arabian gulf countries (harrison, 1981) probably due to predominance of pure sand desert environments. the ecological requirements of this cat are actually very broad. in iraq, it was reported from the mountains up to 1600m at rayat and haj omran, erbil province in the north; from himrin foothills at kirkuk, baquba, and kut, and from tarmiya riverine forests and orchards in the middle; and from the reed jungles of the marshes and open crop fields at amara, nasiriya and diwaniya in the south. in an occasional report of the staff of iraq natural history museum it is reported from ain tamur oasis in the desert which is, however, with dense date palm plantation. surprisingly, although of its common distribution and popularity as a game animal among hunters in iraq, no work had been carried out in regard to its parasites except for some fragmentary records of ticks parasitized this cat (hubbard, 1955;hoogstraal and kaiser, 1958; mohammad, 1996). the present work designated to give an idea on both ectoand endoparasites along with some comments on the cat ecology, biology and diet utilized by this species in the middle of iraq. 66 the parasitic fauna materials and methods a total of 72 specimens of the wild jungle cat were examined. nine of them were shot at rural areas around baghdad and kut during the period from january 1998 to june 2000. these specimens were immediately kept in a large polyethylene sac to avoid escape of ectoparasites and then transferred to the laboratory as soon as possible for examination. the source of the rest of specimens was the taxidermy section at iraq natural history museum/ university of baghdad which were received them from different individuals to be mounted during the past ten years. the taxidermists mr. saman r. afrasiab and mr. salman hamza at iraq natural history museum kindly allowed the author to examine the specimens for their ectoparasites and also provided him with carcasses after slaughtering the skin in order to examine them for endoparasites. mr. afrasiab was so kind to identify the herpetofauna specimens of the stomach contents. mrs. azhar a. saadallah of ichthyology department, iraq natural history museum, identified fishes. the author identified scorpions, ticks, mollusks, birds and mammals. the scientific names and classification of the vertebrate preys were according to mahdi and george (1969). the recovered ectoparasites were kept in 70% alcohol, while the endoparasitic helminths were put in 1% warm normal saline for one hour to allow expanding, then transferred to 70% alcohol, stained with acetocarmine (cestodes and trematodes) or cleared with lactophenol (nematodes and acanthocephalans). stomachs of the dissected specimens were separated, and their wet contents were isolated and weighed. results examining of the studied specimens showed that 40 specimens of the wild jungle cat harbored either single or mixed infection with ectoand / or endoparasites with a total infection rate of 55.6 %. the results on parasite groups and stomach contents are shown through tables 1-2. the results on the mode of infection showed that only four specimens acquire single infections with either cestode or trematode parasite species and comprised 5.6% of the total sample (10% of the infected). the double infection with ticks, cestodes, nematodes, trematodes or acanthocephala appears in 11 specimens and comprised 15.3% (27.5% of the infected). the triple infection with insects, mites, ticks, cestodes, nematodes or trematodes appeared in 24 specimens and comprised 33.3% (60% of the infected). the quadruplicate infection with ticks, nematodes and acanthocephalans appears only in one occasion and comprised 1.4% (2.5% of the infected). table (1) summarized the results on species of parasites, their incidence, percentages of infection and the mean number of parasites/ host. it shows that the parasite species are 13 in number .the four tick species showed the highest infection rates as well as high mean number of parasites/ host, while sarcoptes scabiei shows the lowest infection rate. of this parasitic fauna, a filariid nematode is found to be a new for science and its description is given here: filaria felis n. sp. figs. 14 material: five males and five females were recovered from subcutanous tissues of the shoulder region of three specimens collected near kut city on may 1999. male holotype: body length 72 mm, width 250 um, length of esophagus 6.5 mm, distance of nerve ring from the apical anterior end 125 um, right spicule 165 um, left spicule 800 um, length of caudal alae 5mm, tail 230 mm. female allotype: body length 165 mm, width 425 um, length of esophagus 12.5 mm, distance of nerve ring from the apical anterior end 145 um, cervical dilatation is 2.5 mm from head apex, egg 55 x 47 um. tail of female is covered with a circle of spines. tail of male with rounded blunt end. postcaudal formation constituted from the fusion of caudal alae forming oval plate. the left 67 m. k. mohammad wing is longer than the right one. first and second pairs of postcloacal papillae are slightly oblique. egg elongated with thick external shell. type specimens were kept in the collection of the invertebrates and parasitology section/ iraq natural history museum/ baghdad, vial no. inhm/inc 193. table (2) represents a systematic list of the preys utilized by the studied specimens. the percentage weight of each prey species to the total stomach contents weight is then calculated as a mean. it is obvious that rodents comprised the major food components of this cat and constituted 41.3% of the meal, followed by apparently juveniles of larger mammals and certain birds such as lepus capensis, francolinus francolinus arabistanicus and streptopelia decaocto while mollusks and scorpions constitute the lowest percentage of the meal. table 1: species of parasites, percentages of infection, and intensity of infection. parasite species no. hosts infected % infection mean (range) of intensity ectoparasites insecta ctenocephalides felis 2 2.7 7.5 (4-11) arachnida sarcoptes scabiei 1 1.4 many haemaphysalis adleri 12 16.7 24.5 (3-24) rhipicephalus leporis 8 11.1 2.25 (1-6) rhipicephalus turasnicus 16 22.2 31.0 (14-51) hyalomma anatolicum excavatum 3 2.7 3.3 (2-4) endoparasites nematoda filaria melis 3 4.2 2.3 (1-4) filaria felis n. sp. 3 4.2 3.3 (2-5) toxocara canis 2 2.8 6 (4-8) cestoda taenia crassiceps 4 5.6 5.5 (3-7) mesocestoides sp. 4 5.6 1.3 (1-2) trematoda heterophyes dispar 2 2.7 4.0 (1-7) acanthocephala oncicola prob. travassosi 1 1.4 4.3 (2-8 table 2: a systematic list of preys found in the stomachs of the specimens of wild jungle cat examined in the present study and its percentage of the cat meal. systematic list percentage phylum arthropoda class insecta order coleoptera family carabidae scarites sp. 0.8 family cantharidae 68 the parasitic fauna anthia sp. 0.7 order orthoptera family gryllotalpidae gryllotalpa gryllotalpa 1.5 class crustacea order decapopda family potamidae potamon sp. 0.4 class arachnida order scorpionida family buthidae androctonus crassicauda 0.03 mesobuthus eupeus 0.01 orthochirus scorbiculosus 0.02 family scorpionidae scorpio maurus 0.04 order acari family ixodidae hyalomma anatolicum excavatum __ rhipicephalus turanicus __ phylum mollusca class gastropoda order pectinibranchiata family viviparidae viviparus beneghalensis 0.1 phylum chordata class pisces order cypriniformes family cyprinidae barbus sp. 0.6 cyprinus carpio 0.4 family siluridae silurus triostegus 0.6 family bagridae mystus sp. 0.5 famiy heteropneustidae sacchobranchus fossilis 0.9 order cyprinidontiformes family muglidae liza abu 0.7 order mastacembeliformes family mastacembelidae mastacembelus mastacembelus 0.1 class amphibia order anura family bufonidae bufo viridis 0.1 family ranidae rana ridibunda 0.1 class reptilia 69 m. k. mohammad order squamata family scincidae mabuya aurata 0.5 eumeces schneiderii 0.5 family lacertidae anthodactylus sp. 0.5 family boidae eryx jaculus 0.7 famiy colubridae coluber ventromaculatus 0.5 natrix tessellata 0.8 class aves order ciconiiformes family ardeidae ardeola ralloides 0.7 bubulcus ibis 0.9 order anseriformes family anatidae anas angustirostris 0.9 order galliformes family phasianidae ammoperdix griseogularis 1.0 francolinus francolinus 4.5 gallus domesticus 0.5 order gruiformes family rallidae gallinula chloropus 2.2 fulica atra 2.6 order charadriiformes family charadriidae vanellus leucurus 1.0 hoplopterus spinosus 0.9 family recurvirostridae himantopus himantopus 0.6 family glareolidae glareola pratincola 0.4 order columbiformes family pteroclididae pterocles alchata 1.5 family columbidae columba livia 1.9 columba palumbus 2.2 streptopelia decaocto 4.8 order coraciiformes family meropidae merops superciliosus 0.8 order passeriformes family ploceidae passer domesticus 1.6 class mammalia order lagomorpha 70 the parasitic fauna family leporiade lepus capensis 5.2 order rodentia family muridae apodemus mystacinus 12.1 rattus rattus 8.7 rattus norvegicus 6.3 mus musculus 12.2 total 86.2% unidentifiable animal material 11.3% plant origin material 2.5% discussion except for the interior of deserts, the wild jungle cat has a wide distribution in asia and africa and utilizes many different biotopes. however, only few attempts to investigate the parasitic fauna were carried out. these include gupta & kazim (1980) who recorded toxascaris leonina and shaikh et al. (1982) who examined the incidence of helminths. the high infestation rate of the total sample may be related primarily to the infestation with ticks (table 1) which seems high. mohammad (1996) reported similar result. results on the mode of infection showed different ranks of single, double, triple and even quadruplicate infections. this is simply explained by the wide range of biotopes utilized by the host and also by the wide variety of its food items. this is in accordance with mundhenke & daugschies (1999) who found that polyinfections in domestic cats occurred more frequently in the rural areas than in the city. also, delahay et al. (1998) found that differences in habitat preference and diet were among factors that affect the prevalence and abundance of helminth parasites in wild-living cats in scotland. this cat is partially diurnal (ognev, 1935) and feed mainly on rodents (ishunin, 1965; schaller, 1967; khan and beg, 1986). however, the meal of this species in iraq as revealed by the stomach analyses of the 72 specimens of this study includes a wide variety of invertebrate and vertebrate preys belonging to three phyla, nine classes, 21 orders and 33 families (table 2) of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fishes, insects, mollusks and scorpions as well as some fragments of vegetable food such as cucumber and water melon. this would contribute to the diversity of endoparasitic fauna and to a lesser extent to the ectoparasites as well, although the infestation with different ectoparasites is related directly to the different biotopes utilized by the cat. two species of ticks found in the stomach contents were of negligible weights. they might be accidentally swallowed with their original host/s, which are most likely mammalian prey species. the high ratio of birds in the meal of this cat may be directly correlated to the observation of harrison (1968) who stated that the cat is more often seen hunting in daylight than most wild cats. this is partially supported by field observations of the author. in many instances, the cat hides during daytime in a straw heap waiting for the walking black partridge francolinus francolinus arabistanicus. this observation is also true for many species of birds. in this regard, it is of importance to refer to harrison’s (1968) statement that “ this cat is found exactly in the same terrain as that favored by the black partridge”. as shown through present results on stomach contents, the rodents seem to be the primary food since they comprise 41.3% of the meal. this is in accordance with ishunin (1965), schaller (1967) and khan and beg (1986). in his study on a related species, the european wild cat felis silvestris schreber, 1777 in portugal, sarmento (1996) found that rodents were the dominant components of the diet and represent 55% of the relative consumed biomass 71 m. k. mohammad followed by lagomorphs which constitute 28.7%, while reptiles, birds and insectivores together constitute 16.3% of the consumed biomass. in this study in regard to the weight, the mammals although they are only five species, they comprise 44.5% of the meal, followed by birds 29%, fishes 3.8%, reptiles 3.5%, insects 5%, crustacea 0.4%, amphibia 0.2%, mollusks 0.1% and scorpions 0.1%. harrison (1968) considered this cat as a predator of domestic poultry. in this study, no domestic poultry was found in the stomach. the animal material in the stomach contents constituted 97.5%. of them, 11.3% were impossible to identify including bird eggs of unknown species. this relatively high percentage of the unidentifiable animal diet perhaps would make the meal list rather longer. in this study, plant origin material and insects constitute 5.5% of the diet of felis chaus furax in iraq, while they were unimportant items of the diet of felis silvestris in portugal (sarmento, 1996). this reflects the environmental conditions and food availability differences of the two areas as well as their specific allopatry. no reports were available on endoparasites of wild jungle cat in iraq, but only few studies concerning helminths in the gastrointestinal canal of domestic cat, felis catus l. had been carried out (shaheen et al., 1962; babero et al., 1963; al-berwari and nassir, 1983; al-saeed, 1983; daoud et al., 1988). recording of filaria melis chabaud & mohammad, 1989, taenia crassiceps (zeder, 1800); mesocestoides sp. ; heterophyes dispar looss,1902 and oncicola prob. travassosi witenberg, 1938 from the wild jungle cat felis chaus furax represent new host records. the genus filaria gmelin, 1790 is known from various mammals (chabaud and mohammad, 1989). its species taxonomy are rather misleading and confusing. some authors recognized only two species while others acknowledge plurality of species. the filariid nematode filaria felis n. sp. is considered here as a new species. it is related to filaria latala chabaud and mohammad, 1989 (figs. 5-8) recovered from lions panthera leo (l.) in south africa, but it differs from it in the following: 1. in male specimens, it has a distinctive circular blunt end of the tail, 2. it is with shorter asymmetrical pedunculate male caudal papillae, 3. presence of small concavity at the apical end of the female anterior extremity, 4. muscular and glandular parts of esophagus are not macerated 5. the posterior end of the tail of female is with laterally situated circle of spines instead of terminal situation. four males and three females of filaria melis were also recovered subcutaneously from the shoulder region of three hosts collected on january 1998 at baghdad city. this nematode was originally described from honey badger meles meles (l., 1758) in baghdad area by chabaud and mohammad (1989). they found the parasite subcutaneously in the shoulder region also. the infection with f. melis is not surprising since harrison (1968) mentioned that this cat utilizes the empty burrows of other mammals such as badgers and porcupines and thus it is exposed to the bites of the probable insect intermediate hosts which are available nearby. this finding indicates that this parasite may have a good distribution among the wild carnivora of iraq, since the two mentioned hosts are wide apart phylogenetically from each other. chabaud and mohammad (1989) pointed out that filaria spp. which were reported from carnivores of americas and africa either without description or giving only insufficient description. they stated also that in contrast to the ethiopian region in which the genus filaria is found in different kinds of mammals, it is absent in oriental region and australia and presents only in fissipeda of palearctic, nearctic and neotropical regions. toxocara canis was reported from wild cat felis silvestris, f. onca, iberian lynx lynx pardinus, red fox vulpes vulpes, wolf canis lupus and jackal canis aureus (york and maplestone, 1962; papadopoulos et al., 1997; pfeiffer et al., 1997; lassing et al., 1998; rodriguez & carbonell, 1998). however, the infection rates of mentioned studies which ranged from 26.5 – 46.8% vary widely with the one reported here (2.8%). the difference may reflect the difference in potentiality of both of the environments of europe and iraq. 72 the parasitic fauna the cestode taenia crassiceps was frequently reported from the red fox vulpes vulpes l. ( yamaguti, 1959; papadopoulos et al.,1997; lassing et al., 1998). infection rates varied considerably between the wild jungle cat in this study (5.6%) and the red fox in lassing’s et al. (1998) study (14.6%). this may be related to different feeding habits of these two carnivores. yamaguti (1958) found larval stages of this cestode as small bladders beneath skin of six species of rodents including mus musculus and one species of fishes. in this study, both of rodents and fishes, the suspected intermediate hosts constituted 41.3% and 3.8% in weight of prey, respectively. the another cestode, mesocestoides sp. was recorded from a wide range of wild carnivores as well as dogs and cats (yamaguti, 1958; papadopoulos et al., 1997; lassing et al., 1998). the trematode heterophyes dispar is with relatively low rate of infection. yamaguti (1958) reported it from dogs and cats in egypt. he found the metacercariae in five genera of fishes, among them mugil & barbus which are listed in the wild cat food items in the present study. this low rate of infection coincides with the percentage share of these fishes which represent 0.7% and 0.6% respectively. although the infection rate of oncicola prob. travassosi represents the least rate among other parasites, this acanthocephalan seems with a good distribution in the middle east region since it was reported from palestine from felis bubstis (yamaguti, 1963). the high infestation rate of ectoparasites which comprises 56.78% of the total number of hosts (table 1) is not surprising since the empty burrows of other mammals such as badgers and porcupines may be sometimes employed as den instead of the usual thick dry vegetation (harrison, 1968). this may support infection with ticks and other ectoparasites that associate with these hosts. another factor may contribute to this high infestation rate is the wide variety of the meal list utilized by this cat which included many potential hosts of ectoparasites. the mite sarcoptes scabiei causes sarcoptic mange in a wide variety of mammals (arlian, 1989; lane & crosskey, 1993). although this mite was recorded frequently from carnivores (arlian, 1989; little et al., 1998 a & b; baker et al., 2000) it is the first time to the best of the author’s knowledge that is reported from felis chaus. the low rate of infestation in the present study with this mite may be related to that the author overlooked them in the skins of the taxidermy section provided specimens, which constitute 84.4% of the total sample. therefore, it is reasonable to assume that the normal rate of infestation with sarcoptic mange in free living felis chaus in iraq is higher than the figure presented here. hubbard (1955) and hoogstraal and kaiser (1958) reported the following ixodid ticks from the wild cat felis chaus in iraq: haemaphysalhs adleri feldman-muhsam,1951, ixodes sp., and rhipicephalus sanguineus (latreille,1806). then mohammad (1996) added rhipicephalus turanicus pom., 1940 to the list. the present study adds other two ticks: hyalomma anatolicum exxcavatum and rhipicephalus leporis. the cat flea ctenocephaloides felis is the most important medical and veterinary synanthropic ectoparasite of domestic cats and dogs worldwide and responsible for many nuisances including bites or transmission of pathogenic agents (helminths, protozoa, bacteria) to man or domestic carnivores (rust & dryden, 1997; farkas, 1999; menier & beaucournu, 1999). many attempts were carried out to interrupt the flea life through preventing the introduction and establishment of new infestations in a household environment using insecticides (guerrini & kriticos, 1998; mctier et al., 2000; shanks et al., 2000). it is appropriate to mention here that the cat flea was collected by the present author from the domestic cat, felis catus, indian mongoose , herpestes auropunctatus and norway rat, rattus norvegicus.it was reported also from the domestic cats in amman, jordan ( morsy et al., 1980). 73 m. k. mohammad acknowledgements i am indebted to my colleagues mr. saman r. afrasiab, mr. salman hamza and mrs. azhar a. saadallah for identifying reptiles and fishes found in the stomach contents of the cat, for allowing me to examine specimens of taxidermy section and for field assistance. literature cited al-berwari, s. e. & nassir, j. k. 1983 first recordf of ten helminth parasites in iraq. iraqi j. sci., 24(2): 1-16. al-saeed, w. m. 1983 studies on parasites of public health importance from cats in mosul. m. sc. thesis, mosul university , iraq. arlian, l.g. 1989 biology, host relations, and epidemiology of sarcoptes scabiei. ann. rev. entomol., 34: 139-161. babero, b. b. & al-dabbagh, m.a. 1963 the zoonosis of animal parasites in iraq. xii. the dog as reservoir of cestodes infection. j. fac. med. 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(baghdad),4: 6070. shaikh,h. , huq, m.m., karim, m.j. & khan, m.m.m. 1982 incidence of helminth parasites of domestic and wild cats and jackals in bangladesh. ind. j. parasitol., 6(2): 245247. shanks, d. j., rowan, t.g., jones, r.l., watson, p., murphy, m.g., smith, d.g. & jerinigan,a.d. 2000 efficacy of salmectin in the treatment and prevention of flea ( ctenocephalides felis felis) infestations on dogs and cats housed in simulated home environments. vet. parasitol., 91(3-4): 213-222. yamaguti, s. 1958 systema helminthum.. vol. i, part ii. the digenetic trematodes of vertebrates. intersci. publ. inc., new york. yamaguti, s. 1959 systema helminthum.. vol. ii. the cestodes of vertebratesw. intersci. publ. inc., new york. yamaguti, s. 1963 systema helminthum.. vol. vi. acanthocephala. intersci. publ. inc., new york. yorke, w. and maplestone, p. a. 1962 the nematode parasites of vertebrates. hafner publ. co., new york. 536 pp. 76 the parasitic fauna 77 m. k. mohammad 78 the parasitic fauna bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2008)10 (2): 63-78 ق ي العرا ي ش ح و حرا ال أل ق ا ذية ل وعادا ال غ و ة لطفيلي م ج الم د حم ظم م د كا حم م يم ط يع خ ال ف الت ري ح دادت ة بغ مجامع ظ ب ال ع د با غدا قب العرا ة ص الخال ص ح ي هذه ٧٢مت ف ش ا و ط ا حرا ن منوذ ن ق ج با ت الن ائ د أظهر وق ة س د ا ال ة او % ٥٥ رجي خلا ت ط بال فيليا خمتل ر ة ا ور منف ص صاب أ ا ب كان م صة و ح ن العينة ملف م ة خلي دا د بان . ال وج ق ة ف ص ب ز اإل ط ا و % ٥.٦وبا نسب ل ردة م ف ة ت إ اب سب % ١٥.٣ا ت و ة ج و% ٣٣.٣إ ابة مز و ة ة ث ثي عية% ١,٤إ اب ة با صاب .إ ت مل شت عة ا سب داخلي مة الطفيلي ت ال ت ق ئ م ض ما ستة أ واع بين ة خلارجي فيلي ت ا قائم الط ع ىل . أنوا ة ت ود ا ف ري م ا فرائ ال فقري وال سع وا د م وجود عد مل ل ا حت لي ت ظ ر عًا ٤٨أ و ب ق ر ع وال وا م ريا والن ش ت والق را حلش وا ك أل ا ت وا والربمائ ا ف ح والزوا طيو وال ن اللبا ن م ض إل يتبا ء ال با ض ال طع من ال ذا ع ىل ب ة ا .اف bull 39 al-meshhdany and hassan bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2020) 16 (1): 3961. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2020.16.1.0039 five diatom species identified by using potential application of next generation dna sequencing warqaa yehia al-meshhdany* fikrat m. hassan** *institute of genetic engineering and biotechnology for postgraduate studies, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq **department of biology, college of science for women university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq **corresponding author: fikrat@csw.uobaghdad.edu.iq received date: 28 january 2020; accepted date: 06 april 2020; published date: 24 june 2020 abstract molecular barcoding was widely recognized as a powerful tool for the identification of organisms during the past decade; the aim of this study is to use the molecular approach to identify the diatoms by using the environmental dna. the diatom specimens were taken from tigris river. the environmental dna(e dna) extraction and analysis of sequences using the next generation sequencing (ngs) method showed the highest percentage of epipelic diatom genera including achnanthidium minutissimum (kützing) czarnecki, 1994 (21.1%), cocconeis placentula ehrenberg, 1838 ( 21.3% ) and nitzschia palea (kützing) w. smith, 1856 (16.3%). five species of diatoms: achnanthidium minutissimum; fistulifera saprophila (langebertalot & bonik) lange-bertalot, 1997; gomphonema pumilum (grunow) e. reichardt & lange-bertalot, 1991; navicula veneta kützing, 1844 and thalassiosira pseudonana hasle heimdal, 1970 were registered in ncbi under the accession numbers as follows: mn749640.1, mn749641.1, mn749642.1, mn749643.1 and mn749646.1 for the first time; while the two algae fistulifera saprophila and thalassiosira pseudonana are regarded as a new record to algal flora in iraq. the environmental dna study will be a catalyst for new studies of biodiversity and environmental studies in iraq and the region. keywords: algae, diatoms, edema, freshwater, ngs, tigris river. introduction significant environmental problems are caused by rapid population growth in the world; lack of environmental knowledge in society and changes in the industry, particularly during 40 five diatom species identified the last century. freshwater habitats are without doubt one of the biosphere elements most impacted by this pollution. monitoring water quality is therefore essential to the health of the water ecosystem's sustainability and protection (çiçek et al., 2013; campbell et al., 2017). monitoring of water quality by physical and chemical methods is inadequate; in the recent years, particularly in the scientific community, the biological monitoring methods and biological indicator organisms were widely used for effective research (chang, 2008; tokatlı and dayıoğlu, 2011; adebayo et al., 2013; berthold et al., 2018). diatoms are considered to be a large part of the benthos (often 90–95 percent), and are present all the time in all surface waters. they are also one of the most important groups of aquatic producers and react quickly to the environmental variables change. diatoms, which are recognized as an important component of bioindicator species, have, therefore, been used as water pollution indicators for environmental assessments in many countries (gürbüz and kivrak, 2002; passy et al., 2004; godhe and härnström, 2010; aydın and büyükışık, 2014; tan et al., 2017). recently, scientists and researchers can use a basic reality to obtain information and produce more informed choices; this material persists, giving insight into the creature's past and present that left it behind. the edna samples were taken from different environments and for that it called environmental dna (thomsen and willerslev, 2015). during the past decade, molecular barcoding has been widely recognized as a powerful tool for identifying species. the assumption is that there is sufficient information in a short dna sequence (dna barcode) to identify the organisms. the major advantage in design studies of the use of dna barcodes is that standardization and process implementation are simpler than the conventional morphology-based approach (gao, 2019). metabarcoding, which refers to the employment of universal primers for the amplification of dna from various organisms collected in one sample, is the approach that is most commonly applied in next generation sequencing (ngs) (taberlet et al., 2012). ngs approaches are being increasingly employed to characterize water-living organisms from the edna specimens (yu et al., 2015). current advances in ngs approaches have made it possible to employ molecular barcoding in readily and efficiently investigating the diversity in the environment. the ngs -based environmental monitoring has been shown to be of less time and cost-consuming as compared to the conventional morphology-based methods (baird and hajibabaei, 2012). it is important to use the molecular concept as a solution to revise the mis-identification of diatoms and it could be also useful for biodiversity studies (vasselon et al., 2017). the diatoms identification are often collected as a mixed species in taken sample and this is the main challenges for this purpose (zimmerma et al., 2015). 41 al-meshhdany and hassan al-rawi et al. (2018) reported that the traditional classification is not accurate to identify the algal species in iraq and confirmed the use of molecular concept to identify algal taxa; abed et al. (2018) used the molecular concept to identify the algal coelastrella chodat, 1922. this study is aimed to assess the suitability of amplicon sequencing in next generation sequencing (ngs) approach using illumina platform for identifying epipelic diatoms in the sediment of the tigris river for the evaluation and development of molecular biological methods in water quality. material and methods specimens collection algal specimens were collected from five sites along the tigris river from november 2018 to july 2019 (map 1, tab. 1); specimens of epipelic were collected randomly by scraping the clay from the surface layer with a depth 0.1-0.5 cm in area (50 m2) and (3-5 mm) using a spatula, samples were placed in polyethylene bottles and sample water was added, the bottle was closed and shaken well and placed in a dark place until returning to the laboratory. epipelic diatoms were trapped by lens tissues as described by eaton and moss (salman et al., 2017). epipelic cell was identified after cleaning the silica skeleton by placing the glass slide on a heating plate (75-80°c), then placing a droplet of the sample on the slide and letto dry completely; followed by a concentrated nitric acid was added on the dry spot and the acid was left to evaporate completely. then slides were mounted by canada balsam and the cover was flipped on the dry spot and the lid of the slide was pressed gently to distribute the material in a homogeneous manner to avoid the emergence of bubbles near the edges of the sliding lid (salman et al. 2017); diatoms were identified according to round et al (1990). map (1): map of study areas (source: https://earth.google.com). 42 five diatom species identified table (1): geographical positions (gps) of the five study sites. culturing of diatoms diatoms were cultured by using the purchase f2 medium following guillard (1975(method. each epipelic diatom cell suspension was inoculated with 20 to 250 ml off/2+0.025 sio3 medium gradually, the culture was incubated under cycles of illumination with 12 h/12 h light-dark and constant temperatures 20°c (al-hussieny et al., 2014).one ml of culture was transferred to 1.5 ml tubes in the exponential growth phase (14-20 days of incubation), and the sample was centrifuged at 4000 xg for ten minutes. in the final step, the supernatant was discarded and the resulted pellets were stored at -20 °c, this step is to freeze the pellet in order to block the action of the enzymes like rnaase and protease. the pellets were kept for further use as recommended by visco et al. (2015). molecular identification of diatoms in order to identify unknown diatoms at a molecular base, four genes were selected (xxxx) (tab. 2). primers were designed and manufactured in macrogen company laboratories (seoul, south korea). table (2): primers design used in this study. genomic dna manipulation: for dna purification, the genomic dna of 20 isolated samples of unknown diatoms were extracted according to the protocol of qiaamp dna mini kit, qiagen, and the isolated dna was subjected to pcr (gene amp, pcr system 9700; applied biosystem) according to manufacturer's instructions. no. symbol area coordinate north east 1 s1 al-muthanna bridge 33°25'41.85″ 44°20'49.63″ 2 s2 al-sarafiya bridge 33°2112.99″ 44°22'28.77″ 3 s3 al-shuhadaa bridge 33°2019.99″ 44°23'19.91″ 4 s4 al-jadriya 33°16'58.35″ 44°22'31.87″ 5 s5 al-zafraniya 33°17'25.44″ 44°26'58.23″ 43 al-meshhdany and hassan multiplex polymerase chain reaction (pcr) the total volume of pcr amplification reaction was performed 25µ land included10ng/µl dna, (1x) taq pcr premix (intron, korea), and 1µm of each primer, and then distilled water was added into the tubes. conditions of the thermal cycling containing denaturation at 95 °c for 5 min, were followed by 30 cycles of 95 °c for 30s, 60 °c for 30s and 72 °c for 30s, with a final incubation at 72 °c for 7 min using a thermal cycler (gene amp, pcr system 9700; applied biosystem). the pcr products were separated by 2% agarose gel electrophoresis and visualized by exposure to ultraviolet light (302 nm) after staining with red stain (intron korea). for pcr products, 10μl was directly loaded into the well. electrical power was turned on at 100v/m amp for 75 minutes and dna was migrating from the cathode to plus anode poles. ethidium bromide-stained bands in gel were visualized using gel imaging system. for standard genes sequencing, pcr amplification of 18s rrna products of all isolated diatoms was sent to macrogen company laboratories for sequencing using the illumina platform by next generation sequencing (ngs) workflow, which includes 4 basic steps. calculating phred quality scores (q scores) q scores are a measure of the quality of the identification of the nucleobase generated by automated dna sequencing, that is logarithmically related to the base call error probabilities (p)(ewing and green,1998). q = − 10 log10p results and discussion a total of 186 epipelic diatoms taxa were identified according to the traditional concept (by compound microscopy model gx140105) which belong to a 59 genera according to (round et al., 1990). the most abundant taxa are illustrated in table (3). 44 five diatom species identified table (3): the most abundant diatomic taxa (identified by compound microscope) during the study period. characterization of diatoms by 18s rrna and edna to unequivocally determine the diatoms in sediment samples, diatoms were isolated by two means through 18s rrna and edna. the gene of interest was screened for 18srrna using different primer pairs (table 4).the resulted pcr products of 18s rrna were obtained from unknown samples and analyzed on 2% agarose gel and subsequently sequenced by ngs. the pcr products were (778bp) for a. minutissimum, (877 bp) for f. saprophila, (1110 bp) g. pumilum, (679bp) n. veneta, and (484 bp) for t. pseudonana (pl. 1). table (4): data statistics for diatoms. genes total read bases (bp) total reads gc (%) at (%) q20 (%) q30 (%) 18s_v9fv9r 94,387,580 313,580 47.957 52.04 77.987 72.456 d2d3_lsu 98,594,356 327,556 50.856 49.14 89.683 78.397 its3_its4 102,630,164 340,964 43.632 56.37 95.028 88.079 classes taxa bacillariophycaeae achnanthidium minutissimum (kutzing) czarnecki cocconeis placentula ehrenberg c. placentula var. euglypta (ehrenberg) grunow gomphonema gracile ehrenberg nitzschia frustulum var. minuta pantocsek rhopalodia musculus (kützing) o.müller fragilariophyceae fallacia enigmatica (h. germain) lange-bertalot & werum fragilaria intermedia (grunow) grunow f. pygmaea (kützing) a. j. stickle & d.g.mann coscinodiscophyceae aulacoseira granulata (ehrenberg) simonen melosira varians c.agardh pantocsekiella ocellata (pantocsek) k.t.kiss & e.ács 45 al-meshhdany and hassan plate (1):pcr products were electrophoresed on a 2% agarose gel (2 h., 5v/cm, 1x tbe) and visualized under u.v. light after staining lane: l (m: 100bp ladder, s: sample. lane s1, s2, s3, s4 and s5 represent the pcr products of isolated diatoms. in illumina miseq by ngs, the sequencing generated total number of bases sequenced, and total number of reads sequences, quininecytosine (gc %) content and adenine thymine (at%). as is explained table (4). while the high quality of the phred score for each gene sequences with an average q20% and q30% was illustrated in diagram (1). diagram (1): quality values line about sequences of the three genes with q20/q30 scores of sequences data. the following diatom species were obtained with the relative abundance by the laboratories of macrogen corporation laboratories in korea using illumina platform by ngs for each dna samples. these samples were identified by a three encoding genomic sequence described in previous table 2. a. minutissimum and c. placentula were diagnosed with the highest relative abundance with a slight difference (21.1and 21.3%), respectively, followed by n. palea with a percentage (16.3%), while the least abundance diatom was recorded for n. cf. frustulum with abundance of (0.7 %) (tab. 5). 46 five diatom species identified table (5): relative abundance of diatom species by ngs taxa proportion (%) notes achnanthidium minutissimum 21.1 for the first time identified by molecular analysis in iraq amphora montana 1.6 cocconeis placentula 21.3 cyclotella meneghiniana 2.3 fistulifera saprophila 1.9 new record in iraq fragilaria pinnata 2.9 gomphonema parvulum 9.8 gomphonema pumilum 9.6 for the first time identified by molecular analysis in iraq nitzschia amphibia 1.4 nitzschia cf. frustulum 0.7 nitzschia palea 16.3 navicula veneta 3.4 for the first time identified by molecular analysis in iraq thalassiosira pseudonana 4.34 unclear. thalassiosira pseudonana is considered widespread. it is known from freshwater habitats (kiss, 1984). new record in iraq confirm by prof. dr.bahram k. maulood (personal communication, march 14, 2020) ulnaria ulna 3.36 the ngs sequencing were aligned online using basic local alignment search tool (blast) at the national center for biotechnology information (ncbi). the 18s rrna sequence of all diagnostic diatom samples showed 99% homology with other global diatoms registered in the ncbi under the accession numberin ncbimn602030.1, mh997844.1, am501970.1, ku900218.1, kc736629.1, respectively. the sequence analysis, types of polymorphism, location of nucleotide of 18s rrna gene for isolated diatoms were shown in table (6) and demonstrated in (diags. 2, 6). 47 al-meshhdany and hassan table (6): types of polymorphism of 18s rrna gene from isolated diatoms. no. of sample type of substitution location nucleotide sequence id score identities taxa 1 transition 762 g>a id:mn602030.1 1372 99% achnanthidium minutissimum transition 977 a>g transvertion 1211 c>g transition 1231 g>a transition 1250 a>g transvertion 1354 t>g transition 1365 a>g 2 transition 554 a>g id:h997844.1 1564 99% fistulifera saprophila transvertion 556 t>a transition 671 a>g transvertion 886 c>a 3 transvertion 556 t>g id:m501970.1 1198 99% navicula veneta transvertion 711 t>g transvertion 735 t>g transition 765 a>g transition 792 t>c transvertion 849 g>c 4 transition 785 a>g id:ku900218.1 869 99% thalassiosira pseudonana 5 transvertion 711 g>c id:kc736629.1 1994 99% gomphonema pumilum transvertion 923 g>c 48 five diatom species identified achnanthidium minutissimum strain )18s rrna) gene, partial sequence. sequence id:mn602030.1 length: 1651number of matches: 1 range 1: 644 to 1421genbank graphics next match previous match score expect identities gaps strand 1372 bits(1521) 0.0 771/778(99%) 0/778(0%) plus/plus query61gttcaaagcaggcttatgccgttgaatgtcttagcatggaataataagat aggaccttag120 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| sbjct704 gttcaaagcaggcttatgccgttgaatgtcttagcatggaataataagataggac cttgg763 query301 ccatcgtagtcttaaccataaactatgccgacaggggattggtggggtttcgtta cgtct360 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| sbjct944 ccatcgtagtcttaaccataaactatgccgacaagggattggtggggtttcgtta cgtct1003 query541 tctttcttgattctatgggtggtggtggatggccgttcttagttggtagagtgatt tgtc600 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| sbjct1184tctttcttgattctatgggtggtggtgcatggccgttcttagttggtgga gtgatttgtc1243 query601 tggttagttccgttaacgaacgagaccgctgcctgctaaatagtccagtgagtga atttc660 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| sbjct1244tggttaattccgttaacgaacgagaccgctgcctgctaaatagtccagt gagtgaatttc1303 query661 actgacgaggacttcttagagggacgtgcgttctattagacgcaggaagagagc ggcaat720 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| sbjct1304actgacgaggacttcttagagggacgtgcgttctattagacgcaggaag atagcggcaat1363 query721 agcaggtctgtgatgcccttagatgttctgggccgcacgcgcgctacactgatgc att778 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| 49 al-meshhdany and hassan sbjct1364aacaggtctgtgatgcccttagatgttctgggccgcacgcgcgctacac tgatgcatt1421 diagram (2): sequences analysis of 18s rrna gene for achnanthidium minutissimum. fistulifera saprophila isolate hyu-d033 small subunit ribosomal rna gene, partial sequence, sequence id: mh997844.1 length: 1654number of matches: 1 range 1: 305 to 1181genbank graphics next matchprevious match score expect identities gaps strand 1564 bits(1734) 0.0 873/877(99%) 0/877(0%) plus/plus query241 cgtagttgggtatgtggtgtgcgttgcggcgtccatttgtttggttctgccgtgac cgcg300 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| sbjct545 cgtagttggatttgtggtgtgcgttgcggcgtccatttgtttggttctgccgtgac cgcg604 query361 ctgtgagaaaattagagtgttcaaagcaggcttatgccgttgaatatattagcat ggaat420 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| sbjct665 ctgtgaaaaaattagagtgttcaaagcaggcttatgccgttgaatatattagcat ggaat724 query541 gaactactgcgaaagcatttaccaaggatgttttcattaataaagaacgaaagtt agggg600 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| sbjct845 gaactactgcgaaagcatttaccaaggatgttttcattaatcaagaacgaaagtt agggg904 diagram (3): sequences analysis of 18s rrna gene for fistulifera saprophila naviculaveneta18s rrna gene, strain at-108gel01 sequence id: am501970.1 length: 1745number of matches: 1 range 1: 492 to 1170genbank graphics next match previous match score expect identities gaps strand 1198 bits(1328) 0.0 673/679(99%) 0/679(0%) plus/plus query61cagcgccaatagcgtatattaaagttgttgcagttaaaaagctcgtagtt ggatttgtgg120 50 five diatom species identified ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| sbjct552 cagctccaatagcgtatattaaagttgttgcagttaaaaagctcgtagttggatt tgtgg611 query181 aacctgtgtggcattaggttgtcgtgcaggggatgcccagcgtttactgtgaaaa aatta240 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| sbjct672 aacctgtgtggcattaggttgtcgtgcaggggatgcccatcgtttactgtgaaaa aatta731 query241 gagggttcaaagcaggcttatgccgttgaatatgttagcatggaataatgagata ggact300 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| sbjct732 gagtgttcaaagcaggcttatgccgttgaatatattagcatggaataatgagata ggact791 query301 ctttcgctattttgttggtttgcgcgagaaggtaatgattaatagggacagttgg ggcta360 |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| sbjct792 ttttcgctattttgttggtttgcgcgagaaggtaatgattaatagggacagttgg gggta851 diagram (4): sequences analysis of 18s rrna gene for navicula veneta. thalassiosira pseudonana strain ccap 1085/12 18s ribosomal rna gene, partial sequence, sequence id: ku900218.1 length: 1755number of matches: 1 range 1: 615 to 1098genbankgraphics next match previous match score expect identities gaps strand 869 bits(963) 0.0 483/484(99%) 0/484(0%) plus/plus query121 gggatacccatcgtttactgtgaaaaaattagagtgtttaaagcaggcttgtgcc gttga180 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| 51 al-meshhdany and hassan sbjct735 gggatacccatcgtttactgtgaaaaaattagagtgtttaaagcaggcttatgcc gttga794 diagram (5): sequences analysis of 18s rrna gene for thalassiosira pseudonana. gomphonema pumilum clone tcc536 18s ribosomal rna gene, partial sequence sequence id: kc736629.1 length: 1683number of matches: 1 range 1: 255 to 1364genbank graphics next match previous match score expect identities gaps strand 1994 bits(2210) 0.0 1108/1110(99%) 0/1110(0%) plus/plus query421 acgtttactgtgaaaaaatcagcgcgttcaaagcaaccttatgctgtgaatgtat tagca480 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| sbjct675 acgtttactgtgaaaaaatcagcgcgttcaaagcaagcttatgctgtgaatgtat tagca734 query661 taggggatccaagatgattagataccatcgtagtcttaaccataaactatgccga caagg720 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| sbjct915 taggggatcgaagatgattagataccatcgtagtcttaaccataaactatgccga caagg974 diagram (6): sequences analysis of 18s rrna gene for gomphonema pumilum. ngs data analysis the results were analyzed using genius software. sequencing of genes was performed by the seoul national instrumentation center for environmental management (snu nicem) online at: http:/www.mbio.ncsu.edu/bioedit/bioedit.html, using a dna sequencer 3730xl by applied biosystem. a homology search was conducted using basic local alignment search tool (blast) program which is available at the national center biotechnology information (ncbi) online at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov and software bioeditpro. version: 7.0.0 program. an expected value is defined to give an estimation of the number of times expected to get the same similarity coincidental and the lower the value of expecting. this indicates that the degree of similarity was high between sequences which give greater confidence; a value close to zero means that these sequences are identical and the bit score, which is a statistical measure of the sequence similarity and the higher value indicates a high degree of similarity. isolated diatom samples were confirmed by sequence-based phylogenetic tree (aligned sequences were conducted using mega 6 program) structuring analysis using 18s ribosomal rna (18srrna) gene sequencing in diagrams (7-11). 52 five diatom species identified diagram (7): phylogenetic tree of achnanthidium minutissimum based on 18s rrna gene sequences conferred by genebank data base, were analyzed and aligned through blast from ncbi using the neighbor-joining analyses of 778bp of corresponding position of 18s rrna gene sequence. mega 6 program was used for phylogenetic tree. diagram (8): phylogenetic tree of fistulifera saprophila based on 18s rrna gene sequences conferred by genebank data base, were analyzed and aligned through blast from ncbi using the neighbor-joining analyses of 877 bp of corresponding position of 18s rrna gene sequence. mega 6 program was used for phylogenetic tree. 53 al-meshhdany and hassan diagram (9):phylogenetic tree of gomphonema pumilum based on 18s rrna gene sequences conferred by genebank data base, were analyzed and aligned through blast from ncbi using the neighbor-joining analyses of 1110 bp of corresponding position of 18s rrna gene sequence. mega 6 program was used for phylogenetic tree. diagram (10): phylogenetic tree of naviculaveneta based on 18s rrna gene sequences conferred by genebank data base, were analyzed and aligned through blast from ncbi using the neighbor-joining analyses of 679 bp of corresponding position of 18s rrna gene sequence. mega 6 program was used for phylogenetic tree. 54 five diatom species identified diagram (11): phylogenetic tree of thalassiosira pseudonana based on 18s rrna gene sequences conferred by genebank data base, aligned together with yeast, were analyzed and aligned through blast from ncbi using the neighbor-joining analyses of 484 bp of corresponding position of 18s rrna gene sequence. mega 6 program was used for phylogenetic tree. the molecular analysis revealed five diatom species which were identified for the first time by molecular analysis, while two species were recorded as new species of iraqi algal flora and were registered in ncbi under the accession number as follows: (1) achnanthidium minutissimum (accession numbermn749640.1). (2) fistulifera saprophila (accession number mn749641.1) new record. (3) gomphonema pumilum (accession number mn749642.1). (4) navicula veneta (accession number mn749643.1). (5) thalassiosira pseudonana (accession number mn749646.1) new record. by comparing phylogenetic tree of a. minutissimum with neighboring countries, it was 99% closer to china. when compared, phylogenetic tree of f. saprophila turned out to be more similar 99% to the id number diagnosed in korea. the phylogenetic tree for the species g. pumilum was more closely related to the registration number that was diagnosed in france as 99%.the affinity ratio was 99% phylogenetic tree of n. veneta with registration number id: am501970.1 which registered in germany. phylogenetic tree of t. pseudonana based on 18s rrna gene sequences conferred by genebank data base, were analyzed and aligned through 55 al-meshhdany and hassan blast from ncbi using the neighbor-joining analyses and was also 99% recorded in the usa. the morphological and molecular (phylogenetic) determination of diatomic organisms is another potential conflict source. firstly, there is a range of genetically distinctive forms that reflect almost all morphospecies. secondly, some species have their own auto-ecological values subdivided into subspecies or morphological varieties. in the first case, a significant benefit for biomonitoring may be the cryptic diversity, especially when cryptic species relate to certain specific ecological conditions. the second case is more troubling because the subspecific taxa are generally not genetically characterized (visco et al., 2015). the quantitative analysis of ngs data gives the greatest challenge in efforts to alleviate biases in the calculation of diatom indices. in fact, numerous ngs environmental studies display contradiction between the number of sequences assigned to a given species and the number of specimens of the same species in microscopic preparations (gibson et al., 2014) or even microbially diverse communities (amend et al., 2010).this unbalance correlation between the multiple reading and individuals could be interpreted either by technical biases introduced during dna extraction, pcr amplification or sequencing or by biological factors such as the variations of rrna gene copies (weber and pawlowski, 2013; pawlowski et al., 2014), which may depend on number of nuclei in genome size, or variety in size of cell (prokopowich et al., 2003; heyse et al., 2010). the results given in this experience study will need validation by more ngs-based surveys of diatom diversity. indeed, substantial efforts must be done by diatom taxonomists and biologists to complete the dna barcoding reference database and to determine the rate of genetic and morphological differences in diatom species. a total of 186 taxa were identified of epipelic algae by microscopy (tab. 3), whereas only a few of identified epipelic (5.4%) were observed by using molecular analysis in this study (tab. 5). while amphora montana, fistulifera saprophila, nitzschia cf. frustulum and thalassiosira pseudonana were detected by molecular analysis and not identified by microscopy. another study also observed only 19% of identified diatoms by using molecular analysis while they identified 63 taxa by microscopy (vasselon et al., 2017). vasselon et al. (2017) mentioned that about 68% of diatom species identified by microscopy were incomplete in the reference database; moreover, it is important to use suitable dna extraction methods. this finding will encourage the researcher to use the molecular analysis for identifying algae in the environment. these diatoms were found in freshwater habitats and reorganized in different regions worldwide (reichardit, 1997; wojtal, 2003, novais et al., 2015). conclusion the use of molecular concept of classification is important to re-check the list of the algal flora in iraq to confirm or to amend them. the application of edna revealed five diatom species were a new record species of iraqi algal flora and it will be a catalyst for new studies 56 five diatom species identified of biodiversity and environmental studies in iraq and the region. the molecular application will resolve the misclassification and the persistent problems of misidentification of algae. moreover, the ngs will decrease the period of the specimen process with using automation of the protocols of molecular works and led to the increase in the number of sampling, in addition to reduce the cost of this tech. acknowledgments authors thank the department of biology, college of science and iraqi hereditary company for the facilities support and they extend their thanks to asst. prof. dr. halah alhaideri and asst. prof. dr. safa al-deen a. al-qaysi for their comments on the manuscript. literature cited abed, i. j., abdulhasan, g. a. and najem, a. m. 2018. genotype versus phenotype to determine the definitive identification of the genera chlorella berjrinck, 1890 (chlorophyceae) and coelastrella chodat, 1922 (scenedesmaceae). bulletin of iraq natural history museum, 15 (1):101-111. adebayo, o. o., sangodoyin, a.y., ogedengbe, k., and taiwo, o. 2013. mapping of river water quality using inverse distance weighted interpolation in ogun-osun river basin, nigeria. acta geographica debrecina landscape and environment, 7 (2): 48-62. al-hussieny, a. a., hussein, h. t. and hmood, a. h. 2014. propagation of algae farms using several methods by different farming media. journal of the college of basic education, 20 (84/scientific): 121-142. al-rawi, a., alwash, b. m. j., al-essa, n. e. and hassan, f. m. 2018. a new record of coelastrella terrestris (reisigle) hegewald & n. hangata, 2002 (sphaeropleales, scenedesmaceae) in iraq. bulletin of iraq natural history museum, 15 (2): 153-161. amend, a. s., seifert, k. a., bruns, t. d. 2010. quantifying microbial communities with 454 pyrosequencing: does read abundance count? molecular ecology, 19(24): 5555-6565. aydın, g. ș. and büyükıșık, b. 2014. effects on the species-specific variables nutrient pulses: thalassiosira allenii (takano). journal of tekirdag agricultural faculty, 11(3): 8290. baird, d. j. and hajibabaei, m. 2012. biomonitoring 2.0: a new paradigm in ecosystem assessment made possible by next-generation dna sequencing. molecular ecology, 21(8): 2039-2044. berthold, m., karsten, u., von weber, m., bachor, a. and schumann, r. 2018. phytoplankton can bypass nutrient reductions in eutrophic coastal water bodies. ambio, 47(1): 146-158. 57 al-meshhdany and hassan campbell, b. m., beare, d.j., bennett, e. m., hall-spencer, j. m., ingram, j. s., jaramillo, f., ortiz, r., ramankutty, n., sayer, j. a. and shindell, d. 2017. agriculture production as a major driver of the earth system exceeding planetary boundaries. ecology and society, 22(4): 1-8. chang, h. 2008. spatial analysis of water quality trends in the han river basin, south korea. water research, 42 (13): 3285-3304. çiçek, a., bakiş, r., uğurluoğlu, a., köse, e. and tokatli, c. 2013. the effects of large borate deposits on ground water quality. polish journal of environmental studies, 22(4): 10311037. ewing, b. and green, p. 1998. base-calling of automated sequencer traces using phred. ii. error probabilities. genome research, 8(3):186-194. gao, z., wang, x., wei, x., liu, y. and han, j. 2019. dna mini-barcoding: a derived barcoding method for herbal molecular identification. frontiers in plant science, 10: 987. gibson, j., shokralla, s., porter, t. m., king, i., van konynenburg, s., janzen, d. h., hallwachs, w. and hajibabaei, m.2014. simultaneous assessment of the macrobiome and microbiome in a bulk sample of tropical arthropods through dna metasystematics. proceedings of the national academy of sciences, 111(22): 80078012. godhe, a. and härnström, k. 2010. linking the planktonic and benthic habitat: genetic structure of the marine diatom skeletonema marinoi. molecular ecology, 19(20): 4478-4490. guillard, r. r. 1975. culture of phytoplankton for feeding marine invertebrates. in: smith, w. l., chanley, m. h. 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[bacillariophyceae] from a karstic stream in the krakowsko-czestochowska upland. acta societatis bot anicorum poloniae, 72 (3): 213220. yu, l., zhang, w., liu, l. and yang, j. 2015. determining microeukaryotic plankton community around xiamen island, southeast china, using illumina miseq and pcrdgge techniques. plos one, 10(5): e0127721 zimmerman, j., glöckner, g., jahn, r., enke, n. and gemeinholzer, b. 2015.. metabarcoding vs. morphological identification to assess diatom diversity in environmental studies. molecular ecology resources, 15(3):526-42. 60 five diatom species identified bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2020) 16 (1): 39-61. دايتومية باستعمال التطبيقات الممكنة لتسلسل الحمض تشخيص خمسة انواع النووي البيئي من الجيل التالي حسن** فكرت مجيد يحيى المشهداني* و ورقاء ،غدادجامعةب ،التقنيات االحيائية للدراسات العليا و *معهدالهندسية الوراثية العراق، بغداد العراق، بغداد ، جامعةبغداد ،لبناتكليةالعلوم ل ،**قسم علوم الحياة 24/06/2020، تأريخ النشر: 27/04/2020، تأريخ القبول: 16/01/2020تأريخ االستالم: الخالصة الل خعرفت تشفير الباركود بشكل واسع كأداة قوية لتحديد الكائنات الحية حديد يئي لتهدفت الدراسة الحالية الستخدام المفهوم الجز لذلكالعقد الماضي. الدايتومات باستخدام الحمض النووي البيئي. ليل اخذت العينات الدايتومات من نهر دجلة، اذ بينت نتائج استخالص وتح ( ngاستخدام تسلسل الجيل التالي ) تسلسل الحمض النووي البيئي من خالل بان اعلى نسبة سجلت لكل من الدايتومات التالية : (21.1%) achnanthidium minutissimum (kützing) czarnecki, 1994 وcocconeis placentula ehrenberg, ,nitzschia palea (kützing) w. smith %( و21.3)1838 . %16.3 بنسبة 1856 مرةفي المركز الوطني لمعلومات خمسة اجناس للدايتومات الول سُجلت و mn749640.1تحت ارقام االنضمام ( ncbiلتكنولوجيا الحيوية ) mn749641.1 وmn749642.1 وmn749643.1 و mn749646.1:على التوالي و هي achnanthidium minutissim وfistulifera saprophila (lange-bertalot & bonik) lange-bertalot, 1997 وgomphonema pumilum (grunow) e. reichardt & lange-bertalot, 1991 وnavicula 61 al-meshhdany and hassan veneta kütz. 1844 وthalassiosira pseudonana hasle heimdal, 1970 النوعان ؛ كما يعدfistulifera saprophila جديدا للفلورا الطحلبية في تسجيالthalassiosira pseudonana و .العراق سة الحمض النووي البيئي عامال مساعدا في اجراء دراسات جديدة تعتبر درا حول التنوع البيولوجي والدراسات البيئة في العراق والمنطقة. bull 409 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum bilal and ahmed bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2023) 17 (3): 409-421. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2023.17.3.0409 original article comparative ultrastructural study of the salivary glands of two hematophagous leeches (annelida, clitellata, arhynchobdellida) in iraq huda sdiq bilal* and sherwan tayeb ahmed department of biology, college of science, salahhadin university, erbil, iraq. *corresponding author: sherwan.ahmed@su.edu.krd recived date: 26 november 2022, accepted date 26 feberuary 2023, published date:20 june 2023 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract during july august of 2021, thirty-one leeches were collected from two localities in erbil and its suburbs for studying the morphological features of jaws, denticles, and salivary gland cells. leeches were two blood-sucking species; hirudo orientalis (utevsky & trontelj, 2005) (family, hirudinidae) and limnatis paluda (tennent 1859) (family, praobdellidae). the investigations conducted using a stereomicroscope (sm) and scanning electron microscopy (sem). h. orientalis jaws were white and rigid, bearing sharp teeth, while l. paluda jaws were gray and soft bearing fewer blunt teeth with plentiful papilla and both are monostichodont. in the present study, the salivary glands of adult leeches were examined by sem. they are composed of unicellular glands arranged in grape patterns with spherical, ovoid, and pear shapes in various cell sizes; the cell bunches of gland cells were highly developed and interconnected to one another by tiny channels. a bigger canal that led to the jaws was created by combining channels from each bunch. keywords: annelida, hirudo, leeches, limnatis, salivary gland. introduction leeches are cylindrical, flattened ectoparasites that feed on blood or are carnivorous members of the phylum annelida, class clitellata; despite the numerous terrestrial and marine species, freshwater leeches predominate (sawyer, 1986). leeches are segmented, hermaphrodites, blood-feeding worms that can infect humans, pets, wildlife, and invertebrate species; these are distinguished by two distinct suckers, the anterior and posterior, and inside the front sucker is where the leech's mouth is situated (daniel and swayer, 1975; ayhan et al., 2021). jaws and velum are typically found in the buccal cavity of hematophagous species, which also have large mouths; having either one (monostichodont) or two (distichodont) rows of denticles, three muscular jaws are present. the animal may extract blood and lymph from wounds by cutting through the body surface of hosts with its calcified teeth and continue bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799-print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2023.17.3.0409 https://orcid.org/0009-0004-3118-0515 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3338-3971 mailto:sherwan.ahmed@su.edu.krd https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 410 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum comparative ultrastructural study of the salivary sucking blood with the help of the secretion of their salivary glands (fretter and graham, 1976; orevi et al., 2000). bioactive chemicals found in the saliva of vampire leeches, such as hirudo sp., enable the feeding and preservation of eaten blood as well as the possibility of significant medical advantages to the host. due to their hematophagous nutrition habits, medicinal leeches have been used for centuries in bloodletting for treating numerous diseases (hirudotherapy). by transmitting different bioactive compounds to their hosts, leeches have developed the capacity to regulate many mechanisms within their hosts (joslin et al., 2017). saliva is produced by single-celled salivary glands in the frontal region of the body of jawed medicinal leeches; these glands are positioned between the muscle fibers that link the jaws to the body wall. from the cell body to the jaw, the individual salivary cell sends a single duct, which terminates in a small aperture between the calcified denticles of the jaw (wuttke et al., 1989). there are 6 species of medicinal leeches in the genus hirudo (linnaeus, 1758), involving hirudo medicinalis linnaeus, 1758 (european medicinal leech), which has been studied in detail but others do not get sufficient importance including hirudo oreintalis (bahmani et al., 2013; saglam et al., 2020). nasal leeches belong to the taxon identified as limnatis moquin-tandon, 1827. mammals, particularly humans, have been observed to have this genus' leeches invade their nasopharynxes (almallah, 1968; boye and joshi, 1994). only three species belonging to limnatis: l. nilotica (savigny, 1822), l. bacescui manoleli, 1972, and l. paluda (tennant, 1860) were identified (sawyer, 1986). in spite of the fact that this species cannot puncture the dermis of humans and animals , it inflames and damages the oral or nasal mucosa by sucking blood (bahmani et al., 2013). they typically adhere to the animal's buccal cavity or pulmonary tracts after ingesting infected water; the species in this genus are crucial for research in parasitology, veterinary science, and medicine (arfuso et al., 2019). among these three species, l. nilotica gets much investigation due to their dominant distributions (utevsky et al., 2022). the purpose of the current study is to clarify the detailed structure of the two hematophagous leeches' salivary glands h. oreintalis and l. paluda which differ in their rote of blood feeding, moreover discuss the structure and appearance of their jaws which are related to their feeding mode also. materials and methods specimens' collection: during july and august of 2021, many water bodies in erbil province and its suburbs were searched for collection. seventeen specimens of hirudo orientalis (utevsky & trontelj, 2005) were observed in springs in the hassan bag mountain (n 36° 43’ e 44° 38’) as mentioned by alishah (2016), while fourteen specimens of limnatis paluda (tennent, 1859) were gained inside springs, streams, and small lakes in debaga township (n 411 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum bilal and ahmed 35° 30’ e 43° 45’). adult active leeches were hand-collected and placed in glass jars, covered with a smooth minute porous cloth to prevent escape. leeches were kept alive in the laboratory and transferred to a glass aquarium of 30cm (w) x 27cm (h) size, filled with nonchlorinated water. the water was regularly maintained by replacing it every day. specimens' identification: the adult leeches were anesthetized in 10% ethanol for about 5 min. identification of the worms was done under an olympus sm depending on their the following external characters; general shape of body, size of mouth, form of suckers, number and arrangement of eyespots (ocelli), papillae, sensillae, copulatory gland pore, the number of annuli per somite (segments), shape and location of male and female gonogpores (sawyer, 1986; schenkova ́ et al., 2021). for detecting their feeding organs including salivary glands, four specimens of each species were dissected and then cleaned with distilled water (ayhan et al., 2021). dissection started from anterior to the posterior part along the ventral side on paraffin wax blocks, exposing three rigid jaws and one dorsomedial and two ventrolateral salivary glands. the salivary gland cells have to be as clear as possible and visible, the area around them was cleared from cerebral ganglia, crop, overlying muscle, and connective tissues. photographs of whole specimens were taken using digital camera adapted to the eye lense. sem technique: anesthetized leeches had their jaws and salivary glands dissected, after which they were fixed overnight at 25° c in 2.5 percentages of glutaraldehyde ph 7.2. after being cleaned 3 times with phosphate buffer solution for 20 minutes, the fixed tissues were subsequently dehydrated using alcohol at increasing concentrations (thirty, fifty, sixty, seventy, eighty, ninety, ninety-five, and hundred) percentages for each concentration in twenty minutes. step-by-step , concentrated solutions were applied to the dehydrated tissues (etoh 1:3, 1:1, 3:1)of acetone for 15 minutes per step, and then transferred to 100 % acetone for 30 minutes. every specimen was dried in a hood for three days. ultimately, drying specimens were placed on sem stubs with both-sided tape, and the specimens were gold coated by dsr1 desk sputter coater in 200 angstrom for 30 minutes, some samples were silver coated with dsr1 desk sputter coater in 250 angstroms for an hour (kwak et al., 2021). map (1): map of iraq presenting specimens' collection sites ( ). hasan bag debaga 412 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum comparative ultrastructural study of the salivary coated samples were viewed with quantum 450 sem in the scientific research center, soran university, erbil, iraq. results and discussion kingdom: animalia phylum: annelida class: clitellata order: arhynchobdellida family: hirudinidae 1. genus: hirudo linnaeus, 1758 species: hirudo orientalis (utevsky & trontelj, 2005) 2. genus: limnatis moquin-tandon, 1827 species: limnatis paluda (tennent, 1859) 1. jaws hirudo orientalis: jaws are located in a large preoral chamber occupies the anterior sucker, the posterior wall of this chamber is a transverse sheet of tissue known as the vellum, this sucker harbors a small mouth which is a triradiate opening in the center of the vellum (pl. 1). two symmetrical ventrolateral and single dorsomedial jaws have been seen, comprising an isosceles, triangle, bright white, smooth and rigid jaws (pl. 2). the bladelike sharp jaws were seen bearing sharp teeth at the average 80 (range 70-91) per jaw. the jaws are trignathous, monosticodont coated with cuticles except for denticles (pl. 3). scant papillae are dispersed on both sides of each jaw (pl. 3). limnatis paluda: anterior sucker occupies a long narrow cut or depression transverse sheet of tissue as three lobes are called median ventral furrow on the ventral surface of the oral sucker which is not observed in hirudo (pl. 1). three jaws are situated in the oral cavity; an equilateral triangle is made by a symmetrical couple of ventrolateral jaws and single dorsomedial jaw, and smaller than those of hirudo (pl. 2). jaws are gray with black specks that are circular and flexible, they fluctuate toward and away from each other and activated by muscle attached to their bases. each jaw bearing a line of denticles with bumpy surfaces and flat tops at an average of 43 (range 3748) per jaw was seen on their edges (pl. 3) there were abundant papillae detected on the jaws' double sides. in agreement data with kovalenko and utevsky (2015), hirudo's jaws are stiff, milky white, and glow. it has a line of sharp, pyramid-shaped denticles that are positioned next to one another. the bite of hirudo is a characteristic triradiate or y-shape incision made by the three scalpel-like jaws (sawyer, 1986). arfuso et al. (2019) mentioned that the jaws of limnatis nilotica, closely related to l. paula, seemed spherical, spongy, pale grey, and had more distinct knots. disparity, hirudo is an ectoparasite due to its pointed teeth and stiff jaws; it will puncture its host's dermis to feast on repletion itself when the opportunity presents itself because meals may not always be accessible (orevi et al., 2000). 413 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum bilal and ahmed on the jaw of h. medecinalis and h. orientalis, the size of the denticles and the quantity they are inversely associated with are observed, therefore the tiny denticles they have, the more teeth are there, while in h. verbana was quite different from them, with larger denticles and fewer numbers which allows an efficient piercing of the thick dermis of human and animals. it shows a representation of limnatis jaws with papillae on both sides, a line of tiny denticles on the edge, and a salivary cell ductulus at the termination (moquin-tandon, 1827). while orevi et al. (2000) did not detect openings in the teeth of l. nilotica but suggested that the papillae might be added to the discharge of salivary secretion of hirudo's denticle pore; the opposite was found in this study, we detected apertures between the teeth of l. paluda (pl. 3). cv cv 1 cm 1 cm plate (1): adult leeches, dorsal and ventral view; (a) h. orientalis, (b) l. paluda. buccal cavity (cv). b a 414 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum comparative ultrastructural study of the salivary e b m o u t h h i r u d o o r i e n t a l i s : u 500.0 mµ c oc f oc a a s e c t e d m o u t h h ir u d o o ri e n t a li s : u n fi x e d d m o u t h h ir u d o o ri e n t a li s : u n fi x e d j a w , w it j sg sg j sg sg plate (2): jaws (j) and salivary glands (sg); (a, b, c) h. orientalis, (d, e, f) l. paluda. [oc: oral cavity; (b, c, e, f) sem photographs]. 415 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum bilal and ahmed 2. salivary glands hirudo orientalis: three separated glands appear as clusters or grapes or strips that are extended from each jaw, spread around the cerebral ganglia, few anterior the crop, located approximately between segments v to xii, they are surrounded by muscles and connective tissues (pl.4). limnatis paluda: general appearance is the same as h. orientalis but it is located near position in segments (v xi) (pl. 4). lemke et al. (2013) reported that the mature h. verbana conical-shaped salivary cells are positioned within segments v to ix, while those of h. medicinalis are observed in segments (v xi) (marshall and lent, 1988). plate (3): sem photographs showing; jaw (j), denticles (d), papillae (p) and salivary gland pores (gp) of (a, b, c) h. orientalis and (d, e, f) l. nilotica. 416 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum comparative ultrastructural study of the salivary a b c d f e gc gc d d ne ne plate (4): sem photographs representing; salivary gland cells(gc), ducts(d) and network (ne), (a, b, c) h. oreintalis, (d, e, f) l. paluda. 417 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum bilal and ahmed 3. salivary gland cells hirudo orientalis: when examined with sem, thousands of single-celled and 3 of the detected glands were encased in a capsule of connective tissue (pl.4). the individual gland has indentation cells that were connected to the ducts in a grape-like manner. the cells are arranged in grape-like patterns, spherical, ovoid, and pear-shaped with cell sizes 16 to 78 micrometers after, unconnected to each other. sulci on the smooth outside surface of the cell were visible, and it appeared as a collection of different-sized cells with system channels interconnecting salivary gland cells to ducts in addition to the thousands of secretory cells. three different duct configurations were seen in the salivary glands: thin ducts connecting the salivary gland cells and the salivary canal, bigger ducts that appear to travel toward the jaws, and fibrils ducts that appear as tiny capillaries on the outside of gland cells (pl. 4). limnatis paluda: same appearance and arrangement as of hirudo, but while they had different cell diameters of 13 to 65 micrometers (pl. 4). based on the current observational and multiple prior histological investigations (van der lande,1968; mishra and dev, 1976), it is evident that these jawed leeches' salivary cells are single cells and free cells of different measurements that are assembled in grape-like designs and are matching with other representations of leech salivary glands (lemke et al., 2013; saglam et al., 2020). marshall and lent (1988) and lemke et al. (2013) observed that the somata of hirudo medicinalis are typically circular or elliptical and have a dimension of thirty to twohundred micrometers. a soma projects a solitary ductule, toward the base of each of the three jaws. however, the h. verbana salivary gland cells ranged in size from sixty to a hundred micrometers (lemke et al., 2013); while described as nourished leeches have similar cells, they are significantly tiny and hardly distinguishable. salivary glands of the enormous amazonian leech, haementeria ghilianii, are ten times bigger than those of h. verbana and have a coarser outer layer (walz et al., 1988). in comparison, the salivary gland of h. verbana has developed an interconnected network of fibers and saliva ducts (wuttke et al., 1989). in their study, saglam et al. (2020) mentioned the fact that mature h. verbana salivary glands presented as a collection of oval cells of various sizes, with a network of channels tying salivary cells to the ducts and three distinct duct morphologies. the salivary gland cells produce various bioactive compounds that makeup saliva, which is subsequently combined in the previously reported complicated channel system (marshall and lent, 1988). conclusion the precise morphology of the jaws and salivary glands of hirudo orientalis and limnatis paluda were determined. both species have in a grapes designed salivary glands that are extended from the jaws and surrounded by muscle fibers between crops and the body wall. salivary gland cells are unicellular and vary in shape and size, the salivary gland of hirudo in length is longer than limnatis but in general, limnatis cells are smaller than hirudo. the jaws of hirudo are firm, white, larger than limnatis grey and soft and, both species are papillated but limnatis papilla is more than hirudo. limnatis paluda comparatively has a 418 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum comparative ultrastructural study of the salivary small number of denticles so due to unable to pierce the skin, while hirudo orientalis have larger and numerous denticles therefore are able to incision. conflict of interest statement the results of the current study are part of the requirements of msc thesis in invertebrate zoology, department of biology/college of science-salahaddin university/erbil-iraq for the first author. we declare that there is no conflict of interest between the authors. we confirm that all the pictures in the manuscript belong to us. we note, in this study, that there is no conflict of interest regarding the use of the laboratory of college of science. literature cited alishah, r. j. 2016. biological study of oriental medicinal leech (hirudinea; annelida) based on morphological and molecular characterization in kurdistan region/ iraq. m. sc.thesis. salahaddin university-erbil, iraq, 90 pp. almallah, z. 1968. internal hirudiniasis in man with limnatis nilotica, in iraq. the journal of parasitology, 54(3): 637-638. 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[click here] tennent, j. e. 1860. ceylon an account of the island, physical, historical, and topographical with notices of its natural history, antiquities and productions, longman, 4th ed.,volume i, 643 pp. [crossref] utevsky, s., mabrouki, y., taybi, a. f., huseynov, m., manafov, a., morhun, h., shahina, o., utevsky, g., khomenko, a. and utevsky, a. 2022. new records of leeches of the genus limnatis (hirudinea, praobdellidae) from the south caucasus and central asia: phylogenetic relationships of eurasian and african populations. animal biodiversity and conservation, 45(1):43-52. [crossref] van der lande, v. m. 1968. esterase activity in certain glands of leeches (annelida: hirudinea). comparative biochemistry and physiology, 25(2): 447-56. [crossref] walz, b., schäffner, k. h. and sawyer, r. t. 1988. ultrastructure of the anterior salivary gland cells of the giant leech, haementeria ghilianii (annelida, hirudinea). journal morphology 196 (3):321-32. [crossref] wuttke, w. a., sawyer, r. t. and berry, m. s. 1989. extraglandular innervation of the salivary cells of the leech haementeria ghilianii: neuronal stimulation elicits glandcell action potentials and secretion. journal of experimental biology, 143 (1):389-410. [crossref] https://www.elsevier.com/locate/parint https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.18355 https://doi.org/10.32800/abc.2022.45.0043 https://doi.org/10.1016/0010-406x(68)90353-8 https://doi.org/10.1002/jmor.1051960305 https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.143.1.389 421 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum bilal and ahmed bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2023) 17 (3): 409-421. املاصة للدم دراسة مقارنة للتركيب الدقيق للغدد اللعابية إلثنين من ديدان العلق (annelida, clitellata, arhynchobdellida) في العراق هدى صادق بالل و شيروان طيب احمد العراق ،اربيل ،نة، كلية العلوم، جامعة صالح الديقسم علوم الحيا 20/6/2023، تأريخ النشر: 26/2/2023القبول: ، تأريخ 26/11/2022تأريخ االستالم: الخالصة ين مننوعاملورفولوجية للفكين واألسنان وخاليا الغدد اللعابية ل سماتالدرست عائلة hirudo orientalis (utevsky & trontelj, 2005) : املاصة للدمديدان العلق hirudinidae وlimnatis paluda (tennent 1859) عائلة praobdellidaeستخدام أب s. at.eiro .h(. كانت فكوك mesاملاسح )( واملجهر اإللكتروني msاملجهر املجسم ) رمادية وناعمة a. lo .oبيضاء وصلبة ، وتحمل أسنانا حادة ، بينما كانت فكوك . في صفوتحمل عددا أقل من األسنان الحادة مع حليمة وفيرة وكالهما أحادي ال ف من وهي تتأل ؛mesاللعابية للعلق البالغ بواسطة الدراسة الحالية، تم فحص الغدد الشكل و يةكمثر غدد وحيدة الخلية مرتبة في أنماط العنب بأشكال كروية وبيضاوية أو بأحجام مختلفة. ومجموعات الخاليا من خاليا الغدة متطورة للغاية ومترابطة مع بعضها البعض بواسطة قنوات صغيرة. ثم يتم إنشاء قناة أكبر تؤدي إلى الفكين من كل مجموعة.خالل الجمع بين القنوات من bull 423 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum makawi and hadi 5bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2023) 17 (3): 423-434. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2023.17.3.0423 original article identification of hard ticks from buffalo bubalus bubalis (linnaeus, 1758) in iraq zainab a. makawi* and afkar m. hadi iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq ⃰ corresponding author: zainab@nhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq recived date: 14 janaury 2023, accepted date 13 march 2023, published date:20 june 2023 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract ticks (acari: ixodidae) are ectoparasites that infest livestock in every geographic region of the world and are vectors of several viral, bacterial, and protozoan pathogens to both animals and humans. there is little information is available is about tick presence in buffalo bubalus bubalis (linnaeus, 1758) (artiodactyla, bovidae) in iraq. the current study determined the species of ticks parasitizing buffalo in some central and southern regions included: baghdad (al fathelia), karbala (al-hussainia), wasit (kut and al-suwairah), al-qadisia (al diwaniyah, alsaniya, al-mihnawea, and afak), thi qar (al-nasiriyah and al-chibayish), missan (amara and qalaat salih) and basrah (al-haretha, al-madena and al-deer). a total of 150 buffalo were examined for ixodid ticks with an infestation rate 66.66%. a total of 172 specimens of hard ticks were isolated including 104 (58.4%) males and 68 (39.53%) females. the current results revealed to eight species of ixodid ticks belong to the genus hyalomma as follow: h. truncatum koch,1844 (50.66%), h. excavatum koch,1844 (24%), h. anatolicum koch, 1844 (16%), h. marginatum koch,1844 (8%), h. impeltatum schulze & schlottke, 1930 (8%), h. rufipes koch,1844 (5.33%), h. scupense schulze, 1919 (4%), h. dromedarii koch,1844 (2.66%) respectively. the prevalence of these species in buffaloes was also discussed with previous studies in iraq and the worldwide. as the current results suggested that buffaloes are considered a new host for three species of them in iraq the following are: h. truncatum, h. impeltatum, and h. rufipes. keywords: al diwaniyah, buffalo, hard ticks, hyalomma, iraq. introduction ticks have considerable medicinal and veterinary significance since they are necessary hematophagous ectoparasites of birds, reptiles, and especially mammals (mehlhorn and armstrong, 2010). the bacterial, protozoal, spirochaetal, rickettsial, and viral species carried by ticks infect both humans and domestic animals and cause a number of diseases. ticks are crucial for both livestock and people (akhtar et al., 2011; ullah et al., 2020). one of the most prevalent ectoparasites of livestock in the tropics and subtropics is called hyalomma sp. this bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799-print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2023.17.3.0423 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1136-9121 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7928-8702 mailto:zainab@nhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 424 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum identification of hard ticks from buffalo parasite reduces milk supply, results in weight loss, increases mortality, necessitates the use of acaricides, and physically harms the leather industry (mulugeta et al., 2010). ticks are obligate hematophagous ectoparasites that have negative effects on human and veterinary health; further promotes the spread of the virus that causes crimean-congo hemorrhagic fever in people and the deadly protozoa theileria annulata in animals (hurtado et al., 2018; kumar et al., 2020). ticks can be found worldwide and prefer humid and temperate climates; they typically attach to their host's legs, underarms, and abdomen (nuttal, 1905). hard ticks (ixodidae), the largest ticks’ family, contains 713 valid species (barker and murrell, 2004). there are two general types of asian water buffalo, wild and domestic. water buffalo are well adapted to swamps and areas subject to flooding, and number of buffalo is of great value due to their high economic importance (abid and fazaa, 2007). on the other hand, the life cycle of ixodid ticks is influenced by a number of intrinsic and extrinsic factors (shah-fischer and say, 1989). the aim of this study is to diagnose the species of hard ticks that infest buffalo in the areas of abundance of buffaloes in the central, and the southern of iraq. materials and methods study area: the current study was conducted in some areas where buffalo breeding abounds in iraq's central and southern regions belongs to their province as follow: baghdad (al fathelia), karbala (al-hussainia), wasit (kut and al-suwairah), al-qadisia (aldiwaniyah, alsaniya, al-mihnawea, and afak), thi qar (al-nasiriyah and al-chibayish), missan (amara and qalaat salih) and basrah (al-haretha, al-madena and al-deer). specimens' collection and processing: to make it easier to remove ticks from the skin at various body sites on each animal, including the ear, side of the neck, leg, foot, entire tail, including the tail brush, and half of the lower perineum and entire upper perineum, ticks were collected using cotton dipped in ethyl alcohol and tweezers. collecting ticks were placed separately in small bottles containing 70% ethanol, labeled and transported to the laboratory in the "iraq natural history research center and museum inhm" for diagnosis. the ticks were processed in the laboratory with a 10% potassium hydroxide solution (koh) for transparent (soulsby, 1982); specimens were diagnosed by taxonomic references (mohammad, 1996; walker et al., 2014); were photographed by digital camera (samsung sm-n770f). results a total of 172 (68 females and 104 males) hard ticks specimens were isolated from 150 buffalo with infestation rate (66.66/100%), from total number (150) buffalo in central and south regions of iraq as: baghdad (al fathelia), karbala (al-hussainia), wasit (kut and alsuwairah), al-qadisia (aldiwaniyah, alsaniya, al-mihnawea, and afak), thi qar (alnasiriyah and al-chibayish), missan (amara and qalaat salih) and basrah (al-haretha, almadena and al-deer). the current study revealed to eight species of hard ticks with infestation rates as follow: h. truncatum (50.66%), h. excavatum (24%), hyalomma 425 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum makawi and hadi anatolicum (16%), hyalomma marginatum (8%), h. impeltatum (8%), hyalomma rufipes (5.33%), h. scupense (4%), h. dromedarii (2.66%) respectively. (tab. 1, pls 1-8). a total of 178 specimens of hard ticks were isolated including (104 males and 68 females) (tab. 2). some animals were infested with more than one species of hard ticks (mix infestations), as is the case in the aldiwaniyah region which shows include infestation with three species of ticks (hyalomma anatolicum, h. truncatum and h. marginatum) and al-nasiriyah city which shows include infestation with two species of ticks (hyalomma dromedarii and h. rufipes). table (1): species of hard ticks isolated from buffalo in some areas of iraq. species of hard ticks isolate total number of buffalo number of infested specimens % hyalomma truncatum 150 76 50.66 h. excavatum 36 24 h. anatolicum 24 16 h. marginatum 12 8 h. impeltatum 12 8 h. rufipes 8 5.33 h. scupense 6 4 h. dromedarii 4 2.66 table (2): the total number of isolated males and females according to the species of hard ticks. species of hard ticks isolate no. of males no. of females total % hyalomma truncatum 46 30 76 44.18 h. excavatum 16 20 36 20.93 h. anatolicum 18 6 24 13.95 h. marginatum 10 2 12 6.97 h. impeltatum 6 6 12 6.97 h. rufipes 8 0 8 4.65 h. scupense 2 4 6 3.48 h. dromedarii 4 0 4 2.23 total 104 68 172 426 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum identification of hard ticks from buffalo plate (1): (a) h. truncatum male, dorsal view [1. cervical fields with unclear depression. 2. conscutum with dark coloured (appears smooth and shiny), 3. lateral grooves elongated, 4. two posterior ridges; caudal depression (present and deep), 5. central festoon with dark coloured. 6. posteromedium groove absent. 7. paramedian grooves absent); (b) h. truncatum male, ventral view (8. spiracle areas have sparse setae. 9. adanal plates shape has square ends. 10. subanal plates are (distinct and small)]. plate (2): (a) h. excavatum male, dorsal view [1. cervical fields with apparent depression, 2. posteromedian with groove, 3. lateral grooves (short), 4. paracentral festoons with joined anteriorly, 6. central festoon (pale)]; (b) h. excavatum male, ventral view [7. spiracle areas with sparse setae, 8. adanal plates shape with square ends, 9. subanal plates (distinct)]. 427 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum makawi and hadi plate (3): h. anatolicum male; (a), dorsal view: 1. cervical fields depression apparent, 2. posteromedium groove present (long and narrow), 3. central festoon dark, 4. paracentral festoons separate anteriorly, (b) ventral view: 5. spiracle areas have sparse setae, 6. adanal plates shape has a round end. plate (4): h. marginatum, male: (a) dorsal view: 1. cervical fields depression apparent, 2. conscutum dark, 3. lateral grooves long, 4. two posterior ridges; caudal depression present (but shallow), 5. central festoon dark, 6. posteromedium groove present, 7. paramedian grooves small, (b) ventral view: 8. spiracle areas have sparse setae, 9. adanal plates shape has square ends, 10. subanal plates distinct but small. 428 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum identification of hard ticks from buffalo plate (5): (a). h. impeltatum male, (dorsal view), [1. cervical fields depression apparent, 2. conscutum dark, 3. lateral grooves long, 4. two posterior ridges, coudal depression present, 5. central festoon pale, 6. posteromedium groove present, (b). h. impeltatum male, (ventral), 7. adanal plates shape has a square ends, 8. subanal plates distinct]. plate (6): h. rufipes male; (a) dorsal view: 1. cervical fields depression not apparent, 2. conscutum dark, 3. lateral grooves short, 4. posterior ridges absent; caudal depression absent, 5.posteromedium groove absent; paramedian grooves absent, (b) ventral view: 6. spiracle areas have dense setae, 7. adanal plates shape has square ends, 8. subanal plates distinct. 429 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum makawi and hadi plate (7): (a). h. scupense male, (dorsal view), [1. cervical fields depression apparent (but small), 2.conscutum dark, 3. lateral grooves long, 4. four posterior ridges, 5. posteromedium groove present, 6. paramedian grooves large, (b). h. scupense male,(ventral view), 7. spiracle areas have sparse setae, 8. adanal plates shape has square ends, 9. subanal plates distinct]. plate (8): h. dromedarii, male; (a) dorsal view: 1. cervical fields depression apparent, 2. posteromedium groove present (long and narrow), 3. central festoon dark, 4. paracentral festoons separate anteriorly, (b) ventral view: 1. spiracle areas have sparse setae, 2. adanal plates shape has a round end. 430 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum identification of hard ticks from buffalo discussion the current study recorded buffalo infested rate with hyalomma spp. (66.66% /100) from total number 150 buffaloes; these percentages are lower than those reported by tarash (1982), who discovered 94.2% of the hyalomma spp. in basra's al-dehab al-abiad village, higher than those reported by almawla (2001), who discovered 46% of hyalomma species in mosul, and lower than those reported by abdul hussein and awad (2005) estimated of 73.6% of the hyalomma in basra. the results presented above are consistent with those obtained by mustafa et al. (2019), when three different species of ticks were recorded parasitizing buffalos in samarra, all of which belong to the genus hyalomma include: h. anatolicum, h. scupense and h. turanicum. the reason for the genus hyalomma dominance and spread is that it can survive in environments with low humidity and harsh climatic conditions due to its high tolerance (kettle, 1995). the results of the current study showed that buffaloes were infested with eight species of ticks, all of which belongs to the genus hyalomma, namely: h. truncatum (50.66%), h. excavatum (24%), h. anatolicum (16%), h. marginatum (8%), h. impeltatum (8%), h. rufipes (5.33%), h. scupense (4%), h. dromedarii (2.66%) respectively. the key clinical findings documented in this study included weight loss, mucous membrane pallor, lymph node enlargement, and a staring coat. the current study found that hyalomma truncatum had the highest infestation rate 50.66% and hyalomma dromedarii had the lowest infested rate 2.66%. while disagreed with falih and hamza (2022) who recorded four species of hyalomma included: h. anatolicum 45.66% represented the highest percentage of collected ticks in buffaloes, h. marginatum 31.21%, h. dromedarii 16.76%, and h. scupense 6.35% represented the lowest percentage of collected ticks in buffaloes in dhi-qar and al-muthanna province. shubber (2014) recorded five species of hyalomma include: h. anatolicum, h. dromedarii, h. excavatum, h. scupense, and h. turanicum in the middle and south of iraq. this study found mix infestation on a single host, which is consistent with ahmad et al. (2021) who revealed to be infested by one or more species of ectoparasites. these differences could be due to the differences in a mount of samples, or the presence of suitable climates, or movement of animals from one area to another. according to the sex, the current study, recorded male population (104 specimens) more than females (68 specimens) in terms of infestation. disagreed with sayin et al. (2003) who revealed to female ticks to have a higher distribution than "male ticks". aktas et al. (2004) also found that the female ticks’ population of hylomma species was more than the male tick population. the current study revealed to mix infestation of two species of hard ticks in some regions, this result agrees with ahmad et al. (2021) who cleared this important topic that decreased their level production, due to irritability, anemia, and raising the cattle and buffalo morbidity ratio. 431 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum makawi and hadi conclusion this comprehensive survey provides basic data on the infestation of buffalo by hard ticks species in the areas of abundance of buffaloes in many regions of center and southern iraq as follow: baghdad (al fathelia), karbala (al-hussainia), wasit (kut and al-suwairah), alqadisia (aldiwaniyah, alsaniya, al-mihnawea, and afak), thi qar (al-nasiriyah and alchibayish), missan (amara and qalaat salih) and basrah (al-haretha, al-madena and aldeer). the current study results revealed to eight species of hard ticks belong to genus hyalomma as: h. truncatum, h. excavatum, h. anatolicum, h. marginatum, h. impeltatum, h. rufipes, h. scupense, h. dromedarii. as the current results showed that buffaloes are considered a new host for three species of them in iraq; they are which include the following : h. truncatum, h. impeltatum, and h. rufipes. acknowledgements the authors would like to thank the scientific team in the vertebrates lab of iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad for helping in collecting of specimens. conflict of interest statement the authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this manuscript. literature cited abdul hussain, m. a. and awad, h. a. 2005. a taxonomic and epidemiological study of the hard ticks on domestic animals in basrah governorate. ph.d. thesis, collage of science, university of basrah. basrah journal of science, 23(1): 93-108. abid, h. s. and fazaa, n. a. 2007. water buffalo in the iraqi marshes thi qar and missan governorates . status report, 29 pp. ahmad, m., khan, r. a., ullah, z., mahmood, s., khan, m. s., khan, m. f., akhtar, n., khan, g. b., yasmin, s., ali, a., saqlain, m., s. tauseef, i. and rahimullah, s. 2021. prevalence of hard ticks in cows and buffaloes in district malakand, pakistan. bioscience research, 18(2): 1461-1470. 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(2023) 17 (3): 423-434. bubalus bubalis (linnaeus, 1758) القراد الصلب من الجاموستشخيص في العراق زينب علوان مكاوي و أفكار مسلم هادي جامعة بغداد، بغداد، العراق /مركز بحوث و متحف التأريخ الطبيعي 20/6/2023، تأريخ النشر: 13/3/2023القبول: ، تأريخ 14/1/2023تأريخ االستالم: الخالصة ت خارجية تصيب املاشية في كل منطقة جغرافية في ( طفيلياacari: ixodidaeالقراد ) العالم وهي ناقالت للعديد من مسببات األمراض الفيروسية والبكتيرية واألولية لكل من الحيوانات والبشر. هناك القليل من املعلومات املتاحة حول انواع القراد التي تصيب ددت الدراسة الحالية في العراق. ح bubalus bubalis (linnaeus, 1758) الجاموس بعض املناطق الوسطى والجنوبية مثل: بغداد، أنواع القراد املتطفلة على الجاموس في جاموس 150كربالء، الكوت، الديوانية، الناصرية، العمارة والبصرة. تم فحص إجمالي عينة من 172٪، حيث تم عزل 66.66بحثا عن القراد الصلب وكانت نسبة اإلصابة ئج الحالية أن ٪( اناث. أظهرت النتا39.53) 68٪( ذكور و 58.4) 104القراد الصلب منها على hyalommaثمانية أنواع من القراد الصلب تصيب الجاموس تنتمي إلى جنس ال h. truncatum (50.66%)، h. excavatum (24%) ،h. anatolicum : النحو التالي (16%) ،h. marginatum (8%) ،h. impeltatum (8%)،h. rufipes (5.33%) ، h. scupense (4%) وh. dromedarii (2.66 على التوالي. كما تمت مناقشة انتشار )% مع دراسات سابقة في العراق والعالم. حيث أن النتائج الحالية هذه األنواع في الجاموس .h. truncatum ،h: ضمت تعتبر الجاموس عائل جديد لثالثة أنواع منها في العراق impeltatum و ،h. rufipes. full page photo bull 225 adday et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. june, (2019) 15 (3): 225-235 record of the barnacle octolasmis angulata (aurivillius, 1894) from the gills of the crab portunus segnis (forskål, 1775) off iraqi marine waters thamir k. adday* abdul al-amer r. jassim** and akeel a. a. al-waely*** *department of fisheries and marine resources, college of agriculture, university of basrah, basrah, iraq **department of biological development of shatt al-arab and north west arabian gulf, marine science centre, university of basrah, basrah, iraq **department of marine biology, marine science centre, university of basrah, basrah, iraq *corresponding author e-mail: addayt@yahoo.com received date: 25 july 2018, accepted date: 10 october 2018, published date: 27 june 2019 abstract ten blue swimming crabs portunus segnis (forskål, 1775) were collected from the north west of the arabian gulf off the iraqi marine waters from october to november 2017 at 29ᵒ 37′ n to 48ᵒ 47′ e. the barnacle octolasmis angulata (aurivillius, 1894) was found on the gills of the present species of crab, the mean incidence of infestation was 30%, while the mean intensity of infestation was 12.3. the barnacle have a long and slim shaped calcareous plate with the presence of carina and the absence of tergum, in addition to the elongated shape of carina and scutum. the current study represents the first record of the barnacle o. angulata in the arabian gulf. keywords: arabian gulf, cirripedia, crab, gills, symbiosis. introduction cirripedia are crustaceans belonging to the maxillipoda which using the first antenna as an attachment organ (debelius, 2001); the malacostraca is the largest and most diverse groups and is divided into 14 orders, with over 20000 species, marine, freshwater, terrestrial, benthic, scavengers and predators. the largest order of that is decapoda that includes most crustaceans such as shrimp, lobsters, crayfishes and crabs (kazmi and khaton, 2016). portunidae has six subfamilies namely: caphyrinae, carupinae, lupocyclinae, poalophthalminae, portuniae and thalamitinae (worms, 2018a), the portuniae rafinesque, 1815 has 11 genera, of which portunus has 24 species, the modern species is p. mokyeyskii https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2019.15.3.0225 226 record of the barnacle octolasmis angulata zarenkov, 1970, while the oldest species is p. segnis (forskål, 1775) (worms, 2018b). in temperate, subtropical and tropical coastal waters of the world pedunculate barnacles of the genus octolasmis are frequently found on decapod crustaceans, the stalked barnacles of the genus octolasmis are sessile crustaceans frequently found attached to the decapods mainly in the branchial chamber of the crabs (jeffries and voris, 1996). the crabs have short life span due to molting, and the barnacles occupy space on the gills normally used for respiration, thus the host is debilitated and may die (jeffries and voris, 1996); serve case of infection may occur in confined places like fish ponds for portunids restocking and stock enhancement programs (tweedley, 2017). the present study represents the first record of the barnacle species o. angulata that found attached on the gill crab p. segnis off the iraqi waters of the arabian gulf. materials and methods ten specimens of the crab portunus segnis (forskål, 1775) were collected from the iraqi marine waters from october to november 2017 at 29ᵒ 37′ n to 48ᵒ 47′ e; the crabs which collected by using trawl nets were transported to the laboratory at the marine science center. the specimens were frozen for laboratory analysis; the brachyurans were identified according to lai et al. (2010); the cirripedes were carefully removed from the gills of the crabs by forceps; the dorsal carapace of the crabs was removed to inspect epibionts in the branchial chambers. the attached sites epibionts were recorded according to their location on the gill (counting from anterior to posterior) (voris et al., 1994; santos et al., 2000). some specimens were stained with neutral red mixed with 15% glycerin jelly for about five minutes and then transfer to modify glass slides instead of wooden slide (humes and gooding, 1964; adday, 2013), this method is a modification of the method of ihwan et al. (2014a) which use glycerin jelly only (pl. 1). the measurements of the cirripedes were done using a calibrated micrometer. all measurements are in millimeter (mm); specimens were examined under a compound microscope olympus cx 21 fsi; some of the gills of the crabs with the barnacles were sent to dr. alireza sari of the college of science, university of tehran, iran for confirmation of the identification. detail morphological characters and measurements of p. angulata as in (pl. 2). results and discussion among the examined crabs, three specimens (out of ten) were infested with o. ctolasmis with a prevalence of 30% and mean intensity of 12.3; the carapace length of the crabs were 6-7(6.35) cm, carapace width were 12.0-13.5 (12.67) cm and weight 81.3–96.71 gm (99.14) (tabs. 1, 2). 227 adday et al. plate (1): location and shape of the plates of o. angulata (40x). plate (2): morphological characters and measurements of o. angulata (cl) carina length, (cw) carina width, (pl) peduncle length, (pw) peduncle width, (s) scutum, (c) carina (scale bar: 0.8 mm). table (1): distribution and means of o. angulata on the gills of three infected of p. segnis crabs. gill filament length (cm) proximal region middle region distal region 3.0 7 1 0 2.8 4 0 0 2.8 10 1 0 2.6 2 0 2.0 1 0 2.2 1 0 2.2 2 0 1 8 0 0 total (mean) 29 (9.67) 8 (2.67) 0 228 record of the barnacle octolasmis angulata table (2): numbers of o. angulata isolated from three p. segnis crabs. carbs number carapace length (cm) carapace width (cm) weight (gm) no. of cirripedes 1 6.0 12.3 96.71 0 2 6.5 13.1 113.57 0 3 6.0 13.0 98.58 5 4 6.0 13.3 101.12 0 5 7.0 12.5 81.3 15 6 6.5 12.0 95.33 0 7 6.0 13.5 101.51 17 8 6.0 13.0 97.20 0 9 6.5 12.0 93.95 0 10 7.0 12.0 112.13 0 about 19 of specimens were measured for the length of capitulum, peduncle, scutum and carina of o. angulata; detail of measurement (in cm) as in table (3), the capitular (shell) length 1.63 -2.58 (2.11±0.26). the pedunclar length 1.07-3.22 (1.94 ± 0.48) cm, and width 0.61-1.41 cm (1.11±0.23), the length of scutum was 0.999-1.130 cm (1.025), length of carina was 0.631-0.920 cm (0.942). table (3): dimensions of o. angulata found in p. segnis. length of peduncle width of peduncle length of shell width of shell length of carina length of scutum 1.99 1.17 2.02 1.91 0.61 1.18 1.87 1.34 2.04 1.80 0.68 1.27 2.22 1.26 2.22 2.08 0.89 1.45 1.87 1.01 2.00 1.95 0.72 1.26 2.55 0.99 2.49 2.07 0.96 1.45 1.64 0.61 1.86 1.53 0.57 1.02 1.71 0.90 1.94 1.87 0.75 1.13 1.30 1.01 1.80 1.50 0.57 0.91 1.77 1.41 2.20 1.74 0.70 0.78 1.07 0.66 1.63 1.21 0.50 0.92 1.73 1.25 2.04 1.99 0.75 1.39 2.41 1.26 2.58 1.71 1.71 0.77 3.22 1.36 2.53 2.21 2.21 1.43 2.02 0.93 2.22 1.97 1.97 1.27 2.32 1.15 2.07 1.72 1.72 1.16 1.60 1.05 1.90 1.70 1.70 1.21 1.85 1.30 2.07 1.79 1.79 0.95 229 adday et al. 1.80 1.25 2.38 2.21 2.21 1.59 (avr.) 1.94 1.11 2.11 1.83 1.17 1.17 (s. d.) 0.48 0.23 0.26 0.26 0.63 0.24 (min.) 1.07 0.61 1.63 1.21 0.50 0.77 (max.) 3.22 1.41 2.58 2.21 2.21 1.59 the species of p. segnis represents one of the most important crabs resources in the arabian gulf (giraldes et al., 2016); the impact of p. segnis as an alien species may have an effect on local habitats either by impacting on native keystone species or by taking their places (rabaoui et al., 2015). about 30 valid species of octolasmis have been identified worldwide, the oldest species was o. warwicki gray, 1825 whereas the most recent was species is o. unquisiformis kobayashi and katy, 2003 (chan, 2017; froese and pauly, 2018). according to lai et al. (2010) four species of portunus namely p. pelagicus, p. reticulatus, p. armatus and p. segnis were recognized worldwide based on morphological and dna characters; the barnacle o. angulata was reported from high number of hosts. jeffries et al. (1991) listed it in four families, 13 genera and 17 species; from the other hand, jeffries et al. (2005) recorded six species of octolasmis, five of these species recorded from portunidae (including o. angulata), and three species of barnacles from scyllaridae. kumaravel et al. (2009) examined 128 individuals of o. angulata from three species of portunus namely p. pelagicus, p. sanguinolenis and scylla serrate; in the present report, no correlation was found between the size of the crab and the numbers of octolasmids (tab. 2), whereas were strongly correlation in many studies around the word (rasheed and mustaquim, 2017; kumaravel et al., 2009); the barnacles were found most frequently in the gill chamber on the floor of the wall, which a mean capitular length 2.37 mm, and three reduce capitular plates, 2 scuta and a carina; some barnacles like o. tridens was found attached to the antennae, external mouth parts and on the base of the chelae and incurrent openings (jeffries et al., 2005). in the current study the high density of the barnacle o. angulata was incidence in the proximal region of the gill filaments 29 (9.67), the middle region was 8 (2.67), while the distal region was uninfected (tab.1, pl. 3); jeffries et al. (2005) reported the distribution of the barnacles inside and outside of gill filaments, such distribution not indicated in the study. 230 record of the barnacle octolasmis angulata plate (3): distribution of o. angulata on the gill filament of p. segnis (10x). invasive present species are one of the foremost damaging environmental problems in biology and conservation, and can affect human health and man-made structures (bojko, 2017); the barnacle p. segnis may be infected by the other cirripedes, heterosaccus dollfus and p. segnis were reported to hosts the barnacle chelonibia platula from turkish coasts (özean, 2012); on the other side, voris and jeffries (1997) mentioned 28 species of octolasmis in their study, the range of capitular length of 19 specimens of o. angulata was 1.15–2.60 mm (1.57), conclude that the host gill chamber affords protection and causes a reduction of capitular plates. shahadadi et al. (2014) listed four species of octolasmis from unknown locality including o. angulata, o. cor, o. lowi, o. nierestraszi and o. warwicki from kuwait; also these species were found attached to the abdomen and pleopods of large crabs, and large crustaceans and distribution in the indian ocean (jones, 1986). according to jeffries et al. (2005), the main identification tracts of octolasmis species are a body shape and size, the presence or absence of calcareous plates as well as the variations in the plate’s size, shape and disposition. o. angulata was observed in the gill chamber of three hosts crabs of two families: menippidae and portunidae, the mean capitular length was 2.40 mm, 3 reduced capitular plates, 2 scuta and a carina (jeffries et al., 2005). in the present study the capitular (shell) length was 1.63-2.58 mm (2.11±0.26), the capitular width was 1. 21-2.21 mm (1.83 ± 0.26); the peduncular length was 1.07-3.22 mm (1.94 ± 0.48), while the peduncular width was 0.61-1.41 mm (1.11± 0.23); the scutum length was 0.999-1.130 mm (1.025), the length of carina was 0.631-0.920 mm (0.942). the measurement were carried out to the scutum and carina of the branchial plates because the tergum, if present, is connected to the scutum close to the apex of the barnacle; the tergum is not easily seen in o. angulata, in addition to exceptionally small plates )ihwan et al., 2014b). it was noticed in the present study that identification of this barnacle was quite difficult because their plates are a bit confusing as some looks like o. core and some are similar to o. lowei (fig. 1, tab. 4). 231 adday et al. o. angulata o. core o. lowei figure (1): a comparison of the branchial plates of o. angulate with o. core and o. lowei (from rasheed and mustaquim, 2017) (scale bar: 1mm). table (4): comparison of morphological characteristic of o. angulata collected from various sources and the present study. parameters* jeffries et al. (2005) chan et al. (2011) ihwan et al. (2014 a) present study cl 2.40 1.34 1.6 2.11 cp 3 3 3 3 pl 1.154.06 2.2 1.94 no s 2 2 1.8 2 l s 1.17 p c l c 0.9 1.17 no t *cl capitular length, cp capitular plates, pl peduncular length, no. s number of scuta, ls length of scutum, pc presence of carina, no t number of terga. however, ihwan et al. (2014b) recorded o. angulata, o. cor and three unidentified species, they mentioned that o. angulata is have a long and fine shape of calcareous plates, a presence of carina and absence of tergum, in addition to the shape of carina and scutum. moreover, one of the three unidentified species was similar to o. lowei because of its short shape of branched scutum or apparent the calcareous plates were not developed well (gittings, 1985; voris and jeffries, 1997; ihwan et al, 2014b). the octolasmsi species are mostly found in shallow water and only a few found in depths greater than 1000 m, there are no free living adult octolasmids (jeffries and voris, 1996). it is important to note that the first stage “pupa” of o. angulata was recorded for the first time by nilson-cantell (1934) together with the younger stage has a total length of 1.1mm, the tergum was absent, and the carina was reduced. in the current article total length of the young stage was 2.52 mm (pl. 4); cyprid larvae unique feature of barnacles non-feeding, which follows the nauplius stages, the specimen in the current article seems to be recently metamorphosed. 232 record of the barnacle octolasmis angulata plate (4): young specimen of o. angulata, (1.446 cm capitular length, 1.078 peduncular length, 40x). acknowledgements thanks are due to prof. dr. alireza sari, department of marine biodiversity, zoological museum and centre for excellence in phylogeny of living organisms, school of biological sciences, college of science, university of tehran, for assisting in the identification of the barnacle and the crab. we are thanking full to prof. dr. salman d. salman of marine biology, marine science centre, university of basrah for primary reviewing of the manuscript. literature cited adday, t. k. 2013. parasitic crustaceans of some marine fishes of basrah province, iraq. ph. d. thesis, college of agriculture, university of basrah, 302pp. al-rumaidh, m. j. 2002. the biology, population dynamics and fishery management of blue swimming crab, portunus pelagicus (linnaeus, 1758), in bahraini waters (crustacea: decapoda: brachyura: portunidae). ph. d. thesis, university of wales, 273pp. bojiko, j. 2017. parasites of invasive crustacean: risks and opportunities for control. ph. d. thesis, university of leeds, 391pp. chan, k. k., prabowo, r. and lee, k. s. 2011. octolasmis angulata (aurivillius, 1894), taiwan barnacles, biota taiwanica. available at: http: //barnacle.taibit.tw/pages/ 1063. debelius, h. 2001. crustacea guide of the world. atlantic ocean, indian ocean, pacific ocean, waldschulstrasse 166, frankfurt, 320pp. froese, r. and pauly, d. 2018.octolasmis gray, 1825. fish base, world register of marine species. available at: www. marine species. 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[accessed at: 24.6.2018]. 235 adday et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. june, (2019) 15 (3): 225-235 octolasmis angulata (aurivillius, 1894)تسجيل البرنقيل portunus segnis (forskål, 1775) الازرقالسابح سرطان المن غالصم عند املياه البحرية العراقية ***ائليو عقيل عبد الصاحب عبد الحسين الو **، عبد ألامير رحيم جاسم*ثامر قاطع عداي قسم الاسماك والثروة البحرية، كلية الزراعة، جامعة البصرة، البصرة، العراق* قسم التطور الاحيائي في شط العرب وشمال غرب الخليج العربي، مركز علوم البحار، جامعة ** البصرة، البصرة، العراق قسم ألاحياء البحرية، مركز علوم البحار، جامعة البصرة، البصرة، العراق*** 50/70/5702: تأريخ النشر ،07/07/5702: تأريخ القبول ، 52/70/5702:تأريخ الاستالم الخالصة عند املياه portunus segnis (forskål, 1775) الازرق السابحجمعت عشرة نماذج من سرطان 29ᵒ 37′عند 7102ة شمال غرب الخليج العربي، للمدة من أيلول الى تشرين الاول البحرية العراقي . شرقأ 48ᵒ ′47شماأل الى ، على خياشيم سرطان البحر املدروس ,octolasmis angulata (aurivillius 1894)سجل النوع البرنقيل صفائح ، يمتلك هذا 0720بينما كان معدل شدة الاصابة % 01كان معدل نسبة الاصابة ، اضافة الى الشكل الصفيحة الظهريةوغياب الجؤجؤية طويلة ونحيفة الشكل مع وجود الصفيحة تمثل الدراسة الحالية أول تسجيل للبرنقيل .املتطاول للصفيحتين الجؤجؤية والدرعية o. angulata في الخليج العربي. bull 469 majeed et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2021) 16 (4): 469-493. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2021.16.4.0469 impact of tharthar arm water on composition and diversity of copepoda in tigris river, north of baghdad city, iraq osama s. majeed*♦ ahmed j. m. al-azawi** and muhanned r. nashaat*** * directorate of third karkh, ministry of education, baghdad, iraq. ** department of biology, college of science, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq. *** ministry of science and technology, baghdad, iraq. ♦corresponding author: osamaalways230@gmail.com received date: 18 july 2021, accepted date: 16 september 2021, published date: 20 december 2021 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract this study is considered to be the first on this sector of tigris river after 2003, to evaluate the effect of tharthar arm on the composition and diversity of copepoda in tigris river. six sampling sites were selected; two on the tharthar arm and four sites along the tigris river, one before the confluence as a control site and the others downstream the confluence; thirtyfive copepod taxa were recorded, 34 taxa in the tigris river and 25 taxa in the tharthar arm. the highest density of copepoda was 265584.2 ind./m3 in the site 2 at tharthar arm lead to an increasing in copepoda density in the tigris river from 63878.2 ind./m3 in site 1 before the confluence to 127198.3 ind./m3 in site 4 immediately downstream the confluence. also, the mean values of richness index and diversity index increased from 1.71 and 0.98 bit/ind. in site 1 before the confluence to 2.08 and 1.00 bit/ind. in site 4 below the confluence, respectively. moreover, the highest similarity percentage was between sites 3 and 4 reached 87.83% while, the lowest percentage was between the sites 1 and 2 recorded 65.41%. for constancy index the highest value was 9 at the site 6 whereas the lowest value was 2 at site3. key words: biodiversity, copepoda, river confluences, tharthar arm, tigris river. inroduction river channel confluences play a major role in the dynamics of all fluvial systems and are ubiquitous, fundamental elements of natural drainage networks (parsons et al., 2008; sukhodolov et al., 2010). rivers at channel confluences produces a complex hydrodynamic and morphodynamic environment within fluvial systems; inside the confluence the tributaries https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2021.16.4.0469 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 470 impact of tharthar arm water flows mutually deflect each other, this deflection outcome from pressure gradients created by the spatial pattern of water-surface elevations that steers the confluent flows into the receiving channel. the portion of the river system which is affected by merging of flows at a junction is defined as confluence hydrodynamic zone (chz). the four common factors that influence chz, the symmetry of the junction, the junction angle, the momentum flux ratio of the incoming flows, and channel bed morphology (rhoads, 2020). the name of subclass copepoda comes from greek words kope for oar and podos for foot, and refers to the flat, paddle-like swimming legs (støttrup, 2003). copepods are one of the most abundant metazoans on aquatic ecosystems, with over 14,000 known species, but approximately 3000 species inhabit freshwater (turner, 2004 ; suárez-morales et al., 2020). copepods are found in a wide variety of aquatic environments, ranging from the benthic, littoral, and pelagic waters of lakes and oceans, to swamps, wetlands, marshes, large rivers, and temporary ponds (reid and williamson, 2010 ; suárez-morales et al., 2020). the copepods also formed one of the most components of the crustaceans community in the iraqi waters; al-keriawy et al. (2017) recorded 9 taxa of copepods in the hilla river, the highest number was 850 ind./m3 recorded in summer whereas the lowest number was 100 ind./m3 in winter. abbas et al. (2017) recorded 40 copepoda taxa in both tigris and diyala rivers, including 17 taxa for cyclopoida, 13 taxa for calanoida, 8 taxa for harpacticoida, 2 taxa for parasitic copepods and 1 for copepoda larvae. abed (2018) found that copepoda density in the dejiala river more than other zooplankton groups, it reached 46% flowed by rotifera 42% and cladocera 12%, related that to high density of immature stages represented six naupliar stages and five copepodite stages. also, maytham et al. (2019) mentioned that copepods were the major component of zooplankton in shatt al-arab river with a percentage of 81% after that rotifers 18% and cladocerans 1%. in addition, ajeel et al. (2019) showed that copepoda was dominant in the tigris river northern of basrah, constituted about 43.8% of the total microcrustaceans. copepods play an important role in aquatic food webs as primary and secondary consumers. most are omnivorous or herbivorous, consuming foods such as detritus, pollen, bacteria, and microalgae, but some groups (especially cyclopoids) are raptorial predators on other invertebrates such as protozoa, rotifers, nematodes, insect larvae; some large copepods can attack and eat small larval fish (reid and williamson, 2010; suárez-morales, 2015). copepoda are used as live food for the early larval stages of many kinds of fishes in aquaculture throughout the world (barroso et al., 2015) and they considered as the main food source for several planktophagous fishes and benthic invertebrates. the aim of this study is to investigate the effect of tharthar arm on the density and diversity of copepoda in tigris river, northern of baghdad city during 2020. therefore, this study can be considered the first of its kind after 2003 in this sector of the tigris river. 471 majeed et al. materials and methods study area tigris is one of the largest rivers in the western asia; also it is considered one of the two most important twin rivers in iraq. it rises in the southeastern parts of turkey on the southern slopes of taurus mountains. it crosses iraqi border 4 kilometers north of fieshkhabur close zakho city (al-ansari et al., 2018). tigris river enters the baghdad at a distance of 5 km north of al-muthana bridge (ali et al., 2012). the river's length from al-muthana bridge to the confluence with the diyala river is 49 km in baghdad city (nama, 2015). tharthar arm or "tharthar-tigris canal" is human-mediated river obtains it's characteristics from tharthar lake. it is diverted from the left side of division regulator which is located on tharthar-euphrates canal; then it continues to the east for 65 km until confluence with tigris river northern of baghdad city. it is designed to discharge water up to 600 m3/s to the tigris river directly (abdullah et al., 2019). study sites description six sites have been selected from which specimens were taken, as seen in map (1). the first site located along the main stream of the tigris river about 2.4 km before the confluence tharthar arm with tigris river at 33°29'04.5"n latitude and 44°18'06.3"e longitude. this site was considered as reference station known as upstream confluence hydrodynamic zone (chz). the second site located on tharthar arm above the entrance of sabaa al-bour city at 33°28'27.2"n, 44°07'49.6"e about 20 km downstream the drop regulator on the arm. the third site located on tharthar arm before the entrance to main street leading up sabaa albour city (33°28'43.0"n, 44°14'06.9"e) about 7.5 km before the confluence tharthar arm with tigris. the fourth site located on tigris river, about 300 meters from the joining of tharthar arm with tigris river, known as immediately downstream the confluence hydrodynamic zone (chz) at 33°27'46.4"n and 44°18'10.3"e. the fifth site lies in al-tajiy, near al-muthana bridge area at 33°25'43.0"n, 44°20'39.4"e about 6 km below the confluence of tharthar arm with tigris river. the sixth site located on tigris river near algraia’at floating bridge in al-kadhimiya city (33°23'07.5"n, 44°20'15.1"e) about 12.6 km downstream the confluence of tharthar arm with tigris river. "sites 5 and 6 known as downstream chz". the rates of discharged water ranges from 474 m3/s in april to 681 m3/s in july for tigris river. whereas, in tharthar arm ranges from 83 m3/s in august to 250 m3/s in january (diag.1) (the data obtained from ministry of water resources, 2021. personal communication). 472 impact of tharthar arm water map (1): study sites on tigris river and tharthar arm. (map scale 1\100000. source: ministry of water resources\ general authority of survey 2020). diagram (1): seasonal variation of water discharges in tigris river and tharthar arm during 2020. 473 majeed et al. sampling method samples were collected monthly from january to december 2020, by passing 45 liters of surface water through vertical planktonic net with a mesh size of 55 μm, mouth diameter 25 cm. all samples were preserved in 4% formalin; following sample condensation, the zooplankton was identified under a compound microscope (type kruss mbl 2100) to the lowest possible taxonomic unite by using sedgewick-rafter chamber: the rectangular cavity slide contains (50 mm long x 20 mm wide x 1 mm deep) exactly 1 ml of water sample (baird et al., 2017). the sample was shaken well and 1 ml of it was transferred instantly to the cavity by using a graduated pipette. the coverslip was adjusted correctly to ensure that no air bubbles remained within. copepods ind. /l = x 1000 where: n = no. of copepods. the method of species identification depended on differences in structures of the antennules and the fifth and sixth legs, number of urosomal segments, the large size of females against the males. male copepod antennules are geniculate and modified for clutching the female during copulation, in male harpacticoids, cyclopoids, and gelyelloids, both first antennae are geniculate; while in male calanoids, usually, only the right antenna is geniculate. second antennae of calanoids, harpacticoids, and gelyelloids are a biramous appendage (støttrup, 2003; reid and williamson, 2010; suárez-morales, 2015; suárez-morales et al., 2020). additionally, the keys of edmondson (1959), smith (2001) and lee and lee (2019) have been used for identification of taxa and the results expressed by the number of individuals in a cubic meter. some physicochemical characteristics conducted in the study sites directly, such as water temperature, salinity, ph and turbidity (tab. 1). water temperature, salinity and ph measured by hana (hi9811). turbidity was measured by the turbidity meter jenwaw company model-6035. dissolved oxygen and biological oxygen demand were measured by using azide modification of winkler titration method; total suspended solids (tss), total hardness, reactive phosphate and nitrate determined as described in standard methods (baird et al., 2017). 474 impact of tharthar arm water table (1): physicochemical characteristics for tigris river and tharthar arm during 2020. minimum and maximum (first line) mean and standard error (second line). ecological indices were counted as follows: relative abundance index (ra): this index calculated depending the equitation found in omori and ikeda (1984). ra = n/ns x 100 where: n = total number of individuals of each taxon in sample. parameters tigris river tharthar arm tigris river lsd value s1 s2 s3 s4 s5 s6 water tempe.(˚c) 10-27 18.90±1.717 12.1-28.2 21±1.8078 12.4-28.4 21.34±1.837 10.7-28.7 20.916±1.838 10.3 28.5 20.23±1.78 10.6 28.5 20.35±1.819 2.72 ns turbidity (ntu) 8.16-131 34.75±9.603 a 6.2-18.37 11.53±1.300 b 3.68-22.33 13.503±1.71 b 10.9-114 28.65± 8.094 a 11.73-118 32.49±8.238 a 12.2-137 34.26±9.636 a 8.55 * salinity (‰) 0.339-0.710 0.504±0.031 0.4224-1.324 0.718±0.074 0.4224-1.286 0.7382±0.07 0.4224-0.704 0.603 ± 0.027 0.4352-0.6208 0.531 ± 0.015 0.396-0.6144 0.519 ± 0.01 0.281 ns ph 7.38-7.91 7.642 ± 0.049 7.35-7.88 7.66 ± 0.055 7.34-7.93 7.68 ± 0.061 7.44-7.89 7.692 ±0.051 7.51-7.91 7.69 ± 0.425 7.41-7.84 7. 63]±0.044 0.944 ns do (mg/l) 8 13.1 9.891 ± 0.49 7.7 13.6 10.35 ± 0.499 7.8 11.9 9.691 ± 0.428 7.5 12.8 9.96 ± 0.468 7 11 9.1 ± 0.38 6.5 11.3 9.35 ± 0.44 1.26 ns pos (%) 93.61-122.3 104.82±2.49 91.44-131.74 114.88±3.44 94.43-124.70 107.96±2.58 94.10-123.68 110.20±2.67 90.90-110.54 100.20±1.67 84.41-131.85 102.75 ±3.94 13.94 ns bod5 (mg/l) 1.4-3.6 2.35 ± 0.23 0.9-3.5 2.4 ± 0.197 1-2.9 2.108 ± 0.21 1.5-3.6 2.38 ± 0.193 0.9 -4.1 2.18 ±0.228 1.1-4.3 2.2083±0.239 0.579 ns total hardness (mg ca co3/ /l) 284-440 354.66±13.2 b 304-800 516.66±42.96 a 288-960 518.33±51.40 a 300-556 431.33±27.16 ab 288-468 369.33 ±13.45 b 320-380 358.25±5.57 b 142.3 * (mg/l) 0.6817-1.074 0.9654±0.03 8 0.317-1.293 0.588±0.0865 0.2698-1.226 0.533±0.082 0.2913-0.93 0.497±0.055 0.49-0.911 0.6577±0.033 0.58-0.998 0.7704±0.033 0.366 ns (mg/l) 0.00337-0.02 0.0115±0.00 1 0.00020.0193 0.0061±0.004 0.0002-0.016 0.0070±0.001 0.0015-0.019 0.0064±0.001 0.0015-0.0237 0.0099±0.001 0.000250.022 0.0125±0.001 0.0109 ns tss (mg/l) 1-118 34.25±8.615 a 4-22 12.25±1.557 b 6-29 15.16±1.650 b 2-102 25.91±7.753 a 4-109 34.91±8.056 a 1-125 34±8.934 a 9.516 * means having with the different letters in same column differed significantly. * (p≤0.05), ns: non-significant. 475 majeed et al. ns = total number of individuals in the sample. the results expressed as percentage, dominant species (d), more than 70%, abundant species 4070% (a), less abundant 10-39% (la), rare species less (r) than 10%. constancy index (s): the presence and frequency of each species, calculate depending the formula found in serafim et al. (2003). s = n/n ×100 where: n = number of samples in which the species occurred. n = total number of the samples. the results expressed as percentage, constant species (c) more than 50%, accessory species (ac) 26%-50%, accidental species (a) 1-25%. jaccard presence-community index: this index was calculated according to the formula found in mueller-dombois and ellemberg (1974). species richness index (d): this index was calculated monthly by using the formula present in margalef (1968). species evenness index (j): was measured based on the equitation found in neves et al. (2003). shannon-weiner diversity index (h): the values of this index were calculated monthly according to the formula stated in shannon and weaver (1949). also, the result is represented as the unit bit/ind. as a bit equal one piece of information. low diversity is indicated by values less than 1 bit/ind. whereas, high diversity is indicated by values more than 3 bits/ind. (proto-neto, 2003). results and discussion species composition thirty-five taxa of copepoda were recorded 34 taxa in tigris river and 25 taxa in tharthar arm (tab.2). in tigris river results showed that the genus acanthocyclops included 5 species acanthocyclops sp., acanthocyclops capillatus (sars, 1863), acanthocyclops exilis (coker, 1934), acanthocyclops venustoides (coker, 1934) and acanthocyclops vernalis (fischer, 1853). paracyclops included 4 species paracyclops sp., p. affinis (sars, 1863), p. fimbriatus (fischer, 1853) and p. phaleratus (koch, 1838). eucyclops included 3 species eucyclops agilis (koch, 1838), e. speratus (lilljeborg, 1901) and e. macrurus (sars,1863). aglaodiaptomus included 2 species aglaodiaptomus lintoni (forbes, 1893) and aglaodiaptomus marshianus wilson, 1953. megacyclops included 2 species megacyclops latipes (lowndes, 1927) and megacyclops magnus (marsh, 1920) and other identified genera occurred with one species. while, in the tharthar arm the genus paracyclops included 4 species paracyclops sp., p. affinis (sars, 1863), p. fimbriatus (fischer, 1853) and p. phaleratus (koch, 1838). acanthocyclops included 3 species acanthocyclops capillatus (sars, 1863), acanthocyclops exilis (coker, 1934) and acanthocyclops vernalis (fischer, 1853). eucyclops included 2 species, eucyclops agilis (koch, 1838) and e. speratus (lilljeborg, 1901) and other identified genera occurred with one species. as well as, copepoda dominated in the tharthar arm in terms of individual abundance, not in terms of species abundance. the large numbers of immature stages for different copepod species led to the dominance of copepod in the tharthar arm. 476 impact of tharthar arm water table (2): copepods distribution, relative abundance (ra) and constancy index (s) in the tharthar arm and tigris river during 2020. sites taxa relative abundance constancy 1 2 3 4 5 6 1 2 3 4 5 6 calanoida 1 acanthodiaptomus denticornis (wierzejski, 1887) r r r r a a a a 2 aglaodiaptomus sp. r a 3 aglaodiaptomus forbesi light, 1938 r a 4 aglaodiaptomus lintoni (forbes, 1893) r a 5 aglaodiaptomus marshianus wilson, 1953 r a 6 hesperodiaptomus franciscanus (lilljeborg, 1889) r r r r r ac a ac a a 7 sinodiaptomus sarsi (rylov, 1923) r r r r r r a a a a a a 8 immature calanoida r r r r r ac ac ac ac c cyclopoida 9 acanthocyclops sp. r a 10 a. capillatus (sars, 1863) r r r r r r a a a a a 11 a. exilis (coker, 1934) r r r r r r ac ac a ac ac c 12 a. venustoides (coker, 1934) r r r a a a 13 a. vernalis (fischer,1853) r r r r a a a a 14 eucyclops agilis (koch, 1838) r a 15 ectocyclops sp. r r r r r r ac c ac ac ac ac 16 eucyclops agilis (koch, 1838) r r r r ac a a a 17 e. speratus (lilljeborg, 1901) r a 18 e.macrurus (sars,1863) r r r a a a 19 halicyclops sp. r r r r r r ac a a ac ac c 20 macrocyclops albdius (jurine, 1820) r a 477 majeed et al. where (d) dominant species, more than 70%, (a) abundant species 40-70 %, (la) less abundant 10-39 %, (r) rare species less than 10 %. whereas, for constancy, (c) constant species more than 50%, (ac) accessory species 26%-50%, (a) accidental species 1-25%. total density and relative abundance index (ra) of copepods diagram (2) shows the values of copepoda density. at site 1 upstream chz, the values ranged from 444.3 to 12408.4 ind./m3 in february and october, respectively. in the arm the density ranged from 817.7 in december to 173643 ind./m3 in august. whereas, the minimum and maximum values were 950 and 30879.6 ind./m3 in march and february, respectively in site 4 at immediately downstream chz. while downstream chz, the lowest value was 793.2 ind./m3 in february and the highest value was 22110 ind./m3 in october. moreover, high density of copepoda in thartar arm increased the mean value of copepoda density in tigris river from 63878.2 ind./m3 before the confluence to 127198.3 ind./m3 at immediately downstream the confluence (tab.3). 21 megacyclops latipes (lowndes, 1927) r r a a 22 megacyclops magnus (marsh, 1920) r a 23 mesocyclops leuckarti (claus, 1857) r r r r r r a a a a a ac 24 paracyclops sp. r r a a 25 p. affinis (sars, 1863) r r r r a ac a a 26 p. fimbriatus (fischer, 1853) r r r r r r c ac ac c c c 27 p. phaleratus (koch, 1838) r r r r a a ac a 28 thermocyclops hyalinus (rehberg, 1880) r r a a 29 cyclops sp. (♂) r r r r r r c c a ac ac c 30 cyclops sp. r r r r r r ac a c c c ac 31 immature cyclopodia r la r r r la c c ac ac ac c harpacticoida 32 nitokra lacustris (schmankevich, 1875) r r r r r r ac ac ac c ac c 33 harpacticoida (♂) r a 34 immature harpacticoida r r r r r r ac ac ac c ac c 35 nauplii of copepoda d d d d a a c c c c c c parasitic cyclopoida 36 ergasilus sp. r r r r r c ac c ac a 478 impact of tharthar arm water as for spatial variations, the highest density of copepoda recorded at site 2 in the arm; while, the lowest value was at site1 (diag. 2). this case may be related to the salinity which is increased in site 2 and decreased in site1. this view is confirmed by hedayti et al. (2017) and nguyen et al. (2020) found that the density of copepoda increased with the increasing the salinity. another reason behind the increasing of copepods in site 2. it its transported from lake (standing water regime) which is considered suitable environment for increasing this microcrustaceans (wahl et al., 2008, napiórkowski et al., 2019). or due to large numbers of nauplii as shown in diagram (3). furthermore, low flow rates and residence of water in the arm and lake may be the cause behind the increasing of density in site 2 (czerniawski and domagała, 2012; czerniawski et al., 2013). whereas, the lowest copepod density recorded at site 1, may be related to the high discharge rate (diag. 2). led to increasing the turbidity and suspended solids (tab.1) which have a negative impact on copepods, blocked respiration and locomotive organs, as well reduced the light penetration which in turn decline in phytoplankton populations which are used as food source for copepoda (mitsuka and henry, 2002). also, we can see a longitudinal change in the density of copepoda along the tharthar arm depending on the distance away from the tharthar lake. for this, the density was highest in site 2, compare with site 3. seasonally, the highest copepoda densities noticed in summer followed by autumn were 173643 and 33017 ind./m3, respectively. while, the lowest density recorded in winter was 444.3 ind./m3 (diag. 2). the highest copepods density in the summer may be attributed to the increasing of water temperature which in turn decline the rates of egg hatching times and development period of naupliar and copepodite stage. furthermore; increased the rate of phytoplankton growth; the minimum densities for copepoda in winter may be return to the decreased in water temperature below the optimal temperature this led to reduced metabolic rates of immature stages and the abundant of phytoplankton (cook et al., 2007). these results agreed with other studies conducted on tigris river; nashaat (2010) and abdulwahab and rabee (2015) found that copepoda density in tigris river increased during autumn and decreased in winter. also, czerniawski et al. (2013) showed that copepoda density increased downstream the confluence of western oder canal with the eastern oder canal, and contributed 65% of total zooplankton. related that to the low depth and slow current which suitable to increase copepod. 479 majeed et al. diagram (2): total densities of copepods in tigris river and tharthar arm during 2020. diagram (3) and table (2) detected the relative abundance index of most common copepoda taxa in all studied sites during 2020. for tigris river were nauplii had the highest percentages ratio followed by immature cyclops, cyclops sp. (♂), ectocyclops sp., immature calanoida, hesperodiaptomus franciscanus (lilljeborg, 1889), halicyclops sp., nitocra lacustris (shmankevich, 1875), sinodiaptomus sarsi (rylov, 1923) and acanthocyclops exilis (coker, 1934). while, in the tharthar arm were nuplii followed by immature cyclops and h. franciscanus, halicyclops sp., n. lacustris, immature calanoida and cyclops sp. the highest ratios of copepoda taxa in site 1 upstream chz were nauplii followed by immature cyclops, cyclops (♂), ectocyclops sp., halicyclops sp., acanthocyclops exilis and cyclops sp., with percentage 71%, 7%, 5% 4%, 2%, 2% and 1%, respectively. while, at site 2 were nauplii, immature cyclops, immature calanoid, paracyclops fimbriatus and halicyclops sp. with percentages 79%, 12%, 1%, 1% and 1%, respectively. at site 3 were nauplii, immature cyclops, immature calanoid, cyclops sp. and ectocyclops sp. with percentages 77%, 4%, 4%, 2% and 1%, respectively. also, nauplii, immature cyclops, immature calanoid, sinodiaptomus sarsi, h. franciscanus, n. lacustris and cyclops sp. in site 4 with percentages 71%, 5%, 4%, 3%, 2%, 2% and 2%, respectively. at site 5 were nauplii, ectocyclops sp., immature cyclops, cyclops (♂), n. lacustris, p. fimbriatus and h. franciscanus with percentages 61%, 11%, 7%, 4%, 3%, 2% and 1%, respectively. whereas, the highest percentages in site 6 were 64%, 10%, 4%, 3%, 2%, 2%, 2% and 2% for nauplii, immature cyclops, cyclops (♂), halicyclops sp., n. lacustris, cyclops sp., ectocyclops sp. and aglaodiaptomus forbesi, respectively (diag. 3). these results agree with al-lami (1998) recorded that nuaplii of copepods were the most abundant in tharthar arm and tigris river from october 1996 to december 1997, followed by cyclops sp. halicyclops sp., nitocra sp., and ectocyclops sp. also, al-lami et al. (2005) 480 impact of tharthar arm water found that halicyclops sp., n. lacustris, p. fimbriatus the most taxa abundant in lower zab tributary and tigris river. also rabee (2010) found that nauplii of copepoda dominated in al-tharthar-euphrates canal and euphrates river during 2009, followed by diaptomus sp., cyclops sp. and halicyclops sp. furthermore, abdulwahab and rabee (2015) indicated that p. fimbriatus, p. affinis, nitocra sp., halicyclops sp. and ectocyclops sp. were the most abundant copepoda taxa in tigris river with high percentage of nuaplii related that to their ability to tolerate different environmental factors. abbas et al. (2017) indicated that nuaplii of copepods were the most abundant in tigris river and diyala river followed by p. fimbriatus, p. affinis, n. lacustris and ectocyclops sp. 481 majeed et al. diagram (3): the most dominant copepods in tigris river and tharthar arm during 2020. ecological indices species richness index (d) diagram (4) shows the values of species richness index for copepods during the study period. at site 1 upstream chz, the values were ranged from 0.81 to 3.22 in december and site 1 site 2 site 3 site 4 site 5 site 6 482 impact of tharthar arm water september, respectively. in the arm the value ranged from 0.32 in december to 3.07 in july. whereas, the minimum and maximum values were 0.31 in january and 3.05 in may at immediately downstream chz. while downstream chz, the lowest value was 0.35 in january and the highest value was 3.25 in october. in other terms, the average value of species richness index of copepoda in tigris river increased from 1.71 upstream the confluence to 2.08 at immediately downstream the confluence zone (tab.3). as for spatial variations, the lowest values of species richness index were on the tharthar arm; while, the highest values were at sites 1 upstream the main river (diag. 4). this may be related to heterogeneity between the habitats of two rivers. this fact is proved by karpowicz (2017) showed that heterogeneous habitats of the lowland river had higher crustacean species richness and vice versa. in this respect, gao et al. (2013) observed that differences in ecological factors between habitats in the lianjiang river determined the spatial distribution of crustacean species richness. as for temporal variations, the lowest values of copepoda recorded in winter; whereas, the highest values were in spring and autumn (diag. 4). low value of this index in winter may be related to the decreasing of water temperature which is the main reason for reduction of egg production and number of immature stages; as well as, reduced the density of phytoplankton. these findings corresponded with hedayati et al. (2017) indicated that the values of species index for copepod decreased with the decreasing of water temperatures. on the other hand, the values of this index raised in spring, this may be returned to the increasing of sunlight intensity and photosynthesis rates this in turn increases phytoplankton production which is subsequently increased copepoda diversity (hedayati et al., 2017). our results agreed with abbas et al. (2017) found that unfavorable conditions in diyala river reduced the values of copepoda richness index. this in turn, decline this index in tigris river downstream the confluence of two rivers. copepoda 6 5 4 3 2 1 site index 2.02 1.78 2.08 1.37 1.60 1.71 d 0.52 0.52 0.47 0.49 0.46 0.52 j 1.10 1.01 1.00 0.87 0.85 0.98 h 78376.6 93004.5 127198.3 147204.3 265584.2 63878.2 total copepoda table (3): the averages values of species index, evenness index and shannon -weiner index with total density of copepoda. 483 majeed et al. diagram (4): seasonal variations of richness index (d) of copepods in tigris river and tharthar arm during 2020. species evenness index (j) diagram (5) presents the values of evenness index of copepoda. at site 1 upstream chz it was ranged from 0.33 in august to 0.67 in february. in the tharthar arm, the lowest value was 0.18 in may and the highest value was 0.81 in december. whereas, the minimum and maximum value of e index were ranged from 0.26 to 0.67 in january and november, respectively at immediately downstream chz. while, it was ranged from 0.15 in january to 0.82 in june downstream chz. in another perspective, the low mean value of evenness index of copepoda in the arm reduces their mean values in the tigris river from 0.52 upstream chz to 0.47 in site 4 at immediately downstream chz. then it returned to the first state reached 0.52 at site 6 after remove the effect of tharthar water (tab. 3). for spatial variation, the lowest value was in site 2 on the arm, and the highest value was at site 6 near graia’at floating bridge (diag. 5). this may be returned to the effect of salinity which is increased in tharhar arm (0.7382‰) and decreased in the main river (0.504‰). this view is supported by nguyen et al. (2020) indicated that salinity decreased evenness index of copepoda. other possible explanation is the differences in hydrological regimes and physicochemical parameters between two rivers (vadadi-fülöp, 2009; gao et al., 2013; karpowicz, 2017). for seasonal variation, the highest values were in winter recorded 0.82 and 0.81 in january and december, respectively. whereas, the lowest value was in summer recorded 0.18 in may (diag. 5). this might be related to the fact that solubility of oxygen in water increased with the decrease in temperature and vice versa with the increase of temperature. this view supported be lee et al. (2021) stated that evenness index of copepod in danshuei river in northwestern taiwan increased during winter than other seasons. 484 impact of tharthar arm water similar results were obtained by many iraqi studies such as rabee (2010) showed that evenness values of copepoda ranged from 0.49 to 0.80 in tharthar euphrates canal. whereas, ranged from 0.53 to 0.71 in euphrates river. also, abdulwahab and rabee (2015) pointed that evenness values of copepoda ranged from 0.36 to 1 in tigris river depending on environmental conditions. abbas et al. (2017) found the limited values of evenness index of copepoda in diyala river reduce their values in the tigris river from 1.4 before the confluence to 0.9 below the confluence, related that to low concentration of do and high amount of nutrient and organic matter which responsible for resident of few species with great densities. diagram (5): seasonal variations of evenness index (j) of copepoda in tigris river and tharthar arm, during 2020. shannon-wiener diversity index (h') diagram (6) shows the values of shannon-weiner diversity index for copepods during the study period. at site 1 upstream chz, the value ranged from 0.48 to 1.73 bit/ind. in january and september, respectively. in the arm the values were ranged from 0.32 bit/ind. in may to 1.46 bit/ind. in november. whereas, the minimum and maximum values were 0.18 bit/ind. in january and 1.61 bit/ind. in november at immediately downstream chz. while, the lowest value was 0.17 bit/ind. in june and the highest value was 1.97 bit/ind. in january downstream chz. in other words, copepods diversity in the tigris river more than in tharthar arm; the lowest average value in tigris was 0.98 bit/ind., while the highest average in the arm was 0.85 bit/ind. (tab.3). for, spatial variation the highest values observed in the tigris river at sites 1 and 6, whereas the lowest values were in the tharthar arm (diag. 6). this may be related to heterogeneity among habitats (karpowicz, 2017). 485 majeed et al. seasonally, the maximum values were in winter while, the minimum values were in summer (diag. 6). the reasoning for this may be due to the rising of do in winter. these results coincided with the results of abbas et al. (2017) and li et al. (2020) they observed that the diversity index of copepods increased in winter and decreased summer related that to the rising of dissolved oxygen in winter and decline in summer. current study agree with other studies, al-lami et al. (2005) mentioned that low copepods diversity in lower zab tributary decreased the diversity in tigris river from 1.175 above the confluence to 1.085 bit/ind. below the confluence. abbas et al. (2017) they showed low copepoda diversity in diyala river decreased the diversity of copepoda in tigris river after the confluence of two rivers, related that to the bad water quality. furthermore, rabee (2010) observed copepoda diversity of euphrates river increased slightly after the confluence with al-tharthar-euphrates canal. diagram (6): seasonal variation of shannon-weiner diversity index for copepods in tigris river and tharthar arm. copepoda in tigris river and tharthar arm classified according to hussain (2014). it was ranged from moderate to disturbed for richness index. while, from unbalanced to the highly balanced for evenness index, and from very poor to poor class for shannon weiner diversity index. jaccard presence-community index the highest value of similarity index was 87.83% between sites 3 in tharthar arm and site 4 on tigris river (diag.7). this may be resulted from the effect of tharthar arm on tigris river by increasing the density of copepoda at immediately downstream the chz as we have previously discussed. 486 impact of tharthar arm water whereas, the lowest similarity value was found between site 1 and 2 with percentages 65.41%. this is probably returned to the fact that each site located on different river, and every river characterized with distinct hydrological, morphological and geological features. this view is supported by czerniawski et al. (2013) found that variations in environmental factors declined the rate of similarity index of zooplankton communities along the lower reaches of oder river. similarly, abed (2018) showed that the highest percentage of similarity index for copepods in dejiala river was 71.42% between the sites located before and after of wafidea district area attributed that to the similarity in physicochemical characteristics in both sites on the river. also, al-bahathy (2021) showed that the highest similarity value for copepods in euphrates river was 92.50% between the site near al-musayyib city and the site downstream hindiya dam, related that to similar environmental variable between two sites. diagram (7): dendrogram of jaccard's index percentages of copepods. conclusions in view of all that has been mentioned from our findings we can be concluded that, tharthar arm increased the density of copepoda immediately downstream the confluence, then the density decreased with the increasing of distance downstream the main river. spatiotemporal variations of copepod density in the tharthar arm and tigris river depends on the changes of environmental conditions and hydrological regimes such as sources of water, flow rates, salinity, water temperatures, turbidity, do, tss and total hardness. longitudinal change in the density of copepoda along tharthar arm depending on the distance away from the tharthar lake, for this the copepoda density was highest in site 2, compare with site 3. also, linear relationship between copepoda density with salinity, and conversely with discharge rate. tharthar arm increased the mean values of richness index and diversity index 487 majeed et al. immediately downstream the confluence. according to ecological indices, it was ranged from moderate to disturbed for richness index, and from unbalanced to the highly balanced for evenness index, and from very poor to poor class for shannon weiner diversity index. conflict of interest statement no conflicts of interest, the current results are part of the requirements of ph.d. thesis in ecology, department of biology/ college of science-university of baghdad. literature cited abbas, e. k., nashaat, m. r., moftin, f. sh. and ali, e. h. 2017. distribution and occurrence of copepoda in tigris river, and effect of diyala river on its biodiversity. european academic research, (4)10: 8561-8580. abed, i. f. 2018. taxonomic study of the zooplankton community in the dejiala river within wasit province-iraq. ph.d. thesis, department of biology, college of education of pure science (ibn al-haitham), university of baghdad, 281 pp. (in arabic). abdullah, m., al-ansari, n. and laue, j. 2019. water resources projects in iraq: reservoirs in the depressions. journal of earth sciences and geotechnical engineering, 9(4): 137152. abdulwahab, s. and rabee, a. m. 2015. ecological factors affecting the distribution of the zooplankton community in the tigris river at baghdad region, iraq. egyptian journal of aquatic research, 41: 187-196. al-ansari, n., aljawad, s., adamo, n., sissakian, v.k., laue, j. and knutsson, s. 2018. water quality within the tigris and euphrates catchments. journal of earth sciences and geotechnical engineering, 8 (3): 95-121. al-bahathy, i. a. a. 2021. impact of al-hindiya dam on zooplankon communites in euphrates river. ph.d. thesis, department of biology, college of science, university of baghdad, 262 pp. (in arabic). ali, a. a., al-ansari, n. a. and knutsson, s. 2012. morphology of tigris river within baghdad city. hydrology and earth system sciences, 16:1-8. al-keriawy, h. a. h., al-kalidy, s. k. a. and ahmod, q. a. 2017. study of planktonic crustaceans (cladocera and copepeda) community in the hilla rive / iraq. mesopotamia environmental journal, special issue c: 142-155. al-lami, a. a. 1998. the ecological effects of tharthar arm on tigris river before its entrance baghdad city. ph.d. thesis, department of biology, college of science, almustansiriyah university, 123 pp. (in arabic). 488 impact of tharthar arm water al-lami, a. a., abdul jabar, r. a., abdullah, s. a. and ali. e. h. 2005. a study of copepoda invertebrates ecology in lower zab tributary and tigris river-iraq. umsalama science journal, 2(3): 350-354. 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(2021) 16 (4): 469-493. في نهر دجلة، شمال مدينة بغداد، تأثير ذراع الثرثار في تركيب وتنوع مجذافيات األرجل العراق ســــــامة سمـيـر مـجـيـــــــد ٌ ***مهـــــــند رمــــزي نشــــــأت و **أحـمــــــد جـاسم مـحمـد الـعـــــــزاوي ،*أ مديرية تربية بغداد الكرخ الثالثة، وزارة التربية، بغداد، العراق.* امعة بغداد، بغداد، العراق.قسم علوم الحياة، كلية العلوم، ج** دائرة البحوث الزراعية، وزارة العلوم والتكنولوجيا، بغداد، العراق.*** 20/06/2021، تأريخ النشر: 16/09/2021، تأريخ القبول: 18/07/2021تأريخ االستالم: الخالصة ، التي 2003من نوعها في هذا الجزء من نهر دجلة بعد عام هذه الدراسة األولى دتع مجذافيات األرجل في نهر دجلة. هدفت الى تقييم تأثير مياه ذراع الثرثار على تركيب وتنوع ست محطات للدراسة اثنتان على ذراع الثرثار وأربعة على نهر دجلة احداهما اختيرت الثالث االخريات بعد االلتقاءقبل التقاء الذراع بالنهر حددت كمحطة سيطرة و خذت . أ وحدة 35. شخص 2020العينات شهريا للفترة من كانون الثاني الى كانون األول وحدة في الذراع؛ وكما بينت 25وحدة في نهر دجلة و 34تصنيفية من مجافية االقدام ان الكثافة العالية في الذراع أدت الى زيادة الكثافة الكلية في نهر دجلة من ً النتائج ايضا 4في املوقع رقم 3فرد/ م 127198.3قبل االلتقاء الى 1املوقع رقم في 3فرد/م 63878.2 1.71بعد االتقاء مباشرة. كذلك متوسط القيم لكل من دليل الغنى والتنوع ازدادت من 4في املوقع رقم بت/فرد 1.00و 2.08قبل االلتقاء الى 1بت/فرد في املوقع رقم 0.98و وعلى التوالي ً . بعد االلتقاء مباشرة 493 majeed et al. ن نسبة تشابه كانت بين املوقع الثالث والرابع بلغت دليل جاكرد للتشابه ان اعلى بيَّ و ؛%65.41% ؛ في حين ان اقل نسبة كانت بين املوقع األول والثاني حيث وصلت 87.83 2عند املوقع السادس واقل عدد كان 9وفقا ملؤشر الثباتية لألنواع فان اعلى عدد كان الثالث. عند املوقع bull 219 al-sheikhly et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2020) 16 (2): 219230. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2020.16.2.0219 short communication pharaoh eagle-owl bubo ascalaphus (savigny, 1809) (strigiformes, strigidae), the “shrouded in mystery” owl of iraq and iran omar f. al-sheikhly*♦ heimo mikkola** and seyd b. mousavi*** * department of biology, college of science, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq ** university of eastern finland, kuopio, finland *** independent researcher, islamic republic of iran ♦corresponding author: alsheikhlyomar@gmail.com received date: 19 oct. 2020, accepted date: 14 december 2020, published date: 21 december 2020 abstract the easternmost extent of the pharaoh eagle-owl bubo ascalaphus (savigny, 1809) distribution has remained enigmatic due to identification problems and lack of owl research. in iraq, b. ascalaphus has been reported from only few localities in western iraqi deserts; while its occurrence in iran has not been reported before this study. in 2017–2020, several new records of b. ascalaphus in western through southeastern iraq were made and a new distribution range in western iran was confirmed. furthermore, field identification, interspecific relationships and conservation status of b. ascalaphus in iraq and iran were comprehensively discussed. keywords: conservation, eagle-owl, field identification, iraq, iran. introduction the pharaoh eagle-owl bubo ascalaphus (savigny, 1809) is a nocturnal predator confined to desert habitats, arid plains, wadis and rocky cliffs in north africa and the middle east from morocco south to the gambia, mali, sudan and south sudan, eritrea, and in the middle east from syria to the south of oman (mikkola, 2013; del hoyo et al., 2014). resident populations occur in egypt, israel, jordan, saudi arabia, kuwait, qatar, united arab emirates, and oman; vagrant in bahrain and probably breeds in yemen with some post-breeding dispersal and wandering in winter (porter and aspinall, 2010; jennings, 2010; blair et al. 2018; birdlife international, 2020). the status of b. ascalaphus in iraq and iran is enigmatic possibly due to identification problems with the polytypic eurasian eagle-owl b. bubo (linnaeus, 1758) (see field identification). in iraq, the occurrence of b. ascalaphus is not fully explored and probably confused with the sympatric b. bubo which is fairly common and breeds wherever it occurs, but mainly in northern iraq (sassi, 1912; meinertzhagen, 1914; ticehurst et al., 1922; 1926; 220 pharaoh eagle-owl bubo ascalaphus moore and boswell, 1956; al-dabbagh, 1998). specimens obtained from baghdad and babylon provinces were all ascribed to the smaller race/subspecies b. b. nikolskii (zarudny, 1905) by allouse (1953). george and mahdi (1969) listed b. b. nikolskii and b. b. interpositus (rothschild and hartert, 1910) from iraq; however, allouse (1961) mentioned that the exact bubo races/subspecies occurring in iraq were difficult to determine. a voucher specimen of a male b. bubo collected from al-hadithah on the euphrates river in western iraq in november 1937 and deposited in the chicago natural history museum was typically indicative to b. ascalaphus on the basis of its morphometrics: wing measures and colour pattern (vaurie, 1960). further investigation located that skin at the now field museum in chicago; its total length was 48 cm; wing 364 mm and tail 195 mm which were perfect fit to b. ascalaphus (al-sheikhly, 2012). later on, the occurrence of b. ascalaphus was confirmed in wadi al ubayiadh, an arid area of rocky hills between al rahaliya–nekheab districts and at al-raoudha area in anbar province in western iraq, where a breeding population was also established (al-sheikhly, 2012). since then, no further field observations of b. ascalaphus in iraq were made. similarly, the status of b. ascalaphus in iran has been obscure and taxonomically interfered with b. bubo, a fairly common resident in mountainous areas throughout iran, but few birds (presumably from the northern populations) are also wintering to southeast caspian lowlands (scott and adhami, 2006; khaleghizadeh et al., 2017). the latter also indicated that the large b. b. interpositus and b. b. omissus (dementiev, 1933) occur along with the small subspecies e.g. b. [bengalensis?] nikolskii and b. ascalaphus which probably includes b. paradoxus (domaniewski, 1933) from pol-e-khatum and elsewhere on hari rud (holotype in warszawa museum, locality is on iran/afghani border). khaleghizadeh et al. (2017) however, did not provide further records (number of specimens and localities) of b. ascalaphus. they also indicated that the ranges of the large and small taxa of the polytypic b. bubo overlap and the subspecies occurring in iran required revisions. bubo ascalaphus has an extremely large zoogeographical range and its population trend appears to be stable, and therefore, the species is evaluated as least concern by the international union for conservation of nature (iucn) (birdlife international, 2020). however, the overall status of b. ascalaphus is not fully known and seems to be locally endangered by human persecution (mikkola, 2013). species status the original description of b. ascalaphus was done already by savigny (1809) in egypt and recent phylogenetic analyses based on mitochondrial and nuclear dna sequences have confirmed that cytochrome b sequences of b. bubo and b. ascalaphus differed by an uncorrected p-distance of 3.5%. a sequence distance of more than 2% is indicative of species level distinction (wink et al., 2009; birdlife international, 2020). however, often this distinct owl has been lumped together with b. bubo despite the distinct morphology. this has caused numerous misidentifications in the museum collections and handbook texts. al-sheikhly (2012) gave a detailed history of one originally wrongly identified specimen in the chicago museum collected from western iraq in 1937. some of west african bird books often list b. bubo as species occurring for instance in senegal and the gambia although all confirmed birds have been b. ascalaphus, instead (mikkola, in litt.). 221 al-sheikhly et al. field identification bubo ascalaphus is the smallest size eagle-owl species in the region, has shorter ear-tufts and multiple different plumage characters including pale sandy/tawny-rufous coloration, unstreaked rufous-barred belly and distinct black borders on the facial disc (cramp, 1985; mikkola, 2013). although b. ascalaphus wing measurements are from north africa, the owl measured from western iraq (e.g. al-sheikhly, 2012) with a wing of 364 mm falls well within the female/male measurements in table (1). this further supports the fact that b. ascalaphus is monotypic as concluded by crochet et al. (2015). table (1): wing measurements (in mm) of four bubo bubo subspecies, bubo bengalensis, and bubo ascalaphus. compiled from dement’ev et al. (1951), vaurie (1965), and weick (2006). species ♀ max ♀ min average no. ♂ max ♂ min average no. b. b. omissus 460 425 445 15 424 404 415 7 b. b. ruthenus 515 471 485.4 22 468 430 445.6 17 b. b. interpositus 502 468 480 19 463 428 448 25 b. b. nikolskii 465 394 433 10 430 378 415 10 b. bengalensis 403 376 387 12 391 358 370 10 b. ascalaphus 390 340 367 20 368 325 346.5 20 we have listed from field observations and photos collected from iraq and iran several obvious morphological differences between b. ascalaphus and b. b. nikolskii. besides field observations, an examination of b. b. ruthenus (zhitkov and buturlin, 1906)/nikolskii voucher specimens [(n=4): three deposited in the iraqi natural history research centre and museum (inhrm) cited by ticehurst et al. (1922) and allouse (1953), and one collected in khuzestan, western iran by seyd b. mousavi on 24th of july 2020 were comprehensively studied. in the field b. ascalaphus is so small that it can be separated from b. b. nikolskii even without measurements. in bubo ascalaphus has pale rufous-sandy appearance, smaller size, and prominent dark line with white rim framing the plain tawny facial disc, and lighter streaks body in comparison to the sympatric b. b. nikolskii. it has short and barred ear-tufts (long and dark outer-web in b. b. nikolskii), much white in the throat (less or absent in b. b. nikolskii), sharp orange-yellow eyes bordered with wide white eye-ring and a dark-grey bill. the eyes are larger in proportion to the head when compared to other b. bubo subspecies [also in robb (2015)]. bubo ascalaphus breast-streaking is restricted on the upper parts [pattern of a breast feather resembles that of figure (1) in vaurie (1960) also in this study (pl.1)], with less dense fine pencil, clearer, and wider rufous barring beneath flanks, and under-tail coverts. the pale bars on the upper tail coverts are proportionately broader than the black bars (vice versa in b. bubo; see collar and boesman, 2019). the flying feathers have sandy/orange-rufous wash contrasting with darker carpals and upperwing primary coverts; under wing coverts are pale and less barred. bubo ascalaphus has more spotted appearance and much less marbled wingcoverts, secondaries, tertials and tail, although both taxa may show half-marbled tail barrings (collar and boesman, 2019). it has thin tarsi and toes feathered pale tawny, paws are pale with blackish-brown claws (pl. 2, 3a–c). 222 pharaoh eagle-owl bubo ascalaphus in contrast, b. b. nikolskii has a pale-yellowish colour pattern; the facial disc is browngreyish and the dark line framing the facial disc is usually absent, but rather faint and less pronounced than in b. ascalaphus and lacking the distinct white rim, even if present. besides field observations, an examination of b. b. ruthenus/nikolskii museum specimens showed that the facial disc pattern is totally absent. moreover, b. b. nikolskii has a bigger head and deep red/orange eyes which seem proportionally smaller. it has long dark outer webbed ear-tufts which show it to be clearly larger in appearance. also it has rufous primaries, uniform upperparts, and upper wing coverts; secondaries, tertials and mantle feathers with pale-fringes and tips which resemble diamond-like spotting or “marbled pattern” (pl. 3e). among all races of b. bubo, the subspecies b. b. nikolskii has the greatest extent of dense black streaking and brown sparse vermiculation in the underparts (shaft-like spotting in b. ascalaphus in upper breast) reaching the lower belly, flanks, and under-tail coverts, and has a yellowish-tinged heavy tarsus. plate (1): pattern of breast feathers; (a) adapted from vaurie (1960), (b) pharaoh eagleowl bubo ascalaphus, zurbatiyah foothills, eastern iraq (10th of june 2020), (c) eurasian eagle-owl bubo. b. nikolskii, khuzestan, western iran (24th of july 2020). [photos © omar al-sheikhly and seyd b. mousavi]. recent records iraq: until recently, published records of b. ascalaphus in iraq were restricted to those made by al-sheikhly (2012) in the western desert. but subsequently further records have been made based on direct visual field observations supported with excellent photographic documentation. on 8th of march 2012, two breeding adults were observed and photographed using digital slr canon eos 40d camera bodies fixed with 400mm telephoto lense at wadi al-ga’ara, north of rutba (33°25'58.35"n 40°20'2.11"e), anbar province, extreme western iraq (ca. 60–140km) from the border with syria and jordan, respectively (pl. 2a). in 2017, two new sightings of b. ascalaphus were obtained. on 2nd of april 2017, an adult owl was observed in the ruins of the old city of ur (30°57'38.57"n 46° 6'21.12"e), thi qar province, southern iraq. on 5th of may 2017, an adult was observed in the rocky cliffs of jabal sanam (30°7'26.75"n 47°37'50.46"e), basra province, extreme southern iraq (ca. 2.5 km) from the border with kuwait (al-dirawi a. pers. comm. to omar al-sheikhly 2017). on 20th of april 223 al-sheikhly et al. 2018, a full-sized adult owl was observed in the zagros foothills of al-shirhani in al-teeb area (32°2'3.31"n 47°39'50.45"e), myssan province, southeastern iraq (ca. 0.5km) from the border with iran. on 10th of june 2020, an adult owl was captured alive at zurbatiyah foothills (33°14'47.69"n 46° 9'14.55"e), wasit province, eastern iraq (ca. 2 km) from the border with iran, but no measurements were taken (pl. 2 b). furthermore, on many occasions, livecaptured b. ascalaphus were observed in the local animal markets of baghdad (pl.4). efforts to investigate the origins of the trapped owls were constantly invalid/ unverified; unfortunately, so all remained with unknown localities. plate (2): pharaoh eagle-owl bubo ascalaphus; (a) wadi al-ga’ara, north of rutba, western iraq, (b) bird in captivity trapped at zurbatiyah foothills, eastern iraq. [photos © omar al-sheikhly]. iran: the first indication of the occurrence of b. ascalaphus in western iran was made on 22nd of june 2014, when a full-sized juvenile eagle-owl was observed and photographed at bait rashid area (see below). the juvenile eagle-owl had distinctively pale rufous plumage, large head with proportionally large and sharp yellow-orange eyes and short ear-tufts, much white on throat and forehead, the prominent black-frame of the facial discs was absent (present in those of a similar age in al-sheikhly, 2012), unstreaked rufous-barred breast and underparts and short tail (pl. 3d). despite several opinions of esteemed ornithologists claimed it to be b. ascalaphus; however, we realized that the identification seemed inconclusive and further observations were required as that owl was in juvenile plumage, an age class that might morphologically overlap in little known taxa (e.g. b. ascalaphus/b. b. nikolskii). additional field surveys in the rocky foothills of the zagros mountain forest steppe and south iran nubosindian desert and semi-desert ecoregions in khuzestan province in western iran were conducted to further investigate the coexistence of both eagle-owl species. as a consequence, based on the field identification remarks mentioned above supported by clear photographic documentation, the occurrence of b. ascalaphus was confirmed at two localities in western iran. site (i): bait rashid area (32°0'20.65"n 47°56'56.82''e), khuzestan, western iran. on 224 pharaoh eagle-owl bubo ascalaphus 12th –13th of july 2020, two adult individuals were observed and photographed using digital slr nikon d500 camera bodies fixed with f/5.6 500mm telephoto lense (pl. 3a, b). site (ii): suq al-kharban area (31°59'57.27"n 47°57'12.89''e), khuzestan, western iran. on 19th–20th of july 2020, two individuals were also observed and one had been photographed at (ca. 1km) to the south from the 1st locality (pl. 3c). later on, an adult eagle-owl was observed and photographed at site (ii) on 25th of august 2020. it was identified as b. b. nikolskii (see field identification), evidence confirms the coexistence of both species in western iran (pl. 3e). the breeding of b. ascalaphus in western iran has possibly been established in the bait rashid area. several suitable nesting sites in rocky cracks/cliff caverns with owlets’ downy feathers, pellets and remains of owl diet, with frequent visits by the adults were detected; however, further monitoring is required to confirm the breeding status of this species in iran. plate (3): (a–b) adult pharaoh eagle-owls bubo ascalaphus in bait rashid, khuzestan, iran; (c) adult owls in suq al-kharban, khuzestan, iran; (d) juvenile in bait rashid; (e) eurasian eagle-owl bubo. b. nikolskii in suq al-kharban, khuzestan, iran. [photos © seyd b. mousavi]. 225 al-sheikhly et al. interspecific relationships according to weick (2006), b. ascalaphus could be sympatric with b. b. interpositus and b. b. omissus at least in iran. however, the geographical range of b. b. interpositus is confined to the northwestern and northern iran from alborz, region tehran, and probably the south caspian region while b. b. omissus is confined to northeastern iran and turkmenistan to western china (khaleghizadeh et al., 2017). specimens collected from luristan not far from the type locality of b. b. nikolskii in western iran showed that b. b. omissus was a synonym of b. b. nikolskii, as these specimens were identical in size and coloration, including the streaking (vaurie, 1960). however, b. b. omissus was later recognized as a subspecies restricted to the north of kopet dagh, in south turkmenistan (khaleghizadeh et al., 2017). in recent study of obuch (2014), the collected diet remains from seven owl subspecies (mainly from b. bubo) from 38 sites throughout iran including two localities (b10, 11) in khuzestan in western iran where b. b. nikolskii was resident; however, the exact subspecies involved were not mentioned. the exact boundaries of the different races of b. bubo are obscured by the fact that there is considerable intergradation. however, we have seen during this study that b. ascalaphus occurs in eastern, southeastern iraq towards western iran sympatrically with b. b. nikolskii, but we do not know whether the two taxa will hybridize or not, so this requires further specimen examinations and genetic investigations. bubo bubo nikolskii; however, could be separated better than any other race of bubo (with the exceptions of b. ascalaphus and b. bengalensis which are smaller still, but are not closely related to b. b. nikolskii) by its small size (see table 1), pale-yellowish colour, less heavily streaked, and vermiculated with brown below (vaurie, 1960). bubo bubo nikolskii, a distinctively small eagle-owl (wing ♂=378; ♀=394 mm, both of these values being the minimum for any subspecies of b. bubo, and almost falling in the category of b. ascalaphus measurements, see table 1) was firstly described by zarudny from the jebel (djebel) tnue in khuzestan, in western iran. this subspecies is resident in small numbers in the zagros and karun districts (see ticehurst et al., 1922), as well as in khorsan south of sistan, west of kerman, and in the zagros west at least as far as luristan “lorestan” to western pakistan (zarudny and loudon, 1905; vaurie, 1965; khaleghizadeh et al., 2017). bubo bubo nikolskii was reported from central iraq by allouse (1953); however, vaurie (1960) believed that allouse was incorrect in calling the eagle-owls of mesopotamia (iraq nowadays) as b. b. nikolskii. ticehurst et al. (1922; 1926) assigned eagle-owls of iraq to the subspecies b. b. ruthenus after he had compared specimens from iraq with others from trebzon in turkey. however, b. b. interpositus and b. b. ruthenus were not synonymous and confused by e. hartert with each other and the error of ticehurst and hartert was corrected by hartert and steinbacher (1935). ticehurst et al. (1922) also mentioned that b. b. nikolskii remained mysterious and the three specimens collected from iraq cannot be of that subspecies based on wing measurements, while the subspecies could occur in the adjacent areas of southeastern iraq (see zarudny and loudon, 1905), from where specimens thence materialized later. therefore, it is important to know the morphological differences visible in the field and useful for assessing good quality photographic documentation to help differentiate these owls. furthermore, it seems that b. b. nikolskii is sharing the same ecological niche with b. ascalaphus which is evident by the coexistence of both species in the lower zagros foothills and arid steppes of southeastern iraq and western iran where a hybridization zone may exist. to establish this, additional research is needed. 226 pharaoh eagle-owl bubo ascalaphus conservation status besides threats, the survival status of b. ascalaphus in both iraq and iran is not fully known and warrants further monitoring. mikkola (2013) indicated that the species has been often persecuted by humans. in arabian culture, the owl is a symbol of bad omen and abhorrent to be trapped or kept as domesticated pets. despite the traditional beliefs, in iraq, the species is targeted by wildlife trade, especially during the breeding season (february–june). breeding adults are trapped by nets and owlets/juveniles are taken from their nesting holes. besides other birds of prey, bubo owls of different age classes are persecuted by local poachers and trappers (see al-sheikhly and al-azawi, 2019) in western through southeastern iraq, and presented in the local animal markets to be raised as cage birds (pl. 4). it is worth mentioning that hunting of b. bubo is banned by the iraqi wild animals protection law (no. 17 issued in 2010); however, owls are deliberately trapped/captured whenever and wherever possible. the enforcement of the hunting legislations, the establishment of the national protected areas (pas) network, and advocating toward the conservation of endangered species by local communities (e.g. al-sheikhly et al., 2020) remain major challenges facing the future of the species conservation, at least in iraq. plate (4): different age classes of pharaoh eagle-owls bubo ascalaphus trapped from unknown localities in iraq by local hunters to be raised as pets. [photo © omar al-sheikhly]. acknowledgments we are grateful to prof. razzaq s. augul (director of the iraqi natural history research centre and museum (inhrm-university of baghdad) for our allowing an access to the museum bird collections. we would also thank dr. mukhtar k. haba (college of science for women-university of baghdad) and dr. afkar m. hadi (curator of the vertebrates section in inhrm-university of baghdad) for their thoughtful comments and assistant during the examination of the museum eagle-owls specimens. to zahra’a mousavi (khuzestan-iran) for 227 al-sheikhly et al. her generous donation of the photography optics and equipment that were used in the in situ work of this study. we also thank philippe de grissac, guilhem lesaffre, and the anonymous reviewers for their comments on the earlier draft of this account. literature cited al-dabbagh, k.y. 1998. the birds of semi-desert areas of central iraq. sandgrouse, 20:135– 141. allouse, b. 1953. the avifauna of iraq. iraq 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[in german] 230 pharaoh eagle-owl bubo ascalaphus bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2020) 16 (2): 219-230. bubo ascalaphus (savigny, 1809) بومة النسر الفرعونية (strigiformes, strigidae ) العراق وأيران في" يكتنفها الغموض"البومة التي سيد باقر موسوي*** و عمر فاضل الشيخلي*، هيمو ميكوال** كلية العلوم جامعة بغداد، بغداد، العراق-*قسم علوم الحياة **جامعة شرق فلندا، كوبيو، فلندا قل، الجمهورية األسالمية األيرانية***باحث مست 21/12/2020، تأريخ النشر: 14/12/2020، تأريخ القبول: 19/10/2020تأريخ االستالم: الخالصة bubo ascalaphusالزال أقصى شرق األنتشار لبومة النسر الفرعونية (savigny, 1809) مجهوالً بسبب المشاكل التصنيفية وقلة البحوث المتعلقة .بدراسة األبوام اء في العراق تم تسجيل بومة النسر الفرعونية في مواقع قليلة في الصحر ي الغربية العراقية بينما لم يذكر تسجيلها في أيران قبل هذه الدراسة. ف لنسر الفرعونية ، تم الحصول على تسجيالت جديدة لبومة ا2010–2017عام في في غرب بأتجاه جنوب شرق العراق وتم تأكيد تواجد نطاق أنتشار جديد لها الحقلي، العالقات بين شخيصغرب أيران. أضافة لما سبق، تمت مناقشة الت راناألنواع المتقاربة، وحالة الصون لبومة النسر الفرعونية في العراق وأي .بأسهاب تأريخ الاستلام: 19/10/2020، تأريخ القبول: 14/12/2020، تأريخ النشر: 21/12/2020 bull 115 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum meshjel, m. h. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2022) 17 (1): 115-127. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2022.17.1.0115 original article new records of gastrotricha from the main outfall drain, south of baghdad, iraq maysoon hassan meshjel *department of biology, college of science for women, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq. maysoonhm_bio@csw.uobaghdad.edu.iq received date: 25 december 2021, accepted date: 09 june 2022, published date: 20 june 2022 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract the current study is a taxonomic account of three gastrotrich species that belong to chaetonotidae (phylum gastrotricha) namely ichthydium auritum brunson, 1950 lepidodermella squamata (dujardin, 1841) and chaetonotus anomalus brunson, 1950. these species are registered as a new record from iraq and were collected from several locations along the main outfall drain (mod) in south of baghdad, from january to december 2020. the species described in this article were found to be related to hydrilla and ceratophyllum and prefer environments rich in detritus and decomposing organic matter. the worms preferred water that is salty, hard, alkaline, and had good oxygen content. keywords: chaetonotidae, chaetonotus, gastrotricha, ichthydium, lepidodermella . introduction gastrotrichs, also known as hairy bellies or hairybacks, are a group of tiny acoelomate invertebrates that look like worms, gastrotrichs are colorless organisms with a vermiform or tenpin shape appearance, ranging in length from 0.06-3.0 mm (kolicka, 2017). the body consists of a head and a trunk convex dorsally and flattened ventrally, the ciliated epidermis on the ventral side of the worms allows the animal to glide on the surface, the head bears a number of sensory hairs, in many species, especially freshwater forms, the trunk ends with a pair of adhesive tubes (furca) that permit temporary attachment to substrates, the body is surrounded by cuticle, which often forms scales and spines, these scales and spines differ in shapes and distribution on the body according to different species (edmondson, 1959). gastrotrichs have long been considered a class of the aschelminthes, together with nematodes, rotifers etc. however, currently they are considered a phylum allied with platyhelminthes forming a clade named rouphozoa (todaro et al., 2019). the phylum is divided in two orders: chaetonotida (common in fresh waters) and the macrodasyida (entirely marine) (rao and clausen, 1970). freshwater members of gastrotricha were bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home online issn: 2311-9799 print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2022.17.1.0115 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6730-2711 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 116 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum new records of gastrotricha long thought to lack male gametes and to exist exclusively as parthenogenetic females (weiss, 2001). members of this guild normally feed on biodetritus, but also microorganisms such as of bacterial, algael, and protozoans (nozais et al., 2005; danovaro et al., 2008). in turn, gastrotricha are preyed upon by turbellarians and other predatory organisms, therefore, gastrotrichs are very essential elements in aquatic food webs (danovaro, 1996); indeed, in this group may be very abundant, but it is also one of the least knowns, this group of invertebrates is almost omnipresent in the benthos and periphyton communities of freshwater habitats, these organisms are highly sensitive to environmental disturbance and respond rapidly to changes in food availability (danovaro, 1996; fraschetti et al., 2006). many freshwater gastrotrichs, which appear to prefer finer sediments with high organic matter content (kolicka et al., 2017). the majority of freshwater gastrotrich species have been described from in europe. many studies on the taxonomy and diversity of gastrotrichs have been published. for instance, brunson (1950, 1949) and robbins (1965, 1973) constructed an important classification scheme and illustrated keys for identifying freshwater species of north america; d’hondt (1971) introduced a key that is particularly dedicated to the species of lepidodermella; kisielewski (1987) defined the most important features that have to be taken into consideration upon the diagnosis gastrotricha species based on morphology ; kisielewski (1990,1991) presented a clarification of the most essential attributes in gastrotrich systematics; balsamo and todaro (2002) published illustrated keys for the classification of all known freshwater species worldwide; kånneby et al. (2009) described the species of ichthydium, and kånneby et al. (2012, 2013) provided the first classification of chaetonotidae based on molecular phylogeny; garraffoni and melchior (2015) described new species and new records of freshwater heterolepidoderma (gastrotricha, chaetonotidae) from brazil with an identification key to the genus; balsamo et al. (2020) describe successfully tested techniques for their recovery and study, and emphasize current knowledge on the ecology, distribution, and dispersal of freshwater gastrotrichs. in iraq, nonetheless, only one study was conducted by jaweir and al-sarai (2015) could report the presence of gastrotrich in a benthic specimen from al-dalmaj marsh, which is the only place where this phylum has been documented. therefore, the aims of the current study include the identifying and describing the local species of gastrotricha, and the characterization of their preferred environment. materials and methods specimens' collection and description area: from january to december 2020, a plankton net with a 25 micrometer mesh was used to collect aquatic plants, fine detritus sediments and mosses from various locations along the main outfall drain (map 1). the mod extends between mesopotamia starting from the north of baghdad until its estuary in shatt al-basra and khor al-zubayr and then the arabian gulf , this drainage canal is one of iraq's most significant development projects, built to reduce salinity on reclaimed agricultural lands along its central and southern 117 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum meshjel, m. h. regions .the study included the northern section, which starts from the ishaqi and saqlawiyah drainage basins, north of baghdad, to the al-dalamj marsh, with a length of (206) km, to serve the projects of ishaqi, saqlawiyah, abu ghraib, radwaniyah, yusufiyah, latifiyah, alexandria, numaniyah and musayyab. the eradicated plants and algae were collected in a container with water from the site and then transferred to the laboratory where they were distributed into the aquarium of (40x20x20 cm) an air pump was utilized in the laboratory and left for about 7-10 days to allow the worms to settle down. slides of the collected samples were prepared according to kånneby et al. (2009, 2013), whom proposed using a digital camera with a video function that is capable of capturing multiple focus planes to record the animals and identify them, proved high efficiency in the present work. physico-chemical parameters of water samples were assessed in the field by employing portable meters; these included water temperature, dissolved oxygen, hydrogen ion concentration as ph and salinity. water hardness occurring due to the accumulation of calcium salts was determined based on lind (1979). results and discussion a total of 6300 individuals were identified as belonging to three species of chaetonotida: chaetonotidae, including icthydium auritum, lepidodermella squamata, and chaetonotus anomalus. this family is characterized by lacking adhesive tubes or with one pair (very rarely two pairs) of adhesive tubes posteriorly and no pharyngeal pores. the furca is typically branching, with a cone-shaped base and a distal adhesive duct; body mostly has numerous spines, scales, or spined scales; head has cilia organized in tufts; cephalic plates are present. in iraq, no data are available about this group of invertebrates to compare with the present study. however, the findings are highly relevant to those stated by edmondson (1959). diagnostic characters and measurements: lepidodermella squamata (dujardin, 1841) (pl. 1 a, fig. 1 a): this species of the genus lepidodermella was observed only, that identified as l. squamata, head rounded (five lobed) with two pairs of sensory tufts.; body coated in unique scales placed in alternating rows and protruded from the body surface; an interciliary area that has smooth, transversely-arranged, cuticular scale plates in pharyngeal region; seven to nine dorsal columns of smooth scales, with length ranging between140-152μ pharynx 48μ; furca length 24μ. the current study showed the presence of l. squamata throughout the study period (diag.1).while the total density reached 2340 ind/m2 , it was clear that the densities were a decline during the hot months june, july and august , as reached 100, 80 ind/m2 respectively. while the highest densities were recorded during moderate temperatures in the months of april, march and december, reaching 350, 320 ind/m2 and 300 ind/m2 for each. 118 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum new records of gastrotricha map (1): map of study areas (used arc-gis map program). 119 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum meshjel, m. h. figure (1): schematic drawing; (a) lepidodermella squamata ventral view of head and neck region showing the transverse scales of the interciliary area and trunk showing shape and distribution of scales, (b) ichthydium auritum showing head with three lobes; posterior lobes are small, dorsal, earlike flaps, (c) chaetonotus anomalous showing distribution of spines. (m = mouth, sc = sensory cilia, ph= pharynx, g= gut, f= furca). plate (1): photograph of live specimen; (a) lepidodermella squamata, (b) icthydium auritum, (c) chaetonotus anomalous. 120 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum new records of gastrotricha all morphological measurements were close to those recorded by earlier works edmondson (1959); brunson (1950); sharma (1980); zakarija (1980); kanneby (2011) and todaro et al. (2019). this species is considered as one of the most common species that lives on aquatic plants in lakes, ponds, streams and marshes; also located near the bottom of the stream and between the sediment particles. l. squamata a widely distributed species reported from, united kingdom (martin, 1981), italy (mola, 1932), poland (kisielewska and kisielewski, 1986), sweden ( kånneby, 2011, 2013), australia (hochberg, 2005), brazil (kisielewski, 1987, 1991), south korea (lee and chang, 2000). ichthydium auritum brunson, 1950 (pl. 1 b, fig. 1 b ( the species of i. auritum was observed belong ichthydium only, this species characterizes by: head with three lobes; posterior lobes small, dorsal, earlike flaps; tactile bristles absent, caudal furca carried at higher plans than ventral body surface; cuticle not especially thick; mouth ring small, without pharyngeal teeth, while the total length range between 8587μ; pharynx length 30 μ; caudal furca length 11μ. the total density reached 2112 ind/m2 (diag.1). it is clear that i. auritum found in all study periods except the months of july and august, while the lowest density was sorted in june and reached 88 ind/m2 and then they increased progressively in april and march, reaching 440 and 264 for each. the specimens matched those reported by brunson (1950), edmondson (1959), sharma (1980), kanneby et al. (2009) and todaro et al. (2019). chaetonotus anomalus brunson, 1950 (pl. 1c, fig. 1c) this species of the genus chaetonotus was observed only; the presence of a five-lobed head was used to identify this species. body with 6 to 8 longitudinal rows, 8 to 10 spines each, with increased size at the posterior part; seven long spines that twice bifurcate and extend beyond other spines originate in a hexagonal region on the trunk., total length 147μ; pharynx length 43μ ;furca length 27μ; long spines length 45-60μ. the total density reached 1848 ind/m2 (diag.1). the results of the present study showed that monthly variations in density of c. anomalus ranged from highest density in april and december reached 264 in each and the lowest density were sorted in july and october reached 44 and 88 for each, while absence in august .the specimens described in this paper matched those reported by the previous studies such as: edmondson (1959), brunson (1950), sharma (1980), kanneby et al. (2009) and balsamo et al. (2008, 2015). in this study, ceratophyllum demersum and filamentous algae were used to collect specimens. diagram (1) shows all data concerning the species identified, including the density of each species in each studies month and their occurrence frequencies. the highest density values were recorded during april reaching 440 ind/m2 for i. auritum, 350 ind/m2 for l. squamata, and 290 ind/m2 for c. anomalous. it is clear that chaetonotidae density decreases during the hot months of the year and increases with moderate temperatures. the results also show that l. squamatum and i. auritum recorded the highest percentages of 37% and 34 %, respectively (diag.2), while c. anomalous recorded the lowest percentage of 29% of the total number of chaetonotidae. l. squamata is the most abundant species, showing 100% occurrence frequency, because it was 121 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum meshjel, m. h. recorded in all months, while a frequency of 91.6% was recorded for c. anomalous, since it was recorded in all months, except august. i. auritum recorded the frequency of 66.66%, being recorded in all months except august and july. the highest number of chaetonotidae was recorded in april. the species described here were discovered to have correlations with hydrilla and ceratophyllum, while favoring environments with detritus and decomposing organic material. table (1) shows all data concerning the physico-chemical characteristics of the main outfall drain during the studied months (2020), while the results showed that ph values obtained in the present study ranged (7.4-8.9), the results showed that dissolved oxygen (do) values ranged between the (6.9-8.9) mgl-1. hardness showed a range of 820-2232 mg/l, while that of salinity was 2.1-4.8 ‰. hence, the worms exhibited a predilection for water that tends to be salty, hard, alkaline, and good in oxygen, which agrees with rao and chandra (1977). gastrotrichs were abundantly found in regions with low dissolved oxygen levels. gastrotrichs belong to those organisms that can still be typically found in anaerobic settings (brunson, 1949), keeping high density even when anoxia lasts for longer periods. no investigation has yet been made that addresses the anaerobiosis of freshwater gastrotrichs based on physiological mechanisms. it is plausible that certain freshwater gastrotrichs possess a mechanism of sulfide detoxification that is comparable to such mechanisms described for marine gastrotrichs (powell et al., 1979). these mechanisms control the increased amounts of h2s that are typically associated with extended periods of anoxia. direct evidence on the factors regulating gastrotrich populations in nature is lacking. however, scarce quantitative investigations were published that describe the seasonal dynamics of these populations in freshwater habitats. nesteruk (2011) indicated that population densities generally reach the lowest values throughout the winter. we have no explanation in relation to the driving force behind these seasonal dynamics. however, evident candidates can include seasonal alterations in water temperature, food supply, and predation pressures candidates . 0 100 200 300 400 500 janfebmaraprmayjunejulaugseptoctnovdec lepidodermella squamata ichthydium auritum chaetonotus anomalus diagram (1): total density of different species of the family chaetonotidae collected during different studied months. 122 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum new records of gastrotricha table (1): average values of physico-chemical characteristics of the main outfall drain during this study. conclusions three species are newly recorded in iraq, belonging to phylum gastrotricha, family chaetonotidae, which are icthydium auritum, lepidodermella squamata, and chaetonotus anomalous. the highest density was recorded during april. it is clear that chaetonotidae density decreases during the hot months of the year and increases with moderate temperatures. the species described in the current study were found to be associated with hydrilla and ceratophyllum, preferring habitats with detritus and decaying organic material. furthermore, these species showed a preference for water that tends to be salty, hard, alkaline, and low in oxygen . organic sediment% dissolved oxygen mgl-1 salinity‰ total hardness mg caco3\l ph water temp.°c properties 2.5 6.9 2.1 1028 7.4 9 january 2.4 6.8 2.2 933 7.4 10 february 1.5 7.3 2.3 820 7.8 15.5 march 3 6.8 2.4 840 7.9 20 april 2.5 7.9 2.9 870 8.6 22 may 2.5 8.5 3.2 990 8.7 25 june 2.5 8.4 3.9 2232 8.8 30 july 3.0 8.7 4.2 1200 8.9 32 august 3.3 8.5 4.3 1960 7.7 33 september 2.1 8.7 4.7 1944 7.3 30 october 1.5 8.8 3.7 306 7.5 28 november 2.8 7.4 2.8 1138 7.5 14 december diagram (2): percentage composition of different species of the family chaetonotidae collected during the studied months. 123 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum meshjel, m. h. conflicts of intereststatement the author has no conflicts of interest to declare. 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[crossref] lind, o. t. 1979. hand book of common methods in limnology. 2nd ed. london 199 pp . nesteruk, t. 2011. comparisn of gastrotrich fauna on eloids and in bottom sediments of throphic status (the region polesie lubelskie, estern poland). oceonological and hydrobiological studies, 40, 13-21. [crossref] nozais, c., perissinotto, r. and tita, g. 2005. seasonal dynamics of meiofauna in a south african temporarily open/closed estuary (mdloti estuary, indian ocean). estuarine coastal and shelf, 62: 325-338. [crossref] powell, e. n., crenshaw, m. a. and rieger, r. m. 1979. adaptations to sulfide in the meiofauna of the sulfide system. i. 35 sulfide accumulation and the presence of a sulfide detoxification system. journal of experimental marine biology and ecology, 37:57-76. rao, g. c. and clausen, c. 1970. planodasys marginalis gen. et sp. nov. and planodasyidae fam. nov. (gastrotricha macrodasyoidea). sarsia, 42 (1): 73-82. [crossref] rao, r . k . and chandra mohan, p. 1977. new records of some gastrotricha from india with notes on their ecology. geobios, 4: 204-206. robbins, l. e. 1965. two new species of gastrotricha (aschelminthes) from illinois. transactions of the american microscopical society, 84: 260-263. https://doi.org/10.1002/iroh.19320260504 http://dx.doi.org/10.2478/s13545-011-0012-9 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecss.2004.09.020 https://doi.org/10.1080/00364827.1970.10411164 126 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum new records of gastrotricha robbins, l. e. 1973. gastrotricha from illinois. the transactions of the illinois state academy of science, 66: 124-126. sharma, b. k. 1980. taxonomic notes on some freshwater gastrotricha from west bengal, india. hydrobiologia, 70: 265 -267. [crossref] todaro, m. a., jeffrey, a. s., oscar, a. s., génesis, c. d., nathalie, g. o., juan, d. b. and mariana, c. d. 2019. an introduction to the study of gastrotricha, with a taxonomic key to families and genera of the group. diversity, 11(7): 117. [crossref] weiss, m. j. 2001. widespread hermaphroditism in freshwater gastrotrichs. invertebrate biology, 120, 308-341. [crossref] zakarija, j. l. 1980. gastrotricha of central wisconsin. m. s. thesis, loyola university, chicago, 85 pp. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf00016769 https://doi.org/10.3390/d11070117 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-7410.2001.tb00040.x 127 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum meshjel, m. h. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2022) 17 (1): 115-127. العراق، نوب بغدادج، تسجيل جديد للديدان شعرية البطن في املصب العام ميسون حسن مشجل .قسم علوم الحياة، كلية العلوم للبنات، جامعة بغداد، بغداد، العراق 20/06/2022، تأريخ النشر: 09/06/2022يخ القبول: ، تأر 25/12/2021تأريخ االستالم: الخالصة chaetonotidaeةثة نواا ن عريةة الطن الدراسة الحالية هي تصنيفة لثال (phylum gastrotricha) :عملت icthydium auritum brunson, 1950 و lepidodermella squamata (dujardin, 1841) وchaetonotus anomalus brunson, 1950 جمرت الرينات .الرياق وترد هذه االواا تسجيل جديد في وان الثاني ن نااقع نختلفة ن املصب الرام اليئيس ي جناب بغداد للفترة ن كا .2020إلى كاوان األول نن األواا املذكارة في الدراسة الحالية كان نيتطنا اةثطتت الدراسة الحالية كذلك الطيئات و ،ceratophyllumو hydrilla لالجناس بتااجد النطاتات املائية كما نظهيت الديدان تفضيلها للمياه التي ؛ ت واملااد الرضاةة املتحللةذات املخلفا ذات تهاةة جيدة. تميل إلى نن تكان نالحة عسية قلاةة و bull 113 hanaa h. al-saffar bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. december, (2018) 15 (2): 113-121 revision of the family chloropidae (diptera) in iraq hanaa h. al-saffar iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq corresponding author: hanaahani2014@gmail.com received date:27 march 2018 accepted date:30 april 2018 abstract the aim of this study is to survey and make to revision the genera and species of chloropidae fauna of iraq. the investigation showed four species belonging four genera, which belongs to two subfamilies, and one unidentified species belonging to the genus elachiptera maquart, the specimens were compared with stored insects at department of entomology and invertebrates, iraq natural history research center and museum. key words: brachycera, chloropidae, diptera, eye fly, grass fly, iraq. introduction the family chloropidae schoenher,1840 (frit flies, grass flies or eye flies) belongs to super family carnoidea. it has four subfamilies: chloropinae, oscinellinae, rhodesiellinae, and siphonellpsinae (brues et al.,1954). the members of chloropidae are worldwide distribution or cosmopolitan and are found in all zoogeographical regions except antarctica; they are about 3000 described species under 200 genera (sabrosky,1989; canzoneri, et al., 1995; nartshuk, 2012; bazyar et al., 2015). the grass flies are also found in marshes, vegetation areas, forests; the members of the family are phytophagous. some species as a gall maker of stems likes lipara lucens meigen, 1830 on phragmites australis (poaceae) are affected on the morphological tissue (van de vyvere and de bruyn, 1988); and many larvae feed and developed flower heads, shoots and seeds of poaceae and some feed on the stems of cereals, thus affected of economic production (alford,1999; karpa, 2001;petrova et al., 2013). on the other hand some species as saprophytic which feed on damaged plant tissue by other insects such as atherigona spp. (diptera, muscidae), larvae of lepidopterus stem borer and other arthropods (von tschirnhaus, 2002); and as predators of several insects like: aphids, eggs of grasshoppers and nuisance spiders, oothecae of mantids and eggs of hemiptera (dawah and abdullh, 2006). some species have medical and veterinary importance( nikapy et al.,2013) such as eye gnats attracted to human and other mammals where they hover about the face, body orifices and open wounds, such as liohippelates spp. and so that take part of a mechanical transition of several organisms which cause diseases to humans and livestock animals in north and south america (bram et al., 2002; hall and gerhardt, 2009). http://dx.doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2018.15.2.0113 114 revision of the family chloropidae the oriental eye fly siphunculina funicola meijere, 1905 is a nuisance to humans and domestic animals which feed on various secretions including eye secretions, mucus membrane, and other moist surfaces of their hosts and carry and transmit fatal pathogens like fungi, viruses and bacteria to humans and other hosts. the eye flies are found aggregating on many hanging substrates like strings, electrical lines and wires, ropes, nest trailing, decorators, cobwebs, clothes hangers, cotton threats which as their medical and forensic importance (sathe et al., 2014); also there are some chloropid flies as parasites of amphibians (frogs) crinia signifera by batrachomyia sp. (lemckert, 2000). the adult of chloropidae diagnosis by many features such as: small 1-5 mm rarely eight millimeters in length, variable in colors (black, blackish–grayish and bright yellow and black with vittae; head is somewhat angular; ocellar triangular large and conspicuous, shining, postvertical bristles converging, parallel or absent; vibrissae reduced or absent; antennae project and prominent with arista located at basal, dorsal and scarcely terminal, bare, plumose or pubescent. subcostal vein incomplete, costa broken at near the end of first radial vein (r1); second discal cell and basal cell are united, vein cu1a slightly sinuate and anal cell wanting. the previous are characters accepted by the authors: essig (1947), comstock (1948), mc alpine(1958), curran (1965), cole (1969), borror and white (1970), oldroyd (1970), unwin (1981), scudder and cannings (2006). materials and methods many specimens of grass flies were collected by sweeping net in various habitats from several regions of iraq during 2017. then the flies were killed by freezing for 24 hours; the specimens mounted with insect pins and kept in insect collection boxes till diagnosed. to identify the genera, by using several taxonomic keys such as: curran (1965), cherian (2002), an and yang (2005), nartshuk and fedoseeva (2011), deeming and al-dhafer (2012), khaghaninia and khameneh (2015) and khameneh et al. ( 2016). the specimens were compared with previously identified specimens which had been diagnosed and stored at department of entomology and invertebrates, iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad. results and discussion in this study the survey showed four species, four genera and one unidentified species that belong to the genus elachiptera macquart belonging to two subfamilies chloropinae and oscinellinae. the key to identify of subfamilies and genera was constructed, the global distribution of each species was shown in this investigation. key to subfamilies and genera of chloropidae in this study : 1costa ending between the apices of r4+5 and m1+2; vertical bristles weak or absent. ……….…subfamily: chloropinae ………………………………………………....... 2 costa extending to apex of m1+2; vertical bristles well developed, the inner weaker than the outer....... subfamily : oscinellinae ………………………………………………..3 2hind femora greatly thickened and tibiae strongly arcuate ……………………………………………………………………..…. meromyza meigen hind femora not thickened and hind tibiae almost or quite straight……………………………….…………………………...... thaumatomy zenker 115 hanaa h. al-saffar 3body shining black; mesonotum with normal shape and depression at the end; all femora black…………….………………………………………….…………... oscinella becker body dull black ,yellowish –brownish; mesonotum with dark vittae or spots, femora yellow – brownish ………………………..………..…………... elachiptera macquart family, chloropidae schoenher,1840 synonyms: chloropidae, rondani,1856 oscinidae fallen, 1820 mindidae, paramonov, 1957 echiniidae, paramanov, 1961 siphonellopsidae,nartshuk, 1987 1. subfamily: chloropinae rondani,1856 genus: meromyza meigen, 1830 type species: musca saltarix linnaeus,1761 diagnostic characters: body is elongated, yellowish and greenish in color; head is square shaped with tiny setae; ocellar triangle with black spots; the length of flagellum little longer of broad, mesonotum has black, brownish longitudinal or yellow vittae; veins r2+3 and r4+5 much bent forward. meromyza nigriventris maqurt,1835 materials examined: (5♀♀, 4♂♂) : baghdad, bab al –mudham, 1♀,1♂ from weeds at 3.xi.2017; basra, abual khaseeb, 3♀♀,♂ from alfalfa field at 21.iii.2017; karbalaalhussaynia, 1♀,2♂♂ from grass at 4.v.2017. description: the body is elongated, black –brownish color , mesonotum black with two parallel yellow vittae. global distribution: iraq (elhaidary et al., 1974); japan (kanmiya, 1978); palearctic region (nartshuk, 1984); arabian peninsula (deeming and al-dhafer, 2012); china ( an and yang, 2005); romani (pirvu, 2005); mediterranean islands (nartshuk, 2013); finland (nartshuk and kahanpää,2014); iran (rabeih et al., 2012; khameneh and khaghaninia, 2016); uzbekistan (khamraev and davenport, 2004); poland (bereś, 2015) and turkey (kubík and barták, 2017). genus : thaumatomyia zenker, 1833 synonyms: chloropisca loew ,1866 pseudochlorops malloch, 1914 type species: thaumatomyia prodigiosa zenker,1833 = chlorops notata meigen, 1830 diagnostic characters: body elongated and flattened in both sexes, scutellum flattened on disc, with distinct marginal rim , apical secutellar bristles closely approximated. thaumatomyia sulcifrons becker , 1907 materials examined: (4♀♀, 3♂♂): baghdad, al taji, 2♀♀ at 5.x.2017; al-najaf,2 ♂♂ at 10xi.2017; wasit, al aziziyah, 2♀♀, ♂ at 5.v.2016. description: small flies 4-5mm. yellowish brown in color; head semispherical, arista long, oceller triangle large with small dull spot; mesonotum with three rimbs, the middle one reaching the interior margin of thorax; scutellum brighting yellow. global distribution: in iraq (khalaf, 1963); arabian peninsula (deeming and al-dhafer, 2012); mediterranean islands (nartshuk, 2013) and iran (bazyar et al., 2015 ). 116 revision of the family chloropidae thaumatomyia sp. global distribution: iraq (el-haidary et al.,1974). 2-subfamily: oscinellinae becker, 1910 genus: oscinella beker,1909 type species: oscinella frit, linnaeus,1758 diagnostic characters: first basal cell scarcely wider at middle than end. oscinella frit (linnaeus,1758) synonyms: musca frit l. 1758 oscinella exigua collin,1964 oscinella granaria (curits,1846) chlorops aenea,roser, 1840 hydrellia rufitarsis, meigen,1838 materials examined: (6♀♀, 2♂♂): baghdad, jaddria 3♀♀ at 25.iii.2017; alttaji. 2♂♂,10.iv.2017; karbala, 3♀♀at 20.v.2017. description: small black fly , legs dull black, tibiae never entirely yellow. global distribution: in iraq (hussain,1963); europe, latvia (karpa, 200; petrova et al.,2013); arabian peninsula (deeming and al-dhafer, 2012); spain (nartshuk et al., 2013); turkey, iran, europe, u.s.s.r. (gentry, 1965); mediterranean islands (nartshuk, 2013); iran (bazyar et al., 2015). genus: sabroskyina beschovski, 1987 type species: lioscinella mimica collin, 1949. diagnostic characters: first basal cell of wing is very much broadened at mid –length. sabroskyina aharonii (duda,1933) synonyms: oscinella aharonii duda, 1933 (sabrosky 1963) global distribution: iraq (deeming and al-dhafer, 2012); arabian peninsula (deeming and al-dhafer, 2012); turkey (kubík and barták, 2017) . genus: elachiptera maquart,1835 synonyms: ceratobarys coquillett,1898 type species: chlorops brevipennis meigen diagnostic characters: third antennal segment haired; scutellum with dorsal surface flat, or trapezoid, the marginal setae arising from more or less distinct tubercles. elachiptera sp. global distribution: iraq (khalaf and al-omar,1974). literature cited alford, d. v. 1999. a text book of agricultural entomology. blakwell science, 314pp. an, sh. and yang, d. 2005. review of the genus meromyza from china (diptera: chloropidae). entomologica fennica, 16: 151-158. bazyar, z., dousti, a. f., von tschirnhaus, m. and fallahzadeh, m. 2015. a first overview of the fauna of chloropidae of iran (diptera, acalyptratae). turkish journal of zoology, 39: 1041-1049. 117 hanaa h. al-saffar bereś, k. 2015. the occurrence and harmfulness of oscinella frit l. 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(2): 124–129. pirvu, c. 2005. diptera from the green corridor of the danube (romania). travaux du muséum national d’histoire naturelle «grigore antipa», 68:147-176. rabieh, m. m., alikhani, m., arkani, t., taji, m. and nartshuk, e. p. 2012. checklist of grass flies (diptera: chloropidae) of markazi province, iran. an international journal of dipterological research, 23(2): 95–101. sabrosky, c. w. 1989. chloropidae. in: evenhuis n. l. (ed.), catalogue of the diptera of the australasian and oceanian regions. bishop museum (natural history), 1437 pp. sathe, t. v., kamble, c. and jadav, d. 2014. laboratory diet for adult eye fly siphunculinaue funicola (diptera: chloropidae), a forensic and medical pest. international journal of chemical, environmental and pharmaceutical research, 5(1) 19-22. scudder, g. g. e. and cannings, r. a. 2006. the diptera families of british colombia. the diptera families of british colombia, 158pp. 120 revision of the family chloropidae unwin, d. m. 1981. a key to the families of british diptera. field studies, 5: 513 – 553. van de vyvere, i. and de bruyn, l. 1988. morphological and histochemical analysis of galls of lipara lucens (diptera, chloropidae) on phragmites australis (poaceae). canadian journal of botany, 76: 1374–1384. von tschirnhaus, m. 2002. feeding habitat and so-called phytophagy of chloropidae (diptera), p. 245. in: fifth international congress of dipteriology, abstract volumes, university of brisbane, australia, xxv + 296pp. 121 hanaa h. al-saffar bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. december, (2018) 15 (2): 113-121 في العراق (chloropidae) ثنائية االجنحة مراجعة لعائلة هناء هاني الصفار بغداد، العراقجامعة بغداد، / مركز بحوث و متحف التاريخ الطبيعي 30/04/8002: تاريخ القبول 27/30/8002: تاريخ االستالم الخالصة هدفت الدراسة لعمل مراجعة أجناس وأنواع عائلة ذباب الحشائش في العراق واوضحت الدراسة وجود اربعة انواع تعود ألربعة اجناس ونوع اخر غير معروف يعود الى الجنس elachiptera maquarta، والتي تضمنت عويلتين من هذه العائلة. مركز / الالفقريات قورنت العينات مع النماذج الحشرية المحفوظة في قسم الحشرات و . صهاتشخيجامعة بغداد لغرض تأكيد /بحوث و متحف التاريخ الطبيعي العراقي 253 hadi et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2021) 16 (3): 253-266. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2021.16.3.0253 the falcons (falconiformes, falconidae) voucher collection in the iraq natural history research center and museum (inhm) afkar m. hadi* hind d. hadi suhad y. jassim and noor h. yousif iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq. *corresponding author: afkar_hadi_iraq@yahoo.com, afkar@nhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq received date: 07 nov. 2020, accepted date: 04 march 2021, published date: 20 jun 2021 abstract a total of 45 voucher specimens of falcons which are deposited in the bird's collection of the iraq natural history research center and museum (inhm) were reviewed. mummified falcons were preserved as voucher study specimens and tagged with museum collection labels. in the current study, morphometrics of six species of the genus falco linnaeus, 1758: lanner falcon f. biarmicus temminck, 1825; sacker falcon f. cherrug gray, 1834; lesser kestrel f. naumanni fleischer, 1818; peregrine falcon f. peregrines tunstall, 1771; eurasian hobby f. subbuteo linnaeus, 1758 and common kestrel f. tinnunculus linnaeus, 1758 were documented. these species were recorded previously in the ornithological literatures by several authors and deposited in the museum collection; nevertheless, breeding and migrating of these birds are still occurring throughout iraq. furthermore, the current distribution ranges and conservation status of each of the mentioned species throughout iraq were reviewed and comprehensively discussed. keywords: conservation status, falcons, falconiformes, iraq, voucher specimens. introduction the falcons order falconiformes sharpe, 1874 contains five subtaxa which four of them had extinct: (antarctoboenus, parvulivenator, stintonoris, masillaraptor); yet, one subtaxon falconidae (mayr, 2009) is still valid and contains three subfamilies: herpetotherinae, polyborinae and falconinae, (bock, 1994). worldwide, the genus falco linnaeus, 1758 contains 38 species (myers et al., 2009); in iraq, a total of ten species and subspecies including: saker falcon f. cherrug; lanner falcon f. biarmicus; peregrine falcon f. peregrinus; f. p. (brookei); barbary falcon f. p. (pelegrinoides); eurasian hobby f. subbuteo; merlin f. columbarius; red footed https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2021.16.3.0253 254 the falcons (falconiformes, falconidae) voucher collection falcon f. vespertinus; lesser kestrel f. naumanni; common kestrel f. tinnunculus are recorded (cumming,1918; donald, 1919; ticehurst et al., 1922; meinertzhagen, 1914, 1924 a, 1924 b; moor and boswell, 1956; allouse,1960; scott and carp, 1982; scott, 1993; evans, 1994; scott, 1995; abed, 2007; salim et al., 2009; porter et al., 2010; ararat et al., 2011; al-sheikhly, 2011; al-sheikhly, 2012a; lahoney et al., 2013; fazaa et al., 2017; al-sheikhly and al-azawi, 2019). the aim of the current study is a first attempt to (i) catalogue the falco voucher specimens deposited the bird collection of the iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad (inhm); and (ii) provide an additional overview of the recorded falcons in iraq by reviewing literature records and the recent published records. as a consequence, this study is believed to contribute in adding up further knowledge to the status of falcons in iraq which may support their national conservation strategies. materials and methods a total of 45 voucher specimens of falcons (genus falco) which were collected from different regions of iraq such as: falluja road, karkuk road, ukhadur and mosul rabiaa (northern iraq). furthermore; baghdad, mohmodiya road, baguba road, azizia road, tarmiya across the tigris, abugharib, and swara (central iraq); and finally, naseriya (southern iraq) which are deposited in the bird collection in inhm are reviewed. it should be mentioned that the names of the regions are based on the museum records. falcons were preserved (mummified) as voucher study specimens and tagged with the museum collection labels. the specimen labels included: accession number, common name, scientific name, and the location of collecting. the morphological measurements (t.l. = total body length, w. = body width, t. =tail, b. = beak, and t. s. =tarsus length) in millimeters (mm) were measured for one specimen as a representative elements to each studied species. the species identification remarks were based on allouse (1960). the voucher specimens were also photographed using mobile digital camera (samsung sm-n770f) to support species identification and documentation. all photos were photoghraphed by the first author. results and discussion a total of 45 voucher specimens (16 male/ 29 female) of six falco species belonging to one family (falconiformes, falconidae) were recorded in the bird collection of the inhm, as in table (1) and plate (1). 255 hadi et al. plate (1): shows the collection labels of the six falco voucher speciemens deposited in the iraq natural history research center and museum (inhm). table (1): shows the collection of the falconidae (order, falconiformes) voucher specimens deposited in the iraq natural history research center and museum (inhm). family genus species common name no. of specimens falconidae falco f. cherrug saker falcon 1 ♂ f. peregrinus peregrine falcon 1♀ f. naumanni lesser kestrel 2 (♂+♀ ) f. subbuteo eurasian hobby 1 ♀ f. biarmicus lanner falcon 1 ♂ f.tinnunculus common kestrel 39 (13♂+ 26♀) 256 the falcons (falconiformes, falconidae) voucher collection the notes about the falcon species are given as follows: (1) saker falcon falco cherrug (gray, 1834) morphology study: this species is larger than the peregrine and the lanner falcons; it is similar to the latter but differs by its honey-white head with brown stripes on the top and its brown upper parts. furthermore; the edges of the body feathers are light in color and the cheek spot is less visible. the lower parts and upper chest are white with extensive brown spots more than other species which suggests a juvenile bird. the female is similar to the male, but is larger in size (allouse, 1960). see plates (2a, 3a), the measurements are shown in table (2). species status in iraq: a former falconidae resident (allouse, 1960). however, the species breeding population was depleted due to extensive illegal hunting and trapping (falconry) and now it is considered a rare winter visitor and passage migrant (see alsheikhly and al-azawi 2019). one voucher specimen of falco c. cherrug was collected from baghdad – al kut road as show in the label of plate (1). porter et al. (2010) indicated that saker falcon is one of the rare species in iraq. while, bachmann and bridget (2011) mentioned that saker falcons are hunted in the five governorates in iraq: western steppes of al-jazera in anbar province; rabea’a and sinjar in mosul province; the open steppes of himreen in diyala province; ali-gearbi and al-teeb in missan province and the fao of basrah governorate. recently, al-sheikhly and al-azawi, (2019) recorded saker falcon falco c. milvipes in the southern wetlands of iraq. conservation status: it is listed as endangered by birdlife international (2020) and its occurrence was used as a vulnerability criteria to designate sites as important bird (ibas) and key biodiversity areas (kbas) in iraq (nature iraq, 2017). (2) peregrine falcon falco peregrinus (tanstall, 1771) morphology study: this species is characterized by the presence of a black spot in both cheeks that extends to the bottom of the eye and is surrounded by a white color from the bottom and both sides. upper parts are gray-bluish in color, and the head is black in color with a hazel brown sometimes. the throat and face are white with broad black eye drops, as mentioned above. moreover; the wings are long and pointed, and the tail is bluish-gray striped with close lines, and the feathers end with a white color. whereas the lower parts are honey brown with faint black spots which may suggest an adult male. both of the female and the male are alike, but females are much larger. finally, the iris and beak are brown in color, yellow in adult and gray in juvenile. see plates (2 b, 3 b), the measurements are shown in table (2). species status in iraq: the current study revealed to one voucher specimen of f. peregrines peregrine falcon was collected from naseriya province south of iraq as show in the label of plate (1). peregrine falcon is a regular winter visitor to the marshy lakes of mesopotamian marshes, was recorded by cumming (1918); donald (1919); ticehurst et al. (1922) and scott and carp (1982).while, bachmann and bridget (2011) revealed to peregrine falcons were hunted near water bodies such as: dukan lake near 257 hadi et al. rania in sulaimani province, al tharthar lake of both anbar and salah adin province and the marshes in the south of iraq such as the hawizeh marshes in missan and the fao peninsula of basrah. furthermore, peregrine falcons are a city dowling raptor; it has been recorded wintering over the city of baghdad (al-sheikhly, 2014). al-sheikhly and al-azawi, (2019) mentioned that a large adult female was trapped in hawizeh marsh in maysan province in 2017. conservation status: it is listed as least concern (lc) by iucn (2020) and birdlife international (2020). (2) lanner falcon falco biarmicus (temminck, 1825) morphology study: this species differs from the peregrine falcon in the narrowness of the black cheek spot rather than being round, and the head is predominantly honeycolored and the upper parts are brown with a blue tinge and the edge of the feathers are light in color and there is a black area around the eye that extends to the bottom. while the lower parts are white with scattered black spots, inside wing and tail striped. the female is similar to the male, but is larger in size; iris brown, beak gray, and foot yellow. see plates (2c, 3c), the measurements are shown in table (2). species status in iraq: the species seems to be one of the rarities in iraq where few records have been made. the current study revealed to one voucher specimen of falco biarmicus was collected from basrah province south of iraq as shown in the label of plate (1). that agrees with cumming (1918) who recorded this species of falcon in al fao peninsula. allouse (1960) revealed that the species is a rare falcon in iraq. while mohammad and alzubiadi, (2014) recorded it in ga'ara depression, the iraqi western desert. lanner falcon was recorded as a winter visitor and passage migrant to the marshland south of iraq by al-sheikhly and al-azawi (2019). conservation status: it is listed as least concern (lc) by iucn (2020) and birdlife international (2020). (4) lesser kestrel falco naumanni (fleischer, 1818) morphology study: this species is similar to the common kestrel, but it is smaller in size and the female is rather indistinguishable for the two species in the field. head of male with grayish-brown, the tail ends with a black stripe, and the back is maroon red, but it is devoid of black spots, and this is a sign that distinguishes lesser male from the male of common kestrel. chin and chest in male are white and lower parts are colored coffee. whereas, the female bird would be chestnut in color from the top, with a black striped head and the back and the lower parts are in coffee color; iris dark brown, beak gray, feet orange or yellow color, and claws with light brown to white; rump in adult females with greyer color than those of the juveniles. see the plates (2 d, 3 d), the measurements are shown in table (2). 258 the falcons (falconiformes, falconidae) voucher collection species status in iraq: the current study revealed to two voucher specimens of lesser kestrel (male and female) were collected from falluja desert middle of iraq. lesser kestrel was reported in the territory of southern wetlands by ticehurst et al. (1922). allouse, (1960) revealed that falco naumanni is a passage migrant in spring and autumn. furthermore, the breeding ecology of the species in northern and northwestern iraq was comprehensively studied by al-sheikhly (2012b). while, mohammad and al zubiadi (2014) recorded it in ga'ara depression, iraqi western desert. recently, alsheikhly and al-azawi (2019) recorded it in the mesopotamian marshes in the southern of iraq. conservation status: it is listed as least concern (lc) by iucn (2020) and birdlife international (2020). (5) eurasian hobbyfalco subbuteo (linnaeus, 1758) morphology study: this species is almost resembles the adult plumage of the peregrine falcon and is distinguished by its reddish brown color in vent, trousers, and under tail coverts; lower parts with longitudinally striped, upper parts, wings and tail with gray in color and head black, cheeks are white and there is a collar in the neck. while, the lower parts are white, striped with black, female larger than male, and the black streaks in the tail and thigh are denser than the male. iris with dark brown, the beak is gray, and the foot is yellow. see plates (2 d, 3 d), the measurements are shown in table (2). species status in iraq: the current study revealed to one voucher specimen of eurasian hobby which was collected from baghdad province central of iraq as shown in plate (1). eurasian hobby was considered a rare winter visitor and passage migrant to the marshy lakes, cultivated fields on the mesopotamian marshes (cumming 1918; ticehurst et al. 1922; fazaa et al., 2017; al-sheikhly and al-azawi, 2019). conservation status: it is listed as least concern (lc) by iucn (2020) and birdlife international (2020). (6) common kestrel falco tinnunculus (linnaeus, 1758) morphology study: the male has a blue-gray head, a maroon-red back with black spots, a bluish-gray tail with a black stripe and white feathered end; lower parts yellowish, streaked black in the chest area, with a yellow ring surrounding the eye. as for the female, it has a red color with black stripes, the tail is similar to the back in terms of color, and the lower parts are brown, streaked with black brown. while the juvenile plumage resembles those of the adult female, except that the upper body lines are wider and the wing and tail feathers end in a hazel brown color. iris brown; beak blue-gray with black tip, yellow foot. see the plates (2 f, 3 f), the measurements are shown in table (2). 259 hadi et al. species status in iraq: common kestrel is widespread resident breeding falcon in iraq (allouse, 1960). the current study revealed to 39 voucher specimens of this species were collected from different areas in iraq as: baghdad, tarmiya across tigris, abu gharib, falluja road, mohmodiya road, swara, karkuk road, baguba road, azizia road, ukhadur and mosul rabiaa. lahony et al. (2013) revealed to falco tinnunculus in the fauna of hawraman mountain, kurdistan province, north-east of iraq. also, mohammad (2014) revealed to common kestrel with the vertebrate diversity in aldalmaj marsh of al-diwaniya province, south of iraq. it has also been recorded in bahr al-najaf depression of al-najaf al-ashraf province (mohammad et al., 2013). then, al zubaidi et al. (2014) revealed to falco tinnunculus with the biodiversity of safeen mountainerbil, kurdistan, northern of iraq. while, mohammad and alzubiadi (2014) recorded it in ga'ara depression, iraqi western desert. more than, mohammad and alzubaidi (2017) recorded it near razzaza lake, central of iraq. moreover, alzubaidi et al. (2017) recorded the common kestrel in the animal diversity in huwaiza marsh, south of iraq. the species is also been recorded in the cave areas such as: shera swar and hamashowana cave in kurdistan, iraq by mohammad et al. (2017). recently, common kestrel was recorded in al-chebaeish, huwaiza, alhammar and central marshes within the geographical range of the mesopotamian marshes of southern iraq by al-sheikhly and al-azawi (2019). conservation status: it is listed as least concern (lc) by iucn (2020) and birdlife international (2020). plate (2): ventral view of falco species; (a) f. cherrug, (b) f. peregrinus, (c) f. biarmicus, (d) f. naumanni, (e) f. subbuteo, and (f) f. tinnunculus. 260 the falcons (falconiformes, falconidae) voucher collection plate (3): dorsal view of falco species; (a) f. cherrug, (b) f. peregrinus, (c) f. biarmicus, (d) f. naumanni, (e) f. subbuteo, (f) f. tinnunculus. table (2): measurements (in millimeters) of the falco voucher specimens deposited in the iraq natural history research center and museum (inhm) bird collection. t.l.=total body length, w. = width, t. =tail length, b. = beak length, t.s. = tarsus length. conclusion there are ten taxa (species and sub species) of the genus falco were recorded in iraq: saker falcon f. cherrug; lanner falcon f. biarmicus; peregrine falcon f. peregrinus; f. p. brookei; barbary falcon f. p. pelegrinoides; eurasian hobby f. subbuteo; merlin f. columbarius; red footed falcon f. vespertinus; lesser kestrel f. naumanni; common kestrel f. tinnunculus. among the species mentioned above, six of them were m ea su re m en ts f . ch er ru g ♂ f . p er eg ri n es ♀ f . su b b u te o ♀ f . n a u m a n n i ♀ f . b ia rm ic u s ♂ f . ti n n u n cu lu s ♀ t.l. 550 480 320 300 470 344 w. 405 320 263 240 310 248 t. 239 176 135 140 170 170 b. 25 23 13 15 21 16 t.s 60 56 35 33 53 42 261 hadi et al. recorded previously by several authors and deposited in the iraq natural history research center and museum (inhm) collection and reviewed in this study. nevertheless, the six species covered by this study are still breeding and migrating throughout iraq. it has been noticed that among the museum falco collection, valuable specimens of the saker and lanner falcons are preserved in the inhm collection. and the current occurrence of these species in iraq is not fully known. it has also observed that saker falcon is a rare winter visitor and passage migrant; it has listed as endangered by birdlife international (2020) and its occurrence was used as vulnerability criteria to designate sites as important bird (ibas) and key biodiversity (kbas) areas in iraq. similarly, based on literature records, lanner falcon seems to be a rare passage migrant, while other species reviewed by this study are listed as least concern (lc) by iucn (2020). literature cited abed, j. m. 2007. status of water birds in restored southern iraqi marshes. marsh bulletin, 2(1): 64-79. al-sheikhly, o. f. and al-azawi, a. j. 2019.the diurnal birds of prey (raptors) in the mesopotamian marshes of southern iraq with notes on their conservation status. bulletin of iraq natural history museum, 15 (4): 381-402. al-sheikhly, o. f. 2011. a survey report on the raptors trapping and trade in iraq. wildlife middle east, 6(1):1-45. al-sheikhly, o. f. 2012 a. report on the first record of red-footed falcon falco vespertinus in iraq. falco, 39: 10-11. al-sheikhly, o. f. 2012 b. some ecological observations on lesser kestrel falco naumanni in northern and northern west of iraq. a thesis of m. sc. degree of science in biology, university of baghdad. al-sheikhly, o. f. 2014. peregrine falcons wintering in baghdad, iraq. falco, 42: 6-7. allouse, b. 1960. birds of iraq.vol. 2; 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slimbridge, uk, 301 pp. scott, d. a. and carp, e. 1982. a midwinter survey of wetlands in mesopotamia, iraq: 1979. sandgrouse, 4: 6-76. 264 the falcons (falconiformes, falconidae) voucher collection ticehurst, c. b, buxton, p. a. and cheesman, r. e. 1922.the birds of mesopotamia. journal of the bombay natural history society, 28: 381-427. 265 hadi et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2021) 16 (3): 253266. المحفوظة في مركز بحوث ومتحف التاريخ الطبيعي الصقور ( falconidaeعائلة ،falconiformesرتبة ) العراقي نور حسين و ، سهاد ياسين جاسمفكار هادي مسلم، هند ضياء هاديأ يوسف ، ، بغداد مركز بحوث و متحف التأريخ الطبيعي، جامعة بغداد العراق 2021/ 60/ 20 ، تأريخ النشر:04/03/2021 تأريخ القبول: ، 2020/ 07/11 تأريخ االستالم: الخالصة محفوظة في متحف التاريخ الطبيعي العينة من الصقور 45 ت ُدرس طريق الناصرية، بغداد، مثل: العراق من مختلفة مناطق من العراقي ق الفلوجة، طريق المحمودية، الصويرة، طريق كركوك، أبوغريب، طري في ربيعة و وأالخيضر دجلة عبر الطارمية العزيزية، طريق بعقوبة، الموصل. بطريقة العينات جميع ن إ كانت و المحفوظة )التحنيط( التجفيف falco جنس من أنواع لستة قياسات ت الأخذ ،المتحفية أالرقام ب مزودة linnaeus, 1758 1825: شملت f. biarmicus temminck, ،1834 , f. cherrug gray، f. naumanni fleischer, 1818 ،f. peregrines tunstall, 1771 ،f. subbuteo linnaeus, 1758 1758 و f. tinnunculus linnaeus, الحالي والتوزيع ؛ الوضع ذلك، تمت مراجعة عالوة على الحالي لكل نوع في جميع انحاء العراق. االنواع الستة التي تم مراجعتها في هذه الدراسة تم تسجيلها مسبقا من قبل العديد من الباحثين وتم ايداعها مع ذلك التزال جميعها تحدث )تربية/ هجرة( و، في المجموعة المتحفية 266 the falcons (falconiformes, falconidae) voucher collection في جميع انحاء العراق. باالضافة الى ذلك تم مناقشة حالة حفظ االنواع . ونطاق التوزيع الحالي في العراق bull 155 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-shamary and younis bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2022) 17 (2): 155-167. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2022.17.2.0155 original article status of commercial fish catch in the iraqi marine waters, arabian gulf ahmed ch. al-shamary* and kadhim h. younis marine science center, university of basrah, basrah, iraq corresponding author e-mail:a_kaseb@yahoo.com* received date: 06 april 2021, accepted date: 15 aug.2022, published date: 20 december 2022 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract commercial fish catch in the iraqi marine waters from december 2018 to december 2019 was investigated. the study is based on three stations: the first station is located at the shatt al-arab estuary, the second represents the area between the shatt al-arab estuary and open marine waters, and the third is associated with the iraqi territorial marine waters. the total weight of the catch was 1881 kg, represented by 500, 654, and 727 kg in the first, second and third stations respectively. the third station was the highest with a majority of the family sciaenidae by 464 kg, while the lowest was the family scombridae by 0.5 kg. the total number of species included 37 species, belonging to 27 genera, 19 families, and 6 orders, the largest order represented by a high number of species was the perciformes and the lowest versatile orders were oreclotiformes, nemipterideaformes and scombridaeformes; while the order scorpaeniformes was found by only one species. keywords: arabian gulf, commercial catch, marine water, sciaenidae, scombridae. introduction many species' abundance and distribution are subjected to significant fluctuations in the marine ecosystem which consider one of the most important responsibilities (laevastu and larkins, 1981).the iraqi coastal waters occupy the northwest region of the arabian gulf, which comprises the estuary area of the gulf. iraq has a short coastal territory, with a coastline of 105 km², a continental shelf of 1034 km², and territorial waters of 716 km² (alshamary, 2021). the iraqi marine environments in iraqi waters are quite different from those in other parts of the arabian gulf; the confluence of the euphrates and tigris rivers forms the shatt alarab river, representing the major freshwater discharge into the northwest arabian gulf. shatt alarab river and its associated marshes are potential sources of nutrients and organics in the northwestern arabian gulf (al-yamani et al., 2007; al-mudaffar and mahdi, 2014). seas and oceans are important sources of protein food, with fish accounting for roughly 20% of global protein consumption (kuronuma and abe, 1986; al-mansy, 1999). in the arabian bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799-print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2022.17.2.0155 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2115-3255 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3741-0102 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 156 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum status of commercial fish catch gulf, more than 465 species of fish have been identified, all of which belong to the chondrichthyes and osteichthyes. (eagderi et al., 2019), previously studies on the composition of fish catch, particularly commercial ones, had been conducted by mohamed (1993) concerning the composition of fish in marine waters, where the percentage of commercial fish was found to be 28.3%. mohamed et al. (1995) collected 86 marine fish species belonging to 46 families. resen (2006) reported that commercial fish accounted for 48% of the total catch. younis and al-shamary (2015) estimated the commercial catch by 71.6%. on the other hand a total of 214 species in 75 families was identified by al-faisal and mutlak (2018). abood (2018) investigated the structure and the fish community's distribution in the shatt al-arab estuary, indicating that the commercial catch constituted 96.2%. ali et al. (2018) compiled a list of 322 species belonging to 94 families recorded in the iraqi marine waters from 1874 to 2018, mohamed and abood (2020) collected 35 species representing 18 families of the artisanal catch. while al-shamary et al. (2021) pointed out that the commercial catch in the iraqi marine waters formed approximately 33.74% of the total catch. the present paper aims to determine the spatial variation of the total catch and the commercial catch along the shatt al-arab estuary and the iraqi marine waters. materials and methods study area iraq's marine waters are located in the arabian gulf's far northwest corner. three study stations with a distance of 15-20 km between them were chosen; station one represents shatt al-arab estuary and is constrained by location. (29 ° 54'15.93 "n; 48 ° 41'15.62" e), (29 ° 54'15.84 "n; 48 ° 37'24.24" e), (29 ° 50' 44.04 "n; 48 ° 41'15.51" e), (29 ° 50'44.12 "n; 48 ° 37'24.38" e), and (29 ° 50'44.12 "n; 48 ° 37'24.38; this station has a 15-meter depth and an alluvial mud deposit on the bottom. station two, which is located at (29 ° 50'17.98 "n; 48 ° 43'53.28" e), (29 °; 48 ° 43'53.16 "e), includes the area between the impacts of the shatt alarab estuary and open marine waters. the bottom of this station is rocky, with dept. the station three coordinates (29 ° 43'33.41 "n; 48 ° 43'43.46 "e), (29 ° 43'33.38 "n; 48 ° 49'34.85 "e), (29 ° 40'04.13 "n; 48 ° 43'43.39 "e), and (29 ° 40'04.02 "n; 48 ° 49'34.96 "e) define the marine waters, it has a depth of over 20 m (map 1). fish collection and identification as a part of a general fish survey of the region, fishing-survey boats anwar 2 (16 m length, 4.5 m width, and 2 m draft) with a horsepower of 150 horses were used to collect fish from the three study stations; each boat is equipped with a 5x5 cm mesh trawl net and a 3x3 cm mesh bag. the net pull rope is 75-100 meters in length. the net was pulled for three hours. fish were caught monthly for a year from december 2018 to december 2019, and identified according to kuronuma and abe (1986), carpenter et al. (1997), and froese and pauly (2018). data analyses the abundance of fauna raw data, represented by a sum of triplicates for each species at each station, was used to calculate several diversity indices, the following indices were calculated: 157 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-shamary and younis a number of species {s}: the total number of species in each replicate specimen, which indicates the number of species in an ecosystem. relative abundances are not used in this index. number of individuals {n}: total number of individuals in each replicate specimen. each fish species' numerical relative abundance was calculated using the formula developed by odum (1970): (ni / n) * 100 = relative abundance (percentage) ni = the number of species found in each month's sample n = total number of individuals in the monthly sample. map (1): the sampling sites of the study area. results and discussion the collected from iraqi marine waters in the present study amounted to 2152 tons, including 564 kg in the first station, 700 kg in the second station, and 888 kg in the third station, while the total commercial catch was 1881tons, equivalent to 87.4% of the total catch, including 500 kg in the first station, 654 kg in the second station and 727 kg in the third station, diagram (1) shows the monthly changes in the total and commercial catch, which amounted to 90, 100, and 94 kg in december in the first station and march in the second and third stations respectively. the lowest total catch was (15) kg in february at the first station and 10 kg in january for the second and third stations respectively, while the highest commercial catch was 67 kg in december at the first station, 77 kg in march at the second station, and 71 kg in june at the third station and the lowest commercial catch (7, 8 and 4) kg in january in the three stations respectively. 158 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum status of commercial fish catch seasonal changes have an impact on fishing rates and fish stocks, and the scarcity of water entering the mouth of the shatt al-arab estuary has resulted in a change in the marine environment as a result of climatic changes, resulting in a lack of fish stocks for some species, according to eaqderi et al. (2019). while, the annual fishing quantities from 2014 to 2017 totaled (5553, 3391, 3992, and 3399) tons respectively. qasim's study in (2021) disagrees with the present study in that an annual catch of 2152 tons was recorded in 2019. diagram (1): total and commercial catches of the iraqi marine waters on a monthly basis. there are also 37 commercial species belonging to 27 genera, 19 families, and 6 orders, with the sciaenidae family having the most commercial species (6 species), followed by the sparidae and mugilidae families with four species, as shown in (tab.1). table (1): species, genera, families, and orders of commercial marine fishes of the present study. orders families genera species p ercifo rm es sciaenidae argyrosomus argyrosomus hololepidotus (lacepède, 1801) otolithes otolithes ruber (bloch & schneider, 1801) protonibae protonibea diacanthus (lacepède, 1802) johnius johnius belangerii (cuvier, 1830) johnius dussumieri (cuvier, 1830) johnius maculatus bloch & schneider, 1801 sparidae acanthopagrus acanthopagrus arabicus iwatsuki, 2013 acanthopagrus berda (forsskål, 1775) acanthopagrus bifasciatus(forsskål, 1775) p ercifo rm es crenidens crenidens crenidens (forsskål, 1775) stromateidae pampus pampus argenteus (euphrasen, 1788) carangidae scombreoides scomberoides commersonianus lacepède, 1801 serranidae epinephelus epinephelus tauvina (forsskål, 1775) epinephelus areolatus (forsskål, 1775) 0 20 40 60 80 100 jan feb mar apr may jun jul aug sep oct nov dec k g months s1 total catch s1 commercial s2 total catch s2 commercial s3 total catch s3 commercial 159 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-shamary and younis haemulidae pomadasys pomadasys kaakan (cuvier, 1830) diagramma diagramma pictum (thunberg, 1792) lethrinidae lethrinus lethrinus borbonicus valenciennes, 1830 scombridae scomberomorus scomberomorus guttatus (bloch & schneider,1801) nemipteridae nemipterus nemipterus japonicus (bloch, 1791) scombridae scomberomorus scomberomorus commerson (lacepède, 1800) a n g u llifo rm es clupeidae anodontostoma anodontostoma chacunda (hamilton, 1822) nematalosa nematalosa nasus (bloch, 1795) tenualosa tenualosa ilisha (hamilton, 1822) m u g ilifo rm es mugilidae planiliza planiliza klunzingeri (day, 1888) planiliza carinata (valenciennes, 1836) mugil mugil cephalus linnaeus, 1758 c lu p eifo rm es pristigasteridae ilisha ilisha melastoma (bloch & schneider, 1801) ilisha compressa randall, 1994 engraulidae thryssa thryssa whiteheadi wongratana, 1983 thryssa dussumieri (valenciennes, 1848) chirocentridae chirocentrus chirocentrus dorab (forsskål, 1775) p leu ro n ectifo rm es cynoglossidae cynoglossus cynoglossus arel (bloch & schneider, 1801) cynoglossus kopsii (bleeker, 1851) soleidae solea solea elongata day, 1877 solea stanalandi randall & mccarthy, 1989 bothidae arnoglossus arnoglossus aspilos (bleeker,1851) s co rp aen ifo rm es platycephalidae platycephalus platycephalus indicus (linnaeus, 1758) this result differs from that of al-shamary et al. (2020) who obtained 20 commercial species in the year 2018. the present study also shows that the sciaenidae family has a total weight of 464 kg divided into (186, 156, and 122) kg in the three stations respectively, and is the largest commercial family in terms of the number of species and the largest weights. diagram (2) shows the monthly changes of the family, the highest weight was 40 kg in november at the second station, and the lowest weight was 7 kg in october at the third station. out of the important commercial families, sciaenidae family accounted for 21.5 %, of the total catch the lowest catch of the same family was discovered in october at 7 kg, which is comparable with the study of mohamed (1993), when it was measured at 6.8 kg. however mohamed's study (1993) disagrees with the current study and found that the same family in 160 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum status of commercial fish catch november was it 4.2 kg. this family is constantly expanding, especially in the first station, shatt alarab estuary, due to the significance of the incubation, feeding, and reproduction environment for the youngest of many fish, including the young of this family. in contrast to al-shamary et al. study in (2020), the family's share of the overall catch was measured at 66 percent, which amounted to 11.5 percent, and the resaen study in (2006), which amounted to 10.39 percent. furthermore the current study points out that the peak fishing season runs from march to november, which coincides with most studies dealing with monthly fluctuations in the formation of species, and that the fish resources in the iraqi marine waters decrease during the cold months (mohamed,1993; mohamed and qasim, 2014). sciaenidae considers the most prevalent in the iraqi marine waters and is mainly found in it and can adapt on a large scale. this family is found to increase in the months of the year due to the abundance of crustaceans in the study area and coincides with the high temperature (lagler, 1977). as for the increase of this family in december, it reached 40 kg due to the availability of environmental conditions and the increase in water releases coming from the river in that period and the increase in the spawning status of some species of this family in the second station, which is near to the shatt al-arab estuary. diagram (2): monthly catch of the family sciaenidae. the formed clupeidae accounted for 10% of the total catch, and the weights of this family varied (56, 105, and 65) kg in the study stations respectively, the highest weight was reached in jun with 21 kg in the second station and decreased in the cold months, and most of the species spend and live in the coastal areas and enters estuaries for breeding, the percentage is slightly more than the record of mohamed (1993) as it was recorded 8.2% of the total catch. this percentage disagrees with the study by ali, (1993) formed 21% and the study of mohamed and abood (2020) which formed 11.2%. we note that the increase in the clupeidae 161 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-shamary and younis family resulted from the availability of environmental conditions for it and during the breeding season, and it is consistent with the study of qasim (2014) as shown in diagram (3). in 2017, this family constituted 15.89% of the total catch. during the progression of the years, we note that there are few stocks of this family, and the reason may be due to the exposure of the fish stock to random, unscientific exploitation and this is confirmed by qasim (2021). diagram (3): monthly catch of the family clupeidae. the family cynoglossidae was found responsible for 7.7% of the total catch, the highest weight at the first station was 25 kg in july, and the lowest weight at the third station was 1.4 kg in march. the weights of fishes of this family were (89.5, 44 and 33.5) kg in the three study stations respectively. these family species are found in sandy bottoms, and the percentage of this family does not match mohamed's results (1993) we found 0.4% of this family, and resen (2006) study who found a higher rate of 11.72 % of the total catch, indicating that the commercial catch has been declining in recent years. diagram (4) shows the changes in the weights of fishes belonging to the family cynoglossidae during the study period many factors, including a large number of fishing boats and overfishing of the young fish in the area, have contributed to the decline, and this was confirmed by qasim, (2021) during his study of iraqi marine waters, who found that fish stocks were rapidly depleting. 162 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum status of commercial fish catch 0 5 10 15 20 25 ha em ul id a sc ai ne da e cl up ed ae cy no gl os sid ae en gr an ul id ae pr isi te id ae m ug ili da e sp ar id ae so lid ae se rr an id ae ch iro ce nt n em ip te da e sc om br id ae st ro m at ei da e ca ra ng id ae pl at yc ep ha lid ae pa m ad as yd ae bo th id ae le th rin id ae families . diagram (4): monthly catch of the family cynoglossidae. diagram (5) explains that the proportions of fish families were very different as a result of the fishermen's irregular fishing efforts, as they hunted fish at all hours of the day and night, putting a lot of pressure on the fish product and affecting fish stocks (qasim, 2021). diagram (5): the percentage of commercial fish families caught. it has been noted in the study by ali et al. (1998) commercial fishing increased from may to august and during the years from 1991 to 1994 in those months. the reasons for the increase in fishing are related to the rise in temperatures and the adaptation of fish. it supplies a lot of nutrients to the region. this study disagrees with a present study we note an increase in fishing in the third station during june in marine waters. 163 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-shamary and younis given that there is a significant difference in fishing operations between decline and growth, table (2) compares commercial fishing in the early 1990s of the previous century with succeeding studies, and the present study when the rise and fall of fishing boats can be ascribed to the cause as a result of the varying fishing effort, and this increase may be attributed to the development of infrastructure the upgrading of navigation technology, and increasing the mechanized power of fishing boats (mohamed and abood, 2020). table (2): ratios and rates of commercial fishing for previous studies and the present study in iraqi marine waters. period commercial catch% study 1989-1990 27 ali (1993) 1989-1990 19.3 mohamed (1993) 1990 according to al-naser association 1991 1992 1993 1994 9.3 ali et al. (1998) 16.5 27.9 21.5 37.9 2004 6-17.25 rasen (2006) 2007 january 2007 to december 2011 2008 2009 2010 2011 33.7 mohamed and qasim (2014) 12 22.8 14.1 17.4 2017 january 2017 to december 20192018 2019 69.54 mohamed and abood (2020) 71.57 72.15 december 2018 to december 2019 85 present study this means that the lack of fishing effort in the present study, as compared to previous studies as shown in the diagram (6) due to the numbers of boats taken in previous years and included in figure 8 from the al-nasr association for fishermen in al-faw, has resulted in a decrease in catching commercial fish especially in the coming years, as confirmed by qasim (2021) during his study on marine waters, and the small number of fishing boats in the present study has resulted in a decrease in catching commercial fish. fishing boats, climatic changes, and fishermen's overfishing all contributed to a decrease in catching fish compared to previous years as al-shamary et al. (2021) discovered during their study of iraqi marine waters. 164 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum status of commercial fish catch 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 2020 200 250 300 350 400 n u m b e r o f b o a ts years diagram (6): number of fishing boats during 1998-2020. conclusions reducing overfishing relieves pressure on fishing effort, allowing fish to reproduce and increasing the number of commercial fish needed to sustain the economic fish stock, we can see from this study that commercial fish production has started to decline in comparison to the previous years. acknowledgments all thanks and appreciation to mr. ismail ahmed from the agriculture directorate branch al-fao for his contribution to the research. conflict of interest statement "the authors have no conflicts of interest to declare". literature cited abood, a. n. 2018. study of structure and distribution of fish assemblages in the shatt alarab river. ph. d. dissertation, college of the agriculture, university of basrah, 220 pp. (in arabic) ali, t. s. 1991. iraqi marine water fisheries, p. 99-105. in: proceedings of the specialized scientific seminar on the development of fish farming and the optimal exploitation of water bodies. baghdad, iraq. 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[click here] mohamed, a. m. and abood, a. n. 2020. current status of iraqi artisanal marine fisheries in northwest of the arabian gulf of iraq. archives of agriculture and environmental science, 5(4): 457-464. [crossref] odum, w. a. 1970. insidious alternation of the estuarine environment. transactions of the american fisheries society, 99: 836-847. qasim, a. m. h. 2014. assessment and management of stock tenualosa ilisha (hamiltonbuchanan, 1822) in the iraq marine waters. m. sc. thesis, college of agriculture, university of basrah, 88pp. (in arabic) qasim, a. m. h. 2021. the fishing effort of the fisheries sector in the iraqi marine waters. the scientific journal of king faisal university, 22 (1):24-26. (in arabic) [click here] resen, a. k. 2006. stock assessment of four commercial fish species and the effect of hydrocarbons in iraqi marine water. ph. d. dissertation, college of agriculture, university of basrah, 104 pp. (in arabic) younis, k. h. and al-shamary, a. ch. 2015. composition and abundance of fish assemblage in khor al-zubair lagoon, north west of arabian gulf. mesopotamia journal marine science, 30 (2):172-183. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/262142259 http://dx.doi.org/10.26832/24566632.2020.050404 https://faculty.uobasrah.edu.iq/uploads/publications/1631351756.pdf https://faculty.uobasrah.edu.iq/uploads/publications/1631351756.pdf 167 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-shamary and younis bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2022) 17 (1): 155-167. البحرية العراقية، الخليج العربي حالة الصيد السمكي التجاري في املياه كاظم حسن يونس و احمد جاسب الشمري ، البصرة، العراقجامعة البصرة، مركز علوم البحار 20/12/2022، تأريخ النشر: 15/08/2022، تأريخ القبول: 06/04/2022تأريخ االستالم: الخالصة ية العراقية للفترة كانون األول درست حالة األسماك التجارية املصطادة في املياه البحر مصب شط . اذ اختيرت ثالثة محطات كانت املحطة االولى2019كانون االول 2018 واملياه البحرية العرب واملحطة الثانية تشمل املنطقة الواقعة بين مصب شط العرب كغم 1881املصادة املفتوحة واملحطة الثالثة املياه البحرية، ظهر الوزن الكلي لألسماك كغم في 727الثانية ، و كغم في املحطة 654كغم في املحطة األولى، و 500، بواقع sciaenidaeفيها اسماك عائلة كانت املحطة الثالثة هي االعلى وحصلتاملحطة الثالثة. عائلة عليه حصلت وزن أقل كان كغم، بينما 464على أعلى وزن الذي بلغ scombridae 0.5 .كغم رتب، فيما كانت 6عائلة و 19جنس و 27نوعا" تنتمي الى 37بلغ العدد الكلي لألنواع والرتب االقل عددا" هي perciformes الرتبة التي ضمت العدد االكبر من االنواع هي oreclotiformes nemipterideaformes, scombridaeformes بينما تضمنت الرتبة ، scorpaeniformes احدا فقط.. نوعا و bull 559 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hamodee and shafeeq bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2023) 17(4): 559-569. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2023.17.4.0559 original article new taxa of digger wasps: tribe, oxybelini (crabronidae, hymenoptera) from iraq shatha abdullateef hamodee and maan abdul azeez shafeeq department of biology, college of science, al mustansiriyah university, baghdad, iraq. *corresponding author e-mail: e-mail: shathabio@yahoo.com recived date: 09 april 2023, accepted date 12 june 2023, published date:20 december 2023 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract new distinguishing genus, oxybelochardus gen. nov., belonging to the tribe oxybelini (hymenoptera: crabronidae), with the type species oxybelochardus iraqensis sp. nov. from iraq, have been described and illustrated. the diagnostic characters and differences from the close genera that were distributed and listed in the palearctic region are presented. keywords: crabronidae, digger wasp, iraq, oxybelini, oxybelochardus. introduction oxybelini tribe is easily distinguished by the two squamae projecting back from the metanotum and by a median spine borne by the base of the propodeum; the inner orbit of the eyes convex, not converging toward the clypeus; and the longitudinal free part of vein a1 is lost or present as a trace. these wasps nest in sand and provide their nests with flies (comstock and comstock, 1895). these wasps small and partly bee-like forms with fast motions and rapid flight, mostly seen as they light on sand and other dry ground, or as they fly around the tops of flowering bushes (bohart and menk, 1976). a tribe is a world-wide distribution simply recognizable by the combination of the following features: fore-wing with a single submarginal cell that is confused with discoidal cells, exception the genus of wojus antropov, 1999 has two submarginal cells; metanotum with lateral extending, semi translucent squamae; and the propodeum with projection which is called the propodeal mucro (lomholdt, 1984). according to pulawski (2023), there are fifteen genera belonging to this tribe, which include: belarnoldus antropov, 2007; belokohlus antropov, 2007; belomicrinus antropov, 2000; belomicroides kohl, 1899 ; belomicrus a. costa, 1867; brimocelus arnold, 1927; enchemicrum pate, 1929; gessus antropov, 2001; guichardus antropov, 2007; minimicroides antropov, 2000; nototis arnold, 1927; oxybelomorpha brauns, 1897; oxybelus latreille, 1797; pseudomicroides antropov, 2001 and wojus antropov, 1999 . bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799-print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2023.17.4.0559 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3345-5568 mailto:shathabio@yahoo.com https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 560 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum new taxa of digger wasps in iraq, the taxonomic articles are few and scattered about hymenoptera are and restricted about some guilds (augul, 2019; kareem et al., 2021; pham and dang, 2021); we describe in this paper a new genus of oxybelini be included in hymenoptera represented by ten specimens caught from different regions of iraq, and provid a type species for this taxon. materials and methods collection: the specimens examined during this study were collected throughout the survey and sough to determine whether the wasps belong to the crabronidae that distribution in iraq. adults were collected by sweep nets, and then mounted with insect pins. three specimens of them are deposited in iraq natural history research center and museum –university of baghdad under the museum number (hyc.1.023). morphology and identification: the identification keys of schmid-egger (2021) and antropov (2005a, b, c, d; 2006) are used to diagnose the wasps. the specimens were observed and figured with the aid of honor x8 mobile camera and a digital microscope camera on optika microscope, also camera lucida with zeiss microscope to illustrate the mandibles, fore coxa, and lateral view of the thorax carina. the morphological terms used for the descriptions of the new taxa were mostly taken from bohart and menke (1976). abbrevations: the abbreviations used in the current investigation are as follows: ad: admedian line ax: axillae paired areas on scutum associated with scutellum. ed: edegus ep: episternal sulcus gs: gonostyles inhrcm: iraq natural history research center and museum –university of baghdad mc: mucro spine like projection of propodeum. oc: occipital om: omaulus poc: preoccipital pc: precoxal sm: subomaulus sq.: metanotum squama a scale like structure st: sternaulus abbreviation of measurements: (fig. 1) x: distant between posterior ocelli y: distant between posterior and anterior ocellus z: distant between posterior ocelli and eye 561 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hamodee and shafeeq figure (1): shows the distances between ocelli and compound eyes. results and discussion oxybelochardus gen. nov. generic diagnosis: morphological characters of oxybelochardus gen. nov. and close related genera that are distributed in the palearctic region according to antropov (2006) and schmid-egger (2021) as shown in table (1), in addition to unique features such as axillae and serrated hind tibia. based on the previous studies, there are two genera belonging to oxybelini: oxybelus (roche and gadallah, 1999) and guichardus (antropov, 2007) recorded in iraq. oxybelus can be recognized by having carinae on lateral t1-t2 only (roche and gadallah, 1999); whereas the differences between guichardus and oxybelochardus are given in table (1). table (1): the different features between oxybelochardus and related closely genera. characters oxybelochardus sp. nov. oxybelomorpha brauns, 1897 belomicrus arnold, 1927 guichardus antropov, 2007 psammophore absent present absent absent mesopleuron with joint postspiracular carina, omaulus, sternaulus, and precoxal carinae all present all present all absent omaulus, precoxal present only mucro straight strongly curved downwards straight curved inwards apically metanotum squama separated and not close metanotum behind united to a semicircle platform separated and not close metanotum behind very widely spaced and expose metanotum behind 562 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum new taxa of digger wasps etymology: the genus name of the new taxon was given, because it combines the morphological characters of the three genera: oxybelomorpha, belomicrus and guichardus together. type species oxybelochardus iraqensis sp. nov. holotype: 1♂ 27.ix.2022 collected from one banks of great zab river, nearby the veen waterfall, duhok province (37°02'05.2"n 43°44'36.5"e) (pl. 1). allotype: ♀ unknown. paratype: 3 ♂♂ 27.ix.2022, collected from one banks of great zab river, nearby the veen waterfall, duhok province (37°02'05.2"n 43°44'36.5"e) (pl. 1); 2 ♂♂ in 25.ix.2022 specimens collected from bejeel waterfall, duhok prov. (36°43'40.3"n 44°00'58.6"e); 2 ♂♂ in 29.x.2023 specimens collected from tarmiyah, baghdad prov. (33.658038, 44.384402); 2 ♂♂ undiagnosed specimens previously and stored in inhmrcm collected from baghdad, al mushahidah district; current specimens are deposited in inhmrcm under the museum number (hyc.1.023). etymology: the species was named according to the specimens' distribution country "iraq". plate (1): bank of the great zab river, near the veen waterfall, duhok province. morphology general description: body length about 5.5-6.0 mm, mainly shiny black except the following parts: pronotal collar, pronatal lobe, scutellum, squama, and axillae (apical margin transparent), metasoma marking and spots on tergites with whitish yellow; three antennal segments apically, tegulae, mandibles, middle and hind tibia, pygidium, and tarsi brown; wings venation mainly dark brown, sculpture of body irregularly covered with semi-erect 563 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hamodee and shafeeq silver and gilded silver hair in different directions and lengths. metasoma has an irregular coloring pattern (pl. 6a). head (pl. 3a): rounded frontally; inner orbits semi parallel, facets at median part of eye 2–3 times as large as those in upper part; frons with longitudinal median depression (pl. 3a), but not reach to anterior ocellus; clothes by densely hairs triangle near antennal sockets; hairs on upper part silver with golden tint and semi erect in various direction, whereas recumbent toward below and silvery on lower part; vertex regularly convex, large, distance between posterior ocelli and posterior margin of vertex as long as length of scape, covered with moderately density, silvery, short and erect hairs; sculptures with irregular size punctures and separated by narrow inter space that appeared rogues surface; clypeus wider than long , divided by three longitudinal strongly carinae, particularly the median one composed of keel shaped, with margin tridentate apically, medial point with acute angle, covered by slightly recumbent hairs silver on upperpart then bronze on lower part; ocelli distinct, consist of an obtuse triangle with down apex, x twice distances y and z. mandible (fig 2.a) slightly arcuate and acuminate apically and with longitudinal carina on outer surface, inner margin with single and simple tooth medially; antennal scape excavated and emarginated entirely (pl. 3c), first two and four terminal flagellomere longer than wide, third segments wider than long (fig 2 b), color ranges from dark brown to ferruginous apically and covered with pubescence; temples widened obviously laterally with punctures and semierect gilded silver hair like top of vertex; with occipital carina distinct dorsally (pl. 3b), incomplete ventrally; not reaches the hyposotomal carina ventrally and distinct preoccipital carina do not complete too distinct laterally; parietal areas narrow with large punctures leave surface shiny and rugose also covered with gilded silver hairs in various density forward. thorax and appendages: pronatal collar margin concave apically, divided with fine narrow medial impression covered with sparse and whitish pubescence that increase toward pronatal lobe; pronotal lobe rounded posteriorly, clothed by tufts and whitish short hairs; mesoscutum convex (pl. 2), with scattered puncture larger than vertex puncture and covered with golden semi-erect short hair, admedian line (pl. 4) clearly marked, scutellum convex too with pair of axillae (pl. 4) translucent laterally derived from scutum and clear carina for long way admedian line and with same mesoscutum puncture in first part, second half rugose and with some long hairs; metanotum short transversely convex admedian lines clearly mark as well, squama metanotum (pl. 4) separated in the curved inwards with raised hairs along inner margins in varying length. propodeum rugose with short mucro (pl. 4), color ranges from black at the base to ferruginous, then transparent apically, concave on anterior portion, length of spine (in dorsal view) more than triple its width at apex, apex of spine like (w-shaped); mesopleuron convex (pl. 4) at sides, flatly at anterior part; rugose like second half of scutellum covered with gilded silver hairs at upper three-quarters and silver hairs on remaining part, episternal sulcus fine, omalus, submodules, postspiracular and sternaulus carina present; precoxal sulcus curved downwards reaching sternaulus (fig. 2 c). metapleuron narrow, with a rugose appearance covered with silver pubescence with a bronze tint at apex (fig.2 c). 564 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum new taxa of digger wasps fore wigs: characterized by truncate of marginal cell apically) (pl 5). legs (pl. 2): shiny, covered with white hairs vary in length and density, tarsi and trochanters not modified; fore coxa excavated (fig1 d), fore femur (pl. 2) longitudinally depressed along outer margin; hind femur (pl. 2) depressed as well; hind tibia (pl. 2) with several spines that well-spaced and composed of serrate shaped dorsally. metasoma: tergites (pl. 6a) with an irregular coloration pattern, having carinae laterally, sculpture mainly formed by large punctures with smooth intervals between punctures, except anterior first tergite with dense and smaller punctures covered with silver hairs increasing in length and decreasing in density toward posterior margin; rest of tergites covered with sparse silver and short hairs, increase in length and density toward apex, hairs on last tergites slightly longer than first; pygidial plate truncate apically, and has fine punctures and recumbent hairs (fig 2. e). sternites (pl. 6.b) shiny with mixed and irregular punctures, covered with sparse recumbent silver and short hairs that increase on s1 laterally. male genitalia (pl. 6c): volsella absent; penis valve apices consist of combined club-shaped; gonostyles simple with several short hairs apicolaterally on external sides. plate (2): male of oxybelochardus iraqensis sp. nov.; lateral view; (1) temple; (2) pronatal collar; (3) scutum; (4) hind tibia; (5) hind femur; (6) fore femur. . 565 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hamodee and shafeeq plate (3): head of oxybelochardus iraqensis sp. nov. (♂); (a) front view (yellow arrow: longitudinal median depression); (b) head ventral view and (c) antennal scape. plate (4): thorax of oxybelochardus iraqensis sp. nov. (♂); (dorsal view); (1) ad; (2) ax; (3) sq; (4) mc; (5) mesopleuron. 566 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum new taxa of digger wasps plate (5): forewing of oxybelochardus iraqensis sp. nov. (♂); red arrow: marginal cell. plate (6): metasoma of oxybelochardus iraqensis sp. nov. (♂); (a) dorsal view, (b) ventral view, (c) genitalia ventrally. [red arrow: (1) gs; (2) ed]. figure (2): oxybelochardus iraqensis sp. nov. (♂); (a) mandible, (b) antennal segments, (c) thorax (side view; red arrow: represented important diagnostic characters), (d) fore coxa (red arrow: excavation), (e) pygidia plate. 567 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hamodee and shafeeq conclusions according to our observations, there is a high similarity among the genera belonging to oxybelini that causes confusion in the diagnosis of the study specimens; so we recommend to conduct more investigations about those wasps in other regions of iraq; especially the ecological studies, to get acquainted with their habitat to know the behavior of them, for the purpose of catching females, and studying them taxonomically. this conclusion in agreement with bohart and menke (1976). acknowledgements we thank prof. dr. razzaq shalan augul, prof. dr. hana hani al-saffar, and ms. ibtisam jassim redha for providing the technical facilities to complete this study in the laboratory of the entomology and invertebrates dep., iraq natural history research center & museum university of baghdad. conflict of interest statement the results of the present study are part of the requirements of the m.sc. in zoology, department of biology, college of science, al mustansiriyah university for the first author. as well, we are the authors of this manuscript, declare and confirm that we have no significant financial or other relationship with any official institution. literature cited antropov, a. v. 1999. a new genus of digger wasps of the tribe oxybelini (hymenoptera, sphecidae), crabroninae) from south africa. entomological review, 78(9): 10551059. [click here] antropov, a. v.2001. a new genus of digger wasps of the tribe oxybelini (hymenoptera, crabronidae) from the cape province of south africa. entomological review, 81(5): 559-564. [click here] antropov, a. v. 2005a. revision of digger wasps of the genus oxybelomorpha (hymenoptera, crabronidae, oxybelini). 2. species groups funesta and gessi. entomological review, 85(5): 504-516. [click here] antropov, a. v. 2005b. revision of digger wasps of the genus oxybelomorpha (hymenoptera, crabronidae, oxybelini). 3. species group braunsii. entomological review, 85(7): 517-537. [click here] antropov, a. v. 2005 c. revision of digger wasps of the genus oxybelomorpha (hymenoptera, crabronidae, oxybelini). 4. species groups "rhodesiana" and "rubicunda". entomological review, 85(7): 772-785. [click here] antropov, a. v. 2005d. revision of digger wasps of the genus oxybelomorpha (hymenoptera, crabronidae, oxybelini). 5. species groups moricei and patei. entomological review, 85(8): 959-971. [click here] http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/entomology/entomology_resources/hymenoptera/sphecidae/copies/antropov_1999b_eng.pdf https://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/entomology/entomology_resources/hymenoptera/sphecidae/copies/antropov_2001-f_gessus-eng.pdf http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/entomology/entomology_resources/hymenoptera/sphecidae/copies/antropov-2005-a_oxybelomorpha-1.pdf http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/entomology/entomology_resources/hymenoptera/sphecidae/copies/antropov.2005-b_oxybelomorpha-2-eng.pdf http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/entomology/entomology_resources/hymenoptera/sphecidae/copies/antropov-2005-b_oxybelomorpha-2-eng.pdf http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/entomology/entomology_resources/hymenoptera/sphecidae/copies/antropov_2005-e_oxybelomorpha-5-eng.pdf 568 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum new taxa of digger wasps antropov, a. v. 2006. revision of digger wasps of the genus oxybelomorpha (hymenoptera, crabronidae, oxybelini). 6. species groups persa and steckii. entomological review, 86(1): 85-100. [click here] antropov, a. v. 2007a. guichardus is a new palearctic genus of digger wasps of the tribe oxybelini (hymenoptera, crabronidae). entomological review, 86(2): 106-115. [click here] antropov, a. v .2007b .on the taxonomy of south african digger wasps of the tribe oxybelini (hymenoptera, crabronidae). entomological review, 86(5): 413-430. [click here] augul, r. s. 2019. revision of the family sphecidae (hymenoptera, apoidea) in iraq. bulletin of the iraq natural history museum,15(4): 491-504. [crossref] bohart, r. m., and menke, a. s.1976. sphecid wasps of the world. a generic revision. university of california press, berkeley, los angeles, london. 1 color plate, ix + 695 pp. [click here] comstock, j. h. and comstock, a. b. 1895. a manual for the study of insects. comstock publishing company, ithaca, n. y. 701 pp. [click here] kareem, a., lotfalizadeh h. and alsend, a. 2022. original articlefirst record of two parasitoid wasps of the family chalcididae (hymenoptera) in iraq. bulletin of the iraq natural history museum, 17(2): 187-195. [crossref] lomholdt, o.1984. the sphecidae (hymenoptera) of fennoscandia and denmark in fauna entomologica scandinavica. 4. second edition. e.j. brill/scandinavian science press, leiden. copenhagen, 452 pp. pham, p. h. and dang, h. t. 2021. new record of the genus larra fabricius, 1793 (hymenoptera, crabronidae) from vietnam. bulletin of the iraq natural history museum, 16 (4): 535-545. [crossref] pulawski, w. j. 2023. catalog of sphecidae sensu lato: family group names and classification. [click here] roche, c. g., and gadallah n. s.1999. the sphecid wasps of egypt (hymenoptera: sphecidae): introduction and generic key. egyptian journal of biology, 1: 104-117. [click here] schmid-egger, ch. 2021. four new species of belomicrus a. costa, 1867 (hymenoptera, crabronidae) from morocco and southern spain. linzer biologische beiträge, 52(2): 1257-1266. [click here] http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/entomology/entomology_resources/hymenoptera/sphecidae/copies/antropov_2006_oxybelomorpha_6_eng.pdf http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/entomology/entomology_resources/hymenoptera/sphecidae/copies/antropov_2007a_guichardus_eng.pdf http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/entomology/entomology_resources/hymenoptera/sphecidae/copies/antropov_2007a_guichardus_eng.pdf http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/entomology/entomology_resources/hymenoptera/sphecidae/copies/antropov_2007b_nototis_et_al_eng.pdf https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2019.15.4.0491 http://books.google.ru/books?id=fexmjurhjpic&pg=pa612&lpg=pa612&dq=beitr%c3%a4ge+zur+biologie+der+hymenoptera.+i.&source=bl&ots=bdme_eotkg&sig=eu5iuesiwwvxelc9lynp3thfss&hl=ru&ei=wbyitzj3i4voobx15tq&sa=x&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0cbkq6aewatgk#v=thumbnail http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/24888987 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2022.17.2.0187 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2021.16.4.0535 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/entomology/entomology_resources/hymenoptera/sphecidae/family_group_names_and_classification.pdf http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/~plzfg/ebbsoc/ejb1/roche_and_gadallah_1999.pdf http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/entomology/entomology_resources/hymenoptera/sphecidae/copies/schmid-egger_2021_belomicrus_morocco_spain.pdf 569 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hamodee and shafeeq bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2023) 17(4): 559-569. oxybelini اصنوفات جديدة من الزنابير الحفارة قبيلة (hymenoptera, crabronidae) من العراق و معن عبد العزيز شفيق شذى عبد اللطيف حمودي قسم علوم الحياة/ كلية العلوم/ الجامعة املستنصرية, بغداد, العراق 20/12/2023، تأريخ النشر: 12/6/2023، تأريخ القبول: 9/4/2023تأريخ االستالم: الخالصة من oxybelini يعود إلى قبيلة .oxybelochardus gen. novجنس مميز جديد للعلم , و النوع الجديد hymenopteraرتبة غشائية االجنحة crabronidae عائلة زنابير وصفت و صورت من العراق. .oxybelochardus iraqensis sp. nov النمطي له عرض الصفات التشخيصية واالختالفات مع األجناس القريبة منه املنتشرة و تم املسجلة للمنطقة القطبية القديمة. bull 429 soliman et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2021) 16 (4): 429467. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2021.16.4.0429 numerical taxonomy of genus ficus l. 1753 (moraceae), with addition new record species to egypt ashraf t. soliman*♦ rim s. hamdy* and riham a. mahdy** *department of botany & microbiology, faculty of science, cairo university, giza 12613, egypt. **ornamental plant and landscape gardening research department, horticulture research institute, agricultural research center, giza, egypt. ♦corresponding author: ashsoliman@sci.cu.edu.eg received date: 06 june 2021, accepted date: 09 september 2021, published date: 20 december 2021 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract the taxonomy of ficus l., 1753 species is confusing because of the intense morphological variability and the ambiguity of the taxa. this study handled 36 macro-morphological characteristics to clarify the taxonomic identity of the taxa. the study revealed that ficus is represented in the egyptian gardens with forty-one taxa; 33 species, 4 subspecies and 4 varieties, and classified into five subgenera: ficus corner, 1960; terega raf., 1838; sycomorus raf., 1838; synoecia (miq.) miq., 1867, and spherosuke raf.,1838; out of them seven were misidentified. amongst, four new ficus taxa were recently introduced to egypt namely: f. lingua subsp. lingua warb. ex de wild. & t. durand, 1901; f. pumila l., 1753; f. rumphii blume, 1825, and f. sur forssk., 1775. the application of the multivariate analyses in plant systematics namely the two-way clustering analysis and the principal component analysis revealed that the qualitative characters as the presence or absence of lateral peduncular or ostiolar bracts and the leaf margin delimit the differentiation of subgenera within genus ficus. whereas the qualitative characters of the leaf as leaf arrangement, lamina shape, length, ratio of length to width, base, apex, number of lateral veins, stipules and figs either pedunculate or sessile, shape, and width are significantly separating the species within the different sections. seven different identification keys of the studied taxa based on the examined characters are provided. in addition, a diagrammatic key for all the studied taxa is given. keywords: cluster analysis, ficus, identification, new record, principal component analysis. introduction ficus l., 1753 (moraceae), is ranked as one of the largest twentieth genera of angiosperms (frodin, 2004); it is comprised of over 1000 species of trees, shrubs, climbers, stranglers, or woody epiphytes distributed throughout tropical and subtropical regions of the world (weiblen, 2000), half of them are recorded in asia and australia. on the contrary, africa and the neotropics are hosting 110 and 130 species; it respectively shows the most diversified taxa concerning growth habits (harrison, 2005). this genus is characterized by the milky juice and the presence of minute unisexual flowers inserted internally on the wall of an urceolate receptacle emerging externally through an apical pore (orifice) usually protected by scale-like bracts (hutchinson and dalziel, 1958; sharma, 1993). the fig (syconium) is sessile or pedunculate, 2-3 involucre bracts its base; lateral bracts sometimes present on the side of fig, scale-like, caducous, or persistent. economically, ficus species are very important since their edible fruits are eaten by 1200 species of vertebrates (shanahan et al., 2001). several ficus species are reported to have medicinal properties as an antimalarial, antitrypanosoma (caliskan et al., 2017), antidiabetic and antioxidant (arunachalam and parimelazhagan, 2014). in egypt, ficus presents in the wild flora by four species, namely f. cordata thunb. subsp salicifolia (vahl) c.c. berg, 1988; f. palmata forssk., 1775; f. carica l., 1753 and f. sycomorus l., 1753 (boulos, 2009). the two latter species are recorded in ancient egypt (zohary et al., 2012). on the other hand, many species of the genus ficus are introduced and cultivated in many of the historic gardens and avenues since the 19th century. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2021.16.4.0429 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 430 numerical taxonomy of genus ficus the genus of ficus is subjected to earlier systematic studies, such as systematics of subgenus urostigma sect. malvanthera (dixon 1999), in addition, he conducted a systematic revision of ficus species (subgenus urostigma, section malventhera) in australia (dixon, 2003). mubo et al. (2004) made a morphometric analysis of this genus; furthermore, van noort et al. (2007) recorded two species of ficus in mozambique, while ogunkunle and oladele (2008) studied the leaf epidermis of the 20 nigerian ficus species; however; chaudhary et al. (2012) provided a synopsis of the 115 taxa of genus ficus in india, while, fatihah et al. (2012) studied the correlation between the morphology and the genetic analysis of seven varieties of ficus deltoidea from malaysia, whereas, jangam et al. (2017) studied the leaf morphometrics in some ficus species in kolhapur district in india; also sudhakar and murthy (2017) studied the taxonomy and distribution of ficus talbotii in india. on the other hand, machado et al. (2018) studied the relationship between biology, geographical history, and divergence times in neotropical ficus. few taxonomic studies were performed in egypt, among them: leaf architecture of 24 species from the three subgenera ficus, sycomorus, and urostigma (loutfy et al., 2005); moreover, the sequence tag (est) markers and morphological traits for some ornamental ficus were expressed species (esmaiel et al., 2014). furthermore; the pollen morphology of 17 ficus species were investigated (teleb and salah-el-din, 2014). the application of multivariate analyses in plant systematics was currently used in the classification of many taxa and presenting results in the systematic studies ( sneath and sokal, 1973; chiapella, 2000; gomez-campo et al., 2001; lópez-palacios et al., 2019; hssaini et al., 2020; kamran et al., 2020; muhammad et al., 2021). numerical taxonomic studies were significant for documenting the morphological characters, and several attempts have been made in this regard to the comprehension of phenetic connections in various classes of plants (mubo et al., 2004; pinheiro and de barros, 2007; mulumba and kakudidi, 2010; deshmukh, 2011; rahman and rahman, 2012). taxonomy of genus ficus is still confusing because of the intense morphological variability and the ambiguity of the taxa (mubo et al., 2004). in egypt, few studies (e.g. loutfy et al., 2005) deal with the taxonomic or statistical analysis of the genus ficus. therefore, the present study aims to identify, and trace the close relationships among the taxa belonging to this genus, and construct a manual systematic key to facilitate the identification and the differentiation among the various studied taxa. materials and methods plant material the morphological data were based on fresh representative samples of the studied taxa collected between january 2019december 2020 by the authors from the historic, public or private gardens, generic places and avenues in egypt (map 1); the coordinates of the localities where fresh specimens were collected are given in appendix (1). in addition to the examinations of over 300 herbarium specimens deposited in cairo university herbarium (cai), the agricultural research centre, flora and phytotaxonomy herbarium (caim), orman garden herbarium, and mazhar botanic garden herbarium (mazhar). digital photographs of the authentic specimens from different online herbaria were also examined. voucher specimens of the studied taxa are given in appendix (2) and deposited in cairo university herbarium (cai). identification and updated nomenclature were revised and confirmed using the available literature among them; täckholm (1974), bailey and bailey (1976), corner (1977), ghafoor (1985), berg and hijman (1989), berg (1991), boulos (2009), and pederneiras et al. (2015). the online sites such as: the plant list (2013), ipni (2021), van noort and rasplus (2021), and missouri botanical garden (2021) were also consulted. 431 soliman et al. morphological characters abbreviations of the morphological characters and character states scored for habit, vegetative parts, and fruit characters of the studied taxa, used in the statistical analyses, are outlined in table (1). for each population, 30 specimens have been taken to study the different morphological traits of each taxon. in total, 36 characters were observed, comprising 12 quantitative and 24 qualitative characters, the kew plant glossary (beentje, 2016) was used for the trait terminology. thirteen of these characters are scored as bistate and the remaining were scored as multistate characters such as; leaf arrangement is alternate, spiral or opposite is a multi (tri) state character. the collected specimens were investigated and measured using a stereomicroscope (wild heerbrugg, m1b) at cairo university herbarium. map (1): represents the locations of the 13 localities (public, private gardens and generic places) where fresh specimens where collected, for the coordinates (see appendix 1). (https//earth.google.com). 432 numerical taxonomy of genus ficus table (1): the characters, character states, and abbreviations used in morphometric analysis of ficus taxa, arranged alphabetically. characters and character states abbrev. characters and character states abbrev. basal bracts length (mm) leaf blade shape <4 bbrl:<4 oblanceolate to obovate lsh:obla 4-9 bbrl:4-9 cordiform (broadly ovate) lsh: cor >9 bbrl:˃9 obtriangular to sub-obovate lsh:obt basal bracts number elliptic (ovate-elliptic) lsh: ell 2 bbrn:2 ovate to ovate-elliptic, lsh: ova 3 bbrn:3 ovate-lanceolate fig drywall surface oblong, oblong-lanceolate, lsh:oblo glabrous fdsu:gl elliptic-oblong, ovate-oblong sparsely hairy fdsu: ha leaf lamina length (cm) pubescent fdsu:pu < 6 ll:< 6 fig fresh wall surface 6-12 ll:6-12 glabrous ffrsu:gl 12.1-20 ll:12.1-20 sparsely hairy ffrsu: ha >20 ll:>20 pubescent ffrsu:pu leaf lamina length/width fig inter floral bracts l < 1 x w ll/w:<1 absent finfbr: a l = 1.5-3 x w ll/w:1-3 present finfbr:b l > 3 x w ll/w:>3 fig length (cm) leaf lower surface <1 fl:<1 glabrous llo:gl 1-2 fl:1-2 sparsely hairy llo: ha 2.1-3 fl:2.1-3 pubescent llo:pu 3-5 fl:>3 leaf margin fig length/width entire to undulate lma: ent l= 1 x w fl/w:1 dentate/serrate lma: dent l= 1.5-2 x w fl/w:2 leaf symmetry fig peduncular bracts symmetrical lsy:sym absent fpdbr:a asymmetrical lsy:asym present fpdbr:p leaf texture fig peduncle length (mm) chartaceous lte:cha 0 fpl:0 coriaceous lte:cor 1-3 fpl:1-3 leaf upper surface 4-10 fpl:4-10 glabrous lup:gl >10 fpl:˃10 sparsely hairy lup:ha fig peduncle pubescent lup:pu sessile fp: sess leaf width (cm) subsessile (1-3 mm) fp: subs < 5 lw:<5 pedunculate fp: ped 5-10 lw:5-10 fig shape 11-18 lw:10.1-20 globose fsh:glo 20-27 lw:>20 obovoid to ± pyriform fsh:obo number of lateral vein pairs oblong fsh:obl 4-8 lv:4-8 fig width (cm) 9-14 lv:9-14 < 1 fw:< 1 15-20 lv:15-20 1-2 fw:1-2 21-30 lv:21-30 2.1-3 fw:2.1-3 ostiole bracts number >3 fw:>3 2-3 obrn:2-3 fig wrinkled (when dry) several obrn:se wrinkled fd:wr numerous obrn:nu not wrinkled fd:nwr ostiole shape 433 soliman et al. habit circular osh:cir climber hab:clim bi-labiate osh:bi tree hab: tree petiole length (cm) lateral bract labr:p up to 2 (-3) pel:<3 present labr:a 3-10 pel:3-10 absent >10 pel:>10 leaf apex petiole surface caudate lap: caud glabrous pesu:gl acuminate-obtusely acuminate lap: acum sparsely hairy pesu: ha acute to obtuse or round lap: acut pubescent pesu:pu truncate to emarginate lap: trun monoecy-dioecy leaf arrangement monoecious mo alternate ar:alt (gyno) dioecious di spiral ar:spi (gyno) monoecious to dioecious mo-di opposite ar:opp relation of midrib to the apex leaf base midrib reach the apex mr: re auriculate lba:auri midrib does not reach the apex mr: nre cordate lba:cord stipule connate or free truncate to sub-cordate lba:trun connate s: con acute, obtuse to round, cuneate lba:acut free s: free leaf-blade composition stipule length (cm) simple lbl: sim <1 sle:<1 lobed lbl: lob 1-3 sle: 1-3 3.1-5 sle: 3.1-5 >5 sle: >5 data analysis the multivariate analysis of ecological data, pc-ord for window, version 5.0, the two-way cluster analysis was applied. cluster analysis aims to arrange a collection of objects (taxa) in such a way that items (taxa) in the same category (called a cluster) are, in some sense, more similar to one another than objects in other groups (clusters). more specifically, it tries to identify homogenous groups of cases if the grouping is not previously known. two-way cluster analysis recognizes groupings by applying pre-clustering followed by hierarchical techniques. since it utilizes a quick cluster algorithm upfront, it may handle large data sets that could take a long period to compute with hierarchical grouping methods. two-way clustering can deal the same model in scale and ordinal data, and it automatically selects the number of clusters. the matrices of the 5 subgenera, 11 sections and 33 species, 4 subspecies, and 4 varieties of ficus species are subjected to the euclidean distance measure with ward’s method. the qualitative morphological characters are transformed into binary characters (0, 1) to allow the use of cluster analysis techniques. then, the same data are subjected to the principal component analysis (pca) for confirmation. this is followed by the generalization of artificial keys depending on the morphological characters investigated. an overall diagrammatic key is provided for all the studied species. results the clustering of the five subgenera seven morphological characters, namely the plant habit, the sexuality (monoecy and/or dioecy), leaf margin, ostiole bracts number, internal floral bracts, peduncular bracts, and lateral bracts are used to differentiate between the investigated ficus taxa into five subgenera. the abbreviations of these characters are presented in table (1) and at the top of the columns in diagram (1).the results of the studied taxa revealed that these taxa were belonging to five subgenera namely: ficus corner, 1960; terega raf., 1838; sycomorus raf., 1838, synoecia (miq.) miq., 1867, and spherosuke raf., 1838. at the first level of differentiation (diag. 1), the five subgenera are divided into two branches at distance level 14.800, the first branch includes three subgenera (ficus, sycomorus, and terega) characterized by dentate leaf margins and several or numerous ostiole bracts, while the other branch 434 numerical taxonomy of genus ficus includes 2 subgenera (spherosuke and synoecia) which are characterized by entire leaf margins and 2-3 ostiole bracts, these characters are surrounded by pink-colored borders (diag.1). the former branch is subdivided into terega in one sub-branch, characterized by the presence of lateral and fig peduncular bracts while these are absent in ficus and sycomorus in the other branch, these characters are surrounded by yellow borders (diag.1). spherosuke is easily differentiated from synoecia, that the former is a monoecious tree with fig inter floral bracts are present while synoecia is a climber, (gyno) dioecious and its fig inter floral bracts are absent. furthermore, subgenus ficus is differentiated by being (gyno) dioecious, several ostiole bracts compared to subgenus sycomorus that is monoecious (gyno) dioecious and numerous ostiole bracts (surrounded by green borders). diagram (1): the two-way clustering analysis using the euclidean distance measure with ward’s method of the 5 subgenera of ficus in egypt, (for abbreviations, see table 1). the changes in borders’ colors (pink, yellow, brown and green) indicate the levels of differentiation respectively. 435 soliman et al. diagram (2) shows the principal component analysis of the morphological matrix of the five subgenera of ficus. it is noticed that some of these characters are confined to a definite subgenus. for instance, the presence of peduncular and lateral bracts are confined to subgenus terega, monoecious to (gyno) dioecious is confined to subgenus sycomorus, several ostiolar bracts are confined to subgenus ficus, climber habit is confined to synoecia, monoecious and presence of figs inter floral bracts are confined to subgenus spherosuke. diagram (2): the principal component analysis of the morphological matrix of the five subgenera of ficus. (for abbreviation, see table 1). the application of the two-way clustering analysis (ca) and the principal component analysis (pca) facilitated the construction of identification key for the five subgenera of the genus ficus in egypt as follows: 1. leaf margin dentate, with several-numerous ostiolar bracts …….…………………….….…... 2 leaf margin entire, with 2-3 ostiolar bracts ………………..……………….………….……… 4 2. figs with lateral and peduncular bracts …………………………….......……… subgen. terega figs without lateral and peduncular bracts ………………………..………………….……….. 3 3. plants (gyno) dioecious, figs with several (4-10) ostiolar bracts…………..….….. subgen. ficus plants monoecious or (gyno) dioecious, figs with numerous (>10), ostiolar bracts ……..……… …………………………………………………………..……….…….…... subgen. sycomorus 4. plants (gyno) dioecious, climbers, figs without interfloral bract …............…. subgen. synoecia plants monoecious, trees or shrubs, figs with interfloral bracts …….....….. subgen. spherosuke isubgenus ficus this subgenus is represented in egypt by four species belonging to 2 sections: ficus and eriosycea (miq.) miq., 1867. these species are trees, with spiral leaf arrangement, wrinkled dry figs, 4-7 bilabiate ostiole bracts, 3 basal bracts, up to 4 mm/each. diagram (3) represents the two-way clustering analysis of the morphological matrix for the 21 characters of the four species of the subgenus ficus. at the first distance level 28.250 of differentiation, f. neriifolia sm., 1810 (pl.1a) is separated from the other 3 species by its glabrous petiole, leaf lower surface and dry fig wall surface; both fig length or width are less than 1 cm., these characters are bordered in pink color (diag. 3). at the second distance level 14.667, f. hirta vahl, 1806 (pl.1b) is separated from the other two species by the characters surrounded by the yellow borders; leaf apex acuminate, figs sessile and globose, petiole surface sparsely hairy, both fig length and width are 2-3 cm (diag. 3). moreover; f. palmata (pl.1c) 436 numerical taxonomy of genus ficus and f. carica (pl.1d) are separated at the third distance level 6.500 by the characters that surrounded by the green borders (diag. 3). diagram (4) shows the principal component analysis of the morphological matrix of the four species of subgenus ficus. it is noticed that some of these characters are restricted to definite species. for instance, f. neriifolia is characterized by its figs length and width less than 1 cm, glabrous leaf lower surface, petiole, and fig wall surface when dry. furthermore, the characters as figs length and width 2-3 cm, sparsely hairy petiole are restricted to f. hirta. on the other hand, in f. palmata figs length is 1-2 cm (vs. 3-5 in f. carica), width is 1-2 cm (vs. 3 cm in f. carica), peduncle is 4-10 mm long (vs. more than 10 mm in f. carica) and the fig wall surface is pubescent when dry (vs. sparsely hairy in f. carica). diagram (3): the two-way clustering analysis using the euclidean distance measure with ward’s method of the 4 species of subgenus ficus (for abbreviations see table 1). the changes in borders’ colors (pink, yellow and green) indicate the levels of differentiation. 437 soliman et al. the application of the two-way clustering analysis (ca) and the principal component analysis (pca) helped in the construction of the identification key for the 4 species of subgenus ficus in egypt. identification key to the species of subgenus ficus 1. 3-5 lobed lamina, with 4-8 pairs of lateral veins, chartaceous with dentate margin and truncatebase, petiole surface sparsely hairy, figs length 1-5 cm, 1-5 cm in diameter …...….... 2 simple lamina, with 9-14 pairs of lateral veins, coriaceous, with entire margin, petiole surface glabrous, figs length up to 1 cm and up to 1 cm in diameter …………………….. f. neriifolia 2. lamina cordate with acute or obtuse to rounded apex, petiole surface pubescent; figs pedunculate, obovoid to ± pyriform ........................................................................................... 3 lamina elliptic or ovate-oblong with acuminate apex, petiole surface with sparse hair, figs sessile, globose .........................................................................................................…... f. hirta 3. lamina nearly as long as broad; number of leaf lobes 3-5; figs 1-2 cm long and 1-2 cm in diameter; peduncle length more than 10 mm; pubescent when dry .…...……….….. f. palmate lamina usually longer than broad; number of leaf lobes 1-3, figs 3-5 cm long and 3-5 cm in diameter, peduncle length less than10 mm, sparsely hair sparse when dry ………..… f. carica iisubgenus terega the subgenus terega (= ficus subg. sycidium (miq.) mildbr. & burret) is represented in egypt by two taxa; f. aspera g. forst., 1786 (pl.1e) in section sycidium (miq.) miq., 1867, and f. tinctoria subsp. gibbosa (blume) corner, 1959 (pl.1f) in section palaeomorphe king., 1887. these are characterized by 4-8 lateral vein pairs, leaf asymmetric, elliptic, figs globose, bi-labiate with numerous ostiolar bracts and 3 basal bracts. identification key to taxa of the subgenus terega 1 leaf margin dentate, with subcordate base, figs 1-2 cm in diameter, with pubescent hairs, pedunculate, peduncle more than 10 mm ……………………………………….…… f. aspera leaf margin entire, with cuneate base, figs 0.5-0.8 cm in diameter, with sparse hairs, subsessile, peduncle 1-3 mm ………………………...…………..... f. tinctoria subsp. gibbosa diagram (4): the principal component analysis of the morphological matrix of the 4 species of subgenus ficus. (for abbreviations, see table 1). 438 numerical taxonomy of genus ficus plate (1): photographs of ficus species subgenus ficus (a-d); (a) f. neriifolia, upper and lower surface of leaves and fruiting twigs; (b) f. hirta, a twig with leaves; (c) f. palmata, a twig with leaves and fruits; (d) f. carica, a twig with leaves and fruits. subgenus terega (e-f); (e) f. aspera, a twig with leaves and fruits; (f) f. tinctoria subsp. gibbosa, a twig with leaves upper and lower surfaces and fruits. iiisubgenus sycomorus the subgenus sycomorus is represented in egypt by 6 species (f. septica burm. f., 1768 (pl. 2a); f. hispida l.f., 1781 (pl. 2b); f. sur forssk., 1775 (pl. 2c); f.auriculata lour, 1790 (pl. 2d); f.sycomorus (pl. 2 e); f. racemosa l., 1753 (pl. 2f) characterized by elliptic to ovate-elliptic leaf, entire margin, 4-8 lateral vein pairs, fig peduncle more than 10 mm, circular ostiole with 4-7 ostiolar bracts. eighteen characters were used to differentiate between the 6 species of subgenus sycomorus (diag. 5). the main characters separate between species are leaf arrangement, texture and length of lamina. at the first level of differentiation (distance level 25.667), f. racemosa and f. sycomorus were separated from the other 4 species by spiral leaf arrangement, leaf 6-12 cm long, and figs when dry wrinkled (characters are surrounded by the pink borders). the leaf morphology differentiates between these two species, f. racemosa characterized by its glabrous leaf upper surface while f. sycomorus has a chartaceous leaf texture, dentate margin, lower surface sparsely hairy and ratio of length/width equal one, these characters are surrounded by brown borders. on the other branch includes four species, f. septica is separated by fig wall surface glabrous when dry, others are wrinkled (characters are surrounded by yellow borders). f. hispida differentiated from the other two species by its globose. f. sur is separated from f. auriculata by leaf length 12.1-20 cm, leaf base truncate to sub-cordate and figs ratio of length/width equal one, these characters are surrounded by green borders. 439 soliman et al. plate (2): photographs of ficus species subgenus sycomorus (a-f); (a) f. septica, a twig with leaves; (b) f. hispida, a twig with leaves and fruits; (c) f. sur, upper and lower surface of leaves and fruiting twigs; (d) f. auriculata, a twig with leaves and fruits; (e) f. sycomorus, upper and lower surface of leaves and fruits; (f) f. racemosa, a twig with leaves and fruits. subgenus synoecia: (g) f. pumila, a twig with leaves. subgenus spherosuke-section americana (h-i); (h) f. nymphaeifolia, upper and lower surfaces of leaves; (i) f. nymphaeifolia, fruits. a c i h g d f b e 440 numerical taxonomy of genus ficus diagram (5): the two-way clustering analysis using the euclidean distance measure with ward’s method of the 6 species of subgenus sycomorus, (for abbreviations, see table 1). the changes in borders’ colors (pink, yellow, brown and green) indicate the different levels of differentiation. diagram (6) shows the principal component analysis of the morphological matrix of the six species of subgenus sycomorus. it is noticed that some of these characters are restricted to definite species. for instance, the character of the glabrous dry wall of the fig is confined to f. septica, the leaf diameter 10-20 cm wide is confined to f. sur and the equal ratio of the leaf length to width is confined to f. sycomorus. 441 soliman et al. diagram (6): the principal component analysis of the morphological matrix of the 4 species of subgenus sycomorus (for abbreviations, see table 1). the application of the two-way clustering analysis (ca) and the principal component analysis (pca) helped in the construction of identification key for the 6 species of subgenus sycomorus in egypt. identification key to the species of the subgenus sycomorus: 1. leaf arrangement opposite or alternate, lamina more than 12 cm long, fig when dry mostly smooth……………………………………………………………………………………..…... 2 leaf arrangement spiral, lamina 6-12 cm long, fig when dry mostly wrinkled ……..…….…. 5 2. lamina 20-35 cm long and more than 20 cm in diameter, margin entire, figs wall surface glabrous when dry …………………………………………………………………… f. septica lamina 12-20 cm long and less than 20 cm in diameter, margin dentate, figs wall surface with sparse hair when dry ……………………………………………………………...…….….… 3 3. leaf arrangement opposite, asymmetrical, figs globose, 1-2 cm long ….…………... f. hispida leaf arrangement alternate, symmetrical, figs obovoid, length 2-3 cm long ……….….......… 4 4. leaf base truncate, apex obtuse, leaf width 10-20 cm, figs 2-3 cm in diameter …............ f. sur leaf base obtuse/round, apex obtusely acuminate, leaf width 5-10 cm, figs up to 2 cm in diameter …………………………………………….............................................. f. auriculata 5. lamina chartaceous, margin dentate, surface with sparse hair, 1-1.5 times as long as broad ………………………...…………………………………………………….…... f. sycomorus lamina coriaceous, margin entire, surface glabrous, 1.6-2 times as long as broad ………………………………………………………………….…………............. f. racemose ivsubgenus synoecia this subgenus is represented in egypt by one species; f. pumila l., 1753 (pl. 2 g). this species is distinguished from the other ficus species in being creeping plant and has dimorphic leaf shape. vsubgenus spherosuke the subgenus spherosuke is the largest subgenus of ficus in egypt; represented by 4 sections, americanae (miq.) corner, 1960; platyphyllae mildbr. & burret, 1911; cordifoliae g.don, 1830 and urostigma (endl.) griseb., 1859. 442 numerical taxonomy of genus ficus i. section americanae this section is represented in egypt by one species; f. nymphaeifolia mill., 1768 (pl.2h, i), which characterized by its two basal bracts number, 1-1.5 cm long. ii. section platyphyllae this section is represented in egypt by 12 species (f. lingua subsp. lingua warb. ex de wild. & t. durand 1901 (pl. 3a); f. thonningii blume, 1836 (pl. 3b); f. craterostoma warb. ex mildbr. & burret, 1911 (pl. 3c); f. natalensis subsp. leprieurii (miq.) c.c.berg, 1988 (pl. 3d); f. lutea vahl, 1805 (pl. 3e); f. laurifolia lam, 1788 (pl. 3f); f. abutilifolia (miq.) miq.1867 (pl. 3g), f. sp. (pl. 3h) f. saussureana dc, 1841 (pl. 3i); f. cyathistipula warb, 1894 (pl. 3j); f. lyrata warb, 1894 (pl. 3k); f. umbellata vahl, 1805 (pl. 3l)). twenty-four characters were used to distinguish between species. the main characters used to separate species were; length of the lamina, shape of leaf base and apex, reaching of the midrib to the leaf apex. all the species characterized by their coriaceous leaf (except f. umbellata, having chartaceous leaf), 2-3 ostiole bracts (except f. lyrata, having 4-7 ostiole bracts), 3 basal bracts (except f. lingua subsp. lingua and f. thonningii which have 2 basal bracts), spiral leaf arrangement (except f. natalensis subsp. leprieurii, having alternate leaf). plate (3): photographs of ficus taxa: spherosuke-section platyphllae (a-l); (a) f. lingua subsp. lingua upper and lower surface of leaves and fruits, (b) f. thonningii, upper and lower surface of leaves and fruits, (c) f. craterostoma, upper and lower surface of leaves and fruiting twigs; (d) f. natalensis subsp. leprieurii, a twig with leaves and fruits; (e) f. lutea upper and lower surface of leaves and fruits; (f) f. laurifolia, upper and lower surface of leaves and fruits; (g) f. abutilifolia, upper and lower surface of leaves upper and lower surface of leaves and fruits; (h) f. sp.; (i) f. saussureana; (j) f. cyathistipula; (k) f. lyrata, (l) f. umbellata. 443 soliman et al. the clustering analysis of section platyphyllae at the first level (distance level 133.75) of differentiation (diag. 7), four taxa are grouped in one branch, namely, f. lingua subsp. lingua, f. thonningii, f. craterostoma and f. natalensis subsp. leprieurii due to the presence of leaf width less than 5 cm, petiole length up to 2 (-3) cm, figs length and width less than 1 cm. (characters are bordered in pink color). these 4 species are subdivided into two groups, group one includes f. lingua subsp. lingua and f. thonningii which characterized by the ratio of the lamina length to width more than 3, acute-obtuse or rounded apex, glabrous petiole, and figs with 2 basal bracts and wall surface sparsely hairy when dry. however; group two includes f. craterostoma and f. natalensis subsp. leprieurii, characterizing by the ratio of the lamina length to width less than 3, truncate to emarginate apex, sparsely hairy petiole, and figs with 3 basal bracts and wall surface glabrous when dry (characters bordered by green color). the other 8 species are divided into two groups. the first group contains 4 species; f. umbellata, f. lyrata, f. cyathistipula and f. saussureana, characterizing by stipule length 3.1-5 cm and fig width 2.1-3 cm (characters bordered by yellow color). the other 4 species are further subdivided into two branches, f. sp. and f. abutilifolia characterized by the ratio of the lamina length/width less than 1, leaf length 12.1-20 cm, with cordate base and basal bracts length less than 4 mm while f. laurifolia and f. lutea are characterized by the ratio of the lamina length/width ranging from 1-3, lamina usually length 20-35 cm long, oblanceolate-obovate, with truncate to sub-cordate base, and figs basal bracts 4-9 mm long (characters bordered by brown color). 444 numerical taxonomy of genus ficus diagram (7): the two-way clustering analysis using the euclidean distance measure with ward’s method of the 12 species of section platyphyllae, (for abbreviations see table 1). the changes in borders’ colors (pink, yellow, brown and green) indicate the different levels of differentiation. 445 soliman et al. diagram (8) shows that some characters are confined to definite species, such as, figs oblong, 1.52 times as long as broad in f. abutilifolia, leaf shape ovate to ovate-elliptic in f. sp., leaf arrangement alternate in f. natalensis subsp. leprieurii, leaf length 6-12 cm long and elliptic in f. thonningii, leaf base auriculate in f. lyrata, fig wall surface pubescent and basal bracts 9 mm long in f. saussureana, chartaceous leaf texture in f. umbellata and fig shape oblong in f. laurifolia. the application of the two-way clustering analysis (ca) and the principal component analysis (pca) helped in the construction identification key for the 6 taxa of section platyphyllae in egypt. identification key to the taxa of section platyphyllae 1. lamina up to 5 cm in diameter ………………………………………….………..…..…..…... 2 lamina more than 5 cm in diameter .…..…………………………………………..……..…... 5 2. leaf apex obtuse or rounded, ratio of leaf length/width more than 3; petiole glabrous; fig wall surface sparsely hairy when dry; 2 basal bracts ………………………………...………….... 3 leaf apex truncate to emarginate, ratio of leaf length/width less than 3; petiole with sparse hair; fig wall glabrous when dry; 3 basal bracts …………………..………………………...... 4 3. lamina oblanceolate to obovate; lateral veins 4-8 pairs, less than 8 cm long; petiole less than 1.5cm long;fig subsessile (1-3 mm long.) ……………………...…...... f. lingua subsp. lingua lamina elliptic to ovate-elliptic; lateral veins 9-14 pairs, 8-12 cm long; petiole 2.5-4.5 cm long; fig peduncle length 4-10 mm long …………………………………..…… f. thonningii 4. leaf arrangement spiral, surface glabrous, ratio of leaf length/width =1-3, fig 1-2 cm in diam., sessile ...…………………………………………………………………….…. f. craterostoma leaf arrangement alternate, surface with sparse hair, ratio of leaf length/width =1, fig less than 1cm in diam., peduncle length 4-10 mm ………………………. f. natalensis subsp. leprieurii 5. stipules less than 3 cm long, fig 1-2 cm in diameter ….…...……….………………………… 6 stipules 3-5 cm long, fig 2-3 cm in diameter …..………...………………...……….….....…... 9 diagram (8): the principal component analysis of the morphological matrix of the 12 species of section platyphyllae (for abbreviations, see table 1) 446 numerical taxonomy of genus ficus 6. lamina oblong, elliptic-oblong or ovate-oblong, 20-35 cm long, base truncate to sub-cordate, the ratio of leaf length/width =1.5-3, basal bracts 4-9 mm long ……………….……………...7 lamina ovate to cordate, 12-20 cm long, base cordate, the ratio of leaf length/width=1, basal bracts up to 4 mm long ……………………………...…………………………………..…….. 8 7. lateral vein 4-6 pairs, lower surface and petiole with sparse hair; petiole 9-20 cm long, stipules 1-3 cm long, fig sessile, globose, with sparse hair, when fresh …………...….. f. lutea lateral vein 9-10 pairs, lower surface and petiole glabrous, petiole 4-8 cm long, stipules up to 1cm long, fig pedunculate, oblong, glabrous when fresh .…….…...………….….. f. laurifolia 8. lamina cordiform (broadly ovate), apex obtusely acuminate, upper surface and petiole glabrous; fig obovoid, 1-2 cm long, the ratio of fig length/width =1.5-2, dry fig wall glabrous, peduncle 0.6-1.5 cm long ……………………………………...………….…..… f. abutilifolia lamina ovate, apex obtuse to round, upper surface and petiole with sparse hair; fig globose, 23cm long, the ratio of fig length/width =1(-1.3), dry fig sparsely hairy, peduncle length 0.3 0.5 cm ……………………...………………………………………...……………… ficus sp. 9. leaf lamina 12-20 cm long, 3.5-8 cm in diam., with obtuse to cuneate base, dry fig wall not wrinkled ………………………………………………………………………..…………......10 leaf lamina 20-35 cm long, 10-27 cm in diam., with auriculate or cordate base, dry fig wall distinctly wrinkled………………………………………..………...…...………..…….……. 11 10. lateral veins 8-12 pairs, leaf lower surface and petiole with sparse hair; ratio of leaf length/width = 3-3.5; fig sessile, fresh and drywall surface pubescent, basal bracts 9-15 mm long...................................................................................................................... f. saussureana lateral veins 4-7 pairs; leaf lower surface and petiole glabrous; ratio of leaf length/width =2.22.8; fig pedunculate, fresh glabrous and with sparse hair when dry, basal bracts 3-4 mm long ………………………………………………………………………….… f. cyathistipula 11. lateral veins 4-5 pairs; lamina oblanceolate to obovate, coriaceous, base auriculate, apex truncate to emarginate, basal bracts less than 4 mm long, ostiolar bracts several (more than 3) ……………………………………………………………………...……….……....… f. lyrata lateral veins 6-9 pairs; lamina cordiform (broadly ovate), chartaceous, base cordate, apex acuminate, basal bracts 4-9 mm long, 2-3 ostiolar bracts ……………...…......….. f. umbellate iii. section cordifoliae this section is represented in egypt by 11 taxa including (f. drupacea thunb., 1786 (pl. 4a), f. drupacea var. pubescens (roth) corner, 1959 (pl. 4b),, f. microcarpa l. f., 1781 (pl. 4c); f. benjamina l., 1767 (pl. 4d); f. amplissima sm., 1810 (pl. 4e); f. cordata subsp. salicifolia (pl. 4f), f. virens aiton, 1789 var. virens pl. 4g); f. virens var. sublanceolata (miq.) corner 1959 (pl. 4h); f. benghalensis l., 1753 (pl. 4i); f. religiosa l., 1753(pl. 4j); f. rumphii blume, 1825 (pl. 4k). all species shared the spiral leaf arrangement (except f. benjamina, having alternate leaves), all with coriaceous leaves (except f. virens, which have chartaceous). twenty-three characters were used to distinguish between the taxa of cordifoliae section. the main characters separated between taxa are the number of lateral vein pairs, lamina length, width, leaf arrangement, and leaf apex, figs (wrinkling (when dry), surface, shape, pedunculate or sessile), and basal bracts length. 447 soliman et al. diagram (9) shows the cluster analysis of 11 taxa of cordifoliae section at the first level (distance level 92.727) of differentiation, (characters bordered in pink color), f. drupacea and f. drupacea var. pubescens are separated by the presence of oblong fig with 2.1-3 cm long, the other 9 species are characterized by glabrous upper and lower surface of the lamina. at the second level (distance level 72.000) of differentiation, three species namely f. rumphii, f. religiosa, and f. benghalensis are separated by the presence of leaf length/width less than 1.5, while the other 6 species this ratio may reach 3 and the figs basal bracts are 4 mm long (characters bordered by yellow). plate (4): photographs of ficus taxa spherosuke-section cordifoliae (a-l); (a) f. drupacea upper and lower surface of leaves and fruits; (b) f. drupacea var. pubescens, upper and lower surface of leaves and fruits; (c) f. microcarpa, a twig with leaves and fruits; (d) f. benjamina, upper and lower surface of leaves and fruits; (e) f. amplissima a twig with leaves and fruits; (f) f. cordata subsp. salicifolia, a twig with leaves and fruits; (g) f. virens var. virens, upper and lower surface of leaves; (h) f. virens var. sublanceolata, upper and lower surface of leaves; (i) f. benghalensis, a twig with leaves and fruits; (j); (k) f. religosa upper and lower surface of leaves and fruits; (l) f. rumphii, upper and lower surface of leaves. 448 numerical taxonomy of genus ficus diagram (9): the two-way clustering analysis using the euclidean distance measure with ward’s method of the 11 species of section cordifoliae, (for abbreviations see table 1. the changes in borders’ colors (pink, yellow, brown, green and red) indicate the levels of differentiation. 449 soliman et al. diagram (10) shows the results of the pca of section cordifoliae, it is clear that some species are characterized by distinct morphological characters. for instance, leaf shape oblong-lanceolate, elliptic-oblong, 3-4 times as long as broad, figs subsessile, peduncle 1-3 mm long in f. cordata subsp. salicifolia, whereas in f. virens var. virens the fig pedunculate, 4-10 mm long. moreover, in f. benjamina the figs are obovoid and leaf arrangement alternate. however, in f. microcarpa the leaf width less than 5 cm, fig length and width are less than one. furthermore, the leaf apex acute to obtuse or rounded in f. benghalensis on the other hand, lamina and fig surfaces are pubescent in f. drupacea var. pubescens, while in f. drupacea leaf length more than 20 cm and covered with sparse hair leaf surfaces, petiole more than 10 cm long in f. rumphii. diagram (10): the principal component analysis of the morphological matrix of the 11 species of section cordifoliae (for abbreviations see, table 1). the application of the two-way clustering analysis (ca) and the principal component analysis (pca) helped in the construction of identification key for the 6 taxa of section cordifoliae in egypt. identification key to the taxa of section cordifoliae 1. abaxial and adaxial lamina surface with sparse hair to pubescent; figs oblong …....…....….. .2 abaxial and adaxial lamina surface glabrous; figs globose to obovoid …................................. 3 2. abaxial and adaxial lamina surface with sparse hair; length 20-35 cm, fresh figs glabrous, wrinkled when dry ……………............................................................................... f. drupacea abaxial and adaxial lamina surface pubescent; length 12-20 (-25) cm, fresh figs pubescent, not wrinkled when dry ………………..... …………….………..…..... f. drupacea var. pubescens 3. leaf apex acuminate or obtusely acuminate; lamina 1.5-4 as long as broad; figs basal bracts less than 4 mm long ……………………………………………….…………...……………... 4 leaf apex caudate or obtuse to rounded; lamina1-1.5 as long as broad; figs basal bracts 4-9 mm long ………………………………………………………………………………………. 9 4. fresh figs wall glabrous ………. ………………………………………..….………………… 5 fresh figs wall with sparse hair ………...………………….……..………..…………....……. 7 5. lateral veins 5-8 pairs; lamina up to 5 cm in diam.; figs less than1cm long, less than 1 cm in diameter; the ratio of fig length/width=1, wall of dry fig not wrinkled …….…. f. macrocarpa 450 numerical taxonomy of genus ficus lateral veins 10-14 pairs; lamina 5-9 cm in diam.; fig 1-2.5 cm long and 1-2 cm in diam.; the ratio of fig length/width= 1.5-2, wall of dry; fig wrinkled ..……………………………….…. 6 6. leaf arrangement alternate, lamina elliptic, with acute to round base, 6-12 cm long; petiole glabrous, 1-2.5 cm long; figs obovoid ……………..……..……………….…..… f. benjamina leaf arrangement spiral, lamina ovate-lanceolate, with subcordate base, 12-20 cm long; petiole with sparse hair, 5-8 cm long, figs globose ……...…………...…......….. f. amplissima 7. lamina oblong to oblong-lanceolate, coriaceous, ratio of lamina length/width = 3-4, petiole and fig wall with sparse hair when dry.............…………….…...... f. cordata subsp. salicifolia lamina elliptic to ovate-elliptic, chartaceous, ratio of lamina length/width =1.2-2.7, petiole and fig wall glabrous when dry………………………………...…………………..……..…… 8 8. leaf base subcordate to truncate, 6-12(-15) cm long, fig pedunculate ...… f. virens var. virens leaf base acute to cuneate, 12-20 cm long, fig sessile ………….. f. virens var. sublanceolata 9. lamina elliptic to ovate-elliptic, apex obtuse to round, 6-12 (-15) cm long, 5-10(-12) cm in diameter, petiole with sparse hair.………………………...……………….….. f. benghalensis lamina broadly ovate, apex caudate, 15-25cm long, 10-20 cm in diam., petiole glabrous … 10 10. leaf apex caudate nearly half as long as lamina, petiole length 6-10 cm, stipules length up to 1.5 cm; figs with sparse hair when dry …………………………..…………..……. f. religiosa leaf apex caudate about ¼ as long as lamina, petiole length 10-14 cm, stipules length 1.5-3 cm; figs glabrous when dry ………………………..…………..…………...………. f. rumphii iv. section urostigma this section is represented in egypt by four species (f. elastica roxb. ex hornem., 1819 (pl. 5a); f. macrophylla desf. ex pers., 1806 (pl. 5b); f. platypoda (miq.) a.cunn. ex miq., 1847 (pl. 5c); f. rubiginosa desf. ex vent., 1803 (pl. 5d) characterized by their coriaceous leaf and lamina 1.5-3 times as long as broad. twenty-one morphological characters are used to differentiate between species of section urostigma. the main characters separated between taxa of this section are the number of lateral vein pairs, figs peduncle, and basal bracts length. at the first level (distance level 27.000) of the clustering analysis, f. platypoda and f. rubiginosa are separated from the other 2 species by the presence of lateral 9-14 vein pairs, lamina 6-12 cm long with truncate–subcordate base, figs globose (characters with pink borders, diag.11). ficus rubiginosa can be separated from f. platypoda by less than 3 cm long sparsely hairy petiole, stipule less than 1 cm in length, figs subsessile (1-3 mm long) and its basal bracts up to 4-9 mm long (characters with brown borders, diag.11). while f. macrophylla is characterized by its lamina 12.120 cm in length, with 15-20 lateral vein pairs, figs pedunculate, more than10 mm long, bi-labiate ostiole, and figs wrinkled when dry (characters surrounded by yellow borders, diag.11). plate (5): photographs of ficus species spherosuke-section urostigma, upper and lower surface of leaves and fruits (a-d); (a) f. elastica; (b) f. macrophylla; (c) f. platypoda; (d) f. rubiginosa. d c e e b a 451 soliman et al. diagram (11): the two-way clustering analysis using the euclidean distance measure with ward’s method of the 4 species of section urostigma (for abbreviations see table 1. the changes in borders’ colors (pink, yellow and brown) indicate the levels of differentiation. 452 numerical taxonomy of genus ficus diagram (12) records the affinity of some characters to definite species, such as; lamina length (more than 20 cm long) number of lateral veins (21-30 lateral vein pairs), stipule connate, figs diameter (less than 1 cm in diameter), and circular ostiole which are confined to f. elastica; however; sparsely hairy petiole, stipule length (less than 1 cm) and figs basal bracts length (4-9 mm long) are confined to f. rubiginosa; whereas, lamina less than 5 cm long, stipule length 1-3 cm, and figs peduncle 4-10 mm long are confined to f. platypoda. furthermore; lamina length (12.1-20 cm long), number of lateral veins (15-20 lateral vein pairs), figs pedunculate, (more than10 mm in length) and wrinkled when dry confined to f. macrophylla. diagram (12): the principal component analysis of the morphological matrix of the 4 species of section urostigma, (for abbreviations see table 1). the application of the two-way clustering analysis (ca) and the principal component analysis (pca) helped in the construction of the identification key for the 4 species of subgenus urostigma in egypt. key to the species of section urostigma 1. lateral veins 15-30 pairs; lamina more than 12 cm long; leaf base acute, obtuse-rounded or cuneate; figs oblong …………….………………………………...……………………..……. 2 lateral veins 9-14 pairs; lamina less than 12 cm long; leaf base truncate to subcordate; figs globose. ……………………………………………………...………………………………... 3 2. leaf apex acuminate; figs subsessile 1-3 mm long; figs glabrous and not wrinkled when dry ………………………………………………………………………………………………….. f. elastica 453 soliman et al. leaf apex acute, obtuse or rounded; figs pedunculate, 10-25 mm long; figs with sparse hair and wrinkled when dry …………………………………………………………….. f. macrophylla 3. petiole and fresh figs glabrous; peduncle 4-10 mm long, basal bracts 2-3 mm long ………………………………………………………………………………..…………....... f. platypoda petiole and fresh figs with sparse hair to pubescent; peduncule 1-3 mm long, basal bracts 7-9 mm long ……………………………………………………………………….... f. rubiginosa diagram (13) gives a diagrammatic illustration of the relationship between the 41 ficus taxa growing in egypt, which are classified into 5 subgenera, 11 sections, 33 species, 3 subspecies and 4 varieties depending on the above achieved two-way clustering analyses 454 numerical taxonomy of genus ficus diagram (13): a diagrammatic key illustrating the 41 ficus l. taxa growing in egypt, which are classified in to 5 subgenera, 11 sections, 33 species, 3 subspecies and 4 varieties. 455 soliman et al. discussion the application of the multivariate analysis in understanding and solving systematic problems is adopted by many authors (gómez-campo et al., 2001; rahman et al., 2013; teleb and salah-el-din, 2014; yaradua et al., 2018; lópez-palacios et al., 2019; hssaini et al., 2020; kamran et al., 2020; muhammad et al., 2021). numerical analysis is a comprehensive way of evaluating and analyzing the data and producing a phenetic classification (sneath and sokal, 1973). methods of numerical taxonomy have been used in classifying many species and interpreting the results of taxonomic studies (chiapella, 2000; gomez-campo et al., 2001; hssaini et al., 2020; muhammad et al., 2021). the application of the two-way clustering analysis and the principal component analysis revealed that the qualitative characters; presence or absence of lateral, peduncular or ostiolar bracts and the leaf margin shows a highly significant in the differentiation between the 5 subgenera of genus ficus. whereas the qualitative characters of leaf; leaf arrangement, shape of lamina, leaf apex, and quantitative characters such as the number of lateral veins, length of lamina and stipules are significantly separating the species within the different sections. these findings correlate more or less to numerous previous researches (ghafoor, 1985; mubo et al., 2004; loutfy et al., 2005; chaudhary et al., 2012; esmaiel et al., 2014; jangam et al., 2017). mubo et al. (2004) noted that the genus ficus had followed several curious lines of evolution; its taxonomy was still puzzling because of the extreme morphological variability and ambiguous boundaries between taxa. however, he used the morphometric analysis based on ten quantitative parameters like leaf length, leaf width, lamina length, lamina width, petiole length of ficus species leaves in nigeria that gave highly significant positive correlations, which is parallel with our results. jangam et al. (2017 ( made a morphometric quantitative analysis on nine species of genus ficus based on their leaf characters, it has been revealed that, the quantitative characters like leaf length, leaf breadth, petiole length, lamina length are positively correlated and contribute significant role in arranging the species together within a genus while, the leaf base nerve number, ratio of leaf length to leaf breadth and ratio of leaf lamina length to petiole length significantly separates the species from each other. this is again in correspondence with our results. bruun-lunda et al. (2018) showed that figs usually follow the evolutionary museum model, with a progressive accumulation of species through time and a relatively low extinction rate and no major change in development. these states of characters are seen in most phylogenetic species and imply that they are essential innovations or syndromes, which can lead to the success of figs with regard to species diversity and accumulation of high species diversity on an evolutionary time scale. the 36 morphological characters used to differentiate between the 41 taxa within the genus ficus in egypt were adopted earlier in previous works; berg and hijman (1989) differentiated between subgenera and sections of ficus depending on some characters as ostiole shape; circular (section sycidium; sycomorus and cordifolae) or bi-labiate (section platyphyllae), the number of ostiolar bracts; few (section cordifolae) or several (section: sycomorus and sycidium); plant monoecious (subgenus sycomorus and spherosuke section cordifolae) or dioecious (subgenus terega: section sycidium, known previously as subgenus sycidium). 456 numerical taxonomy of genus ficus numerical taxonomy studies are important for identifying novel morphological features in comparing our results and previous studies on genus ficus in egypt (diwan et al., 2004; hamdy et al., 2007; hamdy, 2010; youssef and hamdy, 2013); 4 new taxa were grown in egyptian gardens and newly added to the garden flora of egypt; f. lingua subsp. lingua, f. pumila, f. rumphii and f. sur. in addition; 7 taxa that were previously unidentified, misidentified or confused with other ficus species are revised and taxonomically nested within their subgenera or sections. based on investigated specimens and utilizing the available taxonomical literature (corner, 1977; berg and hijman, 1989; berg, 1991). ficus palmata forssk. is one of the unidentified taxa; characterized by its ovate-orbicular lamina, pubescent in texture, peduncle more than 1 cm long, figs axillary, green turn into dark purple at maturity. moreover; ficus septica n.l. burman is another example for unidentified taxa; it can be distinguished by its glabrous, spirally arranged leaves, lamina mostly elliptic, 20-35 cm long, often narrowed at the base, figs axillary and cauliflorous, mostly depressed globose bearing white or yellow spots appear on the surface of the dry figs. speaking about the misidentified taxa; f. tinctoria g. forst. was documented as f. pyriformis hook. & arn. it is characterized by its ovate-elliptic to ± rhombic lamina, strongly asymmetric, adaxially rough becoming glabrous with age; fig globose, base attenuate into a stalk, with a circular navel-like ostiole. furthermore, ficus tinctoria g. forst. is a polymorphic species and it can be easily classified into 3 subspecies on the basis of habit and fig diameter. based on rong shu (2003) f. tinctoria g. forst. subsp. gibbosa (blume) corner was recognized with its shrubby habit and narrow figs 0.5-0.8 cm in diameter. another misidentified f. racemosa l. for f. palmata forssk. both species shared the same range of leaves (size, apex, base, lateral veins and petiole); however, f. racemosa l. has elliptic (vs. ovate) shape, coriaceous (vs. chartaceous), entire-undulate (vs. subdentate-distinctly serrate) margin, stipule 1.5-3 cm long (vs. up to 1 cm.), fig color reddish orange (vs. dark purple) at maturity (rong shu, 2003; upadhyay and kumar, 2010; tiwari et al., 2014). furthermore, f. auriculata lour. was misidentified as f. tinctoria g. forst. subsp. gibbosa (blume) corner (known as f. gibbosa blume in our gardens) while there leaves and figs characters are distinguishable. ficus auriculata lour. leaf is 12-20 cm long (vs 6-12 cm in f. tinctoria g. forst. subsp. gibbosa (blume) corner); petiole length 410 cm long (vs. less than 3 cm long), stipule 1.5-3 cm long (vs. less than 1 cm), fig pedunculate (vs. subsessile), oboviod with 8-12 conspicuous longitudinal ridges (vs. globose), broader 1-2 cm diameter (vs. narrower 0.5-0.8 cm diameter). as well, f. umbellata vahl. was documented as f. platyphylla delile. both shared many characters such as the size of the leaves and the shape of the tree. nonetheless, the former figs are subsessile, 2.5-3.5 cm in diameter, glabrous and wrinkled when dry while pedunculate, 1-2 cm in diameter, puberulous, warted and wrinkled in f. platyphylla delile. based on leaf and fig characters it was possible to separate and reidentify f. nymphaeifolia mill. (burger, 1977) from f. petiolaris kunth. both shared many similar characters but the former is characterized by its subsessile figs with a lustrous velutinous surface (satin-like) and its large subcordate lamina with a basal lobe extending below the petiole attachment while being pedunculate with cordate-orbicular to broadly ovate lamina in f. petiolaris kunth. 457 soliman et al. conclusions the current study shows the significance of numerical analysis in detecting variation and taxonomic relationships among ficus species growing in egyptian gardens as it is attested by previous studies based on leaf architecture, pollen, and anatomical characters. conflicts of interest statement the authors have no conflicts of interest to declare. literature cited arunachalam, k. and parimelazhagan, t. 2014. antidiabetic and enzymatic antioxidant properties from methanol extract of ficus talbotii bark on diabetic rats induced by streptozotocin. asian pacific journal of reproduction, 3(2):97-105. bailey, l. h. and bailey, e. z. 1976. hortus third. a concise dictionary of plant cultivated in the u.s. and canada. 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(crotalarieae, fabaceae) in nigeria variability, taxonomy and phylogeny. biodiversity research and conservation, 50(1): 25-32. youssef, t. l. and hamdy, r. s. 2013. timber trees: cultivated in gardens and planted forests in egypt. egypt: ministry of agriculture and land reclamation undersecretariat for afforestation and environment, 193 pp. zohary, d., hopf, m. and weiss, e. 2012. domestication of plants in the old world. the origin and spread of domesticated plants in southwest asia, europe, and the mediterranean basin. fourth edition, oxford, oxford university press, 243 pp. 462 numerical taxonomy of genus ficus appendix (1): the coordinates of the gardens where fresh specimens were collected. locality geographic coordinates alexandria: antoniades garden 31° 12' 20” n, 29° 56' 49” e aswan: aswan botanic garden 24° 05' 37” n, 32° 53’ 13” e cairo: el zohriya garden 30° 02’ 38” n, 31°13’ 43” e cairo: groppi garden 30° 03' 07” n, 31° 14' 49” e cairo: near cairo opera house 30° 02' 29” n, 31° 13' 38” e giza: el saff, alfred bircher̛ s garden 29° 35' 24” n, 31° 16' 36” e giza: mazhar botanical garden 30° 03’ 35” n, 31° 08’ 41” e giza: orman botanical garden 30° 01’ 44” n, 31° 12’ 46” e giza: cairo university 30° 01' 37” n, 31° 12' 28” e giza: agriculture research center 30° 01' 12” n, 31° 12' 34” e giza: al mansouria, private garden, mansoureya area 30° 01' 06” n, 31° 07'16” e giza: zoological garden 30° 01’40” n, 31°12’ 57” e giza: faculty of agriculture 31° 01' 05” n, 31° 12’ 29” e appendix (2): list of ficus taxa, arranged alphabetically along with their voucher specimens used in the present study. taxon locality date of collection collector, collection number and herbarium f. abutilifolia (miq.) miq., 1867 giza: orman botanic garden 09/10/1959 v. täckholm s.n. (cai) giza: mazhar botanic garden 03/04/2019 r. mahdy & r. hamdy s.n. (cai) f. amplissima sm., 1810 giza: orman botanic garden 22/06/1967 m. el mahdi s.n. (cai) giza: orman botanic garden 18/05/2019 r. mahdy & r. hamdy s.n. (cai) f. aspera g. forst., 1786 aswan: aswan botanic garden 10/01/1960 m. drar s.n. (cai) giza: mazhar botanic garden 18/05/2019 r. mahdy & r. hamdy s.n. (cai) f. auriculata lour., 1790 giza: orman botanic garden 18/05/2019 r. mahdy & r. hamdy s.n. (cai) f. benghalensis l., 1753 giza: zohriya garden spring 1962 s. el sisi s.n. (cai) giza: cairo university 04/04/2019 r. mahdy & r. hamdy s.n. (cai) f. benjamina l., 1767 aswan: aswan botanic garden 20/12/1995 h. rofeel 29115 (caim) giza: agriculture research center 16/03/2019 r. mahdy s.n. (cai) 463 soliman et al. f. carica l., 1753 gebel elba 04/03/1938 j.r. shabetai s.n. (caim) cairo: groppi garden 18/05/2019 r. mahdy s.n. cai) f. cordata subsp. salicifolia (vahl) c.c. berg, 1988 gebel elba 01/03/2019 k. el haddad & a. soliman s.n. (cai) giza: orman botanic garden 18/05/2019 r. mahdy s.n. (cai) f. craterostoma warb. ex mildbr. & burret, 1911 giza: zohriya garden 17/11/1959 v. täckholm s.n. (cai) giza: mazhar botanic garden 10/01/2020 r. hamdy s.n. (cai) f. cyathistipula warb., 1894 giza: orman botanic garden 15/04/2019 r. mahdy s.n. (cai) f. drupacea thunb. 1786 aswan: aswan botanic garden 23/05/1969 m. el mahdi s.n. (cai) cairo: zohriya garden 16/03/2019 r. mahdy s.n. (cai) f. drupacea var. pubescens (roth) corner, 1959 giza: orman botanic garden 14/10/1959 v. täckholm s.n. (cai) giza: zoo garden 16/03/2019 r. mahdy s.n. (cai) f. elastica roxb. ex hornem., 1819 giza: orman botanic garden 09/10/1959 v. täckholm s.n. (cai) giza: agriculture research center 16/03/2019 r. mahdy s.n. (cai) f. hirta vahl, 1806 aswan: aswan botanic garden 23/05/1969 m. el mahdi s.n. (cai) aswan: aswan botanic garden 16/03/2019 h. rofeel s.n. (caim) f. hispida l.f., 1781 aswan: aswan botanic garden 12/08/1997 hafeez rofeel 29298 (caim) giza: mazhar botanic garden 18/05/2019 r. mahdy & r. hamdy s.n. (cai) f. laurifolia lam., 1788 giza: agricultural museum׳s garden 07/12/1992 m. moharram s.n. (caim) giza: k. el haddad private garden 18/05/2019 r. mahdy & r. hamdy s.n. (cai) f. lingua subsp. lingua warb. ex de wild & t. durand, 1901 giza: k. el haddad private garden 18/05/2019 r. mahdy & r. hamdy s.n. (cai) f. lutea vahl, 1805 giza: orman botanic garden 09/10/1959 v. täckholm s.n. (cai) giza: orman botanic garden 18/05/2019 r. mahdy & r. hamdy s.n. (cai) f. lyrata warb., 1894 aswan: aswan botanic garden 14/04/1964 m. el mahdi s.n. (cai) giza: agriculture research center 15/04/2019 r. mahdy & r. hamdy s.n. (cai) 464 numerical taxonomy of genus ficus f. macrophylla desf. ex pers., 1806 aswan: aswan botanic garden 17/02/2007 t. labib s.n. (caim) giza: orman botanic garden 19/06/2019 r. mahdy & r. hamdy s.n. (cai) f. microcarpa l.f., 1781 faculty of agriculture 02/11/1959 v. täckholm s.n. (cai) giza: orman botanic garden 18/05/2019 r. mahdy & r. hamdy s.n. (cai) f. natalensis hochst. subsp. leprieurii (miq.) c.c.berg, 1988 giza: agriculture research center 15/04/2019 r. mahdy & r. hamdy s.n. (cai) f. neriifolia sm., 1810 giza: faculty of agriculture 12/01/1960 m. drar s.n. (cai) giza: orman botanic garden 18/05/2019 r. mahdy & r. hamdy s.n. (cai) f. nymphaeifolia mill., 1768 cairo: zohriya garden 16/03/2019 r. mahdy s.n. (cai) f. palmata forssk., 1775 aswan: aswan botanic garden 25/02/1942 j.r. shabetai g1495 (caim) giza: orman botanic garden 15/04/2019 r. mahdy s.n. (cai) f. platypoda (miq.) a.cunn. ex miq., 1847 giza: orman garden 09/10/1959 v. täckholm s.n. (cai) giza: mazhar botanic garden 18/05/2019 r. mahdy & r. hamdy s.n. (cai) f. pumila l.1753 giza: zohriya garden 04/08/1968 m. el mahdi s.n. (cai) giza: mazhar botanic garden 18/05/2019 r. mahdy & r. hamdy s.n. (cai) f. racemosa l. 1753 giza: orman botanic garden 18/05/2019 r. mahdy & r. hamdy s.n. (cai) f. religiosa l. 1753 giza: zohriya garden 20/12/1928 g. täckholm s.n. (cai) giza: orman botanic garden 18/05/2019 r. mahdy & r. hamdy s.n. (cai) f. rubiginosa desf. ex vent., 1803 aswan: aswan botanic garden 23/05/1969 m. el mahdi s.n. (cai) alexandria: antoniades garden 15/04/2019 r. mahdy & n. hassan s.n. (cai) f. rumphii blume 1825 giza: mazhar botanic garden 18/05/2019 r. mahdy & r. hamdy s.n. (cai) f. saussureana dc. 1841 giza: mazhar botanic garden 18/05/2019 r. mahdy & r. hamdy s.n. (cai) f. septica burm. f. 1768 giza: orman botanic garden 06/09/1933 a.k. g1492 (caim) giza: mazhar botanic garden 18/05/2019 r. mahdy & r. hamdy s.n. (cai) f. sur forssk. 1775 giza: mazhar botanic garden 03/04/2019 r. mahdy & r. hamdy s.n. (cai) 465 soliman et al. f. sycomorus l. 1753 giza: agricultural museum׳s garden 27/01/1965 m. el mahdi s.n. (cai) giza: orman garden 18/01/2019 r. mahdy & r. hamdy s.n. (cai) f. thonningii blume 1836 giza: mazhar botanic garden 18/05/2019 r. mahdy & r. hamdy s.n. (cai) f. tinctoria subsp. gibbosa (blume) corner 1959 cairo: orman botanic garden 27/10/1959 v. täckholm s.n. (cai) giza: orman botanic garden 15/04/2019 r. mahdy & r. hamdy s.n. (cai) f. umbellata vahl 1805 aswan: aswan botanic garden 21/05/1969 m. el mahdi s.n. (cai) giza: orman botanic garden 18/05/2019 r. mahdy & r. hamdy s.n. (cai) f. sp. giza: orman botanic garden 18/05/2019 r. mahdy & r. hamdy s.n. (cai) f. virens var. sublanceolata (miq.) corner 1959 giza (el saff): alfred bircher̛s garden 27/05/1961 v. täckholm s.n. (cai) giza: orman botanic garden 18/05/2019 r. mahdy & r. hamdy s.n. (cai) f. virens aiton 1789 var. virens giza: orman botanic garden 03/12/1977 m. el mahdi s.n. (cai) cairo: near cairo opera house 18/12/2020 r. hamdy s.n. (cai) 466 numerical taxonomy of genus ficus bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2021) 16 (4): 429-467. نواع جديدة ملصرأمع اضافة moraceaeعائلة ficus l. 1753التصنيف العددي لجنس لفتاح مهديأشرف توفيق سليمان*، ريم سمير حمدي* و رهام عبد ا ** .سم النبات وامليكروبيولوجي، كلية العلوم، جامعة القاهرة، مصر* ق ** قسم بحوث الزينة و تنسيق الحدائق، معهد بحوث البساتين، مركز البحوث الزراعية، .الجيزة، مصر 20/12/2021، تأريخ النشر: 09/09/2021، تأريخ القبول: 6/07/2021تأريخ االستالم: الخالصة الشديد وااللتباس بين التباين املظهري ا بسبب محير ficus l., 1753 جنسيعتبر تصنيف taxa االصنوفات من الصفات املظهرية ألنواعصفة 36تناولت هذه الدراسة لذلك أنواعه؛ دائق املصرية بإحدى وأربعين كشفت الدراسة أن هذا الجنس ممثل في الح الدراسة. قيد ، 33اصنوفة ) ficus :شملتُجَنْيسات 5أصناف( ، مقسمة إلى 4تحت صنفي و 4نوعا corner, 1960 ، raf., 1838 terega ، raf., 1838 sycomorus ،(miq.) miq., 1867 synoecia ،raf.,1838 spherosuke د تم وق غير معرفة من بين هؤالء سبعة انواع كانت .f. lingua subspجديدة من الفيكس إلى مصر وهي: نويعاتتعريفها. وقد تم ادراج أربعة lingua warb. ex de wild. & t. durand, 1901 و l.,1753 f. pumila و blume, 1825 f. rumphii وf. sur blume, 1825 blume, 1825. ي النظاميات النباتية: تحليل التجميع ثنائي كشف تطبيق التحليالت متعددة املتغيرات ف االتجاه وتحليل املكون الرئيس ي ، أن الصفات النوعية مثل وجود أو عدم وجود قنابات سويقية ؛ في حين أن ضمن هذا الجنسوكذلك صفة حافة األوراق تميز الُجَنْيسات داخل أو فويهية ، وطول النصل ، ونسبة طول النصل الخصائص النوعية للورقة مثل ترتيب األوراق ، والشكل 467 soliman et al. إلى عرضه ، و شكل قاعدة ، وقمة الورقة ، وعدد العروق الجانبية ، وعنق الثمرة ، وشكلها ، وعرضها ميزت بشكل كبير األنواع داخل أقسام هذا الجنس املختلفة. صممت سبعة مفاتيح تشخيصية لألصنوفات املدروسة بناء على الصفات املظهرية االصنوفات قيد جميعة، باإلضافة إلى ذلك تم عمل مفتاح تخطيطي يجمع بين املدروس .الدراسة bull 237 al-helli et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. june, (2019) 15 (3): 237-245 first record of solostamenides paucitesticulatus kritsky & öktener, 2015 (monogenoidea, microcotylidae) from gills of abu mullet planiliza abu (heckel, 1843) from euphrates river of samawa city, southern iraq ammar m. s. al-helli* atheer h. ali ** and amjad k. resen ** *department of animal production, college of agriculture, university of al-muthanna, al muthanna, iraq **department of fisheries and marine resources, college of agriculture, university of basrah, basrah, iraq *corresponding author e-mail: ammaralhelli17@gmail.com received date: 28 august 2018, accepted date: 14 october 2018, published date: 27 june 2019 abstract a total of 54 abu mullet planiliza abu (heckel, 1843) were collected from two stations (north and south stations) along the euphrates river near samawa city, al-muthanna province and were examined during the period from october 2016 till september 2017 for parasites. six out of 35 examined fishes from the north station (17.1%) and one out of 19 examined fishes (5.3%) from south station were infected with the microcotylid solostamenides paucitesticulatus kritsky & öktener, 2015. the parasite was illustrated and described, and it is considered as a new record for the parasitic fauna of fishes of iraq. s. iraqensis al-nasiri & balbuena, 2018 is considered a synonym of s. paucitesticulatus. keywords: fish, iraq, microcotylidae, mugilidae, planiliza abu, solostamenides. introduction the fish family mugilidae comprises 77 species, so called mullets or grey mullets. it includes mostly marine and brackish-water coastal fishes occurring in tropical and temperate seas worldwide, and only abu mullet planiliza abu occurs in southwestern asia including iraq (eschmeyer, 2018; froese and pauly, 2018). the abu mullet planiliza abu has a dominance in numerical abundance of fish assemblage in most water bodies in iraq, which comprises 21-61% with 36% annual mean in east al-hammar marshes and 41-77% with 62% annual mean in chebaish marshes in southern iraq (mohamed, 2014), and it is in the fourth dominant species out of 111 fish species in the shatt al-arab river (mohamed and abood, 2017). eleven monogenoid species belong to the order mazocraeidea have so far been recorded from p. abu in iraq (mhaisen, pers. comm.). in order to economize space, only the first record of these parasites (in an alphabetical order) will be given here. diplozoon paradoxum von nordmann, 1832 was reported from euphrates river at al-musaib city by al-sa’adi https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2019.15.3.0237 238 first record of solostamenides paucitesticulatus (2007), diplozoon sp. from garmat ali river, basrah province by abdul-rahman (1999), discoctyle sagittata (leuckart, 1842) diesing, 1850 from euphrates river at al-qadisia dam lake as well as from drainage network at al-madaen, south baghdad by mhaisen et al. (1997). but the full description of that parasite was published later on by mhaisen et al. (2003), discocotyle sp. from al-qadisiya dam lake by asmar et al. (1999), eudiplozoon nipponicum (goto, 1891) from diyala river, diyala province by mohammed (2017), mazocraeoides dorosomata (yamaguti, 1938) from garmat ali river, basrah province by jori (1998), microcotyle sp. from diyala river, southeast baghdad by ali et al. (1986) which was then recognized by ali et al. (1989) from babylon fish farm as microcotyle donavini van beneden & hesse, 1863; paradiplozoon bliccae (reichenbach-klinke, 1961) from tigris river passing through tikrit city by al-jubori (2013), paradiplozoon cyprini khotenovsky, 1982 from diyala river, diyala province by mohammed (2017); paradilozoon kasimii (rahemo, 1980) khotenovsky, 1982; which was reported as diplozoon kasimii from al-salihiya canal, basrah province by al-janae'e (2010), and paradiplozoon pavlovskii (bychowsky & nagibina, 1959) khotenovsky, 1982 from tigris river at baghdad province by al-jawda and asmar (2015). it is reliable to state here that the record of members of diplozoidae from non-cyprinid hosts was considered as unusual record, due to fact that members of diplozoidae are mainly parasites of cyprinidae (pugachev et al., 2009; al-nasiri and balbuena, 2016). during extensive survey of parasites of freshwater fishes belong to ten families from two stations along euphrates river near samawa city, al-muthanna province, southwestern iraq, unknown microcotylid specimens were detected from gills of p. abu in both stations. the present article deals with the description of such specimens. materials and methods fiftyfour specimens (35 and 19 specimens from north and south stations respectively) of p. abu were caught by electrical fishing or gill net from the north station (31°22'14.9"n, 45°12'49.2"e) and the south station (31°18'54.4"n 45°20'21.4"e) during the period from october 2016 till september 2017 from both stations. the fishes were transferred to the laboratory in a cool box half filled with river water. in the laboratory, the fishes were killed by spinal cord pithing and gill lamellae of each individual fish were removed and put in individual vial with hot (60°c) 5% formalin solution. the vials were then shaken vigorously for 15-30 sec and labeled; after that, the contents were allowed to settle down, the clear liquid was decanted and the sediment was placed in smaller labeled containers. some worms were picked from the sediments with a fine probe under dissecting microscopy, mounted unstained on microscope slides (kritsky et al., 2013) in lactic acid for the study of their sclerotized structures (solak et al., 2007). the fixed specimens in formalin were moved to 70% ethanol for four hours, stained with mayer-schuberg’s aceto carmine (palm, 2004), dehydrated with ascending series of ethanol, cleared in xylene and mounted in d.p.x. the terms prevalence and mean intensity were used as defined by bush et al. (1997). illustrations were prepared with the aid of a camera lucida (china) attached on compound microscope, (leica, germany); measurements, all in micrometers, were expressed as a range and followed by both the mean of structures measured and the standard variation in parentheses. fish taxonomy followed coad (2010) and the common and scientific name of fish species were followed froese and pauly (2018). four stained specimens on two slides were deposited in iraq natural history research center and museum (code no. inhmtrc21). 239 al-helli et al. results and discussion solostamenides paucitesticulatus kritsky & öktener, 2015 description is based on 12 stained specimens and one unstained specimen in lactic acid. plant leaf or lanceolate-like body (fig. 1a) gradually tapering toward both ends. the length of body is 1071-2417 (1939±392.8), maximum width 438-683 (580±73.5) in postgermarium. the subterminal mouth is attached to the anterior edge of the suckers; suckers are two, elliptical in shape, 31-68×50-88 (44.8±10.7 × 65.2±14.2); many small papillae are located on the posterior and the middle edges of suckers, 40-52 (46.7±3.9) in number (fig. 1b). pharynx is spherical, 31-62 (36.3±8.9) and situated directly posterior of suckers in mid longitudinal line of body; esophagus is long thin tube, bifurcates anterior of genital pore into two parallel intestinal caeca which extend posteriorly into the anterior portion of haptor. the haptor is 480-775 (688.4±100.7) in the length and carries two longitudinal rows of similar clamps, 36-40 (37.4±1.4) in the number, the anterior clamps are 60-88 (74±7.3) in width and the posterior one is 41-70 (57.7±0.7) in width; middle part of sclerotize carried tshaped end, another sclerotize raised from dorsal side of clamp (fig. 1c). testes are intercaecal and postgermarial, 7-10 (8.8±1.2) in number and 71-92 (82.5±6.6) in length, and 51-65 (56±6.4) in width; genital atrium sub spherical, 41-70 (59.7±13.2) and difficult to see due to dense vitellaria; male copulatory organ (mco) globular, 26-44 (31.6±6.2) and armed with 11-13 (12.3±0.7) small hooks arranged circularly around the male opening (fig. 1d); the hooks have bulby base and curved blade. ovary (germarium) has a question mark shape, intercaecal in the mid longitudinal line, 390-612 (475±62.1) in length; the uterus forms narrow tube and contains 1-3 (2.2±0.7) eggs; the eggs are oval, carrying short filament on one of their terminal end (fig. 1e), and measure 170-208 × 52-96 (192.1±12.5 × 70.5±14.4). vitellaria are dense and filled the area between intestinal bifurcation and the anterior of the haptor; the yshaped vitellarium reservoir is located behind the ovary (postgermarium). prevalence and mean intensity of infection is 12.96% and 1-12 (3.3), respectively. 240 first record of solostamenides paucitesticulatus figure (1): solostamenides paucitesticulatus from planiliza abu; (a) whole mount (ventral view), (b) oral sucker and pharynx, see the small papillae, (c) genital atrium and male copulatory organ, ventral view, (d) egg, (e) clamp, dorsal view. (scale bar: a= 1mm, b & c= 250 µm, d and e=100 µm. abbreviations: c: clamp, e: egg, es: esophagus, g: genital atrium, i: intestinal caecum, o: ovary, p: pharynx, s: sucker, t: testis, v: vetillaria) 241 al-helli et al. unnithan (1971) created the genus solostamenides and accommodated five species of the genus microcotyle van beneden & hesse, 1863; these were m. mugilis vogt, 1878 (=solostamenides mugilis (vogt, 1878) unnithan, 1971 as a type-species), m. chrysophryi van beneden & hesse, 1863, m. mouwoi ishi & sawada, 1938, m. suzuki ishii & sawada, 1938 and m. pseudomugilis hargis, 1956. he distinguished the new genus (solostamenides) from other microcotyle species by possessing the hooks on the head of the cirrus (penishead) only, while the armature with hook found on genital atrium and the cirrus being smooth in microcotyle species. mamaev (1977, 1986) accepted solostamenides, but accepted only two species reported from mugilidae, s. mugilis and s. pseudomugilis. jianyin and tingbao (2001) added the third species, s. platyorchis from flathead grey mullet mugil cephalus from china. on the other hand; kritsky and öktener (2015) described s. paucitesticulatus from liza abu (=planiliza abu) from ataturk reservoir on the euphrates river, southern turkey. moreover, the present record of s. paucitesticulatus is considered as the first record from iraq and the second for the world, and extends the distribution of the parasite species from upper drainage of euphrates to the lower part of the river. based on high host specificity of most monogenoides, kritsky and öktener (2015) explained that the description of s. pseudomugilis by williams (1991) from mugil cephalus in western australia might have dealt with undescribed species of solostamenides, as well as many other records of s. mugilis and s. pseudomugilis from other than the type host (mugil cephalus) in the mediterranean region and from chile and brazil coasts which would need a confirmation. s. paucitesticulatus is distinguished from the three other species by possessing lesser number of testes (7-10 vs. 83-113, 60-69 and 16-22 in s. mugilis, s. pseudomugilis and s. platyorchis, respectively) in the lesser number of haptoral clamps (36-40 vs. 60-80, 56-62 or 72-78 and 40-46, respectively) and lesser number of genital hooks (11-13 vs. 25-28, 16-20 and 15-17, respectively). the description and measurements of the present specimens of this parasite agreed with the original description of the same species from the same host from turkey. the infection existed in april and june in iraq, while it occurred in august, september and december in turkey (kritsky and öktener, 2015). recently, al-nasiri and babuelna (2018) described a new solostamenides species (s. iraqensis) from the gills of liza abu (= p. abu) from tigris river near tikrit city. s. iraqensis has the same body length, number of clamps, number of spines in mco and eggs dimensions. the authors offered some characters for distinguishing the two species which were already described from the same fish host (p. abu) e. g. absence or presence of muscular bands in the oral sucker, diameter of testes, lengths of spines in mco, nature of egg's filament and the shape of median part of clamp (x or ylike). however, all above used characters used have not taxonomical value and they are even variable within the same species as resulting from different fixations and staining from intraspecific variations. hence, s. iraqensis is considered as a synonym of s. paucitesticulatus; also, both species were described from the same host and the geographical distribution (mesopotamia, turkey and iraq). it is well known that each species of solostamenides is infects a single species of mullet (kritsky and oktener, 2015). the invalidity of s. iraqensis from p. abu from tigris river, iraq is based on the opinion provided by the expert dr. delane kritsky (d. kritsky, pers. comm.). as indicated in the introduction, 11 mazocraeid species were so far recorded from p. abu in iraq (mhaisen, pers. comm.); seven out of 11 species of mazocraeids are so far reported from p. abu which belong to dilozoidae: 2 species of diplozoon, 1 species of eudiplozoon and 4 species of paradiplozoon). all of them are clearly distinguished from s. paucitesticulatus by 242 first record of solostamenides paucitesticulatus twin worm shape and four clamps on the haptor. both discocotyle spp. and m. dorosomata can be easy distinguished from s. paucitesticulatus by having four pairs of clamps which are arranged as four clamps on each side of the haptor in comparison with the haptor with many clamps (17-20 pairs), as well as the presence of larval hook on terminal lappet of haptor in comparison with their absence in s. paucitesticulatus. the only so similar parasite that was recorded from the same host (p. abu) is m. donavini; both genera have the same sclerotized parts and reproductive organs. the nature of the genital atrium armature between microcotyle and solostamenides is the only distinguished character. however, the description of both m. donavini or microcotyle sp. in iraqi studies (e.g. al-daraji, 1986; ali et al., 1986; mehdi, 1989; al-daraji and al-salim, 1990) were inadequate and never dealt with the spinal armature of the genital atrium. as well as whether the spines are found on male copulatory organ (mco) only or distributed on genital atrium is not clear also. according to the above discussion, it is so probable that some of iraqi records of m. donavini from gills of l. abu (=p. abu) might represent a misidentification with s. paucitesticulatus. acknowledgements the authors are indebted to the staff of department of fisheries and marine resources, college of agriculture, university of basrah, iraq; for providing space and resources for this research. we would thanks to prof. dr. furhan t. mhaisen, katrineholm, sweden for his permission to use his indexcatalogue of parasites and disease agents of fishes of iraq, prof. dr. delane kritsky of idaho state university, pocatello, idaho, usa for confirm identification of parasite of the study and his comments on s. iraqensis. litereature cited abdul-rahman, n. m. 1999. parasites infection in fish from garmat ali river and its relation with food items. m. sc. thesis, college of agriculture, university of basrah, 103pp. (in arabic). al-daraji, s. a. m. 1986. survey of parasites from five species of fishes found in al-hammar marsh. m. sc. thesis, college agriculture, university of basrah, 130pp. (in arabic). al-daraji, s. a. m. and al-salim, n. k. 1990. parasitic fauna of five species of fishes from al-hammar marsh, iraq. i: protozoa and monogenea. marina mesopotamica, 5(2): 275-282. ali, n. m., al-jafery, a. r. and abdul-ameer, k. n. 1986. new records of three monogenetic trematodes on some freshwater fishes from diyala river, iraq. journal of biological science research, 17(2): 253-266. ali, n. m., mhaisen, f. t., abul-eis, e. s. and kadim, l. s. 1989. helminth parasites of the mugilid fish liza abu (heckel) inhabiting babylon fish farm, hilla, iraq. proceedings of the fifth scientific conference, science research council, iraq, 5(2): 225-233. al-janae'e, a. m. s. 2010. parasites of some iraqi fishes in two localities varied in their trophic levels in inland water of basrah. m. sc. thesis, college agriculture, university of basrah, 228pp. (in arabic). 243 al-helli et al. al-jawda, j. m. and asmar, k. r. 2015. a second collection of monogeneans and trematodes (phylum platyhelminthes) parasitic on some fishes from tigris river at baghdad province, iraq. annual research and review in biology, 7(2): 126-132. al-jubori, m. i. a. 2013. parasitic infections of some cyprinid and mugilid families fishes from tigris river passing through tikrit city. m. sc. thesis, college of science, university of tikrit, 86pp. (in arabic). al-nasiri, f. s. and balbuena, j. a. 2016. paradiplozoon iraqensis n. sp. (monogenea: diplozoinae) from cyprinion macrostomum (cyprinidae) in the tigris river, iraq. acta parasitologica, 61(2): 291-298. al-nasiri, f. s. and balbuena, j. a. 2018. solostamenides iraqensis n. sp. (monogenoidea, microcotylidae) parasitizing the freshwater mullet liza abu (pisces, mugilidae) from the tigris river in iraq. vie et milieulife and environment, 68(4): 245-251. al-sa’adi, b. a.-h. e. 2007. the parasitic fauna of fishes of euphrates river: applied study in al-musaib city. m. tech. thesis, al-musaib technical college, foundation of technical education, 102pp. (in arabic). asmar, k. r., balasem, a. n., mhaisen, f. t., al-khateeb, g. h. and al-jawda, j. m. 1999. survey of the parasites of some fish species from al-qadisiya dam lake, iraq. ibn alhaitham journal for pure and applied sciences, 12(1): 52-61. bush, a. o., lafferty, k. d., lotz, j. m. and shostak, a. w. 1997. parasitology meets ecology on its own terms: margolis et al. revisited. journal of parasitology, 83(4): 575-583. coad, b. w. 2010. freshwater fishes of iraq. pensoft publication sofia, 274 pp. +16pls. eschmeyer, w. n. 2018. catalog of fishes. available at: researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/speciesbyfamily.asp (version 8. 2018). froese r. and pauly, e. (eds.). 2018. fishbase. available at: www.fishbase.org (version 6. 2018). jianyin, z. and tingbao, y. 2001. monogenea of chinese marine fishes. xiv. two new species of microcotylidae from fishes of the south china sea. systematic parasitology, 48(1): 67-73. jori, m. m. 1998. study of the parasites of two mugilid fish species and the effect of some on the blood parameters. m. sc. thesis, college of agriculture, university of basrah, 136pp. (in arabic). kritsky, d. c. and öktener, a. 2015. solostamenides paucitesticulatus n. sp. (monogenoidea: mazocraeidea: microcotylidae) from the freshwater mullet liza abu (heckel) (mugiliformes: mugilidae) from atatürk reservoir on the euphrates river in southern turkey. systematic parasitology, 91(2): 139-145. 244 first record of solostamenides paucitesticulatus kritsky, d. c., ali, a. h. and khamees, n. r. 2013. gyrodactylus aff. mugili zhukov, 1970 (monogenoidea: gyrodactylidae) from the gills of mullets (mugiliformes: mugilidae) collected from the inland waters of southern iraq, with an evaluation of previous records of gyrodactylus spp. on mullets in iraq. folia parasitologica, 60(5): 441-447. mamaev, yu. l. 1977. on one of classifications of monogeneans of the family microcotylidae. parazitologiya, 11: 98-103. (in russian) mamaev, yu. l. 1986. the taxonomical composition of the family microcotylidae taschenberg, 1879 (monogenea). folia parasitologica, 33: 199-206. mehdi, d. s. 1989. effect of parasites on the biochemical constituents of fishes liza abu. m. sc. thesis, college of education, university of basrah, 98pp. (in arabic). mhaisen, f. t., balasem, a.n., al-khateeb, g. h. and asmar, k. r. 2003. recording of five monogenetic trematodes for the first time from fishes of iraq. bulletin iraq natural history museum, 10(1): 31-38. mhaisen, f. t., balasem, a. n., al-khateeb, g. h. and asmar, k. r. 1997. recording of five monogenetic trematodes for the first time from fishes of iraq. abs. 14th sciences conference, iraqi biological society, najaf, 11-13. mohamed, a. r. m. and abood, a. n. 2017. compositional change in fish assemblage structure in the shatt al-arab river, iraq. asian journal of applied science, 5(5): 944-958. mohammed, h. j. 2017. parasitic fauna of some fish species from diyala river in diyala province. m. sc. thesis, college of education for pure science ibn al-haitham, university of baghdad, 122pp. (in arabic) mohamed, a. r. m. 2014. stock assessment of freshwater mullet, liza abu (heckel, 1843) populations in three restored southern marshes, iraq. croatian journal of fisheries, 72(2): 48-54. palm, h. w. 2004. the trypanorhyncha diesing, 1863. pkspl-ipb press, bogor, 710pp. pugachev, o. n., gerasev, p. i., gussev, a. v., ergens, r. and khotenowsky, i. (eds.). 2009. guide to monogenoidea of freshwater fish of palaearctic and amur regions. ledizioni ledi publ., milano, 567pp. solak, k., öktener, a., trilles, j. p. and solak, c. n. 2007. report on the monogenean cyclocotyla bellones and three cymothoids parasitizing two fish species from the aegean sea coasts of turkey. türkiye parazitoloji dergisi, 31(3): 237-238. unnithan, r. v. 1971. on the functional morphology of a new fauna of monogenoidea on fishes from trivandrum and environs. part iv. microcotylidae sensu stricto and its repartition into subsidiary taxa. american midland naturalist, 85: 366-398. 245 al-helli et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. june, (2019) 15 (3): 237-245 تسجيل أول للدودة أحادية املنشأ solostamenides paucitesticulatus kritsky & öktener, 2015 (monogenoidea, microcotylidae) من نهر الفرات عند مدينة السماوة، planiliza abu (heckel, 1843) من غالصم سمكة الخشني جنوب العراق **مجد كاظم رسنأو ** ، أثير حسين علي *عمار مضر سليمان الحلي قسم الانتاج الحيواني، كلية الزراعة، جامعة املثنى، العراق* قسم الاسماك والثروة البحرية، كلية الزراعة، جامعة البصرة، العراق** 82/80/8802: تأريخ النشر، 01/08/8802: تأريخ القبول ، 82/82/8802: تأريخ الاستالم الخالصة من املحطتين الشمالية planiliza abu (heckel, 1843)عينة من سمكة الخشني 45فحصت 6102والجنوبية على طول نهر الفرات املار في مدينة السماوة، محافظة املثنى للمدة من تشرين ألاول عن الطفيليات 6102وحتى أيلول ً سمكة، و %(0270)عينة 54وجد ان ستة أسماك من أصل . بحثا solostamenides مصابة بنوع الطفيلي أحادي املنشأ%( 475)عينة 01واحدة من أصل paucitesticulatus kritsky & öktener, 2015 في املحطتين الشمالية والجنوبية، على التوالي. ؛ و ان النوعرسم و وصف الطفيلي و عد تسجيال جديدا للمجموعة الطفيلية في أسماك العراق s. iraqensis al-nasiri & balbuena, 2018 يعتبر مرادفا للنوع s. paucitesticulatus . bull 193 noushig zarikian bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2020) 16 (2): 193202. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2020.16.2.0193 a contribution to the checklist of the jumping spiders (araneae: salticidae) of armenia noushig zarikian scientific center of zoology and hydroecology, national academy of sciences of armenia, yerevan, armenia e-mail: noushigz@hotmail.com received date: 24 sep. 2020, accepted date: 22 october 2020, published date: 21 december 2020 abstract the paper presents an annotated checklist of the salticidae of armenia. this study was carried out in 2019-2020 in order to provide an inventory of the salticidae fauna. thirteen species are reported for the armenian fauna for the first time: afraflacilla epiblemoides (chyzer, 1891); aelurillus v-insignitus (clerck, 1757); asianellus festivus (c. l. koch, 1834); heliophanus dubius c. l. koch, 1835; heliophanus kochii simon, 1868; heliophanus tribulosus simon, 1868; heliophanus curvidens (o. pickard-cambridge, 1872); macaroeris nidicolens (walckenaer, 1802); pellenes diagonalis (simon, 1868); pellenes geniculatus (simon, 1868); pellenes seriatus (thorell, 1875); pellenes tripunctatus (walckenaer, 1802) and phlegra fasciata (hahn, 1826). keywords: annotated checklist, araneae, armenia, new records, salticidae. introduction the family salticidae encompasses over 6193 species world-wide, placed in over 650 genera metzner (2020). diagnostic drawings of over 4000 species of salticidae are recorded in the monograph “salticidae (araneae) of the world” (prószyński, 2016). in addition, the family of salticidae in the caucasus regions has been well studied by many authors such as: dunin (1979), logunov and marusik (2000), logunov and guseinov (2002), azarkina (2002a and 2002 b, 2003) and logunov (2015). until recently, the salticidae fauna of armenia has been rather poorly studied; data on this group for armenia were first mentioned in the work of kulcyznski (1895). during the soviet union time, there were published a few papers which included data on the armenian salticidae fauna (wesolowska, 1986); some papers important for the study of the armenian fauna of salticidae were published by several authors, such as: logunov (1996, 1998a, 1998b, 1999, 2015), logunov and heciak(1996), rakov and logunov(1997), logunov and marusik(1998), logunov and rakov (1998) and logunov and guseinov (2002). 194 a contribution to the checklist of the jumping spiders in a comprehensive checklist of the spiders of the territories of the former soviet union by mikhailov (2013), this study has listed some salticidae species, adding more species in addendum 2 to the catalogue mikhailov (1999). finally, in on-line faunistic database on the spiders of the caucasus ecoregion (otto, 2020), as a result, the salticid fauna of armenia reached 40 recorded species. this study aims to enrich the spider biodiversity data of armenia. materials and methods specimens collecting the specimens were collected during 2019-2020 from various localities of armenia (map 1, tab. 1) by the author; these specimens were kept in 70% alcohol. most of the materials were identified by the collectors themselves and some of them by the author of this paper depending on the guidelines of jones-walters (1989), nentwig et al. (2020) and world spider catalog (2020). the collected materials label data as well as data on the number of specimens and their genders are provided. the specimens are kept in the collection of the institute of zoology, scientific center of zoology and hydroecology, national academy of sciences of armenia. general distribution is given according to the references listed above, also otto (2020) and nentwig (2020). the distribution in armenia follows the references mentioned in table (2). table (1): the collecting sites. no. site coordinate altitude m.a.s.l 1 amberd 40.39172 n, 44.23328 e 2100 2 ara mount 40.38208 n, 44.58331 e 1500-1800 3 geghadir 40.153054 n, 44.662765 e 1700 4 jajur 40.84869 n, 43.96112 e 1738 5 lanjar 39.82788 n, 44.97229 e 1845 6 noravank 39.68189 n, 45.23053 e 1442 7 yerevan 40.18048 n, 44.49591 e 966 8 zovashen 40.09308 n, 44.64172 e 1150 195 noushig zarikian map (1): collecting sites; (1) amberd, (2) ara mount, (3) geghadir, (4) jajur, (5) lanjar, (6) noravank, (7) yerevan, (8) zovashen. results and discussuion in our investigation, there were 13 species belonging to the family of salticidae have been registered as a new record to the spider fauna of armenia (pl. 1), these species are listed below; also, the summery of checklist of species in armenia is given in the table (2). afraflacilla epiblemoides (chyzer, 1891) material: 1 ♂, shirak province, jajur, 05.vi.2020. distribution: central and eastern europe. habitats in armenia: rocky slops and gorges. aelurillus v-insignitus (clerck, 1757) materials: 2♂♂, shirak prov., jajur, 05.vi.2020. distribution: europe, turkey, caucasus, russia, kazakhstan, central asia and china. 196 a contribution to the checklist of the jumping spiders habitats in armenia: rocky slops and gorges. asianellus festivus (c. l. koch, 1834) material: 1♀, kotayk prov., geghadir, 18.iv.2020. distribution: europe, caucasus, russia (europe to far east), kazakhstan, china, korea and japan. habitats in armenia: dry, warm and rocky areas and steppes. heliophanus dubius c. l. koch, 1835 materials: 1♀, kotayk prov., geghadir, 18.iv.2020. 1♂, vayotsdzor prov., noravank, 13.vi.2020. distribution: europe, turkey, caucasus, russia, kazakhstan, uzbekistan and china. habitats in armenia: dry, warm and rocky areas and steppes. heliophanus kochii simon, 1868 materials: 4♀♀, shirak prov., jajur, 05.vi.2020. distribution: macaronesia, north africa, europe, turkey, caucasus, middle east, kazakhstan. introduced to canada, and usa. habitats in armenia: rocky slops and gorges. heliophanus tribulosus simon, 1868 materials: 1♀, shirak prov., jajur, 05.vi.2020; 1♀, yerevan, 30.vii.2020. distribution: europe to kazakhstan. habitats in armenia: rocky slops. heliophanus curvidens (o. pickardcambridge, 1872) material: 1 ♂, ararat prov., lanjar, 13.vi.2020. distribution: turkey, israel to china, and india. habitats in armenia: shrublands on foothills. macaroeris nidicolens (walckenaer, 1802) material: 1♀, yerevan, 30.vii.2020. distribution: macaronesia, europe, north africa to turkey, caucasus, turkmenistan, iran. introduced to sri lanka. habitats in armenia: shrublands on foothills. pellenes diagonalis (simon, 1868) materials: 1 ♂, kotayk prov., zovashen, 16.v.2020; 1♀, aragatsotn prov. amberd, 30.v.2020. distribution: north macedonia, greece, turkey, israel, iran and azerbaijan. habitats in armenia: rocky arid mountain slopes. pellenes geniculatus (simon, 1868) material: 1 ♂, kotayk prov., geghadir, 18.iv.2020. distribution: southern europe, africa, turkey, ukraine, caucasus, middle east, iran, kazakhstan, and central asia. habitats in armenia: dry, warm and rocky areas and steppes. 197 noushig zarikian pellenes seriatus (thorell, 1875) materials: 2 ♂♂, kotayk prov., zovashen, 16.v.2020. distribution: france, greece, north macedonia, bulgaria, romania, ukraine, turkey, caucasus, russia, kazakhstan, iran, central asia. habitats in armenia: rocky arid mountain slopes. pellenes tripunctatus (walckenaer, 1802) materials: 2 ♂♂, shirak prov., jajur, 05.vi.2020. distribution: europe, caucasus, central asia, and china. habitats in armenia: rocky slops, gorges and wetlands. phlegra fasciata (hahn, 1826) materials: 2♀♀, aragatsotn prov., ara mount, 14. iv.2020; 1♂, kotayk prov., geghadir 18.iv.2020. distribution: europe, turkey, caucasus, russia, kazakhstan, central asia, iran, afghanistan, india, china, mongolia, korea, and japan. habitats in armenia: rocky slops. table (2): summary of checklist of salticid species in armenia. no. species distribution in armenia reference 1 afraflacilla epiblemoides (chyzer, 1891) * shirak province the current study 2 asianellus festivus (c. l. koch, 1834) * kotayk prov. the current study 3 asianellus potanini (schenkel, 1963) yerevan logunov (2015) 4 attulus ammophilus (thorell, 1875) gegharkunik prov. kulczynski (1895) logunov (1998a) 5 attulus dzieduszyckii (l. koch, 1870) armavir prov. logunov (2015) 6 attulus saltator (simon, 1868) mikhailov (1999) 7 aelurillus v-insignitus (clerck, 1757) * shirak prov. the current study 8 ballus chalybeius (walckenaer, 1802) syunik prov. logunov and rakov (1998) 9 chalcoscirtus tanasevichi marusik, 1991 gegharkunik prov. logunov and marusik (1998) 10 chinattus caucasicus logunov, 1999 lori, syunik and tavush prov. logunov and guseinov (2002) 11 dendryphantes rudis (sundevall, 1833) tavush prov. kulczynski (1895) 12 euophrys frontalis (walckenaer, 1802) artsakh logunov (2015) 13 evarcha arcuate (clerck, 1757) armavir and tavush prov. koch (1878) logunov (2015) 14 evarcha armeniaca logunov, 1999 syunik prov. logunov (1998b) 15 heliophanus auratus c. l. koch, 1835 gegharkunik prov. rakov et al. (1997) logunov (2015) 198 a contribution to the checklist of the jumping spiders 16 heliophanus cupreus (walckenaer, 1802) lori, syunik and tavush prov. logunovand guseinov (2002) 17 heliophanu scurvidens (o. p.-cambridge, 1872) * ararat prov. the current study 18 heliophanus dubius c. l. koch, 1835* kotayk and vayotsdzor prov. the current study 19 heliophanus equester l. koch, 1867 yerevan kulczynski (1895) 20 heliophanus flavipes (hahn, 1832) tavush prov. logunov and guseinov (2002) 21 heliophanus forcipifer kulczynski, 1895 wesolowska (1986) 22 heliophanus kochii simon, 1868* shirak prov. the current study 23 heliophanus lineiventris simon, 1868 tavush prov. logunov and guseinov (2002) 24 heliophanus patagiatus thorell., 1875 kotayk prov. logunov (2015) 25 heliophanus tribulosus simon, 1868* yerevan and shirak prov. the current study 26 macaroeris nidicolens (walckenaer, 1802)* yerevan the current study 27 menemerus marginatus (kroneberg, 1875) mikhailov (2013) 28 myrmarachne formicaria (de geer, 1778) tavush prov. logunov and guseinov (2002) 29 pellenes diagonalis (simon, 1868) * kotayk and aragatsotn prov. the current study 30 pellenes geniculatus (simon, 1868) * kotayk prov. the current study 31 pellenes seriatus (thorell, 1875) * kotayk prov. the current study 32 pellenes tripunctatus (walckenaer, 1802) * shirak prov. the current study 33 philaeus chrysops ( poda, 1761) gegharkunik and tavush prov. logunov and guseinov (2002) 34 phlegra cinereofasciata simon, 1868 gegharkunik prov. logunov (1996) 35 phlegra fasciata (hahn, 1826)* aragatsotn prov. and kotayk prov., the current study 36 pseudeuophrys erratica (walckenaer, 1826) syunik and tavush prov. logunov and guseinov (2002) 37 pseudicius pseudocourtauldi logunov, 1999 syunik prov. logunov (1998 b) 38 pseudomogrus albocinctus (kroneberg, mikhailov (2013) 199 noushig zarikian 1875) 39 salticus tricinctus (c. l. koch, 1846) gegharkunik prov. logunov (2015) 40 sittis axdzieduszyckii (l. koch, 1870) armavir prov. logunov (2015) 41 synageles persianus logunov, 2004 syunik prov. logunov (2015) (* new record for armenia) afraflacilla epiblemoides (♂) aelurillus v-insignitus (♂) asianellus festivus (♀) heliophanus dubius (♀) heliophanus kochii (♀) heliophanus tribulosus (♀) pellenes geniculatus (♂) pellenes seriatus (♂) pellenes tripunctatus (♂) phlegra fasciata ♀ plate (1): some species of salticides which recorded in the current study. 200 a contribution to the checklist of the jumping spiders literature cited azarkina, g. n. 2002 a. aelurillus ater (kroneberg, 1875) and related species of jumping spiders in the fauna of middle asia and the caucasus (aranei: salticidae). arthropoda selecta, 11: 89-107. azarkina, g. n. 2002 b. new and poorly known species of the genus aelurillus simon, 1884 from central asia, asia minor and the eastern mediterranean (araneae: salticidae). bulletin of the british arachnological society, 12(6): 249-263. azarkina, g. 2003. new and poorly known palaearctic species of the genus phlegra simon, 1876 (araneae, salticidae). revue arachnology, 14: 73-108. dunin, p. m. 1979. materials on the spider fauna (salticidae) of azerbaijan [in russian]. uchyonye zapiski azerbaijan. university (biology), p35-40. jones-walters l.m. 1989. keys to the families of british spiders. aidgap. shrewsbury: field studies council (fsc), no. 197, 79 pp. kulcyznski l. 1895. araneae a dre g. horvath in bessarabia, chersonesotaurico, transcaucasia et armenia russica collectae. természtrajzi füzetek, 18: 3-38. logunov, d. v. 1996. a review of the genus phlegra simon, 1876 in the fauna of russia and adjacent countries (araneae: salticidae: aelurillinae). genus, 7: 533-567. logunov, d. v. 1998a. pseudeuophrys is a valid genus of the jumping spiders (araneae, salticidae). revue arachnologique, 12 (11): 109-128. logunov, d. v. 1998b. two new jumping spider species from the caucasus (aranei: salticidae). arthropoda selecta, 7 (4): 301-303. logunov, d. v. 1999. redefinition of the genus habrocestoides prószyn'ski, 1992, with establishment of a new genus, chinattus gen n. (araneae: salticidae). bulletin of the british arachnological society, 11 (4): 139-149. logunov, d. 2015. taxonomic-faunistic notes on the jumping spiders of the mediterranean (aranei: salticidae). arthropoda selecta, 24(1): 33-85. logunov, d. v. and guseinov, e. f. 2002. faunistic review of the jumping spiders of azerbaijan (aranei: salticidae), with additional faunistic records from neighboring caucasian countries. arthropoda selecta, 10 (3): 243-260. logunov, d. v. and heciak, s. 1996. asianellus, a new genus of the subfamily aelurillinae (araneae, salticidae). entomologica scandinavica, 27(1): 103-117. 201 noushig zarikian logunov, d. v. and marusik, y. m. 1998. a brief review of the genus chalcoscirtus bertkau, 1880 in the faunas of central asia and the caucasus (aranei: salticidae). arthropoda selecta, 7 (3): 205-226. logunov, d. v. and marusik, y. 2000. miscellaneous notes on palaearctic salticidae (arachnida: aranei). arthropoda selecta, 8 (4): 263-292. logunov, d. v. and rakov, s. y. 1998. miscellaneous notes on middle asian jumping spiders (aranei: salticidae). arthropoda selecta, 7 (2): 117-144. metzner, h. 2020. jumping spiders (arachnida: araneae: salticidae) of the world. accessed 15 october 2020. online at https://www.jumping-spiders.com mikhailov, k. g. 1999. catalogue of the spiders (arachnida: aranei) of the territories of the former soviet union. addendum 2, zoological museum mgu, moscow, 40 pp. mikhailov, k. g. 2013. the spiders (arachnida: aranei) of russia and adjacent countries a non-annotated checklist. arthropoda selecta, supplement no.3, kmk scientific press ltd., moscow, 262 pp. nentwig, w., blick, t., bosmans, r., gloor, d., hänggi, a. and kropf, c. 2020. spiders of europe. version 09.2020. available at: https://www.araneae.nmbe.ch. otto, s. 2020. caucasian spiders. a faunistic database on the spiders of the caucasus ecoregion. available at: https://caucasus-spiders.info/ prószyński, j. 2016. monograph of salticidae (araneae) of the world 1995-2015. part ii. global species database of salticidae (araneae). version october 30th, 2016. available at: http://www.salticidae.pl. rakov, s. y. and logunov, d. v. 1997. a critical review of the genus heliophanus c. l. koch, 1833, of middle asia and the caucasus (aranei, salticidae). arthropoda selecta, 5 (3/4): 67-104. wesolowska, w. 1986. a revision of the genus heliophanus , c. l. koch, 1833 (araneae, salticidae). annales zoologici, warszawa, 40: 1-254. world spider catalog. 2020 version 21.5. natural history museum bern. available at: http://wsc.nmbe.ch 202 a contribution to the checklist of the jumping spiders bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2020) 16 (2): 193202. في أرمينياsalticidae القائمة المرجعية للعناكب القافزة مساهمة التمام نوشيك زاريكيان ي فة للعلوم األكاديمية الوطني و علم البيئة المائية، علم الحيوانلالمركز العلمي يريفان، أرمينيا جمهورية أرمينيا، 21/12/2020 يخ النشر:، تأر22/10/2020 ، تأريخ القبول:24/09/2020 تأريخ االستالم: الخالصة ذ إ قائمة مرجعية مشروحة للعناكب القافزة في أرمينيا ، الحالية المقالة قدمت من أجل اضافة أنواع جديدة على قائمة 2020-2019أجريت هذه الدراسة في . إذ سجل خالل هذه الدراسة ثالثة عشر نوعًا العناكب القافزة في أرمينيا afraflacilla و هذه األنواع هي: ،ألول مرة للمجموعة الحيوانية في ارمينيا epiblemoides (chyzer, 1891)، aelurillus v-insignitus (clerck, 1757) ،asianellus festivus (c. l. koch, 1834) ،heliophanus dubius c. l. koch, 1835، h. kochii simon, 1868، h. tribulosus simon,1868،h. curvidens (o. pickard cambridge, 1872)، macaroeris nidicolens (walckenaer, 1802)، pellenes diagonalis (simon, 1868) ، p. geniculatus (simon, 1868) ، p. seriatus (thorell, 1875) ،p. tripunctatus (walckenaer, 1802) و phlegra fasciata (hahn, 1826). تأريخ الاستلام: 24/09/2020، تأريخ القبول: 22/10/2020، تأريخ النشر: 21/12/2020 291 haloob et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2021) 16 (3): 291-299. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2021.16.3.0291 short communication spergularia iraqensis (caryophyllaceae), a new species from iraq ali haloob*♦ ali h. e. al-musawi** and harb adeel*** * national herbarium of iraq, directorate of seed testing and certification, ministry of agriculture of iraq, baghdad, iraq. ** department of biology, college of science, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq. *** directorate of plant protection, ministry of agriculture of iraq, baghdad, iraq. ♦corresponding author: alihaloob@gmail.com received date: 18 february 2021, accepted date: 22 april 2021, published date: 20 jun 2021 abstract spergularia iraqensis sp. nov. is described as a new species from iraq. this species has been collected from diyala province in the central east of iraq; it is closely related to spergularia rubra (l.) j. presl & c. presl, 1819 and spergularia bocconei (scheele) graebn., 1919. the distinguishing of the morphological characteristics of the new species alongside the two similar species are discussed with photographs, and an identification key is given for spergularia iraqensis and other closely related species. keywords: caryophyllaceae, diyala, endemic, iraq, spergularia. introduction spergularia (pers.) j.presl & c.presl, 1819 is a cosmopolitan genus with about 40 species; some of these species are halophytes and distributed worldwide (ghazanfar and nasir, 1986; townsend et al., 2016). the first revision of the genus spergularia in iraq was done by handleـmazzetti (1910); he recognized two species which are spergularia salina j. presl & c. presl, 1819 and spergularia diandra (guss.) heldr., 1851; later guest (1933) reports that there are two species of the genus spergularia, s. diandra and s. marina (l.) besser, 1822 in iraq. in 1935, anthony pointed out that there are three species of the genus spergularia in iraq: s. rubra, s. media (l.) c. presl, 1826 and s. diandra, then in 1948, blacklock listed two species s. diandra and s. marginata (dc.) kitt., 1844; zohary (1950) listed only two species s. salina and s. diandra grow in iraq, while al-rawi (1964) who collected the data of all https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2021.16.3.0291 292 spergularia iraqensis (caryophyllaceae) previous studies, and mentioned five species of spergularia distribute in iraq: s. diandra, s. marginata, s. media, s. rubra and s. salina, rechinger (1964) in the flora of lowland iraq reported only two species s. salina and s. diandra, ratter (1980) in flora iranica mentioned only two species of spergularia collected from iraq which are s. marina and s. diandra, however, townsend et al. (2016) in the flora of iraq which is the newest study for spergularia in iraq described four species: s. media, s. marina, s. bocconei and s. diandra. during a plant field survey in 2019 to upper plains and foothills region in diyala province central east of iraq, two unusual specimens of spergularia was collected from two different places and homed in the national herbarium of iraq (bag), the specimens could not be identified by using the key provided in the flora of iraq (townsend et al., 2016), or by crosschecked with spergularia accounts of the relevant literature, like flora orientalis (boissier, 1876), flora of syria, palestine, and sinai (post, 1933), flora of the ussr (gorshkova, 1936), flora europaea (monnier and ratter, 1964), flora of turkey (ratter, 1967), flora of saudi arabia (migahid, 1978), flora iranica (ratter, 1980), flora of egypt (boulos, 1999), flora of china (dequan and rabeler, 2001) spergularia in australia (adams et al., 2008), and also cross-checked with the specimens at bag and the university of baghdad herbarium, college of science (buh). therefore, this paper aims to describe the spergularia iraqensis as new species for science. taxonomic treatment spergularia iraqensis sp. nov., type: iraq, 12 km w of mandali, clay soil with tamarix l., 1753 and lycium barbarum l., 1753 community, 33°44'47.30" n; 45°24'59.80" e, 21/iv/2019, a. haloob (holotype 60268 bag!; isotype 44859 buh!). annual plant, 85-200 mm long; root tap, 17–40 × 0.6–1 mm. stem ascending or decumbent, 65–180 × 0.5–1.3 mm, light green or purple in lower quarter and above green tinged with purple, internodes length 12-28 mm, glabrous with dense short glandular hairs on last internode below inflorescence. stipule 2, scarious white, deltate, 3–4 × 1.2–2.5 mm, apex long acuminate, connate of 0.1-0.5 mm. leaves 2-4, fleshy, linear, 6–32 × 0.5–2 mm, apex mucronate, green almost with purple apex, glabrous. inflorescence cymose, 15–60 mm long, dense short glandular hair; stipules in inflorescence broadly ovate-deltate, 1–2.5 × 0.8–2 mm. bracts in first node in inflorescence linear, 6–10 × 0.7–1 mm, entire ciliate or not with short glandular hair, other bracts narrowly lanceolate or subulate, 0.8–2.5 × 0.07–0.8 mm, green with reddish-purple apex, margin entire with scarious margin sometimes ciliate with short glandular hair, apex long mucronate. pedicel erect, 2–5 mm, dense glandular hair. flower pentamerous, 4–5 mm diameter; calyx 5 unequal-slightly unequal sepals, two sepals slightly shorter than other three longer sepals, lanceolate or ovate, shorter sepals 1.8–2.2 × 0.8–0.9 mm, longer 2–2.3 × 0.65–0.8 mm, sepals join from base about 0.1–0.15 mm, apex cucullate obtuse or acute, outer surface green with separated glandular hair, inner surface green or green turn to purple in upper part and glabrous, scarious margin white color, 0.1–0.3 mm wide, corolla with 5 equal petals, petals equal or slightly shorter than sepals, lanceolateoblong, 1.6–2.2 × 0.8–1 mm, apex rounded, light purplemauve, rarely with white near base. stamens 10, arrange in 5 dimorphic pairs, each pair with one long and one short stamen, 293 haloob et al. stamens included not projected beyond corolla, filament glabrous, filaments of short stamens 0.70.9 mm long, filaments of long stamens 0.95-1.1 mm, anthers yellow, in short stamens ovate-narrowly ovate, 0.150.2 × 0.10.15 mm, while in long stamens oblong 0.24-0.3 × 0.15-0.23 mm. gynoecium superior, 3-carpels, 1.3-1.4 mm long, carpopodium 0.10.15 mm long, ovary ovoid-narrowly ovoid, yellow-greenish yellow, glabrous, 0.9-1 × 0.6 0.7 mm with 30–55 ovules, styles 0.10.15 mm long, stigma yellow-greenish to yellow, 0.2-0.25 mm long, recurved, glabrous. pedicel reaches 3-8 mm long and pendent in fruiting except first flower in inflorescence that remains erect, fruiting calyx sepals yellow-yellowish green, 2.12.4 × 0.6-0.9 mm, carpopodium length 0.20.4 mm in fruiting. capsule ovoid, pale yellow almost tinged with purple, 2-2.5 × 1.2-1.5 mm, as long as fruiting calyx or slightly shorter (when fruit opening recurved apex of valves slightly longer than fruiting calyx), valves 0.71.1 mm wide. seeds many, brown, ovate-broadly ovate, long 0.4-0.55 × 0.3-0.4 mm, dense long tubercles (pls 1, 2). plate (1): spergularia iraqensis; (a) habitat, (b) plant habit (in nature), (c) plant habit (holotype 60268 bag), (d) inflorescence, (e) leaves, (f) stem node with stipules and leaves,(g) bracts, (h) show the stipules color (the microscope light from the upper side), (i) show the stipules shape (the microscope light from the lower side so the upper stipules face shaded and look dark). 294 spergularia iraqensis (caryophyllaceae) recognition s. iraqensis similar to s. rubra and s. bocconei, but differs from s. rubra by having deltate white stipules, not fasciculate leaves, upper bracts much shorter than leaves, shorter sepals, petals, and capsules, petals light purple-mauve and from s. bocconei by its stipules which have long acuminate apexes, stamens 10, and seeds brown (tab. 1). table (1): comparison of spergularia iraqensis and its closely related species (gorshkova, 1936; monnier and ratter, 1964; ratter, 1967; ratter, 1980; dequan and rabeler, 2001; townsend et al., 2016). species characters s. iraqensis s. rubra s. bocconei stem length (mm) 65–180 50-250 50-250 stipules shape deltate lanceolate deltate stipules color white silver white stipules apex long acuminate acuminate acute leaves habit fleshy not fleshy fleshy leaves number in each node 2–4 almost more than 4 2–4 leaves length (mm) 6–32 5-20 mm 12-30 relation of upper bracts to leaf length much shorter almost equal much shorter sepal length (mm) 1.8–2.3 3-5 2-3.5 petal length (mm) 1.6–2.2 3-5 2-2.8 petal color light purple-mauve rarely with white near base pink pink with white base stamens number 10 5-10 (0)2-5(8) capsule length (mm) 2–2.5 4-5 2-3.5 capsule valves color pale yellow almost tinged with purple pale pale relation capsule to sepals equal or slightly shorter equal equal or shorter seed color brown dark brown light grey-brown phenology: flowering march-april-(may), fruiting april-may. other specimens examined: (paratype) sw hamrin lake, clay soil in grass open area near the lake shore, 34°05'48.35" n; 45°04'06.28" e, 19/iv/2019, a. haloob, g. al-taie & r. hamshkan (60269 bag!). distribution and habitat: this species endemic to iraq, it was collected from two separate sites in the east of diyala province within the same habitat extension, which is located between the eastern foothills and the alluvial lower mesopotamia in iraq, and it was found 295 haloob et al. growing in clay soil with tamarix sp. and lycium barbarum l. community and also grows in clay soil in the grass open area near the hamrin lake bank. etymology: the species is named after iraq country where the plant grows and is recorded for the first time. conservation status there are numbers of threats in the areas where the species grows, the most important of which are grazing, agriculture, tourism, and urban activities, as well as, the geographical range of s. iraqensis restrict to a narrow region estimated to about 2,000 km2. so, based on the measurement of the species' extent of occurrence (eoo), which is less than 5,000 km2, and the number of locations where plant growth is less than 5, as well as the quality of its plate (2): spergularia iraqensis; (a) flower, (b) petals, (c) sepals, (d) stamens, (e) gynoecium, (f) fruiting calyx with capsule, (g) capsule, (h) seeds. 296 spergularia iraqensis (caryophyllaceae) habitat, which is estimated to be declining due to human activities, the assessment of the species according to iucn red list categories (iucn, 2012): endangered, enb1ab (iii). key for identification s. iraqensis and other related species 1capsules 7-9 mm long …………………………………………………….……... s. media capsules less than 6 mm long ………………………………………………………….... 2 2stipules silver, leaves strongly fasciculate ……………...………………….……... s. rubra stipules white, 2-leaves in each node or little fascicled ....……….…………….………... 3 3stipules on young shoots connate more than half their length, capsule more than 4 mm long………………………………………………………...…………………....... s. marina stipules on young shoots connate less than half their length, capsule less than 3.5 mm long……………………………….…………………………..……...……………..……... 4 4stipules long acuminate, stamens 10………..…………..…………………..… s. iraqensis stipules acute, stamens less than 8 …………………………………………………….... 5 5petals ovate-broadly oblong, inflorescence with bracts and with dense short glandular hair, seeds light grey-light brown, broadly ovate, with dense long tubercles…............……………………...…………………….…………..…….. s. bocconei petals lanceolate-narrowly elliptic or oblong, inflorescence without bracts above and with separate short glandular hair, seeds brown-black, compressed ovoid-narrowly ovoid, glabrous or dense tubercles……………….…………………………..…....…..... s. diandra discussion the new species is annual herbs, its stipules deltate, white and long acuminate, shortly connate for base. bracts (except for the bracts in the first inflorescence node) much shorter than leaves, with sepals less than 2.3 mm and 10 stamens. capsule as long as fruiting calyx or slightly shorter; seed brown, unwinged; these are the most distinguishing characteristics of the new species, and these characters are not found in any other species of the genus. interestingly, only s. media in iraq has 10 stamens, also s. rubra which grows in turkey has 10 stamens, however, the capsule of s. media longer than 7 mm, as well as, s. rubra has capsules longer than 4 mm which differ from the shorter capsule of s. iraqensis, s. dinandra and s. bocconei which could reach less than 2.5 mm but s. dinandra and s. bocconei have androecium with less than 8 stamens and the stipules of these species are not acuminate which differ from s. iraqensis androecium and stipules (gorshkova, 1936; monnier and ratter, 1964; ratter, 1967; ratter, 1980; dequan and rabeler, 2001; townsend et al., 2016). literature cited adams, l. g., west, j. g., and cowley, k. j. 2008. revision of spergularia (caryophyllaceae) in australia. australian systematic botany, 21(4): 251-270. 297 haloob et al. al-rawi, a. 1964. wild plants of iraq with their distribution. technical bulletin, no.14, dir. gen. agriculture, res., proj. ministry of agriculture government press, baghdad, 232 pp. anthony, j. 1935. plants from mesopotamia: a distributional note. notes royal botanic garden, edinburgh, 18: 277-303. blacklock, r. a. 1948. the rustam herbarium, 'iraq.-part i. systematic list. kew bulletin, 3(3): 375-444. boissier, p. e. 1876. flora orientalis, vol. 1. geneva et basileae. apud h. george. biliopolan lungdunt, 1017 pp. boulos, l. 1999. flora of egypt, vol. 1. al hadara publ. cairo, p.77-80. dequan, l. and rabeler, r.k. 2001. spergularia. in: wu, c. y., raven, p. h. and hong, d. y. 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(2021) 16 (3): 291299. spergularia iraqensis (العائلة القرنفلية)، نوع جديد من العراق حرب عادل *** و علي حالوب كاظم*، علي حسين الموسوي** * المعشب الوطني العراقي، دائرة فحص وتصديق البذور، وزارة الزراعة العراقية، بغداد، العراق العراق** قسم علوم الحياة، كلية العلوم، جامعة بغداد، بغداد، *** دائرة وقاية المزروعات، وزارة الزراعة العراقية، بغداد، العراق 20/6/2021 ، تأريخ النشر:22/04/2021 ، تأريخ القبول: 18/20/2021: تأريخ االستالم الخالصة الدراسة وصف على .spergularia iraqensis sp. nov النوع خالل من جديد نوع وسط لعيناتا جمعت ؛العراق انه في ديالى محافظة شرق -من م ؛ العراق .spergularia rubra (l.) j. presl & c للنوعين قارب وهو presl, 1819 و (scheele) graebn., 1919 s. bocconei . المميزة للنوع الجديد والنوعين المشابهين له، مع المظهريةالخصائص نوقشت للنوع الجديد مع االنواع االخرى تشخيصي صور توضيحية وايضا تم وضع مفتاح ه. من القريبة bull 413 pshtiwan a. jalil and wand k. ali bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2019) 15 (4): 413-424 re-description of the last instar larvae of capnodis tenebrionis (linnaeus, 1760) (coleoptera, buprestidae) depending on scanning electron microscope pshtiwan a. jalil * and wand k. ali ** * department of plant protection, college of agricultural engineering sciences, salahaddin university, erbil, iraq ** department of biology, college of education, salahaddin university, erbil, iraq * corresponding author's email: pshtiwan.jalil@su.edu.krd received date: 29 july 2019, accepted date: 09 october 2019, published date: 26 december 2019 abstract the flat-headed borer, capnodis tenebrionis (linnaeus, 1760) , dispersed extensively in various geographical regions; it is extremely harmful and a dire threat to most stone fruit cultivars, and once the larva enters under the host tree crown, the infested host tree will gradually dry and eventually die. in this study, specimens were collected from several sites in erbil province, kurdistan regioniraq; then the fully grown larvae were selected for morphological study. in addition, clarification of morphological consequential and implication for most diagnostic characters were studied in all dissected parts. scanning electron microscope (sem) was used to further analyze the hidden features of the selected characteristics; those were not shown in the primary mounting. the results impressively presented new conclusive evidence for the descriptive illustration of c. tenebrionis, and it confirmed a precise identification of this species in the larval stage. keywords: buprestidae, capnodis, erbil, larva, sem introduction the genus capnodis eschscholtz, 1829 (coleoptera, buprestidae) is a widely distributed genus that consists of 21 species (löbl and löbl, 2016), of which around 10 species recorded in iraq (ali, 2007). it is highly important to recognize this species in the larval stage and differentiate it from other borers in the region of this studyiraq, as it destroys the roots of both saplings and mature trees of cultivated stone-fruits. perhaps, this due to the damage which this larva cause starts from neonate instar and it is the capability of boring the host plant root systems. another point which is worth mentioning is the life-span of the larval stage length, and the large numbers of larval instars (nine instars), as well as all these instars, live within the root cortex of the host plant. noticeably, the economic impact of this species is particularly severe in the mediterranean countries (mfarrej and sharaf, 2010). as a result of larval feeding on the stone-fruit trees, roots are often endangered leading to the devastation of the orchards as a whole (talhouk, 1976). what is intriguing is that capnodis tenebrionis has https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2019.15.4.0413 414 re-description of the last instar larvae dominated wide geographical regions, including north africa, central, and southern europe, the near east and around the black and the caspian sea (marannino et al., 2003). in addition, the widespread of this species in the mediterranean countries is due to the suitability of climate conditions in those regions (bonsignore et al., 2008; sharon et al., 2010). despite the in-depth knowledge available about the damage which this larva causes, the region of this study yet to find suitable solutions to limit or manage the damage by this pest. to further support the latter point, the norm practice to face this kind of epidemic in kurdistan is by applying a huge amount of chemicals against root colonization, this approach has proven to be unsuccessful (sakuma et al., 2016). this study found out that there are many important morphological characteristics in the larval body. besides, it has been promoted by the importance of morphology and identifying larvae. the aim of this study is to clarify and illustrate the most morphological characters. thus, support accurate identification of the larval stage of capnodis tenebrionis (linnaeus, 1760) in their taxonomic position within the family buprestidae. materials and methods larval collecting and identification the larvae were collected from the trunk and roots of the apricot, prunus armeniaca l., (1753), and peach, prunus persica (l.) batsch(1801), started from mid-spring to the end of summer 2018. then mature larvae (last instar larvae) were chosen for describing. meanwhile, on the same host plant, a number of larvae were conserved until they reach their adult stage; this was done to obtain an accurate identification of this species. for this stage of the study, we compared it with references of obenberger (1926); thery (1936); knopf (1971); varandi et al. (2009), and ghahariet al., (2015). in addition, the larval stage of c. tenebrionis was confirmed to the genus level by dr. svatopluk bily (czech university of life sciences, prague, czech republic) and dr. mark volkovitsh (zoology, russian academy of science, st. petersburg, russia). finally, the morphological terminology used in present study align to that used in the papers by bilý (1999); bílý et al. (2011); bílý and volkovitsh (2005, 2007); volkovitsh and bílý (2015). morphological studies the morphological features in this paper structurally depend on the study of bily and volkovitsh (2001, 2007), levey (2016), da silva and zarbin (2016), and; in which the larval body parts boiled in 10% koh aqueous solution until the tissues softened and dissolved fat bodies. then the specimens were rinsed three times in distilled water and diagnosed with the aid of a dissecting microscope (optika, italy). after that, the mouthparts separated from the head capsule along the posterior margin of the epistome. finally, the body cut along a pleural line from the thorax to the last abdominal segment to separate pronotal and prosternal grooves with their sculptures, mesothoracic and abdominal spiracles, and proventriculus. slides preparation and taking photos in the process of mounting specimens for the preparation of slides, the protocol described by alexeev (1960) was followed, dpx media (a mixture of polystyrene, tricresyl phosphate, and xylene) which acts as a clearing agent. to achieve the latter stage, first, the dissected parts were dehydrated, in four various ethanol concentrations (25%, 50%, 75%, and 99 %) and then they rinsed in xylol. on the following stage, we placed one drop of dpx on the center of a clean slide, then the prepared parts, which intended to describe, placed into the drop using 0.5 mm microneedle and covered with coverslips. to avoid bubbles creation, the 415 pshtiwan a. jalil and wand k. ali slides placed horizontally on a hot plate (approximately 36˚c) for 24 48 hours. a compound microscope with the camera (huma scope premium with lcd cameragermany) is used to display the specimens; only then, the required images were taken. a stage micrometer (shinuya, japan) used for measuring and scaling of the analyzed parts. regarding graphical hand sketching, they are based on microscopic shapes then illustrated using drawing pens (staedtler, pigment liner, fineliner) in diameters (0.1 0.5) mm and tress papers. after scanning, all illustrations are edited then using computer software (adobe photoshop7.0 and paint). scanning electron microscope (sem) sem section of the study was carried out in (electron microscopy unit, research center of soran university-iraqi kurdistan region. for this purpose, we followed kirti and shipali (2014), and kownacki et al. (2015) protocol. the selected parts of the larva were dehydrated in graded series of ethanol and passed through critical drypoint; then the dehydrated parts were mounted on sem specimen stubs using only a small strip of double-sided adhesive tape. the specimens were fixed on holders, then sputter-coated with gold and scanned under fei quanta 450 scanning; filament type: tungsten. results and discussion diagnostic characters of the larva: the body of full-grown larva is flat and relatively long, and it has off-brown color, which is a typical feature of buprestid larval shape (morphoecological larval type 2); it has reasonably large prothorax and perfectly sclerotized pronotal and prosternal grooves. body length about 5 6 cm; width of prothorax 0.5 0.7 cm (fig.1 a). head: head wider than long, and it appeared as a small flexible flat segment inside the prothorax. sclerotized epistome, hypostome, pleurostome are attached to the head, and they surround the mouthparts (figs. 1a, b). epistome: the epistome has a convex rectangular shape toward the outer side, and full sclerotized, its width is greater about six folds than its length; posterior margin is bisinuate with sharp and acute corners; anterior margins slightly concave between mandibular condyles which are semi-globular (fig. 1c). the anterior of the middle part of epistome has two groups of sensillae which are very close to each other, and virtually fibrous, every single group is composed of two long sensillae, with one campaniform sensillum. two long and noticeable setae arise from prestome, near the posterior margin of the epistome (pl. 1a). hypostome elongated, sclerotized and narrowed in the middle, divided widely by vertical suture; it bears a campaniform sensillum and trichoid as well as pleurostome without ocelli. clypeus: strongly transverse, membranous and smooth (fig. 1d); the length is about half of its width and the posterior margin is connected to the epistome, but anterior margins slightly arcuate to the posterior margin (pl. 1b). labrum: slightly transverse and resembles a crowned shape with round edges; width considerably greater than its length. lateral lobes regularly developed between rounded anterolateral corners, which they appear to be round and out words. apical seta is a pair of short and sharp trichoid, and not extended to the anterior margin of the labrum. lateral sides closely round outwards and , carry microspinules (fig. 1d). palatine sclerites completely developed, and the lateral branches of palatine sclerite are curved and sclerotized more strongly in comparison to the median ones, but the medial branches are not fully developed. also, four campaniform sensillae, and two long setae -median sensillaare situated on the top 416 re-description of the last instar larvae part of the medial branch of the palatine sclerite. in addition, labrum's anterolateral sensillae (t-trichoid, c-campaniform) include internal –1t+2t+3t and external –1t-2c-3t-4t, a campaniform sensillum situated close to the lateral branches of palatine sclerite. the upper surface of the labrum recognized by a thin transverse space of long micro-setae which creates a bundle of setae on the anterior margin, remaining posterior surface glabrous (pl. 1b). mandibles: (fig. 1 e) mandible is triangle-shaped; their length is more than the width, widened at the base, sclerotized strongly, and have two obtuse dark brown apical teeth. on the dorsal side near the mandibular condyle, two short and acute setae are located as well as a common round basis (pl. 1 c). at the same surface on the dorsal side, a tiny area of micro sculpture can be observed. labium: labium oblique, with length about 1.5 times greater than width; anterior margin convex moderately, and expanded posteriorly; anterolateral corners widely rounded; transverse prementum about twice as wide as long; external surface of labium decorated by the presence of short, and fine microspinulae, where the conical bundled formed, and distributed in three distinct areas; nearby the anterior margin and two round dense areas between corner sclerites, as a result, a heart shape can be seen (fig. 1f); the corner sclerite of prementum concave, and curved inward. every sclerite bears five campaniform sensillae and one long sharp seta. post mental seta relatively long, but not reach to the anterior microspinuled area (pl. 1 d). maxillae: cardo somewhat round, membranous and smooth; stipes enlarged with arcuated inward, internal sclerite with fully sclerotized, short and sparse of microspinulae found on the outer margin. maxillary palpus consists of two sclerotized segments, the basal segment "basal palpomere" relatively large, and longer approximately by 1.5 times than width, long sharp seta rise from its anterolateral margin in which extends far above the apical segment, with a presence of few short microsetae in the same area. a campaniform sensillum located on the anterior part of the segment (fig. 1 g); apical segment "terminal palpomere" with conical, and fully sclerotized, and length twice as width, which carries fine, curved sensillum and not extended to reach the level of the palpomere's apex, the latter holds four extremely fine sensory appendices scattered on its surface. mala sub-cylindrical and full-sclerotized with a completely developed internal sclerite, it's longer about 1.5 times than the width, mala characterized by the growth of six long and thick trichosensillae on the apical surface, with fine dense setae situated alongside the anterior margin and extended downwards to level with maxillary sclerite; and on the basal part of mala, a campaniform sensillum is located (pl. 1 e). 417 pshtiwan a. jalil and wand k. ali figure (1): larva of c. tenebrionis (l., 1760); (a) dorsal view of larval body, (b) ventral view of larval body, (c) epistome, (d) labrum, (e) mandible, (f) labium, (g) maxilla, (h) antenna, (i) pronotalgroove, (j) prosternal groove, (k) pronotal sculpture, (l) pronotal surface, (m) mesothoracic spiracle, (n) first abdominal spiracle, (o) inner sculpture of proventriculus, (p) integument surface. 418 re-description of the last instar larvae antennae: antenna composed of two segments, the basal segment "basal antennomere" subcylindrical shaped, with length more noticeable than its width, and it is about 4 times as long as the apical segment. the basal segment originated in the antennal incisions it is located in the posterolateral space of the epistome (fig.1 h). the articular membrane is rough due to having sharp and short microspinulae. the apical segment "terminal antennomere" equal in length and width and slightly bent towards the apex. the anterior margins of both segments carried the apical crown of microspinulae, but the terminal antennomere was characterized by the growth of a long, thin trichosensilla within this crown that can be seen from the frontal view. the apical cavity of the terminal antennomere obvious and full-grown. in addition, two small palmate sensillae and one large conical sensillum located at the bottom of sensory appendage, and their bases are very close to each other (pl. 1 f). thorax: (figs. 1 a, b) prothorax rather broad, and has a flat round shape; pronotal groove moderately sclerotized, and it can be seen clearly; it appears like a shape of an inverted letter v;the groove is darker than the plate, the outer borders of the anterior part are marked by rusty colored small asperities (fig. 1 i; pl. 2 a). prosternal groove takes a straight sclerotized line and slightly bifurcate posteriorly. small asperities in dark brown colored perplexing at the anterior part and surrounding outer borders (fig. 1 j; pl. 2 b). the micro sculptured asperities of pronotal and prosternal plates seem as fish scale marks (fig. 1 k; pl. 2 c), these plates are diametrically sclerotized, and they also include dense short microspinulae with few thin setae (fig. 1 l; pl. 2 d). mesothorax transversely, and their width about 3 times more than its length, and it is much wider than the metathorax and abdominal segments. metathorax slightly smaller and narrower than the mesothorax. furthermore, the presence of short and dense microspinulae on the cuticle, long sharp flexible bristles emerged, in which condensed on caudal and lateral boundaries. spiracles: mesothoracic spiracles are considerably noticeable, resembles the mushroom shape, with dense trabeculae (fig. 1 m); abdominal spiracles with nearly to elliptic shaped, and similar to prothoracic spiracle, but smaller and fewer number of trabeculae (fig. 1 n). proventriculus: it's like an elongated sac and located under prothorax internally, it has different elements with complicate inner armament, these armaments moderately developed , and arranged on vertical stripes that nearly to globularly shaped. the vertical stripes carried dense, robust, and uni-micro teeth protrusion, which located on the tubercles (fig. 1o). 419 pshtiwan a. jalil and wand k. ali plate (1): mouthpart and antenna with their chaetotaxy of larva of c.tenebrionis (l., 1760) with abbreviations; (a) epistome (anaantenna, ecepistomal condyle, es epistomalsensillae, ps-prestomalsensilla), (b) labrum (alslantero-lateral sensillae of labrum, amsaanterior margin withmicrospinuledarea, clsclypeus, csa campaniformsensillae, lbslateral branch of palatine sclerite, lllateral lobe, mbs medial branch of palatine sclerite, mslmedial sensillae of labrum), (c) mandible (atapical teeth, memandible), (d) labiomaxillary complex (abmsanterior bundle ofmicrospinulae, cspcorner sclerite of prementum, lbmlabium, msa microspinulae area, mxa-maxilla, pmpre mentum, pmspostmental seta), (e) maxilla (as-apical seta, cus-curved sensilla, (m) mala, mpmaxillary palps, ms maxillary sclerite, sc-sensory cone, ststipes, tstrichosensilla), (f) antenna (acm apical crown of microspinulae, amearticular membrane, babasalantennomere, ta-terminal antennomere, ts-trichosensillum). 420 re-description of the last instar larvae plate (2): pronotal, and prosternal plate with their chaetotaxy of the larva of c.tenebrionis (l. 1760), with abbreviations; (a) pronotal grove, (b) prosternal groove ( glgroove line, pnppronotal plate, pspprosternal plate), c-prosternal armament, (d) prosternalsculpture (msamicro seta, mse-microspinulae) abdomen: flat, and long; and consists of 10 segments, the dorsal folds made the segments tighten medially inward, so it appears as two folds. the segments 38 have approximately the same length and width, but the first abdominal segment is smaller than the others; while the segments 9th and 10th are different in size and shape (fig. 1 a). the integument surface has short and dense microspinulae. furthermore, long thin bristles can be seen on the dorsal and ventral side of the abdominal surface (fig. 1 p). abdominal folds take the closed longitudinal figure in which they bent towards the body axis, there are no morphological differences between dorsal and ventral folds. the 8th abdominal segment with conical and it is half the 421 pshtiwan a. jalil and wand k. ali size of the previous segments. the last abdominal segment smallest, deficiently sclerotized and divided by a vertical anal rim. conclusions this research investigated the morphological characteristics of the last larval instar of capnodis tenebrionis (l. 1758). several morphological characteristics of the larval stage were selected for describing and identifying the larvae. after analyzing the details obtained in this study, we can conclude that the description of most taxonomic characteristics for the larval stage of this species in detail by comparing different techniques, which they complement each other. interestingly, drawing sketches, mounting and scanning electron microscope were the three factors contributed to diagnoses and identification of the larvae species correctly in their taxonomic position. finally, we were concluding that the species could be determined in immature stages, provided comprehensively and accurately it has been described. acknowledgment we would like to express our deepest gratitude to dr. svatopluk bílý (prague, czech republic), and dr. mark g. volkovitsh (st. petersburg, russia) for their assistance in confirming the identification, also we would like to thank all of our colleagues in the plant protection department, college of agricultural engineering sciences, salahaddin university, erbil, for their cooperating the progress of this work. literature cited alexeev, a. 1960. on the morphology and systematics of larvae of some species of the genus agrilus curt. in the european part of the ussr (coleoptera, buprestidae). zoologicheskii zhurnal, (39):1497–1510. ali, w. k. 2007. taxonomic study of the flat-headed steam borers (coleoptera: buprestidae) in iraqi kurdistan. ph. d. thesis, department of biology, college of science, university of baghdad, 221pp. (in arabic) bilý, s. 1999. larvae of buprestid beetles (coleoptera: buprestidae) of central europe. acta entomologica musei nationalis pragae, (9): 1-45 pp. bílý, s., kubáň, v., volkovitsh, m. g. and kalashian, m. y. 2011. order coleoptera, family buprestidae. arthropod fauna of the uae, (4):168–223. bily, s. and volkovitsh, m. g. 2001. larvae of some tropical genera of buprestids coleoptera: buprestidae). elytron, (15): 49–73. bily, s. and volkovitsh, m. g. 2005. larvae of australian buprestidae (coleoptera) part 3. genera maoraxia and anthaxoschema with a review of larval characters of known anthaxiine taxa. folia heyrovskyana, series a, 13(1–2): 29–48. bílý, s. and volkovitsh, m. g. 2007. descriptions of some buprestid larvae from chile coleoptera: buprestidae). folia heyrovskyana, series a, 15(2–3): 53–79. bonsignore, c. p., manti, f. and vacante, v. 2008. field and tree distribution of capnodis tenebrionis (linnaeus, 1767) (col., buprestidae) adults in an apricot orchard in italy. journal of applied entomology, 132 (3): 216–224. doi: 10.1111/j.14390418.2007.01235.x. 422 re-description of the last instar larvae da silva, m. r. and zarbin, p. h. g. 2016. first description of larval stages of aleochara pseudochrysorroa caron, mise & klimaszewski, 2008. zootaxa, 4173(5): 449–465. doi: 10.11646/zootaxa.4173.5.2. de lillo, e. and marannino, p. 2005. note morfologiche ed etologiche sulla larva neonata di capnodis tenebrionis (l.) 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(2019) 15 (4): 413-424 إعادة وصف الطور اليرقي ألاخير لحشرة (coleoptera, buprestidae) capnodis tenebrionis linnaeus, 1760 باألعتماد على املجهر الالكتروني املاسح **و وند خالص علي* بشتيوان عبدهللا جليل قسم وقاية النبات، كلية علوم الهندسة الزراعية، جامعة صالح الدين، أربيل، العراق* قسم علوم الحياة، كلية التربية، جامعة صالح الدين، أربيل، العراق** 92/09/9702: ، تأريخ النشر 72/07/9702: ، تأريخ القبول 92/70/9702: تأريخ الاستالم الخالصة في العديد capnodis tenebrionis linnaeus, 1760ينتشر حفار ذو الرأس املسطح املختلفة؛ اذ تهدد يرقاته انواع ألاشجار املختلفة ذات النواة من املناطق الجغرافية إلى جفافها , يرقة تحت تاج شجرة العائلوبمجرد دخول ال, الحجرية ً يؤدي ذلك تدريجيا في هذه الدراسة جمعت نماذج اليرقات من مواقع مختلفة ضمن محافظة . وبالتالي موتها كوردستان العراق, إذ أختيرت يرقات الطور ألاخير كاملة النمو لدراسة املظهر , أربيل عن توضيح أهم الصفات التشخيصية ً اذ . لكل ألاجزاء املدروسةالخارجي, فضال استخدم املجهر إلالكتروني املاسح إلظهار الصفات الدقيقة لألجزاء املختارة والتي يصعب حيث إن النائج أظهرت أدلة وصفية جديدة واضحة . رؤيتها من خالل الطرق التقليدية .في الطور اليرقي c. tenebrionis التي أكدت التشخيص الصحيح للنوع bull 263 albushabaa et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. june, (2019) 15 (3): 263-278 biodiversity study of zooplankton in selected bahr al-najaf depression, najaf governorate, iraq suhad hameed h. albushabaa* sadiq kadhum lafta al-zurfi **♦ and anam ali tsear ** * biology department, faculty of science, university of kufa, najaf, iraq **ecology department, faculty of science, university of kufa, najaf, iraq ♦corresponding author e-mail: sadiqk.alzurfi@uokufa.edu.iq received date: 26 november 2018, accepted date: 31 december 2018, published date: 27 june 2019 abstract the current study aims to assess zooplankton diversity in bahr al-najaf depression using diversity index, specimens were collected from five sites at bahr al-najaf depression, iraq during april 2017 to march 2018. fortyeight taxa of zooplankton were identified including 26 taxa to copepoda, 17 taxa belonged to rotifers and 5 taxa to cladocera: copepoda was the most dominant group (54.2%); rotifera comprised (35.4%); cladocera comprised (10.4%). relative abundance index of zooplankton showed copepodite and nauplii of harpacticoid, hexarthra mira, daphnia sp., harpacticoid sp., and copepodite and nauplii of cyclops were more abundant. according to the constancy index, the copepodite and nauplii of harpacticoid, nauplii cyclops, nauplii stage and hexarthra mira can be considered as the most frequent; shanon-weiner diversity index values of zooplankton recorded less value 0.48 in august 2017 at site (5); while the higher value was recorded in april 2017 at site (2) was 2.42; the higher value of species richness index was recorded in april 2017 at site (2) which was (7.2), the higher value of species uniformity index was recorded in february at site (2) and march at site (1) (0.61). the present study concluded that copepoda was the most abundant of zooplankton with variations in zooplankton species (density and from month to another). keywords: al-najaf, bahr, biological, indicators, zooplankton. introduction zooplankton are considered an essential component in the aquatic ecosystem, which has a major of functioning as either primary or secondary links in the chain of food (neves et al., 2003); and considered as a decent indicator to changes in the quality of water, as this is affected strongly by the conditions of the environment and responds very rapidly to alterations in the quality of the environment (ismail and adnan, 2016). https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2019.15.3.0263 264 biodiversity study of zooplankton zooplankton are aquatic small animals with a considerable capability of swimming and being manipulated by the currents of water column to transfer for long distances, moving frequently in the upper sides of water; they were found also deeply in the water, constituting heterotrophic (a nutrition variety); many of them feed on organic decaying materials such as (detritivores) and they connect the food chain as they feed on phytoplankton (solomon et al., 2009). diversity and density of zooplankton also rely on the invertebrate's inter-specific predation (lampert and sommer, 1997); the diversity indicators are used as an essential device by ecologists to have insight into the structure of community regarding evenness, richness and total number of residents (allan, 1975). this guild consists of three groups: copepods, rotifers, and cladocerans; the rotifer is one division in fresh water, but cladocera and copepoda, are both large groups named as crustaceans (smith, 2001). these indicators are considered to be very important species to measure biomass production, population density, grazing and nutrient regeneration in lake ecosystems (panwar and malik 2015); studying zooplankton community abundance and distribution is done by using the bioindicators as an essential proof of the water quality of bahr al-najaf depression. as the study area is known to have high salinity (al-taee, 2017), we might find low zooplankton diversity; understanding salinity effects on zooplankton communities could help to understand consequences on the whole ecosystem. this study was considered the first study at bahr al-najaf depression; and the aim of the current study to assess zooplankton diversity using shanon-winner index, relative abundance index, constancy index, richness index, and uniformity indexes. materials and methods sampling collection and diagnosis: monthly specimens were taken from five sites during the period from april 2017 to march 2018; zooplankton were collected from 30 cm depth, sampling was done from the edge of the lake and from distance 3 m from the edge by passing 60 liters of water across the plankton net with mesh 55 μm; the specimens were preserved in 4% formalin solution, then transported to the laboratory for isolating, counting and identification. diagnosis of zooplankton was conducted using a laboratory compound optical microscope, many keys were used edmondson (1959), smith (2001) and petersen et al., (2010); the individuals' number was calculated for each cubic meter (ind / m3). study area: the study area was conducted at bahr al-najaf, the depression area having water body, it is located in the west and south-west of holy al-najaf city at an estimated width and length of bahr al-najaf (3060) miles, and the area is about 435 km2; even though it is sounded by desert and with some grove lands, it has standing water seasonally depending on precipitation levels. five sites were chosen for the study and mentioned in map (1); the geographical coordinates of the studied sites were taken (tab. 1). site one (s1): located in the southern part of bahr al-najaf depression adjacent to the main street, where there are some small tributaries that feed it like the al dasim river, also it is distinguished by fishing activities. site two (s2): located 1 km from the first site; it's characterized by sweetness of its waters, because the source of the water is from al-dasim river and the presence of some aquatic plants such as cane and papyrus plants and some plants submersible. 265 albushabaa et al. site three (s3): located on the western side of the depression near the oil strategic line, it's characterized by discharge of wells and spring waters. site four (s4): located at the northern side of the bahr al-najaf depression about 5 km away from the third site at the end of the of bahr al-najaf depression, its water is highly saline and does not contain aquatic plants. site five (s5): located in the northeast of the bahr al-najaf depression located adjacent to al-hawalli street in front of the fourth station and is characterized by the presence of some aquatic plants such as cane and papyrus and the tributaries passing by the groves of al-najaf city. table (1): gps values of study sites. sites gps longitude (east) latitude (north) ״15 ׳58 ״49 ׳17 1 ״05 ׳57 ״01 ׳18 2 ״23 ׳25 ״44 ׳12 3 ״44 ׳01 ״00 ׳12 4 ״03 ׳01 ״57 ׳14 5 266 biodiversity study of zooplankton map (1): the sites of study in bahr al-najaf (using arc gis 10 according to landsat7). statistical analysis: zooplanktons species diversity of the lake was determined through biological indicators. relative abundance index (ra): this was calculated through the derivative formula proposed by omori and ikeda (1984), for the calculation of relative abundance: 267 albushabaa et al. ra = × 100 n = individuals' total number per taxonomic unit in the specimens. ns = individuals' total number in the sample. where (r ) rare less than 10% ,(la)less abundant10-40%, (a) abundant species 40 70 % and dominant species (d) appearing as more than 70%. constancy index (s) this index enables determining the frequency occurrence of a given species, (serafim et al., 2003). s = n / n×100 n = number of collections containing the group or species n = total number of samples the species groups were considered constant when they were recorded as more than 50% of the samples, accessory when present as 25 to 50% of the samples; accidental when recorded as less than 25% of the specimen. shannon-weiner diversity index (h): this was monthly calculated by the formula of shannon-weiner as explained in (floder and sommer, 1999). h' = -σ (ni /n) ln (ni /n) h = the shannon diversity index ni= number of individual species n=total number of individuals of all species. ˂ low diversity, ( – ) moderate diversity, ˃ high diversity (porto-neto, 2003). species richness index (d) this index was calculated from magurran (2004) as follows: d =(s − )/ log n s = number of species n= total number of species species uniformity index (e) the species uniformity index was measured according to neves et al., (2003). e =h/lns h= shannon–weiner index value. s= number of species in the station. considered values greater than 0.5 as equal or uniformity in appearance. the statistical analysis was performed with complete random design (crd) with two ways anova; the two factors include: the first was five sites and the second was 12 months. sites include three replicates and the means of all data were separated by least significant difference (lsd) test at 0.05 level. results and discussion in the present study, copepoda was most abundant group as having 26 taxa (54.2%), 17 taxa of rotifera (35.4%) and 5 taxa (10.4%) of cladocera (diag. 1). the obtained results showed that the low density of copepoda in the august 2017 reached about 7 ind./m3 at site 268 biodiversity study of zooplankton (5), and the higher density was recorded in december 2017 with 7566 ind./m3 in site (5) (diag. 2). an increase in copepoda community and their variation seasonally could come from many environmental factors. for example, increasing of salinity and temperature might cause this situation (al-zurfi et al., 2019). this was also confirmed by previous studies (shurin, 2000; hampton and gilbert, 2001); the dominance of copepoda could come from the adaptation of these zooplankton groups to salinity and temperature factors, which could also explain our findings. for example, this group can adapt itself to different environmental conditions such as high or low temperature or lack of food, their ability to select prey, avoiding contaminated food (gretchen et al., 2006). the rotifera recorded the lowest density in august 2017 which reached about 6 ind./m3 in site (1) while the high density recorded in january was about 11801 ind./m3in site (4) (diag 3). this study showed, among zooplankton groups, that rotifera were as second group in bahr al-najaf, which comprised 35.4% of zooplankton; the highest densities of rotifera were recorded during january which could be associated with the proper conditions like temperature and food availability, such as phytoplankton, detritus or bacteria (dhanpathi, 2000). the values of cladocera density during the study period was illustrated in the diagram (4). cladocera was not recorded of any species in the august 2017; while the highest density has recorded in april 2017 with 188 ind./m3 at the site (2). zooplankton distribution was different in the same area from a month to another because of different environmental factors such as food availability, dissolved oxygen, salinity and temperature. all of these factors could influence the population density of zooplankton (abbas et al., 2007). cladocera had the third lowest density in bahr al-najaf, comprising 10.4% of zooplankton. our results showed that the dominance species of cladocera was bosmina longirostris (o. f. müller, 1776), this species could be a good food source for the copepoda group. our results showed that the highest densities of cladocera was recorded in the study during march (2018) and april (2017). there was a significant decrease during the summer season (jun, july, and august), and the current results agreed with rasheed et al. (2017); phytoplankton and temperature could be the main factor impact on zooplankton species densities (al-taee , 2017). our results for relative abundance index and constancy index (s) of zooplankton showed that copepodite and nauplii of harpacticoid recorded the highest percentage with 64% at site (1) followed by harpacticoid sp. 41%, and copepodite and nauplii of cyclops sp. with 40%. in site (2) daphnia sp. recorded the highest percentage with 44%, followed by larvae of cyclops sp. 35% and eucyclops sp. 27 %. site (3) recorded larvae of cyclops sp.23 %, brachionus plicatilis 18% and cyclops sp. 9%. in site (4) hexarthra mira (hudson) recorded the highest percentage as 51%, brachionus plicatilis 20% and larvae of cyclops sp.17% ; whereas the larvae of cyclops sp.46% followed by syncheata sp.23% and nauplii stage 8% were recorded in the site (5) (tab.2). according to the constancy index, these species bosmina longirostris (o. f. müller) in the site (3), daphnia sp. in the site (2); copepodite and nauplii of harpacticoid, copepodite and nauplii of cyclops sp. in the site (1), nauplii stage in the site (3), hexarthra mira (hudson) in site (4) could be the most frequent, and so they are the constant species of zooplankton in 269 albushabaa et al. bahr al-najaf, according to this index as they were available in 50% or more out of the total samples in the current study (tab. 2). the relative abundance index values of the dominant species of zooplankton, which fail to reach to the percentage of abundant species or prevalent in all sites during the study period, this provides proof that the bahr al-najaf hasn’t been considered a favorable environment for the sovereignty of most species (ahmed et al., 2011). on the other hand, neves et al. (2003) highlights that a few species in lake talaia in brazil are dominant because of the high quantities of organic waste. the results showed that some species of zooplankton were a constant species in some sites of the bahr al-najaf (tab. 2), such as daphnia sp., copepodite and nauplii of harpacticoid, copepodite and nauplii of cyclops sp., hexarthra mira (hudson), and nauplii stage. this could come from the widespread species in warm water with organic contamination (hofman, 1977). the obtained results showed that the minimum value of h index recorded in august (2017) at the site (5) was 0.48 while the highest value of h index was recorded in april (2017) at the site (2) as 2.42 (diag.5); shannon – wiener diversity index of zooplankton ranged between 0.482.42. according to this, water quality of bahr al-najaf is of low to moderate diversity; most of the salt and contaminated water are a little diversity (goel, 2008). in some previous studies of iraqi marshes, alsaffar (2006) recorded diversity with a range of zero to 2.083 in the abu zirig marsh. d index values recorded the minimum value at august (2018) at site (5) and site (4), as 0.5; the higher value was recorded in april 2017 at the site (2), as 7.2 (diag. 6); the highest value of d was recorded in april of zooplankton, the recording of high d index values in the spring may be due to the density and diversity of phytoplankton and high values indicating an environment suitable for the development and success of definite species (badsi et al., 2010). this study recorded more than rabee (2010) study, which revealed a value of d between 1.44-1.6 of cladocera in al tharthar canal. uniformity index of zooplankton, has shown the minimum value (e) recorded in august 2017 at the site (2), as 0.22 while the highest value of (e) was recorded in february at the site (2) and march at the site (1), as 0.61 (diag. 7). the result of e index showed low values for zooplankton, the deficiency of e index in the current study is pointing to the dominance of a few species with high densities, which is a sign of environmental pressure, when the values of e index > 0.50. rabee (2015) found high e index recorded in all sites and species of zooplankton were more evenly distributed in al habbaniyah lake. 270 biodiversity study of zooplankton diagram (1): the percentage of zooplankton in bahr alnajaf during the study period. diagram (2): the density of copepoda (ind./m3) in bahr alnajaf during the study period. 271 albushabaa et al. diagram (3): the density of rotifera (ind./m3) in bahr al-najaf during the study period. diagram (4): the density of cladocera (ind./m3) in bahr al-najaf during the study period. 272 biodiversity study of zooplankton table (2): the relative abundance index (ra index) and constancy index (s index) of zooplankton in study sites. where (r) rare less than 10%,(la)less abundant1040%, (a) abundant species appearing 40 70 % and dominant species (d) more than 70%, a= accidental species (1%-25%), ac= accessory species(25% 50%), c = constant species (greater than 50%) , ─ not recorded . group taxa sites of study relative abundance index constancy index s1 s2 s3 s4 s5 s1 s2 s3 s4 s5 cladocera alona rectangular r r r a a a alona guttata r r r r a a a a bosmina longirostris r r r a a c a chydorus sphaericus r r r r a a a a daphnia sp. r a a c copepoda bryocamptus sp r ac cyclops sp. r r r r r a a ac a a cyclops navus r r ac a a diaptomus sp r ac diaptomus gracilis r r ac a diaptomus sarsi r r a a ectocyclops sp. r r r r r a a ac ac ac ergasilus sp. r ac eucyclops agalis r r ac a eucyclops sp. r la r r r ac a ac a a halicyclops sp. r r r a ac a harpacticoid sp. a r r r r ac a a a a copepodite and nauplii of harpacticoid a r c a larvae of bryocamptus r a copepodite and nauplii of cyclops a la la la a c a c a a c a limnocalanus sp. r a m .hylanus r r a a macrocyclops fuscus. r r ac a macrocylops ater r r r r r ac a a a c a mesocyclops sp. r r r la r ac ac a ac a mesocyclops sp. r r r r r ac ac a ac a nauplii stage (lang, 1980) la la r r r ac a c ac ac nitocra sp. r r r r r a a a a a p.fimbriatus r a paracycolps affinis r r r r r a a a ac a tropocyclops sp. r a rotifera brachionus rubens r r r r r a a ac ac a 273 albushabaa et al. brachionus sp. r r r a a ac brachionus angularis r a brachionus plicatilis r r la la r ac a ac ac a cephalodella sp. r r a ac colurella adriactica r r a ac hexarthra mira r r r a r a a a c a keratella quadrata r a keratella valga r a lecane sp. r a macrochaetus lunaris r r r ac a a macrochaetus subquadratus r r r ac a ac monostyla sp. r r ac a notholca squamula r ac philodina roseola r r r r r a a ac ac a syncheata oblonga r r r r a ac a a syncheata sp. la r r r la ac a ac a ac diagram (5): shannon-weiner index of zooplankton in different study sites in bahr al-najaf. 274 biodiversity study of zooplankton diagram (6): species richness index of zooplankton in different study sites in bahr al-najaf. diagram (7): species uniformity index (e) of zooplankton in different study sites in bahr alnajaf. conclusions the copepoda was the most abundant group of zooplankton; 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f. a., paggi, j. c., velho, l. f. m. and robertson, b. 2003. cladocera fauna composition in a river-lagoon system of the upper paraná river floodplain, with a new record for brazil. brazilian journal of biology, 63(2):349-356. shurin, j. 2000. dispersal limitation, invasion resistance, and the structure of pond zooplankton communities. ecology, 81: 3074-3086. smith, d. g. 2001. pennak's freshwater invertebrates of the united states. 4th ed., john willey and sons, inc. new york, 538 pp. 277 albushabaa et al. solomon, s. g., ataguba, g. a. and baiyewunmi, a. s. 2009. study of dry season zooplankton of lower river benue at makurdi, nigeria. journal of animal and plant sciences, 1(3): 42-50. 278 biodiversity study of zooplankton bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. june, (2019) 15 (3): 263-278 محافظة ،منطقة مختارة من منخفض بحر النجفدراسة التنوع الاحيائي للهائمات الحيوانية في العراق ،النجف **انعام علي تسيار و **صادق كاظم لفتة الزرفي ،*سهاد حميد البوشبع النجف، العراق ،جامعة الكوفة، كلية العلوم، قسم علوم الحياة* ، النجف، العراق جامعة الكوفة كلية العلوم، ، قسم علوم البيئة** 62/12/6112: ، تأريخ النشر11/16/6112: ريخ القبول ، تأ62/11/6112: تأريخ الاستالم الخالصة هدف الدراسة الحالية إلى تقييم تنوع الهائمات الحيوانية في منخفض بحر النجف باستخدام مؤشر ة مواقع في منخفض بحر النجف وسط العراق جمعت عينات الهائمات الحيوانية من خمساذ ؛ التنوع نوًعا من الهائمات 82؛ حيث اظهرت النتائج تشخيص 7102إلى اذار 7102خالل الفترة من نيسان تابع إلى صف مجموعة مجذافيات الاقدام 72الحيوانية، وشملت ً 02، و copepodaنوعا ً نوعا وقد لوحظ ان مجموعة . .cladoceraأنواع تنتمي إلى براغيث املاء 5و rotifersإلى الدوالبيات تنتمي ٪ ، وتاتي بعدها الدوالبيات 5847السائدة وكانت نسبتها املجموعة هي copepodaمجذافيات الاقدام rotifera 4.53 % وأخيرا براغيث املاءcladocera 0148التي شكلت نسبة ٪. و hexarthra mira و nauplii harpacticoid: للهائمات الحيوانية أظهر دليل الوفرة النسبية daphnia sp. و harpacticoid sp. السايكلوب هي الاكثر وفرة في منخفض بحر النجف ويرقات . هي ،hexarthra miraالسايكلوب و ويرقات harpacticoid :كل منووفقا ملؤشر الثبات، يمكن اعتبار بينما ( 5)في املوقع 7102خالل شهر اب 1482وينر للتنوع -ت أقل قيم مؤشر شانون وسجل ؛ألاكثر تكراًرا ، وقد سجلت أعلى قيمة لدليل 7487وكانت ( 7)في املوقع 7102سجلت اعلى قيمة خالل نيسان ، وتم تسجيل أعلى قيمة ملؤشر تجانس ألانواع 247الذي كان ( 7)في املوقع 7102الاثراء خالل نيسان .خالل شهر اذار 1420وكانت ( 0)خالل شهر شباط واقل قيمة سجلت في املوقع ( 7)قع في املو هي املجموعة ألاكثر وفرة من copepodaاستنتج من الدراسة ان مجموعة مجذافيات الاقدام من نوع إلى الهائمات الحيوانية في منخفض بحر النجف، وتراوحت أنواع الهائمات الحيوانية في كثافتها .خر، ومن شهر إلى اخرا bull 335 afrasiab et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. june, (2019) 15 (3): 335-342 review of opisthoglyphous snakes (reptilia, ophidia) of iraq saman r. afrasiab* azhar a. al-moussawi** hind d. hadi** and sarbaz ibrahim mohamad*** *department of vertebrates (retired), iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq ** department of ichthyology, iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq *** kurdistan natural history museum, university of salahaddin, erbil, iraq * corresponding author e-mail: s_lahony@yahoo.com received date: 12 november 2018, accepted date: 07 april 2019, published date: 27 june 2019 abstract seven species of semi venomous opisthoglypha snakes (reptilia, ophidia) of iraq are listed with important characteristics in morphology due to geographical and individual variation of species, as well, the confusion in the scales count of telescopus tessellatus martini (schmidt, 1939) of iraq are discussed. keywords: iraq, opisthoglypha, poisonous, snake, venomous. introduction the mild poisonous snakes of iraq have one or two pairs of posterior maxillary teeth, which are grooved, larger than the others, connected to the venom gland by a duct (corkill, 1932; latifi, 1991; leviton et al., 1992; amr and disi, 2011), they agreed that there are no records for death by these opisthoglyphous snakes among humans because of the location of the venom teeth and also of the mild composition of the poison. if the mild was bitten by these snakes (which is very rare), he feels pain, swelling and ecchymosis around the bite are nodes. the symptoms of the bite are noticed to be more active on small mammals and birds; four species of colubrids have been incriminated, and others are suspected (leviton et al., 1992). according to latifi (1991) only three genera of colubrid snakes belong to opisthoglyphous; the distinction between venomous and nonvenomous snakes is not clear-cut because the saliva of many snakes is toxic for the snake's prey and sometime for humans (leviton et al., 1992). amr and disi (2011) believed that even those colubrid snakes which had been registered as not poisonous snakes, have a poison in their saliva and cause the same symptoms and pain. this study aimed to discuss the morphology and distribution of seven opisthoglypha snakes of iraq along with individual variation of species supported by figures. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2019.15.3.0335 336 review of opisthoglyphous snakes materials and methods the study depended on a collection of opisthoglyphous snakes of the iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad (inhrcm); the kurdistan natural history museum, university of salahaddin, erbil province, gafoor (pers. comm.) and on personal observations of some specimens of snakes for some undergraduate students in iraq for the period (february to november, 2018). twenty six different specimens of opisthoglyphous snakes were used for this study; the photos were taken with a nikon camera. results and discussion there are seven truly opisthoglyphous snakes in iraq, they all belong to the family colubridae. in this study, the distribution and color variation of the opithoglyphous snakes of iraq have been described, with some important notes on taxonomy supported by figures. (1) psammophis schokari (forskål, 1775) (pl. 1) six specimens were examined (one from each of basrah province and thi qar province, 3 from inhrcm and 1 from kurdistan natural history museum); this snake is thin, long (99 cm. length) and slender; body is with narrow dark longitudinal strips on the side of the head and eyes continuous through all of the body; a ventral band also is present in most specimens of the collection of this study with an exception in some specimens which have bands only at the side of the head and neck. the rest of the body is with a uniform color; irregular dark and light blotch on the upper side of the head; mid-body dorsal scales are smooth, arranged in 17 rows; one elongated loreal shield is present; 9 upper labials 5th and 6th touching the eye, the two posterior maxillary teeth are enlarged and grooved. distribution: although it is wide-ranging snake, but it is most abundant in dry arid regions (rhadi et al., 2017); it has a wide distribution in all iraq; and found in shaiba, basrah province (boulenger, 1920); near the river shatt al arab district in a tannumah town, eastern of albasrah province, wasit province and al-diwaniyah province (rhadi et al., 2017). it was also recorded from rutba city, western al anbar province, by (corkill, 1932), amara city (southern iraq) and rutba city by schmidt (1939) and in bahr al-najaf by mohammad et al. (2013). plate (1): p. schokari (forskål, 1775) from the south of erbil province (photo taken by authors). 337 afrasiab et al. (2) telescopus tessellatus martini (schmidt, 1939) (pl. 2 a, b) six specimens were examined (three from inhrcm , 1 from kurdistan natural history museum and 2 were collected by gafoor (pers. comm.) from qaradagh, sulaymaniyah province. the head of this snake is little wider than neck, darker than body; corkill (1932) and khalaf (1959) stated that the iraqi collection have 21 (mean was 23 in the collection of this study) smooth dorsal scale rows; the median four dorsal scales are elongated; loreal enters the eyes; maximum length 78 cm.; tail 12cm.; ventrals, 226-242 (in our collection the mean was 220); subcaudals 67-74. maxillary teeth were10-12 enlarged anterior longest. posterior maxillary teeth are enlarged and grooved. corkill (1932) and terentjive and chernove (1965) referred this snake to tarbbophis iberus (echw.); on the other hand leviton et al. (1992) stated that its distribution is only along tigris-euphrates area, but our collection was only from qaradagh mountain and darbandi khan town, sulaymaniyah province. there are some similarities between the studied specimens of telescopus tessellatus martini (schmidt, 1939) in its 23 dorsal scale and t. rhinopoma (blanford, 1874), but it has a lesser number of ventral and subcaudal scales; also the allopatric distribution of t. rhinopoma is in south of iran and pakistan (anderson, 1963). we believe that the iraqi collection might be a new form, so we are going to achieve a genetic study in the future to demonstrate this clearly. (a) (b) plate (2): telescopus tessellatus martini; (a) from darbandikhan, south east of sulaymaniyah province (preserved in formalin), (b) alive specimen. (photo taken by authors). (3) telescopus fallux nigriceps (ahl, 1924) body is short, head is black, ventral and flat, larger than neck; eyes are with vertical pupils. dorsal scales are smoothly arranged in 19 rows. maximum length is 72 cm (leviton et al., 1992). distribution: baghdad and western desert (leviton et al., 1992); unfortunately we did not have a collection of this snake. 338 review of opisthoglyphous snakes (4) malpolon monspessulanus (hermann, 1804) (pl.3). eight specimens of this snake were examined in this study (three of collection of inhrcm , 4 from kurdistan natural history museum, and 1specimen was collected by gafoor (pers. comm.) from qaradagh; this snake has a color variation: dark brown with spots , uniform blackish brown, olive green with spots (boulenger, 1920; corkill,1932; reed and marx, 1959; afrasiab and mohamad, 2011), uniform light grassy green from north erbil and hawraman mountain. uniform yellow from south erbil and silver or steely gray from qaradagh mountain. plate (3): m. monspessulana insignita that collected from north of erbil province; (a) whole body, (b) head. (photos taken by authors) terentjive and chernove (1965) said that the russian malpolon are brown with black spots and strips more pronounced in young. amr and disi (2011) also gave the same coloration for jordanian collection as well as venchi and sindaco (2006) for middle east; carranza et al. (2006) said that populations of m. monspessulanus in some areas cannot be clearly assigned to either m. m. insignitus or m. m. fuscus, and those from the more arid parts of iraq have either 17 or 19 scale rows. this species was recorded in the checklist of reptilian fauna of basrah, south of iraq by afrasiab et al. (2018). (5) malpolon moilensis (reuss, 1834) (=rhagerhis moilensis reuss, 1834) false cobra for many years this snake was known to belong to the genus malpolon fitzinger, 1826 (corkill, 1932; khalaf, 1959; leviton et al., 1992), but amr and disi (2011) have depended on head shape, the long neck, ribs spreading to the neck and dorsal scale in naming this genus with rhagerhis. distribution: false cobra, this desert snake has a wide range of distribution extending from iran, through iraq into arabian peninsula and north africa (rhadi et al., 2017); it is common in south and western desert of iraq (afrasiab and ali, 1989). it is easily recognized by capability of spreading neck and presence of large black spots between the parietals and the angle of the mouth; 17 smooth dorsal scales, one is loreal, and body length is 137 cm. remarks: main diagnostic character of this genus include the skull characters that formed the typical head shape of ragerhis moilensis and the longer neck ribs (3mm) longer than in equal sized of malpolon of amr and disi (2011). that allows the spreading of the neck and the pattern of the dorsal scale which is drastically different in rhogerhis moilensis than both of malpolon insignitas and m. monspessulana. m. moilensis was listed in the checklist of afrasiab et al. (2018) as one of reptilian fauna of basrah, south of iraq. a b 339 afrasiab et al. (6) spalerosophis diadema cliffordii (schlegel, 1837) (pl.4) four specimens of this snake were described (1from al-anbar province, 1 from kirkuk province, 1 from kurdistan natural history museum and 1 from basrah province). it is a widely distributed snake in iraq, it is found in wetlands, deserts and mountain regions. we put it with the opisthoglyphous snakes because the large adult specimens have enlarged grooved or hollow maxillary tooth ; 33 dorsal scale ; subcaudals are less than 80 plate; upper lip is separated from eyes by one row of scale ; frontal breaking down to four or more scales ( leviton et al., 1992; afrasiab and mohamad, 2014). plate (4): spalerosophis diadema from north of erbil province. (photo taken by authors) (7) spalerosophis microlepis (jan, 1865) (pl. 5) only two specimens were found in kurdistan natural history museum; they were collected from near erbil. this snake is recently recorded in qaladiza and qaradagh mountain, in sulaymaniyah province (afrasiab and mohamad, 2014; afrasiab et al., 2018). this snake is characterized by the presence of long lateral neck stripe and more than 90 subcaudals. plate (5): splerosophis microleps; north east of erbil. (photo taken by authors) 340 review of opisthoglyphous snakes acknowledgements the authors are indebted to aram gafoor, of eye of the nature, ser sheqam, soleymany, kurdistan, iraq; for his help. literature cited afrasiab, s. r. and ali, h. a. 1989. report on a collection of reptiles from rumaila desert, south of iraq. bulletin of the iraq natural history museum, 8 (2): 65-73. afrasiab, s. r. and mohamad, s. i. 2011. first record of the rat snake, zamenis hohenackeri (strauch, 1873), from north-eastern iraq with notes on other colubrid snakes. zoology in the middle east, 54 (1):19-22. afrasiab, s. r. and mohamad, s. i. 2014. new records of snakes from iraq (reptilia: colubridae). zoology in the middle east, 60(1): 92-94. afrasiab, s. r., al-moussawi, a. a. and hadi, h. d. 2018. annotated checklist of reptilian fauna of basrah, south of iraq. bulletin of the iraq natural history museum, 15 (1): 77-92. amr, z. s. and disi, a.m. 2011. systematics, distribution and ecology of the snakes of jordan. vertebrate zoology, 61(2): 179-266. anderson, s. c. 1963. amphibians and reptiles from iran. proceedings of the california academy of science, ser. 4, 31(16): 417-498. boulenger, g. a. 1920. mesopotamian expeditionary force, (1915-1919). a list of snakes from mesopotamia. journal of the bombay natural history society, 27: 347–350. carranza, s., arnold, e. n. and pleguezuelos, j. m. 2006. phylogeny, biogeography, and evolution of two mediterranean snakes, malpolon monspessulanus and hemorrhois hippocrepis (squamata, colubridae), using mtdna sequences. molecular phylogenetics and evolution, 40 (2): 532-546. corkill, n. l. 1932. snakes and snake bite in iraq. bailliere, tindall and cox, london, ix+ 51pp. khalaf, k. t. 1959. reptiles of iraq, with some notes on the amphibians. ar-rabitta press, baghdad, vii+ 96 pp. latifi, m. 1991. the snakes of iran. the society for study of amphibians and reptiles, oxfords, ohio, 159 pp. leviton, a. e., anderson, s. c., adler, k. and minton, s. a. 1992. handbook to middle east amphibians and reptiles (contributions to herpetology). society for the study of amphibians and reptiles, oxford, ohio, 252pp. mohammad, m. k., ali, h. h., ali, b. a. and hadi, a. m. 2013. the biodiversity of bahr alnajaf depression, al-najaf al-ashraf province. bulletin of the iraq natural history museum, 12(3): 21-30. 341 afrasiab et al. rhadi, f. a., mohammed, r. g., rastegar-pouyani, n., rastegar-pouyani, e., and yousef khani, s. s. h. 2017. on the snake fauna of central and southern iraq and some zoogeographic remarks. russian journal of herpetology, 24 (4): 251-266. reed, c. a. and marx, h. 1959. a herpetological collection from northeastern iraq. transactions of the kansas academy of science, 62:91-122. schmidt, k. p. 1939. reptiles and amphibians from southwestern asia. field museum of natural history, zoological series, 24 (7): 49-92. terentjive, p. and chernove, s. a. 1965. key to amphibians and reptiles (of ussr). smithsonian institution, washington dc. english translation of 3rd edition (1949), 315pp. venchi, a. and sindaco, r. 2006. annotated checklist of the reptiles of the mediteranean countries, with keys to species identification. part 2-snakes (reptilia, serpentes). annali del museo civico di storia naturale "giacomo doria", genova, 98:259-364. 342 review of opisthoglyphous snakes bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. june, (2019) 15 (3): 335-342 في العراق(reptilia, ophidia) خلفية ألانياب مراجعة النواع جنس الثعابين ***رباز ابراهيم محمدو س **هند ضياء هادي , **أزهار احمد املوسوي , *سامان روستم افراسياب جامعة بغداد, بغداد, العراق, مركز بحوث و متحف التاريخ الطبيعي, (متقاعد)قسم الفقريات * جامعة بغداد, بغداد, العراق, قسم الاسماك, مركز بحوث و متحف التاريخ الطبيعي* * بيل, العراقمتحف كردستان للتاريخ الطبيعي, جامعة صالح الدين, أر *** 10/10/1122: تأريخ النشر، 10/10/1122: تأريخ القبول ، 21/22/1122: تأريخ الاستالم الخالصة الحالية سبعة انواع من الثعابين خلفيه الانياب خفيفة السم الدراسة استعرضت opisthoglypha reptilia, ophidia)) و تناولت أهم الصفات التصنيفية املظهرية و , في العراق . تغاير الالوان ضمن النوع بحسب التوزيع الجغرافي لها و انتشارها تم التطرق الى اختالف هذه الدراسة عن الدراسات املحلية الاخرى في عدد حراشف الثعبان telescopus tessellatus martini ( schmidt, 1939) في العراق. bull 319 halgurd rashed ismael akrawi and talal tahir mahmoud bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. june, (2019) 15 (3): 319-333 a survey of weevils (coleoptera, curculionoidea) from some localites of kurdistan regioniraq, with new records to the entomofauna of iraq halgurd rashed ismael akrawi* and talal tahir mahmoud duhok university, college of agriculture, department of plant protection, kurdistan region, iraq *corresponding author e-mail: halgurd.ismael@uod.ac received date: 12 january 2019, accepted date: 27 march 2019, published date: 27 june 2019 abstract this work is the first study of the curculionoidea fauna from kurdistan region of iraq, based on the intensive survey in different localities of kurdistan from march 2016 to november 2017. in total, 41 species belonging to 28 genera, 21 tribes and 3 families were collected and identified, including 25 species newly recorded for the iraqi fauna. general distribution, collecting localities and methods, with plant association data for each species are given. keywords: coleoptera, curculionoidea, entomofauna, iraq, kurdistan. introduction the superfamily curculionoidea, commonly named snout beetles or weevils, is one of the highest diversity group of insects and probably the largest family of the order coleoptera, that including over 62,000 species and around 6,000 genera thus far described (oberprieler et al., 2007). they are small to large-sized beetles (approximately 1-60 mm) of different shapes, colors and habitats;weevils can be recognized by their more or less long and slender rostrum with mouthparts situated at its apex, and mostly geniculate antennae with more or less compact antennal club (thompson, 1992; kuschel, 1995; alonsozarazaga and lyal, 1999; anderson, 2002; marvaldi et al., 2002; oberprieler et al., 2007). these beetles are phytophagous insects exhibiting narrow to broad oligophagy or polyphagy; most species develop on living plants whereas some others are feeding on decaying materials, some species are important as a medical insect causes allergic skin, rhinitis and asthma to bakers and laboratory workers such as sitophilus species. adults and larvae feed on plant roots, stems, leaves and seeds. generally, females bore into various parts of plants where eggs are laid. some weevils are important pests of agricultural crops, ornamental plants and stored products as well as trees and forestry products. on the other hand, a few species of weevils were successfully used in the biological control as an effective method for weed control (wibmer and o'brein, 1986; herling et al., 1995; anderson, 2002; oberprieler, 2004). the iraqi fauna of curculionids is poorly studied, especially that of the kurdistan region, in addition to taxa listed in the newest catalogue (alonso-zarazaga et al., 2017); the records of curculionoidea in iraq were quoted in the official lists published by derwesh (1963, 1965) https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2019.15.3.0319 320 a survey of weevils (coleoptera, curculionoidea) who listed 25 and 40 species respectively, shalaby et al. (1966) who recorded one species, kaddou (1967) who reported 11 species, khalaf and al-omor (1974) who listed 23 species, abdul-rassoul (1976) who recorded 25 species, and al-ali (1977) who listed 28 species. thereafter, salih (2007) studied 20 species of two subfamilies, abul wahed and alhadalg (2015) recorded 2 additional species from basrah province, and ismail (2015) studied microsculpture of 8 species and 3 genera. with the species recorded in this note, the iraqi fauna of curculionoidea has reached 85 species, surely far less of those actually occurring in this large and diverse country. this paper represents the first study of the weevils in kurdistan region, iraq; and the aim of this study is faunistic study of weevils to contribute the knowledge of this superfamily in iraq. materials and methods in this study, the specimens were collected in various localities of iraqi kurdistan: erbil, sulaymaniyah and duhok provinces, from march 2016 to november 2017; the specimens were collected using different methods, such as sweeping net, beating sheet, pooter aspirator, light trap and hand-picking, from fruit and forest trees, vegetables and wild plants during 3-4 field collecting trips per week in the spring (march, april and may) and summer months (june, july and august); while we made two trips for the other months. all specimens collected by the first author are part of a ph. d. study focused on the faunistic study of the curculionoidea of iraqi kurdistan; all specimens are preserved in the museum of agriculture college, duhok university, each of them bearing information about the place and date of collecting. most of the species mentioned in this paper have been identified by enzo colonnelli, of museo di zoological, sapienza universita di roma, italy. taxonomic position and scientific names of others species were identified by authors using original descriptions, available keys and catalogues, such as those by zherikhin and egorov (1991), may (1993), alonso-zarazaga and lyal (1999, 2002), colonnelli (2003, 2004), legalov (2006, 2011), lyal and alonso-zarazaga (2006), velázquez de castro et al. (2007) and löbl and smetana (2011, 2013). tribes, genera, and species of the records have been listed alphabetically, higher taxonomy of the newest classification of curculioniodea and general distribution of each species primarily follow alonso-zarazaga et al. (2017). the identification of species that have not been recorded for iraq in alonso-zarazaga et al. (2017) was confirmed by mohammad saleh abdul-rassoul, god bless his soul, from iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad. the collected plants were identified by saleem ismail shahbaz of the university of duhok, college of agriculture. abbreviations of depositories: the names of collections and museums that provided species of this study are abbreviated as follows: mczr = museo civico di zoologia, rome, italy; mamr = ministry of agriculture, museum of directorate agricultural research; uodm = university of duhok, museum of agriculture college. results the result of this investigation is a total of 41 species belonging to 3 families, 9 subfamilies, 21 tribes, and 28 genera of curculionoidea collected and identified from kurdistan region. the list of the collected species is given alphabetically below: 321 halgurd rashed ismael akrawi and talal tahir mahmoud 1family: attelabidae billberg, 1820 subfamily: attelabinae billberg, 1820 tribe: attelabini billberg, 1820 attelabus sulcifrons (argod-vallon, 1895) material examined: duhok (akre, atrish) and erbil (mergasor), may 2016 and 2017, on quercus aegilops. collecting methods: beating and hand-picking. general distribution: armenia, bulgaria, georgia, greece, macedonia, turkey and syria; newly record to iraq. subfamily: rhynchitinae gistel, 1848 tribe : rhynchitini gistel, 1848 rhynchites smyrnensis desbrochers des loges, 1869 materials examined: duhok :amediand kanimasy, april 2016 and 2017, on apricot and pear trees. collecting methods: beating, hand-picking and light trap jointed to trees. general distribution: greece, iran, jordan, syria, turkmenistan and turkey; newly record to iraq. rhynchites trojanus gyllenhal, 1839 materials examined: duhok: zawita april and may 2017, on apricot tree. collecting methods: beating, hand-picking and light trap. general distribution: cyprus, greece, jordan and turkey; newly record to iraq. 2family: brentidae billberg, 1820 subfamily: apioninae schoenherr, 1823 tribe: apionini schoenherr, 1823 apion frumentarium (linnaeus, 1758) materials examined: duhok: sumel, june and july 2016, on rumex crispus. collecting methods: sweeping net. general distribution: western palaearctic, recorded from afghanistan, algeria, armenia, austria, azerbaijan, bosnia, bulgaria, cyprus, croatia, czech republic, denmark, estonia, france, germany, georgia, great britain, greece, hungary, iran, ireland, italy, jordan, kazakhstan, latvia, lichtenstein, lithuania, luxembourg, the netherlands, norway, poland, portugal, romania, european russia, serbia, slovakia, spain, sweden, switzerland, syria, turkey, ukraine; newly record to iraq. tribe: aspidapiini alonso-zarazaga, 1990 aspidapion radiolus (marsham, 1802) materials examined: duhok :atrish ; sulaymaniyah :dukan, july 2016 and 2017, on malva neglecta, alcea setosa and a. kurdica. collecting methods: beating and aspirator. general distribution: widely distributed in western palaearctic, reported from albania, algeria, afghanistan, armenia, austria, azores, azerbaijan, bulgaria, canary islands, croatia, cyprus, czech republic, germany, denmark, estonia, finland, georgia, great britain, greece, hungary, iraq, italy, jordan, kazakhstan, latvia, lebanon, libya, lichtenstein, luxembourg, madeira, malta, morocco, the netherlands, norway, portugal, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/fagaceae 322 a survey of weevils (coleoptera, curculionoidea) poland, romania, russia, serbia, spain, slovakia, switzerland, sweden, syria, tadzhikistan, turkey, tunisia, ukraine and uzbekistan; this species reported also from tropical africa. aspidapion aeneum (fabricius, 1775) materials examined: duhok: akre and atrish; erbil :shaqlawa, july and august 2017, on malva neglecta and alcea setosa. collecting methods: beating and aspirator. general distribution: western palaearctic, recorded from albania, algeria, afghanistan, armenia, azerbaijan, bulgaria, cyprus, croatia, czech republic, germany, denmark, france, georgia, great britain, hungary, greece, iran, italy, kazakhstan, kyrgyzstan, lebanon, lithuania, macedonia, malta, morocco, the netherlands, portugal, european, russia, serbia, spain, slovakia, switzerland, sweden, syria, tunisia, ukraine and uzbekistan; new record to iraq. tribe : malvapiini alonso-zarazaga, 1990 rhopalapion longirostre (olivier, 1807) materials examined: duhok: zawita and kanimasy august 2016, on malva neglecta and m. anicaeensis. collecting methods: beating and aspirator. general distribution: widespread in western palaerctic, introduced to north america, occurring in albania, algeria, afghanistan, austria, armenia, austria, azerbaijan, bulgaria, croatia, cyprus, czech republic, germany, france, georgia, greece, hungary, iraq, iran, italy, jordan, kazakhstan, lebanon, luxembourg, montenegro, the netherlands, poland, romania, south european, russia, serbia, spain, slovakia, syria, switzerland, syria, tadzhikistan, turkmenistan, turkey, uzbekistan and ukraine; newly record to iraq. tribe: oxystomatini alonso-zarazaga, 1990 cyanapion pseudarrogans (reitter, 1901) material examined: duhok: amedi and bamarny may and june 2016, on medicago polymorpha and m. rigidula. collecting methods: sweeping net. general distribution: kazakhstan and uzbekistan; newly record to iraq. eutrichapion arrogans (wencker, 1858) materials examined: duhok: bamarny and sarsenk june and july 2017, on medicago radiate and m. rigidula. collecting methods: beating and sweeping net. general distribution: jordan, syria and turkey; newly record to iraq. tribe : piezotrachelini voss, 1959 protapion assimile (kirby, 1808) materials examined: duhok: zakho and zawita; erbil: soran and mergasor, june 2017, on trifolium pilulare and t. stellatum. collecting methods: beating, sweeping and light trap. general distribution: western palaearctic, recorded from algeria, albania, armenia, azerbaijan, belgium, bulgaria, croatia, czech republic, denmark, germany, france, finland, georgia, great britain, greece, hungary, iran, italy, ireland, latvia, lichtenstein, lithuania, luxembourg, the netherlands, norway, portugal, poland, serbia, slovakia, spain, sweden, switzerland, syria, russia, turkey, tunisia and ukraine; newly record to iraq. 323 halgurd rashed ismael akrawi and talal tahir mahmoud 3family : curculionidae latreille, 1802 tribe: baridini schoenherr, 1836 malvaevora timida (rossi, 1792) material examined: duhok :deralok and kanimasy, august 2017, on malva neglecta. collecting methods: beating and aspirator. general distribution: western palaearctic, reported from algeria, austria, bulgaria, cyprus, france, iran, italy, hungary, libya, kazakhstan, malta, morocco, slovakia, slovenia, spain, south european, romania, russia, switzerland, tunisia, turkey and turkmenistan; newly record to iraq. subfamily: curculioninae latreille, 1802 tribe: cionini schoenherr, 1825 cionus olivieri rosenschoeld, 1838 materials examined: duhok: kanimasy, august and september 2016, on verbascum thapsus and v. speciosum. collecting methods: beating and sweeping. general distribution: widespread in western palaearctic and central asia, recorded from: afghanistan, andorra, albania, austria, armenia, bosnia, belgium, cyprus, croatia, czech republic, germany, france, estonia, herzegovina, hungary, georgia, greece, iran, latvia, italy, kirgizstan, poland, macedonia, montenegro, serbia, south european, slovenia russia, slovakia, syria, romania, tadzhikistan, turkey, turkmenistan and uzbekistan. iraq (derwesh, 1963). tribe: curculionini latreille, 1802 curculio elephas (gyllenhal, 1835) materials examined: sulaymaniyah: peramagrom, may 2017, on quercus infectoria. collecting methods: beating and light trap. general distribution: europe and mediterranean reported from albania, algeria, austria, belgium, bosnia, bulgaria, germany, croatia, czech republic, cyprus, greece, france, herzegovina, hungary, italy, luxembourg, morocco, macedonia, poland, romania, russia, south european, spain, slovakia, switzerland, the netherlands, turkey and tunisia; newly record to iraq. tribe: mecinini gistel, 1848 rhinusa asellus (gravenhorst, 1807) materials examined: duhok: qasrok and bablo, may 2016 and 2017, on verbascum speciosum. collecting methods: beating and sweeping. general distribution: austria, belgium, bulgaria, czech republic, germany, france, greece, italy, luxembourg, hungary, macedonia, moldavia, poland, the netherlands, romania, russia, south european, slovakia, spain, switzerland, the netherlands and turkey; newly record to iraq. rhinusa bipustulata (rossi, 1792) materials examined: duhok :bablo and chamanky, may and june 2017, on verbascum thapsus and v. speciosum. collecting methods: beating and sweeping. general distribution: western palaearctic, recorded from afghanistan, albania, austria, armenia, azerbaijan, bosnia, belgium, bulgaria, byelorussia, croatia, czech republic, france, greece, georgia, herzegovina, hungary, lebanon, italy, moldavia, montenegro, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/fagaceae 324 a survey of weevils (coleoptera, curculionoidea) romania, russia, portugal, poland, south european, slovakia, slovenia, serbia, syria, switzerland, turkey, turkmenistan, uzbekistan and ukraine; newly record to iraq. tribe: tychiini c. g. thomson, 1859 tychius meliloti stephens, 1831 materials examined: duhok: sarsenk and bamarny; erbil: choman, june 2016 and 2017, on melilotus alba and m. indicus. collecting methods: sweeping net. general distribution: widely distributed across palaearctic and introduced to north america and tropical africa, recorded from afghanistan, albania, algeria, austria, armenia, azerbaijan, belgium, bosnia, bulgaria, byelorussia, china, croatia, czech republic, denmark, germany, estonia, finland, france, georgia, great britain, greece, herzegovina, hungary, italy, iran, kyrgyzstan, kazakhstan, latvia, lithuania, lichtenstein, malta, macedonia, moldavia, mongolia, montenegro, norway, portugal, poland, romania, russia, serbia, slovenia, slovakia, spain, sweden, switzerland, tadzhikistan, turkey, turkmenistan, ukraine and uzbekistan; newly record to iraq. tychius pusillus germar, 1842 materials examined: duhok: mangeshky and bamarny; erbil: choman, june and july 2017, on trifolium purpureum and t. stellatum. collecting methods: sweeping net. general distribution: europe and mediterranean, introduced to tropical africa, reported from algeria, albania, austria, belgium, bulgaria, croatia, czech republic, germany, france, great britain, greece, hungary, italy, lichtenstein, malta, montenegro, morocco, portugal, poland, south european, romania, russia, slovakia, spain and switzerland; newly recorded to iraq. tychius stephensi schoenherr, 1835 materials examined: duhok (sarsenk, qadeshy) june and july 2017, on trifolium resupinatum. collecting methods: sweeping net. general distribution: palaearctic, recorded from albania, austria, armenia, azerbaijan, belgium, bosnia, bulgaria, byelorussia, canary islands, croatia, czech republic, germany, denmark, estonia, finland, france, georgia, greece, great britain, herzegovina, hungary, ireland, iran, italy, kazakhstan, jordan, latvia, lebanon, lichtenstein, lithuania, luxembourg, malta, macedonia, moldavia, montenegro, morocco, norway, portugal, poland, serbia, spain, slovakia, slovenia, sweden, syria, switzerland, romania, russia and ukraine; newly recorded to iraq. subfamily: ceutorhynchinae gistel, 1848 tribe: ceutorhynchini gistel, 1848 ceutorhynchus fallax boheman, 1845 materials examined: duhok: khanky, march 2017, on sinapis alba and brassica nigra. collecting methods: beating and aspirator. general distribution: algeria, azerbaijan, armenia, bulgaria, france, georgia, greece, italy, jordan, moldavia, morocco, romania, russia, south european, spain, slovakia, syria, turkey and tunisia; newly record to iraq. hadroplontus trimaculatus (fabricius, 1775) materials examined: duhok (dargaly) and erbil (rawanduz), april 2016 and 2017, on carduus pycnocephalus and notobasis syriaca. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/notobasis 325 halgurd rashed ismael akrawi and talal tahir mahmoud collecting methods: sweeping net. general distribution: western palaearctic; reported from albania, algeria, austria, armenia, azerbaijan, belgium, bosnia, bulgaria, croatia, czech republic, cyprus, germany, france, georgia, great britain, greece, herzegovina, hungary, iraq, italy, iran, luxembourg, moldavia, morocco, the netherlands, portugal, poland, romania, russia, south european, slovenia, slovakia, switzerland, spain, syria, tunisia and ukraine; newly record to iraq. subfamily: entiminae schoenherr, 1823 tribe : brachyderini schoenherr, 1826 pholicodes fausti reitter, 1890 materials examined: duhok: akre and bjil ; sulaymaniyah: qaladezy, may 2016 and 2017, on prosopis farcta. collecting methods: beating and hand-picking general distribution: iran, iraq, turkey tribe: cyphicerini lacordaire, 1863 myllocerus damascenus miller, 1861 materials examined: duhok: dinarta and grbish; erbil: sherwanmazn, july and august 2016, on ceratonia siliqua. collecting methods: beating. general distribution: armenia, cyprus, lebanon, syria, turkey and tropical africa. recorded in iraq (derwesh, 1963) tribe: phyllobiini schoenherr, 1826 phyllobius nudiamplus reitter, 1916. materials examined: duhok: atrish, sarsenk and blye; erbil: hiran and mergasor; sulaymaniyah: dukan, rania and qaladezy, april and may 2017, on quercus aegilops. collecting methods: beating and aspirator. general distribution: turkey; newly record to iraq. note. this is the first finding of this species after its description (reitter, 1916) with precise collecting data. tribe: polydrusini schoenherr, 1823 polydrusus virbius reitter, 1899 materials examined: duhok: sumel and zawita; erbil: shaqlawa and hiran; sulaymaniyah: rania april and may 2017, on apple, apricot, peach trees and on quercus aegilops and q. infectoria. collecting methods: beating, aspirator and light trap. general distribution: iran and turkmenistan; newly record to iraq. tribe: sitonini gistel, 184 charagmus intermedius (küster, 1847) materials examined: duhok: dargaly, june 2016, on hippocrepis unisiliquosa. collecting methods: sweeping net. general distribution: algeria, belgium, bosnia, bulgaria, croatia, cyprus, germany, france, greece, iran, italy, herzegovina, lebanon, luxembourg, madeira, malta, macedonia, morocco, montenegro, portugal, spain, syria switzerland, tunisia and turkey; newly record to iraq. 326 a survey of weevils (coleoptera, curculionoidea) sitona lividipes fåhraeus, 1840 materials examined: duhok: batifa and kamaka; sulaymaniyah: bshdar, may and june 2017, on medicago polymorpha and m. orbicularis. collecting methods: sweeping net. general distribution: algeria, bulgaria, egyptian, france, italy, iran, greece, lebanon, portugal, macedonia, morocco, spain, syria, turkey and tunisia; newly record to iraq. sitona macularius (marsham, 1802) material examined: duhok: bany and siarateka; erbil: choman and hajiumaran, may and june 2017, on medicago polymorpha and m. rigidula. collecting methods: sweeping net. general distribution: palaearctic, recorded from afghanistan, algeria, albania, armenia, austria, azerbaijan, belgium, bosnia, bulgaria, byelorussia, canary islands, croatia, cyprus, czech republic, germany, denmark, egyptian, estonia, finland, france, georgia, , great britain, greece, herzegovina, hungary, iran, iraq, italy, jordan, kazakhstan, kirgizstan, latvia, lebanon, lithuania, libya, luxembourg, malta, macedonia, morocco, moldavia, pakistan, portugal, poland, romania, russia, saudi-arabia, serbia, slovakia, slovenia, spain, syria, switzerland, the netherlands, tadzhikistan, turkey, tunisia, turkmenistan and ukraine. sitona puncticollis stephens, 1831 materials examined: duhok: siarateka, chamanky and bablo; erbil: harir and soran, april and may 2016, on medicago rigidula and trifolium pilulare. collecting methods: sweeping net. general distribution: algeria, albania, austria, azerbaijan, azores, belgium, bosnia, bulgaria, byelorussia, croatia, cyprus, czech republic, germany, denmark, egyptian, estonia, faeroe islands, finland, france, georgia, greece, great britain, herzegovina, hungary, italy, iran, ireland, kazakhstan, latvia, lithuania, libya, luxembourg, macedonia, morocco, norway, portugal, poland, romania, russia, serbia, slovakia, slovenia, sweden, spain, syria, switzerland, the netherlands, tadzhikistan, turkey, tunisia, ukraine and uzbekistan; newly record to iraq. subfamily: lixinae schoenherr, 1823 tribe: cleonini schoenherr, 1826 coniocleonus excoriatus (gyllenhal, 1834) materials examined: duhok: akre and hashka, september 2017, on grass and crawling on the ground. collecting methods: hand-picking. general distribution: austria, belgium, bulgaria, canary islands, cyprus, czech republic, egyptian , france, germany, greece, hungary, iran, iraq, italy, jordan, libya, malta, macedonia, morocco, pakistan, portugal, russia, slovakia, spain, sweden, switzerland, syria, turkey, tunisia, ukraine and yemen; iraq (derwesh, 1965). coniocleonus nigrosuturatus (goeze, 1777) material examined: duhok: grbishm, dinarta and bakrman, june 2016 and 2017, on erodium cicutarium. collecting methods: hand-picking and sweeping. general distribution: western palaearctic and oriental region, reported from afghanistan, algeria, albania, astoria, armenia, azerbaijan, belgium, bulgaria, croatia, cyprus, czech republic, germany, egyptian, france, georgia, greece, hungary, italy, iran, iraq, libya, jordan, kazakhstan, kirgizstan, lebanon, moldavia, morocco, pakistan, portugal, romania, 327 halgurd rashed ismael akrawi and talal tahir mahmoud russia, serbia, slovenia, slovakia, spain, syria, switzerland, tadzhikistan, turkey, turkmenistan, ukraine and uzbekistan. coniocleonus pseudobliquus (j. müller, 1921) materials examined. duhok: mangeshky, zawita and khansye, august 2016, on grass and under stones. collecting methods: hand-picking. general distribution: bosnia, bulgaria, croatia, hercegovina, greece, iraq, malta, macedonia, romania, serbia, slovenia, turkey and ukraine. temnorhinus brevirostris (gyllenhal, 1834) materials examined: duhok: amedi and chamanky; erbil: soran, may and june 2017, on salsola vermiculata and s. crassa. collecting methods: beating and sweeping net. general distribution: algeria, canary islands, cyprus, egyptian, france, iraq, iran italy, jordan, libya, kazakhstan, malta, morocco, oman, pakistan, saudi arabia, spain, turkey, tunisia and yemen; known also from afro-tropical and oriental region. tribe: lixini schoenherr, 1823 bangasternus orientalis (capiomont, 1873) materials examined: duhok: bardarash and akre; erbil: khabat and koysinjaq, march and april 2016, on centaurea hyalolepis and c. solstitialis. collecting methods: beating and aspirator. general distribution: western palaearctic and introduced in north america, reported from afghanistan, armenia, austria, azerbaijan, bulgaria, cyprus, egyptian, georgia, greece, hungary, iraq, iran, italy, jordan, kazakhstan, lebanon, macedonia, romania, european russia, syria, slovakia, turkey, tajikistan and uzbekistan. larinus latus (herbst, 1783) materials examined: duhok: bakrman, atrish, zakho and amedi; erbil: shaqlawa, rawanduz and mergasor; sulaymaniyah: dukan, sharbazher and halabja, april and may 2016 and 2017, on onopordum carduchorum. collecting methods: beating and hand-picking. general distribution: palaearctic, introduced to the australian region, recorded from albania, austria, armenia, azerbaijan, bosnia, bulgaria, croatia, cyprus, germany, france, georgia, greece, herzegovina, hungary, italy, iran, moldavia, montenegro, russia, romania, serbia, slovakia, slovenia, syria, turkey and ukraine. this species was reported to iraq by derwesh (1965). larinus onopordi (fabricius, 1787) materials examined: duhok: kanimasym, sarsenk and khanky; erbil :harir and khalifan, hiran; sulaymaniyah: piramagrom, june and july 2016 and 2017, on echinops ritro and onopordum carduchorum. collecting methods: beating and hand-picking. general distribution: western palaearctic and tropical africa, recorded from algeria, armenia, azerbaijan, bosnia, bulgaria, cyprus, egyptian, france, georgia, greece, herzegovina, italy, iran, kazakhstan, libya, lebanon, morocco, portugal, russia, saudi arabia, serbia, spain, syria, tadzhikistan, turkey, tunisia, turkmenistan and ukraine. reported to iraq by derwesh (1963). 328 a survey of weevils (coleoptera, curculionoidea) larinus grisescens gyllenhal, 1835 materials examined: duhok: dinarta and bjil; erbil: mergasor and piran, april 2016 and 2017, on silybum marianum. collecting methods: beating and hand-picking. general distribution: albania, bulgaria, cyprus, gerrce, georgia, italy, iraq, iran, lebanon, macedonia, moldavia, montenegro, russia, serbia, syria, turkey. larinus ovaliformis capiomont, 1874 materials examined: duhok: akre, amedi, atirsh, sumel and bardarash; erbil: khabat, kory, shaqlawa, harir and koysinjaq; sulaymaniyah: dukan, rania, pshdar, piramagrom and halabja, march and april 2016 and 2017, on silybum marianum and notobasis syriaca. collecting methods: beating and hand-picking. general distribution: cyprus, iran, lebanon, libya, south european russia, syria and turkey. iraq (derwesh, 1963). lixus cardui olivier, 1807 materials examined: duhok: bakrman, atrish, zakho and amedi; erbil: shaqlawa, rawanduz and mergasor; sulaymaniyah: dukan and halabja, april and may 2016 and 2017 on onopordum carduchorum and carduus pycnocephalus. collecting methods: beating and hand-picking. general distribution: algeria, austria, armenia, azerbaijan, bosnia, bulgaria, croatia, cyprus, czech republic, france, georgia, germany, greece, hercegovina, hungary, iran, italy, moldavia, morocco, poland, romania, portugal, russia,syria, slovakia, spain, turkey and ukraine. iraq (khalaf and al-omor, 1974). subfamily: hyperinae marseul, 1863 tribe: hyperini marseul, 1863 hypera nigrirostris (fabricius, 1775) material examined: duhok: zawita, mangeshky and bamarny, march 2016 and 2017, on medicago rigidula and trifolium campestre. collecting methods: sweeping and light trap. general distribution: palaearctic, introduced to north america, reported for albania, armenia, azerbaijan, austria, belgium, bosnia, bulgaria, byelorussia, china, croatia, cyprus, czech republic, denmark, estonia, finland, france, georgia, germany, great britain, greece, herzegovina, hungary, ireland, italy, japan, kazakhstan, latvia, lithuania, luxembourg, malta, macedonia, moldavia, montenegro, morocco, norway, portugal, poland, romania, russia, serbia, slovakia, slovenia, spain, sweden, switzerland, syria, the netherlands, turkey and ukraine; newly record to iraq. hypera postica (gyllenhal, 1813) materials examined: duhok: akre and bakrman; erbil :shaqlawa an hiran; sulaymaniyah: dukan, qaladze and piramagrom, april and may 2016 and 2017, on trifolium campestre and t. resupinatum. collecting methods: sweeping net and light trap. general distribution: palaearctic, introduced to north america, reported from afghanistan, algeria, albania, armenia, austria, azerbaijan, belgium, bosnia, bulgaria, byelorussia, canary islands, northern china, croatia, cyprus, czech republic, denmark, germany, egyptian, estonia, finland, france, georgia, greece, great britain, herzegovina, hungary, iraq, iran, italy, japan, kazakhstan, kirgizstan, libya, latvia, lithuania, luxembourg, malta, macedonia, madeira, moldavia, mongolia, montenegro, morocco, norway, poland, portugal, 329 halgurd rashed ismael akrawi and talal tahir mahmoud romania, russia, slovakia, serbia, slovenia, spain, south korea, sweden, syria, switzerland, the netherlands, turkey, tunisia, turkmenistan, ukraine and uzbekistan. hypera venusta (fabricius, 1791) materials examined: duhok: amedi and deralok, may 2017, on trifolium campestre. collecting methods: sweeping net and light trap. general distribution: algeria, armenia, azerbaijan, austria, belgium, bosnia, bulgaria, byelorussia, croatia, cyprus, czech republic, denmark, estonia, france, germany, great britain, greece, herzegovina, hungary, italy, ireland, libya, kazakhstan, latvia, lithuania, luxembourg, macedonia, malta, montenegro, morocco, norway, poland, portugal, romania, russia, slovenia, serbia, slovakia, spain, sweden, syria, switzerland, turkey, tunisia and ukraine; newly record to iraq. discussion this study is the result of the field survey carried out in the kurdistan region of iraq focusing on weevils, here we list 41 species of which 25 were hitherto not recorded from iraq, and 16 species previously quoted in the lists of the palaearctic region and lists of iraqi fauna. hence, the total of 110 spp. of the three families is currently known from iraq. the primeval and semi-primeval vegetation of iraqi kurdistan is very rich as plant biodiversity concerns. kurdistan deserves further, more comprehensive entomological investigation, which will certainly contribute by many new records to the better knowledge of iraqi weevil fauna including findings of new species to the science. the climate of kurdistan is very favorable, and serves as a refuge for plants and animals. further studies may also lead to the discovery of host plants and biology of several poorly known species improving our knowledge about the aspects of their life cycle, environmental conditions and needs of the nature conservation. acknowledgements we are extremely grateful to dr. e. colonnelli (a.r.d.e. museo civico di zoologia, rome, italy) for the identification of most collected specimens and to dr. g. sabatinelli (natural history museum of geneva, switzerland) for important scientific cooperation and great role in progress of our research. many thanks also to dr. m.s. abdul-rassoul (god bless his soul) and dr. razzaq shalan augul, iraq natural history research center and museum, university of bagdad, for their confirming of unrecorded species in iraq. literature cited abdel wahed, m. a. and alhadalg, k. s. h. 2015. two billbugs (curculionidae; 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(2021) 16 (3): 325-340. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2021.16.3.0325 on the ecology and species diversity of the freshwater gastropods of springs in andijan region, uzbekistan abduvaiet p. pazilov* and farrukh u. umarov** * department of biology, gulistan state university, gulistan, uzbekistan. **department of ecology and botany, andijan state university, andijan uzbekistan. **corresponding author: eco_umarov@mail.ru received date: 17 april 2021, accepted date: 20 may 2021, published date: 20 jun 2021 abstract this study examines the species composition, biodiversity, zoogeography, and ecology of freshwater gastropods of 12 springs in andijan region of uzbekistan. the study used generally accepted malacological, faunistic, ecological, analytical, and statistical methods. as a result of research in the springs, 14 species of freshwater gastropods belonging to 2 subclasses, 5 families, and 10 genera were recorded. 7 of them are endemic to central asia. when indicators of biodiversity of mollusks were analyzed according to the shannon index, it was found that the highest value was recorded in the springs besides the hills. according to the biotope of distribution and bioecological features, they were divided into cryophilic, phytophilic, pelophilic, and eurybiontic ecological groups. the mollusks, which are common in the springs, were divided into 3 groups according to their faunal similarity. the contribution of the central asian and european-siberian species to the formation of the malacofauna in the springs of the andijan region was significant. keywords: andijan, biodiversity, ecology, freshwater gastropods, spring. introduction springs are one of the water basins in need of protection, because they were separated from the water basins, and allowed for the emergence of rare and endemic species; one of the most common organisms among them is mollusca group (izzatullayev et al., 2013). mollusks play an important role in the metabolism of substances in aquatic ecosystems and the processes of self-cleaning of water bodies (leshko, 1998), as well as changes in the external environment; they are visible (zhadin, 1952). at present, the conservation of the diversity of mollusks in springs is based on faunistic analysis of the species, identification of distribution areas, the study of the transformation process under the influence of anthropogenic forces, and the development of measures to https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2021.16.3.0325 326 on the ecology and species diversity protect rare species (starobogatov, 1972). based on these tasks, the study of the biodiversity and ecological properties of freshwater gastropods in the springs of the fergana valley is one of the current important issues (umarov and pazilov, 2020). russian malacologist zhadin (1952) studied the fauna and ecology of mollusks distributed in fresh and brackish waters of the ussr. based on the collections of arkhangelsky (1933) from the shohimardon springs in the fergana valley, he introduced a new species of valvatamnicola archangelskii (zhadin, 1952) to the science belonging to the hygrobeidae family. these species are included in the red book of the republic of uzbekistan (2019). mukhamediyev (1967, 1969, 1986) studied the hydrobionts of the fergana valley, at freshwater gastropods and recorded the following species in the springs: costatella acuta (draparnaud, 1805); planorbis planorbis (linnaeus, 1758); p. tangitarensis germain, 1918; anisus ladacensis (nevill, 1878) and radix auricularia (linnaeus, 1758). in recent years, izzatullayev and solijonov (2016), izzatullayev (2018, 2019), pazilov and umarov (2020), umarovs (2020) and umarov and pazilov (2020) studied aquatic mollusks of the fergana valley. however, according to literature data, although hydrobiological studies were carried out in the fergana valley, studies of aquatic mollusks in springs have not been sufficiently studied. taking into account the mentioned above, the present investigation aimed to study the biodiversity and ecological characteristics of freshwater gastropods in the springs of the andijan region. materials and methods andijan region is located in the eastern part of the fergana valley; the western part consists of the plains, while the eastern part includes the fergana and alay ridges. administratively, it is the most eastern region of the republic of uzbekistan. the region is at an altitude of 500600 m above sea level, the proximity of groundwater to the surface in most areas, and the presence of rivers, hills, and mountains have allowed the emergence of more than 50 large and small springs (mukhamediyev, 1967). twelve springs were selected for the present study. their selection took into account the constant availability of spring water and its richness in hydrobionts. the existing springs in andijan region can be divided into 3 groups (mukhamediyev, 1967): at the bottom of the river cones (uchbulak, kajnarbulak, tandirbulak, kushmabulak, ajdinbulak), besides the hills (fozilman ota bulak, alchalik bulak, bibi seshanba bulak, kukbulak) besides the mountains (shirmonbulak, imam ota bulak, shiraghanbulak). the water of all studied springs was fresh water, but there were differences in some of the environmental parameters (tab. 1). field work was carried out to study the malacofauna of 12 springs at andijan region and their ecology during may-august 2020 (map 1). hydrobiological net and tweezers were used to collect the mollusks; then collected specimens were first fixed in 70 %, and a day later in 96 % ethyl alcohol (izzatullayev, 327 pazilov and umarov 2018). in total, more than 1300 mollusks were collected in 50 specimens. a 25 x 25 cm frame was used to determine the population density of mollusks (zhadin, 1960). also, water samples were taken for hydrochemical analysis; depth was measured, and general information about the spring biotope was recorded. table (1): hydrochemical characteristics of spring water in andijan region.* no. name of springs ph о2, mg/l t, ºс 1 uchbulak 7.3 8.8 18.1 2 kajnarbulak 7 12.8 13.2 3 tandirbulak 7.2 9.1 16.3 4 kushmabulak 7 11.3 18.4 5 ajdinbulak 7.3 9.4 18.8 6 fozilman ota bulak 7 10.2 13.2 7 alchalik bulak 6.9 7.7 19.5 8 bibi seshanba bulak 6.9 15.9 16.7 9 kukbulak 6.9 16.7 17.4 10 shirmonbulak 7.1 13.8 15.1 11 imam ota bulak 7 12.4 13.1 12 shiraghanbulak 6.9 9.2 13.3 [*note: during june-august 2020, the average was measured at 3 different times of the day]. 328 on the ecology and species diversity map (1): andijan region, research area (kholiqov, 2020); (1) uchbulak (40°53'32.3"n 71°51'16.8"e), (2) kajnarbulak (40°53'09.5"n 71°50'08.6"e), (3) tandirbulak (40°51'13.9"n 72°22'19.4"e), (4) kushmabulak (40°51'07.7"n 72°22'01.3"e), (5) ajdinbulak (40°50'54.5"n 72°21'35.1"e), (6) fozilman ota bulak (40°48'50.9"n 72°59'42.2"e), (7) alchalik bulak (40°48'36.0"n 73°04'54.7"e), (8) bibi seshanba bulak (40°44'51.8"n 72°55'48.4"e), (9) kukbulak (40°44'44.3"n 72°55'31.7"e), (10) shirmonbulak (40°35'11.5"n 72°28'59.3"e), (11) imam ota bulak (40°32'20.2"n 72°37'05.0"e), (12) shiraghanbulak (40°26'29.7"n 72°24'06.6"e)[ (symbol: •) collection points for material]. when identifying mollusks, the keys of starobogatov et al. (2004) and izzatullayev (2019) were used. the coordinates of the location of the materials collected for the study were determined using the google maps mapping service. the plural ratio of species was grouped on a 5-point logarithmic scale (pesenko, 1982). species with an abundance of 4 5 points are the most common (dominant), 3 points common and 1 2 points few. the biodiversity index of mollusks in springs was calculated using the shannon (1948) method based on the following formula: where, h' -the shannon index value, pi – the proportion of individuals found in i the species, ln the natural logarithm, s – the number of species in the community. the levels of the shannon biodiversity index (h'): h' < 1.5 – low; 1.5 < h' > 2.5 medium; 2.5 < h' – due to high character. statistical analysis and diagrams of the data were performed using microsoft excel 2013 and tibco software statistica 13.5 for windows. 41ºn 71º30'e 72ºe 72º30'e 73ºe 40º30'n 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 329 pazilov and umarov results and discussion malacofauns of springs of andijan region: 14 species of freshwater gastropods belonging to 10 genera, 5 families and 2 subclasses were recorded in the springs of the andijan region. their faunistic structures and taxonomy are given below: (a) subclass, pectinibranchia blainville, 1814 family, hydrobiidae stimpson, 1865 genus, bucharamnicola izzatullayev, sitnikova & starobogatov, 1985 bucharamnicola bucharica (zhadin, 1952) genus, martensamnicola izzatullayev, sitnikova & starobogatov, 1985 martensamnicola brevicula (von martens, 1874) m. hissarica (zhadin, 1950) genus, sogdamnicola izzatullayev, sitnikova & starobogatov, 1984 sogdamnicola pallida (von martens, 1874) (b) subclass, pulmonata cuvier, 1814 family, acroloxidae thiele, 1931 genus, acroloxus beck, 1838 acroloxus lacustris (linnaeus, 1758) family, lymnaeidae rafinesque, 1815 genus, ampullaceana servain, 1882 ampullaceana lagotis (schrank, 1803) genus, lymnaea lamarck, 1799 lymnaea bowelli preston, 1909 l. tengriana (izzatullayev, kruglov & starobogatov, 1983) genus, radix montfort, 1810 radix auricularia (linnaeus, 1758) family, physidae firzinger, 1833 genus, physella haldeman, 1842 physella acuta (draparnaud, 1805) family, planorbidae rafinesque, 1815 genus, gyraulus charpentier, 1837 gyraulus acronicus (férussac, 1807) g. ladacensis (nevill, 1878) genus, planorbis müller, 1773 330 on the ecology and species diversity planorbis tangitarensis germain, 1918 p. planorbis (linnaeus, 1758) the malakofauna of the springs at andijan region are characterized by the high density of species of lymnaeidae and planorbidae and the lowest one of hydrobiidae and physidae (diag. 1). the most common species were r. auricularia, a. lagotis, ph. acuta, p. tangitarensis, and p. planorbis. the depth distribution of hydrobionts in lenticular water bodies has a great importance (zhadin and gerd, 1961). in springs such as uchbulak, kajnarbulak, kushmabulak, aydinbulak, and kukbulak, where water is collected and forms a pool (diameter < 2 m, depth < 1.5 m), mollusks were observed mainly in the littoral zone. in the coastal littoral zones of spring ponds (0.1 – 0.5 m): a. lacustris, l. lagotis, c. acuta, p. tangitarensis, p. planorbis, g. acronicus and g. ladacensis and in the lower littoral zone (0.5 – 2 m): r. auricularia, m. brevicula, m. hissarica, and b. bucharica were widespread. below the littoral zone, mainly in the profundal zone, the occurrence of mollusks was very low especially in pulmonate mollusks. diagram (1): taxonomic structure of freshwater gastropods in the springs of andijan region; (i) uchbulak, (ii) kajnarbulak, (iii) tandirbulak, (iv) kushmabulak, (v) ajdinbulak, (vi) fozilman ota bulak, (vii) alchalik bulak, (viii) bibi seshanba bulak, (ix) kukbulak, (x) shirmonbulak, (xi) imam ota bulak, (xii) shiraghanbulak. the variation in density of mollusks in the studied springs can be attributed to the hydrochemical composition of water, aquatic plants, ph, temperature, minerals, and other 331 pazilov and umarov environmental factors. the amount of oxygen dissolved in water also affects the variation in the density of mollusks. for example, in kokbulak, where the dissolved oxygen was 16.7 mg / l, the density of aquatic mollusks was 200-300 individuals per 1m2. while, the amount of dissolved oxygen in the alchalik bulak was 7.7 mg / l, and the density was similarly low, that is 10-20 individuals / m2. biodiversity of freshwater gastropods from springs of the andijan region: the malacofauna of the studied springs was 5 to 11 species (tab. 2). there were 9-11 species of mollusks in the bibi seshanba and kokbulak springs. the share of dominant species in these springs is 17-19%, while the rest 2-12%. g. acronicus and g. ladacensis species were relatively rare and were characterized by a score of 2-3 on the plural ratio. in uchbulak, kaynarbulak, shirmonbulak, imam ota bulak and shiraghanbulak, the number of species is less than that of other springs and were 5-7. however, the percentage of dominant mollusk species among them was high, in particular, r. auricularia that accounted of about 53.3% in uchbulak, a. lacustris in kaynarbulak 31.1%, and b. bucharica in shirmonbulak 37.2%. dominant species are characterized by 4-5 points on the plural ratio. among them is kainarbulak, the only biotope of a. lacustris, which the only species similar to a hat mollusks of the malacofauna of the fergana valley (pazilov and umarov, 2020); this species usually lives only in ecologically clean unpolluted fresh water. unlike springs in the cones of the lower reaches of the river, prosobranch gastropods were common in springs at the foot of the hills (fozilman ota bulak, bibi seshanba bulak, kukbulak) and foothill springs (shirmonbulak, imam ota bulak). for instance, in shirmonbulak at the foot of the chilustun mountains, b. bucharica was numerous and dominant; with a percentage of 37.2%. table (2): species composition and abundance ratio of freshwater gastropods of springs of andijan region. no. species springs uchbulak kajnarbulak tandirbulak n , co p . i d , % , b b al l n , co p . i d , % b , b al l n , co p . i d , % b , b al l 1 m. brevicula – – – – – – – – – 2 m. hissarica – – – – – – – – – 3 b. bucharica – – – – – – – – – 4 s. pallida – – – – – – – – – 5 a. lacustris – – – 50 31.1 4 – – – 6 l. tengriana – – – – – – 8 7.55 3 7 l. bowelli – – – – – – 12 11.32 3 8 r. auricularia 40 53.33 5 15 9.3 3 10 9.43 3 9 a. lagotis 12 16.0 3 22 13.7 3 – – – 10 ph. acuta – – – 35 21.7 4 17 16.04 3 11 p. tangitarensis 10 13.33 3 – – – 9 8.49 3 12 p. planorbis – – – 15 9.3 3 28 26.42 4 332 on the ecology and species diversity 13 g. acronicus 6 8.0 2 11 6.8 3 12 11.32 3 14 g. ladacensis 7 9.33 3 13 8.1 3 10 9.43 3 general 75 100 161 100 106 100 number of species (s) 5 7 8 continuation of table (2) no . species springs kushmabulak ajdinbulak fozilman ota bulak n , co p . i d , % , b b al l n , co p . i d , % b , b al l n , co p . i d , % b , b al l 1 m. brevicula – – – – – – 20 17.09 3 2 m. hissarica – – – – – – – – – 3 b. bucharica – – – – – – 18 15.38 3 4 s. pallida – – – – – – – – – 5 a. lacustris – – – – – – – – – 6 l. tengriana 12 6.82 2 4 4.76 2 – – – 7 l. bowelli 14 7.95 2 6 7.14 2 – – – 8 r. auricularia 30 17.05 3 12 14.29 3 12 10.26 3 9 a. lagotis 18 10.23 3 8 9.52 3 21 17.95 3 10 ph. acuta 10 5.68 2 6 7.14 2 14 11.97 3 11 p. tangitarensis 25 14.2 3 10 11.9 3 10 8.55 2 12 p. planorbis 30 17.05 3 – – – 8 6.84 2 13 g. acronicus 19 10.8 3 20 23.81 4 6 5.13 2 14 g. ladacensis 18 10.23 3 18 21.43 4 8 6.84 2 general 176 100 84 100 117 100 number of species (s) 9 8 9 continuation of table (2) no . species springs alchalik bulak bibi seshanba bulak kukbulak n , co p . i d , % , b b al l n , co p . i d , % b , b al l n , co p . i d , % b , b al l 1 m. brevicula – – – 12 7.55 2 10 4.81 2 2 m. hissarica – – – 14 8.81 3 8 3.85 1 3 b. bucharica – – – 16 10.06 3 12 5.77 2 4 s. pallida – – – 10 6.29 2 11 5.29 2 5 a. lacustris – – – – – – – – – 6 l. tengriana – – – – – – – – – 7 l. bowelli – – – – – – – – – 8 r. auricularia – – – 10 6.29 2 38 18.27 3 9 a. lagotis 12 30 4 8 5.03 2 23 11.06 3 10 ph. acuta 8 20 4 19 11.95 3 17 8.17 3 11 p. tangitarensis – – – 22 13.84 3 35 16.83 3 12 p. planorbis – – – 16 10.06 3 40 19.23 4 13 g. acronicus 20 50 5 14 8.81 3 8 3.85 1 14 g. ladacensis – – – 18 11.32 3 6 2.88 1 333 pazilov and umarov general 40 100 159 100 208 100 number of species (s) 3 11 11 continuation of table (2) no . species springs shirmonbulak imam ota bulak shiraghanbulak n , co p . i d , % , b b al l n , co p . i d , % b , b al l n , co p . i d , % b , b al l 1 m. brevicula 25 22.12 4 3 6.25 2 – – – 2 m. hissarica 28 24.78 4 4 8.33 2 – – – 3 b. bucharica 42 37.17 4 6 12.5 3 – – – 4 s. pallida 8 7.08 2 5 10.42 3 28 34.15 4 5 a. lacustris – – – – – – – – – 6 l. tengriana – – – – – – 18 21.95 4 7 l. bowelli – – – – – – 14 17.07 3 8 r. auricularia 10 8.85 2 8 16.67 3 12 14.63 3 9 a. lagotis – – – 10 20.83 4 10 12.2 3 10 ph. acuta – – – 12 25.0 4 – – – 11 p. tangitarensis – – – – – – – – – 12 p. planorbis – – – – – – – – – 13 g. acronicus – – – – – – – – – 14 g. ladacensis – – – – – – – – – general 113 100 48 100 82 100 number of species (s) 5 7 5 [note: n number of collected mollusk individuals, cop.; id – percentage of collected mollusk individuals, %; b – plurality ratio on a 5-point logarithmic scale (pesenko, 1982)]. the faunistic composition of mollusks of springs at the andijan region was compared to each other for similarity and according to the results of cluster analysis, they were divided into three main groups (diag. 2); the first group includes uchbulak, kajnarbulak and tandirbulak, whose malacofauna is closely related (5-6 species). the second group includes kushmabulak, ajdinbulak and fozilman ota bulak (8 species), and the third group includes alchalik bulak, imam ota bulak, shiraghanbulak, shirmonbulak and kukbulak, in which the species composition of mollusks is similar (3-5 species). 334 on the ecology and species diversity diagram (2): dendrogram of faunistic similarity of freshwater gastropods from the springs of the andijan region. the diagram (2) shows that the fauna of the bibi seshanba bulak stands out. this is because all mollusk species except a. lacustris, l. tengriana and l. bowelli are found in this spring. such groupings are based on the similarities or differences of their biotopes and ecological environments. for instance, the ecological environment of shirmаnbulak and imam аta bulak springs in the mountains included in the alay ridge is similar. they also have little difference in the hydrochemical characteristics of the water. this similarity can also be observed in the species composition of mollusks. both have m. brevicula, m. hissarica, b. bucharica, s. pallida, and a. lacustris species. there were 2 species that differ from each other, namely a. lagotis and ph. acuta are present in the springs of imam ota bulak, but are not found in shirmonbulak. according to the results of the present investigation, the biodiversity index of mollusks in the springs of andijan region was determined; the high value was recorded in the bibi seshanba bulak (h'= 2.38), and the lowest in the alchalik bulak spring (h' = 1.03) (diag. 3). based on the differences in the biodiversity of mollusks in springs, it was observed that the hydrochemical properties of the spring depend on the aquatic vegetation cover and the degree of anthropogenic impact. 335 pazilov and umarov according to the shannon index, the biodiversity index of mollusks in uchbulak, alchalik bulak, shirmonbulak, and shiraghanbulak is low (h' < 1.5) and the average in all other springs is 1.5 < h' > 2.5. high levels (2.5 < h') of biodiversity were not found in any of the springs. however, it was found that the general biodiversity index of freshwater gastropods in the studied springs was high (h' = 2.53). ecological groups of mollusks, distribution of species by biotope: mollusks can be divided into several ecological groups according to their distribution in different aquatic biotopes: crenophil (izzatullayev, 2018), phytophil, pelophil and eurybiont (leshko, 1998). it was observed that in the springs of andijan region there were species of mollusks belonging to all the above ecological groups (diag. 4). according to habitat biotopes, some mollusks are only distributed in springs. such mollusks are crenophilic organisms. in the present study, it was observed that m. brevicula, m. hissarica, b. bucharica, s. pallida, l. tengriana, and l. bowelli species live only in springs. the bottom of the springs, formed in the downstream cones of the river, was mainly muddy and sandy, which allowed the pelophilic mollusk species to live. representatives of the genus lymnaea are common in these springs. it was found that the main reason for the prevalence of mollusks in the littoral zones of springs, where water is collected and forms a pool, is the diversity of biotopes in this area and the abundance of high aquatic plants on the shores. of all the mollusks we studied, a. lacustris, ph. acuta, p. tangitarensis, p. planorbis, g. acronicus, and g. ladacensis were found to belong to the phytophilic ecological group. diagram (3): biodiversity of the shannon index (h') of freshwater gastropods from the springs of the andijan region. 336 on the ecology and species diversity the fauna of besides the hills and mountains springs are slightly different from each other; the springs bibi seshanba bulak and kukbulak, which are part of the sources at the foot of the hills, have different aquatic biotopes, therefore, in nix, you can find mollusks belonging to all ecological groups. however, phytophilous mollusk species are less common due to the lack of high aquatic plants in mountain springs. during our studies, it was observed that although r. auricularia is a phytophilic, unlike other mollusks, it is known that it lives in all springs except alchalik bulak spring. zoogeographic analysis of freshwater gastropods from the springs of the andijan region: according to the scheme of zoogeographic zoning of continental watersheds (starobogatov, 1970) in the springs of the andijan region, the species can be divided into the following zoogeographical zones: central asian – 57,1 %, european-siberian – 21,4 %, palaearctic – 14,3 % and mediterranean – 7,1 % (diag. 5). the most common central asian species of the studied springs are m. brevicula, m. hissarica, b. bucharica, s. pallida, l. tengriana, l. bowelli, p. tangitarensis, and g. ladacensis, which are endemic to the regional malacofauna. from the european-siberian species: a. lacustris, a. lagotis and p. planorbis, and from the palaearctic species: r. auricularia,and g. acronicus; the proportion is relatively smaller. of the mediterranean species, only ph. acuta has been found. diagram (5): zoogeographic analysis of freshwater gastropods from the springs of the andijan region. diagram (4): ecological groups of freshwater gastropods are common in the springs of the andijan region. 337 pazilov and umarov conclusions according to the results of the study, 14 species of freshwater gastropods belonging to 2 subclasses, 5 families, and 10 genera were recorded in the springs of the andijan region. 7 of them are endemic species and are distributed only in central asian watersheds. the fauna of mollusks is mainly of central asian, european-siberian, palearctic, and mediterranean species. in most springs, the biodiversity of mollusks is moderate, however, it was observed to be higher than other water bodies in the study area. mollusks are mainly distributed in the littoral zones of springs, and their survival in this zone was influenced by water-soluble oxygen, ph, temperature, and vegetation cover. in recent years, as a result of the expansion of recreational use of uchbulak, fozilmon ota bulak, bibi seshanba bulak, kokbulak, shirmonbulak, and imam ota bulak, there is a danger of extinction of rare and endemic hydrobionts. to preserve the biodiversity of springs in the andijan region, it is advisable not to adversely affect their biotopes, and careful use of spring water. acknowledgments we are grateful to khayrulla solijonov, a doctoral student at the andijan state university, for his active support in conducting the field work and collection of the materials. literature cited arkhangelsky, p. p. 1933. to the study of mollusks of the uzssr. central state museum of the uzssr, samarkand, 32 pp. (in russian). izzatullayev, z. i. 2018. mollusks water ecosystems of central asia. lesson-press pub., tashkent, 232 pp. (in russian). izzatullayev, z. i. 2019. fauna of the mollusks of water ecosystems of central asia and the contiguous country territories. lesson-press pub., tashkent, 339 pp. (in russian). izzatullayev, z. i. and solijonov k. k. 2016. first information on the biodiversity of gastropods (mollusca: gastropoda) in the vicinity of andijan. biogeo-ecological problems of uzbekistan: materials of the republican scientific and technical conference. termez: termez state university, p. 168-170. 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(2021) 16 (3): 325-340. ، أنديجان لمنطقة العذبة المياه ينابيع في االقدام بطنية وتنوع بيئة أوزبكستان ** فاروخ عمروف عبدوفيت ب. بازيلوف * و .، جامعة والية جولستان ، جولستان ، أوزبكستان علوم الحياةقسم * .قسم البيئة وعلم النبات ، جامعة أنديجان الحكومية ، أنديجان أوزبكستان ** 20/6/2021 ، تأريخ النشر:20/05/2021 ، تأريخ القبول:17/04/2021:خ االستالمتأري الخالصة والجغرافيا ، البيولوجي والتنوع ، األنواع تكوين في الدراسةهذه تبحث منطقة في ينبوًعا 12 في العذبة المياه في األقدام بطنيات وبيئة ، الحيوانية وبيئية وحيوانية مالكولوجية أساليب الدراسة استخدمت. أوزبكستان في أنديجان 14 سجل ، الينابيع في للبحث نتيجة. عام بشكل مقبولة وإحصائية وتحليلية 10 و عائالت 5 و صنف تحت 2 إلى تنتمي العذبة المياه بطنيات من نوًعا .آسيا وسط في مستوطنة منها أنواع 7. أجناس وجد ، شانون لمؤشر وفًقا للرخويات الحيوي نوعالت مؤشرات تحليل عند للتوزيع الحيوي للنموذج وفقًا. التالل بجانب الينابيع في سجلت قيمة أعلى أن ،cryophilic هي مجموعات عدة إلى تقسيمها تم ، البيئية البيولوجية والسمات phytophilic، pelophilic و eurybionticالشائعة الرخويات قسمت كما ؛ .مجاميعها تشابه حسب مجموعات 3 إلى الينابيع في النواعم فونا تكوين في وسيبيريا وأوروبا آسيا وسط في األنواع مساهمة .كبيرا كان أنديجان منطقة لينابيع تأريخ الاستلام:17/04/2021، تأريخ القبول: 20/05/2021، تأريخ النشر: 20/6/2021 bull 531 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum lam, d. h. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2023) 17(4): 531-539. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2023.17.4.0531 original article additional information of amphidromus inversus annamiticus (crosse & p. fischer, 1863) (gastropoda, stylommatophora, camaeninae) from vietnam dang hai lam department of biology, school of education, can tho university, can tho city, vietnam. e-mail: lhdang@ctu.edu.vn recived date: 30 march 2023, accepted date 5 june 2023, published date:20 december 2023 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract as a part of the survey discovering the land snail fauna of can tho city, vietnam, this study recorded snails for the first time in the city and an additional data on amphidromus inversus annamiticus (crosse & p. fischer, 1863) for the plains of the cuu long river delta. a. inversus annamiticus found in the study area has two types of shell spiraling, both dextral and sinistral, with or without a blackish brown spiral streak from the apex. all of the shells without that streak are sinistral and bigger in size compared to the ones with the color streak. snail individuals were hibernating on the branches and trunks of landscape trees that include, dipterocarpus alatus, samanea saman, khaya senegalensis, and erythrina fusca. keywords: amphidromus, camaeninae, land snails, plains, vietnam. introduction amphidromus inversus annamiticus (crosse & fischerm 1863) is a member of a large snail genus, amphidromus albers, 1850, characterized by its colorful shells and arboreal habit, especially by the presence of dimorphic shells spiraling called dextral (clockwise) and sinistral (counterclockwise). the subspecies was reported in some countries of southeast asia, such as vietnam, cambodia, thailand, and laos presented that having two shell coiling styles (pilsbry, 1900; laidlaw and solem 1961; solem, 1965; sutcharit and panha, 2006; schileyko, 2011; inkhavilay et al., 2017). the cuu long river delta, mekong delta, or southeastern vietnam is a large part of the south of vietnam, including both the mainland and islands of 13 provinces and cities. the mainland part has an area of 39,747 km2 located between 8°34’n-11°10’n and 104°25’e106°48’e. the delta is one of the most biodiversity places in vietnam with 12 natural conservation areas (national parks, natural reserves, and biosphere reserves) were known currently. the terrain of the cuu long river delta is almost plain, with some mountains and islands in the west, the bordering cambodia and thailand gulf (le et al., 2010). besides the data of land snails reported in mountainous and islands with 45 species recorded, there were bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799-print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2023.17.4.0531 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1236-1087 mailto:lhdang@ctu.edu.vn https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 532 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum additional information of amphidromus seven species found in plain of tram chim national park (dong thap province) and cu lao dung (soc trang province) (pfeiffer, 1861; crosse and fischer, 1863; bavay and dautzenberg, 1909; van benthem jutting, 1962; vermeulen et al., 2007; schileyko, 2011; do et al., 2012; nguyen and nguyen, 2016; nguyen et al., 2020; tran et al., 2021). also, there was no report of a. inversus annamiticus in the plain of the delta. this study aims to provide the first data on land snails in can tho city and additional information about a. inversus annamiticus in the cuu long river delta. materials and methods specimens collection and photographs: the survey was performed in march 2023 around can tho city, vietnam. there were five sampling sites (map 1) having the presence of amphidromus inversus annamiticus (tabl. 1). snails were collected by hand sorting for all alive individuals and dried shells following the method of vermeulen and maassen (2003). the specimens collected were packed in a plastic box that had notes about the time, location, gps coordinates, and habitat of the sampling site. after that, snails were put on leaves to unfreeze them, and then pictures were captured to show their morphologies alive. snail bodies were removed from their shells and then preserved in 70% alcohol solution; the empty shell was cleaned by using fire ants. map (1): shows map of collecting specimens of amphidromus inversus annamiticus; (a) vietnam map, (b) map of ninh kieu district (can tho city), (c) sampling locations in campus ii, can tho university. 533 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum lam, d. h. the morphology of snail pictures was taken by a fujifilm xa3 digital camera, and grouped using adobe photoshop cs6 software. all morphological measurements were conducted in millimeters. all shells and bodies of snails were deposited, along with the collection of land snails in the laboratory of zoology, school of education, can tho university. specimens’ identification: snails collected were identified the morphologies of their shells as follow the descriptions and keys of sutcharit and panha (2006), nguyen and nguyen (2016); plants identifications and information were used followed the description on national parks flora and fauna web (2023). the source of species names and synonyms were from crosse and fischer (1863), mabille and mesle (1866), morlet (1889), pilsbry (1900), laidlaw and solem (1961), solem (1965), sutcharit and panha (2006), schileyko (2011), nguyen and nguyen (2016). gude (1902), abbott (1989), and zilch (1953). abbreviation h = shell heigth, d = shell wide, l0 = aperture heigth, l0 = aperture wide results and discussion totally, 18 alive snails (13 dextral and five sinistral spiralings) have been found, hibernating on the trunks and branches of dipterocarpus alatus roxb. (eight matures), samanea saman (jacq.) merr. (two matures), khaya senegalensis (desr.) a. juss. (two matures), and erythrina fusca lour. (six immatures). however, only seven individuals of mature snails were collected for classification and morphological analyses. among 18 individuals recorded, 16 shells had a blackish brown spiral streak from the apex, faded to the third whorl, and two shells had no blackish brown spiral streak (only sinistral spiraling). family, camaenidae albers, 1850 genus, amphidromus albers, 1850 amphidromus inversus annamiticus (crosse & fischer, 1863) original name: bulimus annamiticus crosse and fischer, 1863: 357-359 (saigon, vietnam; syntype mnhm). mabille and mesle, 1866: 128. synonyms: amphidromus annamiticus – morlet, 1889: 126. amphidromus inversus annamiticus – pilsbry, 1900: 169–170. laidlaw and solem, 1961: 561, 600. solem, 1965: 624. sutcharit and panha 2006: 9. schileyko, 2011: 50. nguyen and nguyen, 2016: 106. amphidromus inversus annamiticus var. roseotincta – pilsbry, 1900: 170. laidlaw and solem, 1961: 561, 655–656. solem, 1965: 624. amphidromus inversus var. annamiticus – gude, 1902: 50, 51. abbott, 1989: 160. amphidromus inversus roseotincta – zilch, 1953: 135. material examined: 05 alive matures (03 dextral, 02 sinistral) (ls.012.06), dipterocarpus alatus trunk (10°01'48.8"n 105°46'07.3"e), campus 2, can tho university, can tho city, 1.iii.2023; 02 alive matures (sinistral) (ls.012.07), khaya senegalensis trunk (10°03'43.8"n, 105°46'55.6"e), khuong islet, ninh kieu district, can tho city, 2.iii.2023, all coll. lam hai dang. 534 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum additional information of amphidromus number of snail found 04 alives 04 alives 04 alives 04 alives 02 alives t a b le ( 1 ): c o ll ec ti n g s it es o f a m p h id ro m u s in ve rs u s a n n a m it ic u s in c an t h o c it y , v ie t n am collector lam hai dang lam hai dang lam hai dang lam hai dang lam hai dang time 01 mar. 2023 01 mar. 2023 01 mar. 2023 01 mar. 2023 02 mar. 2023 location campus 2, can tho university campus 2, can tho university campus 2, can tho university campus 2, can tho university khuong islet gps coordinates 10°01'49.6"n 105°46'07.6"e 10°01'48.8"n 105°46'07.3"e 10°01'44.8"n 105°46'06.1"e 10°01'44.2"n 105°46'07.0"e 10°03'43.8"n, 105°46'55.6"e v eg et at io n d es cr ip ti o n a n d e th n o b o ta n y f lo w er s p ro d u ce d as d en se p o w d er p u ff cl u st er w it h n u m er o u s fi la m en to u s st am en s, p in k ab o v e an d w h it e b el o w . s ee d fl es h y w it h th ic k en ed ed g es an d co n st ri ct ed in b et w ee n se ed s; co n ta in n u m er o u s d ar k b ro w n s ee d s em b ed d ed i n s ti ck y , b ro w n is h -b la ck p u lp . l ea v es al te rn at e, b ip in n at el y -c o m p o u n d , w it h sm al l as y m m et ri ca l le af le ts . f lo w er s la rg e, b is ex u al ; ca ly x 5 p ar ts , 2 a re l o n g , w h il e 3 s h o rt ; p et al s la rg e, s tr o n g ly c o n to rt e d , cr ea m -w h it e w it h a p in k , re d o r p u rp le st ri p e d o w n th e ce n te r. n u t su rr o u n d ed b y th e ca ly x , co m p ar at iv e ly l ar g e; c al y x t u b e g la b ro u s, s u b g lo b o se , 5 w in g s o f 8 m m b ro ad . l ea v es ar e n ar ro w ly o v at e to el li p ti ca lo b lo n g , b as e ro u n d ed , ap ex ac u te , sp ar se ly p u b es ce n t ab o v e, b en ea th d en se ly p u b es ce n t. f lo w er s b ri g h t re d ; fl o w er s st al k ed , h el d al o n g o n e m ai n ax is (r ac em e) . f ru it s ar e fl at te n ed w o o d y p o d s (1 5 -2 0 c m l o n g , 2 c m w id e) ; th e p o d h as a v el v et -l ik e te x tu re , co n ta in s 3 1 5 e ll ip so id se ed s. l ea f is t ri fo li at e, c o n si st in g o f 3 o v at e le af le ts ; th e te rm in al le af le t is s li g h tl y l ar g er t h an t h e la te ra l le af le ts . f lo w er s le ss t h an 1 cm w id e, b o rn e in c lu st er s, a n d p al e w h it e in co lo r; e ac h h as 5 s m al l p et al s. f ru it s h av e w o o d y c ap su le s w h ic h sp li t o p en w it h 3 o r 4 v al v es ; e ac h f ru it c o n ta in s n u m er o u s se ed s w it h b ro w n w in g s at tw o en d s, h o ri zo n ta ll y ar ra n g ed . l ea f ar ra n g em en t is a lt er n at e; t h e le av es a re o d d o r p in n a te c o m p o u n d s. t h e le af le ts a re o b lo n g , d ar k g re en o n t h e u p p er b u t m o re l ig h t o n th e u n d er si d e v ie tn am es e n am e còng dầu con rái muồng hoa đỏ xà cừ c o m m o n n am e rain tree resin tree purple coraltree african mahogany s ci en ti fi c n am e samanea saman (jacq.) merr. dipterocarpus alatus roxb. erythrina fusca lour. erythrina fusca lour. khaya senegalensis (desr.) a. juss. no. 1 2 3 4 5 535 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum lam, d. h. plate (1): shells (1) and alive individuals (2) of a. inversus annamiticus; (a) dextral snail with brown spiral streak, (b) sinistral snail with brown spiral streak, (c) sinistral snail without brown spiral streak. scale bar = 10mm. 536 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum additional information of amphidromus description: large-sized shell snail (h = 44.3 – 51.6, d = 24.5 – 31.5, l0 = 19.2 – 24.1, l0 = 17 – 21); dimorphically coiled; near rhombus shaped; last whorl has lower half in blackish brown (clearly separated); color gradually lightens to the top whorls, intermingled of pink and brown streaks that same direction with the growth lines; shell thickened and smooth; spire high and narrow; seven whorls with clear suture; the first four whorls slightly pink, with or without a blackish brown spiral streak from the apex; aperture broad, ovate, without operculum; parietal callus white or transparent; peristome white, smooth, slightly thickened, folded; umbilicus small, obscured by peristome folded. distribution: vietnam (kien giang, an giang, ho chi minh city, dong nai, phu yen); cambodia; thailand; laos (laidlaw and solem, 1961; sutcharit et al., 2006; schileyko, 2011; inkhavilay et al., 2017; nguyen and nguyen, 2016). remark: individuals without blackish brown spiral streak having a large size (h = 48.2 – 51.6 mm, d = 28.7 – 31.5, l0 = 20.3 – 24.1, l0 = 19.2 – 21.0) than the whole with that streak (h = 44.3 – 47.4, d = 24.5 – 27.0, l0 = 19.2 – 23.0, l0 = 17.0 – 17.8). prior to this study, several records found a. inversus annamiticus in the cuu long river delta only in mountains and islands of kien giang province (kien luong distr., ha tien distr., and kien hai distr.: hon tre isl., lai son isl., an son isl.), and mountains in an giang province, no reports were found in the plains. in the survey of three islands of kien giang province, nguyen and nguyen found that the subspecies usually hang on the branches and leaves of mango trees (laidlaw and solem, 1961; sutcharit et al., 2006; schileyko, 2011; inkhavilay et al., 2017; nguyen and nguyen, 2016). on the contrary, there were no individuals of the snail found in that type of tree but in landscaping plants (dipterocarpus alatus, samanea saman, khaya senegalensis, and erythrina fusca) in this study. in addition, tourism has developed very well in recent years, and tourists tend to go to islands and mountains around the delta. this situation has posed the question that the taxon has already been here or just been picked up by artificial effects. however, this study just provides new records of a. inversus annamiticus in the plains of the cuu long river delta, the evidence to prove the state about the appearance of the taxon in this region is rudimentary, so more data needs to be collected to have a better discussion. conclusions a. inversus annamiticus was found in the plains of the cuu long river delta in five sampling sites. among 18 individuals found, including dextral and sinistral spiral shells, and with or without blackish brown spiral streak. this study provided the first data on the taxon in the plains of the delta. snails only hanging on the landscaping trees lead us to a question about whether the taxa appear in the study area. however, that state is just a first thought and needs more data for further analysis. conflect of interest statement the author declares no conflict of interest related to the work in a manuscript. 537 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum lam, d. h. literature cited abbott, r. t. 1989. compendium of landshells: a full-color guide to more than 2,000 of the world's terrestrial shells. american malacologists melbourne, 240pp. bavay, a. and dautzenberg, p. 1909. molluscorum terrestrium tonkinorum diagnoses. journal de conchyliologie, 56(4): 229-251. crosse, h. and fischer, p. 1863. note sur la faune malacologique de cochinchine, comprenant la description des espèces nouvelles ou peu connues. journal de conchyliologie, 11(4): 343-379. do, n.v., nguyen, t. t. and vo, h. v. b. 2012. preliminary study of land snail (gastropoda) in the nambo region of vietnam. proceedings of the first national scientific conference on biological research and teaching in vietnam, agricultural publishing house, 202-208. national parks flora and fauna web. 2023. plant. version 2023, (accessed on 29. apr. 2023). [click here] gude, g. k. 1902. a classified list of the helicoid land shells of asia. the journal of malacology, 9(1): 1-11. inkhavilay, k., sutcharit, c. and panha, s. 2017. taxonomic review of the tree snail genus amphidromus albers, 1850 (pulmonata: camaenidae) in laos, with the description of two new species. european journal of taxonomy, 330: 1-40. [crossref] laidlaw, f.f. and solem, g.a. 1961. the land snail genus amphidromus: a synoptic catalogue. chicago natural history museum, 677pp. le, t., nguyen, t.m., le, h., nguyen, p.v., nguyen, t.q., nguyen, s.t., hoang, l.p., tran, d.n. and thanh, l.n. 2010. vietnam provinces and cities. viet nam education publishing house, 1096pp. mabille, j. and le mesle, g. 1866. observations sur la faune malacologique de la cochinchine et du cambodje, comprenant la description des espèces nouvelles. journal de conchyliologie.,14(2): 117-138. morlet, l. 1889. catalogue des coquilles recueillies par m. pavie dans le cambodge et le royaume de siam et description d'espèces nouvelles. journal de conchyliologie, 29: 121-200. nguyen, t. t. and nguyen, b. v. 2016. first data about land snail in the island of kien hai district kien giang province. can tho university journal of science 45: 97-109. [crossref] https://www.nparks.gov.sg/florafaunaweb/species-search https://doi.org/10.5852/ejt.2017.330 http://10.0.86.128/ctu.jvn.2016.516 538 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum additional information of amphidromus nguyen, t. t., lam, k. h., tran, t. a. t. and nguyen, a. d. 2020. the diversity and distribution of soil mesofauna (mesofauna group) in tram chim national park – dong thap province. can tho university journal of science, 56(4a): 33-43. [crossref] pfeiffer, l. 1861. descriptions of forty-seven new species of land shells, from the collection of h. cuming, esq. proceedings of the zoological society of london, 29: 20-29. pilsbry, h. 1900. manual of conchology, structural and systematic, with illustrations of the species, second series, vol. 13. academy of natural sciences of philadelphia. 253pp. schileyko, a.a. 2011. check-list of land pulmonate molluscs of vietnam (gastropoda: stylommatophora). ruthenica, 21(1): 1-68. solem, a. 1965. land snails of the genus amphidromus from thailand (mollusca: pulmonata: camaenidae). proceedings of the united states national museum, 117(3519): 615628. sutcharit, c. and panha, s. 2006. taxonomic review of the tree snail amphidromus albers, 1850 (pulmonata: camaenidae) in thailand and adjacent areas: subgenus amphidromus. journal of molluscan studies, 72(1): 1-30. [crossref] tran, t. a. t., cao, v. v., tran, t. a. and lam d. h. 2021. diversity and distribution of soil invertebrates in cu lao dung district, soc trang province. dong thap university journal of science, 10(3): 46-55. [crossref] van benthem jutting, w. 1962. coquilles terrestres nouvelles de quelques collines calcaires du cambodge et du sud vietnam. journal de conchyliologie, 102(2): 3-15. vermeulen, j. j. and maassen, w. j. m. 2003. the non-marine mollusks fauna of the pu luong, cuc phuong, phu ly and ha long regions in northern vietnam. a survey for the vietnam programme of ffi (flora and fauna international), 35 pp. vermeulen, j., phung, c.l. and truong, t.q. 2007. new species of terrestrial molluscs (caenogastropoda, pupinidae & pulmonata, vertiginidae) of the hon chong–ha tien limestone hills, southern vietnam. basteria, 71: 81-92. zilch, a. 1953. die typen und typoide des natur-museums senckenberg 10: mollusca, pleurodontidae (l). archiv für molluskenkunde, 82: 131-140. http://doi.org/10.22144/ctu.jvn.2020.080 https://doi.org/10.1093/mollus/eyi044 https://doi.org/10.52714/dthu.10.3.2021.867 539 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum lam, d. h. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2023) 17(4): 531-539. القوقع معلومات إضافية عن amphidromus inversus annamiticus (crosse & p. fischer, 1863) (gastropoda, stylommatophora, camaeninae) من فيتنام دانغ هاي الم ، كلية التربية، جامعة كان ثو، مدينة كان ثو، فيتنام.علوم الحياةقسم 20/12/2023، تأريخ النشر: 5/6/2023القبول: يخ ، تأر 30/3/2023تأريخ االستالم: الخالصة amphidromusألول مرة في مدينة كان ثو، فيتنام النويعسجلت هذه الدراسة inversus annamiticus (crosse & p. fischer, 1863) ، الستكشافكجزء من املسح ، و عثر دلتا نهر كو لونغ ،لسهول املنطقة هبيانات إضافية عنمع القواقع األرضية فونا من النوع الحلزونية املعكوسة في منطقة الدراسة، كالهما الصدفةمن شكلينعلى dextral و sinistral ، او بدونه خط حلزوني بني مسود من القمة ذو. تكون متعرجة وأكبر حجًما مقارنة بتلك الخط يع األصداف التي ال تحتوي علىجم في حالة سبات التي لوحظت خالل الدراسة كانت . أفراد القواقععليهتحتوي ي الت dipterocarpus alatusضمت: على أغصان وجذوع األشجار الطبيعية التي شتوي . erythrina fuscaو khaya senegalensisو samanea samanو 231 alzubaidi et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2021) 16 (3): 231251. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2021.16.3.0231 petrology and provenance of the natural stone tools from al-dalmaj archaeological site, mesopotamian plain, iraq aqeel a. alzubaidi*♦ varoujan sissakian** and hassan k. jassim*** *department of geophysics, al-karkh university of sciences, baghdad, iraq. **department of natural resources engineering and management, university of kurdistan hewler, krg, erbil, iraq. ***department of geology, college of science, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq. ♦corresponding author: aazubaidi@yahoo.com received date: 29 nov. 2020, accepted date: 23 february 2021, published date: 20 jun 2021 abstract many stone tools were found on a hill south of the hor al-dalmaj which is located in the central part of the alluvial plain of mesopotamia, between the tigris and euphrates rivers. the types of rocks from which the studied stone tools were made are not found in the alluvial plain, because it consists of friable sand, silt, and clay. all existing sediments were precipitated in riverine environments such as point bar, over bank, and floodplain sediments. the collected stone tools were described with a magnifying glass (10 x) and a polarized microscope after they were thin sectioned. microscopic analysis showed that these stone tools are made of sedimentary, volcanic igneous and metamorphic rocks, such as: sandstones, limestones, chert, conglomerate, rhyolite, basalt, mica schist, and quartzite. the current studied stone tools were used by ancient humans as pestles, querns, scrapers, and knives. the present study showed that these tools were transported from outside the alluvial plain of mesopotamia. a stone tool at the archaeological site of al-dalmaj indicates that there were some trade routes that connected this site with its surrounding; in addition to the economic, and that might occurred cultural exchanges during the neolithic period. key words: archeology, mesopotamia, neolithic, rocks, stone tools. introduction a stone tool is any tool that is made either partially or entirely out of stone. most of the stone tools are related to the prehistoric cultures in particular the stone age that are extinct nowadays (davidson and nowel, 2010). archaeologists often study the stone tools as lithic https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2021.16.3.0231 232 petrology and provenance of the natural stone analysis, whereas ethno archaeologists study the cultural implications of using and manufacturing of stone tools (paul and karen, 2015). throughout the history, ancient human has used different types of stones to make a wide variety of different tools; such as arrow heads, spear points and querns. stone tools of chipped type can be made from aphanocrystalline materials like chert, flint, chalcedony, obsidian, basalt and quartzite (al-ani, 1986). this process is called “lithic reduction”. more complex forms of reductions are blades that can be changed to different types of tools like scrapers, knives, sickles and microlith (internet data, 2020). the oldest discovery of stone tools belongs to the lower palaeolithic period that were studied from east central africa (coates, 1952), then they were transported to asia and europe (clark, 1961; kottak, 2006) via mesopotamia and other related areas during palaeolithic period. ancient human collected subroundedrounded gravels from river channels and terraces to prepare their stone tools (waelkens, 1992). the mixing between stone tools using for grain crop cultivation and herded of sheep may refer to end of neolithic period (bienkowski and millard, 2000). gravels and hard rocks are not available within the mesopotamian plain where al-dalmaj site is located; because the plain is covered by holocene fluvial, deltaic, lacustrine and estuarine sediments, which comprises sands, silts, muds and clays, they range in thickness from few centimeters to few meters (yacoub, 2011). this study aims to identify the types of the collected stone tools; their petrology and functions which were found at al-dalmaj archaeological site in order to determine the source area of the stones and the trade routes that were passed through the site; and also to estimate the approximate age of the stone tools. besides indicating whether the tools were transported to the site or the stones which were used for the construction and stone tools were transported to the site. materials and methods many stone tools have been found in northern iraq (braidwood and howe, 1972), near haditha dam at wadi al-fihaimi and baijan island (al-ani, 1986), at the western desert of iraq; near tel alnasr (al-zubaidi, 2012) (map 1); as well as in iran (biglari and shidrange, 2006), and the arabian peninsula (smith, 2018). 233 alzubaidi et al. map (1): location map of iraq (encyclopaedia britannica, 2012), and shows the approximate locations of some archaeological sites mentioned in the text are added by the authors. the locations of most of the archaeological sites have been chosen by the ancient human depending on many aspects such as; when they provided essential daily needs of natural resources like food, water, stones to prepare stone tools, building materials and protection from any potential enemies (eder and patzak, 2004; unesco, 2008; whc, 2008). stone tools are very common in the iraqi western desert, especially where the umm errhadhuma, akashat, dammam and ratgah formations are exposed. this is attributed to thick beds and/ or nodules of chert in the mentioned formations. for instance, al-bassam (2007) collected tens of stone tools from ga’ara depression and surroundings within the western desert; and he dated them as palaeolithic age when ancient human used local chert to form various types of tools and weapons. geology al-dalmaj archaeological site is located within the fluvial plains of the tigris and euphrates rivers that consist of silt, clay and very fine sand; with aeolian sand surrounding the site as well as hor al-dalmaj. gravels and hard rocks occur in river and valley channels, 234 petrology and provenance of the natural stone surrounding the mesopotamian plain and are exposed as different stratigraphic units at the low folded zone and at the western and southern deserts of iraq (sissakian and fouad, 2012). therefore, the rock fragments and/ or gravels found in the site means they were transported by ancient human. structurally, the site is located in the mesopotamian zone; without any surface structural features (fouad, 2012). the site is located within marsh sediments surrounded by sand dunes and flood plain sediments (map 2). topography the mesopotamian plain is a vast low land, about 116000 km2, surrounded by makhoul and himreen mountains at the northeast and east; western and southern deserts at the west, southwest and south; wadi tharthar at the northwest and arabian gulf partly at the south. the highest point is about 140 meters (a. s. l.) in fatha vicinity on the top of makhoul mountain, whereas the lowest point is about 1 meter (a. s. l.) in the extreme southern margin along the arabian gulf (yacoub, 2011). whereas, at the site, the elevation ranges from (1323)m. (a.s.l.). within this wide and flat mesopotamian plain, tens of hills exist almost everywhere with different heights (5-12 m.), they all are archaeological sites; locally called “iashan”, among them is al-dalmaj archaeological site (pl. 1). map (2): geological map of hor (marsh) al-dalmaj and surrounding (after sissakian and fouad, 2012). plate (1): ruins of the al-dalmaj archaeological site. 235 alzubaidi et al. al-dalmaj archaeological site generally, the mesopotamian plain is considered as the cradle of civilization in which the studied al-dalmaj archaeological site is located. the mesopotamia witnessed great civilization growth at about 6200–6500 years ago. the studied al-dalmaj archaeological site is a hill with a height of about 10 m., and base diameter of about 12 km., with a lot of pottery and stone tools scattered on the slopes and surrounding area (pl. 2). it is located at the south-eastern part of hor al-dalmaj from where it was named. according to the documents of the state board of antiquities and heritage (sbah, 2010), the site is related to the sumerian – islamic periods and most probably was connected between many ancient towns, such as: ur at the south, and babylon in the north. ur, is located about 400 km. south of the capital baghdad (map 3), known as the city of sumerian civilization and home of profit abraham, has the first temples called ziggurat of ur that was built before more than 4000 years ago, which is still standing (sissakian et al., 2015). another ancient civilization to the northwest of al-dalmaj archaeological site is babylon, about 80 km south of baghdad (map 3). different stone tools in addition to pottery fragments are scattered on the surface of a hill near hor (marsh) al-dalmaj. ten samples were collected from the site and described; besides measuring their dimensions and identifying their functions; these samples were also thin sectioned and examined by polarized microscope, to identify their petrography, mineralogy, rock name and provenance (tab. 1). 236 petrology and provenance of the natural stone map (3): major archaeological sites of the mesopotamian plain showing some archaeological sites and hypothetical extent of the arabian gulf ca. 4000 b.c. (after pournelle, 2003). to fulfill the aims of the current study, the following materials were used: 1. geological maps of different scales. 2. topographical maps of 1:100000 scale. 3. satellite images. 4. relevant published articles and books. 5. reviewing sbahʹs (2010) documents to determine the approximate age of the study site. many field trips were carried out to al-dalmaj archaeological site to achieve the natural survey and sample collection. ten samples of stone tools were collected, described and thinned sectioned, then examined petrographically and mineralogically using a polarized microscope to indicate the types of rocks from which the collected stone tools were made. location: the studied al-dalmaj archaeological site is located near the hor (marsh) aldalmaj within the middle part of the mesopotamian plain, iraq. at the northeast is kut city along the tigris river and at the west is hilla city along the euphrates river (map. 4). the coordinates of the studied al-dalmaj archeological site are: 32˚ 04' 31" n and 45˚ 36' 87" e. 237 alzubaidi et al. occurrence and uses of stones the ancient human in the mesopotamia have made many stone tools; such as pestle, quern, millers and hand axe to use them for daily needs such as: grinding of wheat, hunting, attacking animals, defending from enemies, using them as knives, colored stain and others. large numbers of stone tools were found at many archaeological sites at mesopotamian and surrounded areas, such as: shanidar, zawi chemi, karim shahir, jarmo, telshamshara, yarim teppa, tellsatto, almugzaliya, wadi alfihaimi, baijan island and tel alnasr (map 1). stone tools are made from many types of rocks such as: quartzite, limestone, sandstone, gneiss, basalt, granite and chert, in addition to gravels (braidwood and howe, 1972; al-ani, 1986). from these rocks and gravels, many tools were manufactured like hand axe, pestles, millers, querns, grinders and others. these stone tools were made during the lithic period by the ancient human (al-ani, 1986). the stone tolls with a lot of pottery fragments are scattered over the slopes of the hill which represents the archaeological site and near surroundings. however, the existing sand dunes (map 2) have covered large parts surrounding the site and may be hindering a lot of details of the site. results provenance (source area) ten samples were collected from the site and described; besides measuring their dimensions and identifying their functions. the ten samples were also thin sectioned and examined by polarized microscope, to identify their petrography, mineralogy, rock name and provenance (tab. 1). according to the hand specimen and polarized microscopic study of the ten collected stone tools, the samples include sedimentary, igneous and metamorphic rocks such as: fossiliferous map (4): google earth image showing the location of hor (marsh) al-dalmaj and the al-dalmaj archeological site. 238 petrology and provenance of the natural stone limestone (mainly gastropods), quartzite, dolomitic limestone, basalt, conglomerate, rhyolite, mica schist, sandstone, and chert (tab. 1). the studied rocks were compared with the surrounding exposed rock units and gravels of river deposits, terraces and alluvial fans to estimate the source areas from where they were transported. table (1): stone tolls: description, dimensions, functions and rock name of the stone tools collected from al-dalmaj archaeological site. description of the stone tools the collected ten stone tools from al-dalmaj archaeological site are described hereinafter, using hand lens and polarized microscope examination. fossiliferous limestone (gastropoda-rich): it is a sedimentary rock composed of micrite matrix, which includes gastropod and globigerinal foraminifera; in addition to voids. calcite cement was observed inside the gastropod chambers. moreover dolomite rhomb’s is found, which refers to late diagenetic processes (pl. 2). such rocks most probably are derived from 239 alzubaidi et al. the cretaceous and tertiary rock units, which are exposed at the north and north eastern parts of iraq. quartzite quartzite rock beds are exposed within the khabour formation (cambro-ordovicain) (aljuboury et al., 2021) north of iraq, on the khabour valley at orakaista anticline (van bellen et al., 1959; jassim and goff, 2006). quartzite gravels of the tigris river deposits and terraces are derived from quartzite beds and were found near qayara town, south of mosul city (size about 50 cm) and reached to fatha gorge along the tigris river (size about 20 cm). polarized microscopic study of thin section of this sample showed that the quartz crystals interlocked to each other (pl.3) and became very hard so they were used most probably as a pestle or quern at al-dalmaj archaeological site. quartzite rocks were used during palaeolithic age to manufacture stone tools (ebright, 1987). the sources of the quartzite gravels or rocks were transported most probably from fatha and qayara, south of mosul and/ or from its source area at khabour valley. plate (3): stone tools of quartzite (left), thin section under polarized microscope (right), showing interlocking quartz grains with tangential contacts. plate (2): stone tools of fossiliferous limestone (gastropoda), calcite cement and voids (left), thin section under polarized microscope (right). 240 petrology and provenance of the natural stone dolomitic limestone it is composed of micrite, which is altered to microsparite and sparite in addition to some pores (pl.4). pore shapes are like fossil traces; which may be resulted after dissolution of fossils (moldic porosity). dolomitic limestone is exposed at the southern and western desert, west of mesopotamian plain, in addition to northeast, north, northwest of mesopotamian plain. dolomitic limestone as gravels were found within the tigris river terraces south of mosul city and its tributaries such as: greater zab, lesser zab, rawanduz and sirwan rivers (north and northeast of mesopotamian plain) which have high contents of carbonate gravels, more than 70% of the rocks; and also occur within the baihassan formation (pliocene – pleistocene), represent about 30% of the rocks (al-juboury et al., 2001; jassim and goff, 2006). in addition to gravels of ephemeral streams on the east and west of mesopotamian plain. dolomitic limestone gravels were transported most probably from the river channel and terraces north and northeast of the mesopotamian plain; or from ephemeral streams in east and west of the mesopotamian plain to make a scraper and were used at the studied site. plate (4): stone tools of dolomitic limestone (left), thin section under polarized microscope (right), showing dolomitic limestone with common pores. basalt basalt rocks are exposed at small areas of the northeast iraq (buday and jassim, 1987); harrat al-sham that extends from syriajordansaudi arabia (ibrahim, 1993); northeast syria (turkmani and alsharʹa, 2009); southeast turkey and northeast iran (tehran et al., 2010). the studied basalt is composed of glass, plagioclase feldspar, olivine, pyroxene and magnetite, in addition to large voids up to 1.5 mm (pl. 5). basalt of the northeast iraq has low hardness; therefore, cannot be suitable to made pestle or other artefacts. the collected basalt sample was may transported most probably from harrat al-sham source area or from jordan, which are very suitable for pestle and grinder; or from northeast syria or southeast turkey there are many basalt stone tools (pestle and grinder) on al-dalmaj archaeological hill; they are characterized by their gray or dark gray colors (pl.5). 241 alzubaidi et al. conglomerate it may be related to conglomerates of the gercus formation (middlelate eocene) or kolosh formation, which also contains shale, mudstone, claystone and sandstone. the gercus formation is exposed in the gercus region southeast of turkey and widely in iraq at the high folded zone with thickness about 850 meters near dohuk northeast mesopotamia (van bellen et al., 1959); or may be related to the dibdibba formation (pliocene – pleistocene) or the hussayniyat formation (early jurassic) west of the mesopotamia plain (jassim, 2016). the studied conglomerate stone tool is composed of chert granules (2-4 mm.) cemented by calcite (pl. 6), and is hard enough to be used as a scraper. rhyolite rhyolite is extrusive igneous rock occurred in the north and northeast of the mesopotamian plain as gravels within the bai hassan formation (pliocene – pleistocene), channel deposits and terraces along the tigris, euphrates, greater zab, lesser zab, adhaim and diyala rivers, and also occur near the iraqiiranian borders (jassim and goff, 2006). rhyolite rocks are exposed at south of turkey within silvan formation (middle miocene) and near malatya, southeast of turkey, located near the euphrates river’s tributary (leo et al., 1978). the studied rhyolite sample is composed of phenocrystalline (quartz and feldspar) and matrix plate (5): stone tools of basalt (left), thin section under polarized microscope (right), showing the main minerals in the basaltic rocks. plate (6): stone tools of conglomerate (left), thin section under polarized microscope (right), showing chert rock fragments. 242 petrology and provenance of the natural stone (sanidine feldspar and glass) (pl. 7). the studied rhyolite stone tool was transported most probably from the nearby area of gravels occurrences of the channel deposits of the lesser zab river or from the gravels of the bai hassan formation to al-dalmaj site to be used as a hand axe. andesite andesite is exposed at the zagros belt in iran and southeast of turkey and occurs as gravels within channel deposits of rivers and within the bai hassan formation (pliocene – pleistocene). the studied sample consists of feldspar, quartz and rare mica (biotite and muscovite) (pl. 8). it is intermediate igneous rock originated from cooling of the magma. the stone tool of the andesite was transported most probably from the channel deposits of rivers and/ or the bai hassan formation from northeast of the mesopotamian plain to be used as a pestle at the studied site. fossiliferous limestone (nummulite-rich) fossiliferous limestone beds are exposed at different areas west of the mesopotamian plain; such as the dammam formation (eocene), euphrates formation (lower miocene), and north and northeast of the mesopotamia plain at the high folded and imbricate zones within different geological formation (sissakian and saed, 2012), in addition to the gravels at channel deposits of many rivers and streams located northeast and west of the mesopotamian plain. the studied sample is composed of micrite and microsparite, contains nummulite (pl.9). plate (7): stone tools of rhyolite (left), thin section under polarized microscope (right). plate (8): stone tools of andesite (left), thin section under polarized microscope (right). 243 alzubaidi et al. the collected fossiliferous limestone sample was collected and transported most probably from stream deposits west of the mesopotamian plain or from the other exposed area. the sample has enough hardness to be used as a pestle or other artefacts in the studied site. sandstone the collected stone tool sample is composed of crossbedded, medium to fine grained sandstone (pl.10). such stone may be related to the sandstone beds of the injana formation (late miocene), which is exposed in hamreen anticline and other folded areas northeast of the mesopotamian plain and it comprises sandstone, siltstone and mudstone (buday, 1980; jassim and goff, 2006). the sandstone beds range in thickness from one meter to several meters. the maximum thickness of the formation reaches up to 900 meters near kirkuk city (jassim et al., 1984). the stone tool of sandstone sample (pl. 10) was used as a pestle and other stone tools at al-dalmaj site and surrounded areas of the mesopotamian plain. chert the main sources of the chert gravels in the mesopotamian plain are the bai hassan formation (pliocene – pleistocene), which is exposed in derbendikhan, south of plate (10): stone tools (pestle) made of sandstone plate (9): stone tools of fossiliferous limestone (nummulite) (left), thin section under polarized microscope (right). 244 petrology and provenance of the natural stone sulaymaniyah city, tag tag anticline northeast of erbil city; alluvial fans of baiji sammaarra (north of baghdad city), mandli and badra (east of the mesopotamian plain); channel sediments of the tigris river and its tributaries greater and lesser zab rivers (north and northeast of the mesopotamian plain); or from the dammam and umm erradhuma formations on the south and west of the mesopotamian plain. the studied gravel samples are up to cobble size (64-256 mm.); and they compose of abundant chert, carbonate rocks in addition to igneous and metamorphic rocks (jassim and goff, 2006). the studied chert stone tool (pl. 11) was used most probably as a scraper and other tools at al-dalmaj site and surrounding areas of the mesopotamian plain. plate (11): stone tools (scraper) made of chert. according to the state board of antiquities and heritage (sbah, 2010) the history of the site belongs to the sumerian – islamic periods. in the current study; however, we have used the types of the collected and studied stone tools (pls. 2-11), in an attempt to date approximately the age of the stone tools depending on the functions and ornamentations of stone tools. however, different colored pottery and building bricks can be seen in the site (pls. 12, 13). plate (12): ruins of al-dalmaj archaeological site showing the colored pottery handles and other fragments of pottery that indicate younger age as compared to the stone tools. 245 alzubaidi et al. discussion al-dalmaj archaeological site was occupied by the ancient human as indicated from the studied stone tools in the site (pls. 1-10). the involved collected ten samples of the stone tools are found to be made from different rock types which are not exposed in the site and the whole mesopotamian plain; since it is entirely composed of different sediments of quaternary age (map 2). therefore, all those stone tools were transported from outside of the site. the stone tools; however, were made in the site or transported to the site after being shaped for different uses is a matter of debate; there is no any clear evidence for any of both mentioned alternatives. at many location of the iraqi western desert, a lot of chipped rocks were found; this may indicate that a lot of stone tools were made in situ. no such chips were seen in the studied site. however, the thick aeolian sand dunes that cover the surrounding of the site (map 2) most probably have hindered such chips, or they were made outside of the site and transported there. it is more likely that the stone tools were made outside of the site and transported there for their daily uses. the stone tools made from basalt are most probably transported from harrat al-sham (syria-jordan-saudi arabia), because they are the nearest locations to the site where basalt is exposed widely, in addition to using it for building and stone tools in qasr azraq, jordan according to field survey. those made from chert are most probably transported from the southern and western deserts because they are the nearest locations to the site where chert is exposed widely in many geological formations as beds and/ or concretions. for the stone tools made from other rock types, it is not possible to indicate from where they were transported, since such rocks are exposed surrounding the mesopotamian plain. therefore, there should be different routes from the site to the source areas of the transported stone tools, which means the site was along main transportation routes. the age of the stone tools found in the site is another aspect for debate. according to the documents of state board of antiquities and heritage (sbah) the age of the site is plate (13): ruins of al-dalmaj archaeological site showing the sun dried bricks and other fragments of pottery. 246 petrology and provenance of the natural stone determined to be sumerian-islamic. the presence of different type of grinder, pestle and quern, made of many rock types, in al-dalmaj site, such as: fossiliferous limestone (gastropoda), quartzite, basalt, andesite, fossiliferous limestone (nummulite) and sandstone may refer to using them for grinding of wheat and barley, which were obtained from cultivation. while the presence of a knife and scraper that made of dolomitic limestone, conglomerate, rhyolite and chert may be referred to using them for meet cutting and leather cleaning of sheep. according to bienkowski and millard (2000), the mixing between farming with grain crop cultivation and herded the sheep, in al-dalmaj site, may refer to the end of neolithic period. conclusions the current study concluded many findings such as: ancient human may have enough knowledge about the properties of rocks and how to exploit them in their daily works, particularly in pestle, quern, scraper and others. the stone tools are made of fossiliferous limestone (gastropoda-rich), quartzite, dolomitic limestone, basalt, conglomerate, rhyolite, andesite, fossiliferous limestone (nummulite-rich), sandstone and chert. stone tools are made from different types of rocks; all of them are not exposed in the whole mesopotamian plain. therefore, the stone tools were supposed to be transported from far areas out of the plain and the site was located along main transportation routes. the absence of flakes and/ or chips near the site also indicates that the stone tools were transported to the site. furthermore, the presence of scraper referred to the abundance of sheep near the site and the presence of different type of grinder, pestle and quern, made of many rock types may refer to using them for grinding of wheat and barley, which were getting from cultivation. finally, the presence of knife and scraper may refer to using them for meat cutting and leather cleaning the sheep; and the mixing between grain crop cultivation and herded of sheep may refer to the end of the neolithic period. acknowledgments the authors would like to thank the staff of the iraq natural history research center and museum-university of baghdad, for providing some facilities during the course of the study and also the department of geology, university of baghdad for offering support to prepare the thin sections and offer permission to use the polarized microscope and to the state board of antiquities and heritage (sbah) for their help to review the archaeological documents. thanks are also extended to prof. dr. m. k. mohammad from uruk private university and assist. prof. dr. habib m. shubber from university of al-qadisiya for their help in the field surveys and also for prof. dr. munther a.abdul malik from department of archaeology, university of baghdad 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(2021) 16 (3): 231251. لالدوات الحجرية الطبيعية من موقع الدلمج الصخارية ومنطقة المصدر مابين النهرين، العراقسهل األثري، فاروجان سيساكيان** و حسن كطوف جاسم*** ، عقيل عباس الزبيدي* . *قسم الجيوفيزياء ، جامعةالكرخ للعلوم ، بغداد ، العراق **قسم هندسة وإدارة الموارد الطبيعية ، جامعة كوردستان هولير ، إقليم .، اربيل، العراقكوردستان العراق ، بغداد، العراق. ، كلية العلوم ، جامعة بغداد *** قسم الجيولوجيا 20/6/2021 ، تأريخ النشر: 23/02/2021 ، تأريخ القبول: 29/11/2020 تأريخ االستالم: الخالصة جنوب يقع أثري تل الحجرية على األدوات من العديد على العثور تم الرسوبي السهل من األوسط الجزء في يقع والذي الدلمج بين ل هور ما بالد ان نوع الصخور المستخدمة في صناعة النهرين، بين نهري دجلة والفرات. األدوات الحجرية المدروسة غير موجود في السهل الرسوبي، النه يتكون من وطين. وغرين، هش، رمل تتضمن التي الرباعي العصر جميع ترسبات وفوق اللسانية، الجزر مثل النهرية البيئات في مترسبة الموجودة الرسوبيات رواسب السهول الفيضية. الضفة، و 10تم وصف األدوات الحجرية التي تم جمعها بعدسة ذات قوة تكبير ) x) مجهر مستقطب بعد أن تم تقطيعها وتحويلها الى شرائح رقيقة ) وthin sectionأظهر المجهرية(. الدراسة األدوات ت المدروسة أن الصخرية الرسوب الصخور من والمتحولةمصنعة البركانية والنارية األحجار ية مثل: ، والبازلت، والريواليت، والمدملكات، والصوان، الجيري، والحجر الرملية، حاليًا المدروسة الحجرية األدوات استخدام تم والكوارتزيات. والميكاشيست، بل االنسان القديم كمدقات، ومجارف، وكاشطات، وسكاكين. كما أظهرت من ق الرسوبي السهل نقلها من خارج تم أن هذه األدوات الحالية ما الدراسة لبالد 251 alzubaidi et al. بعض بين النهرين. تشير األدوات الحجرية في موقع الدلمج األثري إلى وجود الموقع والمناطق المحيطة به التجارة بين هذا التبادالت باإلضا ،طرق إلى فة .االقتصادية والثقافية خالل العصر الحجري الحديث bull 245 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum jihad and abed bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2024) 18 (1): 245-251. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2024.18.1.0245 short commnucation molluscan species in al-dalmaj marsh, iraq: a field survey hiba mohammed jihad ⃰ and intisar f. abed ⃰ ⃰ *iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq. **department of biology, college of education for pure science-ibn al-haitham, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq. corresponding author: hiba.muhammad@nhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq received: 17 sept. 2023, revised: 27 dec. 2023, accepted: 29 dec. 2023, published: 20 june 2024 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract al-dalmaj marsh is one of the most important marshes in iraq; it extends from alqadisiyah province in the west to wasit province in the east, south of the tigris and euphrates rivers. in order to study the malacological diversity of this site, a survey of the marsh molluscs species was made during this study. about 177 specimens were collected, seven species of gastropods belonging to six families and two species of bivalves belonging to one family were identified, remarks on the nomenclature, taxonomy and distribution of these species. according to this study al-dalmaj marsh includes diverse molluscs species and the presented results will provide important information for future studies concerned with the molluscs or invertebrates biodiversity state of this important ecosystem in iraq. key words: bivalvia, distribution, gastropoda, hor, iraq. introduction the iraqi al-dalmaj marsh (locally named hor al-dalmaj) is located between the two provinces of al-qadisiyah (west) and wasit (east), in the southern basin of the tigris and the euphrates rivers, with about 682 km² total area, at a distance of 170 km from baghdad (abd al-khenifsawy and al-mayli, 2022). al-dalmaj marsh is characterized by diverse aquatic and terrestrial habitat, and its water is classified as brackish duo to its salinity concentration which is between 3.33– 5.7 ppt (kadhum et al., 2018). a previous study concerned with the diversity of molluscs in this marsh was conducted by al-jasimee and hussein (2023) and it highlighted the occurrence of several gastropods and bivalves. the in interest of a biodiversity study of the marshes is great because of the importance of this water environment in iraq, and because a few studies have been concerned with the malacofauna biodiversity of this ecosystem. this study aimed to study the existing mollusca in this region. specimens collection: the southern part of the marsh in al-diwaniyah city was chosen for the mollusc biodiversity study (map1). from this part, the specimens were collected by the use of appropriate sieves, for the period between september 2022 and april 2023, at a depth of less than 1 m, then they were preserved in an alcohol solution with a concentration of 70% bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799, print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2024.18.1.0245 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4330-9350 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9530-6894 mailto:*hiba.muhammad@nhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 246 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus 18 (1): 245-251. molluscan species in al-dalmaj marsh corresponding author: *yusra.yassen@uobasrah.edu.iq (forsyth, 1999). the shell measurements have been taken, and the morphological characteristics of the specimen shells were examined by a stereoscopic microscope for the purpose of identification. the species were identified by identification keys (rogers and thorp, 2019; jihad, 2021). for the purpose of standardizing and correcting the scientific names, and the taxon names were checked by molluscabase (2023). the map was designed by using arcgis software. the studied species and discussion: the results from the survey revealed nine species of molluscs, of which seven were gastropods and two were bivalves, all belonging to seven different families. table (1): the molluscan species, synonyms, material examined and distribution. distribution n o . o f sp ec im en s ex a m in ed species synonyms classification western africa and nile (odlera et al., 2013) iran, india and myanmar (budha et al., 2010 ) 10 12 bellamya bellamya jousseaum, 1886 b. gracilior (e. von martens, 1903) cyclostoma unicolor olivier, 1804 vivipara unicolor (olivier, 1804) paludina bengalensis lamarck, 1822 vivipara bengalensis (lamarck, 1822) viviparus bengalensis (lamarck, 1822) phylum: mollusca class: gastropoda 1-order: architaenioglossa a-family: viviparidae bellamya unicolor (olivier, 1804) (pl.1a) filopaludina bengalensis (lamarck, 1822) (pl.1b) 28 b-family: lymnaeidae lymnaea sp. (pl.1c) distributed in the near east, except the arabian peninsula (amr et al., 2014). 15 neritina euphratica mousson, 1874 neritina mesopotamica mousson, 1874 2-order: cycloneritida family: neritidae theodoxus jordani (sowerby i, 1836)(pl.1d) eastern mediterranean, southeast asia, malaysia and india, eastern africa (jihad and makawi, 2022). 50 thiara tuberculata (o.f.müller, 1774) nerita tuberculata o.f.müller, 1774 melania javanica brot, 1877 3-order: caenogastropoda a-family: thiaridae melanoides tuberculata (o. f. müller, 1774)(pl.1e) syria, lebanon, turkey, jordan (heller and sivan, 2002), iran, iraq (glöer and pešić, 2012), palaearctic 18 buccinum praemorsum l., 1758 · b. praerosum l., 1767 · melanopsis praerosa (linnaeus, 1767) b-family: melanopsidae melanopsis praemorsa (linnaeus, 1758)(pl.1f) mailto:yusra.yassen@uobasrah.edu.iq https://www.gbif.org/species/4362965 https://www.gbif.org/species/4362965 247 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum jihad and abed region (rogers and thorp, 2019). widely distributed in many countries of europe, asia, australia and hawaii (paraense and pointier, 2003), south africa (kock and wolmaranas, 2007) 25 aplecta orbignyi mazé,1883 a. rivalis (maton and rackett, 1807) · aplexa rivalis (maton and rackett, 1807) bulinus acutus (draparnaud, 1805) 4-superorder : hygrophila family: physidae genus: physella physella acuta (draparnaud, 1805)(pl.1g) eastern asia, south and north america, europe(crespo et al., 2015) oriental africa and northwest africa, central asia and the middle east (korniushin, 2004) 17 3 corbicula andersoniana g. nevill, 1877 c. aquilina heude, 1880 c. astronomica heude, 1880 corbicula aegyptiaca germain, 1906 c. alba clessin, 1877 c. artini pallary, 1902 c. cor (lamarck, 1818( class: bivalvia order: veneridae family: cyrenidae corbicula fluminea (o. f. müller, 1774)(pl.1h) corbicula fluminalis (o. f. müller, 1774)(pl.1i) the malacofauna of the iraqi marshes generally, and particularly that of aldalmaj marsh, has attracted little attention. in this study, we collected and provided information about the mollusc diversity of this area. the current results showed the presence of different species of molluscs including seven of gastropods and two of bivalves; melanoides tuberculata was the most abundant species. the results of this study enhancing our knowledge of al-dalmaj malacofauna. map (1): shows selected site of study area on al-dalmaj marsh. 248 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus 18 (1): 245-251. molluscan species in al-dalmaj marsh corresponding author: *yusra.yassen@uobasrah.edu.iq plate(1): (a) bellamya unicolor, (b) filopaludina bengalensis, (c) lymnaea sp., (d) theodoxus jordani, (e) melanoides tuberculate, (f) melanopsis praemorsa, (g) physa acuta, (h) corbicula fluminea, (i) corbicula fluminalis. [scale 2 mm]. conclusions it is obvious that the al-dalmaj area represents one of the most important iraqi wetlands with considerable biological diversity. according to the current study, melanoides tuberculate was the dominant species, and this result agrees with the findings of (al-jasimee and hussein, mailto:yusra.yassen@uobasrah.edu.iq 249 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum jihad and abed 2023). whereas the studies concerned in this ecosystem are not adequate, moreover, the present study did not cover all regions of the marsh, so more studies must be made in the marsh to obtaining the overall biodiversity state of the marsh. conflict of interest statement the authors have no conflicts of interest to declare. we "the authors" have followed and signed the scientific research ethics announced by the journal. literature cited abd al-khenifsawy, r. h. and al-mayli, h. m. 2022. detection of internal and external parasites of some common fish species from al-dalmaj marsh/iraq. international journal of entomology research, 7(8): 37-47. 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(ed.). 2019. phylum mollusca. in: rogers, d. c. and thorp, j. h.(ed). keys to palaearctic fauna, thorp and covich’s freshwater invertebrates, 4tʰ edition, vol.4. kansas biological survey and the biodiversity institute, usa, p. 189221. [crossref] mailto:yusra.yassen@uobasrah.edu.iq https://www.researchgate.net/publication/328065493 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/278233224_a_revision_of_some_asian_and_african_freshwater_clams_assigned_to_corbicula_fluminalis_muller_1774_mollusca_bivalvia_corbiculidae_with_a_review_of_anatomical_characters_and_reproductive_features_based https://www.molluscabase.org/ http://dx.doi.org/10.24916/iansa.2013.1.1 http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/s0074-02762003000400016 https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-12-385024-9.00002-2 251 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum jihad and abed bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2024) 18 (1): 245-251. أنواع الرخويات في هور الدمج، العراق: دراسة ميدانية **و انتصار فيصل عبد ⃰ هبه محمد جهاد .مركز بحوث ومتحف التاريخ الطبيعي, جامعة بغداد, بغداد, العراق⃰ جامعة بغداد, بغداد, -أبن الهيثم/ كلية التربية للعلوم الصرفة /**قسم علوم الحياة العراق. 20/6/2024، النشر: 29/12/2023القبول: ،27/12/2023املراجعة: ، 17/9/2023االستالم: الخالصة يعد هور الدملج من أهم األهوار في العراق, ويمتد من محافظة القادسية غربا إلى محافظة واسط شرقا, جنوب نهري دجلة والفرات. من أجل دراسة تنوع الرخويات لهذا 177مسح ألنواع رخويات األهوار خالل هذه الدراسة. جمعت حوالي اجري .املوقع املهم عينة, وتم تشخيص سبعة أنواع من بطنيات األقدام تنتمي إلى ست عائالت, كما تم لى عائلة واحدة, مع مالحظات حول تسمية نتمي إتحديد نوعين من ذوات الصدفتين ت وتصنيف وتوزيع هذه األنواع, وفقا لهذه الدراسة فإن هور الدملج يضم أنواعا مختلفة من أنواع الرخويات وستوفر النتائج املقدمة في هذه الدراسة معلومات هامة للدراسات ت في هذا النظام البيئي املستقبلية املتعلقة بحالة التنوع البيولوجي للرخويات والالفقاريا املهم في العراق. 135 .al et alqaisi bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2020) 16 (2): 135-150. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2020.16.2.0135 molecular characterization of contracaecum rudolphii hartwich, 1964 (nematoda: anisakidae) from the cormorant phalacrocorax carbo in iraq amjed qays alqaisi*♦ harith saeed al-warid * and azhar a. al-moussawi** *department of biology, college of science, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq ** iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq ♦corresponding author e-mail: amjeddurham@gmail.com; amjed.alqaisi@sc.uobaghdad.edu.iq received date: 22 june 2020, accepted date: 13 august 2020, published date: 21 december 2020 abstract contracaecum rudolphii hartwich, 1964 is a nematode which causes major concerns to human and wildlife animal’s health. however, the population genetics of c. rudolphii has been poorly studied in iraq. in order to gain a deeper understanding in the outline of the genetic diversity of the nematode c. rudolphii that were isolated from its host cormorant phalacrocorax carbo (linnaeus, 1758), in the middle areas of iraq, twenty specimens of c. rudolphii adults were isolated from nine individuals of p. carbo. the first (its-1) internal transcribed spacers (its) of ribosomal dna (rdna) of c. rudolphii were amplified using conventional polymerase chain reaction (pcr); then, the amplicons were subjected to sequencing. concatenation of its-1 (rdna) sequences resulted in four unique genotypes that have not been previously recorded in iraq. the present study showed that the most common genotype occurred in 85% of c. rudolphii, and in 88.9% of cormorants. furthermore, the infrapopulation difference in the genotypes was fairly high, with an average of 1.3 ± 0.48 genotypes per host of those with ≥two nematodes. all the sequences of the current study were distributed into two different populations. the sequences of its-1 for the first population had the highest similarity to its-1 sequence of c. rudolphii b, while the sequences of its-1 for the second population had the highest similarity to its-1 sequence of c. rudolphii a. this study provides an insight about the genetic divergence of c. rudolphii among p. carbo in iraq. as well, the results likely support the hypothesis that c. rudolphii represents a complex of at least two sibling species. keywords: contracaecum rudolphii, genotypeits-1, iraq, phalacrocorax carbo, polymerase chain reaction (pcr). 136 molecular characterization of contracaecum rudolphii introduction the roundworm contracaecum rudolphii hartwich, 1964 (nematoda: anisakidae) is a parasitic intestinal nematode of the cormorants, pelicans, and ducks (moravec, 2009). it is considered to have highly pathogenic effects on both wildlife and humans (shamsi, 2009). in many regions, the species is progressively identified as an emerging concern for human health. the larvae of contracaecum spp. are the causative agent of human anisakidosis (shamsi, 2014). several reports have revealed that the larvae cause a severe and painful condition in humans following ingestion of under-cooked fish carrying third stage larvae of contracaecum species including c. rudolphii (takabayashi et al., 2014; bookhout and greene, 2019). c. rudolphii like to most other anisakid is transmitted through many hosts. the first intermediate hosts of c. rudolphii are crustaceans and larvae of aquatic insects; fish regards the second intermediate or paratenic hosts, while fishing birds are the final hosts (bartlett, 1996; dziekońska-rynko and rokicki, 2007). anthropogenic shifts to natural landscapes have resulted in significant increases in population densities of wildlife species in some areas (daszak et al., 2001; barrueto et al., 2014). such increases in the number of wildlife species are likely to increase the occurrence of c. rudolphii and promote extra transmission of c. rudolphii between birds and fish, also fish and humans (kanarek, 2011). the genetic variability of c. rudolphii is poorly investigated, regardless of the fact that discriminating the genetic population has significant consequences to considerate the evolutionary ecology of the species, and can give some important information for controlling the parasite in humans and wildlife animals (shamsi et al., 2009; cole and viney, 2018). a previous study on c. rudolphii illustrated that the first (its1) and/or second (its-2) internal transcribed spacers (its) of ribosomal nuclear dna (rdna) provide genetic markers for the specific identification of number of ascaridoid species (szostakowska and fagerholm, 2012). in addition, some studies have shown that sibling species can be identified and distinguished based on of its-1 and/or its-2 (zhu et al., 2000; mattiucci et al., 2003; li et al., 2005). yet the broader of the molecular characterization and genetic polymorphism of c. rudolphii was not the topic of focused work in iraq, although its-1 was used in one study from thi-qar southern of iraq to identify the fourth-stage larvae of contracaecum microcephalum (rudolphi, 1809) and c. septentrionale (kreis, 1955) which were isolated from proventriculus of nycticorax nycticorax (linnaeus, 1758) in al-sanaf marsh, southern of iraq by mohammad and hbaiel (2019 a). moreover, c. rudolphii has been morphologically identified and recorded recently by al-moussawi and mohammad (2011); al-moussawi (2017) and mohammad and hbaiel (2019 b). the purpose of the current study is to quantify the genetic divergence of c. rudolphii hartwich, 1964 from the p. carbo (linnaeus, 1758) in iraq. materials and methods collection of parasites adult nematodes were collected from nine infected p. carbo obtained from trappers that were collected from tarmiyah district (33.6732° n, 44.3615° e), baghdad province, central iraq (map 1), for an unrelated project (al-moussawi, 2017). the cormorants were identified according to allouse (1961) and salim et al. (2009), the sex of each was recorded; they were dissected, and the digestive tracts were opened and searched for nematodes. adult nematodes were collected, cleared with lactophenol and identified microscopically. the identification of 137 .al et alqaisi the adult nematode was based on the characteristic features collected from different works (york and maplestone, 1962; amato et al., 2006; d’amelio et al., 2012; moravec and scholz, 2016; al-moussawi, 2017). the diagnostic features of the anterior end (cephalic extremity of the nematode) such as the presence of labia, interlabia and interlabial bifurcation in the base were considered for identification. the main identification features in males are the number of spicules, the shape of each spicules tip, the number and distribution of papillae on the tail, number of precloacal and postcloacal papillae. in females, the main identification features are the distance of vulva from the anterior and posterior ends, and the shape of the tail. the identification of the specimens was based on the previously mentioned criteria of c. rudolphii, regardless of the morphometric measurements. the identifying of all specimens were conducted by the third author. the morphometric measurements were not considered in this study. all nematodes were counted, preserved in 70% ethanol (v/v) and kept at room temperature prior dna extraction; the sex of each nematode was identified under a dissecting microscope. representative voucher specimens of c. rudolphii were deposited in the iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad. from the pool of the adult nematodes removed from the nine infected cormorant specimens (eight males and one female), 20 (eight males and 12 females) adult worms were selected for genetic analyses. the number of analyzed nematodes differed among cormorant individuals. for heavily parasitized hosts, a maximum of five nematodes were selected for genotyping, while all collected nematodes were genotyped for hosts with one, two or three parasites. this study protocol was approved by the local ethics committee (ref.: bec/1019/0015), in department of biology, college of science, university of baghdad. map (1): map of study site in the central iraq, tarmiyah district, baghdad province. (the map was processed using arcgis 10.3.1 software) 138 molecular characterization of contracaecum rudolphii table (1): gene bank accession numbers of the twenty contracaecum rudolphii isolated from nine cormorants collected in tarmiyah district, baghdad province (33.6732° n, 44.3615° e), central iraq. host nematodes id sex number of specimens genbank accession number sex genotype c1 female 2 mt308989 female g4 mt308991 male g4 c2 male 1 mt012368 female g2 c3 male 5 mt308990 female g4 mt308999 female g4 mt012369 male g3 mt308994 male g4 mt308998 male g4 c4 male 3 mt308997 female g4 mt309003 female g4 mt308993 male g4 c5 male 1 mt309002 female g4 c6 male 2 mt308996 female g4 mt308992 male g4 c7 male 2 mt309000 female g4 mt308995 male g4 c8 male 2 mt308988 female g4 mt309001 male g4 c9 male 2 mt012366 female g4 mt012367 female g1 dna extraction and amplification total genomic dna was extracted using abiopure tm total dna kit (abiopure, usa) following manufacturer's instructions. a thermal cycler was used to amplify segments of its1 from each specimen by using the conventional pcr. the forward primer 5`ggcttatggcttgctgtgtg-3` and reverse primer 5`-cgcccgcatatccaagaatg3`, were used. the primers were designed by using pick primer tool found within ncbi genbank. many genes were used as reference genes for these primers, the ncbi genbank accession numbers for these reference genes are aj634783.1, mn557377.1, mn557376.1, mk424808.1, mk424807.1, mk424806.1, mk424801.1, mk424800.1, mk161411.1, mk161410.1, mk161409.1, mk161408.1, jq071409.1, jq071406.1, jq071404.1, jq071398.1, jq071395.1, jq071394.1, jq071393.1, jf424597.1, fm210432.1, fm210251.1, fm177542.1, fj467620.1, fj467618.1, dq316968.1, ay821753.1, ay821752.1 and ay821751.1. the primer melting temperature (tm) for forward primer is 59.83oc, while the tm for reverse primer is 59.48oc. thirty cycles of amplification in an eppendorf thermocycler were following the program of denaturation at 95oc for 30 second, annealing at 65oc for 30 second, and extension at 72oc for 30 second. an initial denaturation step consisting of incubation at 95oc for 5 min and a final extension step consisting of incubation at 72oc for 7 min were also added. after pcr 139 .al et alqaisi amplification, all the samples were separated on 1% agarose. gels were run using owl electrophoresis system (thermos, usa), in 1x tbe buffer (tris-acetate edta); samples of dna were mixed with 1/10 volume of loading buffer and loaded into the wells on the gel. tbe was added to cover the gel and run for 75 min at 100 v/m amp. the gel was stained with ethidium bromide 1 μl/ml. dna bands were visualized using gel imaging system (major science, taiwan). sequencing and sequence analysis the pcr products were sent for sanger sequencing using abi3730xl, automated dna sequencer, by macrogen corporation – korea. the results were received by email and then analyzed using genious software. nucleotide sequence data reported in this paper are available in the genbank database under the accession numbers mt012366 to mt012369 and the accession numbers mt308988 to mt309003 (tab. 1). for each sequence, the ncbi blast program was used for homology search (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/). phylogenetic analysis phylogenetic tree was constructed using the phyml program which is hosted at the http://www.phylogeny.fr/simple_phylogeny.cgi website; gene sequences were aligned by muscle alignment (edgar, 2004) and the curation for the aligned sequences was achieved using gblocks. then, the tree was constructed using phyml program with the application of specific parameters; the model used for constructing the tree was general time-reversible (gtr) and the starting tree was constructed using bio neighbor-joining (nj). the tree topology and branch length were adjusted simultaneously using a hill-climbing algorithm and a fast distance-based method was used to draw the trees with modification of the tree to improve its likelihood at each iteration (guindon et al., 2010). a tree in the newick format, the output of phyml program, was submitted to figtree v1.4.2 (http://tree.bio.ed.ac.uk/software/figtree/) for the purpose of visualization and coloring of the strains and the branches. the tree was constructed to analyze the phylogenetic relationship among the twenty sequences of c. rudolphii in the present study (tab. 1), as well as to analyze the phylogenetic relationship of these sequences with additional more sequences of related species with adequate geographic coverage (tab. 2). statistical analyses the obtained results were stated as percentage and mean ± standard deviation (sd). data analysis was done by spss 16.0 (spss inc., chicago, il, usa). the data were assessed by chi-square test. the genetic diversity between populations was assessed used anova. p values < 0.05 were considered statistically significant. results morphological identification morphological examinations revealed that all the examined nematodes in the present study had the most typical features of the adult c. rudolphii. there were no significant morphological differences of c. rudolphii among the individual worms; all were found to share most of the morphological characters with very minor differences among them. body of the adults of c. rudolphii is yellowish, coiled, covered with a striated cuticle and tapering at its two ends. head small, with three triangular interlabia, which are wider at their base; and three, one dorsal and two sub ventral, round, large and equal in size labia, each of them bear 140 molecular characterization of contracaecum rudolphii two oval cephalic papillae on their dorsal sides. the excretory pore locates at the base of interlabium. lips followed immediately by fine dense annulations of the collar area. oesophagus is muscular, cylindrical, followed by short globular ventriculus connected to a posterior ventricular appendix. tail conical and pointed at its end. the male has 2 equal spicules; the shape of the spicule, the groove along spicule length, and the shape of the tip are the characteristic features for this species. females are larger than males, vulva in the anterior third of the body, tail longer than in males. pcr its-1, sequence and phylogenetic analyses the its-1 (309 bp) amplicons from individual c. rudolphii (n=20) represented single bands on agarose gels. examination of its-1 sequences (309 bp) revealed four unique genotypes: g1, g2, g3 and g4 (accession #mt012367, # mt012368, # mt012366 and # mt012367) respectively. the most common genotype is g4 occurred in 17 of the 20 (85%) c. rudolphii, and in eight of the nine (88.9%) of p. carbo, while the other genotypes (g1, g2 and g3) were found only once (tab. 2). out of the seven birds parasitized with mean intensity of more than one, only two (28.6%) were parasitized with individuals having different genotypes. results also showed that there was an average (±sd) of 1.3 ± 0.48 genotypes per host for the seven cormorants with ≥two analyzed nematodes. the proportion of genotypes did not differ significantly by nematode sex (x2=3.363, d.f.=3, p=0.33). co-occurring males and females of c. rudolphii were identified in six specimens of p. carbo. in two of those cases, more than one genotypes were detected, indicating that at least one of the c. rudolphii in these individual hosts was maternally unrelated. pairwise comparisons of nucleotide sequences among the four genotypes of c. rudolphii showed differences of 2.1-3.8% (its-1). comparison among all sequences showed 26 variations in nucleotides. of these, 17 (65.4%) were single-base substitutions, of which seven (41.2%) were intermediate changes between either the purines (a<->g; n=4) or the pyrimidines (c<->t; n=3) and 10 (58.2%) were transversions (substitutions between a purine and a pyrimidine), although 9 variations (34.6 %) related to the events of deletion / insertion. the phylogenetic relationship among the 20 isolates of c. rudolphii in the present study and additional more sequences of related species (tab. 3) with adequate geographic coverage were illustrated in diagram (1) and table (4). all the sequences of the current study (n=20; genotypes n=4) were distributed in two different populations the first one (population i) is the cluster of g2 and g4 population (mean of genetic diversity =0.007 ± 0.0013) and the second (population ii) is the cluster of g1 and g3 population (mean of genetic diversity=0.018±0.0089) (tab. 4). significant difference was noticed between the means of genetic diversity of these two populations (f= 36.17, p=0). interestingly, as shown in diagram (1), the two isolates of the first population (accession #mt012367 and #mt012369) are closely clustered to c. septentrionale (accession #mk424799) that isolated from night heron nycticorax nycticorax (linnaeus, 1758) in thi-qar, iraq by mohammad and hbaiel (2019 a), while the genotypes present in that population were dispersed, with c. microcephalum (accession #mk424795) that was isolated from n. nycticorax in thi-qar, iraq (mohammad and hbaiel, 2019 a). furthermore, the sequences of contracaecum sp. isolated from fish collected from parishan lake, islamic republic of iran (shamsi and aghazadeh-meshgi, 2011) and lake nasser, egypt (younis et al., 2017) were highly dispersed, and no obvious correlations of close clusters were noticed with the two populations presented in the current study. the blast analyses (tab. 5) revealed that sequences of its-1 141 .al et alqaisi for each g2 and g4 (represented population i) had the highest similarity (97.83%) to its-1 sequence of c. rudolphii b (accession# jq071394 and #aj634783), while the sequences of its-1 for each g1 and g3 (represented population ii) had the highest similarity (98.55% and 98.20%) respectively to its-1 sequence of c. rudolphii a (accession# jq071414). moreover, sequences of its-1 for each of g2 and g4 (represented population i) had the less similarity (96.74%) and (96.81%) to its-1 sequence of c. rudolphii f (accession# jf424597), and the sequences of its-1 for each of g1 and g3 (represented population ii) had the less similarity (96.46% and 96.73%) to its-1 sequence of c. rudolphii f (accession# jf424597). the phylogenetic relationship among the twenty isolates of c. rudolphii in the present study and additional more published sequences of c. rudolphii a, b and f were illustrated in diagram (2). results showed that population i (g2 and g4) are highly related to c. rudolphii b, while population ii (g1 and g3) are highly related to c. rudolphii a. the identities and phylogenetic distances of the selected and most related its sequences showed that the isolates of c. rudolphii analyzed in this study are likely related to two species c. rudolphii a and b. table (2): distribution of nuclear genotypes of c. rudolphii identified in nine cormorants from tarmiyah district, baghdad province (33.6732° n, 44.3615° e), central iraq. host nematodes genotypes id sex analyzed sex (m:f) g1 g2 g3 g4 c1 female 2 (1:1) 0 0 0 2 c2 male 1 (0:1) 0 1 0 0 c3 male 5 (3:2) 0 0 1 4 c4 male 3 (1:2) 0 0 0 3 c5 male 1 (0:1) 0 0 0 1 c6 male 2 (1:1) 0 0 0 2 c7 male 2 (1:1) 0 0 0 2 c8 male 2 (1:1) 0 0 0 2 c9 male 2 (0:2) 1 0 0 1 total 20 (8:12) 1 1 1 17 table (3): host, location and genbank accession number of sequences of the related species with adequate geographic coverage. taxa host location genbank accession number references contracaecum sp. barboid fishes parishan lake, the largest freshwater lake in iran. fm210435 fm210434 fm210433 shamsi and aghazadehmeshgi (2011) contracaecum sp. oreochromis niloticus (linnaeus, 1758); tilapia galilaea (linnaeus, 1758); lates niloticus (linnaeus, lake nasser, egypt kx580602 kx580603 kx580604 kx580605 kx580606 younis et al. (2017) 142 molecular characterization of contracaecum rudolphii 1758); synodontis frontosus vaillant, 1895; mormyrus caschive linnaeus, 1758; chrysichthys auratus (geoffroy saint-hilaire, 1809); hydrocynus forskahlii (cuvier, 1819); alestes baremose (joannis, 1835); and labeo niloticus (linnaeus, 1758) kx580607 c. rocephalum nycticorax nycticorax thi-qar, iraq mk424795 mohammad and hbaiel (2019 a) c. septentrionale nycticorax nycticorax thi-qar, iraq mk424799 mohammad and hbaiel (2019 a) diagram (1): phylogenetic tree of the aligned 31 its-1 sequences from contracaecum spp. including 20 its-1 sequences of c. rudolphii, identified in this study using the phyml program which is hosted at the http://www.phylogeny.fr/simple_phylogeny.cgi website. 143 .al et alqaisi table (4): the two populations of c. rudolphii identified in nine cormorants from tarmiyah district, baghdad province (33.6732° n, 44.3615° e), central iraq. population geneotypes genbank accession number of the isolates mean of genetic diversity (sd) population i g2 mt012368 0.007 (0.0013) g4 mt308994 mt308990 mt309000 mt308999 mt012366 mt308988 mt308991 mt309001 mt308997 mt309003 mt308995 mt308993 mt308998 mt308996 mt309002 mt309002 mt308994 population ii g1 mt012367 0.018 (0.0089) g3 mt012369 table (5): the two populations of c. rudolphii identified in nine cormorants from tarmiyah district (33.6732° n, 44.3615° e), central iraq and their identity to some c. rudolphii isolates from ncbi genbank. genotype (population) genbank accession number identity g2 (population i) mt012368 97.83% with c. rudolphii b (jq071394 97.83% with c. rudolphii b (aj634783) 96.38% with c. rudolphii a (jq071415) 96.74% with c. rudolphii f(jf424597) g4 (population i) mt308994 97.87% with c. rudolphii b(jq071394) 97.83% with c. rudolphii b (aj634783) 96.45% with c. rudolphii a (jq071415) 96.81% with c. rudolphii f(jf424597) g1 (population ii) mt012367 98.55% with c. rudolphii a(jq071414) 97.83% with c. rudolphii b (aj634783) 96.46% with c. rudolphii f(jf424597) 144 molecular characterization of contracaecum rudolphii g3 (population ii) mt012367 98.20% with c. rudolphii a(jq071414) 97.09% with c. rudolphii b(jq071394) 96.73% with c. rudolphii f(jf424597) diagram (2): phylogenetic tree of the aligned 31 its-1 sequences from contracaecum spp. including 20 its-1 sequences of c. rudolphii, identified in this study and its relation to published sequences of c. rudolphii a, b and f using the phyml program which is hosted at the http://www.phylogeny.fr/simple_phylogeny.cgi website discussion the present investigation is the first study to use a genetic approach for the characterization of c. rudolphii from nine infected cormorants in central part of iraq. based on morphological characteristics, all nematodes collected from cormorants belong to c. rudolphii. the c. rudolphii showed morphological and morphometric similarities with the same species parasitizing cormorants in the world (mattiucci et al., 2002; amato et al., 2006; moravec and scholz, 2016); however, morphology and morphometric descriptions are not fully considered in this study because all data regarding microscopic identification has been published before (al-moussawi and mohammad, 2011; al-moussawi, 2017). 145 .al et alqaisi the results obtained from the current study revealed four new different genotypes of c. rudolphii that were not previously recorded in iraq. all recorded genotypes showed high percentages of sequence homology with some published its-1 genome of c. rudolphii, which means that there were few differences between nucleotide sequences of the isolates analyzed in this study and others. these minor differences may be due to the effects of the geographical location or the difference of the host that harbored the parasites (cole and viney, 2018). assuming the enormously extensive range of hosts that are susceptible to c. rudolphii (torres et al., 2000) and the capability of those hosts to spread broadly, the wide spreading of c. rudolphii genotypes and the related low population are likely to be probable. the existence of different genotypes of c. rudolphii agreed with the results of shamsi et al. (2009) who showed that the c. rudolphii isolated from p. carbo in australia revealed the existence of different genotypes. all the sequences of the current study are distributed into two different populations one of them is closely clustered to c. septentrionale isolated from n. nycticorax in thi-qar, iraq (mohammad and hbaiel, 2019 a) while the genotypes presence in this population were dispersed, with c. microcephalum isolated from n. nycticorax in thi-qar, iraq (mohammad and hbaiel, 2019 a).the sequences of contracaecum sp. isolated from fish collected from parishan lake (shamsi and aghazadeh-meshgi, 2011) and lake nasser (younis et al., 2017) were highly dispersed, and no clear correlations of close clusters were observed with the two populations presented in this current study. the observed close clustered relation and dispersion between the isolates of this study and others are likely to be a function of host differences (bird versus fish) and geographical location. in this study, some insights have appeared regarding sibling species for the studied population of c. rudolphii; the sequences of its-1 for the first population had the highest similarity to its-1 sequence of c. rudolphii b, while the sequences of its-1 for the second population had the highest similarity to its-1 sequence of c. rudolphii a. these results agreed with the results of some previous studies (mattiucci et al., 2002; li et al., 2005), who represented that c. rudolphii isolated from p. carbo included two sibling species nominated c. rudolphii a and c. rudolphii b. the current study focused on p. carbo and nematodes collected from one area (central part of iraq). considering that c. rudolphii has been identified at both higher and lower prevalence in other parts of the world (torres et al., 2000; dziekońska-rynko and rokicki, 2008, kanarek, 2011), other population genetic structuring from different hosts or in different locations could be expected. this approach however, has significant limitations because it is time consuming and only few numbers of c. rudolphii can be collected for microscopic examination. the its-1 study therefore will provide an insight regarding genetic divergence of c. rudolphii in iraq. moreover, the results are likely to support the hypothesis that c. rudolphii represents a complex species at least two sibling species. acknowledgments thanks are owed to dr. mohammad al-maeni, department of biology, university of baghdad, who helped in some genetic analysis of the work. literature cited allouse, b. a. 1961. birds of iraq. vol. 2. baghdad: ar-rabita press, 279 pp. (in arabic). 146 molecular characterization of contracaecum rudolphii al-moussawi, a. a. 2017. insights at morphological features of contracaecum rudolphii hartwich, 1964 (nematoda: anisakidae) as revealed by scanning electron microscope (sem). journal of entomology and zoological studies, 5:116-119. al-moussawi, a. a. and mohammad, m. k. 2011. contracaecum rudolphii 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(2020) 16 (2): 135-150. contracaecum rudolphii الخيطية دودةلالجزيئي ل التوصيف hartwich, 1964 المعزول من غراب البحرphalacrocorax carbo في العراق أزهار احمد الموسوي** أمجد قيس القيسي*، حارث سعيد الــورد* و *قسم علوم الحياة، كلية العلوم، جامعة بغداد، بغداد، العراق العراق،و متحف التاريخ الطبيعي، جامعة بغداد، بغداد ** مركز بحوث 12/2020/ 21، تأريخ النشر:13/08/2020، تأريخ القبول: 22/06/2020تأريخ االستالم: الخالصة واحدة contracaecum rudolphii hartwich, 1964 تعد الدودة ات ن والحيوانمن الديدان الخيطية التي تسبب مخاوف كبيرة على صحة اإلنسا . هناك القليل من الدراسات التي تخص هذا الطفيلي من الناحية الوراثية. البريه أجريت الدراسة الحالية من اجل الحصول على فهم أعمق في التباين الوراثي ، في phalacrocorax carbo من غراب البحر عزلتالتي دودة اعاله، لل .cن عشرين عينة متم عزل حيثالمناطق الوسطى من العراق ، rudolphiiمن تسعة أفراد منp. carbo . المعزول (rdna) من الدنا الريبوسومي (its-1) عن الجين تم التحري ثم تم (pcr) تفاعل البلمرة المتسلسل التقليدي بأستخدام c. rudolphii من -its دراسةالتسلسل الجيني اثبتت.gene sequenceدراسة التسلسل الجيني 1 (rdna) .ظهور أربعة أنماط وراثية فريدة لم يتم تسجيلها سابقًا في العراق .c٪ من 85أظهرت الدراسة الحالية أن النمط الجيني األكثر شيوًعا وقع في rudolphii من طائر الغراب. اضافةً الى ذلك ، كان االختالف 88.9، وفي ٪ من األنماط 0.48± 1.3في األنماط الجينية مرتفعًا إلى حد ما، بمتوسط الجينية لكل مجموعة من المضائف المصابة باكثر من دودتين. 150 molecular characterization of contracaecum rudolphii اظهرت نتائج جميع التسلسالت الجينية في هذه الدراسة ظهور مجتمعين its-1 للسكان األول أعلى تشابه مع تسلسل its-1 اذ اظهر تسلسل ؛مختلفين للسكان الثاني أعلى its-1 ، بينما اظهرت تسلسالتc. rudolphii b لـ . c. rudolphii aلـ its-1 تشابه مع تسلسل .cلـ قدمت هذه الدراسة حقائق معمقة حول االختالف الوراثي rudolphii عينات النوع بين p. carbo .هذه كما عززت في العراق تمثل معقدًا من نوعين c. rudolphii الدراسة فرضية كون الديدان الخيطية .منفصلين على األقل تأريخ الاستلام: 22/06/2020، تأريخ القبول: 13/08/2020، تأريخ النشر:21 /12/2020 bull 443 permana et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2019) 15 (4): 443-454 analysis of microfacies and depositional environment of limestone in yosonegoro area, gorontalo province, indonesia aang panji permana* subagyo pramumijoyo** and akmaluddin** *department of geological engineering, universitas negeri gorontalo, gorontalo, indonesia **department of geological engineering, universitas gadjah mada, yogyakarta, indonesia *corresponding author: bagyo@ugm.ac.id received date: 04 july 2019, accepted date: 30 october 2019, published date: 26 december 2019 abstract the research location is the northern part of the basin of limboto lake; the focus of the research is the limestone outcrop with 24 meter thickness in yosonegoro area. the purpose of the study is to find out facies, standard microfacies and depositional environment on limboto limestone. the research method carried out consisted of three methods namely the measured section, petrographic analysis and biostratigraphy analysis. the limestone facies in the yosonegoro area consist of two facies. then, based on sedimentary structure, composition, color, precipitation texture, terrestrial origin components and the organism content, the two facies can divided into three different microfacies. paleobathymetry shows a deepening from the middle shelf upper slope to the upper slope lower slope due to the sea level rise. compilation of standard microfacies and paleobathymetry types shows changes in depositional environment from the slope environment to the toe of slope environment. the result of this study will be led researchers to propose the name of the new formation, which is the limboto limestone formation according to specific location and characteristics from the previous formation name of the clastic limestone formation. keywords: indonesia, limboto, limestone, microfacies,yosonegoro. introduction sulawesi island in the territory of indonesia has a unique form that is shaped like a k letter. the uniqueness of the shape of the island of sulawesi is due to the interaction of the three large plates namely the eurasian plate, the australian indian plate and the pacific plate (hamilton, 1979; hutchison, 1989). physiographically, the sulawesi island consists of the south arm as south sulawesi, the middle part, the east arm as central sulawesi and the neck as central and west sulawesi, then the north arm as north sulawesi and gorontalo, and the southeast arm as southeast sulawesi (katili, 1978; hamilton, 1979; sukamto and simandjuntak, 1983; hutchison, 1989). this background makes sulawesi has the complex geological condition (map 1). https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2019.15.4.0443 444 analysis of microfacies and depositional environment map (1): the tectonic map of research area; (a) tectonic map of the territory of indonesia, (b) tectonic map of sulawesi island forming the letter k (hall and wilson, 2000). the uniqueness also appears in the spread of limestone in the basin of limboto lake, which has a width about 35 km. its position in the middle of surrounding volcanic rocks shows its own characteristic limestone. the basin of limboto lake is formed by several river valleys including paguat, randangan, dumoga ongkang, paguyaman and, bone. this basin is often referred as the limboto zone, which continues to minahasa (van bemmelen, 1949). tectonic influences are very strong, especially on the position of quartenary reef limestones in the gorontalo region. this reefal limestone undergoes a very strong uplift, proven by field data nearby gorontalo and the northern coast of daka cape, which reaches a height of more than 1,000 meters (katili, 1970). the study of limestone in the basin of limboto lake is still regionally conducted. characteristics of limestone are only divided into two formations, namely clastic limestone formation (tql) and reef limestone formation (ql). clastic limestone formation (tql) has pliocene-pleistocene age, and consist of calcarenite and calcirudite are usually associated with white coral limestones. these limestones contain fossil fragments of algae and molluscs with varying thickness from 100 200 meters. reef limestone formation (ql) is estimated has holocene age, which consist of the limestone with the main composition as coral fragment (bachri et al., 1997) (diag. 1). 445 permana et al. diagram (1): research location on gorontalo regional geological map and gorontalo regional stratigraphy (bachri et al., 1994). the limitations of detailed limestone geological data in limboto basin encourage researchers to conduct more detailed research especially are related to facies and microfacies and depositional environment. this research is very interesting because it will produce new data and concept from limboto limestone. but, limited data and complex geological conditions will be a challenge in this study. based on this background, there are three research objectives to be achieved, that is to identify the microfacies, paleobathymetry and depositional environment in the yosonegoro area. materials and methods the location of study in the yosonegoro area of gorontalo regency is the northern part of the basin of limboto lake. the geographical position is at coordinates (00o 39 '6.7222" north, 122o 54' 50.0385" east) to (00o 39' 6.9397" north, 122o 54' 57.5275" east). the research material is limestone outcrops reaching a thickness of 24 meters. three research methods were used in this study that are measured section (ms), petrographic analysis and biostratigraphy analysis. the ms method is measuring the detail of the sedimentary layer using a jacobs staff which has a 1.5 meters interval with sequential and systematic lithology sampling (compton, 1985; bukhsianidze et al., 2018). the ms method is carried out to obtain the stratigraphy of the study area based on the different characteristics of each facies. petrographic analysis using the euromex 1053 polarization microscope. there are three 446 analysis of microfacies and depositional environment lithologic samples analyzed by petrography. the studied limestone sample was made with a thin section using the blocking method to impregnate the blue solution into the pore to distinguish the original pore from the rock to the pore during preparation. petrography analysis was performed to determine the type of microfacies of each facies obtained previously from the measured section method (dickson, 1966; crabtree et al., 1984). then, biostratigraphy analysis was done using the olympus sz61 binocular microscope; it is useful to identify the type of benthic foraminifera fossil which aims to determine paleobathymetry (jones, 1994; nichlos, 2009; ghosh and sarkar, 2013; roozpeykar and moghaddam, 2016; oladimeji et al., 2017). results and discussion (a) facies and microfacies the results of measured section at the study area indicated two limestone facies that could be distinguished from physical characteristics in texture, structure and composition (pl. 1, diag. 2). facies a is coralline rudstone facies (embry and klovan, 1971), at the thickness of 0 9 meters, and has the direction of strike/dip: n 130o e/35o sw. this facies has brown color, grain size <0.1 4 mm, abundance of material with size > 2 mm as much as 26%, grain supported packing, and poorly sorted. based on its composition, there is skeletal fragment in the form of coral fragment, then rock fragments and quartz as non-carbonate grain. the stacking pattern of this facies is a thinning upward and thinning to the southwest. based on coarse grain size and grain supported packing, this facies interpreted as be formed by high energy. this pattern of facies sedimentation refers to the position of relative sea level drop (catuneanu et al., 2011) is progradation. this is influenced by larger sediment supply compared to accommodation space. based on petrography analysis, this facies composed of skeletal grain (19% coral fragments, 12% red algae, 10% skeletal altered, 4% foraminifera, 4% sponge), 2% non-skeletal grain (extraclast), 2% non-carbonate grains (iron oxide), 39% micrite and 8% sparit (pl. 2a, b). based on the containing of large bioclast from coral organisms or coral reefs as main composition, this microfacies can be classified as reef rudstone microfacies or smf 6 (wilson, 1975; flugel, 2010). 447 permana et al. plate (1): the sedimentation patterns of two different facies; (a) coralline rudstone facies has a progradation sedimentation pattern, (b) mudstone-packstone intercalation facies has sedimentation pattern initially from progradation to retrogradation. facies b is mudstone-packstone intercession facies (dunham, 1962). this facies develops at the thickness of 9 24 meters with a strike/dip direction: n 130o e/35o sw at the bottom then changes to the strike/dip direction: n 130o e/10o sw. the mudstone has yellowish brown colour, fine grain size <0.1 mm, mud supported packing, and well sorted. based on its composition, there is no allochem in this sample, and only found quartz mineral as a fragment (5%). micrite is very dominant as matrix with abundant of 95% (pl. 2c, d). the stacking pattern of this facies is thickening upward and thinning to the southwest. the packstone has light brown colour, coarse grain size <2 mm, poorly sorted and closed fabric. based on its composition, there are coral and quartz mineral as fragments in this sample. this facies has thinning upward stacking pattern and scouring structure at the upper limit of contact with mudstone. petrography analysis showed for the packstone composed of 4% large benthic foraminifera, 10% peloid, 2% extraclast, 12% quartz as non-carbonate grain, with 68% micrite and 4% sparite as a matrix. some porosity was found in this sample such as interparticle and vuggy porosity with an abundance of 21% (pl. 2e, f). based on the grain size that develop tend to be finer, it is interpreted this facies are formed at a lower energy than the previous facies. the stacking pattern is initially progradation then develops the retrogradation (backstapping occurs) above due to relative sea level rise, which showed the sediment supply is lower than accommodation space. changes in sedimentation 448 analysis of microfacies and depositional environment patterns are supported by changes in the magnitude of the slope of the coating which was initially 35o to be gentler 10o. based on the texture and composition, this facies can be classified into types of pelagic mudstone microfacies (smf 3) and packstone litho-bioclastics microfacies (smf 4) (wilson, 1975; flugel, 2010). the reason is based on the main constituent component of mudstone is micrite which becomes a finer-sized matrix that is formed, so it is appropriate to be included in smf 3. whereas the packstone, has composition of the granules shows strong original sources such as quartz and allochem consisting of large foraminifera, extraclast and peloid, so it is appropriate to be included in smf 4. plate (2): petrography analysis for three samples of thin section, parallel nicol (left) and cross nicol (right); (a, b) coralline rudstone, (c, d) mudstone, (e, f) packstone. (b) paleobathymetry paleobathymetry becomes important data to support the identification of the depositional environments; paleobathymetry can be known from biostratigraphy analysis, especially a 449 permana et al. collection of benthic fossils, with a total of three samples analyzed. benthic fossils in the reef rudstone microfacies represented in 3b sample consisted of cornuspira foliacea (philippi), fijinonion fijiense (cushman and edwards), melonis affinis (reuss), nonion fabum (fichtel and moll) and rhabdammina discreata (brady). the interpretation of the presence of five types of benthic fossils shows paleobathymetry in the middle shelf to upper slope zone at a depth of 73.2 283.65 meters (tipsword et al., 1966; jones, 1994). the benthic fossils in the pelagic mudstone microfacies microbreccia microfacies represented by 3e, 3g, 3h, 3i and 3j samples consisted of fijinonion fijiense (cushman and edwards), gyrodinoides soldanii (d'orbigny), nonion fabum (fichtel & moll), praeglobobulimina ovata (d'orbigny), rhabdammina discreata (brady) and saccorhiza ramosa (brady). the interpretation of the presence of these six types of benthic fossils shows the paleobathimetric changes. sequentially 3e sample paleobathymetry in the outer shelf upper slope zone with a depth of 183-366 meters, 3g sample in the upper slope zone with a depth of 283.65-366 meters, 3h sample in the upper slope lower slope zone with a depth of 283.65-1,830 meters, 3i sample in the upper slope lower slope zone with a depth of 283.651,830 meters, and 3j sample paleobathymetry in the upper slope zone with a depth of 283.65466.65 meters (tipsword et al., 1966; jones, 1994). the sequence of paleobathimetric changes from bottom to top can be seen in diagram (2). 450 analysis of microfacies and depositional environment diagram (2): chart of facies distribution, standard microfacies, depositional environment and paleobathymetry in study area. (c) depositional environment the depositional environment interpretation or facies zone (fz) of the study area was determined from the compilation of smf type and paleobathymetry identification using classification wilson (1975) and flugel (2010). depositional environment for reef rudstone microfacies (smf 6) with paleobathymetry middle shelf upper slope is a slope environment (fz4). 451 permana et al. depositional environment of pelagic mudstone microfacies (smf 3) and packstone lithobioclastics microfacies (smf 4) with paleobathymetry upper slope lower slope is a toe of slope environment (fz 3). the history of settling in the study area was preceded by sedimentation of reef rudstone microfacies in the slope area and then deposited in lower energy a pelagic mudstone microfacies and packstone litho-bioclasctics microfacies in the toe of slope environment (diag. 3). diagram (3): changes in the depositional environment from changes in relative sea level rise; (a) initially deposited by coralline rudstone facies at a depth of 73.2283.65 meters in the slope area (fz 4), (b) a change in relative sea level that was deepened and deposited by mudstone-packstone intercession facies at a depth of 283.65-466.65 meters in the toe of slope area (fz 3). 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(2019) 15 (4): 443-454 , بيئة الترسيبية لصخور الاليمستون في يوسونيكوروتحليل السحنات الدقيقة وال اندونوسيا , منطقة كورونتالو ** ل الديناكم و** ايسباجيو براميوميجو , *بيرمانا نج بانجي آ اندونوسيا, كورونتالو, جامعة نيجري كورونتالو, الجيولوجي الهندسيةقسم * اندونوسيا, ي اكارتايوج, ماداا جامعة جاد, قسم الجيولوجي الهندسية** 92/09/9402: , تأريخ النشر 04/04/9402: , تأريخ القبول 40/40/9402: تأريخ الاستالم الخالصة ركز البحث على . تقع منطقة الدراسة في الجزء الشمالي من حوض بحيرة ملبوتو وتهدف . في منطقة يوسونيكورو , متر 42مكاشف صخور الاليمستون الذي يبلغ سمكه تتكون . والسحنات الدقيقة القياسية وبيئة الترسيب, الدراسة الى ايجاد السحنات وتحليل الطباقية , وتحليل الصخارية, قطعدراسة امل -:طريقة البحث من ثالث طرق هي اعتمادأ على .تتكون سحنات الاليمستون في منطقة يوسونيكورو من سحنتين. الحياتية واملحتوى , ومصدر املكونات الارضية, والنسيج, واللون , واملكونات, التراكيب الرسوبية ليل العمق واظهر تح. قسمت السحنتين الى ثالث سحنات مجهرية مختلفة , العضوي -املنحدر الاعلى الى املنحدر الاعلى -الرف املتوسط القديم ملياه البحر الى التعمق من اظهر التجميع بين السحنات الدقيقة . املنحدر الاسفل بسبب ارتفاع منسوب البحر من بيئة املنحدر الى بيئة الاكثر , القياسية وبين العمق القديم الى تغير في بيئة الترسيب ساعدت نتائج هذة الدراسة الباحثين الى اقتراح اسم تكوين جديد بأسم تكوين . عمقا الى املوقع الجديد والوصف من اسم التكوين السابق وهو , اليمستون ملبوتو استنادا بدال . تكوين الاليمستون الفتاتي bull 541 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum bederrar et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2023) 17(4): 541-548. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2023.17.4.0541 short communication second observation of african crake crecopsis egregia (peters, w, 1854) (gruiformes, rallidae) in algeria fouad bederrar*, noura hadouchi**, abdeslam arab-saïd**, abdelkarim lachichi**, amal belghit**, abdennour ketfi**, moustapha souahlia**, massoud demouche**, leila bougherab**, leila amzel** and abdelwahab chedad***♦ * independent naturalist, 33000, illizi, algeria. ** directorate of forest conservation of illizi. 33000illizi, algeria. *** department of biological sciences, laboratory of saharan bioressources: preservation and valorization, university of ouargla. 30000 ouargla, algeria. directorate of forest conservation of ghardaïa. 47000 ghardaïa, algeria. ♦corresponding author: agrochedad@yahoo.fr recived date: 08 march 2023, accepted date 9 june 2023, published date:20 december 2023 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract on december 6, 2022, a single individual of african crake crecopsis egregia (gruiformes, rallidae) was recovered in the algerian sahara at illizi city. this observation is considered the second in algeria after the first at kerzaz in béni abbès dated november 27, 2020. keywords: algerian sahara, crecopsis egregia, expansion, rallidae, new location. introduction more than two million square kilometers are in the area of algeria with important ecosystem diversity, contributing to its faunistic and floristic biodiversity, which remains unknown in some regions, especially in the great algerian desert (chedad et al., 2020a). the twelve species of rallidae recorded in algeria, eleven of which were reported by isenmann and moali (2000) and samraoui and samraoui (2008) include: water rail rallus aquaticus (linnaeus, 1758), spotted crake porzana porzana (linnaeus, 1758), little crake zapornia parva (scopoli, 1769), common moorhen gallinula chloropus (lichtenstein, mhc, 1818), western swamphen porphyrio porphyrio (linnaeus, 1758), eurasian coot fulica atra linnaeus, 1758, red-knobbed coot fulica cristata vieillot, 1817, baillon's crake zapornia pusilla (pallas, 1776), with doubtful or rare observation: striped crake aenigmatolimnas marginalis (hartlaub, 1857), allen's gallinule porphyrio alleni thomson, 1842 and, corn crake crex crex (linnaeus, 1758). recently, the african crake crecopsis egregia (peters, w, 1854) has been added to the list (haddad et al., 2020). bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799-print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2023.17.4.0541 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8098-1803 mailto:agrochedad@yahoo.fr https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 542 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum second observation of african african crake is classified as least concern in the iucn red list (birdlife international, 2016). this article presents the second sighting report of the african crake in the east of the algerian sahara at illizi city, after the first recording on november 27, 2022, in the west of the algerian sahara at kerzaz, béni abbès, which is located more than 1000 km away from our observation. notes and observation on the morning of december 6, 2022, this bird was found in a not-good state of health because it seemed that he was tired and unable to fly. mr. fouad bederrar discovered it in a school (sebgag mohamed) in illizi city (8°28'53.66" e; 26°31'5.71" n; 569 m a.s.l.) (map 1, pl. 1). the bird looks a little like a chicken, but its plumage is different. the designated authorities were contacted represented by the directorate of forest conservation of illizi to be identified as a species of rallidae, the african crake, and transferred directly to the veterinary services in order to carry out the necessary examinations. the veterinarian examined it , made sure of its safety, provided medication, and in the same day evening , it regained its energy and was released into a green area extending 10 hectares, which has water and diverse vegetation (8°27'31.21"e; 26°28'58.44"n; 557 m a.s.l.), which in turn is 7.6 km away from the mouth of the wastewater discharges (8°23'25.33"e; 26°30'48.04"n; 550 m a.s.l.), which is considered a reservoir for fauna and flora biodiversity (pl. 1). the same place was visited several times, but the bird has not been observed in this area. african crake is a sub-saharan species whose distribution ranges from senegal to kenya and, towards the south, to the north and east of south africa; it avoids the arid zones of the south-west and south africa (taylor, 2020). this species is partly migratory, but its movements are complex and poorly understood (qninba et al., 2020). it seasonally migrates away from the equator in northerly and southerly directions to breed during wet periods (taylor and van perlo, 1998). our observation is the second for algeria, after the first was spotted on november 27, 2020, at more than 1000 km to the west at kerzaz, béni abbès (haddad et al., 2020) (map. 1). this species of rail is a rare vagrant in the western palearctic (haddad et al., 2020). most of the mentions concern birds found weakened or dead, most of them during the winter period (haas, 2017); this was confirmed during the two observations in algeria. in morocco, too, only two observations have been recorded in western sahara (bergier et al., 2011; qninba et al., 2020). in tunisia, there have been no reports on the presence of this rail, as evidenced by isenmann et al., (2005) and azafzaf et al. (2015). desert areas with water and food sources are considered essential stopover sites for migratory birds and important places for wintering and breeding (chedad et al., 2020b, 2022), where in illizi (algerian sahara), this region is considered important in terms of avifaunistic diversity, because three new species have already been recorded there and added to birds list of algeria: striated heron butorides striata (linnaeus, 1758) (durand et al., 2010), red phalarope phalaropus fulicarius (linnaeus, 1758) (hadouchi et al., 2022) and dunn's lark 543 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum bederrar et al. eremalauda dunni (shelley, 1904) (harzallah et al., 2021). in the same area of southeastern algeria, we must also add two other interesting species confirmed by algerian amateur ornithologists: moltoni's warbler curruca subalpina (temminck, 1820) el borma, region of ouargla (haddad and viechec, 2019), little bunting emberiza pusilla pallas, 1776 in touggourt (adamou, 2021), and rüppell's warbler curruca ruppeli (temminck, 1823) in djanet, region of illizi (haddad and afoutni, 2019). an important area that needs to be reminded of and that contains many surprises in the future is the extreme south of algeria. we have already seen several species of birds added to the list of birds discovered in algeria, especially in this area, which has remained unexplored for a long time. until 2019 ornithological trips were started by algerian amateur ornithologists, especially members of the ecocirta association, the national network of algerian ornithologist watchers (r.n.o.o.a.), and the algerian wildlife watchers association. among the species added to the list are: jacobin cuckoo clamator jacobinus (boddaert, 1783) in region of tamanrasset (haddad and afoutni, 2020), blue-naped mousebird urocolius macrourus (linnaeus, 1766), black scrub robin cercotrichas podobe (müller, pls, 1776) in region of tamanrasset before but now in-guezzam (haddad and bekkouche, 2021), african grey woodpecker dendropicos goertae (müller, pls, 1776) in region of tinzaouatine and timiaouine (haddad and afoutni, 2022), white-throated beeeater merops albicollis, cut-throat finch amadina fasciata (gmelin, jf, 1789) and village indigobird vidua chalybeata (müller, pls, 1776) in tamanrasset at in-guezzam (boulaouad et al., 2022). it is also worth noting that the desert areas have experienced an expansion in the nesting of many birds, including the little egret egretta garzette (linnaeus, 1766), squacco heron ardeola ralloides (scopoli, 1769), and black-crowned night heron nycticorax nycticorax (linnaeus, 1758) in ghardaïa (chedad et al., 2022, 2023; bouzid et al., 2023), and barn swallow hirundo rustica linnaeus, 1758 in biskra (farhi et al., 2022). plate (1): african crake crecopsis egregia in illizi, algeria (abdelkarim lachichi, december.6. 2022). 544 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum second observation of african map (1): observation sites for african crake crecopsis egregia in algeria: in red, the first observation by haddad et al. (2020) and, yellow, the second observation in this present study. conclusions recent discoveries in the algerian avifaunistic world should motivate more local naturalists (amateurs and professionals) to continue research. however, the list of birds mentioned is certainly not yet completed, and it is likely that in the future, more new species will be discovered. we strongly believe that new surprises are always present, but the vastness of the country's space and the lack of staff on the ground in some regions leave them unknown. 545 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum bederrar et al. mainly, we encourage all people interested in nature to acquire perseverance, to have a passion for nature, and above all, to contribute to citizen science to improve knowledge and enrich the country's heritage. aknowledgments we thank two reviewers for their comments and suggestions. we also would like to thank the general directorate of forests and the members of the national network of algerian ornithologist watchers (r.n.o.o.a.). the support of the algerian ministry of higher education is acknowledged. conflict of interest statement "the authors have no conflicts of interest to declare". literature cited adamou, n. 2021. première observation du bruant nain emberiza pusilla en algérie [first observation of the little bunting emberiza pusilla in algeria]. alauda, 89: 75. bergier, p., qninba, a. and thévenot, m. 2011. notes naturalistes au sahara atlantique marocain – 3 [naturalistic notes in the moroccan atlantic sahara 3]. go-south bulletin, 8: 67-103. birdlife international, 2016. crex egregia. the iucn red list of threatened species 2016: e.t22692539a93357762. 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(2023) 17(4): 541-548. crecopsis egregia(peters, w, 1854الثانية للمرعة االفريقية ) املشاهدة (gruiformes, rallidae) في الجزائر فؤاد بدرار*، نورا حدوش ي**، عبد السالم عرب سعيد**، عبد الكريم لشيش ي**، أمل بلغيت**، عبد النور كتفي**، مصطفى سواهلية**، مسعود ديموش**، عبد الوهاب شديد*** يلى أمزيل**، وليلى بوغراب**، ل ، إليزي، الجزائر.33000* عالم طبيعة مستقل، إليزي، الجزائر. 33000** مديرية حماية الغابات بإليزي. ، تثمينالظ و املوارد الحيوية الصحراوية: الحف*** قسم العلوم البيولوجية، مخبر 47000ورقلة الجزائر. مديرية حماية الغابات بغرداية. 30000جامعة ورقلة. الجزائر. ،غرداية 20/12/2023، تأريخ النشر: 9/6/2023القبول: ، تأريخ 8/3/2023تأريخ االستالم: الخالصة crecopsisملرعة االفريقيةا، تم العثور على فرد واحد من 2022ديسمبر 06في egregia (gruiformes, rallidae) في الصحراء الجزائرية في مدينة إليزي، وتعتبر هذه نوفمبر 27املالحظة الثانية في الجزائر، بعد األولى في منطقة كرزاز في بني عباس بتاريخ 2020. bull 435 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum youssef et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2023) 17 (3): 435-458. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2023.17.3.0435 original article genus retama raf., 1838 (fabales, fabaceae): taxonomic revision in egypt supported by molecular fingerprinting reham a. youssef, wafaa m. amer* and azza b. hamed department of botany and microbiology, faculty of science, cairo university, giza 12613, egypt. ⃰ corresponding author: wamer@sci.cu.edu.eg recived date: 04 febraury 2023, accepted date 18 march 2023, published date:20 june 2023 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract in egypt, the taxonomic identity of the taxa under genus retama raf., 1838 (fabaceae) is still unclear and its morphological resemblance precludes its identification. the current study aims to resolve the taxonomic identity of the species belonging to genus retama in egypt and clarify the morphological, molecular, and geographic distribution characterised each species. to achieve these goals, the fresh and herbarium retama specimens were used for morphological investigations using 94 macro-morphological characters while the inter simple sequence repeats (issr) markers were used for the molecular identity. this revision revealed the identification of two distinct species namely: retama raetam (forsskk.) webb. and retama monosperma (l.) boiss with five forms under r. raetam (forms 2, 4, 6, 7, and 8). in addition to form 5 from under r. monosperma; the morphological and molecular identities of forms showed variations in the meanwhile it's clustering were congruent. the geographic distribution of the retama taxa in egypt was elucidated. this study highlights the urgent need for retama species conservation, due its vulnerability to climatic change. keywords: flora of egypt, retama monosperma, r. raetam, forms, issr, vulnerable species. introduction globally, fabaceae is among the most prominent families of angiospermae, it includes more than 19500 species grouped into approximately 770 genera (bruneau et al., 2013; abusaief and boasoul, 2021). economically, fabaceae is in the second position to poaceae (mabberley, 1997; yahara et al., 2013). the egyptian flora comprises a unique mixture of native african and asiatic species with over 2079 species (amer, 2008), where fabaceae is represented by 212 species (boulos, 1999). genus retama raf.m 1838 (fabaceae), previously named lygos adanson (gbif secretariat, 2022); spartium l. and retama boiss. (lopez et al., 1998; benmiloudmahieddine et al., 2011), distributed in the western mediterranean region (chiapella et al., bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799-print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2023.17.3.0435 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0083-1619 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0126-6719 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7971-1048 mailto:wamer@sci.cu.edu.eg https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 436 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum genus retama raf., 1838 2009). it comprises four closely related species included in the tribe genisteae, namely r. monosperma (l.) boiss., r. sphaerocarpa boiss., r. raetam webb and berthel., and r. dasycarpa coss. it also contains several subspecies and varieties distributed in north africa and their diversification center is in the western mediterranean basin, canary islands, and southern europe (benmiloud-mahieddine et al., 2011). the morphological resemblance between these four species in this genus obstructs their taxonomical identification (käss and wink, 1997; pardo et al., 2004; león-gonzález et al., 2018). retama species can tolerate severe drought conditions in various ecosystems, including deserts, coastal dunes, and maquis (león-gonzález et al., 2018). in egypt, retama grows in the desert wadis, sandy and maritime plains (boulos, 1999, 2009; amer et al., 2021). economically, retama species are important fodder for livestock and considered as alternative to the conventional forage species in the arid mediterranean ecosystems (barakat et al., 2013). they are used for protection and stabilization against wind or water erosions, irradiation, and overheating (maghrani et al., 2005; morsy et al., 2015). also, they are widely used for construction and ornamental purposes (barakat et al., 2013); and have several medicinal benefits for humans (maghrani et al., 2005; awen et al., 2011; djeddi et al., 2013; muñoz vallés et al., 2013; chouaibi et al., 2019). the taxonomic identity of the taxa grouped under genus retama raf. is still unresolved. several reports have shown divergence such as the following: in algeria, this genus is represented by r. raetam webb, r. spherocarpa (l.) boiss. and r. monosperma (l.) boiss. subsp. bovei (spach.) maire (quezel and santa, 1962); in europe, it represent by three species, according to tutin et al. (1968) are lygos raetam (forssk.) heywood (syn. retama raetam (forssk.) webb & berth.) subsp. gussoniei (webb) heywood, l. spherocarpa (l.) heywood. (syn. retama spherocarpa (l.) boiss.) and l. monosperma (l.) heywood. (syn. retama monosperma (l.) boiss.) or only l. monosperma (l.) heywood. (syn. r. monosperma (l.) boiss. (polunin, 1969). in palestine, zohary (1972) reported the presence of r. raetam (forssk.) webb with two varieties, var. raetam (forssk.) webb and var. sarcocarpa zoh. while, in lebanon and syria, this genus is represented by two species r. raetam (forssk.) webb. and retama duriaei (spach) willd. (mouterde, 1966), and only one species, r. raetam (forssk.) webb was seen in libya (jafri, 1980). the literature data of the previous taxonomic treatment of genus retama in egypt increased its complexity. where täckholm (1974), reported it as lygos adans which represented by lygos raetam (forssk.) heywood (syn. retama raetam (forssk.) webb with two varieties, var. sarcocarpa (zoh.) täckh. et boulos and var. bovei (spach) täckh. et boulos, in addition to three unidentified anonymous varieties in sinai. later, boulos (2009), reported the genus retama raf. inegypt by two species, r. raetam (forssk.) webb & berthel (syn. lygos raetam (forssk.) heywood) and retama monosperma (l.) boiss. subsp. bovei (spach) maire (syn. spartium bovei spach. and retama bovei (spach) webb). the complexity of this genus in egypt also includes some taxa, such as var. bovei, which was treated as a variety under lygos raetam (täckholm, 1974) and a subspecies of r. monosperma by boulos (2009). 437 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum youssef et al. although the genus retama is important in the mediterranean region, several species have recently become vulnerable to climate change, mainly rainfall shortage and temperature increase resulting in the poleward shift of the xeric species. among them, r. raetam, which recently showed distribution, density, and genetic decline; accordingly, it needs urgent conservation (amer et al., 2020; elshayeb, 2020). it is crucial to understand the genetic profile of retama taxa (species/populations/taxa) in egypt to promote future conservation strategies. molecular markers are powerful tools for detecting polymorphism in related species as they are not influenced by developmental stages or environmental factors (helm et al., 2009; karimi et al., 2009). issr molecular markers are among the molecular tools that can distinguish closely related species, even at the interspecies level (zietkiewicz et al., 1994; abdelhameed et al., 2020; amer et al., 2021), and identify the diversity within and among populations (mosaferi et al., 2015; minaeifar et al., 2016; abdelhameed et al., 2020; muraseva and guseva, 2021). the current study aims to resolve the following points concerning genus retama in egypt, naming the number of taxa representing this genus; clarifying the morphological, genetic and geographic features of these taxa. materials and methods plant materials: the fresh retama specimens (63 from 21 populations) and their seeds were collected and examined from the current geographical range in egypt between 2020–2022 (tab. 1) and a distribution map was conducted using the geographic position system. the dry specimens (220 specimens) were kept in the egyptian herbaria at cairo university (cai), national research center (cairc), desert research institute (caih), and agricultural museum (caim) and the online virtual herbaria (royal botanic garden herbarium at kew (k)), jstor global plants database and the global biodiversity information facility database were additionally studied. the acronyms for herbaria follow thiers (2019). fresh samples were preserved in formalin-aceto-alcohol (faa: 50 ml ethyl alcohol, 10 ml formaldehyde, 5 ml glacial acetic acid, and 35 ml distilled water (amer et al., 2021). morphological investigation: morphological investigations were conducted based on 94 macro-morphological characters including stem, leaves, flowers, inflorescences, fruits, and seeds of the fresh and herbarium retama specimens (see appendix 1). the identified retama taxa were based on previous taxonomic treatments (quezel and santa, 1962; tutin et al., 1968; polunin, 1969; zohary, 1972; täckholm, 1974; jafri, 1980; wickens, 1998; boulos, 1999, 2009). molecular investigation: genomic dna was extracted from juvenile leaf samples according to abdelhameed et al. (2020) and purified them using the plant dneasy mini kit (qiagen, santa clarita, ca). twelve issr primers were used and sequenced as listed in table (3). the pcr mixture (25 μl) included 30 ng template dna ( this was applied to triple samples/taxa), 2.5 μl of 10x pcr buffer, 1.5 μl of 25-mm mgcl2, 2.5 μl of the dntps mix, 30 pm of issr primer, and 1 u taq dna polymerase (promega, wi, usa). dna amplification was 438 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum genus retama raf., 1838 performed according to amer et al. (2021) using a thermal cycler (applied biosystems, usa). the pcr cycle consisted of initial denaturation at 94 °c for 5 mins, 40 cycles of denaturation at 94 °c for 2 mins, annealing at 50 °c for 45 secs, extension at 72 °c for 2 mins, and final elongation for 7 mins at 72 °c. the pcr products were separated using 1.5 % agarose gel in 1x tbe buffer and visualized using ethidium bromide. the gels (3 per each studied taxa) were visualized under a uv-transilluminator, documented in gel-doc xr (biorad), and photographed. the amplicon sizes were determined using a 1 kplus dna ladder rtu (genedirex). statistical analysis: the morphological data (expressed as mean ± standard error) were analyzed and plotted using graph pad prism version 8.0.1. one-way analysis of variance was used for all statistical comparisons followed by tukey’s procedure for posthoc analysis. values with p < 0.05 were considered significant. the radar plot was developed using the excel program (microsoft 365). the jaccard’s coefficient was applied using the spss program (version 20 for windows) to estimate the similarity between the studied retama taxa based on the macro-morphological characters. a dendrogram was generated by cluster analysis using the unweighted pair group method of the arithmetic averages (upgma) using past software (version 3.26 for windows). for the molecular part the generated/amplified bands were scored based on the presence (1) and absence (0) of bands using ntsys-pc 2.21 software (rohlf, 2009) and indirect gradient analysis was performed by detrended correspondence analysis (dca) using past software (version 3.26 for windows). results the current revision of genus retama raf. in egypt revealed the presence of two distinct species, retama raetam (forssk.) webb & brantel and retama monosperma (l.) boiss. along with five forms of retama raetam (forssk.) webb (form 2, form 4, form 6, form 7, and form 8). in addition to form 5 of retama monosperma (l.) boiss. the morphology of each form was interdisciplinary and shared the features of one of the two identified species (retama raetam and r. monosperma) with distinct dissimilar characters rendering it consistent with the typical species; accordingly they were treated as forms. the differential morphological traits were tabulated in appendix 1, details description will be followed: morphological features of retama raetam (forssk.) webb & berthel. hist. nat. iles canaries 3(2; 2): 56 (1842) synonyms: genista raetam forssk. in fl. aegypt.-arab.: 214 (1775) lygos raetam (forssk.) heywood in feddes repert. 79: 53 (1968) spartium raetam (forssk.) spach in ann. sci. nat., bot., sér. 2, 19: 288 (1843) perennial, woody spartoid (branched from the base), “nebka-forming shrub = sand-mound forming shrub” up to 3 m in height. stem green-grooved, branches ascending or spreading, young twigs richly branched, sparsely-densely covered with silky hair. leaves 2–8 (-23) × 0.5–3.0 mm, simple, sericeous, deciduous, linear-oblong, entire margin and acute-obtuse apex, petiole 0.25 mm. inflorescence: lax–dense raceme, with 1–7 flowers (up to 15 flowers in the traced egyptian forms). flower papilionate, 8–12 mm, pedicle 1–3 mm. calyx 2–4 × 1.5–3 439 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum youssef et al. mm, green-purple, occasionally with purple spots, up to ⅓ flower length, calyx tube with 2lipped: upper lip with 2 broader triangular teeth and the lower lip with 3 shorter teeth almost equal in length, caducous after anthesis. corolla white occasionally with purplish tips and/or purple spots. standard 8–12 × 5–7 mm, as long as the wings, elliptical with purple main vein, apex retuse, hairy on tips and main vein. wings 8–12 × 1.5–2.5 mm, oblong with obtuse apex, hairy on tips and base, occasionally with spots. keel 8–12 × 3–5 mm, oblong, apex acute, hairy on base, tips, and main vein. stamens 10, monadelphous, connate all below into a closed tube, 6–10 mm, filaments one long and the rest random in length. anthers 5 heart-shaped, apiculate, dorsal fixed, 0.25–0.5 mm, and 5 oval-shaped, terminal fixed, 0.5–1.0 mm. ovary 3–6 × 1–2 mm, elliptical, attenuate on both sides. style 5–7 mm. stigma 0.25 × 0.25 mm, capitate. fruit pod 10–15 × 3–7 mm green indehiscent, glabrous, elliptical attenuates gradually to a short erect peak 0.25–2.0 mm, 1-seeded. fruit pericarp is fleshy, leathery smooth when dry. seeds 4–6 × 3–4 mm, reniform to round, smooth, olive-green to brown (pl. 1a-e). flowering from january to april. distribution mainly in the desert wadis, sandy and gravel plains in egypt. morphological features of retama monosperma (l.) boiss voy, bot. espagne 2: 144 (1840) synonyms: genista monosperma (l.) lam. in encycl. 2: 616 (1788) lygos monosperma (l.) heywood in feddes repert. 79: 53 (1968) spartium gracile salisb. in prodr. stirp. chap. allerton: 329 (1796), nom. superfl. spartium monospermum l. in sp. pl.: 708 (1753) perennial, woody spartoid, up to 3 m in height. stems erect, ascending or spreading, greengrooved, young twigs sparsely-densely with silky hairs. leaves simple, 2–7 × 0.5–1.25 mm, simple, sericeous, deciduous, linear to lyrate, entire margin and acute-obtuse apex, petiole 0.25–0.5 mm. inflorescence lax raceme, with 1–7 flowers (up to 15 flowers in the traced egyptian form). flower papilionate, 7–10 mm, pedicle 0.25–1.5 mm. calyx 2–4 × 1.5–2 mm, purple, up to ⅓ of the flower, 2-lipped: upper lip with 2 broader triangular teeth and the lower lip with 3 shorter teeth equal in length, caducous after anthesis. white corolla, standard 4–6 × 6–8 mm, shorter than the wings, orbicular with purple mid-vein, apex retuse, hairy on tips, and mid-vein. wings 7–10 × 2–3 mm, oblong with obtuse apex, hairy along the main vein, tips, and base. keel 7–10 × 4 mm, oblong, apex obtuse, hairy along mid-vein, tips, and base. stamens 10, monadelphous, connate all below into a closed tube, 7–8 mm, filaments nearly equal in length. anthers 5 heart-shaped, apiculate, dorsal fixed, 0.25–0.5 mm, and 5 ovalshaped, terminal fixed, 0.5–1 mm. ovary 2–3 × 0.5–1 mm, ovate. styles 4–5 mm. stigma 0.25 × 0.25 mm, capitate. fruit pod 10–15 × 7–10 mm, green indehiscent, glabrous, globoid abruptly short-apiculate to erect peak, 1–2 mm, 1 to 2 seeds. the pericarp is leathery smooth and wrinkled when dry. seeds 5–8 × 4–6 mm, reniform to round, smooth, olive-green to brown (pl. 1f-j). flowering from january to june. distributed along the mediterranean coast from sallum in the west to rafah at the palestinian authority borders. 440 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum genus retama raf., 1838 identification key to the traced egyptian retama taxa: 1. standard shorter than wings...………………………………………………….….….…… 2 – standard as long as wings……….……………..………………..…………….…….......... 3 2. fruit elliptical, peak gradually apiculate, seed yellow to orange ……....... r. raetam form 2 – fruit globose, peak abruptly apiculate, seed olive-green to brown…….... r. monosperma 3. fruit length to 1.5 cm, with one seed…………………………………..………………..… 4 – fruit length exceeds 1.5 cm, with 1–2 seeds………………..………......…….………...…5 4. standard elliptical, calyx green-purple……………………………….………..… r. raetam – standard rhombic, calyx purple………………………………..……..…. r. raetam form 4 5. flower length not exceeding 1 cm, seed olive-green to brown …..……...…………..…… 6 – flower length up to 1.5 cm, seed yellow to orange ……………...………………………..7 6. calyx up to ½ flower, standard elliptical……………………….……...... r. raetam form 8 – calyx up to ⅓ flower, standard orbicular………………………….…… r. raetam form 7 7. fruit globose, with inflorescence from 1 to 15 flowers…... ….…... r. monosperma form 5 – fruit elliptical, with inflorescence from 1 to 7 flowers.……….…...…… r. raetam form 6 morphological traits distinguish the retama forms from the identified species r. raetam form 2: this form represents the three typical forms (1, 2 and 3) with standard shorter than the wing and the keel; fruit elliptical, with a gradually apiculate peak. yellow to orange seeds (pl. 2a). diagram 1 (a-f) shows that this form is significantly different from r. raetam in both leaf length and width, standard length and keel length (p = 0.0001), wing length (p = 0.0335). r. raetam form 4: standard as long as the wing and the keel. standard shape rhombic (pl. 2b) keel mid-vein white. fruit length to 1.5 cm with one seed. diagram 1 (b & c), shows that this form is significantly different from r. raetam in leaf width (p = 0.0019) and flower length (p = 0.0001). r.monosperma form 5: standard is as long as the wing and the keel. flower length up to 1.5 cm, with inflorescence from 1–15 flowers (pl. 2c). fruit globose exceeds 1.5 cm in length with 1–2 yellow to orange seeds (pl. 2a). diagram 1 (a–f) shows the significant differences from r. monosperma in leaf length and width, flower, standard, wing and keel lengths (p < 0.0001). r. raetam form 6: standard as long as the wing and the keel. flower up to 1.5 cm (pl. 2d). inflorescence 1–7 flowers. fruit elliptical exceeds 1.5 cm with 1–2 yellow to orange seeds. diagram (1 a, b, d and f) shows that this form is significantly different from r. raetam in leaf length and width (p < 0.0001), as well in standard length and keel length (p = 0.0053, p = 0.0015; respectively). r. raetam form 7: standard as long as the wing and the keel. flower not exceeding 1 cm. calyx up to ⅓ flower (pl. 2e). standard orbicular (pl. 2f). fruit exceeds 1.5 cm with 1–2 olive-green to brown seeds. diagram 1 (a-e) shows that form 7 is significantly different when 441 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum youssef et al. compared with r. raetam in leaf length and width, standard length (p < 0.0001), and wing length (p = 0.0020). r. raetam form 8: standard as long as the wing and keel. flower not exceeding 1 cm. calyx up to ½ flower (pl. 2g). standard elliptical (pl, 2h). fruit exceeds 1.5 cm with 1–2 olive-green to brown seeds. diagram 1 (a, b and f) shows that this form is significantly different from r. raetam in leaf length & width and keel length (p < 0.0001), as well as the standard length (p = 0.0006) and wing length (p = 0.0001) as shown in diagram 1 (d and e). morphological similarity of the identified retama species and forms: diagram (2) shows the upgma dendrogram based on 94 macro-morphological characters. it demonstrates the grouping of the studied retama taxa into two main clusters (i and ii). cluster i included r. monosperma and r. monosperma form 5, and cluster ii included r. raetam and five forms of r. raetam (form 2, form 4, form 6, form 7, and form 8). while the jaccard’s coefficient (tab, 2) was used to estimate the similarity between the studied retama species and the forms based on the 94 macro-morphological characteristics. the similarity value between r. raetam and r. monosperma was 60.4 %. evaluation of the similarity between retama species and the identified forms denoted that the highest similarity (91.6 %) was between r. raetam and r.raetam form 4. also the lowest similarity was between r. monosperma and r. raetam form 6 (49.4 %). diversity in morphological features of the identified retama species and forms: there were notable differences among and between the morphological features of the studied retama taxa such as leaves, flowers, standard, wing, and keel lengths (diag. 1a-f). the comparable features of the standard (diag. 3), verify that r. monosperma had the shortest standard length compared to r. raetam and the identified forms. while r. monosperma form 5 had the widest standard among the rest of the forms, followed by r. raetam form 4 and r. monosperma were nearly equal in standard width. while r. raetam form 8 had the narrowest standard. the wings also showed diversity among the studied taxa. diagram (4) shows that r. monosperma form 5 had the longest wings, while r. raetam form 8 had the shortest wing compared with r. raetam, r. monosperma, and other forms. also, r. monosperma had the widest wing and r. raetam form 7 had the narrowest wing, while r. raetam, r. raetam form 2, r. raetam form 6 and r. raetam form 8 were equal in wing width. the molecular identity of the identified retama species and forms: the issr marker analysis using 12 primers produced a total of 152 bands, of which 85 bands are polymorphic and 37 are monomorphic (tab. 3). the band sizes varied between 150 and 2500 bp. the highest matching primers were primers 10 and 14 with 20 bands/each, followed by primers 13 and 19. further, the lowest number of bands (8 bands/each primer) was obtained with primers 6, 9, and 20. primer 13 produced bands (13 bands) showing the highest polymorphism (81.3 %). primer 19 produced more number of unique bands (7 bands) with r. monosperma and forms (4, 6, and 8). 442 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum genus retama raf., 1838 retama monosperma was distinguished by five unique bands at 900, 1400, 500, 1250 & 1400 bp with primers 9, 10, 14, and 19; respectively. while, r. raetam could be distinguished from r. monosperma by 2 unique bands at 450 bp (primer 9) and at 360 bp (primer 10). r. raetam form 2 was distinguished by two unique bands with primers 10 and 20 at 180 and 220 bp, respectively, and an absent band with primer 5 at 200 bp. the two closely related forms, r. raetam form 7 and r. raetam form 8, could be distinguished using primer 14 (unique bands at 2500 and 490 bp, respectively). primer 20 could distinguish between the r. monosperma form 5 and r. raetam form 6 (two bands at 400 and 450 bp were absent and one band at 150 bp was unique, respectively). similarly, primers 5, 6, 10, 13, and 19 produced eight unique bands for r. raetam form 4 (tab. 3). molecular grouping of the identified retama taxa based on issr data: the dca plot (diag. 5) based on the issr markers data revealed that the identified retama species and forms could be grouped into two main clusters (i and ii). cluster i included r. monosperma and r. monosperma form 5; while cluster ii included r. raetam and its forms 2,4,6,7 and 8. this grouping is congruent with the grouping derived from the macro-morphological characters (diagram 2). geographic distribution of the identified taxa in egypt: this revision revealed that retama raetam was distributed in all the phytogeographic regions in egypt, mainly in the desert wadis, sandy and gravel plains. contrastingly, r. monosperma was distributed along the mediterranean coast from sallum in the west to rafah at the palestinian authority border & the red sea coast and close to the salt-affected littoral plains. the identified forms were basically from south sinai with a westward extension to the northern part of the eastern desert (map 1). discussion the confusion regarding the taxonomy of the retama raf. species is not only based on its generic characters (lopez et al., 1998) but also closely related to phenology (león-gonzález et al., 2018) and the presence of several varieties (benmiloud-mahieddine et al., 2011). this confusion extends to the species description reported previously and the authors noticed misalignments in several points, which will be clarified in this part. retama raetam (forssk.) webb & branthl: the current revision of the retama taxa in egypt revealed the identification of two species and five forms. the first species was r. raetam (forssk.) webb, which was characterized by linear-oblong leaves, is consistent with previous reports (zohary, 1972; jafri, 1980). however, these reports mentioned larger leaf dimensions (5–20 × 3–8 mm) while the studied specimens showed smaller dimensions (2–8 (23) × 0.5–3 mm). this reduction in leaf size might be due to the arid environment of the egyptian desert (barakat et al., 2013; amer et al., 2021). while the specimens we examined exhibited lax–dense inflorescence with 1–7 flowers (pl. 1e), previous studies only reported 1– 5 (zohary, 1972; jafri, 1980; boulos, 1999). these authors also reported longer flower length (15 mm) which did not exceed 12 mm in the current study (pl. 1a). the calyx color has also been debatable among authors. for instance, reports have shown purple (zohary, 1972; jafri, 443 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum youssef et al. 1980) and reddish calyx (mouterde, 1966) while this work reported a greenish-purple calyx (pl. 1a). the standard elliptic, as long as wings (pl. 1a) with standard length as reported previously (mouterde, 1966; zohary, 1972; täckholm, 1974; jafri, 1980; boulos, 1999). while the shape varies, it was obovate-orbicular (zohary, 1972; jafri, 1980); rhombic-ovate (webb, 1853); ovate-oblong (tutin et al., 1968). the fruit length was 10–15 mm (pl. 1c), while previous reports showed 20 mm (tutin et al., 1968; zohary, 1972; jafri, 1980; boulos, 1999). authors have attributed the smaller fruit size to the aridity in egypt (amer et al., 2021). the observed one-seeded, indehiscent pods were consistent with boulos (1999) and täckholm (1974). fruits were elliptical (pl. 1b, c) consistent with webb (1853) while relevant shapes were also mentioned as ovoid-oblong (zohary, 1972; jafri, 1980;), and ovoid (mouterde, 1966); oblongovate -webb and berthelot, 1836) and obovate-ellipsoid (tutin et al., 1968). the fruit attenuated gradually to an erect peak (pl.1b, c), allied with zohary (1972) and jafri (1980). in contrast, the oblique-peak shape described by mouterde (1966) did not observe. fruit pericarp is fleshy, leathery smooth when dry (pl.1b, c), similar to jafri (1980) and zohary (1972). the same authors supported the observed seed color (olive-green to brown; pl. 1d), as well as boulos (1999). the seed was black (webb, 1853; täckholm, 1974). chiapella et al. (2009) reported that retama raetam (forssk.) webb subsp. raetam is a saharo-arabian taxon, distributed in north africa, syria, israel, lebanon, and the arabian peninsula. retama monosperma (l.) boiss.: the second species, was r. monosperma (l.) boiss., the shrub height was up to 3 m, consistent with tutin et al. (1968); polunin (1969); boulos (1999); it reached 4 m (quezel and santa, 1962) or up to 4.5 m (muñoz vallés et al., 2013). the inflorescence was lax raceme with 1–7 flower/inflorescence (pl. 1j), and it is consistent with tutin et al. (1968) and muñoz vallés et al. (2013). while non-parallel data (10–26 flowers/inflorescence) was reported by the later. the flower length was 7–10 mm (pl. 1f), similar to tutin et al. (1968) and muñoz vallés et al. (2013). while previous studies showed larger flower, it reached 15 mm (polunin, 1969) and 15–17 mm (täckholm, 1974; boulos, 1999). the flowers had purple-colored calyx (pl. 1f), it appears similar to the reddish calyx reported by muñoz vallés et al. (2013). the notable characteristics of retama monosperma were: (1) the shorter standard compared to wings (pl. 1f), which has been previously verified (quezel and santa, 1962; täckholm, 1974; boulos, 1999). the detected standard was orbicular while tutin et al., (1968) described it as rhombic-ovate. (2) the globoid fruit (pl. 1g, h) was consistent with previous reports (polunin, 1969; täckholm, 1974; muñoz vallés, 2013). (3) the fruit was 1–2 seeded, abruptly attenuated to a short-apiculate peak (pl. 1g) as shown by muñoz vallés et al. (2013) while the fruit pericarp was wrinkled (pl. 1h), consistent with that shown by barkerwebb and berthelot (1836) in both r. raetam and r. monosperma fruits. 444 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum genus retama raf., 1838 the identified species and forms vs. the taxa reported by täckholm (1974): täckholm (1974) mentioned the presence of lygos raetam (forssk.) heywood var. sarcocarpa (zoh.) täckh.et boulos (syn. r. raetam subsp. gussonei (webb) greuter) in egypt. some of the identified forms (r. raetam form 2, r. raetam form 4, r. raetam form 8) have characters similar to subsp. gussonei, such as diffusely deflexed-branching with silky-silvery indumentum (zohary, 1972) and the fleshy fruit pericarp (täckholm, 1974). the dehiscent ellipsoidal-ovoid pod distinguishes subsp. gussonei (zohary, 1972), this inconsistent trait did not fit into any of the identified forms, where all forms possess indehiscent elliptical-globoid pods. r. monosperma form 5 that have yellow seeds (pl. 2a), and wrinkled fruit pericarp was similar in color to subsp. gussonei (zohary, 1972; täckholm, 1974). while, the presence of an indehiscent pod and the inflorescence with 15 flowers in r. monosperma form 5 hampered the fitting it with subsp. gussonei. in addition, chiapella et al. (2009) restricted the presence of subsp. gussonei to italy on the ionian coast of calabria and southern sicily. täckholm (1974) was expected the presence of at least three nameless varieties in south sinai. this revision identified four forms (form 2, form 6, form 7, and form 8) from south sinai, its seed length was 7–8 mm and the fruits were green, unlike three nameless varieties given by täckholm (1974). she reported that the seeds ~ 6 mm and black to dirty-yellow fruit or seeds: ~ 3 mm with white hilum. therefore, all the varieties expected by täckholm (1974) were not consistent with the observations retrieved in the current work. the identified forms vs. retama monosperma subsp. bovei recorded in egypt by boulos (1999): retama monosperma (l.) boiss. subsp. bovei (spach) maire (syn. r. bovei (spach) webb), found in egypt, were characterized by flowers ranging from 15–17 mm, standard shorter than wings, pod obovoid and seeds reddish-brown or olive-green. the identified r. monosperma form 5 has a globular pod exceeding 15 mm and a yellow-orange seed, unlike that of subsp. bovei (boulos, 1999). additionally, r. monosperma form 5 lacking the pulvinus-branches base characterized the subsp. bovei (webb, 1853). moreover, subsp. bovei is endemic to algeria and morocco (benmiloud-mahieddine et al., 2011). the morphological and molecular similarity of the identified retama taxa: the upgma dendrogram based on the macro-morphological characters grouped the retama taxa into two main clusters (i & ii). cluster i included r. monosperma and r. monosperma form 5, and cluster ii included r. raetam and r. raetam forms (2, 4, 6, 7, and 8; diagram 2). the similarity value between r. raetam and r. monosperma was 60.4 % while the similarity values between the r. raetam & forms were between 64.8 % to 91.6 % (tab. 2). the morphological similarities among the retama taxa (species and forms) might be attributed to similarities in chromosome numbers. this postulation, based on the karyotype analysis of the r. monosperma (4 populations) and r. raetam (17 populations) from algeria, showed that the chromosome number was the same (2n = 48) (benmiloud-mahieddine et al., 2011). 445 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum youssef et al. the dca plot based on issr markers (diag. 5), showed congruent clustering whereas r. monosperma and its form 5 and r. raetam as well as its forms were grouped in different clusters. the molecular grouping was consistent with the morphological grouping (diag. 2) and might be attributed to the difference in the b chromosome, as reported by chiapella et al. (2009) who revealed that the chromosome number in retama taxa was 2n = 48 with up to 6 copies of the b chromosomes. for instance, r. monosperma from portugal (2n = 48) and spain (2n = 48 + 4b). r. monosperma var. webbii from different regions in morocco were 2n = 48 + 4b and 48 + 6b; while r. raetam subsp. raetam from algeria, libya, israel, and algeria was 2n = 24, 48, 48 + 3b, and 48 + 3b, respectively. the subsp. gussonei populations from different regions in italy had different numbers (2n = 48, 48 + 4b & 48 + 6b). benmiloud-mahieddine et al. (2011), clarify the significance of infraspecific variation in chromosome numbers when correlated with the geographic distribution of the studied retama populations, and the identified forms might be newly adapted populations, consistent with amer et al. (2021) who reported that a recent increase in aridity induced molecular variations in r. raetam populations and the pressure of grazing increased the use of these shrubs as fodder in these areas (barakat et al., 2013). also, stebbins (1971) claimed that polyploids are better adapted to extreme conditions than their diploid progenitors. map (1): distribution pattern of retama species and forms in egypt. 446 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum genus retama raf., 1838 plate (1): characteristic morphological features of retama raetam and r. monosperma; (a–e.) represent r. raetam, (a) flower showing standard as long as wings, (b) elliptic fruit and gradually apiculate peak, (c) dry one-seeded fruit with leathery smooth pericarp, d: olive green and brown seeds, and e: dense inflorescence; (f-j) represent r. monosperma, (f) flower showing standard shorter than wings, (g) globose fruit and abruptly apiculate peak, (h) dry two seeded fruit with wrinkled pericarp, (i) olive green and brown seeds, and (j) lax inflorescence. 447 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum youssef et al. plate (2): characteristic morphological features of the identified forms; (a) yellow and orange seed in r. raetam form 2 and r. monosperma form 5, (b) rhombic standard in r. raetam form 4, (c) lax inflorescence with 15 flowered in r. monosperma form 5, (d) flower length up to 1.5 cm in r. raetam form 6, (e) calyx ⅓ flower length in r. raetam form 7, (f) orbicular standard in r. raetam form 7, (g) calyx ½ flower length in r. raetam form 8, and (h) elliptical standard r. raetam form 8. 448 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum genus retama raf., 1838 diagram (1): histograms of different morphological characters between retama raetam (rr), retama monosperma (rm), and the identified forms (rr forms 2, 4,6,7,8 & rm form 5). *: a significant difference. (a) *: p = 0.0183; (b) **: p < 0.0019; (c) **: p = 0.0023 & ***: p < 0.0006; (d) **: p = 0.0053, ***: p = 0.0006; (e) *: p < 0.0335, **: p < 0.0020, ***: p < 0.0001; (f) **: p = 0.0015; ****: p < 0.0001 & ns: non-significant. 449 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum youssef et al. diagram (2): upgma dendrogram of the identified r. raetam (rr), retama monosperma (rm), and the identified forms (rr forms 2, 4,6,7,8 & rm form 5), based on macro-morphological characters using the jaccard similarity matrix. diagram (3): diversity in standard length and width of r. raetam (rr), retama monosperma (rm), and the identified forms (rr forms 2, 4,6,7,8 & rm form 5), by rader plot. 450 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum genus retama raf., 1838 diagram (4): diversity in wing length and width of r. raetam (rr), retama monosperma (rm), and the identified forms (rr forms 2, 4,6,7,8 & rm form 5), by rader plot. diagram (5): detrended correspondence analysis (dca) based on the issr markers data of the studied taxa. 451 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum youssef et al. table (1): localities of the collected fresh populations (used for taxonomic and molecular investigations) and their gps coordinates arranged from south to north. locality location latitude (n) longitude (e) 1. wadi nasb, south sinai 28° 27’ 30.6” 34° 4’ 26.292” 2. wadi nasb, south sinai 28° 28’ 4.008” 34° 5’ 58.308” 3. wadi nasb, south sinai 28° 28’ 53.868” 34° 6’ 30.708” 4. wadi nasb, south sinai 28° 29’ 13.632” 34° 6’ 55.98” 5. wadi nasb, south sinai 28° 29’ 42.432” 34° 0’ 5.688” 6. saint catherine, south sinai 28° 33’ 18.144” 33° 56’ 48.3” 7. saint catherine, south sinai 28° 33’ 34.164” 33° 55’ 2.28” 8. saint catherine, south sinai 28° 33’ 34.632” 33° 56’ 51.395” 9. abo sela, south sinai 28° 35’ 21.264” 33° 55’ 44.939” 10. abo sela, south sinai 28° 35’ 36.384” 33° 55’ 30.251” 11. el sheikh awad, south sinai 28° 38’ 23.208” 33° 53’ 23.064” 12. el sheikh awad, south sinai 28° 38’ 55.464” 33° 53’ 22.2” 13. el sheikh awad, south sinai 28° 39’ 4.392” 33° 53’ 54.347” 14. eltarfa, south sinai 28° 41’ 40.164” 33° 56’ 35.16” 15. eltarfa, south sinai 28° 41’ 49.164” 33° 57’ 39.636” 16. wadi hagoul, cairo-suez road 29° 51’ 04.4” 32° 16’ 06.8” 17. wadi hagoul, cairo-suez road 29° 53’ 11.3” 32° 14’ 12” 18. wadi hagoul, cairo-suez road 29° 58’ 08.3’ 32° 08’ 13.1” 19. western mediterranean coast, omyed 30° 49’ 41.7” 29° 12’ 15.4” 20. western mediterranean coast 24 km to matrouh 30° 49’ 41.7” 29° 12’ 15.5” 22.western mediterranean coast, marakia 30° 55’ 54” 29° 28’ 40.3” 452 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum genus retama raf., 1838 table (2): jaccard’s similarity coefficient between the studied retama species and forms based on macro-morphological characters. taxa jaccard’s similarity coefficient r. monosperma r. raetam form 2 r. raetam r. raetam form 4 r. monosper ma form 5 r. raetam form 6 r. raetam form 7 r. raetam form 8 r. monosperma 100 r. raetam form 2 67.1 100 r. raetam 60.4 75.3 100 r. raetam form 4 65.2 72.4 91.6 100 r. monosperma form 5 67.1 55.2 67.4 68.6 100 r. raetam form 6 49.4 65.9 71.8 76.8 67.9 100 r. raetam form 7 68.3 74.1 64.8 65.9 65.9 67.1 100 r. raetam form 8 70.2 71.8 71.4 72.2 64.0 71.1 86.1 100 table (3): polymorphism percentages and characteristic bands detected using issr marker analysis for the retama species and forms; test was applied to triple for species and forms. issr primers number of bands number of total amplified bands % p o ly m o r p h ism unique bands between bracts m o n o m o r p h ic p o ly m o r p h ic t o ta l & (u n iq u e ) b a n d s r . m o n o sp e rm a r . ra eta m f o rm 2 r . ra eta m r . ra eta m f o r m 4 r . m o n o sp e rm a f o rm 5 r . ra eta m f o r m 6 r . ra eta m f o r m 7 r . ra eta m f o r m 8 primer 3 5`-acacacacacacacacyt-3` 3 9 12 (0) 7 (0) 8 (0) 8 (0) 6 (0) 9 (0) 7 (0) 8 (0) 8 (0) 75 % primer 5 5`-gtgtgtgtgtgtgtgtyg-3` 1 7 11 (3) 4 (0) 3 (0) 4 (0) 8 (3) 7 (0) 8 (0) 8 (0) 7 (0) 63.64 % primer 6 5`-cgcgatagatagatagata-3` 2 4 8 (2) 3 (0) 3 (0) 4 (0) 8 (2) 5 (0) 5 (0) 5 (0) 5 (0) 50 % 453 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum youssef et al. conclusions the current revision was conducted to resolve the morphological diversity and addressed the nomenclature debates regarding the genus retama raf. in egypt. we identified two distinct species, r. raetam (forssk.) webb and r. monosperma (l.) boiss. along with five forms of retama raetam (forssk.) webb & berthel. (form 2, form 4, form 6, form 7, and form 8). in addition to form 5 of retama monosperma (l.) boiss. these forms showed significant differences in both morphological characteristics and genetic identity. each of the identified forms showed inconsistent characteristics with its related species (raetam or monosperma). the results revealed that most of the forms were located in south sinai, this may highlights the influence of geographic and climatic factors on taxa features and taxonomic identity. further molecular investigations were highly recommended to resolve the taxonomic identity of the identified forms in genus retama. conflict of interest statement "the authors have no conflicts of interest to declare". primer 9 5`-gatagatagatagatagc-3` 2 4 8 (2) 3 (1) 6 (0) 6 (1) 6 (0) 5 (0) 5 (0) 5 (0) 5 (0) 50 % primer 10 5`-gacagacagacagacaat-3` 2 12 20 (6) 9 (1) 8 (1) 9 (1) 11 (1) 6 (1) 10 (0) 11 (1) 3 (0) 60 % primer 11 5`-acacacacacacacacya-3` 3 8 13 (2) 9 (0) 9 (0) 6 (0) 4 (0) 7 (0) 5 (2) 10 (0) 10 (0) 61.5 % primer 13 5`-agagagagagagagagyt-3` 2 13 16 (1) 8 (0) 7 (0) 6 (0) 12 (1) 11 (0) 11 (0) 3 (0) 2 (0) 81.3 % primer 14 5`-ctcctcctcctcctctt-3` 8 9 20 (3) 10 (1) 16 (0) 14 (0) 14 (0) 14 (0) 15 (0) 16 (1) 17 (1) 45 % primer 16 5`-tctctctctctctctca-3` 8 1 10 (1) 8 (0) 9 (0) 9 (0) 9 (0) 9 (0) 9 (0) 10 (1) 9 (0) 10 % primer 18 5`-hvhcacacacacacacat-3` 3 8 12 (1) 5 (0) 4 (0) 3 (0) 5 (0) 10 (0) 11 (0) 10 (0) 11 (1) 66.7 % primer 19 5`-hvhtcctcctcctcctcc-3` 1 6 14 (7) 8 (2) 6 (0) 4 (0) 6 (1) 1 (0) 4 (1) 1 (0) 8 (3) 42.9 % primer 20 5`-hvhtgtgtgtgtgtgtgt-3` 2 4 8 (2) 5 (0) 5 (1) 4 (0) 4 (0) 2 (0) 5 (1) 6 (0) 6 (0) 50 % total 37 85 152 (30) 79 (5) 84 (2) 77 (2) 93 (8) 86 (1) 95 (4) 93 (3) 91 (5) 454 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum genus retama raf., 1838 literature cited abdelhameed, a., amer, m. w., hassan, w. and aboellil, a. 2020. auto-taxonomy of brassica tournefortii gouan. 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[crossref] zohary, m. 1972. flora palaestina (platanaceae-umbelliferae). the israel academy of sciences and humanities, jerusalem, p. 47-48. https://sweetgum.nybg.org/science/ih/ https://doi.org/10.12705/622.12 https://doi.org/10.1006/geno.1994.1151 458 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum genus retama raf., 1838 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2023) 17 (3): 435-458. في مصر مدعوما بالبصمة الجزيئية retama raf., 1838مراجعة تصنيفية لجنس ريهام يوسف، وفاء محروس عامر و عزة حامد ، 12613قسم علوم النبات و االحياء املجهرية، كلية العلوم، جامعة القاهرة، الجيزة مصر. 20/6/2023 ، تأريخ النشر:18/3/2023القبول: ، تأريخ 4/2/2023تأريخ االستالم: الخالصة العائلة من retama raf., 1838تحت جنس وفاتفي مصر، الهوية التصنيفية لألصن تحديد هويته الخارجي يجعلال يزال غير واضح وتشابهه الشكل ((fabaceaeالبقولية بمصر وذلك فيما يتعلق هذا الجنسالدراسة الحالية إلى مراجعة تهدف. أمرا صعبا هذا ىية ووراثية وجغرافية. وللوصول الملوجودة وما يميزها من صفات شكلباألنواع ا لقد أجرينا املراجعة . واملعشبية ريةالط retama جنس عينات ال تاستخدم ،الهدف سمة شكلية ودرسنا الهوية الجزيئية باستخدام عالمات تكرار 94املظهرية باستخدام retama ديد نوعين متميزين هماالتسلسل البسيط و كشفت هذه املراجعة عن تح raetam (forsskk.) webb و retama monosperma (l.) boiss إلى جانب خمسة ، النموذج 6، النموذج 4، النموذج 2النموذج ) retama raetam اصنوفة أشكال تحت وقد أظهرت . r. monospermaمن تحت 5باإلضافة إلى النموذج (. 8، والنموذج 7 الهوية املظهرية والجزيئية لهذه األشكال اختالفات كبيرة في نفس الوقت كونت وتسلط . تم توضيح التوزيع الجغرافي لألصناف في مصر. مجموعات إحصائية متطابقة هو من األنواع املهمة، معرضة للتأثر سلبا retamaهذه الدراسة الضوء أيًضا على أن . طلب برامج صون عاجلة بالتغير املناخي وتت 283 najim and al-fayyadh bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2021) 16 (3): 283-290. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2021.16.3.0283 first record of opilio kakunini snegovaya, cokendolpher & mozaffarian, 2018 (arachnida, opiliones, phalangiidae) from iraq shurooq abdullah najim*♦ and mustafa jawad al-fayyadh** *natural history museum, basrah university, basrah, iraq. **agriculture college, sumer university, dhiqar, iraq. ♦corresponding author: shurooq.najim@uobasrah.edu.iq received date: 06 january 2021, accepted date: 20 march 2021, published date: 20 jun 2021 abstract the species of opilio kakunini snegovaya, cokendolpher & mozaffarian, 2018 was recorded for the first time in iraq; as well as to four species belonging to this order which were recorded previously. in this paper, we added a new species to the checklist of iraqi opilionid fauna with a description of the most important characteristics, along with genitalia, for both males and females are presented with digital photographs. specimens of males and females were collected from alrifai district northern of dhi-qar province, southern of iraq. keywords: dhi-qar, first record, iraq, opiliones, opilio kakunini, phalangiidae. introduction the order opiliones or harvestmen is a major group of arachnids and contains 6,600 described species in 50 families worldwide (kury, 2013).the order is divided into four suborders: cyphophthalmi, eupnoi, dyspnoi and laniatores. the suborder eupnoi is divided into two superfamilies, the phalangioidea which includes the long-legged forms, and caddoidea a small group easily recognized by their huge eyes and spiny pedipalps (cokendolpher et al., 2007). the members of family phalangiidae latreille, 1802 are characterized by a soft body and relatively long legs, the tarsus of pedipalp is longer than the tibia, the claw is smooth, not toothed, palps and chelicerae clearly visible from above, the ovipositor is long and multisegmented, operculum flexible, the penis is shaft-like with a distinct glans held at an angle with the corpus, second leg usually longest, leg coxae without denticles (cokendolpher and holmberg, 2018). the genus of opilio herbst, 1798 which belongs to subfamily opilioninae, is diagnosed by the dorsum providing with small sharp denticles, mandibles short, coxae with brown spots https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2021.16.3.0283 284 first record of opilio kakunini ventrally, operculum genitalia with enlarged rounded top (walker,1928). the opilionid fauna is poorly known in iraq; according to staręga (1970, 1973), there were four species only have been recorded: rilaena gruberi staręga, 1973; rilaena hyrcana (thorell, 1876); opilio coxipunctus (sørenson, 1912) and dicranolasma kurdistanum staręga, 1970. the present study provides new data on the opilionid fauna of this region. opilio kakunini, reported for the first time in iraq. digital images of both male and female habitus, genitalia and brief comments are provided regarding the identification of opilio species in iraq. materials and methods the study was conducted at al-refai district, dhi-qar province, southern iraq (map 1), coordinates 46º10'03.383''e; 31º38'12.334''n, during the period from 30 january to 30 july 2020. the individuals were collected by hand during the night time. all the specimens were found on tree trunks, among the grasses or under the debris. then, they preserved in 80% ethanol and deposited in natural history museum, basrah university under the museum number (4 a, b).the specimens were studied and photographed using an amscope md200 camera installed on amscope binocular dissecting microscope. the identification was done according to hillyard and sankey (1990) for identifying the genus, whereas the species was identified according to snegovaya et al. (2018). map (1): site of collection region. 285 najim and al-fayyadh results and discussion morphological description male (pl. 1 a-i) coloration: yellowish brown, dorsum furnished with transverse rows of denticles, body oval shaped 4.6mm length and 2.7 mm width (pl.1a). ocularium: low with two rows of 5-6 black black-tipped denticles (pl.1e).chelicerae: basal segment1.4mm length with blacktipped denticles and setae dorsally, distal segment 1.8 mm length with small denticles and setae dorsally and few small spines laterally (pl.1c, d).pedipalp:4.8 mm length, coxa of pedipalp with few setae and one blacktipped tubercle ventrally (pl.2a). femur with setae and blacktipped denticles dorsally (pl. 2b). patella with denticles and setae dorsally (pl. 2c). tibia with small denticles ventrally (pl.2d); tarsus with a rows of setae dorsally and microdenticles ventrally (pl. 2e); claw smooth without pectination. pedipalp measurements: coxa 0.6mm, femur 1.2mm, patella o.4mm, tibia 0.8mm, tarsus 1.6mm, claw 0.2mm.legs: long, yellowishbrown, ventral side of coxae with a dark spot. femur i cylindrical furnished with large blacktipped denticles (pl.1b). legs length measurements: first leg 18.5 mm length, second leg 38.0mm length, third leg 23.0mm length, fourth leg 30.0 mm lengths. penis:(pl.1f-i) medium-size, length (2.7 mm); glans long, pear-shaped,0.4 mm length (pl.1hi), wings oval shape, corpus widened in the basal third then tapers to the glans, stylus 0.2mm length. plate (1): male of opilio kakunini; (a)male body, dorsal view,(b) first femur, (c) left chelicera, prolateral view, (d) left chelicera, retrolateral view, (e) ocularium, dorsal, (f) penis, dorsal view,(g) penis, lateral view,(h) glans, dorsal view, (i) glans, lateral view from right. 286 first record of opilio kakunini female (pl.3 a-i): body oval shaped; length (6.2 mm), width (3.8mm), with transverse rows of small denticles on abdomen dorsally (pl.3a-b). chelicerae: yellow with setae dorsally, basal segment 1.2mm length, distal segment 1.6mm length (pl.3e-f). genital operculum as in plate (3g).ovipositor long and segmented (pl.3c-d), seminal receptacle with1.6 mm in length. female resembles the male except differences in size and coloration. female is larger than male, coloration is darker, armature of pedipalp much reduced, tarsus ventrally without microdenticles, and chelicerae without denticles. materials examined: 13♂♂, 21♀♀, the date of specimens collection and data of environmental conditions were described in table (1). plate (2): male pedipalp of opilio kakunini; (a) coxa, (b) femur, (c) patella, (d) tibia, (e) tarsus with claw. 287 najim and al-fayyadh table (1): number of individuals, specimens' collection date and environmental conditions. no. of individuals date of collection maximum temperature (°c) minimum temperature (°c) relative humidity % 1♂, 1♀ 30.i.2020 20.5 8.0 65 1♂, 1♀ 31.i.2020 22.1 7.0 54 1♂, 2♀ 08.ii.2020 20.0 9.0 40 2♀ 16.ii.2020 22.5 10.0 43 2♂, 3♀ 25.ii.2020 25.8 16.0 82 1♂, 2♀ 29.ii.2020 25.0 12.0 52 1♀ 04.iii.2020 24.0 11.5 42 1♂, 1♀ 05.iii.2020 25.0 11.0 43 1♀ 13-iii.2020 29.0 19.0 35 1♂, 2♀ 15.iii.2020 26.0 17.0 45 2♂, 1♀ 01.iv.2020 31.0 18.0 29 1♀ 08.iv.2020 34.0 19.0 41 1♂ 29.iv.2020 30.0 23.0 31 1♂ 02.v.2020 38.0 20.0 17 1♂ 18.v.2020 35.0 21.0 27 1♀ 30.v.2020 37.0 23.0 29 1♀ 03.vi.2020 42.0 26.0 15 1♀ 28.vii.2020 44.0 27.0 10 plate (3): female of opilio kakunini; (a) body, dorsal view,(b)body, lateral view, (c) distal end of ovipositor, (d) ovipositor, (e) chelicera, retrolateral view, (f) chelicera, prolateral view,(g) genital operculum, (h) left pedipalp, prolateral view, (i) left pedipalp, retrolateral view. 288 first record of opilio kakunini habitat individuals were collected from an agricultural field in sayed atta village and al-rifai district, north of dhi-qar province. the area of the field is equal to 17500m2. it is bounded on one side by a fish lake and on the other side alnadhimiyah stream, one of the branches of al-gharraf river, which is 9 km away from the collection region. the field is planted with fodder crops such as alfalfa and jet in addition to trees as species of ziziphus and date palms. the specimens were found under the debris or have seen walking among the grasses or near the palm roots. all the specimens were observed active at night. comment the species opilio kakunini was first recorded by snegovaya et al. (2018) in iran, which shares common border with iraq. o. kakunini is similar to o. parietinus; o. lederi roewer, 1911; and o. arborphilus snegovaya, 2010 morphologically, although it differs from all these species by the size, armature of chelicerae, pedipalps and the shape of the penis (snegovaya, 2016). key to the identification of genera (family, phalangiidae) that recorded from iraq: 1palpi femur mostly with ventral denticles or even thorns, patella and tibia with long apophysis apically, glans banana-shaped, coxa of leg without spots ventrally………………………………………………...……….….. rilaena šilhavý, 1965 palpi femur without ventral denticles, no long apophysis on patella and tibia, glans shape different, coxa of leg with brown spots ventrally................................... opilio herbst, 1798 key to identify the species of opilio in iraq: 1body quadrangular shape; penis corpus straight with little expansion at base; glans oval shape, with wide wing...................................................... o. coxipunctus (sørenson, 1912) body oval shape; corpus widened in the basal third then tapers to the glans; glans nearly pear shaped........................... o. kakunini snegovaya, cokendolpher & mozaffarian, 2018 the study of harvestmen in iraq is thus far limited and according to a published data, only four species belong to family phalangiidae, that have been recorded in this country (staręga1970 and 1973). the recording of o. kakunini in iraq extends the checklist of harvestmen species in the country to five species. the current iraqi fauna of harvestmen is far from being complete and more effort is needed to establish a comprehensive checklist of opilio fauna in this region. acknowldgments we are so grateful to dr. nataly snegovaya from azerbaijan national academy of science, for providing scientific advice. 289 najim and al-fayyadh literture cited cokendolpher, j. c. and holmberg, r. g. 2018. harvestmen of the family phalangiidae (arachnida: opiliones) in the americas. special publications / museum of texas tech university, no. 67, 53pp. cokendolpher, j. c., tsurusaki, n., tourinho, a. l., tylor, c.k., gruber, j. and pinto-darocha, r. 2007. taxonomy: eupnoi. in: pinto-da-rocha, r., machado, j. and giribet, g. (eds). the biology of opiliones, massachusetts: harvard university press, p. 108131. hillyard, p.d. and sankey, j. h.p. 1990.harvestmen: keys and notes for the identification of the species. synopses of british fauna (linnean society of london), n.s., no. 4 [''1989''] [2nd edition of sankey and savory 1974]. e. j. brill, leiden, viii+ 120 pp . kury, a. b. 2013. order opiliones sundevall, 1833. zootaxa 3703 (1): 27-33. snegovaya, n. y. 2016. two new opilio herbst, 1798 species (arachnida: opiliones: phalangiidae) from caucasus region. ecologica montenegrina, 8: 27-33. snegovaya, n. y. cokendolpher, j. c. and mozaffarian, f. 2018. the opiliones of iran with a description of a new genus and two new species. journal of arachnology, 46(1): 6980 . staręga, w. 1970. eine neue dircanolasma-art aus irak (opiliones, trgulidae). bulletin de l’acadèmie polonaise des sciences, cl. ii, sèrie des sciences biologiques, 18 (8):475477. staręga, w. 1973. beitrag zur kenntins der weberknechte (opiliones) des nahen ostens. annales. zoologici, 30 (6): 129-153. walker, m. e. 1928. a revision of the order phalangiidae of ohio. ohio biological survey, bulletin, 19(4):150-175. 290 first record of opilio kakunini bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2021) 16 (3): 283-290. ول للنوع تسجيل االال opilio kakunini snegovaya, cokendolpher & mozaffarian, 2018 (arachnida, opiliones, phalangiidae) في العراق ** مصطفى جواد نعمة شروق عبدهللا نجم* و *متحف التاريخ الطبيعي, جامعة البصرة, البصرة, العراق **كلية الزراعة , جامعة سومر, ذي قار, العراق 20/6/2021 ، تأريخ النشر:20/03/2021 ، تأريخ القبول: 06/01/2021: تأريخ االستالم الخالصة opilio kakunini snegovaya, cokendolpher النوع ُسِجل & mozaffarian, 2018 رتبة من opilionesالعراقأل في مرة ؛ ول العراق سابقا, و في الرتبة تم تسجيلها في فضال عن اربعة انواع من افراد هذه جديد نوع اضافة تمت الدراسة الحيوانية قائمة ل رتبةال لهذههذه المجموعة التي ،الذكور و االناث هم الصفات التشخيصية لكل من مع وصف أل ،العراقية جمعت من قضاء الرفاعي شمال محافظة ذي قار جنوبي العراق. bull 129 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum ali et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2022) 17 (1): 129-140. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2022.17.1.0129 original article morphological, anatomical and chemical study of an exotic plant jatropha integerrima jacq. 1763 (euphorbiaceae) in iraq zainab abid aun ali*, hadeel m. habeeb and liqaa a. jazaa department of biology, college of science for women, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq. *corresponding author e-mail: zainabao_bio@csw.uobaghdad.edu.iq received date: 22 december 2021, accepted date: 13 june 2022, published date: 20 june 2022 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract jatropha l. is an exotic genus to iraq and it has been cultivated in gardens for ornamental purposes because of the shiny red color of the flowers. the plant adapted to environmental conditions and succeeded in growing and blooming, which is why the species was interested to study. the species jatropha integerrima jacq. was examined and diagnosed for the first time in iraq. morphological and anatomical characteristics for leaves (considering that the variations are the most reliable and taxonomically important) were provided. the phytochemical screening showed the presence of alkaloids, flavonoids, terpenes, tannins and saponins. the qualitative analysis by tlc indicated the presence of alkaloids and flavonoid that was detected by special reagent and uv light, which included two orange spots of alkaloid with 0.71 and 0.63 rf value one flavonoid yellow spot with 0.43 rf value. key words: euphorbiaceae, exotic, iraq, jatropha, phytochemical screening. introduction euphorbiaceae juss. was first adequately delimited as a natural group of plant by a. l. de jussieu in 1789 (perry, 1943). the family is characterized by hypogynous flowers, actinomorphic, mostly unisexual; perianth rarely double, usually simple or wanting; androecium 1-∞; ovary of 3 carpels, trilocular, with 1 or 2 suspended ovules in each cell; micropyle directed upwards and outwards, and covered with a fleshy outgrowth (caruncle). fruit almost invariably a schizocarp-capsule, splitting into carpels, often elastically (heywood, 1978; judd et al., 1999). petals in euphorbiaceae usually absent but present in only two genera: jatropha and aleurites (singh, 2006). jatropha l. is a genus of 175 species (aworinde et al., 2009). changes in order malpighiales that jatropha belongs tomainly reflected assignment to this order of six previously unplaced families and the dismemberment of broadly circumscribed flacourtiaceae and euphorbiaceae (apg ii, 2003). jatropha in greek language is “iatros”: physician and trophe: food; because they use the species jatropha bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home online issn: 2311-9799 print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2022.17.1.0129 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3096-5295 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2742-8774 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5931-5507 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 130 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum morphological, anatomical and chemical study curcas as purgative (wfo, 2022 a). researchers survey the antimicrobial activity of the leaves methanol extract of jatropha sp. against many organisms like escherichia coli, bacillus subtilis, streptococcus aureus and klepsiella pneumonia, all treatments reduced the growth and activity of these pathogenic organisms (seth and sarin, 2010; oyama et al., 2016). moreover, it has a pesticidal that effect on adult mortality and hatching eggs of many insects like ticks and mites and used as traditional therapy in asia and africa (juliet and ghosh, 2012). this genus is exotic to iraqi environment, and it is cultivated in gardens for ornamental purposes but it adapted to the environmental conditions and succeeded in growing. the current study aimed to examine, identify the jatropha species recorded for the first time in iraq. materials and methods identification: the plant was identified by different classification keys (welzen et al., 2017; flora of pakistan, 2011; eflora, 2014 a, b, c, d). compared with reference herbarium specimens of gbif organization gallery online those were collected from different asian countries (gbif secretariat, 2020). the acceptance of its binomial scientific name checked with the world flora online (wfo, 2022 a, b). morphological study different (vegetative and reproductive) parts were collected from cultivated trees grown in scientific garden in college of science for womenuniversity of baghdad and some other gardens, to examine the morphological characteristics by dissecting microscope while the morphology of pollen grains studied by light microscope under the oil immersion lens; the pollen grain was taken from mature floral buds. anatomical study the study examined the orthogonal section of the blades, according to al-musawi, (1979) to examine the anatomical characteristics by light microscope. chemical study •plant extraction: the dry jatropha integerrima leaf was extracted by hot alcoholic soxhlet with (1:10; water: alcohol) for 6-8 hour at 60-80 c°, then the extract was filtered and dried (al-momen et al., 2015). •phytochemical screening the active constituents alkaloids, flavonoids, terpenes, tannins and saponins were detected according to al-momen et al. (2015). each active compound was detected by using two different specific qualitative reagents (tab.1). •thin layer chromatography (tlc) tlc method analysis is used to analyze some active compound (alkaloids and flavonoids). tlc plate (merck .25mm silica gel 60) was activated in oven at 100-120 c° 131 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum ali et al. for one hour. the mobile phase was prepared, introduced to jar and saturated for one hour then the tlc was developed and the separated was compounds were detected. (1) alkaloid qualitative analysis. the alkaloids were determined by tlc method using ethyl acetate: ethanol (4:1) according to (kabesh et al., 2015) and methanol: chloroform: ammonia (20:5:.25) according to (deshmukh et al., 2012) development system then the alkaloids were detected using uv light (254 and 365 nm) and dragendorff reagent and the rf value was measured. (2) flavonoid qualitative analysis the analysis of flavonoids was carried out by using ethyl acetate: glacial acetic acid: formic acid: water (100:11:11: 25) solvent system. then after the plat was developed, the flavonoids were detected using uv light (254 and 365 nm) and aluminum chloride reagent and the rf value was measured. (kumar et al., 2007) table (1): the types of detections and their reagents that used in the current study. no. type of detection type of reagents 1 alkaloids amayer reagent 2 bwagner reagent 3 flavonoid amagnesium crystals and 1% hcl 4 bh2so4 reagent 5 terpenes achloroform and h2so4 6 banace aldehyde reagent 7 tannins afecl3 reagent 8 blead acetate reagent 9 sapiens afoam reagent 10 bhgcl2 reagent results and discussion genus jatropha belongs to euphorbiaceae family, some species were imported to iraq during the last few years as ornamental trees for gardens because of their colorful red flowers, it was adapted to the environmental conditions and established vegetatively in iraq, and the current study did not observe any development for its fruits. gorvaets (2017) listed 15 synonyms for it and reported jatropha integerrima jacq. as an accepted name, and there were three more synonyms listed in by wfo (2022 b) shown in the list below: 1. adenoropium hastatum (jacq.) britton & p. wilson 2. adenoropium integrrimum (jacq.) pohl 3. adenoropium pandurifolium (andrews) pohl 4. jatropha acuminata desr. 5. jatropha coccinea link 6. jatropha diversifolia a. rich. 7. jatropha diversifolia var. pandurifolia (anrdews) m. gómez 132 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum morphological, anatomical and chemical study 8. jatropha hastata jacq. 9. jatropha integerrima var. coccinea (link) n. p. balakr. 10. jatropha integerrima var. hastata (jacq.) fosberg 11. jatropha integerrima var. latifolia (pax.) n. p. balakr. 12. jatropha moluensis sessé & moc. 13. jatropha pandurifolia andews 14. jatropha pandurifolia var. coccinea (link) pax 15. jatropha pandurifolia var. latifolia pax 16. jatropha diversifolia var. pauciflore (c. wright ex griseb.) m. gómez 17. jatropha glaversifolia pax & k. hoffm. 18. jatropha pauciflora c. wright ex griseb the tree is deciduous, blooming continues during the three other seasons, from february till december; so the red flowers of jatropha tree give a very shiny view in the gardens. flowers symmetrical, actinomorphic, pentamerous, tetracyclic (tricyclic). polygamous, some flowers are bisexual (perfect) and some are unisexual (imperfect), with numerous male flowers; it was very difficult to find some female flowers and the bisexual were rare. during observations, the authors noticed that the pollen grains become free (anthers dehiscent) before the petals opened, protandrous however, the current study could not find ripened fruits but only growing ovary. the plant contains latex as all members of the family euphorbiaceae, this latex comes out of broken parts and turns white after dryness (pl. 1). morphological characteristics: perennial, deciduous tree, stem erect, solid up to 3m. height with ascending brunches. leaves ovatesemi cordate, apex acute, margins either entire or almost dentate (one prominent dental shape in each side); the entire margin leaves 6.08.0 cm x 3.04.0 cm. petioles 1.31.5 cm x 1.0 mm; leaves with dentate margin 10.5 cm x 6.68.5 cm their petioles 5.77.5 cm. x 1.5 mm., five main veins, exstipulate (pl. 2). inflorescences are cymose compound dichasium, female flower exist at the top of the rachis and blooms before males (basipetal succession). verticillasters 69 flowers. peduncle brown 8.010.0 cm x1.0-1.5mm, pedicel brown 8.0 mm x 1.0 mm. bracts 2, deciduous, light green (yellowish), leafy, ligulate, sessile, acute apex, entire margin, 6.0 mm x 1.5 mm. (pl. 3). calyx synsepalous, 5 sepals, petaloid, campanulate, 3.04.0 mm x 2.5 mm in male flower, 5.0 mm x ± 4.0 mm in female flower, teeth deltoid 1.5 mm x 1.5 mm in male flower, 4 mm x 2 mm in female flower. five reddish brown gland bodies arranged opposite to sepals in male flowers but arranged as circle under the ovary opposite to petals in female flowers. corolla red, 5 petals, twisted to the right, caryophyllaceous with very short claw, obovate, roundedretuse apex, entire margin, 1314 mm x 9.010 mm, dense white hairs at the inner surface of the base (pl. 4). 133 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum ali et al. androecium, 8 stamens, almost monodelphous, with fused filaments at the lower part as a white column and the upper free red parts, 4 stamens are short 2.0 mm and 4 are longer ± 3.0 mm, anthers red, longitudinal dehiscence, 2 lateral extrorse splits. gynoecium, 3 carpels, ovary 3 lobes, green with red lines change to green during ripening, styles fused, terminal, 3 black linear stigma, placentation free central, one pendulous ovule in each locule. mature ovary is longitudinal sphericaltrigonous (pl. 5). pollen grains yellow, spheroidal, dense verrucae or with papillae dense sculptured, processes are arranged in form of reticule, diameter ± 203µ (pl. 6). plate (1): jatropha integerrima; (a) anthers dehiscent within the floral bud, (b) broken part showing the white latex substance. plate (2): different view of jatropha integerrima leaves; (a1and a2) leaf with dental blade margin, (b1and b2): leaf with entire blade margin, (c) blade apex, (d) blade base, (e) the two sides of the ovate leaves, (f) the base of main veins of abaxial surface. (scale: 2 cm). 134 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum morphological, anatomical and chemical study plate (3): jatropha integerrima; (a1, a2 and a3) compound dichasium inflorescence with bracts, (b1) female flower, (b2) female flower at the top of inflorescence. (scale 1mm between each black line). plate (4): jatropha integerrima; (a) male flower, (b) calyx of male flower, (c) petals with rounded apex, (d) twisted petals, (e) calyx of female flower, (f) petal with retuse apex, (a-f: scale bar= 5mm), (g) gland bodies under ovary, (h) gland bodies in male calyx at the base of sepals (g, h: 400x). 135 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum ali et al. plate (5): jatropha integerrima; (a) longitudinal dehiscence anthers (400x), (b) androecium, (c) liner stigmae, (d) l.s. in ovary, (e) pedunculate ovules, (f) c.s. in ovary, (g) enlarged ovary with dry style and stigma. (b-g: scale bar=3mm). plate (6): jatropha integerrima, pollen grains under light microscope with different focusing degree to show the papillae at the same magnifying power (1000x). chemical study: jatropha integerrima methanol extract contains the active compound that is shown in table (2) using phytochemical screening. table (2): phytochemical screening of jatropha integerrima methanol extract *the reagents mentioned in table (1). active compound reagent a* reagent b* alkaloid + + flavonoids + + terpenes + + tannins + + saponins + + 136 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum morphological, anatomical and chemical study alkaloid qualitative analysis: the tlc of jatropha integerrima alkaloids were isolated from the methanol extract of leaves eluted with ethyl acetate: ethanol and methanol: chloroform: ammonia mobile phase and the uv light showed separation of organic active compound followed by spray. the tlc plat with dragendorff reagent showed the presence of orange spot with rf value 0.71 and 0.63 respectively which confirming the presence of alkaloids (pl. 7). plate (7): (a1, b1and c1) dissolved in ethyl acetate: ethanol solvent system, (a2, b2 &c2) dissolved in methanol: chloroform: ammonia solvent system, (a1and a2) tlc under 365 nm uv light, (b1and b2) tlc under 254 nm uv light showed separation of organic compound, (c1and c2) tlc after sprayed with dragendorff reagent showed the presence of orange spot which mean the presence of alkaloids. flavonoid qualitative analysis: the investigation of flavonoids isolated from jatropha integerrima leaf methanol extract by tlc using ethyl acetate: glacial acetic acid: formic acid: water as a mobile phase and uv light detection showed the separation of some active compounds, then by sprayed the tlc plat with aluminum chloride reagent, it showed spot with yellow colour with 0.43 rf value which represents an evidence of flavonoids finding (pl. 8). plate (8): (a) tlc under 365 nm uv light, (b) tlc under 254 nm uv light, (a and b) tlc separation of active substance, (c and d) tlc after sprayed with aluminum chloride reagent the presence of yellow spot proved the presence of flavonoids. 137 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum ali et al. anatomical study: the transverse section in leaf blade reflects that the blades are bifacial with palisade cells arranged under the abaxial epidermis in 2-3 rows, the shape of the palisade cells varied between square and rectangle. the sponge layer consists of many rows of different sizes of parenchyma thin walled cells, there were many cavities between the sponge layer cells and also in different sizes, but the study noticed that the cavities were lack around the main vascular bundle and the parenchyma cells were compact around it. the epidermal layer consist of one row of quadrangular transverse shaped cells, cells were with papillae protrusions which were missed at the main vein location. the cross section of the main veins showed a vascular bundle bigger than those in the smaller veins; vascular bundle longitudinal ovate, transporting elements are less not more than 3-4 columns. the cross section of the smaller vascular bundle are also longitudinal ovate, contain 34 columns too. the cavities in the sponge layer are bigger, it seems that some small ones united and formed big cavities (pl. 9). plate (9): orthogonal sections of the leaf blade; (a) the main vein, (b) the smaller vein(v.b.: vacsuler bundle; pl.: palisade cells; cav.: cavity; sp.: spong cells; ep.: epidermis) conclusions the current study was interested in this plant as exotic plant introduced to iraq environment and succeeded in growing with shiny flowers. up to this study, the authors did not find any negative biological effects for this plant. the study noticed that the fruits are not available and suggested to do more researches about it. conflict of interest statement "the authors have not declared any conflicts of interest". literature cited al-momen, h. m. h., gali, m. a. h. and alwash, b. m. j. 2015. isolation of jasmimin from jasmine (jasminum sambac). iraqi journal of biotechnology, 14 (2): 113121. 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(2022) 17 (1): 129-140. الدخيل دراسة الشكل املظهري والتشريحي والكيميائي للنبات jatropha integrrima jacq., 1763 (euphorbicaceae) في العراق زينب عبد عون علي، هديل مؤمن حبيب ولقاء علي جازع ، بغداد، العراققسم علوم الحياة، كلية العلوم للبنات، جامعة بغداد 20/06/2022، تأريخ النشر: 13/06/2022، تأريخ القبول: 22/12/2021: تأريخ االستالم الخالصة من النباتات الدخيلة الى البيئة العراق؛ تمت زراعته في .jatropha l جنس يعد الحدائق الغراض الزينة اذ ان ازهاره ذات لون احمر براق، وقد تكيف مع ظروف عرف عليه لتحديد نوعه الول البيئة ونجح في النمو واالزهار، وقد تم فحصه والت . .jatropha integerrima jacq. 1763 مرة في العراق، ووجد انه النوع والخصائص التشريحية للورقة لهذا النوع درست صفات الشكل الظاهري والسويق باعتبار تغايراتها االكثر اهمية من الناحية التصنيفية، وقد وجدت ان ا الخارجي كثيف البروزات الحليمية ويبلغ قطرها حبات اللقاح كروية الشكل سطحه مايكرومتر. أظهر الفحص الكيميائي للنبات وجود قلويدات وتربينات 203حوالي الى وجود قلويدات tlc وتانينات وصابونين، وقد كشف التحليل النوعي باستعمال ، ظهرت بقعتين uv وفالفونويد تم الكشف باستعمال كاشف خاص وضوء rf وبقعة صفراء فالفونويد قيمة 0.63و rf 0.71 اللون من قلويد قيمة برتقالية 0.43. bull 89 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al anbagi and al-khesraji bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2022) 17 (1): 89-101. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2022.17.1.0089 original article morchella conica pers., 1818 (pezizales, morchellaceae): a new record from iraq rajaa abdulrazzaq al anbagi*♦ and talib owaid al-khesraji** *department of genetic engineering, college of biotechnology, al-qasim green university, babylon, iraq. **department of biology, college of education for pure sciences, tikrit university, tikrit, iraq. ♦corresponding author e-mail: dr.rajaa.a.a@gmail.com received date: 28 february 2022, accepted date: 08 may 2022, published date: 20 june 2022 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract the present study reports morchella conica pers.1818, which belongs to the family, morchellaceae as a new record of iraqi macromycota based on the morphological and molecular methods. during their short and often sporadic fruiting season, this fungal species was found in mixed forest unburned areas in branan ranges (suliamaniya province, northeast iraq). currently, m. conica is the second morchella species reported from iraq. the current study aimed to introduce this new record, which is poorly studied in the middle east. m. conica is morphologically described and phylogenetically confirmed. the relationship between this species and other species within the genus was studied using the nrdna its sequences from different species and diverse geographical regions. maximum likelihood (ml) analyses were also conducted to build the molecular phylogeny of this species. the results of the presented species are essential for assessing the genus geographic distribution and developing information about species of this highly prized edible, industrial medicinal fungus. keywords: bioinformatic, iraq, morchella conica, morchellaceae, phylogenetics, rrna. introduction true morels (species of morchella dill. ex pers.: fr.) are edible ascomycetous fungi belonging to the pezizales morchellaceae (hibbett et al., 2007). the wild mushroom fruits sometimes exist prolifically in various forest types throughout western north america. morels are amongst the most highly prized and valuable edible fungi in the world (olfati et al., 2009; nitha et al., 2017; tietel and masaphy, 2018). morels have considerably gained attention and are widely in demand due to their nutritional and medicinal values as well as the diversity of bioactive ingredients as being radioprotective for mitochondria and dna and anti-inflammatory, immunostimulants (tietel and masaphy, 2018; yang et al., 2019; nitha et al., 2020). true morels are also known for their broad ecological plasticity due to being colonized a wide range of habitats (burned bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home online issn: 2311-9799 print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2022.17.1.0089 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8873-9448 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8378-3319 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 90 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum morchella conica pers., 1818 (pezizales, morchellaceae) areas, coastal dunes, orchards, grasslands, and forests) with a wide spectrum of trophic strategies. through secreting enzymes into the external substrates and absorbing the released nutrients, the taxon obtains its nourishment mostly as saprotrophs, slight parasitism and mycorrhiza-like interactions have also been reported (du et al., 2012). although morchella is an imperative genus, the genus still has large gaps in our knowledge about its taxonomy, biology, ecology, and diversity. taxonomically, morchella is a complex genus and its taxonomic classification system of fungi is still unsolved (wurtz et al., 2005; masaphy, 2011; richard et al., 2014; loizides et al., 2016). it has been proposed the genus needs in-depth morphological studies and considers species with unique habitats for moving more research into an ecosystem perspective. the species of this genus have been mostly reported and morphologically described from europe, with only few species described in asia and usa (du et al., 2012). based on the classical morphological taxonomy and molecular phylogenetic and biogeographic studies, the genus has been divided into three main distinct groups or clades, esculenta clade (yellow morels, e.g., m. esculenta, m. deliciosa, and m. crassipes (vent.) pers., elata clade (black morels, e.g., m. angusticeps peck, m. conica and m. elata fr.), including semifree capped morels deeply nested. the third group was blushing morels presented an early diverging basal lineage containing m. rufobrunnea, and m. rigidoide, distributed in the tropics or subtropics (o’donnell et al., 2011; du et al., 2012). the recent molecular phylogenetic studies revealed that the occurrence of at least 60 species of morchella worldwide (kuo et al., 2012; du et al., 2012; baroni et al., 2018; petrzelova and sochor, 2019; clowez et al., 2020). only a part of the total macrofangal wealth has been subjected to scientific investigation and, mycologists remain to unravel the unexplored and hidden iraqi macrofungi (e.g. abdulla et al., 1989; al-khesraji, 2016). despite its biogeographic significance, iraq is still unexplored from macrofungal point of view (suliaman et al., 2017). reports on pezizales including morchellaceae from the country are very limited (al anbagi, 2014; al-khesraji, 2016, 2018; alkhesraji and al-hayawi, 2019; al-khesraji and suliaman, 2019). with increasing interest in the genus morchella worldwide, only m. esculenta has so far been reported from northeast iraq (al-khesraji, 2016). the current study presents the results of morphological and molecular identifications which were confirmed using a molecular phylogeny of a newly recorded black morel, morchella conica pers., 1818 from iraq. materials and methods specimens' collection and morphological features fresh specimens of morels were collected during the investigation on macrofungi in april-may 2019 on baranan mountain (elevation 1200-1400 m) north darbandikhan city (35.116258°n 45.686245°e) of suliamaniya province, eastern north of iraq, as a part of iraqi kurdistan region. data related to a natural habitat, site coordinates, a soil type, and vegetation were recorded at the field. the specimens were photographed in 91 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al anbagi and al-khesraji their natural habitats as well as in the laboratory after being somewhat dried, and transferred to the laboratory for morphological and molecular analyses. later, the fruit bodies were air-dried and deposited in the biology department, college of education for pure sciences, tikrit university, iraq. the macromorphological features were described for fresh fruiting bodies. measurements of the microscopic features were also performed on the fresh materials; these specimens were described and photographed under a light microscope. the classical technique for fungal identification was concluded according to the relevant literature and keys (negi, 2006; watanabe, 2010; lakhanpal et al., 2010; kuo et al., 2012). later, the morphological identification was confirmed based on amplification of the ribosomal dna internal transcribed spacer (rdna-its) for two isolates and phylogenetic analyses (white et al., 1990). molecular and dna sequencing techniques the identity of isolated strains was confirmed using dna amplifications and sequencings of the fungal gene its region. genomic dna was extracted from fresh fruiting body specimens using the zr plant/seed dna miniprep kit (zymo research), following the manufacturer's instructions. the extracted dna was stored at -20 °c for further analysis. the rdna-its was amplified using the its1 and its4 primers (white et al., 1990). the pcr amplifications were performed in a total volume of 25 µl. this consisted of 1.5 µl dna, 5 µl taq pcr premix (intron, korea), and 1µl of each primer (10 pmol). the deionized distilled water was finally added to complete the total volume. the thermal cycling conditions were as follows: 94 °c for 3 min, 35 cycles of 94 °c for 45 s, 52°c for 1 min, and 72 °c for 1min, followed by 72 °c for 7 min using a thermal cycler (gene amp, pcr system 9700; applied biosystem). amplicons were loaded and visualized on 2 % agarose gels stained with red safe (intron korea) under ultraviolet light (309 nm) for quantity determination (alkhesraji et al., 2021). the successful dna amplifications were sent to macrogen inc./ south korea for sequencing . bioinformatic and molecular phylogenetic analyses obtained sequence data of fungal isolates were trimmed, and low-quality edges were removed. the individual sequences were assembled to contigs with the geneious program (kearse et al., 2012). these sequences were blasted against the its database in the ncbi’s gene bank database for species identification based on the query sequence similarity. the generated sequences in the present study were deposited in genbank under the accession number mw291450. the results of blastn search with the sequences having 99% and above similarity were used for further analyses. phylogenetic analyses were performed to assess the fungal sequence based on the result of the blast search in genbank and sequences of close related morchella species as recommended (du et al., 2012). the dna sequences were aligned using mafft v7.309 (katoh and standley, 2013), and the aligned sequences were manually modified as necessary. maximum likelihood (ml) analyses were conducted using raxml v7.2.8 (stamatakis, 2014). bootstrap algorithm was realized on the dataset for 1000 replicates in geneious 92 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum morchella conica pers., 1818 (pezizales, morchellaceae) version 9.1.8. all characters were preserved as unordered and equally weighted. the alignment gaps were treated as missing data. the resulting tree was visualized in geneious version 9.1.8. results and discussion habitat and distribution solitary on soil under mixed forest unburned sites during april and may in 2019. the fruiting bodies were found in the wet ground between rocky and brown soil covered with decayed plant litter and woody debris. samples were collected under diverse tree species including quercus sp., populus sp., and nerium sp. however, some specimens were found away from the trees. several fruiting bodies of m. conica so far are known only from northern iraq in the current study. the fungus was collected from various localities on the baranan mountain in darbandikhan area (10 km north darbandikhan lake), in suliamaniya. morphological features the cap of m. conica has 2-6 cm high and 1.5-3 cm wide, conical with acute apex, attached to the stipe, yellowish when young and brownish or black at age, with vertical ribs connected by transverse ribs, forming a series of rectangular or square pits. stipe 3-8 cm long and 1-3 cm wide, cylindrical with swollen base, hollow, white to yellowishwhite, surface with fine granules, rarely bald (pl. 1a-c). the asci was cylindrical, hyaline, with a base rounded, usually 8-spored 300-350 × 18-22 µm (pl. 1d). ascospores were elliptical, smooth-walled, hyaline, homogenous with no oil droplets, inside sacs, some external oil droplets occur adjacent to each end of the spores 20-22 × 10-13 µm (pl. 1e). paraphyses cylindrical with rounded apex, septate, hyaline, 220-300 × 8 -10 µm. in the present paper, m. conica was reported as a new addition to iraqi macrofungi and a second morchella species described from the country. macro-and microscopic features of m. conica are in agreement with previously related descriptions (negi, 2006; watanabe, 2010; lakhanpal et al., 2010). however, some morphological variations within and between morchella species may be expected due to the plasticity of macro and micromorphological traits (phanpadith et al., 2019; ali et al., 2021). in the study area, morphological differences were not observed between fruiting bodies of m. conica collected from different substrates/ hosts in unburned sites. the fruiting bodies of current species were found under diverse tree species including quercus sp., populus sp. and nerium sp. presumably to survive using diverse niches. however, it has been reported that 70% of the elata clade species were found in a coniferous forest with a few species found within temperate deciduous forests (du et al., 2012). regarding the trophic status, m. conica and other true morels were considered saprotrophic, mycorrhizal, or even facultative (keefer, 2005; du et al., 2012; kuo, 2012). in this study, the presence of m. conica under decomposed plant debris in places away from trees may suggest that the fungus acts as a saprotroph rather than mycorrhizal. true 93 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al anbagi and al-khesraji morels including m. conica are known to fruit after a forest fire (wurtz et al., 2005; negi, 2006; masaphy, 2011; du et al., 2012; larson et al., 2016; miller et al., 2017) presumably supporting their saprotrophic mode. li et al (2013) mentioned that black morels like m. conica were saprotrophic and those with yellow caps like m. esculenta were mycorrhizal. however, switching lifestyles, for example, from symbiotic to saprotrophic interactions and vice versa in macrofungal species have been suggested and recorded to access organically restricted nutrients (bahnmann et al., 2018; al anbagi, 2020). this aspect in morchella has not been resolved yet and needs further attention in the future studies. molecular identification and phylogenetic analysis amplification of the its rrna region of morels resulted in size product 663 bp. a blastn query of investigated sequence in genbank revealed that they had more than 99% similarity with m. conica (accession numbers aj544195 and ef080999). however, the iraqi morel sequence had more than 99% sequence similarity with m. elata fr. (accession numbers mn462953 and mn462952), m. importuna m. kuo, o‘donnell & t.j. volk, and m. esculenta (l.) pers. (accession numbers mf170632 and gu373504 respectively) and morchella sp. (mk955411, diag. 1). the size of the cap and stipe of m. elata and m. importuna were wider. however, compared with their asci, the size of asci of m. conica were wider with a broadly rounded base containing smaller ascospores with taller and narrower paraphyses (ali et al., 2021). the insufficiently identified sequences and detected named sequences in genbank have been reported. being has a high percentage similarity with other species in the current study; it may be potentially suggested misidentifications of morchella sequences in genbank. the its gene alone was able to identify 77.4% of the known phylospecies in morchella using its1 and its2. at least 66% of the named morchella sequences in genbank have been found misidentified such as those with binomials (du et al., 2012; petrželová and sochor, 2019). some species of this genus such as m. esculenta, m. crassipes, and m. elata included different phylogenetic species. that is because of the near absence of type studies and informational databases, including references to voucher specimens and/or cultures (kanwal et al., 2011; du et al., 2012) for aiding dna sequence-based identifications of true morels. additionally, predominant cryptic speciation has been discovered between macrofungi including true morels. with only 2.6 and 4.5% of the estimated fungal species discovered (hyde et al., 2020), detecting a new species in morchella is highly raised especially with reporting the most novel species in north america, turkey, and asia as well as europe (du et al., 2012; loizides et al., 2016). in the present study, the phylogenetic analyses of morchella sequences confirmed the species identification after being a blast query and reconstructed some related black morchella sequences similar to other researchers who have used a molecular phylogeny to confirm the species identification (du et al., 2012). the phylogenetic tree of black morels was divided into conica groups as well as other clustered species. m. conica from iraq interestingly clustered into one clade with m. conica from germany while the 94 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum morchella conica pers., 1818 (pezizales, morchellaceae) specimens belong to this species from different countries such as china were separated into other clades. these relations may suggest that the disjunct distributions of species have been produced through distinct processes during their evolutionary relationships. the current results agree with other findings that geographically isolated populations of the m. conica may have more variation than those between two putatively different species (bunyard et al., 1994; li et al., 2013; ali et al., 2021). the sequences of m. conica grouped nearest from m. costata, m. esculenta, and m. elata similar to the outcomes of other scientists (kanwal et al., 2011; el-wakil and al-gifri, 2020). however, some species within the elata clade still have unsolved evolutionary relationships (due et al., 2012). plate (1): morchella conica; (a) fruiting body at the natural habitat, (b) fruiting bodies in different age of the development, (c) air-dried fruiting bodies, (d) ascus with 8 ascospores, (e) ascospores. 95 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al anbagi and al-khesraji diagram (1): the maximum likelihood tree based on its/5.8s rrna gene sequences represented the position of m. conica from iraq, resulting from rapid bootstrapping algorithm and a ml search in raxml. the number within parentheses indicates the genbank accession number. the bootstrap probability value is shown at the nodes. conclusions the present study reported the first black morel m. conica; this species was found in mixed forest unburned area in branan ranges, northeast iraq. previously, yellow morel, m. esculenta, has been collected from northern iraq, but the identification was entirely 96 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum morchella conica pers., 1818 (pezizales, morchellaceae) based on the morphological features. the current results were based on the morphological description and molecular analyses. the phylogenetic analysis clustered the iraqi m. conica sequence closest to other specimens from different geological regions. further surveys on this group of fungi are urgently needed to detect the distribution of this genus as well as other macrofungi. detecting, describing, and identifying the first record of fruiting bodies of m. conica, elata clade, in iraq with yearly high temperature and low rainfall, and complex topography conceivably offered useful information about environmental tolerance, especially with being considered asia or china as the center of species diversification and distribution of the modern morchella. conflict of interest statement we are the authors of the submitting manuscript, declare and verify there are no significant financial supporters for the current research from any providers. literature cited abdullah, s. k., al-issa, a., ewaz, j. o. and al-bader, s. m. 1989. taxonomy of edible hypogenous ascomycotina of iraq. international journal of mycology and lichenology, 4: 9-21. al anbagi, r. a. 2020. a comparative taxonomic and diversity study of litter-associated fungi in northwest arkansas forests. ph.d. thesis in cell and molecular biology, the fulbright college of arts and sciences, arkansas university, arkansas, usa, 214pp. al anbagi, r. a. 2014. histological study of the discomycetes fungus cheilymina theleboloides. journal of babylon university/pure and applied sciences, 22 (2): 769-778. 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[crossref] wurtz, t. l., wiita, a. l., weber, n. s. and pilz, d. 2005. harvesting morels after wildfire in alaska. res. note pnw-rn-546. portland, or: us department of agriculture, forest service, pacific northwest research station, 31 pp. [crossref] yang, c., zhou, x., meng, q., wang, m., zhang, y. and fu, s. 2019. secondary metabolites and antiradical activity of liquid fermentation of morchella sp. isolated from southwest china. molecules, 24: 1706. [crossref] https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/btu033 https://www.annalsofrscb.ro/index.php/journal/article/view/4052 https://doi.org/10.1080/10408398.2017.1285269 https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-12-372180-8.5004 https://doi.org/10.2737/pnw-rn-546 https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules24091706 101 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al anbagi and al-khesraji bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2022) 17 (1): 89 -101. morchella conica pers., 1818تسجيل جديد للفطر (pezizales, morchellaceaeمن العراق ) رجاء عبد الرزاق العنبكي* و طالب عويد الخزرجي** * قسم الهندسة الوراثية، كليه التقانات األحيائية، جامعه القاسم الخضراء، بابل، العراق. ** قسم علوم الحياة، كليه التربية للعلوم الصرفة، جامعه تكريت، تكريت، العراق. 20/06/2022، تأريخ النشر: 08/05/2022، تأريخ القبول: 28/02/2022تأريخ االستالم: الخالصة العائد للعائلة morchella conica pers.1818جلت الدراسة الحاليه النوع س morchellaceae كتسجيل جديد ضمن الفطريات الكبيرة العراقية، اعتمادا على الطرق املورفولوجية والجزيئية. خالل موسم اإلثمار القصير واملتقطع في كثير من األحيان، عثر لغابات املختلطة غير املحترقة ضمن منطقه بروانه على هذا النوع الفطري في مناطق ا )محافظة السليمانية، شمال شرق العراق(. كان الهدف من الدراسة هو تقديم التسجيل ، الذي قلما درس في الشرق األوسط. حاليا، النوع املدروس هو ثاني نوع لهذا النوعالجديد تم تسجيله من العراق. morchellaمن أنواع الجنس و اكد الوصف من الناحية الجزيئية، كما درست العالقة بين m. conicaصف و ً مظهريا من nrdna itsهذا النوع واألنواع األخرى ضمن الجنس باستخدام تسلسالت املنطقة أنواع مختلفة ومناطق جغرافية متنوعة. أيضا، تم أجراء تحليالت االحتمال األقص ى (mlلبناء األصل التطوري الجزيئي ) .لهذا النوع تعتبر نتائج النوع املسجل الحالي اساسيه لتقييم التوزيع الجغرافي للجنس وتوفير املعلومات حول أنواع هذا الفطر عالي القيمة الغذائية، الصناعية والطبية. bull 491 razzaq shalan augul bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2019) 15 (4): 491-504 revision of the family sphecidae (hymenoptera, apoidea) in iraq razzaq shalan augul department of entomology and invertebrates, iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq dr.rsha@nhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq, razzaqshalan@gmail.com received date: 27 september 2019, accepted date: 04 december 2019, published date: 26 december 2019 abstract a revision study of the sphecidae from iraq is presented. a survey is conducted to collect the specimens from different regions; generally, there were 41 species belonging to 12 genera and 4 subfamilies are revised with synonyms. the current investigation included the species previously reported in iraq, which were not collected during the current investigations; the distribution and other information are also provided. keywords: hymenoptera, iraq, sphecidae, revision, wasps. introduction the members of sphecidae are cosmopolitan wasps that include: mud daubers, sand wasps, and other thread-waisted wasps; which can be distinguished by the following morphological characters: having a distinct petiole that composed of first abdominal sternite, with exception the species of ammophila kirby, 1798; it consist of two part first abdominal sternite and tergite; the inner orbit of compound eyes without notch; fore wings with three submarginal cells (exception some species in ammophila and prionyx vander linden, 1827; mandibles without notch; pronotal lobe rounded and separated by distinct distance from tegula; anal area of hind wing with wide jugal lobe and mesoscutum without notauli (bohart and menke,1976). according to pulawski (2019), the superfamily apoidea consists from five families: apidae, heterogynaidae, ampulicidae, crabronidae and sphecidae; globally, the last family consists of 785 species belonging to 19 genera, 4 subfamilies, these subfamilies including: ammophilinae, chloriontinae, sceliphrinae and sphecinae. in iraq; with the exception of some checklists that indicate the presence of many species within the iraqi fauna (beaumont, 1961; khalaf, 1963; derwesh, 1965; kaddou, 1967) this family was studied in details at the first time by augul (2012), but he considered it as a subfamily that contains three tribes: ammophilini, sphecini and sceliphronini depending on bohart and menke (1976) in his study. subsequently, several studies within this family including: augul (2013), augul et al. (2013, 2014, 2015). the aim of this study is to establish a database for the species of the family sphecidae in iraq, with the treatment of the synonyms that contribute to processing the misidentification of https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2019.15.4.0491 492 revision of the family sphecidae some species which preserved in the iraq natural history research center and museum, with the possibility to add new information about this guild. materials and methods the specimens were collected by aerial nets from different localities of iraq for the period from february to end of november 2019; also used the undiagnosed specimens that previously collected and stored in the collection of entomology and invertebrates department; iraq natural history research center and museum (inhm). the specimens were diagnosis by the author, and used many keys for this purpose, for example: kohl (1918), bohart and menke (1976), guichard (1986, 1988), roche and gadallah (1999), roche (2007), dollfuss (2013), augul et al. (2013, 2014, 2015). general distribution base on roche (2007), gadallah et al. (2013) and pulawski (2019).the information about synonyms was depended on: honoré (1944), dollfuss (2013, 2015 a, b), pulawski (2019). results and discussion subfamily, ammophilinae ammophila kirby, 1798 ammophila barbara (lepeletier, 1845) synonym: coloptera barbara lepeletier de saint-fargean, 1845 remark: this species very rarely in iraq, there were two male specimens collected previously from al-hartha district, basrah province (5.iv.1986) and deposited in inhm; the subsequent investigations revealed this species absent in iraq. distribution: africa: north africa; europe: turkey; asia: india, israel, jordan, oman, palestine, syria, and uae. iraq (augul et al., 2013). ammophila duhokensis augul, abdoul-rassoul & kaddou, 2013 materials (5 specimens): dohuk province, gara mountain, (4 ♀♀, 1♂) 16.vi.2019. distribution: iraq (augul et al., 2013). ammophila gracillima taschenberg, 1869 synonyms: ammophila longicollis kohl, 1884 ammophila debilis f. morawitz, 1889 ammophila philomela nurse, 1903 materials (3 specimens): wasit province, aziziyah, al zelja village, (1 ♂, 2 ♀♀) 6.v.2019. distribution: africa: algeria, egypt, ethiopia, libya, mauritania, morocco, niger, and sudan. europe: turkey, kazakhstan, and russia. asia: afghanistan, china, jordan, india, iran, israel, oman, saudi arabia, syria, tajikistan, uae, and uzbekistan; iraq (augul et al., 2013). ammophila haimatosoma kohl, 1884 synonym: sphex haimatosoma turner, 1918 distribution: africa: algeria, chad, cyprus, egypt, libya, morocco, and tunisia. asia: iran, israel, jordan, saudi arabia, uae, and yemen. iraq (kaddou, 1967). 493 razzaq shalan augul ammophila heydeni dahlbom, 1845 synonyms: ammophila iberica ed. andré, 1886 ammophila rubra radoszkovski, 1876 ammophila rubriventris a. costa, 1864 materials (11 specimens): wasit, al-zubaidiyah district, sher'han village, (3♂♂, 8 ♀♀) 11.viii.2019. distribution: mediterranean region, part of central europe; central asia, india, pakistan. in iraq this species is registered by kaddou (1967) under the name ammophila heydeni velora rad. ammophila hungarica mocsary, 1883 synonyms: ammophila turcica mocsáry, 1883 ammophila hispanica mocsáry, 1883 ammophila fallax kohl, 1884 materials (7 specimens): dohuk province, amadi district, deralok, (7 ♀♀) 17.vi.2019. distribution: africa: algeria and morocco. europe: armenia, austria, belgium, bulgaria, croatia, cyprus, czech republic, france, greece, hungary, italy, kazakhstan, poland, portugal, romania, russia, slovakia, slovenia, spain, switzerland, turkey. asia: afghanistan, india, iran, jordan, syria, tajikistan, turkmenistan, and uzbekistan; iraq (augul et al., 2013). ammophila occipitalis f. morawitz, 1890 synonym: ammophila ruficollis f. morawitz, 1890 distribution: europe: russia, turkey, kazakhstan, iran, turkmenistan, and mongolia. iraq (derwesh, 1965). remark: there are not specimens deposited in inhm; also during the current investigation, which conducted by the current author to survey about this family in different regions, proved that this species absent in iraq from february 2010 till october 2019. in iraq, this species was reported by derwesh (1965) under the synonym names eremochares (ammophila) occipitalis morawitz and sphex occipitalis. ammophila sabulosa (linnaeus, 1758) synonyms: ammophila cyanescens dahlbom, 1845 ammophila pulvillata sowerby, 1806 ammophila sabulosa vander linden, 1827 ammophila vulgaris w. kirby, 1798 ichneumon frischii geoffroy in fourcroy, 1785 podalonia sabulosa bischoff, 1931 psammophila sabulosa zimmermann, 1935 sphex dimidiatus christ, 1791 sphex hortensis poda von neuhaus, 1761 sphex mucronatus jurine, 1807 494 revision of the family sphecidae distribution: africa: algeria.europe: albania, austria, belarus, belgium, bulgaria, croatia, czech republic, denmark, finland, france, germany, great britain, greece, hungary, italy, kazakhstan, latvia, lithuania, luxemburg, moldova, netherlands, norway, poland, portugal, romania, russia, serbia, slovakia, slovenia, spain, sweden, switzerland, turkey, ukraine. asia: china, iran, japan, korea, kyrgyzstan, mongolia, nepal, tajikistan, and uzbekistan; iraq (augul et al., 2013). eremochares gribodo, 1882 eremochares dives (brullé, 1833) synonyms: ammophila elegans f. smith, 1856 ammophila festiva f. smith, 1856 eremochares doriae gribodo, 1882: parapsammophila dives andré, 1886 parapsammophila retowskii konow, 1887 sphex dives turner, 1917 materials (2 specimens): wasit, al -zubaidiyah district, sher'han village, (2 ♀♀) 1.vi.2019. distribution: africa: algeria, egypt, libya, morocco, and tunisia. europe: greece, kazakhstan, russia, turkey, and turkmenistan. asia: afghanistan, bahrain, china, india, iran, israel, lebanon, oman, saudi arabia, syria, and uzbekistan. iraq (morice, 1921). remark: this species registered in iraq by morice (1921) under the synonym sphex dives, whereas derwesh (1965) registered it under the synonym sphex (eremochares) dives turner, 1917. parapsammophila taschenberg, 1869 parapsammophila turanica f. morawitz, 1890 synonyms: ammophila turanica dalla torre, 1897 eremochares lutea myartseva, 1971 distribution: africa: algeria, egypt, morocco, and libya. europe: kazakhstan. asia: israel, jordan, kuwait, oman, saudi arabia, turkmenistan, and uae; in iraq this species registered by augul et al. (2013). podalonia fernald, 1927 podalonia ebenina (spinola, 1839) synonyms: ammophila hirsuta var. ebenina zavattari, 1909 ammophila mandibulata w.f. kirby, 1889 ammophila micipsa kohl, 1905 ammophila (psammophila) micipsa morice, 1900 podalonia ebenina leclercq, 1955 psammophila ebenina a. costa, 1864 psammophila micipsa morice, 1900 distribution: africa: algeria, egypt. europe: armenia, caucasus, france, greece, italy, kazakhstan, russia, turkey. asia: afghanistan, iran, israel, jordan, kuwait, lebanon, tajikistan, turkmenistan, and uzbekistan; iraq (beaumont, 1961). 495 razzaq shalan augul podalonia marismortui (bytinski salz, 1955) distribution: iraq (beaumont, 1961); asia: israel, egypt and jordan. podalonia minax (kohl, 1901) synonyms: ammophila confalonierii guiglia, 1932 ammophila minax kohl, 1901 distribution: africa: algeria, egypt, and morocco. asia: iran, kuwait, saudi arabia. iraq (augul et al., 2013). podalonia tydei (le guillou, 1841) synonyms: ammophila capuccina a. costa, 1858 ammophila errabunda mercet, 1906 ammophila homogenea mercet, 1906 ammophila klugii lepeletier de saint fargeau, 1845 ammophila lanuginosa marquet, 1881 ammophila psammodes lepeletier de saint fargeau, 1845 ammophila tydei le guillou, 1841 psammophila madeirae dahlbom, 1843 psammophila senilis dahlbom, 1843 psammophila tydei (le guillou, 1841) sphex tydei (le guillou, 1841) materials: (25 specimens), wasit, al-numaniyah, (4♂♂, 3♀♀) 8.v.2019; al zubaydiyah, (2♂♂, 2♀♀) sher' han village, 12.viii.2018.baghdad, bab al muadham, (2♂♂, 1♀) 3.v.2019; diyala, al wajehiya, (5♂♂, 6♀♀) 17.vii.2019. distribution: africa: algeria, cameron, chad, egypt, eritrea, kenya, libya, morocco, niger, tanzania, rwanda, south africa, sudan, tunisia, uganda, and zimbabwe. europe: austria, bulgaria, cyprus, czech republic, finland, france, greece, germany, hungary, italy, kazakhstan, madeira, malta, new zealand, poland, portugal, romania, russia, slovakia, spain, turkey, ukraine, and uzbekistan; australia; asia: afghanistan, china, india, iran, israel, jordan, kuwait, kyrgyzstan, oman, saudi arabia, syria, tajikistan, turkmenistan, uae, and yemen; iraq (beaumont, 1961). subfamily, chloriontinae chlorion latreille, 1802 chlorion semenowi f. morawitz, 1890 synonym sphex semenowi kohl, 1890 distribution: iraq (morice, 1921); iran, turkmenistan and russia. remark: there are no specimens collected during the current investigation, and not found in the collection of inhm. chlorion funereum gribodon, 1879 synonyms: sphex eximius kohl, 1885 sphex funereus kohl, 1885 sphex kohli ed. andré, 1888 distribution: iraq (roche, 2007) south africa: algeria, egypt, somalia to chad, sudan. asia: yemen and saudi arabia. 496 revision of the family sphecidae subfamily, sphecinae chilosphex menke, 1976 chilosphex argyrius (brullé, 1833) synonyms: chlorion argyrius (brulle, 1833) sphex argyrius brullé, 1833 sphex emarginatus brullé, 1833 distribution: africa: algeria; europe: croatia, greece, italy, kazakhstan, spain, france, asia: iran, turkey, and russia. iraq (morice, 1921). remark: this species registered by morice (1921) in iraq under the name chlorion argyrius; did not get any specimens during the surveys of different localities of iraq for the period from february 2010 to september 2019; also there are no specimens belonging to this species in the collection of inhm. isodontia (patton, 1880) isodontia albohirta (turner, 1908) synonym: sphex albohirtus turner (1908) distribution: australia (bohart and menke, 1976). remark: kaddou (1967) listed this species in iraq under the name sceliphron albohirtus turner (1908). palmodes kohl, 1890 palmodes melanarius (mocsáry, 1883) synonym: chlorion melanarius mocsary, 1883 sphex melanarius mocsáry, 1883 sphex anatolicus kohl, 1888 sphex anatolicus kohl, 1888 sphex picicornis f. morawitz, 1890 distribution: africa: algeria, libya and morocco. europe: greece, kazakhstan, portugal, russia, spain, turkey, ukraine. asia: iran, syria, kyrgyzstan, tajikistan, and turkmenistan. remark: morice (1921) listed this species in iraq under the synonym name chlorion melanarius mocsary, 1883; whereas beaumont (1961) listed it in iraq under the valid name. we did not get any specimens during the surveys of different localities of iraq for the period from february 2010 to september 2019; also there are no specimens belonging to this species in the collection of inhm. prionyx vander linden, 1827 prionyx crudelis (f. smith, 1856) synonyms: harpactopus crudelis f. smith, 1856 pepsis hirtipes fabricius, 1804 sphex rufipennis fabricius, 1793 sphex aegyptius lepeletier de saint fargeau, 1845 sphex crudelis de beaumont, 1949 sphex grandis radoszkowski, 1876 sphex soror honoré, 1944 materials (4 specimens): baghdad province, bab al muadham, (1 ♂, 2♀♀) 21.vii.2019; (1♀) 7.viii. 2019. distribution: africa: algeria, cameron, egypt, eritrea, ethiopia, guinea, kenya, madagascar, mauritania, somalia, sudan, and tanzania. europe: bulgaria, cyprus, greece, kazakhstan, and turkey. asia: india, iran, kuwait, saudi arabia, oman, philippines, tajikistan, turkmenistan, uae, and yemen; iraq (beaumont, 1961). 497 razzaq shalan augul remark: in iraq this species is registered by beaumont (1961) under the name sphex crudelis de beaumont, 1949; then derwesh (1965) listed this species under the name of chlorion crudele. prionyx kirbii (vander linden, 1827) synonyms: ammophila kirbii vander linden, 1827 sphex albisectus lepeletier de saint fargeau and serville, 1828 materials (19 specimens): wasit province, alzubaydiyah, sher' han village (1♂, 1♀), 18. vii. 2019, (4♀♀), 12.viii.2019; aziziyah, al zelja village (4♂♂, 3♀♀), 12.viii.2019. baghdad, bab al muadham, (1♂, 3♀♀), 5.ix.2019. karbala province, (2♀♀) 18.ix.2019. distribution: africa: algeria, cameron, egypt, eritrea, ethiopia, south africa, tanzania, tunisia, and libya. europe: austria, belarus, bulgaria, croatia, czech republic, france, germany, greece, hungary, italy, portugal, romania, russia, slovakia, spain, switzerland, turkey, kazakhstan, malta, portugal, and ukraine. asia: uzbekistan, china, iran, tajikistan, syria and israel; in iraq this species registered by augul et al. (2015). prionyx kurdistanicus (balthasar, 1954) synonym: sphex kurdistanicus balthasar, 1954 distribution: iraq (balthasar, 1954). remark: there are no specimens belonging to this species in the collection of inhm; also did not collect any specimens during the various our investigations. prionyx lividocinctus (a. costa, 1885) synonym: enodia graeca mocsáry, 1883 enodia lividocincta a. costa, 1816 enodia obliquestriata mocsáry, 1883 priononyx isselii gribodo, 1880 sphex micans ed. andré, 1888 distribution: africa: egypt, libya, morocco, and tunisia. europe: bulgaria, cyprus, france, greece, italy, kazakhstan, spain, portugal, russia, and turkey. asia: iran, kyrgyzstan, tajikistan, turkmenistan, and uzbekistan. remark: in iraq this species is registered by kaddou (1967) under the name sphex lividocinctus corte. prionyx macula (fabricius, 1804) synonyms: pepsis macula fabricius, 1804 sphex eatoni e. saunders, 1910 distribution: africa: algeria, egypt, kenya, and libya. europe: kazakhstan; asia: afghanistan, iran, israel, kuwait, and saudi arabia. iraq (beaumont, 1961). remark: the members of this species are very rare; there is one male specimen only that stored in the collection of the inhm. prionyx niveatus (dufour, 1854) synonyms: calosphex niveatus (dufour, 1854) enodia albopictinata taschenberg, 1869 podium maracandicum radoszkowski, 1877 prionyx afghaniensis (de beaumont, 1970) sphex afghaniensis de beaumont, 1970 sphex niveatus dufour, 1854 498 revision of the family sphecidae sphex maracandica (radoszkowski, 1877) sphex suavis f. morawitz, 1893 distribution: africa: algeria, egypt, libya, malawi, mauritania, morocco, niger, south africa, sudan, tunisia, and mongolia. europe: turkey and kazakhstan; asia: afghanistan, iran, israel, jordan, kuwait, oman, saudi arabia, turkmenistan, uae, uzbekistan, and yemen. iraq (augul et al., 2015). prionyx songaricus (eversmann, 1849) synonyms: sphex songaricus eversmann, 1849 sphex tenuicornis f. morawitz, 1890 distribution: africa: algeria; europe: kazakhstan, russia, and turkey. asia: afghanistan, iran, israel, syria, tajikistan, turkmenistan, and uzbekistan; iraq (beaumont, 1961). remark: there is no information about this species in iraq. prionyx stschurowskii (radoszkowski, 1877) synonym: sphex stschurowskii radoszkowski, 1877 distribution: africa: algeria, egypt, morocco, and tunisia. europe: kazakhstan; asia: afghanistan, iran, saudi arabia turkmenistan, and uzbekistan; iraq (beaumont, 1961). remark: derwesh (1965) listed this species in iraq under the name chlorion hyalipenne; the members of species are very rare in the field, there is one female only found in the collection of the inhm. prionyx subfuscatus (dahlbom, 1845) synonyms: enodia chrysoptera ruthe and stein, 1857 gastrosphaeria anthracina a. costa, 1858 sphex desertorum eversmann, 1849 sphex nigritus lucas, 1849 sphex soror dahlbom, 1845 sphex subfuscatus dahlbom, 1845 distribution: africa: algeria, egypt, ethiopia, libya, mongolia, and morocco. europe: albania, croatia, cyprus, czech republic, france, germany, greece, hungary, italy, kazakhstan, portugal, romania, russia, slovakia, spain, turkey, ukraine. asia: china, india, iran, israel, korea, kyrgyzstan, oman, saudi arabia, tajikistan, turkmenistan, uzbekistan. remark: el-haidari et al. (1971) listed this species in iraq under the synonym sphex subfasciatus dahlbom, 1845; to addition, there is no information about this species in iraq, especially in the inhm. sphex linnaeus, 1758 sphex flavipennis fabricius, 1793 synonyms: ammophila flavipennis valetta, 1979 pepsis flavipennis fabricius, 1804 pelopaeus flavipennis stephens, 1829 sphex bicolor dahlbom, 1845 sphex cinereorufocinctus dahlbom, 1845 sphex sellae gribodo, 1873 materials (2 specimens): dohuk, gara mountain, (2♀♀) 18.vi.2019. distribution: africa: algeria, egypt, libya, morocco, and tunisia. europe: bulgaria, croatia, cyprus, france, greece, hungary, italy, kazakhstan, macedonia, malta, 499 razzaq shalan augul portugal, romania, russia, spain, turkey, uk, and ukraine. asia: afghanistan, china, iran, israel, kyrgyzstan, palestine, syria, tajikistan, turkmenistan, and uae, and uzbekistan; iraq (morice, 1921). sphex funerarius gaussakovskij, 1934 synonyms: sphex maxillosus fabricius, 1793 sphex obscurus fischer de waldheim, 1843 sphex rufocinctus brullé, 1833 distribution: iraq (kaddou, 1967); egypt, algeria, morocco, tunisia, libya, macedonia, malta, bulgaria, germany, uk, croatia, italy, austria, ukraine, hungary, spain, slovakia, slovenia, former yugoslavia, france, portugal, poland, greece, romania, czech, switzerland, russia, kyrgyzstan, uzbekistan, kazakhstan, tajikistan, turkmenistan, turkey, syria, china. iraq (kaddou, 1967). remark: kaddou (1967) reported this species in iraq under the name sphex maxillosus fabricius, 1793. sphex leuconotus brullé, 1833 synonyms: sphex triangulum brullé, 1833 sphex sordidus dahlbom, 1845 sphex tristis kohl, 1885 sphex plumipes radoszkowski, 1886 sphex pachysoma kohl, 1890 distribution: iraq (beaumont, 1961); algeria, morocco, greece, bulgaria, kazakhstan, turkey, italy, iran, azerbaijan, jordan, kazakhstan, kyrgyzstan, syria, tajikistan, turkmenistan, and uzbekistan, spain, ukraine, afghanistan, romania, russia, france, israel and cyprus. remark: didn't get specimens of this species during the current investigation, also there are no specimens preserved in the collection of iraq natural history research center and museum. sphex pruinosus germar, 1817 synonyms: sphex vicinus lepeletier de saint fargeau, 1845 sphex scioensis gribodo, 1879 sphex rothneyi cameron, 1889 sphex retractus nurse, 1903 materials (19 specimens): wasit province, az zubaydiyah, sher' han village, (3♂♂, 2♀♀) 18. ix. 2019; aziziyah, al zelja village, (2♂♂, 6♀♀) 27.ix.2019; sulaymaniyah province, kunamasi, (2 ♂♂, 4♀♀) 21.viii.2019. distribution: iraq (kaddou, 1967); algeria, tunisia, ethiopia, morocco, libya, lebanon, yemen, uae, oman, saudi arabia, syria, egypt, iran, israel, france, albania, malta, greece, bulgaria, croatia, cyprus, spain, italy, macedonia, hungary, portugal, russia, afghanistan, kazakhstan, uzbekistan, turkmenistan, india, pakistan, kyrgyzstan, tajikistan and turkey. sphex zubaidiyacus augul, 2013 materials: baghdad, bab al muadham, (3 ♂♂, 1♀) 21.vii.2019; (2 ♂♂, 1♀) 28.vii. 2019. distribution: iraq (augul, 2013). remark: in the present investigation, a new locality in iraq was registered for this species. 500 revision of the family sphecidae subfamily, sceliphrinae chalybion dahlbom, 1843 chalybion bengalense (dahlbom, 1845) synonyms: pelopoeus bengalense dahlbom, 1845 pelopoeus convexus f. smith, 1876 sphex violaceus fabricius, 1775 distribution: in iraq, it was registered as chalybion bengalense f. smith, 1871 by derwesh (1965); south africa, tanzania, madagascar, ethiopia, yemen, maldives, eritrea, mozambique, bangladesh, egypt, greece, nepal, italy, sri lanka, vietnam, india, burma, malaysia, singapore, thailand, china, taiwan, japan, philippines, indonesia, timor, australia and united state. chalybion flebile (lepeletier de saint fargeau, 1845) synonyms: pelopoeus flebilis lepeletier de saint fargeau, 1845 pelopoeus targionii carruccio, 1872 sceliphron targionii dalla torre, 1897 materials (34 specimens): wasit province, al-zubaydiyah,, sher' han village, (4♂♂, 5♀♀) 12. vi. 2019, (5♀♀) 12.vii.2019; aziziyah, al zelja village, (2♂♂, 6♀♀) 1.v.2019; alnumaniyah, (2♂♂, 6♀♀) 4.v.2019. baghdad province, bab al muadham, (3♂♂, 1♀) 5.v.2019. distribution: iraq ( beaumont,1961); turkey, greece, italy, egypt, saudi arabia, iran, france, uae, jordan, morocco, oman, spain, syria, tunisia, algeria, libya, cyprus, kazakhstan and portugal. sceliphron klug, 1801 sceliphron arabs (lepeletier de saint fargeau, 1845) synonyms: pelopaeus arabs lepeletier de saint fargeau, 1845 pelopaeus caucasicus ed. andré, 1888 sceliphron caucasicum dalla torre, 1897 materials (25 specimens): wasit province, al-zubaydiyah,, sher' han village, (2♂♂, 1♀) 12. vi. 2019, (5♀♀) 12.vii.2019; aziziyah, al zelja village, (3♂♂, 2♀♀) 1.v.2019; al-numaniyah, (5♀♀) 4.v.2019. sulaymaniyah province, kunamasi, (1♂, 1♀) 21.viii. 2019; dokan (4♂♂, 1♀) 24.viii. 2019. distribution: iraq (morice, 1921); algeria, iran, turkey and syria. remark: morice (1921) listed this species under the synonym sceliphron caucasicum. sceliphron curvatum (f. smith, 1870) synonym: pelopaeus curvatus f. smith, 1870 distribution: iraq (abdul rassoul,1976); turkey, afghanistan, india, tajikistan, uzbekistan, pakistan, nepal, kyrgyzstan, montenegro, belgium, italy, czech republic, croatia, hungary, france, switzerland, spain, slovakia, austria, kazakhstan, ukraine, russia, germany, serbia, chile, poland, slovenia and bulgaria. remark: this species listed by abdul rassoul (1976) under the name sceliphron deforme, and then corrected to sceliphron curvatum by hensen (1987). sceliphron madraspatanum (fabricius, 1781) synonyms: pelopoeus interruptus palisot de beauvois, 1806 pelopaeus bilineatus f. smith, 1852 pelopoeus separatus f. smith, 1852 sphex madraspatanus fabricius, 1781 501 razzaq shalan augul material (47 specimens): wasit province, alzubaydiyah, sher'han village, (4♂♂, 3♀♀) 4.v.2019, (5♂♂, 2♀♀) 6.viii.2019, (7♀♀, 4♂♂) 12.viii.2019. diyala province, al wajehiya, (2♂♂, 6♀♀) 17.vii.2019. baghdad province, bab al muadham, (5♂♂, 2♀♀) 29.iv.2019. dohuk, sarsink, 18.vi.2019 (3♀♀). sulaymaniyah province, kunamasi, (4♀♀) 22.viii.2019. distribution: iraq (beaumont, 1961); afghanistan, bangladesh, china, india, indonesia, syria, iran, oman, uae, pakistan, kyrgyzstan, turkmenistan, tajikistan, uzbekistan, kazakhstan, japan, malaysia, nepal, thailand, taiwan, philippines, sri lanka, vietnam, ukraine, russia, greece, turkey, france, madagascar, bulgaria, croatia, italy, laos and montenegro. remark: morice (1921) listed the subspecies sphex madraspatanum tubifex latreille, 1809 in basrah province; whereas schmid-egger (2011) listed the subspecies, sceliphron madraspatanum pictum (f. smith, 1856) sceliphron pietschmanni kohl, 1918 distribution: iraq (kohl, 1918); syria and iran. remark: this species is very scarce in iraq. sceliphron rectum kohl, 1918 materials (13 specimens): baghdad, tarmia, (3♂♂, 6♀♀) 4.v.2019; (1♂, 3♀♀) 31.vi.2019. distribution: iraq (augul, 2014); saudi arabia, iran and india. remark: we noticed that this species present only in baghdad during field surveys from 2010 till that conducted in the previous and current studies. sceliphron spirifex (linnaeus, 1758) synonyms: sphex aegyptius linnaeus, 1758 sphex flavipes christ, 1791 sphex spirifex linnaeus, 1758 sphex spirifex atra scopoli, 1786 distribution: iraq (khalaf and al-omar, 1974); southern europe, africa, asia; widespread in arabia, including the united arab emirates. literature cited abdul-rassoul, m. s. 1976. checklist of iraq natural history museum insects collection. natural history research center, publication, 30: 1-41. augul, r. s. 2012. taxonomic study of thread-waisted wasps subfamily: sphecinae (hymenoptera: sphecidae) from some governorates of iraq. ph. d. thesis, department of biology, college of science, university of baghdad, 286 pp. (in arabic). augul, r. s. 2013. a new species of the genus sphex linnaeus, 1850 (hymenoptera: sphecidae; sphecinae) from iraq. international journal of advanced research, 1 (5): 475-484. augul, r. s., abdul-rassoul, m. s. and kaddou, i. k. 2013. a new species of ammophila kirby, 1798 with identification key to species of ammophilini (hymenoptera: sphecidae: sphecinae) in iraq. advances in bioresearch, 4 (1): 12-27. 502 revision of the family sphecidae augul, r. s., abdul-rassoul, m. s. and kaddou, i. k. 2015. identification key to species of sphecini (hymenoptera: sphecidae: sphecinae) in iraq. journal of biodiversity and environmental sciences, 6 (1): 111-121. augul, r. s., abdul-rassoul, m. s., kaddou, i. k. and jihad, h. m. 2014. identification key to species of sceliphrini (hymenoptera: sphecidae: sphecinae) with illustration of male genitalia in iraq. international journal of current microbiology and applied sciences, 3 (4): 663-670. balthasar, v. 1954. příspěvek k poznání palestinských kutilek – ein beitrag zur kenntnis der palästinischen spheciden. opuscula hymenopterologica xiv. acta entomologica musei nationalis pragae, 28:267-284. beaumont, j.de.1961. sphecidae de l'iraq (hym.). opuscula zoologica (münchen), 56:1-5. available at: http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/entomology/entomology_resources /hymenoptera/sphecidae/copies/de_beaumont_1961e_iraq.pdf bohart, r. m. and menke, a. s. 1976. sphecid wasps of the world: a generic revision. university of california press, berkeley, california, 695pp. derwesh, a. i. 1965. a preliminary list of identified insects and arachnids of iraq. director general agriculture research projections baghdad, bulletin, no. 121, 123pp. dollfuss, h. 2013. revision of the wasps genus ammophila kirby 1798 (hymenoptera: apoidea: sphecidae) of the palearctic region and india. linzer biologische beiträge, 45(1): 383-564. dollfuss, h. 2015a. revision of the wasp genus ammophila kirby, 1798 (hymenoptera: apoidea: sphecidae) of the sub-saharan region of africa. linzer biologische beiträge, 47: 307–412. dollfuss, h. 2015b. the ammophilini wasps of the "biologiezentrum linz"collection in linz, austria (part 3) including the genera ammophila kirby, eremnophila menke, eremochares gribodo, hoplammophila de beaumont and podalonia fernald (hymenoptera, apoidea, sphecidae). linzer biologische beiträge, 47: 413–439. el – haidari, h., fattah, y. m. and sultan, j. a. 1971. contribution to the insect fauna of iraq (part 3). ministry agricultural iraq, bulletin, no.3, 20pp. gadallah, n. s., al dhafer, h. m., al dryhim, y. n., fadl, h. h. and el gharbawy, a. a. 2013. the digger wasps of saudi arabia: new records and distribution, with a checklist of species (hym.: ampulicidae, crabronidae and sphecidae). north – western journal of zoology, 9 (2):345-364. 503 razzaq shalan augul guichard, k. m. 1986. hymenoptera: fam. sphecidae of arabia. key to the arabian genera of hunting wasps. fauna of saudi arabia, 8: 343–351. guichard, k. m. 1988. hymenoptera: sphecidae: subfam. sphecinae of the arabian peninsula. fauna of saudi arabia, 9: 114–131. hensen, r. v.1987. revision of the subgenus prosceliphron van der vecht (hymenoptera, sphecidae). tijdschrift voor entomologie, 129:217-261. honoré, a. m. 1944. revue des espèces égyptiennes du genre sphex linné, 1758 (hymenoptera: sphegidae). bulletin de la société fouad 1er entomologique, 28: 45-79. kaddou, i. k. 1967. checklist of some insects fauna of iraq. biological research centre, publication, no. 1, 44pp. khalaf, k. t.1963. faunistic notes in iraq. bulletin of the iraq natural history museum, 11(8):8-9. khalaf, a. n. and al – omar, m. a. 1974. a second list of insects from iraq. biological research centre, publication, no. 2, 41pp. kohl, f. f. 1918. die hautflüglergruppe "sphecinae". iv. die natürliche gattung sceliphron klug (= pelopaeus latr.). annalen des k.k. naturhistorischen hofmuseums, 32: 1171. available at: http://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/5585249 morice, f. d. 1921. annotated lists of aculeate hymenoptera (except heterogyna) and chrysids recently collected in mesopotamia and north-west persia. the journal of the bombay natural history society, 27:816-828. pulawski, w. j. 2019. catalog of sphecidae. california academy of sciences, san francisco. https://www.calacademy.org/scientists/projects/catalog-of-sphecidae (accessed at july 2019) roche, c. g. 2007. conspectus of the sphecid wasps of egypt (hymenoptera: ampulicidae, sphecidae, crabronidae). egyptian journal of natural history, 4: 12 149. crabronidae). roche, g. c. and gadallah, n. s. 1999. the sphecid wasps of egypt (hymenoptera: sphecidae): introduction and generic key. egyptian journal of biology, 1:104-117. schmid-egger, c. 2011. order hymenoptera, families crabronidae and sphecidae. arthropod fauna of the uae, 4: 488–608. 504 revision of the family sphecidae bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2019) 15 (4): 491-504 في العراق( غشائية الاجنحة، النحليات) sphecidaeمراجعة لعائلة رزاق شعالن عكل جامعة بغداد/ مركز بحوث و متحف التأريخ الطبيعي 72/07/7900: ، تأريخ النشر94/07/7900: تأريخ القبول ،72/90/7900 :تأريخ الاستالم الخالصة اذ اجري مسح ،في العراق sphecidae اعدت دراسة مراجعية لعائلة زنابير الخصر جنًسا و 41نوًعا ينتمون إلى 14لجمع العينات من مناطق مختلفة؛ عموًما، كان هناك شمل التحري الحالي ألانواع التي تم . اربع عويالت تم تنقيحها مع اعطاء املرادفات .تسجيلها سابًقا في العراق، والتي لم يتم جمعها خالل التحريات الحالية .قدمت الدراسة التوزيع الجغرافي لألنواع، املرادفات، وغيرها من املعلومات املتعلة بها bull 203 alderawii et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2020) 16 (2): 203218. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2020.16.2.0203 an evaluation of invasive pest, red palm weevil rhynchophorus ferrugineus (olivier, 1790) (coleoptera, curculionidae) population in iraq mohammed m. alderawii * aqeel a. alyousuf**♦ samir a. hasan*** jasim k. mohammed*** hussein a. jappar* and sulochana paudyal**** *basrah department of plant protection, ministry of agriculture, basrah, iraq **department of plant protection, college of agriculture, university of basrah, basrah, iraq ***plant protection directorate, ministry of agriculture, baghdad, iraq ****apex bait technologies inc, ca, usa ♦correspondence author e-mail: aqeel.alyousuf@okstate.edu received date: 22 sep. 2020, accepted date: 10 nov. 2020, published date: 21 december 2020 abstract the red palm weevil (rpw), rhynchophorus ferrugineus (olivier, 1790) is a devastating invasive pest of palm trees, invading the iraqi date palm tree in 2015 for the first time in safwan county, basrah province. the red palm weevil has been categorized as a quarantine pest of date palm trees worldwide. in this study, a five years monitoring program has been achieved by scouting the invasive pest rpw population in safwan county by using visual sampling and pheromone baited traps. the results indicated that the number of infested palms, increased from 12 trees in 2015 to 111 in 16 orchards in 2016. the number of the infested palms was minimized to 3 trees in the county in 2019 due to the management protocol of the ministry of agriculture. furthermore, the results of rpw adults appeared monthly in the county with two activity peaks during the moderate-temperature-months. in conclusion, the quarantine and management protocol of rpw decreased the population of the invasive pest which did not spread to other districts of iraq. keywords: date palm, iraq, invasive pest, red palm weevil, monitoring. introduction red palm weevil (rpw) rhynchophorus ferrugineus (olivier, 1790) is considered one of the most destructive invasive pest attacking all types of palms trees including date palms worldwide (cox, 1993; faghih, 1996; misra, 1998;ju and ajlan, 2011; faleiro et al., 2012; azmi et al., 2017; manzoor et al., 2020); the first invasion of rpw in the arabian peninsula 204 an evaluation of invasive pest, red palm weevil was in uae during 1985, then spread to other date palms producing countries in this region (kehat, 1999; el-mergawy and ajlan, 2011; al-shawaf et al., 2013); causing economic losses reaching $ 25.92 million for eradication protocol of rpw in the 5% infested date palms in the invaded countries in this region (el-sabea et al., 2009). the regional trade of offshoots between and within different countries is one of many reasons for the successful invasion of rpw (abraham et al., 1998). furthermore, the behavioral and physiological characteristics of rpw increase the difficulties to stop the invasion in the new area; such as the rpw-clamped dispersal which causes highly infested orchards (faleiro et al., 2002), and the high potential of breeding that increases rpw population reaching the outbreak in various environmental conditions (ajlan and abdulsalam, 2000); as well as to the great flight potential for rpw that enable the adults to fly for long-distance, from 100 to 5000 m (ávalos et al., 2014). red palm weevil is attracted to damaged and undamaged trees, and the severity of damage increased because the rpw-males produce an aggregation pheromone that attracts the female weevil on the infested palms (gunawardena and bandarage, 1995), resulting in tree death due to the larval and adult feeding inside the tree trunk; larvae can feed only in soft tissues, such as the palm crown, the top of the trunk and the bases of the petioles (abraham et al., 1998). they can also infest the small palm trunk and the decomposing tissues from dead palm trees (el-mergawy and ajlan, 2011). it is very difficult to early detect of the infestation, as the insect has its various stages inside the palm trunk, and symptoms appear late due to the tunnels on the bases or crowns of the trees, leaking of fermented scent brown secretions from the outer tunnels, and breaking the trunk or dropping the palm crown in the heavily infested palms (bokhari and abuzuhira, 1992; abraham et al., 1998; hussain et al., 2013; al-dosary et al., 2016). it is important to early detecting the infested palms; treat them effectively using chemical insecticides, while the late detection leads to tree death and insect wide-spreading (hussain et al., 2013). the intensive chemical control of rpw currently is applied by growers and governments to reduce the spreading of this pest in the invasive area (abozuhairah et al., 1996; aldawood et al., 2012).the choice of promising insecticides to control rpw in the orchards usually is evaluated depending on laboratory tests, for instance, shawir et al. (2014) evaluated the toxicity of eight insecticides from various chemical groups and reported that imidacloprid was the most effective insecticide against larvae and adults of rpw. also, beta-cyfluthrin was recommended against rpw-stages depending on the laboratory-experimental findings (aboel-saad et al., 2012). in the fields, the chemical control application has been varied; imidacloprid and a nematode formulation of (steinernema carpocapse /chitosan wg) have been evaluated by spraying the trunks (dembilio et al., 2010). whereas, abdel-salam et al. (2014) have evaluated the efficacy of six chemical insecticides and biological insecticides, biovar and avermectin by injection into palm’s trunks, and found that the chemical insecticides were more toxic than biovar and avermectin. the pheromone traps usually are used for monitoring the population density of rpw (faleiro et al., 2003; faleiro, 2006; kaakeh, 2006). mass trapping by applying artificial male aggregation pheromones also are adopted for rpw control in the ipm worldwide (faleiro, 2006; al-dosary et al., 2016). vidyasagar et al. (2016) recommended using two traps per hectare to minimize the weevil population in saudi arabia; whereasabraham et al.(2000) involved the pheromone traps decreasing the infestation rates of rpw in date palm`s orchards of al-hassa, saudi arabia. 205 alderawii et al. in iraq, the date palms of safwan county/basrah province were firstly invaded by rpw in december 2015 (anonymous, 2015; aletby, 2016); since the visual symptoms of the invasive pest are difficult to detect, the legislation related to taking effective quarantine protocol has been taken to prevent the invasive pest spread to other counties of basrah. usually, the date palm trees are propagated by planting the offshoots which are perhaps being infested with the developmental stages of rpw if transported for invasive acreages; and depending on the quarantine, the government has restricted the transporting of the offshoots and other planting materials within and between the provinces of iraq. the invasive pest has not spread to the other regions of basrah province, depending on the results of the scouting program of rpw (fao, 2019; alyousuf and nikpay, 2020). in the current study, the infestation of red palm weevil invading the date palm orchards of safwan has been monitored from 2015 to 2019. the main objective of the study focused on monitoring the adults of rpw by using pheromone traps. materials and methods study site this study has been conducted in safwan county, basrah (map 1); more than sixty-one thousand date palm trees planted in the county are subjected to be invaded by rpw r. ferrugineus; the first date palm`s orchard was invaded in 2015 that was located (30° 07 ̀ 30.73" n, 47° 42` 53.81" e) about three kilometers from the iraqi-kuwaiti borders (map 2). in this study, the area of each orchard was at least 1 ha planting at an approximate density of 140 to 160 trees per ha. map (1): infested region (safwan county) about three kilometers from iraqkuwait border. (map was provided by basrah department of plant protection, ministry of agriculture, basrah, iraq) 206 an evaluation of invasive pest, red palm weevil monitoring program of the invasive pest red palm weevil due to the threat of red palm weevil, the ministry of agriculture in iraq has categorized rpw as a quarantine pest of date palm trees and restricted the transporting of offshoots and whole date palm materials in all counties of basrah and other provinces. depending on the sampling visually and looking for symptoms of infection in palm orchards (pl.1and 2), the infested orchards of safwan county were determined during 2015-2019. monitoring of red palm weevil in safwan`s date palms has been scheduled biweekly by using pheromone baited traps (pls.3and 4), 2017-2019. the pheromone (rhyfer; red palm weevil, alpha scents, inc.) was used in the bait traps including pieces of date palm trunks with water which have been changed biweekly and the pheromone have been replaced monthly. the pieces of date palm trunk were used to increase the efficiency of the traps. exactly, 28, 28, and 34 pheromone traps were set up in 19, 24, 30 date palm orchards in the county in 2017, 2018, and 2019, respectively. the pheromones were provided by the department of plant protection, ministry of agriculture for monitoring, and management of the rpw. a sampling study was map (2): the first patch of infestation in safwan county about three kilometers from iraqkuwait border (map was provided by basrah department of plant protection, ministry of agriculture, basrah, iraq). 207 alderawii et al. conducted to assess rpw abundance from 2017 to 2019 by using the pheromone traps. the traps were checked and emptied biweekly. at each sampling effort, the number of weevils at each pheromone trap/ orchard and the number of collected males and females of rpw were recorded. specimens' identification: the weevil was identified depending on the morphological identification (hallett et al., 2004; aletby, 2016), and the molecular diagnosis study which was done in the department of plant protection, university of basrah (al-saad and aletby, 2018). the weevils were sexed by checking the brown hairs on half rostrum of male and absent in female (aletby, 2016). statistical analysis the infested palms in the infested fields of safwan county were determined from2015 to 2019. due to obtaining few data of the first year (2015, one infested orchard) and last year (2019, two infested orchards), so the statistical analysis included the data of 2016-2018. the seasonal activity of the captured rpw by the pheromone traps was analyzed for the monitoring studies. the population densities of wpr were tested using analysis of variance (anova), and means were compared using a least significant difference (lsd) test at p ≤ 0.05. the analysis of the sex ratio of rpw was determined with χ2 test by using the r program (r development core team, 2019). plate (1): symptoms of infection of rpw in date palms; (a) the hole in the trunk, (b) the damage inside the trunk. 208 an evaluation of invasive pest, red palm weevil plate (2): rhynchophorus ferrugineus; (a) larva, (b) adult, which sampled visually from date palm orchards. plate (3): adult of rpw captured by pheromone traps in date palm orchards. 209 alderawii et al. plate (4): checking of the pheromone traps of rpw in the date palms orchards. results monitoring program of the invasive pest, rpw population in safwan county five years monitoring of invasive rpw has been carried out in safwan by sampling visually and looking for symptoms of infection in palm orchards. there were no significant differences among the infested date palms (f = 1.632, p < 0.205) in the infested orchards (f = 2.72, p < 0.0744) in the county between 2016 and 2018. numerically, 12 trees of 660 date palm trees in a private date palm orchard were invaded by rpw in 2015. however, despite the early detection of rpw, the numbers of infested palms were largely increased to 111 trees in 16 orchards in 2016. then, the number of the infested orchards was almost duplicated to 25 orchards, while the number of infested trees was minimized to 51 trees in 2017, 34 trees (in 17 infested orchards) in 2018, and 3 trees (in 2 infested orchards) in 2019 (diag.1 and 2), after the trapping programs were implemented. mass trapping of rpw by using synthetic aggregation pheromone traps showed that 146, 306, and 248 adults were caught in 2017, 2018, and 2019 respectively (tab.1); interestingly, most of the collected weevils were captured in the orchards which were close to the iraqikuwaiti borders. the results of the monitoring study indicated that rpw was active during the whole year, with two activity peaks; the first peak was from march to may (0.32, 0.37, and 0.46 weevil/ trap/ month, respectively) and the population increased reaching the second peak in october and november (0.34 and 0.32 weevil/ trap/ month, respectively; f = 12.32, p < 0.0000, see table (2)). the overall sex ratio of rpw (tab.3) were female-biased; the proportion of female were 0.72 in 2017 (χ2= 1208.2, p< 0.0000), 0.59 in 2018 (χ2 = 2344.8, p< 0.0000) and 0.50 in 2019 (χ2= 916.11, p< 0.0000). 210 an evaluation of invasive pest, red palm weevil diagram (2): the total number of infested orchards in sawfan county, 2015-2019. diagram (1): the total number of infested date palms in sawfan county, 2015-2019. 211 alderawii et al. table (1): average of rpw adults captured per pheromone trap across sawfan county annually, 2017-2019. mean values followed by different lowercase letters are significantly different (lsd test, p≤0.05) table (2): average of captured adults per pheromone trap across sawfan county monthly, 2017-2019. month rpw population (weevil/trap/ year) mean (se) 1 0.09cd (0.053) 2 0.11cd (0.056) 3 0.32b (0.141) 4 0.37ab (0.139) 5 0.46a (0.155) 6 0.17c (0.069) 7 0.16c (0.071) 8 0.17c (0.086) 9 0.17c (0.084) 10 0.34b (0.110) 11 0.32b (0.142) 12 0.05d (0.034) mean values followed by different lowercase letters are significantly different (lsd test, p≤0.05) table (3): sex ratio of rpw in basrah, 2016-2018. year no. of weevils/ trap sex ratio male female proportion of female χ2 2017 35 111 0.72 1208.2, p< 0.000 2018 130 186 0.59 2344.8, p< 0.000 2019 167 168 0.50 916.11, p< 0.000 mean 332 465 0.58 discussion it is thought that red palm weevils rhynchophorus ferrugineus were originally introduced into southern iraq from kuwait since the first patch of infestation in safwan county, basrah located about three kilometers from the iraqi-kuwait border (map 2). iraqi date palm trees had not been invaded by rpw before 2015, while the pest was listed as a quarantine pest in the arabian peninsula since 1985, then spread to other date palms producing countries in this region including kuwait in 1993 (kehat, 1999; el-mergawy and ajlan, 2011; al-shawaf et al., 2013); there are two reasons for that, firstly, the external quarantine of the date palms has year rpw population (weevil/trap/ year) total mean ( se) 2017 146 0.1600877b (0.030) 2018 306 0.2743056a (0.031) 2019 248 0.2326389a (0.029) 212 an evaluation of invasive pest, red palm weevil been issued by the ministry of agriculture in iraq since 1974 (iraqi laws and legislation, 1974); next, the agricultural system of basrah diverse based on the regions which have varied environments, the southern, eastern, and northern which have some desert. commercial plantations of date palm trees were planted only in the southern and eastern regions of basrah; in the last few years, date palm trees have been planted in the desert area of basrah that extended to the iraqi-kuwaiti borders (alyousuf and nikpay, 2020). the results of the infestation rates of rpw indicated that the eradication efforts (chopping, burning, and burying all palm trees of the first infested patch of rpw in safwan in 2015),which were done by the ministry of agriculture, did not prevent spreading the insect to other date palm trees in safwan county in the next few years. the findings also indicated the continuing of infestation of date palm trees in the county due to the neighborhood to the infested kuwaiti date palm orchards (el-mergawy and ajlan, 2011). moreover, the higher flight potential of rpw adults enables them to fly for long-distances (ávalos et al., 2014) and cross the border invading the iraqi date palm trees. whereas, the promising results indicated that the constant quarantine and management program of rpw minimized the infested palms to 3 trees in the county in 2019. the monitoring results of the seasonal activity of rpw by using the pheromone traps showed the variation of the population densities of captured weevils monthly and showed that the adults appeared in all the months with two activity peaks during the moderate temperature months. hashim et al. (2013) evolved pheromone traps to monitor rpw and indicated that there were two activity peaks in march and september of the growing season of 2007/2008. in addition to the important role of the pheromone traps in the monitoring protocol, it can be considered as one of the effective means to control the insect infesting the palm trees due to the high efficiency of attracting a large number of the rpw. mass aggregation pheromone traps are adopted for rpw control in the ipm worldwide (paraj shukla, 2017); for instance, in saudi arabia, more than 2,250 traps were involved in the mass trapping of rpw disseminated in more than 10,000 ha of al-qatif region (vidyasagar et al., 2000); and in alhassa where ipm based on pheromone traps were adopted in date palm orchards (abraham et al., 2000) leading to the decrease of the infestation rates of rpw from 1994 to 1997. conclusion in the study, the population of the invasive red palm weevil rhynchophorus ferrugineus was monitored for five years; despite all efforts which have been taken by the staff of the department of plant protection to eradicate the invasive pest in the county, it was a difficult task for the staff to control rpw. for that reason, continuous monitoring of the rpw is essential to prevent the spreading of rpw in iraq. also, more extensive efforts are required to all basrah’s counties, meeting with the growers and owners of date palm orchards throughout the province of basrah, and explaining the dangerous, severity, symptoms, and injury of the rpw. acknowledgments the authors thank the staff of basrah department of plant protection, ministry of agriculture, iraq, for technical support. many thanks are due to dr. mark payton, department of statistics, oklahoma state university, usa for statistical advice. 213 alderawii et al. literature cited abdel-salam, a., el-bana, a. and el-rehewy, e. 2014. evaluation of some insecticides on infestation of red palm weevil rhynchophorus ferrugineus (olivier) (coleoptera: 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(2020) 16 (2): 203-218. تقييم الكثافة السكانية لالفة الغازية سوسة النخيل الحمراء rhynchophorus ferrugineus (olivier, 1790) (coleoptera, curculionidae) في العراق عبدالرزاق سمير، **عقيل عدنان اليوسف ،*محمد مهدي الديراوي سولوشاناو * حسين علي جبار ،***خلف محمد جاسم***، حسن بوديال**** مديرية زراعة البصرة، البصرة ، العراق* **قسم وقاية النبات كلية الزراعة جامعة البصرة، البصرة، العراق ***مديرية وقاية المزروعات وزارة الزراعة األمريكية المتحدة كاليفورنيا،الواليات للطعوم الحشرية، ****شركة أبيكس 21/12/2020، تأريخ النشر: 10/11/2020 ، تأريخ القبول:22/09/2020 :تالمتأريخ االس الخالصة rhynchophorus (rpw)، سوسدة النييددل الحمددرا الدخيلددةتعدد االةددة ferrugineus (olivier, 1790) ،و قددد مدن االةددات المددمرة ألشددخارالنييل -بمحاةظددة البصددرة سددفوان مدينددةغددزت هددالف االةددة اشددخارالنييل ألول مددرة ةددي اذ صددنفس سوسددة النييددل الحمرا علددف أنهددا ةددة تحددس ؛2015العددراق ةددي عددام الحخر الزراعي علف أشخارالنييل. وةق هدالف الدراسدة، تدم وبدن برنداما لمراقبدة االةدة مدتدو خمدس سدنوات عدن طريق التحري البصري عن سوسدة النييدل الحمدرا اليازيدة ةدي قفدا سدفوان ام مصائد الطعدم الفرمونيدة ةدي مراقبدة الحشدرة؛ حيدت أشدارت ةفال عن استيد واحدد شدخرة ةدي بسدتان 12النتائا إلف ارتفدا عددد أشدخارالنييل المصدابة مدن ف ةدي عدام 16شدخرة ةدي 111إلدف 2015عدام ، بينمداانيف عدددد 2016بسددتانا بسدددب 2019أشدددخارةي المحاةظدددة ةدددي عدددام 3أشدددخارالنييل المصدددابة إلدددف علدف ذلد ، بيندس ارة االةة المتبدن مدن قبدل وزارة الزراعدة؛ عدالوةبروتوكول اد 218 an evaluation of invasive pest, red palm weevil البالغ لسوسدة النييدل الحمدرا شدهريفا الدف وجدود للدورنتائا المصائد الفرمونية ذروتين للنشاط خالل أشهر درجات الحرارة المعتدلة. الحمرا الزراعي و إدارة سوسة النييل اخيرا فبينس النتائا ان برناما الحخر ن منداطق اخدرم مدلدم تنتشدر إلدف نهدا إذ إ، خفد أعدداد اةةدة اليازيدة أدت الف .العراق تأريخ الاستلام: 22/09/2020، تأريخ القبول: 10/11/2020، تأريخ النشر: 21/12/2020 bull 141 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum zokirova and khalimov bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2022) 17 (2): 141-153. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2022.17.2.0141 original article morphometric features of the beetle acinopus (acinopus) laevigatus menetries, 1832 (coleoptera, carabidae) in the mountain ecosystems of uzbekistan dilnoza f. zokirova and fazlitdin z. khalimov* samarkand state university, samarkand, republic of uzbekistan *corresponding author: xalimov1968@list.ru received date: 05 may 2022, accepted date: 06 july 2022, published date: 20 december 2022 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract the morphometric parameters of acinopus (acinopus) laevigatus ménétriés, 1832 (coleoptera, carabidae) were studied and their altitudinal variability was assessed. the length of head is the most variable, and the smallest value of the coefficient of variation is observed for the width of elytra. the length of body parts (head, pronotum, elytra) were more variable compared to their width. the correlation relationship between the morphometric parameters of different parts of the body was analyzed. a high correlation was found between the elytra length (el) and the total body length (bl) (r=0.93), and the lowest correlation was found between the elytra width (ew) and the pronotum length (pl) (r=0.57). according to all measurement indicators, high-mountain representatives of beetles were inferior to middlemountain individuals, and the variation in traits was also less. only the width of the elytra turned out to be more variable in individuals of the highlands. statistical analysis showed a rather high reliability of the influence of altitudinal belts on the morphometric parameters of beetles for all studied parameters. however, changes in body proportions in different altitudinal zones were not significant, except for the ew/bl index. keywords: acinopus, correlation, ground beetles, morphometry, zarafshan range. introduction morphological structures of populations clarify the processes of adaptation of organisms to the environment and the formation of their relationships. in recent years, the approach to assessing the structure of insect populations based on morphometric characters has become widespread (bulgarella et al., 2015; rusynov and brygadyrenko, 2017). although ground beetles remain poorly studied in this regard (venn, 2007; koivula, 2011), significant variations in morphometric parameters in these beetles have been revealed on the example of agrocenoses and urbanized landscapes. for example, carabus granulatus decreases in size when living in the suburbs, while c. cancellatus decreases in size in the city (sukhodolskaya and saveliev, 2014); and even the phenotypic plasticity of females and males bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799-print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2022.17.2.0141 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9473-8238 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0624-4586 mailto:xalimov1968@list.ru https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 142 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum morphometric features of the beetle acinopus to the action of some environmental factor in ground beetles of the same species can be different (sukhodolskaya and eremeeva, 2013; sukhodolskaya, 2014). two populations of nebria kraatteri in the sila mountains in italy showed significant differences in many morphometric parameters (talarico et al., 2020). an increase in the length of the elytra and a decrease in the parameters of the head in pterostichus melanarius in the northern and eastern directions were established (luzyanin et al., 2022). in low-mountain and high-mountain populations of the beetle carabus odoratus in the conditions of the barguzin range, a difference in the morphometric structure of the population was revealed, which gives the authors reason to assume that there is no constant genetic exchange between populations (ananina and sukhodolskaya, 2019). in some works, it is noted that in many species of ground beetles, body length and length of the abdomen are the most variable, and the length of head is the least variable (stachewicz et al., 2021). however, using the example of machozetus lehmanni, it was found that the most variable character is the length of head, and the most stable character is the width of elytra. in different parts of the range, depending on soil conditions, morphological modifications can be observed, expressed primarily in the size of head (zokirova et al., 2022). acinopus (acinopus) laevigatus belongs to the eastern mediterranean species of ground beetles (abdurakhmanov, 2010) and is a widespread species in many countries of europe and asia (lorenz, 2021). in uzbekistan, acinopus laevigatus was first mentioned by alimdjanov and bronshteyn (1956), and later dadamirzaev (1978). it is one of the dominant species in the zarafshan range (khalimov, 2020). it is an omnivorous species and damages cereals (wheat, rye, corn, barley, millet, oats), industrial (beets), vegetable (carrots), medicinal (plantain) crops, and also feeds on wild species of herbaceous plants (cereals, haze, compositae) (rusynov et al., 2019). the main morphological differences of acinopus laevigatus from other species common in asia and the key to their identification are given in azadbakhsh and wrase (2016) and wrase and kataev (2016). in our research, we set the following tasks: to identify variations in morphometric features in acinopus laevigatus (1), correlations between different parts of the body (2) and to find out the patterns of changes in morphometric parameters at different heights of mountain ecosystems (3). materials and methods the collection of material was carried out in the mountainous regions of the samarkand and jizzakh regions of uzbekistan during the period 2020-2021. the specimens were fixed with ethyl acetate and laid out in cotton pads. also, for research, the collected material of the employees of the department of zoology of samarkand university was used. a total of 79 beetles were studied. species identification was carried out by r. dudko (institute of systematics and ecology of animals, russian academy of sciences, novosibirsk, russia) and i. kabak (all-russian institute of plant protection, st. petersburg, russia). 143 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum zokirova and khalimov to study the variability of morphometric parameters in vertical zones, the collection points were divided into two groups (a and b) according to the height above sea level. group a included points with a height of 700-1200 m, and group b included points with a height of 1500-2000 m (tab. 1). table (1): collection point information. collection points ridge height above sea level, m coordinates group a (height above sea level-700 -1200 m) hazrati dovud zarafshan range 1000-1200 39.489996°n, 66.620332°e etty uilli zarafshan range 1000-1200 39.435941°n, 66.988170°e hazrati bashir zarafshan range 1100-1200 39.266667°n, 67.100000°e ingichka zarafshan range 750-900 39.728009°n, 65.982234°e yalpoqtepa zarafshan range 870-880 39.445450°n, 67.239336°e nurota turkestan range 1000-1200 40.516667°n, 66.750000°e group b (height above sea level-1500 -2000 m) zhum-zhumsoy turkestan range 1700-1800 39.686128°n, 67.848304°e tahtakoracha zarafshan range 1500-2000 39.303106°n, 66.891646°e kamangaron zarafshan range 1500-1900 39.375913°n, 67.193234°e kumbelsoy zarafshan range 1600-1650 39.329416°n, 67.312788°e yul soy zarafshan range 1500-1900 39.291875°n, 66.940346°e further study of the morphology of beetles was carried out in the entomological laboratory of the faculty of biology of samarkand university. the material can be found at entomological collection of the university, where the weight of the collected material is stored. the study of morphometric parameters was carried out using a dimensional binocular microscope mbs-9 with a measuring ruler. the following morphometric parameters were studied: hl-length of the head, hw-width of the head, de -distance between the eyes, pl-length of the pronotum, pw-width of the pronotum, el-length of the elytra, ew-width of the elytra, and bl-total body length (hl+pl+el). because the total body length may vary slightly depending on the position of the head and pronotum in different postures, the total body length was calculated as the sum of hl, pl and el (pl. 1). in addition, the proportions of different parts of the body were studied: hl/bl, hw/bl, de/bl, pl/bl, pw/bl, el/bl, ew/bl, pw/pl and ew/el. 144 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum morphometric features of the beetle acinopus plate (1): acinopus laevigatus and scheme of morphometric measurements: (1-2) length of the headhl, (3-4) distance between the eyesde, (5-6) width of the head hw, (7-8) width of the pronotumpw, (2-9) length of the pronotumpl, (9-10) length of the elytrael, (11-12) width of the elytraew. statistical processing of the obtained data was carried out using the standard packagestatistica 10. in this case, the arithmetic mean values, standard deviation, standard error, coefficient of variation and correlation coefficient between the sizes of different parts of the body were calculated. results and discussion the results of morphometric measurements of individual parts of the body of the beetle as a whole for all samples and for areas of different altitudinal mountain belts are presented in table 2. the total body length of the beetle acinopus laevigatus is 12-18 mm, that is, they turned out to be larger compared to the european population (1116 mm) (rusynov et al., 2019). the variation of the studied morphometric parameters within the population is not very high and is a stable trait, since for unstable traits the coefficient of variation should be more than 33.3%. statistical analysis of the data showed that the most variable is the length of the 145 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum zokirova and khalimov head (cv=11.95), and the smallest value of the coefficient of variation (cv=6.67) is observed for the width of the elytra. sufficiently high variability shows the distance between the eyes. in general, the lengths of body parts (head, pronotum, elytra) were more variable compared to their width. table (2): morphometric parameters of the beetle acinopus laevigatus and their variation. body parts sites ма х. мin. arithmetic mean, m standard deviation, sd standard error, m the coefficient of variation, cv,% hw group a 4.3 2.7 3.9 0.32 0.046 8.27 group b 4.3 2.7 3.5 0.22 0.048 6.29 in general, for the species 4.3 2.7 3.8 0.32 0.038 8.40 hl group a 4.9 2.9 3.9 0.47 0.066 11.94 group b 4.4 2.9 3.6 0.38 0.084 10.56 in general, for the species 4.9 2.9 3.8 0.46 0.054 11.95 de group a 4 2.5 3.2 0.30 0.043 9.44 group b 3.5 2.6 3.0 0.24 0.051 7.99 in general, for the species 4 2.5 3.1 0.31 0.037 9.83 pw group a 5.4 3.7 4.7 0.33 0.047 7.05 group b 5 3.9 4.3 0.29 0.064 6.77 in general, for the species 5.4 3.7 4.6 0.35 0.042 7.71 pl group a 4.2 2.5 3.2 0.28 0.039 8.67 group b 3.4 2.6 2.9 0.22 0.049 7.56 in general, for the species 4.2 2.5 3.1 0.28 0.033 9.01 ew group a 5.8 4.6 5.2 0.33 0.047 6.36 group b 5.8 4.5 5.0 0.36 0.078 7.09 in general, for the species 5.8 4.5 5.1 0.34 0.041 6.67 el group a 9.3 6.6 8.2 0.58 0.083 7.03 group b 8.7 7 7.8 0.40 0.088 5.18 146 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum morphometric features of the beetle acinopus in general, for the species 9.3 6.6 8.1 0.57 0.068 7.01 bl group a 18.0 12 15.3 1.20 0.172 7.83 group b 15.9 12.8 14.4 0.90 0.195 6.22 in general, for the species 18.0 12 15.1 1.20 0.143 7.94 as you know, the sizes of different parts of the body are closely interconnected. however, the degree of dependence in the sizes of various parts of the body may vary. to determine the degree of dependence, a correlation analysis was carried out between the morphometric parameters of the measured body parts of beetles (tab. 3). a high correlation was found between elytra length (el) and total body length (bl) (r=0.93), between pronotum width (pw) and head width (hw) (r=0.92). the smallest correlation was found between the width of the elytra (ew) and the length of the pronotum (pl) (r=0.57). also, a weak relationship was noted between the width of the elytra (ew) and the length of the elytra (el) (r=0.66), between the length of the head (hl) and the length of the pronotum (pl) (r=0.68). body parts hw hl de pw pl ew el bl hw hl 0.78 de 0.87 0.80 pw 0.92 0.82 0.87 pl 0.80 0.68 0.82 0.76 ew 0.74 0.70 0.74 0.74 0.57 el 0.84 0.71 0.75 0.81 0.73 0.66 bl 0.87 0.87 0.85 0.88 0.83 0.74 0.93 on different altitudinal belts of mountains, the morphometric characteristics of body parts differed significantly (diag. 1). by all parameters studied, beetles from low-mountain and mid-mountain sites of research were larger than beetles from high-mountain habitats. the variation of seven morphometric parameters out of 8 studied was higher in beetles from the sites of group a. only the width of the elytra turned out to be more variable in individuals from the sites of group b (tab. 4). statistical analysis showed a rather high reliability of the influence of altitudinal belts on the morphometric parameters of beetles for all studied parameters (tab. 5). table (3): correlation dependence (r) between the sizes of different parts of the body in acinopus laevigatus (n=79). 147 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum zokirova and khalimov diagram (1): comparison of morphometric parameters of acinopus laevigatus found in plots a and b (units mm). table (4): significance criteria for differences in the morphometric parameters of acinopus laevigatus between sites of groups a and b. parameters f p-value f critical head width 14.33816823 0.000300883 3.965094067 head length 6.496938246 0.012794873 distance between eyes 12.56866036 0.000670964 pronotal width 21.86752971 1.22358e-05 pronotum length 12.70575066 0.000630052 elytra width 4.341575247 0.040510343 elytra length 12.12339984 0.000823861 total body length 12.9116339 0.000573393 148 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum morphometric features of the beetle acinopus table (5): variability of morphometric indices of acinopus laevigatus in different altitude belts of mountains. indices sites index value variation, cv,% f at f0,05=3.96 р hw/bl group a 0.23±0,002 5.10 2.38 0.13 group b 0.23±0,001 2.57 hl/bl group a 0.25±0,002 6.82 0.45 0.51 group b 0.25±0,003 5.88 pw/bl group a 0.31±0,002 3.92 1.25 0.27 group b 0.30±0,002 3.33 pl/bl group a 0.21±0,001 4.67 2.29 0.13 group b 0.20±0,002 4.13 ew/bl group a 0.34±0,002 4.75 5.06 0.03 group b 0.35±0,005 7.03 el/bl group a 0.54±0,002 2.93 1.89 0.17 group b 0.54±0,003 2.63 de/bl group a 0.21±0,002 5.22 1.42 0.24 group b 0.21±0,002 4.24 pw/pl group a 1.48±0,01 5.36 0.37 0.54 group b 1.48±0,02 5.53 ew/el group a 0.63±0,005 5.49 2.68 0.11 group b 0.64±0,010 6.89 a significant decrease in body size with increasing altitude was also noted in other groups of arthropods (janes, 1994). smaller body sizes in high-mountain populations can be explained by more severe conditions of high-mountain stations, expressed primarily by lower temperatures. in the studies of krasnov (krasnov et al., 1996), in three species of tenebrionids, a decrease in body size along the altitude gradient was observed, which the author explains by the influence of ambient temperature. however, in one species, the opposite trend was observed. highland populations of the dung flies scathophaga stercoraria and sepsis cynipsea were smaller, and under laboratory rearing conditions, high temperatures led to a decrease in body size (blanckenhorn, 1997). in a laboratory experiments on ground beetles, a decrease in body size with increasing temperature was also noted. moreover, it is reported that larger species decreased disproportionately more than beetles with a smaller body size (tseng et al., 2018). however, due to the presence of rather opposite data on the effect of altitudinal gradients on the morphometric parameters of beetles, this issue requires further study. 149 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum zokirova and khalimov according to some authors (sharova, 1981; slinko et al., 2008), the analysis of morphometric characters does not give a complete picture of the population variability of the species. according to them, body proportion indices are more informative. however, differences between beetles in different altitudinal zones were observed only in terms of the ew/bl index (f=5.06 at f0.05=3.96, p<0.05). the difference between the beetles of different belts in terms of other indices of body proportions was not statistically significant. thus, the studied morphometric parameters of the beetle acinopus laevigatus are more or less stable and their variation is not very high. however, the variation in the size of different parts of the body differed significantly. it should be noted that the length of body parts (head, pronotum, elytra) were more variable compared to their width. comparison of the beetles of the studied territories did not show significant differences in the horizontal direction. however, in the vertical direction, which includes, the individuals of the high-mountain and mid-mountain stations differed significantly. the vegetation cover of the studied points differed both horizontally and vertically. however, these differences are not very significant, since all points are located on the territory of neighboring regions. horizontally, climatic conditions do not differ much. but vertically, climatic conditions change significantly. apparently, the size of the body of beetles is more dependent on climatic conditions and less dependent on the vegetation cover. of course, these statements require more detailed study. conclusions acinopus (acinopus) laevigatus menetries, 1832 is the most widespread species of ground beetles in the mountain ecosystems of uzbekistan. the study of the morphometric features of such organisms is very important for understanding and presenting the ways of morphological adaptations of organisms in different altitudinal zones. in individuals from different altitudinal zones, there are obvious differences in morphometric parameters, which is proved by statistical analyses. beetle specimens from the upper belts of mountains are characterized by smaller sizes of body parts, as well as their low variability. conflict of interest statement "the authors have no conflicts of interest to declare." litreture cited abdurakhmanov, g. m. and klicheva, s. m. 2010. zoogeographical characteristics of the ground beetles (coleoptera, carabidae) of the steppe areas of the southeast of russia and northeast of azerbaijan. the south of russia: ecology, 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[click here] wrase, d. w. and kataev, b. m. 2016. four new species of genus acinopus dejean, 1821, subgenus acinopus from southern iran, from sinai, and from western saudi arabia, and faunistic and taxonomic notes on species previously described (coleoptera, carabidae, harpalini, harpalina). linzer biologische beiträge, 48 (2): 1783-1806. [click here] zokirova, d. f., alimova, l. kh. and khalimov, f. z. 2022. study of morphometric features of machozetus lehmanni menetries, 1848 endemic to central asia. scientific review. biological sciences, 1: 16-21. (in russian) [click here] http://bjc.sggw.waw.pl/arts/2007v7n1/196.pdf https://www.zobodat.at/personen.php?id=12040 https://www.zobodat.at/pdf/lbb_0048_2_1783-1806.pdf https://science-biology.ru/ru/article/view?id=1253 153 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum zokirova and khalimov bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2022) 17 (2): 141-153. القياسات املظهرية لخنفساء acinopus (acinopus) laevigatus menetries, 1832 coleoptera, carabidae)) في النظم البيئية الجبلية ألوزبكستان ديلنوزا ف. زوكيروفا و فازليتدين ز. خاليموف جامعة والية سمرقند ، سمرقند ، أوزبكستان 20/12/2022، تأريخ النشر: 6/7/2022، تأريخ القبول: 5/5/2022تأريخ االستالم: الخالصة مات املظهرية لـ َ عل َ acinopus (acinopus) laevigatus ménétriés, 1832 لنوعُدِرَست امل coleoptera, carabidae) بين ان َ طول الرأس هو األكثر( وتم تقييم تباينها الطولي. اذ ت ان أصغر قيمة ملعامل االختالف لعرض الجناح الغمدي. كانت اطوال َ ؛ كما لوِحظ ً تباينا بعرضها. ً مقارنة ً أجزاء الجسم )الرأس، ظهر الصدر االمامي، الجناح الغمدي( أكثر تباينا وجد انتم تحليل عالقة االرتباط بين املعلمات املظهرية ألجزاء مختلفة من الجسم؛ اذ ، (r = 0.93) (bl( وطول الجسم الكلي )elهنالك ارتباط كبير بين طول الجناح الغمدي ) = r) (pl( وطول ظهر الصدر االمامي )ewوأقل ارتباط وجد بين عرض الجناح الغمدي) 0.57 .) وفًقا لجميع مؤشرات القياسات، فأن افراد الخنافس في أعالي الجبال كانت أدنى من الجناح وسط الجبال، وكان التباين في الصفات أيًضا أقل؛ كما اتضح أن عرض أفراد يكون أكثر تنوًعا في أفراد املرتفعات. أظهر التحليل اإلحصائي موثوقية عالية إلى الغمدي حد ما لتأثير أحزمة االرتفاع على البيانات املظهرية للخنافس لجميع املتغيرات املدروسة. االرتفاعات املختلفة معنوية، تغييرات في نسب الجسم في مناطق ومع ذلك، لم تكن ال .ew / blباستثناء مؤشر bull 459 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum solijonov et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2023) 17 (3): 459-468. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2023.17.3.0459 original article new record of malacophagous leech of the genus alboglossiphonia lukin, 1976 from fergana valley, uzbekistan khayrulla solijonov*♦, zuvayd izzatullaev** and dilfuza umarova*** *andijan state university, andijan city, republic of uzbekistan. **samarkand state university, samarkand city, uzbekistan. ***andijan machine-building institute, andijan city, republic of uzbekistan. ♦corresponding author: khsolijonov1991@gmail.com recived date: 25 november 2022, accepted date 18 march 2023, published date:20 june 2023 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract in the present study, the malacophagous leech alboglossiphonia weberi (blandchard, 1897) (annelida, hirudinida, glossiphoniidae) was recorded for the first time in the freshwaters of the fergana valley in the eastern part of uzbekistan during 2020-2022. this species of leech is a new species for the hirudofauna of uzbekistan and central asia. the article describes its morphological and ecological characteristics and presents a distribution map and photographic pictures of the species. keywords: ecological characteristics, fergana valley, glossiphoniidae, leech, uzbekistan. introduction leeches are invertebrates belonging to the class clitellata, distributed mainly in freshwater and marine, some on terrestrial life (sket and trontelj, 2008). the order hirudinida is usually divided according to their type of feeding: vertebrate bloodsuckers (hematophagy), invertebrate hemolymph suckers (liquidosomatophagy) and predators (macrophagy) (lynggaard, 2022). currently, more than 900 species of leeches have been identified in the world, and about 240 of them belong to the glossiphoniidae family. there are 25 genera in the glossiphoniidae family and one of the genera identified in recent years is alboglossiphonia lukin, 1976 (magalhães et al., 2021; bolotov et al., 2022; solijonov and umarov, 2022). the genus alboglossiphonia lukin, 1976 was originally separated from the genus glossiphonia as a subgenus (lukin, 1976). it is now recognized as an independent genus of alboglossiphonia. specific characteristics of this genus: first pair of eyes closer together than succeeding two pairs, eyes arranged in triangular pattern; no papillae; male and female ducts open into a common gonopore; little pigmentation; generally amber-colored (govedich et al., 2019). alboglossiphonia includes the species: a. heteroclita (linnaeus, 1761) holarctic; a. hyalina (o.f. müller, 1774), a. striata (apáthy, 1888) and a. lata (oka, 1910) palaearctic; bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799-print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2023.17.3.0459 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7371-0244 mailto:khsolijonov1991@gmail.com https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 460 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum new record of malacophagous leech a. pallida (verrill, 1872) nearctic; a. australiensis (goddard, 1908), a. inflexa (goddard, 1908), a. intermedia (goddard, 1909), a. tasmaniensis (ingram, 1957), a. masoni (mason, 1974) and a. multistriata (mason, 1974) australasian; a. polypompholyx oosthuizen et al., 1988, a. iberica jueg, 2008 and a. levis gouda, 2010 afrotropical; a. annandalei (oka, 1922), a. pahariensis nesemann et al., 2007, a. kashiensis nesemann et al., 2007 and a. bhamoensis bolotov et al., 2022 oriental (blanchard, 1897; goddard, 1908; oka, 1910, 1922; ingram, 1957; mason, 1974; lukin, 1976; oosthuizen et al., 1988; nesemann and neubert, 1999; nesemann et al., 2007; jueg, 2008; gouda, 2010; bolotov et al., 2022; moser et al., 2022). the data were analyzed and it was found that the first researches on the study of leeches in uzbekistan began in the 19th century. in 1872, the naturalist-tourist scientist i. skornyakov noted that he collected specimens of medicinal leech hirudo medicinalis linnaeus, 1758 and erpobdella octoculata (linnaeus, 1758) from balikchi district (plotnikov, 1907). later, in 1912, the russian hirudologist g. shchegolev identified a total of 9 species in uzbekistan and neighboring regions. they include theromyzon tessulatum (o.f. müller, 1773), helobdella stagnalis (l., 1758), alboglossiphonia heteroclita (l., 1761), glossiphonia complanata (l., 1758), haemopis sanguisuga (l., 1758), h. medicinalis, limnatis turkestanica plotnikov, 1907, e. octoculata and trachelobdella turkestanica (shchegolev, 1912). there are many parasitologists scriabin (1913), dogel and bykhovsky (1934), pavlovsky (1934) and ichthyologists, yankovskaya (1948) and osmanov (1971) that observed parasitic leeches piscicola geometra l., 1761, l. turkestanica and hemiclepsis marginata (o.f. müller, 1773) in fishes: schizothorax intermedius mcclelland, 1842 and cyprinus carpio linnaeus, 1758 in their studies. however, up to now the leeches of uzbekistan have not been systematically studied and the data is insufficient. therefore, this paper aimed to study the fauna and ecology of leeches of uzbekistan and analyze their distribution. materals and methods the species alboglossiphonia weberi is distributed in different regions of the world, including indonesia (blanchard, 1897), india (kaburaki, 1921; harding and moore, 1927; nesemann et al., 2007), ethiopia (lukin, 1976), pakistan and nepal (chandra, 1983), myanmar (chandra, 1991), egypt (el-shimy and davies, 1991), thailand and malaysia (paul et al., 2021) (map 1. a). for the first time, the authors collected more than 100 (young 40 % and adult 60 %) samples of previously unrecorded malacophagous leech from the regions of the fergana valley in 2020-2022 (tab. 1, map 1 b). a biological research microscope (model xps-500e) was used to study the morphology of this species and it was determined that this species is a. weberi, belonged to glossiphoniidae family (blanchard, 1897; lukin, 1976; bolotov et al., 2022). leech specimens were first preserved in 10% ethanol for 15–30 min and then fixed in 96% ethanol (jovanović et al., 2021). 461 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum solijonov et al. table (1): distribution areas of a new record of the leech a. weberi in the fergana valley. no collecting biotope locality (district, region) coordinates date above sea level (m) number of leeches 1 kara darya river kurgantepa district, andijan region 40°46'30.1" n 73°03'12.6" e 23.iii.2020 802 18 2 fazilman ota spring khanabad city, andijan region 40°48'50.9" n 72°59'42.2" e 10.vi.2021 761 20 3 kara darya river izbaskan district, andijan region 40°51'32.8" n 72°19'10.9" e 19.viii.2022 458 34 4 stream andijan city, andijan region 40°43'52.0" n 72°18'51.8" e 9.iv.2020 484 28 5 stream asaka district, andijan region 40°41'57.7" n 72°16'35.1" e 22.ix.2020 483 22 6 kaynarbulak spring balikchi district, andijan region 40°53'32.3" n 71°51'16.8" e 30.v.2021 415 36 mean 567 26 462 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum new record of malacophagous leech map (1): geographic distribution of a.weberi; (a) literature records, (b) new records. results and discussion taxonomical part phylum: annelida lamarck, 1809 class: clitellata michaelsen, 1919 subclass: hirudinea lamarck, 1818 order: hirudinida siddall et al., 2001 suborder: glossiphoniiformes tessler and de carle, 2018 family: glossiphoniidae vaillant, 1890 genus: alboglossiphonia lukin, 1976 species: alboglossiphonia weberi (blanchard, 1897) note: the classification position according to lukin (1976), borda and siddall (2004) and tessler et al. (2018). description (pl. 1): body length 2-4mm in young leeches, width about 1-2 mm; average in adults 5-12 mm and width about 3-8 mm. the body in a calm state has an elongated oval shape, like other representatives of the family glossiphoniidae. however, its difference in body form from other glossifoniid leeches can be seen after feeding, that is, body width 463 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum solijonov et al. almost equal to length and remains round. dorsal surface of body not smooth; it has more than a hundred conical papillae with seven rows of black spots (lukin, 1976). larger in middle medial (single row), near the edges of body paramarginal (four rows) and at edge of body marginal (two rows), medial rows separated, but the rest combined (pl. 1 a). color body mostly white, almost transparent. therefore, after feeding the digestive organs can be seen with eye. сrop caeca divided into 6 pairs, first pair smaller, 2-5 pairs larger in length, and last branched into 5 rows (pl. 1 a). eyes divided into three pairs; the first one smaller and closer to each other. the next 2 pairs of eyes bigger; distance between eyes larger (pl. 1 c). like other glossifonides, they have a proboscis in front of their body to feed. posterior sucker small; a small part of sucker protrudes below abdominal cavity of body and adheres very tightly to substrate (pl. 1 d). somites with triannulate; genital pores joined and open in a common pore in furrow xii al/a2 (nesemann et al., 2007). some of the collected specimens contained more than 50 cocoons on their ventral side. leeches were feed in the laboratory for 20 days. about 50 young individuals are then formed from the eggs inside the cocoons, initially fed clinging to its mother’s ventral side, and then fed independently. plate (1): morphology of a. weberi; (a) dorsal side and 6 pairs of crop caeca, (b) ventral side with cocoons, (c) head part with three pairs of eyes, (d) posterior sucker. (photo by khayrulla solijonov). ecological habitats: a. weberi is a potamal species that lives in flowing water bodies with an average annual temperature not lower than 20 °c, and it can be found in non-turbid biotopes with a temperature of 20-24 °c and a depth of 20-90 cm. this species is widespread in warm basin (a thermophilic benthic organism). it mainly uses underwater rock and other solid objects (bricks, solid household waste) as a substrate. algae (myriophyllum verticillatum linnaeus, 1753), fish [schizothorax intermedius mcclelland, 1842, triplophysa strauchii (kessler, 1874)], marsh frogs namely pelophylax ridibundus (pallas, 1771), aquatic molluscs [lymnaea subdisjuncta (nevill, 1878), l. truncatula (o.f. müller, 1774), physella acuta (draparnaud, 1805), gyraulus acronicus (j.b. férussac, 1807)] (pazilov and umarov, 2021); and crustaceans, insect larvae were also found in the biotopes where this species lives. a. weberi participates in biotic relationships with other species in the biocenosis in the form of 464 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum new record of malacophagous leech “predator-prey”, in particular, it attacks and feeds on the internal fluids and soft tissues of small water molluscs such as l. subdisjuncta, l. truncatula, ph. acuta and g. acronicus. conclusions in conclusion, it can be said that alboglossihoni weberi is distributed in the territory of uzbekistan. this species feeds on gastropods, an intermediate host of helminthic parasites infecting livestock. as a result, the spread of helminthic diseases is prevented. aquatic ecosystems can be monitored by studying the fauna, distribution, and ecology of leeches. it is especially useful in preserving biodiversity. conflict of interest statement the results of the current study are part of the requirements of ph. d thesis in ecology, department of ecology and botany/andijan state university for the first author. we declare that there is no conflict of interest between the authors. we confirm that all the pictures in the manuscript belong to us. we note, in this study, that there is no conflict of interest regarding the use of the laboratory of andijan state university. acknowledgments we are grateful to professor naim sağlam from firat university and professor serge utevsky from kharkiv national university for their scientific advice. we would like to thank farrukh umarov, a doctoral student in andijan state university, for his help in collecting materials during the research. literature cited blanchard, r. 1897. hirundin´ees des indes n´eerlandaises. zoologische ergebnisse einer reise in niederländisch ost-indien, 4 (1): 332-356. 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[crossref] yankovskaya, a. i. 1948. materials and hydrobiology of the kara-darya basin. news of the academy of sciences of the uzbek ssr, 1: 60-69. [in russian] https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2021.16.3.0325 https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/121130#page/5/mode/1up https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/121130#page/5/mode/1up http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10750-007-9010-8 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2022.17.2.0229 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2018.05.001 468 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum new record of malacophagous leech bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2023) 17 (3): 459-468. من alboglossiphonia lukin, 1976من جنس اكالت القواقع لعلق سجل جديد ت كستانوادي فيرجانا، أوزب *** وديلفوزا عماروفا و فيد عزت هللا **و ز ،خير هللا سوليجونوف* .جامعة أنديجان الحكومية، مدينة أنديجان، جمهورية أوزبكستان * .أوزبكستانورية جمهجامعة والية سمرقند، مدينة سمرقند، ** .معهد أنديجان لبناء اآلالت، مدينة أنديجان، جمهورية أوزبكستان *** 20/6/2023، تأريخ النشر: 18/3/2023القبول: ، تأريخ 25/11/2022تأريخ االستالم: الخالصة alboglossiphonia weberi (blandchard, 1897) في هذه الدراسة العلقسجل (،annelida, hirudinida, glossiphoniidae) ألول مرة في املياه العذبة بوادي فرغانة في جديد . هذا النوع من العلق2022-2020ة الجزء الشرقي من أوزبكستان خالل الفتر املظهرية خصائصال البحث اعطى ؛في أوزبكستان وآسيا الوسطى العلقيات لفونا .للنوعصور فوتوغرافية خريطة توزيع و معوالبيئية 267 feyroz ramadan hassan bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2021) 16 (3): 267282. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2021.16.3.0267 survey of predator and parasitoid insects in duhok province, kurdistan region, iraq feyroz ramadan hassan department of plant protection, college of agricultural engineering sciences, university of duhok, duhok, iraq. feyroz.hassan@uod.ac received date: 24 november 2020, accepted date: 18 march 2021, published date: 20 jun 2021 abstract a total of 47 species belonging to 46 genera, 34 subfamilies, 23 families and 7 orders of predator and parasitoid insects were collected and identified. the survey was conducted throughout the program held by the general directorate of agriculture-duhok, in cooperating with the college of agricultural engineering sciences in duhok province, kurdistan region, iraq from may 2013 to april 2014. the species hosts, collecting date, locality and distributions are given. the current checklist also included some species previously collected by other researchers in duhok province. keywords: duhok, iraq, parasitoids, predators, survey. introduction duhok province (kurdistan region), located at the iraqi-turkey borders, is famous for its agricultural diversity that provides suitable environment for insect's reproduction and adaptation. usually, outbreaks of pest and natural enemy's populations are associated with changes in the ecological stability of ecosystems. the control of pest species is closely linked to their predation and parasitism by natural enemies that have occurred since the evolution of the first terrestrial ecosystems some 500 million years ago (waage and greathead, 1988). natural enemies can effectively prevent outbreaks of crop pests and control their populations (cracraft and grifo, 1999), which play as a key component of a 'systems approach' to integrated pest management (bale et al., 2008). the most important natural enemies belong to the insecta classwithin the orders hemiptera (anthocoridae, miridae), neuroptera (chrysopidae, conioterygidae), diptera (cecidomyiidae, muscidae, syrphidae), coleoptera (alleculidae, anthribidae, cantharidae, coccinellidae, cybocephalidae, endomychidae, nitidulidae, staphylinidae and tenebrionidae) and hymenoptera (braconidae, platygastridae, pteromalidae, encyrtidae, eulophidae, aphelinidae) (vacante and bonsignore, 2017). https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2021.16.3.0267 268 survey of predator and parasitoid insects in iraq, during the period between 1960-2017, a total of 99 different parasitoid species related to 86 genus, 18 families, 3 orders parasitized 44 different insect pest species were recorded. while 119 different predator’s species related to 69 genera, 22 families, 4 orders which preyed on 60 different insect pests were recorded (alrubeai, 2017). alrubeai (2017) also reported that the parasitoids intensively studied in iraq were: apanteles angaleti muesebeck, 1956; aphidophagous spp., bracon hebetor (=habrobracon hebetor (say, 1836)); trichogramma spp.; telenomus busseolae gahan, 1922; and predators intensively studied were: coccinella spp, orius sp., chrysoperla spp., clitostethus arcuatus (rossi, 1794); nephus sp.; stethorus gilvifrons (mulsant, 1850). the current study is the first attempt done in duhok province, kurdistan regioniraq, to document the predators and parasitoids present. the current survey also included some species previously collected by some iraqi researchers in duhok such as: assaf (2001), assaf (2007), mahmoud et al. (2008), akrawi (2011) and mirza (2014). materials and methods the specimens were collected from different districts in duhok province, kurdistan region, iraq from may 2013 to april 2014 on fruit and forest trees, vegetables and wild plants using hand picking, aspirator and sweeping net with 2-3 field collecting trips per week. the large and medium size specimens were mounted by the insect pins, while small specimens were preserved in 70% alcohol. then the predator and parasitoid specimens were sent to the iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad for identification. the name of families, subfamilies of each species, hosts and general distribution were obtained from the following catalogues; khalaf (1958, 1963); derwesh (1965); abdulrassoul (1976); ghahari et al. (2010, 2015); aukema et al. (2013); ghahari and moulet (2013). results a collection of 47 species belonging to 46 genera, 34 subfamilies, 23 families and 7orders of predators and parasitoids which were collected from 2013 to 2014 and the information about the collection and the related previous studies were listed alphabetically as below: predators (a) order, coleoptera (1) family, anthribidae billberg, 1820 subfamily, anthribinae billberg, 1820 anthribus fasciatus forster 1770 materials examined: 2 specimens, akra district (bijel), may 2009. hosts: eulecanium titiae (linnaeus, 1758) (coccidae) on fig trees (akrawi, 2011). general distribution: albania, armenia, austria, azerbaijan, belgium, bulgaria, bosnia and herzegovina, caucasus, czech republic, denmark, estonia, france, finland, georgia, great britain, germany, greece, iran, italy, iraq, israel, jordan, latvia, luxembourg, lebanon, 269 feyroz ramadan hassan netherlands, poland, portugal, romania, serbia, slovakia, siberia, spain, syria, sweden, switzerland, turkey, montenegro, kosovo, ukraine (yunakov et al., 2018). (2) family, carabidae latreille, 1802 subfamily, carabinae latreille, 1802 calosoma sp. material examined: 1 specimen, summel district, summel center, april 2014 on soil. general distribution: worldwide (gbif secretariat, 2019). subfamily, cicindelinae latreille, 1802 cicindela melancholica (fabricius, 1798) material examined: 1 specimen, bardarash district (kalak/ zangal village), march 2014 on cabbage plants. general distribution: southern europe to southern africa and from the cape verde islands to china (wiesner, 1992); iraq (ali, 1978). (3) family, coccinellidae latreille, 1807 subfamily, chilocorinae mulsant, 1846 chilocorus sp. material examined: 1 specimen, amadiya district (sarsink, duheeke village), june 2013 on weeds. general distribution: afrotropical: sudan; nearctic: usa; wide distribution in palearctic including mongolia (abdolahi et al., 2016); iraq (derwesh, 1965). exochomus quadripustulatus (linnaeus, 1758) material examined: 1 specimen, akra district (bijel), may 2009. hosts: eulecanium titiae (linnaeus, 1758) (hemiptera, coccidae) on fig trees (akrawi, 2011). general distribution: india, palearctic: wide distribution in western palearctic, russia, iraq (roberts, 1972; stary and kaddou, 1975). subfamily, coccinellinae latreille, 1807 coccinella septempunctata linnaeus, 1758 materials examined: 2 specimens, amadiya and summel districts, may 2013 on weeds. hosts: brachycaudus amygdalinus and hyalopterus pruni (assaf, 2001). general distribution: albania, andorra, azores, austria, balearic, belgium, belarus, bulgaria, bosnia and herzegovina, corsica, cyprus, croatia, czech republic, denmark, england, estonia, france, finland, greek, germany, hungary, italy, ireland, lithuania, latvia, luxembourg, liechtenstein, madeira, macedonia, malta, norway, netherlands, portuguese, poland, russia, romania, sardinia, slovenia, slovakia, sweden, spain, switzerland, ukraine and yugoslavia former (jafari et al., 2015); iraq (khalaf, 1958). coccinella undecimpunctata linnaeus, 1758 materials examined: 4 specimens, summel districts, may 2013 on apricot and peach trees infested with aphids. 270 survey of predator and parasitoid insects hosts: brachycaudus amygdalinus and hyalopterus pruni (assaf, 2001). general distribution: australia, canada, india, mongolia, nepal, new zealand, north africa, wide distribution in western palearctic, pakistan and usa (jafari et al., 2015); iraq (khalaf, 1958). hippodamia variegata (goeze, 1777) materials examined: 4 specimens, dohuk (zawita and mangesh); 4 specimens, summel (summel center and fayda); 4 specimens, amadiya (sersink and chamanke); 2 specimens, shekhan (shekhan center and qasrok); 1 specimens, zakho, darkar ajam; the specimens were collected in may 2013 on tomato, cucumber, sunflower, okra, pea, apple trees and weeds infested with aphid. general distribution: albania, andorra, austria ,azores, balearic, belarus, belgium, bosnia and herzegovina, bulgaria, corsica, croatia, cyprus, czech republic, denmark, england, estonia, finland, france, germany, greek, hungary, ireland, italy, latvia, liechtenstein, lithuania, luxembourg, macedonia, madeira, malta, netherlands, norway, poland, portuguese, romania, russia, sardinia, slovakia, slovenia, spain, sweden, switzerland, turkey, ukraine, yugoslavia former, east palearctic, near east, north africa and oriental region (jafari et al., 2015); iraq (khalaf, 1963). oenopia conglobata (linnaeus, 1759) materials examined: 2 specimens, duhok center; 1 specimen, mangesh; 3 specimens, amadiya, sersink; the specimens were collected in june 2013 on apple, apricot and plum trees infested with aphid. general distribution: nearctic: north america; oriental: india; palearctic: wide distribution in palearctic, northern china and pakistan (abdolahi et al., 2016); iraq (khalaf, 1963). subfamily, scymninae mulsant, 1846 scymnus syriacus marseul, 1868 material examined: one specimen, summel district, summel center; june 2013 on apricot trees infested with aphid. hosts: brachycaudus amygdalinus and hyalopterus pruni (assaf, 2001). general distribution: cyprus, egypt, israel, iraq, iran, jordan, lebanon, saudi arabia, syria (abdel-dayem et al., 2017); iraq (abdul-rassoul 1976; al rawi et al., 1977). (b) order, dermaptera family, forficulidae stephens, 1829 subfamily, forficulinae stephens, 1829 forficula auricularia linnaeus, 1758 materials examined: 2 specimens, mangesh; 1 specimen, amadiya, sersink; 1 specimen, summel, fayda; 2 specimens, shekhan; 2 specimens, zakho, darkarajam; the specimens were collected in may 2013 on okra, weeds and apple trees. general distribution: worldwide, iraq (derwesh, 1965). (c) order, dictyoptera 271 feyroz ramadan hassan family, mantidae burmeister, 1838 subfamily, mantinae burmeister, 1838 mantis religiosa (linnaeus, 1758) materials examined: 2 specimens, duhok center, august and summel center, july 2013 on weeds. general distribution: worldwide (gbif secretariat, 2019). (d) order, diptera (1) family, chamaemyiidae hendel, 1910 subfamily, chamaemyiinae hendel, 1910 leucopis ninae tanasijtshuk, 1966 materials examined: 2 specimens, summel district, summel center, may 2000. hosts: brachycaudus amygdalinus and hyalopterus pruni on apricot and peach trees (assaf, 2001). general distribution: england through europe to southern russia, bulgaria, ukraine, through the middle east and north africa, and to the middle asian states through to mongolia (ebejer and barták, 2019). (2) family, syrphidae latreille, 1802 subfamily, syrphinae leach, 1815 eupeodes corollae (fabricius, 1794) materials examined: 2 specimens, summel center, may 2013 on rose plant. general distribution: worldwide (dousti and hayat, 2006). (e) order, hemiptera (1) family: anthocoridae fieber, 1837 subfamily: anthocorinae fieber, 1837 orius albidipennis (reuter, 1884) material examined: 1 specimen, summel center, june 2013, apricot trees infested with aphids. general distribution: arabian peninsula, canary islands, cape verde islands, caucasus, central asia, india, madeira, near east, pakistan, spain, northern and tropical africa (ostovan et al., 2017), iraq (kaddou, 1967). (2) family, geocoridae baerensprung, 1860 subfamily, geocorinae baerensprung, 1860 geocoris sp. materials examined: 2 specimens, duhok center, july 2013 on kidney bean plants infested with aphids. general distribution: worldwide (gbif secretariat, 2019). (3) family, miridae hahn, 1833 subfamily, bryocorinae baerensprung, 1860 nesidiocoris tenuis (reuter, 1895) 272 survey of predator and parasitoid insects materials examined: 4 specimens, summel district (summel center), april 2014. hosts: tuta absoluta larvae on tomato plants (mirza, 2014). general distribution: paleotropical region (ghahari and chérot, 2014). subfamily, deraeocorinae douglas & scott, 1865 deracoris sp. material examined: 1 specimen, summel district (batel), may 2013 on melon plants. general distribution: palaearctic region (ghahari and cherot, 2014). (4) family, nabidae a. costa, 1853 subfamily, nabinae a. costa, 1853 nabis pseudoferus remane, 1949 materials examined: 4 specimens, summel (summel center), april 2014. hosts: tuta absoluta larvae on tomato plants (mirza 2014). general distribution: east turkey, cyprus, lebanon, iran and iraq (kerzhner, 1996; ghahari et al., 2015). (5) family, reduviidae latreille, 1807 subfamily, harpactorinae amyot & audinetserville, 1843 coranus aegyptius (fabricius, 1775) materials examined: 3 specimens, summel (summel center), april 2014. hosts: tuta absoluta larvae on tomato plants (mirza, 2014). general distribution: afghanistan, armenia, algeria, canary islands, chad, cape verde islands, egypt, iraq, iran, libya, morocco, mauritania, senegal, saudi arabia, syria, turkmenistan, tunisia, uzbekistan, yemen (aukema et al., 2013, ghahari et al., 2013). subfamily, reduviinae amyot & serville, 1843 reduvius pallipes klug, 1830 material examined: 1 specimen, summel district (summel center), june 2013 on soil. general distribution: north africa, italy (sicily), malta, balkan peninsula, arabian peninsula, iran, pakistan, iraq (aukema et al., 2013; ghahari et al., 2013). (f) order, neuroptera family, chrysopidae schneider, 1851 subfamily, chrysopinae schneider, 1851 chrysoperla carnea (stephens, 1836) materials examined: 2 specimens, mangesh; 2 specimens, summel (summel center), fayda, may 2013 on wheat and weed plants. general distribution: widely distributed in the palaearctic region, extending to afrotropical (cape verde, oman, united arab emirates, yemen) and oriental (china, india, nepal) regions (letardi et al., 2020). parasitoids (a) order, diptera 273 feyroz ramadan hassan family, tachinidae subfamily, phasiinae phasia sp. materials examined: (4 specimens) summel district (summel center), april 2006. host: sunn pest eurygaster integriceps adults on wheat field (assaf, 2007). general distribution: worldwide (gbif secretariat, 2019). (b) order, hymenoptera (1) family, aphelinidae thomson, 1876 subfamily, coccophaginae forster, 1878 coccophagus sp. material examined: 1 specimen, akra district (bijel), may 2009. host: eulecanium titiae (linnaeus, 1758) (coccidae: homoptera) on fig trees (akrawi, 2011). general distribution: afghanistan, armenia, azerbaijan, cyprus, georgia, greece, iran, iraq, israel, kyrgyzstan, syria, tajikistan, turkey, turkmenistan, ukraine, uzbekistan (abdrabou et al., 2013). (2) family, braconidae nees, 1811 subfamily, aphidiinae haliday, 1833 aphidius transcaspicus telenga, 1958 materials examined: 3 specimens, summel (summel center), may 2013. hosts: brachycaudus amygdalinus and hyalopterus pruni on apricot and peach trees (assaf, 2001; mahmoud et al., 2008). general distribution: algeria, iran, egypt, israel, morocco, tunisia, turkey, iraq (stary, 1971). praon volucre (haliday, 1833) materials examined: 1 specimen, summel (summel center), may 2008. hosts: brachycaudus amygdalinus, hyalopterus pruni on apricot and peach trees (assaf, 2001; mahmoud et al., 2008). general distribution: palaearctic, neotropical and oriental (farahani et al., 2016), iraq (stary, 1971). subfamily, braconinae nees, 1811 bracon osculator nees, 1811 materials examined: 1 specimen, summel, (summel center), april 2014. host: tuta absoluta larvae on tomato plants (mirza, 2014). general distribution: hungary, iran, mongolia, azerbaijan, caucasus, russia, yugoslavia, italy, romania, poland, switzerland, sweden, siberia, spain, finland, denmark, austria, belgium, the netherlands, germany, france, and england (ameri et al., 2015). habrobracon hebetor (say, 1836) material examined: 1 specimen, summel (summel center) april 2014. host: tuta absoluta larvae on tomato plants (mirza, 2014). 274 survey of predator and parasitoid insects general distribution: cosmopolitan afrotropical ( botswana, lesotho, mauritius, mozambique, nigeria, senegal, south africa, sudan); australian ( australia, new south wales, new zealand); eastern palearctic (china, mongolia, japan, korea, russia); nearctic (mexico, usa); neotropical ( argentina, barbados, bermuda, brazil, cuba, jamaica, peru, puerto rico); oriental ( bangladesh, china, taiwan, india, malaysia, myanmar, singapore, sri lanka, thailand, vietnam); western palaearctic ( afghanistan, algeria, armenia, azerbaijan, azores, belgium, bulgaria, canary islands, cape verde islands, croatia, cyprus, czech republic, egypt, england, france, georgia, germany, greece, hungary, iran, iraq, ireland, israel, italy, kazakhstan, lithuania, macedonia, madeira islands, moldova, morocco, netherlands, niger, pakistan, poland, portugal, romania, russia, russia, saudi arabia, serbia, slovakia, slovenia, spain, switzerland, syria, tajikistan, tunisia, turkey, turkmenistan, ukraine, uzbekistan) (ameri et al., 2013). subfamily, euphorinae förster, 1862 dinocampus coccinellae (schrank, 1802) material examined: 1 specimen, summel, june 2000. host: coccinella septempunctata adult (assaf, 2001). general distribution: australasian, nearctic, neotropical, oceanic, oriental and palaearctic (farahani et al., 2016). (3) family, crabronidae latreille, 1802 subfamily, astatinae lepeletier de saint fargeau, 1845 astata sp. materials examined: 1specimen, summel (batel, ashei village), july 2013 on weeds. general distribution: austria, afghanistan, algeria, albania, belgium, britain, canary island, croatia, china, czech republic, chile, cyprus, denmark, egypt, estonia, finland, france, greece, germany, hungary, iraq, india, iran, israel, italy, korea, kuwait, kazakhstan, latvia, libya, lithuania, oman, madeira, mongolia, malta, morocco, netherlands, norway, poland, portugal, romania, russia, slovakia, sweden, spain, switzerland, socotra, syria, south africa, tajikistan, tunisia, turkey, turkmenistan, ukraine, uzbekistan, former yugoslavia, yemen (gadallah et al., 2013). subfamily, crabroninae latreille, 1802 larra anathema (rossi, 1790) material examined: (1 specimen) zakho (rezgari, bezhi), june 2013 on weeds. general distribution: austria, algeria, belarus, bulgaria, china, cyprus, croatia, czech republic, egypt, france, germany, greece, great britain, hungary, iran, ireland, iraq, israel, italy, kazakhstan, libya, macedonia, morocco, malta, portugal, russia, romania, slovakia, slovenia, spain, south africa, syria, switzerland, tajikistan, turkey, tunisia, turkmenistan, united arab emirates, uzbekistan, ukraine (gadallah et al., 2013). (4) family, encyrtidae walker, 1837 subfamily, encyrtinae walker, 1837 blastothrix sp. 275 feyroz ramadan hassan material examined: 1 specimen, akra district ( bijel), may 2009. host: eulecanium titiae (linnaeus, 1758) (coccidae) that infested the fig trees (akrawi, 2011). general distribution: wide distribution in palearctic region (japoshvili et al., 2016). cheiloneurus sp. materials examined: 2 specimens, akra district (bijel), may 2009. host: eulecanium titiae (coccidae) that infested the fig trees (akrawi, 2011). general distribution: wide distribution in palearctic region (japoshvili et al., 2016). encyrtus sp. material examined: 1 specimen, akra district (bijel), may 2009. host: eulecanium titiae (linnaeus, 1758) that infested of fig trees (akrawi, 2011). general distribution: wide distribution in palearctic region (japoshvili et al., 2016). eusemion sp. materials examined: 2 specimens, akra district (bijel), may 2009. host: eulecanium titiae (linnaeus, 1758) (coccidae) that infested of the fig trees (akrawi, 2011). general distribution: wide distribution in palearctic region (japoshvili et al., 2016). syrphophagus nigrocyaneus ashmead, 1904 material examined: 1 specimen, summel, june 2000. host: syrphus pupae (assaf, 2001). general distribution: afrotropical, china, japan (japoshvili et al., 2016); iraq (abdulrassoul, 1976). (5) family, eulophidae westwood, 1829 subfamily, eulophinae westwood, 1829 pnigalio sp. material examined: 1specimen, summel district (summel center), may 2014. host: tuta absoluta larvae that infested of the tomato plants (mirza, 2014). general distribution: nearctic and palearctic region (gbif secretariat, 2019). (6) family, scelionidae (haliday, 1839) subfamily, telenominae thomson, 1860 trissolcus sp. materials examined: 6 specimens, summel district (summel center), march 2006. host: sunn pest eurygaster integriceps eggs on wheat field (assaf, 2007). general distribution: worldwide (gbif secretariat, 2019). (7) family, sphecidae latreille, 1802 subfamily, ammophilinae andré, 1886 ammophila duhokensis augul, abdoul-rassoul & kaddou, 2013. 276 survey of predator and parasitoid insects materials examined: 1 specimen, zawita/ rashanki village, july 2013 on weeds. general distribution: iraq (augul et al., 2013). podalonia tydei (le cuillou, 1841) materials examined: 2 specimens, shekhan (qasrok), july 2013 on weed plants. general distribution: afghanistan, algeria, angola, australia, bulgaria, canary islands, chad, china, cyprus, egypt, eritrea, ethiopia, france, greece, hungary, india, iraq, iran, italy, israel, jordan, kenya, kazakhstan, libya, macedonia, malta, morocco, mongolia, niger, oman, pakistan, portugal, russia, romania, rwanda, saudi arabia, south africa, somalia, spain, syria, sudan, tajikistan, tunisia, tanzania, turkmenistan, turkey, united arab emirates, uzbekistan, uganda, western sahara, yemen, former yugoslavia, zimbabwe (gadallah et al., 2013). subfamily, sceliphrinae ashmead, 1899 sceliphron madraspatnam (fabricius, 1781) materials examined: 2 specimens bardarash (bishiryan), july 2013 in tomato and cucumber fields. general distribution: afghanistan, bangladesh, bulgaria, central asia, china, croatia, democratic republic of the congo, france, greece, india, indonesia, iran, iraq, italy, japan, kazakhstan, kyrgyzstan, laos, malaysia, montenegro, pakistan, philippines, russia (only european), spain, syria, taiwan, tajikistan, thailand, turkey, turkmenistan, ukraine, uzbekistan, vietnam (gadallah et al., 2013). subfamily, sphecinae latreille, 1802 prionyx viduatus (christ, 1791) materials examined: 2 specimens, bajli, july 2013 on weed plant. general distribution: afghanistan, algeria, cameroon, canary islands, china, cyprus, egypt, ethiopia, france, gabon, greece, guinea, india, israel, iran, italy, iraq, japan, kyrgyzstan, kazakhstan, libya, malta, morocco, mauritania, namibia, niger, oman, portugal, russia, saudi arabia, senegal, somalia, south africa, spain syria, sri lanka, taiwan, thailand, tajikistan, tanzania, tunisia, turkey, turkmenistan, united arab emirates, uzbekistan, ukraine, vietnam, western sahara, yemen, zaire (gadallah et al., 2013). (8) family, pteromalidae dalman, 1820 subfamily, pteromalinae dalman, 1820 pachyneuron muscarum (linnaeus, 1758) materials examined: 7 specimens, summel, may 2000. hosts: hyperparasitoid on aphidius transcaspicus telenga, 1958 (assaf, 2001); one specimen, unknown species of pachyneuron sp., akra district, bijel, june 2009 on eulecanium titiae on fig trees (akrawi, 2011). general distribution: belgium, bulgaria, caucasus, croatia, czech republic, denmark, europe, france, georgia, germany, greece, hungary, india, israel, italy, kazakhstan, moldova, the netherlands, poland, romania, russia, saudi arabia, serbia, slovakia, spain, 277 feyroz ramadan hassan sweden, switzerland, taiwan, turkey, ukraine, uk, former yugoslavia (ghahari et al., 2015). pteromalus puparum (linnaeus, 1758) materials examined: 5 specimens, summel (summel center), april 2013 on papilio demoleus pupae. general distribution: algeria, australia, austria, azores, barbados, belgium, bermuda, bolivia, bulgaria, canada, canary islands, chile, china, croatia, czech republic, egypt, el salvador, europe, finland, france, germany, greece, hawaii, hungary, india, iraq, ireland (north and south), israel, italy, japan, kazakhstan, kirgizia, korea, south korea, macedonia, madeira, malaysia, moldova, mongolia, nepal, the netherlands, new zealand, north africa, pakistan, papua new guinea, poland, portugal, romania, russia, saudi arabia, slovakia, south africa, spain, sweden, switzerland, tadzhikistan, taiwan, turkey, ukraine, uk and usa (ghahari et al., 2015). scutellista caerulea (fonscolombe, 1832) material examined: 1 specimen, akra district (bijel), august 2009. host: ceroplastes rusci (l.) (coccidae) on fig trees (akrawi, 2011). general distribution: afrotropical, albania, algeria, argentina, australia, azerbaijan, bolivia, brazil, canary islands, cayman islands, chile, china, colombia, croatia, cuba, cyprus, czech republic, dominican republic, egypt, el salvador, eritrea, ethiopia, france, georgia, greece, hawaii, india, israel, italy, ivory coast, japan, kenya, lebanon, malta, mexico, morocco, the netherlands, new zealand, north africa, oman, peru, puerto rico, senegal, south africa, spain, sri lanka, trinidad & tobago, tunisia, turkey, uganda, usa and venezuela (ghahari et al., 2015). (9) family, ichneumonidae latreille, 1802 subfamily, diplazontinae viereck, 1918 diplazon laetatorius (fabricius, 1781) material examined: 1 specimen, summel district (summel center), may 2000. host: syrphus sp. pupae (assaf, 2001). general distribution: afghanistan, albania, argentina, australia, austria, azerbaijan, belarus, belgium, brazil, bulgaria, burundi, canada, chile, china, congo, costa rica, croatia, cyprus, czech republic, egypt, estonia, ethiopia, fiji, finland, france, germany, greece, guam, guatemala, hungary, iceland, india, indonesia, iran, ireland, israel, italy, japan, korea, latvia, libya, lithuania, luxembourg, madagascar, mexico, moldova, mongolia, netherlands, new zealand, norway, pakistan, papua new guinea, peru, philippines, poland, portugal, romania, russia, rwanda, réunion, senegal, serbia & montenegro, south africa, spain, sudan, sweden, switzerland, tajikistan, tunisia, turkey, turkmenistan, uganda, ukraine, united kingdom, uruguay, usa, uzbekistan, zambia and zimbabwe (klopfstein, 2014); iraq (al-ali, 1977). subfamily, phygadeuontinae forster, 1869 dichrogaster sp. 278 survey of predator and parasitoid insects material examined: 1 specimen, summel district (summel center), may 2000. hosts: larvae of chrysoperla vulgaris (schneider, 1851) (assaf, 2001). general distribution: western palearctic region (barahoei et al., 2015). discussion this study is the result of the field survey carried out in duhok province, kurdistan regioniraq focuses on insect predators and parasitoids. in this paper, we listed 47 species, of which 24 were collected during the current survey; and the rest species previously collected in duhok city. the plant biodiversity of duhok is very rich that provides a suitable environment for insects to build up, therefore duhok deserves further, more comprehensive entomological investigation to document the natural enemies. the climate of duhok is very favorable, and serves as a refuge for both plants and animals. further studies may also lead to the discovery of host plants and biology of several poorly known species, improving our knowledge about the aspects of their life cycle, environmental conditions and needs of the nature conservation. literature cited abdel-dayem, m. s., fad, h. h., el-torkey, a. m., elgharbawy, a. a., aldryhim, y. n., kondratieff, b. c., al ansi, a. n. and aldhafer, h. m. 2017. the beetle fauna (insecta, coleoptera) of the rawdhatkhorim national park, central saudi arabia. zookeys, 653: 1-78. abdolahi, m. r., nozari, j., allahyari, h. and zare k. m. 2016. checklist and distribution of lady beetles (coleoptera: coccinellidae) in iran. iranian journal of animal biosystematics, 12 (1): 1-35. abd-rabou, sh., ghahari, h., myartseva, s. n. and ruíz-cancino, e. 2013. iranian aphelinidae (hymenoptera: chalcidoidea). journal of entomology and zoology studies, 1 (4): 116-140. abdul-rassoul, m. s.1976. checklist of iraq natural history museum insect’s collection. bulletin of the iraq natural history museum, 1(30): 41. akrawi, d. s. a. 2011. some ecological and biological studies of ceroplastes rusci (l.) and eulecanium tiliae (l.) 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(2021) 16 (3): 267282. اقليم –للمفترسات وأشباه الطفيليات الحشرية في محافظة دهوك مسح كوردستان العراق فيروز رمضان حسن ، دهوك، العراق قسم وقاية النبات، كلية علوم الهندسة الزراعية، جامعة دهوك 2021/ 20/60، تأريخ النشر: 18/03/2021، تأريخ القبول: 2020/ 24/11تأريخ االستالم: الخالصة عائلة و 23عويلة ، 34جنسا، 46 نوعا تعود الى 47 تم تسجيل وتشخيص -رتب حشرية للمفترسات والطفيليات خالل مسح أجري في محافظة دهوك 7 . 2014-2013كوردستان العراق تضمنت ؛ اذكرت البيانات المتعلقة بالعوائل و توزيع المناطق المتواجدة فيه القائمة المرجعية الحالية أيًضا بعض األنواع التي جمعت سابقًا من قبل باحثين آخرين في محافظة دهوك. bull 549 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum abdulazizova et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2023) 17(4): 549-557. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2023.17.4.0549 original article new species of the genus fruticicola held, 1838 (gastropoda, pulmonata) from afghanistan shoira k. abdulazizova*, abduvaeit p. pazilov**, mehrangiz sohail*** and farrukh u. umarov****♦ *termez state university, termez, uzbekistan. **gulistan state university, gulistan, uzbekistan. ***faryab university, maymana, afghanistan. ****andijan state university, andijan, uzbekistan. ♦corresponding author e-mail: eco_umarov@mail.ru recived date: 02 november 2022, accepted date 10 june 2023, published date:20 december 2023 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract in may 2021, one of the authors collected 22 specimens of land mollusks in the khoja mohammed ridge, located in the northeastern part of afghanistan. shell is extraordinary, similar to fruticicola perlucens (rosen, 1903). however, having a number of differences, including a finely grained sculpture of the embryonic whorls, smoothly ribbed last whorl, evenly turned edges of the aperture, a strongly blurred white lip, and a clearly pronounced swollen base of the stylophore of this species, makes it describe of fruticicola pseudoperlucens sp. nov. as new species to science. keywords: afghanistan, habitat, new species, reproductive tract, shell. introduction from the malacological point of view, the territory of afghanistan is one of the most unexplored regions of central asia; in terms of the mollusk fauna, no systematic and targeted study has been carried out at all (kantor et al., 2009). the earliest reports on afghanistan molluscs consists of scattered descriptions of materials gathered on various military expeditions (solem, 1979). only the reports of hutton (1850), who recorded 21 species, and ancey (1893), who listed 27 taxa, are at all comprehensive. however, information on terrestrial mollusks of afghanistan from the genus fruticicola held, 1838, is available in the works of jaeckel (1956), likharev and starobogatov (1967), and solem (1979). for example, in the vicinity of fayzabad, jaeckel (1956) notes the presence of “cathaica” fedtschenkoi (martens, 1874), and likharev and starobogatov (1967) “cathaica” perlucens (rosen, 1901), and solem (1979) “bradybaena” fedtschenkoi. bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799-print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2023.17.4.0549 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6998-3971 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2587-1377 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1087-0985 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3530-1500 mailto:eco_umarov@mail.ru https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 550 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum new species of the genus fruticicola materials and methods research material: in 22 specimens, 20 of them were alive, the remaining 2 were empty shells, on may 17, 2021. collected by m. sohail from the northern slopes of khodjamuhammad ridge: fayzabad, taloqan, baghlani jadid city, kalafgan district, mangal village ( map 1). however, this species differs from f. perlucens in some conchological characteristics, and this difference necessitated a detailed conchological and anatomical study of this species. therefore, in this research, our materials and the collection of mollusks (f. fedtschenkoi, f. perlucens) at the zoological museum of the russian academy of sciences (sankt-peterburg) and moscow state university (moscow) were analyzed. t u r k m n e n i s t a n r. bandi-turkistan middle afghan mountains a f g h a n i s t a n 60°e 64°e 68°e 72°e 36°n 32°n 0 100 200 300 km map (1): location map fruticicola pseudoperlucens. [(symbol: ) collection points for material]. the points on the map are in order from top to bottom:(1 ) 37°05'26.0"n 70°33'34.5"e (fayzabad city); (2 ) 36°50'42.2"n 70°05'40.1"e (kalafgan district); (3 ) 36°40'26.5"n 69°37'43.6"e (taloqan city); (4) 36°16'14.8"n 68°42'18.6"e (baghlani jadid city); (5) 35°59'18.1"n 68°32'08.3"e (mangal village). material collection and study of reproductive organ structure: the material is mainly hand-picked, as hand-picking provides a greater opportunity to fully explore the diverse biotopes of natural landscapes.the study of the composition and number of species is carried out as follows: species with a shell size of up to 8 mm are counted on an area of 0.25 sq.m., and those with a shell larger than 8 mm are counted on an area of 1 sq.m. the material is mainly collected in the morning in humid weather because at this time, the dew has not yet dried and many mollusks are actively moving, so they can be easily found. the material was acquisition procedure and analysis of reproductive organ structures was carried out according to the methods of schileyko (1978), pazilov and azimov (2003), 551 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum abdulazizova et al. pazilov and umarov (2022). to study the structure of the genital organ of molluscs, it is necessary to first remove the soft body part from the shell. if the typed material is well fixed, it can be easily removed from the shell. otherwise, the shell is broken and the soft body is separated. after the soft body is separated, it is placed in a paraffin bath with the right side up and the leg facing the observer, and a 70 % ethyl alcohol solution is poured into it. specimens were studied using an olympus sz61-set stereo microscope. fixation of materials: fixation is carried out by the method of bratchik (1976), the mollusk is placed in a jar, water at room temperature is poured over it, and the mouth of the jar is tightly closed with a lid. then the jar is placed in a container with water, and temperature of the water is gradually raised to 70°c in 40-50 minutes, after the molluscs die, they are taken out and placed in 70 % ethyl alcohol (schileyko, 1978). identification: the study of collected materials in laboratory conditions began with the determination of species composition. first of all, shell markings were studied. that is, the shape of the shell, the number of rolls is determined, and the size and color of the shell are taken into account (pazilov and azimov, 2003). secondly, the reproductive organ of molluscs is studied anatomically. the reason is that the reproductive organ of molluscs differs in each species. to study the reproductive organ, the genital opening under the right eye tentacles of the mollusk is found and cut transversely. it is then cut with sharp surgical scissors from the lower part of the body up to the folds of the mantle. five specimens of each species were studied in order to determine the genital organ (schileyko, 1978). results and discussion it should be noted that during the last 50 years, the first malacological studies were conducted in the territory of afghanistan, in 2021 found specimens of a species similar to fruticicola perlucens (rosen, 1901) from the northern slopes of khoja-muhammad ridge (solem, 1979). according to the results of the conducted research, the mollusc collected from the northern slopes of the khoja-muhammad ridge differed from the close morphological group (f. fedtchenkoi, f. perlucens) in terms of conchological and reproductive organ structure, and was recognized by us as a new scientific species fruticicola pseudoperlucens. systematic according to sysoev and schilleyko (2009), the taxonomic rank of this species is as follow: phylum: mollusca class: gastropoda order: stylommatophora superfamily: helicoidea rafinesque, 1815 family: camaenidae plisbry, 1939 subfamily: bradybaeninae plisbry, 1939 genus: fruticicola held, 1838 species: fruticicola pseudoperlucens sp. nov. (pl. 2) 552 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum new species of the genus fruticicola type locality: khoja mohammed ridge (north-eastern part of afghanistan). materials: 22 specimens. from a typical location, may 17.v.2021; 7 specimens were anatomized. the holotype (№ bm-707) and 11 paratypes (№ bm-708) are deposited at gulistan state university. etymology: derived from the combination of the words “pseudo” and “perlucens”, “pseudo” is a greek word that means “false”, and “perlucens” is the species name, that is, pseudoperlucens means “false perlucens”. plate (1): fruticicola pseudoperlucens sp. nov. khoja mohammed ridge (afghanistan). the description shell pressed, moderately hard-walled, composed of 4.5 more convex whorls. last whorl to mouth, with smoothly lowered and slightly more than 1.5 times wider than the penultimate one. shell with grayish-pink color; embryonic turns (about 1.5) light yellow. surface of embryonic whorls, shiny, with fine grains. sculpture of upper definitive turns in form of a rather frequent radial wrinkling; last whorl toward aperture smoothly ribbed; lower ones often represented by a thin trickle striation and sometimes rough folds. aperture with wide-oval, rather strongly beveled, edges evenly turned away, the places of its attachment are slightly brought together and connected by a thin callus. at the aperture, there is a very blurred lip. umbilicus with funnel-shaped promising, its width about 1/7 of the diameter of shell. the height of the shell is 10-12, the large diameter is 21-23 mm; the holotype is 10.522.5, respectively. vas deferens thin, forming several unstable bends before the penis attaches. penis retractor very short, and located at the attachment points of vas deferens and penis; penis thin, cylindrical. stylophore massive, club-shaped. additional sac is well developed, squeezed between stylophore and wall of vagina. the mucous glands flow in on the basis of an additional sac. stylophore with pronounced swelling basally; vagina wide; free ovid very 10 mm 553 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum abdulazizova et al. steeply curved twice, length of which is about 1.5 times longer than vagina. duct of vas deferens thickened at basal part. reservoir of a seed receptacle with a spherical shape (pl. 2). plate (2): fruticicola pseudoperlucens. reproductive tract. (va-vagina, sr-spermathecal reservoir, fo-free oviduct, mg-mucous glands, st-stylophore, ebextra bag, sstswollen stylofor). distribution and habitats the species is known only from a typical location and inhabits large-scale talus. the conchological and anatomical differences of the new species from the related species the difference in conchological signs: f. pseudoperlucens sp. nov. is very similar to f. perlucens (pl. 3) in shell structure. however, it is distinguished by the following conchological characters: sculpture of embryo shells has a fine-grained, sandy appearance; last whorl covered with a smooth rib-like growth near aperture of shell; conch aperture edges evenly turned back; aperture of shell has a strongly spreading white lip; last whorl strongly bent towards aperture. 10 mm 554 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum new species of the genus fruticicola 10 mm plate (3): fruticicola perlucens. shell from the same locality as f. pseudoperlucens. the difference in anatomical structure the structure of the reproductive organ of the new species is distinguished by the following features: an additional sac-like growth is indistinctly developed and is not sensitized at the base of a large stylophore; the claw-like mucous gland is attached to the base of the extra saccular tumor. in f. perlucens, the accessory sac-like growth is well developed, even larger than the stylophore (pl. 4); the claw-like mucous gland is adjoined in the apical position to the extra saccular tumor. the new species has a swelling at the base of the stylophore, which is not found in the free-growing f. perlucens. 10 mm plate (4): fruticicola perlucens. reproductive tract. (mg-mucous glands, st-stylophore, ebextra bag. based on the facts presented in the material, the following conclusions can be drawn. first, do the cathaica fedtschenkoi (martens, 1874) mentioned by jaeckel (1956) and the bradybaena fedtschenkoi (martens, 1874) mentioned by solem (1979) really occur in afghanistan? at this point, it should be noted that the current range of f. fedtschenkoi 555 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum abdulazizova et al. (martens, 1874) is limited to western tien-shan and is not found in other regions of central asia, especially in afghanistan. secondly, likharev and starobogatov (1967) in their work noted that "cathaica" perlucens is distributed around fayzabad. in fact, the occurrence of f. perlucens in the kuhitang mountain range in southern uzbekistan, adjacent to afghanistan, was reported in our works (schileyko et al., 2017, 2020). however, during the malacological research conducted by m.sohail in afghanistan in 2021, the distribution of f. perlucens species from the abovementioned fayzabad (and other) areas was not detected. currently, cathaica perlucens (rosen, 1901), included in the genus fruticicola by schileyko and rymzhanov (2013), is in the same morphological line with f. pseudoperlucens, which is recognized as a new species. while the structure of the shell is similar to each other, they differ sharply in terms of the structure of the reproductive organ. this sharp difference led to the recognition of f. pseudoperlucens as a new species. in our opinion, it is necessary to continue extensive malacological research in the territory of afghanistan. this allows enriching the malakofauna not only of central asia, but also of the world with new information. conclusions thus, considering the above data, we can draw the following conclusions, including: these species, living within the same scree, do not differ in anything except the structure of the organs of the female reproductive tract, which was the main reason for the description of a new species, f. pseudoperlucens. conflict of interest statement we declare that there is no conflict of interest between the authors. we confirm that all the pictures in the manuscript belong to us. we note in this study that there is no conflict of interest regarding the use of the gulistan state university laboratory. literature cited ancey, c. f. 1893. faunes malacologiques de l'afghanistan et du beloutchistan. bulletin de la société zoologique de france, 18: 40-47. bratchik, r. ya. 1976. rapid fixation method for terrestrial molluscs. zoological journal, 55(7): 1078-1079. (in russian). hutton, t. 1850. notices of some land and fresh water shells occurring in afghanistan. journal of the asiatic society of bengal, 2(18): 649-661. jaeckel, s. 1956. die weichtiere (mollusca) der afghanistan-expedition (1952 und 1953) j. klapperichs. mitteilungen aus dem zoologischen museum in berlin, 32(2): 337-353. 556 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum new species of the genus fruticicola kantor, y. i., vinarski, m. v., schileyko, a. a. and sysoev, a. v. 2009. catalogue of the continental mollusks of russia and adjacent territories". [click here] likharev, i. m. and starobogatov, y. i. 1967. on the molluscan fauna of afghanistan. proceedings of the zoological institute of the soviet academy of sciences, 42: 159197. [in russian] pazilov, a. and azimov, d. a. 2003. land molluscs (gastropoda, pulmonata) of uzbekistan and contiguous territories. tashkent: fan press, 316 pp. (in russian). pazilov, a. p. and umarov, f. u. 2022. conchological variability of terrestrial mollusk chondrulopsina fedtschenkoi (ancey, 1886) (gastropoda, pulmonata, enidae) from the zarafshan range, uzbekistan. bulletin of the iraq natural history museum, 17(1): 103-113. [crossref] schileyko, a. a. 1978. terrestrial mollusks of the superfamily helicoidea. fauna sssr. molluscs. 3 (6). nauka, leningrad, 384 pp. (in russian). schileyko, a. a. and rymzhanov, t. s. 2013. fauna of land mollusks (gastropoda, pulmonata terrestria) of kazakhstan and adjacent territories. moscow – almaty: kmk sci. press, 389 pp. (in russian) [click here] schileyko, a., pazilov, a. and abdulazizova, sh. 2017. a new genus of the bradybaenidae family (gastropoda, pulmonata) from central asia. ruthenica, russian malacological journal, 27(1): 31-37. (in russian) [crossref] schileyko, a., pazilov, a. and abdulazizova, sh. 2020. one more surprise from bradybaenidae (gastropoda, pulmonata). ruthenica, russian malacological journal, 30(4): 217-221. (in russian) [crossref] solem, a. 1979. some mollusks from afghanistan. fieldiana zoology, new series, field museum of natural history, usa, no. 1, 89 pp.[click here] sysoev, a. and schilleyko, a. 2009. land snails and slugs of russia and adjacent countries. sofia moskow pensoft publishers, 321 pp. [click here] http://konstantinz.byethost32.com/books/kantor_2010.pdf?i=1 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2022.17.1.0103 https://djvu.online/file/ee6rbcplupu2p https://doi.org/10.35885/ruthenica.2017.27(1).3 https://doi.org/10.35885/ruthenica.2021.30(4).6 https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/itempdf/21009 https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/land-snails-and-slugs-of-russia-and-adjacent-sysoev-schileyko/944790c2a2e5522280a15293a07d6801406611ee#cited-papers 557 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum abdulazizova et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2023) 17(4): 549-557. fruticicola held, 1838جنس للنوع جديد (gastropoda, pulmonataمن أفغانستان ) ويرا ك. عبد العزيزوفا*، أبدوفيت ب. بازيلوف**، مهرانجيز سهيل***ش فاروخ يو. عمروف**** و ترمذ، أوزبكستان.*جامعة ترمذ الحكومية، ** جامعة كلستان الحكومية، كلستان، أوزبكستان. ***جامعة فارياب، ميمنة، أفغانستان. ****جامعة والية أنديجان، أنديجان، أوزبكستان. 20/12/2023، تأريخ النشر: 10/6/2023القبول: ، تأريخ 2/11/2022تأريخ االستالم: الخالصة عينة من الرخويات البرية في سلسلة جبال 22، جمع أحد املؤلفين 2021في ايار خوجة محمد الواقعة في الجزء الشمالي الشرقي من أفغانستان. قشرتها غير عادية، . مع ذلك، هناك عدد من fruticicola perlucens (rosen, 1903)النوع تشبه الحلقة؛ embryonic whorls الجنينية تللحلقااالختالفات بما في ذلك النحت الدقيق بيضاء غير ةشفالاف الفتحة مستديرة بشكل متساٍو، مضلعة بسالسة؛ حو األخيرة ـــ لهذه العينة stylophoreواضحة بشدة؛ إن وجود قاعدة منتفخة واضحة املعالم لـ .fruticicola pseudoperlucens sp. novان توصف كنوع جديد للعلم جعلها bull 363 al-mousawi et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2019) 15 (4): 363-379 anatomical study of some species belonging to the papaveraceae family in north of iraq ula m. noor al-mousawi* alla n. al-waheeb ** and sahar a.a. malik al-saadi*** *department of pharmacognosy and medicinal plants, college of pharmacy, basrah university, basrah, iraq ** department of biology, college of science, thi qar university, thi qar, iraq ***department of biology, college of science, basrah university, basrah, iraq *** corresponding author: saharmalik2010@gmail.com received date: 23 may 2019; accepted date: 29 july 2019; published date:26 december 2019 abstract the anatomical features of leaves and stems of seven species belonging to five genera of the papaveraceae family were studied, including: fumaria bracteosa pomel, 1875; glaucium grandiflorum boissier & a. huet,1856; hypecoum pendulum linnaeus, 1753; papaver fugax poiret,1804; papaver macrostomum boissier & a. huet, 1867; papaver rhoeas linnaeus, 1753 and roemeria refracta de candolle,1821. the results showed that the anticlinal cell walls of the adaxial surface were more thickened in p. fugax, h. pendulum, p. macrostomum and r.refracta, while it was thin in p. rhoeas. the current investigation finds three types of the stomata (i.e., anomocytic, paracytic and hemiparacytic), and the number of stomata on the adaxial epidermis ranged between 22.11 stomata mm2 in p. rhoeas and 69.30 stomata/mm2 in p. fugax; the stomatal index percentage on the adaxial surface was 15.04% in p. macrostomum and 4.14% in p. rhoeas. the type of the mesophyll was bifacial (dorsiventral) in structure for the species. stems gave a good character in separation of the species; shape and size of cortex cells, and the numbers of cortex layers were taxonomically significant. the observations of this study showed six types of trichomes that were non-glandular biseriated, triseriated or multiseriated, unicellular with multicellular short hairs and finally uniseriate long hairs (in g. grandiflorum). p. rhoeas recognized by found glandular short hairs. keywords: anatomical study, leaf, north of iraq, papaveraceae, stem. introduction papaveraceae (poppy family) is one of the families of angiosperm and includes 26 42 genera and 690 800 species in the world (judd et al., 1999).it is widely distributed in the temperate and subtropical regions of the world, especially the mediterranean, western, central and eastern asia and south western parts of america, india, middle europe and south areas of scandinavia and great britain (sans et al., 2006; takhtajan, 2009; björk, 2019).the papaveraceae family is divided into four subfamilies based upon critical details of the floral morphology and fruit characteristics. papaveroideae is the largest subfamily, and papaver is the largest genus within the family (brezinova et al., 2009). numerous species of the family https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2019.15.4.0363 364 anatomical study of some species belonging to the papaveraceae are valuable ornamentals and pharmaceutically important plants (sans et al., 2006; brezinova et al., 2009; oh et al., 2018). previous studies regarding the anatomy of papaveraceae have been completed by solereder (1908), dickson (1935), metcalfe and chalk (1950), and the anatomical characteristics of p. somniferum linnaeus (1753) have been investigated by dickinson and fairbairn (1975). furthermore, the anatomical structure of leaves, fruits and laticifers was studied by esau (1977), fahn (1990), batanouny (1992), while carlquist and hoekman (1985) studied the anatomical structure of wood in romneya and dendromecon. in addition, the structure of wood in papaveraceaehas been reported by carlquist and zona (1988). anatomical characteristics of fruits leaves and stems of some species of papaveraceae studied by nessler (1992), azizian and norani (1997), lujan et al. (2004), bercu et al. (2006), goetz et al. (2009) rahmatpour et al. (2010), (gupta and rao, 2012).while some researchers have described morphological and anatomical characteristics of the genera fumaria, glaucium and species of p. rhoeas (rajopadhye and upadhye, 2011; bercu, 2012; lack, 2019; kilic et al., 2019;tavakkoli and assadi, 2019). the present study aimed to investigate the anatomical characteristics of epidermal surfaces, leaves and stems of seven species of the family papaveraceae that grow in iraq, which may be useful in the identification of the species under study. materials and methods in the present study, seven taxa of the papaveraceae family have been investigated; eight plant specimens from each species were collected from the northern region of iraq of sharbazher, mountain sulaymaniyah district (msu), from may 2017 to july 2017. the epidermis was prepared by macerating the leaves in jeffrey’s solution (equal parts of 10% chromium trioxide solution and concentrated nitric acid) and then stained by safranin-glycerin jelly dye. for sectioning, the fresh material of leaves and stems were fixed at least 48 hours in faa (formalinacetic acid70% ethyl alcohol, 5:5: 90 ml) and preserved in 70% alcohol, then dehydrated in ethyl alcohol series (70 , 80, 90, 95 and 100 %) and put in paraffin. the samples were sectioned on a rotary microtome and stained by safranin prepared by mixed 1 g from safranin in 100 ml distal water and fast green, which was prepared by mixed 1 g from fast green melted with absolute alcohol, the samples clearing with xylene and then mounted by canada balsam (johansen, 1940). the epidermis characteristics of the samples were examined using a scanning electron microscope. in addition, a light microscope (olympus ch4) was used, and photographs were taken using a digital camera (type dce-2). stomatal index was calculated according to ditcher (1974). the anatomical terms have been taken from (radford et al.,1974; ditcher, 1974). data of stomatal index for species are presented in table (1). results and discussion the epidermis there are usually differences in epidermal cell shapes and dimensions between the adaxial and abaxial surfaces of the leaf as well as among the studied species. the epidermal cells of upper and lower epidermis of leaves are polygonal, oblong, irregular and semi-circular in all species studied. the anticlinal cell walls in the adaxial surface were thicker in p. fugax, h. pendulum, p. macrostomum and r. refracta, while it was thin in p. rhoeas. the results also showed that the anticlinal cell walls of the abaxial surface were sinuate-strongly undulate in 365 al-mousawi et al. r. refracta and p. rhoeas, and straight – sinuate in the other species. in adaxial surface the anticlinal cell walls were straight – sinuate in most of the species, while it was slightly undulate in p. rhoeas (tab. 1, pls. 1, 3). the average of epidermal cells length in the adaxial surface ranged between 154.16 µm in r. refracta and 31.73 µm in p. rhoeas while in the aba ial surface it s ranged between 92.66 µm in r. refracta and 66.87 µm in g. grandiflorum. a large number of epidermal cells is often recorded on the upper epidermis, ranging between 550.33 cells/mm2 in r. refracta and 330.41 cells/mm2 in p. macrostomum, while on the lower epidermis, it ranged between 580.10 cells/mm2 in papaver fugax and 390.22 cells/mm2 in r. refracta (tab. 1). scanning electron microscope images showed that stomata were sunken in most of species, and the cuticle was thick in r. refracta (pl. 3). the guard cells are elliptic shaped on both surfaces (amphistomatic leaves), and there are three types of stomata of the studied species: 1anomocytic type (ranunculaceous type): guard cells are surrounded by epidermis cells that have the same shape, size and arrangement. 2paracytic type: the stomata are surrounded by two subsidiary cells parallel to the of pore and guard cells (pl.1i). 3hemiparacytic type (pls. 1-3); the stomata are surrounded by one subsidiary cell, its length parallel to the stoma opening. higher lengths of stomata on the adaxial and abaxial surfaces were recorded in r. refracta: 46.83 µm and 45.61 µm, respectively (tab.1, pls.1, 3). the number of stomata on the adaxial surface ranged between 69.30 stomata/mm2 in papaver fugax and 22.11 stomata / mm2 in p. rhoeas, while on the abaxial surface, it was 99 stomata/mm2 in p. rhoeas and 12 stomata/mm2 in f. bracteausa (tab. 1). stomatal index percent on the adaxial surface was high in p. macrostomum (15.04%) and low in p. rhoeas (4.14%), while on the abaxial surface it was high (17.09%) in p. rhoeas and low in p. fugax (2.81%) (tab.1); the differences in stomatal complex characteristics indicate differentiation and adaptation to ecological environments (haraldson, 1978). the presence of epidermal cells with straight-curved anticlinal walls on both adaxial and abaxial surfaces in some species of glauciumgenus agrees with the current study (tavakkoli, 2016). 366 anatomical study of some species belonging to the papaveraceae plate (1): stomatal complex in adaxial surface of the leaves of papaveraceae species; (a) g. grandiflorum, (b) h. pendulum, (c) p. fugax, (d-e) p. macrostomum, (f) r. refracta, (g-h) p. rhoeas. (scale bar 50 µm). plate (2): stomatal complex in abaxial surface of the leaves of papaveraceae species; (a) g. grandiflorum, (b) h. pendulum, (c) p. macrostomum,(d-f) p. fugax,(g-h) p. rhoeas, (i) r.refracta. (scale bar: 50 µm). 367 al-mousawi et al. plate (3): electromicrographs of stomatal complex of the leaves of papaveraceae species; (a, b) g. grandiflorum, (c, d) f. bracteosa, (e, f) p. fugax, (g, h) p. macrostomum, (i, j) p. rhoeas, (k, l) r. refracta. 368 anatomical study of some species belonging to the papaveraceae 369 al-mousawi et al. in the cross sections (transverse), on the adaxial and abaxial surfaces, the epidermal cells comprise thin radial walls that are uniseriate, circular, semicircular, rectangular and square shaped. epidermis is covered with a thin cuticle and trichomes. the thickness of the lamina was between 330.33µm in p. macrostomum and 188.75 µm in p. fugax, while the cuticle thickness ranged between 29.75µm in p. macrostomum and 4.53 µm in p. rhoeas (tab. 2, pl. 4). the upper epidermal cells are different in terms of shape and size and are composed of big cells recognized in r. refracta and p. macrostomum. the mesophyll is bifacial (dorsiventral) in the species and is protected by the cuticle. it consists of 1 to 2 layers of palisade cells under the adaxial epidermis and 1 – 4 layers of spongy tissue under the palisade layer. the thickness of the palisade layer was between 226.33µm in g. grandiflorum and 50.21µm in p. fugax, while the spongy tissue was 201.11 µm in p. macrostomum and 95.51µm in r.refracta (tab.2). the vascular bundle is solitary and surrounded by parenchymatic cells. this result agreed with metcalfe and chalk (1950) and paltinean et al. (2015). in the transverse section of the midrib, the upper surface was flat or slightly curved, and the lower surface was raised in p. rhoeas, r. refracta and p. macrostomum (pl.4, e, g, i). a thick cuticle was observed on the outer surface of the epidermis. several laminar layers of collenchyma were recognized under the epidermis. under the collenchyma, parenchyma and in the central part, vascular bundles could be seen, which were surrounded by sclerenchymatous sheaths (pl. 4). epidermal cells were interrupted by the presence of hairs. midrib was thicker in p. macrostomum (688.12 µm) and lower in h. pendulum (62.57 µm). vascular bundle thickness ranged between 146.87 µm in g. grandiflorum and 62.75 µm in p. macrostomum (tab. 2).the midrib can be recognized by the large vascular bundle surrounded by parenchyma cells. 370 anatomical study of some species belonging to the papaveraceae plate (4): transverse section of leaf lamina and midrib; (a) h. pendulum,(b) g. grandiflorum,(c) p. fugax, (d) r. refractan,(e) p. rhoeas,(f) p. macrostomum,1 upper epidermis 2palisade layer 3spongy layer 4lower epidermis 5 bascular bundle. (scale bar: 50 um). transverse sections of stems stems can be used to differentiate the different species; shape, size and the number of cortex layers are taxonomically significant to identify species. transverse sections of the stem describe a circular shape in p. macrostomum and f. bracteosa, semicircular in r. refracta and h. pendulum, ovate or elliptic in p. rhoeas, p. fugax and g. grandiflorum, these findings agree with (keshavarzi et al., 2011; chaleshtori and attar, 2012). stems consist of epidermis, cortex, vascular cylinder and pith. the single-layered epidermis is represented by circular, semicircular and irregular cell shapes with slightly thickened radial, external and internal walls. the outer side, that is, the epidermal cells are covered by a cuticle, and the minimum thickness (3.21 µm) of the cuticle was found in f. bracteosa, while the maximum thickness (18.33µm) was recorded in p. fugax (tab. 3, pl. 5). three types of distinct tissues are recognized in cortex, collenchyma, sclerenchyma and parenchyma. tubular collenchyma was recorded in all the species and consisted of 3-4 layers below the epidermis. the cortex is composed of parenchyma cells; it is ranged between 5-12 layers in p. fugax, p. rhoeas and f. bracteausa, while it was 2-8 in other species. all species contained one layer of sclerenchyma tissue, which agreed with esau (1977) and bercu (2012). sclerenchyma layers ranged in thickness between 187.50 µm in p. fugax and 56.25 µm in g. grandiflorum. most of species at the central part of stem contain the pith, which consists of the cells was spherical and semispherical cells, but the center part of g. grandiflorum stem was occupied by a large cavity cell (pl. 5). https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=fumaria_bracteosa&action=edit&redlink=1 371 al-mousawi et al. most of the species contain numerous collateral vascular bundles, while their presence was lower in f. bracteausa and h. pendulum. xylem thickness of the wood varied between 225.32µm in p. fugax and 131.40 µm in p. rhoeas, while phloem was 112.50 µm in h. pendulum and 33.33 µm in f.bracteosa (tab.3, pl.5). the vascular cylinder contains 34 layered sclerenchymatous, and these results are consistent with the description given by metcalfe and chalk (1950), bercu et al. (2006), rahmatpour et al. (2010), and bercu (2012). laticifer tubes in species could be seen around a vascular bundle and in the cortex, and a sclerenchymatous sheath was recorded in some species of papaveraceae by esau (1977), batanouny (1992), bercu (2012), and chaleshtori and attar (2012). laticifers with white or yellow latex contain alkaloids in p. somniferum (mahlberg, 1959; reynold, 1963; esau and kosakai, 1975; dickinson and fairbairn, 1975). the pith diameter was between 1412.51 µm in p. rhoeas and 875.33 µm in r. refracta (tab.3, pl. 5). https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=fumaria_bracteosa&action=edit&redlink=1 372 anatomical study of some species belonging to the papaveraceae 373 al-mousawi et al. plate (5): stem anatomy of some species of papaveraceae family; (a, b) p. fugax, (c, d) h. pendulum,(e, f) g. grandiflorum, (g, h) r. refracta, (i, j) p. rhoeas, (k) f. bracteosa, (l) p. macrostomum, (m) tubular collenchyma in r. refracta, (n, o) tubular collenchyma in p. rhoeas,1-epidermis 2collenchyma layer 3 sclerenchyma layer 4phloem 5xylem 6pith 7-parenchyma layer 8laticifer tubes (scale bar 100 um). trichomes the current study showed six types of trichomes that present in papaveraceae species (pl. 6): 1non-glandular long biseriate hairs in p. fugax, p. macrostomum and r. refracta. 2non-glandular long triseriate hairs in p. fugax, p. macrostomum and r. refracta. 3non-glandular long multiseriate hairs in p. fugax, p. macrostomumand r. refracta. 4non-glandular long unisereriate (unicellular and multicellular) in g. grandiflorum, f. bracteosa and h. pendulum. 5non-glandular short hairs unicellular in p. rhoeas and r. refracta. 6glandular short hairs multicellular cells in p. rhoeas. the trichome types provided an important diagnostic characteristic for species separation, and the results showed that p. rhoeas has five types of hairs, while g. grandiflorum have only one type (pl. 6). bercu (2012) and chaleshtori and attar (2012) reported that the trichomes in papaveraceae vary in form; they are multiserate or consist of a single row which agrees with the present study. scanning electronic microscope (sem) photographs of the trichomes on leaves of papaveraceae species distributed on the surface and were variable in distribution and long between the species (pl. 6). https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=fumaria_bracteosa&action=edit&redlink=1 https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=fumaria_bracteosa&action=edit&redlink=1 374 anatomical study of some species belonging to the papaveraceae plate (6): trichomes in some species of papaveraceae family; (a, b) non-glandular long uniseriate g. grandiflorum, (c) glandular short hairs multicellular hairs p. rhoeas, (d) non-glandular uniseriate and biseriate r. refracta, e, non-glandular long hairs biseriate r. refracta, (f) non-glandular short hairs unicellular r. refracta,(g) non-glandular long triseriate p. fugax, (h, i)non-glandular long multiseriate hair p. macrostomum, (j) non-glandular long multiseriate hair in p. fugax,(k) f. bracteosa, (l) p.rhoeas. (scale bar100 µm). the cluster analysis of papaveraceae species of iraq based on anatomical characteristics showed in (diag. 1). a cluster analysis has revealed that p. fugax, p. rhoeas and p. macrostomum are closely related, all these species belongs to the genus papaver. the results showed two major clusters were formed. the first major cluster comprised two subclusters, in the first we found r. refracta and g. grandiflorum. the second subclustered include the papaver species, f. bracteosa and h. pendulum. f. bracteosa and h. pendulum was separated alone and other subclustered include three species (p. fugas, p. rhoeas and p. macrostomum). p. macrostomum was formed a separate cluster and it was related to p. fugas and p. rhoeas. 375 al-mousawi et al. diagram (1): dendrogram of some papaveraceae species in iraq. according to the present study, a taxonomic key has been made for the species separation: 1-glandular trichomes present --------------------------------------------------------------p. rhoeas -glandular trichomes absent----------------------------------------------------------------------------2 2-trichomes biseriate or multiseriatehairs ------------------------------------------------------------3 -trichomes long uniseriatehairs -----------------------------------------------------------------------5 3-stem shape ovate -----------------------------------------------------------------------------p. fugax -stem shape circular or semicircular ---------------------------------------------------------------4 4thin anticlinal cell wall of epidermis -------------------------------------------------r. refracta -thick anticlinal cell wall of epidermis ------------------------------------------p. macrostomum 5-stem semicircular or ovate, and vascular bundles less than 15 ----------------------------------6 -stem circular, and vascular bundles more than 15 ---------------------------------f. bracteosa 6-pith contains large cavity cells, number of vascular bundles of stem more than five -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------g. grandiflorum -pith contains regular cells, number of vascular bundles of stem less five -----h. pendulum conclusion in the presence of variation in the leaf’s mesophyll, number and arrangement of the vascular bundles, thickness of epidermis appeared to be a good diagnostic characteristic for the species separation, as well as the midrib characteristics. the species g. grandiflorum contained a large cavity in the central part of the stems section. the cortex of the stem showed significant differences in the species p. fugax. literature cited azizian, d. and norani, f. a. 1997. introduction of latcifers in the poppy family emphasis on anatomical structures contains laticifer. quarterly educational expert journal of ministry of construction jahad. pajohesh and sazandegi, 34: 52-57. 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(2019) 15 (4): 363-379 في papaveraceaeدراسة الصفات التشريحية لبعض ألانواع من العائلة الخشخاشية العراق ***و سحر عبد العباس مالك** ، الاء ناصر الوهيب*عال محمد نور املوسوي .قسم العقاقير والنباتات الطبية، البصرة، العراق -الصيدلةكلية -جامعة البصرة * .قسم علوم الحياة، ذي قار، العراق -كلية العلوم-جامعة ذي قار ** .قسم علوم الحياة، البصرة، العراق -كلية العلوم-جامعة البصرة *** 32/03/3502: تأريخ النشر، 32/50/3502: تأريخ القبول ،32/50/3502: تأريخ الاستالم الخالصة درست الصفات التشريحية ألوراق وسيقان سبعة أنواع تعود الى خمسة اجناس من العائلة :الخشخاشية وهي fumaria bracteosa pomel, 1875 و glaucium grandiflorum boissier & a. huet, 1856 وhypecoum pendulum linnaeus, 1753و papaver fugax poiret, 1804 و papaver macrostomum boissier & a. huet, 1867 و papaver rhoeas linnaeus, 1753 و roemeria refracta de candolle, 1821. في ألانواع ً .hو p. fugaxأوضحت النتائج أن جدران الخاليا املماسية للسطح العلوي للورقة أكثر سمكا pendulum وp. macrostomum و r. refracta ولكنها كانت رقيقة في النوعp. rhoeasكما تبين وجود ثالث ؛ والطراز شبه paracytic typeوالطرازاملتوازي anomocytic typeالطراز الشاذ )طرز من املعقدات الثغرية 22.11تباينت ألانواع في عدد الثغور على سطح البشرة فقد سجل ادناها . hemiparacytic type)املتوازي ً أما الدليل الثغري فكان أعاله . 2ملم/"ثغراp.fugas (69.30 )وأعالها في النوع rhoeasp .في النوع 2ملم /ثغرا . %p. rhoeas(4.14)وأدنى قيمة سجلت في النوع p. macrostomum (15.04% )في النوع bifacialتبين من خالل الدراسة أن النسيج املتوسط السائد في ألانواع املدروسة هو الثنائي الجانب (dorsiventral) ؛ أما السيقان فقد أعطت أهمية تصنيفية معتبرة في فصل ألانواع عن بعضها من خالل الشعيرات الغير : رات شكلها وحجمها وعدد طبقات القشرة؛ لوحظ من الدراسة وجود ست أنواع من الشعي غدية الثنائية والثالثية واملتعددة الصفوف، فضال عن وجود الشعيرات القصيرة الوحيدة واملتعددة .g. الخاليا، كما أمكن مالحظة الشعيرات الطويلة وحيدة الصف والتي تميزت بوجودها في النوع grandiflorum وتميز النوعp. rhoeas القصيرة بوجود الشعيرات الغدية. bull 33 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum abdullah and al-jassany bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2022) 17 (1): 33-48. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2022.17.1.0033 original article revision of the genus chlaenius bonelli, 1810 (coleoptera, carabidae), with a new record species from iraq amal hussein abdullah♦ and radhi f. al-jassany department of plant protection, college of agriculture engineering sciences, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq. ♦corresponding author e-mail: aamal.hussein1004@coagri.uobaghdad.edu.iq received date: 24 december 2021, accepted date: 06 april 2022, published date: 20 june 2022 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract in this paper, the species of the genus of chlaenius bonelli, 1810 (coleoptera, carabidae) were reviewed, and it was revealed that there are 21 confirmed species in iraq; among them, the species of chlaenius hamifer chaudoir, 1856 was recorded for the first time in iraq. diagnostic characters, a redescription of some of the morphological features, photographs and illustrations are provided for the new record species in this investigation. keywords: carabidae, chlaenius, ground beetles, iraq, new record. introduction beetles are considered the most taxonomical various insect groups that contain major components of ecosystems in terms of biomass; species richness and ecological roles (stack, 2015). one of the most important families of beetles is ground beetles (carabidae). this family includes 24 subfamilies, 110 tribes, and more than 40,000 species dating back to 1927 genera described worldwide (larochelle and lariviere, 2007). carabidae members play important roles in pollination, predator-prey interaction, granivore, decomposition and nutrient cycling, and soil disturbances (huffaker and gutierrez, 1999). many members are considered generalist predators, meaning they feed on a wide-range of pests including: aphids, beetle larvae, moth larvae and mites; a few specialists feed on snails (kromp, 1999). the tribe of chlaeniini is found in all zoogeographical regions of the world (hegde and manthen, 2017). löbl and smetana (2003) indicated that there are 860 species and 62 subspecies belonging to the genus chlaenius in the world, and this genus represents 650 species in afrotropical and oriental regions. among them 20 species were recorded in iraq: bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home online issn: 2311-9799 print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2022.17.1.0033 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7644-4252 mailto:aamal.hussein1004@coagri.uobaghdad.edu.iq https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 34 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum revision of the genus chlaenius chlaenius spoliatus (rossi, 1792), c. syriacus chaudoir, 1876; c. amarae andrewes, 1920 (andrews, 1927); c. festivus (panzer, 1796) (roubal, 1932); c. iraqkensis jedlička, 1959 (jedlička, 1959); c. coeruleus (steven, 1809) (sage, 1961). c. richardsi ali, 1965; c. aeratus (quensel, 1806); c. canariensis dejean, 1831; c. dejeanii (dejean, 1831); c. flavipes ménétriés, 1832; c. velutinus (duftschmid, 1812); c. vestitus (paykull, 1790); c. viridis (ménétriés, 1832) (ali, 1966, 1967); c. circumscriptus (duftschmid, 1812); c. dimidiatus chaudoir, 1842; c. lucasii peyron, 1858; c. virens rambur, 1837 (derwesh, 1965); c. decipiens (l. dufour, 1820) (shalaby et al.,1966); c. ernesti gory, 1833 (koack and kemal, 2010). the current study aimed to revise and update the information of the species that belong to the genus chlaenius bonelli, 1810 in iraq. materials and methods the specimens were collected from different localities in the middle of iraq by hand picking from fields under stones and light trap; the specimens were identified using different taxonomic keys such as ali (1964, 1966), lindroth (1974), arnett and thomas (2001), park and park (2013) and yaiphabi chanu and swaminathan (2017). synonyms are provided according to gbif secretariat (2021). the male genitalia and mouthparts were dissected, examined and photographed by an optika microscope italy and samsung a30s mobile camera. results and discussion in this study, there were 21 species identified that belong to the genus of chlaenius, one of them (c. hamifer chaudoir, 1856) was given as a new record for first time in iraq; these species were revised as follow: subfamily, callistinae tribe, chlaeniini genus, chlaenius bonelli, 1810 synonyms: anomoglossus de chaudoir, 1856 aulacosomus grundmann, 1955 baidochlaenius basilewsky, 1950 barymorphus de la ferté-sénectère, 1851 basilewskyellus grundmann, 1956 brachylobus de chaudoir, 1876 callistometus grundmann, 1956 calochlaenius kuntzen, 1913 capsochlaenius basilewsky, 1950 chaelinus basilewsky & grundmann, 1954 chaelinus lucnik, 1933 chinelaus basilewsky & grundmann, 1954 chinelaus lucnik, 1933 chlaeniodromus basilewsky, 1950 35 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum abdullah and al-jassany chlaenionus kuntzen, 1913 chlaeniopus grundmann, 1955 chlaeniostenodes basilewsky, 1953 chlaeniostenus kuntzen, 1919 chlaenites motschoulsky, 1860 chlaenitidius jeannel, 1949 chlaenius dejean, 1826 chloenius brullé, 1832 compsochlaenius alluaud, 1916 cyaneodinodes jeannel, 1949 diaphoropsophus de chaudoir, 1850 dibolochilus lacordaire, 1854 dilobochilus ferté-sénectère, 1851 epomis dejean, 1826 eudinodes basilewsky, 1965 eurydactylus ferté-sénectère, 1851 glyptoderus de la ferté-sénectère, 1851 goniodinoides jeannel, 1949 iberodinodes basilewsky & grundmann, 1954 iberodinodes wagner, 1932 ilaenchus basilewsky & grundmann, 1954 ilaenchus lucnik, 1933 laenichus lucnik, 1933 leptodinodes jeannel, 1949 lissauchenius macleay, 1825 lissauchenus desmarest, 1851-22 merochlaenius grundman, 1955 naelichus lucnik, 1933 nectochlaenius antoine, 1961 ocybatoides jeannel, 1949 ocybatus laferté-sénectère, 1851 ocydromus laferté-sénectère, 1851 oochlaenius alluaud, 1933 pachychlaenius grundmann, 1955 pachydinodes kuntzen, 1919 parachlaenites jeannel, 1949 paradinodes apfelbeck, 1904 paratrachelus basilewsky, 1950 pelasmomimus grundmann, 1955 pelasmus motschoulsky, 1850 platychlaenius jeannel, 1949 prochlaeniellus basilewsky, 1965 pseudanomoglossus bell, 1960 pseudochlaeniellus jeannel, 1949 36 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum revision of the genus chlaenius randallius bousquet, 2012 rhizotrachelus lacordaire, 1854 rhysotrachelus boheman, 1848 rhyzotrachelus chaudoir, 1876 sericochlaenius grundmann, 1955 spilochlaenius jeannel, 1949 stenodinodes kuntzen, 1919 syntelestes gistl, 1857 terraleus fairmaire, 1899 tomochilus laferté-sénéctère, 1851 trachychlaenites kuntzen, 1919 umtalius péringuey, 1926 wilmernstus basilewsky, 1965 subgenus, amblygenius laferte-senectere, 1851 chlaenius (amblygenius) dimidiatus chaudoir, 1842 synonym: chlaenius palaestinus reiche & saulcy, 1855 world distribution: iraq (derwesh, 1965); argentina, turkey, egypt, syria, india, turkmenistan and afghanistan (löbl and smetana, 2003); iran and palestine (gbif secretariat, 2021). subgenus, trichochlaenius seidlitz, 1887 chlaenius (trichochlaenius) aerates (quensel, 1806) synonyms: aeratochlaenius aerates (quensel, 1806) carabus aerates quensel, 1806 chlaenius algerinus gory, 1833 chlaenius varvasi laporte, 1834 trichochlaenius aerates (quensel, 1806) world distribution: iraq (ali, 1966); france, algeria and tunisia (ghannem et al., 2017). chlaenius (trichochlaenius) virens rambur, 1837 synonyms: chlaenius coelestinus chaudoir, 1856 trichochlaenius virens (rambur, 1837) world distribution: iraq (derwesh, 1965); spain, morocco (löbl and smetana, 2003). subgenus pseudochlaeniellus jeannel, 1949 chlaenius (pseudochlaeniellus) lucasii peyron, 1858 synonyms: chlaenius irakensis jedlicka, 1959 chlaenius mesopotamicus (mandl, 1979) pseudochlaeniellus mesopotamicus mandl, 1979 world distribution: in iraq derwesh (1965) listed this species under the name chlaenius lucasii peyron, 1858; whereas mandl (1979) reported it under the name of chlaenius mesopotamicus; turkey (löbl and smetana, 2003). 37 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum abdullah and al-jassany subgenus, epomis bonelli, 1810 chlaenius (epomis) amarae andrewes, 1920 synonym: epomis amarae (andrewes, 1920) world distribution: iraq (andrewes, 1927); iran (motevalli and mehr, 2019), afghanistan (löbl and smetana, 2003). chlaenius (epomis) circumscriptus (duftschmidt, 1812) synonyms: carabus circumscriptus duftschmidt, 1812 chlaeniellus circumscriptus (duftschmidt, 1812) chlaenius africanus kuntzen, 1919 chlaenius brevicollis (chaudoir, 1843) chlaenius capensis (gory, 1833) chlaenius cicatricosus (motschulsky, 1865) chlaenius goryi (gray, 1832) chlaenius pharaonis (motschulsky, 1865) chlaenius turcmenicus (motschulsky, 1865) epomis brevicollis chaudoir, 1843 epomis capensis gory, 1833 epomis cicatricosus motschulsky, 1865 epomis circumscriptus (duftschmid, 1812) epomis goryi gray, 1832 epomis karelinii mannerheim, 1844 epomis pharaonis motschulsky, 1865 epomis senegalensis gory, 1833 epomis turcmenicus motschulsky, 1865 world distribution: iraq (derwesh, 1965); albania, argentina, italy, bulgaria, france, croatia, kazakhstan, portugal, slovakia, spain, turkey, united kingdom, egypt, thailand, uzbekistan, bahrain (löbl and smetana, 2003). chlaenius (epomis) dejeanii dejean, 1831 synonyms: chlaenius armeniacus (motschulsky, 1865) epomis armeniacus motschulsky, 1865 epomis dejeanii dejean, 1831 world distribution: iraq (ali, 1966); germany, hungary, italy, turkey, ukraine, syria (löbl and smetana, 2003); russia (gbif secretariat, 2021). subgenus, chlaeniostenodes basilewsky, 1953 chlaenius (chlaeniostenodes) canariensis dejean, 1831 synonyms: chlaeniostenus canariensis (dejean, 1831) nectochlaenius canariensis (dejean, 1831) world distribution: iraq (ali, 1966); spain (telenius and shah, 2016). subgenus, stenochlaenius reitter, 1908 chlaenius (stenochlaenius) coeruleus (steven, 1809) 38 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum revision of the genus chlaenius synonyms: carabus coeruleus steven, 1809 stenochlaenius coeruleus (steven, 1809) world distribution: iraq (sage, 1961); argentina and turkey (löbl and smetana, 2003); armenia, russia and georgia (gbif secretariat, 2021). subgenus, dinodes bonelli, 1810 chlaenius (dinodes) decipiens (dufour, 1820) synonyms: carabus azureus duftschmid, 1812 chlaenius algericus raffray, 1873 chlaenius ambiguous csiki, 1931 chlaenius peyroni gemminger & harold, 1868 chlaenius rotundicollis (dejean, 1826) chlaenius schaumi apfelbeck, 1904 dinodes decipiens (l.dufour, 1820) dinodes laticollis chaudoir, 1843 dinodes rotundicollis dejean, 1826 dinodes rufipes dejean, 1826 harpalus decipiens l.dufour, 1820 world distribution: iraq (shalaby et al.,1966); albania, argentina, bulgaria, costa rica, france, germany, hungary, italy, kazakhstan, macedonia, portugal, romania, slovakia, spain, turkey, united kingdom, morocco and tunisia (löbl and smetana, 2003); croatia, ukraine, russia, nepal and india (gbif secretariat, 2021). chlaenius (dinodes) viridis (ménétriés, 1832) synonyms: chlaenius pallidecornis ballion, 1871 dinodes viridis ménétriés, 1832 world distribution: iraq (ali, 1966); cyprus (austin et al., 2011). subgenus, chlaenius bonelli, 1810 chlaenius (chlaenius) festivus (panzer, 1796) synonyms: carabus festivus (panzer, 1796) carabus zonatus panzer, 1796 chlaenius caspicus motschulsky, 1850 chlaenius fischeri krynicki, 1829 chlaenius imitatus reitter, 1895 chlaenius pseudocaspicus gridelli, 1925 chlaenius reitteri jakobson, 1906 chlaenius tecuciensis marcu, 1932 chlaenius tenuistriatus krynicki, 1832 chlaenius vexator reitter, 1889 chlaenius zonatus (panzer, 1796) world distribution: iraq (roubal,1932); albania, argentina, azerbaijan, bulgaria, costa rica, france, italy, hungary, russia, turkey, egypt, lebanon, tunisia, india, afghanistan, syria, uzbekistan and iran (löbl and smetana, 2003); austria, greece, 39 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum abdullah and al-jassany switzerland, spain, portugal, israel, afghanistan, armenia and algeria (gbif secretariat, 2021). chlaenius (chlaenius) velutinus (duftschmid, 1812) synonyms: carabus cinctus olivier, 1795 carabus marginatus p. rossi, 1790 crabus velutinus duftschmid, 1812 chlaenius borgiae dejean, 1826 chlaenius carlogenei klrschenhofer, 2017 chlaenius faillae ragusa, 1884 chlaenius geniculatus motschulsky, 1865 chlaenius subvelutinus fiori, 1913 world distribution: iraq (ali, 1966); algeria, morocco, palestine, tunisia, france, spain, italy and austria (gbif secretariat, 2021). subgenus, chlaeniellus reitter, 1908 chlaenius (chlaeniellus) flavipes ménétriés, 1832 synonyms: chlaeniellus flavipes (ménétriés, 1832) chlaeniellus laetiusculus (chaudoir, 1856) chlaeniellus rapyllii morvan, 1975 chlaenius asara kirschenhofer, 2014 chlaenius atupus andrewes, 1923 chlaenius confinis motschulsky, 1865 chlaenius exutus i.frivaldszky von frivald, 1845 chlaenius flaviventris mandl, 1989 chlaenius kuluensis bates, 1891 chlaenius laetiusculus chaudoir, 1856 chlaenius rapyllii (morvan, 1975) world distribution: iraq (ali, 1966); albania, argentina, bulgaria, costa rica, germany, greece, hungary, kazakhstan, macedonia, turkey, ukraine, afghanistan and india (löbl and smetana, 2003); iran (gbif secretariat, 2021). chlaenius richardsi ali, 1967 synonyms: chlaeniellus richardsi (ali, 1967) world distribution: iraq (ali, 1967). chlaenius syriacus chaudoir, 1876 synonyms: chlaeniellus koenigi (semenov, 1888) chlaeniellus syriacus (chaudoir, 1876) chlaenius koenigi semenov, 1888 world distribution: iraq (andrewes, 1927); india (löbl and smetana, 2003) . chlaenius vestitus (paykull, 1790) synonyms: agostenus vestitus (paykull, 1790) 40 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum revision of the genus chlaenius carabus dubius hoppe, 1796 carabus marginatus linnaeus, 1767 carabus vestitus paykull, 1790 chlaeniellus vestitus (paykull, 1790) chlaenius coerulescens j.sahlberg, 1903 chlaenius distinctus chaudoir, 1856 chlaenius oreteus ragusa, 1881 chlaenius viridipunctatus bedel, 1879 world distribution: iraq (ali, 1966); albania, argentina, australia, bulgaria, costa rica, france, germany, greece, hungary, italy, kazakhstan, macedonia, turkey, spain and india (löbl and smetana, 2003); croatia, austria, uk, serbia, sweden, switzerland and russia (gbif secretariat, 2021). subgenus, chlaenites motschulsky, 1860 chlaenius spoliatus (p. rossi, 1792) synonyms: carabus spoliatus p. rossi, 1792 chlaenites spoliatus (p. rossi, 1792) world distribution: iraq (andrewes,1927); albania, argentina, bulgaria, costa rica, croatia, france, germany, italy, romania, spain, ukraine, greece, egypt, lebanon, morocco, tunisia, afghanistan, india, syria, uzbekistan and kazakhstan (löbl and smetana,2003); algeria, austria, russia, hungary, turkey, iran, japan, china, korea and switzerland (gbif secretariat, 2021). subgenus, pseudochlaeniellus jeannel, 1949 chlaenius iraqkensis jedlička, 1959 world distribution: iraq (jedlička, 1959) subgenus paracallistoides basilewsky, 1965 chlaenius (paracallistoides) ernesti gory, 1833 synonyms: chlaenius speciosus chaudoir, 1876 world distribution: iraq (koack and kemal, 2010). subgenus, pachydinodes kuntzen, 1919 chlaenius (pachydinodes) hamifer chaudoir, 1856 synonyms: chlaenius bihamatus chaudoir, 1856 chlaenius colombensis jedlicha, 1964 chlaenius queenslandicus sloane, 1910 dinodes bihamatus (chaudoir, 1856) dinodes hamifer (chaudoir, 1856) pachydinodes hamifer (chaudoir, 1856) material examined: baghdad province, ghazaliya, 1 ♀ 21.iii. 2021; wasit province, alsuwaira, 2 ♀♀ 15.v. 2021; diyala province, 2 ♂♂, 21.v.2021. 41 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum abdullah and al-jassany world distribution: australia, sri lanka, india, japan, china, nepal, pakistan, korea and united arab emirates (park and park, 2013); iran (azadbakhsh et al., 2015); chinese taipei (gbif secretariat, 2021). newly record in iraq through this study. redescription of c. hamifer female: body bicolor, length 13.013.5 mm and width 5.35.7 mm (pl. 1.a). head and pronotum in dorsal view with strong reddish coppery lustre, elytra green is covered with thick brown hair and erect, with two yellowish bends. antennae, mandibles, palpi, labrum, and legs yellowish brown. head elongated, and convex, dorsal side with punctures, eyes prominent (pl. 2.a). clypeus with one normal setae on each side, three basal segments of antenna glabrous and remainder with fine hairs (pl.2.b); palpi cylindrical shaped. thorax is wider and longer than the head, pronotum green with strong reddish coppery reflection, slightly convex and with numerous deeply punctures that present denser at the base, also it contains broad and long fovea, the median line is pale, basal angle rounded. legs: yellowish brown, tarsomeres normal. hind trochanter elongates and extended, about half the length of the leg, claws are simple. elytra: length 8.2 mm and width 3.0 mm, reaching to the tip of abdomen with regular intervals, the surface of elytra with small punctuate at the interval, striae with strongly and deeply punctuate, apices of elytra with distinct yellowish comma-like shaped fasciae or spot at interval 3 to 8, that present at apical 1/3 part of elytra (pl.3.a) and reaching at the apex. abdomen with six visible sternites, last abdominal segment rounded third segment with thick hair at middle and rest with two setae (pl.3.b). female genitalia: appendage of the 8th and 9th abdominal segments (pl.4) basal gonocoxite 1 flat, broad and glabrous, gonocoxite 2 small and convex with a pointed tip and with three fringes setae, two of them on the outside and the other on the inside. eight latero-tergite like triangle shaped, membranous and outer margin with row of hairs. male: descriptions of males are similar to females; with exception: three basal tarsomeres of protarsi much dilated, fifth tarsomeres with rows of ventral setae (pl.1.b). male genitalia (aedeagus): median lobe with sickle shape, apex twisted and very hooked on dorsal view, left paramere narrowed and right paramere rounded and wide (pl.5). diagnostic characters: head and pronotum greenish color in dorsal, yellowish bend at apex of elytra and spot located at interval 3 to 8. this species is determined from the closely species by many features: it differ from c. tetragonoderus chaudoir, 1876 by having spot connected to apex of elytra; on the other hand, this species differs from c. virgulifer chaudoir, 1876 and c. pictus chaudoir, 1856, by the body size, its length is under 13 mm, dorsal color with strong green or greenish glossy color. 42 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum revision of the genus chlaenius plate (1): dorsal view of c. hamifer; (a) female, (b) male. plate (2): female of ch. hamifer; (a) head and prominent eyes, dorsal view, (b) glabrous three basal antennomer a b a b 43 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum abdullah and al-jassany plate (3): female of ch. hamifer; (a) yellowish spot on elytra, (b) abdomen (ventral view). plate (4): ch. hamifer; ventral view of gonocoxites in female. (gc1 gonocoxa1, gc2 gonocoxa 2, ltg lateral tergite) gc1 gc2 ltg 44 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum revision of the genus chlaenius plate (5): aedeagus of ch. hamifer (dorsal view), right paramere (rpa), left paramere (lpa). conclusions according to the database, references and checklists that related to this group, the genus chlaenius is one of the most widespread genera in iraq. therefore, it is necessary to complete the investigation of its species in the different regions of iraq, especially the desert areas in the western and southwestern iraq to update the database of carabidae. so we expect to add more species to the iraqi fauna; from the other hand, it is expected that we find that the recorded numbers do not match those actually present in the field, which is may be due to various reasons, including misidentification and others related to the environmental changes, especially in the recent years, which is characterized by the climate of iraq with a relative rise in temperature and lack of rain. chlaenius hamifer chaudoir, 1856 is worldwide distribution, but it was not recorded in the north and south of iraq. in the previous studies, we find that ramzi ( 2014) recorded two species in the northern regions that included: c. festivus (panzer, 1796) and ch. (pseudochlaeniellus) lucasii peyron, 1858, while al-ibadi (2021) recorded 3 species: c. festivus (panzer, 1796), ch. velutinus (duftschmid, 1812) and ch. nigricornis (fabricius, 1787) and neither of them recorded the species ch. hamifer chaudoir, 1856. conflict of interest statment the results of the present study are part of the requirements of ph.d. in insects, department of plant protection, college of agriculture engineering sciences-university of baghdad for the first author. on the other hand, we are the authors of this article, 45 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum abdullah and al-jassany declare and confirm that no significant financial or other relationship with any official institution. literature cited ali, h. a.1964. an introduction to the taxonomy of iraqi carabidae (col.) with an examination of the taxonomic value of internal characters. zoology and applied entomology, south kensington, london, 191 pp. ali, h. a. 1966. key to the carabidae (insecta, coleoptera) of iraq. iraq natural history museum publication, 23, 38 pp. ali, h. a. 1967. new species of carabidae (insecta: coleoptera) from iraq. bulletin of the biological research centre, university of baghdad, 1: 12-29. al-ibadi, h. m. t.2021 . taxonomical and ecological study to some species of ground beetles family (coleoptera: carabidae) and the role of some of them in the predatory efficiency of some insect species in basrah and maysan provinces. ph. d. thesis .college of agriculture, university of basrah, 207 pp. andrewes, h. e. 1927. zur erforschung des persischen golfes. 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[click here] lindroth, c. h. 1974. handbooks for the identification of british insects. vol. iv, part 2. coleoptera: introduction and keys to families. royal entomological society of london, 4: 1-143. löbl, i. and smetana, a. (eds.) 2003. catalogue of palaearctic coleoptera. vol. 1: archostemata myxophaga adephaga. apollo books, stenstrup, denmark, p.79-575. mandl, k. 1979. beschreibung einer weiteren neuen pseudochlaeniellus-art aus mesopotamien: mesopotamicus n. sp. entomologica basiliensia, 4: 169-171. motevalli, m. d. and mehr, m. s. 2019. biodiversity evaluation of carabidae beetles of a rice field (ahangarkola: qaemshahr) in mazandaran province, northern iran. iranian plant protection research, 32 (4): 521-525. [crossref] park, j. k. and park, j. 2013. a ground-beetle, chlaenius hamifer chaudoir, new to korea (coleoptera: carabidae). animal systematic, evolution and diversity, 29 (2): 188-190. [crossref] ramzi, c. m. 2014. taxonomic study of some ground beetles (coleoptera: carabidae) in some localities of kurdistan region-iraq. m. sc. thesis. college of agriculture, university of salahaddin erbil , 184 pp . https://www.landcareresearch.co.nz/uploads/public/publications/fauna-of-nz-series/fnz60carabidae.pdf https://dx.doi.org/10.22067/jpp.v32i4.62473 http://dx.doi.org/10.5635/ased.2013.29.2.188 47 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum abdullah and al-jassany roubal, j. 1932. sur quelques coléoptěres des environs de bagdad. bulletin de la société entomologique de france, 1932: 59-64. sage, b. l. 1961. notes on some coleoptera collected at khanaqin, iraq. bulletin of iraq natural history museum, 1(5): 1-3. shalaby, f., el-haidari, h. and derwesh, a. i. 1966. contribution to the insect fauna of iraq. bulletin of the entomological society of egypt, 50:77-89. stack, c. 2015. beetles: biodiversity, ecology and role in the environment. nova science pub. incorporated, new york, 250 pp. [click here] telenius, a. and shah, m. 2016. zoology (museum of evolution uppsala). gbifsweden. occurrence dataset, accessed via gbif.org on 2021-11-11. [crossref] https://novapublishers.com/shop/beetles-biodiversity-ecology-and-role-in-the-environment/ https://doi.org/10.15468/1rofux 48 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum revision of the genus chlaenius bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2022) 17 (1): 33-48. رتبة غمدية االجنحة chlaenius bonelli 1810 , مراجعة للجنس coleoptera عائلة الخنافس االرضية،carabidae مع تسجيل نوع جديد من ، العراق راض ي فاضل الجصاني و آمال حسين عبدهللا جامعة بغداد، بغداد، العراق.-قسم وقاية النبات، كلية علوم الهندسة الزراعية 20/06/2022، تأريخ النشر 06/04/2022، تأريخ القبول 24/12/2021تسلما: تأريخ اال الخالصة رتبة chlaenius bonelli 1810في هذا البحث تمت مراجعة األنواع من جنس، نوًعا مؤكًدا 20عن وجود ؛ اذ تم الكشفغمدية االجنحة، عائلة الخنافس االرضية ، ألول مرةchlaenius hamifer chaudoir, 1856ع في العراق، من بينها سجل النو للمجموعة الحيوانية العراقية. بالصور ً ذكرت الصفات التشخيصية مع وصف مظهري موجز مدعوما .في العراق التوضيحية للنوع الجديد bull 27 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum panda and sahoo bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2022) 17 (1): 27-32. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2022.17.1.0027 short communication first record of spotted flycatcher muscicapa striata (pallas, 1764) (passeriformes, muscicapidae) from odisha and eastern ghats of india bibhu prasad panda*♦ and manas ranjan sahoo** *sálim ali centre for ornithology and natural history, anaikatty (post), coimbatore 641108, tamil nadu, india. **ouat colony, bhubaneswar 751003, odisha, india. ♦corresponding author e-mail: bibhuprasadpanda14@gmail.com received date: 24 dec. 2021, accepted date: 03 february 2022, published date: 20 june 2022 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract this note reported the first record of spotted flycatcher muscicapa striata (pallas, 1764) (passeriformes, muscicapidae) from the state of odisha, india. this species was recorded from the north and western part of the country as well as from the western ghats, but this note reports the first record from the eastern ghats of india. keywords: eastern ghats, first record, india, muscicapa, spotted flycatcher. introduction the spotted flycatcher muscicapa striata (pallas, 1764) is a small-sized (15 cm) passerine bird of the muscicapidae family; it has a distribution range (resident or migratory) from africa, central asia and europe (taylor, 2020). this species breeds in western europe to mongolia and migrates to africa in winter; this migration occurs through the indian subcontinent (bird count india, 2021) and recorded in india as a passage migrant (grimmett et al., 2011; rasmussen and anderton, 2012). while going to africa, these birds migrate through north and western india. at the time of returning, mostly it bypasses the country like several other species (bird count india, 2021). this species is categorised as least concern in the iucn red list of threatened species due to its high population and wide distribution range (birdlife international, 2019). muscicapa striata was recorded commonly in gujarat state but there were few records from southern-west india at pune (iyer, 2016), goa (dharwadkar et al., 2017) and tamil nadu (anand et al., 2017). all these records are from the western ghats, but there is no found from the eastern ghats before. in eastern india, it is only recorded near the sunderbans of west bengal (ebird, 2021). this investigation presents the first sighting report of the spotted flycatcher m. striata from odisha as well as eastern ghats. bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home online issn: 2311-9799 print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2022.17.1.0027 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1087-0080 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4217-8806 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 28 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum first record of spotted flycatcher notes and taxonomic treatment on 24th april 2020, around 0845 hrs, we sighted a single individual of the species perching on an electric wire of a residential complex of odisha university of agriculture and technology, bhubaneswar, odisha, india (20.271˚n & 85.806˚e) (map 1). this bird was recorded flying from the electric wire to the gates of the residential complex and then to the lower branches of nearby trees. this activity of this individual was recorded within 50m radius for 15 minutes in that location before it flew away. on the first day of sighting we misidentified this species as asian brown flycatcher muscicapa dauurica (pallas, 1811); but after seeing the photographs, we realised that this is an individual of spotted flycatcher m. striata. though this bird looked like an asian brown flycatcher with its pale grey-brown upperparts, the distinct grey brown streaking on the crown, throat and breast confirmed it as a spotted flycatcher. this feature differentiates it from asian brown flycatcher and dark sided flycatcher m. sibirica (gmelin, 1789). it also had dark eyes with no eye ring, long beak with a pale bill base and black legs (grimmett et al., 2011). an assistance was provided by senior bird researchers including dr. rajah jaypal, mr. praveen jayadevan and mr. ashwin viswanathan to confirm the id as spotted flycatcher (pl. 1). this species may not be in the list of conservation priority because of its large population, but in the recent past, the trend of the population declined (birdlife international, 2019). though this species was recorded in western india with large number, its record from the eastern parts was very rare (ebird, 2021). the records from eastern india were in january and february but at bhubaneswar, it was recorded in april which was the only spring record in india (bird count india, 2021); this species recorded as winter migrant in the western parts but this record showed it as a spring migrant. due to the only record it can be considered as a vagrant in this season, but a detailed monitoring can describe it as a spring migrant or not, to this region with the current climatic conditions. this presents the first report of this species from odisha as well as from the eastern ghats as this recorded location resides in the peripheral region of eastern ghats. a detailed status of this species in india can be assessed after further monitoring of this species. 29 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum panda and sahoo map (1): global distribution of spotted flycatcher (birdlife international and handbook of the birds of the world, 2021) and previous records in india as red dots (ebird, 2021) with new record as green dot from odisha. 30 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum first record of spotted flycatcher plate (1): a spotted flycatcher muscicapa striata at bhubaneswar, odisha, india. (photograph by manas ranjan sahoo). acknowledgments the authors are very much thankful to praveen jayadevan and ashwin viswanathan for confirming the id of the species. we immensely thank dr. rajah jaypal for his help and support. we are also thankful to mr. prateek dey and mr. asish kumar for their help. the authors are also thankful to the reviewers for their valuable inputs in this manuscript. conflict of interest statement "the authors have no conflicts of interest to declare". litereature cited anand, v., kumar, u., thangam, v., narayanan, g. g. and muthunarayanan, k. 2017. first record of spotted flycatcher muscicapa striata from tamil nadu, india. indian birds, 13 (2): 52-53. [click here] bird count india. 2021. migration maps, spotted flycatcher. [click here] birdlife international. 2019. muscicapa striata (amended version of 2018 assessment). the iucn red list of threatened species 2019. accessed on 23 december 2021. [crossref] birdlife international and handbook of the birds of the world. 2021. bird species distribution maps of the world. version 2021.1. [click here] http://indianbirds.in/pdfs/ib_13_2_anandetal_spottedflycatcher.pdf https://birdcount.in/migration-map/spofly1/ https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/iucn.uk.2019-3.rlts.t22709192a155605346.en. http://datazone.birdlife.org/species/requestdis 31 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum panda and sahoo dharwadkar, o., baidya, p., lad, p., parab, p., bhagat, m., niphadkar, m., rangnekar, p. and rangnekar, s. 2017. spotted flycatcher muscicapa striata: a new record for goa, india. indian birds, 13 (1): 27-28. [click here] ebird. 2021. ebird: an online database of bird distribution and abundance [web application]. ebird, cornell lab of ornithology, ithaca, new york. (accessed on december 22. 2021). [click here] grimmett, r., inskipp, c. and inskipp, t. 2011. helm field guides birds of the indian subcontnent. oxford university press, new delhi, 528pp. iyer, r. 2016. sighting of a spotted flycatcher muscicapa striata in pune. indian birds, 11(2): 50. [click here] rasmussen, p. c. and anderton, j. c. 2012. birds of south asia: the ripley guide. 2nd edition. washington, d. c. and barcelona: smithsonian institution and lynx edicions, 2 vols, p. 1-378, p. 1-683. taylor, b. 2020. spotted flycatcher (muscicapa striata), version 1.0. in: (del hoyo, j., elliott, a., sargatal, j., christie, d. a. and de juana, e. (eds), birds of the world. cornell lab of ornithology, ithaca, ny, usa. [crossref] http://indianbirds.in/pdfs/ib_13_1_dharwadkaretal_spottedflycatcher.pdf http://www.ebird.org./ https://indianbirds.in/pdfs/ib_11_2_iyer_spottedflycatcher.pdf https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.spofly1.01 32 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum first record of spotted flycatcher bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2022) 17 (1): 27-32. لطائر خاطف الذباب املرقط تسجيل أول muscicapa striata (pallas, 1764) (passeriformes, muscicapidae) من أوديشا وشرق الغاتس في الهند ** ساهو رانجان ماناس وو براساد باندا * هبيب ، 641108، كويمباتور والتاريخ الطبيعي، أنايكاتي يور * مركز سليم علي لعلم الط تاميل نادو، الهند. .أوديشا، الهند، 751003بوبانسوار ، جامعة أوريسا للزراعة والتكنولوجيا** 20/06/2022، تأريخ النشر: 03/02/2022، تأريخ القبول: 24/12/2021تأريخ االستالم: صةالخال muscicapa striataإلى أول تسجيل لصائد الذباب املرقط الدراسةهذه اشارت (pallas, 1764) (passeriformes ،muscicapidae.من والية أوديشا ، الهند ) ذ إ وكذلك من منطقة غاتس ،هذا النوع من الجزء الشمالي والغربي من البالد سجل ل سجل من منطقة غاتس الشرقية فيتشير إلى أو التحرياتولكن هذه ،الغربية الهند. bull 49 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hassan et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2022) 17 (1): 49-65. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2022.17.1.0049 original article sequence stratigraphy and paleoenvironment of aaliji formation in bai hassan oil field in kirkuk province, northern iraq faris nejris hassan*, yaseen saleh kareem and muthanna younus mohammed department of applied geology, college of sciences, university of tikrit, salah al-din, iraq. *corresponding author e-mail: faris77@tu.edu.iq received date: 06 november 2021, accepted date: 21 april 2022, published date: 20 june 2022 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract the aaliji formation in wells (bh.52, bh.90, bh.138, and bh.188) in bai hassan oil field in low folded zone northern iraq has been studied to recognize the palaeoenvironment and sequence stratigraphic development. the formation is bounded unconformably with the underlain shiranish formation and the overlain jaddala formation. the microfacies analysis and the nature of accumulation of both planktonic and benthonic foraminifera indicate the two microfacies associations; where the first one represents deep shelf environment, which is responsible for the deposition of the planktonic foraminiferal lime wackestone microfacies and planktonic foraminiferal lime packstone microfacies, while the second association represents the deep-sea environment that is responsible for deposition of lime mudstone microfacies. the sequence boundaries were marked on sb1 surface on the bottom and the top of the succession while sb2 surface is placed at the top of the sequence (1) as shallowingupward beneath deepening upward units. sequence (1) placed on sb1 surface that separates the cretaceous from the palaeogene successions where it formed outer shelf to upper-middle bathyal, and comprised the planktonic foraminiferal lime wackestone microfacies as a transgression system tract tst deepening-upward ended with maximum flooding surface mfs represented by mudstone microfacies in bh.188 well. it is followed by the planktonic foraminiferal lime packstone microfacies that represent the highstand system tract hst as a shallowing-upward ended by sb2. sequence (2) begins with a new transgression system tract tst that formed the outer shelf and bounded with maximum flooding surface mfs. the highstand system tract hst that shallowing-upward which ended by sb1 between the aaliji and jaddala formations. keywords: aaliji formation, bai hassan, iraq, sequence stratigraphy, palaeoenvironment. bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home online issn: 2311-9799 print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2022.17.1.0049 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3759-8742 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4189-6328 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9560-1420 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 50 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum sequence stratigraphy and paleoenvironment introduction the aaliji formation was first described by bellen (1950) in northwest syria beside a supplementary section (well kirkuk.109) in iraq as marl and marly limestone with light to dark grey color, the lower contact represents a regional unconformity surface with shiranish formation. alomari, (1970) determined the age of the formation as earlylate paleocene while al-kassab et al., (1986) showed that the formation belongs to the middle paleocene-early eocene. the depositional environment was determined based on the ostracods accumulation as deep marine within the bathyal zone (aziz, 1997) during the middle-late paleocene (al-juboury, 2011). also, the upper contact is an unconformity surface with jaddala formation due to the changing of lithology and fossils in addition to the occurrence of glauconite and pyrite with an extensive increase in the gamma-ray log at the top of the formation (al-jwaini, 2016). al-hyaly and albadrani, (2019) determined the age of the formation as middle paleocene early eocene depending on calcareous nannofossils. the present research aims to determine the palaeoenvironment and sequence development of aaliji formation in accordance with the microfacies associations and the nature of planktonic and benthonic foraminifers occurrence. materials and methods four wells were selected within bai hassan oil field about 30 km northwest of kirkuk city which is considered as a subsurface anticline extended to northwestsoutheast with the same direction of zagros mountain extension between (397000 407000) eastern and (3945000 3951000) northern in accordance with utm coordinates in hemrin-makhul subzone within the foothill zone (jassim and goff, 2006). the field is bounded by kirkuk oil field in the east and northeast while is bounded by the khabaz structure in the southeast (map 1). forty cutting samples and one hundred thin sections from four wells (bh.52, bh.90, bh.138, and bh.188) in bai hassan oil field were chosen for this study. twenty-five thin sections were made in the applied geology department, college of sciences, tikrit university, while seventy-five thin sections were lent from the geology department in north oil company (noc). a detailed petrographic examination was made on these thin sections using a polarized microscope in addition to well logs analysis to determine microfacies associations, diagenesis process, palaeoenvironment, and sequence development of the aaliji formation. petrography the petrographic description showed that the aaliji formation is comprised of many skeletal grains and non-skeletal grains besides the matrix. skeletal grains are mainly represented by well preserved, small-sized, thin-walled, and light-colored planktonic foraminifera like: morozovella, acarinina, subbotina, globorotalia, and iogarina. sometimes benthonic foraminifera such as anomalinoides, 51 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hassan et al. lenticulina, cibicidoides, rosalia, and textularia are found with large size, thick walls, and compacted chambers relative to the planktonic foraminifera (pl. 1a). in addition, rare well-preserved ostracoda and different bioclasts are existed (pl. 1b). non-skeletal grains are not recognized within aaliji formation. map (1): location map and tectonic setting of study area (al-juboury, 2011). 52 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum sequence stratigraphy and paleoenvironment plate (1): (a) planktonic foraminifera morozovella (red arrow) and biserial fossil with pyritization (white arrow), bh.138, depth (1624 m), 20x, (b) ostracods with micritic matrix, bh.52, depth (1172-1173 m), 20x. (c) authigenic minerals glauconite (red arrow) and pyrite (yellow arrow) with intraparticle porosity (white arrow), bh.52, depth (1154-1155m), 20x. some pyrite was recognized filling pores and shells in all studied wells (pl.1c), whereas some glauconite was recognized concentrated on the upper limit of the formation associated with pyrite with increasing gamma-ray log in wells bh.52, bh.138, and bh.188, which may indicate an unconformity surface (pl. 1, diag. 1). the matrix is represented only by fine-grained carbonate (micrite) with dark brown color which indicates low energy depositional environment. finally, the aaliji formation carbonates are consisting of mud-supported textures like lime mudstones and wackestones. results and discussion microfacies associations the aaliji formation carbonates were classified using dunham (1962) classification. two microfacies association were distinguished in the studied succession each representing a distinct depositional environment; they include deep sea and deep shelf environments as shown below: deep shelf environment this environment is represented by two microfacies; planktonic foraminiferal lime wackestone microfacies, and planktonic foraminiferal lime packstone microfacies. the planktonic lime wackestone microfacies has widespread distribution within the aaliji formation where it is recognized in the lower and upper parts of the formation (diag.1) and it formed about (10-40%) of skeletal grains which composed mainly of planktonic 53 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hassan et al. foraminifera such as subbotina, morozovella, and acarinina, in addition to rare benthonic foraminifera and bioclasts. the skeletal grains are distributed within a dark brown micrite matrix (pl.3a). this microfacies is affected by many types of diagenesis process like compaction (mechanical and chemical), cementation like blocky cement, and pyritization filling the shells of foraminifera (pls. 2 a, b). the percent of planktonic foraminifera to the total assemblages foraminifera (planktonic and benthonic) has been calculated to be about 70-80%, which mean that this facies was deposited in the outer shelfupper bathyal environment with depth between (150-300 m) (gibson, 1989; haq and boersma, 1998). the planktonic lime packstone microfacies has restricted distribution and is found only within the lower part of the formation above the planktonic foraminiferal lime wackestone microfacies (diag. 1); and it essentially comprised from planktonic foraminifera with spherical chambers, such as the genus subbotina and acarinina in addition to rare shells of benthonic foraminifera and bioclasts. this microfacies contains glauconite mineral that distributed within the micrite matrix. in addition, microspar and pyrite appear filling the shells of planktonic foraminifera (pl.2d). the percentage of planktonic foraminifera/total assemblage of planktonic and benthonic foraminifera in this microfacies reaches 90%, which indicates deposition within the middle-upper bathyal with depth about (200-800 m) (gibson, 1989; alegret and thomas, 2001). deep-sea environment this association is characterized by the lime mudstone microfacies which occurs in the middle parts of the formation ( diag.1) and it essentially consists of dark brown micrite with a low percentage of skeletal grains (less than 10%) that mainly composed of planktonic foraminifera in addition to some benthonic foraminifera and bioclasts. dolomitization with subhedral and euhedral rhombs is the most affected diagenetic features on this microfacies (pls.2c, 3f). the planktonic/total foraminifera accumulation percent is about (60-75%) which indicates that the microfacies was deposited within the outer shelf environment with a depth ranging between (100-200 m) (gibson, 1989). 54 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum sequence stratigraphy and paleoenvironment diagram (1): microfacies and depositional environment of aliji formation in bh.52 well. 55 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hassan et al. plate (2): (a) planktonic foraminiferal lime wackestone microfacies with micritic matrix and planktonic genus morozovella with molded pyrite, bh.90, depth (1250-1252m), 20x.; (b) planktonic foraminiferal lime wackesone microfacies with micritic mass ground and rotalia, bh.188, 20x.; (c) lime mudstone microfacies, bh.52, depth (1164 m), 20x.; (d) planktonic foraminiferal lime packstone microfacies with extensive dolomitization bh.52, depth (11751176m), 20x.; (e) planktonic foraminiferal lime packstone microfacies with planktonic foraminifera and micritic matrix, bh.188, depth (1310m), 20x.; (f) planktonic foraminiferal lime packstone microfacies with morozovella affected by micritization (red arrow) and cementation (yellow arrow) and biserial (blue arrow), bh.52, depth (1172-1173m), 40x. 56 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum sequence stratigraphy and paleoenvironment plate (3): (a) micritization in planktonic foraminiferal lime wackestone microfacies (white arrows), bh.52, depth (1157-1158m), 20x;(b-) blocky cement in planktonic foraminiferal lime wackestone microfacies, bh.90, depth (1248-1249m),20x; (c) fractures generation (white arrow) and fossils deformation (red arrows) due to mechanical compaction in planktonic foraminiferal lime packstone microfacies, bh.52, depth (1172-1173m), 20x; (d) hummocky stylolite due to chemical compaction (red arrows) and cementation by blocky cement in planktonic foraminiferal lime wackestone microfacies, bh.52, depth (1180m), 20x; (e) deformed planktonic foraminifera with diagenetic features include fracturing due to mechanical compaction (red arrow), cementation (blue arrow), silicification (grey arrow), and precipitation of authigenic minerals of pyrite (yellow arrows) and glauconite (white arrow) in planktonic foraminiferal lime wackestone microfacies, bh.138, depth (1604 m), 40x; (f) benthic foraminifera with a euhedral crystal of dolomite in planktonic foraminiferal lime wackestone microfacies, bh.138, depth (1604 m), 40x; (g) silicification (yellow arrow) and pyritization (red arrow), bh.52,depth (1153-1154 m), 20x.; (h) silicification (yellow arrow) and glauconite (white arrow), bh.138, depth (1604m), 40x. 57 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hassan et al. palaeoenvironment in the current study, two palaeoenvironments of the aaliji formation were concluded depending on classification of environments by koutsokos and hart (1990) (diag.1). as it is known that various species of foraminifera coexist within deep or shallow environments where the planktonic foraminifera are abundant in deep water environments in contrast to benthonic foraminifera which become abundant in shallow environments (keller et al., 2007) and the increasing in the ratio of planktonic / benthonic foraminifera can give an indicator to the open sea environment (murray, 1978). furthermore, benthonic foraminifera can be use as indicator to the depth of environment because of their sensitivity to the environments changing (sari et al., 2008). aaliji formation consists of three microfacies: wackestone bearing planktonic foraminifer's microfacies (the dominant microfacies in the formation), mudstone microfacies and packstone microfacies where the third one has limited occurrence in the formation. these microfacies have been associated with different species and genus of foraminifera such as morozovella, acarinina, subbotina, iogarina, oragonesis, globorotalia, nodosarids and bolivinids. it is seen that the percent ratio of planktonic / total of foraminifera reaches to (70-85%) which means that the deposition was taken place in upper bathyal in deep-sea environments with depth ranging between (200 – 500 m) (gibson, 1989 and haq and boersma, 1998). in addition, many genera of benthonic foraminifera have been distinguished in the aaliji formation like anomalinoides, lenticulina, bathysiphon, cibicidoides, gyroidinoides, nuttallides, and marrsonella; which refer to deposition in outer shelf within deep shelf environments. koutsoukos (1985) showed that the foraminifera of genuses anomalinoides and lenticulina are coexist in outer shelf – upper bathyal environments. the climate conditions during the period of aaliji deposition can be concluded from the high prevalent coexisting of planktonic foraminifera percent ratio especially of both genera morozovella and acarinina which indicated tropic and semi tropic conditions (haq and boersma, 1998) where the percent ratio increased in the low latitude and decreased in high latitudes (arenillas and molina, 1996). therefore, it can be concluded that the prevalent climatic conditions during deposition of aaliji formation were tropic to semi-tropic in deep shelf environment and deep-sea environment (diag. 2). 58 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum sequence stratigraphy and paleoenvironment diagram (2): a depositional model of the aaliji formation in the studied area. sequence development the main geological processes that control the formation of sediments are the change in sea level, the tectonic factor, accommodation, and the preparation of sediments (brown and fisher, 1977; emery and myers, 1996). the aaliji formation belongs to ap10 and it consists of two 3rd order sequences bounded by two sb1 surfaces in bai hassan oilfield, where the lower boundary that separates between the cretaceous and the palaeogene sequences is considered as a regional unconformity surface. as well as, the existence of the palaeogene planktonic foraminifera instead of the absence of the keeled cretaceous planktonic foraminifera, and the occurrence of the glauconite and pyrite authegenic minerals associated with extensive increasing with gamma ray log. the first sequence starts with a transgressive system tract (tst) after a regional regression located as sb1 surface on the top of the lower succession (late cretaceous shiranish formation). this system tract is thickest in well bh.188 towards the east of the study area, and it is represented by deep shelf association of planktonic foraminiferal lime wackestone microfacies that followed by deep-sea association of lime mudstone microfacies, which represent the maximum flooding surface (mfs). a short highstand system tract (hst) followed this (mfs) as shallowing upward of deep shelf association with planktonic foraminiferal lime packstone microfacies. this sequence is bounded by (sb2) surface. the second sequence begins with a new transgressive system tract (tst) of deep-sea association of lime mudstone microfacies, which ended with maximum flooding surface (mfs) followed by a highstand system tract (hst) of deep shelf association with planktonic foraminiferal wackestone microfacies that ended with (sb1) surface which separate the paleocene aaliji formation from the eocene jaddala formation (diag. 3). correlation sequences during the palaeogene the sequence (ap10) took a period of time (29 ma) extending between ages (63-34 ma), where the lower boundary of this sequence was fixed at age (63 ma) at the surface of the unconformity between the late cretaceous and early palaeogene sequences, which 59 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hassan et al. occurred at the end of the collision that led to the rise of ophiolites along the northeastern edge of the arabian plate at the end of the cretaceous (sharland et al., 2001). the upper boundary, it was set at age (34 ma), which represents the beginning of the opening of the red sea between the arabian and african plates (beydoun, 1991; goff et al., 1995). also sharland et al. (2001) recorded two maximum flooding surfaces during the succession (ap10), the first surface (mfs pg10) at age (58 ma) and the second (mfs pg20) at age (49 ma). al-jubouri (2011) study of the formation in khabbaz field, recorded the loss of biozones of early paleocene represented by (p0, pα, p1, p2), and that the morozovella angulata zone represents the beginning of the marine transgressive it deposited aliji formation in that region and in which the maximum flooding surface at paleocene period, which is comparable to (mfs pg10) in saudi arabia and northern iraq. despite the relative discrepancy with the age of the maximum flooding surface in northern iraq, the arabian plate suffered from a wide marine transgressive during the paleocene (sharland et al., 2001). diagram (3): sequence stratigraphic correlation of aaliji formation in the studied area. conclusions the dominant microfacies are planktonic wackestone microfacies, lime mudstone microfacies with less abundant of planktonic packstone microfacies. both lower contact with shiranish formation and upper contact with jaddala formation are unconformity surfaces due to faunal changing and concentration of pyrite and glauconite. the 60 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum sequence stratigraphy and paleoenvironment palaeoenvironments of formation have been deduced on basis of petrographic study and microfacies analysis with coexisting of planktonic and benthonic foraminifera as outer shelf-upper bathyal environments. determine sequence (1) started sb1 surface that separates the cretaceous from the palaeogene successions the sequence begins with a transgression system tract tst deepening-upward ended with maximum flooding surface mfs and the highstand system tract hst as a shallowing-upward ended by sb2 and sequence (2) begins with a new transgression system tract tst and bounded with maximum flooding surface mfs. the highstand system tract hst of this sequence that shallowing-upward which ended by sb1 that separate between the aaliji formation and the jaddala formation. despite the relative discrepancy with the age of the maximum flooding surface in northern iraq, the recent study considers the arabian plate suffered from a wide marine transgressive during the paleocene. acknowledgements the authors are very grateful to the geology department in north oil company of for their provided facilities, which helped to improve the quality of this work. conflict of interest statment the authors have no conflicts of interest to declare. litratuer and cited alegret, l. and thomas, e. 2001. upper cretaceous and lower paleocene benthonic foraminifera from northeastern mexico. micropaleontology, 47(4): 269 316. al-hyaly, r. s. and al-badrani, o. a. 2019. calcareous nannofossils biostratigraphy of aaliji formation in well k119 northern iraq. iraqi national journal of earth sciences, 19 (1): 35-45. [click here] al juboury, f. n. 2011. planktonic foraminiferal biostratigraphy, depositional environment and sequence stratigraphy of upper cretaceous middle eocene sequences at selected wells in khabbaz oil field northestern iraq, unpublished ph.d. thesis, college of science, mosul university, 215pp. (in arabic). al jwaini, y. s. k. 2016. sequence stratigraphy and reservoir characterization of the late palaeogene-early neogene succession in kirkuk area, unpublished ph.d. thesis, college of science, baghdad university, 230 pp. al kassab, i.i., al-omari, f.s. and al-safawee, n.a. 1986. the cretaceous – tertiary boundary in iraq represented by subsurface sections of sasan well no.1, n. w. iraq. journal geological society of iraq, 9(2): 129-167. https://iraqjournals.com/article_170265_59b43641e00d91566b9b0674ef9a2990.pdf 61 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hassan et al. al omari, f. s. 1970. upper cretaceous and lower cenozoic foraminifera of three wells in northwestern iraq. university of missouri et rolla, unpublished ph. d. thesis, 280 pp. arenillas, i. and molina, e. 1996. bioestratigrafia y evolución de las asociaciones de foraminíferos planctónicos del tránsito paleoceno-eoceno en alamedilla (cordilleras béticas). revista española de micropaleontología, 18(1): 85-98. aziz, m. a.1997. ostracoda of paleocene-eocene for selected wells from north, northwest and middle of iraq, unpublished ph. d. thesis, college of science, mosul university, 210 pp. (in arabic). bellen, r. c. 1950. unpublished report to syria petroleum company. in: bellen, r.c., dunnington, h.v., wetzel, r., morton, d.m. 1959. lexique stratigraphique internationale, asie (iraq), fasc.10a. centre national de recherche scientifique, paris, 333 p. reprinted in 2005 by gulf petrolink, bahrain. beydoun, z. r. 1991. arabian plate hydrocarbon geology and potentiala plate tectonic approach. aapg studies in geology, american association of petroleum geologists, 33: 33-77. [crossref] brown, l. f. and fisher, w. l. 1977. seimic stratigraphy interpretation of depositional system: examples from brazil rift and pull-apart basins. american association of petroleum geologists, memoir, 26: 213-248. chilingar, g. v., zenger, d. h., bissell, h. j. and wolf, k. h. 1979. diagenesis of carbonate sediments and epigenesis (or catagenesis) of limestones, in g. larsen, and g. v. chilingar, eds., diagenesis in sediments and sedimentary rocks: developments in sedimentology 25a: new york, elsevier scientific publishing co., p. 249-424. choquette, p. w. and pray, l. c.1970. geological nomenclature and classification of porosity in sedimentary carbonate. aapg bulletin, 54(2): 207-250. dunham, r. j. 1962. classification of carbonate rocks according to depositional texture. in: ham, w. e. (ed.), classifications of carbonate rocks-a symposium. aapg mem 1, p. 108-121. embry, a. f. and klovan, j. e.1971. a late devonian reef tract on northeasterm banks island. canadian petroleum geology, 19: 730-781. emery, d. and myers, k. 2006. sequence stratigraphy. black well publishing company, 297 pp. https://doi.org/10.1306/st33533 62 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum sequence stratigraphy and paleoenvironment gibson, t. g. 1989. planktonic benthonic foraminiferal ratios: modern patterns and tertiary applicability. marine micropaleontology, 15: 29-52. goff, j. c., jones, r. w. and horbury, a. d. 1995. cenozoic basin evolution of the northern part of the arabian plate and its control on hydrocarbon habitat. in: alhusseini m.i., (ed.), middle east petroleum geosciences, geo 94, gulf petrol link, bahrain, 1, p 402412. haq, b. v. and boersma, a. 1998. introduction to marine micropaleontology. second edition, amsterdam, elsevier, 376 pp. jassim, s. z. and goff, j. c. 2006. geology of iraq. first edition, published by dolin, prague and moravian museum, brno, prrinted in the czech republic, 341pp. keller, g., adatte, t., tantawy, a. a., berner, z., stinnesbeck, w., stueben, d. and leanza, h. a. 2007. high stress late maastrichtian–early danian palaeoenvironment in the neuquen basin, argentina. cretaceous research, 28 (6): 939-960. [click here] koutsoukos, a. m. 1985. distribuicae paleobatimetrica de foraminifera continental atlantica. brazil, combase. congresso brasileiro benthonic cenozoic, margem de geol., vol. 2, p.685696. mukherji, k. k. and young, g. m. 1973. diagenesis of the black river (middle ordovician) limestone in southern ontario, canada. sedimentary geology, 9 (1): 2151. [crossref] murray, j. w. 1978. benthonic foraminiferal assemblages criteria for the distinction of temperte and subtropical carbonate environments. in: hart, m. b. (ed.), micropaleontology of carbonate environments. ellis horwood, chichester, p. 920. randazzo, a. f. and zachos, l. g. 1984. classification and description of dolomitic fabric of rocks from the florida aquifer, usa. sedimentology geology, 37 (3): 151-162. [crossref] sari, b., tasli, k. and ӧzer, s. 2008. benthonic foraminiferal biostratigraphy of the upper cretaceous (middle cenomanian–coniacian) sequences of the bey daglari carbonate platform, western taurides, turkey. turkey journal of erath science, 14: 393-425. sharland, p. r., archer, r., casey, d. m., davies, r. b., hall, s. h., heward, a. p., harbury, a.d. and simmons, m.d. 2001. arabian plate sequence stratigraphy, geoarabia special publication 2, gulf petrollink, manama, bahrain, 371pp. https://doc.rero.ch/record/9589/files/keller_g._-_high_stress_late_maastrichtian_20080725.pdf https://dio.org/10.1016/0037-0738%2873%2990013-4 https://doi.org/10.1016/0037-0738%20(84)90005-8 63 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hassan et al. wright, v.p.1991. a revised classification of limestone's, sedimentary geology, 76(2): 177-185. 64 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum sequence stratigraphy and paleoenvironment bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2022) 17 (1): 49-65. البيئة القديمة لتكوين عليجي في حقل باي حسن الطباقية التتابعية و النفطي في محافظة كركوك، شمالي العراق فارس نجرس حسن، ياسين صالح كريم و مثنى يونس محمد قسم علوم االرض التطبيقية، كلية العلوم، جامعة تكريت، صالح الدين، العراق. 20/06/2022، تأريخ النشر: 21/04/2022القبول: ، تأريخ 06/11/2021تأريخ االستالم: الخالصة ضمن ، bh.188و bh.52 ،bh.90 ،bh.138 ابار تم دراسة تكوين عليجي في حقل باي حسن النفطي ضمن نطاق الطيات الواطى شمالي العراق لتحديد البيئة كوين الترسيبية و طباقية التتابع. يتحدد التكوين بسطحين غير متوافقين مع ت شيرانش في األسفل وتكوين جدالة في األعلى. بينت طبيعة التحليل السحني وتجمعات الحشود الحياتية لكل من الفورامنيفيرا الطافية القاعية وقد حددت حدود التتابع السفلى والعليا بسطحي تتابع غير توافقي بينما حدد التتابع الثاني من االسفل بحد من النوع الثاني ؛(sb1) من النوع األول (sb2)، حيث تموضع التتابع األول على سطح عدم التوافق من النوع األول (sb1) الذي يفصل تتابعات الكريتاس ي االعلى عن تتابعات الباليوجين والذي تكون في بيئة ألف من سحنة الحجر العلوي وهو يت -الرصيف الخارجي الى الباثيال املتوسط الجيري الواكي الحامل للفورامنيفيرا الطافية الدقيقة ممثال مسار النظام التقدمي tst و ينتهي التعمق نحو األعلى بسطح الفيضان األقص ى mfs متمثال بسحنة التي تبعتها سحنة الحجر الجيري املرصوص bh.188 الحجر الطيني الدقيقة في البئر دالة على hst الطافية الدقيقة ممثلة مسار النظام التراجعي راالحاملة للفورامنيفي . (sb2)والذي ينتهي بسطح تتابعي من النوع الثاني التضحل نحو األعلى 65 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hassan et al. متمثال بسحنة الحجر tst اما التتابع الثاني فإنه بدأ بمسار نظام تقدمي جديد جي والتي حددت من ضمن بيئة الرصيف الخار الجيري الطيني الدقيقة املتكونة bh.138 حيث كان اكبر سمك له في البئر mfs األعلى بسطح الفيضان األقص ى بتضحل نحو األعلى دلت عليه سحنة الحجر hst بينما تمثل مسار النظام التراجعي للفورامنيفيرا الطافية والذي انتهى بسطح تتابع من النوع الجيري الواكي الحاملة . ن تكوين عليجي وتكوين جدالةالذي يفصل بي sb1 األول bull 421 jihad and ali bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2021) 16 (4): 421-428. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2021.16.4.0421 short communication new record of the land snail polygyra cereolus (megerle von mühlfeld, 1818) (gastropoda, stylommatophora, polygyridae) for malacofauna of iraq hiba mohammed jihad* and hayder badri ali**♦ *iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq. **department of biology, college of science, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq. ♦corresponding author e-mail: hayder.badri@sc.uobaghdad.edu.iq received date: 10 june 2021, accepted date: 05 august 2021, published date: 20 december 2021 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract in this study, the specimens of land snails polygyra cereolus (megerle von mühlfeldt, 1818) (gastropoda, stylommatophora, polygyridae) are collected between march and april 2021 from gardens and nurseries in baghdad province, this species was recorded as a new record to iraq molluscan fauna. description of the most important characteristics, measurements of the shell are presented with digital photographs, subsequently this study represents the first record of the polygyridae in iraq. keywords: gastropoda, iraq, polygyra, polygyridae, snail. introduction phylum mollusca has about 100,000 living described species (hickman et al., 1982), gastropoda is the largest class of phylum mollusca, about 40,000 living species belong to it, with six subclasses were recognized in the recent taxonomy of gastropoda according to bouchet et al. (2017); stylommatophora, the order of terrestrial mollusca is one of the subclass heterobranchia which comprises over 15000 described species (steinbeck, 1945), distributed among 40 families (myers et al., 2021). land snails are poorly studied in iraq; some records of land families, genera, and species of iraq are available according to (pallary, 1939; germain, 1921; biggs, 1959). many species of the family helicidae have been recorded from iraq; this family represents one of the most locally common land snails' families. polygyridae pilsbry, 1895 is a family of terrestrial pulmonate gastropods, belongs to the order stylommatophora. it includes about 23 genera with 230 species, their size of species are ranging between 4-44 mm with globose shell, https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2021.16.4.0421 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 422 new record of the land snail keeled or flattened (pereze, 2008); and characterized by their thick ended reflected lip or peristome when reach sexual maturity (webb, 1960). their peristome may have 1-3 teeth, polygyrids active in moist conditions and some species burrow deep in soil during drought, and this family is widespread in north america (pereze, 2008). the genus polygyra say, 1818 characterized by helicoid shell, globose or depressed globose to lens-shaped or planorboid; carinated or rounded periphery, closed or open umbilicus, surface striated or hirsute, well reflexed lip; aperture typically obstructed by three teeth; one parietal, two upon the lip (walker, 1906). polygyra cereolus (megerle von mühlfeldt, 1818) is the only species in the genus polygyra to have been reported as an invasive species, it is a north american, floridanative snail and has been spread extensively with ornamental plants and other agricultural products (charles and lenoble, 2020). recently, many regional and neighboring of iraq countries have been recorded this species for the first time, saudi arabia (neubert, 1995), united arab emirates (feulner et al., 2005), qatar (al-khayat, 2010), turkey (frank, 2016), egypt (ali and robinson, 2020). due to the lack of studies on this group, the current study was suggested to add new information about malacofauna in iraq. specimens' collection snail specimens (n=35) were collected by direct hand picking from some gardens and nurseries in baghdad province from the period between march and april 2021, at a temperature ranging between (23˚c-33˚c) snails are found at the soil surface of irrigated seedlings of rosa sp., citrus and ornamental rose, and near shrubs in the gardens (tab.1, pl. 1). table (1): collected specimens with data. no number and state of the specimen plant locality date geographical co-ordinates 1 11 empty shells or dead molluscan citrus seedlings nursery, palestine street 25.iii.2021 33˚214̍3.6̎ n 44˚255̍6.5̎ e 2 1 alive molluscan and 11 empty shells or dead molluscan rosa sp. seedlings nursery, palestine street 3 4 alive molluscan and 6 empty shells or dead molluscan ornamental rose seedlings nursery, al adhamiya 3.iv.2021 33˚233̍1.8̎ n 44˚214̍2.9̎ e 4 2 empty shells or dead molluscan shrubs garden/ bab al muadham/ ibn rushd education college 18.iv.2021 33˚211̍3.3̎ n 44˚232̍6.6̎ e 423 jihad and ali the collected specimens are washed with water and preserved in 80% ethanol alcohol; the identification of snails is carried out based on the shell characters according to a specific diagnostic key (pratt, 1981) then photographed by optika digital camera connected to dissecting microscope. specimens were deposited in the natural history museum and research center/ university of baghdad. taxonomy and description in this study, the family polygyridae is recorded for the first time in iraq, and the fact that the identification of this family was after collecting many specimens belongs to several land snail families in the studied regions previously recorded in iraq, therefore, the first step was constructed simple identification key to separate these families as below: identification key to some iraqi terrestrial snail families։ 1shell higher than wide, conical or fusiform, uniform without color bands ………………………………………………………………........... achatinidae shell wider than high…………………..……………….………………….………....2 2 large shell about 30mm in diameter, globose or subglobose white to creamy color with brown bands ………………………………………………………….…..…...helicidae smaller shell, discoidal or depressed, ripped, aperture with reflected lip, umbilicus open … ……………………………………………………………….……polygyridae class, gastropoda order, stylommatophora family, polygyridae pilsbry, 1895 genus, polygyra say, 1818 polygyra cereolus (megerle von mühlfeld, 1818) description (pl.2): discoidal shell, light brown to bronze in color, with radial white bands or lines in the lower surface; upper surface with regular ribs; spire slightly elevated; 6.5 whorls, protoconch of 2 whorls without ribs, from it the whorls slowly expanded, the periphery (last whorl) angular at upper, the base is slightly rounded; umbilicus open; the last whorl expanded near the aperture, aperture with reflected white lip, the inside of the outer and basal margins of peristome is reflected and thickened giving the aperture the heart or apple shape, the parietal margin possesses a short vertical tooth. the average measurements of 10 specimen shells shown in table (2). table (2): measurements of shells (in mm) shell diameter shell high aperture high aperture width 7.1 – 7.5 3.0 – 3.2 2.0 – 2.3 1.2 – 1.7 habitat: due to its favorable moisture conditions that provided by irrigation this species is well acclimatized to gardens (charles and lenoble, 2020).the specimens of p. cereolus 424 new record of the land snail collected from irrigated soil in the shade these include areas beneath potted plants, on the soil surface of seedlings and under shrubs, thus the moist soil and shade was the preferable habitats. remark: p. cereolus is very closely in appearance with p. septemvolva say, 1818 and the distinction between these two species has been consumed the efforts of malacologists. the main and more obvious difference between these two species is in the umbilicus, the innermost four or five whorls in the former are less open so it has steepersided to its umbilical core than that of the second, for this umbilicus in p. cereolus appear less open and more funnelshaped in comparison with that's of p. septemvolva (lee, 1998). plate (1): p. cereolus found in: (a) adamiyah, (b) bab al muadham, (c, d) palestine street. 425 jihad and ali conflict of interest statment the results of the current study are part of the requirements of m.sc. in zoology, department of biology/college of science-university of baghdad for the first author. also, we are the authors of this manuscript, declare and confirm that no significant financial or other relationship with any official institution. literature cited ali, r. f. and robinson, d. g. 2020. four records of new to egypt gastropod species, including the first reported tropical leather leaf slug laevicaulis at (d’a. de férussac, 1822) (pulmonata: veronicellidae). zoology and ecology, 30 (2): 138-156. al-khayat, j. 2010. first record of five terrestrial snails in the state of qatar. turkish journal of zoology, 34: 539-545. plate (2): p. cereolus; (a) dorsal view, (b) ventral view, (c) lateral view showing angular last whorl. 426 new record of the land snail biggs, h. e. j. 1959. some land mollusca from northern iraq. journal of conchology, 24 (10): 342347. bouchet, p., rocroi, j. p., hausdorf, b., kaim, a., kano, y., nützel, a., parkhaev, p., schrödl, m. and strong, e. e. 2017. revised classification, nomenclator and typification of gastropod and monoplacophoran families. malacologia, 61(1-2): 1-526. charlis, l. and lenoble, a. 2020. confirmation of polygyra cereolus (gastropoda: polygyridae) in puerto rico, greater antilles. novitates caribaea, (16):159-163. feulner, g., neubert, e. and green, s. a. 2005. land snails, p. 222–226. in: hellyer, p. and aspinall, s. (eds.), the emirates. a natural history. trident press limited. frank, ch. 2016. über zwei eingeschleppte schneckenarten in südwestanatolien, türkei (gastropoda: gastrocoptinae und polygyrinae). linzer biologische beiträge, 48 (1): 83-88. germain, l. 1921. mollsques terrestres et fluviatiles de syrie, x, paris, 523 pp. hickman, c. p., roberts, l. s. and hickman, f. m. 1982. biology of animals, 3rd edition. the c. v. mosby company (st. louis), usa, 646 pp. lee, h. g. 1998. polygyra septemvolva say, 1818 and polygyra cereolus (muhlfeld, 1816) comparison. florida land snail gallery. available at: https://www.jaxshells.org/728aaa.htm. myers, p., espinosa, r., parr, c. s., jones, t., hammond,g. s. and dewey, t. a. 2021. polygyridae. the animal diversity web. available at: https://animaldiversity.org. neubert, e. 1995. two species of land snails in saudi arabia. malacological review, 28: 125126. pallary, p. 1939. deuxième addition à la faune malacologique de la syrie. – mémoires a l’institut d’égypte, 39: 1141. perez, k. e. 2008. polygyridae (43–48). in: perez, k. e. and cordeiro, r. j. (eds.). a guide for terrestrial gastropods identification. american malacological society, carbondale, illinois. pratt, w. l. 1981. a revision of the land snail polygyra in texas. ph. d. dissertation. department of general biology, university of arizona. 144 pp. available at: http://hdl.handle.net/10150/565487. 427 jihad and ali steinbeck, j. 1945. phylum mollusca. in: brusca, r.c., wendy, m. and shuster, s. m. invertebrates, 3th edition. sinauer associates, inc, usa, p 1-69. walker, b. 1906. an illustrated catalogue of the mollusca of michigan: part 1. terrestrial pulmonata (land snails). report for 1905, state board of geological survey, 492 pp. available at: https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/36110280 webb, g. r. 1960. the phylogeny of american land snails with emphasis on the polygyridae, arionidae and ammonitellidae. ph.d. thesis, university of oklahoma. iv + 74 pp, 428 new record of the land snail bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2021) 16 (4): 421-428. للحلزون االرض ي تسجيل جديد polygyra cereolus (megerle von mühlfeld, 1818) (gastropoda, stylommatophora, polygyridae) لفونا الرخويات في العراق هبة محمد جهاد* و حيدر بدري علي** .ف التأريخ الطبيعي/ جامعة بغداد، بغداد، العراق*مركز بحوث و متح .كلية العلوم/ جامعة بغداد، بغداد، العراق-**قسم علوم الحياة 20/12/2021، تأريخ النشر: 05/08/2021، تأريخ القبول: 10/06/2021تأريخ االستالم: الخالصة polygyra cereolus (megerleعينات من الحلزون األرض ي الدراسةجمع خالل هذه von mühlfeld, 1818) من الحدائق واملشاتل 2021لعام نيسان و اذار خالل شهري .سجل هذا النوع ألول مرة لفونا الرخويات في العراق. في محافظة بغداد ، لقوقع معززة بالصور سجلت قياسات اذكر في الدراسة أهم الصفات املظهرية و .في العراق polygyridae تمثل هذه الدراسة أول تسجيل لعائلة كما bull 121 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hussein et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2024) 18 (1): 121-137. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2024.18.1.0121 original article comparative morphological description of tongue between two domesticated water birds, mallard anas platyrhynchos (linnaeus, 1758) and graylag goose anser anser (linnaeus, 1758) (anseriformes, anatidae) ashwaq ahmed hussein*, marwa khalil ibrahim and intidhar mohammed mnati department of biology, college of education for pure science ⁄ ibn alhaitham, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq. *corresponding author: ashwaq.a.h@ihcoedu.uobaghdad.edu.iq received: 29 july 2023, revised: 29 december2023, accepted:11 jan. 2024, published:20 june 2024 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract this study is to identify the comparative morphological description of the tongue in two species of domesticated waterbirds, mallard anas platyrhynchos (linnaeus,1758) and graylag goose anser anser (linnaeus,1758) (anseriformes, anatidae). four adult male birds (two for each species) were collected from the iraqi environment and used in the current study by buying them from the al-ghezil market, a local market in baghdad city. anaesthetized, dissected, and laboratory work were conducted and visually documented. the results of the study showed that the tongue of both birds was characterized by the appearance of being a narrow-elongated organ divided into three areas represented by the apex, the lingual body, and the root. it was noted that there was a median sulcus, lingual prominence, and conical and filiform papillae of varying numbers and distribution on the dorsal surface of the tongue. while the ventral surface was free of lingual papillae, but it might contain in return a triangular squamous plate called a lingual nail or a bar-shaped structure called a lyssa in proportion to the type and nature of nutrition. keywords: anatidae, anatomy, birds, dorsal lingual surface, lingual papillae. introduction the tongue plays an important role for all vertebrates, including birds, where differences have been observed in the size and shape of the tongue in line with the appropriate function for it; these tongue functions in birds are food collection, ingestion, and food processing (jackowiak and ludwig, 2008; jackowiak et al., 2011). tongue of birds also exhibits structural and anatomical variations related to feeding and adapting behaviors to living in different environments (iwasaki, 2002). the tongue appears as an elongated triangular organ in the majority of birds (jackowiak et al., 2011; erdoǧan et al., 2012), while it is relatively small in other species of birds (crole and soley, 2010; santos et al., 2011). there is also observed a difference in the regional distribution of lingual papillae and the structure of the bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799, print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2024.18.1.0121 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9536-4127 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9878-0161 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4070-913x mailto:ashwaq.a.h@ihcoedu.uobaghdad.edu.iq https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 122 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus 18 (1): 121-137. comparative morphological description lingual glands and taste buds in proportion to the mechanism of food intake, type of food, and habitat (jackowiak and godynicki, 2005). mallards are winter visitors found in the swamps of central and southern iraq, but they are found to a lesser extent in the northern regions. as for graylag, residents, and winter visitors live in grasslands, agricultural fields near swamps, estuaries, reed fields, islands, and dense sabkha. mallards are large aquatic birds with a length of about 65 cm and a wingspan of about 95 cm. the male is identified by the yellow beak color, the dark green head color, the brown chest color, the gray body, and the dark blue wing spot surrounded by white, while the female is spotted brown and has a brown spotted belly; both male and females have an iridescent purple blue speculum. graylag goose is alarge bird with a length of approximately 83cm and a wing span of about 164 cm. it has mottled and barred grey and white plumage, an upper portion greyer than porthion of the body and an orange beak with pink legs (muzaffar et al., 2006). these two species, mallard anas platyrhynchos linnaeus, 1758, and graylag goose anser anser linnaeus, 1758, belong to the family antidae (order, anseriformes), which is a large and complex group of approximately 150 species that shows great variation in wildlife (livezey, 1998). anas platyrhynchos is a waterbird whose diet in spring and summer consists mainly of animal matter such as insects, while its main food is aquatic plants, crops, and seeds in winter (kear, 2005), while anser anser cuts the vegetable parts of plants to and eats seeds (kear, 1966). several studies, such us: al-jumaily et al. ( 2013), kadhim et al. (2014), mnati et al. (2014), al-fartwsy et al. (2016), ibrahim and al-jumaily (2020), jabur et al. (2023), and hussein and ibrahim (2023), described the morphological traits of the tongue in different vertebrates. however, the anatomical study related to the avifauna of iraq was poorly addressed. the purpose of the current study is to identify comparative morphological characteristics of between the tongue in the a. platyrhynchos and a.anser to compare these results with the results of previous studies that dealt with different species of birds related to their feeding habits. materials and methods four adult males and healthy animals (two specimens for each species) bought from the local markets of baghdad city, al-ghezil market and its suburbs were used; the birds were collected during winter 2022, based on their availability in the market, and then these birds were taken in cages to the advanced comparative anatomy laboratory in the department of biology, college of education for pure sciencesibn al-haitham, university of baghdad. the birds were anesthetized using chloroform, and the head was separated off the neck area and the heads were left with a 10% formalin solution for 48 hours after fixation, the head were washed with tap water and the mouths were opend carefully, where the tongue was photographed in its location to show the location of the frenulum, and then the tongue was removed from the floor of the oral cavity by cutting the surrounding tissue (buamel et al., 1993). for easy identification of the lingual papillae, the tongue was stained with methylene 123 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hussein et al. blue at a concentration of 1%, which was prepared according to the method of kiernan (1999), and after staining, the tongue was studied and examined with a dissecting microscope with different magnification powers and photographed with a mobile camera of 64 megapixels and corrected directly, then adding scale bars to the image by using image j software. results morphological description of the tongue in anas platyrhynchos (linnaeus, 1758) the results of the morphological description of the bird subject of the current study showed that the tongue appeared as an elongated and narrow organ and reached a length of 7 cm and occupies the proboscis portion of the floor of the oropharyngeal cavity without extending to the free apex of the bottom of the lower beak (pls. 1, 2), to which the tongue is connected by a membranous fold called the frenulum (pl. 3). the dorsal surface of the tongue contains lingual papillae, while the ventral surface is free of these papillae, and in return, the structure of the bar appears at the ventral surface of the tongue extending from the apex to the area of the lingual body and extending to the lingual frenulum called lyssa (pl. 4). the tongue of this species appeared to consist of three parts represented by the apex, lingual body and root) with a free tip. the apex appears smooth and non-papillary in its dorsal surface, separated from the body, and takes on an oblong shape similar to a shovel (pls. 1, 2). the body of the tongue is in contact with the lower jaw by a wide frenulum and has a deep central groove in its dorsal surface that divides the apex and the body (passing through the lingual prominence) into two equal parts, as it was found that there are two prominence on both sides of the lingual groove, forming a spindle shape that merges with the lingual prominence (pls. 2, 6, 7). it appears on the apex of these two prominences, short filiform papillae whose free and pointed ends are directed outward and increase in size as we would progress towards the root (pls. 1, 2). the current study showed that the sides of the lingual body contain 11 short conical papillae, followed by 6 giant conical papillae, and between these papillae are distributed hairy structures (pl. 4). the lingual prominence appears in a butterfly-like triangle shape lined with conical papillae positioned at its base with 2-3 protrusion, while the papillae located on the sides appear with only one protrusion, and these papillae appear arranged in two rows, numbering up to 24 papillae (pls. 5, 6). as for the lingual root region, its location can be distinguished between the lingual prominence and the epiglottis and is characterized on both sides by two bulges, each with a group of conical papillae (pl. 7). morphological description of the tongue in anser anser (linnaeus, 1758) the results of the current study of the tongue in this bird, the subject of the current study, showed that it is a long and narrow organ and ranges in length 6.5 cm, and occupies the entire base of the oropharyngeal cavity, and is linked to the bottom of the lower part of the beak by a membranous fold called the frenulum (pls. 8, 9). the dorsal surface of the tongue contains lingual papillae, while the ventral surface is free of these papillae, and in contrast, it was observed at the ventral surface of the apex of the tongue the presence of a triangular white squamous plate called the lingual nail (pl. 10). 124 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus 18 (1): 121-137. comparative morphological description in this bird, the tongue was divided into three parts: the apex, lingual body, and root. the apex appears round, free of papillae and with smooth edges, and has a shallow and narrow medial groove at the dorsal surface of the tongue, dividing the apex and body into two equal parts passing through the lingual prominence (pls. 9, 11). the results showed the presence of eleven pairs of giant conical papillae on both sides of the body of the tongue, which were characterized by their pointed lingual prominence, and is directed laterally and slightly backward. there were filiform papillae distributed between the giant conical papillae, which look similar to hair organized in the form of 3-4 long rows and single and curved ends (pl. 11). the lingual prominence is located in the a.anser above the body of the tongue, taking the structure of a triangular shape whose base is facing the root of the tongue, and it was also noted that there are four pairs of giant conical papillae located at the back of the tongue body whose lingual prominence were directed towards the back, and the last row of them is located near the lingual prominence, and these papillae are of two different types in size, represented by large lateral papillae, while the middle papillae are small in size (pls.8, 9, 11). also on either side of the lingual root 6–15 are papillae with sharp, pointed tips with a small end with free edges outward orientation and conical papillae (pl.12). plate (1) : the dorsal surface of the a. platyrhynchos tongue shows the general appearance; (a) apex, (b) body, (r) root, (mg) medial groove, (lp) lingual prominence, (gl) glottis, (cyp) conical papillae, (sfp) small filiform papillae (methylene blue satin). 125 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hussein et al. plate (2): location of the tongue within the lower jaw of the beak in a. platyrhynchos; (star) free end of the lower jaw, (a) apex, (mg) medial groove (lp) lingual prominence, (gcyp) giant conical papillae, (sfp) small filiform papillae. plate (3): the ventral surface of the tongue and the lower beak of a. platyrhynchos; (fr) frenulum, (l) lamellae of the bill, (star) free end of the lower beak. 126 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus 18 (1): 121-137. comparative morphological description plate (4): (v) ventral surface of the a. platyrhynchos tongue, (ly) lyssa (methyleneblue satin). plate (5): lateral view of the anas platyrhynchos tongue showing; (gcyp) giant conical papillae, (fp) filiform papillae (methylene blue stain). 127 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hussein et al. plate (6): the dorsal and lateral surface of the a. platyrhynchos tongue shows; (scyp) small conical papillae, (lp) lingual prominence (methylene blue stain). plate (7): the dorsal surface of the root of the a. platyrhynchos tongue shows; (cyp) conical papillae, (lp) lingual prominence (methylene blue stain). 128 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus 18 (1): 121-137. comparative morphological description plate (8): location of the tongue within the lower beak in a. anser; (a) apex, (b) body, (r) root, (mg) median groove, (lp) lingual prominence, (gl) glottis. plate (9): the ventral surface of the tongue and the lower beak in a. anser show; (fr) frenulum, (l) lamellae of the bill, (lp) lingual prominence. 129 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hussein et al. plate (10): (v) ventral surface of the a. anser tongue, (ln) lingual nail. plate (11): dorsal surface of the a. anser tongue; (gcyp) giant conical papillae, (fp) filiform papillae (methylene blue stain). 130 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus 18 (1): 121-137. comparative morphological description plate (12): the dorsal surface of the a. anser tongue shows; (lp) lingual prominence , (gcyp) giant conical papillae, (cyp) conical papillae (methylene blue stain). discussion the results of the current study showed that the tongue of both birds was elongated and narrow, and this result corresponded to a study by mohamed (2019), which indicated that the tongue of mnscovy duck cairina moschata (linnaeus, 1758) was elongated and narrow, while alnefeiy (2015) indicated that the tongue of the laughing dove was triangular in shape with a thin end, and the tongue of the magpie bird had an elongated tongue with an oval shape and a cleft apex (erdoǧan and alan, 2012). the tongue of the bubulcus ibis (linnaeus, 1758) is long with a blunt end, while the tongue of the domestic chicken gallus gallus (linnaeus, 1758) is short with a triangular shape and flat base (khadhim et al., 2011), and the tongue shape of these two birds under study is probably adapted to capture and transport food. the tongue occupies the proboscis portion of the oropharyngeal cavity floor without extending to the free apex of the bottom of the lower beak in a. platyrhynchos and this result is consistent with a study of mohamed (2019). while the current study showed that the tongue of a. anser occupied the entire floor of the oropharyngeal cavity, this result was contrary to the results of other studies dealing with different species of birds, such as the study of abd elfatah et al. (2000) in turkey bird and the study of abdall et al. (2011) in ducks. the results of the present study showed that the tongue in both birds, a. platyrhynchos and a. anser, consists of a lingual apex and body, and a lingual root area, and a lingual prominence. the apex appeared in the tongue of anas platyrhynchos separated from the 131 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hussein et al. lingual body area and oblong in shape, while the apex area in a. anser appeared round with smooth and continuous edges with the lingual body area, and it seems that the structure of the tongue in birds has a relationship with feeding behaviors and lifestyle in different environments (emura et al., 2008). the tongue may be adapted to pick up or swallow, filter, and treat food (baussart et al., 2009; erdoǧan and iwasaki, 2014). van der leeuw et al. (2003), and baussart and bels (2011) indicated that members of the order anseriformes have three methods of feeding: pecking, grazing, and filter feeding. the results of the current study showed that the apex of the tongue, a. anser was a white squamous triangular plate called the lingual nail, and perhaps the benefit of the nail lies in the support of the tongue, since the nail has a kind of hardness that may help in the process of capturing food and pushing it to the pharynx. the nail works as a spoon to pick up food, this result was consistent with the study of jackowiak et al. (2011) in domestic geese and the study of shieresz and jackowiak, 2016) in domestic ducks. the absence of the lingual nail in mallard, which plays a role in transporting grain, may explain why mallard relies less on pecking mechanisms for feeding. while there is no lingual nail in a. platyrhynchos, it was noted that there is a bar-shaped structure called the lyssa located at the ventral surface of the apex and the body of the tongue up to the frenulum area. this result corresponded with the study of kadhim et al. (2014) in black francolin and is contrary to the results of our current study, which confirms the absence of the ventral surface of the a. anser from lyssa. the presence or absence of this structure may be due to the urgent need for it, and the environment of the bird, and feeding behaviors because the lyssa is a muscular structure that helps in supporting the tongue and thus facilitates the feeding process. many studies that dealt with the anatomical and macroscopic description of the tongue in different species of birds reported the presence of a medial groove on the dorsal surface of the lingual body, and from these studies, our current study, showed the presence of a deep median groove, and on both sides of which, there are two lingual prominences that take a spindle shape in the a. platyrhynchos bird, while the middle groove is shallow and narrow in the a. anser. these results were consistent with abd elmohdy (1993), which showed that hawk's tongue has a shallow median groove, while these results differed from the results of other studies such as santos et al. (2011) and mohamed (2019), which confirmed that the tongue is free from the median groove in both rhea americana and muscovy duck, respectively. the results of the present study showed that the tongue of a. platyrhynchos has a triangular lingual prominence resembling a butterfly, while the lingual prominence in a. anser is located above the area of the lingual body, taking the structure of a triangle whose base is facing the root of the tongue.these results were identical to sridevi et al. (2018) that study on the tongue of mute swan, which confirmed that the base of the tongue is formed by a unique dorsal height, which is called lingual prominence and perhaps that the movement of lingual prominence with the palate may help in the process of ingestion by pulling food in the caudal direction. 132 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus 18 (1): 121-137. comparative morphological description the results of this study showed a difference in the regional distribution of the lingual papillae and that their function depends on their locations. it was noted that the papillae located on the lateral edges of the tongue were of two types, short and giant conical papillae, and there are filiform papillae similar to hair. these papillae can work together with the plates on the lateral edges of the upper and lower beak as a filter for food minutes immersed in the water. these results were identical to those of akbari et al., (2018). the study by taki-eldeen (2017) confirmed that the tongue is free of lingual papillae in whimbrel birds, which contradicts. the results of the current study showed that the tongue of a. platyrhynchos has two rows of conical papillae lined up on the base of the lingual prominences, and these papillae are located from 2-3 lingual prominences. further, the papillae located on the sides have one lingual prominence, while the study showed that the tongue of. a. anser has a lingual prominenc lined with four pairs of giant conical papillae, which also appear varying in size. this was consistent with the results of mohamed (2019), which showed that the tongue of the muscovy duck has a lingual prominence on which giant conical papillae are organized in two rows, while these papillae took a v-shaped shape in the white-tailed falcon haliaeetus albicilla (jackowiak and godynicki, 2005) and a u-shape in domestic pigeons columbia livia domestica (igwebuike et al., 2013), while the caudal papillae are lost in the ostrich (el morsi et al., 2002). studies have indicated that the conical papillae located between the body area and the lingual root can serve the function of transporting and swallowing food and preventing the return of food outside the mouth, and these studies were identical with the results of our current study and the results of many studies such as (abdall et al., 2011; igwebuike et al. , 2013). it appears that the phenotypic structures associated with grazing in mallard are the giant conical papillae, which have the shape of a cone and are directed towards the root of the tongue. they are also united in the caudal lateral part of the lingual body, where they correspond to plates at the bottom of the tongue and work to cut plant parts. as for the small conical papillae, they are plate-shaped, and go to the bottom of the tongue, and do not contribute to grazing, this may be attributed to the fact that grazing is not the primary mechanism in mallard nutrition.it appears that the filtration efficiency of the giant conical papillae is less than that of the small conical papillae, and the reason may be attributed to the shape of the papilla and its caudal orientation. as for the filiform papillae, which act as a brush, trapping even the smallest particles of food, this is an adaptation of the filtration device. mallard feed mainly on food immersed in water using a filter feeding mechanism (skiereszszewczyk and jackowiak , 2016). it seems that the structures that are directly related to the process of pecking in graylag goose are the giant and small conical papillae of the body of the tongue, which are located in the lateral parts and correspond to the plates at the bottom of the tongue, where they help in 133 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hussein et al. cutting plants. the apex of the lingual prominence, which changes its position, contributes to transporting food to the esophagus, while the lingual nail acts like a spoon to raise grains, this may explain its good growth in bewick's swan.the movement of the tongue prominence causes water to be expelled from the oral cavity, while small parts of food dissolve inward. the filiform papillae contribute to this process, as they fill the spaces between the conical papillae, where food is captured (jackowiak et al., 2011). conclusions the current study, which dealt with the comparative morphological description between the tongue of anas platyrhynchos and a. anser, showed that it possesses specialized morphological characteristics such as lingual nail, filiform and conical mechanical papillae that suit the type of nutrition of both birds, mallard rely primarily on the filter feeding mechanism for their nutrition, in addition to other terrestrial activities such as pecking and grazing. as for graylag geese, they are considered more adapted to the terrestrial lifestyle than the aquatic lifestyle, and for their terrestrial livelihood, they are not specialized for filter feeding like mallard. acknowledgments the authors are grateful to the department of biology, college of education for pure science /ibnal-haitham, baghdad university, for the slaughterhouse tools and anesthesia materials. conflit of interset statement the authors have no conflicts of interest to declare. we "the authors" have followed and signed the scientific research ethics and animal welfare guidelines announced by the journal. ltereature cited abd el-fatah, m., mohamed, s. a. and yossuef, g. a. e. 2000. some morphological studies on the tongue of the turkey. assiut veterinary medical journal, 42(84): 7-92. [crossref] abdalla, k. e. h., saleh, a. m., abdel galil,y., mohamed, s. a. and alsayed, a. a. 2011. posthatching development of the duck tongue. gross, morphometric and scanning electron microscopical study. egyptian journal of medical sciences, 32(1): 401-414. abd-elmohdy, f. 1993. some morphological studies on the tongue of hawk. new egyptian journal of medicine, 8(2): 571-575. akbari, g., hassanzadeh, b., madad, m. s. and babaei, m. 2018. morphological reflections of evolutionary adaptations in the tongue of the white headed duck. anatatomical science international journal, 93(4): 469-477. [crossref] https://doi.org/10.21608/avmj.2000.180453 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12565-018-0438-x 134 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus 18 (1): 121-137. comparative morphological description alnefiey, f. a. 2015. functional morphology of the tongue and lingual epithelium of the laughing dove in relation to feeding habit. international journal of research studies biosciences, 3(2): 14-19. 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[crossref] https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1096-3642.1998.tb00584.x https://doi.org/10.5455/javar.2019.f315 https://doi.org/10.2108/zsj.28.41 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00435-016-0302-2 https://www.thepharmajournal.com/archives/2018/vol7issue4/parti/7-3-146-580.pdf https://ejhm.journals.ekb.eg/article_13994_28759bc11e1b2cae39d18c16b6a74fb6.pdf https://doi.org/10.1163/157075603322539453 137 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hussein et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2024) 18 (1): 121-137. ،بين اثنين من الطيور املائية املستأنسة للسانالوصف املظهري املقارن anas platyrhynchos (linnaeus, 1758)الخضيري طائر (anser anser (linnaeus,) 1758 الردباء والوزه (anseriformes, anatidae) انتظار محمد مناتي مروة خليل ابراهيم واحمد حسين، اشواق .، جامعة بغداد، العراق(ابن الهيثم) ةياة، كلية التربيه للعلوم الصرفلحقسم علوم ا 20/6/2024، النشر: 11/1/2024القبول: ،29/12/2023املراجعة: ، 29/7/2023االستالم: الخالصة هذه الدراسة وصفقدمت ظهريم ا قارنم ا للسان في نوعين من الطيور املائية ا والوزه mallard anas platyrhynchos (linnaeus, 1758)يري املستأنسة طائري الخض و anseriformesتعود الى رتبة anser anser (linnaeus, 1758) graylag goose الردباء أربعة طيور ذكور بالغة )اثنان لكل نوع( من البيئة العراقية جمعت. anatidaeعائلة سوق محلي في مدينة )ا من سوق الغزل واستخدمها في الدراسة الحالية عن طريق شرائه ا. ي . تم إجر (بغداد التخدير والتشريح والعمل املختبري وتوثيقه بصري متطاول -أظهرت نتائج الدراسة أن لسان كال الطائرين تميز بمظهر كونه عضوا إلى ثالث مناطق تتمثل بالقمة والجسم اللساني والجذر. ولوحظ ان هناك مقسما ضيقا اخدود وسطي وبروز لساني وحليمات مخروطية وخيطية متفاوتة العداد والتوزيع على السطح الظهري للسان، في حين ان السطح البطني خاِل من الحليمات اللسانية، ال انه قد يحتوي في املقابل على صفيحة حرشفية مثلثة يسمى الظفر اللساني أو تركيب على ناسب مع نوع وطبيعة التغذية.بما يت lyssaشكل شريط يسمى . bull 229 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum solijonov and umarov bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2022) 17 (2): 229-250. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2022.17.2.0229 original article ecology of leeches and gastropods of the lower akbuura river, fergana valley,uzbekistan khayrulla solijonov and farrukh u. umarov* andijan state university, andijan city, republic of uzbekistan *corresponding author e-mail: eco_umarov@mail.ru received date: 24 aug. 2022, accepted date: 26 oct. 2022, published date: 20 december 2022 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract this study was conducted on species composition, morphology, ecological characteristics, biotope distribution, ecological groups, biodiversity indicators and zoogeography of leeches and gastropods distributed in the lower ak-buura river. according to the results, it was found that 7 species of leeches belonging to 4 families and 6 genera and 10 species of freshwater gastropods belonging to 3 families and 6 genera live in the lower ak-buura river. in the river, it was observed that leeches are mainly distributed in muddy biotopes, and gastropods are widespread in muddy, stony and sandy biotopes with a lot of plants. biodiversity indices of leeches and gastropods in the ak-buura river were analyzed using the shannon index. as a result, it was determined that the biodiversity index of the ak-buura river is lower than other rivers in the fergana valley (h' = 0.81-1.17). this is mainly due to the eutrophication of some parts of the river and the instability of the water hydro-regime. most of the leeches distributed in the river are carnivores, and gastropods are phytophages. according to the zoogeographical analysis, it was found that leeches are holarctic, palearctic, western palearctic, and gastropods are composed of european-siberian, palearctic and central asian species. keywords: ak-buura river, biodiversity, ecology, gastropod, leech, uzbekistan. introduction in water bodies, invertebrates have an enormous ecological role, they occupy the main positions in the food chain. if we see this as an example of fergana valley rivers, the most common hydrobionts among them are leeches and molluscs (mukhamediev, 1969; lukin, 1976; umarov and pazilov, 2020; pazilov and umarov, 2021a, b). leeches and gastropods, being the main elements of biodiversity, are important in biocenoses. most leeches are ectoparasites that feed on the blood of mammals, birds, amphibians and fish. some leeches attack and feed on fresh-water gastropods in the hydroecosystem (siddall et al., 2005). gastropods are intermediate hosts of helminths (giannelli et al., 2015). when the soft bodies of molluscs serve as food for other aquatic organisms, the calcium element accumulates in their shells (suzuki and nagasawa, 2013; sudarshan and akhila, 2021). bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799-print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2022.17.2.0229 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7371-0244 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3530-1500 mailto:eco_umarov@mail.ru https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 230 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum ecology of leeches and gastropods over the past 50 years, the construction of large canals receiving water from the ak-buura river, changes the water regime, and the increased anthropogenic influence on the river have led to a change in the ecological environment of the water (mamajanov and aliev, 2022). even a slight disturbance of the ecological environment does not leave its impact on living organisms (dillon, 2000). for this reason, the study of hydrobionts of the ak-buura river from the faunistic and ecological points of view remains a difficult mission. although many hydrobiological studies have been carried out in the reservoirs of the fergana valley (zhadin, 1952; mukhamediev, 1967, 1969; izzatullaev, 2015), the ecology of leeches and gastropods of the ak-buura river has been barely studied. faunal research for the river was carried out mainly during 1966-1970 (mukhamediev, 1967, 1969; omarov, 1973). omarov (1973) studied the fauna of invertebrates in the ak-buura river and their patterns of distribution by altitude regions. in this river physa acuta draparnaud, 1805; radix lagotis (schrank, 1803); radix auricularia (linnaeus, 1758) species of gastropods and species of leeches belonging to the subclass hirudinea were recorded. after 1970, studies on invertebrate fauna and ecology were not conducted in the ak-buura river. very little studies have been done on leeches in uzbekistan; fresh-water gastropods research appears to be fragmented. these data do not give unambiguous conclusions about the leeches and gastropods of uzbekistan. this study aimed to determine the faunal composition of leeches and gastropods distributed in the lower part of the ak-buura river and to study their ecological characteristics. materials and methods research area ak-buura is a river in the south-east of the fergana valley, its length is 148 km. this river begins at the confluence of chal-kuyruk and sari-koy rivers on the northern slope of the little alay ridge in kyrgyzstan. these rivers are formed by the melting of snow and glaciers in the mountains. the river begins in ak-djilga village of kyrgyzstan and flows to andijan region of uzbekistan. then it flows into the shakhrikhansoy canal. the area of the water basin is 2540 km2, average annual water consumption is 21.4 m3/sec. the river has constant water, 16.6-17.7% of annual water flows in june and july. most of the river water is used for the irrigation of agricultural crops (mamajanov and aliev, 2022). according to omarov (1973), studying ak-buura river was devided into five parts: glacial part, melted ice part, upper mountain stream section, middle flow part and lower part. altitude compared to sea level was taken into account as it is the main factor in dividing the river into parts. the material was collected in may till july 2020 from the lower part of ak-buura river at 650-950 m above sea level (map 1, pl. 1). material selection and fixation materials were collected from the following coordinates: 40°34'52.7"n 72°45'16.6"e; 40°34'59.8"n 72°45'13.0"e; 40°35'09.6"n 72°45'05.4"e; 40°35'26.0"n 72°44'43.7"e; 40°35'43.8"n 72°44'16.4"e; 40°36'08.8"n 72°43'16.2"e; 40°36'30.5"n 72°42'06.4"e; 231 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum solijonov and umarov 40°36'59.7"n 72°40'30.4"e. generally accepted hydrobiological methods were used to collect leeches and gastropods (zhadin, 1960; lukin 1976, kruglov, 2005; izzatullaev, 2019). the river temperature, flow rate, river depth, ph indicators and biotype were recorded. the total material was 600 leeches and more than 500 specimens of gastropods in 20 samples. wild-caught leeches were first preserved in 10% ethanol and then fixed in 96% ethanol (jovanović et al., 2021). gastropods were first preserved in 45% ethanol, and after one day in 75% ethanol (zhadin, 1960; izzatullaev, 2018, 2019; pazilov and umarov, 2022). map (1): research area: the lower ak-buura river.  collection point for material. plate (1): ak-buura river, khojaabad district, republic of uzbekistan (photo by farrukh u. umarov). u z b e k i s t a n k y r g y z s t a n papan reservoir 0 10 20 30 km uzbekistan kazakhstan turkmenistan tajikistan iran 232 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum ecology of leeches and gastropods species identification and taxonomy the leech samples were identified according to nesemann and neubert (1999), lukin (1976), govedich et al. (2019), while gastropods species were identified according to starobogatov (2004), kruglov (2005) and izzatullaev (2018). morphological characteristics such as body size, shape, surface, color, number and location of eyes and digestive organs of leeches were studied according to the methods of lukin (1976) and borda and siddall (2004). morphological characteristics of gastropod shells were analyzed according to the methods of kruglov (2005) and izzatullaev (2018). a ccording to chiu et al. (2002), the standard indicators were used for the shell measurements: shell width (sw), shell height (sh) and aperture height (ah) the taxonomies of sawyer (1986), tessler et al. (2018) and izzatullaev (2018) were the basis for compiling the taxonomic list. international databases, gbif secretariat (2022) and molluscabase (2022) were used to write the latest accepted names of the species and determine their place in the families. defining biodiversity the number of species, density of organisms (exam./m2) and biodiversity index (h′) were used to characterize populations. biodiversity index was determined by the shannon (1948) formula: where, h' – the shannon index value, pi – the proportion of individuals found in i thespecies, ln – the natural logarithm, s – the number of species in the community. the levels of the shannon biodiversity index (h'): h' < 1.5 – low; 1.5 < h' > 2.5 – medium; 2.5 < h' – due to high character. studies on leeches and gastropods were carried out using an mbs-9 stereomicroscope and an xps-500e biological research microscope. measurements were made on a digital vernier calipers with 0.05 precision. morphometric measurements of gastropod shells and leeches were performed using the statistical program "tibco software statistica 13.3". results and discussion species composition of leeches and gastropods according to the results of the conducted research, it was found that 7 species of leeches belonging to the glossiphoniidae, piscicolidae, hirudinidae, erpobdellidae families and 10 species of gastropods belonging to the lymnaeidae, physidae and planorbidae families live in the lower ak-buura river (tab. 1). 233 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum solijonov and umarov table (1): faunal composition of leeches and gastropods of the lower ak-buura river. family genus species annelida: hirudinea glossiphoniidae alboglossiphonia lukin, 1976 alboglossiphonia hyalina (müller, 1774) helobdella blanchard, 1896 helobdella stagnalis (linnaeus, 1758) piscicolidae piscicola blainville, 1818 piscicola geometra (linnaeus, 1761) hirudinidae hirudo linnaeus, 1758 hirudo orientalis utevsky et trontelj, 2005 haemopis savigny, 1822 haemopis sanguisuga (linnaeus, 1758) erpobdellidae erpobdella blainville, 1818 erpobdella octoculata (linnaeus, 1758) erpobdella nigricollis (brandes, 1900) mollusca: gastropoda lymnaeidae lymnaea lamarck, 1799 lymnaea goupili (a. moquintandon, 1856) lymnaea subdisjuncta (g. nevill, 1878) lymnaea rectilabrum (annandale et prashad, 1919) galba schrank, 1803 galba truncatula (o. f. müller, 1774) radix montfort, 1810 radix auricularia (linnaeus, 1758) radix bactriana (hutton, 1849) ampullaceana servain, 1882 ampullaceana fontinalis (studer, 1820) ampullaceana lagotis (schrank, 1803) physidae physella haldeman, 1842 physella acuta (draparuand., 1805) planorbidae gyraulus studer, 1820 gyraulus acronicus (j. b. férussac, 1807) until now, the species composition of leeches and fresh-water gastropods of the lower akbuura river had not been formed. however, omarov (1973) mentioned that radix auricularia, ampullaceana lagotis and physella acuta gastropods species and some leech species ccould be found in the river. however, the author did not specify which leech species were encountered. morphology and ecological characteristics of leeches the results of research on the morphology and ecological characteristics of leeches of the lower ak-buura river are given below: 234 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum ecology of leeches and gastropods family, glossiphoniidae alboglossiphonia hyalina a leech of small size; body length of adult 5-12 mm, width around 4-8 mm; body with a leaf-like shape at rest and edges toothed. posterior sucker small; adheres very firmly to the substrate. dorsal and ventral side almost yellowish-white (pl. 2. a); although the dorsal surface appears to be smooth, there are many very small papillae; digestive organs can be seen with eye; crop caeca divided into 6 pairs. there are three pairs of eyes (pl. 2. b), the front 1 pair is smaller, closer together. the next two pairs of eyes are larger, the distance between the eyes is larger and clearly visible (solijonov and izzatullaev, 2021). plate (2): external morphology of the first recorded species of alboglossiphonia hyaline; (a) ventral side with cocoons, (b) head part with three pairs of eyes. (photo by khayrulla solijonov). thermophilic – warm water species. flowing and almost stagnant aquatic environment live as benthos organisms; this species uses underwater rocks and other solid objects (bricks, under solid waste) as a substrate. a. hyalina participates in biotic relations with other species in the biocenosis in the form of "predator-prey". in particular, they attack and feed on small water gastropods such as galba truncatula, physella acuta and gyraulus acronicus. helobdella stagnalis body length 12-16 mm; body width 2-3 mm, with an elongated oval shape; body edges with like saw teeth; dorsal side of body smooth (pl. 3. a). color of body yellowish-gray when stretched, green when shortened. the reason for this is the presence of dark green spots (dots) on the back surface of the body. h. stagnalis has a characteristic that distinguishes it from all palearctic leeches. this is the presence of a posterior yellow chitinous scutum. the eyes are a 235 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum solijonov and umarov pair (pl. 3. b); front part of body with snout for sucking hemolymph of invertebrates (solijonov and izzatullaev, 2021). plate (3): external morphology of the first recorded species of helobdella stagnalis; (a) dorsal side, (b) head part with a pair of eyes. (photo by khayrulla solijonov). cosmopolitan is an evribiont species. according to the results of the research, it was found that it is also widespread in organically polluted, eutrophicated water types (kazanci et al., 2015).this species, like most glosphonids, avoids light; mainly use stone, brick, solid waste, especially waste products containing polyethylene as a substrate. h. stagnalis feeds as a predator in the aquatic ecosystem, usually attacking the species of fresh-water gastropods: lymnaea stagnalis, l. subdisjuncta, radix auricularia, galba truncatula, physella acuta, gyraulus acronicus. family, piscicolidae piscicola geometra body length 18-24 mm, width 1-3 mm, and thin shaped; anterior sucker with disc-shaped, colored in the form of a plus (+),posterior sucker big; sucker with up to 14 radial lines of light color. this helps to adhere firmly to the substrate or host. body color yellow, however the body color looks dark due to the presence of small spots of dark brown-black color, also with light-colored spots on back, which form 17-19 stripes (pl. 4. a). eyes have two pairs (pl. 4. b), the front one pair larger, long linear in shape, back has two pair which smaller (solijonov and izzatullaev, 2021). 236 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum ecology of leeches and gastropods plate (4): external morphology of the first recorded species of piscicola geometra; (a) lateral side, (b) head part with two pairs of eyes. (photo by khayrulla solijonov). an oxyphilic species. that is, a species that lives in waters with a lot of oxygen gas. during the study, schizothorax intermedius mcclelland, 1842 was found in the body of the fish. usually, this is an ectoparasite predominantly of cyprinids. the species uses underwater plants (myriophyllum verticillatum l., typha latifolia l., nasturtium officinale r. br., fissidens grandifrons brid.) and sometimes rocks as a substrate. family, hirudinidae hirudo orientalis this species was recorded for the first time by the authors from the region of fergana valley, it a large-sized leech that very similar in appearance to h. medicinalis; average length of body about 80-130 mm, width around 8-14 mm; eyes with 5 pairs, crescent-shaped on front of body (solijonov and izzatullaev, 2021). body shape worm-shaped, back blistered and front flattened. edges of body smooth; back sucker with medium size; body greenish-dark olive dorsally, with 4 rows of orange stripes running from head to anal (pl. 5. a). they consist of a paramedial and paramarginal row, as in h. medicinalis. however, paramedial row without have small oval-shaped black spots, while paramarginal row has a large circular shape separated from each other. body edges yellow. ventral side dark green-elliptical, with large dark spots, which they densely located that made of abdominal side appear in black color (pl. 5. b). inside the anterior sucker, mouth similar to that of h. medicinalis, with 71-91 teeth on each of jaws (kovalenko and utevsky, 2015). reproduction takes place through the cocoons. puts them on beach soils or algae above water level. 237 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum solijonov and umarov plate (5): external morphology of the first recorded species of hirudo orientalis; (a) dorsal side, (b ) ventral side. (photo by khayrulla solijonov). h. orientalis is thermophilic species. it can survive in the range of 7-43°c. the optimum temperature for it is 22-27°c. leech samples were collected from waters with a temperature of 16-20°c. studies have shown that leeches are found in pools where the surface of the water is warm and the bottom becomes cooler. this species is ectoparasite, blood-sucking on invertebrates: frogs, cattle, sheep and people. these leeches are used in medicine. haemopis sanguisuga a large species leech; length 90-110 mm, width 10-15 mm. body worm-like shaped, front part thinner. body surface smooth and soft. color black or brownish-black; ventral light, mostly gray; most have full or incomplete black wavy striped patterns on back surface. posterior sucker small; mouth found inside the front sucker, which has 3 jaws. they have a total of about 50-60 blunt teeth that slightly sharp (kovalenko and utevsky, 2015); and having 5 pairs of eyes. genital orifice (anus) large, male organ very long, reaching 10-20 mm. reproduction, like medical leeches, places oval cocoons between the soil and grass on the shore. however, the cocoons are smaller than those of medical leeches (10-15 mm), the top coating is not dense and there is no color whitish (solijonov and izzatullaev, 2021). amphibiont belongs to the ecological group and lives mainly in the coastal areas of slowflowing or stagnant water bodies. they hide clay layer pores, stones and solid waste. in 238 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum ecology of leeches and gastropods addition to laying cocoons on land, it also comes out for food. it usually swallows small hairy worms and also attacks gastropods such as oxyloma elegans (shikov, 2011). this species is resistant to various environmental factors and survive in eutrophication processes. family, erpobdellidae erpobdella octoculata body of this leech with medium-sized, 30-60 mm long and 3-9 mm wide; body flattened, worm-shaped with surface almost smooth; edges smooth;dorsal black, greenish-black, brownish-black, with white-yellow stripes along the transverse row. there are a large number of yellow spots parallel to the lines, abdomen with same color, gray, without spots. rear suckers with medium size, and having 4 pairs eyes and usually round in shape. sticks the cocoons firmly to the substrate. they are transparent-yellow, brown in color, oval-shaped, 4-8 mm in size (solijonov and izzatullaev, 2021). it mainly lives in constantly flowing water bodies, clinging to rocks, solid waste and other various underwater substrates. it participates in biotic relations in the hydroecosystem as a "predator-prey" and feeds on aquatic larvae of insects, small crustaceans, and small hairy worms (lukin, 1976). it is especially important in the natural management of mosquito populations. erpobdella nigricollis body of the species with a small and medium-sized, 15-25 mm long, 2-4 mm wide; with flattened shape body of a leech, front of which is cylindrical; smoothly surface, edges of body also smooth. body color brownish-green, but due to the thinness of the tissues covering the skin, head nerve node and abdominal nerve chain visible. back sucker medium size. there are 4 pairs of eyes, you can easily see them, analyze their location. cocoons transparent-yellow, small brown, oval in shape, and adhere firmly to the dried leaves and other substrate in water. they differ from other herpobdelids by their small size and small number of eggs (3-5). propagation processes take place from april to september (lukin, 1976). biotopes are springs with constant or almost no flow. this species hides under stones, solid waste and other substrates. the feeding habits are similar to those of erpobdella octoculata. shell morphology and ecological characteristics of gastropods the results of research on shell morphology and ecological characteristics of the lower akbuura river gastropods are given below: family, lymnaeidae lymnaea goupili shell dimensions: sh 9.6 ± 0.36 mm; sw 5 ± 0.32 mm; ah 4.6 ± 0.51 mm. shell small with oval shape, thick-walled, horn-colored; convex whorls number 5 to 6; suture between whorls deep; aperture narrow, oval, with an impenetrable rim on upper side; the edges of the aperture are sharp, not twisted. the species mainly lives in biotopes close to the shore of the river. the species could be found in drying mud and increases in number in may to june. the total life cycle is 1 year. 239 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum solijonov and umarov lymnaea subdisjuncta shell dimensions: sh 18 ± 0.91 mm; sw 11 ± 0.56 mm; ah 12 ± 0.38 mm; medium in size and oval shaped, thin-walled, pale-horn colored and having 5-6 whorls. this species distinguish from other gastropods by the height of the whorls. among the river's vegetation thickets and muddy biotopes live. it is also found in agricultural ditches. this species can also live in a slightly brackish water environment (izzatullaev, 2018). the number of this species increases in may – june. life expectancy is more than 1.5 years. this species was observed to co-occur more with radix auricularia and r. bactriana. lymnaea rectilabrum shell dimensions: sh 10.6 ± 0.52 mm, sw 6.2 ± 0.34 mm, ah 6.7 ± 0.27 mm. shell dome shaped and distinguished by sharpness compared to other species that belong to the same genus. shell with yellowish-horn color, and having 3-3.5 whorls. it lives among the plants that grow in the flowing and stagnant areas of the river. they reproduction in april-june. lives for more than 1.5 years. galba truncatula shell dimensions: sh 6.5 ± 0.32 mm; sw 3.3 ± 0.21 mm; ah 3.1 ± 0.18 mm, with dome shell that high-peaked and horn-like in color; having 5 whorls; aperture oval in shape. this species lives mainly in dry, small springs and mud. it is more common on the banks of the river. increases in march-june. it usually lives for 1 year. densely populated. according to gorokhov (1978), this species is well adapted to the new area. radix auricularia shell dimensions: sh 22 ± 0.72 mm; sw 18 ± 0.44 mm; ah 16 ± 0.48 mm. shell large, ear-shaped, and having 4 whorls with unevenly rotated; last whorl is very wide and it covers the umbillicus; sutures shallow; dome low but sharp. it is a phytophilous species, living among algae and sand-mud in slow-flowing parts of the river. it is usually rare in the fastflowing part of the river. they reproduction in march-june. lives 1.5-2 years (kruglov, 2005). in our research, it was revealed that the artificial increase and decrease of river water in spring and summer (4-5 times a week) is the cause of many deaths of r. auricularia. this species was identified by us for the first time in the ak-buura river. in our research, it was found that the shape of the mollusk shell has changed compared to the information presented in the literature, that is, it has become slightly spherical. the reason for such a change was the expansion of the shell aperture under strong waves. as a result, it became spherical (andreyeva et al., 2010). radix bactriana shell dimensions, sh 18.5 ± 0.61 mm; sw 14.2 ± 0.66 mm; ah 15 ± 0.31 mm; shell similar in shape to that of r. auricularia. last whorl of shell large and wide; with 4 whorls. this species is common in river biotopes rich in plants. it also lives in the pond waters near the river. they reproduction in august; the total period of stay is 2 years. this species has been found to live in both warm and brackish waters (izzatullaev, 2018). 240 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum ecology of leeches and gastropods ampullaceana fontinalis shell dimensions: sh 18.2 ± 0.55 mm; sw 16±0.11 mm; ah 14.1 ± 0.85 mm; shell variable in shape, with whorl relatively low and, yellow; body has 4 whorls; aperture wide oval shape. they reproduction in june. it lives by clinging to vegetation, rocks and other hard substrates in the river. they can also be found in ponds with a relatively high temperature near the river. the total life expectancy is 1.5 years. ampullaceana lagotis shell dimensions: sh 12 ± 0.78 mm; sw 7.5 ± 0.57 mm; ah 8 ± 0.22 mm. shell medium in size, ovoid and thick-walled. shell elongate, its body whorl is ½ times smaller than height of aperture, with 4 whorls. aperture oval shaped, edges slightly curved. phytophilic and telmatophilic species. they reproduction in may-august. it is found in permanent and nonpermanent water bodies. it is known to live at a depth of 2-3 m. shells of this species can be variable in water bodies with different environmental conditions (gorokhov, 1978). it was observed that it is more common in the stagnant waters of the ak-buura river. it turned out that young individuals of the species live mainly in mudflats near the coast. the total period of residence is not more than 1.5 years. family: physidae physella acuta shell dimensions: sh 11.5 ± 0.56 mm; sw 8.4 ± 0.46 mm; ah 8.6 ± 0.51 mm. shell twisted to left, walls thick, long oval in shape; tip of shell sharp; aperture wide; with 5 whorls. this gastropod breeds in april-may. a phytophilous and evribiont species. lives in both fast and slow flowing parts of the river. it is usually more common on the banks and among the vegetation in the swamps. it is active from the beginning of march to the end of november, and breeds in april-may. life expectancy is 2-3 years (izzatullaev, 2018). during our research, some areas of the lower akbuura river were eutrophicated. that is, cases of excessive reproduction of plankton and algae in the water ecosystem were found. this situation leads to a decrease in oxygen in the water and has a negative effect on organisms. the artificial origin of eutrophication is caused by the discharge of sewage, many nutrients and other waste water into natural water bodies (pazilov and umarov, 2021a). local residents say that this situation may be caused by the discharge of waste water from the osh (a city in the kyrgyz republic) water treatment plant into the river. ph. acuta is the dominant gastropods species in the river because it is resistant to eutrophication and multigenerational (wethington and dillon, 1993; laenko, 2012). the average density of the ph. acuta population in the ak-buura river is 280 ex./m2. family, planorbidae gyraulus acronicus shell dimensions: sh 1.5 ± 0.14 mm; sw 5 ± 0.23 mm; ah 1.5 ± 0.11 mm; shell clearly distinguished by its small size and shape; last whorl 2.7 times wider than previous one. color of the shell is horn-like. a phytophile-evrybiont species. it lives in the river and nearby canals, ditches, ponds and ponds, in underwater vegetation, on stones at the edge of the banks. 241 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum solijonov and umarov this species prefers slow-flowing and calcium-rich water bodies (killeen and mcfarland, 2004). during our research, it was observed that g. acronicus was abundantly distributed in the parts of the river where the water is constantly changing and the flow speed is 0.1 m/s on average. distribution and ecological groups of leeches and gastropods by biotopes: distribution of leeches and gastropods in the river by biotopes depends on their morphoanatomical structure, physiological capabilities, nutrition, reproduction stages. in particular, molluscs with large (r. auricularia) and relatively small (g. acronicus) shells are widely distributed in the slow-flowing parts of the river, while medium-sized species (ph. acuta) are adapted to live in fast-flowing biotopes. leeches sticking their cocoons to the substrate (e. octoculata, e. nigricollis) are found in fast-flowing water biotopes. however, some species (h. orientalis and h. sanguisuga) are common in slow-flowing or stagnant biotopes and reproduce by placing their cocoons under the soil. as a result of our research, the ak-buura river was divided into biotopes according to underwater rocks (filippenko, 2012), which was found that leeches and gastropods live in five different biotopes: sandy-loam (b1), silt (b2), silt-clay (b3), stony (b4) and sandy (b5). differences in number and density of leeches and gastropods are observed in biotopes (tab. 2). the uneven distribution of species in biotopes was influenced by their lifestyle and adaptability to environmental factors. table (2): ecological indicators of leeches and gastropods in different biotopes in the lower ak-buura river. № species widespread biotope* density, ex/m2 ecological group annelida: hirudinea 1. alboglossiphonia hyalina b2, b4 24±5.5 phytophile 2. helobdella stagnalis b1, b4 230±24.2 lithophile 3. piscicola geometra b2 0.4±0.1 phytophile 4. hirudo orientalis b2, b3 0.3±0.1 pelophile 5. haemopis sanguisuga b2, b3 8±3.3 pelophile 6. erpobdella octoculata b4 10±4.8 lithophile 7. e. nigricollis b4 9±2.7 lithophile mollusca: gastropoda 1. lymnaea goupili b2 5±1.5 madicol 2. l. subdisjuncta b2, b3, b1 6±2.5 pelolimnophile 3. l. rectilabrum b4, b5 4±2.0 phytophile 4. galba truncatula b1, b2 51±10.1 madicol 5. radix auricularia b1, b2 3±1.4 phytophile 6. r. bactriana b2, b3 3±1.6 phytophile 7. ampullaceana fontinalis b1, b2, b4 5±2.1 phytophile 8. a. lagotis b1, b5 4±3.1 eurybiont 242 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum ecology of leeches and gastropods 9. physella acuta b1, b2, b3, b4 280±26.3 eurybiont 10. gyraulus acronicus b4, b2 35±8,6 phytophile * – abbreviations are given in the text. the analysis revealed that muddy (b2) biotope is very favorable for leeches of glossiphoniidae and hirudinidae families. piscicolidae, erpobdellidae family leeches are common in stony (b4) biotopes. h. stagnalis was recorded as the dominant species in the river (diag. 1). among the gastropods, r. auricularia lives in sandy-muddy, l. subdisjuncta muddy places, and a. lagotis species can be found in slow-flowing, vegetated parts of the river. it was found that representatives of the lymnaeidae family live in relatively small numbers in the fast-flowing parts of the river. it was observed that ph. acuta species from the physidae family mainly live in rocky biotopes and are dominant among gastropods distributed in the river (diag. 2). g. acronicus from the planorbidae family can be found more often among the vegetation of the river near the shore, with mud and mud. diagram (1): distribution coefficient of leeches in the lower ak-buura river. diagram (2): distribution coefficient of gastropods in the lower ak-buura river. biodiversity indicators of leeches and gastropods: biodiversity of leeches and gastropods of the lower ak-buura river was analyzed according to the shannon index. indicators were found to be equal to h' = 0.81 for leeches and h' =1.17 for gastropods. this indicator can be considered low. due to the process of eutrophication in the river, the population of ph. acuta (71%) is widespread, and h. stagnalis 243 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum solijonov and umarov (82%) is found accordingly. all other leeches and gastropods make up 1/3 of the total species. this situation has led to a low biodiversity index. feeding of leeches and gastropods according to their diet, leeches are divided into 3 groups: carnivorous, blood-sucking and liquid-sucking groups (sawyer, 1986; lynggaard et al., 2022). the leeches we studied also belong to the above groups. h. sanguisuga, e. octoculata and e. nigricollis are carnivorous, attacking larval, less hairy worms and swallowing them whole. blood-sucking feeders include p. geometra and h. orientalis, the first of which is mainly ectoparasitic on fish, while the second feeds on the blood of amphibians and warm-blooded animals. h. orientalis clings to livestock that come to water bodies to drink water or graze and suck blood from their bodies. a. hyalina and h. stagnalis leeches attach to gastropods and feed by sucking the hemolymph fluid of their bodies. all identified gastropod species mainly belong to phytophagous trophic group. among fresh-water gastropods, there are almost no highly specialized species in terms of nutrition (tsikhon-lukanina, 1987). most of the gastropods in the ak-buura river can be included in the group of phytophages, because they feed mainly on algae and high plant residues. members of the lymnaeidae family feed on higher plants (50%), blue-green algae (17%), ferns (8%), detritus (8%), diatoms (8%) and bacteria (8%) (tsikhon-lukanina, 1987). while ph. acuta feeds on some higher plant debris, it has been observed that its main diet is bluegreen algae. g.acronicus was found to feed on dead remains of flowering plants and diatom algae. zoogeography of leeches and gastropods zoogeographic data of leeches of the ak-buura river (lukin, 1976; sket and trontelj, 2008; saglam et al., 2016; darabi-darestani et al., 2016; baturina et al., 2020; fedorova and kaygorodova, 2022) were analyzed. most of the species identified from the research area (h. sanguisuga, e. octoculata, e. nigricollis) are palearctic – 57%. however, p. geometra, a. hyalina and h. stagnalis holarctic – 28%, while h. orientalis is distributed in western palearctic: caucasus, iran, uzbekistan, kazakhstan – 15% (diag. 3). diagram (3): zoogeographic distribution of leeches in the lower ak-buura river. 244 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum ecology of leeches and gastropods according to starobogatov (1970) scheme of zoogeographical zoning of terrestrial water bodies, species of gastropods of the ak-buura river can be divided into the following groups (diag. 4): european-siberian – 30 %, palearctic – 20 %, central asian – 20 %. west-south european – 10 %, anterior-central asian – 10 %, mediterranean – 10 %. diagram (4): zoogeographic distribution of gastropods in the lower ak-buura river. according to the diagram, only 20% of the gastropods of the ak-buura river are unique to the region, and the remaining gastropods come from other regions. conclusions in conclusion, it can be said that 7 species of leeches and 10 species of fresh-water gastropods are currently distributed in the lower ak-buura river. among the identified leeches, alboglossiphonia hyalina, helobdella stagnalis, haemopis sanguisuga, erpobdella octoculata and erpobdella nigricollis leech species participate in biotic relationships in the form of predator-prey in the hydroecosystem. among the leeches, piscicola geometra is a fish parasite. by studying the population and distribution areas of these ichthyoparasites, it is possible to prevent the spread of diseases in fish farms. hirudo orientalis is an ectoparasite of livestock. however, local people use this species in hirudotherapy. freshwater gastropods are bioindicators of water purity. in particular, physella acuta and galba truncatula species are common in eutrophicated areas. as a result of the increase in the number of these species in the ak-buura river, the diversity of other hydrobionts has decreased. in the lower reaches of the river compared to the upper reaches, the slow flow of water and the abundance of nutrients caused the diversity of leeches and gastropods. according to the underwater rocks of the ak-buura river, leeches and gastropods live in sandy-mud, mud, mud-swamps, stony and sandy biotopes. according to analytical data, leeches are mainly found in muddy biotopes and gastropods are widespread in muddy, stony and sandy biotopes rich in vegetation. leeches belonging to the lithophile (43 %) ecological group and mollusks belonging to the phytophile (50 %) ecological group are mainly distributed in the lower akbuura river. in the river, the biodiversity index of leeches is equal to h' = 0.81 and the 245 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum solijonov and umarov biodiversity of gastropods is equal to h' = 1.17, which is low compared to other rivers of the valley. due to the eutrophication of some parts of the river, the population of ph. acuta is widespread and, accordingly, h. stagnalis is abundant. it is important to reduce the pollution of the river and ensure its stability in preserving the species of leeches and gastropods present in the lower ak-buura river. conflict of interest statement we declare that there is no conflict of interest between the authors. we confirm that all the pictures in the manuscript belong to us, and note in this study that there is no conflict of interest regarding the use of the laboratory of andijan state university. acknowledgments we are grateful to our scientific supervisors prof. dr. z. izzatullaev of samarkand state university and prof. dr. a. pazilov of gulistan state university for their scientific advice. literature cited andreyeva, s. i., andreyev, n. i. and vinarski, m. v. 2010. key to freshwater of western siberia (mollusca: gastropoda). vol. 1. gastropoda: pulmonata fasc. 1. families acroloxidae and lymdaeidae. omsk, 200 pp. (in russian) [click here] baturina, m. a, kaygorodova, i. a. and loskutova, o. a. 2020. new data on species diversity of annelida (oligochaeta, hirudinea) in the kharbey lakes system, bolshezemelskaya tundra (russia). zookeys, 910: 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(2022) 17 (2): 229-250. بورا السفلي ، وادي فيرجانا، أوزبكستان-بيئة العلق و بطنية االقدام في نهر أك فاروخ عمروفخير هللا سوليجونوف و .جامعة أنديجان الحكومية ، مدينة أنديجان ، جمهورية أوزبكستان 20/12/2022، تأريخ النشر: 26/10/2022، تأريخ القبول: 24/8/2022تأريخ االستالم: الخالصة توزيع ، وت هذه الدراسة على تكوين األنواع، والتشكل، والخصائص البيئيةأجري ، ومؤشرات التنوع البيولوجي والجغرافيا الحيوانية الكائنات الحية، واملجموعات البيئية أنواع 7للعلقات وبطنيات األرجل املوزعة في نهر أك بورا السفلي. وفًقا للنتائج، وجد أن أنواع من بطنيات املياه العذبة تنتمي 10أجناس و 6عائالت و 4من العلقات تنتمي إلى السفلي. في النهر، لوحظ أن العلقات ak-buuraأجناس تعيش في نهر 6عائالت و 3إلى وتنتشر بطنيات األقدام في البيئات املوحلة ، ع بشكل أساس ي في البيئات املوحلةتتوز تات. تم تحليل مؤشرات التنوع البيولوجي النبا والحجرية والرملية التي بها الكثير من نتيجة لذلك، shannon ستخدام مؤشرأب ak-buura للعلقات وبطنيات األرجل في نهر أقل من األنهار األخرى في وادي ak-buura البيولوجي لنهر تم تحديد أن مؤشر التنوع هر باملغذيات يرجع ذلك أساًسا إلى إغناء بعض أجزاء الن ؛ (h '= 0.81-1.17)ة فرغان وعدم استقرار النظام املائي. معظم العلق املوزعة في النهر من الحيوانات آكلة اللحوم، ، وجد أن الجغرافي وبطنيات األرجل هي نباتات نباتية. وفًقا لتحليل علم الحيوان ، وتتكون بطنيات holarctic ،palearctic ،western palearctic في مناطقالعلقات .وسط آسيا و املنطقة القطبية القديمةسيبيريا ، -ن أنواع أوروبيةاألقدام م bull 15 jalil and ali bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2020) 16 (1): 1525. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2020.16.1.0015 new description of the larval stage of latipalpis (palpilatis) johanidesi niehuis, 2002 (coleoptera, buprestidae) from erbil province, kurdistan region, iraq pshtiwan a. jalil* and wand k. ali ** * department of plant protection, college of agricultural engineering sciences, salahaddin universityerbil, iraq **department of biology, college of education, salahaddin university erbil, iraq *corresponding author: pshtiwan.jalil@su.edu.krd received date: 23 september 2019, accepted date: 17 november 2019, published date: 24 june 2020 a. jalil1* abstract the present study introduced a new description of the last larval instar of the oak tree borer, latipalpis johanidesi niehuis, 2002 (coleoptera, buprestidae). the larval specimens were collected from the oak trees within the mountainous areas, erbil governorate, iraqi kurdistan region, during the beginning of april till the end of may 2019. schematic sketches were provided to illustrate unclear morphological features, and the results presented importance morphological evidence for confirming the identification of this species in the larval stage precisely. keywords: buprestidae, iraq, larva, latipalpis johanidesi, wood borers introduction the genus latipalpis solier, 1833 was originally produced for many species of different genera such as dicerca, psiloptera, aurigena, poecilonota, and lampra bílý (1980). novak (1990) reported the latipalpis plana berythensis and latipalpis margotana as a new species and sub-species for the genus latipalpis from the eastern mediterranean; in spite of differing subgroups, diagnostic characters of this genus are very distinctive (richter, 1952). however the bionomy and host plants of the genus latipalpis in convergence with dicerca apparently, but larvae of latipalpis develop in thin (about 2-3 cm) living and half-dead branches of oak trees (schaefer, 1949). recently the genus latipalpis classified into two sub-genera: latipalpis solier, 1833 and palpilatis bily, 1980; the latter included 4 species, the species l. johanidesi niehuis 2002 one 16 new description of the larval stage of latipalpis of the common distributed in iraq, iran and turkey (ghahari et al., 2015; löbl and löbl, 2016). in the last three decades, many works ongoing to appear and explain the taxonomy of larvae of specific genera within the family buprestidae (alexeev, 1964; bily, 1999; volkovitsh, 1979) without any refereeing to the larvae of genus latipalpis. information about buprestidae larvae in iraq still insufficient; meanwhile, almost a few common larvae are known, but undescribed entirely. this study aimed to find out and explain the substantial morphological characteristics of the mature larva of l. (palpilatis) johanidesi. consequently, this study demonstrates the diagnostic features, that this species could be recognized for pest management planners. materials and methods larval collection and identification the larvae were collected from the stems of oak trees quercus aegiliops linnaeus, 1753 (fagaceae), started the beginning of april until the end of may 2019; (15) specimens were collected. mature larvae were chosen for dissecting and identifying the specimens in the laboratory. meanwhile, on the same host plant, to assure the correct identification, some larvae were allowed to reach the adult stage inside branches of the host plant in the prepared cage covered by meshed cloth with dimensions (40 × 40 × 60) cm. furthermore, the identification of adult beetles and larval stages of the species was confirmed by expert taxonomist dr. mark g. volkovitsh (st. petersburg, russia). morphological studies the morphological features in this paper depend structurally on the study of bilý (1999), bílý and volkovitsh (2007), volkovitsh and bílý (2015), in which the larval body was boiled in 10% koh aqueous solution until the tissues softened and fat bodies dissolved. the specimens were then washed in distilled water and dissected with the aid of a dissecting microscope (optika, italy). after that, the larval structures were separated and prepared for mounting and slide processing; for the preparation of microscopic slides, the protocol described by alexeev (1960) was followed; dpx media were deposited to act as a clearing agent. a compound microscope with a camera (huma scope premium with lcd camera germany) was used to illustrate the characteristics. for measuring and scaling of the examined parts, we used a stage micrometer (shinuya, japan). results larval shape (pl. 1): relatively large, long and flat with pale brown color; larva corresponding with the second morpho-ecological type of buprestid larva; it has reasonably expanded prothorax with sclerotized pronotal and prosternal grooves. epicranium moderately retracted into the prothorax, head about twice as wide as long, and it appears as a flat flexible segment inside the prothorax. it contains antenna and mouthparts. body length of fully-grown larva almost 20-28 mm; width of prothorax about 2.5-3.2cm. 17 jalil and ali plate (1): mature larva of latipalpis johanidesi; (abdabdomen, abd spi1st abdominal spiracle, dfdorsal fold, msth mesothorax, msthspimesothoracic spiracle, mtthmetathorax, prsperistome, prthprothorax, tbstubercles). 18 new description of the larval stage of latipalpis epistome (pl. 2 a): sclerotized tightly, brown with darkened anterior margin, about five times as wide as it is long; anterior margin bisinuous between semi-globular mandibular condyles and irregular. latero-posterior corners angulate and obtuse, slightly projecting outward; two groups of epistomal sensilla located in deep depressions on the mid-section. every single group consists of two short trichosensilla and one conspicuous campaniform sensillum. antennae (pl.2 b), originate in the antennal incisions of posterolateral gaps of the epistome, they composed of two segments, basal segment sub-cylindrical; about 1.3 times as long as wide and about 3 times as long as the apical segment; with one external campaniform sensillum, outer surface totally smooth, but inner sclerites strongly developed; articular membrane rough. apical segment smaller and shorter than the basal segment, and about 3 times as wide as long; outer margin surrounded by apical crown of microspinulae with long and thick trichosensillum; apical cavity of the apical segment well developed and bears long conical sensory appendage, one basiconic sensillum and two small palmate sensilla that their bases are very close to each other. labrum (pl. 2 c): clypeus transverse; membranous and collar shaped, it seems rough, nearly four times as wide as long, anterior margin with slightly arcuate posteriorly. labrum around quadrate shaped, anterior margin arcuated inward noticeably, anterolateral corners slightly rounded, lateral lobes absent and outer margins converging posteriorly; both medial and lateral branches of the palatine sclerite wellsclerotized; medial branch bears long apical seta, on the medial part, with two campaniform sensilla and another isolated one located between medial and lateral branches. the lateral branches carried long and thick trichosensilla, anterior border of labrum covered by dense and short microsetae in which condensed medially forming a transverse triangular area; anterolateral sensilla on each side consists of three long trichosensilla with two campaniform sensilla, external and internal. mandibles (pl. 2 d): strongly sclerotized and approximately triangular in shape, with two obtuse dark apical teeth. on the posterior side near the mandibular condyle, short and acute setae emerged as well as a common round basis. on the dorsal side surface, a tiny area of micro sculpture can be observed; cutting edge is simply convex. 19 jalil and ali plate (2): illustration of mature larva of l. johanidesi; (a) epistom (ain antennal incision, ecepistomal condyle, esepistomal sensilla, clsclypeus, lrmlabrum, pcposterior corner), (b) antenna (aa apical antennomere, acmapical crown of microspinulae, amarticular membrane, babasalantennomere, bsbasiconic sensilla, cmcrown of microspinulae, pspalmate sensilla, csacampaniform sensillae, sasensory appendage, tstrichosensilla), (c) labrum (alsl-anterolateral sensillae of labrum, lbslateral branch of palatine sclerite, mbsmedial branch of palatine sclerite, mslmedial sensillae of labrum), (d) mandible (atapical teeth, hshind seta, mcmandibular condyle). 20 new description of the larval stage of latipalpis labiomaxillary complex: labium (pl. 3 a) with oblique shape; its length about 1.5 times greater than its width, anterior margin moderately convex and posteriorly expanded, anterolateral corners widely rounded; anterior margin carried long microspinulae bundle. prementum corner sclerite concave and curved inward, every sclerite holds five campaniform sensilla in which distribute into two groups, on the above and the bottom level; apical seta relatively long, but not reach to anterior microspinuled area. maxillae (pl. 3 b): cardo relatively round; stipes somewhat conical, internal sclerite well-sclerotized; apical part of stipes with row of microspinulae. maxillary palps composed of two segments, basal segment sub-cylindrical shaped, almost as wide as long; anterior margin of basal segment provides with few short microsetae as well as long and thick apical seta rose from outer margin. apical segment conical-shaped; slightly two times as long as wide, also bears short and sharp curved sensillum on the lateral side, and four delicate sensory cones found on apical surface. mala cylindrical and stout, distinctly longer than wide; internal sclerite fully-developed; apical surface of mala carried six long and thick sensilla with sparse and short microsetae. thorax (pl. 3 c): prothorax extremely expanded and with a flat round shape, leg rudiments absent; pronotal groove moderately sclerotized, and it can be seen clearly, appears as a groove line with v-shaped inverted, and apex of groove with a specific shape; prosternal groove as a straight sclerotized line and slightly bifurcate posteriorly. pronotal and prosternal plates with same micro-sculpture asperities, due to growth of dense microspinulae and sparse microsetae, which diametrically sclerotized; mesothorax transverse, its width greater about three times than length, and noticeably narrower than metathorax; metathorax larger and wider than mesothorax, and characterized by swelling two equal tubercles on ventral side (pl. 4 a). spiracles: mesothoracic spiracles (pl. 4 b) considerably obvious, resemble a mushroom in shape, with dense trabeculae; abdominal spiracles (pl. 4 c) approximately elliptical-shaped, as with prothoracic spiracles, but smaller and fewer in numbers of trabeculae. abdomen (pl. 1): long and slender, lateral depressions well developed, it consists of ten flat segments, length of each segment is twice that of its width, except the first and last segments. segments 2-8 have nearly same length and width; 1st, 9th and 10th abdominal segments much smaller than other segments. abdominal surface covered by longitudinal stripes of microspinulae. in addition, long thin bristles can be seen on the dorsal and lateral sides. abdominal folds take closed longitudinal shape in which they bent toward the body axis; there are no morphological differences between dorsal and ventral folds. last abdominal segment smallest, deficiently sclerotized and divided by a vertical anal rim with dense and short setae. 21 jalil and ali plate (3): illustration of mature larva of l. johanidesi; (a) labium (abmanterior bundle of microspinulae, apcapical seta of corner sclerite of prementum, csp-corner sclerite of prementum, msz-microspinules zone, (b) maxilla (asapical seta of basal palpomere, cacardo, cuscurved sensilla, mmala, mpmaxillary palps, msmaxillary sclerite, scsensory cone, ststipes, tstrichosensilla), (c) thorax (pngpronotal groove, pnppronotal plate, psgprosternal groove, psp prosternal plate). 22 new description of the larval stage of latipalpis plate(4): illustration of mature larva of l. johanidesi; (a) thorax (msth-mesothorax, mtth-metathorax, tbstubercles, 1st absfirst abdominal segment), (b) mesothoracic spiracle (cas-closing apparatus, p-peritreme, trtrabeculae),(c)abdominal spiracle, (d) integument surface (ls-long seta, ms-microspinule), (e) body end (aranal rim, 9thabs9th abdominal segment, 10thabs 10th abdominal segment). 23 jalil and ali discussion depending on the studies, conclusions of bily (1980) and niehuis (2002, 2005), the larva corresponds to a latipalpis johanidesi assemblage (labrum covered with dense and along microsetae on the anterior margin, and cardo semi-rounded, anterior border of the stipes of maxillae covered with dense and long microsetae). although, some similarities were noticed between larvae of latipalpis, lamprodilla and psiloptera, in which latipalpis larva have a distinctive character in the pronotal groove anteriorly and strongly bifurcated prosternal groove posteriorly; furthermore, the noticeable tubercles of the metathorax confirms the subgeneric separation of the genus and shows that l. johanidesi belongs to the subgenus palpilatis (bily, 1980). the larvae of l. johanidesi differ from the larvae of other mentioned species by the main diagnostic characteristics such as anterior margin of the labrum concave and slightly deeper medially; three long and blunt trichosensillae are arranged on the anterolateral corners of the labrum. epistomal sensillae to assemble one long and one short trichosensilla with one campaniform sensillum which they are very close basis. the first abdominal segment is round, and it appears as a districted point between the thorax and abdomen; the abdominal folds made the segments resembled as double segment. acknowledgments we would like to express our deepest gratitude to dr. mark g. volkovitsh (st. petersburg, russia) and dr. svatopluk bílý (prague, czech republic) for their assistance in confirming the identification of the specimens and valuable comments. special thanks to kazan d. ahmed and michael day (nuig, ireland) for revising and proofreading the manuscript. literature cited alexeev, a. v. 1960. on the morphology and systematics of larvae of some species of the genus agrilus curt. in the european part of the ussr (coleoptera, buprestidae). zoologicheskii zhurnal, 39: 1497–1510. alexeev, a. v. 1964. on the distinctions between the larvae of phaenops cyanea f. and ph. guttulata gebl. (coleoptera, buprestidae). entomologicheskoe obozrenie, 48(3):647650. bílý, s. 1980. a revision of the genus latipalpis (coleoptera, buprestidae). acta entomologica bohemoslovaca, 77: 46-54. bilý, s. 1999. larvae of buprestid beetles (coleoptera: buprestidae) of central europe. acta entomologica musei nationalis pragae, supplementary 9: 1-45. bílý, s. and volkovitsh, m. g. 2007. descriptions of some buprestid larvae from chile (coleoptera: buprestidae). folia heyrovskyana, series a, 15(2-3): 53-79. ghahari, h., volkovitsh, m. g. and bellamy, c. l. 2015. an annotated catalogue of the 24 new description of the larval stage of latipalpis buprestidae of iran (coleoptera: buprestoidea). zootaxa, 3984(1): 1-141. löbl, i. and löbl, d. 2016. catalogue of palaearctic coleoptera (scarabaeoidea scirtoidea dascilloidea buprestoidea byrrhoidea), leidenboston, brill-switzerland. 1011 pp. niehuis, m. 2002. latipalpis (palpilatis) johanidesi n. sp.-ein neuer prachtkäfer aus der türkei. mitteilungen des internationalen entomologischen vereins, frankfurt, 27:105114. niehuis, m. 2005. latipalpis (s.str.) cypria n.sp. ein neuer prachtkafer aus zyperin (coleoptera: buprestidae). mitteilungen des internationalen entomologischen vereins frankfurt, 30(1-2): 9-14. novak, g. von 1990. latipalpis (s.str.) margotana n.sp., neu aus ost mediterranea (coleoptera, buprestidae) journal of the arbeitsgemeinschaft österr entomologen, 41(3-4): 81-83. richter a. a. 1952. fauna sssr. nasekomye zhestkokrylye. tom 13, vyp. 4. zlatki (buprestidae). chast’ 4 [fauna of the ussr. beetles. vol. 13, iss. 4. jewel-beetles (buprestidae). part 4]. moscow leningrad: academy of sciences of the ussr publ. 233 p. (in russian) schaefer, l. 1949. les buprestides de france. tableaux analytiques des coléoptères de la faune franco-rhénane. france, rhénane, belgique, hollande, valais, corse. famille lvi. miscellanea entomologica, supplement, 1511. volkovitsh, m. g. 1979. on the larval morphology of buprestid beetles of the genus acmaeoderella cobos (coleoptera, buprestidae). trudy zoologicheskogo instituta, akademiya nauk sssr leningrad, 83: 21-38. volkovitsh, m. g. and bílý, s. 2015. larvae of australian buprestidae (coleoptera). part 5. genera astraeus and xyroscelis, with notes on larval characters of australian polycestine taxa. acta entomologica musei nationalis pragae, 55(1): 173–202. 25 jalil and ali bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2020) 16 (1): 1525. لخنفساءوصف جديد للدور اليرقي latipalpis (palpilatis) johanidesi niehuis 2002 (coleoptera, buprestidae) محافظة أربيل, اقليم كوردستان العراق نم بشتيوان عبدهللا جليل* و وند خالص علي** *قسم وقاية النبات، كلية علوم الهندسة الزراعية، جامعة صالح الدين، أربيل، العراق قسم علوم الحياة، كلية التربية، جامعة صالح الدين، أربيل، العراق** 24/06/2020، تأريخ النشر: 17/11/2019، تأريخ القبول: 21/09/2019تأريخ االستالم: الخالصة االخير لخنافس حفار قيالدراسة الحالية وصف جديد للعمر الير اظهرت ) latipalpis johanidesi niehuis, 2002ساق البلوط (coleoptera, buprestidae ، اشجار البلوط من جمعت عينات هذا النوع ، للفترة من بداية محافظة أربيل، إقليم كوردستان العراقللمناطق الجبلية في ا .2019شهر نيسان وحتى نهاية شهر مايس من عام و ،غير الواضحة المظهريةرسومات تخطيطية لتوضيح السمات زودت ياليرقالدور لتأكيد تحديد هذا النوع في مرحلة مهمة مظهريةالنتائج أدلة قدمت .بدقة a. jalil1* keywords: buprestidae, iraq, larva, latipalpis johanidesi, wood borers introduction materials and methods larval collection and identification morphological studies results plate (3): illustration of mature larva of l. johanidesi; (a) labium (abmanterior bundle of microspinulae, apcapical seta of corner sclerite of prementum, csp-corner sclerite of prementum, msz-microspinules zone, (b) maxilla (asapical seta of ba... discussion acknowledgments literature cited alexeev, a. v. 1960. on the morphology and systematics of larvae of some species of the genus agrilus curt. in the european part of the ussr (coleoptera, buprestidae). zoologicheskii zhurnal, 39: 1497–1510. وصف جديد للدور اليرقي لخنفساء latipalpis (palpilatis) johanidesi niehuis 2002 bull 197 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum m. s. et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2022) 17 (2): 197-202. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2022.17.2.0197 short communication first record of the large-billed crow corvus macrorhynchos wagler, 1827 predating on the vulnerable indian roofed turtle pangshura tecta (gray, 1831) in india arjun m. s.*, bibhu prasad panda*, **♦ and satyaranjan behera*** *sálim ali centre for ornithology and natural history, anaikatty (post), coimbatore 641108, tamil nadu, india **environmental sciences, department of chemistry and bbrc, iter, siksha 'o' anusandhan (deemed to be university), bhubaneswar, odisha, india ***odisha biodiversity board, rprc campus, nayapalli, bhubaneswar-751015, odisha, india ♦corresponding author e-mail: bibhuprasadpanda14@gmail.com received date: 23 june 2022, accepted date: 20 sept. 2022, published date: 20 december 2022 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract the vulnerable indian roofed turtle pangshura tecta (gray, 1831) (testudines: geoemydidae) occurs in the sub-himalayan lowlands of india, nepal, bangladesh, and pakistan. little is known about its natural history, no studies have been conducted revealing its natural predators. in this study, a group of large-billed crow corvus macrorhynchos wagler, 1827 (passeriformes: corvidae) was observed hunting and predating on an indian roofed turtle carcass in the bank of river kuakhai, bhubaneswar, india. the first record of this predation behaviour is reported and substantiated by photographic evidence. keywords: crow, first record, natural predator, river, turtle. introduction in asia, the large-billed crow corvus macrorhynchos wagler, 1827 is a widespread species of crow, formerly known as the jungle crow (avibase, 2018). the distribution of this species is extensive, extending from the northeastern asian seaboard to afghanistan and eastern iran in the west, through south and southeast asia to the lesser sundas and cambodia in the southeast (birdlife international, 2022). this species is known for its wide range of food preferences. it adapts well to a wide variety of food sources and can survive on most kinds of food. the diet of this species is probably influenced by the local habitat of the ecosystem varies from region to region. among the foods they eat are insects, bird eggs, and chicks, as well as scavenging for dead animals (kurosawa et al., 2003). indian roofed turtle pangshura tecta (gray, 1831) is member of the geoemydidae family, including many highly endangered species of southeast asia. these herbivorous turtles are bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799-print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2022.17.2.0197 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0428-789x https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1087-0080 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1913-225x?lang=en mailto:bibhuprasadpanda14@gmail.com https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 198 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum first record of the large-billed crow fully aquatic and live in fresh waters with lush vegetation (van dijk et al., 2000; baruah et al., 2016). the reported prey species indian roofed turtle has been listed as vulnerable due to excessive levels of exploitation. over the next three generations (36 years), this species' global population is predicted to decline by over 30% (vyas, 2001). it is one of the lesserknown indian turtles. omnivorous in nature, this species inhabits slow-moving rivers and stagnant water bodies, such as ponds, puddles, tanks, and roadside ditches (vyas, 2001). wild populations of the species are declining rapidly due to abiotic and biotic pressures. as a result of anthropogenic interference, the habitat of the species has altered or changed in many regions of its distribution range. furthermore, it has been noticed quite recently that the species' hatchlings have been rounded up from the wild and sold domestically and internationally as pets (baruah et al., 2016). their distribution spans the indus, sabarmati, mahi, narmada, ganga, and mahanadi rivers across india, nepal, bangladesh, and pakistan (das, 1985, 2001; iverson, 1992; ahmed et al., 2021). in this article, the unusual hunting behaviour of the large-billed crow on an indian roofed turtle from india was recorded. there is still little information about the natural history of this species, and no specific records describing such predation event are available in the literature. notes and observation on 18th of december, 2020 at 08:10 am, during an avian survey, a peculiar behaviour of the large-billed crow predating on the indian roofed turtle near the eastern bank of the kuakhai river (20° 13' 33.999"n & 85° 52' 4.6518"e) was recorded (map 1). this river flows in the north and east of bhubaneswar city, capital of odisha state, and east of india. during this two hours of avian survey, two large-billed crows were observed through nikon monarch 7 8x30 binocular. suddenly those two birds flew into the fringe of the river and started pecking on the head and neck region of the turtle. the turtle was reacting very slowly and moved very less; then the crows started dragging the turtle from the water. this hunting behaviour was observed for five minutes where the crows dragged the turtle out of water and successfully killed it (pl. 1). this behaviour was clearly observed through binocular from a distance around 200 meters, and the turtle appeared to be alive at the time. it took around five minutes to reach the spot for taking photographs. the turtle was already dead at the time of photography, and those crows began feeding on it starting from its lower abdomen region near hind flippers of ventral side. this whole predation behaviour observation was recorded lasted for 20 minutes. after obtaining the photographic evidence (pl. 1), the turtle species was confirmedly identified as an indian roofed turtle. 199 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum m. s. et al. map (1): the location in kuakhai river where the recent observation was made. the large-billed crow is known as an omnivorous bird and also feed on small turtle hatchlings of olive ridley lepidochelys olivacea (pandav et al., 1998), but predation on the indian roofed turtle is recorded for the first time. this is the first report of avian predators like crows preying on indian roofed turtles. this feeding behaviour of large-billed crow was observed and this species was also recorded as a natural predator of the indian roofed turtle. 200 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum first record of the large-billed crow despite the unknown status of the indian roofed turtle in the area, the exposure to an opportunistic predator is most likely the cause of the large-billed crow's predation. despite being a common bird species, there is a lack of ecological and behavioral researches done on the large-billed crows. added to this, the indian roofed turtle is also a less studied reptile's species; therefore, this report will support further ecological research on these two species. plate (1): photographic evidence of large-billed crow corvus macrorhynchos; (a) dragging out, (b) predating on the indian roofed turtle pangshura tecta, (c) dorsal and (d) ventral part of the turtle. (photographs taken by dr. bibhu prasad panda) acknowledgements the authors are very much thankful to ms. arunima singh for confirming the identification of the turtle species. the authors are also thankful to the anonymous reviewers for their valuable input in this manuscript. conflict of interest statement ‘‘the authors have no conflicts of interest to declare’’ literature cited ahmed, m.f., praschag, p. and singh, s. 2021. pangshura tecta. the iucn red list of threatened species 2021: e.t46370a3005714. [crossref] avibase. 2018. species factsheet: corvus macrorhynchos. downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 20/06/2022. avibase taxonomic concepts v. 08 (feb 2021): https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/iucn.uk.2021-1.rlts.t46370a3005714.en http://www.birdlife.org/ 201 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum m. s. et al. large-billed crow (corvus macrorhynchos) (version 1), accessed on 20/06/2022. [click here] baruah, c., devi, p. and sharma, d. k. 2016. comparative morphometry and biogeography of the freshwater turtles of genus pangshura (testudines: geoemydidae: pangshura). international journal of pure and applied zoology, 4: 107-123. birdlife international. 2022. species factsheet: corvus macrorhynchos. downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 20/06/2022. recommended citation for factsheets for more than one species: birdlife international (2022) iucn red list for birds. downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 20/06/2022. das, i. 1985. indian turtles: a field guide. world wide fund for nature-india, calcutta, 119pp. das, i. 1991. colour guide to the turtles and tortoises of the indian subcontinent. r & a publishing ltd, portishead, u.k., 133pp. iverson, j. b. 1992. a revised checklist with distribution maps of the turtles of the world. privately published, richmond, indiana, 363 pp. kurosawa, r., kono, r., kondo, t. and kanai, y. 2003. diet of jungle crows in an urban landscape. global environmental research-english edition, 7(2): 193-198. pandav, b., choudhury, b. c. and shanker, k. 1998. the olive ridley sea turtle (lepidochelys olivacea) in orissa: an urgent call for an intensive and integrated conservation programme. current science, 75 (12): 1323-1328. [click here] van dijk, p. p., stuart, b. l. and rhodin, a. g. j. 2000. asian turtle trade. proceedings of a workshop on conservation and trade of freshwater turtles and tortoises in asia, phnom penh, cambodia, 1–4 december 1999. chelonian research monographs, 2: 1-164. vyas, r. 2001. breeding of the indian roofed turtle kachuga tecta in captivity. zoos'print journal, 16 (10): 600-603. https://avibase.bsc-eoc.org/species.jsp?lang=en&avibaseid=8891e279d6486cd9&sec=summary http://www.birdlife.org/ http://www.birdlife.org/ http://www.jstor.org/stable/24101018 202 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum first record of the large-billed crow bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2022) 17 (2): 197-202. corvus macrorhynchos wagler, 1827سجل األول للغراب ذو املنقار الكبير تال vulnerable indian roofed turtle كمفترس على السلحفاة الهندية pangshura tecta (gray, 1831) في الهند *** و ساتيارانجان بهيرا**براساد باندا*، و بهبي*، رجون م. س. آ 641108طيور والتاريخ الطبيعي، أناكاتي )بوست( ، كويمباتور * مركز سليم علي لعلم ال ، تاميل نادو ، الهند. ، بوبانسوار bbrc ،iter ،siksha 'o' anusandhan** العلوم البيئية، قسم الكيمياء و ، أوديشا ، الهند. -الجامعي، نايابالي، بوبانسوار rprc*** مجلس أوديشا للتنوع البيولوجي، حرم ، أوديشا، الهند.751015 20/12/2022، تأريخ النشر: 20/9/2022، تأريخ القبول: 23/6/2022تأريخ االستالم: الخالصة indian roofed turtle pangshura tecta (gray,1831)لسلحفاة الهندية ا (testudines: geoemydidae ) في األراض ي املنخفضة في شبه الهيمااليا في الهند و تظهر الطبيعي، ولم يتم ابنغالديش وباكستان. ال ُيعرف سوى القليل عن تاريخه نيبال وال الطبيعية. اإجراء أي دراسات تكشف عن مفترساته ,corvus macrorhynchos wagler غراب في هذه الدراسة ، لوحظت مجموعة من 1827 (passeriformes: corvidaeوهي تصطاد و ) جثة سلحفاة هندية مسقوفة فترست في ضفة نهر كواخاي، بوبانسوار، الهند. تم اإلبالغ عن السجل األول لسلوك االفتراس إثباته باألدلة الفوتوغرافية. هذا و bull 635 al-sheikhly et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2021) 16 (4): 635-647. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2021.16.4.0635 short communication first photographic records and new distribution range of the endangered long-tailed nesokia nesokia bunnii (khajuria, 1981) omar f. al-sheikhly*♦ boris kryštufek** rainer hutterer*** mukhtar k. haba**** nadheer a. fazaa**** ra’ad h. al-asady***** sayed b. mousavi ****** danijel ivajnšič ******* and javier lazaro******** *department of biology, college of science, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq. **slovenian museum of natural history, prešernova 20, si-1000 ljubljana, slovenia. ***zoologisches forschungsmuseum alexander koenig, adenauerallee 160, 53113 bonn, germany. ****university of baghdad, college of science for women, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq. ****department of biology, college of science for women, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq. *****independent researcher, al-chebaeish organization of ecotourism, al-chebaeish, thi qar, iraq. ****** independent researcher, khuzestan, ahvaz, iran. ******* faculty of natural sciences and mathematics, faculty of arts, university of maribor, koroška 160, 2000, maribor, slovenia. ******** max planck institute for animal behavior, am obstberg 1, 78315 radolfzell, germany. ♦corresponding author e-mail: alsheikhlyomar@gmail.com received date: 07 nov. 2021, accepted date: 19 december 2021, published date: 20 december 2021 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract in the 1970s, the world knew the long-tailed nesokia nesokia bunnii (khajuria, 1981) (rodentia, muridae) from the mesopotamian marshes of garden of eden in southern iraq. this distinct rodent was known from only five voucher specimens collected at the confluence of tigris and euphrates rivers in southern iraq while its occurrence in southwestern iran had https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2021.16.4.0635 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 636 first photographic records never been reported. in the 1990s, a large extent of its natural habitat was catastrophically desiccated and the animal was last seen in the 1970s. since then, the status of this elusive rodent was shrouded in mystery. in 2007, an extraordinary photograph of a carcass of this species came to the light from hawizeh marsh which was interpreted as concrete evidence of the species’ persistence in the marshes of southern iraq after the desiccation in the last century. in 2021, after more than 40 years, exclusive photographic records of living n. bunnii were obtained for the first time from central marshes in southern iraq and from edhe’am marsh in southwestern iran. the new distribution range is highlighted in this note. furthermore, the first photographs of living n. bunnii are provided along with notes on its ecology and behavior. keywords: conservation, endemic, garden of eden, mesopotamian marshes, rodents of iraq-iran. introduction the long-tailed nesokia nesokia bunnii (khajuria, 1981) (rodentia, muridae) is one of the morphologically elusive, rarest and enigmatic small palaearctic mammals. it is well adapted to the extensive marshy habitats of southern iraq which originally covered 15,000–20,000 km2 but were deliberately ditched and drained to <15% of its original size by the previous political regime during the 1990s (al-ansari et al., 2012). the animal was last seen in the 1970s, i.e. long before any drainage occurred. the prevailing opinion claimed that such a drastic ecosystem destruction “… almost certainly lead to the global extinction” of two mammal species, endemic to these marshes, the iraqi smooth-coated otter lutrogale perspicillata maxwelli (hayman, 1956), and the long-tailed nesokia (partow, 2001; alsheikhly and nader, 2013). due to habitat destruction/fragmentation and natural ecosystem modification, the current conservation status of n. bunnii has been assessed as endangered by the iucn red list (stuart, 2008). the species is known from only five voucher specimens collected between march 1974 and january 1977 within a narrow perimeter of 30 km around qurna, within the mesopotamian marshes at the confluence of the tigris and the euphrates rivers in basra province in southern iraq (khajuria, 1981; kryštufek et al., 2017, 2020) (tab. 1). unfortunately, this valuable type material was permanently lost due to vandalizing of the iraq natural history research center and museum (nhrcm) in 2003 (see al-sheikhly et al., 2015; kryštufek et al., 2017). based on morphology only, the species was originally described as a distinct genus erythronesokia by khajuria (1981) but was relegated in the early 1990s to the genus nesokia where it is still maintained as n. bunnii. this nomenclature is currently valid and was accepted by subsequent authors (corbet, 1984; corbet and hill, 1986, 1991, 1992; nader, 1989; nowak, 1991; musser and carleton, 1993, 2005; musser and brothers, 1994; pavlinov et al., 1995; panteleyev, 1998; stuart, 2008; al-sheikhly and haba, 2014; al-sheikhly et al., 2015; denys et al., 2017). as an exception, harrison and bates (1991) examined khajuria’s record and suggested that this taxon could be a large individual of the short-tailed nesokia indica (gray, 1832). its abnormally long tail putatively reflects ecological adaptation to aquatic habitat of the marshes of southern iraq. the species shares with n. indica all traits that 637 al-sheikhly et al. distinguish nesokia from the closely related bandicota; however, it differs in colour, size, relative length of tail, and shape of the skull and mandible (kryštufek et al., 2016; 2017). in a craniometric study, al-robaae and felten (1990) published additional three specimens of n. bunnii (tab. 1), which are now in the naturmuseum senckenberg, frankfurt, germany (smf) (see kryštufek et al., 2017, 2020). they demonstrated a close resemblance between n. bunnii and n. indica rats, concluding that erythronesokia is “not more than– if at all–a subgenus of nesokia, but not a separate genus.” similar conclusions were in agreement with a geometric morphometric approach of craniodental structures made by kryštufek et al. (2016). furthermore, kryštufek et al. (2020) indicated that no further museum vouchers of n. bunnii are known to exist. in 2003, attempts were initiated to rehabilitate the original ecosystems of the mesopotamian marshes which started to re-expand at the rate of 800 km2 per year (al-ansari et al., 2012). despite that much of the species’ natural habitats were potentially restored, the fate of n. bunnii was more perplexing. in 2007, an extraordinary photograph of a half-eaten leftover carcass (sacral region of the body along with hind feet and the tail) was found in the lissan e’jeardah marsh, on the eastern side of hawizeh marsh in maysan (=myssan) province in southern iraq, i.e. northward of basra and qurna and close to the 1970s trapping sites, and was published by haba (2009). the photograph of the carcass had not been assigned to the species and was labeled as a “rat”. however, it clearly showed the distinctive morphological features of n. bunnii and was sufficient evidence of the species’ persistence in the mesopotamian marshes of southern iraq since the last animal had been captured near bani mansor in 1977 (kryštufek et al., 2020). al-sheikhly et al. (2015) indicated that the current status the species in iraq is unknown; suggesting that it could also possibly occur in alhawizeh marsh straddling the iraq-iran southeastern borders. it is worth mentioning that attempts by the late jamshid darvish, one of the leading rodent experts in iran, were dedicated to search for n. bunnii in the khuzestan province of southwestern iran, but such efforts yielded no positive results (kryštufek et al. 2020). based on the habitat suitability model (see kryštufek et al., 2020), the species is highly expected to occur in al-edhe’am marsh (=hor al-azim), a transboundary monotonic marshy habitat on the eastern side of alhawizeh marsh in the khuzestan province in southwestern iran. in our current note, the persistent occurrence and new geographical distribution range of n. bunnii in the mesopotamian marshes of southern iraq and southwestern iran is evident by recent exclusive photographic documentations of living rodents in the wild, the first after more than 40 years. recent record a total of three recent records (n=4 specimens) of n. bunnii were obtained. iraq–the first two records were made in the al-chebaeish (=chabaish) district in the central marshes (iraq’s national park, ramsar, and unesco site) in thi qar province, ca. 40 km to the west of qurna (terr. typ. 31° 0'44.83"n 47°25'54.08"e) in southern iraq. the first unsexed adult specimen was trapped by a local (see the acknowledgments) with a harris humane rodent cage trap set on the ground in an old human settlement (old local house) on the eastern bank 638 first photographic records of the euphrates river (30°57'50.88"n 47° 0'54.89"e) at the southernmost edge of the central marshes in june 2018. unfortunately, the captured animal was killed and discarded later on (pl. 1a). the second specimen was an adult male captured alive by a villager in a settlement at alsahagi (30°58'3.49"n 47° 1'30.99"e), on the eastern bank of the euphrates river on the 8th of may 2021. the live animal was photographed (pls. 1b, c), and kept in a cage for laboratory rodents (dimensions 80 x 60 cm) for 16 days. unfortunately, this individual died due to unknown/unexplained reasons later on. the carcass, preserved in a deep freeze (-9°c) and prepared as taxidermic mount, will be deposited in the nhrcm after permission and the specimen number will be granted. iran–the third record was made at shatt ali area (31°20'55.9"n 47° 42' 42.4"e) in the edhe’am marsh, khuzestan province in southwestern iran, ca. 3 km from the iraq-iran border and ca. 45 km northeast of iraqi qurna. two specimens (adult male and female) were captured alive in a harris humane rodent cage trap set by sbm on a muddy islet on the 4th of december 2021(pls. 1d, e). due to their critical conservation status, the animals were kept in a laboratory cage for morphological and behavioral study for 6 days and afterwards released at the capturing place on the 11th of december 2021. the habitat of the central marshes and edhe’am marsh resembles the general landscape of the typical transboundary tigris-euphrates alluvial salt marsh (pa0906) ecoregion. both sites are mixed habitats of large freshwater open lakes (2–3 meter in depth), narrow watercourses bordered with dense vegetation of common reed phragmites australis and common bulrush typha latifolia beds, and scattered muddy islets and riverbanks with small holes and burrows lined with riparian and steppe vegetation of salix sp. and tamarix sp. (pls. 1f, g). table (1): historical and recent records of the long-tailed nesokia n. bunnii in iraq and iran. smf=naturmuseum senckenberg, frankfurt, germany; nhrcm=iraq natural history research center and museum. no . museum collection specimen no. date sex age locality country 1 nhrcm (lost holotype) 75-105-78 23.iii.1974 ♂ adult qurna, basra province iraq 2 nhrcm (lost paratype) 81-307-78 16.xi.1974 ♀ young qurna, basra province iraq 3 smf 87532 10.v.1974 ♂ adult 5 km north of qurna-basra iraq 4 smf (neotype) 62925 18.iii.1976 ♂ adult saraifa, 30 km north of qurna, basra province iraq 5 smf 87531 2.i.1977 ♂ adult bani mansor, 25 km west of qurna, basra iraq 639 al-sheikhly et al. province 6 wild/carcass 7.xii.2007 unsexed adult lissan e’jeardah marsh, eastern side of hawizeh marsh, maysan province iraq 7 live captured and died ??.vi. 2018 unsexed adult central marshes, alchebaeish, thiqar province iraq 8 live captured and died processed as nhrcm museum voucher 8.v.2021 ♂ adult al-sahagi, central marshes, alchebaeish, thiqar province iraq 9 live captured and released 4.xii.2021 ♂♀ adult shatt ali, edhe’am marsh, khuzestan province iran morphological description the external morphological traits of the recently discovered rodents correspond to those described by kryštufek et al. (2017, 2020). furthermore, the field observations of the captured n. bunnii in the central marshes and edhe’am marsh, in reality, were a “spitting image” of the drawn model (figure 1) illustrated in kryštufek et al. (2020). the size is large with a typical robust appearance of a rat. the head is large with proportionally large eyes which have deep-brown pupils; the fleshy-grey muzzle pad is small but well defined and shows a deep medial groove. the fleshy-grey mystacial vibrissae have dark grey bases of moderate length with white tips. the species has moderately long ears, the outer surface of which is thinly covered by short hairs; the inner surface is effectively nude. the steel-grey tail is about the same length as head and body; it is interspersed with thin and short whitish hairs throughout but the terminal pencil is scarce. tail annulation is well defined and regular, with about 8 rings to centimeter at the middle. the feet are rather wide and large and seemingly adapted to swimming, densely clad with pale-grey short stiff hairs on their dorsal side; plantar and palmar surfaces are naked. the fore feet are decidedly mesaxonic, digit v is clearly shorter than digits iii–iv, and the pollex is rudimentary bearing a prominent short pale nail which extends to its edge. the hind feet are robust; digit iii is slightly longer that digits ii and iv, which are subequal. the hallux and digit v, although definitely shorter, are still moderately large. claws are pale-grey, stout, curved and sharp. the dorsal fur from between the eyes to the rump is of “rustic-ochre red vibrant” colour. it is soft due to woolly under hair, but interspersion of coarse hair poses a slightly harsh texture. the ventral side, including the 640 first photographic records front feet and shoulders, is dirt white to grayish white; ventral hairs are uniformly light down to bases. the light underside color extends from cheeks to the ear base almost reaching the lower eyelid; this hair is moderately to heavily washed grey. a distinct reddish-brown stripe is extending from the snout, surpassing the eye, reaching the ear base, and defining the ventral edge of the rufous dorsal side of the pelt. the demarcation between the rufous-reddish dorsum and the whitish venter is visibly distinct both on the body and on the head. these newly discovered specimens are an extremely valuable addition to the existent museum vouchers. to our knowledge, they are the only hard evidence on the species following the mesopotamian marshes inundation since 1990s. therefore, a full morphological, craniodental, and behavioral study related to these new specimens will be produced subsequently. biology and behavior nesokia bunnii seems to be ecologically adapted to the aquatic habitats of the mesopotamian marshes of southern iraq and southwestern iran; however, information on its biology and ecological niche after the inundation of the marshes in the 1990s are completely obscure. when the live animals exhibited to the elders of the marsh arabs (the indigenous inhabitants of the mesopotamian marshes), they indicated that this rodent is locally known as the “greathi al-hour” or “greathi al-ethib” (= the rodent of the marsh/reed), abundantly found in the marshes in the past but had not been seen since the desiccation in the 1990s. they also claimed that this rodent is building its nests in the bases of old sticks of dense common reed beds on the marshland edges. on the17th of may 2014, a “red rodent” was observed on a nest densely built from reed flowers and delicately woven on the bases of reed sticks at ishan algubbah (31° 3'n 47° 1'e) in the northern extremity of the central marshes. after careful examination, a total of four 2–3 days old pups were found (pl. h, i) and believed to belong to n. bunnii as there are no other rodent species known to breed in the reed beds of the mesopotamian marshes. during our in situ surveys in the central marshes in 2017–2021, we tried to locate any possible reed nests to observe the adult rodents on the breeding site. no positive results were obtained and further investigation is required. based on few observations of the live-captured n. bunnii in the central marshes and edhe’am marsh (which may not reflect the normal behavior in nature), the animals showed high caution and aggression toward human presence besides a remarkable tolerance to food shortage. one animal remained without food for the first 32 hours of its 16 days captivity. the animals showed a tendency to feed on several dietary items (e.g. vegetables, fruits, rodent pellets, pieces of bred, dry seeds and cedar fruit, etc.). moreover, when provided, they gluttonously consumed fresh small fishes (mainly abu mullet liza abu heckel, 1843). this indicates that the species may have developed fishing behavioral abilities, but the claim requires further monitoring. similar to other sympatric rodents [e.g. n. indica and brown rat rattus norvegicus (berkenhout, 1769)], the species exhibited a sensitivity to sunlight and excessive heat. under midday elevated temperatures, the animals insistently tried to find the coolest and shadiest places in their cage. erratic circular body movements were intercepted with short intervals of standing on their hind feet which was followed by fast borrowing movements by their fore feet. the animals were also alarmed and attracted by a sound. when 641 al-sheikhly et al. agitated they produced a pitched faint sound of a harsh whistle-like “psee-pseee-pseee” in a contentious rhythm. our observations are very preliminary and, detailed research is urgently required to obtain a better understanding of the cryptic behavior of this mysterious rodent in the mesopotamian marshes. acknowledgments we are grateful to the iraqi green climate organization (igco) for supporting the field surveys in the mesopotamian marshes. we would like to thank habeeb al-asady and mohsin h. al-asady (iraq) and ali naji al-turfi (iran) for trapping nesokia bunnii in the central marshes and edhe’am marsh respectively, besides their contributions in the in situ surveys. we also thank ahmad hassan al-asady for providing photographs of n. bunnii in alchebaeish and for his kind permission for a publication in this account. conflict of interest statement "we declare there is no conflict of interest". 642 first photographic records plate (1): the long-tailed nesokia nesokia nesokia bunnii: (a) individual captured alive at the euphrates river bank, central marshes, al-chebaeish, thi qar province-iraq, june 2008 (photo © ahmad hassan al-asady), (b-c) al-sahagi, central marshes, al-chebaeish, thiqar province-iraq, 8th of may 2021 (photos © ra’ad h. al-asady), (d-e) shatt ali, edhe’am marsh, khuzestan province-iran, 4th of december 2021 (photos © sayed b. mousavi). typical habitat of the species at the euphrates river bank showing the holes and burrows: (f) alchebaeish, thi qar province-iraq (photo © omar f. al-sheikhly). g – typical habitat at edhe’am marsh, khuzestan province-iran (photo © sayed b. mousavi), (h-i) the pup of n. bunnii found in nest at ishan al-gubbah, central marshes, thi qar province-iraq (photos © nadheer a. fazaa). 643 al-sheikhly et 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(2021) 16 (4): 635647. التسجيالت الصورية األولى مع نطاق انتشار جديد للركين طويل الذيل nesokia bunnii (khajuria, 1981) بخطر األنقراض املهدد ,****, مختار خ. حبه***, راينر هاتيرر**, بورس كريستوفك *عمر ف. الشيخلي ,******, سيد ب. موسوي *****, رعد ح. األسدي****نظير ع. فزع ********خافيير الزارو و *******أيفانسك دانيال .قسم علوم الحياه, كلية العلوم, جامعة بغداد, بغداد, العراق * ., لجوبليانا, سلوفينياsi-1000, 20متحف التاريخ الطبيعي السلوفيني, برسرنوفا ** ., بون, أملانيا53113 ,160اورالي, امتحف ألكساندر كوينج للتأريخ الطبيعي, أدين *** ., بغداد, العراققسم علوم الحياه, كلية العلوم للبنات, جامعة بغداد **** , العراق.باحث مستقل, منظمة الجبايش للسياحة البيئية, ذي قار ***** .األسالميةأيران جمهورية ستقل, خوزستان, األحواز, باحث م ****** بيعية والرياضيات, كلية الفنون, جامعة ماريبور, كورسكامركز العلوم الط ******* ., ماريبور, سلوفينيا2000 ,160 , 78315 ,1رادوزفل ,مؤسسة ماكس بالنك لعلوم سلوك الحيوان, أمبستربيرغ ******** أملانيا. 2021/ 12/ 20 ، تاريخ النشر: 2021/ 12/ 19، تاريخ القبول: 2021/ 11/ 07تاريخ االستالم: الخالصة منذ سبعينيات القرن املنصرم, عرف العالم ألول مره الركين طويل الذنب (khajuria, 1981) nesokia bunnii من أهوار جنة عدن في جنوب العراق. حيث عرف هذا القارض املتميز من خمسة نماذج متحفية فقط جمعت ضمن نطاق ضيق يقدر ب 647 al-sheikhly et al. ي منطقة التقاء نهري دجلة والفرات في محافظة البصرة مابين أذار كم حول القرنة ف 30 . في التسعينيات, جففت مساحات شاسعة من بيئة 1977وكانون الثاني عام 1974 عام , أي بفترة يشاهد في األهوار منذ السبعينياتالحيوان الطبيعية بشكل مأساوي حيث لم ح وضعه الراهن محاط بالكثير من طويلة قبل حدوث التجفيف, ومنذ ذلك الحين, اصب , تم التقاط صور استثنائية لجثة تابعة لهذا الحيوان في هور 2007الغموض. في عام الحويزه والتي اعتبرت دليل قوي على بقاء تواجد هذا النوع في أألهوار بعد التجفيف في رية عاما, تم التقاط الصور الحص 40, بعد أكثر من 2021القرن املنصرم. في سنة في البرية في األهوار الوسطى في جنوب العراق وهور ً األولى للركين طويل الذيل حيا العظيم في جنوب غرب ايران والتي تمثل نقطة أنتشار جديدة لهذا النوع. أضافة الى األولى للركين طويل الذنب الحي مع مالحظات عن سلوكياته السجالت الصوريةذلك, البحث. وبيئته تم تقديمها في هذا bull 1 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum biswal and panda bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2022) 17 (1): 1-13. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2022.17.1.0001 original article alliance between barn swallow hirundo rustica linnaeus, 1758 and indian mustard brassica juncea (l.) czernajew, 1859: a new intuition in bird-plant ecological networks soumya ranjan biswal* and bibhu prasad panda**♦ *department of forestry and natural resources, school of agriculture and allied science, hemvati nandan bahuguna garhwal university, srinagar (garhwal), uttarakhand, india. **environmental sciences, department of chemistry and bbrc, iter, siksha 'o' anusandhan (deemed to be university), bhubaneswar, odisha, india. ♦corresponding author: bibhuprasadpanda14@gmail.com received date: 22 september 2021, accepted date: 25 december 2021, published date: 20 june 2022 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract the habitat type and food availability always influence the population size of many organisms. bird’s feeding pattern should be abstracted to complete avian community structure data. the agronomy main research farm of orissa university of agriculture and technology is a well-managed multi-crop agro-ecosystem which provides a suitable ground for ecological research. in a multi-crop farmland, the association of barn swallow hirundo rustica linnaeus, 1758, with the indian mustard brassica juncea (l.) czernajew, 1859 crops have been recorded for the first time while hovering only on this field. a flock of barn swallows was recorded in 32 field visits while flying continuously over the indian mustard field after flowering to ripening of fruit in the morning and sometimes in afternoon also. the range of the birds was recorded from 6 to 61 with a mean individual of 36.03 ± 15.37 hovering for 1.83 hr daily. this may be the behaviour for the feeding pattern of these flying insectivorous birds which was not seen in other crop-fields with same insect diversity describing it as not the only reason for this behaviour. to reveal this poorly understood behaviour of flying insectivore birds, a detailed long term behavioural study with gut content analysis is needed to explain the particular reason behind this behaviour of barn swallows which will support the conservation of these birds and control their population decline. keyword: alliance, barn swallow, hovering, first record, multi-crop farmland. introduction agricultural areas support one-third of all bird species by satisfying their food demand (blount et al., 2021). multicrop farmlands always support the rich diversity and population of birds due to the availability of diversified crop habitats (panda et al., 2020). association among birds and crops which is supported by providing food in the form of grain, seed, leaves and vertebrates and invertebrates living in that cropland can be depicted by documenting the bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home online issn: 2311-9799 print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2022.17.1.0001 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9267-0295 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1087-0080 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 2 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum alliance between barn swallow hirundo rustica birds in temporary primary crops (elphick, 2010; alexandrino et al., 2019). these habitats also protect the birds from predators by providing shelter (linscott and senner, 2021; panda et al., 2021a). various croplands are extensively used as quality habitats for migratory birds worldwide (yamaguchi et al., 2012; grishchenko et al., 2019). ecological research always refers to this habitat type and food availability impact on the population size of many organisms (de bonilla et al., 2012). so, studies of feeding guilds of any avian species can support exploring their community structure and habitat complexity which will help to create data on avian community structure (tanalgo et al., 2015). regurgitated food, fecal and gut content analysis are the techniques used for analyzing avian dietary habits (de bonilla et al., 2012). the dietary habits in birds can be affected by habitat conditions/heterogeneity and anthropogenic impacts such as human disturbance, urban growth, and agricultural pesticides on their habitat. the present study focused on an interesting behaviour of barn swallows at the time of foraging only over one crop in a multi-crop farmland recorded while hovering over the indian mustard crop field and depicted the a new intuition in bird-plant ecological networks. materials and methods the orissa university of agriculture and technology (ouat) is a well-managed agronomy main research farm in the centre of bhubaneswar city (map 1) which is located in eastern india. this agronomy main research farmland has an area of 32.6 hectares and 3.09 km perimeter (mallik et al., 2015). this agroecosystem is surrounded by highly populated human habitation and educational institute with adjacent to the biju patnaik international airport, bhubaneswar boundary. there were three mustard fields in the study area identified for observation. the 1st (20.263108˚n, 85.808995˚e) and 2nd (20.266287˚n, 85.805741˚e) fields are of the size 120m in length and 40m in breath, whereas the 3rd field (20.265230˚n, 85.808488˚e) is of 100 m in length and 40m in breath. this observation was recorded in only two fields because the other one is covered with net houses due to some research activity. the numbers of the birds were counted by the point count technique (bibby et al., 1998) without disturbing those birds. the observation of birds was conducted for 4 hours after the sunrise and 2 hours before sunset (leveau et al., 2015; panda et al., 2021b). photographic and video-graphic evidences (nikon d5300 camera with 70-300mm and 150-600mm lens) were recorded with behavioural observations for further analysis such as average time of hovering and the average height of flight etc. (lewis et al., 2004). the hovering time of these birds was recorded and the disturbance level was recorded as the humans working in the peripheral fields. the height of flying birds over the crop fields were estimated by direct observation with comparing a five meter high pole near each field. 3 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum biswal and panda ) fields.b. junceaindian mustard (map of the study area and sampled map (1): results and discussion this is a multi-crop agroecosystem that provides a research ground for agricultural researchers as well as supports the habitat of various mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and insects. this agroecosystem has various permanent farmlands and many seasonal crops. the coconut cocus nucifera l. farm is the permanent farm at the western part of the field and the seasonal crops are rice oryza sativa l., maize zea mays l., mustard brassica juncea, urad dal vigna mungo l., sunflower helianthus sp., and moong dal vigna radiata l. (rahul et al., 2019; giri et al., 2020). some vegetables like tomato solanum lycopersicum l., brinjal solanum melongena l., lady’s finger abelmoschus esculentus l., cauliflower brassica oleracea var. botrytis l., cabbage brassica oleracea var. capitate l., and radish raphanus sativus l. are also cultivated seasonally (rojalin et al., 2018; tripathy et al., 2020). indian mustard b. junceais is also cultivated in the multi-crop field in winter because it requires cool and dry weather with higher soil moisture during the growth of the plants (mohapatra et al., 2019). due to its climatic requirements of dry and clear weather at the time of harvesting, in india, the indian mustard is cultivated in the rabi season which is from october to march (winter). the flowering starts from 7-8 weeks after plantation (satyagopal et al., 2014) (pl. 1). 4 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum alliance between barn swallow hirundo rustica plate (1): indian mustard b. juncea crop field in different stages of the life cycle; (a) flowering, (b) fruit development, (c) ripening, (d) senescence (before harvest). ouat agronomy main research farm has a high faunal diversity due to the higher crop diversity. more than 95 species of birds have been recorded in this multi-crop farmland of ouat (mallik et al., 2015); while doing a regular avian diversity survey in the agronomy main research farm, a peculiar behaviour of barn swallow was recorded over the indian mustard crop field. to record this behaviour of these birds, a special attention was given to mustard crop field. some species preferred the mustard crop and were found abundantly in those fields. besides the barn swallow, the abundant species are: red avadavat amandava amandava (linnaeus, 1758); zitting cisticola cisticola juncidis (rafinesque, 1810), scalybreasted munia lonchura punctulata (linnaeus, 1758), and plain prinia prinia inornata sykes, 1832 (pl. 2). among all the species found only in this indian mustard field, the abundance of these species was observed higher among all. the other recoded species with peculiar behaviour and hovering over the indian mustard crop field is barn swallow. the barn swallow is a sparrow-sized small bird of 15-19 cm length, weighing 17-20 g with blue-black wing and forked tail (pl. 3). it is an aerial insectivore, that catches insects from just above the ground to around 100 ft height sometimes even more (warrick et al., 2016). barn swallows are commonly recorded at grassland habitats, marshes, wetlands and agricultural lands (orłowski et al., 2014). they are local migratory in india, breed in himalayan areas and winter visitor towards southern india and also for the study area (birdlife international, 2019; panda et al., 2020). their diet comprises beetles, ants and different flying insects like bees, wasps, moths and butterflies; barn swallows prefer larger single insects than a group of smaller prey (ali, 2002). 5 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum biswal and panda plate (2): most abundant species recoded in indian mustard crop fields; (a) red avadavat amandava amandava, (b) zitting cisticola cisticola juncidis, (c) scaly-breasted munia lonchura punctulata,(d) plain prinia prinia inornata (photographs – a &b: mr. soumya ranjan biswal; c & d: dr. bibhu prasad panda). plate (3): this image of barn swallow h. rustica was taken at ouat agronomy field. (photograph by dr. bibhu prasad panda) 6 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum alliance between barn swallow hirundo rustica the interesting behaviour of barn swallows was the hovering pattern above the indian mustard crop field. a flock of barn swallows was recorded while flying continuously over the indian mustard field (pl. 4). this behaviour of birds was seen every day regularly and particularly over that indian mustard field only. the phenomenon of hovering of many passerine species on foraging cites have been seen before but particularly barn swallow hovering over indian mustard crop field was recorded for the first time. this observation was first recorded on 29th december 2020. the hovering of the barn swallows was recorded from end-december (29th december 2020) to mid-february (17th february 2020). the birds were hovering over the mustard field with a minimum height of 0.5 meters or just over mustard plants up to 10 m height approximately. our observation described the average height of flight as 2-4 m from the ground. to check this behaviour of birds, if it is regular or accidental, more than 32 field visits were conducted during those two months and this was recorded in every field visit. this activity was seen after the flowering in indian mustard up to the ripening of fruits (pl. 1 b, c). during the observation, this hovering pattern was recorded only in the morning nearly from 7 am to 10 am regularly. plate (4): barn swallows hovering over indian mustard crop field (photograph by mr. soumya ranjan biswal). most of the time the hovering of the birds was seen in particular field 1 with a higher number of individuals (n= 6-61) (tab. 1). sometimes the field 2 was also seen with this phenomenon but with very few individuals (n = 0-21). the average number of birds recorded daily was 36.03 ± 15.37 in field 1 and 4.97 ± 5.78 in field 2. it was also observed that these birds were influenced by peripheral disturbance by human activity. the field 1 was recorded with higher abundance of birds while field 2 was lower. the field 2 was recorded with higher human interference due to a small construction work in the nearby field; this phenomenon 7 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum biswal and panda was recorded last time on 17th february 2020 and this hovering behaviour of barn swallow was not found afterward. table (1): details of barn swallow hirundo rustica recorded from indian mustard brassica juncea crop fields. sampling sl. no. no. of barn swallows hovering time duration (in hr) disturbance level (working persons) field 1 field 2 field 1 field 2 field 1 field 2 1 35 0 2.50 0.00 0 6 2 40 0 2.25 0.00 3 8 3 43 0 2.50 0.00 0 8 4 57 0 2.50 0.00 0 0 5 55 0 1.25 0.00 2 4 6 58 0 3.00 0.00 3 6 7 25 21 2.25 1.25 1 6 8 49 6 1.50 0.50 2 7 9 34 10 2.00 1.00 2 5 10 41 4 1.75 0.75 0 6 11 55 0 1.50 0.00 2 7 12 23 18 2.50 1.00 6 5 13 61 0 2.75 0.00 0 2 14 48 6 2.25 0.25 2 2 15 54 0 1.25 0.00 2 6 16 51 0 1.50 0.00 0 5 17 44 10 2.00 1.00 0 6 18 36 6 2.25 0.25 4 4 19 28 8 1.25 0.75 2 5 20 27 12 2.25 1.50 3 0 21 46 0 1.50 0.00 3 6 22 39 0 2.75 0.00 0 5 23 25 12 1.25 0.75 3 2 24 37 9 2.00 0.50 3 2 25 41 14 1.50 1.00 2 2 26 22 6 0.75 0.50 2 4 27 18 8 2.00 0.50 2 0 28 24 5 1.50 0.25 0 0 29 11 4 1.25 0.50 0 3 8 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum alliance between barn swallow hirundo rustica 30 14 0 1.00 0.00 2 4 31 6 0 1.25 0.00 2 5 32 6 0 0.75 0.00 2 5 min 6 0 0.75 0 0 0 max 61 21 3 1.5 6 8 mean 36.03 4.97 1.83 0.38 1.72 4.25 sd 15.37 5.78 0.60 0.44 1.42 2.29 mean±sd 36.03±15.37 4.97±5.78 1.83±0.60 0.38±0.44 1.72±1.42 4.25±2.29 being an agricultural area, this region is highly rich in insect diversity (nayak et al., 2019; singh et al., 2020). several insects were found in the indian mustard plants (satyagopal et al., 2014). these insects had also been identified as the food for barn swallows (law et al., 2017). considering the barn swallow as a flying insectivorous bird, this observation can be considered as one of the behaviour for their feeding pattern. this can be considered as natural history behaviour of this species but, this might not be the only reason for this behaviour of barn swallows. the insectivorous guild being the species-rich feeding guild in agricultural landscapes (panda et al., 2021b) supports this behaviour of these birds. the particular insects taken as food by this species cannot be identified due to their small size for photographic observation and detailed research. the food composition of this species can be identified by doing the gut content analysis which requires further research. considering this observation as a first record for the alliance between barn swallow and indian mustard, a long term detailed study is suggested by the authors to depict the exact relation between them in this plant animal interaction. conclusions the study area consists of various crops which were also with high insect diversity. this phenomenon was not seen in any other crop fields nearby. if this behaviour of barn swallows is only due to the food abundance, then why it was not found in any other crop field nearby? this condition confirmed that this particular behaviour of barn swallows was not only due to the presence of higher availability of food as rich insect diversity. the present study depicted the behaviour of this insectivorous species as well as focused on one particular aspect which may be influenced by some other reason. this common behaviour of barn swallows may be a new intuition for the bird-plant association ship with indian mustard plants. the behaviour of aerial foraging insectivore birds is still poorly understood; therefore a detailed study is needed to explain such peculiar behaviour of these birds. long-term observation of this phenomenon can depict the reason behind this behaviour of barn swallows. the association of birds with the plants in that habitat is an essential part of understanding their ecological behaviour. conservation and management of birds can only be possible by knowing their ecological status as well as their association with vegetation of the habitat. it will also help in conserving these birds whose population is declining day by day. 9 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum biswal and panda acknowledgments the authors are thankful to dr. siba prasad parida for his guidance and all who helped during this field work. we are very much thankful to the anonymous reviewers for their inputs to improve the manuscript. conflict of interest statement "the authors have no conflicts of interest to declare ". litereature cited alexandrino, e. r., buechley, e. r., forte, y. a., cassiano, c. c., ferraz, k. m. p. m. b., ferraz, s. f. b., couto, h. t. z. and sekercioglu, c. h. 2019. highly disparate bird assemblages in sugarcane and pastures: implications for bird conservation in agricultural landscapes. neotropical biology and conservation, 14(2):169-194. 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[click here] satyagopal, k., sushil, s. n., jeyakumar, p., shankar, g., sharma, o. p., boina, d., sain, s. k., chattopadhyay, d., asre, r., kapoor, k. s., arya, s., kumar, s., patni, c. s., chattopadhyay, c., pandey, a., pachori, r., thakare, a. y., basavanagoud, k., halepyati, a. s., patil, m. b. and sreenivas, a. g. 2014. aesa based ipm package for mustard/rapeseed. national institute of plant health management; hyderabad, india, 49 pp. singh, a., mohanty, l., tripathy, a. and pradhan, s. 2020. study of butterfly diversity in agronomy field, ouat, bhubaneswar, odisha, india. journal of entomology and zoology studies, 8(1): 1028-1034. [click here] tanalgo, k. c., pineda, j. a. f., agravante, m. e. and amerol, z. m. 2015. bird diversity and structure in different land-use types in lowland southcentral mindanao, philippines. tropical life sciences research, 26(2): 85-103. [click here] tripathy, b., tripathy, p., sahu, g. s., dash, s. k., pradhan, b., sahu, p., nayak, n. j., pradhan, p., sourav, s. and mishra, s. 2020. evaluation of brinjal (solanum melangona l.) landraces of odisha for fruit yield and its components. journal of crop and weed, 16 (1): 151-154. [click here] warrick, d. r., hedrick, t. l., biewener, a. a., crandell, k. e. and tobalske, b. w. 2016. foraging at the edge of the world: low-altitude, high-speed maneuvering in barn swallows. philosophical transactions of the royal society b: biological sciences, 371: 20150391. [crossref] yamaguchi, n. m., hupp, j. w., flint, p. l., pearce, j. m., shigeta, y., shimada, t., hiraoka, e. n. and higuchi, h. 2012. habitat use and movement patterns of northern pintails during spring in northern japan: the importance of agricultural lands. journal of field ornithology, 83 (2):141-153. [crossref] https://doi.org/10.1186/s13717-021-00304-6 https://www.phytojournal.com/archives/2019/vol8issue5/partaq/8-4-477-575.pdf https://www.phytojournal.com/archives?year=2018&vol=7&issue=5&articleid=6015 https://www.phytojournal.com/archives?year=2018&vol=7&issue=5&articleid=6015 https://www.entomoljournal.com/archives/?year=2020&vol=8&issue=1&articleid=6271 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26868712/ https://www.cabdirect.org/cabdirect/abstract/20203573558 https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2015.0391 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1557-9263.2012.00364.x 12 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum alliance between barn swallow hirundo rustica bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2022) 17 (1): 1-13. hirundo rustica linnaeus, 1758 سنونو الحقول طائري تحالف بين : brassica juncea (l.) czernajew, 1859الخردل الهندي و نبات-لطيربديهية جديدة في الشبكات البيئية سوميا رانجان بيسوال* و بيبهو براساد باندا** hemvati، جامعة ية الزراعة والعلوم املرتبطة بها، كل* قسم الغابات واملوارد الطبيعية nandan bahuguna garhwal( سريناغار ،garhwal.أوتارانتشال، الهند ، ) ، bbrc ،iter ،siksha 'o' anusandhan** العلوم البيئية، قسم الكيمياء و بوبانسوار، أوديشا، الهند. 20/06/2022، تأريخ النشر: 25/12/2021، تأريخ القبول: 22/09/2021أريخ االستالم: ت الخالصة ، يؤثر نوع املوائل وتوافر الغذاء دائًما على حجم السكان للعديد من الكائنات الحية مزرعة تعد ؛تلخيص نمط تغذية الطيور الستكمال بيانات بنية مجتمع الطيور يتوجب سية في الهندسة الزراعية بجامعة أوريسا للزراعة والتكنولوجيا نظاًمااألبحاث الرئي في؛ يوفر أرضية مناسبة للبحث البيئي بيئًيا زراعًيا متعدد املحاصيل جيد اإلدارة والذي barn swallow السنونو طائر ارتباط سجلاألراض ي الزراعية متعددة املحاصيل، hirundo rustica linnaeus, 1758 ة الهندي ةالخردلائر ط، معindian mustard brassica juncea (l.) czernajew, 1859 مرة أثناء التحليق فقط في هذا الحقل. ألول زيارة ميدانية أثناء التحليق املستمر فوق حقل 32من طيور السنونو في سرب سجل د الظهر أيًضا. تم الصباح وأحياًنا بع خاللحتى نضج الثمار التزهير الخردل الهندي بعد 1.83تحوم ملدة 15.37± 36.03بمتوسط فرد يبلغ 61إلى 6تسجيل مدى الطيور من اكالت ساعة يومًيا. قد يكون هذا هو السلوك الخاص بنمط التغذية لهذه الطيور والتي لم يتم رؤيتها في حقول املحاصيل األخرى مع تنوع insectivorousالحشرات ا بأنها ليست السبب الوحيد لهذا السلوك. للكشف عن هذا الحشرات نفسه ووصفه 13 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum biswal and panda ، هناك حاجة إلى دراسة سلوكية اكالت الحشراتالسلوك غير املفهوم جيًدا للطيور مفصلة طويلة املدى مع تحليل محتوى األمعاء لشرح السبب املحدد وراء هذا السلوك لسيطرة على انخفاض وا عليهاوالذي سيدعم الحفاظ barn swallowsلطيور السنونو أعدادها. bull 203 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-darwesh et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2022) 17 (2): 203-218. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2022.17.2.0203 original article first record of two diplectanid monogenoids from three sparid fishes in iraqi marine waters ali a. r. al-darwesh*, **, atheer h. ali*♦ and hussein a. saud* *department of fisheries and marine resources, college of agriculture, university of basrah, iraq ** department of pathology and poultry diseases, college of veterinary medicine, university of kufa, iraq ♦corresponding author: atheeralibu@gmail.com received date: 02.july. 2022, accepted date: 07 october 2022, published date: 20 december 2022 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract parasitological examination of gills of three species of sparid fishes in the territorial waters of iraq was performed, two diplectanid monogenoids were isolated and described; lamellodiscus indicus tripathi, 1959 from both haffara seabream rhabdosargus haffara (forsskål, 1775) and goldline seabream r. sarba (forsskål, 1775) and protolamellodiscus senilobatus kritsky, jiménez-ruiz and sey, 2000 from king soldierbream argyrops spinifer (forsskål, 1775). the record of the parasites is considered new to the parasite fauna of iraq. the redescription of l. indicus for the first time which is collected from a new distribution area (arabian gulf). r. haffara is considered a new host record. keywords: arabian gulf, fish, iraq, marine, monogenoidea, parasite. introduction member of sparidae have 39 valid genera and 164 valid species in the world, 15 species of the genus argyrops swainson and six species of genus rhabdosargus (forsskål, 1775) (fricke et al., 2022). it spreads from the tropical and temperate atlantic, indian and pacific oceans; chiefly marine; very rare in freshand brackish water; usually most common along the shore from shallow water (including estuaries) to deeper water as demersal inhabitants of the continental shelf and slope, most are carnivorous, feeding on benthic invertebrates feed on invertebrates, primarily mollusks and crustaceans; it is commercial food and game fish (froese and pauly, 2022). king soldierbream argyrops spinifer (forsskål, 1775) distributes in the indian ocean: including the red sea and arabian gulf, to singapore and the southernmost end of the malay peninsula; goldline seabream rhabdosargus sarba (forsskål, 1775) occurs in the indo-west pacific: the red sea and east africa to japan, china, and australia; haffara seabream rhabdosargus haffara (forsskål) distributes in the western indian ocean: red sea and especially common in the north (froese and pauly, 2022). bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799-print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2022.17.2.0203 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0658-564x https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2541-968x https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0002-6318 mailto:atheeralibu@gmail.com https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 204 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum first record of two diplectanid monogenoids few studies were carried out on the monogenoids of fishes in the arabian gulf; hussey (1986) which isolated three species; tareenia acanthopagri hussey, 1986 [=benedenia acanthopagri (hussey, 1986)] and megalocotyloides epinepheli (=allobenedenia epinepheli (bychowsky and nagibina, 1967) (both capsalidae), and polylabris angifer hussey 1986 (microcotylidae) have reported from marine perciform fishes kept in culture tanks at al-raas, kuwait; el-naffar et al. (1992) pointed to record six genera belong to five families of monogenoidea from uae coasts. kritsky et al. (2000) recorded 17 species of diplectanids from the gills of 17 species of marine fishes of kuwait. kardousha (2002) described three species of capsala from the mackerel tuna euthynnus affinis. kardousha et al. (2002) detected two species of encotyllabe from fishes in qatar. kritsky (2012) made a revision on euryhaliotrema from lutjanid fishes, and described euryhaliotrema seyi kritsky, 2012 from lutjanus russellii in arabian gulf. hassan et al. (2015) isolated benedenia acanthopagri hussey, 1986, from three fish hosts in eastern saudi arabia. a total of 253 parasite species have been known from 86 fish species from marine waters in iraq, including 41 monogenoids species (ancylodiscoididae 1, ancyrocephalidae 9, dactylogyridae 2, diplectanipdae 5, capsalidae 2, gyrodactylidea 3, axinidae 4, chauhaneidae 1, diplozoidae 2, allodiscocotylidae 2, heteraxinidae 1, mazocraeidae 4, and microcotylidae 5); diplectanipdae has five taxa (three unidentified species from sparidae), including diplectanum sp. 1 and sp. 2, lamellodiscus iraqensis jassim & al-salim, 2020 and lamellodiscus sp. 1 and sp. 2 (mhaisen et al., 2018; jassim and al-salim, 2020). due to the little attention in studies regarding the monogenoids parasites of marine fishes in iraqi waters, the study aimed to diagnose some parasites that infect three species of commercially sparid fish. materials and methods a total of 187 fish specimens of sparidae, including 118 argyrops spinifer, 31 rhabdosargus haffara and 38 r. sarba were collected by local fishermen using trawl and drift gill nets from iraqi marine waters (29°53ʼ-29°85ʼn, 48°13 -48°40ʼe) during the period from january 2020 to december 2020 for parasitological examination. after which, the gill baskets were immediately removed and placed in vials containing a hot 60°c 5% formalin solution for relaxation and fixation of attached helminths. the vials were labelled and then shaken vigorously for 15-30 seconds. sclerotised structures of several helminths were studied by mounting some specimens on microscope slides unstained in gray and weiss medium; other samples were stained with gomori's trichrome or mayer-schuberg's aceto carmine and mounted in canada balsam on a slide to examine the delicate anatomical details (kritsky et al., 1978; humason, 1979; palm, 2004). the illustrations were made using a camera lucida mounted on a leica compound microscope. all measurements are in micrometres, with a mean between parentheses. the host taxonomy was followed by carpenter et al. (1997) and verified by van der laan et al. (2022). 205 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-darwesh et al. results and discussion lamellodiscus indicus tripathi, 1959 (fig. 1) description body slightly tapered anteriorly from the level of the testis; tegument smooth. the extended haptor is at least twice the width of the body. cephalic margin broad; terminal; two weakly developed bilateral cephalic lobes; three poorly defined bilateral pairs of head organs. eye spots four, those in the posterior pair are somewhat bigger than those in the anterior pair; members of the respective pairs are equally spaced apart. mouth indistinct, subterminal on body midline anterior to pharynx; pharynx subspherical; oesophagus moderately long; intestinal caeca blind, terminating immediately anterior to lamellodiscs. ventral and dorsal lamellodiscs are similar, with ten lamellar rings lying diagonally within lamellodisc, the first ring complete ring; the remaining rings incomplete. haptor was bilaterally lobed. ventral anchor (fig. 1b) with elongate subequal roots, curved shaft, and short recurved point. dorsal anchor (fig. 1c) with elongate deep root, knoblike superficial root, evenly curved shaft, short recurved point. ventral bar (fig. 1d) dorsoventrally flattened, with a variable medial indentation on posterior margin, long tapered ends, ventral groove. they have paired dorsal bars with a bifurcated medial end and are slightly curved-like near mid-length and dactylic appendages at external roots (fig. 1e). hooks similar; with protruding terminally depressed sickle, delicate toe and handle (fig. 1i). the male copulatory organ (mco) is situated posterior to caecal bifurcation and consists of three parts (fig. 1f-h). copulatory tube, proximal and distal parts of the accessory piece. the length of the copulatory tube is about 0.7 from the accessory piece length. the copulatory tube was slightly curved and articulated with both proximal and distal parts of the accessory piece (ap). ap is formed by two branches thick and joined by an articular base strongly curved inwards. axial branch spatula form, almost perpendicular to the lateral. the lateral branch is finished at the tip. prostatic reservoir lateral to mco, opens posteriorly into the distal part of the copulatory tube. germarium pretesticular. testis elongate oval, in the posterior half of the body, proximal vas deferens dorsoventrally looping around left intestinal cecum, distal vas deferens looping from left to right anterior. seminal vesicle oval, prostatic reservoir fusiform beside left caecum at level of mco. seminal reservoir multilobes between the seminal vesicle and prostatic reservoir. common genital pore ventral, slightly sinistral in a trunk at the level of the copulatory complex; genital atrium receiving distal ends of the uterus and male reproductive duct. germarium pyriform, dorsoventrally looping around the right intestinal cecum. oviduct short. vitelline follicles at the intercaecal area between the pharynx and posterior ends of caeca. taxonomic summary type host: rhabdosargus haffara and r. sarba. date of collection: r. haffara during january-february, may and december 2020; r. sarba during august-december 2020. infection site: gill lamellae. minimum prevalence: 97% (30 of 31 r. haffara infected); 95% (36 of 38 r. sarba infected). 206 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum first record of two diplectanid monogenoids voucher deposition: iraq natural history research center & museum, inhm-trc 21-25 from r. haffara; inhm-trc 26-30 from r. sarba. currently, lamellodiscus has 61 valid species (worms, 2022a), mostly (56 species) described from sparidae, four from lethrinidae and one from pomacanthidae (machkewskyi et al., 2014; kritsky and bakenhaster, 2019; nitta, 2021). oliver (1987) divided the lamellodiscus species based on lamellodisc shape into two groups: ignortatus and elegans, while he divided the lamellodiscus species based on male copulatory organ (mco) into three types: lyre type, double or forked piece type and polymorphic type. l. indicus shares the characters of group elegans and polymorphous types. justine and briand (2010) added a new morphological group (tubulicornis) based on the structure of the lamellodisc from lethrinid fishes. in iraq, lamellodiscus iraqensis jassim and al-salim, 2020 has been described from acanthopagrus arabicus from marine waters, however it considered invalid according to publication not compliant with article 8.5 (2012) of the iczn re e-publications (worms, 2022b). the description of current specimens from both r. sarba and r. haffara conspecific with the original description of l. indicus from sparus sarba (= rabdosargus sarba) of eastern india (tripathi, 1959). some measurements in the original description not given, e.g. outer and inner lengths of ventral and dorsal anchors, width of both bars, ventral and dorsal anchors, lamellodisc length, width and inner ring diameter, haptor width, hook length, mco and accessary piece length. as well as the measurements of soft tissues in the original description are not measured, e.g. testis, germarium, seminal vesicle, seminal receptacle and prostate reservoir, therefore the current study redescribed the species based on sufficient specimens from two species of rhabdosargus (see table 1(. machkewskyi et al. (2014) offered a checklist with all lamellodiscus species and splitted them according to species groups of haptoral structures and mco shape. the recent study also classified lamellodiscus spp. were described from sparoidea in related to host specificity, l. indicus considered that it has one host species (r. sarba), and here it considered has double closely host species (r. sarba and r. haffara); r. haffara considered new host record in the world for l. indicus. minor differences in the measurements and description of l. indicus between two hosts were noticed such as; in general the measurements of all soft and hard parts of the parasite, e.g. the parasite from r. haffara bigger than that in r. sarba; the constriction between the trunk and the haptor is more distinct in r. sarba than in r. haffara. these differences come from intraspecific variations from different fish hosts (rascalou and justine, 2007; al-helli et al., 2019). on the other hand the measurements of iraqi specimens of both hosts are found to be larger than that of the indian specimens (see table 1). 207 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-darwesh et al. table (1): measurements of lamellodiscus indicus from two hosts of sparidae off iraq and compared with indian materials from r. sarba. (abbr. l: length, w: width). character r. sarba mean (min-max ± sd; n) r. haffara mean (min-max ± sd; n) indian specimens n= not given (tripathi, 1959) body l. 454 (364-541±66; n=16) 495 (430541±32; n=14) 391-433 body w. 72 (60-97±11; n=16) 80 (68-95±7; n=14) 43-60 pharynx w. 31 (25-40±5; n=8) 30 (24-38±5; n=12) 15-19 haptor w. 146 (130-183±21; n=9) 153 (127192±21; n=14) figure (1): lamellodiscus indicus from rhabdosargus haffara; (a) whole-body, (b) ventral anchor, (c) dorsal anchor, (d) ventral bar, (e) dorsal bar, (f) accessory piece, (g) copulatory tube, (h) mco, (i) hook. 208 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum first record of two diplectanid monogenoids lamellodisc l. 78 (59-103±13; n=15) 87 (60-108±12; n=12) lamellodisc w. 58 (49-68±6; n=15) 64 (54-68±5; n=12) lamellodisc inner ring diameter 27 (24-30±3; n=15) 29 (27-30±1; n=12) ventral anchor inner l 46 (41-51±3; n=10) 47 (44-51±2; n=12) 41-57 ventral anchor outer l 58 (51-65±4; n=12) 61 (57-65±3; n=13) dorsal anchor inner l. 38 (35-43±3; n=8) 39 (35-41±2; n=11) dorsal anchor outer l. 52 (49-56±2; n=9) 54 (51-57±2; n=12) ventral bar l. 64 (49-86±11; n=13) 77 (65-81±5; n=9) 41 ventral bar w. 14 (11-21±3;n=7) 14 (14-16±1; n=9) dorsal bar l. 72 (54-84±9; n=23) 78 (65-84±6; n=20) 49-57 dorsal bar w. 10 (8-12±2; n=6) 15 (14-19±2; n=12) hook l. 8 (8-11±1; n=7) 8 (7-10±1; n=14) mco 15 (13-15±1; n=12) 14 (13-15±1; n=12) a. p. 27 (19-33±4; n=12) 26 (24-28±1; n=13) testis l. 86 (62-113±15; n=10) 112 (95-135±13; n=12) testis w. 41 (27-57±12; n=9) 41 (33-54±6; n=13) germarium w. 29 (24-48±7;n=11) 37 (35-43±3; n=11) 209 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-darwesh et al. protolamellodiscus senilobatus kritsky, jiménez-ruiz & sey, 2000 (figs. 2) description body 765 (552-936±87; n = 24) long, slender, fusiform; greatest width 145 (111-203±24; n = 20) at level of the testis. the body tapering into the cephalic end; two terminal, two bilateral cephalic lobes poorly developed; three bilateral pairs of head organs with anterior and posterior pairs associated with respective cephalic lobes. eye spots four; members of the posterior pair are slightly larger, closer together than the anterior one. mouth subterminal, pharynx 56 (41-66±6, n = 20) wide, ovate oesophagus short to nonexistent; intestinal caeca blind. peduncle narrow, elongate. haptor 143 (108170±18; n = 18) wide, with three bilateral pairs of lobes; posterior lobes about twice the length of anterior lobes; lamellodiscs similar, each 36 (24-46±5; n = 25) long, 32 (24-42±5; n = 26) wide, with one complete, eight incomplete lamellae lacking medial indentation; lamellae appear to telescope in dorsoventral view. ventral anchor 31 (18-36±5; n = 17) inner long and 39 (30-48±5; n=17) outer long, with unequal bifurcate roots, evenly curved shaft, point acutely recurved (fig. 2b). dorsal anchor 18 (14-26±4; n = 10) inner long and 39 (30-48±5; n=10) outer long, with elongated deep root, short thickened superficial root, and straight shaft (fig. 2c). ventral bar 48 (3664±8; n =21) long, 17 (10-24±4; n=21) width, plate-like, with short knob at both ends (fig. 2d); dorsal bar 46 (34-66±7; n= 21) long, 12 (6-20±4; n=21) width with medial curve, finger projection at proximal end (fig. 2e). hooks similar; each 11 (10-12±0; n = 12) long, with protruding slightly depressed thumb, delicate point and shank (fig. 2g). the copulatory complex comprises an articulated male copulatory organ, an accessory piece. male copulatory organ 43 (30-59±7; n = 35) long, heavily curved sclerotised tube with a recurved spine at the subterminal end, distal loop ending broadly; the base of the male copulatory organ without sclerotised end (fig. 2f). the accessory piece is piece 28 (22-32±3; n=14). long, comprising a flattened proximal portion, bifurcating striated branch, and spatulate branch frequently folded upon itself distally. testis 65 (41-81±14; n =13) long, 42 (30-58±10; n =13) wide, ovate or elongate oval; vas deferens looping left intestinal caecum; seminal vesicle fusiform; prostatic reservoir saccate, lying anterior to copulatory complex. germarium 36 (27-43±6; n=13) wide, slightly u shape, transversely, looping right intestinal caecum, pre testis; oviduct elongate; vagina short, nonsclerotized, with a proximal chamber containing apparent spermatophore, opening into the medial seminal receptacle; vitellaria dense throughout the trunk, from pharynx anteriorly to ending of caeca. egg 51 (36-81±16; n=7) long, 27 (1248±11; n=7) width tetrahedral with short filament 21 (16-26±7; n=2) taxonomic summary host: king soldier bream, argyrops spinifer. date of collection: january-may 2020; august-december 2020. infection site: gill lamellae. minimum prevalence: 50% voucher deposition: iraq natural history research center and museum, inhm-trc 31-35 yamaguti (1953) described lammellodiscus convolutus from synagris taeniopterus (=nemipterus hexodon) at celebes. euzet and oliver (1965) isolated l. serranelii from 210 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum first record of two diplectanid monogenoids serrranus cabilla and s. scriba of france. oliver (1969) created new genus (protolamellodiscus) and new subfamily lamellodisconinae and emended of lamellodiscus serraneli euzet and oliver, 1965 to be p. serraneli (euzet and oliver, 1965) oliver, 1969. young (1969) created and defined calydiscoides and removed four species from lamellodiscus and moved them to calydiscoides, including l. sernanelii as c. serraneli (euzet and oliver, 1965) young, 1969. oliver (1987) moved l. convolutus yamaguti, 1953 to protolamellodiscus as p. convolutes (yamaguti, 1953) oliver, 1987. oliver and radujkuvic (1987) added p. raibauti from yugoslavia and france. kritsky et al. (2000) described p. senilobatus from a. spinifer and a. filamentosus at kuwait. justine (2007) examined museum specimens of p. convolutes (yamaguti, 1953) oliver, 1987 and he found the lamellodisc structure with seven concentric and telescopic lamellae and that the eggs are elongated with a short filament; therefore, he made a new combination as calydiscoides convolutes (yamaguti, 1953) justine, 2007. the current specimens are conspecific with p. senilobatus instead of p. raibauti (both species are known from sparidae) due to their possessing of three pairs of haptoral lobes (no lobes in p. raibauti) and the subrectangular ventral bar (rod shape) and proximal spine on each of dorsal bar tip (no spine). p. senilobatus differs from p. serranelli by the shape and structure of mco. the description of the current specimens agrees with that of kuwaiti specimens (kritsky et al., 2000); however, all the measurements iraqi specimens exhibited relatively smaller than kuwaiti specimens (a. spinifer) except that of ventral and dorsal anchors; these minor variations in the description of both studies may be related to intraspecific differences in the time of collection and other ecological factors. in other hand although the wide range of the measurements of hard parts of this parasite between two hosts in the original description (tab. 2), the current measurement from a. spinifer close to that from a. filamentosus instead of the type host (a. spinifer), this finding give the probability the misidentification in the host of at least in a. filamentosus, with argyrops flavops iwatsuki and heemstra, 2018 (iwatsuki and heemstra, 2018) especially this host not distribute in the arabian gulf (froese and pauly, 2022). depending on the orientation and shape of telescoping lamellae in calydiscoides and protolamellodiscus, kritisky et al. (2000) recommended to do further studies on these two closely genera, including phylogenetic analysis to resolve the validity or synonymy of protolamellodiscus and calydiscoides. desdevises et al. (2001) designed the phylogeny tree for most genera and subfamilies of diplectanidae, domingues and boeger (2008) established revision and phylogeny of all genera and subfamilies of the family and the two hyposes and got relatively similar results of recent work and concluded that although calydiscoides and protolamellodiscus close to each other they still have distinct characters to be valid genera. finally, the differences between calydiscoides and protolamellodiscus are unclear (justine and brena, 2009); although justine (2007) explained that egg shape could be a key character in distinguishing between the two genera, with calydiscoides possessing elongate eggs and 211 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-darwesh et al. protolamellodiscus possessing tetrahedral eggs. in addition, the former is restricted to hosts of the families lethrinidae and nemipteridae and the latter is restricted to the sparidae and serranidae. figure (2): protolamellodiscus senilobatus from argyrops spinifer; (a) whole-body, (b) ventral anchor, (c) dorsal anchor d. ventral bar, (e.) dorsal bar, (f) male copulatory organ with different views, (g) hook. 212 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum first record of two diplectanid monogenoids table (2): the comparative measurements of p. senilobatus between original description and current study. (abbr. l: length, w: width). character a. spinifer (current study) mean (min-max±; n) a. spinifer (kritsky et al., 2000) mean (minmax±; n) a. filamentosus (kritsky et al., 2000) mean (min-max±; n) body l. 765 (552-936±87; n=24) 1065 (720-1318; n=8) 714 (673-755, n=2) body w. 145 (111-203±24; n=20) 185 (120-240; n=9) 164 (148-179; n=2) pharynx w. 56 (41-66± 6; n=20) 73 (61-89±; n=10) 60 (51-70; n=2) haptor w. 143 (108-170± 18; n=18) 111 (104-117; n=8) 84 (79-89; n=2) lamellodisc l. 36 (24-46±5; n=25) 44 (37-53±; n=10) 37 (35-39; n=2) lamellodisc w. 32 (24-42± 5; n=26) 32 (29-38; n=10) 30 (29-31; n=2) lamellodisc inner ring diameter 14 (11-18, 2; n=26) ventral anchor inner l 31 (18-36± 5; n=17) ventral anchor outer l 39 (30-48± 5; n=17) 45 (38-49; n=11) 4243 (n=1) dorsal anchor inner l. 18 (14-26± 4; n=10) dorsal anchor outer l. 39 (30-48± 5; n=10) 41 (37-44; n=17) 35-36 (n=1) 213 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-darwesh et al. ventral bar l. 48 (36-64± 8; n=21) 41 (34-47; n=17) 36 (34-38; n=2) ventral bar w. 17 (10-24± 4; n=21) dorsal bar l 46 (34-66± 7; n=21) 40 (35-46; n=23) 36 (34-38; n=3) dorsal bar w. 12 (6-20± 4; n=21) hook l. 11 (10-12± 0; n=12) 10 (9-11; n=28) 9-10 (n=3) mco 43 (30-59± 7; n=35) 45 (38-53; n=22) 42-43 (n=1) a. p. 28 (22-32± 3; n=14) 28 (18-34; n=16) 32-33 (n=1) testis l. 65 (41-81± 14; n=13) 107 (101-113; n=2) testis w. 42 (30-58± 10; n=13) 52 (48-55; n=2) germarium w. 36 (27-43± 6; n=13) 47 (44-56; n=5) egg 51 (36-81± 16; n=7) × 27 (12-48± 11; n=7) egg filament 21 (16-26± 7; n=2) conclusions the occurrence of l. indicus from both r. haffara and r. sarba are considered the new parasite fauna of iraq, as well as l. haffara considered new host record. the record of p. senilobatus from a. spinifer is considered a new record in iraq. 214 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum first record of two diplectanid monogenoids acknowledgments the authors would like to thank the staff of department of fisheries and marine resources, college of agriculture for space and support of current study. conflict of interest statment "the authors have no conflicts of interest to declare". literature cited al-helli, a. m. s., ali, a. h. and resen, a. k. 2019. first record of solostamenides paucitesticulatus kritsky & öktener, 2015 (monogenoidea: microcotylidae) from gills of abu mullet planiliza abu (heckel) from euphrates river off samawa city, southern iraq. bulletin of the iraq natural history museum, 15(3): 237–245. 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[click here] yamaguti, s. 1953. parasitic worms mainly from celebes. part 2. monogenetic trematodes of fishes. acta medica okayama, 8: 203-256. young, p. c. 1969. some monogenoideans of the family diplectanidae bychowsky, 1957 from australian teleost fishes. journal of helminthology, 43: 223-254. https://doi.org/10.14411/fp.2007.026 https://doi.org/10.14411/fp.2007.026 http://www.calacademy.org/scientists/catalog-of-fishes-classification/ https://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=119293 https://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=119293 https://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=1416251 218 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum first record of two diplectanid monogenoids bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2022) 17 (2): 203-218. ثالثة ( في diplectanidاول تسجيل لنوعين من الديدان احادية املنشأ )مجموعة اسماك الشانك في املياه البحرية العراقيةانواع من أثير حسين علي* و حسين عبد سعود* ،** ،*يشعلي عدنان رديف الدرو قسم االسماك والثروة البحرية، كلية الزراعة، جامعة البصرة، العراق* .قسم علم االمراض وامراض الدواجن، كلية الطب البيطري، جامعة الكوفة، العراق ** 20/12/2022، تأريخ النشر: 6/10/2022، تأريخ القبول: 2/7/2022تأريخ االستالم: الخالصة نتيجة الفحص الطفيلي لغالصم ثالثة انواع من اسماك الشانك في املياه البحرية lamellodiscus indicusوصف نوعين من الديدان أحادية املنشأ عزل و ،العراقية tripathi, 1959 من غالصم كل من سمك الشانك البحري الحفار ،rhabdosargus haffara ومن سمك الشانك البحري ذهبي الخطوط r. sarba كما سجل النوع protolamellodiscus senilobatus kritsky, jiménez-ruiz and sey, 2000 من غالصم . argyrops spinifer (forsskål, 1775)سمك العندك اعادة ؛يعد تسجيل كال الطفيلين اضافة جديدة الى طفيليات االسماك في العراق تعد تعد االولى ومن منطقة انتشار جديدة )الخليج العربي(. l. indicusوصف النوع ألخير في العالم.الشانك البحري حفار مضيف جديد للطفيلي اسمكة bull 571 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum najm and al-jassany bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2023) 17(4): 571588. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2023.17.4.0571 original article a checklist of megachilid bees (hymenoptera, megachilidae), with a new record genus from iraq asawir dhafer najm * and radhi f. al-jassany department of plant protection, college of agricultural engineering sciences, university of baghdad, iraq. *corresponding author e-mail: radhi.f@coagri.uobaghdad.edu.iq recived date: 13 april 2023, accepted date 12 june 2023, published date:20 december 2023 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract an updated checklist of the megachilid bees of iraq is presented in this paper. the current list includes 31 species belonging to 10 genera, under the tribes lithurgini, osmiini, anthidiini, and megachilini within the megachilinae subfamily. the basionyms, synonyms, and distribution of species in the world are also given. based on the specimens, which obtained during this study, a diagnostic key was designed to identify the tribes and genera; the genus heriades spinola, 1808 (tribe, osmiini) is recorded for the first time in the iraqi entomofauna. keywords: hymenoptera, iraq, heriades, bees, megachilid. introduction megachilidae was divided into two families, fideliinae and megachilinae, as the latter is larger than the first subfamily as it includes most of the family species, and the most widespread in the world. it includes five tribes: lithurgini, osmiini, anthidiini, megachilini, and dioxyini; while the first family includes two tribes, fidelini and parahophitini (roigalsina and michener, 1993). megachilidae is a primitive bee that is called the long tongued bees' because they have relatively elongated mouthparts (danforth et al., 2006; michener, 2007). megachilid bees are the second highest members among the related families (michener, 2007); this family belongs to the superfamily apoidea within the order apocrita, along with six other families, including apidae, halictidae, andrenidae, colletidae, stenotritidae, and melittidae, in the order hymenoptera (aguiar et al., 2013). it includes about 4399 species distributed throughout the world (gbif secretariat, 2023). most species of the family have nest-building behavior for the purpose of laying eggs and feeding brood, as many different materials are used to build the nest, including the cutting of the edge of plant leaves that they lend in a circular manner, hence the name of the family bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799-print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2023.17.4.0571 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7644-4252 mailto:radhi.f@coagri.uobaghdad.edu.iq https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 572 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum a checklist of megachilid bees leaf-cutting bees (goulet and huber, 1993). bees are considered one of the most beneficial insects to humans as they play a major role in the sexual reproduction of many crops, which constitute 65% of the world's food production (klein et al., 2007). females have a tuft of hair to hold pollen called scopa located below the abdomen (eardley et al., 2010; gardener, 2013); except for the species which called cleptoparasitic, as in species of coelioxys latreille, 1809 that larvae kill larvae of the species of megachile latreille, 1802 they do not have this structure (al-ali, 1977; michener, 2007; rowson and pavett, 2008). in iraq, some studies were conducted on this family, including a taxonomic study based on the mouth parts (abbas, 2015); then ahmed (2015) conducted a study on the species of wild bees from the northern of iraq, and augul (2018) surveyed the species of pollinators from some regions of iraq, including species affiliated to megachilidae. there were other studies focused on honey bees, for example: al-hujaimi and taher (2012), alkafage and al – bedrey (2016), al-badri (2017), shaher and nasrallah (2018), awwad and shaher (2023), dagher and shaher (2023), while wild bees didn’t find sufficient attention by researchers despite their great importance as pollinators, in addition to the possibility of being environmental evidence of biodiversity health. as above, the current study was suggested to prepare a list of the megachild species, including their basionym and synonym names, to be an updated database for future studies. materials and methods samplings: totally, 587 specimens were obtained for the period from may 1 2022 to march 4 2023, the specimens were collected at different regions of iraq, which included: baghdad, babylon, karbala, wasit, diyala, salahaddin, and duhok provinces. surveys were conducted in the cultivated and wild fields, using aerial and sweeping nets. the collections involved searching through plants, the ground, and the expected places for nesting, like dry tree branches (pl. 1). as well, we also relied on the specimens that were preserved and diagnosed in the previous studies at the iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad. plate (1): (a) wild plants, (b) damage of leaves by leaf cutting bees, (c) alfalfa plant field. 573 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum najm and al-jassany examination of materials: specimens were preserved by drying and pinning, supported by locality information. morphological features and insects' images were done using a digital microscope camera with rf4 microscope, camera lucida to draw, and samsung a52 mobile camera. scale bars were given for all the images. metasoma was dissected to study the tergites and sternites morphological features. identification: the keys of michener (2007), stephen (1969), and gupta (1990) are utilized to determine the genera, and reformulated to be suitable to identify with our specimens that we obtained them throughout this study. the study documented and updated the scientific nomenclature and explained synonyms according to ungricht et al. (2008), grace (2010), özbek and schwarz (2016), salem and elazab (2017), augul (2018), praz and benon (2023), and gbif secretariat (2023). results and discussion based on the collected specimens, a total of 31 species within 9 genera of megachilidae were recorded from iraq, all of them belonging to the subfamily of megachilinae. most of the genera belong to the tribes megachilini, anthidiini and osmiini, whereas the lowest species belong to lithurgini .these genera and are species as follows: family, megachilidae subfamily, megachilinae latreille, 1802 tribe, anthidiini ashmed, 1899 genus, anthidium fabricius, 1804 material examined (7specimens): duhok, ashawa, 26.ix.2022, on mentha sp. flowers. anthidium florentinum (fabricius, 1775) basionym: apis florentina fabricius, 1775 synonyms: anthidium caucasicum radoszkowski, 1862 a. florentinum subsp. caucasicum radoszkowski, 1862 a. florentinum subsp. cypriacum mavromoustakis, 1949 a. florentinum subsp. florentinum (fabricius, 1775) a. florentinum subsp. hispanicum mocsáry, 1884 a. florentinum subsp. rufescente alfken, 1935 a.florentinum subsp. rufescente dusmet y alonso, 1908 a. florentinum subsp. subspinosum klug, 1832 a. helianthinum wu, 2004 distribution: iraq (khalaf and al–omar, 1974). grace (2010) listed this species in the countries: greece, macedonia, crete, iran, and turkey. anthidium tesselatum klug, 1832 synonyms: a. helvolum klug, 1832 a. lanitarse friese, 1917 a. lanitarse mavromoustakis, 1936 a. signiferum walker, 1871 574 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum a checklist of megachilid bees a. tesselatum subsp. aegyptiacum friese, 1897 a. tesselatum subsp. zebra benoist, 1950 a. villosulum smith, 1854 a. waltlii spinola, 1838 distribution: iraq derwesh (1965). warncke (1980) recorded this species in egypt. grace (2010) listed it in jordon, and lebanon. genus, anthidiellum cockerell, 1904 material examined (7 specimens): wasit, aziziyah, al zalja village, 26.vii.2022; diyala, al 'abara district, qasiba village, 8.ix.2022, on medicago sp. flowers. anthidiellum strigatum (panzer, 1804) basionym: trachusa strigata panzer, 1804 synonyms: a. pauperculum cockerell, 1928 a. strigatum subsp. rhodium tkalcu, 2006 anthidium coronatum dufour, 1853 a. decoratum chevrier, 1872 a. minusculum nylander, 1852 a. quadristrigatum germar, 1815 a. scapulare schenck, 1851 a. strigatum (panzer, 1804) a. strigatum subsp. humerale alfken, 1936 a. strigatum subsp. ibericum alfken, 1936 a. strigatum subsp. judaicum alfken, 1936 a. strigatum subsp. palaestinense alfken, 1935 dianthidium leucorhinum cockerell, 1924 distribution: derwesh (1965) listed this species in iraq under the synonym name anthidium strigatum panzer. warncke (1980) indicated the presence of anthidiellum strigatum in iran, lebanon, palestine, north africa, cyprus, europe, greece, central asia, russia, syria, and turkey. libya (grace, 2010). to addition, the subspecies of a. s. crassepunctatum popov, 1935 was recorded in iraq by grace (2010). genus, icteranthidium michener, 1948 icteranthidium sp. distribution: iraq (abbas, 2015). ranges of icteranthidium: portugal and morocco to mongolia; although this genus primarily found in asia's xeric regions, also can be found in northern africa, senegal, kenya, chad, mali, and pakistan (michener, 2007). genus, stelis panzer, 1806 stelis annulata (lepeletier, 1841) basionym: anthidium annulatum lepeletier, 1841 synonyms: stelis freygessneri friese, 1885 distribution: iraq (proshchalykin and fateryga, 2017). greece, and turkey (grace, 2010). 575 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum najm and al-jassany stelis nasuta (latreille, 1809) basionym: anthidium nasutum latreille, 1809 synonyms: anthidium nasale latreille, 1809 stelidomorpha nasuta (latreille, 1809) distribution: iraq (proshchalykin and fateryga, 2017). grace (2010) listed this species in syria, jordan, lebanon, palestine, greece, and turkey. stelis phaeoptera (kirby, 1802) basionym: apis phaeoptera kirby, 1802 synonyms: apis aterrima christ, 1791 a. stigma christ, 1791 stelis phaeoptera subsp. meridionalis popov, 1933 s. phaeoptera subsp. phaeoptera (kirby, 1802) distribution: in iraq listed by derwesh (1965). grace (2010) listed this species to, egypt, libya, and greece. stelis signata (latreille, 1809) basionym: anthidium signata latreille, 1809 synonym: anthidium parvulum lepeletier, 1841 stelis strigata kriechbaumer, 1874 distribution: iraq (derwesh, 1965). (grace, 2010) listed this species to greece, cyprus, israel, lebanon, and turkey. the subspecies of s. s. eremica alfken, 1938 is recorded in iraq by grace (2010). tribe, lithurgini genus, lithurgus berthold, 1827 material examined (13specimens): baghdad, jadriyah district, 6.vii.2022, on flowers of glycyrrhiza sp.; wasit, aziziyah, zawiyat al zaraa village, 26.vii.2022, on flowers of medicago sp.; babylon, mashro,a al-musayib, abu-sha,eer, 6.ix.2022, on plant of sesamum sp. lithurgus tibialis morawitz, 1875 distribution: iraq derwesh (1965). greece, cyprus, turkey, syria, palestine, jordan, iran, and egypt (grace, 2010). tribe, megachilini genus, coelioxys latreille, 1809 material examined (9 specimens): baghdad, jadriyah district, 6.vii.2022, on plant glycyrrhiza sp.; wasit, aziziyah, zawiyat al zaraa village, 26.vii.2022, on medicago sp. coelioxys afra lepeletier, 1841 synonyms: coelioxita afra (lepeletier, 1841 coelioxys afer lepeletier, 1941 c. afra subsp. melanafra cockerell, 1935 576 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum a checklist of megachilid bees c. afra subsp. tunensis gribodo, 1894 c. coronata förster, 1853 c. mandibularis chevrier, 1872 c. pusilla gerstäcker, 1858 distribution: iraq (derwesh, 1965). africa (pasteels, 1977). algeria, egypt, kyrgyzstan, morocco, russia, tunisia, turkmenistan, and uzbekistan (warncke, 1992). south, eastern and central europe, the uk, asia minor (banaszak and romasenko, 1998). range from western europe to china, and indonesia (proshchalykn and lelej, 2004. greece, cyprus, turkey, and egypt (grace, 2010). iran (khaghaninia et al., 2010). coelioxys coturnix pérez, 1884 synonyms: c. ruficaudis cameron, 1913 c. taurus nurse, 1902 distribution: iraq (derwesh, 1965). palaearctic (ortiz-sánchez, 2014). coelioxys circumscriptus schulz, 1906 synonyms: coelioxys circumscripta schulz, 1906 c. circumscriptus friese, 1905 c. decipiens subsp. circumscriptus schulz, 1906 c. decipiens subsp. rufipes friese, 1904 c. lanosa friese, 1922 c. latidens friese, 1922 c. pachyura cockerell, 1920 liothryapis circumscripta (schulz, 1906) l. circumscripta (schulz) distribution: according to derwesh (1965). this species is known as coelioxys decipiens spinola in iraq. moreover, according to ornosa et al. (2007), ortiz-sánchez et al. (2009), and grace (2010) this species spread from north africa to asia minor, central asia, and the himalayas to crete, cyprus, turkey, and asia minor. coelioxys haemorrhoa forster, 1853 synonyms: c. pulchella morawitz, 1874 c. rhodacantha cockereli, 1931 distribution: iraq listed by derwesh (1965). grace (2010) listed it to israel, egypt, greece, cyprus, aegean and turkey. based on gbif secretariat (2023), its have distributes in france, italy, spine, france, india, slovakia, and morocco. coelioxys obtusus pérez, 1884 synonym: c. obtusa pérez, 1884 distribution: according to derwesh (1965). this species is known as coelioxys obtusa pérez in iraq. turkey (özbek and van der zanden, 1994). based on ascher and pickering (2020), it's recorded in france, greece, croatia, egypt, morocco, spain, caucasus italy, poland, iran, and turkmenistan. 577 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum najm and al-jassany genus, megachile latreille, 1802 material examined (545 specimens): baghdad, bismayah city, 2.vii.2022 on flowers of medicago sp. wasit, aziziyah, zawiyat al-zara’e, 26.vii.2022, on flowers of medicago sp., vigna sp. and alhagi sp.; babylon, abu-shaer and dulaimi 6.xii.2022 on flowers of medicago sp. and alhagi sp. karbala, alshariea, 2.v.2022 on flowers of alhagi sp. diyala, khimara, badina, kasiba and khan bani saed, 8.ix.2022 on flowers of medicago sp. and alhagi sp. duhok, veen, gali shirana and ashawh, 24.ix.2022 on flowers of mentha sp. megachile apicalis spinola, 1808 synonyms: megachile dimidiativentris dours, 1873 m. massiliensis pérez, 1902 m. mixta costa, 1863 m. virginiana mitchell, 1926 distribution: iraq (khalaf and al–omar, 1974). eurasia and united states (james and pittssinger, 2008). egypt and libya were not mentioned, although there were reports for cyprus, turkey, israel, greece, rhodes, and north africa (grace, 2010). megachile argentata (fabricius, 1793) basionym: apis argentata fabricius, 1793 synonyms: anthophora albiventris panzer, 1806 apis albiventris, panzer, 1898 megachile argentata spinola, 1806 m. crassula perez, 1896 m. leachella curtis, 1828 m. argyrea cockerell, 1931 perezia maura ferton, 1914 trachusa argentata lurine, 1807 distribution: iraq (derwesh, 1965). europe (özbek and van der zanden, 1994). northeastern china, caucasus, north africa, and north america (proshchalykin, 2007). grace (2010) listed it in syria. balzan et al. (2016) recorded it in algeria, and hungary. megachile babylonica rebmann, 1970 distribution: iraq (grace, 2010). megachile concinna smith, 1879 synonyms: m. atratula rebmann, 1968 m. privigna rebmann, 1968 m. sudai ikudome, 1999 m. variscopa pérez, 1895 distribution: iraq (gbif secretariat, 2023). holarctic region (ascher and pickering, 2020). megachile farinosa smith, 1853 synonyms: chalicodoma derasa (gerstäcker, 1869) c. farinosa (smith, 1853) 578 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum a checklist of megachilid bees megachile derasa gerstäcker, 1869 distribution: chalicodoma farinosa (smith, 1853) is the name grace (2010) gave this species in iraq. turkey and egypt (ascher and pickering, 2020). megachile flavipes spinola, 1838 synonym: megachile marginata smith, 1833 distribution: iraq (derwesh, 1965). turkey (warncke, 1992), and iran (grace, 2010). megachile minutissima radoszkowski 1876 distribution: iraq (derwesh, 1965). egypt and turkey (grace, 2010). megachile rotundata (fabricius, 1787) basionym: apis rotundata fabricius, 1787 synonyms: apis pacifica panzer, 1798 megachile imbecilla gerstäcker, 1869 m. nadia nurse, 1903 m. pruinosa pérez, 1897 m. rotundata (fabricius, 1793) distribution: iraq (derwesh, 1965). greece, cyprus, turkey, and aegean (grace, 2010). megachile schnabli radoszkowski, 1893 synonyms: chalicodoma schnabli (radoszkowski, 1893) megachile schnablii radoszkowski, 1893 distribution: in iraq registered by derwesh (1965). ascher and pickering (2020) listed it in turkmenistan, iran, and tajikistan. megachile squamosa rebmann, 1970 distribution: in iraq, it listed by grace (2010). megachile striatella rebmann, 1968 distribution: egypt, iraq, iran, greece and libya (grace, 2010). tribe, osmiini genus, heriades spinola, 1808 heriades sp. material examined (5 specimens): they collected from duhok province, great zab river, nearby the veen waterfall, duhok prov. (37°02'05.2"n 43°44'36.5"e), 25.ix.2022 on flowers of mentha sp. note: the genus of heriades is newly record from iraq. genus, osmia panzer, 1806 material examined (1specimen): salahaddin, tikrit, 4.iii.2023 on flowers of raphanus sp. osmia atrocaerulea schilling, 1849 579 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum najm and al-jassany synonym: osmia brevicornis (fabricius, 1798) distribution: derwesh (1965) listed this species in iraq under the name of osmia brevicornis (fabricius, 1798). romania (ban-calefariu, 2009). osmia gutturalis warnke, 1988 synonym: osmia milenae tkalcu, 1992 distribution: iraq (ahmed, 2015); east mediterranean (müller, 2021). osmia indigotea morawitz, 1875 distribution: iraq (derwesh, 1965). afghanistan (gbif secretariat, 2023). osmia leaiana (kirby, 1802) basionym: apis leaiana kirby, 1802 synonyms: apis hirta geoffroy, 1785 a. melodes harris, 1776 a. tacitus harris, 1776 a. ventralis panzer, 1798 osmia atra schenck, 1853 o. confusa morawitz, 1870 o. forsii alfken, 1924 o. fulviventris smith, 1855 o. hirta smith, 1844 o. leiana (kirby, 1802) o. solskyi morawitz, 1870 o. truncatula thomson, 1872 o. ventralis (panzer, 1798) o. ventralis subsp. schachti warncke, 1988 distribution: world-wide distribution (gbif secretariat, 2023). genus, protosmia ducke, 1900 protosmia paradoxa (friese 1899) basionym: osmia paradoxa friese, 1899 distribution: osmia paradoxa fr. is recorded in fauna of iraq under this name by khalaf and al–omar (1974). grace (2010) listed it in greece, cyprus, turkey, lebanon, palestine, jordan, and syria. key to tribes and genera that collected in the current study: 1-pygidial plates present (pl.2 a); in female, it represented by apical spine.......... lithurgini -pygidial plate absent …………..………………………….………………………..…...…2 2-pterostigma less than twice as long as broad (pl.2 b); prestigma usually short. body with yellow marks…………………………… anthidiini …….……………………..……….4 -pterostigma longer than broad by more than twice (pl.2 c). body color without yellow marks ………………………………………………….………………………….…….... 3 580 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum a checklist of megachilid bees 3pretarsi without arolia (pl.2 d); especially in hind legs……..... megachilini ..…........….5 -arolia present (pl.2 e)………….....………………........………….. osmiini ..................6 4-subantennal sutures more or less strongly arched outward (pl.2 f)…........... anthidiellum -subantennal sutures direct (pl.2 g)……………....………..…......................... anthidium 5metasoma rounded distally (pl.2 h)…………..…….……..…....………......… megachile -metasoma pointed distally (pl.2 i)…...……..………………………….…….... coelioxys 6parapsidal line liner (fig. 1. a) …...…………..……………………………........ heriades parapsidal line punctiform (fig. 1. b) ….….............................................................osmia plate (2): (a) pygidial plate, lithurgus sp., (b) pterostigma, anthidiini, (c) pterostigma, megachilini, (d) claws without arolia, megachilini, (e) claws with arolia, osmiini, (f) subantennal suture, anthidiellum, (g) subantennal suture, anthidium sp., (h) megachile sp., terminal segments of metasoma, (i) coelioxys sp., terminal segments of metasoma. description of male heriades spinola, 1808 members of heriades have a small body, length 4-5 mm; sparselyhaired, black bees, and an integument with very coarsely punctured and thin, pale hair bands on the metasoma (pl. 3 a, b). head rounded, width and height 1-1.5 mm, vertex contains three ocelli triangular, h 581 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum najm and al-jassany distance between ocelli smaller than distance between them and occiput. front with white hair upwards. clypeus with white hair on sideways, anterior ridge truncate beneath little density pubescence, lateral ridge with projection (pl. 3 c). gena pubescence; mandibles black, tridentate three, apical tooth radish–brown. mouthparts short, not/ or rarely exceeding proboscidial fossa in rust (pl. 3 d). flagellomeres dark-brown, scape and pedicel black, first flagellomeres smaller than second. thorax: width 1-1.5 mm, length 1-2mm.tegula darkbrown except for the ridges hyaline. scutum punctured with a parapsidal line. scutellum with tapered side edges extending to the back, posterior margin pubescence. metanoutum with anterior margin carinate and projected upwards. propodeal dorsum with horizontal basal area consisting of a series of large punctures, separated by a carina from posterior declivous surface (fig. 1. a). fore wing length 2.53mm, hyaline except basal darkbrown, veins darker brown, basal vein (m) straight, with two submarginal cells (smc), smc1 a little bigger than smc2, and prestigma more than twice as long as broad. hind wing shorter than fore wing, hyaline, veins darker brown, jugal lobe less than venal lobe. coxae: black, rounded with dorsal carinate absent punctate on front coxa, little dense pubescence, trochanter rectangular, narrow basally, wider apically with white setae; femora black, slender in shape, wider basally, narrow apically, with densely and whitish hairs dorsally. tibiae black, narrow at basally, wider apically, with dense and white hairs dorsally, fore and mid tibiae with one spur (pl. 3. e), hind tibia with two spurs; tarsi black, five segments, with reddishbrown setae, length of all basitarsus three times more than width, fore basitarsus with an apical notch; claws bifid, reddishbrown, arolia present. metasoma curved under so that (pl. 2. f), apex almost touching first or second sterna, anterior surface of t1 concave with a distance carina between dorsal and anterior surfaces, posterior margin with short setae laterally so that t2, while t3 with apical transverse carinate, t5 with short white setae straight, t6 helmet like with lateral dents (fig. 1. g), t7 completely hidden by sixth, sternites hidden except s1and, s2. diagnostic characters: t1 with distinct concave anteriorly, anterior and dorsal surfaces with distinct transverse carina (pl. 3 b). t7 hidden by un-toothed t6, metasoma usually curled, only exposing two sterna. s2 and s3 notched or steppe posteriorly – laterally (pl. 3 f, g). 582 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum a checklist of megachilid bees plate (3): heriades sp.; (a) male, dorsal view, (b) habitat, lateral view, (c) front view of face, (d) proboscidial fossa, (e) mid leg, [fa] sixth terga, helmet like with lateral dents, puncture, (f) second sternite, notched, (g) third sternite, notched. figure (1): (a) male, heriades sp., dorsal view of thorax (parapsidal line liner in scutum, axilla and large pits on propodeum), (b) osmia sp., parapsidal line punctiform, (c) sixth terga, helmet like with lateral dents, and punctures. 583 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum najm and al-jassany conclusions according to our observation fields, the members of this family have a less active in the early morning; their activity begins to increase with the rise in temperatures, reaching its peak in the middle of the day. these bees divers on many flowers, including: medicago sp., alhagi sp., sesamum sp., vigna sp., glycyrrhiza sp., mentha sp. and capsicum sp.; however, some of them prefer a particular plant, such as megachile spp., we find in high density on alfalfa plant. finally, it is expected that new species will be recorded in iraq when searching for them in other localities; as is the case for the new record genus heriades, which we have not identified at the level of the species, this requires further specimens, in addition to the lack of recent keys, and we believe it to be a new species for science, since the genus is obscure and not widespread in the neighboring areas of iraq. acknowledgments we are thankful to the iraq natural history research centre and museum workers for their assistance and facilitating the check of specimens held in the entomology and invertebrates department's collection. as well, we extend our sincere thanks to assistant prof. dr. khansaa rasheed al-joboury, department of botany & environment, in this center to support the identification of plants. conflict of interest statement the results of the current study are part of the requirements of m.sc. in insects, department of plant protection, college of agriculture engineering sciences, university of baghdad for the first author. also, we confirm and declare the existence of any relationship or conflict of interest with any other party. literature cited al-ali, a. s. 1977. phytophagous and entomophagous insects and mites of iraq. natural history research center iraq, publication, 33: 1-142. al-hujaimi, k. w. s. and taher, i. j. 2012, pollution of honey bees with lead and cadmium, iraqi journal of agricultural science, 43(15): 68-63. abbas, m. a. 2015. a taxonomic study of the mouth parts of the genera of the bee family leaf cutting bees (megachilidae: hymenoptera) in some regions of iraq. master thesis on plant protection, agriculture college, university of karbala, 90 pp. [click here] aguiar, a. p., deans, a. r ., engel m.s., forshage, m., huber j.t., jennings j.t., johnson n. f., lelej a. s., longino t. j., lohrmann v., miko i., ohl m., rasmussen c., taeger a. and ki yu d. s. 2013. order hymenoptera. zootaxa, 3703(1):51-62. 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(2023) 17(4): 571-588. قاطعات االوراقعائلة نحل قائمة املرجعية ل (hymenoptera, megachilidae) للعراقجنس جديد تسجيلمع اساور ظافر اسهيل و راض ي فاضل الجصاني قسم وقاية النبات، كلية علوم الهندسة الزراعية، جامعة بغداد، بغداد، العراق 20/12/2023، تأريخ النشر: 12/6/2023القبول: ، تأريخ 13/4/2023تأريخ االستالم: الخالصة نوًعا 31شملت ، اذفي العراق megachilidقدمت قائمة مراجعة محدثة لنحل و anthidiiniو osmiiniو lithurginiأجناس، تحت قبائل 10ينتمي إلى megachilini ضمن عويلةmegachilinae واالسماء . كما ذكرت االسماء املرادفة مع توزيع االنواع في العالم. (االساسيةلية )االص بناًء على العينات التي تم الحصول عليها خالل هذه الدراسة ، تم تصميم مفتاح ألول heriades spinola, 1808الجنس سجلحيث تشخيص ي للقبائل واالجناس؛ مرة للمجموعة الحشرية العراقية. bull 679 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-baghdadi and sadiq bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2023) 17(4): 679-697. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2023.17.4.0679 original article new records of halictid bees (hymenoptera, halictidae, halictinae) from iraq saja a. al-baghdadi* and feryal h. sadiq department of plant protection, college of agricultural engineering science, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq. *correspoinding author e-mail: saja.aamer2104m@coagri.uobaghdad.edu.iq recived date: 29 april 2023, accepted date 24 august 2023, published date:20 december 2023 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract the checklist of the species belonging to the halictinae of iraq is presented. totally, 27 species under 3 genera belonging to halictinae (hymenoptera, halictidae) are listed, of which sphecodes cristatus hagens, 1882, and lasioglossum zunaga sakagami, 1995, are documented as new records for iraqi entomofauna. they were described and illustrated, as well as the distribution, basionyms, and synonyms of genera and species are provided. keywords: distribution, halictid bees, iraq, new record, sphecodes. introduction halictidae is considered the second largest assemblage of bees, comprising around 4890 documented species across the global biodiversity information facility secretariat (2023). sweat bees include some of the commonest species, they are found in many moderate regions of the world and in different ecosystems, they have a significant contribution to the pollination of other insects, for 87 out of the 115 major world food crops to produce vegetables, fruits, and seeds, animal pollination is essential (klein et al., 2007). according to kirkitadze and japoshvili (2015), a significant proportion of agricultural production, approximately 75%, is reliant on the intensity of pollination; the members of this family exhibit a global distribution across tropical and temperate regions, with the exception of antarctica (ascher et al., 2017). it is considered the second largest assemblage of bees. halictid bee community lives on orchard fields; in contrast, this group is maintains wild farms that provide food and nesting areas (akoijam et al., 2021). the most important morphological features of this family include: laciniae small, hairy lobe on the anterior surface of the labio-maxillary tube above the rest of the maxilla; single subantennal suture below each antennal socket; a distinct stigma; the 1st flagellomere segment is clearly shorter than the scape (michener, 2007). in addition to, saini and vikram (2012) found that the bees belonging to this particular family exhibit a short tongue and a prominently curved basal vein in their fore wing. bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799-print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2023.17.4.0679 mailto:saja.aamer2104m@coagri.uobaghdad.edu.iq https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 680 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum new records of halictid based on michener (2007), this family contains four subfamilies; including rophitinae, nomioidinae, nomiinae, and halictinae. the most important morphological features are: episternal sulcus is distinct and directed strongly downward below the scrobal sulcus; when there are three smc, smc3 shorter than smc1 and less than twice as long as smc2, apex of mc cell pointed or minutely truncate; prepygidial fimbria of female divided by a longitudinal median zone/or triangle of very fine. the members of the frequently common subfamily halictinae nest in burrows in banks or soil; halictinae are classified into two tribes, including augochlorini and halictini; the most important morphological characters include: longitudinal median specialized area of t5 of females of nonparasitic forms not divided by a notch or cleft; parasitic forms non-metallic or with dull greenish coloration; seventh tergite of male with a transverse ridge, usually carinate, forming a false apex beneath which the tergum is strongly reflexed to the apical margin; surface above the transverse ridge usually with an identifiable hairless pygidium. regarding to the available literature, it was observed that this particular group has received limited attention from researchers in iraq, with only a few scattered studies obtainable; for example, augul (2018) conducted a general survey of the diversity of bees, including halictidae, while ahmed (2015) focused on the taxonomic aspects of this guild's species in northern iraq. despite the significance of halictidae as pollinators for numerous plants, the studies on this group have been comparatively fewer than those on apidae species, particularly honey bees in iraq (glaiim et al., 2008; glaiim ,2009; hussin, 2015; shaher and nasrallah, 2018; dagher and shaher, 2023; awwad and shaher, 2023; sahood et al., 2023). the studies about this family, especially those related to taxonomical aspects in iraq, are insufficient and scattered, hence, the current study aimed to update the data on these bees, especially the halictinae subfamily. materials and methods specimens collecting: bees were collected from salahaddin, and duhok provinces, then labeled, and deposited at iraq natural history research center and museumuniversity of baghdad. specimens examined: specimens were examined by dissecting microscope, altay), and photographed by digital microscope. they were identified using the different keys: kirkitadze and japoshvili (1995); michener (2007); bwars (2012); astafurova and proshchalykin (2014); also the identification assured by prof. dr. razzaq shalan augul, iraq natural history research center and museum. the synonyms and basionyms are provided according to elakkad and bibarsi (2015), augul (2018), astafurova and proshchalykin (2020), and gbif secretariat (2023). abbreviations 2r-m: second radio– medial cross vein 2m-cu: second medio– cubital cross vein a: distances between ocelli and compound eyes 681 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-baghdadi and sadiq ax: axilla b: distant between posterior and anterior ocellus c: distant between posterior and occiput sc: scutum s.h: silky-hairs smc2: second submarginal cells t: tegula results and discussion in the current work, there were 27 species, and 4 genera within halictinae are listed; these taxa are given as follow: genus, halictus latreille, 1804 halictus asperulus perez, 1895 synonym: h. lampralictus pesenko, 1984 distribution: this species is listed in iraq by bluthgen (1955). armenia, austria, azerbaijan, cyprus, georgia, iran, spain, syria, turkey, and ukraine (pesenko, 2005); france, italy, albania, and eastern europe (varnava et al., 2020). halictus cephalicus morawitz, 1874 synonyms: lasioglossum cephalicus (morawitz, 1874) seladonia cephalica (morawitz, 1873) distribution: this species is listed in iraq by bluthgen (1955). bulgaria, and cyprus (polaszek, 2004); greece (pauly, 2007); afghanistan, caucasus, iran, syria, russia, and turkey (astafurova et al., 2017); eastern europe, and western asia (varnava et al., 2020). halictus fatsensis blüthgen, 1936 synonym: halictus dissidens pérez, 1903 distribution: iraq (bluthgen, 1936). cyprus, jordan, and turkey (pesenko, 2005); egypt (ebmer, 2014); syria (varnava et al., 2020). halictus leucaheneus ebmer, 1972 synonyms: halictus arenosus ebmer, 1976 seladonia leucahenea (ebmer, 1972) distribution: iraq (morice, 1921). turkey (ebmer, 1972); eastern asia from lake balkhash to northeastern china: eastern kazakhstan, kyrgyzstan, mongolia, northern and northeastern china (pesenko, 2006). halictus senilis (eversmann, 1852) synonyms: halictus fucosus morawitz, 1876 hylaeus senilis eversmann, 1852 distribution: iraq (bluethgen, 1955). jordan, libya, and turkey (grace, 2010); eurasia from southeast russia to pakistan, egypt, iran, mongolia, spain, and tunisia (pauly et al., 2016); north africa, south and east europe, russia, caucasus, and china (astafurova and 682 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum new records of halictid proshchalykin, 2017); kazakhstan, kyrgyzstan, turkmenistan, and uzbekistan (murao et al., 2017). halictus mongolicus morawitz, 1880 distribution: this species is listed in iraq by morice (1921). china, turkistan, and mongolia (niu et al., 2004). halictus quadricinctus (fabricius, 1776) basionym: apis quadricincta fabricius, 1777 synonyms: apis hortensis geoffroy, 1785 a. quadricincta fabricius, 1777 h. ecaphosus walckenaer, 1817 h. quadristrigatus latrielle, 1805 distribution: iraq (morice, 1921). turkey (özbek, 1979). cyprus, denmark, finland, afghanistan, iran, china, and mongolia (varnava et al., 2020). halictus scabiosae (rossi, 1790) basionym: apis scabiosae rossi, 1790 distribution: iraq (derwesh, 1965). turkey (warncke, 1975); western palaearctic with western mediterranean regions (ebmer, 1988); europe, and northern africa (polaszek, 2004), and greece (grace, 2010). halictus tectus radoszkowski, 1875 synonym: h. sogdianus morawitz, 1876 distribution: it was recorded in iraq by derwesh (1965) under the synonym h. sogdianus morawitz. eurasia region from southern france, also iberia to mongolia (ebmer, 1988), and greece (grace, 2010). halictus tetrazonius (klug, 1817) basionym: hylaeus tetrazonius klug, 1817 distribution: iraq (morice, 1921). austria, bulgaria, croatia, georgia, greece, hungary, italy, iran, macedonia, moldova, romania, slovenia, turkey, and ukraine (pesenko, 2005). halictus tetrazonianellus strand, 1909 synonym: h. leucognathus morice, 1921 distribution: it was listed in iraq by morice (1921) under the name of halictus leucognathus. turkey (özbek, 1979); azerbaijan, caucasia, and lebanon (polaszek, 2004); bulgaria, greece, jordan, moldova, ukraine, and turkmenistan (ebmer, 2014); cyprus, ukraine, and russian (varnava et al., 2020). halictus vestitus lepeletier, 1841 synonyms: vestitohalictus vestitus (lepeletier, 1841) v. vestitus tectus (radoszwkowski, 1875) https://www.gbif.org/species/4496050 683 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-baghdadi and sadiq distribution: iraq (derwesh, 1965). china, mongolia, former ussr, austria, and france (niu et al., 2007). halictus vulgaris morawitz, 1876 distribution: afghanistan, caucasus, russia, turkey, syria, jordan, iraq, iran, pakistan, kazakhstan, north india, and nepal; europe (except north), and north africa (astafurova and proshchalykin, 2017). seladonia robertson, 1918 seladonia lucidipennis smith, 1853 synonyms: h. varipes morawitz, 1876 lasioglossum varipes (morawitz, 1876) halictus(seladonia) lucidipennis (smith) distribution: it was listed in iraq by derwesh (1965) under the name halictus varipes morawitz, 1876. algeria, chad, djibouti, egypt, ethiopia, jordan, iran, libya, morocco, tunisia, senegal, gambia, mali, burkina-faso, niger, cameroon, sudan, eritrea, kenya, ksa, oman, yemen, turkey, afghanistan, bhutan, burma, turkmenistan, uzbekistan, tajikistan, kyrgyzstan, kazakhstan, india, pakistan, sri lanka, nepal, thailand, and china (pauly et al., 2002); myanmar (pesenko, 2006); bangladesh (murao et al., 2013). halictus pollinosus sichel, 1860 synonyms: halictus cariniventris sichel, 1860 halictus cariniventris morawitz, 1876 seladonia (vestitohalictus) pollinosa (sichel, 1860) robertson, 1918 vestitohalictus pollinosus (sichel, 1861) vestitohalictus pollinosus subsp. cariniventris (morawitz, 1876) vestitohalictus pollinosus subsp. cyrnosardicus pauly, 2017 distribution: iraq (kaddou, 1967). kyrgyzstan, tajikistan, china and uzbekistan (murao et al., 2017). cyprus, france, germany, austria, northern africa, turkey, jordan, iran, afghanistan, and pakistan (varnava et al., 2020). genus, lasioglossum curtis, 1833 lasioglossum aegyptiellum (strand, 1909) basionym: halictus aegyptiellum strand, 1909 distribution: it was recorded in iraq under the name of halictus platysectus dours by derwesh (1965). turkey (warncke, 1975); morocco to iran and turkmenistan, and croatia (ebmer, 1988); spain (ornosa et al., 2013); egypt (pauly, 2016); bulgaria, cyprus, greece, libya, western asia, china, and turkmenistan (varnava et al., 2020). lasioglossum mandibulare (morawitz, 1866( synonyms: lasioglossum carneiventre dours, 1872 halictus mandibular morawitz, 1866 halictus carneiventris blüthgen, 1925 distribution: algeria, egypt, iran, iraq, and syria (ebmer, 2014). 684 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum new records of halictid lasioglossum leucozonium (schrank, 1781) basionym: apis leucozonia schrank, 1781 synonyms: halictus leucozonius (schrank, 1781) lasioglossum similis (smith, 1853) distribution: in iraq, this species was listed as halictus leucozonius kirby by derwesh (1965). holarctic region (mcginley, 1986; and ebmer, 1988); turkey (warncke, 1975); greece, iran, cyprus (grace, 2010); kyrgyastan and uzbekistan (murao et al., 2017); cyprus, widespread in europe, northern africa, western asia, central asia, iran, mongolia, and china (varnava et al., 2020). lasioglossum malachurum (kirby, 1802) basionym: melitta malachura kirby, 1802 synonyms: halictus longulus smith, 1848 h. malachurus (kirby, 1802) hylaeus apicalis schenck, 1853 distribution: iraq (as halictus longulus smith) (derwesh, 1965). north morocco to england and denmark, and iran (ebmer, 1988); cyprus, greece, palestine, turkey, jordan, and egypt. georgia, azerbaijan, sardinia, and sicily (balzan et al., 2016); morocco, tunisia, egypt, syria, and jordan (pauly, 2007); widespread in europe, northern africa, western asia, and turkmenistan (varnava et al., 2020). lasioglossum mandibulare (morawitz, 1866) basionym: hylaeus mandibulare morawitz, 1866 synonym: halictus mandibularis morawitz, 1866 hylaeus mandibulare morawitz, 1866 halictus carneiventris dours, 1872 halictus carneiventris dours, 1872 distribution: austria, romania, ukraine, france, portugal, iraq, turkmenistan, and kazakhstan (ebmer, 2014); uzbekistan (murao, 2017); cyprus, switzerland, spain, greece, romania, bulgaria, russian federation, and western asia (varnava et al., 2020). lasioglossum marginatum (brullé 1832) basionym: halictus marginatus brullé, 1832 synonyms: halictus kervilleanus perez, 1910 h.vulgaris morawitz, 1876 distribution: iraq (morice, 1965). western asia, czech, france, germany, greece, hungary, italy, poland, slovenia, spain, switzerland, and east palaearctic (polaszek, 2004); armenia (pauly, 2007); greece, cyprus, turkey, syria, lebanon, jordan and iran (grace, 2010); europe (except north), north africa, caucasus, russia, afghanistan, pakistan, kazakhstan, north india, and nepal (astafurova and proshchalykin, 2017). lasioglossum picipes (morawitz, 1876) synonym: halictus amaranus morice, 1921 https://www.gbif.org/species/9192848 https://www.gbif.org/species/4495453 685 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-baghdadi and sadiq distribution: in iraq, it was listed by derwesh (1921) under the synonym halictus amaranus. iran (grace, 2010). turkey, afghanistan, turkmenistan, uzbekistan, and tajikistan (pesenko 1986; ascher and pickering, 2020). lasioglossum politum schenck 1853 synonyms: halictus politus (schenck, 1853) hylaeus politus schenck, 1853 distribution: iraq, greece, turkey, iran, jordan, and egypt (grace, 2010). lasioglossum scheherezade ebmer, 2000 distribution: grace (2010) was reported this species in iraq. lasioglossum vagans (smith, 1857) basionym: halictus vagans smith, 1857 synonyms: h. blepharophorus strand, 1914 h. luteitarsellus strand, 1914 h. micado strand, 1914 h. vagans smith, 1857 h. chaldaeorum morice, 1921 h. cattulus vachal blüthgen (1933) distribution: iraq (as halictus chaldaeorum) (derwesh, 1965). egypt and north sudan to east through arabian peninsula, and iran; india, nepal, south-east asia including the philippines, from north to china, and southern japanese islands (ebmer, 2004). jordan, lebanon, and turkey (grace, 2010); india (saini et al., 2012). lasioglossum zunaga sakagami, 1995 materials examined: duhok province, veen resort 1♀ 37°02'05.2"n 43°44'36.5"e, 25.ix.2022 general description: total body length, 12mm (pl. 1 a, b, c). head: length greater than width, black color, paraocular hairs, and genal area with moderate density erect, long white, poorly plumose hairs. scape reach anterior ocellus; distance c >a and b, a > b (pl. 2). mandible color reddish brown cleft, without teeth (pl. 3). mesosoma: pronotum convex without tomentum. scutum convex, black color with small, and somewhat closely punctures, with carina on parallel side tugulae nearby axilla disdained, shiny and rounded shape with short white hairs (p1. 4). scutellum slightly convex, dull and punctate, with a line of hairs on posterior margin. metanotum dull and punctate, covered with several short hairs decumbent. dorsal surface of propodeum shinny with longitudinal carina, declivity delimited by circular carina, which divide by a medio-longitudinal furrow, with reticulate sculpture, as well as covered by moderately dense, branched, and medium length erect hairs (pl. 5). forewings are transparent with a smoky tinge, marginal cell are elongated with a tapered apex, smc1 is much longer than smc2 and smc3 submarginal cells; and basal vein curved and semi-right angled. cross-veins 2r-m and 2m-cu fine and less obviously pigmented than adjacent longitudinal veins (pl. 6). coxae black right triangle when connected toward sternum; trochanter small cylindrical-shaped and swallow medially; femur cylindrical, acuminate at apex; first three parts covered by densely and erect hairs ventrally, whereas less and short 686 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum new records of halictid dorsally. tibia cylindrical, enlarge at apex with elongate spur dorsally, which exceeds 1/2 long of basitarsus claws with tooth basally with arolium distinct (pl. 7). metasoma : t1-t4 with a semi-circular zigzag transverse line with sparse separates area into two halves, upper region a clear punctuate between which spaces fine, lower region with a heavy punctuate, hairs that are inconspicuous, pubescence absent; hairs on pleural of thorax not much plumose. t1virtually glabrous with white, short, plumose, and erect hairs; tergites 2-3 with hairs on disc and post-marginal area very scattered; t3 without marginal fine hairs; t4 with sporadic long hairs cream color; t5 densely covered hairs, pygidial plate clear brown (pl. 8). distribution: japan (sakagami, 1995), newly record for iraq. diagnostic characters: pronotal and propodeal tomentum absent, terga 2-3 without fine marginal hairs. genus, sphecodes latreille, 1804 sphecodes gibbus (linnaeus, 1758) basionym: sphex gibba linnaeus, 1758 synonyms: sphecodes picea (kirby, 1802) s. sphecoides (kirby, 1802) s. tadauchi mitai, 2012 distribution: this species was registered in iraq by morice, 1921 south and western europe: spain, france, switzerland, italy, germany, hungary, and russia (westrich, 1989; warncke, 1992); europe, north africa, turkey, iran, pakistan, russia, and india (astafurova, 2018); europe, western asia, central asia, southern asia, and china (varnava et al., 2020). sphecodes cristatus hagens, 1882 material examined: salahaddin province, al-ishaqi, 1♂, 34° 16′ 59.88″ n, 43° 46′ 0.12″ e, 27.vi.2022. general description: body length 10mm (pl. 9 a, b, c). head weakly transverse, wider than long; vertex wide, strongly elevated with irregular distances among them with longitudinal carina and black color (pl. 10a). ocelli brown, a almost equal to c, a and c> b (pl. 10b). scape cylindrical with widened apex end covered with sparsely with whitish hairs. pedicel weakly developed, narrow, and semicircular. mesosoma reddish brown color, scutum convex with large scattered puncture covered with white hairs on anterior part and end poster part, scutellum rectangular with same mesoscutum puncture. metanotum black color slightly convex with a crescent shape, short transversely, covered with branched hairs on front edge. propodeum red color half rugose and with white hairs on sides, tegulae small with creamy gradually towards black (pl. 11a). mesosternum with convex with large and dense punctures, so that surface can be seen coarsely with long white silky hairs tending to downward which more densely toward posterior part. axillae translucent with white hairs recommend (pl. 11b). forewings elongated, and similar to hind wings in color, translucent with dark smoky tips, veins dark brown; apex marginal cell long pointed or minutely truncate, extending along wing 687 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-baghdadi and sadiq edge; three submarginal cells (smc), smc3shorter than smc1; smc2 shorter than smc3, basal vein (m) distinctly curved and semi-right angled. hind wings with basal (m) vein weakly curved (pl. 12a); hind wing with 10 hamuli (pl. 12b). legs brownish ferruginous colour, coxae cylindrical with silky white hairs, trochanter cylindrical with white hairs recommend, femur and tibia same height, tarsus red, first and fourth tarsomeres equal in length, covered densely and creamy setae dorsally; ventrally, with brownish setae. claws forked and arolium distinct. metasoma t1-t5 with very small fine punctures that well-spaced t2-t5 with a transparent band; t6-t7with densely white hairs, white hair sparse laterally, extending transversely along length, less dense at middle (pl. 13). diagnostic characters: head transverse, wider than long. scutum with sparsely punctate, and punctures (at least medially) which spaced by more as puncture diameter. hind wing with basal vein (m) weakly curved, as well as 7–14 hamuli. t1 with distinctly coarse and dense punctures. distribution: russia, european, mongolia, tajikistan, europe (north to sweden), turkey (astafurova and proshchalykin, 2014); kazakhstan, central asia, china, and caucasus (astafurova et al., 2018). plate (1): l. zunaga (♀); (a) lateral, (b), dorsal and (c) frontal view. plate (2): l. zunaga (♀); upper part of head. 688 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum new records of halictid plate (3): l. zunaga (♀); mandible with color reddish (frontal view). plate (4): l. zunaga (♀); axillae. plate (5): l. zunaga (♀); propodeal declivity ( shinny with longitudinal carina). 689 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-baghdadi and sadiq plate (6): l. zunaga (♀); fore wing. pate (7): l. zunaga (♀); hand leg. plate (8): metasoma; l. zunaga (♀). 690 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum new records of halictid plate (9): s. cristatus (♂); (a) lateral, (b) dorsal and (c) frontal view. plate (10): s. cristatus (♂); (a) lateral view of head (see carina yellow arrow), (b) upper part of head. plate (11): s. cristatus (♂); (a) mesosoma (dorsal view), (b) mesosoma (ventral view). 691 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-baghdadi and sadiq plate (12): s. cristatus (♂); (a) fore wing (see rs yellow arrow), (b) hind wing (see hamuli, black arrow). plate (13): s. cristatus (♂); dorsal view of metasoma. conclusions the diversity of bees is great, and we need more studies to investigate the presence of other new species for science or as a new record in iraq and on the other hand, the possibility of studying it at the molecular level due to the similarity of species belonging to the same genus to confirm the morphological diagnosis is remarkable. 692 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum new records of halictid the current study has provided an updated checklist for halictinae species supported by basionyms and synonyms to avoid confusion in future studies. furthermore, the study of the remaining species of the family halictidae and preparation an updated checklist that includes the basionyms and their synonyms is necessary for the importance of the ecosystem and the sustainability of food sources. acknowledgments we would like to give thanks to prof. dr. razzaq shalan augul and assist. prof. dr. hana hani al-saffar, dep. of entomology & invertebrates/iraq natural history research center and museum/university of baghdad, for providing all facilities for examining the specimens. conflict of interest statement the current results are a part of m.sc. thesis in plant protection, college of agricultural engineering sciencesuniversity of baghdad for the first author. further, we, the authors of this manuscript, confirm no other consent relationship with any official institution. literature cited aawwad, i. h. and shaher, k. w. 2023. detection of varroa spp. morphology, molecular, and estimation of infection rate in baghdad province. annals of forest research, 66(1):1239-1249. 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(2023) 17(4): 679-697. الت جديدة لنحل الَعَرق يسجت (hymenoptera, halictidae, halictinae) من العراق فريال حسوني صادق سجى عامر أحمد و كلية علوم الهندسة الزراعية/ جامعة بغداد، بغداد، العراق.-قسم وقاية النبات 20/12/2023، تأريخ النشر: 24/8/2023القبول: ، تأريخ 29/4/2023تأريخ االستالم: لخالصةا )عائلة halictinaeقائمة مرجعية لألنواع التي تنتمي إلى عويلة هذه الدراسة قدمت تم حصر إذفي العراق. ( hymenoptera، رتبة غشائية االجنحة halictidaeنحل العرق و sphecodes cristatus hagens, 1882 النوعان أجناس، منها 3نوًعا تنتمي الى 27 lasioglossum zunaga sakagami, 1995 للمجموعة الحشريةالول مرة تسجل .العراقية تدقيق وتصحيح االسماء ، عالوة على وصف دقيق وموجز لألنواع الجديدة اعطاء تم األنواع مع أضافة معلومات و لألجناساملرادفة ة واالسماء األساس يمع ذكر العلمية .حول االنتشار والتوزيع الجغرافي bull 113 ismail and bartholomew bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2020) 16 (1): 113123. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2020.16.1.0113 increased preference of darkling beetles akis subtricostata redtenbacher, 1850 and trachyderma philistina reiche and saulcy, 1857 (coleoptera, tenebrionidae) for vegetation with increasing temperature omar k. ismail and aaron bartholomew* department of biology, chemistry and environmental science, college of arts and sciences, american university of sharjah, sharjah, united arab emirates *corresponding author: abartholomew@aus.edu received date: 25 may 2020, accepted date: 18 june 2020, published date: 24 june 2020 abstract a square experimental arena with vegetation on one interior side was deployed in a sharjah, united arab emirates desert. individual darkling beetles (coleoptera, tenebrionidae) akis subtricostata redtenbacher, 1850 and trachyderma philistina reiche and saulcy, 1857 were placed inside the arena at temperatures ranging between 27 49°c. whether they chose the vegetated side of the arena or not was recorded, as well as how long it took for them to reach the vegetated side, if they chose it. both species preferred the vegetated side at all temperatures, and the chance of them choosing the vegetated side increased significantly with increasing temperature (logistic regression, p = 0.0096 and p = 0.0003 for t. philistina and a. subtricostata, respectively). t. philistina and a. subtricostata always chose the vegetated side at temperatures above 31°and 44°c, respectively. individual beetles that chose the vegetated side moved quickly and directly to it at temperatures above 30°c. below 30°c, however, beetles tended to move slower and take more pauses within the arena. time to reach the vegetated side declined significantly with increasing temperature (least-squares regression, p < 0.00005 for both species). a few individuals of both species died at the highest temperatures (48 49°c). key words: desert, habitat choice, refuge, shrubs, thermoregulation, united arab emirates introduction darkling beetles (coleoptera, tenebrionidae) are abundant, diverse, ecologically-important inhabitants of many arid and semi-arid environments worldwide (de los santos et al., 2002; saji and al dhaheri, 2011). adults and larvae usually feed on dead plant and animal matter or 114 increased preference of darkling beetles are phytophagous (fattorini, 2000; kaplin, 2019).darkling beetles are preyed upon by a variety of predators (bartholomew and el moghrabi, 2018), and they are important links in desert food webs (polis, 1991). the microbes within the guts of xerophilous darkling beetles break down dead plant material, so darkling beetles are also important for returning nutrients to desert soils (ayal, 2007). darkling beetles living in hot deserts have evolved a variety of morphological, physiological and behavioural adaptations for surviving extreme temperatures (cloudsleythompson, 2001). physiologically, darkling beetles produce heat shock proteins, enzymes related to heat resistance and other cryoprotectant molecules in response to elevated temperatures (qiu et al., 2013; lu et al., 2014). some species possess reflective elytra (edney, 1971). some species have relatively long legs compared with their body size, and some species also exhibit “stilting” behaviour at high temperatures; these adaptations keep their bodies away from the hot sands and increase convective cooling (krasnov et al., 1996, ward and seely, 1996a). the most important adaptations many darkling beetle species possess for temperature regulation are behavioural; they may exhibit crepuscular and/or nocturnal activity patterns year-round, or only during the hottest months of the year (ayal and merkl, 1994). these insects are usually found in burrows during the day, they may bury themselves in response to high temperatures (ward and seely, 1996b) and they use cooler microhabitats, including vegetation, as an important way to regulate their temperatures and cool down (shelef and groner, 2011). various studies have shown that darkling beetles tend to prefer vegetation over open sands in desert environments, but the reasons for this preference are not always clear; they may prefer vegetation because of greater food resources, better protection from predators, better oviposition sites, greater availability of animal burrows, higher relative humidity and because vegetation helps them regulate their temperatures (cooler during the day and slightly warmer at night) (stapp, 1997; shelef and groner, 2011). darkling beetles must regulate their temperatures both for themselves and for the microbes within their guts, higher temperatures may lead to higher microbial activity levels for digestion, but temperatures that are too high can be lethal for the beetles (crawford, 1988). this study was performed in order to directly observe the effects of temperature on uae darkling beetle habitat preference, and to confirm the critical importance of vegetation in providing beetles with refuge from high temperatures. no other field study has directly observed increased beetle habitat preference for natural vegetation in response to increasing temperatures. materials and methods the experimental trials took place in the fall of 2018. trials were conducted in a desert area in sharjah, the united arab emirates containing patchy shrub vegetation at approximately 25.313743 n, 55.501176 e. experimental trials were conducted in the morning, and beetles used in the trials were trapped the night before in this area. most beetles spent less than 12 115 ismail and bartholomew hours in a trap before their trial, and no beetle spent more than 24 hours in a trap before their trial. the arena was 2 x 2 x 1.2 m. it was created with white cloth “blackout” curtains secured to a pvc pipe frame. the top of the arena was covered with a dark plastic tarp secured with bungee cords. the curtains on the inside of the arena were clean and smooth during experimental trials, and no folds of cloth protruded into the arena under the frame and no direct sunlight entered the arena. although there was no direct sunlight entering the arena, the curtains did allow some light through the cloth material, which created a dimly-lit interior with diffuse light, similar to what beetles would naturally experience at dusk or dawn. the curtains and plastic tarp ensured that there were no differences in light intensity in different parts of the arena, which may have influenced the beetles’ choices. live branches of hamada elegans, which is the dominant shrub in the area, were attached to one interior side of the arena with thin ropes, mimicking the approximate height and width of the shrubs in the surrounding desert. each trial day the arena was set up in a different flat area and the position of the vegetated side was changed. after assembling the arena, large sticks, stones, vegetation, etc. were removed from the sand of the arena floor, and the center of the arena was marked. a thermometer was placed inside the arena near the vegetated side approximately 1 cm above the sand. over the trial months, the arena was deployed on different days and at different times in the morning and thus trials were conducted over a wide range of naturally-occurring sand temperatures. the species akis subtricostata (91 individuals) and trachyderma philistina (70 individuals) were used because only these species were captured frequently enough to generate sufficient data for analysis. beetles were identified using schawaller (2010). a trial with an individual beetle began by placing the beetle at the center of the arena under a clear plastic bowl. the beetle was left under the bowl for 2 minutes. after 2 minutes, the bowl was lifted by a rope that came down through the center of the plastic tarp, and an observer would watch the beetle through a small peephole cut out of the vegetated side. the observer’s silhouette was not visible through the blackout curtains. the observer recorded whether the individual beetle first encountered the vegetated side or one of the three unvegetated sides of the arena, how long it took for the beetle to reach a side, the temperature immediately after each individual trial and any interesting observations. logistic regressions were used for each species separately to test whether the odds of a beetle choosing the vegetated side increased significantly with increasing temperature. for those beetles that chose the vegetated side, least-squares regressions were used for each species separately to test whether the time to reach the vegetated side decreased significantly with increasing temperature. the time data (in seconds) was square-root transformed to meet the assumptions of the least-squares regression. 116 increased preference of darkling beetles results and discussion the results of the logistic regression statistical tests were highly significant for both beetle species, as the likelihood that the two beetle species chose the vegetated side over any of the three unvegetated sides increased with increasing temperature (tabs. 1, 2 and diag. 1 a, b). for those beetles that chose the vegetated side of the arena, the results of the least-squares linear regressions demonstrated that the amount of time it took them to reach the vegetated side decreased significantly with increasing temperature for both species (tabs. 3, 4; diag. 1 c, d). table (1): the results of the logistic regression for a. subtricostata choosing the vegetated side versus unvegetated sides of the arena. variable coeff. std. err. p odds ratio 95% confidence limits temperature 0.1661 0.0464 0.0003 1.1807 1.0781 – 1.2931 intercept -4.7461 1.5264 0.0019 overall model fit: chi square = 18.0816; df = 1; p < 0.00005 table (2): the results of the logistic regression for t. philistina choosing the vegetated side versus unvegetated sides of the arena. variable coeff. std. err. p odds ratio 95% confidence limits temperature 0.4805 0.1854 0.0096 1.6169 1.1242 – 2.3255 intercept -13.2734 5.3897 0.0138 overall model fit: chi square = 22.2072; df = 1; p < 0.00005 table (3): the results of the least-squares linear regression for the amount of time (sec.) it took a. subtricostata beetles to choose the vegetated side of the arena versus temperature. the time data were square-root transformed to meet the assumptions of the regression. df ss ms f p regression 1 177.5392 177.5392 77.5406 p < 0.00005 residual 64 146.5363 2.2896 total 65 324.0755 adjusted r-squared = 0.541 117 ismail and bartholomew diagram (1): the percentage of a. subtricostata (a) and t. philistina (b) that chose the vegetated side of the experimental arena over the three unvegetated sides at different temperatures. the number above each bar is the number of individual beetles used at that temperature. if beetles chose the vegetated side of the arena, the amount of time it took them to reach the vegetated side for a. subtricostata (c) and t. philistina (d). table (4): the results of the least-squares linear regression for the amount of time (sec.) it took t. philistina beetles to choose the vegetated side of the arena versus temperature. the time data were square-root transformed to meet the assumptions of the regression. df ss ms f p regression 1 63.1997 63.1997 44.0822 p < 0.00005 residual 57 81.7197 1.4337 total 58 144.9194 adjusted r-squared = 0.426 clearly, temperature affected the habitat choice behaviour of these two darkling beetle species, indicating the importance of desert shrubs in providing them with refuges from extreme temperatures. as the temperature increased, the likelihood that beetles chose the vegetated side of the arena increased significantly (tabs. 1, 2), and for those beetles that chose the vegetated side, they moved to the vegetated side significantly quicker with increasing temperature (tabs. 3, 4). diagrams 1a and 1c indicate that a. subtricostata chose 118 increased preference of darkling beetles and moved quickly to the vegetated side 100% of the time at temperatures of 45 °c and above. between 31 and 44 °c, a. subtricostata did not always choose the vegetated side, but if they did choose the vegetated side, they moved to the vegetated side quickly (diag. 1a, c). at temperatures of 29 °c or below, a. subtricostata did not always choose the vegetated side, and even if they did choose the vegetated side they frequently wandered around the arena or took pauses, rather than heading directly to the vegetated side (diag. 1a, c). t. philistina chose vegetation 100% of the time, and moved to the vegetated side quickly, at temperatures of 32°c and above (diag. 1b, d). at lower temperatures, t. philistina did not always choose the vegetated side, and even if they did choose the vegetated side they did not consistently move quickly towards the vegetated side (diag. 1b, d). these results may indicate that a. subtricostata has higher physiological tolerances for high temperatures than t. philistina. this could be investigated further, to determine if any differences in temperature tolerances contribute to differences in habitat use or activity patterns in these two species. it should be noted that even at lower temperatures (≤ 31 °c, for example) both beetle species chose the vegetated side of the arena more than 25% of the time, which is what would be expected by chance alone. this may indicate that temperature is not the only factor that caused beetles to prefer vegetated habitats. on the hottest days (48 and 49 °c) the beetles climbed up the vegetation, perhaps to escape the extremely hot boundary layer just above the sand surface (marsh 1985), and some beetles died during the brief experimental trials. roberts et al. (1991) found that the critical thermal maximum for several species of namib desert darkling beetles ranged between 48 – 51 °c, similar to our results, and their median preferred temperatures ranged from 29 – 40 °c. maeno et al. (2014) observed mortality in the darkling beetle pimelia senegalensis (olivier, 1775) from the sahara at temperatures above 50 °c. several field studies obtained results that suggest darkling beetles prefer shrubs because they provide refuges from high temperatures (mazía et al., 2006; shelef and groner, 2011; liu et al., 2012; bartholomew and el moghrabi, 2018). unlike our study, these studies did not directly observe beetle behaviour, but relied on pit trapping instead. the results of our experiment support the similar results of parmenter et al. (1989a) who found that increasing temperature caused four species of darkling beetles (genus eleodes) to increase their preference for the sides of an arena with a shrub silhouette drawn on them. parmenter et al. (1989a) found that at 21 °c none of the four species preferred vegetation. at 29 °c, two of the species preferred vegetation, but they did not consistently move quickly to the vegetated side. at 36 °c, all four species preferred vegetation and moved quickly towards it. at 36 °c, several individuals died due to hyperthermia. (parmenter et al., 1989b) found that different darkling beetle species had different preferred temperatures in nature. two species that normally lived in cooler microhabitats below large shrubs had preferred temperatures of 21 – 22 °c, whereas species normally found in hotter, short-shrub microhabitats had preferred temperatures of 27 °c. whicker and tracy (1987) also found that different darkling beetle species had different preferred temperatures and that the different species exhibited their maximum activity levels at their preferred temperatures. 119 ismail and bartholomew desert shrubs provide important temperature refuges and critical habitat for darkling beetles and a variety of other desert fauna, and protecting desert vegetation should be a priority for conservation efforts in arid countries (mazía et al., 2006; liu et al., 2012). unfortunately, in the uae, desert vegetation is frequently overgrazed by camels, and destroyed by development and off-road vehicles (bartholomew and el moghrabi, 2018). abu dhabi emirate in the uae has recently implemented protected reserves surrounded by fences that exclude camels and vehicles, and the results are promising, with much higher densities of vegetation and more fauna recorded inside these reserves compared with the surrounding unprotected desert (al dhaheri et al., 2017; bartholomew and el moghrabi, 2018). further efforts to conserve shrub vegetation in the uae and other arid countries are warranted, to help protect desert biodiversity. conclusion the results of this experiment demonstrate the importance of desert shrubs to darkling beetles, because the shrubs provide the beetles with refuges from extreme temperatures. there was a highly significant positive relationship between increasing temperature and beetles’ likelihood to choose vegetation, and also a highly significant negative relationship between temperature and the amount of time it took beetles to reach the vegetation. acknowledgement the authors would like to thank dana hammoud, school of biosciences, university of birmingham, the uk for her help with the field work and the anonymous reviewers who improved the manuscript. literature cited al dhaheri, s., javed, s., alzahlawi, n., binkulaib, r., cowie, w., grandcourt, e. and kabshawi, m. 2017. abu dhabi emirate habitat classification and protection guideline. environment agency abu-dhabi (ead), 76 pp. ayal, y. 2007. trophic structure and the role of predation in shaping hot desert communities. journal of arid environments, 68: 171-187. ayal, y. and merkl, o. 1994. spatial and temporal distribution of tenebrionid species (coleoptera) in the negev highlands, israel. journal of arid environments, 27: 347361. bartholomew, a. and el moghrabi, j. 2018. seasonal preference of darkling beetles (tenebrionidae) for shrub vegetation due to high temperatures, not predation or food availability. journal of arid environments, 156: 34-40. cloudsley-thompson, j. 2001. thermal and water relations of 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(ed.) arthropod fauna of the uae, volume 3, dar al ummah, united arab emirates, p 253 -278. shelef, o. and groner, e. 2011. linking landscape and species: effect of shrubs on patch preference of beetles in arid and semi-arid ecosystems. journal of arid environments, 75: 960-967. stapp, p. 1997. microhabitat use and community structure of darkling beetles (coleoptera: tenebrionidae) in shortgrass prairie: effects of season shrub and soil type. american midland naturalist, 137: 298-311. ward, d. and seely, m. 1996 a. adaptation and constraint in the evolution of the physiology and behavior of the namib desert tenebrionid beetle genus onymacris. evolution, 50: 1231-1240. ward, d. and seely, m. 1996 b. behavioral thermoregulation of six namib desert tenebrionid beetle species (coleoptera). annals of the entomological society of america, 89: 442451. whicker, a. and tracy, c. 1987. tenebrionid beetles in the shortgrass prairie: daily and seasonal patterns of activity and temperature. ecological entomology, 12: 97-108. 122 increased preference of darkling beetles bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2020) 16 (1): 113-123. الداكنة الخنافس تفضيل زيادة akis subtricostata redtenbacher, 1850 trachyderma philistina reiche and saulcy, 1857 و (coleoptera, tenebrionidae ) الحرارة درجة زيادة عم للنباتات بارثولوميو رونآو اسماعيل . ك عمر ألمريكيةا الجامعة ، والعلوم اآلداب كلية ، البيئة وعلوم والكيمياء األحياء قسم المتحدة العربية اإلمارات ، الشارقة ، الشارقة في 24/06/2020 ، تأريخ النشر:18/06/2020 ، تأريخ القبول:25/05/2020 تأريخ االستالم: الخالصة نباتي في تحوي على غطاءساحة تجريبية مربعة تصميمتم في هذه الدراسة في صحراء الشارقة باإلمارات العربية الداخلية وتم نشرها جوانبها احد akis subtricostata التابعة للنوعين الخنافس الداكنة عتضالمتحدة. و redtenbacher, 1850 وtrachyderma philistina reiche and saulcy, 1857 درجة 49-27تتراوح بين داخل الساحة عند درجات حرارة : اختيار الحشرة للجانب النباتي التي تخص االتيتم تسجيل المالحظات مئوية. و المدة الزمنية التي تقضيها الخنافس للوصول الى الجانب النباتي, ،من عدمه ه ياْخت في حال تم .ار ادْت دا زْ و فضل كال النوعين الجانب النباتي في جميع درجات الحرارة ، فرصة اختيار الجانب النباتي بشكل كبير مع زيادة درجة الحرارة )االنحدار .a و t. philistina ــــل p = 0.0003 و p = 0.0096اللوجستي ، subtricostata على التوالي ،). عند النباتي الجانب دائًما a. subtricostata و t. philistina اختارت انتقلت. التوالي على ، مئوية درجة 44 و درجة 31 من أعلى حرارة درجات درجات عند إليها ومباشرة بسرعة النباتي الجانب اختارت التي الخنافس افراد 123 ismail and bartholomew إلى مئوية درجة 30 تحت الخنافس تميل. مئوية درجة 30 من أعلى حرارة انخفض. الساحة داخل التوقف فترات من المزيد وأخذ أبطأ بشكل التحرك انحدار) الحرارة درجة زيادة مع كبير بشكل النباتي الجانب إلى للوصول الوقت األفراد من قليل عدد هلك(. النوعين لكال p <0.00005 ، الصغرى المربعات (.مئوية درجة 49-48) الحرارة درجات أعلى عند النوعين كال من bull 381 omar f. al-sheikhly and ahmad j. al-azawi bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2019) 15 (4): 381-402 the diurnal birds of prey (raptors) in the mesopotamian marshes of southern iraq with notes on their conservation status omar f. al-sheikhly* and ahmad j. al-azawi department of biology, college of science, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq *corresponding author: e-mail: alsheikhlyomar@gmail.com received date: 15 july 2019, accepted date: 11 september 2019, published date: 26 december 2019 abstract birds of prey (raptors) are top predator avian species that many migrate annually through mesopotamian marshes in southern iraq toward their wintering grounds in arabia and africa, while others are breeding residents; however, information on their current status is scarce. from january 2016 to april 2019, a total of 20 field expeditions were conducted in the geographical zone of the mesopotamian marshes, wetlands of international importance. the survey covered the central marshes, al-hammar and hawizeh marsh. one of the objectives of the field surveys is to list the raptors species that wintering and/or migrating through the mesopotamian marshes and to understand their current spatial and temporal distribution. in the present study, a total of 32 species of diurnal raptors are recorded through intensive field observations, reviewing literature records, and personal communications of unpublished data. moreover, eight species listed by the international union for conservation of nature iucn red list are recorded which highlight the ecological importance of the mesopotamian marshes as a major stopover site for globally threatened raptors. besides species persecution, observed threats such as habitat destruction, climate change, and pollution were severely influencing birds of prey communities in the mesopotamian marshes which warrant further conservation actions. keywords: avifauna, eagles, marshes, mesopotamian, raptors. introduction iraq is geographically situated within three major flyways (east asia/east africa flyway, central asia flyway, and mediterranean/black sea flyway); therefore, the mesopotamian marshes (ahwar) of southern iraq became an important staging/stopover sites for migratory birds of prey (boere and stroud, 2006; hahn et al., 2009; al-sheikhly et al., 2017). the mesopotamian marshes of southern iraq were prioritized as a wetland of international importance among other 33 wetlands known or thought to have been of some concern for migratory birds in iraq (scott and carp, 1982; scott, 1993). in addition, the mesopotamian marshes were identified as important bird areas (ibas) and iraq’s only endemic bird area (eba) (evans, 1994; birdlife international, 2018). recently, central marshes, al-hammar, and hawizeh marsh were declared as iraq’s first national park (mesopotamian national park mnp), ramsar site, and a united nations educational, scientific and cultural organization (unesco) site (imoe, 2018). https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2019.15.4.0381 382 the diurnal birds of prey (raptors) in the mesopotamian marshes iraq has a significant number of resident breeding raptor populations and it is one of the range states of many migratory raptors passing through to wintering grounds in arabia and africa. however, raptors migration in iraq was not fully understood; notably, there is scare information on raptors migration in the mesopotamian marshes of southern iraq (al-sheikhy et al., 2017). a total of 38 diurnal raptor species (owls are excluded) were recorded in iraq (salim et al., 2012). however, according to current taxonomic checklist of avian species in the middle east, caucasus and central asia, a total of 42 taxa of birds of prey occur in iraq (blair et al., 2018). the mesopotamian wetlands of southern iraq have a significant importance for wintering raptors; according to allouse (1960), a total of 22 diurnal raptor species were recorded within and around the geographical zone of the mesopotamian marshes of southern iraq. in mid winter waterfowl survey, 15 raptor species were recorded in january-february 1979. the recorded species were: 12 western osprey pandion haliaetus (linnaeus, 1758), 429 black kite milvus migrans (boddaert, 1783), five white-tailed eagle haliaeetus albicilla (linnaeus, 1758), three cinereous (black) vulture aegypius monachus (linnaeus, 1766), three eurasian sparrowhawk accipiter nisus (linnaeus, 1758 ), 286 western marsh harrier circus aeruginosus ( linnaeus , 1758 ), 18 pallid harrier c. macrourus (s. g. gmelin, 1770), one hen harrier c. cyaneus (linnaeus, 1766), 141 long-legged buzzard buteo rufinus (cretzschmar, 1829), 24 greater spotted eagle clanga (aquila) clanga (pallas, 1811), 12 steppe eagle aquila nipalensis (hodgson, 1833), 34 eastern (asian) imperial eagle a. heliacal ( savigny , 1809), 126 common kestrel falco tinnunculus ( linnaeus , 1758) , seven merlin f. columbarius (linnaeus, 1758 ), and six peregrine falcon f. peregrines ( tunstall, 1771) (scott and carp, 1982; scott, 1995). during may 2004-may 2005, a total of six raptor species were recorded in three restored marshes (huwayzah, suq shuyukh, and east-hammar marshes) (abed, 2007); the recorded species were western marsh harrier, hen harrier, eurasian sparrowhawk, greater spotted eagle, steppe eagle, and golden eagle aquila chrysaetos (linnaeus, 1758). salim et al. (2009) listed nine raptor species among the avifauna of lower mesopotamian marshlands of southern iraq that observed in 2005-2008; the listed species were common kestrel, western marsh harrier, black-winged kite elanus caeruleus (desfontaines, 1789), long-legged buzzard, hen harrier, eurasian sparrowhawk, greater spotted eagle, steppe eagle, and asian imperial eagle. in 2005-2010, major ornithological surveys in the southern mesopotamian wetlands were conducted by canada-iraq marshlands initiative (cimi), iraqi ministry of environment (imoen.), birdlife international, and nature iraq (nature iraq, 2017); among 34 sites, a total of 19 sites are situated within the geographical zone of the mesopotamian marshlands of endemic bird area (epa). the presence of raptor species such as egyptian vulture neophron percnopterus (linnaeus, 1758), greater spotted eagle, eastern imperial eagle, and saker falcon falco cherrug (gray, 1834) was used as criteria to evaluate the nominated areas as ibas. the vulnerable greater spotted eagle was recorded in five sites, the vulnerable eastern imperial eagle was recorded in eight sites, the near threatened pallid harrier was recorded in four sites, and the near threatened cinereous vulture was recorded at one site. the kba assessment also indicated that the central marshes (iq075) was hoisting all of the key raptor species of global conservation concern (nature iraq, 2017). in october 2013-june 2014, a total of 13 raptors species were recorded in central marshes in southern iraq by fazaa et al. (2017); the recorded species were: one black-winged kite, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/carl_linnaeus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/10th_edition_of_systema_naturae https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ren%c3%a9_louiche_desfontaines https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/carl_linnaeus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/10th_edition_of_systema_naturae https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/john_edward_gray 383 omar f. al-sheikhly and ahmad j. al-azawi one white-tailed eagle, two cinereous vulture, two short-toed snake-eagle circaetus gallicus (gmelin, 1788), 28 western marsh harrier, one pallid harrier, one montagu’s harrier circus pygargus (linnaeus, 1758), two eurasian sparrowhawk, one long-legged buzzard, two greater spotted eagle, two steppe eagle, one common kestrel, and one eurasian hobby f. subbuteo (linnaeus, 1758). among the recorded species, four were listed by the international union for conservation of nature (iucn) red list. besides, he recorded white-tailed eagle during december 2013 field surveys which considered as one of the significant findings as this species has not been recorded in the central marshes for more than 40 years (e.g. moore and boswell, 1956). in iraq, a total of 13 taxa of diurnal raptors (30.9%) were listed by the iucn red list (birdlife international, 2018); the egyptian vulture, steppe eagle, pallas’s fish eagle haliaeetus leucoryphus (pallas, 1771), and two taxa of saker falcon f. c. cherrug and f. c. milvipes are listed as endangered. the greater spotted eagle, eastern imperial eagle, and red-capped falcon falco (peregrinus) babylonicus (p.l. sclater, 1861) are listed as vulnerable. the bearded vulture (lammergeier) gypaetus barbatus (linnaeus, 1758), cinereous vulture, pallid harrier, red kite milvus milvus (linnaeus, 1758), and red-footed falcon f. vespertinus (linnaeus, 1766) are listed as near threatened. among the flagship raptor species of the mesopotamian marshes of southern iraq is the pallas’s fish eagle, a scarce winter visitor to the wetlands of mesopotamia, but it was not recorded since 1944 (scott, 1995; salim et al., 2012). the status of the white-tailed eagle in southern marshes is enigmatic. moore and boswell (1956) found it might be a regular winter visitor to al shuwaija marsh and also observed it near qurna and along the shatt al-arab and khamisiyah marsh on 15th december 1945. it was recorded during the midwinter waterfowl survey in 1968 and in 1972, but none in the later surveys of 1975-1979 (scott, 1995); however, despite very sporadic records, this species was recently recorded in central marshes during december 2013 (fazaa et al., 2017). the cinereous vulture was wintering in the mesopotamian marshes where three have been recorded in winter 1979 (scott, 1995). there were no subsequent records of this species in the mesopotamian marshes until two individuals were observed in central marshes in 2013-2014 (fazaa et al., 2017). the eastern imperial eagle is a fairly abundant as a common winter visitor to the mesopotamian plains. a total of 76 individuals were recorded in mid-winter waterfowl censuses during 1968-1979 and it seemed likely that the total wintering population of this species in mesopotamia at that time exceeded 100 individuals (scott, 1995). the greater spotted eagle was one of the main wintering and passage migrant raptors in the mesopotamian marshes. a total of 24 individuals were observed during winter waterfowl survey in 1979 (scott, 1995). a total of 12 steppe eagle were recorded during winter waterfowl survey in 1979 in the mesopotamian marshes of southern iraq (scott and carp, 1982; scott, 1995) and it was recorded during the kba surveys in 2005-2008 (salim et al., 2009). moreover, fazaa et al. (2017) recorded two steppe eagles in central marshes during 2013-2014. regardless, the large aquila eagles are still frequent to the suitable wintering habitats on the edge of the mesopotamian marshes as the subsequent field surveys indicated. al-sheikhly et al. (2017) mentioned that the lower mesopotamian marshes and surrounding terrestrial ecoregions are essential wintering and stopover habitats for migratory aquila eagles, especially those originated from breeding populations in russia and kazakhstan. ring recoveries of steppe and eastern imperial eagles that were ringed in russia and kazakhstan were obtained from the geographical zone of the mesopotamian marshes in southern iraq. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/johann_friedrich_gmelin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/carl_linnaeus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/10th_edition_of_systema_naturae https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/carl_linnaeus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/10th_edition_of_systema_naturae https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/carl_linnaeus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/10th_edition_of_systema_naturae https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/10th_edition_of_systema_naturae https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/carl_linnaeus 384 the diurnal birds of prey (raptors) in the mesopotamian marshes up to our knowledge, the status of birds of prey breeding populations in mesopotamian marshes is not fully known, the western marsh harrier was abundant raptor species bred in the marshes near basra and hammar lake where nests and chicks were found in 1920s (ticehurst et al., 1922). the white-tailed eagle nested in the reed-beds around the mesopotamian marshes (maxwell, 1957), and thesiger (1964) also referred to eagles nesting in the reed-beds, but did not indicate which species were involved. the kba assessment showed that the black-winged kite was recorded breeding in ibn najm marshland (nature iraq, 2017). in recent decades, birds of prey populations are facing a catastrophic decline due to anthropogenic and climatic threat impacts such as widespread use of pesticides; habitats loss and destruction; climate change, consequent declines in prey abundance; direct persecution including shooting, trapping, and poisoning; and the wild-bird trade (newton and chandler, 1985; meyburg and chancellor, 1994; bildstein, 2006; al-sheikhly et al., 2017). given the lack of sufficient information on birds of prey communities in mesopotamian marshes of southern iraq. this research aimed to (i) determine the migratory and breeding species of birds of prey and (ii) highlight the potential threat impacts on the migratory population in the mesopotamian marshes of southern iraq. materials and methods the study area the mesopotamian marshes are a vast complex of permanent freshwater wetlands, semidesert aridlands, and scrublands encompass geographical zone (32°50' n 30°50'e) extending between thi-qar (nassiriyah), masyan (emara), and basra provinces in southern iraq. the mesopotamian marshes are consist of three major core areas which are the central marshes (c. 3000km2), eastern and western al-hammar marsh (c. 3000km2), and hawizeh marsh (c. 2350km2) with an estimated area of 9000-20000 km2 (al-mansori, 2008; hussain, 2014). the mesopotamian marshes occupy the tigris-euphrates alluvial salt marsh (pa0906) ecoregion with altitude less than 6m and supplied with water from the tigris and euphrates rivers and their tributaries (hussain, 2014; nature iraq, 2017). the major landscape is dominated by freshwater open lakes lined with dense common reed phragmites australis beds and typha sp. vegetation, arid plains with scattered xeric vegetations dominated mainly by tamarix sp., open plains and cultivated fields edging the major wetlands, and mudflats that extend along the southern proportions of eastern al-hammar marsh toward al-fao (fao) peninsula (map.1). field observations and data collection: the occurrence of birds of prey in the mesopotamian marshes was made through field observations, citing literature records, and personal communications of unpublished data obtained during 20 field expeditions conducted from january 2016 to april 2019. (i) field observations: field records were obtained using rapid assessment through listing method (e.g. sutherland, 2006). a total of 20 sites were visited during january 2016-april 2019. in situ work was of four-six hours per one-three days spent in the study sites and a period (4-6 hours/1-3 day/site) was spent. the starting time of the field surveys was varying. a list of observations (+/presence/absence) with count was made from direct visual observations of live birds in the wild, birds in captivity, and/or dead specimens (hunted or trapped) within the study areas. data documentation was made using swarovski 10x42 el range binocular and canon digital camera bodies (eos dslr 80d and eos dslr 450d) fixed with canon 100400mm image stabilizer zoom lens. the species morphological description and field 385 omar f. al-sheikhly and ahmad j. al-azawi identification remarks were following (clark, 2000). (ii) literature review: an intensive review of literature dated from 1918-2017 searching for available information on birds of prey in the mesopotamian marshes was made. publications such as journal articles, books, field guides, and academic theses including: cumming(1918), donald (1919), ticehurst et al.(1922), meinertzhagen (1914, 1924a, 1924b), moor and boswell (1956), scott and carp (1982), scott (1993), evans (1994), scott (1995), abed (2007), salim et al. (2009), alsheikhly et al. (2017) , fazaa et al. (2017), and nature iraq (2017) which describe historical and recent records obtained for the geographical expanse of mesopotamian marshes were reviewed. (iii) personal communications of unpublished data: detailed interviews with marsh arabs (indigenous inhabitants of mesopotamian marshes), local hunters and trappers were periodically practiced and when possible. interviews were recorded through note-taking and audio/photography documentation to supporting listing method (e.g. sutherland, 2006). threats on both species and habitats were recorded based on extensive literature review and field observations made during our current surveys; threats were categorized according to the iucn classification (iucn, 2017). the suggested status of raptors in the mesopotamian marshes was assessed according to the number of available records of each species such as vagrant (one record only), rare (2-3 records), uncommon (4-5 records), widespread or common (6-9 records), and abundant (≥10 records). results and discussion systematic list of species the following species were recorded within the geographical zone of the mesopotamian marshes and mentioned in the literatures and/or have been observed during april 2016-april 2019 field surveys. the species iucn conservation status is mentioned as least concern (lc) near threatened (nt), vulnerable (vu), and endangered (en) and their taxonomic order is following blair et al. (2018). 1. western osprey pandion haliaetus (linnaeus, 1758) (lc) uncommon winter visitor and passage migrant in the mesopotamian marshes; it was recorded by ticehurst et al. (1922), moor and boswell (1956), and scott and carp (1982). an adult was shot over the aqua farms in al-masshab (mashab) marsh (30°35'58.83"n 47°41'46.17"e) in eastern al-hammar marsh in basra province on january 2016. an adult has been recorded perching on an electricity pylon at the eastern edge of hawizeh marsh near al-kahla’a district (31°41'9.14"n 47°20'50.55"e) in maysan province in march 2016. 2. black-winged kite elanus caeruleus (desfontaines, 1789) (lc) uncommon and localized breeding resident in date palm orchids and cultivated fields on the edge of the mesopotamian marshes; it was recorded by salim et al. (2009), nature iraq (2017), and fazaa et al. (2017). an adult has been recorded hovering over sparsely vegetated plains near haur al-auda marsh (31°37'49.58"n 46°51'13.43"e) in masyan province on june 2017. 3. egyptian vulture neophron percnopterus (linnaeus, 1758) (en) vagrant, probably a winter visitor and passage migrant to the arid lands, steppes, and dumpsites on the edge of the mesopotamian marshes. allouse (1960) mentioned that this species is frequent in plains of central and southern iraq in winter without giving further details on exact localities. recent satellite tracking showed that tagged egyptian vultures are probably migrating through the northern edge of the mesopotamian marshes (buechley et al., 2018; karyakin et al., 2018b). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/carl_linnaeus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/10th_edition_of_systema_naturae 386 the diurnal birds of prey (raptors) in the mesopotamian marshes 4. european honey buzzard pernis apivorus (linnaeus, 1758) (lc) rare winter visitor and passage migrant to the cultivated fields, steppes, and dry plains on the edge of the mesopotamian marshes; it was recorded in al-fao peninsula in southern iraq by cumming (1918) and cited by ticehurst et al. (1922). a juvenile has been recorded perching on the electricity pylons near al-eslah district (31°7'58.42"n 46°30'1.12"e) on the western part of the central marshes in thi-qar province on february 2017. 5. eurasian griffon vulture gyps fulvus (hablitz, 1783) (lc) (pl. 1a) vagrant, a winter visitor and passage migrant over arid lands on the edge of the mesopotamian marshes. it was not listed among the raptors fauna of the mesopotamian marshes; however, three griffon vultures (two adults and one immature vulture) were observed on the arid plains to the west of shatrah (31°23'31.82"n 45°50'37.87"e) at the northwestern part of the central marshes in thi-qar province on march 2018. 6. cinereous (black) vulture aegypius monachus (linnaeus, 1766) (nt) rare winter visitor and passage migrant over dry steppes and aridllands on the edge of the mesopotamian marshes. it was recorded from the geographical zone of southern marshes in mid-winter survey 1979 (scott and carp, 1982) and from central marshes (fazaa et al., 2017; nature iraq, 2017). 7. short-toed snake eagle circaetus gallicus (gmelin, 1788) (lc) (pl. 1b) rare passage migrant and winter visitor to the vegetated plains, dry salty marshes (sabkhat), and shallow seasonal wetlands of the mesopotamian marshes. it was recorded in the geographical zone of southern marshes in mid-winter survey in 1979 (scott and carp, 1982) and in central marshes (fazaa et al., 2017). an adult female has been recorded hovering over ishan al-gubbah marsh (31° 4'2.28"n 47° 1'13.61"e) on the northern part of central marshes in thi-qar province on march 2018. 8. lesser spotted eagle clanga pomarina (brehm, 1831) (lc) status uncertain, possibly a rare vagrant in the mesopotamian marshes. it has been recorded from basra (donald, 1919) which cited by ticehurst et al. (1922) and from southern iraq (meinertzhagen, 1924a), these were the only confirmed records of this species in southern iraq. 9. greater spotted eagle clanga (aquila) clanga (pallas, 1811) (vu) (pl. 1c) widespread winter visitor and passage migrant over the marshy lakes and vegetated plains of the mesopotamian marshes. it was recorded almost by all previous surveys (cumming, 1918; donald, 1919; ticehurst et al., 1922; meinertzhagen, 1924b; scott and carp, 1982; abed, 2007; salim et al., 2009; nature iraq, 2017; fazaa et al., 2017). a total of 18 individuals have been recorded in central marshes and 10 in western al-hammar marsh in thi-qar province during 2018-2019. 10. booted eagle hieraaetus pennatus (gmelin, 1788) (lc) rare winter visitor and passage migrant in the mesopotamian marshes. it was recorded from al-fao peninsula (cumming, 1918) and cited by ticehurst et al. (1922). an adult booted eagle has been recorded over al-shelajiyah mudflat (30°36'17.71"n 47°38'23.94"e) in the southern part of eastern al-hammar marsh in basra province on april 2016. 11. steppe eagle aquila nipalensis (hodgson, 1833) (en) (pl. 1d) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/carl_ludwig_hablitz https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/johann_friedrich_gmelin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/christian_ludwig_brehm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/peter_simon_pallas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/johann_friedrich_gmelin 387 omar f. al-sheikhly and ahmad j. al-azawi widespread winter visitor and passage migrant over the vegetated plains and dry steppes of the mesopotamian marshes. it was recorded by donald (1919), ticehurst et al. (1922), scott and carp (1982), abed (2007), salim et al. (2009), and fazaa et al. (2017). a ringed eagle was recovered from northeastern part of the southern marshes (al-sheikhly et al., 2017). it has been recorded from the dry plains of al-fao peninsula and eastern al-hammar marsh in january 2016; two immature were recorded at ishan al-azarag marsh (31° 2'37.19"n 47° 9'34.29"e) in the northeastern part of the central marshes in thi-qar province on march 2018. 12. eastern (asian) imperial eagle aquila heliaca (savigny, 1809) (vu) (pl.1e, f) widespread winter visitor and passage migrant over the vegetated plains and dry steppes of the mesopotamian marshes. it was recorded by donald (1919), ticehurst et al. (1922), scott and carp (1982), salim et al. (2009), and nature iraq (2017). a tagged eagle was recorded from northeastern part of the southern marshes (al-sheikhly et al., 2017). it is abundant along the highway between ali-al-garbi and hawr sarrot marsh (32° 9'23.73"n 46°57'35.92"e) in masyan province where it observed on the electricity pylons in november 2017-january 2018. an immature was recorded over ishan al-azarag marsh in the northeastern part of the central marshes in thi-qar province on march 2018. 13. golden eagle aquila chrysaetos (linnaeus, 1758) (lc) status uncertain, possibly vagrant in the mesopotamian marshes; it has been recorded from the restored marshes during 2004-2005 (abed, 2007) and that seems the only record of this species within the geographical zone of the mesopotamian marshes. 14. eurasian sparrowhawk accipiter nisus (linnaeus, 1758) (lc) widespread winter visitor and passage migrant in almost suitable habitats in the mesopotamian marshes. it was recorded by ticehurst et al. (1922), scott and carp (1982), abed (2007), salim et al. (2009), and fazaa et al. (2017). it has been recorded over hawizeh and auda marshes in maysan province in march 2016. total of seven sparrowhawks were recorded over marshy lakes and date palm orchids on the edge of the central marshes in thiqar province on january and march 2019. 15. western marsh harrier circus aeruginosus (linnaeus, 1758) (lc) (pl. 1g) widespread winter visitor and passage migrant in the mesopotamian marshes; however, its current breeding status is uncertain. it has been recorded by cumming (1918), donald (1919), ticehurst et al. (1922), scott and carp (1982), abed (2007), salim et al. (2009), and fazaa et al. (2017). it has been recorded almost over the marshy wetlands in southern iraq. a total of 13 individuals were recorded in nagara lake in eastern al-hammar marsh in basra province in january 2017; three were recorded over dense reed beds in hawizeh marsh in maysan province in march 2017. a large number of 93 marsh harriers have been recorded over the central marshes in thi-qar province during february 2018-march 2019. 16. hen harrier circus cyaneus (linnaeus, 1766) (lc) uncommon winter visitor and passage migrant to the marshy lakes and vegetated steppes of the mesopotamian marshes. it was recorded by scott and carp (1982), abed (2007), and salim et al. (2009). it seems that adult males are confused with adult males pallid harrier which is frequent to the wetlands of central and southern iraq (e.g. moor and boswell, 1956). an adult male has been recorded from abu khasaf village (31°39'7.16"n 47°35'31.04"e) on the western edge of al-hawizeh marsh in maysan province in march 2017. three hen harriers were recorded over the central marshes in thi-qar province during 2018-2019. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/marie_jules_c%c3%a9sar_savigny https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/carl_linnaeus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/carl_linnaeus 388 the diurnal birds of prey (raptors) in the mesopotamian marshes 17. pallid harrier circus macrourus (s. g. gmelin, 1770) (nt) widespread winter visitor and passage migrant to the marshy lakes and vegetated steppes of the mesopotamian marshes. it was recorded by cumming (1918), ticehurst et al. (1922), scott and carp (1982), and fazaa et al. (2017). an adult male was recorded over al-mansori river (30°41'16.05"n 47°38'59.51"e) in eastern al-hammr marsh in basra province on february 2017. an adult male was observed flying over abu ajaj marsh (30°53'59.42"n 46°56'13.58"e) in western al-hammar marsh in thi-qar province in april 2018. three pallid harriers were recorded over al-baghdadiyah lake (31°2'26.97"n 47° 4'19.14"e) in central marshes in thi-qar province in 2018. 18. montagu’s harrier circus pygargus (linnaeus, 1758) (lc) rare winter visitor and passage migrant to the marshy lakes, cultivated fields, and dry steppes on the edge of the mesopotamian marshes. it was recorded in the central marshes in 2013 (fazaa et al., 2017). two montagu’s harriers were recorded in the central marshes in thi-qar province in september and november 2018. 19. black kite milvus migrans (boddaert, 1783) (lc) rare winter visitor and passage migrant to dumpsites, dray steppes, and open plains one the edge of the mesopotamian marshes. the european race m. m. migrans was recorded in the territory of southern marshes in winter 1979 (scott and carp, 1982). a flock of seven different ages black kite was observed perching on electricity pylons and foraging over alchebaeish city dumpsite (30°56'39.30"n 47° 0'26.52"e) in thi-qar province on april 2016. 20. black-eared kite milvus (migrans) lineatus (j. e. gray, 1831) (lc) status uncertain possibly overlooked as it is accompanying black kite milvus m. migrans migratory flocks in the mesopotamian marshes. a juvenile with distinctive morphological features (e. g. clark, 2000) undoubtedly identified as black-eared kite was observed in a mixed flock of black kites foraging over the dumpsite of al-chebaeish city in thi-qar province on april 2016 (see black kite). 21. pallas’s fish eagle haliaeetus leucoryphus (pallas, 1771) (en) status uncertain, possibly a rare winter visitor and passage migrant to the mesopotamian marshes. it was only mentioned by ticehurst et al. (1922) as one of the birds of prey of mesopotamia and scott (1995) indicated that pallas’s fish eagle was one of the avifauna of the southern wetlands in the winter of 1979; these were the only records of this species in the mesopotamian marshes. 22. white-tailed eagle haliaeetus albicilla (linnaeus, 1758) (lc) rare winter visitor and passage migrant over marshy wetlands, vegetated steppes, and arid lands on the edge of the mesopotamian marshes; it was recorded within the territory of the southern marshes (moor and boswell, 1956; scott and carp, 1982) and recently recorded in the central marshes in thi-qar province on 2013 (fazaa et al., 2017). 23. long-legged buzzard buteo rufinus (cretzschmar, 1829) (lc) (pl. 1h) a widespread winter visitor and passage migrant over the vegetated steppes, cultivated fields, and open grasslands on the edge of the mesopotamian marshes. it was recorded by cumming (1918), ticehurst et al. (1922), scott and carp (1982), salim et al. (2009), and fazaa et al. (2017). two buzzards of this species were observed perching on the electricity pylons along the road linking al-adel township to al-auda marsh (31°29'33.96"n 47° 2'47.53"e) on march 2016. a juvenile was recorded over the central marshes in thi-qar province on march 2018. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/s._g._gmelin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/carl_linnaeus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/pieter_boddaert https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/john_edward_gray https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/peter_simon_pallas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/carl_linnaeus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/philipp_jakob_cretzschmar 389 omar f. al-sheikhly and ahmad j. al-azawi 24. northern steppe buzzard buteo buteo vulpinus (gloger, 1833) (lc) rare winter visitor and passage migrant over the vegetated steppes, cultivated fields, and open grasslands on the edge of the mesopotamian marshes. it was recorded from al-fao peninsula in southern iraq by cumming (1918) and cited by ticehurst et al. (1922). a flock of five buzzards of the northern race b. b. vulpinus were recorded over ishan halab marsh (31°3'45.78"n 47° 6'33.60"e) at the northern edge of the central marshes in thi-qar province on march 2018. 25. lesser kestrel falco naumanni (fleischer, 1818) (lc) vagrant, a winter visitor and passage migrant to the mesopotamian marshes; it was reported in the territory of southern wetlands by ticehurst et al. (1922) which is the only record we had. 26. common kestrel falco tinnunculus (linnaeus, 1758) (lc) widespread winter visitor and passage migrant over the marshy lakes, urban areas, and cultivated fields on the edge of the mesopotamian marshes; however, the breeding status is uncertain, probably a local breeding resident. it was recorded by cumming (1918), donald (1919), ticehurst et al. (1922), scott and carp (1982), abed (2007), salim et al. (2009), and fazaa et al. (2017). there were four records of this species; an adult male was observed over abu sobat canal (30°58'16.00"n47°1'28.45"e) in al-chebaeish district in thi-qar province in january 2016, an adult male was soaring over the plains of al-hilfayah (31°39'27.55"n 47°30'6.56"e) on the western edge of hawizeh marsh in masyan province on march 2017; an adult female was observed hovering over the fields of abu sakheer (30°41'55.98"n 47°26'3.45"e) in eastern al-hammar marsh in basra province on march 2018, and four individuals were recorded in central marshes in thi-qar province on 2018-2019. 27. merlin falco columbarius (linnaeus, 1758) (lc) rare winter visitor and passage migrant to the marshy lakes, open plains, and cultivated fields on the edge of the mesopotamian marshes; it was recorded in the southern marshes by ticehurst et al. (1922) and scott and carp (1982). an adult with pale plumage possibly of the central asian race f.c. pallidus was recorded flying over ishan halab marsh in central marshes in thi-qar province on march 2018. 28. eurasian hobby falco subbuteo (linnaeus, 1758) (lc) rare winter visitor and passage migrant to the marshy lakes, open plains, and cultivated fields on the edge of the mesopotamian marshes. it was recorded by cumming (1918) in alfao peninsula and cited by ticehurst et al. (1922), and form central marshes in 2013 (fazaa et al., 2017). 29. lanner falcon falco biarmicus (temminck, 1825) (lc) vagrant, a winter visitor and passage migrant; it was recorded from al-fao peninsula by cumming (1918) and cited by ticehurst et al. (1922) which is the only record we had. 30. southern saker falcon falco cherrug milvipes (jerdon, 1871) (en) vagrant, a winter visitor and passage migrant, it was recorded for the territory of southern wetlands by ticehurst et al. (1922) which is the only record that has been obtained. 31. peregrine falcon falco peregrines (tunstall, 1771) (lc) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/johann_gottlieb_fleischer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/coenraad_jacob_temminck https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/marmaduke_tunstall 390 the diurnal birds of prey (raptors) in the mesopotamian marshes uncommon winter visitor and passage migrant to the marshy lakes and open shallow seasonal wetlands of mesopotamian marshes where large flocks of water birds are congregating; it has been recorded in southern marshes by cumming (1918), donald (1919), ticehurst et al. (1922), and scott and carp (1982). a large adult female was trapped near aledheam mudflats (31°43'31.86"n 47°45'12.83"e) at the northern edge of hawizeh marsh in maysan province in december 2017. 32. barbary falcon falco (peregrinus) pelegrinoides (temminck, 1829) (lc) vagrant, a winter visitor and passage migrant to marshy lakes, open vegetated plains on the edge of the mesopotamian marshes. an adult male with remarkably large rufous hind neck, faintly barred under parts, and brown-grayish plumage was observed over the 5th irrigation canal (30°56'50.11"n 47° 8'40.06"e) in western al-hammar marsh in thi-qar province on april 2018. when adding the data obtained from 2016-2019 field surveys with previous related literature records, it is found that 32 species from total 42 species/taxa listed in iraq (e.g. blair et al., 20018) (76.1%) have been recorded in the zoogeographical range of the mesopotamian marshes from 1918 to april 2019. during 2003-2017, several ornithological studies were conducted in the mesopotamian marshes (e.g. abed, 2007; salim et al., 2009; nature iraq, 2017; fazaa et al., 2017). total of six raptors species (two iucn red-listed) were recorded in the restored marshes during the period from may 2004to may 2005 (abed, 2007). only six raptor species were recorded during the field surveys conducted in the mesopotamian marshes from april 2005-to december 2008 (salim et al., 2009). despite there were several raptor species that have been recorded through regular observations in the mesopotamian marshes from april 2005 to late 2010, only four raptor species were used as kba key species criteria (nature iraq, 2017). three globally threatened species (greater spotted eagle, eastern imperial eagle, and pallid harrier) were used as vulnerability criteria to assess the kba sites in mesopotamian marshes and also have been recorded in our recent study (tab. 1). moreover, the current field surveys conducted in the central marshes from october 2013-june 2014 detected a total of 13 raptor species from which four are iucn red-listed (fazza et al., 2017). the results show that mesopotamian marshes seem ecologically and climatically important as a stopover site for globally threatened migratory raptors. in iraq, a total of 13 raptor species of global conservation concern have been recorded (salim et al., 2012) from which seven species (53.8%) have been recorded by literature in the geographical zone of the mesopotamian marshes. in current study, a total of eight globally threatened species (four endangered, two vulnerable, and two near-threatened) were recorded (tab.1). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/coenraad_jacob_temminck 391 omar f. al-sheikhly and ahmad j. al-azawi table (1): list of diurnal raptors recorded in the geographical zone of mesopotamian marshes from 1918-2019 with their current taxonomic revision (blair et al., 2018) and international union for conservation of nature (iucn) conservation status. lc: least concern; nt: near threatened; vu: vulnerable; en: endangered; wv: winter visitor; pm: passage migrant; rv: rare vagrant; bsv: breeding summer visitor; br: breeding resident.* not the actual number of species detected, it is based on kba vulnerability criteria and/or published records (nature iraq, 2017). 392 the diurnal birds of prey (raptors) in the mesopotamian marshes 393 omar f. al-sheikhly and ahmad j. al-azawi allouse (1960) mentioned that the egyptian vulture is widespread in open dry plains and steppes in central and southern iraq in winter without providing further details on wintering localities. recent satellite tracking showed that tagged egyptian vultures are probably distributed throughout the geographical zone of the mesopotamian marshes during their migration (buechley et al., 2018; karyakin et al., 2018b). we regarded this species as vagrant to the mesopotamian marshes, but it might be a regular winter visitor and passage migrant; therefore, further field observations are required to verify such claim. the occurrence of the golden eagle in mesopotamian marshes is possibly being overlooked but it is worth mentioning. it has been recorded in the restored marsh in may 2004-may 2005 (abed, 2007) who indicated that species identification was based on visual observation. this species is probably misidentified as a greater spotted eagle which is a widespread passage migrant and winter visitor in the southern iraqi wetlands. moreover, golden eagle is scarce elsewhere in arabia, it has localized breeding populations confined to the zagros mountains in western iran, southern saudi arabia, united arab emiratis, oman, and recorded as a vagrant in kuwait (porter and aspinall, 2010). furthermore, the golden eagle has never been recorded during the previous or current surveys in southern marshes; thus, its enigmatic status in the mesopotamian marshes requires further investigation. the occurrence of the tawny eagle aquila rapax (temminck, 1828) in iraq is uncertain; specimens obtained from kut and basra with wing span 520 and 525mm was assigned to this species by mr. w. l. bclater; however, ticehurst et al. (1922) indicated that were no records which can safely be assigned to this species in mesopotamia. despite what mentioned above, tawny eagle was noted near ramadi in western iraq in november (ticehurst et al., 1926; allouse 1953; moore and boswell, 1956). it is worth mentioning, that this species was omitted by salim et al. (2012) without sufficient justification. breeding populations of tawny eagle are found in southwestern saudi arabia, northwestern yemen, southern iran, and has been recorded in oman (may refer to indian race a. r. vindhiana), and palestine as a vagrant (porter and aspinall, 2010). the status of the lesser spotted eagle in the mesopotamian marshes is also uncertain; it was recorded from basra (donald, 1919) and vicinity of tekrit and marshes of kurna in winter (meinertzhagen, 1914; allouse, 1953). however, salim et al. (2012) mentioned that those records were no longer considered acceptable as they almost certainly referred to greater spotted eagle. the omitting of lesser spotted eagle from iraq avifauna was not sufficiently justified by salim et al. (2012) as he did not provide a robust refutation to previous records (meinertzhagen, 1914; donald, 1919) and/or a detailed taxonomic explanation of why being referred as greater spotted eagles. however, the first photographic documentation of this species was obtained in penjween in northern iraq (kurdistan) (ararat, 2016). moor and boswell (1956) mentioned that lesser peregrine falcon which wintering in mesopotamian wetlands are probably from the races f. p. brookei and f. p. pelegrinoides. the barbary falcon f. pelegrinoides is considered to be a subspecies of the peregrine falcon which is a resident breeder and widely distributed in the deserts and arid steppes of mesopotamia during winter (white et al., 2013). there was no attempt to distinguish between the very similar races of barbary falcon f. p. pelegrinoides and red capped falcon “rednape shaheen” f. p. babylonicus which both are likely to breed in iraq but their distribution range and ecological separation required comprehensive study (salim et al., 2012). ararat et al. (2011) confirmed the breeding of f. p. pelegrinoides in northern iraq and reported that https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/coenraad_jacob_temminck 394 the diurnal birds of prey (raptors) in the mesopotamian marshes peregrine falcon of the race f. p. brookei is also breeding at only one site in northwestern iraq. subsequently, this peregrine breeding record was reviewed and revised by al-sheikhly (2012) and assigned to f. p. pelegrinoides race of barbary falcon (al-sheikhly, 2014). the biodiversity in the iraqi marshes is influenced by the hydrological fluctuation between the flood and drainage seasons (richardson et al., 2005). in addition, the anthropogenic environmental stress affects the biological productivity of the wetland communities and reduces the optimal nutritional activities, richness and abundance of the native biota (rader et al., 2001). during the current field surveys, several threats that affecting both raptors and their habitats were observed. the drought and extreme temperature (observed in may-june 2018) have probably led to reduce water levels and vegetation cover over large extents in the mesopotamian marshes which subsequently impacted on the abundance of native biota (e.g. fazaa et al., 2017). moreover, it seems that the extreme hot weather reduces the prey abundance which is subsequently affecting the presence of breeding raptors species. the common kestrel was the only species recorded in the mesopotamian marshes during summer surveys in may-june 2018 where it is possibly breed; yet, its breeding was not confirmed. pollution especially with domestic and urban waste water and garbage/solid wastes was evaluated as a very high threat in the mesopotamian marshes which warrants immediate remedy by local communities. hunting and trapping was suggested to pose threats on migratory raptors along their migration routes and in wintering areas (karyakin, 2015; karyakin et al., 2018a). the field observations showed that over-exploitation and direct persecution (illegal trade, trapping and shooting) is one of the major threats affecting birds of prey population especially those wintering in southern wetlands. several migratory raptors species especially large aquila eagles are persecuted whenever and wherever possible by local hunters without known motivations (pl. 2). the iraqi legislation of protection of wild animals law (no. 17 issued on 15 february 2010) bans the illegal hunting practices of many avian species. only five raptor species (white-tailed eagle, eurasian griffon vulture, golden eagle, lanner falcon, and saker falcon) in which all have been recorded in the mesopotamian marshes are prohibited to be hunted by this law. however, the absence of full enforcement of existing legislations might cause national and possibly regional declines of certain raptor species in iraq and the middle east (al-sheikhly, 2011, 2012, 2014). indeed, the conservation of birds of prey and other indigenous biota is an environmental responsibility that required to be achieved by iraqi related authorities. 395 omar f. al-sheikhly and ahmad j. al-azawi map (1): the mesopotamian marshes in southern iraq, showing the boundaries of the study area along with different habitats (aquatic and terrestrial); (a) shallow marshes edged with scrubland and terrestrial embankments, (b) muddy islets lined with dense common reed phragmites australis vegetation in the main water body of the central marshes, (c) the open vegetated plains of the north-western edge of the central mashes, (d) a mixed landscape of dense tamarix sp. vegetation interacted with shallow watercourses; (e and f) typical water ways of the mesopotamian marshes freshwater lakes. (all photos were photographed by omar f. al-sheikhly). 396 the diurnal birds of prey (raptors) in the mesopotamian marshes plate (1): some birds of prey in the mesopotamian marshes; (a) eurasian griffon vulture, (b) adult female short-toed snake eagle, (c) adult greater spotted eagle, (d) immature steppe eagle, (e) adult eastern imperial eagle, (f) juvenile eastern imperial eagle, (g) adult male western marsh harrier, (h) adult long-legged buzzard. (all photos were photographed by omar f. al-sheikhly). 397 omar f. al-sheikhly and ahmad j. al-azawi plate (2): the illegal hunting of birds of prey; a juvenile eastern imperial eagle persecuted by local hunter on the edge of the mesopotamian marshes. (a photo was photographed by omar f. al-sheikhly). conclusions in this study, the ecological importance of the mesopotamian marshes for migratory and breeding populations of birds of prey has been highlighted. the mesopotamian marshes are falling within the major flyways of migratory birds of prey that migrating form breeding grounds in northern hemisphere toward wintering grounds in arabia and africa. therefore, the ecosystems of the mesopotamian marshes are probably sustaining large numbers of migratory birds of prey annually which required to be conserved accordingly. besides personal communication and literature review, the field observations indicated that total of 32 species of bird of prey occur within the geographical zone of the mesopotamian marshes. out of these 32 species, eight globally threatened species (four endangered, two vulnerable, and two near-threatened) were recorded in the current study. with particular emphasis on large migratory aquila eagles, the mesopotamian marshes are hosting migratory population of the globally threatened greater spotted, eastern imperial, and steppe eagles. in addition, three species of old-world vultures have been recorded during recent surveys which highlight the ecological importance of the area as an important stopover sites for migratory vultures. previously, the marshes hosted breeding populations of white-tailed eagle and western marsh harrier, but because of unstable fluctuation of the ecological conditions and increasing anthropogenic and climatic risks in the marshes, these breeding populations were possibly faded. despite the unique communities of birds of prey in the mesopotamian marshes; yet, threats such as species persecution, pollution, habitat destruction and fragmentation, and climate change are posing concerns on their survival. 398 the diurnal birds of prey (raptors) in the mesopotamian marshes acknowledgment we are grateful to mukhtar k. haba and nadheer a. fazaa (college of science for women-university of baghdad, iraqi green climate organization igco) for their dedicated participations in the field surveys (data collecting and analyzing; species/sites identification) along with their editorial comments on the draft of this manuscript; to ra’ad h. al-asady and habeeb t. al-asady (al-chebaeish ecotourism organization) for their devoted participation in the field work (providing field logistics; assisting in sites identification). we also thank philippe de grissac and claire paque (ligue for protection of birds lpo-birdlife-france) and other members of french delegation for their support and participation in the field observations made in central marshes during march 2018. literature cited abed, j. m. 2007. status of water birds in restored southern iraqi marshes. marsh bulletin, 2(1): 64-79. allouse, b. 1953. the avifauna of iraq. iraq natural history museum, baghdad, 163pp. allouse, b. 1960. birds of iraq. 2nd ed. al-rabita press, baghdad, iraq, 276pp. [in arabic]. al-mansori f.y. 2008. the future expectations for the marshlands restoration. ph.d. thesis, college of science, basra university, 174pp. al-sheikhly o. f. 2014. peregrine falcons wintering in baghdad, iraq. falco, 42: 6-7. al-sheikhly, o. f. 2011. a survey report on the raptors trapping and trade in iraq. wildlife middle east, 6 (1): 145. al-sheikhly, o. f. 2012. report on the first record of red-footed falcon falco vespertinus in iraq. falco, 39: 10-11. al-sheikhly, o. f., al-barazangi, a. n., mukhtar, k.h., fazaa, n., abdulzahra, h. k., abou turab, m. k. and al-azawi a. j. 2017. ring recoveries from steppe eagles and eastern imperial eagles from the russian and kazakhstan breeding populations and a review of major threats to eagles in iraq. raptors conservation, 35: 51-61. ararat, k. 2016. first record of lesser spotted eagle clanga pomarina, first breeding record of eurasian penduline tit remiz pendulinus and first records of eastern bonelli's warbler phylloscopus orientalis, olive tree warbler hippolais olivetorum and goldcrest regulus regulus, for iraq. sandgrouse, 38(1): 106-109. ararat, k., fadhil o., porter, r. f. and salim, m. 2011. breeding birds in iraq: important new discoveries. sandgouse, 33 (1): 12-33. bildstein, k. l. 2006. migrating raptors of the world: their ecology and conservation. cornell university press, ithaca, usa, 320pp. birdlife international. 2018. data zone: iraq. available at: http://datazone.birdlife.org/country/iraq 399 omar f. al-sheikhly and ahmad j. al-azawi blair, m., perlman, y. and sheldon, r. 2018. pocket checklist of the birds of osme region. ornithological society of middle east, the caucasus and central asia, uk, 64pp. boere, g. c. and stroud, d. a. 2006. the flyway concept: what it is and what it isn’t, p 40–47. in: boere, g. c., galbraith, c. a. and stroud, d. a. 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(2019) 15 (4): 381-402 النهارية في أهوار بالد الرافدين في جنوب العراق مع ( الجوارح)الطيور الجارحة مالحظات عن حالة الصون العزاوي اسمأحمد ج* الشيخلي اضلعمر ف** العراق, بغداد, غدادجامعة ب, كلية العلوم, قسم علوم الحياة 9752/ 92/59: , تأريخ النشر55/72/9752: , تأريخ القبول 51/70/9752: تأريخ الاستالم الخالصة هي مجموعة متميزة من الطيور املفترسة التي تهاجر ( الجوارح)أن الطيور الجارحة شبه الجزيرة سنويا عبر أهوار بالد الرافدين في جنوب العراق نحو أراض ي التشتية في ولكن توجد شحة من املعلومات , َمفَرخبينما البعض ألاخر مقيم و , العربية وأفريقيا ولغاية 6102تم أجراء عشرين بعثة حقلية خالل كانون الثاني . حول وضعها الحالي . ضمن النطاق الجغرافي ألهوار بالد الرافدين وهي أراض ي رطبة دولية 6102نيسان .وهور الحويزة, هور الحمار, ة ألاهوار الوسطىغطت املسوحات الحقلي املشتية أو )أن أحد اهداف املسوحات الحقلية هو وضع قائمة بأنواع الجوارح املهاجرة في هذه . الحاليالزماني واملكاني في أهوار بالد الرافدين ومعرفة أنتشارها ( القاطعة 26الدراسة تم تسجيل من الجوارح النهارية من خالل مسوحات حقلية نوعا وتسجيالت غير منشورة جّمعت عبر املراسالت , مراجعة ألادبيات ذات الصلة, مستفيظة تم تسجيل ثمانية أنواع من الجوارح املدرجة ضمن القائمة , عالوة على ذلك. الشخصية red list طبيعةالعالمي لصون ال لإلتحاد الانقراضالحمراء لألنواع املهددة بخطر iucn التغيرات , أعتبر تدمير املوائل, الى جانب القتل املتعمد عبر الصيد الجائر والتلوث من املهددات التي تؤثر سلبا على مجتمعات الجوارح في أهوار بالد , املناخية .الرافدين مما يدعو الى أتخاذ أجراءات صون أضافية full page photo bull 187 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum kareem et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2022) 17 (2): 187-195. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2022.17.2.0187 original article first record of two parasitoid wasps of the family chalcididae (hymenoptera) in iraq ali a. kareem*♦, hossein lotfalizadeh**, ayad alsendi***, raad kareem aljaafari* and sienaa m. al-zurfi* * plant protection department, college of agriculture, university of kerbala, kerbala, iraq **plant protection research department, east-azarbaijan agricultural and natural resources research and education center, areeo, tabriz, iran ***department of plant protection, faculty of agriculture and natural resources, university of tehran, karaj, iran ♦corresponding author: ali.kareem@uokerbala.edu.iq received date: 30 june 2022, accepted date: 03 sept. 2022, published date: 20 december 2022 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract the family chalcididae (order: hymenoptera) is known as one of the large chalcidoid wasps with some distinct morphological characters. the first occurrence of two parasitoid species belonging to this family was reported in the al-husayniya district, karbala province, iraq; which are: brachymeria podagrica (fabricius, 1787) and chalcis myrifex (sulzer, 1776). both species were collected by using the sweeping net from orchards during july 2020. keywords: brachymeria, chalcididae, chalcis, new record, karbala, parasitoid. introduction the family of chalcididae (hymenoptera, chalcidoidea) is ascetically big and globally distributed, presently containing more than 85 genera and about 1,564 species under five subfamilies (noyes, 2020; cruaud et al., 2021). these are parasitic wasps of cocoon of two orders (lepidoptera and diptera) species (delvare, 1995) and are endoparasitoids wasps called host group-specific (dajoz, 2010) of diptera species, coleoptera larvae, lepidoptera species, and some species of tenthredinidae family and neuroptera order (herting, 1978; bouček, 1988; lotfalizadeh et al., 2012). more than 122 hosts incest can be parasitized by twenty-five species of chalcididae; of these, ninety-eight are lepidoptera, sixteen diptera, thirteen hymenoptera, and four coleoptera (ferrer, 2010). lotfalizadeh and mohammadikhoramabadi (2021) believe that 71% of known species from iran have unknown biology and the rest are parasitoids of lepidoptera, coleoptera and diptera as the main hosts of the family. so far, more than six species belonging to three genera of chalcidoidea have been reported from iraq (noyes, 2020). these are brachymeria aegyptiaca masi, b. femorata (panzer), b. obtusata (foerster), b. tibialis (walker), cratocentrus inermus delvare and kriechbaumerella bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799-print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2022.17.2.0187 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0054-2737 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7927-819x https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5142-7878 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3646-3149 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8332-1472 mailto:ali.kareem@uokerbala.edu.iq https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 188 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum first record of two parasitoid wasps mansues (nikolskaya). therefore, the family chalcididae is poorly known in iraq and further samplings are badly needed. recently, many parasitic wasps novelty reported from iraq (alzurfi et al., 2020; kareem et al., 2020 a, b). the objective of the work is to report the first occurrence of two parasitoids of the family chalcididae from iraq. materials and methods the collecting of specimens was done by using the sweeping net from orchards in alhusayniya quarter in karbala city, iraq in july 2020. these were mounted by insect pin and labelled and primarily identify to high taxa under a stereo microscope at 80x magnifications. the specimens were primarily identified and confirmed by the second author (hl). identifications were done using the keys in masi (1951), steffan (1951, 1959), bouček and sedivy (1954), nikolskaya (1978) and lotfalizadeh (2012). the specimens are placed in the dr. hossein lotfalizadeh lab and the insect collection of the university of kerbala, iraq. results the specimens were identified as brachymeria podagrica (fabricius, 1787) (pl. 1) and chalcis myrifex (sulzer, 1776) (pl. 2) brachymeria podagrica (fabricius, 1787) (pl. 1) synonyms: brachymeria aligarhensis husain and agarwal, 1982 b. alphius (walker, 1846) b. callipus (kirby, 1883) b. dipterophaga (girault and dodd, 1915) b. eccentrica (cameron, 1897) b. fonscolombei (dufour, 1841) b. fonscolombei gananensis masi, 1938 b. fonscolombei nigriflagellatae joseph, narendran and joy, 1971 b. fonscolombei rufoflagellatae joseph, narendran and joy, 1971 b. mikado (cameron, 1888) b. neglecta (masi, 1916) b. podagrica (fabricius, 1787) b. pulchripes holmgren, 1868 b. restituta (walker, 1862) b. vulcani (schmitz, 1946) b. xerxena (walker, 1846) b. (brachymeria) fonscolombei (dufour, 1841) b. (brachymeria) podagrica (fabricius, 1787) b. (brachymeria) restituta (walker, 1862) b. (matsumurameria) aligarhensis husain and agarwal, 1982 chalcis alphius walker, 1846 ch. borneanus cameron, 1905 ch. callipus kirby, 1883 189 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum kareem et al. ch. capensis cameron, 1905 ch. dipterophaga girault and dodd, 1915 ch. eccentrica cameron, 1897 ch. femorata nees, 1834 ch. ferox kieffer, 1905 ch. ferox coxalis kieffer, 1905 ch. fonscolombei dufour, 1841 ch. garutianus guenther, 1936 ch. mansueta walker, 1871 ch. mikado cameron, 1888 ch. neglecta masi, 1916 ch. podagrica fabricius, 1787 ch. pulchripes (holmgren, 1868) ch. restituta walker, 1862 ch. sodalis masi, 1917 ch. spilopus cameron, 1905 ch. transvaalensis cameron, 1911 ch. vegai girault, 1924 ch. vulcani schmitz, 1946 ch. xerxena walker, 1846 tumidicoxoides kurandaensis girault, 1913 t. paucipunctatus girault, 1915 materials examined: iraq, karbala province, al husayniya district, faculty of agriculture, 32°31’08.00”n 45°36’31.00”e, april. 2020, 2♀♀. measurements: body length 4.5mm. based on masi (1916), its species materials are 4-6mm. diagnosis: such as outlined in rajabi et al. (2011), b. podagrica is a rare characteristic species with a red hind femur. this species is identifiable by the following characters: body mainly black with reddish hind femure, distally whitish, legs with white colours; temple above the postorbital carina densely white pupesent; mesosoma sparsely punctured dorsally; hind femure shiny and sparsely punctured, ventral teeth of femura far apart, with black points; metasoma of female shorter than b. parvula (walker, 1834). host: unknown in iraq, but it was reported as a parasitoid of different families of diptera (calliphoridae, muscidae, sarcophagidae, tephritidae) and lepidoptera (lymantriidae, noctuidae, psychidae, yponomeutidae) (noyes, 2020). note: based on the available literature and personal communication with the iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad (inhm), this species has not been reported from iraq. but it commonly occurs in the afrotropical, palaearctic, oriental and nearctic areas (noyes, 2020). chalcis myrifex (sulzer, 1776) (pl. 2) synonyms: chalcis myrifex (sulzer, 1776) smicra myrifex (sulzer, 1776) smiera petiolata curtis, 1833 sphex myrifex sulzer, 1776 vespa dearticulata fourcroy, 1785 materials examined: iraq, karbala province, al husayniya district, 32°31’08.00”n 45°36’31.00”e, april. 2020, 2♀♀. 190 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum first record of two parasitoid wasps measurements: body length 5 mm. diagnosis: body dark with following yellowish areas: petiole, tegulae, face with two spots in the lateral parts of antennal scrobe, fore and mid tibiae distally, hind femur in apical half with a large spot; scape cylindrical, slightly thickened distally; ovipositor cover by last sternite; hind femur with 15 equal teeth, basal dent of the hind femur extremely large. host: unknown in iraq but c. myrifex is known as a parasitoid of stratiomys longicornis (scopoli, 1763) (diptera: stratiomyidae) (michael, 2008). note: based on available literature and personal contact with the (inhm), this species has not been reported from iraq. it is reported from the palaearctic region (bouček, 1952; bouček, 1977; kissayi et al., 2019). plate (1): female of b. podagrica; (a) lateral view, (b) dorsal view. (red arrow represented important diagnostic characters of this species). a b 1 mm1 mm 191 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum kareem et al. plate (2): female of c. myrifex; (a) lateral view, (b) head frontal view, (c) lateral view, (d) dorsal view of c. myrifex. (red arrow represented important diagnostic characters of this species). discussion our findings showed two new records of the chalcididae female species occurring in iraq. including these two species recorded in this study, chalcididae species in iraq reaches eight. the male was not recorded in the area of study due to the type of traps that were used. therefore, more survey is needed to find male of these species. the first record species of this family in iraq was brachymeria obtusata (foerster, 1859) (bouček, 1952). many studies reported species of chalcididae from the middle east region including about 74 species from the uae (delvare, 2017) and 68 species from iran (lotfalizadeh et al., 2012; falahatpisheh et al., 2018). brachymeria podagrica was known from iran (rajabi et al., 2011) and was recently informed from saudi arabia (abd al galil et al., 2022). chalcis myrifex was not reported from the middle east and this is the first finding of the species in this area (lotfalizadeh et al., 2012; falahatpisheh et al., 2018). iraq as a big country, with diverse bioclimatic conditions, is expected to have more genera and species of the family. therefore, future expeditions to collect further species can be advised. conclusions this study reported for the first time two species belongs to chalcididae, therefore this results will update the checklist of parasitoids wasps in iraq. that can improve understanding of the diversity of bioagents and possibly use it in biological control agents the pests. a b c d 1 mm 192 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum first record of two parasitoid wasps conflict of interests statement all authors declare that there is no conflict of interest regarding the publication of this paper. literature cited abd al galil, f. m., al-keridis, l. a., al-mekhlafi, f. a., al-amri, a. m. and al-khalifa, m. s. 2022. first record of brachymeria podagrica (hymenoptera: chalcididae) in bisha city, asir region, saudi arabia. journal of medical entomology, 59 (5): 15561561. 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[researchgate] lotfalizadeh, h. 2012. collection and identification of some species of the genus brachymeria (hym.:chalcididae) in azarbaijan-e-sharghi province, northwestern iran. journal of field crop entomology, 1 (4): 37-52. lotfalizadeh, h., ebrahimi, e. and delvare, g. 2012. a contribution to the knowledge of family chalcididae (hymenoptera: chalcidoidea) in iran. journal of entomological society of iran, 31:67-100. [click here] lotfalizadeh, h. and mohammadi-khoramabadi, a. 2021. chapter 7parasitic wasps: chalcidoidea and ichneumonoidea, p. 233-291. in: karimi, j. and madadi, h. (eds), biological control of insect and mite pests in iran, a review from fundamental and applied aspects. springer, p. 233–291. [crossref] masi, l. 1916. materiali per una fauna dell'arcipelago toscana. xi. calcididi del giglio. prima serie: toryminae, leucospidinae, chalcidinae, eurytominae partim. 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(2022) 17 (2): 187-195. chalcididaeمن الزنابير الطفيلية لعائلة لنوعينالسجل األول (hymenopteraفي العراق ) علي عبد الكريم *، حسين لطفلي زاده ** ، اياد السندي *** ، رعد كريم الجعفري * و سيناء م. الزرفي * العراق. كربالء، الزراعة ، جامعة كربالء ، * قسم وقاية النبات ، كلية تبريز ، ، أريو ،و التعليم، الطبيعية املوارد بحوث الزراعية و للمركز شرق أذربيجان ** إيران. إيران. *** قسم وقاية النبات، كلية الزراعة واملوارد الطبيعية، جامعة طهران، كرج، 20/12/2022، تأريخ النشر: 3/9/2022، تأريخ القبول: 30/6/2022تأريخ االستالم: الخالصة عرف عائلة ُ الزنابير ( بأنها واحدة من order, hymenoptera) chalcididaeت لنوعين أول ظهور تسجيلاملتميزة. تم املظهرية الصفاتالكالسيدويد الكبيرة مع بعض كربالء ، العراق: إلى هذه العائلة في منطقة الحسينية بمحافظةمن الطفيليات ينتميان brachymeria podagrica (fabricius, 1787) وchalcis myrifex (sulzer, 1776). .2020 تموز خالل شهر من البساتين ةنساشبكة الكالكال النوعين باستخدام ع م ُج bull 169 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum zarikian, n. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2022) 17 (2): 169-185. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2022.17.2.0169 original article new records on salticidae and theridiidae (araneae) spiders from armenia noushig zarikian scientific center of hydroecology and zoology institute, national academy of sciences, republic of armenia e-mail: noushigz@hotmail.com received date: 12 may 2022, accepted date: 02 sept. 2022, published date: 20 december 2022 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract new data on jumping spiders (salticidae) and tangle-web spiders (theridiidae) of armenia are provided on the basis of recently collected specimens in various regions of armenia. one species, ballus rufipes (simon, 1868) is recorded as new to the caucasus region, in addition to the following species: neon reticulatus (blackwall, 1853), pellenes brevis (simon, 1868), salticus scenicus (clerck, 1757) and synageles dalmaticus (keyserling, 1863) that belong to a family salticidae, are recorded in armenia for the first time. a further 7 species of theridiidae are recorded in armenia for the first time kochiura aulica (c. l. koch, 1838), steatoda albomaculata (de geer, 1778), steatoda bipunctata (linnaeus, 1758), steatoda castanea clerk, 1757, steatoda grossa (c. l. koch, 1838), steatoda paykulliana walckenaer, 1806 and steatoda triangulosa (walckenaer, 1802). keywords: araneae, armenia, new records, salticidae, theridiidae. introduction the commonly known jumping spiders salticidae of armenia are one of the primitively studied groups, although is the largest family of spiders in the world and have 6394 valid species (world spider catalog, 2022). the caucasus regions’ salticidae species have been well studied by many authors such as dunin (1979), logunov and marusik (2000), logunov and guseinov (2002), azarkina (2002 a, b; 2003), and logunov (2015). data on this group for armenia was recorded first by kulcyznski (1895) and during the soviet union and after it, many papers have been published by wesolowska (1986); logunov (1996, 1998 a and b, 1999, 2015), logunov and heciak (1996), rakov and logunov (1997), logunov and marusik (1998), logunov and rakov (1998) and logunov and guseinov (2002). a comprehensive checklist of the spiders of the territories of the former soviet union was written by mikhailov (2013) and later published in another paper by him providing new data on salticidae of armenia (mikhailov and propistova, 2017). moreover, the material of jumping spiders was deposited in the national academy of sciences of republic of armenia bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799-print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2022.17.2.0169 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8334-8413 mailto:noushigz@hotmail.com https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 170 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum new records on salticidae and theridiidae copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum scientific center of zoology and hydroecology collection; and a part of which was published by zarikian (2020), and the other part was studied and is presented herein. theridiidae is one of the most diverse families of spiders, including 2539 species classified in 125 genera (world spider catalog, 2020). spiders in this family are widely known for having several synanthropic and cosmopolitan species (levi, 1967); as well as species of medical importance (faúndez and tellez, 2016). in armenia, only five species belong to theridiidae have been recorded first by kulcyznski (1895), then k.y. eskov recorded robertus arundineti (o. p. cambridge, 1891) (eskov, 1987) and y. marusik mentioned some, in his spiders of the ussr (marusik, 1989), in addition to the two species latrodectus tredecimguttatus (rossi, 1790) and enoplognatha ovata (clerck, 1757) which are mentioned in otto’s checklist of armenia “the spiders of the caucasus ecoregion” (otto, 2022), but is still uncertain or missing citation. materials and methods spiders were collected from five provinces of the armenian republic, with an aspirator or hand collection. specimens were photographed using a canon eos 2000 camera attached to the bresser 58-04000 trinocular microscope. image stacking software was done and edited with the ‘photoshop cc 2018’ software. some female epigynes were dissected and presented as preparation. the map of salticidae and theridiidae species distribution was prepared (map 1 and 2) using the simple mapper online program (shorthouse, 2010). jones-walters (1989), nentwig et al. (2021), vanuytven (2021), and metzner (2022) were used as resources to identify the species (based on eyes distribution, epigynes and pedipulps of species). global distribution data and taxonomic references presented as it mentioned in the world spider catalog (2022). material is stored in the nas ra scientific center of zoology and hydro-ecology institute collections . we didn’t attach any morphological description, because the given species below is as the same as the ones described in our references, and no need to reword them. 171 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum zarikian, n. map (1): salticidae distribution in current study. map (2): theridiidae distribution studied in this work. results family, salticidae blackwall, 1841 genus, ballus c. l. koch, 1850 ballus rufipes (simon, 1868) (pl. 1) synonym: ballus depressus poecilopus förster & bertkau, 1883 material examined: 2♂♂ tigranashen, ararat province, 39.805770°n, 44.965550°e, 23.iv. 2021, 1400 m.a.s.l. description: b. rufipes with stocky abdomen covered, and half black and half gray hairs. legs with reddish in their first half, then gradually become translucent, also have black marks, especially the 4th pair which is covered at its full length by a black line. palp with soft cymbium. distribution: this species is widely distributed in south europe and neighboring turkey. this is the first record for caucasus region and armenia. 172 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum new records on salticidae and theridiidae copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum habitat: semi desert and rocky slopes. genus, neon simon, 1876 neon reticulatus (blackwall, 1853) (pl. 2) synonym: salticus reticulatus blackwall, 1853 material examined: 1 ♀ yervandashat, armavir province, 40.132018°n, 43.667430°e, 1.iv. 2021, 1090 m.a.s.l, 1 ♀ shatin, vayots dzor province, 39.847076°n, 45.316699°e, 10. v. 2021, 1313 m.a.s.l. 1♀, 1♂ urtsadzor, ararat province, 39.900012°n, 44.848099°e, 06. v. 2021, 1800 m.a.s.l. oshakan 1♂ aragatsotn province, 40.260888°n, 44.312550°e, 09. iv. 2021, 1000 m.a.s.l . description: female has light brown head with darker region, sparsely covered with light hairs. abdomen brown or greenish-brown with black latticed markings. legs light brown with dark brown markings, legs i darker than others. male similar to female but darker, thorn covered embolic area for male pulp; epigyne with u shape-like . distribution: this species is widely distribution in europe to far east; it seems also well distributed in armenia (most of provinces). habitat: damp (river-near) with light vegetation hills slopes or gorges and rural area. genus, pellenes simon, 1876 pellenes brevis (simon, 1868) (pl. 3( synonym: attus brevis simon, 1868 material examined: 1♀ byurakan, aragatsotn province, 40.391698°n, 44.297898°e, 15 .v. 2021, 2113 m.a.s.l. 1♂ aghavnazor, kotayk province, 40.56671°n, 44.68329°e, 17 .v. 2021, 1850 m.a.s.l. description: female dark brown, abdomen with a white belt across center. carapace dark brown with two white belts spread from anterior lateral eyes to rear. white hairs around anterior eyes; legs dark with white hairs. male coloration as same as female, but pair of legs i dark thicker and bigger. palps with long white hairs. distribution: this species was known in turkey, russia and many european countries (wsc, 2020); thus, our record from armenia is the sequel of the whole range. habitat: the species has been collected from sub-mountain forest steppe zone. genus, salticus latreille, 1804 salticus scenicus (clerck, 1757) (pl. 4) synonyms: aranea albo-fasciata de geer, 1778 aranea fulvata fabricius, 1778 aranea scenica linnaeus, 1758 araneus scenicus clerck, 1757 attus candefactus walckenaer, 1805 attus histrionicus westring, 1861 attus scenicus walckenaer, 1805 calliethera alpina giebel, 1867 calliethera aulica koch c.l., 1846 calliethera histrionica koch c.l., 1837 173 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum zarikian, n. material examined: 1♂ urtsadzor, ararat province, 39.900012°n, 44.848099°e, 06 .v. 2021, 1800 m.a.s.l. description : abdomen black with three white cross ribons, carapace also black with few white spots or hairs around anterior eyes; palps white cone shape. legs with light-dark; chelicerae remarkably large with folded fangs. embolus tip with. distribution: widespread in palearctic; first record for armenia. habitat: the only male habitat in armenia was simply grassland. genus, synageles simon, 1876 synageles dalmaticus (keyserling, 1863) (pl. 5) synonyms: leptorchestes todillus simon, 1876 leptorchestes todillus simon, 1871 salticus dalmaticus keyserling, 1863 salticus todillus simon, 1868 material examined: 1♀ yerevan, 40.20709°n, 44.54449°e, 01.vi. 2021, 1280 m.a.s.l. description: front abdomen brown, but next to it a lighter area with two white dots visible centrally; posterior with dark brown; carapace brown with black spots surrounding eyes; bunch of pale hairs between eyes; legs light brown with black longitudinal stripes; palps brown. epigyne with border plate and posterior groove. distribution: this species widespread in mediterranean europe and caucasus but is rare in armenia, this is the first record for armenia. habitat: the warm dry stony inhabited area. family, theridiidae sundevall, 1833 genus, kochiura archer, 1950 kochiura aulica (c. l. koch, 1838) (pl. 6) synonym: theridion aulicum c. l. koch, 1838 material examined: 1♀ tigranashen, ararat province, 39.795770°n, 44.965550°e, 28.v. 2021, 1400 m.a.s.l. description: colour of female with fluctuating. cephalothorax light brown, with a dark median strip. abdomen with greyish coloration and dark median stripe dorsally with white spots; ventrally a dark rectangle extends from epigastric fold with white strips on each side. sternum dark brown with light yellow center. epigyne distinctive, pyramid-like with cut end. distribution: widespread in europe, north africa and caucasus. first record for armenia . habitat: semi desert area vegetation. genus, steatoda sundevall, 1833 steatoda albomaculata (de geer, 1778) (pl. 7) synonyms: aranea albomaculata de geer, 1778 steatoda corollata linnaeus, 1758 material examined: 1♀ mount aragats, aragatsotn province, 40.43329°n, 44.26672°e, 04.vii.2020, 2490 m.a.s.l.; 1♀ ali bek, kotayk province, 40.5473°n, 44.686118°e, 17 .vii. 2020, 2234 m.a.s.l.; 1♀ oshhakan, aragatsotn province, 40.26111°n, 44.31952°e, 09 .iv. 174 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum new records on salticidae and theridiidae copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum 2021, 1102 m.a.s.l.; 1♀ shatin, vayots dzor province, 39.847076°n, 45.316699°e, 10 .v. 2021, 1313 m.a.s.l . description: females have light brown to black cephalothorax with feeble markings and almost black. abdomen with a whitish band around anteriorly, and median pairs of spots, and two rows of patches laterally; while ventrally black with a light mark. legs brownish, tibiae 1 dark brown. this species with clear epigynal groove, and angular anterior margin. distribution: widespread in palearctic; first record for armenia. habitat: stony mountains or hill slopes. steatoda bipunctata (linnaeus, 1758) (pl. 8) synonym: steatoda brasiliana keyserling, 1884 material examined: 1♀ jambarak, gegharkunik province, 40.58472°n, 45.3515°e, 01 .viii. 2020, 1854 m.a.s.l.; 1♀yervandashat, armavir province, 40.132018°n, 43.667430°e, 01. iv. 2021, 1090 m.a.s.l. description: cephalothorax brown. reddish-brown abdomen, darker on sides, with a whitish band around anterior part, a median longitudinal series of small light spots on dorsal side; ventral side of abdomen with dark mark rings and a light triangle. sternum brown, legs with yellow-brown colour. epigyne with a square-like groove. distribution: widespread in palearctic, recorded in canada and america. first record for armenia . habitat: around/in inhabited area even buildings or abandoned places. steatoda castanea (clerck, 1757) (pl. 9) synonyms: steatoda castanea (olivier, 1789) steatoda huangyuanensis zhu & li, 1983 material examined: 1♀,1♂ geghadir, kotayk province, 40.16107°n, 44.66949°e, 30 .x. 2019, 1710 m.a.s.l.; 3♀♀,1♂ kharberd, ararat province, 40.08472°n, 44.50708°e, 02.xi. 2019, 950 m.a.s.l. description: cephalothorax in female brown, with dark emitting striae; abdomen dark brown and scattered white spots, a median longitudinal whitish streak, and posteriorly with three transverse light lines; ventrally with long brown patches visible. sternum and legs with yellow-brown; epigyne with two swellings. male’s colouration as in female; palp with a long tibia. distribution: widespread in europe and caucasus, also recorded in canada. first record for armenia. habitat: it is generally found in houses and in wall cracks of buildings; sometimes they are found in cultivated area under the stones. steatoda grossa (c. l. koch, 1838) (pl. 10) synonyms: steatoda grossa obliterata (franganillo, 1918) steatoda modesta (bryant, 1948) steatoda punctilineata mello-leitão, 1939 steatoda serica (urquhart, 1886) steatoda zonata (keyserling, 1884) 175 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum zarikian, n. material examined: 1♀ yerevan, 40.20709°n, 44.54449°e, 07.ix. 2020, 1280 m.a.s.l.; 1♀ yerevan, 40.20709°n, 44.54449°e, 11 .vii. 2021, 1280 m.a.s.l. description: female has yellowish brown cephalothorax and brown to blackish abdomen, with a lighter pattern. a median longitudinal row of three blotches, and two lateral blotches spread like whiskers. legs yellowish brown. epigynal with obvious narrow groove. distribution: widespread in most continents. first record for armenia . habitat: under cliffs and in buildings. steatoda paykulliana (walckenaer, 1805) (pl. 11) synonym: steatoda latrodectoides (franganillo, 1913) material examined. 1♀1♂ kharberd, ararat province, 40.08472°n, 44.50708°e, 02.xi. 2019, 950 m.a.s.l.; 1♀sardarapat, armavir province, 40.09168°n, 43.94171°e, 13.xi. 2019, 915 m.a.s.l.; 2♂♂ geghadir, kotayk province, 40.16107°n, 44.66949°e, 30 .x. 2019, 1710 m.a.s.l.; 1♀ getap, vayots dzor province, 39.77368°n, 45.31531°e, 24 .xi. 2020, 1150 m.a.s.l.; 1♀ dasht, armavir province, 40.2279°n, 44.3125°e, 04.viii.2020, 973 m.a.s.l.; 1♀ goravan, ararat province, 39.88751°n, 44.71948°e, 06.v.2021, 966 m.a.s.l. description: female with dark brown to black cephalothorax. abdomen black, with a red or yellow band around front, sometimes with a median longitudinal series of ribbon; sternum and legs dark brown; two up-folded wing-like epigyne heavily sclerotized. male’s cephalothorax dark brown to black; abdomen black, with a whitish band around front with serrated edge median longitudinal band; ventrally with red-brown markings; legs yellowbrown; palp relatively small and dark. distribution: widespread in south europe and central asia. first record for armenia . habitat: dry and semi desert area under the stones. steatoda triangulosa (walckenaer, 1802) (pl. 12( synonyms: steatoda flavomaculata (lucas, 1846) steatoda lugubris (schenkel, 1963) steatoda saylori (fox, 1940) material examined: 2♀♀ yerevan, 40.20709°n, 44.54449°e, 02 .vi. 2021, 1280 m.a.s.l. description: cephalothorax of female with reddish brown and brown abdomen with whitish patterns. sternum reddish brown, while legs pale yellowish; epigyne with specific rounded. distribution: widespread in palearctic, recorded in canada and america. first record for armenia . habitat: very common in houses and abandoned buildings. discussion twelve new records for the armenian arachnofauna have been detected, thus increasing the spider biodiversity of the most studied family salticidae to 46 species and theridiidae to 12 in armenia. ballus rufipes is the first record for the caucasus region and armenia . despite the long history of research, the spider fauna of armenia is still far from being well studied and needs further investigation. by this study, the total list of spiders has been enlarged to 249 species, but armenia is still the poorest among the caucasus region countries, 176 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum new records on salticidae and theridiidae copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum neighboring turkey (145 species of salticidae and 84 species of theridiidae) ((nentwig et al., 2021) and iran (117 species of salticidae and 64 species of theridiidae) (zamani et al., 2020) regarding spider species richness due to the limited conducted researches of arachno-fauna studies and the insufficient data . plate (1): ballus rufipes; (a) habitus, (b) pedipalp (10x), (c) eyes. plate (2): neon reticulatus; (a) habitus, (b) epigyne (magnification x10), (c) pedipalp (10x). 177 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum zarikian, n. plate (3): pellenes brevis; (a) habitus, (b) pedipalp (10x), (c) eyes. plate (4): salticus scenicus; (a) habitus, (b) pedipalp (10x). 178 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum new records on salticidae and theridiidae copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum plate (5): synageles dalmaticus; (a) habitus, (b) epigyne (10x), (c) eyes. plate (6): kochiura aulica habitus (subadult). 179 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum zarikian, n. plate (7): steatoda albomaculata; (a) habitus, (b) epigyne (10x). plate (8): steatoda bipunctata; (a) habitus, (b) epigyne (10x). 180 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum new records on salticidae and theridiidae copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum plate (9): steatoda castanea habitus. plate (10): steatoda grossa; (a) habitus, (b) epigyne (10x). 181 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum zarikian, n. plate (11): steatoda paykulliana; (a) habitus, (b) pedipalp (10x), (c) epigyne (7x). plate (12): steatoda triangulosa; (a) habitus, (b) epigyne (10x). 182 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum new records on salticidae and theridiidae copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum conclusions the provisional tendency in species richness is inadequate to capture key changes in biodiversity for these two families (salticidae and teridiidae). we hope this paper will accelerate further studies on arachnology in armenia and could contribute for future biodiversity data. acknowledgments we would like to thank the science committee of ministry of education, science, culture and sports of republic of armenia for financial support to study arachnids in armenia. conflict of interest statement the authors declare no conflict of interest related to the work in a manuscript. litereature cited azarkina, g. n. 2002 a. aelurillus ater (kroneberg, 1875) and related species of jumping spiders in the fauna of middle asia and the caucasus (aranei: salticidae). arthropoda selecta, 11: 89-107. 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[click here] nentwig, w., blick, t., bosmans, r., gloor, d., hänggi, a. and kropf, c. 2021. spiders of europe. [click here] otto, s. 2022. caucasian spiders. a faunistic database on the spiders of the caucasus. version 02.2022. [click here] rakov, s. y. and logunov, d. v. 1997. a critical review of the genus heliophanus c. l. koch, 1833, of middle asia and the caucasus (aranei salticidae). arthropoda selecta , 5(3/4, for 1996): 67-104. [click here] shorthouse, d. p. 2010. simple mappr, an online tool to produce publication-quality point maps. [click here] vanuytven, h. 2021. the theridiidae (araneae) of the world. a key to the genera with their diagnosis and a study of the body length of all known species. arachnological contributions newsletter belgian arachnological society, 35 (suppl.): 1363. [click here] wesolowska, w. 1986. a revision of the genus heliophanus c. l. koch, 1833 (araneae, salticidae). annales zoologici, warszawa, 40: 1-254. 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[crossref ] https://araneae.nmbe.ch/pdfs/26_4_369_371_mikhailov_propistsova%20-%20nur%20araneae.pdf https://www.araneae.nmbe.ch/ https://caucasus-spiders.info/ https://caucasus-spiders.info/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/5_3_67_104_rakov_logunov.pdf http://www.simplemappr.net/ https://belgianspiders.be/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/key-theridiidae-world.pdf https://belgianspiders.be/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/key-theridiidae-world.pdf https://rcin.org.pl/miiz/dlibra/publication/edition/57921 http://wsc.nmbe.ch/ http://www.spiders.ir/ https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2020.16.2.0193 185 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum zarikian, n. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2022) 17 (2): 169-185. salticidae و theridiidae بيانات جديدة عن عناكب من عائلتي في أرمينيا araneae رتبة نوشك زيراكيان ،ألكاديمية الوطنية للعلوما ،لبيئة املائية ومعهد علم الحيواناملركز العلمي لعلم ا جمهورية أرمينيا. 20/12/2022، تأريخ النشر: 2/09/2022، تأريخ القبول: 12/05/2022تأريخ االستالم: الخالصة وعناكب الويب املتشابكة salticidae تم تقديم بيانات جديدة عن العناكب القافزة theridiidae مؤخًرا في مناطق مختلفة من جمعتي في أرمينيا على أساس العينات الت أرمينيا. كما ان ،على أنه جديد ملنطقة القوقاز ballus rufipes (simon),1868النوع ُسِجل theridiidae :neon reticulatusالتالية ضمن عائلة هذا النوع باالضافة الى االنواع (blackwall, 1853) ،pellenes brevis (simon, 1868) ، salticus cinicus (clerck), 1757 ،synageles dalmaticus (keyserling, 1863) في أرمينيا. ها الول مرة ، تم تسجيل في أرمينيا ألول مرة شملت: theridiidae عائلة أنواع أخرى من 7 سجلتكما kochiura aulica (c.l. koch,1838)، steatoda albomaculata (de geer, 1778) ، steatoda castanea clerk, 1757 ،steatoda grossa (c. l. koch, 1838) ، steatoda paykulliana walckenaer, 1805 وsteatoda triangulosa (walckenaer, 1802). 301 samalehu et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2021) 16 (3): 301-323. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2021.16.3.0301 ore genesis and minor elements of orogenic gold deposit at tamilouw– haya, seram island, indonesia herfien samalehu* arifudin idrus**♦ nugroho imam setiawan** and i gede sukadana*** * energy and mineral resources agency, maluku province, indonesia. **department of geological engineering, universitas gadjah mada, yogyakarta, indonesia. ***national atomic agency, indonesia. ♦corresponding author: arifidrus@ugm.ac.id received date: 05 march 2021, accepted date: 30 april 2021, published date: 20 jun 2021 abstract the orogenic gold deposit of tamilouw – haya is hosted by slate and metapelitic rocks within tehoru metamorphic complex. gold and polymetallic sulfides mineralization at study area is predominantly formed in the form of veins, stockwork and breccia although minor dissemination is slightly appeared in the rock float samples. they are trapped and controlled by ne-sw and nne-ssw trending geologic structure occurred during orogeny process from late miocene to pliocene. the common ore minerals assemblage at tamilouw – haya deposit are dominated by native gold, chalcopyrite, pyrite, sphalerite, galena, pyrrhotite, tetrahedritetennantite (sulphosalt), marcasite,realgar, kalininite and arsenopyrite as hypogene minerals and accompanied by covellite, hematite, goethite and malachite as the supergene minerals. ore genesis and minor elements study of pyrite, galena, and sphalerite at tamilouw – haya was done using 3 methods approach. there were 46 samples used for ore microscopy analysis and 10 samples for sem-edx and micro-xrf analyses to obtain their mutual relationship interpretation and paragenetic sequence. ore mineral textures showed disseminated textures, simultaneous crystallization (intergrowth), inclusions, replacements, and exsolutionsdecomposition textures. average content of co is 0.21 wt. % and ni is 0.10 wt. % which may reflect the co : ni ratio is 2.86 in pyrite. it means that co content is higher than ni and indicates that pyrite origin may be related to volcano-hydrothermal, metamorphosed and skarn-hydrothermal type. in comparison with pyrite, the average contents of minor elements in sphalerite shows fe content is 9.16 wt.%, ga is 0.99 wt.%, ge is 0.12 wt.% and log ga/ge ranging from < 0.36 to 2.27 wt.%. moreover, average precious metal contents within galena shows that au contents https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2021.16.3.0301 302 ore genesis and minor elements of orogenic gold is < 0.01 – 2.78 wt.% and ag is 0.12-0.31 wt.%. on the basis of the previous descriptions, high content of fe in pyrite and sphalerite, ga > ge, co > ni in pyrite and low content of ag in galena indicated that pyrite, galena, and sphalerite from tamilouw – haya were formed under high to moderate temperature condition at 5.1-7.6 km paleodepth. keywords: gold, metamorphic, mineralization, orogenic, seram. introduction bierlein et al. (2001) revealed that orogenic gold deposits are related to collision settings and active orogenic belts. these deposit are formed during compressional to transpressional regimes at convergent plate margins both accretionary and collisional orogens (groves et al., 1998; goldfarb et al., 2001, 2015). they are epigenetic, structurally controlled and based on their depth of formation; they are divided into epizonal, mesozonal, and hypozonal (groves et al., 1998; goldfarb et al., 2005). in indonesia, many researchers had investigated the occurrence of gold mineralization within metasediments to metamorphic rocks formation. some large and medium scale of gold deposits such as awak mas mesothermal (querubin and walters, 2011), poboya ls – epithermal (wajdi et al., 2011), bombana orogenic gold deposits (idrus and prihatmoko, 2011), buru orogenic gold deposits (idrus et al., 2014), mendoke rumbia orogenic gold (hasria, 2018) and many gold mineralizing occurrences were successively discovered in indonesia. except for the tamilouw – haya gold deposits, which are located in the southern part of tehoru metamorphic complex, there were no major orogenic gold deposits that have been recognised in seram island yet. nevertheless, several gold occurrences have recently been identified in the western part of seram and a previous study of metamorphic rock hosted gold mineralization was proposed for prospecting only with no classification of ore genesis deposit type and their genetic model (franklin et al., 2013). seram island is located along the northern part of outer banda arc, eastern indonesia. it is previously located in the collision zone between australian continent and banda subduction zone, where the northwest australian margin moved towards banda subduction zone. the northwest shelf of australia itself was generated due to the break-up of gondwana during jurassic (powell, 1976; veevers, 1982). stratigraphically, seram can be divided into two parts; australian series and seram series (map 1a). a northern belt, covering the north part of the island in the west and all of it in the east, consists of imbricates sedimentary rocks of triassic to miocene age (australian series) whose fossils and facies resemble those of the misool and new guinea continental shelf (hamilton, 1979). these sedimentary formations, i.e., kanikeh formation, saman-saman limestone, manusela formation, lisabata formation and salas block clay; others sedimentary rocks formations named fufa and wahai formations are classified as seram series. the southern belt is dominated by metamorphic rocks with the basement consists of high to low grade metamorphic rocks. the high-grade metamorphosed schists and gneisses of the kobipoto complex are probably precambrian to lower palaeozoic, although the recent study 303 samalehu et al. argued its formation aged late miocene to pliocene (pownall et al., 2013). other palaeozoic rocks are taunusa, tehoru and saku complexes (tjokrosapoetro et al., 1993). center and western seram mainly comprises of lower greenschist to upper-amphibolite facies, i.e., phyllites, schists, and gneisses of the tehoru formation. garnet micaschists are widespread, which are often intercalated with amphibolites. scarce kyanite-grade schists represent the highest grade part of the complex; however, large areas are of a low metamorphic grade and preserve original sedimentary structures (audley-charles, 1979; tjokrosapoetro and budhitrisna, 1982; linthout et al., 1989). the taunusa complex is very similar in many ways to the tehoru formation although it includes rocks previously assigned to valk (1945) as “crystalline schists” and therefore is considered to be generally of higher metamorphic grade (mid/upper-amphibolite facies rather than lower-amphibolite to greenschist facies) as defined by tjokrosapoetro and budhitrisna (1982). locally, the tectonic setting of tamilouw – haya has been influenced by regional compression of seram island itself; despite the tectonic setting of seram is still subject to debate, at least there have been two times tectonic compression and two continental break-ups were related to the seram island (setyawan et al., 2000).the first continental break-up was followed by tectonic compression occurred in the paleozoic. subsequent contraction of earth's crust places high-grade metamorphic rocks such as granulite near the surface and upper mantle is uplifted to the surface to form ultramafic rocks. hence, erosion occurred to further expose of these metamorphic rocks and followed by thermal subsidence as deposition of australian series. the second continental break-up and sea floor spreading is occurred in middle jurassic and it might correspond to the absence of sedimentation interval in the australian series. the last orogenic compression or deformation occurred in the late miocene-pliocene and this event is very critical for the geological evolution of seram (audley charles et al., 1979; kemp and mogg, 1992; tjokosapoetro et al., 1993; setyawan et al., 2000). the ore mineralization process at tamilouw haya is controlled by ne–sw and nnessw trending geologic structure as implication of this last compression event (map 1b). it is also notable that local geological framework indicates that the gold mineralization is probably not related to volcanic rock-related hydrothermal gold deposit, e.g. epithermal, skarn or porphyry. the main aims of this paper are to describe and identify ore minerals assemblage and minor elements contained in pyrite, galena and sphalerite and to purpose ore forming process and their paragenetic sequence at tamilouwhaya, seram island, indonesia. 304 ore genesis and minor elements of orogenic gold map (1): (a) geological map of seram (modified after tjokrosapoetro et al., 1993), (b) simplified geological map of tamilouw – haya. 305 samalehu et al. materials and methods the present study is based on desk study, fieldwork and sampling for laboratory analysis i.e ore mineralogy, sem-eds and micro-xrf. there is no previous detailed study in the tamilouw haya area that was focused specifically on the gold mineralization. a detailed ore microscopy is conducted at department of geological engineering, universitas gadjah mada, a single mineral chemistry (sem-eds) analysis is carried out at lppt, universitas gadjah mada and micro-xrf for mineral mapping and identification is analysed at batan-jakarta. in total 46 double polished sections were prepared for ore microscopy to identify ore minerals and their textures. there were twelve data of shoot points for pyrite, sphalerite and galena identification are based on ore microscopy observation for further elemental mapping and identification using sem-edx and micro-xrf. mineral chemistry from sem-edx was performed using a jsm-6510la type with resolution 1 – 10 nm and magnification 10 – 300,000x. microxrf m4tornado plus tool at batan, jakarta is used for elemental mapping and minerals identification. it was performed by tube parameter high voltage 50 kv, anode current 600µa pixel time 25 ms/pixel, pixel size 30 µm and total number of pixel is 360,000 pixel. results and discussion tamilouw haya is located within tehoru metamorphic complex, seram island-indonesia. the extent of researched area is 101.46 km2 and is predominantly occupied by metapelitic rocks (intercalated of metasandstone and metasiltstone), slate, phyllite and locally is covered by coralline limestone and recent alluvial deposit. primary gold mineralization is hosted by slate and metapelitic rocks and controlled by ne–sw and nne-ssw trending geologic structure. concordant and discordant veins are associated with gold mineralization although minor disseminated type appeared in several rock float samples. there are 6 main prospects of gold mineralization in tamilouw – haya area namely wae lata, waenama, wae satu, wae yala, wae namasula and way wayaudara. high-grade gold ores in this area is generally found in quartz±carbonate veins with the main alteration processes involving silicification, carbonatization and sericitization. ore minerals assemblage within these veins are dominated by native gold, chalcopyrite, pyrite, sphalerite, galena, pyrrhotite, minor sulfosalts (tetrahedrite-tennantite), marcasite, realgar, kalininite and arsenopyrite.the supergene minerals are covellite, hematite, goethite and malachite. (a) general features of ore minerals assemblage at tamilouw – haya characteristics of primary ore mineralization at tamilouw-haya are generally occurred within quartz veins associated with silicification, carbonatization and serisitic alterations. there are 3 vein types as the ore–bearing fluids (v1-v3) and only v3 (quartz± carbonate veins) with precious metals and anomalous high basemetal contents. concordant vein, namely quartz type 1vein (v1) is characterized by massive shape, sheeted, segmented, tends to parallel to the foliation of metamorphic rocks and weak mineralized to barren. discordant veins are 306 ore genesis and minor elements of orogenic gold separated into two vein types. quartz type 2 – vein (v2) which is cross to the foliation, massive, weak mineralized to barren and associated with silicification and serisitic alterations. the last, the so-called “mineralized veins” (v3) are composed of quartz± carbonate, segmented, deformed, cross to the foliation of metamorphic/metapelitic rocks and characterized by stockwork – breccia vein textures. in some other locations, concordant veins are cross-cut by discordant veins as an indication of late stage of ore deposition. based on ore microscopy analysis and elemental mapping, there are common ore minerals assemblage at tamilouw – haya deposit i.e native gold, chalcopyrite, pyrite, sphalerite, galena, pyrrhotite, tetrahedrite-tennantite (sulphosalt), marcasite, realgar, kalininite and arsenopyrite as hypogene minerals and accompanied by covellite, hematite, goethite and malachite as the supergene minerals. native gold: very small size < 0.25 mm, subhedral – anhedral and it is found as free gold grain within quartz gangue. at way yala river-tamilouw, gold is enriched by supergene process and very abundant as secondary deposit (pl. 1a). pyrite: generally euhedral – subhedral, yellow colour and very abundant as vein and disseminated texture filled in quartz gangue at tamilouw-haya (pl. 1a-d). in the altered and mineralized host rock, pyrite is slightly appear as dissemination ore and accompanied by chalcopyrite. some of pyrite replaces pyrrhotite and has an intergrowth relation with galena. in quartz gangue, chalcopyrite, sphalerite, galena and pyrrhotite show their disseminated texture. chalcopyrite: bright yellow colour, size is 0.25 – 0.50 mm, subhedral – anhedral, showing ex-solution texture or blebs of chalcopyrite within sphalerite (pl. 1d). chalcopyrite is associated with pyrite and very abundant as disseminated texture. in some polished section, chalcopyrite is replaced by tetrahedrite and covellite (pl. 1b). galena: white grey colour, specified by triangular pits, size is often > 0.25 mm (pl. 1c). its presence is very abundant within quartz gangue, associated with sphalerite and pyrite in intergrowth texture and occasionally appears in the disseminated texture. sphalerite: grey colour, occasionally showing ex-solution texture or blebs of chalcopyrite within sphalerite or “chalcopyrite disease” (barton and betkhe, 1987) (pl. 1d). sphalerite is associated with galena and reflecting intergrowth/interlocking texture. it means that sphalerite and galena are precipitated at the same time of ore deposition. sphalerite is in line with chalcopyrite, pyrite, pyrrhotite and galena to form disseminated texture within quartz gangue. generally, its appearance indicates as “late stage” than others sulphide minerals. pyrrhotite: it is also called magnetic pyrite and recognized by brown yellow colour. the size is 0.35 – 0.5 mm of single anhedral grain. pyrrhotite and marcasite are rare and their presence is only in quartz segregation/gangue to form disseminated texture. 307 samalehu et al. marcasite: occasionally in shape of subhedral – anhedral, single grains, size is 0.16 <0.32 mm and it is also called “white iron pyrite”. although marcasite is not abundant within quartz gangue, its appearance is related to disseminate texture and replaced by fe-iron oxide (hematite). arsenopyrite: grey to silver white colour, 0.5-15 mm, appears as vein/veinlets and is filling fracture/shear joints of metapelitic rocks. tetrahedrite: it is sulfosalt mineral, gray to dark black colour, 0.2 – 0.5 mm, tetrahedrite replacing chalcopyrite or occurred as replacement texture within quartz gangue (pl. 1b). tennantite: represent sulfosalt mineral, gray to gray black colour, 0.25 – 0.5 mm, its mutual relationship with galena is intergrowth, in some observation tennantite replaced pyrite and is substituted by hematite (pl. 1c). kalininite: it is an isometric – hexoctahedral black mineral, gray to black colour, 0.05 – 0.25 mm, its appearance is associated with pyrite and hematite (pl. 1e). realgar: it is a monoclinic arsenic sulfide (as4s4), red colour, 0.25-0.35 mm, isolated/single grains. covellite: blue colour, 0.01-0.05 mm, single grain, its presence is rare within quartz gangue and only observed to replace chalcopyrite. hematite: it is fe-oxide mineral, recognized as a supergene mineral, red brown colour, 0.25 – 1 mm. hematite replaced pyrite (pl. 1c), marcasite, and sphalerite goethite: an oxide mineral with the size is 0.1-0.5 mm, subhedral-anhedral, grey colour and its occurrence to replace pyrite. malachite: it is a copper carbonate hydroxide mineral. its appearance is identified at waesatu, tamilouw and adjacent to silica-carbonate alteration. 308 ore genesis and minor elements of orogenic gold plate (1): photomicrographs showing ore minerals assemblage analysis at tamilouwhaya; (a) disseminated texture of pyrite and “free gold grain” or independent gold within quartz gangue, (b) replacement texture of tetrahedrite, indicating chalcopyrite is replaced by tetrahedrite, (c) sphalerite and galena show intergrowth texture and hematite appear as fe-oxide mineral replaces sphalerite and tennantite, (d) chalcopyrite and sphalerite exsolution-texture, sphalerite replaces pyrite and disseminated texture of subhedral pyrite within quartz gangue, (e) elemental mapping using micro-xrf showing distributions of pyrite, kalininite, realgar, sphalerite, chalcopyrite, galena, goethite and hematite. (abbreviations: au=gold, sp=sphalerite, py=pyrite, ttr=tetrahedrite, ccp=chalcopyrite, tnt=tennantite, gn=galena, cov=covellite, hem=hematite). (b) paragenetic sequence microscope observation and elemental mapping using micro-xrf are used to interpret mutual relationship among minerals and their assemblage. the paragenetic sequence is 309 samalehu et al. obviously inferred from these interpretation and observation. ore textures at tamilouw-haya show disseminated texture, simultaneous crystallization (intergrowth), inclusions, replacements and exolutions-decomposition textures. ore minerals and gangue paragenetic sequence from epizonal – mesozonal orogenic gold deposit at tamilouw – haya are shown in table (1). table (1): paragenetic stage of mineralized veins at tamilouw – haya. (abbreviations : qz : quartz, cal : calcite, ilt : illite, py : pyrite, au : native gold, ccp : chalcopyrite, sp : sphalerite, gn:galena, po : pyrrhotite, ttr : tetrahedrite, tnt : tennantite, mrc : marcasite, apy, arsenopyrite, cnb : cinnabar, hem : hematite, cv : covellite, mlc : malachite, goe : goethite) disseminated texture is found in almost all vein sample types, consisting of ore minerals from various type minerals such as pyrite, chalcopyrite and sphalerite, but mostly often found in pyrite. gold dissemination is also found as “free gold grain”. the gold paragenetic sequence against other ore minerals is unable to be determined yet, but it is assumed that the process of its formation coincides with ore minerals formation in the disseminated texture. simultaneous or intergrowth crystallization textures are occurred in both galena and sphalerite as well as chalcopyrite and galena. these showed paragenetic relationship between galena, sphalerite and chalcopyrite, are simultaneously formed or at the same time of deposition. replacement textures are formed in chalcopyrite and sphalerite minerals as well 310 ore genesis and minor elements of orogenic gold as tennantite and galena which are replaced by hematite and covellite minerals. additionally, chalcopyrite is also replaced by tetrahedrite. replacement minerals paragenesis indicates its formation at the end of ore deposition. the ex-decomposition texture found was “chalcopyrite disease” (barton and betkhe, 1987); it was formed by blebs or chalcopyrite mineral emulsion/inclusions in the sphalerite which showed chalcopyrite formed at earlier time. kalogeropoulos (1982) stated chalcopyrite disease is a cancerous replacement produced by reacting fes in sphalerite with cu in aqueous solution. in general, sphalerite is formed as late stage than other sulfide minerals such as chalcopyrite and galena. covellite, hematite, goethite and malachite are supergene minerals; formed in the end of mineralization. (c) mineral chemistry minor elements in pyrite from tamilouw – haya deposit: the most abundant sulphide mineral at haya – tamilouw epizonal mesozonal orogenic gold is pyrite. this fe-sulphide fills altered metapelitic to slate wallrocks as vein/veinlets and reflecting euhedral to subhedral shape within quartz gangue in ore microscopy. in this research, sem – eds and micro-xrf are used to describe elemental mapping and elements composition contained in pyrite. the sem – eds and micro-xrf results reveal that nearly all pyrite samples contain a significant amounts and a wide range of other minor elements such as co, ni, cd, au, ag and as (tab. 2). elements including se and te are under detection limit or absent and might indicate that deposit is not associated with low sulfidation epithermal and igneous rocks or intrusionrelated deposit. high concentrate of se and te is related to igneous rock, low sulfidation epithermal and carlin – type deposit (keith et al., 2018; shao et al., 2018). there were twelve data of shoot points within pyrite field from 3 alteration types to investigate its elemental composition for analysis. pyrite from sericitic alteration shows its average minor elements as follows: cd (0.12-0.20 wt. %), co (0.12-0.39 wt.%), ni (0.06-0.22 wt.%), ag (<0.01-0.01 wt.%), au (2.01-4.59 wt.%) and as (0.26-0.39 wt.%). pyrite from carbonatization alteration shows a slightly different of its minor elements composition with their composition are cd (0.06-0.18 wt. %), co (0.18-0.36 wt.%), ni (0.07-0.14 wt.%), ag (<0.01-0.08 wt.%), au (0.12-0.26 wt.%) and as (0.05-0.17wt.%). comparison of pyrite from sericitic and carbonatization, pyrite from silicification alteration shows its average minor elements are cd (<0.01-0.26 wt. %), co (0.13-0.32 wt. %), ni (0.05-0.17 wt.%), ag (0.010.03 wt.%), au (0.23-1.58 wt.%) and as (<0.01-0.14 wt.%). overall, co : ni ratio from these 3 alteration types are 0.33-3.25 wt.%, 1.57-5.34 wt.% and 0.12-2.77 wt.%, respectively (tab. 2). 311 samalehu et al. table (2): mineral chemistry of pyrite using sem-eds and micro-xrf (wt.%) sample code major elements minor elements fe s ag au cd as co ni se te co: ni sericitic alteration : tmwlt.18.1* 41.70 52.94 0.01 4.59 0.20 0.39 0.12 0.06 <0.01 <0.01 2.00 tmwlt.18.2* 43.62 51.94 <0.01 3.05 0.15 0.26 0.39 0.12 <0.01 <0.01 3.25 tmwlt.18.3* 45.78 50.94 0.01 2.01 0.12 0.31 0.17 0.22 <0.01 <0.01 0.33 carbonatization alteration : tmwlt.1.1* 40.41 53.58 <0.01 0.26 0.06 0.05 0.36 0.08 <0.01 <0.01 4.50 tmwlt.1.2* 42.75 52.64 <0.01 0.19 0.02 0.13 0.22 0.14 <0.01 <0.01 1.57 tmwlt.1.3* 43.12 50.27 <0.01 0.12 0.18 0.05 0.18 0.07 <0.01 <0.01 2.57 tmwlt.01 (avg)** 48.29 50.16 0.08 0.16 0.17 0.08 0.25 0.08 <0.01 <0.01 5.34 tmwylsi.06 (avg)** 49.70 48.88 <0.01 0.13 0.18 0.17 0.08 0.06 <0.01 <0.01 4.94 silicification alteration : hywnm.07.1* 40.82 50.37 0.03 1.58 0.08 <0.01 0.14 0.06 <0.01 <0.01 2.33 hywnm.07.2* 41.35 52.37 0.01 0.24 0.01 0.14 0.19 0.17 <0.01 <0.01 0.12 hywnm.07.3* 40.82 52.57 0.01 1.55 0.26 0.01 0.32 0.10 <0.01 <0.01 1.78 hywyu.02 (avg)** 49.05 48.40 0.01 0.23 <0.01 0.38 0.13 0.05 <0.01 <0.01 2.77 average 43.95 51.25 0.02 1.18 0.13 0.18 0.21 0.10 <0.01 <0.01 2.86 note: * sem-eds analyses ** micro-xrf analyses < 0.01 is lower detection the sem-eds and micro-xrf results show a well-defined negative correlation between as and s (tab.3) which is consistent with the substitution of as for s as anionic as-in the fe (s1-xasx) 2 solid solution in reducing environments (fleet and mumin, 1997; reich et al., 2005). 312 ore genesis and minor elements of orogenic gold xuexin (1984) revealed that the co : ni ratios for pyrites from various ores have been calculated and counted and it is not hard to come for the final conclusions (tab. 4). all the co: ni ratios for sedimentary pyrites are lower than 0.8. the co: ni ratios for volcanogenic massive pyrites are higher than 3.5 and the co:ni ratios for volcano-hydrothermal, metamorphosed and skarn-hydrothermal pyrites are in the range of 2-3. despite the effect of temperature was slight influenced, it is notable that pyrite from high-temperature deposit is generally high in cobalt but ni content does not show a significant signature (co > ni). table (3): pairs correlation of s, as, co, ni, and fe elements within pyrite field from the tamilouw – haya deposit. table (4): type of pyrite based on co: ni ratio classified by xuexin (1984) type of pyrite co ni co : ni sedimentary-type volcano-hydrotermal, metamorphosed and skarn-hydrotermal – type volcangenic massive sulphide – type tamilouw – haya (researched area) 41 141 486 2110 65 121 56 1000 0.8 2 3 3.5 2.86 for this conclusion, it is deal with the average result of pyrite at tamilouw – haya that show co: ni is 2.86. the co: ni ratios for tamilouw haya pyrites are higher than those for sedimentary pyrites, lower than those for volcanogenic massive pyrites and similar to those for the slightly volcano-hydrothermal, metamorphosed and skarn hydrothermal type. minor elements in galena from tamilouw – haya deposit: twelve spot representatives for galena analysis from tamilouw – haya deposit were analyzed for fe, hg, sb, ag, au, bi and se using sem-eds and micro-xrf (tab.5). this table showed that the hg contents are very low (0.01-0.28wt.%) to below detection limit (< 0.01wt.%). 313 samalehu et al. table (5): mineral chemistry of galena using sem-eds and micro-xrf (wt.%) sample code major elements minor elements pb s hg sb bi fe ag au se tmw-ylsi.6.1** 83.56 14.49 <0.01 <0.01 <0.01 <0.01 <0.01 <0.01 <0.01 tmw-ylsi.6.2** 82.33 14.36 <0.01 <0.01 <0.01 0.28 <0.01 <0.01 <0.01 tmw-ylsi.6.4** 85.54 13.60 <0.01 <0.01 <0.01 0.86 <0.01 <0.01 <0.01 tmw-ylsi.6.5** 88.99 9.16 <0.01 <0.01 <0.01 0.46 <0.01 <0.01 <0.01 tmw-ylsi.6.6** 86.76 10.76 <0.01 <0.01 <0.01 0.23 0.31 <0.01 <0.01 tmw-ylsi.6.7** 88.30 9.33 <0.01 <0.01 <0.01 0.17 <0.01 <0.01 <0.01 tmw-ylsi.6.8** 88.17 7.20 0.28 <0.01 <0.01 0.48 0.23 <0.01 <0.01 tmw-ylsi.6.9** 84.75 6.09 <0.01 <0.01 <0.01 0.38 <0.01 <0.01 <0.01 tmw-ylsi.6.10** 66.73 7.14 <0.01 <0.01 <0.01 0.30 <0.01 <0.01 <0.01 hy-wnm.7.1* 74.82 9.08 0.01 <0.01 <0.01 1.68 0.18 3.2 <0.01 hy-wnm.7.2* 73.34 11.38 <0.01 <0.01 <0.01 3.31 0.12 2.58 0.01 hy-wnm.7.3* 75.89 11.06 0.01 <0.01 <0.01 1.24 0.14 2.57 0.01 average 81.60 10.30 0.10 <0.01 <0.01 0.85 0.20 2.78 0.01 note:* sem-edx analyses ** micro-xrf analyses < 0.01 is below detection limit the se, au and fe contents are extremely low and in the ranges less than 0.01 wt.%, 3.2 wt.% and 3.31 wt.%, respectively. sb, ag, and bi are generally used to demonstrate oreforming temperature of galena. foord and shawe (1989) discussed the crystallochemical relationships of ag, sb and bi with galena and this can be explained by the coupled substitution between them as follow: fleischer (1955) stated that the content of ag, bi and sb declined with decreasing temperature of formation. the presence of bismuth (bi) itself in galena is indication of high temperature magma-near deposits (schroll, 1955). in addition, the examined bi-bearing galena are relatively high-temperature which agrees with the experimental data for arising of such solid solutions (bonev, 2007). at tamilouw – haya deposit, galena shows the ag, sb and bi contents are very low to below detection limit with slightly variation. ag is within the ranges < 0.01–0.31 wt.% (average 0.20 wt.%), sb and bi are below detection limit (<0.01 wt.%). although galena is an agcarrier, it seems like galena in tamilouw – haya is nonargentiferous galena. the best sample for non-argentiferous galena is able to found in alanish locality, northern iraq (awadh and nejbert, 2016). therefore, it can be inferred that galena from tamilouw haya deposit may be formed in low temperature. 314 ore genesis and minor elements of orogenic gold minor elements in sphalerite from tamilouw – haya deposit : sphalerite composed of zn and s atoms arranged in a tetrahedral coordination within a face-centred cubic lattice (lockington et al., 2014). sphalerite is the main ore for zinc and the dominant mineral in most types of zinc sulphide deposits. in this study, sem-edx and micro-xrf are used to analyze 12 spot representatives of sphalerite samples from tamilouwhaya orogenic deposit. some detected of minor elements contained in sphalerite are ga, ge, cd, fe, ag and au. the results are listed in table (6). table (6): elements of sphalerite using sem-eds and micro-xrf (wt.%) sample code major elements minor elements results zn s ga ge cd fe ag au zn/cd ga/ge log ga/ge hywnm.07.1* 60.27 32.14 0.90 0.04 0.06 5.48 0.13 <0.01 1004.5 22.50 1.35 hywnm.07.2* 61.58 30.43 1.87 0.02 <0.01 5.74 0.05 <0.01 6158 93.50 1.97 hywnm.07.3* 59.54 31.46 1.85 0.41 0.19 4.92 0.10 <0.01 313.37 4.51 0.65 tmwws.03.1* 56.37 32.4 0.63 0.03 <0.01 7.88 0.24 <0.01 5637 21.00 1.32 tmwws.03.2* 57.83 30.62 1.57 0.12 0.22 6.38 <0.01 <0.01 262.86 13.08 1.12 tmwws.03.3* 56.02 30.40 1.87 0.01 <0.01 8.83 0.01 <0.01 5602 187.02 2.27 tmwylsi6.1** 64.88 19.72 0.61 0.02 <0.01 14.82 <0.01 <0.01 6488 30.50 1.48 tmwylsi6.2** 61.62 27.37 0.57 0.13 <0.01 9.53 <0.01 <0.01 6162 4.38 0.64 tmwylsi6.3** 57.84 26.22 0.40 0.24 <0.01 14.92 0.12 <0.01 5784 1.67 0.22 tmwylsi6.9** 58.8 28.22 0.50 0.22 0.18 11.06 <0.01 <0.01 326.67 2.27 0.36 tmwylsi6.10** 60.23 29.65 0.58 0.13 <0.01 9.19 <0.01 <0.01 6023 4.46 0.65 tmwylsi6.11** 58.94 29.02 0.62 0.05 <0.01 11.18 <0.01 <0.01 5894 12.4 1.09 average 59.49 28.97 0.99 0.12 0.06 9.16 0.06 0.01 4137.95 33.11 1.09 note: * sem-edx analyses ** micro-xrf analyses < 0.01 is lower detection this table shows that tamilouw – haya sphalerites hardly contain fe which is in the range of 4.92-14.92 wt.%.. the cd contents range from 0.06 wt. % to 0.22 wt.% of which a half of them are below detection limit (<0.01wt.%). the ga, ge, and ag contents are within the ranges 0.4-1.87wt.%, <0.01 0.41 wt.%, and <0.01 0.24 wt.%, respectively. nearly all researchers agreed that sphalerite from low temperature deposits such as those of the 315 samalehu et al. mississippi valley type tend to be higher in germanium content than those from mesothermal or high temperature deposits (warren and thompson, 1945), but many exceptions were noted. the data of moller (1985) showed practically that ga/ge ratio will imply to temperature of ore formation. if the ga concentration is higher than ge, it may indicate of high temperature deposits. in this case, the maximum content of gallium (ga) in sphalerite at tamilouw – haya deposit achieved 1.87 wt. % and it means that the deposit occurred under high-temperature formation. jonasson and sangster (1978) concluded that the cd contents and zn/cd ratios in sphalerites vary with the genetic types of deposit and the metallogenetic epochs. the classification of ore-deposit type is distinguished by observing some sulphide ores in canada. this classification is described as follows: 1. the cd contents in sphalerites from volcano-sedimentary type deposits and alpine type deposits are the lowest in all of the discussed deposits or districts with their zn/cd ratios are 417-531. 2. the cd contents in sphalerites from metamorphosed sedimentary deposits and carbonatehosted strata-bound and stratiform deposits are medium, show their zn/cd ratios are 252330. 3. the cd contents in sphalerites from hydrothermal deposits (including volcanohydrothermal deposits) and skarn-hydrothermal deposits are the highest with their zn/cd ratios are 104-214. since a half of cd contents of sphalerite are below of detection but the zn contents are the highest presence in the investigated area, therefore zn:cd ratios are incomparable with this classification. they show a significance of very high zn/cd ratios (262.86 6488, average= 4137.95) due to very low of cd contents. (d) geothermometry (ga/ge) sphalerite moller (1985) used geothermometry (ga/ge) sphalerite to determine temperatures in the source region of ore solutions to estimate mixing degree of the ore fluid. the combination of (ga/ge) sphalerite and homogenization temperature will assist in evaluating ore forming process. in this study, geothermometry (ga/ge) sphalerite analysis at tamilouw – haya using sem-eds and micro-xrf presented in table (6). based on table 6, the average of germanium (ge) content is 0.12 wt.% in sphalerite. in addition, the value of gallium (ga) in the sample shows a range of 0.4 to 1.87 wt.% with an average of this element is 0.99 wt.%. this shows that sphalerite in the study area tends to be formed in relatively high temperature conditions. moreover, the iron (fe) content in sphalerite reaches 14.92 wt.% which may support and indicates that the temperature of ore formation is relatively a high temperature. the iron content generally increases with increasing formation temperature and can reach up to 40% in sphalerite (nesse, 2013). from the results of the log ga/ge calculation at tamilouw-haya deposit, the maximum value is 2.27, while the minimum value shows a value of 0.22. based on geothermometry 316 ore genesis and minor elements of orogenic gold (ga/ge) analysis of sphalerite which is then plotted on the equilibrium feldspar-mica-quartz graph and comparing with pressure and depth, the value of homogenization temperature (th) shows temperature ranging from 210-305o c (diag. 1). diagram (1): graph of homogenization temperature (th) based on log geotermometry (ga/ge) sphalerite (moller, 1985). p. load and depth is obtained from australian continuum model correlation (modified after groves, 1993; groves et al., 1998; gebre-mariam et al., 1995; goldfarb and groves, 2015). conclusions minerals assemblage at tamilouw – haya are native gold, chalcopyrite, pyrite, sphalerite, galena, pyrrhotite, marcasite, realgar, kalininite, arsenopyrite, minor sulfosalts (tetrahedritetennantite), covellite, hematite, goethite and malachite. there are 6 main prospects of gold mineralization in the researched area namely wae lata, wae nama, wae satu, wae yala, wae namasula and way wayaudara. high-grade gold ores in this area are generally found in quartz±carbonate veins (v3) with the main alteration processes are silicification and carbonatization. the ore mineral textures are composed of disseminated, exsolutiondecomposition, simultaneous crystallization (intergrowth) and replacement. the paragenesis deciphered that quartz, calcite, ankerite, siderite, illite, chlorite and epidote were gangue minerals and ore mineralization are embedded within 3 types of quartz/quartz carbonate veins. pyrite field in tamilouw haya has cobalt content but ni does not show a significant signature (co > ni) which means that the tamilouw haya gold deposit was 317 samalehu et al. formed in relatively a high-temperature deposit. the co/ni ratios for tamilouw – haya pyrites are higher than those for sedimentary pyrites, lower than those for volcanogenic and skarn-hydrothermal pyrites, and more similar to those for the volcano-hydrothermal, metamorphosed and skarn hydrothermal type. furthermore, the enrichment of cobalt, nickel and arsenic in pyrite indicates that these elements are available during certain metamorphic phases. galena is characterized by below detection limit of sb and bi elements, while the ag contents are relatively low, so it can be concluded that galena from the tamilouw haya deposit was formed at decreasing temperature. the minor elements of sphalerite in tamilouw-haya shows the element of ga > ge and increasing of fe content which indicates the formation of sphalerite at a relatively high temperature. moreover, the ga/ge sphalerite microtermometry has an elevated homogenization temperature (th) ranging from 210o-305o c. acknowledgements this paper is written in frame of the first author in doctoral program at universitas 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(2021) 16 (3): 301323. ،في تاميلو هايا بنيوي نشأة الخام والعناصر الثانوية لترسبات الذهب ال ، إندونيسياجزيرة سيرام و مام سيتيوان** إروهو گفين سماليهو*، عارفودين ادروس**، نوهير *** جيدي سوكادانا اي ، إندونيسياوكالة الطاقة والثروة المعدنية، مقاطعة مالوكو * ، إندونيسيا ة الجيولوجية، جامعة جادجا مادا، يوجياكارتاقسم الهندس** ، إندونيسيا الوكالة الوطنية للطاقة الذرية *** 20/6/2021 ، تأريخ النشر:30/04/2021 ، تأريخ القبول: 05/03/2021: تأريخ االستالم الخالصة تيهورو في تاميلو هايا ضمن معقد صخور ترسبات الذهب البنيوي تكونت والكب المتحولة الذهب تمعدن يتشكل االردواز(. ( السليت ريتيدات وصخور في الفلزات ومخزون المتعددة عروق شكل في الغالب في الدراسة منطقة االنتشار أن من الرغم على عينات وبريشيا في طفيف بشكل ظهر الطفيف بواسطة تراكيب جيولوجية باتجاة الصخور العائمة. تم حصرها والتحكم فيها ne-sw و nne-ssw المنشأ تكون عملية أواخر خالل في البنائية .العصر الميوسين إلى البليوسين ترسبات في الشائعة المعدنية الخامات مجاميع في الخام الذهب يهيمن هايا الجالينا، تاميلو السفاليريت، البايريت، الجالكوبايرايت، الى اضافة رباعي ريجار، -الهيدريت البيروتيت، ماركاسايت، )سلفوسالت(، تينانتيت الهيبوجين وتكون مصاحبة الى الكوفياليت كمعادن ايت وأرسينوبيريت،كالينين .سوبرجينية كمعادن و هيماتيت، والجيوثايت، والمالخايت العناصر الثانوية للبيريت والجالينا والسفاليريت ان دراسة نشأة الخام و تاميلو استخدمت ،هايا –في طرق. ثالثة باستخدام للتحليل 46تم عينة 323 samalehu et al. للخامات و لتحليالت 10المجهري المجهر االلكتروني sem-edx عينات السينية واالشعة العالقة micro-xrfالماسح وتسلسل لتفسير المتبادلة القوام للخام المعدني النسيج اظهر لقد و نشاتها. المتزامن المنتشر، التبلور المحاليل وتاثير واالحالل، والشوائب، ، الداخلي( والتهدمي الب )النمو نائي .للنسيح بالوزن مما قد ni 0.10٪ ٪ بالوزن و 0.21هو co محتوى متوسط co هذا يعني أن محتوى و ؛ في البيريت 2.86هي co:ni يعكس نسبة البيريت ni أعلى من أن أصل إلى البركاني ويشير بالنوع يكون مرتبًطا قد .لمائي الحراري المائي والمتحول والنوع الحراري ا متوسط يظهر البيريت، مع فيبالمقارنة الثانوية العناصر محتويات sphalerite محتوى fe بالوزن٪، 9.16هوga بالوزن٪ ، 0.99هو ge بالوزن٪ ولوغار 0.12هو ga / ge < 2.27إلى 0.36يتراوح من متوسط يظهر ، ذلك على المعادنبالوزن٪. عالوة داخلالثم محتويات ينة galena أن محتوى au < بالوزن و 2.78 0.01هو ٪ ag 0.12هو بقة للمحتوى العالي من الحديد في بالوزن. استناًدا إلى األوصاف السا 0.31٪ فإن البيريت يشير ga> ge ،co> ni والسباليريت، البيريت، في من المنخفض والجالينا galena في ag المحتوى البيريت أن إلى من والس إلى هايا-تاميلو فاليريت عالية حرارة درجة ظروف تحت تشكلت . paleodepthمن كم 7.65.1 عمق معتدلة في bull 1 permana et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2020) 16 (1): 1-14. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2020.16.1.0001 paleobathymetry analysis of limestone in bongomeme region based on content of benthic foraminifera fossil, gorontalo district, indonesia aang panji permana*, ** subagyo pramumijoyo**♦ and akmaluddin** *department of geological engineering, universitas negeri gorontalo, gorontalo, indonesia ** department of geological engineering, universitas gadjah mada, yogyakarta, indonesia ♦corresponding author: bagyo@ugm.ac.id received date: 29 june 2019, accepted date: 08 december 2019, published date: 24 june 2020 abstract the location of the study area is surging hills in bongomene area, gorontalo, indonesia. in this study, a geological survey and sampling were taken, and then an analysis of the content of benthic foraminifera was performed in each sample. the study aims to discover the species of benthic foraminifera fossils and to determine the paleobathymetry to the studied regions. the results of the analysis contained seven fossils species, namely ammomassilina alveoliniformis, stelligerum astrononion, haynesia germanica, nonion fabum, praeglobobulimina ovata, rhabdammina discreata and saccorhiza ramosa. based on the content of benthic foraminifera fossils, paleobathymetry is determined as middle shelf to outer shelf in bongomeme 1, while in bongomeme 2 and 3 is middle shelf. keywords: benthic foraminifera, bongomeme, fossils, limestone, paleobathymetry. introduction limestone is the sediment consists mostly of structured fragments produced by various types of organisms with specific ecological requirements (meteu-vicens et al., 2008) and commonly occurs and has wide distribution in the carbonate platform. the carbonate platform is characterized by the reestablishment of shallow seawater benthic communities (berggren and prothero, 1992; ivany et al., 2000; prothero, 2003). foraminifera has proven useful in reconstructing as is palaeoenvironmental in shallow seawater environments (mendes et al., 2004; murray, 2006). the most critical control in the distribution of benthic foraminiferal is food availability and dissolved oxygen concentration mailto:bagyo@ugm.ac.id 2 paleobathymetry analysis of limestone in bongomeme (jorissen et al., 1995; de rijk et al., 1999, 2000; murray, 2001). analysis of paleobathymetry based on foraminifera assemblages was carried out on pliocene aged rocks in western sahal with semi-quantitative reconstruction (herkat and ladjal, 2013). micropaleontology is a systematic study of microfossils, their morphology, classification and environmental and stratigraphic significance. for practical purposes, microfossils are any fossils, usually small, with the characteristic of which is best studied through a microscope. these include heterogeneous groups of fossils of organisms that are generally microscopic, for instance, foraminifera, ostracoda and radiolaria (saraswati and srinavasan, 2016). based on the previous study, the study area is included in reef limestone formation (qi), which consists of reef limestone. in addition to this area, the reef limestone units are also found in tanjung kramat region. petrology analysis of limestone shows the name of the limestone is calcirudite or floatstone (bachri et al., 1997; embry and klovan, 1971; grabau, 1905; permana and eraku, 2017; permana, 2018). this research aims to identify the species of benthic foraminifera fossil containing in bongomeme limestone and to determine the paleobathymetry. materials and methods this research located in bongomeme region of gorontalo district, indonesia. western area of limboto lake which located at geomorphology of surging hills. the study area divided into three location, that is bongomeme (1) (00° 35' 29.18" n; 122° 52' 45.82" e), bongomeme (2) (00° 35' 34.680" n; 122° 52' 50.92" e) and bongomeme (3) (00° 36' 41.260" n; 122° 50' 44.34" e) (map 1). the stratigraphic section of this study can be seen in diagram (1). . map (1): location map to the studied area; that’s located in bongomeme region, indonesia. 3 permana et al. diagram (1): the stratigraphic sections of this study, divided into three locations that is bongomeme 1, bongomeme 2 and bongomeme 3. the geological map is according to bachri et al (1997). material or research materials of samples are limestone containing benthic foraminifera fossils. the research method consisted of two stages, namely field survey and micropaleontological analysis. the field survey carried out is geological survey and determination of samples that were feasible to be analyzed and descriptions of petrology. the micropaleontological analysis was carried out to determine paleobathymetry based on the content of benthic foraminifera fossils (ghosh and sarkar, 2013; martins et al., 2015; roozpeykar and moghaddam, 2016). fossils identification is using by the olympus sz61 binocular microscope. in this study, preparations were carried out on samples with a weight of 100gr on each sample. to prepare the benthic foraminifera fossil sample, a solution of 30-50% hydrogen peroxide (h2o2), blue methyl solution, 100 mesh sized filter, electric oven sample dryer and digital scales were used (kadar, 1986). 4 paleobathymetry analysis of limestone in bongomeme identification of benthic foraminifera fossil for the determination of paleobathymetry refers to the classification of tipsword et al (1966) and jones (1994). ranking of the determination of paleobathymetry based on the depth of habitat of each benthic foraminifera species. division of depth based on the environmental intervals of each foraminifera species. each identified species is calculated for its abundance in each sample. the amount of abundance of one species uses the classification of kadar (1986). results and discussion geological surveys in the research area indicate that the main constituents are limestone. based on hand specimen description, the limestone has white color, medium sorting, floating grains in the matrix (component supported) and bedding structures with an abundance of >2 mm granules of 15%. the compositions are large benthic foraminifera, coral fragments, and opaque minerals as a fragment matrix in the form of micrite. based on the description of the petrology, the names calcirudite or coralline rudstone. besides, based on the content of coral fragment, it interpreted that the limestone in the bongomeme area is a reefal limestone, which forms around (both near or little far) from the reef build-up. the chart of facies distribution and paleobathymetry of this study can be seen in diagram (2). 5 permana et al. diagram (2): chart of facies distribution and paleobathymetry in research location (bongomeme). the results of geological survey and hand specimen description which interpreted that samples of reef limestone contained large fossils of foraminifera, samples were taken for micropaleontological analysis. the results of micropaleontological analysis shows that the number of benthic foraminifera species is varies. bongomeme (1) there are three species of benthic foraminifera fossils namely haynesia germanica (ehrenberg, 1840), praeglobobulimina ovata (d'orbigny, 1846) and rhabdammina discreata (brady, 1881). bongomeme (2) there are six species of benthic 6 paleobathymetry analysis of limestone in bongomeme foraminifera fossils namely ammomassilina alveoliniformis (millett, 1898), haynesia germanica (ehrenberg, 1840), nonion fabum (fichtel and moll, 1798), praeglobobulimina ovata (d'orbigny, 1846), rhabdammina discreata (brady, 1881) and saccorhiza ramosa (brady, 1879). bongomeme (3) there are four species of benthic foraminifera fossils namely ammomassilina alveoliniformis (millett, 1898), astrononion stelligerum (d'orbigny, 1839), lamellodiscorbis (loeblich and tappan, 1987) and rhabdammina discreata (brady, 1881). seven types of fossil species can be seen in plate (1). plate (1): seven species of benthic foraminifera fossils found in research location; (1) ammomassilina alveoliniformis, (2) astrononion stelligerum, (3) haynesia germanica, (4) nonion fabum, (5) praeglobobulimina ovata, (6) rhabdammina discreata, (7) saccorhiza ramosa (scale size: 100 um). complete classification of benthic foraminifera fossils in three different research location can be seen in table (1) 7 permana et al. table (1): classification of foraminifera benthic fossil containment in bongomeme region (hayward et al., 2018 a, b, c, d, e). the total abundance of each fossil species in each location according to (kadar, 1986) can be seen in table (2) (bongomeme 1), table (3) (bongomeme 2) and table (4) (bongomeme 3). table (2): the abundance of each benthic foraminifera fossils species in bongomeme 1. species total abundance haynesia germanica 1 very rare (vr) praeglobobulimina ovata 2 rare (r) rhabdammina discreta 9 frequent (f) table (3): the abundance of each benthic foraminifera fossils species in bongomeme 2. species total abundance ammomassilina alveoliniformis 2 rare (r) haynesia germanica 1 very rare (vr) nonion fabum 1 very rare (vr) praeglobobulimina ovata 3 rare (r) rhabdammina discreata 5 rare (r) saccorhiza ramosa 3 rare (r) table (4): the abundance of each benthic foraminifera fossils species in bongomeme 3. species total abundance ammomassilina alveoliniformis 1 very rare (vr) astrononion stelligerum lamellodiscorbis 1 1 very rare (vr) very rare (vr) rhabdammina discreta 9 frequent (f) http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=113900 http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=113900 8 paleobathymetry analysis of limestone in bongomeme table (5): paleobathymetry analysis of bongomeme 1. table (6): paleobathymetry analysis of bongomeme 2. table (7): paleobathymetry analysis of bongomeme 3. based on the research results, there are seven species of benthic foraminifera fossils; therefore, paleobathymetry analysis could be carried out. the analysis was carried out by overlaying the presence of species of benthic foraminifera fossils while it was life. analysis of paleobathymetry for each location based on tipsword et al (1966) and jones (1994) can be seen in table (5) (bongomeme 1), table (6) (bongomeme 2) and table (7) (bongomeme 3). the results of the analysis of paleobathymetry shows that paleobathymetry of the limestone bongomeme 1 area is middle shelf outer shelf (27.45-91.5 meters)(jones, 1994). paleobathymetry of the limestone bongomeme 2 area is middle shelf (29.28 – 47.45 meters) (jones, 1994) and paleobathymetry of the limestone in bongomeme 3 area is middle shelf (29.28 – 45.75 meters) (jones, 1994). the presence of ammomassilina alveoliniformis species which belongs to the suborder milliolina indicates the lagoon environment. to prove this, make a comparison of the rotaliina textulariina miliolina suborder uses a triangle diagram of armstrong and brasier (2005). a comparison of the rotaliina-textulariina-miliolina suborder can be seen in table (8), and the plotting of triangular diagram of armstrong and brasier (2005) can be seen in diagram (3). based on this analysis, it is known that limestone at the location includes hypersaline lagoons, which are formed under hypersaline sea water conditions due to semi-closed water 9 1 2 27.45-91.5 m information rhabdammina discreata benthic foraminifera terrestrial litoral inner paleobathymetry middle outer upper shelf middle lower abyssal slope haynesia germanica praeglobobulimina ovata 1 5 3 3 2 1 29.28-47.45 m information nonion fabum benthic foraminifera ammomassilina alveoliniformis rhabdammina discreata praeglobobulimina ovata saccorhiza ramosa terrestrial litoral inner paleobathymetry middle outer upper shelf middle lower abyssal slope haynesia germanica 9 1 1 1 29.28-45.75 m terrestrial litoral inner paleobathymetry middle outer upper shelf middle lower abyssal slope astrononion stelligerum ammomassilina alveoliniformis lamellodiscorbis information: rhabdammina discreata benthic foraminifera 9 permana et al. circulation which is likely caused by a barrier. if we looking at the composition of limestone that composed by coral fragments, it is interpreted that the barrier is reef build-up. table (8): comparison of rotaliina – textulariina – miliolina suborder. location miliolina rotaliina textulariina total specimen % specimen % specimen % bongomeme-1 0 0,0 3 100,0 0 0,0 3 bongomeme-2 2 28,6 5 71,4 0 0,0 7 bongomeme-3 1 50,0 1 50,0 0 0,0 2 diagram (3): comparison of the rotaliina textulariina miliolina suborder uses a triangle diagram of armstrong and brasier (2005); (a) plotting of comparison of rotaliina textulariina miliolina, suborder, (b) the interpretation of lagoonal condition environment. paleobathymetry analysis of the research area at the time of limestone formation was deposited based on the content of benthic foraminifera fossils, finally could answer the research objectives. the bongomeme area of gorontalo regency, which is currently formed by elevations above sea level of 49 meters to hundreds of meters, is based on the history of 10 paleobathymetry analysis of limestone in bongomeme limestone formation under the marine. the location of the research was experiencing elevation from the shallow marine middle neritic to now land. this fact is strengthened by data on the presence of benthic foraminifera fossils which characterize the marine environment, with hypersaline lagoon condition conclusion based on the results and discussion, some important conclusions can be mentioned. the bongomeme area of gorontalo regency consisting by reefal limestones containing benthic foraminifera fossil and coral fragments. the results of micropaleontological analysis have showed that there are seven species of benthic foraminifera fossils namely ammomassilina alveoliniformis (millett, 1898), astrononion stelligerum (d'orbigny, 1839), haynesia germanica (ehrenberg, 1840), nonion fabum (fichtel and moll, 1798), praeglobobulimina ovata (d'orbigny, 1846), rhabdammina discreata (brady, 1881) and saccorhiza ramosa (brady, 1879). the analysis of paleobathimetry has revealed that the research area was previously a shallow marine environment, which the paleobathymetry of the limestone bongomeme 1 area. the result of the analysis of paleobathymetry shows that paleobathymetry of the limestone bongomeme 1 area is middle shelf outer shelf (27.45-91.5 meters). paleobathymetry of the limestone bongomeme 2 area is middle shelf (29.28 – 47.45 meters) and paleobathymetry of the limestone in bongomeme 3 area is middle shelf (29.28 – 45.75 meters). literature cited armstrong, h. a. and brasier, m. d. 2005. microfossils. 2nd edition, blackwell publishing, oxford, united kingdom, 304 pp. bachri, s., partoyo, e., bawono, s.s., sukarna, d., surono. and supandjono, j. b. 1997. regional geology of gorontalo, north sulawesi. collection of research and mapping results papers centre for geological research and development : 18-30. 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(2020) 16 (1): 1-14. بناء بونجوميمي تحليل األحفوريات الحجرية من الحجر الجيري في منطقة ورونتالو ، إندونيسياك، مقاطعة القاعية المنخريات حفورياتإعلى محتوى آنج بانجي بيرمانا *،**، سباجيو براميوميجويا ** و اكمل الدين** ورونتالو، إندونيسياكورونتالو ، ك*قسم الهندسة الجيولوجية، جامعة نيغري مادا، يوجياكارتا، إندونيسياقسم الهندسة الجيولوجية، جامعة جادجا ** 24/06/2020، تأريخ النشر: 08/12/2019، تأريخ القبول: 29/07/2019تأريخ االستالم: الخالصة ، لوطقة بونجوميمي، كورونتاتقع منطقة الدراسة في تالل سيرجنج، في من نيسيا. في هذه الدراسة، جرت عملية المسح الجيولوجي والنمذجة، وبعد إندو ات القاعية في كل نموذج. تهدف الدراسة الى مذلك تم تحليل محتوى المخر ات القاعية وتحديد االعماق القديمة مالمخر حفورياتإاكتشاف انواع من ، تسمىحفوريهإللمناطق المدروسة. بينت نتائج التحليل وجود سبعة انواع ammomassilina alveoliniformis ،stelligerum astrononion ، haynesia germanica ،nonion fabum ،praeglobobulimina ovata ، rhabdammina discreata وsaccorhiza ramose. ً الى محتوى ات القاعية، حدد العمق القديم على انه مالمخرحفوريات إاستنادا 3و 2، بينما في بونجوميمي 1الرف المتوسط الى الخارجي في بونجوميمي هو الرف المتوسط. abstract keywords: benthic foraminifera, bongomeme, fossils, limestone, paleobathymetry. introduction materials and methods results and discussion table (5): paleobathymetry analysis of bongomeme 1. table (6): paleobathymetry analysis of bongomeme 2. table (7): paleobathymetry analysis of bongomeme 3. conclusion literature cited آنج بانجي بيرمانا *،**، سباجيو براميوميجويا ** و اكمل الدين** تأريخ الاستلام: 29/07/2019، تأريخ القبول: 08/12/2019، تأريخ النشر: 24/06/2020 الخلاصة bull 547 abdurasulova and pazilov bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2021) 16 (4): 547-555. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2021.16.4.0547 nature of variability of candaharia levanderi (simroth, 1902) in the ferghana and surkhan sherabad valleys, uzbekistan surayyo sh. abdurasulova * and аbduvaeit p. pazilov ** *doctoral student, gulistan state university, gulistan, uzbekistan. **professor, gulistan state university, gulistan, uzbekistan. *corresponding author e-mail: i.kamronbek2013@mail.ru received date: 28 august 2021, accepted date: 09 november 2021, published date: 20 december2021 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract the variability of candaharia levanderi (simroth, 1902)(gastropoda, stylommatophora, parmacellidae) in two biotopes (southern and northern slopes, the kampirtepa gorges, the kugitang tau ridge) has been investigated using polymerase chain reaction (pcr) with the implementation of primers, the 18s dna of the region is amplified, the variability (sharply differing in color) of two populations of c. levanderi is studied . the first population is in the suburbs of namangan, (namangan region); the second population is in kampirtepa gorges, kugitang tau ridge (surkhandarya region). it is established that, most often, the variability of morphological signs is observed on the coloration of mollusks. the development of body coloration is an adaptive feature that reflects the adaptability to certain biotopes on the one hand, and landscape and climatic conditions on the other . keywords: biotope, candaharia levanderi, ferghana valley, morphological feature, surkhansherabad valley. introduction like other terrestrial mollusks, slugs are characterized by a high level of intra-and interpopulation variability. the nature and intensity of the color of slugs are often adaptive, reflecting their adaptability to certain biotopes on the one hand, and landscape and climatic conditions on the other (likharev and viktor, 1980). it should be noted that the nature of the variability of shell-bearing mollusks living in central asia is discussed in a number of works (schileyko, 1971; uvalieva, 1990; pazilov, 1991; pazilov and daminova, 2001; pazilov and gaibnazarova, 2012; pazilov and umarov, 2021). similar studies were conducted in the far (cain, 1977; goodfriend, 1986; pettitt, 1977; https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2021.16.4.0535 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 548 nature of variability of candaharia levanderi tissot, 1988a, 1988b, 1988c) and near abroad (kramarenko, 1993; kramarenko and popov, 1994; khokhutkin, 1997). however, there is no data on the variability of slugs, including candaharia levanderi (simroth, 1902), until today. therefore, the main goal of this work was the investigation of the inter-population variability of morphological features of c. levanderi, spread in various landscape and climatic conditions of the ferghana and surkhan-sherabad valleys. materials and methods material for the study has been collected during two years (2019-2020) from spatially separated populations of c. levanderi inhabiting different habitat and climate and geographical conditions: fergana valley (suburbs of namangan, near gavasay village, gavasay gorges); the northern slopes of zarafshan range, urgutsay; surkhan-sherabad valley (kugitang tau, babatag, baysun tau ranges (map 1). collected from different habitats, the habitats of the species are radically different from each other; in surkhan–sherabad district, winter is short and cold, summer is long and hot. hot days in surkhan-sherabad valley come early and last for a long time. the average temperature of july in the flat part is 28-32 °c. the average temperature in january is +3 °c. precipitation on the plains ranges from 130 mm to 360 mm per year, in the foothill areas from 440 mm to 620 mm. in namangan region, the climate is sharply continental. the average temperature in january is +4 °c, in july +35 °c. precipitation on the plains ranges from 135 mm to 370 mm per year, in the foothills from 460 mm to 640 mm. collection of material was carried out in the plains in march and april and in the mountain in may and june. this is due to the fact that slugs are active during these months. the optimal temperature for succulents is 18-22 °с, and humidity is up to 20-30%. in lowland areas, the air temperature warms up earlier, and in mountainous areas-later (likharev and viktor, 1980). during the collection process, all living mollusks were seized within 5 pilot sites (size is 1 sq. meter). during the analysis of morphological features, 30 sexually mature species were randomly selected from each sample and quantitative and qualitative variability were studied with the help of the mbs-9 binocular microscope. in the study, the dna genome was taken from the heel part of the species c. levanderi. we use “dneasy blood & tissue kits” for dna sequencing in genomic dna sequencing (qiagen gmbh, germany). the pzr is made with an automatic programmable amplifier (touchgene gradient, uk). during dna sequencing abi prism ® bigdye ™ terminator v. 3.1, performed using a set of reagents, special reaction parameters were recorded in the automatic sequencer abi prism 3100avant. the sequencing data were taken in the "ab1" format and analyzed using the chromas version 1.45 program (mccartney, 1996 1998). moreover, highly discriminating individuals by morphological characteristics have been studied in the nucleotide sequence using molecular genetic methods. 549 abdurasulova and pazilov map (1): map of proliferation of c. levanderi in the studied territories (pazilov and azimov, 2003). ( collection points of terrestrial mollusks). results and discussion c. levanderi is considered as a central asian endemic species and it is found in almost all high-altitude zones: in the desert zone-among cultivated plants, in adyr zone-among semishrubs, in mountainous zones under shrubs and among large rocks. in uzbekistan, it is spread in the ferghana and surkhan-sherabad valleys, as well as in the ridges, such as zarafshan, turkestan, babatag, baysun tau and kugitang tau. usually the coloration gray or grayish-yellow; mantle darker than the rest of body. sometimes there are populations with a dark pattern on the upper side of the body of spots and stripes. when shortening, a clear but rounded corner appears on the posterior edge of the mantle. the sole is always lighter than the upper side of the body it is monochrome. after studying all the available material, it can be noted that the limits of variability of morphological features of c. levanderi were much wider than those given in the monographs of likharev and viktor (1980), schileyko and rymzhanov (2013) when describing the species. most often, the variability of morphological features is observed in the coloration of mollusks, and such variability is clearly observed even in biotopes located not far from each other. for example, in mollusks living among the bushes of the kampirtepa gorges (kugitang tau ridge), on the northern slopes of the hills (pl. 1a), the body color of the mollusks is yellowish, covered with elongated dark spots, and on the sides of the mollusk these spots combined with yellow formed a dark yellow color. the length of the body when moving is 80-90 mm, with a reduction of 55-60 mm. 550 nature of variability of candaharia levanderi plate (1): c. levanderi; (а) living on the northern slopes of hills, (b) in southern slopes, kampirtepa gorges, kugitang tau ridge (surkhandarya region). the color of mollusks living on the southern slopes of hills (pl. 1b), among herbaceous plants in an open space, is most often yellow, or part of the neck is earthy (gray), the rest is yellow, when moving it is shiny yellow, on the sides of the legs are light gray. the length of the body when moving is 75-85 mm and when reducing is 50-55 mm. the mollusks living in the suburbs of namangan (pl. 2) have the following variability: the body size is much larger than that of other populations, the body base is yellow, however, the black spots on it are well developed and merge, as a result of which the body color of the mollusks is dark yellow. on the neck there are two yellow stripes running from the mantle to the tentacles, the separator of the tail part of the body is also yellow. on the underside of the body there are dark spots located in a line. the length of the body when moving is 105-120 mm. when reduced; it is 70-75 mm. plate (2): c. levanderi living among thickets of grasses, in the suburbs of namangan (namangan region). thus, the results of the study show that the variability of c. levanderi is mainly observed on the coloration of mollusks. for example, the body color (coloration) of mollusks living among shrubs is yellowish, covered with elongated dark spots (pl. 1a), the color of the species of those living among herbaceous plants in an open space, is most often yellow (pl. 1b), whereas mollusks living among thickets of grasses, have black spots on the body and they are well developed and merge, as a result of which the color of the body of mollusks becomes dark yellow (pl. 2). а b 551 abdurasulova and pazilov apparently, the development of body coloration is an adaptive feature, reflecting, on the one hand, adaptability to certain biotopes on the other hand, and landscape and climatic conditions. using a polymerase chain reaction (kuznetsov, 2002), with the use of primers, the 18s dna of the region was amplified, the variability (sharply differing in color) of two populations of c. levanderi was studied. the first population is in the suburbs of namangan, (namangan region); the second population is kampirtepa gorges, kugitang tau ridge (surkhandarya region). the obtained data were compared with the international database (genbank), and the following results were obtained (diag. 1). diagram (1): comparison of the nucleotide sequences of c. levanderi of two populations (direction from 5’ to 3’ – end, the dot indicates the nucleotide bases). 552 nature of variability of candaharia levanderi when comparing the nucleotide sequences of these sites (18s dna of the region) between the population: the suburbs of namangan and the kampirtepa gorges (kugitang tau), 2 nucleotide positions are noted, which are represented by the transition between pyrimidines (thymine instead of adenine on 205 nucleotides, thymine instead of cytosine on 206 nucleotides). the obtained results show that the nucleotide sequences of partial sections of 18s rdna in two populations differ in morphological character (color), there were no significant differences between their nucleotides and these individuals were one species of c. levanderi living in different landscape and climatic conditions. we can conclude, the snails change their color depending on the conditions of the habitat, the composition of nutrition and the pigment contained in the mantle. also, we have not studied environmental factors, light intensity, ph, salinity of the studied species. thus, having studied the variability of c. levanderi in two populations, it was found that this species differs in an extremely wide range of variability both biotopically and geographically (populationally), which, living in two biotopes not far from each other, differ extremely sharply in color and body structure. the study of the variability of morphological features of c. levanderi revealed a certain pattern in shape and color. for example, light brown or yellow color is characteristic of mollusks living on the southern slopes in more open areas, while reddish-brown or dark brown color is characteristic of biotopes with mesophytic and moisture-loving plant associations. conflict of interest we declare that there is no conflict of interest between the authors. we confirm that all the pictures in the manuscript belong to us. we note in this study that there is no conflict of interest regarding the use of the gulistan state university laboratory. literature cited cain, a. j. 1977. variation in the spire index of some coiled gastropod shells, and its evolutionary significance. philosophical transactions of the royal society of london, 277: 377-428. goodfriend, g. a. 1986. variation in land-snail form and size and its causes: a review. systematic zoology, 35 (2): 204-223. khokhutkin, i. m. 1997. structure of species variability on the example of terrestrial molluscs. uro ran, ekaterinburg, 175 pp. (in russian). kramarenko, s. s. 1993. seasonal variability of the size-age structure of the brephulopsis bidens population from the vicinity of the city of simferopol. in: topical issues of ecology of the azov-black sea region and the mediterranean. ssu, simferopol, p. 195-199. (in russian). 553 abdurasulova and pazilov kramarenko, s. s. and popov, v. n. 1994. variation of morphological traits in land snails, brephulopsis lindholm, 1925 (gastropoda: pulmonata: buliminidae) in the introgressive hybridization zone. zhurnal obshchey biologii, 54 (6): 682-690. [in russian]. kuznetsov, e. a. 2002. polymerase chain reaction as one of the methods of genetic diagnosis. trudy vserossiyskogo instituta gel'mintologii, 38: 163-183. (in russian). likharev, i. m. and viktor, a. j. 1980. the fauna of slugs of the ussr and adjacent countries (gastropoda terrestria nuda). nauka, leningrad, 437 pp. [in russian]. pazilov, a. 1991. variation patterns of chondrulopsina fedtschenkoi (mollusca, pulmonata) from the fergana and alai ridges. zoological journal, 70 (10): 130-134. 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(in russian). pazilov, a. p. and umarov, f. u. 2021. on the ecology and species diversity of the freshwater gastropods of springs in andijan region, uzbekistan. bulletin of the iraq natural history museum, 16 (3):325-340. pettitt, c. 1977. an investigation of variation in shell form in discula (hystricella) turricula (love, 1831) (pulmonata; helicacea). journal of conchology, 29: 147-150. schileyko, a. a. 1971. malacology: deceitfulness, similarity and the nature of differences. priroda, 7: 75-80. (in russian). schileyko, a. a. and rymzhanov, t. s. 2013. terrestrial molluscs of kazakhstan and adjacent territories. kmk scientific publishing association, moscow, alma-ata, 389 pp. (in russian). tissot, b. n. 1988a. geographic variation and heterochrony in two species of cowries (genus cyprea). evolution, 42: 103-117. tissot, b. n. 1988b. morphological variation along gradients in a population of black abalone 554 nature of variability of candaharia levanderi haliotis cracherodii leach, 1814. journal of experimental marine biology and ecology, 117 (1): 71-90. tissot, b. n. 1988c. multivariate analysis. in: mckinney, m. l. (ed.). heterochrony in evolution: a multi-disciplinary approach. plenum press, new york, p. 35-51. uvalieva, k. k. 1990. terrestrial mollusks of kazakhstan and adjacent territories. science kazssr, alma-ata, 224 pp. (in russian). 555 abdurasulova and pazilov bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2021) 16 (4): 547-555. candaharia levanderi (simroth, 1902) التباينطبيعة أوزبكستان ،وديان شراباد -في فرغانا وسورخان عبدوفايت ب. بازيلوف ** سولوفا * واسورايو ش. عبد الر دكتوراه، جامعة والية كلستان، جولستان، أوزبكستان. * طالب ن.** أستاذ بجامعة والية جولستان، جولستان، أوزبكستا 2021/ 12/ 20، تاريخ النشر: 2021/ 11/ 09، تاريخ القبول: 2021/ 08/ 28تاريخ االستالم: الخالصة candaharia levanderi (simroth, 1902)النوع تباينتم التحقيق في (gastropoda, stylommatophora, parmacellidae) ة في اثنين من البيئات الحيوي ( kugitang tau ridge، و kampirtepa، وديان بية والشمالية)املنحدرات الجنو تضخيم مع بتطبيق البادئات املناسبة( pcrتفاعل البوليميراز املتسلسل )باستخدام التباين )االختالف الحاد في اللون( درس حمض النووي ، و لل 18s dna املنطقة . من النوع اعالهسكانيتين ملجموعتين ؛ املجموعة ضواحي نامانجان )منطقة نامانجان( من ية االولىاملجموعة السكان . kampirtepa gorges, kugitang tau ridge (surkhandarya region) منالثانية هذا النوع من تلوين ل املظهريةالعالمات تغايرا في، لوحظ ثبت أنه ، في أغلب األحيان كيف مع بيئات لقدرة على التالرخويات. يعد تطور لون الجسم ميزة تكيفية تعكس ا ، واملناظر الطبيعية والظروف املناخية من جهة أخرى.حيوية معينة من جهة bull 219 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum kadhim, z. y. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2022) 17 (2): 219-228. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2022.17.2.0219 original article new records of free-living protozoa (sarcodina) from baghdad city, iraq zahraa y. kadhim department of research & development, ministry of higher education & scientific research, baghdad, iraq e-mail: zahraa.yahia76@gmail.com received date: 10 feb. 2022, accepted date: 07 oct. 2022, published date: 20 december 2022 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract studies in iraq that concerned identification of free-living protozoa (sarcodina) are scarce; so the current study deals with these protozoan communities inhabiting the tigris river in baghdad city. sampling collection stations have been selected at each of al-gheraiˈat and al-adhamiyah area adjacent to the river. monthly intervals sampling with three samples were collected from each station from june to september 2020. total of 23 sarcodina taxa were listed, out of them 5 taxa were new record to the tigris river in baghdad: difflugia urceolata carter, 1864 (arcellinida, difflugiidae), heleopera perapetricola leidy, 1879 (arcellinida, heleoperidae), rhaphidiophrys pallida f.e. schulze, 1874 (centrohelida, raphidiophridae), saccamoeba sp. (amoebida, hartmannellidae) and thecamoeba sp. (amoebida, thecamoebidae). keywords: amoebida, arcellinida, centrohelida, protozoa, sarcodina, tigris river. introduction free-living amoebae (fla) are the most widespread protozoa found in the environment; fla are isolated from water, soil, sediments, air, sewage and dust (rodriguez-zaragoza, 1994). these organisms feed on other protozoa, bacteria, fungi, algae and organic debris in biofilms or in the planktonic phase; therefore, they affect the structure of microbial communities (erkta et al., 2020). orderly, the community of fla depends on the diversity and abundance of bacteria in each of the biofilm and planktonic phase (cavalier-smith, 1993; hahn and höfle, 2001; rønn et al., 2002; parry, 2004; cavalier-smith, 2009). in the last 50 years, the ever-rising influences of humans on their environment by urbanization, industry and climate change has led to an 80% decline in the biodiversity of freshwater (wwf, 2018). the three forms of amoeboid protists: lobose, filose, and reticulose amoebae that can be distinguished by their pseudopodial patterns; the most prevalent amoeba is the lobose, rarely are reticulose and filose species isolated (smirnov and brown, 2004). bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799-print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2022.17.2.0219 mailto:zahraa.yahia76@gmail.com https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 220 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum new records of free-living protozoa heliozoa is one of the most long-lived of the classic protozoan taxa, and it can be found in a large number of contemporary protists, protoctists and protozoa (corliss, 1994). also, it is a spherically symmetrical group of protists with granule-carrying axopods that radiate and lose any intracellular inorganic skeleton as well as a central capsule; an organic or inorganic skeleton is always extracellular (mikrjukov, 1998). testate amoebae have important roles in structuring of aquatic ecosystems and have each of interesting characteristics and ecological advantages for scientific investigations (schwind et al., 2016). also, they have shells of different compositions, sizes and shapes (bonnet, 1975). the testate amoeba which diverse protest group and enclose their cell body within a test are importance indicators in the ecological system for their abundance (in fresh water, wetlands and moist soils); sensitivity to the environmental conditions; rapid generation times; high preservation potential (mitchell et al., 2008). the lobose testate amoebae are globally distributed in both aquatic and terrestrial environments; they are consuming prey (such as: bacteria, algae, smaller protists, yeast, etc.) via phagocytosis; they are used as indicators for each of acidity of lake (patterson et al., 2002); industrial influences (nasser et al., 2016); quality of water (roe et al., 2010); seasonal change of environment and ecosystem health (li et al., 2017). also, under unfavorable conditions they become dormant cysts, for example: lack of satisfying food and dried conditions of the environment. hence, excystation will occur when the environmental conditions enhance (or form freeze-resistant, winter resting stages that are not encysted in some soil-dwelling amoebae in temperate regions). furthermore, they are important organisms of aquatic and terrestrial microbial linkages in food webs between microbes and higher organisms, like invertebrates (anderson, 2017). life cycles of amoebae vary between systematic groups and related species, variation is found in every stage of amoeba life cycle (smirnov and brown, 2004). the aim of this study is to identify protozoan’s taxa (sarcodina’s taxa) and provide database on some water sarcodina’s community in tigris river at baghdad city. materials and methods study area this study deals with sarcodina communities inhabiting tigris riverbank within baghdad city. four sampling stations were selected at each of al-gheraiˈat (s1: 33˚23ʼ28.8ˮn 44˚21ʼ28.7ˮe; s2: 33˚23ʼ32.8ˮn 44˚21ʼ22.8ˮe and s3: 33˚23ʼ34.6ˮn 44˚21ʼ13.5ˮe) and aladhamiyah area (s4: 33˚21ʼ27.0ˮn 44˚22ʼ26.2ˮe) at tigris riverbank. observed variable species of vegetation (reeds and wild grasses) which grow at s4, while others sites were covered with stones at the edges of the river bank. from june to september 2020, three samples at monthly intervals, each measuring 60 liters, were taken from each sampling station. protozoans were collected from the water's surface horizontally using plankton net that was 40 µm (ibrahim and abdullah, 2008). 221 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum kadhim, z. y. water samples equal to 48 freshwater samples were examined during the period of study. from each sample, one milliliter was examined throughout (5-48) hours by direct observation (buitkamp, 1979; foissner, 1987; şenler and yildiz, 2004). all water samples were examined alive via light microscope (şenler and yildiz, 2004). sarcodina species were identified and classified according to kudo (1966), levin et al. (1980), smirnov and brown (2004), smirnov et al. (2011), adl et al. (2012) and protist information server (2018). photographing all species was done by camera (casio). ocular micrometer was used for specimens measuring. results and discussion a total of 23 sarcodina taxa were identified (tab. 1), out of them 5 taxa were new record to the tigris river in baghdad, whilst the remaining were recorded previously by kadhim and mahmood (2013). the number of documented species in this research was lower than lihua et al. (2014) who recorded 169 sarcodina species in china; kadhim and mahmood (2013) recorded 24 sarcodina species in iraq. in contrast, their record was higher than medeiros et al. (2013) who listed 19 sarcodina species in brazilian; chen et al. (2018) who recorded 6 sarcodina species from longfend wetland in china. the low number of recording sarcodina taxa in this investigation may be referred to the restricted investigation area and the limited duration of this study. rare species could be influenced by various environmental changeable. hence, the distribution of sarcodina (such as testate amoebae) was affected by influences of climate and human activities (lihua et al., 2014). the new recording sarcodina taxa are: difflugia urceolata carter, 1864 (arcellinida, difflugiidae), heleopera perapetricola leidy, 1879 (arcellinida, heleoperidae), rhaphidiophrys pallida f. e. schulze, 1874 (centrohelida, raphidiophridae), saccamoeba sp. (amoebida, hartmannellidae) and thecamoeba sp. (amoebida, thecamoebidae). table (1): taxonomy of sarcodina taxa according to kudo (1966), levin et al. (1980), smirnov and brown (2004), smirnov et al.( 2011) and adl et al. (2012) and protist information server (2018), that recorded from sampling sites during the study period. sarcodina taxa class order family choanocystis aculata hertwig & lesser, 1874 centrohelea centrohelida choanocytidae heterophrys sp. hetrophridae euglypha sp. filosia aconchulinida euglyphidae actinoshaerium eichornni ehreberg, 1840 heliozoea actinophryida actinophyridae actinophrys sol ehreberg, 1830 actinophyridae *rhaphidiophrys pallida f.e. schulze,1874 centrohelida raphidiophridae amoeba radiosa ehreberg, 1830 lobosea amoebida amoebidae polychaos sp. amoebidae trichamoeba villosa wallich, 1863 amoebidae *thecamoeba sp. thecamoebidae 222 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum new records of free-living protozoa thecamoeba striata penard, 1890 thecamoebidae *saccamoeba sp. hartmannellidae mayorella sp. mayorellidae kortenivella sp. paramoebidae pelomyxa sp. pelomyxidae arcella sp. arcellinida arcellidae centropyxis aculata ehreberg, 1830 centropyxidae centropyxis ecornis ehreberg, 1841 centropyxidae difflugia sp. difflugiidae difflugia acuminate ehrenberg, 1838 difflugiidae * difflugia urceolate carter, 1864 difflugiidae *heleopera petricola leidy, 1879 heleoperidae plagiophrys sp. psedodifflugiidae (* new record species for iraq) 1. difflugia urceolata carter, 1864 description: test for a broad oval or spherical shape. aperture is circular, with a recurved collar that extends as a broad rim. mineral grains or diatom frustules are often combined and fused together with organic substances to form a shell. test generally without spines. length of shell 235-280 µm as shown in plate (1). plate (1): difflugia urceolata. 2. heleopera petricola leidy, 1879 description: chitinous test, colored (occasionally light yellow or light violet), practically always rough with adherent sand-grains. in lateral view, pseudostome narrow, elliptic, and notched; in frontal view, pseudostome with more or less convex or truncated. lateral margins slightly convex. length of shell: 80-100 μm as shown in plate (2). 223 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum kadhim, z. y. plate (2): heleopera petricola. 3. rhaphidiophrys pallida schultze, 1874 description: ordered radial siliceous spicules; outer gelatinous envelope filled with curved lenticular spicules, creating accumulations around pseudopodia; diameter 40 μm; spicules 20 μm long as shown in plate (3). plate (3): rhaphidiophrys pallida. 4. saccamoeba sp. description: in continuous locomotion, limax amoeba with hyaline cap decreased to shallow crescent or missing; uroid with villous bulb (frequently present) and more or less stiff fine; a bulging contractile vacuole; with cytoplasmic crystals, measurement: 43.75 – 125 μm as shown in plate (4). plate (4): saccamoeba sp. 224 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum new records of free-living protozoa 5. thecamoeba sp. description: up to 200 μm, ovoid, flattened and oblong; uninucleate, posterior surface ridged or wrinkled with longitudinal surface folds and appearance of thicker pellicle, hyaloplasm a crescent posterior end along sides with thin extensions toward posterior end as shown in plate (5). plate (5): thecamoeba sp. conclusions the current study deals with protozoan communities inhabiting the tigris river in baghdad city. sampling collection stations have been selected at each of al-gheraiˈat and aladhamiyah area adjacent to the river. from june to september 2020, three samples were taken at monthly intervals from each location. total of 23 sarcodina taxa were found, out of them 5 taxa were new record to the tigris river in baghdad: d. urceolata (arcellinida, difflugiidae), h. perapetricola (arcellinida, heleoperidae), r. pallida (centrohelida, raphidiophridae), saccamoeba sp. 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(crossref) https://link.springer.com/journal/10933 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-009-9380-1 https://doi.org/10.4081/%20jlimnol.2015.1180 https://dergipark.org.tr/en/download/article-file/135046n http://www.zin.ru/journals/protistology/num3_3/smirnov.pdf https://doi:10.1016/j.protis.2011.04.004 228 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum new records of free-living protozoa bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2022) 17 (2): 219-228. تسجيل جديد البتدائيات املياه العذبة )اللحميات( لنهر دجلة في مدينة بغداد، العراق كاظم حيىزهراء ي داد، العراقدائرة البحث والتطوير، وزارة التعليم العالي والبحث العلمي، بغ 20/12/2022، تأريخ النشر: 7/10/2022، تأريخ القبول: 10/2/2022تأريخ االستالم: الخالصة ، لذا الدراسات التي تهتم بتصنيف ابتدائيات املياه العذبة )اللحميات( في العراق قليلة نة املتوطنة في نهر دجلة ملديتتعامل مع مجاميع االبتدائيات فأن الدراسة الحالية بغداد. تم اختيار محطات جمع العينات في كل من منطقتي الكريعات و االعظمية بواقع ثالث عينات من كل محطة خالل الفترة ً املحاذية للنهر. تم جمع العينات شهريا .2020من تموز ولغاية ايلول مراتب تصنيفية تعتبر تسجيل 5مرتبة تصنيفية من اللحميات، بينهم 23سجلت :لنهر دجلة في مدينة بغدادجديد difflugia urceolata carter, 1864 (arcellinida, difflugiidae) heleopera perapetricola leidy, 1879 (arcellinida, heleoperidae) rhaphidiophrys pallida f.e. schulze, 1874 (centrohelida, raphidiophridae) saccamoeba sp. (amoebida, hartmannellidae) thecamoeba sp. (amoebida, thecamoebidae). bull 343 razzaq shalan augul and hanaa h. al-saffar bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. june, (2019) 15 (3): 343-361 survey with checklist of the invasive insects to iraq razzaq shalan augul* and hanaa h. al-saffar entomology and invertebrates department, iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq * corresponding author: dr.rsha@nhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq received date: 20 january 2019, accepted date: 11 april 2019, published date: 27 june 2019 abstract the survey and checklist of invasive species of the insects in some different localities of iraq are revised; 24 invasive species were documented until december 2018 during the current investigations. the species distributions, common names and synonyms are given. the current investigation included all of exotic species in iraq, which are not collected during this study. keyword: insects, invasive, iraq, species, survey. introduction the climate modification is expected to change the geographical distribution and abundance of many species; increase the invasion of new areas by exotic species and in some cases lead to the extinction of some species and whole ecosystems (gutierrez and ponti, 2014). according to pimentel et al. (2000), the invasive species collectively cause, in excess of 140 $ billion, in losses annually in the usa, and a trillion globally (oerke and dehne, 2004); on the other hand, the invasive of species insects may cause damage to the biodiversity of a region, which is made up of three aspects: compositional, functional and structural diversity (noss, 1990). the compositional diversity which means the number of different species in a system is most frequently accepted as a measure for this term; however, the functional and structural diversities are an integral part of the system dynamics, and are frequently severely altered by biological invasions. these species impacts are frequently recorded to affect more than one facet, or where one facet has been affected, the others feel ripple effects; these impacts include replacement of diverse systems with single or mixed species stands of aliens, alteration of geomorphological processes, soil chemistry and hydrology; also invasions may lead to the extinction of compositional diversity and the direct threat to native fauna (cronk and fuller, 1995). for the reasons above, this paper is done because of the absence of any checklist related to invasive insects in the ecosystems of iraq. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2019.15.3.0343 344 survey with checklist of the invasive materials and methods the specimens of this study were collected from different localities of iraq from january 2013 to december 2018; the sweeping and aerial net, light traps, tephry traps, yellow-sticky traps, lures, baits, and forceps were used to collect the specimens. some of the collected specimens were put in alcohol (ethanol 75%) mixed with few drops of glycerin to avoid the change to dark color, such as the larvae of diptera, but the others were pinned directly such as coleoptera, adult of flies or indirectly by insect cards; the information concerning the date of collection, locality of the specimens are given. many keys many keys were used to identify the specimens that including: curran (1965), zumput (1965), usinger (1966), endrodi (1985), spradbery (1992), white and elson-harris (1994), povolny (1994), yassin and david (2010), gasca-álvarez and amat-garcía (2010) and irish et al. (2014); for precise identification, they were compared with previously identified specimens stored at iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad. results and discussion the current survey from different regions of iraq for the period 2013-2018 and previous studies showed 24 species belonging to 21 genera, 18 families and 6 orders that have invaded iraq till the end of december 2018: these species are: (a) order: diptera 1family: calliphoridae chrysomya bezziana (villeneuve, 1914) common name: old world screwworm fly (ows). hosts: cattles and human. materials examined: (31 specimens): karbala province, al-hindiya district, 11 larvae from sheep, specimens, 31.iii.2018. diyala province (20 specimens), kifri district, 13 larvae from sheep, 13.iv.2017; al khalis district, 7 larvae from dogs, 13.xi.2016. distribution: iraq (abdul-rassoul et al., 1996); most tropical and subtropical areas of africa, indian subcontinent, new guinea and south east asia (norris and murray, 1964; zumpt, 1965; sutherst et al., 1989; rohela et al., 2006). kuwait, qatar and bahrain (rajapaksa and spradbery, 1989), iran (djalayer et al., 1978; navidpour et al., 1996); saudi arabia (alahmed, 2002). 2-family: drosophilidae zaprionus indianus (gupta, 1970) synonyms: zaprionus collarti tsacas, 1980 zaprionus inermis seguy, 1938 zaprionus paravittiger godbole & vaidya, 1972 common name: the african fig fly. hosts: fermented fruits. materials examined: (20 specimens): baghdad, bab al muadham, 10 specimens, 10.iii.2018; al-kadhimiya, 10 specimens, 22.iv.2018. distribution: semi-cosmopolitan, florida and panama (van der linde et al., 2006); mexico (castrezana, 2007); canada (renkema et al., 2013); indian subcontinent (yassin et al., 2008); iraq (al t'oma and van der linde, 2010) france (kremmer et al., 2017). 3-family: tephritidae ceratitis capitata (wiedemann, 1824) 345 razzaq shalan augul and hanaa h. al-saffar synonyms: ceratitis citripeda efflatoun, 1924 ceratitis citriperda macleay, 1829 ceratitis hispanica breme, 1842 pardalaspis asparagi bezzi, 1924 tephritis capitata wiedemann, 1824 trypeta capitata (wiedemann, 1824) common name: mediterranean fruit fly. hosts: citrus plants, pear, grape, tomato, pepper and pomegranate and more than 260 host plants (steck, 2006). materials examined (124 specimens): wasit province, numaniyah, 36 specimens, 21.xi.2018; baghdad province, bab al muadham, 17 specimens, 11.x.2018, abu ghraib, 11 specimens, 3. xi.2018 ; karbala province, imam aun district, 27 specimens, 15.v.2018; diyala province, baquba city, 21 specimens, 30.xi.2018, abu saida district, 12, 20.xi.2018. distribution: invasive to iraq (al-haidary, 1947). it irradiated and appeared again as outbreak in abu saida district, diyala province at 2006 in citrus orchids (al-jiboory, 2007). also distributed in: mauritius, reunion, seychelles, north africa, southern europe, middle east, western australia, south and north america (eppo, 2011a); ghana, togo, benin, nigeria (de meyer et al., 2013). dacus ciliates loew, 1862 synonyms: dacus brevistylus bezzi, 1908 dacus insistens curran, 1927 tridacus mallyi munro, 1925 common names: ethiopian fruit fly and cucurbit fly. hosts: the larvae of this species grow in the fruits of a wide range of cucurbit crops, such as cucumbers and melons; and wild cucurbitaceae. materials examined: (100 specimens): baghdad province, 20 specimens, al-jadryia, 22.vii. 2018 abu-gharaib, 25 specimens, 28.vii.2018; karbala province 30 specimens, al hussainya, 10.xi.2018; wasit province, numaniyah, 25 specimens, 22.x.2018. distribution: iraq (moanas and abdul-rassoul, 1989); bangladesh, india, iran, myanmar, pakistan, saudi arabia, yemen, angola, egypt, benin, botswana, cameroon, chad, eritrea, ethiopia, kenya, lesotho, madagascar, malawi, mauritius, mozambique, namibia, rwanda, senegal, sierra leone, somalia, south africa, sudan, tanzania, uganda, zaire, zambia, zimbabwe (iie, 1995); benin, ghana, guinea nigeria, togo (de meyer et al., 2013). dacus frontalis beecker, 1922 synonyms: dacus scopatus munro, 1948 dacus ciliates var. duplex 1932 dacus duplex munro, 1932 common name: lesser pumpkin fly, melon fly. hosts: cucumbers and pumpkins. materials examined: (150 specimens): baghdad province, 20 specimens, al-taji 22.x.2018; karbala province, imam aun, 30 specimens, 11.xi.2018; diyala, balad ruz, 50 specimens, 22.xii.2018; al madaen, al tuwatha, 50 specimens, 15. i.2019. distribution: iraq (al-saffar, 2011); angola, botswana, cape verde is., congo, eritrea, kenya, lesotho, namibia, saudi arabia, south africa,, tanzania, yemen, zimbabwe (white, 2006 ); sudan (white and goodger, 2009); benin, guinea, (de meyer et al., 2013); tunisia (hafsi et al.,2015); algeria, egypt, libya, morocco ( el harym and belqat, 2017). bactrocera zonata (saunders, 1841) synonyms: bactrocera maculigera doleshall, 1858 (misidentification) 346 survey with checklist of the invasive dacus mangiferae cotes, 1893 dacus persicus (biggott, 1890) dasyneura zonatus saunders, 1942 rivellia persicae bigot, 1889 common name: peach fruit fly. hosts: it has a wide range of host plants, which include: berries, fruit, nuts and vegetables; this species can strike many fruits, including guavas, mangoes, peach, apricots, figs and citrus (eppo, 2002). materials examined (20 specimens): baghdad, al-jadryia, 22.v.2018. distribution: in iraq as dacus zonata registered by e lhaidari et al. (1972) and al-ali (1977), bactrocera zonata by abdulrazak et al. (2016); also, this species distributes in saudi arabia, yemen, oman, mauritius, iran (white, 2002); egypt (el-gendy, 2002). (b)order: hemiptera 1family: aleyrodidae aleuroclava jasmine (takahashi, 1932) synonyms: aleurotuberculatus jasmine takahashi, 1932 iceria purchasi kaussari, 1957 iceria purchasi kiritchenko, 1932 icerya pulchasi chou, 1947 common name: jasmine whitefly. hosts: polyphagous plant, it's reached about 20 species; a minor pest of citrus and some ornamentals. distribution: egypt (amin et al., 1997); australia (martin, 1999); india (sundararaj, 1999); china (luo and zhou, 2001); iraq (al-shamary, 2004). 2family: cimicidae cimex hemipterus (fabricius, 1803) common name: tropical bed bugs. hosts: humans. materials examined (5 specimens): baghdad, alhurriyah district, 24.ii.2018 distribution: tropical and subtropical regions (ibrahim et al., 2017); iraq (hussain, 1963; abul –hab, 1979). cimex lectularius linnaeus, 1758 common name: bed bugs. hosts: humans other mammals (like bats). material examined (10 specimens): baghdad, alchikuk, 5 specimens, 20.i.2018; al-taji, 3 specimens, 22.ii.2018, al-hurriya, 2 specimens, 4.iv.2018. distribution: cosmopolitan distributed (usinger, 1966); in iraq this species was registered by abul-hab (1980); malaysia (ab majed and zahran, 2015). 3family: coccidae parasaissetia nigra (niether, 1861) synonyms: coccus nigrum kirkaldy, 1902 lecanium caudatum green, 1896 common names: pomegranate scale, nigra scale, black coffee scale, hibiscus shield scale. hosts: fig, coffee, and many crops. distribution: iraq (abdul-rassoul and al-mallo, 2016); asia: bangladesh, india, saudi arabia, indonesia and yemen; africa: egypt, eretria, ghana and uganda; europe: france, portugal and spine (cheraghian, 2014). 347 razzaq shalan augul and hanaa h. al-saffar 4family: diaspididae duplachionaspis graminella (borchsenius, 1949) synonyms: chionaspis graminis archangelskaya, 1937 chionaspis phragmitidis borchsenius, 1949 chionaspis graminella borchsenius, 1949 duplachionaspis phragmitidis balachowsky, 1954 chionaspis graminellus alimdzhanov and bronshtein, 1956 common name: armord scale insect. hosts: poceae, phragmites australis (cav.) distribution: iraq (jabbar et al., 2016); uzbekistan (borchsenius, 1949); taiwan (alimdzhanov, and bronshtein,1956); afghanistan (danzig, 1972); turkmenistan (myartseva, 1982); saudi arabia (matile-ferrero, 1988); iran (moghaddam, 2013). 5family: margarodidae icerya purchasi maskell, 1878 common name: cottony cushion scale. hosts: this scale insect feeds on more than 65 families of woody plants, most notably on the species the belonging to the genera citrus and pittosporum. distribution: iraq (bodenheimer, 1951); this insect widespread throughout the world wherever citrus is grown (ebeling, 1959); slovakia (kollár et al., 2016). 6family, pseudococcidae nipaecoccus viridis (newstead, 1894) synonyms: dactylopius viridis newstead, 1894 dactylopius vastator maskell, 1895 nipaecoccus vastator ferris, 1950 common names: spherical and lebbeck mealybug. hosts: in iraq this species registered on citrus species; but this species is a widespread and greatly polyphagous pest, which attacks more than 100 species of herbaceous and woody plants (sharaf and meyerdirk, 1987). distribution: iraq (abdul-rassoul, 1971); widespread throughout africa and asia (cabi, 2007). native to asia and widespread throughout the tropics and subtropics (ben-dov et al., 2010; florida (stocks, 2010); rajasthan (babu, 2016). phenacoccus solenopsis tinsley, 1898 synonym: phenacoccus cevalliae cockerell, 1902 common name: cotton mealybug. hosts: polyphagous pest on different hosts like field crops, horticultural, fruit, vegetable and ornamental plants. materials examined (57 specimens): baghdad province, 22 specimens from cape jasmine (family, rubiaceae), alkarrada al-sharqiya, 10.vii. 2015; 35 specimens from pilea lindley (1821) (urticaceae), al-rubaie district, 13 specimens, 29.vi.2015 and 22 specimens collected at 2.vii.2016. distribution: new mexico (tinsley, 1898), and it spread to caribbean and ecuador (ben – dov, 1994), chile (larrain,2002), argentina (granara de willink, 2003), brazil (culik and guallan, 2005), pakistan (abbas et al., 2005), india (yousuf et al., 2007), nigeria (akintola and ande, 2008), sri lanka (prishanthini and laxmi, 2009), australia (admin, 2010), egypt (abd-rabou et al., 2010), indonesia (muniappan et al., 2011), iran (moghaddam and bagheri, 2011), cyprus (eppo, 2011 b), turkey (kaydan et al., 2013), japan (tanaka and tabata, 2014); iraq (abdul-rassoul et al., 2015). 348 survey with checklist of the invasive (c) order: lepidoptera 1-family: gelechiidae tuta bsoluta (meyrick, 1917) synonyms: gnorimoschema absoluta (meyrick, 1917) phthorimaea absoluta (meyrick, 1917) scrobipalpula absoluta (meyrick, 1917) scrobipalpuloides absoluta (meyrick, 1917) common names: tomato leafminer and tomato pinworm. hosts: the larvae of t. absoluta attacks tomato leaves, buds, stems and fruits, and this plant is the main host, but this pest also attacks other crops such as solanaceous including: potato, eggplant, pepper, and pepino; tree tobacco, lambs-quarters and bindweed are also hosts (desneux et al., 2010); recently there are many registered as a new host plants, including: common beans and broad bean, cowpea, wild radish, tobacco, cape gooseberry and goji berry (eppo, 2009), also the alfalfa plant is reported as a new host to this pest by abdulrassoul (2014). materials examined (45 specimens): wasit province (33 specimens from tomato in plastic houses), 10 specimens, al-aziziyah district, 2.v.2016; dibuni district, 23 specimens, 11.vi.2016. baghdad province, al-mada'in district, 12 specimens, 20.iv.2017. distribution: native to south america and has been recorded from argentina, bolivia, brazil, chile, colombia, ecuador, paraguay, peru, uruguay and venezuela (cabello et al., 2012); spain (urbaneja et al., 2007), and has subsequently spread throughout the mediterranean basin and europe (potting, 2009); it is currently an agricultural threat to european and north african tomato production (desneux et al., 2010). in iraq this species reported by abdul-razzak et al. (2010). 2family: gracillariidae phyllocnistis citrella stainton, 1856 common name: citrus leaf miner. hosts: citrus plants that including: orange, lime, lemon, and tangerine; other rutaceae recorded as hosts in different regions such as: aegle marmelos (l.) corr. serv. (fletcher, 1920), murraya paniculata (l.) jack. (pruthi and mani, 1945) and poncirus trifoliata (l.) raf. (clausen, 1933) in india; atalantia sp. in the philippines (sasscer, 1915). distribution: this species is described from india (stainton, 1856); iraq (bodenheimer, 1951); it distributed from east africa: sudan to yemen (badawy, 1967), and through southern asia: saudi arabia to india (fletcher, 1920), hong kong and china and philippines (sasscer, 1915); taiwan (chiu, 1985); japan (clausen, 1927). it is also found in new guinea and nearby pacific islands (cab, 1970). mexico and several caribbean islands (jones, 2001); usa and hawaii (nagamine and heu, 2003); australia (beattie and hardy, 2004). (d) order: coleoptera 1-family: chrysomelidae leptinotarsa decemlineata (say, 1824) synonym: doryphora decemlineata say, 1824 common name: colorado potato beetle. host: potato. materials examined (15 specimens): dohuk province, sumail district, 4 specimens, 22.viii.2013; sersink district, 11 specimens, 11.viii.2013. distribution: it occurs in mexico, united states, canada; this species has been introduced into europe and parts of asia (capinera, 2001). iraq (el-jboory, 2004). 349 razzaq shalan augul and hanaa h. al-saffar 2-family: curculionidae rhynchophorus ferrugineus (olivier, 1790) synonyms: curculio ferrugineus olivier, 1790 cordylesex maculatus thunberg, 1797 calandra ferruginea fabricius, 1801 rhynchophorus signaticollis chevrolat, 1882 common names: red palm weevil, red stripe weevil and asian palm weevil. hosts: date palm, coconut palm and oil palm. distribution: burma, china, egypt, india, indonesia, iran, malaysia, pakistan, papua new guinea, philippines, saudi arabia, sri lanka, taiwan, thailand, tanzania, uae, jordan, palestine and vietnam (zaid, 1999); iraq (aletby, 2016); malta (mizzi et al., 2009). 3-family: dynastidae oryctes sahariensis de mire, 1960 common name: rhinoceros beetles. host: palm. distribution: iraq (al-saeedi, 2015); egypt (carpenter, 1975); chad and sudan (carpenter and elmer, 1978); qatar (mokhtar, 2009). 4family: scarabaeidae maladera castanea (arrow, 1913) synonym: autoserica korgei petrovitz, 1967 common name: asiatic garden beetle. hostes: crops, ornamentals, turfgrass, sweet potatoes, soy beans, corn. distribution: japan (fujiyama, 1983); korea, china russian far east (ahrens, 2007); atlantic canada (culter and rogers, 2009); florida (skelley, 2012); india (bhwane et al., 2012); iraq (al-jamali et al., 2017). maladera insanbilis (brenske, 1894) synonyms: maladera matrida argaman, 1986 autoserica adiuncta brensk, 1897 autoserica esfandiiarii petrovitz, 1970 serica immutabilis burmeister, 1855 common names: white grub beetle. hosts plant: it is a polyphagous pest on ornamental and fruit plants. distribution: iraq (al-jassany et al., 2016), mediterranean region and libya (ahrens et al., 2006); egypt (karam and el-minshawy, 2016); saudi arabia (abdel-dayem et al., 2017). (e) order: hymenoptera 1family: eulophidae leptocybe invasa fisher & lasalle, 2004 common names: australian gall wasp, blue gum chalcid. host: eucalyptus sp. distribution: iraq (hassan, 2012); middle east and africa (mendel et al., 2004); wylie and speight (2012) stated that species of l. invasa is native to queensland, australia, and presently distributed through africa, asia and the pacific, europe, latin america and the caribbean, near east and north america. 2family: ichneumonidae cryptus inculcator (linnaeus, 1758) synonyms: cryptus albopictus seyrig, 1928 350 survey with checklist of the invasive cryptus lippensis rudow, 1883 cryptus filicornis ratzeburg, 1844 cryptus quadrilineatus gravenhorts, 1829 cryptus sponsor (fabricius, 1794) itamoplex inculcator (linnaeus, 1758) itamoplex sponsor (fabricius, 1793) host: greater wax moth. distribution: iraq (al-jassany et al., 2012); ireland (o, connor et al., 2007); iran (barahoei et al., 2015, mohebban et al., 2015); england (broad, 2016). 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in man and animal of the old world. butterworths, london, xvi+267pp. 361 razzaq shalan augul and hanaa h. al-saffar bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. june, (2019) 15 (3): 343-361 ة مرجعية للحشرات الدخيلة للعراقمسح مع قائم الصفارهناء هاني رزاق شعالن عكل و قسم الحشرات و الالفقريات، مركز بحوث و متحف التأريخ الطبيعي،جامعة بغداد، بغداد، العراق 82/10/8112: تأريخ النشر، 82/18/8112: تأريخ القبول ،82/11/8112: تأريخ الاستالم ةالخالص نوعا حتى عام 24للعراق؛ اذ وثق الدخيلةاجري مسحا مع مراجعة لقائمة بأنواع الحشرات .ذكر التوزيع الجغرافي، والاسماء الشائعة و مردافاتها لجميع الانواع. خالل التحريات الحالية 8102 مع خالل شملت التحريات الحالية جميع ألانواع الدخيلة في العراق ، بما فيها تلك التي لم تج .هذه الدراسة bull 247 aiad ali hussien al-zaidy bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. june, (2019) 15 (3): 247-262 microfacies analysis and basin development of the cenomanian early turonian sequence in the rafai, noor and halfaya oil fields, southeastern iraq aiad ali hussien al-zaidy department of geology, college of science, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq email: aiad.alzaidy@gmail.com received date: 19 august 2018 , accepted date: 15 october 2018, published date: 27 june 2019 abstract the stratigraphic sequence of cenomanian-early turonian is composed of ahmadi, rumaila, and mishrif formations in the rifai, noor and halfaya oil fields within the mesopotamian zone of iraq, which is bounded at top and bottom by unconformity surfaces. the microfacies analysis of the study wells assisted the recognition of five main environments (open marine, basinal, shallow open marine, rudist biostrome, and lagoon); these microfacies were indicative of a normal lateral change facies from shallow water facies to deeper water and open marine sediments. ahmadi formation (early cenomanian) is characterized by open marine sediments during the transgressive conditions, and would become deep basinal environment upward to deposition the rumaila formation. rumaila formation (middle cenomanian) was deposited in the deeper part of the intrashelf basin; it comprises basinal sediments mainly, and includes an abundant of open marine fauna supportive of middle cenomanian age. rumaila formation is represented as time equivalent basin to the mishrif formation, where they were deposited during highest and system tract (hst). the cenomanianearly turonian sequence can be subdivided into three cycles displaying coarsening upward cycles :mishrif a, mishrif b, and mishrif c; which comprises a highest and system tract dominated by rudistid packstone to grainstone or rudistid biostrome facies separated by transgressive units (cr i and cr ii). keywords: cenomanian, microfacies, mishrif, southeastern, turonian. introduction ahmadi, rumaila, and mishrif succession was deposited during cenomanian-early turonian cycle. the intra-shelf basin developed during the cenomanian age by dominated shallow water of carbonate ramps (robertson, 1987; patton and o'connor, 1988; sharland et al., 2001). this event was due to growth of oman-zagros peripheral bulge associated with obduction of the ophiolites, but the possibility resulted from compressional tectonic system along arabian plate margin (al-badry, 2005). the ahmadi formation was deposited during the cenomanian age in a shallow marine basin with fine clastic sediment supply from the south. the ahmadi formation is usually https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2019.15.3.0247 248 microfacies analysis and basin development overlain conformably and gradationally by the rumaila formation and unconformably underling by the mauddud formation (jassim and goff, 2006). the rumaila formation is the most widespread cenomanian formation in south and southwest of iraq and extends as far north as the makhul area in the north. this formation was deposited in a relatively deeper basin which was locally restricted in the north. in the south of iraq the formation is conformably overlain by the mishrif formation (jassim and goff, 2006). the mishrif formation represents a heterogeneous formation originally described as organic detrital limestones, with beds of algal, rudist, and coral-reef limestones, capped by limonitic fresh water limestones (bellen et al., 1959). the mishrif formation is deposited above the high barrier or on the detached platform, which extend from south kuwait to the southeastern iraq (burchette, 1993). in parts of southern iraq, where the kifl formation is present (i.e. in the basin roughly to the west of the musaiyib-nahr umr palaeoridge) the upper contact is conformable. where the kifl is absent the top of the mishrif formation is marked by an unconformity (jassim and goff, 2006). the study area is located in the southeastern of iraq (missan province) within the mesopotamian zone, which includes the study of the wells noor -1 rifai-1 and halfaya-1 (map1). the purpose of the present study is a microfacies analysis and stratigraphic development with knowledge of the tectonic events for this succession during cenomanian-early turonian period. materials and methods field work five oil wells were selected for the study that contains the largest amount of thin sections, and then the description is made so as to identify texture, grains size, and type of pores between the grains, and to determine depositional environments. the sampling was made by taking rock samples from the cutting and core available to the cenomanian-early turonian succession, and then making a thin section, the sampling was done one sliced per meter. laboratory work 1petrographic and microfacies investigation for the current study was based mainly on the dunham (1962) classification by using transmitted light microscope in the petrographic laboratory of the department of geology, university of baghdad. the petrographic study was based on the more than (300) thin sections from cores and/ or cutting of the study wells. 2-the well-logging tried to compare the micro-facies which were extracted from the laboratory work (electrofacies), diagnostic of the horizontal and vertical facies change, and use well-log data to get the petrophysical characteristics for the study area wells. 3location map and columnar sections for the studied wells were draw by using the corel draw x7 and rock work 16 programs. 249 aiad ali hussien al-zaidy map (1): location map of the study area with tectonic subdivisions according to fouad (2012). 250 microfacies analysis and basin development results microfacies analysis: carbonate depositional textures and microfacies were described following dunham classification (1962), and rudistbearing facies were classified according to embry and klovan’s (1971). the microfacies were compared with the models of standard microfacies and depositional environment belts of carbonates proposed by wilson (1975) and flugel (2010). facies association: a depositional environment can be defined in terms of physical, biological, chemical, or geomorphic variables (reineck and singh, 1973); thus, sedimentary environment is a geomorphic unit in which deposition takes place. the diagnosis of the microfacies cenomanian-early turonian succession and comparing with the standard microfacies (wilson, 1975), which contributed to the identification five facies associated (open marine, basin, shoal, rudist biostrome, and lagoon). basinal facies association: these facies make the beginning of the first sedimentary cycle, which started with deep basin deposits supported by pelagic lime mudstone that contained calcispheres, sponge spicules and rare of planktonic foraminifera (pl.1-a); these facies zones represent the ahmadi and the basal rumaila formations (diags. 1, 2, 3). open marine facies association: open marine facies association consists of fine grained skeletal lime mudstones to wackstones; the skeletal grains consist mainly of planktonic foraminifera such as, hedbergella. the bioclasts are mostly fine and unidentifiable, spicules and lesser amounts of small echinoderms were also present (pl.1-c); wells (rf-1 and no-1) (pl.1b, diags. 2, 3). shallow open marine facies association: this facies association represents one of the most common facies in the mishrif carbonates in the study area; it consists mainly of bioclastic or foraminiferal bioclastic wackstones and packstones, the bioclasts are silt to sand in size and in some cases coarser. other important fossils included in this facies association are benthonic foraminifera, calcareous algae, coral, echinoderms, sponge spicules, and molluscs (pl. 1a), (pl. 1d, e) (diags. 1, 2, 3). shoal facies association: these sediments are sited on the marginal shelf, which is composed of packstonegrainstone benthic foraminifera such as plate (1-c, d), or concentrations of their skeletal grains with rudistid debris, and culmination of the coarsening upward sequence (diags. 1, 3). rudist biostorm facies association: this facies is made up of very coarse-grained bioclastic rudstone and floatstone containing a more diverse intact fauna than lithofacies association shoal, dominated by rudistid debris (pl.1e). these are spread in the most of studied wells, and uppermost of the mishrif formation in the rf-1and no-1 wells (diags. 2, 3). restricted facies association: area of relatively shallow, quiet water separated from the open marine conditions by a barrier (may be a coral reef). the lagoonal environment is characterized by the presence of abundant of miliolids as plate (1-f); associated with mollusks, rudist debris, echinoderm, and peloidal in lime mudstone to wackestone in the shallow marine restricted water. these deposits spread in the most of hf-1 and rf-1 wells succession (diags. 1, 2). 251 aiad ali hussien al-zaidy plate (1): the major microfacies of mishrif formation in the studied sections; (a) basinal facies, with abundant of calcispheres (xpl), well (noor-1), at depth (3720 m), (b) open marine facies (oligosteginids, heterohelix sp., and hedbergella sp. (ppl). well (halfaya-1), at depth (3280 m), (c) shoal facies with diversity of skeletal grains such as (benthic foraminifera, rudist fragments, echinoderms and mollusks (ppl). well (noor-1), at depth (3520 m), (d) shallow open marine with benthic foraminifera (praealveolina tenuis) (ppl). well (noor-1), at depth (3360 m), (e) rudist (ppl). well (rifai-1), at depth (2880 m), (f) restricted facies, with abundant of miliold foraminifera (quinqueloculina sp.). well (noor-1), at depth (3320 m). a b c d e f 300µm 300µm 500µm 500µm 500µm 500µm 252 microfacies analysis and basin development diagram (1): microfacies description of the cenomanian–early turonian succession response to well logs at well halfaya-1. 253 aiad ali hussien al-zaidy diagram (2): microfacies description of the cenomanian–early turonian succession response to well logs at well rifai-1. 254 microfacies analysis and basin development diagram (3): microfacies description of the cenomanian–early turonian succession response to well logs at well noor-1. sequence stratigraphy: standard carbonate microfacies models are widely used to interpret paleoenvironment, but they do not show how carbonate platforms are affected by relative sea level change, a realization of how the carbonate factory responds to relative sea level changes and the role played by other environmental factors towards influencing the formation of carbonate platforms, which allows differentiating platform type and helps establish depositional sequence and system tract models. the sequence defined: depositional sequences bounded by subaerial unconformities and their marine correlative conformities (wilson, 1975; vail, 1987; posamentier and vail, 1988). 255 aiad ali hussien al-zaidy stratigraphic cenomanianearly turonian sequence: the cenomanian-early turonian megasequence started by transgressive system tract (ahmadi formation), and terminated in the high stand system tract (mishrif formation); the studied sequence is subdivided into three main cycles as coarsening upward cycles. these cycles consist of mishrif a, mishrif b, and mishrif c which separated by compacted rock cr i and cr ii units (diags. 4, 5, 6). mishrif a: this unit represents upper regressive cycle, which ends by the regional unconformity surface; mishrif a is characterized by the abundance of benthic foraminifera that indicate the lagoon environment in all studied wells. compact rock (cr i): this unit is located below the mishrif a unit and it is distinguished by a high gr and low dt logs. this stratigraphic unit consists of lime mudstone and free of fossils with pyrite. mishrif b: the mishrif b unit was deposited in the differentiated basin, because it represents lateral biofacies change from deep basin sediment as rf-1 and no-1 wells (diags. 5, 6), to the rudist biostrome with open shelf lagoon facies at hf-1 wells, (diag.4). compact rock (cr ii): this unit is located below the unit (mishrif b) and can be distinguished by a high (dt and gr) logs. the stratigraphic unit consists of lime mudstone (micrite) and free of fossils. mishrif c: the stratigraphic unit represents lower regressive cycle, which was deposited during early highest and system tract; and it comprises the transitional sediments from deep marine facies at wells rf-1 and no-1(diags. 5, 6), to the rudistid packstonegrainstone, with abundance of benthic foraminiferal grainstone in the lagoonal facies at well (hf-1) (diag.5). 256 microfacies analysis and basin development diagram (4): stratigraphic columnar section of the cenomanian – early turonian sequence at well halfaya-1. 257 aiad ali hussien al-zaidy diagram (5): stratigraphic columnar section of the cenomanian – early turonian sequence at well rifai-1. 258 microfacies analysis and basin development diagram (6): stratigraphic columnar section of the cenomanian – early turonian sequence at well noor-1. basin development: in order to study the development of this cycle in the southeastern iraq in more details, structural proposed model shows the vertical and horizontal facies change, and the determining of the main factors which control the intrashelf sedimentary basin (tectonic and sea level change); this cycle was divided into three stages (diag. 4, 5 and 6): stage (a): the tectonic setting contributed to the emergence of the passive margin in the east and northeast arabian plate, and made it facing the neo-tethys (sharland et al., 2001). the abrupt discontinuity of the mauddud sediments is underlaying the studied sequence; 259 aiad ali hussien al-zaidy then it is followed by the open marine sediments of ahmadi formation which deposited during transgressive conditions on the gentle slope of the carbonate platform model; this succession is characterized by no facies change with wide extension and the quiescent tectonic. stage (b): as a result of the up growth of compressional tectonic system (initial collision), which produced the peripheral bulge in the middle cenomanian along the southeastern arabian plate edge; this event contributed to deposition the mishrif formation as coral barrier and rudistid biostrome association facies (chatton and hart, 1961; burchette, 1993). this stage is distinguished by beginning of the emergence an intrashelf basin, which shows a moderate slope resulting of wide extension of the mishrif formation. stage (c): the continuation of the compressional tectonic system, contributed to the development of the sedimentary basin, and the appearance of the facies change (differentiated basin); the marly limestone facies of the rumaila formation passes to the bioclastic shoal, reef, and backreef facies (mishrif formation). the high stand system tract was caused of growth the carbonate factory, and accompanies the progradation facies towards the basin center. in the last regressive cycle, continuance of the progradation shelf margins (rudistid biostrome) to become overlies basinal sediments in the rifai-1 and noor-1 wells; while the lagoonal facies progradation, and overlie the reefal buildups is appeared in the halfaya-1 well. the cenomanianearly turonian sequence ended with appearance of the erosional surface in the middle turonian, which resulted of compressional tectonic system that causes ophiolite obduction along the northern and northeastern of arabian plate (sharland et al., 2001). discussion the cenomanianearly turonian succession is composed of ahmadi, rumaila, and mishrif formations; the intra-shelf basin development during the cenomanian age was made by dominated shallow water of carbonate ramps that was due to growth of oman zagros peripheral bulge (jassim and goff, 2006). petrographic study and microfacies analysis help recognize five main environments: open marine, basin, shoal, rudist biostrome, and lagoon); these are open marine facies which consist mainly of pelagic lime mudstone which contains calcispheres, sponge spicules and rare of planktonic foraminifera, the basinal facies consist of the calcareous sediments which consist of pelagic organisms plus fine detritus moved off from adjacent shallow shelves. shoal facies are represented by packstonegrainstone benthic foraminifera and concentrations of skeletal grains with rudistid debris, the rudist biostrome consists of masses of organic rudstone facies, and this facies is made up of very coarse-grained bioclastic rudstone and floatstone, lagoonal facies which consist of benthonic foraminiferal wackestone and mudstone with miliolids and peloidal. the ahmadi formation overlies the mauddud formation unconformably so as to deposit during the transgressive stage; in the studied area the lower boundary of the rumaila formation with the ahmadi formation is conformable and gradational during the same stage. the mishrif formation is deposited above the high barrier or on the detached platform within the rumaila basin. the studied succession is consisting of shallowing upward cycle, and is associated with continuation of the compressional tectonic system which led to the unconformity surface at the top the mishrif formation, being overlain by the khasib formation. 260 microfacies analysis and basin development litereature cited al-badry, a. m. s. 2005. sequence stratigraphy of the mishrif formation in selected oil fields within miesan county, south iraq. unpublished m.s.c. thesis, university of baghdad, college of science, 83pp. (in arabic). bellen, r. c. van, dunnington, h. v., wetzel, r. and morton, d. 1959. lexique stratigraphique, international. asie, iraq, 3c. 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(ed.), classification of carbonate rocks. american association of petroleum geologists, memoir 1: 108-121. embry, a. f. and klovan, j. e. 1971. a late devonian reef tract on northeastern banks island, n.w.t. bulletin of canadian petroleum geology, 19 (4): 730–781. flugel, e. 2010. microfacies of carbonate rocks, analysis, interpretation and application. springer, berlin, 976 pp. fouad, s. f. a. 2012. tectonic map of iraq, scale 1: 1000 000, 3rd edit. geosurv, baghdad, iraq. jassim, s. z. and goff, j. c. 2006. geology of iraq. dolin, prague and moravian museum, brno., 341 pp. patton, t. l. and connor, s. j. o. 1988. cretaceous flexural history of northern oman mountain foredeep, united arab emirates. american association of petroleum geologists bulletin, 732: 797-809. posamentier, h. w. and vail, p. r. 1988. eustatic controls on clastic deposition ii-sequence and systems tract models, in wilgus,c. k., hastings,b. s., kendall, c. g. st. c. posamentier, h. w., ross, c. a. and van wagoner, j. c. (eds.). sea-level changes. an integrated approach. society of economic paleontologists and mineralogists, special publication 42: 125-154. reineck, h. e. and singh, i. b. 1973. depositional sedimentary environments with reference to terrigenous clastics. springer – verlag berlin heidelberg, new york, 439pp. robertson, a. h. f. 1987. upper cretaceous muti-formation-transition of a mesozoic carbonate platform to a foreland basin in the oman mountains. sedimentology, 4: 1123-1142. 261 aiad ali hussien al-zaidy sarg, j. f. 1988. carbonate sequence stratigraphy. in: wilgus, c. k., hastings, b. s., ross, c. a., posamentier, h., van wagoner, j. and kendall, c. g. st. c. (eds.). sea level change: an integrated approach. society of economic paleontologists and mineralogists, special publication 42: 155-181. sharland, p. r., archer, r., casey, d. m., davies, r. b., hall, s. h., heward, a. p., horbury, a. d. and simmons, m. d. 2001. arabian plate sequence stratigraphy. geoarabian, special publication 2: 371. vail, p. r. 1987. seismic stratigraphy interpretation using sequence stratigraphy, part 1; seismic stratigraphy interpretation procedure, in bally, a. w. (ed.). atlas of seismic stratigraphy. american association of petroleum geologists, studies in geology, 27(1): 1-10. van wagoner, j. c. posamentier, h. w. and mitchum, r. m. 1988. an overview of the fundamentals of sequence stratigraphy and key definition. in: wilgus, c. k., hastings, b. s., ross, c. a., posamentier, h., van wagoner, j. and kendall, c. g. st. c. (eds.). sea level changes: an integrated approach. society of economic paleontologists and mineralogists, special publication 42: 39-45. wilson, t. l. 1975. carbonate facies in geology history, new york, springer-verlag, 471pp. 262 microfacies analysis and basin development bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. june, (2019) 15 (3): 247-262 التوروني املبكر في حقول نفط –تحليل السحنات الدقيقة و تطور حوض تتابع السينوماني العراق شرق و نور و الحلفاية، جنوب الرفاعي أياد علي حسين الزيدي العراق, بغداد ,جامعة بغداد ,كلية العلوم ,قسم علم الارض 82/80/8891: تأريخ النشر، 91/98/8890: تاريخ القبول ، 91/80/8890: تاريخ الاستالم الخالصة تكوينات ألاحمدي , والرميلة , واملشرف في التروني املبكر من-للسينوماني يتكون التتابع الطباقي حقول نفط الرفاعي والنور والحلفاية ضمن نطاق بين النهرين في العراق, والتي تحد من ألاعلى .بسطوح غير متوافقة سفلوألا : لقد ساعد التحليل السحني الدقيق لالبار املدروسة على التعرف على خمسة بيئات رئيسية وهي حيث تشير . مفتوحة, و حوضية, و ضحلة بحرية مفتوحة , بيوديستروم , والغونية سحنة بحرية ن ثم هذه السحنات الدقيقة إلى تغّير جانبي طبيعي من بيئة املياه الضحلة إلى املياه العميقة وم يتميز برواسب بيئة بحرية مفتوحة ( السينوماني املبكر)ان تكوين ألاحمدي . االبيئة البحرية املفتوحة .(تكوين الرميلة)خالل ظروف تقدم بحري , ولتصبح رواسب حوض عميق إلى أعلى في الجزء ألاعمق من الرف القاري , والذي يتكون ( السينوماني الاوسط)تم ترسيب تكوين الرميلة قة , والذي يتضمن وفرة من الاحياء البحرية لبيئة البحر املفتوح بشكل اساس ي من ترسبات عمي يمثل حوض تكوين الرميلة حوًضا مكافًئا زمنيا لحوض تكوين . الداعمة للعمر السينوماني الاوسط التوروني املبكر -يمكن تقسيم تتابع السينوماني . املشرف, وقد تم ترسيبه أثناء نظام الترسيب الاعلى التي ,دورة املشرف ب و دورة املشرف ج, دورة املشرف أ -:نحو الاعلى وهي تنعم إلى ثالث دورات بشيوع سحنة الروديستيدية املتراصة و تميز ت حيث الترسيب الاعلىترسبت خالل مرحلة النظام cri ) سحنة البايوستورم الروديستي التي تفصلها وحدات ترسبت اثناء التقدم البحري الحبيبية أو .(criiو 279 ameer ibrahim abdulzahra bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. june, (2019) 15 (3): 279-285 two new records of the genus aphodius illige, 1798 (coleoptera, aphodiidae) in iraq ameer ibrahim abdulzahra department of science, basic education college, university of babylon, babylon, iraq email: ameeribrahim2751988@gmail.com received date: 28 november 2018, accepted date: 24 february 2019, published date: 27 june 2019 abstract in this study, the dung beetles aphodius (bodilus) ictericus (laicharting, 1781) and aphodius (planolinellus) vittatus say, 1825 which belongs to the family of aphodiidae (order: coleoptera) are redscribed here as to being found for the first time in iraq. the specimens were collected from different regions in the middle of iraq; the main diagnostic characters and some morphological features of males were drawn and pictured. keywords: aphodiidae, aphodius, coleoptera, dung beetles, iraq, scarabaeoidea. introduction aphodiidae family belongs to superfamily (scarabaeoidea) and consists of nearly 358 genera and 3395 species distributed randomly in the world (şenyüz, 2017); there are 1084 species that belong to 155 genera from 6 tribes in the palaearctic region (dellacasa et al., 2006). the adults of aphodiid are in most cases coprophagous (dung feeding) and are fed directly on the dung. besides, most species of aphodiidae simply release their eggs within or inside the dung of herbivorous mammals where the larvae will develop (borghesio and palestrini, 2002). aphodius illige, 1798 is a large genus of scarab beetles with more than 1650 species distributed world-wide (dellacasa, 1988).in most species, both the adults and larvae are coprophagous (valiela, 1974); however, some species have herbivorous or saprophagous larvae (cambefort and hanski, 1991). other species have trophic habits that are closer to saprophagy than coprophagy and tend to lay eggs in the interface between the trophic resource (dry dung, accumulations of manure, decomposing leaves) and the soil. in this case, the larvae never enter the dung (verdú et al., 1997); some members of the genus dominate dung beetles are found in the palearctic and nearctic regions (frolov and akhmetova, 2005). the members of genus aphodius are diagnosed according to the following features: size, length, mostly less than 2-10 mm and body more or less elongated. head nearly always with clips covering mouthparts, sometimes exposing tips of the mandibles; mandibles usually reduced and membranous, rarely sclerotized as well. furthermore, antennae with 9 segments, club pubescent and with 3 segments; elytra nearly or entirely covering pygidium; mesocoxae contiguous or nearly so; metatibiae variable, but usually dilated at apices, usually with 2 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2019.15.3.0279 280 two new records of the genus aphodius apical spurs; tarsi with distinct claws, and rarely reduced. femora smooth or with grooves on anterior or posterior margin. abdomen is with 6 visible sternites; pygidium smooth, without transverse ridge or longitudinal groove at the base, often exposed (cambefort and hanski, 1991; smith and skelley, 2007). in iraq, the following species are recorded for the genus aphodius: a. suturalis, a. elermonti (derwesh, 1963), a. pruinosus (derwesh, 1965), a. erraticus, a. lividus, a. hydrochoeris(kaddou, 1967) and aphodius sp.(khalaf and al-omar, 1974). the aim of the current study to provide additional information to these dung beetles to iraqi fauna. materials and methods many specimens of genus aphodius species were collected from agricultural regions where livestock are represent (presence of dung) from different regions in the middle of iraq (babylon, najaf and karbala) by light trap containing ethyl alcohol (concentration of about 70%). the specimens were washed with distilled water to remove alcohol from them; then, they were saved by freezing. after that, they were examined with a binocular dissecting microscope; the dino-lite digital microscope was used to film the species being studied. finally, several references have been used that contain a description of the aphodius species as well as references that contain taxonomic keys to identify and diagnose species, such as: jessop (1986); cooper and gordon (1987); frolov (2001); almquist (2001); dellacasa and dellacasa (2005); carlsson and jansson (2014); akhmetova and frolov (2014) were used. results and discussion in this study the survey showed two new record species of the genus aphodius as follows: male of aphodius (bodilus) ictericus (laicharting, 1781) (pl. 1a). diagnosis: small, body length 4.0-5.5 mm, head is tubercular; antennae and maxillary palps are light brown; pronotum contains pits of highly concentration, brown to dark brown with lighter fore angles or sides. elytra intervals sparsely punctate; elytron disc glabrous, and there is a distinctive dark central band on elytron, and bristles of low density on the base of elytra (pl.1b). legs are light brown and the hind tarsi are shorter than or as long as hind tibiae. aedeagus is rounded at the apex, its base is semi-rectangular, clearly curved at the lateral view. apices of parameres are broadly rounded in a lateral view (fig.1a, b). material examined: (2♂♂): babylon, 5. iii.2018; najaf 1♂♂, 6.v. 2018. distribution: this species is widely distributed in the western palaearctic region, and its natural habitat includes entire europe, and south siberia. (frolov, 2001). north africa, the transcaucasus, asia minor, iran and north kazakhstan (akhmetova and frolov, 2014). 281 ameer ibrahim abdulzahra plate (1): aphodius(bodilus)ictericus; (a) male, (b) elytron figure (1): male of aphodius (bodilus) ictericus; (a) aedeagus (lateral view), (b) parameres (dorsal view). the male of aphodius (planolinellus) vittatus say, 1825 (pl.2) diagnosis: body length is about 3.2-4.4 mm, elongate, parallel-sided, somewhat robust, and black with reddish maculations on each elytron. head with frontal suture pronounced bearing median tubercle; clypeus alutaceous, anterior margin is narrowly semicircular; metatibial apical spinules are short, and equal in length; pronotum contains pits of highly concentration. the base of elytron contains a few bristles; fore tibiae are distally tridentate and proximally serrulate at the outer margin with upper smooth side; middle and hind tibiae with distinct transverse carinae on the outer side. aedeagus is with parameres moderately membranous apically; in lateral view, distinctly curved apically (fig.2 a, b). 282 two new records of the genus aphodius material examined: (3♂♂): karbala, 2.iv.2018; najaf 2♂, 13.v. 2018). distribution: the species occurs in south and eastern europe, the transcaucasus, turkey, syria, kazakhstan, middle asia, mongolia, and china (dellacasa et al., 2006), northern africa (frolov, 2001), russia (almquist, 2001), north america into mexico and canada (gordon and skelley, 2007). plate (2): male of aphodius (planolinellus)vittatus figure (2): male of aphodius (planolinellus) vittatus; (a) aedeagus (lateral view), (b) parameres (dorsal view). 283 ameer ibrahim abdulzahra literature cited akhmetova, l. a. and frolov, a. v. 2014. a review of the scarab beetle tribe aphodiini (coleoptera, scarabaeidae) of the fauna of russia. entomological review, 94: 846879. almquist, d. 2001. new dung beetle (coleoptera: scarabaeidae) records for florida. insecta mundi, 15(3): 149-150. borghesio, l. and palestrini, c. 2002. reproductive behaviour and larval development in aphodius (agrilinus) rufus moll, 1792 and aphodius (oromus) alpinus scopoli, 1763 (coleoptera: scarabaeoidea: aphodiidae). elytron, 16: 75-81.‏ cambefort, y. and hanski, i. 1991. dung beetle population biology. dung beetle ecology, 1: ‏.36-50 carlsson, s. and jansson, n. 2014. dyngbaggar i östergötlands län. länsstyrelsen östergötland, 50pp. cooper, j. and gordon, r. d. 1987. studies on the genus aphodius of the united states and canada (coleoptera: scarabaeidae). viii. a new species from northeastern north america. journal of the new york entomological society, 95(4): 531-533. dellacasa, m. 1988. contribution to a world-wide catalogue of aegialiidae, aphodiidae, aulonocnemidae, termitotrogidae (coleoptera scarabaeoidea). memoires della societe entomologica italiana, 66[1987]: -455. dellacasa, m. and dellacasa, g. 2005. comments on some systematic and nomenclatural questions in aphodiinae with descriptions of two new genera and on italian taxa (coleoptera: aphodiidae). memorie della societa entomologica italiana, 84(1): 45101. dellacasa, m. dellacasa, g., král, d. and bezděk, a. 2006. tribe aphodiini leach, 1815. catalogue of palaearctic coleoptera, 3: 105-143.‏ derwesh, a. i. 1963. a preliminary list of coleoptera from iraq. directorate general of agricultural research and projects, technical bulletin, 13: 1-38. derwesh, a. i. 1965. a preliminary list of identified insect and some arachnids of iraq. directorate general of agricultural research and projects, bulletin, 112: 1-123. frolov, a. v. 2001. species of the subgenus bodilus (genus aphodius) from russia and adjacent countries (coleoptera: scarabaeidae). zoosystematica rossica, 10(1): 89– 95. frolov, a. and akhmetova, l. 2005. size correlation between larvae and adults in aphodius (coleoptera, scarabaeidae). bulletin de l'istitut royal des sciences naturelles de belgique, entomologie, 75: 321-324.‏ 284 two new records of the genus aphodius gordon, r. d. and skelley, p. e. 2007. a monograph of the aphodiini inhabiting the united states and canada (coleoptera: scarabaeidae: aphodiinae). memoirs of the american entomological institute, 79: 580. jessop, l. 1986. dung beetles and chafers: coleoptera: scarabaeoidea. handbook for the identification of british insects, royal entomological society, uk, 5(11): 1-53. kaddou, i. k. 1967. check-list of some insect fauna of iraq. biological research centre, publication, 1: 1-53. khalaf, a. n. and al-omar, m. a. 1974. a second list of insect from iraq. biological research centre, publication, 2: 1-38. şenyüz, y. 2017. a new genus and species of aphodiini (coleoptera: aphodiidae) from istanbul turkey. journal of the entomological research society, 19(2): 113-119.‏ smith, a. b. t. and skelley, p. e. 2007. a review of the aphodiinae (coleoptera: scarabaeidae) of southern south america. zootaxa, 1458: 1-80. valiela, i. 1974. composition, food webs and population limitation in dung arthropod communities during invasion and succession. american midland naturalist, 92(2): ‏.370-385 verdu, j. r., lumaret, j. p. and galante, e. 1997. biology of aphodius hyxos petrovitz (coleoptera: scarabaeoidea: aphodiidae) and description of the third larval stage. the canadian entomologist, 129(4): 657-665.‏ 285 ameer ibrahim abdulzahra bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. june, (2019) 15 (3): 279-285 aphodius illige, 1798للجنس جديدان تسجيالن (coleoptera, aphodiidae)في العراق امير ابراهيم عبد الزهرة قسم العلوم، كلية التربية الاساسية، جامعة بابل، بابل، العراق 82/10/8112: النشر تأريخ، 82/18/8112: تأريخ القبول ، 82/11/8112: تأريخ الاستالم الخالصة ,aphodius (bodilus) ictericus (laicharting تم وصف خنافس الروث، في هذا البحث ‏رتبة‏aphodiidae تعود لعائلة التي aphodius (planolinellus) vittatus say, 1825و (1781 coleoptera مرة في العراق ألول. و رسمت الصفات التشخيصية و صورت؛ معت العينات من مناطق مختلفة من وسط العراقج .اعاله النوعينلذكور بعض الصفات املظهرية ألاساسية bull 473 popovych et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2019) 15 (4): 473-489 the effects of temperature and moisture stress content on the extensive cultivation of the oyster mushroom vasil popovych*♦ mykhailo les** taras shuplat* pavlo bosak* mykhailo fitak** and nataliya popovych*** *department of ecological safety, lviv state university of life safety, lviv, ukraine. **department landscape architecture, garden park economy and urboecology, ukrainian national forestry university, lviv, ukraine. ***department of administrative-legal disciplines, lviv state university of internal affairs, lviv, ukraine. ♦corresponding author e-mail: popovich2007@ukr.net received date:23 september 2019, accepted date: 01 december 2019, published date: 26 december 2019 abstract oyster mushroom (pleurotus ostreatus (jacq. ex fr.) p. kumm.) is involved in the destruction of dead wood which is the main place of settlement of several living organisms. after humification, dead wood also becomes an important component of forest soils. the purpose of the research is to study temperature and moisture conditions of extensive cultivation of oyster mushrooms on various wood substrates. to accomplish this goal, the following tasks were set: to determine the amount of effective stress temperatures and moisture content of substrates and their influence on the appearance of fruiting bodies of the oyster mushroom; to study the features of the extensive cultivation of oyster mushrooms on the tree stumps of cutover areas, in the hollows of broadleaved trees, using brushwood, on inoculated log sections in trenches, on log sections of dead dry trees. the oyster mushroom fruiting bodies collected in the suburban forest formed the basis of the experiment on the inoculation of different types of substrates. the inoculation of the log sections was carried with a relative air humidity of 85%, the process of overgrowing lasted from 2 to 3 months. the edaphic-climatic factors of different types of space closed and open were taken into account. the amount of effective temperatures necessary for the development of fruiting bodies has been determined. it was found that the intensive growth of the mushroom fruiting bodies begins after a sharp cooling (a drop in night temperatures to 4-8 ° c), which causes a stressful state of the mushroom. the amount of the effective stress temperatures is 4.6 ° c. long-term phenological observations have revealed that the amount of the effective temperatures in the spring is 76.4 ° c, and in the autumn 59.4 ° c. the duration of fruiting of oyster mushroom on log sections of hardwoods is 14 days in spring and 17 days in autumn longer than on softwoods blocks. it was found that the biomass of the fruiting bodies is directly dependent on https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2019.15.4.0473 474 the effects of temperature and moisture stress the thickness of the log section, and, therefore, it is recommended to use log sections ranging from 35 cm to 50 cm in diameter and up to 30 cm in length. keywords: cultivation, extensive, inoculation, mushroom, oyster. introduction oyster mushroom (pleurotus ostreatus (jacq. ex fr.) kumm.) is involved in the destruction of dead wood which is the main place of settlement of living organisms. after humification, dead wood also becomes an important component of forest soils; with its decomposition, especially favorable conditions for the development of topsoil and the renewal of woody species are formed (popovych and les, 2014). it is also essential for the accumulation of carbon and the protection of soil from erosion. in forests, about 15% of carbon is contained in dead wood. the 2005 european forest protection conference (mcpfe) emphasized the importance of dead wood, an average stock of which (dead standing trees and wood debris) in europe amounted to 10 m³. ha-1 forest area (pasternak and yarotsky, 2010).thus, it can be said that in ukraine as well, it is necessary to introduce modern biotechnologies for utilization of wood waste. one of them is to use wood waste for cultivating mushrooms for food needs. the environment, both biotic and abiotic, has a dramatic impact on tree damage by mycelium (kucheryavyj et al., 2016). among important abiotic factors are humidity, temperature, acidity level, chemical pollution of the atmosphere and soil, and of biotic a species composition of flora and fauna (kucheryavyj,1999; pakhomova, 2014).moisture deficiency contributes to tree drying out: there is a correlation between the increase in damage and periods of drought.the development of the pathogen is promoted by increased temperature and acidity of the soil (černy, 1989; pavlík, 2005; piškur et al., 2011; pavlik and pavlik, 2013). during a long evolution, plants got adapted to a certain change in temperature (veretenikov, 1987). this applies, for example, to winter cereals which, for normal development, require a temperature of up to 2 20 °c for the period of 1 to 2 months. a similar phenomenon is also found in the development of the oyster mushroom whose fruiting bodies, according to many authors, appear after a sharp drop in the night temperature to 4 8 °c. it is believed that a sharp drop in temperature causes stress, which gives an impetus to the active development and growth of the mushroom. the temperature that promotes the development of rhizomorph of the mushroom, as well as the fruiting bodies, is about 20 c° at ph 4 (luthardt, 1968; pakhomova, 2014). all these peculiarities of the cultivation of oyster mushrooms on the stumps of cutover areas were taken into account in our study conducted in the summer and autumn of the 20152018 period on the hornbeam-oak-beech cutover areas of the bryukhovychy forest district of lviv region (ukraine) (compartments 35-43) on the stumps of beech, hornbeam and birch trees left after the main felling. the aim of the research is to study the temperature and moisture conditions for extensive cultivation of oyster mushrooms on different wood substrates. to accomplish this goal, it was intended to solve the following tasks: (1) to determine the amount of effective stress temperatures and moisture content of substrates and their influence on the appearance of oyster mushroom fruiting bodies. (2) to study the peculiarities of extensive cultivation of oyster mushrooms: 475 popovych et al.  on cutover areas of tree species.  in hollows of broadleaved trees.  with the use of brushwood.  on inoculated log sections in trenches.  on log sections of dead dry trees. mycelium-inoculation of stumps on the cutover areas was preceded by reconnaissance and phytopathological studies according to the methods (bysko et al., 1983; bulat, 2009). materials and methods the distribution and occurrence of oyster mushrooms in the forests of lviv roztochya, ukraine have been investigated. material was selected to isolate a pure culture with the help of which mycelium was made which was used for oyster mushroom inoculation of logs of fresh (green) and moistened dead wood, as well as inoculation of stumps and brushwood on the cutover areas. the isolated culture of oyster mushroom fruiting bodies collected in a suburban forest formed the basis of the experiment with inoculation of various types of substrates. to create and research the mycelium of the culture of oyster mushroom, the developed and well-formed fruiting bodies were selected which were delivered to the mycology laboratory within five hours. to activate growth before inoculating the substrate, the mycelium (mushroom spawn) was conditioned for 24 hours at room temperature and only then was sown in an amount of 57% of the substrate mass. the strain is unknown because it is obtained by isolating a pure culture from fruiting bodies found in natural conditions. the inoculation of the log sections was carried out in the basement with a relative humidity of 85%, the process of fouling lasted from 2 to 3 months. when using dry wood, it was soaked in water for a week. cutting the logs into sections was carried out on the day of inoculation. the optimum diameter of a segment 30-40 cm. the height of the segments was 30-35 cm; an average of 150 g of mycelium was applied per segment. to inoculate stumps on the cutover areas, the stumps of 40-70 cm in a felling-level diameter were chosen. in may-june, seed mycelium was applied to the sapwood part of the stump surface, with a 3-5 cm thick disc having been previously cut off it. after sowing, the disk was nailed with two nails to the block. the consumption rate of mycelium is 180-200 g per stump. the pre-stress period, stress period, and post-stress period correspond to changes in daily ambient temperatures, where the inoculated blocks with oyster mushroom mycelium were placed. the research data obtained indicate the appearance of fruiting bodies after temperature stress, as it occurs in vivo. the yield of oyster mushroom was assessed by observation during the spring and autumn waves of fruiting, and stocks were determined by multiplying the areas of their growth by yield per unit area. the study of the microclimate features in the experimental area with log sections, on which the oyster mushroom was grown, was carried out with the help of thermographs and hygrographs; the mass of oyster mushrooms during the study of yield was determined by weighing the cut-off fruiting bodies of the first fruiting wave. 476 the effects of temperature and moisture stress by the effective temperature is meant the difference between the temperature of the environment and the temperature threshold of organism development and the amount of effective temperatures (x) is calculated by the formula (kucheryavyj, 2010): x= (t-c) × t (1) where: т– is the environmental temperature; с– is the temperature threshold of development; t – is the number of hours or days with a temperature exceeding the threshold of development. results and disscussion using meteorological data and our own microclimatic studies, we investigated the nature of the amount of effective temperaturesduring the period of a sharp drop in the daily stress temperatures and post-stress period of the development of the fruiting bodies in table (1). table (1): calendar of oyster mushroom development in pre-stress, stressand post-stress periods (2016). m o n th o f th e y ea r april may d ay 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 1 2 3 t em p er at u re ’ 0 c 7.8 9.1 9.5 10.5 9.7 3.9 5.1 4.8 11.3 10.7 12.4 14.5 10.5 12.1 14.7 9.2 10.4 14.2 p er io d pre-stress period stress period post-stress period a p p ea ra n ce o f absence ofprimordis appearance of primordia the growth of fruiting bodies t h e am o u n t o f ef fe ct iv e te m p er at u re s (a e t ), ° c 9.3 4.6 79.0 it is proved that a sharp drop in temperature causes stress, which gives impetus to the active development and growth of oyster mushrooms (diag. 1). it was found that before the stress period, the night average temperature was 9.3 c° and at night of 21 april it dropped sharply to 3.9 c°. the cooling lasted four days (until 24 april), after which primordis appeared on the aspen log sections; the growth of fruiting bodies continued until 3 may. 477 popovych et al. diagram (1): development of the oyster mushroom in pre-stress, stress, and post-stress periods. at the end of fruiting, the raised temperature and reduced air humidity accelerated the process of completing the development of mushrooms. a similar course of temperature and oyster mushroom development was also observed in the autumn. here is the calculation of aet for the first autumn wave of fruiting, when the stress average daily temperature from 2 october to 5 october 2015 was 3.7 c°. the primordis appeared on 7 october 2015 (the average daily temperature was 7.9 c°. from this point on, the growth of fruiting bodies began and lasted for 28 days as the longest over the entire period of our investigations. aet = (7.9 – 4.0) ×28 = 113 c° (2) phenological three years’ studies on the growth of oyster mushrooms (2015, 2016, 2017) at the trial plots after overgrowing of log sections of eight species by mycelium confirmed the data of many authors (bysko et al., 1982,1983),about the beginning of intensive growth of oyster mushroom fruiting bodies after stress caused by a sharp drop in temperatures (4-8 c°).we have calculated the amount of effective temperatures for the development of oyster mushrooms from the day of a sharp drop in temperature and the appearance of primordis presented in table (2). 478 the effects of temperature and moisture stress table (2): amount of effective temperatures (aet) and the development of oyster mushrooms. years of studies amount of effective temperatures spring autumn the beginning of the season the end of the wave the duration of the wave /aet the beginning of the wave the end of the wave the duration of the wave /aet 2015 8.04 23.04 16 / 97.6 1.10 15.11 16 / 65.6 2016 9.04 21.04 13 / 50.7 1.11 14.11 14 / 65.8 2017 8.04 25.04 18 / 81.0 14.10 26.10 13 / 46.8 average index 16 / 76.4 14 / 59/4 the considerable length of fruiting time is explained by the cool period during the development, when the average daily temperature rarely exceeded 15 c°. on average, over three years, the spring and autumn aet is somewhat different: in the autumn, it is higher by 17 c°. we also carried out a aet calculation for the development of oyster mushrooms for two plots in table (3): one is represented by log sections of hard wood broadleaved species fagus sylvatica, and the second – by logs of soft wood broadleaved species populus tremula which, as shown, differed in wood moisture content (absolute moisture content of fagus sylvatica 119, populus tremula 205). table (3): the amount of effective temperatures (aet) and the development of oyster mushrooms on log sections of various tree species (2017). species name spring autumn the beginnin g of the wave the end of the wave the duration of the wave / aet the beginning of the wave the end of the wave the duration of the wave / aet fagus sylvatica 9.04 30.04 22 / 143 13.10 29.10 17 / 49.3 populus tremula 6.04 23.04 18 / 594 15.10 26.10 12 / 45.6 it turned out that the duration of fruiting on beech log sections was longer than that of aspen by 4 days in spring and 5 days in autumn. to study the development of the oyster mushroom fruiting body, aspen was chosen, where individuals with different cap sizes and weights develop in table (4). 479 popovych et al. table (4): the weight of oyster mushroom fruiting bodies on the aspen log sections, g (autumn 2016). no. of the study mushroom cap duration of growth, h 48 120 216 study mushroom no.1 3 12 76 study mushroom no.2 2 11 70 study mushroom no.3 3 13 78 study mushroom no.4 2 10 66 study mushroom no.5 3 9 63 study mushroom no.6 3 12 78 study mushroom no.7 1 8 60 study mushroom no.8 1 7 59 study mushroom no.9 3 10 74 study mushroom no.10 2 9 65 average 2.4 10.1 68.9 the data given in table (4) are modeled on the basis of the initial diameter and weight of the fruiting body. for example, the first cap, which completed its development, had a diameter of 10.9 cm and a weight of 76 g. the second cap was cut off on the 5th day of development and had a weight of 12 g. the third cap was in the initial stage of growth and weighed 3 g; the growth dynamics of the fruiting bodies is shown in diagram (2). the quality of the fruiting bodies largely depends on the rate of water transpiration and its evaporation;fleshy fruiting bodies (weights of 78 and 76 g) and bodies with lighter weight (63g), dry at different rates. in artificial conditions of keeping after collecting the mushrooms, individuals with a larger mass dry more slowly than those with lighter weight, as evidenced by the data.the dynamics of moisture evaporation by fruiting bodies of various weights is indicated in diagram(2). 480 the effects of temperature and moisture stress the studies have shown the need to take into account the rate of evaporation and prevent the decline in the condition of the collected products. characteristics of extensive cultivation of oyster mushrooms on cutover areas of tree species: plots with stumps were selected in areas where a sparse young growth had already risen consisting mainly of hornbeam and birch (insolation of 40% from the control of the open area).since the cutover area was already over ten years old, the upper layer of the stump wood was cut off to the level of healthy wood. the height of the stumps was 40-45 cm. inoculation was carried out in april 2016.two methods were used to prepare the stumps for inoculation: undercutting and drilling holes. as recommended (bysko and dudka, 1987), for laying grain mycelium, undercuts were made using a wedge method: wedges were cut out from two opposite sides (at the same height) to a depth of 15-20 cm. the mycelium was laid on the lower surface of the stump undercut and on the upper surface of this undercut, and the wedge was again inserted into place. in order to keep moisture in the stumps, plastic bags were put on them which were held until the germination phase was completed in table (5). table (5): yield of oyster mushrooms on the stumps of tree species (first variant), kg. species name first wave second wave third wave european beech 0.83 1.22 1.08 common hornbeam 0.67 0.91 0.79 weeping birch 0.55 0.73 0.69 another way was to drill holes. first, as in the previous case, the top layer of the stump, which had been subjected to destruction, was removed. then a disk 4-5 cm thick was cut off from the top. on the open surface of the stump, 10 mm diameter holes were drilled out and grain mycelium was poured into them (1-2 g of mycelium on the surface of one stump), then the holes were covered with the cut disc in table (6). diagram (2): dynamics of water evaporation from the fruiting bodies of the oyster mushroom (g). 481 popovych et al. table (6): yield of oyster mushrooms on the stumps of tree species (second variant), kg. species name first wave (year) second wave third wave european beech 1.25 1.72 1.98 common hornbeam 0.75 1.12 0.90 weeping birch 0.63 0.82 0.75 as you can see, the second variant has a greater effect, because mycelium develops not only on the cut surface, but also on the sides of the stumps. peculiarities of extensive cultivation of oyster mushrooms in hollows of broad leaved trees: in broadleaved trees, due to the destruction of their wood in the place of mechanical damage, as well as under the influence of saprobic fungi saprotrophs fungi and bacteria and with the participation of ants and birds, hollows are formed that we can often see in suburban forests and urban gardens and parks (kucheryavyj, 1999).the action of xylophyte fungi was followed by a saprobic mushroom saprophyte mushroom oyster mushroom.for several years, we conducted research with the planting of oyster mushroom mycelium in the hollows of trees and revealed peculiarities of the fruiting bodiesdevelopment. three trees with hollows of approximately the same diameter (35-40 cm) were selected for the experiment: black poplar, horse chestnut and garden plum tree (about 50 years old). the hollows were 60-70 cm above the ground. before the mycelium inoculation (spawning), the hollows were well treated by removing the rotten tissue (to prevent the development of antagonist fungi) and to clean the walls up to living wood. the volume of the hollow is 400700 cm3.150 g of mycelium was poured on the bottom of a hollow and the hollow was covered with dry leaves. the development of oyster mushroom was under phenological observations during the 2015-2018 period (tab.7). table (7): mycelium planting populus nigra (was done on 27 april 2015). observation date 1.06.2015 1.07.2015 1.08.201 5 1.09.201 5 1.10.2015 1.11.2015 1.12.201 5 observation date 1.02 . 201 6 1.03 . 201 6 1.04 . 201 6 1.05 . 201 6 1.06. 2016 1.07. 2016 1.08 . 201 6 1.09 . 201 6 15.10 . 2016 2.11 . 201 6 1.12. 2016 + + note. “-“absence of fruiting bodies; "+" the appearance of fruiting bodies the first fruiting bodies appeared more than 1.5 year later; the fruiting (first wave) began on 15 october 2016 and ended on 2 july 2016.over a long period of the development of mycelium hyphae, they germinated from a hollow downward and appeared in a crack which was 20 cm below the hollow (40 cm above the ground), first in the form of primordia, and subsequently as fruiting bodies. we found a similar developmental process in forest stands, where germination of hyphae and fruiting bodies spread to the under-hollow part of the trunk. 482 the effects of temperature and moisture stress planting mycelium in hollows of the horse chestnut and plum trees did not produce any results. peculiarities of extensive cultivation of oyster mushrooms using brushwood: since some literature sources refer to the use of brushwood for the cultivation of oyster mushrooms (bysko and dudka, 1987), we conducted an experiment in the laboratory of mycology involving a study on destruction of thin branches of the mountain ash by the mycelium of the oyster mushroom. the experiment lasted for 12 months. under the microscope, the process of destruction of wood was observed (pl. 1). plate (1): destruction of wood (dark areas) under the influence of oyster mushroom mycelium. in april 2017, an experiment began on growing oyster mushrooms on small bundles of brushwood was observed (pl. 2), of weeping birch. each bundle had 25 twigs 6-8 mm thick. before the inoculation, the bundles were steamed in a tub of boiling water. after cooling and after natural drying, each inoculated bundle was put into a plastic bag with holes. then these bags were suspended on the crossbar in a specially equipped box next to the trial plot with log sections located under the canopy of trees. phenological observation began on 7 may 2017, when the average daily temperature rose above 20c°; this temperature with certain small fluctuations (air humidity being about 80%) was kept on the succeeding days during the period of time until the firstprimordia appeared (29 may 2017).subsequent observations revealed the first primordia and an insignificant number of fruiting bodies, which after some time came off. 483 popovych et al. plate (2): development of oyster mushrooms on the brushwood substrate. as mentioned by some authors bysko and dudka (1987) and pavlík (2005); this is due to small, the proportion of cellulose and lignin in the brushwood, which the mushroom should use for destruction and consumption. this being taken into account, shredded twigs and branches should not be used for intensive cultivation of oyster mushrooms. peculiarities of extensive cultivation of oyster mushrooms on inoculated log sections in trenches: due to the fact that the period of time between the spring and autumn waves of oyster mushroom fruiting is quite long (almost five months), the log sections are exposed to summer dry air, and therefore, they were regularly watered in the trial plots. this provided the yield of the oyster mushroom during the autumn wave period. taking into account the information available in literary sources about the possibility of maintaining the optimum air humidity during the summer period using a trench (bysko et al., 1983), we carried out an experiment in which the development and fruiting of oyster mushrooms in the trial plot was compared with the development in a trench located under the canopy of a forest stand. the length of the trench is 3 m, the width is 1 m, and the depth is 0.6 m. a thermometer and a psychrometer were hung on a crossbar installed across the trench. for the experiment, aspen log sections (10 pcs) were used which were inoculated simultaneously with the experiments with the eight tree species described above. the trench microclimate monitoring was conducted from april (the first wave) to october (the second wave) and recorded in a special log book. at the end of the study, the results of the yield of oyster mushrooms in the trial plot (control) and in the trenches were compared. it was found that the biomass of the fruiting bodies of the oyster mushroom grown on the aspen log sections in the trench was higher than in the control, which indicates the best moisture conditions of the trench (tab.8). 484 the effects of temperature and moisture stress table (8):yield of oyster mushrooms grown on aspen log sections under trench conditions (average air humidity 85%) and in the control (73%). log section no. trench control fruiting bodies weight, kg fruiting bodies weight, kg 1 0.45 0.28 2 0.47 0.29 3 0.46 0.27 4 0.42 0.26 5 0.49 0.27 6 0.51 0.28 7 0.44 0.28 8 0.49 0.29 9 0.41 0.28 10 0.45 0.27 total 4.59 2.77 the relative air humidity of the control plot is lower because of the higher level of insolation and higher air flow; these factors xerophilized the oyster mushroom growth environment which required moisture for the development of its fruiting bodies. the main prerequisite for a higher yield of oyster mushrooms in the trench was more favorable relative air humidity and the soil moisture than those in the control. this explains the heavier weight of the fruiting bodies that appeared in the summer period. at the same time, the tested technology for growing oyster mushrooms in the trenches may be of limited use, because, firstly, the trench itself requires shading, secondly, this involves labor-intensive processes of its construction, and thirdly – it may occupy a limited area. the matter is that plots under the canopy of a forest can occupy large areas and do not require large costs for their management. peculiarities of extensive cultivation of oyster mushrooms on segments of dry dead wood: in forest stands, parks and gardens are often found dead standing trees and the wood of which cannot be used in woodworking. therefore, such dead trees could be used for the production of oyster mushrooms. as in the case of freshly cut wood, for the experiment, we selected three-meter long log segments with a thickness of about 30-35 cm of two species, beech and aspen; for the best development of the mycelium, the wood pieces were soaked for 3 days in specially made tubs measuring 3 by 2 m. the purpose of the study was to detect the effect of soil moisture on the development of the oyster mushroom and its fruiting. at the sites under the forest canopy and forest edges, there were installed 10 log sections of aspen and beech dead trees. a month later, the oyster mushroom mycelium grew into the soil to a depth of 15-20 cm, ensuring the supply of water to the fungus. as the studies showed, the first wave of fruiting, observed in septemberoctober 2015, revealed the different nature of the activity of the introduction of individuals on the log sections located in different environmental conditions. the results of oyster mushroom cultivation during the three years of research on log sections of dead wood are given in table (9).in general, the highest yield is observed in the autumn of the second and third years in the areas located under the broken canopy of trees. 485 popovych et al. it was found that excessive insolation of the forest edge (twice as high as the under-canopy space), as well as higher xerophilic conditions, adversely affect the growth of mycelium, the development of fruiting bodies and, ultimately, the yield are presented in table (9). table (9): yield of oyster mushrooms on the log sections of dead wood. t ree sp ecies t h e y ear o f estab lish m en t yield, kg/log section per year 2015 2016 2017 in total for the period of observation autumn spring autumn spring autumn beech 2015 0.13 0.19 0.42 0.26 0.34 1.34 hornbeam 2015 0.12 0.16 0.38 0.18 0.20 1.04 lime 2015 0.19 0.13 0.35 0.19 0.22 1.05 aspen 2015 0.17 0.09 0.30 0.15 0.23 0.94 maple 2015 0.15 0.11 0.25 0.18 0.21 0.90 birch 2015 0.17 0.09 0.19 0.07 0.18 0.70 poplar 2015 0.16 0.10 0.25 0.12 0.14 0.77 rowan tree 2015 0.13 0.12 0.31 0.14 0.29 0.99 the results of fruiting on fresh-cut wood were higher than on the dead wood which was subjected to soaking. confirmed are the findings of mushroom cultivators that grow the oyster mushroom on pieces of wood: the development of mycelium and growth of fruiting bodies requires the necessary amount of water. therefore, it is important in the process of harvesting wood for log sections to find out its potential moisture absorption, moisture parameters of freshly cut wood, and also the condition of the dead wood. moisture absorption of wood or hygroscopicity of wood is its ability to absorb water vapor from the ambient air. it is characterized by the ratio of the mass of the vapor absorbed by the sample of wood in an absolutely dry state and expressed as a percentage. it consists in mono and polymolecular sorption of vapors by the inner surface of cell walls and their condensation into microcapillaries. the maximum value of moisture absorption of wood is known 30% at +20 °c, and it does not depend much on the tree species. as we have explained in the previous section, the absolute moisture content of wood is essential for the development of mycelium and the growth of the fruiting bodies. moisture in wood, as mentioned above, is divided into bound (hygroscopic) and free which is located in a cavity cells and intercellular spaces. to characterize the moisture state of wood conditional terms are used: oven-dry wood, that is, the state achieved at a temperature of 100 105°c. however, wood of dead standing trees contains a small amount of water, which cannot sufficiently ensure the development of mycelium. to confirm this data, we conducted a study to find out how much moisture dry dead wood should contain for possible cultivation of oyster mushrooms on it. for the experiment, we selected pieces of dry dead wood with various moisture content in the tissues: these were 486 the effects of temperature and moisture stress pieces of european beech and aspen. the measurements of absolute moisture content and inoculation were started with an index of 20% (air-dry state), continuing at intervals of 100%, 120%, 200% in table (10). table (10): absolute moisture content of wood segments and the development of oyster mushrooms. species name absolute moisture content of wood, %, the beginning of fruiting 100 120 200 european beech + + aspen ± + note: (-) no fruiting; (±) the beginning of fruiting, low abundance; (++) high abundance fruiting on the beech log sections started at an absolute wood moisture content of 100%, but it was weak, and at a moisture content of 120% was abundant (18-22 pieces per log section).aspen, which has a larger cellular structure and larger intercellular spaces and less water filling, demanded more moisture saturation and was characterized by weak fruiting at a 120% absolute moisture content, andat 200% abundant fruiting. these experiments confirm the need to water-soak dry dead wood which in a three-day period absorbs such an amount of moisture that is close to natural, but this process requires regular monitoring, especially before inoculation. the collected data on the yield of oyster mushrooms on the log sections of freshly cut wood and log sections of dry dead wood found a pattern: the larger the diameter of the log section, the larger the size of the fruiting bodies. wood, as discussed above, contains cellulose and lignin the main components of biological decomposition in the process of carbon cycle in nature. wood contains 40-50% of cellulose (the lower limit corresponds to broadleaved, the upper to coniferous species).at the same time, broadleaved species contain 20-30% of lignin, and conifers up to 52%.it is these complex natural organic compounds that are the object of decomposition by xylophytes, and after destruction by saprotrophs. it is clear that the larger the diameter of the trunk and the more advanced age of the tree, the more it has accumulated cellulose and lignin are presented in table (11). table (11): dependence of the fruiting body size (diameter of the cap) on the thickness of the beech log section (freshly cut wood). date of measurement diameter of the cap, cm 52 45 39 35 31 25 20 16 october 2015 13.3 12.6 12.1 11.8 10.9 8.7 6.4 5.5 november 2016 14.0 13.6 12.9 12.0 10.7 9.1 5.9 5.2 october 2017 13.6 12.9 12.6 12.4 11.3 9.7 6.7 5.3 total 40.9 39.1 37.6 36.2 32.7 26.5 19.0 16.4 average index 13.6 13.03 12.5 12.0 10.9 8.5 6.3 5.4 487 popovych et al. the autumn waves of 2015, 2016, and 2017 showed that the size of the cap is directly dependent on the diameter of the log section; the best suitable are the log sections 35-50 cm in thickness. conclusions the oyster mushroom fruiting bodies collected in the suburban forest formed the basis of the experiment on inoculation of different types of substrates. the inoculation of the log sections was carried out in the cellar with a relative air humidity of 85%, the process of overgrowing lasted from 2 to 3 months. mycelium-overgrown log sections were installed in the trial plots at a distance of 30 cm apart.edaphic-climatic factors of various types of spaces closed and open were taken into consideration.the productivity of the oyster mushroom depends on the tree species and the absolute moisture content of the wood, as well as on the thickness of the log section. the beginning of the development and growth of fruiting bodies is associated with a stress temperature factor (the aet is 3.9-4.8°c), and the general index of the entire period of the development ranges from 5.4-16.2°c.the duration of the growth of the fruiting body cap lasts, on average, 12 days. the cultivation of oyster mushrooms on the stumps of hornbeam-oak cutover areas, as well as with the use of trenches under the canopy of stands of 0.5 density, proved to be successful. the inoculation of thin branches of brushwood turned out to be ineffective, as the growth of the mushroom fruiting bodies ceased at the stage of primordial formation. letrature cited bulat, a. g. 2009. scientific prerequisites for the use of antagonistic fungi in the prevention and protection of pine stands from root sponge damage. bulletin of khnau, forestry, 1: 217-220. bysko, n. a., buteyko, l. f., dudka, i. a. and shevchenko, s.v. 1982. cultivation of the fungus pleurotus ostreatus kumm. by extensive way in lviv region. plant resources, 18 (3): 407-411. bysko, n. a., bukhalo, a. s. and wasser, s. p. 1983. higher edible basidiomycetes in superficial and deep culture. naukova dumka, kyev, 312 pp. bysko, n. а. and dudka, i. а. 1987. biology of cultivation of edible mushrooms of the genus oyster mushroom. naukova dumka, kyev, 148 pp. černý, a. 1989. parazitické dřevokazné houby, ministerstvo lesnictví a vodního hospodářství a dřevozpracujícího průmyslu čsr ve státním zemědělském nakladatelství v praze ve sbírce lesnictví, myslivost a vodní hospodářství, praha, 273 pp. (in czech). kucheryavyj, v.p. 1999. urboecology. svit, lviv, 360 pp. kucheryavyj, v.p. 2010. general ecology. svit, lviv, 520 pp. 488 the effects of temperature and moisture stress kucheryavyj, v. p., popovych, v. v. and les, m. m. 2016. oyster mushroom (pleurotus ostreatus) in the system of biocoenotic relations with pests. scientific bulletin of unfu, 26 (8): 129-133. (in ukrainian) luthardt, w. 1968. speisepilze, die auf holz wohnen. steinach. thur.: vogel, aritz, 357 pp. (in german). pakhomova, o. e. 2014. ecology. folio, kharkiv, 666 pp. pasternak, v. p. and yarotsky, v. y. 2010. stocks and dynamics of dead wood in the forests of northeastern ukraine. scientific bulletin of the national university of bioresources and nature management of ukraine, 152 (2): 93-100. available at: http://elibrary.nubip.edu.ua/8888/1 pavlík, m. 2005.growing of pleurotus ostreatus on woods of various deciduous trees. acta edulis fungi, 12: 306-312. pavlik, m. and pavlik, š. 2013. wood decomposition activity of oyster mushroom (pleurotus ostreatus) isolate in situ. journal of forest science, 59 (1): 28-33. piškur, b., bajc, m., robek, r., humar, m., sinjur, i., kadunc, a., oven, p., rep, g., al sayegh, p. s., kraigher, h., jurc, d. and pohleven, f. 2011. influence of pleurotus ostreatus inoculation on wood degradation and fungal colonization. bioresource technology, 102: 10611–10617. popovych, v. v., les, m. m. 2014. destruction of wood waste under the influence of pleurotus ostreatus mycelium. bulletin of the lviv state university of life safety, 9: 160-165. available at: http://nbuv.gov.ua/ujrn/vldubzh_2014_9_23 veretenikov, a. v. 1987. plant physiology with the basics of biochemistry. voronezh university press, voronezh, 256 pp. 489 popovych et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2019) 15 (4): 473-489 oysterثيرات الاجهاد الحراري واملحتوى الرطوبي في الاكثار املوسع لفطر املحار mushroom * بافلو بوساك * تاراس شوبالت ** ميخايلو ليس * فاسيل بوبوفيتش ***وناتاليا بوبوفيتش ** ميخائيل فيتاك .، أوكرانيا، لفيفقسم السالمة البيئية، جامعة لفيف الحكومية لسالمة الحياة* ق وعلم البيئة، جامعة الغابات ائحدالقسم هندسة املناظر الطبيعية واقتصاد ** .الوطنية ألاوكرانية، لفيف، أوكرانيا فيف الحكومية للشؤون قسم التخصصات القانونية وإلادارية، جامعة ل*** .الداخلية، لفيف، أوكرانيا 32/03/3900: ، تأريخ النشر90/03/3900: ، تأريخ القبول 32/90/3900: تأريخ الاستالم امللخص oyster mushroom (pleurotus ostreatus (jacq. ex fr.) kummيؤدي فطر املحار مختلفة رئيسا ألستيطان احياء دورا مهما في تحطيم الخشب امليت الذي يعد وسطا هدف البحث الحالي الى دراسة تأثير . الغاباتيصبح جزءا من مكونات تربة وبتحلله وألنجاز . عاملي درجة الحرارة والرطوبة في اكثار هذا الفطر على اوساط خشبية متنوعة هور الاجسام الثمرية لفطر هذا الهدف تم بحث تأثير الاجهاد الحراري والرطوبي في ظ املحار ودراسة صفات اكثار الفطر على جذوع الاشجار في املناطق املتروكة وفي تجاويف الاشجار عريضة الاوراق وعلى البقايا الخشبية فضال عن نمو الفطر في خنادق ملقحة شكلت الاجسام الثمرية املجموعة من غابات . بالفطر وفي مواقع ألشجار ميتة جافة كانت الرطوبة النسبية في . واحي املدن اساسا في تجارب تلقيح مختلف اوساط الاكثارض اخذت . شهر 3 – 2والنمو املفرط ينتهي في غضون % 58مواقع الاشجار املقطوعة (.املغلقة واملفتوحة) عوامل املناخ والتربة بعين الاعتبار في جميع الانظمة املدروسة bull 103 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum pazilov and umarov bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2022) 17 (1): 103-113. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2022.17.1.0103 original article conchological variability of terrestrial mollusk chondrulopsina fedtschenkoi (ancey, 1886) (gastropoda, pulmonata, enidae) from the zarafshan range, uzbekistan abduvaeit p. pazilov* and farrukh u. umarov** *gulistan state university, syrdarya region, republic of uzbekistan. **andijan state university, andijon region, republic of uzbekistan. **corresponding author e-mail: eco_umarov@mail.ru received date: 04 may 2022, accepted date: 09 june 2022, published date: 20 june 2022 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract the article presents the results of studying the conchological variability of the terrestrial mollusk chondrulopsina fedtschenkoi (ancey, 1886), known to occur in three regions of the zaravshan range (central asia): the urgutsay gorge, the vicinity of the gissarak reservoir and the ingichka-irmak gorge. conchological variability was determined based on statistical analysis. the climate of the three regions is different, and environmental factors have led to changes in the mollusk shell. the shells have changed in response to environmental factors, these are their adaptive traits for survival; the variability of conchological features is also reflected in the color of the shell, and the intensive development of the color of the shell in mollusks is an adaptive feature reflecting on the one hand, the adaptability of mollusks to any biotope, and on the other hand climatic and landscape conditions. keywords: chondrulopsina fedtschenkoi, conchological, ecology, shell, variability, zarafshan range. introduction in the malacofauna of central asia, in the literature encounter two groups of phenomena that correspond to the concept of "variability". first, it is conchological (phenotypic) variability, which reflects, to a greater or lesser extent, the adaptation of mollusks to specific conditions. secondly, it is anatomical (genetic) variability, not directly related to external conditions (schileyko, 1984). it should be noted that the nature of the variability of central asian terrestrial mollusks has been partially analyzed (matyokin, 1959; schileyko, 1984; pazilov, 1990; uvalieva, 1990; schileyko and rymzhanov, 2013; snegin and snegina, 2019; pazilov and umarov, 2020), however, the variability of conchological characters has been studied fragmentarily. bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home online issn: 2311-9799 print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2022.17.1.0103 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2587-1377 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3530-1500 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 104 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum conchological variability of terrestrial mollusk a characteristic feature is the extreme diversity of microclimatic, soil, metrological, geochemical and plant conditions in the microlandscapes of the study region, which strongly affects the neighboring links of the genus of variability. for example, the same species ch. fedtschenkoi living in two biotopes located close to each other, reflecting some factors well, may differ sharply in other characters (pazilov, 1991). therefore, in terrestrial mollusks in central asia, such a wide conchological variability is found that sometimes closely related species of the same genus were described as representatives of different genera. in connection with these, of undoubted interest is a comparative analysis of the conchological variability of terrestrial mollusks living in different populations (schileyko, 1984; pazilov and azimov, 2003). chondrulopsina fedtschenkoi was first introduced to uzbekistan on the basis of specimens found in the samarkand region (sysoev and schileyko, 2009). the aim of this study was to investigate the interpopulation variability of quantitative and qualitative characteristics of the shell of the widespread terrestrial mollusk chondrulopsina fedtschenkoi (ancey, 1886) in zarafshan range. materials and methods the material for this work was collected (map 1) on the zarafshan range, urgutsoy gorge (39°22'27.6"n 67°14'23.1"e), at an altitude of 1200–1300 m above sea level; the vicinity of the gissarak reservoir (39°01'58.3"n 67°13'17.7"e), at an altitude of 1500 m above sea level, and the ingichka-irmak gorge (39°12'27.1"n 67°20'39.2"e), at an altitude of 1700-2000 m above sea level. a total of 750 individuals were collected. materials were collected in may-june 2019; the reason is that mollusks are very active in mountainous areas in late spring and early summer. they can be easily found at this time. the pearce and orstan (2006) method was used to collect land mollusks. picking up mollusks in the morning is advisable, as they are active in the morning. they were collected mainly using tweezers. collected materials are placed in special containers filled with water for 1 day. then they will perish. the dead mollusks are stored in 45% ethyl alcohol for 4-5 days. they are then permanently stored in 75% ethyl alcohol. anatomical studies can be performed on these materials. commonly accepted methods such as schileyko (1984) and pazilov and azimov (2003) were used to identify molluscs up to the species level. that is, in determining the species of mollusk; the morphology of the shell was determined in the first stage and the reproductive organ in the second stage. to study the variability of conchological characters, 30 adult individuals were randomly selected from each specimen. shell measurements were carried out according to schileyko (1978, 1984). the following parameters were measured: shell height (sh), shell width (sw), aperture height (ah), aperture width (aw), height before last turnover (hlt). 105 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum pazilov and umarov kazakhstan turkmenistan uzbekistan iran tajikistan kyrgyzstan gissarak reservoir chimkurgan reservoir u z b e k i s t a n t a j i k i s t a n 0 15 30 45 km map (1): zarafshan range, research area (baratov et al., 2002). collection points for material: ● – urgutsoy gorge; ● – ingichka-irmak gorge; ● – the vicinity of the gissarak reservoir. during the statistical analysis of morphometric indicators for each local population, the following characteristics were calculated: arithmetic mean (x̄), coefficient of variation (сv), and determinism (r2). the methods of terentiev and rostova (1977); rostova (1980) and lakin (1990) were used for a comparative characterization of the general variability. in order to identify the conchological variability of mollusks, the data obtained as a result of shell measurements were subjected to biometric processing and further processed using the spss statistics 17.0 microsoft excel 7.0 application. results and discussion chondrulopsina fedtschenkoi (ancey, 1886), central asian endemic species, which is locally distributed in the fergana, alai and zarafshan ranges (pazilov, 1991; schileyko, 1984; pazilov and azimov, 2003). terrestrial mollusks are very fond of moisture, they live mainly in biotopes that are not very long in water bodies. terrestrial mollusks move very slowly; usually they live around a radius of 50-100 m during the season. for this reason, mollusks scattered in one gorge area cannot pass into the second gorge area. as a result, there is variability between them (tissot, 1988; kramarenko, 1993; kramarenko and popov, 1994; pazilov et al., 2014). population variability of conchological traits of ch. fedtschenkoi were studied from 3 populations of the zarafshan range (urgutsoy gorge 39°22'27.6"n 106 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum conchological variability of terrestrial mollusk 67°14'23.1"e; the vicinity of the gissarak reservoir 39°01'58.3"n 67°13'17.7"e; ingichka-irmak gorge 39°12'27.1"n 67°20'39.2"e). population 1: zarafshan range, urgutsoy gorge, at an altitude of 1100–1300 m above sea level, on the stems of semishrubs (their lower part). here there are mollusks with a cylindrical shell shape and moderately hard-walled. whorls 7, well convex, separated by a fine suture, last whorl very slightly elevated towards aperture, always less than half height of shell, with dark brown color. sculpture in the form of fine radial striation, mouth triangular, the places of its attachment are not close, connected by a very weak callus, on which a very weak parietal tooth; palatal tooth developed in the form of a tubercle (pl. 1 a). plate (1): variability of the shell of ch. fedtschenkoi; (a) zarafshan range, urgutsay gorge; (b) zarafshan range, the vicinity of the gissarak reservoir; (c) zaravshan range, ingichka-irmak gorge (photo by f. u. umarov). population 2: zarafshan range, environs of the gissarak reservoir, at an altitude of 1500 m above sea level, under stones, among shrubs, shell conical-cylindrical shape, hard-walled. shell with 7 whorls and slightly convex and greyish-white color; sculpture consists of coarse radial wrinkles. aperture oval: well-developed parietal and palatal teeth are located in the mouth, columellar teeth absent (pl. 1 b). population 3: zarafshan range, ingichka-irmak gorge, at an altitude of 1900-2500 m above sea level. among shrubs and under stones, shells of mollusks cylindrical shape, moderately hard-walled. whorls 7, not convex; coloration with dark brown. sculpture in the form of a thin obscure radial striation. aperture almost sheer, rounded-triangular, the 2 mm a b c 107 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum pazilov and umarov place of its attachment is well approximated and connected with the callus, on which a well-developed parietal tooth is located. palatal tooth well developed than columellar one (pl. 1 c). as can be seen from the above material, the variability of the characteristics of the shell of ch. fedtschenkoi is more pronounced in color, the degree of development of elements of palatal teeth. the variability of the shell color of terrestrial mollusks was discussed in their works by matyokin (1959); schileyko (1984); uvalieva (1990) and snegin and snegina (2019). according to schileyko (1984), the development of color depends on the amount of solar energy. long-term observations have established that the matter is not so much in the carbonate regime, however, in the amount of solar energy necessary to complete the life cycle. the following facts testify to this. in ch. fedtschenkoi living in populations 1 (urgutsoy gorge) and 3 (ingichka-irmak gorge) populations, color of shell dark brown, while in mollusks 2 (near the gissarak reservoir), it grayish-white. studies have shown that the color of the shell gradually changes from north (40on) to south (38°n). apparently, it depends on the time of sunshine. for example, where mollusks with dark brown shells living area, the annual number of sunshine is 2600 hours, and molluscs with grayish-white shells – 3000 hours. thus, the more solar energy in nature, the more populations with light-colored shells. regarding to schileyko (1984) that the coloration from light strokes, radial motley on a dark background to absolutely white shells depends on the amount of solar energy (matyokin, 1959; uvalieva, 1990; pazilov and umarov, 2020). long-term observations have shown that wellhead fittings (teeth) change depending on environmental conditions. for example, in ch. fedtschenkoi living in more humid conditions, where the average annual rainfall is 550-600 mm and the average monthly air temperature (april-may) is 16oc (urgutsay gorge), mouth teeth are very poorly developed. in the environs of the gissarak reservoir, where the average annual precipitation is only 300-400 mm and the average monthly air temperature (april-may) is 19.5°c, parietal teeth are poorly developed in mollusks, and palatal teeth are well developed. in mollusks living in the most arid conditions (ingichka-irmak gorge), where the amount of precipitation is only 200-250 mm and the air temperature is 24-25°c, all the mouth teeth are developed to the maximum. based on the results, it was found that with an increase in air temperature and with a decrease in precipitation from north to south; mollusks develop intensively mouth teeth, which is very important in a dry and hot climate. according to schileyko (1984), they serve to squeeze out mucus from the edge of the mantle and the glands of the leg, which is important for the formation of the epiphragm, which reduces the intensity of moisture evaporation from the body of the mollusk and contributes to the long-term habitation of the animal at high temperatures. 108 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum conchological variability of terrestrial mollusk it should be noted that in addition to the above (qualitative) variability in ch. fedtschenkoi, the variability of morphometric characters was studied: shell height, shell width, aperture height, aperture width, height before last turnover, considered diagnostic and quantifiable. variability of morphometric features of ch. fedtschenkoi by population is as follows (tab.1). table (1): variability measurements of conchological features of ch. fedtschenkoi by population (in mm) statistical indicators sh sw ah hlt population 1 x̄ ± 8.46 ± 0.14 3.68 ± 0.04 3.71 ± 0.10 3.71 ± 0.03 сv, % 3.3 2.13 6.13 1.12 r2 0.045 0.043 0.01 0.01 population 2 x̄ ± 7,76 ± 0,24 3,08 ± 0,04 2,39 ± 0,18 3,09 ± 0,07 сv, % 5,28 2,59 3,46 2,82 r2 0,06 0,01 0,01 0,07 population 3 x̄ ± 5,81 ± 0,08 2,11 ± 0,03 2,42 ± 0,03 3,12 ± 0,09 сv, % 1.45 2.23 2.86 4,11 r2 0.34 0.04 0.2 0,28 the analysis of the tabular data showed that all the studied signs turned out to be slightly variable (1-6.31%). the variability of the studied traits was different, depending on the habitat of the mollusks. for example, in population 1, the most highly variable feature was the aperture height; the variability of this trait depends on external factors. shell height and width can be called strongly deterministic features; their variability is consistent with other features (diag. 1). the height of the before last turnover turned out to be the most weakly variable and weakly deterministic character. 109 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum pazilov and umarov diagram (1): variability (cv, %) and determinism (r2) of traits of terrestrial mollusks of 1 population. in the population 2, variability and determinism of signs have changed compared to population 1. here in diagram (2), the shell width to be a weakly variable and weakly deterministic feature; aperture height very variable. diagram (2): variability (cv, %) and determinism (r2) features of terrestrial mollusks 2 populations. in population 3 (diag. 3), among the studied characters, the height of the penultimate whorls of the shell can be called relatively strongly deterministic characters. the variability of this trait depended on external factors. mollusks were mainly affected by moisture and temperature factors. 110 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum conchological variability of terrestrial mollusk diagram (3): variability (cv, %) and determinism (r2) of traits of terrestrial mollusks in 3 populations. conclusions as a result of statistical data processing, it can be said that the nature of the variability and consistency of traits depended on external climatic factors, as well as the genotypic features of the objects. in each biotope, the studied characters differed in the degree of variability and consistency with others. for all biotypes, the height of the apertures can be called a relatively highly variable feature. the height of the shell turned out to be a relatively strongly deterministic feature; their variability is consistent with other features. conflict of interest statement we declare that there is no conflict of interest between the authors. we confirm that all the pictures in the manuscript belong to us. we note in this study that there is no conflict of interest regarding the use of the gulistan state university laboratory. acknowledgments we are grateful to makhmudjonov zafarjon, a ph.d. in biological sciences at the gulistan state university, for his active support in conducting the fieldwork and collection of the materials. literature cited baratov, p., mamatkulov, m. and rafikov, a. 2002. natural geography of central asia. tashkent: ukituvchi press, 440 pp. kramarenko, s. s. 1993. seasonal variability of the size-age structure of the brephulopsis bidens population from the vicinity of the city of simferopol. in: topical issues of ecology of the azov-black sea region and the mediterranean. ssu, simferopol, p. 195-199. 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(in russian). schileyko, a. a. 1984. terrestrial molluscs of the suborder pupillina of the ussr fauna (gastropoda, pulmonata, geophila). fauna ussr, n.s., n. 130. mollusca. vol. iii, no 3. nauka, leningrad, 399 pp. (in russian). http://res.guldu.uz/guldu/uploads/audio/axborotnoma/1-2020.pdf 112 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum conchological variability of terrestrial mollusk schileyko, a. a. and rymzhanov, t. s. 2013. fauna of land mollusks (gastropoda, pulmonata terrestria) of kazakhstan and adjacent territories. moscow-almaty: kmk sci. press, 389 pp. [click here]. snegin, e. a. and snegina, e. a. 2019. geographical and chronological variability of the conchological characters of the mollusc fruticicola fruticum (o.f.müller, 1774) (gastropoda; pulmonata; bradybaenidae) in the eastern europe. ruthenica, 29 (4): 191-204. [click here]. sysoev, a. and schileyko, a. 2009. land snails and slugs of russia and adjacent countries. sofia/moskva (pensoft), 312 pp. terentiev, p. v. and rostova, n. s. 1977. workshop on biometrics. leningrad, 105 pp. (in russian). tissot, b. n. 1988. morphological variation along gradients in a population of black abalone haliotis cracherodii leach, 1814. journal of experimental marine biology and ecology, 117 (1): 71-90. uvalieva, k. k. 1990. land mollusks of kazakhstan and adjacent territories. alma-ata: nauka press, 224 pp. (in russian). http://ashipunov.info/shipunov/school/books/shilejko2013_fauna_nazemn_moll_kz.djvu https://www.biotaxa.org/ruthenica/article/view/57368 113 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum pazilov and umarov bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2022) 17 (1): 103 -113. لنوع القواقع االرضية الَصَدفيالتباين chondrulopsina fedtschenkoi (ancey, 1886) (gastropoda, pulmonata, enidae) من سلسلة زرافشان ، أوزبكستان عمروف **ي. فاروخ عبدوفيت ب. بازيلوف * و * جامعة والية جولستان ، منطقة سيرداريا ، جمهورية أوزبكستان. .** جامعة أنديجان الحكومية ، منطقة أنديجون ، جمهورية أوزبكستان 20/06/2022، تأريخ النشر: 09/06/2022، تأريخ القبول: 04/05/2022تأريخ االستالم: الخالصة األرضية الرخويات لنوعنتائج دراسة التباين البحثيعرض هذا chondrulopsina fedtschenkoi (ancey, 1886) ثالث، املعروف أنه يحدث في نطقة املمناطق من سلسلة جبال زارافشان )آسيا الوسطى(: مضيق أورغوتساي، إيرماك جورج. تم تحديد التباين بناًء على -خزان جيساراك وإنجيشكا ل املجاورة قد أدت العوامل البيئية إلى ، ويختلف املناخ في املناطق الثالث التحليل اإلحصائي. سماتها التكيفية للبقاء ، التي تعد مناستجابة للعوامل البيئية الصدفةتغيرات في لون القشرة، كما ان التباين في الصفات املظهرية يعكس كذلكعلى قيد الحياة. انه ، من ناحيةميزة تكيفية يعكسللون الصدفة في الرخويات الشديدأن التطور يعكس قدرة الرخويات على التكيف مع أي بيئة حيوية، و من ناحية أخرى، يعكس الظروف املناخية واملناظر الطبيعية. bull 431 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum makawi, z. a. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2024) 18 (2): 431445. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2024.18.2.0431 original article isolation and identification of eimeria schneider, 1875 species (apicomplexa, eimeriidae) from goats in wasit province, iraq zainab a. makawi iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq. e-mail: zainab@nhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq recived: 10 july 2024, revised: 1 nov. 2024, accepted: 7 nov. 2024, published: 20 december 2024 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract eimeriosis is a major problem affecting ruminants worldwide. the disease is primarily caused by eimeria species, which are specialized for each host and grow in the small and large intestine of animals. the losses due to subclinical infections (especially weight loss) and clinical disease (diarrhea) make the species of this genus a very significant economic concern. therefore, this study was conducted in some areas of wasit province. a total of 180 fecal samples from goats, of both sexes and covering different age groups and months, were collected. all fecal samples were examined microscopically, and 75 positive fecal samples were taken for molecular examination and further analyzed using conventional pcr, sequencing and phylogenetic analysis. microscopic results showed that the overall infection rate was 41.6%. the incidence of eimeria species ranged from 5.55% to 22.22% across three different species of the genus emeria schneider, 1875, namely e. arloingi (marotel, 1905), martin, 1909 (22.22%), e. christenseni levine, ivens & fritz, 1962 (13.88%), and e. hirci chevalier, 1966 (5.55%). regarding the pcr reaction, results from the 18s rrna, coi gene and genetic sequencing, confirmed that the fecal samples were positive for eimeria schneider, 1875 species. keywords: coi gene, eimeriosis, eimeria species, goat, 18s rrna, wasit province. introduction intestinal infection of goats has been associated with a species of protozoan that belongs to the genus eimeria schneider, 1875 (apicomplexa: eimeriidae) (mohamaden et al., 2018). any stage of an animal's life may experience mixed infection with pathogenic and/or nonpathogenic species, with younger animals being more vulnerable (keeton and navarre, 2018; smith et al., 2019). according to chartier and paraud (2012), eimerosis, one of the most significant parasite diseases affecting goats, has spread around the globe. due to high mortality and morbidity rates, indigent development and costly treatments, this condition results in substantial economic losses (temizel et al., 2011). this parasite is transmitted via mature oocysts, bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799-print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2024.18.2.0431 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1136-9121 mailto:zainab@nhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 432 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (2): 431-445. isolation and identification of eimeria which require specific environmental conditions, such as humidity and temperature, to develop and transform into sporozoitecontaining structures (malla and saida, 2022). according to rehman et al. (2011) and cavalcante et al. (2012), the cause of eimeriosis is an intestinal protozoan parasite belonging to the genus eimeria. seventeen species of eimeria have been identified in goats worldwide. among these, e. christenseni levine, ivens & fritz, 1962, e. arloingi (marotel, 1905) martin, 1909, e. caprina, and e. ninakohlyakimovae yakimoff & rastegaieff, 1930, are considered significant infections (silva and lima, 1998; rajakaruna et al., 2012). young animals under the age of four as well as animals of any age maintained in overcrowded conditions with added stressors are more severely affected. examples of such stressors include weaning, nutritional adjustments, travel, temperature extremes, and so forth (gul, 2007). infected animals excrete oocysts in their faeces (temizel et al., 2011). by ingesting sporulated oocysts, goats become infected. as sporulated oocysts enter intestinal epithelial cells in the small intestine, they release sporozoites causing electrolyte and nutritional malabsorption (temizel et al., 2011; zachary and mcgavin, 2014). eimeria species was diagnosed using a variety of techniques, including molecular, serological, and fecal testing (woods et al., 2000). molecular methods are particularly sensitive and specific for fecal analyses (sweeny et al., 2011). eimeria has been diagnosed by pcr, which amplifies dna, in a various hosts, providing reliable results across a range of samples (kawahara et al., 2010). the aim of the study was to identify the species of eimeria infecting goats in wasit province using genetic sequencing. materials and methods sampling: in wasit province, 180 fecal samples were collected from goats (83♂♂ and 97♀♀) aged between 5 months and over 6 years, from three sites: al-suwaira, al-aziziyah, and alshaihemiyh districts, with 60 fecal samples were collected from each site. from november 2022 to april 2023, fecal fecal samples weighing between 10-20 g were randomly collected from various farms. immediately, while donning gloves, the samples were collected directly from the rectum and preserved at 4 °c until analysis (ekawasti et al., 2021). microscopic examination: after collection, the fecal samples were examined at the vertebrate laboratory of the iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad, for further testing. these include direct smear, flotation in saturated salt solution, and culture with 2.5% potassium dichromate (wt./vol.)] and put in screw-cupped plastic containers. a microscope was used to identify the different species of eimeria by using 40x power (eckert et al., 1995). molecular study dna extraction: dna was extracted from 75 fecal samples which were collected and stored previously at -20ºc using dna extraction kit /korea. 433 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum makawi, z. a. primers: the primers used for pcr amplification were designed according to albanese et al. (2019) based on 18s rrna with primer sequence f (5' cgcgcaaattacccaatgaa3'), r (5'atgcccccaactgtccctat3’) gene at 454 bp and bawn et al. (2020) on coi (cytochrome oxidase subunit i) gene sequences with primer sequence f (5′-aggtgttgctaatggagccaa-3′), r (5′ acagctgagaagtatgctctgg-3′) at 405 bp. pcr reaction preparation: pcr reaction was performed using master mix (promega/usa) component, including master mix or gotaq® green master mix (12.5µl), forward primer (10 picomols/µl (1 µl), reverse primer (10 picomols/µl (1 µl), dna (1.5µl) and distill water (9µl). pcr thermocycler conditions: the thermocycler conditions for pcr were conducted usinga conventional pcr thermocycler system. for the 18s rrna gene, the conditions included: initial denaturation (temperature 95 ᵒc for 5 min with 1 cycle), denaturation 2 (temperature 95 ᵒc for 45 sec), annealing (temperature 56 ᵒc for 45 sec), extension 1 (temperature 72 ᵒc for 1 min) with 35 cycle and extension 2 (temperature 72 ᵒc for 5 min with 1 cycle). while coi gene was conducted using conventional pcr thermocycler system which included initial denaturation (temperature 94 ᵒc for 3 min with 1 cycle), denaturation 2 (temperature 94 ᵒc for 45 sec), annealing (temperature 58 ᵒc for 30 sec), extension 1 (temperature 72 ᵒc for 1 min) with 35 cycle and extension 2 (temperature 72 ᵒc for 7 min with 1 cycle). sequencing of dna and phylogenetic tree: genetic sequencing was performed on seven positive samples in order to identify eimeria species at the molecular level. the upgma (unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean) approach was used to infer the evolutionary history. to obtain the bioinformatics for local goat eimeria and to assign accession numbers for local eimeria species in iraq, a phylogenetic tree and the genbank database were used. the 18s rrna pcr product and the coi gene were shipped from the korean company macrogen. once the sequences of the eimeria species were acquired, they were submitted to the ncbi-genbank to obtain genbank accession numbers. molecular evolutionary genetics analysis (mega6) and multiple sequence alignment based on clustal w alignment analysis were used for the dna sequencing study. this includes phylogenetic tree analysis and multiple sequence alignment which were conducted using clustal w alignment analysis and molecular evolutionary genetics analysis (mega6). known sequences from ncbi-blast were used as references for comparison was to identify eimeria species through phylogenetic analysis. results this research was carried out in wasit province with no significant difference among the areas studied, a total of 180 fecal samples 75 (41.6%) of the analyzed were positive for eimeria oocysts. a significant association (p=0.013) was observed between november 2022 and april 2023. both gender (83♂♂ and 97♀♀) showed infection rates that varied from 22.22 to 5.55% across various locations, with males having a higher infection rate than 434 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (2): 431-445. isolation and identification of eimeria females (48.1% and 36%) respectively, though the difference was not statistically significant. goat fecal matter was used to identify three distinct eimeria species based on their morphological characteristics in addition to the measurements (length and width) of oocyst, using a microscope ruler (ocular stage). the species were identified based on oocyst size, appearance, the presence or absence of micropyle, and the structure of the oocyst wall. the identified species included e. arloingi (22.22%), e. christenseni (13.88%) and e. hirci (5.55%) with the differences being highly statistically significant (pls. 1-3; tabs. 1-4). table (1): microscopic examination with infection rate eimeria species in goats concerning the area. area number of samples analyzed. number of positive (%) p value al-suwaira 60 20 33.3 0.18 al-aziziyah 60 25 41.6 alshaihemiyh 60 30 50.0 total 180 75 41.6 [the results of chi square analysis revealed that there was no significant association (p=0.18) between the area]. table (2): the infection rate with eimeria species according to months of study. months/2022 and 2023 number of samples analyzed. number of positive (%) p value november 30 10 33.3 december 30 13 43.3 january 30 15 50.0 february 30 20 66.6 0. 013 march 30 10 33.3 april 30 7 23.3 total 180 75 41.6 [the results showed a statistically significant association (p=0.013) between the month of infection or sample collection and the rate of infection with february being the month of higher percentage of infection compared to others (66.6 % positive cases)]. table (3): the infection rate with eimeria species according to goat's gender. gender number of samples analyzed. number of positive p value male 83 40 (48.1) 0.10 female 97 35 (36) total 180 75 (41.6) [the results of chi square analysis revealed that there was no significant association (p=0.10) between gender and the rate of infection]. 435 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum makawi, z. a. table (4): total infection rate with morphological characteristics of different eimeria species in goats. [the results showed a very highly statistically significant association (p ≤0.001) among the species of the parasite and the infection rate with e. arloingi constituting the high percentage of infection (22.22 %) of all]. plate (1): eimeria arloingi (left sporulated and right unsporulated). (oocysts are elliptic in form, have thick walls, and are coloured yellowish brown. they also have polar and micropyle caps). length × width (µm) observed (minmax) oocysts morphology p value % number of positive number of samples analyzed species 33 * 15 micropyle presents with a prominent cap ≤0.001 ≤0.00 22.22 40 180 e. arloingi 41*23 micropyle presents with a prominent cap 13.88 25 e. christensen 22*18 micropyle present with cap 5.55 10 e. hirci 436 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (2): 431-445. isolation and identification of eimeria plate (2): eimeria hirci (with a micropyle and micropyle cap, oocysts are light brown to brownish yellow in morphology and ellipsoidal to subspherical in shape). plate (3): eimeria christensen (pear-shaped oocyst with a thick wall, micropyle cap, and polar cap; yellowish brown in tone). molecular results results obtained by pcr analysis: seventy five fecal samples, which were examined traditionally in the lab, where further subjected to molecular examination. the samples tested positive result for eimeria species using the 18s rrna and coi gene (amplicons size h 454 bp and 405 bp) through the conventional pcr technique. dna sequencing results: seven eimeria positive samples were selected from the 75 positive samples for sequencing and phylogenic analysis. sequenced samples were analysed using megax software and multiple alignments were created. the positive isolates were compared with ncbi isolates and the percentage of similarity was obtained. the sequences were then submitted to the ncbi-genbank to acquire accession number codes for local eimeria species in goat. the results revealed that two species were diagnosed by targeting 437 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum makawi, z. a. the 18s rrna gene as e. arloingi (accession no. : pp862861.1, : pp862862.1, : pp862863.1, : pp862864.1) and eimeria christenseni (accession no. pp862865.1, pp862866.1) (tab.5), while the results revealed that three species were diagnosed by targeting the coi gene as eimeria hirci (accession no. pp873185.1), e. arloingi (accession no. pp873186.1, pp873187.1, pp873188.1, pp873189.1) and eimeria christenseni (accession no. pp873190.1, pp873191.1) (tab. 6). table (5): the ncbi-blast homology sequence identity (%) between local eimeria isolates from goat’s faeces that were deposited in 18s rrna gene bank and ncbi-blast deposited strains. no. accession no identical to genbank accession no. country identity % 1 id: pp862861.1 e. arloingi id: on259586.1 china:shaan xi 100% 2 id: pp862862.1 e. arloingi id: on259586.1 china:shaan xi 99% 3 id: pp862863.1 e. arloingi id: on259586.1 china:shaan xi 99% 4 id: pp862864.1 e. arloingi id: on259586.1 china:shaan xi 99% 5 id: pp862865.1 e. christenseni id: on259585.1 china:shaan xi 99% 6 id: pp862866.1 e. christenseni id: on259585.1 china:shaan xi 100% table (6): the ncbi-blast homology sequence identity (%) between local eimeria isolates from goat’s faeces that were deposited in coi gene bank and ncbi-blast deposited strains. no accession no identical to genbank accession no. country identity % 1 id: pp873185.1 eimeria hirci id: lc508122.1 japan 100 2 id: pp873186.1 e. arloingi id: lc508123.1 japan 99 3 id: pp873187.1 e. arloingi id: lc508123.1 japan 100 4 id: pp873188.1 e. arloingi id: lc508123.1 japan 99 5 id: pp873189.1 e. arloingi id: lc508123.1 japan 100 6 id: pp873190.1 e. christenseni id: lc508121.1 japan 100 7 id: pp873191.1 e. christenseni id: lc508121.1 japan 100 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nucleotide/on259586.1?report=genbank&log$=nuclalign&blast_rank=1&rid=61jr0fu0016 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nucleotide/on259586.1?report=genbank&log$=nuclalign&blast_rank=1&rid=61jr0fu0016 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nucleotide/on259586.1?report=genbank&log$=nuclalign&blast_rank=1&rid=61jr0fu0016 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nucleotide/on259586.1?report=genbank&log$=nuclalign&blast_rank=1&rid=61jr0fu0016 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nucleotide/on259585.1?report=genbank&log$=nuclalign&blast_rank=1&rid=61k7w898016 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nucleotide/on259585.1?report=genbank&log$=nuclalign&blast_rank=1&rid=61k7w898016 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nucleotide/lc508122.1?report=genbank&log$=nuclalign&blast_rank=1&rid=6c9uzdv6016 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nucleotide/lc508123.1?report=genbank&log$=nuclalign&blast_rank=1&rid=6cay6rh5013 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nucleotide/lc508123.1?report=genbank&log$=nuclalign&blast_rank=1&rid=6cay6rh5013 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nucleotide/lc508123.1?report=genbank&log$=nuclalign&blast_rank=1&rid=6cay6rh5013 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nucleotide/lc508123.1?report=genbank&log$=nuclalign&blast_rank=1&rid=6cay6rh5013 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nucleotide/lc508121.1?report=genbank&log$=nuclalign&blast_rank=1&rid=6cb7yh7y013 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nucleotide/lc508121.1?report=genbank&log$=nuclalign&blast_rank=1&rid=6cb7yh7y013 438 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (2): 431-445. isolation and identification of eimeria phylogenetic analysis phylogenetic tree analysis of eimeria species based on the currently identified sequences (18s ribosomal rna and coi gene) is represented with coloured triangle and their corresponding accession numbers. as it can be seen, the iraqi strains mainly appeared closely related to each other. however, when targetingthe18s ribosomal rna diagnosed e. arloingi and eimeria christenseni were found to be closely related to an isolates from shaanxi, china (diags. 1, 2). meanwhile, targeting the coi gene diagnosed eimeria hirci, e. arloingi, and eimeria christenseni as being similar to an isolate from japan (diags. 3, 4). diagram (1): gel electrophoresis image (1% agarose) shows the positive samples of eimeria spp. (amplicons size h – 454 bp) by targeting 18s rrna gene. diagram (2): phylogenetic tree analysis for eimeria species by targeting 18s rrna gene 439 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum makawi, z. a. diagram (3): gel electrophoresis image (1% agarose) shows the positive samples of eimeria species (amplicons size h – 405 bp) by targeting coi gene. diagram (4): phylogenetic tree analysis for eimeria spp. by targeting coi gene. discussion according to the findings, a variety of eimeria species, including single, double, and multiple infections, parasitize goats residing in this area. the overall infection frequency was found to be 75 (41.6%) across three regions of the waist province including, alsuwaira, al-aziziyah, and alshaihemiyh, and there was no significant difference observed among areas. this study's high infection rate reflects unsanitary living conditions, which are likely a contributing cause to the spread of eimeriosis, and grazing in exposed, contaminated places. according to the infection rate of eimeria parasite, this study disagrees with that of macedo et al. (2019) who reported infection rates of eimeria spp. at 73.91% and 60% in goats. while hasan and mahmood (2021) recorded a subclinical eimeriosis rate of 69.05% in goats. senbeto and chekol (2022), who found that infection with eimeria species was 50.5% in goats. in addition, several studies have documented high infection rates (57.5%, 68.4%, 58%, 82.03% ) in small ruminants (el-alfy et al., 2020; ayana et al., 2022; carneiro et al., 2022), in iraq, egypt, ethiopia and brazil respectively. higher prevalence rates were recorded in vietnam 86.85%, india 90.96%, and myanmar 60.0% (bawn et al., 2020; singh et al., 440 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (2): 431-445. isolation and identification of eimeria 2020; nguyen-ho-bao et al., 2022). the present study's prevalence rates of eimeria spp. oocysts in goats are lower than those previously reported. eser et al. (2020) recorded a much lower infection rate as being 20.33% in turkey. in the current study, the highest infection rates were recorded in february 66.6% and january 50, 66.6, and 50%, with a significant association (p=0.013) between infection rate and month. this finding aligns with the observation of ibrahim (2012) who reported that the infection rate was higher during the rainy season (60.22%) compared to the dry season (45.81%). it is also consistent with minnat (2014), who recorded a hight infection rate in february with a rate (100%). the increase in rainfall, humidity, and fall in temperature during february and january may attributive the higher infection rates of eimeria sp. (saleh, 2011). regarding gender, no significant difference was observed in the current study. similarly, ibrahim (2012) observed a slightly higher infection rate in males (55.19%) compared to females (51.63%). additionally, verma et al. (2018) also discovered that the rates of infection in males were greater than that in females, 71.55% and 71.39% respectively. male animals may be more susceptible to infections due to the immunosuppressive effects of high androgen levels, particularly testosterone, in their plasma during the reproductive season (souza et al., 2015). the mentioned species were diagnosed based on the measurements described by taylor et al. (2007) and verma et al. (2018). numerous publications have been conducted on this particular subject. in iraq, al-bakray and daoud (2005) recorded e. christensen (36.5%) and e. hirce (18.5%) in goats at the mosul abattoir. this aligns with findings by diao et al. (2022), who discovered eimeria species in goats in china, including e. arloingi (49.7%), e. christensen (41.2%) and e. hirce (37.8%). goz et al. (2006) identified e. hirce (18%) and e. christensen (6%), were found in research on eimeriosis in goats done in brazil by cavalcante et al. (2012). this study is further comparable to molecular study by bawn et al. (2020), who verified the coi sequences of e. christenseni, e. hirci and e. arloingi using coi and 18s r dna sequences reporting sequence similarities of 98.9%, 98.4%, and 98.5% in nay pyi taw area. abdel khader and jarad (2022) in al-diwaniyah province showed 87(87%) were positive for 18s rrna gene of eimeria spp. seasonal differences the number of animals included in different researches, regional and agro-climatic diversity, local control approaches, and differences in the predominance of eimeria species may all play a role in this variation. conclusions the current study identified three species of eimeria through morphological and molecular analyses by targeting the18s rrna and coi genes (amplicons size h 454 bp and 405 bp). the identified species include: eimeria arloingi, e. hirci, and e. christenseni. hence, it is imperative to conduct a thorough research to mitigate the infections caused by eimeria in goats. this necessitates the development of a comprehensive database to effectively reduce the prevalence of these parasites. additionally, the use of anticoccidial medications and maintaining sanitary conditions are vital control measures that must be implemented. the current study identified three species of eimeria according to morphological and molecular study by targeting 18s rrna and coi gene (amplicons size h 454 bp and 405 bp) including: eimeria arloingi, e. hirci, and e. christenseni. hence, it is 441 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum makawi, z. a. imperative to conduct thorough research to mitigate the infection caused by eimeria in goats; this necessitates the development of a comprehensive database to effectively reduce the prevalence of these parasites. additionally, the utilization of anticoccidial medications and the maintenance of sanitary conditions are vital control measures that must be implemented. furthermore, it is essential to regulate open habitat grazing and implement updated preventative measures, while also conducting further research on eimeriosis, especially in waist province, giving the limited studies on goats in this region and iraq in general. conflict of interest statement " regarding the publishing of this article, the authors declare that they have no conflicts of" interest. literature cited abdel khader, w. h. and jarad, n. i. 2022. detection of eimeria species in domestic goats with both microscopic and molecular methods in al-diwaniyah province. international journal of health sciences, 6(s8): 682-698. 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[crossref] saleh, b. a. h. 2011. epidemiological study of sheep coccidiosis in thi-qar province. m.sc. thesis in department of animal production, college of agriculture, basra university, iraq, 320 pp.[click here] https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vetpar.2010.08.001 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cvfa.2017.10.009 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/237091830%20coccidia_infections_in_goats_in_kandy https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2022.17.2.0267 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smallrumres.2018.12.006 https://vetmed.uodiyala.edu.iq/uploads/2019/drtariq/detection%20of%20gastrointestinal%20parasite%20infection%20in%20sheep%20and%20goat%20of%20diyala%20province.pdf http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijvsm.2018.02.004 https://journals.southernleytestateu.edu.ph/index.php/jset/article/view/3 ../../../user/downloads/documents/227-230.pdf https://doi.org/10.1590/s0074-02761998000600009 https://iqdr.iq/search?view=4098ed21f984c2 444 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (2): 431-445. isolation and identification of eimeria senbeto, y. a. and chekol, a. b. 2022. prevalence of small ruminant coccidiosis in pawe district, metekel zone, benishangul gumuz regional state, ethiopia international journal advance resource biology sciences, 9(7): 262-272.[crossref] smith, b. p., van metre, d and pusterla, n. 2019. large animals internal medicine. 6th edition. elsevier. veterinary science and veterinary medicine large animal internal medicine, 1949pp. [click here] singh, a. k., shanker, d., rout, k. p., kumar, a. and kumar, p. 2020. studies on eimeria species in goats of mathura region, uttar pradesh, india. haryana veterinary, 59(1): 131-132. 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[click here] taylor, m. a., coop, r. l. and wall, r. l. 2007. veterinary parasitology. blackwell publishing ltd. 3rd edition, blackwell publishing, oxford, 600 pp. [click here] verma, r., sharma, d. k., paul, s., gururaj, k., dige, m., saxena, v. k., rout, p. k., bhusan, s. and banerjee, p. s. 2018. epidemiology of common gastrointestinal parasitic infections in goats reared in semiarid region of india. journal of animal research, 8 (1): 39-45. [crossref] woods, w. g., whithear, k. g., richards, d. g. anderson, g. r., jorgensen, w. k. and gasser, r. b. 2000. single-strand restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis of the second internal transcribed spacer (ribosomal dna) for six species of eimeria from chickens in australia. international journal for parasitology, 30(9): 1019 1023. [crossref] zachary, j. f. and mcgavin, m. d. 2014. pathologic basis of veterinary disease, 5th edition. the canadian veterinary journal, 55(4):372. 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(2024) 18 (2): 431445. eimeria schneider, 1875عزل و تشخيص انواع جنس (apicomplexa, eimeriidae) من املاعز في محافظة واسط، العراق زينب علوان مكاوي مركز بحوث ومتحف التاريخ الطبيعي, جامعة بغداد, بغداد, العراق. 20/12/2024، النشر: 7/11/2024القبول: ،1/11/2024املراجعة: ،10/7/2024االستالم: الخالصة يعد مرض األيميريا من املشاكل الرئيسية التي تواجه املجترات في جميع أنحاء العالم. ويحدث هذا املرض في الغالب بسبب أنواع األيميريا املتخصصة لكل مضيف والتي تنمو في األمعاء الدقيقة والغليظة للحيوانات. إن الخسائر الناجمة من العدوى رية )فقدان الوزن على وجه الخصوص( واألمراض السريرية )اإلسهال( دون السري تجعل أنواع هذا الجنس مصدر قلق اقتصادي كبير للغاية. لذلك, أجريت هذه عينة من براز املاعز, من 180الدراسة في بعض مناطق محافظة واسط. حيث تم جمع عينات البراز كال الجنسين, شملت فئات عمرية وأشهر مختلفة, وتم فحص جميع عينة براز موجبة للفحص الجزيئي وتحليلها بشكل أكبر باستخدام 75باملجهر وتم أخذ تفاعل البوليميراز املتسلسل التقليدي والتسلسل والتحليل النشوئي. وأظهرت النتائج ٪. حيث تراوحت معدل اإلصابة بأنواع 41.6املجهرية أن املعدل اإلجمالي لإلصابة كان emeria ٪ لتحديد ثالثة أنواع مختلفة لجنس22.22٪ إلى 5.55من األيميريا schneider, 1875, وشملت االنواع االتية , : e. arloingi martin, 1909 (marotel, 1905) (22.22 )٪ ،e. christenseni levine, ivens & fritz, 1962 (13,88و ,)٪ chevalier, 1966 e. hirci (5,55 فيما ي )٪ تعلق البراز أن عينات والتسلسل الجيني s rrna , coi 18 أظهرت نتائج جين، pcr بتفاعل . eimeria schneider, 1875النواع الجنس كانت إيجابية 27 hadi and taher bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2020) 16 (1): 2738. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2020.16.1.0027 new record of brachydistomum microscelis (yamaguti, 1933) (trematoda, dicrocoeliidae) from house sparrowpasser domesticus biblicus hartert, 1904 in baghdad, iraq afkar m. hadi* and ahlam j. taher** * iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq **department of biology, college of education for pure sciences (ibn al haitham), university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq *corresponding author: afkar_hadi_iraq@yahoo.com received date: 20 october 2019, accepted date: 12 january 2020, published date: 24 june 2020 abstract a total of 30 specimens of house sparrow passer domesticus biblicus hartert, 1904 (15 females and 15 males) were collected from gardens of some houses in baghdad city; all birds were dissected to identify the parasites in vesicle, gizzard, intestine, gall bladder and caecum. one species of trematodes brachydistomum microscelis (yamaguti, 1933) was found in the gall bladder and two species of cestodes anonchotaenia globata (von linstow, 1879) and raillietina tetragona (molin, 1858) were found in the small intestine of house sparrow. morphologic and morphometric measurements were considered. the genus brachydistomum travassos, 1944 is being recorded for the first time in iraq in the gall bladder of house sparrow, as it was not previously recorded from birds in iraq. keywords: brachydistomum, digenia, gall bladder, house sparrow, passer, trematoda. introduction passer domesticus biblicus hartert, 1904 is a cosmopolitan bird that distributes in the wide world (taraschewski, 2006). in iraq, it is an abundance bird, especially in central iraq (allouse, 1962; salim et al., 2006). only few previous studies on house sparrow parasites in iraq were carried out, only two studies about blood parasites were published (shamsuddin and mohammad, 1980; mohammad, 1990). the study of abdulabas (2005) found that two species of cestodes in the intestine of the house sparrow in al-najaf province. then, mohammad and al-moussawi 28 new record of brachydistomum microscelis (2012) recorded nematodes in gizzard in baghdad city. recently, jenzeel et al. (2015) and alsaadi et al. (2016) recorded seven species of cestodes in small intestine of house sparrow in tikrit city, iraq. the aim of the current study is to isolate and identify brachydistomum microscelis from the gall bladder of house sparrow for the first time in iraq. materials and methods a total of 30 specimens of house sparrow (15 females and 15 males) were collected by netting traps from gardens of some houses in baghdad city iraq, from march 2018 to july 2019. all birds were dissected to identify the parasites in the biological lab in the college of education for pure sciences (ibn al haitham), university of baghdad. the parasites were fixed in 70% ethanol, and then sent to the iraq natural history research center and museum for staining and identifying according to yamaguti (1958) and bray et al. (2008). all specimens were dyed with the acetocarmine stain and then dealt with ascending concentrations of alcohol passages. finally, all slides were fixed with canada balsam following kinsella and forrester (1972). all parasites were examined for morphologic and morphometric measurements; examination were performed by digital camera, in addition to the drawing the drawing of the trematode had been done by lucida camera. the voucher specimens are stored in department of vertebrateiraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad; no. inhm.2019; trematoda: 1.1. results and discussion only four of the 30 birds which dissected in the present study (13.33 %), were found infected with two types of parasites, trematodes and cestodes. the current study revealed that the female of house sparrow was infected with the trematoda brachydistomum microscelis (two specimens) in the gall bladder and three other birds (2 females and one male) were infected with cestodes in the gut anonchotaenia globata (two specimens) and raillietina tetragona (three specimens). the current study revealed a new record of the trematoda brachydistomum microscelis according to yamaguti, (1958) and bray et al. (2008) as follow: host order: passeriformes host family: passeridae host genus: passer host species: domesticus biblicus locality: baghdad, iraq. parasite group: trematoda parasite family: dicrocoeliidae parasite genus: brachydistomum parasite species: microscelis habitat: gall bladder. 29 hadi and taher date of collecting: 15 april 2019 specimens deposited: inhm. 2019: trematoda, no. 1.1 taxonomic summary the genus brachydistomum belongs to the family dicrocoeliidae classified as is based on the catalogue of life (2018) as follows: kingdom: animalia phylum: platyhelminthes class: trematoda order: plagiorchiida superfamily: plagiorchioidea family: dicrocoeliidae genus: brachydistomum, travassos, 1944 species: microscelis, yamaguti, 1933 according to the reference yamaguti (1958) who classified this species as: family: dicrocoeliidae (odhner, 1911) subfamily: dicrocoeliinae (looss, 1899) tribe: brachydistomini genus: brachydistomum (travassos, 1944) species: microscelis (yamaguti, 1933) macroscopic description (based on brachydistomum microscelis specimens) body lanceolate, its length is approximately 3.3-3.5 millimeters, transparent, tends to be golden color, the anterior end is flexed ventrally and the posterior end is flexed dorsally, taking a distinctive shape, as in plate (1). 30 new record of brachydistomum microscelis plate (1): macroscopic form of b. microscelis from house sparrow in baghdad, iraq; by digital camera 12 pixels. microscopic description (based on brachydistomum microscelis specimens): the long body glides narrowly until it is exposed in the ventral sucker that represents the breadth area, curving slightly ventrally, and then the body tapers back to the rounded end. this sharply demarcated the main character for the genus brachydistomum (pl.2). cuticle smooth, oral sucker subterminal, it seems oval wide opening directly into a small globular pharynx, esophagus short, ceca not reaching to the posterior end of the worm. ventral sucker (acetabulum) in the anterior half of the body; it is more extensive and broader than the oral sucker (pl.3). testes are nearly round, diagonal or tandem, close to ventral sucker and one another; both of them lay behind of actabulum area (pl.4). ovary submedian, is close to posterior testis. cirrus pouch is welldeveloped pre acetabular; genital pore median. vitellaria follicles are comparatively broad, composed of few large follicles forming two bands or clusters in the middle third of body (pl.4). uterus is extensive and much coiled occupying most of hind body and intrudes into fore body that distributed the eggs in most of the body, (pl.2). eggs are numerous, oval, of golden color and turned to dark brown when mature. excretory vesicle is simple, long, tubular, appear under 400x as y shape in the posterior end of the body, excretory pore terminal (pl.5). measurements and drawings of the characteristics are clarified in table (1) and figure (1). 31 hadi and taher table (1): measurements of the main characteristics of brachydistomum microscelis in house sparrow in baghdad, iraq. characteristics measurements (mm) total body: length width oral sucker: length width esophagus: length width ventral sucker: length width testes: length width vitellarium follicle: length width excretory vesicle: length eggs: length width 3.3 0.45 0.3 0.22 0.25 0.17 0.42 0.25 0.27 0.21 0.4 0.42 0.06 0.04 0.02 figure (1): general morphology drawing of b. microscelis from house sparrow in baghdad, iraq. (abbreviations: os = oral sucker, eso. = esophagus, vs = ventral sucker, tes. = testes, ov.=ovary, vit.= vitellarium follicles, eggs and ex. = excretory vesicle). 32 new record of brachydistomum microscelis plate (2): photograph of b. microscelis from house sparrow in baghdad, iraq (40x). 33 hadi and taher . plate (3): anterior end of b. microscelis from house sparrow in baghdad, iraq (100x). (abbreviations: os. = oral sucker, eso. = esophagus, vs. = ventral sucker). plate (4): testes, eggs and vitelline follicles of b. microscelis from house sparrow in baghdad, iraq. 100x. (abbreviations: tes.=testes, vit.= vitellarium follicles). 34 new record of brachydistomum microscelis plate (5): posterior end of b. microscelis from house sparrow in baghdad, iraq (400x). eggs and excretory vesicle (ex.). the results of the current study recorded two cestodes: anoncotaenia globata and raillietina tetragona these results were similar to the results of jenzeel et al. (2015) who recorded a. globata with infection rate 1.2% and r. tetragona with infection rate 36.1% in house sparrow in tikrit city, iraq. also, previously mohammad and al-moussawi (2013) recorded that the house sparrow in baghdad was a new host for the cestodes raillietina echinobothrida with 44.6% prevalence of infection. but regarding the recording of the trematode b. microscelis in the gall bladder of house sparrow is considered to be the first time in iraq from all birds. this result is similar to that recorded by ozmen et al. (2013) who found b. microscelis in the gall bladder of p. domesticus in toros mountains in burdur, turkey. overall, there were few recordings of the genus brachydistomum and their species in the world that summarized in table (2). 35 hadi and taher table (2): review of references that recording the genus brachydistomum sp. in birds. acknowledgements many thanks are due to mr. saman r. afrasiab (retired from iraq natural history researches center and museum) for diagnosis of the house sparrow.we would appreciate the efforts of dr. furhan t. mhaisen (tegnervägen 6b, 641 36 katrineholm, sweden) and dr. atheer h. ali (department of fisheries and marine resources, college of agriculture, university of basrah) for helping us find the references and trematoda classification keys. literature cited abdulabas, s. k. 2005. identification study of parasitic fauna on three species of passeriformes family and its physiological effects in al-najaf al-ashraf governorate. m.sc. thesis, college of science, university of kufa, 85pp. allouse, b. 1962. birds of iraq. vol. 3. passeriformes. al rabitta press, baghdad, 288pp. (in arabic) al-saadi, a. a. j., abdul-hadi, w. h. and abdullah, a. h. 2016. histopathological study of infection with parasitic intestinal helminthes on passer domesticus in tikrit city, iraq. ibn al-haitham journal for pure and applied sciences, 29: 277-293. (in arabic) bray, r. a., gibson, d. i. and jones, a. 2008. keys to the trematoda, vol. 3. cab international. walling ford, 824 pp. 36 new record of brachydistomum microscelis catalogue of life. 2018 edition. available at: http://www.catalogueoflife.org/col/browse/tree/id/c5821e2a15de304457d1a0f51da5a7 91 fischthal, j. h. and robert e. k. 1974.brachylaimid and dicrocoeliid trematodes of birds from north borneo (malaysia).the helminthological society of washington, proceedings of the helminthological society, 41 (1): 94106. jenzeel, a. a., abdullah, a. h. and al-hade, w. h. a. 2015. epidemiology study and identification for intestinal parasites have influence on passer domesticus in tikrit city, iraq. ibn al-haitham journal for pure and applied sciences, 28 (3): 331344. kinsella, j. m. and forrester, d. j.1972. helminths of the florida duck, anas platyrhynchos fulvigula. proceeding of the helminthological society of washington, 39 (2): 173-176. kugi, g. 2004. studies on the helminth fauna of vertebrates in oita prefecture. part 3. mammalian and avian helminths, 106 pp. mohammad, m. k. 1990. blood parasites of some iraqi wild birds. iraqi journal sciences, 31(supplement): 31-39. mohammad, k. m. and al-moussawi, a. a. 2012. gizzard nematodes of the house sparrow passer domesticus biblicus hartert collected in baghdad city, central iraq. bulletin of iraq natural history museum, 12 (2): 25-37. mohammad, k. m. and al-moussawi, a. a. 2013. raillietina echinobothrida (megnin, 1881) (cestoda: cyclophyllidea) from the house sparrow passer domesticus biblicus hartret, 1881 collected in baghdad city, central iraq. bulletin of iraq natural history museum, 12 (3): 31-36. oshmarin, p. g. 1970. trematodes of domestic and wild birds in the democratic republic of vietnam. in: oshmarin, p. g., mamaev, y. l. and lebedev, b. i. (eds). helminths of animals in south-eastern asia. nauka, moscow, p. 5-126. (in russian) ozmen, o., adanir, r., haligur, m., albayrak, t., kose, o. and ipek, v. 2013. parasitologic and pathologic observations of the house sparrow (passer domesticus). journal of zoo and wildlife medicine, 44(3): 564-569. sakamoto, t., kono, i., yasuda, n., sakoh, t., kawabata, s. 1981. studies on parasites of corvus: i. parasites of corvus macrorhynchos in kagoshima district. bulletin of the faculty of agriculture, kagoshima university, 31: 83-93. 37 hadi and taher salim, m. a., porter, r., christensen, s., schiermacker-hansen, p., christensen, c. and aljboor, s. 2006. field guide to birds of iraq. nature iraq and birdlife international.1st edition, 284 pp. (in arabic) shamsuddin, m. and mohammad, m. k. 1980. haematozoa of some iraq birds with description of two new species, haemoproteus pterocles and leucocytozoon nycticoraxi (protozoa: haemosporina). bulletin of the iraq natural history museum, 7(4): 111-154. sitko, j. 2013. redescription of skrjabinus skrjabini and validity reassessment of selected species of skrjabinus (digenea, dicrocoeliidae). helminthologia, 50(4): 281 286. soota, t. d. and ghosh, r. k. 1977. on some trematodes from meghalaya. records of the zoological survey of india, 73: 111122. taraschewski, h. 2006. hosts and parasites as aliens. journal of helminthology, 80 (2): 99128. uchida, a., uchida, k., itagaki, h. and kamegai, s. 1991. checklist of helminth parasites of japanese birds. japanese journal of parasitology, 40 (1): 7-85. yamaguti, s. 1958. systema helminthum. vol. i. digenetic trematodes of vertebrates. parts i, ii. interscience published, new york, london, 1575 pp. 38 new record of brachydistomum microscelis bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2020) 16 (1): 27-38. brachydistomum microsceli (yamaguti, 1933) تسجيل جديد للمخرمة (trematoda, dicrocoeliidae) passer domesticus biblicus hartert, 1904من العصفور املنزلي في بغداد، العراق افكار مسلم هادي* و احالم جاسم طاهر** ، بغداد، العراق*مركز بحوث و متحف التأريخ الطبيعي، جامعة بغداد **قسم علوم الحياة، كلية التربية للعلوم الصرفة )ابن الهيثم(، جامعة بغداد، بغداد، العراق 24/06/2020، تأريخ النشر: 01/2020 /12، تأريخ القبول: 20/10/2019تأريخ االستالم: الخالصة ) 30جمعت املنازل ذكور( من حدا 15اناث و 15عينة من العصفور املنزلي في ئق بعض واالمعاء مدينة بغداد ؛ تم تشريح الطيور للتعرف على الطفيليات في الحويصلة والقانصة الدقيقة واالعور و كيس املرارة. في yamaguti,1933) )brachydistomum microscelisعثر على نوع واحد من املثقوبات و املرارة من كيس ,anoncohtaenia globata (von linstowالشريطية الديدان نوعين في االمعاء الدقيقة للعصفوراملنزلي. raillietina tetragona (molin, 1858)و (1879 واملورفومترية املظهرية القياسات جنس ،حيثاجريت brachydistomum ُسجَل travassos, 1944 في الول مرة في العراق في املرارة للعصفور املنزلي، اذ لم يسبق تسجيله الطيور االخرى في العراق. bull 15 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum khidhir et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2022) 17 (1): 15-26. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2022.17.1.0015 original article description of the predator bush cricket, saga ephippigera fischer von waldheim, 1846 (orthoptera, tettigoniidae) from erbil province, kurdistan regioniraq abdulqadir salih khidhir*, pshtiwan abdullah jalil**♦ and wand khalis ali*** *insect museum, department of plant protection, directorate of agriculture researches, ministry of agriculture and water resources, erbil, iraq. **department of plant protection, college of agricultural engineering sciences, salahaddin university, erbil, iraq. ***department of biology, college of education, salahaddin university, erbil, iraq. ♦corresponding author: pshtiwan.jalil@su.edu received date: 25 nov. 2021, accepted date: 03 february 2022, published date: 20 june 2022 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract the predatory bush crickets saga ephippigera fischer von waldheim, 1846 is the largest iraqi orthopterans and one of the most active and successful predators in the kurdistan region. the nymphs and adults prey on all the stages of various species of insects. twelve adult specimens were collected from erbil province during may 2018 and june 2021. morphological structures of the adult insects were described and illustrated in details; important taxonomic characteristics of body regions with their appendages were chosen; and the results indicated the importance of morphological characteristics which confirmed the identification of this species correctly. keywords: description, erbil, iraq, kurdistan region, morphology, saga ephippigera. introduction tettigoniidae krauss, 1902 is a family of the suborder ensifera includes 17 subfamilies, which contains almost 6,000 species, in 1070 genera and in the palearctic region, it is represented by six subfamilies (çıplak, 2003; mahasneh and katbehbader, 2004; krištín and kanuch, 2007; sevgili et al., 2011; taylan et al., 2019). one of them is the subfamily saginae in which the predatory bush crickets genus saga charpentier, 1825 represent one of the largest palearctic orthoptera, with 16 species, ten inhabit asia (azerbaijan, armenia, caucasus, turkey, syria, palestine, lebanon, jordan, israel, iran and iraq), the rest occur in europe (uvarov, 1938; rentz and colless, 1990). ecologically, most species of grasshoppers are ground inhabitants except the individuals of tettigoniini and onconotini which they live on shrubs and bushes. some species oviposit in the soil even if they are not ground dwellers while some species inserted their eggs into plant tissues (karabağ et al., 1974). bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home online issn: 2311-9799 print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2022.17.1.0015 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5848-498x https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6356-8021 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1090-7453 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://orthoptera.speciesfile.org/common/basic/taxa.aspx?taxonnameid=1121518 https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 16 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum description of the predator bush cricket some species of saginae are carnivorous while others feed on plant substances and achieve pest status; they survive winter in the egg stage (kaltenbach, 1990); among the non-european saga species, s. ephippigera has the broadest geographic range (vrabec and kocarek, 2005; hochkirch et al., 2016). in 1934, uvarov during his journey in iraq collected s. ephippigera fischer de waldheim, 1846 between sulaymaniyah and penjwin in the kurdistan region. since then detailed studies were very rare until recently khudhur and ahmed (2020) were published a paper considering the presence and distribution of the two recorded species s. ephippigera and s. syriaca lucas, 1864 with precise localities after a gap of more than fifty years in documented observations and collections from iraq. therefore, the aim is to describe the cricket s. ephippigera in detail alongside clarifying all its important diagnostic characters as a contribution to fill the gap mentioned above. materials and methods specimens, collection in the present study, 12 specimens were collected from an oak tree which is located in the north of erbil province, kurdistan region-iraq, during a period of time between may 2018 and june, 2021. the specimens were killed by freezing for 48 hours, and then preserved after placing their information in the insect box, which treated with 85% of seven and naphthalene balls. identification of specimens for identifying the specimens, several keys were used (kaltenbach, 1967; beibienko, 1964; ragge, 1964; kaltenbach, 1990; çıplak, 2003; mahasneh and katbehbader, 2004; şirin et al., 2019; khudhur and ahmed, 2020). then insects were deposited in the insect museumplant protection department, directorate of agriculture researches, ministry of agriculture and water resources, erbil, iraq. morphological study the adults were dissected under a dissecting microscope, after selecting the diagnostic characteristics they were prepared and studied directly. the selected parts were put in warmed water and then transferred to a petri dish to soften the tissues and break avoidance. finally, to measure the dimensions of the selected parts, the ruler, ocular micrometer, linear micrometer, stage micrometer and a digital computerized microscope were used, and the photos were taken by a camera of iphone 5s. results morphological study saga ephippigera fischer von waldheim, 1846 saga ephippigera fischer von waldheim. 1846. nouv. mem. soc. imp. natur. moscou 8: i-iv, 1443, pls 137. synonyms: saga ephippigera subsp. ephippigera fischer von waldheim, 1846 s. ephippiger s. epippigera 17 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum khidhir et al. s. monstrosa krauss, 1879 s. uvarovi ramme, 1951 body: (pls.1 a, b, c, d) large, elongate with cylindrical shaped and robust; pronotum with two stripes of anterior and posterior pale brown colored margins except for head. male about 65-69 mm long and 8-10 mm wide. female about 76-79 mm long (without the ovipositor) and 17-19 mm wide. male and female with strong armature of fore and middle legs, antennae filiform and longer than the body, tergites larger than sternites (pls. 1, e, f). plate (1): body of saga ephippigera, male and female; (a) ♂ dorsal view, (b) ♀ dorsal view, (c) ♂ ventral view, (d) ♀ ventral view, (e) ♂ lateral view, ( f) ♀ lateral view. head: (pls. 2 a, b) large, nearly oval shaped with hypognathous mouthpart (pls. 2 c, d), its length about 6-7 mm, and width about10-11 mm, mostly black colored except for vertex, clypeus, proximal halve of labrum, labium and maxillae pale brown colored in male but they brown in female, vertex flat, not differentiated as fastigium, frons wide, and nearly rectangular, strongly sloping backwards. antennae (pl. 2 e), filiform, pale brown colored, length, about 96-98 mm and longer than the body, scape big, cylindrical, robust and inserted vertically between compound eyes, pedicel semi slender than the scape and as long as it, directed side-wards, antennal sockets contiguous, with hardly produced margins, compound eyes large, prominent, and oval, located on the top of lateral sides of head, distance between them about 4-5 mm. brown colored, mouthparts http://orthoptera.speciesfile.org/common/basic/taxa.aspx?taxonnameid=1141598 http://orthoptera.speciesfile.org/common/basic/taxa.aspx?taxonnameid=1141599 18 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum description of the predator bush cricket chewing and biting type. clypeus, semi-rectangular shaped, pale brown colored with prominent distal margin. labrum almost circular shaped, pale brown colored and sclerotized (pl. 2 f). mandibles, (pl. 2 g) triangular, strongly sclerotized and brown color, incisor region with four black long robust teeth, molar region with two black short robust teeth. maxillae (pl. 2 h) moderately sclerotized, robust and elongate, pale brown colored except for galea and lacinia which brown colored, cardo small and ovoid shape; stipe big, galea tongue-like, lacinia ended with three teeth, maxillary palp provided with five segmented, and pale brown colored. labium, (pl. 2 i) with two small; yellow tubular structures fused glossa and two big brown un-fused pad-like paraglossa which inclosing the glossa has three segmented and pale brown colored. hypopharynx (pl. 2 j), tonguelike, brown and elongated, except for its lateral margins that have pale brown color. thorax (pls. 3 a, b, c, d): pronotum, large, strongly developed, longer than mesoand metathorax collectively, overhanging laterally, about 17-19 mm long, with convex dorsum and flat downward directed lateral lobes, posterior groove "v" shaped and wellmarked, prosternum with two contiguous long and pale brown spine-like processes between forelegs; wings (pls. 3 e, f) in male, absent and modified to vestigial as a pair of two dark brown small parallel processes, but completely absent in female. legs, fore legs (pl. 3 g) with fore and middle femora and have numerous strong ventral blacktipped spines which adapted for holding the pray, hind femora long, slender, without saltatorial, and apical spines on tarsi; mid legs (pl. 3 h) similar with fore legs in structure and morphology, but ventrally depressed. hind leg (pls. 3 i, j) long and modified for jumping, basal part of femur thick; second segments longitudinally grooved laterally, and second segment of tarsus heart-shape, first and, apical tarsus curved tube-like, ended with two black-tipped claws, without arolium; auditory pits (tympanal organ) covered partly by an ear-like extension of chitinous edge which covers them and narrows aperture to curved slit on base of fore-tibiae (pls. 3 k, l). 19 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum khidhir et al. plate (2): head of s. ephippigera, male and female; (a) ♂ frontal view, (b) ♀ frontal view, (c) ♂ lateral view, (d) ♀ lateral view, (e) antenna, (f) clypeus and labrum, (g) mandible, (h) maxilla, (i) labium, (j) hypopharynx. 20 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum description of the predator bush cricket plate (3): thorax and its’ appendages of s. ephippigera, male and female; (a) ♂ pronotum (dorsal view), (b) ♂ pronotum (lateral view); (c) ♂ mesometanotum (dorsal view); (d) ♀ mesometanotum (dorsal view), (e) ♂ mesometanotum (lateral view), (f) ♀ mesometanotum (lateral view), (g) fore leg, (h) midleg, (i) hind leg, (j) tympanal organ on the base of fore leg, (k) tarsi (dorsal view), (l) tarsi (ventral view). abdomen (pls. 4 a, b): elongate, cylindrical, pale brown colored, with ten terga and nine sterna in male, and nine terga and eight sterna in female, abdominal segments well developed, and gradually narrowed and made inverse triangular shape toward end of body; this form more obvious in females (pls. 4 c, d). abdominal folds noticeable from ventral view and well developed. anal sclerite present and located at posterior of last tergum, last sternum (9th segment in male, and 8th segment in female) modified to subgenital plate; distal margin of last tergum of male incurved, paraprocts well developed and obvious as two lobes (pls. 4 e, f); and last abdominal segment in female provided with cerci and ovipositor. male genitalia (pl. 4 g) consisted of triangular anal plate which provided with two closely rounded apically, pale brown colored; sub-genital plate parallel-sided with two evenly tapered processes, cerci pale brown colored, stout, long, un-segmented, incurved, an extended inwards. female genitalia (pl. 4 h): anal plate as in male but smaller in size, triangular shaped, pale brown colored, sub-genital plate triangular shaped (pls. 4 i, j), it has two round angles at basal part, but distal angle vshaped, and covering with ovipositor. ovipositor (pls. 4 k, l, m) long, and laterally 21 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum khidhir et al. compressed, dorsally curved, sword shaped, dorsally comprised a pair of cerci as in male but more fine and shorter than it; dorsal and ventral margins of ovipositor serrate, pale brown colored, about 31-32 mm long (pl. 4 n). material examined: rawanduz, high mountain, 28.v.2000, 2♂♂, 3♀♀; shiwemasi, steppes 22.vi.2004, 1♂: 2♀♀; sarkandkhailan, steppes, 16.vi.2004, 1 ♂; harir, 10.vi.2018, 1♀; and mergasur, steppes, 9.vi.2021, 1♂1♀. plate (4): abdomen and its’ appendages of s. ephippigera; (a) male abdomen (dorsal view), (b) male abdomen (ventral view), (c) female abdomen (dorsal view), (d) female abdomen (ventral view), (e) end (apex) of male abdomen (dorsal view), (f) end (apex) of male abdomen (ventral view), (g) end (apex) of male abdomen (lateral view), (h) end (apex) of female abdomen (dorsal view), (i) end (apex) of female abdomen (ventral view), (j) end (apex) of female abdomen (lateral view), (k) ovipositor (dorsal view), (l) ovipositor (ventral view), (m) ovipositor (lateral view), (n) toothed end of ovipositor (dorsal view). 22 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum description of the predator bush cricket discussion the present study focused on the morphological features of the species saga ephippigera, which considered the entire description of the diagnostic characteristics which wasn’t studied in the iraqi literature for a long time. kaltenbach (1967) selected saga syriaca as synonym of s. ephippigera and considered s. syriaca as a subspecies of s. ephippigera. hence, s. ephippigera included two subspecies s. ephippigera ephippigera and s. ephippigera syriaca. while some references considered that s. syriac as an isolated species (kirby, 1906; bader and massa, 2001; şirin et al., 2019; aslan and candan, 2019). the adult specimens were chosen among the collected specimens for description and identification. some morphological characteristics were selected for describing such as color, size and sclerotization of taxonomic parts that were renowned in the literature (massa and fontana, 1998; şirin et al., 2019). s. ephippigera reflects a broader range of coloration and from light tan, light brown to dark brown with variable darker bands, rings and patterns on the body segments, head and leg edges. thus, the description of the studied species wasn’t reliable on the colour factor because the reflection of color change is variable due to geographical and seasonal distribution while the size factor was more depended in identifying the species (bader and massa, 2001; khudhur and ahmed, 2020). in this study most of the diagnostic characters were described and illustrated clearly which helped to confirm the determination of this species correctly. this study represented the implication of morphological description of the predatory bush crickets saga ephippigera and identifying the important diagnostic characteristics and taxonomic relationships among iraqi orthopterans as an effective predator across agriculture fields from erbil province, kurdistan regioniraq. acknowledgements we would like to express our gratitude to farhad a. khudhur and soran h. ahmed, (department of biology, college of science, university of sulaimani, sulaymaniyah, kurdistan region, iraq) for their assistance in the identification of the specimens, and we also would like to thank the staffs of insect museum, department of plant protection, directorate of agriculture researches, erbil, iraq, for their assistance and support for this work. conflict of interest statement "the authors have no conflicts of interest to declare". literature cited aslan, m. m. and candan, g. 2019. identification of bio-ecological characteristics of saga ephippigera syriaca (orthoptera:tettigoniidae). munis entomology and zoology, 14 (2): 617-625. [click here] https://www.munisentzool.org/issue/abstract/identification-of-bio-ecological-characteristics-of-saga-ephipigera-syriaca-orthoptera-tettigoniidae_1314 23 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum khidhir et al. bader, a. k. and massa, b. 2001. tettigoniidae (orthoptera) from jordan with description of new species and redescription of less known species. journal of orthoptera research, 10 (1): 25-37. [crossref] bei-bienko, g. ya. 1964. keys to the insects of the european ussr, apterygota, palaeoptera, hemiptera. academy of sciences of the ussr, zoological institute, 1: 157-189. translated from russian: israel program for scientific translations. jerusalem. çıplak, b. 2003. distribution of tettigoniinae (orthoptera, tettigoniidae) bushcrickets in turkey: the importance of the anatolian taurus mountains in biodiversity and implications for conservation. biodiversity and conservation, 12: 47-64. 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(eds.). the tettigoniidae: biology, systematics and evolution. bathurst: crawford house, p. 352-282. sevgili, h., demirsoy, a. and durmuş, y. 2011. orthoptera and mantodea fauna of kazdağı (ida) national park with data on the calling songs of some bushcrickets. turkish journal of zoology, 35 (5): 631652. [crossref] şirin, d., taylan, m. s., sevgili, h. and mol, a. 2019. bioacoustics review of anatolian species of the predatory bush-cricket genus saga (orthoptera: tettigoniidae: saginae) with the description of a new species. zootaxa, 4664 (1): 83-102. [crossref] taylan, m. s., mol, a., sevgili, h. and şirin, d. 2019. bioacoustics characterization of some anatolian endemic and subendemic katydids (orthoptera; tettigoniidae; bradyporinae, phaneropterinae and tettigoniinae). zootaxa, 4603 (2): 289310. [crossref] uvarov, b. p. 1934. studies in the orthoptera of turkey, iraq and syria. eos, revista española de entomología, 10: 21119. uvarov, b. p. 1938. orthoptera from iraq and iran. zoological series field museum of natural history, 20: 439-451. https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.6745 http://www.eje.cz/scripts/viewabstract.php?abstract=1200 https://www.zobodat.at/pdf/denisia_0014_0245-0264.pdf https://www.zobodat.at/pdf/denisia_0014_0245-0264.pdf https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.part.20543 http://dx.doi.org/10.3906/zoo-0912-5 https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4664.1.3 https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4603.2.4 25 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum khidhir et al. vrabec, v. and kocarek, p. 2005. the observation of saga hellenica kaltenbach, 1967 (orthoptera) on corfu island. entomofauna carpathica, 17: 1113. 26 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum description of the predator bush cricket bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2022) 17 (1): 15-26. وصف جراد االحراش املفترس saga ephippigera (fischer von waldheim, 1846) (orthoptera, tettigoniidae) العراقفي محافظة أربيل, اقليم كردستان ** و وند خالص علي***بشتيوان عبدهللا جليل*، ريعبد القادر صالح خض وقاية النبات، مديرية البحوث الزراعية، وزارة الزراعة و قسم، متحف الحشرات* املوارد املائية، أربيل، العراق. ،أربيل ،، جامعة صالح الدينقسم وقاية النبات، كلية علوم الهندسة الزراعية** العراق. ***قسم علوم الحياة، كلية التربية،جامعة صالح الدين، اربيل، العراق. 20/06/2022, تأريخ النشر: 03/02/2022, تأريخ القبول: 25/11/2021تأريخ االستالم: الخالصة ,saga ephippigera fischer von waldheimجراد االحراش املفترسنوع يعد وهو من املفترسات ،العراقفي مستقيمة األجنحة رتبة افراد من أكبر 1846 حيث ان الحوريات والحشرات الكاملة في أقليم كوردستان؛ الناجحة والنشطة عينة من الحشرات الكاملة من12 للحشرات. جمعت تفترس االدوار املختلفة ؛ اذ وصف املظهر الخارجي2021وحزيران 2018ايار محافظة أربيل خالل فترة توضيحها بالتفصيل. للكامالت و ودلت النتيجة ختيرت الصفات التصنيفية الهامة ملناطق الجسم مع ملحقاتها،أ أهمية الصفات املظهرية التي تؤكد تشخيص هذا النوع بشكل صحيح. على bull 535 pham and dang bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2021) 16 (4): 535-545. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2021.16.4.0535 new record of the genus larra fabricius, 1793 (hymenoptera, crabronidae) from vietnam phong huy pham*♦ and hoa thi dang ** *institute of ecology and biological resources, vietnam academy of science and technology. *graduate university of science and technology, vietnam academy of science and technology, 18 hoang quoc viet, cau giay, ha noi, vietnam. **institute of ecology and biological resources, vietnam academy of science and technology, 18 hoang quoc viet, cau giay, ha noi, vietnam. ♦corresponding author e-mail: phong.wasp@gmail.com received date: 13 sept. 2021, accepted date: 27 october 2021, published date: 20 december 2021 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract the genus larra fabricius, 1793 (hymenoptera: crabronidae) is recorded for the first time from vietnam. three species and two subspecies belonging to this genus as follows: l. amplipennis (f. smith, 1873); l. carbonaria (f. smith, 1858); l. fenchihuensis tsuneki, 1967; l. polita polita (f. smith, 1858) and l. polita luzonensis rohwer, 1919 are presented. keys to both sexes of the three species and two subspecies reported here are provided. keywords: crabronidae, larra, oriental region, species group, vietnam. introduction larra fabricius, 1793 is a genus of the family crabronidae that has a worldwide distribution. the genus consists of 64 species and 13 subspecies (pulawski, 2021). of these, 25 species and 6 subspecies are recorded for the oriental region. this genus has become important in recent years because wasps of the genus are exclusive predators of mole crickets (orthoptera: gryllotalpidae) (menke, 1992), which are serious pests of several important crops, for example, warm season turfgrass and pastures in the southern united states (abraham et al., 2008). females of this genus do not construct their own nest and prey paralysis is temporary, the host reviving soon after egg deposition. reminiscent of parasitoids, the egg of larra is small, and females have a high egg output, each female probably laying more than 30 eggs during her lifespan (bohart and menke, 1976). in the present study, the genus larra is recorded from vietnam for the first time and keys to both sexes of vietnamese species are also provided. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2021.16.4.0509 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 536 new record of the genus larra materials and methods the sampling was taken using both sweeping nets and malaise traps; the adult morphological characters were observed from pinned and dried specimens with the aid of a stereoscopic microscope. information on the taxonomic history and full synonyms of all species was taken from pulawski (2021). the original descriptions of species or subspecies were used for identification of vietnamese species of the genus larra. photographic images were taken using a nikon smz800n microscope camera and a canon camera sd3500 is. provincial distributions were only for records from vietnam. the specimens examined in the present study are deposited in the institute of ecology and biological resources (iebr), vietnam academy of science and technology (vast), ha noi, vietnam. the following abbreviations are used for the museums in the text. bmnh: the natural history museum, united kingdom, london oxum: hope department of entomology, oxford, great britain. usnm: national museum of natural history, washington, d.c., u.s.a. results and discussion the genus larra with three species and two subspecies, l. amplipennis (f. smith, 1873); l. carbonaria (f. smith, 1858); l. fenchihuensis tsuneki, 1967; l. polita polita (f. smith, 1858) and l. polita luzonensis rohwer, 1919 are newly recorded for vietnam. key to the species and subspecies of larra fabricius, 1793 from vietnam females: 1. interocular distance on vertex longer than flagellomeres 1+2; inner orbit margins divergent posteriorly in vertical view; scape and pedicel obscure, with moderately dense setae (pl. 1a); outer surface of fore tibia with row of stout, long spines; forewing dark brown (pl. 1d); metasomal tergites 1 and 2 and basal half of tergite 3 red (pl. 1c) …...…………………………………………………………………. l. amplipennis interocular distance on vertex shorter than flagellomeres 1+2; inner orbit margins on vertex convergent posteriorly; scape and pedicel polished, with rather sparse setae; outer surface of foretibia without row of stout, long spines; forewing varied; metasoma black ………………..………………………..……………………………...…………. 2 2. legs wholly black ………………………………………………………………...….... 3 at least hind femur red ……..……………………….……………..……………..……. 4 3. mandible red (pl. 2a); propodeal plate transversely sinuate, with short medial longitudinal carina (pl. 2b); metasomal tergite polished, sparsely punctured; pygidial plate sparsely punctured (pl. 2c) …………..…..………………………... l. carbonaria mandible black (pl. 3a); propodeal plate transversely round, without medial carina (pl. 3b); metasomal tergite rather densely punctured; pygidial plate closely punctured (pl. 3c) ….………………………………………….……………...…….... l. fenchihuensis 4. mid and hind femora and tibiae red (pl. 4d), mandible partly red (pl. 4a) ...................................................................................................... ..... l. polita polita 537 pham and dang hind femur red, mid and hind tibia black (pl.5a), mandible mostly red ………………………………………………………….……… l. polita luzonensis males (male of l. carbonaria (f. smith, 1858) unknown) 1. interocular distance on vertex longer than flagellomeres 1+2; scape and pedicel obscure, with moderately dense setae; vertex with dense white setae (pl. 1e); forewing dark brown; metasomal tergites 1-3 red (pl. 1f) …………………………….. l. amplipennis interocular distance on vertex shorter than flagellomeres 1+2, scape and pedicel polished, with rather sparse setae; vertex with sparse white setae; forewing varied; metasoma wholly black………..………………..……………………………………….………… 2 2. legs wholly black (pl. 3f); propodeal plate transversely rounded, without medial carina; sides not obliquely striate near anterior apex ……….……….……........ l. fenchihuensis at least hind femur red; propodeal plate transversely sinuate, with long medial carina, sides moderately oblique striate near anterior apex ……..…………………………….. 3 3. mid and hind femora and tibiae red (pl. 4e) …….....………………..…. l. polita polita hind femur red, mid and hind tibiae black (pl. 5b) …….….. ..….... l. polita luzonensis (1) larra amplipennis (f. smith, 1873) (pl. 1) larrada amplipennis f. smith, 1873: 193, ♂. holotype or syntypes: ♂, japan: hyogo (bmnh). material examined: vietnam: ha noi: 2 ♀♀, co nhue, tu liem, 22.ix-07.xi.2001, malaise trap, p.t. nhi; 6 ♂♂, da ton, gia lam, 5-15.xi.2001, malaise trap (set up in apple, guava, and mandarin gardens), m.p. quy; 3 ♂♂, da ton, gia lam, 25.viii-5.ix.2001, malaise trap, k.d. long. ha giang: 4 ♂♂, tham ve, cao bo, vi xuyen, 5-15.x.2001, 25.x-5.xi.2001, 800 m, rice, k.d. long. diagnosis: female (pl. 1a-d), body length 14-15 mm; interocular distance on vertex longer than flagellomeres 1+2; scape and pedicel obscure, with moderately dense setae; inner orbit margins on vertex divergent posteriorly; outer surface of fore tibia with 6-7 stout, long spines; outer surface of mandible polished; pronotum, mesoscutum, mesopleuron, scutellum, metanotum with dense punctures; metasoma smooth, polished, with sparse punctures; pygidial plate narrow, with rather sparse punctures; body black, except mandible dark red, wing and veins dark brown, metasomal tergites 1, 2 and basal half of metasomal tergite 3 red. male (pl. 1e-f): body length 10-13 mm; similar to female except the following characters: vertex with dense white setae; face covered with densely silvery setae; forewing dark brown; pygidial plate without around carina; apex of metasomal sternite 8 roundly incised; apical bands of metasomal tergites with moderately densely silvery setae; metasomal tergites 1-3 and ¼ base of tergite 4 red. distribution: japan, korea, taiwan, china and vietnam (ha noi, ha giang (map 1)). the specimens of the male from vietnam agree with those from japan which were 538 new record of the genus larra originally described by f. smith (1873) as the nominate species, but differ from them by having the following two variational features: red metasomal tergites 1-3 (in contrast, only red metasomal tergites 1-2), brightly yellowish tegulae (in contrast, obscurely testaceous tegulae). in addition, the male specimens from vietnam also agree with those from thailand which were described by tsuneki (1963) as a subspecies, l. amplipennis aenipilosa, but differ from them by having the body covered with silvery-white setae (in contrast, the body filled with brassy setae). (2) larra carbonaria (f. smith, 1858) (pl. 2) larrada carbonaria f. smith, 1858: 102, ♀. holotype or syntypes: ♀, singapore (oxum). material examined: vietnam: hoa binh: 1 ♀, hang kia, mai chau, 22.x.2018, insect net, ph.h. pham. diagnosis: female (pl. 2a-d), body length 12-13 mm; interocular distance on vertex shorter than flagellomeres 1+2; scape and pedicel smooth and polished, with rather sparse setae; inner orbit margins on vertex divergent posteriorly; outer surface of fore tibia without stout, long spines; propodeal plate transversely sinuate, with median longitudinal carina, posterior surface of propodeum punctured, with strong, coarse transverse striae; pygidial plate sparsely punctured, edged with strong carina; body black, except mandible red, fore tibia and fore tarsus black and red; wing brownish. male: unknown. distribution: singapore, myanmar, malaysia, indonesia, philippines, taiwan, japan, india, china, russia and vietnam (hoa binh (map 1)). (3) larra fenchihuensis tsuneki, 1967 (pl. 3) larra fenchihuensis tsuneki, 1967: 22, ♀, ♂. holotype: sex not indicated, taiwan: chiayi prefecture: fenchihu (originally k. tsuneki coll., now usnm). material examined: vietnam: son la: 1 ♀ + 1 ♂, copia nature reserve, thuan chau, 14.v.2017, ph.h. pham. diagnosis: female (pl. 3a-d), body length 11-13 mm; interocular distance on vertex shorter than flagellomeres 1+2; scape and pedicel smooth, polished, with rather sparse setae; outer surface of fore tibia without stout, long spines; propodeal plate transversely rounded, without median carina, posterior surface of propodeum punctured, with fine, close transverse striae; pygidial plate densely punctured, edged with weak carina; body black, except mandible dark red at apical half, fore tibia and fore tarsus red and black, wings brownish. male (pl. 3e-f): body length 10-11 mm; propodeal sides sparse, small punctured, metasomal tergites with white seta bands laterally; pygidial plate flat, edged with weak carina, not truncated at apex; body black; mandible red in part. distribution: china, taiwan, and vietnam (son la (map 1)). (4-a) larra polita polita (f. smith, 1858) (pl. 4) 539 pham and dang larrada polita f. smith, 1858: 102, ♀. holotype or syntypes: ♀, malaysia: sarawak: no specific locality (oxum). material examined: vietnam: ha noi: 1 ♂, co nhue, tu liem, 07.xi-07.xii.2001, malaise trap, p.t. nhi; 1 ♀ + 1 ♂, da ton, gia lam, 5-15.xi.2001, malaise trap (set up in apple and guava gardens), k.d. long; 11 ♀♀ + 2 ♂♂, red river bank, 21.vi.2012, 1-10.vii.2012, 110.viii.2012, malaise trap, k.d. long, d.t. hoa. nghe an: 2 ♂♂, cua lo town, 29.vi.2017, ph.h. pham. diagnosis: female (pl. 4a-d), body length 11-13 mm; interocular distance on vertex shorter than flagellomeres 1+2; scape and pedicel smooth, polished; outer surface of fore tibia without long spines; propodeal plate transversely rugose, with median carina, posterior surface of propodeum punctured, with medial groove; pygidial plate with sparse punctures; body black, except the following: mandible, apex of fore femur, fore tibia, fore tarsus, mid and hind femora and tibia red; wing brownish. male (pl. 4e-f): body length 8-9 mm; interocular distance on vertex as long as flagellomeres 1+2; mandible red except apical part; sides of propodeum markedly rugose; pygidial plate without around carina, subcircular at apex; fore tibia, mid and hind femora and tibiae red, fore femur and fore tarsus black and red. distribution: malaysia, taiwan, philippines, vietnam: ha noi, nghe an (map 1). (4-b) larra polita luzonensis rohwer, 1919 (pl. 5) larra luzonensis rohwer, 1919: 10, ♀. holotype: ♀, philippines: luzon: los baños (usnm). material examined: vietnam: ha giang: 5 ♂♂, cao bo, vi xuyen, 5-15.x.2001, malaise trap, rice, k.d. long. vinh phuc: 2 ♂♂, me linh station for biodiversity, ngoc thach, me linh, 6.x.2008, 1.vi.2018, insect net, ph.h. pham. hoa binh: 2 ♂♂, luong son, vi.2018, malaise trap, d.t. hoa; 1 ♀, kim boi, 5-15.ix.2012, malaise trap, k.d. long. ha noi: 1 ♀, ba vi national park, ba vi, 28.v.2016, ph.h. pham. son la: 2 ♂♂, son la city, 1.vi.2017, 1625.v.2018, malaise trap, k.d. long. tuyen quang: 1 ♀, trung phin, na hang, 18.vii.2017, hthct; 4 ♂♂, na hang, 30.v-10.vi.2017, 20-30.vii.2017, malaise trap, k.d. long; 1 ♂, nam luong, phu luu, ham yen, 28.x.2018, 74 m. diagnosis: female (pl. 5a), body length 12-16 mm; similar to structure of l. polita polita except fore tibia, middle femur, middle tibia and hind tibia black; fore femur and fore tarsus red and black. male (pl. 5b): body length 6-12 mm; pygidial plate bordered by carina, with apex feebly emarginated; fore tibia, middle femur, mid tibia and hind tibia black. distribution: philippines, hawaii, japan, taiwan, china and vietnam (ha noi, ha giang, 540 new record of the genus larra tuyen quang, hoa binh, son la, vinh phuc (map 1)). of five male specimens of l. polita luzonensis collected by malaise traps between 5-15 october 2001 at cao bo, vi xuyen, ha giang, one agreed with the nominate species in having fore tibiae, mid and hind femur and tibiae red; two agreed with the subspecies by having only hind femora red; and the others differed from the nominate species and the subspecies by having fore and mid tibiae, and hind femora dark red. in two male specimens collected by malaise traps in june 2018 at luong son, hoa binh, one agreed with the subspecies, the other differed from the subspecies by having hind femora black. therefore, at one defined location of the sampling, there are several different colour forms suggesting that variation of colour on the body occurs in populations of the species and the subspecies. the vietnamese species of the genus larra are divided into two groups, the amplipennis species group and the carbonaria species group. the former consists of only one species, l. amplipennis, and is characterized by having the interocular distance on the vertex longer than flagellomeres 1+2; inner orbit margins on the vertex posteriorly diverged; the scape and pedicel distinctly obscure, with moderately dense setae; the outer margin of the fore tibia with two rows of stout, long spines; dark brown wings; the first and second metasomal tergites red. the latter consists of two species and two subspecies l. carbonaria, l. fenchihuensis, and l. polita polita and l. polita luzonensis, and is characterized by having the interocular distance on the vertex shorter than or as long as flagellomeres 1+2; inner orbit margins on the vertex posteriorly converged; the scape and pedicel smooth and polished, with rather sparse setae; the outer surface of the fore tibia without rows of long, stout spines; brownish wings; the wholly metasoma black. a common character between the two vietnamese species groups is for all males, to have the placoid on flagellomeres 2-11. menke (1992) considered the placoid on male flagellomeres as a character different from species groups of the new world larra. he divided the new world larra into three groups (bicolor, burmeisterii, and analis species groups), among them, the first and second groups having the placoid on flagellomeres 3-11. the placoid on flagellomeres 2-11 in the two vietnamese species groups are possibly a feature characteristic of the old world species groups of the genus larra. 541 pham and dang map (1): map showing distribution of the vietnamese larra species and subspecies. 542 new record of the genus larra plate (1): l. amplipennis; (a) ♀ head, frontal view, (b) ♀ mesosoma, dorsal view, (c) ♀ metasoma, first three metasomal tergites, (d) ♀ habitus, (e) ♂ head, frontal view, (f) ♂ habitus. plate (2): female of l. carbonaria; (a) head, frontal view, (b) mesosoma, dorsal view, (c) metasoma, dorsal view, (d) habitus, lateral view. 543 pham and dang plate (3): l. fenchihuensis; (a) ♀ head, frontal view, (b) ♀ mesosoma, dorsal view, (c) ♀ metasoma, dorsal view, (d) ♀habitus, (e) ♂ head, frontal view, (f) ♂ habitus. plate (4): l. polita polita; (a) ♀ head, frontal view, (b) ♀ mesosoma, dorsal view, (c) ♀ metasoma, dorsal view, (d) ♀ habitus, (e) ♂ head, frontal view; (f) ♂ habitus. 544 new record of the genus larra plate (5): habitus of l. polita luzonensis; (a) female, (b) male. acknowledgements the first author is grateful to dr. wojciech j. pulawski (california academy of sciences, san francisco, usa) for his positive encouragements and providing spheciformes wasp literature and expresses best wishes for his 90th birthday anniversary. the authors thank dr. pham thi nhi, institute of ecology and biological resources, vietnam academy of science and technology, ha noi, vietnam for providing specimens studied here. conflict of interest statment "the authors have no conflicts of interest to declare". literature cited abraham, c. m., held, d. w. and wheeler, c. 2008. first report of larra bicolor (hymenoptera: sphecidae) in alabama. midsouth entomologist, 1: 81-84. bohart, r. m. and menke, a. s. 1976. sphecid wasps of the world: a generic revision. university of california press, berkeley, los angeles, london, 695 pp. menke, a. s. 1992. mole cricket hunters of the genus larra in the new world (hymenoptera: sphecidae, larrinae). journal of hymenoptera research, 1: 175-234. pulawski, w. j. 2021. catalog of sphecidae sensu lato (= apoidea excluding apidae sensu lato) (= heterogynaidae, ampulicidae, sphecidae sensu stricto, and crabronidae). available from: https://calacademy.org/scientists/projects/catalog-of-sphecidae (accessed 19 april 2021). tsuneki, k. 1963. chrysididae and sphecidae from thailand (hymenoptera). etizenia, 4: 150. 545 pham and dang bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2021) 16 (4): 535-545. larra fabricius, 1793تسجيل جديد لجنس (hymenoptera, crabronidaeفي فيتنام ) **هوا ثي دانغ فونغ هوي فام * و * معهد البيئة واملوارد البيولوجية، أكاديمية فيتنام للعلوم والتكنولوجيا. hoang 18* خريج جامعة العلوم والتكنولوجيا، أكاديمية فيتنام للعلوم والتكنولوجيا، quoc viet ،cau giay ،ha noi .فيتنام ، hoang 18** معهد البيئة واملوارد البيولوجية ، أكاديمية فيتنام للعلوم والتكنولوجيا ، quoc viet ،cau giay ،ha noi .فيتنام ، 2021/ 12/ 20، تاريخ النشر: 2021/ 10/ 27، تاريخ القبول: 2021/ 09/ 13تاريخ االستالم: الخالصة ألول مرة في larra fabricius, 1793 ،(hymenoptera, crabronidae)سجل جنس شخص ثالثة أنواع ونويعين ينتمون إلى هذا الجنس على النحو التالي: فيتنام؛ حيث l. amplipennis (f. smith, 1873) l. carbonaria (f. smith, 1858( l. fenchihuensis tsuneki, 1967 l. polita polita (f. smith, 1858 ( l. polita luzonensis rohwer, 1919 لألنواع و النويعات املسجلة. نا ال ذكور و للصممت مفاتيح تشخيصية لكال bull 251 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum moradi et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2022) 17 (2): 251-265. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2022.17.2.0251 original article hottentotta pooyani sp. nov. (scorpiones, buthidae) from the khuzestan province, iran mohammad moradi*, ersen aydın yağmur**, abolfazl akbari*** and najmeh jafari* *university of zanjan, department of biology, faculty of sciences, zanjan, iran **alaşehir vocational school, manisa celal bayar university, manisa, turkey ***razi vaccine and serum research institute, karaj, iran e-mail: ersen.yagmur@gmail.com received date: 23 june 2022, accepted date: 30 oct. 2022, published date: 20 december 2022 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract a new species, hottentotta pooyani sp. nov. is described and illustrated using two female specimens collected from the khuzestan province in iran. this species is compared with the closely species including h. khoozestanus navidpour, kovařík, soleglad & fet, 2008; h. pellucidus lowe, 2010 and h. saxinatans lowe, 2010 that were previously described in iran and oman. keywords: description, hottentotta, iran, khuzestan, new species. introduction iran is located between central asia, anatolia and the middle east. therefore, many species or genera exist in iran that originated in those regions. besides, iran possesses high levels of endemism. according to barahoei et al. (2020) listed 68 scorpion species for iran of which 41 are endemic. ten species belonging to the genus hottentotta have been recorded or described from in iran: h. akbarii yağmur, moradi, tabatabaei & jafari, 2022; h. jayakari (pocock, 1895); h. juliae kovařík, yağmur & fet, 2019; h. khoozestanus navidpour, kovařík, soleglad & fet, 2008; h. lorestanus navidpour, nayebzadeh, soleglad, fet, kovařík & kayedi, 2010; h. navidpouri kovařík, yağmur & moradi, 2018; h. saulcyi (simon, 1880); h. schach (birula, 1905), h. sistanensis kovařík, yağmur & moradi, 2018 and h. zagrosensis kovařík, 1997. all species are endemic in iran except h. jayakari and h. saulcyi (birula, 1905; kovařík, 2007; mirshamsi et al., 2011; cokendolpher et al., 2019; kovařík et al., 2018, 2019; akbari et al., 2020; barahoei et al., 2020). twenty-one scorpion species have been recorded from khuzestan province until now (navidpour et al., 2008; karataş and gharkheloo, 2013; akbari et al., 2020). among those, six species belong to the genus hottentotta: h. juliae kovařík, yağmur & fet, 2019; h. khoozestanus navidpour, kovařík, soleglad & fet, 2008; h. navidpouri kovařík, yağmur & bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799-print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2022.17.2.0251 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2920-2274 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0396-3975 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1248-3367 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4748-3233 mailto:ersen.yagmur@gmail.com https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 252 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hottentotta pooyani sp. nov. moradi, 2018; h. saulcyi (simon, 1880), h. schach (birula, 1905) and h. zagrosensis kovařík, 1997 (navidpour et al., 2008; akbari et al., 2020). in addition, lowe (2010) described two new species, h. pellucidus and h. saxinatans from oman. the new species is compared with h. pellucidus and h. saxinatans due to morphological similarities, as well as with h. khoozestanus which is an endemic species in khuzestan province. the aim of the study is to introduce a new species of the genus hottentotta from khuzestan province of iran. materials and methods two female specimens were collected from the khuzestan province. the two type specimens were preserved in 96% alcohol. pictures of the type specimens were taken manually via the canon eos 7d. stacking of pictures was done with the aid of helicon focus software, version 5.3.14. illustrations under uv illumination were performed according to volschenk (2005). trichobothrial nomenclature was adopted according to vachon (1974) and morphological nomenclature follows stahnke (1971), francke (1977), and hjelle (1990). the female holotype and a female paratype were deposited in the alaşehir zoological museum, manisa celal bayar university, alaşehir, manisa, turkey (azmm). results family buthidae c. l. koch, 1837 genus hottentotta birula, 1908 hottentotta pooyani sp. nov. (pls 1-7; tab. 1) type materials: holotype: 1♀, iran, khuzestan province, bagh-e malek, qaleh tall, 31°37'44"n, 49°53'04"e, 875 m a. s. l., 8 may 2009, a. akbari leg. (coll. azmm/sco2009:01). paratype: 1 ♀, same data as holotype (coll. azmm/sco-2009:02). etymology: the species epithet is a patronym dedicated to pooyan moradi, the son of the first author. diagnosis: scorpions of medium size, total length of 61.43 and 64.71 mm in the two female specimens. all body glabrous, sternites and pecten sparsely setose. color uniformly pale dark yellow. carinae of carapace and tergites moderately granular. carapace with coarse granules laterally but anteriorly with a few coarse granules, between posteriomedian, centromedian and anteriomedian carinae without granules, the intercarinal area of the carapace smooth. anterior margin of carapace with intermittent coarse granules and a few setae. tergites that have three carinae and posterior margins that protrude in short spiniform processes. tergites i-vi have moderate granules laterally, but no granules between the lateral carinae, and the intercarinal area is smooth. sternites iii-vi smooth and carinae, with sternites vii having four granular carinae. pedipalps with slender shape, femur of a pedipalp has 5 carinae, the patella bears 7 carinae. pedipalp chela without carinae, elongated, with short manus and long fingers. pedipalps movable fingers have 16 rows of denticles and 5 terminal denticles with no basal scalloping. 253 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum moradi et al. trichobothrium db exists on a fixed finger between est and et. metasomal segments i-ii have 10 carinae, iii-iv have 8 carinae, and v bears 5 carinae. lateral inframedian carinae incomplete at segment ii and present on the posterior half. all metasomal segments have very sparsely small granules and setae, surface of intercarinal area smooth. all carinae have medium and intermittent equal-sized granules. all metasomal segments are longer than wide. vesicle bulbous, with three rows of coarse granules on the ventral surfaces; aculeus robust, curved, shorter than the vesicle. pectines teeth in two females 27–27 and 31–32. relationships: all hottentotta species in iran are large sized species whereas hottentotta pooyani sp. nov. is medium sized. in addition, h. akbarii, h. juliae, h. lorestanus, h. navidpouri, h. saulcyi, h. schach, h. sistanensis and h. zagrosensis are hirsute whereas h. pooyani sp. nov. glabrous. h. jayakari with black coloration on chela, patella, last three segment of metasoma and telson whereas the current species with yellow coloration. h. khoozestanus has relatively short fingers and a movable finger/manus ratio of 2.25 (according to navidpour et al., 2008) whereas the new species has long fingers and movable finger/manus ratios of 2.61 and 2.72 respectively. in addition, trichobothrium db positioned on a fixed finger between et and dt in h. khoozestanus whereas between est and et in h. pooyani sp. nov. and h. khoozestanus with smooth ventrolateral and ventral submedian carinae on metasomal segments i-iv, whereas in h. pooyani with moderately granular carinae. h. pellucidus and h. saxinatans have 10 carinae with segments on iii, whereas the current species has 8 carinae (lateral inframedian carinae absent). h. pellucidus with hirsute pedipalp and metasoma whereas h. pooyani with glabrous. h. saxinatans has 13-14 rows of denticles on the movable fingers of pedipalps whereas h. pooyani has 16 rows of denticles on the movable fingers of pedipalps. in additions the anterior of carapaces of h. saxinatans have dense medium to coarse granules whereas h. pooyani has a few coarse granules. description (holotype): total length is 61.43 mm. measurements are in table (1). coloration: color uniformly, pale yellow; with darker coloration only between the median eyes, the surround of the lateral eyes, and the anterior margin of the carapace; chelicerae and vesicles are lustrous. carapace: subquadrate, slightly wider than long, with a concave anterior margin.. carapace with coarse granules laterally but anteriorly with a few coarse granules, between posteriomedian, centromedian and anteriomedian carinae without granules, the intercarinal surface of the carapace smooth. anterior margin with intermittent coarse granules and a few setae. posterior margin with moderately pointed granules. lateral margins with microgranules. carapace carinae that are moderately granular. 12 short and one long macrosetae on the anterior margin of the carapace. median eyes are more anterior than the center of the carapace. there are five pairs of lateral eyes; the two eyes are only half the size of the three others. but the holotype with six lateral eyes on the left is an exception. chelicerae: this species' dentition is typical of the genus; the surface is smooth, lustrous, and glabrous, with large granules arranged in longitudinal rows without reticulations. 254 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hottentotta pooyani sp. nov. mesosoma: sternum type 1, triangular in shape, somewhat elongated (soleglad and fet, 2003). tergites i-vi glabrous with three granular, moderately carinated tergites. pretergites and between lateral carinae without granules, out of the lateral carinae with rounded coarse granules laterally. intercarinal surfaces are smooth; posterior margin of tergites with a single row of pointed granules. tergites iii–v with transversal anterolateral series of granules joined to lateral carinae; tergite vii pentacarinate; lateral pairs are fused, carinae strong with intermittently located coarse and rounded granules, the median carina has only 4–5 big granules. intercarinal surfaces smooth and bear a few coarse pointed granules. sternites iii– vi smooth, lustrous, and glabrous but with lateral margins of microgranules and a row of macrosetae. sternite vii smooth and bears four granulated carinae, but the granules rounded. sternites iii without bear carinae and sternites iv–vi bear weak and smooth lateral carinae. sternite vii smooth, lustrous with four weak finely granular carinae, and lateral margins with crenulate microgranules without setae. pectinal tooth count 27–27; pectinal marginal tips extend slightly to sternite iv; pectines with three marginal and nine middle lamellae and dense long setae. pedipalps: trichobothrial pattern type a, orthobothriotaxic. dorsal trichobothria arranged in β configuration on the femur. trichobothrium d2 of the femur located on the dorsal surface; patella trichobothrium d3 located internal to the dorsomedian carina. pedipalps glabrous and intercarinal surface smooth. femur with five carinae; ventrointernal, dorsointernal and dorsoexternal carinae strong, granular; ventroexternal carina moderate and bears irregular spaced granules; internal median carina moderate with unsteady pointed coarse granules. patella has seven moderate carinae; dorsointernal and dorsoexternal carinae have irregular pointed coarse granules and one spinoid granule distally; other carinae with finely and intermittently granular granules. chela slender with short manus, long and thin fingers; chela long/width ratios 6.09 and 6.27 and movable finger/manus ratios 2.61 and 2.72 respectively; without carinae; surface smooth with scattered short setae. fixed and movable fingers of the pedipalps bear 16 rows of denticles and 5 terminal denticles, without basal scalloping. trichobothrium db located on a fixed finger between est and et. metasoma and telson: all metasomal segments longer than wide; metasomal segments i–ii bear ten carinae, iii–iv bear eight carinae, v bears five carinae. lateral inframedian carinae incomplete at segment ii and present on posterior half; all metasomal segments with very sparsely small granules and setae, and intercarinal surface smooth. all carinae have medium and intermittent equal-sized granules. dorsolateral carinae i-iv have larger and more pointed granules, while v has swollen granules anteriorly and obsolete granules posteriorly. dorsolateral carinae on i–iv bear bigger and more pointed granules, on v with swollen granules anteriorly and obsolete posteriorly. ventromedian carina on v with coarsely 255 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum moradi et al. irregular granules and bifurcate posteriorly. segment v has two rows of unsteady granules between the ventromedian and ventrolateral carinae. vesicle bulbous, steeply inclined posteriorly; surface smooth and without setae, ventral surfaces bear three rows of big granules. subaculear tubercle indicated by a big, rounded granule. aculeus robust, not abruptly curved, shorter than vesicle. legs: tarsomeres and basitarsus with two rows of strong and short spiniform setae on the ventral surface and without setae on the other surfaces. pedal spur of legs does not bear setae. tibia and femur with distinct carinae, tibial spurs exist and long on iii and vi legs. variation: female holotype has 27-27 pectinal teeth and female paratype has 31-32 pectinal teeth. discussion in this paper, a new species of the genus hottentotta from khuzestan province is described, which is similar to h. pellucidus and h. saxinatans. these are medium sized species and have uniform pale-yellow coloration and a slender chela. these are species similar in terms of these characters to hottentotta pooyani. up to know, there are six species belong to hottentotta are known from the khuzestan province (kovařík et al., 2019; akbari et al., 2020). hottentotta pooyani is the seventh species from the khuzestan province, belonging to the genus. among these records, h. khoozestanus is known so far only from this province and h. pooyani is the second endemic species there and the ninth endemic species of the genus in iran. the khuzestan province has some endemic species that are close to widespread species in the arabian peninsula such as apistobuthus susanae and vachoniolus iranus. similarly, h. pooyani sp. nov. is another species in khuzestan province which is related to h. pellucidus and h. saxinatans distributed in oman. we suggest herein that some species in the arabian peninsula are distributed as far as basra province in iraq. because, humidity of this province and euphrates and tigris rivers provide barrier and isolation between dry regions located at two sides and xerophilic species cannot penetrate to khuzestan and hormozgan provinces of iran. as a result previously carried populations from the arabian peninsula were evolved into endemic species here. conclusions the new species hottentotta pooyani sp. nov. is described herein. with the description of this species, the number of species of the genus hottentotta in iran increased to 11 and the number of endemic species to 9. 256 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hottentotta pooyani sp. nov. plate (1): hottentotta pooyani sp. nov., female holotype; (a) dorsal view, (b) ventral view (scale: 10 mm) plate (2): hottentotta pooyani sp. nov., prosoma and mesosoma; (a, c) dorsal view, (b, d) ventral view, (a, b) under white light, (c, d) under uv light (scale: 10 mm). 257 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum moradi et al. plate (3): hottentotta pooyani sp. nov., carapace and coxosternal area; (a, c) dorsal view, (b, d) ventral view, (a, b) under white light, (c, d) under uv light (scale: 10 mm). 258 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hottentotta pooyani sp. nov. plate (4): hottentotta pooyani sp. nov., metasoma; (a, d) lateral view; (b, e) dorsal view; (c, f) ventral view; (a, b, c) under white light; (d, e, f) under uv light (scale: 10 mm). 259 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum moradi et al. plate (5): hottentotta pooyani sp. nov., fifth segment and telson; (a, c) lateral view, (b, d) dorsal view, (a, b) under white light, (c, d) under uv light (scale: 10 mm). 260 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hottentotta pooyani sp. nov. plate (6): hottentotta pooyani sp. nov.; (a, b, c) chela, (d, e, f) patella, (g, h, i) femur, (j) movable finger, (k) fixed finger, (a, e, h) ventral view, (c, d, g) dorsal view, (b) lateral view, (b, i) external (trichobothrial pattern is indicated by red circles) (scale: 10 mm). 261 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum moradi et al. plate (7): hottentotta pooyani sp. nov., right legs; i–iv, retrolateral view (scale: 1 mm). 262 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hottentotta pooyani sp. nov. table (1): measurements (in mm) of the female holotype and female paratype of hottentotta pooyani sp. nov. aknowledgments we would like to thank özgün sipahioğlu (i̇stanbul, turkey) for review of the english text. conflict of interest statement "the authors have no conflicts of interest to declare". literature cited akbari, a., yağmur, e. a., moradi, m. and jafari, n. 2020. contributions to the scorpion fauna of iran. part i. records of genus hottentotta birula, 1908 (arachnida: scorpiones: buthidae). serket, 17(3): 284-305. [researchgate] barahoei, h., navidpour, s., aliabadian, m., siahsarvie, r. and mirshamsi, o. 2020. scorpions of iran (arachnida: scorpiones): annotated checklist, delta database and identification key. journal of insect biodiversity and systematics, 6(4): 375-474. [crossref] birula, a. a. 1905. beiträge zur kenntniss der scorpionenfauna persiens (dritter beiträge). bulletin de l’académie impériale des sciences de st.-pétersbourg, 23: 119-148. cokendolpher, j. c., zamani, a. and snegovaya, n. y. 2019. overview of arachnids and arachnology in iran. journal of insect biodiversity and systematics, 5(4): 301-367. [crossref] body parts dimensions holotype ♀ paratype ♀ carapace l / w 7.20 / 7.31 6.92 / 7.07 mesosoma l 15.92 19.66 tergite vii l / w 4.02 / 7.26 5.38 / 8.79 metasoma + telson l 38.31 38.15 segment i l / w / d 4.84 / 4.25 / 3.91 4.67 / 4.29 / 3.57 segment ii l / w / d 5.67 / 3.91 / 3.45 5.13 / 3.84 / 3.31 segment iii l / w / d 5.81 / 3.46 / 3.33 5.68 / 3.62 / 3.25 segment iv l / w / d 6.48 / 3.18 / 3.30 6.50 / 3.26 / 3.11 segment v l / w / d 7.81 / 3.29 / 3.17 8.63 / 3.46 / 3.00 telson l / w / d 7.70 / 3.40 / 3.14 7.54 / 3.39 / 2.81 pedipalp l 29.60 28.23 femur l / w 7.34 / 1.97 6.98 / 1.76 patella l / w 7.93 / 2.49 8.33 / 2.44 chela l 14.33 12.92 manus l / w / d 3.86 / 2.35 / 3.16 3.68 / 2.06 / 3.16 movable finger l 10.09 10.03 total l 61.43 64.71 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/346573641_contributions_to_the_scorpion_fauna_of_iran_part_i_records_of_genus_hottentotta_birula_1908_arachnida_scorpiones_buthidae https://doi.org/10.52547/jibs.6.4.375 https://doi.org/10.52547/jibs.5.4.301 263 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum moradi et al. francke, o. f. 1977. scorpions of the genus diplocentrus from oaxaca, mexico (scorpionida, diplocentridae). journal of arachnology, 4: 145-200. hjelle, j. t. 1990. anatomy and morphology. in: polis, g. a. (ed.), the biology of scorpions. stanford university press, stanford, p. 9-63. karataş, a. and gharkheloo, m. m. 2013. a new hemiscorpius peters, 1861 (scorpiones: hemiscorpiidae) from southwestern iran. turkish journal of zoology, 37(1): 15-23. [crossref] kovařík, f. 2007. a revision of the genus hottentotta birula, 1908, with descriptions of four new species (scorpiones, buthidae). euscorpius, 58: 1-107. [crossref] kovařík, f., yağmur, e. a. and moradi, m. 2018. two new hottentotta species from iran, with a review of hottentotta saulcyi (scorpiones: buthidae). euscorpius, 265: 1-14. [crossref] kovařík, f., yağmur, e. a. and fet, v. 2019. review of hottentotta described by a. a. birula, with descriptions of two new species and comments on birula’s collection (scorpiones: buthidae). euscorpius, 282: 1-30. [crossref] lowe, g. 2010. two new species of hottentotta birula, 1908 (scorpiones: buthidae) from northern oman. euscorpius, 103: 1-23. [crossref] mirshamsi, o., sari, a and hosseinie, s. 2011. history of study and checklist of the scorpion fauna (arachnida: scorpiones) of iran. progress in biological sciences, 1: 16-28. navidpour, s., kovařík, f., soleglad, m. e. and fet, v. 2008. scorpions of iran (arachnida, scorpiones). part i. khoozestan province. euscorpius, 65: 1-41. [crossref] soleglad, m. e. and fet, v. 2003. the scorpion sternum: structure and phylogeny (scorpiones: orthosterni). euscorpius, 5: 1-34. [crossref] stahnke, h. l. 1971. scorpion nomenclature and mensuration. entomological news, 81: 297316. vachon, m. 1974. études des caractères utilisés pour classer des familles et les genres de scorpions (arachnides). 1. la trichobothriotaxie en arachnologie. sigles trichobothriaux et types de trichobothriotaxie chez les scorpions. bulletin du muséum national d’histoire naturelle, paris, 3 (140): 857-958. [click here] volschenk, e.s. 2005. a new technique for examining surface morphosculpture of scorpions. journal of arachnology, 33: 820-825. https://doi.org/10.3906/zoo-1205-27 https://dx.doi.org/10.18590/euscorpius.2007.vol2007.iss58.1 http://dx.doi.org/10.18590/euscorpius.2018.vol2018.iss265.1 https://dx.doi.org/10.18590/euscorpius.2019.vol2019.iss282.1 https://dx.doi.org/10.18590/euscorpius.2010.vol2010.iss103.1 https://dx.doi.org/10.18590/euscorpius.2008.vol2008.iss65.1 https://dx.doi.org/10.18590/euscorpius.2003.vol2003.iss5.1 http://bionames.org/bionames-archive/issn/0300-9386/104/858.pdf 264 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hottentotta pooyani sp. nov. yağmur, e. a., moradi, m., tabatabaei, m. and jafari, n. 2022. contributions to the scorpion fauna of iran. part ii. hottentotta akbarii sp. nov. from the fars province (scorpiones: buthidae). serket, 18 (3): 252-262. [researchgate] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/360076548_contributions_to_the_scorpion_fauna_of_iran_part_ii_hottentotta_akbarii_sp_nov_from_the_fars_province_scorpiones_buthidae 265 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum moradi et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2022) 17 (2): 251-265. hottentotta pooyani نوع جديد للعلم (scorpiones, buthidae) من محافظة خوزستان، ايران * *محمد مرادي *، إرسين أيدين يغمور **، أبو الفضل أكبري * نجمة جعفري* و ، كلية العلوم، زنجان، إيران.علوم الحياة* جامعة زنجان، قسم ، تركيا.** مدرسة أالشهير املهنية، جامعة مانيسا جالل بايار، مانيسا ، كرج، إيران. اتل واللقاحو مصلل بحوث الرازي *** معهد 20/12/2022، تأريخ النشر: 30/10/2022، تأريخ القبول: 23/6/2022تأريخ االستالم: الخالصة وص كنوع جديد للعلم، اعتمادا على hottentotta pooyaniو صور العقرب ف عة خوزستان اإليرانية.من مقاطت جمع التيمن اإلناث عينيتن :كل من القريبة منه التي ضمت مع األنواع النوع اهذ تمت مقارنة h. khoozestanus navidpour, kovařík, soleglad & fet, 2008 وh. pellucidus lowe, 2010 و h. saxinatans lowe, 2010 و التي سبق و ان تم وصفها في ايران . ُعمان ـــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــ hottentotta pooyani moradi, yağmur, akbari & jafari, 2022 urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:138ad848-50d5-44a8-afd8-992b324bec3e bull 67 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-rammahi and mohammad bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2022) 17 (1): 67-87. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2022.17.1.0467 original article birds of conservation concern at al-najaf desert, southern desert of iraq hayder m. al-rammahi*♦ and mohammad k. mohammad** *faculty of veterinary medicine, university of kufa, an-najaf al-ashraf, kufa, iraq. ** college of health and medical technology, uruk university, baghdad, iraq. ♦corresponding author: hayderm.alrammahi@uokufa.edu.iq received date: 26 november 2021, accepted date: 27 april 2022, published date: 20 june 2022 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract one eighth of the bird species in the world is considered globally threatened; the avifauna of iraq comprises 409 species and is considered as the major indicator of the health of iraq’s biological resources. the iraqi geography falls into five main regions among which is the desert and semi-desert areas which cover much of the country area. al-najaf desert is still one of the poorly known regions from the biodiversity point of view. birds of conservation concern are detected in al-najaf desert during 31 field trips to 20 sites conducted from august 2018 to april 2020, (citing literature records, and personal interviews with locals).the factors caused the bird numbers to decline in alnajaf desert include hunting and trapping, logging, invasive species, and climate change. nine birds are found threatened with 3 en and 6 vu comprising saker falcon falco cherrug gray, 1834 (falconidae, falconiformes), red-footed falcon falco vespertinus linnaeus, 1766 (falconidae, falconiformes), steppe eagle aquila nipalensis hodgson, 1833 (accipitridae, accipitriformes), egyptian vulture neophron percnopterus (linnaeus, 1758) (accipitridae, accipitriformes), greater spotted eagle aquila clanga (pallas, 1811) (accipitridae, accipitriformes), marbled teal marmaronetta angustirostris (ménétrés, 1832) (anatidae, anseriformes), macqueen's bustard chlamydotis macqueeni (gray, 1834) (otididae, otidiformes), turtle dove streptopelia turtur (linnaeus, 1758) (columbidae, columbiformes), and southern grey shrike lanius meridionalis aucheri bonaparte, 1853 (laniidae, passeriformes). it is concluded that al-najaf desert is a region of top priority area for biodiversity conservation as it hosts large number of threatened bird species. keywords: al-najaf desert, climate change, hunting and trapping, invasive species, logging, threatened birds. introduction one eighth of the bird species in the world is considered globally threatened and there are 222 critically endangered species at risk now of pressing extinction (birdlife bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home online issn: 2311-9799 print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2022.17.1.0467 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5214-2404 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0129-2581 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 68 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum birds of conservation concern at al-najaf international, 2017a). the main threats that face world’s birds include industrial farming, logging, invasive species, hunting and trapping and climate change (birdlife international, 2017b). continuous bird declining is a global phenomenon rather than local. furthermore, deserts are among the most fragile ecosystems on the globe . the iraqi geography falls into five main regions among which is the desert and semidesert areas which cover much of the country area (salim et al., 2012). the desert comprises the land that lying to the west and southwest of the river euphrates, often subdivided into western desert to the north and southern desert to the south. the latter consists of a wide stony plain interspersed with sandy stretches. a widely ephemeral wadis-watercourses that are dry most of the year and runs from the international border to the river euphrates carrying brief but huge floods during the rains of winter. it is known as al-dibdibah in the eastern part and as al-hajarah in the west. al-dibdibah is a sandy region covered with scrub vegetation. al-hajarah has a complex topography of depressions, ridges, wadis, and rocky desert (cavendish, 2006; ali et al., 2021). the avifauna of iraq comprises 413 species (imoe, 2018). birds are considered as the major indicator of the health of iraq’s biological resources (salim et al., 2009). iraq encountered three main bird flyways; mediterranean-black sea flyway, central asia flyway, and east asia-east africa flyway (al-sheikhly et al., 2017). therefore, the southern desert of iraq represents staging/stopover sites for migratory birds . al-najaf desert is still one of the poorly known regions from the biodiversity point of view. however, few works on the avifauna had been carried out in al-najaf al-ashraf province by mohammad et al. (2013 a, b) and salim and abed (2017), who highlighted some conservation hints in their texts. salim and abed (2017) studied the avifauna diversity at bahr al-najaf, a salty water body adjacent to the desert from the northeastern side, and mentioned that the desert areas seem to harbor some threatened species naming 11 threatened bird species. however, iraq has some laws that restrict hunting. for example, the law no. 27 of 2009 (law of protection and improvement of the environment), which prohibits in the article 18, inter alia, hunting birds that are threatened or likely to be threatened with extinction, or use them for trade. law no. 17 of 2010 enactment (law of protecting wild animals) which was an update and abolition an old law (law no. 21 of 1979) which is not enforced and actively implemented yet as there is still extensive illegal hunting/trapping of many iucn red-listed species. action is seriously needed to stop such practices, otherwise such activities will continue, and could result in a significant decline of different bird species numbers in iraq. the aim of the present work is to survey, record sighting sites, and assess the current conservation status of threatened birds in al-najaf desert, southern desert of iraq. materials and methods study area al-najaf desert (map 1) falls within the arabian desert and east sahero-arabian xeric shrubland ecoregion (pa1303). it represents an extension of the northern plateau of the 69 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-rammahi and mohammad arabia. most of the al-najaf desert is not populated, except for a small settlement called al-shabaka. in general, al-najaf desert area is flat landscape reaching its highest height near the iraqi-saudi border by 300-400 m asl (ma’ala, 2009). the majority is a plateau dissected by number of valleys, which drained rain water towards the northeastern part. there are six physiographic structures which are considered important for avian biodiversity; valleys include wadis and shaeebs, plateau and fidhats, tar al-najaf and cliffs, temporary water pools and oases. table (1) provides detailed data on the threatened recording sites of threatened birds in al-najaf desert. climate in al-najaf desert region, the climate is considered as hot summers and cool winters. this region also receives transitory violent rainstorms in the winter; precipitation is about 50-100mm (saleh et al., 2020; al-kafaji, 2016). climate change knowledge portal (cckp, 2022) put most of iraq including the study area as bwh hot desert climate according to köppen-geiger climate classification, 1991-2020 covering the period of this study. methodology and data collection the detection of occurrence of birds of conservation concern in al-najaf desert was made during 31 field trips lasted for 57 days in total conducted from august 2018 to april 2020, citing literature records, and personal interviews with local people. (i) field data: field records were obtained using rapid assessment through species-list method (macleod et al., 2011). according to the distance between the sites, habitat heterogeneity includes the following: (topography, secondary habitat type, and flora main components) and habitat diversity (total number of general habitat types). a total of 20 sites were visited during the time between august 2018 to april 2020 (tab.1). in situ work was two shifts of 3-4 hours per one-three days spent at the study sites. the expeditions were arranged putting in mind that each site should be visited at least 2 times in a season. during the time from june to august 2019, it is proved practically not possible to reach this goal; the starting time of field surveys was at 5-5:30 am in the summer and at 6:30-7:00 am in the winter. the observations of presence and counting of the bird species were made by direct visual observations of live birds in the wild, birds in captivity, dead hunted specimens, and remains of carcasses at the study area. the photo documentation was made using a digital camera canon eos 6d equipped with 50-500mm f/4-6.3 af zoom lens . 70 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum birds of conservation concern at al-najaf map (1): map of iraq showing al-najaf desert situation with the distribution of the visited sites during the study numbered as it is in table (1). (modified from: https://www.google.com/maps/@31.3158653,44.2569566,9z?hl=ar retrieved on 10.april. 2022). (ii) literature review: a review of literature which covers the study area yielded only a few records. for example, surprisingly, the comprehensive work of allouse (1960, 1961, 1962) in its three volumes mentioned the name (al-najaf) only twice and both of them were not related to the desert area. the biodiversity of the arabian desert and east sahero-arabian xeric shrublands, which al-najaf desert falls within, is the least known in iraq and received little focused study (imoe, 2010) most of the available knowledge on the avian fauna of al-najaf desert came from the works on bahr alnajaf depression which is a large salt water body at the northeastern corner of the desert juxtaposing the study area. these works include mohammad et al. (2013a) and salim and abed (2017). (iii) interviews with local people settled at al-shabaka village near iraqi-saudi international border line, farmers of the two oases (al-rohban and al-hiadhiya) located at the northeastern corner of the desert, some hunters and trappers who regularly visited the region especially in winter and spring, the shepherds used to travel with their herds of sheep, goats or camels along the southern desert areas including the al-najaf desert, in addition to an interview with security forces members as they usually spend long time in remote locations. the data covered by the interviews mentioned above often concentrate on the most common birds which are 71 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-rammahi and mohammad hard to be mistaken. threats were categorized according to the iucn classification criteria ver. 14 (iucn, 2019). specimen’s identification the species characteristic morphology and field identification signs were done following allouse (1960), salim et al. (2006), and pope and zogaris (2012). table (1): birds of conservation concern recording sites at al-najaf desert during august 2018 to april 2020. site site name habitat type coordinates altitude (m) dominant plant cover topography 1 makinat al-sayed faidhat 31.593598n 44.018942e 145 cultivated eucalyptus sp. introduced trees many depressions 2 birkat altalahat faidhat 30.935338n 43.906387e 272 vachellia gerrardii negevensis (zohary) ragup. et al., 2014 trees and rhazya stricta decne. dwarf shrub depression with muddy base 3 umm alhasheee m faidhat 31.180774n 44.423026e 135 ziziphus nummularia (burm.f.) wight & arn. perennial shrubs large depression 4 wadi abu talah valley 31.544664n 44.261329e 80 vachellia gerrardii negevensis trees shallow valley with rocky bottom 5 umm qroon faidhat 31.547683n 44.229974e 107 ziziphus nummularia lycium shawii roem. & schult. shrub trees depression 6 wadi abu misich valley 30.745162n 43.741112e 316 thymus sp. perennial herb up to 20 m cliff height with narrow stonygravely basin 7 braiber faidhat 31.200681n 43.41789e 277 haloxylon sp., annual herbs depression 8 al-mqraa faidhat 30.808608n 43.453759e 222 astragalus spp., annual herbs depression 9 al-ruhban oasis 32.073283n 44.061167e 27 cultivated date palm tree phoenix dactylifera l., tamarix spp. agricultural muddy land 10 sharaf faidhat 30.62089n 43.751189e 346 annual herbs only depression with rocky base and lot of artificial wells 11 aljammaea faidhat 30..770278n 43.569166e 335 tamarix aphylla (l.), karst. muddy base depression 12 mugheetha faidhat 31.355324n 44.131057e 173 ziziphus nummularia shrub trees muddy base depression 13 hussub dam manmade 31.612208n 43.962677e 135 ziziphus nummularia, lycium shawii shrub deep muddy valley 72 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum birds of conservation concern at al-najaf results and discission according to birdlife international (2017b), the top five factors affecting and threatening birds worldwide include industrial farming, logging, invasive species, hunting and trapping, and climate change. at least four out of the five main factors caused bird’s decline are identified in al-najaf desert with different impact levels. these factors could be categorized into the following: 1. hunting and trapping: european turtle dove streptopelia turtur (linnaeus, 1758) was once a familiar migrant to europe, central asia and the middle east from the sahel zone of africa (birdlife international, 2022). it is believed that 0.6 million individuals in 27 mediterranean countries are illegally hunted annually (brochet et al., 2016). because of habitat loss and hunting, the species is now declining across its range, especially in western europe, and has recently been up listed to vulnerable. marbled teal marmaronetta angustirostris (ménétries, 1832), macqueen’s bustard chlamydotis macqueenii (gray, 1832) and sandgrouses; pin-tailed sandgrouse pterocles alchata (linnaeus, 1766), black-bellied sandgrouse pterocles orientalis (linnaeus, 1758), and spotted sandgrouse pterocles senegallus (linnaeus, 1771) are examples of hunting effect . marbeled teal marmaronetta angustirostris, macqueen’s bustard chlamydotis macqueenii, brown-necked raven corvus ruficollis lesson, 1831 and common raven corvus corax linnaeus, 1758 as trapping effect examples. tempor ary wetlan d trees 14 wadi alassee valley 31.499105n 44.327263e 98 ziziphus nummularia, lycium shawii 15 wadi abu khamsat valley 31.771666n 43.90639e 126 ziziphus nummularia, lycium shawii rocky deep valley 16 al-arbaea faidhat 32.071667n 43.767176e 290 haloxylon spp. undulating depression 17 alhiyadhea oasis 32.031966n 43.913576e 68 date palm tree phoenix dactylifera, tamarix spp., ziziphus spinachrista (l.) decf. agricultural muddy land 18 qoor elhabaree faidhat 31.917223n 43.732221e 138 haloxylon spp. depression with isolated hills 19 wadi alweir valley 31.61941n 44.226857e 84 vachellia gerrardii negevensis, lycium shawii and ziziphus nummularia rocky deep valley 20 redeaffa temp. water body 30.710888 43.686728 348 annual herbs only deep depression surrounded by high hills 73 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-rammahi and mohammad falconry hunting parties from different arabian gulf countries have been visiting iraq in order to trap falcons in particular, inter alia, lanner falcon or to hunt macqueen's bustard. it has been locally reported that both falcon and bustard species are becoming increasingly rare in iraq because of hunting and trapping (al-sheikhly, 2011). although falconers target falcons that are qualified to hunt, such saker and lanner falcons, some other birds of prey such as harriers fall into their traps accidentally, they either killing them or selling them. rarely were these birds were released. recently a social media advertisement for a private zoo in al-najaf al-ashraf city showed two mature and juvenile egyptian vultures (pl. 1) but the authors could not be sure of their collection site. however, the illegal trade of wild birds has increased in the recent period at al-najaf al-ashraf city, and there are special markets dedicated to sell these birds. al-sheikhly (2011) collected detailed information about the trapping and traffic of lanner falcon falco biarmicus temminck, 1825. 2. logging: southern grey shrike lanius meridionalis temminck, 1820 is affected by logging the talh trees vachellia gerrardii var. negevensis (zohary) ragup. et al. 2014 and the sidr bush ziziphus nummularia (burm.fil.) wight & arn., 1814 thickets which this bird used them largely to keep its preys on them, to get roost and hide within . plate (1): a juvenile egyptian vulture in the zoo at al-najaf al-ashraf city. 74 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum birds of conservation concern at al-najaf 3. invasive species: black-winged kite elanus caeruleus (desfontaines, 1789), oena capensis (linnaeus, 1766) and spilopelia senegalensis (linnaeus, 1766) are examples for invasive birds. namaqua dove o. capensis vs streptopelia turtur in al-talhat site and e. caeruleus vs grey hypocolius hypocolius ampelinus bonaparte, 1850; collared dove streptopelia decaocto (frivaldszky, 1838) and wood pigeon columba palumbus in al-ruhban and al-hiyadhia oases. parejo et al. (2001) found that unidentified passerine birds comprise 2.54% of the prey biomass of elanus caeruleus in spain. probably nestlings of s. decaocto and c. palumbus are utilized as food source for this kite as the predator and prey sympatrically breed. 4. climate change: azooz and talal (2015) found a significant climate change in iraq as manifested by temperature increase and precipitation reduction. iraq suffers now from temperature rise, precipitation decline, severe droughts, desertification, salinization, and more frequent dust storms (usaid, 2017; adamo et al., 2018). this category of threat is not yet well understood in the al-najaf desert. the climate change impacts are expected to affect, inter alia, iraq’s biodiversity. so, it could be presumed that migratory and resident birds will be affected at different levels. in this context, alblooshi et al. (2020) concluded that climatic changes put migratory birds at greater risk of extinction than permanent resident birds. detailed studies on this issue in alnajaf desert including resident and migratory birds are urgently needed. table (2) provides a systematic list of the birds of conservation concern recorded in al-najaf desert. this would show that the threatened avian species belong to 6 orders, 6 families, 8 genera, and 9 species. table (2): a systematic list of threatened birds recorded in al-najaf desert emphasizing their conservation status. no. order family scientific name common name conservation status 1 falconiformes falconidae falco cherrug saker falcon en 2 falconiformes falconidae falco vespertinus red-footed falcon vu 3 accipitriformes accipitridae aquila nipalensis steppe eagle en 4 accipitriformes accipitridae neophron percnopterus egyptian vulture en 5 accipitriformes accipitridae aquila clanga greater spotted eagle vu 6 anseriformes anatidae marmaronetta angustirostris marbled teal vu 7 otidiformes otididae chlamydotis macqueeni macqueen's bustard vu 8 columbiformes columbidae streptopelia turtur turtle dove vu 9 passeriformes laniidae lanius meridionalis southern grey shrike vu 75 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-rammahi and mohammad order: falconiformes family: falconidae saker falcon falco cherrug gray, 1834, rare local migrant in al-najaf desert. saker falcon was used as criteria to evaluate the nominated areas as ibas (al-sheikhly and al-azawi, 2019). according to ferguson-lees and christie (2001), the birds that were found in iraq are considered as an intergrade subspecies f. c. milvipes. however, alsheikhly and al-azawi (2019) in their survey to the diurnal raptors of the southern marshes in iraq mentioned the saker falcon with the trinomial name f. c. milvipes without explaining whether it represents a subspecies or an intergrade race. it is known as the main bird used by falconers to hunt bustards which made its price very high bringing it to severe hunting through exporting to the arabian gulf countries regardless the rules of cites convention. salim and abed (2017) mentioned that the locals at the north-eastern corner of al-najaf desert have reported that the falconers used to collect some falcons (mainly falco cherrug) from or around this area. its existence gives the study area a special priority for management and conservation. it was assessed globally as en by iucn, this needs reconsideration at a regional level in the al-najaf desert. this bird was reported to breed in the north of iraq (fergusonlees and christie, 2001). they added that it is rare throughout its range of distribution and declining. conservation status en, birdlife international (2022) assigned this species as globally en. it is known as the main bird used by falconers to hunt bustards which made the price very high exposing it to severe hunting and exporting to the arabian gulf countries regardless the rules of cites convention. falconry hunting parties from different arabian countries have been visiting iraq in order to trap falcons particularly, inter alia, saker falcon or to hunt macqueen's bustard. red-footed falcon falco vespertinus linnaeus, 1766 vu, is a rare winter visitor in al-najaf desert. birdlife international (2022) assigned this species as vulnerable ver 3.1. the global population trend is in decline due to habitat destruction. this raptor is only recently reported for iraq (al-sheikhly, 2012). only three records had been observed yet in the study area. al-sheikhly and al-azawi (2019) could not observe this species among the raptors in the mesopotamian marshes of southern iraq. furthermore, hadi et al. (2021) were not able to found this species among the falcons voucher specimens which they examined in the collection of the iraq natural history museum, baghdad. it could be only speculated that illegal hunting is the major threat for this raptor. however, further study for this species is needed to clarify, in detail, the probable threats which are facing now. order: accipitriformes family: accipitridae steppe eagle aquila nipalensis hodgson, 1833, is uncommon winter visitor in alnajaf desert. twenty individuals were seen at 8 sites in the study area (tab. 3). it represents the most common eagle in al-najaf desert. this bird locally becomes insectivorous in its wintering ground (rasmussen and anderton, 2005) while severe 76 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum birds of conservation concern at al-najaf drought and dropping temperature conditions contribute to decrease the availability of active insects in the area. pope and zogaris (2012) noticed that it is very common as a passage migrant but scarce during winter in kuwait state. this species experiences rapid population decline across most of its distribution range (birdlife international, 2022). in an interesting record, keijmel et al. (2020) counted >7000 birds in two dump sites in central saudi arabia during november 2019 to january 2020. it was seen mostly in steppe, semi-desert and desert areas in iraq. the direct threats in the study area are food shortage and habitat loss while wintering. birdlife international (2022) assigned this species as globally endangered a2abcd + 3bcd + 4abcd ver 3.1 . table (3): threatened bird species, recording sites, date of observations and number of observed birds in al-najaf desert during 2018-2020 . threatened bird species recording site date of observation number of observed birds common name scientific name saker falcon falco cherrug umm alhasheem 28.10.2019 1 wadi abu talah 24.3.2019; 12.11.2019 2; 2 wadi al-weir 19.12.2019 1 wadi al-assee 12.11.2019 1 red-footed falcon falco vespertinus birkat al-tahat 5.11.2019 1 wadi abu talah 20.3.2019 1 umm qroon 12.10.2018 1 steppe eagle aquila nipalensis makinat alsayed 18.10.2019 3 umm alhasheem 3.1.2019 1 umm qroon 14.3.2020 1 wadi abu misich 3.1.2020; 12.3.2020 1; 3 braiber 2.1.2020 1 al-mqraa 12.3.2019 2 sharaf 30.12.2019 1 wadi al-weir 15.2.2019 1 egyptian vulture neophron percnopterus makinat alsayed 25. 3.2019 1 hussub dam 19.2.2019; 6.3.2019 1; 1 77 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-rammahi and mohammad greater spotted eagle aquila clanga makinat alsayed 19.2.2019 2 sharaf 24.1.2020 1 hussub dam 27.12.2018 1 marbled teal marmaronetta angustirostris wadi abu misich 8.1.2019 2 hussub dam 27.3.2019 8 eredefa 28.2.2020 16 macqueen's bustard chlamydotis macqueeni umm alhasheem 4.11.2018 4 wadi abu talah 6.10.2018 3 umm qroon 14.11.2019 3 al-mqraa 9.12.2019 1 mugheetha 13.11.2019 2 wadi al-assee 2.12.2018 3 wadi abu khamsat 6.12.2019 2 al-arbaea 14.10.2019 1 qoor elhabaree 8.12.2019 3 wadi al-weir 28.9.2019 1 turtle dove streptopelia turtur birkat al-talhat 24.3.2019; 7.11.2019 1; 1 wadi abu talah 31.10.2019 1 al-ruhban 26.3.2019 2 al-hiyadhea 26.3.2019; 8.3.2019 1; 1 qoor elhabaree 13.9.2018 1 southern grey shrike lanius meridionalis aucheri birkat al-talhat 24.3.2019; 28.2.2020 1; 1 wadi abu talah 28.2.2019 4 umm alhasheem 26.2.2020 1 al-ruhban 6.3.2019 2 mugheetha 12.4.2019 2 wadi al-assee 19.1.2020 2 wadi al-weir 1.2.2019 2 egyptian vulture neophron percnopterus (linnaeus, 1758), is a rare local migrant. birdlife international (2022) assigned this species as globally endangered a2bcde+3bcde ver 3.1. this bird is en as its population declined by 50% within the last 30 years; also that precipitation amount is the main variable in the determination of habitat locations (rahim, 2014). thus, in view of highly fluctuated amount of rain fall in iraq it could be suspected that the bird population is not always stable and varied from a year to another. botha et al. (2017) declared that egyptian vulture is declining in all 78 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum birds of conservation concern at al-najaf parts of its range. unfortunately, the data on egyptian vulture status and breeding population estimates is missing for iraq with limited distribution in the western desert and none in the southern desert. allouse (1960) reported that it is with wide distribution in iraq and reports its breeding in the ahwaz marshes just bordering and continuous with missan and basrah marshes, in himrin mountains in kirkuk and diyala provinces, and northern mountains in kurdistan of iraq. he stated that the non-breeding birds are present in central and southern plains in small numbers. recently, through satellite tracking, it is found that these birds migrate through the north of the southern marshes (buechley et al., 2018; karyakin et al., 2018; al-sheikhly and al-azawi, 2019). abou – turab et al. (2021) decided that this bird has not been observed a wide distribution in south of iraq in the last few decades. by combining the previous notes of allouse (1960), of abou-turab et al. (2021), and the authors’ observations during last four decades which indicates its presence in several sites of western desert such as rutba, haditha, houran, qa’ara, anah, qaim, heet, al-baghdadi, km 160 station, habbariya, and nukhaib, it is clear that the bird population is declining steadily. now, it is very rare in al-najaf desert; the local main threats are food shortage and hunting. in the present study five birds were observed near tar al-najaf and one found shot near husub dam. this bird roosts on faces of cliffs (grin, 2022). only few sites in al-najaf desert offer such places; this may explain, at least partly, its rarity in the area. however, its breeding is uncertain although the fact it is rarely found far from nesting cliffs. during the entire course of the study, the authors were unable to document its breeding. greater spotted eagle aquila clanga pallas, 1811, uncommon non-breeding passage migrant and probably winter visitor. it is rare in the area during the course of the study and recorded in makinat al-sayed, sharaf, and hussub dam. these sites are with good water supply almost around the year except for the severe drought years, relatively good plant cover with trees and shrub trees (except sharaf site), and consequently a good deal of prey availability. birdlife international (2022) assigned this species as globally vulnerable c2a (ii) ver 3.1. but at the regional level it was assessed by iucn (2013) as en endangered b1 ab (iii) + b2 ab (iii), depending on aoo. al-sheikhly and al-azawi (2019) decided that shooting, trapping and illegal trade are main threats facing wintering birds of prey in southern wetlands; this is true also in the present case as it was found that individuals were caught alive to be sold in markets at al-najaf city local markets. order: anseriformes family: anatidae marbled teal marmaronetta angustirostris, uncommon local migrant. richardson and hussain (2006) mentioned that up to 60% of its global population is found in the south of iraq; this bird was designated by birdlife international (2022) as globally vulnerable (a2cd+3cd+4cd ver 3.1). this bird apparently undergoes a moderately rapid population decline in iraq because of hunting pressure as it represents the only available game bird that targeted by shooting and trapping when the migratory ducks still not arrived during august and september after the raising ducklings are able to fly and the ducks tend to initiate rather large flocks at all of the breeding sites including bahr al-najaf. its 79 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-rammahi and mohammad existence in al-najaf desert could be understood in view of two points, first: the bird usually shows nomadic and variable movements and dispersed at any time of year searching for a suitable habitat (del hoyo et al., 1992; scott and rose, 1996; kear 2005), second: bahr al-najaf which is juxtaposed the study area represents a major area for breeding of this bird (mohammad et al., 2013a). it had been infrequently recorded from hussub dam, wadi abu missich and erredeffa which are considered big temporary water bodies and the last rain pools that holds water after the wet season. presence of this duck species in hussub dam during winter and spring is expected as this site is only about 50 km from the large permanent salty lake of bahr al-najaf which is considered one of the important breeding places of the bird, but its presence in wadi abu missich and erredeffa which are 155 and 160 km from bahr al-najaf respectively is rather surprising and may reflect the effect of hunting pressure exerted on this endemic bird. order: otidiformes family: otididae macqueen's bustard chlamydotis macqueeni (j. e. gray, 1832), vulnerable, uncommon winter visitor, passage migrant and former resident to iraq. birdlife international (2022) assigned this species as globally vulnerable a4acd ver 3.1 . on the basis of wide range of plant and animal food items through its long migration distance, it is considered as an opportunistic well adapted to desert environment getting water demands from food (khan and awan, 2019). breeding grounds extend from northwestern china and mongolia to north iran and the largest population is in southern kazakhstan and the largest wintering populations present in pakistan, afghanistan and iran with small populations in india and iraq (allinson, 2014). the bird is the most popular game bird in iraq and severely hunted and trapped in the study area as well as other existence areas. it is widely distributed at various parts in iraq in (salim and abed, 2017; salim et al., 2020). parties from arabian gulf countries used to camp during winter and spring months to kill several hundred annually. the macqueen's bustard prefers the open, shrubby desert. it is facing serious pressure of illegal hunting, poaching through gun shots and falconry and trapping (al-sheikhly et al., 2020). order: columbiformes family: columbidae european turtle dove streptopelia turtur. vulnerable uncommon passage migrant. birdlife international (2022) assigned this species as globally vulnerable a2bcd+3bcd+4bcd ver 3.1. according to marchant (1963) the european turtle dove was present in large numbers in iraq describing it, inter alia, as prominent and only visible daylight migrant bird crossing at autumn in vast numbers from east to west. obviously, the situation now is not as such. this bird was recorded at many locations in the area but in a very few numbers. the major threat in the area is the hunting and poaching. 80 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum birds of conservation concern at al-najaf order: passeriformes family: laniidae southern grey shrike lanius meridionalis aucheri, common resident breeder. birdlife international (2022) assigned the species as globally vulnerable a2abc+3bc+4abc ver 3.1. the population trend is decreasing. this bird has a wide range of distribution extends from eastern sudan, eritrea, north ethiopia, north-western somalia, iraq, southern iran, syria, southeastern israel, southeastern sinai peninsula, west arabian peninsula and oman with many races (yosef and iswg, 2008; ganpule, 2016). it has a wide range of distribution in iraq (salim and abed, 2017; salim et al., 2009, 2020). this bird is found in various iraqi environments from aquatic to desert. it is well distributed in the study area as well. the direct threat in the study area is logging of talh trees vachellia gerrardii negevensis, jujube (sidr shrub tree) ziziphus nummularia and desert thorn lycium shawii by depriving the birds of places to monitor prey, hiding from predators, and losing food storage places. presence of 9 bird species of conservation concern in al-najaf desert highlighted its extreme importance in harboring and providing the necessities of life for this relatively large number of species. birdlife international (2021) included 36 iraqi birds as threatened comprising 2 critically endangered, 6 endangered, 9 vulnerable and 19 near threatened. this means that al-najaf desert hosts 1/4 of the iraqi threatened birds including 3 out of 6 (50%) of endangered, 6 out of 9 (66.7%) of vulnerable. in view of these findings this area should be considered as top priority conservation area. according to birdlife international (2021) iraq encountered 9 threatened raptors belong to accipitridae (7) and falconidae (2). table (2) shows that the al-najaf desert list includes 5 of them comprising 55.6% of the threatened birds of prey reported for whole iraq, 2 falconids and 3 accipitrids. this highlights the high importance conservation value of the area. these results throw a light on the plight of the birds of prey in different ecosystems of iraq. worldwide, mcclure et al. (2018) estimated that 52% of raptors are with declined populations and 18% are threatened with extinction . from the data presented in table (3), the birds of conservation concern in al-najaf desert could be categorized according to their recording frequency through august 2018 to april 2020 into the following categories: (1) birds with wide distribution including aquila nipalensis, chlamydotis macqueeni, and lanius meridionalis; (2) birds with relatively restricted occurrence at certain habitats including marmaronetta angustriostris (aquatic habitat) and streptopelia tutur (presence of large trees), and (3) birds with only sporadic records including falco cherrug, f. vespertinus, neophron percnopterus and aquila clanga . there are 5 species of conservation concern birds that the current list shares with that of salim and abed (2017) who mentioned 11 avian species for the bahr al-najaf and adjacent terrestrial area which just lies in touch with the northeastern corner of al-najaf desert. the shared species includes egyptian vulture, greater spotted eagle, saker falcon, macqueen’s bustard and marbled teal. the other 6 birds in their list either 81 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-rammahi and mohammad completely dependent on water species (basrah reed warbler and black-tailed godwit), the threat status is nt (pallid harrier and ferruginous duck) or reduced to least concern lc (european roller and semi-collared flycatcher). iraq has some laws that restrict hunting, but these are not enforced and there is extensive illegal hunting/trapping of many iucn red-listed species. action is seriously needed to stop such practices, otherwise such activities will continue, and could result in a significant decline of raptors numbers in iraq . the marbled teal is mentioned in the present list as a waterfowl and adapted well to live in large water bodies rather than the desert areas. its presence is always in very few numbers. however its presence in remote areas needs more investigations. conclusions nine birds of conservation concern are present in al-najaf desert. these are 3 endangered and 6 vulnerable. the most influential factors affecting on avifauna of alnajaf desert are hunting, poaching, trapping, food shortage and climatic change. the role of al-najaf desert in hosting large number of threatened species qualifies it to be considered as a top priority area of biodiversity conservation. conflict of interest statement "the authors have no conflicts of interest to declare". acknowledgements the authors would like to acknowledge the help forwarded by al-numan organization for the protection of the environment and heritage of the desert through providing logistics and facilities. profound thanks to our colleagues dr. ali k. haloob, national herbarium of iraq for his kind help in identifying the plant species, to mr. ahmad a. al-fiyada and dr. hassan al-maamoory from al-numan organization for the protection of the environment and heritage of the desert for their assistance in the field work. literature cited abou-turab, m. k., abduzahra, h. k. and fadhil abbas, a. 2021. re-sighting egyptian vulture neophron percnopterus, (linnaeus, 1758) with raptors survey at east al hammar marshes and abo al-khaseeb, south of iraq. iranian journal of ichthyology, 8 (special issue 1): 8-15. 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(2022) 17 (1): 67 -87. تهمام ن اميي الوو ي حراا الجف, حراا الراا الطيور املثيرة للا االججوبي ييدر نحاد جبر الانمح * و نحاد كمظم نحاد** جمنر الكوف الجف, االشاف الراا . *كلي الطب البيطايا ا**الكلي المقجي الطبي والصري جمنر أوروك بغداد الراا . 20/06/2022 تأريخ النشا: 27/04/2022 تأريخ القبول: 26/11/2021تأريخ االسمل : الخالصة من أنواع الطيور في العالم تعتبر مهددة عاملًيا. تتكون الطيور في العراق من ُ 409ث ً وتعتبر مؤشًرا رئيسًيا على صحة املوارد اإلحيائية في العراق. تنقسم جغرافيا نوعا اطق الصحراوية وشبه الصحراوية التي العراق إلى خمس مناطق رئيسية منها املن تغطي معظم مساحة البالد. ال تزال صحراء النجف واحدة من املناطق التي لم يتم الطيور املثيرة لالهتمام من حددتالتعرف عليها جيدا من ناحية التنوع اإلحيائي. موقعا خالل 20رحلة ميدانية إلى 31ناحية الصون في صحراء النجف من خالل والنقل عن التسجيالت في البحوث السابقة 2020إلى نيسان 2018رة من آب الفت واملقابالت الشخصية مع السكان املحليين. العوامل املؤدية إلى انخفاض أعداد الطيور في صحراء النجف شملت الصيد واإليقاع بالشراك وقطع األشجار واألنواع الغازية والتغير املناخي. ور مهددة منها ثالثة مهددة بالخطر وستة ضعيفة وتشمل تم تحديد تسعة طي صقر الغزال والصقر احمر القدم وعقاب البادية والرخمة املصرية والعقاب األسفع الكبير والشرشير املخطط والحبارى والقمري والصرد الرمادي الجنوبي. وقد استنتج وع االحيائي أن صحراء النجف هي منطقة ذات أولوية قصوى للحفاظ على التن حيث أنها تستضيف عدًدا كبيًرا من أنواع الطيور املهددة. bull 971 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2025) 18 (4): 971-979. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2025.18.4.0971 original article a new record of ammatomus rufonodis (radoszkowski, 1877) (hymenoptera, crabronidae, bembicinae) from iraq shatha abdullateef hamodee* and maan abdul azeez shafeeq** *iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq **department of biology, college of science, mustansiriyah university, baghdad, iraq corresponding author: shatha.a.909@nhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq received: 6 oct. 2025, revised: 11 dec. 2025, accepted: 14 dec. 2025, published: 20 december 2025 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract the present study reports the first record of ammatomus rufonodis (radoszkowski, 1877) for insect fauna of iraq. although this species shows morphological similarity to a. mesostenus (handlirsch, 1888), it can be distinguished by the clear large diameter of the gastral punctures, which are similar in size to those on the mesopleuron. thorough synonyms, diagnostic features, morphological descriptions, and distribution notes are given. keywords: bembicini, crabronidae, digger wasps, rufonodis, sand wasps, taxonomy. introduction bembicinae include 1718 recorded species under 17 genera in four tribes (alyssontini, bembicini, heliocausini, and nyssonini) among them 1402 species in 54 genera belong to bembicini (pulawski, 2025); nests usually are great-density aggregations. preys include a high range of insects including hemiptera, diptera, lepidoptera, hymenoptera, homoptera, odonata, and neuroptera (bohart and horning, 1971). ammatomus a.costa, 1859 is a sand wasp; species belonging to this genus are medium solitary wasp; according to de beaumont (1954) ammatomus is characterized by: epistenalscrobal sulcus curved around hypoepimeron; hindwing with media diverging previous cu-a, mid tibia with two terminal spurs , while pulawski (1973) added bristles on foreleg metatarsus directed obliquely forward, and not outward, as is generally the case of bembicinae. bohart and menke (1976) provided more features such as: compound eyes large, inner margins strongly diverging above; last four articles of antennae clublike; frontal line clearly impressed; scutum is closely pressed by the thin pronotal collar; lateroposterior oblique sculal carina existing but weak or an angle in the edge; omaulus, sternaulus and acetabular carina lack; forewing with media diverging before cu-a, veinlet of submarginal cell ii between recurrents small; tegulae lobe major than tegula; posterior tarsus about twice as long as middle tarsus; bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799, print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2025.18.4.0971 https://orcid.org/0009-0004-0326-3049 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3345-5568 mailto:shatha.a.909@nhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 972 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 971-979. a new record of ammatomus propodeum convex dorsally; no spiracular groove; male with seven tergites generally visible; male genitalia with digitus undifferentiated; pygidium in female closely setose (bohart and menke, 1976). according to the recent study, in iraq bembicinae incldes fifteen species belonging to six genera, among them, only ammatomus mesostenus (handlirsch, 1888) has been referred to ammatomus which was reported in iraq by roche (2007). the present paper is a contribution to description, illustration of, and the assured new record of a. rufonodis for the first time from iraq. this investigation is a part of exploring apoidea diversity from the study region. materials and methods collection: the specimens in the current study were collected by aerial nets and obtained throughout the field survey within baghdad and wasit provinces, central iraq, which aimed to check the presence of sand wasps within iraq. wasps were collected using sweep nets, pinned and labelled according to their localities for preservation. specimens are deposited in the collections of the department of insects and invertebrates in iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad, under the catalog number hyc.14.023. morphology and identification: morphological data for comparisons were acquired from the taxonomic keys including bohart and menke (1976) and schmid-egger (2011, 2019) as well as being compared with original descriptions of closely species; in addition to being compared with species belonging to ammatomus preserved in department of insects and invertebrates, iraq natural history research center and museum –university of baghdad. the specimens were examined with a digital microscope camera on optika microscope, illustration figures were prepared using a camera lucida attached to a zeiss microscope. images were captured using a sony a7riv digital camera. the terms used in the descriptions of the new recorded species were mainly taken from bohart and menke (1976). results and discussion ammatomus rufonodis (radoszkowski, 1877) a. rufonodis was recorded as hoplisus rufonodis (holotype) from tajikistan by radoszkowski (1877); later, the species was listed by handlirsch (1886) from turkistan under the name gorytes rufonodis (radoszkowski, 1877). finally, the current name is reported as valid name by morawitz (1894) who considered the other names as synonyms of this species. diagnostic characters like the species ammatomus mesostenus (handlirsch, 1888) (which was recorded previously in iraq by roche (2007) ammatomus rufonodis characterized by the following features: yellow hind tarsi i–iii, posterior tarsus v black at apex, first tergite with carina laterally and small diameter of gastral punctures but differentiates by large diameter of gastral punctures which similar of mesopleuron punctures. 973 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hamodee and shafeeq morphology general description of male (pl. 1, 2): length 8-10 mm. colourtion: almost black with exception: antennal scape, clypeus, f i-iv ventrally, two pairs of elongated blotches on first sclerite of mesonotum pronotal collar and lobule, majority of second sclerite of mesonotum, metanotum, tibia, tarsi, and wide band incomplete on apical of gastral segment with yellow colour; while compound eyes, antennal f and tegulae brown. head (pl. 3, 4): semi-rounded (pl. 3); eyes ovoid shape, large occupying almost all head overview; frontal line distinct. clypeus prolonged and flat clothed with long, golden, recumbent, heavy setae. antenna (pl. 4); with dense micro sculpture on surface. scape arched, glossy and bare. flagellomeres clothed with silver pruinose, elements more nearly spaced at apex. thorax (pl. 5): lateroposterior of scutum oblique, scutal carina visible though faint developed, by an angular height at posterolateral margin, punctures variable dense and mix with micro sculpture clothed with short, white, erect, scattered setae with several, short, erect, and dell setae at near tegulae (seen laterally. two pairs of yellow maculae existing: anterior pair sub-rectangular, next to pronotal lobes; posterior pair semi-ovoid, situated adjacent to tegulae. mesopleuron: epistenal-scrobal sulcus lightly arcuate about hypoepimeron; sculpture and setae as mentioned in scutum but dense, except dell and bare area adjacent mesopleural sulcus. propodeum: with sculpture and setae dorsally as on scutum; with heavy setae laterally. wings (fig. 1): fumigate, clothed with brief and brown setae. forewings: marginal cell acuminate at apex. legs (pl. 6): generally clothed with white and dense pruinose on surface with micropunctate. fore tibia with three spines at apex; tarsi convex, sides subparallel; first tarsomere with sparse ventral bristles. claws unmodified, arolia conspicuous. mid tibia provided with two distinct apical spurs at apex. posterior tibia with bar of spare spines. gaster (pl. 7): distinctly petiolate, petiole convex dorsally; dimeter of first segment increase onto apex; reddish lined with yellow apically and dell thin line posteriorly, t i with carina end in two-thirds of first tergite laterally; second gastral segment bigger about one and half times as long as petiole; third gastral segment as previous one in size but with bigger black line; rest gastral segments small, only posterior edge can see; pygidium acuminate (fig. 2). male genitalia (fig. 3): gonostyles barrel-shaped stricture in mid part, with semi rounded end, clothed with moderate in length and dense bristles. volsella include of cuspis which barrelshaped; digitus undifferentiated. penis valve stricture basally, top of penis valve ovoid in shape, internal part of head teethless; lower than gonostyles. general description of female (pl. 2 a, 3a, 6) total length: 10 mm. colourtion mainly black with exception the parts: scape, clypeus, flagellomeres i-iv ventral surfaces, two pairs of elongated maculae on scutum, pronotal collar and lobe, most of scutellum, metanotum, tibia, tarsi, and wide band incomplete on apical 974 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 971-979. a new record of ammatomus gastral segments with yellow; compound eye, flagellomeres and tegulae with brownish colour. the rest of description similar to the male except: clypeus proportionally border, anterior ocelli clear distinctly, vertex clothed with densely setae, and setae on fore metatarsus directed obliquely anteriorly (pl. 6). material examined: (2♂, 1♀), (1♂) collected in 3.xi.2022 from baghdad prov., bab al moatham 33°21'16.7"n 44°23'34.7"e; (1♂,1♀), 13.vii. 2022, wasit prov., al-suwaira, prenej village, 32°53'50.5"n45°03'54.1"e. distribution: uae, iran, algeria, north africa and egypt (schmid-egger, 2011). newly recorded for iraq. plate (1): ammatomus rufonodis (male). habitus, dorsal view. plate (2): a. rufonodis, lateral view of habitus; (a) female, (b) male. 975 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hamodee and shafeeq plate (3): a. rufonodis, frontal view of head; (a) female, (b) male. plate (4): ammatomus rufonodis; (male). antenna, frontal view. plate (5): a. rufonodis; male, thorax; (a) dorsal view, (b) lateral view. 976 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 971-979. a new record of ammatomus plate (6): a. rufonodis; female, legs; a) foreleg, (b) midleg, (c) hindleg. plate (7): a. rufonodis; (male). profile of gaster, lateral. 977 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hamodee and shafeeq figure (1): wings of a. rufonodis (♂). figure (2): pygidial plate, a. rufonodis (♂). figure (3): male of a. rufonodis; genitalia. conclusions in conclusion, the sand wasp in iraq appears vary diverse, resulting the complexity of the iraq’s environmental climatic conditions. however, the present findings based on specimens collected during november show that our understanding of their diversity and seasonal activity patterns is still incomplete. to achieve a more comprehensive assessment of species richness, distributional patterns, and diagnostic variation, future studies should expand field surveys across multiple months and ecological seasons. we recommend more research on these wasps. wider field sampling across many months and seasons will enhance the evaluation of sand wasps diversity and distribution, and help define species limits within iraq’s crabronid wasp fauna. conflict of interest statement it is worth noting that this work is part of a m.sc. in zoology, department of biology, college of science, mustansiriyah university for the first author. literature cited bohart, r. m. and horning jr., d. s. 1971. california bembicine sand wasps. bulletin of the california insect survey, 13:1-49. [click here] bohart, r. m. and menke, a. s. 1976. sphecid wasps of the world : a generic revision. university of california press, berkeley, los angeles, lix + 695 pp. [click here] de beaumont, j. 1954. remarques sur la systématique des nyssoninae paléarctiques (hym. sphecid.). revue suisse de zoologie, 61: 283-322. handlirsch, a. 1887. monographie der mit nysson und bembex verwandten grabwespen. sitzungsberichte der kaiserlichen akademie der wissenschaften. mathematischnaturwissenschaftliche classe. abtheilung i, 95: 246-421. [click here] https://essig.berkeley.edu/documents/cis/cis13.pdf https://books.google.iq/books/about/sphecid_wasps_of_the_world.html?id=fexmjurhjpic&redir_esc=y http://biodiversitylibrary.org/item/107331#page/284/mode/1up 978 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 971-979. a new record of ammatomus morawitz f. 1894. beitrag zur raubwespenfauna turkmeniens. horae societatis entomologicae rossicae, 28:327-365. pulawski, w. j. 1973. les ammatomus a. costa (hym., sphecidae) de la région paléarctique occidentale et centrale –gatunki rodzaju ammatomus a. costa (hym., sphecidae) zachodniej i środkowej palearktyki. polskie pismo entomologiczne, 43: 273-288. [click here] pulawski, w. j. 2025. catalog of sphecidae sensu lato: family group names and classification. [click here] roche, c. g. 2007. conspectus of the sphecid wasps of egypt hymenoptera: ampulicidae, sphecidae, crabronidae). egyptian journal of natural history, 4:12-149. [click here] schmid-egger, ch. 2011. order hymenoptera, families crabronidae and sphecidae. arthropod fauna of the uae, 4:488-608. [click here] schmid-egger, ch. 2019. review of the genus ammatomus a. costa, 1859 (hymenoptera, crabronidae) from the palearctic region with description of four new species. linzer biologische beiträge, 51:437-457. [click here] radoszkowski, o. 1877. chrysidiformis, mutillidae и sphegidae in voyage au turkestan. papers of anthropology and ethnography at the imperial moscow university, 26: 187. [in russian] http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/entomology/entomology_resources/hymenoptera/sphecidae/copies/pulawski-1973_ammatomus.pdf https://www.calacademy.org/scientists/projects/catalog-of-sphecidae http://ecology.nottingham.ac.uk/~plzfg/ebbsoc/ejnh4/3-roche_2007_conspectus.pdf https://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/entomology/entomology_resources/hymenoptera/sphecidae/copies/schmid-egger_2011b_crabronidae_sphecidae_uae.pdf http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/entomology/entomology_resources/hymenoptera/sphecidae/copies/schmid-egger_2019a_ammatomus.pdf 979 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hamodee and shafeeq bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2025) 18 (4): 971-979. ammatomus rufonodis (radoszkowski, 1877)لـلنوع تسجيل جديد (hymenoptera: bembicinae من العراق ) العزيز شفيق ** عبدمعن و اللطيف حمودي* شذى عبد بغداد، بغداد، العراق جامعة-الطبيعي* مركز بحوث ومتحف التاريخ العراق بغداد، املستنصرية، الجامعة -كلية العلوم ،** قسم علوم الحياة 20/12/2025، النشر: 14/12/2025القبول: ،11/12/2025املراجعة: ،6/10/2025االستالم: الخالصة ألول ammatomus rufonodis (radoszkowski, 1877) النوع الدراسة الحالية تسجيل وثقت في مرة الحشرية من للمجموعة الرغم وعلى يظهرالعراق. النوع هذا مع ان ً مورفولوجيا ً تشابها سابقا املسجل من ، a. mesostenus (handlirsch, 1888) النوع بوضوح تمييزه يمكن أنه إال ب الزخرفة السطحية املتمثلة خالل ر في بر قطر ك فَ البطن، والتي تماثل في حجمها تلك املوجودة الح مت جنب على د مورفولوجية أوصافتشخيصية، سمات أسماء مرادفة، الصدر الوسطي. وقد ق دقيقة، ومالحظات حول التوزيع. bull 403 baker et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2019) 15 (4): 403-411 first record of the cellar spider genus nita huber & el-hennawy, 2007 (araneae, pholcidae) from iraq ishraq mohammed baker hayder badry ali* and hula younis fadhil department of biology, college of science, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq. * corresponding author e-mail: hayder.ali1130@yahoo.com received date: 02 september 2019, accepted date: 09 october 2019, published date: 26 december 2019 abstract the current study presents the cellar spiders genus nita huber & el-hennawy, 2007 (araneae, pholcidae) as the first record for iraq spider fauna, this genus represented by the species nita elsaff huber & el-hennawy, 2007 were identified based on morphological characteristics and dna sequence data. a short morphological description is also presented for cellar spiders listed in iraq; including this species in addition to artema atlanta walckenaer, 1837. key words: araneae, iraq, nita, pholcidae, spiders. introduction family pholicidae c. l koch, 1850 is commonly known as cellar spiders or daddy longlegs, vibrating spiders, and other common names, according to their distribution which consists of a large number of manly tropical web-weaving spiders. cellar spiders are the most diverse and dominant spider groups in the world, the phylogeny of this family has so far been investigated exclusively using morphological data for the family analyzed in a phylogenetic context (bruvo-madarić et al., 2005). according to the world spider catalogue (2019) this family encompasses over 1800 species divided into 94 genera; huber (2011) divided pholcidae into five subfamilies based on cladistic analyses of morphological and molecular data, ninetinae simon, 1890, arteminae simon, 1893, modisiminae simon, 1893, smeringopinae simon, 1893 and pholcinae. members of this family show very high ecological plasticity and can be found everywhere from deserts to humid tropical forests. most of them are distributed and recorded in asia, africa and europe (huber, 2005). the main characteristic of this family is having six or eight eyes and three tarsal claws; the anterior median eyes are smallest or absent in six-eyed species, the clypeus is concave and of about the same height as the chelicerae; legs are usually very long with long and flexible tarsi; the carapace is subcircular with the head region often raised. the cheliceraes are relatively weak and fused most of their length (jocqué and dippenaar-schoeman, 2007). artema walckenaer, 1837 is a genus of cellar spiders ,including some of the largest spiders, with most species distributed from northern africa to the middle east; although artema is not https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2019.15.4.0403 404 first record of the cellar spider a species-rich genus (eleven species) it is widely known due to the widespread synanthropic species artema atlanta walckenaer, 1837 (aharon et al., 2017). nita elsaff huber and el-hennawy is the only species of the genus nita which is monotypic (i.e. a taxonomic group that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon). it is a small-sized spider that inhabits poor habitats in terms of resources; it is difficult to be distinguished and rare in collections (huber and el-hennawy, 2007). this genus was first described in 2007 by huber and el-hennawy in egypt and uzbekistan and it had also been recorded by zamani (2017) in iran. this single species live in arid regions where they shelter under objects close to the soil (huber and el-hennawy, 2007). spider taxonomy provides a challenging target due to their small size and the difficulties to identify based only on morphology (barrett and hebert,2005), it seems to be time consuming and problematic for several reasons and it is difficult or impossible to identify immature spiders due to underdeveloped morphological characters that are useful for species distinction, for example most identification keys are mainly based on the morphology of genitalia of adults, the epigynum in females and the pedipalp in males (barrett and hebert, 2005). in iraq few studies are recently achieved regarding families araneae such as zamani and el-hennawy (2016), fomichev et al. (2018), al-khazali (2018), ali et al. (2018), and alkhazali and hussein (2019) without listing of pholicidae, until al-khazali and najim (2018) recorded it represented by the species artema doriae (thorell, 1881) for the first time in iraq. this study aimed to confirm the diagnosis of the species n. elsaff using morphological and molecular methods and constructing an identification key to separate the cellar spiders which has been recorded in iraq. materials and methods sampling and morphological identification: the specimens were collected from different locations of baghdad, salahaldeen, and karbala governorates (map 1), from november 2018 to june 2019. the specimens were collected by hand using forceps and placed in plastic containers alive separately and then transferred to the laboratory. captured spiders were preserved in 70% ethyl alcohol, examined under binocular (olympus) stereo microscopesx10 and photographed with nikon 20x field stereo microscopes. morphological identification was carried out using morphological characteristics according to several specific diagnostic keys (brignoli, 1981; huber and el-hennawy, 2007; aharon et al., 2017). all specimens were deposited in the iraq natural history research center and museum, department of entomology, university of baghdad. 405 baker et al. molecular identification: dna was extracted from the whole spider except the abdomen using the geneaid dna mini extraction kit for tissue depending on the standard recommended by the manufacturer. the extraction succeeded to obtain whole-genome dna from the specimens. the gene coi was amplified, and sequenced directly with an automated sequencer;specific primers were used to get and amplify the partial mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit i gene (coi), the forward lco 1490 5’( ggt caa caa atc ata aag ata ttg g)3’ (folmer et al., 1994) with the reverse hco-700me 5’( tca ggg tga cca aaa aat ca )3’ (bork, 2015). results and discussion class arachnida cuvier, 1812 order araneaeclerck, 1757 family pholcidae c.l. koch, 1851 genus: nita huber and el-hennawy, 2007 nita elsaff, it was first described by b. a. huber & h. k. el-hennawy in 2007. materials: baghdadkaraada ♀, 30 november 2018, and ♂ in 2 december 2018, arasat ♀♂, 4 december 2018, the specimens collected from indoors. description: female (pl. 1a), total length (2.8-3.0) mm, abdomen color is clearly whitecreamy with a little pale-yellow strip on the middle-abdomen which is clothed with dense hairs. legs cylindrical, and relatively equal length 5 or 6 times longer than the body thin and fragile with the length of about 5.8 ~ 6.5 with flexible and pseudo segments like all most pholicids members. in general the female specimens don’t have a distinguishable feature, unmodified clypeus (huber and al-hennawy, 2007). males (pl. 1b): total length 2.7 mm, carapace width 0.9 mm, legs about 8.5-10 mm, the length of tibia is being variable in each leg, the first leg is the longest i: 10 mm, leg ii: 8.5 mm, leg iii: 8.9 mm, leg iv: 9.8mm. coloration mostly pale ochre-yellow, carapace with a light brown stripe frontally until ocular area, modified distinguished clypeus with strong hairs in the middle, and grey abdomen clothed with smooth hairs. chelicerae distinctively sclerotized with pair of typical frontal apophyses, the anterior portion of the palp has a clearly map (1): map of collection localities; (a) nita elsaff in baghdad province, (b) artema atlanta in salahaldeen and karbala provinces. 406 first record of the cellar spider visible embolus. all legs have prolateral trichobothrium but there is some ventrolateral trichobothrium on the 1st legs only. femur, patella, and tibia unmodified. legs without spines and curved hairs and eight seta like spines on the tarsus with few vertical hairs. a close up view of spider head x10 shows eight eyes arranged in two groups of three closely clustered eyes and two pairs in the middle, usually as in all cellar spiders. plate (1): nita elsaff; (a) female, (b) male, (c) clypeus (retrolateral view). comments: this species was previously known from egypt, uzbekistan, and recently recorded in iran (huber and el-hennawy, 2007; zamani et al., 2018). the four specimens were collected from irregular webs, livings mostly inside buildings near the ground with antiquated human objects, the specimen of al-arasat is yellowish and the clypeus is significantly noticeable more than the karada specimens. class arachnida cuvier, 1812 order araneae clerck, 1757 family pholcidae c.l. koch, 1851 genus: artema walckenaer, 1837 giant long daddy artema atlantawalckenaer, 1837 407 baker et al. materials: salahaldeen province, balad,2♀, 1♂ with juvenile from a building in a farm coordinates of specimens locality area are 34.059˚n, 44.0843˚e, elevation 52 m (171 ft) height, temperature 41 ˚c in summer 17.x.2018.1♂ specimen from karbala, 31.x.2018, karbala province, karbala city, 32.6068˚n/44.0104˚e. description: the largest spider in the family with pantropical distribution (gao and li, 2010). female: (pl. 2a) total body length 12 mm, cephalothorax length 5.5 mm, width 3.5 mm, rounded abdomen 6.5 mm in length ,2.4 mm width; the first leg is usually the biggest with measurements, , it was 35 mm; whereas the rest of the legs were 30, 32.3 and 33.2 mm respectively. circular shape carapace bright brown with a black line runs along from ocular area to the abdomen; the eight eyes are grouped close together on an elevated prominence arranged in two groups of three eyes each and a pair of small anterior median eyes between them (pl. 3d). thin and extremely long and slender legs with black strip-like rings (huber and warui, 2012); seta absent. male: total body length 8.5-9 mm, cephalothorax length 3.5 mm, width 2.8-3 mm , abdomen length 3-3.5 mm , leg measurements: i ( 21.5 mm), ii ( 19.5mm ), iii ( 19.8 mm), iv. (20 mm). carapace: circular, -brown to yellow with dark and a slightly low area in the center. heart-shaped sternum with bright color, with clearly visible bases of the legs coxa. abdomen color is dark brown. chelicerae with a palpus have an extremely modification in all pedipalp segments (huber, 2000). in this species the palpal femur (the first obvious segment next to the spider’s body) is grossly swollen, large, strong and a useful characteristic for identification purposes. abdomen is conical shaped and the marking on the specimens varies somewhat such as in other pholcid genera (beatty et al., 2008), this species characterized by variable colors, spots and dark lines (al-abbad et al., 2019). epigyne half circle with six pairs of spinnerets. comments: this species is the biggest of all pholcid species, with a pantropical distribution (gao and li, 2010). this is the second artema species that have been recorded from iraq (abbad et al., 2019), after the recently described artema doriae (thorell, 1881) from dhi qar and basrah province, southern iraq (al-khazali and najim, 2018). 408 first record of the cellar spider plate (2): artema atlanta; (a) female, (b) male, (c) lateral view showing the conical shape of the abdomen, (d) eyes arrangement. the results of pcr tests on four spider's specimens of forward lco and the reverse hco700me primers amplify on part of the mtdna-coi gene with the length about 710 bp, two pcr products of the studied spiders were sequenced. the comparison of the studied sequence specimens with deposits (coi) gene copies of the same species in the gen bank database showed identity matching (95%) with the reference species belong to nita elsaff from egypt with accession number jx023601.1 (tab. 1). table (1): summary of data relative to specimens analyzed and accession numbers for the mitochondrial dna cytochrome oxidase i (coi) gene of local and reference specimen of genbank. organisms accession no. local specimen accession no. of reference specimens of genbank nucleotide no. of genbank score/identities nita elsaff mk871348. 1 jx023601.1 38-658 989/(95%) 409 baker et al. literature cited aharon, s., huber, b. a. and gavish-regev, e. 2017. daddy-long-leg giants: revision of the spider genus artema walckenaer, 1837 (araneae, pholcidae). european journal of taxonomy, 376: 1–57. ali, h. b., fadhil, h. y. and baker i. m. 2018. taxonomic and molecular study of the widow spider genus latrodectus walckenaer, 1805 (araneae: theridiidae) in iraq. pakistan entomologist, 40(1): 25-29. al-khazali, a. m. and hussein, a. n. 2019. first record of genus gnaphosa latreille, 1804 (araneae: gaphosidae) in iraq. serket, 16(4): 161-165. al-khazali, a. m. 2018.the first record of family agelenidae from iraq (arachnida: araneae). serket, 16(1): 60-65. al-khazali, a. m. and najim, s. a. 2018. first records of pholcidae (arachnida, araneae) from iraq. bulletin of the iraq natural history museum, 15 (2): 179-187. barrett, r. d. h. and hebert, p. d. n. 2005. identifying spiders through dna barcodes. canadian journal of zoology, 83: 481-491. beatty, j. a., berry, j. w. and huber, b. a. 2008.the pholcid spiders of micronesia and polynesia (araneae, pholcidae). journal of arachnology, 36: 1-25. bork, r. j. 2015 primer efficacy in the dna barcoding of spiders. honors program theses, 169pp. available at: http://scholarworks.uni.edu/hpt/169 brignoli, p. m. 1981. studies on the pholcidae, i. notes on the genera artema and physocyclus (araneae). bulletin of the american museum of natural history, 170(1): 90–100. bruvo-mađarić, b., huber, b. a., steinacher, a. and pass, g. 2005. phylogeny of pholcid spiders (araneae: pholcidae): combined analysis using morphology and molecules. molecular phylogenetics and evolution, 37: 661-673. folmer, o., black, m., hoeh, w., lutz, r. and vrijenhoek, r. 1994. dna primers for amplification of mitochondrial cytochrome coxidase subunit i from diverse metazoan invertebrates. molecular marine biology and biotechnology, 3(5): 294299. fomichev, a. a., marusik, y. m. and koponen, s. 2018. new data on spiders (arachnida: araneae) of iraq. zoology in the middle east, 64 (4): 329-339. gao, c. x. and li, s. q. 2010. artemaatlanta, a pantropical species new for china (araneae, pholcidae). acta arachnologica sinica, 19:11-13. huber, b. a. 2000. new world pholcid spiders (araneae: pholcidae): a revision at generic level. bulletin of the american museum of natural history, 254: 1-348. 410 first record of the cellar spider huber, b. a. 2005. the pholcid spiders of africa (araneae: pholcidae): state of knowledge and directions for future research. in: huber b. a., sinclair, b. j., lampe, k. h. (eds.) african biodiversity: molecules, organisms, ecosystems springer verlag, p 181-186. huber, b. a. 2011 phylogeny and classification of pholcidae (araneae): an update. the journal of arachnology, 39: 211–222. huber, b. a. and el hennawy, h. 2007. on old world ninetine spiders (araneae: pholcidae), with a new genus and species and the first record for madagascar. zootaxa, 1635: 45-53. huber, b. a. and warui, c. m. 2012. east african pholcid spiders: an overview, with descriptions of eight new species (araneae, pholcidae). european journal of taxonomy, 29: 1-44. available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.5852/ejt.2012.29 huber, b. a., eberle, j. and dimitrov, d. 2018.the phylogeny of pholcid spiders: a critical evaluation of relationships suggested by molecular data (araneae, pholcidae). zookeys, 789(3):51-101. jocqué, r. and dippenaar-schoeman, a. s. 2007. spider families of the world (2nd edition). royal museum for central africa, belgium, 338 pp. zamani, a. and el-hennawy, h. k. 2016. preliminary list of the spiders of iraq (arachnida: araneae). arachnida – rivista aracnologica italiana, 6: 12-20. 411 baker et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2019) 15 (4): 403-411 nita huber & el-hennawy, 2007تسجيل جديد لعناكب القبو من جنس (araneae, pholcidae) العراق من اشراق محمد باقر ، حيدربدري علي و حال يونس فاضل .جامعة بغداد، بغداد، العراق ،كلية العلوم ،قسم علوم الحياة 02/00/0200: ، تأريخ النشر20/02/0200: القبول ، تأريخ 20/20/0200: تأريخ الاستالم الخالصة من عناكب القبو nita huber & el-hennawy, 2007قدمت الدراسة الحالية جنس (araneae, pholcidae) ,كستجيل جديد لفونا العناكب في العراق, متمثلة بالنوع nita elsaff huber & el-hennawy, 2007 استناًدا إلى الصفات املظهرية تشخيصهاالتي تم مع وصف مختصر للصفات املظهرية لعناكب , dnaوبيانات تسلسل الحامض النووي artema شملت الدراسة النوع اعاله باإلضافة إلى النوع ,قبو املدرجة في العراقال atlanta walckenaer, 1837. 161 ahmed and majeed bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2020) 16 (2): 161-172. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2020.16.2.0161 monitoring of the wild mammal fauna in bamo mountain in northern iraq (kurdistan) for the first time using camera trap method and raising awareness for its conservation soran h. ahmed and soma i. majeed department of biology, college of science, university of sulaimani, sulaimani, iraq corresponding author e-mail: soran.ahmed@univsul.edu.iq received date: 21 july 2020, accepted date: 19 september 2020, published date: 21 december 2020 abstract mammals are under threat worldwide due to deforestation, hunting, and other human activities. in iraq, a total of 93 species of wild mammals have been recorded including species with global conservation concern. bamo mountain is situated within the zagros mountains in northern iraq which is a suitable habitat for wild mammals. due to scarcity of the field survey efforts and cryptic behavior, monitoring of the wild mammals fauna in zagros mountain seems challenging. therefore, we used a camera trap which seems to be an ideal way to determine species diversity of wild mammals in bamo mountain. moreover, interviews with local villagers were performed. the mammalian diversity of bamo mountain is not fully explored but seemed threatened by local extinction due to poaching and wildlife trafficking, minefields, and annual fires. in this study, a total of eight species of wild mammals were recorded for the first time in bamo mountain using camera trap method including the persian leopard panthera pardus saxicolor pocock, 1927, and the wild goat capra aegagrus erxleben, 1777, flagship and key species of conservation concern. as far as it is concerned, the major threats on the wild mammals were discussed and some important points were highlighted towards the establishment of the protected area in bamo mountain. keywords: fauna of iraq, key species, persian leopard, protected areas, sustainable management. introduction wild mammals are under threat worldwide; risks to terrestrial species are mainly from modifications and loss of their habitats, and sometimes from hunting randomly, illegally, or commercially (bowyer et al., 2019). a total of 93 species of wild mammals have been recorded in iraq and belonging to eight orders, 28 families, and 65 genera. the mammalian species were evaluated by the international union for conservation of nature and natural resources (iucn) as one listed as extinct, another as critically endangered, four species as 162 monitoring of the wild mammal fauna in bamo mountain endangered, eight as vulnerable, seven as near threatened, and three as data deficient (al sheikhly et al., 2015). major threat to the wild animals in iraq include land utilization by humans for agriculture, road construction, deforestation, illegal hunting and minefields in the northeastern borders with iran, which represent major hazards for humans and wildlife including threatened species such as persian leopard and wild goat (nature iraq and iraqi ministry of environment, 2011; al-sheikhly et al., 2020).the conservation of wild mammals is vital and can be achieved through collecting information on the species diversity and distribution in various forest conditions. however, in tropical forest habitats it is extremely difficult to observe wild animals because they are elusive, prefer dense vegetation, occur in low numbers, keep distance with humans, and mostly are nocturnal (debata and swain, 2018). in this regard, camera traps which have been broadly used by wildlife researchers are the best way to identify the fauna species presented in the particular region; it can also be used for investigating patterns of activities and species abundance (yasuda, 2004). the mammalian fauna of northern iraq (kurdistan) is divers and naturally connected to the zoogeographic realm of western iran, a territory stretching mainly along the northeastern and eastern mountains and foothill landscapes adjacent to the borders with iran. however, the status of many mammalian species is not fully known. eight restricted-range species are found in the forested mountains, rocky valleys, and grassy steppes of this region: the iranian wolf canis lupus pallipe sykes, 1831 the persian leopard panthera pardus saxicolor pocock, 1927 , the iranian (asiatic) cheetah acinonyx jubatus venaticus griffith, 1821, the persian goitred gazelle gazella subgutturosa subgutturosa güldenstädt, 1780, the wild goat capra aegagrus erxleben, 1777, the persian squirrel sciurus anomalusgmelin, 1778, the persian jird meriones (parameriones) persicus blanford, 1875, and the persian water vole arvicola amphibius persicus linnaeus, 1758 (al-sheikhly et al., 2015). the abundance and distribution of chiropteran and rodent species is not fully discovered; a total of eight bats and 13 rodents were recorded from northern iraq; however, further surveys may reveal additional records (al-sheikhly et al., 2015). furthermore, the mountains of northern iraq are refugees of many species of carnivores such as grey wolf, asiatic jackal canis aureus linnaeus, 1758, red fox vulpes vulpes linnaeus, 1758, stone martin martes foina erxleben, 1777, marbled polecat vormela peregusna güldenstädt, 1770, least weasel mustela nivalis linnaeus, 1766, middle east badger meles canescens blanford, 1875, eurasian otter lutra lutra linnaeus, 1758, small asian mongoose herpestes javanicus é. geoffroy saint-hilaire, 1818, indian grey mongoose herpestes edwardsi é. geoffroy sainthilaire, 1818, brown bear ursus arctos linnaeus, 1758 , striped hyena hyaena hyaenalinnaeus, 1758, wild cat felis silvestris schreber, 1777, jungle cat felis chausschreber, 1777, and eurasian lynx lynx lynx linnaeus, 1758 which those status and current distribution range requires further investigation (harrison and bates, 1991; alsheikhly and haba, 2014). bamo mountain is a highly diverse area and a remarkable refugee for wildlife; however its wild mammal fauna is under real threats. due to these significant threat impacts, it can be predicted that the distribution and population size of many wild mammalian species might have been negatively affected, depleted, or in fact could have already been extinct. unfortunately, the lack of systematic field survey and sufficient data make the determination the current status of the wild mammal fauna in bamo mountain virtually impossible. in this 163 ahmed and majeed study, we carried out a camera trap survey in two areas in bamo mountain combined with interviews with local people in order to estimate the species diversity, raising awareness among local communities, and understanding the different threat impacts facing the native wild mammal fauna. our efforts will be useful in providing some preliminary data to opening a gate for further researches and formulating appropriate management and conservation strategies. materials and methods study area bamo mountain (34° 54’14.0’’n 45° 44’16.4’’e) is part of the zagros mountains fold belt that extends from northeastern turkey through northern iraq and down to western and southwestern iran. it is located 17 km to the east of darbandikhan city in sulaymaniyah province in northern iraq (kurdistan). it is a transboundary monotonic mountainous habitat which consists mainly of rocky cliff and mountain slopes with deciduous forests dominated by oak plants and stretching the northeastern borders with iran. the entire area size is about 115 km2 and, its top elevation is 1,841 meters a. s. l. due to limitation of camera traps used and not-cleared active minefields from iraq-iran war, only a small section of this mountain has been surveyed (map 1). camera trap survey the camera trap survey method is used in this study (sutherland, 2006). we set one camera trap (stealth cam -6.0 megapixel p12 50ft scouting camera model) in two different locations over two collective survey periods (2017 and 2019). in order to increase detecting probability and obtain more video footages with a very limited number of camera traps, we fixed our camera trap on the main roads between rocky cliffs which may be used by the wild mammals especially those suspected to searching for foods, patrolling marking their territories, and performing other activities. we had not used any kind of baits in our study. despite the vastness of our study area compared to our surveying efforts, our camera trap had captured significant footages of different mammalian species during our observations. the first period of camera trap survey started from 30 march to 15 april 2017. our camera trap was set on a rocky cliff in bamo mountain (34°56’15’’n 45°46’17’’e) elevation is 1,558 m a. s. l.. at the end of the first survey period, the camera trap had checked for data collecting and battery replacement; it was reseated to obtain additional video records at the same place afterward. in 5 may 2017 we checked our camera trap for a second survey period; unfortunately, our camera trap had been stolen by a local hunter and our survey schedule was canceled. later on, over one year, we reclaimed our camera trap after being confiscated by the forestry police from a local hunter, who used it for illegal hunting purposes. the memory card of the confiscated camera trap had been removed; thus we did not obtain any additional data. the second period of camera trap survey started on 8 october 2019, and our camera trap was set at another place in bamo mountain (34°56’27’’n 45° 46’00’’e), 570 m a. s. l. far from the first site and its elevation was 1,306 meters and the camera trap was retrieved over a month on 8 november 2019. the species identification remarks were noted based on (harrison and bates, 1991). 164 monitoring of the wild mammal fauna in bamo mountain interviews besides our major camera trap survey, information on the diversity, abundance, and major threats on the wild mammal fauna in bamo mountain were obtained through intensive interviews and personal communications with local villagers, hunters, and shepherds. interviews were obtained through note taking and reviewing unpublished materials (e.g. hunting photograph, video recordings, and reports) and the reliability of the submitted materials were verified by the authors. results and discussion a total of eight species belonging to 8 genera and 4 orders of terrestrial wild mammals were recorded for the first time in bamo mountain (pl. 1). during the first period of camera trap survey four different species belonging to 4 genera and 3 orders of wild mammals were recorded. the recorded species were: wild boar sus scrofa linnaeus, 1758, indian crested porcupine hystrix indica kerr, 1792, caucasian squirrel and european hare lepus (eulagos) europaeus pallas, 1778. based on our interviews, these species seem abundant and regularly observed in different habitats within bamo mountain. during the second period of the camera trap survey five different species belonging to 5 genera and 3 orders of wild mammals were recorded; which included: indian crested porcupine, wild goat, red fox, golden jackal and persian leopard. the indian crested porcupines were captured more frequently (22 times); the golden jackal was captured four times; the wild goat was captured twice; the wild boar, european hare, and red fox were all captured twice. finally, the persian leopard and persian squirrel were captured only once. the majority of the camera trap video footages was recorded at night, 88.88% and 11.11% of footages was recorded during day time. therefore, the camera trap method seems adequate and extremely helpful to detect the nocturnal animals which are hard to see at night. as our results suggest, the temporal distribution of the wild mammals in bamo mountain is mainly at night which may be attributed to the diurnal anthropogenic disturbance threats or by other unknown natural factors; thus, further monitoring is required. one of our main significant observations obtained in our recent investigation is the confirmed occurrence of the persian leopard for the first time in bamo mountain, a new distribution range for this flagship carnivore in northern iraq (kurdistan). according to the iucn red list, the leopard is listed as vulnerable (stein et al., 2020); however, the persian leopard, panthera pardus saxicolor is yet not evaluated (khorozyan, 2016). hatt (1959) mentioned that leopards are few and scattered in northern iraq where only two skins were obtained from kurdistan mountains; one from rawanduz, and the other from and bradost mountain. since then, no further records have been made until 2008 when a persian leopard was killed near mandli in diyala (al-sheikhly, 2012) and another was killed by a landmine from iraq-iran war ruminants near the village of mortka, to the east of darbandikhan lake in 2009 (nature iraq, 2017). regardless, the status of persian leopard in the mountains of northern iraq was enigmatic and no sightings of live leopards have been made until a male leopard was captured by a camera trap in qara dahg area in sulymaniyah province in october 2011(raza et al., 2012). in 2001–2014, 10 confirmed records of persian leopard from northern iraq and southeastern turkey were investigated and hypothesized as a long dispersal of males from the iranian populations (avgan et al., 2016). it is also suggested 165 ahmed and majeed that unnoticed isolated breeding populations may occur along the northwestern part of zagros mountains in northern iraq and western iran (avgan et al., 2016; spassov et al., 2016). however, recent surveys reported the occurrence of persian leopard in barzan area and gali balnda, and in assos and qara dagh mountains (nature iraq, 2017).furthermore, our interviews with local peoples near bamo mountain have reliably indicated that persian leopards were seen very often and had been killed several times by local poachers, but no photographic evidences were obtained. in addition a persian leopard was recently recorded in bamo mountain by a local photographer about 3 km far away from our camera trap site in 5 of october 2019. this recent observation might be indicative of the same individual captured by our camera trap or may be of a different individual (pl. 2).the distribution of persian leopard in bamo mountain could be attributed to an expansion of the home range of some individuals that previously reported from qara dagh mountain (e.g. raza et al., 2012) or from the western iranian populations (e.g. moqanaki et al., 2013; parchizadeh and adibi, 2019; farhadinia et al., 2019). it is very important to conduct further surveys to find out the exact numbers and population size of the persian leopards in bamo mountain and adjacent areas. based on the aforementioned, our recent sighting of persian leopard for the first time in this bamo mountain is crucial; it will be a gate for further monitoring which will aid its conservation strategies. the wild goat is another flagship bovid species recorded by our current survey; it is listed as near threatened (weinberg and ambarli, 2020). scattered populations were recorded from 31 sites mainly distributed in northern iraq (kurdistan) and a new distribution range was recently discovered in eastern and southeastern iraq. however, the actual zoogeographic distribution of the species and population trends are enigmatic (al sheikhly et al., 2020). in addition, during our field survey, we abundantly recorded 23 different individuals of wild goats in a period of 30 minutes, and a large numbered population was presumed to be existing in bamo mountain, a claim which additional surveys could confirm. recording wild goats for the first time in bamo mountain is significant to delineate the zoogeographical distribution range of this species in northern iraq, which would be supportive to further conservation actions. our recent surveys did not confirm the concurrence of other key carnivore species especially the grey wolves, brown bears, jungle and wild cats, or eurasian lynx which could be attributed to the low number of camera trap used in the survey and scarcity of other logistic and survey efforts. nevertheless, our intensive interviews indicated that the presence of other mammalian species such as striped hyena, middle eastern badger, and other musteilds species was suspected and needed further investigations. threats on the wild mammal fauna in bamo mountain poaching and wildlife trafficking: in bamo mountain, wild mammals are threatened by extensive poaching. some hunters are determined to killing wild mammals wherever possible. the movement of anonymous hunters was captured by our camera, a situation which indicates that our area seems to hosting illegal hunting activities (pl. 3). in a related case, some of them have had stolen our camera trap in spite of being labeled as “for scientific work”. hunters easily reach all spots in bamo 166 monitoring of the wild mammal fauna in bamo mountain mountain using motorcycles mainly on military roads and trails created during iraq-iran war. also, new roads were constructed by previous oil companies between minefields which became easy ways for hunters to reach the site. our interviews indicated that wild goats, indian crested porcupines, badgers, wild hares, and squirrels are hunted and trapped continuously. the young of persian squirrels are collected to be sold as pets in the local animals markets or transported to other iraqi provinces for the same reason (e.g. al-sheikhly et al., 2015). the excessive hunting will possibly contribute to decreasing the pray abundance that sustain the persian leopards and other coexisting predator populations in bamo mountain. although the hunting of these mammalian species was banned by the kurdistan regional government in 2015; however, the weak enforcement allows hunters to follow their illegal searches. minefields: the existing of the minefields as remnants form iraq-iran 1980s war which and many still active and not cleared yet is one of the major threats on wildlife of northern iraq (nature iraq and iraqi ministry of environment, 2011). in a related occasion, the minefields were assigned as a direct impact on persian leopard population in northeastern iraq. a persian leopard was killed by a landmine near the village of mortka, to the east of darbandikhan lake in2009 (nature iraq, 2017). therefore, based on our results, further minfields clearance activities should be conducted in and around the bamo mountain area. annual fires: annual fires of the mountainous forests habitats have been assigned to have a direct impact on the wild mammals fauna and their habitats of bamo mountain particularly between late of june to end of october. it may cause direct mortalities, habitat destruction and fragmentation, anthropogenic disturbance, or it may contribute to being as a “pushing factor” which may remove or translocation of existing populations into a different distribution range (pl. 4). the ignition source of the forests firing is not fully known. besides natural causes such as drought and sever climate, anthropogenic influences could contribute to the forests annual firing in bamo mountain. our interviews indicated that some local hunters are deliberately igniting fires in order to flash wild game such as wild goats or other bird species, or to smoking the wild honey bees away from their hives to facilitate honey extraction. in both cases, fires become uncontrolled and expand into wider ranges causing direct damage to the natural habitats of bamo mountain. in addition, mine explosion during dry season also may contribute to such occurrences. the causes of the mountainous forests firing are still not fully known and require further investigations. as a concluding remark, for conservation concern, we suggest that a full closing of the main suburban off roads leading to bamo mountain, advocating and raising awareness among local communities towards the importance of the native wild flora and fauna, activating the forestry police offices, and controlling the annual fire are ideal ways to conserve the wildlife of bamo mountain. we have the best contact with local peoples; the majority of them show mindful support designating the site as protected areas for flora and fauna. finally, conservation plans and environmental management are necessary for the protection of wildlife on bamo mountain to ensure the remaining of these unique wild mammals diversity. in addition, further systematic field surveys are also necessary to be implemented in this area 167 ahmed and majeed to determine the entire diversity and status of wild mammals and other fauna and flora species such as birds, reptiles, and native plants. map (1): a map of bamo mountain area (extracted from google earth software) with general landscape, seasonal vegetation and climate; (a) in summer, (b) in winter (photos by soran h. ahmad). 168 monitoring of the wild mammal fauna in bamo mountain plate (1): the mammal species recorded during camera trap survey in bamo mountain in northern iraq (kurdistan); (a) european hare lepus (eulagos) europaeus, (b) caucasian squirrel sciurus (tenes) anomalus, (c) indian crested porcupine hystrix indica, (d) red fox vulpus vulpus, (e) wild goat capra aegagrus, (f) golden jackal canis aureus, (g) persian leopard panthera pardus saxicolor, (h) wild boar sus scrofa. (these photos are extracted from video records captured by our camera trap). 169 ahmed and majeed plate (2): the persian leopard panthera pardus saxicolor, a key flagship species recorded in bamo mountain in northern iraq in 2020 (rare photos extracted from a video footage taken by khalid sdiq ahmed). plate (3): a local hunter in our camera trap trail. (anonymity is preserved with the authors). plate (4): bamo mountain during fire. (photos by soran h. ahmed) 170 monitoring of the wild mammal fauna in bamo mountain aknowledgments we are glad to express our deepest gratitude to omar f. al-sheikhly (university of baghdad), korsh ararat (university of sulaimani) and hana raza (nature iraq organization) for their kind help and advice during writing this article. we also express our gratitude to the forestry police for finding our camera trap and to khalid sdiq ahmed for extracting persian leopard photo from his video footage. literature cited al-sheikhly, o. f. 2012.the hunting of endangered mammals in iraq. wildlife middle east, 6: 10. al-sheikhly, o. f. and haba, m. k. 2014. the field guide to the wild mammals of iraq. university of baghdad, collage of science for women, 89 pp. al sheikhly, o. f., haba, m. k., barbanera, f., csorba, g. and harrison, d. l. 2015. checklist of the mammals of iraq (chordata: mammalia). bonn zoological bulletin, 64 (1):33-58. al-sheikhly, o. f., haba, m. k., görföl, t. and csorba, g. 2015. first evidences of the occurrence of two bat species for iraq. mammalia. doi: 10.1515/mammalia-20140098. al-sheikhly, o. f., haba, m. k., ali n. al-barazengy and nadheer a. faza’a. 2020. new distribution range of the vulnerable wild goat (capra aegagrus erxleben, 1777) (artiodactyla: bovidae) to the south of its known extant in iraq, with notes on its conservation. bonn zoological bulletin, 69(1): 105–110. avgan, b., raza, h., barzani, m. and breitenmoser, u. 2016. do recent leopard panthera pardus records from northern iraq and south-eastern turkey reveal an unknown population nucleus in the region? zoology in the middle east, 62: 95–104. bowyer, r. t., boyce, m. s., goheen, j. r. and rachlow, j. l. 2019. conservation of the world’s mammals: status, protected areas, community efforts, and hunting. journal of mammalogy, 100(3): 923-941. debata, s. and swain, k. k. 2018. estimating mammalian diversity and relative abundance using camera traps in a tropical deciduous forest of kuldiha wildlife sanctuary, eastern india. mammal study, 43(1): 45-53. farhadinia, m. s., mcclintock, b. t., johnson, p. j., behnoud, p., hobeali, k., moghadas, p., hunter, l. t. b. and macdonald, d. w. 2019. a paradox of local abundance amidst regional rarity: the value of montanerefugia for persian leopard conservation. scientific reports, 9(1): 1-12. harrison, d. l. and bates, p. j. j. 1991. the mammals of arabia, second edition. harrison zoological museum, sevenoaks, kent, united kingdom, 354 pp. 171 ahmed and majeed hatt, r. t. 1959. the mammals of iraq. miscellaneous publications, museum of zoology, university of michigan, no. 106, 113 pp. khorozyan, i. 2016. panthera pardus ssp. saxicolor. the iucn red list of threatened species 2016: e.t15961a6947473. downloaded on 02 september 2020. moqanaki, e., breitenmoser, u., kiabi, b. h., masoud, m. and bensch, s. 2013. persian leopards in the iranian caucasus: a sinking ‘source’ population? cat news, 59: 2225. nature iraq and iraqi ministry of environment. 2011. key biodiversity areas of iraq 2010 site review. sulaimani: nature iraq. publication no.ni-0311-01. nature iraq. 2017. key biodiversity areas of iraq. al-ghadeer printing, basra, 297 pp. . parchizadeh, j. and adibi, m. a. 2019. distribution and human‐caused mortality of persian leopards panthera pardus saxicolor in iran, based on unpublished data and farsi gray literature. ecology and evolution, 9: 11972-11978. raza, h. a., ahmad, s. a., hassan, n. a., ararat, k. and mariwan, q. 2012.first photographic record of the persian leopard in kurdistan, northern iraq. cat news, 56: 34-35. spassov, n., ignatov, a. and acosta-pankov, i. 2016. on the status of the leopard in turkey, again. cat news, 64:18–22. stein, a. b., athreya, v., gerngross, p., balme, g., henschel, p., karanth, u., miquelle, d., rostro-garcia, s., kamler, j. f., laguardia, a., khorozyan, i. and ghoddousi, a. 2020. panthera pardus (amended version of 2019 assessment). the iucn red list of threatened species 2020: e.t15954a163991139. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/iucn.uk.2020-1.rlts.t15954a163991139.en. downloaded on 09 july 2020. sutherland, w. 2006. ecological census techniques: a handbook. cambridge university press, cambridge, 432 pp. weinberg, p. and ambarli, h. 2020. capra aegagrus. the iucn red list of threatened species 2020: e.t3786a22145942. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/iucn.uk.20202.rlts.t3786a22145942.en. downloaded on 07 september 2020. yasuda, m. 2004. monitoring diversity and abundance of mammals with camera traps: a case study on mount tsukuba, central japan. mammal study, 29(1): 3746. 172 monitoring of the wild mammal fauna in bamo mountain bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2020) 16 (2): 161-172. مراقبة فونا الثدييات البرية في جبل بامو في شمال العراق )كوردستان( ألول هامرة بأستخدام طريقة الكاميرا الفخية ورفع الوعي لصون سوران حمه على أحمد* و سوما إسماعيل مجيد* العراق ، السليمانية، جامعة السليمانية،كلية العلوم، *قسم علوم الحياة 12/2020/ 21، تأريخ النشر:19/09/2020، تأريخ القبول: 21/07/2020تأريخ االستالم: الخالصة تهديد نتيجة ألزالة الغابات, تتعرض الثدييات البرية في جميع أنحاء العالم لل نوعا من الثدييات 93الصيد, وبسبب الفعاليات البشرية األخرى. اذ سجل البرية في العراق ومن ضمنها أنواعا ذات وضعية صون حرجة. يقع جبل بامو ضمن جبال زاكروس في شمال العراق وهو بيئة مالئمة للثدييات البرية. ية والسلوك الخفي, تبدو مراقبة الثدييات البرية نتيجة لشحة المسوحات الحقل .لدراستهاالتحديات؛ لذلك أستخدام الكاميرا الفخية اهم من في جبال زاكروس تأريخ الاستلام: 21/07/2020، تأريخ القبول: 19/09/2020، تأريخ النشر:21 /12/2020 full page photo 341 al-nuaimi and al-badrani bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2021) 16 (3): 341-358. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2021.16.3.0341 calcareous nannofossils biostratigraphy of jaddala formation in well (ajeel-10), central iraq israa sabah al-nuaimi* and omar ahmed al-badrani* *department of geology, college of science, mosul university, iraq. *corresponding author email: omarbadrani@uomosul.edu.iq received date: 11 february 2021, accepted date: 24 may 2021, published date: 20 jun 2021 abstract a detailed systematic study of calcareous nannofossils was carried out for the jaddala formation in (aj-10) well, central iraq. seventy one species belong to twenty four genera of calcareous nannofossils were identified including sixty two of them were previously named and nine species were identified for the first time and they would not be given names until more information is obtained in the future to support this identification. it is a recorded of five biostratigraphic zone, which suggested the age of the jaddala formation to be of early to late eocene. the recorded biozone includes the following: reticulofenestra dictyoda (deflandre in deflandre & fert, 1954) stradner & edwards, 1968 partial range biozone (cne 5); discoaster sublodoensis bramlette and sullivan, 1961 interval biozone (cne 6-7); nannotetrina cristata (martini, 1958) perch-nielsen, 1971 interval biozone (cne 8); nannotetrina alata (martini in martini & stradner, 1960) haq and lohmann, 1976 interval biozone (cne 9); chiasmolithus gigas bramlette & sullivan, 1961range biozone (cne 10-11). keywords: biostratigraphy, calcareous, eocene, iraq, jaddala, nannofossils. introduction the jaddala formation was first described by henson in 1940 near jaddala village in north iraq (bellen et al., 1959). the jaddala formation outcrops showed up on narrow area of the foothill zone of sinijar mountain in the northwestern of iraq. it was occupied most of sediments in north areas during eocene period and observed in most of subsurface sections with different thicknesses. the studied section from ajeel well no. (10) is located 34º 50ʹ 14.8ʺ n. and 43º 53ʹ 59.0ʺ e, north east of tikrit city, central iraq (map.1), within the low folded zone belonging to unstable shelf of the nubio-arabian platform (buday and jassim, 1987). the sampled stratigraphic succession of the jaddala formation in this well (15 samples) consists of marly limestone. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2021.16.3.0341 342 calcareous nannofossils biostratigraphy of jaddala the stratigraphic succession of the eocene in iraq was studied based on the calcareous nannofossils by many authors such as al-badrani (2007); al-badrani (2011); al-badrani and al-nima (2010); al-badrani and al-ubaidi (2012) and al-badrani and al-zubaidi (2015, 2017, 2019 a and b). the aim of the present work is to determine the age of the jaddala formation by using calcareous nannofossils. materials and methods a detailed study of calcareous nannofossils was carried out for stratigraphic successions of jaddala formation which is about 68m and consists of marly limestone, overlies aaliji formation and underlies oligocene group. fifteen cutting samples were used and examined under the light microscope. the extracted calcareous nannofossils were identified by using the armstrong and brasier (2005) methods for paleontological studies. it is an extraction method for microfossils that can be properly examined when it is extracted from the rocks. the sample preparation included smear slides preparation which provides method for producing slides of calcareous nannofossils by placing a small amount of the disaggregated sample in distilled water and a drop of a dispersant. then, the cover slip was left to dry on a warm hot plate. and to make permanent mounts, the slide and residue were allowed to dry at a low temperature away from possible sources of contamination. finally, a drop of mounting medium (e.g. canada balsam) was placed on a clean cover slip which in turn placed over the residue. then, it was allowed to dry before examining under the transmitted light. map (1): tectonic map of iraq showing studied section (jassim and goff, 2006). 343 al-nuaimi and al-badrani results and discussion the aim of the systematic classification is to provide images of the notable calcareous nannofossils from the tanjero formation in azmeranticline, northern iraq and to describe the seventy one species. all the observed taxa are listed below (diag. 1). the higher taxonomy essentially follows the scheme of young and bown (1997) in addition to perch-nielsen's (1985). the material and images are stored at the department of geology, science college, university of mosul. (a) systematic and classification i-heterococcoliths family: helicosphaeraceae black, 1971 genus: helicosphaera kamptner, 1954 helicosphaera ampliaperta bramlette & wilcoxon, 1967(pl.1a) helicosphaera compacta bramlette & wilcoxon, 1967(pl.1b) helicosphaera lophota bramlette & sullivan, 1961 (pl.1c) helicosphaera papillata bukry & bramlette, 1969 (pl.1d) helicosphaera reticulata bramlette & wilcoxon, 1967(pl.1e) helicosphaera salebrosa perch-nielsen, 1971 (pl.1f) helicosphaera seminulum bramlette & sullivan, 1961(pl.1g) helicosphaera wilcoxonii (gartner, 1971) jafar & martini, 1975 (pl.1h) helicosphaera sp. (pl.1i) family: pontosphaeraceae lemmermann, 1908 genus: pontosphaera lohmann, 1902 pontosphaera distincta (bramlette & sullivan, 1961) roth &thierstein, 1972(pl.1j) pontosphaera fimbriata ( bramlette & sullivan, 1961) romein, 1979(pl.1k) pontosphaera multipora (kamptner, 1948) roth, 1970(pl.1 l) pontosphaera ocellata (bramlette & sullivan, 1961) perch nielsen, 1984(pl.2a) pontosphaera plana (bramlette & sullivan, 1961) haq, 1971(pl.2b) pontosphaera scissura (perch nielsen, 1971) romein, 1979(pl.2c) genus: transversopontis hay, mohler & wade, 1966 transversopontis prava locker, 1967(pl.2d) transversopontis sp. (pl.2e) family: zygodiscaceae hay & mohler, 1967 genus: lophodolithus deflandre in defalndre & fert, 1954 lophodolithus nascens bramlette & sullivan, 1961(pl.2f) genus: nannotetrina achuthan & stradner, 1969 nannotetrina alata (martini in martini & stradner, 1960) haq & lohmann, 1976(pl.2g) nannotetrina cristata (martini, 1958) perch nielsen, 1971(pl.2h) nannotetrina quadrata (bramlette & sullivan, 1961) bukry, 1973(pl.2i) 344 calcareous nannofossils biostratigraphy of jaddala family: rhabdosphaeraceae lemmermann, 1908 genus blackites hay & towe, 1962 blackites inflatus (bramlette & sullivan, 1961) kapellos & schaub, 1973 (pl.2 j) blackites piriformis (pavsic in khan et al., 1975) aubry, 1999 (pl.2 k) blackites singulus bown and jones, 2006 (pl.2 l) blackites sp. (pl.3a) family: coccolithaceae poche, 1913 genus: chiasmolithus hay, mohler & wade, 1966 chiasmolithus gigas bramlette & sullivan, 1961(pl.3b) chiasmolithus grandis (bramlette & riedel, 1954) radomski, 1968(pl.3c) genus: coccolithus schwarz, 1894 coccolithus crassus bramlette & sullivan, 1961(pl.3d) coccolithus pelagicus (wallich, 1877) schiller, 1930(pl.3e) coccolithus sp. (pl.3 f) genus: cruciplacolithus hay & mohler in hay et al., 1967 cruciplacolithus frequens (perch nielsen, 1977) romein, 1979(pl.3 g) genus: erocsonia black, 1964 erocsonia formosa (kamptner, 1963) haq, 1971(pl.3 h) family: noelaerhabdaceae jerkovic, 1970 genus: cyclicargolithus bukry, 1971 cyclicargolithus floridanus (roth & hay in hay et al., 1967) bukry, 1971c (pl.3 i) cyclicargolithus abisectus (muller, 1970) wise, 1973 (pl.3 j) genus: dictyococcites black, 1967 dictyococcites bisectus (hay, mohler & wade, 1966) roth, 1970(pl.3 k) dictyococcites scrippsae bukry and percival, 1971(pl.3 l) genus: reticulofenestra hay, mohler & wade, 1966 reticulofenestra dictyoda (deflandre in deflandre & fert, 1954) stradner in stradner & edwards, 1968 (pl.4 a) family: prinsiaceae hay & mohler, 1967 genus: prinsius hay & mohler, 1967 prinsius bisulcus (stradner, 1963) hay & mohler, 1967(pl.4 b) genus: toweius hay & mohler, 1967 toweius occultatus (locker, 1967) perch nielsen, 1971(pl.4 c) toweius pertusus (sullivan, 1965) romein, 1979(pl.4 d) 345 al-nuaimi and al-badrani family: papposphaeraceae jordan & young, 1990 genus: thoracosphaera kamptner, 1927 thoracosphaera saxae stradner, 1961(pl.4 e) ii– holococcoliths family: calyptrosphaeraceae boudreaux & hay, 1969 genus: zygrhablithus deflandre, 1959 zygrhablithus bijugatus (deflandre in deflandre & fert, 1954) deflandre, 1959(pl. 4 f) zygrhablithus sp. (pl.4 g) iii– nannoliths family: braarudosphaeraceae deflandre, 1947 genus: br braarudosphaera bigelowii (gran & braarud, 1935) deflandre, 1947(pl.4 h) braarudosphaera discula bramlette & riedel, 1954 (pl.4 i) braarudosphaera stylifera troelsen & quadros, 1971(pl.4 j) braarudosphaera sp. (pl.4 k) genus: micrantholithus deflandre, 1950 micrantholithus pinguis bramlette & sullivan, 1961(pl.4 l) micrantholithus sp. (pl.5a) family: discoasteraceae tan, 1927 genus: discoaster tan, 1927 discoaster adamanteus bramlette & wilcoxon, 1967(pl.5 b) discoaster deflandrei bramlette & riedel, 1954 (pl.5 c) discoaster floreus bystricka, 1964 (pl.5 d) discoaster germanicus martini, 1958 (pl.5 e) discoaster kuepperi stradner, 1959 (pl.5 f) discoaster martinii stradner, 1959 (pl.5 g) discoaster nodifer (bramlette & riedel, 1954) bukry, 1973(pl.5 h) discoaster saipanensis bramlette & riedel, 1954(pl.5 i) discoaster sublodoensis bramlette & sullivan, 1961 (pl.5 j) discoaster triangularis bystricka, 1966(pl.5 k) discoaster trinus stradner, 1961(pl.5 l) discoaster sp. (pl.6 a) family: heliolithaceae hay & mohler, 1967 genus: heliolithus bramlette & sullivan, 1961 heliolithus cantabriae perch-nielsen, 1971(pl.6 b) family: lithostromationaceae deflandre, 1959 genus: rhomboaster bramlette & sullivan, 1961 rhomboaster cuspis bramlette & sullivan, 1961(pl.6 c) http://www.nhm.ac.uk/hosted_sites/ina/taxcatalog/cenozb.htm 346 calcareous nannofossils biostratigraphy of jaddala genus: tribrachiatus shamrai, 1963 tribrachiatus contortus (stradner, 1958) bukry, 1972(pl.6 d) family: sphenolithaceae deflandre, 1952 genus: sphenolithus deflandre, 1952 sphenolithus arthurii bown, 2005 (pl.6 e) sphenolithus editus perch nielsen in perch nielsen et al., 1978 (pl.6 f) sphenolithus obtusus bukry, 1971a (pl.6 g) sphenolithus primus perch-nielsen, 1971(pl.6 h) sphenolithus pseudoradians bramlette & wilcoxon, 1967(pl.6 i) sphenolithus radians deflandre in grasse, 1952(pl.6 j) sphenolithus sp. (pl.6 k) diagram (1): percentage of studied calcareous nannofossils taxa; (a) calcareous nannofossils groups, (b) heterococcolithus families, (c) holococcoliths families, (d) nannoliths families. 347 al-nuaimi and al-badrani plate (2): cross-polarized and light photos of significant calcareous nannofossil taxa from jaddala formation. (a) pontosphaera ocellata, (b) p. plana, (c) p. scissura, (d) transversopontis prava, (e) transversopontis sp.,(f) lophodolithus nascens, (g) nannotetrina alata,(h) n. cristata, (i) n. quadrata, (j) blackites inflatus, (k) b. piriformis, (l) b. singulus. (scale bar: 5 micron). plate (1): cross-polarized photos of significant calcareous nannofossil taxa from jaddala formation; (a) helicosphaera ampliaperta, (b) h. compacta, (c) h. lophota, (d) h. papallata, (e) h. reticulate, (f) h. salebrosa, (g) h. seminulum, (h) h. wilcoxonii, (i) helicosphaera sp., (j) pontosphaera distincta, (k) p. fimbriata,(l) p. multipora. (scale bar: 5 micron). 348 calcareous nannofossils biostratigraphy of jaddala plate (3): cross-polarized and light photos of significant calcareous nannofossil taxa from jaddala formation; (a) blackites sp., (b) chiasmolithus gigas, (c) c. grandis, (d) coccolithus crassus,(e) c. pelagicus, (f) coccolithus sp.,(g) cruciplacolithus frequens, (h) erocsonia formosa, (i) cyclicargolithus floridanus, (j) c. abisectus, (k) dictyococcites bisectus, (l) d.scrippsae. (scale bar: 5 micron) plate (4): cross-polarized photos of significant calcareous nannofossil taxa from jaddala formation; (a) reticulofenestra dictyoda,(b) prinsius bisulcus, (c) toweius occultatus, (d) t. pertusus, (e) thoracosphaera saxae, (f) zygrhablithus bijugatus, (g) zygrhablithus sp., (h) braarudosphaera bigelowii, (i) b. discula, (j) b. stylifera, (k) braarudosphaera sp.,(l) micrantholithus pinguis. (scale bar: 5 micron). 349 al-nuaimi and al-badrani plate (5): cross-polarized and light photos of significant calcareous nannofossil taxa from jaddala formation; (a) micrantholithus sp., (b) discoaster adamanteus, (c) d. deflandrei, (d) d. floreus, (e) d. germanicus, (f) d. kuepperi, (g) d. martini, (h) d. nodifer, (i) d. saipanensis, (j) d. sublodoensis, (k) d. triangularis, (l) d. trinus. (scale bar: 5 micron). plate (6): cross-polarized and light photos of significant calcareous nannofossil taxa from jaddala formation; (a) discoaster sp., (b) heliolithus cantabriae, (c) rhomboaster cuspis, (d) tribrachiatus contortus, (e) sphenolithus arthurii, (f) s. editus, (g) s. obtusus, (h) s. primus, (i) s. pseudoradians, (j) s. radians, (k) sphenolithus sp.. (scale bar: 5 micron). 350 calcareous nannofossils biostratigraphy of jaddala b-nannobiostratigraphy 1reticulofenestra dictyoda partial range biozone (cne 5) definition: partial range biozone of reticulofenestra dictyoda. boundaries: the biozone is determined by the last occurrence of tribrachiatus orthostylus, to the first occurrence of discoaster sublodoensis. thickness: between (1265-1250) m. depths. correlation and discussion: this biozone is correlated to the biozone np13 which was studied by martini (1971) aged of the early eocene (ypresian) and to biozone cp11which was studied by okada and bukry (1981) aged of the early eocene (y prsian). this biozone corresponds to biozne cne 5 which was studied by agnini et al. (2014) aged of the early eocene (y prsian); therefore; early eocene was suggested in this study. (gradstein et al., 2012) (diags.1-3). 2 – discoaster sublodoensis interval biozone (cne 6-7) definition: interval biozone of discoaster sublodoensis. boundaries: the biozone is determined by the first occurrence of discoaster sublodoensis to the first occurrence of nannoterina cristata. thickness: between (1250-1240) m. depths. correlation and discussion: this biozone is correlated to the lower biozone of np14 which was studied by martini (1971) aged of the early eocene(y presian) and to subbiozone cp12a which studied by okada and bukry (1981) aged of the early eocene (yprsian). this biozone corresponds to bioznes cne 6 and 7 which was studied by agnini et al. (2014) aged of the early eocene (y prsian), therefore, early eocene was suggested in this study as well (gradstein et al., 2012) (diags.1-3). 3 – nannotetrina cristata interval biozone (cne 8) definition: interval biozone of nannotetrina cristata. boundaries: the biozone is determined by the first occurrence of nannotetrina cristata to the first occurrence of nannotetrina alata. thickness: between (1240-1225) m. depths. correlation and discussion: this biozone is correlated to the upper biozone of np14 which was studied by martini (1971) aged of the middle eocene (lutetian) and to subzone cp12b which was studied by okada and bukry (1981) aged of the middle eocene (lutetian) this biozone corresponds to biozne cne 8 which was studied by agnini et al. (2014) aged of the middle eocene (lutetian) therefore, the middle eocene was suggested in this study. (gradstein et al., 2012) (diags. 1-3). 4 – nannotetrina alata interval biozone (cne 9) definition: interval biozone of nannotetrina alata. boundaries: the biozone is determined by the first occurrence of nannotetrina alata to the first occurrence of chiasmolithus gigas. thickness: between (1225-1220) m. depths. 351 al-nuaimi and al-badrani correlation and discussion: this biozone is correlated to the lower biozone of np15which was studied by martini (1971) aged of the middle eocene (lutetian) and to subzone cp5 which was studied by okada and bukry (1981) aged of the middle eocene (lutetian). this biozone corresponds to biozne cne 9 which was studied by agnini et al. (2014) aged of the middle eocene (lutetian) therefore, the middle eocene was suggested in this study (gradstein et al., 2012) (diags.1-3). 5 – chiasmolithus gigas range biozone (cne 10-11) definition: range biozone of chiasmolithus gigas. boundaries: the biozone determinate by the first occurrence of chiasmolithus gigas to the last occurrence of chiasmolithus gigas. thickness: between (1220-1195) m. depths. correlation and discussion: this biozone is correlated to the middle biozoneof np15 which was studied by martini (1971) aged of the middle eocene (lutetian) and subzone cp13b, which was studied by okada and bukry (1981) aged of the middle eocene (lutetian). this biozone corresponds to biozones cne 9 and 10 which was studied by agnini et al. (2014) aged of the middle eocene (lutetian) therefore, the middle eocene was suggested in this study as well. (gradstein et al., 2012) (diags. 1-3). conclusions the jaddala formation in (aj-10) well has five biostratigraphic zones, which include the following: reticulofenestra dictyoda partial range biozone (cne 5); discoaster sublodoensis interval biozone (cne 6-7); nannotetrina cristata interval biozone (cne 8); nannotetrina alata interval biozone (cne 9) and chiasmolithus gigas range biozone (cne 10-11). these biozones are correlated with other calcareous nannofossils biozones from both local and regional sections leading to conclude that the age of the studied section is early to middle eocene (yprsian tolutetian). 352 calcareous nannofossils biostratigraphy of jaddala diagram (2): range chart of calcareous nannofossils throughout studied section. 353 al-nuaimi and al-badrani diagram (3): correlated chart of calcareous nannofossils biozones for studied section 354 calcareous nannofossils biostratigraphy of jaddala acknowledgments we would like to thank mosul university, college of science, 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( aj-10الطباقية الحياتية لمتحجرات النانو الكلسية لتكوين جدالة في بئر) وسط العراق *عمر احمد البدراني و *اسراء صباح النعيمي قسم علوم االرض، كلية العلوم، جامعة الموصل، الموصل، العراق. * 20/6/2021 ، تأريخ النشر: 24/05/2021، تأريخ القبول: 11/02/2021تأريخ االستالم: الخالصة اجريت دراسة تفصيلية لمتحجرات النانو الكلسية لتكوين جدالة في بئر (aj-10 ،متحجرات اجناس من نوع وسبعون واحد العراق. شخص وسط ) لها تم التسمية، وباالعتماد على االمتدادات الطباقية البعض منها ترك مفتوح ة هي: تحديد خمسة انطقة حياتية لتكوين جدال (1)reticulofenestra dictyoda partial range biozone (cne 5), (2)discoaster sublodoensis interval biozone (cne 6-7), (3)nannotetrina cristata interval biozone (cne 8), (4)nannotetrina alata interval biozone (cne 9), (5)chiasmolithus gigas range biozone (cne 1011). التكوين في قورنت الى تحيد عمر بمثيالتها قادت الحياتية هذه االنطقة هذا المقطع بااليوسين االوسط )اليبرسييان الى اللوتيشيان(. calcareous nannofossils biostratigraphy of jaddala bull 139 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum mutlak and faraj bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2024) 18 (1): 139-150. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2024.18.1.0139 original article morpho-histological study of the proventriculus of eurasian marsh harrier circus aeruginosus (linnaeus, (1766 ( aves, accipitriformes, accipitridae) baydaa hussain mutlak* and sadama said faraj department of biology, college of education for pure science/ibn haitham, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq. correspoinding author: bayda.h.m@ihcoedu.uobaghdad.edu.iq received: 29 sept. 2023, revised: 13 january 2024, accepted: 30 jan. 2024, published:20 june 2024 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract the study aimed to describe the anatomical, histological, and histochemical structure of the proventriculuc of adult male eurasian marsh harrier, circus aeruginosus (linnaeus, 1766) (accipitriformes, accipitridae). six birds were used for this study. the histological sections of proventriculus were stained with hematoxylin and eosin, periodic acid schiff, and alcain blue. the proventriculus, representing the upper stomach, appeared as a conical structure with a thick wall connecting the caudal end of the thoracic esophagus to the gizzard. it had a light brown color. microscopic examination revealed that the proventriculus wall consists of the outer tunica serosa, the tunica muscularis, tunica sub mucosa, and the inner tunica mucosa. the mucous layer exhibited folds, and the sulci represented many longitudinal folds with uniform lengths on its luminal surface. a single layer of columnar cells with oval-shaped nuclei made up the lining epithelium. the second layer was the laminal layer propria, composed of a relatively dense network of connective tissue. a thin, discontinuous layer of circularly arranged smooth muscle fibers in the muscularis mucosa separates the lamina propria from the sub mucosa. the submucosa appears as a very thick layer of dense vascular connective tissue, sub-mucosal compound tubuloalveolar glands form the major bulk of this tunica. these glands are arranged in one to three series of lobules that appear in different shapes. muscularis externa consists of smooth muscle fibers arranged in a thick inner circular layer and a thin discontinuous outer longitudinal layer. the tunica serosa was a welldeveloped layer constituted by loose connective tissue covered by a single layer of flattened epithelial cells of the mesothelium. the proventriculus has some similarities to other bird species as well as some variations to other species, which may be explained by its nourishing food and behavior. keywords: harrier bird, histology, morphology, proventriculus, stomach. bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799, print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2024.18.1.0139 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9981-2425 https://orcid.org/0009-0000-3883-624x mailto:bayda.h.m@ihcoedu.uobaghdad.edu.iq https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 140 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (1): 139-150. morpho-histological study of the proventriculus introduction the bird of the eurasian marsh harrier, cirus aeruginosus (linnaeus, 1766), belongs to the accipitridae family, which typically hunts by flying low over open ground, and consuming small animals, birds, or reptiles. sometimes the young species are referred to as "ring-tail harriers" (ferrarini et al., 2023). the stomach is a large part of the gastrointestinal tract and is responsible for storing, digesting, and transporting food to the duodenum; its structure presents variations that depend on the alimentary habits of the bird (saran and meshram, 2021). the proventriculus, a glandular portion of the stomach in birds, secretes the gastric juices, while the gizzard, a muscular portion, performs a mechanical role. the proventriculus is cranially continuous with the esophagus and presents an elliptical shape (al-taai and hasan, 2020).the glandular stomach is distinguished by its spindle shape and direct emergence from the esophagus, with an intermediate zone between it and the gizzard (isthmus) (abdel maksoud et al., 2022). the proventriculus differs in size in different species, typically being rather large and distensible in carnivores that consume large food items while being quite tiny in graminivores, compared to other bird species that consume seeds, the black-winged kite, elanus caeruleus, had a stomach that was enormous in size and had a thin wall (al-saffar and al-samawy, 2015). histologically, the stomach is composed of four tunics: the mucosa, sub mucosa, muscularis, and serosa (khaleel et al., 2021).the three layers of the mucosa are the lining epithelium, lamina propria, muscularis mucosa, simple columnar epithelium, and several gastric glands, which meet with the stomach lumen through gastric pits. the tunica of the sub mucosa is composed of connective tissue, having blood and lymph vessels, while the muscularis tunica consists of smooth muscles, and the tunica serosa, which appears as a thin layer of connective tissue lined by mesothelium, covers the stomach from the outside (alsamawy et al., 2021). the current study aimed to describe the anatomical, histological, and histochemical structure of the proventriculus of adult males of circus aeruginosus from iraq. materials and methods specimens collections: six adult males harrier circus aeruginosus (linnaeus, 1766) were used in the current study, and collected from the commercial market. the birds were checked for their health status before being euthanized. identification of bird species: the birds were diagnosed and classified based on the field guide to the birds of iraq (salim et al., 2006). laboratory techniques: the birds were euthanized with ethyl ether. after anesthesia, the digestive tube was dissected, and specimens of the glandular stomach (proventriculus) were directly fixed in bouin solution for 24h followed by dehydration with ascending series of ethyl alcohol (50-100%). all the specimens were embedded in paraffin wax, and transverse sections were taken using a rotary microtome at 5 µm. haetamoxylin and eosin stain were used to determine the general structure (suvarna et al., 2018), and periodic acid schiff (pas) for differentiating acidic and neutral mucins, and alcuin blue for connective tissue. the selective sections were photographed by using a light microscope with a digital camera. 141 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum mutlak and faraj results and disscusion gross examination showed that the stomach of the harrier circus aeruginosus (linnaeus, 1766) was in the left part of the abdominal cavity, and divided into two portions: proventriculus and gizzard which were not clearly defined from each other, the proventricular ventricular isthmus was not present so that the two organs form one large conical shape, there was no clear division internally as there was no demarcation line between proventricular and ventricular part of the stomach but differentiation from each other by their structure in which each one had its characteristic structure (pl.1a). this result was in agreement with abdel maksoud et al. (2022) in hooded crow corvus cornix, while it was in contrast with al-saffar and al-samawy (2015) who recorded that there was a short intermediate zone (isthmus) separating between these two portions of the stomach in the mallard anas platyrhynchos. the proventriculus had a light brown colour of conical shape that distinguished it from the esophagus whitish colour, it had a number of welldeveloped longitudinal folds reach to 5 longitudinal folds which were separated from each other by clear longitudinal grooves (pl.1b), where the researchers differentially described the proventriculus as being large, fusiform-shaped in mallard (al-saffar and al-samawy, 2015) and appeared as a tubular shaped in common moorhen (jassem et al., 2016), while it was showed as a longitudinal expansion of esophagus with an apparent external gastric papillae in starling bird (al-taai and hasan, 2020), and as a spindle shape in the barn owl (maher and hussein, 2023). these features of the proventriculus are possibly related to the dietary habits. microscopic examination revealed that the wall of the proventriculus consisted of four classical tunics: outer tunica serosa, tunica muscularis, tunica sub mucosa, and inner tunica mucosa (pl.2); a similar arrangement was described by previous studies (alnakeeb et al., 2019; saran and meshram, 2020; umar et al., 2021). the current findings were not in line with zhu (2015), who reported that the wall of the proventriculus in black–tailed crake porzana bicolor and yellow-billed grosbeak consisted of three tunics; mucosa, muscularis, and serosa. the mucous layer exhibited folds and sulci that represented many longitudinal folds with uniform lengths on its luminal surface (pl.3), the presence of these folds may increase the secretory surface epithelium and facilitate the digestion of foods (zhu, 2015). a single layer of columnar cells with oval-shaped nuclei located in the basal half of the cell built up the lining epithelium of the mucosa. the foamy cytoplasm of these cells was intensely stained with eosin, especially in the supra-nuclear region (pl. 4). this observation was supported by other researchers (al-taai and hasan, 2020; khaleel et al., 2021). the second layer of mucosa was lamina propria, composed of a relatively dense network of connective tissue extending immediately inferior to the lining epithelium and also forming the central core of the mucosal folds to provide mechanical support, blood vessels, nerves, lymphoid elements, and simple tubular glands were seen within the connective tissue of lamina propria (pl.5). these results are in line with saran and meshram (2020). the mucosal gland is lined by a single layer of cuboidal mucous secreting epithelial cells, and their ducts open at the bases of the sulci. these results are likely in mallard (al-saffar and al-samawy, 2015). a thin, discontinuous layer of circularly arranged smooth muscle fibers known as the muscularis 142 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (1): 139-150. morpho-histological study of the proventriculus mucosa separates the lamina propria from the sub mucosa (pl.6).the current observations were in agreement with other researchers (al-taai and hasan, 2020; khaleel et al., 2021), while the results were disagreement with ahmed et al. (2011) who showed that the muscularis mucosae of japanese quail were formed of two small layers of smooth muscle fibers, inner isolated longitudinal bands, and outer circular bands. the sub mucosa appears as a very thick layer of dense vascular connective tissue with a few muscle fibers extending from the muscularis mucosae and running through the deep or sub mucosal compound tubuloalveolar glands that formed the major bulk of this tunica (pl.7), such finding agreed with al-taai and hasan (2020). these glands are arranged in one to three series of lobules that appear in different forms like conic, pearl, ovoid, and elongated forms (pl.7). the researchers did not agree in their observations on these glands in different birds; al-jubory (2016) observed one row of glands in tyto alba, while al-saffar and alsamawy (2015) showed rounded branched tubular glands in mallard, submucosal glands arranged in two rows surrounded by connective tissue in iraqi male guinea fowls, and barn owl, respectively (khaleel et al., 2021; maher and hussein, 2023). these differences can be explained by their nourishing food and behavior. each gland lobule is surrounded by a connective tissue capsule rich with blood vessels and contains numerous secretory units lined by a row of cuboidal cells. these cells have rounded, centrally located nuclei and deeply stained eosinophilic granular cytoplasm (pl.8). the epithelium of the secretory units is organized in an oblique direction on the thin strands of connective tissue that form the septa between the tubules, and these cells are closely applied one to another only towards their bases, where they provide to the epithelium a dentate appearance (pl. 9), as stated by al-nakeeb et al. (2019) and beheiry (2018). each secretory lobule drained into the central cavity, which released the gastric secretion to the lumen of the proventriculus through an excretory duct (pl.10). one layer of columnar cells made up the lining epithelium of the excretory ducts and the central cavities that characterized by their lightly stained cytoplasm in which, basally located and oval shaped nuclei surrounded by a well-marked nuclear membrane and contain one or more clear nucleoli (pl.11). these findings were in coincidence with previous studies (beheiry, 2018; alnakeeb et al., 2019; abdel maksoud et al., 2022). microscopical examination for the proventriculus sections revealed that the sub mucosal gland's ducts, mucous gastric glands, and lining epithelium of the mucosal folds all exhibited pas-positive reaction in their apical regions (pl.12) indicating the presence of neutral mucopolysaccharide in these cells, on the other hand, staining with alcian blue gave a strong reaction in the whole cytoplasm of the ducts of the sub mucosal glands while the lining cells of the mucosal folds and the mucous gastric glands only their apical region reacted positively to this stain indicating the presence of acid mucopolysaccharide in these cells (pl.13). both stains also react positively with discharging secretory material outside the cells. the current results are strengthened by the results of previous researches (ahmed et al., 2011; zhu, 2015) ,but they were not supported by khaleel et al. (2021) in guinea fowl, who reported that sub 143 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum mutlak and faraj mucosal glandular epithelium showed a negative reaction to mucins. al-jubory (2016) suggested that the mucous secretion of these cells formed a barrier to protect the epithelium. muscularis externa consists of smooth muscle fibers arranged in a thick inner circular layer and a thin, discontin outer longitudinal layer (pl. 14). these findings disagreed with alnakeeb et al., (2019), who found the muscularis externa in magpie pica pica consists of three layers: very thin muscle fibers supported deep gastric glands, the middle thick longitudinal layer, and the outer circular layer. the thickness of the tunica muscularis can help for empty the secretion of the deep periventricular glands .the tunica serosa of the proventriculus in harrier was constituted by loose connective tissue, containing many blood vessels and nerves, and covered by a single layer of flattened epithelial cells represented by the mesothelium (pl.15). this finding was similar to results in other species of birds (saran and meshram, 2020; al-samawy et al., 2021). areas of aggregation of adipose cells were also observed in this layer. sultan et al. (2023) observed the presence of melanin in the connective tissue of the serosa layer . plate (1): the alimentary canal in harrier bird; (a) and (b) the anatomy of digestive tract. the longitudinal folds (lf) in proventriculus, (e) esophagus, (p) proventriculus, (g) gizzard, (h) heart, (l) liver, (i) intestine. plate(2): section in harrier proventriculus showing the four tunics. [tunica mucosa (tm), sub mucosa (sm), muscularis externa (em), tunica serosa (ts), h &e (10x)]. plate (3): section in harrier proventriculus showing the folds and sulci. [longitudinal folds (lf), sulci (s), h & e (40x)]. 144 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (1): 139-150. morpho-histological study of the proventriculus plate (4): section in harrier proventriculus showing: lining epithelium (le), foamy cytoplasm (fc), nucleus (n), h&e (40x)] plate (5): section in harrier proventriculus showing: lamina propria (lp), lining epithelium (le), blood capillaries (bc), h&e (40x). plate(6): section in harrier proventriculus showing: muscularis mucosae (mm), lamina propria (lp), lining epithelium (le), blood capillaries (bc), h&e (40x)]. plate (7): section in harrier proventriculus showing sub mucosal glands. [glandular lobules (gl), gland duct (gd), h&e (10x)]. plate (9): section in harrier proventriculus. [lining epithelium of sub mucosal glands (le), lamina propria (lp), main duct (md) h&e (40x)]. plate (8): section in harrier proventriculus showing lining of mucosal glands. [lining epithelium (le), connective tissue septum (cts), main duct (md), h&e (40x)]. 145 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum mutlak and faraj plate (11): section in harrier proventriculus. [lining epithelium of main duct (md), simple cuboidal epithelium (scue), connective tissue septum (cts), simple columnar epithelium (sce), h&e (40x)]. plate (10): section in harrier proventriculus [main duct (md), connective tissue septum(cts), glandular lobule(gl), h&e (10x) ]. plate (12): section in harrier proventriculus showing: pas reaction (arrows) pas stain (10x). plate (13): section in harrier proventriculus showing: [alcian reaction (arrows) alcian blue stain (10x)]. plate(14): section in harrier proventriculus showing: muscularis externa (me), circular layer (cl), longitudinal layer (ll), adipose tissue (at), arteriole (ar), venule (ve), h & e (40x). plate(15): section in harrier proventriculus showing: tunica serosa (ts), connective tissue (ct), mesothelium (me), blood capillary (bc), adipose tissue (at), nerve fiber (nf), h & e (40x). 146 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (1): 139-150. morpho-histological study of the proventriculus conclusions the current study investigated the histological structures of the proventriculus of circus aeruginosus (linnaeus, 1766), the findings show that the proventriculus represents the upper stomach, the proventricular ventricular isthmus is not present so that the two organs form one large conical shape with a thick wall, and it has a number of welldeveloped longitudinal folds that reach to five longitudinal folds. microscopic examination of the proventriculus consists of four classical tunics: outer tunica serosa, tunica muscularis, tunica sub mucosa and inner tunica mucosa. the proventriculus has some characteristics in similarities to other bird species as well as some variations from other species, which may be explained by its nourishing food and behavior. acknowledgments the authors are grateful to the department of biology, college of education for pure science-ibn al-haitham, university of baghdad, for the slaughterhouse tools and anesthesia material. conflict of interest statement the authors have no conflicts of interest to declare. we "the authors" have followed and signed the scientific research ethics announced by the journal. literature cited abdel maksoud, m. k. m., ibrahim, a. a. h., nabil, t. m. and moawad, u. k. 2022. histomorphological, histochemical and scanning electron microscopic investigation of the proventriculus (ventriculus glandularis) of the hooded crow (corvus cornix). anatomia histologia embryologia, 51(3): 1-10. [researchgate] ahmed, y. a. e., kamel, g. and ahmed, a. a. e. 2011.histomorphological studies on the stomach of the japanese quail. asian journal of poultry science, 5(2): 56-67. [crossref] al-jubory, r. w. 2016. comparative anatomical and histological study on the digestive tract in two iraqi birds, common wood pigeon colimba palumbus l. and barn owl tyto alba. ph. d. thesis, department of biology, college of science, babylon university, 250pp. alnakeeb, g. d., abid, s. a. and fadhil, l. a. 2019.comparative histological study of the stomach in two species of iraqi vertebrates magpi pica pica l. and small asian mongoose herpestes javanicus baghdad science journal,16(2): 281-290. [crossref] al-saffar, f. j. and al-samawy, e. r. m. 2015.histomorphological and histochemical studies of the stomach of the mallard (anas platyrhunchos). asian journal of animal sciences, 9(6): 280-292. [crossref] al-samawy, e. r. m., waad, s. k., al-uboody, w. s. h. and hasan, m. s. 2021.histomorphometric and histochemical finding of the proventricular and ../../../../../../../../downloads/researchgate ../../../../../../../../downloads/crossref ../../../../../../../../downloads/crossref ../../../../../../../../downloads/crossref 147 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum mutlak and faraj ventricular stomach between the african grey parrot (psittacus erithacus) and black francolin (francolins) in south iraq. medico-legal update, 21(1): 1457-1465 [researchgate] al-taai, s. a. h. and hasan, m. s. 2020. histomorphological study of proventricular and gizzard in adult starling birds (sturnus vulgaris). plant archives, 20 (1): 1671-1678. [crossref]. beheiry, r. r. 2018.histochemical and scanning electron microscopy of proventriculus in turkey journal of advanced veterinary and animal research, 5(3): 290-298. [click here]. ferrarini, a., clevi, e., brozzetti, d., colle, a., de santis, a., laurenti, s., savo, e. and gustin, m. 2023. optimized monitoring and conservation of farmland bird species through bayesian modelling: the montagu’s harrier circus pygargus population in central italy. sustainability, 15(5): 4426. [crossref] jassem, e. s., hussein, a. j. and sawad, a. a. 2016. anatomical ,histological and histochemical study of the proventriculus of common moorhen (gallinula chloropus). basrah journal of veterinary research, 14(4): 73-82. [click here] khaleel, i. m., hasan, m. s. and alkhazraji, k. i. 2021. a comparative histomorphological and histochemical study of the proventriculus between iraqi male guinea fowls. annals of the romanian society for cell biology, 25(1): 6062-6072. [crossref] maher, m. a. and hussein, s. 2023. anatomical distribution of celiac artery with histochemical investigation to the proventriculus of barn owl (tyto alba). zoomorphology, 142: 201-213. [crossref] salim, a. m., borter, r. f. hansn, s. b., christian, s. and al-jbour, s. 2006. the field guide to the birds of iraq. iraqi nature organization, baghdad, iraq, 36pp. [google scholar] saran, d. and meshram, b. 2021.histomorphological and histochemical studies on proventriculus in guinea fowl (numida meleagris). indian journal animal research, 55(7): 806-80. [crossref] sultan, g. a., al-haaik, a. g. and hasso, a. a. 2023.morphometrical and histochemical study of glandular stomach (proventriculus) in local domestic male ducks (anase platyrhchos). iraqi journal of veterinary sciences iraq, 37(1): 65-71 [click here] suvarna, s. k., layton, c. and bancroft, j. d. 2018. bancroft's theory and practice of histological techniques. 8th ed., elsevier ltd., 557pp. [click here] ../../../../../../../../downloads/researchgate https://www.researchgate.net/journal/plant-archives-2581-6063?_tp=eyjjb250zxh0ijp7imzpcnn0ugfnzsi6il9kaxjly3qilcjwywdlijoix2rpcmvjdcisinnly3rpb24ioijwywdlsgvhzgvyin19 ../../../../../../../../downloads/crossref ../../../../../../../../downloads/click%20here ../../../../../../../../downloads/click%20here https://doi.org/10.3390/su15054426 ../../../../../../../../downloads/click%20here ../../../../../../../../downloads/crossref https://doi.org/10.1007/s00435-023-00595-7 https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=salim+ma%2c+porter+r%2c+schiermacker-hansen+p%2c+christensen+s+and+al-jbour+s+2006+%5bfield+guide+to+the+birds+of+iraq%5d+%28baghdad%3a+nature+iraq%2fbirdlife+international%29 ../../../../../../../../downloads/crossref ../../../../../../../../downloads/researchgate ../../../../../../../../downloads/researchgate ../../../../../../../../downloads/click%20here https://accessapps.amdi.usm.my/reqba_uploads/ebook/sodapdf-compressed-bancroft's%20theory%20and%20practice%20of%20histological%20techniques%20(eighth%20edition)-compressed-compressed_reduce%20(1).pdf 148 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (1): 139-150. morpho-histological study of the proventriculus umar, z., qureshi, a. s., shahid, r. and deepa, f. 2021. histological and histomorphometric study of the cranial digestive tract of ostriches (struthio camelus) with advancing age. veterinary medicine, 66(4): 127-139. [crossref] zhu, l. 2015.histological and histochemical study on the stomach (proventriculus and gizzard) of black –tailed crake (porzana bicolor). pakistan journal of zoology, 47(3): 607-616. [research gate] ../../../../../../../../downloads/crossref ../../../../../../../../downloads/research%20gate 149 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum mutlak and faraj bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2024) 18 (1): 139-150. نسجية للمعدة االمامية لطائر مرزة البطائح -دراسة شكالئية circus aeruginosus (linnaeus, 1766) (aves, accipitriformes, accipitridae) فرج سيد صدامةو حسين مطلك بيداء قسم علوم الحياة, كلية التربية للعلوم الصرفة, أبن الهيثم, جامعة بغداد, بغداد,العراق. 20/6/2024، النشر: 30/1/2024القبول: ،13/1/2024املراجعة: ، 29/9/2023االستالم: الخالصة هدفت الدراسة إلى وصف التركيب التشريحي والنسيجي والكيميائي النسجي للمعدة circus aeruginosus (linnaeus, 1766)االمامية للذكور البالغين ملرزة البطائح (accipitriformes, accipitridae). من الطائر نماذج استخدم في هذه الدراسة ستة , االمامية بملون الهيماتوكسلين وااليوسين وحمض شيف للمعدة املقاطع النسجية لونت تمثل املعدة االمامية الجزء العلوي من املعدة وتظهر كتركيب .الدوري وازرق املثيل مخروطي ذو جدار سميك يربط الطرف الذيلي للمريء الصدري بالقانصة. كان لونها بني من الغاللة املصلية فاتح. كشف الفحص املجهري أن جدار املعدة االمامية يتكون .الغاللة تحت املخاطية, والغاللة املخاطية الداخلية ,الخارجية, الغاللة العضلية أظهرت الطبقة املخاطية طيات و التلم وتمثل العديد من الطيات الطولية وبأطوال موحدة على سطح التجويف. تتكون البطانة الظهارية من طبقة واحدة من الخاليا ذات النوى البيضاوية . كانت الطبقة الثانية الصفيحة االصيلة واملكونة من العمودية شبكة كثيفة نسبيا من النسيج الضام. تفصل العضلية املخاطية املكونة من طبقة رقيقة متقطعة من االلياف العضلية امللساء املرتبة بشكل دائري بين الصفيحة االصيلة . و الغاللة تحت املخاطية الغاللة تحت املخاطية كطبقة سميكة جدا من النسيج الضام الكثيف تظهر الوعائي, وتشكل الغدد األنبوبية السنخية املركبة تحت املخاطية الجزء األكبر من هذه الغاللة. يتم ترتيب هذه الغدد في سلسلة واحدة إلى ثالث فصيصات والتي تظهر بأشكال 150 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (1): 139-150. morpho-histological study of the proventriculus ة من ألياف عضلية ملساء مرتبة في طبقة تتكون الغاللة العضلية الخارجي .مختلفة دائرية داخلية سميكة وطبقة طولية خارجية رقيقة متقطعة. كانت الغاللة املصلية عبارة عن طبقة متطورة تتكون من نسيج ضام مفكك تغطيه طبقة واحدة من الخاليا في تميزت املعدة االمامية ببعض الخصائص .الظهارية املسطحة من الظهارة املتوسطة أوجه التشابه مع أنواع الطيور األخرى فضال عن بعض االختالفات مع األنواع األخرى, . والتي يمكن تفسيرها من خالل طبيعة التغذية والسلوك bull 499 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum habeeb and al-warid bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2023) 17 (3): 499-506. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2023.17.3.0499 short commnucation morphological description of two leech species (annelida, hirudinea) which used in some alternative medicine clinics in baghdad province, iraq batool k. habeeb and harith saeed al-warid* department of biology, college of science, university of baghdadal-jadriya campus, baghdad, iraq. *corresponding author e-mail: harith.saeed@sc.uobaghdad.edu.iq recived date: 01 march 2023, accepted date 07 may 2023, published date:20 june 2023 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract the aim of this study is to describe the leech species that are used in some of the alternative medicine clinics in baghdad province based on morphometric measurements and colouring pattern of the body. a collection of twenty leeches was provided from some clinics. all specimens were identified and described based on standard available keys. the morphometric characteristics and colouring patterns were recorded and the indicated that these leeches were hirudo orientalis utevsky & trontelj, 2005 and h. verbana carena, 1820. keywords: hirudo, leeches, morphometric measurments. introduction leeches belong to phylum annelida which is a large phylum that contains 22.000 species. this group of animals has significant impacts on the environment, agriculture and health (jaweir and al-sarai, 2016; solijonov and umarov, 2022). the use of leeches for medical and therapeutic purposes has a long history (ali, 1948; ma et al., 2021). leeches have a history of secreting biologically active substances, particularly in their saliva (shakouri and wollina, 2021). leeches were employed for a variety of illnesses by ancient egyptian, indian, greek, and arab physicians, from the common application for bleeding to systemic illnesses such skin diseases, nervous system abnormalities, urinary and reproductive system difficulties, inflammation, and dental problems (brooks, 2021). numerous studies on leech saliva recently revealed the presence of a number of bioactive compounds (liu et al., 2019). one of the many genera of leech that have drawn interest from people in various human endeavors is hirudo linnaeus, 1758. this genus seems to have its origins in asia before spreading eastward and westward toward europe. hirudo medicinalis linnaeus, 1758; h. verbana carena, 1820; h. troctina johnson, 1816; h. orientalis utevsky & trontelj, 2005 and h. sulukii saglam, saunders, lang & shain, 2016, five closely related living species, are being utilized in a variety of medical procedures (elliott and kutschera, 2011). due to their widespread usage in surgery and medicine, the medicinal leeches of the genus hirudo are bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799-print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2023.17.3.0499 https://orcid.org/0009-0001-2671-738x https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6945-2652 mailto:harith.saeed@sc.uobaghdad.edu.iq https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://www.gbif.org/species/2308887 https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 500 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum morphological description of two leech well-known invertebrates that have undergone extensive biological and physiological researches (lemke et al., 2013) they were additionally investigated historically, ecologically, and genetically (trontelj and utevsky, 2012). in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, large quantities of medical leeches were collected from fields and water ponds, but by the end of that time, the leeches had become scarce in many nations (kutschera and elliott, 2014).despite the similarities among the hirudo species, they can be distinguishable from one another using external features (solgi et al., 2021). the length of the body, the system of annulation, the number of segments before and after the clitellum, and the colour of the dorsal and ventral surfaces were all considered important characteristics in the classical study of taxonomy (khalid et al., 2022). a few clinics in iraq utilize medicinal leeches to treat a few diseases. this paper is performed to describe two of the commercial leech species that are frequently used in alternative medicine clinics in the baghdad, iraq. specimens' collection: the leeches (n=20) used in this study were acquired between january and march 2022 from a few clinics and scientific centers in baghdad, iraq. these included: alhwya centers for studies, researches and training, al-yermok; rafi center for chines medicine, al monsoor and al-huda center for complementary cedicine, baghdad aljadeeda. all of these clinics and centers were authorized by general syndicate for complementary and herbal medicine, iraq. after relaxing in 10% ethanol, all leeches were fixed in 96% ethanol. the morphological identification of preserved specimens was completed using an ocular micrometer (al-ameen and jawair, 2019; ayhan et al., 2021) in accordance with the standard keys after they were pinned under running water (ahmed et al., 2015; sağlam, 2019; wang et al., 2022).the body colour pattern and other morphological characteristics of leeches were observed and photographed. leeches were examined to determine their diameter and length. as well as the diameter of anterior and posterior suckers were reported. moreover anterior sucker/body length ratio, posterior sucker/body length ratio and posterior sucker/anterior sucker ratio were calculated. description and discussion leech specimens in this study were gathered from a few clinics in baghdad, iraq. two species of leech, hirudo orientalis (n=10) and hirudo verbana (n=10), were identified based on morphological parameters. despite the similarities between the hirudo species, they could be distinguished from one another based on the external features (hussain et al., 2022). the specimens of hirudo orientalis were large cylindrical in shape. their average length was (33.69±11.64) mm. the average length of the h. orientalis samples in this study was within the length range that was previously recorded by (utevsky and trontelj, 2005), although the maximum length that was recorded in their study was more than the averages recorded in the present study. the average width was 7.51 ±1.19 mm. the average size of the anterior sucker was 3.3±0.38 mm, but the average size of the posterior sucker was 4.34±0.78 mm. the mean of anterior sucker/body length ratio was 0.105±0.024, the mean of posterior sucker/body length ratio was 0.135±0.025 and the mean of posterior sucker/anterior sucker ratio was 1.315±0.158 (tab. 1).the strip was divided into circular patches in the dorsal perspective. the predominant colour of the dorsal surface is grass green, with two thin, fragmented orange 501 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum habeeb and al-warid paramedian lines and two broad, orange paramarginal stripes that enclose black specks that are grouped in quadrangular or spherical groups (pls. 1 a). h. verbana had a lot of similarities and some differences in its morphology with other species of isolated medicinal leeches (hirudo spp.). in this study, their length was 42.51 ± 8.44 mm. the average width was 7.33 ± 1.07 mm wide. the average size of the anterior sucker was 3.95±0.41 mm, whereas the average size of the posterior sucker was 5.31±0.79 mm. the mean of anterior sucker/body length ratio was recorded as 0.096±0.016, the mean of posterior sucker/body length ratio was 0.127±0.016 and the mean of posterior sucker/anterior sucker ratio was 1.345±0.153 (tab. 1). the lengths and measurements of the h. verbana that appeared in this study were consistent with the study of ceylan and çetinkaya (2021). hirudo verbana has yellow, green, and black colouring. the dorsal portion had black bands with white specks. two additional orange stripes were present in both lateral portions. broad red or orange paramedian dorsal stripes and a greenish venter with two longitudinal stripes at its edges might be seen in the colouring pattern. on the venter, there are occasionally few, dispersed dark spots (pl.1 b). the results indicate that most species of medical leeches used in some alternative medicine clinics are h. orientalis and h verbana. the results of this study depended only on the measurements and colour pattern of the medical leech, but more investigations such as molecular studies and saliva analysis may be needed to confirm the species. 502 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum morphological description of two leech plate (1): (a) dorsal and ventras of h. orintalis collected from a clinic in baghdad, (b) dorsal and ventral same as mentioned h. verbana collected from a clinic in baghdadl view. 503 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum habeeb and al-warid table (1): the width, length, anterior sucker, ventral sucker, anterior sucker/body length ratio, posterior sucker/body length ratio and posterior sucker/anterior sucker ratio measurements of h. orientalis collection. species maximum body width (mm) total body length (mm) anterior sucker (mm) posterior sucker (mm) anterior sucker/total body ratio posterior sucker/total body ratio posterior sucker/ anterior sucker ratio h.orientalis (n=10) min-max 6.3710.27 22.54-59.24 3-4.24 3.78-6.44 0.063-0.15 0.092-0.173 1.115-1.519 mean 7.51 33.69 3.305 4.34 0.105 0.135 1.315 sd 1.19 11.64 0.381 0.78 0.024 0.025 0.158 h. verbena (n=10) min-max 6.06-9.54 34.2-54.05 3.46-4.35 4.39-6.87 0.065-0.121 0.101-0.149 1.18-1.663 mean 7.33 42.51 3.95 5.31 0.096 0.127 1.345 sd 1.07 8.44 0.41 0.791 0.016 0.016 0.153 aknowledgments acknowledgment is extended to dr. omar f. al-sheikhly, wildlife specialist and lecturer in university of baghdad, who photographed all specimens illustrated in this study. conflict of interest statment the authors have no conflicts of interest to be mentioned literature cited ahmed, r. b., romdhane, y. and tekaya, s. 2015. checklist and distribution of marine and freshwater leeches (annelida, clitellata, hirudinea) in tunisia with identification key. ecologica montenegrina, 2(1):3-19. 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(2023) 17 (3): 499-506. املستخدم في بعض (annelida, hirudinea)الوصف املظهري لنوعين من العلق العراق ،عيادات الطب البديل في محافظة بغداد بتول كاظم حبيب و حارث سعيد جعفر الورد قسم علوم الحياة، كلية العلوم، جامعة بغداد، مجمع الجادرية، بغداد، العراق 20/6/2023، تأريخ النشر: 7/5/2023القبول: ، تأريخ 1/3/2023تأريخ االستالم: الخالصة هدفت الدراسة الحالية الى وصف نوعين من العلق الطبي املستخدمة في عيادات . تم للجسمرية و النمط اللوني هالطب البديل في بغداد اعتمادا على القياسات املظ خاصة في محافظة بغداد. وتم الحصول على عينات العلق الطبي من هذه العيادات ال و وصفها باالعتماد على املفاتيح التشخيصية املتوفره. تم تسجيل كل تشخيصها القياسات املظهريه و االنماط اللونيه للعينات والتي اشارت الى ان العلق الطبي الذي تم h. verbana و utevsky & trontelj, 2005 hirudo orientalisجمعه يعود للنوعين carena, 1820. . bull 509 gaafar et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2021) 16 (4): 509-533. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2021.16.4.0509 a multivariate morphometric analysis of the genus lotus l., 1753 (fabaceae, loteae) from egypt ali gaafar* monier abd el-ghani** azza el hadidy** and ethar hussein***♦ * botany department, faculty of science, new valley university, el kharga, egypt. ** department of botany and microbiology, faculty of science, cairo university, giza, egypt. *** department of biological and geological sciences, faculty of education, ain shams university, cairo, egypt. ♦corresponding author: ethar_asaad@yahoo.com received date: 20 august 2021, accepted date: 23 october 2021, published date: 20 december 2021 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract this study aims at examining and confirming the patterns of phenetic relationships and the levels of variations within and among the species of lotus l., 1753 in egypt by using morphometric analysis techniques. we have evaluated 24 morphological characters from about 300 herbarium specimens representing 19 species of lotus that are currently recognized. based on numerical analyses of macromorphological characters (cluster analysis, principal coordinate analysis and principal component analysis), 19 species of lotus were recognized from egypt. these species were clustered in six species-specific groups: (i) lotus halophilus boiss. & spruner, l. angustissimus l., l. glinoides delile and l. schimperi steud. ex boiss., (ii) lotus glaber mill. and l. palustris willd., (iii) lotus polyphyllos e.d. clarke, l. creticus l. and l. cytisoides l., (iv) lotus gebelia vent., l. lanuginosus vent. and l. arenarius brot., (v) lotus edulis l., l. tetragonolobus l. and l. conjugatus l. and (vi) lotus ornithopodioides l., l. peregrinus l., l. arabicus l. and l. hebranicus hochst. ex brand. as a result of this study, we proposed that some characters, not previously examined in detail, showed significant characters in species delimitation: pod length, seed dimensions, features of upper and lower leaflets, calyx, length of corolla, length of style, numbers of flowers and ovules. keywords: cluster analysis, morphology, numerical taxonomy, pca, phenetic analysis. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2021.16.4.0495 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 510 a multivariate morphometric analysis introduction the genus lotus l., 1753 (fabaceae, loteae) is polymorphic and includes about 150 species native to europe, asia, africa, australia and some islands of atlantic ocean, pacific ocean and socotra archipelago in the indian ocean. the greatest genetic diversity for lotus occurs in the mediterranean basin (grant, 1991; sokoloff, 1998). based on previous studies, this genus is a taxonomically difficult genus as it includes complexes of closely related groups with similar vegetative characters (gillett, 1958; heyn, 1967; kramina, 1999, 2006; kramina and sokoloff, 2004; kramina et al., 2016, 2018, 2020, 2021), including seasonal polymorphisms (heyn, 1970), and it is difficult to distinguish among the species (ojeda et al., 2009). historically there has been little agreement in the taxonomic literature regarding the generic limits of lotus and its infrageneric subdivision (degtjareva et al., 2006). all native new world species formerly placed in lotus are now segregated in four genera (e.g. arambarri et al., 2005; sokoloff and lock, 2005; sokoloff et al., 2007) or two distinct genera (brouillet, 2008). in the old world, three monotypic segregate genera are accepted: kebirita kramina and sokoloff, podolotus royle and pseudolotus rech. f.; while two commonly recognized genera: dorycnium mill. and tetragonolobus scop. are placed in the synonymy of lotus (degtjareva et al., 2006). however, this has changed considerably with the advent of phylogenetic studies based on nrits sequences; these have clearly shown that the new world species of lotus are not closely related to the old world species (allan and porter, 2000), and in particular degtjareva et al. (2006) revised sectional classifications proposed by sokoloff (1999 a, b) and kramina and sokoloff (2003). some sections appeared as non-monophyletic, including the section lotus, which was resolved as paraphyletic since lotus conimbricensis brot. (lotus sect. erythrolotus brand) had its sequence type identical to those found in lotus subbiflorus lag. (lotus sect. lotus) (faria et al., 2012).while several works dealt with the genus lotus in egypt, this genus was classified into six sections: lotus, krokeria, erythrolotus, lotea, pedrosia and quadrifolium (muschler, 1912; täckholm, 1974; boulos, 1999). el hadidy (2003, 2004) adopted the classification of lotus l. into three subgenera pedrosia, lotus and tetragonolobus and four sections krokeria, loteae, lotus and erythrolotus based on floral characters (style and stigma), fruit characters (pod and seed), as well as vegetation characters (basal leaflets) and geographical distribution. in egypt, the taxonomy of the genus lotus has always been problematic which has been reflected in the number of its species (täckholm, 1974; boulos, 2009). several studies have demonstrated the use of micromorphological characters to differentiate between some taxa of fabaceae (stenglein et al., 2003; zorić et al., 2009; saheed and illoh, 2010; albert and sharma, 2013; el-gazzar et al., 2013). different techniques of multivariate analyses were increasingly applied to resolve some difficulties that may be confronted by a morphological overlap in flowering plants (e.g. sokal and sneath, 1963; gilmartin, 1967; jensen and eshbaugh, 1976; mcneil, 1984; jensen et al., 1993). numerical taxonomy uses numeric algorithms to create groups of taxonomic units based on their character states. two basic methodologies can be included within numerical 511 gaafar et al. analyses: phenetic and cladistic (phylogenetic); in phenetic analyses, classifications are different techniques of multivariate analyses were increasingly applied to resolve some difficulties that may be confronted by a morphological overlap in flowering plants (e.g. sokal and sneath, 1963; gilmartin, 1967; jensen and eshbaugh, 1976; mcneil, 1984; jensen et al., 1993). numerical taxonomy uses numeric algorithms to create groups of taxonomic units based on their character states. two basic methodologies can be included within numerical analyses: phenetic and cladistic (phylogenetic); in phenetic analyses, classifications are formed based on the patterns of overall similarities, usually in exomorphology. on the other hand, cladistic (phylogenetic) analyses are based on the premise of estimating the pattern of evolutionary history (phylogeny) using shared derived characters (or synapomorphies); morphometric techniques have long been established as valuable tools for exploring the development, population differentiation and systematics of plants (wiens, 2000; macleod and forey, 2002; jensen, 2003; bateman and rudall, 2006; el-hadidy et al., 2011; ellmouni et al., 2017). the current study was carried out to examine and confirm the patterns of phenetic relationships and the levels of variations within and among the species of lotus in egypt by using morphometric analysis techniques. materials and methods plant specimens nineteen species of lotus are used in the present study (tab. 1). the data used for the morphometric analysis are recorded from about 300 herbarium specimens deposited in herbarium of cairo university (cai), herbarium of agricultural research center (caim) and assiut university herbarium (astu) (acronyms sensu thiers, 2017). intact and wellpreserved specimens are included in the analyses (tab. 2). species are collected from different bioclimatic zones of egypt to represent as much as possible the entire distribution range of the taxa, as well as the morphological variation in each species. species identification and nomenclature are made with the aid of the floras of egypt and adjacent countries (zohary, 1972; boulos, 1999; collenette, 1999). table (1): classification of the studied taxa of lotus (callen, 1959) (a=annual, p=perennial. abbreviations of species are used in diagrams 1 and 2). no. species abbreviation subgenus section duration 1 lotus arenarius brot. l. are pedrosia pedrosia a 2 l. edulis l. l. edu lotus krokeria a 3 l. ornithopodioides l. l. orn lotus lotea a 4 l. halophilus boiss. & spruner l. halo lotus lotea a 5 l. peregrinus l. l. pere lotus lotea a 6 l. polyphyllos e.d. clarke l. poly lotus lotea p 7 l. creticus l. l. cret lotus lotea p 8 l. cytisoides l. l. cyt lotus lotea p 512 a multivariate morphometric analysis 9 l. glaber mill. l. gla lotus lotus p 10 l. angustissimus l. l. ang lotus lotus a 11 l. palustris willd. l. pal lotus lotus p 12 l. glinoides delile l. glin lotus erythrolotus a 13 l. schimperi steud. ex boiss. l. schim lotus erythrolotus a 14 l. arabicus l. l. arab lotus erythrolotus a 15 l. hebranicus hochst. ex brand l. heb lotus erythrolotus a 16 l. gebelia vent. l. geb lotus erythrolotus a 17 l. lanuginosus vent. l. lan lotus erythrolotus p 18 l. tetragonolobus l. l. tetra tetragonolobus erythrolotus a 19 l. conjugatus l. l. conj tetragonolobus erythrolotus a characters scored for morphometric analysis the morphometric analysis is based on 24 quantitative continuous (17) and quantitative discrete cardinal (7) characters consisting of vegetative and reproductive structures are examined (tab. 3). in order to avoid biased data due to variations in phenetic features, 10-15 specimens for each species are examined (tab. 2). for the data matrix, the quantitative cardinal characters are coded as binary/multi-state characters and the means of quantitative continuous characters are also coded as multi-state characters. measurements in the herbarium specimens are conducted using digital calipers or a ruler. each species is encoded as an operational taxonomic unit (out) ( sokal and sneath, 1963). table (2): the collection data for some examined specimens of lotus taxa. no. taxa locality habitat collection date collector 1 l. are ras el hekma, mariut sandy ground by the sea 2/5/1955 m.n.el hadidi 2 l. edu burg el arab field margin, roadsides, waste places, coastal sand dunes, rocky & limestone slopes. 15/3/1928 v. täckholm 3 l. orn bahariya oasis, bawiti, el qasr. moist places by springs and streams; edges of cultivated ground and roadsides; rocky wastes 15/3/1968 gun romee 4 l. halo sinai, el kharruba village sandy desert wadies, waste ground and roadsides; limestone rocks, in cultivation, dunes near sea shore 3/4/1988 el hadidi et al. 513 gaafar et al. 5 l. pere bahariya oasis, bawiti, el qasr. coastal sand dunes, ; rocky calcareous slopes; in cultivated ground or by roadsides 15/3/1968 gun romee 6 l. poly sidi kirir coastal sand dunes and adjacent desert plains. 23/3/1987 a.g. famy 7 l. cret rosetta sand dunes and sand stone cliffs by the sea 20/4/1973 ibrahim mahdi & s. sisi 8 l. cyt el rasool village, mersa matruh – salum road sandy desert places, dunes, wadies or in oolothic limestone rocks, usually by the sea 2/5/1988 a.g. famy 9 l.gla cairo – alexandria desert road (k48) moist and cultivated ground, canal banks, lawns 7/3/1978 merxmuülle r et al. 10 l. ang kafr siman usually in humid soil 7/4/1927 n.simpson 11 l. pal dakhla oasis: mutat bir asmant el gedid near rivulets and ditches, in cultivated ground 11/2/1952 v. täckholm & kassas 12 l.glin wadi iseili, suez road sandy desert wadies and plains 8/1/1960 v. täckholm et al. 13 l.schim wadi idib, “panicum turgidum community” sandy wadies and plains 4/3/1967 d. oshorn & i. helmy 14 l. arab el minya, eastern side, deir al azzra qena weed on nile banks and in field 2/2/1979 15/4/1977 m. amry kosinova & slavicova 15 l. heb thamilat alshifa, red sea coast sandy coastal plains; foot hills; wadies in calcareous and stony ground in hot desert areas. 28/11/1986 hobbs 16 l. geb heliopolis, cairo dry and rocky places 1820 1826 ehrenberg 17 l. lan sinai: el – arish – el hassana, 7 km before el hassana desert plains on sandy gravel; in fields 4/4/1988 el garf 18 l. tetra west mersa matruh, wadi el ramleh fields, roadsides, calcareous ground and waste ground 10/3/1965 v. täckholm 514 a multivariate morphometric analysis 19 l. conj sinai, tarfa district fields and dry places 7/5/1982 h. barakat statistical treatment of data for morphological diversity, simple descriptive statistics for quantitative continuous parameters are calculated for each species included in the analyses using statistica software version 8.0 (weiß, 2007). a shapiro-wilk statistic was used (with p < 0.05) to test whether any morphometric variable deviated from a normal distribution and equality of variance (cortinhas et al., 2015). before further statistical tests, appropriate transformations (when required) were applied to each parameter did not follow a normal distribution. the pearson's correlation coefficients between each character pairs are computed in order to reveal highly correlated characters and to ensure that no high correlations (> 0.90) (španiel et al., 2017), are present that could potentially affect the results of further multivariate analyses. if the correlation coefficients for the correlated pairs of variables exceeded r=0.90, they are excluded from the multivariate analyses. procedures of multivariate analyses in order to obtain general information about the relationships and similarities of the examined morphological traits, a cluster analysis is performed on a dataset of all the 19 otus using 24 characters. to assess the phenetic relationships between species (outs), the similarity between two otus is calculated on the basis of gower’s general similarity coefficient, and the dendrogram is prepared using un-weighted pair-group method with arithmetic means (upgma) clustering algorithms with past 3.25 (palaeontological statistics) software package (hammer et al., 2001). gower distance is chosen since it can handle metric characters as well as nominal and ordinal-scaled ones (gower, 1971). the cophenetic correlations were then calculated between the tree matrix and the similarity matrix in order to estimate how well the dendrogram represents its corresponding pairwise distance matrix. high cophenetic correlation coefficient (more than 0.7) indicates that the hierarchic classification obtained by the clustering method is a reasonably faithful representation of the original resemblance matrix (sokal, 1986). based on the morphological characters, the species groups that resulted from cluster analysis are subjected to anova to reveal significant differences between means of characters across the identified groups (sokal and rohlf, 1981) using spss version 16.0. a principal coordinates analysis (pcoa) is performed on the basis of the 24 morphological characters, where it is more appropriate with mixed dataset (continuous and discrete cardinal). the distance matrix is often based on gower’s coefficient (legendre and legendre, 1998). the goal of pcoa is the positioning of species in a space of reduced dimensionality while preserving their distance relationships. on the basis of 17 quantitative continuous morphological characters, a principal components analysis (pca) is applied on the matrix of product-moment correlations, obtained from the standardized data, to provide further insight into structure in the data set. this method is well 515 gaafar et al. suited to revealing patterns of continuous variations in a data set (sneath and sokal, 1973). the pca investigates the overall variation pattern along the first two components in order to find hypothetical variables (components) that can discriminate among groups. morphological characters are projected onto the eigenvectors, with a priori assignment to the groups of species obtained from the classification plotted in two dimensions for examination. results of pca analysis is performed using canoco version 4.5 for windows (ter braak and šmilauer, 2003), and presented as a two-dimensional scatter plot where each point represents one taxon and an arrow for a character. table (3): characters and character states used for morphological characterization of lotus species, together with their abbreviations used in diagram (3). characters abbreviation character states coded as stem 1life history h annual 1 perennial 2 leaf 2shape of upper leaflet sul ovate 1 obovate 2 lanceolate 3 oblanceolate 4 3length of upper leaflet ull (>15 mm) 1 (< 15 mm) 2 4width of upper leaflet ulw (>7 mm) 1 (< 7 mm) 2 5shape of lower leaflet sll ovate 1 obovate 2 lanceolate 3 oblanceolate 4 6length lower leaflet lll (>2-10 mm) 1 (<10 mm) 2 7width lower leaflet llw (>2-5 mm) 1 (< 5 mm) 2 8length of rachis r (> 4 mm) 1 (< 4 mm) 2 flower 9number nf (> 2) 1 (< 2) 2 10bract length bl (> 6 mm) 1 (< 6 mm) 2 corolla 11length crl (>10 mm) 1 (< 10 mm) 2 516 a multivariate morphometric analysis 12color crc yellow 1 pink 2 calyx 13length cl (> 7 mm) 1 (< 7 mm) 2 14tube length ctu (> 3 mm) 1 (< 3 mm) 2 15teeth length ct (> 5 mm) 1 (< 5 mm) 2 style 16shape sts bifid 1 simple swollen 2 simple un-swollen 3 17length stl (>5 mm) 1 <5 mm) 2 pod 18length pl (>30 mm) 1 (< 30 mm) 2 19shape pwk winged 1 keeled 2 seed 20length sl (>2 mm) 1 (< 2 mm) 2 21width sw (>1 mm) 1 (<1 mm) 2 22color sc black 1 brown 2 orange 1 green 2 seed/pod 23seed/pod s/p (>16 mm) 1 (<16 mm) 2 ovules 24number nov 0-9 1 10-19 2 2040 3 results variations of characters among species results of the basic descriptive statistics for quantitative continuous characters in all species are given in table (4). none of the characters had a correlation coefficient above the threshold (0.90), and all characters show normal distribution where no transformations are performed (tab. 5). thus, all studied quantitative continuous (17) and quantitative discrete (7) characters are included in the analyses. the highest correlation coefficients -0.84 and 0.76 occurred between the characters style shape; sts vs. shape of lower leaflet; sll and style length; stl vs. pod length; pl, respectively. the anova test show that seven [seed/pod length (4), seed color (7), shape of upper leaflet (8), shape of lower leaflet (11), calyx tube length (18), corolla color (21 and style shape (22)] out of the 24 examined characters are insignificantly different between species in all measured variables (tab. 5). 517 gaafar et al. table (4): basic descriptive statistics of quantitative parameters resulting from the morphometric analyses of the lotus species (sd=standard deviation, cv= coefficient of variation, 25%-75%=percentile boundaries. for species and character abbreviations see tables (1) and (3), respectively). species l. are l. edu l. orn l. halo l. pere l. poly l. cret l. cyt l. gla l. ang l. pal l. glin l. schim l. arab l. heb l. geb l. lan l. tetra l. conj quantitative continuous characters pl mean 23.6 25.1 35.0 22.5 35.1 12.5 32.5 35.0 25.0 17.5 19.1 16.1 11.0 27.5 22.5 25.0 18.5 45.0 45.0 sd 5.3 1.7 6.0 4.7 15.5 1.6 1.8 3.4 6.9 1.7 2.8 3.0 2.8 5.2 4.7 3.1 5.9 14.1 14.5 25%75% 17.326.4 23.626.7 25.233.5 19.026.8 25.344.7 11.414.0 31.434.2 32.638.6 15.525.8 16.318.5 17.521.8 13.617.8 8.514.0 22.732.5 19.026.8 23.027.0 17.919.1 29.451.6 27.452.1 cv 22.4 7.0 25.1 21.0 29.9 12.6 5.4 9.8 34.6 9.5 14.5 18.5 25.7 18.7 21.0 12.3 4.7 35.2 36.3 s/p mean 22.5 13.2 14.1 19.1 14.0 16.0 16.0 14.5 16.1 14.1 17.5 15.5 7.5 17.5 22.5 13.5 13.5 16.0 14.0 sd 3.3 1.0 2.3 5.0 2.5 0.8 0.8 1.6 0.8 0.7 0.4 0.4 1.0 1.6 1.6 1.0 1.2 2.3 0.7 25%75% 21.323.9 12.713.8 12.615.4 16.021.0 11.915.5 15.216.7 15.116.6 13.515.6 15.516.9 13.614.6 17.117.8 15.215.9 6.68.2 16.318.5 20.823.6 12.414.4 12.214.3 14.816.7 13.414.6 cv 14.8 7.5 16.3 26.5 17.7 4.9 4.9 11.3 4.7 4.7 2.3 2.7 13.0 9.4 3.7 7.7 8.7 14.5 5.0 sl mean 1.3 2.8 2.1 1.0 1.5 1.5 1.5 1.3 1.3 0.9 1.8 1.3 0.8 1.5 1.2 1.8 1.8 3.0 2.5 sd 0.4 0.4 0.3 0.1 0.3 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.2 0.1 0.2 0.2 0.1 0.4 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.6 0.4 25%75% 1.01.3 2.53.1 1.82.3 0.91.1 1.31.6 1.21.9 1.41.7 1.11.4 1.11.3 0.81.0 1.52.0 1.11.4 0.70.9 1.11.9 1.01.4 1.52.0 1.52.0 2.53.6 2.22.8 cv 33.7 14.7 16.8 14.9 22.0 25.7 19.1 15.7 13.2 9.1 12.4 15.2 15.6 25.9 20.0 12.4 12.4 21.0 14.7 sw mean 0.8 2.2 2.0 0.8 0.9 1.0 1.3 1.0 1.3 0.8 1.0 0.8 0.8 1.3 1.3 1.1 1.3 2.5 1.8 sd 0.1 0.3 0.5 0.2 0.1 0.4 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.2 25%75% 0.70.9 2.02.4 1.62.3 0.61.0 0.81.0 0.61.4 1.11.5 0.91.2 1.11.4 0.60.9 0.81.2 0.70.9 0.60.9 1.11.4 1.11.4 1.01.2 1.11.4 2.32.8 1.52.0 cv 18.6 14..8 23.0 28.3 10.5 41.9 16.1 15.1 14.7 21.1 18.9 22.0 25.3 13.7 14.6 8.6 14.2 12.5 12.4 ull mean 11.4 14.5 12.5 5.5 13.5 5.3 10.0 10.0 11.0 8.5 8.5 6.5 6.5 16.0 10.0 8.5 15.0 19.0 12.5 sd 1.8 1.2 3.4 1.6 2.3 1.3 3.2 3.1 2.7 2.3 1.0 2.7 1.0 4.3 4.7 2.2 3.7 7.3 1.5 25%75% 10.012.0 13.715.3 1014.9 4.46.8 12.415.1 3.86.4 7.512.3 7.412.2 9.113.1 6.410.3 7.79.3 3.99.3 5.87.2 12.019.7 5.714.7 6.49.5 11.018.0 12.724.1 11.613.6 cv 16.1 8.2 26.9 28.9 16.9 25.6 32.0 30.7 24.5 26.7 11.7 42.2 14.6 26.9 46.6 26.0 24.6 38.5 12.4 ulw mean 6.5 7.0 9.1 3.0 7.1 7.5 5.5 5.5 4.1 4.1 4.0 3.0 4.0 7.5 7.5 4.0 6.5 7.0 6.0 sd 0.6 0.9 3.3 0.8 1.5 1.6 2.2 2.3 1.2 1.2 0.7 1.4 0.7 3.9 2.9 0.7 0.9 0.8 2.6 25%75% 6.07.1 6.37.8 7.711.2 2.33.8 6.28.0 6.58.2 3.66.8 3.37.1 3.15.2 3.14.6 3.44.6 1.23.8 3.64.6 4.711.4 4.79.5 3.64.6 6.17.1 6.37.8 4.28.1 cv 9.6 13.1 36.4 25.5 21.4 21.9 40.1 40.6 30.1 29.4 17.2 46.7 17.6 52.6 38.1 17.6 13.4 10.9 43.8 lll mean 3.3 7.0 6.1 5.0 6.5 3.5 4.5 6.0 6.5 5.0 3.5 4.0 3.5 10.0 7.0 5.0 4.5 11.0 7.0 sd 0.6 0.5 1.7 1.9 2.0 1.1 1.5 2.8 2.5 2.0 0.9 0.7 1.0 6.0 1.8 2.0 1.5 4.8 2.2 25%75% 3.03.3 6.87.3 5.57.2 4.56.1 5.07.6 2.34.5 3.35.6 3.58.3 4.38.4 3.57.1 2.94.2 3.24.7 2.94.1 3.715.6 5.68.1 3.07.0 3.35.6 5.114 4.98.4 cv 19.0 7.0 27.0 38.2 31.0 30.8 33.6 46.4 38.0 39.6 24.8 18.0 28.3 60.3 25.8 40.0 33.6 43.3 31.0 llw mean 2.3 5.2 5.5 2.5 5.0 2.0 4.1 3.8 2.0 2.0 2.1 2.5 2.0 5.5 4.0 2.5 3.5 5.5 5.0 sd 0.7 0.7 1.5 1.0 1.8 0.6 0.8 1.5 0.9 0.7 0.7 0.4 0.6 2.4 1.2 0.4 0.9 1.6 2.0 25%75% 1.92.2 4.85.9 4.96.4 1.83.3 3.96.2 1.62.5 3.14.9 2.95.2 1.12.8 1.32.6 1.52.6 2.12.8 1.52.4 4.17.5 3.15.0 2.12.9 2.94.2 4.16.5 3.47.1 cv 30.1 14.3 26.7 39.1 35.5 32.1 20.7 40.2 42.4 36.4 33.9 14.6 32.1 43.4 30.1 15.7 24.8 29.2 39.8 r mean 8.1 7.0 5.0 2.0 5.5 2.5 0.8 2.8 3.5 4.5 6.5 3.5 3.5 5.0 2.8 10.0 3.0 7.5 8.5 sd 0.8 2.0 0.7 0.6 1.6 0.4 0.2 1.7 1.1 1.0 2.4 1.0 1.0 2.0 1.2 2.3 0.8 1.5 1.2 518 a multivariate morphometric analysis 25%75% 7.58.5 5.38.5 4.45.6 1.52.5 4.46.1 2.02.9 0.60,8 0.84.2 2.84.8 3.85.4 4.48.5 2.94.1 2.94.1 3.47.1 1.53.9 8.011.4 2.04.0 6.48.7 7.79.3 cv 9.6 28.1 13.6 30.2 28.4 16.1 22.0 60.5 32.4 22.8 37.5 28.3 28.3 39.8 44.5 23.3 27.2 19.9 14.7 bl mean 9.0 7.0 9.5 5.5 6.5 5.5 5.5 4.5 6.5 7.0 9.5 4.0 3.0 9.0 9.0 10.0 5.0 10.0 11.0 sd 1.0 1.3 1.0 1.6 1.1 0.4 0.4 1.0 1.1 0.8 0.4 0.7 0.6 0.7 0.7 0.7 0.7 2.6 1.5 25%75% 8.29.5 6.17.2 8.710.3 4.15.6 6.07.3 5.16.0 5.25.7 3.75.2 5.57.2 6.37.8 9.29.8 3.64.7 2.53.6 8.49.3 8.39.5 9.410.6 4.35.6 7.012.6 9.812.4 cv 11.1 18.0 10.8 29.2 16.4 7.3 6.5 22.0 16.5 11.1 4.0 16.8 21.0 7.4 0.8 6.9 14.7 25.7 13.4 nf mean 4.3 1.5 3.6 2.5 2.0 4.0 4.5 5.0 2.0 2.0 3.5 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.5 3.5 3.0 1.5 1.5 sd 0.5 0.5 1.0 0.5 0.8 1.2 1.1 2.0 0.7 0.8 1.6 0.9 0.8 0.9 0.5 1.1 0.9 0.5 0.5 25%75% 4.05.0 1.02.0 3.04.0 2.03.0 1.03.0 3.05.0 4.05.0 3.07.0 2.02.0 1.53.0 2.05.0 2.04.0 2.04.0 2.04.0 3.04.0 3.04.0 2.04.0 1.52.0 1.02.0 cv 11.2 35.1 26.8 21.1 40.8 28.9 24.0 40.0 33.3 40.8 45.2 31.4 27.2 31.4 15.1 30.9 31.4 35.1 35.1 cl mean 8.0 8.5 6.5 5.1 6.5 5.5 8.0 7.5 5.5 5.5 7.5 4.0 4.0 7.5 6.5 8.5 7.5 12.5 12.5 sd 0.7 1.3 1.0 0.7 1.1 0.8 0.6 1.1 1.1 0.4 1.1 0.7 0.7 1.0 0.9 1.0 1.1 2.7 1.6 25%75% 7.78.5 7.99.2 5.77.4 4.35.2 5.77.5 5.06.1 7.58.5 6.48.4 4.76.4 5.25.9 6.48.5 3.64.5 3.64.5 6.68.2 6.17.1 7.79.3 6.68.2 9.915.3 11.414.0 cv 8.6 15.8 14.8 14.8 17.0 15.1 8.0 15.2 19.3 7.2 14.6 17.3 16.8 13.7 13.4 11.7 14.5 21.3 12.5 ctu mean 3.5 3.5 3.7 2.5 3.5 2.5 3.5 3.5 3.0 1.5 3.0 2.5 2.3 3.0 3.0 4.3 3.0 4.0 8.0 sd 0.7 0.5 0.9 0.4 0.4 0.4 0.4 0.4 0.4 0.4 0.4 0.3 0.5 0.7 0.9 0.6 0.8 0.7 1.7 25%75% 3.04.2 3.14.0 2.94.4 2.13.0 3.24..0 2.12.9 3.13.8 3.13.9 2.63.2 1.11.9 2.63.2 2.32.8 1.92.7 3.03.0 2.04.0 3.74.9 2.04.0 3.44.5 6.49.8 cv 18.4 13.4 23.0 16.5 11.6 15.7 11.9 11.1 12.5 25.9 12.7 12.5 24.4 22.2 31.4 14.0 27.2 17.0 21.5 ct mean 5.0 0.5 2.8 1.5 3.0 3.0 4.5 4.0 3.0 3.5 4.5 2.5 1.8 5.0 3.0 4.3 4.5 8.5 4.0 sd 0.0 1.0 0.2 0.5 0.9 0.8 0.5 0.8 0.4 0.4 0.7 0.4 0.2 0.8 0.9 0.6 0.4 1.8 0.7 25%75% 5.05.0 5.06.0 2.53.0 1.02.0 2.04.0 2.04.0 4.05.0 3.05.0 2.73.5 3.13.8 3.95.0 2.22.8 1.62.0 4.25.7 2.04.0 3.84.9 4.24.9 6.99.8 3.44.5 cv 0.0 17.7 8.2 35.1 31.4 27.2 11.7 20.4 13.3 11.3 15.0 14.7 11.2 15.5 31.4 14.9 8.2 21.0 17.0 crl mean 12.6 12.5 9.5 6.5 9.0 6.5 15.0 11.0 8.5 6.5 9.0 6.0 4.0 8.5 9.5 12.9 14.0 16.0 13.5 sd 0.4 1.5 0.6 1.1 0.6 1.0 2.0 2.1 0.9 0.9 0.7 0.5 0.7 0.9 2.0 2.5 3.1 2.5 1.2 25%75% 12.113.0 11.613.6 9.410.0 5.57.8 8.69.3 5.77.2 13.816.6 9.112.6 7.89.3 6.17.1 8.49.5 5.76.4 3.24.6 7.89.1 7.511.6 12.014.3 11.816.4 13.517.9 12.214.3 cv 3.4 12.3 6.4 17.6 7.1 15.2 `13.2 19.1 10.7 13.4 7.6 9.0 18.7 10.9 21.0 19.7 21.9 15.7 8.7 stl mean 6.7 5.5 3.3 2.3 2.8 2.8 6.6 4.5 3.5 2.8 5.0 1.3 1.8 3.5 4.8 6.5 5.5 3.5 6.0 sd 0.4 0.4 0.2 0.3 0.2 0.2 0.4 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.5 0.2 0.2 0.4 0.2 0.4 0.4 0.4 0.8 25%75% 6.57.0 5.06.0 3.03.5 2.12.4 2.53.0 2.53.0 6.27.0 4.14.9 3.33.8 2.63.0 4.85.4 1.11.4 1.52.0 3.13.8 4.55.0 6.16.8 5.25.8 3.13.8 5.56.4 cv 5.7 8.1 6.5 12.4 7.9 7.5 6.3 10.0 9.4 7.3 9.6 13.7 12.4 10.9 4.8 5.7 6.9 11.9 12.8 nov mean 39.3 16.0 25.9 18.0 29.5 19.0 16.0 20.0 24.0 16.0 16.5 16.9 8.0 21.0 29.5 34.0 34.0 18.4 16.0 sd 4.4 0.8 0.9 0.8 1.3 0.8 0.8 0.9 1.8 0.8 1.1 0.9 0.8 0.9 1.1 0.7 0.9 1.3 0.8 25%75% 37.041.0 15.017.0 25.027.0 17.019.0 28.031.0 18.020.0 15.017.0 19.021.0 23.025.0 15.017.0 16.017.0 16.018.0 7.09.0 20.022.0 29.030.0 34.034.0 33.035.0 17.020.0 15.017.0 cv 11.2 5.1 4.3 4.5 4.3 4.3 5.1 4.7 7.6 5.1 6.5 5.2 10.2 4.5 3.7 2.0 2.8 6.9 5.1 519 gaafar et al. table (5): results of anova for the means of 24 morphological characters between the species groups resulted from cluster analysis of lotus species (for full names of character abbreviations, see table (3). ns= not significant, *= p<0.05, ** = p<0.01). species groups fvalue total p i ii iii iv v vi number of species 4 2 3 3 3 4 quantitative cardinal characters h ns ns ns 0.001** ns ns 13.41 0.001** pwk ns ns ns ns 0.03* ns 3.28 0.039* sc ns ns ns 0.001** ns 0.001** 1.07 0.42 sul 0.001** ns 0.001** 0.001** 0.001** 0.001** 1.35 0.30 sll 0.04* ns 0.001** 0.001** 0.001** ns 1.20 0.36 crc 0.04* ns ns 0.001** 0.001** ns 0.85 0.54 sts 0.001** ns ns 0.001** ns ns 1.83 0.17 quantitative continuous characters pl ns ns ns ns 0.001** ns 3.04 0.049* s/p ns ns 0.001** 0.001** ns ns 0.40 0.084 sl ns ns 0.001** 0.001** ns ns 19.64 0.001** sw 0.001** ns 0.001** ns ns ns 8.56 0.001** ull ns ns 0.001** ns ns ns 5.11 0.008** ulw 0.04* ns 0.001** 0.001** 0.001** ns 10.98 0.001** lll ns ns ns ns 0.001** ns 4.10 0.019* llw 0.04* ns ns ns ns ns 14.98 0.001** r ns 0.02* ns ns ns ns 4.42 0.014* bl ns ns 0.001** ns ns ns 3.52 0.031* nf 0.05* ns ns ns ns ns 9.00 0.001** cl ns ns ns ns 0.001** 0.001** 10.78 0.003** ctu ns ns 0.001** ns ns ns 2.72 0.07 ct ns ns ns ns ns 0.025* 3.54 0.031* crl ns ns ns ns ns ns 8.60 0.001** stl ns ns ns 0.003** ns ns 5.71 0.005** nov ns ns ns 0.001** 0.001** ns 15.06 0.001** cluster analysis the upgma dendrogram (diag. 1) is based on morphological similarity values (gower's coefficient) with a cophenetic correlation of 0.704, demonstrating good consistency in the presented morphological patterns. the tree can be divided into three acceptable levels yielding six species-specific groups, beyond which recognition of the larger number of groups will be less significant. at the first level of classification, groups (v) and (vi) were separated. group (v) comprised of lotus edulis l. (sect. krokeria), l. tetragonolobus l. and l. conjugatus l. (the latter two species included in subgenus tetragonolobus), and group (vi) included lotus ornithopodioides l., l. peregrinus l., l. arabicus l. and l. hebranicus hochst. ex brand. at the second hierarchical level, groups (iii) and (iv) were recognized. group (iii) comprised of the perennials lotus polyphyllos e.d. clarke, l. creticus l. and l. cytisoides l., group (iv) consisted of l. gebelia vent., l. lanuginosus vent. and l. arenarius brot. (subgenus pedrosia). at the third classification level, groups (i) and (ii) were separated. 520 a multivariate morphometric analysis group (i) consisted of out's of lotus halophilus boiss. & spruner, l. angustissimus l., l. glinoides delile and l. schimperi steud. ex boiss., group (ii) included the perennials l. glaber mill. and l. palustris willd. the results of anova test between the six separated groups (i-vi) showed that habit of the plant (h; p=0.001) and pod shape (pwk; p=0.039) were the quantitative discrete cardinal characters that were significantly different among groups (tab. 6). except for the length of calyx tube (ctu) and the ratio between seed/pod (s/p), all the remaining quantitative continuous characters were significantly different among groups. i ii iii iv v vi diagram (1): cluster analysis (upgma classification method and gower's similarity coefficient) derived from the 24 characters of studied lotus species (species abbreviations are shown in table (1), i-vi are the separated species groups). table (6): pearson's correlations coefficients between characters (for full names of character numbers, see table (3). **= p<0.01, *=p < 0.05). 2 -0.05 3 -0.21 0.42 4 0.22 0.28 0.24 5 -0.35 0.41 0.63 0.07 6 0.46 0.28 0.22 0.27 0.35 7 0.01 0.34 0.03 0.17 0.02 0.17 8 0.20 0.24 0.45 0.09 -0.40 0.09 0.00 9 -0.19 0.15 0.09 0.42 0.29 0.19 0.16 0.01 521 gaafar et al. principal coordinates analysis (pcoa) based on gower’s similarity coefficient of the 24 characters, a principal coordinates analysis (pcoa) is performed and visualized in diagram (2). it supports the separation patterns of the six species groups (i-vi) along the first two axes that are responsible for 40.7% of the total variation (26.25% for axis 1, and 14.45% for axis 2). a clear separation between groups (i) and (ii) positioned along the negative end of axis 1, and groups (v) and (vi) along its positive ends was indicated. an overlap occurred between groups (iii) and (iv) positioned along the negative end of axis 2. other projections confirmed the same general pattern, although less clearly because they are supported by axes that account for less inertia than the first two. along axis 1 (results not shown), characters with the highest scores (more than 0.6) were pod length (pl), seed length (sl), upper leaflet width (ulw), lower leaflet width 10 0.05 0.58 0.25 0.42 0.39 0.42 0.17 0.04 0.72 11 0.37 0.30 0.11 0.08 -0.16 0.35 0.00 0.30 -0.08 -0.26 12 -0.42 0.37 0.34 0.19 0.54 0.19 0.32 0.01 0.37 0.29 0.18 13 -0.19 0.81 0.34 0.42 0.54 0.42 0.32 0.01 0.37 0.72 0.35 0.58 14 -0.36 0.21 0.19 0.15 0.31 -0.15 0.01 0.38 -0.15 -0.21 0.05 0.33 0.09 15 -0.51 0.05 0.22 0.27 0.35 0.03 0.17 0.34 0.19 -0.05 0.08 0.42 0.19 0.37 16 0.29 0.27 0.75 0.02 -0.84 -0.29 0.01 0.42 -0.17 -0.33 0.04 0.46 -0.46 0.26 0.29 17 -0.03 0.52 0.22 0.27 0.35 0.51 0.02 0.34 0.42 0.65 0.37 0.19 0.64 0.11 0.27 -0.29 18 0.22 0.28 0.22 0.27 0.35 0.51 0.35 0.20 0.19 0.42 0.08 0.19 0.42 0.11 0.27 -0.29 0.76 19 -0.15 0.04 0.05 0.41 0.28 0.15 0.18 0.54 0.39 0.21 0.10 0.15 0.15 0.36 0.41 -0.40 0.41 0.15 20 0.04 0.15 0.34 0.04 0.29 0.42 0.32 0.13 0.16 0.51 0.22 0.06 0.37 0.15 0.04 -0.46 0.64 0.64 0.15 21 -0.28 0.13 0.02 0.42 -0.13 0.05 0.02 0.18 0.15 -0.10 0.26 0.15 -0.07 0.04 0.19 0.03 0.05 0.19 0.04 0.15 22 -0.12 0.03 0.24 0.29 -0.01 -0.29 0.30 0.19 -0.46 -0.43 0.08 0.12 -0.07 0.07 0.12 -0.06 -0.29 0.29 0.29 -0.46 0.17 23 0.18 0.13 0.20 0.19 0.14 0.28 0.34 0.52 -0.07 0.13 0.16 0.29 -0.07 0.04 0.05 -0.27 0.52 0.52 0.29 0.59 0.13 0.17 24 0.09 0.19 0.23 0.29 -0.15 0.29 0.14 0.13 0.39 0.36 0.01 0.22 0.22 0.02 0.29 0.31 0.48 0.48 0.02 0.22 0.01 0.34 0.01 characters 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 shapiro wilk test 0.59 ** 0.62 ** 0.36 ** 0.59 ** 0.51 ** 0.59 ** 0.69 ** 0.86 ** 0.64 ** 0.62 ** 0.77 ** 0.64 ** 0.64 ** 0.55 ** 0.59 ** 0.44 ** 0.59 ** 0.59 ** 0.55 ** 0.64 ** 0.62 ** 0.7 ** 0.6 ** 0.7 ** panova 0.001 ** 0.05 * 0.04 * 0.84 0.001 ** 0.001 ** 0.42 0.30 0.001 ** 0.001 ** 0.36 0.02 * 0.001 ** 0.01 * 0.03 * 0.001 ** 0.001 ** 0.07 0.03 * 0.001 ** 0.53 0.17 0.001 ** 0.001 ** 522 a multivariate morphometric analysis (llw), number of flowers (nf), calyx length (cl) and calyx tube length (ctu). along axis 2, the habit of plants (h) and style shape (sts) had the highest scores. thirteen out of the 17 quantitative continuous characters showed significant variations along the first three pca axes (tab. 7). variations between pl, s/p, r and ct were insignificantly different along the three axes. principal components analysis (pca) the ordination diagram from the principal components analysis (diag. 3) based on the 17 quantitative continuous characters showed a pattern similar to the results of the cluster analysis. the scores of the first three components explained 61.1% of the total variation accounted for 34.2%, 14.5%, and 12.4% of the total variance for axes 1, 2 and 3, respectively. pod length (pl), seed width (sw), upper leaflet width (ulw), lower leaflet width (llw), calyx length (cl), and calyx tube length (ctu) showed highest loadings in relation to pca axis 1 (tab. 7). along pca axis 2, length of lower leaflet (lll), length of corolla (crl) and length of style (stl) had the highest loadings (the latter character contributed weakly to pca axis 1). the seed length (sl), number of flowers (nf) and number of ovules (nov) contributed essentially to the construction of pca axis 3. the six species groups were distributed in the ordination plane, with some overlap, along the first two important pca axes. inspection to the pca diagram, the number of flowers (nf) was correlated to group (i) that occupied the positive end of pca axis 1, while groups (v) and (vi) occupied the negative end that were correlated to (lll), (llw), (ulw) and (cl). whereas group (ii), which occupied the center of the ordination plane, was not affected by any character, groups (iii) and (iv) that positioned on the positive end of pca axis 2 were correlated with (stl). diagram (3): scatter plot of principal components analysis (pca) performed on 17 quantitative characters along the first two pca axes, with projection of the variables on the factor plane (for species and character abbreviations see tables (1) and (3), respectively. gr i-vi refers to the species groups). 523 gaafar et al. diagram (2): principal coordinates analysis (pcoa) scatterplot performed on 24 quantitative and qualitative characters along axes 1 and 2, i-vi are the species groups, for species abbreviations see table (1). table (7): results of the principal components analysis (pca) for the species of the lotus as otus-total variance and 17 morphological quantitative continuous characters showing the factor loadings on the first three principal components, and results of one-way anova fand p-values for characters with normal distribution (the numbers in bold are characters with high factor loading > 0.6. for character abbreviations, see table (3), * = p<0.05, ** = p< 0.01). characters pca–factor loadings anova–f value p value pc1 pc2 pc3 pl -0.62 -0.31 0.04 2.92 0.056 s/p -0.47 -0.29 -0.38 2.52 0.083 sl -0.58 -0.23 0.61 8.35 0.001** sw -0.63 0.26 -0.02 4.93 0.009** ull -0.59 -0.22 -0.33 3.56 0.030* ulw -0.81 0.01 -0.21 14.64 0.001** lll -0.50 -0.64 0.17 7.25 0.002** llw -0.82 -0.29 0.08 15.88 0.001** r -0.10 -0.35 0.47 0.78 0.581 bl -0.35 -0.32 0.17 3.80 0.024* 524 a multivariate morphometric analysis nf 0.50 0.07 -0.76 6.38 0.003** cl -0.87 0.30 0.0007 6.55 0.003** ctu -0.73 0.40 0.02 4.93 0.009** ct -0.40 -0.07 0.30 1.11 0.403 crl -0.59 0.64 0.16 6.09 0.004** stl -0.27 0.79 0.33 3.67 0.03* nov -0.50 0.06 -0.67 6.40 0.003** discussion the genus lotus possesses a difficult generic delimitation, the classification of this genus is always of controversy among taxonomists; whereas gillett (1958) and ball and chrtkovážertová (1968) proposed subgenera, sections and subsections. on the other hand, heyn (1970) and heyn and herrnstadt (1968) suggested species groups to place the taxa and describe the relationships among species. this study of lotus species in egypt was based on the results of numerical analyses of morphological characters (vegetative and reproductive), the current results showed significant characters that may help in the diagnosis of the studied taxa, which were significantly different concerning the analyzed morphological characters. in the present study, the applications of multivariate morphometric techniques resulted in the delimitation of 19 well-separated species of lotus, and are clearly distinguished from each other. as a result of the cluster, pcoa, and pca analyses six clear clusters are obtained and they correspond quite well with the species of lotus accepted in flora of egypt (el hadidy, 2003; boulos, 2009; el-gazzar et al., 2013). upgma gives insight into the degree of similarity among the out’s and whether they form groups/clusters. pcoa and pca reflect which characters are important on the axes, and indicate the significant characters based on the highest factor loadings. for that reason, it becomes clear which characters are diagnostic and support the separation between groups, and can be useful to distinguish taxa. this study revealed the importance of pod length, seed dimensions, measurements of upper and lower leaflets, calyx, length of corolla, length of style, numbers of flowers and ovules as characteristics that determinate the studied 19 species of lotus. generally, our results confirm congruence between the upgma clustering, pcoa and pca analyses, in suggesting six groups: group (i): lotus halophilus, l. angustissimus, l. glinoides and l. schimperi this group can be differentiated from the others by the width of the lower leaflets (llw) and the variations in the number of flowers (nf) which showed significant differences within members of this group (p=0.04 and 0.05, respectively), and among other groups (p=0.001; tab. 6). despite not being included in the analysis, the morphological difference in the pod shape (ps) between species of this group was diagnostic: curved in l. glinoides but straight in the others. this group also occupied the extreme ends along the first axes of pcoa and pca. other significant quantitative continuous characters were seed width (sw), and upper leaflets width (ulw). along pca axis 1, it occupied the positive end that was affected significantly by the number of flowers (nf). 525 gaafar et al. group (ii): lotus glaber and l. palustris both species are annuals (sect. lotus) and can be distinguished by the length of rachis (r) that showed significant difference (p=0.02) between them (3.5 mm for the former and 6.5 mm for the latter), and among other groups (p=0.014). in pcoa ordination diagram, this group occupied a central position along axis 1, and was not affected by any character in pca diagram. the number of lateral veins, not included in the analysis, can be used to distinguish both species from each other: 3 pairs in l. glaber, and 2 pairs in l. palustris. according to zareh et al. (2017), lotus glaber can easily be differentiated from all lotus species by the absence of trichomes on the stem, leaf, and calyx. group (iii): lotus polyphyllos, l. creticus and l. cytisoides variations in the bract length (bl), upper leaflet length (ull) and the length of calyx tube (ctu) were the significant quantitative continuous characters that differentiate among members of this group and between the others (tab. 6). for quantitative cardinal character, between both species of lotus, the shape of both upper (sul) and lower (sll) leaflets were of significant differences (p=0.001). in the lower leaflets, from lanceolate to ovate and in the upper leaflets ranged between obovate to lanceolate. this group occupied the negative end along pcoa axis1, and overlapped with group (iv), and positioned in the centre of pca ordination plane overlapping with groups (ii) and (iv) without any correlations to other variables. with respect to micromorphological characters, zareh et al. (2017) found a high similarity coefficient (0.75) between lotus creticus and l. cytisoides as both have the same type of trichomes on the stem, leaf, and calyx as well as the same shape of seeds. in our study, the latter two species were closely related with each other forming a cluster together (diag. 1) which supports zareh et al. (2017) results. group (iv): lotus gebelia, l. lanuginosus and l. arenarius the members of this group can be differentiated among and between the others by variations in style length (stl, tab. 6). the length of rachis (r) was the longest (10 mm) in lotus gebalia, while it was the shortest in l. lanuginosus (3 mm). as a quantitative cardinal character, the style shape (sts) played a significant role in the morphological discrimination between this and other groups. in l. arenarius, it was bifid, while simple in the remaining two species. lotus arenarius formed a separate branch in this cluster (diag. 1). differences in the ratio between seed and the pod (s/p) and the length of seeds (sl) shared the significant characters that helped in delimitation of species of groups (iii) and (iv). along the positive end of pca axis 2, this group occupied the highest scores and showed a correlation to the style length (stl; diag. 3). group (v): lotus edulis, l. tetragonolobus and l. conjugatus the discriminating significant (p=0.001) quantitative continuous characters that can separate this group were the pod length (pl) and length of lower leaflet (lll). it shared the significant variation in the number of ovules (nov) with group (iv), and calyx length with group (vi). this can be illustrated in diagrams (2) and (3) where this group occupied the highest positive scores along pcoa axis 1 and was affected by (pl), (nov) and (lll). here, the variation in the shape of the pod (pwk) was significantly different and deliminates two 526 a multivariate morphometric analysis species of his group: l. tetragonolobus with winged pod and l. conjugatus with a keeled pod. along pca axis 1, this group was spread at the negative end. the inclusion of l. tetragonolobus and l. conjugatus in this group is quite true and confirmed their taxonomic classification belonging to a separate subgenus tetragonolobus (callen, 1959). group (vi): lotus ornithopodioides, l. peregrinus, l. arabicus and l. hebranicus within the four species of this group, differences in seed color (sc) and shape of the upper leaflet (sul) were the significant quantitative cardinal characters (tab. 6). lotus arabicus can be differentiated from the others by its green seed color, while the others have brown. the shape of upper leaflets varied from obovate to rhombic in l. ornithopodioides and l. peregrinus, and from obovate in l. arabicus and oblanceolate in l. hebranicus. the length of calyx teeth (ct) was the diagnostic character among the studied species. this fact becomes true when examining the pca ordination diagram (diag. 3). together with a group (v), they positioned along the positive end of pcoa axis 1. the upgma dendrogram resulted from zareh et al. (2017) placed l. arabicus and l. hebranicus as closely related branches in one cluster. in the current study, the latter two species separated into two close branches within the same cluster (diag. 1). conclusions lotus is a taxonomically difficult genus. using upgma clustering, pcoa and pca analyses to both quantitative cardinal and continuous morphological vegetative and reproductive characters helped in the differentiation of the 19 species of lotus. this study revealed the importance of pod length, seed dimensions, measurements of upper and lower leaflets, calyx, length of corolla, length of style, numbers of flowers and ovules as characteristics that discriminate between the studied taxa. despite its being limited to some species of lotus in egypt, our results proposed diagnostic characters that were not previously used in the genus lotus, and enabled the separation of six species-specific groups. future more investigations and analyses using more characters to improve species delimitation are recommended. this becomes true especially to avoid overlapping of characters in closely related species. acknowledgments the authors would like to thank three anonymous reviewers for their revision and helpful comments on an earlier version of this manuscript. conflict of interest statment the authors have no conflicts of interest to declare. literature cited albert, s. and sharma, b. 2013. comparative foliar micromorphological studies of some bauhinia (leguminosae) species. turkish journal of botany, 37: 276-281. allan, g. j. and porter, j. m. 2000. tribal delimitation and phylogenetic relationships of loteae and coronilleae (faboideae: fabaceae) with special reference to lotus: 527 gaafar et al. evidence from nuclear ribosomal its sequences. american journal of botany, 87(12):1871-1881. arambarri, a. m., stenglein, s. a., colares, m. n. and novoa, m. c. 2005. taxonomy of the new world species of lotus (leguminosae: loteae). australian journal of botany, 53: 797812. ball, p. w. and chrtková-žertová, a. 1968. lotus l. in: tutin, t. g., heywood, v. h., burges, n. a., moore, d. m., valentine, s. m. and webb, d. a. 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(fabaceae: loteae) from egypt. turkish journal of botany, 41: 273-288. zohary, m. 1972. flora palaestina. part 2, text platanaceae to umbelliferae. israel academy of science and humanities, jerusalem, 656 pp. zorić, l., metkulov, l., lukovic, j., boza, p. and polic, d. 2009. leaf epidermal characteristics of trifolium l. species from serbia and montenegro. flora, 204: 198209. 532 a multivariate morphometric analysis bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2021) 16 (4): 509-533. lotus l.,1753لجنس املتغيرات التحليل املورفومتري متعدد (fabaceae, loteae) في مصر على جعفر*، منير عبد الغنى**، عزة الحديدي** و إيثار حسين*** .، الخارجة، مصرالجديد قسم النبات، كلية العلوم، جامعة الوادى * .12613م النبات وامليكروبيولوجي، كلية العلوم، جامعة القاهرة، الجيزة، مصر ** قس ، كلية التربية، جامعة عين شمس، القاهرة، العلوم البيولوجية والجيولوجية *** قسم .مصر 20/12/2021أريخ النشر: ، ت23/10/2021، تأريخ القبول: 20/08/2021تأريخ االستالم: الخالصة الدراسة الحالية إلى فحص وتأكيد أنماط العالقات التصنيفية املظهرية هدفت ذلك باستخدام في مصر واجدة املتو lotus l., 1753ومدى التباين فيما بين أنواع جنس معشبية عينة 300حوالي لصفة مظهرية 24تقنيات التحليل املورفومتري. تم تسجيل اللوتس. بناًء على التحليالت العددية للسمات ممثلة لتسعة عشر نوًعا من جنس ، تحليل اإلحداثيات الرئيس ي cluster analysisاملظهرية األساسية )التحليل الشجري pcoa وتحليل املكون الرئيس يpca نوًعا من اللوتس في مصر 19(، تم التأكيد على l. angustissimus و lotus halophilus( 1هى كالتالي: )مجموعات و وتقسيمهم الى ست l. palustris( ،3 )lotusو l. schimperi( ،2 )lotus glaberو l. glinoidesو polyphyllos وl. creticus وl. cytisoides ،(4) lotus gebelia وl. lanuginosus وl. 533 gaafar et al. arenarius( ،5 )lotus edulis وl. tetragonolobus وl. conjugatus( ،6 )lotus ornithopodioides وl. peregrinus وl. arabicus وl. hebranicus. كان -التي تم فحصها للمرة األولى في هذا البحث -أظهرت النتائج ان بعض الصفات لها تأثير معنوي في فصل األنواع املختلفة مثل طول القرن، أبعاد البذور، سمات لعلوية والسفلية، طول كال من الكأس والتويج والقلم، باإلضافة الى عدد الوريقات ا األزهار والبويضات. bull 325 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum khamis and hamdy bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2023) 17 (3): 325-347. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2023.17.3.0325 original article palynological studies for some cultivated species of pinus l., 1753 (pinales, pinaceae) in egypt asmaa khamis* and rim hamdy **♦ *department of botany, faculty of science, fayoum university, fayoum, egypt. **department of botany, faculty of science, the herbarium, cairo university, giza, egypt. ♦ corresponding author: rhamdy@sci.cu.edu.eg recived date: 05 october 2022, accepted date 28 december 2022, published date:20 june 2023 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract pollen grains of the five cultivated species of pinus l., 1753 from subsect. pinaster (order pinales, family pinaceae) were collected from the orman botanic gardens at giza in addition to the herbarium specimens. they were examined by light and scanning electron microscopy to detect the taxonomic value of their pollen characteristics. the pollen grains were bisaccate. an artificial key constructed according to the morphology of pollen grains recognizes the five species that belong to pinus: p. pinea linnaeus, 1753; p. canariensis smith, 1828; p. halepensis miller, 1768; p. roxburghii sargent, 1897; and p. brutia tenore, 1811. the differential items included the presence or absence of apertures, e.g. the monosulcate colpus that presents in p. pinea and p. brutia; pollen shape without sacci that could be perprolate as in p. pinea or prolate as in the remaining species; pollen shape (outlined with sacci) in polar view that could be haploxylonoid as in p. pinea and p. roxburghii or diploxylonoid as in the remaining species; in addition to cappa and sacci exine sculpture. a dendrogram from the community analysis package statistical program for data analysis supported the separation of five species of pinus in egypt and showed that p. canariensis and p. halepensis were closely related, as well as p. brutia and p. roxburghii. the cluster separated p. pinea into a separate group, but it was more closely related to p. canariensis and p. halepensis. the cluster tree was illustrated, visualized, and confirmed by a heat map based on the r programming language for effective manipulation of the data. keywords: cultivated trees, data analysis, egypt, pinus, pollen morphology. introduction the family pinaceae spreng. ex f. rudolphi (1830) belongs to the order pinales gorozh (1904), which included 200 species grouped under 11 genera and distributed in the northern hemisphere (farjon, 2001). pinus species are distributed over north africa, asia, europe, and north america (shu, 1999). pinus trees dominate northern hemisphere forests, including boreal, subalpine, temperate, tropical, and arid woodlands (richardson and rundel, 1998). they are sources of economically important wood, paper, resins, and charcoal, and their seeds are used as food as well as for ornamentation (le maitre, 1998). bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799-print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2023.17.3.0325 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5043-8711 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7777-693x mailto:rhamdy@sci.cu.edu.eg https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 326 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum palynological studies for some cultivated species large winter buds with numerous scales. leaves are needle-like, straight or twisted, with persistent or deciduous membranous sheaths at the base (shu, 1999). genus pinus has two subgenera, [subgenus pinus l. (1753) and subgenus strobus (d. don) lemmon (1895)] as classified by gernandt et al. (2005). in turn, the subgenus pinus, ‘hard pines’ has two sections [sect. pinus l. (1753) and sect. trifoliae duhamel (1755)]. the section pinus is comprised of two subsections: subsect. pinus l. (1753), and subsect. pinaster loudon (1838); the latter subsection includes the five studied pinus species: p. brutia, p. canariensis, p. halepensis, p. pinea, and p. roxburghii. the section trifoliae comprises three subsections [subsect. contortae little and critchfield (1969), subsect. australes loudon (1838), and subsect. ponderosae loudon (1838)]. the subgenus strobus, ‘soft pines’ has two sections: [sect. quinquefoliae duhamel (1755), including three subsections: subsect. strobui loudon (1838), subsect. krempfianae little and critchfield (1969), and subsect. gerardianae loudon (1838), and sect. parrya mayr (1890), with three subsections: namely, balfourianae engelm. (1880), cembroides engelm. (1880), and nelsonianae burgh (1973). farjon (2001) recognized 109 species in the genus pinus, while price et al. (1998) proposed 111 species in two subgenera, four sections, and 17 subsections based on cross ability, secondary metabolites, protein, dna, morphological, anatomical, and cytological studies. pines are trees or rarely shrubs, evergreen, with regularly whorled branches; branchlets are strongly dimorphic: long branchlets bear scale-like leaves; short branchlets are persistent or deciduous and bear acicular leaves in fascicles of 2-5.male cones are axillary, upright, densely clustered at the base of short shoots, sessile, small, soft, cylindrical, oblong, or ovoid, up to 15 mm long; female cones are terminal or sub-terminal, woody, and collapse as a whole; scales are cuneate, thickened at the apex, and frequently extended; seeds are winged or not (shu, 1999). pollen morphology such as size, shape, exine thickness, and sculpture pattern are very important characteristics and can be used for identification and differentiation between related species (goda and gabr, 2018). pollen identification is widely used in the reconstruction of vegetation, past climates, and plant biodiversity. studies concerning pollen structure, size, and form are key issues in basic sciences such as plant taxonomy and evolution (dafni et al., 2000). according to okwulehie and okoli (1999), pollen morphology differences can not only reclassify the investigated taxa, but also their morphological similarities can indicate interspecific relationships. in general, gymnosperms have great diversity in pollen morphology, which is significant in the classification of their taxa. pollens of the order pinales are distinguished by their two sacci and a proximal part called the cap (khan et al., 2018). pinaceae is one of the conifer families that is well-known for its saccate pollen as a modified form of pollen grain to facilitate pollination (tomlinson, 1994). pinus male cones in clusters have numerous microsporophylls that are considered stamens in angiosperms, within which two microsporangia contain millions of bisaccate microspores, or pollen grains, that are carried 327 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum khamis and hamdy by the wind during pollination. the recognition of pollen grain characteristics can be used to trace the history of taxa; these have significant taxonomic value (moore and webb, 1978). according to khan et al. (2017), both light microscopy (lm) and scanning electron microscopy (sem) have significant value in the investigation and identification of pollen grains from various plant taxa. using sem, in addition to pollen examination and description by lm, greatly increases resolution and confirms the exine surface morphology, which can be more significant at the species level (bagnell, 1975; weir and thurston, 1977). sem can be used to identify pollen grains based on external exine features (jones and bryant, 2007; faria et al., 2021), and the internal structure of pinus pollen bladders (sivak and caratini, 1973). ting (1965) used pollen morphological characteristics to identify 20 taxa within pinus and other pinaceae taxa in california. several authors investigated the pollen morphology of pinus: erdtman (1969); ueno (1978); iwanami et al. (1988); song et al. (2012); and nikolić et al. (2019). also, the evolutionary study of liu and basinger (2000) was carried out on some fossil taxa of pinaceae (including pinus) in canada. khan et al. (2018) assessed the pollen flora of gymnosperms in pakistan, and chropeňová et al. (2016) estimated the pinus pollen’s sensitivity to air pollution in some sites in the slovak mountains. in egypt, the genus pinus contributes to 4.1% of the total pollen production of the taxa in the rosetta district as a result of the work of taia et al. (2019). as a result, the study of its pollen should be of great interest in egypt. palyno-morphological studies of pinus in egypt need more elaborated investigation, accordingly, the present study will focus on the pollen grain qualitative and quantitative morphological characters of five pinus species cultivated in gardens. to provide palynological data to support the taxonomy of the studied pinus species cultivated in egypt. materials and methods materials data: herbarium specimens of pinus from cai and caim were studied, and the freshly collected specimens were compared with authentic specimens by r. hamdy at the herbarium of cairo university. the new collections of the five species from the orman botanic garden east of cairo university at giza, egypt, were done to provide materials for pollen studies. a total of 30 pollen grains were taken from the third pollen sacs from the apex of male strobili for each species and were examined by both light and scanning electron microscopy. the pollen specimens have been preserved in the herbarium of fayoum university (proposed abbreviation "caif"), fayoum province, egypt. an artificial key of pollen morphological characters (observed by both lm and sem) was constructed for the studied species. the microscopic study by light microscopy (lm): the collected pollen grains were acetolyzed with glycerin according to a modified protocol of pollen extraction by moore et al. (1991). by using a light microscope, the carl zeiss m305973 at x400, the parameters measured are described in table (1). examination of the pollen grains was done in polar and 328 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum palynological studies for some cultivated species equatorial views. light microscopy photos were captured using an axiocam 208 colour microscope camera, and the investigation was performed by a primostar carl zeiss microscope. table (1): pollen morphological data of the examined pinus species [pl1 (corpus length), pl2 (pollen length with sacci), pw1 (corpus width), pw2 (pollen width with sacci), al (saccus length), aw (saccus width), et (exine thickness), fl (furrow length), pps (pollen shape in polar view), ps= pl1/pw1, cs (cappa sculpture), and ss (succus sculpture)]. species pl1 (µm) pl2 (µm) pw1(µm) pw2 (µm) al (µm) aw (µm) et (µm) fl (µm) p. pinea 29-33 (31) 34-39 (36.5) 12-18 (15) 17-20 (18.5) 15-18 (16.5) 10-14 (12) 1 1-10 (5.5) p. canariensis 30-37 (33.5) 33-42 (37.5) 14-20 (17) 20-25 (22.5) 11-20 (15.5) 15-19 (17) 1 1-8 (4.5) p. halepensis 27-32 (29.5) 34-43 (38.5) 16-26 (21) 22-28 (25) 17-26 (21.5) 15-25 (20) 1-2 (1.5) 5-9 (7) p. roxburghii 23-30 (26.5) 32-39 (35.5) 16-18 (17) 20-24 (22) 14-18 (16) 13-18 (15.5) 1 5-7 (6) p. brutia 16-25 (20.5) 30-36 (33) 9-20 (14.5) 17-24 (20.5) 12-17 (14.5) 12-18 (15) 1 2-10 (6) table (1, cont.) species size ps aperture colpus length pps sculpture shape ratio cs ss p. pinea m ed iu m -s iz ed g ra in s p er p ro la te 2.06 m o n o su lc at e 15-17 (16) h ap lo x y lo n o id s ca b ra te p er fo ra te p. canariensis p ro la te 1.97 a b se n t ـــــــــــ d ip lo x y lo n o id g ra n u la te r u g u la te p. halepensis 1.4 ـــــــــــ v er ru ca te s ca b ra te p. roxburghii 1.55 ـــــــــــ h ap lo x y lo n o id 329 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum khamis and hamdy p. brutia s m al l g ra in s 1.41 m o n o su lc at e 10-21 (15.5) d ip lo x y lo n o id the microscopic study by scanning electron microscopy (sem): pollen grains were directly dusted onto carbon stubs provided with double-sided tape, then coated with a 150 å (15 nm) gold layer. the coating step was made by using the jfc-1100e ion sputter device. the sculpturing pattern of pollen grains per taxon was investigated by using the jsm5400lv scanning microscope at (x 500-x 10.000). pollen terminology used: pollen grains of the studied species were described according to praglowski and punt (1973). pollen data analysis: pollen morphological data were based on 14 morphological characters and 30 character states that described pollen dimensions, shape, and exine sculpture as qualitative binary characters and quantitative multi-state characters, respectively, and both were used as operational taxonomic units (otus) (tab. 2). using the community analysis package (cap) statistical program, an average linkage agglomerative clustering method was used to obtain a classification dendrogram, and a reciprocal averaging (ra) ordination method was used to obtain an ordination plot, as described by schütze and silverstein (1997). the "gg heat map" package version 2.1 (luo, 2021) was used to create a heat map for clustering visualization. table (2): pollen morphological characters, character states, and data matrix applied to the numerical analysis of the examined pinus species. characters character states p. pinea p. canariensis p. halepensis p. roxburghii p. brutia pollen outline in polar view diploxylonoid 0 1 1 0 1 haploxylonoid 1 0 0 1 0 corpus length (µm) >28.2 1 1 1 0 0 <28.2 0 0 0 1 1 pollen length with sacci (µm) >36.2 1 1 1 0 0 <36.2 0 0 0 1 1 corpus width (µm) >16.9 0 1 1 1 0 <16.9 1 0 0 0 1 330 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum palynological studies for some cultivated species pollen width with sacci (µm) >21.7 0 1 1 1 0 <21.7 1 0 0 0 1 saccus length (µm) >16.8 0 0 1 0 0 <16.8 1 1 0 1 1 saccus width (µm) >15.9 0 1 1 0 0 <15.9 1 0 0 1 1 exine thickness (µm) =1 1 1 0 1 1 1-2 0 0 1 0 0 furrow length (µm) >5.8 0 0 1 1 1 <5.8 1 1 0 0 0 equatorial pollen shape perprolate 1 0 0 0 0 prolate 0 1 1 1 1 ratio between the polar axis and the equatorial diameter >1.67 1 1 0 0 0 <1.67 0 0 1 1 1 cappa sculpture scabrate 1 0 0 0 0 granulate 0 1 0 0 0 verrucate 0 0 1 1 1 succus sculpture psilate 1 0 0 0 0 rugulate 0 1 0 0 0 scabrate 0 0 1 1 1 monosulcate aperture present 1 0 0 0 1 absent 0 1 1 1 0 results the pollen grains of the studied pinus species were heteropolar, bilaterally symmetric, and bisaccate monads; table (2) summarized the pollen morphological data of the studied species. pollen's morphological description of each species (pl. 1-3) pinus pinea l., 1753: tree with a rounded crown; reddish-grey bark with deep longitudinally fissured; yellowish shoots; stiff gray-green leaves arranged in bundles of two, 331 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum khamis and hamdy 10–20 cm long; male cones broad ovoid; female cones up to 15 cm long, sessile. corpus lengths of 29–33 µm, pollen lengths with sacci of 34-39 µm, corpus widths of 12 –18 µm, pollen widths with sacci of 17–20 µm, saccus lengths of 15–18 µm, saccus widths of 10–14 µm, exine thickness of one µm, and furrow lengths (leptoma) of 1–10 µm. equatorial pollen with perprolate shape (pl1/pw1 ratio of 2.06). monosulcate aperture between pollen sacci with a length of 15–17 µm. pollen haploxylonoid in polar view. exine coarse and cappa sculpture scabrate. sacci sculptures perforate. pinus canariensis c. sm. ex dc., 1825: tree; reddish bark deeply fissured; leaves arranged in bundles of 3, consisting of very long, string-like pendant needles, glossy blue-green, up to 30 cm long, drooping; sheath about 2 cm long; male cones conical-elongated, orange-yellow; female cones cylindrical-ovoid, 20 cm long, arranged in clusters of 2–3, conical-elongated, purplish. pollen grains with a corpus length of 30–37 µm, pollen length with sacci 33–42 µm, corpus width of 14–20 µm, pollen width with sacci of 20–25 µm, saccus length 11–20 µm, saccus width 15–19 µm, exine thickness of one µm and furrow length 1-8 µm. equatorial pollen with prolate shape (pl1/pw1 ratio of 1.97). pollen diploxylonoid in polar view. exine coarse and cappa sculptures granulate. sacci sculptures regulate. pinus halepensis mill., 1768: tree, reddish-brown bark glabrous, fissured; pale green shoots; yellowish-brown branches; leaves needle-like, flexible, up to 10 cm long, in clusters of two on dwarf shoots within a sheath; male cones in terminal clusters appear in spring, lanceolate; female cones solitary, pendulous on short axillary branches, ovoid to conical, reddish, and up to 12 cm long. pollen grains with corpus length of 27–32 µm, pollen length with sacci of 34–43 µm, corpus width of 16–26 µm, pollen width with sacci of 22–28 µm, saccus length 17–26 µm, saccus width 15–25 µm, exine thickness 1–2 µm and furrow length 5-9 µm. equatorial pollen with prolate shape (pl1/pw1 ratio of 1.40). pollen diploxylonoid in polar view. exine coarse and cappa sculpture verrucate. sacci sculpture scabrate. pinus roxburghii sargent, 1897: evergreen tree, up to 20 m high; branches symmetrically whorled; brownish bark thick, deeply fissured into large plates; leaves needle-like, in groups of threes on dwarf shoots. 20–35 cm long (hence the name longifolia), sheath persistent, 1.22.5 cm long; male cones ovoid, about 1.5 cm long, yellowish in dense terminal clusters; female cones solitary, or 2–3 on the short recurved peduncle, ovoid, 10–20 cm long. pollen grains had corpus lengths of 23–30 µm, pollen lengths of 32–39 µm, corpus widths of 16–18 µm, pollen widths of 20–24 µm, saccus lengths of 14–18 µm, saccus widths of 13–18 µm, exine thickness of one µm, and furrow lengths of 5–7 µm. equatorial pollen with prolate shape (pl1/pw1 ratio of 1.55). pollen haploxylonoid in polar view. exine coarse and cappa sculpture verrucate. sacci sculpture scabrate. pinus brutia ten., 1811: tree; orange-red bark deeply fissured; shoots straight, slender; leaves arranged in pairs, bright to yellowish green, 10–18 cm long, slender, about 1 mm thick, with a persistent 1–1.5 cm sheath; female cones sessile to subsessile. pollen grains had corpus lengths of 16–25 µm, pollen lengths of 30–36 µm, corpus widths of 9–20 µm, pollen widths of 17–24 µm, saccus lengths of 12–17 µm, saccus widths of 12–18 µm, exine 332 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum palynological studies for some cultivated species thickness of one µm, and furrow lengths of 2–10 µm. equatorial pollen with prolate shape (pl1/pw1 ratio of 1.41). monosulcate aperture between pollen sacci with a length of 10–21 µm. pollen diploxylonoid in polar view. exine coarse and cappa sculpture verrucate. sacci sculpture scabrate. a key to species was made for the studied specimens to differentiate and correlate among them, according to data based on lm and sem, resulting in the differentiation of five species as follows: artificial key to pinus studied species: 1. aperture monosulcate ……... …...………………………..…............……. 2 1. aperture absent.…………………………………………………...……… 3 2. corpus (without sacci) perprolate…………..…………………….. p. pinea 2. corpus (without sacci) prolate ………….....……………..……... p. brutia 3. haploxylonoid in polar view …………………….......…....... p. roxburghii 3. diploxylonoid in polar view ……………..….......…..………………...….. 4 4. cappa sculpture granulate, while sacci regulate …………... . p. canariensis 4. cappa sculpture verrucate, while sacci scabrate ……..…...... p. halepensis 333 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum khamis and hamdy plate (1): light microscopy images, show equatorial view (a, c, e, g, i), and polar view (b, d, f, h, j) of the studied pinus species; a, b: p. pinea; c, d: p. canareinsis, e, f: p. halepensis, (g, h) p. roxburghii, (i, j) p. brutia. 334 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum palynological studies for some cultivated species plate (2): scanning electron microscopy images, show equatorial view (ev) and polar view (pv) of the studied pinus species: p. pinea: a. ev, b. pv; p. canareinsis: c. ev, d. pv; p. halepensis: e. ev, f. pv; p. roxburghii: g. ev, h. pv; p. brutia: i. ev, j. v. 335 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum khamis and hamdy plate(3): scanning electron microscopy images, show cappa exine sculpture (a, c, e, g and i) and sacci exine sculpture (b, d, f, h, j) of the studied pinus species: a, b: p. pinea; c, d: p. canareinsis; e, f: p. halepensis; g, h: p. roxburghii and i, j: p. brutia. 336 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum palynological studies for some cultivated species the dendrogram based on the pollen morphological data matrix (diag. 1) was forked into two clusters; the first one represented p. pinea separately, while the second one combined all the remaining species and was branched into two sub-clusters. the first sub-cluster shared both p. canariensis and p. halepensis then p. roxburghii and p. brutia came together in the second sub-cluster according to some mutual characteristics. a heatmap was obtained for cluster confirmation by utilizing the r program. it depicts the relationships between the studied species (diag. 2). the reciprocal averaging ordination plot (diag. 3) also confirmed the dendrogram results. diagram (1): dendrogram based on pollen morphological data of the studied pinus species. 337 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum khamis and hamdy diagram (2): heat map visualize the cluster tree based on pollen morphological data of the studied pinus species. 338 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum palynological studies for some cultivated species diagram (3): reciprocal averaging (ra) ordination plot based on pollen morphological data of the studied pinus species. discussion by applying numerical analyses to the scored data, the agglomerative clustering dendrogram based on pollen morphological data (diag. 1) revealed the separation of two main groups. pinus pinea comes in a separate group in 19 due to the perprolate shape of its pollen, scabrate cappa sculpture, and perforate succus sculpture, which are diagnostic characteristics in identification and separation; this matches with the study of heigl (2020a). the second group made up of 4 species, is divided into two subgroups at 16; the first subgroup consists of p. canariensis and p. halepensis, which appear in a separate group at 12, though each of these two species has distinct characteristics from the other, p. canariensis has granulate cappa sculpture and rugulate succus sculpture, while p. halepensis has average succus length >16.8 µm and exine thickness 1-2 µm, they belong to the same subgroup due to diploxylonoid pollen shape, average corpus length > 28.2 µm, average pollen length with sacci > 36.2 µm [this agrees with that of heigl (2020b) study where pollen length 41-50 µm], corpus width > 16.9 µm, average pollen width with sacci > 21.7 µm [this is smaller than pollen width of heigl (2020b) study 51-100 µm], average saccus width > 15.9 µm and prolate pollen shape in equatorial pollen view, in this study the pollen shape of p. halepensis disagrees with the oblate shape of heigl (2020b) study, it may be due to the differences in pollen width. the second subgroup in the second group combines p. roxburghii and p. brutia at 8. they are closely related and sharing some pollen morphological characteristics such as average corpus length < 28.2 µm, average pollen length with sacci < 36.2 µm [that is smaller than those of heigl (2021) study 41-50 µm], succus length < 16.8 µm, average saccus width < 15.9 µm, exine thickness of 1 µm, average furrow length > 5.8 µm, prolate pollen shape whereas pollen of heigl (2021) study have oblate shape due to the differences in pollen 339 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum khamis and hamdy length. in addition to the verrucate cappa and scabrate succus sculptures that match heigl (2021), the ratio between the polar axis and the equatorial diameter is 1.67. as seen in pollen data dendrogram, the cluster of p. canariensis and p. halepensis is more related to that of p. roxburghii and p. brutia because they assemble more characters than those with p. pinea. they are common in prolate pollen shapes; at the same time, p. canariensis, p. halepensis, and p. roxburghii are joined in average corpus width > 16.9 µm, average pollen width with sacci > 21.7 µm, and their grains without apertures. also, p. canariensis, p. halepensis, and p. brutia join in their diploxylonoid pollen. p. canariensis, p. roxburghii, and p. brutia share a saccus length of < 16.8 µm and an exine thickness of 1 µm. in addition, p. halepensis, p. roxburghii, and p. brutia join in an average furrow length of > 5.8 µm, a ratio between the polar axis and the equatorial diameter of < 1.67, a verrucate cappa sculpture, and a scabrate succus sculpture. it is noticeable that the subgroup of p. canariensis and p. halepensis is more adjacent to the cluster of p. pinea because they share common characteristics such as an average corpus length of > 28.2 µm, which is dissimilar to that of p. pinea 31-35 µm and p. halepensis 4150 µm in the heigl (2020 a, b) study, and an average pollen length with sacci > 36.2 µm. p. pinea has a furrow length of < 5.8 µm on average and a ratio of the polar axis to the equatorial diameter of more than 1.67. however, p. pinea shows a connection with the subgroup of p. roxburghii and p. brutia but is less adjacent; that is, all have an average saccus width of < 15.9 µm; both p. pinea and p. roxburghii have haploxylonoid pollens in polar view; in addition, p. pinea joints with p. brutia in average corpus width <16.9 µm, average pollen width with sacci < 21.7 µm and monosulcate apertures are present on the pollen distal part of both species. a heatmap was created using the r-program to confirm the clustering of the studied species and to visualise the relationships between the studied species using a colour gradient, where the darker the shade, the higher the quantitative value and the most common qualitative character (diag. 2). the resultant five species are separated clearly on a reciprocal averaging ordination plot (diag. 3) according to the presence or absence of the recorded quantitative and qualitative pollen character states and support the outcomes of the clustering dendrogram. p. pinea looks like a separate entity at 18; p. canariensis is separated at 122 but in the same direction as p. halepensis axis, which is separated at 27. p. roxburghii is separated at -69 and is adjacent to p. brutia, which is separated at -99. the region of separation of p. canariensis and p. halepensis is near the region of separation of p. roxburghii and p. brutia. this is owed to the accuracy of the statistical data analysis in using more diagnostic characteristics in the statistical classification and finding an accurate classification of the studied entities. among all the studied species, the quantitative and qualitative characters are varied and significant in the characterization of the cultivated pinus species in egypt by the 340 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum palynological studies for some cultivated species construction of an artificial key. the exine thickness has significance in the recognition of the species 1-2 µm (1.5 µm on average). this differs from that of the studied p. halepensis, p. brutia, and p. roxburghii in pakistan (0.2-0.5 µm) by khan et al. (2018). for the same species, the cluster results of the current study can be compared with the results of the plant morphological description cluster of seven pinus species by mohamed (2018), the taxonomic relationships among pinus taxa according to 21 morphological characters were investigated by using the average linkage of the spss program; two major clusters resulted; p. halepensis comes in one of these major clusters, while p. pinea, p. canariensis, p. roxburghii, and p. brutia form the other one that is similar to farjon's (1998) classification of pinus. the two studies are combatable in the grouping of p. canariensis, p. roxburghii, and p. brutia in one major cluster, but disagree on the combination of p. pinea or p. halepensis with them. a recent study revealed that the bisaccate pollen size (pl2 x pw2) is 30-43 x17–28 µm, the corpus size (pl1 x pw1) is 16–37 x 9–26 µm, the saccus size (al x aw) is 11–26 x10– 25 µm, and the corpus distal part that is called "furrow" has a length of 1–10 µm. the sacci size is smaller than the corpus size. the largest size of bisaccate grains is of p. halepensis (34–43 x 22–28 µm), while the smallest ones are of p. brutia (30–36 x17–24 µm). these are bigger than those in pakistan (khan et al. 2018), 22–27 x14–17 µm for pollen of p. halepensis and 24-33 x17–21 µm for pollen of p. brutia. also, as it is noticeable, the pollen of pakistani p. brutia is bigger than that of p. halepensis. in the same debate, the egyptian pollens of p. roxburghii (32–39 x 20–24 µm) are bigger than the pakistani ones (25–28 x15– 18 µm) in the same study. on one hand, in the equatorial view, only p. pinea is with perprolate corpus, where the ratio between the polar axis and the equatorial diameter of the investigated pollens exceeds two (2.06), whereas all remaining species are prolate where the ratio is in the range of 1.33-2 (1.40 for p. halepensis and 1.9 for p. canariensis). also, the pollen of p. pinea and p. brutia has an elongated monosulcate aperture (a single germinal colpus) on the distal pole between the two sacci (pl. 1, 2). subjected to the current argument that the pollens of the egyptian p. halepensis, p. roxburghii, and p. brutia are bigger than the pakistani ones of the same species, this may be due to the habitual differences that affect pollen size. it is expected that the pollen shape should be different and the pollens appear as oblate in shape and the ratio in a range between 0.5-0.75, where the ratio is 0.63, 0.68, and 0.64 for the pollens of the previously mentioned three species, respectively. these proposed ranges of the ratio between the corpus length and the corpus width are according to praglowski and punt (1973). on the other hand, the polar pollen shape is haploxylonoid for p. pinea and p. roxburghii. this is due to the more or less continuous outline of the sacci with the outline of the corpus of the examined pollen then the pollen grains appear more or less smooth ellipsoidal form. however, a diploxylonoid outline is observed for p. canariensis, p. halepensis, and p. brutia because of the discontinuity of the outline of the sacci with the outline of the corpus (pl. 1, 2), thus the pollen grains appear as three distinct more or less oval parts according to 341 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum khamis and hamdy praglowski and punt (1973). although the light microscopy investigation data provided valuable characteristics that enabled the construction of the artificial key, these data alone are not sufficient for the differentiation and classification of the species, so sem investigations are helpful in the present study in the pollen identification of the different species. sem investigations show that the corpus exine sculpture is varied for the studied species. in p. pinea, exine sculpture is scabrate of irregular shapes less than one µm in all directions, while in p. canariensis, granulate with more or less rounded granules. the sculpturing pattern of the sacci is perforated with a smooth surface and rugulate with irregular elements more than one µm long in both species. while, p. roxburghii, p. halepensis, and p. brutia have the same corpus sculpture, viz., verrucate with wart-like elements of a width of more than one µm and there are no constrictions at the base, and the same sacci sculpture (scabrate) as shown in pl.3. these disagree with the observation of khan et al. (2018), where their described pollen exine of p. halepensis, p. brutia, and p. roxburghii in pakistan showed only one pattern (rugulate). in the case of lm examinations, the sculpture patterns appear reticulate for all studied species, which indicates that lm observations are inaccurate in sculpture descriptions and limited in a taxonomy based on palynological data. so, in addition to lm and sem, 3d imaging microscopy can be important to understand the structures of the studied pollens, as discussed by shen et al. (2020). using advanced microscopy techniques might be more helpful for the investigation and identification of pollen morphology such as fourier transform infrared (ftir) microspectroscopy as used by zimmermann (2018) in his study on two norwegian species, p. mugo and p. sylvestris. also, the investigation of other parameters than the morphological ones, such as the sequencing of dna products using whole-genome amplification (wga) can be considered a precious tool for pollen identification at the species level, as in the work of nakazawa et al. (2018) on some russian pinus species. the dissimilarities between the current results and those of the different studies on the same taxa but from different localities or countries may be due to variations in ecological or geographical conditions or both or may be due to the normal variation among the taxa of the same rank. conclusions it is possible to conclude that five species were identified, and the closely related species including p. canariensis and p. halepensis, also p. roxburghii and p. brutia are closely related species; depending on that p. pinea and p. brutia could be distinguished by their monosulcate colpus, pollen of p. pinea was easily identified from the other species by its perprolate shape, p. roxburghii was discriminated by prolate haploxylonoid pollen. the sem examination distinguished accurately among all the examined species, resulting in the identification of the remaining two species as p. canariensis by the granulate cappa sculpture and rugulate saccus sculpture of its pollen grains, while the pollen grains of p. halepensis were of verrucate cappa sculpture and scabrate saccus sculpture. finally, based on 342 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum palynological studies for some cultivated species the certainty of the statistical analysis results, two clusters were formed to represent the considered species, p. pinea was easily identified and separated from the other species, p. canariensis and p. halepensis were separated into one group, while both p. roxburghii and p. brutia were closely related in another group, but the first group was more related to p. pinea than the second one. this is required to be confirmed by additional taxonomic tools in the future, such as anatomical and molecular studies. conflict of interest statement "the authors declare no conflict of interest". literature cited bagnell, c. r. 1975. species distinction among pollen grains of abies, picea, and pinus in the rocky mountain area (a scanning electron microscope study). review of palaeobotany and palynology, 19(3): 203-220. 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(2023) 17 (3): 325-347. pinus l., 1753 دراسة حبوب اللقاح لبعض أنواع جنس الصنوبر (pinales, pinaceaeفي مصر ) **ريم حمدي و *أسماء خميس مصر. ،الفيوم ،جامعة الفيوم/كلية العلوم/قسم النبات* مصر. ،الجيزة ،جامعة القاهرة /كلية العلوم / و امليكروبيولوجي، املعشبة قسم النبات** 20/6/2023، تأريخ النشر 28/12/2022القبول ، تأريخ 5/10/2022:م تأريخ االستل الخلصة ، pinus l., 1753هذه الدراسة خمس وحدات تصنيفية من جنس الصنوبر تضمنت تم تجميع حبوب اللقاح الخاصة بها من حديقة األورمان النباتية بالجيزة، باإلضافة إلى لقيمة التصنيفية لصفات العينات قيد فحص بعض العينات املعشبية لتحديد ا الدراسة. بدراسة الشكل الظاهري لحبوب اللقاح من خالل امليكروسكوب الضوئي وامليكروسكوب املاسح اإللكتروني، تبين أنها أحادية ذات كيسين جانبيين. تحددت خمسة أنواع لجنس الصنوبر بواسطة مفتاح تعريفي اصطناعي لتعريف الوحدات ؛p. canariensis smith, 1828 ؛p. pinea linnaeus, 1753 :يد الدراسةالتصنيفية ق p. halepensis miller, 1768 ؛ p. roxburghii sargent, 1897 iو p. brutia tenore, بناًء على دراسة الصفات الشكلية لحبوب اللقاح، والتي تتضمن وجود أو ،(1811 جسم حبة اللقاح بدون األكياس ، p. brutia و p. pineaغياب شق أحادي كما في أو بيضاوي كما في باقي األنواع، p. pineaالجانبية يمكن أن يكون فوق بيضاوي كما في .pو p. pineaيظهر محيط حبة اللقاح في املنظر القطبي كوحدة واحدة كما في roxburghii نحت أو كوحدتين متراكبتين كما في باقي األنواع، باإلضافة الى شكل الطبقة الخارجية لحبوب اللقاح. من خالل هذه الدراسة تبين أن الصفات الشكلية نجحت في تعريف، فصل، والتقييم التصنيفي للوحدات التصنيفية قيد لحبوب اللقاح الدراسة. كما دعمت الشجرة التصنيفية الناتجة من برنامج التحليل االحصائي 347 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum khamis and hamdy community analysis package ة أنواع من جنس الصنوبر في مصر، فصل خمس .pو p. canariensisفأوضحت الشجرة التصنيفية وجود عالقة قوية بين نوعي halepensis أيًضا وجود عالقة قوية بين نوعي ، وp. brutia وp. roxburghii . جاء في مجموعة تصنيفية منفصلة عن باقي املجموعات، ولكنه في نفس p. pineaوعالن . من أجل معالجة p. halepensisو p. canariensis بالنوعين ت ذو ارتباط الوق خريطة حرارية أفضل للبيانات تم ايضاح وتأكيد الشجرة التصنيفية عن طريق عمل للتحليل االحصائي. r باالعتماد على لغة برمجة 173 sa’eed et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2020) 16 (2): 173-191. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2020.16.2.0173 comparative study of several morphological and reproductional aspects for some species of the bellevalia lapeyrouse, 1808 and ornithogalum linnaeus, 1753 (asparagales, asparagaceae) in central and north of iraq najat ameen sa’eed*♦ naglaa mustafa al-abide* and aqeel husein ali alasi** *department of biology, college of education for pure sciences, university of tikrit, tikrit, iraq ** department of biology, college of sciences, university of tikrit. tikrit, iraq ♦corresponding author: naglaa.mustafa@tu.edu.iq received date: 11 august 2020, accepted date: 13 october 2020, published date: 21 december 2020 abstract this study aims to study some morphological and reproductional characteristics in eleven species of two genera belonging to the family of asparagaceae, which are bellevalia lapeyrouse, 1808 and ornithogalum linnaeus, 1753 and the species are: bellevalia chrisii yildirim and sahin, 2014; bellevalia flexuosa boissier, 1854; bellevalia kurdistanica feinbrun, 1940; bellevalia longipes post, 1895; bellevalia macrobotrys boissier, 1853; bellevalia paradoxa boissier, 1882; bellevalia parva wendelbo, 1973; bellevalia saviczii woronow, 1927; ornithogalum brachystachys c. koch, 1849; ornithogalum neurostegium boissier, 1882 and ornithogalum pyrenaicum linnaeus, 1753. these species were identified and compared with each other; the results showed that there were differences between the two genera in studying the shape of bulbs, length of leaves and color of the flowers. each of them showed an important taxonomic mark to be distinguished from the studied species. morphological studies used with some characters of the reproductive, including the shape and color of the fruits, seeds and embryos were used to diagnoses the species. also, the current investigation was found that the characteristics of the fruit and how it was connected to the pedicels was very important in the field of taxonomic and identification the species. two new record species were studied within the country, namely; bellevalia chrisii and bellevalia flexuosa; it should be noted here that the study of embryos is also one of the first studies conducted on these plants. keywords: asparagaceae, bellevalia, morphological study, ornithogalum, seeds. 174 comparative study of several morphological and reproductional introduction plants of the asparagaceae family are one of the wide spread plant families, they are distributed naturally in temperate, tropical-subtropical regions, mentioned by antoine de jussieu as the group of hexagonal plants with colored calyx (jussieu, 1789). they include about 114 -143 genera and 3632 species (apgiii); for a long time they were a part from liliaceae which has 220-250 genera and 3500 species, 21 genera are included in the iraqi botanical encyclopedia (townsend and guest, 1985). plants of this family are distinguished by being annual herbaceous shrubs that may be in the form of trees (peruzzi, 2016). they are characterized by parallel striped green cauline leaves alternately arranged around the pedicel which is connected to an oval bulb; the importance of this family comes from the use of their plants for food such as onions and garlic, and the use of others for ornamental purposes, such as asparagaceae, tulips, and other species, due to their beauty and bright colors (li, 2017). the genus bellevalia lapeyrouse has an important variety within the family of asparagaceae, which took a large part of the attention of researchers; the first to refer to it was the scientist lapeyrouse (1808). it includes 50 species around the world, and 10 of them exist in iraq according to (hutchinson, 1959), and it is known as al-‘ansalan or al-hawsalan with a bell-shaped violet flowers. as for the second genus that was studied, ornithogalum linnaeus, 1753 known as the star of bethlehem (purger et al., 2017), it has flowers that are white and rarely yellowish, it comprises about 150 species of which 8 are present in the iraqi flora. this genus was referred to in the study of oran and odah (2015) on pollen grains of several species of the genus ornithogalum within the jordanian flora. according to recent literatures, these genera belong to asparagaceae family (chase et al., 2009). the studies done in turkey by firat et al. (2014), and yildirim et al. (2014); in iran by jafari et al. (2016); and in italy by astuti et al. (2017), all classified the two genera within asparagaceae family, while in iraq there was only one study by abdul-raheem and al-bayaty (2018) that classified bellevalia and ornithogalum within liliaceae. the research examined the morphological aspects of the reproductive and vegetative parts of both genera, as this is one of the first bases relied upon in the field of plant taxonomy because of its simplicity, ease of diagnosis in the field, low cost and the possibility of conducting it by the naked eye; it is followed by most researchers in distinguishing between plant species and genera (al-abide, 2019; yildirim and sefali, 2020), as well as, the study focused on examination the shape of fruits and seeds and the study of embryos. this study is the first at the level of the country and the arab world and there are a few studies that deal with different aspects such as that of abdul–raheem and al-bayaty (2018) which pointed out some morphological traits of both genera in al-uzaim region, the study of çitak et al. (2015) which dealt with two species of the ornithogalum within the turkish flora, and the morphological and molecular study of the o. brevipedicellatum species by aykurt et al. (2016). that of pinar and eroglu (2018) recorded the species of b. turcicas for the first time in turkey, and the study of baser et al. (2019) which focused on the shape of pollen grains for three species of the bellevalia genus within the turkish flora. the aim of this study to study the morphological aspects: bulbs, leaves, scapouse, inflorescence, and reproductive characteristics such as fruits, seeds and embryos of eleven species belonging to the two genera of the asparagaceae family. 175 sa’eed et al. materials and methods specimens' collection wild specimens of the plant species under study were collected from the central and northern regions of iraq for each of the provinces of salah-al-din: al-sharqat, al-hawija, al-alam, al-abbasi, balad and amerli districts; nineveh rabi’a, zummar and qayyara districts; kirkuk: kirkuk center, al-hawija and lower zab districts; erbil: koysinjaq district only during 2019. then, specimens were preserved by ethylene alcohol of 70% concentration, and stabilizing solution, f.a.a, until later used (al-abide, 2013 and 2016). identification and morphological study the information about specimens was recorded; and they were identified by the second author based on (hutchinson, 1959; cullen, 1984; townsen and guest, 1985; davis et al., 1988); also, the diagnosis was assured by comparing them with the specimens available at the national herbarium of iraq. the morphological measurements of the plant species were carried out using a ruler, where the general length of plant, length of the root, length and width of the leaves and bulbs, the lengths of fruits and fruit pedicels were measured. the fresh plant specimens were tested by a dissecting microscope with 2x and 4x powers, their dimensions were measured by the ocular, and they were photographed by a digital camera. results and discussion through field study, it was found that all the species were perennial of herbaceous nature for bellevalia species and all were annual for ornithogalum species. they also spread in several areas, including alsharqat, al-hawija, rabi’a, the hamrin mountains, erbil, lower zab and amerli. bulbs are found usually at a depth of 2050 cm of soil; their blooming takes place for a period during spring in iraq for 3-5 months. general appearance of the plants the results show that all species under study appeared with fibrous roots; o. pyrenaicum with longest root, it was 9.5 cm; while it was shorter (1 cm) in b. parva, because the species of o. pyrenaicum was longer than b. parava. through morphological examination, all of the species appeared with discshaped stem, and the stem width was greater in b. macrobotrys with 3.2 cm, and o. neurostegium had the least width of 0.7 cm. also we found the species had bulbs with different dimensions (pl.1, 2; tab.1), where the b. parva, o. brachystachys and o. neurostegium species were characterized by having elongated bulbs compared to others with oval bulbs; the b. kurdistanica species had the longest bulb with 6 cm length, whereas the shortest bulbs with 1.5 cm length were of o. neurostegium. the colors of these bulbs varied from pinkish white in b. parva and b. longipes, to brown in b. paradoxa, to yellowish white in the other species. except for b. chrisii and b. flexuosa which were collected from erbil kasnazan mounts they were with acute apex, and b. parva with tubular leaves, as in plate (3), the other species were similar with their striped blade. o. neurostegium species was distinguished by its distinctive leaves’ shape, as it appeared with a curly blade, unlike the other two species, namely; o. brachystachys and o. pyrenaicum as they were distinguished by their stripped 176 comparative study of several morphological and reproductional blades but with truncate or flat apex for o. pyrenaicum. the shape of the leaf’s base varied between flat in the b. saviczii, b. macrobotrys, b. kurdistanica, b. chrisii, o. brachystachys, o. neurostegium, o. pyrenaicum species; tapered in b. flexuosa, b. longipes and b. paradoxa and obtuse in b. parva. table (1) shows that b. kurdistanica had the longest leaves which reached 40 cm, while o. neurostegium had the shortest with 15 cm. b. flexuosa had the widest leaf with 4.5 cm, and the least width was of o. pyrenaicum with 0.9 cm. the three members of the ornithogalum had smooth leaf bract which bellevalia lacks, the longest was in the o. pyrenaicum, which was 3 cm, and the species o. neurostegium had the shortest bracts with a length of 1.8 cm. the widest leaf bracts were found in o. brachystachys with a width of 2.5 cm, and the least width was found in the o. pyrenaicum, and was 2cm. both the species; o. brachystachys and o. pyrenaicum, were distinguished by acute apex of the bract, while the bract of o. neurostegium was pointed. the three species were similar in having a smooth margin of the bract and a round base; the elongated shape of the leaf was important in the taxonomy of the species where b. saviczii was characterized by long curly leaves which helped to diagnose and differentiate it from the rest of the species, especially the b. kurdistanica and b. macrobotrys, as b. kurdistanica leaves were longer and wider than b. macrobotrys, and it was found that the width of the leaf also helped distinguish b. flexuosa from others because it had the widest leaf. the results of the study are similar to that of yildirim et al. (2014) who studied b. chrisii in terms of the elongated leaf shape, and it helped distinguish it from both b. rixii and b.crassa, and the study of yetisen and özdemir (2015) for o. alpigenum striped leaf shape was identical to that of the species of ornithogalum, but differed from them by not mentioning the auricles that characterized the species of this genus. the b. chrisii was characterized by an oval scapouse whereas all the species were similar in having a circular scapouse. the longest scapouse was of the b. savcizii species, and its average was 45cm whereas the shortest was 14.5cm of the b. longipes. style of attachment of the fruit pedicels with the flower ones was different; it was found that the fruit pedicels of the species b. chrisii and b. flexuosa were perpendicular to the flower-pedicels, and the b. parva were was having shorter fruit-pedicels 1.2cm compared to the b. chrisii and b. flexuosa, b. kurdistanica and b. macrobotrys and b. saviczii, and the direction of the pedicels in b. parva was downward and not perpendicular to the flower pedicels as it was in the other types. the two species; b. macrobotrys and b. saviczii, were similar regarding the length of the fruit pedicels and by being perpendicular to the flower pedicels and at somewhat a straight angle. with regard to the species of the ornithogalum; it was found the fruit pedicels of the o. brachystachys facing upward and at an acute angle with the flower pedicels, while the o. neurostegium had a number of fruit less than the o. brachystachys and o. pyrenaicum, and the number of fruit was more in o. pyrenaicum compared to o. brachystachys and o. neurostegium, and the direction of fruit pedicels was at right to acute angles. b. longipes and b. pycnanth were distinguished by the crowded inflorescences from the rest of the species that were distinguished by their spreading inflorescences as well as the violet colour of the flowers of the bellevalia species, by which it was possible to distinguish them from the species of the ornithogalum which had white colour flowers that matched the 177 sa’eed et al. study of aykurt et al. (2016), which indicated the white colour flowers with the central green midrib of the species of ornithogalum, and the violate colour of the floral cover and the stamens of the bellevalia species within the study of jafari et al. (2016), which came in accordance with the results of the current study. the presence of bulbs and the difference in their shape between the oval and the elongated also helped to recognize them as taxonomic traits in the diagnosis of the studied species, which was similar to the study of abdul–raheem and al-bayaty (2018) that referred to these traits and for several wild species belonging to both genera. all species were distinguished by having flowering raceme inflorescences consisting of perianth called tepals composed of 6 combined violet leaves in the species of the bellevalia (jafari et al., 2016), while the three species of the ornithogalum had separated white six-leaf flowers with middle green midrib in the middle of perianth leaves which are combined with the sepal leaves (pl. 1). plate (1): morphological characteristics of the species; (1) bellevalia chrisii, (2) b. flexuosa, (3) b. kurdistanica, (4) b. longipes, (5) b. macrobotrys, (6) b. parva, (7) b. paradoxa, (8) b. saviczii, (9) ornithogalum brachystachys, (10) o. neurostegium, (11) o. pyrenaicum. 178 comparative study of several morphological and reproductional plate (2): quantitative and qualitative characteristics of bulbs the species studied; (1) bellevalia chrisii, (2) b. flexuosa, (3) b. kurdistanica, (4) b. longipes, (5) b. macrobotrys, (6) b. parva, (7) b. paradoxa, (8) b. saviczii, (9) ornithogalum brachystachys, (10) o. neurostegium, (11) o. pyrenaicum. 179 sa’eed et al. table (1): quantitative and qualitative characteristicsof the roots, aerial stems, bulbs and leaves of plant species under current study. species characteristics root length (cm) pedicel length (cm) bulb length (cm) leaf dimensions (cm) leaf apex leaf base width length b. chrisii (2.5) 3.6-1.9 (14.0) 19.511.5 (3.15) 4.5-2.5 4.0-2.4 (3.5) 22.0-17.5 (18.75) acute truncate b. flexuosa (1.85) 2.0-1.5 (17.0) 18.515.5 (2.75) 4.0-2.5 4.5-0.5 (4.2) 14.0-10.0 (12.0) straight obtuse b. kurdistanica (2.75) 4.5-1.0 (27.2) 35.020.0 (4.5) 6.0-3.0 2.0-0.6 (1.5) 40.0-30.0 (35.5) straight truncate b. longipes (1.06) 1.5-0.5 (12.3) 14.55.11 (3.35) 4.3-2.5 3.0-0.5 (1.95) 16.0-5.2 (10.5) straight obtuse b. macrobotrys (3.37) 4.5-1.5 (24.3) 37.017.5 (3.5) 5.0-2.0 1.5-0.5 (1.12) 38.0-23.0 (33.3) straight truncate b. parva (0.65) 1.0-0.5 (15.3) 25.0-9.5 (1.75) 3.0-0.9 1.2-0.5 (0.78 ) 22.5-16.0 (18.3) acute obtuse b. paradoxa (2.55) 3.5-1.2 (15.85) 18.513.0 (2.6) 3.5-1.7 1.4-0.8 (0.92) 18.0-12.0 (16.4) straight obtuse b. saviczii (1.75) 3.0-0.5 (42.5) 45.022.0 (2.3) 3.2 -1.5 1.5-0.5 (0.9) 35.0-20.0 (30.3) straight truncate o. brachystachys (2.35) 2.5-1.2 (17.75) 20-14 (1.85) 2.4 -1.0 2.0-1.5 (1.7) 18.0-7.0 (12.6) acute truncate o. neurostegium (0.9) 1.0-0.8 (15.37) 18.0-9.5 (1.25) 1.5-0.8 5.0-2.5 (2.8) 15.0-5.0 (8.6) acute truncate o. pyrenaicum (5.9) 9.5-1.5 (26.5) 34.521.0 (3.75) 5.0-2.5 0.9 -0.2 (0.6) 26.0-15.0 (16.5) straight truncate (values between brackets represent the mean) 180 comparative study of several morphological and reproductional plate (3): quantitative and qualitative characteristics of leaves; (1) bellevalia chrisii, (2) b. flexuosa, (3) b. kurdistanica, (4) b. longipes, (5) b. macrobotrys, (6) b. parva, (7) b. paradoxa, (8) b. saviczii, (9) ornithogalum brachystachys, (10) o. neurostegium, (11) o. pyrenaicum. 181 sa’eed et al. study of fruits and seeds results of the study of the bellevalia and ornithogalum showed the similarity of the fruit type of their species, which was a trilobite capsule of green color for b. chrisii, b. flexuosa, b. kurdistanica, b. longipes, b. macrobotrys and b. parva, to light green for o. brachystachys, o. neurostegium and o. pyrenaicum as in plate (4). the fruits appeared in a wide and large form in b. chrisii and oval in b. flexuosa, b. kurdistanica and b. macrobotrys. plate (4): fruit pedicels of the plant species under study; (1) b. chrisii, (2) b. flexuosa, (3) b. kurdistanica, (4) b. longipes, (5) b. macrobotrys, (6) b. parva, (7) b. paradoxa, (8) b. saviczii, (9) ornithogalum brachystachys, (10) o. neurostegium, (11) o. pyrenaicum. 182 comparative study of several morphological and reproductional the fruits of the species; o. brachystachys, o. neurostegium, and o. pyrenaicum were characterized by an ovalshape striped with a white line and a green line, and the presence of bracts at the point of connection of the fruit with the fruit pedicels; the length of these pedicels varied between 6.5 cm in b. kurdistanica which was the longest, and 1.2 cm in b. parva which was the shortest. the number of these pedicels was about 65 in b. macrobotrys and o. pyrenaicum, and the fruits of b. chrisii and b. kurdistanica were large lobed in the form of an equilateral triangle, with a longitudinal slit at the apex of the separation of the fruit in the b. chrisii; and with elongated lobes in the form of an equilateral triangle in b. flexuosa. the b. longipes and b. paradoxa species had prominent lobed margins, with the connection mark of the style in triangular shape for b. longipes, and round for b. paradoxa. the fruit of b. macrobotrys was elongated of broad apex and the mark of the style’s connection was bulgy while the fruit appeared in a nearasterisk form in b. parva with thin lobe margins. b. saviczii was distinguished by a two-lobed fruit, and the fruits of the three species of the ornithogalum had no sharp corners and appeared in a spherical shape with lobes divided by linear lines. the fruits varied in the number of seeds between 8 seeds in the fruit of o. pyrenaicum, and 3 seeds in the fruit of b. flexuosa and b. longipes. as for b. chrisii, b. kurdistanica, b. macrobotrys, b. paradoxa and b. saviczii; their fruits contained 6 black colored seeds, their largest were in b. longipes with a length of 3.75 mm and the smallest in b. parva with a length of 1.3 mm. the surface pattern of the seeds differed between reticular in b. chrisii, b. parva, b. saviczii, o. brachystachys, o. neurostegium, and o. pyrenaicum, and smooth surface in b. flexuosa, b. kurdistanica and b. longipes; and granular surface in b. macrobotrys and b. paradoxa (pl. 5, tab. 2), and these results are similar to the studies of shuka (2014), çitak et al. (2015) and aykurt et al. (2016) regarding the capsule fruit shape and its importance in distinguishing between species; this matches what this study has concluded; b. macrobotrys was characterized by an elongated ovalshaped fruit with a prominent connection mark and this helped in distinguishing it from the rest of species, we also found that the difference in fruit pedicels’ length was considered a taxonomic trait among species and this matches the study of aykurt et al. (2016) which used the difference of fruit pedicels to distinguish between species of the ornithogalum in a molecular and morphological study. 183 sa’eed et al. plate (5): morphological variations of seeds of plant species under study; (1) bellevalia chrisii, (2) b. flexuosa, (3) b. kurdistanica, (4) b. longipes, (5) b. macrobotrys, (6) b. parva, (7) b. paradoxa, (8) b. saviczii, (9) ornithogalum brachystachys, (10) o. neurostegium, (11) o. pyrenaicum. the variation in seeds’ shapes between spherical and oval had an additional taxonomic importance that contributed to the identification of the plant species under study, as the study of mourad et al. (2010) was identical to the current study in terms of the spherical seed shape of species of the bellevalia and contradicted with the study of martinez-azorin et al. (2010) which explained the seed shape of the o. brevipedicellatum was elliptical to spherical, also the results of this study are similar to that of çitak et al. (2015); it confirms the oval shape, the black color and the reticular surface of the seeds of species of the ornithogalum (tab.3). 184 comparative study of several morphological and reproductional table (2): quantitative characteristics of the fruit and fruit pedicels for the plant species under study. species characteristics fruit dimensions fruit pedicels length (cm) number of seeds in the fruit shape of fruit length (cm) width (cm) b. chrisii capsule 1.7-0.8 (1.2) 1-0.5(0.76) 5.5-2.5 (4.37) 6-2 b. flexuosa capsule 1.0 -0.6(0.72) 0.8-0.5(0.7) 5.0-3.5(4.5) 3-1 b. kurdistanica capsule 1.4-0.7(1.2 ) 1.0-0.4(0.75) 6.5-3.0(4.5) 6-2 b. longipes capsule 1.0-0.5(0.91 ) 0.8-0.3(0.6) 4.5-2.0(3.5) 3-1 b. macrobotrys capsule 1.2-0.5(1.11 ) 1.2-0.5(0.95) 6.0-3.0(4.5) 6-2 b. parva capsule 0.7-0.4(0.62 ) 0.5-0.3(0.41) 1.2-0.8(0.9) 4-2 b. paradoxa capsule 0.9-0.4(0.72 ) 0.6-0.4(0.52) 3.5-1.5(3.25) 6-4 b. saviczii capsule 1.5-1.0(1.16) 1.0-0.7(0.90) 6.0-4.0 (3.25) 6-2 o. brachystachys capsule 1.0-0.7(0.85) 0.6-0.3(0.55) 4.2-1.0(2.5) 5-3 o. neurostegium capsule 1.4-0.5(0.78) 0.8-0.4(0.6) 3.5-1.2(2.08) 4-1 o. pyrenaicum capsule 0.9-0.5(0.81) 0.5-0.2(0.45) 6.0-3.0(4.2) 8-4 (values between brackets represent the mean) table (3): quantitative characteristics of the seeds and embryos of plant species under study. characteristics species embryo µ seeds (mm) r a n g e o f le n g th / w id th w id th l en g th r a n g e o f le n g th / w id th w id th l en g th 6.6 15 100 1.5 1.6) 3.0-2.0) (2.7) 3.0-2.5 b. chrisii 6.6 12 80 1.0 (2.5) 3.0-2.0 (2.5) 3.0-2.0 b. flexuosa 4.8 25 120 1.0 (2.5) 3.0-2.5 (2.5) 3.0-2.0 b. kurdistanica 10.0 6 60 1.0 (2.6) 3.0-2.5 (2.6) 3.5-2.5 b. longipes 2.9 40 118 1.1 (1.1) 2.0-1.0 (1.14) 2.0-0.5 b. macrobotry 9.0 8 72 1.2 (1.3) 1.5-0.5 (1.6) 2.0-1.0 b. parva 5.0 20 100 1.0 (3.25) 3.5-3 (3.25) 3.5-3.0 b. paradoxa 8.0 10 80 1.6 1.75) 2.0-1.5) (2.75) 3.0-2.0 b. savcizii 4.5 15 68 1.5 (1.7) 2.0-1.5 (2.7) 3.0-2.5 o. brachystachys 6.0 15 90 1.4 (1.7) 2.5-1.5 (2.4) 3.0-2.0 o. neurostegium 5.25 20 105 1.8 (0.9) 1.5-0.5 (1.7) 2.5-1.5 o. pyrenaicum (values between brackets represent the mean) 185 sa’eed et al. study of embryo through microscopy, it was found that b. chrisii, b. kurdistanica, b. macrobotrys, b. parva, b. paradoxa, o. brachystachys, o. neurostegium, and o. pyrenaicum species had elongated embryos, whereas it was a curvedend embryo in b. flexuosa; b. longipes with a semi-curved embryo and a pointed end, and a curved embryo close to the crescent shape in the b. aviczii (pl.6, tab.3). the results found that the embryos appeared in white colour in b. chrisii, b. kurdistanica, b. longipes, b. macrobotrys, b. parva, b. paradoxa, b. saviczii, o. brachystachys, o. neurostegium and o. pyrenaicum, and yellowish white in b. flexuosa and b. saviczii; we also noted that the b.kurdistanica, b. longipes, and b. saviczii species had a hatshape structure, and the hat changed shape as it was wide and oval with a green colour in b. kurdistanica. in addition, b. longipes was distinguished by being yellow, pointed and similar to the arrowhead in b. saviczii. according to the table (3), the results showed that the longest embryos were in b. kurdistanica reaching 120 µm and the shortest were in b. longipes reaching 60 µm. b. macrobotrys had the widest with 40 µm and the least width was of b. flexuosa and reached 12 µm. the embryo and its study are of great importance in separating the species, as it was noticed that there were differences in their ends and colors, which motivated their adoption as prominent characteristics to distinguish the species b. kurdistanica, b. longipes and b. savcizii which were distinguished from the other species by their embryo as having a hatlike structure;the elongated shape of the embryos is due to the fact that these plants are monocots, which are distinguished by elongated embryos. plate (6): qualitative characteristics of the embryos of plant species; (1) bellevalia chrisii, (2) b. flexuosa, (3) b. kurdistanica, (4) b. longipes, (5) b. macrobotrys, (6) b. parva, (7) b. paradoxa, (8) b. saviczii, (9) ornithogalum brachystachys, (10) o. neurostegium, (11) o. pyrenaicum. 186 comparative study of several morphological and reproductional description of b. chrisii bulb globose ovoid, 2.5-4.5 cm in diameter, with a coriaceous outer tunic, brownish, and papery inner tunic, light brownish. leaves 17.5-22 cm (18.75 cm), lanculate oblong, equivalent to or longer than the flowering leaf, 7-12 cm, shorter than the fruiting leaf, 1.5-2.5 cm. glaucous margins tinged purplishbrown, scape single with 11.5-19.5cm long, greenpurplish green; raceme cylindrical; bracts entire, pinkish, triangular-oblong, pedicels equaling or slightly longer than flowers, horizontally ascending-erect 5.6-10.5mm. flowers with 7.5-10 mm, tubular-campanulate; perianth violaceous, length tube 3.5-6 mm, lobes with 2-2.5 mm long, ovatelanculate, violaceous to whitish, distinctly shorter than tube, stamens flat, narrowly triangular, basally connate filaments attached, anther purplish,1-1.5 mm reaching at least-middle of the lobes, capsule valve semilunar, cordate-broadly elliptic, triquetrous, 510cm in dimeter, 8-17 cm long, thin, elliptic, retuse at apex, persistent, seed ellipsoid 2.5-3 x 2-3 mm, black. description of b. flexuosa bulb globse wit 4-2.5cm in diameter, with 4 or 5 lanculate leaves, 11-14 cm (12cm) in length while width 0.5-4.5 more from any species straight or truncate apex and spire base, double scape 15.5-18.5 cm shorter than b. chrisii green. raceme cylindrical; flowers 15-25 purple to white-creamy color. the fruits are capsule 0.6-1cm length and.0.5-0.8cm width elongated, with three lobes. green pedicels with 3.5-5 cm length shorter than b. chrisii. flowering period from january to march, stamens peripetals, cylindrical filaments. anther purplish with 3mm length; seeds were spherical 3.2-3.2 mm in diameter, black and smooth. conclusion through the study, it was possible to depend on the morphological features in the taxonomy of plants, especially the shape of the elongated leaves, the presence of bulbs of different sizes, spike inflorescences crowded in some species and spread in others, the violet colour of flowers of bellevalia species and the white of the ornithogalum species. the shape of the fruit capsule also has a taxonomic significance that helped distinguish the species. also the differences in seeds shapes between spherical, oval and the elongated shape of embryos are considered prominent traits of importance in the separation of species. literature cited abdul –raheem, i. a. and al-bayaty, a. j. 2018. morphoanatomical study of some species from liliaceae juss. family in ghurfa-adhaim district. tikrit journal of pure science, 23 (6):18-23. al-abide, n. m. 2013. biosystematic study of some taxa from chenopodiaceae in northern and middle iraq. ph. d. thesis, biology department, college of education for pure sciences, university of tikrit, iraq, 259 pp. al-abide, n. m. 2016. taxonomic morphological and anatomical study of fruits and seeds for different species of family brassicaceae in iraq. kirkuk university journalscientific studies, 11(2): 278-296. 187 sa’eed et al. al-abide, n. m. 2019. a morphological comparative study of some species of the brassicaceae in the governorate of erbil-iraq. plant archives, 19 (2):289-293. apg iii (angiosperm phylogeny group). 2009. an update of the angiosperm phylogeny group classification for the orders and families of flowering plants: apg iii. botanical journal of the linnaean society, 161(n): 105–121. astuti, g., brullo, s., domina, g., el mokni, r., giordani, t. and peruzzi, l. 2017. phylogenetic relationships among tetraploid species of bellevalia (asparagaceae) endemic to south central mediterranean. journal plant biosystems an international journal dealing with all aspects of plant biology, 151 (6): 1120–1128. aykurt, c., deniz, i̇. g., sarı, d., vural, m. and sümbül, h. 2016. resurrection of ornithogalum brevipedicellatum (asparagaceae) with morphological and molecular data. acta botanica croatica, 75(1): 60-66. baser, b., firat, m. and binzet, r. 2019. ultrastructure and pollen in turkey micromorphology of three endemic bellevalia (asparagaceae) species. fresenius environmental bulletin, 28 (2a): 1065-1069. ҫitak, b. y., dural, h., bȕyȕkkartal, h. n. and pinar, n. m. 2015. morphological, anatomical, palynological, and micromorphological characters of 2 endemic species of ornithogalum (o. chetikianum and o. demirizianum) in turkey. turkish journal of botany, 39:48-59. chase, m. w., reveal, j. l. and fay, m. f. 2009. a subfamilial classification for the expanded asparagalean families amaryllidaceae, asparagaceae and xanthorrhoeaceae. botanical journal of the linnaean society, 161(2): 132–136. cullen, j. 1984. ornithogalum l. in: davis, p. h. 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(asparagaceae) from eastern anatolia, turkey. nordic journal of botany, 33(1):4549. 190 comparative study of several morphological and reproductional bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2020) 16 (2): 173-191. مقارنة بعض الجوانب المظهرية و التكاثرية لبعض األنواع التابعة لجنسي bellevalia lapeyrouse, 1808 و ornithogalum linnaeus, 1753 (asparagales, asparagaceae ) في وسط وشمال العراق نجاة أمين سعيد*، نجالء مصطفى العبيدي* و عقيل حسين على العاصي** ، تكريت،العراقجامعة تكريت ،كلية التربية للعلوم الصرفة ،* قسم علوم الحياة ، تكريت، العراقجامعة تكريت ،كلية العلوم ،** قسم علوم الحياة 21/12/2020، تأريخ النشر: 13/10/2020، تأريخ القبول: 11/08/2020تأريخ االستالم: الخالصة حديهدف البحث الحالي إلى دراسة الخصائص المظهرية والتكاثرية أل و bellevalia lapeyrouse, 1808 لجنسي تعود انوع شرع ornithogalum linnaeus, 1753 عائلة asparagales رتبة asparagaceae التالية نواعشملت األذ إ؛ : bellevalia chrisii yildirim and sahin, 2014؛ b. flexuosa boiss, 1854؛ b. kurdistanica feinbrun, 1940 ؛b. longipes post, 1895؛ b. macrobotrys boissier, 1853؛ b. parva wendelbo, 1973؛ b. paradoxa boissier, 1882؛b. saviczii woronow, 1927؛ornithogalum brachystachys c. koch, ,.o. pyrenaicum l و o. neurostegium boissier, 1882؛1849 1753. وجود النتائج بينت ؛اذ البعض بعضها مع و قورنت األنواع شخصت ولون األوراق وطول البصيالت شكل دراسة في الجنسين بين افراد اختالفات األنواع لتمييز مهمة تصنيفية المةمنها ع أظهرت كل األزهار، حيث شكل منها التكاثر صفات بعض مع المظهرية الدراسات استخدمت. المدروسة أن الدراسة وجدت كما. االنواع لتشخيص واألجنة والبذور الثمار ولون 191 sa’eed et al. و التصنيف مجال في اهمية كبيرة بالسويق ارتباطها وكيفية الثمار لخصائص .األنواع تشخيص ؛ وتجدر b. flexuosa و b. chrisii ، هماللفلورا العراقيةن جديدي درس اإلشارة هنا إلى أن دراسة األجنة هي أيضا واحدة من أولى الدراسات التي .النباتات هذه على أجريت results of the study of the bellevalia and ornithogalum showed the similarity of the fruit type of their species, which was a trilobite capsule of green color for b. chrisii, b. flexuosa, b. kurdistanica, b. longipes, b. macrobotrys and b. parva, ... the fruits of the species; o. brachystachys, o. neurostegium, and o. pyrenaicum were characterized by an ovalshape striped with a white line and a green line, and the presence of bracts at the point of connection of the fruit with the fruit pedicels... تأريخ الاستلام: 11/08/2020، تأريخ القبول: 13/10/2020، تأريخ النشر: 21/12/2020 bull 495 noushig zarikian bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2021) 16 (4): 495-508. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2021.16.4.0495 a survey of running crab spiders philodromidae (araneae) of armenia noushig zarikian scientific center of zoology and hydroecology, national academy of sciences of armenia, yerevan, armenia e-mail: noushigz@hotmail.com received date: 30 august 2021, accepted date: 05 october 2021, published date: 20 december 2021 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract twelve species of philodromid crab or running crab spiders (philodromidae) have been recorded in armenia. nine species are new to the spider fauna of this country: philodromus cespitum (walckenaer, 1802); philodromus emarginatus (schrank, 1803), philodromus rufus walckenaer, 1826; rhysodromus histrio (latreille, 1819), thanatus atratus simon, 1875; thanatus formicinus (clerck, 1757); thanatus imbecillus l. koch, 1878; thanatus vulgaris simon, 1870 and thanatus pictus l. koch, 1881. key words: araneae, armenia caucasus checklist, first records, philodromidae. introduction spider fauna of armenia remains poorly studied with about 190 species recorded to date (otto, 2020). koch (1878) and kulczyński (1895) were the first authors who mentioned spiders from armenia. since then, the araneofauna of armenia was represented by a few papers (charitonov, 1936, 1956; mcheidze, 1964, 1997; ovtsharenko, 1982; wesołowska, 1986; eskov, 1987; tanasevitch, 1987, 1990; dunin, 1984, 1988, 1989, 1991, 1992; marusik, 1989; mikhailov, 1986, 1987, 1990, 1992, 2003, 2013, 2016; ovtsharenko et al., 1994; mikhailov and propistsova, 2017; mikhailov et al., 2017; mikhailov, 2021). some important papers adding new data for armenia were published by d. logunov and colleagues (logunov, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2015; rakov and logunov, 1997; logunov and marusik, 1999; logunov and guseinov, 2002, 2008) and the latest papers were contributed by the author (zarikian, 2020; zarikian and kalashian, 2021) only eight species of philodromidae have been recorded until this survey. kulczyński was the first who recorded a few philodromid species (kulczyński, 1895), although many other arachnologists also contributed with studies on the philodromidae of armenia (e.g. logunov and guseinov, 2008; mikhailov, 2000, 2013). however, compared with neighboring countries such as turkey (38 species) (danışman et al., 2019), iran (27 species) (torabi et al., 2019; https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2021.16.4.0495 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 496 a survey of running crab spiders zamani et al., 2019), georgia (21 species) and azerbaijan (30 species) (otto, 2020), the lack of information on armenian spiders difficult the analysis of the geographical distribution of many caucasian species. this work presents new faunistic records of philodromidae spiders recently collected plus additional records from the nas ra scientific center of hydroecology and zoology institute collections’ unpublished material. the recorded species will help to clarify the distribution of nine newly reported species in armenia. materials and methods the material considered in this work was collected from different provinces of armenia (tab. 1, map 1) by vladimir zacharian and arthur sukiasyan (past researchers nas ra scientific center of hydroecology and zoology institute) during 1988-1991 and 2019-2020 by n. zarikian spiders were collected under stones, above ground, and on plants by hand picking and sweeping. the material was preserved in 70% ethanol and identified by the collectors based on logunov and guseinov (2008), muster (2009), and nentwig et al. (2020); the coordinates of occurrence sites are provided in table (1). in the list of species, the order of families and species follows otto (2020), the general geographical distribution is provided according to the world spider catalog (2020), and the distribution throughout the caucasus follows otto (2020) and nentwig et al. (2020). the data on habitats are based on the field experience of the collectors and do not refer to precise collection sites; however, they match the armenian habitat at that time. the material is deposited in the nas ra scientific center of hydroecology and zoology institute collection in armenia. photographs were taken using an mbc9 stereomicroscope and samsung es 95 camera and prepared using adobe photoshope cc 2018 with hand-drawing additions. table (1): collecting sites of specimens. site no. site name coordinates altitude (m.a.s.l.) 1 ara ler (mount ara) 40.40073°n, 44.46875°e 2200 2 ejmiazin 40.16557°n, 44.29462°e 840 3 geghadir 40.15466°n, 44.65141°e 1600 4 gudemnis 38.93935°n, 46.177°e 1350 5 hankavan 40.63611°n, 44.48749°e 1900 6 “khosrov forest” state between 39.9700°n 44.8700°e and 39.9900°n 44.9000°e 1300–1460 7 lehvaz 38.9389°n, 46.22369°e 1009 8 marmashen 40.83486°n, 43.7779°e 1600 9 meghri 38.9058°n 46.2540°e 1193 10 noravank 39.6861°n, 45.22931°e 1400 11 shvanidzor 38.90832°n, 46.38348°e 730 12 yerevan 40.18469°n, 44.49591°e 980 497 noushig zarikian map (1): collecting localities. 1. ara ler (mount ara), 2.ejmiazin, 3.geghadir, 4.gudemnis, 5.hankavan, 6.“khosrov forest” state, 7.lehvaz, 8.marmashen, 9.meghri, 10.noravank, 11.shvanidzor, 12.yerevan. (from worldometer https://www.worldometers.info/maps/armenia-road-map) results and discussion a total of 32 specimens (30♀♀, 2 ♂♂) were collected encompassing 12 species and four genera as follows: (1) family, philodromidae genus, philodromus walckenaer, 1826 philodromus aureolus (clerck, 1757) material examined: (7 specimens); gudemnis, 13.vii.1989, 1♀; shvanidzor, 02.vi.1989, 3♀♀; yerevan, 09.vii.1988, 1♂; hankavan, 14.vi.1990, 2♀♀. global distribution: trans-palaearctic and west palaearctic regions. in armenia: unknown. distribution in armenia: dilijan, tavush province. habitat: herb-rich places in woodlands. 498 a survey of running crab spiders philodromus cespitum (walckenaer, 1802) material examined: (2 specimens); lehvaz, 15.vi.1988, 2♀♀. global distribution: circum-holarctic region and part of china. distribution in armenia: first record for armenia. habitat: grasslands and deciduous trees. epigyne description: the overall shape of the epigyne is wide and the rounded upper part is offset against a wider middle and lower part. in the middle it is tongue-shaped and with sclerotized edges. the chitin bridge is visible at the top, so the ep-epigyne plate look like a cup (pl. 1, a). philodromus emarginatus (schrank, 1803) material examined: (2 specimens); gudemnis, 13.vi.1989, 1♀; yerevan, 23.vi.1991, 1♀. global distribution: trans-palaearctic region. distribution in armenia: first record for armenia. habitat: herb-rich places in steppe vegetation area and woodlands. epigyne description: the strongly sclerotized middle part is widened and sharped in anterior here. the bridge-like chitin is hanging semi circularly (pl.1-b). philodromus rufus walckenaer, 1826 material examined: (1 specimen); meghri, 01.vi.1989, 1♀. global distribution: circum-holarctic region. distribution in armenia: first record for armenia. habitat: forests and woodlands. epigyne description: the sclerotized middle part is curved and thin and in anterior part of the epigyne viewed spiraled, while posteriorly has slant broad cleft shape (pl.1-c). genus, rhysodromus schick, 1965 rhysodromus histrio (latreille, 1819) material examined (2 specimens): shvanidzor, 27.iv.1998, 2♀♀. global distribution: holarctic region. distribution in armenia: first record for armenia. habitat: dry regions. epigyne description: the epigyne wide at the base and posteriorly, narrow anteriorly. the anterior parts are closer, while the median part getting far to cohere to the base (pl. 1-d). genus, thanatus c.l. koch, 1837 thanatus atratus simon, 1875 material examined: (2 specimens); ara ler, 08.xi.2019, 2♀♀. global distribution: palearctic region. distribution in armenia: first record for armenia. habitat: semi-dry regions. epigyne description: the central part of the epigyne isn’t depressed, no bridges viewed and the posterior parts look like clumps. no sclerotized part seems here (pl.1-e). 499 noushig zarikian thanatus formicinus (clerck, 1757) material examined: (3 specimens); geghadir, 30.x.2019, 3♀♀. global distribution: holarctic region. distribution in armenia: first record for armenia. habitat: dry and semi-dry regions. epigyne description: the lp lateral guide pocket is wide and sclerotized the anterior part is round-ended (pl.1-f). thanatus imbecillus l. koch, 1878 material examined: (4 specimens); ejmiazin, 16.iv.1989, 1♀; shvanidzor, 02.vi.1989, 1♀, 1♂; yerevan, 12.v.1989, 1♀. global distribution: bulgaria to central asia. distribution in armenia: first record for armenia. habitat: dry and stony areas. pedipalp description: the tegular apophysis of the male palp is long and the tibial apophysis leaf-like and splinted at the end (pl.1-g). thanatus oblongiusculus (lucas, 1846) material examined: (1 specimen); geghadir, 10.xi.2019, 1♀. global distribution: europe to central asia. distribution in armenia: unknown, this species was recorded by mikhailov (2013). habitat: stems, bushes and trees, sometimes also on herbs. thanatus pictus l. koch, 1881 material examined: (3 specimens); ara ler, 08.xi.2019, 3♀♀. global distribution: palearctic. distribution in armenia: first record for armenia. habitat: dry regions. epigyne description: the lp lateral guide pocket is narrow, but clear enough here; in anterior bents to form a corner (pl.1-h). thanatus vulgaris simon, 1870 material examined: (2 specimens); yerevan, 25.vi.1988, 2♀♀. global distribution: europe to far east. distribution in armenia: first record for armenia. habitat: dry regions. epigyne description: the epigyne of this species is similar to t. atratus, but the central part is more depressed, the sclerotized middle part is obvious and the anterior part is narrow (pl.1-i). genus, tibellus simon, 1875 tibellus oblongus (walckenaer, 1802) material examined: noravank, 13.vi.2020, 1♀; khosrov, 22.vi.1990, 1♀, 1♂; marmashen, 01.xii.2019, 1♀. global distribution: holarctic region. 500 a survey of running crab spiders distribution in armenia: unknown, this species was recorded by mikhailov (2013). habitat: grasslands. as a result of this study, nine species of spiders were recorded in armenia for the first time (plate 2), which morphometric measurements and characteristic features are not different from the european or caucasus recorded specimen. we provided a comprehensive checklist of philodromidae species, in which the currently known philodromid fauna of armenia consists of 17 species. this enhances the regional catalogue of the caucasian spider fauna. however, research on the arachnofauna of armenia is still neglected. we hope this work will facilitate further research on arachnology in armenia and could represent a baseline of biological data. checklist of family philodromidae in armenia philodromus aureoles (clerck, 1757) distribution in armenia: syunik, kotayk, yerevan and tavush provinces (current study; kulczynski, 1895). philodromus cespitum (walckenaer, 1802)* distribution in armenia: syunik province (current study). philodromus collinus c. l. koch, 1835 distribution in armenia: tavush province (kulczynski, 1895). philodromus dispar walckenaer, 1826 distribution in armenia: tavush province (kulczynski, 1895; mikhailov, 2013). philodromus emarginatus (schrank, 1803) * distribution in armenia: yerevan and syunik provinces (current study). philodromus juvencus kulczyński, 1895 distribution in armenia: kotayk province (kulczynski, 1895). philodromus rufus walckenaer, 1826* distribution in armenia: syunik province (current study). rhysodromus histrio (latreille, 1819)* distribution in armenia: syunik province (current study). rhysodromus lepidus (blackwall, 1870) distribution in armenia: unavailable, this species was recorded in armenia by otto (2020). rhysodromus rikhteri (logunov & huseynov, 2008) distribution in armenia: yerevan province, this species listed in armenia by logunov and guseinov (2008). 501 noushig zarikian thanatus atratus simon, 1875* distribution in armenia: aragatsotn province (current study). thanatus formicinus (clerck, 1757)* distribution in armenia: kotayk province (current study). thanatus imbecillus l. koch, 1878 * distribution in armenia: yerevan, syunik and armavir provinces (current study). thanatus oblongiusculus (lucas, 1846) distribution in armenia: kotayk province and armenian upland (current study; mikhailov, 2013). thanatus pictus l. koch, 1881* distribution in armenia: aragatsotn province (current study). thanatus vulgaris simon, 1870* distribution in armenia: yerevan province (current study). tibellus oblongus (walckenaer, 1802) distribution in armenia: unavailable. note: *first records in the fauna of armenia are marked with an asterisk. 502 a survey of running crab spiders (a) p. cespitum (b) p. emarginatus (c) p. rufus (d) r. histrio (e ) t. atratus (f) t. formicinus (g)t. imbecillus (h) t. pictus (i) t. vulgaris plate (1): epigynes (or pediapalp) of the species that recorded in current study. 503 noushig zarikian (a) p. cespitum (b) p. emarginatus (c) p. rufus (d) r. histrio (e) t. atratus (f) t. formicinus (g) t. imbecillus (h) t. pictus (i) t. vulgaris plate (2): the general view of described species of philodromidae acknowledgments we thank to science committee of ministry of education, science, culture and sports of republic of armenia for financial support to study arachnids in armenia. conflict of interest statment "the authors have no conflicts of interest to declare". 504 a survey of running crab spiders literature cited charitonov, d. e. 1936. a supplement to the catalogue of russian spiders. uchenye zapiski permskogo university, 2: 167-222. charitonov, d. e. 1956. overview of the spider family dysderidae in the fauna of the ussr. uchenye zapiski molotovskogo gosu-darstvennogo universiteta, 10: 17-39. 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(2021) 16 (4): 495-508. philodromidae (araneae)الجارية السرطانيةللعناكب مسحية دراسة في أرمينيا نوشيك زاريكيان في ألكاديمية الوطنية للعلوما و علم البيئة املائية، لعلم الحيوان املركز العلمي .اجمهورية أرمينيا، يريفان، أرميني 20/12/2021، تأريخ النشر: 05/10/2021، تأريخ القبول: 30/08/2021تأريخ االستالم: الخالصة اثني عشر نوًعا من عناكب السرطانية الجاريةسجل خالل هذه الدراسة (philodromidaeفي ) العناكب في هذا البلد ملجموعةتسعة أنواع منهم جديدة ؛أرمينيا: philodromus cespitum (walckenaer, 1802) philodromus emarginatus (schrank, 1803) philodromus rufus walckenaer, 1826 rhysodromus histrio (latreille, 1819) thanatus atratus simon, 1875 thanatus formicinus (clerck, 1757) thanatus imbecillus l. koch, 1878 thanatus vulgaris simon, 1870 thanatus pictus l. koch, 1881. bull 63 hamza et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2020) 16 (1): 6381. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2020.16.1.0063 a study of physical and anatomical characteristics of the heavy metal accumulation of juncus rigidus desfontaines, 1798 (family, juncaceae) in basrah province, southeren of iraq shatha mohammed hamza* sahar a. a. malik al-saadi* and dunya a. hussain al-abbawy** * college of science, department of biology, basrah university, basrah, iraq ** college of science, department of ecology, basrah university, basrah, iraq *corresponding author: saharmalik2010@gmail.com received date: 07 january 2020, accepted date: 11 april 2020, published date: 24 june 2020 abstract this study was carried out to determine the heavy metal accumulation of juncus rigidus desfontaines, 1798 from three different regions of the basrah province in southern of iraq. specifically, the concentrations of lead, nickel, and cadmium were determined in the roots, culms and leaves of the plant. the results indicated that the highest accumulation of the heavy metal was recorded in lead (pb) 12.50± 3.58 mg kg-1and then in nickel (< 0.30). the lowest value was recorded for cadmium (< 0.05). as well, lead concentrations in j. rigidus varied in different locations and parts of the plant from undetectable in control to 12.66, 19.33, and 9.80 mg kg-1 in leaves, culm, and roots respectively from station 2, and 10.76, 12.66, and 9.50 mg kg-1 in station 3. the values of translocation factor (tf), bioconcentration factor (bcf), and biological accumulation coefficient (bac) were greater than>1 used to the ability of j. rigidus for both phytoextraction and phytostabilization. the anatomical analysis showed that heavy metal accumulation in plant tissues led to a reduction in root and culm thickness; in polluted area it has been found that cortex and intercellular spaces in aerenchyma layers were deceased in size, whereas high pollution levels were observed in vascular bundles, which were smaller, and had increased sclerenchyma, as well as appeared more black or dark color compared to the specimens grown in the control area. keyword: accumulation, anatomy, culm, heavy metals, juncus rigidus, root. 64 a study of physical and anatomical characteristics introduction the genus of juncus linnaeus, 1753 belongs to the family of juncaceae, which has approximately 250 300 species worldwide. among the flora of iraq, this genus has six subgenera (juncus, genuini, subulati, pseudotenageia, poiophylli and septati), is widely distributed, and has 16 species. juncus, commonly called rushes or samar, is a perennial plant; all of its leaves are basal; terete, pungent, auricles are absent; flowers are in stalked panicles, and seeds contain appendages (townsend and guest, 1985). j. rigidus desfontaines, 1798 grows in marshes, shallow brackish water, and semi-saline soil and can be found in a variety of moist, wet and temperate climates (snogerup, 1978; townsend and guest, 1985). j. rigidus species are used in traditional medicine for their antioxidant, antimicrobial, antitumor, cytotoxic, antiviral, anti-algal, and anti-inflammatory properties (el-shamy et al., 2015). this genus contains several medically relevant compounds including terpenes, flavonoids, phenolic acids, coumarins, sterols, carotenoids, stilbenes and phenanthrenes. seeds of this plant are rich in fatty acids and amino acids (osman et al., 1975; zahran and elhabib, 1979). heavy metals are some of the most critically relevant environmental pollutants (tangahu et al., 2011); the metals sources include natural rock erosion and human activities, for example, industrial processes go into unpolluted areas where they accumulate in the water, soil, deep sediment, and living organisms (miretzky et al., 2004). utilizing plants to remove this form of pollutants have been investigated since the early 1970s (susarla et al., 2002; bouldin et al., 2006). many plant species are well suited for phytoremediation due to their ability to absorb heavy metals such as pb, cd, cr, ag, and various radionuclides from soil (lasat, 2000). phytoremediation can remove heavy metals many (e.g., fe, mn, zn, cd, cr, pb, co, ag, se, hg, cu, mg, mo, and ni) (cho-ruk et al., 2006); this technique uses plants to accumulate pollution, is affordable, and is environmentally friendly (najeeb et al., 2017). collection of plant species for phytoremediation purposes is related to, or depends on plants being in open biological systems with the latent to accumulate more heavy metal of dry biomass and growth rates, (susarla et al., 2002; mcgrath and zhao, 2003). plant uptakes of pollution from soil particles or soil liquid via root systems, and from cracks down of polluted sites from soils, sediments and water, and then they go through translocation and bioaccumulation to the internal plant structure (cho-ruk et al., 2006; paz-alberto and sigua, 2013). many species of juncus are used as accumulators; juncus effuses linnaeus, 1753, is one of the 17 terrestrial species that has ability to accumulate high concentrations of heavy metals like pb, cd, cu, and zn. in addition, to removes phyto-stabilization in wetlands through genetic manipulation (yanqun et al., 2004; grube et al., 2008; najeeb et al., 2011; najeeb et al., 2017). this species was tolerant to stress from heavy metals such as zinc and chromium (dimitroula et al., 2014; mateos-naranjo et al., 2014). https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/s1878535212001542#b0250 65 hamza et al. the study area (basrah city) contains developed industrial or urban regions which led to many environmental problems, and caused an increase in pollution, including heavy metals (al-obaidy et al., 2016). many studies have evaluated and identified the sediment and water of the most pollution sites (akesh, 2017). the influential heavy elements (pb, cd, cr and ni) are increasing in basrah city because of its closeness to oil companies or industrial waste regions which contain high levels of metals such as oil refinery of al-sha’eiba (khwedim et al., 2009). the purpose of the present study was to determine the bioaccumulation of three heavy metals pb, cd, and ni in the roots, culm, and leaves of j. rigidus, which have grown in different contaminated sites in basrah in order to determine the applicability of j. rigidus for phytoremediation, and to observe the anatomical changes of roots and culm structure. materials and methods study area and sampling experiments were conducted at the college of science, department of biology and ecology, basrah university. three stations were selected: station 1 included a control of uncontaminated area (garmat ali) global positioning system (gps) 47◦ 45 ́46´´ e 30◦ 34´ 46´´n; station 2 near oil contamination (al-sha’eiba) 47◦ 41´ 59´´ e 30◦ 22´ 59´´n; and station 3 near energy engine contamination (taga place) 47◦ 45 ́58´ ́e 30◦ 39 ́44´´n. j. rigidus specimens were collected in the summer of 2017 from the three stations and brought into the laboratory on the same day. then, to remove the remaining soil from the plant materials, the specimens were washed carefully three times with distilled water to remove adhering particles/ remaining soil and then were dried. chemical analysis of the heavy metals (cd, ni, and pb) in the roots, culm, and leaves of j. rigidus plant was achieved through hno3 digestion and the final filtrated mixture was subjected to an atomic spectrophotometer (phoenix-986, city, england). the concentration of heavy metals detected in the plant was determined through comparison to a standard curve of concentrations (kabata-pendias and pendias, 1992); the soil samples were collected at 0 –15 cm depths, then the specimens dried in oven at 150 °c for 12 hours were digested in acid-cleaned teflon microwave vessels hydrofluoric acid2ml and 5ml of nitric acid and they were digested at 200◦c for 30 min (binning and baird, 2001). heavy metals content concentrations (pb, ni and cd) were determined by using atomic spectrophotometer (phoenix-986, city, england). the working wave lengths were as follows: pb 217 nm; cd -228.8 nm and ni 232 nm and limited of detection for each element: pb, ni and cd were 0.01 ppm. phytoextraction efficiency three parameters were calculated to compare the accumulation and translocation of heavy metals from the roots to the culms including: the bioconcentration factor (bcf), the translocation factor (tf), and the biological accumulation coefficient (bac) (yoon et al., 2006). bcf is considered as the percentage of mineral concentration in roots to soil (yoon et 66 a study of physical and anatomical characteristics al., 2006). tf reflects the proportion of the heavy metals in the shoot to its roots whereas the bac explains ratio of the heavy metals in the shoots to the soil (cui et al., 2007; li et al., 2007) as the following: bcf = (concentration metals) root / (concentration metals) soil tf = (concentration metals) shoot / (concentration metals) root bac = (concentration metals) shoot / (concentration metals) soil anatomical study for the anatomical studies, ten specimens of j. rigidus plants were collected from each station; the permanent sections of roots and culms were ready, the plant parts were cut into 10-15 cm pieces and fixed for 24 hours in formalin-acetic acid and alcohol (faa) and were preserved in 70% ethyl alcohol, then dehydrated in an ethyl alcohol series. then, specimens were sectioned on a rotary microtome, and stained in safranin and fast green before being mounted in canada balsam on glass slides (johansan, 1968). 100 slides were prepared from j. rigidus specimens in each station. in this study, unpolluted and polluted plant parts from stations were analyzed; the five best transverse sections were selected to study anatomical features. finally, the specimens were examined with an olympus light microscope and photographed with dce-2 digital camera (metcalfe and chalk, 1950; esau, 1977). statistical analysis the data of the study were analyzed by one-way analysis of variance (anova). a significance level < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. results and discussion the heavy metal concentrations in j. rigidus tissues of contaminated areas are shown in table (1); the highest accumulation of the heavy metal was recorded in lead 12.50± 3.58 mg kg-1and then nickel (< 0.30), the lowest value was recorded for cadmium (< 0.05). these results revealed that the plants accumulated great amounts of heavy metals; furthermore, the results indicated that the lead content of the j. rigidus plants surpassed the upper limits of the normal range (tab. 1). these agree with the literature using other juncus species for accumulation purposes (deng et al., 2004; weis and weis, 2004; yanqun et al., 2004). table (1): average concentrations of lead, nickel and cadmium in leaves of juncus rigidus (mg kg-1) in station 2. metal concentration lead 12.50±3.58 nickel <0.30 cadmium <0.05 the total concentrations of lead in j. rigidus roots, leaves, and culm collected from polluted and unpolluted sites are illustrated in table (2) and diagram (1); the results showed that lead concentrations in j. rigidus varied in different locations and parts of the plant from undetectable in control to 12.66, 19.33, and 9.80 mg kg-1 in leaves, culm, and roots 67 hamza et al. respectively from station 2; and 10.76, 12.66, and 9.50 mg kg-1 in station 3 (tab. 2; diag. 1). in j. rigidus specimens, heavy metal concentrations were higher in the culm than the root and leaves. this shows the ability of the plant to translocate pollution from roots to stems, similar to other plants (han et al., 2016). a similar study from hasanuzzaman et al. (2014) found that all of the halophytes exhibited better accumulation of salt, and the level of total salt accumulation in the shoot was mostly species-specific. the amount of heavy metal (pb, ni, and cd) in the tissues of j. rigidus is elevated because of the constant contact of the leaves and stems with the water or metal ions stored in the roots and then translocated to the shoots (gupta et al., 2011). the results agreed with grube et al. (2008) study, which showed that some species of juncus are sensitive to heavy metal stress. lead is a highly toxic pollutant, and its higher concentrations cause reduced plant growth, speed up reactive oxygen species (ros) production which enter in plant metabolic processes and damage cell membranes (liu et al., 2008; huang et al., 2008; pourrut et al., 2011; doncheva et al., 2013). survival of j. rigidus under heavy metal toxicity increased the level of anti-oxidative enzymes, metal prohibiting from shoots and cellular removal (weis and weis, 2004), and detoxification into the roots (yanqun et al., 2004; deng et al., 2004). in addition, the free pb+2 ions in media inhibit enzymatic action by reacting with sulfhydryl groups (seregin and ivanov, 2001; han et al., 2016). table (2): translocation and bioconcentration factor of lead concentration in juncus rigidus collected from the contaminated (station 1 and 2) and control area in basrah city. area leaves mg kg-1 culm mg kg-1 root mg kg-1 soil mg kg-1 bcf tf bac control(station 1) < ld < ld < ld shaiba (station 2) 12.66 19.33 9.80 1.5 6.53 3.26 21.32 taga(station 3) 10.76 12.66 9.50 2 4.75 2.46 11.71 < ld: below detection limit 68 a study of physical and anatomical characteristics diagram (1): lead concentrations of the study parts in j. rigidus (in mg kg-1). phytoextraction efficiency the results for the tf, bcf, and bac indicating the variation in lead concentration are given in table (2). the results showed that j. rigidus had bcf, bac and tf values greater than >1 and pb’s bac values were the highest of the three metals (tab. 2). the results showed that it was easy for j. rigidus to translocate lead metal from its roots to its shoots; the tf values were 3.26 and 2.46 in station 2 and station 3, respectively which reflect that j. rigidus having a tf greater than >1; it is suitable for translocating metals from roots to shoots by phytoextraction and the plant doesn’t confine metals to its roots (yoon et al., 2006). according to ghosh and singh (2005), phytoextraction is a method to remove the pollution from the soil without destroying structure and fertility of the soil. j. rigidus had bcf over >1 for pb, bcf recorded 6.53 and 4.75 in stations 2 and 3, respectively; this value showed that j. rigidus could be used for accumulating many of the metals from polluted sites. values of tf, bcf, and bac over >1 reflect that j. rigidus is capable of phytoextraction and phytostabilization (yoon et al., 2006; li et al., 2007). phytostabilization uses plants to decrease the mobility and bioavailability of pollutants present in soil, and reduces the potential of toxins entering the food chain, where they can cause harm to human health (tangahu et al., 2011).the mechanism underlying metal accumulation may be detoxicated through the confiscation of heavy metal ions in vacuoles, where they bind with organic acids, proteins, and individual peptides using enzymes, the selective transport and uptake of ions, osmotic adaptation, and salt (la´zaro et al., 2006; cui et al., 2007). anatomical studies anatomical root changes in j. rigidus the anatomical changes in the plants grown in unpolluted and the polluted regions were observed (tab. 3, pl.1). transverse sections of j. rigidus roots from polluted regions showed 69 hamza et al. several changes in root structure, including diameter, aerenchyma tissue shape and arrangement of cortical parenchyma cells. the results showed a reduction in root thickness due to the accumulation of heavy metals. root thickness was 1480.75 µm on average in plants from the unpolluted area, while in the polluted sites were 170.33 µm and 179.16 µm respectively (tab. 3). the transverse section of the roots has a one-cell thick epidermal layer, and epidermal cells in root in the unpolluted area were square-shaped or rectangular, uniseriate, and 90.83 µm thick; while in the area of exposure, the roots were degraded and decreased in thickness down to 18.33 µm (tab. 3). in unpolluted area, the cortex was composed of pseudohypodermis (hyperepidemis) layers and aerenchyma tissue (air spaces or lacunae). the pseudohypoderm was 3-6 cells thick in the unpolluted station 1 and reduced in the polluted area to only one cell thick (tab. 3, pl.1). the results also showed changes in the shapes of cells, the root endodermis, exodermis and air spaces were reduced in the area exposed to pollution (tab. 3); these changes in cell shape and tissue organization are likely because of the ability of pollution to disrupt the hormonal balance of j. rigidus or the poisonous effect of the metal, which can denature proteins quicken free radical’s productions, and inhibit photosynthesis (kabata-pendias, 2011; bini et al., 2012). other investigators have reported that the exodermis and endodermis can serve as effective barriers to the movement of elements (ederli et al., 2004; wójcik et al., 2005; najeeb et al., 2017). table (3): measurement of root tissues in j. rigidus in micrometer (µm). station root diameter epidermis thickness air chamber thickness vascular bundle thickness xylem thickness number of xylem row 1 (1120-1520) 1480.75 (50-112.5) 90.83 (800-1160) 975.32 (125-142.5) 135.11 (42.5-70) 16.78 18-25 2 (100-225) 170.33 (30-60.21) 37.50 (93.75-500) 182.81 (70-80) 77.55 (25-50) 39.91 7-11 3 (150-200) 179.16 (10-25) 18.33 (50-100) 66.87 (200-225) 210.62 (20.5-30.5) 33.33 6-8 in the pollution area, the cortex decreased in the size and amount of the intercellular spaces in the aerenchyma layer (pl.1); the most pronounced anatomical feature of j. rigidus was the presence of gas-filled chambers and passageways in the roots called diaphragms. the aerenchyma layer from the control area was regular and divided transversally by multiseriate diaphragms, irregular intercellular spaces spreading through the leaf and long distances through the roots (975.32 µm), while decreased in thickness (66.87 µm) and became irregular and undulate in shape (tab. 3, pl. 1). these chambers provide an internal atmosphere for the plant and act as a source of the oxygen produced during photosynthesis and the carbon dioxide from respiration that accumulates and used in photosynthesis. furthermore, aerenchyma provides buoyancy for the organs. the decrease in the number and size of the conducting elements of the xylem and phloem increases retention during the transport of 70 a study of physical and anatomical characteristics water and mineral salts; this is particularly needed when the plant undergoes stress (alves et al., 2001). the present results are consistent with gomes et al. (2011) who reported that lead can accumulate in the aerenchyma, which had observable levels of metals as well, there were some metals accumulated in the cell walls and aerenchyma of the cortical parenchyma of the roots (pl. 1). plate (1): cross section of juncus rigidus root; (a) whole root, (b) aerenchyma tissue, (c) epidermis and hypodermis layers, (d, e) pollution area in station 3, (f, g, h) oil polluted area, (f) redaction and damage of aerenchyma tissue, the root abnormal, as well as reduced the number of vessels bundles, (g) aerenchyma tissue, (h) some oil pollutant inside the xylem vessels and cells of roots, damage aerenchyma. (1epidermis, 2aerenchyma tissue, 3vascular bundle). a pericycle layer occurred within the endodermis (pl. 2); the outer part of pericycle layer was composed of a layer of irregular or hexagonal cells, 3-9 cells thick in the control area; it had very thick inner and anticlinal walls and thin outer walls. in spite of their role in pollutants reduction, an adverse effect in plant structure had been occurred; represented by changes in the internal structure of the root tissue, as well as the epidermis, cortex and 71 hamza et al. endodermis become undifferentiated. the vascular bundle of j. rigidus in the polluted regions (station 2) near the oil pollution showed that the cells, vessels of xylem, and pith are filled with oil contamination; our study found a reduction in the number and structure of phloem and xylem. thickness of vascular bundle was 77.55 µm (tab. 3, pl. 2). similar results were recorded in terrestrial and aquatic plants by weryszko-chmielewska and chwil (2005) and al-saadi et al. (2013). other studies reported that a reduction in vascular bundle was due to the accumulation and translocation of heavy metals in the cell wall system (macfarlane and burchett, 2000; weryszko-chmielewska and chwil, 2005; al-saadi et al., 2013). in contrast, in station 3, the thickness of the vascular bundle was 210.62 µm higher than in unpolluted areas and station 2 (tab. 3, pl. 2). in addition, the vascular bundles lost their shape in the roots of plants exposed to pollution (pl. 2). plate (2):cross-section of root of juncus rigidus; (a) non-polluted area, (b-j) contaminated area, (b-c) increased sclerenchyma inside the pith towered pericycle, (d) abnormal and damage endodermis and pericycle, (e, f) found some oil accumulate in pith and xylem vessels and cell roots, (g, h) increased sclerenchyma in pith, (i-j) showed reduction of vascular bundle, decreased number of the vascular bundle and present with black oil pollution inside both xylem vessels and cells of roots. 72 a study of physical and anatomical characteristics transverse sections of culm anatomical changes in j. rigidus culm between plants grown in station 1 (unpolluted) and polluted areas (station 2 and 3) were observed (pl.3). in the unpolluted area, the culm contained a single layer epidermis. chlorenchyma was found beneath the epidermis, 2-5 cells in thick, irregular, and rounded cells and then found continuous parenchyma called conjunctive tissue, which consisted of diaphragms of stellate or branching cells. the stele is scattered, with fewer but bigger vascular bundles, which were atactostele (pl.3a). the results showed a reduction in the culm of j. rigidus specimens collected from polluted areas; the specimens taken from areas polluted with oil had accumulated pollutants in their epidermis and in some cells of culm. moreover, high levels of pollution were observed in the bundles; it was the small size increased in sclerenchyma, and appeared of darker color compared to the samples grown in the control area (pl.3 b, e, h), the same thing was reported by sridhar et al.( 2007), gomes et al. (2011) and bini et al.( 2012). the decrease in the culm belongs to the toxic effect of the pollution, which can inactivate proteins and motivate the production of free radical’s heavy metals which can constrain photosynthesis, necrosis and growth inhibition of the plant (kabata-pendias, 2011; bini et al., 2012). the metals damage the plant by inhibiting cell division and disintegrating the parenchyma (gomes et al., 2011). plants found near the area polluted by oil exhibit a decrease in growth rate and changes in structure of cells and tissues. the sensitivity of juncus species for oil remediation is broad and depends on the morphological characteristics and components of the soil. however, some studies reported that j. maritimus lamarck, 1789 and j. subsecundus n. a. wakefield,1957 are very important for resolving hydrocarbon pollution which it was explored along with a reduction in growth rate at high concentration (zhang et al., 2010; mnpfs et al., 2011; anderson and hess, 2012; michel and rutherford, 2014). the epidermis is composed of one layer of cells; the thickness of the epidermis of unpolluted region was 4.64 µm, while it reached to 9.50 µm in station 3. lower thickness was recorded in station 2 (tab. 4, pl. 3). the cuticular layer develops in the extracellular space; this was thicker in the polluted areas. below the epidermis in the outer part of the cortex, the observed chlorenchyma had 613 various cellular layers with elongated cells that were slightly swollen in the control area, while it was 1-3 layers in stations 2 and 3 as detailed in table (4) and plate (3). in control, the vascular bundle was collateral, and the phloem of the vascular bundles was outer to the xylem followed by the phloem; the arrangement of the vascular tissue within the leaf resembles that of an atactostele. the sclerenchyma layer was observed surrounding the vascular bundle; in polluted regions, there was a reduction in the size, number and quantity of the vessel element of j. rigidus. these results validate with weryszko-chmielewska and chwil (2005) and al-saadi et al. (2013); these studies showed a decrease in the number and dimension of the vessel elements. some investigators reported that the inhibition of growth and reduction in xylem may be due to the accumulation of heavy metals in the walls and air canals which (comprises cells with large intercellular spaces that allow the air supply to underwater plant parts in the control area and make up the cortex and the pith) were destroyed http://refhub.elsevier.com/s1871-6784(16)32657-7/sbref0600 http://refhub.elsevier.com/s1871-6784(16)32657-7/sbref0480 http://refhub.elsevier.com/s1871-6784(16)32657-7/sbref0575 http://refhub.elsevier.com/s1871-6784(16)32657-7/sbref0575 73 hamza et al. and disappeared (weryszko-chmielewska and chwil, 2005; al-saadi et al., 2013; brandao et al., 2018). yoon et al. (2006) and brandao et al. (2018) have assessed the potential for phytoremediation with plant species growing on a polluted area and, noticed that the concentration of pb was highest in the roots of plants; this study found higher pb concentrations in the shoots compared to other metals. reduction of the toxicity of heavy metals is the compartmentalization of metals in vacuoles strategy used by the plants (ali et al., 2013; brandao et al., 2018). changes in roots and culm tissues also support to understand the treat of metal buildup and tolerance; the absorption of these metals from the soil is closely connected to the root and culm transpiration rate. the effects of pb, cd and ni on the root and stem anatomy are somewhat similar to the results reported by srighar et al. (2005) and vollenweider et al. (2006). table (4): measurement of culm tissues in j. rigidus in micrometer (µm). position culm thickness epidermis thickness xylem thickness phloem thickness vascular bundle thickness s 1 (112.5-150) 132.91 (2.5-5.5) 4.64 (10-17.5) 12.08 (17.5-40) 31.25 (30-60) 48.05 s 2 (45-100) 75.33 (4.5-5.5) 4.30 (11-20) 13.54 (22-35) 20.40 (10-30) 22.50 s 3 (31-95) 40.22 (6.55-12) 9.50 (13-22) 14.70 (15-30) 20.21 (21-40) 24.88 74 a study of physical and anatomical characteristics plate (3): cross section of the culm of juncus rigidus; (a, d, g) non-pollution area, (be, h) polluted area in station 2, (c, f, i) pollution in station 3. 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iraq nat. hist. mus. (2020) 16 (1): 63-81. لثقيلة في دراسة الخصائص الفيزيائية والتشريحية لتراكم المعادن ا عائلة juncus rigidus desfontaines, 1798 النوع juncaceae جنوب العراق ، في محافظة البصرة سحر عبد العباس مالك السعدي*، شذى محمد حمزة* و دنيا علي حسين العباوي** ية العلوم، قسم علوم الحياة، البصرة، العراق.جامعة البصرة، كل* العراق. ** جامعة البصرة، كلية العلوم، قسم البيئة، البصرة، 2020/ 24/06، تأريخ النشر: 2020/ 11/04، تأريخ القبول: 01/2020/ 07تأريخ االستالم: الخالصة تراكم المعادن الثقيلة في النوع لتقييم سةادراجريت هذه ال juncus rigidus desfontaines, 1798 التي جمعت من مناطق مختلفة من محافظة البصرة في جنوب العراق؛ حددت تراكيز المعادن الثقيلة راق في النبات.كالرصاص والنيكل والكادميوم من الجذور والسيقان واألو أعلى التراكيز من المعادن الثقيلة سجلت لعنصر أتضح من النتائج ان اقل أما ؛ (0.30 >)كغم ومن ثم النيكل /ملغم 3.58 ±12.50الرصاص ؛ وقد تغاير تركيز الرصاص في(0.05 >)التراكيز فقد سجلت في الكادميوم نت سيطرة كالففي موقع ا ،اتبين األجزاء المختلفة من النب j. rigidusالنوع ذات قيم 2ممكنة التحديد؛ بينما كانت في المحطة التراكيز غير وجد أنه 3 كغم،أما المحطة /ملغم 9.80)و19.33و(12.66 كغم في األوراق والسيقان والجذور على /ملغم 9.50)و 12.66و(10.76 التوالي. ومعامل التركيز translocation factorمعامل النقل حسبت قيم ومعامل biological accumulation coefficient (bac)البايولوجي ووجد أنها bioconcentration factor (bcf)التركيز االحيائي .1كانت < 81 hamza et al. أدى الى اتفي النبأظهرت نتائج الدراسة التشريحية أن تراكم المعادن الثقيلة وجد ، كمابالمعادن الثقيلة أختزال في سمك الجذر والساق في المناطق الملوثة كيز نقصان حجم القشرة والمسافات البينية في الفراغات الهوائية. وأن الترا ة العالية من الملوثات أدت الى صغر حجم الحزم الوعائية وزيادة في الطبق لتي اسوداء اللون مقارنة مع العينات السكلرنكيمية مع ظهور مناطق غامقة او نمت في المناطق غير الملوثة في معاملة السيطرة. full page photo bull 17 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-saraf and al-azawi bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2024) 18 (1): 17-34. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2024.18.1.0017 original article current conservation status of the migratory western marsh harrier throughout the unesco site in al-chibayish marsh, south of iraq abdullah s. al-saraf and ahmad j. al-azawi department of biology, college of science, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq. corresponding author: alsarafabdullah95@gmail.com received: 3 august 2023, revised: 27 sept. 2023, accepted: 2 october 2023, published:20 june 2024 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract monitoring migrating raptors is among the most cost-effective and simple methods for forecasting shift in the ecosystem and environment. the western marsh harrier circus aeruginosus (linnaeus, 1758) (accipitriformes, accipitridae) represents a widely wintering, on-passage raptor over iraq's southern mesopotamian marshlands. however, recent information related to this species’ population trend, as well as its spatial and temporal migration patterns, is not fully known. from october 2021–june 2022, nine ornithological field surveys were undertaken in the central marshes (unesco site, ramsar site, and iraq's national park). three transect lines were chosen, and the surveying plot covered 40,000 hectares (400 km2). our recent surveys recorded a total of 64 harriers passing over the central marshes. the species density was determined using a distance sampling method; perpendicular distances were gauged using a digital range finder. during our surveys, the central marshes hosted a migratory population of ≈3,508-21,499 harriers. in addition, we assessed the breeding status of this bird species in the surveyed area; however, no confirmed breeding was found. furthermore, illegal hunting/trapping were identified as the main threat facing the species in iraq. keywords: breeding, circus aeruginosus, conservation, density, iraq, migration, wetlands. introduction all over the globe, birds of prey’s presence within an ecosystem indicates a highly diversified ecosystem (sergio et al., 2006; tinajero et al., 2017), within which these birds form communities and act as an indicator of the health of the environment (gousy-leblanc et al., 2021). moreover, they play a regulatory role by exerting top-down pressure on other species that they predate (therrien et al., 2014; o’bryan et al., 2018; terraube and bretagnolle, 2018). diversified species of scavenger raptors consume a remarkable amount of biomass, reducing the probability of an outbreak of other organisms that might carry infectious diseases (garcía-alfonso et al., 2019). nevertheless, high numbers of predating birds are at risk of declining in numbers, and some are even facing extinction (gousy-leblanc bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799, print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2024.18.1.0017 https://orcid.org/0009-0007-9172-3560 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7791-7878 mailto:alsarafabdullah95@gmail.com https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 18 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18(1): 17-34. current conservation status of the migratory et al., 2021). the western marsh harrier circus aeruginosus (linnaeus, 1758) represents a raptor bird species that can migrate over long-distances and that moves in a leap -frog pattern from the siberian platform through the iranian plateau towards iraqi southern wetlands (alsheikhly and al-azawi, 2019a). its distribution ranges from western europe to central and east asia, mongolia, asia minor, and north africa; its wintering occurs along the indian subcontinent, sub-saharan africa, and southern europe (grin, 2023). the species circus aeruginosus was divided into two subspecies, c. aeruginosus aeruginosus (linnaeus, 1758) and c. aeruginosus harterti (zedlitz, 1914), which is restricted to morocco and tunisia (clements et al., 2022). in addition, raptors were recorded to have two major pathways of migration in the western palearctic. however, birds are migrating to the wetlands of southern iraq through the west african and eurasian-east african (western black sea) flyways (polakowski et al., 2014; al-sheikhly and al-azawi, 2019a). iraq is considered to be among the many countries across which raptors migrate. they are known to winter in the arabian peninsula and africa. nevertheless, investigations on the wintering status of the migratory raptors in the south of iraq are not sufficient (al-sheikhly et al., 2017). the marshlands of southern iraq were recognized as wetlands of international importance among 33 others known or believed to have some importance for migratory birds in iraq (scott and crap, 1982; scott, 1993; al-sheikhly and al-azawi, 2019b). based on the current taxonomic checklist for avian species in the middle east, caucasus, and central asia, iraq has 42 taxa of birds of prey (blair et al., 2018; al-sheikhly and al-azawi, 2019b). during spring and autumn, the major flyways are used by large numbers of migratory raptors, avoiding high mountain chains and large bodies of water and becoming concentrated in large numbers at a small number of bottleneck sites all over the red sea, mediterranean sea, and black sea (verhelst et al., 2011). to reach the middle east during autumn, these birds that migrate from the eastern part of the western palearctic use two main flyways: one that follows each side of the northern caspian sea and the black sea regions, avoiding the northern red sea and the eastern mediterranean sea, and one that moves across palestine, taking the dead sea-kfar kasem-eliat-suez and north negev pathways, reaching sinai (fülöp et al., 2018; al-sheikhly and al-azawi, 2019a). the second major route follows the southeastern part of the caspian sea, which crosses the north arabian peninsula and the arabian gulf through the hormuz straits and the southern red sea through the bab elmandeb straits between djibouti and yemen (panuccio et al., 2018). the euphrates and tigris rivers' freshwater supplies are primarily what sustain the vast open water surfaces that make up the mesopotamian marshlands. they have a total estimated area of about 900,000–2,000,000 ha, extending into southern iraq and crossing the alluvial plain that belongs to the arabian gulf delta (haba et al., 2017). they comprise three main marshes, namely hawizeh marsh, hammar marsh, and the central marshes (commonly known as al-chibayish marshes) (al-mansori, 2008). the southern iraqi mesopotamian marshes encountered intense deterioration of their ecosystems due to a nearly complete systematic drying-out process that targeted the shelters of political rebels in 1991. however, the area was eventually reflooded in 2003 and 2004 (al-sheikhly and nader, 2013). considered amongst the largest wetlands in iraq, al-chibayish marshes stretch over a large 19 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-saraf and al-azawi territory that is permanently occupied by freshwater and extends over the three governorates of mayssan, thi qar, and basra, with a total area estimated at around 219,700 ha (evans, 1994; rsis, 2023). it has been identified as a wetland of international importance, a key biodiversity area (kba) site, and an important bird area (iba038) (cramp and simmons, 1980; evans, 1994; nature, 2017). the highly important values that the central marshes provide to the environment and culture all over the region have prompted its declaration as a ramsar site, a united nations educational, scientific, and cultural organization (unesco) site, and the first national park, in iraq (mesopotamian national park mnp) (pearce, 2013; imoe, 2014; unesco, 2016; rsis, 2023). numerous nocturnal species of raptors migrate, sometimes covering extremely lengthy distances (newton, 2008). it is believed that the main driver for migration in birds is the seasonal change in food supply availability in the breeding areas; late summer decreases cause migration out of breeding sites, whereas springtime increases allow them to migrate back (mcgrady, 2018). these variations in food availability are usually related to changes in environmental conditions like temperature, length of day, and rainfall (alerstam, 1990; newton, 2008). birds of prey migrating are classified into two types: soarers and active fliers (kerlinger, 1989; zalles and bildstein, 2000). migrating soarers (e.g., eagles, buzzards, vultures) seek upward airstreams and avoid traversing large expanses of open waters, while active fliers (e.g., falcons, harriers), on the other hand, are less susceptible to open water and other terrains (mcgrady, 2018). the western marsh harrier is classified as a “least concern” species on the birdlife international list (birdlife, 2023). it was abundant in the past along its breeding habitats at the euphrates, hammar marsh, and basra marshes (ticehurst et al., 1922). this species was commonly recorded in the area of suweicha marsh in kut city as well as the meadowland between suweida and chabbab on the northern tigris river (moore and boswell, 1956; allouse, 1960). according to historical literature, prior to the 1990s, the marsh harrier species was prevalent in the mesopotamian wetlands (scott, 1995; hussain, 2014). in 1997, large numbers of this species (286 individuals) were observed to be wintering in this region (scott and carp, 1982). however, the extensive hydrological drainage carried out in the 1990s had a detrimental impact on the occurrence of this species, as well as approximately 40 other bird species found in the marshlands in numbers that are considered of global significance (evans, 1994; scott, 1995). this drainage has caused a significant decline (>10%) in the regional populations of the western marsh harrier (evans, 1994; scott, 1995). despite this, low numbers are still continually visiting the mesopotamian marshlands (abed, 2007; fazaa et al., 2017). previous studies have recorded the presence of the western marsh harrier in the restored areas of the marshes, with abed (2007) noting its abundance as the most commonly observed raptor species between may 2004 and may 2005 without providing a specific count of individuals. (salim et al., 2012) also listed it as one of the bird species of the southern iraqi marshes observed between 2005 and 2008, without providing a specific count of individuals. additionally, fazaa et al. (2017) reported the recording of 28 individuals observed in the 20 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18(1): 17-34. current conservation status of the migratory central marshes between october 2013 and june 2014. more recently, al-sheikhly and alazawi (2019a) reported 93 individuals observed in the central marshes between february 2018 and april 2019, with a population estimate ranging from 922.7 to 7689.5 individuals. as a result, this study was carried out to add to the existing understanding of the migratory status and population size of the western marsh harrier, as one of the major migratory birds of prey through the iraqi southern wetland, given the scarcity of current knowledge on its geographical dispersal, spatial distribution, and temporal migration in the mesopotamian wetlands in general and in the central marshes in particular. materials and methods study area: the area under consideration encompasses extensive vegetation of common reed beds covering an estimated extent of 40,000 hectares (400 km2) within the central marshes (map 1). this vast wetland ecosystem is located within the ecoregion of the tigriseuphrates alluvial salt marsh (pa0906). this ecoregion is characterized by a relatively low elevation, with the majority of the landscape situated at an altitude of 6 m a.s.l. the overall topography is defined by large freshwater surfaces, mostly in the form of lakes, bordered with extensive beds of common reed phragmites australis (cav.) trin. ex steud., 1841, and typha sp. mixed with emergent and submerged aquatic vegetation. the weather conditions in the study area during our field surveys were mostly sunny and clear, with the exception of one partial sandstorm encountered on march 19, 2022, from 1:00 p.m. to 05:00 p.m. local time. the temperature during autumn and spring surveys was around 32°c, and around 11 °c during winter. map (1): the central marshes area in southern iraq (also known as al-chibayish marshes), shows the boundaries of the study area and transect lines. 21 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-saraf and al-azawi field methods: we used the distance sampling method, which was first described by sutherland (2006) and subsequently used by al-sheikhly and al-azawi (2019a), to conduct a line transect survey. three distant watercourses (each with a length of 10 km) extending over a research area of 40,000 ha were selected at random and then surveyed using a motor canoe. transect (t1) geographical zone (30ᵒ96ʹ71″n 47ᵒ02ʹ45″e) began at the initial channel in al­hamrawiah, al-moajid village, and examined the western portion of the central marshes; transect (t2) geographical zone (30ᵒ97ʹ17″n 47ᵒ06ʹ58″e) began on the abo-sobat watercourse in al-chibayish area and examined the middle portion of the central marshes; and transect (t3) geographical zone (30ᵒ97ʹ14″n 47ᵒ10ʹ86″e) began at al-kinziri village and ended on zichri lake, examining the eastern portion of the central marshes ( map 1). transect lines and the timing of the survey were chosen at random to decrease bias. transect lines were carefully surveyed at low speeds (20–30 km/h) to ensure more accuratelyidentified species. individuals of the species observed on either side of the boat within a fixed distance (300 m) were recorded. it is important to note that individuals observed on the way back through the transect were not recorded in order to avoid double counting and ensure the accuracy of data collection. stopover sites were implemented every 15 minutes with (30–45 min) intervals of stop-time at each stopover site. from october 2021 to june 2022, nine field surveys took place in the central marshes, each lasting 3 days (one transect per day) and 6-8 hours per transect. field observations were achieved by following the double-observer approach (primary and secondary observers/recorders). each survey had a different starting time to reduce bias. a canon eos/dslr 80d camera body attached to a 150×500 mm sigma lens with an image stabilizer was used to document the species/habitat. a mileseey digital range finder pro (300m, accuracy ± 1mm) was used to measure the distance and angle of the observed individual. the age of the individuals of the species observed was categorized based on al-sheikhly and al-azawi (2019a) into two categories: juvenile/immature (≥2 years old) and adult/mature (≤3 years old).the breeding of the species in the central marshes was assessed according to the british trust for ornithology's (bto) breeding evidence (bto, 2023). we also conducted interviews with the locals whenever possible. in order to determine the present population size of the migratory/wintering western marsh harrier in the study area, we employed standardized field methodologies and mathematical calculations to minimize bias probabilities. we also accurately measured the distance to the species using a digital range finder. it’s worth noting that the more accurate the distance measurements, the more accurate the estimation of density (sutherland, 2006) data analysis: in each survey, marsh harrier density was estimated using distance sampling based on precise distance analysis as a simple estimate of density using line transect data (sutherland, 2006; al-sheikhly and al-azawi, 2019a). the estimated density (d^) of marsh harrier was extracted by applying the equation below: where n = the total number of individuals observed, l = the length of the transect, = the perpendicular distance of the animal observed from the line transect (sutherland, 2006). the calculation of the perpendicular distance ( ) was achieved by applying the equation:xi =z 22 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18(1): 17-34. current conservation status of the migratory sin ɵ, where z = the distance between the observer and the bird (m), and ɵ = the measured observation angle (al-sheikhly and al-azawi, 2019a). the observation distance (z) and the observation angle were measured accurately by using a range finder. the estimated marsh harrier density was then extrapolated on the total area of the central marshes to offer the most accurate population estimate/extrapolation for the marsh harrier observed (fazaa et al., 2015; al-sheikhly and al-azawi, 2019a). extrapolation was achieved via the multiplication of the species estimation of density from our survey by the central marshes’ overall area (219,700 ha). statistical analysis: the differences between the results for the age/sex ratio of the marsh harriers migrating/wintering in the central marshes were tested using the chi-square (x2) goodness-of-fit test (mcdonald, 2014). our null hypothesis suggested there was no significance between age/sex in the species migratory population (ho= p juvenile/immature = p adult male = p adult female). results population size: the western marsh harrier was recorded in a field survey that was carried out over a period of nine months, spanning from october 2021 to june 2022. during the survey, a total of 64 individuals were recorded, distributed as 31 juveniles/immature, 11 adult males, and 22 adult females. the lowest count of this species was recorded in october 2021; a total of four individuals (three juveniles and one adult female) were carefully observed. the observations were conducted at a distance range of 65.3–102.0m, with observation angles of 16–62ᵒ. the data collected during the observation period was analyzed, and the results indicated that the estimated density was 0.015 individuals/ha. additionally, the estimated population of individuals in the study area was calculated to be ≈3508 individuals. in november 2021, a total of seven individuals (four juveniles and three adult females) were carefully observed. the observations were conducted at distances ranging from 12.1– 95.2 m, with observation angles of 10–37ᵒ, the estimated density was 0.042 individuals/ha. additionally, the estimated population was calculated to be ≈9227 individuals. in december 2021, a total of thirteen individuals (seven juveniles, two adult males, and three adult females) were carefully observed. the observations were conducted at a distance range of 25.7–119.2 m and observation angles of 10–44ᵒ. the data collected indicated that the estimated density was 0.039 individuals/ha. additionally, the estimated population was calculated to be ≈8568 individuals. in january 2022, when the highest count of the marsh harrier occurred, a total of eighteen individuals (nine juveniles, two adult males, and seven adult females) were carefully observed. the observations were conducted at distances ranging from 12.8–171.6 m, with observation angles between 3–41ᵒ. the estimated density was 0.097 individuals/ha. additionally, the estimated population of individuals was calculated to be ≈21499 individuals. in february 2022, a total of thirteen individuals (four juveniles, three adult males, and six adult females) were carefully observed. the observations were conducted at distance ranges of 24.9–150.3 m, 23 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-saraf and al-azawi with observation angles of 12–67ᵒ. the data collected indicated that the estimated density was 0.046 individuals/ha. additionally, the estimated population was calculated to be ≈10309 individuals. in march 2022, a total of nine individuals (four juveniles, four adult males, and one adult female) were carefully observed. the observations were conducted at distance ranges of 35.8– 228.5m with observation angles of 13–47ᵒ. the data collected indicated that the estimated density was 0.02 individuals/ha. additionally, the estimated population was calculated to be ≈4531 individuals (tab.1). for the months of april, may, and june of 2022, no individuals of these species were observed in the study area, indicating the end of their migration period.the results of this study indicate that the migratory/wintering population size of the western marsh harrier in the study area is ≈3508-21499 individuals (mean ± sd = 8706.9 ± 1727.5). regarding the distribution of the observed individuals of the species with the transect line along which they were observed, transect three had the largest count of individuals, with 29 individuals recorded over the course of the survey, while transect one had the lowest count of individuals recorded with only 14 individuals (diag. 1). table (1): total number of age classes of the western marsh harrier circus aeruginosus with estimated species densities, wintering/migratory population size, and differences among sex/age groups in the central marshes in southern iraq (october 2021– june 2022). y = year; z = range of distance from the observer to the detected bird; θ = range of observation angles. 2021 2022 age/month oct nov dec jan feb march april may june juvenile/imm ature (y 1-2) 3 4 7 9 4 4 0 0 0 adult male (>3y) 0 0 2 2 3 4 0 0 0 adult female (>3y) 1 3 4 7 6 1 0 0 0 ∑ 4 7 13 18 13 9 0 0 0 z (m) 65.3102 12.195.2 25.7119.2 12.8171.6 24.9150.3 35.8228.5 0 0 0 ɵ (ᵒ) 16-62 10-37 10-44 3-41 12-67 13-47 0 0 0 estimated density (ind/ha) 0.015 0.042 0.039 0.097 0.046 0.02 0 0 0 estimated population 3508 9227 8568 21499 10309 4531 0 0 0 24 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18(1): 17-34. current conservation status of the migratory diagram (1): showing the number of marsh harriers observed in each transect during the study period. migration: while performing our field surveys, we kept in mind the best possible period of time to observe the highest count of the species during migration season, especially during autumn (october–november), winter (december–february), and spring (march–april). the migrating species increased in numbers after october 2021, reaching the peak of the migration in january 2022 with a total of 18 individuals observed. the winter count is most likely to be more representative of the actual numbers of migrating/wintering populations of the species inside the central marshes. afterward, the number of migrating/wintering individuals started to fade in the following months, reaching its end in april 2022 (tab. 1). juvenile/immature marsh harriers were observed migrating earlier and in larger numbers inside the central marshes than adults. the results of the statistical analysis test showed that the dominant age/sex group inside the study area was juvenile/immature harriers (n = 48.4375%), followed by adult females (n = 34.375%), and lastly by adult males (n = 17.1875%), while the difference between age classes was significant (p = .009). observations were made regarding the movement of the marsh harrier inside the study area; individuals were observed alone and did not form flocks (pl. 1). moreover, individuals were frequently seen in close proximity to areas where illegal electro-fishing was taking place, suggesting that the leftover fish from these activities may constitute an easy prey source for the species. 25 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-saraf and al-azawi plate (1): showing the study subject, the western marsh harrier circus aeruginosus; (a) adult marsh harrier in the central marshes, (b) juvenile marsh harrier in the central marshes, (c) multiple juvenile marsh harriers are harrier being sold at suq-al-ghazil in baghdad, (d) two juvenile marsh harriers were harrier tapped and are being sold at suq-al-ghazil in baghdad. breeding :we undertook surveys inside the central marshes to assess the breeding status of the western marsh harrier in the area. despite our concentrated endeavors, no individuals of the species were observed. moreover, we extensively surveyed a large portion of the most likely areas for the marsh harrier to breed (dense reed beds). no occupied breeding area was found, no display of courtship or individuals in pairs was observed, and no nest was detected, without evidence of any current or previous breeding attempts in the area. conservation notes :during our surveys, we visited many of the local animal marketplaces in iraq, including the biggest animal marketplace in baghdad (suq-al-ghazil), which opens only on fridays and sells all kinds of animals (wild and domestic). we found many migratory raptors being sold in the market for locals as domestic animals or to be mummified as trophies, including more than 200 individuals of the western marsh harrier in very bad health conditions in very small plastic/metal cages or taped (pl. 1). we also observed many illegal hunting/trapping methods during our field research. during our field surveys, we encountered multiple other species of raptors inside the study area. we included their iucn conservation status and their taxonomic order following alsheikhly and al-azawi (2019b) as follows; greater spotted eagle clanga clanga (pallas, a b c d 26 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18(1): 17-34. current conservation status of the migratory 1811) (vulnerable); steppe eagle aquila nipalensis (hodgson, 1833) (endangered); eastern imperial eagle aquila heliaca (savigny, 1809) (vulnerable); black-winged kite elanus caeruleus (desfontaines, 1789) (least concern), long-legged buzzard buteo rufinus (cretzschmar, 1829) (least concern); eurasian sparrowhawk accipiter nisus (linnaeus, 1758) (least concern); common kestrel falco tinnunculus (linnaeus, 1758) (least concern); pallid harrier circus macrourus (s. g. gmelin, 1770) (near threatened). discussion the western marsh harrier has been a regular raptor in the mesopotamian wetlands, having been recorded on a regular basis starting in the 1920s (al-sheikhly and al-azawi, 2019a). however, few research efforts have been conducted with regard to its migrating/wintering population. hence, this study aimed to provide quantifiable information about the size of the migrating/wintering population inside the central marshes (iraq), along with the migration pattern. population size information can be very important in monitoring population trends, which can also be a predicting factor for the health and trends of the ecosystem. historically, the western marsh harrier was observed in abundance in the mesopotamian marshlands. this was prior to the 1990s, when the massive draining of the marshes took place (scott, 1995; hussain, 2014). large numbers of the species (286 harriers) wintered in the mesopotamian marshes in 1979 (scott and carp, 1982). the aforementioned extensive hydrological draining had a devastating effect on the population and numbers of more than forty bird species that occurred in the marshes in a pattern of global significance. it resulted in a reduction (>10%) in the size of the regional population of the western marsh harrier (evans, 1994; scott, 1995). nevertheless, the marsh harrier is continually visiting the mesopotamian wetlands, although at lower counts (abed, 2007; fazaa et al., 2017). the results of this study indicated that the migratory/wintering population size of the western marsh harrier in the study was ≈3508-21499 individuals (mean ± sd = 8706.9 ± 1727.5). our results align with a previous study conducted in the central marshes that suggested that the number of migrant individuals of this bird species increased in the months following the start of the migration (al-sheikhly and al-azawi, 2019a). this number is also similar to that of the individuals that migrate from western and eastern europe to subsaharan africa (strandberg et al., 2008; agostini and panuccio, 2010; agostini et al., 2017). the genus circus is known to adopt a pre-migration movement strategy to ensure sufficient resources for wintering, moulting, migration, and recovering from breeding. it also uses this strategy to reduce intraspecific competition (limiñana et al., 2008; trierweiler et al., 2008). our work showed that the migration of this species inside the study area was dominated by juvenile/immature harriers (n = 48.4375%), followed by adult females (n = 34.375%), and lastly by adult males (n = 17.1875%), while the difference between age classes was significant (p = .009). these results are consistent with the findings of previous studies by alsheikhly and al-azawi (2019a), who found that the number of juveniles was dominant (n = 53.57%), followed by adult females (n = 24.26%), and finally adult males (n = 16.17%), with the results being significantly different. furthermore, the results found in our study are in agreement with the findings of kjellén (1992) on the migration of the same avian species 27 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-saraf and al-azawi throughout the falsterbo peninsula in sweden during autumn, in which juveniles (n = 1594.78%) were more numerous than adult females (n = 273.13%) and adult males (n = 216.9%). however, these observations were in contrast to studies conducted along the central mediterranean flyway, such as the one by (agostini et al., 2017), which reported a greater presence of adult marsh harriers. one of the findings of our study is that juvenile western marsh harriers tend to arrive faster than adults to the central marshes and gradually increase in numbers from october to january (3-9), respectively. this aligns with previous findings in the same area, which found an increase in the count of juveniles from september to january (7-21, respectively) (alsheikhly and al-azawi, 2019a). juveniles have the tendency to travel shorter distances during migration with a lower rate of speed than adults (strandberg et al., 2008). studies on marsh harriers migrating over the falsterbo peninsula have also found that there is a significant differential timing in migration between juveniles and adult females (p < 0.05), as well as between adult females and males (p < 0.001) (kjellén, 1992). however, individuals of this species coming from western and eastern europe were recorded to require several refueling stopovers before flying over the mediterranean sea in a long-distance migration process with high levels of energy consumption (agostini et al., 2017). additionally, ring recovery records have shown that adult individuals have the tendency to engage in autumn migration at a rather earlier time as compared to juveniles (strandberg et al., 2008), similar to their counterparts that cross the flyway of the central mediterranean (agostini et al., 2017). however, previous studies found that marsh harriers from western europe that migrate throughout the sahara desert have no significant variation in the timing, duration, or speed of migration between sexes during both autumn and spring migrations. one exception is the tendency of adult females to migrate at faster rates as compared to adult males during spring (strandberg et al., 2008; panuccio et al., 2013). the breeding status of the western marsh harrier in the central marshes and adjacent regions remains uncertain. despite previous reports of breeding in the southern marshlands near basra and hamar lake during the months of march and may in the 1920s (ticehurst et al., 1922), studies performed more recently, particularly those conducted following the widespread reflooding of the iraqi marshlands in 2004, have not yielded confirmed evidence of breeding in these areas (abed, 2007). additionally, fazaa et al. (2017) documented the absence of this avian species in the study area during the months of april and june 2014, and no confirmed breeding was reported during the 2018-2019 survey (al-sheikhly and al-azawi, 2019a). our current study also included multiple extensive interviews with local marsh arabs, which did not yield any evidence of breeding in the central marshes in recent years. furthermore, no adults displaying courtship behavior, territorial behavior, or nesting sites were observed, which suggests that the western marsh harrier may no longer breed in the central marshes. however, further field observations may be necessary to confirm or refute this claim. illegal hunting and trapping of migratory raptors have been identified before as a major threat to the iraqi migratory raptor population (al-sheikhly et al., 2017). other studies on 28 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18(1): 17-34. current conservation status of the migratory migration routes suggested that identifying threats to migratory raptors, such as trapping or shooting, is important since it could lead to changes in conservation measures in the future (porter and beaman, 1985). the iraqi protection of wild animals’ legislation (law no. 17 released on february 15, 2010) prohibits the illegal hunting of 34 avian species in iraq. regrettably, the western marsh harrier is not included. moreover, the lack of enforcement of the current wild animal protection laws could lead to a regional decline in certain raptor species (al-sheikhly, 2011). it is worth mentioning that many protected raptor species are being sold in public in iraq, especially in suq-al-ghazil in baghdad during their migration/wintering season, and this marketplace is fully protected by the local iraqi police, which are responsible for the security of the marketplace. the lack of reinforcement of the already existing laws encourages illegal hunters to continue the persecution of indigenous and migrant species in iraq. as mentioned in this research, we employed standardized field methodologies and mathematical calculations to minimize bias probabilities. however, it is important to acknowledge certain considerations. the limited availability of data regarding habitat classification in this area of the marshlands posed challenges in identifying suitable surveying sites and applying appropriate methodologies. we made assumptions that the species utilized the entire geographical area of al-chibayish marsh. we also assumed that the habitats in this region are classified in a uniformly consistent pattern, although this is a simplification. previously, al-sheikhly and al-azawi (2019a) indicated that the migration started in early september, which is a limitation in our research since we had logistical and securityinfluenced circumstances that inhibited the research from starting earlier than october 2021. conclusions a total of 64 individuals of the western marsh harrier were observed from october 2021 to march 2022. the highest count of individuals recorded was in january 2022, with 18 individuals observed, while the lowest count of individuals recorded was in october 2021, with only 4 individuals. the population extrapolation estimated for the western marsh harrier in al-chibayish marsh during the 2021–2022 surveys was ≈3,508–21,499 individuals. no evidence for the breeding of the western marsh harrier was detected. transect 3 had the highest count of individuals, while transect 1 had the lowest count. juvenile marsh harriers tend to migrate to the central marshes faster than adults. illegal hunting and trapping of the marsh harrier was identified as a major threat facing the species in iraq. we also recommend that the marsh harrier get added to the list of protected avian species in iraq for the continual survival and flourishment of this species in the country and the region. the continued monitoring of the population trend in the central marshes is recommended, as it could be a useful tool to monitor shifts and changes in the ecosystem. the survey efforts covered only one of the four sites of international importance, so it is recommended to conduct similar studies at the other three sites, such as western and eastern al-hammar marsh and hawizeh marsh in southern iraq. 29 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-saraf and al-azawi aknowledgments we highly appreciate the support provided to the current work by the iraqi green climate organization (igco) for facilitating the fieldwork in the central marshes. we would like to thank dr. omar f. al-sheikhly, dr. mukhtar k. haba, dr. nadeer a. fazaa, mr. raad h. alasadi, and al-chebaeish organization for ecotourism. conflict of interest statement the authors have no conflicts of interest to declare. we "the authors" have followed and signed the scientific research ethics announced by the journal. literature cited abed, j. 2007. status of water birds in restored southern iraqi marshes. marsh bulletin, 2 (1): 64-79. 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[in dutch] unesco, (world heritage centre). 2016. report of the decisions adopted during the 40th session of the world heritage committee, paris, france, 270pp. [acessed on 24 july 2023] [click here] verhelst, b., jansen, j. and vansteelant, w. 2011. south west georgia: an important bottleneck for raptor migration during autumn. ardea, 99 (2): 137-146. [crossref] zalles, j. and bildstein, k. 2000. raptor watch: a global directory of raptor migration sites. birdlife international, cambridge, uk, 419pp. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ibi.12581 https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1890/13-0458.1 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1940082917712426 https://whc.unesco.org/archive/2016/whc16-40com-19-en.pdf https://www.researchgate.net/publication/232687308_south_west_georgia_an_important_bottleneck_for_raptor_migration_during_autumn 34 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18(1): 17-34. current conservation status of the migratory bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2024) 18 (1): 17-34. حالة الصون الحالية ملرزة املستنقعات املهاجرة في جميع أنحاء أهوار ، جنوب العراق)موقع اليونسكو(الجبايش عبد هللا سعد الصراف و أحمد جاسم العزاوي قسم علوم الحياة، كلية العلوم، جامعة بغداد، بغداد، العراق. 20/6/2024، النشر: 2/10/2023القبول: ،27/9/2023املراجعة: ،3/8/2023االستالم: الخالصة تعد مراقبة الطيور الجارحة من بين أكثر الطرق فعالية من حيث التكلفة واألكثر بساطة للتنبؤ بالتغيرات في النظام البيئي والبيئة. ويعد طائر مرزة املستنقعات الغربية circus aeruginosus (linnaeus, 1758)رتبة accipitriformes ائلةع accipitridae يمر في فصل الشتاء على نطاق واسع فوق مستنقعات جنوب بالد ما بين ً جارحا ً طائرا النهرين في العراق. ومع ذلك، فإن املعلومات الحديثة املتعلقة باتجاه تجمعات طائر مرزة ترة املستنقعات الغربية وأنماط الهجرة املكانية والزمانية ليست معروفة بالكامل. في الف أجريت تسعة مسوحات ميدانية لعلم الطيور .2022إلى حزيران 2021من تشرين األول رامسار، ومنتزه العراق الوطني(. اختيرت في األهوار الوسطى )موقع اليونسكو، موقع سجلت ،(2كم 400هكتار ) 40.000ثالثة خطوط مقطعية وغطت منطقة املسح طائر مرزة املستنقعات عبر األهوار 64وعه املسوحات التي أجريناها مؤخًرا ما مجم دت الوسطى. ِّ تسطريقة أخذ العينات عن بعد؛ قيكثافة األنواع باستخدام حد تم املسافات العمودية باستخدام جهاز تحديد املدى الرقمي. خالل االستطالعات التي ملهاجرين يتراوح بين استضافت األهوار الوسطى عدًدا من تجمعات الطائر ا اجراؤها. طائر. باإلضافة إلى ذلك، قمنا بتقييم حالة تكاثر هذا الطائر في منطقة 21499و 3508≈ د الدراسة؛ ومع ذلك، لم يتم العثور على تكاثر مؤكدة. عالوة على ذلك، ِّ الصيد / حد .االصطياد غير املشروع على أنه التهديد الرئيس ي الذي يواجه األنواع في العراق bull 253 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hamed et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2024) 18 (2): 253-275. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2024.18.2.0253 original article phenoplasticity and karyotyping of convolvulus arvensis l., 1753 (solanales, convolvulaceae) genotypes azza b. hamed, wafaa m. amer and amany s. abod the herbarium, botany and microbiology department, faculty of science, cairo university, 12613 giza, egypt. corresponding author: azzabadr@sci.cu.edu.eg received: 28 jan. 2024, revised: 19 may 2024, accepted: 23 may 2024, published:20 december 2024 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract convolvulus arvensis l., 1753 (solanales, convolvulaceae) is a cosmopolitan polymorphic perennial herb and one of 15 noxious crop weeds. the species has notable phenoplasticity among its populations. this study aimed to assess phenoplasticity in 20 morphologically distinct populations collected from the same habitat in egypt to understand this feature in terms of chromosome number and karyotyping. a total of 55 morphological characters were studied, and the similarity values were assessed using jaccard’s similarity coefficient. the morphological characters were distinguished into five groups with variations in chromosome counting and karyotyping. accordingly, they were treated as genotypes. these genotypes include two distinct ploidy levels: tetraploids (2n = 32) and hexaploids (2n = 48). the hexaploid genotypes had a higher intrachromosomal asymmetry index a1 value than the tetraploids. significant chromosomal differences among the studied genotypes were revealed through an anova test, indicating that quantitative genomic alteration has an essential role in c. arvensis diversification. the study concluded that the studied phenoplasticity of the populations of this species was genetically controlled and not attributed to ecological factors. the importance of cytological studies in assessing the phenoplasticity of c. arvensis populations is highlighted in this study, especially for those grown in the same habitat. keywords: genetic diversity, hexaploids, karyotyping, phenoplasticity, tetraploids. introduction convolvulus arvensis l., 1753, family convolvulaceae, is a polymorphic perennial herb native to europe and grows extensively in mediterranean climates, temperate, and tropical regions in a wide range of habitats with worldwide distribution (austin, 2000; preston, 2012; sunar et al., 2015; moustafa et al., 2019; sosnoskie et al., 2020). c. arvensis is considered as one of the most harmful weed species in orchards, cultivated fields, roadsides, wasteland, and apportioned habitats (austin, 2000; gianoli, 2004). worldwide, c. arvensis is one of the 15 noxious weeds that cause severe problems for about 32 different crops in more than 44 countries (sunar et al., 2015). its weeding is exceptionally difficult due to its twining growth bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799, print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2024.18.2.0253 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7971-1048 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0126-6719 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8470-8940 mailto:azzabadr@sci.cu.edu.eg https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 254 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus 18 (2): 253-275. phenoplasticity and karyotyping of convolvulus habit, and its capability to reproduce sexually producing seeds, and vegetatively by root or rhizome fragments (sosnoskie et al., 2020). c. arvensis has been reported to have high (96%) pollen grain fertility (ashfaq et al., 2020). many biotypes and ecotypes were reported in c. arvensis worldwide (gianoli, 2001, 2004; mehrafarin et al., 2009; moustafa et al., 2019). in europe, more than 60 varieties were identified, and many intermediates of these varieties were traced to the usa. however, researchers were discouraged from applying a specific name to them (moustafa et al., 2019). the phenotypic plasticity of this species extended to its chromosome number, where several chromosome counts were detected, 2n = 32 (vij and singh, 1976) and 2n = 24, 48, 50, and 78 (ipcn chromosome reports, 2015). in egypt, c. arvensis is one of 20 species of the genus convolvulus (boulos, 2009). the presence of notable phenoplasticity in this species was revealed after field and herbarium observations. some of these different phenotypes were traced to the same habitats. however, this phenotypic plasticity has not yet been subjected to a detailed study regarding chromosome counting and karyotyping. variations in chromosome traits could cause morphological variation (agbo and ukwu, 2010), where genome duplication often causes a complex pattern of genetic diversity and phenotypic outcome (marques et al., 2014). accordingly, increasing our knowledge of the chromosome traits of different populations of c. arvensis, together with morphological variation, and could serve as an essential guide in the planning of a future successful control program for such a noxious crop weed. phenotypic plasticity is the ability of a species to adapt to different forms depending on the environment or the ability of a given genotype to develop different states of character or groups of characters in a different environment (nayar, 2014; oldroyd et al., 2018). plants respond by phenotypic plasticity as an adaptive response to heterogeneous environments rather than genetic differentiation, where phenotypic plasticity is expected in varying environments (gianoli, 2004). phenoplasticity is associated with environmental selection and is more significant in stressful environments (wang and althoff, 2018). genetic differentiation and ecotype formation are expected in more homogeneous environments. however, the ecological significance of this pattern has not been explained (gianoli, 2004). according to çalişkan (2012), genetic diversity provides information about the adaptation of species to changing environments, understanding hybridization, and clarifying the gene flow among populations. finally, phenoplasticity is essential to the adaptability and survival of populations. the current study represents a detailed study of different populations of c. arvensis in egypt. it aims to (1) assess the phenotypic plasticity and its supporting chromosome traits among the morphologically distinct populations, (2) delimit the genetic diversity of the studied morphologically distinct populations in terms of chromosome counting and karyotype, and (3) check whether the phenoplasticity in c. arvensis populations is related to ecological factors or whether it may be genetically controlled. 255 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hamed et al. materials and methods plant material: a total of 20 fresh morphologically distinct populations were collected from the same habitat between 2022-2023 from the experimental garden of the agriculture research center in giza, egypt (to exclude environmental variability). herbarium specimens deposited in cairo university herbarium (cai) and the specimens on the jstor (global plants database). the identification was according to the contribution of earlier taxonomic treatments (täckholm, 1974; boulos, 2000, 2009). then, the studied populations were grouped into five distinct morphotypes (based on the 55 morphological characters). acronyms were according to thiers (2019). voucher specimens were deposited in the cairo university herbarium (cai). chromosome counting and karyotyping: the identified morphotypes were subjected to chromosome study. seeds from 10 individuals/ morphotype were germinated for chromosome counting and karyotype investigation. actively growing root tips were pretreated with 8hydroxyquinoline (0.002 mol) for 3 h and then fixed in the fixative carnoy solution (1 acetic acid: 3 ethanol) for 24 h at room temperature. afterward, the root tips were washed thoroughly using distilled water, and hydrolyzed in 60ºc 1n hcl for 5 min. then, they were stained using 1% orcien according to khalifa et al. (2017). from each individual, 10 clearly and well-spread mitotic metaphase cells were selected for chromosome counting (i.e., 100 cells/ morphotype) using a light microscope (leica dm2500, wetzlar, germany). the cells were then photographed using leica cw4000 (image processing analysis system standard and high-resolution automated karyotyping software). the arrangement of chromosomes was in descending order of length: short arm length (p), long arm length (q), and total length (tl) of each chromosome (p + q) were determined. the total form percentage (tf %) was calculated (sum of short arms/ total chromosome length). in addition, the mean relative length (mrl) was calculated as [tl/ (sumtl) × 100] for each chromosome pair to represent the relative length of a particular chromosome pair. at the same time, the mean centromeric index (mci) for each chromosome pair was calculated (p/tl × 100) to determine the position of the centromere. chromosomes were considered metacentric when the value of the centromeric index was 45.0–50.0 and telocentric when the value of the centromeric index was zero (hassan and abd el-gawad, 2013). karyotype asymmetry was estimated for the relations between the chromosome arms following the equation by romero zarco (1986) for intrachromosomal asymmetry (a1): where: the number of homologous chromosome pairs (n); average length for short arms in each chromosome pair (bi); and average length for long arms in each chromosome pair (bi). additionally, the interchromosomal asymmetry (a2) was used to estimate the variation in chromosome length using the romero zarco (1986) index based on pearson’s dispersion 256 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus 18 (2): 253-275. phenoplasticity and karyotyping of convolvulus coefficient, as follows: a2 = s/x̅; where s represents the standard deviation, and x̅ represents the mean length of the chromosome. statistical analyses: the morphologically distinct five morphotypes were then identified as five genotypes based on chromosome counting and karyotyping. the studied genotypes were subjected to jaccard’s measure based on their macromorphological characters (a data matrix of 55 characters) to elucidate their similarity. the dendrogram was estimated by combining macromorphological characters with karyotype features (a data matrix of 67 characters) using the spss program (version 20 for windows). a one-way anova and the least significant difference test (lsd) were conducted on the length of chromosomes, length of the long arms, and length of the short arms to admit a significant difference among the studied genotypes (sheidai and jalilian, 2008). moreover, a pearson’s correlation was conducted between the karyotype features of the identified c. arvensis genotypes. results morphological aspects of c. arvensis: twinning or prostrate perennial herb, glabrous to sparsely hairy. stem 20–80 cm long, branched at base. leaves simple, 1.4–7 × 0.5–5.4 cm, narrowly linear-oblong, deltoid or elliptic, glabrescent or nearly so; apex subacute-acuminate with diverse intermediates; margin entire or undulate; base haustate-sagittate or auriculate; petiole 4.0–28 mm long. flower axillary, solitary, or in pairs on pedunculate cymes, peduncle 2.0–3.5 cm long, pedicel 2.0–5 cm long; bracts and bracteoles oblong-elliptic 1–4 × 0.5–1.5 mm; sepals five, slightly unequal, imbricate, 3.5–6 × 1.5–5 mm broadly oblong, glabrous, or occasionally with spreading hairs, margin scarious, apex retuse-mucronulate. petals five, funnel-shaped, pink-pale pink, or white, 1.5–3.0 cm long, dorsal midpetaline area is often greenish-green or pink, pubescent; stamens five, unequal, glandular below; anther oblong, 2– 3.5 × 0.5–2.5 mm; filament 5–12 mm; ovary ovoid with a cup-shaped or annular disc at the base, nearly glabrous 1–1.5 mm width; style 6–12 mm long, filiform; stigma 2–4.5 mm long, cylindrical; fruit capsule 7–10 × 4–7.5 mm, ovoid to sub-globose, nearly glabrous, 1–4 seeded; seeds 3.5–5 × 2.5–3.8 mm, obovoid, tuberculate, orange-brown or black. it grows as a cultivated weed and a cosmopolitan species in all phytogeographic regions in egypt. detailed characters distinguishing the identified genotypes are outlined in plate (1) and table (1), showing 55 morphological characters. based on the characters in this table, a morphological key for the identified genotypes was constructed. the morphologic key of the identified genotypes of c. arvensis: 1. flower in paired; corolla dark pink; midpetaline area pink……….…………….genotype 5 – flower solitary; corolla not so; midpetaline area pale green…………….……………….2 2. flower pale pink; anther pink; leaves yellow-green ………………………………….……3 – flower white; anther white; leaves blue-green ………………………...…………….….4 3. leaves narrow linear, up to 2.6 times as long as wide, style up to 10 mm, seeds brown & black……………………….……………………………………………...….. genotype 1 – leaves elliptic, up to 1.5 times as long as wide, style up to 6 mm, seeds black ……………………….………………………........................................ ........... genotype 2 257 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hamed et al. 4. leaves elliptic, up to 3 times as long as wide, base sagittate, style up to 12 mm ……………………………………………………………..………...………… genotype 3 – leaves deltoid-oblong, up to 1.8 times as long as wide, base hastate-auriculate, style up to 8 mm …………………………………………………..………..………..… genotype 4 statistical analysis based on morphological data: the similarity values between the identified genotypes of c. arvensis, based on 55 morphological characters, are shown in (tab 2). the lowest similarity value (33.3%) was recorded between genotypes 1 and 5, while the highest similarity value (51.2%) was recorded between the two white-flowered genotypes (genotypes 2 and 4). the pink-flowered genotype 5 had low similarity values with the other genotypes, ranging from 33.3% to 39.5%. karyotype analysis: two ploidy levels (tetraploid and hexaploid) were revealed in the chromosome count of the mitotic metaphase of the studied genotypes within c. arvensis (x = 8). genotypes 1, 3, and 5 were tetraploid, having a chromosome set of 2n = 4x = 32. in contrast, genotypes 2 and 4 were hexaploid with a chromosome set of 2n = 6x = 48 (diag. 1). satellite chromosome appeared in the second chromosome pair of genotype 3 (diag. 1). details of the karyotype analysis of the studied genotypes are presented in diagram (1) and (app. 1, 2). the arrangement of chromosomes was descending. the first chromosome pair was the longest chromosome of all the studied genotypes. its length ranged from 4.22 ± 1.53 μm to 6.82 ± 1.24 μm in genotypes 5 and 2, respectively. the last chromosome pair was the shortest of all the studied genotypes. its length ranged from 1.98 ± 0.96 μm to 3.48 ± 0.73 μm in genotypes 3 and 2, respectively (app. 1). moreover, the mean relative length (mrl%) of the longest chromosome in all the studied genotypes ranged between 16.61% and 18.60% in genotypes 1 and 3, respectively. at the same time, the mean relative length (mrl%) of the shortest chromosome ranged between 7.74% and 8.93% in genotypes 3 and 4, respectively (app. 2, diag. 2). the centromeres were metacentric in chromosome pairs (1–4) and telocentric in chromosome pairs (5–8) in the complement of all the studied genotypes (app. 2, diag. 3). clearly, the chromosome sets of the studied genotypes (1–5) showed high differences in their karyotype features (tab. 3). the length of total chromosomes (tl) of the hexaploids ranged between 31.44 μm and 40.11 μm in genotypes 4 and 2, respectively. the length of total chromosomes (tl) of the tetraploids ranged between 24.54 μm and 25.61 μm in genotypes 5 and 3, respectively. moreover, the hexaploids genotypes 2 and 4 had the highest values of the intrachromosomal asymmetry index a1 (0.86 and 0.85), respectively. at the same time, tetraploids had the lowest a1 values (tab. 3, diag. 4). the interchromosomal asymmetry index a2 was slightly different among the studied genotypes, with its highest value (0.29) in genotype 3 and its lowest value (0.21) in genotype 2 (tab. 3, diag. 4). statistical analysis based on karyotype data: according to the results of the anova, the length of long and short arms of the chromosome pairs 1–8 of the studied genotypes was significantly different in addition to the tl of the chromosome pairs 2–8. at the same time, the lsd test clarified that the tetraploid genotypes had no significant difference in the tl of the chromosomes and the length of the long arm of the chromosome pairs 2–8. meanwhile, the hexaploid genotypes were significantly different in the tl of the chromosomes and the 258 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus 18 (2): 253-275. phenoplasticity and karyotyping of convolvulus length of the long arm of chromosome pairs 6, 7, and 8. the length of the short arm of chromosome pairs 1 and 2 had a significant difference between genotypes 5 (pink-flowered) and 4 (white-flowered). nonetheless, these chromosome pairs had no significant difference in the length of the short arm between the two pale pink-flowered genotypes (1 and 2, respectively). also, there was no significant difference between the two white-flowered genotypes (3 and 4, respectively). the pearson’s correlation among the karyotype features of c. arvensis genotypes is shown in table (4). the tl of chromosomes had a significant positive correlation with the length of longest and shortest chromosomes and the mean chromosome length and a significant negative correlation with tf% (r =–0.907 and p = 0.034). at the same time, the intrachromosomal asymmetry index a1 had a significant positive correlation with the length of the longest chromosome (r = 0.908 and p = 0.033). the separation of tetraploid genotypes (cluster i: genotypes 1, 3, and 5) from the hexaploid genotypes (custer ii: genotypes 2 and 4) was revealed by the dendrogram developed from the combined cytological and macromorphological data (diag. 5). discussion the 20 investigated populations of c. arvensis had distinct phenoplasticity in the field (tab. 1, pl. 1), leading to the delimiting of five genotypes. these identified genotypes with notable morphological diversity (leaf shape and dimensions, flower color, mid-petaline color, fruit shape, seed texture, and others; tab. 1) were recorded earlier within and among c. arvensis populations (gianoli, 2001, 2004; mehrafarin et al., 2009; sunar et al., 2015; moustafa et al., 2019). the phenoplasticity of c. arvensis was recorded earlier in europe as more than 60 varieties. additionally, many intermediates of these species have been identified in the usa (moustafa et al., 2019). the presence of five different genotypes of c. arvensis that were collected from the same habitat was revealed in this study. mehrafarin et al. (2009) recognized the morphological and genetical variability within c. arvensis populations collected from different geographical regions. on the opposite side, whitesides (1979) described three c. arvensis ecotypes with morphological variations grown under similar conditions in oregon, usa. also, degennaro and weller (1984) recorded five biotypes with morphological variations on the railroad side of lafayette in the usa. the vegetative and floral characteristics of c. arvensis are widely contributing to its morphological differentiation and species delimitation (borba et al., 2002; ashley, 2015). these characters represented developmental plasticity and agreed with wood et al. (2015), who reported that c. arvensis is a very variable species with many forms. species in the whole convolvulaceae family have such morphological diversity, which is not restricted to c. arvensis (abdel khalik and osman, 2007). the similarity between the recorded genotypes was clarified with jaccard’s similarity coefficient, which uses a proximity matrix by squared euclidean distance based on the studied macromorphological data (55 characters, tab. 2). the similarity of these genotypes ranged from 33.3% to 51.2%, and the lowest similarity (33.3%) was reported between genotypes 1 and 5. the highest similarity (51.2%) was noticed between 2 and 4. moreover, the recorded low similarity values of genotypes 1 259 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hamed et al. and 5 with the other genotypes were expressed in several morphological characters that distinguished genotype 5 (among them: leaf shape, petiole length, flower in pairs, petal color, midpetaline color, and others; tab. 1). similarly, the distinctive morphological characters [e.g., leaf shape, epidermal feature, the density of hairs on flower parts, the apex of bracteoles, fruit shape, and seed color (tab. 1)] delimited genotype 1 from the other identified genotypes. our results are congruent with contexts proposed by tominaga and willer (1992) and westwood et al. (1997). these researchers that reported self-crossing and backcrossing are difficult due to self-incompatibility, and c. arvensis can produce many different genotypes by outcrossing. additionally, the genotype that is ecologically more adapted may be dominant in the habitat. the current study is a pioneer record for the chromosome number of c. arvensis in egypt, confirming that the morphologically distinct genotypes (20 populations) retain genetic variations expressed as differences in chromosome numbers. two ploidy levels were observed, the tetraploids (2n = 32) for genotypes 1, 3, and 5, and the hexaploids (2n = 48) in the genotypes 2 and 4, where, the base number is “x = 8” (khoshoo and sachdeva, 1961). congruent results were reported by vii and singh (1976) and (ipcn chromosome reports, 2015). at the same time, the reported higher number (2n = 50 and 78; ipcn chromosome reports, 2015) in c. arvensis, postulated by moore (1973) and fedorov (1969) as aneuploidy, characterizes the convolvulaceae family in generic and specific levels. after combining the retrieved cytological data with the macro-morphological data, the separation of the identified tetraploid genotypes (cluster i) from the hexaploid genotypes (custer ii) was confirmed with the developed dendrogram (diag. 5). moreover, hexaploid genotypes are distinguished by the highest values of the intrachromosomal asymmetry index a1 compared to tetraploid genotypes (tab. 3, diag. 4). on the contrary, the interchromosomal asymmetry index a2 (tab. 3, diag. 4) had a few differences among the identified genotypes, reflecting the close affinity between these genotypes. a significant chromosomal difference in the length of total chromosomes and the lengths of the short and long arms (app. 1), among the studied genotypes (1–5) was revealed in the anova results, indicating that quantitative genomic alteration has an essential role in c. arvensis diversification. in addition, there was no significant difference between tetraploid genotypes for the tl of the chromosome, and the length of the long arm of chromosome pairs 2–8 was revealed by the lsd test. in contrast, hexaploid genotypes significantly differed in the tl of the chromosome, and the length of the long arm of chromosome pairs 6, 7 and 8. this result confirms the symmetric karyotype of tetraploid genotypes compared to hexaploid ones. moreover, westwood et al. (1997) mentioned that c. arvensis might be controlled genetically by one or more loci, each of which may have multiple alleles. the length of the short arm of chromosome pairs 1 and 2 had a significant difference between genotypes with different flower colors according to the lsd test. in contrast, these chromosome pairs showed no significant difference in the length of the short arm between 260 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus 18 (2): 253-275. phenoplasticity and karyotyping of convolvulus genotypes with similar flower colors. further investigations are needed to clarify the role of chromosome pairs 1 and 2 in determining corolla color in c. arvensis. variation in karyotype is essential, as genetic variability represents an important micromorphological feature for species and is frequently associated with species differentiation (stebbins, 1971). after using pearson’s correlation among karyotype features of c. arvensis, it was clarified that the tl of chromosomes had a significant positive correlation with the length of the longest and shortest chromosomes and the mean chromosome length and a significant negative correlation with tf% (r = – 0.907 and p = 0.034). at the same time, the intrachromosomal asymmetry index a1 had a significant positive correlation with the length of the longest chromosome (r = 0.908 and p = 0.033), reflecting the relatively symmetric karyotype of c. arvensis. a similar result was concluded by sheidai et al. (2011). it was revealed in the current study that the reasons behind the growth of five different genotypes of c. arvensis in similar environments still need more clarification. c. arvensis is self-incompatible (gianoli, 2004), and the species breeding system is mixed (sunar et al., 2015). polyploidy and hybridization constantly contribute to complex patterns of genetic diversity, reproductive isolation, and discrepancies in breeding systems (marques et al., 2014). also, moustafa et al. (2019) recorded variations in morphological and anatomical characters accompanied by nucleotide sequences in two forms of c. arvensis and stated that such variation might lead to a consequence of mutations in the lineage of c. arvensis forms. accordingly, our morphological and cytological results revealed that the studied c. arvensis populations have genotypic plasticity, confirming that the observed plasticity of c. arvensis could be related to other factors rather than ecological factors. our result is in line with those of pigliucci (2001), who reported that phenotypic plasticity is not just an environmental phenomenon but is a result of complex genotype-environment interactions. at the same time, the interactions between the genotypes and the environment cause the appearance of an array of discordant genotypes in c. arvensis. this may be explained by westwood et al. (1997), who reported that self-incompatibility in c. arvensis may have multiple alleles. the length of the short arm of chromosome pairs 1 and 2 had a significant difference between genotypes with different flower colors according to the lsd test. in contrast, these chromosome pairs showed no significant difference in the length of the short arm between genotypes with similar flower colors. further investigations are needed to clarify the role of chromosome pairs 1 and 2 in determining corolla color in c. arvensis. variation in karyotype is essential, as genetic variability represents an important micromorphological feature for species and is frequently associated with species differentiation (stebbins, 1971). after using pearson’s correlation among karyotype features of c. arvensis, it was clarified that the tl of chromosomes had a significant positive correlation with the length of the longest and shortest chromosomes and the mean chromosome length and a significant negative correlation with tf% (r = – 0.907 and p = 0.034). at the same time, the intrachromosomal asymmetry index a1 had a significant positive correlation with the length of the longest chromosome (r = 0.908 and p = 0.033), 261 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hamed et al. reflecting the relatively symmetric karyotype of c. arvensis. a similar result was concluded by sheidai et al. (2011). it was revealed in the current study that the reasons behind the growth of five different genotypes of c. arvensis in similar environments still need more clarification. c. arvensis is self-incompatible (gianoli, 2004), and the species breeding system is mixed (sunar et al., 2015). polyploidy and hybridization constantly contribute to complex patterns of genetic diversity, reproductive isolation, and discrepancies in breeding systems (marques et al., 2014). also, moustafa et al. (2019) recorded variations in morphological and anatomical characters accompanied by nucleotide sequences in two forms of c. arvensis and stated that such variation might lead to a consequence of mutations in the lineage of c. arvensis forms. plate (1): morphological variations of flowers, leaves and fruits for the identified convolvulus arvensis genotypes. (for each genotype, flower and leaf were photographed using the same scale bar). 262 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus 18 (2): 253-275. phenoplasticity and karyotyping of convolvulus diagram (1): karyotypes of the identified c. arvensis genotypes. diagram (2): mean relative length percentage of each chromosome pair in the complement of the investigated genotypes (g1–g5). 263 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hamed et al. diagram (3): mean centromeric index of each chromosome pair in the complement of the investigated genotypes (g1–g5); mean centromeric index is zero for chromosomes (5-8). diagram (4): scatter diagram showing karyotype asymmetry indexes a1 and a2 among the identified c. arvensis genotypes. (g: genotype). 264 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus 18 (2): 253-275. phenoplasticity and karyotyping of convolvulus diagram (5): the constructed dendrogram for the identified c. arvensis genotypes (g1g5) is based on morphological data (55 characters) combined with karyotype features (ten characters). table (1): morphological variation among the identified genotypes of c. arvensis. characters genotype 1 genotype 2 genotype 3 genotype 4 genotype 5 leaf characters 1. l/w ratio 1.3–2.6 1.3–1.5 2.2–3.0 1.1–1.8 1.41.9–(2.6) 2. shape of leaf narrow linear elliptic elliptic deltoid– oblong linear– oblong 3. leaf color yellow–green yellow–green blue –green blue –green blue–green 4. apex acuminate acuminate subacute– retuse obtuse– mucronate obtuse– mucronulate 5. base haustate haustate sagitate haustate– auriculate haustate– auriculate 6. margin entire entire entire entire entire 7. epidermal feature dense papillose moderate papillose moderate papillose moderate papillose sparse papillose 8. hairs on leaf occ. on base glabrous occ. on margin glabrous occ. on margin, base & midrib 9. petiole length (mm) up to 14.0 up to 14.0 up to 14.0 up to 20.0 up to 28.0 265 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hamed et al. 10. hairs on petiole occasionally occasionally occasionally glabrous occasionally flower characters 11. solitary/ pairs solitary solitary solitary solitary in pairs 12.pedicle le ngth (cm) up to 5.0 up to 4.0 up to 5.0 up to 5.0 up to 4.0 13. hairs on pedicle glabrous hairy hairy occasionally hairy hairy 14. density of hairs on pedicle non moderate moderate low density dense 15. shape of bracteoles oblong oblong–elliptic oblong oblong elliptic 16. bracteoles length (mm) 1.5–3.5 2.0–3.5 2.5–3.5 3.0–4.0 1–3 17. bracteoles width (mm) 0.5–1.0 0.5–1.0 0.5–1.0 1.0–1.5 0.5–1 18. bracteoles apex acute– acuminate acuminate acuminate acuminate acuminate 19. density of hairs on bracteoles low moderate dense low low 20. length of hairs on bracteoles (mm) up to 0.2 up to 0.2 up to 0.8 up to 0.2 up to 0.2 21. shape of the sepals broad oblong broad oblong broad oblong broad oblong broad oblong 22. apex of sepals retuse– mucronulate retuse – mucronulate retuse – mucronulate retuse – mucronulate retuse– mucronulate 23. outer sepals length (mm) 4.0 4.0-5.0 4.0-5.5 3.5-5.0 4.0-4.8 24. outer sepals width (mm) 1.5–2.0 2.5–3.0 2.0–2.5 2.0–2.5 2.0–3.0 25. hairs on outer sepals glabrous hairy hairy hairy hairy 26. density of hairs on outer sepals non moderate dense moderate dense 27. inner sepals length (mm) 4.0–5.0 4.0–5.0 5.0–6.0 5.0–5.0 4.0–5.0 28. inner sepals width (mm) 4.0–5.0 4.0–5.0 4.0–5.0 3.5–4.0 3.0 266 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus 18 (2): 253-275. phenoplasticity and karyotyping of convolvulus 29. hairs on inner sepals glabrous occasionally occasionally glabrous occasionally 30. petal length (cm) 2.0–3.0 2.0–3.0 2.5–3.0 2.0–2.5 1.5–2.0 31. petal width (cm) 2.0–4.0 2.0–4.0 2.5–4.0 2.0–2.5 2.0–2.2 32. colour of petal pale pink pale pink white with pink spots white dark pink 33. colour of the midpetaline area greenish greenish green green pink 34. hairs of the midpetaline area moderate moderate– dense moderate moderate moderate 35. stamens number 5.0 5.0 5.0 5.0 5.0 36. anther length (mm) 3.0–3.5 3.0–3.5 3.0–3.5 2.5–3.0 2.0–3.5 37. anther width (mm) 0.5–1.0 0.5–1.0 1.0–1.5 1.0–1.5 1–2.5 38. anther colour purple purple white white purple 39. filament length (mm) 9.0–12.0 6.0–10 5.0–10.0 5.0–10.0 6.0–10 40. ovary width (mm) 1.5 1.0 1.5 1.5 1.5 41. hairs on the ovary occasionally glabrous glabrous glabrous glabrous 42. style length (mm) up to 10.0 up to 6.0 up to 12.0 up to 8.0 up to 8.0 43. hairs on style occasionally glabrous glabrous glabrous glabrous 44. stigma length (mm) 3.0–4.5 2.5–3.0 2.0–2.5 2.5–3.0 2.5–3.0 fruit characters 45. fruit length (mm) 7.0–9.0 7.0–9.0 9.0–10.0 7.0–9.0 8.5–10.0 46. fruit width (mm) 4–5 5–7 5–7 4–6.5 7–7.5 47. fruit shape ovoid to sub-globose sub-globose ovoid sub-globose sub-globose 48. hairs on fruit glabrous glabrous glabrous glabrous occasionally 49. number of seeds /fruit 1.0–3.0 1.0–4.0 1.0–3.0 2.0–3.0 1.0–4.0 50. seeds length (mm) 3.5–4.0 4.0–4.5 5.0 4.5–5.0 3.5–4.5 267 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hamed et al. 51. seeds width (mm) 2.5–3.5 2.5–3.0 3.5 2.5–3.0 2.5–4.0 52. seed shape obovoid obovoid obovoid obovoid obovoid 53. seed texture fine fine moderate moderate course tuberculate 54. seed colpus not distinct distinct not distinct distinct distinct 55. seed colour brown– black black black black orange, brown–black table (2): the similarity between the identified genotypes of c. arvensis was based on morphological data (55 characters; tab. 1) using jaccard's similarity index. genotypes jaccard’s measure genotype 1 genotype 2 genotype 3 genotype 4 genotype 5 genotype 1 100.00 genotype 2 45.00 100.00 genotype 3 39.50 42.50 100.00 genotype 4 41.50 51.20 50.00 100.00 genotype 5 33.30 39.50 37.50 39.50 100.00 table (3): karyotype features for c. arvensis species, tl: total length of chromosomes, l: longest chromosome, s: shortest chromosome, ratio: longest/shortest chromosome, x: mean chromosome length, a1 and a2: romero-zarco indices, and tf%: total form percentage. genotypes 2n ploidy level tl l s l/s x a1 a2 tf% genotype 1 32 4x 27.97 3.45 1.68 1.86 3.50 0.77 0.22 0.28 genotype 2 48 6x 40.11 4.80 2.33 2.06 5.01 0.86 0.21 0.27 genotype 3 32 4x 25.61 2.92 1.52 1.93 3.20 0.79 0.29 0.28 genotype 4 48 6x 31.44 3.71 1.90 1.96 3.93 0.85 0.26 0.28 genotype 5 32 4x 24.54 2.84 1.55 1.48 3.07 0.78 0.23 0.28 268 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus 18 (2): 253-275. phenoplasticity and karyotyping of convolvulus table (4): pearson’s correlation among karyotype features in c. arvensis species, ** = correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). * = correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). tl l s l/s x a1 a2 tf% t l pearson correlation 1 .9 8 2 * * .9 6 5 * * .3 1 4 1 .0 0 0 * * .8 5 3 -. 4 8 5 -. 9 0 7 * sig. (2tailed) .0 0 3 .0 0 8 .6 0 7 .0 0 0 .0 6 6 .4 0 8 .0 3 4 n 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 l pearson correlation .9 8 2 * * 1 .9 6 9 * * .3 7 0 .9 8 2 * * .9 0 8 * -. 3 1 6 -. 8 8 0 * sig. (2tailed) .0 0 3 .0 0 6 .5 4 0 .0 0 3 .0 3 3 .6 0 5 .0 4 9 n 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 s pearson correlation .9 6 5 * * .9 6 9 * * 1 .1 3 0 .9 6 4 * * .7 8 1 -. 3 6 8 -. 9 3 5 * sig. (2tailed) .0 0 8 .0 0 6 .8 3 5 .0 0 8 .1 1 9 .5 4 2 .0 2 0 n 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 l /s pearson correlation .3 1 4 .3 7 0 .1 3 0 1 .3 1 4 .7 1 1 .1 2 6 -. 0 1 1 sig. (2tailed) .6 0 7 .5 4 0 .8 3 5 .6 0 7 .1 7 8 .8 4 0 .9 8 6 n 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 x pearson correlation 1 .0 0 0 * * .9 8 2 * * .9 6 4 * * .3 1 4 1 .8 5 3 -. 4 8 7 -. 9 0 6 * sig. (2tailed) .0 0 0 .0 0 3 .0 0 8 .6 0 7 .0 6 6 .4 0 6 .0 3 4 n 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 a 1 pearson correlation .8 5 3 .9 0 8 * .7 8 1 .7 1 1 .8 5 3 1 -. 1 1 0 -. 6 6 8 sig. (2tailed) .0 6 6 .0 3 3 .1 1 9 .1 7 8 .0 6 6 .8 6 1 .2 1 8 n 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 a 2 pearson correlation -. 4 8 5 -. 3 1 6 -. 3 6 8 .1 2 6 -. 4 8 7 -. 1 1 0 1 .5 4 7 269 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hamed et al. sig. (2tailed) .4 0 8 .6 0 5 .5 4 2 .8 4 0 .4 0 6 .8 6 1 .3 4 0 n 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 t f % pearson correlation -. 9 0 7 * -. 8 8 0 * -. 9 3 5 * -. 0 1 1 -. 9 0 6 * -. 6 6 8 .5 4 7 1 sig. (2tailed) .0 3 4 .0 4 9 .0 2 0 .9 8 6 .0 3 4 .2 1 8 .3 4 0 n 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 conclusions the current study is a pioneer record for the chromosome number and karyotype analysis of c. arvensis in egypt. the study revealed five distinct genotypes of c. arvensis, with two ploidy levels; the tetraploids (2n = 32) and the hexaploids (2n = 48). this study clarified the importance of cytological studies in assessing the phenoplasticity of c. arvensis populations and concluded that phenotypic plasticity in c. arvensis populations is genetically controlled and unrelated to environmental factors. this study also clarified the expression of the chromosome polyploidy on the morphological traits of c. arvensis. the current study could serve as an essential guide in the planning of a future successful control program for such a noxious crop weed. acknowledgments the authors express gratitude to the colleague of the cytogenetic laboratory of the national gene bank, agricultural research center. conflict of interest statment "the authors declare no conflict of interest". litereature cited abdel khalik, k. and osman, k. a. 2007. seed morphology of some species of convolvulaceae from egypt (identification of species and systematic significance). feddes repertorium, 118(1-2): 24-37. 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[crossref] whitesides, r. e. 1979. field bindweed: a growth stage indexing system and its relation to control with glyphosate. ph. d. thesis, oregon state university, corvallis, oregon, 76 pp. wood, j. r. i, williams, b. r. m., mitchell, t. c., carine, m. a., harris, d. j. and scotland, r. w. 2015. a foundation monograph of convolvulus (convolvulaceae). phytokeys, 51: 1-282. [crossref] appendix (1): mean value, standard deviation and anova f-ratio & sig. (p) values of the chromosome pairs (1–8) in the complement of the identified c. arvensis genotypes ** = p ≤ 0.01, * = p ≤ 0.05. chromosome pair genotype 1 genotype2 genotype 3 genotype4 genotype5 f-ratio sig. total chromosome length (μm) 1 4.65 ± 1.20 6.82 ± 1.24 4.76 ± 2.32 5.57 ± 0.69 4.22 ± 1.53 3.617 0.11 2 4.32 ± 1.25 6.10 ± 0.67 4.25 ± 2.08 4.85 ± 0.67 3.80 ± 1.13 4.469 0.003** 3 4.00 ± 1.12 5.35 ± 0.58 3.34 ± 1.72 4.40 ± 0.60 3.41 ± 1.16 5.385 0.001** 4 3.48 ± 0.95 5.03 ± 0.65 3.27 ± 1.54 4.20 ± 0.55 3.10 ± 0.94 6.414 0.000** https://doi.org/10.1017/wet.2020.61 http://www.innspub.net/ http://sweetgum.nybg.org/science/ih/ https://doi.org/10.1508/cytologia.41.299 https://doi.org/10.1111/evo.13 https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.jhered.a023137 https://doi.org/10.3897/phytokeys.51.7104 273 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hamed et al. 5 3.45 ± 1.09 4.80 ± 0.82 2.92 ± 1.57 3.71 ± 0.57 2.84 ± 0.74 5.257 0.001** 6 2.97 ± 0.98 4.30 ± 0.51 2.55 ±1.11 3.26 ± 0.50 2.55 ± 0.66 8.43 0.000** 7 2.62 ± 0.86 4.22 ± 0.71 2.53 ± 1.15 2.80 ± 0.60 2.45 ± 0.59 11.181 0.000** 8 2.50 ± 0.91 3.48 ± 0.73 1.98 ± 0.96 2.64 ± 0.85 2.17 ± 0.48 6.888 0.000** long arm (μm) 1 2.35 ± 0.59 3.72 ± 0.91 2.61 ± 1.37 2.93 ± 0.49 2.30 ± 0.72 4.012 0.006** 2 2.25 ± 0.61 3.29 ± 0.71 2.28 ± 1.35 2.49 ± 0.32 2.02 ± 0.70 10.404 0.000** 3 2.15 ± 0.96 2.85 ± 0.49 1.79 ± 0.95 2.41 ± 0.49 1.83 ± 0.65 6.311 0.000** 4 1.79 ± 0.47 2.71 ± 0.68 1.75 ± 0.96 2.30 ± 0.53 1.55 ± 0.53 13.569 0.000** 5 3.45 ± 1.09 4.80 ± 0.82 2.92 ± 1.57 3.71 ± 0.57 2.84 ± 0.74 9.161 0.000** 6 2.97 ± 0.98 4.30 ± 0.51 2.55 ± 1.11 3.26 ± 0.50 2.55 ± 0.66 11.978 0.000** 7 2.62 ± 0.86 4.22 ± 0.71 2.53 ± 1.15 2.80 ± 0.60 2.45 ± 0.59 10.863 0.000** 8 2.50 ± 0.91 3.48 ± 0.73 1.98 ± 0.96 2.64 ± 0.85 2.17 ± 0.48 9.296 0.000** short arm (μm) 1 2.30 ± 0.61 3.10 ± 0.58 2.15 ± 1.00 2.64 ± 0.39 1.92 ± 0.87 2.87 0.031* 2 2.06 ± 0.68 2.81 ± 0.49 1.97 ± 0.80 2.36 ± 0.52 1.78 ± 0.46 3.648 0.01* 3 1.85 ± 0.30 2.50 ± 0.35 1.55 ± 0.84 1.99 ± 0.31 1.58 ± 0.64 5.315 0.001** 4 1.68 ± 0.48 2.33 ± 0.38 1.52 ± 0.62 1.90 ± 0.18 1.55 ± 0.53 5.51 0.001** 5 0 0 0 0 0 6 0 0 0 0 0 7 0 0 0 0 0 8 0 0 0 0 0 appendix (2): mean relative length percentage and mean centromeric index of each chromosome pair in the complement of the investigated genotypes. chromosome pair genotype1 genotype 2 genotype 3 genotype 4 genotype 5 mean relative length % 1 16.61 17.00 18.60 17.71 17.20 2 15.43 15.21 16.61 15.43 15.48 3 14.30 13.34 13.05 14.00 13.90 4 12.42 12.55 12.77 13.37 12.65 5 12.33 11.97 11.41 11.80 11.57 6 10.60 10.73 9.94 10.38 10.40 274 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus 18 (2): 253-275. phenoplasticity and karyotyping of convolvulus 7 9.38 10.53 9.89 8.90 9.97 8 8.93 8.68 7.74 8.40 8.83 mean centromeric index % 1 49.45 45.46 45.17 47.43 45.53 2 47.77 46.05 46.21 48.65 46.73 3 46.34 46.79 46.48 45.23 46.30 4 48.47 46.25 46.41 45.09 49.99 5 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 6 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 7 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 8 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 275 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hamed et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2024) 18 (2): 253275. املرونة املظهرية و بنية الصبغيات لالنماط الوراثية لنبات العليق convolvulus arvensis l., 1753 (solanales, رتبة الباذنجانيات convolvulaceae)الفصيلة املدادية أماني س. عبود عزة ب. حامد، وفاء م. عامر و الجيزة، 12613عة القاهرة، قسم املعشبة والنبات واألحياء الدقيقة، كلية العلوم، جام .مصر 20/12/2024, النشر: 23/5/2024القبول: ,19/5/2024ة: املراجع,28/1/2024االستالم: الخالصة ( solanales، رتبة الباذنجانيات convolvulaceaeنبات العليق )الفصيلة املدادية ثر الحشائش الضارة نوع من اك 15عشب معمر ، متعدد األشكال، و هو واحد من ضمن للمحاصيل. يتمتع هذا النوع باملرونة املظهرية امللحوظة بين افراده. هدفت هذه الدراسة إلى عشيرة نباتية متميزة شكليا، حيث تم جمعها من بئية واحدة 20تقييم املرونة املظهرية بين صفة 55في مصر لتقيم هذه الصفة من حيث عدد و بنية الصبغيات. وقد تمت دراسة ، وتم تقييم قيم التشابه باستخدام معامل تشابه جاكارد الذي أسفر عن تقسيم مظهرية إلى خمس مجموعات مع وجود اختالفات في عدد و بنية الصبغيات. وبناء املظهريةالصفات على ذلك، تم التعامل معهم على أنهم أنماط وراثية. تشتمل هذه األنماط الوراثية على ن = 2( وسداسية الصبغيات )32ن = 2متميزين: رباعية الصبغيات )مستويين صبغيين (. كان لألنماط الوراثية سداسية الصبغيات قيمة أعلى ملؤشر عدم التماثل بين بنية 48 ( مقارنة باالنماط رباعية الصبغيات. ومن خالل اختبار األنوفا تم الكشفa1الصبغيات ) ن األنماط الوراثية املدروسة، مما يشير إلى أن عن اختالفات كبيرة في بنية الصبغيات بي في الجينوم له دور أساس ي في التنوع الحيوى لنبات العليق. و أكدت هذه يالتغيير الكم الدراسة على أن املرونة املظهرية لعشائر هذا النوع تحكمها عوامل وراثية وال تعزى إلى لى أهمية الدراسات الخلوية في تقييم عوامل بيئية. تم تسليط الضوء في هذه الدراسة ع املرونة الظاهرية لعشائر نبات العليق، وخاصة لتلك التي تنمو في نفس املوائل. bull 669 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hassan and ali bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2023) 17(4): 669-677. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2023.17.4.0669 original article new record of species lithobius ferganensis (trotzina, 1894) (chilopoda, lithobiomorpha, lithobiidae) from the middle of iraq shaymaa hussein hassan and hayder badri ali* department of biology, college of science, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq. *corresponding author e-mail: hayder.badri@sc.uobaghdad.edu.iq recived date: 02 june 2023, accepted date 18 august 2023, published date:20 december 2023 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract the present study provides the first record species of the genus lithobius leach, 1814, l. ferganensis (trotzina, 1894) which was collected from the middle of iraq. a detailed explanation of the morphology and the diagnostic characters of specimens of both sexes is provided. keywords: centipede, chilopoda, iraq, lithobius, lithobiomorpha. introduction the class of chilopoda latreille belongs to the subphylum myriapoda which belongs to the phylum of arthropoda; lithobiidae family is a member of the order lithobiomorpha, which includes terrestrial, predatory animals like centipedes. the forcipules in the front of the body are the key distinguishing feature; the body consists of head and a trunk with 15-21 segments, whereas it has 15 in lithobiomorpha. the second-most varied class of chilopoda after geophilomorpha pocock, 1895, is the order lithobiomorpha, which has more than 1500 species (muralewitsch, 1906; edgecombe and giribet 2007). the exception of antarctica and a couple of spots in the tropical and subtropical, this order is tracked down on all mainlands (zapparoli, 2003; lewis, 2007; bonato and zapparoli, 2011). it comprises two families: henicopidae pocock, 1901, which is primarily found on the southern side of the equator and displays less variety as just 120 species are at present known (edgecombe and hollington, 2002; bonato and zapparoli, 2011), and lithobiidae newport, 1844, which has almost 1000 species and subspecies having a place with 44 genera and is essentially conveyed in the northern half of the globe's calm districts. lithobiomorpha mostly lives in the soil surface, litter, under stones, or in rotting vegetation, routinely in fertilizer stores, arising around evening time to chase, and is a valuable hunter of soil bothers (chao et al., 2018). bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799-print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2023.17.4.0669 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4842-151x mailto:hayder.badri@sc.uobaghdad.edu.iq https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 670 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum new record of species lithobius from the whole class chilopoda, lithobius drain, 1814 is considered the most species-rich, and the most troublesome taxon of the lithobiinae, with around 500 species and subspecies (bonato et al., 2016). this genus is generally from the palaearctic region; lithobius is classified into several subgenera including, lithobius filter, 1814; monotarsobius verhoeff, 1905; sigibius chamberlin, 1913; ezembius chamberlin, 1919; dacolithobius matic, 1961; tracolithobius matic, 1962; chinobius verhoeff, 1934; porobius attems, 1926 and large depending on demonstrative blends of a similar restricted set of characters (zapparoli and edgecombe, 2011). the most significant of these characteristics are the antennal articles number (1825), number and distribution of ocelli, forcipular teeth number dental edge (front margin of forcipular coxo-sternite), type of the porodonts ( seta surrounding the forcipular teeth), the presence of projections on some tergites, articulation distinctness of legs 1–12 and spurs number on the female gonopod. while these blends of characters are systematically functional, their extremities has not been checked, to the such an extent that some plesiomorphies are utilized in diagnoses (ganske et al., 2021) in iraq, there are three recorded species lithobius microps meinert, 1868; l. aeruginosus (l. koch, 1862), and l. fossipes brölemann, 1922 from this genus (aldoori, 2020; dyachkovi et al., 2023). in the present study, a new record species of lithobius ferganensis (trotzina, 1894) is added as a new record for centipede’s fauna of iraq. materials and methods specimens' collection: the studied materials were collected during the surveys in the middle of iraq. the specimens were collected directly by hand during the period from october 2022 to may 2023 from the soil surface and under stones in baghdad and saladin provinces. the collected centipede specimens were kept in plastic container. at the laboratory, specimens were in sterile tubes containing alcohol ethanol 70%, each specimen was labelled with labels that contain the date and localities of collection. the photographs were taken with a xiaomi miui 14 and used a binocular dissecting microscope to magnify the morphological features. specimens' identification: the collected centipede specimens were identified by different taxonomical keys (pei et al., 2011; dányi and tuf, 2012; ma et al., 2012, 2014), and by the remarks notes of this species by dányi (2008) and zuev (2016). terminology for morphology follows bonato et al. (2010). abbrevations: below are the abbreviations used in the text and tables: t, tt: tergite, tergites a: anterior f: femur t: trochanter s, ss: sternite, sternites m: median t: tibia p: prefemur c: coxa p: posterior 671 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hassan and ali results and discussion classification order: lithobiomorpha. family: lithobiidae. genus: lithobius leach, 1814. species: l. ferganensis (trotzina, 1894) basionym: monotarsobius ferganensis trotzina, 1894 synonyms: lithobius (monotarsobius) ballidagus chamberlin, 1952 l. (monotarsobius) curtipes subsp. taurica l. (monotarsobius) curtipes subsp. turkestanicus l. (monotarsobius) nodonotatus verhoeff, 1943 l. pusillus sseliwanoff, 1880 l. (monotarsobius) schizus chamberlin, 1952 l. sseliwanoffi garbowski, 1897 l. taurica ellingsen, 1910 l. turkestanicus attems, 1904 monotarsobius ballidagus chamberlin, 1952 m. ferganensis trotzina, 1894 m. nodonotatus verhoeff, 1943 description body length (pl. 1): 22 mm long in male and 24-26 mm in female, cephalic plate 2.5 mm long, 2.0 mm wide in male and 2.2mm, 18mm in female. colour: russet brown to brown. head: smooth, raised, color concentrated as a nearby netlike vein, inadequately and weakly punctate; more extensive than lengthy, lateral peripheral interruptions distinct. antennae: (pl. 2a) pale yellow-brown to chocolate antennal articles, about third of bodylength, usually of 20 antennal articles; basal article long about equivalent to wide, second article particularly longer than wide, following articles shortening gradually, the terminal antennal article much longer than wide or about two times the length wide; male with 21+ 19 articles, while female with 20 + 19. ocelli: pale-dim; oval to rounded; with six ocelli organized into two random columns; the two back ocelli moderately large; posterior one bigger than poster superior somewhat; ocelli domed, clear, for the most part hazily pigmented, tömösváry's organ normally smaller than greatest ocellus. forcipular segment (pl. 2b) with narrow anterior margin, outside of forcipular segment longer than inner side slightly. cephalic plate smooth, convex, and pigment focussed as near netlike vein, with 2+2 coxosternal teeth, with straight or slightly recurved line of their apices; short lateral spine, blunt and setiform, regularly directed medially; sidelong to spine, free border grades indirectly backwards. 672 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum new record of species lithobius plate (1): l. ferganensis; left, female, dorsal view, right, male, dorsal view. 1 mm 1 mm 673 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hassan and ali tergites: smooth, without wrinkles, somewhat hunched on behind; t 1 postero-laterally narrower than antero-laterally, narrower than t3 and the cephalic plate, t3 slightly narrower than the cephalic plate; posterior margin of t3 somewhat straight, posterior margin of tt5,8,10,12 and t14 slightly concave, ridge of posterior margin of tt3,5,8,10 and t12 continuous. a wart-like process on t15 legs: strong, tarsi fused on legs 1–13, separate on legs 14 and 15; all legs with curved ventral claws; legs 14 and 15 more thick and stouter than other legs specially in male; coxal pores: (pl. 2c) two to four on each coxa, frequently 2224 or 1224 circular; on both the left and right sides, separated from one another by their own diameter or less. arrangement of spurs on the legs (plectrotaxy) as in table (1). table (1): plectrotaxy of l. ferganensis legs. legs ventral dorsal c t p f t c t p f t 1 -mp am p p p p 2 mp am p p p p 3 p p p p ap 4 p p p p ap 5 p m ap p mp ap 6 m ap p mp ap 7 m ap p amp ap 8 mp ap p amp ap 9 mp ap p amp ap 10 mp ap p amp ap 11 mp ap p amp ap 12 mp ap p amp ap 13 m mp ap p amp ap 14 m ap amp a ap p 15 m ap amp a ap material examined: 1♂ 22.ii.2023 al-hamra village (34°45′15″n43°36′22″e), 1♀ almuhazam village (34°43′40″n43°38′36″e), saladin province; 1♀ 27.iii.2023 al-jaderia, (33°17′17″n 44°23′35″e), baghdad province. 674 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum new record of species lithobius 1 mm 0.5 mm 0.5 mm 0.5 mm gonopodal spurs coxal pores a b plate (2): a-d l. ferganensis; (a) antennae: composed of 20 articles, (b) forcipular segment, ventral view show tooth-plate of forcipular coxosternite,( c) terminal part of body (♂): posterior segments and gonopods, ventral view, (d) terminal part of body (♀): posterior segments and gonopods, ventral view. conclusions the present study is the first confirmed record of the species lithobius ferganensis (trotzina, 1894) this study supported the knowledge of the centipede’s fauna in iraq, the need to the morphological study to confirm the identification of centipedes, because of the difficulty of this group in diagnosis. the centipedes were identified and documented based on c d 675 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hassan and ali an examination of morphological characteristics by using deferent world taxonomical keys and terminology for morphology. conflict of interest statement the results of the present study are part of the requirements of m.sc. in zoology, department of biology, college of science, baghdad university literature cited aldoori, m. l. 2020. a taxonomic key for nine first record species of chilopoda-arthropoda in central iraq. journal of research on the lepidoptera, 51(2): 596-607. 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[click here] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/312283635_new_species_of_the_lithobiid_genus_lithobius_monotarsobius_chilopoda_lithobiomorpha_lithobiidae_from_eastern_kazakhstan https://doi.org/10.1111/cla.12431 https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.193.2802 https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.459.8169 https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/part/69239 http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.82.823 https://doi.org/10.15298/arthsel.25.1.03 http://kmkjournals.com/upload/pdf/arthropodaselecta/26/26_1_015_024_zuev_for_inet.pdf 677 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hassan and ali bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2023) 17(4): 669-977. lithobius ferganensis (trotzina, 1894)للنوع سجل جديدت (chilopoda, lithobiomorpha, lithobiidae) وسط العراق شيماء حسين حسن و حيدر بدري علي العراق. ،كلية العلوم/جامعة بغداد، بغداد-قسم علوم الحياة 20/12/2023، تأريخ النشر: 18/8/2023القبول: ، تأريخ 2/6/2023تأريخ االستالم: الخالصة متمثال، lithobius leach, 1814أنواع الجنس ل البحث الحالي تسجيل جديد الحد تناو التي ,chilopoda, lithobiomorpha, lithobiidae)) (1894l. ferganensis (trotzinaالنوع ب .من وسط العراق عيناته جمعت زودت النتائج بشرح مفصل للتركيب املظهري والصفات التشخيصية للنوع من كال . الجنسين bull 611 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hadi et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2023) 17(4): 611-628. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2023.17.4.0611 original article morphological and molecular studies of kais kingfish cyprinion kais heckel, 1843 (piscies, cypriniformes, cyprinidae) from the middle of iraq hind dyia hadi*♦, abed hassan baraaj** and atheer hussain ali*** *iraq natural history research centre and museum, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq. ** department of biology, college of science, baghdad university, iraq. ***department of fisheries and marine resources, college of agriculture, university of basrah, basrah, iraq. ♦correspondence: e-mail: hinddhiaa86@gmail.com recived date: 07 may 2023, accepted date 12 july 2023, published date:20 december 2023 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract cyprinidae species are the most abundant and widely distributed fish species in the inland waters of iraq. cyprinids are complex species, and it is difficult to identify them on the basis of morphology. thus, the morphological characteristics must be achieved and confirmed by molecular analysis. twenty specimens of cyprinion kais heckel, 1843 (piscies, cypriniformes, cyprinidae) were collected from two localities at tigris river in the middle of iraq: five specimens from al-tharthar lake, saladin province, and 15 specimens from al zubaydiyah sub-district, wasit province. the dna sequences of c. kais were done using the mitochondrial dna cytochrome b (cytb) gene. after analysis, the sequences were compared with sequences of other fish genera and species available in genbank. the barcoding result (dna sequencing) showed that it fit with c. kais. we conclude the results of the current study confirm that the validity of the morphological diagnosis of c. kais, using dna sequencing analysis. keywords: cyprinidae, cytochrome, fishes, morphology, tigris river. introduction kais kingfish cyprinion kais heckel, 1843, is a freshwater fish belonging to the largest family of freshwater fish cyprinidae, and this species is distributed in the inland waters of iraq, turkey, syria, and iran. in iraq, it is recorded from marshes such as al-chabaish, large rivers such as the tigris, shatt alarab river, and lesser zab, smaller rivers such as the khalis near baghdad, in ponds such as those on za’faraniyah fish farm south of baghdad, and in reservoirs such as the dukan dam (coad, 2010; afrasiab et al., 2013; froese and pauly, 2023). bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799-print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2023.17.4.0611 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0779-0194 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8842-8519 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2541-968x mailto:hinddhiaa86@gmail.com https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 612 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum morphological and molecular studies of kais this fish is edible and a valuable species for sport fishing, and it could be used as an aquarium fish (nasri et al., 2010). despite its wide distribution and importance, few studies have been conducted on this species, due to its lower abundance, compared to c. macrostomum. some researchers considered c. kais and c. macrostomum to be synonymous (berg, 1949; karaman, 1971), but bianco and banarescu (1982) indicated that they are two different species; as well as coad (2010) used the most important characteristics to differentiate c. kais from c. macrostomum, the shape of the mouth is one such character, being narrower and more arched and the lateral lobes present in c. kais, while the mouth is broader and lacking lateral lobes in c. macrostomum. freshwater groups are morphologically diverse, indicating their ability to adapt to local selection pressures, but marine groups are globally uniform, reflecting the stability of marine environments. in the case of the sympatric species c. macrostomum and c. kais, the strongest selective factor appears to be food competition, as all other environmental factors are the same (nasri et al., 2018; althahaibawi et al., 2019). the nature of the feed related to one species of fish determines the size and shape of the mouth of fish; the mouth shape, is a trophic character in c. kais (gazwan et al., 2021; coad, 2023); it can be considered as developmental plasticity as well as a few related morphological adaptations to feed on benthic invertebrates (the deeper body, the least head height, dorsal fin base length, dorsal-fin height, and longer pectoral-fin); but osteological, new genetic method, and morphological information rejected their synonymy (daştan et al., 2012; nasri et al., 2013; coad, 2023). to recognize fish species, there are numerous taxonomic methods, the morphological study being the conventional one, which is helpful, speedy, and includes many characters, morphometric and meristic characters, for species identification (al-janabi, 2014; stein et al., 2014). the morphological similarities, particularly between species belonging to the same genus, have been one of the most common causes of confusion in recognizing the iraqi fish fauna (faddagh et al., 2012a). c. kais is morphologically similar to c. macrostomum, so molecular techniques are necessary to elucidate species identification in this case. with the improvement of new genetic advances that utilize information obtained from the molecular components of the cell, the mitochondria cytochrome b (mt-cyb) gene is one of 11 components of a group of proteins called complex iii. cytb is generally utilized as a locale of mitochondrial dna to identify evolutionary connections between different groups, and because of its sequence diversity it is valuable inside families (caine et al., 2006). there are a few uncertainties about the taxonomic and developmental status of cyprinion species, and many authors considered the taxonomic status of cyprininae species and genera with their genetic links to remain doubtful (howes, 1982). the aim of the current study is to confirm the identification of c. kais by combining the morphological and molecular characters. 613 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hadi et al. materials and methods study area two localities at the tigris river were chosen to collect studied fish species as follows: a. al-tharthar lake the biggest natural lake in iraq; which lies within the middle of iraq, around 120 km northwest of baghdad, between the tigris and the euphrates rivers, within coordinates 33°58′n 43°11′e. the lake; with an area ranging between 1875 2710 km2 and a maximum depth of 68.4 m, is fed by the tigris river; the water is discharged from the lake to the euphrates river (szczerbowski et al., 2001; zdanowski et al., 2001). b. alzubaydiyah sub-district it is one of the sub-districts of the al-suwaira district in wasit province. alzubaydiyah is located 50 km to the south of the city of essaouira and 85 km to the north of the city of kut, the capital of wasit province, southeastern baghdad, within coordinates 32°45'46.6"n 45°10'48.7"e. the sampling localities are illustrated on the iraqi map (map.1). map (1): sampling areas. 614 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum morphological and molecular studies of kais specimens' collection a total of 20 specimens of fishes, 17 specimens for morphology study, and three specimens for molecular study) were collected using gill nets by fishermen; during the period from june; 2022 until december 2022. fishes were transported in a cool box with crush of ice to the laboratory of the iraq natural history research centre and museum, university of baghdad. morphological study each specimen is measured using 1-meter measuring board graduated in millimetres (mm) and a digital calliper, and the weight of each fish individual was done immediately by digital balance. the morphometric features were measured from the left side of each fish. the morphometric and meristic characters are measured according to those in hubbs and lagler (1964) as shown in table (1). the specimens were photographed using a samsung camera of korean origin. table (1): morphometric and meristic characters and their abbreviations. no. morphometric characters abbreviated name 1 total length tl 2 fork length fl 3 standard length sl 4 head length hl 5 head height hh 6 snout length snl 7 eye diameter ed 8 interorbital distance iod 9 postorbital length pol 10 maximum body height maxh 11 minimum body height minh 12 caudal peduncle length cpl 13 dorsal fin length dfl 14 dorsal fin height dfh 15 pectoral fin length pfl 16 pelvic fin length pfl 17 pectoral-pelvic distance ppd 18 pelvic-anal distance pad 19 anal fin length afl 20 anal fin height afh 21 pre dorsal length pdl 22 post back distance pbd 23 upper caudal fin length ucfl 24 lower caudal fin length lcfl 25 centre of caudal fin length ccfl 26 caudal peduncle height cph 27 mouth width mw 28 prepectoral length ppl 29 prepelvic length pvl 30 preanal length pal 615 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hadi et al. 31 preanus length pasl meristic characteristics 32 scales of lateral line sll 33 up scales of lateral line usll 34 down scales of lateral line dsll 35 dorsal fin spines dfs 36 dorsal fin rays dfr 37 anal fin spines afs 38 anal fin rays afr 39 pectoral fin rays pfr 40 pelvic fin rays pvfr 41 caudal fin rays cfr 42 barbels nb 43 scales around the least circumference of the caudal peduncle scp 44 gill rakers gr plate (1): the morphometric measurements carried out of c. kais. [from kashefi et al. (2012) with own authors modification]. 616 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum morphological and molecular studies of kais plate (2): the meristic characters carried out on cyprinion kais [from coad (2010) with own authors modification] dna extraction total dna was extracted from the muscle dorsal side of each fish species, and specimens were preserved in absolute ethanol 100%, using the genomic dna extraction kit (addbio/korea, cat.no. 10023). genomic dna were extracted following sambrook et al. (1989) and tested using electrophoresis on 1% agarose gel stained with ethidium bromide dye. amplification and polymerase chain reaction pcr approximately 508 bp were amplified from 5’ region of the cytb gene using universal fish primers (design in this study). the forward primer fishf1 5’ (caagcctacgaaaaacmcac) 3’, and the reverse primer 5’ fishr1 (tctactgagaakccrcctca) 3’. polymerase chain reaction pcr reactions are given as 50 μl total volumes containing 25 μl of 2xtaq dna polymerase master mix, 2 μl of each primer (fishf1 and fishr1), 17 μl free water, and 4μl of dna template by optimus 96g thermal cycler. the pcr thermal cycling conditions were: 94ºc for five min; 35 cycles of 94ºc for 30s, 52ºc for 30 s, 72ºc for 30 s; final extension of 72ºc for 5 min; and hold at 4ºc. the pcr products were then electrophoresed on 2% agarose gel stained with ethidium bromide dye. a ladder of 100 bp (promega) was utilized with this test. the profiles were tested on uv light transilluminator and documented by photographing with canon camera with a gel documentation tool. sequencing of pcr product sent to (macrogen / korea) with forward primer. the results were in the form of special files that were evaluated with bioedit software. version 7; 2013; https://bioedit.software.informer.com/7.2/. the alignment and comparison of sequences generated from sequencing findings were also compared with data from the same organism genes that were found in the gene bank at the national center for biotechnology information https://bioedit.software.informer.com/7.2/ 617 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hadi et al. (ncbi), which had previously been investigated in various nations across the world by using the basic local alignment search tool (blast). the results of sequencing showed 99 100 % agreement with reference sequences. the phylogenetic tree of the species was drawn by using the sequence data of the samples under study and compared with the previously studied species using the mega x: molecular evolutionary genetics analysis (kumar et al., 2018). the nucleotide location value of variance is calculated using the maximum likelihood (ml), and a molecular phylogenetic tree is generated. the bootstrap method with 500 repeats was used to assess the accuracy of the estimated phylogenies. results morphology the morphometric and meristic characters of c. kais are indicated in tables (2, 3), to show the general morphology of kais kingfish. table (2): the results of morphological characters for cyprinion kais. characters min-max (mean ±sd) in mm proportional measurements as expressed as a percentage of standard length or of head length* weight 320584 (404.8± 74.5) total length tl 121184 (143±1.71) fork length fl 108-166 (128±1.62) standard length sl 100-144 (116±1.42) maximum body height maxh 33-47 (39.6 ± 4.4) 31.25-37.38 (34.32 ± 1.7) minimum body height minh 9-15 (11.6 ± 1.5) 8.88-11.0 (10.2 ± 0.69) caudal peduncle length cpl 11-33 (15.4 ± 5.4) 10.9-24.4 (13.21 ± 3.59) dorsal fin length dfl 21-36 (28.7 ± 4.0) 2127.69 (24.80 ±1.71) dorsal fin height dfh 13-28 (22.1 ± 4.2) 12.59-22.1 (19.07± 2.30) pectoral fin length pfl 16-24 (19.9 ± 2.2) 14.58-20.58 (17.28 ± 1.33) pelvic fin length vfl 15-26 (18.7 ± 2.7) 14.52-19.60 (16.19 ± 1.34) pectoral-pelvic distance pv 27-45 (34.5 ± 4.9) 26.73-33.0 (29.79 ± 1.64) predorsal distance 50-73 (60.9 ± 7.7) 47.6156.86 (52.58±2.65) prepelvic distance pad 52-75 (61.7 ± 7.2) 49.52-59.81 (53.38±2.45) prepectoral distance pad 22-34 (26.8 ± 3.6) 18.80-26.73 (23.26±2.10) preanal distance pad 76-113 (90.4 ± 10.8) 73.07-82.24 (78.11±2.47) pelvic-anal distance va 23-38 (31.2 ± 4.1) 22.30-34.56 (27.45±2.82) 618 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum morphological and molecular studies of kais anal fin length afl 8-16 (11.9±2.2) 8.33-13.76 (11.04±2.30) anal fin height afh 13-23 (18.3±3.3) 11.11-22.54 (15.91 ±3.18) preanus distance 73-108 (85.3±9.8) 67.69-77.57 (73.73±2.70) post back distance pob 4578 (61.5±8.6) 42.8858.93 (50.90±4.99) upper caudal fin length ucfl 2338 (29.1±4.4) 21.36-29.41 (25.16±2.25) lower caudal fin length dcfl 23-35 (27.6±3.9) 19.65-27.45 (23.92±2.01) center caudal fin length ccfl 9-15 (12.6±3.7) 8.25-12.87 (10.97±1.29) caudal peduncle height 11-16 (14.2±1.4) 10.89-14.01 (12.32±1.02) head length 22-32(25.4±3.1) (hl/sl)*100 head height 15-26(18.4±2.7) 65.38-81.25 (72.36*±4.23) snout length 6-11(7.8±1.3) 26.92-36.66 (30.84*±3.26) orbit diameter 4-6 (5.3±0.6) 17.24-25.00 (21.10*±2.46) eye diameter 3-3.9 (3.5±8.8) 9.09-16.95 (12.35*±1.95) post orbit distance 9-15 (11.6±1.5) 39.28-52.17 (45.99*±3.29) between eye distance 7-11.2 (9.1±1.2) 31.0341.30 (35.96*±3.29) mouth width 5-9.4 (7.0±1.6) 20.83-33.91 (27.41*±4.07) table (3): the results of meristic characters for c. kais. meristic characters min-max (mean ±sd) lateral line scales 36-39 (37.5 ±1.12) up scales of lateral line 7-8 (7.5 ± 0.49) down scales of lateral line 3-4 (3.5± 0.52) dorsal fin spines 1-1(1±0) dorsal fin rays 13-14 (13.5± 0.35) pectoral fin rays 12-13 (12.5± 0.41) anal fin spines 1-1(1±0) anal fin rays 7-8 (7.5± 0.26) caudal fin rays 16-18 (17.5±0.6) pelvic fine spines 1-1 pelvic fin rays 8-8 (8±0) scales around the least circumference of the caudal peduncle 8-9 (8.5±0.5) gill rakers 11-12 (11.5± 0.52) 619 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hadi et al. plate (3): cyprinion kais (whole body) from al-tharthar lake, saladin province. plate (4): mouth of cyprinion kais (ventral view). molecular study pcr primers of the cytochrome b gene, and specific primers are successfully amplified, and gel electrophoresis is performed to show pcr amplification of the cyto b, which yielded 508 bp product. these amplifications are used for species diagnosis and give comparative data for developmental taxonomy studies and family development research at the species level. sequencing of these genes is performed in order to determine the genotype of c. kais is collected from the al-zubaydia sub-district. the sequence of one gene examined forward and reverse primer is performed; this is part of the sequence process requirements and the use of pcr technology in the context of the method of genetic analysis. the results of nucleotide alignment with the sequences in the gene bank showed that the identities ranged from 99100%. partial cds, and cytochrome b gene mitochondria are compatible with the same sequence fragment marker, which is available at the gene bank in the national center for biotechnology information (ncbi). plate (5) showed a partial sequence and pair-wise analysis of the fish specimens. the current results of a total 508 bp at the 5 ends for the cytb mtdna region for three specimens were sequenced, and the best likelihood tree resulting from partitioned maximum likelihood analysis indicated that the tree of genetic relations between the studied specimens showed in plate (6) that there are two sub-branches. the bootstrap value (bp) between these two branches is equal to 59%. one of the branches showed that the c. kais (local sample t1) 1 0 m m 620 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum morphological and molecular studies of kais formed a sister group with c. macrostomum from af 180836.1 with a bootstrap value (bp) is equal to 54% and there was a similarity between local samples (t1), and c. macrostomum with standard sequences of c. kais of the same gene in france (af180860.1) with a bootstrap value (bp) is equal to 33% and the another branched showed that the c. kais (local sample t2) formed a sister group with c. kais (local sample –t3) with a bootstrap value (bp) is equal to 50% and there was a similarity between local samples (t1 and t2) with standard sequences of cyprinion sp. of the same gene from saudi arabia (mt 157380.1) with a bootstrap value (bp) is equal to 33%. plate (5): pair wise alignment of partial cds, cytochrome b (cyt b) gene of c. kais query is the study or sample sequence and subject is the genbank sequence. 621 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hadi et al. luciocyprinus langsoni nc 066657.1 china barbonymus altus jx066773.1 cambodia cyprinion semiplotum mn603795.1 india acrossocheilus longipinnis nc 047455.1 china acrossocheilus stenotaeniatus kj994699.1 china barbus apoensis af180859.1 france cyprinion acinaces mt157379.1 saudi arabia cyprinion kais (local sample-t1) cyprinion macrostomus af180826.1 france cyprinion kais af180860.1 france cyprinion sp. mt157380.1 saudi arabia cyprinion kais (local sample-t2) cyprinion kais (local sample-t3) 100 54 50 43 37 98 62 33 33 59 plate (6): phylogenetic tree analysis of cyprinion kais local samples resemble for others in different countries; draw by mega x using maximum like hood (ml) method with bootstrap value 500 repeats. discussion morphology morphometric and meristic traits are practical tools of fish morphology for new species definition (strauss and bond, 1990) and species identification (nelson et al., 2016). in addition, fish morphology can influence their swimming performance, reproductive, camouflage, and feeding activities, etc. (sfakiotakis et al., 1999). the fish species in the current study belong to the family cyprinidae. the description of the current specimens of c. kais similar to those explained by coad (2010). the dorsal fin rays in this study are similar to those in banarescu and herzig-straschil (1995), but the number of lateral line scales in the current study is lesser (36-39 vs 41-44), and the width of the mouth is expressed as percentage to the head length in this study is larger (22.7-29.3% vs 13.5-22.0%). as a comparison of some traits of c. kais in the current study, such as number of the anal-fin ray, the number of the dorsal-fin ray, the number of the pelvicfin ray, lateral line scales, and gill rakers which are 7, 13-14, 8, 36-39, and 11-12 respectively which are in agreement with the results of coad (2010), which are 7, 12-16, 8, 36-43, 8-12 respectively, the number of the pectoral-fin rays in this study is lower in the number (12-14 rays) with 14-18 rays in coad (2010). as a comparison of some features of c. kais in the current study, such as total length, standard length, body depth, head length, number of the dorsal-fin ray, number of the pelvicfin ray, and number of the anal-fin ray are 14.3, 11.58, 3.9, 2.54, (13-14), 8, 7 respectively are in agreement with the results of agha (2017), which are 15.7, 12.76, 3.84, 2.86, (13-14), 8,7 but the number of the scales of lateral line, and gill rakers in this study lesser (36-39 vs 39-40), and 11-12 vs 13-14 respectively. the form of a mouth, dorsal fin ray, and pectoral fin ray in the current study are similar to the results of nasri et al. (2013), but the standard length of c. kais in the current study is larger than the results of nasri et al. (2013). the dorsal fin ray, pelvic fin ray, pectoral fin ray, 622 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum morphological and molecular studies of kais and gill rakers in this study are in agreement with the result of kaya et al. (2016) but the lateral scale line of iraqi specimens has lesser than that of turkish specimens (36-39 vs 4043). the numbers of the dorsal-fin ray, the anal-fin ray, the pelvic-fin ray, pectoral fin ray, lateral line scale, scale above lateral line, and scale below lateral line are 13-14, 7, 8, 12-13, 36-39, 7-8, and 3-4 respectively, are in agreement with the results of nasri et al. (2018), which are 13, 7, 7-8, 12-13, 39, 7, and 4 respectively. as a comparison of some features of c. kais in the current study, such as a small mouth with large lateral lobes, lateral line scales, the number of dorsal fin branched rays, number of the pelvic-fin rays, number of the pectoral fin rays, are: 36-39, 13-14, 8, 12-13 respectively which in agreement with the results of coad (2023), which are 36-43, 12-16, 7-8, 12-18 respectively. molecular study in the present study, we classified, and identified conventionally on the basis of external morphological traits. however, the various developmental stages of fish are difficult to identify by morphological characteristics. therefore, the traditional identification and classification results were confirmed by mitochondrial dna sequencing, and fortunately, the results matched and there was no confusion in the scientific nomenclature. dna sequencing is one of the most important methods that contributed to the rapid diagnosis of species (pons et al., 2006). the cyto b gene as a code for animal species identification (hebert et al., 2004); especially the fish species, which have been attracting attention lately. this study demonstrated the effectiveness of the cyto b gene in identifying cyprinidae species. banarescu and herzig-straschil (1995) reported that there are some specimens that are to a certain degree intermediate between 'typical' c. macrostomus and c. kais, being closer to c. macrostomus based on some morphological traits; these specimens have mouth width as expressed as a percentage of head length and number of dorsal fin rays. this is similar to the current study, but dna sequencing revealed and confirmed that the fish species is c. kais. the present phylogenetic analysis showed that the cyt b genome sequencing results of c. kais showed a strong association with c. macrostomum and a sister group formed with a bp of 54%. these results agreed with faddagh et al. (2012a), who determined that bp has 89 % common ancestry. faddagh et al. (2012b) also determined that taxonomical status of some cyprinid species in iraqi waters using the mitochondrial 16s rrna gene: barbus kersin (=l. kersin), b. grypus (=l. grypus), b. barbulus (=l. barbulus), b. xanthopterus (= l. xanthopterus), cyprinus carpio, b. sharpeyi (=m. sharpeyi), and c. luteus, the results confirmed that the six fish species genetically belong to the cyprinidae. aziz (2015) used the same gene cyto b to identify nine species of cyprinidae. the dna sequencing result showed that all species belong to cyprinidae, and the phylogenetic relationship degree with this family for c. macrostomum, l. esocinus, c. trutta and l. xanthopterusa was a bp of 90%, for c. luteus was a bp of 87%, for grypus (a. grypus) was a bp of 76%, and c. regium, c. carpio and c. carassius was a bp of 75%; this finding is also in agreement with the previous study (zardoya et al., 1999), who found that the origin of barbus sp. belongs to cyprinidae. 623 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hadi et al. durand et al. (2002) used the cyt b gene to conduct phylogenetic and zoogeographical studies on c. macrostomum and c. kais in the middle east region and indicated that the level of difference between them is less than 0.4% among the studied cyprinids. in this study, the results are in agreement with daştan et al. (2012), who used mtdna pcr-rflp based on pairwise comparison to study the phylogeographic and phylogenetic relationships among c. kais, c. macrostomus, and carasobarbus chantrei and indicated that the divergence rates among haplotypes of fish populations from each river basin ranged from 0.023 to 7.35%. yang et al. (2012) used cyto b gene as a molecular marker to identify barbus sp. and carasobarbus sp. dna sequencing results indicate that there is a genetically close relationship among them, and both species belong to the cyprinidae family, which in turn belongs to the order cypriniformes. conclusions in view of the results of the current study, the identification of cyprinion kais is confirmed morphologically. the dna sequencing results showed and confirmed the validity of the fish species and indicated that the correctly sequenced species were identified using cyto b gene. locally, the number of freshwater native fishes that have been genetically studied reaches 29 out of 53 (54.7%) known species. as well, seven species out of 14 (50%) known species of cyprinidae are genetically established. acknowledgements we extend our sincere thanks to prof. dr hula younis fadhil al-sadi, college of science, university of baghdad, for her great contribution and advice about molecular work. conflict of interest statement these results are a part of ph. d. dissertation, in the department of biology, college of science, university of baghdad for the first author. further, the authors of this manuscript confirm no existence other relationship with any official institution. litereature cited afrasiab, s. r., mohammad, k. m., ali, h. h., almoussawi, a. a. and abd al-rasul, m. s. 2013. fauna and flora of hawraman mountain (part one) hawraman lowest zone, kurdistan province north east of iraq. bulletin of the iraq natural history museum, 12(4): 7-34. 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(2023) 17(4): 611-628. cyprinion kais (heckel, 1843) دراسة مظهرية وجزيئية ألسماك بنيني صغير الفم (piscies, cypriniformes, cyprinidae) في وسط العراق ***و اثير حسين علي **, عبد حسن براج*هند ضياء هادي .العراق ,قسم االسماك, مركز بحوث و متحف التاريخ الطبيعي, جامعة بغداد, بغداد * العراق. ,**قسم علوم الحياة, كلية العلوم, جامعة بغداد, بغداد العراق., البصرة***قسم االسماك و الثروة البحرية, كلية الزراعة, جامعة البصرة, 20/12/2023، تأريخ النشر: 12/7/2023القبول: ، تأريخ 7/5/2023تأريخ االستالم: الخالصة , وهي بانها تضم أكثر أنواع األسماك وفرة cyprinidaeتمتاز عائلة الشبوطيات في العديد من املياه الداخلية في العراق. تعتبر هذه االسماك من األنواع املعقدة موزعة . وبالتالي, ً ومن الصعب تشخيصها مظهريا ً يجب التاكد من صحة تشخيص تصنيفيا من البنيني صغير عينة 20الفحص الجزيئي. في هذه الدراسة جمع االنواع باستخدام من بحيرة cyprinion kais heckel, 1843 (piscies, cypriniformes, cyprinidae) الفم التابعه الى عينة(15عينة( التابعه الى محافظة صالح الدين ومنطقة الزبيدية ) 5الثرثار ) وسط العراق.محافظة واسط, . dna cytochrome b (cytb)ين عبارة عن ج c. kaisكان تسلسل الحمض النووي لـ بعد التحليل , تمت مقارنة التسلسالت مع متواليات األجناس واألنواع السمكية األخرى املخزنة في البنك العام. أظهرت نتائج تسلسل الحمض النووي أن األنواع املدروسة نتائج الدراسة الحالية صحة التشخيص املظهري لسمكة تؤكد . هذا النوعتنتمي إلى cyprinion kais .وذلك باستخدام تحليل تسلسل الحمض النووي bull 545 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2025) 18 (3): 545-563. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2025.18.3.0545 original article a new record of two nematodes,mesorhabditis franseni fuchs, 1933 (mesorhabditidae) and pratylenchus goodeyi sher and allen, 1953 (pratylenchidae) with molecular description from iraq zahraa yahia kadhim*, ** harith saeed al-warid ** and jawad b. al-zaidawi*** *research and development directorate, ministry of higher education and scientific research, baghdad, iraq. **department of biology, college of science, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq. ***authority of scientific research, ministry of higher education and scientific research, baghdad, iraq. corresponding author : harith.saeed@sc.uobaghdad.edu.iq recived: 1 dec. 2024, revised: 2 feb.2025., accepted: 3 feb. 2025, published:20 june 2025 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract a rhabditid mesorhabditis franseni fuchs, 1933 (family, mesorhabditidae) and pratylenchid nematode pratylenchus goodeyi sher and allen, 1953 (family, pratylenchidae). they were illustrated by molecular aspects. all specimens of both genera were cultured and reproduced for dna extraction. m. franseni (irq.zah2 pp528819.1 isolate) was characterized. p. goodeyi (irq.zah5 pp535537 isolate) was also characterized. selected specimens of these two species were molecularly characterized using the partial its-rrna gene sequences. the its-rrna sequence of irq.zah2 pp528819.1 isolate had a range of (98.62%-100%) sequence homology with its-rrna sequence of m. franseni available in ncbi database. while, the its-rrna sequence of irq.zah5 pp535537 isolate had (100%) sequence homology with its-rrna sequence of p. goodeyi available in ncbi database. m. franseni (irq.zah2 pp528819.1 isolate) and p. goodeyi (irq.zah5 pp535537 isolate) are iraq's first documented instance of these species. key words: iraq, its-rrna gene, mesorhabditis, pratylenchus, soil. introduction since nematodes are aquatic organisms, they need sufficient soil moisture to move through the soil (koppenhöfer and fuzy, 2007). the majority of the species are accountable for the causes of economic losses, but far less is known about the majority of the nematode community that contributes to soil health. numerous advantageous nematodes function as bulletin of the iraq natural historymuseum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799, print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2025.18.3.0545 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8767-5363 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6945-2652 https://orcid.org/0009-0009-1219-845x mailto:harith.saeed@sc.uobaghdad.edu.iq https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 546 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 545-563. a new record of two nematodes biological pesticides in controlled environments, while others manage the soil's nutrient cycle and natural ecology (jabbar et al., 2024). a small percentage of nematodes feed on plants and algae (the first trophic level); others are grazers that consume fungi and bacteria (the second trophic level); yet others consume other nematodes (the higher trophic levels). several trophic levels of the soil food chain are home to various nematodes. the surface soil horizon is where nematodes are most prevalent (yadav et al., 2018). in soil food webs, microfauna predators such as nematodes and protozoa are essential for connecting primary consumers like bacteria and fungi to higher trophic levels. they contribute to soil nutrient cycling and mineralize elements contained in microbial tissue by preying on micro-organisms (neidig et al., 2010; kadhim, 2021, 2022). the phylum nematoda covers an extraordinarily diverse range of biological environments and natural histories, such as arid deserts and deep-sea sediments, as well as interstitial bacterivores and obligate parasites with several intermediate hosts (eyualem-abebe et al., 2006). because of their diversity and abundance, nematodes in the crop rhizosphere provide a unique perspective on soil biological activity and are thought to be a reliable bioindicator for assessment the soil sustainability of a production system (khan and chandra, 2017). they are common because of their remarkable endurance to severe environments (kitagami et al., 2016). it's important to note that none of the primary orders that make up this phylum's composition are found to span the entire ecological range; instead, they each cover a significant part of it. although their presence in marine environments is minimal at best, confined to a small number of sublittoral species e.g. rhabditis marina [= litoditis marina (bastian, 1865)], the rhabditida appear to be the group that covers the greatest variety of habitats (eyualem-abebe et al., 2006). the genus mesorhabditis osche, 1952 is found all over the world, which considered as a subgenus of rhabditis dujardin, 1845 with 16 valid species (ahmad et al., 2010), while andrássy (1983) were listed 17 valid species and 3 species inquirendae. although it is widely distributed, there is only one species m. cranganorensis khera, 1968, that andrássy (1982) has been known from india (ahmad et al., 2010). the most common nematodes found in temperate soil are those in the family paratylenchidae. the genus paratylenchus micoletzky, 1922 is useful for studying how humans affect the soil because they may be used as indicators of changes in soil composition. the largest complaint raised during research on the tiny size of the genera' representatives is that they are absent from some of the researched sites, which may be partially explained by the losses incurred during soil sample extraction due to the small size fraction of nematodes and the rather challenging (rosmaninho et al., 2022). the presence of adult males is necessary for diagnosis, and occasionally populations that exhibit widespread juvenile stage occurrences at the sites during extremely challenging and time-consuming operations may even be included (čermák and renčo, 2010). pratylenchus micoletzky, 1922 is an endoparasite, it is known as the "root-lession nematode." because of its damage when it enters the roots and creates hollow channels while moving and feeding inside the root system (piedrahita et al., 2012). although the exact number of valid pratylenchus species is still up 547 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum kadhim et al. for debate, the experts believe that there are roughly 103 species (nguyen et al., 2019). as stated by bell and watson (2001a), nematodes of the genus pratylenchus micoletzky, 1922 are the primary food rival of p. nanus cobb, 1923 because they share a similar anatomical structure and a same food niche. time, soil collection depth, and the presence of non-specific pathogenic microorganisms, such as fungi (predators) (e.g. arhrobotrys corda, 1839 and monacrosporium oudemans, 1885, or other factors that affected the presence of paratylenchus micoletzky, 1922 in the soil sample, considering the fact that mineral soil layers contain the highest concentration of plant parasitic nematodes (magnusson, 1983). the spring and autumn sample dates have the largest abundances (bell and watson, 2001b; háněl, 2002). numerous writers have examined various facets of the taxonomy of pratylenchus species since sher and allen's initial study of the genus in 1953, providing new viewpoints on identification (loof, 1960; 1978; café filho and huang, 1989; frederick and tarjan, 1989; handoo and golden, 1989; palomares-rius et al., 2010). the scanning electron microscopy (sem) characterization (corbett and clark, 1983; hernández et al., 2000; inserra et al., 2007), as well as intraspecific variation of the primary morphological diagnostic features (taylor and jenkins, 1957; roman and hirschmann, 1969; tarte and mai, 1976). nematode systematics and the practical identification of plant-parasitic nematodes have benefited greatly from the development of novel methodologies based on biochemical, molecular, and phylogenetic investigations in recent decades (faraj et al., 2019; faraj and alamery, 2020; kamal et al., 2024). the value of this method for identification and phylogenetic reconstruction within the genus pratylenchus micoletzky, 1922 was shown by more recent investigations using itsrdna (waeyenberge et al., 2009; palomares-rius et al., 2010), hence the current study aimed to identify and describe the two nematodes: rhabditid m. franseni fuchs, 1933 and pratylenchid nematode pratylenchus goodeyi sher and allen, 1953 for the first time in iraq. materials and methods collecting of soil samples: a total of 54 soil samples were collected from three crop fields located in the al rashidiya (33˚25ˈ13.4̎ n 44˚21ˈ45.3̎ e), al jadriya (33˚16ˈ35.7̎ n 44˚23ˈ26.3̎ e) and aboghareeb (33˚19ˈ15.5̎ n 44˚11ˈ57.1̎ e), as shown in map (1). the samples were collected within two seasons (spring from april to may 2023 and summer during july 2023). the soil sample for each sample was composed of 5-7 subsamples randomly collected around each plant in a square -shaped fashion using a hand spade at a depth of 15-20 cm (adegbite et al., 2006). sub-samples were placed and mixed into a plastic bag that tightly closed to prevent the content from drying out, labeled and keep the samples away from direct sunlight, then stored at 8-10 ◦c in a cooler container until they were sent to the laboratory to extraction and estimate the presence of the nematodes. three samples were taken from different parts of each site. the weight of each soil sample was (1.5-2 kg). three replicates were taken from each homogenized subsample for collecting nematodes (coyne et al., 2007). 548 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 545-563. a new record of two nematodes isolation of nematodes: the baermann funnel technique was used to extract nematodes from 250 grams of soil (cairns, 1960). ten ml water suspensions were collected from each replicate and specifically screened in 1 ml randomly chosen. dissecting microscope was used to isolate the nematodes. cultivation of nematodes: for dna extraction and reproduced the isolated nematodes, last larval stage of greater wax moth galleria mellonella (linnaeus, 1758) were killed by sterilized lancet laced into a petri-dish (9cm in diameter) with two pieces of filter papers. the isolated nematodes were added to the petri dish which was held at room temperature (22 ± 2 ºc) for 5-7 days. the reproduced nematodes were collected and transferred to eppendorf tube (1.5 ml) and were kept in a fridge at 8-10 ºc. all specimens of both genera were cultured and reproduced for dna extraction. scanning electron microscopy: morphological features of adults were examined using scanning electron microscopy (sem). for examination, the specimens (adults) were rinsed with distilled water three times. then they were mounted on aluminum sem stubs, coated with gold nano-particles. then used plasma spattering coater (china) and studied using an inspect f 50 scanning electron microscope (fei company, holland). dna extraction, amplification and electrophoresis: about 50 gram of cultured nematodes was used to extract the total genomic dna. the dna extraction was done using gsync tm total dna extraction kit (geneaid, taiwan) in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions. a thermal cycler was used to amplify segments of its region. the primer set of tw81 (forward) (5`gtt tcc gta ggt gaa cct gc-3`) and ab28 (reverse) (5`ata tgc tta agt tca gcg ggt-3`) was used followed (joyce et al., 1994). the pcr profile for all loci included 35 cycles of amplification in an eppendorf thermocycler were following the program of 94 °c for 4 minutes of initial denaturation, 35 cycles of 94 °c for 1 minute, 55 °c for 1 minute, and 72 °c for 2 minutes, and a final extension for 10 minutes at 72 °c. subsequently, the pcr product was electrophoresed on 1% agarose gels for 40 minutes using 10x tbe buffer 5%, and the gel was stained with green-viewer (sybr). ultimately, 3 μl of the pcr product and 2.5 μl of dna ladder were added to each gel well. a 100-bp molecular dna ladder (bioneer, korea) was used to determine the size of the amplified products, the final volume for amplicone is 25 μl (al-zaidawi et al., 2019). dna sequencing and analysis: for sequencing, the pcr products were sent to macrogen co. in korea. next, chromatogram quality was assessed, and consensus sequences were generated using a dna baser assembler (dna sequence assembler v4 (2013), heraclebiosoft, www.dnabaser.com). the ncbi blast tool (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/) was utilized to perform homology searches for every sequence. the phylogenetic analyses and nucleotide distance was calculated by using mega.7 program (al-zaidawi et al., 2019). for m. franseni fuchs, 1933 the evolutionary history was inferred by used the maximum likelihood method based on the kimura 2-parameter model (kimura, 1980). the tree with the 549 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum kadhim et al. highest log likelihood (-3777.42) was shown. the percentage of trees in which the associated taxa clustered together was shown next to the branches. initial tree (s) for the heuristic search were obtained automatically by applied neighbor-join and bionj algorithms to a matrix of pairwise distances estimated by used the maximum composite likelihood (mcl) approach, and then was selected the topology with superior log likelihood value. the tree was drawn to scale, with branch lengths measured in the number of substitutions per site. while, in pratylenchus goodeyi sher and allen, 1953 the evolutionary history was inferred by used the neighbor-joining method (saitou and nei, 1987). the optimal tree with the sum of branch length equal 1.53180421 was shown. the percentage of replicate trees in which the associated taxa clustered together in the bootstrap test (1000 replicates) was shown next to the branches (felsenstein, 1985). the tree was drawn to scale, with branch lengths in the same units as those of the evolutionary distances was used to infer the phylogenetic tree. the evolutionary distances were computed using the tamura 3parameter method (tamura, 1992) and were in the units of the number of base substitutions per site. the analysis involved 23 nucleotide sequences for mesorhabditis franseni and 15 nucleotide sequences for pratylenchus goodeyi sher and allen, 1953 in addition local isolate, caenorhabditis elegans maupas, 1900 considered as outgroup. among the codon positions were first, second, third, and noncoding. every position that had lacking information or gaps was removed. there were a total of 600 positions for mesorhabditis franseni and 632 for p. goodeyi sher and allen, 1953 in the final dataset. evolutionary analyses were conducted in mega7 (kumar et al., 2016). 550 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 545-563. a new record of two nematodes map (1): baghdad map shows the locality of sampling sites (s1) al rashidiya and (s2) al jadriya. results and discussion family, mesorhabditidae andrassy, 1976 genus,mesorhabditis osche, 1952 mesorhabditis franseni fuchs, 1933 among the nematode specimens that were collected from soil in baghdad, iraq.m. franseni was cultured and identified based on molecular technique. all the identified m. franseni in the present study had the most typical features of this species. adult specimens had the following characteristic features: head has six lips that distinctly separated, rounded and well developed, each ending in a setose papilla as shown in (pl. 1a1, a2). amphids small, on the lateral lips. cuticle conspicuously annulated. stoma well-developed 2-3 times head diam. long. cheilostom simple exceptionally cuticularized but small; pharyngeal collar absent; pharynx corpus (swollen bulb-like). 551 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum kadhim et al. plate (1): scanning electron microscopy (sem) photographs of mesorhabditis franseni (female), anterior cephalic with six lips that distinctly separated around the mouth, rounded and well developed, each ending in a setose papilla. [scale bars: a1= 2 μm, a2= 5 μm]. analysis using its sequence for mesorhabditis franseni: the selected specimens of this species were subjected to molecular tactic using coding of dna to verify the morphological identification of the isolated nematodes. the its-rrna (1084 bp) amplicon from this selected individual represented single bands on agarose gels. nucleotide sequence data reported from this isolate is available in the genbank database. its-rrna nucleotide sequence data is found under the accession numbers pp528819.1. results in diagram (1) showed that the sequence of the selected m. franseni isolate (accession number pp528819.1) had 100% sequence homology with its-rrna sequence of this species (accession number mt710247) as well as it had 98.62% and 98.41% sequence homology with its-rrna sequence of m. franseni (accession number mt710246, and accession number mt710245 respectively). the mean inter-specific distance among m. franseni isolate irq.zah2 (accession number pp528819.1) isolate and other isolates ofmesorhabditis were 0.232 % (range 0.00 – 1.095 %), which have been calculated using the tamura 3-parameter model based on the its gene. nucleotide distance between the isolates from iraq and m. franseni ju3174 (accession number mt710246.1) was 0% (tab. 1). results also showed that among m. franseni isolate irq.zah2 (accession number pp528819.1) having a same node ancestor with the other previous recorded sequences of m. crangsnorensis khera, 1968 under the accession number (mt710262) andm. microbursaris steiner, 1926 under the accession number (mt710259). the phylogenetic relationships within this group suggest diversification and hybrid incompatibility, indicating potential barriers between species. additionally, there are indications that mesorhabditis may have a single origin of pseudogamy. overall, m. franseni is part of a complex evolutionary history within the genus of mesorhabditis and its sister species, with implications for understanding diversification and hybrid incompatibility in auto-pseudogamous species (launay et al., 2020; sudhaus, 2023). other study indicated that m. franseni and m. cranganorensis are sister species to m. microbursaris. the phylogenetic 552 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 545-563. a new record of two nematodes relationships of mesorhabditis species show that m. franseni and m. cranganorensis are closely related to m. microbursaris. the study included measurements from 11 strains of auto-pseudogamous mesorhabditis species, corresponding to 6 species, which provided insights into the diversification and hybrid incompatibility within this group (launay et al., 2020). additionally, a phylogenetic systematization and catalog of paraphyletic species included m. cranganorensis and m. franseni, further supporting their relationship to m. microbursaris (sudhaus, 2023). table (1): comparing several mesorhabditis species and isolates pairwise based on the amount of nucleotide differences with m. franseni fuchs, 1933 isolate irq.zah2 based on its sequences. no. species and isolates of nematodes 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 1 pp528819.1 mesorhabditis franseni isolate irq.zah2 2 mt710245.1 mesorhabditis franseni strain ju2870 0. 00 8 3 mt710246.1 mesorhabditis franseni ju3174 0. 00 0 0. 00 8 4 kf999588.1 serpentirhabdias fuscovenosa isolate 1 0. 26 4 0. 25 9 0. 26 4 5 ef990720.1 teratorhabditis stiannula strain sb359 0. 20 1 0. 20 4 0. 20 1 0. 29 5 6 ef990721.1 teratorhabditis mariannae strain sb170 0. 18 5 0. 18 3 0. 18 5 0. 28 6 0. 10 6 7 mt710275.1 mesorhabditis longespiculosa strain df5017 0. 11 0 0. 11 4 0. 11 0 0. 26 5 0. 20 6 0. 19 5 8 mt710270.1 mesorhabditis monhystera strain ju2889 0. 08 2 0. 09 0 0. 08 2 0. 26 3 0. 18 8 0. 18 9 0. 10 8 9 mt710244.1 mesorhabditis paucipapillata strain ju3003 0. 02 5 0. 02 7 0. 02 5 0. 26 6 0. 20 8 0. 18 9 0. 12 6 0. 09 5 10 mt710253.1 mesorhabditis littoralis strain ju2848 0. 01 0 0. 00 8 0. 01 0 0. 25 9 0. 19 9 0. 17 8 0. 11 0 0. 08 4 0. 01 9 553 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum kadhim et al. diagram (1): phylogenetic relationship of mesorhabditis franseni isolate with 23 isolates of other species related to mesorhabditis based on its -rrna gene sequences as inferred from neighbour joining (nj) analysis, caenorhabditis elegans (kx572972) was used as outgroup, support values are presented near the nodes in the form: bootstrap in ml. family, pratylenchidae thorne, 1949 genus, pratylenchus filipjev, 1936 pratylenchus goodeyi sher and allen, 1953 pratylenchus goodeyi (obligate migratory endoparasites of roots) is characterized by: small nematodes (less than 1000 μm long) (pl. 2-a), labial region with four annuli (pl. 2 -b1, 11 mt710233.1 mesorhabditis belari strain ju3151 0. 01 7 0. 01 9 0. 01 7 0. 25 7 0. 19 5 0. 17 6 0. 11 6 0. 08 4 0. 01 2 0. 01 0 12 mt710242.1 mesorhabditis paucipapillata ju3149 0. 01 5 0. 01 7 0. 01 5 0. 25 9 0. 19 5 0. 17 6 0. 11 4 0. 08 6 0. 01 0 0. 00 8 0. 00 2 13 mt710259.1 mesorhabditis microbursaris ps1179 0. 01 0 0. 01 5 0. 01 0 0. 26 2 0. 19 7 0. 18 1 0. 10 6 0. 08 4 0. 02 2 0. 01 0 0. 01 3 0. 01 2 14 mt710262.1 mesorhabditis cranganorensis ju3209 0. 01 0 0. 01 5 0. 01 0 0. 26 2 0. 19 7 0. 18 1 0. 10 6 0. 08 4 0. 02 2 0. 01 0 0. 01 3 0. 01 2 0. 00 0 15 mt710258.1 mesorhabditis vernalis ju3428 0. 00 8 0. 01 0 0. 00 8 0. 26 2 0. 19 9 0. 17 8 0. 10 8 0. 08 2 0. 01 7 0. 00 2 0. 00 8 0. 00 7 0. 00 8 0. 00 8 16 kx572972.1 caenorhabditis elegans 1. 09 5 1. 10 6 1. 09 5 1. 15 2 1. 26 0 1. 17 6 1. 13 0 1. 12 8 1. 10 8 1. 11 5 1. 09 7 1. 10 6 1. 08 8 1. 08 8 1. 10 6 554 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 545-563. a new record of two nematodes b2) lateral fields with four inconspicuous lines, the two outer bands partially areolated, subrectangular in shape and tail conoid, ventrally concave. plate (2): scanning electron microscopy (sem) photographs of pratylenchus goodeyi adult; (a) whole body, (b1 and b2) anterior cephalic end to explain labial region with four annuli. [scale bars: a= 50 μm, b1= 2μm, b2= 5 μm]. analysis using its sequence for pratylenchus goodeyi sher and allen, 1953 isolate: the specimens of p. goodeyi were subjected to molecular tactic using coding of dna to verify the morphological identification of the isolated nematodes. the its-rrna (778 bp) amplicon from this selected individual represented single bands on agarose gels. nucleotide sequence data reported from this isolate is available in the genbank database. its-rrna nucleotide sequence data is found under the accession numbers pp535537. results in diagram (2) showed that the sequence of the selected p. goodeyi isolate (accession number pp535537) had 100% sequence homology with its-rrna sequence of p. goodeyi zfjy hn (accession number km874803). the mean inter-specific distance among p. goodeyi isolate irq.zah5 (accession number pp535537) isolate and other isolates of pratylenchus 0.238 % (range 0.00 – 1.24 %), which have been calculated using the tamura 3-parameter model based on the its gene. nucleotide distance between the p. goodeyi isolates from iraq and p. goodeyi zfjy hn (accession number km874803) was 0% (tab. 2). results also showed that among p. goodeyi isolate (accession number pp535537) having a same clade with the other previous recorded species of acrobeloides nanus de man, 1880 (accession number mt476853 and lr594508). this result agreed with some previous results which indicated that p. goodeyi is in the same clade as a. nanus within the monophyletic cephalobidae clade. the its sequence of a. nanus is sister to the p. goodeyi sequences, indicating a close relationship between the two species (janssen et al., 2017; hodda, 2022). this relationship is further supported by additional evidence of cryptic speciation within the genus pratylenchus. the classification principles followed in the study also confirm the grouping of p. goodeyi with other nematode species (janssen et al., 2017). therefore, based on the available information, p. goodeyi and a. nanus are indeed in the same clade within the cephalobidae group. 555 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum kadhim et al. table (2): comparing several species and isolates of nematode pairwise based on the amount of nucleotide differences with pratylenchus goodeyi sher and allen, 1953 isolate irq.zah5 based on its sequences. no.. species and isolates of nematodes 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 1 pp535537 pratylenchus goodeyi irq.zah5 2 km874803 pratylenchus goodeyi zfjy hn 0. 00 0 3 lc147070 pratylenchus sp. autumn75 0. 00 5 0. 00 5 4 lc147069 pratylenchus sp. spring2 0. 01 0 0. 01 0 0. 00 8 5 lr594508 acrobeloides nanus 0. 02 4 0. 02 4 0. 02 3 0. 03 1 6 mt476853 acrobeloides nanus lc13a 0. 02 3 0. 02 3 0. 02 1 0. 02 9 0. 00 2 7 lr594507 acrobeloides nanus 0. 02 7 0. 02 7 0. 02 9 0. 03 7 0. 01 9 0. 01 8 8 kf856291 pratylenchus goodeyi cicr bhandara mujbi58 0. 11 7 0. 11 7 0. 12 3 0. 12 8 0. 11 9 0. 11 7 0. 12 2 9 mw327028 acrobeloides sp. fhd002 0. 12 1 0. 12 1 0. 12 4 0. 12 8 0. 13 2 0. 13 0 0. 12 8 0. 16 8 10 on738667 zeldia punctata hn3 0. 13 0 0. 13 0 0. 13 6 0. 13 8 0. 13 0 0. 12 8 0. 12 2 0. 12 3 0. 15 6 11 ef371501 aphelenchoides arachidis 0. 13 2 0. 13 2 0. 13 2 0. 14 2 0. 13 2 0. 13 0 0. 13 5 0. 15 9 0. 08 8 0. 17 1 556 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 545-563. a new record of two nematodes diagram (2): phylogenetic relationship of pratylenchus goodeyi sher and allen, 1953 isolate with 15 isolates of other species related to pratylenchus genus based on its-rrna gene sequences as inferred from neighbour joining (nj) analysis, caenorhabditis elegans (mw667579) was used as outgroup, support values are presented near the nodes in the form: bootstrap in ml. 12 kf700243 pratylenchus goodeyi cicr cot.warud 0. 13 0 0. 13 0 0. 13 6 0. 14 0 0. 12 6 0. 12 4 0. 13 0 0. 04 2 0. 16 5 0. 13 2 0. 16 3 13 kf275665 pratylenchus goodeyi cicr cot. warud pg 0. 15 4 0. 15 4 0. 15 7 0. 16 2 0. 15 1 0. 14 9 0. 15 9 0. 06 3 0. 19 2 0. 15 8 0. 19 1 0. 03 6 14 dq146428 zeldia sp. jb118 0. 13 3 0. 13 3 0. 13 7 0. 13 7 0. 13 4 0. 13 2 0. 13 2 0. 11 9 0. 14 5 0. 09 3 0. 15 9 0. 11 9 0. 15 2 15 dq146427 zeldia punctata voucher jb040 0. 13 6 0. 13 6 0. 14 2 0. 14 4 0. 13 6 0. 13 4 0. 12 8 0. 12 9 0. 15 8 0. 00 5 0. 17 7 0. 13 8 0. 16 4 0. 09 8 16 dq146426 zeldia punctata voucher jb015 0. 14 2 0. 14 2 0. 14 7 0. 15 0 0. 14 2 0. 14 0 0. 13 4 0. 13 2 0. 16 4 0. 01 1 0. 18 3 0. 14 2 0. 16 8 0. 10 4 0. 00 6 17 mw667579 caenorhabditis elegans strain tg3 1. 24 9 1. 24 9 1. 24 9 1. 24 5 1. 19 7 1. 20 7 1. 17 6 1. 11 4 1. 17 6 1. 15 9 1. 09 1 1. 16 2 1. 17 4 1. 13 5 1. 17 2 1. 21 2 557 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum kadhim et al. conclusions this is the first presence of two nematode species that have been isolated from baghdad city in iraq; 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(2025) 18 (3): 545563. الخيطية للديدان جديد تسجيل )mesorhabditidae )عائلة mesorhabditis franseni fuchs, 1933 وصف مع )pratylenchidae )عائلة pratylenchus goodeyi sher allen, و1953 العراق من لها جزيئي *** الزيداوي بلبل جواد و الورد** حارثسعيد ، كاظم*،** يحيى زهراء العراق. بغداد، العلمي، والبحث العالي التعليم وزارة والتطوير، البحث دائرة * العراق. بغداد، بغداد، جامعة العلوم، كلية الحياة، علوم قسم ** العراق. بغداد، العلمي، والبحث العالي التعليم وزارة العلمي، البحث هيأة *** 2025/6/20 النشر: ،2025/2/3 القبول: ،2025/2/2 2024/12/1،الراجعة: استالم: الخلصة (عائلة mesorhabditis franseni fuchs, 1933 الخيطيتين الدودتين عزلت (عائلة pratylenchus goodeyi sher and allen, 1953 mesorhabditidae)و ̎45.3ˈ21˚44 ل مااا ̎13.4ˈ25˚33) الرامدية منطقة من التربة عينات من (pratylenchidae العراق، وسط بغدادفي ( ل مرقا ̎26.3 ˈ 23 ˚44 ل مااا ̎35.7ˈ16˚33 ) الجادرية منطقة و ( مرقال الدودتين من كل صفت وو . ل جزيئيا خصت و ُ و الجنسين ال من العزولة النااذج جايع تربية تم .( irq.zah5 pp535537) عزلة p. goodeyi و (irq.zah2 pp528819.1) .mعزلة franseni its-rrnaجين سسلسلت باستخدام ا جزيئيل النوعين هذين من الختارة العينات خصت و ُ التااثل من نطاق (irq.zah2 pp528819.1)لعزلة its-rrna لتسلسل كان الجزيئية. بيانات قاعدة في التوفر m. franseni لـ itsrrna سسلسل مع (%100-% 98.62 ) التسلسلي مع (%100) سسلسلي تااثل (irq.zah5 pp535537) لعزلة its-rrna لتسلسل كان بيناا .ncbi عزلة m. franseni بياناتncbi.عزلتي قاعدة في التوفر p. goodeyi لــ its-rrna سسلسل موثق مثال أول هاا (irq.zah5 pp535537) عزلة p. goodeyi و (irq.zah2 pp528819.1) العراق. في النوعين لهذين bull 455 phi truong thanh bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2019) 15 (4): 455-471 analytical results of the stability of some limestone islands in ha long bay, quang ninh province of vietnam, a world natural heritage phi truong thanh hanoi university of natural resources and environment, vietnam corresponding author: thanhgislab@gmail.com received date: 04 september 2019, accepted date: 17 november 2019, published date: 26 december 2019 abstract the analytical results of the failure types of six limestone islands in the ha long bay of vietnam have been identified. the calculated results of safety factor for 03 plane failure blocks lie within 0.9 and 2, have high potential failure. the analytical results have been also simulated these islands in three-dimensional space and have been also analyzed their potential failure on the fracture surfaces. the results obtained in this paper have important significance for planning and development of the ha long bay area, as world natural heritage, quang ninh province of vietnam. keywords: ha long bay, limestone, plane failure, stability, vietnam. introduction the ha long bay belongs to the west coast of tonkin gulf, northeast area of vietnam, including the islands of ha long city and cam pha city of quang ninh province (maps 1, 2). the ha long bay is limited within the area of about 1,553 km2, including 1969 islands. most of them are limestone islands of carbon-pecmi age of bac son formation. based on the aesthetic value of geology geomorphology that given by nature, the ha long bay has become a famous spot of vietnam with two times recognized as a world natural heritage by unesco in the years 1994 and 2000. therefore, this area has also become a place have a great potential of tourism with the million people visited the bay each year (long, 2012). https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2019.15.4.0455 456 analytical results of the stability of some limestone map (1): location map of survey sites in the ha long bay. however, in the year 2016, due to the impact of failure has led to the disappearance of the head of the thien nga island (pl. 1b), affecting the sustainable development of the heritage area. plate (1): the head of thien nga island (hl-06) was cut due to the plane failure (a and b). the studies on ha long bay have been carried out for many years of the last century and focused mainly on the landscape, geology and geomorphology (lam and boyd, 2002; thanh and tony, 2001; thanh et al., 2004; thanh, 2008; thanh, 2012) and the environment for tourism development (anh, 2015). however, studies of landslide in this area have just only been carried out in recent years. typically, a provincial-level scientific and technological research project with the topic: "research on geological processes, modern geodynamics for observation of changes in caves and islands in ha long bay" was performed by van (2012). the results of this study have clearly analyzed and assessed the possible risk of rock slide on limestone islands to support for planning, conservation and hazard mitigation. recently, thanh et al. (2017) has used the hoek and bray (2004)’s application to identify the failure types that can occur on limestone blocks of carbon-pecmi age in the north area of ha long bay and has been indicated that this place can mainly occur plane failure. 457 phi truong thanh in order to enrich the database, the author collects field data of failure on the limestone islands, was collected and analyses for the potential failure types of the limestone islands which are the symbol of ha long bay and simulate them in 3d space to support for the conservation and development. materials and methods materials the field survey is conducted by measuring the fracture orientation and describing the characteristics of fault, fracture and size of failure block, the image of each survey location of failure block is also recorded as a basis for drawing the failure blocks in detail. the coordinates of survey locations and information on the fracture at each survey location are summarized in table (1). table (1): the information of survey locations. survey location index longitude (degree) latitude (degree) fracture orientation description hl-01 107004’50.0’’ 20056’46.3’’ 0200/600 bai tho island hl-02 107006’14.6’’ 20055’22.7’’ 1700/500; 2500/400; 2300/700. hl-03 1070 01’14.5” 20053’35.6” 2000/400; 1950/600; 0850/900; 1300/700. dinh huong island hl-04 1070 01’33.0” 20053’28.5” 0600/300; 1850/300; 1750/450; 0560/820; 2000/450. ga choi island hl-05 107° 07' 04.32" 20° 46' 46.20" 2050/400 but island hl-06 107° 17' 14.39" 20° 54' 19.59" 2300/350; 0750/700; 2350/300; 2300/400. thien nga (swan) island methods the method for failure analyses: wedge failure, toppling failure and circular failure is carried out according to hoek and bray (2004)’s application, based on the fracture orientation in three-dimensional space. the analytical results will be identified the types: plane failure, wedge failure, toppling failure and geometries of the rock slope failure as shown in the diagrams (1, 2). 458 analytical results of the stability of some limestone diagram (1): pattern of failure on the slope surface (hoek and bray, 2004); (a) plane failure, the fracture orientation is sub-parallel to slope surface, (b) wedge failure, which slide on the intersection of two fracture surfaces, (c) the circular failure in the weak rock, with the random fracture orientation, (d) toppling failure occurs in hard rock that have the fracture surface which is inclined to slope surface. diagram (2): (a) plane failure, (b) wedge failure, (c) toppling failure (according to hoek and bray (2004)). the diagrams (1, 2) have been used by thanh et al. (2018). to calculate the safety factor for each fracture surface, the equation (1) is used. according to hoek and bray (2004), the safety factor fs is calculated following the parameters: u, v and w from equations 2-5 and from figures on the diagrams (3). 459 phi truong thanh diagram (3): geometries of plane slope failure; (a) tension crack in the upper slope, (b) tension crack in the face (hoek and bray, 2004). (1) where c is the cohesion and a is the area of the sliding plane. a=(h+btan -z)cosec the slope height is h, the tension crack depth is z and it is located a distance behind the slope crest. the dip of the slope above the crest is ψs. when the depth of the water in the tension crack is zw, the water forces acting on the sliding plane u and in the tension crack v are given by: u= (2) v= (3) where γw is the unit weight of water. for the tension crack in the inclined upper slope surface (pl.3a), (4) and, for the tension crack in the slope face (pl.3b). 460 analytical results of the stability of some limestone (5) where γr is the unit weight of the rock. besides, the author also uses the softwares: corel draw 12 and photoshop cs3 to model limestone islands in 3d space. results identification of failure block survey location hl-01 (bai tho island): the survey location is ash-gray limestone block, this limestone block has many large fractures with orientation 0200/600, parallel to each other and divided into layers with the thickness varies in the range of 3-8m (pl.2a). the analytical results according to hoek and bray (2004)’s application have determined, it is possible to occur plane failure on the fracture orientation 0200/600 and slope orientation 3000/750 (pl.2b). plate (2): (a) photo of survey location hl-01, (b) plane failure can occur on the fracture orientation 0200/600 and slope orientation 3000/750. the model of plane failure of the survey location hl-01 is plotted in the figure (1). figure (1): 3d model of limestone block and its potential failure at survey location hl-01. survey location hl-02: the survey location is a limestone island. it has white-gray color and block structure. the fracture orientations are 1700/500, 2500/400, 0600/550, 2300/750 (pl.3a). the analytical results according to hoek and bray (2004)’s application have determined, it is possible to occur plane failure on the fracture orientation 2500/400 and slope orientation 2300/85-900 (pl.3b). 461 phi truong thanh plate (3): (a) photo of survey location hl-02, (b) plane failure can occur on the fracture orientation 2500/400 and slope orientation of 2300/85-900. the model of plane failure of the survey location hl-02 is plotted in figure (2). figure (2): 3d model of limestone block and potential failure at survey location hl-02. survey location hl-03 (dinh huong island): dinh huong island has a block structure, which is divided into layers by different fracture systems (pl.4a). the analytical results according to hoek and bray (2004)’s application have determined, it is possible to occur plane failure on the fracture orientations: 1950/600, 2000/400 and slope orientation 2050/85-900 (pl.4b). 462 analytical results of the stability of some limestone plate (4): (a) photo of survey location hl-03, (b) plane failure can occur on the fracture orientations: 1950/600, 2000/400 and slope orientation 2050/85-900. the model of plane failure of the survey location hl-03 is plotted in the figure (3). figure (3): 3d model of limestone block and potential failure at survey location hl-03. survey location hl-04 (ga choi island): the ga choi island is composed of limestone, thick layered of bac son formation (pl.5a). the fracture orientations: 1750/450, 1850/300 and 2000/450 can occur plane failure in the direction of slope 1900 and fracture orientations: 0600/500 và 0650/820 can occur plane failure on the slope orientation 0600/85-900, (pl.5b). plate (5): (a) photo of survey location hl-04, (b) plane failure can occur on the fracture orientations: 1750/450, 1850/300 and 2000/450 and slope orientation 1900/85-900. 463 phi truong thanh the model of plane failure of the survey location hl-04 is plotted in the figure (4). figure (4): 3d model of limestone block and potential failure at survey location hl-04. survey location hl-05 (but island): the survey location is a small island, about 44.2m high and has a pen-shaped cylinder (pl.6a). tthe limestone is solid, block structure; the fracture develops in the nw se direction with sparse density. the analytical results according to hoek and bray (2004)’s application have determined, it is possible to occur plane failure on the fracture orientation 2050/40○ and slope orientation 2000/85-900 (pl. 6b). plate (6): (a) photo of survey location hl-05, (b) plane failure can occur on the fracture orientation 2050/400 and slope orientation 2000/85-900. the model of plane failure of the survey location hl-05 is plotted in the figure (5). figure (5): 3d model of limestone block and potential failure at survey location hl-05 464 analytical results of the stability of some limestone survey location hl-06 (thien nga island): the thien nga island consists of two small blocks, composed of limestone with thin layers, rich silic, belonging to cat ba formation (pls.7a, 8a). the analytical results according to hoek and bray (2004)’s application have determined, it is possible to occur plane failure on the fracture orientations: 2300/400 and 0750/70○and slope orientations: 2300/85-900 and 0700/85900 (pls. 7b, 8b). plate (7): (a) photo of survey location hl-06, (a) plane failure can occur on the fracture orientation 0750/70○ and slope orientation 2300/85-900. the model of plane failure of the survey location hl-06 is plotted in the figure (6). figure (6): 3d model of limestone block and potential failure at survey location hl-06. 465 phi truong thanh (a) (b) plate (8): a head of thien nga island (a) is cut by plane failure of fracture orientation 2350/400 (b). safety factor the safety factor calculation for some limestone islands which are the symbol of ha long bay are carried out following the formulas (1-5). the calculated results and their models are shown in detail in the plates (9-11). the first block of dinh huong island at survey location hl-03: plate (9): model of plane failure block of the fracture orientation 2000/400 of dinh huong island at survey location hl-03 in the case of it has tension crack. the calculated results of input parameters: slope angle = 85 degrees; slope height = 8.3 m; unit weight = 2.67 t/m3; failure plane = 40 degrees; tension crack = 87 degrees; upper face = 13 degrees; friction angle = 35 degrees; cohesion = 4.2 t/m2 have determined the safety factor to be 1.31. 466 analytical results of the stability of some limestone the second block of dinh huong island at survey location hl-03: plate (10): model of plane failure block of the fracture orientation 1950/500 of dinh huong island at survey location hl-03 in the case of it has not tension crack. the calculated results of input parameters: slope angle = 82 degrees; slope height = 15.9 m; unit weight = 2.67 t/m3; failure plane = 50 degrees; upper face = 22 degrees; friction angle = 35 degrees; cohesion = 4.2 t/m2 have determined the safety factor to be 0.91. the third block of thien nga (swan) island at survey location hl-06: plate (11): model of plane failure block of the fracture orientation 2300/350 of thien nga (swan) island. the calculated results of input parameters: slope angle = 86 degrees; slope height = 7.75 m; failure plane = 40 degrees; upper face = 25 degrees; friction angle = 35 degrees; cohesion = 4.2 t/m2 have determined the safety factor to be 1.80. the obtained results from 03 models (pls. 9-11) indicate that the safety factors of plane failure blocks of the limestone islands of ha long bay vary within 0.9 and 2, in the range of the high failure potential. these results have important significance for planning and conserving the ha long bay area, as a world natural heritage, at quang ninh province of vietnam. discussion the ha long bay is located in the northeast part of vietnam, dominated by two main tectonic forces due to the movement of the india-australian plate to the north and the pacific plate to the west, formed the compressive and extensive area (phach et al., 1996). some the other study results have suggested that the northeast region of vietnam, including ha long bay occurred two major phases of tectonic activity in the cenozoic period (yem, 1991; phach et al., 1996). the first phase was determined to be the compressive stress state in the direction 467 phi truong thanh e-w, occurred from eocene to late miocene period and the second phase was determined to be the compressive stress state in the direction n-s, occurred during the pliocene-quaternary period (chinh, 2002). the first tectonic activity phase has caused the left lateral strike-slip motion of the nw-se fault system and the second phase has caused the right lateral strikeslip motion of this fault system. in particular, the red river fault system and cao bang tien yen fault zone are two large fault zones, clearly reflected the stress state of both phases (map2). the left lateral strike-slip motion of the red river fault system was suggested that it was the results of the india-eurasia plate collision (map.2) (tapponnier et al., 1986) and it occurred during within 30 to 5.5 ma, corresponding to the oligocene-miocene period, from analytical results of the seismic data (rangin et al., 1995). the other analytical result of seismic profiles in the north area of the red river sedimentary basin also identified one phase of left lateral strike-slip motion which occurred about before 21 ma within the lo river and chay river fault zone, belong to the red river fault system (vu, 2003). map (2): extrusion tectonics and formation of southeast asian region (modified from tapponnier et al. (1982)). due to the impact of regional tectonic activities, the limestone islands in ha long bay area were heavily broken, formed fracture systems, developed in the several different directions. most of the fracture orientations at the survey locations measured have the dip angle vary from 20 to 80 degrees and mainly concentrated within 40 60 degrees. the analytical results of rock slope stability according to hoek and bray (2004)’s application have determined that most of the fracture orientation obtained and slope direction of limestone islands can form blocks which can occur plane failure. besides, the limestone islands in the ha long bay have also affected by ocean waves and chemical corrosion (pl.12). 468 analytical results of the stability of some limestone plate (12): (a) foot of a stone tower, (b) ga choi island is gnawed by ocean waves and chemical corrosion. the analytical results of this study have important significance for the planning and maintaining the stability of limestone islands in ha long bay area. conclusions the analytical results of the failure types on 06 limestone islands in the ha long bay have identified, all these limestone islands can occur plane failure on the fracture surfaces. the calculated results of safety factor for 03 plane failure blocks lie within 0.9 and 2, have high potential failure. at the same time, the analytical results have also been simulated these islands in three-dimensional space and have been analyzed their potential failure on the fracture surfaces. especially, the study has been shown the fracture orientation 2350/400 has cut the head of thien nga island by plane failure. the obtained results as have important significance for planning and development of the ha long bay area, a world natural heritage, at quang ninh province of vietnam. acknowledgements this paper is supported by the project: “research, assess the stability of the cave floor system on ha long bay to support the management, and promote cave values for tourism development”. literature cited anh, l. t. 2015. analyze the current state of water quality in ha long bay, quang ninh province, vietnam", published by iucn, gland, switzerland in collaboration with iucn vietnam., "researching to determine the extremely sensitive marine area of ha long cat ba. vietnam maritime administration, ministry of transport, 39 pp. chinh, v. v. 2002. neotectonic development phases and mechanism of the cao bang-tien yen fault. vietnam journal of earth sciences, 3 (22): 181-187. 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(2019) 15 (4): 455-471 نتائج فحوصات الاستقرارية لبعض جزر الجيرية في خليج هالونك منطقة كوانك كجزء من التراث الطبيعي العاملي -فيتنام , نين فاي ترونك ثان .فيتنام, جامعة هانوي للبيئة واملصادر الطبيعية 92/09/9400: تأريخ النشر ,01/00/9400: , تأريخ القبول 40/40/9400: تأريخ الاستالم الخالصة تم تحديد نتائج الاستقرارية لستة انواع لفحوصات التكسرات لجزر الصخور اظهرت حسابات عامل الامان ملستوى . الجيرية في خليج هالونك منطقة كوانك نين تم لقد, 2.0-0.9بأنه يقع ضمن نطاق مستوى التكسر العالي بين 03التكسر للبلوك تمثيل النتائج لهذه الجزر في موديل ذو ثالثة ابعاد وتعين مستوى التكسر الكامن ضمن .سطوح التكسر ئج البحث اهمية كبيرة في التخطيط لتطوير خليج هالونك كجزء من لقد اظهرت نتا .التراث الطبيعي العالمي ملنطقة كوانك نين في فيتنام bull 83 mohammed and ali bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2020) 16 (1): 8393. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2020.16.1.0083 new record of pleurobrachia pileus (o. f. müller, 1776) (ctenophora, cydippida) from coral reef, iraqi marine waters hanaa hussein mohammed* and malik hassan ali** *department biological development of shatt al-arab and n w arabian gulf, marine science center, university of basrah, basrah, iraq **department marine biology, marine science center, university of basrah, basrah, iraq **corresponding author: malikh.ali1954@gmail.com received date: 16 january 2020, accepted date: 27april 2020, published date: 24 june 2020 abstract the aim of this paper is to present the first record of ctenophore species pleurobrachia pileus (o. f. müller, 1776) in the coral reef as was recently found in iraqi marine waters. the specimens were collected from two sites, the first was in khor abdullah during may 2015, and the second site was located in the pelagic water of the coral reef area, near the al-basrah deep sea crude oil marine loading terminal. three samples were collected at this site during may 2015, february and march 2018 which showed that p. pileus were present at a densities of 3.0, 2.2 and 0.55 ind./ m3 respectively. the species can affect on the abundance of other zooplankton community through predation. the results of examining the stomach contents revealed that they are important zooplanktivorous species; their diets comprised large number of zooplankton as well as egg and fish larvae. the calanoid copepods formed the highest percentage of the diet, reaching 47%, followed by cyclopoid copepods 30%, and then the fish larvae formed 20% of the diet. the current investigation showed that the density of zooplankton decreased significantly in the second site of all the groups, but the highest was in calanoida group (324 ind./ m3) coincident with the presence of noticeable numbers of p. pileus (0.55-3.0 ind./ m3), in the same site compared to the density of calanoida in the first site, which amounted to 991ind./ m3; as well, the increase was noticeable in relation to the rest of the other groups of zooplankton during the same period; such a state confirms the effect of predation by p. pileus on the zooplankton community. the study recommended that more attention should be given to investigate this group of zooplankton, and specific care should be exerted in preserving the specimens collected from the sea. 84 new record of pleurobrachia pileus keywords: carnivorous, coral reef, ctenophora, pleurobrachia pileus, predation. introduction scientific reports have indicated the increase of the abundances and the instances blooms of the planktonic ctenophores and the hydromedusae in the marine ecosystems, especially in the enclosed seas and the semi-enclosed seas (baltic sea, gulf of mexico and mediterranean sea) (xian et al., 2005; lynam et al., 2006; ford and link, 2014; dehghan et al., 2017). the expanding of this macrozooplankton is attributed to the combined impacts of many factors mainly, the climate change, eutrophication and overfishing (fraser, 1970; ford and link, 2014). on the other hand, their role in the food regime of the marine coastal waters became more understandable and noticeable throughout the results of many studies focusing on their role in the food chains (preys and predators) in the marine ecosystems (lynam et al., 2006; pitt et al., 2008; dehghan et al., 2017). it has become well known that there are high rates of predation by these animals on a wide variety of other zooplankton, the calanoid copepods, fish eggs and fish larvae (purcell and arai 2001; riisgard et al., 2015; dehghan et al., 2017). therefore, in some instances of their blooms, they caused a high decline of fish stocks. also, these comb jelly fish are made a preferred prey to many known predators such as other ctenophora, fishes (particularly some commercial species such as sunfish and shads), whales and turtles (purcell and arai, 2001; duryanabard, 2004; pitt et al., 2008). the atlantic ocean is a marine home of hydromedusae and ctenophora communities where more than 197 species were recorded, and the comb-jelly p. pileusis a well-known carnivorous medozoid species in the north-east and the north-west atlantic as well as in the black sea (kramp, 1959; mutlu et al., 1994; bouillon, 1999; gusmão et al., 2015). although, p. pileus was recorded in the iranian and the kuwait's marine waters of the arabian gulf (alyamani et al., 2011; dehghan et al., 2017), actually neither this species nor the other combjellies were recorded before in the iraqi coastal waters, despite many studies on the zooplankton carried out in the area (salman et al., 1985; al-zubaidi, 1998; salman et al., 2012). the aim of this study is to present the first record of this species in the unique coral reef (palinurus rock) which was recently discovered in 2012 in the iraqi coastal waters (pohl et al., 2014; ahmed and ali, 2017; ali et al., 2017; gutekunst et al., 2018) and also lay light on its role in the ecosystem. materials and methods plankton specimens were taken from two sites in the marine coastal waters of iraq, khour abdullah (30◦ 0600 n, 47◦ 91' 00e) in may 2015, and the coral reef area (29◦ 37ʻ 00 n, 48◦ 48ʻ 00 e) may 2015, february 2018 and in march 2018 (map1). specimens were collected by net of 58 cm aperture and 120 micron mesh size. the net was towed off by the research vessel of the marine science center/ university of basrah, at a constant speed (3 knots) for 15 min., and accordingly, the total filtered sea water volume calculated was 367 m3in each case. 85 mohammed and ali specimens were preserved in 85% ethanol; the zooplankton samples were diluted to 1 liter volume, and 3 replicates subsamples of 10 ml each were examined by a wild stereo dissecting microscope (m30, heerdruoo switzerland), counted for density estimates, and the length measurements were done with the aid of an ocular micrometer. forty specimens were dissected under the dissecting microscope using a fine needle to search for food preys in the stomachs of the present species (purcell, 2003). map (1): the study area of pleurobrachia pileus in basrah, iraq, north-west arabian gulf. (source: work by arc gis.10.4.1, the american landsat 8 pandats. marine science center/marine physics dept.) identification of p. pileus and the other zooplankton species were done on the basis of their morphological characteristics using taxonomic keys available in the local and regional publications (al-yamaniand prusova, 2003; al-yamani et al., 2011). 86 new record of pleurobrachia pileus the examined materials of p. pileus were conserved in alcohol and placed in the marine collection at the ocean genome legacy aquatic museum laboratory at the marine science center/ university of basrah. results and discussion plate (1) shows a photograph of p.pileus collected from the iraqi coastal waters, at st.2 of the coral reef area (palinurus rock), and systematically identified according to the following references: dehghan et al.(2017) and al-yamani et al. (2011). taxonomic hierarchy follows world register of marine species (worms): phylum: ctenophora eschscholtz, 1829 class: tentaculata eschscholtz, 1825 order: cydippida family: pleurobrachiidae chun, 1880 genus: pleurobrachia flemming, 1822 p. pileus (o.f. müller, 1776) diagnostic characters of p. pileus a small species (25 mm in length), oval to spherical shape comb jelly, the tentacles are up to twenty times the length of the body and fringed with filaments along one edge. body bears four pairs of longitudinal rows of cilia known as combs extending about 3/4 the length of the animal between mouth and aboral ends; body transparent and the combs rows are milky white, tentacles, sheaths and pharynx are organ incolour. plate (1): the photograph of p. pileusfrom the iraqi coastal waters. 87 mohammed and ali the species p. brachi is of a similar shape species but can be distinguished from p. pileus by have elliptical body, and the comb rows (ctense) extend nearly the entire length of the body, and their tentacles are much shorter. the results of the zooplankton counting show that in the coral coastal waters (site 2), p. pileus numbers were 3.0, 2.2 and 0.55 (ind./m3) at the sampling periods may 2015, february 2018 and march 2018 respectively, the mean density 1.91 ind./m3. in site 2, only few specimens of comb jelly were in good status, others were damaged, therefore no counting was done; however, their number was few. table (1): numbers of total zooplankton (individual/ m3) in the two sampled sites of the iraqi marine coastal waters. site 2 site 1 groups no. 0.55-0.3 uncounted pleurobrachia pileus 1 324 991 calanoida 2 196 468 cyclopoida 3 87 193 postlarvae of shrimp 4 74 89 zoea of crabs 5 29 68 larvae of fishes 6 the examination of the stomach contents of 40 individuals of p. pileus revealed that 47% of their preys were calanoid copepods, 30% cyclopoid copepods and 20% were larvae of fishes (diag. 1). diagram (1): the percentages (%) of food components in p. pileus stomachs of 40 individuals collected from the iraqi coastal waters in 2017. 88 new record of pleurobrachia pileus actually, the prey assemblages found in the stomachs of p. pileus reflects their ambient habitat in the studied area as given in table (1); similar results were found in other regions (bamstedt, 1998; mazlum et al., 2018; riisgard et al., 2015). nevertheless, the composition of zooplankton, in general, is similar to those of other studies carried out in the coastal waters of iraq (salman et al., 1985; al-zubaidi, 1998; morad, 2011) in which the concern focused on the copepods as the dominant group of zooplankton assemblage. on the other hand, many other researches revealed that the list of preys of p. pileus as well as some other hydromedusae consists of a large number of zooplankton species; eggs and larvae of fishes and other invertebrates (fraser, 1970; frank, 1986; van der veer and sadée, 1984). there is no specific study on the abundance of p. pileus in the arabian gulf; dehghan et al. (2017) reported that 29 species of jellyfish and combjelly comprised less than 0.2% of the plankton in the north arabian gulf, and pleurobranchia density was 6.9 ind./ m3 which may comprise 4 species. this value is more or less comparable to the density (0.5-3.0 ind./ m3) of the present study. by reviewing the previous studies concerning the zooplankton of the iraqi coastal waters (salman et al., 1985; al-zubaidi, 1998; salman et al., 2012), no records whatsoever, were found for this species or any other species of comb-jellies. this may be attributed to the difficulties in preserving these soft jellies as had been mentioned by other reports (ringvold et al., 2015), and by our personal observations on the samples collected in 2015 (khour abdullah site). the samples taken from this site were not examined directly, but were left for several months from the time of collection; therefore, the comb-jelly specimens were mostly damaged due to their soft bodies, and hence they were hard to be counted (tab. 1). however, some specimens were good enough to be recognized; 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(available at: https://doi.org/10.1038/srep04250) pitt, k. a., clement, a. l. and connoly, r. m. 2008. predation by jellyfish on large andemergent zooplankton implications for benthic coupling. estuarine coastal and shelf science, 76(4): 827-833. purcell, j. e. 2003. predation of zooplanktoin by large jellyfish, aurelia labiata, cyaneacapillata and aequorea aequorea, in prince willian sound, alaska. marine ecology progress sereries, 246: 137-152. 91 mohammed and ali purcell, j. e. and arai, m .n. 2001. interactions of pelagic cnidarians and ctenophores with fish: a review, hydrobiologia, 451 (1-3): 27-44. riisgard, h. u., goldstein, j., lundgreen, k. and lüskow, f. 2015. jellyfish and ctenophoresin the environmentally degraded limfjorden (denmark) during 2014 speciescomposition, population densities and predation impact. fisheries and aquaculture journal, 6: 137. ringvold, h., shinganova, t., knott, k and galil, b.2015. first record of berogracilis künne, 1939 (ctenophora: beroida: beroidae) from norway, found in mnemiopsis ledyi a. agassiz, 1865 bloom. marine biodiversity records, 8: 1-5. salman, s. d., marina, b. a., ali, m. h. and oshana, v. k. 1986. zooplankton studies. in : final report the 18. month marina pollution monitoring and research programming in iraq. marine science centre of basrah university, basrah, p156-166. salman, s. d., ali, m. h., mohammad, h. h. and abaas, m. f. 2012. final report zooplankton in southern iraq. marine science center 24. van der veer, h. w. and sadée, c. f. m. 1984. seasonal occurrence of the ctenophore pleurobrachi apileus in the western dutch wadden sea. marine biology, 79(3): 219227. xian, w., kang, b. and liu, r. 2005. jellyfish blooms in the yangtze. estuary science, 307(5706): 14-41. 92 new record of pleurobrachia pileus bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2020) 16 (1): 83-93. تسجيل جديد للنوع المشطي pleurobrachia pileus (o. f. müller, 1776) (ctenophora, cydippida) من منطقة وجود المرجان في المياه البحرية العراقية هناء حسين محمد* و مالك حسن علي** مركز ،العربي شمال غرب الخليج و * قسم التطور االحيائي في شط العرب العراق ،البصرةامعة البصرة ، علوم البحار، ج العراق،البصرة ،جامعة البصرة ،مركز علوم البحارقسم االحياء البحرية، ** 24/06/2020، تأريخ النشر: 27/04/2020، تأريخ القبول: 16/01/2020تأريخ االستالم: الخالصة .pleurobrachia pileus (o. fالمشطي ل النوع ج هذه الدراسة س خالل müller, 1776) شعبة منctenophora رتبةcydippida الول مرة في ثر عليها في منطقة الشعاب المرجانية التي ع المياه البحرية العراقية وتحديدا حديثا في المياه االقليمية العراقية. ولى كانت في خور عبد هللا خالل شهر آيار جمعت النماذج من محطتين، األ حطة الثانية فكانت في منطقة وجود المرجان قرب الميناء العميق ، اما الم2015 التي اظهرت وجود 2018وآذار 2018و شباط 2015خالل االشهر آيار يؤثر النوع . 3.فرد/ م0.55و 2.2، 3.0 بكثافات pileus. pالنوع المشطي وقد ؛على مجتمع الهائمات الحيوانية بشكل كبير من خالل عملية االفتراس بينت نتائج فحص محتويات المعدة، ان الفرائس تشتمل على عدد كبير من الهائمات الحيوانية والبيض ويرقات االسماك، وقد شكلت مجموعة الكالنويدا % ثم يرقات 30% تلتها مجموعة دائرية االقدام بنسبة 47اعلى نسبة اذ بلغت %. 20ا االسماك حيث بلغت نسبته ة الهائمات الحيوانية تناقصت بشكل ملحوظ في اظهرت الدراسة ان كثاف المحطة الثانية لكل المجاميع الهائمة لكن بدرجة كبيرة مجموعة الكلنويدا المحطة نفسها خاصة في( مع وجود أعداد ملحوظة لهذا النوع 3فرد/م 324) 93 mohammed and ali 991مقارنة بكثافة الكلنويدا في المحطة االولى والتي بلغت 2018خالل آذار وكذلك الزيادة كانت ملحوظة فيما يتعلق ببقية المجاميع االخرى من 3مفرد/ الهائمات الحيوانية خالل الفترة نفسها، مايؤكد تاثير االفتراس من قبل النوع المشطي على مجتمع الهائمات الحيوانية. خلصت الدراسة الى ان اهتماما أكبر يجب ان يعطى لدراسة هذه المجموعة العناية بشكل ادق لحفظ العينات المجموعة من البحر.من الهائمات و 37 mohammad, et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2013)12 (3): 37-41 the first record of the thick-billed lark rhamphocoris clotbey (bonaparte, 1850) for iraq mohammad k. mohammad* hayder m. al-rammahi** saman r. lahony* *iraq natural history museum, university of baghdad, bab al-muadham, baghdad, iraq **green university of al-qassim, babylon province, iraq corresponding author: amarmkm82@yahoo.com abstract a male specimen of the thick-billed lark rhamphocoris clotbey (bonaparte, 1850) was collected in al-najaf desert, south desert district of iraq. measurements of the specimen and some notes on the habitat were provided. this report constitutes the first record of this avian species in iraq. introduction the site where the specimen collected from, near husub dam in al-najaf desert lies within arabian desert and east sahero-arabian xeric shrublands (pa1303) ecoregion with 125 mm of annual precipitation with occasional oases and the daily temperature vary considerably reaching over 45ºc or higher in july and august and dropping to the teens in january and february (anonymous, 2010). the surface is covered with sierozem (grey desert) soils that have less than 1% organic matter of their contents (guest and al-rawi, 1966) supporting growth of only some scattered adapted plants like lycium shawii, capparis spinosa and citrullus colocynthis that providing shelter for desert fauna during day time. thick-billed lark rhamphocoris clotbey (bonaparte, 1850) is a large, nomadic lark and unique heavy bill (perlman and kiat, 2011). this monotypic species occurs over the countries algeria, egypt, israel, jordan, kuwait, libya, mauritania, morocco, saudi arabia and tunisia as a resident bird, while it is reported as vagrant in oman, syrian arab republic and yemen (iucn, 2012). the bird is said to be frequent to sparse in its native habitats in africa (keith et al., 1992). methods the bird was collected by dr. h. m. al-rammahi during a several days duration monitoring trip in al-najaf desert, husub dam site ( n 31˚ 36 ' 50 ", e 43˚ 56' 10") during the period between 30 march-5 april. due to the lack of suitable preservation facility in the field, the researcher injected the bird with formalin. the specimen was dried and hardened. although it is not in a very good condition, but the main characters of identification importance are visible and clear such as the massive bill and the white patches on the dark face. the other parts of the body are in a rather good condition like wings, tail, and back. mailto:amarmkm82@yahoo.com 38 the first record of the thick-billed lark results and discussion ramphocoris clotbey (bonaparte, 1850). the specimen is deposited in the bird collection of iraq natural history museum under the registration number: 2013-3419-z7, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq. measurements (in mm): total length 174, bill 17.4, wing 126.4, tarsus 22, tail 61. sex: male (fig. 1). the key identification character is the massive bill (fig. 2). the key identification character for this bird is that the bill with contra-curved mandible resulting in a small aperture which is visible when the bill is closed (fig. 2) (dean et al. 1992). the taxa of the avian family alaudidae encounter 13, yet, this bird species was not mentioned by the main references as an iraqi bird species. the bird is known from the neighboring countries around iraq including syria, jordan, saudi arabia and kuwait (iucn, 2012). these countries provide natural extension of the subtropical dry shrubland habitats and hot deserts which constitute the natural habitat of the bird. this report is the first record for this bird in iraq. in view of little information available on this bird, its status is not clear and needs further observations. however, spencer et al. (2007) found it breeding in kuwait which is not very far from our collection site area. along with its being the first for iraq, the record of this bird shade light on two key factors: first, this observation might represent the further northeastern distribution of this bird in its global distribution (fig.3); second, the elevation of the place where the specimen collected from was (140m asl.), and this might represent the patch (elevation wise) in this bird’s know range, along the extension southward to kuwait. acknowledgements the authors would like to express their gratitude and deep thanks to mr. kasim m. alkhafaji the head and mr. dhergham h. al-abidi, collector, al-rafidain association for hunting and environmental protection, al-najaf city, al-najaf province for their generous help in providing facilities and support to the researchers. literature cited allouse, b. e. 1962 birds of iraq. vol. 3. ar-rabitta press, baghdad, 280 pp. ( in arabic ) anonymous (2010) iraqi fourth national report to the convention on biological diversity. ministry of environment, republic of iraq, 282 pp. dean, w.r.l. 2004 nomadic desert birds. springer – verlag, berlin. guest, e. and al-rawi, a. 1966 flora of iraq. vol. 1: introduction. ministry of agriculture. university press, glasgow, 213 pp. iucn. 2012. iucn red list of threatened species (ver. 2012.1). available at:http://www.iucnredlist.org. keith, s.; urban, e. k.; fry, c. h. 1992. the birds of africa vol. iv. academic press, london. mahdi, n. and george, p. v. 1969 a systematic list of the vertebrates of iraq. iraq nat. hist. mus. publ., 26: 1-104. http://www.iucnredlist.org 39 mohammad, et al. perlman, y. and kiat, y. 2011 in-hand identification of thick-billed larks (ramphocoris clotbey) in the negev, israel, february 2011, israeli ornithological center, society for the protection of nature in israel. salim, m.a, porter, r.f. christensen, s. schiermacker-hansen, p. and al-jbour, s. 2006 field guide to the birds of iraq. amman: nature iraq & birdlife international. (in arabic). spencer, s.t., pilcher, c. and cowan, p. j. 2007 the first breeding record of thick-billed lark ramphocoris clotbey in kuwait and concomitant behavioural observations. sandgrouse, 29(2): 205-208. fig.1: male of thick-billed lark from al-najaf desert. 40 the first record of the thick-billed lark fig. 2: head of thick-billed lark showing the massive bill. fig.3: the known distribution of the thick-billed lark rhamphocoris clotbey (bonaparte, 1850) (the source of this map is: birds of western palearctic. ver 2.0.1. 2003-2006 bird guides limiter. electronic copy). 41 mohammad, et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2013)12 (3): 37-41 rhamphocoris clotbey (bonaparte, 1850)أول تسجیل للقنبرة سمیكة المنقار في العراق *وسامان روستم أفراسیاب لھوني **الرماحيمحمد و حیدر *محمد كاظم محمد متحف التاریخ الطبیعي، جامعة بغداد، باب المعظم، بغداد، العراق* جامعة القاسم الخضراء، محافظة بابل، العراق** الخالصة في بادیة rhamphocoris clotbeyمن القنبرة سمیكة المنقارتم جمع نموذج ذكر . تم تسجیل القیاسات وبعض المالحظات عن بیئة المنطقة. النجف، صحراء العراق الجنوبیة .ھذا البحث التسجیل األول لھذا النوع من الطیور في العراقیعتبر view publication stats https://www.researchgate.net/publication/261635035 bull 153 altaf al-rawi et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. december, (2018) 15 (2): 153-161 a new record of coelastrella terrestris (reisigl) hegewald & n. hanagata, 2002 (sphaeropleales, scenedesmaceae) in iraq altaf al-rawi bushra m. j. alwash nagham e. al-essa and fikrat m. hassan* department of biology, college of science for women, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq *corresponding author: fikrat@csw.uobaghdad.edu.iq received date: 1 june 2018 accepted date: 6 august 2018 abstract this study identified the genus coelastrella chodat, 1922 which was isolated from a sediment sample taken from the tigris river in baghdad governorate, iraq. the alga was isolated and cultured in modified chu 10 media and the morphological features of the isolated algae were observed in light microscopy (lm); it showed some characteristic features of this genus, such as its ellipsoidal or lemonshaped cells, a visible pyrenoid and the chloroplast parietal. to ensure correct identification of the isolated alga, a molecular analysis using 18s rrna gene and dna sequencing revealed a match with c. terrestris (reisigl) hedewald & n. hanagata 2002. this species is a new record in iraq, and has been registered in ncbi under the accession number mh179121. keywords: coelastrella terrestris, iraq, mh179121, ncbi, scenedesmaceae. introduction the classification of algae based on morphological and ultrastructural approaches has been performed for a long time (prescott, 1973, graham and wilcox, 2000, wehr and sheath, 2003) while molecular approach is using the sequences of small and large subunits of ribosomal rna genes. therefore, most of coccoid green algae such as chlorella (beyerinck) have been revised and most of these alga changed into a new genus such as the chlorella fusca var. vacuolata which is basionym of coelastrella vacuolata (hegewald and hanagata, 2002). chodat first described coelastrella in 1922(chodat, 1922); uzunov et al. (2008) explained the historical classification of c. terrestris according to its morphology under a light microscope and scanning electron microscopy. tschaikner et al. (2008) mentioned that the genera scotiellopsis vinatzer or graesiella kalina et punčoch were registered as coelastrella according to the study of hegewald and hanagata (2000, 2002). the basionym of c. terrestris is scotiellaterrestris reisigl, and this algae is within the subfamily scendesmodeae (hegewalid and hanagata, 2002); many studies isolated the c. terrestrial from the surface of the rock (aburai et al., 2013) or from soil in bulgaria (uzunov et al., 2008) and some other coelastrella spp. was isolated from alpine in austria (tschaikner et al., 2007 and 2008). this genus has a distinctive cell wall with ribs, its cell http://dx.doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2018.15.2.0153 154 a new record of coelastrella terrestris form, chloroplast and pyrenoid (tschaikner et al., 2007); uzunov et al. (2008) revealed the difficulty to observe the ribs by light microscope examination, but they can be visible (ribs are about 8-14 in number) when using a scanning electron microscope (sem); many authors revealed the importance of coelastrella spp., because they contain antioxidants and other commercial compounds (vilchez et al., 2011; aburai et al., 2013). the c. terrestrial belongs to coelastroideae (subfamily), scenedsmaceae (family), sphaeropleales (order) and chlorophyceae (class) (guiry, 2018). many authors in iraq investigated aquatic algae, including phytoplankton, benthic algae and macroalgae (maulood et al., 2013); a few of them studied soil algae collected from the rice-fields in iraq (al-kaisi, 1976; al mousawi and whitton, 1983), but there are few studies up to date on terrestrial algae. maulood et al. (2013) listed 788 taxa of chlorophyceae in iraq, but without mentioning the genus coelastrella chodat; only one recent study reported coelastrella as isolated from tigris river by using 18s rrna, but the study did not classify its species (abed et al., 2018). this study aimed to confirm the identification of the species of coelastrella by using molecular analysis and it is an attempt to revise the classification of iraqi algal flora by this technique. materials and methods the algae sampling and culture condition: the algae was collected from sediments on the bank of the tigris river during autumn 2017; the sediment sample was collected at a depth of 2-3 cm with an area of 50 m2 below the sediment surface by spatula and kept in a nylon sac with some river water (hassan et al., 2017). a liquid solution was prepared from the sediment sample by mixing 1 part of sediment with 2 parts of distilled water. the alga was inoculated into modified chu-10 nutrient solution (tab. 1), following the steps described by hassan et al. (2013). these cultures were incubated in a cooled illuminated incubator with 30 ±3˚c, 300µe/m2/s and 16:8 light: dark for 20 days in the advance algal laboratory of the department of biology, college of science for women at the university of baghdad. microscopic examination was done by genex compound microscope model gx140105. 155 altaf al-rawi et al. table (1): modified chu 10 medium composition (followed hassan et al., 2013) identification of samples using molecular method: primer selection : the isolated microalgae was identified by the amplification of conserved 18s rrna encoding gene using its1 and its4 universal primers (vorobyev et al., 2009). a forward primer (5′-tccgtaggtgaacctgcgg-3′) and a reverse primer (5′ tcctccgcttattgatatgc-3′) were used; primers set supplied by idt (integrated dna technologies company, canada). genomic dna extraction: the genomic dna of algae was extracted by using a fast dna intron kit (g-spin total dna extraction) and the isolated dna was subjected to pcr (gene amp, pcr system 9700; applied biosystem) according to manufacturer's instructions. the pcr products were separated by 1% agrose gel electrophoresis and visualized by ultraviolet light (302 nm). polymerase chain reaction (pcr) the pcr amplification reaction was performed in a total volume of 25µl containing 2ng/µl dna, (1 x) taq pcr premix (intron, korea), and 1µm of each primer, and then distilled water was added into tubes. the thermal cycling conditions were performed as follows: denaturation at 94 °c for 3 min, followed by 35 cycles of 94°c for 45s, 52°c for 1 min and 72°c for 1min with final incubation at 72°c for 7 min using a thermal cycler (gene amp, pcr system 9700; applied biosystem). the pcr products were separated by 2% agarose gel electrophoresis and visualized by exposure to ultraviolet light (302nm) after red stain staining (intron korea). number of stock solution chemical formula of each salt concentration g/l 1 mgso4 10 2 k2hpo4 4 3 nano3 8 cacl2 16 4 fe cl3 0.32 5 edta-na2 4 6 nacl 30 7 na2co3 8 8 mncl2.4h2o 0.02 (nh4) 6mo7o24.4h2o 0.028 znso4.7h2o 0.224 cuso4.5h2o 0.08 cocl2.6h2o 0.0004 h3bo3 0.288 9 na2 sio3 5.7 156 a new record of coelastrella terrestris sequencing and data analysis sequencing of 18s rrna gene was performed by the national instrumentation center for environmental management (nicem) online at: http://nicem.snu.ac.kr/main/?en_skin=index.html, using a dna sequencer 3730xl by applied biosystem. a homology search was conducted using basic local alignment search tool (blast) program which is available at the national center biotechnology information (ncbi) online at (http:// www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov) and the bioedit program. an expected value is defined to give an estimate of the number of times expected to get the same similarity coincidental and the lower the value of e. this indicates that the degree of similarity was high between sequences which give greater confidence; a value close to zero means that these sequences are identical and the bit score, which is a statistical measure of the sequence similarity and the higher value indicates a high degree of similarity. the phylogenetic tree of aligned sequences was conducted using mega 6 program. results and discussion the examination of the isolated green algae under the compound microscope appeared as ellipsoidal or lemon-shaped cells; it is a broad ranged, with a width of 7.2 µm to 8.4 µm and length 9.8 µm to 10.8 µm. other morphological features observed a visible pyrenoid and the chloroplast parietal, but the ribs on the cell were not seen in this investigation. also, the autospores of the algae was observed and appeared as clusters of two or four (pl. 1); many authors showed that the ribs of this species were hardly visible under the light microscope, but appeared clearly by using sem (uzunov et al., 2008). prescott (1973) reported that chlorella was confused with other soil algae or subaerial genus due to its cell ellipsoid (7-8µ in diameter and 9.5µ) and produce 4-8 autospores. therefore, it is important to use the molecular analysis for the algal classification to raise the ambiguity of the classification according to the observed morphology. many related genera of the coccid algae has been rearranged according to the use of molecular concept which included the c. terrestris (hanagata, 1998; hegewald and hanagata, 2002). in this study, the lm and molecular approach used to identify the c. terrestris. plate(1): c. terrestris; (a) vegetative cells, (b) autospors (2-4 spores). (scale bars= 10µm) identification of the microalga c. terrestris was confirmed by sequence-based phylogenetic analysis using 18s ribosomal rna gene sequencing; the pcr products obtained were subsequently sequenced to obtain dna sequences, and a 650 base pair product was obtained (pl. 2). the amplicon was aligned using blast at ncbi, the 18s rrna sequence of isolated 157 altaf al-rawi et al. alga showed 95% homology with the existing ncbi database sequence of c. terrestris with accession number jx5513888.1. this isolate was identified as c. terrestris, an 18s rrna encoding genomic sequence was submitted to ncbi and registered under accession number mh179121. a dendogram was used to depict 18s rrna sequence similarity between algal sequence detected in our study and those of related algal organisms at ncbi (dig.1).the nucleotide sequence of the jx513 888.1 of c. terrestris recorded in czech republic (trenkwalder, 1975) was very similar to that of the recorded algae aligned in this study with 95% similarity and also with the other two groups of the same species that recorded in ncbi in russia and japan. scotiellaopsis terrestris and s. oocystiformis were changed to coelastrella according to the study of hegewald and hanagata (2002). their study, based on 18s rna analysis, resolves and corroborates the classification according to morphological features. the algae c. terrestris is found in terrestrial habitats, but might be found occasionally in other habitats (tschaikner et al., 2007). in the current study the alga c. terrestris was found in the sediment sample of the tigris river; its presence in river sediment might be accidental due to soil erosion from the surrounding river areas due to the rain action. plate (2): amplified pcr product of band size 650bp. lane 1: the product was electrophoresis on 2% agarose at 5 volt/cm2 with 1x tbe buffer for 1:30 hours. lane m: dna ladder (100), visualized under u.v light. 158 a new record of coelastrella terrestris diagram (1): phylogenetic tree of coelastrella terrestris based on 18s rrna gene sequences conferred by genebank data base, aligned together with algae available in the ncbi were analyzed and aligned through blast from ncbi using the neighbor-joining analyses of 532 bp of corresponding position of 18s rrna gene sequence. mega 6 program was used for phylogenetic tree. the identification of the alga c. terrestris is for the first time it was recorded in iraq, which may lead one to think there is a misidentification of this algae due to its ambiguous morphology. however, the additional molecular analysis leads to a conclusion which is difficult to refute. acknowledgements the authors thank dr. jinan s. al-hassany, dr. safaa al-deen a. al-qaysi and halah al haideri for their comments on the results. literure cited abed, i. j., abdulhasan, g. a. and najem, a. m. 2018. genotype versus phenotype to determine the definitive identification of the genera chlorella beijrinck, 1890 (chlorophyceae) and coelastrella chodat, 1922 (scendesmaceae). bulletin of iraq natural history museum, 15(1): 101-111. aburai, n., ohkubo, s., miyashita, h. and abe, k. 2013. composition of carotenoids and identification of aerial microalgae isolated from the surface of rocks in mountainous districts of japan. algal research, 2(3): 237–243. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.algal.2013.03.001 alkaisi, k. a. 1976. contribution to the algae flora of the rice fields of south eastern iraq. nova hedwigia, 27: 813-827. al-mousawi, a. h. a. and whitton, b. a. 1983. influence of environmental factors on algae in rice-field soil from the iraqi marshes. arabian journal of gulf research, 1(1): 237-253. chodate, r. 1922. materials for the history of the swans of switzerland, i-ix. bullet in the botanical scientist of geneva, 13: 66-114. graham, l. e. and wilcox, l. w. 2000. algae. prentice hall: upper saddle river, n. j., 640 pp. 159 altaf al-rawi et al. guiry, g. m. 2018. algaebase. world-wide electronic publication, national university of ireland, galway. available at: http://www.algaebase.org; (accessed 6 may 2018). hassan, f. m., aljbory, i. f. and jumaily, e. f. a. 2013. stimulation of biodiesel production from two algae: chlorella vulgaris berjerinck and nitzschia palea (kütz.) smith, and study their some growth parameters under different light intensity. iosr journal of environmental science, toxicology and food technology (iosr-jestft), 6(2): 31– 42. hassan, f. m., salman, j. m. and al-nasrawi, s. 2017. community structure of benthic algae in a lotic ecosystem, karbala province-iraq. baghdad science journal, 14(4): 692-706. doi: 10.21123/bsj.2017.14.4.0692. hanagata, n. 1998. phylogeny of the subfamily scotiellocystoidae (chlotophyceae, chlorophyta) and related taxa inferred from18s ribosomal rna gene sequence data. journal of phycology, 34:1049-1054. hegewald, e. and hanagata, n. 2000. phylogenetic studies on scenedesmaceae (chlotophyta). archiv für hydrobiologie, suppl. 136 (algological studies), 100: 29-49. hegewald, e. and hanagata, n. 2002. validation of the new combinations of coelastrella and neodesmus and the description of the new subfamily desmodesmoideae of the scendesmaceae (chlorophyta). archiv fur hydrobiologie, supplement 143 (algological studies 105): 7-9. maulood, b. k., hassan, f. m., al– lami, a. a., toma, j. j. and ismail, a. m. 2013. checklist of algal flora in iraq. ministry of environment, 94pp. prescott, g. w. 1973. algae the western great area. william, c., brow, co., publishers dubugue, lowa, 977pp. trenkwalder, h. 1975. studies on the soil algae floravarious types of forest foals in the area of bressanone(siidfirollltalien). dissertation philosophy fakulaten univrsity. innsbruck,141pp. tschaikner, a., gärtner, g. and kofler, w. 2008. coelastrella aeroterrestrica sp. nov. (chlorophyta, scenedesmoideae) – a new, obviously often overlooked aeroterrestrial species. algological studies, 128(1): 11–20. https://doi.org/10.1127/18641318/2008/0128-0011 tschaikner, a., ingolić, e. and gärtner, g. 2007. observations in a new isolate of coelastrella terrestris (reisigl) hegewald & hanagata (chlorophyta, scenedesmaceae) from alpine soil (tyrol, austria). phyton annales rei botanicae, 46(2):237–245. uzunov, b. a., stoyneva, m. p., gärtner, g. and koefler, w. 2008. first record of coelastrella species (chlorophyta: scenedesmaceae) in bulgaria. berichte des naturwissenschaftlichen-medizinischen verein innsbruck, 95: 27–34. vílchez, c., forján, e., cuaresma, m., bédmar, f., garbayo, i. and vega, j. m. 2011. marine carotenoids: biological functions and commercial applications. marine drugs, 9: 319333. https://doi.org/10.3390/md9030319 160 a new record of coelastrella terrestris vorobyev, k., andronov, e., rautian, m., skoblo, i., migunova, a. and kvitko, k. 2009. an atypical chlorella symbiont from paramecium bursaria. protistology, 6: 39-44. wehr, j. d. and sheath, r. g. 2003. freshwater algae of north america: ecology and classification. elsevier science, usa, 918pp. 161 altaf al-rawi et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. december, (2018) 15 (2): 153-161 تسجيل جديد للنوع coelastrella terrestris (reisigl) hegewald & n. hanagata, 2002 (sphaeropleales, scenedesmaceae) في العراق نغم عيسى العيسى و فكرت مجيد حسن الطاف الراوي، بشرى محمد جابرعلوش، ، بغداد، العراقجامعة بغداد ،كلية العلوم للبناتقسم علوم الحياة، 10/12/8102: تاريخ القبول 10/10/8102: تاريخ االستالم الخالصة المعزول 1922chodatcoelastrella ,اجريت هذه الدراسة لتشخيص طحلب الجنس من عينات رواسب جمعت من نهر دجلة ضمن مدينة بغداد؛ عزل الطحلب وتم تنميته في . المحور 01وسط جو اظهرت الصفات المظهرية تحت المجهر الضوئي بعض الخصائص التشخيصية لهذا النشوية المرئية والبالستيدات الخضراء واألجسامالبيضوي او الليموني الجنس، كشكلها dnaلتسلسل 18s rrnaالجدارية؛ اذ شخص هذا الطحلب المعزول اعتمادا على ترميز c. terrestrisالمحفوظ من الجينوم النووي، حيث بينت النتائج بان الطحلب يعود الى النوع (reisigl) hegewald & n. hanagata, 2002 ويعتبر تسجيل هذا الطحلب الول مرة في ، ( accession number) تحت رقم االنضمام ncbiوقد تم تسجيلها في ، العراق mh179121 . http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=558965 http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=160541 bull 303 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum augul et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2022) 17 (2): 303-324. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2022.17.2.0301 original article survey and updating checklist of dipteran species with forensic importance razzaq shalan augul*♦, hanaa h. al-saffar* and haider naeem al-ashbal** *iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq **department of biology, college of education for pure sciences, university of kerbala, kerbala, iraq ♦corresponding author: dr.rsha@nhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq recived date: 17 sept. 2022, accepted date 07 december 2022, published date:20 december 2022 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract in the present investigation, 24 adult dipteran species with forensic importance belonging to 13 genera and 8 families that were collected from different localities of iraq. the specimens were identified by different taxonomical keys; in addition the date and localities of collecting specimens were recorded. keywords: checklist, diptera, forensic, iraq, survey. introduction forensic entomology is a specific field in the criminalistics which is depended on the knowledge of the invertebrate fauna succession on corpses; the prime objective of this field is to define the interval of death for a human in criminal issues; the application of this field as the most accurate after 72 hours of decomposition (daněk, 1990). the adults attracted to carcasses and lay their eggs, or larval stage on that animal’s natural body openings and their injuries; the larvae fed on the body tissues till it is ready for pupation; this stage takes through three feeding instars, after they finish this stage; they move and seek to adequate place for pupating, they take 15–20 ft away from the carrion before pupated (price, 1997). dipteran species insects are the major forensically important; because it is typically the first forms to colonize animal remains, the most commonly used in the forensic cases is the dipteran life cycle (smith, 1986; frost et al., 2010); especially in the estimate of the postmortem interval of cadavers or carcasses (pmi) (watson and carlton, 2003). on the other hand, the flies belong to the families of calliphoridae, muscidae and sarcophagidae are the most crucial carrion, insects and commonly feed on human and animal remains, therefore they are considered forensically important. these families are predominant in early stages of the decomposition animals after death (al-qahtnia et al., 2019). many insect succession or surveyed investigations about insects that are attracted to corpses or carrions have been conducted in different areas of iraq. these studies recorded bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799-print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2022.17.2.0301 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9590-8307 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6857-3249 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7719-9597 mailto:dr.rsha@nhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 304 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum survey and updating checklist of dipteran many species under the families calliphoridae, sarcophagidae, and muscidae on animal carcasses. the first attempts to survey the dipteran species (larval and adult stages) were made by abdul-rassoul et al. (2009 a, b); they conducted the experiments on the carcasses of rabbits and fish in baghdad city; the most abundant are calliphora vicina robineaudesvoidy, 1830, chrysomya albiceps (wiedemann, 1819), chrysomy megacephala (fabricius, 1794) (fam.: calliphoridae); sarcophaga sp. (fam.: sarcophagidae) and lucilia sericata (meigen, 1826) (fam.: calliphoridae), respectively in larval stage. while, this study was appeared four families in the adult stage, included calliphoridae, muscidae, sarcophagidae and fanniidae; where the species of musca domestica linnaeus, 1758 was the most abundant followed by ch. megacephala; whereas the members of pollenia sp. and fannia sp. were the least abundant species. on the other hand alboshabaa and al musawy (2016) reported c. vicina, ch. megacephala, ch. albiceps, l.sericata, sarcophaga africa (wiedemann, 1824) in an-najaf province on rabbit carcasses. in addition, albushabaa (2017) stated the members of diptera weremore abundant than other faunal insects on rabbit carcasses that placed indoor and outdoor habitats in al-kufa city; also, in this investigation, it found that ch. albiceps was the first species attracting to the corpse during the fresh stage, followed by musca domestica (fam.: muscidae). in the current investigation, an attempt was made to survey and revision of the dipteran species; also provide an updated list of the forensically important species in iraq. materials and methods specimens' collection the adult specimens were collected from the various exposed carcasses in different stages of decomposition, including: dogs, cats, cows, sheep and donkeys that died for various reasons from different localities during 2021 at irregular intervals using an aerial net. specimens were pinned and stored in a special box to identify them later. specimens' identification the families, genera and species were diagnosed and identified with the aid of different taxonomical keys such as: zumpt (1965); sugiyama (1989); blackith et al. (1997) rozkošný et al.(1997); mawlood (2001); drake (2006); whitworth (2010); meiklejohn (2012); meiklejohn et al. (2013); irish et al. (2014); rochefort et al.(2015); alam and ahmed (2016) and jones et al., (2019). the specimens were also compared with the diagnosed and preserved specimensin the iraq natural research center & museum (inhm), university of baghdad to confirm their diagnosis. the synonyms are given according to gbif secretariat (2021). results and discussion in this study, there are 24 species collected from different carcasses from different regions of iraq, these species were reviewed with the design of a diagnostic key to separate their imago stage as follows. (a) family, calliphoridae 1. genus, calliphora robineau-desvoidy, 1830 305 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum augul et al. synonyms: abonesia villeneuve, 1927 acronesia hall, 1948 acrophaga brauer & bergenstamm, 1891 steringomyia pokorny, 1889 stobbeola enderlein, 1933 calliphora vicina robineau-desvoidy, 1830 common name: blue blowfly synonyms: calliphora (calliphora) erythrocephala (meigen, 1826) c. insidiosa robineau-desvoidy, 1863 c. monspeliaca robineau-desvoidy, 1830 c. musca robineau-desvoidy, 1830 c. nana robineau-desvoidy, 1830 c. rufifacies macquart, 1851 c. spitzbergensis robineau-desvoidy, 1830 musca aucta walker, 1853 m. erythrocephala meigen, 1826 m. thuscia walker, 1849 material examined (39 specimens): diyala province, al khalis, 13, 10.x.2021; baghdad province, bab al muadham, 8, 2.xi.2021. wasit province, alzubaydiyah, 7, 22.xi.2021. kerbala province, kerbala city, 11 specimens, 29.xi.2021. distribution: iraq (khalaf, 1957); cosmopolitan species (zumpt, 1965). it is native to the holarctic; and invasive across the world (battán-horenstein et al., 2016). calliphora vomitoria de geer, 1776 common names: blue bottle fly, orange-bearded blue bottle, bottlebee synonyms: calliphora affinis macquart, 1835 c. fulvibarbis robineau-desvoidy, 1830 musca carnivora fabricius, 1794 distribution: iraq (khalaf, 1957); europe, south of mexico, united states and southern africa (de jong et al., 2014). 2. genus, chrysomya robineau-desvoidy, 1830 synonyms: achoetandrus bezzi, 1927 pycnosoma brauer & bergenstamm, 1894 pycnosomops townsend, 1934 chrysomya albiceps (wiedemann, 1819) common name: hairy maggot blowfly synonyms: compsomyia flaviceps séguy, 1927 c. mascarenhasi séguy, 1927 l. arcuata macquart, 1851 l. testaceifacies macquart, 1851 musca albiceps wiedemann, 1819 306 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum survey and updating checklist of dipteran m. bibula wiedemann, 1830 m. elara walker, 1849 m. emoda walker, 1849 m. felix walker, 1853 m. himella walker, 1849 paracompsomyia verticalis adams, 1905 somomyia annulata brauer, 1899 s. arussica corti, 1895 s. nubiana bigot, 1877 material examined (49 specimens): babylon province, 6, 5.xi.2021. wasit province, badra, 15, 13.iii.2022. baghdad province, bab al-mouadham; 3, 7.iv.2021; 9, 11.iv.2022; abu ghraib, 16, 17.v.2021 distribution: iraq (derwesh, 1965); this species originated from the old world tropics and widely distributed in: africa, south america, many parts of europe, southwest asia, east and northwest india (laurence, 1981). according to akbarzadeh et al. (2015), this species distributes in egypt, israel, iran, kuwait, lebanon, libya, oman, pakistan, saudi arabia, syria, turkey and uae; also possible appearance in the middle east. chrysomya megacephala (fabricius, 1794) common names: oriental blue fly, oriental latrine fly synonyms: chrysomya duvaucelii robineau-desvoidy, 1830 ch. gratiosa robineau-desvoidy, 1830 lucilia macquartii rondani, 1875 musca bata walker, 1849 m. combrea walker, 1849 m. dux eschscholtz, 1822 m. megacephala fabricius, 1794 m. remuria walker, 1849 pollenia basalis smith, 1876 somomya cyaneocincta bigot, 1888 s. pfefferi bigot, 1877 somomyia cyaneocincta bigot, 1888 s. dives bigot, 1888 s. saffranea bigot, 1877 material examined (68 specimens): wasit province, alzubaydiyah, 4, 25.iii.2021; alaziziyah, 10, 19.vii.2022. baghdad province, bab al-mouadham: 6, 2.iv.2021; 11, 11.iv.2021; 14, 23.iv.2014; al-mada'in: 17 specimens, 3.v.2021; diyala province, almuqdadiya, 6, 20.vi.2021. distribution: worldwide distribution including: australasian, asia-pacific, latin america, and north america (wells, 1991), and was introduced to brazil from old world (guimarães et al., 1979). chrysomya putoria (wiedemann, 1830) common name: tropical african latrine blowfly 307 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum augul et al. synonyms: chrysomyia ethiopyga lehrer, 2007 musca putoria wiedemann, 1830 material examined (3 specimens): wasit province, badra, 1, 13.iii.2021. kerbala province, kerbala, 2, 13.v.2021. distribution: iraq (mahmood and kareem, 2019); old world (baumgartner and greenberg, 1984); widely distributed across the central and southern regions of the african continent, also this species distributes in zambia, ethiopia, and madagascar (irish et al., 2014). 3. genus, lucilia robineau-desvoidy, 1830 synonyms: acrophagella ringdahl, 1942 bufolucilia townsend, 1914 caesariceps rohdendorf, 1926 chaetophaenicia enderlein, 1936 dasylucilia rohdendorf, 1926 francilia shannon, 1924 lucilla gimmerthal, 1842 phaenicia robineau-desvoidy, 1863 phenicia coquillett, 1910 lucilia sericata (meigen, 1826) common names: common green bottle fly, sheep blow fly synonyms: chrysomya capensis robineau-desvoidy, 1830 lucilia barberi townsend, 1908 l. capensis robineau-desvoidy, 1830 l. flavipennis macquart, 1843 l. frontalis brauer & bergenstamm, 1891 l. giraulti townsend, 1908 l. lagyra walker, 1849 l. latifrons schiner, 1861 l. nobilis (meigen, 1826) l. pruniosa meigen, 1838 l. sayi jaennicke, 1867 musca lagyra walker, 1849 m. nobilis meigen, 1826 m. sericata meigen, 1826 m. tegularia wiedemann, 1830 phaenicia concinna robineau-desvoidy, 1863 ph. sericata (meigen, 1826 material examined (32 specimens): baghdad: bab al-mouadham 6, 25.iii.2021; 4, 27.iv.2021. saladin province, balad, 8, 2.v.2021; al ishaqi, 8, 11.v.2022. babylon province, al musayab, 2, 11.vi.2021. basra, 4, 17.viii.2021. distribution: iraq (derwesh, 1965); this species distributes throughout the world, especially in the holarctic region, also commonly distributed in australia and several south and central american countries (rueda et al., 2010). 308 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum survey and updating checklist of dipteran (b) family, ephydridae genus, schema becker, 1907 synonym: pelignus cresson, 1926 schema acrosticale (becker, 1903) synonym: atissa acrosticale becker, 1903 material examined: (4 specimens), kerbala, al-hussainyia district, 4.xi.2021 distribution: iraq; uae, uk (gbif secretariat, 2021). (c) family, fanniidae genus, fannia robineaudesvoidy, 1830 synonym: steinomia malloch, 1912 fannia canicularis (linnaeus, 1758) common names: lesser house fly, little house fly synonyms: aminta rivularis robineau-desvoidy, 1830 anthomyia canalicularis cobbold, 1879 a. constantina macquart, 1844 a. fulvomaculata roser, 1840 fannia lateralis (linnaeus, 1758) f. socio (harris, 1780) f. sociominor (harris, 1780) homalomyia fraxinea hutton, 1901 h. fucivorax kieffer, 1898 h. prunivora walsh, 1870 musca canicularis linnaeus, 1761 m.cunicularis curtis, 1849 m. lateralis linnaeus, 1758 material examined (3 specimens): baghdad province, al-shaab, 5.x.2021 distribution: iraq (khalaf and al-omar, 1974); england (land and collett 1974); germany (zeil, 1986); california (mandeville et al., 1988); algeria (perez-eid and mouffok, 1999); china (wang et al., 2007); poland (grzywacz, 2019). (d) family, muscidae 1. genus, hydrotaea robineau-desvoidy, 1830 synonyms: alloeonota schnabl, 1911 hydrotaeoides skidmore, 1985 hydrothaea rondani, 1856 hydrotoea macquart, 1843 hydrotaea aenescens (wiedemann, 1830) common name: american black dump fly synonyms: anthomya aenescens wiedemann, 1830 anthomyia aenescens wiedemann, 1830 309 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum augul et al. crossopalpus aenescens (wiedemann, 1830) ophyra trochanterata malloch, 1932 material examined (1 specimen): kerbala province, kerbala city, 13.v.2021. distribution: america (sabrosky, 1949); argentina (patitucci et al., 2010); iraq (al-ashbal et al., 2020a); egypt, morocco, lebanon, tunisia, britain and ireland (pont et al., 2007); turkey (vikhrev, 2008); portugal (prado et al., 2012). hydrotaea albuquerquei lopes, 1985 common name: black dump fly synonyms: hydrotaea oides skidmore, 1985 ophyra albuquerquei lopes, 1985 material examined (11 specimens): babylon province, alexandria, 4, 29.x.2021.kerbala province, kerbala city, 7, 20.iii.2021. distribution: iraq (al-ashbal et al., 2020a); brasil (costa et al., 2000); neotropical region (de carvalho et al., 2005); south america (de carvalho and mello-patiu, 2008). 2. genus, musca linnaeus, 1758 synonyms: byomya robineau-desvoidy, 1830 eumusca townsend, 1911 plaxemya robineau-desvoidy, 1830 musca domestica linnaeus, 1758 common name: house fly synonyms: musca contigua walker, 1853 m. cuthbertsoni patton, 1936 m. determinata walker, 1853 m. gymnosomea rondani, 1862 m. multispina awati, 1916 m. soror robineau-desvoidy, 1830 material examined: (100 specimens), baghdad province, bab al-muadham, 40, 3.iii.2021. kerbala province, al-husaynyia, 30, 5.iv.2021; basra province, al-khura, 20, 5.v.2021. wasit province, al-suwaira, 10, 2.v.2021. distribution: worldwide distribution (hewitt, 2011), this species was listed in iraq by patton (1919). musca sorbens wiedemann, 1830 common names: bazaar fly, eye-seeking fly synonyms: byomya alba malloch, 1929 musca dichotoma bezzi, 1911 m. eutaeniata bigot, 1888 m. exalbida stein, 1913 m. humilis wiedemann, 1830 m. mediana wiedemann, 1830 310 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum survey and updating checklist of dipteran m. primitiva walker, 1849 m. promisca awati, 1916 m. spectanda wiedemann, 1830 m. stuckenbergi zielke, 1971 material examined (5 specimens): baghdad, al shaab, 15.iv.2021. distribution: iraq (khalaf, 1957); egypt (hafez and attia, 1958); gambia (emerson et al., 2000); africa and asia (ramesh et al., 2016); gambia and ethiopia (robinson et al., 2020). australia, bangladesh, chad, china, gambia, ghana, guam, india, italy, japan, kenya, korea, madagascar, malaysia, mozambique, saudi arabia, sierra leone, senegal, south africa, spain, sudan, tanzania, thailand, uganda, usa (gbif secretariat, 2021). 3. genus, muscina robineau-desvoidy, 1830 muscina stabulans (fallén, 1817) common name: false stable fly synonyms: cyrtonevra australis macquart, 1847 musca prodeo harris, 1780 m. tibialis walker, 1836 muscina grisea robineau-desvoidy, 1830 m. picaena robineau-desvoidy, 1830 m. prodeo (harris, 1780) mydaea vomiturionis robineau-desvoidy, 1849 material examined (20 specimens): baghdad province, al-taji, 10, 5.iii.2021; najaf province, najaf city, 5 specimens, 4.iv.2021; kerbala province, kerbala city 5.v.2021. distribution: iraq (khalaf, 1957); united states (fatchurochim et al., 1989); egypt (elshazly et al., 1996); germany (benecke and lessig, 2001); spain (arnaldos et al., 2005); india (shivekar et al., 2008); argentina (patitucci et al., 2010); brazil (duarte et al., 2013); pakistan (sarwar, 2015); united kingdom (gunn , 2016); china (wang et al., 2019). (e) family, phoridae genus, megaselia rondani, 1856 synonyms: aphiochaeta brues, 1903 megaselida leonard, 1928 megaselia scalaris loew, 1866 common name: humpbacked fly, coffin fly, scuttle fly synonyms: aphiochaeta banski brues, 1909 a. circumsetosa meijere, 1911 a. ferruginea brunetti, 1912 a. fissa becker, 1908 a. repicta schmitz, 1915 a. xanthina speiser, 1908 lioyella plusiivorax enderlein, 1929 megaselia forticapilla beyer, 1959 311 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum augul et al. phora scalaris loew, 1866 material examined (4 specimens): kerbala province, kerbala city, 4, 5.vi.2021, diyala province, al khalis, 2, 10.x.2021. distribution: iraq (al ashbal, 2020); argentina, australia, bolivia, brazil, cameron, canada, china, colombia, costa rica, france, gabon, japan, ecuador, finland, germany, honduras, india, iran, italy, korea, kuwait, panama, peru, saudi arabia, south africa, spain, mexico, netherlands, new zealand, usa, venezuela, vietnam (gbif secretariat, 2021). (f) family, piophilidae genus, allopiophila hendel, 1917 allopiophila flavipes (zetterstedt, 1847) common name: yellow-legged cheese fly synonyms: parapiophila flavipes (zetterstedt, 1847) piophila flavipes zetterstedt, 1847 p. staegeri duda, 1924 material examined (4 specimens): kerbala province, kerbala city. 19.iv.2021 distribution: iraq (al-ashbal, 2020); australia, belarus, canada, chinese taipei, denmark, finland, germany, indonesia, madagascar, netherlands, sweden, south africa, uk, usa (gbif secretariat, 2021). (g) family, sarcophagidae genus, sarcophaga meigen, 1826 synonyms: bulbostyla giroux and wheeler, 2010 caledonicesa koçak and kemal, 2010 devriesia lehrer, 1995 erichsonia robineau-desvoidy, 1863 heteronychia brauer and von bergenstamm, 1889 lehrera koçak and kemal, 2009 listeria robineau-desvoidy, 1863 pierretia robineau-desvoidy, 1863 sarcophaga africa (wiedemann, 1824) common name: common flesh fly synonyms: bellieria miniticauda zumpt, 1953 bercaea agilis robineau-desvoidy, 1863 b. agraria robineau-desvoidy, 1863 b. cruenta (meigen, 1826) b. crventata kano, field & shinonaga, 1967 b. haemathura robineau-desvoidy, 1863 b. haematura verves, 1986 b. meditata robineau-desvoidy, 1863 b. oralis robineau-desvoidy, 1863 mesothyrsia madagascariensis enderlein, 1928 312 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum survey and updating checklist of dipteran musca africa wiedemann, 1824 myophora albidula robineau-desvoidy, 1863 m. blondeli robineau-desvoidy, 1830 m. commendata robineau-desvoidy, 1863 m. nitida robineau-desvoidy, 1863 m. squalida robineau-desvoidy, 1830 m. villica robineau-desvoidy, 1830 robineauella interrupta enderlein, 1928 r. tiesleri enderlein, 1928 sarcophaga aequepalpis tiensuu, 1938 s. aequipalpis thomson, 1869 s. africana villeneuve, 1929 s. consobrina rondani, 1861 s. creuntata coupland & baker, 1994 s. crientata schembri, gatt & schembri, 1991 s. cruenta pandellé, 1896 s. crustata hagen, 1881 s. dionysii böttcher, 1913 s. distinguenda rondani, 1873 s. fulvipalpis robineau-desvoidy, 1863 s. inclyta robineau-desvoidy, 1863 s. iners robineau-desvoidy, 1863 s. meigenii robineau-desvoidy, 1863 s. nurus rondani, 1861 s. pabulorum robineau-desvoidy, 1863 s. sejungenda rondani, 1873 s. tultschensis böttcher, 1913 s. zetterstedtii robineau-desvoidy, 1863 scaligeria fugax robineau-desvoidy, 1863 sc. praeceps robineau-desvoidy, 1863 stephopygia latigena zumpt, 1953 theria flavidula bigot, 1880 thyrsotetradiscus friederichsianus enderlein, 1928 material examined (19 specimens): wasit province, zurbatiyah, 6, 13.iii.2021. baghdad province: bab al-mouadham, 1, 22.iii.2021; kadhumyia, 3, 13.iv.2021. kerbala province, kerbala, 4, 2.iv.2021; 2, 19.iv.2022; 1, 13.v.2021. alnajaf province, najaf, 2, 27.vi.2021. distribution: cosmopolitan (verves et al., 2018). in iraq, this species recorded by pape (1996). sarcophaga albiceps meigen, 1826 synonyms: parasarcophaga (parasarcophaga) albiceps (meigen, 1826) parasarcophaga colchica guzhabidze, 1966 sarcophaga cyathisans pandellé, 1896 s. cyathissans villeneuve, 1907 313 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum augul et al. sarcophaga hypopygium park, 1977 sarcophaga pauciseta kramer, 1905 sarcophaga privigna rondani, 1861 sarcophaga zethus curran, 1936 material examined (4 specimens): kerbala province, kerbala city, al basateen, 1, 13.v.2021. diyala province, muqdadiyah, 3, 22.vi. 2021. distribution: cosmopolitan species (delfinado and hardy, 1975; nandi, 2002; meiklejohn et al., 2013). iraq (al-hadidi, 2005); georgia (japoshvili et al., 2022). sarcophaga altitudinis rondani, 1989 synonyms: bellieria rohdendorfi grunin, 1964 sarcophaga altitudinis sugiyama, 1989 material examined (10 specimens): kerbala province, kerbala city, 6, 16.iii.2021. najaf province, najaf city, 4, 4.iv.2022. distribution: iraq (al-ashbal, 2020); mongolia (blackith et al., 1997). sarcophaga carnaria (linnaeus, 1758) common name: common flesh fly synonyms: musca carnaria linnaeus, 1758 sarcophaga camaria villeneuve, 1905 s. cannaria doleschall, 1858 s. carinaria suzuki, 1915 s. carnaria f. vulg rohdendorf s. carnaria f. vulgaris (rohdendorf, 1937) s. dolosa lehrer, 1967 s. mehriina enderlein, 1928 s. schulzi müller, 1922 s. schultzi draber-mońko, 1971 s. vulgaris rohdendorf, 1937 material examined (24 specimens): baghdad province, bab almuadham 3, 23.iii.2021; jadriya, 9, 18.iv.2022; babil province, musayyib, 11, 20.v.2021. diyala province, muqdadiyah, 1, 22.vi. 2021. distribution: iraq (khalaf, 1957); palaearctic region (pape, 1996; verves et al, 2018); gorgia (japoshvili et al., 2022). sarcophaga haemorrhoa meigen, 1826 common name: lesser redtailed flesh fly synonyms: erichsonia ambulatrix robineau-desvoidy, 1863 e. anxia robineau-desvoidy, 1863 e. arborea robineau-desvoidy, 1863 e. ardeacea robineau-desvoidy, 1863 e. campestris robineau-desvoidy, 1863 e. chetalis robineau-desvoidy, 1863 e. claripennis robineau-desvoidy, 1863 314 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum survey and updating checklist of dipteran e. contigua robineau-desvoidy, 1863 e. flavinervis robineau-desvoidy, 1863 e. fuliginosa robineau-desvoidy, 1863 e. inconstans robineau-desvoidy, 1863 e. labialis robineau-desvoidy, 1863 e. musca robineau-desvoidy, 1863 e. oralis robineau-desvoidy, 1863 e. pilosa robineau-desvoidy, 1863 e. procax robineau-desvoidy, 1863 e. rustica robineau-desvoidy, 1863 e. umbripennis robineau-desvoidy, 1863 e. valida robineau-desvoidy, 1863 e. varinervis robineau-desvoidy, 1863 heteronychia fugitiva povolný, 2001 h. haemorrhoa (meigen, 1826) h. incontans verves, 1986 lioplacella helicivora verves, 1986 l. helicivorax enderlein, 1933 myophora aestivalis robineau-desvoidy, 1830 m. albicans robineau-desvoidy, 1830 m. contempta robineau-desvoidy, 1830 m. riparia robineau-desvoidy, 1830 sarcophaga haemarrhoa baranov, 1929 s. haemorrhoea jacentkovsky, 1934 s. helicivoris baranov, 1942 s. sanguinolenta macquart, 1835 material examined (4 specimens): kerbala province, kerbala, al basateen 2, 13.v.2021. distribution: iraq (al-hadidi, 2005); austria, croatia, czech republic, france, germany, hungary, italy, serbia, slovakia, spain, sweden, ukraine (whitmore, 2011). sarcophaga ruficornis fabricius, 1794 common name: red horned meat fly material examined: (4specimens) from dog carcass, kerbala, 26.iii.2021. distribution: iraq (al-ashbal, 2020); nearctic: canada, usa; neotropical: brazil, panama; palaearctic: saudi arabia; afrotropical: botswana, madagascar, socotra, south africa, zaire and oriental region: bangladesh, bhutan, china, india (pape, 1996). iran (fakoorziba et al., 2017). sarcophaga vagans meigen, 1826 synonyms: heteronychia vagans (meigen, 1826) sarcophaga detrita zetterstedt, 1845 s. frenata pandellé, 1896 s. nepos rondani, 1861 s. vulnerata schiner, 1861 315 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum augul et al. material examined: (12 specimens), diyala province, muqdadiya, 16.iv. 2021 distribution: iraq (previously recorded as sarcophaga frenata pandelle, 1896, by al-hadidi, 2005); palaearctic region (van emden, 1954; bei-bienko and steyskal, 1988). (h) family, sepsidae genus, sepsis fallén, 1810 synonym: threx gistl, 1848 sepsis lateralis wiedemann, 1830 common name: black scavenger fly synonyms: meroplius melitensis rondani, 1874 m. schembrii rondani, 1874 nemopoda algira macquart, 1844 n. lateralis macquart, 1844 n. senegalensis bigot, 1886 sepsis astuta bezzi, 1908 s. astutis adams, 1905 s. bombokaensis vanschuytbroeck, 1963 s. complicata wiedemann, 1830 s. curiosa ozerov, 1996 s. definita brunetti, 1929 s. fragilis becker, 1903 s. hyalipennis macquart, 1851 s. immaculata macquart, 1844 s. inpunctata macquart, 1839 s. kwanzaensis vanschuytbroeck, 1963 s. lutea duda, 1926 s. migeriensis vanschuytbroeck, 1963 s. rufa macquart, 1851 s. unicoloripes brunetti, 1929 material examined: (20 specimens were collected from decaying carcasses); baghdad, 4♂♂, 5♀♀, 12.v.2021; babylon, 7♂♂, 4♀♀, 29.iv.2021. distribution: iraq (khalaf and al-omer, 1974); japan (iwasa, 1980); afrotropical, oriental and australasian regions (pont and meier, 2002); afrotropical: angola, cameroon, ethiopia, madagascar, namibia, swaziland, zimbabwe; asia: afghanistan, turkey, syria; north africa, egypt, tunisia, libya; oriental; india, pakistan (ozerov, 2005); philippines (letana, 2014). (i) family, sphaeroceridae genus, limosina macquart, 1835 synonyms: scotophilella duda, 1918 trichogaster lioy, 1864 limosina heteroneura haliday, 1835 synonyms: leptocera heteroneura (haliday) 316 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum survey and updating checklist of dipteran leptocera opaca aldrich, 1932 limosina jeanneli bezzi, 1911 pullimosina heteroneura haliday, 1836 material examined (7 specimens): babylon province, alexandria, 3, 29.x.2021. kerbala province, kerbala, al basateen, 4, 3.iv.2021. distribution: in iraq, the species is recorded by al-ashbal et al. (2020b) under the synonym species pullimosina heteroneura haliday, 1836. also it distributes in: australia, argentina, taiwan, afghanistan, algeria, andorra, austria, belgium, bulgaria, canada, canary is., cyprus, czech republic, denmark, ecuador, egypt, estonia, finland, france, greece, hawaii, hungary, iceland, ireland, italy, japan, latvia, lebanon, lithuania, macedonia, malta, mexico, morocco, netherlands, new zealand, norway, poland, portugal, romania, russia, slovakia, slovenia, spain, sweden, switzerland, tajikistan, tunisia, uae and uganda (marshall et al., 2011). belarus, china, germany, pakistan, russia, south africa, usa (gbif secretariat, 2021). conclusion we conclude from the results of the current study, and based on what was mentioned in previous studies, the need to classify the essential or primary adult fly species whose life cycle that associated to the stages of decomposition of animal carcasses (first group), whereas the other species mentioned in this study are considered visitors to the carrion or carcasses and their life cycle is not related to their decomposition stages (second group), as they are attracted for the purpose of feeding only on natural openings and their secretions or fluids that produce in the later stages of decomposition of carcasses. the purpose of this is to clarify confusing the concept of forensic insects. the species recorded during the current investigations, in addition to previous studies in iraq, the species that put within the first group include the species belonging to the families: calliphoridae, sarcophagidae and muscidae (restricted on m. domestica) respectively. the adult fly species that collected in this study and not mentioned in the first group, they are classified within the second group (visitors of carcasses). therefore, this study gave an update detailed description of the forensically species of the dipteran group, to serve as a basis for future studies. conflict of interest statement "the authors have no conflicts of interest to declare". literature cited abdul-rassoul, m. s., augul, r. s. and al-saffar, h. h. 2009 a. seasonal abundance of third instar larvae of flies (order: diptera) on the exposed carcasses. bulletin of the iraq natural history museum, 10 (4):1-9. abdul-rassoul, m. s., augul, r. s. and al-saffar, h. h. 2009 b. seasonal abundance of adult fly species on the exposed carcasses in baghdad city. ibn al haitham journal for pure and applied sciences, 22 (4):16-25. 317 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum augul et al. akbarzadeh, k., wallman, j. f., sulakova, h. and szpila, k. 2015. species identification of middle eastern blowflies (diptera: calliphoridae) of forensic importance. parasitology research, 114:1463-1472. 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[crossref] whitmore, d. 2011. new taxonomic and nomenclatural data on sarcophaga (heteronychia) (diptera: sarcophagidae), with description of six new species. zootaxa, 2778: 1-57. whitworth, t. 2010. keys to the genera and species of blow flies (diptera: calliphoridae) of the west indies and description of a new species of lucilia robineau-desvoidy. zootaxa, 2663: 1-35. zeil, j. 1986. the territorial flight of male houseflies (fannia canicularis l.). behavioral ecology and sociobiology, 19 (3): 213-219. zumpt, f. 1965. myiasis in man and animals in the old world. butterworths, london. xv + 267 pp. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.743.22022 https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.4.27 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.forsciint.2019.02.051 https://doi.org/10.1093/jmedent/28.3.471 324 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum survey and updating checklist of dipteran bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2022) 17 (2): 303-324. مسح و تحديث قائمة حشرات ثنائية االجنحة ذات االهمية الجنائية **حيدر نعيم االشبالرزاق شعالن عكل*، هناء هاني الصفار* و *مركز بحوث و متحف التاريخ الطبيعي/جامعة بغداد، بغداد، العراق. **قسم علوم الحياة،كلية التربية للعلوم الصرفة/جامعة كربالء، كربالء، العراق. 20/12/2022، تأريخ النشر: 7/12/2022القبول: ، تأريخ 17/9/2022تأريخ االستالم: الخالصة نوعا من رتبة ثنائية االجنحة ذات االهمية الجنائية 24الى الى بيان اشار املسح جنسا و ثمانية عوائل . النماذج شخصت تبعا الى العديد من املفاتيح 13تعود الى التشخيصية ، وسجل مكان و تاريخ جمع العينات الحشرية. bull 699 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum augul and al saffar bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2023) 17(4): 699-724. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2023.17.4.0699 article review checklist of darkling beetles (coleoptera, tenebrionidae) in iraq razzaq shalan augul and hanaa h. al saffar* iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq. *corresponding author: dr.hanaa66@nhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq recived date: 29 april 2023, accepted date 24 august 2023, published date:20 december 2023 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract in the current review, an updated list of dark beetle species (coleoptera, tenebrionidae) recorded in iraq was given. the current paper is based on previous studies in the literature and contains all dark beetles referred to in iraq, except for the species within the pimelinae subfamily. the investigation of this review showed the presence of 89 species belonging to 34 genera within five subfamilies. this work included mentioning the basionyms and synonyms for genera and species with their global distribution, as well as, correcting the scientific names that were mentioned in the previous checklists. keywords: basionym, checklist, diversity, investigation, tenebrionid beetles. introduction in the last few years, many researchers have sought to conduct many studies that include the preparing of surveys and checklists of insect species belonging to different orders. these investigations have contributed to updating databases and treating synonyms in order to avoid mistakes in taxonomic issues and contribute to knowing the insect diversity in iraq, for example: shugran et al. (2018); augul (2018, 2019); augul and al-saffar (2019); hassan et al. (2020); al-saffar and augul (2015, 2021) and al-saffar et al.(2021). as regard dark beetles (tenebrionidae), there are some previous studies (such as checklists for example) that indicate that their species are recorded in iraq, which are relatively few in comparison to the wide diversity of this family (e.g. gebien, 1910; reitter, 1916; holdhaus, 1919; blair,1923; khalaf, 1959; derwesh, 1963,1965; hussein, 1963; kaddou,1967; elhaidari et al.,1972; swailem et al.,1974; khalaf and al-omar, 1974; abdul-rassoul, 1976; abdul-rassoul et al.,1988; al-ali, 1977; abul-hab,1980; carl, 1990 a and b, 1991, 1992); recently, there are several attempts to survey, and taxonomic studies including ismail and husain (2018), they recorded five species: balps plana solier, 1848; balps hispnica solier, bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799-print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2023.17.4.0699 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9590-8307 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3139-487x mailto:dr.hanaa66@nhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 700 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum checklist of darkling beetles 1848; tenebrio opacus duftschmid, 1812 and scaurus striatus fabricius,1792; as well omar et al. (2018) added opatroides punctulatus brullé, 1832 as a new record. despite these investigations that are referred to above, information about the diversity of these beetles is still incomplete. it needs a comprehensive revision of the scientific names and determining their legitimacy. therefore, this paper suggested revising the scientific names and providing an updated checklist of tenebrionidae (with the exception of the subfamily pimelinae). materials and methods the known darkling beetles recorded in iraq were combined and listed. information about the recorded species' general distribution was gathered from the selected relevant literature. classification and nomenclature, basionym and valid names of the species are given based on the last taxonomic modification (carl, 1990 a and b, 1992; iwan et al., 2010, 2011; elshewy et al., 2016; bouchard et al., 2021; gbif secretariat, 2022; lillig and pavlíček, 2023). the subfamilies, genera, and species are listed and presented alphabetically in the present paper. results and discussion in the present review, the data show that there were 89 tenebrionid species belonging to 34 genera under 19 tribes and five subfamilies, in addition, synonyms of species, distribution, and recent taxonomic status are included as follows: (a)subfamily, alleculinae laporte, 1840 tribe, alleculini laporte, 1840 genus, hymenalia mulsant, 1851 hymenalia reticulata seidlitz, 1896 distribution: iraq and iran (seidlitz, 1896) genus, podonta solier, 1835 podonta biformis reitter, 1889 synonym: podonta ruficollis seidlitz, 1896 distribution: iran (seidlitz 1896); iraq, syria (novák and ghahari, 2015); armenia, and turkey (novák, 2016). podonta carbonaria kiesenwetter, 1873 distribution: iran (seidlitz 1896); iraq, and syria (novák and ghahari, 2015). tribe, cteniopodini solier, 1835 genus, cteniopus solier, 1835 synonyms: cistela fabricius, 1775 cistella gistl, 1848 ctenioposomus reitter, 1906 701 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum augul and al saffar ctenoposomus reitter, 1906 rhinobarus reitter, 1906 sarandonyx des gozis, 1881 telacis poey, 1854 cteniopus angustatus pic, 1905 distribution: iraq (pic, 1905); iran (borchmann, 1910). cteniopus pallidus (küster, 1850) basionym: cistela pallida küster, 1850 synonym: cteniopus intrusus seidlitz, 1896 distribution: iran (seidlitz, 1896); cyprus, iraq, syria, and turkey (novák and ghahari, 2015); saudi arabia (abdel-dayem et al., 2017). cteniopus persicus ogloblin, 1950 distribution: iraq (lӧbl et al., 2008 a). afghanistan, iran, syria, and turkey (novák and ghahari, 2015). genus, omophlus dejean, 1834 synonyms: euomophlus yablokov-khnzoryan, 1983 micromophlus znojko, 1950 odontomophlus seidlitz, 1896 omophlus solier, 1835 paromophlus iablokoff-khnzorian, 1983 paurodontomophlus muche, 1979 phibalus gistel, 1856 pleuromophlus reitter, 1906 omophlus falsarius kirsch, 1869 synonym: omophlus pilifer seidlitz, 1896 distribution: iran (seidlitz, 1896); iraq (lӧbl et al., 2008a); armenia, bulgaria, iran, romania, syria, and turkey (novák and ghahari, 2015). omophlus flavipennis küster, 1850 synonyms: cistela quadricollis brullé, 1932 omophlus atripes küster, 1850 omophlus dalmatinus kirsch, 1869 omophlus basicornis reitter, 1890 distribution: iraq (lӧbl et al., 2008a); iran (samin et al., 2014); armenia, azerbaijan, bulgaria, croatia, georgia, greece, moldavia, romania, russia, syria, turkey, and ukraine (novák and ghahari, 2015). 702 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum checklist of darkling beetles omophlus kalalae maran, 1935 distribution: iraq (lӧbl et al., 2008a). the information available about this species is very limited. omophlus kurda znojko, 1950 distribution: iraq (lӧbl et al., 2008a). the information available about this species is very limited. omophlus nasreddini reitter, 1890 synonym: omophlus conicicollis reitter, 1906 distribution: iran (seidlitz 1896); iraq (lӧbl et al., 2008a); syria, and turkey (novák and ghahari, 2015). omophlus nigripes küster, 1850 distribution: iran (reitter 1906). iraq (lӧbl et al., 2008a); greece, iran, syria, and turkey (novák and ghahari, 2015). omophlus nitidicollis seidlitz, 1896 synonym: erodius nitidicollis solier, 1849 distribution: iran (seidlitz, 1896); iraq, it was listed under the synonym name by andres (1931); armenia and turkey (novák and ghahari, 2015). omophlus pilosellus kirsch, 1869 distribution: iraq (lӧbl et al., 2008a); turkey, italy, and greece (yildirim and kiliç, 2008). omophlus sandneri reitter, 1906 distribution: iran (novák and pettersson, 2008). iraq (lӧbl et al., 2008a); syria, and turkey (novák and ghahari, 2015). omophlus scutellaris mulsant, 1856 distribution: iraq (shalaby et al., 1966); egypt (elshewy et al., 2016). (b) subfamily: blaptinae leach, 1815 tribe, blaptini leach, 1815 genus, blaps fabricius, 1775 synonyms: acanthoblaps reitter, 1889 agroblaps motschoulsky, 1860 arenoblaps medvedev, 1999 blapidurus fairmaire, 1891 blapimorpha motschoulsky, 1860 blapisa motschoulsky, 1860 dineria motschoulsky, 1860 leptocolena allard, 1881 lithoblaps motschoulsky, 1860 703 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum augul and al saffar plaps zschachi, 1778 platyblaps motschoulsky, 1860 prosoblapsia skopin & kaszab, 1978 rhizoblaps motschoulsky, 1860 uroblaps motschoulsky, 1860 blaps batesi allard, 1880 distribution: iraq (kaszab, 1982; kareem et al., 2022); kuwait (amr, 2021). note: there is not enough information about this species in the available literature. blaps convexa reiche, 1857 distribution: iraq (holdhaus, 1919). note: there is not enough information about this species in the available literature. blaps fascinosa seidlitz, 1893 distribution: iraq (gebien, 1910). note: there is not enough information about this species in the available literature. blaps gigas (linnaeus, 1767) basionym: tenebrio gigas linnaeus, 1763 distribution: iraq (holdhaus, 1919); cosmopolitan (bunalski et al., 2014a). blaps hispanica solier, 1848 distribution: iraq (ismail and husain, 2018); portugal, and spine (gbif secretariat, 2022). blaps iraquensis kaszab, 1959 distribution: iraq (kaszab, 1959). note: there is not enough information about this species in the available literature. blaps judaeorum miller, 1861 distribution: iraq (löbl et al., 2008b). blaps kaifensis seidlitz, 1893 distribution: iraq (löbl et al., 2008b); mediterranean basin (soldati et al., 2017). blaps kollarii seidlitz, 1893 distribution: iraq (löbl et al., 2008b); mediterranean basin (soldati et al., 2017); ksa, and uae (gbif secretariat, 2022). blaps mortisaga (linnaeus, 1758) basionym: tenebrio mortisaga linnaeus, 1758 distribution: iraq (holdhaus, 1919); wide-distributed in europe, and usa (gbif secretariat, 2022). 704 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum checklist of darkling beetles blaps plana solier, 1848 distribution: iraq (ismail and husain, 2018); tunisia (soldati et al., 2017). blaps polychresta (forskl, 1775) basionym: tenebrio polychresta forskl, 1775 distribution: iraq (shalaby et al., 1967); australia, egypt, jordon, and portugal (gbif secretariat, 2022). blaps spinosa allard, 1880 distribution: iraq (löbl et al., 2008b). note: no more information about this species is in the available literature. blaps taeniolata menetries, 1832 distribution: iraq (derwesh, 1965); kuwait (katbeh-bader et al., 2022); (cyprus (gbif secretariat, 2022). genus, dila fischer von waldheim, 1844 synonym: caenoblaps könig, 1906 dila kulzeri (schuster, 1928) basionym: caenoblaps kulzeri schuster, 1928 distribution: it was recorded in iraq by schuster (1928) under the name caenoblaps kulzeri schuster, 1928; turkey (chigraya et al., 2019). tribe, dendarini mulsant & rey, 1854 genus, dendarus dejean, 1821 synonyms: dendaroscelis reitter, 1904 dichromma seidlitz, 1893 pandarinus mulsant & rey, 1854 pandarus agassiz, 1846 pandarus dejean, 1834 pandarus mulsant, 1854 paroderus mulsant & rey, 1854 phylax brullé, 1832 rhizalemus reitter, 1904 rhizalus mulsant & rey, 1854 dendarus simplex seidlitz, 1893 distribution: iraq (lӧbl et al., 2008b); syria, and turkey (gbif secretariat, 2022). dendarus tenellus (mulsant and rey, 1854) basionym: pandarinus tenellus mulsant & rey, 1854 distribution: iraq (gebien, 1910); greece, and turkey (gbif secretariat, 2022). tribe, opatrini brullé, 1832 genus, clitobius mulsant & rey, 1859 705 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum augul and al saffar synonyms: apithesis waterhouse, 1881 apteroclitobius koch, 1960 halonomus wollaston, 1861 clitobius oblongiusculus (fainrmaire, 1875) basionym: halonomus oblongiusculus fairmaire, 1875 distribution: iraq (holdhaus, 1919); moreover, löbl et al. (2008b) indicated the presence of subspecies c. oblongiusculus oblongiusculus fainrmaire, 1875 in iraq. bahrain, egypt, jordon, turkey, and greece (gbif secretariat, 2022). genus, gonocephalum solier, 1834 synonyms: dasus motschoulsky, 1845 hasticollinum kaszab, 1939 hopatrum blackburn, 1907 megadasus reitter, 1904 myladanesthes skopin, 1961 opatropis reitter, 1904 gonocephalum consobrinum blair, 1923 distribution: iraq (blair, 1923); afghanistan, india, iran, eritrea, ethiopia, myanmar, pakistan, saudi arabia, and yemen (hegde et al., 2018). gonocephalum granulatum (fabricius, 1791) basionym: opatrum granulata fabricius, 1792 synonym: melyris granulatum fabricius, 1791 distribution: it was listed in iraq under the name gonocephalum pusillum fabricius, 1871 by holdhaus (1919). afghanistan, bulgaria, france, greece, italy, portugal, russia, serbia, spain, turkey, and ukraine (gbif secretariat, 2022). gonocephalum mesopotamicum blair, 1923 distribution: iraq (blair, 1923). gonocephalum zoltani iwan, ferrer and raś, 2010 synonym: gonocephalum parallelum kaszab, 1952 distribution: afghanistan, india, iraq, and pakistan (iwan and löbl, 2008); sri lanka (iwan et al., 2010). gonocephalum perplexum (lucas, 1849) basionym: opatrum perplexum lucas, 1849 distribution: iraq (abdul-rassoul et al., 1988). greece, morocco, syria, and tunisia (gbif secretariat, 2022). gonocephalum pubiferum reitter, 1904 distribution: iraq (kaszab, 1982). uae (lillig and bremer, 2002); afghanistan, armenia, azerbaijan, china, iran, kazakhstan; mongolia, oman, pakistan, russia, ksa, tajikistan, turkmenistan, and uzbekistan (iwan and löbl, 2008). 706 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum checklist of darkling beetles gonocephalum rusticum (olivier, 1811) basionym: opatrum rusticum olivier, 1811 distribution: iraq (holdhaus, 1919); mongolia, and china (löbl and smetana, 2008). afghanistan, algeria, cyprus, djibouti, france, greece, israel, italy, kazakhstan, morocco, mozambique, netherlands, portugal, spain, syria, turkey, and uzbekistan (gbif secretariat, 2022). gonocephalum setulosum (faldermann, 1837) basionym: opatrum setulosum faldermann, 1837 distribution: iraq (iwan et al., 2010); afghanistan, cyprus, egypt, greece, italy, spain, turkmenistan, and uzbekistan (gbif secretariat, 2022). gonocephalum strigosum (reiche, 1850) basionym: opatrum strigosum reiche, 1850 synonym: hopatrum strigosum reiche, 1850 distribution: iraq (holdhaus, 1919); eritrea, and ethiopia (iwan et al., 2010); algeria, israel, egypt, and tunisia (iwan and löbl, 2008). genus, opatroides brulle, 1832 synonym: hopatroides agassiz, 1846 opatroides punctulatus brulle, 1832 distribution: iraq (holdhaus, 1919); afghanistan, algeria, cyprus, egypt, greece, israel, italy, malta, morocco, oman, spain, tunisia, turkey, turkmenistan, usa, and uzbekistan (gbif secretariat, 2022). opatroides vicinus (fairmaire, 1896) basionym: penthicus vicinus fairmaire, 1896 synonym: opatroides vicinus kaszab 1960 distribution: lobl et al. (2008b) reported the subspecies opatroides vicinus angulatus baudi de silve 1876 in iraq. afghanistan, bahrain, egypt, india, iran, kuwait, nepal, oman, pakistan, ksa, and yemen (ferrer, 2005; löbl and smetana, 2008); qatar (soldati, 2009). cyprus, and turkey (gbif secretariat, 2022). genus, opatrum fabricius, 1775 synonyms: colpopatrum reitter, 1904 colpophorinus escalera, 1914 colpophorus mulsant & rey, 1859 hopatrum agassiz, 1846 opatum thunberg, 1821 thoracon gistl, 1848 opatrum obesum olivier, 1811 distribution: iraq (gebien, 1910); greece, and turkey (gbif secretariat, 2022). 707 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum augul and al saffar genus, penthicus faldermann, 1836 penthicus dilectans faldermann, 1836 distribution: shalaby et al. (1967) reported this species for iraq under the name lobothorax dilectans fldermann, 1836. also, it distributes in transcaucasia, european russia, and central asia (abdurakhmanov and nabozhenko, 2011; iwan et al., 2020); turkey (nabozhenko et al., 2022). penthicus oblongopunctatus (reitter, 1904) distribution: afghanistan, iraq, iran, jordan, pakistan, ksa, and turkmenistan (löbl and smetana, 2008); qatar (soldati, 2009). genus, scleropatroides löbl & merkl, 2003 scleropatroides hirtulus (baudi de selve, 1876) distribution: iraq (lobl et al., 2008b); turkey (nabozhenko et al., 2022). genus, scleropatrum reitter, 1890 scleropatrum hirtulum (baudi, 1875) basionym: opatrum hirtulum baudi, 1875 distribution: iraq (gebien, 1910). according to lillig (2015), this species distributes from egypt or sinai to iraq or iran. genus, sclerum dejean, 1834 synonyms: anticlia gistel, 1848 chlamydion gistel, 1848 scleron hope, 1841 sclerum blanchard, 1845 sclerum carinatum baudi, 1875 distribution: iraq (lobl et al., 2008b). palearctic region as scleron carinatum (reichardt 1936); turkmen, and russia, it was recorded as scleron carinatum by kryzhanovskij (1961); iran (grimm, 2015); saudi arabia (abdel-dayem et al., 2017). sclerum evansi (blair, 1923) distribution: iraq (lobl et al., 2008b); it was reported in the palearctic region under the name scleron evansi by reichardt (1936); united arab emirate, and oman (grimm, 2013). sclerum fossulatum mulsant & wachenru, 1852 distribution: in iraq, it was recorded as scleron fossulatum mulsant, 1852 by holdhaus (1919); it was reported by reichardt (1936) as scleron fossulatum in the palearctic region. sclerum sulcatum baudi, 1876 distribution: it was recorded in iraq as scleron sulcatum baudi, 1876 by shalaby et al. (1967), egypt (elshewy et al., 2016); ksa (abdel-dayem et al., 2017). in kuwait, it was listed by amr (2021) as a scleron sulcatum. 708 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum checklist of darkling beetles tribe, pedinini eschscholtz, 1829 genus, cabirutus strand, 1929 synonyms: asiobirus medvedev, 1968 cabinus mulsant & rey, 1853 cabirus mulsant & rey, 1853 cabirutus sp. note: note: in iraq, shalaby et al. (1967) listed it without specifying the species. genus, leichenum dejean, 1834 leichenum canaliculatum (fabricius, 1798) basionym: opatrum canaliculatum fabricius, 1798 distribution: in iraq, it was registered under the name leichenum gebieni reitter, 1906 by derwesh (1965). later, the subspecies l. canaliculatum canaliculatum (fabricius, 1798) was reported by reported under the name leichenum foveistrium marseul, 1876 by gebien (1910), as well kaszab (1982) was reported leichenum pulchellum pumilum baudi, 1876; this subspecies was listed in iraq by gebien (1910) under the name leichenum incisum reitter, 1899. generally, leichenum canaliculatum was recorded for many countries, including angola, australia, botswana, india, kenya, martinique, mauritius, mozambique, réunion, senegal, sierra leone, sri lanka, south africa, spain, thailand, usa, and zambia (gbif secretariat, 2022). leichenum mucronatum kuster, 1849 distribution: iraq (gebien, 1910). north africa (penrith, 1988). (c) subfamily, diaperinae latreille, 1802 tribe, diaperini latreille, 1802 genus, alphitophagus stephens, 1832 synonyms: phyletes redtenbacher, 1845 phylethus dejean, 1821 phylethus redtenbacher, 1849 alphitophagus bifasciatus (say, 1824) basionym: diaperis bifasciatus say, 1824 synonyms: alphitophagus quadripustulatus stephens, 1832 alphitophagus unifasciatus donisthorpe, 1925 phylethus populi l. redtenbacher, 1849 distribution: iraq (derwesh, 1965); turkey (özgen, 2020). tribe, phaleriini blanchard, 1845 genus, phtora germar, 1836 synonyms: cataphronetis dejean, 1834 cataphronetis lucas, 1846 clypeophtora soldati & soldati, 2003 pseudostene wollaston, 1861 709 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum augul and al saffar phtora millingeni (reitter, 1899) distribution: in iraq, it was reported by gebien (1910) under the name of cataphronetis millingeni reitter, 1899. (d) subfamily, lagriinae latreille, 1825 tribe, belopini reitter, 1917 genus, centorus mulsant, 1854 synonyms: belopomerus reitter, 1920 calcar latreille, 1829 calcar mulsant, 1854 nanocalcar skopin, 1974 centorus csikii reitter, 1920 synonym: belopus csikii reitter, 1920 distribution: iraq (reitter, 1920). afghanistan, iran, jordan, cyprus, kazakhstan, ksa, russia, turkmenistan, and yemen (iwan and lӧbl, 2020). note: it's listed under the name belopus csikii reitter, 1920; as well as, the subspecies of b. csikii bagdadensis reitter, 1920 was recorded in iraq by the same author. centorus filiformis motschulsky, 1872 synonym: belopus filiformis motschulsky, 1872 distribution: in iraq, listed under the name of belopus filiformis motschulsky, 1872 (derwesh, 1965); china (zhang and ren, 2009); russia (nabozhenko and chigray, 2014); afghanistan, azerbaijan, armenia, iran, kazakhstan, and turkmenistan (iwan and lӧbl, 2020). centorus heydeni (zoufal, 1893) basionym: belopus heydeni zoufal, 1893 distribution: iraq (derwesh, 1965); egypt, ksa, syria, iran, and turkey (iwan and lӧbl, 2020). centorus pilosus skopin, 1974 distribution: iraq (skopin, 1974). tribe, cossyphini latreille, 1802 genus, cossyphus olivier, 1791 synonyms: acanthodactylus desbrochers des loges, 1894 acantodactylus desbrochers, 1894 acontodactylus desbrochers, 1894 paracossyphus viñolas & cartagena, 2005 cossyphus tauricus stevens, 1829 distribution: iraq (derwesh, 1965). bulgaria, greece, italy, and russia (gbif secretariat, 2022). 710 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum checklist of darkling beetles tribe, lagriini latreille, 1825 genus, lagria fabricius, 1775 synonyms: ammocera borchmann, 1941 apteronympha seidlitz, 1898 microlagria seidlitz, 1898 lagria hirta (linnaeus, 1758) basionym: chrysomela hirta linnaeus, 1758 distribution: iraq (lӧbl et al., 2008a). austria, belarus, belgium, bulgaria, china, czech, denmark, estonia, finland, france, germany, greece, hungary, hong kong, ireland, italy, jersey, latvia, lithuania, luxembourg, montenegro, netherlands, norway, poland, portugal, russia, slovakia, spain, sweden, switzerland, uk, and ukraine (gbif secretariat, 2022). (e) subfamily, stenochiinae w. kirby, 1837 tribe, stenochiini w. kirby, 1837 genus, strongylium kirby, 1819 synonyms: afrostrongylium robiche, 2019 allostrongylium kolbe, 1896 anomoearthrum maklin, 1867 bionesus kulzer, 1966 coelolophus maklin, 1867 dolichoplerus murray, 1862 ebenolus fairmaire, 1897 eustrongylium kolbe, 1894 falsolophocnemis pic, 1917 gibbostrongylium pic, 1917 messalia pascoe, 1883 microstrongylium pic, 1917 notostrongylium carter, 1915 pedostrongylium pic, 1916 poecilesthostrongylium pic, 1918 pseudocaelophus pic, 1922 pseudostrongylium carter, 1915 reminisce casey, 1924 saerangodes dejean, 1834 saerangodes sturm, 1843 strongyliastrum fairmaire, 1894 styrax westwood, 1875 xanthopopeia maklin, 1867 xanthothopia gemminger, 1870 xanthothopia lucas, 1920 xanthothopia maklin, 1864 zuercheria reitter, 1908 strongylium mesopotamicum gebien, 1911 distribution: iraq (gebien, 1911). 711 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum augul and al saffar (f) subfamily, tenebrioninae latreille, 1802 tribe, alphitobiini reitter, 1917 genus, alphitobius stephens, 1829 synonyms: heterophaga dejean, 1834 cryptops solier, 1851 proselytus fåhraeus, 1870 microphyes w. j. macleay, 1872 latetribolium lepesme, 1943 alphitobius diaperinus (panzer, 1797) basionym: tenebrio diaperinus panzer, 1797 synonym: alphitobius piceus (olivier, 1792) distribution: cosmopolitan (löbl and smetana, 2008; grimm, 2015); iran (bunalski et al., 2014b). alphitobius laevigatus (fabricius, 1792) basionym: opatrum laevigatus fabricius, 1781 synonyms: alphitobius piceus (olivier, 1792) alphitobius picipes (panzer, 1794) aphitobius piceus (olivier, 1792) distribution: iraq (kaszab, 1982); cosmopolitan (schawaller, 2010). tribe, dissonomini g.s. medvedev, 1968 genus, dissonomus jacquelin du val, 1861 dissonomus substriatus reitter, 1898 distribution: iraq (abdul-rassoul et al., 1988); turkey (tezcan et al., 2004); iran (ghahari et al., 2009). tribe, helopini latreille, 1802 genus, entomogonus solier, 1848 synonyms: delonurops reitter, 1922 eutelogonus reitter, 1922 entomogonus duchoni reitter, 1903 distribution: iraq (lӧbl et al., 2008b). turkey (nabozhenko et al., 2018). entomogonus saphyrinus allard, 1876 distribution: turkey (ferrer and soldati, 1999). iraq (lӧbl et al., 2008a). genus, hedyphanes fischer von waldheim, 1820 synonyms: coelophanes iablokoff-khnzorian, 1964 microhedyphanes nabozhenko & lillig, 2013 hedyphanes cordicollis seidllitz, 1896 distribution: it was recorded for iraq under heydyphanes cordicollis seidllitz, 1896 by gebien (1910). 712 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum checklist of darkling beetles hedyphanes mesopotamicums nabozhenko, 2005 distribution: iraq (lӧbl et al., 2008a). no more information is available about this species. genus, physohelops schuster, 1937 physohelops freyi schuster, 1937 distribution: iraq (schuster, 1937) tribe, melanimonini seidlitz, 1894 genus, anemia laporte de castelnau, 1840 anemia hauseri reitter, 1894 distribution: iraq (shalaby et al., 1967). note: the information about this species is not enough in the available literature. genus, cheirodes gené, 1839 synonyms: ammidanemia reitter, 1904 anaemia horn, 1870 anemia reitter, 1904 anemiadena ardoin, 1971 anemiadena bouchard & bousquet, 2021 cheirodes dejean, 1834 chirodes agassiz, 1846 eremonomus wollaston, 1861 cheirodes brevicollis (wollaston, 1864) basionym: pseudanemia brevicollis wollaston, 1864 synonym: anemia brevicollis (wollaston, 1864) distribution: in iraq listed under the name anemia brevicollis (wollaston, 1864) by derwesh (1965). spain, egypt, oman, turkmenistan, uzbekistan, tunisia, uae, senegal, and gambia (gbif secretariat, 2022). cheirodes drurei (pic, 1923) basionym: anemia drurei pic, 1923 distribution: iraq (löbl et al., 2008a). cheirodes hauseri (reitter, 1894) basionym: anemia hauseri reitter, 1894 distribution: iraq (shalaby et al., 1967). cheirodes sardous gené, 1839 synonym: anemia sardoa (géné, 1839) distribution: shalaby et al. (1967) listed it for iraq under the name anemia sardous gene, 1839. furthermore, löbl et al. (2008a) recorded the subspecies with the misspelling cheirodes sardus sardous gené, 1839 (correct name is cheirodes sardous sardous gené, 1839) for the insect fauna of iraq. algeria, australia, cabo verde, ethiopia, france, gambia, 713 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum augul and al saffar spain, turkey, ksa, oman, senegal, turkmenistan, tunisia, and uzbekistan (gbif secretariat, 2022). tribe, palorini matthews, 2003 genus, palorus mulsant, 1854 synonyms: caenocorse c. g. thomson, 1859 circomus fauvel, 1904 circomus fleischer, 1900 eba pascoe, 1863 platyotus gerstaecker, 1871 stenopalorus blair, 1930 palorus ratzeburgi (wissmann, 1848) basionym: hypophloeus ratzeburgii wissmann, 1848 synonym: caenocorse ratzeburgi (wissmann) distribution: iraq (hussain, 1963). austria, australia, china, france, gambia, germany, guam, italy, japan, mexico, netherlands, norway, syria, sweden, turkey, uk, and the usa (gbif secretariat, 2022). palorus subdepressus (wollaston, 1864) basionym: hypophloeus subdepressus wollaston, 1864 synonyms: caenocorse subdepressa (wollaston) circomus subdepressus (wollaston, 1864) distribution: iraq (kaszab, 1982). australia, china, france, gambia, germany, japan, lithuania, luxembourg, morocco, netherlands, poland, réunion, russia, spain, south africa, taipei, turkey, uk, and the usa (gbif secretariat, 2022). tribe, scaurini billberg, 1820 genus, scaurus fabricius, 1775 synonym: scauris rafinesque, 1815 scaurus aegyptiacus solier, 1838 distribution: iraq (shalaby et al., 1967). algeria, egypt, libya, sudan, and tunisia (lillig, 1995); italy (gbif secretariat, 2022). scaurus puncticollis solier, 1838 distribution: iraq (holdhaus, 1919; abdul-rassoul, 1976), as well gebien (1910), was reported the subspecies scaurus puncticollis macricollis allard, 1882 in iraq. furthermore, this species distributes in cyprus, and spain (gbif secretariat, 2022). scaurus striatus fabricius, 1792 distribution: iraq (ismail and husain, 2018). malta (lillig et al., 2012). scaurus tristis olivier, 1795 distribution: iraq (derwesh, 1965). france, italy, and tunisia (gbif secretariat, 2022). 714 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum checklist of darkling beetles tribe, tenebrionini latreille, 1802 genus, tenebrio linnaeus, 1758 synonyms: afrotenebrio gridelli, 1951 menedrio motschoulsky, 1872 tenenrio schönherr, 1806 tenebrio obscurus fabricius, 1792 distribution: iraq (shalaby et al., 1967). canada (majka et al., 2008), malta (lillig et al., 2012), iran (bunalski, 2014), egypt (elshewy et al., 2016), north america (bousquet et al., 2018), kuwait (amr, 2021). tenebrio opacus duftschmid, 1812 distribution: iraq (ismail, and husain, 2018); sweden, france, croatia, switzerland, poland, and denmark (gbif secretariat, 2022). tribe, triboliini gistel, 1848 genus, tribolium w. s. macleay, 1825 synonyms: aphanotus leconte, 1862 eusemostene gebien, 1940 leanum uyttenboogaart, 1934 margus dejean, 1834 margus redtenbacher, 1842 stene stephens, 1832 tribolium mulsant, 1854 tribolium castaneum herbst, 1797 basionym: collydium castaneum herbst, 1797 synonyms: scleron ferrugineum (fabricius), 1801 tenebrio ferrugineum fabricius, 1781 tribolium navale (fabricius, 1775) distribution: iraq (hussain, 1963). canada (majka et al., 2008); malta (lillig et al., 2012); egypt (elshewy et al., 2016); north america (bousquet et al., 2018); kuwait (katbeh-bader et al., 2022). tribolium confusum jacquelin du val, 1868 distribution: iraq (khalaf, 1959). canada (majka et al., 2008); iran (grimm, 2015), egypt (elshewy et al., 2016), north america (bousquet et al., 2018), kuwait (katbeh-bader et al., 2022). genus, latheticus c. o. waterhouse, 1880 latheticus oryzae c. o. waterhouse, 1880 distribution: iraq (löbl et al., 2008 c). australia, colombia, egypt, estonia, france, gambia, germany, japan, ksa, mexico, mozambique, netherlands, poland, réunion, spain, sweden, south africa, uk, usa, and yemen (gbif secretariat, 2022). 715 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum augul and al saffar conclusions in conclusion, the darkling beetle fauna of iraq represents a high diversity of species, which provides an interesting and incomplete diversity with questions about its identification and distribution in the different ecosystems. however, thanks to this updated checklist, we expect it to provide an important basis for resolving most of the issues related to the species belonging to this group in iraq. as well, it serves researchers in various studies related to the taxonomy, environmental diversity, and others. therefore, we recommend conducting further investigations about them in the different regions of iraq to determine the extent of the diversity of this group. conflict of interest statement the authors explain no conflict of interest concerning the work in a manuscript. literature cited abdel-dayem, m. s., fad, h. h., el-torkey, a. m., elgharbawy, a. a., aldryhim, y. n., kondratieff, b. c., al ansi, a. n. and aldhafer, h. m. 2017. the beetle fauna (insecta, coleoptera) of the rawdhat khorim national park, central saudi arabia. zookeys, 653: 1-78. 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(coleoptera: tenebrionidae: belopini) with description of two new species. caucasian entomological bulletin, 5(2): 211-216. [click here] http://zenodo.org/record/5429972 https://old.ssc-ras.ru/files/files/13_%20zhang%2c%20ren.pdf 724 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum checklist of darkling beetles bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2023) 17(4): 699-724. ( في العراق(coleoptera, tenebrionidaeقائمة مرجعية للخنافس الداكنة رزاق شعالن عكل و هناء هاني الصفار جامعة بغداد، بغداد، العراق-بحوث و متحف التأريخ الطبيعي مركز 20/12/2023، تأريخ النشر: 24/8/2023القبول: ، تأريخ 29/4/2023تأريخ االستالم: الخالصة عائلة (املراجعة الحالية، تم تقديم قائمة محدثة بأنواع الخنافس الداكنة خالل tenebrionidae رتبة ، (coleoptera املسجلة في العراق. استند البحث الحالي إلى دراسات سابقة في األدبيات ويحتوي على جميع الخنافس الداكنة املشار اليها في العراق، .pimelinaeباستثناء أنواع عويلة جنسا و خمسة عويالت؛ 34نوًعا يعود الى 89بينت خالصة املراجعة تواجد األسماء األساسية واملرادفات لألجناس واألنواع مع االشارة الى تضمن هذا العمل .توزيعها الجغرافي وتصحيح األسماء العلمية املذكورة في قوائم املراجعة السابقة bull 801 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2025) 18 (4): 801-814. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2025.18.4.0801 original article dna barcoding of north african catfish clarias gariepinus (burchell, 1822) (siluriformes, clariidae) from tigris river, iraq hind dyia hadi *, atheer hussain ali **and suhad hamza mohammed ali* *iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq **department of fisheries and marine resources, college of agriculture, university of basrah, basrah, iraq corresponding author: suhad.h@nhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq received: 1 may 2025, revised: 2 aug. 2025, accepted: 5 aug. 2025, published:20 december 2025 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract the conservation for biodiversity in iraqi freshwater environments is important to protecting native species from the environmental impacts of alien species. clarias gariepinus (burchell, 1822) (siluriformes, clariidae) has been recognized as an alien species in iraqi water bodies. this study aims to use molecular dna to identify this catfish and trace its origins using. the dna sequences of c. gariepinus were done using the mitochondrial dna cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (coi) gene, and a specific primer set. the polymerase chain reaction (pcr) amplification was used to align the coi gene as a barcoding marker. after analysis, the sequences were compared with sequences in the national center for biology information (ncbi) database using blast. molecular analysis and genetic sequence reconstruction revealed that the coi gene is instrumental in the genetic identification of c. gariepinus. the phylogenetic tree indicated a close genetic link between the iraqi samples and populations from china and north korea, suggesting that these may represent the closest known lineages to the origin of this species in iraq. the findings showed that the selected coi gene is a reliable indicator for tracking the origin of alien catfish populations in the iraqi environment. this study contributes to the development of molecular detection of alien species in iraq. the accession numbers lc868421 and lc868422 were employed to submit the sequences to the ncbi genbank database. keywords: commercial, culture, forward primer, reproduction, shwaka. introduction north african catfish, clarias gariepinus (burchell, 1822), is a freshwater clariid fish which occupies tropical and subtropical areas (omitoyin, 2007; barasa et al., 2014). it is a commercial fish, and commonly cultured in beyond sub-saharan africa; this catfish is subjected to variation of physicochemical criteria including human interventions, harsh bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799, print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2025.18.4.0801 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0779-0194 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2541-968x https://orcid.org/0009-0007-8737-0117 mailto:suhad.h@nhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 802 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 801-814. dna barcoding of north african catfish ecological environment e.g. temperature and salinity, accordingly it leads to an imbalance in the ecosystem (chandra segaran et al., 2023). their indigenous distribution includes lakes, reservoirs, as well as rivers throughout subsaharan africa, which additionally was imported to south america, southeast asia, and europe (truter et al., 2023). the distribution of african catfish in syria is confined to a few warm springs, with a production rate gradually increasing. semi-intensive culture is prevalent in earthen ponds, whereas intensive culture in cages is restricted to small number of farms located in large reservoirs (fao, 2025). iraq is identified to be a member of the regions where this catfish has been introduced (bartley, 2006; froese and pauly, 2024). de silva et al. (2009) revealed that about 12% of aquaculture productivity consisted of nonnative species fish. nevertheless, increasing anthropogenic activities will make tolerant non-native fish into an invasive species. singh and lakra (2011) concluded that in spite of exhibiting appealing cultural traits, typically diminish the availability of native species and invade lakes and rivers, thereby negatively impacting fish biodiversity and aquatic environments. numerous studies have focused on its growth, reproduction, and physiology due to its high economic value (nwani et al., 2014). however, there is inadequate research regarding the genetic characteristics about this catfish, particularly its mitochondrial genome (barasa et al., 2014). dna analysis is a powerful tool for investigating species' genetic structure (menezes et al., 2012; haldar and nath, 2020). dna barcoding was introduced as a swift, precise, automated, in addition to being globally accessible technique enabling species identification and differentiation (hebert et al., 2003). the procedure involves sequencing a short portion of a dna barcode from an unidentified species; it would be compared with information from a barcode database from recognized species, consequently offering an alternate to morpho-taxonomy approach (falade et al., 2016). the vertebrate cytochrome c oxidase i (coi) gene shows a phylogenetic signal compared to numerous other genes (boopathi et al., 2004; strüder-kypke and lynn, 2010). this study aims to use the coi gene to carry out a dna identification with phylogenetic study of african catfish in tigris river. materials and methods study area: the shwaka region is an old residential neighborhood next to al-karkh in the baghdad, situated on both banks of the tigris river, within coordinates 33°20′16″n, 44°23′15″e. its location is shown on the map of iraq (map 1). sample collection: a total of two mature north african catfish, clarias gariepinus, were collected by fishermen using gill nets in june 2024. the samples ranged in length from 550 to 630 mm and in body weight from 470 to 565 g. the fish were transported in a temperature-controlled container with crushed ice to the laboratory of the iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad. 803 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hadi et al. map (1): sampling areas. (designed by arcgis online https://www.arcgis.com/index.html) dna extraction: dna was isolated from two specimens of clarias gariepinus, using approximately 20 mg of muscle tissue from the right pectoral fin, which was immediately conserved within absolute ethanol (100%) with a dna extraction kit (addbio/korea, cat. no. 10023). genomic dna was isolated according to sambrook et al. (1989) then analyzed by 1% agarose gel electrophoresis, afterwards visualized using a uv transilluminator. the final concentration and purity of dna extractions were assessed using nanodrop by analyzing 2 μl of each dna sample at two wavelengths (260 and 280 nm). amplification and polymerase chain reaction pcr: a fragment of approximately 455 base pairs was amplified from the 5' region of the coi gene using universal fish primers. the forward primer fish f1 5’ (ctagcaggtgtctcatcaattct) 3’ and the reverse primer fish r1 5’ (gctcgggtgtctacatctattc) 3’ are listed in table (1). the temperature profile involved the starting denaturation step around 94ºc about 5 minutes, afterwards undergoing 35 cycles of 94ºc for 30 seconds, 52ºc within 30 seconds, then 72ºc for 30 seconds, concluding with a final extension at 72ºc for 5 minutes followed by a hold at 4ºc. the pcr results were analyzed using 1.5% agarose gel electrophoresis at 70 volts throughout 60 minutes. the pcr products were transferred to macrogen (korea) for bidirectional sequencing using the sanger method. 804 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 801-814. dna barcoding of north african catfish table (1): details of polymerase chain reaction composition component component volume gotaq green master mix 25 μl f primer 2 μl r primer 2 μl template dna 4 μl nuclease-free water 17 μl total reaction volume 50 μl data analysis: the sequencing of the pcr products was sent to macrogen / korea using the forward and reverse primers. the findings have been analyzed via bioedit software. data of a similar organism’s genomes located in the national center for biotechnology information (ncbi) genbank which had already been studied in numerous countries around the world utilizing the basic local alignment search tool (blast), were compared through multiple sequence alignment. sequencing results indicated 97–99% concordance with reference sequences by molecular evolutionary genetics analysis (mega x), and a molecular phylogenetic tree was constructed through maximum likelihood (ml) to estimate genetic variation among sequences. the degree of precision of the derived phylogenies was evaluated using the 500 bootstrap replicates (kumar et al., 2018). results a total of two mature clarias gariepinus were identified, following the classification established by hadi et al. (2024). order: siluriformes family: clariidae clarias gariepinus (burchell, 1822) (pl. 1). common names: north african catfish. synonyms: silurus gariepinus burchell, 1822 macropteronotus charmuth lacepède, 1803 clarias capensis valenciennes, 1840. plate (1): lateral view of clarias gariepinus. the selected gene of c. gariepinus underwent pcr amplification, followed by electrophoresis of the products, which were subsequently visualized using a uv transilluminator. the final amplified product was 455 bp in size for the coi gene. https://www.fishbase.se/summary/familysummary.php?id=139 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/getref.asp?id=17293 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/getref.asp?id=17293 805 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hadi et al. sequencing of the coi gene was conducted to ascertain the genotype of c. gariepinus obtained from baghdad. the examination of a gene's sequence involves the use of forward and reverse primers, which are essential components of the technique of sequencing. the findings from the nucleotide alignment showed 97 to 98% identity with c. gariepinus sequences in genbank showing the identities varied from 97% to 98% with c. gariepinus (tab. 2). partial cds of the mitochondrial gene coi were matched with the corresponding reference sequence accessible within the gene bank at the ncbi. diagrams (1, 2) exhibited that the partial sequence in addition to the pairwise sequence comparison was performed on the sequenced samples. the current findings revealed a total of 455 base pairs at the 5' end for the coi mtdna region in two sequenced samples. the optimal phylogenetic tree was derived from partitioned maximum likelihood; the analysis illustrated the genetic relationships among the studied samples, as depicted in diagram (3), showing two sub-branches. one branch showed that the local sample c1 (c. gariepinus) constituted a sister group to the local sample c2 (c. gariepinus). a genetic affinity was detected between the local samples (c1 and c2) and the reference sequences of c. gariepinus from north korea (km261768) and china (nc_027661), derived from the same gene. another branch shown to be local samples (c1 and c2) exhibited a resemblance to the conventional sequencing of c. gariepinus for the identical gene from hungary (kt809508.1), germany (xm_053485204), united kingdom (pq197863.1), and netherlands (xm_053485208.1). table (2): sample ids showing similarity searches in sequence alignment reference copy (ncbi data) scientific name country percentage of identity % accession number for our study sample id nc_027661 clarias gariepinus china 98.72% lc868421 c1 km261768 clarias gariepinus north korea 98.72 % kt809508.1 clarias gariepinus hungary 97.19 % xm_053485204 clarias gariepinus germany 97.19 % pq197863.1 clarias gariepinus united kingdom 99.08% lc868422 c2 nc_027661 clarias gariepinus china 99.23 % km261768.1 clarias gariepinus north korea 99.23 % xm_053485208.1 clarias gariepinus netherlands 97.19 % 806 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 801-814. dna barcoding of north african catfish diagram (1): pairwise alignment of partial coding sequences of the cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 mitochondrial (coi) gene from c. gariepinus (c1) the query is the specimen sequence, and the subject is the genbank sequence. 807 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hadi et al. diagram (2): pairwise alignment of partial cds, cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 mitochondrial (coi) gene of clarias gariepinus (c2) the query is the specimen sequence, and the subject is the genbank sequence. 808 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 801-814. dna barcoding of north african catfish diagram (3): phylogenetic tree of clarias gariepinus produced using partial sequences of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit i (coi) gene. the tree has been produced via the maximum likelihood (ml) method within mega x software, with 500 bootstrap replicates to assess node support. local samples (c1 and c2) show high similarity to reference sequences from c. gariepinus originating from different countries. discussions advancements in sequencing technology are becoming indispensable in ecology, evolution, and conservation through allowing swift species identification by dna barcoding while markedly decreasing costs and time; mainly sequencing offers significant opportunities to biologists; it was aligned with developments in computing and sequencing technologies, which allowed for the rapid creation of a library of dna barcodes applicable to all known species (page, 2016; gostel and kress, 2022). the present study demonstrated that the selected portions of the coi gene were chosen due to their extensive taxonomic representation in nucleotide databases. the coi gene has shown accuracy in studies of genetic variation and geographic distribution across numerous fish species. the findings have revealed that the slow mutation rate of the coi gene designates it as an optimal dna marker for conducting genetic research (antoniou and magoulas, 2014). many works have exhibited that dna polymorphism for c. gariepinus is a little high (galbusera, 1997; barasa et al., 2014). registration of c. gariepinus genes in the ncbi genbank database will highlight the importance of monitoring exotic species in iraq. the utilization of coi gene sequencing as a molecular marker was designed to provide high correctness and particularity, as prior research had looked at fish phylogeny with the coi gene in mtdna. in this investigation, the c. gariepinus was caught, classified and identified, depending on its morphological features. in most cases using morphological 809 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hadi et al. characteristics alone in the identification of fauna species is complex, absence of up-to-date taxonomic revisions, new combination and arising synonyms, according to continuous changes in nomenclature rules may prevent accurate identification of exotic species (rosen and bailey, 1963; koutsikos et al., 2017). when utilizing mtdna sequencing to fix their species differences, molecular data are definitive for identifying the alien species (schories et al., 2009; ho et al., 2016). the assessment of species is necessary for preventing biodiversity impairment. a dna barcoding is considered as powerful tool be in control of the proliferation of invasive species, the observation of freshwater habitat, and helping the rapid identification of alien fish globally. these genetic means improve management efficiency by helping in the reduction of repeated introductions along with the limiting or eradication of non-native fish populations (agdamar and tarkan, 2019). according to this study, the phylogenetic tree of the coi gene in iraqi c. gariepinus samples showed a high degree of genetic similarity to populations in china and north korea, revealing a common ancestor. van der walt et al. (1993) uncovered significant evidence for inheritance with mutations in most cage populations when analyzing the genetic variety in c. gariepinus. popoola et al. (2014) stated that the gradual elimination of species genetically varied in nature as a result of hatchery-raised fish escaping or fries being released which may make c. gariepinus vulnerable to loss of genetic diversity and variability. ezilrani and christopher (2015) found that genetic variation among fish species enhances adaptation to changing environmental conditions, which may arise from spontaneous mutations or migration to genetically distinct populations. the present findings align with the study of han et al. (2015), who applied the coi gene to characterize catfishes, specifically c. gariepinus in china. the complete mitochondrial genome sequence of c. gariepinus was sequenced using 17 primer pairs. diyaware et al. (2018) studied the genetic variation regarding wild with farmed populations of c. gariepinus throughout nigeria to enhance the species via selective breeding; dna sequencing findings reveal a close genetic link between these strains. chalermwong et al. (2023) studied the coi, cytochrome b (cytb) genes, and d-loop sequences of 37 catfish species. the cytb gene was determined as particularly suitable for differentiating catfish and can be considered a standard region for dna barcoding due to its greater sequence variability. conclusions this study represents the first to genetic investigation of the exotic fish african catfish in iraqi freshwater ecosystem, with findings documented in the ncbi genbank, performing as a reference sequence in the ncbi database (id: lc868421, lc868422). the african catfish, is classified as c. gariepinus. the results confirmed the identity of the specimens as c. gariepinus, an exotic species now established in the different parts of tigris river. dna barcoding using the coi gene has demonstrated efficacy as a precise instrument for genetic identification, with the obtained sequences showing high similarity to reference populations 810 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 801-814. dna barcoding of north african catfish from china and north korea, suggesting a possible shared lineage or introduction route. this work might be regarded as a new study on biodiversity and exotic fish species in the tigris river. the significant expansion of c. gariepinus may pose a threat to indigenous fish species, alter the local ecosystem, and indicate rising levels of pollutants. acknowledgments we express our sincere gratitude to prof. dr. hula younis fadhil al-sadi (college of science, university of baghdad) and dr. azhar a. jaffar (marshes research center, university of thi-qar) for their invaluable guidance and contributions to the molecular aspects of this study. conflict of interest statement "the author has no conflicts of interest to declare". declaration of editorial involvement the first and second authors declare that they serve as a member of the editorial board of this journal. the manuscript was processed strictly in accordance with the journal’s standard editorial procedures, including assignment to independent peer reviewers and management by an editor with no conflict of interest. the authors had no involvement in the editorial handling or decision-making process. litereature cited agdamar, s. and tarkan, a. s. 2019. high genetic diversity in an invasive freshwater fish species, carassius gibelio, suggests establishment success at the frontier between native and invasive ranges. zoologischer anzeiger, 283: 192-200. 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[crossref] singh, a. k. and lakra, w. s. 2011. risk and benefit assessment of alien fish species of the aquaculture and aquarium trade into india. reviews in aquaculture, 3(1): 3-18. [crossref] strüder--kypke, m. c. and lynn, d. h. 2010. comparative analysis of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit i (coi) gene in ciliates (alveolata, ciliophora) and evaluation of its suitability as a biodiversity marker. systematics and biodiversity, 8(1): 131-148. [crossref] truter, m., hadfield, k. a. and smit, n. j. 2023. chapter two review of the metazoan parasites of the economically and ecologically important african sharptooth catfish clarias gariepinus in africa: current status and novel records. advances in parasitology, 119: 65-222. [crossref] van der walt, l. d., van der bank, f. h. and steyn, g. j. 1993. the suitability of using cryopreservation of spermatozoa for the conservation of genetic diversity in african catfish (clarias gariepinus). comparative biochemistry and physiology, 106(2): 313-318. [crossref] https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2015.0334 https://hrcak.srce.hr/119831 http://hdl.handle.net/2246/1123 https://www.cabdirect.org/cabdirect/abstract/19901616061 https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.2266.1.2 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1753-5131.2010.01039.x https://doi.org/10.1080/14772000903507744 https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.apar.2022.11.001 https://doi.org/10.1016/0300-9629(93)90519-a 814 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 801-814. dna barcoding of north african catfish bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2025) 18 (4): 801-814. clarias gariepinus (burchell, 1822) ترميز الحمض النووي لجري شمال افريقيا siluriformes, clariidae) ) العراق ،في نهر دجلة اثير حسين علي ** و سهاد حمزه محمد* ، هند ضياء هادي* جامعة بغداد، بغداد، العراق -*مركز بحوث ومتحف التاريخ الطبيعي العراق ،ةالبصر البصرة،جامعة -كلية الزراعة والبحرية،** قسم الثروة السمكية 20/12/2025، النشر: 5/8/2025القبول: ،2/8/2025املراجعة: ،1/5/2025االستالم: الخالصة ُيعد الحفاظ على التنوع الحيوي في النظم البيئية للمياه العذبة الداخلية في العراق أمًرا بالغ األهمية لحماية األنواع األصلية من التأثيرات البيئية التي تسببها األنواع الغريبة. وقد تم تحديد clarias gariepinus (burchell, 1822) (siluriformes, clariidae) سمك جري شمال أفريقيا وراثًيا النوع هذا تحديد إلى الدراسة هذه هدفت العراقية. املائية املسطحات في غريب كنوع وتتبع أصله الساللي باستخدام الحمض النووي. ِدَم ْ ْسُتخ ُ مجموعة بادئات خاصة، وتقنية فضال عن ، ( كجين ترميزي coiجين امليتوكوندريا )ا الذي تمت coi(، لتضخيم مقطع جين pcrالتضخيم بواسطة التفاعل التسلسلي للبوليميرا ) .blastباستخدام أداة ncbiمواءمته الحًقا مع تسلسالت موجودة في قاعدة بيانات لتحديد النوع coiأن جين ،التحليالت الجزيئية وإعادة بناء الشجرة الوراثية بينت ً ُيعد فعاال وتلك العراقية العينات بين وثيقة جينية إلى وجود عالقة الوراثية الشجرة أشارت وراثًيا، كما من التجمعات هذه تكون أن احتمالية إلى يشير مما الشمالية، وكوريا الصين الى تنتمي التي املحدد coiوأظهرت النتائج أن جين أقرب السالالت املعروفة التي تمثل أصل النوع في العراق. سهم هذه يعد مؤشرا موثوقا لتتبع أصل مجموعات سمك السلور الغريبة في البيئة العراقية ُ . وت النتائج تسجيل تم حيث العراق، في الغريبة لألنواع الجزيئي الرصد نظام تطوير في الدراسة بيانات بـ. ncbi (id: lc868421, lc868422)كمرجع في قاعدة بنك الجينات الخاص ضمن ncbi. bull 589 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum jihad, h. m. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2023) 17(4): 589-610. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2023.17.4.0589 original article checklist of bivalvia (mollusca) in iraq hiba mohammed jihad iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq. e-mail: hiba.muhammad@nhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq recived date: 22 february 2023, accepted date 30 june 2023, published date:20 december 2023 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract this study presents a comprehensive list of the freshwater and marine bivalves distributed in iraq. a total of 51 species were recorded, and distributed as: 14 freshwater species, and 37 marine species, these species belonging to 25 families, all available remarks on the distribution, taxonomy, and nomenclature of these species were given. this study included the recently collected specimens along with those previously studied and recorded in iraq. keywords: bivalvia, checklist, freshwater, iraq, marine, mussels. introduction iraq is characterized by having diverse aquatic environments that include a marine coast, rivers, marshes, and lakes that support the biodiversity of various biological groups (including bivalvia); the tigris and euphrates rivers are the iraqi main water resources. the iraqi marine coast represent the north-west part of the arabian gulf occupies an area of 64 km (abbas et al., 2020), from the arabian gulf which has a surface area 239 km² and differs from it due to the effect of sediments transferred from shatt al-arab (al-shamary et al., 2020). a few studies concerned with the systematic study of mussels in iraq were conducted, and many of the recorded species are considered synonyms for other species, many others are needed to be updated. in the earlier studies annandale (1918) described some bivalve species of his collections from iraq; some bivalvian species were described by ahmed (1975), another species of bivalve were recorded in iraq by al-hassan and al-hasani(1985), five more marine species were added to iraqi malacofauna by ali et al. (2017), recently, bogan et al. (2021) recorded the freshwater mussel sinanodonta woodiana (lea, 1834) in iraq; then yasser et al. (2022) published a checklist that included the marine species, in this checklist, 32 taxa were reported including four species were described for the first time to iraqi malacofauna, lastly, six other marine species were added to malacofauna of iraq by yasser et al. (2023) and bashê (2022) made a study about the freshwater mussel unio tigridis in the north of iraq. bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799-print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2023.17.4.0589 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4330-9350 mailto:hiba.muhammad@nhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 590 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum checklist of bivalvia the current data will be important inputs for a better understanding of the mussel's biodiversity in iraq. as with all lists, this list will undoubtedly require to be revised as additional research evidence becomes available. therefore, the present paper aimed to study the biodiversity of bivalves and provide a comprehensive list of this group distributed in iraq. materials and methods sampling: the specimens of the present study were collected by hand or by means of sieves, and then preserved in ethanol solution 70% (forsyth, 1999). dried shells were also collected and preserved. the first collection was made from the euphrates river north of babylon, in october 2021, six alive specimens were collected. the second collection was from the tigris river, north of baghdad, in october 2021, three alive specimens were collected. the third collection made from the canal of euphrates river north of babylon, in november 2021, about 30 shells were collected. in april 2022, four more specimens were obtained from the tigris river in almadain district, southeast baghdad, and four more specimens were obtained from the aldalmaj marsh in april 2023. these specimens are deposited in the collection of mollusks at the iraqi natural history research center and museum. identification: the identification of specimens was made according to many morphological characteristics such as shell shape, length, width, high and texture, and on the base of many identification keys and available literatures such as popa et al.( 2007) and rogers and thorp( 2019). in order to correct and standardize the scientific names, all taxon names were checked by gbif secretariat (2022), molluscabase (2023) and worms (2023), the reference to the original description was based on molluscabase (2023). results the current study recorded 51 species in total, distributed as: 14 freshwater species and 37 marine species within 12 orders, 25 families, and 43 genera. these taxa as follows: class: bivalvia 1-order: adapedonta family: solenidae solen vagina linnaeus, 1758 original description: solen vagina linnaeus, 1758. systema natura, 1:824pp. synonyms: solen brevis hanley, 1842 solen abbreviates r. a. philippi, 1843 habitat: marine distribution: iraq (ahmed, 1975). turkey (uysal, 1967); thailand (saeedi et al., 2016), vietnam (ambarwati and irawan, 2020). 2-order: arcida (a) family: arcidae acar plicata (dillwyn, 1817) 591 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum jihad, h. m. original description: arca plicata dillwyn, 1817. a descriptive catalogue of recent shells, arranged according to the linnean method; with particular attention to the synonymy, 1: 1580pp. synonyms: acar dubia digma iredale, 1939 acar dubiakerma iredale, 1939 arca irioides menke, 1843 habitat: marine. distribution: iraq (yasser et al., 2023). kuwait, arabian gulf (al-kandari et al., 2020). anadara uropigimelana (bory de saint-vincent, 1827) original description: arca uropigimelana bory de saint-vincent, 1827. tableau encyclopédique et méthodique des trois règnes de la nature. vers, coquilles, mollusques et polypiers.1: part29, pp83-84, 133-180. synonyms: anadara holoserica (reeve, 1843) arca holoserica reeve, 1843 anadara (anadara) uropigimelana (bory de saint-vincent, 1827) habitat: marine. distribution: iraq, it was recorded as arca uropyogomelana a miss spelling of arca uropigimelana bory de saint-vincent, 1827 by ahmed (1975). red sea and gulf of aqaba (rusmore-villaume, 2008); central pacific (tebano and paulay, 2000). barbatia decussata (sowerby, 1833) original description: byssorca decussata sowerby, 1833.proceedings of the zoological society of london. 1833: 16-22, 34-38. synonyms: arca decussate (sowerby, 1833) habitat: marine. distribution: iraq (ali et al., 2017). kuwait (al-yamani et al., 2012); iran (zeinalipour et al., 2014). barbatia foliata (forsskål, 1775) arca foliata forskål, 1775. post mortem auctoris edidit carsten niebuhr. hauniae, 1-20. synonyms: arca lima reeve, 1844 arca corallicola iredale, 1939 arca nivea röding, 1798 habitat: marine. distribution: it was recorded in iraq under the name arca foliate forsskål, 1775 by ahmed (1975). red sea (rusmore-villaume, 2008), china (tan and kastoro, 2004), and western central pacific (poutiers, 1998). barbatia trapezina (lamarck, 1819) original description: arca trapezina lamarck, 1819. histoire naturelle des animaux sans vertebres. 6(1):5+343 pp. synonyms: arca areolata deshayes, 1858 barbatia oblonga dunker, 1868 592 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum checklist of bivalvia barbatia petersii dunker, 1871 habitat: marine. distribution: iraq (yasser et al., 2022). al-kuwait (al-kandari et al., 2020), and red sea (rusmore-villaume, 2008). (b) family: neotiidae didimacar tenebrica (reeve, 1844) original description: arca tenebrica reeve, 1844. conchologia iconica, or, illustrations of the shells of molluscous animals, 2: 1-17. synonyms: barbatia koshibensis hatai & nishiyama, 1952 didimacar repenta iredale, 1939 striarca tenebrica (reeve, 1844) habitat: marine. distribution: iraq (yasser et al., 2022). kuwait (al-kandari et al., 2020). (c) family: spondylidae spondylus foliaceus schreibers, 1793 original description: spondylus foliaceus schreibers, 1793. zweyter band. von den muscheln, pp. (1-9), 1-416. synonyms: spondylus costatus lamarck, 1819 spondylus digitatus perry, 1811 spondylus nux reeve, 1856 habitat: marine. distribution: iraq, it was recorded as spondylus costatus lamarck, 1819 by ahmed (1975). indo-pacific (lamprell and willan, 2000). 3-order: cardiida (a) family: cardiidae vasticardium assimile (reeve, 1844) original description: cardium lacunosum reeve, 1845. conchologia iconica, or, illustrations of the shells of molluscous animals, 2, pl.1-22. synonyms: acrosterigma lacunosum (reeve, 1845) trachycardium lacunosum (reeve, 1845) habitat: marine. distribution: in iraq, it was recorded as acrosterigma lacunose (reeve, 1845) by yasser et al. (2023). kuwait and arabian gulf (al-kandari et al., 2020). vasticardium flavum (linnaeus, 1758) original description: cardium flavum linnaeus, 1758. editio decima, reformata (10th ed.), 1: 824pp. synonyms: cardium fucatum spengler, 1799 acrosterigma flavum flavum (linnaeus, 1758) habitat: marine. 593 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum jihad, h. m. distribution: iraq, it was recorded as laevicardium flavum (linnaeus, 1758) by ahmed (1975). indo-pacific (vidal, 1997). (b) family: psammobiidae gari occidens (gmelin, 1791) original description: solen occidens gmelin, 1791. systema natura, 1(6). synonyms: psammobia nivosa deshayes, 1855 dysmea vitrea dall, batsch& rehder, 1938 solen occidens gmelin, 1791 habitat: marine distribution: iraq (yasser et. al., 2022). eastern pacific (coan, 2000). (c) family: semelidae theora mesopotamica (annandale, 1918) original description: corbula (eeodona) mesopotamica annandale, 1018. records of indian museum. 15(3): 159-170. synonyms: abra cadabra eames & wilkins, 1957 corbula mesopotamica annandale, 1918 theora cadabra (eames & wilkins, 1957) habitat: marine and brackish. distribution: it was recorded in iraq as corbula (erodona) mesopatamica annandale, 1918 annandale (1918). kuwait (al-yamani et al., 2012). 4-order: carditida family: condylocardiidae carditopsis coxii (eames & wilkins, 1957) original description: cuna coxi eames & wilkins, 1957. proceeding of the malacological society of london, 32(5): 198-203. synonyms: cuna coxi eames & wilkins, 1957 habitat: marine. distribution: iraq (yasser et al., 2022). 5-order: myida (a) family: dreissenidae dreissena polymorpha (pallas, 1771) original description: mytulus polymorphus pallas, 1771. reise durch verschiedene provinzen des russischen reichs. 12, 504, 6 p. synonyms: dreissena locardi locard, 1893 dreissena kuesteri dunker, 1855 materials examined: three specimens, tigris river, baghdad, october 2021. habitat: brackish-water, freshwater. distribution: iraq (al-rawy, 2005). turkey (aksu et al., 2017), black and the caspian sea basins, and spreads across europe (karatayev et al., 1997). 594 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum checklist of bivalvia dreissena siouffi bourguignat, 1893 original description: dreissena siouffi bourguignat, 1893. revue suisse de zoologie, 1(1): 113-185. synonyms: dreissena elongatalocard, 1893 dreissena elongata bourguignat, 1893 habitat: freshwater. distribution: iraq, euphrates river (locard, 1893). (b) family: pholadidae aspidopholas tubigera (valenciennes, 1846) original description: penitella tubigera valenciennes, 1846. atlas de zoologia. mollusques. synonyms: martesiaobtecta (g. b. sowerby ii, 1849) pholasobtecta g. b. sowerby ii, 1849 habitat: marine distribution: iraq, it was recorded as aspidopholas obtecta (sowerby, 1849) by yasser et al. (2022). southeastern thailand (valentich-scott and tongkerd, 2008), pacific region (wonc, 1982). 6-order: mytilida family: mytilidae brachidontes variabilis (krauss, 1848) original description: mytilus variabilis krauss, 1848. die südafrikanischen mollusken,140 pp. synonyms: brachidontes semistriatus (krauss, 1848) mytilus variabilis krauss, 1848 habitat: marine distribution: iraq, it was recorded under the name brachyodontes variabilis (krauss, 1848) by ahmed (1975). indo-pacific regions (shin et al., 2008), red sea and gulf of suez (rusmorevillaume, 2008). limnoperna fortunei (dunker, 1857) original description: volsella fortunei dunker, 1857. proceedings of the zoological society of london, 24: 358-366. synonyms: limnoperna coreana park &choi, 2008 modiola cambodjensis clessin, 1889 mytilus martensi neumayer, 1898 habitat: freshwater distribution: iraq (al-khafaji et al., 2022). china (xu, 2015). lithophaga robusta jousseaume, 1919 original description: lithophaga robusta jousseaume, 1919. bulletin du museum national d histoire naturelle. 25: 252257, 344-350. habitat: marine distribution: iraq (ali et al., 2017). indo-pacific (oliver et al., 2004). 595 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum jihad, h. m. mytilus edulis linnaeus, 1758 original description: mytilus edulis linnaeus, 1758. systema natura, 10 (ed), 1: 824pp. synonyms: mytilus abbreviates lamarck, 181 mytilus borealislamarck, 1819 mytilus retusus lamarck, 1819 habitat: marine distribution: iraq (okash et al., 2022). arabian gulf (okash et al., 2022), and western europe (hilbish et al., 2002). 7-order: nuculanida family: yoldiidae scissileda tropica (melvill, 1897) original description: yoldia tropica melvill, 1897. memoris and proceedings of the manchester litterary and philosophical society, 41(7): 1-25. synonyms: yoldia vicina e. a. smith, 1906 habitat: marine distribution: iraq (yasser et al., 2023). kuwait (al-kandari et al., 2020). 8-order: ostreida (a) family: isognomonidae isognomon legumen (gmelin, 1791) original description: ostrea legumen gmelin, 1791. systema natura, 1(6). synonyms: isognomon vulsella (lamarck, 1819) perna caudate reeve, 1858 perna spengleri lynge, 1909 perna maillardi deshayes, 1863 habitat: marine distribution: iraq (yasser et al., 2022). mediterranean (scuderi and viola, 2019), and red sea (rusmore-villaume, 2008). (b) family: malleidae malleus regula (forsskål, 1775) original description: ostrea regula forsskål, 1775. post mortem auctoris edidit carsten niebuhr. hauniae, 1-20, 1-34, 1-164. synonyms: malleus aquatilis reeve, 1858 malleus decurtatus lamarck, 1819 malleus maculosus reeve, 1858 habitat: marine distribution: iraq (yasser et al., 2022).turkey (falchi, 1974). (c) family: margaritidae pinctada radiata (leach, 1814) original description: avicula radiate leach, 1814. zoological miscellany: being descriptions of new or interesting animals. london, vol 1, 2, 3. 596 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum checklist of bivalvia synonyms: meleagrina savignyi monterosato, 1884 pinctada imbricata radiata (leach, 1814) habitat: marine. distribution: iraq, recorded as pinctada imbricate radiata (leach, 1814) (yasser et al., 2022). eastern mediterranean (doğan and nerlović, 2008), red sea (rousmore-villum, 2008). (d) family: ostreidae saccostrea cuccullata (born, 1778) original description: ostrea cuccullata born, 1778. index rerum naturalium musei caesarei vindobonensis. pars i.ma. testacea, (1-40), 1-458, (1-82). synonyms: saccostrea cuccullata (born, 1778) saccostrea forskahlii (gmelin, 1791) habitat: marine. distribution: iraq, firstly recorded as ostrea sp. (mitchell, 1958), later the species recorded under the name crassostrea cucullata (born, 1778) by ahmed (1975). turkey (çevik et al., 2001), africa (dye, 1989), red sea (rusmore-villaume, 2008(. (e) family: pinnidae pinna bicolor gmelin, 1971 original description: pinna bicolor gmelin, 1971. systema natura, 1:6. synonyms: artina bicolor (gmelin, 1971) pinna cochlearis h. fischer, 1901 habitat: marine. distribution: iraq (ali et al., 2017). kuwait (al-yamani et al., 2012). 9-order: pectinida (a) family: pectinidae scaeochlamys livida (lamarck, 1819) original description: pecten lividus lamarck, 1819. histoire naturelle des animaux sans vertebres, 6(1): 6, 343pp. synonyms: ostrea tegula w. wood, 1828 pecten lividus lamarck, 1819 habitat: marine. distribution: iraq, it was recorded as chlamys lividis (lamarck, 1819) by ali et al. (2017). kuwait (al-yamani et al., 2012). (b) family: placunidae placuna placenta (linnaeus, 1758) original description: anomia placenta linnaeus, 1758. systema natura.(10th ed.). 1:824pp. synonyms: placenta auriculata mörch, 1853 placenta orbicularis philipsson, 1788 ephippium transparens röding, 1798 habitat: marine. 597 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum jihad, h. m. distribution: iraq, it was recorded as placenta placenta (linnaeus, 1758) by (ahmed (1975). indo-west pacific (mondal et al., 2020). 10-order: spheriida family: sphaeriidae pisidium dubium (say, 1817) original description: cyclas dubia say, 1817. american edition of the british encyclopedia, or, dictionary of arts and sciences comprising an accurate and popular view of the present improved state of human knowledge. (1st ed.). synonyms: cyclas aequalis férussac, 1835 cyclas (phymesoda) equalis rafinesque, 1820 cyclas (pisidium) dubium (say, 1817) habitat: freshwater. distribution: iraq (mirza and nashaat, 2019). canada, united states (herrington, 1962). 11-order: unionida family: unionidae anodonta vescoiana bourguignat, 1856 original citation: anodonta vescoiana bourguignat, 1856. aménités malacologiques. 6,255pp. synonyms: anodonta bahlikiana pallary, 1939 anodonta schlaefliimousson, 1874 anodonta vescoiana subsp. mesopotamica mousson, 1874 anodonta vescoiana var. schlaeflii mousson, 1874 anodonta (euphrata) bahlikianapallary, 1939 sinanodonta vescoiana (bourguignat, 1856) habitat: freshwater distribution: in iraq, it was recorded as anodonta bahlikiana pallary, 1939 by pallary (1939), this species is endemic to the euphrates and tigris rivers, iraq and turkey (molluscabase, 2023). asia minor (kinzelbach, 1989). remark: according to the iucn red list, this species in iraq is near threatened of extinction in the near future (lopes-lima, 2014). leguminaia saulcyi (bourguignat, 1852) original citation: unio saulcyi bourguignat, 1852.testacea novissima, (1), 5-31. synonyms: pseudodon chantrei locard, 1883 unio michonii bourguignat, 1852 unio saulcyi bourguignat, 1852 habitat: freshwater distribution: iraq (harris, 1965). levant region (kinzelbach and roth, 1984). leguminaia wheatleyi (lea, 1862) basionym: monocondyloea wheatleyi lea, 1862 (original citation not documented according to molluscabase (2023)). 598 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum checklist of bivalvia synonyms: leguminaia mardinensis (i. lea, 1865) monocondyloea haasii kobelt, 1914 habitat: freshwater distribution: iraq, it was recorded as monocondyloea wheatleyi lea, 1862 by lea (1862); levant region (kinzelbach and roth, 1984). potomida semirugata (lamarck, 1819) original citation: unio semirugata lamarck, 1819. histoire naturelle des animaux sans vetebres, 6(1): 5, 343pp. synonyms: potamida delesserti (bourguignat, 1852) potamida tracheae ( kobelt & rolle, 1895) habitat: freshwater distribution: iraq, recorded as unio salambonia lamarck, 1819 by pallary (1939); mediterranean region (froufe et al., 2016). pseudodontopsis euphratica (bourguignat, 1852) original citation: unio euphratica bourguignat, 1852. testacea novissima, (1), 5-31. synonyms: pseudodontopsis babylonica kobelt, 1913 unio euphraticus bourguignat, 1852 by ahmed (1975) habitat: freshwater. distribution: in iraq, it was recorded under the name pseudodontopsis babylonica kobelt, 1913 by pallary (1939). endemic to the eastern mediterranean regions, in the middle and lower sections of the tigris and euphrates basin (lopes-lima et al., 2021). sinanodonta woodiana (lea, 1834) original citation: symphynota woodiana lea, 1834. transactions of the american philosophical society, 5:23-119, 1-19. synonyms: anodon castanea heude, 1880 anodon confusa heude, 1881 materials examined: four specimens, euphrates river, babylon, october 2021, four specimens, tigris river, baghdad, april 2022. habitat: freshwater. distribution: in iraq, this species was recorded by bogan et al. (2021). east and south-east asia, and introduced to europe (popa et al., 2007). unio crassus philipsson, 1788 original citation: unio crassus philipsson, 1788. dissertatio historico-naturalis sistens nova testaceorum genera, 4,23pp. synonyms: unio tiguricus servain, 1885 unio croaticus drouët, 1881 unio ehrmanni kobelt, 1913 material examined: two specimens euphrates river, babylon, october 2021. habitat: freshwater. 599 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum jihad, h. m. distribution: iraq, it was recorded as unio ciconius kobelt, 1913 by annandale (1918). western palearctic (araujo et al., 2017). unio tigridis bourguignat, 1852 original citation: unio tigridis bourguignat, 1852. testacea novissima, (1), 5-31. synonyms: unio calliopsis kobelt, 1913 margaron tigris lea, 1870 unio bourguignatianus lea, 1863 unio dignatus lea, 1863 unio mosulensis lea, 1863 habitat: freshwater. distribution: iraq, it was listed as unio calliopsis kobelt, 1913 by annandale (1918). middle east (graf and cummings, 2007). 12-order: venerida (a) family: cyrinidae corbicula fluminalis (o.f. müller, 1774) original citation: tellina fluminalis o.f. müller, 1774. vermivm terrestrium et fluviatilum, 1: 1-136. synonyms: corbicula aegyptiaca germain, 1906 corbicula albeda (krauss, 1848) corbicula artini pallary, 1902 materials examined: 30 shells, canal of euphrates river, babylon, november 2021. habitat: freshwater. distribution: iraq (ahmed, 1975).wide range in africa, asia, europe, north america, and south america (freitas, 2010). corbicula fluminea (o.f.müller, 1774) original citation: tellina fluminea o.f. müller, 1774.vermivm terrestrium et fluviatilum, 2: 1-36, 1-214. synonyms: corbicula aquiline heudo, 1880 corbicula astronomoca heudo, 1880 corbicula cheniana heudo, 1880 materials examined: four specimens, al-dalmaj marsh, april 2023. habitat: freshwater. distribution: iraq (ahmed, 1975). eastern asia, south america, north america, and europe (crespo et al., 2015). (b) family: mactridae mactra dissimilis reeve, 1854 original citation: mactra dissimilis reeve, 1854. conchologia iconica, 8:1-21. synonyms: mactra lilacea lamarck, 1818 mactra dissimilis deshayes, 1855 habitat: marine. 600 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum checklist of bivalvia distribution: iraq (ahmed, 1975). australia (reeve, 1854), and singapore (wong, 2009). (c)family: trapezidae neotrapezium sublaevigatum (lamarck, 1819) original citation: cardita sublaevigata lamarck, 1819. histoire naturelle des animaux sans vertebres, 6(1): 6, 343pp. synonyms: cardita sinuosa potiez & michaud, 1844 · cardita sublaevigata lamarck, 1819 · cypricardia solenoidsreeve, 1843 · cypricardia vellicata reeve, 1843 · libitina sublaevigata lamarck, 1819 · petricola esculpturata preston, 1915 · trapezium sublaevigatum (lamarck, 1819) · habitat: marine. distribution: iraq (yasser et al., 2022). singapore (tan and low, 2013), and hong kong (morton, 1979). (d)family: veneridae callistaum bonella (lamarck, 1818) original citation: cytherea umbonella lamarck, 1818. histoire naturelle des animaux sans vertebres, 612pp. synonyms: amiantis umbonella (lamarck, 1818) cytherea isselina jousseaume, 1888 meretrix umbonella (lamarck, 1818) habitat: marine. distribution: iraq, it was recorded as macrocallista umbonella by ahmed (1975). northwest and south-east of the persian gulf and the sea of oman (saeedi et al., 2010). circenita callipyga (born, 1778) original citation: venus callipyga born, 1778. index rerum naturalism musei caesarei vindobonensis. testacea, (1-40), 1-458. synonyms: circe crachrodii gray, 1838 circe fumata reeve, 1863 cytheraea elliptica g. b. sowerby ii, 1851 habitat: marine distribution: iraq (yasser et al., 2023). kuwait and arabian gulf (al-kandari et al., 2020). marcia cordata (forsskål, 1775) original citation: venus cordata forsskål, 1775.post mortem auctoris edidit carsten niebuhr. hauniae. 1-20. synonyms: marcia flammea (gmelin, 1791) tapes kraussi reeve, 1864 venus flammea gmelin, 1791 habitat: marine. 601 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum jihad, h. m. distribution: iraq (yasser et al., 2022). kuwait (al-kandari, 2020). pelecyora katiawarensis (fischer-piette and métivier, 1971) basionym: dosinia katiawarensis fischer-piette and métivier, 1971(original name not documented according to molluscabase (2023)). synonym: dosinia katiawarensis fischer-piette and métivier, 1971 habitat: marine distribution: iraq (yasser et al., 2022). western pacific, china, taiwan, and philippines (bernard et al., 1993). periglypta reticulata (linnaeus, 1758) original citation: venus reticulata (linnaeus, 1758). systema naturae. (10th ed.). 1: 824pp. synonyms: antigona reticulate (linnaeus, 1758) chione reticulate (linnaeus, 1758) habitat: marine. distribution: iraq (yasser et al., 2022). south pacific (paulay, 1987). placamen lamellatum (röding, 1798) original citation: venus lamellata röding, 1798. museum boltenianum sive catalogus cimeliorum e tribus regins naturae quae olim collegerat joa, 8, 199pp. synonyms: bassina javana kotaka, 1977 placamen tiara (dillwyn, 1817) venus lamellate röding, 1798 habitat: marine. distribution: iraq (yasser et al., 2022). india (joshi et al., 2018). protapes cor (g. b. sowerby ii, 1853) original citation: venus cor g. b. sowerby ii, 1853. thesaurus conchyliorum or monographs of genera of shells, 2(14): 703-739, 152-162. synonyms: paphia (protapes) cor (g. b. sowerby ii, 1853) paphia cor (g. b. sowerby ii, 1853) tapes cor (g. b. sowerby ii, 1853) venus cor g. b. sowerby ii, 1853 habitat: marine. distribution: iraq (yasser et al., 2023). arabian gulf (oliver and glover, 1996), india, and pakistan ( ramakrishna, 2010). protapes ziczac (linnaeus, 1758) original citation: venus ziczac linnaeus, 1758. systema natura. (10th ed.). 1:824pp. synonyms: tapes inflata römer, 1870 venus ziczac linnaeus, 1758 habitat: marine. distribution: iraq (yasser et al., 2022); indian ocean including red sea, madagascar, east africa, oman, and persian gulf (arathi et al., 2018). 602 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum checklist of bivalvia sunetta effossa (hanley, 1843) original citation: cytherea effosa hanley, 1843. proceedings of the zoological society of london, 10: 122-132. synonyms: sunetta effossa var. semisulcata fischer-piette&p.-h. fischer, 1939. habitat: marine. distribution: iraq (yasser et al., 2023).thailand (wells et al., 2021). timoclea arakana (nevill & nevill, 1871) original citation: cryptogramma arakana nevill & nevill, 1871. the journal of the asiatic society of bengal, part2, 40(1):1-11. synonyms: timoclea farsiana biggs, 1973 timoclea lavrani fischer-piette, 1974 venus arakana nevill & nevill, 1871 habitat: marine. distribution: iraq (yasser et al., 2022). iran (aminiyekta et al., 2014). discussion the results of the current study generally show that iraq has a diverse malacofauna distributed in its diverse aquatic environment, and as indicated by this study the freshwater environment has much fewer species (14 species) than the marine one (37), probably this is due to fewer surveys and studies concerned with freshwater bivalve in the region. the most prevalent family was unionidae with eight species, then arcidae with five species. compared the number of iraqi bivalve species with these listed of neighboring countries100 species in al-kuwait state (al-kandari et al., 2020), 57 marine species in iran (paphan and ghajari, 2018), 40 freshwater species in turkey (gürlek et al., 2019) and 279 marine species in turkey (öztürk et al., 2014) revealed much less diversity among these species probably due to differences in the nature of the iraqi aquatic environments. conclusions the current list, as compared with previous studies about bivalvia in iraq considered the first study that gives us a comprehensive overview of the bivalves (freshwater and marine) recorded in iraq over time. the distribution of bivalvia species and their current systematic situation were demonstrated. during the preparation of this list, all bivalvia studies conducted in iraq up to the present time were taken into account, including both old and recent studies. among the 25 documented families of bivalvia in iraq the family unionidae is the most studied in iraq. some old records of species needed to be emphasized, so more work on bivalve species must be done in different ecologies of marine and freshwater of iraq to emphasizing the validity of the recorder species, and for the possibility of more species existence. conflict of interest statement "the author has no conflicts of interest to declare". 603 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum jihad, h. m. literature cited abbas, m. f., al-mayah, s. h. and khalaf, t. a. 2020. changes of some environmental factors in the iraqi coastal waters. medico-legal update, 20(3): 164-172. 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[click here] wells, f. e., sanpanich, k. i. and duandgee, t. 2021. the marine and estuarine mollusca of thailand. lee kong chian natural history museum, national university of singaphora, singaphora, 195 pp. [click here] wonc, p. s. 1982. the morphology and population dynamics of aspidopholas obtecta (bivalvia: pholadidae) boring into the pacific oyster (crassostrea gigas) in hong kong. journal of zoology, 198(4): 495-513. [crossref] wong, h. w.2009. the mactridae (mollusca: bivalvia) of east coast park, singapore. nature in singapore, 2: 283-296. [click here] worms. 2023. world register of marine species. accessed at: 2023-06-21 [click here] xu, m. 2015. distribution and spread of limnoperna fortunei in china. in: boltovskoy, d. (eds) limnoperna fortunei. invading nature springer series in invasion ecology, 10: 313-320. 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(2023) 17(4): 589-610. في العراقmollusca) ـ bivalvia ( ثنائية الصدفةقواقع لقائمة مرجعية هبة محمد جهاد .جامعة بغداد، بغداد، العراق /التاريخ الطبيعي حفبحوث و متمركز 20/12/2023، تأريخ النشر: 30/6/2023القبول: ، تأريخ 22/2/2023تأريخ االستالم: الخالصة الدراسة الحالية قائمة شاملة ألنواع محار املياه العذبة واملالحة، تم تسجيل قدمت نوعا من األنواع 37من أنواع املياه العذبة و نوعا 14نوعا موزعة على النحو التالي: 51 عائلة مع جميع املالحظات املتوفرة عن توزيعها 25البحرية، تعود هذه األنواع إلى وتصنيفها وتسميتها. تضمنت هذه الدراسة العينات التي تم جمعها فضال عن األنواع التي سبق دراستها وتسجيلها للعراق. bull 151 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum aloush, r. h. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2024) 18 (1): 151-166. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2024.18.1.0151 original article a comparative anatomy and morphology study of seeds by sem for some species of lathyrus l., 1753 (fabales, fabaceae) in iraq rana hashim aloush department of biology, college of science, tikrit university, salahaldin province, tikrit, iraq. corresponding author: rana_aloush_plant@tu.edu.iq received: 6 october 2023, revised: 27.jan. 2024, accepted: 2 feb. 2024, published: 20 june 2024 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract anatomy and morphology study of seeds for seven lathyrus l., 1753 species in iraq; the species were: l. annuus l.,1753, l. aphaca l., 1753, l. chloranthus boiss., 1859, l. cicera l., 1753, l. sativus l., 1753, l. inconspicuus l., 1753 and l. sphaericus retz.,1753. there are 17 species of the fabaceae family that are distributed throughout the middle and northern regions of iraq. using a scanning electron microscope, the study's characteristics were examined to ascertain the taxonomic relationships, interactions, and issues that impeded the species' ability to be separated according to taxa. the seeds were glossy in all species except l. sativus l. and l. sphaericus l. which were matt, the surface cells wall undulation, the wax covered the peak of the conical papillae, the anatomical characteristics determined by cross section in seeds and pointed some trails such us ,epidermis parenchyma thickness and palisade, the species l. annus l. and l.aphaca l. were given the highest value of exocarps thickness (5.5) µm while the species l.sativus recorded the lowest mean (3.8)µm, the seed coat in l. sativus l. is detached from some epidermis in some area with pit aperture, in according the epidermis thickness, the species classification to three groups the l. aphaca l. and l. sphericaus retz. recorded the highest value (46-49) µm respectively, l. sphaericus retz. recorded the highest value of palisade thickness which was 61 µm, some unique trails such us present the pit in exocarp, and the pit cavity was along parenchyma layer in l. sativus l., the similar morphology features are considered the evidence for the proximity of the taxa, so the internal structure (anatomy) of the seeds can be used to separate the taxa. keywords: anatomy, fabaceae, lathyrus, mesocarp, seed, sem introduction fabaceae is a large and economic family, it is known as the pea, legume, bean family, and it is regarded as the third greatest group of flowering plants, following the asteraceae and orchidaceae families, which include 730 genera and over 19,400 species in the world. it is bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799, print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2024.18.1.0151 https://orcid.org/0009-0008-4328-5022 mailto:rana_aloush_plant@tu.edu.iq https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 152 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (1): 151-166. a comparative anatomy and morphology divided into three subfamilies, caesalpinioideae, mimosoideae and papilionoideae, with a total of 800 different genera and 20,000 distinct species (lewis et al., 2005). the taxonomic group known as papilionoideae encompasses the majority of cultivated plant species, and it is important because it has a worldwide distribution and consists of annual or perennial herbs and trees (naik and deshpande, 2021). the variation in the seed shapes and sizes reflects the differentiation in develops (zuk et al., 2014). in angiosperm, seed develops from the ovule after it is fertilized, the seed consists of the embryo (bradford and nonogaki, 2009), and the sporophyte layer of the ovule primordium is where the seed coat originally formed (schneitz et al., 1997). the morphology characteristics are considered important in determining the species because the seeds have many variations in characteristics used in identification like, size, color pattern, general shape, hilum width, and length (zohary et al., 2012; güneş, 2013). in legumes, the first development happened in the seed coat and endosperm and then in the embryo (weber et al., 2005); the seed features in legumes support the concept of one family fabaceae as advocated already by de candolle (1825). the form and substance of the seed coats vary widely throughout species; however, the fabaceae share a fairly common seed structure blueprint (lush and evans, 1980). parenchyma cells constitute the inner most region of the seed coat, because of its role during embryonic development, some researchers refer to the parenchymatous region as the "nutrient layer, parenchyma cells in the seed coat during maturation lose the proplast and the inner layer is crushed (vandongen et al., 2003). the subfamily papilinoideae consists of many genera, such as astragalus l. , vicia l., cicer l. , pisum l., lathyrus l. and other , lathyrus a genus the consists of many species 17 in iraq (townsend and guest,1974). lathyrus belongs to the subfamily papilionoideae known as sweet pea. the species is herbaceous, perennials in the temperate region, the common species is lathyrus sativus l. which refers to the genus, the members are distributed in the northern hemisphere with a disjunction in south america, and distributed and in western eurasia, specially around the eastern mediterranean, with over a third of the species native in turkey (davis, 1970). many researchers studied the seeds of fabaceae, quilichini et al., (2022) pointed out that the seed coat is a good source of dietary fiber, as well, the previous studies such as kislev and hop (1985) and güneş (2013) have indicated that relying just on seed traits is insufficient for distinguishing across taxa. however, when combined with broader morphological criteria, the use of seed characters may prove beneficial in distinguishing some species; abou-el-enain et al., (2007) have examined the morphology of 34 lathyrus taxa that were collected from seed banks in 18 different nations. however, they only provided information on the papillae qualities; they did not specify whether the seed surface was smooth or reticulate. güneş (2013) studied the seed textures for some taxa of this genus in turkey and pointed out that species have a wide variation in characters, which may help to determine the species. also aloush (2014) studied the taxa of lathyrus, which spread in iraq, including the morphological characteristics of pods and seeds such as dimensions, hilum shape and length, and color. the researcher pointed out that the species has a wide variety of seed characteristics may be helpful in determining the species, the advanced 153 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum aloush, r. h. techniques such as sem has brought benefits for the investigation of seeds, to the best of our knowledge, no prior research has been done on lathyrus species seeds in wild plants in iraq. as a result, the primary objective of this paper is to identify the morphological, anatomical, and testa structures of seeds from seven different species and use these characteristics in the identification process. materials and methods the fresh specimens and their seeds were collected from their natural habitats at flowering, at the beginning of march. the survey site included many regions in the middle and north of iraq, which comprised the mountainous regions (amadiya district mam, rowanduz district mro, sulaimaniya district msu), and upper jazira district (nineveh district fni, arbil district far, persian foothills district fpf). the dry specimens were stored in the baghdad, iraq, college of science, baghdad university, (bug) herbarium. morphological investigatione dependened on many characters, including stem, leaflet, flower, pod and seed, the identification of the taxa was based on the (davis, 1970; townsend and guest, 1974; lewis et al., 2005). the morphological characteristics of the seeds (general shape, ornamentation on the seed surface) were examined by a scanning electron microscope. ripe seeds (2-3) were mounted into stubs with double-side adhesive tape and then coated with the seed on the gold coat; pattern was examined lateral surface of the seed. anatomical investigations were performed using fresh samples kept in five ml of formaldehyde 40%, 90ml of alcohol ethanol 70% and five ml of acetic acid. the paraffin wax method was applied for preparing cross sections of seeds, the sections were stained with safranin and fast green (johansen ,1944). characteristics pointed after cross section in seeds by microtome then measured, exocarp, epidermis, palisade layer and endosperm layer thickness. the terminology in this study is based on (güneş, 2013). results sem results morphology testa appearance variation between species, asymmetric, the shape was oval globose in species l. annuus, l. aphaca, l. chloranthus while it semitriangular in l. sativus semi triangular triangular in l.cicera, oblong in l. inconspicuus and semiovate in l. spharicus. according to sem the result showed a wide variation in the morphological characters (pl.1). lathyrus annuus l., 1753: seed glossy because it was covered with wax, sculpture seemed (reticulate), and tuberculate ; papillae were reflat or dished, and it seemed homogeneity in sem or irregular; the anticlinal walls of epidermis cells were clear, thick compound, cell borders , and cell wall wavt. lathyrus aphaca l., 1753: seeds are smooth, semi-matt, irregular, multi-ribbed, anticlinal walls sunken, and thick, surface covered by wax, surface without papillae-like favulariate. 154 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (1): 151-166. a comparative anatomy and morphology lathyrus chloranthus boiss., 1859: glossy, papillae arranged regularly seem like conical peaks, top of peak flat covered by wax, anticlinal walls sunken, thick, and undulation. lathyrus cicera l., 1753: ribbed, anticlinal walls of epidermal cells flattened to sunken, surface cell uniformity, glossy and smooth, yet at the same, time the seed surface sculpture has a conical peak, top of which is coated with a wax that collects at top and a star – like shape . lathyrus inconspicuus l., 1753: matt, many ribbed, anticlinal walls raised thin, the wax slightly cell wall surface homogeneity. lathyrus sativus l., 1753: semi-matt, smooth, the anticlinal walls, irregular, some of them large, and the other small, thin wall, raised spreads lightly on ridges. lathyrus sphaericus retz., 1753: matt, smooth, anticlinal walls thick, ribbed, irregular, the surface cell highly represented and seemed like rods and needles on the surface of the seed. 155 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum aloush, r. h. ` 156 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (1): 151-166. a comparative anatomy and morphology plate (1): seed sculpture of examined taxa (sem); (1) l. annuus, (2) l. chloranthus, (3) l. sativus, (4) l. cicero, (5) l.aphaca, (6) l. sphaericus, (7) l. inconspicuous. cross section results seven species were studied, in all species investigated layers of cuticle (2-3)µm. the result showed variation between species, mainly in the patterns of differentiation modification and dimensions of the cross section layers (tab.1; pl.2-7). the shape of the exocarp in the cross section was undulate in l. annuus, l. chloranthus, l. cicero, l. sphaericus and l. sativus. the exocarp (seed coat or testa): according to the thickness of the testa, the species l. annuus and l. aphaca gave the highest value of 6.2 µm, so as l. chloranthus and l. sphaericus which give a similar mean (5.5 µm), and the thickness of the exocarp in l. cicera was 5.2µm, while the species of l. sativus and l. inconspicuous were recorded the lowest mean (3.8-4.7 µm) respectively. the result showed that the seed coat in the species l. sativus is detached from the sub epidermal in some areas with a pit aperture, present at the end of the pit cavity when its junction with the cavity of the cell. also the pit cavity is along the parenchyma layer, and there is a tracheid bar. in addition, that there is a counter palisade touch with the seed coat species. l.cicera is distinguished in trichomes spread along the surface of the seed coat (testa), legume seed characters support the taxonomy of the different taxa in the family (fabaceae) and genus lathyrus, as advocated already by de candolle (1825). in lower part of the seed coat, the closely associated outer layer of endosperm is known as the aleurone. the epidermis: there are differences among the species that showed varying values, and the species could be categorized into groups based on the thickness of their epidermis. 157 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum aloush, r. h. in the first group, this group's mean epidermal thickness ranged from (16–24) µm. the species that recorded the lowest value were l. annuus, l. chlorantus, and l. sativus, all of which belong to the same section (sativus) in the lathyrus genus. the second group consisted of l. cicera and l. inconspicuous, whose epidermis thickness was measured between 28 and 36 µm. the third group consisted of l. aphaca and l. sphaericus, which recorded the highest mean of 46-49 µm. as a result, the species l. annuus recorded the thinnest epidermis (16.3 µm), while the species l. aphaca recorded the thickest epidermis at 48.7µm in comparison to other species. mesocarp (palisade): below the epidermis, there are palisade layers, which include elongated sclereids called macrosclereides, malpighin cells, and palisade cells. there are many regional palisade cell walls separating terminal caps from their basal parts (smýkal et al., 2014). in cross section, the palisade layer is called the light line or linea lucida (hamly, 1935). the highest value of palisade thickness recorded by l. cicera was (60.8) µm, while the lowest value was recorded in l. sativus (35.6) µm. species are classified into groups based on their thickness. the first group: in this group, the palisade thicknesses ranging from 36 to 41µm, and it includeds l. sativus, and l. inconspicuous. the second group: included the species l. annuus, l. aphaca, and l. chloranthus which recorded thickness from 45 to 51µm. the third group: contained l. cicere and l. sphaericus. in this group, the palisade thickness was between 53 and 61µm, and it's considered the highest thickness, current study pointed out important characteristics such as the osteosclereides distinguished in l. sativus below the palisade layer, and its differentiation almost from the sub-epidermal layer and also considered a major cell. during this test, a differentiation where cell death was detected and followed by parenchyma and macrosclerides (ranathunge et al., 2010). endosperm: the inner of parenchyma contact with endosperm, there is wild variation in endosperm layer thickness between species, the species can be divided into groups according to the endosperm thickness. first group: the thickness value ranged from 34 to37 µm. this group contained the species l. aphaca , l. chloranthus , and l. inconspicuus , and it is considered the lowest value. second group: endosperm thickness ranging between 46 and 491µm, included the species l. annuus, l. cicera, and l. sphaericus. third group: represented by species l. sativus with the highest value (77.5)µm, the result showed that the storage parenchyma tissue, and the parenchyma were connected with the endosperm, and it was called the nutrient layer owing to pit function during embryo. 158 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (1): 151-166. a comparative anatomy and morphology table (1): anatomical characters of the seeds in examined taxa (in µu). taxa exocarp thickness epidermis thickness palisade layer thickness endosperm layer thickness l. annuus 5.5-6.6 (6.2) 12.5-17.4 (16.3) 40.1-50.2 (45.3) 40.1-49.5(47.6) l. aphaca 6.1-6.8 (6.2) 40.9-51.2 (48.7) 43.2-50.7 (49.6) 33.6-39.7(38.1) l. chloranthus 4.5-6.2 (5.5) 15.5-19.4 (17.3) 46.1-57.3 (50.7) 33.7-38.1(36.2) l.cicera 4.5-5.6 (5.2) 30.6-37.4 (35.4) 55.5-65.4 (60.8) 44.5-51.7(48.3) l.inconspicuus 3.5-4.1 (3.8) 33.2-39.1 (35.1) 39.2-44-6 (40.1) 30.1-39.7(33.6) l. sativus 3.5-6.1 (4.7) 20.1-26.4 (23.9) 30.1-39.4 (35.6) 70.1-79.6(77.5) l. shaericus 5.2-6.1 (5.5) 40.2-49.7 (46.3) 48.6-55.7 (53.9) 40.1-49.6(47.5) *the numbers in the left point to the lower limit while the number in right point to upper limit, the numbers between bracktes point to the average. plate (2): cross section in the seed of l. annuus . 159 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum aloush, r. h. plate (3): cross section in the seed of l. chloranthus. plate (4): cross section in the seed of l. sativus. 160 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (1): 151-166. a comparative anatomy and morphology plate (5): cross section in the seed of l. cicera. plate (6): cross section in the seed of l. aphaca. 161 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum aloush, r. h. plate (7): cross section in the seed of l. sphaericus. plate (8): cross section in the seed of l. inconspicus. 162 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (1): 151-166. a comparative anatomy and morphology many studies focused on morphology characteristics by using sem ,such as (güneş , 2013) in turkey ,but there is no study interested in lathyrus seed anatomy, in iraq. this study is considered the first in this field especially for this genus and general for fabaceae. discussion the species l. annuus and l. cicera were glossy, and the result pointed out that the presence of wax may be a method for protecting the seeds or may be represented by the nature of secondary metabolism, which involves acumination in the testa. there are variations in the seed coat and specimens between the different species populations. butler (1988) mentions that the seed characters may directly taxonomy and determined species and have taxonomic values. numerous researchers like kislev and hopf (1935) have emphasized that species cannot be distinguished alone by seed characteristics; nevertheless, when combined with morphological traits, the results obtained in this study are in compliance with the results of güneş (2013) for some species that were seen in this study (l. annuus, l. aphace, l. cicera). the result showed that the smooth seeds were not papillate. according to the anatomic features, the testa thickness in l. annuus and l. aphaca has the highest value. the exocarp (testa) thickness may refer to the nature of the coat’s ability of protecting the seed from external factors that cause damage to pathogen (hall and stout, 1993). testa layer thickness and the presence of cuticle require considerable attention as their properties are related to the water-impermeability of hard seeds (argel and paton, 1999). hard-coatedness is usually caused by the impermeability of the seed coat or some of its layers to water or gases. in l. sativus the testa is damaged from sub the sybepidermal in some areas a pit aperture, present at the end of the pit cavity when it junctions with the cavity of the cell ,wolf et al., (1981) and ma et al., (2004) mention that pit irregularities on the seed coat surface seem to be related to its water permeability, and that seems to refer to ability of germination, especially the pit was present in the seed coat of a cultivated plant (l. sativus ) which is considerd a field crop, and it is used instead of wheat in some regions, such as nigeria and somalia. by cross sections, many unique feathers were distinguished, l. cicera species distinguished were by the presence of trichome on the surface of the seed coat that may be considered a way to spread, in addition, there are important characteristics that point out like the osteosclereides in l. sativus that differentiate from the subepidermal layer and also consider major cells during testa differentiation. the osteosclerides conjected with a thick wall around the hilum and the continuance of the intercellular space may be related to the seed desiccation and gas exchange (smýkal et al., 2014). it is important to mention that l. sativus had the highest value in parenchyma tissue, which may be duo to his adaptation, and that is one reason to cultivate it. we can also note that the species within the same section of the flora were mentioned almost under the same group, such as: l. annuus, l. chloranthus, l. sativus, and l. cicero, which belong to the same section (sativus), (townsend and guest, 1974). a little study interested in the anatomy of seeds such 163 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum aloush, r. h. as jyotindra (1975), it is included the anatomy of hilum for some species belonging to the fabaceae pisum and vicia in india. many studies, such as the study of güneş (2013) in turkey, concentrated on the morphology characteristics of lathyrus seeds using sem, but no studies examined the anatomy of lathyrus seeds; this study in iraq is thought to be the first in this field, particularly for this genus. conclusions the morphological characteristics of seeds in the species of the genus could be used as taxonomic evidence and may be reliably combined with the anatomical characteristics of be more useful in the species of the genus. the seeds have a variation in the sculpturing pattern, which provides information to distinguish species of this genus, such as the ornamentation of l. chloranthus seed surface, which was distinguished by conical peaks or like needles on the surface of l. sphaericus seed. the similar morphology features are considered the evidence for the proximity of the taxa. there are anatomical variations that have a contribution to species delamination such as the epidermis and mesocarp characterstics. the internal structure (anatomy) of the seeds can be used to separate the taxa, the species which belongs to the same section in the flora will be more similar, even in anatomy characteristics, the use of morphology and anatomy side by side will be more beneficial in taxonomic studies. a comprehensive study covering all lathyrus species would be of a beneft to determine the taxa and relationships between the species. the use of molecular studies is necessary in future studies; the iraqi flora could depend on the sem result and anatomical characteristics in the taxonomy for separating the species of the genus or genus of the family. acknowledgments the author gratefully thanks the college of sciences, university of tikrit, tikrit, iraq, for providing the facilities required for the present investigations. conflect of interest statement "the author declares no conflicts of interest related to the work in this manuscript". litereature cited abou-el-enain, m. m., lofti, m. h. a. and shehata, a. a. 2007. seed surface characters and their systematic significance in the genus lathyrus (leguminosae, 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(2024) 18 (1): 151-166. راسة مظهرية وتشريحية مقارنة للبذور بواسطة املجهر االلكتروني املاسح لبعضد في العراق lathyrus l., 1753 (fabales, fabaceae) أنواع الجنس رنا هاشم علوش ، كلية العلوم، جامعة تكريت، محافظة صالح الدين، تكريت، العراق.علوم الحياةقسم 20/6/2024، تأريخ النشر: 2/2/2024القبول: ،27/1/2024عة: املراج، 6/10/2023االستالم: الخالصة )العائلة ,.1753lathyrus l الجنس اجريت دراسة تشريحية مظهرية لسبعة انواع من في العراق، شملت: البقولية( l. annuus l.,1753, l. aphaca l.,1753, l. chloranthus boiss.,1859 , l. cicera l.,1753 , l. sativus l.,1753 , l. inconspicuus l.,1753 , l. sphaericus retz.,1753 17، أذ يوجد في ستخدام املجهر املاسح أالصفات املظهرية ب ُدرست. هوشمالالعراق نوع تنتشر في وسط االلكتروني لتحديد العالقة التصنيفية ما بين االنواع، و لحل مشكلة التداخل بين االنواع المعة في اغلب االنواع عدا البذور ، كانت ها وفصلها حسب مراتبها التصنيفيةخيصوتش سطح البذور مجعد ومغطى بطبقة من الشمع كان و ، l. sphaericus و l.sativusالنوعين درست تتركز على قمة الحليمات، حددت الصفات التشريحية بعمل مقطع عرض ي في البذور و رجي وسمك البرنكيما والنسيج العمادي، سجلت االنواعبعض الصفات مثل الغالف الخا l.aphaca وl.annuus اعلى قيمة لسمك الـexocarp مايكروميتر ، اما النوع 5.5بلغت l.sativus مايكروميتر ، وان غالف البذرة انفصل عن البشرة في 3.8فسجل اقل قيمة بلغت ، وقد امكن تقسيم االنواع الى ثالث مجاميع حسب سمك بعض املناطق ليكون فتحة النقرة على 49-46قيم بلغت اعلىl.aphaca و l.sphaericusالبشرة الخارجية اذ سجل النوعين مايكروميتر، 61اعلى قيمة لسمك النسيج العمادي بلغت l.sphaericusالتوالي، وسجل النوع ، وامتاز كذلك النوع exocarpر في وانفردت بعض االنواع بصفات خاصة مثل وجود النق l.sativus ،التشابه في يدل ان و يمكن بوجود تجويف النقرة على طول الطبقة البرنكيمية الصفات الوراثية على التقارب مابين املراتب التصنيفية وكذلك الحال بالنسبة للتركيب املراتب.الداخلي )التشريحي( للبذور الذي من املمكن االستفادة منه في فصل bull 633 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2025) 18 (3): 633-649. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2025.18.3.0633 original article crabronid wasps: an updated checklist from iraq shatha abdullateef hamodee* * iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq. e-mail: shatha.a.909@nhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq recived: 24 nov. 2024, revised: 23 april 2025., accepted: 1 may 2025, published:20 june 2025 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract the checklist of iraqi crabronid wasps has been updated due to this work. a total of 67 species are listed belonging to 29 genera, across 10 tribes within five subfamilies. the species distribution is also provided, and an identification key was developed to differentiate the high taxa. keywords: apoid wasps, hymenoptera, iraqi fauna, square-headed, iraq, taxa. introduction the family crabronidae, is commonly referred to as square-headed wasps, was defined by bohart and menke (1976). this family is traditionally placed within the superfamily apoidea, which includes bees, sphecoid wasps, and apoid wasps. historically, it was classified under the group spheciformes, which also includes ampulicidae, sphecidae, crabronidae, and heterogynaidae (melo, 1999). in iraq, several taxonomic studies have been conducted on this family. for instance, antropov (2007) described guichardus assyriacus antropov, 2007, and schmid-egger (2007) recorded lithium baghdadensis schmid-egger, 2007. augul (2017) developed a key to the species of cerceris latreille, 1802. later hamodee et al. (2023) recorded two new species of cerceris, including cerceris dorsalis eversmann, 1849 and cerceris priesneri mochi, 1939. furthermore, hamodee and shafeeq (2023) described and illustrated a new taxon, oxybelochardus iraqensis; as well as the female of this taxon was described and illustrated by augul and hamodee (2025). this investigation has potential ecological significance, serving as an indicator of biodiversity health. therefore, the study aims to provide valid names, update the crabronidae list, and present synonyms and distribution data. bulletin of the iraq natural historymuseum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799, print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2025.18.3.0633 https://orcid.org/0009-0004-0326-3049 mailto:shatha.a.909@nhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 634 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 633-649. crabronid wasps materials and methods sampling: an irregular survey of the crabronid wasps was conducted from march 2023 to may 2024 across various areas, including the following provinces: baghdad, diyala, wasit, al-anbar, and salahaddin. surveys were performed in both cultivated and wild fields, including plants, land, and potential nesting sites such as dry tree branches. collections were made by the team from the iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad using aerial and sweep nets. examination of specimens: wasps were preserved after drying and pinning, accompanied by the collection date, location, and taxonomic information. morphological analysis was performed using a dissecting microscope (optika) and an iphone x-max camera, with illustrations produced using a camera lucida. scale bars were included in the images for reference. identification: the subfamilies, tribes and genera were identified applying the keys of bohart and menke (1976), adapted for iraqi specimens obtained in this study. the scientific nomenclature was updated and cross-checked with pulawski (2003), gbif secretariat (2024), and other catalogues, relevant checklists, and articles referenced under the distribution of species sections. terminology and abbreviations: the morphological terminology used in the identification follows the framework established by bohart and menke (1976). the abbreviations used in the current paper are as follows: inhrcmiraq natural history research center and museum –university of baghdad; ssternum; smcsubmarginal cell of forewing; ttergum. results and discussion this study reports 67 species of crabronid wasps from 10 tribes, 5 subfamilies, and 29 genera. the distribution of these species is also provided. key to subfamilies and tribes of crabronidae: 1-gaster petiolate, composed of sternum i only (fig.a) ........................... pemphredoninae …………..…. forewing with three smc (fig.b) ……….………………….....…… psenini gaster variable, sessile (pl. a); if petiolate composed of t and s (pl. b) ……..……… 2 2clypeus tripartite (pl. c, d) ………..… philanthinae …………………………............ 3 clypeus not divided (pl. e, f) ..........................…………..…...…………..…..….….…4 3inner orbit of compound eye notched (pl. c) ………….……..……………..…. philanthini inner orbit of compound eye complete (pl. d)………………….…………..……. cercerini 4inner orbits strongly converging above or holoptic (fig. c); midtibiae with two apical spurs (fig. d) .................. astatinae ………. eyes holoptic in males (fig. c) ................. astatini 635 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hamodee, sh. a. inner orbits variable, parallel, converging below; if converging above, midtibiae with one apical spur (fig.e) …………………………………………………………………..…. 5 5antennal sockets entry way above frontoclypeal suture (pl..e) ……….. bembicinae …..…. prestigmal distance of smc in forewing markedly longer than half total cell distance (fig. f) ……..…………………………………………………….……..…….. bembicini basal scape insertion just above or contagious with frontoclypeal suture (pl. f) ……….…crabroninae……………………………………………………………….… 6 6forewing with three smc (fig. g)………………….……….…..……...….….… larini forewing with one or two smc (fig. h, i) ……………………….……………….……7 7smc separate from discoidal cell (fig.h) …...………………….....……..….... crabronini smc merged with discoidal cell (fig.i) ……..……………..…………...……… oxybelini plates (1): main characters of crabronidae family; (a) ♀ liris haemorrhoidalis (lateral view), (b) ♂ cerceris bupresticida (lateral view), (c) head of ♂ philanthus triangulum (frontal view), (d) head of ♂ cerceris bupresticida (frontal view), (e) head of ♂ bembix oculata (frontal view), (f) head of ♀ liris haemorrhoidalis. [scale bar (a) 5mm, (b-f) 1mm]. 636 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 633-649. crabronid wasps figures (1): main characters of crabronidae family; (a) ♀ gaster of mimumesa unicolor (lateral view), (b) forewing of m. unicolor, (c) head of ♂ astata boops (frontal view), (d) midtibea of ♂ a. boops, (e) midtibea of ammatomus rufonodis. forewings of (f) ♂ammatomus rufonodis, (g) ♀ liris haemorrhoidalis, (h) ♀ lindenius sp., (i) ♂ oxybelus lamellatus. [scale bar: 0.5mm (a-e, 8, 9); 1mm (f-g)]. (a)subfamily: pemphredoninae tribe, psenini genus, ammoplanus giraud, 1869 ammoplanus marathroicus (de stefani perez, 1887) distribution: iraq (mokrousov, 2017). austria, bulgaria, cyprus, france, germany, greece, hungary, italy, russia, spain, china, iran, jordan, kyrgyzstan, mongolia, syria, and türkiye, morocco, and tunisia (jahantigh et al., 2017). genus, diodontus curtis, 1834 diodontus minutus (fabricius, 1793) distribution: iraq (de beaumont, 1961). austria, belarus, bulgaria, croatia, denmark, france, germany, uk, greece, hungary, italy, latvia, malta, netherlands, poland, portugal, romania, serbia, slovakia, slovenia, spain, sweden, türkiye, ukraine, afghanistan, china, cyprus, iran, kazakhstan, korea, kuwait, mongolia, syria, turkmenistan, uzbekistan, sudan, tunisia, and usa (antropov, 2017). genus,mimumesamalloch, 1933 mimumesa unicolor (vander linden, 1829) materials (2♀♀): wasit province, al-suwaira city, 32°52'20.9"n 44°57'16.2"e, 21. x.2023. distribution: iraq (nemkov, 2009). austria, belarus, bulgaria, croatia, czech republic, 637 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hamodee, sh. a. denmark, cyprus, finland, france, germany, greece, hungary, italy, latvia, malta, netherlands, poland, portugal, romania, serbia, slovakia, slovenia, spain, sweden, switzerland, ukraine, türkiye, uk, sudan and tunisia, and usa (jahantigh et al., 2017). afghanistan, iran, korea, pakistan, kazakhstan, tajikistan, turkmenistan, kuwait, mongolia, syria, china, and uzbekistan (antropov, 2017). genus, psenulus kohl, 1897 psenulus meridionalis de beaumont, 1937 distribution: iraq (de beaumont, 1961). austria, bulgaria, croatia, france, germany, greece, hungary, italy, poland, romania, russia, serbia, slovakia, spain, switzerland, türkiye, ukraine, afghanistan, azerbaijan, china, iran, jordan, kazakhstan, pakistan, syria, and uzbekistan (jahantigh et al., 2017). genus, psen latreille, 1796 note: this genus was recorded in iraq as psen sp. by khalaf and al-omar (1974). tribe, pemphredonini genus, pemphredon latreille, 1796 pemphredon lethifer (shuckard, 1837) distribution: iraq (khalaf and al-omar, 1974). austria, belarus, belgium, bulgaria, cyprus, russia, croatia, denmark, finland, france, germany, uk, greece, hungary, ireland, italy, malta, netherlands, poland, portugal, romania, türkiye, slovakia, slovenia, spain, sweden, switzerland, ukraine, canada, and usa (jahantigh et al., 2017). azerbaijan, china, iran, japan, kazakhstan, korea, mongolia, tajikistan, kyrgyzstan, afghanistan, and uzbekistan (antropov, 2017). (b) subfamily: philanthinae tribe, cercerini genus, cerceris latreille, 1802 cerceris arenaria (linnaeus, 1758) distribution: iraq (kaddou, 19670). albania, croatia, czech republic, germany, greece, italy, slovakia, türkiye, ukraine, japan, kazakhstan, kyrgyzstan, and mongolia (tsuneki, 1971). cerceris dorsalis eversmann, 1849 distribution: iraq (hamodee et al., 2023). türkiye, russia, ukraine, iran, afghanistan, china, kazakhstan, tajikistan, turkmenistan, uzbekistan, and mongolia (jahantigh et al., 2017). cerceris bupresticida dufour, 1841 materials (2♂♂,1♀): 1♂, 1♀: iraq,wasit prov., al-suwaira city, 32°52'18.2"n 45°01'19.4"e, 1.v.2023. 1♂: wasit prov., al-suwaira city, 32°52'20.9"n 44°57'16.2"e, 21. x.2023. distribution: iraq (morice, 1921). iran, afghanistan, kazakhstan, mongolia, china (tsuneki, 1971). tunisia (ben khedher and erol, 2024). 638 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 633-649. crabronid wasps cerceris chlorotica spinola, 1839 distribution: iraq (morice, 1921). north africa and sudan (schmidt, 2000). cerceris hortivaga kohl, 1880 materials (4♂♂, 2♀♀): 2♂♂, 2♀♀: wasit prov., al-suwaira city, 32°52'18.2"n 45°01'19.4"e, 1. v.2023. 2♂♂: wasit prov., al-suwaira city, 32°52'20.9"n 44°57'16.2"e, 21.x.2023. distribution: iraq (kaddou, 1967). france, russia, siberia, japan, china, and korea (schmidt, 2000). cerceris luxuriosa dahlbom, 1845 distribution: iraq (morice, 1921). egypt, sudan, and libya (guiglia, 1932). cerceris pallidulamorice, 1897 distribution: iraq (morice, 1921). egypt, morocco, algeria, and tunisia (schmidt, 2000). cerceris priesnerimochi, 1939 distribution: iraq (hamodee et al., 2023). uae, yemen, ksa, oman, and egypt (gadallah and brothers, 2020) cerceris quadricincta (panzer, 1799) distribution: iraq (de beaumont, 1961), uk, germany, türkiye, iran, afghanistan, kazakhstan, tunisia, and morocco (schmidt, 2000). cerceris rubida (jurine, 1807) distribution: iraq (derwesh, 1965). slovakia, hungary, türkiye, cyprus, ukraine, russia, syria, iran, afghanistan, mongolia, china, japan, and morocco (schmidt, 2000). cerceris sabulosa (panzer, 1799) materials (2♀♀): wasit prov., al-suwaira city, 32°52'18.2"n 45°01'19.4"e, 1. v.2023. distribution: iraq (morice, 1921). uk, austria, bulgaria, france, germany, hungary, italy, spain, russia, ukraine, türkiye, armenia, iran, mongolia, china, korea, tajikistan, and egypt (gadallah and assery, 2004). cerceris spinipectus f. smith, 1856 distribution: iraq (morice, 1921). cyprus, greece, iran, palestine, uzbekistan, turkmenistan, afghanistan, and egypt (schmidt, 2000). cerceris straminea dufour, 1854 distribution: iraq, oman, uae, yemen, kazakhstan, uzbekistan, algeria, egypt, and morocco (gadallah et al., 2013). cerceris tricolorata spinola, 1839 distribution: iraq (morice, 1921). oman, uae, yemen, kazakhstan, ksa, uzbekistan, algeria, egypt, and morocco (gadallah et al., 2013). 639 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hamodee, sh. a. tribe, philanthini genus, philanthus fabricius, 1790 philanthus coarctatus spinola, 1839 material (1♂): undiagnosed specimen among undiagnosed specimens obtained from inhrcm collection. distribution: iraq (morice, 1921). italy, türkiye, jordan, oman, ksa, uae, algeria, chad, egypt, ethiopia, libya, mauritania, and sudan (jahantigh et al., 2017). philanthus triangulum (fabricius, 1775) materials (6♂♂, 2♀♀): 2♂♂, 2♀♀: wasit prov., al-azizyah, 32°54'06.2"n 45°03'07.8"e, 1. v.2023. 3♂♂, diyala prov., kan'an forests (33°38'22.1"n 44°51'59.2"e, 8.iii.2024. 1 ♂ undiagnosed specimen among undiagnosed specimens obtained from inhrcm collection. distribution: iraq (de beaumont, 1961). malagasy, malta, morocco, russia, georgia, azerbaijan, syria, jordan, yemen, iran, afghanistan, and kazakhstan (antropov, 2017). albania, austria, bulgaria, croatia, czech, denmark, france, germany, uk, greece, hungary, italy, netherlands, poland, portugal, romania, slovakia, slovenia, spain, ukraine, sweden, cyprus, tajikistan andturkmenistan, algeria, burundi, egypt, eritrea, ethiopia, libya, south africa, sudan, tanzania, and tunisia (gadallah, and brothers, 2020). philanthus variegatus spinola, 1839 distribution: türkiye, iraq, armenia, russia, azerbaijan, syria, ksa, kuwait, uae, oman, iran, afghanistan, pakistan, kazakhstan, and china (antropov, 2017). (c) subfamily, astatinae tribe, astatini genus, astata latreille, 1797 astata boops (schrank, 1781) distribution: iraq (de beaumont, 1961). kuwait, oman, and ksa (gadallah et al., 2013). (d) subfamily, bembicinae tribe, bembicini genus, ammatomus a. costa, 1859 ammatomus mesostenus (handlirsch, 1888) distribution: iraq (roche, 2007). iran, afghanistan, kazakhstan, oman, russia, tajikistan, turkmenistan, uae, uzbekistan, algeria, egypt, libya, morocco, and sudan (jahantigh et al., 2017). genus, bembecinus a.costa, 1859 bembecinus asiaticus gussakovskij, 1935 distribution: türkiye, iraq, afghanistan, iran, kazakhstan, kyrgyzstan, pakistan, ksa, tajikistan, turkmenistan, and uzbekistan (gadallah et al., 2013). bembecinus iranicus schmid-egger, 2004 distribution: iraq (rezaei and fallahzadeh, 2015). 640 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 633-649. crabronid wasps bembecinus schwarzi de beaumont, 1967 distribution: iraq (schmid-egger, 2009). türkiye and iran (jahantigh et al., 2017). genus, bembix fabricius, 1775 bembix bicolor radoszkowski, 1877 distribution: iraq (morice, 1921). bulgaria, greece, italy, russia, türkiye, afghanistan, china, cyprus, iran, kazakhstan, kyrgyzstan, mongolia, oman, russia, tajikistan, turkmenistan, and uzbekistan (jahantigh et al., 2017). bembix oculata panzer, 1801 distribution: iraq (khalaf and al-omar, 1974). pakistan, ksa, and mongolia (gadallah and brothers, 2020). bembix transcaspica radoszkowski, 1893 distribution: iraq (de beaumont, 1961). iran, kazakhstan, tajikistan, and turkmenistan (jahantigh et al., 2017). genus, nysson latreille, 1802 nysson rufus handlirsch, 1895 distribution: iraq (morice, 1921). egypt (bohart and menke, 1976). genus, stizoides guérin-méneville, 1844 stizoides melanopterus (dahlbom, 1845) distribution: iraq (nemkov, 2012). greece, türkiye, oman, cyprus, kazakhstan, palestine, tajikistan, and uzbekistan (gadallah and brothers, 2020). genus, stizus latreille, 1802 stizus bizonatus spinola, 1839 distribution: iraq (morice, 1921). azerbaijan, iran, russia, syria, tajikistan, turkmenistan, uzbekistan, egypt, and ethiopia (gadallah, and brothers, 2020). stizus pubescens (klug, 1835) distribution: iraq (de beaumont, 1961). greece, italy, malta, portugal, romania, spain, türkiy, armenia, cyprus, iran, tajikistan, turkmenistan, uzbekistan, egypt, and libya (jahantigh et al., 2017). stizus vespiformis (fabricius, 1775) distribution: iraq (el-haidari et al., 1971). spain, bangladesh, india, iran, and sri lanka (jahantigh et al., 2017). genus, crossocerus lepeletier de saint fargeau & brullé, 1835 note: this genus was recorded in iraq as crossocerus sp. by khalaf and al-omar (1974). 641 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hamodee, sh. a. (e) subfamily, crabroninae tribe, larrini genus, gastrosericus spinola, 1839 gastrosericus waltlii spinola, 1839 distribution: iraq (antropov et al., 2017). greece, russia, türkiye, armenia, china, cyprus, india, iran, jordan, kazakhstan, mongolia, pakistan, russia, sri lanka, syria, tajikistan, turkmenistan, algeria, angola, chad, egypt, eritrea, ghana, senegal, sudan, tunisia, and zimbabwe (gadallah and brothers, 2020). genus, larra fabricius, 1793 larra anathema (rossi, 1790) material: 1♀ al-anbar prov., al-fallujah, halabsa, 33°20'12.5"n 43°43'08.5"e, 24.v.2023. distribution: iraq (khalaf, 1961). austria, bulgaria, croatia, czech republic, france, germany, greece, hungary, italy, portugal, switzerland, türkiye, ukraine, romania, slovenia, spain, azerbaijan, bahrain, china, iran, macedonia, kazakhstan, tajikistan, turkmenistan, russia, egypt, algeria, morocco, south africa, and tunisia (kaplan and yildirim, 2021). larra transcaspica f.morawitz, 1894 distribution: iraq (antropov et al., 2017). ksa, uae, iran, kyrgyzstan, tajikistan and turkmenistan (gadallah and brothers, 2020). genus, liris fabricius, 1804 liris atratus (spinola, 1805) distribution: iraq (roche, 2007). iran and ksa (gadallah and brothers, 2020). liris haemorrhoidalis (fabricius, 1804) materials (12♂♂, 15♀♀): 3♂♂, 2♀♀ al-anbar prov., al-fallujah, halabsa, 33°20'12.5"n 43°43'08.5"e, 24. v.2023. 2♂♂ ,1♀: wasit prov., al-suwaira city, 32°52'20.9"n 44°57'16.2"e, 21. x.2023. 3♂♂, 3♀♀ diyala prov., kan'an forests, 33°38'22.1"n 44°51'59.2"e, 8.iii.2024. 4♂♂, 7♀♀, baghdad prov., bab al-moatham 33°21'16.7"n 44°23'34.7"e, 3. x.2023. 2 ♀♀ undiagnosed specimens that obtain from collection of inhrcm. distribution: iraq (morice, 1921). italy, and spain, afghanistan, canary island, india, iran, kazakhstan, oman, palestine, qatar, ksa, uae, yemen, cameroon, canary island, egypt, eritrea, ethiopia, guinea, kenya, libya, morocco, south africa, sudan, tanzania, tunisia, and democratic republic of the congo (rezaei et al., 2020). liris niger (fabricius, 1775) distribution: iraq (morice, 1921). austria, bulgaria, croatia, czech republic, france, germany, greece, hungary, italy, malta, portugal, romania, slovakia, slovenia, spain, türkiye, ukraine, afghanistan, cyprus, china, india, iran, kazakhstan, malaysia, malta, mongolia, russia, sri lanka, syria, tajikistan, turkmenistan, canary islands, and sudan (gadallah and brothers, 2020). 642 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 633-649. crabronid wasps liris nigricans (walker, 1871) distribution: iraq (de beaumont, 1961). greece, spain, türkiye, afghanistan, china, india, iran, kazakhstan, russia, tajikistan, uzbekistan, algeria, canary islands, cameroon, chad, central african republic, republic of the congo, ethiopia, libya, madagascar, morocco, and tunisia (gadallah and brothers, 2020). liris subtessellatus (f.smith, 1856) materials (4♂♂, 3♀♀): 2♂♂, 1♀ al-anbar prov., al-fallujah, halabsa, 33°20'12.5"n 43°43'08.5"e, 24.v.2023. 2♂♂, 2♀♀: baghdad prov., bab al-moatham 33°21'16.7"n 44°23'34.7"e, 3. x.2023. distribution: iraq (de beaumont, 1961). afghanistan, bangladesh, china, india, indonesia, iran, japan, kazakhstan, pakistan, philippines, sri lanka, taiwan, and thailand (li et al, 2007). genus, prosopigastra a.costa, 1867 prosopigastra insignis e.saunders, 1910 distribution: iraq (de beaumont, 1961). egypt (roche, 2007). genus tachysphex kohl, 1883 tachysphex buyssonimorice, 1897 distribution: iraq (de beaumont, 1961). uae and chad (straka and schmid-egger, 2017). tachysphex desertorum f.morawitz, 1894 distribution: iraq (de beaumont, 1961). egypt (roche, 2007). tachysphex graecus kohl, 1883 distribution: iraq (morice, 1921). bulgaria, greece, türkiye, yugoslavia, azerbaijan, lebanon, and tunisia (ben khedher et al., 2020). genus, tachytes panzer, 1806 tachytes argyreus (f.smith, 1856) distribution: iraq (roche, 2007). türkiye, russia, ksa, uae, bahrain, iran, pakistan, turkmenistan, tajikistan, and india (antropov, 2017). tachytes freygessneri kohl, 1881 distribution: iraq (morice, 1921). russia, türkiye, iran, tajikistan, uzbekistan, kazakhstan, china, and tunisia (ben khedher et al., 2019). tachytes illabefactus pulawski, 1962 distribution: iraq (pulawski, 1962). tachytes obsoletus (rossi, 1792) distribution: (eu): türkiye, iraq, tajikistan, uzbekistan, kazakhstan, and china (antropov, 2017). 643 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hamodee, sh. a. tachytes vestitus (f.smith, 1873) distribution: iraq (khalaf and al-omar, 1974). india and pakistan (pulawski, 1962). tribe, crabronini genus, ectemnius dahlbom, 1845 ectemnius confinis (walker, 1871) distribution: iraq (antropov, 2017). austria, bulgaria, czech republic, france, germany, greece, hungary, italy, luxembourg, malta, montenegro, poland, romania, slovakia, slovenia, spain, switzerland, türkiye, ukraine, afghanistan, china, cyprus, india, iran, jordan, kazakhstan, korea, kyrgyzstan, malta, pakistan, russia, tajikistan, turkmenistan, uzbekistan, egypt, and tunisia (jahantigh et al., 2017). ectemnius crassicornis (spinola, 1808) distribution: iraq (rezaei and fallahzadeh, 2015). albania, bulgaria, croatia, czech republic, france, greece, hungary, italy, portugal, romania, slovakia, spain, switzerland, türkiye, ukraine, azerbaijan, iran, jordan, kazakhstan, kyrgyzstan, russia, syria, tajikistan, turkmenistan, and uzbekistan (jahantigh et al., 2017). ectemnius continuus (fabricius, 1804) distribution: iraq (de beaumont, 1961). albania, austria, belarus, belgium, bulgaria, croatia, czech republic, denmark, estonia, finland, france, germany, uk, greece, hungary, ireland, italy, latvia, liechtenstein, lithuania, luxembourg, malta, netherlands, norway, portugal, romania, slovakia, slovenia, spain, sweden, switzerland, türkiye, turkmenistan, ukraine, cyprus, china, iran, japan, jordan, kazakhstan, korea, kyrgyzstan, mongolia, russia, syria, tajikistan, uzbekistan, canary islands, algeria, egypt, morocco, tunisia, canada, usa, cuba, guatemala, and venezuela (jahantigh et al., 2017). ectemnius crassicornis (spinola, 1808) distribution: iraq (leclercq, 1993). albania, bulgaria, croatia, czech republic, france, greece, hungary, italy, portugal, romania, slovakia, spain, switzerland, türkiye, ukraine, azerbaijan, iran, jordan, kazakhstan, kyrgyzstan, russia, syria, tajikistan, turkmenistan, and uzbekistan (jahantigh et al., 2017). genus, lindenius lepeletier de saint fargeau & brullé, 1835 note: this genus was recorded in iraq as lindenius sp. by khalaf (1961). genus, lestica billberg, 1820 lestica clypeata (schreber, 1759) distribution: iraq (antropov, 2017). albania, austria, belarus, belgium, bulgaria, croatia, czech, denmark, estonia, finland, france, germany, uk, greece, hungary, italy, latvia, lithuania, luxembourg, malta, montenegro, netherlands, norway, poland, portugal, romania, serbia, slovakia, slovenia, spain, sweden, switzerland, türkiye, ukraine, iran, cyprus, kazakhstan, kyrgyzstan, lebanon, palestine, syria, turkmenistan, uzbekistan, and russia (jahantigh et al., 2017). algeria, egypt, morocco, and tunisia (ben khedher et al., 644 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 633-649. crabronid wasps 2019). tribe, oxybelini genus, oxybelus latreille, 1797 oxybelus lamellatus olivier, 1811 materials (2♂♂): al-anbar prov., al-fallujah, halabsa, 33°20'12.5"n 43°43'08.5"e, 24. v.2023. distribution: iraq (morice, 1921). greece, portugal, spain, afghanistan, china, cyprus, india, iran, jordan, kazakhstan, kuwait, oman, pakistan, ksa, syria, tajikistan, turkmenistan, uae, uzbekistan, algeria, cameroon, eritrea, ethiopia, libya, mauritania, morocco, somalia, sudan, and tunisia (jahantigh et al., 2017). oxybelus mucronatus (fabricius, 1793) distribution: iraq (antropov, 2017). austria, belarus, belgium, bulgaria, croatia, czech republic, finland, france, germany, uk, greece, hungary, italy, latvia, lithuania, luxembourg, poland, portugal, romania, serbia, slovakia, spain, sweden, switzerland, türkiye, ukraine, afghanistan, china, cyprus, iran, jordan, kazakhstan, kyrgyzstan, russia, syria, tajikistan, turkmenistan, and uzbekistan, morocco, and tunisia (jahantigh et al., 2017). genus, oxybelochardus hamodee and shafeeq, 2023 oxybelochardus iraqensis hamodee and shafeeq, 2023 materials (3♂): baghdad province, al moshahda, 33°36'10.7"n 44°14'13.6"e, 3.xi.2023. distribution: iraq (hamodee and shafeeq, 2023). tribe, palarini genus palarus latreille, 1802 palarus fulviventris latreille, 1812 distribution: iraq (antropov, 2017). iran, kazakhstan, oman, ksa, syria, tajikistan, turkmenistan, uae, algeria, egypt, and libya (jahantigh et al., 2017). palarus laetus klug, 1845 distribution: iraq (de beaumont, 1961). india, iran, kuwait, oman, ksa, uae, algeria, djibouti, egypt, morocco, and tunisia (jahantigh et al., 2017). tribe, trypoxylini genus, trypoxylon latreille, 1796 note: this genus was recorded in iraq as trypoxylon sp. by kaddou (1967). conclusions in conclusion, the fauna of crabronid wasps in iraq is highly diverse presenting intriguing and unresolved challenges regarding their identification and distribution across various environments. nevertheless, we anticipate that this revised checklist will serve as a crucial foundation for addressing most of the problems related to this group of species in iraq. we 645 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hamodee, sh. a. recommend further research on of these in the various parts of iraq. conflict of interest statement the author states that there are no conflicts of interest associated with the investigation presented in this manuscript. literature cited antropov, a. v. 2007. guichardus is a new palearctic genus of digger wasps of the tribe oxybelini (hymenoptera, crabronidae). entomological review, 86(2):106-115. 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(2025) 18 (3): 633-649. العراق من محدثة قائمة دبابيرالكابرونيد، عبداللطيفحمودي* شذى العراق. بغداد، بغداد، جامعة الطبيعيالتاريخ ومتحف بحوث مركز * 2025/6/20 النشر: ،2025/5/1 القبول: ،2025/4/23 2024/11/24،الراجعة: استالم: اخالصة ينتمي ا نوعع 67 إدرج حيث الدراسة. هذه الل العراقية الكابروند دبابير قائمة حدثت مع النواع توزيع ذكر تم كما عويلت. امس ضمن قبائل 10 على موزعة ا، ًع جن 29 إلى العليا. الصنوفات لعزل �تشييصي مفتاح تصميم bull 557 jalil and ali bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2021) 16 (4): 557-570. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2021.16.4.0557 morphology and molecular identification of the larval stage of two species from the genus chrysobothris eschscholtz, 1829 (coleoptera, buprestidae) pshtiwan a. jalil*♦ and wand k. ali** *department of plant protection, college of agricultural engineering sciences, salahaddin universityerbil, iraq. **department of biology, college of education, salahaddin universityerbil, iraq. ♦corresponding author's email: pshtiwan.jalil@su.edu.krd received date: 12 august 2021, accepted date: 18 nov. 2021, published date: 20 december 2021 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract the genus of chrysobothris eschscholtz, 1829 is one of the most diverse and widespread genera of the family buprestidae of some 700 described species distributed throughout the world. in iraq, particularly in the kurdistan region, about 4 species had been recorded so far, many of these species are sympatric, share larval host plants, and are difficult to reliably separate morphologically. the current study investigates species limits and relationships among the recognized species occurring within the erbil province; mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase (cox i) molecular analysis confirmed the monophyly of two chrysobothris species, ch. affinis (fabricius, 1794) and ch. chrysostigma (linnaeus, 1758). implications of the resultant larval morphology and molecular techniques are discussed. diagnostic characteristics that are depended to identifying the species within chrysobothris in larval stage were illustrated and then compared with the molecular data. keywords: buprestidae, chrysobothris, coleoptera, coxi, molecular, morphology. introduction chrysobothris eschscholtz, 1829 is a common genus widely distributed throughout the world (macrae and basham, 2013). the species group within chrysobothris in the larval stage is separated from each other by a pronotal plate, pronotal sculpture and their asperities, and the inner armament of the proventriculus (bily, 1999). the larvae develop in the sapwood of the stems of the apricot prunus armeniaca l., 1753, peach prunus persica l., 1801, plum prunus domestica l., 1753, pear pyrus communis l., 1753 and pomegranate punica granatum l., 1753. this genus is one of the most diverse and widespread genera of the family buprestidae of some 700 described species distributed throughout the world (hawkeswood, https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2021.16.4.0547 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 558 morphology and molecular identification 1995; bellamy, 2002). in iraq, particularly in the kurdistan region, about 4 species had been recorded so far (cobos, 1970; knopf, 1971; ali, 2007). they are ch. affinis (fabricius, 1794); ch. beesoni obenburger, 1926; ch. beesoni kherii cobos,1970; ch. solieri castelnau and gory,1837, and ch. parvipunctata obenburger, 1914. but recently it has been proven that ch. beesoni and ch. beesoni kherii were synonymous for ch. parvipunctata (‎löbl and löbl, 2016, bílý et al., 2011). although several studies have already dealt with the adult stages of the species belonged to this genus in different areas (holynski, 1975; barr and westcott, 1976; westcott, 1983), but there was lack of comprehensive larval morphology. accordingly, it is necessary for proper identification to provide a detailed larval description which is based not only on the optic but also on molecular technique. furthermore, these species were found to be common and destructive pests in kurdistan orchards. molecular sequencing techniques provide a precise other approach to suppose evolutionary relationships among closely related species (rubinoff et al., 2006; hansen et al., 2015). the main objectives of this study are to identify species levels using inferences of dna sequences from cytochrome oxidase (coxi) and to try to determine further morphological characteristics of the larva. eventually, differences between ch. affinis and ch. chrysostigma, if recognized, will not only yield information that may help in identification of larval stages, but also actually facilitate the timing and placement of insecticides to agree with activity of economically important buprestids and reduce dangerous and overpriced control measures. materials and methods collection and identification of larval specimens last instar larvae are collected from the stem of the apricot prunus armeniaca, peach prunus persica, plum prunus domestica, pear pyrus communis and pomegranate punica granatum. the collection of the larvae has been performed in different locations of erbil province; the collected larvae are placed in vials containing 70% and 99% alcohol and then transferred to the laboratory for morphological and molecular study. the adult specimens have been reared from the larvae and identified with the help of the available literature (cobos, 1986). the identification of the larval stage had been confirmed to the genus level by dr. mark g. volkovitsh and dr. svatopluk bílý. the morphological terminology used in the present paper follows the ones in the papers of volkovitsh (1979), bíý (1999) and bíly and volkovitsh (2003, 2005). dissecting, slides preparation and imaging first, the larvae were dissected and boiled in 10% koh aqueous solution until the soft tissues are dissolved. after that the samples were rinsed in distilled water (alexeev, 1960; chamorro et al., 2012; volkovitsh and bílý, 2015). second, the specimens were mounted on slides, the dpx media (a mixture of polystyrene, tricresyl phosphate and xylene) that acts as a clearing agent to decompose soft tissue was used. the dissected parts were dehydrated by rinsing in serial concentrations of alcohol (30%, 50%, 70%, 90%, and 100 %) and then they were rinsed in xylole. then the prepared structures were placed in dpx drops using 0.5 mm micro needle and covered with coverslips. the slides were placed horizontally on a hot plate at 36˚c for 24–48 hours until they got dried for the avoidance of bubble formation. third, 559 jalil and ali images were taken by a compound microscope (huma scope premium) with mounted lcd camera, and scaling of the displayed structures were measured by a stage micrometre. molecular study for the molecular study, we followed the procedure of asghar et al. (2015), in which the larval specimens that had been collected and preserved in absolute ethanol and stored in refrigerator (̶ 20) c ͦ until dna extraction could be performed. a total sample size of (12) larvae were used for this experiment. dna extraction the genomic dna of a specific tissue (i. e. thorax and abdominal segments) was extracted from a pooled sample consist of three larvae of each species. animal and fungi dna preparation kit (jena bioscience gmbh .07749 germany), was used. quantification of extracted dna the spectrophotometer model nanodrop 1000 manufactured by thermo scientifics designed for measuring nucleic acid concentrations in sample volumes of one microliter was used. the instrument is driven by a pc, which allows 280 nm. this ratio is used to assess the purity of dna and rna (kumar et al., 2007). agarose gel electrophoresis agarose gel electrophoresis was the procedure used to separate dna fragments based on their molecular weight and intrinsic. the technique consists of three basic steps: 1. preparation of agarose gel. 2. electrophoresis of dna fragments. 3. visualization of dna fragments (lee et al., 2012). preparation to the amplification of partial mtcoxi gene the pcr amplification for coxi partial gene was prepared in 25 µl of the reaction mixture for 50 samples containing genomic dna and 2x taq polymerase master mix (ampliqon), 20 picomol of cj-c1-j-1718 forward primer: (5ʼgga gga ttt gga aat tga tta gtt cc -3ʼ), with 20 pmol of reverse primer (5ʼact gta aat ata tga tga gct ca -3ʼ), dnase free water and template dna by bioresearch ptc-200 gradient thermocycler. temperature profile included step one is an initial denaturation at 95 cº for 5 min, step two followed by 35 cycles of denaturation at 95cº for 35 seconds, a primer annealing at 50cº for 45 seconds, an extension at 72 cº for 1 min and final step is an extra extension at 72 cº for 5 min (tabs 1, 2) (hansen et al., 2015). table (1): primer coxi used for identifying the species of the genus chrysobothris. primer direction target tm c primer sequences reference c1-j1718 forward mtcoxi 52 5’ggaggatttggaaattgattagttcc3’ hansen et al. (2010) c1-j1718 reverse 5’actgtaaatatatgatgagctca 3’ 560 morphology and molecular identification dna sequencing the samples of the pcr product of the coxi mt-dna partial gene had been sequenced by abi prism terminator sequencing kit (applied biosystem) at the immuno gene center, physicianʼs street in erbil. chromatograms of primers gene were edited and also checked using finch tv and chromas program software. some of the products were prepared and sent to the republic of korea (south), and sequenced by the molecular and genetic company; macro gene company. results chrysobothris affinis (fabricius, 1794) larval morphology body shape and length: larval body (pls. 1 a, b) relatively large, long and slender, and belongs to the usual buprestoid larval type (morpho-ecological group 2) (volkovitsh, 1979). length of mature larva 25-27 mm; prothorax strongly enlarged, its width 5.5-6 mm. head: conical-shaped, nearly rounded anterior margin. epistome (pl. 1 c), heavily sclerotized, and about five times as wide as long; anterior margin slightly emarginated between globular condyles, posterior margin bisinus; lateroposterior corners sharp, epistomal sensilla centrally located, and each group of epistomal sensilla, consisting of long trichosensilla and one basiconic sensillum. antennae (pl. 1 d), basal antennomere nearly round, campaniform sensillum located on dorsal side; apical crown of microspinulae weakly developed with sparse and short microspinulae. apical antennomere shorter and smaller, two times as wide as long; apical crown of microspinulae with sparse and short microspinulae; apical trichosensilla long and sharp; apical cavity shallow, and provided with sharp sensory appendage, two palmate and one tiny basiconic sensillum that very close bases. mandibles (pl. 1 e): triangular, dark brown; strongly sclerotized, posterior part have two very small pores and short, thick seta. apical part with three sharp teeth; cutting edge with two obtuse denticles. ante-clypeus and labrum (pl. 1 f), membranous, smooth, and about thrice as wide as long. labrum trapezoid, longer than wide, anterior margin noticeably rounded and covered by a narrow field of microsetae; palatine sclerite well developed, lateral branches carried long trichosensilla; medial branches with a pair of long apical trichosensilla that prolonged to anterior margin, two campaniform sensilla located between lateral and medial branches. labio-maxillary complex, prementum, expanded and detached with basal sclerite of no. pcr components concentration volume (µl) 1 master mix 2x 12.5 2 forward primer 20 pmol 2 3 reverse primer 20 pmol 2 4 dnase free water 6.5 5 template dna 50ng/µl 2 total 25 table (2): pcr agents with their concentration and volumes. 561 jalil and ali cardo. labium (pl. 1 g), bottle-shaped; anterior margin widely rounded, corner sclerite of prementum well sclerotized and carried long sharp seta, with five campaniform sensilla; medial part with two zones of dense microspinulae. maxillae (pl. 1 h), cardo slightly rounded and glabrous; stipes bowed inward with densely microspinulae. basal palpomere of maxillary palpus, sub-cylindrical, wider than long; anterior margin with few short microspinulae and long lateral seta. apical palpomere, conical, with acutely curved sensillum, and one campaniform sensillum; upper part provided with five tiny sensory cones. mala, thick and slightly cylindrical; well sclerotized, with six external long sensilla, and one campaniform sensillum. thorax, prothorax wide and flattened, pronotal plate welldeveloped, and sculptured with dark, dense, asperities and sparse micro teeth (pl. 1 i); prosternal plate with same features but differ from by narrowing of border and forming concavity. pronotal groove (pl. 1 j) inverted letter v; prosternal groove, straight and narrow, not extended to the outer border (pl. 1 k); mesothorax, transverse and four times as wide as long with medial narrowing; metathorax, transverse and slightly narrower and longer than mesothorax. spiracles: mesothoracic spiracles (pl. 1 l), reniform, and about 3.5 times as wide as long with dense trabeculae. abdominal spiracles (pl. 1 m) smaller and spherical shaped with widely reniform. proventriculus: inner armaments of proventriculus developed as a single long protrusion with long and sharp spines (pl. 1 n). abdomen (pl. 1 a): relatively long and extremely flattened, first abdominal segment nearly ovoid without lateral folds; segments 2-8 slightly equal in width and length, dorsolateral folds well developed; anal segment sub conical with vertical anal rim; outer surface of the body, covered with dense, short microspinulae and long setae (pl. 1 o). 562 morphology and molecular identification plate (1): habits and morphological characteristics of the larva of ch. affinis; (a) dorsal view of larval body, (b) ventral view of thorax, (c) epistome, (d) antenna, (e) mandible, (f) labrum, (g) labiomaxillary complex, (h) maxilla, (i) pronotal asperities, (j) pronotal plate with groove, (k) prosternal plate with groove, (l) mesothoracic spiracle, (m) abdominal spiracle, (n) inner armament of proventriculus, (o) body surface. 563 jalil and ali chrysobothris chrysostigma (linnaeus, 1758) larval morphology body length and shape (pls. 2 a, b) larva, relatively large, and flattened with pale yellow color; pronotal, and prosternal plate well developed, with nearly circular border; length of mature larva about 25-28 mm; width of prothorax about 5-5.5 mm. head: flattened prominent, expanded at base; surface provided with short and dense microspinulae. epistome (pl. 2 c), transversely elongated, strongly sclerotized. 4.5 times as wide as long; anterior margin darkened and deeply incurved between semi-rounded condyles, posterior margin slightly bisinus with sharp posteriolateral corners, epistomal sensilla near with each other, and each group with two rather short trichosensilla and one basiconic sensillum. antennae (pl. 2 d), basal antennomere transversely, sub-cylindrical, and nearly 1.2 times as long as wide, with campaniform sensillum on the dorsal side; slightly narrowed, basally. apical antennomere short and wide and about thrice as wide as long, the apical crown of microspinulae well developed, with long and dense microspinulae; apical trichosensilla curved long; apical cavity shallow, well developed and provided with short, sharp sensory appendage, two palmate sensilla, and one tiny basiconic sensillum. mandibles (pl. 2 e), triangle-shaped, strongly sclerotized, and expanded basally; apical teeth with three sharp teeth; hind seta short and thick. ante-clypeus and labrum (pl. 2 f), membranous, smooth, and about thrice as wide as long. labrum, trapezoid, longer than wide; anterior margin slightly arched toward mouth cavity, and covered by dense and short microsetae; anterolateral corners round with one long seta and one campaniform sensillum; anterolateral lobes weakly developed; lateral branches strongly developed with long, thick tricosensilla, medial branches with long, sharp apical seta, in which nearly prolonged to anterior microspinuled area. labio-maxillary complex (pl. 2 g), prementum, transverse, anterior margin with medial depressing. labium oblique; anterior margin widely rounded, corner sclerite, tubular, well developed, with long sharp seta and five campaniform sensilla; medial part with two microspinulae zones. maxillae (pl. 2 h), cardo round, with few short setae. stipes strongly sclerotized, anterior margin of stipes with a bundle of long setae, and prolonged to near bases of maxillary palpus. basal palpomere of maxillary palpus, barrel-shaped, longer than wide, with medial campaniform sensillum; anterior margin with dense and short microspinulae; apical palpomere, cylindrical; two times as long as wide, with four tiny sensory cones. mala, sub-conical shaped, well sclerotized, longer than wide, with six long and thick tricosensilla, and fine dens microsetae. thorax (pls. 2 a, b): prothorax ovoid bordered, and well expanded, both pronotal and prosternal plates well-developed and covered by dense, dark brown and, dash shaped asperities with micro sculpture, (pl. 2 i); pronotal groove inverted “vˮ letter, and branches connected in apical part, and remarkably diverged posteriorly (pl. 2 j), prosternal groove straight with tightly tapering ends (pl. 2 k). mesothorax, ring-shaped; short, and four times as wide as long; metathorax, slightly transverse, about thrice as wide as long with slightly medial depressions, and basal narrowing; leg rudiments absent. spiracles: mesothoracic spiracles (pl. 2 l) reniform, three times as wide as long, and arcuated medially; with dense, vertical trabeculae. abdominal spiracles (pl. 2 m), slightly spherical 564 morphology and molecular identification with fewer branches of trabeculae and expanded peretreme. proventriculus (pl. 2 n), inner armament of frontal and basal part provided with long and dense microspines; medial part with irregular sculptures in which developed as micro tubercles and carried 2-4 short and sharp micro spines. abdomen (pl. 2 a): large, and relatively long flattened, first abdominal segment nearly ovoid and distinctly narrower than metathorax and second abdominal segment; segments 2 8 slightly wider than long; dorsolateral folds well developed; last segment triangular, and opened with vertical anal rim; whitish dense and short microspinulae covered the whole abdominal surface with presence sparse singular, long bristles (pl. 2 o). 565 jalil and ali plate (2): habits and morphological characteristics of the larva of ch. chrysostigma; (a) dorsal view of larval body, (b) ventral view of thorax, (c) epistome, (d) antenna, (e) mandible, (f) labrum, (g) labium, (h) maxilla, (i) pronotal asperities, (j) pronotal plate with groove, (k) prosternal plate with groove, (l) mesothoracic spiracle, (m) abdominal spiracle, (n) inner armament of proventriculus, (o) body surface. 566 morphology and molecular identification molecular study genomic dna for the two specimens belonging to the genus chrysobothris includes ch. affinis (fabricius, 1794) and ch. chrysostigma were isolated. the purity was also found acceptable ranging between (1.7–1.8) determined by spectrophotometer ratio a260/a280. the molecular weight of the genomic dna samples was estimated using 1% agarose gel electrophoresis containing λ dna samples as control and it was found to be the range 50 kb (pl. 3). the lanes from 1-2b represent the two species respectively; lane m represents unrestricted λ dna as a standard molecular weight marker ~50 kb. partial of the coxi gene segments for all the collected specimens was amplified by a universal primer (wild and maddison, 2008). the molecular size of dna amplicons was estimated using 1.5% agarose gel electrophoresis. by using this primer, one single and strong intense band of amplified product of the mt-dna gene had been produced across the studied species, with molecular weight approximately 650 bp, and clearly could be noted as shown in (pl. 3). plate (3): amplification results obtained by using universal primer complementary to regions encoding mt coxi gene. electrophoresis was performed on (1.5 %) agarose gel for min. lane 1 indicates dna molecular weight 100 bp size ladder. the lanes from 1-2b represent the studied species. sequence alignment the gene sequences were applied to basic local alignment search tool (blast) to blast the sequences and alignment which is available at the national center for biotechnology information (ncbi) website to comparing and alignment query sequence with other biological sequences to find out the similarity with the matched species (ellis et al., 2009). discussion being compatible with the characteristics used in the keys of the buprestidae larvae published by cobos (1986) and bilý (1999), several morphological characters were selected to describe and identify the larvae of chrysobothris species. this study is based on more morphological details of the larval stage of ch. affinis and ch. chrysostigma which contribute significantly to the accuracy of larval description and identification. molecular study has rarely used for the confirmation of the identification of buprestid larvae. earlier studies indicate that the molecular technique is reliable and important for the verification of 567 jalil and ali morphological description of larval stage and its correct differentiation from the other species of the same genus (hansen et al., 2015). usually, the immature stages of the insect species are very difficult to distinguish and correctly identify based on external characters. the results of our study provide additional characteristics to the morphology and diagnosis of two different species in the larval stage. we recommend, however, caution that absent the presence of more informative nuclear sequence data, discrimination of these species group members using the repertoire of anatomical structures in current use is insufficient to reliably place specimens into taxonomically defined entities. we suggest that future molecular investigations of species limitations of chrysobothris group members should implement a population genetics approach using several speedily evolving nuclear genes, which would be most definitely acquired successive to a nextgen sequencing campaign. conclusions in this study the larval stage of two different species of the genus chrysobothris were described and illustrated morphologically. the larval specimens were collected in erbil province in the iraqi kurdistan region. two complementary methods of identification (morphological description and molecular technique) were utilized for analyzing the species identification in larval stage and recognizing as two dangerous horticultural pests in the future. two species ch. affinis and ch. chrysostigma have been recorded for the first time in genebank with their accession numbers (mn066129 and mn066128) respectively that confirmed the identification of these species precisely. acknowledgement we would like to express our deepest gratitude to dr. mark g.volkovitsh (st. petersburg, russia), and dr. svatopluk bílý (prague, czech republic), for their assistance in the identification of the larval and adult specimens. we would like also to thank all our colleagues in plant protection department, college of agricultural engineering sciences, salahaddin university – erbil, kurdistan region, iraq for their cooperation of this work. conflict of interest statment the authors have no conflicts of interest to declare. literature cited alexeev, a. 1960. on the morphology and systematics of larvae of some species of the genus agrilus curt. in the european part of the ussr (coleoptera, buprestidae). zoologicheskii zhurnal, 39:14971510. ali, w. k. 2007. taxonomic study of the flat headed steam borers of buprestidae (coleoptera) in iraqi kurdistan. ph. d. dissertation, in zoology department of 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(in russian). volkovitsh m. g. and bílý, s. 2015. larvae of australian buprestidae (coleoptera). part 5. genera astraeus and xyroscelis, with notes on larval characters of australian polycestine taxa. acta entomologica musei nationalis pragae, 55: 173-202. westcott, r. l. 1983. revision of the aerea group of chrysobothris (coleoptera: buprestidae). systematic entomology, 8:339-359. wild, a. l. and maddison, d. r. 2008. evaluating nuclear protein-coding genes for phylogenetic utility in beetles. molecular phylogenetics and evolution, 48: 877891. 570 morphology and molecular identification bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2021) 16 (4): 557-570. املظهر الخارجي والتشخيص الجزيئي لنوعين من يرقات الجنس chrysobothris eschscholtz, 1829 (coleoptera, buprestidae) وند خالص علي** جليل* و بشتيوان عبدهللا .أربيل, العراق,* قسم وقاية النبات, كلية علوم الهندسة الزراعية, جامعة صالح الدين .أربيل, العراق,** قسم علوم الحياة, كلية التربية, جامعة صالح الدين 20/12/2021 ، تأريخ النشر:18/11/2021 ، تأريخ القبول:12/08/2021: تأريخ االستالم خالصةال هو احدى أكثر األجناس تنوًعا وانتشاًرا chrysobothris eschscholtz, 1829الجنس أنواع موصوف منتشرة في جميع 700حيث سجل لها حوالي buprestidaeفي عائلة وهذه األنواع ؛ضمن إقليم كردستان أنواع 4 سجلفي العراق, اما أنحاء العالم. ة مشتركة ويصعب تميزهم مظهرًيا على نحو موثوق. مستوطنة وعوائلها النباتي بحثت الدراسة الحالية عن مدى األنواع وكذلك العالقات بين األنواع االخرى ِكد coxiحيث ان تحليالت ؛ضمن محافظة أربيل املشخصة ُ األنعزال الجزيئي بين تأ .ch و ch. affinis (fabricius, 1794)و هما كل من: chrysobothris جنس نوعين من chrysostigma (linnaeus, 1758)كما ُوِضَح الصفات املظهرية لتشخيص األنواع في ؛ الطور اليرقي االخير وتم مقارنتها مع البيانات الجزيئية. bull 497 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (2): 499-509. vagrancy records of the great bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2024) 18 (2): 497-505. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2024.18.2.0497 short communication vagrancy records of the great white pelican pelecanus onocrotalus linnaeus, 1758 (aves, pelecaniformes, pelecanidae) in southern india kamalanathan sharma*,, samidurai jayakumar** and subramanian muralidharan* *division of avian ecotoxicology, sálim ali centre for ornithology and natural history, south india centre of wildlife institute india (wii), coimbatore, tamil nadu, india. **department of zoology and wildlife biology, a.v.c. college (autonomous), mayiladuthurai, tamil nadu, india. *corresponding author e-mail: sharmawlb@gmail.com received: 23 jan. 2024, revised: 29 may 2024, accepted: 1 june 2024, published:20 december 2024 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract vagrancy is a less contrived part in the context of bird migration; thus, observing the vagrancy pattern of immigrants helps to discover changes in distribution, range shifting, and range expansion of the bird species. it is critical to look after the determinants and patterns of vagrancy for effective conservation measures for all migratory bird species, including threatened pelican species, since their inland migration routes are understudied in india. great white pelican pelecanus onocrotalus linnaeus, 1758 (pelecaniformes, pelecanidae) is one of the winter visitors to india, but its wintering range in india is not addressed adequately. this communication provides documentation of the sighting of a great white pelican at nelapattu bird sanctuary, one of the important bird areas in andhra pradesh, india, and briefly highlights the less-noticed vagrancy phenomenon of this species in the states of southern india. keywords: great white pelican, inland migration, range expansion, vagrancy, wintering. introduction vagrant birds are individuals of migratory bird species that are observed outside their wintering grounds and distribution range in unusual areas (elisa et al., 2015). surprisingly, it is a common phenomenon in many bird species, often occurring in spatiotemporally predictable patterns. vagrancy can occur through inter and intra-competition among species and the expansion of their home range, generally as a consequence of changes in resources due to environmental changes (woehler, 1992; milius, 2000; rey et al., 2007). the great white pelican is one of the eight species of pelicans found globally. a longdistance migrant, categorized under the least concern (lc) in the global red list by the bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799, print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2024.18.2.0497 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4165-883x https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9509-5625 mailto:sharmawlb@gmail.com https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 498 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (2): 497-505. vagrancy records of the great iucn, was safeguarded under schedule ii of the wildlife protection act in india and recorded a declining trend in the population (soib, 2023). according to published records, two distinct populations of p. onocrotalus usually perform their wintering in africa, eastern europe, and asia. the european-asian population of p. onocrotalus is truly migratory which has not been adequately studied (crivelli et al., 1991). in india, it was recorded in large numbers from the central west to the north eastern region (punjab to assam) and was recorded breeding in gujarat (ali and ripley, 1987). a few individuals of p. onocrotalus have been sighted in some parts of andhra pradesh (taher and mani, 2008; sheeba and vijayan, 2009), karnataka (gopalakrishna and pushpalatha, 2003), kerala (jacob et al., 1995), and tamil nadu (thirunaranan et al., 2017). the forefront reasons for vagrancy in migratory birds are assumed to be wind drift and imperfection in internal compass mechanisms that can cause them to deviate from their usual wintering routes (thorup et al., 2012; lees and gilroy, 2021). however, the drivers of vagrancy and the significance of this phenomenon have not been soundly documented. thus, this work attempts to fill the gap by focusing on the great white pelican. sighting of great white pelican p. onocrotalus at nelapattu bird sanctuary, india we observed an individual of great white pelican perched on a dead log in the middle of a large congregation of spot-billed pelican pelecanus philippensis and asian openbills anastomus oscitans. the sighting occurred on 27th of december 2022, around 12:50 pm, at nelapattu bird sanctuary, andhra pradesh, india. it has been observed with a breeding crest plumage and a knob or swell on its forehead, which indicates the onset of breeding (pl.1). the observation was performed using a binocular nikon monarch m7 (8x42) and photographed using a mobile phone camera through a binocular eyepiece. we observed and photographed the perching and preening activity of the great white pelican (pl.1). the sighted bird is whitish and larger in size in contrast to the spot-billed pelican, with the yellowish-orange gular pouch and pinkish orbital skin extending towards the bill. during flight, black primaries and secondary underwing coverts were also observed. all these distinct features of the great white pelican made it easy to identify while sighting and were also confirmed with the help of a standard field guide (grimmett et al., 1998). during the verbal interaction, sanctuary representatives enunciated that the great white pelican is one of the winged visitors to nelapattu bird sanctuary but were not certain about the individual counts and duration of stay in the sanctuary. in addition, there are a handful of sighting records of p. onocrotalus reported from andhra pradesh, karnataka, kerala and tamil nadu. therefore, we extracted the sighting records of p. onocrotalus between january 2000 and january 2023, with a special focus on states of southern india, from one of the common semi-structured citizen science data platforms for birds named ebird, holding metadata of the public recording species observation, information of location, observer effort, and species lists. we preferred to use ebird records since citizen science data platforms such as inaturalist and ebird are progressively contributing to basic and applied ecological research (johnston et al., 2019). in total, 21 records were found, including the present record from three states of southern india, namely andhra pradesh, karnataka, and tamil nadu (tab. 1, 499 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum sharma et al. map 1). there is no recent report of p. onocrotalus from kerala in ebird domain. nevertheless, scientific reports have been published on the sighting of p. onocrotalus in kerala (nair, 1993; jacob et al., 1995). the reason for no recent sighting records in kerala could be that less attention is paid to this species, the number of individuals involved in this phenomenon is quite small, and sightings are also very opportunistic. there is a possibility that this species restricts movement within andhra pradesh, karnataka, and tamil nadu since most of the vagrancy records were found to be in the lowland regions of andhra pradesh and tamil nadu. plate (1): photographic record of p. onocrotalus sighted in nelapattu bird sanctuary, andhra pradesh taken on 27th december 2022; (a) preening activity, (b) visible breeding crest plumage and swelling on the forehead, (c) perching of the great white pelican at the center of the mass bird’s congregation. sighting records of p. onocrotalus in the southern states of india obtained sighting records of the great white pelican in southern india were not huge in terms of the number of records and individual counts. 13 sighting records of p. onocrotalus were found in andhra pradesh, followed by six in tamil nadu and two in karnataka. 500 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (2): 497-505. vagrancy records of the great maximum number of sightings recorded in andhra pradesh (n = 11) during december and january, followed by february and november (n = 2). in tamil nadu, five sightings were recorded during december and january, one in july, and two sighting records in karnataka during january and july between 2000 and 2023 (tab. 1). since most of the sighting records of this species fall between december and february months in a year, there could be a pattern in the movement that needs to be explored further. a total of three individuals were recorded in one event of sighting in andhra pradesh, which was the highest count compared to the rest. similar to this study, records of a single individual per sighting were published by taher and mani (2008), sheeba and vijayan (2009) and thirunaranan et al. (2017). in southern india, this was a less noticeable phenomenon since the wintering distribution is usually restricted from the central west to north-eastern india. however, few wintering records and unclear nesting records of p. onocrotalus with juveniles in the kutch region were reported by ali (1960) and tiwari et al. (2003). in the present anthropocene era, threats to the avian community are high. hence, conserving any bird species requires well-organized baseline data regarding migration patterns, breeding, habitat health, and many other factors in their ecology. in addition, pelicans are one of the most threatened species of world waterbirds due to a broad spectrum of threats such as loss of quality foraging and breeding habitats, several harmful pollutants, and infestation of endoparasites (kannan and manakadan, 2005; kumar et al., 2019; jayakumar et al., 2020). a little has been documented about the vagrancy pattern of migratory bird species with the help of traditional and forthright monitoring methods such as observation of migratory birds at stop-over sites, observation of visible migration in progress, capture and banding of migrant birds, and using growing satellite tagging methods, which brought up some meaningful outcomes about migrant and vagrant birds (sidney, 1996). in contrast to the traditional assumptions, vagrancy could also be influenced by man-made pressures such as urban sprawl and wetland degradation, as they are sensitive to habitat change (gilroy et al., 2016). there are a few doubts about pelican migratory patterns that are still unanswered, which raises gaps in scientific information on the migration dynamics of pelican species in india and elsewhere. therefore, enabling proper monitoring exercises using modern techniques to gain more information may help explore and conserve the bird species, especially the threatened ones, and their ecology in the years to come. conclusions indeed, there is a need to monitor birds to produce documentation of their movements and habitat quality, which will significantly help to conserve threatened bird species against intense environmental changes in the present and future. this communication aimed to document a sighting record from the nelapatu bird sanctuary and compile other sighting records of p. onocrotalus in southern india using ebird platform. the driving factors of vagrancy movements and inland migration routes are largely unknown. therefore, monitoring and often documenting the spatiotemporal patterns of this vagrancy movement in birds, including all pelican species, will contribute to a better understanding of this phenomenon for building effective conservation strategies. 501 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum sharma et al. s.no. observers count place m/y latitude longitude altitude (m.) 1 gnanaskandan kesavabharathi 1 vedanthangal bird sanctuary, tamil nadu jan /2009 12.545767 79.855542 47 2 sandip das 3 indira gandhi zoological park, andhra pradesh nov /2012 17.767348 83.344611 53 3 amarendra konda 1 uppalapadu bird sanctuary, andhra pradesh dec /2014 16.307207 80.51337 34 4 ramana kumar kandula 1 uppalapadu bird sanctuary, andhra pradesh jan /2014 16.307207 80.51337 34 5 the nature trust 1 pallikaranai marsh lands, tamil nadu dec /2014 12.935358 80.22867 14 6 the nature trust 1 capml center, chennai, tamil nadu dec /2014 12.91493 80.22125 14 7 the nature trust 1 karapakkam, chennai, tamil nadu jul /2015 12.903757 80.212646 13 8 the nature trust 1 nelapattu wildlife sanctuary, andhra pradesh dec /2015 13.825847 79.948892 59 9 the nature trust 1 ayyapalem, andhra pradesh jan /2016 13.824401 79.950004 61 10 pavithra sankaran 1 nagavalli kere, karnataka feb /2016 11.934834 77.037785 706 11 kadambari devarajan 1 kolleru bird sanctuary, andhra pradesh jan /2017 16.567002 81.231659 33 12 kuldeep deshpande 1 kolleru birds sanctuary, andhra pradesh jan /2017 16.645929 81.260376 30 13 sankara narayanan 1 nelapattu wildlife sanctuary, andhra pradesh dec /2017 13.819578 79.955149 59 14 dipu karuthedathu 1 perumbakkam marshlands, tamil nadu dec /2017 12.900543 80.218391 11 15 suryakanta acharya 1 kolleru birds sanctuary, andhra pradesh jan /2018 16.65934 81.2167 37 16 ganeshwar s v 1 perumbakkam marshlands, tamil nadu jan /2018 12.900543 80.218391 11 17 arjun dev 1 pulicat lake (andhra pradesh part) jan /2018 13.678024 80.111275 18 18 stephan lorenz 1 ranganathittu bird sanctuary, karnataka jan /2018 12.424956 76.657029 724 19 srikanth bhamidipati 1 kolleru birds sanctuary, andhra pradesh feb /2021 16.636893 81.214012 41 20 sharma kamalanathan * 1 nelapattu wildlife sanctuary, andhra pradesh dec /2022 13.828064 79.95377 55 21 siribabu gera 1 nelapattu wildlife sanctuary, andhra pradesh jan /2023 13.772822 79.97656 45 total 23 * sighting described in this communication (accessed on 15 apr 2023) https://ebird.org/: source table (1): ebird records of great white pelican from southern india (2000-2023). https://ebird.org/ 502 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (2): 497-505. vagrancy records of the great map (1): recorded sightings of p. onocrotalus in southern india. acknowledgments all the authors are thankful to the contributors to this communication, especially for their review and suggestions. conflict of interest statement the authors have no conflict of interest with this manuscript to declare. the photographs used in this manuscript were captured by sharma kamalanathan, ensuring there are no copyright issues. literature cited ali, s. 1960. ‘flamingo city’ revisited: nesting of the rosy pelican pelecanus onocrotalus linnaeus in the rann of kutch. journal of bombay natural history society, 57(2): 412-415. 503 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum sharma et al. ali, s. and ripley, s. d. 1987. compact handbook of the birds of india and pakistan together with those of bangladesh, nepal, bhutan and sri lanka. 2nd ed. delhi: oxford university press, 884pp. crivelli, a. j., yossi, l., taniu, m. and hans, j. 1991. where do palaearctic great white pelicans pelecanus onocrotalus presently overwinter? revue d'écologie (terre vie), 46: 145-171. elisa, p., liana, c. and maria, p. 2015. records of vagrant bird species in antarctica: new observations. marine biodiversity records, 8 (e61): 1-6. 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[crossref] thorup, k., ortvad, t. e., holland, r. a., rabøl, j., kristensen, m. w. and wikelski, m. 2012. orientation of vagrant birds on the faroe islands in the atlantic ocean. journal of ornithology, 153: 1261-1265. tiwari, j. k., alain, j. c. and s. n. and varu, s. n. 2003. status and distribution of pelicans in kutch district of gujarat. newsletter for birdwatchers, 43 (2): 22. woehler, t. d. 1992. records of vagrant penguins from tasmania. marine ornithology, 20: 61-73. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2021.10.058 https://doi.org/10.3354/meps330285 https://doi.org/10.2307/1369168 https://stateofindiasbirds.in/species/grwpel1/ http://doi.org/10.11609/jott.3307.9.9.10729-10732 505 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum sharma et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2024) 18 (2): 497-505. سجالت التشرد للبجع األبيض الكبير pelecanus onocrotalus linnaeus pelecaniformes) aves, pelecanidae,في جنوب الهند ) سوبرامانيان موراليدهران*و كاماالناثان شارما*، ساميدوراي جاياكومار** بيعي، *قسم علم السموم البيئية للطيور، مركز سليم علي لعلم الطيور والتاريخ الط (، كويمباتور، تاميل نادو، الهند.wiiمركز جنوب الهند ملعهد الحياة البرية في الهند ) . )مستقلة(، مايالدوثوراي، a.v.c**قسم علم الحيوان وعلم أحياء الحياة البرية، كلية تاميل نادو، الهند. 20/12/2024، النشر: 1/6/2024القبول: 29/5/2024املراجعة:، 23/1/2024االستالم: الخالصة عّد الهجرة العارضة ُ في سياق هجرة الطيور، )التشرد( ت ً للطيور عنصًرا أقل تنظيما مما يجعل دراسة أنماط هذه الظاهرة في الطيور املهاجرة وسيلة فعالة لفهم التغيرات في دداتـرافي، وتوسع انتشارها. وُيعتبر استكشاف محـتوزيعها، وتحوالت نطاقها الجغ ع ــة جميـع استراتيجيات فعالة لحمايـة لوضـغ األهميـة أمًرا بالـوأنماط الهجرة العارض ة الدراسات ـع، نظًرا لقلـواع املهددة من البجـأنواع الطيور املهاجرة، بما في ذلك األن الكبيرض ــع األبيــة بمسارات هجرتها الداخلية في الهند. ُيعد البجـاملتعلق pelecanus onocrotalus (l., 1758) املنتمي إلى رتبة البجعيات (pelecaniformes) أحد الزوار الشتويين للهند، غير أن نطاقه الشتوي ، (pelecanidae) وعائلة البجع داخل البالد لم يتم بحثه بصورة وافية. تستعرض هذه الورقة توثيًقا لرصد البجع عد إحدى املناطق ذات األهمية الخاصة األبيض الكبير في محمية نيالباتو للطيور ُ ، والتي ت للطيور في والية أندرا براديش بالهند، مع تسليط الضوء بشكل موجز على الظاهرة العارضة لهذا النوع في واليات جنوب الهند. bull 469 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum kawalkar and manchi bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2023) 17 (3): 469-480. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2023.17.3.0469 original article first confirmed breeding record of the blyth’s swift apus pacificus leuconyx (blyth, 1845) (apodiformes, apodidae) in southern parts of nilgiri region of western ghats of india dhanusha kawalkar and shirish s. manchi* division of conservation ecology, sálim ali centre for ornithology and natural history, anaikatty (post office), coimbatore – 641108, india. * corresponding author: ediblenest@gmail.com recived date: 08 august 2022, accepted date 24 march 2023, published date:20 june 2023 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract blyth’s swift, endemic to the indian subcontinent, is one of the four taxa of the pacific swift apus pacificus complex. it is known to breed in high altitudes (>2,000 m) and disperse widely in winters, as far as the southern extremity of nilgiri region of the western ghats of india. however, the true extent of its non-breeding range remains uncertain. the present study reports the extended breeding range of the species and also an attempt to confirm its breeding range using the species distribution modeling (sdm). in april 2020 in anaikatty hills of southern western ghats, coimbatore, we recorded an assemblage of four aerial foraging aves; indian swiftlet aerodramus unicolor (jerdon, 1840), asian palm swift cypsiurus balasiensis (j.e. gray, 1829), red-rumped swallow cecropis daurica (laxmann, 1769), and a large-sized swift. after referring to the experts’ field guides and discussions, we confirmed the species’ identification as the blyth’s swift apus pacificus leuconyx (blyth, 1845). the observed individuals of the blyth’s swift were carrying food bolus, confirming active breeding of the species in the nilgiri region of the southern western ghats of india. also, the available breeding records were projected using species distribution model sdm, the breeding range included the extent of southern western ghats. we claim the first confirmed breeding record of the blyth’s swift in the region and an extension of the species breeding range. keywords: anaikatty hills, a. p. leuconyx, breeding range, blyth’s swift, western ghats introduction the swift clan ‘apodidae’ is divided into two subfamilies, cypseloidinae and apodinae (chantler, 1999; brooke, 1970, 1972). furthermore, the apodinae is subdivided into three tribes apodini, collocaliini, and chaeturini, but out of all the position of hirundapus in the chaeturini clade faces a few minor challenges (price et al., 2004, 2005). however, within “typical swifts” of apodini, the systematics and taxonomy of the two old world genera apus and tachymarptis have been under long-term contention, and higher-level phylogeny within bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799-print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2023.17.3.0469 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6478-7522 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7540-2616 mailto:ediblenest@gmail.com https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 470 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum first confirmed breeding record apodidae is yet to be fully resolved; furthermore, the absence of apus swifts’ taxonomic controversy might be because comprehensive analyses of both comparative morphology and molecular data are still missing (päckert et al., 2012). according to leader (2011), the apus pacificus complex is further sub-classified into four species; pacific swift a. p. pacificus, salim ali’s swift a. p. salimalii, cook’s swift a. p. cooki, and blyth’s swift a. p. leuconyx. blyth’s swift is endemic to the indian subcontinent (leader 2011; kirwan et al., 2020). pacific swift breeds in siberia east to kamchatka and northern japan; winters in indonesia, melanesia, australia, and possibly northeast india (kirwan et al., 2020). few studies (e.g., davidson, 1898; praveen et al., 2016; cheke, 2018) predicted the possible breeding of pacific swift in the nilgiris, southern western ghats. salim ali’s swift breeds on the tibetan plateau and in western china, whose wintering grounds are unknown. cook’s swift is confined to south-east asia and breeds from myanmar east to vietnam and south to thailand (kirwan et al., 2020). blyth’s swift is relatively large. the species is known to breed in the high altitudes of the himalayas (>2,000 m) from march to may in nepal and north-east india (kirwan et al., 2020; grimmett et al., 2011) and occur at 1,300m to 3,800m in pakistan and bhutan (birdlife international, 2019). it is known to disperse widely during winter and is observed in nepal’s lower altitudes and as far south as the southern western ghats of india (kirwan et al., 2020). however, the true extent of its non-breeding range and its relative frequency in different areas are poorly known (kirwan et al., 2020). furthermore, blyth’s swift has been observed wintering in kerala and goa (kumar, 2017), confirming its migratory range throughout the western ghats (bhagat, 2017). understanding the limitations of apodid identification in the field, their distribution in the region is not much evident as in the country. hence, contributing to revealing the breeding status and non-breeding range of the blyth’s swift, the present report is the first confirmed breeding record of the species in southern western ghats of india. also, we used the species distribution modeling (sdm) to confirm the extended breeding range of the species using the available presence records during the breeding season. further, we presume the possible occurrence of a resident population of the blyth’s swift in the nilgiri region of southern parts of the western ghats of india. materials and methods study area: anaikatty hills (map 1; 11.1048° n, 76.7683° e), with an elevation of 757m, is a part of the nilgiri biosphere reserve, western ghats, located in the coimbatore district of tamil nadu, india. the western ghats mountain chain is older than the himalayas and represents an array of geomorphic features of immense importance with unique biophysical and ecological processes (unesco, 2012). the region is part of the eastern foothills of the western ghats and is identified as the rain shadow area. the area has a secondary forest surrounded by dry deciduous forests. the region receives an annual rainfall of about 700mm, mainly contributed by the north-east monsoon. the temperature here varies from 17 ̊c to 36 ̊ c (mukherjee and bhupathy, 2007). 471 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum kawalkar and manchi observation and identification: the observations mentioned in the present study are from the open residential area in anaikatty valley. on 29 and 30 april 2020, a mixed flock of three foraging apodids, indian swiftlet aerodramus unicolor, asian palm swift, and three individuals of large unidentified swift species along with red-rumped swallow were observed for 30 minutes. initially, these three individuals looked like little swift apus affinis, one of the most common apodids in the region because of the prominent white rump and dark dorsal plumage. as all the four species were foraging together, comparing the body size was not very difficult using the binoculars (nikon: monarch 10x42mm). when these birds were feeding just between 10–30 meters above ground, the larger body size of all the three individuals of the unidentified species was confirmed as blyth’s swift based on grimmett et al. (2011) and rasmussen and anderton (2012). for further identification conformation, we also cited kirwan et al. (2020). moreover, we further shared images of the unidentified apus sp. individuals with experts for conformed identification (see acknowledgments section). to further authenticate our findings of the blyth’s swift in the anaikatty hills we made a distribution model using maxent (maximum entropy) approach. we used the 785 presence data points between the months (march–may) when to species is known to breed in its distribution range. the data was taken from global biodiversity information facility repository (gbif secretariat, 2021). for developing species distribution model (sdm) for current scenario, 19 bioclimatic variables downloaded from worldclim database version 1.4 (tab. 1) were used. out of these 19, six variables were included in the model after testing for correlation between variables (tab. 1). for evaluation of the model, 75% of the species presence sites were used as training data and the remaining 25% was for testing the statistical significance. the model was run using five replicates with 5000 iterations. rest of the settings was set to default. model validation was performed using subsampling strategy. the threshold value based on the area under curve (auc) of the receiver operating curve (roc) ranges from 0 to 1, the auc score of 1 indicates perfect prediction, with zero omission. however, the values equal to 0.5 indicates random prediction, while auc values 0.8< auc<1 were treated as good; 0.7<auc<0.8 as fair, and auc less than 0.7 poor prediction (sumangala et al., 2017; sharma et al., 2019). the resultant habitat suitability classes were categorized into four classes (of equal intervals) viz., least (0), low (<0.33), moderate (<0.66), and high suitability (<1). further, qgis (ver 3.1; qgis development team 2009) esri mapping software was used to produce maps for the distribution of the blyth’s swift. 472 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum first confirmed breeding record table (1): environmental data used for sdm for a.p.leuconyx (www.worldbioclim.org). codes environmental variables bio 1 annual mean temperature bio 2* mean diurnal range (mean of monthly (max temp-min temp) bio 3* isothermality (bio2/bio7) (*100) bio 4 temperature seasonality (standard deviation *100) bio 5 max temperature of warmest month bio 6 min temperature of coldest month bio 7 temperature annual range (bio5-bio6) bio 8 mean temperature of wettest quarter bio 9 mean temperature of driest quarter bio 10 mean temperature of warmest quarter bio 11 mean temperature of coldest quarter bio 12* annual precipitation bio 13 precipitation of wettest month bio 14* precipitation of driest month bio 15* precipitation seasonality (coefficient of variation) bio 16 precipitation of wettest quarter bio 17 precipitation of driest quarter bio 18 precipitation of warmest quarter bio 19* precipitation of coldest quarter results and discussion all of the sources, the cited literature, and experts’ views confirmed that the apus sp. observed in the anaikatty hills is a blyth’s swift, a common winter visitor to the region (map 1). blyth’s swift (pl. 1) and indian swiftlet are new additions to the known list of apodids in the anaikatty hills. the presence of the indian swiftlet is apparent in the anaikatty hills, coimbatore, as the region is adjacent to its known breeding in ooty, nilgiris district (dewar, 1915; mahabal et al., 2007). blyth’s swift has been recently sighted by several bird watchers in kerala and anand (2016) in the nilgiri district during winters. cheke (2018) claimed, during his observation in 1981, possible nesting of pacific swift in nilgiris. as the pacific swift complex during cheke’s 1980 observation was not revised yet, and the sighting was recorded from a distance, we understand it wasn’t easy to note the minute morphological variations of the individuals seen. therefore, we assume that cheke (2018) encountered blyth’s swift in nilgiris. the observations by cheke (2018) in nilgiris were on 7 may 1981, and the present study on 29 and 30 april 2020 in anaikatty hills confirms the post-winter presence/dispersal of the species in these regions. blyth’s swift is known to be endemic to the indian subcontinent and breeds only in high altitudes. the present study confirms blyth’s swift’s breeding record in southern western ghats and its extended breeding. we endorse this breeding record based on the bolus that the bird must be carrying for its young. recently, anand (2016) located blyth’s swift on 9 april, and cheke (2018), with his observation on 7 may 1981, mentioned possible nesting of the pacific swift in the nilgiri hills. these studies support the species’ post-winter dispersal in http://www.worldbioclim.org/ 473 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum kawalkar and manchi the southern western ghats of india and its probable breeding status in the region. simultaneously, cheke (2018) also raises confusion regarding the misidentification of the conspecific blyth’s swift. early reports of davidson (1898) suggest the possible nesting of pacific swift in the hill-caves near dudhsagar falls, central western ghats of uttar kannada, karnataka, during april. moreover, in bhutan, blyth’s swift is observed with young from late march to june, and colonies are deserted by early july (spierenburg, 2005). hence, we can also consider that the species must be breeding between march to june in central (davidson, 1998) and southern western ghats (cheke, 2018). also, according to the recent records (from 2011 to 2019), blyth’s swift was recorded both in kerala and tamil nadu during march and april (breeding season). since pacific swift a. p. pacificus is known to be breeding in north-east india (kirwan et al., 2020) and is similar to blyth’s swift, the plumage and morphological differences between the two species is mentioned by leader (2011). blyth’s swift has narrow rump patch (c.10mm wide) with fine but distinct shaft streak, a pale greyish throat patch extending onto upper breast, dark brown under wing coverts and a prominent white patch near the tail upper part (pl.1),which all have been noted during our recent observation. furthermore, according to leader (2011), the taxonomical arrangement of the a. pacificus is intricate. given that the apus species are profoundly known to be of aerial existence, they have consistent structural differences of taxonomical significance between apparently closely related taxa, which led to a substantial revision of the genus (leader, 2011). the taxonomic importance of these fundamental differences is further supported by different plumage patterns and as well as by differences in migration strategies and breeding biology. hence, it is best treated as four different species. we noticed a significant bulge in the individuals’ throat region (pl. 2). based on the discussion with the experienced ornithologists, we confirmed that the bulging throat is an indicator that the individuals of the blyth’s swift observed in anaikatty were with the food bolus. these aerial insectivores are known to carry food for their chicks in the form of small food balls, which is a mixture of insects and saliva, known as a bolus (campbell and lack, 2013). moreover, according to breeding status codes developed by the british trust of ornithology (bto), if an adult bird is carrying a faecal sac or food for young (ff) can be related to individuals in potentially suitable nesting habitat (https://www.bto.org/ourscience/projects/birdatlas/methods/breeding-evidence), the blyth’s swift individuals sighted in the anaikatty hills, with food bolus for the young, further confirms that the species is breeding in and around the area of southern western ghats. as the swifts and swiftlets, with their aerodynamic capabilities, are known to have large foraging ranges, we cannot deny that they might be breeding in the adjacent regions, such as nilgiris, and coming to the anaikatty hills in search of food. as the species is known to have an incubation period of about 18–19 days (roberts, 1991), we presume that it might be breeding between march and may in the southern western ghats of india. also, the species distribution model confirms the breeding distribution of the blyth’s swift across the foothills of the himalayas, western and eastern ghats (maps 2, 3). further, it is seen that currently the https://www.bto.org/our-science/projects/birdatlas/methods/breeding-evidence https://www.bto.org/our-science/projects/birdatlas/methods/breeding-evidence 474 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum first confirmed breeding record distribution of the species is influenced by bio-2 (46.2%), bio-14 (27.6%) and bio-15 (17.1%). map (1): location of the observations in the anaikatty hills, coimbatore, western ghats of india. plate (2): morphological characteristics of the blyth’s swift apus pacificus leuconyx in anaikatty hills; (a) top view showing the prominent white rump, (b) under parts. ©shirish manchi 29.april.2020. 475 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum kawalkar and manchi plate (3): blyth’s swift apus pacificus leuconyx with the bulging throat, observed in the anaikatty hills, were carrying the food for young (ff). ©shirish manchi 29/04/2020. map (2): the predicted breeding range of the blyth’s swift apus pacificus leuconyx in india (lighter to darkerlow suitability to high suitability). 476 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum first confirmed breeding record plate (5): the predicted breeding range extension of the blyth’s swift apus pacificus leuconyx in the southern western ghats of india. conclusions the present report is the first confirmed breeding record of the blyth’s swift in southern western ghats of india. it ratifies the region to be the breeding ground and points towards the breeding and non-breeding range extension for the species. we also hypothesize presence of a resident population in the anaikatty hills and nilgiris. besides additional field observations, detailed taxonomic and exploratory studies are required and recommended to document the species’ identification, distribution, population status, and ecology in the western ghats. further, as this recorded swift can be of a different subspecies of a. p. leuconyx, further taxonomic exploration is highly recommended. aknowledgments we are grateful to dr. michael tarburton (pacific adventist university, school of science and technology, australia) and dr. charles collins (california state university, long beach, california) for their help in confirming the species identification and its breeding status. we also thank dr. rajah jayapal (salim ali centre for ornithology and natural history, coimbatore, india) for helping us with the essential references and required information. we are thankful to all the anonymous reviewers who provided their valuable comments for improvement of the manuscript. conflict of interest statement "the authors have no conflicts of interest to declare." 477 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum kawalkar and manchi literature cited ali, a. m. s., shanthakumar, s. b., kumar, s. r., chandran, r., marimuthu, s. s. and arun, p. r., 2013. birds of the sálim ali centre for ornithology and natural history campus, anaikatty hills, southern india. journal of threatened taxa, 5(17): 52885298. 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[click here]. sumangala, r. c., rosario, s., charles, b., ganesh, d. and ravikanth, g. 2017. identifying conservation priority sites for saraca asoca: an important medicinal plant using ecological niche models. indian forester, 143(6): 531-536. https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1342/ 480 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum first confirmed breeding record bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2023) 17 (3): 469-480. blyth’s swiftلـطائر لتكاثر تسجيل مؤكد أول pacificus leuconyx (blyth, 1845) (apodiformes ،apodidae) في منطقة الغات الغربية في الهند nilgiriفي األجزاء الجنوبية من منطقة دانوشا كاوالكار و شيريش س. مانش ي التاريخ الطبيعي ، أناكاتي )مكتب قسم حماية البيئة ، مركز سليم علي لعلم الطيور و .، الهند 641108 -البريد( ، كويمباتور 20/6/2023، تأريخ النشر: 24/3/2023القبول: ، تأريخ 8/8/2022تأريخ االستالم: الخالصة في شبه القارة الهندية ، واحدة من االصنوفات ، املستوطن blyth’s swiftعد طائر ي من املعروف أنها تتكاثر على ؛pacific swift apus pacificus complexعقد النو ملاألربعة من يالجنوب الطرفمتر( وتنتشر على نطاق واسع في الشتاء، حتى 2000ارتفاعات عالية )< فإن املدى الحقيقي لنطاقها غير منطقة نيلجيري في غرب غاتس في الهند. ومع ذلك ، ه الدراسة إلى نطاق تكاثر األنوا املمتد وأيًضا محاولة التكاثري ال يزال غير مؤكد . تشير هذ في تالل 2020في أبريل .(sdm)لتأكيد نطاق تكاثرها باستخدام نمذجة توزيع األنوا ) anaikatty في جنوب غرب غاتس، كويمباتور، سجلنا مجموعة من أربعة indian swiftlet aerodramus unicolor (jerdon, 1840) ،asian palm swift cypsiurus balasiensis (j.e. gray, 1829) ،red-rumped swallow cecropis daurica (laxmann, 1769) وlargesized swift. بعد الرجو إلى األدلة واملناقشات امليدانية لذوي االختصاص والخبراء، تم ,blyth’s swift apus pacificus leuconyx (blythاذ انها تعود لـ ،التأكد من هوية األنوا من الطعام، لقمةيحملون blyth’s swift . كان األفراد الذين تمت مالحظتهم من (1845 في جنوب غرب غاتس في الهند. كما تم nilgiriمما يؤكد التكاثر النشط لألنوا في منطقة التكاثر ، وشمل نطاق sdmتوثيق سجالت التكاثر املتاحة باستخدام نموذج توزيع األنوا blyth’sطائر نؤكد في هذه الدراسة التسجيل االول لتكاثر و ،مدى جنوب غرب غاتس swift له.الواسع و املدىفي املنطقة bull 291 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum bashê, s. k. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2022) 17 (2): 291-301. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2022.17.2.0291 original article distribution and phylogenetic of freshwater mussel unio tigridis bourguignat, 1852 (bivalvia, unionidae) from greater zab river, iraq shwan khursheed bashê biology department, education college, salahaddin university-erbil, erbil, iraq e-mail: shwan.raman@su.edu.krd recived date: 27 august 2022, accepted date 16 november 2022, published date:20 december 2022 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract freshwater mussels are a guild of stationary, suspended-feeding species; they perform significant ecological functions like nitrogen cycling, bioturbation that gives oxygen and habitat that other creatures need to survive, and increasing water clearance by filtration. knowledge of the freshwater mussel unio tigridis bourguignat, 1852, distribution, and molecular study in iraq was inadequate. in the current study, this species of freshwater mussels belonging to the family unionidae was collected from different locations in the greater zab river, from april to august 2022. the average water temperature of the site was arranged between (17.8 to 36.1 c°). all previous studies in the kurdistan region and iraq were based on morphological characters and the current study was the first report of unio tigridis that was confirmed by molecular genetics and coi gene, analyzed phylogenetically using maximum likelihood and maximum parsimony methods. keywords: coi, distribution, phylogenetic, unio tigridis, greater zab, iraq introduction freshwater mussel unio tigridis bourguignat, 1852 (mollusca: bivalvia: unionidae) are a guild of stationary, suspended-feeding species that play vital roles in rivers and streams (bolotov et al., 2019; hamli and al asif, 2021; hamli et al., 2021). its essential aquatic ecosystem constituents, which perform significant ecological functions like nitrogen cycling, bioturbation that gives oxygen and habitat that other creatures need to survive, and increasing water clearance by filtration (zieritz et al., 2016; klishko et al., 2017; lopes-lima et al., 2021). the unionidae is the richest of the six extant freshwater mussel families, there are currently 674 species known globally, with (80%) of them being widely dispersed over temperate north america and eurasia in addition to tropical mesoamerica, africa, and southeast asia (huber, 2010, 2015). according to the international union for conservation of nature's (iucn) assessment of the majority of freshwater mussel species (517), 6% extinct, 7% vulnerable, 9% bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799-print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2022.17.2.0291 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9043-8190 mailto:shwan.raman@su.edu.krd https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 292 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum distribution and phylogenetic of freshwater mussel near threatened, 10% endangered, 13% critically endangered and 37% of least concern(iucn, 2016). freshwater mussel descriptions from the early 19th century up till the mid-20th century included hundreds of unio species described from many regions of the world (huber, 2015). u. tigridis bourguignat, 1852, the most prevalent species, found from syria to iraq, had been evaluated by the iucn red list and reported as least concern (lc), containing an elongate solid shell buried obliquely in the mud (plaziat and younis, 2005). in iraq, the first recorded of this species in habbaniya lake by najim (1959), in euphrates by al-bassam (2005), and in the greater zab river by ali (2007). previously, unionid mussels' species depended on shell traits for identification before the development of molecular technology (lopes-lima et al., 2017). however, it depending alone on shell morphology found difficult, due to the morphological convergences between species and the high level of phenotypic variability within species (klishko et al., 2017). several newly released studies that used region of cytochrome oxidase subunit i gene of mitochondrial dna (mt dna-coi) for the biogeography and relationships of aquatic mussels in various asiatic regions fundamentally altered our knowledge of diversity patterns (choi, 2016; lopes-lima et al., 2020). unfortunately, no recent investigation had been carried out on molecular phylogenetic data for any endemic iraqi invertebrates especially freshwater mussels. the present investigation was conducted to study the utility of a molecular technique as a dna barcode approach for the identification, distribution, and estimate of a phylogeny of u. tigridis, the freshwater mussels from the greater zab river. materials and methods specimens' collection and identification freshwater mussels (no. 33) were collected and gathered by hand from various sites along the banks of canals, and irrigation ditches from greater zab river, west erbil province, iraq (map 1), from april to august 2022. the water temperature was measured month wise using a temperature probe/ thermometer (hanna instruments, hi 9811-5 for temp., ph, ec and tds-romania). the collected mussel specimens brought alive and a dead shell to the laboratory. selection has been made for the complete animals (shell not broken or eroded). the bivalves were boiled gently in 5% sodium hydroxide to be cleaned, then washed with water and dried for measurements (abdul-sahib and abdul-sahib, 2009). morphologically, u. tigridis exhibit the traditional wedge-shaped shell used as diagnosed species (lopes-lima et al., 2021). dna extraction, coi amplification, and sequencing a biopsy was fixed at 99% ethanol and centrifuged 10,000 rpm for 3 minutes, then the ethanol was eliminated, the dna was extracted using a commercial kit (favorgentaiwan) in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions. the dna barcoding for mussel was achieved based on amplification and sequencing of the region of (mtdna-coi) (~700 bp) (folmer et al., 1994), using forward primer lco1490 and reverse hco2198 primers. the pcr mixture (40 μl) contained: (a master mix, dna template, 293 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum bashê, s. k. primers, and double-demonized water (ddh2o)). under the following circumstances, pcr was carried out in a mj research, applied biosystem (ab) thermocycler: 94 c°/4 min; 35 cycles of 94 c°/30 sec; 48 c°/60 sec; 72 c°/90 sec, followed by one cycle of 72 c°/5 min. in order to see dna under uv light, pcr products were separated on a 1.3% agarose gel and dyed with a safe dye (bashê and ali, 2019). dna sequencing was performed by using an abi 3730xls nucleotide sequence analyzer through macrogen inc. (korea). the sequences were subjected to the basic local alignment search tool for nucleotides (blastn) implemented in the ncbi genbank database. in addition, 11 sequences were obtained from genbank that available on the website: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/genbank/. all the dna sequences were edited and aligned with (clustalw algorithm), available in the muscle program within embl-ebi (https://www.ebi.ac.uk/tools/msa/muscle/). further estimates of coi variation and relationships among species by applying maximum likelihood (kimura 2-parameter model) (kimura, 1980), and using the method of maximum parsimony branches associated with partitions that were replicated in fewer than 50% of bootstrap replicates are collapsed. in the bootstrap test (1000 replicates), the proportion of duplicate trees in which the linked taxa clustered together is displayed next to the branches (felsenstein, 1985). the tree-bisection-regrafting (tbr) technique was used to create the mp tree with search level 1 and the initial trees were created by randomly adding sequences (10 replicates) (nei and kumar, 2000). this analysis involved 12 nucleotide sequences; there were a total of 498 positions in the final dataset edited by finch tv program (version 1.4.0) and deposited in ncbi. methods were conducted using mega x kumar et al. (2018), including a sequence representative from many species currently present and available on genbank. map (1): sampling sites on the greater zab river, north of iraq. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/genbank/ https://www.ebi.ac.uk/tools/msa/muscle/ 294 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum distribution and phylogenetic of freshwater mussel results mitochondrial dna coi from freshwater mussels was sequenced, the results (100%) confirmed the present u. tigridis (pl. 1), the shell solid and elongate lying obliquely in the mud, with its rear end extending from the bottom in pond, marshes channel, and rivers. the average temperatures from april-october 2022 were arranged (17.8-36.1 c°). the obtained sequencing result was deposited in genbank database under the following accession numbers (op087400) for u. tigridis. plate (1): unio tigridis, collected from greater zab river; (a) external shell, (b) bivalve shell, (c) visceral parts (scale bar=2 cm). in phylogeny, kimura 2 parameter (k2p) was used for intraspecific and interspecific variations. the pairwise distances between the unio are shown in table (1). intraspecific genetic diversity within u. tigridis was from zero to (0.005), within u. delphinus (reis et al., 2013), from zero to (0.042) and c. elongatulus (araujo et al., 2018), was zero to (0.040). the maximum genetic distance observed margaritifera homsensis was (0.228). table (1): estimates of evolutionary divergence sequences between and within u. tigridis species (overall standard deviation is 0.14 with standard error 0.01). no. species 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 1 u. tigridis (current study) 0.000 2 u. tigridis mz511105.1 0.001 3 u. tigridis mz511087.1 0.005 0.001 4 u. delphinus ef571442.1 0.040 0.036 0.038 5 u. delphinus ef571415.1 0.042 0.038 0.040 0.001 6 u. elongatulus kx399981.1 0.040 0.036 0.038 0.044 0.046 295 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum bashê, s. k. discussion the current work was the first to analyze the biogeographic and phylogenetic of u. tigridis freshwater mussels from the greater zab river, and it might be served as a baseline study for the investigated species and for the other available mussel species as well. our result showed that, in the both tree maximum likelihood and parsimony, that u. tigridis was monophyletic in the same clade with (mz511087.1) which was reported from the far east asia by lopes-lima et al. (2021) (diag. 1); but this topology might be changed with the addition of more loci, also had strongly related to (mz511105.1); which were also related and matched to the other deposited sequences, and the outgroup margaritifera homsensis (kx550090.1) recorded by vikhrev et al. (2018) that was found more divergence species with u. tigridis. diagram (1): both the maximum likelihood (kimura 2-parameter model) and maximum parsimony methods were applied to infer the evolutionary history, all nodes supported by high bootstrap (ml/mp). 7 u. pictorum eu548056.1 0.044 0.040 0.042 0.040 0.042 0.034 8 u. pictorum ky930353.1 0.774 0.779 0.785 0.762 0.768 0.839 0.812 9 u. foucauldianus kx399998.1 0.042 0.038 0.040 0.023 0.025 0.038 0.038 0.778 10 u. foucauldianus kx400006.1 0.042 0.038 0.040 0.023 0.025 0.038 0.038 0.778 0.00 11 margaritifera_homsensis kx550090.1 0.228 0.222 0.219 0.211 0.214 0.228 0.222 0.014 0.212 0.212 296 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum distribution and phylogenetic of freshwater mussel according to species divergence, the coi gene was frequently employed as a barcode since it has been subject of the most research and is considered as a standard for analyzing divergence among unionidae species (araujo et al., 2018) (tab. 1). notably, in the phylogenetic tree of u. tigridis, the rebuilt species tree coincides with the general topology of the concatenated matrix studies. dna barcoding provided a remarkably valuable approach for confirming the identity of a species (davison et al., 2009). the sequenced data presented in the current study were derived from the coi gene; it was currently one of the most widely used for phylogeny, systematics, and species identification. at present, there were many reference dna barcode sequences belonging to gastropod species available in genbank which could be used for identification purposes. to date, there has been no study in iraq regarding the molecular and phylogenetic of this investigated species. nevertheless, the conclusions of this single-locus or multilocus dna species delimitation algorithms could not be directly converted into new taxonomies. the unionidae have frequently been recovered as paraphyletic by phylogenetic analysis throughout the last decade (graf and cummings, 2006). however, their findings were unsubstantiated and based on insufficient taxon and character sampling (whelan et al., 2011); only two molecular character sets had been used to assess unionoida family-group level associations through coi gene (whelan et al., 2011), other unionidae phylogenetic analysis had relied on specific gene region. while, lopes-lima et al. (2017) hypothesized the subfamily's evolutionary connection based on coi. the worldwide distribution and diversity of mussels species is to several reasons considering; habitat destruction, degradation, and alteration caused by increasing populations of human, industrialization, and changes in land use in addition to spread of non-native exotic species (zieritz et al., 2016 hamli et al., 2021), enrichment water with nutrients resulting in phytoplankton and macrophyte blooms (sharip and zakaria, 2007), and heavy metal concentrations often reach deadly thresholds for freshwater mussels (nobles and zhang, 2015). according to the present findings, water temperatures fluctuated ranges between (17.8 to 36.1 c°), this result was similar to payton et al. (2016) in usa, which recorded highest temperatures in summer average (35 to 40 c°) during particularly hot weather, which was near or exceeds the high temperature tolerant ranges of several aquatic organisms, and substantial changes in temperature might had an impact on the balance of ecosystem. that results in species-specific variations in sensitivity to factors including physiological tolerance, limited adaptability to abiotic stresses, and life history aspects. in another way, observed an increase of only ~3°c above normal water temperatures was enough to cause 33% mortality. conclusions in the current study, the first report based on molecular technique coi for confirmation diagnosis of unio tigridis, distribution along greater zab river, and phylogenetic methods (maximum likelihood and maximum parsimony) with other species. 297 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum bashê, s. k. aknowledgments i wish to thanks dr. rebwar hamasalih, ph. d. in molecular biology, for his valuable help and to biology department for facilitating way for conducting this research. conflict of interest statment "the author has no conflict of interest to declare." literature cited abdul-sahib, i. and abdul-sahib, e. 2009. a new record of the freshwater clam, anodonta vescoiana bourguignat, 1857 (mollusca: bivalvia) from al-ezz river, iraqi marshes. mesopotamian journal of marine science, 24 (1): 7-12. 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[crossref] whelan, n. v., geneva, a. j. and graf, d. l. 2011. molecular phylogenetic analysis of tropical freshwater mussels (mollusca: bivalvia: unionoida) resolves the position of coelatura and supports a monophyletic unionidae. molecular phylogenetics and evolution, 61 (2): 504-514.[crossref] zieritz, a., lopes-lima, m., bogan, a. e., sousa, r., walton, s., rahim, k. a. a., wilson, j.-j., ng, p.-y., froufe, e. and mcgowan, s. 2016. factors driving changes in freshwater mussel (bivalvia, unionida) diversity and distribution in peninsular malaysia. science of the total environment, 571: 1069-1078.[crossref] https://doi.org/10.1080/14772000.2017.1343876 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2011.07.016 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.07.098 301 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum bashê, s. k. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2022) 17 (2): 291-301. يه العبةةاملبلح ل العالقة النشوئية التوزيع و unio tigridis bourguignat, 1852 (bivalvia, unionidae) بير، العراقكمن نهر الزاب ال شوان خورشيد ةهش ى .، أربيل، العراقأربيل-قسم علوم الحياة، كلية التربية، جامعة صالح الدين 20/12/2022، تأريخ النشر: 16/11/2022القبول: ، تأريخ 27/8/2022تأريخ االستالم: الخالصة في املياه العذبة، بلح البحر عبارة عن طائفة من األنواع الثابتة واملعلقة التي تتغذى بيئية مهمة مثل دورة النيتروجين ، واالضطراب الحيوي الذي يمنح التي تؤدي وظائف خرى للبقاء على قيد الحياة ، وزيادة األكسجين واملوائل التي تحتاجها الكائنات األ unio tigridisتصفية املياه عن طريق الترشيح. كانت املعرفة لنوع بلح املياه العذبة bourguignat, 1852 .التوزيع، والدراسة الجزيئية في العراق غير كافية لتحديد النوع ، ذي ينتمي إلى عائلة الو في الدراسة الحالية، جمعت عينات هذا النوع من بلح البحر unionidae شهر املياه العذبة لعدد من املواقع املختلفة في نهر الزاب األكبر، من في إلى 17.8درجة حرارة املاء في املوقع مابين . كانت متوسط 2022 بآإلى 2022 نيسان . oم36.1 ملظهرية، استندت جميع الدراسات السابقة في إقليم كوردستان والعراق إلى الصفات ا استنادا الى u. tigridisفي حين ان الدراسة الحالية كانت أول تقرير عن تشخيص النوع ، حيث تم تحليل النشوء والتطور باستخدام طرق الحد coiجين الوراثة الجزيئية و .parsimonyاألقص ى من االحتمالية والحد األقص ى من bull 187 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum doostmohammadi et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2024) 18 (1): 187-207. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2024.18.1.0187 original article relict species from an african origin in southwest asia: insights into their biogeography and conservation moslem doostmohammadi*, fatemeh moein** and firouzeh bordbar* *department of biology, faculty of science, shahid bahonar university of kerman, kerman, iran. **plant and animal biology department, faculty of science and technology, university of isfahan, isfahan, iran. corresponding author: bordbar@uk.ac.ir received: 11 sept. 2023, revised: 9 march 2024, accepted: 10 mar. 2024, published: 20 june 2024 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract the zagros mountain range in western iran is an area of species endemism within the irano-anatolian biodiversity hotspot. a couple of relict and morphologically isolated species have been reported for the zagros mountains, yet their distribution patterns in relation to the geological and climatic history of the region are not fully understood. clinopodium kallaricum (jamzad) bordbar, 2019 (lamiaceae), hypericum dogonbadanicum assadi, 1984 (hypericaceae), and iranoaster bachtiaricus (mozaff.) kaz. osaloo, farhani & mozaff. 2018 (asteraceae) are local endemic species restricted to zagros with no clear affinities to the irano-turanian or other northern hemisphere temperate species. previous studies suggested some afromontane relations for these species, beyond the saharo-sindian lowlands. here, we provide dated phylogenies for these three species, to assess the most probable drivers behind this pattern of distribution. our results represent that the split between these taxa and their relatives is not contemporaneous, implying different biogeographical histories. i. bachtiaricus originated in the middle miocene, while c. kallaricum and h. dogonbadanicum are relatively younger (late miocene early pliocene). the divergence of these taxa coincided with the major geological and climatic events of the miocene, mainly the collision of the afro-arabia and eurasia plates in 18-16 mya and the aridification of the sahara (started in 11-7 mya), followed by a shift in the vegetation of the sahara from subtropical/steppe to arid desert. the possible relict nature of these species is discussed, and the role of the saharo-sindian region as a vicariant agent is highlighted, which could have subdivided formerly uniform populations and subsequently accelerated the allopatric speciation. keywords: clinopodium, disjunctend distribution, hypericum, iranoaster, relict species. introduction the irano-turanian phytogeographical region is a vast area covering many highlands in south western asia (zohary, 1973). it is characterized by a high degree of continentality and a bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799, print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2024.18.1.0187 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1777-6676 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1079-0707 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0225-9812 mailto:bordbar@uk.ac.ir https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 188 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (1): 187-207. relict species from an african origin low amount of precipitation during the growing season (djamali et al., 2011). this region harbors many species-rich plant lineages, such as astragalus l., cousinia cass., acantholimon boiss., eremurus m.bieb., silene l., and nepeta l. recent phylogeographical studies have confirmed that the irano-turanian region was the center of origin and diversification of many plant lineages, which then radiated to other neighboring areas, including the mediterranean region (some examples are: font et al., 2009; manafzadeh et al., 2014; malik et al., 2017; panahi, 2019; žerdoner calasan et al., 2021; doostmohammadi et al., 2022). the zagros mountain range, which extends from the northeast of iraq to the south of iran, is situated in the central part of the irano-turanian region. it is covered by the so-called “kurdo-zagrosian steppe-forest” composed of quercus brantii lindl. woodlands mostly in the northern and western regions, artemisia steppes in drier regions, and alpine vegetation in several high peaks (zohary, 1973; noroozi et al., 2020). the zagros mountain is regarded as a separate unit (either in the form of a district, a sub-province, or a province) of the iranoturanian region, exhibiting strong and striking distribution patterns (zohary, 1973; takhtajan, 1986; akhani, 2004, 2007) and is identified as an “area of endemism” having a high number of endemic species along with several endemic genera [such as azilia hedge & lamond (apiaceae), ergocarpon c. c. towns (apiaceae), haussknechtia boiss. (apiaceae), and zeugandra p.h.davis (campanulaceae) (noroozi et al., 2018, 2019)]. a high proportion of the zagros plant species belong to the irano-turanian region (noroozi et al., 2020), while there are surprisingly some isolated and morphologically distinct species such as hypericum dogonbadanicum assadi (hypericaceae), clinopodium kallaricum (jamzad) bordbar (lamiaceae), and iranoaster bachtiaricus (mozaff.) kaz. osaloo, farhani & mozaff. (asteraceae), which are of high phytogeographical interest. these species have striking morphological differences with other irano-turanian species, and previous studies have proposed some african relations for them (robson, 1987; farhani et al., 2018; bordbar and mirtadzadini, 2019). hypericum dogonbadanicum assadi, 1984 (hypericaceae) is a sub-shrubby chasmophyte species, described about 40 years ago from southwestern zagros (assadi, 1984). this species is clearly distinct from any other hypericum species known from iran, and assadi (1984) suggested a relationship between h. dogonbadanicum and h. balearicum l. (sect. psorophytom (spach) nyman) from the balearic islands in spain, based on its habit, leaf margins, and stamen structure. later, robson (1987), criticized this idea, and based on several diagnostic morphological characters, demonstrated that h. dogonbadanicum belongs to sect. campylosporus (spach) r. keller, with surprising close affinities to the socotran endemic h. socotranum r. d. good. hypericum sect. campylosporus is a group of about 10 shrubs and trees distributed in sub-tropical and tropical mountains of sw arabia and eastern africa [south of the saharo-sindian lowlands (robson, 1985)], and the only species of this section growing above the saharo-sindian region is h. dogonbadanicum. clinopodium kallaricum (jamzad) bordbar 2019 (lamiaceae) initially was introduced as a species of the genus satureja l. (s. kallarica jamzad, jamzad, 1992), but was transferred to 189 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum doostmohammadi et al. clinopodium simense group by bordbar and mirtadzadini (2019) based on morphological and molecular evidences. members of c. simense group are morphologically very similar and apparently closely related to each other (ryding, 2006). clinopodium kallaricum is confined to the zagros mountains (north of the saharo-sindian region); while the other species of this group are distributed in the tropical high mountains of eastern africa, south of the saharosindian regional zone. they are morphologically similar in a more or less creeping habit, with the sub-sessile glands only on the lower surface of the leaves and the diverging thecae (bordbar and mirtadzadini, 2019). the monotypic genus iranoaster (mozaff.) kaz.osaloo, farhani & mozaff., 2018 (asteraceae), was recently established based on the enigmatic aster bachtiaricus mozaff., 1996 from western/central zagros (farhani et al., 2018). farhani et al. (2018) argued that a. bachtiaricus is different from other northern hemisphere aster species in “having thick woody rootstock, many heteromorphic leaves, solitary capitulum, 4-seriate phyllaries, reflexed ligulate flowers, and 1-seriate pappus” and their molecular phylogenetic analyses demonstrated that a. bachtiaricus is not closely related to the bulk of aster and is placed between the basal lineages of the southern hemisphere and other northern hemisphere taxa of the tribe astereae. therefore, they treated this species as a separate, monospecific genus restricted to the zagros mountains. the co-occurrence of these isolated taxa in the zagros mountains brings up the question of whether they share a common evolutionary history. this research aimed to answer this question based on a dating analysis with addressing their phytogeographical aspects. biogeographical analysis was also carried out for clinopodium kallaricum (jamzad) bordbar, 2019 (lamiaceae) as an example, to examine the hypothesis of the center of origin. besides, the conservation importance of the zagros mountain in relation to save these remarkable species is highlighted. materials and methods the geographical location of the zagros mountains within the irano-turanian region in sw asia is shown in map (1). data matrix preparation and node calibration: three different sequence data sets were prepared for the three studied species and their allied species, which were then aligned and analyzed separately. all sequences were extracted from genbank (appendix). for combining different regions, they were concatenated together without partitioning. hypericum dogonbadanicum assadi, 1984 (map 2): sequences of its and trnl-trnf regions for 29 species of hypericum and close genera were extracted from genbank and concatenated. our taxon sampling scheme covered all available sequences of members of h. sect. campylosporus together with representatives from the major lineages of the genus hypericum as recognized in recent molecular phylogenetic studies (meseguer et al., 2013; nurk et al., 2013). two calibration points were used for hypericum dogonbadanicum. a normal prior was assigned to the crown of hypericaceae (the split between eliea and the rest of the tree) with a 190 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (1): 187-207. relict species from an african origin mean of 65.2 mya and a standard deviation of 11 obtained by ruhfel (2011). to constrain the crown age of hypericum, a lognormal prior was used with an offset of 33.9 mya and a standard deviation of 0.7 based on arbuzova (2005) and meseguer et al. (2013). iranoaster bachtiaricus (mozaff.) kaz.osaloo, farhani & mozaff., 2018: a subset of sampling from previous studies (brouillet et al., 2009; farhani et al., 2018), including 23 species were extracted from genbank for its and ets regions and then combined for alignment. our sampling strategy for dating analysis from among the huge tribe astereae was based on covering major clades of the tribe (from both northern and southern hemisphere lineages), according to previous phylogenetic studies (brouillet et al., 2009; farhani et al., 2018). nodes were calibrated assigning a normal distribution with the mean of 38.68 million years as the secondary calibration and a standard deviation of 2.1 for the split between the tribes astereae and anthemideae according to panero and crozier (2016). clinopodium kallaricum (jamzad) bordbar, 2019 (map 3): a total of 68 species from clinopodium and related genera were sampled from genbank for dating analysis. dna sequences of the nuclear region (its) and two chloroplast regions (matk and trnl-trnf) were combined for alignment. clinopodium is a non-monophyletic group (bräuchler et al., 2010; bordbar and mirtadzadini, 2019), and our sampling covered all main sub-clades and lineages of this genus together with other closely related genera. a node prior was calibrated for the most recent common ancestor (mrca) of acinos mill. and ziziphora l. (15.398 mya with a sd of 2.8) (rose et al., 2022), with a normal distribution. sequence alignments and divergence time estimates: each data set was aligned using mafft (multiple alignment using fast fourier transform) v.6.0 (katoh and toh, 2008) with manual adjustment. the beast.xml input files were generated using beauti v 1.10.4 and divergence times were estimated using beast v 1.10.4, (suchard et al., 2018). rate evolution was modeled in an uncorrelated lognormal relaxed clock framework (drummond et al., 2006), and priors for the branch rate were assumed to be a yule process under an hky substitution model. the beast analyses were performed with two independent runs of markov chain monte carlo each for 10 million generations, sampling every 200 generations. the convergences of the chains and estimated sample sizes (esss) were confirmed to be sufficiently high (>200) in tracer v 1.7.1 (rambaut et al., 2014). tree annotator v 1.10.4 was used to find the maximum clade credibility reporting median node ages after discarding the first 10% of the generations as burn-in. ancestral area reconstruction: the ancestral area of clinopodium kallaricum was estimated based on the molecular dated tree generated in beast. the ancestral area of the tree species was estimated based on three models: the dispersal extinction-cladogenesis (dec), the likelihood model (diva-like) model, and the bayarea-like model. for each model, we tested the additional parameter “j” as well (matzke, 2014). the j parameter represents the relative pre_event weight of the founder event. the best model was selected based on the aic scores. considering the patterns of distribution and endemism, we categorized the seven geographical regions. a (east asia), b (euro-siberian region), c (mediterranean region), d 191 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum doostmohammadi et al. (south-west asia), e (north africa), f (southern america), and g (east and central africa). the biogeobears package in r was used to conduct the analysis (matzke, 2013). results the phylogenetic reconstructions by beast analysis and based on limited sampling in the present study, are to a large extent, congruent with previous comprehensive phylogenetic studies on hypericum (meseguer et al., 2013; nurk et al., 2013), clinopodium (bräuchler et al., 2010; bordbar and mirtadzadini, 2019), and the tribe astereae (brouillet et al., 2009; farhani et al., 2018) and are therefore reliable. molecular clock calculations indicated different divergence times for the three species. based on the dating analysis, iranoaster bachtiaricus diverged from its close species in about 17.1 mya (95% hpd; 11.01–23.51) (diag. 1). our beast analyses confirmed the previous studies, suggesting the intermediate position of i. bachtiaricus between southern hemisphere lineages and temperate northern hemisphere genera (farhani et al., 2018; jafari et al., 2015). clinopodium kallaricum assembled in a monophyletic sub-clade together with other members of c. simense group, confirming previos studies (bordbar and mirtadzadini, 2019) (diag. 2). the estimated divergence age of c. kallaricum is 4.9 mya (95% hpd; 2.2–8.51). hypericum dogonbadanicum represents a phylogenetic position between the african clade of h. revolutum vahl and some northern hemisphere (mostly east asian) species, including h. ascyron l., h. monogynum l. and h. elatoides r.keller (diag. 3). it was diverged from the later three species in 8.03 mya (95% hpd; 4.52–12.25), and the divergence age (stem age) of their clade (composed of h. dogonbadanicum and the three mentioned species) is about 10.48 mya (95% hpd; 6.65–15.25). our result of biogeographical analysis for clinopodium kallaricum and related species showed that dec (dispersal extinction cladogenesis) is the best model for explaining of clinopodium biogeographical history. based on the biogeographical result (diag. 4). clinopodium clade and allied species have had widespread distribution following the vicariance of east asia and the afrian clade about 8 mya. another vicariance event occurred about 5 mya between africa and southwest asian (clinopodium kallaricum) species. 192 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (1): 187-207. relict species from an african origin map (1): phytogeographical subdivisions of sw asia, according to leonard (1988-1989) it: irano-turanian region with its sub-regions designated by numbers 1 to 4, es: euro-siberian, m: mediterranean, ss: saharo-sindian, ac: central asiatic. the dashed line outlines the zagros mountain range in the west of iran. map (2): general distribution of hypericum sect. campylosporus (based on robson, 1985 and assadi, 1984). triangle and inset photo indicate h. dogonbadanicum. [dashed line represents the saharo-sindian regional zone]. 193 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum doostmohammadi et al. map (3): general distribution of clinopodium simense species group (based on ryding (2006) and bordbar and mirtadzadini (2019). triangle and inset photo indicate c. kallaricum. dashed line represents the saharo-sindian regional zone. diagram (1): dated phylogenetic tree of tribe astereae retrieved from beast. estimated divergence age values are represented for each node. 194 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (1): 187-207. relict species from an african origin diagram (2): chronogram of clinopodium and related genera inferred from beast. dating values are represented above nodes. diagram (3): dated phylogenetic tree of hypericum inferred from beast analysis. divergence ages are represented for each node. 195 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum doostmohammadi et al. diagram (4): ancestral area estimation of the clinopodium kallaricum and allied species based on the dec model. single capital letters indicate the different biogeographic units used in this study. mixed letters represent combinations of units. the units next to species names represent the current geographic range of each species. the black arrow shows the split node of clinopodium kallaricum from the african clinopodium species. discussion phylogeography: our dating results represent that the divergence times of these three taxa are not contemporaneous, suggesting that their distributions are ruled by at least two 196 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (1): 187-207. relict species from an african origin geological/climatic events. tribe astereae has been proposed to have originated in the southern hemisphere (most probably in south africa), and then dispersed to other temperate areas of the northern hemisphere (brouillet et al., 2009; mandel et al., 2019). as mentioned before, i. bachtiaricus represents an intermediate position between the sothern and northern hemisphere genera (diag. 1). the divergence time of i. bachtiaricus from its relatives in the early miocene (about 17 mya) coincides with the age of the gomphotherium land bridge, which was created following the first collision of the afro-arabia and eurasia plates (map 4a). this land bridge disappeared in the middle miocene (16-14 mya) following the re-opening of the seaway between the mediterranean and indian ocean (map 4b; rögl, 1999). it is therefore likely, that the ancestors of i. bachtiaricus could have migrated to western iran through the first connection between afro-arabia and eurasia and were subsequently left isolated in the zagros mountains after the re-opening of the sea between the mediterranean and indian ocean. in addition, the major uplift of the zagros mountains took place in 15-12 mya (mouthereau et al., 2012), which is another factor that could be responsible for the geographical isolation of this species. map (4): tectonic movements in the miocene. a: first collision of afro-arabia to eurasia plates and formation of the gomphotherium land bridge, represented by the arrow, b: re-opening of a seaway between the mediterranean and indian oceans. triangles represent the zagros mountains. (based on rögl, 1999). regarding hypericum dogonbadanicum, our dated phylogenetic tree represents that it is assembled in a sub-clade with three northern hemisphere species. this sub-clade diverged from its african ancestor in about 10.4 mya. likewise, the split of clinopodium kallaricum from its african relative dates back to about 4.9 mya. it was inferred from the biogeographical analysis that the ancestor of clinopodium kallaricum extended across eastern africa to the late miocene (diag. 4). the divergence ages of both species in the late miocene were probably governed by the same eco/geographical forces. it was formerly believed that the sahara desert is about 2-3 my old (kroepelin, 2006). however, new findings suggest that the aridity of northern africa and the creation of the sahara desert were triggered much earlier, in 11-7 mya in the late miocene, due to the shrinkage of tethys sea (zhang et al., 2014). at the end of the messinian salinity crisis (5.33 mya), the aridity of the sahara and the arabian peninsula intensified (colin et al., 2008), which had a great impact on the diversification of plant species, acting as a vicariant agent that divided formerly widely 197 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum doostmohammadi et al. distributed populations north and south of this region (zhang et al., 2014; chen et al., 2014). therefore, relict species of c. kallaricum and h. dogonbadanicum in the west of iran are most probably the result of allopatric speciation in isolated populations above the saharo-sindian region. another round of uplift of the zagros mountains has taken place about 5 mya (axen et al., 2001; mouthereau et al., 2012), which could have intensified the isolation of these species. the role of the saharo-sindian region as a geographical barrier has been previously demonstrated in animals as well. it has been shown that the only species of elephant shrews north of the sahara (elephantulus rozeti) split from other species south of the sahara due to the aridification and vegetation change in north africa (douady et al., 2003). in addition to this species, there is another surprising biological link between africa and sw iran in the genus pteraulax (afrotropical diptera), with all species restricted to southern africa while p. oldroydi resides in the western foothills of the zagros mountains (abbassian-lintzen, 1966). on the opposite direction, the migration barrier of the saharo-sindian region, also blocked plant species dispersal from the irano-turanian region into africa. one example is the genus pterocephalus (caprifoliaceae), with a major distribution in the mediterranean and iranoturanian regions, and one species, p. frutescens hoscht, in the east african high mountains (mayer and ehrendorfer, 2000). in addition, expansion of the saharo-sindian lowlands pushed cold adapted irano-turanian species to higher elevations, which could lead to allopatric speciation in the sky islands of southern iran (doostmohammadi et al., 2018). the evidence from this study points towards the idea that the saharo-sindian region has had a major role in diversifying of life in mountainous areas around this region, both on its northern and southern sides. conservation aspects: as an area of endemism within the irano-anatolian biodiversity hotspot, the zagros mountain range harbors a rich diversity of plant species with a high rate of endemism (noroozi et al., 2018). this diversity mostly belongs to some super diverse iranoturanian genera such as astragalus, acantholimon, allium, cousinia, centaurea, and dionysia, which diversified not only in the zagros but also throughout the highlands of the iranian plateau, with a higher endemicity in alpine elevations. the roles of the geological events of zagros in the diversification of some of these genera are highlighted in recent studies (bagheri et al., 2017; moharrek et al., 2019; doostmohammadi et al., 2022). along with this recently diversified species (neo-endemics), there are also some relict, paleoendemic species in the zagros mountains. all three studied species are local endemics in western/central zagros with small population sizes and limited areas of occupancies, which rank them as threatened species. clinopodium kallaricum and h. dogonbadanicum are assessed as critically endangered (cr), according to criterion b of the iucn red list categories, representing 8 and 11.703 km2 of aoo’s and 2.589 and 14.382 km2 of eoo’s, respectively. iranoaster bachtiaricus is assessed as data deficient (dd), since it is known only based on the type collection. moreover, the zagros mountain was a refugia for some eurosiberian species (e.g. pterocarya fraxinifolia (poir.) spach, zelkova carpinifolia (pall.) k. koch and quercus castaneifolia pant (zohary, 1973; akhani and salimian, 2003; uzun and khedir galalaey, 2022), which, together with several endemic genera, highlights the need for 198 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (1): 187-207. relict species from an african origin a proper conservation strategy throughout this unique mountain range, harboring the largest oak forests in the middle east. table (1): details of specimens of hypericum and allies included in this study, including genbank accession numbers. taxa its trnl-trnf eliea_articulata kc709409.1 kc709111.1 vismia_glaziovii kc709410.1 kc709112.1 harungana_madagascariensis kc709362.1 kc709062.1 hypericum_elodes kc709393.1 kc709095.1 hypericum_aegypticum kc709391.1 kc709091.1 hypericum_scopulorum kc709395.1 kc709097.1 hypericum_boreale kc709374.1 kc709074.1 hypericum_crux-andreae kc709399.1 kc709101.1 hypericum_hookerianum fj694205.1 kc709148.1 hypericum_hircinum kc709365.1 kc709065.1 hypericum_coris kc709320.1 kc709011.1 hypericum_reflexum kc709382.1 kc709081.1 hypericum_quartinianum kc709428.1 kc709129.1 hypericum_roeperianum kc709429.1 kc709131.1 hypericum_revolutum kc709425.1 kc709046.1 hypericum_bequaertii kc709426.1 kc709128.1 hypericum_dogonbadanicum he653454.1 kc709114.1 hypericum_socotranum kc709394.1 kc709096.1 hypericum_balfourii kc709397.1 kc709099.1 hypericum_synstylum kc709304.1 kc708999.1 hypericum_elatoides he653456.1 kc709157.1 hypericum_ascyron kc709330.1 kc709021.1 hypericum_monogynum mh711394.1 kc709156.1 hypericum_longistylum kc709445.1 kc709153.1 hypericum_geminiflorum hm162838.1 kc709000.1 hypericum_henryi kc709448.1 kc709159.1 hypericum_forrestii fj694202.1 kc709149.1 hypericum_lancasteri kc709444.1 kc709161.1 hypericum_wilsonii he653658.1 table (2): details of specimens of tribe astereae included in this study, including genbank accession numbers. taxa its ets nardophyllum_bryoides dq479114.1 dq479137.1 felicia_minima fj457935.1 chrysocoma_ciliata fj457941.1 psychrogeton_alexeenkoi lc027403.1 lc387698.1 aster_tataricus fj539125.1 jn543749.1 psychrogeton_amorphoglossus lc027404.1 lc387702.1 mairia_hirsuta fj457929.1 llerasia_lindeni dq479110.1 jq042789.1 pteronia_glomerata fj457942.1 galatella_litvinovii lc027393.1 lc387684.1 199 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum doostmohammadi et al. chrysopsis_mariana gq892729.1 erigeron_acris on527430.1 lc387676.1 erigeron_hyrcanicus lc027390.1 lc387681.1 neobrachyactis_roylei lc027400.1 lc387694.1 heteropappus_altaicus kj711876.1 lc387690.1 aster_alpinus mh398798.1 lc387659.1 symphyotrichum_novi-belgii eu781308.1 jn315950.1 lessingia_virgata af251624.1 af251682.1 kalimeris_longipetiolata jn315936.1 jn315960.1 iranoaster_bachtiaricus lc027374.1 lc387661.1 chrysanthemum_indicum ef577298.1 jn315964.1 achillea_millefolium kr150185.1 chrysanthemoides_monilifera fj861492.1 table (3): details of specimens of clinopodium and allies included in this study, including genbank accession numbers. taxa its trnl-trnf matk acinos alpinus ay227141 ay506594 blephila cilata mk585131 gu381580 gu381743 bystropogon canariensis ay506634 gu381726 bystropogon origanifolius gu381409 gu381565 gu381727 bystropogon plumosus ay704586 bystropogon wildpretii ay704584 bystropogon_puncatus ay704582 - clinopodium aascendens ay840152 clinopodium abyssinicum gu381403 gu381548 gu381710 clinopodium alpinum ay840180 ay840145 clinopodium ashei dq667237 clinopodium atlanticum gu381531 gu381697 clinopodium axillare dq017565 clinopodium barosmum gu381393 gu381683 clinopodium betulifolium gu381532 gu381698 clinopodium brownei gu381426 gu381593 gu381593 clinopodium caricum kx38187 clinopodium caroliaunum gu381748 clinopodium chinense kx526668 clinopodium coccineum f369164 gu381585 ay840150 clinopodium creticum gu381533. ay840175 clinopodium cylindristachys dq0171562 clinopodium dalmaticum jq669340 clinopodium darwini gu381601 clinopodium debile gu381530 gu381696. clinopodium discolor gu381539. clinopodium douglasii jq669081 jq669026 clinopodium grandiflorum gu012002 kx526666 clinopodium graveolens gu381667 clinopodium hydaspidis gu381391 gu381515 gu381681 200 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (1): 187-207. relict species from an african origin clinopodium kallaricum gu381539. mk680006 clinopodium klimandschari gu381558 gu381721 clinopodium macrostemum jq669083 385720694 clinopodium molle kx381819 clinopodium myrianthum gu381405 clinopodium nanum gu381385 gu381666 clinopodium nepalense gu381680 clinopodium nepeta gu381534 ay840151 clinopodium paradoxum gu381402 gu381543 gu381706 clinopodium piperitum gu381388 gu381511 gu381677 clinopodium polycephalum gu381701 clinopodium revolutum gu381436 gu381609 ay840170 clinopodium robustum gu381404 gu381553 gu381716 clinopodium simense gu381407 gu381559 gu381722 clinopodium suavelens gu381665. clinopodium taxifolium jq669084 385720695 clinopodium thymifolium jq669121 62002162 ay840162 clinopodium troodi gu381671 clinopodium umbrosum gu381537 gu381700 clinopodium vimineum gu381760 clinopodium vulgare jq669085 mg225194 clinopodium wardii gu381392 gu381516 clinopodiumum uhligi gu381406 gu381561 gu381724 conradina grandiflora ay943442 ay943512 hedeoma martirensis gu381428 gu381596 hoehnea epilobioides gu381731 ziziphora 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(2024) 18 (1): 187-207. من أصل أفريقي في جنوب غرب آسيا: رؤى حول جغرافيتها االحيائية االثريةاألنواع والحفاظ عليها *ردبارفيروزة ب فاطمة معين** و ،مسلم دوست محمدي* * .، كلية العلوم، جامعة الشهيد باهنر كرمان، كرمان، إيرانعلوم الحياةقسم * والتكنولوجيا، جامعة أصفهان، قسم بيولوجيا النبات والحيوان، كلية العلوم ** .إيران أصفهان، 20/6/2024، النشر: 3/10/2024القبول: ،9/3/2024املراجعة: ، 11/9/2023االستالم: الخالصة تعد سلسلة جبال زاغروس في غرب إيران منطقة توطن األنواع ضمن نقطة التنوع مظهريامن األنواع األثرية واملعزولة األناضولية. تم اإلبالغ عن اثنين-البيولوجي اإليرانية روس، إال أن أنماط توزيعها فيما يتعلق بالتاريخ الجيولوجي واملناخي كفي جبال زا و االنواع التالية: .للمنطقة ليست مفهومة بالكامل clinopodium kallaricum (jamzad) bordbar, 2019 (lamiaceae) hypericum dogonbadanicum assadi, 1984 (hypericaceae) iranoaster bachtiaricus (mozaff.) kaz. osaloo, farhani & mozaff, 2018 (asteraceae) مستوطنة محلًيا مقتصرة على وسط غرب زاكروس وال تظهر ارتباطات واضحة هي انواع الطورانية أو األنواع املعتدلة في نصف الكرة الشمالي. وقد أشارت -اإليرانية مع األنواع والجزيئية السابقة إلى وجود بعض العالقات األفريقية الجبلية لهذه املظهريةالدراسات في هذه الدراسة، تم تقديم األنواع، بعيًدا عن األراض ي املنخفضة الصحراوية السندية. واع الثالثة، لتقييم الدوافع األكثر احتماال وراء هذا النمط من سالالت مؤرخة لهذه األن أن االنقسام بين هذه هذه الدراسة الى إليها توزيع. وتمثل النتائج التي توصلتال مختلف يشير إلى ان التاريخ االحيائي و الجغرافي ، مماليس معاصرا و قريباتها االصنوفات 207 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum doostmohammadi et al. في العصر امليوسيني األوسط، في حين أن iranoaster bachtiaricusاذ نشأ . لكل منها c. kallaricum و h. dogonbadanicum أوائل أصغر نسبًيا )أواخر العصر امليوسيني و قد تزامنت انقسامات هذه األجناس مع األحداث الجيولوجية و العصر البليوسيني(. -18مع أوراسيا قبل عربية -واملناخية الرئيسية في امليوسين، مثل تصادم صفيحتي أفرو 7-11الصحراء الكبرى بسبب انكماش بحر تيثس )بدأ قبل و قحلمليون سنة 16 مليون سنة( تاله تحول في الغطاء النباتي للصحراء الكبرى من شبه االستوائي/السبهي إلى الصحراء الجافة. تمت مناقشة الطبيعة األثرية املحتملة لهذه األنواع، وتم تسليط ور منطقة الصحراء السندية كعامل بديل، والذي كان من املمكن أن الضوء على د يقسم مجموعات سكانية موحدة سابًقا وبالتالي تسريع عملية االنتواع املتباين. 389 al-yacoub et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2021) 16 (3): 389-398. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2021.16.3.0389 redescription of scorpio kruglovi (birula, 1910) (scorpiones, scorpionidae) from thi qar province, south of iraq ghassan a. ali al-yacoub*♦ murtatha y. m. al-abbad** and dhia k. kareem** *department of biology, college of education for pure sciences, university of thi-qar, thi-qar, iraq. **department of biology, college of education for pure sciences, university of basrah, basrah, iraq. ♦corresponding author: ghassanadnanali@gmail.com received date: 27 april 2021, accepted date: 10 june 2021, published date: 20 june 2021 abstract information on the scorpions' fauna of iraq is limited especially in thi qar province. the scorpion specimens of the present study were collected from the desert area which is located between the provinces of thi qar and al-muthana (al-kata'a region). the scorpio kruglovi (birula, 1910) redescribed in this study was found in this area.the diagnostic characters are given and the important features are figured. keywords: iraq, redescription, scorpio, scorpionidae, thi qar. introduction scorpions in iraq have not received much attention, as the history of these studies began in the 19th century by peters (1861), simon (1880) and kraepelin (1899). iraqi researchers did not enter this field until after a long time, as some of them conducted taxonomic studies on scorpions in some areas such as, khalaf (1962, 1963), tahir et al. (2014), al-azawi (2016) kachel (2020), hussen and ahmed (2020) and kachel et al. (2021). speaking of southern of iraq, there are a few studies dealt with the scorpions. al-azawi (2016) collected specimens from nine provinces in central and southern iraq, seven genera and eight species including scorpio maurus (linnaeus, 1758). while only from thi qar province, al-khazali and yağmur (2019) recorded six species of scorpions. kachel (2020) recorded scorpio maurus (linnaeus 1758), androctonus crassicauda (olivier, 1807) and hottentotta saulcyi (simon, 1880) in zakho (dohuk province). hussen https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2021.16.3.0389 390 redescription of scorpio kruglovi and ahmed (2020) published a new data of scorpion fauna, specimens were collected from three provinces (erbil, dohuk and sulaymaniyah) and they were identified as: scorpio maurus, h. saulcyi, a. crassicauda, orthochirus fomichevi (kovařik et al., 2019), compsobuthus matthiesseni (birula, 1905), hemiscorpius lepturus (peters, 1861), mesobuthus phillipsii (pocock, 1889) and buthacus macrocentrus (ehrenberg, 1828). the species b. macrocentrus and h. lepturus was identified as a new record in kurdistan regioniraq. recently, kachel et al. (2021) published checklist and a review of the scorpion fauna of iraq (arachnida: scorpiones). the review revealed that there are five families (buthidae, euscorpiidae, hemiscorpiidae, iuridae, and scorpionidae) including 13 genera and 19 scorpion species. buthidae alone included nine genera and 15 species; they also corrected record of orthochirus mesopotamicus (birula, 1918) into o. iraqus (kovařík, 2004) which was collected from thi qar province. family (scorpionidae) can be distinguished according the following characters: patella of pedipalp with ventral trichobothria, absence of retrolateral pedal spur, lateroapical margins of tarsi produced into rounded lobes, sternum pentagonal and chelae with a very broad hand (navidpour et al., 2008).there are clear grooves in the dorsal part of prosoma scorpio kruglovi, the fixed finger of chelicerae bears 4 teeth: 2 of them (basal and median), in a fork arrangement, one subdistal and one distal tooth, the movable finger is highly important taxonomically and have 4 dorsal teeth in dorsal view: one distal dorsal tooth, one subdistal tooth, one median tooth and one basal tooth, and in the ventral view of moving fingers, the ventral edge is smooth and toothless and has one large distal ventral tooth. telotarsus (tarsus) of scorpio kruglovi has rounded tip and short ventral spines (stockmann and ythier, 2010). the current study aims to redescribe the scorpio kruglovi which is found in the southern southern iraq and diagnose it for the first time in thi qar province, and to emphasize that it is the only species present in iraq from family scorpionidae. materials and methods the field survey was conducted during december 2020 to march 2021 in al-kata'a region which is located between the provinces of thi qar and al-muthana, 31°18'47" n, 45°54'12" e, 9 m a.s.l. the area is a barren desert with sandy soil and is located about 50 km northern al-nasiriyah city center (map 1). scorpions were collected during the daytime, after digging the soil and removing rocks. the specimens were placed in a freezer, then were exposed to a hot water to straighten metasoma area and then preserved in 70% ethanol until being diagnosed under a krüss stereomicroscope using the identification keys: kovařík (1999) and prendini (2000), navidpour et al. (2008) and ahmed (2015).the specimens were photographed with a digital and mobile cameras and finally the images were processed using microsoft office 2010 with slight changes in brightness and contrast. 391 al-yacoub et al. map (1): showing sample collection site in thi qar province, southern of iraq (available at: https://www.humanitarianresponse.info/en/operations/iraq/infographic/iraqthi-qar-governorate-reference-map-2020-en) results and discussion family: scorpionidae (latreille, 1802) scorpio kruglovi (birula, 1910) synonyms: scorpio maurus (linnaeus, 1758) type locality and repository: deir ez-zor, upper euphrates, syria; zoological institute, russian academy of sciences, st. petersburg, russia (zisp) (navidpour, et al., 2019). distribution in iraq: the genus was previously recorded for the first time from mosul province as scorpio maurus (penther, 1912 and khalaf, 1962). pringle (1960) reported that s. maurus is found in duhok province, then al-azawi (2016) recorded it in najaf province also as s. maurus, as well as kachel (2020) in zakho province. while ahmed (2015) recorded it as a subspecies, scorpio maurus kruglovi (birula, 1910) in erbil province, northern iraq. distribution outside iraq: kuwait, saudi arabia, iran, syria, jordan, qatar and turkey (fet 2000, navidpour 2019, el-hennawy 1992 and talal et al., 2015). materials examined: 2 ♂, al-kata'a region (thi qar province), 31°18'47" n, 45°54'12" e, 9 m a.s.l. diagnosis: sternum pentagonal; patella of pedipalp with 3 ventral trichobothria; femur of pedipalp with three trichobothria, only one of them on the inner surface. chela of pedipalp with 26 trichobothria, has short and powerful claws, average ratio of length to height of the claw is 1.5, manus is very broad, entirely rounded and about as wide as length. pectin teeth 392 redescription of scorpio kruglovi are short and have a circular inner fulcrum. lateroapical margins of tarsi produced into rounded lobes and 14 short spines are found on the fourth tarsus. description: total length of male is 27 mm; measurements of the carapace, metasoma, telson and segments of the pedipalps are given in table (1).the color of the body is brown to dark brown, metasoma iii and iv black in the carinae, while segment v is completely black, telson brown and aculeus is reddish black, the anterior margin of carapace is black in color and articular areas of the legs have red spots (pl. 1). dorsal trichobothria of femur of pedipalp arrange in c configuration (pl. 2). patella of pedipalp has three trichobothria ventrally (pl. 3), and 13 on external surface. absence of retrolateral pedal spur, lateroapical margins of tarsi produced into rounded lobes (pl. 4 a, b). the ventral surface of the metasomal segments from i to iv, with 4 carinae (pl. 5), while v metasomal segment with 3 carinae (pl. 5).sternum genital organ has deep sub pentagonal (pl. 6). 14 pectinal teeth (pl. 7). movable and fixed fingers of pedipalps with 5 rows of horizontal denticles, with 5 rows of vertical denticles extending between them and the end of movable finger with one terminal denticle and 4 subterminal denticles, the end of fixed finger has one terminal denticle and one subterminal granule (pl. 8). kovařík and affilastro (2013) stated that the species scorpio maurus contains many subspecies around the world, and talal et al. (2015) raised s. kruglovi to species level while it was a subspecies as s. maurus kruglovi. while, al-khazali and yağmur (2019) in thi qar province, didn't record species s. kruglovi. furthermore, kachel et al. (2021) published a checklist and review for scorpion fauna in iraq, the review showed that all the previously found subspecies are s. kruglovi, and they identified the areas of their distribution in the provinces of north and central iraq (mosul, erbil, dohuk, baghdad and najaf), and they indicated that this species is not registered in southern iraq. the studied traits of this species s. kruglovi in the present study are identical to that described by the previous studies with a slight difference in length, and this may be due to the age of the specimens. this was confirmed by al-azawi (2016) who observed the presence of differences in the measurements taken among individuals of the same species, and recorded s. maurus with a total length 49.02 mm and described chela as being very wide and the body color was golden to yellow. whereas kachel (2020) reported that the color was yellowish brown with dark brown in mesosoma. ahmed (2015) described s. maurus kruglovi which was found in erbil citynorthern of iraq to be 6-8 cm in length. hussen and ahmed (2020) found that most of the specimens were yellow to red brown color, the tip of the claws was dark redbrown, and their length ranged from 30 to 40 mm, with 13-14 pectinal teeth in male. 393 al-yacoub et al. table (1): measurements of the carapace, metasoma, telson and segments of the pedipalps (scorpio kruglovi). (abbreviations: length: l, width: w). parameters measurements (mm) carapace l: 4, w 4.5 mesosoma l: 8 metasoma + telson l: 15 pedipalp l: 12 femur l: 3.5, w: 1.25 patella l: 4.2, w: 1.5 manus l: 3/, w: 3 movable finger l: 4.1 plate (1): male scorpio kruglovi; dorsal (a) and views ventral (b). plate (2): dorsal trichobothria of pedipalp femur in male. 394 redescription of scorpio kruglovi plate (3): ventral trichobothria of pedipalp patella in male. plate (4): tarsus of third leg in male (a) pedal spur, (b) lateroapical margins of tarsi. plate (5): ventral submedian carinae of metasoma in male. 395 al-yacoub et al. plate (6): pentagonal sternum in male. plate (7):pectinal teeth in male. plate (8): movable (a) and fixed fingers (b) of pedipalps in male. 396 redescription of scorpio kruglovi literature cited ahmed, s. t. 2015. morphology and histology of venom gland of scorpio maurus kruglovi (birula, 1910) (scorpionidae: scorpiones). zanco journal of pure and applied sciences, 27(5): 59-62. al-azawi, z. n. n. 2016. list of scorpions recorded for the first time in iraq. ibn al-haitham journal for pure and applied science, 29 (1): 49-57. al-khazali, a. and yağmur, e. 2019. first record of androctonus bicolor ehrenberg, 1828 (arachnida: scorpiones) with scorpion records thi qar province, iraq. biharean biologist, 13: 85-88. el-hennawy, h. 1992. a catalogue of the scorpions described from the arab countries (1758 1990) (arachnida: scorpionida). serket, 2(4): 95-153. fet, v. 2000. family scorpionidae latreille, 1802. in: fet v, sissom wd, lowe g and braunwalder m.e. 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(2021) 16 (3): 389 398 . scorpio kruglovi (birula, 1910 إعادة وصف النوع ) (scorpiones, scorpionidae ) من محافظة ذي قار،جنوب العراق العباد** مهدي غسان عدنان علي اليعقوب*، مرتضى يوسف ضياء خليف كريم** و . العراق *قسم علوم الحياة، كلية التربية للعلوم الصرفة، جامعة ذي قار، . *قسم علوم الحياة، كلية التربية للعلوم الصرفة، جامعة البصرة، العراق 20/6/2021، تأريخ النشر: 10/06/2021، تأريخ القبول: 27/04/2021تأريخ االستالم: الخالصة ذي محافظة في خاصة ، محدودة العراق في العقارب عن المعلومات الحالية في العقارب عينات جمعت ، قار الصحراوية المنطقة من الدراسة . الكطعة( المثنى )منطقة و قار ذي محافظتي بين الواقعة هذه من scorpio kruglovi (birula, 1910) د وصف النوع يعأ المميزة له. صفات ال تم تحديد التشخيصية و الصفات ب ، و دعم المنطقة bull 487 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hadi, a. m. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2024) 18 (2): 487495. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2024.18.2.0487 short communication redescription of rhipicephalus pravus donitz, 1910 (ixodida, ixodidae) on sheep in iraq afkar m. hadi iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq. e-mail: afkar@nhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq received: 24 dec. 2023, revised:22 may 2024, accepted: 28 may 2024, published:20 december 2024 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract the current investigation was to redescribe the morphology of the species of hard tick, rhipicephalus pravus dönitz, 1910 (ixodida, ixodidae) that was recently recorded from baghdad province, central of iraq. a total of 130 sheep were obtained from the local animal markets in baghdad province, throughout the period from may 2022 to november 2023; these sheep were examined for the presence of hard ticks. the current study revealed five sheep infested with r. pravus in baghdad province. the specimens were deposited in the iraq natural history research center and museum-baghdad university under the number: inhm, 2023: hard ticks, no. 1.1. hard tick-borne pathogens were reviewed, so this species of tick was associated with several pathogens, so it an important species that affects public health and livestock as well. the present description was provided with pictures and illustrations. keywords: hard ticks, hemorrhagic fever, livestock, morphology, sheep. introduction hard ticks have borne many pathogens, like rickettsia sp., babesia sp., theleria sp., and anaplasma sp. (addo et al., 2023), and other pathogens (makawi et al., 2023). iraq is considered an endemic country for both theileriosis and babesiosis which are transmitted by hard ticks (hadi and al amery, 2012; makawi and hadi, 2023). the real-risk disease for both humans and animals that is transmitted by ticks is viral hemorrhagic fever (vhf) (ergönül et al., 2018). the first description of the species rhipicephalus pravus dönitz, 1910 was by donitz in 1910, from buffalo and giraffe on the masai steppe in tanganyika (walker, 1956). zumpt (1942) re-described it in many regions of tanganyika, kenya, and abyssinia. then, theiler and robinson (1953) bred the adults in the laboratory, described the larvae and nymphs, and discussed the biology, distribution, and synonyms of the species. r. pravus infested many hosts like cattle, sheep, goats, camels, dogs, horses, donkeys, pigs, elephants, and hares (walker et al., 2014). the study aimed to re-describe the morphology of r. pravus in a new locality from iraq. bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799-print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2024.18.2.0487 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7928-8702 mailto:afkar@nhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 488 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (2): 487495. redescription of rhipicephalus pravus specimens' collection from may 2022 to november 2023, a total of 130 sheep were inspected in order to collect hard ticks from nearby livestock markets in baghdad province. we looked at every animal to check for hard ticks in the tail, between the legs, ears, neck, and area around the eyes. put cotton dipped in 70% alcohol in the tick's position to numb and loosen the mouth's skinattached parts, then remove it with tweezers (soulsby, 1982). after being kept in 70% alcohol, the separated ticks were sent to the iraq natural history research center and museum (inhm)/university of baghdad for identification, photography, and drawing by camera lucida. distribution, specimens' information and redescription the current study revealed five sheep were infested with rhipicephalus pravus in baghdad province, central of iraq. the specimens of the mentioned species were preserved in the iraq natural history research center and museum. rhipicephalus pravus dönitz, 1910 synonym: rhipicephalus (rhipicephalus) pravus santos dias, 1955 habitat: it was found between the host legs. date of collecting: 10.v. 2023. host: ovis aries linnaeus, 1758 host locality: baghdad, iraq. museum deposit number: inhm, 2023, hard ticks, no. 1.1. prior to this, tahmaz (2021) discovered r. pravus in bulk sheep in the northern iraqi province of erbil; al ebrahemi (2023) rediscovered it in cattle in the central iraqi province of al najaf al ashraf. on the other hand, the current study recoded it as a new local from iraq on the sheep from baghdad (map 1). this result agreed with tamirat (2022), who reviewed a significant abundance of rhipicephalus pravus in the arid and semi-arid areas of ethiopia, which indicates that it is resistant to drought. 489 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hadi, a. m. map (1): locations of the rhipicephalus pravus in iraq (note the colored circles). the current study stated that this hard tick infests livestock (sheep and cattle) and agrees with obara et al. (2020), who recorded infesting buffalo in uganda. while dulacha et al. (2023) revealed that the ratio of infested cattle with this species was 49.7% in southern ethiopia. the current study described the morphology of r. pravus, because of the previous recordings were without morphological description. so, this represents additional data for the diversity of hard ticks in iraq. rhipicephalus pravus was similar to r. appendiculatus (walker et al., 2014). the current study describes the similarities in them as for conscutum color, first coxae spurs, accessory adanal plate, spiracle plate areas, and caudal appendage (tab. 1). the present study describes the differential diagnosis between them in interstitial punctuation distribution, setiferous punctations, apparent cervical fields depression, eyes, adanal plate shape, and posterior grooves (tab. 2, pls 13). 490 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (2): 487495. redescription of rhipicephalus pravus table (1): similarities between males of rhipicephalus pravus and rhipicephalus appendiculatus. features description conscutum color dark first coxae spurs visible dorsally accessory adanal plate small spiracle plate areas having sparse setae caudal appendage narrow in fed males table (2): differential diagnosis between rhipicephalus pravus and rhipicephalus appendiculatus. features r. pravus r. appendiculatus interstitial punctation distribution dense sparse setiferous punctations distinct indistinct cervical fields depression is apparent forming a narrow cervical field forming a wide cervical field eyes distinctly convex slightly convex adanal plates shape narrow trapezoid wide trapezoid posterior grooves deep and with rough texture shallow and with wrinkled texture lateral grooves type they extend to the eyes they not extend to the eyes plate (1): dorsal view of r. pravus male. (1: cervical fields, 2=eye, 3: lateral groove, 4: posterior groove, 5: caudal appendage). 491 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hadi, a. m. plate (2): ventral view of r. pravus, male. (1: spiracle plate areas, 2: adanal plates, 3: accessory adanal plates). plate (3): ventral plates of r. pravus, male. drawing by camera lucida in inhm. (1: spiracle plate, 2: accessory adanal plates, 3: spiracle plate areas, 4: adanal plates, 5: caudal appendage). rhipicephalus pravus borne pathogen the paralysis syndrome has been studied in detail by gothe et al. (1979) and gregson (1973), who revealed the species that cause paralysis as argas walkerae, dermacentor andersoni, ixodes holocylus and rhipicephalus evertsi evertsi. then, fourei et al. (1988) added rhipicephalus pravus to this list because it caused paralysis in angora goat kids in south africa. byaruhanga et al. (2021) revealed that r. pravus was the vector to transposrt theileria parva in cattle. mucheka et al. (2023) revealed rhipicephalus sp. as a vector to theileria spp., rickettsia spp., ehrlichia spp., anaplasma spp., coxiella spp., and babesia spp. in domestic animals. from the above above-borne pathogen, appears that r. pravus was associated with several pathogens, so we consider it an important species that affects public health and livestock as well. 492 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (2): 487495. redescription of rhipicephalus pravus conclusions the current study recorded the species rhipicephalus pravus in sheep in baghdad as a new local. after it was recorded in erbil province in northern iraq and al najaf al ashraf province in southern iraq, this indicates that it is resistant to drought, and can survive in many habitats. hard tick-borne pathogens were reviewed, so r. pravus was associated with several pathogens, so we consider it an important species that affects public health and livestock as well. conflict of interest statement "there is no conflict of interest regarding the publication of this article". literature cited addo, s., ronald, b., kevin, y., ansah owusu, j., behene, e., opoku agyeman, p., bruku, s., asoala, v., suzanne, m., asiedu, j., kweku, p., wilson, d., jose, w. and samuel, k. 2023. first molecular identification of multiple tick‑borne pathogens in livestock within kassena‑nankana, ghana. animal diseases, 3(1): 1-15. 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[crossref] makawi, z., hadi, a. and khalaf, h. 2023. molecular identification and phylogenetic-tree analysis of hard ticks from long eared hedgehog hemiechinus auritus (gmelin, 1770) in iraq. iraqi journal of science, 64 (8): 3822-3830. [crossref] mucheka, v., alicia, p. and samson, m. 2023. prevalence of tick-borne pathogens in rhipicephalus species infesting domestic animals in africa: a systematic review and meta-analysis. acta tropica, 246 (2023) 106994: 1-11. [crossref] obara, i., githaka, n., nijhof, a., krücken, j., nanteza, a., odongo, d., lubembe, d., atimnedi, p., mijele, d., njeri, a., mwaura, s., owido, g., ahmed, j., clausen, p. and bishop, r. 2020. the rhipicephalus appendiculatus tick vector of theileria parva is absent from cape buffalo (syncerus caffer) populations and associated ecosystems in northern uganda. parasitology research, 119: 2363-2367. 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[click here] https://doi.org/10.1093/jmedent/16.5.357 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2023.17.3.0423 10.24996/ijs.2023.64.8.9 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actatropica.2023.106994 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-020-06728-x https://doi.org/10.1186/s13071-022-05221-x https://repository.up.ac.za/bitstream/handle/2263/58697/7theiler1953.pdf?sequence=1 494 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (2): 487495. redescription of rhipicephalus pravus walker, a. r., bouattour, a., camicas, j. -l., estrada-peña, a., horak, i. g., latif, a. a. pegram, r. g. and preston, p. m. 2014. ticks of domestic animals in africa: a guide to identification of species. the university of edinburgh, published by bioscience reports, edinburgh scotland, u. k., 227pp. walker, jane b. 1956. rhipicephalus pravus donitz in 1910. parasitology, 46 (3-4): 243 260. [crossref] zumpt, f. 1942. rhipicephalus appendiculatus neum. und verwandte arten. vi. vorstudie zu einer revision der gattung rhipicephalus. zeitschrift fur parasitenkunde springer, 12: 538-551. [crossref] https://doi.org/10.1017/s0031182000026500 https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02122545 495 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hadi, a. m. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2024) 18 (2): 487-495. donitz, 1910 rhipicephalus pravus للقراداعادة وصف (ixodida, ixodidae) العراق في األغنام على أفكار مسلم هادي العراق., بغداد, بغداد جامعة, الطبيعي التاريخ ومتحف بحوث مركز 20/12/2024، النشر: 28/5/2024القبول: ،22/5/2024املراجعة: ،24/12/2023االستالم: الخالصة نوع القراد الصلبل املظهري وصف الهدف البحث الحالي إلى إعادة rhipicephalus pravus dönitz, 1910 (ixodida, ixodidae) , الذي تم تسجيله في محافظة بغداد, وسط العراق. ً مؤخرا من أسواق الحيوانا 130 ص ح ف ً تخروفا اذ ؛2023إلى تشرين الثاني 2022من أيار املدة املحلية في محافظة بغداد, خالل هذه األغنام للتأكد من وجود القراد الصلب. كشفت الدراسة الحالية عن تحص ف ح في محافظة بغداد. r. pravusإصابة خمسة أغنام بالقراد الصلب نوع تفظ الرقم ب جامعة بغداد -العينات في مركز بحوث ومتحف التاريخ الطبيعي العراقي مراجعة نواقل االمراض الذي جرت . inhm, 2023: hard ticks, no.1.1املتحفي: بعدة مسببات مرضية, القرادهذا النوع من ارتبط يحمله القراد الصلب, حيث لصحة العامة والثروة الحيوانية أيًضا. لذلك نعتبره من األنواع املهمة التي تؤثر على ا ص و وقد تصويره ورسمه لتسهيل تشخيصه من قبل تمو ظهريامالنوع املذكور ف الباحثين. bull 899 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2025) 18 (4): 899-916. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2025.18.4.0899 original article an integrative study on limnatis paluda (tennent, 1859) (clitellata, arhynchobdellida, praobdellidae): morphological characters, molecular data, and confirm occurrence in iraq zhwan othman kanabi and sherwan tayeb ahmed department of biology, college of science, salahaddin university, erbil, iraq corresponding author: zhwan.kanabi@su.edu.krd received: 7 may 2025, revised: 5 oct. 2025, accepted: 9 oct. 2025, published: 20 december 2025 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract the current study represents a comprehensive morphological and molecular characterization of limnatis paluda (tennent, 1859) (clitellata, arhynchobdellida, praobdellidae), collected from five freshwater springs in the taqtaq district of erbil province, kurdistan region, iraq. most prior research on this species has predominantly concentrated on the study of morphological data. dna sequencing is often advantageous in taxonomy, as it yields information not obtained from morphological studies. the primary objective was to molecularly characterize l. paluda using the nuclear 18s rdna region and the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit i (coi) gene by pcr and nucleotide sequencing techniques. the sequences were acquired and compared to existing genbank sequences. the results support the validation of l. paluda in iraq using both traditional (morphology-based) and modern (molecular-based) techniques. the latter showed a 100% identity percentage of l. paluda when compared to the registered sequences in ncbi. the maximum likelihood (ml) approach was used to construct the phylogenetic relationship. the results indicate that pcr sequencing is an effective and reliable molecular approach for identifying l. paluda, complementing traditional morphological techniques and enhancing the understanding of its biology, it confirming the occurrence of this leech in iraq. keywords: coi gene, limnatis paluda, pcr, phylogeny,18s rdna. introduction leeches, belonging to the phylum annelida, represent a diverse group of segmented worms comprising over 22,000 species (mann, 1962; sawyer, 1986). among these, approximately 700 species are leeches, with about 100 marine, 90 terrestrial, and the remainder freshwater. as trophic components, leeches play a pivotal role in aquatic ecosystems, influencing ecological balance and nutrient cycling. morphologically, they are cylindrical or bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799, print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2025.18.4.0899 https://orcid.org/0009-0008-9674-1749 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3338-3971 mailto:zhwan.kanabi@su.edu.krd https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 900 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 899-916. an integrative study on limnatis dorsoventrally flattened segmented worms equipped with anterior and posterior suckers, with the mouth situated within the anterior sucker (ayhan et al., 2024). the leeches included in the class clitellata encompass two primary orders: rhynchobdellae, with a proboscis. for instance, the colossal amazonian leech haementeria ghilianii (de filippi, 1849), the duck leech theromyzon tessulatum (müller, 1774), and the fish leeches (family piscicolidae), and arhynchobdellae leeches without a proboscis (e.g., the horse leech haemopis sanguisuga (linnaeus, 1758), stinging leech haemadipsa picta moore, 1929, and the “medicinal” leeches acrobdella spp. and hirudo spp., among others) (phillips et al., 2019). jawed leeches, members of the suborder hirudiniformes within arhynchobdellae, inhabit terrestrial and aquatic environments, feeding predominantly on blood. some of the species of leeches that act as temporary ectoparasites are the members of families glossiphoniidae, praobdellidae, and haemadipsidae, and these are those leeches that feed upon the blood of various vertebrates, including frogs, reptiles, birds, fish, and mammals, including human beings (sevim et al., 2019). the genus limnatis moquin–tandon, 1827 belongs to the family praobdellidae, order arhynchobdellida (utevsky et al., 2022). it is a group of hematophagous leeches distributed throughout the middle east and parts of asia (raele et al., 2015). according to the current classification, there are three species in the genus: l. paluda, l. bacescui (manoleli, 1972), and l. nilotica (savigny, 1822) (nakano et al., 2015). l. paluda is an aquatic species that typically inhabits lakes and streams (utevsky et al., 2022). juvenile stages are small and highly motile swimmers that may invade the nasal or oral cavities of humans and animals through contaminated water. once inside the host, they firmly attach to mucosal surfaces using their terminal suckers and feed on blood and tissues, resulting in local inflammation and blood loss (solijonov et al., 2022; bantihun et al., 2023). in iraq, the first record of this genus was l. nilotica (savigny, 1822), described in a human case of internal hirudiniasis by almallah (1968). more recently, l. paluda was morphologically identified by bilal et al. (2023) based on salivary gland ultrastructure in specimens collected from erbil. however, that identification lacked comprehensive morphological characterization and was not supported by molecular data. to date, no study has provided molecular evidence confirming the presence of l. paluda in iraq. the present study addresses this gap by employing an integrative taxonomic approach to identify l. paluda from the kurdistan region of iraq. detailed morphological examinations were conducted using light microscopy, focusing on external characters (body coloration, sucker morphology, eye arrangement, clitellum, and gonopore position) as well as internal reproductive anatomy. molecular identification was done to supplement these observations, where pcr amplification and sequencing on the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit i (coi) and nuclear 18s rdna gene markers were conducted. a combination of these approaches increases the level of species-level identification and explains the phylogenetic positioning of l. paluda in the arhynchobdellida group. 901 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum kanabi and ahmed accordingly, this study provides the first combined morphological and molecular characterization of l. paluda in iraq, offering valuable insights into its taxonomy, distribution, and biodiversity status within the region. materials and methods collection: the survey of different water bodies in the erbil province, kurdistan region, was carried out from july to october 2024, with a total of 40 leech specimens being collected. sampling was conducted in five freshwater springs in the taqtaq district (latitude: 35.88886°; longitude: 44.58557 °) (map. 1, pl. 1). map (1): (a) map of iraq that shows the kurdistan region (yellow), (b) map of erbil province shows the specimens collection sites (). plate (1): sites of specimens collection in taqtaq district/erbil province. habitats investigated included ponds, irrigation canals, cow troughs, and specimens collected on the undersides of rocks, submerged vegetation, the banks, and sides of streams. the sample sites were chosen on the basis of reported cases of cattle leech infestations and suitable environmental conditions. leeches were gathered manually and with aquarium scoops, ensuring little disruption to their natural habitat. upon collection, the specimens were promptly placed in glass jars containing water from their native environment. to prevent 902 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 899-916. an integrative study on limnatis escape, the jars were sealed using fine, permeable fabric. they were then taken alive to the zoology research laboratory of salahaddin university. in the laboratory, the leeches were kept in a glass tank 30 cm wide and 27 cm deep, and the water was non-chlorinated. they were given a meal once per week and could feed on the introduced frogs. the aquarium conditions were exquisitely maintained, and the water was replaced every three days to provide an optimum environment for the leeches (tubtimon et al., 2014). identification: the specimens were identified to the species level based on morphological features using the identification keys provided by mann (1962), sawyer (1986), nakano et al. (2015), and solijonov et al. (2022). diagnostic characters, including body size and shape, coloration patterns, jaw structure, the configuration of the anterior and posterior suckers, and internal reproductive anatomy, were examined. identification was not verified by a museum but was supported by molecular analysis (coi and 18s rdna), which confirmed the species as l. paluda through blast comparison with genbank references. external examination: the collected leech specimens were prepared for morphological examination. some specimens were relaxed by being placed in small to medium jars filled with distilled water, and dropwise additions of 10% ethanol were used until the leech did not respond to the touch. during the next 40-60 minutes, the leeches became limp and would not respond to touch. under an olympus stereomicroscope, the leeches were identified based on their external characteristics, including their general body and mouth shape, sucker form, number and arrangement of eyespots (ocelli), papillae, sensillae, number of annuli per somite (segments), and the location and shape of the male and female gonophores (sawyer, 1986; schenková et al., 2021). internal examination: for examination of the internal morphology, six specimens were dissected with a sterile lancet and then cleaned with distilled water (ayhan et al., 2021). dissections of specimens were pinned with normal saline and performed under a stereomicroscope using fine dissection tools to expose the internal structures, including the pharynx, crop, intestine, and reproductive organs. the male and female reproductive systems were examined once the dorsal midline was dissected and fixed with insect needles on a wax tray. following an incision along the anterior sucker's ventral midline, the jaws and teeth inside the sucker were visible (wang et al., 2022). photomicrographs: an iphone 11 pro max equipped with an ultra-wide lens featuring a ƒ/2.4 aperture and a 120° field of view, a wide lens with a ƒ/1.8 aperture, and a 12-megapixel telephoto lens was utilized for picture capture under a stereo and light microscope. 903 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum kanabi and ahmed dna extraction: the fresh leech specimens were submerged in a 10% ethanol until they became insensitive to touch. using a scalpel, around half of the caudal sucker was cut off, then dna was extracted using the purelink® genomic dna kits in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions. whenever possible, the caudal sucker's tissue was extracted from postmortem specimens to prevent contamination with intestinal contents. the dna quantity and quality were assessed using a nanodrop (nd-1000, usa). the genomic dna purity ranged between (1.7-2) (ayhan et al., 2024). dna amplification and sequencing: the polymerase chain reaction (pcr) was employed to amplify two dna segments: the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit i (coi) gene and the nuclear 18s rdna region, using primers universally designed for these targets (borda et al., 2004). the coi gene was amplified using the primer pair lco1490 (5′ggtcaacaaatcataaagatattgg-3′) and hco2198 (5′taaacttcagggtgaccaaaaaatca-3′), as described by borda et al. (2004). for the 18s rdna region, the universal primers c1 (5′-acccgctgaatttaagcat-3′) and c3 (5′ctcttcagagtacttttcaac-3′) were employed, following the protocol outlined by apakupakul et al. (1999). pcr amplifications were done in the presence of a total reaction volume of 25 µl in a simpliamp™ thermal cycler (applied biosystem, usa. the reaction was prepared with 1 µl of forward and reverse primers (10 µm), 5 µl of genomic dna (~50 ng), 12.5 µl of taq pcr master mix (addbio, korea), and 5.5 µl of deionized water (dh₂o) to obtain the final volume. the amplification protocol followed the conditions described by phillips et al. (2019). in the case of the coi gene, the thermal profile involved an initial denaturation at 95 °c over a period of 5 minutes, followed by 35 cycles comprising denaturation at 95 °c, annealing at 49 °c, and extension at 72 °c, all lasting 30 seconds each, and a final extension at 72 °c lasting 7 minutes. the amplification conditions for 18s rdna were identical, except for the annealing temperature, which was set at 55 °c (saglam et al., 2018). pcr products were separated using the electrophoresis method on a 2% agarose gel that had been prepared by dissolving 1g of agarose powder in 50 ml of tbe buffer and adding 3 µl of ethidium bromide to visualize dna. a total of 5 µl of each pcr product, together with a dna ladder, was loaded into the wells, and electrophoresis was performed at 100 v and 3 w for approximately 40 minutes. dna fragments were observed under a uv transilluminator, with the expected amplicon sizes of ~650 bp for coi and ~345 bp for 18s rdna. in this study, pcr-amplified dna was sequenced bidirectionally using the sanger method on an abi seqstudio genetic analyzer (applied biosystems, usa) at exogene genetics diagnosis. the resulting sequences were analyzed through nucleotide blast searches against the ncbi genbank database and subsequently employed for phylogenetic analysis (altschul et al., 1990). 904 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 899-916. an integrative study on limnatis phylogenetic methods: the obtained coi and 18s rdna sequences (both strands) were verified and edited using bioedit (jovanović et al., 2021). a blast search was employed on the sequences in the genbank collection that were similar to the sequences generated out of the specimens analyzed during this study. subsequently, 18 sequences from representatives of the genus limnatis were downloaded from genbank and were included for assessment (tab. 1). the mega x program, version 10.1, was used to compute the differences between dna sequences (kumar et al., 2018). it was also employed to compute a neighbor-joining (nj) tree (also based on p-distances) and a maximum likelihood (ml) tree provided in mega x with an initial nj tree. in the nj and ml trees, bootstrapping was done on 1000 replicates (huelsenbeck et al., 2001; ronquist et al., 2012). table (1): summary of sequences and phylogenetic clustering of limnatis species based on maximum likelihood analysis. taxa genbank country reference bootstrap support (%) l. paluda pv056019.1 current seq 1 (iraq) this study 86% l. paluda pv018631.1 current seq 2 (iraq) this study 86% l. paluda pq868999.1 current seq 3 (iraq) this study 80% l. paluda pq553448.1 current seq 4 (iraq) this study 73% l. paluda ky989474.2 iran (darabi‐darestani et al., 2021) 80% l. paluda mz318068.1 uzbekistan (utevsky et al., 2022) 97% l. paluda mz318070.1 azerbaijan (utevsky et al., 2022) 97% l. paluda mz318071.1 uzbekistan (utevsky et al., 2022) 97% l. paluda mz318067.1 uzbekistan (utevsky et al., 2022) 97% l. paluda mz318069.1 uzbekistan (utevsky et al., 2022) 97% l. paluda mw538548.1 turkey genbank 96% l. paluda ky989472.2 iran (darabi‐darestani et al., 2021) 91% l. paluda ky989471.2 iran (darabi‐darestani et al., 2021) 89% l. paluda ky989473.2 iran (darabi‐darestani et al., 2021) 89% l. nilotica mz318072.1 morocco (utevsky et al., 2022) 95% l. nilotica pq187649.1 tunisia genbank 95% l. nilotica pq187648.1 tunisia genbank 96% poecilobdella manillensis (lesson, 1842) op648251.1 china (outgroup) genbank — results and discussion in the present study, 40 leech specimens were collected from five freshwater springs in the taqtaq district. specimens were scored using morphological characters, and the molecular analysis of the 18s rdna and coi gene loci showed that all specimens belonged to. l. paluda. 905 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum kanabi and ahmed external morphology the leeches exhibited a dorsoventrally flattened body, tapered at the anterior, with a contracted length of approximately 5.5 cm, extending to 12 cm when fully expanded. this observation agreed with prior findings on l. paluda morphology (nakano et al., 2015). the characteristic shape facilitated efficient movement through aquatic environments and attachment to hosts, similar to other limnatis species (sawyer, 1986). the specimens were light-green to brown-green on the dorsal side and dark green on the ventral side with an orange to dark-yellow lateral stripe (pl. 2). in contrast to other species of leeches, l. paluda did not have black spots or patterned lines on the dorsal side. color variation among the populations has been previously reported, with the specimens of the middle east tending to have either green or dark green on their dorsal pigmentation (darabidarestani et al., 2016; solijonov et al., 2022) while those from india (harding, 1927) and kazakhstan (nakano et al., 2015) tend to be brownish-red. it is probable that these variations are the combination of genetic and environmental factors. there were two types of suckers on the body, which included an anterior (oral) sucker and a posterior (caudal) sucker. the oral sucker was rather smaller and yet quite muscular, as it could expand significantly when it was attaching to the host. a median longitudinal furrow was present on the ventral surface, extending toward the buccal ring and leading into a deep oral chamber, which was separated by a transverse muscular septum (velum). the mouth appeared as a small triradiate opening situated centrally within the velum (pl. 3). the posterior sucker, derived from modifications of the last seven segments, formed a large, discshaped structure utilized for attachment and locomotion (pl. 2). comparable structural adaptations have been reported in l. nilotica and species of haemopis (arfuso et al., 2019). the body was comprised of 33 segments, 26 forming the main body and seven contributing to the posterior sucker. most segments were subdivided into annuli, making true segmentation difficult to distinguish. most segments had five annuli, although there were fewer at the anterior and posterior ends. each specimen bore five pairs of eyes arranged in a parabolic arc (pl. 2), a feature consistent with previous descriptions (solijonov et al., 2022). additionally, small sensory papillae (sensilla) were observed on the center annulus of each segment (pl. 4), although some specimens exhibited incomplete sensilla development, as reported by nakano et al. (2015). seventeen pairs of lateral nephridiopores were identified on the ventral surface, except at the anterior and posterior extremes (pl. 4). the male and female gonopores were separated by five annuli, a characteristic shared with l. nilotica (sawyer, 1986; saglam et al., 2018). some specimens displayed a well-defined clitellum, confirming reproductive maturity (pl. 2). 906 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 899-916. an integrative study on limnatis plate (2): external morphology of l. paluda; (a) dorsal view of the whole body, (b) ventral view showing the clitellum (cl), male (m), and female (f) gonopores, (c) lateral view of the body, (d) dorsal view of the anterior end showing the arrangement of eyes (e), (e) ventral view of the anterior end showing the oral sucker, (f) dorsal view of the posterior end showing the anal opening (an), (g) ventral view of the posterior end showing the caudal sucker. plate (3): ventral view of the anterior end (oral sucker) of l. paluda; (a) the buccal cavity (bc) is surrounded by three jaws (j), (b) the anterior end shows the median longitudinal furrow (mf) in the ventral surface of the upper lip. 907 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum kanabi and ahmed plate (4): dorsal and ventral views of the body segments of l.paluda; (a) dorsal view showing sensory papillae (sp), (b) ventral view showing female gonopore (f), male gonopore(m), and nephrediopores (np). internal morphology the mouth opened into the buccal cavity, which contained three jaws with 30 to 45 monostichodont teeth (pl. 3). the presence of monostichodont dentition aligned with previous descriptions of l. paluda (nakano et al., 2015). three separated glands appeared as clusters or grapes or strips that extended from each jaw, and spread around the cerebral ganglia, a few anterior to the crop, and located approximately between segments v to xi, muscles and connective tissues surrounded them. the pharynx constricted to form the esophagus, which widened to become a transparent crop. the crop extended through the body and joined the intestine with two large, bulging caeca. the intestine opened into the rectum, with thin, translucent walls, and opened to the exterior via the dorsal anus. the excretory system consisted of 17 pairs of metanephridia, starting from segment seven and extending along the lateral body wall. this number was consistent with previous descriptions of the species (sawyer, 1986). the nervous system featured a ventral nerve cord with cephalic and caudal ganglia. the segmental ganglia housed most neurons, a typical feature of leeches (elliott et al., 2011). male genital organ the male reproductive apparatus was composed of 8 or 9 pairs of testes contained within small, spherical, brown coelomic test sacs located on either side of the intersegmental. a short, convoluted, white vas efferent arose from each test sac. the vas efferent emptied into the vas deferens. there were two long and longitudinal vasa deferentia, one receiving the vasa efferentia from the test sacs of the left side, the other from the right. each vas deferens runs anteriorly, then widens to become the epididymis, which is not a bright white, thick, extensively intricate tube. the ejaculatory ducts were convoluted and extended to the anterior 908 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 899-916. an integrative study on limnatis portion of the male atrium. the atrium was continuous with the u-shaped penile sheath, subsequently curved anteriorly into the male gonopore (pl. 5). the ejaculatory bulb was absent in all examined specimens, consistent with observations by nakano et al. (2015). female genital organ the female reproductive system consisted of paired spheroid ovisacs, each with a short oviduct. both oviducts merged into a common oviduct, which was slightly folded and descended into a straight, ellipsoid vagina leading to the female gonopore (pl. 5). this structure was consistent with the reproductive morphology of related limnatis species (solijonov et al., 2022). molecular identification and phylogenetic analysis regarding the consequences of the existing study, besides the morphological study, the findings were presented as the first molecular identification and phylogenetic characterization of isolated l. paluda in iraq. the chromatograms were utilized to elucidate and assess the troubleshooting of dna nucleotide sequences. the chromatogram exhibited four columns with well-defined, uniformly spaced peaks, indicating highly sensitive nucleotide sequencing results. the released sequence lengths for coi were 650 bp, and for 18s rdna were 345 bp (diag. 1). diagram (1): the chromatogram of pcr products, the sequence result from coi extracts from l. paluda. note the evenly-spaced peaks and the lack of “noise” (the baseline), represented as well-defined colour peaks. 909 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum kanabi and ahmed the harvested dna nucleotide sequences of the isolated leech were input into the basic local alignment search tool (blast) and then compared with current genbank dna sequences. the blast results showed a 100% identity percentage with the available l. paluda dna sequences at the national center for biotechnology information (ncbi), as demonstrated in diagram (2). the stability of the coi gene across populations emphasizes its suitability as a reliable barcoding marker for species-level leech taxonomy (borda et al., 2011). the phylogenetic study evaluated the evolutionary association of the limnatis species, incorporating newly sequenced specimens and previously published sequences. a maximumlikelihood tree was constructed, and poecilobdella manillensis was used as the outgroup to root the tree and put it into an evolutionary context (diag. 3). the phylogenetic analysis demonstrated a highly supported monophyletic clade of l. paluda sequences with 73-99 bootstrap values that could be viewed as statistically strong confidence. despite this effort, some discrepancies in similarity values were observed. these may reflect natural intraspecific variation within l. paluda, which has been reported in other regional populations, e.g. (utevsky et al., 2022), rather than primer-related errors. the newly acquired sequences (pq868999.1, pv056019.1, pv018631.1, and pq553448.1) were found aligned closely with previously recognized l. paluda sequences (ky989474.2, mz318068.1-mw538548.1), confirming their taxonomic placement within this species. there were also two different subclades of l. paluda, indicating a probable intraspecific variation or geographic differentiation. two sub-clades per l. paluda implied the possibility of either geographic variation or cryptic diversity. the geographic organization of the leech population has also been seen in other publications, whereby the environmental factors and the distribution of the host organisms contributed to the genetic divergence of genes (borda et al., 2011). this interspecific variation may have been a point of local adaptation or of individuals with specific lineages in l. paluda, which should be explored further. l. nilotica, conversely, formed another, better-supported clade (bootstrap values of 95% and 96%) that had diverged from l. paluda. this is the argumentation of the taxonomic disparity of the two species. mz318072.1, pq187649.1, and pq187648.1 sequences in l. nilotica are also indicative of a high level of genetic affinity; therefore, their classification was supported. the well-supported bootstrap of the l. nilotica clade also provided evidence of its genetic uniqueness, as has been the situation in molecular phylogenetic research of therapeutic leeches (trontelj et al., 2005). the strong genetic similarity of the sequences of l. nilotica showed that the ancestry was very conserved, which might be attributed to a narrow ecological niche or reduced dispersal capabilities. 910 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 899-916. an integrative study on limnatis diagram (2): pairwise alignment of the l. paluda cytochrome c oxidase subunit i (cox1) sequence. the query is the sequence sample, and the subject is the sequence taken from genbank. poecilobdella manillensis was their outgroup position, which supports the monophyly of the limnatis genus and contributes to demonstrating the evolutionary separation observed within the group. the phylogenetic tree visualisation revealed that the l. nilotica group was the sister group to clade l. paluda, which is the evolutionary divergence between the specified groups. it is a widely applied method for doing phylogenetic studies to establish monophyly and to clarify the taxonomic relationships (apakupakul et al., 1999). the results confirmed 911 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum kanabi and ahmed the monophyletic character of limnatis, which strengthened the classification of the genus as a separate species (within the family of praobdellidae). these findings supported the exclusive evolutionary position of l. paluda and l. nilotica, and the recently sequenced specimens were clustered well with the already known genetic lineages. more molecular markers, especially those of the nuclei, should be used in future research to improve the phylogenetic resolution. moreover, biogeographic studies of the ranges of l. paluda and l. nilotica can shed more light on the evolutionary history and possible speciation of these two species. the integration of molecular, ecological, and morphological approaches will be crucial to a thorough understanding of limnatis diversity and evolution. diagram (3): maximum likelihood phylogenetic tree of limnatis species based on mitochondrial gene sequences, showing relationships among newly obtained and reference sequences. the evolutionary history was inferred using the maximum likelihood method and the tamura-nei model. the tree with the highest log likelihood (-1614.17) is shown. initial tree(s) for the heuristic search were obtained automatically by applying neighborjoin and bionj algorithms to a matrix of pairwise distances estimated using the tamura-nei model and selecting the topology with the superior log likelihood value. the proportion of sites where at least 1 unambiguous base is present in at least 1 sequence for each descendant clade is shown next to each internal node in the tree. this analysis involved 18 nucleotide sequences. there was a total of 684 positions in the final dataset. evolutionary analyses were conducted in mega11. conclusions according to the recent findings, this study is recognized as the new, extensive morphological and molecular-based assessment of l. paluda in iraq. the combination of coi 912 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 899-916. an integrative study on limnatis and 18s rdna gene sequences have been demonstrated to be an efficient molecular marker for establishing species identification, bolstering the accuracy of traditional morphological classification. given the limitations of morphology alone in differentiating closely related leech species, the integration of dna-based methods served as a reliable model for distinguishing and enhancing the resolution of their taxonomic status. this combined method provides a good starting point for future research on leech biodiversity and its interactions with hosts in the region's aquatic ecosystems. acknowledgments the authors appreciate the salahaddin university department of biology, which provided the necessary tools and scholarly environment to conduct their study. the zoology research laboratory staff helped in morphological and molecular work, while the exogene genetics diagnosis team performed dna sequencing with precision. the support of the taqtaq district area people significantly contributed to the success of the endeavor in collecting field specimens. conflict of interest statement it is worth noting that this work is part of a m. sc. thesis submitted to the department of biology, college of scientific salahaddin university, erbil for the first author. literature cited almallah, z. 1968. internal hirudiniasis in man with limnatis nilotica, in iraq. journal of parasitology, 54(3): 650-651. 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[crossref] https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msy096 https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.7350 https://doi.org/10.3897/bdj.3.e5004 https://doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evz120 https://doi.org/10.1292/jvms.15-0145 https://doi.org/10.1093/sysbio/sys029 https://doi.org/10.1515/ap-2018-0002 https://www.abebooks.com/9780198576235/leech-biology-behavior-sawyer-roy-0198576234/plp https://doi.org/10.1016/j.parint.2021.102310 https://doi.org/10.2478/s11756-019-00194-2 https://www.doi.org/10.12739/nwsa.2022.17.4.5a0175 915 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum kanabi and ahmed trontelj, p. and utevsky, s. y. 2005. celebrity with a neglected taxonomy: molecular systematics of the medicinal leech (genus hirudo). journal of molecular phylogenetics evolution, 34(3): 616-624. [crossref] tubtimon, j., jeratthitikul, e., sutcharit, c., kongim, b. and panha, s. 2014. systematics of the freshwater leech genus hirudinaria whitman, 1886 (arhynchobdellida, hirudinidae) from northeastern thailand. journal of zookeys, 452: 15-33. [crossref] utevsky, s., mabrouki, y., taybi, a., huseynov, m., manafov, a., morhun, h. and utevsky., a. 2022. new records of leeches of the genus limnatis (hirudinea, praobdellidae) from the south caucasus and central asia: phylogenetic relationships of eurasian and african populations. journal of biodiversity conservation, 45(1): 43-52. [crossref] wang, h., meng, f.-m., jin, s.-j., gao, j.-w., tong, x.-r. and liu, z.-c. 2022. a new species of medicinal leech in the genus hirudo linnaeus, 1758 (hirudiniformes, hirudinidae) from tianjin city, china. journal of zookeys, 1095: 83-96. [crossref] https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2004.10.012 https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.452.7528 https://doi.org/10.32800/abc.2022.45.0043 https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1095.74071 916 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 899-916. an integrative study on limnatis bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2025) 18 (4): 899-916. limnatis paluda (tennant, 1859)العلق تكاملية لدودةدراسة (clitellata, arhynchobdellida, praobdellidae ) في العراق وتأكيد تواجدها الجزيئيةوبياناتها صفاتها املظهرية طيب احمد و شيروان زوان عثمان كانبي الدين، اربيل، العراققسم علوم الحياة، كلية العلوم، جامعة صالح 20/12/2025، النشر: 9/10/2025القبول: ،2025/ 5/10املراجعة: ،7/5/2025االستالم: الخالصة التحري تفصيليةـــــــــــــــــــــــــدراس الحالية اتــــــــــقدمت املظهري ة والجزيئية ة ــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــللصفات arhynchobdellida ة و رتب clitellataالتابع لصنف ، limnatis paluda (tennant, 1859)للنوع عائلة منطقة طقطق ُجمع ذي وال، praobdellidaو في مياه عذبة ينابيع محافظة ، من خمسة معظم األبحاث السابقة املتعلقة بهذا النوع من العلق بشكل ركزت العراق. -أربيل، إقليم كردستان في النووي مفيًدا الحمض يكون دراسة تسلسل ما املظهرية، وغالًبا الصفات أساس ي على دراسة علم التصنيف، ألنه يوفر معلومات ال يتم الحصول عليها من دراسة الصفات املظهرية فقط. كان وجين الوحدة 18s rdnaباستخدام منطقة l. paludaالهدف األساس ي هو التوصيف الجزيئي لـ ( للميتوكوندريا س ي السيتوكروم ألوكسيديز األولى البوليميراز coi)iالفرعية تفاعل طريق عن املتسلسل وتقنيات تسلسل النيوكليوتيدات. تم الحصول على التسلسالت ومقارنتها بالتسلسالت املوجودة. تدعم هذه النتائج (genbank) املسجلة في املركز الوطني ملعلومات البيولوجيا الجزيئية ٍّ من التقنيات التقليدية )القائمة على في l. paludaالتحقق من صحة تواجد العراق باستخدام كل الدراسة علم على )القائمة والحديثة املظهرية( نسبة ، الجزيئية(الدراسة األخيرة أظهرت وقد في l. paludaلـ %100مطابقة املسجلة بالتسلسالت مقارنتها الجينات عند . genbankبنك ( لبناء العالقة التطورية. تشير النتائج إلى أن تسلسل mlواسُتخدم أسلوب االحتمالية القصوى ) البوليميراز املتسلسل ) لتشخيص pcrتفاعل ا به ً وموثوق ً ُيعد أسلوًبا جزيئًيا فعاال )l. paluda ، لتقنيات دراسة الصفات املظهرية التقليدية ومعزًزا فهم حياتية هذا النوع من ديدان العلق ً مكمال وتأكيد تواجدها في العراق. bull 721 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2025) 18 (3): 721-738. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2025.18.3.0721 original article landscape-dependent variability of morphometric traits in carabus granulatus l., 1758 (coleoptera, carabidae) roman gorbunov*,**♦, viktor aleksanov***, rifgat shagidullin*, sergey berdnik* and raisa sukhodolskaya*,****,***** * institute for problems of ecology and mineral wealth use of thetatarstan academy of sciences, russian federation, 420087, kazan. ** belogorye state nature reserve, russian federation, 309342, borisovka settl. ***state budgetary institution of kaluga region “park directorate”, russian federation, 248000, kaluga. **** kazan state medical university, russian federation, 420012, kazan. ***** volga-kama state natural biosphere reserve, russian federation, 422623, sadovyi settl. corresponding author: mailto:xobglor@gmail.com received: 28 feb. 2024, revised: 24 may 2025, accepted: 29 may 2025, published:20 june 2025 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract we examined morphological variations in carabus granulatus l., 1758 (coleoptera, carabidae) populations across different habitats in the kaluga region. discriminant analysis revealed subtle but significant morphological differences between populations, with pronotum length being the key discriminating trait. morphological variability was primarily driven by historical microevolutionary processes rather than direct phenotypic adaptation to specific habitats. local ecological factors, such as microclimate and resource availability, had a greater influence on morphometric traits than the general habitat type. populations in the eastern part of the kaluga region exhibited smaller body sizes due to intensive forest use. fragmented forests displayed notable differences in morphometric traits, likely resulting from founder effects. beetles from various localities showed distinct patterns: populations in the oka river valley populations were smaller, while park habitats exhibited increased variability. populations in kaluga occupied an intermediate position between wild and disturbed forests. the study emphasizes the importance of considering both phylogenetic and ecological factors in understanding morphological differences in ground beetles, highlighting the complex interplay between historical, environmental, and anthropogenic factors shaping populationlevel morphological variation in c. granulatus. keywords: biogeoregion, carabus, discriminant analysis, ground beetles, morphometry. bulletin of the iraq natural historymuseum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799, print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2025.18.3.0721 https://orcid.org/0009-0006-3849-2006 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4584-8457 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3321-0923 https://orcid.org/0009-0003-8261-2421 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6402-7152 mailto:xobglor@gmail.com https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 722 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 721-738. landscape-dependent variability introduction studying how organisms respond to ecological factors is essential for developing biomonitoring models and for gaining insights into the phylogenetic pathways of taxa. it is well-established that animals exhibit dynamic adaptive and microevolutionary changes in response to environmental alterations (newman, 1995; staton et al., 2001; hauser et al., 2003). these transformations can occur independently or in conjunction, forming complex relationships in which the local environment influences their expression (peiman and robinson, 2017). species-specific traits can be viewed as components of biodiversity, affecting how organisms react to disturbances and shifting environmental conditions, with implications at both population and broader ecological levels (lavorel and garnier, 2002). therefore, selecting particular traits for study is crucial for determining the ecological data obtained. body size is a fundamental characteristic of organisms, varying with environmental conditions and subject to selective pressures. in insects, body size is linked to numerous lifehistory traits, including reproductive rate, dispersal capability, duration of ontogeny, competition, and the number and size of offspring. these factors significantly shape the interactions between insects and their environment (stearns, 1998). current research indicates that the sizes and shapes of individual beetle organs vary across habitats with different vegetation types and levels of anthropogenic impact (luzyanin, 2023; khomitskiy et al, 2024). for instance, studies on the ground beetle poecilus cupreus (l., 1758) have demonstrated that its body size diminishes in agrocenoses, with both the agrocenosis conditions and the type of vegetation significantly affecting the beetles morphology (sukhodolskaya et al., 2017). c. granulatus is a transpalaearctic, and hygrophilous eurytopic species with a one-year life cycle. it is a spring breeder species without larval diapause, but with obligatory diapause in adult individuals. both adults and larvae are predators (turin et al., 2003). the objective of this study was to identify (i) the differences among carabus granulatus l., 1758 individuals from various localities, (ii) the variations between habitat types within the kaluga region or specific sites within a given locality, and (iii) how habitat type (defined by dominant tree species) and geomorphological zonation impact these differences. material and methods characteristics of the study area: the kaluga region is located in the center of the east european plain, south of moscow, primarily within the upper basin of the oka river – the largest right tributary of the volga. its northern and western parts belong to the zone of coniferous-broadleaved forests (lavrenko, 1947), which is classified in europe as the boreal biogeoregion (european environment agency, 2016). the zonal vegetation is represented by spruce-broadleaf and broadleaf-spruce forests, dominated by european spruce picea abies (l.) h. karst., 1881, small-leaved linden tilia cordata mill, 1768, and pedunculate oak quercus 723 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum gorbunov et al. robur l., 1753. swamps are common. the relief was formed as a result of the moscow glaciation (esipov, 2005). the southern and eastern parts of the kaluga region belong to the zone of broadleaf forests, also known as the continental biogeoregion. this area has been influenced by the older dnieper glaciation and is more distinctly dissected by a network of rivers, with remnants of pre-quaternary relief preserved in its eastern part. due to prolonged economic use, the eastern part of the kaluga region is practically devoid of minimally disturbed forests, while the southern part retains small areas of undisturbed broadleaf forests within the protective belt that defended the southern borders of the moscow state, where european ash fraxinus excelsior l., 1753 is present in the stand (bobrovsky and abatises, 2002). characteristics of the sampling sites: the material for this study consisted of specimens of c. granulatus collected from 12 sampling sites in 10 localities (tab. 1.) between 1996 and 2021. a locality is defined as a group of sampling sites located within 5 km of each other and not separated by significant barriers (map 1). geographic coordinates are provided in the order of latitude – longitude. high intensity resource use refers to non-forest use of the territory in the recent past or to a significant frequency and intensity of logging. this is identified by: 1) historical maps and satellite images, 2) the current structure of the stand, characterized by young trees or older ones that are regularly planted, with reduced age diversity of trees. low intensity use: the opposite condition of the same signs, as well as the presence of plant species sensitive to anthropogenic pressure. medium intensity use: in the recent past, the forest was not completely logged, but deadwood was collected, and there may have been livestock grazing, etc. forest arrays are classified as follows: small — up to 1.5 sq. km, medium — 10-20 sq. km, large — more than 100 sq. km. areas with a high perimeter-toarea ratio are also classified as small. table (1): locations of carabid beetle trapping, grouped be vegetation zone and geomorphological zones [by esipov (2005)]. locality type of habitat (by groups of dominant trees) position in the landscape dominant plant species size of forest array intensity of resource use over 100 years broadleaved forests vegetation zone moraine-glacial gently undulating plain of the dnieper glaciation kireykovo (kir)* 53.6252 35.8647 broadleaved forests watershed q. robur f. excelsior t. cordata aegopodium podagraria l. allium ursinum l. large low moraine gently sloping plain of the dnieper glaciation with inherited post-quaternary relief bragino (brg) see text for details smalland broadleaved forest big river valley see text for details small high gremyachevo (gr) 54.2373 36.2588 small-leaved forest big river valley alnus glutinosa (l.) urtica dioica l. small high 724 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 721-738. landscape-dependent variability tarusa (tar) 54.7257 37.1989 small-leaved forest big river valley salix sp. alnus incana (l.) moench u. dioica small high trubetskoe (trb) 54.6419 37.1597 broadleaved forests watershed t. cordata a. podagraria carex pilosa small high sivtsevo (siv) 54.6316 37.0491 broadleaved forests watershed t. cordata a. podagraria mercurialis perennis l. small high mixed forests vegetation zone moraine gently undulating plain of the moscow glaciation kaluga, bor (k-br) 54.5436 36.1955 spruce forest watershed picea abietis pinus sylvestris betula pubescens galeobdolon luteum huds. oxalis acetosella l. medium medium kaluga, ovrag mozhayka (k-mz) 54.4876, 36.2402 small-leaved forest small river valley betula pendula p. sylvestris salix sp. á. incána corylus avellana l. small medium flat glacial plain of the moscow glaciation milyatino (mil) 54.4811 34.3551 spruce forest watershed p. abietis a. glutinosa populus tremula l. padus avium c. pilosa geum rivale l. medium medium budnyan-skiy (bud) 54.2749 33.9226 spruce forest watershed p. abietis p. tremula c. avellana c. pilosa g. luteum m. perennis small low * – tables and images below use these letter abbreviations. the locality “bragino” includes three habitats: 1. floodplain of the oka river, willow-gray alder thicket with urtica dioica, 54.4193 36.6749. 2. valley of a small river (first-order tributary of the oka), gray alder-thicket with padus aviummill., 54.4108 36.6678. 3. gully with a stream (tributary of the small river), linden thicket with corylus avellana and carex pilosa scop., 54.4044 36.6702. 725 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum gorbunov et al. map (1): kaluga region, studied localities. research technique: the following morphological traits of the beetles were measured: length and width of the elytra, length and width of the pronotum, head length, and distance between the eyes. a total of 4,252 specimens were measured. after sampling the beetles and determining their species and sex, all individuals were photographed, and their parameters were measured using a custom program written in python 2.7, utilizing the num py and open cv libraries. (mukhametnabiev, 2018). the scheme for measuring the beetles is presented in plate (1). linear discriminant analysis was performed by statistica 10 software. 726 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 721-738. landscape-dependent variability plate (1): illustration of measurements: el – elytra length, ew – elytra width, pl – pronotum length, pw – pronotum width, hl – head length, de – distance between the eyes. 727 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum gorbunov et al. results discriminant analysis by locality according to the results, the populations of c. granulatus are well-discriminated and differ significantly (wilks' lambda: 0.41 approx. f (54.224) = 75.96; p<0.001). the coefficients of classification functions show that the length of the pronotum is the most important trait for discrimination. other characteristics, with the exception of pronotum width, have a smaller and approximately equal contribution. the contribution of pronotum width to discrimination is extremely low. squared mahalanobis distances (tab. 2.) vary from 0.20 to 14.70. the largest distances are observed between the pairs milyatino-sivtsevo (14.70) and milyatino-gremyachevo (12.24). the smallest distances between the values belong to tarusa and bragino (0.20) and tarusatrubetskoy (0.22). table (2): squared mahalanobis distances (locality), p<0.001 kir br gr tar trb siv k-br k-mz mil bud kir br 3.41 gr 4.42 0.53 tar 3.16 0.20 0.68 trb 2.45 0.38 1.22 0.22 siv 5.65 1.52 1.24 1.37 1.53 k-br 2.63 1.29 2.38 1.29 0.74 3.75 kmz 0.58 2.46 2.90 2.37 2.03 5.20 1.80 mil 3.81 9.35 12.24 8.98 8.28 14.70 8.59 5.07 bud 0.31 2.68 3.85 2.55 2.07 4.98 2.62 1.03 3.91 comparison of the mean values of measured traits (diag. 1) shows a high degree of variation depending on the sampling point and significant discreteness. the greatest variation in traits is characteristic of the population from the village of sivtsevo. a smaller length of elytra is typical of the ground beetles from points related to smallleaved forests: gremyachevo, tarusa, bragina, and ovrag mozhayka in kaluga, while a greater length is observed in beetles from broadleaf forests: kireykovo, trubetskoye, and sivtsevo. ground beetles from spruce forests show intermediate values for elytra length. the highest values of elytra length are observed in the village of sivtsevo, and the lowest in gremyachevo. the greatest width of elytra is found in the village of sivtsevo, and the smallest in the village of milyatino. the width of elytra is also somewhat greater in broadleaf forests. the greatest length of the pronotum is observed in the kaluga urban forest, while the smallest is in gremyachevo. overall, the length of the pronotum shows higher values for ground beetles from spruce forests (kaluga urban forest, milyatino, budnyansky), lower 728 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 721-738. landscape-dependent variability values for deciduous forests, and average values for broadleaf forests. the greatest width of the pronotum is recorded in the village of sivtsevo, and the smallest in budnyansky. the length of the head of the ground beetles varies significantly; high values are observed in milyatino, average values in ovrag mozhayka in kaluga, kireykovo, and budnyansky, while other localities have uniformly low values. distance between eyes has the highest values in milyatino and the lowest in sivtsevo. in general, ground beetles from spruce forests are characterized by higher values, while those from small-leaved forests have lower values; the values for ground beetles from broadleaf forests vary significantly. ground beetles from certain localities show distinct differences. for example, ground beetles from the black alder swamp near gremyachevo have low values for both elytra and pronotum lengths, while those from the linden forest near sivtsevo are larger, show greater variation in trait sizes, and have low values for head length and distance between the eyes. ground beetles from the spruce forest near milyatino are characterized by a narrower body and greater values for head length and distance between eyes. discriminant analysis of the beetles from different habitats of the locality “bragino” “bragino” locality is represented by three types of habitats with different vegetation types: willow-gray alder, black alder and linden. analysis shows significant (f (12.11) = 23.13; p<0.001) and moderate discrimination (wilks' lambda: 0.64). the width of the elytra and pronotum does not make a significant contribution. classification function coefficients show equally strong influence on discrimination by pronotum length and distance between the eyes. the greatest mahalanobis distance (tab. 3) is observed between the linden and black alder forests (smalland broadleaved), while the smallest distance is between the willow and black alder forests (both small-leaved). table (3): squared mahalanobis distances (habitats in the locality bragino), p<0.001. willow black alder linden willow black alder 0.89 linden 1.67 2.01 729 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum gorbunov et al. diagram (1): compared mean values of the measured traits of the beetle c. granulatus from different localities, boxes – mean error, whiskers – 1.96 mean error. the comparison of mean values (diag. 2) shows that beetles from the linden forest are smaller in all traits except head length, while beetles from the willow and black alder forests have similar mean values for these traits. beetles from the black alder stand exhibit greater head length, while the head length of beetles from the linden and willow forests is approximately equal. diagram (2): compared mean values of the measured traits of the beetle carabus granulatus from different habitats of the locality bragino; 1 – willow-gray alder, 2 – black alder, 3 – linden. boxes – mean error, whiskers – 1.96 mean error. 730 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 721-738. landscape-dependent variability discriminant analysis by habitat type the results of the discriminant analysis by habitat type (tab. 4) show weak (wilks' lambda= 0.81), but statistically significant (f (12.85) = 78.05; p < 0.001) differences among the beetles. the coefficients of the classification functions indicate that the parameters with the greatest significance for discrimination are the length of the pronotum, as well as the length and width of the elytra. squared mahalanobis distances are small but statistically significant (tab. 3.). the maximum distance is observed between the morphometric parameters of ground beetles from spruce forest and small-leaved forest habitats (1.32), while the minimum distance (0.13) is found between beetles from the deciduous and broadleaf forests. table (4): squared mahalanobis distances (habitat type), p<0.001 broad-leaved forest small-leaved forest spruce forest broad-leaved forest small-leaved forest 0.13 spruce forest 0.97 1.33 discriminant analysis by geomorphological units the results show significant and moderate differences between beetles from studied zones (wilks' lambda= 0.55, f (18.12) = 153.46, p<0.001). all traits make a statistically significant contribution to discrimination. according to coefficients of the classification functions, pronotum length has the highest discriminative value; other traits contribute to a lesser importance, while the contribution of pronotum width is very minimal. squared mahalanobis distances (tab. 4.) indicate the greatest differences between the moraine gently sloping plain of the dnieper glaciation with inherited post-quaternary relief and the flat glacial plain of the moscow glaciation. the smallest distance is observed between the moraine gently sloping plain of the dnieper glaciation with inherited post-quaternary relief and the moraine gently undulating plain of the moscow glaciation. table (4): squared mahalanobis distances (geomorphological units), p<0,001. i – moraineglacial gently undulating plain of the dnieper glaciation, ii – moraine gently sloping plain of the dnieper glaciation with inherited post-quaternary relief, iii – moraine gently undulating plain of the moscow glaciation, iv – flat glacial plain of the moscow glaciation. zones i ii iii iv i ii 2.85 iii 1.50 1.06 iv 1.39 5.17 3.73 it can be seen (diag. 3) that kireykovo (region i, broadleaved forest) is closer to region iv (spruce forest) and region iii (spruce and small-leaved forests), than to region ii (broadleaved forest as well). regions ii and iii are quite similar despite belonging to different vegetation 731 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum gorbunov et al. zones, but their geographic coordinates are close. root 1 is mostly regulated by head length and distance between the eyes; while root 2 is shaped by length and width of the elytra, as well as pronotum length. diagram (3): ordination of morphometric features in different geomorphological units in the plane of two discriminant axes. comparing mahalanobis distances showed in diag. (4) denotes the strongest diversification at the localities level; most of the distances fall within the range observed for the geomorphological units. mahalonobis distances for the habitat type are the smallest, and in some cases, even smaller than the distances between spatially close populations within the bragino locality. diagram (4): compared squared mahalanobis distances between traits’ measures of the c. granulatus depending on the grouping variable for the discriminant analysis. 732 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 721-738. landscape-dependent variability discussion the fact that discrimination of c. granulatus by measured traits is always reliable means that beetles have specific, significant differences in their morphology under various conditions. although these differences are small and partly overlap with phenotypic variability, they are still consistent. discrimination by habitat type based on dominant trees appeared to be very weak, while geographical units as a grouping variable showed much better discrimination. this likely means that the differences in populations of ground beetles are more significantly influenced by historical aspects of microevolutionary changes caused by mechanisms such as genetic drift and the founder effect, followed by post-glacial changes rather than by short-term phenotypic adaptation to different habitats. dominant trees themselves have an indirect and limited effect on the beetle, as it is a generalist predator that requires prey, some shade, humidity, and cover in the form of grass or litter. even on single locality level, discrimination based on dominant vegetation shows greater differences between populations than discrimination based on habitat type, which means that specific ecological features (microclimate, level of competition, position in landscape etc.) of each distinct ecosystem affect the morphometric traits more than average differences between habitat types. coefficients of classification functions revealed that for both geomorphological and locality predictors, pronotum length has major significance, while pronotum width has very low contribution. this suggests that discrimination by locality type largely inherits the geomorphological patterns. overall, at the provincial level, pronotum length has the greatest impact on discriminating beetles specimens. the shape of the pronotum is considered to be related to habitat usage and locomotion (thiele, 1977); it influences forelimb mobility and the way beetles move through their environment (talarico et al., 2007; laparie et al., 2013; jachertz et al., 2019). this is confirmed for different habitat types, where both pronotum length and width play relatively important roles in discrimination. nevertheless, the low influence of pronotum width for locality and geomorphological grouping variables suggests that it reflects conservative, microevolutionary-based differences or functions as a proxy for body size, as elytra length does (kaspari and weiser, 1999). overall, higher wilks’ lambda values for the discrimination by locality suggest that, at the locality level, various environmental and phylogenetic factors combine and provide more pronounced differences in morphological traits. differences between populations from the locality bragino are driven by distance between the eyes as well as pronotum length. it is known, that head width and the positioning of the eyes are correlated with predation behavior and lighting level (bauer and kredler, 1993; bauer et al., 1998; talarico et al., 2007). for the habitat-type level, beetles from spruce forests express higher distance between eyes than those from light small-leaved forests. 733 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum gorbunov et al. in terms of the morphometric structure of populations, the central position is occupied by the population from kireykovo, located in a minimally disturbed area of broadleaf forests on a watershed, which can be considered a reference for the broadleaf forest zone. the population from budnyansky, which belongs to the coniferous-broadleaf forest zone and is situated within a raised bog, is the closest to it. formally, it is represented by a spruce forest, which, however, is very rich in broadleaved forest inhabitants (aleksanov et al., 2024a), characteristic of morainic islands. it is interesting to note that despite the reduced abundance of beetles (aleksanov et al., 2024b); a balanced morphometric structure has been preserved here. another group is formed by populations in the eastern part of the kaluga region (broadleaf forest zone), associated with the oka river valley (bragino, gremyachevo, tarusa), to which a watershed locality (trubetskoye) is added. beetles in these localities are smaller in most traits (or lengths). on one hand, this can be explained by the poverty of infertility sediments with a high sand content, which are poor both in terms of moisture and mineral nutrients (compared to morainic deposits). the lower favorability of such habitats for beetles may result from poorer shelter quality (less deadwood for wintering, less dense herbaceous cover) as well as a poorer food base (fewer mollusks, earthworms). on the other hand, a no less important factor could be the prolonged economic use of the forests (agricultural, park, forestry, recreational), leading to their fragmentation and degradation of the soil cover. the negative reaction of the species to recreational load has been demonstrated for this region (sionova, alekseev, 2024). a special case is the park in the village of sivtsevo, where the beetles are on average the largest, which can be explained by the favorable herbaceous cover, but the variability is very high. overall, all fragmented forests in the eastern part of the kaluga region differ significantly from each other in individual morphometric traits. this may be related to selection for specific habitat conditions, but it is more likely a consequence of the small number of individuals that colonized these habitats (likely resulting in reduced genetic diversity). the forests of kaluga occupy an intermediate position between wild, quasi-climax forests and economically disturbed forests in terms of morphometric structure. they are smaller, but maintain the morphological proportions of beetles from quasi-climax forests. despite being within the boundaries of a present-day city, they have remained forests for a long time, with moderate anthropogenic impact. compared to broadleaf forests, they are less fertile—both climatically and in terms of soil-forming rocks. at the opposite end of the virtual morphometric space is the wet spruce forest in the western part of the kaluga region (milyatino), it is wet, with moderate disturbance (apparently, it began to overgrow after world war ii), but the glacial sediments from the moscow glaciation are less fertile than those in kireykovo. 734 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 721-738. landscape-dependent variability at the locality level, the linden forest in the ravine is harsher because it is a dry, young forest with hairy sedge, where beetles show reasonably smaller morphometric traits. conclusions the study showed that c. granulatus beetles classified by various grouping factors have significant but relatively weak differences in their morphological traits. pronotum length is a key trait for distinguishing populations, while pronotum width has low significance. morphological differences in populations of c. granulatus are primarily influenced by historical microevolutionary processes, such as genetic drift, rather than being solely the result of phenotypic adaptation to habitats. differences between beetles from various ecosystems depend on local ecological factors, such as microclimate, rather than just habitat type. at both spatial levels, similarity in morphometric structure does not directly correlate with geographic distance. between points on the ground. populations from the eastern part of the kaluga region are smaller, which may be related to poor soil quality and intensive use of forests. fragmented forests exhibit significant differences in morphometric traits, likely due to the small number of colonizing individuals. overall, the results highlight the importance of considering phylogenetic and ecological factors when studying morphological differences. aknowledgements we would like to thank s.k. alekseev, m.p. shashkov, m.i. garkunov, d.v. khvaletsky, s.e. carpukhin and v.v. perov for the help with sampling carabid beetles. conflict of interest statement this study is funded by the state task theme 730000p.16.1.oh17aa106000 “biological diversity of eastern europe under the influence of natural and climatic factors in historical and modern contexts”. litereature cited aleksanov, v. v., alekseev, s. k., ruchin, a. b. and esin, m. n. 2024 a. carabid beetles under the influence of megafires in pine and secondary forests of central european russia. diversity, 16(7): 370. [crossref] aleksanov, v. v., alekseev, s. k., garkunov, m. i., karpukhin, s. e., prokhorova, n. e., perov, v. v., teleganova, v. v., khvaletsky, d. v. and shmytov, a. a. 2024 b. specifics of living organisms in bolshoe naryshkinskoe bog in kaluga region. in: inventory and monitoring of biodiversity in the kaluga region, series "cadastral and monitoring studies of biological diversity in the kaluga region, 16. eidos pub., kaluga, p. 4-61. [in russian]. bauer, t. and kredler, m. 1993. morphology of the compound eyes as an indicator of lifestyle in carabid beetles. canadian journal of zoology. 71(4): 799-810. [crossref] https://doi.org/10.3390/d16070370 https://doi.org/10.1139/z93-105 735 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum gorbunov et al. bauer, t., desender, k., morwinsky, t. and betz, o. 1998. eye morphology reflects habitat demands in three closely related ground beetle species (coleoptera: carabidae). journal of zoology, 245(4): 467-472. 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[in russian] luzyanin, s. l. 2023. species composition and ecological structure of ground beetle communities (coleoptera, carabidae) in reclaimed rock dumps in the south of western siberia. ecologica montenegrina, 65: 86-103. [crossref] https://doi.org/10.1017/s0952836998008103 https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/data/biogeographical-regions-europe-3 https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470999691.ch7 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2019.03.042 https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2435.1999.00343.x http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.113819 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-012-0403-x https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2435.2002.00664.x https://doi.org/10.37828/em.2023.65.11 736 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 721-738. landscape-dependent variability mukhametnabiev, t. 2018. manual carabid morphometric measurement for method by sukhodolskaya. [click here] newman, m. c. 1995. quantitative methods in aquatic ecotoxicology. lewis publishers ltd., new-york, 448 pp. peiman, k. s. and robinson, b. w. 2017. comparative analyses of phenotypic trait covariation within and among populations. the american naturalist, 190(4): 451-468. [crossref] sionova, m. n. and alekseev, s. k. 2024. changes in biodiversity of the supertribe carabitae (coleoptera: carabidae) in broadleved and pine forests of kaluga region influenced with recreation. in: inventory and monitoring of biodiversity in the kaluga region, series "cadastral and monitoring studies of biological diversity in the kaluga region, 16. eidos pub., kaluga, p. 92-102. [in russian] staton, j. l., schizas, n. v., chandler, g. t., coull, b. c., and quattro, j. m. 2001. ecotoxicology and population genetics: the emergence of phylogeographic and evolutionary ecotoxicology. ecotoxicology, 10: 217-222. [crossref] ] stearns, s. c. 1998. the evolution of life histories. oxford university press, oxford, 262 pp. sukhodolaskaya, r. a., saveliev, a. a. and shamaev, d. e. 2017. the influence of environmental factors on the size variability of the beetle poecilus cupreus l. (coleoptera, carabidae). principles of the ecology, 3(24): 118-131. [in russian] [crossref] talarico, f., romeo, m., massolo, a., brandmayr, p. and zetto, t. 2007. morphometry and eye morphology in three species of carabus (coleoptera: carabidae) in relation to habitat demands. journal of zoological systematics and evolutionary research, 45: 33-38. [crossref] thiele, h.-u.1977. dispersal and dispersal power of carabid beetles. in: carabid beetles in their environments. zoophysiology and ecology, vol 10. springer, berlin, heidelberg, p. 248-297. [crossref] turin, h., kotze, d. j., müller-kroehling, s., saska, p., spence, j. and heijerman, t. 2023. ecology and conservation of the dutch ground beetle fauna: lessons from 66 years of pitfall trapping. wageningen academic publishers, wageningen, the netherlands, 452 pp. [crossref] https://github.com/timmkh/-manual-carabid-morphometric-measurement-for-method-by-sukhodolskayahttps://doi.org/10.1086/693482 https://doi.org/10.1086/693482 http://dx.doi.org/10.15393/j1.art.2017.5382 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1439-0469.2006.00394.x https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-81154-8_9 https://doi.org/10.3920/978-90-8686-921-3 737 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum gorbunov et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2025) 18 (3): 721-738. carabus granulatus l., 1758 للنوع البيئية االنماط الرتبط التغايرالورفومتري (coleoptera, carabidae) بيردنيك*، سيرجي ريفغاتشاجيدولين*، ألكسانوف**، فيكتور غوربونوف*، رومان سوخودولسكايا* ورايسا و التحاد للعلوم، تتارستان لكاديمية التابع العدنية الثروة واستخدام البيئة مشاكل *معهد قازان. ،420087 اللووسي، بوريسوفكا. قلية ،309342 اللووسي، التحاد الحكومية، الطبيعية بيلوجوريي **محمية ،248000 اللووسي، التحاد الحدائق"، "مديلية كالوغا لنطقة الحكومية اليزانية ***مؤسسة كالوغا. قازان. ،420012 اللووسي، التحاد الحكومية، الطبية قازان ****جامعة قلية ،422623 اللووسي، التحاد الطبيعي، الحيوي للمحيط الحكومية فولغا-كاما *****محمية سادوفي. 2025/6/20 النشر: ،2025/5/29 القبول: ،2025/5/24 2025/2/28،الراجعة: استتلم: اخالصة جماعـــــــــــات فــــي الشكلي التغايل مظاهل استقصاء إلى الدراســــــــــــــــــــــة هــــــــــــــذه هدفت ضمن النتشلة carabidae عائلة و coleoptera رتبة من carabus granulatus l., 1758 على الورفولوجي التكيف ديناميات فهم إطار في وذلك كالوغا، إقليم في متباينة بيئات فلوق عن الكشف إلى التغيرات متعدد التمييزي التحليل أففسى وقد الحلي. الستوى أن ن تبيي حيث الدروسة، الجماعات بين دقيقة، كانت وإن إحصائية، دللة ذات شكلية بينها. ا تمييزز الكثر السمة عد يي )البرونوتوم( المامي الصدر طول التكيف إلى الول القام في عزى يي ل الورفومتري التغايل أن النتائج أظهلت لقد التي الدقيقة التطورية بالعمليات بعيد حدي إلى يلتبط بل الوئل، نوع مع الباشل الفينوتيبي البيئية العوامل أن العطيات نت بيي كما الحلية. للسالت اليكلوتطوري التاريخ عبر نشأت 738 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 721-738. landscape-dependent variability أكثر ا تأثيرز تمتلك الوارد، وفلة وتفاوت الحلي الناخ في الدقيقة كالتغيرات الوضعية، عام. نحوو على بتصنيفالوائل ز مقارنة الشكلية السمات تشكيل في فاعلية القليم شلق في الواقعة الجماعات سمت ي ات فقد الجغلافي، التوزيع حيث من أما الحلاجي الستغال عن الناتج الضغط إلى يعود ذلك أن ح ّي ويل الكلي، الحجم بانخفاضفي ا تمايزز أظهلت الجزأة الغابات في القاطنة الجماعات أن الدراسة كشفت كما ف. ي الكّ جماعات تأسيس عن الناتج الؤسس” “تأثير عن ناجم أنه حتمل يي ا، واضحز ا مورفومتريز الفلاد. من محدود عدد من جديدة bull 765 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2025) 18 (3): 765-776. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2025.18.3.0765 original article new record of two euryhaliotrema kritsky & boeger, 2002 species (monogenoidea, dactylogyridae) from lutjanid fishes from marine coast off iraq ali a. r. al-darwesh*, atheer h. ali** and israa s. abd al-ameer*** *department of pathology and poultry diseases, faculty of veterinary medicine, university of kufa, al-najaf al-ashraf, iraq. **department of fisheries and marine resources, college of agriculture, university of basrah, basrah, iraq. ***department of physiology, pharmacology and biochemistry, faculty of veterinary medicine, university of kufa, al-najaf al-ashraf, iraq. corresponding author: alia.radeef@uokufa.edu.iq received: 7 april 2025, revised: 26 may 2025, accepted: 4 june 2025, published:20 june 2025 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract the snappers (lutjanid fish) are an important food source for the iraqi people. three species of lutjanid fishesthe blackspot snapper lutjanus ehrenbergii (peters, 1869), dory snapper l. fulviflamma (forsskål, 1775) and l. indicus allen, white & erdmann, 2013 were caught from iraqi marine waters in the arabian gulf during 2024. the blackspot snapper l. ehrenbergii and the dory snapper l. fulviflamma were found to be infested with both euryhaliotrema adelpha kritsky & justine in kritsky, 2012 (reported here as a new host) and e. spirotubiforum (zhang, 2001) wu, zhu, xie & li, 2006. l. indicus was infested only with e. spirotubiforum which is reported here for the first time from this host species and this geographical area (the arabian gulf). illustrations of wholemount specimens are given for e. adelpha for the first time. this investigation represents the first report of monogenoids from lutjanid fishes in iraq. keywords: arabian gulf, ectoparasite, fish, gills, iraq, snappers. introduction the arabian gulf environment is unique due to its harsh ecological conditions, such as extreme temperatures (ranging between 12 c and 36 c), shallow depth (average 35 meters), and salinity reaching 45 ppt. these conditions encourage the study of fish diversity in this region (taghavimotlagh et al., 2024). lutjanidae includes some of the most economically important demersal fishes in the middle east; the blackspot snapper lutjanus ehrenbergii (peters, 1869), dory snapper l. fulviflamma (forsskål, 1775) and l. indicus allen, white & erdmann, 2013 are three indopacific species, which have significant economic and ecological relevance in the red sea, bulletin of the iraq natural historymuseum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799, print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2025.18.3.0765 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0658-564x https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2541-968x mailto:alia.radeef@uokufa.edu.iq https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 766 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 765-776. new record of two euryhaliotrema arabian sea, and arabian gulf region (kuiter and tonozuka, 2001; allen et al., 2013). however, knowledge of these species in the arabian gulf region remains limited. in iraq, lutjanidae is represented by five genera and 16 species (ali et al., 2018; al-faisal and mutlak, 2018). the blackspot snapper is a general carnivore, feeding on benthic invertebrates (e.g. amphipods, isopods) and small fish (randall, 1995, d’agostino et al., 2020). the dory snapper feeds chiefly on fishes, crabs, shrimps, and other crustaceans (froese and pauly, 2025). lutjanus indicus allen, white & erdmann 2013 is found in coral-reef habitats, usually occurring alone or in small groups of about 5-15 m depth. this species is often confused with l. russelli (bleeker 1849) in the populations are distributed in the western indian ocean (allen et al., 2013; froese and pauly, 2025), including the arabian gulf (ali, 2016). over nearly half a century of parasitological studies in iraq (1969-2017), only 21 monogenean parasite species were recorded from marine fishes in iraq (mhaisen et al., 2018). subsequently, 28 additional species, belonging to two familiesdactylogyridae (12 species) and diplectanidae (16 species) were reported (al-darwesh et al., 2022a, b; al-darwesh, 2023; al-darwesh et al., 2025). furthermore, two more species, including a new platycephalotrema species (dactylogyridae) and a new combination species (diplectanidae) were described by kritsky et al. (2024). due to the absence of previous studies on monogenoid parasites of lutjanidae in iraq, this study was conducted by collecting fresh specimens of lutjanid fishes and properly fixing their parasites to get additional information on the biodiversity of monogenoids infecting lutjanid fishes in iraq and parts of the arabian gulf. materials and methods a total of 142 specimens of snappers, including 47 blackspot snapper lutjanus ehrenbergii (peters, 1869), 21 dory snapper l. fulviflamma (forsskål, 1775) and 74 l. indicus allen, white & erdmann 2013 were obtained by fishermen utilizing trawl nets from the marine waters of iraq within the coordinates 29°53ʼ-29°85ʼn and 48°13-48°40ʼe, during january, february, april and august-december 2024 for helminthological observation. detailed procedures related to specimen transport, fixation (hot 5% formalin), clearing of sclerotized structures of some parasite specimens (gray and wess medium), or staining (gomori's trichrome), mounting and of drawing helminths (camera lucida) were clarified in detail (kritsky et al., 2024). the term” minimum prevalence” is used by kritsky et al. (2013). all measurements are reported in micrometres, with the mean values presented in parentheses. host taxonomy was aligned with the classifications provided by carpenter et al. (1997) and subsequently verified by fricke et al. (2025). 767 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-darwesh et al. results and discussion family, dactylogyridae bychowsky, 1933 genus, euryhaliotrema kritsky & boeger, 2002 euryhaliotrema adelpha kritsky & justine, 2012 host: blackspot snapper, lutjanus ehrenbergii (peters, 1869) and dory snapper l. fulviflamma (forsskål, 1775). locality and date of collection: arabian gulf off southern iraq (29°53ʼ-29°85ʼn, 48°1348°40ʼe), october and december 2024. prevalence: 17% (8 infested from 47 examined) and 4.8 % (1 infested from 21 examined). site of infestation: gills. voucher deposition: iraq natural history research center and museum, inhm trc 98, inhm trc 101, inhm trc 107, inhm trc 108, inhm trc 116. specimens studied: 13 (8 stained and 5 in gray and wess). description: body fusiform in shape, 368 (290-420±59, n=9) in length (fig.1a), with broadest width 68 (56-85±10, n=9) at the level of testis. tegument smooth. cephalic region characterized by a broad structure with moderately developed cephalic lobes. two pairs of eyespots, with the posterior pair larger than the anterior pair and in closer proximity compared to those of the anterior pair. pharynx subspherical 23 (18-25±3, n=5) in width. peduncle broad, showing no significant taper toward posterior end; haptor subhexagonal and exhibiting bilateral lobes, 65 (54-75±7, n=8) in width. both anchors exhibit a similar morphology; each anchor has a poorly recognized deep root, an elongate and slightly low superficial deep root, gently curved shaft, and a point that extends beyond the tip of the superficial root. the shaft and point of the anchor are continuous in structure, ventral anchors (fig. 1b) 34 (33-35±1, n=14) in length and dorsal anchors (fig. 1c) 34 (33-35±1, n=16) in length. ventral bar (fig. 1d) is an undulant rod with protruding ends directed posterolaterally, 36 (30-38±3, n=10) in length. the dorsal bar delicate and v-shaped (fig. 1e), 34 (32-35±1, n=10) in length. hook (fig. 1f) has a regular shank with a standing, intense thumb; 11 (10-12±1, n=26). mco (fig. 1g) has a cone-like basal morphology and a loosely coiled shaft with a single, finely formed counterclockwise ring, without accessory piece, 31 (28-36±3, n=9) in length. testis elongated ovate 73 (50-88±14, n=7) in length and 35 (25-40±6, n=7) in width. ovary subglobular to cylindrical 48 (30-57±10, n=6) in length and 33 (25-36±5, n=6) in width. prostate reservoir consists of two parts: an oval-shaped part located to the right of mco, and a spherical part situated posterior to the mco. the seminal vesicle spherical and situated posterior to the mco, to the right of the prostate reservoir. vitellaria dense, extending from the posterior end of the pharynx, through the intercaecal area to just posterior of the cyclocoel. egg not observed. euryhaliotrema adelpha was originally described from the five-lined snapper lutjanus quinquelineatus (bloch, 1790), in new caledonia by kritsky (2012). this description did not include an illustration of the whole specimen. according to kritsky (2019, 2023), e. adelpha belongs to a group of species that lack an accessory piece in the mco. this group includes two euryhaliotrema species from chaetodontid fishes: euryhaliotrema cribbi (plaisance & kritsky, 2004) and e. monoporosum (pan & zhang, 2000); six species from lutjanid fishes: e. 768 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 765-776. new record of two euryhaliotrema adelpha kritsky & justine, 2012, e. nanaoense (li, yan, lan & huang, 2005), e. paululum kritsky & justine, 2012, e. russellum sun & yang, 2015; e. spirotubiforum (zhang, 2001) wu, zhu, xie & li, 2006, and euryhaliotrema youngi kritsky, 2012; one euryhaliotrema species from a monodactylid: e. solenophallus kritsky, 2019; and two euryhaliotrema species from sparid fishes: euryhaliotrema kurodai (ogawa & egusa, 1978) and e. spariense (roubal, 1981). within euryhaliotrema species infested lutjanid fishes, euryhaliotrema adelpha differs from e. nanaoense by being short having a single coil in the mco shaft, in contrast to the long and straight shaft of mco and by variation in the shape of the anchors between the two species. e. adelpha and e. paululum have similar bars, anchors and mco, but the postmedial process on the dorsal bar is present only in e. paululum. euryhaliotrema russellum differs from e. adelpha by possessing a straight mco shaft, whereas e. adelpha has a coiled shaft. e. adelpha has less robust dorsal and ventral anchors than in e. spirotubiforum; the distal end of the shaft in e. spirotubiforum comprises a complete coil, which is absent in e. adelpha. euryhaliotrema youngi differs from e. adelpha in that the mco shaft comprises a wide coil with more than one ring. the present specimens of e. adelpha collected from l. ehrenbergii (peters, 1869) in iraq are identical to those from l. quinquelineatus (bloch, 1790) in new caledonia, but our specimens have larger soft tissues (tab. 1). 769 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-darwesh et al. figure (1): euryhaliotrema adelpha; (a) entire-ventral view, (b) ventral anchor, (c) dorsal anchor, (d) ventral bar, (e) dorsal bar, (f) hook, (g) mco. [abbreviations: c: caecum, cg: cephalic glands, es: eyespot, hf: hold fast, ho: head organ, mco: male copulatory organ, o: ovary, p: pharynx, pr: prostatic reservoirs, sv: seminal vesicle, t: testis]. 770 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 765-776. new record of two euryhaliotrema table (1): comparison of the morphological characters of euryhaliotrema adelpha recorded in the present study with the original description by kritsky (2012). the character present study l. ehrenbergii n=11 present study l. fulviflamma n=2 kritsky (2012) l. quinquelineatus body length 384 (300-420±50, n=7) 290, n=1 167-245 body width 71 (63-85±9, n=7) 56, n=1 39-61 haptor width 68 (63-75±5, n=7) 54, n=1 38-58 pharynx width 23 (20-25±2, n=5) 18, n=1 13-20 ventral anchor length 34 (33-35±1, n=12) 34, n=2 34-39 dorsal anchor length 34 (33-35±1, n=14) 34, n=2 31-35 ventral bar length 36 (30-38±3, n=10) 30, n=1 38-45 dorsal bar length 34 (32-35±1, n=10) 33, n=1 36-46 hook length 11 (10-12±1, n=26) 11, n=1 11-14 mco length 32 (30-36±3, n=7) 28-30, n=2 26-41 testis length 78 (70-88±8, n=6) 50, n=1 27-42 testis width 37 (35-40±2, n=6) 25, n=1 11-24 germarium length 52 (50-57±3, n=5) 30, n=1 21-29 germarium width 35 (32-36±2, n=5) 25, n=1 12-20 euryhaliotrema spirotubiforum (zhang, 2001) wu, zhu, xie & li, 2006 host: blackspot snapper l. ehrenbergii (peters, 1869), l. indicus allen, white & erdmann 2013 and dory snapper l. fulviflamma (forsskål, 1775). locality and date of collection: arabian gulf off southern iraq (29°53ʼ-29°85ʼn, 48°1348°40ʼe), l. indicus allen, white & erdmann 2013 in february 2024, l. ehrenbergii (peters, 1869) in october and december 2024 and l. fulviflamma (forsskål, 1775) in december 2024. prevalence: 17% (5 infested from 47 examined), 2.7% (2 from 74 examined) and 14.3% (3 from 21 examined). site of infestation: gills. voucher deposition: iraq natural history research center and museum, inhm trc 94, inhm trc 95, inhm trc 97, inhm trc 98, inhm trc 99, inhm trc 106, inhm trc 110, inhm trc 111. specimens studied: 14 (4 stained; 1 smash-stained, 9 in gray and wess). description: body fusiform 380 (270-440±87, n=4) in length, with a maximum width of 63 (60-65±3, n=4) typically at midlength of the trunk or at level of the testis. tegument smooth. cephalic end narrow, with cephalic lobes ranging from poorly to moderately develop. two pairs of eyespots: the posterior pair, is larger and closer together than the anterior one, which is tiny. pharynx subspherical 23 (20-25±3, n=4) in diameter. peduncle wide, short, reducing toward haptor; haptor globular 64 (57-65±1, n=3) in width. ventral anchor 34 (30-35±1, n=24) long (fig. 2a) and dorsal anchors 32 (30-35±1, n=24) long (fig. 2b), similar in shape; each featuring a moderately elongated superficial root, a knob-like deep root, a short shaft, and an extended point surpassing the tip of the superficial root. ventral bar 35 (25-40±5, n=11) in length (fig. 2c), rod-shaped and slightly arched; dorsal bar 35 (30-42±4, n=11) in length (fig. 2d), u or v shaped, with ends directed laterally. hook 11 (10-12±1, n=33) long (fig. 2h), with a uniform shank and upright acute thumb. mco consists of a fragile, curving tube originating from a swollen base 27 (20-35±4, n=9) in length, with the coil forming a counterclockwise loop, 8 (6-10±2, n=3) in mco – ring diameter (fig. 2f). no accessory 771 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-darwesh et al. piece is present. testis ovate, 71 (50-75±5, n=4) long and 31 (28-32±2, n=4) wide; seminal vesicle globular, posteriorolateral to the base of mco; prostatic reservoir small, at the right base of the mco. germarium pyriform, 52 (40-54±2, n=4) long and 27 (25-32±2, n=4) wide; uterus not observed. vaginal pore dextromarginal. vitellaria dense, extending from the posterior end of the through, the intercaecal area to slightly posterior of the cyclocoel. egg not observed. e. spirotubiforum was initially described as haliotrema spirotubiforum by zhang (2001) from lutjanus russellii (bleeker, 1849) based on the mco and the absence of an accessory piece, off china; wu et al. (2006) transferred the species to euryhaliotrema, citing the lack of an accessory piece in the mco of lutjanids with molecular analysis. wu et al. (2007) situated this species beside haliotrema kurodai [= euryhaliotrema kurodai (ogawa & egusa, 1978)] and haliotrema anguiformis [=euryhaliotrema anguiforme (zhang in zhang, yang & liu, 2001)], in aliatrema plaisance & kritsky, 2004, based on the absence of the accessory piece in the mco. according to kritsky (2012), the genus aliatrema is proposed to be a synonym of euryhaliotrema. kritsky (2012) redescribed the species from nine species of lutjanus species across the indo-pacific; then kritsky (2019) added l. fulviflamma (forsskål, 1775) and l. russellii (bleeker, 1849) as new hosts from australia. euryhaliotrema spirotubiforum belongs to a group that contains ten euryhaliotrema species which lack an accessory piece in the mco. these species are described from lutjanids (6 species), sparids (1species), chaetodontids (2 species), and monodactylid (1 species). e. nanaoense, e. russellum, e. monoporosum and e. kurodai differ from h. spirotubiforum by possessing a straight or simple mco shaft. (coiled shaft of mco in h. spirotubiforum). the group containing h. spirotubiforum differs from e. youngi by the mco ring diameter (small in the distal end of the shaft vs large and near the basal; h. spirotubiforum differs from e. paululum by the absence of a posteromedial process on the dorsal bar; h. spirotubiforum differs from e. solenophallus by the shape of the ventral and dorsal bars (the bars is dissimilar vs the bars is v-shaped and similar); e. spirotubiforum has more robust anchors than e. adelpha; the distal end of the mcos shaft comprises a complete coil in e. spirotubiforum, which is absent in e. adelpha. h. spirotubiforum is similar to e. cribbi in most hard parts, except in mco (curved proximal part of the shaft and well-developed distal coil part of the shaft, while in e. cribbi, the proximal ring is large and the distal ring small. the occurrence of e. spirotubiforum on l. indicus allen, white & erdmann, 2013 in the arabian gulf represents a new geographical record for the helminth. the present e. spirotubiforum collected from l. ehrenbergii (peters, 1869) and l. indicus in iraq are identical with the species from l. quinquelineatus (bloch, 1790) in new caledonia, but our specimens have larger soft tissues (tab. 2). 772 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 765-776. new record of two euryhaliotrema figure (2): euryhaliotrema spirotubiforum; (a) ventral anchor, (b) dorsal anchor, (c) ventral bar, (d) dorsal bar, (e) hook, (f) mco. table (2): comparison of the morphological characters of euryhaliotrema spirotubiforum recorded in the present study with the redescription by kritsky (2012). the character l. ehrenbergii present study n=6 l. indicus present study n=2 l. fulviflamma present study n=6 kritsky (2012) l. vitta, l. fulviflamma, l. ehrenbergii, l. quinquelineatus body length 380 (280-440±87, n=3) 270, n=1 263 (207–294; n = 10) body width 63 (60-65±3, n=3) 63, n=1 67 (46–78; n = 11) haptor width 64 (63-65±1, n=2) 57, n=1 61 (54–70; n = 12) pharynx width 23 (20-25±3, n=3) 20, n=1 19 (16–22; n = 12) 773 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-darwesh et al. ventral anchor length 34 (32-35±1, n=10) 30 (3030±0, n=4) 32 (31-34±1, n=10) 31–40 dorsal anchor length 33 (32-35±1, n=10) 30 (3030±0, n=4) 30 (30-32±1, n=10) 33-44 ventral bar length 38 (33-40±3, n=4) 37 (3538±2, n=2) 32 (25-35±4, n=5) 36-45 dorsal bar length 39 (34-42±3, n=4) 35(35-35±0, n=2) 32 (30-34±2, n=5) 33-44 hook length 11 (11-12±1, n=13) 11(10-12±1, n=10) 12 (11-12±1, n=11) 12-15 mco – ring diameter 8 (6-10±2, n=2) 5, n=2 7 (6-8±1, n=4) 10-16 testis length 71 (65-75±5, n=3) 50, n=1 44 (33–54; n = 11) testis width 31(28-32±2, n=3) 30, n=1 25 (17–32; n = 11) germarium length 52(50-54±2, n=3) 40, n=1 32 (22–43; n = 7) germarium width 27(25-28±2, n=3) 32, n=1 18 (12–22; n = 8) conclusions the current investigation addeds a new dactylogyrid monogenoids to the parasite fauna of lutjanidae fishes in iraq, taking previous parasite records into consideration, lutjanidae fishes harbours are now known to harbor six parasite species, which include two of each monogenoids, nematodes and crustaceans. conflict of interest statement " the authors affirm that there is no conflict related to this work ". literature cited al-darwesh, a. a. r. 2023. [morphological study of some monogenoidea parasitic on gills of some iraqi marine fishes with a genetic study of the genus platycephalotrema]. ph. d. thesis, college of agriculture, university of basrah, 224pp. (in arabic). al-darwesh, a. a. r., ali, a. h. and saud, h. a. 2022a. first record of two diplectanid monogenoids from three sparid fishes in iraqi marine waters. bulletin of the iraqi natural history museum, 17(2): 203-218. [crossref] al-darwesh, a. a. r., ali, a. h. and saud, h. a. 2022b. first record of calydiscoides difficilis (yamaguti, 1953) young, 1969 (monogenoidea, polyonchoinea, diplectaniade) on gills of three fish species off marine waters of iraq. basrah journal of agricultural sciences, 35: 281-290. [crossref] al-darwesh, a. a. r., ali, a. h. and saud, h. a. 2025. first record of three dactylogyrid monogenoides from gills of shoemaker spinefoot siganus sutor (valenciennes) https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.%202022.17.2.0203 https://doi.org/10.37077/25200%20860.2022.35.2.21 774 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 765-776. new record of two euryhaliotrema (acanthuriformes: siganidae) in marine waters of iraq. basrah .journal of agricultural sciences, 38(special issue). (in press) ali, a. h. 2016. first record of lutjanus indicus allen, white & erdmann, 2013 (pisces: lutjanidae) from marine water off iraq. basrah journal of agriculture sciences, 29(1): 25. ali, a. h., adday t. k. and khamees, n. r. 2018. catalogue of marine fishes of iraq. biological and applied environmental research, 2(2): 298-368. [click here] al-faisal, a. j. and mutlak, f. m. 2018. survey of the marine fishes in iraq. bulletin of the iraq natural history museum, 15(2): 163-177. [crossref] allen, g. r., white, w. t. and erdmann, m. v. 2013. two new species of snappers (pisces: lutjanidae: lutjanus) from the indo-west pacific. journal of the ocean science foundation, 6: 33-51. [crossref] carpenter, k. e., krupp, f., jones, d. a. and zajonz, u. 1997. the living marine resources of kuwait, eastern saudi arabia, bahrain, qatar and the united arab emirates. fao species identification field guide for fishery purposes, fao, rome, viii +293 pp. [click here] d’agostino, d., burt, j. a., reader t., vaughan, g. o., chapman, b. b., santinelli, v., cavalcante, g. h. and feary, d. a. 2020. the influence of thermal extremes on coral reef fish behaviour in the arabian/persian gulf. coral reefs, 39: 733-744. [crossref] fricke, r., eschmeyer, w.n. and van der laan, r. (eds.). 2025. eschmeyr's catalog of fishes: genera, species, references. electronic version accessed 5 march 2025. [click here] froese, r. and pauly, d. (eds.) 2025. fishbase. world wide web electronic publication, version 4/2025. [click here] kritsky, d. c. 2012. dactylogyrids (monogenoidea: polyonchoinea) parasitizing the gills of snappers (perciformes: lutjanidae): revision of euryhaliotrema with new and previously described species from the red sea, persian gulf, the eastern and indowest pacific ocean, and the gulf of mexico. zoologia, 29(3): 227-276. [crossref] kritsky, d. c. 2019. euryhaliotrema spp. (monogenoidea: dactylogyridae) parasitic on the gill lamellae of perciform fishes in moreton bay, queensland, australia, with the description of euryhaliotrema solenophallus sp. nov. from the silver moony monodactylus argenteus (linnaeus) (monodactylidae). acta parasitologica, 64: 223227. [crossref] https://un.uobasrah.edu.iq/papers/10391.pdf http://dx.doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2018.15.2.0163 https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1036813 http://www.fao.org/3/v8729e/v8729e00.htm https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-019-01847-z http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/fishcatmain.asp https://www.fishbase.org/ https://doi.org/10.1590/s1984-46702012000300006 https://doi.org/10.2478/s11686-019-00025-z 775 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-darwesh et al. kritsky, d. c. 2023. species of dactylogyridae (platyhelminthes: monogenoidea) infecting marine fishes of moreton bay, queensland, australia, with proposals of pleuronectitrema n. gen. and ecnomotrema n. gen. and descriptions of 13 new species. parasite, 30: 61. [crossref] kritsky, d., al-darwesh, a. a. and ali, a. h. 2024. taxonomic status of diplectanum robustitubum wu & li, 2003 (monogenoidea: diplectanidae) from the purple spotted bigeye priacanthus tayenus (priacanthidae) and the description of platycephalotrema parile n. sp. (monogenoidea: dactylogyridae) from the bartail flathead platycephalus indicus (platycephalidae), in the arabian gulf. acta parasitologica, 69: 1295-1303. [crossref] kritsky, d. c., khamees, n. r. and ali, a. h. 2013. ligophorus spp. (monogenoidea: dactylogyridae) parasitizing mullets (teleostei: mugiliformes: mugilidae) occurring in the fresh and brackish waters of the shatt al-arab river and estuary in southern iraq, with the description of ligophorus sagmarius sp. n. from the greenback mullet chelon subviridis (valenciennes). parasitology research, 112: 4029-4041. [crossref] kuiter, r. h. and t. tonozuka, 2001. pictorial guide to indonesian reef fishes. part 1. eelssnappers, muraenidae lutjanidae. zoonetics, australia, 302pp. mhaisen, f. t., ali, a. h. and khamees, n. r. 2018. marine fish parasitology of iraq: a review and checklists. biological applied environmental research, 2(2): 231-297. [click here] randall, j. e. 1995. coastal fishes of oman. honolulu: university of hawaii press, 439pp. taghavimotlagh, s. a., kaymaram, f., vahabnezhad, a. and daryanabard, g. 2024. an updated checklist of bony fishes from the persian gulf. zootaxa, 5424(4): 437-455. [crossref] wu, x.-y., zhu, x.-q., xie, m.-q. and li, a.-x. 2006. the radiation of haliotrema (monogenea: dactylogyridae: ancyrocephalinae): molecular evidence and explanation inferred from lsu rdna sequences. parasitology, 132: 659-668. [crossref] wu, x.-y., zhu, x.-q., xie, m.-q. and li, a.-x. 2007. the evaluation for generic-level monophyly of ancyrocephalinae (monogenea, dactylogyridae) using ribosomal dna sequence data. molecular phylogenetics and evolution, 44: 530-544. [crossref] zhang j.-y. 2001. chapter 10. ancyrocephalidae bychowsky and nagibina, 1978. in: zhang, j.-y., yang, t. and liu, l. (eds). monogeneans of chinese marine fishes. agriculture press, beijing, china, p. 79-178. https://doi.org/10.1051/parasite/2023053 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11686-024-00849-4 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00436-013-3594-x https://www.vliz.be/en/imis?module=ref&refid=301431&printversion=1&dropimistitle=1 https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5424.4.3 https://doi.org/10.1017/s003118200500956x https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2007.03.025 776 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 765-776. new record of two euryhaliotrema bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2025) 18 (3): 765-776. للجنس ملنشأ محادية ملديدمن من لنوعين جديد تسجيل euryhaliotrema kritsky & boeger, 2002 دمكتيلوجايريديا( )مونوجينويديا: للعرمق ملبحري ملساحل ملنهاشمن مسماك من المير*** عبد سعدي اسراء و علي** حسين أثير رديف*، عدنان علي العراق. النجفالشرف، الكوفة، جامعة البيطري، الطب كلية المراضوامراضالدواجن، *فرع العراق. البصرة، البصرة، جامعة الزراعة، كلية البحرية، والثروة السماك **قسم النجف الكوفة، جامعة البيطري، الطب كلية الحياتية، والكيمياء والدوية الفسلجة ***فرع العراق. الشرف، 2025/6/20 ملنشر: ،2025/6/4 ملقبول: ،2025/5/29 2025/4/7،ملرمجعة: مسستلم: مخالصة من نوعين اصطياد تم العراقي. للفرد كغذاء مهمة lutjanids fish النهاش أسماك تعد النهاش عام2024: الل العربي الخليج في العراقية البحرية الياه من النهاش اسماك l. indicus الهنــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــدي والنهاش lutjanus ehrenbergii (peters, 1869) البقعة أســــــــــــــــــــــــــــود والنهــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــاش البقعة أسود النهاش أسماك أن وجد .allen, white & erdmann, 2013 النشأ أحـــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــادية من بكل مصابة l. fulviflamma (forsskål, 1775) و جديدا) مضيــــــــــــــــــــــفا (يعــــــــد euryhaliotrema adelpha kritsky & justine, 2012 الهندي النهاش أصيب و e. spirotubiforum (zhang, 2001) wu, zhu, xie & li, 2006 جديدة. انتشار كمنطقة العربي الخليج في تسجيله ويعد فقط. l. indicus وتعد e. adelpha للنوع الكاملة النماذج رسومات مرة لول الحالية الدراسة اضافت البقعة اسود النهاش اسماك على التطفلة النشأ أحادية الديدان على الولى الدراسة هذه العراق. في الهندي والنهاش والنهاشالصفر bull 875 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2025) 18 (4): 875-898. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2025.18.4.0875 original article diversity and spatiotemporal variations of rotifera of the samarra dam, iraq osama s. majeed directorate of baghdad education karkh iii, ministry of education, baghdad, iraq e-mail: osamaalways230@gmail.com received: 13 april 2025, revised: 2 oct. 2025, accepted: 8 oct. 2025, published: 20 december 2025 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract this investigation is the first of its kind in this reservoir for more than three decades, it aimed at evaluating the diversity, abundance, and spatiotemporal variations of rotifers in the samarra dam during 2023. three distinct sampling stations were selected to ensure a comprehensive coverage of the dam. the first station was located just below the river's entrance to the dam. the second station was situated near the samarra barrage, while the third was positioned close to the tharthar regulator. fifty-seven taxa from fourteen families of rotifers were identified, classified into three orders: ploima, flosculariaceae, and bdelloida, under the eurotatoria class. most abundant taxa were synchaeta oblonga ehrenberg,1832, rotaria neptunia (ehreberg,1830), euchlanis dilatata ehrenberg, 1832, polyarthra dolichoptera idelson,1925, brachionus calyciflorus pallas, 1766 (long and short spine), b. urceolaris müller, 1773, and keratella cochlearis (gosse, 1851). minimum and maximum densities were in winter and spring, respectively. mean values for richness, evenness and diversity indices were 5.18, 4.75 and 6.37; 0.8, 1.8 and 0.8; 2.2, 1.8 and 2.4 bits/ind. at stations 1, 2 and 3, respectively. seasonally, the highest and lowest values of evenness and diversity indices were in summer and winter, respectively, while the richness index it was observed in autumn and spring seasons. also, the highest similarity index value was 68.78% between first and third stations. whereas the largest difference of species composition observed between second and third stations reached 7.76%. keywords: brachionidae, constancy, diversity, lecanidae, rotifers, samarra dam. introduction rotifera, commonly known as wheel organisms, because there is the ciliated ring located on the top of their head (manickam et al., 2019; josé de paggi et al., 2020). generally, it is microscopic, and varies between 40-2,000 μm in size, composed of thousands of cells, unsegmented, bilaterally symmetrical, pseudocoelomate animals (wallace et al., 2015; manickam et al., 2019; josé de paggi et al., 2020). segers (2007) states that this group is found in various aquatic systems and classified into three main groups: monogononta, bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799, print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2025.18.4.0875 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2417-8869 mailto:osamaalways230@gmail.com https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 876 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 875-898. diversity and spatiotemporal variations bdelloidea and seisonida. most rotifers inhabit freshwater, while some can survive in salty waters (balian et al., 2007; segers, 2008). these organisms, particularly rotifera, give a complete visibility of the condition of an aquatic system and serve as bioindicators for pollution and eutrophication (renuga et al., 2010; abbas and talib, 2018; majeed et al., 2022a; sharaf et al., 2023). many regional studies have concentrated on zooplankton in the tigris river, with particular attention given to rotifers such as those by sabri et al. (1993), majeed et al. (2021, 2022 a, b, 2023 a, b) and abed et al. (2022). for a long time, there have been no zooplankton studies conducted in this section of the river. as a result, this research is the first of its kind in this reservoir in over thirty years, aiming to assess the diversity of rotifers in the water of samarra dam. materials and methods study area: in the western part of samarra city, the multipurpose samarra dam sits. the main goal of this project is to redirect floodwaters from the tigris river to the tharthar reservoir during flood periods via the tigris-al tharthar canal. this system is utilized for irrigation, flood management, and power generation. the züblin company completed the project in 1956. it has 17 control gates that allow 7,000 m3/s of water to flow the tigris, whereas the tharthar regulator allows 9,000 m3/s to flow through a canal with 36 gates (abdulridha and al thamiry, 2017). study area description: the study area was the samarra dam located on the tigris river in salah al-din province. samples were taken from february to december 2023 at three selected stations. the first station was located upstream the dam and directly below the river's entrance (34°12'25.8"n 43°50'50.2"e). the second station was located near samarra barrage at 34°12'22.8"n 43°51'28.0"e. whereas, the third station was located near tharthar regulator at 34°11'53.4"n latitude and 43°51'04.9"e longitude (tab. 1, map 1). table (1): coordinates for three selected stations in the samarra dam for the period from february to december 2023. stations gbs coordination explanation latitude lines longitude lines s 1 34°12'25.8"n 43°50'50.2"e below the river's entrance s 2 34°12'22.8"n 43°51'28.0"e near the samarra barrage s 3 34°11'53.4"n 43°51'04.9"e near the tharthar regulator 877 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum majeed, o. s. map (1): showing locations of studied stations in samarra dam. (source: ministry of water resources\ general authority of survey, 2023). sampling collection: during a complete year 2023, the samples were taken from the littoral zone at < 1 m depth every two months; 45 litres of water were filtered through a funnelshaped planktonic net with a 55-micron mesh size, with the aid of a graduated pail. after filtration, the retained material in each mesh was washed with filtered river water. each sample was preserved in 4% formalin (juday, 1916; welch, 1948; rocha et al., 2021). identification of rotifers: after the sample had condensed, the rotifera were identified to the lowest taxonomic unit using a sedgewick-rafter counting slide under a compound microscope. the rectangular hollow slide held precisely one milliliter of water sample, measuring 50 mm in length, 20 mm in width, and 1 mm in depth. the density was determined by the formula provided by baird et al. (2017). where n is rotifers number. the results were presented as the number of individuals per m3 identification is based on the revisions by edmondson (1959), pontin (1978) and smith (2001) supplemented by recently published additions (wallace et al., 2015; josé de paggi et al., 2020). 878 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 875-898. diversity and spatiotemporal variations following identification keys were used to distinguish and differentiate among the rotifer species based on variations in external morphology, including shape, corona, neck, trunk, spine, foot, and toes. • variations in shapes: some species have sack-shaped, e.g., asplanchna priodonta gosse, 1850, oval-shaped e.g., lepadella ovalis (müller, 1786), cylindrical-shaped, e.g., trichocerca bicristata (gosse, 1887), bell-shaped, e.g., synchaeta oblonga ehrenberg, 1832, and elongated shape, e.g., rotaria citrina (ehrenberg, 1838). • variations of the foot: includes the presence or absence of the foot, the presence or absence of toes, and their structure and length. the foot often extends ventrally from the body. for example, keratella cochlearis gosse, 1851 lacks a foot, while brachionus calyciflorus calyciflorus pallas, 1776 has a posterior foot with equally sized toes. • toes variations can include number, length, size, and shape. usually, a foot possesses two toes, but this number can range from zero to four. for instance, cephalodella gibba (ehrenberg, 1830), and lepadella ovalis (müller, 1786) each have two long, slender toes. the foot in trichotria tetractis (ehrenberg, 1830) is composed of 3 segments, the first segment bearing two dorsal triangular spines. the second segment of the foot is longer than the other two. toes long, slender, ending in a point. • variation of the corona: included the presence or absence of cilia, the number of rows of cilia, structure, shape, location, and size. for example, the corona of collotheca ornate (ehrenberg, 1832) is modified into a funnel surrounding the mouth. in testudinella patina (hermann, 1783), the cilia around the mouth have disappeared, leaving just two small circular bands on the head. in the bdelloids, the upper band splits into two rotating wheels. • variations in the lorica: include its presence or absence, shape, length, size, and rigidity. for example, in synchaeta oblonga (ehrenberg, 1832), the lorica is absent. in brachionus plicatilis (müller, 1786), the lorica is spherical in shape. in brachionus urceolaris (müller, 1773) the lorica is hard with longitudinal lines. while in lepadella ovalis (müller, 1786), the lorica is without striations. • variations of the spines: included the presence or absence of the spines, number, longevity, and location on the anterior edge or posterior of the lorica. for example, brachionus angularis gosse, 1851, lacks any anterior spines, only the median spines are prominent and there is a deep sinus in between them. keratella cochlearis gosse, 1851 has six spines along the anterior dorsal margin of the lorica, the median spines being the longest and curved ventrally. additionally, there are two unequal posterior spines, with the right spine always longer than the left. the genus brachionus is distinguished by the presence of spines along its anterior border. for example, brachionus calyciflorus calyciflorus pallas, 1776 has four broad-based spines, with the medial spines being slightly longer than the lateral ones, along with two posterolateral spines. in contrast, brachionus forficula wierzejski, 1891, has four anterior spines varying in length, where the lateral spines are longer than the medial ones. 879 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum majeed, o. s. it is important to note that the differences among species, such as increased body size, thicker lorica, and the development and elongation of spines as morphological defenses, can effectively protect animals from being captured. this phenomenon is known as hidden defensive morphology in rotifers. for example, brachionus forficula wierzejski, 1891 can develop long or short posterior spines in response to predators or environmental conditions (ge et al., 2012; yin et al., 2017). ecological indicators: the following ecological indices have been used to determine rotifera diversity such as relative abundance index (ra) (omori and ikeda, 1984); constancy index (s) (ishizaka and labib, 2011); jaccard similarity index (jaccard, 1908); species evenness index (j) (magurran, 2004); species richness index (d) (margalefe, 1968) and shannonweiner index (h') for diversity (shannon and weaver, 1949). results are represented in bits per individual, where a bit is defined as a single piece of information. an ecosystem with h' value greater than 2 bits per number has been regarded as medium to high diverse in terms of species (majeed et al., 2022a; charlotte and dronkers, 2025). results and discussion species composition according to the current investigation, fifty-seven rotifer species belonging to 26 genera and 14 families were identified from three stations in samarra dam water as listed below: 36 species in station 1, 49 species in station 2 and 44 species in station 3 (tab. 2). findings revealed that the genus brachionus has 11 species including brachionus angularis gosse, 1851, b. bidentatus anderson, 1889, b. calyciflorus calyciflorus pallas, 1776, b. calyciflorus f. amphiceros ehrenberg, 1838 (long spin), b. calyciflorus f. amphiceros ehrenberg, 1838 (short spin), b. forficula wierzejski, 1891, b. havanaensis rousselet, 1913, b. quadridentatus hermann,1783, b. quadridentatus hermann,1783 (long spin), b. quadridentatus hermann,1783 (short spin) and b. urceolaris müller, 1773. lecane has 11 species including lecane elasma harring & myers, 1926, l. luna (müller, 1776), l. tenuiseta (harring, 1914), l. bulla (gosse, 1851), l. closterocerca (schmarda, 1859), l. hamata (stokes, 1896), l. quadridentata (ehrenberg, 1832), l. lunaris (ehrenberg, 1832), l. stenroosi (meissner, 1908), l. stenroosi (meissner, 1908), l. stenroosi (meissner, 1908), l. stenroosi (meissner, 1908), l. thalera (harring & myers, 1926) and l. thienemanni (hauer, 1938). keratella has 5 species including keratella cochlearis (gosse, 1851), k. quadrata (müller, 1786) (long spin), k. quadrata (müller, 1786) (short spin), k. tropica (apstein, 1907) and k. valga (ehrenberg, 1834). trichocerca has 3 species including trichocerca bicristata (gosse, 1887), t. rousseleti (voigt, 1902) and t. similis (wierzejski, 1893). asplanchna has 2 species including asplanchna brightwellii gosse, 1850 and a. priodonta gosse, 1850. lepadella has 2 species including lepadella ovalis (müller, 1786) and l. salpina ehrenberg, 1834. platyias has 2 species including platyias patulus (müller, 1786) and p. quadricornis (ehrenberg, 1832). polyarthra has 2 species including polyarthra dolichoptera idelson,1925 and p. vulgaris carlin, 1943. rotaria has 2 species including rotaria citrina (ehrenberg, 1838) and r. neptunia (ehreberg,1830). synchaeta has 2 species 880 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 875-898. diversity and spatiotemporal variations including synchaeta oblonga ehrenberg,1832 and s. pectinata ehrenberg, 1832. whereas other identified genera had only one species. among the various families of rotiferians, brachionidae and lecanidae have the highest number of species, with 20 and 11 identified taxa respectively. the dominance of these two families is likely due to the remarkable adaptability of their organisms to different limnological conditions and available food sources (liu et al., 2023; kuczyńska-kippen et al., 2025). species from these families are typically predominant in different aquatic systems (kuczyńska-kippen and ejsmont-karabin, 2020; phan et al., 2021; bozkurt, 2024). density and abundance ratio diagram (1) shows the total density of rotifers. in the first station, values of rotifer densities varied between 855.2 ind./m3 and 3530 ind./m3 in december and april, respectively. in the second station, the values varied between 826.4 and 159198.18 ind./m3 in august and february, respectively. in the third station, the minimum value was 621.7 ind./m3 in december while the maximum value was 4110 ind./m3 in october. as well, the total rotifera density was 10940.26, 310934 and 14010.8 ind./m3 in stations 1, 2 and 3, respectively (tab. 3). rotifer density showed seasonal variations, with maximum densities were noticed in spring, whereas minimum densities were in winter (diag. 1), similar findings obtained by majeed et al. (2022a) related to suitable environmental conditions in the tigris river, such as temperature and nutrient availability, which play an important role in growing microalgae as an essential feeding resource. this fact supported by salman (2024) who showed that rotifer density increased in the spring season. while the density values decreased in winter, this may be ascribed to decreasing water temperatures and increasing turbidity and suspended matter, a situation which affected the density of rotifers. the findings of abdulwahab and rabee (2015) and salman (2024) supported this fact. in india, the same results were reported by kiran et al. (2007) who found that rotifer density decreased in the rainy season and increased in the summer season in fish pond, karnataka. spatially, the second station recorded the highest density at 159198.18 ind./m3, while the third station had the lowest value at 621.7 ind./m3 (diag. 1). this may be attributed to the changes in environmental factors at the two sites, such as dissolved oxygen, water temperature, nutrients and presence of microalgae, these findings were proved by czerniawski and sługocki (2017), bolawa et al. (2018) and majeed et al. (2022a). the most abundant taxa in the samarra dam were s. oblonga, r. neptunia, e dilatata, p. dolicoptera, brachionus spp., and keratella spp. (tab. 2, diag. 2). higher species abundance in station 1 was s. oblonga 20%, e. dilatata 17%, r. neptunia 15%, p. dolichoptera, b. urceolaris 10%, k. cochlearis 9%, notholca squamula 3% and pompholyx sulcata 3%. in station 2, s. oblonga, 59%, b. calyciflorus amphecerus (long spin) 13%, b. calyciflorus amphecerus (short spin) 8%, p. dolichoptera, 6% and b. angularis 3%. 881 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum majeed, o. s. whereas, in station 3, s. oblonga, r. neptunia, e. dilatata, k. cochlearis, a. fissa, b. angularis b. forficula and b. urceolaris were recorded 28, 15, 8, 7, 4, 4, 3 and 3%, respectively (diag. 2). similar findings were reported in the tigris river (sabri et al., 1993; majeed et al., 2022a). as well, this is a common feature observed in many various iraqi reservoirs (hammadi et al., 2015; al-ameen et al., 2019; al-bahathy and nashaat, 2021; salman, 2024; majeed and nashaat, 2025). diagram (1): total rotifera density in the samarra dam during 2023. 882 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 875-898. diversity and spatiotemporal variations diagram (2): the most dominant rotifera in the samarra dam during 2023. 883 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum majeed, o. s. table (2): distribution, abundance and consistency of rotifera species in the three stations of the samarra dam during 2023. subclass: monogononta order: ploima abundance constancy family taxa s1 s2 s3 s1 s2 s3 asplanchnidae asplanchna brightwellii gosse, 1850 r ac a. priodonta gosse, 1850 r r r c c c dicranophoridae aspelta bidentata wulfert, 1961 r r r ac a a brachionidae anuraeopsis fissa gosse, 1851 r r r c ac c brachionus angularis gosse, 1851 r r r c ac c b. bidentatus anderson, 1889 r r a ac b. calyciflorus calyciflorus pallas, 1776 r r r c ac ac b. calyciflorus f. amphiceros ehrenberg, 1838 (long spin form) r la r ac ac a b. calyciflorus f. amphiceros ehrenberg, 1838 (short spin form) r r a c b. forficula wierzejski, 1891 r r r c a c b. havanaensis rousselet, 1913 r a b. quadridentatus hermann,1783 r ac b. quadridentatus hermann,1783 (long spin form) r r r c ac ac b. quadridentatus hermann,1783 (short spin form) r r ac c b. urceolaris müller, 1773 a r r c ac c keratella cochlearis (gosse, 1851) a r r c c c k. quadrata (müller, 1786) (long spin form) r r a ac 884 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 875-898. diversity and spatiotemporal variations k. quadrata (müller, 1786) (short spin form) r r r ac ac ac k. tropica (apstein, 1907) r r r ac ac a k. valga (ehrenberg, 1834) r r r c c c notholca squamula (müller, 1786) la r r c a a platyias patulus (müller, 1786) r r a ac p. quadricornis (ehrenberg, 1832) r a euchlanidae dipleuchlanis propalula (gosse, 1886) r r ac a euchlanis dilatata ehrenberg, 1832 d r r c c c manfredium eudactylotum (gosse, 1886) r a lecanidae lecane elasma harring & myers, 1926 r r a c l. luna (müller, 1776) la r r c c c l. tenuiseta (harring, 1914) r ac l. bulla (gosse, 1851) la r r c c c l. closterocerca (schmarda, 1859) r r a a l. hamata (stokes, 1896) r r a ac l. quadridentata (ehrenberg, 1832) r r a ac l. lunaris (ehrenberg, 1832) r a l. stenroosi (meissner, 1908) r r ac ac l. thalera (harring & myers, 1926) r r r a ac ac l. thienemanni (hauer, 1938) ac lepadellidae colurella adriatica ehrenberg, 1831 r r r c c ac lepadella ovalis (müller, 1786) r r r ac ac a l. salpina r r ac a 885 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum majeed, o. s. ehrenberg, 1834 mytilinidae mytilina nucronata (müller, 1773) r r ac a notommatidae cephalodella gibba (ehrenberg, 1830) r r r c c c synchaetidae polyarthra dolichoptera idelson,1925 r r r ac c c p. vulgaris carlin, 1943 r ac synchaeta oblonga ehrenberg,1832 d a la c c c s. pectinata ehrenberg, 1832 r r a a trichocercidae macrochaetus subquadratus perty, 1850 r a trichocerca bicristata (gosse, 1887) r r r a c ac t. rousseleti (voigt, 1902) r r a a t. similis (wierzejski, 1893) r r ac trichotriidae trichotria tetractis (ehrenberg, 1830) r r r ac c c order: flosculariaceae testudinellidae pompholyx sulcata hudson, 1885 la r r ac a ac testudinella patina (hermann, 1783) r r a ac hexarthridae hexarethra mera (hudson, 1871) r r a ac subclass: bdelloidea order: bdelloida philodinidae macrotrachela quadricornifera milne, 1886 r r a ac rotaria citrina (ehrenberg, 1838) r ac r. neptunia (ehreberg,1830) d r la c c c [d: dominant > 70%; a: abundant 40-70 %; la: less abundant 10-39 %; r: rare < 10 %. for constancy index; c: constant > 50%; ac: accessory 26-50%; a: accidental 1-25%]. 886 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 875-898. diversity and spatiotemporal variations ecological indicators species richness of planktonic rotifers: diagram (3) depicts the values of the rotiferian richness index. at the first station, richness values varied between 3.74 in june and 6.15 in august. at the second station, the value ranged from 1.37 in august and 8.027 in april, whereas at the third station the minimum values were 4.23 in february and the maximum values were 8.038 in april. as well, the average values 5.18, 4.75 and 6.37 were recorded in stations 1, 2 and 3, respectively. spatially, the maximum value recorded in the third station was 8.038 and the minimum value recorded in the first station was 1.37 (diag. 3). this could be linked to the variations in environmental factors between the two habitats in the impoundment. this view was proved by majeed et al. (2022a) who showed that differences in richness values between the tigris and tharthar water. seasonally, the maximum and minimum values of the richness index were during the spring and autumn seasons, respectively (diag. 3). increasing richness values in spring season may be related to an increase of phytoplankton in this season. this view was supported by rasheed et al. (2016) who indicated that higher richness index values in spring would correlate with increased phytoplankton density in the al-shamyiah river. whereas, the lowest value was in autumn season which may be linked to the decreasing in phytoplankton density. this fact was proved by abed and nashaat (2018) who showed that decreasing in richness values due to decreasing in phytoplankton density, in dejiala river. in this respect, phan et al. (2021) found that rotifera richness index was significantly affected by environmental factors especially temperature, turbidity, ph and trophic level in da nang lakes. 887 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum majeed, o. s. diagram (3): monthly fluctuations of d index for rotifera at three stations of the samarra dam during 2023. species evenness of planktonic rotifers: at the first station, the evenness values varied between 0.67 in february and 0.84 in december. whereas in the second station, the least and highest values were 0.33 and 2.64 in february and april, respectively. in the third station the values fluctuated between 0.63 in october and 0.93 in december (diag. 4). as well, the mean values of the evenness index were 0.8, 1.8 and 0.8 in stations 1, 2 and 3, respectively. all values being greater than 0.5, indicates an unbalanced distribution of rotifera species (pielou, 1977; magurran, 2004). this may be related to the various factors affecting the species evenness such as richness index and sampling size (faith and du, 2018). seasonal variations, showed that the values increased in spring and summer and decreased in winter (diag. 4). this may be linked to the favorable environmental conditions such as water temperatures, nutrients and chlorophyll availability which consequently support phytoplankton abundance which considered a good food supporting rotifera (shaker et al., 2019; lu et al., 2021). these results are consistent with majeed et al. (2022a) who also proved that rotiferian evenness index in tigris water increased in spring and summer and decreased in winter. s1 s2 s3 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 stations d i n d e x o f r o ti fe r a months s1 s2 s3 888 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 875-898. diversity and spatiotemporal variations spatial variations, the largest values of evenness index were recorded in the second station while the lowest values were in stations 1 and 3 (diag. 4). this might be caused by variations in the physical, chemical, and hydrological factors among different stations (kamboj and kamboj, 2020). s1 s2 s30 1 2 3 stations e i n d ex o f r o ti fe ra months s1 s2 s3 diagram (4): monthly fluctuations of the evenness index at three stations of the samarra dam during 2023. diversity index of planktonic rotifers: in the first site, the values of the shannon-weiner diversity index ranged from 1.81 bits/ind. in june to 2.73 in august bits/ind. whereas in the second station, the values varied from 0.33 bits/ind. in february to 2.64 bits/ind. in april. in the third station, the values fluctuated between 1.79 and 2.81 bits/ind. in february and august, respectively (diag. 5). as well, the mean values of the diversity index were 2.2, 1.8 and 2.4 bits/ind. in stations 1, 2 and 3, respectively (tab. 3). according to charlotte and dronkers (2025) rotifera diversity in the samarra dam occurred within good to very good class. seasonal variations show that the highest and lowest values of this index fluctuated between summer and winter, respectively (diag. 5). this may be linked to higher temperature, sunlight and chlorophyll-a availability, all of which are crucial for supporting phytoplankton as a food source for zooplankton (sharmila-sree and shameem, 2017). in winter, the values of this index decreased due to increased turbidity and suspended matter, which negatively 889 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum majeed, o. s. impacts the diversity of rotifers, as noted by abdulwahab and rabee (2015) and majeed et al. (2022a). for spatial variation, the highest value was in the third station and recorded 2.81. whereas, the lowest value was in the second station recorded 0.33 (diag. 5). this could be attributed to the heterogeneity among habitats (majeed et al., 2022a). in this respect, phan et al. (2021) mentioned that the high value of rotifera diversity in da nang lakes related to high levels of temperature, turbidity and trophic state. s1 s2 s30 1 2 3 4 stations h in d e x o f r o ti fe ra months s1 s2 s3 diagram (5): monthly variations of the diversity index at three stations of the samarra dam during 2023. 890 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 875-898. diversity and spatiotemporal variations table (3): the average values of species richness, evenness and diversity indices along with total densities of rotifers. index stations 1 2 3 d 5.18 4.75 6.37 j 0.76 1.78 0.78 h' 2.2 1.8 2.4 total densities 10940.26 310934 14010.8 jaccard's similarity index: the largest similarity value observed between the first and third stations was 68.78% (diag. 6). the similarities between the two stations can be attributed to the fact that both are influenced by the same hydrodynamic conditions and limnological factors. additionally, they share the same physicochemical characteristics, including water sources, temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen levels and ph. this result agrees with several iraqi studies; majeed et al. (2022a) recorded high similarity index values for rotifera among various places in the tigris river, attributing that to the suitable environmental conditions. in the euphrates river, al-bahathy and nashaat (2021) recorded similar results between downstream and upstream of the hindiya dam, with the highest value reached 76.27 for rotifera. in contrast, the lowest value of this index was between the second and the third stations reached 7.76% (diag. 6). this may be related to the differences between two distinct habitats, including limnological factors and hydrodynamic conditions. additionally, fluctuations in water currents have a mechanical advective effect on rotifer populations. this view was supported by hung et al. (2021), who demonstrated that variation in species composition of the rotifera community in different water bodies was influenced by variations of physicochemical factors. a significant inverse relationship between current velocity and zooplankton abundance has been found 891 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum majeed, o. s. diagram (6): shows the values of jaccard's similarity index among the three stations of the samarra dam during 2023. constancy index (s): table (2) depicts the constant species in three stations in the dam. in station 1 we recorded 17 species. whereas, in the second and third stations 2 and 3 were 13 and 17 species, respectively. according to the constancy index, the species a. priodonta, a. fissa, b. angularis, b. calyciflorus calyciflorus b. forficula, b. quadridentatus, (long spin), b. urceolaris, k. cochlearis, k. valga, n. squamula, c. gibba, c. adriatica, e. dilatate, l. luna, m. bulla, r. neptunia, and s. oblonga were the most constant species in the first station. whereas in the second station, the most constant species were a. priodonta, k. cochlearis, k. valga, c. gibba, c. adriatica, e. dilatata, l. luna, m. bulla, r. neptunia, p. dolichoptera, s. oblonga, t. tetractys and t. bicristata. in station 3, a. priodonta, a. fissa. b. angularis, b. calyciflorus amphecerus (short spin), b. forficula, b. quadridentatus (short spin), b. urceolaris, k. cochlearis, k. valga, e. dilatata, c. gibba, l. luna, l. elasma m. bulla, r. neptunia, p. dolichoptera, s. oblonga, and t. tetractys. the results we obtained are consistent with other earlier studies conducted on the tigris river. majeed et al. (2022a) observed that b. angularis, e. dilatata, k. valga, k. cochlearis, r. neptunia, p. dolichoptera and s. oblonga were the largest constant rotifers in tigris water. al-azzawii (2015) showed that b. angularis and b. urceolaris were constant species in the tigris river. also, al-bahathy and nashaat (2021) reported that e. dilatata constant up and downstream the hindiya dam. based on the aforementioned, lair (2006) explained that brachionus sp. can grow at a high current velocity of about 20 cm/s. also, jaturapruek (2016) pointed out that r. neptunia is tolerant to a wide range of environmental conditions, and thus it dwells in many freshwater habitats like ponds, lakes and rivers. glime (2017) reported that e. dilatata is a cosmopolitan 892 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 875-898. diversity and spatiotemporal variations species able to tolerate a wide range of ph and temperature and so it is present in both freshwater and brackish water. in this respect dang et al. (2015) reported that l. bulla can survive in widely freshwater aquatic systems like rivers, lakes and ponds. conclusions we identified 57 species, belonging to 16 families in this study, the predominant species a. priodonta, a. bidentate, a. fissa, b. calyciflorus calyciflorus, b. calyciflorus amphecerus, b. forficula, b. quadridentatus, b. urceolaris, k. cochlearis, k. tropica, k. quadrata, k. valga, n. squamula, c. gibba, c. adriatica, l. ovalis, e. dilatata, l. luna, l. bulla, l. thalera, r. neptunia, p. dolichoptera, s. oblonga, p. sulcata, t. tetractys, t. bicristata were recorded across all stations in this dynamic environment. the study showed that rotifer density varied seasonally and spatially due to changes in environmental conditions, which were considered the most significant factors affecting rotifera density. also, the average values of ecological indices, such as diversity, evenness, and richness, varied by season and site. acknowledgments i would like to thank the samara dam administration for their support in achieving this work. conflict of interest statement "the author has no conflicts of interest to declare". litereature cited abbas, m. i. and talib, a. h. 2018. community structure of zooplankton and water quality assessment of tigris river within baghdad, iraq. applied ecology and environmental sciences, 6(2): 63-69. 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(2025) 18 (4): 875-898. التنوع واالختالفات املكانية والزمانية للدوالبيات قي سد سامراء، العراق أسـامـة سميـر مجيـد املديرية العامة لتربية بغداد الكرخ الثالثة، وزارة التربية، بغداد، العراق 20/12/2025، النشر: 8/10/2025القبول: ،2/10/2025املراجعة: ،13/4/2025االستالم: الخالصة يعد هذا البحث األول من نوعه في هذا الخزان منذ اكثر من ثالثة عقود، ويهدف إلى تقييم تنوع في سد سامراء خالل عام املكانية والزمانية الدوالبيات واختالفاتها تم اختيار ثالث 2023ووفرة . لضمان وذلك العينات ألخذ مختلفة أسفل المحطات تقع األولى املحطة للسد. الشاملة تغطية الثالثة املحطة تقع بينما سامراء، سد من بالقرب الثانية املحطة تقع و ً مباشرة النهر مدخل من عائلة عشرة ألربع تنتمي نوعا وخمسون سبعة تشخيص تم الثرثار. ناظم من بالقرب هي ب َ ُرت ثالث الى تعود كلها bdelloidaو ploima ، flosculariaceaeالدوالبيات تعود الى والتي كانت eurotatoria.صنف وفرة األنواع synchaeta oblonga ehrenberg,1832،rotariaاكثر neptunia (ehreberg,1830) ،euchlanis dilatate ehrenberg, 1832 ،polyarthra dolichoptera idelson,1925 ، brachionus calyciflorus pallas, 1766 (long and short spine) ، b. urceolaris müller, 1773 وkeratella cochlearis (gosse, 1851). متوسط القيم كانت والتنوع والتساوي الغنى دليل من ,2.4 1.8 ,2.2 ;0.8, 1.8 ,0.8 ;6.37, 4.75 ,5.18لكل املحطات من لكل واقل 3و 2، 1بت/فرد اعلى فأن املوسمية التغايرات يخص فيما التوالي. على التوالي لكل من دليلي التساوي والتنوع سجلت في فصلي الصيف والشتاء وعلى بينما لدليل .قيم الغنى سجلت في فصلي الخريف والربيع. وبين دليل جاكرد للتشابه ان اعلى نسبة تشابه كانت بين والثالثة حيث بينما اقل نسبة كانت بين املحطة الثانية ، %68.78املحطة األولى والثالثة اذ بلغت . %7.76وصلت الى bull 95 al-miamary et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2020) 16 (1): 95111. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2020.16.1.0095 calcareous nannofossils and chemostratigraphy of the early aptian oceanic anoxic event 1a from northern iraq falah a. al-miamary* omar a. al-badrani* and ali i. al-juboury*♦ *geology department, college of science, university of mosul, mosul, iraq ♦corresponding author: alialjubory@yahoo.com received date: 11 march 2020, accepted date: 31 may 2020, published date: 24 june 2020 abstract calcareous nannofossils were documented from the upper part of the cretaceous balambo formation in northern iraq with the aim of determining an evidence for the oceanic anoxic event. a detailed investigation of the calcareous nannofossils led to the identification of twenty-four species. regarding these data, discolithus litterarius (górka, 1957) was identified at the studied interval with the age of early aptian. early aptian assemblages are dominated by nannoconids that drop sharply within the d. litterarius nannofossil zone, which may be related to the nannoconid crisis recorded in the early aptian in the other parts of the world. this event is coincided by a decrease in caco3 content and higher content of the total organic carbon (toc). key words: aptian, balambo formation, iraq, nannoconid, oae1a. introduction oceanic anoxic events (oaes) are intervals in the earth history where depletion in oxygen occurred at depths over a large geographic area. climatic changes and paleoceanographic conditions during these intervals show major disturbances in the global carbon cycle (jenkyns, 2010). oaes are commonly characterized by marine organic matter accumulation (erbacher et al., 1996). several oaes in the mesozoic ocean that manifestly caused major chemical change were recorded and included; early toarcian (posidonienschiefer event, toae, ∼183 ma), early aptian (selli event, oae 1a, ∼120 ma), early albian (paquier event, oae 1b, ∼111 ma) and cenomanian-turonian oaes (bonarelli event, c/t oae, oae 2, ∼93 ma) (jenkyns, 2010). furthermore, early aptian oae1a black shale followed by ‘nannoconid crisis’ and a ‘schizosphaerellid crisis’ prior to the toarcian oae were also recorded. in both oaes, rapid nannofloral speciation generally exists at 1.5 ma before the oae, but without extinctions (erba, 2004). 96 calcareous nannofossils and chemostratigraphy in northeastern iraq, al-khafaf (2018) mentioned that the lower part of the balambo formation at azmer area was early aptian in age, with an overall decrease in type and abundance of nannofossils that may relate to an oceanic anoxic event oae1. the studied area lies at the imbricated zone of iraq which is part of the zagros belt and characterized by thrust folded structures and over-thrust blocks. zagros belt is formed as a result of the closure of the neo-tethys oceanic basin and late cretaceous and cenozoic convergence of the arabian plate with continental eurasia (stöcklin, 1968; snyder and barazangi, 1986; talbot and alavi, 1996; stampfli and borel, 2002). the balambo sediments belong to the arabian plate megasequence (ap8) of late jurassic 149ma late cretaceous 92ma (sharland et al., 2001), that were deposited in intrashelf basin on a passive continental margin. the balambo formation is one of the common marine cretaceous successions in northern and northeastern iraq and is divided in its type section in the sirwan valley near halabja in northeastern iraq into two portions; the lower comprises 259 m thickness of uniform thin-bedded blue ammonite bearing limestone, greenish marl and black shale. moreover, the upper part with 503 m thickness consists of thin-bedded globigerinal limestone, passing downwards to grey radiolarian limestone. the age of the balambo formation is regarded as valanginian-turonian based on biostratigraphicdata (van bellen et al., 1959; buday, 1980). the age of the formation is variable in other sections in iraq, the lower part of the formation in azmer anticline east of sulaimaniya city is ranging from the late early hauterivian to late aptian based on calcareous nannofossils assemblages (al-mutwali and al-khafaf, 2019), while the age of the formation extends from late valanginian to late aptian in barsarin village (rawanduz area) at northeastern iraq (the studied section) based on planktonic foraminiferal data (al-mutwali et al., 2018). therefore, the lower part of the balambo formation in azmer section correlates with the balambo formation at the studied section in barsarin village. the studied section is composed of dark colored limestone and marly limestone in addition to shale intercalations. in the present work, an attempt is made to follow the nannofossils distribution in the cretaceous balambo formation from barsarin section (northern iraq) with the focus on the early aptian nannoconid drop which may relate to ‘nannoconid crisis along with total organic carbon (toc) and carbonate caco3 content. materials and methods fifteen samples within 400 cm thick of marly limestones, shales and limestones from barsarin section, northern iraq (map 1, diag. 1), were selected and prepared using the simple smear slide technique for the study of calcareous nannofossils which are studied with a transmitted-light microscope (optika b-353pol, italy). the calcareous nannofossils are extracted at the department of geology, university of mosul, iraq using the method (h), (armstrong and brasier, 2005). for the nannofossil slide preparation, small amount of the disaggregated sample is placed in distilled water and a drop of cellosize is added to act as a dispersant. the cover slip is left to dry on a warm hotplate; then the slide and residues are 97 al-miamary et al. allowed to dry at a low temperature away from possible sources of contamination. a cover slip mounted by canada balsam is put over the residue and left to dry before examining with transmitted light microscope. geochemical analysis is focused on seven samples covering the studied part of the oae1a at barsarin section. the organic carbon (oc) is analyzed using the compensation method in an elemental analyzer mass spectrometer (ea-irms, thermo finnigan flash ht and thermo finnigan delta v advantage), whereas, caco3 content is carried out by varian 720-es icpoes. both analyses were done at laboratories of katholieke university of leuven (kuleuven, belgium). species identification with their occurrence in iraq is done at department of geology, university of mosul. map (1): tectonic divisions of iraq and the location of the studied barsarin section which is marked with a black circle (after fouad, 2015). 98 calcareous nannofossils and chemostratigraphy diagram (1): lithologic section of the upper balambo formation at barsarin area showing the samples location. 99 al-miamary et al. results systematic paleontology species identification with their occurrence in iraq as follows: kingdom protista division chrysophyta class coccolithophyceae family braarudosphaeraceae deflandre, 1947 genus braarudosphaera deflandre, 1947 braarudosphaera bigelowii (gran and braarud, 1935) deflandre, 1947 (pl. 1a) description: it is a nannolith with pentagonal outline. occurrences: it is recorded from iraq at balambo formation (this study) and from iraq by albadrani (2007) and al-badrani and al-khashab (2013). genus micrantholithus deflandre and fert, 1954 micrantholithus hoschulzii (reinhardit, 1966) thierstein, 1971 (pl.1b) description: it is a nannolithwith of deeply indented sides and gracile, long rays. the height of the pentalith results in a ragged lm appearance. occurrences: it is recorded from iraq at balambo formation in this study. micrantholithus obtusus stradner, 1963 (pl.1c) description: it is a nannolith with stellate outline due to shallow indentations in each segment. occurrences: it is recorded from iraq at balambo formation in this study. micrantholithus speetonensis perch-nielsen, 1979 (pl.1d) description: it is a nannolith with crenulated outline due to two indentations in each segment. occurrences: it is recorded from iraq at balambo formation in this study. micrantholithus sp. (pl.1e) description: it is a nannolith with crenulated outline. occurrences: it is recorded from iraq at balambo formation in this study. family chiastozygaceae rood, hay and barnard, 1973 genus chiastozygus gartner, 1968 discolithus litterarius (górka, 1957) manivit, 1971 (pl.1f) synonym: chiastozygus litterarius (górka, 1957) (gbif secretariat, 2019) description: it is a loxoliths with a relatively broad rim and thick, weakly birefringent crossbars. unicyclic or diffusely bicyclic rim image in xpl. occurrences: it is recorded from iraq at balambo formation in this study. 100 calcareous nannofossils and chemostratigraphy genus zeugrhabdotus reinhardt, 1965 zeugrhabdotus embergeri (nöel, 1959) perch-nielsen, 1984 (pl.1g) description: it is a coccolith with heavily calcified species has a rhomb-shaped, composite bar and very small to no perforations in the central area. occurrences: it is recorded from iraq at balambo formation (this study) and by al-mamari (2019). family nannoconaceae deflandre, 1959 genus nannoconus kamptner, 1931 nannoconus cf. colomii (de lapparent, 1931) kamptner, 1938 (pl.1h) description: it is a nannolith with bulbous basal cavity. occurrences: it is recorded from iraq at balambo formation in this study. nannoconus kamptneri brönnimann, 1955 (pl.1i) description: it is a nannolith with pear-shaped to tapering. occurrences: it is recorded from iraq at balambo formation in this study. nannoconus cf. multicadus deflandre and deflandre, 1959 (pl.1j) description: it is a nannolith with tall elongate and cylindrical with one or two constrictions. occurrences: it is recorded from iraq at balambo formation in this study; and previously was registered by al-badrani (2012). nannoconus quadriangulus deflandre and deflandre, 1967 (pl.1k) description: it is a nannolith with short-cylindrical (quadriangular) nannoconids with central cavity that is similar in width to the wall. occurrences: it is recorded from iraq at balambo formation in this study. nannoconus steinmannii kamptner, 1931 (pl.1l) description: it is a nannolithwith tapering, pear-shaped nannoconids with narrow central openings (canals) and walls formed from low-angled, narrow cycles. occurrences: it is recorded from iraq at balambo formation in this study. nannoconus truitti brönnimann, 1955 (pl.1m) description: it is a nannolith with barrel-shaped or slightly tapering nannoconids with canal width similar to, or slightly narrower than, the wall. occurrences: it is recorded from iraq at balambo formation in this study. nannoconus wassallii brönnimann, 1955 (pl.1n) description: it is a nannolith with pear-shaped nannoconids with wide central cavities and thick walls; the cavity is two to four times the width of the wall. 101 al-miamary et al. occurrences: it is recorded from iraq at balambo formation in this study. nannoconus sp. (pl.1o) description: it is a nannolith with pear-shaped nannoconids with wide central cavities. occurrences: it is recorded from iraq at balambo formation in this study. family podorhabdaceae noël, 1965 genus retecapsa black, 1971 retecapsa angustiforata black, 1971(pl.1p) description: it is a coccolith with a relatively wide central area spanned by an axial cross with one centrally-placed broad lateral bar in each quadrant. occurrences: it is recorded from iraq at balambo formation in this study. family polycyclolithaceae forchheimer, 1972 genus assipetra roth, 1973 assipetra terebrodentarius roth, 1973 (pl.1q) description: it is a coccolith with blocky, globular nannoliths formed from six or more complexly intergrown calcite blocks that are joined along broadly radial sutures. occurrences: it is recorded from iraq at balambo formation in this study. assipetra sp. (pl.1r) description: it is a coccolith with blocky to globular nannoliths typically formed from intergrown elements that may show radial symmetry. occurrences: it is recorded from iraq at balambo formation in this study. family watznaueriaceae rood, hay and barnard, 1971 genus watznauria reinhardt, 1964 watznaueria barnesae (black and barnes, 1959) perch-nielsen, 1969 (pl.1s) description: it is a coccolith with central-area closed or very narrow, with no central area structures. occurrences: it is recorded from iraq at balambo formation (this study); previously this species reported from iraq by al-badrani et al. (2012) and karim et al. (2013). watznaueria sp. (pl.1t) description: it is a coccolithwith central-areas that are typically closed or narrow but may be spanned by transverse bar. occurrences: it is recorded from iraq at balambo formation in this study. biostratigraphy depending on the stratigraphic distribution of the recorded species, only one calcareous nannofossils biozone is recorded in this study, which is discolithus litterarius biozone, early aptian. this biozone is determined by the first occurrence of d. litterarius to the first occurrence of prediscosphaera columnata (stover, 1966; perch-nielsen, 1984) that is not 102 calcareous nannofossils and chemostratigraphy recorded in this study, this biozone is recorded at the upper part of the balambo formation within the studied 4 m out of the total 100 m thick of the formation in barsarin area (see diag. 1). where correlated with cc7 biozone of sissingh (1977) it correlates exactly to cc7a aged by early aptian (gradstein et al., 2004), (diag. 2). the most important and common nannofossil taxa are shown in diagram (1) and plate (1). by the correlation of recorded calcareous nannofossils biozones with regional schemes, it is concluded that the age of studied section is early aptian (diag. 3). geochemistry bulk-rock data are presented in diagram (2). the caco3 content decreases from 86.15 to 28.7 that is accompanied by a decline of nannoconid near the early aptian nannoconid crisis. the average total organic carbon (toc) of the analyzed samples content is 0.34%, with the highest values (0.51%) recorded at the nannoconids decline interval (diag. 2). diagram (2): calcareous nannofossils and geochemistry data of the investigated barsarin section (after gradstein et al., 2012). 103 al-miamary et al. plate (1): cross-polarized light photos of significant calcareous nannofossil taxa from balambo section. (a) braarudosphaera bigelowii (gran and braarud, 1935) deflandre, 1947; (b) micrantholithus hoschulzii (reinhardit, 1966) thierstein, 1971; (c) micrantholithus obtusus stradner, 1963; (d) , micrantholithus speetonensis perch-nielsen, 1979, (e) micrantholithus sp., (f) discolithus 104 calcareous nannofossils and chemostratigraphy litterarius (górka, 1957) manivit, 1971, (g) zeugrhabdotus embergeri (nöel, 1959) perch-nielsen, 1984, (h) nannoconus cf. colomii (delapparent, 1931) kamptner, 1938, (i) nannoconus kamptneri brönnimann, 1955, (j) nannoconus cf. multicadus deflandre and deflandre, 1959, (k) nannoconus quadriangulus deflandre and deflandre, 1967, (l) nannoconus steinmannii kamptner, 1931, (m) nannoconus truitti brönnimann, 1955, (n) nannoconus wassallii brönnimann, 1955, (o) nannoconus sp., (p) retecapsa angustiforata black, 1971, (q) assipetra terebrodentarius roth, 1973, (r) assipetra sp., (s) watznaueria barnesae (blackand barnes, 1959) perch-nielsen, 1969, (t) watznaueria sp. diagram (3): correlation of the recorded calcareous nannofossils biozones with regional schemes. discussion nannoconid crisis existed during the late barremian and early aptian (126 to 122 ma) on the carbonate rock-forming organisms (nannoconids) and culminated during the oae1a (mutterlose and bottini, 2013). a virtual absence of this calcareous nannoplankton in the early aptian may experience a crises called "nannoconid crisis" (erba, 1994). this absence was recovered later in late aptian (diag. 2) without extinctions but the widespread nature of 105 al-miamary et al. this event suggested a global factor. this crisis is recorded within the discolithus litterarius nannofossil zone (diag. 2). a synchronous acme event of the genera braarudosphaera deflandre, 1947 and nannoconus kamptner, 1931in this section was close to the top of early aptian boundary as a result of shallowing of the studied interval. morphometric data revealed dwarfing trends in the species watznaueria barnesiae, (see plates 1-r, s) which may suggest a possible productivity control due to increasing in the nutrient input (mahanipour et al., 2019). the above mentioned species is also considered as an opportunistic species that are related to more stressful conditions (aguado et al., 2016; mahanipour et al., 2019). early aptian assemblages are dominated by nannoconids with minor contributions from other nannofossil taxa. nannoconids are robust taxa so their presence without the presence of other taxa might be the result of diagenesis (mahanipour et al., 2019). the abundance of nannoconids drops sharply within the discolithus litterarius nannofossil zone. the early aptian "nannoconid crisis" was followed by a short interval virtually barren of nannoconids and dominated by other nannofossils, only later did a return of nannoconids mark the late aptian n. truittii (erba, 1994, see diagram (2), present study).the studied early aptian assemblages are dominated by nannoconids that drop sharply within the discolithus litterarius nannofossil zone, which may be related to nannoconid crisis recorded in early aptian. this work is supported by geochemical data illustrating that this event is accompanied with decrease in caco3 content and higher content of total organic carbon (toc) similar to those recorded in many regions in the world and specially at zagros basin in iran (mahanipour et al., 2018, 2019) giving an evidence of global change during this time, like those of early cretaceous chalk of the north sea (mutterlose and bottini, 2013). change in lithology to marls is followed by a decline in nannoconid accompanied by an increase in toc (diag. 2). the abundance trends, palaeoenvironmental and morphological changes among mesozoic calcareous nannofossil have been widely studied worldwide (williams and bralower, 1995; erba, 1994, 2004; mutterlose and ruffell, 1999; lees, 2002; bornemann et al., 2003; mattioli et al., 2004). braarudosphaera and nannoconus are generally common in early cretaceous sediments opposite to the late cretaceous which is not common (lees, 2002); the braarudosphaera is an extant taxon in recent seas, but nannoconus became extinct in the late campanian, making palaeoecological inferences more difficult for this latter genus. recent and fossil braarudosphaera are typically restricted to shelf, and their distributions must be influenced by some aspect of the neritic environment because the planktonic life in seas. however, nannoconus have been studied in details in the lower cretaceous (roth and krumbach, 1986; mutterlose, 1989, busson and noël, 1991; erba, 1994). nannoconus was recorded and widely distributed in the marginal basins of the past oceanic ecosystem (mutterlose, 1989, 1992; street and bown, 2000). this distribution pattern has led to a range of explanations 106 calcareous nannofossils and chemostratigraphy concerning their biology and paleobiology, but most have noted the link with tropical paleoenvironments (roth and krumbach, 1986; mutterlose, 1989; bown, 2005). the paleoecology of nannoconoids suggested that they were adapted to oligotrophic environments; the decline of nannoconid abundances in the oceanic anoxic event successions commonly is accompanied with an inverse relationship between nannoconid and coccolith abundances (busson and noël, 1991; coccioni et al., 1992; erba, 1994; watkins et al., 2005). however, cunha and shimabukuru (1997) reported alternating nannoconus and braarudosphaera-rich horizons and attributed these to eutrophic conditions, a feature also recorded in the black shales of the albian oae1b in france (kennedy et al., 2000; herrle, 2003). acknowledgments the work is a part of ph d work done by the first author. the authors express their thanks to the university of mosul, college of sciences, department of geology for their help in providing the available facilities leading to improve the quality of this study, thanks also are due to dr. azam mahanipour (shahid bahonar university of kerman, iran) for her fruitful comments and suggestions. literature cited aguado, r., reolid, m. and molina, e. 2016. response of calcareous nannoplankton to the late cretaceous oceanic anoxic event 2 at oued bahloul (central tunisia) palaeogeography, palaeoclimatology, palaeoecology, 459: 289–305. al-khafaf, i. h. 2018. biostratigraphy and depositional environment of balambo formation (lower-upper cretaceous) in azmer anticline northeastern iraq, unpublished ph. d. thesis, university of mosul, college of science, geology department, 102pp. al-mutwali, m. m. and al-khafaf, e. h. 2019. calcareous nannofossils biostratigraphy of the lower part of balambo formation (lower cretaceous) in azmir anticline northeastern iraq. iraqi national journal of earth sciences, 19: 19-38. al-mutwali, m. m., al-banna, n. y. and al-abbasi, m. w. 2018. biostratigraphy of upper valanginian-upper aptian balambo formation near barsarin village in rawanduz area, northeastern iraq. iraqi national journal of earth sciences, 18 (2):1 -12. armstrong, h. and brasier, m. 2005. microfossils, blackwell publishing, 296pp. bornemann, a., aschwer, u. and mutterlose, j. 2003. the impact of calcareous nannofossils on the pelagic carbonate accumulation across the jurassic-cretaceous boundary. palaeogeography, palaeoclimatology, palaeoecology, 199: 187-228. bown, p. r. 2005. early to mid-cretaceous calcareous nannoplankton from the northwest pacific ocean (odp leg 198). in: bralower, t. j., premoli silva, i. and malone, m. j. 107 al-miamary et al. 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(eds.) plankton stratigraphy. cambridge university press, cambridge, 426 pp. snyder, d. b. and barazangi, m.1986. deep crustal structure and flexure of the arabian plate beneath zagros collisional mountain belt as inferred from gravity observations. tectonics, 5: 361-373. stover, l. e. 1966. cretaceous coccoliths and associated nannofossils from france and the netherlands. micropaleontology, 12: ib-67. stampfli, g. m. and borel, g. d.2002. a plate tectonic model for the paleozoic and mesozoic constrained by dynamic plate boundaries and restored synthetic oceanic isochrones. earth and planetary science letters, 196: 17-33. stocklin, j. 1968. structural history and tectonics of iran: a review. american association of petroleum geologists bulletin, 52: 1229–1258. street, c. and bown, p. r. 2000. palaeobiogeography of early cretaceous (berriasianbarremian) calcareous nannoplankton. marine micropaleontology, 39: 265-291. talbot, c. j. and alavi, m. 1996. the past of a future syntaxis across the zagros. in g.i. alsop, d.j. blundell and davison, i. (eds.), salt tectonics. geological society special publication, 100: 89-109. van bellen, r. c., dunnington, h. v., wetzel, r. and morton, d. m. 1959. iraq. lexique stratigraphique international iii, asie; fasc. 10 a. geol. congr. comm. stratigr., centre nat. recherche, paris, 333 pp. watkins, d. k., cooper, m. j. and wilson, p. a. 2005. calcareous nannoplankton response to late albian oceanic anoxic event 1d in the western north atlantic. paleoceanography, 20:pa2010. 110 calcareous nannofossils and chemostratigraphy williams, j. r. and bralower, t. j. 1995. nannofossil assemblages, fine fraction isotopes, and the paleoceanography of the valanginian-barremian (early cretaceous) north sea basin. paleoceanography, 10: 815-839. 111 al-miamary et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2020) 16 (1): 95111. دليل ظاهرة نقص االوكسجين البحري في شمالي العراق من متحجرات النانو الكلسية علي اسماعيل الجبوري* فالح عبد المعماري*، عمر احمد البدراني* و ، كلية العلوم، جامعة الموصل، الموصل، العراقعلوم االرض*قسم 24/06/2020أريخ النشر: ، ت31/05/2020، تأريخ القبول: 03/2020 /11تأريخ االستالم: الخالصة سجلت متحجرات النانو الكلسية في الجزء العلوي من تكوين بالمبو )عمر الطباشيري( في شمالي العراق بهدف تشخيص ظاهرة نقص االوكسجين البحرية. الوصف التفصيلي للنانو الكلسية ادى الى تشخيص ووصف اربع discolithus litterariusترة المتحجروعشرون نوعا منها. وفقا لذلك، فان ف (górka, 1957) قد تم تشخيصها في الدراسة الحالية بانها تعود الى عمر .االبتيان المبكر يقل بشكل حيث ،مجاميع االبتيان المبكر تتميز بشيوع متحجر النانوكونيد ى الذي قد يعود ال و ،nannofossil zone d. litterarius كبير في النطاق فترة كارثيه مسجلة في السجل الجيولوجي في عمر االبتيان المبكر في اماكن "هذه الظاهرة تنطبق في nannoconid crisisعديدة في العالم والمسماة" الدراسة الحالية مع نقصان في كمية كاربونات الكالسيوم مع زيادة في كمية الكاربون العضوي الكلي في الصخور قيد الدراسة. bull 225 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum ben khedher and yildirim bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2024) 18 (1): 225235. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2024.18.1.0225 original article new records of spheciformes wasps (insecta, hymenoptera, apoidea) for djerba island, tunisia hassib ben khedher* and erol yıldırım** *research laboratory lr21agr03, regional research centre for horticulture and organic agriculture (crrhab) at chott meriem, sousse university, sousse, tunisia. ** department of plant protection, faculty of agriculture, atatürk university, erzurum, türkiye. corresponding author: benkhedherhassib@gmail.com received: 04 january 2024 , revised: 31 march 2024, accepted: 2 april 2024, published: 20 june 2024 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract four species of spheciformes wasps belonging to two families and two genera crabronidae latreille, 1802 (one species to the genus tachysphex kohl, 1883) and philanthidae latreille, 1802 (three species to the genus cerceris latreille, 1802) are reported for the first time from djerba island in tunisia. the distribution in tunisia and morphological description for reported species are given and illustrated. keywords: djerba island, digger wasps, morphology, new record, tunisia. introduction spheciformes are wasps belonging to hymenopteran aculeate insects and to the apoidea superfamily. worldwide, this group is composed of 10189 valid taxa distributing in 11 families and 273 genera (hanson and menke, 2006; nemkov and ohl, 2011; sann et al., 2018; puławski, 2024). in tunisia, studies made by ben khedher et al. (2020a, b, c, d; 2021a, b, c, 2022) highly contributed to the knowledge of this group of wasp fauna in the country. according to previously cited studies, the fauna of spheciformes in tunisia is estimated by at a total of 334 species and subspecies, which represents 3.90 % of the total fauna in the world. djerba island belongs to medenine province and is located in the gulf of gabes, on the coast of tunisia; it is qualified as the largest island in north africa. in this island, faunistic studies are scarce, and only some records are reported in the framework of touristic trips. for example, in the spheciformes wasps group, mokrousov and ben khedher (2020) described a new species, dinetus tunisiensis khedher and mokrousov, 2020, from the island. this paper aims to report new records of digger wasps in djerba island and to contribute so to the knowledge of this local fauna. bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799, print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2024.18.1.0225 mailto:benkhedherhassib@gmail.com https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 226 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (1): 225-235. new records of spheciformes wasps materials and methods this study is based on identified materials of spheciformes wasps deposited in the private collection of christian schmid-egger (cse) (berlin, germany) and collected from djerba island in 1994. for each identified species, its distribution in tunisia and a morphological description illustrated by digital photos are given. the morphological description is based on identified species deposited in the private collection of hassib ben khedher (hbk) and used in the dissertation of ben khedher (2020). these materials were identified using puławski (1971, 2007) for tachysphex species and schmidt (2000) and de beaumont (1951) for cerceris species. the identification results of cerceris and tachysphex species were confirmed then by prof. dr. hermann dollfuss (austria) and dr. jakub straka (czech republic) respectively. in the morphological description, the terminology and morphology of body parts and wings adopted by bitsch and leclercq (1993) were used. the classification of families follows sann et al. (2018, 2021), within families only genera are cited and species are alphabetically arranged. results and discussion in this study, four species of digger wasps belonging to two families and two genera are recorded here for the first time from djerba island, tunisia, as follows: family, crabronidae latreille, 1802 genus, tachysphex kohl, 1883 species, tachysphex albocinctus (lucas, 1849) tachytes albo cincta lucas, 1849. exploration scientifique de l’algérie pendant les années 1840, 1841 et 1842 publiée par ordre du gouvernement et avec le concours d’une commission académique, sciences physiques, zoologie, 3. histoire naturelle des animaux articulés, 3. insectes: 250. synonyms: tachytes ruficrus dufour, 1854 tachysphex syriacus kohl, 1888 tachysphex peculator nurse, 1909 tachysphex mantiraptor ferton, 1912 tachysphex argyrius gussakovskij, 1933 tachysphex dusmeti giner marí, 1934 new provincial records: medenine: djerba, 10 km southeast houmt souk, 20.vi.1994, 1 ♂ (cse). distribution in tunisia: gabes, jendouba, kebili, and tozeur (puławski, 2007); kairouan, mahdia, and tataouine (ben khedher et al., 2020b). description: length: male, 8-12 mm. body black with dense long pilosity (pl. 1a, b); head behind eyes narrow; clypeal lamella regularly curved (pl. 1d); apex of labrum with a median small notch (pl. 1d); mandible medially ferruginous; frons and vertex mat (pl. 1c); scape dorsally with pilosity; antennal segments cylindrical, longer than wide; propodeal dorsal area reticulated; basal part of propodeal posterior area longitudinally striated; legs black, tarsi 227 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum ben khedher and yildirim more or less brownish; fore femur ventrally not very notched (pl. 1f), notch covered with small hairs; apex of anal cell in hind wing very wide; postnervulus shorter than nervulus; jugal lobe distinctly large; abdomen black; posterior area of propodeum and first gastral tergum with dense wooly pilosity and the two or three following gastral terga with silvery pilosity forming bands posteriorly (pl. 1a , e). plate (1): tachysphex albocinctus (lucas, 1849); ♂: (a) dorsal habitus, (b) lateral habitus, (c, d) frontal view of head, (e) abdomen, (f) ventral habitus. family philanthidae latreille, 1802 genus cerceris latreille, 1802 species, cerceris bupresticida dufour, 1841 cerceris bupresticida dufour, 1841. annales des sciences naturelles. zoologie (série 2). 15: 353. synonyms: cerceris cristata dufour, 1841 cerceris argentifrons lepeletier, 1845 cerceris frontalis f. smith, 1856 cerceris brutia a. costa, 1867 cerceris mixta radoszkowski, 1877 cerceris quadripunctata radoszkowski, 1877 cerceris bupresticida var. nigrina giner marí, 1941 228 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (1): 225-235. new records of spheciformes wasps new provincial records: medenine: djerba, 10 km southeast houmt souk, 20.vi.1994, 1 ♂, 1 ♀. distribution in tunisia: kairouan (giner marí, 1941); jendouba, sfax, sousse (dollfuss, 2018); beja, jendouba, kairouan, kasserine, kebili, le kef, mahdia, nabeul, sousse, sidi bouzid, and tataouine (ben khedher et al., 2021b). description: length: male 6.5-10 mm. body black with yellow markings, noticeably punctate (pl. 2a); clypeus yellow; median clypeal lobe densely punctate, quite convex, apex black and medially straight (pl. 2b); mandible yellow, except apex dark; lateral sides of clypeus yellow; antennae dorsally black, ventrally ferruginous; antennal segments regularly thickened towards the apex and the last segment distinctly curved (pl. 2a); pronotal collar with two lateral and large yellow spots; mesonotum densely punctate (pl. 2d); propodeum black sometimes with two yellow spots, dorsal area not striated (pl. 2d); legs partly yellow; forewings slightly smoky apically; basal lobe of hindwings reached half of anal cell; fourth and fifth terga with yellow bands; sixth tergum always yellow (pl. 2e); sterna mostly black; posterior angles of the sixth tergum and sternum distinctly toothed laterally (pl. 2e). plate (2): cerceris bupresticida dufour, 1841; ♂: (a) dorsal habitus, (b) frontal view of head, (c) lateral habitus, (d) dorsal view of thorax, (e) dentate of the sixth sternum (red arrow). 229 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum ben khedher and yildirim species, cerceris circularis (fabricius, 1804) philanthus circularis fabricius, 1804. systema piezatorum secundum ordines, genera, species adiectis synonymis, locis, observationibus, descriptionibus. carolum reichard, brunsvigae: 304. synonyms: cerceris clitellata lepeletier, 1845 cerceris elegans dufour, 1854 cerceris dacia opulenta morice, 1911 cerceris elegantula shestakov, 1918 new provincial records: medenine: djerba, 10 km southeast houmt souk, 20.vi.1994, 2 ♂♂, 2 ♀♀. distribution in tunisia: kairouan (de beaumont, 1951); beja, jendouba, kebili, le kef, mahdia, and tataouine (ben khedher et al., 2021b). description: length: female 10-12; male 7-11 mm. body black with yellow markings (pl. 3a, d); head densely punctate, with no interspaces between punctures; clypeus yellow except anterior side dark and slightly notched; male with clypeal brush formed by a dense fringe of brown bristles (pl. 3e); clypeal midfield apically broadly, not deeply excised in female (pl. 3b); mandible yellow except apex black, with a distinct tooth at the inner edge in female; vertex with white pilosity and two yellow spots that can extend to inner eye orbits; flagellum ferruginous ventrally and more darker dorsally, with tyli only in female; interantennal carina yellow extending to anterior ocellus (pl. 3b, e); thorax black with yellow markings, covered with short white pilosity; pronotal collar yellow, rounded laterally, slightly notched medially (pl. 3e); mesonotum quite densely punctate; mesopleural lower part carinated (pl. 3c); propodeum yellow, dorsal area striated with a distinct median groove, the rest of propodeum densely punctate, with no interspaces between punctures (pl. 3f); legs yellow, sometimes hind femora of male with dark brown markings on inner sides; hind coxa along its internal edge carinated; tegula yellow with big punctures; fore wings smoky apically (pl. 3a); terga yellow with apical brown bands; sterna covered with white pilosity; second gastral sternum with a platform distinctly delimited posteriorly and without punctures (pl. 3g); pygidial plate color varying from yellow to dark brown, matt and finely sculpted in female, bright and noticeably punctate in male. 230 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (1): 225-235. new records of spheciformes wasps plate (3): cerceris circularis (fabricius, 1804); ♀: (a) dorsal habitus, (b) frontal view of head, (c) carina at lower part of mesopleuron (red arrow). ♂: (d) dorsal habitus, (e) frontal view of head with clypeal brush (red arrow), (f) dorsal view of thorax, (g) platform of second gastral sternum (red arrow). species, cerceris pulchella klug, 1845 cerceris pulchella klug, 1845. symbolae physicae seu icones et descriptiones insectorum quae ex itinere per africam borealem et asiam occidentalem frederici guilelmi hemprich et christiani godofredi ehrenberg medicinae et chirurgiae doctorum studio novae aut illustratae redierunt: 30. synonyms: cerceris alfierii mochi, 1939 cerceris alfierii var. picta mochi, 1939 cerceris pulchella scabra de beaumont, 1959 cerceris pulchella judaea de beaumont, 1970 new provincial records: medenine: djerba, 10 km southeast houmt souk, 20.vi.1994, 1 ♂ (cse). distribution in tunisia: kairouan, kasserine, kebili, mahdia, sidi bouzid, and tataouine (ben khedher et al., 2021b). description: length: male: 8-8,5 mm. body yellow; head with erect setae; clypeus sparsely punctate, median lobe convex above and flat below in male (pl. 4f), flat above and toothed at 231 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum ben khedher and yildirim lateral sides below in female (pl. 4b), male clypeal brush with dense fringe of brown bristles; mandibula yellow except apex black, with two teeth in female; frons bright, sparsely punctate; scape yellow; flagellum ferruginous, more darker dorsally, last flagellomere conical (pl. 4a); interantennal carina yellow, distinct and not reaching anterior ocellus (pl. 4b); thorax with very sparse setae; pronotal collar rounded laterally; space between anterior and posterior areas of mesopleuron very thin carinated (pl. 4e); propodeum mostly yellow, dorsal area smooth, with distinct carina medially, shortly striated laterally and basally (pl. 4c); the rest of propodeum punctate; legs yellow except ventral of hind femur and base of mid femur black; tegula yellow, with big punctures; abdomen yellow with black or ferruginous bands; sterna with white pilosity; second gastral sternum with a platform well delimited basally (pl. 4i); pygidial area sculpturing narrower in male than in female. plate (4): cerceris pulchella klug, 1845; ♀: (a) dorsal habitus, (b) frontal view of head, (c) dorsal view of thorax, (d) pygidial plate, (e) carina between anterior and posterior areas of mesopleuron. ♂: (f) frontal view of head, (g) pygidial plate, (h) dorsal habitus, (i) platform of second gastral sternum (red arrow). 232 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (1): 225-235. new records of spheciformes wasps conclusions this study represents a new contribution to the local fauna of djerba island in tunisia. four species of digger wasps are registered for the first time on the island. the morphology of the recorded species is described, and the morphological characters having taxonomic importance are illustrated. due to their important role as bioindicators of biodiversity, many faunistic studies on spheciform wasps are required to take all necessary measurements for the conservation and the maintenance of biodiversity and ecosystem equilibrium. aknowledgments we would like to thank christian schmid-egger (berlin, germany) for sending us the results of his identification of materials deposited in his private collection and originated from tunisia. sincere appreciation is also expressed to the regional research center on horticulture and organic agriculture at chott meriemsousse, tunisia, specifically to professor dr. mohamed braham for his kind support. conflict of interest statment the authors declare no conflict of interest related to the work in the manuscript. we "the authors" have followed and signed the scientific research ethics announced by the journal. literature cited ben khedher, h. 2020. tunus’un crabronidae (insecta: hymenoptera) türleri üzerinde faunistik ve sistematik çalışmalar. ph.d. thesis, atatürk university: erzurum, 258pp. ben khedher, h., yıldırım, e. and braham, m. 2020a. contribution to the knowledge of the crabronidae (hymenoptera: apoidea) fauna of tunisia. part 1: astatinae, crabroninae and pemphredoninae. munis entomology and zoology, 15(1): 100-110. [researchgate] ben khedher, h., yıldırım, e. and braham, m. 2020b. first checklist of tachysphex kohl, 1883 (hymenoptera: crabronidae) of tunisia with new distributional data. journal of the entomological research society, 22(3): 307-323. [click here] ben khedher, h., yıldırım, e., braham, m. and ljubomirov, t. 2020c. first checklist of tunisian sphecid wasps (hymenoptera: sphecidae) with new and additional records. zootaxa, 4801(2): 301-327. [crossref] ben khedher, h., yıldırım, e., braham, m. and ljubomirov, t. 2020d. description of the previously unknown male of parapsammophila errabunda (kohl, 1901) (hymenoptera: sphecidae) from tunisia. journal of insect biodiversity, 20(1): 11-16. [crossref] ben khedher, h., yıldırım, e. and braham, m. 2021a. new data on the crabronidae fauna (hymenoptera: apoidea) of tunisia. arxius de miscel.lània zoològica, 19: 53-64. [crossref] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/338337352_contribution_to_the_knowledge_of_the_crabronidae_hymenoptera_apoidea_fauna_of_tunisia_part_1_astatinae_crabroninae_and_pemphredoninae https://www.entomol.org/journal/index.php/jers/article/view/1912 https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4801.2.6 https://doi.org/10.12976/jib/2020.20.1.2 https://doi.org/10.32800/amz.2021.19.0053 233 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum ben khedher and yildirim ben khedher, h., yıldırım, e. and braham, m. 2021b. checklist of tunisian cerceris latreille, 1802 (hymenoptera: crabronidae: philanthinae) with new country and provincial records. oriental insects, 55(4): 529-551. [crossref] ben khedher, h., yıldırım, e. and braham, m. 2021c. a checklist of philanthini and pseudoscoliini (hymenoptera: crabronidae) with new records from tunisia. transactions of the american entomological society, 147(1): 1-10. [crossref] ben khedher, h., yıldırım, e. and braham, m. 2022. a checklist of bembicidae family (hymenoptera: apoidea) of tunisia. graellsia, 78(1): e159. [crossref] bitsch, j. and leclercq, j. 1993. hyménoptères sphecidae d’europe occidentale volume 1. fédération française des sociétés de sciences naturelles, france. 325 pp. de beaumont, j. 1951. contribution à l’étude des cerceris nord-africains. eos, revista española de entomologia, 27: 299-408. dollfuss, h. 2018. the sphecid wasps of the genus cerceris latreille, 1802 of the "biologiezentrum linz"-collection in linz, austria, from the palearctic region (part i). (hymenoptera, apoidea, crabronidae). linzer biologische beiträge, 50: 11251170. giner marí, j. 1941. cerceris paleárticos. ii. los cerceris del africa paleártica (hymenoptera: sphegidae). eos, revista española de entomologia, 17: 135-291. hanson, p. and menke, a. s. 2006. capitulo 17. las avipas apoideas: ampulicidae, sphecidae, crabronidae. in: hanson, p. e. and gauld, i. d. (eds.), hymenoptera de la región neotropical. memoirs of the american entomological institute, 77: 694-733. mokrousov, m. v. and ben khedher, h. 2020. description of two new species of dinetus panzer, 1806 (hymenoptera: crabronidae: dinetinae) with key to species. zootaxa, 4853(1): 117-125. [crossref] nemkov, p. g. and ohl, m. 2011. a cladistic analysis and reclassification of the tribe bembicini (hymenoptera: crabronidae: bembicinae). zootaxa, 2801: 27-47. [crossref] puławski, w. 1971. les tachysphex kohl (hym. sphecidae) de la région paléarctique occidentale et centrale. pańtwowe wydawnictwo naukowe, wroclaw, 464 pp. puławski, w. 2007. the wasp genus tachysphex kohl, 1883 of sahara, sub-saharan africa, the arabian peninsula, and madagascar (hymenoptera: apoidea: crabronidae). proceedings of the california academy of sciences (4th series), 58, supplement 1: 1698. https://doi.org/10.1080/00305316.2020.1844097b https://doi.org/10.3157/061.147.0101 https://doi.org/10.3989/graellsia.2022.v78.321 https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4853.1.7 http://dx.doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.2801.1.2 234 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (1): 225-235. new records of spheciformes wasps puławski, w. 2024. catalogue of sphecidae. california academy of sciences. (accessed on 13 march 2024). [click here] sann, m., niehuis, o., peters, r. s., mayer, c., kozlov, a., podsiadlowski, l., bank, s., meusemann, k., misof, b., bleidom, c. and ohl, m. 2018. phylogenomic analysis of apoidea sheds new light on the sister group of bees. bmc evolutionary biology, 18: 71. [crossref] sann, m., meusemann, k., niehuis, o., escalona, h. e., mokrousov, v., ohl, m., pauli, t. and schmid-egger, c. 2021. reanalysis of the apoid wasp phylogeny with additional taxa and sequence data confirms the placement of ammoplanidae as sister to bees. systematic entomology, 46: 558-569. [crossref] schmidt, k. 2000. bestimmungstabelle der gattung cerceris latreille, 1802 in europa, dem kaukasus, kleinasien, palästina und nordafrica (hymenoptera, sphecidae, philanthinae). stapfia, 71: 1-325. https://www.calacademy.org/scientists/projects/catalog-of-sphecidae https://doi.org/10.1186/s12862-018-1155-8 https://doi.org/10.1111/syen.12475 235 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum ben khedher and yildirim bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2024) 18 (1): 225-235. في جزيرة جربة، تونس الخصر لدبابير الت جديدة يسجت (insecta, hymenoptera, apoidea) إرول يلدريم** حسيب بن خضر* و و الفالحة للبحوث في البستنة الجهوي ، املركز lr21agr03*مختبر األبحاث ( بشط مريم، جامعة سوسة، سوسة، تونس.crrhab) البايولوجية ** قسم وقاية النبات، كلية الزراعة، جامعة أتاتورك، أرضروم، تركيا. 20/6/2024، النشر: 2/4/2024القبول: ،31/3/2024املراجعة: ، 4/1/2024االستالم: الخالصة ت َّ ــــــأربعة أنواع ألول مُسجل ــ رة جربة، تونس،ـــــفي جزيالخصر دبابير ن ــــــرة مــ ـــنcrabronidae latreille, 1802 (: عائلتين وجنسينتعود الى ـــ وع واحد من جنسـ (tachysphex kohl, 1883 و) philanthidae latreille, 1802 ثالثة أنواع من دت .cerceris latreille, 1802). جنس كن توزع األنواع الجديدة املسجلة في أماُحدَّ .و توثيقها مظهرياتونس و تّم وصفها bull 105 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hassan and ali bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2024) 18 (1): 105-120. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2024.18.1.0105 original article molecular study of some species of centipedes in iraq with new record of lithobius crassipes l. koch, 1862 (chilopoda, lithobiomorpha, lithobiidae) shaymaa hussein hassan and hayder badri ali department of biology, college of science, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq. corresponding author: hayder.badri@sc.uobaghdad.edu.iq received: 20 august 2023, revised: 7 dec. 2023, accepted: 28 dec. 2023, published:20 june 2024 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract the first molecular research on iraqi centipede fauna is presented in this article. between october 2022 and may 2023, during various climatic circumstances, centipedes were collected from several locations in four provinces of iraq. three families, represented by four genera, underwent molecular identification, and five species were found. from the order scolopendromorpha family scolopendridae, two species were recorded, scolopendra morsitans linnaeus, 1758, and s. cingulata latreille, 1829, cormocephalus sp.; while from the order lithobiomorpha, family lithobiidae, one species was recorded for first time in iraq; lithobius crassipes l. koch, 1862 from the order geophilomorpha family himantariidae, one species bothriogaster signata kessler, 1874. dna was extracted from the specimens, the mtdna fragment from the cytochrome c oxidase subunit i (coi) gene was amplified by using the pcr technique with appropriate primers, and subsequently, the basic local alignment search tool (blast) tool, which is accessible at the ncbi, was used. additionally, a phylogenetic tree was built, and a distant comparison was shown. keywords: centipedes, iraq, lithobius, molecular, new record. introduction about 3000 species of chilopoda have been described, and they are more frequently found in tropical and subtropical countries. their rational evolutionary history, which has a fossil record lasting 420 million years, can explain their widespread global distribution. recent investigations have demonstrated a hard phylogeny that supports theories about their biology that are based on evolution utilizing both morphological and molecular evidence (edgecomb and giribet, 2007). the inexistence centipedes are classified into five monophyletic orders. only two species of the order craterostigmomorpha (pockock, 1902) are extant species, and they are both from new zealand and tasmania, respectively (vélez et al., 2012). in contrast, the orders lithobiomorpha (pockock, 1895) and scutigeromorpha (pockock, 1895) contain bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799, print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2024.18.1.0105 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4842-151x mailto:hayder.badri@sc.uobaghdad.edu.iq https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 106 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (1): 105-120. molecular study of some species of centipedes approximately 1,100 valid species each and are both found in temperate regions of the world. with over 1,300 genuine species in 14 recognized families, the order geophilomorpha (pockock, 1896) is the most diverse and extensive group. with more than 700 recognized species, the order scolopendromorpha (pocock, 1895) is diverse in lower latitudes (edgecombe and giribet, 2007; edgecombe and bonato, 2011). there are few studies on this field in iraq. in the first papers on chilopoda from iraq were published by brolemann (1921, 1922), when he studied material from amara and jebel hamrin, he made a note including 14 species from the five orders. even though chamberlin and hoffman (1958) studied material from different parts of iraq and described three new species lithobius cuklauvus (chamberlin, 1958), m. integer (chamberlin, 1944) and ottobius irikensis (chamberlin, 1958); moreover, it recorded more than 11 species from 4 orders. advanced, würmli (1975) recorded thereuonema turkestana hamrinensis verhoeff, 1905, under the synonym t. microstoma (meinert, 1886). while dobroruka (1976) described two new species from baghdad, lewis (1986, 2001) studied the scolopendromorph fauna of iraq, and recorded several scolopendromorphs from different regions of iraq. lithobius irikensis chamberlin, 1958, was introduced by zapparoli (1993) as a new combination for the ottobius irikensis described by chamberlin and hoffman (1958), and zapparoli (1995) synonymized eupolybothrus syngenes verhoeff, 1907, under e. litoralis (l. koch, 1867) as well. the first record of the morphology, description, and distribution preferences of the fauna of scolopendromorpha centipedes in kurdistan and iraq was supplied by a number of faunistic papers (ahmed and hussen, 2017). nine species from 183 taken from various locations in the central part of iraq were recorded for the first time (aldoori, 2020). in basrah, south of iraq, al-simary et al., (2022) gathered samples from eight stations in various regions. out of the 105 specimens, five species (belonging to four orders and five families) were recognized. each species' taxonomic information was also provided. the most recent and latest annotated checklist of chilopoda from iraq contains 27 species from 13 genera, 8 families, and 4 orders (dyachkovi et al., 2023). in the current paper, the specimens of local centipedes were identified using genetic techniques. utilizing the neighbor-joining method, a phylogenetic tree was created utilizing several other samples from genbank to enhance molecular information for the centipedes in iraq, by the present molecular study, and establish phylogenetic relationship patterns for the collected species, using molecular data from the cytochrome c oxidase subunit (coi) analyses. materials and methods specimens' collection: the specimens collected from different geographic locations in iraq include four provinces baghdad, wasit, salahaddin, and diyala in the middle of iraq. all studied specimens were hand-collected in one place. the collection period was from october 107 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hassan and ali 2022 to may 2023, using a forceps and direct hand pickup to collect them from the soil, and under stones and remnants of mud pieces and tree roots, specimens were stored in glass tubes, then transferred to the laboratory for the purpose of killing them, and then preserved in 70% ethanol. taxonomic nomenclature and species identification were based on the following literature: schileyko (2007), siriwut et al. (2015), and ganske et al. (2018). specimens preparing for molecular studies: the following steps were adopted for this purpose: 1dna extraction: utilizing the geneid dna extraction kit, dna was extracted from 11 samples using a modified version of the manufacturer's usual recommended approach. the ultimate legs of centipedes were detached from their bodies and repeatedly rinsed with distilled water to remove excess alcohol. dna was then isolated using a dneasy blood and tissue kit from the dehydrated muscle tissues of the ultimate legs. 2primers preparing: specific primers were used to obtain and amplify the partial mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit i gene (coi), the forward lco 1490 (5′ggtcaacaaatcataaagatattgg-3′) (baker et al., 2019) with the reverse hco2198, (5′-taaacttcagggtgaccaaaaaatca-3′) (oeyen, 2014; kang et al., 2017). 3dna amplification: specific primers were used to obtain and amplify the partial mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit i gene (coi). polymerase chain reaction (pcr) typically used 5µl of dna extract as a template for the pcr reaction, as mentioned above. after the optimization condition of the pcr cycler program (bioneer, crop, daejeon, korea), the reactions were amplified for 35 cycles. 4gel electrophoresis: the amplification of 11 sample specimens’ products was confirmed by using 1.5% agarose gel electrophoresis in a 1 x tbe buffer and then stained to visualize with 4 % ethidium bromide in uv light at 320 nm, the molecular weight of the specific target bands is 710 bp. 5sequencing of pcr products and phylogenetic analysis: using the partial sequence and the sanger sequencing technique (sanger et al., 1977), the forward primer lco 1490 was applied, for sequencing, macrogene company, korea, received the pcr of the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit i (coi) gene product to validate the identification of the 11 specimens, the phylogenetic tree was prepared using a mega x program. results and discussion from the family scolopendridae, two species were recorded, scolopendra morsitans, s. cingulate, and the genus cormocephalus, while from the families lithobiidae, and himataridae, one species lithobius crassipes, and bothriogaster signata, respectively, were recorded (tab. 1). 108 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (1): 105-120. molecular study of some species of centipedes table (1): include families, genera and species in the study. family genus species scolopendridae scolopendra linnaeus, 1758 scolopendra morsitans linnaeus, 1758 s. cingulata (latreille, 1829) cormocephalus newport, 1844 cormocephalus sp. lithobiidae lithobius leach, 1814 lithobius crassipes (l. koch, 1862) himataridae bothriogaster (sseliwanoff, 1879) bothriogaster signata (kessler, 1874) order, scolopendromorpha family, scolopendridae genus, scolopendra linnaeus, 1758 species, scolopendra morsitans linnaeus, 1758 synonyms: scolopendra morsitans amazonica bücherl, 1946 s. morsitans procera haase, 1887 s. morsitans calcarata daday, 1891 s. morsitans fasciata attems, 1930 s. morsitans scopoliana c.l. koch, 1841 s. brandtiana gervais, 1837 s. bilineata brandt, 1840 s. crassipes brandt, 1840 s. erythrocephala brandt, 1840 s. elegans brandt, 1841 s. fulvipes brandt, 1841 s. angulipes newport, 1844 s. leachii newport, 1844 s.colopendra longicornis newport, 1844 s. platypoides newport, 1844 s. tuberculidens newport, 1844 s. algerina newport, 1845 s. fabricii newport, 1845 s. formosa newport, 1845 s. richardsoni newport, 1845 s. tigrina newport, 1845 s. varia newport, 1845 s. tongana gervais, 1847 s.infesta koch, 1847 s.planipes koch, 1847. s. pella wood, 1861 s.porphyratainia wood, 1861 s. brachypoda peters, 1862 s. mossambica peters, 1862 s. compressipes wood, 1862 s. carinipes humbert & saussure, 1870 s. afzelii porat, 1871 s. lineata saussure & zehntner, 1902 s. spinosella saussure & zehntner, 1902 trachycormocephalus jodhpurensis khanna, 1977 109 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hassan and ali material examined (28♂♂, 19♀♀): baghdad province: al-jadriyah, 33°16'46.6"n 44°23'06.4"e, 7♂♂, 4♀♀ 8.ii.2023; almahmudiyah 6 ♂♂ 4♀♀ 3.iii.2023, (33°3′42″n 44°21′15″e); almadain, 33.0993° n, 44.5807° e, 5♂♂, 5♀♀ 22.iii.2023; al-tarmiah, 33.6732° n, 44.3615° e, 6♂♂, 4♀♀ 8.iv.2023. wasit province, alazizia, 32°54'38.5"n 45°03'46.8"e, 4♂♂, 2 ♀♀ 12.ii.2023 distribution: it's widespread in the world, including north and south america, the caribbean islands, europe, africa, the arabian peninsula, pakistan, india and the indian ocean islands, southeast asia, australia, and new zealand (akkari et al., 2008; lewis, 2010; siriwut et al., 2015). in iraq, chamberlin (1944) recorded several species belonging to three orders; which represent one of them as being the first record which is s. morsitans. plate (1): female of scolopendra morsitans. species, scolopendra cingulata latreille, 1829 synonyms: rhombocephalus parvus newport, 1845 r. viridifrons newport, 1844 s. banatica c.l.koch, 1847 s. cingulatoides newport, 1844 s.doriae pirotta, 1878 s.fulva gervais, 1847 s. graeca c.l.koch, 1847 s. hispanica newport, 1845 s.italica c.l.koch, 1837 s. nigrifrons c.l.koch, 1847 s.obscura c.l.koch, 1863 s. penetrans c.l.koch, 1847 s. pulchra c.l.koch, 1847 s.savignyii newport, 1845 s. thracia verhoeff, 1928 s.venefica l.koch, 1856 s. violantis pirotta, 1878 s. zonata c.l.koch, 1847 s. zwickiana c.l.koch, 1863 material examined (2♀♀): baghdad province, al-jadriyah, 33°17′17″n 44°23′35″e, 8.ii.2023. 110 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (1): 105-120. molecular study of some species of centipedes global distribution: mediterranean area portugal, spain, france, slovenia, croatia, bosniaherzegovina, serbia ,hungary, romania, bulgaria, albania, greece, turkey, sicily, corsica, sardinia, crete, cyprus, (absent in balearics), ukraine, s. europe .russia in the caucasus, tajikistan, lebanon, palestine, jordan, egypt, syria, iran. madagascar, the andaman, and nicobar islands (wang and mauriès, 1996). it was listed for china, referring to haase (1887). in iraq, chamberlin (1944) was also the first who recorded this species. plate (2): female of scolopendra cingulate. genus, cormocephalus newport, 1844 cormocephalus sp. material examined (1♀): baghdad province, alyusufiyah, 33.0791° n 44.2520° e, 3.i.2023. global distribution: southern europe, africa, madagascar, philippines, new guinea, new britain, the solomon island, micronesia, india, bangladesh, sri lanka, new caledonia, australia (including tasmania), new zealand, the galapagos islands, central america, the west indies, and south america (koch, 1983; edgecombe et al., 2019). in iraq, al-doori et al. (2020) recorded cormocephalus nigrificatus (verhoeff, 1937) from al-qadisiyah province which represents the only species that belongs to this genus (dyachkov et al., 2023). since the only specimen obtained was damaged in its last segment, we could not diagnose the model at the species level. plate (3): female of cormocephalus sp. 111 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hassan and ali order, lithobiomorpha family, lithobiidae genus, lithobius leach, 1814 species, lithobius crassipes l.koch, 1862 synonyms: archeobius ulterior chamberlin, 1952 archilithobius longipes attems, 1907 lithobius atrifrons silvestri, 1896 l. ephessoensis matic, 1980 l. (monotarsobius) ephessosensis matic, 1980 l. (monotarsobius) ercijasus verhoeff, 1943 l. (monotarsobius) olympicus verhoeff, 1941 l. podokes attems, 1903 l. riggioi matic, 1968 l. stictonotus manfredi, 1957 l (monotarsobius) ulterior chamberlin, 1952 material examined (1♂): baghdad province, al husseiniya, 33°32'48.0"n 44°25'00.0"e, 23.ii.2023. global distribution: wang (1963) verified only one specimen of monotarsobius crassipes from shao tso kiang in taiwan (chao, 2010), also established the presence of this species in taiwan. as well, it distributes in albania, algeria, austria, belgium, bosnia-herzegovina, bulgaria, the canary islands central european russia, finland, croatia, denmark, germany, great britain, france, greece, hungary, ireland, italy, luxembourg, macedonia, madeira, the netherlands, norway, poland, romania, slovakia, slovenia, spain, sweden, switzerland, tunisia, turkey, and ukraine.( zapparoli, 2006). in iraq, there are three species recorded from this genus, including: lithobius microps meinert, 1868; l. aeruginosus (l. koch, 1862), and l. fossipes brölemann, 1922 (aldoori, 2020; dyachkovi et al., 2023), in addition to l. ferganensis (trotzina, 1894), while this species was recorded for the first time for the centipedes in iraq. plate (4): male of lithobius crassipes. 112 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (1): 105-120. molecular study of some species of centipedes order, geophilomorpha family, himantariidae genus, bothriogaster sseliwanoff, 1879 bothriogaster signata (kessler, 1874) synonyms: bothriogaster affinis sseliwanoff, 1879 b. africanus sseliwanoff, 1881 b. arasana verhoeff, 1943 b. cyrenaica verhoeff k.w., 1908 b. egyptiacus attems, 1896 b. meinerti sseliwanoff, 1879 b. porigera verhoeff, 1901 b. thesei attems, 1902 b. tunetanum verhoeff, 1899 b. wohlberedti verhoeff, 1934 himantarium taeniatum meinert,1886 notiphilus sanguineus c.l. koch, 1847 n. taeniatus c.l. koch, 1847 material examined (2♂♂, 1♀): saladin province, al-hamra village, 34°45′15″n43°36′22″e, 2♂♂, 22.iii.2023, muhazam village, 34°43′40″n43°38′36″e, 1♀, 22.ii.2023. global distribution: eastern mediterranean region (zapparoli, 1991; stoev, 2000), through western asia, central asia, turkmenistan, uzbekistan, tajikistan, kazakhstan, (kessler, 1874), balkan peninsula, cyprus, north africa, and russia (volgograd region and south kazakhstan regions). a new checklist of centipedes from iran in the alborz mountains (zarei and rahimian, 2020). in iraq, attems (1929) was recorded this species. plate (5): female of bothriogaster signata. 113 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hassan and ali molecular identification conventional pcr results: coi (710-bp) fragment was amplified by the primer pair (lco1490 f/ hco2198 r). consistently across the widest variety of invertebrates, including centipedes (folmer, et al., 1994). results indicated a success rate of 11/11 effective dna amplification. the mitochondrial dna-coi gene's highly conserved regions were amplified using dna amplification. when products of mitochondrial dna fragments run in 1.5% agarose gel during gel electrophoresis, the particular band with the pcr test was seen in plate (6). plate (6): amplification of polymerase coding region (710bp) coi of specimens by using conventional pcr. the replicons run on agarose gel 1.5% and visualized with trans illuminator, m: dna ladder (100bp). sequencing analysis: according to our investigation, 62 specimens of chilopoda have been collected since its initiation (october 2022) to (may 2023). dna was extracted from 11 centipedes’ specimens; the results of the dna sequences showed only six specimens were successfully sequenced, the nucleotide sequences of specimens were analysed for alignment, and the basic local alignment search tool (blast) program is available online at the national centre for biotechnology information (ncbi). the acquired sequences' phylogenetic analysis showed that they were closely related to the query sequences collected from the genbank. the genbank records for several of these sequences revealed that they were classified as belonging to species that are phylogenetically remote from the locations of their local documented distribution. the bit score is a statistical indicator of moral similarity, and a greater value denotes a high level of resemblance. the definition of the expectation value (e) is that it provides an assessment of the frequency with which it is anticipated to encounter such coincidences and lowers the e-value. this suggests that there was a significant degree of similarity between sequences, which increases confidence; if it is very close to or equal to zero, then the sequences are the same as those in table (2). the specimen lithobius crassipes and the specimen bothriogaster signata had 100 % identity by 660 bits (357) and 0.0 expect, and 607 bits (672) and 1e-176 expect, 114 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (1): 105-120. molecular study of some species of centipedes respectively. these two samples had a position of 654 in genbank query. the species lithopius crassipes (family: lithobiidae) is a new record for the iraqi centipede fauna. table (2): sequencing id in genbank, show score, expect, and compatibility of mitochondrial dna sequences for six centipedes’ specimens. the study's sequence specimens and the same species' deposited (coi) gene copies in the ncbi database were compared, and the results revealed a high identity of more than 80% with the same reference species with accession numbers (tab.3). the specimen from baghdad that was recognized as scolopendra morsitans demonstrated identification (97%) when compared to scolopendra morsitans on 923747 vietnam and kr 705665 thailand. this specimen has a different accession number due to the nucleotide polymorphism, which is supported by the alignment matrix. additionally, the scolopendra cingulata specimen revealed an identity of 82% and a score of 446 consistent with 95% identity to the specimen with accession numbers jn688413 greece, as shown in the phylogenetic tree in diagram (1). in general, the scolopendridae family is a genera-rich family that made its species identification using molecular characteristics an approach in alpha taxonomy. the molecular approach, which offered 97%, 100% compatibility to the genus lithobius crassipes and bothriogaster signata, however, revealed that the two families, lithubiidea and himataridae, have many similar traits and have a rich-genera distribution. the specimen cormocephalus sp. has an identity of 81% with a score of 525 bits (284), and expect 4e-144 belongs to the family scolopendridae that contains the sample with an identity of 97 % with mz305647 australia. phylogenetic tree: the similarity matrix of coi gene local sample isolates in table (2) serves as an analysis of the data gathered. with the phylogenetic tree, a distance comparison is also shown (diag. 1). in the phylogenetic tree of our study, we noticed that local lithobius crassipes is grouped into one branch with the same species from canada, france, and specimen no. genus species genbank id. score (bits) expect identity position in genbank 1 scolopendra morsitans kr705661.1 531 2e-153 82% 49-665 2 s. morsitans kr705664.1 564 2e-163 82% 34-650 3 s. cingulata jn688413.1 446 4e-126 82% 18-532 5 lithobius crassipes kx458776.1 660 0.0 87% 50-649 7 cormocephal us sp mz503647.1 525 4e-144 81% 34-680 9 bothriogaster signata graeca ay288749.1 607 1e-176 81% 31-645 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nucleotide/kr705661.1?report=genbank&log$=nucltop&blast_rank=1&rid=r1d14g7r016 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nucleotide/kr705664.1?report=genbank&log$=nucltop&blast_rank=1&rid=r1d9gggp013 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nucleotide/kp648275.1?report=genbank&log$=nuclalign&blast_rank=1&rid=9zcy2wvj015 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nucleotide/kp648275.1?report=genbank&log$=nuclalign&blast_rank=1&rid=9zcy2wvj015 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nucleotide/ky587585.1?report=genbank&log$=nuclalign&blast_rank=5&rid=9zhjrk1x015 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nucleotide/ky587585.1?report=genbank&log$=nuclalign&blast_rank=5&rid=9zhjrk1x015 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nucleotide/jx023594.1?report=genbank&log$=nuclalign&blast_rank=1&rid=a0zv8fns015 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nucleotide/jx023594.1?report=genbank&log$=nuclalign&blast_rank=1&rid=a0zv8fns015 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nucleotide/jx023594.1?report=genbank&log$=nuclalign&blast_rank=1&rid=a0zv8fns015 115 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hassan and ali germany, and also bothriogaster signata is grouped into one branch with the same species from australia. although local species scolopendra morsitans, s. cingulate, and unidentified species of the genus cormocephalus sp. did not unite with its counterparts in one group, their relationships were very clear that they are close to its counterparts. we also find that this tree is very similar to the phylogenetic tree presented by wang et al. (2022), where the relationship of order lithobiomorpha with geophilomorpha is closer than the relationship with scolopendromorpha. the relationships identified in the present study are consistent with the conclusions obtained from a previous study (hu et al., 2020; wang et al., 2022). diagram (1): phylogenetic tree constructed of cytochrome oxidase i gene sequences centipedes from different provinces in iraq; local specimens with red marks, a measure of distance between taxa is indicated by the scale bar below the tree. 116 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (1): 105-120. molecular study of some species of centipedes conclusions in the present article, 5 chilopoda species from 3 families and 3 orders are known from iraqi fauna. this study characterizes the first molecular study of centipedes in iraq. the phylogenetic relationship is made by the sequence of the partial mtdna-coi gene, and a phylogenetic tree was also constructed. the analysis resulted in a record of the species lithobius crassipes (l.koch, 1862) (chilopoda, lithobiomorpha, lithobiidae) for the first time in iraq. our study identified a close relationship between lithobiomorpha and geophilomorpha. the distance comparison was also provided with the phylogenetic tree. conflict of interest statement the authors have no conflicts of interest to declare. we "the authors" have followed and signed the scientific research ethics announced by the journal. literature cited ahmed, s. t. and hussen, f. s. 2017. first record of two scolopendromorph centipedes; scolopendra subspinipes leach (1815) and scolopendra polymorpha wood, (1861) with additional notes on scolopendra cingulata latreille, (1829) in iraq. zanco journal of pure and applied sciences, 28(6): 174-182. 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( في العراق مع تسجيل centipedesدراسة جزيئية لبعض انواع مئوية االقدام ) lithobius crassipes l. koch, 1862جديد للنوع (chilopoda, lithobiomorpha, lithobiidae) شيماء حسين حسن و حيدر بدري علي لعلوم, جامعة بغداد, بغداد,العراق.اقسم علوم الحياة, كلية 20/6/2024، النشر: 28/12/2023القبول: ، 7/12/2023املراجعة: ، 20/8/2023الم: االست الخالصة جمعت قدمت هذه الدراسة أول عمل جزيئي حول حيوانات مئويات األقدام في العراق. 2022محافظات عراقية للفترة ما بين تشرين األول 4مئويات األقدام من تجمعات مختلفة في عائالت ممثلة بـاربع 3في ظروف مناخية مختلفة. تم إجراء التعريف الجزيئي لـ 2023ومايو scolopendra morsitans كل من:, سجل scolopendromorphaمن رتبة أنواع. 5 وأجناس linnaeus, 1758 وs. cingulata latreille, 1829 و cormocephalus sp. , سجل ألول كما , geophilomorpha. ومن رتبة ,1862lithobius crassipes (l. koch) مرة في العراق النوع استخلص الحمض النووي من .bothriogaster signata kessler 1874سجل نوع واحد وهو cytochrome c oxidase subunit i (coi ), من جين mtdnaالعينات , وضخم جزء باستخدام البادئ املحدد, وبعد ذلك تم تطبيق برنامج أداة املحاذاة املحلية األساسية (blast التابع للموقع )ncbiرسمت شجرة النشوء والتطور باستخدام مقارنة املسافة .. bull 267 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum malla and saida bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2022) 17 (2): 267-290. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2022.17.2.0267 original article a survey of ecto and endo-parasites of house mouse mus musculus linnaeus, 1758 of erbil city, kurdistan region, iraq trifa khurshid malla* and louis abdulahad saida biology department, education college, salahaddin university, erbil, iraq *corresponding author e-mail: tarifa.malla@student.su.edu.krd recived date: 30 july 2022, accepted date 1 november 2022, published date:20 december 2022 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract in the present survey 18 species of endo and ecto-parasites were recorded during the examination of 50 mus musculus (linnaeus, 1758) among 10 localities in erbil city, of which 7 species were protozoan and as follows : chilomastix bettencourti (da fonseca 1915) 82%; giardia muris (filice, 1952) 68%; tritrichomonas muris (grassi,1879) 36%; entamoeba histolytica (schaudinn,1903) 24%; entamoeba coli (grassi,1879)32%; eimeria sp. 28% and trypanosoma musculi (kendall,1906) 2%; and 8 species were helminthes as follows: 4 cestodes: rodentolepis nana (von siebold, 1852) 8%; hymenolepis diminuta (rudolphi, 1819) 2%; larval stage of echinococcus granulosus (batsch, 1786)8%, cysticercus fasciolaris (rudolphi, 1808) 6%, 4 nematodes: aspiculuris tetraptera (nitzsch, 1821) 8%; syphacia obvelata (rudolphi, 1802) 36%; syphacia muris (yamaguti, 1935) 2% and trichuris muris (schrank, 1788)10%; and 3 species of ectoparasites were diagnosed as follows: the oriental rat flea xenopsylla cheopis (rothschild, 1903) 2.0%, the spined rat louse polyplax spinulosa (burmeister, 1839)16.0%, and the mite laelaps nuttalli (hirst, 1916) 4.0%. endo-multiple infections had been noticed, as single (26%); double 50.0%; triple (22.0%) and tetra infections 2.0%. no significant differences were found between the sexes and weights of mice. the mice of hayaskary and langa were high infected with parasites. in the current study, we recorded the infection of the liver of mus musculus with larval stage of echinococcus granulosus (hydatid cyst) as the first natural infection in iraq. keywords: ectoparasite, endoparasites, erbil city, iraq, mus musculus. introduction the importance of rodents in the spread of zoonosis is a reflection of their ecology. rodents are present in all biotopes worldwide, being able to breed rapidly, eat a wide variety of food and adapt to fast environmental changes (ingram et al., 2013). the study of animal parasites presents in human environments, such as mice and rats, is of great medical importance because some of these parasites can be transmitted to humans and cause serious diseases (meehan, 1984). rabiee et al. (2018) mentioned that rodents are significant sources bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799-print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2022.17.2.0267 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3869-9032 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5772-9503 mailto:tarifa.malla@student.su.edu.krd https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 268 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum a survey of ecto and endo-parasites of parasitic zoonosis in humans, and they discussed the economic harm of mus musculus in agriculture by causing economic losses, also it acts as a vector of diseases by transmitting many diseases to humans and animals in several ways, and its role in causing fear and terror to many people. the study of rodents due to three aims: first rodents cause economic losses in various forms in farmers, fields, facilities, homes, and others. second, rodents are transmitting many diseases to humans and animals in several ways. third, rodents cause fear and terror to many people (al-zahidy, 2001). rodents are serving as reservoirs and vectors of at least 70 zoonotic diseases, of which 16 are helminthes parasites of humans, and animals and the environment plays a significant role in the emergence and transmission of different infectious diseases (thompson and kutz, 2019). according to the world health organization (who, 2020), any disease or infection that is naturally transmissible from vertebrate animals to humans or from humans to animals is classified as a zoonosis. most humans are in contact with animals in a way or another; more than 60% of human pathogens are zoonotic in origin. this includes a wide variety of bacteria, viruses, fungi, protozoa, parasites, and other pathogens (rahman et al., 2020). many researches and studies have been conducted in the world about parasitic infections in rats and mice for the purpose of knowing their spread, geographical distribution and the factors affecting them because of their great importance to human health; most infectious diseases affecting humans are thought to have zoonotic potential (who, 2000). zoonotic diseases, especially those associated with rodents and other wildlife; pose a significant threat to human health and wellbeing (daszak et al., 2000; cleaveland et al., 2001). an increasing number of cases associated to parasitic zoonosis were recorded in some parts of the world (han et al., 2015; hassell et al., 2017; who, 2020) in which factors believed to be responsible for this escalation include, habitat modification, overpopulation, and mass migration. all these occur as a result of natural or man-made disasters (chomel et al., 2007). residential areas, especially urban settings are of great concern considering the emergence of zoonotic diseases. in iraq, the first study about rodent parasites was done in baghdad by senekji (1940), he recorded four species of intestinal flagellates as follows; hexamita muris, trichomonas muris, chilomastix muris, and giardia muris; and three species of intestinal amoeba entamoeba muris, entamoeba histolytica and e. coli., in addition to two blood protozoans (trypanosoma lewisi and bartonella muris). the first study in erbil city about rodent's parasites was done by molan and hussein (1988) they recorded 11 species of endoparasites in the intestine, livers, and blood of a total of 232 rodents mus musculus, rattus rattus, and rattus norvegicus. these parasites were as follows; trypanosoma lewisi, trypanosoma musculi, hymenolepis nana, hymenolepis diminuta, and larval stage cysticercus fascioliasis belongs to hydatigera taeniaeformis, mathevotaenia rodentium, and 3 nematodes, syphacia obvelata, aspicularis tetraptera, trichuris muris, and one acanthocephala, moniliformis moniliformis in addition to fasciola hepatica. previously at the same area, saida (2016a) recorded 4 species of intestinal protozoan parasites (e. muris, trichomonas muris, giardia muris and emeria sp., and 2 species of cestodes rodentolepis nana, hymenolepis diminuta with 2 species of mouse 269 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum malla and saida pinworm aspicularis tetraptera and syphacia obvelata. the result of saida (2016a) study showed that prevalence of intestinal parasites among mice collected from hayaskary were highly infected 29.4% compared with the other localities in the same area, and not included the study of ectoparasites in mice. according to the role played by rodents, (rats and mice) in transmitting many parasitic diseases to humans and their pets, and since the rodents in the city of erbil did not receive a share of interest in studies commensurate with their danger to humans, the aim of the current study came to know the parasitic fauna of mus musculus. materials and methods mice collection a total of 50 mus musculus linnaeus, 1758 live-captured were collected from 10 different popular localities in erbil city during 2021 to 2022. trapping of live mice was carried out during the period by using the homemade mouse trap (pl. 1). mice were collected from ten popular regions and markets as follows (each has 5 mice) (map1). havalan, saydawa, banslawa, badawi, park 32, sinaa shymalia, zanko, hayaskary (nawros), langa, and sarbasty. plate (1): show homemade mouse trap (23cm. x11cm.) (photo by t. kh. malla). 270 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum a survey of ecto and endo-parasites map (1): erbil city map, show the ten places of collecting house mouse. (from: https://www.google.com/search?q=map+of+erbil+city+iraq) dissecting and examination of mice the living models were brought to the laboratory of advanced parasitology research in the department of biology, college of education, salahaddin university. the special questionnaire was organized for each mouse, which included the date and place of collection, its sex, and weight. mice were isolated into two weight groups (<13g and 13 g and over) based on (brooks et al., 1987). cotton moistened with chloroform was used to anesthetize mice after they were weighed with an electronic scale. a 5ml syringe was used to draw blood from the heart to detect blood parasites. the external parasites are then looked for using a manual magnifying lens. each mouse was dissected after fixing it using staples in a special dissection dish by making an incision along the ventral side, starting from the back towards the front to show the internal viscera clearly. after that, the liver and digestive tract were examined with the naked eye to detect large parasites, if present. the digestive tract was cut from its two areas connecting the pharynx and the outlet into four parts (esophagus, stomach, small intestine, and large intestine). these parts, as well as the liver, were placed in glass dishes (petri dishes) containing physiological saline solution (normal saline) at a concentration of 0.85%. then these parts were carefully opened with small scissors and left for 5-10 minutes to bring down the parasites, if any, to the bottom. the sludge was poured to keep the parasites at the bottom. after removing the internal organs, it became possible to see any parasites that may be present in the body cavity. https://www.google.com/search?q=map+of+erbil+city+iraq 271 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum malla and saida collection and mounting of the parasites (i) blood parasites: after making a blood smear (light and thick), it was left to dry in the air, then fixed with absolute methyl alcohol for one minute, then it was dyed with giemsa stain for one hour, then washed off and left to dry and then examined under the compound olympus microscope to detect parasites at a magnification of 40x and 100x (zeibig, 1997). (ii) intestinal parasites: a-protozoan parasites: after opening the alimentary canal, a number of its contents were taken with wooden sticks and placed on both sides of a clean glass slide. one of them was mixed with a drop of physiological salt solution (normal saline) and the other with a drop of lugols iodine, then covered each of them with the cover slide and examined under the light microscope with a magnification of 40 &100x (ichhpujani and bhatia, 1994). bhelminthes: the intestinal sections containing tapeworms were placed in a water bath at 37°c for 15-30 minutes to facilitate the separation of the scolex from the intestine wall. after that, the tapeworms were removed and washed with normal saline and their bodies were then fixed with 10% formalin and dyed with aceto-carmine stain; the nematodes were washed with normal saline using a dropper to remove suspended matter, then killed using hot ethyl alcohol 70%, then placed in a glass bottle numbered with the sample number containing a mixture of glycerin and alcohol (95% ethyl alcohol 70% with 5% glycerin) to fix them with using drops of lactophenol for clarifying the parts during the examination (sawada et al., 1987) relied on margolis et al. (1982), in calculating the percentage and intensity of infection. identification of endo and ectoparasites endo-parasites: the diagnosis of protozoan parasites is based on kudo (1966). while the diagnosis of the helminth’s parasites (cestodes and nematodes) was based on (yamaguti, 1959; 1961; 1963; rai et al., 1996). ectoparasites: the diagnoses of ectoparasites were based on cdc (2003). all photos of present study were taken by a camera of samsung a31 (48 mp). histological examination liver and hydatid cysts (pl. 3), were fixed in 10% formalin embedded in paraffin, cut into 5-μm sections, and stained with hematoxylin-eosin, and images were obtained using light microscopy to evaluate the tissue structure and pathological changes (zhang et al., 2017). statistical analysis the results were statically analyzed using the graph pad prism version (9). we used the chisquare x2 test to find significant or non-significant differences between sexes, weights, and incidence rates based on corruccini (1975). 272 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum a survey of ecto and endo-parasites results a total number of 50 house mouse mus musculus linnaeus, 1758 (33 males and 17 females) were examined in the present study from ten different localities (havalan, saydawa, banslawa, badawi, park32, sinaa shymalia, zanko, hayaskary (nawros), langa, and sarbasty) in erbil city the capital of kurdistan iraq. the total of mice examined and the results of parasitic infection were as follow as: 11 (22.0%) ectoparasites, 49 (98.0%) protozoa, 12 (24.0%) cestodes and 28 (56.0%) nematodes (tab. 1). table (2) shows the relation between two groups with different weights of both sexes of mus musculus and their parasitic groups. statically analysis of this table showed no significant differences (p-value = 0.3723) found between small and large mice infected with different species of parasites, despite the mice of large weights were high infected than small weights. table (3) shows the species of infections as single, double, triple and tetra infections. we found that the high species of infection 25 (50%) was as double infections among the total mice infected, then followed by single species 13 (26%) while the low percentage was 1 (2%) in tetra (4 species infection). table (4) is showing the species of helminthic parasite infections among 50 mice examined in erbil city. in the present study, we found that the nematode syphacia obvelata 18 (36%) was a high percentage of infection, followed by trichuris muris 5 (10%), and aspicularis tetraptera, 4(8%), rodentolepis nana 4 (8%), and hydatid cysts 4 (8%), and the larva cysticercus fasciolaris 3 (6%), and finally, each of syphacia muris and hymenolepis diminuta was 1 (2%). no significant differences were found between both males and females p-value= 0.7932. the recording of hydatid cysts during a survey in 4 of mus musculus infected naturally in erbil city in this study was the first natural infection in iraq. in this study, we recorded three species of ecto-parasites and seven species of protozoa parasites as follows ectoparasites: lice polyplax spinulose 8 (16%), flea xenopsylla cheopis 1 (2%) and the mite laelaps nuttalli 2 (4%) and protozoan parasites were chilomastix bettencurti 41 (82%), giardia muris 34 (68%), tritrichomonas muris 18 (36%), entamoeba histolytica 12 (24%), entamoeba coli 16 (32%), eimeria sp. 14 (28%) and blood parasite trypanosoma musculi 1 (2%). no significant differences in infection were found between males and females at a pvalue = 0.6649 (tab. 5). discussion (i) protozoan parasites: the total of house mouse examined was 49 (98%) of which 7 species were infected with protozoan parasites, 6 of these species were intestinal. blood parasite: in the present study we found trypanosoma musculi in one female mouse only, 1(2%) among five mice of badawa locality. the trypanosoma musculi was recorded for the first time in iraq in erbil city by molan and hussein (1988) during the examination of 105 mus musculus, they found this parasite in 4 mice, one infection was in females (1.66%) and 3 in males (6.66%). in the present study, we found this blood parasite, one female mouse 273 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum malla and saida with a percentage of 1.2%. molan and hussein (1988) mentioned that male of mice was highly infected with trypanosome musculi and this might be due to the effect of sex factor. andrews and white (1936) showed that the sex of the host has an effect on the rate of infection with this species of trypanosoma. the rate of low infection (2%) that we found in this study was agreed with those previous studies in iraq, in baghdad city, the percent infection was 1.4% (hasson, 2010). trypanosome musculi is the blood parasite of subfamily mammalian host (family murinae) and this parasite is transmitted by the flea xenopsylla cheopis (davis, 1952), in the present study we recorded this species of flea in one mouse only. intestinal protozoa: giardia muris: this species of parasite is belonging to the flagellate's intestinal protozoa parasites, and can infect both house mouse and rats, and other rodents (smyth, 1962). most protozoa have a direct life cycle and are transmitted through food contaminated with feces, and are host specific, though can have a zoonotic importance. this parasite was first recorded in iraq, baghdad city by senekji (1940), in rats with the rate of infection (2.59%). the disease effect of this parasite on the host is not known, but oldham (1967) stated that severe infections with this parasite lead to a change in the color of the intestines of the host to yellow. there are some studies conducted on the prevalence of mice protozoa in iraq. in terms of comparison, our findings showed a high prevalence of giardia muris than that recorded by many previous studies saleh (1975) in mosul city with an infection rate (16.1%); al-morshidy (2001) in hilla city, babylon province recorded this parasite with an infection rate of 6.9% and saida (2016a) in erbil city with rate of infection (11.7%). in the current study, this parasite was recorded with a high infection rate (68%). the direct contact among different rodents plays a major role in the spread of infection with this parasite. perhaps the difference in the rate of infection recorded in the current study with the rest of the previous studies is due to this reason, noting that saleh (1975) showed that there was no effect of the seasons on the infection of house mice with this parasite in mosul city. chilomastix bettencourti (da fonseca 1915): this parasite is infecting both rats and mice (smyth, 1962). this parasite was recorded for the first time in iraq by al-morshidy (2001) in rats and mice of hilla city, babylon province; he found the active and cystic phase of this parasite in the large intestine of house mice and black rats with rates of infection (11% and 6.3%), respectively. in our study, we recorded this parasite in the large intestine of 41 mice with a rate of infection of 82%. females (88.2%) were highly infected than males (78.8%), and no significant infections were found between males and females at p-value = 0.6649 (tab. 5). the reason for the high rate of infection recorded for this parasite in the present study may be due to the presence of rodents in a particular place, with the source of infection. as the transmission of parasites between animals occurs directly through contamination of their food with the cysts of the parasite shed with the feces of infected rodents, all may play a major role in the spread of infection with this parasite. tritrichomonas muris (grassi, 1879): this parasite is one of the most common protozoa detected not only in mice but also in other rodents (roach et al., 1988). the main transmission route of infection of this parasite is by ingestion of pseudo cysts from the feces 274 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum a survey of ecto and endo-parasites of an infected host. tritrichomonas muris was first recorded in the large intestine of rates in iraq by senekji (1940), with the rate of infection 19.76%. al-morshidy (2001) recorded this parasite in the large intestine of both mice and rats in hilla city, with an infection rate of (56.8%) in rats, 56.3% for males, and 57.4% for females. as for mice, the infection rate was 42.5%, (males 45.5% and females 38%). in the current study, the infection rate with this parasite was 36%, (30.30% for males and 47.05% for females). it is known that the direct contact between mice and rats plays a major role in the transmission of infection from one animal to another. in addition, this parasite is known to not have a polycystic phase in its life cycle, as the vegetative phase excreted with the feces turns into a non-cystic stage called the quiescent phase (smyth, 1962). entamoeba histolytica (schaudinn, 1903): this species is a significant cause of human parasitic morbidity and mortality worldwide in addition to malaria and schistosomiasis. this is one of the human parasites with a worldwide spread. it causes amoebic dysentery and can infect mice and rats as well (zeibig, 1997). senekji (1940) recorded this parasite for the first time in iraq from rats of baghdad city with an infection rate of 0.59%; jawdat and al-jafary (1980) registered this parasite in rats and mice from different regions in iraq with infection rates of 4.7% and 12.3%, respectively. al-morshidy (2001) recorded this parasite in the small intestine of both black rats and house mice, with an infection rate of 8.1% (9.4% for males and 6.4% for females), while the infection rate in mice was 19.2% (20.5% males) and (17.2% females). in the current study, we recorded this parasite in 12 mice out of 50 mice examined (7 males 21.21%) and 5 females 29.41%) with a percentage of 24%. the difference in the rates of infection recorded with this parasite in different studies is due to several different factors that lead to an increase in the spread of this parasite in the environment, including eating food and water contaminated with mature cysts of the parasite which is responsible for infection with the parasite (zeibig, 1997). other factors lead to an increase in the spread of infection with this parasite, including direct contact between rodents, as well as the presence of vector insects such as flies, ants, and fleas, and providing suitable conditions (kudo, 1966). this parasite infects humans in different parts of the world, causing amoebic dysentery in the intestines, and in untreated cases, the disease will spread to the liver, lungs, and even the brain, causing amoebic abscesses there. epidemiological studies on the prevalence of parasitic intestinal infections in different areas have usually aimed to identify communities at risk and diseases that pose risks to human populations, making it necessary to study infections that threaten human health throughout the world (saida, 2016b). recently flaih et al. (2021), showed during an epidemiological study of 341,554 patients admitted to the laboratory of the parasite in hospitals of thi-qar province, iraq, 38,004 (11.1%) of which were recorded as having amoebiasis. this result accounted for the highest proportion of infections in 2015 (26.1%) and the lowest in 2020 (8.1%). several previous studies about intestinal human parasites were recorded in erbil city. hamad and ramzy (2012); saida (2016b) and obiead et al. (2020) mentioned the rate of infection with e. histolytica as follows and respectively: 51.2%; 61.2% and 22.47%. while saida and nooraldeen (2014) found that out of 72 samples examined, (20.4%) of which were contaminated with cysts of e.histolytica. recently nayyef 275 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum malla and saida et al. (2022) found that (15.89%) of the patient admitted to the al-furat general hospital in baghdad city was infected with e. histolytica. entamoeba coli (grassi, 1879): this species is a non-pathogenic species of the genus entamoeba that frequently exists as a commensal parasite in the human gastrointestinal tract and does not cause harm to the host. the mature cyst is the infective stage, and is known to survive longer than those of e. histolytica. the cyst is hard due to its strong cell wall and can survive up to weeks outside the host's body after desiccation (haidar and de jesus, 2021). these commensal protozoa parasite was first recorded in iraq by senekji (1940) in rates with percentage (0.88%), and jawdat and al-jafary (1980) recorded this parasite in rats (19.7%) and mice (52.1%) in many different parts of iraq. in the present study, the rate of infection among 50 mice examined were 16 (32.0), 9 (27.3%) were in males while in females were7 (41.2%). eimeria spp.: coccidia is one of the protozoan parasites from the apicomplexa phylum and pathogenic species to animals or humans. one of them, genus eimeria is a monoxenous coccidian, primarily infecting a single host in their life cycle (girard et al., 2016). eimeria is also known as obligate intracellular parasites that have significant roles in medical or veterinary importance (wiedmer et al., 2020). species of the genus eimeria destroy the epithelial cells lining the intestines and also lead to inflammation, bleeding, and bloody diarrhea in case of severe infections (oldham, 1967). according to kudo (1966) and oldham (1967) there are 6 species of genus: eimeria that infect mice (genus: mus), which are: e. falciformis (most common distributions), e. mus, e. schuffineri, e. kelini, e. hindlei and e. krijgsma. mirza and al-rawas (1975) recorded this genus as represented by a new record species for the first time in iraq, eimeria paterae, by examining eight samples of tatera indica in baghdad city with an infection rate of 50%. al-morshidy (2001) also recorded oocysts belonging to this genus in the large intestine of black rats with an infection rate of 4.5%, and in the large intestine of house mice with a rate of 27.4%. in the current study, the infection rate of this parasite was 14 (28.0%) 33 males (18.2%), and 17 females (47.0%). infection with this parasite occurs through mature oocysts that need appropriate environmental factors to mature including temperature and humidity and become a container of sporozoites, and when the food of the rodent is contaminated with the mature oocysts of this parasite, the infection occurs. (ii) helminthes parasites: (cestodes) rodentolepis nana (von siebold, 1852) (synonym: hymenolepis nana (von siebold, 1852): the dwarf tapeworm infects humans and species of rodents such as rats and mice as its final hosts (zeibig, 1997). this worm was recorded for the first time in iraq by mahmoud (1974) in black rats and house mice in baghdad city with infection rates of 3.3% and 6.1%, respectively. it was also recorded by molan and hussein (1988) in erbil city; they found this parasite in (6.66%) of house mouse was infected. al-morshidy (2001) recorded this species of parasite in the small intestine of black rat and house mice with an infection rate of 8.1% and 8.2%, respectively. 276 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum a survey of ecto and endo-parasites recently majeed and al-amery (2021) recorded two species of hymenolipis in house mice in baghdad province, and they revealed that the house mice were infected with rodentolepis nana 4 (8%) and hymenolepis diminuta 7 (14%). a previous study in the same area saida (2016a) recorded rodentolepis nana in 8 mice (23.5%), and he recorded this parasite in 1.2% of patients admitted to the hospitals of erbil city. saida and nooraldeen (2014) found the eggs of rodentolepis nana (=hymenolepis nana) during the examination of leafy vegetables of erbil city with a percentage of contamination of (10.2%). in our study, we recorded this parasite in 4 mice (8.0%). 2 of which were females (11.7%) and males (6.0%), with the severity of infection was (4.75%). no significant differences in infection were found between males and females (tab. 4). the life cycle of the dwarf tapeworm includes either directly, that is, it does not need an intermediate host to complete its life cycle (direct life cycle) or indirectly (presence of intermediate host), as fleas of the species pulex irritans, xenopsylla cheopis, ctenocephalides canis and grain beetles of the two species tenebrio moli and tenebrio obscurus are duos as intermediate hosts of this worm (oldham, 1967). therefore, the presence of such insects in the host's environment plays an important role in increasing the spread of this parasite, especially when rodents feed on them in cases of food shortage. it is worth noting that all of these insects mentioned above are registered in iraq and are present throughout the year (abu-alhabib, 1979). hymenolips diminuta (rudolphi, 1819): this species is one of the most widespread a parasitic worm in the world and it infects species of rodents, especially rats and mice (ichhpujani and bhatia, 1994). this worm was first recorded in iraq by senekji (1940), with an infection rate of 18.84%, and also recorded by jawdat and al-jafary (1980) in mice (4.2%) from different regions of iraq. al-morshidy (2001) found this parasite in mice (6.9%) of hilla city, babylon province; also, saida (2016a) recorded it in mice of (8.8%) in erbil city. in the current study, the rate of infection with h. diminuta in mice was (2.0%). the life cycle of rat tapeworm needs an intermediate host to complete its life cycle, such as species of fleas and larvae of species of beetles (oldham, 1967). humans, especially children, become infected with this worm as a result of eating intermediate hosts and they infect with the larvae of this worm accidentally. but in general, infection with this worm does not cause disease symptoms in the adult human being, but in some cases, severe infection may cause moderate diarrhea (ichhpujani and bhatia, 1994), and in children, the infections lead to more severe symptoms (tena et al., 1998). cystic echinococcosis: echinococcus granulosus (batsch, 1786). the definitive hosts of this parasite are wild and domestic canids. natural intermediate hosts depend on genotype. intermediate hosts for zoonotic species/genotypes are usually ungulates, including sheep, goats, cattle, and camels. hydatidosis or echinococcosis unilocular is common in many arab countries, especially in iraq. in our survey study and among 50 house mouse mus musculus we detected 4 cystic stages as cystic echinococcosis in 4 mice (2 males 6.06% and 2 females 11.76%) with a rate of infections of (8.0%). the discovery of natural infection of domestic mice with hydatid cysts in the liver of these mice is a rare case of infection with hydatidosis as naturally infection in rodents, and its recording as a new naturally infection of hydatidosis in m. muluscus in erbil city and iraq; was found in the havalan locality of erbil city. plate 277 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum malla and saida (2) as a picture of cystic hydatidosis and plate (3) as picture of histopathological study, cross section of the cyst. no previous studies have been recorded as naturally infection with cystic echinococcosis in house mouse during all previous survey studies of rodents were performed in iraq. finding hydatid cysts in domestic mice mus musculus is a rare case of infection; this rare case of infection gives us an addition for the extent of contamination of this area with the eggs of the parasite e. granulosus in erbil city, especially the havalan region, which was found during a survey study. this indicates and confirms the infection of cats and dogs that some residents of the region raised in homes without taking health measures and procedures for hosting dogs and cats, which made them vulnerable to infection with the worm e. granulosus, which acts as the final host, and rodents as intermediate hosts of the worm. plate (2): liver of house mouse infected naturally with the larval stage of e. granulosus (hydatid cyst) as the first natural infection in iraq (photo by t. kh. malla). 278 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum a survey of ecto and endo-parasites plate (3): histopathological section of liver hydatid cyst in the infected mouse showing germinal layer and laminated membrane (40x) (photo by t. kh. malla). cysticercus fasciolaris (rudolphi, 1808): this worm is the larval stage of the tapeworm hydatigera taeniaeformis, which is found in the small intestine of cats, dogs, and the rest of the predator's carnivores (sharma, 2017). the liver is where it grows into a larval worm, (oldham, 1967). the larval stage of this worm was recorded for the first time in iraq by mahmoud (1974) in the house mouse with an infection rate of 12.2% and the black rat with a rate of 2.2% in baghdad city. saleh (1975) recorded it in the house mouse of mosul city with an infection rate of 8.2%. while molan et al. (1988) recorded these larva stage in house mice of erbil city with an infection rate of 8.57%. al-zahidy (2001) recorded this larva in the house mice of baghdad city with an infection rate of 14.4% and in norwegian rats with a rate of 10.3%. al-morshidy (2001) recorded this larva in the liver of house mouse of hilla city, with an infection rate of 16.4%. in the current study, we recorded this larval cyst in liver of three mice (6.0%) one cyst per mouse. cats are natural enemies of rodents, especially house mice and both cats and mice prefer to live in dwellings more than other animals (meehan, 1984). therefore, the possibility of infecting house mice with this larval stage is very likely due to the contamination of their food with the feces of infected cats. (iii) nemathelminthes: roundworm of mice syphacia obvelata, syphacia muris, aspicularis tetraptera and trichuris muris the nematode syphacia obvelata is one of the common worms that infect rats and mice. it is generally unsatisfactory, but it becomes pathogenic in severe cases, especially those infections that are accompanied by impairment in the function of the intestine, and the most important symptom in this case is rectal prolapse (oldham, 1967). this round worm was 279 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum malla and saida recorded by kassai (1972) in baghdad mice for the first time in iraq. he recorded five species of intestinal nematodes on of them was syphacia obvelata. the second record was in mosul, by saleh (1975), with the rate of infection (41.1%). while in erbil city molan et al. (1988) they found this worm in mice with a rate of infection (17.1%); and saida, (2016a) detected this worm in the large intestine of mice (11.7%) in the same area. while al-morshidy (2001) found this worm in mice of hilla city, babylon, iraq with an infection rate of (11.1%). in our present study, we found this worm in the large intestine in 18 (36.0%). the life cycle of this worm is direct, and infection occurs among the hosts in three ways: 1through contamination of food and water with the feces of the infected animal. 2or through the migration of larvae when eggs hatch from the outlet area of the infected animal to the colon. 3or through the transfer of eggs directly from one animal to another through the animal licking the back of the affected animal (oldham, 1967) so it is necessary to provide an equal of these factors with the circumstances, the appropriate environment may play a role in the spread of infection. syphacia muris (yamaguti, 1935): this species was first time recorded in iraq by mahmoud (1974) during the examination of three species of a mouse family in baghdad city with the rate of infection (35.7%). this worm was not found in the previous studies conducted in erbil city before molan et al. (1988) and saida (2016a). also, this worm was not found by almorshidy (2001) in hilla city. while al-zahidy (2001) recorded the black rat with a percentage of infection of (8.3%). the present study recorded this worm in one male mouse m. musculus only with the percentage of infection (2%). we recorded syphacia muris for the first-time in-house mice of erbil city kurdistan iraq. aspiculuris tetraptera (nitzsch, 1821): a. tetraptera is a non-pathogenic roundworm that infects both rats and mice (oldham, 1967). this worm was first recorded in iraq from wild rodents in baghdad city by mahmoud (1974) with an infection rate was 31.4% in the black rats and 32.6% in the house mouse. in erbil city, this parasite was recorded by molan et al. (1988) with an infection rate of (19%) in mice and 28.5% in rats; while saida (2016a) recorded it in 11.7% of mice in the same area. in the present study, we found this worm with an infection rate of 4 (8%) three of which were in males (9.09%). trichuris muris (schrank, 1788): the mouse whipworm trichuris muris can infect many species of rodents (smyth, 1962). this parasite was first recorded in iraq by senekji (1940) in an undiagnosed rat of baghdad city with an infection rate of (1.18%). it was also recorded by mahmoud (1974) in house mice of mosul city, with an infection rate of 18.3%, also this worm was recorded by saleh (1975), in house mice with a rate of infection (6.3%). in erbil city northern of iraq, this worm was recorded by molan et al. (1988) with a rate of (7.6%). while al-morshidy (2001) found this worm in mice of hilla city, babylon province in the large intestine, with an infection rate of (24.7%). while in the current study we recorded this worm in the large intestine of mice with a rate of infection of 5 (10%), 4 of which were males (12.1%). whipworm eggs need moist and hot environmental conditions for embryo formation. therefore, such environmental conditions play an important role in completing the life cycle of this worm and the spread of infection among hosts (smyth, 1962). no significant 280 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum a survey of ecto and endo-parasites differences in infections were found between males and females of mice at p-value = 0.793 (tab. 4). (iv)ectoparasite: in the present study, three species of ectoparasites belonging to three different genera were diagnosed (pl. 4): as follows: the louse polyplax spinulose was found in 8 mice with an infestation rate of 16.0%. the flea xenopsylla cheopis was recorded in one male with an infection rate of 2%. and mite laelaps nuttall was recorded, with an infection rate of 4%. these ecto-parasites were previously recorded in rodents of iraq by abu-alhabib (1979). the current study revealed that domestic mice were infected with these ectoparasites mentioned above, which may transmit and infect humans and cause serious parasitic diseases. previous studies conducted on rodents in erbil city did not talk about ectoparasites in mice and rats. as the study of molan et al. (1988), and saida (2016a). our current study matches what kadhim et al. (2000) mentioned ectoparasites in their study in baghdad province; they found three species of ectoparasites in the house mice. mites laelaps nuttlli with an index of 0.3; flea xenopsylla cheopis with an index of 0.3, and louse polyplax spinulosa with an index of 0.08. plate (4): (a) louse polyplax spinulosa (10x), (b) flea xenopsylla cheopis (10x), (c) mite laelaps nuttalli (10x) [photo by t. kh. malla]. table (1): shows the percentage of infections with ecto and endo-parasites of mus musculus detected in different localities of erbil. localities of the study no. of m. musculus infected with ectoparasite no. of m.musculus infected with protozoa no of m. musculus infected with cestodes no of m. musculus infected with nematodes havalan 1 (20%) 5 (100%) 2 (40%) 4 (80%) saydawa 3 (60%) 4 (80 %) 2 (40%) 3 (60%) banslawa 1 (20%) 5 (100%) 1 (20%) 2 (40%) badawa 1 (20%) 5 (100%) 2 (40%) 1 (0.0%) park32 2 (40%) 5 (100%) 1 (20%) 3 (60%) sinaa shymalia 2 (40%) 5 (100%) 0 (0.0%) 3 (60%) 281 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum malla and saida zanko 0 (0.0%) 5 (100%) 2 (40%) 2 (40%) hyaskary (nawros) 0 (0.0%) 5 (100%) 0 (0.0%) 4 (80%) langa 0 (0.0%) 5 (100%) 2 (40%) 4 (80%) sarbasty 1 (20%) 5 (100%) 0 (0.0%) 2 (0%) total 11 (22.0%) 49 (98.0%) 12 (24.0%) 28 (56.0%) helminthes= 40 (80.0%) table (2): the relation between two groups with different weights of both sexes of mus musculus and their parasitic groups. total (%) no. of parasites of m. musculus (weight ≥13gms no. of parasites of m. musculus (weight ≤13gms) parasitic group female male female male nematodes 28 (56.0) 7 19 1 1 12 (24.0) 3 3 1 5 cestodes 50 (100.0) 13 24 4 9 intestinal protozoa 1 (2.0) 1 0 0 0 blood parasites 11 (22.0) 2 4 1 4 ectoparasites 50 (100.0) 13 24 4 9 n ═ 50 male ═ 33 17═female 37 (74%) 13 (26%) statically analysis result: *no significance different at p-value = 0.3723 table (3): shows single, double, triple & tetra infections of for both sexes of mus musculus in the present study. parasite species *male (%) *female (%) total (%) single 7 (53.84) 6 (46.15) 13 (26.0) double 18 (72.00) 7 (28.00) 25 (50.0) triple 8 (72.27) 3 (27.27) 11 (22.0) tetra 1 (100.0) 1 (2.0) total of mice examined 33(66.0) 17 (34.0) 50 (100.0) *statically analysis result: *no significance different between males &females at p-value = 0.3313. 282 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum a survey of ecto and endo-parasites table (4): shows the species of helminthes parasites detected in both sex of mus musculus in the present study. species of helminthes parasites *male (%) *female (%) both sex (%) no. of parasites mean no. of parasite infected aspicularis tetraptera 3 (9.09) 1 (5.88) 4 (8.00) 33 8.25 syphacia obvelata 12 (36.36) 6 (35.29) 18 (36.00) 327 18.16 syphacia muris 1 (3.03) 0 (0.0) 1 (2.00) 218 218 trichuris muris 4 (12.12) 1 (5.88) 5 (10.00) 66 13.2 rodentoleois nana 2 (6.06) 2 (11.76) 4 (8.00) 19 4.75 hymenolepis diminuta 0 (0.0) 1 (5.88) 1 (2.00) 15 15 hydatid cysts 2 (6.06) 2 (11.76) 4 (8.00) 4 cysts 4 cysts cysticercus fasciolaris 2 (6.06) 1 (5.88) 3 (6.00) 3 cysts 3 cysts no. of male═ 33 no. of female ═ 17 total ═50 26 (78.78) 14 (82.35) 40 (80.00) statically analysis result: *no significance different between males and females at pvalue =0.7932 table (5): shows the prevalence of protozoa and ecto-parasites of mus musculus, in the present study. species of parasites detected no. of *male infected (%) no. of *female infected (%) both sexes infected (%) chilomastix bettencurti 26 (78.8) 15 (88.23) 41 (82.0) giardia muris 24 (72.7) 10 (58.8%) 34 (68.0) tritrichomonas muris 10 (30.3) 8 (47.05) 18 (36.0) e. histolytica 7 (21.2) 5 (29.4) 12 (24.0) entameba coli 9 (27.3) 7 (41.2) 16 (32.0) eimeria sp. 6 (18.2) 8 (47.0) 14 (28.0) trypanosoma musculi 1 (5.9) 1 (2.0) lice: polyplex spinulos 6 (18.2) 2 (11.8) 8 (16.0) flea xenopsylla cheopis 1 (3.0) 1 (2.0) mite laelaps nuttalli 1 (3.0) 1 (5.8%) 2 (4.0) exam number male=33 female=17 total = 50 statically analysis result: *no significance different of infection was found between males and females at p value =0.6649. 283 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum malla and saida conclusions in the current study, we recorded infection of m. musculus with the larval stage of echinococcus granulosus (hydatid cyst) as the first natural infection in iraq. we did not find significant differences between mice with large and small weights. most infections among mice were with the same double infection (the presence of two species of parasites) by 50%. and the lowest was in the quadruple infection (infection with four species) 2%. we did not find significant differences between mice with large and small weights. the highest infection rate of nematodes was s. obvelata 36%, and the lowest was s. muris 2%. the highest percentage of tapeworms was rodentolepis nana and the larval stage of e. granulosus (cystic hydatid) each was 8%, and h. diminuta was the lowest (2%). the highest infection severity of recorded parasites was with the nematode s. muris, with 218 parasites, and the lowest was by the larval parasite c. fascioliasis, with three cysts. the highest infection rate recorded was with intestinal parasites chilomastix bettencourti at 82% and the lowest was with e. histolytica at 24%. aknowledgments at the end of writing this paper, i am pleased to extend my thanks and appreciation to everyone who contributed to the success of this research, especially the assist professor of entomology in the department of biology at the college of education, salah el-din university, dr. wand khalis ali for identifying the insects isolated from the infected mice. conflict of intereststatement “the authors have no conflicts of interest to declare”. literature cited abu-alhabib, j. k. 1979. medical and veterinary insects in iraq: theoretical section. university of baghdad press, 451 pp. al-morshidy, k. a. 2001. parasitic infections in the black rats (rattus rattus) and the house mice (mus 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[crossref] https://doi.org/10.3748%2fwjg.v23.i45.7989 289 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum malla and saida bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2022) 17 (2): 267-290. املنزلي أر للف الخارجية والداخلية دراسة مسحية للطفيليات mus musculus linnaeus, 1758 ، العراق في مدينة أربيل ، إقليم كردستان و لويس عبد االحد سيدا ل خورشيد م تريفه قسم علوم الحياة، كلية التربية، جامعة صلح الدين،اربيل، العراق 20/12/2022، تأريخ النشر: 1/11/2022، تأريخ القبول: 30/7/2022تأريخ االستلم: الخالصة من خالل فحص الخارجية و الداخلية نوعا من طفيليات 18املسح الحالي سجل خالل فأر 50 مواقع في مدينة أربيل، 10من بين mus musculus (linnaeus,1758) منزليا ا حو التالي:أنواع من الطفيليات األولية وعلى الن 7منها chilomastix bettencourti (da fonseca 1915) 82% giardia muris (filice 1952) 68% tritrichomonas muris (grassi1879) 36% entamoeba histolytica (schaudinn, 1903) 24% entamoeba coli (grassi,1879) 32% eimeria sp. 28% trypanosoma musculi (kendall, 1906) 2% انواع من الديدان الطفيلية على نحو التالي: 8تم العثور على و انواع منها ديدان شريطية وهي: 4 rodentolepis nana (ransom, 1901) 8% hymenolepis diminuta (rudolphi, 1819) 2.0% echinococcus granulosus (batsch, 1786) %8يةور اليرقي لدودة املشوكات الحبيبدال 290 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum a survey of ecto and endo-parasites من انواع اربعةو منها ؛ cysticercus fasciolaris (rudolphi, 1808) 6%ور اليرقي دوال الديدان الخيطية وهي: aspiculuris tetraptera (nitzsch, 1821) 8.0% syphacia obvelata (rudolphi, 1802) 36% syphacia muris (yamaguti, 1935) 2.0% trichuris muris (schrank, 1788) 10% : ، التي تضمنتانواع من الطفيليات الخارجيةثالثة و xenopsylla cheopis (rothschild, 1903) 2 %0. برغوث الجرذ الشرقي polyplax spinulosa (burmeister, 1839) %16.0قملة الجرذ الشوكية 4.0% laelaps nuttalli (hirst,1916) حلم %(، 26يلي: عدوى مفردة ) تسجيل انواع من العدوى داخلية كما كذلك تم فروق دون وجود ؛%(2.0 رباعية) %( و22.0%(؛ ثالثية )50.0مزدوجة) ذات داللة ا أوزان الفئران. إحصائية بين الجنسين و في الدراسة ؛شديدة اإلصابة بعموم الطفيليات لنكة و حي العسكري كانت فئران echinococcusباملرحلة اليرقية من mus musculusإصابة كبد الحالية ، سجل granulosus ي العراق.)كيس عداري( كأول إصابة طبيعية ف bull 481 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum ashwin et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2023) 17 (3): 481-498. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2023.17.3.0481 article review impact of linear infrastructure intrusions on avifauna: a review c. p. ashwin*, p. j. clince and p. r. arun sálim ali centre for ornithology and natural history (sacon) (south india centre of wildlife institute of india, dehradun), ministry of environment, forest and climate change, govt. of india. anaikatty (po), coimbatore, tamil nadu – 641 108. *corresponding author e-mail: ashwincp95@gmail.com recived date: 08 december 2022, accepted date 26 april 2023, published date:20 june 2023 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract this review examines the reported impacts of three major linear infrastructure developments, namely railways, roads and power lines on avifauna. these infrastructures are proliferating worldwide posing serious threats to wildlife including avifauna. the major impacts involved with linear infrastructures are habitat degradation, fragmentation, direct mortality by collision and electrocution. the factors affecting collision mortality can be divided into intrinsic and extrinsic factors. the intrinsic factors include species morphology and species behavior whereas the extrinsic factors are the external factors such as weather, landscape features and the technical aspects of the infrastructure. power lines affect a large number of birds, killing more than one billion birds globally each year. studies suggest the implementation of anti-collision devices such as wire markers; flight diverters and physical barriers like trees, diversion poles or noise barriers are effective mitigation measures to reduce bird mortality due to the linear infrastructures. therefore, understanding the overall impact of linear infrastructures is crucial for effectively managing their impacts on avifauna and helping make future developments less destructive and more sustainable. keywords: avifauna, collision, impact, linear infrastructures, mitigation. introduction major linear infrastructure intrusions such as roadways, railways, canals, pipelines and power lines are the common human-made features in the globe and all are essential lifelines of urban infrastructure and serve to maintain effective connectivity between places through transporting people, energy, fuel, water and facilitate economic development of the country. power lines, roads or railways, are among the most ubiquitous man-made features worldwide and are known to have negative impacts on natural habitats and ecosystems. such linear intrusions into natural areas cause habitat loss and fragmentation causing barrier effects, which in turn result in connectivity loss between habitat patches and populations, also will cause the spread of invasive alien species and direct wildlife mortality by collision and electrocution (raman, 2011; loss et al., 2014; santos et al., 2016). many large terrestrial and bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799-print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2023.17.3.0481 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1348-2929 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6560-2016 mailto:ashwincp95@gmail.com https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 482 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum impact of linear infrastructure wetland birds and some smaller, fast-flying species are prone to colliding with power lines and other man-made structures. a high proportion of threatened species are directly affected by these linear infrastructures. the wildlife mortality rate caused by linear infrastructures can vary widely and depends on several factors, such as environmental factors, both spatial and temporal including topography and habitat features and light levels, weather conditions, season, and phenology and the infrastructure specifications such as design, thickness, arrangement and distance between the wires, (scott et al., 1972, anderson, 1978; henderson et al., 1996; savereno et al., 1996, shaw, 2009; jenkins et al., 2010; shobrak, 2012). though the power lines and associated structures can cause a significant threat to avifauna, it is becoming increasingly evident that these infrastructures can also have positive effects on biodiversity, especially on birds. birds such as raptors and storks also make use of these infrastructures for their daily activities such as roosting, nesting, perching and hunting (tryjanowski et al., 2014; mainwaring, 2015). altogether it is essential to understand the both positive as well as negative impacts of these linear infrastructures for any developing country to effectively manage those impacts and help make future developments less destructive and more sustainable. the study's primary goal is to: i) draw conclusions about the impact of linear infrastructures on avifauna from the available scientific evidence, ii) identify obvious gaps in our knowledge about the possible impacts, and iii) propose effective management plans for the impact of linear infrastructures. materials and methods we collected data on studies associated with power lines, roads and railways by searching the databases such as j store, google scholar, bio one, and google web search, google scholar with the broad search terms ‘‘linear infrastructure, impact on biodiversity, birds, or mammals combined with specific terms such as ecology, avoidance, collision, electrocution, fragmentation, degradation, edge effect, disturbance, clearing, mitigations, and management. all the peer-reviewed articles related to the impact of linear infrastructures on avifauna were selected for the review. more emphasis was given to power lines and bird-power line collisions because they represent one of the major threats to avifauna among the other linear infrastructures. results and discussion linear infrastructure and avifauna: the major impacts of these infrastructures on avifauna include mortality due to direct collision, habitat loss and fragmentation, vehicular noise and emissions and radiations from power lines. the impacts of linear infrastructures on avifauna can broadly be classified into these major types: 1) direct physical impacts and electrocution, 2) impacts from emissions and radiations, and 3) impacts from changes in the habitat (wylie and bell, 1973; murcia, 1995; goosem, 2007; jenkins et al., 2010, moroń et al., 2014, d’amico et al., 2018). 483 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum ashwin et al. direct physical impacts: direct physical impacts on the avifauna from linear infrastructures are primarily resultant of collisions with vehicles, railways and power lines. carcasses attract predators and scavengers to roads and railway sites consequently increasing mortality risk by being exposed to traffic. bertwistle (2001) observed that the seasonal migration of animals to winter refugia in canada is one of the factors which significantly increased the chance of collision on roads and railways. similarly, birds perching on the poles and train catenaries and those perch and inhabit the vicinity of roads increase the chances of bird mortality due to collision (van rooyen and ledger, 1999; anderson, 2002). godinho et al. (2017) documented bird mortality due to railways and their associated structures in portugal and they surveyed 16.3 km of railway and found 5.8 dead birds/km. most birds recorded belonged to the order passeriformes, while were only a small number of aquatic birds. power lines also affect a large number of birds, killing more than one billion birds globally each year (mcneil et al., 1985; bevanger, 1994; loss et al., 2014). birds with poor flying adaptations, young or inexperienced birds and birds flying in large flocks, heavy birds such as swans, cranes, bustards, raptors, storks and ravens are at a higher risk of collision with objects including vehicles (bevanger, 1994; janss, 2000). bird species, especially those under the threatened categories are at high risk from tower line collision and risking the loss of small populations (mcneil et al., 1985; bevanger, 1998; janss, 2000; janss and ferrer, 2000; real et al., 2001; sundar and choudhury, 2005). worldwide, studies have shown high mortality rates of several bustard species because of power-line collisions, for example, 30% of denham’s bustard neotis denhami (children & vigors, 1826) die annually from power-line collisions in south africa (shaw, 2009; jenkins et al., 2010). in spain, janss recorded higher casualties of great bustard otis tarda linnaeus, 1758, little bustard tetrax tetrax (linnaeus, 1758) and common crane grus grus (linnaeus, 1758) due to power line collisions (janss, 2000). the mortality of the sarus crane grus antigone (linnaeus, 1758) due to rural power lines in uttar pradesh, india was studied by sundar and choudhury. breeding and nonbreeding sarus cranes were assessed during the time and they found that, similar proportions of nonbreeding and breeding sarus crane were killed, together accounting for nearly 1% of the total sarus crane population annually (sundar and choudhury, 2005). mcneil et al. (1985) conducted a study on avian mortality with power lines in the chacopata lagoon in north-eastern venezuela and observed more casualties in brown pelican pelicanus occidentalis linnaeus, 1766, which cause a drastic population decline in the species. brown et al. (1987) observed power lines were the major cause of mortality for whooping crane grus americana (linnaeus, 1758) and mallard anas platyrhynchos linnaeus, 1758 in south-central colorado and concluded that power line collisions cause a large number of mortalities in cranes and waterfowl (brown et al., 1987). a study on waterfowl collisions with power lines in lake sangchris done by anderson (1978) reported that mallard anas platyrhynchos, blue-winged teal spatula discors linnaeus, 1766 and american coot fulica americana gmelin, 1789 are the major victims of power line mortality (anderson, 1978; jenkins et al., 2010). mortality of birds due to electrocution with power lines mostly affects raptors, storks, ravens and thermal soarers; thermal soarers are a type of bird that uses rising columns of warm air (thermals) to gain altitude and maintain flight without flapping their wings e.g., eagles, vultures, pelicans etc. (infante and peris, 2003; janss, 2000). among the 484 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum impact of linear infrastructure other linear infrastructures power lines affect a large number of birds, majority of the bird species use electricity infrastructures for perching, nesting, roosting and hunting. for example, white stork ciconia ciconia (linnaeus, 1758) in poland and eurasian kestrel falco tinnunculus linnaeus, 1758 in spain (fargallo et al., 2001, tryjanowski et al., 2009), have an increased risk of electrocution. in short, anseriformes, podicipediformes, charadriiformes, falconiformes and gruiformes are orders more susceptible to power line collision (brown and drewien, 1995). linear infrastructures and several associated structures, commonly related to the decline of biodiversity, but several researchers also mentioned the positive impact of roads, railways, power lines and associated structures on certain bird species or communities. for example, it provides alternate foraging habitat, and through providing a warm surface that assists in conserving metabolic energy during cold weather (delgado et al., 2007; morelli et al., 2014; moroń et al., 2014; wiącek et al., 2015). railways surfaces provide a source of sand, employed by several bird species to make the sand bathing, useful to clean the feathers and good foraging ground (devictor et al., 2007: morelli et al., 2014; wiącek et al., 2015). they are also seen to be using power lines and related structures for perching and hunting (mainly for insectivorous species and raptors) (prather and messmer, 2010; morelli et al., 2014; d’amico et al., 2018). many raptors use electricity poles and towers for perching as it gives a wide view of a large area for hunting, thus enhancing the efficiency of the predator (boeker and nickerson, 1975; lehman et al., 2007; prather and messmer, 2010). similarly, raptors and corvids also make use of electrical infrastructures associated with roads and railways as perches from which to scavenge road-killed animals more effectively (dean et al., 2006; d’amico et al., 2018). they also provide song posts and roosting/nesting platforms for several species (møller et al., 2006; prather and messmer, 2010; d’amico et al., 2018). for example, the pied crow corvus albus statius muller, 1776 was found to be making use of electricity structures for nesting in treeless, but potentially suitable habitats in arid shrub lands of south african karoo (cunningham et al., 2016). many bird species from small passerines to storks make use of electricity infrastructures for communal roosting (prather and messmer, 2010) and as an anti-predator behavior (blumstein et al., 2004, møller et al., 2006). factors affecting collision mortality: the factors affecting collision mortality can be divided into intrinsic and extrinsic factors. the intrinsic factors include species morphology and species behavior (bevanger, 1998; janss, 2000; rubolini et al., 2001; jenkins et al., 2010) whereas the extrinsic factors are the external factors such as weather, landscape features and technical aspects of the infrastructure viz. design, arrangement of wires, the distance between the wires, and thickness of the wires (scott et al., 1972; anderson, 1978; henderson et al., 1996; savereno et al., 1996; jenkins et al., 2010; shobrak, 2012). though birds of varying sizes and taxonomic groups collide with power lines, the frequency of casualties is more related to species morphology, behaviour and flight performance (mcneil et al., 1985; savereno et al., 1996). the collision of most species with power lines is due to the overhead ground wire (earth wire) as the bird suddenly changes the flight altitude to avoid collision 485 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum ashwin et al. with the conductor wires (mcneil et al., 1985; bevanger, 1994). this may be because of poor visibility when the flying birds cannot see the wires from a reasonable distance (morkill and anderson, 1991; alonso et al., 1994). some species of ducks and bustards are also prone to power line collision due to poor vision as they have a very narrow range of visual field in the direction of travel due to differences in beak arrangement and morphology (silva et al., 2023). nocturnal bird species are more vulnerable to power line collision than others, especially; the migratory species are at high risk as they cross numerous power lines and other human artefacts on the way to and from their breeding grounds (martin, 1990; bevanger, 1994; dixon et al., 2020; hamer et al., 2021). young and immature birds are more susceptible to power line mortality due to a lack of awareness of the environment or a lack of previous experience with such utility structures (savereno et al., 1996). species spending more time in the air face higher threats from power lines compared to ground-dwelling species (bevanger, 1994) and species with high wing loading and low aspect are also highly susceptible to collision (rayner, 1988; janss, 2000; norberg, 2012). most birds collide with obstacles during flight as they have no prior knowledge of human artefacts such as power lines, vehicles, railway infrastructures or wind turbines. bird collision and mortality with power lines will also depend on the weather conditions to a great extent (scott et al., 1972; anderson, 1978; mcneil et al., 1985). thick fog and wind impair bird flight; mist, snow and rainfall reduce the visibility of flying birds and make it difficult to see the power lines (avery et al., 1977; kerlinger and moore, 1989; bevanger, 1994; jenkins et al., 2010). landscape characteristics such as topography and habitats are key factors for bird collision and electrocution with power lines (bevanger, 1994; d’amico et al., 2018). increased risk of collision was observed in areas where power lines are crossing varying altitudes with rise and depressions. birds use coasts and valleys as directional cues during migratory and local movements and are at high risk if these areas are traversed with power lines (bevanger, 1994, d’amico et al., 2018, travers et al., 2023). impacts from radiation and emissions: birds are negatively affected due to noise, light, vibrations, emission of harmful gases, particulate matter and electromagnetic radiation from linear infrastructures. there is a less recognized impact of electromagnetic radiation produced by the power lines. electromagnetic radiation from power lines was found to reduce breeding performance in birds nesting in these structures. tree swallow tachycineta bicolor (vieillot, 1808) nesting under power lines has been observed to have reduced fledgling and reproductive success compared to that in the reference site in delaware county, ohio (doherty and grubb, 1998). this study monitored the breeding biology of birds using nest boxes placed under transmission lines and in reference areas. similar observations were made in canada. american kestrel falco sparverius linnaeus, 1758 exposed to the electromagnetic field (emf) were found to be more active during courtship and incubation which increases the chances of egg breakage. they conclude that electromagnetic field (emf) exposure affected the reproductive success of kestrels, increasing fertility, egg size, embryonic development, and fledging success but reducing hatching success (fernie et al., 2000). 486 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum impact of linear infrastructure numerous chemical and physical pollutants are used during road construction and maintenance which affect the surrounding environment in various ways and varying degrees. atmospheric pollution from vehicle emissions contains carbon monoxide, atmospheric lead, hydrocarbons, oxides of nitrogen and sulphur, particulate matter, and sometimes nickel (lagerwerff and specht, 1970) which cause serious impacts on various species of flora and fauna. the concentration of lead in soil and plants are found to be higher near roads and it affects the level of lead in small mammals, bats, birds and larger herbivorous species, as animals primarily accumulate lead through their dietary intake (chow, 1970; wylie and bell, 1973; goldsmith et al., 1976; fakayode and olu-owolabi, 2003; sharma and prasad, 2010). lead concentrations in carcasses and stomach contents of adult and nestling barn swallow (hirundo rustica) in the right-of-way of a major maryland highway were found greater than barn swallows nesting within a rural area (grue et al., 1984). lead contamination in bird's results in loss of weight and vision, wing and leg paralysis, altered nerve function, behavioural alterations, different immune responses, and altered levels of brain enzymes (grue et al., 1984). a similar process is also observed from emissions of oxides of nitrogen from vehicle exhausts, cadmium and zinc from engine oils and tyres, and nickel from gasoline, in roadside soil and vegetation and causing serious impacts on associated avifauna by lagerwerff and specht (1970). researchers also reported that some species (especially nocturnal birds) get disturbed and disoriented because of the light, noise and vibrations from trains and vehicle traffic (santos et al., 2017), and it may also disrupt the activities of birds and other fauna inhabiting the vicinity of roads and railway lines (reijnen and foppen, 2006; van rooyen, 2009; polak et al., 2013). the virtually continuous flow of traffic on busy roads constitutes a linear source of noise which eventually ended up disrupting birds’ vocal activities (wiącek et al., 2015). railways are generally believed to produce an eco-friendlier mode of transport than roads (borkenkleefeld et al., 2010), vehicle-related mortality, fuel consumption and air emissions were much lesser. most studies suggested that wildlife can ignore or adapt to disturbances due to rail transport to a certain extent (waterman et al., 2002; ghosh et al., 2010; mundahl et al., 2013; wiącek et al., 2015). impacts from habitat loss, degradation and fragmentation: habitat degradation due to linear infrastructures such as roads, railways and power lines always has a negative effect on its surroundings; it alters the microclimate, soil, vegetation and hydrological properties (forman and alexander, 1998; eigenbrod et al., 2009). different infrastructures may have different impacts on the environment, e.g., even paved and unpaved roads can have different impacts on wildlife; because the paved roads are much wider and intensively used (van der ree et al., 2015). similarly, power lines may cause a minor fragmentation impact compared to roads and railways (girvetz et al., 2008; bruschi et al., 2015). the intrusion of linear infrastructures leads reduction in habitat area and increased habitat isolation, which in turn affects biodiversity and wildlife movement across the natural habitat (goosem, 2007; karlson and mörtberg, 2015). habitat loss takes place when infrastructure construction leads to the reduction of the available habitat for several species. habitat fragmentation involves the splitting of natural habitats and ecosystems into smaller and more isolated patches, which fail 487 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum ashwin et al. to maintain viable populations and genetic diversity in the long run because of the limited gene flow (fahrig, 2003). whereas general information on habitat fragmentation is abundant, studies exclusively focused on railway-related fragmentation are non-existent because researchers did not differentiate between railwayand road-related fragmentation, assessing these two different infrastructures as a whole (jaeger et al., 2007; girvetz et al., 2008; bruschi et al., 2015). the linear infrastructure disrupts the movement and creates barrier/edge effects; which reduces the availability and suitability of adjacent areas. edges (boundaries of linear infrastructure systems between different habitats) can act as barriers for birds, affecting their genetic diversity, abundance, distribution, and nest survival, which ultimately leads to their local extinctions (newmark and stanley, 2011; mammides et al., 2015). the edges caused by linear infrastructures, alter the physical and chemical properties of the environment and increases sunlight penetration, temperature and wind exposure, especially in forested habitats. this will directly influence the vegetation structure and bird community because the vegetation structure had a compelling effect on species richness (murcia, 1995; khamcha et al., 2018). the response of avian guilds to edge effects varies across regions and species with specific or specialized diets or foraging behaviors that may affect more. species richness and abundance of most of the avian guilds were reduced close to the edge and the birds with the nectarivore-insectivore guild, such as sunbirds were the only ones to show a positive response to the edge (khamcha et al., 2018). on other hand, a comprehensive study from eastern poland shows that the abundance of bird species especially the insectivores was reported to be the highest near the railway line. the mean number of species near the line was 10.2 ± 3.2 species and differed significantly (wiącek et al., 2015). the high diversity of plants and invertebrates on railway embankments ultimately attracts insectivorous birds, thus acting as a potential habitat for these species (moroń et al., 2014). this concludes that the transportation corridors, running through different habitats, can also create edge effects, thereby increasing biodiversity around. management of impacts: the reduction in mortality due to railways, road and power lines are one of the most important aims of the mitigation and management measures to be taken and it is handy to have a more robust understanding about the important areas of mortality. the mitigation measures for railway lines are more complicated compared to the other linear transportation structures as the speed and trajectory of a train cannot be changed easily to avoid collisions; therefore, mitigation measures must almost entirely rely on preventing the animals from crossing the train tracks (santos et al., 2017). special crossing structures should be designed specifically for comfortable wildlife passing such as pipe culverts, box culverts, amphibian tunnels, wildlife underpasses and overpasses and exclusion fences (van rooyen, 2009; van der grift et al., 2015; carvalho et al., 2017). but it is less effective in the case of flying mammals and birds because they do not use such physical structures and fly over trains and overhead wires (van der grift, 1999; glista et al., 2009; dorsey et al., 2015). physical barriers like trees, diversion poles, flight diverters, or noise barriers can be used in such situations to minimize the collision, especially for birds (jacobson, 2005; kociolek et al., 2015; zuberogoitia et al., 2015) and bats (ward et al., 2015). the pole barriers employed by 488 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum impact of linear infrastructure zuberogoitia (2015) consisted of (1) gray pvc poles of 2 m in height and 8 cm in width, regularly separated by 1–2 m, with shredded pieces of colored paper (white or orange) attached to the highest part of the pole, or (2) tree trunks (20–26 cm diameter and 350 cm height) separated by 1 m. trees can be a better barrier, especially to large animals, and forcing birds and bats to fly high above the trains. lighting and reflectors can act as wildlife deterrents for nocturnal species (carvalho et al., 2017). since the chances of collision and mortality are likely to be more during breeding and migration time, minimizing the maintenance during those times can make a positive reduction in the mortality rate of birds (wii, 2016). several studies suggested that the implementation of anti–collision devices such as wire markers can be an effective mitigation measure to reduce power line collision (morkill and anderson, 1991; alonso et al., 1994; janss, 2000; janss and ferrer, 2000). beaulaurier (1981) observed a 45% reduction (range 28–60%) in bird mortality in marked wires. alonso et al. (1994) observed a 60% decrease in bird mortality at marked spans of line with respect to the same span of unmarked line in south–western spain. a study by brown and drewien (1995) found that wire marking is effective in reducing avian mortality by 61% with dampers and 63% with plates used as markers in south-central colorado. power line electrocutions not only affect bird populations but also create significant economic loss to electricity companies as it causes breaks in the energy supply (bevanger, 1994). minimizing collision and electrocution can be achieved by making changes in the design of electricity infrastructures. removal of earth wire (ground wire) can be effective to reduce both collision and electrocution and maintain a gap between the wires will further reduce electrocution (bevanger, 1994; lehman et al., 1999). the best way to reduce power line collision and mortality is by avoiding power lines in sensitive areas (brown and drewien, 1995). power line planning and routing should be made very carefully to minimize the impacts and intensive studies must be conducted to enumerate the effects of these lines, especially in hotspots (mcneil et al., 1985, morkill and anderson, 1991; bagli et al., 2011). routing of power lines along existing linear infrastructures is also effective and the same has been effectively implemented in some areas (bagli et al., 2011). replacing the aerial wires with underground cabling can also be seriously considered in potential habitats, where endangered species may otherwise get seriously affected (jenkins et al., 2010). also, the installation of safe perches and nesting platforms along power line routes may generate benefits for bird species to be more co-existing with this infrastructure (d’amico et al., 2018). such artificial structures can also be used successfully to enhance the biodiversity of urban environments. so, the intelligent use of such structure by managing agencies can reduce the direct and indirect impacts of linear infrastructure intrusions and support and sustain the biodiversity of the area (bissonette, 2002; benítez-lópez et al., 2010). environmental impact assessment studies that are currently not mandatory in some countries (e.g., india) should be made mandatory to facilitate such planning along the potential habitats of sensitive faunal groups before implementation of the projects and the effects should be regularly monitored during the operation phase. 489 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum ashwin et al. conclusions according to the extensive literature review, we find that the rate of mortality, factors affecting mortality and population effects in relation to infrastructures are poorly investigated. the major impacts of linear infrastructures are habitat degradation, fragmentation, and direct mortality by collision and electrocution. research and careful planning have led to solutions that begin mitigating the negative effects of these infrastructures all over the world. but there are very few attempts to be made to understand the impact of linear infrastructure on avifauna in asian countries, even for the endangered species. systematic research and collaborative efforts should be made by the scientific community, government and power line companies to integrate biodiversity conservation and infrastructure development. but in practice, planning and routing of linear infrastructures are primarily based on economic feasibility only rather than environmental considerations. this needs to change for a better sustainable development paradigm with ecological concerns given equal or more weightage than purely economic considerations. conflict of interest statement "the authors have no conflicts of interest to declare ". acknowledgements we thank director, sacon for his guidance and valuable support. we would like to thank mr alby j mattathil (research fellow) and arjun suresh (research fellow) of the sálim ali centre for their continued support. literature cited alonso, j. c., alonso, j. a. and muñoz-pulido, r. 1994. mitigation of bird collisions with transmission lines through ground wire marking. biological conservation, 67(2):129134. 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(2023) 17 (3): 481-498. : مراجعة avifauna تأثير تدخالت البنية التحتية الخطية على فونا الطيور آرون آر بي و كلينس جيه بي ،* أشوين بي س ي )مركز جنوب الهند ملعهد ،(saconمركز سليم علي لعلم الطيور والتاريخ الطبيعي ) ، الحكومة. الهند وزارة البيئة والغابات وتغير املناخ ،الحياة البرية في الهند ، دهرادون( 641108 -( ، كويمباتور ، تاميل نادو poآنايكاتي ) 20/6/2023، تأريخ النشر: 26/4/2023القبول: ، تأريخ 8/12/2022تأريخ االستالم: الخالصة تتناول هذه املراجعة التأثيرات املشار عنها للتطورات الثالثة للبنية التحتية الخطية . تنتشر وناطيور االفيف avifaunaالطرق وخطوط الكهرباء على ، السكك الحديدية و طيرة للحياة البرية بما في شكل تهديدات خمما يهذه البنى التحتية في جميع أنحاء العالم الرئيسية التي تنطوي عليها البنى التحتية الخطية و التاثيرات . االفيفونا طيور ذلك عن طريق االصطدام والصعق بالكهرباء. ةملباشر ا اتالتجزئة، و الهالكتدهور املوائل، . وخارجية داخلية عوامل إلىهالكات التصادم على تؤثر التي العوامل تقسيم يمكن العواملفي حين ان ،األنواع وسلوك األنواع مورفولوجياالداخلية العواملتتضمن . التحتية للبنية التقنية والجوانب الطبيعية املناظر وخصائص الطقستتمثل ب الخارجية على طائر مليار من أكثر تقتلو ، الطيور من كبير عدد على الكهرباء خطوط تؤثر عالمات مثل للتصادم مضادة أجهزةتنفيذ إلى الدراسات تشير .عام كل العالم مستوى أو التحويل أعمدة أو األشجار مثل املادية والحواجز الطيران محوالت تعد األسالك؛ التأثير فهم فإن لذلك،. الطيور من موت خفيفللتفعالة تدابير الضوضاء حواجز ثاثيرها على الطيور بشكل فعال إلدارة األهمية بالغ أمر الخطية التحتية للبنى الكلي .استدامة وأكثرخطورة أقل املستقبلية التطورات جعل في واملساعدة bull 277 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum maaroof, b. f. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2024) 18 (2): 277295. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2024.18.2.0277 original article quantitative analysis using geospatial modeling of al-rahimawi watershed's shape properties in the iraqi southern desert bashar f. maaroof babylon center for civilization and historical studies, university of babylon, hillah, babil 51001, iraq. e-mail: basharma@uobabylon.edu.iq recieved: 03 feb. 2024, revised:20 may 2024, accepted: 29 may 2024, published:20 december 2024 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract this paper included the study of al-rahimawi drainage basin, one of the watersheds in the iraqi southern desert. it represents one of the hydro-geomorphological systems so-called lower valleys region, according to the geomorphological division of iraq. a set of geomorphometric parameters were used for the morphological characteristics of the alrahimawi watershed, which gave precise consequences about this valley's geomorphological features and the erosive phase. the parameters used in this study are the circulatory ratio (rc), form factor (ff), elongation ratio (re), compactness factor (cc ), lemniscate ratio (k), and length/width ratio (r/w). in addition to using the digital elevation model (dem) type srtm and the satellite image of the american satellite landsat etm+8. the results indicated that the circulatory ratio was 0.154, suggesting that the watershed moved away from the circular shape. also, the value of the form factor was low, reaching 0.098, which suggest that the watershed is close to the triangular shape. the results also demonstrated that the elongation ratio was low, reaching 0.353, indicating that the watershed is close to the rectangular shape. in addition, the value of the compactness factor was high, reaching 2.415. there is a rise in the lemniscate ratio, with a value of 2.551, indicating progress in the erosion cycle stages. the results suggested that the length-to-width ratio reached 5.054, which is a high percentage. keywords: fluvial geomorphology, geomorphometric analysis, shape properties, watershed modeling, al-rahimawi watershed. introduction geomorphometric studies of river drainage basins are one of the main and essential subjects in geomorphology of the recent trends in this major (maaroof, 2022a). river drainage networks are the natural environment in which water moves in river basins and is affected by topographical characteristics (das and pardeshi, 2018). it is a natural reflection of it in the early stages of erosion but soon begins to form surface characteristics (mr et al., 2019). the river’s drainage networks reflect the geological, climatic, and vegetation situation (maaroof and kareem, 2022). a watershed is defined as any area of the earth's surface that is surrounded by a water dividing line and is covered by a wide network of streams (li et al., bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799-print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2024.18.2.0277 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0859-1728 mailto:basharma@uobabylon.edu.iq https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 278 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (2): 277-295. quantitative analysis using geospatial 2018). streams in the watershed vary in size and length, and according to the classification of strehler (1957), the lowest order of streams begins at the water dividing line in higher elevations. the river orders gradually decrease until they reach the highest order, which represents the main river course that empties into either a sea, a lake, a marsh, or any other low-lying area (höfle et al., 2013). geomorphometry is the science of measuring the dimensions of the earth's surface (prasannakumar et al., 2011). this subject is concerned with measuring earth's surface features, according to the quantitative analysis principle, by applying mathematical equations and statistical methods to data derived from topographic maps, aerial photographs, satellite and radar images, and field measurements (maxwell and shobe, 2022). geomorphometric results are used to classify the earth's surface and to identify the factors and processes responsible for its formation and evolution (magesh et al., 2012). the study of shape characteristics of river drainage basins depends on several geomorphometric parameters, most of which are based on the laws of horton (1945), strahler (1957), schumm (1963), and other researchers. the problem statement is represented in the spatial relationship between the geomorphological factors and processes on the one hand and the formation of the shape properties of the al-rahimawi drainage basin in the iraqi southern desert on the other hand. the hypothesis indicated a significant spatial relationship between the physical factors (geological structure, surface, climate, and water resources) on the one hand and the formation of the shape properties of the drainage basin on the other hand. there are several geomorphological studies relating to the geomorphometric analysis of shape properties. a multiscale river risk management method using detailed geomorphometric and hydro-geomorphological analysis of the main channel of the carrión river basin, valencia, spain, and it is proposed to classify riverine landscapes, taking into account anthropogenic variables (lombana and martínez-graña, 2021). also, a quantitative approach was implemented to study the basin of the kermanasa river in the ganga plain (india) using geomorphometric parameters, where the drainage network was extracted from the srtm data. this study helped in benefiting from water resources and expanding the sustainable development of the area surrounding the river basin (prakash et al., 2019). in addition, a geomorphometric analysis of the river drainage network of the palar basin, one of the major rivers in the south of peninsular india, was carried out to understand the drainage characteristics and drainage network geometry with reference tectonics. the geomorphometric analysis was performed using the "azimuth and drainage (bad) calculator" which is a new and straightforward methodology for extracting watershed parameters (mr et al., 2019). the aim of this study is to analyze the spatial relationships of the geomorphological factors and processes that led to the formation of the shape characteristics of the al-rahimawi watershed, and determined the nature of the geomorphometric variables that contributed to the development of the basin topographic system. the importance of this research comes from 279 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum maaroof, b. f. the fact that it sheds light on the most essential geomorphometric variables of the shape characteristics of the al-rahimawi drainage basin, one of the valleys of al-najaf plateau in the iraqi southern desert. this is a promising area for investment due to its richness of natural resources. awareness of the geomorphometric properties of the region contributes to the success of the region's investment planning in various fields (agriculture, industrial, residential, transport, etc.) in addition to the environmental importance of this watershed, it contributes to maintaining the sustainability of the ecosystem in the region (al-jiburi and albasrawi, 2009; jassim, 2009). materials and methods study area : the al-rahimawi drainage basin is located in south-western parts of the alnajaf desert in iraq. it is bordered from the north, northwest, and west by the al-khuor watershed, which drains into the al-najaf sea. to the east, it is the abu-khamsat drainage basin. to the south, it is bounded by the upper sources of the hassab watershed (ma’ala, 2009). al – rahimawi basin lies between latitude (43°16 53.5 e – 44°07 21.7 e) and longitude (31°23 56.3 n – 32°03 20.8 n) (map 1). its area is 1131.969 km2 with a perimeter of 302.864 km, and the total length of the basin reached 107.474 km, starting from its upper sources near al-kharitin steppe and shuaib al-saabiya that located west of al-kara area and ending with its mouth in the mainstream (upper order) of the al-khour drainage basin, which in turn, it flows into the al-najaf sea depression (map 2). the mouth of the al-rahimawi drainage basin is 20 km away from the city of al-najaf, and the highest point in the basin was 320 m and the lowest height was 30 m above sea level (a.s.l) (miletic, 1963; al-jiburi and albasrawi, 2015). the watershed also stretches southwest to northeast (map 3, diag.1). al-rahimawi watershed consists of four secondary basins (map 4), which vary in their areal dimensions and can be described as follows: 1. al-rahimawi sub-watershed (1) (sw1): it is located in the northeastern part of the study area and has an area of 15 km2, its perimeter is 26 km, and its length is 6.679 km (tab. 1, map 4). 2. al-rahimawi sub-watershed (2) (sw2): it is located in the northwestern part of the study area and has an area of 240 km2, its perimeter is 117 km, and its length is 41.577 km (tab. 1, map 4). 3. al-rahimawi sub-watershed (3) (sw3): it is located in the central parts of the study area and has an area of 136 km2, its perimeter is 67 km, and its length is 24.327 km (tab. 1, map 4). 4. al-rahimawi sub-watershed (4) (sw4): it is located in the southern parts of the study area and its area is 741 km2, its perimeter is 288 km, and its length is 101.831 km (tab. 1, map 4). 280 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (2): 277-295. quantitative analysis using geospatial table (1): dimensions of al-rahimawi watershed and its sub-watersheds. watersheds area (km2) perimeter (km) length (km) width (km) al-rahimawi sub-watershed (1) (sw1) 15 26 6.679 4.416 al-rahimawi sub-watershed (2) (sw2) 240 117 41.577 10.315 al-rahimawi sub-watershed (3) (sw3) 136 67 24.327 10.518 al-rahimawi sub-watershed (4) (sw4) 741 288 101.831 12.106 al-rahimawi main watershed (rw) 1131.969 302.864 107.474 21.265 map (1): study area location from iraq. 281 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum maaroof, b. f. map (2): the mouth of al-rahimawi watershed into al-khuor drainage basin. map (3): the slope levels of al-rahimawi watershed. 282 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (2): 277-295. quantitative analysis using geospatial diagram (1): the 3d model of al-rahimawi watershed. map (4): al-rahimawi watershed and its sub-watersheds. 283 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum maaroof, b. f. the climate setting in the study area does not differ much from what prevails in all regions of southern iraq, which is characterized as a desert climate according to the köppen classification (maaroof, 2022b). according to the data from the al-najaf climatic station, it is clear that the study area is characterized by climatic extremes due to the irregularity of the climatic elements, particularly instead of especially temperature and rainfall. in addition it has a significant role in the geomorphological processes affecting the geomorphometric characteristics (maaroof et al., 2021). climate data also indicate that the study area is characterized by two main seasons occurring during the year (maaroof and kareem, 2020). the warm season starts in early april to october, and the cold season runs from early november to the end of march (agha and şarlak, 2016). the summer season is characterized by high temperatures and drought, particularly instead of especially in june, july, and august, as it reached 33.7°c, 36.6°c, and 36.2°c, respectively (tab. 2). meanwhile, the winter season is characterized by moderate temperatures with a downward trend. as average temperatures decline over the winter months of december, january, and february, when it reached 17.5°c, 16.7°c, and 14.5°c, respectively (tab. 2). the high summer temperature and the decline in winter can be due to several reasons. the most important of which is that the astronomical location, which determines the variation in the intensity of the seasonal solar radiation and the length of the daily sunshine that is determined by the astronomical location and the invasion of the siberian polar continental and tropical marine air masses in the cold season of the year, in addition, the invasion of the siberian polar continental and tropical marine air masses in the year's cold season, apart from the depressions that lead to lower temperatures (maaroof et al., 2023). meanwhile, the area is affected in summer by dry tropical continental air masses that raise the temperature (salman et al., 2017). table (2): the values of the climatic elements according to the data of the al-najaf climate station. months temperature (°c) rainfall (mm) january 10.6 16.7 february 12.9 14.5 march 17.6 13.3 april 24.3 15.2 may 29.1 4.9 june 33.7 july 36.6 august 36.2 september 32.2 october 26.2 4.8 november 17.7 16.2 december 12.6 17.5 average and sum 24.1 103.1 according to the modern division of tectonic regions in iraq, the study area is located within the stable shelf, between the al-salman, and al-dibaba ranges (jassim and goff, 2006; al-jiburi and al-basrawi, 2015). the region was exposed to several tectonic activities 284 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (2): 277-295. quantitative analysis using geospatial that began at the end of the cretaceous period in vertical lifting movements accompanied by simple horizontal displacements in the bedrock (ahmed et al., 2022), where it resulted in ripples in the sedimentary cover, causing the emergence of forms of horsts and grabens. besides the formation of numerous faults, which differ in their directorates-general according to the weaknesses in the rocks (fouad, 2015). many geological formations spread in the study area (map 5), whose ages range from the upper eocene era in the tertiary to the holocene era in the quaternary time. these formations varied according to their sedimentation environment, as some were deposited under continental conditions resulting from the marine recession. in contrast, others were deposited under conditions resulting from marine advancement (aljiburi and al-basrawi, 2009). map (5): geological formations of al-rahimawi watershed. data collection: the geospatial characteristics of the al-rahimawi watershed have been analyzed and interpreted using the geomorphometric parameters listed in table 3. the geospatial data are from the digital elevation model (dem) type (srtm) issued by the us department of defense. the satellite images of the landsat etm+8 bands of the us satellite for the year 2020 with a spatial resolution of 15 m were relied upon, in addition to using topographic maps on a scale of 1:100,000 issued by the general authority for iraqi survey and geological and hydrological maps on a scale of 1:250,000 issued by the iraqi geological survey. these data were incorporated into a topological model as raster layers after being entered into a gis by arc gis v.10.8. the main watershed and sub-watershed were identified and derived in the form of vector layers, in addition to deriving the river drainage network at 285 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum maaroof, b. f. all its levels (diag. 2). other spatial analysis tools (software) have also been used, like arc gis earth v.1.16, surfer v.10, global mapper v.11, and google earth pro v.7.1. after the availability of an integrated geospatial database for the study area, it was moved to the stage of interpretation and geomorphometric analysis of the shape properties using a set of geomorphometric parameters. this was done within the framework of geomorphological analysis by linking and analyzing the factor, process, structure, and stage on the one hand and the formation of terrain features with geomorphometric dimensions on the other hand. accurate and specific numerical indications were given to the dimensions of the topography in the basin, which were formed by geomorphological forces and processes, besides using the cartographic method to clarify the spatial dimensions of spatial features in the form of cartographic maps. table (3): geomorphometric parameters of the shape properties used in this study. parameters formula description reference circulatory ratio (rc) rc= 4πa/p2 a: basin area (km2); π= 3.14; p: perimeter (km) (strahler, 1957) form factor (ff) ff= a/(lb) 2 a: basin area (km2); lb: basin length (km) (horton, 1945) elongation ratio (re) re= 2√(a/π)/lb a: basin area (km2); π= 3.14; lb: basin length (km) (schumm, 1963) compactness factor (cc) cc = p/2√πa p: perimeter (km); π: 3.14; a: basin area (km2) (horton, 1945) lemniscate ratio (k) k= (lb) 2/4a lb: basin length; a: basin area (km2) (chorley et al., 1957) length-to-width ratio (r/w) r/w= lb/w lb: basin length; w: basin width (km) (miller, 1953) diagram (2): flow chart of methodology. 286 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (2): 277-295. quantitative analysis using geospatial results and discussion circulatory ratio (rc): this parameter indicates the coupling of the river drainage basin with the circular shape. this law was developed by strahler (1957) to describe how close the perimeter of the drainage basin is to a circular shape by comparing it to the perimeter of a circle with the same area as the basin, and this indicates that the result is close to no. 1. high values of this parameter indicate the presence of round-shaped drainage basins, while low values indicate meandering of the watershed lines of the river drainage basin. in many cases, the phenomenon of river capture has been observed in several river drainage basins due to the low values of the roundness coefficient (strahler, 2010). the approach of the river drainage basin to the round shape indicates the progress of the geomorphological stage it is going through, as rivers usually dig and deepen their courses and then begin to expand them (banerjee et al., 2017). the circulatory ratio of al-rahimawi main watershed (rw) was 0.154 (tab. 4). this indicates that the basin is moving away from the round shape due to the tortuousness of the water dividing line and the variation in the lengths of the sub-watersheds. this led to an indentation of the basin boundaries in the areas occupied by the sub-watersheds such as alrahimawi sub-watersheds 3 and 4. for al-rahimawi sub-watersheds, the ratios of circulation were variable. it was 0.278 and 0.380 for sub-watersheds 1 and 3, respectively, which are high percentages. for al-rahimawi sub-watershed 2, the circulatory ratio was 0.219, an average value. as for al-rahimawi sub-watershed 4, the ratio was 0.112, which is the lowest value recorded for this parameter at the level of all al-rahimawi sub-watersheds. the low values of the circulatory ratio for sub-watersheds 2 and 4 indicate the tortuousness of the water division lines for each watershed and their irregularity. this affected the lengths of the lower-order water channels close to the headwaters, facilitating the river capture operations of the adjacent watersheds. as for the sub-watersheds 1 and 3, which recorded higher values for this parameter, this is due to the nature of the rock’s low hardness, especially the dolomite rocks, which are subjected to continuous melting processes during the rainstorm. also, the presence of several faults and linear structures and their intersection transversely with the extension of the watershed, in addition to the exposure of these watersheds to water erosion for long periods have contributed to the increase in the circulatory ratio. hydrologically, round watersheds are characterized by an increase in the area of rain-fed areas and an increase in sedimentary yield. also, the arrival of water to the main estuary quickly and the increase in the flood value with the increase in the discharge value. 287 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum maaroof, b. f. table (4): the shape properties of the al-rahimawi watershed (rw) and its subwatersheds (sw). parameters watersheds (sw1) (sw2) (sw3) (sw4) (rw) circulatory ratio (rc) 0.278 0.219 0.380 0.112 0.154 form factor (ff) 0.336 0.138 0.230 0.071 0.098 elongation ratio (re) 0.654 0.420 0.541 0.301 0.353 compactness factor (cc) 1.894 2.131 1.621 2.985 2.415 lemniscate ratio (k) 0.743 1.800 1.087 3.474 2.551 length/width ratio (r/w) 1.512 4.027 2.312 8.411 5.054 form factor (ff): by using this parameter, it is possible to identify the extent to which the shape of the drainage basin is close to or far from the triangular shape. lower values of this parameter indicate that the basin is close to the triangular shape, and higher values mean that the basin is farther away from the triangular shape (rai et al., 2017). the value of the form factor of the al-rahimawi main drainage basin was 0.098, which is a low value, indicating that the shape of the basin is close to the triangular shape. this shows the similarity in the nature of the rocks' quality and the climate's nature. as for the difference in the values of this parameter for the sub-watersheds, it is primarily due to the local difference in the rocks and the dominance of the structural feature represented by faults and joints, which led to the elongation of some basins and their approach to the triangular shape. this is evident in alrahimawi basins 1 and 3, where the values were 0.336 and 0.230 for each, respectively. form factor characteristics influence the hydrological regime of a river drainage basin. rectangular basins are characterized by regular water discharge over time and relatively slow discharges compared to circular basins (rai et al., 2018). this is due to the exposure of the discharge quantities in the first case to the factors of leakage and evaporation during the runoff process from the source to the downstream. on the other hand, the circular basins are characterized by water flow that is irregular in time and with relatively high drainage during the periods of winter and spring floods. this is due to the high waves reaching the estuary from the water-feeding areas (rai et al., 2017). the value of the form factor parameter affects the speed of high-water waves reaching the mainstream and its annual flow regime. this matter affects by any means the river's geomorphological processes, represented by erosion, weathering, transport, and sedimentation. in the case of a decrease in the value of the form factor, it is close to the triangular shape, as the source forms the head of the triangle, while the downstream region forms the base of the triangle. this can be seen clearly in basins 2 and 4, where the river discharge peaks in a very short period after the rains fall, and the time required for the arrival of the flood wave from the source to the estuary decreases, and this has implications for the speed of performance of geomorphological processes. the opposite occurs in the case of the upstream area, which is the base of the triangle, where it is noticed that the water arrives sequentially and not quickly, due to the distance of the streams and spillways from the downstream area and the lack of risk of flooding with the widening of the area of the basins at the source and their narrowness at the downstream. 288 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (2): 277-295. quantitative analysis using geospatial elongation ratio (re): this parameter is considered one of the most accurate morphometric parameters for measuring the shapes of river drainage basins. proposed initially by schumm (1963), this parameter compares the shape of a river drainage basin to that of a rectangle. the values of this parameter are higher in extended drainage basins. at the same time, they are lower in basins whose shape is far from rectangular and where their width differs from their longitudinal extension (soni, 2017). the values of this parameter range between 0 and 1, and whenever the values are close to zero; this indicates that the basin is close to a rectangular shape. if the values are higher than one, this suggests that the basin is close to a circular shape (pandi et al., 2017). the data presented in table 3 indicate that the elongation ratio of the al-rahimawi main watershed was 0.353, which is a relatively low value, suggesting that the basin is close to its rectangular shape. as for the al-rahimawi sub-watersheds, their values varied in the ratio of this parameter, as they reached 0.654 and 0.541 for the sub-watersheds 1 and 3, respectively, which are high values indicating that these two sub-watersheds are far from the rectangular shape and close to the circular shape. the values were 0.420 and 0.301 for sub-watersheds 2 and 4 each, respectively, which are low values indicating that these two sub-watersheds are close to the rectangular shape. basins that include diverse and heterogeneous geological formations and have been affected by faulting and folding processes tend to be more rectangular (fenta et al., 2017), and this applies exactly to sub-watersheds 2 and 4. the low elongation ratio in subwatersheds 2 and 4 gave a clear geomorphological indication of the tendency of lower-order streams to increase their length and decrease their number. as for the increase in the elongation ratio in sub-watersheds 1 and 3, it indicated an increase in the number of lowerorder streams and a decrease in their lengths. the low elongation rate in some sub-watersheds suggests that they are at the beginning of the youth phase of the erosion cycle, where the basin digs its channels and increases their lengths through retrograde erosion and does not practice lateral erosion that ends with an increase in the width of the basin. also, the low ratios of this parameter indicate the hardness of the watershed rocks and their strong resistance to erosion processes. this led to the delay in the transition from the backward vertical erosion stage to the lateral erosion, the lack of water discharge due to evaporation and percolation that leads to sedimentary yield, and the delay in the arrival of the flood due to the long distance. compactness factor (cc): this coefficient shows the homogeneity and consistency of the shape of the perimeter of the drainage basin and its catchment area (yadav et al., 2014). in addition to knowing the proximity or distance of the perimeter of the drainage basin from its center and the regularity of the water dividing line (gajbhiye et al., 2014). the results of applying this parameter indicate the geomorphological stage that indicates the geomorphological stage the drainage basin passes through. high values of this parameter indicate that the drainage basin is characterized by a large perimeter at the expense of its total area. then, low values of this coefficient indicate the progression of the basin in the river erosion cycle (sreedevi et al., 2013). 289 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum maaroof, b. f. the compactness factor of al-rahimawi's main watershed was 2.415, and the values of the sub-watersheds varied considerably, reaching 2.131 and 2.985 for sub-watersheds 2 and 4, respectively, which are the highest values. at the same time, the values were 1.894 and 1.621 for sub-watersheds 1 and 3, respectively. the relatively high value of the compactness factor of the al-rahimawi main watershed indicates the asymmetry of the shape, an increase in the tortuousness of the perimeter, and the recent erosion cycle that it passes through. this analysis is fully applicable to sub-watersheds with relatively high values. still, the matter is different for sub-watersheds with low values of this coefficient, such as basins 1 and 3, which were characterized by an increase in their areas at the expense of the length of the perimeter, and this is a clear indication that these watersheds are going through advanced stages of the erosion cycle. lemniscate ratio (k): this modulus, proposed by chorley (1957), compares the shapes of a drainage basin and a pear. the discovery of this equation was supported by the observation that most of these symmetrical river drainage basins have a pear-like shape rather than the more typical circular shape (chorley et al., 1957). low values of this parameter show an increase in the drainage basin's lemniscate, indicating an increase in the lengths of the water channels and their numbers in the lower orders along the water division lines (rai et al., 2018). additionally, low values of this coefficient show long-term dominance of vertical and lateral erosion processes, indicating the drainage basin's advancement in the erosion cycle, and high values of this coefficient show the opposite (rai et al., 2017). al-rahimawi watershed's lemniscate ratio was 2.551, a relatively high figure that shows the river erosion in the basin is still in its early phases. it is apparent that the basin's inability to advance in the erosion cycle, which has affected the increase in the lemniscate ratio, was caused by the quality of the rocks, the region's structural condition, and the impacts of the climate. as for sub-watersheds, their values for this coefficient varied, reaching 0.743 for subwatershed (1), the lowest value recorded at the level of sub-watersheds. this indicates that this sub-watershed has achieved remarkable progress in the erosion cycle within the main basin. the sub-watershed 4 has the highest recorded value, reaching 3.474, and this indicates that it is the least lemniscate of the watershed and naturally tends to elongate. the high value of sub-watershed 4 suggests that it is the least developed sub-watershed, and it still has a long period before it achieves significant progress in the river erosion cycle. the delay of subwatershed 4 in the erosion cycle is the influence of geomorphological controls that delayed its development, and the type of rock and geological structure may be among the most important. average values of 1,800 and 1,087 were noted for sub-watersheds 2 and 3, respectively. this indicates a low lemniscate ratio and their semi-square shape, possibly due to the region's tectonic activation. length/width ratio (r/w): to some extent, this parameter is similar to the elongation ratio parameter, with the difference that higher values indicate that the watershed is close to a rectangular shape (rai et al., 2018). low values of this parameter approaching zero indicate an increase in the width of the basin concerning its length, which is the opposite of the elongation ratio parameter (banerjee et al., 2017). the length/width ratio of the al-rahimawi 290 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (2): 277-295. quantitative analysis using geospatial watershed was 5.054, which is a high ratio, indicating its closeness to the rectangular shape. the high value of this parameter indicates that the al-rahimawi watershed is still in the middle phase of the river erosion cycle and that the current drought conditions may continue this phase for a long time. the sub-watersheds varied in their values, reaching 8.411 for the secondary watershed 4, which is a high value reflecting the geomorphological and geological conditions that this watershed goes through, especially the influence of the tectonic condition. the tectonic activation of the region contributed significantly to reducing the number of water channels, which led to a lack of erosion processes and an increase in the basin's length relative to its width. the value of this parameter was 1.512 for sub-watershed 1, which is the lowest recorded value. this decrease in value indicates that sub-watershed 1 is close to a circular shape due to the geomorphological conditions that control it, which led to an increase in the number of water channels that increased the width of this sub-watershed relative to its length. as for the rest of the sub-watersheds, their values were 4.027 for sub-watershed 2 and 2.312 for sub-watershed 3, which are average values that reflect their geomorphological conditions that worked to shape their characteristics. conclusions the low circulatory ratio of the al-rahimawi watershed indicates that the water division line is irregular and diverges far from the circular shape, due to changes in the lengths of the sub-watersheds. the low circulatory ratio of the sub-watersheds also affected the lengths of the river channels of the lower orders near the headwaters. the decrease in the value of the shape factor of the al-rahimawi watershed indicates that it is close to the triangular shape, and this naturally results from the similarity in the quality of the rocks and the nature of the climate. the sub-watersheds varied in the form factor values between high and low, and some of them recorded high values as in the sub-watersheds 1 and 3. the high value of the shape factor indicates that the watershed is close to the rectangular shape, which affects the hydrological system, where the water discharge is relatively slow and regular. the low value of the elongation ratio of the al-rahimawi watershed indicates that it is close to the rectangle shape. this decrease in the value of the elongation ratio naturally results from the diversity and heterogeneity of geological formations, which is a clear geomorphological indicator of the tendency of lower-order water channels to increase their lengths and decrease their number. the high value of the compactness factor of the alrahimawi watershed is clear evidence that it is characterized by a long perimeter concerning its area. it also passes through an intermediate phase of the river erosion cycle, asymmetry in shape, and increased perimeter curvature. the high lemniscate value of the al-rahimawi watershed indicates that it is in the early stages of the erosion cycle, and this is a result of the influence of the rock quality and the structural conditions of the area, as well as the effects of the climate. al-rahimawi watershed has a high length-to-width ratio, suggesting it is nearly rectangular. this indicates the al-rahimawi watershed is still in the middle of the river erosion cycle, and the high value of this parameter indicates that this phase may last for a considerable amount of time given the current drought circumstances. 291 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum maaroof, b. f. acknowledgements the author would like to acknowledge the scientific support offered by the babylon center for civilization and historical studies, university of babylon. conflict of interest statement the author declares that there are no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of thismanuscript. literature cited agha, o. m. a. m. and şarlak, n. 2016. spatial and temporal patterns of climate variables in iraq. arabian journal of geosciences, 9(4): 301-311. 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(2024) 18 (2): 277 295. التحليل الكمي باستخدام النمذجة الجيومكانية للخصائص الشكلية ملستجمع مياه الرهيماوي في صحراء العراق الجنوبية بشار فؤاد معروف مركز بابل للدراسات الحضارية والتاريخية، جامعة بابل، العراق 20/12/2024ر: ، تأريخ النش29/5/2024القبول: ، 25/5/2024: املراجعة، 3/2/2024االستالم: الخالصة هذا البحث دراسة حوض تصريف الرهيماوي، وهو أحد مستجمعات املياه في تضمن ضمن صحراء العراق الجنوبية. يمثل هذا الحوض أحد األنظمة الهيدروجيومورفولوجية مجموعة من ُوِظَفت منطقة الوديان السفلى، حسب التقسيم الجيومورفولوجي للعراق. املعايير الجيومورفولوجية للصفات املورفولوجية ملستجمع مياه الرهيماوي التي أعطت نتائج واضحة حول السمات الجيومورفولوجية ومرحلة التعرية لهذا الحوض. املعامالت ، ومعامل الشكل(rc) الجيومورفومترية املستخدمة في هذه الدراسة هي نسبة االستدارة (ff) ستطالة، ونسبة اال (re)ومعامل االندماج ، (cc)ونسبة االنبعاج ، (k) /ونسبة الطول ، والصورة srtm نوع (dem) إلى استخدام نموذج االرتفاع الرقمي إضافة (r / w).العرض أشارت النتائج إلى أن نسبة االستدارة .landsat etm+8 الفضائية للقمر الصناعي األمريكي ستجمع املياه ابتعد عن الشكل الدائري. كما أن قيمة عامل مما يدل على أن م 0.154كانت مما يدل على أن مستجمع املياه قريب من 0.098الشكل كانت منخفضة حيث وصلت إلى الشكل املثلثي. كما أشارت النتائج إلى أن نسبة االستطالة كانت منخفضة حيث بلغت ل املستطيل. كما أن قيمة ، وهذه القيمة تشير إلى أن املستجمع قريب من الشك0.353 . وهناك ارتفاع في نسبة االنبعاج بقيمة 2.415معامل االندماج كانت مرتفعة حيث بلغت مما يدل على التقدم في مراحل دورة التعرية. أشارت النتائج إلى أن نسبة الطول إلى 2.551 وهي نسبة مرتفعة. 5.054العرض بلغت bull 519 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum sahood et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2023) 17 (3): 519-530. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2023.17.3.0519 original article revision of the genus xylocopa latreille, 1802 (hymenoptera, apidae) with a new record of species in iraq ghofran hussein sahood*♦, hanaa h. alsaffar** and feryal bahjat hermize* *department of plant protection, college of agricultural engineering science, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq. **iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq. ♦corresponding author e-mail: ghofran.hussein2104m@coagri.uobaghdad.edu.iq recived date: 14 march 2023, accepted date 22 may 2023, published date:20 june 2023 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract in this study, the genus xylocopa latreille, 1802 (hymenoptera: apidae) was revised. there were 4 species registered in our investigations: x. hottentotta smith, 1854; x. olivieri lepeletier, 1841; x. pubescens spinola, 1838 and x. valga gerstäcker, 1872, the first species was described as being found for the first time for the insect fauna of iraq, which were obtained from solanum melogena l. flowers. key to the species was constructed and supported by figures of the main diagnostic characters and some morphological features, illustrated and compared with other species, which are recorded in the current survey. keywords: apidae, carpenter bee, iraq, revision, xylocopa hottentotta introduction arthropods and pathogens have the most developed relationships with host plants through the evolution process (adhab and schoelz, 2015; adhab, 2021; adhab et al., 2019). they have always been linked to agricultural loses through history (al-ani et al., 2009, 2011; adhab 2021). the family apidae is one of the largest families of order hymenoptera, including about 6484 described species that are important pollinators of natural plants and agricultural crops (gbif secretariat, 2022). the larvae and adults of this family feed on flowers, nectar and pollen to acquire energy (delaplane and mayer, 2000). bees have a significant role in the natural pollination of flowering plants and greatly benefit humans by increasing food security, improving livelihoods and preserving biodiversity in agricultural and natural ecosystems (eardley et al., 2010). according to michener (2007), this family includes three subfamilies, apinae, nomadinae and xylocopinae, commonly known as carpenter bees because they build their nests by making holes in the steams of dead plants and wood, they are either characterized by biological diversity and solitary with social tendencies (he and zhu, 2020). the large carpenter bee xylocopa latreille, 1802, wide spread worldwide, contains about 473 species (michener, 2007). bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799-print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2023.17.3.0519 https://orcid.org/0009-0008-9382-5023 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3139-487x https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3951-4194 mailto:ghofran.hussein2104m@coagri.uobaghdad.edu.iq https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 520 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum revision of the genus xylocopa xylocopa latreille, 1802 characterized by several morphological features that includes: head transvers, ocellar triangle ocelli arranged below the vertex, compound eyes larger in male, labial palp flattened and sheath like; antennae geniculate, three submarginal cells in the forewing, marginal cell of forewing short, submarginal cross veins developed, pterostigma absent, jugal lobe less than one fourth as long vannal lobe (michener, 2007). the species of xylocopa are distributed around the world, such as in asia and the middle east: lebanon, turkey, palestine, turkmenistan, iran, and afghanistan (terzo and rasmont, 2011; terzo and rasmont, 2014; ascher and pickering, 2021); south of africa (grace, 2010). in iraq, xylocopa fenestrata (fabricius, 1798) was listed by derwesh (1965); x. olivieri lepeletier, 1841, x. rufa friese, 1901, and x. aestuans (linnaeus, 1758) were listed by khalaf and al–omar (1974). as well x. pubescens spinola, 1838, and x. violacea (linnaeus, 1758) were recorded by swailem et al. (1974) and x. varentzowi morawitz, 1895 was registered by ahmed (2015). finally, augul (2018) referred to recent records of family species through an update of the list of pollinators in iraq. in the present paper, a new record species of x. hottentotta smith, 1854 is redescribed, contributing to identify the carpenter bees in iraq. materials and methods specimens' collection: specimens used in this investigation were collected during the field surveys in different regions of iraq throughout 2022 with irregular periods. totally, 11 specimens were collected from baghdad, diyala, kerbala, saladin and wasit provinces in iraq using sweep nets on a sunny day throughout the entire flowering period of plants. the collected bee specimens were kept in plastic containers. at the laboratory, specimens were mounted by insect pins; each specimen was labelled by two cards which contained the host plant, date and localities of collecting. all specimens were kept in wooden insect boxes. the photographs were taken by huawei nova 7i (sony-imx586) and used a binocular dissecting microscope (mb. mariobroma, roma) to magnify the morphological features. identification: the specimens were identified by using different keys, such as bingham (1897), michener (2007), eardly et al. (2010), and guershon and hirsch (2012). the synonyms mentioned in the current results are based on the gbif secretariat (2022). abbreviations: 1r-m: first radio– medial cross vein m: basal vein smc2: second submarginal cell 2r-m: second radio – medial cross vein mc: marginal cell smc3:third submarginal cell c: claws ms: mesothorax s: spine cl: clypeus mt: metathorax t: tergite co: coxa n: notum te: tegula e: compound eye o: ocellus ti: tibia fc: frontal carina p: pedicel tr: trochanter fe: femur pa: papillate ts: tarsus fl: flagellum s: spur vl: vanal lobe jl: jugal lobe sc: scape l: labrum smc1: first submarginal cell 521 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum sahood et al. results and discussion the results showed nine species, four of them were collected from different provinces in iraq. the species xylocopa pubescens was the highest distribution of iraq, but the species xylocopa olivieri was the lowest which only one specimen was collected from baghdad province. key to the species of xylocopa occurring in iraq: 1integument black……………………….……………………………….…………..……. 2 integument brown. (pl. 1a) ……………………………………...…….………. x. olivieri 2scutum covered with bright yellow hairs dorsally. (pl. 1b)……………......... x. pubescens scutum covered with black or intermixed with whitish hairs dorsally ………,,,…….….. 3 3-frontal carina from median ocellus towards frons elevated as a keel. (pl. 1c) ……………………………….………………………………………….. x. hottentotta frontal carina sulcated from median ocellus towards frons. (pl. 1d) ………….... x. valga subfamily, xylocpinae tribe, xylocopin genus, xylocopa latreille, 1802 synonym: hylocopa kirchner, 1857 common name: carpenter bee xylocopa hottentotta smith, 1854 synonyms: xylocopa carinata smith, 1874 x. fimbriatopilosa enderlein, 1903 x. flavilabris smith, 1874 x. fraterna vachal, 1899 x. natalensis vachal, 1899 x. producta smith, 1874 x. tarsata smith, 1854 materials examined (2♀♀): the specimens collected from wasit province, al-aziziyah 32.911836°n 45.061348°e, 26. vii. 2022. distribution: egypt (grace, 2010); ethiopia, senegal, togo, nigeria, somalia, congo, rwanda, kenya, namibia and zimbabwe (pauly et al., 2018). description of female: body length 13-19 mm; completely black. (pl. 2a, b, c); head black, densely punctate; compound eyes dark brown with pale areas, parallel, convergent ventrally without any setae between compound eyes, ocelli dark brown, arranged as triangle shape, median ocellus bigger than lateral ocelli, lateral ocelli lower than upper margin of compound eyes and equal in size, median ocellus not intersected by interocellar line, clypeus black, densely punctate, without lateral tubercles (pl. 3a). frontal carina elevated as a keel, gena narrow, anttenocular distance two times larger than clypeoantennal distance (pl. 3b). antennae black consist of twelve segments, scape longer than pedicel about three times, first flagellomere longer than each rest segments (pl. 3c). thorax width 8-9 mm; mesothorax larger than prothorax and metathorax, densely punctate, mesonotum and sides of scutellum punctate, hairless in the middle, metathorax contain black hair lateral, tegulae large and black 522 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum revision of the genus xylocopa (pl. 3d). forewings length 14-18 mm, dark brown with purple reflection, veins darker brown, marginal cell long, narrow and extends along margins of wing, three submarginal cells (smc), the third submarginal cell (smc3) larger than smc1 and smc2, 1rs-m curved inward, 2rs-m curved outward, basal vein (m) straight, jugal lobe (jl) of hind wing less than vanal lobe (vl), ends of forewings and hind wings densely papillate (pl. 4a, b). coxae rounded, black, with dense black setae, trochanter rectangular, narrow at base, wider at the apex with black setae, femora black slender in shape, wide at base and narrowed apically, with dense black setae erected downwards, tibia narrow basely, wider apically, surface with densely punctate with dense long and black setae, tibial spur one on each leg, tibiae with single spur and spine at posterior apices. tarsi black consists of five tarsomeres with densely black setae, tarsal claws branched, arolia with short black setae (pl.4 a, b, c). abdomen width 5-7mm, six segments, densely punctate, tergum 2 (t2) wider than other terga; lateral sides of terga and sterna with black setae, pygidial plate black with dense black setae, posterior margin with short brown spine. sterna with densely punctates, dense and black setae at apical edges (pl. 5 a, b). diagnostic characters: pubescence and integument black, clypeus without lateral tubercles, but with a more or less prominent tubercle in the center; sometimes the median carina a little more prominent in front lateral sides of terga and sterna with black setae. xylocopa olivieri lepeletier, 1841 synonym: xylocopa hellenica spinola, 1843 material examined (1♀) baghdad province, abu ghraib, 33°17′31″n 44°03′56″e, 23.vi.2022. distribution: iraq (derwesh, 1965), turkey (warncke, 1982.), israel (guershon and hirsch, 2012), albania, azerbaijan, greece, crete, cyprus, iran, kyrgyzstan, macedonia, syria and turkmenistan (ascher and pickering, 2018). west palaearctic: northern and eastern mediterranean to the western caspian sea and lebanon (grace, 2010) xylocopa pubescens spinola, 1838 synonyms: xylocopa (koptortosoma) aestuans subsp. rubida gribodo, 1884 x. pubescence eardley, 1987 x. rubida gribodo, 1884 materials examined (4♀♀, 1♂): (1 ♀) baghdad province, jadriyah, 33°17′17″n 44°23′35″e, 6.vii.2022; (2♀♀). wasit province, al-aziziyah, 32.911836°n 45.061348°e, 26.vii.2022; (1 ♂, 1♀) saladin province, al-eshaqi, 34°17′00″n 43°46′00″e; 28.vii.2022. distribution: iraq (swailem et al., 1974); egypt, algeria, burma, ethiopia, iran, india, israel, morocco, afghanistan, nepal, pakistan, turkey, syria, senegal, sudan, kenya, mozambique and tanzania (warncke, 1982; ascher and pickering, 2018). xylocopa valga gerstaecker, 1872 materials examined (2♀♀, 1♂): (1 ♀) baghdad province, jadriyah, 33°17′17″n 44°23′35″e; 6.vii.2022. (1♂, 1♀) babylon province, al-musayyib, 32.778611°n 44.29°e, 6.ix.2022. distribution: iraq (ascher and pickering, 2018). west palaearctic: widespread in europe and east of the mediterranean basin to china, scattered records in north africa (terzo and rasmont, 2014; ascher and pickering, 2021). 523 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum sahood et al. xylocopa aestuans linnaeus, 1758 synonyms: apis aestuans linnaeus, 1758 xylocopa confusa pérez, 1901 x. leucothorax (degeer, 1773) distribution: iraq (khalaf and al–omar, 1974); united arab emirates (harten, 2005); saudi arabia (hannan et al., 2012); indonesia and the malay peninsula (pauly, 2016). xylocopa fenestrata fabricius, 1798 synonym: apis fenestrata fabricius, 1798 distribution: iraq (derwesh, 1965); turkey (warncke, 1982); afghanistan, burma, china, iran, pakistan, india, mauritius, madagascar, nepal, sri lanka and reunion (ascher and pickering, 2018). xylocopa rufa friese, 1901 distribution: iraq (khalaf, 1958).caucasus, sudan, turkestan, pakistan, israel and iran (warncke, 1982). armenia, kyrgyzstan, turkmenistan, india, tajikistan and china (ascher and pickering, 2018). west palaearctic: eastern mediterranean to china (terzo, and rasmont, 2014). xylocopa violacea linnaeus, 1758 synonym: apis violacea linnaeus, 1758 distribution: iraq (swailem et al., 1974); east palaearctic: widespread across europe, scattered records from north africa and further east in the mediterranean to tajikistan (terzo and rasmont, 2014; ascher and pickering, 2021). xylocopa varentzowi morawitz, 1895 distribution: iraq (khalaf and al – omar, 1974). afghanistan, iran, israel, turkmenistan and turkey (ascher and pickering, 2021). 524 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum revision of the genus xylocopa b ca b ca b ca plate (1): (a) dorsal view of x. olivieri, (b) dorsal view of x. pubescens, (c) lateral view of head x. hottentotta, (d) lateral view of head x. valga. plate (2): female of x. hottentotta; (a) dorsal, (b) frontal and (c) lateral view. 525 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum sahood et al. n te ms mt d o e cl l a b c plate (3): x. hottentotta; (a) head, frontal view, (b) head, lateral view, (c) antenna, (d) thorax, dorsal view. plate (4): wings and legs of x. hottentotta; (a) forewing, (b) hindwing; (c) dorsal view, (d) ventral view, (e) claws. 526 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum revision of the genus xylocopa conclusions this study is the most comprehensive review of bees out of the genus xylocopa in iraq to date, which is poorly known in iraq and many species of it remain to be described. the species which are belonging to it have a great importance in pollination of agricultural crops. according to database, references and checklists that related to this group, the genus xylocopa is one of the most widespread genera in iraq. therefore, it is necessary to complete the investigation of its species in the different regions; and will expect to add more species to the iraqi fauna. acknowledgements all thanks to prof. dr. razzaq shalan augul in the laboratory of the entomology and invertebrates department, iraq natural history research center & museum-university of baghdad for his kind help and continuous encouragement to this work. we would like to express our appreciation to assistant mrs ekhlas abdul jabbar in plant protection directorate, for the aid in obtaining some specimens. we grateful to the anonymous outside reviewers for their helpful comments on improving the revision. conflict of interest statment the results of the present study are part of the requirements of m. sc. in insects, department of plant protection, college of agriculture engineering sciences-university of baghdad for the first author. as well, we are the authors of this manuscript, declare and confirm that there is no significant financial or other relationship with any official institution. plate (5): abdomen of x. hottentotta; (a) dorsal view, (b) spine. 527 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum sahood et al. literature cited ahmed, h. 2015. taxonomic study of bees (hymenoptera: apoidea) in some localities of kurdistan region-iraq. m.sc. in plant protection, college of agriculture, salahaddin university, erbil, iraq, 151pp. [click here] adhab, m. a. and schoelz, j. e. 2015. report of the turnip aphid, lipaphis erysimi (kaltenbach, 1843) from missouri, usa. journal of plant protection research, 3(55): 327-328. 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[click here] http://www.abctaxa.be/volumes/vol-7-bees https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei https://dnu7gk7p9afoo.cloudfront.net/files/grace2010.pdf https://www.academia.edu/68788712/a_review_of_the_xylocopa_species_hymenoptera_apidae_of_israel https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.201.3246 https://books.google.com/books/about/the_insects_of_the_united_arab_emirates.html?id=rvrmaaaayaaj https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0235769 https://pinhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/pinhm/issue/view/32 https://www.iasj.net/iasj/pdf/754d9919eaf81189 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5a849d4c8dd041c9c07a8e4c/t/5ad3bc968a922d44a4728936/1523825933048/michener+2007+the+bees+of+the+world.pdf http://www.atlashymenoptera.net/page.aspx??id=84 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/323410349_the_xylocopa_latreille_1802_of_ethiopia_hymenoptera_apidae https://eurekamag.com/research/022/134/022134847.php http://www.atlashymenoptera.net/page.aspx?id=192 529 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum sahood et al. terzo, m. and rasmont, p. 2014. atlas of the european bees: genus xylocopa. step project, atlas hymenoptera, mons, gembloux. [click here] warncke, k. 1982. die holzbienen des vorderen orients (hym., apidae). linzer biologische beiträge, 14(1): 23-37. [click here] http://www.zoologie.umh.ac.be/hymenoptera/page.aspx?id=214 https://www.zobodat.at/pdf/lbb_0014_1_0023-0037.pdf 530 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum revision of the genus xylocopa bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2023) 17 (3): 519-530. xylocopa latreille, 1802 مراجعة للجنس )hymenoptera, apidae) للعراق مع تسجيل نوع جديد فريال بهجت هرمز* و غفران حسين صاهود*، هناء هاني الصفار** قسم وقاية النبات، كلية علوم الهندسة الزراعية، جامعة بغداد، بغداد، العراق* .عة بغداد، بغداد، العراقمركز بحوث و متحف التأريخ الطبيعي، جام** 20/6/2023، تأريخ النشر: 22/5/2023القبول: ، تأريخ 14/3/2023تأريخ االستالم: الخالصة )رتبة عشائية xylocopa latreille, 1802جرى في هذه الدراسة مراجعة لجنس .x اربعة انواع شملت: ل ج س ، اذ( apidae عائلة النحل ، hymenopteraاالجنحة hottentotta smith, 1854 ،x. olivieri lepeletier, 1841 ،x. pubescens spinola, وصف النوع األول كتسجيل جديد ألول حيث .. x. valga gerstaecker, 1872و 1838 solanumالنوع من أزهار نبات الباذنجان هذا ،جمع مرة للمجموعة الحشرية العراقية melogena l. .مم مفتاح لعزل أنواع ص ً بالصور التوضيحية جنس الهذا ا ً مدعوما للصفات التشخيصية الرئيسية و بعض الصفات املظهرية للمقارنة بين االنواع التي املراجعة. هذه خاللسجلت bull 35 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-fayadhi et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2024) 18 (1): 3547. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2024.18.1.0035 original article morphometrical clutch uniformity in the lapwing community vanellus brison, 1760 (aves, charadriiformes, charadriidae) in al-malih wetland-babylon provincemiddle of iraq kamil h. al-fayadhi*, omar f. al-sheikhly** and moayed j. yass* * department of biology, college of science, university of babylon, babylon, iraq. ** department of biology, college of science, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq. corresponding author: kemo.bio.only@gmail.com received: 16 july 2023, revised: 4 november 2023, accepted: 5 nov. 2023, published:20 june 2024 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract in this study, we provide an analytical comparison combined with morphological characteristic of eggs and newly hatched precocial chicks of three lapwing species, red– owattled lapwing vanellus indicus (boddaert, 1783), spur-winged lapwing v. spinosus (linnaeus, 1758), and white-tailed lapwing v. leucurus (lichtenstein, 1823) that breed in al-malih wetland in babylon province, middle of iraq. occupied nests were located during the breeding season (march–june 2023), breeding events (e.g., adult courtship, marking of the breeding territories, nest-site selection, nest building, and egg incubation) were carefully observed. a total of 48 eggs from a total of 12 lapwing nests (4 eggs for each nest, 4 nests for each species) were cautiously examined and measured. lapwing chicks and eggs show many morphological differences. morphometrical data were tested using anova, calculating the mean, standard deviation (sd), and coefficient of variation (cv). the mean and sd for egg length were 46.25±0.68 mm for v. indicus, 42.25±0.96 mm for v. spinosus (linnaeus, 1758), and 42.28±0.67 mm for v. leucurus. the egg breadth mean and sd were 33.34±0.84 mm for v. indicus, 31.43±0.55 mm for v. spinosus (linnaeus, 1758), and 31.42±0.67 mm for v. leucurus. the egg weight mean and sd were 21.39±0.91 gm for v. indicus, 16.51±0.73 gm for v. spinosus (linnaeus, 1758), and15.87±0.50 gm for v. leucurus. the low value of cv (≤5%) may indicate a close hereditary clan in the birds that belong to the same genus. in addition, the results indicate that there are considerable differences in the morphometrical measurement of the three species of vanellus. eggs, as all of these variables have ≤5% cv. our preliminary results, which were obtained for the first time, may contribute to the conservation efforts of these wetlands-dwelling birds in iraq. keywords: biology birds, birds of iraq, egg measurements, lapwing community, water bird . bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799, print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2024.18.1.0035 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4084-4908 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0816-1955 https://orcid.org/0009-0000-2808-0821 mailto:kemo.bio.only@gmail.com https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 36 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (1): 3547. morphometrical clutch uniformity in the lapwing corresponding author: *yusra.yassen@uobasrah.edu.iq introduction wetlands support a high diversity of resident and migrant waterbirds (amezaga et al., 2002). one of the basic benefits of wetlands is that they provide a suitable habitat for plants and animals that live primarily in these regions; for example, migratory birds are considered the main users of wetlands for foraging, resting, and roosting sites (ma et al., 2010). lapwings are members of the family charadriidae, which typically nest on wetland edges, grasslands, or sandy beaches, feeding on nematodes, worms, insects, and crustaceans, especially their larvae in aquatic settings (shrubb, 2010). according to salim et al., (2012), there are five species of lapwings belonging to the genus vanellus in iraq, including redwattled lapwing v. indicus (bo ddaert, 1783) , spur-winged lapwing v. spinosus (linnaeus, 1758), white-tailed lapwing v. leucurus, sociable lapwing v. gregarious and northern lapwing v. vanellus. the first three species were breeding residents, while the latter are rare passage migrants and winter visitors (al-sheikhly, 2021). according to historical works of literature review like chapman and mcgeoch (1956) there were recorded nests of v. indicus (boddaert, 1783), v. leucurus (lichtenstein, 1823) and v. spinosus (linnaeus, 1758) in alhabbaniyah; moore and boswell (1956) recorded eggs on 12, 19 april, and 26 may 1955 of v. indicus (boddaert, 1783) in iraq. allouse (1961) described the lapwing vanellus spp. in iraq (morphological, recorded, and status) and referred to v. indicus (boddaert, 1783) as a resident , v. leucurus (lichtenstein, 1823) as a resident and winter visitor, v. gregaria as a rare winter visitor, v. vanellus as a winter visitor, and v. spinosus (linnaeus, 1758) as a resident. however, the study that briefly described the temporal breeding biology of v. leucurus (lichtenstein, 1823) and v. spinosus (linnaeus, 1758) was made by al-robaae (2006), he mentioned that v. leucurus (lichtenstein, 1823) nests are found in late may and early june, while v. spinosus (linnaeus, 1758) nests were found in june, which are small holes near the water's surface and contain 3 or 4 eggs; also he mentioned that v. indicus (boddaert, 1783) nests and eggs were discovered in may and june. abed (2007) recorded two species of lapwing, v. leucurus (lichtenstein, 1823) and v. indicus (boddaert, 1783) at three sites: huwayzah, suq shuyukh and east hammar belonging to restored southern iraqi marshes. salim et al. (2009) referred to those four species of lapwing recorded in the marshes of southern iraq, as northern lapwing v. vanellus was a winter visitor.v. spinosus (linnaeus, 1758)as resident breeder and winter visitor; v. indicus (boddaert, 1783) as resident breeder and winter visitor; and v. leucurus (lichtenstein, 1823) as resident breeder and winter visitor. fazaa et al. (2017) indicated that the three species of lapwings mentioned above are breeding in the central marshes based on the british trust for ornithology’s breeding evidence. in addition, habeeb et al. (2018) recorded three species of lapwing, including v. leucurus (lichtenstein, 1823), v. spinosus (linnaeus, 1758) and v. indicus (boddaert, 1783) in the east hammer marsh in basra. also abbas (2022) recoded the species of v. indicus (boddaert, 1783) from the lapwing v. indicus (boddaert, 1783) in basra. mailto:yusra.yassen@uobasrah.edu.iq 37 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-fayadhi et al. in this study, we aim to obtain (i) a morphometrical comparison/differences among clutches and (ii) a contrasting morphological description of the newly hatched chicks of three species of vanellus lapwing. materials and methods study site: al-malih wetland (map 1) is located in the northern part of babylon province (n 32o48'56", e 44o20'37") and south of baghdad (about 54.78 km) and covers 2,000 hectares (20 km2) area. however, it receives water from the euphrates river through two channels that pass through it. there are a lot of fish farms there and also wetlands, especially in the winter season. the general landscape is dominated by freshwater open lakes with cover provided by the dominant common reed phragmites australis (cav.) trin. ex steud., 1841. field work: the study was conducted during the breeding season (march–june 2023) for 60 days (15 days per month) from 6:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. a popular technique for finding nests is cold searching, which involves looking visually for breeding events (e.g., adult courtship, marking of the breeding territories, nest-site selection, nest building, and egg incubation) that were carefully observed. potential bias of this kind can be avoided for species that are easily observed by first locating a bird, then observing its return to its nest during visits for nest construction, incubation changeovers, or feeding nestlings by using a digital camera (nikon coolpix p900s, japan), binoculars (ansinna, 12x40), the efficiency with which nests can be detected in this manner can be boosted if the observer is aware of the relevance of special clues provided by behavior or warning signs (sutherland et al., 2004). to relocate nests natural markers, such as stones arranged in a particular way to mark the nests to reduce predation risk, and global positioning systems (gps) that enable you to navigate quickly to the correct landmark (pietz and granfors, 2000). 48 eggs from 12 vanellus species nests (4 nests per species, each nest contains 4 eggs) were recorded; egg length and breadth were taken by using a vernier calliper (0.01 mm) accuracy, and egg weight was taken by a sensitive scale (0.001 gm). identification field guides: many ornithological classification field guides were employed during the study to achieve precise morphological identification of lapwing species. the following field guides were used and are organized by year of publication: allouse (1961), svensson et al. (2010), and porter and aspinall (2013). data analysis: anova (lsd 0.05) within the spss program (ibm, v. 26) was used to calculate the mean, standard deviation, and coefficient of variation of egg measurements. the duncan multiple range test was employed to examine the variances among the means (tallarida, 1987). pearson correlation test was used to test the differences between the means (ross and willson, 2017). results and discussion v. spinosus (linnaeus, 1758) nests and chicks shown in plate (1), eggs outwardly are distinguished by a pyriform shape, a non-glossy surface with olive green to light brownish colour, and were patterned with irregularly sized dark brownish black spots and streaks. the 38 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (1): 3547. morphometrical clutch uniformity in the lapwing corresponding author: *yusra.yassen@uobasrah.edu.iq chick morphology was distinguished by dark brown in the base bill ended black, brown iris, and pale green legs. a small black stripe extends from the eye ring, and a distinct black stripe on the crown base with a sandy head contains small black spots. nape, chin, throat, and downside parts are distinct with white color. v. indicus (boddaert, 1783) nests and chicks shown in plate (2), eggs outwardly are distinguished by their pyriform shape and non-glossy surface; their color is pale olive green with black spots. the chick has a dark brown bill, a brown iris, and pale green legs. the black distinct stripe on the crown base with sandy head contains a small black spotted with a black throat. the black strip on the flank extends to the tail. nape, chin, and downside parts are distinct with white color. v. leucurus (lichtenstein, 1823) nests and chicks shown in plate (3), eggs outwardly are distinguished by pyriform shape and non-glossy surface with pale olive eggs with large irregular dark-brown stained patterns. the chick has a black bill, brown iris, and green legs. spotted a distinct black pattern on the sandy buff head and back. white stripe on the nape and chin, throat, and downside parts. the mean, standard deviation, and coefficient of carination for the egg's external morphological characteristics are displayed in table (1). the mean and standard deviation for egg length were (46.25±0.68, v. indicus (boddaert, 1783). (42.25±0.96, v. spinosus (linnaeus, 1758), (42.28±0.67, v. leucurus); the highest significant value (46.25±0.68mm) was belonging to v. indicus (boddaert, 1783), the differences in this trait according to different species of lapwing vanellus were high significant (p-value less 0.001). kaur and khera (2017) study on v. indicus (boddaert, 1783) found that egg length was less than this study (41.29±0.573 mm). özkan et al. (2012) indicated to v. spinosus (linnaeus, 1758) egg length measurement mean that calculated for two years (mean2010, 40.8±0.22 – mean2011, 40.3±0.13). egg breadth mean and standard deviation were (33.34±0.84, v. indicus (boddaert, 1783), (31.43±0.55, v. spinosus (linnaeus, 1758), (31.42±0.67, v. leucurus); the significant value was in v. indicus (boddaert, 1783) and the differences among the values of lapwing vanellus were significant (p≤0.05). kaur and khera (2017) reported that egg breadth was slightly different between two years (2012, 2013), which were (29.89 mm and 30.39 mm) respectively. özkan et al. (2012) indicated to v. spinosus (linnaeus, 1758) egg width mean (mean2010, 29.006 ±0.08 – mean2011, 28.790±0.07). egg weight mean and standard deviation were (21.39±0.91, v. indicus (boddaert, 1783), (16.51±0.73, v. spinosus (15.87±0.50, v. leucurus). the high significant value was in v. indicus, and the differences among the values of species were high significant (p≤0.001). özkan et al. (2012) indicated to v. spinosus (linnaeus, 1758) egg weight mean (mean2010, 16.8±0.14 – mean2011, 16.9±0.10). the environment, the amount of food available, the size of the parents, and the evolutionary stage all have an impact on the external egg features generally in bird species (stadelman et al., 2017), and to female differences like age (föger and pegoraro, 1996). environmental or genetic factors could be responsible for this difference (kaur and khera, 2017). several researchers employed the coefficient of variation (cv) for the egg's exterior, and it does signal for closely relative species (shaker et al., 2019). the values of cv in the current study ranged between (1.47, 2.51, 4.27 for v. indicus (boddaert, 1783); 2.26, 1.76, 4.44 for v. spinosus (linnaeus, 1758); and 1.57, 2.13, 3.16 for v. leucurus (lichtenstein, 1823) mailto:yusra.yassen@uobasrah.edu.iq 39 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-fayadhi et al. respectively. the pearson correlation between different species of lapwing vanellus in table (2) shows a significant value among v. indicus (boddaert, 1783), v. spinosus, and v. leucurus where (p -value less 0.05) and a high significant value between v. spinosus and v. leucurus where (p-value less 0.001). in table (3) the study area with the nests location of lapwing vanellus species are shown. map (1): study area with nests location of lapwing vanellus spp. (map from google earth explore). 40 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (1): 3547. morphometrical clutch uniformity in the lapwing corresponding author: *yusra.yassen@uobasrah.edu.iq plate (1): v. spinosus; nests (1, 2, 3, 4) and chick (5). plate (2): v. leucurus; nests (1, 2, 3, 4) and chick (5). mailto:yusra.yassen@uobasrah.edu.iq 41 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-fayadhi et al. plate (3): v. leucurus; nests (1, 2, 3, 4) and chick (5). table (1): morphological comparison between different species of vanellus. table (2): pearson correlation between different species of lapwing vanellus. correlations red-wattled lapwing spur-winged lapwing white-tailed lapwing red-wattled lapwing (vanellus indicus) pearson correlation ____ 0.637* 0.542* p – value 0.031 0.047 spur-winged lapwing pearson correlation ____ ____ 0.853** lapwing genus egg length (mm) egg breadth (mm) egg weight (gm) mean±sd cv mean±sd c v mean±sd cv red-wattled lapwing (vanellus indicus) 46.25±0.68 a 1.47 33.34±0.84 a 2.5 1 21.39±0.9 1 a 4.27 spur-winged lapwing (vanellus spinosus) 42.25±0.96 b 2.26 31.43±0.55 b 1.7 6 16.51±0.7 3 b 4.44 white-tailed lapwing (vanellus leucurus) 42.28±0.67 b 1.57 31.42±0.67 b 2.1 3 15.87±0.5 0 b 3.16 anova (lsd0.05) 3.953 1.909 5.384 p – value 0.001hs 0.034 s <0.001 hs 42 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (1): 3547. morphometrical clutch uniformity in the lapwing corresponding author: *yusra.yassen@uobasrah.edu.iq (vanellus spinosus) p – value <0.001 white-tailed lapwing (vanellus leucurus) pearson correlation ____ ____ ____ p – value table (3): lapwing nests gps coordinators. no. vanellus species coordinators 1. v. indicus n 32o48'11", e 44o21'30" 2. v. indicus n 32o49'38", e 44o20'14" 3. v. indicus n 32o48'14", e 44o20'02" 4. v. indicus n 32o47'40", e 44o22'06" 5. v. leucurus n 32o49'58", e 44o19'25" 6. v. leucurus n 32o47'52", e 44o21'24" 7. v. leucurus n 32o47'51", e 44o21'55" 8. v. leucurus n 32o47'49", e 44o22'06" 9. v. spinosus n 32o49'29", e 44o20'48" 10. v. spinosus n 32o49'07", e 44o19'30" 11. v. spinosus n 32o50'10", e 44o20'04" 12. v. spinosus n 32o50'19", e 44o19'53" conclusions our results indicate that there are considerable differences in the morphological clutch uniformity in the lapwing species community. the significant differences between three species of lapwing, v. indicus (boddaert, 1783), especially they differ from v. spinosus (linnaeus, 1758) and v. leucurus (lichtenstein, 1823) in egg measurements, eggs, and chicks morphology of lapwing species showed differences in their morphology, appearance, colors, patterns and all of them were showed for the first time in scientific research. all of these variables according to analysis in spss, have ≤5% of a coefficient of variation ((low value) and that may refer the closed related species that belong to the same genus vanellus due to the season of laying eggs, and environments (shaker et al., 2019; alsalihi et al., 2022). the breeding season for lapwing species in this study. extended for four months (march-june2023) in al-maih wetland in suitable habitats, and each species of lapwing chose an independent territory, occupied it during the nesting period and defended it with high parental cares. the parents shared everythings from incubation to protection of the territory. a specific scientific research is needed in the future. our preliminary results, which were obtained for the first time, may contribute to the conservation efforts of these wetlands-dwelling birds in iraq. acknowledghements we appreciate the scientific comments from reviewers that enhanced our manuscript. support by the ecology committee in babylon university especially. dr. jassim s. al shammary, dr. adi j. abd al-razaaq. scientific support from the bird’s monitor group mailto:yusra.yassen@uobasrah.edu.iq 43 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-fayadhi et al. organization by mohammad alzayer, faisal hajwal and dr.mohammad alshemlah from arabian peninsula and dr.hayder alramahi the head and the alnuman organization from iraq. technical suppored from talib hayder. financial costs support by khadum j. alhussainy and hassan m. abd-alredha. conflict of intereststatement the authors declare no conflict of interest. we "the authors" have followed and signed the scientific research ethics announced by the journal. literature cited abbas, a. f. 2022. the role of temporary rain pools in attracting waterbirds in basrah province, iraq. marsh bulletin, 17(2): 80-88. 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(2024) 18 (1): 35-47. دراسة التحليل الكمي لتماثل بيوض مجتمع جنس طيور الزقزاق vanellus brison, 1760 (aves, charadriiformes, charadriidae) وسط العراق -محافظة بابل –في منطقة املالح الرطبة مؤيد جاسم ياس* و عمر فاضل الشيخلي** كامل حسن الفياض ي*، ، العراق.بابل، بابلعة جام/كلية العلوم -علوم الحياةقسم * ، العراق.بغداد، بغداد جامعةكلية العلوم/ -علوم الحياةقسم ** 20/6/2024، النشر: 5/11/2023القبول: ،4/11/2023املراجعة: ،16/7/2023االستالم: الخالصة في هذه الدراسة، اجريت مقارنة احصائية مع وصف مظهري لبيوض وافراخ حديثة ة انواع من جنس الططاوي، شملت: الطيطوى املغببةالفقس لثالث vanellus indicus (boddaert, 1783) ،ابو ظفرv. spinosus (linnaeus,1758) ، تفرخ في منطقة املالح الرطبة v. leucurus (lichtenstein, 1823)الزقزاق االبيض الذنب -مواقع االعشاش خالل موسم التكاثر)اذار حددتفي محافظة بابل وسط العراق. مكان او االقاليم، طقوس التزاوج، اختيار (; احداث التفريخ مثل تحديد2023حزيران بيضة من 48فحصت بحذر حضانة البيض. ، كما لوحظت بعنايةبناء االعشاش اعشاش لكل نوع( 4بيضات لكل عش، 4عش من اعشاش طيور الزقزاق ) 12مجموع افراخ وبيوض . تبين ايضا ان هنالك عدة اختالقات مظهرية بينقياساتها مع تسجيل طيور الططاوي. االنوفا لحساب املتوسط الحسابي واالنحراف باستخدام اختبار البيانات تم تحليل املتوسط الحسابي واالنحراف املعياري لطول البيض كان املعياري ومعامل االختالف. v. spinosus ملم للنوع v. indicus ،0.96±42.25وع للن 0.68±46.25: كاالتي (linnaeus, 1758) ملم للنوع ) 42.28± 0.67 و.v. leucurus (lichtenstein, 1823 mailto:yusra.yassen@uobasrah.edu.iq 47 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-fayadhi et al. م لم v. indicus، 31.43 ± 0.55للنوع ملم 0.84 ± 33.34 البيض عرضكان متوسط ل .v. leucurusلنوع م للم 31.42±0.67، و v. spinosus (linnaeus, 1758) لنوعلـ سجَّ .v لنوعلـ غم v. indicus ،16.51 ± 0.73 لنوعلـ غم 0.91 ± 21.39 البيضة وزنمتوسط spinosus (linnaeus, 1758) طائر ل غم 0.50±15.87، وv. leucurus قد تشير القيمة . ع التي النوالربما تشير الى قرب العشيرة الوراثية %( 5 او يساوي )أقل cvاملنخفضة لـ تعود لنفس الجنس. الى وجود فروقات معنوية في قياسات النتائج الحاليةاشارت باالضافة الى ذلك، والتحليل الكمي للبيوض لالنواع الثالثة. قد تساهم نتائجنا األولية، التي تم الحصول عليها ألول مرة، في جهود الحفاظ على هذه الطيور التي تعيش في األراض ي الرطبة في .لعراقا bull 381 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum abass and ali bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2024) 18 (2): 381-394. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2024.18.2.0381 original article morphological characterization of blowfly maggots (diptera, calliphoridae) from the middle of iraq zainab abdulameer abass and hayder badri ali* department of biology, college of science, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq. *corresponding author e-mail: hayder.badri@sc.uobaghdad.edu.iq received: 07 june 2024, revised:19 sep.2024, accepted:25 sep. 2024, published:20 december 2024 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract this study aimed to conduct a comparative analysis of seven calliphorid species of third instar larvae that were collected from central iraq. the purpose was to morphologically characterize these species and develop an identification key to differentiate them from closely related species. scanning electron microscope (sem) graphical images and high-resolution traditional optical microscopes were used to analyze the morphological characteristics of the species calliphora vomitoria (linnaeus, 1758), c. vicina robineau-desvoidy, 1830, chrysomya albiceps (widemann, 1819), ch. rufifacies (macquart, 1844), ch. megacephala (fabricius, 1794), lucilia cuprina (wiedemann, 1830), and l. sericata (meigen, 1826). an identification key was constructed based on the observed morphological differences to enable accurate species separation. the constructed identification key provided a reliable method for species separation based on their morphological features. this study contributes to the field by providing a comprehensive morphological characterization of the larvae of these blowfly species which are distributed in central iraq. the developed identification key offers a valuable tool for future research and forensic investigations involving these species, enabling accurate species identification and differentiation. keywords: calliphoridae, cephalopharyngeal, identification key, larvae, sem. introduction blowfly larvae, commonly known as maggots, hold significant ecological and forensic importance. these larvae are highly efficient decomposers, feeding on decomposing organic material, including animal carcasses. they play a crucial role in the decomposition process, breaking down organic matter and facilitating the recycling of nutrients back into the environment. additionally, blow fly larvae are essential in the field of forensic entomology, where they are used to estimate the postmortem interval in criminal investigations (higley and haskell, 2001). bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799-print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2024.18.2.0381 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4842-151x mailto:hayder.badri@sc.uobaghdad.edu.iq https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 382 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (2): 381-394. morphological characterization of blowfly maggots the scanning electron microscope (sem) is a powerful tool widely used in entomology to study insects. unlike traditional light microscopy, sem provides detailed information and allows for species-level identification. it offers higher resolution and captures fine details that may be difficult to observe with light microscopes (jalil, and ali, 2019; martín-viveros and ollá, 2020; li et al., 2021; al-sudani and al-amery, 2024). the third instar larvae or maggots of calliphorid species exhibit variations in their structure and appearance. before transforming into pre-pupae, these larvae grow to a size between 15 mm and 20 mm. the body is vermiform, tapered at the anterior end and blunt at the posterior end. the anterior spiracles, located laterally at the distal end of the prothorax, display a varying number of papillae among species. the cephalopharyngeal skeleton is heavily pigmented, and an accessory sclerite is present beneath the hook part of the larva, which is absent in the second instar (ahmad et al., 2010). sukontason et al. (2004) examined four calliphoridae species, highlighting features such as anterior spiracles, dorsal spines, and posterior spiracles, confirming that these comparisons could aid forensic practitioners in distinguishing third instars. while, shaheen et al. (2005) identified key characteristics of lucilia sericata species using a scanning electron microscope including, detailed spine distribution, papillae without hairs in abdominal segments, papillae on caudal segment surfaces, and tubercle between respiratory discs. in iraq, several studies have explored the abundance of species within this family and their distribution (mawlood and abdul-rassoul, 2011; augul et al., 2013, 2022; augul and alsaffar, 2015; al-saffar and augul, 2023). this study aims to analyze morphological characteristics of caliphorid insects using sem images, focusing on third instar larvae, and to develop a key for their identification based on shape characteristics. the study's implications are important for forensic entomology and related fields, as it includes new and accurate morphological characteristics in the taxonomic key. materials and methods specimens' collection: this study aimed to investigate challiphoridae specimens collected from different locations in iraq. the specimens were collected from kadhimiya, baghdad; haii al bisatin, karbala; and samarra, saladin province. a total of 200 specimens were collected from chicken, dog, and cat carcasses as well as from the liver and lungs of sheep between october 2022 and september 2023. after killing, the maggots were thoroughly washed (4-5 times) before being preserved in 70% alcohol, as described by knipling (1939). identification of maggots: the maggots were identified by using keys from many references (zumpt, 1965; erzinçlioğlu, 1987a; liu and greenberg, 1989; queiroz et al., 1997; wells et al., 1999; sukontason et al., 2008). 383 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum abass and ali sampling procedure and specimen’s preparation: the sampling procedure involved using sheep liver as bait, following the method described by kavitha et al. (2013). collection sites were selected based on their geographical distribution and availability of calliphorid populations. the collected specimens were stored in ethanol tubes at room temperature until further processing. the total number of specimens collected from each location ranged from (200-220). however, only 25 specimens were randomly selected and examined from each location for this study. the specimens used in the study were from the third larval instar. this was chosen to ensure that all samples were at a comparable stage of development. terminology: the terminology used in this study was based on zumpt (1965). this reference was used to ensure consistency and accuracy in the identification and description of the thirdinstar calliphorid maggots. specimen preparation for scanning electron microscopy (sem): to prepare the specimens for scanning electron microscopy (sem), the larvae were killed by immersing them in hot water for ten minutes. afterward, they were washed 2-5 times in alcohol to remove any external debris or contaminants. dehydration of the specimens was achieved by exposing them to open air for five minutes. this step designed to remove any remaining moisture from the specimens before sem analysis. to facilitate sem analysis, the specimens were mounted on a metal plate for support. they were then coated with a 20-30 nm layer of gold. the gold coating improved conductivity and enhanced the quality of the images obtained during sem analysis (murtey and ramasamy, 2016). scanning electron microscopy (sem) analysis: after an overnight wash in distilled water, the specimens were dehydrated in a graded series of ethanol. the dehydrated specimens were critically pointdried and mounted on aluminum stubs using colloidal silver paste. the mounted specimens were observed and photographed using an axia-chemisem, axia chmi sem scanning electron microscope in baghdad. resolution and magnification capabilities were applied according to colwell and o’connor (2000). the specimens were examined under the sem, and images were captured. the images were then transferred to a computer for further analysis and documentation. results and discussion in this study, a comparative analysis was conducted on seven species of thirdinstar calliphorid maggots found in central of iraq. the species included in the study were calliphora vomitoria (linnaeus, 1758), c. vicina robineau-desvoidy, 1830, chrysomya albiceps (widemann, 1819), ch. rufifacies (macquart, 1844), ch. megacephala (fabricius, 1794), lucilia cuprina (wiedemann, 1830), and l. sericata (meigen, 1826). the objective of the study was to morphologically characterize these species and construct an identification key to differentiate between them based on their morphological characteristics. this study presents a key for the identification of thirdinstar larvae which is the first to cover the forensically most important species of blowflies in iraq. the list of taxa included seven species of confirmed forensic relevance, the species included in the study were 384 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (2): 381-394. morphological characterization of blowfly maggots calliphora vomitoria (linnaeus, 1758), c. vicina robineau-desvoidy, 1830, chrysomya albiceps (widemann, 1819), ch. rufifacies (macquart, 1844), ch. megacephala (fabricius, 1794), lucilia cuprina (wiedemann, 1830), and l. sericata (meigen, 1826). most of them are widespread in many adjacent countries and were frequently reported on large animal carrion and human corpses (akbarzadeh et al., 2015). taxonomically significant characters were in the form of images produced using digital cameras mounted on a compound microscope, stereomicroscope and scanning electron microscope (sem). many taxonomic keys depend on morphological characteristics studied through the compound microscope (zumpt, 1965; erzinçlioğlu, 1987b; holloway, 1991; fan et al., 1997; wells et al., 1999; szpila, 2009; prado et al., 2023; szpila et al., 2024); these features include cephalopharyngeal skeleton, spinnulation, abdominal segments, anterior spiral lobe, and size due to peritreme. additional traits, such as periodic external whorls, veins in anal segmental plates, and the presence of other distinguishing features were also considered. however, this study enhanced the taxonomic key special characteristics through scanning electron microscope such as: apical spines of dorsomedial processes in both species chrysomya albiceps, ch. rufifacies, the shape and distribution of spinose bands on segments, such as in species calliphora vomitoria, c. vicina, lucilia cuprina and l. sericata and the presence or absence of inner projection in the peritremal ring of posterior spiracles as observed in both species lucilia cuprina and l. sericata. based on the analysis of the sem images and morphological characteristics, the following results were obtained: 1chrysomya albiceps: this species exhibited a posterior spiral shape similar to c. vomitoria and c. vicina, with a unique surface texture, spinnulation on abdominal segments (pl. 1a), and unique peritreme size. 2ch. rufifacies: the larvae of this species had a unique posterior spiral shape, rough surface, spinnulation (pl. 1b), cephalopharyngeal skeleton (pl. 2e), and a distinctive size due to peritreme compared to other species. 3ch. megacephala: this species exhibited a posterior spiral shape similar to ch. rufifacies, but with a smoother surface, no spinnulation on abdominal segments, and a distinctive cephalopharyngeal skeleton (pl. 2f). 4calliphora vicina: the larvae of this species resembled c. vomitoria in posterior spiral shape and absence of spinnulation (pl. 1c), but showed slight differences in cephalopharyngeal skeleton at their bases (pl. 2a), direction of pocesses, and peritreme size. 5c. vomitoria: this species exhibited a unique posterior spiral shape, smooth surface, and no spinnulation on abdominal segments (pl. 1d). cephalopharyngeal skeleton has a distinctive direction and size (pl. 2b). https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/scanning-electron-microscope 385 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum abass and ali 6lucilia cuprina: the larvae of this species resembled ch. megacephala in posterior spiral shape, surface texture, and absence of spinnulation (pl. 1e), but had slight differences in cephalopharyngeal skeleton (pl. 2d), direction, and size due to peritreme. 7l. sericata: this species had a posterior spiral shape similar to l. cuprina, smoother surface, no spinnulation on abdominal segments (pl. 1f), a characteristic cephalopharyngeal skeleton, and a unique size due to peritreme. overall, the comparative analysis of the seven species of third instar-larvae of calliphorid species using sem and traditional optical microscopes, revealed distinct morphological characteristics that allowed for their differentiation. the constructed identification key based on these characteristics will be valuable for future studies in forensic entomology and related fields. further research is warranted to explore the potential applications of these findings in practical forensic investigations. additional information on the morphology of important european blowfly species is scattered across various studies (knipling, 1939; zumpt 1965; erzinçlioğlu 1985, 1987a, b, 1988, 1990; liu and greenberg 1989; carvalho queiroz et al., 1997; wells et al., 1999; wallman, 2001; sukontasan et al., 2003, 2008). although several taxonomic keys have been combined so far, none of them yet cover the full list of species (szpila, 2009). among these, ishijima key (1967) is considered the most comprehensive, with the exception of c. albiceps and c. mortuorum. schumann (1971) provided other important keys; with a notable contribution to the understanding the larval character of the genus lucilia robineau-desvoidii in europe. european, judges are included in the third condition of the third site of both christina and cris mann, an outstanding series of books with keys, published by draber mońko (2004) through mid-and central european-life. about the science of statistics, they looked at the data. erzinslioglu (1985) proposed a critical study of the morphology of the third stage of calliphoridae. through this work, several morphological characters were identified that could be exploited for taxonomic reasons, such as cephalopharyngeal skeleton and direction of process on posterodorsal corner of their bases, spinnulation on abdominal segments, lobe of anterior spiral, and the size due to peritreme (chrysomyinae vs others blowflies), along with the presence of many other characteristics. currently the main criterion for identifying judgmentally important species of tertiary larvae is the identity of nearly all-important sem images. 386 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (2): 381-394. morphological characterization of blowfly maggots key to the identity of third instar larvae for morphological evaluation: 1large, elongate, fleshy tubercles gift on each segment; tip of tubercles bearing several small spines (pl. 1a, b)…………………… …..………………………………………… 2 abdominal segments lacking large, elongate tubercles (pl.1c, d, e, f) …….………....... 3 2outermost ventral process less cylindrical, greater triangular, and topped with smaller spines; apical spines of dorsomedial processes closely aggregated (pl. 3a), anterior spiracles with 9-10 lobes (pl. 4a)…………………………………... chrysomya albiceps outermost ventral process more cylindrical, less triangular, and crowned with larger spines; apical spines of dorsomedial processes more widely spaced (pl. 3b), anterior spiracles with 10-11lobes (pl. 4b) …………………………………...…..………. chrysomya. rufifacies 3-posterior spiracular peritreme incomplete, and more remote from each other (pl. 5c)………… …..…………………………………………...……..chrysomya megacephala posterior spiracular peritreme complete (pl..5d, e, f)…… ……………….........................4 4-cephalopharyngeal skeleton with an accessory oral sclerite. (pl. 2a, b)…calliphora ..…5 cephalopharyngeal skeleton usually without an accessory oral sclerite (pl. 2c, d) ………………………………………………………………………………... lucilia….. 6 5spinose bands on segments with broad, three-or four-or rarely two-pointed spines (pl. 6b); anterior spiracle with 8 lobes…………………………………….…. calliphora vomitoria spinose bands on segments with less broad, twoor rarely three-pointed spines (pl. 6a); anterior spiracle with 9 lobes (pl. 4c) ………………………………….. calliphora vicina 6-anterior spiracle with 9–10 lobes (pl. 4f); inner tubercles of upper margin of anal segment separated by a distance approximately equal to the distance between inner and median tubercles, peritremal ring of posterior spiracles with inner projection, spinose bands on segments with more than three-pointed spines (pl. 5f) …………….…….. lucilia sericata anterior spiracle with 7–8 lobes (pl. 4e); inner tubercles of upper margin of anal segment separated by a distance approximately equal to the distance between the inner and outer tubercles, peritremal ring of posterior spiracles without inner projection, spinose bands on segments with twoand three-pointed spines. (pl. 5e) ……………….…. lucilia cuprina 387 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum abass and ali plate (1): scanning electron micrographs of a third instar larva of (a) chrysomya. albiceps (b)ch. rufifacies (c) calliphora vicina (d) calliphora vomitoria (e) lucilia cuprina (f) l. sericata. plate (2): light microscopic micrographs of cephalopharyngeal skeleton; (a) calliphora vicina, (b) calliphora vomitoria, (c) lucilia sericata, (d) lucilia cuprina, (e) chrysomya rufifacies, (f) ch. megacephala , (g) ch. albiceps. 388 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (2): 381-394. morphological characterization of blowfly maggots plate (3) : scanning electron of apical spines of dorsomedial processes; (a) chrysomya albiceps (b) ch. rufifacies. plate (4): scanning electron micrographs of anterior spiracle of a third instar larva; (a) ch. albiceps, (b) ch. rufifacies, (c) calliphora vicina, (d) ch. megacephala, (e) lucilia cuprina, (f) l. sericata. 389 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum abass and ali plate (5): scanning electron micrographs of posterior spiracle of a third instar larva; (a) ch. albiceps, (b) calliphora vicina, (c) ch. megacephala, (d) calliphora vomitoria, (e) lucilia cuprina, (f) l. sericata. plate (6): scanning electron micrographs of spinose bands of third instar larva; (a) calliphora vicina (b) caliiphora vomitoria (c) chrysomya albiceps (d) ch. megacephala (e) ch. rufifacia (f) lucilia sericata (g) l. cuprina. conclutions in conclusion, this study successfully morphologically characterized seven species of third instar calliphorid maggots found in the middle of iraq. through the use of sem images and traditional optical microscopes, the distinct morphological characteristics of each species were identified and described. an identification key was constructed to differentiate between these species based on their morphological features. the findings of this study have important 390 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (2): 381-394. morphological characterization of blowfly maggots implications for forensic entomology, forensic biology, and ecological studies. future research could incorporate genetic analysis and phylogenetic studies to further enhance our understanding of these species. conflict of interest statement the results of this study are part of the requirements of the ph. d. in zoology, department of biology, college of science, university of baghdad for the first author. literature cited ahmad, f., marwi, m. s., syamsa, m. a., zuha, r. a., ikhwan, r. m. and omar, b. 2010. morphological description of second and third instar larvae of hypopygiopsis violacea macquart (diptera: calliphoridae), a forensically important fly in malaysia. tropical biomedicine, 27(1): 134-137. 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( من وسط diptera, calliphoridaeوصيف املظهري ليرقات الذبابة املعدني )الت العراق زينب عبد االمير عباس و حيدر بدري علي العراق.، بغداد، بغداد جامعة، كلية العلوم ،قسم علوم الحياة 20/12/2024، النشر: 25/9/2024القبول: ،19/9/2024املراجعة: ،7/6/2024االستالم: ةالخالص هدفت هذه الدراسة إلى إجراء تحليل مقارن لسبعة أنواع من يرقات الطور الثالث للذباب املعدني املوجودة في وسط العراق. كان الغرض هو توصيف هذه األنواع شكلًيا وتطوير مفتاح تعريف لتمييزها عن بعضها البعض. تم استخدام الصور الرسومية واملجاهر الضوئية التقليدية عالية الدقة لتحليل (sem) للمجهر اإللكتروني املاسح :لألنواع املظهريةالخصائص calliphora vomitoria (linnaeus, 1758), c. vicina robineau-desvoidy, 1830, chrysomya albiceps (widemann, 1819), ch. rufifacies (macquart, 1844), ch. megacephala (fabricius, 1794), lucilia cuprina (wiedemann, 1830), and l. sericata (meigen, 1826). لتمكين الفصل الدقيق املظهريةبناًء على االختالفات تشخيص يمفتاح تصميمتم طريقة املفتاحبين األنواع. نجحت الدراسة في وصف الطور الثالث لألنواع السبعة. يوفر . تساهم هذه الدراسة في املجال امليداني املظهرية صفاتهااألنواع بناًء على لعزل موثوقة شامل لسبعة أنواع من يرقات الذباب املعدني مظهري من خالل تقديم توصيف يوفر مفتاح التعريف املطور أداة قيمة للبحث املستقبلي .املوجودة في وسط العراق الدقيق على األنواع وتحقيقات الطب الشرعي التي تشمل هذه األنواع، مما يتيح التعرف والتمايز بينها. bull 91 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum khaladi et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2024) 18 (1): 91-104. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2024.18.1.0091 original article aphidiinae (hymenoptera, braconidae) diversity in citrus agrosystems of guelma region, eastern algeria omar khaladi*, amira bouderbala**, m’hamed benada*** and boualem boumaaza**** *département d’écologie et génie de l’environnement, faculté des sciences de la nature et de la vie et sciences de la terre et l’univers, université 8 mai 1945 guelma, bp 401, guelma, 24000, algérie. **laboratory of agriculture and ecosystem functioning, department of agronomy sciences, faculty of natural and life sciences, chadli bendjedid universityel tarf, algeria. ***department of agronomic sciences, faculty of sciences and technology, ahmed zabana university, relizane, algeria. ****department of agronomic sciences, faculty of natural and life sciences, ibn khaldoun university, tiaret, algeria. corresponding author: khaladi.omar@univ-guelma.dz; khaladiomar5@gmail.com received: 3 october 2023, revised: 2 december 2023 accepted: 12 dec. 2023, published:20 june 2024 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract the importance of understanding auxiliary insects in agroecosystems has become increasingly necessary due to the overuse of chemical products that disturb their presence and sometimes lead to their extermination without our awareness of their existence. the objective of this research project is to conduct the first inventory of aphid parasitoids in the aphidiinae subfamily in orange orchards in the guelma region (eastern algeria) and to estimate the number of species present in this region using four non-parametric estimators. the results revealed the presence of ten species, namely aphidius matricariae (haliday, 1834), aphidius sp., a. ervi (haliday, 1834), binodoxys angelicae (haliday, 1833), b. acalephae (marshall, 1896), diaeretiella rapae (mcintosh, 1855), ephedrus plagiator (nees, 1811), praon volucre (haliday, 1833), lipolexis gracilis (foerster, 1862), and lysiphlebus testaceipes (cresson, 1880) . among these species, l. testaceipes, b. angelicae, and a. matricariae were the most dominant during the study period. binodoxys acalephae, despite being present in small numbers, had a ubiquitous ecological status, while a. matricariae, a. ervi, b. angelicae, d. rapae, and l. testaceipes maintained a constant status. according to the non-parametric estimators, the number of species varied, but the average was 11.39 ± 0.54 species, indicating that the richness could increase to 12 with a sampling accuracy of 87.74%. despite their low abundance, the richness of aphidiinae species in the orange orchards could be used in a biological control context. keywords: algeria, aphids parasitoids, inventory, non-parametric estimators, orange. bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799, print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2024.18.1.0091 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2861-0295 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9635-8952 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6319-8822 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0993-2931 mailto:khaladi.omar@univ-guelma.dz mailto:khaladiomar5@gmail.com https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 92 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (1): 91-104. aphidiinae (hymenoptera, braconidae) introduction aphids are a group of pests that cause the majority of problems in farms. many species are considered to be extremely dangerous pests of crops, forests, and ornamental plants (sullivan, 2008). according to bhatia et al. (2011), there are about 4,000 worldwide species, of which about 250 are dangerous. when they take the sap of a plant for food, aphids inject salivary toxins and phytopathogenic viruses (chrzanowski et al., 2009). the widespread use of insecticides to control these pests has led to the development of resistance in some species (harmel et al., 2008). therefore, the use of biological control, which is one of the crop protection methods against phytophagy, becomes a necessity to solve the problems of these chemicals. according to boivin (2001), the mortality of phytophagous parasitoids is higher than that attributed to predators and microorganisms combined. aphid parasitoids are small hymenoptera, belonging to the families aphelinidae (genus aphelinus) and braconidae (aphidiinae) (sullivan, 2004). with more than 600 species, the aphidiinae subfamily includes the largest number of aphid parasitoid species (mackauer and starý, 1967).the species in this subfamily are strictly associated with their host aphids, in particular, their geographical distribution and the preferred host plants on which they feed (starý, 1981; žikić et al., 2016). this study is part of a research project that has been launched on aphid parasitoids in the guelma region (eastern algeria). we are focusing specifically on the aphidiinae subfamily that preys on citrus aphids, using a simple technique to attract these beneficial insects. furthermore, the goal is to use non-parametric estimators to estimate the potential number of species in the study region. materials and methods description of sampling sites: the investigation of the parasitoid species was carried out during the spring sap flow of orange orchards citrus sinensis (l.) osbeck, 1765, in guelma province (algeria), during 2016-2019. the coordinates of these orchards are as follows: 2016 and 2017 (36°30'13.8"n 7°24'22.4" e), 2018 (36°28'38.5"n 7°24'40.0"e and 36°28'35.5"n 7°24'35.2"e), and 2019 (36°29'18.4"n 7°26'49.7"e and 36°30'28.5"n 7°24'35.6"e). the territory of the region is characterized by a subhumid climate in the center and in the north of the area, whereas it is semi-arid in the south. precipitation during the study months of 2016, 2017, and 2018 did not exceed 250 mm, while in 2019; we recorded 449.6 mm of precipitation. during our study period, the coldest month was january with 5.8°c and 4.3°c in 2016 and 2017, respectively, as well as february with 4.1°c and 3.6°c in 2018 and 2019, respectively. however, the warmest month was may, with 27.8°c, 30.4°c, 25.4°c, and 23.9°c in 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019, respectively. sampling methods and identification: two yellow traps are installed per hectare in the studied orchards. the traps are collected and renewed every fortnight after they have been deposited, and sometimes it’s monthly from january to may. traps are placed in the east and southeast orientation of the tree canopy (roth, 1971). 93 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum khaladi et al. the identification of parasitoids was carried out using several keys, namely: starý et al. (2010), rakhshani et al. (2012), kavallieratos et al. (2013), and rakhshani et al. (2015). moreover, the turpentine essential oil was used to detach specimens from the glue. statistical analysis diversity indexes and richness estimation: the shannon–wiener index (h′), and the equitability index were calculated by using past version 1.91 (hammer et al., 2001). the diversity t-test was used to compare the shannon–wiener index during the four sap flows. in order to estimate the species diversity, we employed four non-parametric estimators using estimates software (version 9.1.0) (colwell, 2013). these estimators, namely the averagebased coverage estimator (ace), incidence-based coverage estimator (ice), chao2, and jackknife 1, were used to predict the expected number of species in our region. the average of these estimators was used to calculate the ratio of recorded species in the samples (i.e., observed richness / the average of the estimators* 100) as a measure of sampling completeness. this information was crucial in understanding the accuracy of our species data and the overall diversity in the study area. we computed a specimen rarefaction curve with the same software using 95% confidence intervals of the moment-based estimator (sobs mao tau). this curve is a tool used to determine if the number of specimens taken is sufficient to capture all the biological diversity present in the given environment. the data used to generate this curve are the results of the abundances of all the parasitoid species found throughout the study period (i.e. 4 years). constancy: we calculated the constancy of species as well, which is the ratio, expressed as a percentage, of the number of surveys containing the species under study relative to the total number of surveys. according to muller (1985), a species is qualified as follows: accidental: if c% <25% accessory: if 25% ≤ c% < 50% regular: if 50% ≤ c% < 75%. constant: if 75% ≤ c% < 100%. omnipresent: if c% = 100%. the constant and omnipresent species are the most dominant because they have more food. results taxonomic composition and relative abundance of species: a total of 173 individuals belonging to 10 species of aphidiinae parasitoids were captured during the four sap flows. the parasitoids that were found are: aphidius matricariae (haliday, 1834), a. ervi (haliday, 1834), aphidius sp., binodoxys angelicae (haliday, 1833), binodoxys acalephae (marshall, 1896), diaeretiella rapae (mcintosh, 1855), ephedrus plagiator (nees, 1811), praon volucre (haliday, 1833), lipolexis gracilis (förster, 1862), and lysiphlebus testaceipes (cresson, 1880). in 2016, the species a. matricariae was the most dominant, with almost 35.5% of the total species captured, followed by b. angelicae with more than 32%, while in 2017, the number of individuals caught was very low. the spring flow of the year 2018 was dominated by the parasitoid l. testaceipes, with more than 46.5% of the total species captured, followed by b. angelicae and b. acalephae, with 22.09% and 18.6%, respectively. in 2019, the 94 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (1): 91-104. aphidiinae (hymenoptera, braconidae) dominant species remains lysiphlebus testaceipes with almost 43%, followed by b. angelicae and a. matricariae with 28.57% and 21.43%, respectively (tab. 1). table (1): abundance and relative abundance (ra) of species found during the study campaign. parasitoids feb–may 2016 feb–may 2017 jan– may 2018 jan– may 2019 abundance ra[%] abundance ra[%] abundance ra[%] abundance ra[%] aphidius matricariae 22 35.48 0 0.00 3 3.49 3 21.43 aphidius ervi 2 3.23 3 27.27 1 1.16 0 0.00 aphidius sp. 1 1.61 0 0.00 0 0.00 0 0.00 binodoxys angelicae 20 32.26 0 0.00 19 22.09 4 28.57 binodoxys acalephae 2 3.23 3 27.27 16 18.60 1 7.14 diaeretiella rapae 3 4.84 1 9.09 5 5.81 0 0.00 ephedrus plagiator 11 17.74 0 0.00 0 0.00 0 0.00 praon volucre 1 1.61 0 0.00 0 0.00 0 0.00 lipolexis gracilis 0 0 1 9.09 2 2.33 0 0.00 lysiphlebus testaceipes 0 0 3 27.27 40 46.51 6 42.86 during the four sap flows, the most abundant species was l. testaceipes with more than 28% of the totals followed by b. angelicae and a. matricariae with respectively 24.85% and 16.18% as shown in diagram (1). diagram (1): global relative abundance of the species observed during the four sap flows. 95 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum khaladi et al. richness estimation and diversity index: the specific richness, the shannon index, and the equitability index were calculated from year to year during our study. the number of species found during the 2016 sap flow was the highest compared to other years with 8 species, followed by the 2018 spring flow with 7 species, while in 2017 and 2019, there were respectively 5 and 4 species (tab. 2). table (2): richness, shannon index and equitability of the species of parasitoids found during the study. (bootstrap confidence interval n= 9999) feb– may 2016 confidence interval feb– may 2017 confidence interval jan– may 2018 confidence interval jan– may 2019 confidence interval lower upper lower upper lower upper lower upper richness (s) 8 8 8 5 4 5 7 7 7 4 4 4 shannon index (h') 1.541 1.379 1.721 1.499 1.034 1.547 1.424 1.269 1.582 1.240 0.991 1.358 equitability (j) 0.741 0.663 0.828 0.931 0.804 0.971 0.732 0.652 0.813 0.894 0.715 0.979 the analysis of the shannon index showed a decrease in diversity from year to year with 1.541 bits, 1.499 bits, 1.424 bits, and 1.24 bits, respectively, in 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019. these values are not far from their maximum values (hmax = ln s) which are 2.08 bits, 1.61 bits, 1.95 bits, and 1.39 bits, respectively. the diversity t-test showed a non-significant value between the four shannon index values with p > 0.05. the equitability index is a tool used to assess the distribution of species in a given study. a value of 0 to 1 is assigned to indicate how evenly or unevenly the species are distributed. during the spring flow of 2017 and 2019, the species in the study were found to be almost evenly distributed, with equitability index values of 0.931 and 0.894, respectively. however, in 2016 and 2018, the equitability index values were lower at 0.741 and 0.732, respectively; this suggests that some species were more numerous than others during those years, resulting in a less uniform distribution of species. based on the rarefied data, we observed 10 species in the study region during the monitoring period with a confidence interval of 2.47, and the non-parametric estimators indicate that the expected richness is 11.39 ± 0.54 species; for instance, the number of species could theoretically reach 12. we assumed that our sampling effort was sufficient because the mean ± sd specimen coverage per site was 87.74% (diag. 2, tab. 3). 96 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (1): 91-104. aphidiinae (hymenoptera, braconidae) diagram (2): specimens rarefaction curve of the number of parasitoids species found during our study "dashed lines indicate 95% confidence intervals". table (3): observed and expected number of species in the study region. observed richness nonparametric richness estimator observed richness/means estimated ace ice chao 2 jack 1 mean sd 10 11.84 10.97 10.89 11.89 11.39 0.54 87.74 % the global shannon index was around 1.83 bits and its maximum value was 2.30 bits, which also indicates that the diversity is not far from its maximum value. availability of parasitoids: after conducting surveys to detect the presence of parasitoids, we evaluated the ecological status or constancy of the aphidiinae species. the global status was determined by considering the four sap flows, and is presented in table (4). this ecological status varies across species. we observed that 50% of the species found in our study area are constant, including a. matricariae, a. ervi, b. angelicae, d. rapae, and l. testaceipes. one species, b. acalephae, was omnipresent during the four-year study period, suggesting that these species have found sufficient food in the area. however, the remaining species had a low occurrence rate. table (4): ecological status of parasitoids in the study region. parasitoids feb– may 2016 feb– may 2017 jan– may 2018 jan– may 2019 constancy [%] ecological status aphidius matricariae 1 0 1 1 75 constant aphidius ervi 1 1 1 0 75 constant aphidius sp. 1 0 0 0 25 accessory binodoxys acalephae 1 1 1 1 100 omnipresent binodoxys angelicae 1 0 1 1 75 constant diaeretiella rapae 1 1 1 0 75 constant 97 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum khaladi et al. ephedrus plagiator 1 0 0 0 25 accessory lipolexis gracilis 0 1 1 0 50 regular lysiphlebus testaceipes 0 1 1 1 75 constant praon volucre 1 0 0 0 25 accessory [0: absence; 1: presence] discussion there are various techniques for insect inventory, mainly grouped into two categories: interception traps and colored traps (nageleisen and bouget, 2009). in our study, we chose to use colored traps because they actively attract flying hymenopterans, especially parasitoids. other researchers prefer to use interception traps like malaise traps, which, despite their passive nature in attracting insects, have shown the ability to provide interesting results (fraser et al., 2008; lotfalizadeh et al., 2016; piruznia et al., 2022). in this study, we did not look for the aphid-parasitoid association, but rather conducted a preliminary inventory of the existing aphidiinae species in the selected orange orchards. to avoid disrupting the auxiliary fauna in the orchards, we limited the number of traps used to two per hectare because our objective was to confirm the presence of parasitoids in the area. previous studies that have examined the association between parasitoids and citrus aphids have reported a low richness of primary parasitoids emerging from mummies. for instance, sellami et al. (2013) found only five species belonging to three genera, which are lysiphlebus testaceipes, l. fabarum (marshall, 1896), aphidius matricarea, a. coleamani (viereck, 1912), and binodoxys angelicae in tunisia, with the last species being found only on aphis gossypii (glover, 1877). similarly, gómez-marco (2016) identified only binodoxys angelicae on aphis spiraecola (patch, 1914) in spain. a subsequent study in western algeria by labdaoui and guenaoui (2018), which was conducted in 2016 and 2017 on a citrus clementina orchard, found only two species of aphidiinae on aphis spiraecola. we were able to create a comprehensive list of aphidiinae wasps in orange orchards for the first time in the guelma region through this study. the identified species come from seven distinct genera, namely aphidius (nees, 1819), binodoxys mackauer, 1960, ephedrus haliday, 1833, praon haliday, 1833, lipolexis förster, 1862, diaeretiella stary, 1960, and lysiphlebus förster, 1862. according to kambhampati et al. (2000), cited by choi and kim (2018), the aphidiinae comprises about 50 to 63 genera of endoparasitic wasps that use aphids as hosts. this indicates a high dependency of these parasitoids on aphids as a food source in agricultural crops. in the present study, the orange tree was the main crop, and the possible hosts of the parasitoids included aphis spiraecola, aphis gossypii, toxoptera aurantii (boyer de fonscolombe, 1841), toxoptera citricida (kirkaldy, 1907), and myzus persicae (sulzer, 1776). khaladi and guendouz-benrima (2019), reported the presence of aphis spiraecola and aphis gossypii in the guelma region. weeds such as broad bean (a previous crop in the 98 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (1): 91-104. aphidiinae (hymenoptera, braconidae) orchard of 2016–2017), sowthistle, buttercup oxalis, curly dock, alfalfa, charlock, and others also colonized the orchards, indicating the potential presence of other aphid species besides those found on citrus. the same genera that we found in our region were also found by kavallieratos et al., (2013), in southeastern europe, but with 22 species of herbaceous and shrubby ornamental plants. however, they didn’t find aphidius ervi. they found that these wasps parasitize several aphid hosts, including aphis gossypii, a. spiraecola, a. fabae (scopoli, 1763), myzus persicae, toxoptera aurantii, and aphis craccivora (koch, 1854). in the middle east, barahoei et al. (2014) identified our species in iran as part of a group of 78 species belonging to 17 genera that have been found in association with several aphids, including aphis gossypii, a. spiraecola, a. fabae, myzus persicae, toxoptera aurantii, and aphis craccivora. similarly, in turkey, satar et al. (2014) found most of the species we found in our study. in the united states, lysiphlebus testaceipes has been identified as a parasitoid of toxoptera citricida in citrus orchards (tang et al., 2002). in tunisia, boukhris-bouhachem (2011) reported four species in common with ours among a total of eight, which were aphidius matricariae, diaeretiella rapae, praon volucre, and lysiphlebus testaceipes. hemidi et al. (2013) conducted an investigation in a natural environment in the biskra province (algeria) and reported 11 species from six different genera. a subsequent study by hemidi and laamari (2020) proved that aphidius matricariae and lysiphlebus testaceipes were the most abundant. these species belong to the same six genera as those found in our study, except for lipolexis, which was unique to our investigation. laamari et al. (2011) found a similar number of genera (6) in their surveys of natural environments and cultivated areas in eastern algeria, but identified 28 species. another study by chaouche and laamari (2015) in the biskra region focused on herbaceous plants and shrubs, and identified 14 species from six genera, including aphidius, binodoxys, diaeretiella, lysiphlebus, praon, and trioxys, found on a variety of herbaceous plants such as alfalfa, sowthistle, mallow, and charlock.,…etc . in blida province, algeria, aroun (2015) identified 11 aphid-associated species in various settings, including cultures, spontaneous and ornamental plants, and coniferous forests. these species include aphidius matricariae, aphidius ervi, diaeretiella rapae, ephedrus persicae (froggatt, 1904), e. plagiator, lipolexis gracilis, lysiphlebus fabarum, praon volucre, trioxys angelicae (haliday, 1833), pauesia cedrobii (stary and leclant, 1977), and p. silana (tremblay, 1969). according to the same author, a. matricariae is a polyphagous species that can be found in 36 different aphid species on 34 different plant species. this may explain why this species is considered "contant" in our region during the four spring flows. 99 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum khaladi et al. in the northwest of algeria, labdaoui and guenaoui (2018) found that lysiphlebus testaceipes and binodoxys angelicae parasitized a. spiraecola on citrus clementina hort. ex. conclusions the technique used during our study allowed us to detect 10 species of aphidiinae on orange trees during the spring sap flow over four consecutive years (2016–2019). notably, some of these species were found consistently throughout the four-year study period, which could make them valuable in the development of a potential biological control program for this region. the non-parametric estimators used to predict the number of species in our region confirmed that the estimated number of species is approximately 12, which is two more than what we found, and our sampling effort was deemed sufficient, with an accuracy rate of 87.74%. conflict of interest statement "the authors have no conflicts of interest to declare ". literature cited aroun, m. e. f. 2015. le complexe aphides et ennemis naturels en milieux cultivé et forestier en algérie. thèse de doctorat, école nationale supérieure agronomiqueel harrach alger, 169 pp. [click here] barahoei, h., rakhshani, e., nader, e., starý, p., kavallieratos, n. g., tomanović, ž. and mehrparvar, m. 2014. checklist of aphidiinae parasitoids (hymenoptera: braconidae) and their host aphid associations in iran. journal of crop protection, 3: 199-232. 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(eds), second edition. encyclopedia of entomology. springer, dordrecht, p. 191-215. [crossref] tang, y., weathersbee, a. and mayer, r. 2002. effect of neem seed extract on the brown citrus aphid (homoptera: aphididae) and its parasitoid lysiphlebus testaceipes (hymenoptera: aphidiidae). environmental entomology, 31(1): 172-176. [crossref] žikić, v., lazarević, m. and milošević, d. 2016. host range patterning of parasitoid wasps aphidiinae (hymenoptera: braconidae). zoologischer anzeiger, 268: 75-83. [crossref] https://doi.org/10.1093/jisesa/ieu040 https://agritrop.cirad.fr/571873/ https://kramerius.lib.cas.cz/view/uuid:c132632f-148b-11e1-8339-001143e3f55c?page=uuid:c1326332-148b-11e1-8339-001143e3f55c https://doi.org/10.1603/an09127 https://doi.org/10.1007/0-306-48380-7_252 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-6359-6_10284 https://doi.org/10.1603/0046-225x-31.1.172 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcz.2016.10.001 103 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum khaladi et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2024) 18 (1): 91-104. aphidiinae(hymenoptera, braconidae ) ويلةعتنوع في النظم الزراعية للحمضيات في منطقة قاملة )شرق الجزائر( عمر خالدي*، أميرة بودربالة**، محمد بن عّدة*** و بوعالم بومعزة**** الطبيعة والحياة وعلوم األرض والكون، قسم البيئة وهندسة املحيط، كلية علوم * .، الجزائر24000، قاملة، 401قاملة، ص.ب. 1945ماي 8جامعة أداء الزراعة والنظم البيئية، قسم العلوم الزراعية، كلية العلوم الطبيعية مختبر** .الطارف، الجزائر -والحياة، جامعة الشاذلي بن جديد جامعة أحمد زبانة غليزان، ،وم والتكنولوجياكلية العل ،قسم العلوم الزراعية*** .الجزائر قسم العلوم الزراعية، كلية علوم الطبيعة والحياة، جامعة ابن خلدون تيارت، **** الجزائر. 20/6/2024، النشر: 12/12/2023القبول: ،2/12/2023املراجعة: ، 3/10/2023االستالم: الخالصة ساعدة في النظم الزراعية ضرورية بشكل متزايد أصبحت أهمية فهم الحشرات امل بسبب اإلفراط في استخدام املنتجات الكيميائية التي تعكر وجودها وتؤدي في بعض األحيان إلى إبادتها دون وعينا بوجودها. الهدف من هذا املشروع البحثي هو إجراء عملية ل في منطقة قاملة )شرق في بساتين البرتقا aphidiinaeجرد لطفيليات املن من فصيلة الجزائر( وتقدير عدد األنواع املوجودة في هذه املنطقة باستخدام أربعة مقدرات غير : معيارية. كشفت النتائج عن وجود عشرة أنواع وهي aphidius matricariae haliday, 1834 ،1834 ، aphidius sp.، a. ervi haliday, 1834، binodoxys angelicae haliday, 1833، b. acalephae marshall, 1896، diaeretiella rapae mcintosh, 1855، , ephedrus plagiator nees, 1811 praon volucre haliday, 1833 ، lipolexis gracilis foerster, 1862 ، وlysiphlebus testaceipes .cresson, 1880 من بين هذه األنواع، كانتl. testaceipes و b. 104 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (1): 91-104. aphidiinae (hymenoptera, braconidae) angelicae و a. matricariae هي األكثر انتشاًرا خالل فترة الدراسة. فيما يتعلق بـb. acalephae على الرغم من وجودها بأعداد صغيرة، كان لها وضع بيئي في كل مكان، في، l. testaceipes، و a. matricariae ،a. ervi ،b. angelicae ،d. rapae ان االنواع حين فظوا على وضع ثابت. وفًقا للمقدرات الغير معيارية، تباين عدد األنواع، لكن حا مع دقة 12نوًعا، مما يشير إلى أن الثراء يمكن أن يرتفع إلى 0.54± 11.39املتوسط كان عويلة %. على الرغم من قلة وفرتها، يمكن استخدام ثراء أنواع87.74تبلغ النماذجأخذ aphidiinae الحيويةالبرتقال في سياق املكافحة في بساتين . bull 297 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum teleb et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2024) 18 (2): 297-313. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2024.18.2.0297 original article petal epidermal micromorphology and its taxonomic significans in some species of bignoniaceae from egypt samir s. teleb, hussein a. hussein, riham shaheen and marwa m. el-demerdash♦ department of botany and microbiology, faculty of science, zagazig university, egypt. ♦ corresponding author: m_demerdash81@yahoo.com received: 1 jan. 2024, revised: 31 may 2024, accepted: 5 june 2024, published:20 december 2024 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract micromorphological characters of petals in 8 genera representing 12 taxa of bignoniaceae from egypt were carried out using scanning electron microscopy (sem) to evaluate their taxonomic importance in petal epidermal micromorphology, including epidermal cell types (areolate, papillose conical, and areolate mixed with papillose conical), trichome types (nonglandular; funnel shape, flexible and stiff-bristly, and glandular; peltate, capitate, cupular, stipitate, and patelli-form), trichome ornamentation (striate, verucate, and smooth, and stomata on both the abaxial and adaxial surfaces. stomata are present in all species except jacaranda acutifolia humb. & bonpl., 1806 and markhamia zanzibarica (bojer ex dc.) k. schum., 1895. we used the past 4.03 program to performs a statistical analysis on the data set matrices using the unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean (upgma, and a phylogram was produced. our result showed that the two studied genera of markhamia seem. ex baill. ,1888 and tabebuia gomes ex dc., 1838 showed support for the monophyly, however, tecoma (juss., 1789) are not monophyletic genera. keywords: bignoniaceae, petal, sem, trichomes, upgma. introduction the family bignoniaceae comprises 80 genera and about 840 species, the majority of which are tropical. only a few species are found in warm temperate climates (fischer et al., 2004(. according to lohmann and ulloa (2019), it is a medium-sized collection of trees, shrubs, lianas, and climbers. flowers that are terminal, axillary, racemic, or solitary are typically noticeable. five-petaled calyx that is occasionally bilobed or unlobed and infrequently has a calyptra. a five-petalled, frequently 2-lipped, infrequently subrotating, imbricate, or infrequently valvate corolla. androecium linked to the tube; stamens four, didynamous in two pairs; fifth (adaxial) stamen staminodial or absent; rarely, all five stamens fertile; more frequently, two fertile and three staminodial. ovary superior, 2-carpellate, bilocular with a dividing septum, occasionally unilocular or 4-locular, placentation axile, style with 2-lobed stigma (endress, 1996). bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799-print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2024.18.2.0297 mailto:m_demerdash81@yahoo.com https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 298 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18(2): 297-313. petal epidermal micromorphology according to fischer et al. (2004), the petal surface microstructure of cells differs from other plant components in terms of its distinctive optical qualities. petal micromorphological features in angiosperms have been demonstrated to be useful for taxonomic identification and as a source of phylogenetically informative attributes in a range of taxa, including asteraceae (compositae) (baagøe, 1977, 1980; hansen, 1991; angulo and dematteis, 2014). boraginaceae (akçin, 2009), polygonaceae (hong et al., 1998; kong and hong, 2018), commelinaceae (chwil, 2011), orchidaceae (barone lumaga et al., 2012, and menispermaceae (wang et al., 2018). trichomes are present in the floral and vegetative portions of bignoniaceae plants. bureau and schumann (1864) published the first documented report on the glandular trichomes of this family, followed by schumann (1895), sandwith (1938), and siebert (1940, 1948), who demonstrated the taxonomic significance of the trichomes within the family and attempted to group them in 9-10 categories based on their position and structure after determining their taxonomic significance within the family. trichomes are characterized as either glandular or non-glandular (werker, 2000). based on their shape, papillate (protruded), lenticular (elongated), or flat, different types of epidermal cells have been observed in petals (kay et al., 1981; ojeda et al., 2009). the quantity and size of protrusions on these cells, as well as the cuticular striations, differ from one another. distinct species may contain distinct arrangements and configurations of these epidermal cell types. in 201 angiosperm species, the distribution of the various epidermal cell types in the petals has been investigated, about 78% of the species showed papillate types of cells, which were primarily found on the adaxial surface and sporadically occurring on the abaxial side (kay et al., 1981). the scanning electron microscopy (sem) application has significantly enhanced our comprehension of the surface attributes of diverse vegetative and reproductive organs, while also providing significant taxonomic information (barthlott, 1981; stace, 1984; ozcan, 2002). gentry (1980) provided a thorough description of the taxonomic history, which was summarized by sprangler and olmstead (1999), and fischer et al. (2004) recently classified the family. the african and asian grouping, which consists of almost 29 genera and 115 species, are the components of the family that is still poorly understood (lohmann and ulloa, 2007). the aims of this work were to document and exhibit a complete description of petal micromorphology of handroanthus mattos., 1970; jacaranda juss., 1789, kigelia dc., 1838; markhamia seem. ex baill.,1888; parmentiera dc.,1838; spathodea beauverd,1805; tabebuia gomes,1838; tecoma juss.,1789, from egypt, using field emission scanning electron microscopy, as well as to assess the taxonomic or diagnostic significance of petal micromorphology. materials and methods collection of plant material: eight horticultural taxa representing the genera; handroanthus mattos.,1970; jacaranda juss,1789; kigella dc.,1838; markhamia seem. ex baill.,1888; parmentiera dc.,1838; spathodea beauverd,1805; tabebuia gomes ex dc.,1838; tecoma 299 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum teleb et al. juss.,1789 were the subject of this study (tab. 1). fresh plant samples were collected during april, may, and september from el-orman botanical garden in egypt. the el-orman botanical garden, in giza, egypt, created the voucher herbarium specimens and compared them for identification with genuine ones. these reference specimens were archived in the herbarium of the botany and microbiology department at zagazig university in egypt. the international plant names index's webpages (www.ipni.org./ipni/query_ipni.html) were used to double-check the scientific names and author citations. additionally, the www.theplantlist.org website is utilized to check the acceptable scientific names in use. plant sampling: fresh mature flowers were preserved in 70% ethyl alcohol for 24-48 hours after treatment in faa solution (5:5:50:40 formaldehyde, glacial acetic acid, 95% etoh, and distilled water) (johansen, 1940). both the stereo microscope and the optech-light were used to analyze fresh and dry specimens. by using sem, the ultrastructural characteristics of petals were seen and captured on camera. using a scanning electron microscope (jeoljsm-6510 lv) at mansoura university in egypt, sections of dried petals (abaxial and adaxial half) were mounted on stubs without any prior preparation, coated with gold, and studied at various magnification powers. statistical analyses: in tables (2, 3), features related to trichome type, epidermal type, and stomata presence are listed in comparison for the researched taxa. through the inspection of specimens, characters and character states were identified and categorized as multistate characters. a multistate matrix was used to analyze the data matrix. a dendrogram was created to depict the relationships between the taxa after the data matrix underwent cluster analysis using upgma (unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean) and the jaccard similarity index. the past 4.03 program was used for all studies (hammer et al., 2001). table (1): the studied taxa of bignoniaceae with related tribe senso schumann (1895). tribe senso schumann (1895) voucher numbers taxa no. tecomeae 000933tc handroanthus impetiginosus (mart. e dc.) mattos = (tabebuia palmeri rose.) 1 tecomeae 000372jc jacaranda acutifolia humb. & bonpl. = ( j. ovalifolia r. br., j. mimosifolia d. don) 2 crescentieae 000501kc kigelia africana (lam.) benth. = ( k. tristis a.chev. , sotor aethiopiumm fenzl. , k.pinnata (jacq.) dc., =tecoma africana(lam) g. don 3 tecomeae 000572mc markhamia lutea (benth.) k.schum. =(m. hildebrandtii (baker) sprague, dolichandrone hildebrandtii baker) 4 tecomeae 000580mc markhamia zanzibarica (bojer ex dc.) k.schum.= (m. stenocarpa (baker) k.schum.) 5 300 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18(2): 297-313. petal epidermal micromorphology crescentieae 000630pc parmentiera aculeata (kunth) seem.= (crescentia edulis desy., parmentiera edulis dc.) 6 tecomeae 000873sc spathodea campanulata (p. beauv). =(s. tulipifera schum., s. danckelmaniana buttner, bignonia tulipifera schum.) 7 tecomeae 000923tc tabebuia aurea (benth. &hook.)= (tabebuia argentea bureau &k.schum.) 8 tecomeae 000938tc tabebuia rosea (bertol.) dc. =( t. pentaphylla var. normalis kuntze, t. punctatissima kraenzl.) 9 tecomeae 000933tc tecomaria capensis (thunb.) spach.= (t.krebsii klotzsch , t. petersii klotzsch, , ducoudraea capensis bureau) 10 tecomeae 000942tc tecoma stans (l.) juss. ex kunth= (bignonia stans l., bignonia tecomoides dc 11 tecomeae egymazhar020401 23 tecoma stans var. angustata (rehder) 12 results and discussion the micromorphological traits have been instrumental in the present classification of angiosperms and have provided valuable insights into the evolution and taxonomy of seed plants. the epidermal surface acts as a functional border layer between the living material and its environment, and interactions with the environment must pass through it. many authors emphasized the value of petals, which had never been done previously, of leaf, fruit, seed, epidermis, and its ornamentation or surface sculpturing in identifying taxa and determining their relationships (webb et al., 1990; rejdali, 1991; stace, 1984; manning et al., 1991; husain et al., 1990; eldemerdash et al., 2021). the significance of the micro-sculpture in the petals of flowers in the family orobanchaceae as well as the family rosaceae was reported by piwowarczyk and kasińska (2017) and song et al. (2020). additionally, research has demonstrated that the infraspecific taxa can be separated using the micromorphology of the petals (piwowarczyk and kasińska, 2017). the use of sem in stuyding petal micromorphology has viewed new finer details on their surface which, helped in taxa delimitation and identification in many taxonomic treatments as well as in solving many taxonomic and evolutionary problems (metcalfe and chalk, 1979; ozcan, 2009). the examined species displayed a diversity of morphological traits, including trichomes (both glandular and non-glandular), trichome ornamentation (striate, verucate, and smooth), different types of epidermal cells, and stomata. it has been noted in angiosperm taxa that different types of epidermal sculpture can occasionally coexist within a single petal (ojeda et al., 2009). all species in our study had areolate epidermal types on the abaxial surface, which is different from the adaxial side's areolate, papillose conical, and mixture of these types. the characteristics of trichomes on epidermal surfaces have been demonstrated in numerous studies to be significant criteria for classification (adedeji et al., 2007; hassan and hamdy, 2023), and have long been used in delimiting species, genera, or families (adedeji, 2007; 301 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum teleb et al. hayat et al., 2009; shaheen et al., 2009; saheed and illoh, 2010; ajmal and al hemaid, 2011; kemka and nwachukwu, 2011; al sheef et al., 2013; khosroshahi and salmaki, 2019). table (2): micro-morphological characters of the studied taxa. adaxial abaxial t ax a c h ar ac te rs n o . e p id e rm al t y p e t ri ch o m e o rn am en ta ti o n trichomes e p id er m al ty p e t ri ch o m e o rn am en ta ti o n trichomes g la n d u la r n o n g la n d u la r g la n d u la r n o n g la n d u la r a re o la te st ri at e p el ta te c ap it at e u n ic el lu la r an d b ic el lu la r (f le x ib le ) a re o la te v er u ca te c ap it at e b ic el lu la r an d m u lt ic el lu la r (s ti ff -b ri st ly ) h a n d ro a n th u s im p et ig in o su s 1 a re o la te v er u ca te c ap it at e u n ic el lu la r, b ic el lu la r an d m u lt ic el lu la r (s ti ff -b ri st ly ) an d f u n n el sh ap e a re o la te v er u ca te a b se n t u n ic el lu la r, b ic el lu la r an d m u lt ic el lu la r (s ti ff -b ri st ly ) an d f u n n el sh ap e ja ca ra n d a a cu ti fo li a 2 a re o la te m ix ed w it h p ap il lo se co n ic al sm o o th p el ta te s ti p it at e p at el li -f o rm u n ic el lu la r (f le x ib le ) a re o la te s tr ia te p el ta te c ap it at e u n ic el lu la r an d b ic el lu la r (s ti ff b ri st ly ) k ig el ia a fr ic a n a 3 a re o la te m ix ed w it h p ap il lo se co n ic al v er u ca te c ap it at e b ic el lu la r an d m u lt ic el lu la r fl ex ib le a re o la te v er u ca te p el ta te a b se n t m a rk h a m ia lu te a 4 . p ap il lo se co n ic al v er u ca te p el ta te a b se n t a re o la te v er u ca te p el ta te a b se n t m a rk h a m ia za n zi b a ri ca 5 . a re o la te v er u ca te p el ta te u n ic el lu la r (f le x ib le a re o la te v er u ca te l ar g e su n k en a b se n t p a rm en ti er a ed u li s 6 . a re o la te m ix ed w it h p ap il lo se c o n ic al v er u ca te p el ta te c ap it at e a b se n t a re o la te v er u ca te p el ta te c ap it at e a b se n t s p a th o d ea ca m p a n u la ta 7 . 302 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18(2): 297-313. petal epidermal micromorphology the different types of trichomes previously described by luckwill (1943), and reported by channarayappa et al. (1992) aimed specifically to limit the diversity of trichomes to glandular and non-glandular types. although, this fundamental classification is unable to account for the vast differences between types of glandular and non-glandular trichomes (watts and kariyat, 2021). trichomes, which serve various purposes and are found on the surface of petals belonging to the bignoniaceae family, exhibit variability in their abundance within plants. their structure and morphology can serve as taxonomic significance for intrageneric classification (muravnik et al., 2021; hassan and hamdy, 2023). as a result, an attempt has been made in the current work to recognize the diversity and distribution pattern of different types of floral trichomes observed on petal surfaces within the species examined, principally to assess their importance and taxonomic value. the systematic importance of glandular trichomes on the floral sections of the bignoniaceae family has been widely recognized (schumann, 1895; sandwith, 1938; seibert, 1940). members of the bignoniaceae family often have peltate trichomes (seibert, 1948). tables (2-5) provide a summary of the micromorphological traits of all analyzed taxa as well as their state and taxa versus character data matrix. at the abaxial surface, trichomes were non-glandular and glandular. non-glandular; funnel-shape, unicellular, bicellular, and multicellular stiff-bristly in jacaranda acutifolia (pl. 1a), unicellular and bicellular stiff-bristly in kigelia africana ( pl. 1d), bicellular and multicellular stiff (handroanthus impetiginosus, pl. 2b), multicellular stiff-bristly in tecoma stans (pl. 2k) and tecoma stans var. angustata( pl. 2l), unicellular flexible tecomaria capensis( pl. 2g) and absent in the other species. glandular trichomes were cupular in tecomaria capensis (pl. 2h), large sunken parmentiera edulis (pl. 1m), capitate in kigelia a re o la te st ri at e a b se n t u n ic el lu la r (f le x ib le a re o la te v er u ca te p el ta te a b se n t t a b eb u ia a rg en te a 8 . a re o la te m ix ed w it h p ap il lo se co n ic al st ri at e a b se n t u n ic el lu l ar (f le x ib le a re o la te v er u ca te p el ta te a b se n t t a b eb u ia ro se a 9 . p ap il lo se co n ic al st ri at e p el ta te c ap it at e m u lt ic el lu la r (f le x ib le ) a re o la te s m o o th p el ta te c ap it at e c u p u la r u n ic el lu la r (f le x ib le ) t ec o m a ri a ca p en si s 1 0 . a re o la te m ix ed w it h p ap il lo se co n ic al st ri at e c ap it at e m u lt ic el lu la r (s ti ff -b ri st ly ) a re o la te v er u ca te a b se n t m u lt ic el lu la r (s ti ff -b ri st ly ) t ec o m a st a n s 1 1 . a re o la te st ri at e c ap it at e m u lt ic el lu la r ( st if fb ri st ly ) a re o la te v er u ca te a b se n t m u lt ic el lu la r (s ti ff b ri st ly ) t ec o m a s ta n s va r. a n g u st a ta 1 2 . 303 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum teleb et al. africana (pl. 2i), spathodea campanulata (pl. 1n), handroanthus impetiginosus pl. 2e and tecomaria capensis (pl. 3c), peltate (kigelia africana pl. 1c, markhamia lutea (pl. 1e), markhamia zanzibarica (pl. 1f), spathodea campanulata (pl. 2a), tabebuia argentea( pl. 2d), tabebuia rosea (pl. 2e), and tecomaria capensis (pl. 2f), and absent in the other species. epidermal type was areolate in all species and stomata were absent in jacaranda acutifolia, and markhamia zanzibarica was present in the other species. the stomata were depressed in t. rosea, at level (h. impetiginosus and t. capensis) and superficial at the other species. the stomatal outline was elongated in h. impetiginosus, t. rosea, t. stans and t. stans var. angustata and suborbiculate in the other species. table (3): stomatal characters of studied taxa. adaxial abaxial stomatal aperture s to m at al o u tl in e s to m at al le v el s to m at al p re se n ce stomatal aperture s to m at al o u tl in e s to m at al le v el s to m at al p re se n ce c t w id th sh ap e w id th s h ap e a b se n t a b se n t a b se n t a b se n t a b se n t w id e e ll ip ti c e lo n g at e a t a le v el p re se n t 1 a b se n t a b se n t a b se n t a b se n t a b se n t a b se n t a b se n t a b se n t a b se n t a b se n t 2 w id e e ll ip ti c s u b o rb ic u la te a t a le v el p re se n t w id e e ll ip ti c s u b o rb ic u la te s u p er fi ci al p re se n t 3 a b se n t a b se n t a b se n t a b se n t a b se n t a b se n t a b se n t a b se n t a b se n t p re se n t 4 a b se n t a b se n t a b se n t a b se n t a b se n t a b se n t a b se n t a b se n t a b se n t a b se n t 5 a b se n t a b se n t a b se n t a b se n t a b se n t w id e e ll ip ti c s u b o rb ic u la te s u p er fi -c ia l p re se n t 6 w id e e ll ip ti c s u b o rb ic u la te a t a le v el p re se n t w id e e ll ip ti c s u b o rb ic u la te s u p er fi ci al p re se n t 7 a 304 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18(2): 297-313. petal epidermal micromorphology a b se n t a b se n t a b se n t a b se n t a b se n t n ar ro w e ll ip ti c s u b o rb ic u la te s u p er fi ci al p re se n t 8 a b se n t a b se n t a b se n t a b se n t a b se n t w id e e ll ip ti c e lo n g at e d ep re ss ed p re se n t 9 n ar ro w r o u n d s u b o rb ic u la te s u p er fi c ia l p re se n t n ar ro w e ll ip ti c s u b o rb ic u la te a t a le v el p re se n t 1 0 a b se n t a b se n t a b se n t a b se n t a b se n t n ar ro w e ll ip ti c e lo n g at e s u p er fi ci al p re se n t 1 1 a b se n t a b se n t a b se n t a b se n t a b se n t n ar ro w e ll ip ti c e lo n g at e s u p er fi ci al p re se n t 1 2 table (4): micro-morphological characters, their state and codes of taxa under investigation. character state and its (code) character absent (0) unicellular flexible (1) bicellular and multicellular flexible (2) bicellular and multicellular stiff (3) multicellular stiff (4) unicellular and bicellular flexible (5) unicellular and bicellular stiff (6) unicellular, bicellular and multicellular stiff and funnel shape (7) 1.1. nonglandular 1.trichomes absent (0) peltate (1) capitate (2) peltate and capitate (3) peltate, capitate and cupular (4) peltate, stipitate and patelliform (5) large sunken (6) 1.2. glandular smooth (0) verucate (1) striate (2) 2.trichome ornamentation areolate (0) papillose conical (1) areolate mixed with papillose (2) 3.epidermal type absent (0) present (1) 4.stomatal presence absent (0) superficial (1) depressed (2) at a level (3) 5. stomatal level absent (0) elongate (1) suborbiculate (2) 6. stomatal shape absent (0) elliptic (1) round (2) 7. stomatal aperture shape absent (0) wide (1) narrow (2) 8. stomatal aperture width 305 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum teleb et al. table (5): data matrix of 3 micro-morphological characters of all studied taxa. at the adaxial surface, trichomes were non-glandular and glandular. non-glandular trichomes were funnel-shape, unicellular, bicellular, and multicellular stiff-bristly in jacaranda acutifolia (pl. 1a), multicellular stiff-bristly tecoma stans pl. 2k and tecoma stans var. angustata (pl. 2l), unicellular flexible kigelia africana (pl. 1f), parmentiera edulis (pl. 1k), tabebuia argentea (pl. 2a) and tabebuia rosea (pl. 2e), bicellular and multicellular flexible markhamia lutea (pl. 1h), multicellular flexible tecomaria capensis (pl. 2j), and unicellular and bicellular flexible handroanthus impetiginosus (pl. 2d) and absent in the other species. glandular trichomes were absent in tabebuia argentea and tabebuia rosea, stipitate ,patelliform in kigelia africana (pl. 1g, e, and f), peltate trichomes found in kigelia africana (pl. 1f), markhamia lutea pl. 1h, markhamia zanzibarica pl. 1j, parmentiera edulis pl. 1l, spathodea campanulata pl. 1n, handroanthus impetiginosus pl. 2c, and tecomaria capensis pl. 2f) and capitate trichomes found in (jacaranda acutifolia pl. 1b, markhamia lutea pl. 1i, spathodea campanulata pl. 1n, handroanthus impetiginosus pl. 2d, tecomaria capensis pl. 2i, tecoma stans pl. 2k, tecoma stans var. angustata pl .2l). it has also been noted in angiosperm taxa that different types of epidermal sculpture can occasionally coexist within a single petal (ojeda et al., 2009). epidermal type was papillose conical in markhamia zanzibarica and tecomaria capensis, areolate (jacaranda acutifolia, parmentiera edulis, tabebuia argentea and handroanthus impetiginosus pl. 2b), and areolate mixed with papillose conical in the other species. stomata were present in kigelia africana, spathodea campanulata, and tecomaria capensis while absent in the other species and superficial in t. capensis and at level at the rest. stomata were suborbiculata in the four species. from the obtained dendrogram (diag. 1), the species under study were separated into two series; series i and ii. series i comprises nine of the studied species at a taxonomic distance of 0.53 and series ii contains the remaining three species at a taxonomic distance of 0.51. series adaxial abaxial c t 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 1.2 1.1 1.2 1.1 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 3 5 1 1 1 3 1 0 1 2 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 7 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 7 2 1 1 2 3 1 2 0 5 1 1 1 2 1 1 0 2 3 6 3 0 0 0 0 0 2 1 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 4 0 0 0 0 0 2 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 0 1 6 0 6 1 1 2 3 1 2 1 3 0 1 1 2 1 1 0 1 3 0 7 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 1 2 1 2 1 1 0 1 1 0 8 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 0 1 1 1 1 2 1 0 1 1 0 9 2 2 2 1 1 1 2 3 4 2 1 2 3 1 0 0 4 1 10 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 3 4 2 1 1 1 1 0 1 0 4 11 0 0 0 0 0 2 2 3 4 2 1 1 1 1 0 1 0 4 12 306 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18(2): 297-313. petal epidermal micromorphology i includes two clusters; c1 and c2. c1 contains six species: p. edulis, h. impetiginosus, t. rosea, t. aurea, t. stans, and t. stans var. angustata due to sharing characters as the presence of stomata and areolate epidermal type at the abaxial surface. parmentiera belongs to the tribe crescentieae, while in our study it is closer to tecomeae tribe. handroanthus impetiginosus was recently segregated into a separate genus, a treatment that matches the phylogenetic reclassification of many tabebuia plants reported in our study as t. aurea, t. rosea and t. palmeri. c2 contains k. africana, t. capensis, and s. campanulata. fischer et al. (2004), goldblatt and gentry (1979), and gentry (1980) recommended that tecomaria capensis should be included with tecoma; however, our results showed that it is closer to kigelia which belongs to tribe crescentieae according to schumann (1895) and tribe coleeae according to fischer (2004) but in our study it is closer to tecomeae tribe. series ii comprise one cluster; c3 which contains 3 species belonging to tribe tecomeae; m. lutea, m. zanzibarica, and j. acutifolia due to sharing characters viz. having areolate epidermal type and absence of stomata at the abaxial side. plate (1): sem showing morphological diversity of trichomes on abaxial and adaxial surfaces of petals in jacaranda acutifolia (a, b), kigelia africana (c-g), markhamia lutea (h,i), markhamia zanzibarica (j), parmentiera edulis (km), spathodea campanulata (n) and tabebuia aurea (o). (fn=funnel shape, sf=stiff, cp=capitate, pt=peltate, pl=patelliform, fx=flexible trichome, sn=sunken and st=stipitate). 307 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum teleb et al. diagram (1): upgma dendrogram illustrating the hierarchical phenetic relationships between 12 taxa of bignoniaceae based on numerical analysis of petal micromorphological characters. conclusions in this study, petal micromorphological characters address the identification, classification and elucidation of species affinity and relationship between studied taxa. the sem results revealed the presence of considerable taxonomic variations among the various species. the petal surface micromorphology provided effective data on their characters as epidermal cell, trichomes type, trichome ornamentation, stomatal presence, stomatal level, stomatal outline and stomatal aperture shape and width which provided useful character to distinguish bignoniaceae members at tribe level. these results showed that the abaxial and adaxial surface of the petal ornamentation, could divide the species into two series, three clusters according to micromorphological character. the results suggested taxonomic significance of petal structure among species of bignoniaceae family. conflict of interest statement "the authors have no conflict of interest to declare". si sii c1 c2 c3 308 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18(2): 297-313. petal epidermal micromorphology literature cited adedeji, o., ajuwon, o. y. and babawale, o. 2007. foliar epidermal studies, organographic distribution and taxonomic importance of trichomes in the family solanaceae. international journal of botany, 3(3): 276-282. 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(2024) 18 (2): 297-313. الصفات املورفولوجية الدقيقة لبشرة البتلة وعالقتها التصنيفية في بعض انواع الفصيلة البنيونية في مصر حسين، ريهام شاهين ومروة محمد الدمرداش أ.سمير س. طلب، حسين الدقيقة، كلية العلوم، جامعة الزقازيق، مصر قسم النبات واألحياء 20/12/2024، النشر: 5/6/2024القبول: 31/5/2024املراجعة:، 1/1/2024االستالم: الخالصة يتناول البحث دراسة الخصائص امليكروموفولوجية للبتالت. ُجمَعت ثمان أجناس ر من حديقة االورمان تمثل ثانية عشرنوع من نباتات الفصيلة البجنونية من مص النباتبة باستخدام امليكروسكوب االكتروني املاسح. كان الهدف من الدراسة فحص سطح أنواع البتالت تحت الدراسة و تقييم أهميتها في ايضاح العالقات التصنيفية قد شملت الدراسة ما يلي: انواع خاليا البشرة )الهالية، الحليمية املخروطية و الهالية ة مع الحليمية املخروطية( ، أنواع الشعيرات )غير الغدية: قمعية الشكل، املرنة، املختلط املتيبسة والغدية :النخامية، الراسية،اكأسية الشكل، الرقطية وشكل الرضفة( ، زخرفة الشعيرات )مخططة، متعرجة وناعمة( وثغور علي كل من السطح العلوي والسفلي & .jacaranda acutifolia humbاالنواع ما عدا للبتلة و قد ظهرت الثغور في جميع bonpl .,1806 وmarkhamia zanzibarica (bojer ex dc.) k. schum., 1895. الجراء تحليل احصائي علي البيانات باستخدام طريقة pastاستخدم برنامج upgma وتم انتاج مخطط لتوضيح العالقة بين العينات. اوضحت النتائج ان النوعين ,.tabebuia gomes ex dcو markhamia seem. ex baill.,1888محل الدراسة ليست احادية العرق. tecoma (juss., 1789أحاديا العرق بينما 1838 bull 571 al-saffar and augul bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2021) 16 (4): 571621. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2021.16.4.0571 survey of insects in some southern iraqi marshes hanaa h. al-saffar♦ and razzaq shalan augul iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq. ♦corresponding author email: dr.hanaa66@nhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq received date: 13 sept. 2021, accepted date: 28 nov. 2021, published date: 20 december 2021 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract this study included a survey and review of the scientific names of the marsh insects (aquatic and surrounding it) for the purpose of unifying and updating the database. the survey reveals 109 species under 77 genera that belong to 32 families and 7 orders as follow: coleoptera (44 species), diptera (7 species) ephemeroptera (2 species), hemiptera (14 species), hymenoptera (11 species), lepidoptera (2 species) and odonata with 29 species. information of specimens' collection for each species, synonyms and geographical distribution were provided. key words: insects, iraq, marshes, survey, synonyms. introduction the iraqi marshlands cover an area of 15000-20000 sq. km in the lower part of the mesopotamian basin where the tigris and euphrates rivers flow; that lie on a softly sloping plan which causes the two rivers to meander which branches form the marshes. the marshes lay on the heavy fluvial sediments that are carried by the rivers in the area (al-ansari et al., 2012). the marshes of iraq are one of the largest water area and with completely ecosystem in the middle east. they are situated at the southern part among basra, maysan and thi qar provinces. the marshes consist of three main regions: central marshes, hawizeh and alhammar marsh (bedair et al., 2006). according to the previous field studies, the marshes including a wide range of diversity with their levels which appeared with high fluctuations; on the other hand, the marshes status was affected in high degree by high flood and drying seasons (al-hili, 1977; richardson et al., 2005). in the marshes of southern iraq, the pervious investigation is focused on the water quality, zooplankton and phytoplankton diversity, macro-invertebrates and birds; however, less attention was made toward micro-invertebrates, insects, and herpetofauna (iraqi ministry of health and environment, 2017). https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2021.16.4.0571 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 572 survey of insects from the other side, there were eleven water beetles species of the family haliplidae collected from the shatt al arab and marshes of southern iraq (ali, 1976); also lists 55 species of dytiscid water beetles (family, dytiscidae) and fifteen species of gyrinid beetles (family, gyrinidae) (ali, 1978 a, b). as well, twenty five dragonfly species are known to occur in the central and southern iraqi marshlands (boudot et al., 2009). hassan et al. (2000) reported anax spp. and ischnura evansi morton, 1919 (odonata, coenagrionidae) from several stations along shatt al-arab; ali et al. (2002) studied the seasonal abundances of i. evansi and brachythemis fuscopalliata selys, 1887 (odonata, libellulidae) in the qarmat ali region near basrah. dragonflies inhabiting rivers and marshes in arid regions such as southern iraq, such as hemianax ephippiger and ischnura evansi are tolerant of high salinity (corbet, 1999). generally, the biodiversity in the re-inundated southern marshes of iraq has attracted the attention of many authors; however, still little is known about certain biota the marshes such as fungi, invertebrates such as annelids and aquatic insects, and wild mammals. the biodiversity in the iraqi marshes is considered low when it compared with other wetlands in the world (hussain, 2014). updating checklists in this ecosystem still out of date; therefore, the study aimed to prepare an updating checklist of the insect species that live in marshes or closely to this unique ecosystem. materials and methods the specimens were collected from different localities southern marshes of iraq from three provinces (basra, maysan and thi qar) by using air and water nets and sometimes with hands .the adult insects were killed by freezing for 24 hours while the larvae killed by alcohol 70%. the localities and date of collection were recorded. the specimens were classified and identified to orders, families, genera and species by using different classification keys such as: coe et al. (1950); cranston and judd (1989); askew (2004); nieser (2004); dijkstra and lewington (2006); kalkman, (2006); madden (2010); kumar (2012); perveen et al. (2014); al-hashmi et al. (2018); novoselsky et al. (2018) and alhejoj et al. (2020). the diagnosis of insects by the authors and the specimens were deposed at the department of entomology and invertebrates, iraq natural history research center and museum university of baghdad. the synonyms of species have been verified according to gbif secretariat (2021). results and discussion in this investigation showed 110 species at southern marshes belonging to seven orders: coleoptera (45), diptera (7), ephemeroptera (2); hemiptera (15); hymenoptera (11); lepidoptera (2) and odonata with 29 species, as below: 573 al-saffar and augul (a) order, coleoptera (1) family, dytiscidae genus, agabus leach, 1817 synonyms: acathodes seidlitz, 1887 acatodes thomson, 1859 agabinectes guignot, 1933 allonychus zaitzev, 1905 apator semenov, 1898 arctodytes thomson, 1874 badynectus seidlitz, 1872 carrhydrus fall, 1922 dichodytes thomson, 1886 dichonectes guignot, 1945 eriglenus thomson, 1860 gabinectes guignot, 1931 gaurodytes thomson, 1859 heteronychus seidlitz, 1887 mesogabus gueorguiev, 1969 metronectes sharp, 1882 necticus hope, 1838 neonecticus guignot, 1951 scytodytes seidlitz, 1887 xanthodytes seidlitz, 1887 agabus biguttatus (olivier, 1795) synonym: dytiscus biguttatus olivier, 1795 material examined: 7 specimens; maysan province, hawizeh marshes, umm an-ni'aaj, 19.vii.2020 distribution: iraq (abdul karim, 1978); jordon, saudi arabia and yemen (ramadan and ramadan, 2021). agabus caraboides sharp, 1882 material examined: 1 specimen; maysan province, hawizeh marshes, umm an-ni'aaj, 19.vii.2020 distribution: iraq (zimmermann, 1920); turkey and greece (gbif secretariat, 2021). agabus conspersus (marsham, 1802) synonyms: agabus corsicus guignot, 1932 dytiscus conspersus marsham, 1802 material examined: 5 specimens; maysan province, hawizeh marshes, umm an-ni'aaj, 19.vii.2020 distribution: iraq (zimmermann, 1920; nilson, 2003); jordon and kuwait (ramadan and ramadan, 2021). 574 survey of insects agabus guttatus (paykull, 1798) synonym: dytiscus guttatus paykull, 1798 material examined: 4 specimens, maysan province, hawizeh marshes, umm an-ni'aaj, 19.vii.2020. distribution: iraq (abdul-karim, 1978); turkey (darilmaz and kayak, 2009). agabus paludosus (fabricius, 1801) synonym: dytiscus paludosus fabricius, 1801 material examined: 3 specimens, maysan province: hawizeh marshes, umm an-ni'aaj, 30.vi.2020 distribution: iraq (abdulhasan et al., 2009); turkey (darilmaz and kayak, 2009). agabus safei abdul-karim & ali, 1986 material examined: 5 specimens, thiqar province, al-chibayish marshes, 3.vii.2020. distribution: iraq (abdul-karim and ali, 1986). genus, bidessus sharp, 1882 synonym: callioprus adam, 1996 bidessus exorantus (reich and saulcy, 1855) synonym: hydroporus exorantus reich and saulcy, 1855 material examined: 2 specimens; thiqar province, al-chibayish marshes, 3.vii.2020. distribution: iraq (abdul-karim, 1978); turkey (darilmaz and kayak, 2009). genus, colymbetes clairville, 1806 synonyms: cymatopterus dejean, 1833 lymnaeus gistel, 1834 colymbetes fuscus (linnaeus, 1758) synonym: dytiscus fuscus linnaeus, 1758 material examined: 1 specimen; thi-qar province, al-chibayish marshes, 30.iv.2020. distribution: iraq (abdul-karim, 1978); liberian peninsula (garrido and munilla, 2008); turkey (darilmaz and kayak, 2009); croatia (turić et al., 2011); iran (taher and heydarnejad, 2019). colymbetes piceus klug, 1834 material examined: 3 specimens; thi-qar province, al-chibayish marshes, 30.iv.2020. distribution: iraq (derwesh, 1965); kuwait, saudi arabia (ramadan and ramadan, 2021). genus, copelatus erichson, 1832 copelatus pulchellus (klug, 1834) synonym: copelatus mimetes guignot, 1957 575 al-saffar and augul material examined: 13 specimens; thi-qar province, al-chibayish marshes, 30.iv.2020. distribution: iraq (abdul-karim, 1978); widespread to western and eastern africa (perissinotto et al., 2016). genus, cybister curtis, 1827 synonyms: alocomerus brinck, 1945 cybisteter bedel, 1880 gschwendtnerhydrus brinck, 1945 megadytoides brinck, 1945 meganectes brinck, 1945 melanectes brinck, 1945 nealocomerus brinck, 1945 neocybister miller, bergsten & whiting, 2007 scaphinectes ádám, 1993 trochalus dejean, 1833 trogulus brodie, 1874 trogus leach, 1817 cybister tripunctatus (olivier, 1795) synonyms: cybister szechwanensis falkenström, 1936 dytiscus tripunctatus olivier, 1795 material examined: 11 specimens; 3 specimens, maysan province, hawizeh marshes, umm an-ni'aaj, 19.vii. 2020; 8 specimens, thiqar province, al-chibayish marshes, 30.iv.2020. distribution: iraq (abdul-rassoul,1976); taiwan(nilsson et al., 1995); kuwait (alhouty, 2004); turkey (darilmaz and kayak, 2009); west africa (yapo et al., 2013). genus, eretes laporte, 1833 synonyms: eunectes erichson, 1832 hogrus zubkov, 1837 nogrus dejean, 1833 eretes sticticus (linnaeus, 1767) synonyms: dytiscus sticticus linnaeus, 1767 eretes occidentalis (erichson, 1847) eretes stricticus (linnaeus, 1767) material examined: 3 specimens, maysan province, hawizeh marshes, umm an-ni'aaj, 19.vii.2020. distribution: iraq (abdul-karim, 1978); taiwan (nilsson et al., 1995); southern of united states and peru (miller, 2002); iran, pakistan (hájek, 2006); egypt (younes, 2008); kuwait (al-houty, 2009); turkey (darilmaz and kayak, 2009); algeria, botswana, ethiopia, tunisia, sudan, morocco, zimbabwe, south africa, namibia, madagascar, tanzania, kenya, senegal, mali, india, korea, guam, uzbekistan, turkmenistan, japan, thailand, philippines, vietnam, ecuador, mexico, portugal, spain, greece, italy and australia (gbif secretariat, 2021). 576 survey of insects genus, herophydrus sharp, 1880 synonym: dryephorus guignot, 1950 herophydrus guineensis (aubé, 1838) synonyms: herophydrus mutatus (gemminger & harold, 1868) hygrotus guineensis (aubé, 1838) hyphydrus guineensis aubé, 1838 material examined: 4 specimens; 3 specimens, maysan province, hawizeh marshes, umm an-ni'aaj, 19.vii.2020; 1 specimen, thiqar province, al-chibayish marshes, 30.iv.2020. distribution: iraq (abdul-karim, 1978); turkey (darilmaz and kayak, 2009); egypt (salah and cueto, 2014). herophydrus musicus (klug, 1834) synonyms: coelambus interruptus sharp, 1882 hydroporus fractilinea solsky, 1874 hydroporus musicus klug, 1834 hygrotus alei abdul-karim & ali, 1986 material examined: 5 specimens; thi-qar province, al-chibayish marshes, 30.iv.2020. distribution: in iraq, previously recorded as hygrotus alei (abdul-karim and ali, 1986); iran, pakistan (hájek, 2006); turkey (darilmaz and kayak, 2009); kuwait (al-houty, 2009); egypt (salah and cueto, 2014). genus, hydaticus leach, 1817 synonyms: guignotites brinck, 1943 hydaticinus guignot, 1950 icmaleus gistel, 1856 isonotus guignot, 1936 pleurodytes régimbart, 1899 prodaticus sharp, 1882 hydaticus dorsiger aubé, 1838 material examined: 5 specimens, thiqar province, al-chibayish marshes, 3.vii.2020. distribution: iraq (abdul-karim, 1978); widely distributed species, (guignot, 1961). hydaticus ponticus sharp, 1882 material examined: 1 specimen, thiqar province, al-chibayish marshes, 30.iv.2020. distribution: iraq (abdul-karim, 1978); iran, pakistan (hájek, 2006); turkey (darilmaz and kayak, 2009). genus, hydroglyphus motschulsky, 1853 synonym: guignotus houlbert, 1934 hydroglyphus confusus (klug, 1834) 577 al-saffar and augul synonym: hydroporus confusus klug, 1834 material examined: 6 specimens, maysan province: hawizeh marshes, umm an-ni'aaj, 30.vi.2020. distribution: iraq (abdul-karim, 1978); turkey (darilmaz and kayak, 2009); egypt (salah and cueto, 2014); croatia (turić et al., 2017). genus, hydroporus clairville, 1806 synonym: hydrotarsus falkenström, 1938 hydroporus tessellatus (drapiez, 1819) synonym: dytiscus tessellatus drapiez, 1819 distribution: iraq (abdul-karim, 1978); liberian peninsula (garrido and munilla, 2008); turkey (darilmaz and kayak, 2009); egypt (salah and cueto, 2014). genus, hydrovatus motschulsky, 1853 synonyms: hydatonychus kolbe, 1883 oxynoptilus schaum, 1868 pseudhydrovatus peschet, 1924 vathydrus guignot, 1954 hydrovatus badeni sharp, 1882 material examined: 3 specimens, thiqar province, al-chibayish marshes, 3.vii.2020. distribution: iraq (abdul-karim, 1978). hydrovatus clypealis sharp, 1876 synonym: oxynoptilus clypealis (sharp, 1876) material examined: 1 specimen, thiqar province, al-chibayish marshes, 29.viii.2020. distribution: iraq (abdul-karim, 1978); egypt (salah and cueto, 2014). hydrovatus meridionalis abdul-karim & ali, 1986 material examined: 3 specimens, maysan province, hawizeh marshes, umm an-ni'aaj, 19.vii.2020 distribution: iraq (abdul-karim and ali, 1986) genus, hygrotus stephens, 1828 synonyms: drryephorus guignot, 1950 heroceras guignot, 1950 herophydrus sharp, 188 hyphoporus sharp, 1880 hygrotus sp. material examined: 1 specimen, maysan province, hawizeh marshes, umm an-ni'aaj, 19.vii.2020. distribution: iraq (abdulhasan et al., 2009) 578 survey of insects genus, hyphoporus sharp, 1880 hyphoporus solieri (aubé, 1838) synonym: agabus solieri aubé, 1837 material examined: 7 specimens, maysan province: hawizeh marshes, umm an-ni'aaj, 29.viii.2020 distribution: iraq (abdul-karim, 1978); egypt (salah and cueto, 2014); kuwait (amr, 2021) genus, hyphydrus illiger, 1802 synonyms: actobaena gistel, 1856 allophydrus zimmermann, 1930 apriophorus guignot, 1938 aulacodytes guignot, 1938 hyphidrus illiger, 1802 hyphidrus sturm, 1826 pachytes montrouzier, 1860 hyphydrus aubei ganglbauer, 1891 material examined: 5 specimens, thiqar province, al-chibayish marshes, 3.vii.2021 distribution: iraq (abdul-karim, 1978); liberian peninsula (garrido and munilla, 2008). genus, laccophilus leach, 1815 synonym: lacophilus sturm, 1826 laccophilus hyalinus (de geer, 1774) synonyms: dyticus marmoratus fourcroy, 1785 dytiscus hyalinus de geer, 1774 laccophilus interruptus (panzer, 1795) laccophilus testaceus aubé, 1837 material examined: 8 specimens, thiqar province, al-chibayish marshes, 29.viii.2020. distribution: iraq (abdul-karim, 1978); turkey (darilmaz and kayak, 2009); iran (vafael et al., 2009); kisbalaton (lőkkös, 2014); croatia (turić et al., 2017 ); iran (taher and heydarnejad, 2019); ireland (nelson et al., 2019). laccophilus minutus (linnaeus, 1758) synonyms: dytiscus dinutus linnaeus, 1758 dytiscus minutus linnaeus, 1758 laccophilus obscurus (panzer, 1795) laccophilus variolosus (herbst, 1784) material examined: 2 specimens, thiqar province, al-chibayish marshes, 3.vii.2021. distribution: iraq (abdul-karim, 1978); jordan (ramadan and ramadan, 2021). laccophilus poecilus klug, 1834 579 al-saffar and augul synonyms: dyticus variegatus germar, 1812 dytiscus variegatus germar & kaulfuss, 1817 laccophilus ponticus sharp, 1882 laccophilus variegatus (germar, 1812) material examined: 3 specimens, maysan province: hawizeh marshes, umm an-ni'aaj, 29.viii.2020 distribution: iraq (abdul-karim, 1978 as laccophilus ponticus); kuwait (al-houty, 2004); turkey (darilmaz and kayak, 2009); croatia (turić et al., 2017). laccophilus sharpi régimbart, 1889 material examined: 9 specimens, maysan province: hawizeh marshes, umm an-ni'aaj, 29.viii.2020 distribution: iraq (abdul-karim, 1978); iran, pakistan (hájek, 2006). genus, nebrioporus régimbart, 1906 synonyms: bistictus guignot, 1942 potamodytes zimmermann, 1919 potamonectes zimmermann, 1921 rhabdonectes houlbert, 1934 zimmermannius guignot, 1942 nebrioporus laeviventris (reiche & saulcy, 1855) synonym: hydroporus laeviventris reiche & saulcy, 1855 material examined : 2 specimens, maysan province: hawizeh marshes, umm an-ni'aaj, 23.vi.2021. distribution: iraq (as stictotarsus laeviventris reiche and saulcy, 1855) abdul-karim, 1978); taiwan (nilsson et al., 1995); turkey (darilmaz and kayak, 2009). genus, platambus thomsom, 1859 synonyms: agraphis guignot, 1954 allogabus guignot, 1954 anagabus jakovlev, 1897 colymbinectes falkenström, 1936 neoplatynectes vazirani, 1970 paraplatynects vazirani, 1970 platambus maculatus (linnaeus, 1758) synonyms: agabus maculatus (linnaeus, 1758) dyticus hebraicus fourcroy, 1785 dytiscus maculatus linnaeus, 1758 material examined : 4 specimens, maysan province: hawizeh marshes, umm an-ni'aaj, 23.vi.2021. distribution: iraq (abdul-karim, 1978); turkey (darilmaz and kayak, 2009); mongollia (enkhnasan and blodgiv, 2019). 580 survey of insects genus, rhantus dejean, 1833 synonyms: anisomera brullé, 1834 anisomeria brinck, 1943 ilybiomorphus porta, 1923 rantogiton des gozis, 1910 rantus dejean, 1833 rhantus agassiz, 1846 senilites brinck, 1948 rhantus suturalis (macleay, 1825) synonyms: colymbetes montrouzieri lucas, 1860 colymbetes pulverosus stephens, 1828 colymbetes suturalis w.s.macleay, 1825 dyticus punctatus fourcroy, 1785 rhanthus suturalis (w.s.macleay, 1825) rhantus pulverosus (stephens, 1828) material examined: 1 specimen, thiqar province, al-chibayish marshes, 3.vii.2021 distribution: iraq (recorded as rhantus pulverosus (stephens, 1828) ,abdul-karim, 1978); taiwan ; (nilsson et al., 1995); iran , pakistan (hájek, 2006); liberian peninsula (garrido and munilla, 2008); turkey (darilmaz and, and kayak, 2009); kisbalaton (lőkkös, 2014); croatia (turić et al., 2017); kuwait (edmonds et al., 2019); south korea (jung et al., 2020). 2family, gyrinidae genus, dineutus macleay, 1825 dineutus grandis (klug j.c.f., 1834) synonym: gyrinus grandis klug j.c.f., 1834 material examined: 3 specimens, thiqar province, al-chibayish marshes, 19.vi.2019. distribution: iraq (ali, 1978b). north-east africa and the arabian peninsula (brinck, 1955). genus, gyrinus geoffroy, 1762 synonyms: gyradelphus gozis, 1915 gyrinidius guignot, 1951 gyrinoides guignot, 1948 gyrinulus zaitzev, 1907 gyrinus linnaeus, 1767 gyrinus müller, 1764 neogyrinus hatch, 1925 oreogyrinus ochs, 1935 gyrinus natator (linnaeus, 1758) synonyms: dytiscus natator linnaeus, 1758 gyrinus mergus ahrens, 1812 581 al-saffar and augul material examined: 3 specimens, thiqar province, al-chibayish marshes, 19.vi.2021. distribution: iraq (ali, 1978); ireland (nelson et al., 2019). 3family, hydraenidae genus, hydraenida germain, 1901 hydraenida sp. material examined: 2 specimens, maysan province: hawizeh marshes, umm an-ni'aaj, 23.viii.2021. distribution: iraq (abdulhasan et al., 2009); chile (gbif secretariat, 2021). genus, ochthebius leach, 1815 synonyms: asiobates thomson, 1859 asiobathes kuhnt, 1912 homalochthebius kuwert, 1887 lunzochthebius ienistea, 1988 mimasiobates ienistea, 1988 ochtebius thomson, 1859 trymochthebius kuwert, 1887 ochthebius sp. material examined: 11 specimens, maysan province: hawizeh marshes, umm an-ni'aaj, 23.viii.2021. distribution: the members of the genus ochthebius distribute in the palaearctic, oriental, neotropical, nearctic, australian and afrotropical regions (villastrigo et al., 2019). 4family, hydrophilidae genus, enochrus thomson, 1859 synonyms: agraphilhydrus everts, 1898 agraphilydrus kuwert, 1888 agraphophilydrus zaitzev, 1908 farana knisch, 1922 holcophilhydrus d'orchymont, 1919 holcophilhydus orchymont, 1919 holcophilydrus knisch, 1911 hydatotrephis macleay, 1871 hydatotrophis d'orchymont, 1919 hydrotrephis régimbart, 1908 lumetus zaitzev, 1908 methydrus rey, 1885 philhydrus brullé, 1835 philydrus solier, 1834 pseudenochrus lomnicki, 1911 582 survey of insects enochrus melanocephalus (olivier, 1793) synonyms: enochrus italus kuwert, 1890 hydrobius atricapillus stephens, 1829 hydrophilus bicolor gyllenhal, 1808 hydrophilus melanocephalus a. g. olivier, 1793 hydrophilus striatus turton, 1802 material examind: 3 specimens, maysan province: hawizeh marshes, umm an-ni'aaj, 29.viii.2020. distribution: iraq (abdulhasan et al., 2009); kisbalaton (lőkkös, 2014); croatia (turić et al., 2017); ireland (nelson et al., 2019). genus, paracymus c. g. thomson, 1867 synonyms: eumetacymus brethes, 1922 paracymorphus kuwert, 1888 quasiparacymus marjanian, 2009 paracymus sp. material examined: 1specimen, maysan province: hawizeh marshes, umm an-ni'aaj, 23.viii.2021. distribution: iraq (abdulhasan et al., 2009). the genus of paracymus distribute in australia, guyana, argentina, colombia, paraguay, venezuela, canada, usa, france, germany, netherlands, sweden, spain, suriname and vietnam (gbif secretariat, 2021). 5family, georissidae genus, georissus latreille, 1809 synonyms: cathammistes illiger, 1807 georyssus latreille, 1809 georyssus stephens, 1828 neogeorissus satô, 1972 nipponogeorissus satô, 1972 georissus sp. material examined: 1 specimen, thiqar province, al-chibayish marsh, 19.vi.2021. distribution: iraq (abdulhasan et al., 2009); this genus is worldwide distribution (gbif secretariat, 2021). 6family, hygrobiidae genus, hygrobia latreille, 1804 synonyms: hydrachna fabricius, 1801 hydrachne latreille, 1802 hygriobia latreille, 1804 paelobius schonherr, 1808 pelobius erichson, 1832 paelobius schonherr, 1808 583 al-saffar and augul pelobius erichson, 1832 pelobius schoenherr, 1808 poelobius schönherr, 1808 hygrobia sp. material examined: 1 specimen, thiqar province, al-chibayish marsh, 19.vi.2021. distribution: iraq (abdulhasan et al., 2009); the genus of hygrobia is native in europe, north africa, china and australia (nilsson, 2006). 7family, noteridae genus, canthydrus sharp, 1882 canthydrus luctuosus (aubé, 1838) material examined: 3 specimens, thiqar province, al-chibayish marshes, 19.vi.2021. distribution: iraq (abdulkarim, 1978); cambodia, india, indonesia, iran, sri lanka, syria, vietnam (nilsson, 2011). genus, hydrocanthus say, 1823 synonyms: allocanthus guignot, 1948 sternocanthus guignot, 1948 hydrocanthus sp. material examined: 1 specimen, thiqar province, al-chibayish marshes, 19.vi.2021. distribution: wildly distributed (young, 1985); iraq (abdulhasan et al., 2009). genus, noterus clairville, 1806 noterus clavicornis (de geer, 1774) synonyms: dytiscus clavicornis de geer, 1774 dytiscus semipunctatus fabricius, 1792 dytiscus sparsus marsham, 1802 noterus convexiusculus reiche & saulcy, 1855 material examined: 2 specimens, thiqar province, al-chibayish marsh, 19.vi.2021. distribution: iraq (abdul-karim, 1978); turkey (darilmaz and kayak, 2009); croatia (turić et al., 2011); kisbalaton (lőkkös, 2014); iran (taher and heydarnejad, 2019). noterus ponticus sharp, 1882 material examined: 3 specimens, thiqar province, al-chibayish marsh, 19.vi.2021. distribution: iraq (abdul-karim, 1978); iran (nilsson, 2011); kuwait (edmonds et al., 2019). genus, suphisellus crotch, 1873 suphisellus sp. 584 survey of insects material examined: 7 specimens, thiqar province, al-chibayish marsh, 19.vi.2021. distribution: worldwide (nilsson, 2011). (b) order, diptera 1family, chaoboridae genus, chaoborus lichtenstein, 1800 synonyms: corehtra angelin, 1820 corethra meigen, 1803 culicites heyden, 1862 proboscistoma saccardo, 1864 chaoborus sp. material examined: 13 specimens (larval stages); 3 specimens, maysan province: hawizeh marshes, umm an-ni'aaj, 31.vi.2019; 10 specimens, thiqar province, alchibayish marshes, 3.vii.2021. distribution: the genus chaoborus is worldwide distribution (except antarctica) (borkent, 1993); iraq (abdulhasan et al., 2009). 2-family, chironomidae genus, chironomus meigen, 1803 synonyms: camptochironomus kieffer, 1918 chaetolabis townes, 1945 cheironomus wollaston, 1858 chiotonomus wiedemann, 1817 holtedahlia kieffer, 1922 lobochironomus ryser, scholl &wülker, 1985 tendipes meigen, 1800 chironomus annularius kieffer, 1926 synonyms: chironomus absconditus kieffer, 1926 chironomus horni kieffer, 1918 material examined: (9 adults, 4 larvae): thiqar province, alhammar marshes, 3.vii.2021. distribution: iraq (al-saffar, 2008); nearctic region (oliver et al., 1990); italy (rossaro et al., 2019) chironomus riparius meigen, 1804 synonyms: chironomus albistria walker, 1848 chironomus albistris walker, 1848 chironomus bifilis thienemann & kieffer, 1916 chironomus curtibarba kieffer, 1922 chironomus curtiforceps thienemann & kieffer, 1916 chironomus dichromocerus (kieffer, 1911) chironomus gregarius kieffer, 1909 585 al-saffar and augul chironomus halochares kieffer, 1915 chironomus ichtyobrota (kieffer, 1911) chironomus indivisus (kieffer, 1911) chironomus interruptus kieffer, 1909 chironomus kochianus kieffer & thienemann, 1919 chironomus militaris johannsen, 1937 chironomus pentatomus kieffer, 1909 chironomus serus malloch, 1915 chironomus subproductus (kieffer, 1911) chironomus subriparius kieffer, 1918 chironomus thummi (kieffer, 1911) chironomus zonulus zetterstedt, 1838 tendipes dichromocerus kieffer, 1911 tendipes ichtyobrota kieffer, 1911 tendipes indivisus kieffer, 1911 tendipes rhyparobius kieffer, 1911 tendipes subproductus kieffer, 1911 tendipes thummi kieffer, 1911 material examined: 15 specimens: thiqar province, al-chibayish marshes, 3.vii.2021. distribution: iraq (abdulhasan et al., 2009); japan (sasa, 1989) nearctic region (oliver et al., 1990); italy (rossaro et al., 2019); iran (aydın and samin, 2020). genus, glyptotendipes kieffer, 1913 synonyms: caulochironomus heyn, 1993 heynotendipes spies & saether, 2004 phytotendipes goetghebuer, 1937 trichotendipes heyn, 1993 glyptotendipes sp. material examined: 13 specimens (5 adults, 8 larvae); thiqar province, al-chibayish marshes, 3.vii.2021. distribution: iraq (abdulhasan et al., 2009); the genus glyptotendipes has a holarctic distribution (catalogue of life, 2009). genus, paratendipes kieffer, 1911 synonym: synparatendipes thienemann, 1913 paratendipes albimanus (meigen, 1818) synonyms: chironomus albimanus meigen, 1818 chironomus annularis meigen, 1804 chironomus heteropus kieffer, 1906 paratendipes annularis (meigen, 1804) material examined: 7 specimens; thi-qar province, al-chibayish marshes, 3.vi.2019. 586 survey of insects distribution: iraq (abdulhasan et al., 2009); nearctic region (oliver et al., 1990); korea (na et al., 2010); polish (larocquetobler, 2014); turkey (aydin and güher, 2017); italy (rossaro et al., 2019); wisconsin (egan et al., 2019); iran (mohammadi et al., 2021). genus, pentaneura philippi, 1865 pentaneura sp. material examined: 16 specimens (7 adults, 9 larvae); thiqar province, al-chibayish marshes, 3.vi.2019. distribution: iraq (abdulhasan et al., 2009); colombia, canda, usa, braszil, argentina, indonesia, south africa, zimbabwe, mozambeque and zambia (gbif secrterate, 2021). 3family, culicidae genus, anopheles meigen, 1818 synonym: baimaia harbach, rattanarithikul & harrision, 2005 anopheles sp. material examined: 20 specimens (8 adults, 12 larval stages); 13 specimens (3 adults, 10 larvae), maysan province: hawizeh marshes, umm an-ni'aaj, 31.vi.2019; 7 specimens (4 adults, 3 larvae), thiqar province, al-chibayish marshes, 3.vii.2021. distribution: iraq (abdulhasan et al., 2009); worldwide distribution (harbach and kitching, 2016). (c) order, ephemeroptera 1family, baetidae genus, procloeon bengtsson, 1915 synonyms: monilistylus kluge, 2020 pseudocloëon bengtsson, 1914 procloeon sp. material examined: 15 specimens (3 adults, 12 nymph stages); 1 adult, 4 nymphs, maysan province: hawizeh marshes, umm an-ni'aaj, 31.v.2019; 2 adults, 8 nymphs, thiqar province, al-chibayish marshes, 3.v.2021. distribution: this genus is distributed throughout the world; with excluding four species are recorded from the oriental region: p. debilis (walker, 1860) from india (kimmins, 1960); p. tatualis waltz& mccafferty, 1985 from taiwan (waltz and mccafferty, 1985); p. regularum müller-liebenau & hubbards, 1985 from sri lanka (müller-liebenau and hubbard, 1985); and p. spinosum nguyen & bae, 2006 from vietnam (tungpairojwong et al., 2006). in iraq this genus registered by (abdulhasan et al., 2009). 2family, caenidae genus, caenis stephens, 1835 synonyms: austrocaenis barnard, 1932 587 al-saffar and augul caeneus eaton, 1888 caenodes ulmer, 1924 caenomedea thew, 1960 caenus agassiz, 1846 ordella campion, 1923 oxycypha burmeister, 1839 pseudocaenis soldan, 1978 caenis sp. material examined: 8 nymph specimens; thiqar province, al-chibayish marshes, 3.v.2021. distribution: iraq (abdulhasan et al., 2009). holarctic region (menetrey et al., 2008). (d) order, hemiptera 1family, belostomidae genus, belostoma latreille, 1807 synonyms: belostomum burmeister, 1835 perthostoma leidy, 1847 zaitha amyot & serville, 1843 belostoma sp. material examined: 6 specimens; maysan province, hawizeh marshes, umm an-ni'aaj, 9.vii.2016. distribution: iraq (ali et al., 2007); new world and neotropical region (schuh and weirauch, 2020). genus, lethocerus mayr, 1853 synonyms: amorgius stål, 1866 iliastus gistel, 1847 lethocerus patruelis (stål, 1854) synonyms: belostoma cousinis stl, 1854 lethocerus persicus (montandon, 1898) material examined: 4 specimens; thi-qar province, al-chibayish marshes, 19. ix.2019. distribution: iraq (linnavuori, 1994); known from the balkan peninsula and sw asia to se asia (linnavuori, 1994), croatia (kment and beran, 2011), israel (novoselsky et al., 2018), kuwait (amr, 2021). lethocerus sp. material examined: 1specimens; thi-qar province, al-chibayish marshes, 19.ix.2019. distribution: it is distributed in tropical and subtropical also in temperate regions of the world; high divesity occurs in the americas, with only one species in europe, two in africa, three in asia and two in australia (lauck and menke, 1961; perez-goodwyn, 2006). 588 survey of insects 2family, corixidae genus, corisella lundblad, 1928 corisella sp. material examined: 5specimens; thi-qar province, al-chibayish marshes, 19.ix.2019. distribution: nearctic region: usa and canada (hanson et al., 2007); iraq (abdulhasan et al., 2009); iran (ahmadi et al., 2011). genus, micronecta kirkaldy, 1897 synonyms: micronectella lundblad, 1933 unguinecta nieser, chen & yang, 2005 micronecta isis horváth, 1899 material examined: 3specimens; maysan province, hawizeh marshes, umm an-ni'aaj, 9.vii.2016. distribution: widespread in the ethiopian region, also known from egypt, the arabian peninsula, iraq and israel (linnavuori, 1994). micronecta sp. material examined: 1 specimen, maysan province, hawizeh marshes, umm an-ni'aaj, 19.vii.2019. genus, sigara fabricius, 1775 synonym: sigera schellenberg, 1800 sigara lateralis (leach, 1818) synonyms: arctocorisa hieroglyphica (dufour, 1833) corisa hieroglyphica dufour, 1833 corixa hieroglyphica (dufour, 1833) corixa lateralis leach, 1818 sigara hieroglyphica (dufour, 1833) material examined: 11 specimens, thiqar province, al-chibayish marshes, 29.viii.2020. distribution: iraq (jaczewski, 1964); kuwait (al-houty, 2011); croatia (kment and beran, 2011); iran (ghahar, 2013); ukraine (grandova, 2013); hungary (boda et al., 2015); slovakia (klementova et al., 2015). sigara septemlineata (paiva, 1918) synonym: corixa septemlineata paiva, 1981 material examined: 3 specimens, thiqar province, al-chibayish marshes, 29.viii.2020. distribution: iraq (geraci et al., 2011); burma, thailand, vietnam, china, taiwan, korea, russia and japan (insectomania, 2020). 3-family, gerridae 589 al-saffar and augul genus, gerris fabricius, 1794 synonyms: gerriselloides hungerford & matsuda, 1958 limnotrechus stål, 1868 gerris sp. material examined: 5 specimens, thi-qar province, al-chibayish marshes, 29.viii.2020. distribution: iraq (ali et al., 2007); worldwide (henry and froeschner, 1988). 4-family, macrovellidae genus, macrovelia uhler, 1872 macrovelia hornii uhler, 1872 material examined: 7 specimens; thiqar province, al-chibayish marshes, 29.viii.2020. distribution: iraq (al-edani and kareem, 2015); usa (gbif secretariat, 2021). 5-family: mesovillidae genus, mesovelia mulsant & ray, 1852 synonym: fieberia jakovlev, 1873 mesovelia furicata mulsant &ray, 1852 synonyms: fieberia lacustris jakovlev, 1873 mesovelia fuscata mulsant & rey, 1852 mesovelia parra j. sahlberg, 1875 microvelia fuscata mulsant & rey, 1852 material examined: 1 specimen; thi-qar province, al-chibayish marshes, 29.viii.2020. distribution: iraq (abdulhasan et al., 2009); australia (andersen and weir, 2004); ukraine (grandova, 2013); hungary (boda et al., 2015); slovakia (klementova et al., 2015); croatia(turić et al., 2017). mesovelia vittigera horváth, 1895 synonyms: mesovelia orientalis kirkaldy, 1901 mesovelia proxima schouteden, 1905 material examined: 9 specimens; maysan province, hawizeh marshes, umm an-ni'aaj, 9.vii.2016. distribution: iraq (al-edani and kareem, 2015); croatia (kment and beran, 2011); philippines (zettel, 2014). 6-family: notonectidae genus, buenoa kirkaldy, 1904 buenoa sp. material examined: 2 specimens; thiqar province, al-chibayish marshes, 29.viii.2020. distribution: iraq (abdulhasan et al., 2009); colombia, usa, argentine, mexico, jamaica, martinique, costa rica (gbif secretariat, 2021). 590 survey of insects 7-family, pleidae genus, plea leach, 1817 plea minutissma (leach, 1817) synonym: plea leachi mcgregor & kirkaldy, 1899 material examined: 12 specimens; thiqar province, al-chibayish marshes, 29.viii.2020. distribution: liberian peninsula (garrido and munilla, 2008); iraq (abdulhasan et al., 2009); croatia (kment and beran, 2011); ukraine (grandova, 2013); hungary (boda et al., 2015); slovakia (klementova et al., 2015 ). (e) order, hymenoptera 1family, apidae genus, apis linnaeus, 1758 synonyms: apiarus rafinesque, 1815 apicula rafinesque, 1814 apis mellifera linnaeus, 1758 synonyms: apis adansonii latreille, 1804 apis aenigmaticus rayment, 1925 apis australis kiesenwetter, 1860 apis caffra lepeletier, 1836 apis cerifera gerstäcker, 1862 apis cerifera scopoli, 1770 apis daurica fischer von waldheim, 1843 apis fasciata latreille, 1804 apis gregaria geoffroy, 1762 apis intermissa maa, 1953 apis mellifica linnaeus, 1761 apis nigritarum lepeletier, 1836 apis siciliana dalla torre, 1896 apis sicula montgano, 1911 materials examined: 18 specimens, maysan province, hawizeh marshes, umm anni'aaj, 23.vii.2020. distribution: this species is most widespread, occurring throughout europe, africa, northern western asia, caucasia, and the iranian plateau (ruttner, 2003; sheppard and meixner, 2003), as well as adventives in the americas and australia (kerr, 1957; moritz et al., 2005). genus, xylocopa latreille, 1802 synonyms: hylocopa kirchner, 1857 xilocopa latreille, 1802 xylocopa fenestrata (fabricius, 1798) 591 al-saffar and augul material examined: 7 specimens, maysan province, hawizeh marshes, umm an-ni'aaj, 19.vi.2020. distribution: turkey (wancke, 1982); iraq (derwesh, 1965); syria, iran, pakistan, nepal, india, israel, burma, china, madagascar, reunion (guershon and ionescu-hirsch, 2012). 2-family, megachilidae genus, coelioxys latreille, 1809 synonyms: caelioxys say, 1824 coelioxis germar, 1817 coelioxys haemorrhoa förster, 1853 materials examined: 5 specimens, maysan province: hawizeh marshes, umm an-ni'aaj, 31.v.2020. distribution: iraq (derwesh, 1965). southern europe, from the iberian peninsula to austria, and north africa, to central asia (ornosa et al., 2007). 3family, scoliidae genus, campsomeriella betrem, 1941 campsomeriella thoracica (fabricius, 1787) synonym: scolia thoracica fabricius, 1787 material examined: 3 specimens, maysan province: hawizeh marshes, umm an-ni'aaj, 29.vi.2020. distribution: saudi arabia (shalaby, 1961); iran (chahartaghi abineh, 2002); oman (osten, 2005a); crete, cyprus, dodecanese is., greek mainland, italian mainland, malta, north aegean is., north africa, sicily, spanish mainland, syria, turkey (fallahzadeh and saghaei, 2010); iraq (khalaf, 1959). genus, scolia j.c. fabricius, 1775 synonyms: ascoli guérin-méneville, 1838 lacosi guérin-méneville, 1838 solia dalla torre, 1897 scolia turkestanica betrem, 1935 material examined: 1 specimen, maysan province: hawizeh marshes, umm an-ni'aaj, 29.vi.2020. distribution: armenia, iran, iraq, turkey, turkmenistan and uzbekistan (steinberg, 1962); kirgizstan and tadzhikistan (osten, 2005 b). scolia flaviceps eversmann, 1846 materials examined: 11 specimens, maysan province, hawizeh marshes, umm anni'aaj, 18.v.2020. distribution: afghanistan, iran, iraq, oman (betrem, 1935); turkey (madl, 1997); crete, tadzhikistan, turkmenistan, uzbek.istan, central asia, cyprus (osten, 1999); france, 592 survey of insects italy, egypt (osten, 2000); saudi arabia and united emirates (osten et al., 2003); greece (osten and arens, 2004). 4family, vespidae genus, delta saussure, 1855 synonyms: erinys zirngiebl, 1953 phi saussure, 1855 delta esuriens (fabricius, 1787) synonym: eumenes esuriens fabricius, 1804 material examined: 11 specimens; maysan province: hawizeh marshes, umm an-ni'aaj, 1. xi.2021. distribution: iraq (vecht and fischer, 1972); india, indonesia, iran, myanmar, pakistan, philippines, saudi arabia, sri lanka; thailand, vietnam (nguyen et al., 2007); thailand (srinivasan and kumar, 2010); australia, laos, mauritius, timor (kumar, 2012). genus, polistes latreille, 1802 synonyms: eupolistes dalla torre, 1904 leptpolistes bluthgen, 1943 polistula weyrauch, 1938 polistus latreille, 1804 pseudopolistes weyrauch, 1937 sulcopolistes bluthgen, 1938 polistes wattii cameron, 1900 material examined: 2 specimens, maysan province: hawizeh marshes, umm an-ni'aaj, 1.xi.2020. distribution: afghanistan, china, india, iraq, iran, oman, pakistan, mauritius, saudi arabia and united arab emirates (das and gupta, 1989; carpenter, 1996); kazakhstan (kazenas, 2014); tajikistan (castro and dvorak, 2010), and turkmenistan (dubatolov, 2019). genus, vespa linnaeus, 1758 synonym: macrovespa dalla torre, 1904 vespa orientalis linnaeus, 1761 synonyms: vespa aegyptiaca andré, 1884 vespa aegyptiaca vallot, 1802 vespa fusca christ, 1791 vespa indica wrought., 1889 vespa jurinei de saussure, 1854 vespa quadripunctata forskal, 1775 vespa turcica drury, 1773 material examined: maysan province: hawizeh marshes, umm an-ni'aaj, 1.xi.2016. 593 al-saffar and augul distribution: iraq (morice, 1921); northern part of africa, southeastern europe, southwest asia across turkey and arabian peninsula to india, and nepal (carpenter and kojima, 1997; archer, 1998); mexico (dvoŕák, 2006). genus, odynerus latreille, 1802 synonyms: epipone kirby & spence, 1815 euepipona dalla torre, 1904 hoplomerus agassiz, 1846 hoplopus agassiz, 1846 oplomerus westwood, 1840 oplopus wesmael, 1836 odynerus spinipes (linnaeus, 1758) synonyms: hoplomerus scutellaris blüthgen, 1940 odynerus amurensis blüthgen, 1941 odynerus flavicapus mader, 1936 odynerus flaviscapus mader, 1936 odynerus muticus zetterstedt, 1839 vespa quinquefasciata fabricius, 1793 material examined: 3 specimens; maysan province: hawizeh marshes, umm an-ni'aaj, 30.x.2020. distribution: europe, turkey (yıldırım and kojima, 1999); this species is recorded in iraq under the name hoplomerus spinipes (linnaeus, 1758) by khalaf (1958). genus, stenodynerus saussure, 1863 stenodynerus sp. material examined: 2 specimens, maysan province: hawizeh marshes, umm an-ni'aaj, 19.vi.2020. distribution: the genus of stenodynerus distributes spreads along the nearctic, palearctic, oriental and neotropical regions (carpenter, 1986). (f) order: lepidoptera 1family: crambidae genus, parapoynx hübner, 1825 synonyms: eustales clemens, 1860 microdracon warren, 1890 nymphaeella grote, 1880 parapoynx fluctuosalis (zeller, 1852) synonyms: nymphula fluctuosalis zeller, 1852 oligostigma chrysippusalis walker, 1859 oligostigma curta butler, 1879 oligostigma obitalis walker, 1859 594 survey of insects parapoynx chrysippusalis (walker, 1859) parapoynx curta (butler, 1879) parapoynx linealis guenée, 1854 parapoynx obitalis (walker, 1859) parapoynx oryzalis wood-mason, 1885 material examined: 2 specimens, thiqar province, al-chibayish marshes, 1.vi.2021. distribution: oriental region (speidel and mey, 1999); china (chen et al., 2006); iraq (abdulhasan et al., 2009); africa (agassi, 2012); mauritius (bippus, 2019 ); widespread in continental africa, southern asia, southern palearctic region to japan, australasia and pacific islands, also recorded from puerto rico" (de prins and de prins, 2019); india (alex et al., 2021). 2family, lycaenidae genus, polyommatus latreille, 1804 polyommatus baeticus (linnaeus, 1767) synonyms: cosmolyce baeticus (linnaeus, 1767) lycaena baetica (linnaeus, 1767) papilio baeticus linnaeus, 1767 material examined: 2 specimens, maysan province: hawizeh marshes, umm anni'aaj, 3.vi.2020. distribution: southern europe, africa, tropical and subtropical asia, australia (forster, 1963); iraq (derwesh, 1965). (g) order, odonata 1family, aeshnidae genus, aeshna fabricius, 1775 synonyms: aeschna fabricius, 1775 aeschna illiger, 1801 oeshna lamarck, 1817 aeshna mixta latreille, 1805 synonyms: aeschna alpina selys, 1848 aeschna habermayeri götz, 1923 aeschna mixta latreille, 1805 aeshna alpina selys, 1848 aeshna coluberculus harris, 1782 aeshna habermayeri götz, 1923 aeshna lucia needham, 1930 libellula coluberculus harris, 1782 material examined: 12 specimens (4 adults, 8 naiads); thiqar province, al-chibayish marshes, 3.vii.2021. distribution: iraq (morton, 1919), garisticki and amr (2011) listed this species in iraqi marshes; europe, asia minor and central asia, reaching kashmir in the east, and north 595 al-saffar and augul africa (dumont, 1991; steinmann, 1997); iran (heidari and dumont, 2002); turkey (salur and özsaraç, 2004); mediterranean and north africa (boudot et al., 2009). genus, anax leach, 1815 anax ephippiger (burmeister, 1839) synonyms: aeschna ephippigera burmeister, 1839 aeshna mediterranea selys, 1839 anax senegalensis rambur, 1842 anax marginope baijal & agarwal, 1955 material examined: 3 specimens (adults), thiqar province, al-chibayish marshes, 3.vii.2021. distribution: iraq (morton, 1920) and listed this species in iraqi marshes. garisticki and amr (2011); turkestan and india to south africa and madagascar south-central europe (steinmann, 1997); cyprus (de knijf and demolder 2013); turkey (hacet, 2017). anax imperator leach, 1815 synonyms: aeschna azurea charpentier, 1825 aeschna formosa vander linden, 1823 aeschna lunata kolenati, 1856 aeshna formosa vander linden, 1823 anax azurea charpentier, 1825 anax dorsalis burmeister, 1839 anax formosus vander linden, 1820 anax lunatus kolenati, 1856 material examined: 7 specimens (adults); thi-qar province, al-chibayish marshes, 3.vii.2021. distribution: iraq (asahina 1973,and listed in iraqi marshes (abdulhasan et al., 2009); turkey (kalkman, 2006); africa and through most of europe, arabian peninsula, and south-western and central asia (mitra, 2016); palestine (adawi et al., 2017); pakistan (akbar et al., 2017); iran (schneideret et al., 2018). anax parthenope selys, 1839 synonyms: aeschna parthenope selys, 1839 aeshna parthenope selys, 1839 anax bacchus hagen, 1867 anax major götz, 1923 anax parisinus rambur, 1842 material examined: 5 specimens: thiqar province, al-chibayish marshes, 3.vii.2021. distribution: iraq (morton, 1920), garisticki and amr (2011) reported listed this species for iraqi marshes. jordon (katebahbader et al., 2004); hong kong (reels 2010); it is ranges from europe and north africa to the arabian peninsula, siberia, india, china and japan. in the west of europe, also found now in latvia, poland, south of sweden, 596 survey of insects northern germany and east of ireland (mitra and clausnitzer, 2018); kuwait (amr, 2021). 2family, calopterygidae genus, calopteryx leach, 1815 calopteryx splendens harris, 1780 synonyms: agrion parthenias charpentier, 1840 agrion splendens (harris, 1780) calopteryx ludoviciana leach, 1815 calopteryx ludoviciana selys, 1840 calopteryx parthenias charpentier, 1840 calopteryx shachrudica bartenef, 1916 coenagrion splendens (harris, 1780) libellula splendens harris, 1780 material examined: 3 adult specimens, thiqar province, al-chibayish marshes, 31.iv.2021. distribution: widely distributed in palearctic region (sadeghi et al., 2010). turkey (salur and özsaraç, 2004); georgia (schröter, 2010); iraq (gastecki and amr, 2011); iran (schneideret et al., 2018). 3family, coenagriidae genus, ischnura charpentier, 1840 synonyms: anomalagrion selys, 1857 ischnosoma wallengren, 1894 nanosura kennedy, 1920 ischnura elegans vander linden, 1820 synonyms: agrion aglae boyer de fonscolombe, 1838 agrion elegans vander linden, 1820 agrion hastulatum burmeister, 1839 agrion pupilla hansemann, 1823 ischnura aglae fonscolombe, 1838 ischnura aurantiaca roster, 1886 ischnura excelsa roster, 1886 ischnura exigua roster, 1886 ischnura ezonata stephens, 1836 ischnura hastulata burmeister, 1839 ischnura infuscans campion & campion, 1905 ischnura lamellata kolbe, 1885 ischnura magna roster, 1886 ischnura pupilla hansemann, 1823 ischnura rufescens stephens, 1836 ischnura tuberculata charpentier, 1825 ischnura zonata stephens, 1835 material examined: 2 adult specimens, thi-qar province, al-chibayish marshes, 3.vii.2021. 597 al-saffar and augul distribution: iraq (abdulhassan et al., 2009); it distributes from spain in the west, to japan in the east, and from sweden in the north to iran in the south (boudot and salamun, 2015); georgia (schröter, 2010); turkey (salur and özsaraç, 2004). ischnura evansi morton, 1919 material examined: 3 specimens (1 naiad, 2 adults), thiqar province, al-chibayish marshes, 31.iv.2021. distribution: iraq morton (1919), garsetic and amr (2011) listed this species in iraqi marshes; africa: djibouti, egypt and sudan (clausnitzer et al., 2012); asia: turkey (asian part), palestine, jordan, syria, iran, uae, oman, saudi arabia, qatar (gbif secretariat, 2021); kuwait (amr, 2021). ischnura fountaineae morton, 1905 synonyms: ischnura bukharensis bartenef, 1913 ischnura fountainei morton, 1905 material examined: 1 adult specimen, thiqar province, al-chibayish marshes, 31.iv.2021 distribution: iraq (ashina, 1973), this species was listed by garsetic and amr (2011) in marshes. it occurs across northern africa from eastern morocco to egypt, east to kazakhstan and westernmost china, saudi arabia, qatar, united arab emirates and oman (boudot et al., 2015). ischnura senegalensis rambur, 1842 synonyms: agrion senegalense rambur, 1842 agrion senegalensis rambur, 1842 enallagma brevispina selys, 1876 ischnura brevispina de selys, 1876 material examined: 7 adult specimens; maysan province: hawizeh marshes, umm anni'aaj, 23.vi.2021. distribution: iraq (kalkman, 2009) this species was reported in marshes by garsetic and amr (2011); native from africa, through the middle east, to southern and eastern asia (sharma and clausnitzer, 2016); malasyia (yen and dawood, 2021). 4-family, corduliidae genus, somatochlora selys, 1871 synonyms: chlorosoma charpentier, 1839 somatachlora brauner, 1902 somatochlora sp. material examined: 1 adult specimen, thi-qar province, al-chibayish marshes, 31.iv.2021. distribution: iraq (abdulhasan et al., 2009); member of this genus are found in europe, asia and north america (cannings and cannings, 1985); turkey (kalkman, and wasscher, 2003); taiwan (zhang et al., 2014). 598 survey of insects 5family, gomphidae genus, anormogomphus selys, 1854 anormogomphus kiritshenkoi bartenev, 1913 material examined: 3 adult species; thi-qar province, al-chibayish marshes, 29.viii.2020. distribution: iraq (morton, 1919), garsetic and amr (2011) registered this species in the southern marshes. iran (heidari and dumont, 2002); turkey, syria and iran (kalkman, 2006 b). genus, lindenia vander linden, 1825 lindenia tetraphylla vander linden, 1825 synonyms: aeshna tetraphylla vander linden, 1825 lindenia inkiti bartenef, 1929 lindenia phyllura eichwald, 1829 lindenia praedator; rambur, 1842 material examined: 6 adult specimens; thi-qar province, al-chibayish marshes, 29.viii.2020. distribution: iraq (garstecki and amr, 2011); it's a wide distribution range in most parts of central and southwest asia, and eastern mediterranean (boudot and kalkman, 2015). it was also found tunisia (kunz and kunz, 2001), iran (heidari and dumont, 2002), italy (terzani, 2002), algeria (boudot et al., 2009), bulgaria (gastarov and beshkov, 2010), georgia (schröter, 2010), kuwait (amr, 2021). genus, onychogomphus selys, 1854 synonyms: onigogomphus brauner, 1902 paragomphus cowley, 1934 onychogomphus flexuosus schneider, 1845 synonym: gomphus flexuosus schneider, 1845 material examined: 2 adult specimens; thi-qar province, al-chibayish marshes, 27.viii.2020. distribution: iraq (morton, 1919) and listed from marshes (garstecki and amr, 2011); palestine (morton, 1924); caucasus (zazanashvili and mallon, 2009); georgia (schroter et al., 2015); turkey (salur and özsaraç, 2004); armenia (ananain and tailly, 2013); this species distributed from anatolia and jordan valley to tajikistan and afghanistan (kakman et al., 2009). 6-family, libellulidae genus, brachythemis brauer, 1868 brachythemis fuscopalliata selys, 1887 599 al-saffar and augul material examined: 4 adult specimens; maysan province, hawizeh marshes, umm anni'aaj, 9.vii.2016. distribution: iraq (morton, 1919), ali et al. (2002) listed this species in iraqi marshes. iran, israel, syria, and turkey (gbif secretariat, 2021). genus, crocothemis brulle, 1832 crocothemis erythraea brullé, 1832 synonyms: crocothemis coccinea charpentier, 1840 crocothemis lorti kirby, 1896 crocothemis victoria fourcroy, 1785 libellula erythraea brullé, 1832 libellula ferruginea vander linden, 1825 material examined: 2 adult species; thiqar province, al-chibayish marshes, 29.viii.2020. distribution: iraq (morton, 1919), garstecki and amr (2011) reported this species in iraqi marshes. eastern palearctic reaching the netherlands (hermans and gubbels, 1997), belgium (knijf, 2003), south of england (jones, 1996), austria (schweiger, 1983), croatia (trilar and bedjanič, 1999), france (rehfeldt, 1991), germany (müller, 1987). also this species was registered in asian part of western palearctic: jordan (schneider, 1985), iran (heidari and dumont, 2002); kazakhstan (chaplina, 2004), tajikistan (borisov, 1987), turkey (hacet and aktaç, 1997), saudi arabia (schneider, 1995) and northern africa: tunisia (jodicke, 2003); kuwait (amr, 2021). crocothemis servilia drury, 1773 synonyms: crocothemis ferruginata fabricius, 1781 crocothemis flavostigma navás, 1932 crocothemis indica sahni, 1965 crocothemis novaguineensis foerster, 1898 crocothemis reticulata kirby, 1886 crocothemis soror rambur, 1842 libellula ferruginea fabricius, 1793 libellula servilia drury, 1773 libellula soror rambur, 1842 material examined: 9 adult specimens; maysan province, hawizeh marshes, umm anni'aaj, 9.vii.2016. distribution: iraq (morton, 1919), garstecki and amr (2011) reported this species in iraqi marshes. iran (heidari and dumont, 2002); armenia (ananain and tailly, 2013); its native to east and southeast asia and introduced to jamaica, florida, and hawaii (subramanian et al., 2018); kuwait (amr, 2021). genus, diplacodes kirby, 1889 diplacodes lefebvrii rambur, 1842 600 survey of insects synonyms: diplacodes concinna rambur, 1842 diplacodes flavistyla rambur, 1842 diplacodes limbata fraser, 1949 diplacodes morio schneider, 1845 diplacodes parvula rambur, 1842 diplacodes spinulosa navás, 1915 diplacodes tetra rambur, 1842 diplacodes unimacula foerster, 1906 libellula lefebvrii rambur, 1842 material examined: 3 adult specimens, thi-qar province, al-chibayish marshes, 3.vii.2021. distribution: iraq (morton, 1919), garstecki and amr (2011) reported this species in iraqi marshes. ; iran (heidari and dumont, 2002); widespread and common afrotropical species that extends to southern (kalkman et al., 2009); africa, india, israel, spain, portugal, oman, uae, italy (gbif secretariat, 2021). genus, orthetrum newman, 1833 orthetrum sabina drury, 1773 synonyms: lepthemis divisa selys, 1878 libellua leptura burmeister, 1839 libellula ampullacea schneider, 1845 libellula gibba fabricius, 1798 libellula sabina drury, 1770 orthetrum ampullacea schneider, 1845 orthetrum divisum selys, 1878 orthetrum gibba fabricius, 1798 orthetrum leptura burmeister, 1839 orthetrum nigrescens bartenef, 1929 orthetrum viduatum lieftinck, 1942 material examined: 5 specimens: (4 adults); maysan province: hawizeh marshes, umm an-ni'aaj, 31.vi.2019; 1adult, thiqar province, al-chibayish marshes, 3.vii.2021. distribution: iraq (morton, 1919), garstecki and amr (2011) reported this species in iraqi marshes. iran (heidari and dumont, 2002); armenia (ananain and tailly, 2013); kuwait (amr, 2021); malasyia (yen and dawood, 2021). australia, indonesia, singapore, thailand, india, uae, malaysia, papua new guinea, china, hong kong, chinese taipei, bangladesh, cyprus, macao (gbif secretariat, 2021). orthetrum taeniolatum schneider, 1845 synonyms: libellula taeniolata schneider, 1845 orthetrum brevistylum kirby, 1896 orthetrum garhwalicum singh & baijal, 1954 orthetrum hyalianum kirby, 1886 orthetrum hyalinum kirby, 1886 601 al-saffar and augul material examined: 2 adult specimens, thi-qar province, al-chibayish marshes, 3.vii.2021. distribution: iraq (morton, 1919), garstecki and amr (2011) reported this species in iraqi marshes. its distribution spreads from eastern europe to china (mitra, 2013); kuwait (amr, 2021). orthetrum trinacria selys, 1841 synonyms: libellula trinacria selys, 1841 orthetrum bremii rambur, 1842 orthetrum clathrata rambur, 1842 material examined: 3adult specimens, thiqar province, al-chibayish marshes, 3.vii.2021. distribution: iraq (morton, 1919), garstecki and amr (2011) reported this species in iraqi marshes. iran (heidari and dumont, 2002); widespread in africa and common in the north extending east to sudan, egypt and the middle east. in europe, this species distribute from sicily and recently recorded in sardinia and spain (belle, 1984; askew, 2004). orthetrum chrysostigma burmeister, 1839 synonyms: libellula barbara selys, 1849 libellula chrysostigma burmeister, 1839 orthetrum barbarum selys, 1849 material examined: 4 adult specimens; maysan province: hawizeh marshes, umm anni'aaj, 31.vi.2019. distribution: iraq (augul et al., 2016 ); algeria, angola, benin, botswana, burkina faso, cameroon, chad, congo, côte d'ivoire, egypt, eritrea, ethiopia, gambia, ghana, greece guinea, iran, israel, jordan, kenya, lebanon, liberia, libya, malawi, mali, mauritania, morocco, mozambique, namibia, niger, nigeria, oman, palestine, portugal, rwanda, saudi arabia, senegal, sierra leone, somalia, south africa, south sudan, spain, sudan, syria, tanzania, togo, tunisia, turkey, uganda, uae, yemen, zambia and zimbabwe (boudot, 2016). genus, pantala hagen, 1861 pantala flavescens fabricius, 1798 synonyms: libellula analis burmeister, 1839 libellula flavescens fabricius, 1798 libellula terminalis burmeister, 1839 libellula viridula palisot de beauvois, 1807 orthetrum mathewi singh & baijal, 1955 pantala analis burmeister, 1839 pantala mathewi singh & baijal, 1954 pantala tandicola singh, 1955 pantala terminalis burmeister, 1839 602 survey of insects pantala viridula palisot de beauvois, 1807 sympetrum tandicola singh, 1955 material examined: 7 specimens (5 adults, 2 naiads); thiqar province, al-chibayish marshes, 3.vii.2021. distribution: iraq (garstecki and amr, 2011); cyprus, egypt, israel, jordon, lebanon, turey (kalkman et al., 2009); colorado (kondarteiff and durfee, 2010); malasyia (yen and dawood, 2021); usa, argentina, brazil, panama, ecuador, mexico, peru, uruguay, bolivia, guatemala, south africa, botswana, madagascar, congo, zimbabwe, zambia, namibia, uae, cambodia, thailand, china, chinese taipei, hong kong, india, indonesia, sir lanka, australia, papua new guinea (gbif secretariat, 2021). genus, selysiothemis vander linden, 1825 selysiothemis nigra vander linden, 1825 synonyms: libellula nigra vander linden, 1825 selysiothemis advena selys, 1878 material examined: 1 adult specimen; thi-qar province, al-chibayish marshes, 3.vii.2021. distribution: iraq (morton, 1919), garstecki and amr (2011) listed this species in iraqi marshes. this species is mainly a distribution from central asia, the middle east and arabia; also extends into the western mediterranean and northern african (boudot, 2010). iran (heidari and dumont, 2002); armenia (ananain and tailly, 2013); kuwait (amr, 2021). genus, sympetrum newman, 1833 synonyms: diplax burmeister, 1839 sympertum brauner, 1902 tarnetrum needham & fisher, 1936 sympetrum arenicolor jödicke, 1994 synonym: sympetrum deserti jödicke, 1994 material examined: 4 adult specimens; thi-qar province, al-chibayish marshes, 3.vii.2021. distribution: iraq (kalkman, 2006; ali and khidhir, 2015), garstecki and amr (2011) listed this species in iraqi marshes. afghanistan, armenia, azerbaijan, india, iran, israel, kazakhstan, kyrgyzstan, syria, tajikistan, turkey and turkmenistan (malikova, 2009); georgia (schröter, 2010). sympetrum fonscolombii selys, 1840 synonyms: libellula fonscolombii selys, 1840 sympetrum azorense gardner, 1959 sympetrum erythroneura schneider, 1845 sympetrum insignis brittinger, 1850 sympetrum rhaeticum buchecker, 1873 603 al-saffar and augul tarnetrum fonscolombii (selys, 1840) material examined: 4 adult specimens; thiqar province, al-chibayish marshes, 3.vii.2021. distribution: iraq (morton, 1919), garstecki and amr (2011) registered this species in iraqi marshes. afghanistan, albania, algeria, angola, armenia, austria, azerbaijan, bahrain, bangladesh, belgium, bhutan, botswana, bulgaria, burundi, cameroon, chad, croatia, cyprus, czech, egypt, eritrea, eswatini, ethiopia, france, gambia, georgia, germany, greece, guinea, hungary, india, iran, iraq, israel, italy, jordan, kazakhstan, kenya, kyrgyzstan, latvia, lebanon, libya, luxembourg, madagascar, mali, malta, mauritania, monaco, mongolia, montenegro, morocco, mozambique, namibia, nepal, netherlands, niger, north macedonia, oman, pakistan, palestine, poland, portugal, qatar, romania, russian federation, rwanda, réunion, saudi arabia, senegal, serbia, slovakia, slovenia, somalia, south africa, spain, sri lanka, sudan, sweden, switzerland, syria,tajikistan, tunisia, turkey, turkmenistan, uganda, ukraine, uae, uk, uzbekistan, yemen, zambia and zimbabwe (clausnitzer, 2013). sympetrum striolatum charpentier, 1840 synonyms: libellula striolata charpentier, 1840 sympetrum neglectum artobolevsky, 1928 sympetrum nigrescens lucas, 1912 sympetrum ruficollis charpentier, 1840 material examined: 1 adult specimen; thiqar province, al-chibayish marshes, 29.viii.2020. distribution: iraq (kalkman, 2006), garstecki and amr (2011) listed this species in iraqi marshes. albania, algeria, andorra, armenia, austria, azerbaijan, belarus, belgium, bulgaria, china, croatia, cyprus, czech, denmark, estonia, finland, france, georgia, germany, greece, hungary, iran, ireland, israel, italy, japan, korea, korea, latvia, lebanon, lithuania, luxembourg, malta, moldova, monaco, mongolia, montenegro, morocco, netherlands, north macedonia, norway, poland, portugal, romania, russian federation, serbia, slovakia, slovenia, spain, sweden, switzerland. syria, tajikistan, tunisia, turkey, ukraine, united kingdom and uzbekistan (clausnitzer, 2020). genus, trithemis brauer, 1868 trithemis annulata palisot de beauvois, 1807 synonyms: libellula annulata palisot de beauvois, 1807 libellula haematina rambur, 1842 trithemis obsoleta rambur, 1842 trithemis rubrinervis selys, 1841 trithemis violacea sjöstedt, 1899 material examined: 2 adult specimens; thi-qar province, al-chibayish marshes, 5.vii.2021. distribution: iraq (garstecki and amr 2011); iran (heidari and dumont, 2002); kuwait (amr, 2021). 604 survey of insects trithemis festiva rambur, 1842 synonyms: libellula festiva rambur, 1842 libellula infernalis brauer, 1865 trithemis cyprica selys, 1887 trithemis infernalis brauer, 1865 trithemis proserpina selys, 1878 trithemis prosperina selys, 1878 material examined: 3 adult specimens; thi-qar province, al-chibayish marshes, 3.vii.2021. distribution: iraq (garstecki and amr 2011); iran (heidari and dumont, 2002); malasyia (yen and dawood, 2021). 7family, lestidae genus, sympecma selys, 1840 sympecma paedisca brauer, 1877 synonyms: sympecma annulata selys, 1887 sympecma braueri yakobson & bianki, 1904 sympecma kashmirensis ander, 1944 sympecma striata st quentin, 1963 sympycna braueri bianchi, 1904 sympycna paedisca brauer, 1877 material examined: 1 adult specimens; thiqar province, al-chibayish marshes, 2.vii.2021. distribution: iraq (asahina, 1973); 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(2021) 16 (4): 571-621. اهوار جنوب العراقفي بعض حشرات للمسح رزاق شعالن عكل و هناء هاني الصفار .، بغداد، العراقجامعة بغداد ،ركز بحوث و متحف التاريخ الطبيعيم 20/12/2021 ، تأريخ النشر:28/11/2021 ، تأريخ القبول:13/09/2021: تأريخ االستالم الخالصة املائية )حشرات االهوار ل السماء العلميةلمراجعة مسح و الحالية التحرياتتضمنت و محدثة.انات موحدة لتكون قاعدة بي (وما حولها رتب و كما ياتي :رتبة 7عائلة و 32جنسا ضمن 77نوعا تعود الى 109 اظهر املسح نوعين ، و رتبة :انواع، رتبة ذبابة مايو 7:نوعا ، رتبة ثنائية االجنحة 44 :غمدية االجنحة ،نوعين :نوعا ، حرشفية االجنحة 11 :نوعا، رتبة غشائية االجنحة 14 :نصفية االجنحة نوعا. 29 :و رتبة الرعاشات تضمن التحري مراجعة االسماء العلمية الشرعية و مرادفاتها و توزيعها الجغرافي العالمي و مكان و تاريخ الجمع للعينات املدروسة. bull 565 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2025) 18 (3): 565-576. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2025.18.3.0565 original article a survey of gastropods in the greenhouses of iraq hiba mohammed jihad and noor husseinyousif ♦ * iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq. corresponding author: nhnm@nhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq recived: 10 june 2024, revised: 13feb.2025., accepted: 16 feb. 2025, published:20 june 2025 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract the humid and warm conditions in greenhouses provide an excellent environment for pests’ living conditions, and therefore, they provide ideal medium for alien introductions. molluscs are among the most significant pests that infest plastic covered greenhouses. to identify and report their mollusc species, 23 greenhouses in iraq were surveyed between march 2023 and april 2024. of these, 11 were found to be infested with snails. a total of 158 specimens were collected and morphologically identified to seven species: monacha obstructa (l. pfeiffer, 1842), eobania vermiculata (o.f. müller, 1774), xeropicta krynickii (krynicki, 1833), rumina decollata (linnaeus, 1758), polygyra cereolus (megerle von mühlfeld, 1818), cochlicella barbara (linnaeus, 1758), and veronicella cubensis (l. pfeiffer, 1840), the latter being a slug species that is reported for the first time in iraq in this study. with the limited knowledge about the molluscs pests in iraq, the data presented here will provide valuable baseline information for various agricultural purposes. keywords: baghdad, invasive, land snails, new record, veronicella cubensis. introduction the use of greenhouses has developed rapidly over recent decades in many regions, due to the advantages provided by these protected environments, which lead to the availability of off-season production and a production increase, enhancing fruit quality and production periods (pardossi et al., 2004). terrestrial gastropods are among the most economically important pests all over the world, infesting plants at all stages of growth, including germinated seeds close to the surface of the soil, though not seeds themselves (routrayand dey, 2016). they cause severe damage and significant yield reductions (baur and baur, 1993). in the field land snails can be found on the soil surface, leaves, stems and fruits (awad, 2013). infested plant material is usually the primary cause of snails' entrance into the greenhouses from which they then spread to other plants (hollingsworth and sewake, 2002). bulletin of the iraq natural historymuseum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799, print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2025.18.3.0565 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4330-9350 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7562-4200 mailto:nhnm@nhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 566 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 565-576. a survey of gastropods among the main factors determining the activity of snails and slugs, moisture is the most important determinant, while temperature is also a significant factor (moreno-rueda, 2012). therefore, the greenhouses provide ideal conditions for both plant life and several pests snails, maintaining stable moisture and temperature levels. several snails and slugs species are considered agricultural pests in different parts of the world. due to their rasping feeding mechanism, terrestrial molluscs can cause significant harm to vegetables, fruits, crops fields and ornamentals plants (kumar, 2020). in iraq, greenhouses are becoming widely used across all regions. the most commonly cultivated vegetables in these greenhouses are cucumbers, tomatoes and green peppers. this study was therefore conducted to survey and assist in the identification of mollusc pests, as well as to provide a report of their presence inside the greenhouses in some localities, especially in districts known for this type of agriculture. materials and methods greenhouses in five locations across two governorates in iraq, baghdad (33.360991° n, 44.431680° e, 33°21'09.2° n, 44°25'31.4° e) and babel (32°52'34.6° n, 44°21'37.4° e , 32.856682° n,44.411917° e (32°52'34.6° n, 44°21'38.7° e)were surveyed (map1). these greenhouses were divided into two categories: the first were cultivated with economic crops such as cucumbers, tomatoes and peppers, while the second were ornamental plants cultivated (pl.1). both live specimens and dry shells were hand collected. live individuals were preserved in 70% alcohol (forsyth, 1999), while feeding individuals were photographed on site to document infestation. the geographic coordinates of the collection spots were recorded using a gps. the species identification was based on conchological characteristics such as number of whorls, shell shape and shell colour and other criteria with reference to ali and ramdini (2020) and jihad and ali (2021). 567 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum jihad and yousif map (1): showing the study regions. results eleven out of the twenty-three greenhouses surveyed in the study area were found to be infested with seven gastropod species (n = 158 individuals), representing different genera and six families. these gastropod species which were present in dense populations caused minor leaf damage to a wide range of plants. as a result, they can be considered pests of concern in agricultural fields and gardens (both urban and suburban). (a) order: systellommatophora family: veronicellidae j. e. gray, 1840 veronicella cubensis (l. pfeiffer, 1840) (pl. 2). material examined: 20 specimens, baghdad, may 2023, on the leaves of ornamental plants, also on the soil. description of species: large, averaging 6 cm in length when relaxed, brown in colour with bluish gray eye tentacles and two dark lateral bands broken up into spots, mantle covers entire body, body texture is granular (robinson and hollingsworth, 2009). 568 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 565-576. a survey of gastropods host and habitat: v. cubensis is a serious pest, infesting a wide range of economic, ornamental as well as medicinal plants, in both natural habitats and agricultural areas (robinson and hollingsworth, 2004). distribution: originally endemic to cuba (baker 1925). introduced to usa (california and hawaii) (mc donnell et al., 2008), barbados, dominica, nevis, saint kitts, puerto rico and hispaniola (robinson et al., 2009), pacific island of rota and guam (robinson and hollingsworth, 2004). this study represents the first record of v. cubensis in iraq. note: the current study also represents the first record of the family veronicellidae from iraq. (b) order: stylommatophora 1. family: achatinidae swainson, 1840 rumina decollata (linnaeus, 1758) (pl. 3a) material examined: 30 specimens, baghdad, april 2023, on the soil and on the stems of the ornamental plants. distribution: indigenous to western mediterranean region, introduced to the iberian peninsula, italy, southern france, the western balkans, northern africa (prévot et al., 2014), and iraq (al-qaisi and farman, 2023). 2. family: geomitridae c. r. boettger, 1909 cochlicella barbara (linnaeus, 1758) (pl. 3b) material examined: 8 specimens, baghdad, march 2023 and april 2024, on the stems and the leaves of the ornamental plants. distribution: native to western mediterranean region and western europe (roth and hertz, 1997), introduced to türkiye (ekin and sesen, 2020) and iraq (al-doori et al., 2018). xeropicta krynickii (krynicki, 1833) (pl. 3c) material examined: 6 specimens, babel, may 2023, on the leaves of the ornamental plants. distribution: eastern mediterranean (neubert et al., 2015), and iraq (kennedy, 1937). 3. family: helicidae rafinesque, 1815 eobania vermiculata (o.f. müller, 1774) (pl. 3d). material examined: 23 specimens, babel, baghdad, november 2023 and march 2024, on the leaves of the ornamental plants. distribution: native to western mediterranean region, introduced to other mediterranean countries, such as türkiye and spain, also in hungary, germany, japan, australia, usa, egypt, south africa, saudi arabia, jordan and iran (ronsmans and neucker, 2016). iraq (al khafaji et al., 2016). 4. family: hygromiidae tryon, 1866 monacha obstructa (l. pfeiffer, 1842) (pl. 3e). material examined: 46 specimens, baghdad and babel, collected during september and october 2023, tomato and ornamental plants, they were collected from stems and leaves. 569 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum jihad and yousif distribution: iraq (abdul-sahib, 2005), southern türkiye to iran and saudi arabia (neubert, 1998). 5. family: polygyridae pilsbry, 1895 polygyra cereolus (megerle von mühlfeld, 1818) (pl. 3f). material examined: 25 specimens, baghdad and babel, march 2023, on leaves, soil nearby ornamental plants, also attached to plastic potted plants. distribution: saudi arabia (neubert, 1995), united arab emirates (feulner and green, 2005), native to southeastern usa (perez, 2008), qatar (al-khayat, 2010), spain (barrachina et al., 2012), france (charles, 2014), türkiye (frank, 2016), libya (liberto et al., 2021), and egypt (ali and robinson, 2020). introduced in iraq (jihad and ali, 2021). plate (1): (a) some of the greenhouses surveyed in this study, (b) cultured with economic plants, (c) cultured with ornamental plants, (d, e) the infestation of xeropicta krynickii and monacha obstructa on some plants. 570 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 565-576. a survey of gastropods plate (2): veronicella cubensis; (a) dorsal view (relaxed), (b) contracted, (c) ventral view. [scale bar 1cm]. plate (3): snails prevalent in greenhouses during the current study; (a) rumina decollata, (b) cochlicella barbara, (c) xeropicta krynickii, (d) eobania vermiculata, (e) monacha obstructa (f) polygyra cereolus. [scale bar 5mm]. 571 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum jihad and yousif discussion in iraq, a few studies have been conducted to survey and identify the land snails, with some species observed infesting agricultural areas (al-doori et al., 2018; jihad and ali, 2021), while the current study is then the first report on molluscs found exclusively in covered culture within the country. the results of our study reveal a list of seven species of terrestrial gastropods. these species can be divided into two groups: the first group includes native species that are common in iraqi fields, such as xeropicta krynickii and monacha obstructa. the second group includes non-native species that have been recorded in recent years as part of the country’s malacofauna including eobania vermiculata, cochlicella barbara, polygyra cereolus, rumina decollata and the newly reported veronicella cubensis. high population densities of v. cubensis were observed infesting several species of ornamental plants in baghdad. the introduction of v. cubensis into new areas typically occurs via plant material (mcdonnell et al., 2008), which is likely the cause of its introduction into iraq as well. all ornamental plant houses were infested because they were not controlled with pesticides. in contrast, economic plants were treated with pesticides and thus were nearly free of infestation. the family geomitridae was the most diverse, with two species recorded, while the species monacha obstructa was the most frequent species, found in three locations on a wide range of plants. conclusions based on our findings on the infestation rate of gastropods in greenhouses in iraq, it can be concluded that land snails represent important greenhouse pests. in greenhouses, both commonly encountered native species like monacha obstructa and introduced aliens like the newly recorded slug species veronicella cubensis can be found. effective management of these species is required, including the use of molluscicides to prevent further spread and infestations. conflict of interest statement the authors explain no conflict of interest concerning the work in a manuscript. literature cited abdul-sahib, i. m. 2005. a new record of a white terrestrial snail monacha obstructa (pfeiffer, 1842), (gastropoda: pulmonata) from the iraqi marshes. journal of basrah researches (sciences), 32: 70-73. 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(2025) 18 (3): 565-576. العراق في الحمية البيوت في القدام لبطنية مسح يوسف حسين نور و جهاد محمد هبه العراق. بغداد، بغداد، جامعة الطبيعي، التاريخ ومتحف بحوث مركز 2025/6/20 النشر: ،2025/2/16 القبول: ،2025/2/13 2024/6/10،الراجعة: استالم: اخالصة وبالتالي الفات، لعيشة ممتازة بيئة الحمية البيوت في والدافئة الرطبة الظروف توفر التي الفات أهم من الرخويات تعتبر الغريبة. الكائنات لدخول ا مثاليي ا ي وسط توفر فهي الرخويات أنواع وتصنيف تحديد ولغرض بالبلستيك، الغطاة الحمية البيوت تصيب إلى 2023 آذار من للفترة العراق في محميا ي بيتا 23 مسح تم عنها، واببلغ داخلها الوجودة إلى مظهريا عليها التعرف وتم عينة 158 جمع وتم بقواقع، مصابة 11 وجد ،2024 نيسان أنواع: سبعة monacha obstructa (pfeiffer, 1842), eobania vermiculata (o.f. müller ،1774) ، xeropicta krynickii (krynicki ،1833) ،rumina decollata (linnaeus ،1758) , polygyra cereolus (mühlfeld, 1818), cochlicella barbara (linnaeus, 1758،) في مره لول يسجل الذي veronicella cubensis (l.pfeiffer, 1840) البزاق الى اضافة القدمة البيانات فإن العراق، في الرخويات آفات عن العرفة قلة ومع الحالية. الدراسة الغراضالزراعية. من للعديد أساسية معلومات ستوفر حاليا bull 315 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-joboury and zurgany bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2024) 18 (2): 315-356. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2024.18.2.0315 original article investigation of wild land plants of the riparian area of the dujail river, salahaldin province, north of baghdad, iraq khansaa rasheed al-joboury* and lubna m. zurgany iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq. *corresponding author e-mail: dr.khansaa@nhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq received: 8 dec. 2023, revised:29 july 2024, accepted: 2 august 2024, published:20 december 2024 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract in the current study, wild land plant specimens were collected during the flowering and fruiting period of these plants in february, april, june, august, and october 2023 from the riparian area of the dujail river, salahaldin province, north of baghdad, iraq. identified and the results showed that the number of these species were: 104 species, belong to 29 plant families, included 26 dicotyledon families with 76 genera and 96 species. the asteraceae family was the most diverse, with 30 species, followed by brassicaceae with (12) species. additionally, there were 13 families represented by only one species in dujail river which included: apocynaceae, berberidaceae, capparaceae, caryophyllaceae, convolvulaceae, geraniaceae, lythraceae, malvaceae, papaveraceae, plumbaginaceae, primulaceae, rutaceae and urticaceae. for the monocotyledon seven genera and eight species. the poaceae family was the most diverse, with five genera and five species, followed by cyperaceae which has one genus and two species. keywords: baghdad, dujail river, iraq, plants, salahaldin province. introduction earth is characterized by an enormous diversity of animals and plants. plant diversity determines the nature and features of this biodiversity, giving each region unique characteristics that distinguish it from other regions; these differences depend on various factors, including geographical location, climate, nature of the soil and other human factors (yang et al., 2022). plants are of great importance for the earth, and form the foundation of the food pyramid. they utilize carbon dioxide and solar energy to produce the food needed by humans and all creatures, while also releasing oxygen gas necessary for respiration (algaraawi and hamid, 2023). since ancient times humans have relied on plants for food and healing purposes. they were planted and used as a source of, and at other times as medicine or treatment. over the ages, humans accumulated knowledge of the healing properties of plants, and it also plays an important role at home and garden decoration (kareem and ahmed, 2022). bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799-print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2024.18.2.0315 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8230-3747 https://orcid.org/0009-0002-8030-9181 mailto:dr.khansaa@nhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 316 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (2): 315-356. investigation of wild land plants iraq is known to be located within two phytogeographic regions: irano-turanian region and the saharo-sindian region. it is noteworthy that the first region is represented in iraq by two secondary regions, which are under the mesopotamian sub-regio and irano-anatolian sub region (mousa, 2018). iraq is well known for its significant variation in wild plants, which attributed to its climatic conditions and geographical diversity. additionally, more formal than also iraq is located at the convergence for three continents: asia, africa, and europe. this unique location contributes to the presence of diverse floras from these continents (al– douri, 2014). dujail river is an important irrigation system that has continued to function during challenging times. it is located on the right bank of the tigris river, and it irrigates the land west for the tigris at the districts extending from balad, down to the northern quarters for western baghdad. its intake is situated on the right bank for the tigris river approximately 10 kilometers northwest to balad and seven kilometers south east of alqadisiyya fort, near the ancient town of alalath (adamo and al-ansari, 2019), which dugail area is situated around 55 kilometers south of samarra on the dujail river. the old village of dujail is one of the most well-known communities in the region. it has been recorded in arab texts as a picnic spot (al-khazraji, 2020). the study ares is located within saharo-sindian region, specifically in the middle saharo-sindian sub-region (guest, 1966). plant diversity has declined in iraq for many reasons, including various sources of pollution, such as buildings, factories, and war and vehicles emitting exhaust gases. additional contributors include smelting factories, and the burning factories of raw materials like oil (al-mashhadi and alabadi, 2023). there are many studies in different regions of iraq. for example naqishbandi (2014) studied plants used in traditional iraqi medicine in erbil kurdistan region. other studies include a survey study of wild plants in alnajaf desert (al-garaawi and hamid, 2023), and the study of plants used in traditional iraqi medicine in erbil kurdistan region (naqishbandi, 2014), and the study of the endemic plant species in iraq (youssef, 2020). the aim of the current study is to identify the plants in the riparian area of the dujail river in iraq, noting that the plants that have not been studied in detail previously, and there are no references regarding plant diversity in this area. materials and methods the study area: the current study was conducted in the riparian area of the dujail river (map 1), in salahaldin province, north of baghdad, iraq. the research involved five field trips following the method of al-mayah et al. (2018), carried out during february, april, june, august, and october of 2023, during the flowering and fruiting period (fl and fr.) of each plant. a total of 27 geographical locations, were identified to create a map of the collection areas (tab. 1). 317 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-joboury and zurgany map (1): stations collect plants in the riparian area of the dujail river, salahaldin province, north of baghdad, iraq. [from: https://www.google.com/maps/@33.9444321,44.3107274,8.89z?entry=ttu] table (1): stations with the coordinates in the study areas no coordinate of stations 1 33°33'28.6"n 44°12'40.4"e 2 33°34'25.6"n 44°12'49.7"e 3 33°34'53.7"n 44°12'57.7"e 4 33°35'36.8"n 44°13'12.8"e 5 33°35'47.0"n 44°13'11.2"e 6 33°36'25.7"n 44°13'15.7"e 7 33°37'10.7"n 44°13'40.8"e 8 33°37'54.8"n 44°13'31.6"e 9 33°38'20.0"n 44°13'41.5"e 10 33°39'07.3"n 44°13'57.2"e 11 33°40'20.6"n 44°13'59.0"e 12 33°41'05.4"n 44°13'59.5"e 13 33°41'44.6"n 44°13'27.1"e 14 33°42'01.8"n 44°13'47.1"e 15 33°42'26.1"n 44°13'56.4"e 16 33°45'30.8"n 44°15'07.6"e 17 33°46'09.7"n 44°15'10.1"e 18 33°47'34.8"n 44°15'09.8"e 19 33°48'20.4"n 44°15'07.2"e 20 33°49'24.8"n 44°13'26.7"e 21 33°51'00.6"n 44°13'07.1"e https://www.google.com/maps/@33.9444321,44.3107274,8.89z?entry=ttu 318 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (2): 315-356. investigation of wild land plants 22 33°51'45.9"n 44°12'53.4"e 23 33°52'30.7"n 44°12'27.5"e 24 33°53'18.1"n 44°12'28.5"e 25 33°54'23.2"n 44°11'17.5"e 26 33°56'32.1"n 44°07'57.3"e 27 33°59'04.2"n 44°05'05.2"e taxonomy and specimens identification: a total of 558 specimens were identified in the department of plant and environmental sciences laboratory at the iraq natural history research center and museum-university of baghdad. the identification was based on various keys including: townsend et al. (1968), townsend and guest (1974), townsend and guest (1980), el-gazzar et al. (2019), and ghazanfar and edmondson (2013, 2016, 2019). the valid names and synonyms for the species mentioned in this study were adopted in accordance with gbif secretariat (2023), and the distributions of the species mentioned in this study were adopted following the method outlined by augul and al-saffar (2023). upon completing all study requirements, the specimens will be added to the natural history museum’s herbarium for preservation. results and discussion plants were collected from twenty-seven stations in the riparian area of the dujail river. variation was observed in the number of plant species and a large difference in each station, with some locations containing a rich diversity of plants, while there were a number of stations characterized by poor plant diversity. this disparity may be due to their distance from water sources and the lack of nutrients in the soil. the results showed that the numbers of these species were: 104 species, which belong to 29 plant families, including 26 dicotyledon families with 76 genera and 96 species then. asteraceae family is the most diverse, with 30 one species, followed by brassicaceae (12) specie. in contrast, 13 families were recorded with only one species in the riparian area of the dujail river including, apocynaceae, berberidaceae, capparaceae, caryophyllaceae, cistaceae, convolvulaceae, geraniaceae, lythraceae, malvaceae, plumbaginaceae, primulaceae, rutaceae and urticaceae. for the monocotyledon there were seven genera and species. the poaceae is the most diverse, with five genera and five species, followed by cyperaceae with one genus and two species, so tamarix l. was the most species-rich genus due to its ability to tolerate an extreme range for environmental conditions, and highly saline soils, therefore, climatologically (tab. 2), tamarisks are best suited to arid also semi-arid zones. these species possess specialised roots capable of drawing water from deep underground, while also extracting water from unsaturated soil layers (a facultative phreatophyte); these findings are consistent with bateman et al. (2013). the results also showed that the species sonchus oleraceus l., 1753 has recorded a wide spread in many stations such as: st 1, st 9, st 11, st 15, st 22, and st 23 (tab. 3). this plant is characterized by its growth in cultivated land, sand dunes, gardens, waste places, roadsides, burned areas, near waterways, construction sites and rail yards. it is also required light to germinate and grow; furthermore, it is grazed by both farmed and wild livestock. additionally, it is found in many different substrates, such as in saline soils, moist soils, rich 319 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-joboury and zurgany in sodium, potassium, phosphorus, and calcium and occurs in a wide range for climates, cold and warm. these findings are consistent with rojas-sandoval and acevedo (2022), while there were few stations exhibited limited plant diversity, this can be attributed to environmental conditions and soil type, or due to human activity and the conversion of much agricultural land into residential areas or areas used for cultivating economically important crops. it is important to note that no previous studies have been conducted on plant diversity in this region, the results of the current study revealed that there are 69 annual herbs and 2 biennial herbs: silybum marianum (l.) gaertn., 1791 and onopordum ambiguum fresen., 1834 which belong to asteraceae family. the remaining the species, were divided into perennial herbs and perennial shrubs. it was observed that large specimens of datura innoxia mill., 1768 and d. stramonium l., 1753 have spread abundantly on both sides of the road between the balad and dujail region. this proliferation is perhaps due to the presence of farms in these areas that were propagated by farmers and their seeds spread on the external roads of the cities. the spread of introduced plants species has also been observed, such as conocarpus erectus l., 1753. it has been observed that it is grown as a fence around homes, and it is one of the plants that causes serious environmental problems that are difficult to control or deal with, the effects of these trees on the environment have also been proven in many studies. no. families number of genera number of species 1 amaranthaceae 6 8 2 apiaceae 5 6 3 apocynaceae 1 1 4 asteraceae 25 31 5 berberidaceae 1 1 6 brassicaceae 11 14 7 convolvulaceae 1 1 8 caryophyllaceae 1 1 9 capparaceae 1 1 10 cistaceae 1 2 11 fabaceae 5 8 12 geraniaceae 1 1 13 lythraceae 1 1 14 malvaceae 1 1 15 papaveraceae 2 2 16 plantaginaceae 1 2 17 plumbaginaceae 1 1 18 primulaceae 1 1 19 resedaceae 1 1 20 rubiaceae 1 2 21 rutaceae 1 1 22 salicaceae 2 3 table (2): names of plant families and number of genera and species in the study areas. 320 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (2): 315-356. investigation of wild land plants 23 solanaceae 2 2 24 tamaricaceae 1 4 25 zygophyllaceae 1 1 26 urticaceae 1 1 27 cyperaceae 1 2 28 iridaceae 1 1 29 poaceae 5 5 no. famalies species duration local names stations 1 a m aran th aceae amaranthus viridis l. annual herb slender amaranth st 1, st 3, st 10 2 amaranthus albus l. annual herb white pigweed st 4, st 13 3 atriplex nummularia lindl. perennial shrub old man saltbush st 3, st 10 4 halothamnus iraqensis var. hispidulus botsch perennial shrub bua idh, shinan, aiwa, rimth abu raida, rimith st 4, st 27 5 chenopodium album l. annual herb fat-hen, white goosefoot, st 1, st 9, st 17 6 cornulaca aucheri moq. annual herb thalj st 1, st 18 7 suaeda aegyptiaca (hasselq.) zohary annual herb tartai, shuatan st 4, st 13 8 suaeda carnosissima post annual herb hamudh st 13, st 10 9 a p iaceae artedia squamata l. annual herb crown-flower st 22, 10 ammi visnaga (l.) lam. annual herb khella baldi, toothpick weed, khella baladi, khella, st 10, st 16, st 19 11 ammi majus l. annual herb garair, zand alarus, khaizaran, akhalla st 1, st 8, st 13, st 24 12 bupleurum lancifolium hornem. annual herb narrow thorowwax st 3, st 16 13 bunium paucifolium dc. perennial herb joz bawa, ughrarira st 4, st 15 14 torilis stocksiana (boiss.) drude annual herb lizzaij st 5, st 8, st 26 15 apocyn-aceae cynanchum acutum l. perennial herb halablab, hallab st 5, st 12, 16 achillea aleppica dc perennial herb qaisum, culilk, giya mesh st 4, st 9, st 17, st 18 17 achillea wilhelmsii c.koch perennial herb zawal st 12, st 20 table (3): names of the species, duration, local names and the stations 321 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-joboury and zurgany 18 asteraceae anthemis pseudocotula boiss. annual herb chamomile st 8, st 9 19 anthemis leucanthemifolia boiss. & c.i.blanche annual herb dog-fennel st 13 20 anvillea garcinii (burm.f.) dc. perennial shrub nougd, nakhd, harr, niqt st 11, st 19 21 atractylis carduus (forssk.) c.chr. perennial herb samna, jalwa st 18 22 carthamus oxyacanthus m.bieb. annual herb wild safflower st 4, 23 calendula arvensis l. annual herb khuzna, hanwa, kahla ,10 st st 11 24 launaea angustifolia (desf.) kuntze, annual herb murrair st 20, 25 garhadiolus hedypnois (fisch. & c.a.mey.) jaub. & spach annual herb tiny garhadiolus st 16 26 centaurea bruguierana (dc.) hand.-mazz. annual herb cornflower st 1, st 12 27 centaurea rigida banks & sol. perennial herb tahlishk st 2, st 11, st 15 28 centaurea hyalolepis boiss. perennial herb eastern starthistle st 3, st 12 29 crepis kotschyana (boiss.) boiss annual herb kalilk zar st 11 30 cymbolaena griffithii (a.gray) wagenitz annual herb qutaina, qutn, uqtaina st 6, st 18 31 filago pyramidata l. annual herb cudweed st 12 32 gundelia tournefortii l. perennial herb silifa, kaub, kangar st 2, st 23 33 gymnarrhena micrantha desf. dwarf annual herb ain albuqr st 9, st 20 34 hedypnois rhagadioloides (l.) f.w.schmidt annual herb cretanweed st 11 35 koelpinia linearis pall. annual herb lahya at-tais, carter, dickson, dh iluq carter st 9, st 11 36 ifloga spicata (forssk.) sch.bip. annual herb hasal, hasach st 8 37 leontodon laciniatus (bertol.) widder annual herb ward hodhan, murran, murrar, murair st 13, st 14 38 onopordum ambiguum fresen. biannual herb cotton thistle st 10, st 16 39 onopordum heteracanthum c.a.mey. perennial herb scotch thistle st 17 40 picris babylonica hand.mazz. annual herb umrar, gula zerde st 6, st11 41 scorzonera papposa dc. perennial herb halakok, ruba hela st 2, st 8 322 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (2): 315-356. investigation of wild land plants 42 senecio glaucus l. annual herb word hodhan, hodhan. st 3, st 9, st 10 43 silybum marianum (l.) gaertn. biennial herb milk thistle, gulaghan st 3, st 5, st 8, st 19 44 sonchus oleraceus l. annual herb harfash, umm al-halib st 1, st 9, st 11, st 15, st 22 45 sonchus tenerrimus l. annual herb clammy sowthistle, harfash st 11, st 19, 46 xanthium strumarium l. annual herb hasach, lizzaij st 2, st 11, 47 berberid -aceae leontice leontopetalum l. perennial herb taqiq, kaf alasad st 8, st 9, 48 brassicaceae diplotaxis erucoides (l.) dc. annual herb huwaira, ghuwair st 4, st 9, st 18 49 diplotaxis harra (forssk.) boiss. annual herb hara, khafash, khafaj st 3, st 19, st 21, st 26 50 eruca vesicaria (l.) cav. annual herb st 19, st 22 51 sisymbrium irio l. annual herb khubah, bazarulkhamkha m st 6, st 18, st 24 52 schimpera arabica hochst. & steud. ex steud. annual herb safraa st 3, st 8 53 clypeola jonthlaspi l. annual herb azerbaijani st 17, st 23 54 matthiola longipetala (vent.) dc. annual herb shiqara, shikara st 12 55 zuvanda crenulata (dc.) askerova annual herb st 18, 56 strigosella grandiflora (bunge) botsch. annual herb shigar, sillih, silla, yahaq st 5, st 7 57 neotorularia torulosa (desf.) hedge & j.léonard annual herb st 15 58 erucaria hispanica (l.) druce annual herb sillaih, rishad, al-jibal st 20 59 lepidium draba l. annual herb qunaibra, jinaibra st 14, st 15 60 helianthemum lippii (l.) dum.cours. perennial shrub khudhr st 11, st 19 61 helianthemum aegyptiacum (l.) mill. annual herb jaraid st 4 62 capparaceae capparis spinose l. perennial shrub mariana caperbush, cariana caper st 9, 63 convolv -ulaceae convolvulus arvensis l. perennial herb field bindweed st 3, st 10 323 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-joboury and zurgany 64 caryoph y-llaceae herniaria hemistemon j.gay perennial herb ghebayra 65 fabacea e alhagi graecorum boiss. perennial shrub shook, aqool st 1, st 2, st 12, st 16 66 prosopis farcta (banks & sol.) j.f.macbr. perennial subshrub shok, shauk, kharnub st 15, st 18, st 22 67 astragalus fasciculifolius boiss. perennial shrub sarcocolla st 4 68 astragalus duplostrigosus post & beauverd annual herb milkvetch st 7, st11 69 astragalus dactylocarpus boiss. annual herb cheddade, chettat, chiddad st 12 70 astragalus spinosus (forssk.) muschl. perennial shrub taqaiq st 26, st 25 71 lathyrus annuus l. annual herb hurtuman, habb adh-dharat st 6, 72 glycyrrhiza glabra l. perennial shrub licorice st 3, st 5, st 10, st 15, st 22 73 geraniaceae erodium cicutarium (l.) l'hér. annual herb dahmiyet elghazal, dardar st 2, st 7 74 primulaceae lysimachia arvensis subsp. arvensis annual herb red chickweed st 8, st 22, st 25 75 lythraceae lythrum hyssopifolia l. perennial herb grass-poly st 3, st 27 76 plumbaginaceae psylliostachys spicatus (willd.) nevski annual herb bamboo st 18 77 plantaginaceae plantago lagopus l. annual herb hare-foot plantain st 6, st 19 78 plantago afra annual herb qatoona, hab elbaragheet st 17, st 20, st 23 79 papaveraceae fumaria parviflora lam. annual herb shahtaraj, shattaraq st 7 80 hypecoum pendulum l. annual herb ifiquwun, daidahan st 15 81 malvaceae malva nicaeensis all. annual herb khubbaz st 6, st 11, st 17, st 18, st 24 82 resedaceae reseda alba l. annual herb dhiniban st 5 83 rubiaceae galium spurium l. annual herb kurkur, nusak st 5, st 7 84 galium aparine l. annual herb hashishat al-afa, balashka st 2, st 14, 324 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (2): 315-356. investigation of wild land plants it was observed that the plant diversity in these areas has been adversely affected by neglect, and many areas have been cultivated with agricultural and economic crops, which has further negatively impacted impact the diversity of wild plants in those areas, the plants in these areas will be reviewed as follows: 85 rutaceae haplophyllum tuberculatum (forssk.) a.juss. perennial shrub zifra, jifjaf st 18 86 salicaceae populus euphratica olivier perennial tree gharab st 7, st 10, st 13, st 20 87 populus nigra l. perennial tree ispindar, qauwagh st 6, st 14, st 17 88 salix acmophylla boiss. perennial tree violet willow st 6, st 7, st 17, st 22 89 solanaceae physalis angulate l. annual herb winter cherry, harankash st 15, st 26 90 lycium barbarum l. annual herb wolfberry, boxthorn st 7, st 14, 91 tamaricaceae tamarix arceuthoides bunge perennial shrub tarf st 1, st 6, st 17 92 tamarix ramosissima ledeb. perennial shrub tarfa st 17, st 24 93 tamarix brachystachys bunge perennial shrub tarfa st 14, st 26 94 tamarix aphylla (l.) h.karst. annual herb athl st 2, st 11 95 zygophy -llaceae fagonia glutinosa delile annual herb dereima st 13, st 22 96 urticaceae urtica urens l. annual herb qaris, qurrais st 13, st 19, st 26 97 cyperaceae cyperus rotundus l. perennial herb coco grass st 2, st 14, st 16 98 cyperus michelianus (l.) delile annual herb shala, zarair gaba st 3, st 22 99 iridaceae gladiolus atroviolaceus boiss. perennial herb anselan, ansalan st 9, st 27 100 poaceae eremopyrum bonaepartis (spreng.) nevski annual herb shair al-khail, shuwairib st 4, st11 101 schismus arabicus nees annual herb ahnaita, hanaita st 14 102 sphenopus divaricatus (gouan) rchb annual herb naima st 24 103 bromus lanceolatus roth annual herb sanaisla, usnaisla st 15, st 9 104 phragmites australis (cav.) trin. ex steud perennial grass qasab, qamish, kamish st 14, st 11, st 23, st 25 325 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-joboury and zurgany family, amaranthaceae juss., 1789 genus, amaranthus l., 1743 amaranthus viridis l., 1763 remark: blakelock (1957) recorded this species for iraq. examined specimens: 5 specimens; fl. and fr.: mar.oct. distribution in iraq: jabal himrin, baghdad, zafaraniya, garm al bani sad and basra (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2016). global distribution: asia, australia (reyad-ul-ferdous et al., 2015); europe and n america (akbar et al., 2017). amaranthus albus l., 1759 remark: blakelock (1957) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 9 specimens; fl and fr.: jul.nov. distribution in iraq: halabja, mosul, sudur, tarmiya, baghdad, suwaira, namaniya and kut (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2016). global distribution: n amrica, syria, lebanon, palestine, egypt, iran, caucasus and afghanistan (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2016). genus, atriplex l., 1735 atriplex nummularia lindl., 1848 remark: blakelock (1957) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 5 specimens; fl. and fr.:aprjun. distribution in iraq: upper masopotamian plain and abu ghraib (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2016). global distribution: w s australia, new south wales and victoria (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2016). genus, halothamnus jaub. & spach, 1845 halothamnus iraqensis var. hispidulus botsch, 1981 remark: ghazanfar and edmondson (2016) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 5 specimens; fl. aug.-nov., fr. oct.-may. distribution in iraq: sulaimaniya, ramadi, habbaniya, between shithatha and rahhalyah, kerbela, samawa, nasiriya, diwaniya and amara (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2016). global distribution: syria, saudi arabia and kuwait (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2016). genus, chenopodium l., 1753 rmark: according to gbif scretairat (2023a), this genus was added under amaranthaceae, previously it was put under chenopodiaceae, currently, all genera and species of this family have become under amaranthaceae. chenopodium album l., 1753 remark: zohary (1950) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 8 specimens; fl. and fr.:maysep. distribution in iraq: balad, maqdadiya, baquba and baghdad (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2016). 326 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (2): 315-356. investigation of wild land plants global distribution: india, n america, n e europe and asia (saini and saini, 2020). genus, cornulaca del., 1813 cornulaca aucheri moq., 1840 remark: rechinger (1964) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 5 specimens; fl. and fr.:oct.nov. distribution in iraq: sulaimaniya, kirkuk, al-sudur, jabal hamrine, balad, sumaicha, baiji, ramadi, habbaniya, baghdad, fakkuja, rustamiya and iskanderiya (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2016). global distribution: kuwait (ahmed et al., 2019); arabia, iran, afghanistan and pakistan (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2016). genus, suaeda scop. 1777 suaeda aegyptiaca (hasselq.) zohary, 1957 remark: rechinger (1964) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 5; fl. and fr.: maynov. distribution in iraq: mandali, balad, wadi thirthar, thirthar lake, bahr al-milh, karbala, samawa, kut, baquba, nasiriya, amara and basra (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2016). global distribution: iran (malayeri et al., 2018); france, portugal, spain, arabian peninsula, pakistan, afghanistan, india, iran, africa, canary is lands, england, bangladesh and pakistan (ahmad et al., 2021). suaeda carnosissima post, 1896 remark: ghazanfar and edmondson (2016) recorded this species for iraq. material examind:7 specimens; fl. and fr.: augdec. distribution in iraq: shithatha, rumaitha, kerbala, baghdad and amara (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2016). global distribution: turkey and syria (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2016). family, apiaceae lindl., 1836 genus, artedia l., 1753 artedia squamata l., 1735 remark: zohary (1950) recorded this species for iraq. material examind:4; fl. and fr.: apr.-may. distribution in iraq: jabal sinjar, balad sinjar, jabal bekher, between dargala and karoukh, bakrajo, pir omar gudrun, sulaimaniya, tikrit, mosul, baghdad, mandali and khanaqin (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2016). global distribution: turkey, jordan, iran, greece, cyprus, syria, lebanon and palestine (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2013). genus, ammi l., 1753 ammi visnaga (l.) lam., 1778 remark: guest (1933) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 15 specimens; fl. and fr.: mar.-jun. 327 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-joboury and zurgany distribution in iraq: zakho, halabja, mosul, ain sifni, kirkuk, baquba, muqdadiya, shahraban, balaruz and baghdad (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2013). global distribution: egypt (eda., 2022a); n africa (khalil et al., 2020); n america, pennsylvania, oregon, alabama, mediterranean, california, florida, the atlantic islands, argentina, mexico, chile, asia and iran (al-saleh et al., 2019). ammi majus l., 1753 remark: guest (1933) recorded this species for iraq. material examind:12 specimens; fl. and fr.:mar.-may. distribution in iraq: sinjar, tal afar, balad sinjar, mosul, baiji, arbil, makmur, baghdad, badra, kut, aziziya, daltawa, rustamiya, basra and amara (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2013). global distribution: egypt, europe, mediterranean, west africa and india (abdul munim et al., 2021). genus, bupleurum l., 1753 bupleurum lancifolium hornem., 1813 remark: zohary (1950) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 12 specimens; fl. and fr.:apr.-may. distribution in iraq: chemchamal (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2013). genus, bunium l., 1753 bunium paucifolium dc., 1830 remark: guest (1933) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 2 specimens; fl and fr.:mar.-may. distribution in iraq: mosul, dohuk, salah ad-din, kuh-i sefin, halgord, between halgord and kholan, sakri sakran, serkabkhan, kirkuk, sulaimaniya, qaranjir, chemchemal, zewiya, qaradagh, tanjaro, penjwin, hawraman, halabja, tawila, jabal sinjar, tal ash-shur, between sinjar and tal afar, between balad sinjar and ba‘ajm hamman, tal kuchek, tal kaif, arbil, between arbil and altun kupri, taktak bridge, between kirkuk and koi sanjak, tuz, zurbatiya, samarra, ba‘quba, shahraban, ra‘aya and daltara (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2013). global distribution: asia, europe and north africa (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2013). genus, torilis adans., 1763 torilis stocksiana (boiss.) drude, 1898 remark: rechinger (1964) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 11 specimens; fl and fr.:mar.-may. distribution in iraq: shaqlawa, koi sanjaq, jarmo, pira magrun, malakawa, darband-i-khan, makhlat, kirkuk, qizil robat, between naft khana and mandali, baghdad, abu ghraib, rustamiya, abu saldi jizera, ba‘quba, kut al-imara, amara, qala‘t salih, basra and abul khasib (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2013). global distribution: arabia, iran, afghanistan and pakistan (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2013). 328 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (2): 315-356. investigation of wild land plants family, apocynaceae juss., 1789 genus, cynanchum l., 1753 cynanchum acutum l., 1753 remark: guest (1933) recorded this species for iraq. note: in flora of iraq this species is under the family of asclepiadaceae (townsend and guest, 1980). material examind: 12 specimens; fl and fr.: aug.oct. distribution in iraq: qalat shergat, mosul, nineveh, baghdad, qasr naqib, abu ghraib, za‘faraniya, rustamiya, babylon, dabuni, aziziya, amara, mushara and basra (townsend and guest, 1980). global distribution: egypt and europe (hamidi et al., 2023); africa, and asia (abdelhameed et al., 2021); algeria, s europe, syria, lebanon, palestine, arabia, bahrain, turkey, caucasus, iran, w pakistan, afghanistan, china and n africa (townsend and guest, 1980). family, asteraceae dumort., 1822 1753 l., achillea genus, achillea aleppica dc., 1838 remark: guest (1933) recorded this species for iraq. jul.-; fl. and fr.: mayspecimens 7 material examind: distribution in iraq: jabal sinjar, karsi, zawita, erbil, kirkuk, jarmo, chemchemal, tasluja, sulaimaniya, gilazarda, azmir, pira magrun, penjwin, kamarspa, kochak, balad, jabal khatchra, mosul,baba gurgur and mandali (ghazanfar and edmondson 2019). global distribution: turkey, syria, lebanon, jordan, palestine and iran (ghazanfar and edmondson 2019). achillea wilhelmsii c.koch, 1851 remark: guest (1933) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 8 specimens; fl. and fr.: mar.jun. distribution in iraq: chemchemal, sulaimaniya, upper jazira, balad sinjar, ain tellawi, tal afar, mosul, arbil, kirkuk, daquq , jabal hamrin, mandali, badra, musaiyif al-ghizlan , baghdad and rustamiya (ghazanfar and edmondson 2019). global distribution: lebanon, syria, palestine,turkey, jordan, afghanistan,transcaucasia, (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019); iran (dehshiri and jozipoor, 2014). genus, anthemis l., 1753 anthemis pseudocotula boiss., 1846 remark: al-rawi (1964) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 4 specimens; fl. and fr.: mar.-jul. distribution in iraq: dohuk, darbandikan, dokan, sulaimaniya, qaradagh, sinjar, mosul, baghdad, syrian, arbil, badra, balad, sinjar, jabal hamrin, wadi alkhirr, diyala, diwaniya, global distribution: cyprus, turkey, palestine, syria, egypt, arabia and iran(ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). anthemis leucanthemifolia boiss. & c.i.blanche, 1856 329 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-joboury and zurgany remark: al-rawi (1964) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 8 specimens; fl. and fr.: mar.apr. distribution in iraq: amara, tikrit, beiji and rutba (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). global distribution: palestine and lebanon (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). genus, anvillea dc. 1836 anvillea garcinii (burm.f.) dc., 1836 remark: zohary (1850) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 7 specimens; fl. and fr.: mayoct. distribution in iraq: tikrit, rutba, nukhaib, najaf, karbala and basra (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). global distribution: saudi arabia (aati et al., 2021); syria, palestine, jordan, egypt and iran (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). genus, atractylis l., 1753 atractylis carduus (forssk.) c.chr., 1922 remark: by al-rawi (1964) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 5 specimens; fl. and fr.: apr.jun. distribution in iraq: falluja, ramadi, habbaniya and rutba (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). global distribution: egypt (el-gazzar et al., 2019); peninsula, syria, africa, palestine and sinai (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). genus, carthamus l., 1753 carthamus oxyacanthus m.bieb., 1808 remark: zohary (1950) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 3 specimens; fl. and fr.: may – oct. distribution in iraq: rowanduz, jarmo,sulaimaniya, ankawa, sadiya, mandali, falluja, baghdad, abu ghraib, amara and aqqur kuf (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). global distribution: saudi arabia, iran (dehshiri and jozipoor, 2014); asia, afghanistan, pakistan andtranscaucasia (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). genus, calendula l., 1753 calendula arvensis l., 1763 remark: al-rawi (1964) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 9 specimens; fl. and fr.:feb. – jul. distribution in iraq: dohuk, jarmo, darband, -i khan, balad sinjar, qaiyara, arbil, kirkuk, khalis, khanaqin, samarra, rutba, rahhaliya, nukhaib, sammawa, rubaitha, zubair, sudur, garmashaya,basra, zubair, rushida, amara, kut and khalis (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). global distribution: spain, palestine, syria, iran, egypt, turkey, europe, afghanistan, cyprus, sinai algeria, morocco, libya, tunisia, caucasia, kuwait, qatar, oman, bahrain and yemen (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). 330 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (2): 315-356. investigation of wild land plants genus, launaea cass., 1822 launaea angustifolia (desf.) kuntze, 1891 remark: al-rawi (1964) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 4 specimens; fl. and fr.:feb.-jun. distribution in iraq: samarra, jabal sanam, ansab and shabicha (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). global distribution: arabian countries in w asia and n africa (aiman et al., 2023). genus, garhadiolus jaub. & spach 1849 garhadiolus hedypnois (fisch. & c.a.mey.) jaub. & spach, 1850 remark: al-rawi (1964) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 2 specimens; fl. and fr.: mar.-jun. on the plains, apr.-jun. in the hills. distribution in iraq: samarra, hamam alil, kamarspa, shkho, sharanish, kamarspa and sinjar (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). global distribution: united arab emirates (byalt et al., 2022); iran, afghanistan, caucasia, turkey and asia (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). remark: in flora of iraq this species accepted under the name garhadiolus angulosus jaub. & spach. (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019), but in gbif secretariat (2023b) accepted under the name garhadiolus hedypnois (fisch. & c.a.mey.) jaub. & spach. genus, centaurea l., 1753 centaurea bruguierana (dc.) hand.-mazz., 1913 remark: ghazanfar and edmondson (2019) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 6 specimens; fl. and fr.: jun. – aug. distribution in iraq: jabal qilat, balad sinjar, jarmo, mosul, khabur, bridge, mahmur, dibaga, kirkuk, arbil, diyala, mandali, tikrit, falluja, zubair, baghdad,diwaniya and amara (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). global distribution:turkey, afghanistan, syria, c asia (turkmenia to kazakhstan), transcaucasia, pakistan (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019); iran (dehshiri and jozipoor, 2014). centaurea rigida banks & sol., 1794 remark: rechinger (1964) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 2 specimens; fl. and fr.: may-aug. distribution in iraq: dohuk, amadiya, erbil, jarmo, jabal sinjar, daquq, kirkuk, baghdad, mandali, jabal hamrin, samarra and muqdadiya (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). global distribution: jordan, palestine, syria and turkey (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). centaurea hyalolepis boiss., 1846 remark: this species was recorded for iraq by zohary (1950) material examind: 4 specimens; fl. and fr.: may – aug. distribution in iraq: balad sinjar, baiji, ankawa, baquba, baghdad, amara, shahraban, arbil, jabal hamrin, dukhail, kirkuk and qara hasan (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). 331 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-joboury and zurgany global distribution: jordan, palestine, syria, turkey, lebanon and iran (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). genus, crepis l., 1753 crepis kotschyana (boiss.) boiss., 1875 remark: zohary (1950) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 5 specimens; fl. and fr.: apr.jul. distribution in iraq: chemchemal, khanaqin, mandali, samarra, jarmo, jabal khatchra, injana and qopi qaradagh (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). global distribution: afghanistan, turkey, pakistan, c asia (turkmenia to tajikistan) (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019); iran (dehshiri and jozipoor, 2014). genus, cymbolaena smoljan., 1955 cymbolaena griffithii (a.gray) wagenitz, 1971 remark: zohary (1950) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 3 specimens; fl. and fr.:may – oct. distribution in iraq: zakho, suwara, kirkuk, samarra, shargat, kirkuk, shaqlawa, koi sanjak, pira magrun, salah ad-din and tuz. global distribution: syria, lebanon, jordan, arabia, turkey, iran, turkmenia, afghanistan and pakistan (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). genus, filago l. 1753 filago pyramidata l., 1753 remark: zohary (1950) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 6 specimens; fl. and fr.: feb.-may. distribution in iraq: zakho, balad sinjar, mosul, chemchemal, sulaimaniya, tall afar, hawija, khanaqin, baquba, ana, rawa, ansab, zubair, tarmiya, khalis, amara, baghdad and hilla (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). global distribution: s europe, aegean is., syria, iran, palestine, mediterranean, turkeym, cyprus, jordan, arabia, afghanistan, n africa, caucasia, pakistan and macaronesia (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019); spain and italy (bartolucci et al., 2018). genus, gundelia l., 1754 gundelia tournefortii l., 1753 remark: guest (1933) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 5 specimens; fl. and fr.: mar.-jul. distribution in iraq: zakho, sarsang, khanzad, rownduz, jarmo, mosul, qara dagh, mosul, tal afar, khanaqin, ramadi, rutba and khlis (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). global distribution: lebanon, palestine, syria, egypt, turkey, cyprus, algeria transcaucasia, afghanistan and iran (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). genus, gymnarrhena desf., 1818 gymnarrhena micrantha desf., 1818 remark: al-rawi (1964) recorded this species for iraq. 332 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (2): 315-356. investigation of wild land plants material examind: 4 specimens; fl. and fr.: mar.-may. distribution in iraq: badra, baghdad, ramadi, ana, qaim, rutba, zubair, jabal sanam, basra, amara, falluja, safwan, samawa, wadi hawran and shithatha (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). global distribution: iran, syria, n africa, palestine, pakistan (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019); saudi arabia (osman and abdein, 2019). genus, hedypnois hill 1753 hedypnois rhagadioloides (l.) f.w.schmidt, 1795 remark: zohary (1950) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 6 specimens; fl. and fr.:apr.-may. distribution in iraq: jabal sinjar, mosul, koi sanjaq, jarmo, kirkuk, samarra, amara, baghdad, shahraban, injana, kifri and saadiya (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). global distribution: palestine, syria, iran, egypt, turkey, europe, cyprus, n africa (libya to morocco), macaronesia (madeira, canaries, azores)(ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). genus, ifloga cass., 1822 ifloga spicata (forssk.) sch.bip., 1845 remark: zohary (1950) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 8 specimens; fl. and fr.:apr.-jun. distribution in iraq: amara, falluja,wadi thirthar, jabal muwaila, rutba, samarra, wadi hauran, najf, jumaima, zubair, baghdad, ansab, busaiya, julaida and um-qasir (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). global distribution: iran, turkey, syria, palestine, turkmenia, afghanistan, aegean, lebanon, palestine, sinai, s europe (se spain), kuwait, n africa ( libya, tunisia, algeria, morocco) and macaronesia (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). genus, koelpinia pall., 1776 koelpinia linearis pall., 1776 remark: rechinger (1964) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 2 specimens; fl. and fr.: mar.jun. distribution in iraq: jarmo, jabal qilat, balad sinjar, tal julaimid, kirkuk, rawa, samarra, balad, ramadi, jabal sanam, karbala, zubair, susur, basra, rustamiya, sudur and aidaha (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). global distribution: iran, turkey, syria, palestine, turkmenia, afghanistan, (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019); saudi arabia (osman and abdein, 2019). genus, leontodon l., 1753 leontodon laciniatus (bertol.) widder, 1967 remark: zohary (1950) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 2 specimens; fl. and fr.: mar.-jun. distribution in iraq: shargat, rutba, qaraghan, rawa, aziziya, amara, samarra, jumaima, salman, rustamiya, rashida, babylon, njaf, qaaim, safwan and shabicha (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). 333 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-joboury and zurgany global distribution: saudi arabia, palestine, jordan, syria, iran, egypt, kuwait and caucasus (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). genus, onopordum l., 1753 onopordum ambiguum fresen., 1834 remark: zohary (1950) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 4 specimens; fl. and fr.: apr.-sep. distribution in iraq: rutba, ana, hilla ramadi, samarra and falluja. global distribution: saudi arabia, jordan, sinai and yemen (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). onopordum heteracanthum c.a.mey., 1831 remark: zohary (1950) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 6 specimens; fl. and fr.: apr.-aug. distribution in iraq: sulaimaniya, mosul, kirkuk, mandali, baghdad, dohuk, ramadi, rutba, adhaim andtikrit (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). global distribution: iran, turkey and transcaucasia (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). genus, picris l., 1753 picris babylonica hand.-mazz., 1913 remark: zohary (1950) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 4 specimens; fl. and fr.: mar.-jun. distribution in iraq: balad, wadi thirthar, samarr, habbbaniya and samwa (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). global distribution: jordan syria, egypt palumm qasr, basra, zubair, karbala, najaf, fallluja, nukhaib and ajjrumiya (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). genus, scorzonera l., 1753 scorzonera papposa dc., 1838 remark: zohary (1950) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 3 specimens; fl. and fr.: mar.-may. distribution in iraq: jabal sinjar, sulaaimaniya, jarmo, kirkuk, mandali, baba gurgur, rawa, haditha, nukhaib, sharkat, rutba and jabal sanam (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). global distribution:transcaucasia, iran, turkey, syria, lebanon, jordan, palestine, kuwait, (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019); saudi arabia (osman and abdein, 2019). genus, senecio l., 1753 senecio glaucus l., 1753 remark: this species was recorded for iraq by guest (1933). material examind: 5 specimens; fl. and fr.: feb.-jun. distribution in iraq: jabal qilat, baiji, jabal hamrin, ana, tal-julaimid, mosul, ramadi, samarra, ansab, amara, babylon, basra, wadi tib, wadi fuhaimi and tikrit (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). 334 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (2): 315-356. investigation of wild land plants global distribution: italy (bartolucci et al., 2018); iran, pakistan, palestine, afghanistan, n africa from egypt to morocco and canary is (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). genus, silybum adans., 1763 silybum marianum (l.) gaertn., 1791 remark: guest (1933) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 11 specimens; fl. and fr.: mar.-oct. distribution in iraq: mosul, baghdad, amara, basra, abu-graib, baquba, zafaraniya and jalala (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). global distribution: new zealand, the falkland islands, native in mediterranean region, sw europe and sw asia, afghanistan, pakistan, australia, s america, palestine and egypt (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). genus, sonchus l., 1753 sonchus oleraceus l., 1753 remark: guest (1933) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 11 specimens; fl. and fr.: mar.-may. distribution in iraq: sayid sadiq, baquba, amara, basra, qaim, falluja, rustamiya and suwira (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). global distribution: india (adhikari and babu, 2008); saudi arabia (osman and abdein, 2019); new zealand, europe, cyprus, aegean is., palestine, syria, lebanon, sinai, egypt, jordan, iran, pakistan, n africa, caucasia, turkey, afghanistan, siberia, japan and china (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). sonchus tenerrimus l., 1753 remark: zohary (1950) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 4 specimens; fl. and fr.: mar.-apr. distribution in iraq: babylon, amara, basra and khalis (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). global distribution: jordan, syria, palestine (al-joboury and aliwy, 2023), iran, egypt, mediterranean europe (from portugal, italy, spain, balkans and sicily), pakistan, cyprus and macaronesia (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). genus, xanthium l., 1753 xanthium strumarium l., 1753 remark: zohary (1950) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 10 specimens; fl. and fr.: jun.-feb. distribution in iraq: sarsang, penjwin, badra, namaniya, fao, zurbatiya, habbaniya, kirkuk and khalis (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). family, berberidaceae juss., 1789 genus, leontice l., 1753 remark: in flora of iraq this genus was diagnosed under leonticaceae family (townsend and guest, 1980b). 335 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-joboury and zurgany leontice leontopetalum l., 1753 remark: guest (1933) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 3 specimens; fl. and fr.:mar.-may. distribution in iraq: jabal sinjar, rowanduz, sinjar, mosul, kirkuk, kifri, tuz, mandali, bdra, samarra, rutba, nukhaib, ramadi, ana, qaim, khalis, shahraban, baquba, baghdad and zurbatiya (townsend and guest, 1980b). global distribution: s e europe, crete, aegean isles (al-snafi, 2019); cypruc, syria, lenanon, palestine, jordan, egypt, turkey, iran, caucasus, afghanistan and n africa (townsend and guest, 1980b). family, brassicaceae bumett, 1835 genus, diplotaxis dc., 1821 diplotaxis erucoides (l.) dc., 1821 remark: guest (1933) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 10 specimens; fl and fr.: apr.-jun. distribution in iraq: darband-i khan, mosul, kirkuk, balad, baghdad, abu ghraib, baghdad, amara, baquba, diyala, ramadi and sadiya (townsend and guest, 1980b). global distribution: mediterranean countries (clemente-villalba et al., 2020), s w europe, turkey, syria, sinai, palestine, , lebanon, jordan, egypt, arabia, iran and africa (townsend and guest, 1980b). diplotaxis harra (forssk.) boiss., 1867 remark: guest (1933) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 5 specimens; fl and fr. feb-jul. distribution: sicily, syria, sinai, palestine, lebanon, jordan, egypt, arabia, iran, kuwait, pakistan, n. africa and tropical africa (somalia, ethiopia) (townsend and guest, 1980b). genus, eruca mill. 1754 eruca vesicaria (l.) cav., 1802 remark: guest (1933) recorded this species for iraq. remark: in flora of iraq, this species named eruca sativa mill. (townsend and guest, 1980b). material examind: 5 specimens; fl and fr.: apr.-may. distribution in iraq: kirkuk, shargat, adhaim, mandali, baghdad, rusttamiya, basra, sudur and zubair (townsend and guest, 1980b). global distribution: turkey, syria, palestine, lebanon, caucasus and iran (townsend and guest, 1980b). genus, sisymbrium l., 1753 sisymbrium irio l., 1753 remark: guest (1933) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 8 specimens; fl and fr: feb.-may. distribution in iraq: khanaqin, mandali, rawa, karbala, shabicha, khalis, diyala, amara, kut, aqarquf, rustamiya, abu ghraib and haditha (townsend and guest, 1980b). 336 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (2): 315-356. investigation of wild land plants global distribution: north africa, asia and europe, south africa, (tiwari and bhargava, 2021); north america and australia (angelo and boufford, 2011). genus, schimpera steud. & hochst. ex endl., 1839 schimpera arabica hochst. & steud. ex steud., 1816 remark: zohary (1950) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 4 specimens; fl and fr.: feb.apr. distribution in iraq: jabal hamrin, baghdad, shahraban, jalaula, muqdadiya, ramadi, nukhaib, rawa, falluja, samarra, zarqa, jumaima, samawa, um qasr, zubair, abul-khassib, nasiriya, umam ibrahim, jabal sanam and basra (townsend and guest, 1980b). global distribution:turkey, syria, palestine, lebanon, caucasus, iran, europe, cyprus, jordan, arabia, kuwait, pkistan, afghanistan, n africa (libya to morocco), n america, australia (townsend and guest, 1980b). genus, clypeola l., 1753 clypeola jonthlaspi l., 1753 remark: zohary (1950) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 5 specimens; fl and fr.: mar.-may. distribution in iraq: sinjar, shaqlawa, jabal maklub, bashiqa, dokan, khanaqin, muqdadiya, rawa and jarmo (townsend and guest, 1980b). global distribution:turkey, sinai, egypt, caucasus, iran, jordan, pkistan, afghanistan, n africa (libya to morocco), c. asia ( aralo-caspian to tian shan) (townsend and guest, 1980b). genus, matthiola r.br. 1812 matthiola longipetala (vent.) dc., 1821 remark: zohary (1950) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 4 specimens; fl and fr.: feb.apr. distribution in iraq: balad sinjar, baiji, kirkuk, baba gurgur, rowanduz, arbil, chamchamal, qaiyara, samarra, balad, qaim, rutba, ramadi, nukhaib, karbala, jabal muwailih, rawa, shanicha, zubaida, nukhaib, basra, zubair, baghdad, khan bani sad, nahrwan, bsra and najan (townsend and guest, 1980b). global distribution:s e europe (greece, s. russia), aegean isles, turkey, syria, sanai, egypt, lebanon, , iran, jordan, kuwait, arabia, cyprus,, n africa (libya) (townsend and guest, 1980b). genus, zuvanda (dvořák) askerova, 1985 zuvanda crenulata (dc.) askerova, 1985 remark: zohary (1950) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 3 specimens; fl. and fr.: apr.-may. global distribution: palestine, jordan, syria, armenia, saudi arabia, turkey, lebanon, zambia and egypt (townsend and guest, 1980b). 337 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-joboury and zurgany genus, strigosella boiss., 1854 strigosella grandiflora (bunge) botsch., 1972 remark: rechinger (1964) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 5 specimens; fl and fr.:feb.-may. distribution in iraq: jabal hamrin, mansuriya, badra, falluja, wadi thirthar, samarra, ramadi, falluja, karbala, zubair, nukhaila, zubair, um qasar, babylon, khanaqin, safwan, ghubaishiya, shithatha and balad (townsend and guest, 1980b). global distribution: syria, kueait, arabia, iran, w pakistan, afghanistan and c. asia (turkmenia to kazakhstan) (townsend and guest, 1980b). genus, neotorularia hedge & j.léonard, 1986 neotorularia torulosa (desf.) hedge & j.léonard, 1986 remark: zohary (1950) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 5 specimens; fl. and fr.:apr.-jun. distribution: ukraine, jordan, jordan, spain, turkey, spain, morocco, georgia, armenia, turkmenistan, syria, morocco and cyprus (townsend and guest, 1980b). genus, erucaria gaertn., 1791 erucaria hispanica (l.) druce, 1914 remark: rechinger (1964) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 6 specimens; fl and fr.:feb.jul. distribution in iraq: jabal sinjar, kirkuk, jalaula, khanaqin, badra, qaim, haditha, ramadi, shabicha, jabal muwailih, sammarra, balad, rutba and nukhaib (townsend and guest, 1980b). global distribution: s e europe, crete, aegaean, isles, lebanon, jordan, cyprus, turkey, sinai, syria, egypt, palestine, arabia, iran, bahrain, n. africa and w pakistan (townsend and guest, 1980b). genus, lepidium l., 1753 lepidium draba l., 1753 remark: rechinger (1964) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 9 specimens; fl and fr.: mar.aug. distribution in iraq: zawita, salah al-din, diyala, baquba, baghdad, basra, amara, babylon, azizya and samarra (townsend and guest, 1980b). global distribution: western asia, iran, turkey, armenia, syria, e europe, n america, africa and algeria (naser et al., 2019). family, capparaceae juss., 1789 remark: in flora of iraq this family named capparidaceae, 1936 (townsend and guest, 1980a). genus, capparis l., 1753 capparis spinose l., 1753 remark: guest (1933) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 15 specimens; fl. and fr.:apr.-may. 338 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (2): 315-356. investigation of wild land plants distribution in iraq: jabal singar, zakho, samarra, baquba, zurbatiya, mosul, abu graib, rownduz, rustamiya, sadiya and mosul (townsend and guest, 1980a). global distribution: n e africa, asia, indonesia, australia, and oceania (annaz et al., 2022); morroco to crimea, armernia, iran, spain, moroccourkey and italy (mollica et al., 2019); mediterranean, s europe (altameme and abidhuda 2018). family, convolvulaceae juss., 1789 genus, convolvulus l. 1753 convolvulus arvensis l. 1753 material examind: 7 specimens; fl. and fr.:apr.-may. global distribution: europe and asia, mediterranean region and macaronesia (alwan and hamad, 2020). family, caryophyllaceae juss., 1789 genus, herniaria l., 1753 herniaria hemistemon j.gay, 1847 remark: rechinger (1964) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 5 specimens; fl and fr.: feb.apr. distribution in iraq: samarra, jabal sinjar, jumaima, falluja, khalis, tikrit, rutba, zafaraniya and smawa (townsend and guest, 1980a). global distribution: north africa and asia, spanning from morocco to iran (ghareeb et al., 2023); egypt (elhagali et al., 2019). family, cistaceae juss., 1789 genus, helianthemum mill., 1754 helianthemum lippii (l.) dum.cours., 1802 remark: guest (1933) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 4 specimens; fl. and fr.: mar.may. distribution in iraq: kirkuk, jabal himrin, mandali, zerbatiya, amara, karbala, samarra, ansab, zubair, jabal sanam, falluja, basra, nukhaib, rutba, lake tharthar and baghdad (townsend and guest, 1980a). global distribution: s europe, syria, lebanon, palestine, jordan, sinai, egypt, n arabia, kuwait, iran, w pakistan and n africa (townsend and guest, 1980a). helianthemum aegyptiacum (l.) mill., 1768 remark: guest (1933) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 4 specimens; fl. and fr.:mar.-apr. distribution in iraq: jarmo, arbil, rutba, baiji, khanaqin, jalaula and tuz (townsend and guest, 1980a). global distribution: mediterranean europe, cyprus, syria, palestine, jordan, egypt, turkey, iran, n africa and n sudan (townsend and guest, 1980a). family, fabaceae lindl., 1836 genus, alhagi tourn. ex gagnebin, 1755 339 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-joboury and zurgany alhagi graecorum boiss., 1849 remark: rechinger (1964) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 12 specimens; fl. and fr.:mar.-jul. distribution in iraq: sulaimaniya, mosul, kirkuk, falluja, , baghdad, shamiya, babylon, hilla, diyala, dabouni, kut,bani said, qurna and basra (townsend and guest, 1974). global distribution: uk (hawar et al., 2022); iran (esmaeilzadeh-hosseini and salehi, 2021); turkey, syria, palestine (al-snafi, 2015); aegean isles, lebanon, sinai, se europe (greece), kuwait, n africa ( libya, algeria,), rhodes, cyprus, bahrain, caucasus, jordan, egypt and arabia (townsend and guest, 1974). genus, prosopis l., 1767 prosopis farcta (banks & sol.) j.f.macbr., 1919 remark: zohary (1950) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 8 specimens; fl. and fr.:mar.-jun. distribution in iraq: zakho, atrush, between harir and baba chichak, rowanduz, mosul, arbil, kirkuk, jalaula, khanaquin, badra, jabal al-muwaila, khalis, falluja, bahr al-milh, shithatha, salman, thulaima, jumaima, sudur mansuriya, abu ghraib, baghdad, rustamiya, babylon, n‘amaniya, amara, bank of shatt al-arab, between basra and fao (townsend and guest, 1974). global distribution: libya (sh-hoob et al., 2021); iran, türkiye, syria, palestine, aegean isles, lebanon, sinai, se europe (greece), kuwait, n africa ( libya, algeria,), rhodes, cyprus, bahrain, caucasus, jordan, egypt and arabia (townsend and guest, 1974). genus, astragalus l., 1753 astragalus fasciculifolius boiss., 1843 remark: al-rawi (1964) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 8 specimens; fl. and fr.:apr.-may. distribution: iran (sadeghi et al., 2023). astragalus duplostrigosus post & beauverd, 1932 remark: zohary (1950) recorded this species for iraq. remark: in flora of iraq this species called astragalus hamrinensis hausskn. & bornm., but in gbif secretariat (2023c), it is considered a synonym for astragalus duplostrigosus post & beauverd. material examind: 7 specimens; fl. and fr.:feb.-may. distribution in iraq: jabal bashiqa, jabal hamrin, adhaim, injana, mansuriya, shahraban, euphrates, between baiji and bagga, baiji, samarra, rutba, amrah, wadi hauran and karbala (townsend and guest, 1974). global distribution: iran (townsend and guest, 1974). astragalus dactylocarpus boiss., 1843 remark: zohary (1950) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 7 specimens; fl and fr.: mar.jul. 340 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (2): 315-356. investigation of wild land plants distribution in iraq: zakho, madhiq, jarmo, sinjar, julaimid, shargat, baiji, jabal makhul, arbil, between baba gurgur and kirkuk, tuz, samarra, injana, quraitu, khanaqin, jabal darawishka, between qizil robat and jabal hamrin, sharaban, kazariya, mandali, badra, jabal muwailih, amara, euphrates and baiji haditha (townsend and guest, 1974). global distribution: türkiye, jordan and iran (townsend and guest, 1974). astragalus spinosus (forssk.) muschl., 1907 remark: guest (1933) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 6 specimens; fl and fr. feb-jun. distribution in iraq: chemchemal, mosul, jabal makhul, kirkuk, jabal hamrin, khanaqin, jabal darawishka, muqdadiya, mandali, badra, jabal muwailih, amara, khumran, samarra, falluja, qaim, rutba, baghdad, nukhaib, karbala, ukhaidhir, abu sukhair, shabicha, ruhba, salman, abu ghar, busaiya, nukhaila, zubair, jabal sanam, um qasr, falluja and baghdad (townsend and guest, 1974). global distribution: syria, lebanon, palestine, jordan, sinai, egypt, arabia, kuwait and iran (townsend and guest 1974). genus, lathyrus l., 1753 lathyrus annuus l, 1753 remark: guest (1933) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 7 specimens; fl and fr.: apr.jun. distribution in iraq: baghdad, samaraa, bghdad, amara, babylon and tarmiya (townsend and guest 1974). global distribution: mediterranean, europe, aegaean isles, cyprus, syria, lebanon, palestine, macaronesia and n africa (townsend and guest, 1974). genus, glycyrrhiza tourn. ex l., 1753 glycyrrhiza glabra l., 1753 remark: guest (1933) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 8 specimens; fl and fr.: jun-sep. distribution in iraq: dohuk, between salah ad-din and shaqlawa, debis, kirkuk, chamchamal, sulaimaniya, nineveh, gerwona, between mosul and aqra, jabal hamrin, sangar, khanaqin, qasr, baghdad, z‘faraniya, khalis, b‘aquba, hilla, amara, between basra and abul-khassib, between basra and fao (townsend and guest, 1974). global distribution: egypt (zadeh et al., 2013); asia, mediterranean (townsend and guest, 1974). family, geraniaceae juss., 1789 genus, erodium l'hér., 1789 erodium cicutarium (l.) l'hér.,1789 remark: blakelock (1948) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 8 specimens; fl and fr.:apr.jun. global distribution: kuwait, lebanon, palestine, jordan, syria, taiwan, türkiye, iran, afghanistan, armenia, georgia, azerbaijan, russian, federation, pakistan, china, india, 341 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-joboury and zurgany nepal, kazakhstan, kyrgyzstan, turkmenistan, uzbekistan, tajikistan belarus, estonia, latvia, belgium lithuania, moldova, austria, germany, hungary, netherlands, czech poland, slovakia, switzerland, denmark, ireland, albania, norway, sweden, united kingdom, bulgaria, croatia, greece, finland romania, serbia and slovenia (al-snafi, 2017). family, lythraceae j.st.-hil., 1805 genus, lythrum l., 1735 lythrum hyssopifolia l., 1753 remark: rechinger (1964) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 4 specimens; fl. and fr.: aprjun. distribution in iraq: zhkho, chamchamel, diyala, takrit, khalis and aziziya (townsend and guest, 1980a). global distribution: s europe, s e africa and asia (townsend and guest, 1980a). family, malvaceae juss., 1789 genus, malva l., 1753 malva nicaeensis all., 1785 remark: zohary (1950) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 12 specimens; fl. and fr.:mar.-may. global distribution türkiye (renda et al., 2021); mediterranean europe, aegaean isles, cyprus, syria, lebanon, palestine, jordan, arabia, iran, caucasus, iran, n africa, macaronesia and asia (townsend and guest, 1980a). family, plumbaginaceae juss., 1789 genus, psylliostachys (jaub. & spach) nevski, 1937 psylliostachys spicatus (willd.) nevski, 1937 remark: rechinger (1964) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 2 specimens; fl. and fr.: marapr. distribution in iraq: tuz, jabal hamrin, mandali, jazira, kut, baghdad, amara, basra and fao (townsend and guest, 1980a). global distribution: syria palestine, arabia, iran, azerbaijan and turkmenistan (townsend and guest, 1980a). family, plantaginaceae juss., 1789 genus, plantago l. 1753 plantago lagopus l., 1753 remark: zohary (1950) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 10 specimens; fl. and fr.: marapr. distribution in iraq: zawita, dohuk, jabal maqlub, mosul, tuz, khanaqin, samarra, baquba, diyala, falluja, shahraban, abu ghraib, amara and kut (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2013). global distribution:egypt (behiry et al., 2022); syria, kuwait, palestine, iran, mediterranean, s europe, n africa, caucasus, afghanistan and pakistan (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2013). 342 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (2): 315-356. investigation of wild land plants plantago afra, 1762 remark: zohary (1950) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 3 specimens; fl. and fr.:feb.jun. distribution in iraq: darband-i-khan, sulaimaniya, dohuk, mosul liwa, arbil, zurbatiya, khanaqin, badra, jaybabal makhal, ain dis and salah al-din(ghazanfar and edmondson, 2013). global distribution: egypt (eda., 2022b); mediterranean, asia and n africa (mohsenzadeh et al., 2020). family, papaveraceae juss., 1789 genus, fumaria l., 1753 remark: in flora of iraq this genus it was diagnosed within the fumariaceae family (townsend andguest, 1980b). fumaria parviflora lam., 1788 remark: rechinger (1964) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 2 specimens; fl. and fr.:mar.jun. distribution in iraq: sinjar, dohuk, aqra, shaqlawa, jarmo, mosul, arbil, namrud, kirkuk, rutba, wadi hauran, haditha, rustamiya, babylon and basra (townsend andguest, 1980b). global distribution: syria, palestine, arabia, iran, türkiye, iran, europe, cyprus, n america, n africa, morocco, algeria, egypt, ethiopia, lebanon, sinai, kuwait, w pakistan, afghanistan, and asia (townsend and guest, 1980b). genus, hypecoum l., 1753 hypecoum pendulum l., 1753 remark: guest (1933) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 5 specimens; fl. and fr.:mar.jun. distribution in iraq: balad sinjar, baghdad, samarra, falluja, shabicha, rutba, nukhaib, haditha, khanaqin, mosul, tal afar and karbala. global distribution: syria, palestine, arabia, iran, türkiye, iran, europe, cyprus, n america, n africa, morocco, algeria, egypt, lebanon, sinai, kuwait, w pakistan, afghanistan, asia, w siberia, india, macaronsia (canary), s russia, aegean isles, jordan, kuwait and caucasus (townsend and guest, 1980b). family, primulaceae batsch ex borkh. (1797) genus, lysimachia tourn. ex l., 1753 lysimachia arvensis subsp. arvensis u. manns & anderb, 2009 remark: zohary (1950) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 5 specimens; fl. and fr.: mar.apr. distribution in iraq: gara dagh, diyala, jabal al-muwaila, shithatha, smawa, amara, daltawa, fao, mosul, kirkuk, fuuhaimi, shitatha, baghdad and heditha (townsend and guest, 1980a). global distribution: egypt, palestine, s america, taiwan and india (yasmeen et al., 2020). 343 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-joboury and zurgany family, resedaceae martinov., 1820 genus, reseda l. 1753 reseda alba l., 1753 remark: guest (1933) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 5 specimens; fl and fr.: feb.may. distribution in iraq: rawa, wadi al-battikha, nukhaib, rutba, banks of zab, kirkuk, qaraghan and nukhaib (townsend and guest, 1980). global distribution: türkiye (çilden et al., 2021); n america (angelo and boufford, 2011); lebanon, jordan, s europe, aegean isles, crete, türkiye, sinai, , syria and egypt (townsend and guest, 1980a). family, rubiaceae gen pl., 1789 genus, galium l. 1753 galium spurium l., 1753 remark: guest (1933) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 5 specimens; fl and fr.: mar.jun. distribution in iraq: amadiya, rowanduz, jarmo, dokan sulaimaniya, baghdad, amara, samarra, khurmal, basra, amara, arbil, great zab penjwin and samarra (townsend and guest, 1980a). global distribution: s europe, syria, labanon, türkiye, iran, palestine and n africa (townsend and guest, 1980a). galium aparine l., 1753 remark: zohary (1950) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 7 specimens; fl and fr.: mar.jun. distribution in iraq: aqra, qaradagh, baghdad and chemchamal (townsend and guest, 1980a). global distribution: all europe, egypt syria, labanon, türkiye, caucasus, pakistan, iran, palestine and n africa (townsend and guest, 1980a). family, rutaceae juss., 1789 genus, haplophyllum a.juss., 1825 haplophyllum tuberculatum (forssk.) a.juss., 1825 remark: zohary (1950) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 3 specimens; fl. and fr.: apr.-jun. distribution in iraq: balad sinjar, harir, ankawa, rownduz, kirkuk, injana, khanaqin, mandali, badra, amara, ain al hasan, aqra, badra, fakka, jabal makhul, arbil, naft khana, shargat, mosul, baba gurgur and jabal al-muwailih (townsend and guest, 1980a). global distribution: türkiye, syria, palestine, jordan, sinai, egypt, arabia, kuwait, iran, pakistan, afghanistan, n africa and sudan (townsend and guest, 1980a). family, salicaceae mirb., 1815 genus, populus l., 1753 populus euphratica olivier, 1807 344 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (2): 315-356. investigation of wild land plants remark: guest (1933) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 7 specimens; fl. and fr.: mar.jun. distribution in iraq: amadiya, rowanduz, qara dagh, mosul, khanaqin, mandali, zurbatiya, samarra, babylon, karbala, samara, rustamiya, zafaraniya, nasiriya, kut and amara (townsend and guest, 1980a). global distribution: spain, syria, palestine, jordan, egypt, türkiye, caucasus, iran, w pakistan, afghanistan, asia and n africa (ruisheng and dong, 2005). populus nigra l., 1753 remark: guest (1933) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 5 specimens; fl. and fr.:mar.may. distribution in iraq: bakrajo, rustamiya and zafaraniya (townsend and guest, 1980a). global distribution: europe, british isles, mediterranean, n africa, kazakstan and china (de rigo et al., 2016). genus, salix l., 1753 salix acmophylla boiss., 1846 remark: guest (1933) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 4 specimens; fl and fr.:mar.may. distribution in iraq: jabal sinjar, amadiya, sersang, aqra, khanaqin, baghdad, daltawa, karbala, rustamiya, abu ghraib, babylon, amara, qurna, basra and fao (townsend and guest, 1980a). global distribution: india (capuana et al., 2022); syria, lebanon, palestine, jordan, türkiye, iran, w pkistan, afghanistan and asia (townsend and guest, 1980a). family, solanaceae juss., 1789 genus, physalis l., 1753 physalis angulate l., 1753 remark: alallaq (2012) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 10 specimens; fl. and fr.: mar.jun. global distribution: libya (mahklouf, 2019) and syria (mahklouf, 2016). genus, lycium l., 1753 lycium barbarum l., 1753 material examind: 5 specimens; fl and fr.: mar.-apr. distribution in iraq: baghdad (hasan et al., 2023). family, tamaricaceae link., 1821 genus, tamarix l., 1753 tamarix arceuthoides bunge, 1851 remark: rawi (1964) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 9 specimens; fl and fr.:mar.may. 345 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-joboury and zurgany distribution in iraq: sulaimaniya, mosul, great-zab, kirkuk, tuz, jabal hamrin, mandali, jabal al-muwailiah, euphrates, quaim, jadida, baghdad, garma, falluja, hilla, kut, nasiriya, diyala, baquba, amara and basra (townsend and guest, 1980). global distribution: china (wang et al., 2023), iran and north of evaniki (villar et al., 2019). tamarix ramosissima ledeb., 1829 remark: guest (1932) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 5 specimens; fl and fr.: mar.jun. distribution in iraq: mosul, nineveh, between arbil and rowanduz, rawa, tikrit, baghdad, rustamiya, abu ghraib, babylon and amara (townsend and guest, 1980a). global distribution: in the arid and semi-arid areas for continental asia, north africa, s africa and europe (wang et al., 2023). tamarix brachystachys bunge, 1852 remark: zohary (1950) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 5 specimens; fl. and fr.: apr.-may. distribution in iraq: baidha, khanzad, hawija, wadi fuhaimi, wadi thirthar, hadhr, between ramadi and shithatha, karbala, between karbala, hilla and najf, rustamiya, abughraib, mahmudiya, diyala, ba‘quba, salman pak, baghdad-kut highway, kut, amara and basra (townsend and guest, 1980a). global distribution: europe, caucasus, iran and asia (townsend and guest, 1980a). tamarix aphylla (l.) h.karst., 1881gez remark: rechinger (1964) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 5 specimens; fl and fr.: jundec. distribution in iraq: ramadi, rutba, busaiya, shaiba, baghdad, falluja and basra (townsend and guest, 1980a). global distribution: africa, asia, mediterranean, america and australia (villar et al., 2022). family, urticaceae juss., 1789 genus, urtica l., 1753 urtica urens l., 1753 remark: zohary (1950) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 10 specimens; fl and fr.:mar.may. distribution in iraq: sinjar, baghdad, kut, amara and mosul (townsend and guest, 1980a). family, zygophyllaceae r. br., 1814 genus, fagonia l., 17531 fagonia glutinosa delile, 1813 remark: rechinger (1964) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 4 specimens; fl. and fr.: febjun. distribution in iraq: habbaniya, falluja, karbala, balad, ansab, zubair, busaiya, shabicha and wadi al khirr (townsend and guest, 1980a). 346 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (2): 315-356. investigation of wild land plants global distribution: palestine, jordan, sinai, egypt, arabia, kuwait and n africa (townsend and guest, 1980a). family, cyperaceae juss., 1789 genus, cyperus l., 1753 cyperus rotundus l., 1753 remark: guest (1933) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 4 specimens; fl. and fr.: may-oct. distribution in iraq: rawi, salah ad-din, mosul, nineveh, mandali, south of shithatha, balad, garma, falluja, abu ghraib, baghdad, khalis, rustamiya, z‘faraniya, mahmudiya, hilla, graham, suwaira, bablyon, shatra, diwaniya, aziziya, kut and basra (townsend and guest, 1985). global distribution: syria, europe, cyprus, india, china, iran, jordan, lebanon, n africa, macaronesia, s amrica, aegaean isles, palestine and n australia (townsend and guest, 1985). cyperus michelianus (l.) delile, 1813 remark: rawi (1964) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 6 specimens; fl. and fr.:jul.oct. distribution in iraq: falluja and baghdad (townsend and guest, 1985). global distribution:east mediterranean europe, syria, palestine, jordan, egypt, türkiye, s iran, india, malaysia, australia, china, japan, new guinea, philippines and tropical africa (townsend and guest, 1985). family, iridaceae juss., 1789 genus, gladiolus tourn. ex l., 1753 gladiolus atroviolaceus boiss., 1854 remark: guest (1933) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 3 specimens; fl. and fr.:apr.-may. distribution in iraq: between kirkuk and chamchamal, sulaimaniya, balad, sinjar and hamam alil (townsend and guest, 1985). global distribution: jordan (al-jabera et al., 2019); syria, palestine, iran, türkiye, lebanon, afghanistan, transcaucasia and c. asia (turkmenia) (townsend and guest, 1985). family, poaceae barnhart, 1895 genus, eremopyrum (ledeb.) jaub. & spach, 1851 eremopyrum bonaepartis (spreng.) nevski, 1933 remark: rawi (1964) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 7 specimens; fl. and fr.:mar.-may. distribution in iraq: b‘aj, baidha, sinjar, tal afar, rutba, ramadi, karbala, rawa, wadi thirthar, falluja, samarra, baghdad, kut-amara and badra (townsend and guest, 1968). global distribution: türkiye (cabi and doğan, 2010); syria, palestine, jordan, sinai, egypt, caucasus, iran, central asia, w pakistan, afghanistan and india (townsend and guest, 1968). 347 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-joboury and zurgany genus, schismus p. beauv. 1812 schismus arabicus nees, 1841 remark: zohary (1950) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 5 specimens; fl. and fr.:mar.-apr. distribution in iraq: tuz, rutba, ramadi, baghdad, babylon, fallujah, samarra, busaiya, zubair and jebel sanam (townsend and guest, 1968). global distribution: сhina, (olonova et al., 2021); europe (sicily, balkans), aegaean isles, rhodes, cyprus, syria, palestine, jordan, egypt, arabia, türkiye, caucasus, iran, pakistan, afghanistan, tunisia, libya, n america, s australia and india (townsend and guest, 1968). genus, sphenopus steenstrup, 1856 sphenopus divaricatus (gouan) rchb., 1830 remark: guest (1933) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 5 specimens; fl. and fr.: mar-apr. distribution in iraq: qaiyara, tuz, khanaqin, rawa, zubair, amara, basra, tikrit, baghdad, wadi thirthar, aziziya and kirkuk (townsend and guest, 1968). global distribution: mediterranean europe, cyprus, syria, palestine, jordan, sinai, egypt, arabia, türkiye, caucasus, iran, kuwait, bahrain, asia, n africa, macaronesia and australia (townsend and guest, 1968). genus, bromus l., 1753 bromus lanceolatus roth, 1797 remark: guest (1933) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 6 specimens; fl. and fr.: apr.-jun. distribution in iraq: aqra, darband-i khan, tanjaro valley, wadi thirthar, baghdad, amaran and abul-khassib (townsend and guest, 1968). global distribution: s e europe (balkans), cyprus, lebanon, syria, palestine, egypt, türkiye, caucasus, iran, afghanistan, c. asia and n africa (townsend and guest, 1968). genus, phragmites adans., 1763 phragmites australis (cav.) trin. ex steud., 1841 remark: guest (1933) recorded this species for iraq. material examind: 12 specimens; fl. and fr.: may-dec. distribution in iraq: zawita, haji umran, jabal hamrin, baghdad, rustamiya, mahmudiya, babylon and amara (townsend and guest, 1968). global distribution: türkiye, syria, korea, japan, n africa, palestine, india, iran, afghanistan, siberia and china (townsend and guest, 1968). conclusions the current study that a large number of dicotyledon plants were widespread in the study areas despite the neglect these areas have suffered. the botanical diversity of wild plants continues to flourish, with dicotyledons plants characterized by the wide distribution of their species. many of these species have spread with a distinct density, especially the asteraceae. the number of plant species recorded reached 30, distributed across most of the study areas, 348 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (2): 315-356. investigation of wild land plants while it was observed that a number of plant families were represented by only one family, also, monocotyledons plants were collected, which spread in a much lower numbers of types and densities compared to dicotyledons, which were represented by three plant families: cyperaceae, iridaceae and poaceae. conflict of interest statement "the authors have no conflicts for interest to declare". literature cited aati, h. y., perveen, s., orfali, r., al-taweel, a. m., peng, j., tabassum, s. and taglialatela-scafati, o. 2021. phytochemical analysis of anvillea garcinii leaves: identification of garcinamines f–h and their antiproliferative activities. plants, 10(6): 1130. 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(2024) 18 (2): 315-356. دراسة النباتات البرية في منطقة ضفاف نهر الدجيل، محافظة صالح الدين، شمال بغداد، العراق د الزركانيلبنى مجي خنساء رشيد الجبوري و العراق., بغداد, بغداد جامعة, الطبيعي التاريخ ومتحف بحوث مركز 20/12/2024، النشر: 5/8/2024القبول: ،29/7/2024املراجعة: ، 8/12/2023االستالم: الخالصة في الدراسة الحالية تم جمع النباتات البرية في منطقة ضفاف نهر الدجيل, محافظة بغداد, العراق وذلك في فترة التزهير واالثمار لهذه النباتات خالل صالح الدين, شمال , وتم تشخيصها, وقد 2023االشهر: شباط, نيسان, حزيران, اب وتشرين االول في اظهرت النتائج ان عدد النباتات التي تم جمعها بلغ مئة واربعة انواع, والتي تعود لتسعة عشرين عائلة من ذوات الفلقتين منها ست وعشرين عائلة نباتية, والتي تتضمن ستة و وسبعين جنسا نباتيا وستة وتسعون نوعا, وكانت العائلة املركبة االكثر تنوع واملتضمنة اربعة وعشرون نوعا نباتيا تتبع بالعائلة الصليبية باثنا عشر نوعا نباتيا, بينما تم , apocynaceaeتشخيص ثالثة عشر عائلة نباتية من خالل نوع نباتي واحد وهي: berberidaceae ,capparaceae ,caryophyllaceae ,convolvulaceae , geraniaceae ,lythraceae ,malvaceae ,papaveraceae ,plumbaginaceae , primulaceae ,rutaceae و ,urticaceae . باالضافة الى نباتات احادية الفلقة واملتضمنة االكثر تنوعا مع خمس اجناس نت العائلة النجيليةسبع اجناس وثمان انواع نباتية, وكا وخمس انواع تتبع بالعائلة السعدية بتشخيص جنس نباتي واحد ونوعين. bull 395 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum fazaa et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2024) 18 (2): 395-429. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2024.18.2.0395 original article new records of some digenetic trematodes in some marine fishes from iraq hassan a. fazaa*, ** atheer h. ali* and hussein a. saud*** *department of fisheries and marine resources, college of agriculture, university of basrah, iraq. **department of animal production, college of agriculture, university of al-muthanna, samawah, iraq. ***department of pathological analyses, college of science, university of basrah, iraq. corresponding author e-mail: atheeralibu@gmail.com received: 27 july 2024, revised:09 oct. 2024, accepted: 10 oct. 2024, published:20 december 2024 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract a parasitological investigation of diagenetic trematodes in three fish species from iraqi marine territorial waters was conducted from december 2021 to december 2022. the study identified five trematode species belonging to the families hemiuridae, acanthocolpidae, and opecoelidae. lecithocladium angustiovum yamaguti, 1953, found in the intestines of the black pomfret parastromateus niger (bloch, 1795) (hemiuridae). three species of acanthocolpid trematodes, monostephanostomum loossi (pandey & tewari, 1984), stephanostomum ditrematis (yamaguti, 1939), and stephanostomum sp., were recorded in the greater amberjack seriola dumerili (risso, 1810) additionally, pseudopecoeloides tenuis yamaguti, 1940 (opecoelidae) was recorded in the purple-spotted bigeyes priacanthus tayenus richardson, 1810. except for l. angustiovum, all of these parasites were recorded for the first time in iraq and the arabian gulf. keywords: arabian gulf, fish, iraq, marine, monogenoidea, parasite. introduction black pomfret parastromateus niger (bloch, 1795) is commercially important fish species in the arabian gulf region. it feeds on phytoplankton, zooplanktons, crustaceans and annelids (dadzie, 2007). the greater amberjack seriola dumerili (risso, 1810), a large predatory fish of commercial significance, is distributed globally, inhabiting tropical and warm temperate seas. its range includes the indo-west pacificfrom south africa to the arabian gulf, southern japan, the hawaiian islands, and south to new caledonia as well as the western and eastern atlantic. purple-spotted bigeyes priacanthus tayenus richardson, 1846 which feeds on a variety of benthic organisms, is considered a minor commercial species (froese and pauly, 2024). bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799, print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2024.18.2.0395 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1522-3592 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2541-968x https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5342-0146 mailto:atheeralibu@gmail.com https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 396 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus 18 (2): 395-429. new records of some digenetic in iraq research on parasites in the fish species targeted in the current study has been limited; p. niger has been to be only infected with lecithocladium bulbolabrum reid, coil & kuntz, 1966 (=lecithocladium angustiovum yamaguti, 1953) by mohammad (2010); p. tayenus has been found to host a cestode plerocercus of callitetrarhynchus sp. (al-hajjaj, 2021), fourth larval nematode hysterothylacium sp. type bi (al-hajjaj, 2021; ali and mizher, 2023) and a diplectanid monogenoid oliveriplectanum robustitubum (wu & li, 2003) (kritsky et al., 2024). however, for parasitological report (s) detected on s. dumerili. lecithocladium lühe, 1901 comprises 50 valid species (worms, 2024); although seven species are known from pakistan: l. arii bilqees, khatoon, shabbir, shaukat, muti-urrehman & khan, 2005, l. cybii shaukat & bilqees, 2011, l. karachiense shaukat & bilqees, 2010; l. lateropharyngium shaukat, bilqees, haseeb & matiur-rehman, 2008, l. magnasoma shaukat & bilqees, 2007, l. olivacae bilqees, khatoon, khan & mutiurrehman, 2006 and l. thynense bilqees & nighat, 1985; only l. karachiense has been described from the stomach of the black pomfret p. niger (shaukat and bilqees, 2010). l. unibulborum fischthal & thomas, 1971 has been isolated from the stomach of the malabar travelly platycaranx malabaricus (bloch & schneider, 1801) from the uae coast (kardousha, 2003). according to cribb et al. (2002), the genus stephanostomum looss, 1899 is ranked the second richest genus of digenea that infect fishes, with 108 valid species belonging to this genus, including six species isolated from s. dumerili (saoud et al., 2002; cribb et al., 2003; worms, 2024). in contrast, the genus monostephanostomum kruse, 1979 is characterised by a single row of large oral spines, compared to the species stephanostomum, which have two rows of large oral spines (madhavi and bray, 2018). the opecoelidae ozaki 1925 comprises over 800 species and 85 genera, including pseudopecoeloides yamaguti, 1940, which contains 25 valid species (cribb, 2005; martin et al., 2018). species this genus are categorized into two phenotypic groups based on the ratio of the ventral sucker to the oral sucker. group a includes species in which the oral sucker is larger than the ventral sucker, while group b includes species in which the ventral sucker is equal to or greater than the oral sucker (aken’ova et al., 2009). this study aims to describe some trematode species recorded from commercial fishes for the first time in iraq and the arabian gulf to enhance understanding of the diversity of these parasites in marine fish populations in the region. materials and methods fishes were collected from iraqi marine waters by fishermen during the period from december 2021 to december 2022. the fish were kept in a cool box filled with crushed ice and transported to the fish diseases and parasites laboratory at the department of fisheries and marine resources, college of agriculture, university of basrah. the targeted fishes were identified according to carpenter et al. (1997) and verified using fricke et al. (2024). the fish species examined 39 parastromateus niger (bloch, 1795) and three seriola dumerili 397 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum fazaa et al. richardson, 1846 (both carangidae) as well as 240 pricanthus tayenus richardson, 1846 (priacanthidae). the fish were dissected, examined for parasites and the isolated specimens were then, washed and fixed in hot 5% formalin (justine et al., 2012), stained in mayerschuberg's aceto carmine and mounted in canada balsam. all morphometric measurements were taken in micrometers. the ecological terms used in the current study followed the guidelines set by bush et al. (1997). results and discussion family hemiuridae looss, 1899 genus lecithocladium lühe, 1901 lecithocladium angustiovum yamaguti, 1953 host: parastromateus niger (bloch) prevalence and intensity: 38.46%, 4. 53 site of infection: stomach. description and measurements based on 17 specimens (fig. 1, tab. 1): these trematodes have a thick, muscular body with a smooth tegument, reproductive organs present and located behind the large ventral sucker and hind body elongated. oral sucker terminal, deep, and funnel-shaped. pharynx cylindrical in shape, thick and elongated. seminal vesicle typically elongated and oval sometime bulbous in shape. ovary postesticular separated by a distance of 0-312 (unit 138 micrometer) sometimes overlaps with posterior testis. uterus occupies the area between ventral sucker and posterior ovary and reaches the tail (ecosoma). seminal vesicle cylindrical to tubular shape. the genital pore opens at the base of oral sucker. the vitellarium is follicular, formed in 3-4 tubes on each side posterior to the ovary (tab.1). remark: the measurement and biometric characteristics of current specimens were compared with six species that has been isolated mainly from the black pomfret which contains an oral sucker larger than the ventral one (group a, see aken’ova et al., 2009); l. annulatum chauhan, 1945 from the intestine of apolectus niger (=p. niger) from calicut, indian waters, l. apolecti velasquez, 1962 from the intestine of a. niger (=p. niger) from the island of luzon, philippines, l. angustiovum yamaguti, 1953 from the intestine of indian mackerel scomber kanagurta [=rastrilleger kanagurta (cuvier, 1816)] from macassar, south africa; l. excisum (rudolphi, 1819) lühe, 1901 from the intestine of butterfly perch caesioperca lepidoptera (forster, 1801) and the stomach of new zealand blue cod parapercis colias (forster, 1801) from wellington in new zealand; l. excisiforme cohn, 1902 from the intestine of stromateus niger (=p. niger) from the coasts of the arabian sea and bombay, india; l. karachiense shaukat & bilqees, 2010 from the stomach of p. niger from coast of karachi, pakistan (cohn, 1902; velasque, 1962; shaukat and bilqees, 2010; madhavi and lakshmi, 2011; indaryanto et al., 2015; madhavi and bray, 2018) (tab. 2). the extension of the uterus to the middle of the tail, the placement of the ovary at the end of the soma, the some tubular vitellaria extending to the ecsoma; and the eggs measurement, funnel-shaped oral sucker and other biometric characteristics (as shown in table (1)), confirm that the current specimens agree with l. angustiovum, including the proportion of the 398 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus 18 (2): 395-429. new records of some digenetic ecsoma to the total length of the body, suckers ratio, and the ratio of ventral sucker to body width (yamaguti, 1953; indaryanto et al., 2015; madhavi and bray, 2018) (tab. 1). the current specimens differ from l. annulatum, where the uterus in the latter species extends only to the end of the soma rather than reaching the to the ecsoma and it has smaller eggs and the ventral sucker is located in the first sixth of the body (compared to its position at the beginning of the second sixth of the body), the seminal vesicle in l. annulatum is wider than length (chauhan, 1954). table (1): measurements and biometric characters of lecithocladium angustiovum from parastromateus niger. character min-max (mean± standard deviation) body size 6615-12096 (9132± 1488.655)×800–1210(983±142.637) ratio body width to length 1: 5.6-11.5 (9.47±1.823) ecsoma length 2703–5765(4065±978.471) forebody 820–1840(1399±264.845) hindbody 4838–9242(6593±1338.588) oral sucker l ×w 546–945(759±86.981) × 546 – 780(692±62.065) pharynx l ×w 515–983(773±152.167) × 234– 462(385±64.586) ventral sucker l ×w 413–680(541±70.048)×350– 671(478±94.546) sucker width ratio l ×w 1: 0.63-0.81(0.80±0.12) seminal vesicle l ×w 218-1201(566±246.737)–133 × 390(264±69.894) anterior testis l ×w 270–499(369±67.385) × 164-499(309±91.818) posterior testis l ×w 200–507(335±77.743) × 133– 486(291±94.168) distance between posterior testis and ovary 0–328(138±128.548) ovary l ×w 164–390(253±74.411) ×125–390(261±85.001) eggs l ×w 14–19.5(16.272±1.967) × 8–10(9.2) body length without ecsoma 3693 6331.0 (5169±922.965) 399 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum fazaa et al. figure (1): lecithocladium angustiovum yamaguti, 1953 from intestine of parastromateus niger. (a) ventral view, (b) anterior part with protruded cirrus and globular seminal vesicle, (c) terminal genitalia, (d) eggs, (e) the shape of seminal vesicle of globular seminal vesicle. [abbreviations: gp: gonopore, os: oral sucker, ov: ovary, p: pharynx, sv: seminal vesicle, t: testis, v: vitellaria, vs: ventral sucker. scale bars, a-c= 770µm, d=190 µm, e=385 µm]. the current specimens differ from l. apolecti in the location of the testes, ovary, and the extension of the vitellaria, the testes are located in the middle of body, and the overy is located at the end of soma and beginning of ecsoma, and vitellaria do not extend to the tail area. in contrast, vitellaria extend beyond ecsoma, and slightly have smaller eggs. the soma in the current specimens is longer than the ecsoma whereas in l. apolecti soma is shorter than ecsoma (velasquez, 1962; madhavi and bray, 2018). 400 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus 18 (2): 395-429. new records of some digenetic table (2(: comparative measurements and biometric characters of lecithocladium spp. mainly from the black pomfret which possessing an oral sucker larger than the ventral one. s p e c ie s l . a n n u la tu m l . a p o le ct i l . a n g u st io v u m l . ex ci su m l . ex ci si fo rm e l . k a ra c h ie n se l . a n g u st io v u m reference chauhan (1945) velasquez (1962) yamaguti (1953) gibson and bray (1986) cohn (1902) shaukat and bilqees (2010) current study host apolectus niger (=p. niger) a. niger (=p. niger) scomber kanagurta (=rastrilleger kanagurta) scomber scombrus linnaeus, 1758 stromateus niger (=p. niger) p. niger p. niger locality bom, calicut as the island of luzon, philippine s macassar, south africa hugli estuary bom, as arabian sea, pakistan arabian gulf, iraq body length (tl) 9870 1009015370 (3800– 6528) 35007200 3700 8800-8980 661512096 (9132) body width 1100 730-1040 0.1710.257 600-1200 420-780 1330-1390 8001210 (983) fore body: soma length 20.75% 25% 28% 17.9-20% 19-41 (28)% fore body 1137.9 428.5 785.71 600-1100 600-1100 1430-1450 8201840 (1399) ecsoma length 3610 38206910 231975 150-400 1300 4100-4230 27035765 (4065) oral sucker l. 425 170-260 200-300 350-650 420 490-500 546-945 (759) suckers ratio 1: 0.76 1:0.91– 0.99 1:0.63 0.95 1: 0.720.95 1:0.33 1: 0.640.65 1:0.630.81 (0.80) oral sucker width 325 180-451 210-300 380-600 300 750-770 546-780 (692) pharynx l. 379 230-160 200300 500 480 490-500 515-983 (773) pharynx. w. 172.4 69-104 110-150 250 250 380-400 234-462 (385) ventral sucker l. 350 364-418 (140-250) 175-220 300-470 300 480-490 413-680 (541) vent. sucker width 344 120-459 102-120 350-500 100 490-500 35-671 (478) 401 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum fazaa et al. ovary l. 350 46-210 100-130 150-300 210-220 164-390 (253) ovary w. 250 69-230 150-210 280-390 240-250 125-390 (261) anterior testis l. 413.7 69-280 65-87 230-420 230-420 200-210 270499(369) anterior testis w. 241 70-320 57-81 230-430 230-430 180-190 164-499 (309) posterior testis l. 413.7 71370 57-94 243.2 140-150 200-507 (335) posterior testis w. 206.8 69-320 61-86 324.32 160-163 133-486 (291) seminal vesicle l. 250 69-690 120-300 513.5 500-510 2181201 (566) seminal vesicle w. 425 69-240 110-130 189.1 210-220 133-390 (264) egg length 12 18-20 (9-13 15-19 21-24 28-34 14-19.5 (16) egg width 4.8 11-12 (5-6) 7-9 11-14 16-20 8-10 (9.2) the species under current study differs from l. excisum in the distribution of the vitellaria (in the current species, all vitellaria lobes extend back towards the tail, whereas in l.excisum some lobes extend to the anterior of the ovary; additionally, the uterus in the current species extends near the end of the tail, whereas in l. excisum uterus does not reach the tail (manter, 1954; gibson and bray, 1986; indaryanto et al., 2015). the current specimens differ from l. excisiforme by having shorter tail, larger body, pharynx, oral sucker, ventral sucker, and ratio of sucker. some of vitellaria lobes in the current specimens enter the tail area, whereas in l. excisiforme, the vitellaria lobes do not reach the tail. the pharynx is elongated in the current specimen, reaching the ventral sucker with part of it extending beyond, whereas in l. excisiforme, the pharynx reaches a distance before the ventral sucker (cohn, 1902). the current specimens differ from l. karachiensis as they have larger testes relative to the than the ovary, and smaller eggs (shaukat and bilqees, 2010). mohammad (2010) recorded l. bulbolabrum (= l. angustiovum) from the intestine of black pomfret from khor abdullah, iraq. the author mentioned that the species was recorded for the first time in iraq and the arabian gulf, despite having been previously previously recorded in the arabian gulf specifically in kuwaiti waters by al-yamani (1981) from the donkey croaker johnius aneus [=pennahia aneus (bloch, 1793)]. al-kuwari et al. (2001) recorded l. angustiovum from milkfish, chanos chanos (fabricius, 1775), in qatari waters. nahhas and sey (2002) isolated the parasite from shrimp scad caranax kalla [=alepes djedaba (fabricius, 1775)] in kuwaiti waters and they found differences in the location and distribution of the vitellaria. although the current species of parasite was isolated from the same host and sharesa synonymous name, the current study provides 402 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus 18 (2): 395-429. new records of some digenetic additional morphological data and characteristics which are necessary for accurately distinguishing closely related species, especially those that infect the same hosts. family acanthocolpidae lühe, 1906 genus monostephanostomum kruse, 1979 monostephanostomum loossi (pandey & tewari, 1984) saoud, nahhas, al kuwari & ramadan, 2002 host: seriola dumerili (risso, 1810) prevalence and intensity: 66.6%, 5 site of infection: stomach description and measurements (based on 5 specimens, fig. 2, tab. 3): the worms are cylindrical, with their maximum width at the level of the testes. the tissue area directly posterior, ventral sucker is non-spinous, unlike the rest of body parts, especially the area of pharynx and esophagus which reach up to the ventral sucker, which spines extend to the level of seminal vesicle. the oral sucker is vascular in shape and surrounded by a single ring of 3132 blunt, cylindrical spines. the ventral sucker is large, circular and located in the first sixth of body. the caeca bifurcated anteriorly before the ventral sucker. two oval-shaped testes are located near the end of body. the overy is spherical and pretesticular situated in the last quarter the hindbody. the preovarian uterus is located between the ovary and the posterior end of the seminal vesicle. the eggs are large but few in numbers. the vitellaria fill the posttesticular space covering the testes, the posterior region of the body, and the lateral margin of the seminal vesicle (tab. 3). table (3(: measurement and biometric characters of monostephanostomum loossi from seriola dumerili. character min-max (mean± standard deviation) body size 3270-5046 (4547±726.563) ×359-397 (378±13.400) ratio body width: length 8.65-13.53 (12.04) spines number 31-32 forebody (fb) 1285–1512 (1413.74±97.700) hindbody (hb) 1796–3308 (2786±576.687) prepharynx length 680-945 (810±112.311) pharynx 123-179 (160±19.198) × 94.5-132 (118±18.954) oral sucker 78-170 (110±37.757) × 78-359 (201±110.681) ventral sucker (vs) 204-289 (226±35.909)× 179-265 (207±34.222) suckers ratio 1:1.28-2.60 (2.18±0.515) vs length / body length % 4.02-8.84 (5.23±2.030)% ventral sucker: fore body 13.43-22.49. (16.17±3.632)% anterior testis 312-320 (314±3.900) × 179-250 (224±33.525) posterior testis 312-343 (323.7±14.936) ×179-250 (230±34.221) ratio anterior testis: fore body 1:4.12-4.85 (4.43±1.527) ratio anterior testis: hind body 1:5.76-9.57 (8.45) ovary 125-156 (146±18.013) ×140-156 (151±9.238) eggs 61-74 (68.78±4.853)× 47-55 (52±3.311) 403 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum fazaa et al. figure (2): monostephanostomum loossi (pandey & tewari, 1984) from seriola dumerili; (a) ventral view, (b) terminal genitalia, (c) oral sucker, (d) eggs. [abbreviation: c: caecum, eg: egg, gp: gonopore, os: oral sucker, osp: oral spines, ov: ovary, p: pharynx, pp: prepharynx, sv: seminal vesicle, t: testis, v: vitellaria, vs: ventral sucker, vsp: ventral spines. scale bars: a-b= 770µm, c-d=190 µm]. there are nine valid species belonging to monostephanostomum kruse, 1979 (worms, 2024): m. gazzae (shen, 1990) bray & cribb, 2002, from the toothpony gazza minuta (bloch, 1795) in the waters near hainan island, china; m. georgianum bray & cribb, 2002, from the intestine and caeca of arripis georgianus (valenciennes, 1831) off kangaroo island, southern australia, m. krusei reimer, 1983 from the intestine of the white trevally pseudocaranx dentex (bloch & schneider, 1801) along the ningaloo coast in australia, m. loossi (pandey & tewari, 1984), saoud et al. (2002) from euthynnus sp. in the arabian sea and the bay of bengal, m. manteri kruse, 1979 from the intestine and rectum of a. georgianus off the coast of kangaroo island in southern australia. 404 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus 18 (2): 395-429. new records of some digenetic table (4): comparative measurements of and biometric characters of monostephanostomum spp. with m. loossi from seriola dumerili. s p e c ie s m . g a zz a e m . g eo rg ia n u m m . k ru se i m . m a n te ri m . m es o sp in o su m m . n o la n i m . ro y tm a n i m . y a m a g u ti i m . l o o ss i r e fe re n c e b ra y a n d c ri b b (2 0 0 2 ) b ra y a n d c ri b b (2 0 0 2 ) b ra y a n d c ri b b (2 0 0 2 ) b ra y a n d c ri b b (2 0 0 2 ) a b d el -g ab er e t a l. ( 2 0 2 3 ) b ra y a n d c ri b b (2 0 0 7 ) s ao u d e t a l. (2 0 0 2 ) r am ad an (1 9 8 4 ) c u rr en t st u d y t o ta l le n g th (t l ) 2 3 9 8 -2 9 0 4 (2 6 3 8 ) 2 5 0 4 -2 7 0 8 (2 5 9 6 ) 1 2 5 5 -2 5 7 6 (1 8 6 4 ) 6 1 0 2 -7 9 2 3 (6 8 7 0 ) 2 0 7 2 -2 9 6 3 (2 6 0 2 ) 2 5 8 0 -3 3 7 0 3 2 7 0 -5 0 4 6 (4 5 4 7 ) b o d y w id th 1 8 2 -1 9 7 (1 9 2 ) 2 7 3 -2 9 5 (2 8 7 ) 1 9 2 -3 4 9 (2 7 1 ) 2 0 1 -2 4 3 (2 3 1 ) 2 9 3 -4 3 7 (3 4 3 ) 6 4 0 -6 9 0 3 5 9 -3 9 7 (3 7 8 ) o ra l su c k e r l . 5 2 -5 5 ( 5 4 ) 5 1 -6 4 ( 5 8 ) 4 9 -7 3 ( 5 9 ) 7 0 -7 9 ( 7 5 ) 4 3 -1 0 2 ( 7 6 ) 1 2 0 -1 5 0 7 8 -1 7 0 ( 1 1 0 ) o ra l su c k e r w 7 3 -7 9 ( 7 6 ) 1 1 5 -1 2 6 (1 2 0 ) 6 9 -9 8 ( 8 1 ) 9 1 -1 0 3 ( 9 8 ) 8 1 -1 3 4 ( 1 0 9 ) 1 5 0 -2 0 0 7 8 -3 5 9 ( 2 0 1 ) p re p h a r y n x l 3 9 0 -4 2 1 (4 0 1 ) 5 4 9 -8 0 8 (6 6 8 ) 1 6 3 -3 9 7 (2 8 3 ) 5 9 0 -7 2 1 (6 1 1 ) 3 8 9 -9 2 1 (7 0 1 ) 2 0 0 -3 0 0 6 8 0 -9 4 5 (8 1 0 ) p re p h a r y n x : t l 2 1 .9 -2 9 .8 (2 5 .6 ) 1 7 .4 -3 5 .2 (2 6 .9 ) 1 4 -2 2 .6 ( 1 8 ) 405 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum fazaa et al. p h a ry n x l . 6 7 -8 6 ( 7 8 ) 1 5 2 -1 6 8 (1 6 1 ) 5 1 -1 0 2 ( 7 3 ) 1 6 3 -1 8 4 (1 7 2 ) 1 0 1 -2 5 3 (1 7 9 ) 2 2 0 -2 3 0 1 2 3 -1 7 9 (1 6 0 ) p h a ry n x . w . 5 7 -6 2 ( 5 9 ) 7 4 -8 7 ( 8 0 ) 4 9 -7 2 ( 6 2 ) 8 2 -9 4 ( 8 6 ) 5 5 -7 9 ( 6 8 ) 1 7 0 -2 1 0 9 4 .5 -1 3 2 (1 1 8 ) p re p h a ry n x /t l % 6 .1 -6 .3 ( 6 .2 ) 4 .7 -9 .9 ( 6 .9 ) 2 .7 -4 .5 ( 3 .5 8 ) v e n tr a l su c k e r l . 1 2 5 -1 3 8 (1 3 3 ) 1 1 5 -1 3 8 (1 2 4 ) 1 0 1 -1 5 6 (1 3 0 ) 1 1 8 -1 4 7 (1 2 8 ) 1 2 1 -2 1 5 (1 6 0 ) 3 6 0 -4 2 0 2 0 4 -2 8 9 (2 2 6 ) v e n tr a l su c k e r w . 1 2 0 -1 3 2 (1 2 4 ) 1 2 0 -1 3 2 (1 2 7 ) 1 0 2 -1 6 9 (1 3 3 ) 1 2 4 -1 6 8 (1 4 1 ) 1 2 6 -1 8 7 (1 5 9 ) 3 6 0 -4 1 0 1 7 9 -2 6 5 (2 0 7 ) o s w :v s w 1 :2 .0 -2 .5 1 :1 .6 -1 .7 1 :1 .8 -2 .7 (2 .2 ) 1 :1 .2 -1 .4 1 :0 .3 1 -0 .4 2 1 :1 .2 8 -2 .6 0 (2 .1 8 ) o v a ry l . 1 0 8 -1 1 4 ( 1 1 1 ) 9 2 -1 0 4 ( 9 8 ) 7 2 -1 3 6 ( 1 1 0 ) 1 1 5 -1 2 4 ( 1 1 9 ) 8 5 -1 4 2 ( 1 2 3 ) 1 2 0 -2 0 0 1 2 5 -1 5 6 (1 4 6 ) o v a ry w . 1 0 7 -1 1 5 ( 1 1 1 ) 9 7 -1 1 6 ( 1 0 6 ) 7 1 -1 2 5 ( 1 0 3 ) 1 1 3 -1 2 5 ( 1 1 9 ) 9 3 -1 4 1 ( 1 1 1 ) 1 6 0 -2 0 0 1 4 0 -1 5 6 (1 5 1 ) s p in e s n u m b er 2 3 1 8 -2 0 (1 9 ) 1 7 -2 0 1 4 -1 8 (1 6 ) 1 8 1 7 -2 0 (1 7 .9 ) 1 7 -2 0 1 2 -1 6 3 1 -3 2 406 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus 18 (2): 395-429. new records of some digenetic a n te r io r te st is l 1 9 1 -2 3 9 (2 1 0 ) 1 9 0 -2 1 (2 0 0 ) 1 9 6 -3 9 7 (2 9 4 ) 2 6 7 -3 5 1 (2 9 8 ) 2 0 3 -3 1 0 (2 6 6 ) 2 6 0 -4 1 0 3 1 2 -3 2 0 (3 1 4 ) a n te r io r te st is w 1 4 3 -1 7 5 (1 5 5 ) 1 6 4 -1 6 8 (1 6 7 ) 1 1 7 -2 3 5 (1 8 1 ) 1 7 3 -1 8 5 (1 7 0 ) 1 5 3 -2 3 6 (2 0 7 ) 2 0 0 -2 7 0 1 7 9 -2 5 0 (2 2 4 ) p o st er io r te st is l 2 2 5 -2 6 0 (2 4 2 ) 2 2 9 -2 3 7 (2 3 4 ) 2 2 0 -5 4 2 (3 7 6 ) 2 9 1 -3 7 1 (3 1 1 ) 2 7 1 -3 8 6 (3 3 0 ) 3 0 0 -5 1 0 3 1 2 -3 4 3 (3 2 3 .7 ) p o st er io r te st is w 1 5 2 -1 7 3 (1 6 3 ) 1 7 1 -1 9 1 (1 7 8 ) 1 1 5 -2 1 8 (1 8 2 ) 1 8 9 -1 8 4 (1 8 4 ) 1 6 9 -2 4 2 (2 0 8 ) 1 6 0 -2 7 0 1 7 9 -2 5 0 (2 3 0 ) e g g l 4 2 -4 5 7 5 -8 6 (8 1 ) 6 2 -6 4 (6 3 ) 6 3 -9 1 (7 6 ) 7 5 -8 6 5 2 -6 2 (5 6 ) 4 6 -6 0 6 8 -7 4 6 1 -7 4 (6 8 .7 8 ) e g g w . 2 7 -3 0 3 9 -5 0 (4 5 ) 3 9 -4 4 (4 1 ) 2 4 -4 8 (3 7 ) 3 9 -5 0 3 0 -4 0 (3 4 ) 3 3 -4 6 3 0 -5 2 4 7 -5 5 (5 2 ) f o re b o d y l 6 6 8 -7 5 2 (7 2 4 ) 8 9 8 -1 1 9 9 (1 0 4 8 ) 4 7 8 -8 0 1 (6 3 4 ) 7 2 4 -1 3 0 2 (1 0 7 5 ) 1 2 8 5 1 5 1 2 (1 4 1 3 .7 4 ) h in d b o d y l . 1 3 8 9 1 4 6 8 (1 4 2 3 ) 9 3 5 -1 6 0 5 (1 3 6 6 ) 1 7 9 6 2 9 8 6 (2 7 8 6 .1 2 ) f o re b o d y /t l % 1 1 % 2 5 -3 2 3 5 .9 -4 4 .3 (4 0 .3 ) 1 0 % 3 2 .4 -4 8 .6 (4 1 .3 ) 2 8 .4 1 3 9 .3 0 (3 1 .6 2 ) h in d b o d y : t l % 5 1 .3 -5 8 .6 (5 4 .9 ) 4 5 .1 -6 0 .5 (5 2 .5 ) 5 4 .9 2 6 5 .5 6 (6 0 .8 2 ) b o d y w id th : t l 6 .8 -8 .3 (7 .3 ) 1 0 .6 -1 1 .5 (1 1 .1 ) 1 2 -1 8 (1 5 ) 1 0 .3 -1 7 (1 3 .3 ) 3 .7 8 -5 .0 7 1 :8 .6 5 1 3 .5 3 (1 2 .0 4 ) 407 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum fazaa et al. % b o d y w id th / t l 4 .7 0 % 3 .1 -3 .4 % 7 .3 9 1 1 .5 6 (8 .5 3 )% m. mesospinosum (madhavi, 1976), bray & cribb, 2002 from the intestine of coastal trevally carangoides caeruleopinnatus (= turum caeruleopinnatus [rüppell, 1830]) in the red sea, saudi arabia; m. nolani bray & cribb, 2007 from the intestine of barcheek trevally c. plagiotaenia (= craterognathus plagiotaenia [bleeker, 1857]) from australian great barrier reef, m. roytmani (parukhin, 1974) reimer, 1983 from bigeye trevally caranx sexfasciatus quoy & gaimard, 1825 in the red sea, and m. yamagutii ramadan 1984 from the small intestine of sky emperor lethrinus mahsena (fabricius, 1775) in the red sea. (ramadan 1984; bray and gribb, 2002, 2007; madhavi and bray 2018; abdel-gaber et al., 2023). the current specimens match m. loossi in distinctive characteristics that can be classified as m. loossi. the most important feature is the number of oral spines, as they both have 32 spines. all other species of this genus have 14-23 mouth spines, except m. loossi, which has 32. the body shape is also club-shaped and the vitellaria are limited to the posterior of the body and spread between the gonads (tab. 4). the general characteristics of the species under the current study differ from m. gazzae and m. georgianum in body shape, and number of oral spines, the ratio of suckers and eggs measurement. m. manteri and m. nolani differ from the current species in the distribution of the vitellaria which reach to the fore body or even to the ventral sucker, whereas in the current species, the vitellaria distribution is in the hind body. they also differ in the number of oral spines (bray and cribb 2007). m. loossi differ from m. mesospinosum in the number of oral spines. these two species are aslo vary in the distribution of the vitelline as well as eggs measurements, the ratio of the body width to body length and the ratio of fore body length to total body length (bray and cribb, 2002, 2007). monostephanostomum krusei differs from m. loossi in the number of oral spines, the percentage ratio of both the prepharyngeal and pharynx length to the body length, the ratio of suckers and the presence or absence of the uroproct (bray and cribb 2007). the m. roytmani differs from m. loossi in the number of oral spines and the eggs measurement. m. yamagutii differs from m. loossi in the number of oral spines and the ratio of body width to length. genus stephanostomum looss, 1899 stephanostomum ditrematis (yamaguti, 1939) manter, 1947 host: seriola dumerili (risso) prevalence and intensity: 66.6%, 12.5 site of infection: stomach. 408 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus 18 (2): 395-429. new records of some digenetic description and measurements (12 specimens, fig. 3, tab. 5): the worms are cylindrical. the area behind ventral sucker is non spined, unlike the rest of the body especially between pharynx and esophagus extending to the ventral sucker which is spiny. the oral sucker is vascular in shape, surrounded by a double ring of alternating spines. the ventral sucker is large and protrudes forward from the body. it is circular in shape, and is located in the second sixth of body. the pre-pharyngeal is very long, while the pharynx short. the testes are oval, either contagious or well separated from each other, are located near the posterior end of the body. the seminal vesicle is elongate, and tubular. the overy is spherical located in the last quarter of hind body, and is pretesticular. the uterus is preovarian and located between the ovary and the seminal vesicle. figure (3): stephanostomum ditrematis (yamaguti, 1939) from seriola dumerili; (a) ventral view, (b) terminal genitalia, (c) oral sucker area. [abbreviations: eg: egg, gp: gonopore, os: oral sucker, osp: oral spines, ov: ovary, p: pharynx, pp: prepharynx, sv: seminal vesicle, t: testis, v: vitellaria, vs: ventral sucker, vsp: ventral spines. scale bars, a-b= 770µm, c=190 µm]. 409 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum fazaa et al. table (5): principal measurements of stephanostomum ditrematis. character min-max (mean± standard deviation) body size l×w 9412-18147 (12151±2552.223) ×236-564 (463±91.645) ratio body width to length 1: 18-39 (27±6.430) body width to length % 2.515.56 (3.90)% number of spines 36-40 (38±1.379) forebody 1480–2268 (1763.50±221.509) hindbody 7163–15979 (10018.92±2460.055) forebody/ total length % 9.24-19.88(15±2.592)% hindbody/ total length 76-88(82±2.961)% prepharynx length (pp) 800-1193 (1023±105.014) prepharynx length: forebody 53-68 (58±5.790)% prepharynx length: hindbody 6.62-15.83 (10.67±2.417)% prepharynx length: total length 5.83-12(8.69±1.679)% pharynx l×w 160-289 (212±41.716) × 101-125 (113±7.336) oral sucker l×w 110-321 (178±54.037) × 240-473 (348±58.300) prepharynx: pharynx 1:3.60-6.94 (5.01±1.125) ventral sucker l×w 320-491 (369±44.262)× 290-454 (361±42.259) suckers ratio 1: 1.53-2.91 (2.17±0.412) ventral sucker length/total length 2.31-4.00 (3±0.522)% ventral sucker: fore body 13.43-22.49 (16.17±3.477)% anterior testis (at) l×w 523-920 (719±106.657) × 150-400 (259±70.702) posterior testis (pt) l×w 530-991 (759±133.698) ×195-360 (278±52.855) seminal vesicle l×w 867-1640 (1264±263.372) ×100-190 (147±22.725) ratio anterior testis: fore body 1:5.76-9.57 (8.45±7.258) ovary l×w 234-370 (30645.811) ×187-420 (229±63.899) eggs l×w 47-66 (60±4.745) × 29-49 (42±5.573) the eggs are large and few. vitellaria fill the area between seminal vesicle to posterior end of the body (tab. 5). the presence of two rows of enlarged spines surrounding the oral sucker indicates that these worms belong to the genus stephanostomum, within the acanthocolpidae lühe, 1906. it is widespread and represents the largest genus that removes many aquatic organisms, especially marine fishes. there are 19 species of this genus have been reported from the indian subcontinent. the classification of these dioecious worms are is challenging, and determineing the species depends on a set of characteristics, including the number and arrangement of the spines surrounding the mouth, the size of the oral and ventral suckers, the size of the seminal vesicle, the distance between the gonads, and the presence or absence of a uroproct, and eggs measurements (madhavi and bray, 2018). six species of this genus have been isolated from seriola dumerili. these species are: s. cesticillum (molin, 1858) looss, 1899 from the intestine of angler lophius piscatorius 410 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus 18 (2): 395-429. new records of some digenetic linnaeus, 1758 in mediterranean waters. s. ditrematis (yamaguti, 1939) manter, 1947 initially described as echinostephanus ditrematis from ditrema temminckii bleeker, 1853 off japan. s. euzeti bartoli and bray, 2004 isolated from the rectum of s. dumerili in corsica in france, s. hispidum (yamaguti, 1934) manter, 1940 originally described as echinostephanus hispidus yamaguti, 1934 from the japanese amberjack seriola quinqueradiata temminck & schlegel, 1845 along the pacific coast, japan, s. filiforme linton, 1940 from the yellowtail amberjack seriola lalandi valenciennes, 1833 in the north-western atlantic and s. petimba yamaguti, 1970 from fistularia petimba (=f. commersonii rüppell, 1838), off hawaii island (manter, 1940; bartoli and bray, 2001, 2004; bray and cribb, 2003, 2008). the current specimens can be identified as s. ditrematis, depending on the following characteristics: i-the absence of spines in the area located directly below the oral sucker, while the rest of the body is spiny both dorsally and ventrally, especially in the anterior region up to the ventral sucker, ii-the average number of oral spines is 36-40 (average 38), iii-the oral sucker is funnel-shaped, ivthe dorsal spines on the body are longer than the abdominal spines, v-the ventral sucker is prominent, circular and located at the end of the second sixth of the body length, and the vitellarium follicular fill the space between the seminal vesicle and the posterior end of body, and vilarge eggs are present (tab. 7). the current species (s. ditrematis) differs from s. cesticillum in the placement of the ventral sucker, a longer percentage ratio of the pre-pharynx to the length of the fore body, a pharynx smaller than the ventral sucker, the vitellarium follicular distribution forming more than 50% of the length of the hindbody vs only 5% of the length of the hindbody, number of oral spines and the suckers ratio (bartoli and bray, 2001; saoud et al., 2002). s. ditrematis differs from s. euzeti in the number of spines around the oral sucker, the spines interrupted in the ventral region of the sucker. the ratio of hindbody to forebody is larger than in s. euzetii. the testes are oblique vs tandem, and the ovary is far from the anterior testis vs contiguous to the anterior testis (bartoli and bray, 2004). s. ditrematis differs from s. filiforme in the number of spines around the oral sucker, the location of the ventral sucker; the ratio of the length of the pre-pharyngeal part to the length of the forebody which is smaller in s. ditrematis (bartoli and bray, 2004). furthermore, s. ditrematis differs from s. petimba in total length; number of spines on the oral sucker, the pharynx is longer than the ventral sucker (bray and cribb, 2003, bartoli and bray, 2004). finally, s. ditrematis differs from s. hispidum in the number of oral spines; the location of the seminal vesicle; the ratio of suckers. the testes are contiguous in s. ditrematis whereas in s. hispidum, the testes are well separated from each other. additionally, the vitellarium follicular are absent from the space between ovary to the seminal vesicle in s. ditrematis, whereas in s. hispidum the vitellarium follicular fill the space between ovary and the level of the seminal vesicle (manter, 1940; ohnish et al., 1991). stephanostomum sp. host: seriola dumerili (risso) prevalence and intensity: 66.6%, 7.5 site of infection: stomach and pyloric caeca. 411 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum fazaa et al. description and measurements (8 specimens, fig. 4, tab. 6): the worms are cylindrical in shape. the area behind ventral sucker is non spinous, unlike the rest of the body parts, especially the area around the pharynx and esophagus, extending to the ventral sucker. the oral sucker vascular in shape, surrounded by a double ring of alternating cylindrical and blunt spines. the ventral sucker is circular and large, protruding forward from the body and located in the second sixth of the body length, the pre-pharynx is very long. the testes are ovalshaped either contiguous or well separated from each other and located near the end of body. the ovary is semi-spherical (pyriform) and situated in the last quarter of hind body. the uterus is unclear, while the seminal vesicle is distinct in some specimens (fig.4a), and eggs are small, fewin number, and absent in most specimens; vitellarium not present (tab. 6). table (6): measurements and biometric character of stephanostomum sp. from seriola dumerili. character min-max (mean± standard deviation) body size length × width (l×w) 4631-6350 (5788±595.494) ×378-491 (429±39.073) ratio of body width to total length 1: 11.86-16 (13.54±1.535) body width to length % 6.258.43 (7.46) spines number 36-41 (38) forebody 1115-1701 (1477±202.883) hindbody 3062-4328 (3858±427.014) forebody/ total length % 18-29 (26±3.768)% hindbody/ total length% 64-70 (67±2.111)% prepharynx length 819-1053 (922±80.490) prepharynx length/ forebody% 56-73 (63±6.114)% prepharynx length/hindbody% 20-30 (24±3.237)% prepharynx length/total length% 13-20 (16±2.101)% pharynx l×w 94-180 (130±27.712) × 63-110 (89±14.441) oral sucker (os) 109-187 (150±23.512) × 218-328 (279±40.259) ventral sucker l×w 250-343(285±33.994)× 234-296 (264±23.377) sucker ratio 1: 1.50-2.31 (1.93±0.328) % vs length/body length 4.29-5.85 (5±0.496)% ventral sucker: forebody 1: 15-28 (19.61±3.799) anterior testis l×w 117-289 (215±60.121)× 101-195 (158±31.979) posterior testis l×w 156-289 (219±50.053) ×94-187 (155±31.351) ovary l×w 62-78 (70±5.617) × 49-78 (73) eggs l×w 31×16 stephanostomum sp. is similar to s. ditrematis; however, the latter differs from the former in total length, in the ratio of both hind body and fore body to the total length. although the two closely related species are similar in the length of the prepharynx, they differ in the ratio 412 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus 18 (2): 395-429. new records of some digenetic of the ratio of the pre-pharyngeal length to the body length, pre-pharyngeal length ratio to the hindbody, the ratio of the ventral sucker length to body length and the eggs size. stephanostomum sp. also differs from s. ditrematis in the maximum width of the body, the ratio of the the pre-pharyngeal length to the length of the hind body, the ratio of pharynx length, and the length ratio of the pharynx to its width, the ratio of the fore body to the total length. stephanostomum sp. possesses more oral spines than s. cesticillum; the location of the ventral sucker, the percentage of pre-pharyngeal part to the forebody and the percentage of pre-pharynx part to the hind body. stephanostomum sp. differs from s. euzeti in the number of oral spines. the shape of mouth opening; and the degree of isolation between the testes and ovary (bartoli and bray, 2004). stephanostomum sp. has fewer oral spines than the s. filiforme; the location of the ventral sucker at the second sixth of the body while it is located at the end of the first sixth of the body in s. filiforme and in the ratio of width to length ratio (bartoli and bray, 2004). figure (4): stephanostomum sp. from seriola dumerili; (a) ventral view, (b) oral sucker, (c) eggs. [abbreviations: c: caecum, os: oral sucker, osp: oral spines, ov: ovary, p: pharynx, pp: prepharynx, t: testis, sv: seminal vesicle, vs: ventral sucker, vsp: ventral spines]. scale bars, a= 770µm, b=190 µm. 413 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum fazaa et al. table (7): comparative measurements of stephanostomum ditrematis and stephanostomum sp. parasite seriola dumerili with other stephanostomum species. s p e c ie s s . d it re m a ti s s . c e st ic il lu m s . e u ze ti s . h is p id u m s . fi li fo rm e s . p e ti m b a s . d it re m a ti s s te p h a n o st o m u m s p . r e fe re n c e partoli and bray (2004) partoli and bray (2001) partoli and bray (2004) yamaguti (1934) partoli and bray (2004) bartoli and bray (2004) current study current study total length (tl) 32798540 (5872) 32509393 (5060) 23707094 (4793) 68009800 526510424 (7035) 61947394 (6438) 941218147 (12151) 46316350 (5788) maximum width 75-152 (101) 470-850 (569) 108-254 (164) 520-620 127-171 (146) 121-237 (176) 236-564 (463) 378-491 (429) body width: body length 1:41.460.9 (48) 1:1839.88 (27.06) 1:11.8-16 (13.5) body width / tl% 4.4–8.0 (5.7) 7.1–14.0 (9.6) 6.32-7.64 4.7–6.6 (5.5) 7.7–11.7 (9.4) 2.51 5.56 (3.90) 6.25 8.43 (7.46) hindbody: forebody 1:3.8-6.5 (5.4) 1: 1.833.37 (2.56) 1:1.842.72 (3.33) 1:3.839.53 (5.72) 1:2.273.63 (2.65) oral sucker l. 88-126 (110) 155-309 (198) 121-292 (210) 170-220 138-203 (174) 225-273 (249) 110-321 (178) 109-187 (150) oral sucker w 144-184 (166) 197-373 (268) 198-546 (374) 360-450 206-224 (217) 426-521 (472) 240-473 (348) 218-328 (279) prepharynx 378-592 (476) 245-959 (556) 298-1152 (709) 710-910 400-646 (542) 896-1270 (1161) 800-1193 (1023) 819-1053 (922) pharynx l. 170-224 (194) 245-437 (323) 203-323 (267) 300-360 166-256 (206) 356-457 (400) 160-289 (212) 94-180 (130) pharynx. w. 53-122 (76) 240-368 (305) 70-163 (131) 170-190 80-144 (105) 144-206 (144) 101-125 (113) 63-110 (89) prepharynx : pharynx 1:1.4-3.5 (2.6) 1:3.606.94 (5.01) 1:5.8-8.7 (7.29) ventral sucker l. 196-310 (258) 245-453 (319) 192-300 (246) 260-280 218-337 (256) 270-356 (305) 320-491 (369) 250-343 (285) % vs length/tl 2.31-4.00 (3)% 4.29-5.85 (5)% ventral sucker w. 189-307 (244) 256-469 (323) 179-279 (236) 330-390 211-304 (243) 241-356 (300) 290-454 (361) 234-296 (264) oral s: ventral s 1:1.9-2.7 (2.4) 1: 1.431.99 (1.63) 1: 1.4-2 (1.7) 1:1.2–1.7 (1.5) 1:1.532.91 (2.17) 1: 1.502.31 (1.93) ovary l. 118-256 (191) 123-346 (179) 122-272 (184) 84 165-286 (197) 149-305 (227) 234-370 (306) 62-78 (70) 414 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus 18 (2): 395-429. new records of some digenetic ovary w 125-185 (177) 75-288 (171) 106-222 (160) 63 134-254 (184) 190-320 (241) 187-420 (229) 49-78 (73) buccal spines number 34-37 (35, 36) 35-36 49-51 (50) 40-42 43-46 (40-46 ) 42 36-40 (38.08) 36-41 (38.2) anterior testis l 256-720 (478) 266-826 (393) 195-749 (473) 640-1100 406– 1,067 (658) 540-857 (647) 523-920 (719) 117-289 (215) anterior testis w 144-286 (202) 165-474 (266) 150-394 (266) 240-470 160–317 (241) 279-540 (385) 150-400 (259) 101-195 (158) posterior testis l 288-688 (498) 341-959 (507) 272-933 (574) 640-1100 438-1080 (630) 667-1079 (800) 530-991 (759) 156-289 (219) posterior testis w 160-273 (208) 187-506 (259) 144-406 (271) 240-470 160-317 (241) 317-527 (382) 195-360 (278) 94-187 (155) seminal vesicle l. 165-233 123-346 (179 867-1640 (1264) not observed seminal vesicle w. 75-288 (171) 100-190 (147) not observed egg length 48-62 (55) 65-85 (77) 62-76 (68) 68-75 54-73 (59) 62-76 (70) 47-66 (60) 31 egg width 21-33 (27) 6585×28-43 (77× 37) 26-40 (32) 50-60 25-32 (28) 25-43(35) 29-49 (42) 16 forebody length 608-1092 (871) 850-2061 781-1872 (1304) 902-1388 (1060) 17222386 (1970) 14802268 (1764) 11151701 (1477) hindbody length 23527143 (4755) 1,9986,864 (3,391) 14425103 (4351) 38908758 (5705) 36665500 (4351) 716315979 (10019) 30624328 (3858) prepharynx / forebody % 54-62 (55) 40% 38-71 (54) 44-56 (51) 53-68 (58)% 56-73 (63)% prepharynx : hindbody % 8.2-16 (10) 12-13.97 20-22.5 (16) 6.6215.83 (10.67) 20-30 (24) forebody: total length % 8.6–22.7 (15.6) 19.6–34.8 (28.0) 12.6-21.7 (15.7) 27.2–32.3 (30.6) 9.2419.88(14. 91) 17.5628.90(25. 69) hindbody: total length % 76-88 (82) % 64-70 (67)% the number of oral spines in stephanostomum sp. is less than that in s. hispidum. they differ in the ratio of both testes length to body length and the ratio of the pre-pharyngeal part to the pharynx (manter, 1940; ohnish et al., 1991) (tab. 7). stephanostomum sp. has fewer oral spines than s. petimba; the ventral sucker is longer than the pharynx. whereas in s. petimba. the ventral sucker is shorter than the pharynx; the reproductive organs are contiguous in most individuals whereas in s. petimba. they are separated; the ratio between the body width and length is different (bartoli and bray, 2004). according to above results, it is clear that the current specimens are considered an 415 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum fazaa et al. undescribed species, however as all specimens lack eggs (except one with single egg) and vitellaria, they are considered juveniles. pseudopecoeloides tenuis yamaguti, 1940 host: priacanthus tayenus richardson prevalence and intensity: 7.91%, 3.63. site of infection: intestine. description and measurements (13 specimens, fig. 5, tab. 8): elongated worms, maximum width at the gonads and three constrictions posterior to the gonads. oral sucker large compared to the smaller ventral sucker. the ventral sucker is carried on a peduncle. the pharynx is distinct, circular, or semi-circular. the caeca are long and reach the posterior end of body. the testes are spindle-shaped, tandem, and separate, located in the middle of last third of body. the seminal vesicle is long and sinous. the genital pore opens at the posterior level of pharynx. the ovary is oval, pretesticular. the uterus occupies the area between the seminal vesicle and ovary. eggs are relatively small and oval. vitellaria extend from the ventral sucker to the posterior end of the body, reaching the gonads area. pseudopecoeloides yamaguti, 1940 compromises 25 valid species recorded from many hosts and different regions of the world (aken’ova et al., 2009; worms, 2024). species of this genus are divided into two groups, group a is characterized by a larger oral sucker in comparison with the ventral sucker, whereas group b is characterized by a smaller oral sucker or one equal in size to the ventral sucker. based on measurements, it seems that the current species belongs to the first group, accordingly the comparison is limited to the 14 species; p. arripi aken'ova, cribb & bray, 2009 from the intestine of australian herring arripis georgianus (val.) in australian marine waters, p. boops yamaguti, 1970 from the intestine of glasseye priacanthus boops [=heteropriacanthus cruentatus (lacepède, 1801)] and champsodontidae from hawaii and mozambique, p. buckleyi (saoud & ramadan, 1984) martin, cutmore & cribb, 2018 from atlantic bigeye priacanthus arenatus cuvier, 1829 from red sea, egypt, p. capucini toman, 1992 from the intestine of pseudupeneus sp. from africa off seychelles, p. chloroscombri (fischthal & thomas, 1970) bartoli, bray & gibson, 2003 from atlantic bumper chloroscombrus chrysurus (linnaeus, 1766) and trachurus spp. from the mediterranean and atlantic waters, p. hafeezullahi aken'ova, cribb & bray, 2009 from the intestine of the yellowtail horse mackerel trachurus novaezealandiae richardson, 1843 along coogee beach jetty, australia, p. hickmani aken'ova, cribb & bray, 2009 from the intestine, cecum and rectum of skipjack trevally pseudocaranx wrighti (whitley, 1931) from western australia, p. opelu yamaguti, 1970 from the intestine of mackerel scad decapterus macarellus (cuvier, 1833) from hawaii, usa, p. orientalis gupta & ahmad, 1978 from the intestine of long-barbel goatfish parupeneus macronemus (lacepède, 1810) from bay of bengal, india, p. parviacetabulatus yamaguti, 1970 from the intestine of bigeye scad selar crumenophthalmus (bloch, 1793) off hawaii, p. psettodi parukhin, 1983 from indian halibut psettodes erumei (bloch & schneider, 1801) in the mozambique canal, p. tenuis yamaguti, 1940 from the pyloric caeca and intestine of pseudopriacanthus nipponicus (=p. niphonia cuvier, 1829) from moreton bay, australia, p. tenuoides martin, 1960, from priacanthus cruentatus (=heteropriacanthus cruentatus [lacepède, 1801]) from kaneohe 416 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus 18 (2): 395-429. new records of some digenetic bay, oahu, hawaii, usa, and p. wekeula yamaguti, 1970, from mullidae and chaetodontidae, and yellowstrip goatfish mulloidichthys samoensis (=m. flavolineatus [lacepède, 1801]), from hawaii, usa. the relative positions of the ovary, testes and the post-testicular area are important for identifying and distinguishing pseudopecoeloides species according to the description of yamaguti (1970) and aken’ova et al. (2009). p. tenuis differs from p. arripi in body length, maximum of width, and the ratio of width: length. additional differences include the percentage of the ventral sucker to oral sucker width, the ratio of peduncle length to body length and the ratio of the ventral sucker to the pharynx (tab. 9). figure (5): pseudocoeloides tenuis yamaguti, 1940 from priacanthus tayenus; (a) ventral view, (b) eggs, (c) anterior part of body with terminal genitalia. [abbreviations: eg: egg, gp: gonopore, os: oral sucker, ov: ovary, sv: seminal vesicle, t: testis, v: vitellaria, vs: ventral sucker, vsp: ventral sucker peduncle. scale bars, a= 770µm, b, c=190 µm]. 417 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum fazaa et al. table (8): principal measurements of pseudopecoeloides tenuis from priacanthus tayenus. character min-max (mean± standard deviation) body size l×w 4385-9488 (7302±1736.684) ×340-502 (447±54.805) ratio body width (w): length (l) 1:13-21 (16±2.734) forebody 335-702 (509±130.606) hindbody 4165-8978 (6560±2710.474) forebody: total length 1:10.2-20.4 (13.98±3.525) pharynx l×w 94-164 (124±21.810) × 102-156 (128±18.581) oral sucker 242-390 (334±47.615) × 187-359 (271±43.612) ventral sucker l×w 117-160 (140±15.262)× 78-225 (161±23.844) suckers width ratio 1:0.40-0.67 (0.53±0.077) peduncle l×w 395-780 (579±114.116)× 78-225 (161±40.795) peduncle width: peduncle length 1: 2.41-6.50 (3.82) length of peduncle/ total length 6.8-11 (8.5±)% forebody: peduncle length 1: 0.61-1.11(0.86±1.275) seminal vesicle l×w 220-601 (379±123.209)× 70-220 (122±49.568) anterior testis l×w 335-780 (571±142.087)× 187-330 (258±50.754) posterior testis l×w 374-780 (588±128.598) ×172-360 (274±62.957) ovary l×w 120-351 (223±75.980) ×86-179 (138±31.718) eggs l×w 43-59 (53±4.812) x 28-47 (38±5.246) table (9): comparative measurements and biometric character of pseudopecoeloides tenuis with eight closely species. s p e c ie s p . a rr ip i p . b o o p s p . b u c k le yi p . h ic k m a n i p . o ri e n ta li s p . p a rv ia c et a b u la tu s p . p se tt o d i p . t e n u o id e s p . te n u is r e fe re n c e aken’ov a et al. (2009) yamaguti (1970) saoud and ramadan (1984) aken’ ova et al. (2009) madhavi and bray (2018) yamaguti (1970) aken’ ova et al. (2009) martin (1960); yamaguti (1970)* current study total length 15962798 (2138) 45007500 47508000 32044929 (4213) 3328 24003300 3100 25505040 (3470) 43859488 (7302) maximum width 156-213 (182) 280-470 200-400 205-301 (249) 320 340-400 220 160-500 (300) 340-502 (447) 418 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus 18 (2): 395-429. new records of some digenetic mw: tl 1:8.7-16 (11.8) 1:23.932 1:15.619.2 (17) 1: 9.514.1 1:13-21 (16) oral sucker length 91-143 (112) 160-240 280-520 131-175 (159) 220 140-160 220-280 (243) 242-390 (334) oral sucker width 88-120 (103) 120-240 280-380 112-155 (134) 240 150-130 180-230 (193) 187-359 (271) os: pharynx w. 1:1.3-1.6 (1.4) 1:1.41.6 (1.5) 1:2.9 1:1.662.65 (2.18) pharynx length 59-82 (68) 60-120 40 66-89 (79) 90-130 87-124 (100) 94-164 (124) pharynx width 67-81 (73) 90-140 71-101 (87) 100-130 65-81 (68) 102-156 (128) ventral sucker l 75-96 (88) 100-150 100160 71-79 (73) 100-120 68-118 (98) 117-160 (140) ventral sucker w 83-108 (98) 100-160 120-160 78-92 (85) 87-109 (96) 94-172 (144) vs:o.s w 1:0.7-1.1 (1) 1:3.33.6 1:0.60.8 (0.6) 1:1.31.5 1:0.6 1:0.400.67 (0.53) p ed u n cl e l 271-458 310-880 425-863 (650) 250-450* 395-780 (579) 419 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum fazaa et al. p ed u n cl e w 98-156 (124) 97-109 (102) 78-225 (161) % p ed u n cl e: t l 10.3-16.7 (14.4) 4-6 13.3-17.5 (15.3) 6.8-11 (8.5) ovary l. 50-120 (89) 140260 130-320 116-197 (163) 110-150 131-211 (180) 120-351 (223) ovary w 46-102 (77) 90-220 100-190 129168 (142) 130-160 62-243 (96) 86-179 (138) a n te ri o r te st is l 152-233 (190) 200-700 360-800 273396 (335) 200-500 187-336 (267) 335-780 (571) a n te ri o r te st is w 120-177 (146) 180-370 190-260 169-246 (210) 150-240 93-146 (115) 187-330 (258) p o st er io r te st is l 154-249 (198) 390-730 298-383 (350) 218-348 (292) 374-780 (588) p o st er io r te st is w 137-183 (156) 190-280 164-257 (203) 93-124 (111) 172-360 (274) s em in al v es ic le l . 69-190 (135) 400-650 60-100 40-50* 220-601 (379) 420 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus 18 (2): 395-429. new records of some digenetic s em in al v es ic le w . 27-87 (58) 30-70 70-220 (122) egg l 47-67 (56) 55-63 46-54 44-71 (55) 32-46 46-53 40-50 (44) 43-59 (53) egg w 21-36 (28) 32-37 28-31 20-42 (26) 15-27 46-56 26 25-37 (30) 28-47 (38) f o re b o d y l 248-337 (285) 337-399 (362) 32-39 335-702 (509) f o re b o d y : t l 1:9.6-17 (13.9) 1:7.710.5 (8.7) 1:7.3 1:10.220.4 (13.98) f o re b o d y :. p e d u n cl e 1:0.59-1 (0.87) 1:0.40.8 (0.6) 1:0.611.11 (1.03) p o st t es ti cu la r ar ea 10051639 (1472) 12323081 (2162) p o st t es ti cu la r ar ea : t l % 31.437.1 (34.9) 15-36 (30) continues table 421 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum fazaa et al. s p ec ie s p . ca p u ci n i p . ch lo ro sc o m b ri p . h a fe ez u ll a h i p . o p el u p . w ek eu la p . te n u is reference aken’ova et al., 2009 bartoli et al., 2003 aken’ova et al., 2009 aken’ova et al., 2009 yamguti, 1970 current study total length 5250-6780 29077060(4470) 24523564(3026) 1400-3600 1500-4800 4385-9488 (7302) maximum width 530-730 253-514 (374) 226-321 (274) 140-400 180-500 340-502 (447) mw: tl 1:8.6 1:11.95 1:8.9-12.6 (11) 60-190 100-210 1:13-21 (16) oral sucker length 180-200 163-266 (220) 128-163 (147) 60-200 100-200 242-390 (334) oral sucker width 170-210 173-262 (210) 110-169 (141) 1:1.8 1:2 187-359 (271) os: pharynx w. 1:1.7 1:1.18 1:1.1-1.4 (1.3) 50-150 50-150 1:1.66-2.65 (2.18) pharynx length 130-150 131-173 (154) 85-115 (99) 50-140 50-40 94-164 (124) pharynx width 110-140 106-166 (131) 99-122 (111) 70-130 102-156 (128) ventral sucker l 130-140 100-138 (124) 85-111 (96) 60-150 95-160 117-160 (140) ventral sucker w 130-170 122-176 (154) 96-110 (105) 1:0.6 1:0.7 94-172 (144) vs:os w 1:0.6 1:0.54-0.86 (0.73) 1:0.6-0.9 (0.7) 1:0.40-0.67 (0.53) peduncle l 289-382 (330) 395-780 (579) peduncle w 129-161 (140) 78-225 (161) % peduncle / tl 8.3 10.1-11.8 (10.9) 6.8-11 (8.5) ovary l. 85-134 (104) 120-351 (223) 422 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus 18 (2): 395-429. new records of some digenetic ovary w 76-123 (94) 86-179 (138) anterior testis l 183-284 (226) 335-780 (571) anterior testis w 122-205 (162) 187-330 (258) posterior testis l 197-295 (235) 374-780 (588) posterior testis w 130-202 (160) 172-360 (274) seminal vesicle l. 220-601 (379) seminal vesicle w. 46-63 51-70 70-220 (122) egg l 52-62 51-68 (61) 40-60 (52) 30-46 32-49 43-59 (53) egg w 37-48 28-39 (30) 20-37 (26) 28-47 (38) forebody l 270-616 (442) 299-465 (384) 1:11.8 1:14.6 335-702 (509) forebody : t l 1:12.3 1:11-15.3 (12.9) 1:10.2-20.4 (13.98) forebody: peduncle 1:11 1:8.5 1:0.61-1.11 (1.03) post testicular area 1092-2203 (1618) 797-1159 (971) 1232-3081 (2162) %post testicular area: tl 28.4 36.2 28-34.2 (32.1) 1:21.3 25.7 15-36 (30) the general measurements of current specimens match those of p. tenuis and p. boops in many characteristics; but the former differs by having forebody similar in length to ventral sucker peduncle whereas p. boops has a shorter forebody than to ventral sucker peduncle, the position of both ovary (pre-eaquatorial vs posequatorial) and testes (located in the third quarter of body vs the forth quarter of body in p. boops). p. tenuis differs from p. buckleyi in the ratio of body width to length, the ratio of suckers, and the ratio of peduncle length to the body length (saoud and ramadan, 1984). p. tenuis is 423 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum fazaa et al. distinguished from p. capucini, p. chloroscombri, p. hafeezullahi, p. opelu, and p. wekeula by the ratio of body width to length (bartoli et al., 2003; aken’ova et al., 2009). p. tenuis differs from p. hickmani in the ratio of ventral sucker peduncle length to the body length, the ratio of forebody to body length, the ratio of forebody to peduncle length and the ratio of oral sucker to pharynx length (aken’ova et al., 2009). p. tenuis differs from p. orientalis in the total body length, body width, oral sucker length and larger eggs (madhavi and bray, 2018). p. tenuis differs from p. parviacetabulus in body length, oral sucker, ventral sucker length, suckers ratio and seminal vesicle length (yamagujti, 1970). p. tenuis differs from p. psettodi in body length, the ratio forebody to body length and the ratio of the ventral sucker to pharynx (aken’ova et al., 2009). p. tenuis is very similar to p. tenuoides; however martin (1960) distinguished between the two species based on eggs size and presence of pads on the ventral sucker which are present in the former and absent in the latter; but bartoli et al. (2003) prepared keys to diagnosis all species of pseudopecoeloides and placed p. tenuis and p. boops in the same group which is characterised by forebody length shorter than peduncle length, while p. tenuoides the forebody length is similar to peduncle length. aken'ova et al. (2009) redescribed p. tenuis from the intestine of the red bigeye priacanthus macracanthus cuvier from queensland, australia and discussed the measurements and verification of p. tenuoides as reported by yamaguti (1970) and considered the differences in eggs size between p. tenuis and p. tenuoides are no significant, this is due to the fact that yamaguti (1970) used live eggs in compared with martin’s description; however, the pads on the ventral sucker were not observed in the australian specimens and they predicted from the idea that most australian specimens were mounted laterally. the only difference in the current specimens from original description and redescription is the ratio of forebody to total length (yamaguti, 1940; aken'ova et al., 2009). conclusions the current study has identified four trematodes that are new additions to the parasitic fauna of iraq. three of these belonging to acanthocolpidae increasing the number of species in this family to seven in iraq distributed across three genera pleorchis railliet, 1896, monostephanostomum kruse, 1979 and stephanostomum looss, 1899, as well as one opecoelid trematode was identified, increasing the number of species in this family to six species in iraq belonging to the genera helicometrina linton, 1910, macvicaria gibson & bray, 1982 and pseudopecoeloides yamaguti, 1940. aknowledgments the authors would like to thanks the department of fisheries and marine resources, college of agriculture, university of basrah for their support of the research. they also extend their gratitude to dr ali a. al-darwesh, from the college of veterinary medicine, university of kufa, for his assistance with the illustrations editing. conflict of interest statment "the authors have no conflicts of interest to declare." 424 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus 18 (2): 395-429. new records of some digenetic literature cited abdel-gaber, r., alotaibi, m., al quraishy, s., omar, s. a., elkhadragy, m. f., aljawdah, h. m. a. and al-shaebi, e. m. 2023. monostephanostomum mesospinosum (digenea: acanthocolpidae) infecting the coastal trevally carangoides caeruleopinnatus (carangiformes: carangidae) from the marine water off saudi arabia. indian journal of animal research, 57: article idbf-1594. 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(2024) 18 (2): 395-429. قتسجيل جديد لبعض املخرمات ثنائية املنشأ من بعض االسماك البحرية من العرا حسن عويد فزاع*،** أثير حسين علي* و حسين عبد سعود*** .*قسم االسماك والثروة البحرية، كلية الزراعة، جامعة البصرة، العراق .عراق** قسم االنتاج الحيواني، كلية الزراعة، جامعة املثنى، السماوة، ال .***قسم التحليالت املرضية، كلية العلوم، جامعة البصرة، العراق 20/12/2024، النشر: 10/10/2024القبول: ، 9/10/2024املراجعة:، 27/7/2024االستالم: الخالصة اجريت فحوصات طفيلية للمخرمات ثنائية املنشأ في ثالثة انواع من االسماك في . بينت 2022 االول ولغاية كانون 2021للفترة من كانون االول املياه البحرية العراقية الدراسة تسجيل خمسة انواع من املخرمات تعود الى العوائل هيميوريدي واكانثوكولبيدي وابيكوليدي. )عائلة هيميوريدي( lecithocadium angustiovum yamaguti, 1953 عزل املخرم عزل كل من النوع .parastromateus niger (bloch, 1795)من امعاء اسماك الحلوائي و stephanostomum ditrematisو monostephanostomum loossi و stephanostomum sp. (من اسماك الديايوه )عائلة اكانثوكوليدي seriola dumerili ــــاء الســـــــمن امع pseudocoeloides tenuis yamaguti, 1940 باالضافة الى عزل النوع مك ــ ـــــــع الطفيليات املسجلــــميجكانت priacanthus tayenus كبير العين ـــــــ ــــــــة ماعـ ـــ ــــــــ ــ ـــ ــــدا النــ ـــــ ـــ وعـــ l. angustiovum هذه الدراسة توصوف وتسجل الول مرة في العراق والخليج العربي. في 359 waly et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2021) 16 (3): 359387. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2021.16.3.0359 multivariate analysis of the stem anatomical characters of terminalia l. (combretaceae) in egypt nahed waly* heba moustafa** rim hamdy*♦ and ashraf soliman* *department of botany and microbiology, faculty of science, cairo university, giza, egypt. **national organization for drug and control research, giza, egypt. ♦corresponding author: rimhamdy@sci.cu.edu.eg received date: 20 april 2021, accepted date: 4 june 2021, published date: 20 jun 2021 abstract a comparative investigation of the anatomical characters through a microscopical examination of the prepared transverse sections of the stem was carried out. six plates with 32 photomicrographs were provided to convincingly show the considerable variations of anatomical characters within the nine examined species. the matrix of 18 anatomical characters which included nine quantitative and nine qualitative was applied for the clustering analysis (ca) followed by the principal component analysis (pca) using the multivariate analysis of ecological data, pc-ord. the results exhibited significant variations among the species resulting in the construction of an artificial key; this key accurately represents a sufficient tool to display the considerable variation among the recognized species prominently. the distinction between terminalia l., 1767 species based on significant variations in the elements of stem anatomy; axial parenchyma and ray characteristics were considered as important parameters, while vessel diameter, fiber wall thickness, etc. were considered minor characters to differentiate between the studied species. the potential usefulness of the differentiation of these species properly maintains a profound efficiency in pharmaceutical and traditional medicine. keywords: combretaceae, paratracheal axial parenchyma, stem anatomy; terminalia; two-way clustering analysis. introduction terminalia l., 1767 the second largest genus of combretaceae, is derived from the latin name (terminus = end) which means the appearance of the leaves at the end of the shoots (van wyk and van wyk, 1997; saxena et al., 2013). the genus comprises 150 species worldwide distributed in pantropic regions (exell and stace, 1966; wickens, 1973; mcgaw et al., 2001; tan et al., 2002; heywood et al., 2007; stace, https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2021.16.3.0359 360 multivariate analysis of the stem 2007). approximately fifty species of this genus are native throughout eastern, southern, and western africa (lebrun and stork, 1991). it is represented in egypt by nine cultivated species. the archaeological excavations at quseir al-qadim (an ancient port located on the red sea coast of egypt in the roman, and medieval islamic periods) revealed the presence of two terminalia species among the tropical species utilized in traditional medicine and cuisine. terminalia bellerica (gaertn.) roxb., 1805 was traded during the early roman period (1st to early 3rd centuries ad); in addition to t. chebula retz., 1789 continue as imports in the medieval islamic period (11-13th century onwards) (van der veen and morales, 2015). during the 19th century, terminalia species had introduced to egypt as ornamental and avenue trees (delchevalerie, 1899; sickenberger, 1901; bircher, 1960). in the meantime, it plays a role in the environmental services (e.g., absorbing air pollutants, sequestering carbon, producing shade and oxygen). terminalia arjuna (roxb.) wight and arn., 1834, t. bellerica and t. catappa l., 1767 are planted in the egyptian wooden forests irrigated with primary level treated sewage water (imam, 1983). referring to their economic importance in egypt; the wood is used for house building, making furniture (t. chebula), and agricultural implements (t. arjuna); the bark is an essential source of tannins used for tanning and dyeing (t. arjuna) and the fruits are used to cure many ailments (t. bellirica and t. chebula). the taxonomic revision of genus terminalia in egypt revealed the presence of nine cultivated species (sickenberger, 1901; muschler, 1912, hamdy et al., 2007; hamdy, 2010; youssef and hamdy, 2013). according to its commercial interest, there are several studies on wood characteristics of the genus with some attempts to differentiate between terminalia species (metcalfe and chalk, 1950; normand and paquis, 1976; van vliet, 1979; rajput and rao, 1999; tilney, 2002; gupta and singh, 2005; singh and sharma, 2013; ingle and dhabe, 2015). despite all previous wood studies, terminalia, in general, vary significantly in morphology, anatomy, and karyotype characters (gill et al., 1982; al-mayah, 1983; jansen et al., 1995; ohri 1996; schmidt and mccleland 2002; sarkar et al., 2016). many taxonomic studies are still controversial regarding this genus since it never has a taxonomical congruence to classify it into subgenera and sections (tan et al., 2002; akinsulire et al., 2018). as a result of the problematic taxonomic status of the genus including a significant variation, overlapping, and the difficulty in identifying many genus members morphologically (oladipo and akinloye, 2018), especially if a leafy or flowering twig is subjected to observation, this work may be useful to confirm the identification of fragments of the species. it is necessary to search for a successful study to distinguish species reliably. in general, anatomical studies perform a substantial source for taxonomic inferences in various groups of flowering plants (keshavarzi and zare, 2006; edeoga et al., 2007; guimarães et al., 2007; kaplan et al., 2007). 361 waly et al. apart from waly et al. (2020) study based on the anatomical features of petiole and leaf, no comprehensive stem anatomical study to differentiate the terminalia species was done in egypt yet. therefore, the core objective of this study is to combine the available information of anatomical features, investigate, discover the relations and possible variations among the nine species belonging to this genus in egypt, based on the stem anatomical characters and try to provide an artificial key to differentiate between those species. material and methods specimens’ preparations the plant materials collected from different botanical gardens in cairo and giza provinces were studied, compared with authenticated materials kept in different egyptian herbaria. the herbarium specimens were preserved with new voucher numbers and kept at the cairo university herbarium (cai) as appended in table (1). these wood samples were boiled merrily in water for about two hours to soften them. each wood sample was then shaped and sized into a woodblock of 2×2×3cm. transverse and radial sections from the pith to bark at 10 15 µm thickness were obtained at the laboratory using a microtome. permanent wood tissue slides were prepared after dehydrating and staining with light green and safranin, and then mounted using canada balsam according to the standard procedure of the light microscope (johansen, 1940). after that, the completed sections were carefully examined using an olympus bx51 light microscope. photomicrographs were taken using an olympus dp12 in the central laboratory of geology department, faculty of science cairo university. the terminology of the anatomical characters of the stem was described correctly according to metcalfe and chalk (1950), tilney (2002), and akinsulire et al. (2018). the measurements for each character were based on more than 30 readings in an area of 25 mm 2 field of view, following the iawa committee (1989). many authors implemented multivariate analysis in classifying problematic taxa (sneath and sokal, 1973; chiapella, 2000; gémezcampo et al., 2001; rahman et al., 2013; teleb and salah el-din, 2014; yaradua et al., 2018). cluster analysis (ca) and principal component analysis (pca) are the most common techniques used in numerical classifications. cluster analysis aims to arrange a set of characters (objects) in the same group (called a cluster) in a way more closely related than characters in other groups (clusters). pca is a method used to reduce the original data dimensions. it reflects the most extensive variability within the data by determining a line through the cloud of points. the location of the points relative to one another is a sign of their taxonomic relation. the pca enables the relationship to be visually interpreted. the complex matrix of 18 anatomical characters: 9 quantitative and 9 qualitative of the investigated terminalia species is subjected to the multivariate analysis of ecological data, pc-ord for window, version 5.0. the two-way cluster analysis was adopted, using the sorensen (bray-curtis) as a distance measure with the flexible beta as a 362 multivariate analysis of the stem group linkage method. it is to be noted that the qualitative character of the paratracheal axial parenchyma is divided into four different types (a multistate character). distribution among the nine species was as following: aliform confluent to banded (acb), vasicentric scanty (vs), vasicentric to banded (vb) and vasicentric to aliform (va) to comply with the clustering analysis. the qualitative anatomical characters were transformed into binary characters (0, 1) to allow cluster analysis techniques, followed by the generalization of an artificial key depending on the anatomical characters investigated. table (1): the locality of collected specimens, date of collection, collector name and voucher number of the investigated terminalia species are kept at cairo university herbarium (cai). no. species locality date of collection collector and voucher number 1 t. arjuna giza: zoological garden 7 nov. 2016 h. moustafa 5067 2 t. bellirica giza: zoological garden 7 nov. 2016 h. moustafa 5068 3 t. bentzoe giza: zoological garden 7 nov. 2016 h. moustafa 5069 4 t. brownii giza: mazhar botanical garden 10 dec. 2016 h. moustafa 5070 5 t. catappa giza: orman botanical garden 7 nov. 2016 h. moustafa 5071 6 t. laxiflora cairo: el zohriya garden 16 nov. 2016 h. moustafa 5072 7 t. mantaly giza: mazhar botanical garden 10 dec. 2016 h. moustafa 5073 8 t. muelleri giza: zoological garden 7 nov. 2016 h. moustafa 5074 9 t. myriocarpa giza zoological garden 7 nov. 2016 r. hamdy 5075 results the general anatomical structure of the stem was more or less similar across the nine species of terminalia. all species exhibited normal secondary growth as secondary phloem, secondary xylem, and cork. however, some of them still contained an outermost epidermal layer with hair during their secondary development. stem in transverse section trichomes, when present, combretaceous type. cork arising superficially from parenchyma cells as a cortical origin. cuticle very thin to occasionally thin (0.1–3.0 mm). the epidermal cells anticlinal elongated to a more or less papillate due to the convex periclinal cell walls, sometimes with square or brick-shaped. cortex one or two types of cells that formed of outer collenchyma and inner parenchyma cells. druse crystals nearly always present. pericycle in the form of islands composed of 4 or 5(-10) fiber layers, situated around broad inner parenchyma, almost always with secondary 363 waly et al. phloem fibers in 1-4 interrupted bands. phloem and xylem form a continuous cylinder traversed by narrow rays. external phloem accompanies with primary phloem fibers formed isolated groups or continuous band occasionally with secondary phloem sclerenchyma elements in an interrupted band forming 1–3 cell layers thick and arranged in tangential bands in transverse section; secondary phloem fibers often made up of bands of 4 or 5-10) cell layers thick. in the more commonly studied species, fibers are prominent in the secondary phloem tending to occur in groups. internal phloem (intraxylary phloem) present in separate bands of varying sizes or forming a continuous ring. intercellular canals of the vertical traumatic type (lysogenous ducts) at the periphery portion of the pith in some studied species. tylosis was abundant. pith usually parenchymatous or parenchyma cells with a few to several lignified cells. wood wood usually medium-sized, begging with the ring without vessels in some species. in t.s.: vessels of all species with simple perforations oval to round shape and the majority was solitary and in radial multiples. parenchyma was typically abundant, predominantly paratracheal, and possibly apotracheal. the paratracheal parenchyma varied from vasicentric scanty and aliform to regular or irregular confluent bands. apotracheal parenchyma in some isolated cells scattered among the fibers in some species. fibers varied from very thin-walled to thinto thick-walled. in l.s.: rays composed of procumbent square or upright cells; exclusively uniseriate occasional biseriate portions; homocellular or heterocellular. no inclusions present in ray or axial parenchyma cells. diagnostic descriptive features trichomes unicellular, slender, thick-walled, pointed with swollen base (t. catappa, t. bentzoe (l.) l.f., 1781 and t. myriocarpa van heurck and müll. arg., 1871, t. brownii fresen, 1837 (pl. 1a). lenticels found in t. arjuna, t. bentzoe, t. catappa, t. mantaly h. perrier, 1953and t. muelleri benth., 1864(pl. 1b). cortex formed of one type; parenchymatous tissue cells observed in t. bellerica, t. catappa, t. mantaly and t. muelleri. the two types with outer collenchymatous and inner parenchymatous observed in t. arjuna, t. bentzoe, t. brownii, t. laxiflora engl. & diels, 1900 and t. myriocarpa. pericycle septate groups of lignified sclerenchyma cells found in all studied species except in t. mantaly. druses appeared as small crystals in the cortical zone [t. arjuna; (pl. 1c), t. bentzoe, t. brownii, and t. laxiflora], in addition to the pith (t. muelleri), or phloem region (t. myriocarpa). while druses appeared as large crystals and more abundant in the cortex, phloem and pith regions (t. mantaly). only t. catappa was characterized by clustered crystals filling large idioblasts (pl. 1d). tannins were observed in the cortex of t. arjuna, t. bellerica, t. bentzoe, t. brownii, and t. catappa; in addition to the pith of t. laxiflora (pl.1e) and t. muelleri, while in t. mantaly recorded only in pith. tylosis was seen in t. mantaly (pl. 1f) and t. myriocarpa. intercellular canals of the vertical traumatic type (lysogenous ducts) varied in their number from 3 canals in t. myriocarpa (pl. 2a), 4 in t. arjuna (pl. 2b), and t. catappa to 5 in t. muelleri (pl. 2c). 364 multivariate analysis of the stem interspecies variation in wood elements vessels were solitary in all studied species except t. laxiflora predominately found in radial multiples up to 5-7 vessels. the mean minimum and maximum vessels lumina diameter were 35.7μm ±17 (t. brownii) and 201 μm ± 66.6. fibers varied from very thin-walled (t. bellerica, t. catappa and t. myriocarpa) to thinthick-walled (t. arjuna, t. bentzoe, t. brownii, t. laxiflora, t. mantaly, t. muelleri); septate fiber in t. arjuna, t. bellerica, t. bentzoe, t. mantaly, t. muelleri (pl. 2d) or non-septate fiber in t. brownii (pl.2e), t. catappa, t. laxiflora, and t. myriocarpa. the mean minimum and maximum fiber lumina diameter were 1.96 μm ± 1.25 (t. brownii) and 14.8 μm ± 4.4 (t. bellerica). fiber wall thickness varied from thin wall 2.41μm ± 1.2 in t. arjuna, thick wall 7.89 μm ± 1.7 in t. laxiflora, to very thick wall 33.3±30.9 in t. brownii. parenchyma: paratracheal varied from vasicentric scanty (t. bellerica, t. bentzoe, t. brownii (pl.3a), and t. muelleri); vasicentric aliform in t. laxiflora; pl. 3b); aliform confluent to banded in t. arjuna (pl. 3c) to vasicentricbanded in t. catappa, t. myriocarpa, and t. mantaly (pl. 3d). rays: uniseriate homocellular (t. arjuna and t. brownii); uniseriate and biseriate homocellular in t. laxiflora (pl. 3 e) and t. mantaly or uniseriate heterocellular in t. bellerica, t. bentzoe, t. catappa; pl. 3f, t. muelleri, and t. myriocarpa. the mean minimum and maximum ray height were 58.5μm ± 16.77 in t. brownii and 290μm ± 3.8 in t. arjuna. the mean minimum and maximum ray width were 6.73 μm ± 0.64 in t. bellerica and 22.7 μm ± 4 in t. laxiflora. the mean minimum and maximum ray frequency were 15 ± 2.1/mm2 in t. catappa and 90 ± 32.4/mm2 in t. arjuna. the mean minimum and the maximum number of cells in each ray varied from 6 ± 0.42 cells in t. brownii to 15 ± 0.57 cells in t. bentzoe. the mean minimum and the maximum length of a cell/ray were 6.3 μm ± 1.95 (t. mantaly) and 41.4 μm ± 4.6 (t. arjuna). the qualitative and quantitative stem anatomical characters of the 9 terminalia species are summarized in table (2). the species are arranged alphabetically at the top of each column and followed by the plate number for the transverse and longitudinal sections (plates 4-8). among these features; the axial parenchyma, vessel lumina diameter, fiber wall thickness, and presence of lysogenous ducts, and ray height are distinguishable. multivariate analyses: 1. anatomical cluster analysis: the matrix of the 9 terminalia species and the 18 anatomical characters (tab. 2) subjected to the two-way hierarchical cluster analysis, using the sorensen as a distance measure with the flexible beta as a group linkage method (diag.1). in the first way of the hierarchical clustering, vertically arranged in columns with percent chaining = 3.33, the 18 anatomical characters are subdivided into two main clusters, nine quantitative and nine qualitative. the first included eight qualitative characters cited ones. while the paratracheal axial parenchyma is subdivided into four different sub-characters. the second cluster contained the nine 365 waly et al. quantitative characters, in which the mean values will be considered. the matrix is coding the brightness of the blue color which indicates the relativization of that character to the corresponding species (the darkest the color, the character maximum). in the other way of hierarchical clustering, horizontally arranged in rows with percent chaining = 11.60. these are firstly divided into two sub-clusters. the paratracheal axial parenchyma aliform confluent to banded (paxp acb) and the vessel lumina diameter > 200 μm considered the most diagnostic features (the pink outlined squares) that separate t. arjuna from the eight species. the latter is subdivided into two groups: t. brownii, t. catappa, and t. mantaly in one cluster due to ray height ≤ 100 μm and length of a cell/ray ≤ 10 μm (outlined green squares). this group is furthermore subdivided into two sub-groups. the first has t. brownii which characterized by paratracheal axial parenchyma vasicentric scanty; among other characters outlined dark brown squares (diag. 1). the last five species are more subdivided into two sections: t. bellirica and t. myriocarpa, in one section, are characterized by the vessels’ lumina diameter > 60 μm and fiber wall thickness < 3.5 μm (outlined yellow squares). the other section is furthermore subdivided into two subsections. the first subsection has one species, namely t. laxiflora and it separated from t. bentzoe and t. muelleri by many diagnostic characters. the paratracheal axial parenchyma vasicentric to aliform; uniseriate and biseriate rays (outlined orange squares) [see table (1) and diagram (1) for more details]. 366 multivariate analysis of the stem plate (1): diagnostic features in terminalia species; (a) trichomes in t. brownii; (b) lenticel in t. muelleri; (c) druses in t. arjuna; (d) clustered crystals filling large idioblasts in t. catappa; (e) tannins in t. laxiflora; (f) tylosis in t. mantaly. (abbreviations: d= druses; id= idioblasts containing druses; l= lenticel; ta= tannins; ty= tylosis). 367 waly et al. plate (2): diagnostic features in terminalia species; (a-c)intercellular canals lysogenous ducts; (a) 3 ducts in t. myriocarpa; (b)4 ducts in t. arjuna; (c) 5 ducts in t. muelleri; (d)septatefibres(sf) in t. muelleri; (e) nonseptatefibres (nsf) in t. brownii. (abbreviations: ld= lysogenous duct; nsf= non-septatefibres; sf= septatefibres. 368 multivariate analysis of the stem plate (3): diagnostic features in terminalia species; (a-d) paratracheal axial parenchyma, (a) vasicentric scanty in t. brownii, (b) vasicentricaliform in t. laxiflora, (c) vasicentricaliformconfluent to banded in t. arjuna; (d) vasicentric to banded in t. mantaly; type of rays and type of cells in rays; (e) uniseriate and biseriatehomocellular rays in t. laxiflora; (f) uniseriateheterocellular ray r in t. catappa. (abbreviations: bh= biseriatehomocellular; uh= uniseriaatehomocellular). 369 waly et al. plate (4): microscopic stem sections in terminalia species; (a-c) t. arjuna, (a, b) transverse section, (c) longitudinal section, (d-f) t. bellerica, (d, e) transverse section, (f) longitudinal section. (abbreviations: ap= axial parenchyma; co= cortex; ep= epidermis; f= fibers; ld= lysogenous duct; ph= phloem; pi= pith; r= rays; v= vessels; xy= xylem). 370 multivariate analysis of the stem plate (5): microscopic stem sections in terminalia species; (a-c) t. bentzoe, (a, b) transverse section, (c) longitudinal section. (d-f) t. brownii, (d, e) transverse section, (f) longitudinal section. abbreviations: ap=axial parenchyma; co= cortex; ep= epidermis; f= fibers; ph= phloem; pi= pith; r= rays; tr= trichomes; v= vessels; xy= xylem. 371 waly et al. plate (6): microscopic stem sections in terminalia species; (a-c) t. catappa, (a, b) transverse section, (c) longitudinal section. (d-f) t. laxiflora, (d, e) transverse section, (f) longitudinal section. (abbreviations: ap= axial parenchyma; co= cortex; ep= epidermis; f= fibers; ld= lysogenous duct; ph= phloem; pi= pith; r= rays; v= vessels; xy= xylem). 372 multivariate analysis of the stem plate (7): microscopic stem sections in terminalia species; (a-c) t. mantaly, (a, b) transverse section, (c) longitudinal section. (d-f) t. muelleri, (d, e) transverse section, (f) longitudinal section. (abrrevations: ep= epidermis; co= cortex; ph= phloem; tan=tannin; xy= xylem; pi= pith; ld= lysogenous duct; v= vessels;ap=axial parenchyma; f= fibers; r= rays). 373 waly et al. plate (8): microscopic stem sections in terminalia myriocarpa; (a, b) transverse section, (c) longitudinal section. (abbreviations: ap=axial parenchyma; co= cortex; ep= epidermis; f= fibers; ld= lysogenous duct; ph= phloem; pi= pith; r= rays; tr= trichomes; v= vessels; xy= xylem). 374 multivariate analysis of the stem t a b le ( 2 ): t h e q u al it at iv e an d q u an ti ta ti v e st em a n at o m ic al c h ar ac te rs o f t er m in a li a s p ec ie s in e g y p t. ( a b b re v ia ti o n : s .d = s ta n d ar d d ev ia ti o n d ev ia ti o n ) 375 waly et al. diagram (1): two-way clustering analysis of the nine studied terminalia species using the sorensen (bray-curtis) as a distance measure with the flexible beta as a linkage method, pc-ord for window, version 5, depending upon the data of the stem anatomy in table (1). (abbreviations: avnuray= average number of cells/ray; fibrsep= fibres septation; filudiam= fibre lumina diameter; fiwathi= fibre wall thickness; lcel/ray= length of a cell/ray; nucortex= number of cell types in the cortex; nuducts= number of ducts; paxpacb= paratracheal axial parenchyma aliform confluent to banded; paxpva= paratracheal axial parenchyma vasicentric to aliform; paxpvb= paratracheal axial parenchyma vasicentric to banded; paxpvs= paratracheal axial parenchyma vasicentric scanty; rayfreq= ray frequency; rayhght= ray height; tyrays= type of rays; tyceray= type of cells in rays; vludiam= vessels lumina diameter). 2. principal component analysis: the correlation between the diverse anatomical characters and the nine investigated species is shown in diagram (2). some characters are typically confined to definite species. the paratracheal axial parenchyma aliform confluent to banded (paxpacb) and the vasicentric to aliform (paxpva) are restricted to t. arjuna and t. laxiflora, respectively. meanwhile, the paratracheal axial parenchyma vasicentric to banded (paxpvb) is distributed among the species of t. myriocarpa, t. catappa, and t. mantaly. speaking of the distribution of the species in the plain, when the two pairs of t. bentzoe, t. muelleri, t. catappa, and t. mantaly stuck together, indicating their relationships anatomically, t. arjuna is precisely located in a distal position close to axis 2. the two-way hierarchical cluster analysis and the principal component analysis of the stem anatomical characters of the 9 investigated terminalia species lead to the generalization of the following artificial key. 376 multivariate analysis of the stem diagram (2): pca of the nine terminalia species based on the investigated 21 anatomical characters. (for abbreviations, see diagram 1) the artificial key based on stem anatomical characters: 1. paratracheal axial parenchyma aliform, confluent to banded, vessels lumina diameter > 200 μm, fiber wall thickness < 2.5 μm, ray height ≥ 280 μm, ray frequency ≥ 80 /mm2, length of a cell/ray > 30 μm……………....…....... t. arjuna paratracheal axial parenchyma vasicentric scanty, vasicentric to aliform or banded, vessels lumina diameter < 200 μm, fiber wall thickness ≥ 2.5 μm, ray height < 280 μm, ray frequency < 80/mm2, length of a cell/ray ≤ 30 μm .................................... 2 2. ray height ≤ 100 μm, length of a cell/ray ≤10 μm ……………………………..... 3 ray height > 100 μm, length of a cell/ray >10 μm ………………………………... 5 3. paratracheal axial parenchyma vasicentric scanty; lenticels absent; two types of cells in the cortex; fiber lumina diameter < 5 μm; ray height ≤ 60 μm ………………………………………………………….…….......…t. brownie 377 waly et al. paratracheal axial parenchyma vasicentric to banded; lenticels present; one type of cells in the cortex; fiber lumina diameter ≥ 5 μm; ray height > 60 μm………....... 4 4. uniseriate rays, heterocellular, fiber lumina diameter > 9 μm and fiber wall thickness 3.65 μm very thin-walled, fiber non-septate, ray frequency 10-20 /mm2, trichomes present, ducts present ……………………………………………….…………..……... t. catappa uniseriate-and biseriate rays, homocellular, fiber lumina diameter ≤ 9 μm and fiber wall thickness 2.7 μm thinto thick-walled, fiber septate, ray frequency 20-30 /mm2, trichomes absent, ducts absent …………....……………….……. t. mantaly 5. vessels lumina diameter > 60 μm, fiber wall thickness < 3.5 μm….…………..… 6 vessels lumina diameter < 60 μm, fiber wall thickness > 3.5 μm …….…….......... 7 6. paratracheal axial parenchyma vasicentric scanty, ray width ≤ 10 μm, ray frequency 50-70/mm2, vessels lumina diameter > 100 μm, fiber septate, trichomes, crystals, and ducts absent …………………………………...……….........…..…t. bellerica paratracheal axial parenchyma vasicentric to banded, ray width >10 μm, ray frequency 20-30/mm2, vessels lumina diameter < 100μm, fiber non-septate, trichomes, crystals, and ducts (3) present ……………………...…....t. myriocarpa 7. paratracheal axial parenchyma vasicentric to aliform, uniseriate-and biseriate rays, homocellular, ray width ≥ 15μm, vessels lumina diameter > 50μm, fibre non-septate, lenticels absent………………………………..……………………….. t. laxiflora paratracheal axial parenchyma vasicentric scanty, uniseriate rays, heterocellular, ray width <15μm, vessels lumina diameter < 50μm, fiber septate, lenticels present……................................................................................................ ............. 8 8. ducts absent, two types of cells in the cortex, fiber lumina diameter > 5 μm and fiber wall thickness 6.89thin – to thick-walled ..….……………….….. t. bentzoe ducts present (5), one type of cells in the cortex, fiber lumina diameter ≤ 5 μm, and fiber wall thickness 3.75thinto thick-walled ……..……………….... t. muelleri discussion anatomical analysis allowed us to create simplified and updated characteristics of terminalia species and to provide additional qualitative and quantitative anatomical data on the species. in this sense, the study presented nine different species based on a more comprehensive data collection of the terminalia stem vascular tissues. the classification suggested by the multivariate analysis is more objective than traditional ones in that it could evaluate all characters at the same time. a lot of researchers used these techniques to perform their classifications. for instance, lopes et al. (2020) used these techniques during their study on the stem anatomy of selaginella subgenus gymnogynum (p. beauv.) west strand and korall, 2016. 378 multivariate analysis of the stem furthermore, waly et al. (2020) applied multivariate analyses to construct a key for the species of terminalia in egypt depending on the anatomical characters of the leaves. while, yaradua et al. (2018) used it to study the genus crotalaria l., 1753 in nigeria. also, simo-droissart et al. (2016) checked the morphometrics of angraecum section dolabrifolia (pfitzer) garay, 1973 (orchidaceae, angraecinae). teleb and salah-el-din (2014) used it to differentiate between the species of genus ficus l., 1753 depending on the pollen morphology, while rahman et al. (2013) used it to distinguish between species of genus senna mill., 1754from bangladesh. the cluster analysis (ca) and principal component analysis (pca) are the most commonly used techniques in numerical classifications. both methods help in understanding the anatomical relations among the studied terminalia species. ca segregates the various species depending on the similarities and dissimilarities of the qualitative and quantitative anatomical characters among the investigated species. pca helps in understanding the relationship between these species depending on their spatial distribution within the graph and also clarifies which of the anatomical characters are confined to specific species. the general anatomy of stem traits presumes useful definitions, not least because of the inevitable quantitative approach. the characters are equally crucial to comprise the broad spectrum of wood characteristics for any distinct taxon, and hence the degree of similarities and dissimilarities between various taxa. therefore, there was an imperative demand to study wood anatomy, which gives distinct diagnostic characteristics and distinguishing different species (gupta and singh, 2005; pande et al., 2005, 2007; keshavarzi and zare, 2006; guimarães et al., 2007; kaplan et al., 2007; sharma et al., 2011 a, b; stepanova and oskolski, 2019). consequently, the present research studies the differentiation between terminalia species in egypt based on the considerable variations of stem anatomy elements. the stem description of terminalia previously conducted by metcalfe and chalk (1950) and tilney (2002) adequately described the wood elements of different species. this work discusses the anatomical differentiation between the nine species of genus terminalia growing in egypt concerning how much these characters are indeed reliable taxonomic markers in plant identification. the paratracheal axial parenchyma is considered a significant parameter to differentiate between the studied species. it varied from vasicentric scanty in t. bellerica, t. bentzoe, t. brownii, and t. muelleri; vasicentric banded in t. catappa, t. mantaly, and t. myriocarpa; vasicentric to aliform in t. laxiflora while aliform confluent bands in t. arjuna. van vliet (1979) surveyed the characters of the wood anatomy of all genera of the combretaceae except meiostemon, among which 43 terminalia species. it is similar to the current study in that he recorded that the parenchyma was mainly paratracheal, ranging from scanty vasicentric to paratracheal confluent bands, partly also diffuse and marginal. 379 waly et al. gupta and singh (2005) examined 15 indian terminalia species and developed a dichotomous key based on macroscopic and microscopic features. the vessel diameter, axial parenchyma, septate and non-septate fibers were the most significant parameter for the differentiation between the studied indian species. their observations were similar to ours, where t. arjuna was with septate fiber, and t. myriocarpa showed crystals in the parenchyma. furthermore, singh and sharma (2013) examined the variations of anatomical characters in four terminalia (t. arjuna, t. bellerica, t. chebula, and t. myriocarpa). their observations were similar to the current results. besides, paratracheal parenchyma varied from vasicentric (t. chebula), lozenge aliform (t. myriocarpa), and confluent (t. arjuna and t. bellerica). also, ray characters were equally considered a significant parameter, including ray types, height, width, frequency, and the number of cells in each ray. this study mutually agrees with van vliet’s results (1979); on one hand, it is found that the rays are mainly composed of procumbent cells with an infrequent square to erect marginal cells square and erect cells in some species, heterogeneous to homogeneous, exclusively uniseriate. on the other hand, he stated that rays might be multiseriate; uniand biseriate in t. arjuna, 1 to 3-seriate in t. brownii and 1 to 5seriate in t. catappa. moreover, ruwanpathirana (2014) carefully studied the principal characters and variation of some wood dimensions to differentiate between five species of terminalia (t. arjuna, t. bellerica, t. catappa, t. chebula, and t. parviflora). his detailed description of wood elements is typical to that of the current study except for ray cell arrangement that was stated as mostly multiseriate and occasionally uniseriate in t. catappa. moreover, these anatomical stem characters were similar to those observed in t. chebula by ingle and dhabe (2015). on the contrary, this study slightly differs from that of singh and sharma (2013), who concerned about the composition of rays forming of procumbent cells except for t. arjuna; rays were heterocellular and were composed of both procumbent and square cells. some other characters, including vessel diameter, fiber wall thickness, lumina and fiber septation, presence, and absence of trichome, lenticels, crystals, and ducts, were considered minor characters and may undoubtedly help to differentiate between species. furthermore, van vliet (1979) recorded solitary and radial multiples up to 5 or 6 vessels in t. arjuna, t. brownii, and t. catappa. thin-walled tylosis or amorphous to granular contents was in some species only. fibers were recorded thin to medium thick walls in most studied species, sometimes very thin or thick to very thick, septate or non-septate. in contrary to this study, he recorded crystals of the studied species with various types and frequencies, and sometimes occurred in several aggregates, large and rhomboidal, elongated rod or as isodiametric druses in rays and, or axial parenchyma cells, and sometimes absent. moreover, he properly recognized a considerable variation and overlapping of wood anatomical characters between the terminalia species and all genera of the subtribe 380 multivariate analysis of the stem terminaliinae and some from other taxa. observations of singh and sharma (2013) were similar to the current observations; the vessels were solitary and in radial multiples up two or three. fibers were thin to thick-walled and prismatic crystals were found in the parenchyma in all species except t. chebula, and ray cells of t. myriocarpa. the results support the observations offered by tilney (2002) except for mucilage ducts which he did not mention their presence. however, metcalfe and chalk (1950) underlined the presence of mucilage canals in the intraxylary phloem and pith in several terminalia species and to ‘secretory spaces giving a mucilage reaction’ as previously mentioned by heiden (1893). it should be mentioned that the information taken from the 18 anatomical stem characters using iawa hardwood list features have been recorded, for example, type of axial parenchyma, type of rays and fibers, diameter and frequency of vessels, length and frequency of rays, and more. additionally, analysis of variance of the species' parameters showed that there were statistically significant differences in their wood elements (tab. 1). besides, the distinct characters of each species in this study assisted to differentiate among the nine species of terminalia species by constructing an artificial key that summarized the extent of taxonomic similarity between the studied species. upon referring to interspecies variation in wood elements, van vliet (1979) studied the average deviations of wood parameters and used them to distinguish between the studied terminalia species. his measurements were similar to this study in average vessel diameter (65 315 μm), but he used other wood parameters such as vessel diameter, average vessel member length and fibers length. this study is in parallel to the observation of singh and sharma (2013), who recently observed fiber wall thickness of t. arjuna (2.3 μm ± 0.9), ray height in t. arjuna (242.4 ± 84.2), and t. myriocarpa (179.2 ± 60.5), despite some uniformity in stem anatomy dimensions, the anatomical variation is distinct. there is a considerable variation in vessel diameter and ray width in all observed species, the fiber wall thickness in case of t. bellerica and t. myriocarpa (2.1 μm ± 0.9 and 2.2 μm ± 1.4 respectively) and ray height of t. bellerica (209.4 μm ± 69.7). this general description of wood elements is typical to this study; 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(crotalarieae, fabaceae) in nigeria variability, taxonomy and phylogeny. biodiversity: research and conservation, 50: 25-32. youssef, t. a, zl. and hamdy, r. s. 2013 timber trees: cultivated in gardens and planted forests in egypt. egypt: ministry of agriculture and land reclamation under secretariat for afforestation and environment, 193 pp. 386 multivariate analysis of the stem bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2021) 16 (3): 359-387. تحليل متعدد المتغيرات للخصائص التشريحية لسيقان نبات جنس terminalia l. عائلة combretaceae في مصر مصطفي**، ريم حمدي* وأشرف سليمان* ناهدمراد* ،هبة قسم النبات والميكروبيولوجيا / كلية العلوم / جامعة القاهرة/ الجيزة / *مصر ** والبحوث الدوائية/ القاهرة/ مصر* الهيئة القومية للرقابة 2021/ 6/ 20، تأريخ النشر: 2021/ 04/06، تأريخ القبول: 20/04/2021تأريخ االستالم: الخالصة مقارنة بين الصفات التشريحية لسيقان تسعة أنواع مختلفة يت إجر المتوفرة في مصر من خالل الفحص terminalia l., 1767 لجنس لهذه السيقان. وقد نتج عن ذلك عمل ستة ع المستعرضةالمجهري للمقاط بها في 32لوحات االختالف أوجه إلظهار وذلك ، مجهرية صورة عمل تم وقد فحصها. تم التي التسعة لألنواع التشريحية الخصائص صفة منها 18مصفوفة من الصفات التشريحية لهذه السيقان مكونة من . وقد تم إجراء التحليل العنقودى تسعة صفات كمية وتسعة أخرى نوعية الرئيسي (ca) المجموعات المكون بتحليل بإستخدام (pca) متبوًعا . (pc-ord)برنامج تعديل و تنسيب البيانات قيد األنواع بين وواضحة كبيرة اختالفات النتائج أظهرت بناء على ساعد مما لها الدراسة تصنيفي هذ ، مفتاح اعتبار ا ويمكن قيد األنواع بين والتمييز االختالف إلظهار وكافية دقيقة أداة المفتاح الدراسة بشكل واضح. وقدأظهرتالدراسةأهميةالخالياالبرنكيمية المحورية أنواع بين التمييز الوالخالياالشعاعيةفي لم جنسهذا النقيض ، وعلى ت في الهامة الصفات األلياف من أو سمك جدار الوعاء حديد يكن قطر وتعتبر صفات المدروسة االنواع هذه بين للتمييز المرجوة االختالفات 387 waly et al. ثانوية للتمييز والفائدة المرجوة لهذه الدراسة هو التمييز بين هذه األنواع والتي تساهم بشكل كبير في مستقبل دراسات الطب الصيدالني والطب . التقليدي لهذا الجنس bull 237 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum choudhury et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2024) 18 (1): 237-244. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2024.18.1.0237 short communication new breeding and roosting localities of the critically endangered white-rumped vulture gyps bengalensis (gmelin, 1788) in raisen district, madhya pradesh, india sudhir ranjan choudhury*, ajay kumar singh*, ashutosh anand*, nishikant krishan*, chityendra dewangan* and manish tiwari** *department of forestry, wildlife & amp; environmental sciences, guru ghasidas university, bilaspur, chhattisgarh, india. ** m2m consultancy, new delhi, india. corresponding author: srchoudhury.ggu@gmail.com received: 18 aug. 2023, revised: 5 november 2023, accepted: 10 nov. 2023, published:20 june 2024 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract the present study aimed to report and provids an account of the population status, nesting behavior, and conservation threats faced by the critically endangered white-rumped vulturesgyps bengalensis (gmelin, 1788) (aves, accipitriformes, accipitridae) in baairukhhar village, raisen district, madhya pradesh, india in the month of april 2023. in the current study, the nesting and roosting sites were systematically surveyed, and a total population of 98 to 102 white-rumped vultures were recorded. for roosting purposes, the white-rumped vultures preferred high-canopy trees, including sacred fig ficus religiosa l., 1753 and teaktectona grandis l. f., 1782 in the area. a total of 12 nests of white-rumped vultures were observed, all of which were located on high canopy f. religiosa trees with an 800 meter radius within and around the baairukhhar village outskirts. the presence of this critically endangered species in an anthropocentric area could have adverse effects on their breeding success and lead to a decline in the population within the landscape. keywords: conservation, old world vultures, raisen, range extension, white-rumped. introduction vultures are social birds that exhibit various behaviors such as roosting, soaring, and feeding together in flocks (yadav and kanaujia, 2023). vultures generally roost on mature trees, cliffs, monuments, and ground during the morning and evening hours. vultures roost in open landscapes that are exposed to sunlight to warm up, and maintain their plumage. for breeding and nesting purposes, vultures also choose mature trees, cliffs, and monuments (jha et al., 2020; yadav and kanauja, 2023). the white-rumped vulture gyps bengalensis (gmelin, 1788) build its nest on tall trees. several factors influence their choice of roosting bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799, print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2024.18.1.0237 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5054-9910 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2980-2106 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1960-9716 https://orcid.org/0009-0005-3923-6082 https://orcid.org/0009-0008-1399-8865 mailto:srchoudhury.ggu@gmail.com https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 238 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (1): 237-244. new breeding and roosting localities and nesting sites, including the duration of sunlight, the vultures' orientation towards the sun while sitting, the availability of food sources, tree height, tree condition, branching pattern, and the presence of nearby water bodies (beauchamp, 1999; ahmad et al., 2020; yadav and kanaujia, 2023). globally, there are 23 vulture species, and the indian sub-continent is a home to nine of them (prakash 1999; navaneethan et al., 2015), they are viz.: bearded vulture gypaetus barbatus (linnaeus, 1758) (nt); cinereous vulture aegypius monachus (linnaeus, 1766) (nt); egyptian vulture neophron percnopterus (linnaeus, 1758) (en); himalayan griffon gyps himalayensis hume, 1869 (nt); indian griffon vulture gyps fulvus (hablitz, 1783) (lc); long-billed vulture gyps indicus (scopoil, 1786) (cr); red-headed vulture sarcogyps calvus (scopoil, 1786) (cr); slender-billed vulture gyps tenuirostris grey, 1844 (cr); white-rumped vulture gyps bengalensis (gmelin, jf, 1788) (cr) (jha, 2015; vaidyanathan, 2021; gill et al., 2023). [note: iucn red list categories: lc-least concern; nt-near threatened; en-endangered; cr-critically endangered]. various regions in india support vulture populations, with the state of madhya pradesh being supportive of a high number of vulture locations, species, and individuals in india (jha, 2018; jha and jha, 2020). out of nine vulture species found in india, madhya pradesh houses six resident species and two migratory species. the species reported from madhya pradesh are egyptian vulture, cinereous vulture, red-headed vulture, indian vulture, white-rumped vulture, slender-billed vulture, griffon vulture and himalayan griffon (gurjar et al., 2011; navaneethan et al., 2015; yadav et al., 2018; yadav and kanaujia, 2023).the populations of gyps vultures in the indian subcontinent have experienced a severe decline over the past decade, with current numbers estimated to be less than 5% of their original number for various vulture species (prakash et al., 2003; navaneethan et al., 2015). the main reason for the population decline is the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory veterinary drug diclofenac. some secondary threats, like collisions with power lines and habitat destruction, are also the cause of the decline of vulture populations. previously, the white-rumped vulture was abundant in southern and south-eastern asia have declined rapidly since 1990 across the indian subcontinent. the species is now classified as critically endangered by the iucn red list (samson and ramkrishanan, 2020; birdlife international, 2023). vultures hold a significant ecological role as they contribute to the ecosystem by scavenging deceased and decaying animals, thereby aiding in environmental cleanliness. the drastic reduction in vulture populations within india has had repercussions on the management of livestock carcasses and has led to a rise in human-linked diseases such as rabies (samson and ramkrishanan, 2020). study area: the central indian state of madhya pradesh (mp) is covering an area of 3, 08,252 km2, lies within the tropical and subtropical climate zone between 2206’26030’ n and 74000’820 51’ e. the average annual rainfall is about 1370 mm, which gradually decreases from east to west mp. the forests mostly belong to tropical dry deciduous and moist deciduous types. raisen district lies in the central mp. the district is situated between 239 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum choudhury et al. latitudes 220 47′ and 230 33′ n and 77021′ and 780 49′ e (map 1). the present study focuses on barrukhaar village (23°11'02"n 77°44'16"e) situated within the chicklod forest range of the obedullahganj forest division in the raisen district. barrukhar village is encircled by forests on three sides, while one side borders agricultural fields, which are mainly paddy fields with trees. map (1): map of the study area pinned with white-rumped vulture roosting and nesting sites new vulture location report. process of data collection: a rapid ornithological survey was conducted to assess the roosting and breeding populations of vultures in the study area. at first, opportunistic sightings of vultures were recorded during the field survey. later, a systematic data collection was done from 7 april to 15 april 2023. the population size of white-rumped vultures was estimated by direct counting of the individuals observed in the roosting and nesting locations 240 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (1): 237-244. new breeding and roosting localities during the early morning (06.00–09.00 a.m.) and late evening (05.00 –07.00 p.m.). the observations were recorded on alternate days morning, and evening for 8 days by two researchers. a total of 40 man-hours have been used for observation and data collection. the morning observations start with the counting of vultures on the rousing site, followed by nest observation and other relevant data collection. all observations were done using binoculars (olympus 10x50s) from a distance ranging between 100–300 m. the data were documented through photographs captured using a nikon d5600 camera with 70-300mm lens, and the coordinates of roost sites were logged using gps devices. the roost and nesting site map was created by utilizing google earth pro and q-gis 3.16. notes and field information the village of barrukhaar is surrounded by a reserve forest on three sides. the area from barrukhaar to chiklod kalah, the landscape is plain with moderately dense forest (map 1). the forest area is dominated by teak tectona grandis, and there are also some other significant tree species, such as saaj terminalia elliptica, and tendu diospyros melanoxylon. on the other hand, the area between barrukhaar and raisen has hilly topography and is open to moderately dense forest in the area. doodhi (wrightia tinctoria) and bhirra (chloroxylon swietenia) are the predominant trees. other important tree species found in the area are dhavda (terminalia elliptica), mahua (madhuca indica), saaj (terminalia elliptica), tendu (diospyros melanoxylon), etc. the village is present in a transitional zone between two types of forest (map 1). the village has three species of tall trees, i.e. sacred fig ficus religiosa, teak tectona grandis, and mango mangifera indica. the present study documented an estimated overall population of white-rumped vultures ranging between 98 and 102 individuals within the study area. all the night roosting and nesting activity was observed in the high canopy trees of sacred fig ficus religiosa and teaktectona grandis (pl. 1). a total of 12 nests were observed in the study area. all the nests are documented on the sacred fig tree (pl. 2). all 12 nests are active, with 5 nests feeding and nesting with the young one, and the rest 7 nests show regular movement of the vulture. in the current study, the sacred fig tree has been documented as the tree of choice for white-rumped vultures in the study area when it comes to building their nests. this occurrence could possibly be attributed to the fact that these two tree species were predominantly observed as the tallest ones (more than 23 m) with a wide canopy and were situated in open spaces, likely receiving direct morning sunlight. similarly, many tree species were preferred by whiterumped vultures for building nest across india and bangladesh. according to jha et al. (2020), there are 43 tree species used by vultures for roosting, and 29 tree species with a comparatively shorter height were not used for nesting, indicating a preference for taller trees. ficus religiosa (sacred fig) and boswellia serrata (indian frankincense) are the most preferred tree species for nesting and roosting of white-rumped vultures. 241 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum choudhury et al. plate (3): morning basking behavior plate (4): night roosting on f.s religiosa. f. religiosa. the present study recorded nests of white-rumped vulture on trees between 15-24 m above the ground level in the study area. all the vulture nests were restricted to the high canopy trees only. out of the total nests of the white-rumped vulture were recorded with an 800 m radius of the village, of which six nests are inside the village, and three nests are inside the agricultural field nearby, and three nests are in the road side area near the village. one of the nests inside the village is disturbed due to earthen brickwork. one sacred fig inside the earthen brickwork area is pruned, due to which there is only night roosting observed (pl. 4). in india, the sacred fig is one of the religious trees that is unharmed due to religious belief plate (1): nesting and roosting site of white-rumped vulture on sacred fig ficus religiosa. plate (2): nests of whie rumped vulture on sacred fig f. religiosa. 242 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (1): 237-244. new breeding and roosting localities (wani et al., 2020). based on our field observations, the white-rumped vulture species exhibits a preference for such areas for both roosting and breeding activities. however, in cases where there is a scarcity of high canopy trees, the population might either disperse or experience a decline in breeding success. the conservation efforts for the white-rumped vulture in india involve strict protection under the indian wildlife protection act of 1972, with the species listed in schedule i. the ban on the veterinary use of diclofenac has been a crucial step, alongside the initiation of a conservation breeding program led by the bombay natural history society (bnhs). the present study reports a new site of breeding of the white-rumped vulture, which could be helpful for future conservation and management. the presence of critically endangered species in the village area of the village may lead to many types of conflict that may lead to a decrease in breeding success and population decline in the landscape. a proper management approach combined with the preservation of large trees close to the village can aid in the preservation and growth of the species. any suitable habitat that is still present must be protected as part of vulture conservation. governmental initiatives and local cooperation can accomplish the conservation of the vulture habitat. acknowledgments we would like to thank the department of forestry, wildlife and environmental sciences, guru ghasidas university, bilaspur, india, for providing essential resources and support during the study. conflict of interest statement the authors declare no conflict of interest related to the work in the manuscript. we "the authors" have followed and signed the scientific research ethics announced by the journal. literature cited ahmad, s., rehman, e. u., kabir, m. and bari, f. 2020. population status and nesting activity of white-rumped vulture gyps bengalensis in kotli district, azad jammu and kashmir, pakistan. ornithological science, 19(1): 55-61. [crossref] beauchamp, g. 1999. the evolution of communal roosting in birds: origin and secondary losses. behavioral ecology, 10 (6): 675-687. [crossref] birdlife international. 2023. birdlife data zone. [click here] gill, f., donsker, d. and rasmussen, p. (eds). 2023. ioc world bird list, v13.2. [click here] gurjar, r. l. and gawande, p. j. 2011. a note on the vulture population in panna tiger reserve, central india. podoces, 6(1): 83-86. [click here] jha, k. k. 2015. distribution of vultures in uttar pradesh, india. journal of threatened taxa, 7(1):6750-6763. [crossref] https://doi.org/10.2326/osj.19.55 https://doi.org/10.1093/beheco/10.6.675 http://datazone.birdlife.org/home https://webofdeceit.org/ioc-updates/ https://www.wesca.net/podoces/podoces6.1/podoces%206_1_%20vulture%20population%20in%20panna%20tiger%20reserve,%20india.pdf https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.o3319.6750-63 243 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum choudhury et al. jha, k. k. 2018. mapping and management of vultures in an indian stronghold. in: geomatics and conservation biology. nova science publishers, new york, 45-75 pp. jha, k. k. and jha, r. 2020. habitat suitability mapping for migratory and resident vultures: a case of indian stronghold and species distribution model. journal of wildlife and biodiversity, 4(3): 91-111. [crossref] jha, k. k., campbell, m. o. and jha, r. 2020. vultures, their population status and some ecological aspects in an indian stronghold. notulae scientia biologicae, 12(1): 124142. [crossref] navaneethan, b., sankar, k., qureshi, q. and manjrekar, m. 2015. the status of vultures in bandhavgarh tiger reserve madhya pradesh, central india. journal of threatened taxa, 7(14): 8134-8138. [crossref] prakash, v. 1999. status of vultures in keoladeo national park, bharatpur, rajasthan, with special reference to population crash in gyps species. journal of the bombay natural history and society, 96(3): 365-378. prakash, v., pain, d. j., cunningham, a. a., donald, p. f., prakash, n., verma, a., gargi, r., sivakumar, s. and rahmani, a. r. 2003. catastrophic collapse of indian whitebacked gyps bengalensis and long-billed gyps indicus vulture population. biological conservation, 109: 381-390. [crossref] ruby, r. y. and kanaujia, a. 2023. factors influencing the selection of roost sites of vultures with special references to roosting trees in palpur-kuno wildlife sanctuary, madhya pradesh, india. international journal of life sciences, 11(1): 89-98. [click here] samson, a. and ramakrishnan, b. 2020. the critically endangered white-rumped vulture gyps bengalensis in sigur plateau, western ghats, india: population, breeding ecology, and threats. journal of threatened taxa, 12(13): 16752-16763. [crossref] vaidyanathan, s. 2021. a complete guide to the vulture of india. [click here]. yadav, r., kumar, a. and kanaujia, a. 2018. madhav national park: a potential site for vultures in bundelkhand region, india. ecology, environment and conservation journal, 24 (4): 1839-1846. [researchgate] wani, a. m., sahoo, g. and gupta, s. 2020. sacred trees of india: traditional approach towards plant conservation. international journal of current microbiology and applied sciences, 9(2606): 13. [click here] https://doi.org/10.22120/jwb.2020.120246.1111 https://doi.org/10.15835/nsb12110547 https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.2428.7.14.8134-8138 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0006-3207(02)00164-7 https://ijlsci.in/ls/index.php/home/article/view/699 https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.3034.12.13.16752-16763 https://www.natureinfocus.in/animals/a-complete-guide-to-the-vultures-of-india https://www.researchgate.net/publication/330998282_madhav_national_park_a_potential_site_for_vultures_in_bundelkhand_region_india http://dx.doi.org/10.20546/ijcmas.2020.901.295 244 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (1): 237-244. new breeding and roosting localities bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2024) 18 (1): 237-244. نسر أبيض الظهرللتجمع مواقع جديدة للتكاثر و (gmelin,1788) gyps bengalensis املهدد باالنقراض في منطقة رايسين، ماديا براديش، الهند ، أجاي كومار سينغ*، أشوتوش أناند*، نيشيكانت كريشان*،•سودهير رانجان تشودري* مانيش تيواري** تشيتيندرا ديوانجان* و ; العلوم البيئية، جامعة جورو غاسيداس، ampم الغابات والحياة البرية &* قس بيالسبور، تشهاتيسجاره، الهند. ، نيودلهي، الهندm2m** استشارات 20/6/2024، النشر: 10/11/2023القبول: ،5/11/2023املراجعة: ، 18/8/2023االستالم: الخالصة لة السكان وسلوك التعشيش والتهديدات التي تواجهها هدفت الدراسة الحالية إلى بيان حا ,aves, accipitriformes) (gmelin, 1788الظهر( املهددة باالنقراض ) بيضاءالنسور ) accipitridae 2023( في قرية بايروكخار، منطقة رايسين، ماديا براديش، الهند في شهر أبريل . والتواجد بشكل مدروس وممنهج، وتم في هذه الدراسة ، تم مسح مواقع التعشيش من النسور بيضاء الظهر. فضلت النسور البيضاء 102إلى 98تسجيل إجمالي عدد يتراوح بين ficus الظهر األشجار ذات القمة العالية; ألغراض التجمع والتكاثر وال سيما أشجار التين religiosa l., 1753 وأشجار الساجtectona grandis l. f., 1782 و تمت مالحظة ،في املنطقة عش١٢اعشاش النسور )بيضاء الظهر ( التي بلغت ، والتي تقع جميعها على أشجار عالية منا متر داخل وحول ضواحي قرية 800ضمن مساحة دائرية بلغ نصف قطرها f. religiosaنوع ذات كثافة بايروكخار. ولوحظ إن وجود هذه األنواع املهددة باالنقراض بكثرة في منطقة سكانية عالية، مما يجعل له آثار سلبية على نجاح تكاثرها ويؤدي إلى انخفاض عددها داخل املناظر الطبيعية. bull 465 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum jihad, h. m. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2024) 18 (2): 465-476. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2024.18.2.0465 original article additional information with a checklist of land snails in iraq hiba mohammed jihad iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq. e-mail: hiba.muhammad@nhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq received: 2 aug. 2024, revised: 20 nov. 2024, accepted: 24 nov. 2024, published: 20 december 2024 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract land snails constitute an important group of mollusks distributed worldwide. this study reports on land snails found in iraq. a survey of terrestrial gastropods was performed during their activity seasons in gardens, agricultural lands and nurseries in iraq from march 2022 to september 2023. fifteen terrestrial snails belonging to seven families were documented. the species euchondrus michonii (bourguignat, 1853) was identified and recorded based on several distinct conchological characters for the first time in iraq. the recently collected specimens, along with those previously recorded in iraq, were included in this checklist. essential information on each species is also presented. as there is no previous checklist or study that provides an overview of land snails in iraq, the results of this study fill the gap in our knowledge about this group and provide an important database for further research in this field in the country. keywords: checklist, gastropods, iraq, molluska, terrestrial. introduction the interest in iraqi fauna, specifically mollusks, has increased with the number of field studies in recent years, including those concerning bivalves (jihad, 2023). certainly, many other important groups of mollusks, such as land snails, remain to be discovered and reported. land snails are a familiar group of mollusks with several easily identifiable characteristics; they typically dwell on the ground, trees, or shrubs, and feed on decaying organic matter. taxonomically, snails belong to the class gastropoda, which contains more species than any other class in the phylum mollusca (holland, 2009). many terrestrial species from iraq have been described, but this group of mollusks remains poorly investigated. the studies on the land snails of iraq include some old studies, with only a few recent records scattered in the literature. germain (1921) pallary (1939) and biggs (1959) reported several species in iraq. more recently, al-qaisi and farman (2023) added the species rumina decollata (linnaeus, 1758), while jihad and ali (2021) added polygyra cereolus (megerle von mühlfeld, 1818) and trochulus hispidus (linnaeus, 1758) to iraqi malacofauna. bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799-print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2024.18.2.0465 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4330-9350 mailto:hiba.muhammad@nhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 466 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (2): 465-476. additional information with a checklist three species of the family enidae, which comprises several terrestrial snails belonging to the genus buliminus, were recorded in iraq; buliminus diminutus (mousson, 1861) (neubert et al, 2015), buliminus alepensis (l. pfeiffer, 1841) and buliminus egregius nägele, 1902 (bank and neubert, 2016). our current study aims to document and update the land gastropod species in iraq, as well as provide more information about the malacofauna of the region. however, this checklist must be continuously updated, as more related information becomes available. materials and methods many gardens, agricultural lands, and nurseries located in the provinces of al sulaymaniyah, baghdad, and babylon were chosen for the purpose of studying terrestrial snailꞌs biodiversity (map1). a total of 168 specimens were collected by hand between march 2022 and september 2023. the collected specimens were cleaned and preserved in 70% alcohol (forsyth, 1999). terrestrial gastropod species were identified by their shell characteristics. morphological characteristics were examined using a stereoscopic microscope for the purpose of conchological identification, and many identification keys and studies were used, including those by neubert et al. (2015) and jihad (2021). the newly recorded species were deposited in the iraq natural history research center and museum-university of baghdad. for the purpose of standardizing and correcting the scientific names, the taxon names were checked against the databases of gbif secretariat (2023) and molluscabase (2023), and the original descriptions were verified based on the last reference. map (1): showing the collection sites. 467 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum jihad, h. m. results more than 168 collected specimens, representing 15 terrestrial mollusk species, were reported as follows: class: gastropoda order: stylommatophora 1-family: achatinidae allopeas gracile (t. hutton, 1834) bulimus gracilis t. hutton, 1834. on the land shells of india. the journal of the asiatic society of bengal, 3 (26): 81-93 synonyms: bulimus apex mousson, 1849 lamellaxis gracilis (hutton, 1834) aclis californica bartsch, 1927 achatina mandralisci calcara, 1840 distribution: in iraq, this species was recorded under the name allopeas gracilis (hutton, 1834) (naser, 2010) along the arabian gulf coast (neubert, 1998); asia, australia, and central and south america (capinera, 2017). rumina decollata (linnaeus, 1758) helix decollata linnaeus, 1758 linnaeus, c. 1758. systema naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis, 1: 824 pp. synonyms: bulimus decollatus (linnaeus, 1758) stenogyra bavouxi (coquand, 1862) materials examined: 35 specimens, baghdad, botanical gardenal zawra park, february 2023. distribution: iraq (al-qaisi and farman, 2023); jordan (neubert et al., 2015). it is native to the mediterranean, china and usa (prévot et al., 2014). 2-family: enidae buliminus diminutus (mousson, 1861) bulimus labrosus var. diminutus mousson, a. (1861). coquilles terrestres et fluviatiles recueillies par m. le prof. j.r. roth dans son dernier voyage en orient. vierteljahrsschrift der naturforschenden gesellschaft in zürich, 6 (1): 1-34; 6 (2): 124-156. synonyms: bulimus labrosus var. diminutus mousson, 1861 distribution: iraq and jordan (neubert et al., 2015). buliminus alepensis (l. pfeiffer, 1841) bulimus alepensis l. pfeiffer, 1841. pfeiffer, l. (1841). symbolae ad historiam heliceorum. sectio prima [1]. kassel: th. fischer. 88 pp. synonyms: bulimus alepensis l. pfeiffer, 1841 buliminus (buliminus) alepensis (l. pfeiffer, 1841) petraeus halepensis (l. pfeiffer, 1841) material examined: four specimens, alsulaymaniyah, near dokan lake garden, may 2023. 468 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (2): 465-476. additional information with a checklist distribution: iraq and türkiye (gümüs and neubert, 2012) syria and iran (bank and neubert, 2016). euchondrus michonii (bourguignat, 1853) pupa ledereri l. pfeiffer. 1868. monographia heliceorum viventium. sistens descriptiones systematicas et criticas omnium huius familiae generum et specierum hodie cognitarum. volumen sextum. 1-598. synonyms: euchondrus ledereri (l. pfeiffer, 1868) pupa ledereri l. pfeiffer, 1868 diagnostic characters: a small sized species of euchondrus, white shell, with wide aperture and four teeth, two palatalis and two parietal. this species is similar to euchondrus paucidentatus, has reduced dentation, but, smaller shell (gümüs and neubert, 2012). description: dextral small shell, elongate oval, white in colour; teloconch consists of five flat whorls, finely striated. aperture wide subquadrate in shape provided with four teeth: two palatalis and two parietal; peristome reflected. shell high ranges between 10-13 mm (pl. 1). materials examined: three specimens, alsulaymaniyah/near dokan lake, garden, april 2022. distribution: turkey and lebanon (gümüs and neubert, 2012); jordan (neubert et al., 2015). in this study, this species was reported from iraq for the first time. 3-family: geomitridae cochlicella barbara (linnaeus, 1758) helix barbara linnaeus, c. 1758. systema naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis. 1: 824 pp. synonyms: cochlicella ventricosa (draparnaud, 1801) bulimus ventricosus draparnaud, 1801 materials examined: 14 specimens from baghdad, palestine street, nursery, april 2022. distribution: africa (herbert, 2010), europe, and australia (bank, 2011). iraq (dohi and mahmood, 2024). xeropicta krynickii (krynicki, 1833) helix krynickii krynicki, j. a. 1833. novae species aut minus cognitae e chondri, bulimi, peristomae helicisque generibus praecipue rossiae meridionalis. bulletin de la société impériale des naturalistes de moscou. 6: 391-436. synonyms: helix (xerophila) vestalis l. pfeiffer, 1841 h. (xerophila) homoleuca brusina, 1870 h. (xerophila) joppensis schmidt, 1855 materials examined: 16 specimens, baghdad and babylon, agricultural field, nursery, al mahawil, may 2022. distribution: in iraq, it is recorded as xerophila vestalis (kennedy, 1937). italy, iran, syria, egypt and lebanon (de mattia and pešić, 2014). jordan and mediterranean region (neubert et al., 2015). 469 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum jihad, h. m. xeropicta mesopotamica (mousson, 1874) helix (xerophila) mesopotamica mousson, 1874. coquilles terrestres et fluviatiles recueillies par m. le dr alex. schlæfli en orient. journal de conchyliologie, 22: 5-60. synonyms: helix (xerophila) mesopotamica mousson, 1874 material examined: 3 specimens, baghdad, bab al muadham, garden, march 2023. distribution: iraq, saudi arabia and oman (neubert, 1998). 4-family: helicidae eobania vermiculata (o.f. müller, 1774) helix vermiculata o. f. müller, 1774. vermium terrestrium et fluviatilium, seu animalium infusorium, helminthicorum, et testaceorum, non marinorum, succincta historia. 2: 1-36, 1214. synonyms: helix vermiculata o. f. müller, 1774 helix bonduelliana bourguignat, 1863 massylaea vermiculata (o. f. müller, 1774) otala vermiculata (o. f. müller, 1774) material examined: 15 specimens, baghdad, palestine street, nursery, april 2022 and babylon, al mahawil, farmers, september 2023. distribution: iraq (al khafaji et al., 2016); mediterranean, spain, türkiye, hungary, germany, netherlands, japan, usa, south africa, australia, saudi arabia, egypt, iran and jordan (ronsmans and neucker, 2016). helix salomonica nägele, 1899 helix (pomatia) salomonica naegele, 1899. eine neue pomatia aus persien. nachrichtsblatt der deutschen malakozoologischen gesellschaft, 31 (1/2): 28-29. synonyms: helix (naegelea) salomonica nägele, 1899 h. (pelasga) salomonica nägele, 1899 h. (pomatia) salomonica nägele, 1899 distribution: iraq, iran, and türkiye (neubert, 2014). theba pisana (o. f. müller, 1774) helix pisana o. f. müller, 1774. vermivm terrestrium et fluviatilium, seu animalium infusoriorum, helminthicorum, et testaceorum, non marinorum, succincta historia, 2:1-36, 1214. synonyms: helix albella linnaeus, 1758 theba lucostoma risso, 1826 distribution: türkiye (yildirim et al., 2004); algeria, albania, italy, tunisia, egypt, libya, morocco, namibia, netherlands, serbia, syria, jordan, lebanon, yemen, france, greece, and iraq (eppo, 2024). 5-family: hygromiidae monacha obstructa (l. pfeiffer, 1842) helix obstructa pfeiffer, l. 1842. symbolae ad historiam heliceorum. sectio altera, 1-147. 470 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (2): 465-476. additional information with a checklist synonyms: helix schotti l. pfeiffer, 1857 h. (fruticicola) obstructa l. pfeiffer, 1842 material examined: (52 specimens), material examined:33 specimens, baghdad province, botanical gardenal zawra park, february 2023 and 19 specimens, babylon province, al mahawil, farmer, september 2023. distribution: iraq (abdul-sahib, 2005), western palearctic, northern mediterranean basin, middle east to iran (ali and robinson, 2020). trocholus hispidus (linnaeus, 1758) helix hispida linnaeus, c. (1758). systema naturae per regna tria naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis, 1: 824. synonyms: fruticicola hispida (linnaeus, 1758) trochulus sericeus (draparnaud, 1801) material examined: 6 specimens, babylon province, al mahawil district, farmer, november 2022. distribution: europe (prockow, 2009), iraq (jihad, 2021). 6-family: oxychilidae eopolita derbentina (o. boettger, 1886) hyalinia (polita) derbentina boettger, o. (1886). neuntes verzeichniss (ix) von mollusken der kaukasusländer nach sendungen des hrn. hans leder, z.z. in helenendorf bei elisabetpol (transkaukasien). jahrbücher der deutschen malakozoologischen gesellschaft, 13 (2): 121-156 synonyms: hyalinia (polita) derbentina o. boettger, 1886 hyalinia (polita) siraphora westerlund, 1897 distribution: iraq, iran and türkiye (šešen and schütt, 2002). 7-family: polygyridae polygyra cereolus (megerle von mühlfeld, 1818) helix cereolus mühlfeld, 1818. beschreibung einiger neuen conchylien. magazin der gesellschaft naturforschender freunde zu berlin, 8(1): 3-11. synonyms: polygyra carpenteriana (bland, 1860) helix febigeri bland, 1866 polygyra septemvolva var. floridana hemphill, 1892 material examined: 20 specimens, baghdad province, palestine street, nurseries, april 2022. distribution: iraq (jihad and ali, 2021), türkiye (frank, 2016), saudi arabia (neubert, 1995), qatar (al-khayat, 2010), and egypt (ali and robinson, 2020). 471 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum jihad, h. m. plate (1): euchondrus michonii [scale bar: 1 mm]. discussion the knowledge concerning the biodiversity of land snails in iraq is relatively unsatisfactory, and large portions portions of the country remain unexplored or have been rarely explored, especially in the northern regions. thus, the current number of documented species may represent only a fraction of the total actual snail species in iraq. when comparing the results of this study (15 species) with the number of land snail reports from adjacent countries, such as türkiye, which has approximately 750 (sub) species (bank et al., 2016), and iran, which has 22 species reported in just one province (tehran) (siahkalroudi et al., 2024), significant differences are revealed. in recent years, two exotic species, polygyra cereolus and rumina decollate, have been introduced to the country (jihad and ali, 2021; al-qaisi and farman, 2023). to date, these species are known only in baghdad and diyala. polygyra cereolus is a snail native to florida, has spread with ornamental plants and agricultural products (charles and lenoble, 2020). this species has been observed in dense populations in many nurseries in baghdad (jihad and ali, 2021), whereas rumnia decollata likely entered the country through imported plants and fruits (al-qaisi and farman, 2023). the two species, ena (cirna) macfadyeni pallary, 1939, belonging to the family enidae, has been reported from iraq (specifically from sinjar mountain) as turanena macfadyeni (pallary, 1939) (bank et al., 2016), and xerophila connollyi pallary, 1939, belonging to the 472 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (2): 465-476. additional information with a checklist family helicidae, have also been reported from iraq as cernuella connollyi (pallary, 1939) (šešen and schütt, 2002). according to molluscabase, the validity of these taxa is uncertain, so they are not included in the checklist. conclusions our study suggests that iraq has a diverse malacofauna within the land snail group. to date, 15 valid species have been identified and recorded in the country, some of which are exotic. euchondrus michonii is expected to occur in iraq, as the species is distributed in the neighboring country of türkiye. the present records contribute to the documentation of iraqi land snail fauna. there is a significant difference between the biodiversity of land snails of iraq and that of neighboring countries. however, further surveys and studies on terrestrial snails in iraq are necessary. additionally, molecular analysis will serve as a valuable tool to confirm certain species and potentially reveal new ones. conflict of interest statement "the author has no conflicts of interest to declare". literature cited abdul-sahib, i. m. 2005. a new record of a white terrestrial snail monacha obstructa (pfeiffer, 1842), (gastropoda: pulmonata) from the iraqi marshes. journal of basrah researches (sciences), 32(3a): 70-73. 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(eds). encyclopedia of islands, 1st edition. university of california press, p537-542. [ researchgate] jihad, h. m. 2023. checklist of bivalvia (mollusca) in iraq. bulletin of the iraq natural history museum, 17(4):589-610. [crossref] jihad, h. m. and ali, h. b. 2021. new record of the land snail polygyra cereolus (megerle von mühlfeld, 1818) (gastropoda, stylommatophora, polygyridae) for malacofauna of iraq. bulletin of the iraq natural history museum, 16(4): 421-428. [crossref] kennedy, w. p. 1937. some additions to the fauna of iraq. journal of the bombay natural history society, 39(4): 745-749. [click here] molluscabase. 2023. molluscabase .[click here] naser, m. d. 2010. new record of the land snail allopeas gracilis (hutton, 1834)(gastropoda: subulinidae) from basrah area, iraq. jordan journal of biological sciences, 147(613): 55-56. [click here] neubert, e. 1995. two species of land snails in saudi arabia. malacological review, 28: 125 126 . 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[crossref] prockow, m. 2009. the genus trochulus chemnitz, 1786 (gastropoda :pulmonata: hygromiidae) a taxonomic revision. folia malacologica, 17(3): 101-176. [crossref] ronsmans, j. and neucker, t. (2016). a persistent population of the chocolate band snail eobania vermiculata (gastropoda: helicidae) in belgium. belgian journal of zoology, 146 (1): 66 68. [crossref] šešen, r. and schütt, h. 2002. land snails from the turkish province osmaniye in southern anatolia. zoology in the middle east, 27(1): 77-86. [crossref] siahkalroudi, s. y., kheradpir, n., belgheiszadeh, h., hamiaty, f., abbaszdeh, z., yousefi, f. and diarjan, s. t. 2024. the species composition of the terrestrial gastropods in tehran province. scientific reports in life sciences, 5(1):16-31. [crossref] yildirim, m., kebapçi, ü. and gümüş, b. a. 2004. edible snails (terrestrial) of turkey. turkish journal of zoology, 28(4): 329-335. 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(2024) 18 (2): 465-476. قع األرضية في العراقمعلومات اضافية مع قائمة مرجعية للقوا هبة محمد جهاد العراق., بغداد, بغداد جامعة, الطبيعي التاريخ ومتحف بحوث مركز 20/12/2024, النشر: 24/11/2024القبول: 20/11/2024املراجعة: ,2/8/2024االستالم: الخالصة اول هذه الحلزونات األرضية هي مجموعة مهمة من الرخويات موزعة في أنحاء العالم. تتن الدراسة الحلزونات األرضية في العراق. تم إجراء مسح للقواقع األرضية خالل موسم 2022نشاطها في الحدائق والحقول الزراعية واملشاتل في العراق، للفترة بين اذار نوًعا من الحلزونات األرضية تنتمي إلى 15عينة، وتم توثيق 168. تم جمع 2023وأيلول ت االنواع من خالل خصائص أصدافها. تم تشخيص وتسجيل سبع عائالت، شخص بناًء على بعض الصفات املميزة euchondrus michonii (bourguignat,1853)النوع للصدفة ألول مرة في العراق. اشتملت القائمة على العينات التي تم جمعها إلى جانب العينات املسجلة سابًقا في العراق. كما تم تقديم معلومات أساسية عن كل نوع. ال هذا توجد قائمة أو دراسة سابقة تعطي نظرة عامة عن القواقع األرضية في العراق، ول السبب فإن نتائج هذه الدراسة سوف تسد الفجوة في معرفتنا حول هذه املجموعة وتوفر قاعدة بيانات مهمة ملزيد من األبحاث في هذا املجال في البالد. bull 1 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum alrudainy and almayah bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2024) 18 (1): 1-16. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2024.18.1.0001 original article heliotropium curassavicum l., 1753 (boraginaceae): a new record for flora of iraq yusra tareq alrudainy* and abdulridha akbar almayah** * department of biology, college of education for pure science, basrah, iraq. ** department of ecology, college of science, basrah university, basrah, iraq. corresponding author: yusra.yassen@uobasrah.edu.iq received: 14 februry 2023, revised:11 sept. 2023, accepted: 15 sept. 2023, published:20 june 2024 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract heliotropium curassavicum l., 1753 belongs to the boraginaceae family, and it was recorded for the first time to the flora of iraq in basrah province, iraq. its morphological characteristics have been described with photos; as well as a taxonomical key has been suggested to separate it from other species of heliotropium that grow in basrah province. the geographical distribution of the species was determined, and the results showed that it was grown in five different locations along the southern parts of shatt al-arab. pollen morphology and anatomy of leaves were studied by using light microscopy (lm) and scanning electron microscopy (sem), which showed that the species has psilate and hexaheterocolpate pollen grains, and the leaves were glabrous with anomocytic and hemiparacytic stomata. keywords: basrah, boraginaceae, heliotropium curassavicum, new record, sem. introduction heliotropium l.m 1753 is one of the large genera in the family boraginaceae, and subfamily heliotropioiodeae (bramwell, 1978). it is commonly found as perennial or annual herb or shrub (riedl, 1978). there are 247 accepted species which belong to this genus (powo, 2022) that distribute extensively in arid or semiarid habitats of the temperate and tropical regions of the world with greater diversification in the middle east and south america (mabberley, 2008). in iraq, al-rawi (1964) recorded 15 species which belong to heliotropium, while rechinger (1964) found 8 species. however, heliotropium curassavicum is a halophytic succulent herb or shrub and is entirely glabrous. the native range of this species is north and south america, australia, and the hawaiian islands, but it is introduced to portugal, mediterranean countries, south africa, iran, pakistan, and india (dinarvand and howeizeh, 2002; charilaou, 2018; powo, 2022), and no previous study recorded this species in iraq. it has chemical compounds, represented by tannins, phenols, saponins, terpenoids, and alkaloids (choudhary et al., 2013; wasiullah et al., 2019), which are isolated to be used effectively against infection with insects, fungi, and bacteria bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799, print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2024.18.1.0001 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5325-2979 mailto:yusra.yassen@uobasrah.edu.iq https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 2 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (18) 1: 1-16. heliotropium curassavicum l., 1753 (boraginaceae) (yogamoorthi and sathyapriya, 2006). this species is used in some countries to treat some human diseases such as ulcers, wounds, edema, local infections, gonorrhea, erysipelas, cancer, diabetes, as an enema, and to treat constipation, arteriosclerosis, and rheumatism (davicino et al., 1988; satyavani et al., 2013a, b; kaliamurthi et al., 2014). the distribution and anatomy of this species have been studied by fariña et al., (2003), taia (2006), satyavani et al., (2013b), alwahibi and buhary (2013), pynee and lorence (2014) and el-hadidy et al. (2018). morphological studies of leaf epidermis and palynological studies are important in the classification of species, and have been used in many studies, such as al-mousawi et al. (2019) and khamis and hamdy (2023). the aim of the present study is to provide taxonomic information on the morphological, pollen, and epidermis characteristics of the species h. curassavicum, which is recorded for the first time in the flora of iraq. as well as determining the characteristics of its habitat and distribution. materials and methods plant collection: fresh specimens were collected from various parts of almekhrag, aldorah, al-duweeb, al-seeba and al-faw districts in basrah province, south of iraq through field trips that lasted for two consecutive years from 2020 to 2021. specimens were brought to the laboratory, and the morphological characteristics were examined using a wild m38 stereomicroscope, and all parts of the studied species were measured. photographs were taken with a digital camera sony e210. some specimens have been preserved as herbarium specimens and deposited in the basrah university herbarium (bsra). specimens were identified based on the keys and descriptions in the flora of turkey (davis, 1978), flora of iranica (akhani and forther, 1994), flora of malesiana (riedl, 1997), flora of egypt (boulos, 2000), and electronic flora of pakistan (efloras, 2022). light microscopy (lm) examination: pollen morphology was examined by taking pollen grains directly from mature anthers of fresh flowers, then transferring them to a clean glass slide, adding safranin dye for staining grains, then mounting them in glycerin jelly, and covering them with a cover glass (sass, 1958). the slides were examined, and measurements were taken for 25 pollen grains by using an oil objective lens (100x) and an eye lens (10x) with an ocular micrometer. measurements included the polar axis and the equatorial axis, the number of colpi, and pores, the length of colpi and the exine thickness. the terminology used for pollen grains follows erdtman (1952). the leaves were immersed in jeffrey’s solution for 30 minutes, and then they were taken out. the epidermis was peeled from the adaxial and abaxial surfaces of the leaf, then the epidermis was stained with safranin dye. it was placed on glass slides with glycerin jelly and covered with a slide cover (johansen, 1940). slides were examined using an objective lens (40x) with an ocular micrometer. data, such as the shape of the anticlinal walls of epidermal cells, length and width of epidermal cells and stomata and type of stomata were recorded. the stomatal index was calculated using the formula from dilcher (1974). the terminology used follows metcalfe and chalk (1979). stomatal index = (stomata no./stomata no.+ ordinary epidermal cells no.) x100 3 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum alrudainy and almayah scanning electron microscopy (sem) examination: samples of pollen and leaves were mounted on standard aluminum stubs using double-sided cellotape and coated with gold in the sputtering device, then examined in a jeol t20 scanning electron microscope according to perveen (2009) and elnaggar et al. (2015). ecological factors: soil samples were collected from various depths of the root zones of the species and then taken to the laboratory to do a number of physical and chemical examinations that include ph measurement according to kalra (1995), electrical conductivity and salinity according to whitney (1998(, soil texture according to soil survey division staff (2017 ( , soil moisture according to elgreeb (2006), and amount of organic substance according to combs and nathan (1998(. geographical distribution: mapping the geographical distribution of the areas where the species has grown in basrah province was based on information obtained from field trips. the coordinates were determined by the global positioning system (gps) (tab. 1). table (1): the coordinates of the collection regions. results and discussion taxonomic treatment: heliotropium curassavicum l. sp. pi. 1:130 (1753). lectotype (iconotype) (verdcourt 1991: 67): curacao, morris., pl. hist. 3: 452, s. 11, t. 31/12. 1699; typotype: herb. morison (oxf: vidimus foto!) )akhani and forther, 1994(. synonyms: coldenia succulenta peter, 1928 heliotropium angustifolium raf. heliotropium chenopodioides humb. & bonpl. ex willd. heliotropium lehmannianum bruns heliotropium chilense bertero heliotropium curassavicum var. violaceum ram.goyena heliotropium curassavicum var. chenopodioides (humb. & bonpl. ex willd.) lehm. heliotropium curassavicum var. curassavicum l. heliotropium glaucum salisb. heliotropium portulacoides dc. ex bello morphological description: perennial herbs are much branched, and entirely glabrous. height is 20-46 cm (pl. 1). roots are 10-18 cm long and 0.3-0.5 cm wide. stems are prostrate to decumbent, 0.3-0.4 cm wide (pl. 2). leaves simple, sessile, succulent, glaucous, lamina lanceolate to oblanceolate-ovate, apex obtuse, margin entire, 1.3-4.0 cm long and 0.3-1.2 cm collection regions latitude (n) longitude (e) al-seeba 30.33736293° 48.26123545° al-duweeb 30.21738932° 48.33432097° al-dorah 30.1359149° 48.37367438° al-mekhrag 30.09807907° 48.4048185° al-faw 29.94489646° 48.4853565° 4 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (18) 1: 1-16. heliotropium curassavicum l., 1753 (boraginaceae) wide. inflorescences terminal and lateral, forked, scorpioid cyme, dense, ebracteate, 2.5-5 cm long, 10-27 flowers/ inflorescence (pl .3). flowers sessile. calyx symmetric, lanceolate, five sepals united at the base, 2-3 mm long, sepals lobes lanceolate, 1.3-2 mm long, and 0.5-0.8 mm wide. corolla white with yellow patches at the center in the inner side, funnel form, sympetalous, longer than calyx, corolla throat without scales, corolla tube 1.5-2.3 mm long and 1-2 mm wide, corolla lobes, ovate to oblong, sinuate margin, 0.5-1 mm long and 0.3-1 mm wide. stamens five; filament short, 0.1-0.13 mm long and 0.05-0.08 mm wide. anthers are sagittate, and subsessile, inserted in the middle of corolla-tube, 0.6-0.8 mm long and 0.20.3 mm wide. stigmas are short conical, 0.5-0.6 mm long, and 0.5-0.7 mm wide. style absent. ovaries are glabrous, 0.4-0.5 mm long, and 0.7-0.8 mm wide. fruits globose, breaking up into four nutlets, 1.5-2.5 mm long, and 1.5-3 mm wide. nutlets wedge-shaped. seeds 1.3-2.3 mm long and 1-1.3 mm wide (pl. 4). flowering and fruiting from may to november. key separate h. curassavicum from other heliotropium species which were recorded from the basrah province: 1. plant entirely glabrous, style absent ….………….... h. curassavicum plant variously hairy, with conspicuous style .............…………… 2 2. fruits glabrous ………………………………….……. h. bacciferum fruits hairy……………………………………………… h. crispum leaves' epidermis: the epidermal cells are polygonal on the adaxial and abaxial surfaces in the studied species, and the anticlinal cell walls of epidermal cells are straight-curved on both surfaces too. this result is consistent with diane et al. (2003) and alwahibi and bukhary (2013) (pl. 5). the dimensions of epidermis cells vary between both surfaces of the leaves in the studied species; this may be due to the environmental conditions surrounding the plant or the genetic characteristics of the species (al-rubaie, 1998). the presence of salt glands on both surfaces of species is an adaptation to maintain the osmotic balance of the plant, contributing to eliminating the excess salt, regulating the salt concentration in the leaves, and allowing the species to tolerate different salinity gradients (fahn and cutler, 1992). the stomata complex types are anomocytic and hemiparacytic in both surfaces of leaves, but this does not match with metcalfe and chalk (1950) (pl. 6). stomata elliptic and slightly sunken, guard cell kidney-like (pl. 7). this result agrees with diane et al. (2003). the qualitative characteristics of epidermal cells and stomata for the studied taxa and stomatal indexes are presented in tables (2, 3). table (2): ordinary epidermal cells and stomata measurements for the species. the stomatal complex ordinary epidermal cells width (μm) length(μm) width (μm) length (μm) 23.1(20 27.7) 28.4(22.5 32.5) 24.6(17.5 32.5) 44.8(22.5 -65 ) adaxial surfaces 23.1(20 25) 29.6(25 32.5) 25.4(17.5 37.5) 45.6(25 70) abaxial surfaces 5 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum alrudainy and almayah table (3) stomatal index in adaxial surfaces and abaxial surfaces. pollen morphology: the results showed that the pollen grains of h. curassavicum exist in the form of monads and are radially symmetrical and isopolar. all grains were elliptical in the equatorial view and rounded lobed or triangular in the polar view, subprolate, small sized, tectum psilate, and 6-heterocolpate (pl. 6). the polar diameter (p) = 21.3 (20-24) µm, the equatorial diameter (e) = 18.6 (17-20) µm, p/e= 1.15, colpi length =20 µm, exine thickness =1 µm, (pl. 8). this result agrees with most characteristics of the results of qureshi (1985), ayyad and moore (1995) and de melo et al. (2006) on heliotropium pollen description. ecological factors: the physical and chemical factors of soils are among the main dominant factors in the distribution of plants (abd el-waha et al., 2008). in all collection regions, the ph of all soils tended alkalinity, with the highest value being 8 in al-faw and the lowest being 7.1 in al-seeba. this is consistent with adlan (2012), the salinity of soil ranges between 10.4-6.3 mg/l in all collection regions, and according to soil survey division staff (2017), the soils are moderately saline, which may be due to the continuous irrigation of the soils by the saline water of the shatt al-arab. soil texture is generally loamy and ranges from clay loam in al-duweeb, al-dorah and al-mekhrag to sandy loam in al-seeba and al-faw, where the highest value of moisture content was 16.2% in al-seeba and the lowest value was 13.5% in al-dorah. the organic substances range between 0.2-0.8 gm, because of their loamy nature, soils have the ability to hold moisture and nutrients more than others (alknaany, 2019). physical and chemical examinations of soil samples are summarized in table (4). table (4): physical and chemical factors of soil. geographical distribution: h. curassavicum distributes over the far south of iraq in al-faw along the coasts of shatt al-arab and the entrance of its secondary branches (tab. 1). it thrives in moist places with saline or semi saline soils. it looks like a halophyte or a succulent plant. it was also found in villages of al-faw, al-mekhraq, al-dorah and all the way to alstomatal index (%) number of epidermal cells number of stomata 27.7 544 208 adaxial surfaces 29 704 288 abaxial surfaces locality chemical factors physical factors ph electrical conductivity ms / cm salinity mg/l soil texture soil moisture % organic substance (gm.) al-seeba 7.1 14.37 9.2 sandy loam 16.2 0.3 al-duweeb 7.5 10.4 6.7 clay loam 10.9 0.8 al-dorah 7.4 9.8 6.3 clay loam 13.5 0.6 almekhrag 7.8 14.8 9.5 clay loam 15.1 0.2 al-faw 8.1 16.3 10.4 sandy loam 15.8 0.2 6 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (18) 1: 1-16. heliotropium curassavicum l., 1753 (boraginaceae) daweeb and al-seeba as shown in the (maps 1, 2). the species may have appeared in our area recently due to the raising of the seawater level in the gulf and the shortage of fresh in the tigris water level, so the marine water during the high tide entered the shatt al-arab carrying the seeds from the gulf states to our area along the shatt al-arab reaching to seeba. also, the seeds are likely to come to our area by the water current during the flood period of the caron river in iran. map (1): collection regions of h. curassavicum in basrah province, iraq. 7 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum alrudainy and almayah map (2): distribution of h. curassavicum in basrah province, iraq. plate (1): photographs of h. curassavicum. 1 8 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (18) 1: 1-16. heliotropium curassavicum l., 1753 (boraginaceae) plate (2): floral parts of h. curassavicum; (1) stem, (2) root. [scale bar = 5 cm]. plate (3): floral parts of h. curassavicum; (1) leaf, (2) inflorescence. [scale bar =1cm]. 9 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum alrudainy and almayah plate (4): floral parts of h. curassavicum; (1) corolla, (2) calyx, (3) stamen, (4) anther, (5) pistil, (6) fruit, (7) seed. [scale bar = 1 mm]. 10 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (18) 1: 1-16. heliotropium curassavicum l., 1753 (boraginaceae) plate (5): epidermis of h. curassavicum: 1, 2 abaxial surface and 3, 4 adaxial surface; ordinary epidermal cells (oc), stomata (s) and salt gland (sg). plate (6): stomata types of h. curassavicum; anomocytic type (ao), hemiparacytic type (hp). plate (7): shape of stomata; (1) abaxial surface, (2) adaxial surface of h. curassavicum . 11 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum alrudainy and almayah plate (8): pollen grains morphology of h. curassavicum. conclusions the current study confirmed the presence of the species h. curassavicum as a new record in iraq; therefore, it will be an addition to the iraqi plants. according to the literature review that was used in the study, there are now four species in the genus heliotropium that are found in basrah province: h. curassavicum which is found along the southern coasts of shatt al-arab as well as h. bacciferum, h. crispum and h. europaeum which are present in the southern desert of basrah province. conflict of interest statement the authors have no conflicts of interest to declare. we "the authors" have followed and signed the scientific research ethics announced by the journal. literature cited abd el-wahab, r., zaghloul, m., kamel, w. and abd el-raouf, a. 2008. diversity and distribution of medicinal plants in north sinai, egypt. african journal environmental science of technology, 2(7):157-171. 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[researchgate] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/235719192_heliotropium_curassavicum_mediated_silver_nanoparticles_for_environmental_application https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/sites/default/files/2022-09/the-soil-survey-manual.pdf https://scialert.net/abstract/?doi=ajps.2006.441.454 https://doi.org/10.52292/j.laar.2019.369 https://www.canr.msu.edu/uploads/234/68557/rec_chem_soil_test_proce55c.pdf https://www.researchgate.net/publication/289194256_anti-inflammatory_and_analgesic_property_of_methanolic_extract_of_spinifex_littoreus_burmf_merr 16 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (18) 1: 1-16. heliotropium curassavicum l., 1753 (boraginaceae) bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2024) 18 (1): 1-16. heliotropium curassavicum l., 1753 (boraginaceae): العراقية للفلوراتسجيل نوع جديد عبد الرضا أكبر املياح** و* يسرى طارق الرديني *جامعة البصرة, كلية التربية للعلوم الصرفة, قسم االحياء, البصرة, العراق. **جامعة البصرة, كلية التربية للعلوم الصرفة, قسم البيئة, البصرة, العراق. 20/6/2024، النشر: 15/9/2023القبول: ،11/9/2023: املراجعة، 14/2/2023االستالم: الخالصة ا التابع .heliotropium curassavicum l., 1753للنوع تتضمن هذه الدراسة تسجيل ة في قرية ألول مرة في العراق ؛ اذ تم اكتشافه ألول مر boraginaceaeلعائلة لسان الثور املخراق في منطقة البحار على ضفاف مجرى "شط العرب" في البصرة, ولقد تم جمع النوع من مناطق مختلفة على امتداد الجزء الجنوبي من "شط العرب" ووصفه عينات وتحديد توزيعه الجغرافي. تمت دراسة بعض الخصائص املظهرية والتشريحية تحت ح باإلضافة إلى دراسة حبوب اللقاح التي أوضحت إنها املجهر الضوئي واإللكتروني املاس أما الثغور فكانت من الطراز الشاذ و شبه , تباينةاملمن نوع سداسية األخاديد والثقوب . املتوازي bull 859 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2025) 18 (4): 859-873. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2025.18.4.0859 original article preliminary data on tardigrada from the armenian forested area anushik khachatryan*, oleg shcherbakov** and noushig zarikian* *department of invertebrate ecology, scientific center of zoology and hydroecology, national academy of sciences of armenia, armenia **laboratory of molecular parasitology, scientific center of zoology and hydroecology, national academy of sciences of armenia, armenia corresponding author: noushigz@hotmail.com received: 23 june 2025, revised: 11 sep. 2025, accepted: 14 sep. 2025, published:20 december 2025 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract tardigrada is a phylum that has never been studied in armenia, along with many other arthropod groups. our research is about terrestrial tardigrade species. this study is the first paper on tardigrades from armenia. six species of tardigrade were identified, belonging to five genera: macrobiotus hufelandi c.a.s. schultze, 1834; paramacrobiotus areolatus (murray, 1907); paramacrobiotus richtersi (murray, 1911); ramazzottius cf. oberhaeuseri (doyère, 1840); milnesium tardigradum doyère, 1840; and echiniscus testudo (doyère, 1840), which are present in lichen and moss from the northern forests of tavush province in armenia. all the mentioned are new to the fauna of armenia. keywords: armenia, forest diversity , new records, tardigrada, water bears. introduction tardigrades inhabit diverse ecosystems, ranging from terrestrial environments such as mosses and lichens to the deepest abysses of the oceans (nelson et al., 2015). notably, their ability to withstand extreme conditions, including desiccation, high levels of radiation, and even the vacuum of space, has elevated them to the status of extremophiles (jönsson, 2007; møbjerg et al., 2011). these remarkable adaptations challenge our understanding of the limits of life on earth and have led researchers to explore the potential implications for astrobiology, biotechnology, and environmental science (jönsson et al., 2008). early taxonomic studies in the caucasus region have identified tardigrada species belonging to genera such as echiniscus c. a. s. schultze, 1840, and milnesium doyère, 1840 (ramazzotti and maucci, 1983; dastych, 1988). however, the overall diversity and distribution patterns remain poorly explored. recent advancements in molecular techniques and imaging technologies offer unprecedented opportunities to unveil the hidden biodiversity bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799, print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2025.18.4.0859 https://orcid.org/0009-0003-7731-8711 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7533-1670 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8334-8413 mailto:noushigz@hotmail.com https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 860 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 859-873. preliminary data on tardigrada of tardigrada in this region (topstad et al., 2021), but the armenian fauna of tardigrada remains unexplored . armenia, nestled at the crossroads of western asia and eastern europe, boasts a diverse topography ranging from high mountainous terrains to lowland areas, creating a mosaic of ecosystems. preliminary studies have hinted at the presence of tardigrada in armenian environments, but a comprehensive understanding of their diversity and ecological roles within the region is yet to be established. only one species belonging to aquatic tardigrada has been described from sevan lake pseudobiotus megalonyx (thulin, 1928) (krilov et al., 2010). the interdisciplinary nature of tardigrada research is evident in its relevance to fields such as astrobiology, where the study of extremophiles informs our understanding of potential life beyond earth (sloan, 2018). so, this paper seeks to bridge this knowledge gap by offering a comprehensive examination of the tardigrada fauna in armenia, shedding light on their taxonomy, distribution, and potential ecological significance. materials and methods sampling and specimens examined: nine sites in the mountainous forested area of armenia were sampled in 2022-2023. geographic coordinates, temperature during the collection season, and elevation are provided in table (1) and map (1). the flora of these forests includes diverse species, mainly acer campestre l., celtis caucasica willd., carpinus orientalis mill., elaeagnus angustifolia l., fagus orientalis lipsky, fraxinus excelsior l., quercus macranthera fisch. & c. a. mey. ex hohen, juglans regia l., juniperus foetidissima willd., pistacia mutica f &m, pinus kochiana klotzsch ex k. koch, populus tremula l., salix caprea l., taxus baccata l., and tilia cordata mill . the specimens were examined in the experimental zoology laboratory of the scientific center of hydroecology and zoology of nas ra using a levenhook d95 lcd digital microscope and a bresser trinocular microscope, and examined for terrestrial tardigrades, using a standard method described by dastyc (1980). identification: the species were identified based on keys mentioned in many references: bertolani (1971), dewel and clark (1973), dewel and wallis (1973), bertolani and mambrini (1977), ramazzotti and maucci (1983), biserov (1990, 1998), bertolani and rebecchi (1993), biserov and trumanov (1993), guidetti and bertolani (2005), guidetti et al. (2005, 2013, 2019, 2021), horikawa et al. (2006), bertolani et al. (2010, 2011), wełnicz et al. (2011), kaczmarek et al. (2012, 2015), vicente and bertolani (2013), suzuki (2016, 2022), kaczmarek and michalczyk (2017), fontoura et al. (2017), stec et al. (2018, 2020), morek et al. (2019), and kayastha et al. (2023a, b). the material is kept in the scientific center of hydroecology and zoology of nas ra invertebrate collection as preparations. 861 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum khachatryan et al. map (1): the locality of recorded species of tardigrada in armenia (by simple mapper). table (1): the study area of tardigrada. site no. site name coordinates altitude m.a.s.l the highest temperature of collected day ̊ c 1 dilijan 40.769095 n, 44.922545 e 1200 +13 2 karaberd 40.837661 n, 44.553144 e 2400 +18 3 kapan 41.094901 n, 44.711738 e 922 +24 4 pambak 40.82788 n, 44.55829 e 1250 +22 5 vanadzor 40.815524 n, 44.546165 e 1240 +23 6 zangezur national park 39.152721 n, 46.089392 e 2050 +19 7 tatev 39.38611 n, 46.24451 e 1503 +35 8 trchkan 40.915187 n, 44.114010 e 1860 +4 9 aghveran 40.4903 n, 44.6001 e 1720 +24 results and discussion the current study documented six species belonging to five genera. these species of tardigrade will be shown as follows: class: eutardigrada order: parachela family: macrobiotidae genus macrobiotus c.a.s. schultze, 1834 macrobiotus hufelandi c.a.s. schultze, 1834 (pl. 1) synonym: macrobiotus schultzei greef, 1866 material examined: syunik prov., zangezur national park, 26. vii.2023; tavush prov., dilijan, 09.x.2022. distribution: worldwide (kaczmarek and michalczyk, 2019). 862 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 859-873. preliminary data on tardigrada habitat in armenia: this species has been recorded from soil and moss. description of adults: light-brown body with eye spots. body length: 510 μm; cuticle with small pores; buccal armature characterized by an anterior and posterior band of well-defined teeth, followed dorsally and ventrally by three distinct transverse crests. ventral median crest rounded; two pillar-shaped macroplacoids and microplacoid, the first macroplacoid longer than the second. legs have infrequent granulation located behind the claws on fourth pair, limited and located laterally on the first three legs. y-shaped claws, with conspicuous accessory points on the main branch; small lunulas with smooth margins present on the first three pairs of legs; larger on the fourth pair. comments: there are no certain records for this species in the caucasus or neighboring iran, but it has been recorded in turkey (berdi et al., 2024). this is the first record for armenia and the region. genus paramacrobiotus guidetti, schill, bertolani, dandekar and wolf, 2009 paramacrobiotus areolatus (murray, 1907) (pl. 2) synonym: macrobiotus areolatus murray material examined: tavush prov., dilijan, 09.x.2022. distribution: worldwide distribution (kayastha et al., 2023 a, b). habitat in armenia: this species was recorded from forest mosses and other moist habitats, where p. richtersi was found too. description of the adults. this species has a white body. body length 450 μm, without microplacoid; a thin cuticular thickening is present in its place, and granulations are situated on i-iv pair of legs. eyes present, lunules under the claws of iv, and three rows of macroplacoids visible. body of cuticle smooth, with the number of rows in the oral cavity armature ranging from i to iii. comments: this species was not recorded in iran nor in the caucasus, but it was recorded in turkey (berdi and altındag, 2020), and is the first record for the fauna of armenia. paramacrobiotus richtersi (murray, 1911) (pl. 3) synonym: macrobiotus richtersi murray, 1911 material examined: tavush prov., dilijan, 09.x.2022, distribution: the species has a worldwide distribution (guidetti et al., 2019). habitat in armenia: this species is primarily found in humid environments, especially in forest trees. description of the adults: body brownish with length 300 μm, microplacoid exists, fine granulations situated on the i-iii pair of legs, eyes absent, lunules under claws iv smooth, dorsal cuticle covered with small polygons; pt values of macroplacoid more than 48; number of rows in the oral cavity armature i-iii. 863 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum khachatryan et al. comments: this species was recorded in the neighboring country (turkey) (kaczmarek et al., 2012), but this is the first record for the fauna of armenia. family: ramazzottiidae genus ramazzottius binda & pilato, 1987 ramazzottius cf. oberhaeuseri (doyère, 1840) (pl. 4) synonym: ramazzottius oberhaeuseri (doyère, 1840) material examined: lori prov., karaberd, 26.iii.2023 distribution: cosmopolitan (stec et al., 2018). habitat in armenia: this species was recorded from mosses and lichens in sparse forests north of armenia. description of the adults: body with red-brown colored and length 490 μm, microplacoid absent, inner claws short and thick. maroon granules are arranged in nine horizontal bands, featuring visible longitudinal rows devoid of pigment. eyes absent, and hind claws with small and smooth pseudolunules, but more developed under claw iv. two separated macroplacoids are visible; the body cuticle is smooth; oral cavity armature consists of two posterior bands of teeth. comments. this species was recorded in turkey (kaczmarek et al., 2012) but not in the caucasus, and is the first record for the fauna of armenia. order: apochela family: milnesiidae genus milnesium doyère, 1840 milnesium tardigradum doyère, 1840 (pl. 4) synonyms: arcrophanes schlagintweitii ehrenberg, 1859 arctiscon tardigradum schrank, 1803 material examined: lori prov., karaberd, 26.iii.2023. distribution: cosmopolitan (brotto-guidetti et al., 2024). habitat in armenia: this species was recorded from mosses of forested areas in armenia. description of the adults: body with brownish transparent, body length 926 μm, black eyes present, and pharyngeal bulb elongated without placoids. placoids absent, basal spur on outer claws present with rounded basal thickenings. body cuticle without pores. comments: this species was not recorded in neighboring countries and is the first record for the armenian fauna. class: heterotardigrada order: echiniscoidea family: echiniscidae genus echiniscus schultze, 1840 echiniscus testudo (doyère, 1840) (pl. 6) 864 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 859-873. preliminary data on tardigrada synonyms: echiniscus bellermanni c.a.s. schultze, 1840 echiniscus biunguis c.a.s. schultze, 1861 echiniscus filamentosus plate, 1888 echiniscus glaber bartoš, 1937 echiniscus inermis richters, 1902 echiniscus peruvianus binda & pilato, 1994 emydium testudo doyère, 1840 echiniscus trifilis rahm, 1925 material examined: lori prov., karaberd, 26.iii.2023. distribution: europe, africa, asia, n. america and s. america (kaczmarek et al., 2015, 2016). habitat in armenia: this species was recorded from mosses and lichens in sparse forests north of armenia. description of the adults: body with orange-colored and dorsal spines present. body length 442 μm. microplacoid absent. eyes present and red, and all internal claws with recurved spurs, and all external claws simple; macroplacoids absent. body cuticle composed of polygons and light granulation on all legs. body appendage configurations a, b, c, d, e are visible. comments: this species was recorded in turkey and iran (berdi and altında, 2020; mokhtari et al., 2018) and wasn’t recorded in the caucasus countries. it is the first record for the fauna of armenia. forest cover, comprising 11.2% of armenia, represents one of the country's less-studied ecosystems. however, with a growing focus on climate change mitigation, research in these forests is expanding, highlighting all components of their biodiversity. given the mountainous terrain of armenia's forested regions, access is challenging, and field conditions are suitable only during a brief period in summer. consequently, findings on tardigrada in these areas remain preliminary. all species included in this study represent the first records for armenian fauna. six species macrobiotus hufelandi, paramacrobiotus richtersi, paramacrobiotus areolatus, ramazzottius oberhaeuseri, echiniscus testudo, and milnesium tardigradum were previously unknown from both the caucasus and the armenian highland, likely due to the scarcity of studies in this region and the historical neglect of tardigrada research here. armenia’s forest biodiversity, particularly that of tardigrades, is believed to be quite rich, yet the results from preliminary research are insufficient to clarify their distribution and diversity. future studies may reveal more about the distribution, traits, and potentially even new species of these fascinating organisms. 865 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum khachatryan et al. plate (1): macrobiotus hufelandi; (a) general view, (b) buccal apparatus, (c) claws, (d) egg. plate (2): paramacrobiotus areolatus; (a) general view, (b) buccal apparatus, (c) claws, (d) egg. 866 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 859-873. preliminary data on tardigrada plate (3): paramacrobiotus richtersi; (a) general view, (b) buccal apparatus, (c) claws, (d) egg. plate (4): ramazzottius cf. oberhaeuseri; (a) general view, (b) claws, (c) buccal apparatus, (d) buccal apparatus. 867 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum khachatryan et al. plate (5): milnesium tardigradum; (a) general view, (b) buccal apparatus, (c) eggs, (d) claws. plate (6): echiniscus testudo; (a) general view, (b) cuticle, (c) claws, (d) buccal apparatus, (e) eggs. conclusions this study presents the first comprehensive record of forest-dwelling tardigrada species in armenia, documenting six species macrobiotus hufelandi, paramacrobiotus richtersi, 868 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 859-873. preliminary data on tardigrada paramacrobiotus areolatus, ramazzottius cf. oberhaeuseri, milnesium tardigradum, and echiniscus testudo none of which had previously been reported from armenia, the caucasus, or the armenian highland. these findings significantly expand the known distribution ranges of these taxa and highlight the underexplored nature of armenia’s forest ecosystems. given the challenging field conditions and limited seasonal window for research, the data presented here should be regarded as preliminary. nevertheless, the discovery of these cosmopolitan and widespread taxa in armenia underscores the potential richness of tardigrade diversity in the region. the mountainous forest habitats of armenia, though covering a modest portion of the country, appear to harbor a distinct and potentially diverse tardigrade fauna . although this study does not include quantitative measures of abundance, diversity indices, or statistical analyses correlating species occurrence with environmental variables, this was a deliberate methodological choice given its baseline, exploratory nature. our primary aim was to document, for the first time, the terrestrial tardigrade fauna of armenia through accurate morphological identification and distributional reporting. for regions and taxa with no prior terrestrial records, such faunistic inventories are an essential first step before more complex quantitative analyses can be meaningfully applied. the environmental metadata we provide— including precise coordinates, altitudes, and microhabitat details—form a foundational dataset that will enable future studies to incorporate multi-season sampling, standardized abundance assessments, diversity metrics, and ecological modeling. acknowledgments this research was supported by funding from the science committee of the ministry of education, science, culture, and sports of the republic of armenia with grant code 24aaf011 . conflict of interest statement "the authors declare that there is no conflict of interest". literature cited berdi, d. and altindag, a. 2020. contribution to the knowledge on distribution of tardigrada in turkey. diversity, 12(3): 95. 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[crossref] https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4203.1.1 https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4363.1.4 https://doi.org/10.3390/d15090977 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-1716.2011.02252.x https://doi.org/10.1080/14772000.2018.1424267 872 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 859-873. preliminary data on tardigrada stec, d., krzywański, ł., zawierucha, k. and michalczyk, ł. 2020. untangling systematics of the paramacrobiotus areolatus species complex by an integrative redescription of the nominal species for the group, with multilocus phylogeny and species delineation in the genus paramacrobiotus. zoological journal of the linnean society, 188: 694-716. [crossref] suzuki, a. c. 2016. specimens with an artifact appearing as ‘three spines’ in milnesium tardigradum var. trispinosa rahm, 1931 (tardigrada). zoological science, 33: 431433. [crossref] suzuki, a. c. 2022. beautiful claws of a tiny water bear: a review and proposal for claw configuration. zoological science, 39(2): 167-175. [crossref] topstad, l., guidetti, r., majaneva, m. and ekrem, t. 2021. multi-marker dna metabarcoding reflects tardigrade diversity in different habitats. genome, 64(3): 217231. [crossref] vicente, f. and bertolani, r. 2013. considerations on the taxonomy of the phylum tardigrada. zootaxa, 3626: 245-248. [crossref] wełnicz, w., grohme, m. a., kaczmarek, ł., schill, r. o. and frohme, m. 2011. its-2 and 18s rrna data from macrobiotus polonicus and milnesium tardigradum (eutardigrada, tardigrada). journal of zoological systematics and evolutionary research, 49 (s1): 34-39. [crossref] https://doi.org/10.1093/zoolinnean/zlz163 https://doi.org/10.2108/zs150184 https://doi.org/10.2108/zs210087 https://doi.org/10.1139/gen-2019-0218 doi:10.11646/zootaxa.3626.2.2 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1439-0469.2010.00595.x 873 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum khachatryan et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2025) 18 (4): 859-873. من املناطق الغابية في أرمينيا tardigradaبينات أولية عن بطيئات الخطو زاريكيان* كنوش و أنوشيك خاتشاتريان*، أوليغ شيرباكوف** * قسم علم بيئة الالفقاريات، املركز العلمي لعلم الحيوان والبيئة املائية، األكاديمية ، أرمينياالوطنية للعلوم في أرمينيا ** مختبر علم الطفيليات الجزيئية، املركز العلمي لعلم الحيوان والبيئة املائية، األكاديمية ، أرمينياالوطنية للعلوم في أرمينيا 20/12/2025، النشر: 14/9/2025القبول: ،11/9/2025املراجعة: ،23/6/2025االستالم: الخالصة الخطو البطيئات عد ُ إلى جانب tardigradaت أرمينيا، في درس قط ُ ت لم التي عب ُ الش من البرية. البطيئات الخطو أنواع ز بحثنا على ّ يرك األخرى. املفصليات العديد من مجموعات عد هذه الدراسة أول عمل علمي يتناول البطيئات الخطو في أرمينيا. تم تحديد ستة أنواع ُ وت من هذه الكائنات، تنتمي إلى خمسة أجناس وهي: macrobiotus hufelandi (c.a.s. schultze, 1834( paramacrobiotus areolatus (murray, 1907 ( paramacrobiotus richtersi (murray, 1911 ( ramazzottius cf. oberhaeuseri (doyère, 1840 ( milnesium tardigradum (doyère, 1840( echiniscus testudo (doyère, 1840 ( تم العثور عليها في األشنيات والطحالب املوجودة في غابات مقاطعة تافوش الشمالية في عد جميع هذه األنواع جديدة على عالم االحياء األرمنية. ُ أرمينيا. وت bull 65 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum shamso et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2024) 18 (1): 65-90. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2024.18.1.0065 original article palynological and foliar epidermal studies of genus oxalis linnaeus, 1753 (oxalidales, oxalidaceae) from egypt eman m. shamso*, hasnaa a. hosni *, amal a. draz**, salwa a. kawashty** and sameh r. hussein** *the herbarium, botany & microbiology department, faculty of science, cairo university, giza 12613 egypt. **phytochemistry & plant systematics department, national research centre. 33 el bohouth st., dokki, giza, p.o. 12622, egypt. corresponding author: eshamso@sci.cu.edu.eg received: 28 september 2023, revised:26 nov. accepted: 3 december 2023, published:20 june 2024 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract by using light microscopy (lm) and scanning electron microscopy (sem), the pollen grains and foliar epidermal morphology of four species and two varieties of egyptian oxalis linnaeus, 1753 belonging to three sections of the subgenus oxalis linnaeus, 1753 were studied. the objective was to determine the importance of pollen and foliar epidermal characters as taxonomic evidence. the current study revealed that the pollen grains of all taxa examined are monads, radially symmetric, isopolar, and of medium size; the shape varied from sub-spheroidal to subprolate. the pollen apertures were tricolpate with ornamented colpal membranes (rugulate, warty, congregated granules). exine is semi-tectate, with microreticulate to reticulate ornamentation, perforate in o. debilis kunth, 1822. the study also revealed the presence of four types of stomata: actinocytic, anisocytic, anomocytic, and an unusual 4-celled anisocytic. both abaxial and adaxial epidermal cells were irregular or polygonal in shape, with undulate or straight anticlinal walls and semi-swollen to swollen periclinal walls with dispersed epicuticular wax. two forms of non-glandular, unicellular trichomes were observed: short clavate and long with a tapering apex and papillate surface. the study further discussed numerical results based on combined morphological, palynological, and foliar epidermal characters. this study is the first report dealing with anatomical and palynological features of the genus oxalis in egypt. keywords: egypt, foliar epidermis, numerical analysis, oxalis, pollen morphology. introduction oxalis linnaeus, 1753 is a cosmopolitan genus and presents about 566 accepted species (powo, 2023), distributed within four subgenera: monoxalis (small) lourt., trifidus lourt., thamnoxys (endl.) reiche and oxalis. it is believed that south america and southern africa bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799, print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2024.18.1.0065 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0068-0224 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7609-9383 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1979-511x https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3914-3423 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3657-7410 mailto:eshamso@sci.cu.edu.eg https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 66 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (1): 65-90. palynological and foliar epidermal studies are the centers of distribution, and south america is probably the place of origin of this genus (knuth, 1930; denton, 1973; lourteig, 1994, 2000; de azkue, 2000). the genus presents many difficulties in identification, mainly because of the use of morphological characteristics that are not very clear (abreu et al., 2012). pollen morphology has a taxonomic importance and can support the morphological and the phylogenetic studies (chen and xia, 2011; tripathi et al., 2017). the taxonomic significance of pollen morphology for the genus oxalis was a topic for many studies. these palynological studies were performed on oxalis from various aspects such as morphology (perveen and qaiser, 2003; rosenfeldt and galati, 2007), type of pollen grains (ghosh and verma, 1985; dreyer, 1996), formation of aberrant pollen (dreyer and van wyk, 1998), and orbicule morphology (rosenfeldt and galati, 2005, 2008; lòpez and rosenfeldt, 2015, 2016). a comprehensive study on the pollen morphology of american and african members of the genus oxalis has been performed by huynh (1969 a, b), who identified four pollen types and 13 pollen subtypes based on the presence, or absence of a distinct supra-reticulum and the simple or complex constitution of apertures (colpate, porate, or colporate); in addition to the differences in grain size that were observed in anthers from the different stamen whorls of oxalis flowers. dreyer (1996) examined the pollen micro-morphology of all the southern african members of oxalis (270 taxa) using lm, sem, and tem techniques. four main pollen types and 19 subtypes were described based on tectum structure and the number and arrangements of apertures. the study also recorded the presence of variable percentages of aberrant pollen grains in some taxa of oxalis. the occurrence of aberrant pollen in this genus has been reported previously by dreyer and van wyk (1998). they studied the pollen from both stylar whorls to detect the relation between palynological variation and tristyly. they showed that the aberrations always affect the number and arrangement of the apertures, but never alter the exine structure of the grain and also revealed that reticulate pollen displays a low percentage of aberrations. the macroand micro-morphology of the epidermis and its appendages have been used by various authors to classify certain taxa of the angiosperms (adedeji et al., 2007; chukwuma et al., 2017; bahadur et al., 2022; chukwuma et al., 2022). the most important epidermal traits are trichome types, shape of epidermal cells, stomata types, stomata position, and subsidiary cells. these traits are useful for identification purposes and for the determination of phylogenetic relationships between taxa (metcalf and chalk, 1950, 1979; jones, 1986; judd et al., 2008; ogundipe et al., 2009; araujo et al., 2010; zhang et al., 2018; bahadur et al., 2023). oxalis is tremendously variable in the number and shape of leaflets, leaf and leaflet size, degree of leaflet conduplication, petiole length and shape, nature of the epidermis, and indumentum attributes (salter, 1944). however, only a few studies have focused on the leaf anatomy of this genus. metcalfe and chalk (1950); dos reis and alvim (2013); jooste (2015); and richetti et al. (2022) are among the authors who have investigated and described the leaf 67 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum shamso et al. anatomical features of the genus oxalis. singh (2010) showed that anatomical features have played an important role in the clarification of phylogenetic relationships among south american oxalis species. jooste et al. (2016) assessed the variation of fifty-nine leaflet anatomical traits of 109 southern african species in a phylogenetic context and stated that a combination of six leaflet anatomical traits (stomatal position, adaxial epidermal cell types, abaxial epidermal cell types, mesophyll type, presence or absence of a sheath around vascular tissue, and degree of leaflet conduplication) is useful and supports various southern african taxa clades previously defined by dna-based phylogenetic work (oberlander et al., 2011). in egypt, this genus is represented by four species and two varieties belonging to three sections in the subgenus oxalis (draz et al., 2021; shamso et al., 2021). the current study presents a description of the macroand micromorphology of pollen grains and foliar epidermal cells using both lm and sem for the evaluation of their taxonomic significance and uses numerical taxonomy to better understand the phenetic relationships among the studied taxa within the genus. materials and methods plant materials: the present study is based on field studies and herbarium specimens held at the following herbaria: cairo university (cai), national research centre (cairc); tanta university (tane), and the agriculture museum, flora and phytotaxonomy researches (caim) [herbaria acronyms according to thiers (2023); continuously updated] (tab. 1). the nomenclature of all taxa has been updated according to several websites: powo (2023) and ipni (2023). the morphological data were obtained from both fresh and herbarium specimens. for each taxon, at least 3-4 specimens were chosen (if available) to encompass the range of variations. light investigation: the following steps were carried to examine the pollen and lamina samples: 1. pollen examination: pollen samples were taken from mature anthers of flowering buds. for light microscopy (lm), the pollen grains were prepared using the technique of erdtman (1960) and then mounted in glycerin jelly. light microscopic observations were made using a serico research microscope under (e 40, 0.65) with a 16-x eye piece. the measurements of pollen grains were based on at least 15-20 pollen grains for each specimen. various pollen characters: shape, size, aperture type, and exine sculpture were determined (tab. 2). pollen terminology is followed punt et al. (2007); hesse et al. (2009) and halbritter et al. (2018). 2. epidermal examination: three pieces of lamina were embedded in koh 5% for 24-48 hrs. transverse sections of all studied taxa were taken in lamina through hand cutting, and stained with a safranin-fast green standard double stain to show the shape of epidermal cells (sass, 1961). in an additional method, the epidermal peels were obtained from fresh leaves after being washed in water, painted with colorless nail polish on abaxial and adaxial surfaces; each epidermal peel was fixed and examined under a light microscope. the micromorphological characters of both surfaces were studied at different 68 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (1): 65-90. palynological and foliar epidermal studies magnifications (10x, 40x objectives) and photographed using an olympus cx41 light microscope equipped with an olympus digital camera. the qualitative characteristics include the shape of epidermal cells, stomata, and trichomes, their presence and absence, and their types (tab. 3). terminology was followed by metcalfe and chalk (1950) and barthlott (1981). voucher specimens and slides were kept in the cairo university herbarium (cai). sem microscopy investigation: for each taxon, non-acetolyzed pollen grains and small pieces of the median portion of dry lamina were mounted onto stubs with double sided adhesive tape, and then these stubs were sputter-coated with gold. after coating, they were examined using a field emission scanning electron microscope (fe-sem) quanta feg250y at an accelerating voltage of 20 kv, at the electron microscopy unit, national research centre, dokki. data analysis: forty-eight morphological, palynological, and foliar epidermal traits, divided into 113 character states, were analyzed and scored. the data matrix was constructed of six otus (app. 1). in this study, the similarity will be measured at the species level (represented by specimens). an equal number of specimens of each species (three specimens, if available) were used. the resemblance between the fundamental taxonomic units was determined in two steps: first, measure the similarity values (or distance values) between all possible pairs of specimens under study of the studied characters and character states; and second, form the similarity matrix. this matrix was analyzed using the numerical taxonomy technique supplied in the minitab program, version 20 (minitab, 2020). table (1): the collection data of the taxa included in the present study: taxon locality and date of collection collector and number herbarium and specimen code section: cernuae knuth, 1914 o. anthelmintica a. rich., 1847 o. pes-caprae l., 1753 -mountain tributary, wadi akwametra, gebel elba, 27-2-1967. -wadi darawein, gebel elba, 3-2-1979. -bramly’s grotto, burg el-arab, 28-2-2019 -behig, 4-5-1976 -maruit, 23-3-2006 osborn & helmy s.n. boulos 12924 a. draz s.n. ahmed & mokhtar 71 d.a.ahmed 2937 (cai), cai.46.240.722.18 (cairc), a306 (cairc), a304 (cai), cai.46.240.721.33 (tane), not coded 69 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum shamso et al. section: corniculatae dc., 1824 o. corniculata var. corniculata o. corniculata var. repens (thunb.) zucc., 1831 el bagor, monufia,124-2019 bir romani, budkhulu, dakhla, 12-2-1952; wadi feiran, 19-102012 national research center garden, giza, 13-5-2019 ibid, 18-4-2021 a. draz s.n. täckholm & kassas 185 keshta s.n. a. draz s.n a. draz s.n (cairc), a301 (cai), cai.46.240.723.1.10 (tane), not coded (cai), cai.240.723.2.1 (cairc), a302 section: ionoxalis small, 1903 o. debilis kunth, 1822 (= o. corymbosa dc) o. latifolia kunth,1822 -giza, 12-4-2020 -dokki, 20-2-2021 -arab el-ghadir, qalubia, french bean, 20-5-2003 -giza, cairo university garden, 15-4-2021 a. draz s.n. h. hosni s.n. el khanagry s.n. e. shamso s.n. (cairc), a303 (cai), cai.46.240.723.5.11 (caim), not coded (cai), cai.46.240.723.8.4 results and discussion the current study of pollen morphology and the epidermal features of leaflet lamina using lm & sem have revealed some valid characters for identification and classification of the studied oxalis taxa (tab. 2, 3). i-pollen grains morphology: palynological characters of six taxa belonging to the genus oxalis were studied under lm and sem for detecting various characteristics such as polarity, size, shape, aperture type, aperture arrangements, aperture membrane sculpture, and exine sculpture of pollen grains. detailed pollen morphological features of the investigated taxa are summarized in table (2), and representative pollen grains are illustrated in plates (1-3). the morphological characters showed that the pollen grains of all studied taxa were monads, isopolar, radially symmetrical, and circular in polar view. pollen size medium (medium to large in o. pes-caprae) with mean polar axis ranges from 26.9µm ± 1.1 in o. corniculata var. corniculata to 38.6 µm ±0.94 in o. anthelmintica; mean equatorial diameter ranges from 22.6 µm ±1.2 in o. debilis to 33.8 µm ±1.2 in o. corniculata var. repens. the shape of pollen grains varied from sub-spheroidal to sub-prolate in an equatorial view. the sub-spheroidal grains ranged from prolate-spheroidal in o. corniculata var. corniculata (p/e= 1.08) to oblate-spheroidal in o. corniculata var. repens (p/e= 0.97). the results of this study agree with dreyer (1996) that the shape of pollen is of minor importance among the southern 70 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (1): 65-90. palynological and foliar epidermal studies african members of oxalis, and most grains ranged from spherical to oblate (seldomly prolate) in an equatorial view. the present study showed that the pollen grains are normally tricolpate, and tetracolpate grains are also observed within the same species, as in o. debilis, o. corniculata var. repens, and o. latifolia (pls. 2, 3). these findings are in agreement with ghosh and verma (1985); dreyer and van wyk (1998). moore (1973) and goldblatt (1987) suggested that the presence of two types of grains (triand tetracolpate) within the same species is the result of polyploidy. colpi apocolpate, vary from elliptic to fusiform or oblong; the colpal membrane was densely granulated to rugulated in o. corniculata (pl. 1 c), scabrous to warty in o. corniculata var. repens, with congregated granules distributed irregularly in o. pes-caprae (pl. 1 g), and warty in o. anthelmintica, o. latifolia, and o. debilis (pl. 1 j, m). the exine of the studied taxa was semi-tectate, brochate, uniform, and generally microreticulate to reticulate ornamentation, and rarely perforate in o. debilis (pl. 1 o). brochi are circular to polygonal, diminishing in size towards the colpi. lumina with free single columella in o. pes-caprae (pl. 1 i). huynh (1969 a, b) and dreyer (1996) indicated that the reticulate pollen type is the most common type among the south african members of oxalis. our results coincide with those of previous studies, and the exine features have little taxonomic value for identification and species delimitation. key to the examined taxa of oxalis based on pollen morphology: 1. pollen prolate-spheroidal or oblate-spheroidal (pl. 1 a, d)… …..……….…………….… 2 pollen sub-prolate (pl. 1 g, j, m)……………………………………….…... ………..…...3 2. pollen prolate-spheroidal, with p/e= 1.08 µm, tri-colpate, colpus 15-20 µm long, granulate to rugulate membrane (pl. 1 a-c and pl. 2 a) …………... o. corniculata var. corniculata pollen oblate-spheroidal, with p/e=0.97µm, trior tetra-colpate, colpus 20-25 µm long, scabrous to warty membrane (pl. 1 d-f and pl. 3 b) ……....… o. corniculata var. repens 3. pollen with tricolpate (pl. 2 b, c).………………………..…………………………...….. 4 pollen with tricolpate and tetracolpate (pl. 2 a) ……...........................………………..…. 5 4. exine sculpture micro-reticulate, colpal membrane warty (pl. 1 k, l) .…o. anthelminthica exine sculpture reticulate with free single columella in lumina, colpal membrane with congregated granules (pl. 1 g, i) ……..……………………...………...….….o. pes-caprae 5. pollen grains mean polar axis 29.1 µm, mean equatorial diameter 22.57 µm. exine sculpture perforate (pl. 1 o) ...………………………………….………………. o. debilis pollen grains mean polar axis 34.75 µm, mean equatorial diameter 28.75 µm. exine sculpture reticulate (pl. 3 b) ………………………………………….……..… o. latifolia 71 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum shamso et al. e x in e sc u lp tu re m ic ro re ti cu la te r et ic u la te lu m in a w it h fr ee s in g le co lu m el la m ic ro r et ic u la te to r et ic u la te r et ic u la te p er fo ra te to m ic ro re ti cu la te r et ic u la te c o lp u s m em b ra n e w ar ty w it h co n g re g at ed g ra n u le s d is tr ib u te d ir re g u la rl y d en se ly g ra n u le s t o r u g u la te s ca b ro u s t o w ar ty w ar ty w ar ty s iz e ca te g o ry : s m al l: 1 0 -2 5 μ m , m ed iu m s iz ed : 2 6 -5 0 μ m , la rg e 5 1 -1 0 0 μ m , an d s h ap e cl as se s w er e ca te g o ri ze d b as ed o n t h e ra ti o o f th e m ea n p o la r ax is ( p ) an d m ea n e q u at o ri al d ia m et er ( e ) (e rd tm an , 1 9 5 2 ). c o lp u s le n g th 2 0 3 0 2 0 4 0 1 5 2 0 2 0 2 5 2 0 2 5 2 0 3 0 . c o lp u s fu si o n a p o co lp at e a p o co lp at e a p o co lp at e a p o co lp at e a p o co lp at e a p o co lp at e t a b le ( 2 ): p o ll en m o rp h o lo g ic al c h ar ac te rs o f in v es ti g at ed t ax a. c o lp u s sh ap e e ll ip ti c f u si fo rm e ll ip ti c o b lo n g f u si fo rm f u si fo rm a p er tu re ty p e t ri co lp at e t ri co lp at e t ri co lp at e t ri an d te tr ac o lp at e t ri an d t et ra co lp at e t ri an d t et ra co lp at e p o ll en s iz e m ed iu m si ze d m ed iu m t o la rg e si ze d m ed iu m si ze d m ed iu m si ze d m ed iu m si ze d m ed iu m si ze d p o ll en sh ap e s u b -p ro la te s u b -p ro la te p ro la te sp h er o id al o b la te sp h er o id al s u b -p ro la te s u b p ro la te p /e r at io (μ m ) 1 .2 1 .2 1 .1 1 1 .3 1 .2 e q u at o ri al d ia m et er ( e ) m ea n 3 1 .4 ± ( 1 .3 ) 3 0 .8 ± ( 2 .9 ) 2 4 .7 ± ( 1 .4 ) 3 3 .8 ± ( 1 .2 ) 2 2 .6 ± ( 1 .2 ) 2 8 .8 ± ( 1 .1 ) r an g e (μ m ) 2 5 4 5 1 5 6 0 2 0 3 5 2 5 4 0 1 5 3 5 2 6 4 5 p o la r ax is ( p ) m ea n 3 8 .6 ± ( 0 .9 4 ) 3 7 ± ( 1 .5 ) 2 6 .9 ± ( 1 .1 ) 3 3 .1 ± ( 0 .7 ) 2 9 .1 ± ( 1 .5 ) 3 4 .8 ± ( 1 .2 ) r an g e (μ m ) 3 5 4 5 2 5 6 0 2 5 3 5 3 0 3 5 2 0 3 5 3 0 3 9 t a x o n o . a n th el m in ti ca o . p es -c a p ra e o . co rn ic u la ta v a r. c o rn ic u la ta o . co rn ic u la ta v a r. r ep en s o . d eb il is o . la ti fo li a 72 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (1): 65-90. palynological and foliar epidermal studies t r ic h o m e ty p e c la v at e u n ic el lu la r l o n g u n ic el lu la r l o n g u n ic el lu la r l o n g u n ic el lu la r c la v at e an d l o n g u n ic el lu la r so m et im es m u lt ic el lu la r u n is er ia te c la v at e an d lo n g u n i ce ll u la r s to m a ta l sh a p e o b lo n g e ll ip so id o b lo n g s il tli k e e ll ip so id e ll ip so id s to m a ta l p a tt e r n a n is o cy ti c an d u n u su al 4 -c el le d an is o cy ti c a n is o cy ti c an d u n u su al 4 -c el le d an is o cy ti c a n is o cy ti c, u n u su al 4 -c el le d an is o cy ti c an d so m et im es an o m o cy ti c a n is o cy ti c an d so m et im es ac ti n o cy ti c a n is o cy ti c, u n u su al 4 -c el le d an is o cy ti c an d so m et im es an o m o cy ti c a n is o cy ti c, u n u su al 4 -c el le d an is o cy ti c an d so m et im es an o m o cy ti c t a b le ( 3 ): f o li ar e p id er m al c h ar ac te ri st ic s o f in v es ti g at ed t ax a. ta x a. s to m a ta l p o si ti o n h y p o st o m at ic h y p o st o m at ic a m p h is to m at ic a m p h is to m at ic a m p h is to m at ic h y p o st o m at ic e p ic u ti c u la r w a x ab se n t p re se n t p re se n t p re se n t p re se n t p re se n t a d a x ia l e p id er m a l c el ls p e ri c li n a l w a ll s em isw o ll en s w o ll en s li g h tl y s em isw o ll en s w o ll en s em isw o ll en s w o ll en a n ti c li n a l w a ll p a tt e r n st ra ig h t s tr ai g h t t o s li g h tl y cu rv ed u n d u la te s tr ai g h t u n d u la te s tr ai g h t s h a p e p o ly g o n n al ± p o ly g o n al ir re g u la r ± p o ly g o n al ir re g u la r p o ly g o n al a b a x ia l e p id er m a l ce ll s p e r ic li n a l w a ll s u r fa c e g le b u la te g le b u la te s m o o th s m o o th ± s m o o th w it h ce n tr al p ap il la e p e r ic li n a l w a ll s em isw o ll en s w o ll en s em isw o ll en s w o ll en s em isw o ll en s w o ll en a n ti cl in a l w a ll p a tt e r n st ra ig h t s tr ai g h t to sl ig h tl y cu rv ed u n d u l at e s tr ai g h t u n d u l at e s tr ai g h t s h a p e p o ly g o n al ± p o ly g o n al ir re g u la r ± p o ly g o n al ir re g u la r p o ly g o n al t a x o n o . a n th el m in ti ca o . p es -c a p ra e o . co rn ic u la ta v a r. co rn ic el a ta o . co rn ic u la ta v a r. r ep en s o . d eb il is o . la ti fo li a 73 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum shamso et al. iifoliar epidermal characteristics: the current study primarily focuses on micromorphological features of trichomes, epidermal cells, and stomata. the data on the foliar epidermal characters of the taxa examined are presented in table (3). trichomes on plants are extremely variable in their presence, density, and form; therefore, their morphology and structure could be of taxonomical importance in certain plant groups (che amri et al., 2018; bahadur et al., 2023). according to previous studies by metcalf and chalk (1950); dos reis and alvim (2013); and jooste (2015), oxalis is recognized for having two types of foliar trichomes: glandular and non-glandular trichomes. in the present study, the majority of the studied taxa were sparsely pubescent, restricted to the midrib, abaxial surface, and margin of the leaf blade. unicellular trichomes were the main type, with two forms: short, clavate unicellular (pl. 4 c) and long unicellular with a tapering apex and papillate surface (pl. 4 a, b); while multicellular uniseriate trichomes were observed only in o. debilis (pl. 4d). the presence of glandular trichomes is not reported in egyptian taxa, and trichome characters were rather uniform and of little taxonomic importance. epidermal anticlinal walls have low interspecific variation in oxalis and can be regarded as a taxonomically stable character (jooste, 2015; jooste et al., 2016). in the present study, both abaxial and adaxial epidermal cells were polygonal or irregular in shape with a straight to undulate anticlinal wall pattern (pl. 6). the variability in the anticlinal cell wall pattern may be related to the environmental conditions (stace, 1965; metcalf and chalk, 1979). all studied taxa are listed as having semi-swollen to swollen periclinal walls (pl. 5), and their surfaces were smooth in o. corniculata and o. debilis (pl. 6c); glebulate in o. anthelminthica and o. pes-caprae (pl. 6b), and with central papillae in o. latifolia (pl. 6a). jooste (2015) reported the occurrence of swollen and papillose epidermal cells in some african oxalis species, which act as lenses to focus light through the epidermis into the chloroplast-rich palisade cells (poulson and vogelmann, 1990; myers et al., 1994; vogelmann et al., 1996). moreover, gkikas et al. (2015) reported the production of epicuticular wax by those papillose cells that functioned as a water repellent material, a character that was assigned in the present study for o. corniculata, o. pes-caprae, o. debilis, and o. latifolia. the types and distribution of stomata provide taxonomically useful information in some taxa (metcalf and chalk, 1950). according to jooste et al. (2016), stomata display great variations in their types and distribution, and recorded the presence of epistomatic, hypostomatic, and amphistomatic leaflets in southern african oxalis. in this study, the majority of the studied taxa have hypostomatic leaves, in the case of o. anthelminthica, o. pes-caprae, and o. latifolia. however, in the case of o. corniculata and o. debilis leaves, were amphistomatic, similar to previous studies by dos reis and alvim (2013). anomocytic and paracytic stomatal complex types have been reported in the oxalidaceae by metcalf and chalk (1950); dos reis and alvim (2013); while jooste et al. (2016) reported four types of stomata: anomocytic, anisocytic, actinocytic, and an unusual 4-celled anisocytic stomatal type. these four types of stomata were observed in the studied taxa, where the anisocytic and an unusual 4celled anisocytic types of stomata were present in all studied taxa 74 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (1): 65-90. palynological and foliar epidermal studies (pl. 7). however, the actinocytic type was encountered in o. corniculata var. repens and o. latifolia, while the anomocytic type was restricted to o. corniculata var. corniculata and o. debilis. baranova (1992) suggested that the multiple stomatal types within a leaf are a common occurrence, which is taxonomically significant. despite the general consensus that stomatal complex types can be taxonomically informative, we could not detect any clear pattern based on these traits among the studied taxa. the subsequent key was based on the foliar epidermal cell characters, which might be used to distinguish between the studied taxa: 1both abaxial and adaxial epidermal cells irregular with undulated anticlinal walls (pl. 6 b, c) ………………………………………………………………………………..…..… 2 both abaxial and adaxial epidermal cells polygonal with straight anticlinal walls (pl. 6 a) …...…...………………………………………….………………………………..….... 3 2stomata oblong; trichomes long unicellular (pl. 4 a, b and pl. 8 b) ……………………………………………………….…. o. corniculata var. corniculata stomata ellipsoid; trichomes clavate and long unicellular sometimes multicellular uniseriate (pl. 4 and pl. 8 a) ….………………..............................………. o. debilis 3epidermal cells with smooth periclinal wall, amphistomatic stomata (pl. 6 c)…………………………………………………………….…o. corniculata var. repens epidermal cells with glebulate or with central papillae periclinal wall, hypostomatic stomata (pl. 6 a, b) …………………………………………………………..…..……. 4 4epidermal cells with central papillae periclinal wall (pl. 6 a) ……………….o. latifolia epidermal cells with glebulate periclinal wall (pl. 6 b) ….…...…………………...… 5 5epidermal cells with semi-swollen periclinal wall and epicuticular wax absent. trichomes clavate (pl. 4 c, pl. 5 a) ……………..…………………….…………o. anthelminthica epidermal cells with swollen periclinal wall and epicuticular wax present. trichomes long unicellular (pl. 4 a and pl. 5 c) …………………………….….…..…….o. pes-caprae iii-numerical analysis the 113 morphological, palynological, and foliar epidermal character states and their binary codes (0, 1) are given in appendix (1). the numerical analysis obtained is represented as a dendrogram (diag. 1). the dendrogram shows that the studied taxa were classified into two main series (i, ii), which included three clusters (i, ii, and iii) at a similarity level of 34.18%. series (i) included four taxa, namely o. anthelmintica, o. pes-caprae, o. debilis, and o. latifolia. the series is characterized by geophytes, stemless herbs with bulbous-rooted, basal rosette leaves, inflorescence on long, erect scape-like peduncle, and pollen subprolate with fusiform colpate. at a 50.36% similarity level, this series is subdivided into two distinct clusters based on the presence or absence of vertical rhizomes, bulb morphology, and the number of pollen apertures. the first cluster (i) represented o. anthelmintica and o. pescaprae (section: cernuae), which are very close with a 72.91% similarity level. morphologically, these two species are very similar, except for their leaf morphology, flower color, exine sculpture, and epidermal anticlinal wall. the second cluster (ii) included o. 75 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum shamso et al. debilis and o. latifolia (section: ionoxalis) with a 53.38% similarity level, and are differentiated by the leaf shape, bulb, and foliar eidermal characteristics (pl. 6 a, c). series (ii) included a single cluster (iii), represented by the two taxa; o. corniculata var. corniculata and o. corniculata var. repens, with a 74.02% similarity level. morphologically, these two taxa are very close, except for their leaf color, fruit and seed characters, pollen apertures, and foliar epidermal walls (pl.1a-c, 2a-c). in general, the numerical analysis based on the combined pollen morphology and foliar epidermal characters, along with morphological traits, is consistent with lourteig’s (2000) taxonomic treatment concerning the sectional affinities of the studied taxa. 76 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (1): 65-90. palynological and foliar epidermal studies plate (1): sem micrographs of the oxalis taxa pollen grains; (a-c) o. corniculata var. corniculata: apollen in equatorial view, bpollen in polar view, cexine sculpture. (d-f) o. corniculata var. repens: dpollen in equatorial view, e pollen in polar view, fexine sculpture. (g-i) o. pes-caprae: gpollen in equatorial view, hpollen in polar view, iexine sculpture. (j-l) o. anthelmintica: jpollen in equatorial view, kpollen in polar view, lexine sculpture. (m-o) o. debilis: mpollen in equatorial view, npollen in polar view, oexine sculpture. 77 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum shamso et al. plate (2): pollen with tricolpate apertures; (a) oxalis corniculata var. corniculate, (b) o. pes-caprae and (c) o. anthelmintica. (a. polar view; b & c. polar and equatorial view). plate (3): pollen with triand tetra-colpate apertures; (a) oxalis corniculata var. repens, (b) o. latifolia. plate (4): types of foliar trichomes; (a) long unicellular with tapering apex (lm, x40), (b) long unicellular with papillate surface (sem, x 1600), (c) short, clavate unicellular (sem, x 1600), (d) multicellular uniseriate (lm, x40). 78 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (1): 65-90. palynological and foliar epidermal studies plate (5): t.s. in lamina to show the periclinal wall of the epidermal cells; (a) semi swollen on abaxial surface in o. debilis, (b & c) swollen on both surfaces in o. latifolia and o. corniculata var. repens respectively (lm, x40). plate (6): lamina surface to show the anticlinal wall pattern and periclinal wall surface; (a) straight anticlinal wall with papillate surface in o. latifolia, (b) slightly curved anticlinal wall with glebulate surface in o. pes-caprae, (c) undulate anticlinal wall with smooth surface in o. corniculata var. corniculata. (lm, x 40). plate (7): lamina abaxial surface to show stomatal types;(a) anisocytic and unusual 4celled anisocytic stomata in o. anthelmintica, (b) anomocytic stomata in o. debilis, (c & d) actinocytic stomata in o. corniculata var. repens and o. latifolia respectively (lm, x40). a c b a b c d 79 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum shamso et al. plate (8): lamina adaxial surface showing; (a) ellipsoid and sunken stomata in o. debilis, (b) oblong and slightly sunken stomata, unicellular clavate trichomes in o. corniculata var. corniculata (sem, x1600). diagram (1): cluster dendrogram of the six taxonomic taxa based on a similarity matrix using a single linkage analysis software. conclusions despite that pollen morphology and foliar epidermal cell characters of the six taxa of egyptian oxalis described here show considerable agreement with previous characteristics found in other oxalis taxa, their potential taxonomic significance may be limited. nevertheless, when these data and morphological traits are combined, they become valuable for identifying and classifying the taxa at specific and sectional levels. thus, this study can indeed serve as a reference for future studies of oxalis taxa. 80 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (1): 65-90. palynological and foliar epidermal studies acknowledgments the authors are grateful to dr. amal hosny (botany and microbiology department, faculty of science, cairo university) for valuable comments and critical revision of the manuscript. conflict of interest statement "the authors declare no conflict of interest". literature cited abreu, m. c., silva, m. j. and sales, m. f. 2012. análise cladística de oxalis sec. thamnoxys (oxalidaceae) baseado em dados morfológicos. rodriguésia, 63(4): 755-761. 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(tamaricaceae) from northwest china and their https://doi.org/10.1007/s00606-022-01807-1 https://doi.org/10.32604/biocell.2005.29.271 https://bibliotecadigital.exactas.uba.ar/download/paper/paper_03279545_v31_n1_p13_rosenfeldt.pdf https://doi.org/10.32604/biocell.2008.32.041 https://doi.org/10.21608/taec.2022.118726.1036 https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/2276856 http://sweetgum.nybg.org/science/ih/ https://doi.org/10.1016/j.revpalbo.2016.12.006 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1399-3054.1996.tb00674.x 85 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum shamso et al. taxonomic and palaeogeographic implications. journal of palaeogeography, 7(2): 179-196. [crossref] appendix (1): data matrix of the studied characters, character states and their taxonomic codes of studied taxa. [(1) oxalis anthelmintica; (2) o.pescaprae; (3) o.corniculata var. corniculata; (4) o.corniculata var. repens; (5) o. debilis; (6) o. latifolia]; (0 = absent; 1 = present) character subcharacter character state 1 2 3 4 5 6 1life form epiphytes 0 0 1 1 0 0 geophytes 1 1 0 0 1 1 2duration perennial 1 1 0 0 1 1 annual or perennial 0 0 1 1 0 0 3bulb present 1 1 0 0 1 1 absent 0 0 1 1 0 0 4number of bulbs solitary 1 1 0 0 0 1 numerous 0 0 0 0 1 0 5bulb shape ovoid to pyriform 1 1 0 0 0 1 globose 0 0 0 0 1 1 6rhizome present 1 1 0 0 0 0 absent 0 0 1 1 1 1 7rhizome colour brownish 1 0 0 0 0 0 whitish 0 1 0 0 0 0 8root type fibrous 0 0 1 1 0 0 contractile 1 1 0 0 0 1 translucent tuberous 0 0 0 0 1 0 9stem presence present 0 0 1 1 0 0 absent 1 1 0 0 1 1 10stem surface hairy 0 0 1 1 0 0 glabrous 1 1 0 0 1 1 11leaves arrangement alternate 0 0 1 1 0 0 basal rosette 1 1 0 0 1 1 12petiole surface hairy 0 0 1 1 1 1 glabrous 1 1 0 0 0 0 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jop.2018.01.003 86 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (1): 65-90. palynological and foliar epidermal studies 13petiole flexuous near the base present 0 0 0 0 1 0 absent 1 1 1 1 0 1 14stipule shape broadly oblong 0 0 1 1 0 0 ovate – oblong 1 1 1 0 0 0 elliptic 1 0 0 0 0 0 oblong-lanceolate 0 0 0 0 1 0 ovate or rectangular 0 0 0 0 0 1 15auriculate apex of stipules present 0 0 1 0 1 1 absent 1 1 0 1 0 0 16stipules with nerves present 0 0 0 0 1 1 absent 1 1 1 1 0 0 17leaflet shape obdeltoid 0 0 0 0 0 1 obcordate 0 1 1 1 1 0 subcircular to obovate 1 0 0 0 0 0 18leaflt's lobes symmetry symmetrical 1 0 1 1 1 1 asymmetrical 0 1 0 0 0 0 19leaflet dotting present 1 1 0 0 1 0 absent 0 0 1 1 0 1 20sinus width wide 0 1 0 1 0 1 narrow 1 0 1 0 1 0 21sinus depth deep 0 0 0 1 0 0 shallow 1 1 1 0 1 1 22peduncle surface hairy 1 0 1 1 1 1 glabrous 0 1 0 0 0 0 23bracts relative lengths equal bracts 1 1 0 0 1 1 unequal bracts 0 0 1 1 0 0 24bract apex with brownish calli present 0 1 0 0 1 0 absent 1 0 1 1 0 1 25bracteole presence present 0 0 1 0 1 0 87 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum shamso et al. absent 1 1 0 1 0 1 26flower color yellow 0 1 1 1 0 0 pink to purple 1 0 0 0 1 1 27sepal shape oblonglanceolate 0 1 1 1 0 0 lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate 1 0 0 0 1 1 28sepal's calli present 1 1 0 0 1 1 absent 0 0 1 1 0 0 29petal shape spathulate 1 1 1 1 0 0 obovate 0 0 0 0 1 1 30long stamens with appendage present 0 1 0 0 0 0 absent 1 0 1 1 1 1 31-long stamens surface hairy 1 0 0 0 1 1 glabrous 0 1 1 1 0 0 32-shape of stigma capitate 1 1 1 1 0 1 laciniate 0 0 0 0 1 0 33pollen shape in equatorial view prolatespheroidal 0 0 1 0 0 0 subprolate 1 1 0 0 1 1 oblate spheroidal 0 0 0 1 0 0 34pollen aperture type tri-zonocolpate 1 1 1 0 0 0 trior tetrazonocolpate 0 0 0 1 1 1 35colpus shape elliptic 0 0 1 0 0 0 fusiform 0 1 0 0 1 1 oblong 0 0 0 1 0 0 fusiform or oblong 1 0 0 0 0 0 36colpus membrane sculpture densely granulated to rugulate 0 0 1 0 0 0 with congregated granules distributed irregularly 0 1 0 0 0 0 scabrous to warty 0 0 0 1 0 0 warty 1 0 0 0 1 1 88 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (1): 65-90. palynological and foliar epidermal studies 37exine sculpture microreticulate 1 0 1 1 0 1 reticulate, lumina with single baculum 0 1 0 0 0 0 perforate or microreticulate 0 0 0 0 1 0 38p/e ratio > 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 < 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 39epidermal anticlinal wall undulate 0 1 1 0 1 0 straight 1 0 0 1 0 1 40epidermal anticlinal wall thickness thick 0 0 0 0 0 1 thin 1 1 1 1 1 0 41adaxial epidermal periclinal wall swollen 0 0 0 1 0 0 semiswollen 1 1 1 0 1 0 papillate 0 0 0 0 0 1 42abaxial epidermal periclinal wall swollen 0 1 0 1 0 1 semiswollen 1 0 1 0 1 0 43epidermal cell surface sculpture reticulatefoveolate 0 0 1 0 0 1 smooth 0 0 0 1 1 0 glebulate 1 1 0 0 0 0 44epicuticular wax on epidermis present 0 1 1 1 1 1 absent 1 0 0 0 0 0 45stomatal position hypostomatic 1 1 0 0 0 1 amphistomatic 0 0 1 1 1 0 46stomatal types anomocytic 0 0 1 1 1 0 actinocytic 0 0 0 1 0 1 anisocytic 1 1 1 1 1 1 unusual 4-celled anisocytic 1 1 1 1 1 1 47stomatal shape oblong 1 0 1 0 0 0 silt 0 0 0 1 0 0 elliptic 0 1 0 0 1 1 48trichome type unicellular with tapering apex 0 1 1 1 1 0 multicellular 0 0 0 0 1 0 clavate unicellular 1 0 0 0 1 1 89 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum shamso et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2024) 18 (1): 65-90. oxalis linnaeus, 1753ألوراق جنس حبوب اللقاح والتشريح السطحي ةدراس ( في مصرoxalidales، رتبة oxalidaceae عائلة) إيمان محمود شمسو*، حسناء أحمد حسني*، أمل عبد البصير دراز**، *ينسامح رضا حس و سلوى علي القواتش ي** الجيزة ،جامعة القاهرة /العلومكلية /قسم النبات وامليكروبيولوجي /*املعشبة .مصر ،12613ص ب الجيزة ،الدقي ،املركز القومى للبحوث/** قسم الكيمياء و تصنيف النباتات .مصر ،12622ص ب 20/6/2024، النشر: 3/12/2023القبول: ،26/11/2023املراجعة: ، 28/9/2023االستالم: الخالصة ُدِرَست(، semمليكروسكوب اإللكتروني املاسح )باستخدام امليكروسكوب الضوئي وا فين من يحبوب اللقاح و مورفولوجيا البشرة الخارجية لألوراق ألربعة أنواع وصن التابعة لثالثة أقسام في لجنيس oxalis linnaeus, 1753األوكساليس املصرية oxalis linnaeus, 1753 وب تحديد أهمية خصائص حب الهدف من الدراسة، كان اللقاح و البشرة الخارجية لألوراق كأدلة تصنيفية. أظهرت الدراسة الحالية أن حبوب اللقاح في جميع األنواع املدروسة هي أحادية ومتماثلة، و من الحجم املتوسط، و يتراوح الكروي إلى تحت البيضوي. كما كانت فتحات حبوب اللقاح ثالثية الشكل من تحت الجدار الخارجي كان الثقوب مع أغشية مزخرفة )بنمط مموج، أو نتوءات متجمعة(. ,kunth شبكي إلى شبكي، ومثقب في-لحبوب اللقاح شبه مغطى، مع تزخرف ميكرو 1822 o. debilisمن الثغور: . كما كشفت الدراسة عن وجود أربعة أنواعactinocytic, anisocytic, anomocytic and an unusual 4-celled anisocytic . كانت خاليا البشرة العليا والسفلية غير منتظمة أو مضلعة الشكل، مع جدران متموجة أو مستقيمة، وجدران داخلية شبه منتفخة إلى منتفخة مع وجود طبقة من الشعيرات غير الغددية وأحادية الخلية: شعر عانلوحظ نو شمعية خارجية منتشرة. 90 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (1): 65-90. palynological and foliar epidermal studies قصير بشكل مدبب وشعر طويل ذو طرف مدبب مع سطح محبب. ناقشت الدراسةأيضا املجمعة وخصائص حبوب اللقاح املظهريةالنتائج العددية استناًدا إلى الخصائص لتصنيف والبشرة الخارجية لألوراق. باإلضافة إلى ذلك، تم تصميم مفتاح اصطناعي األنواع املدروسة. تعتبر هذه الدراسة أول تقرير يتعامل مع الخصائص التشريحية جنس في مصر. هذا الوحبوب اللقاح ألنواع bull 447 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum shcherbakov et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2024) 18 (2): 447-463. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2024.18.2.0447 original article preliminary parasitological investigation of brown trout with new recorded species in armenia oleg v. shcherbakov*, jon a. mkrtchyan*, sargis a. aghayan*,**, hasmik sh. gevorgyan*, valeri v. grigoryan***, anush r. hakobyan*** and liana h. grigoryan*** * laboratory of molecular parasitology, scientific center of zoology and hydroecology, national academy of sciences of the republic of armenia, 7 paruyr sevak st., 0014, yerevan, armenia. ** research institute of biology, yerevan state university, 1 alex manoogian st., 0025, yerevan, armenia. *** research center of veterinary and sanitary expertise, armenian national agrarian university, 9 teryan st., 0009, yerevan, armenia. corresponding author e-mail: oleg1vet@gmail.com recived: 20 june 2024, revised: 12 nov. 2024, accepted: 18 nov. 2024, published: 20 december 2024 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract the brown trout salmo trutta linnaeus, 1758 is an important species for fisheries in armenia, with a comparatively wide distribution in both wild habitats and aquaculture. despite its significance and widespread presence, there is limited information regarding diseases and parasites affecting brown trout in armenia. the aim of this study was to examine the parasite fauna of brown trout in the southern part of armenia. the research was conducted in the vayots dzor region, as well as at the scientific center of zoology and hydroecology, and armenian national agrarian university. captured fish were examined using the method of complete parasitological research. parasites were analyzed under microscope and identified using specialized manuals based on their morphological features. a total of 20 brown trout were captured between september and december 2023. of these, 8 individuals (40%) were (40%) were infected with parasites. six species of parasites were identified: dactylogyrus vastator nybelin, 1924 (monogenea: dactylogyridae), gyrodactylus sp. (monogenea: gyrodactylidae), bunodera luciopercae müller, 1776 (trematoda: allocreadiidae), proteocephalus longicollis zeder, 1800 (cestoda: proteocephalidae), khawia armeniaca cholodkovsky, 1915 (cestoda: lytocestidae), and ichthyophthirius multifiliis fouquet, 1876 (ciliata: ichthyophthiriidae). parasite infections were generally characterized by low intensity, except for i. multifiliis. gyrodactylus sp. and b. luciopercae helminths were detected for the first time in armenia. this pilot study provides baseline information for further large-scale investigations and offers a valuable insight for farmers to better understand the challenges associated with efficient production. keywords: aquaculture, bunodera luciopercae, fishponds, gyrodactylus, salmo trutta. bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799-print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2024.18.2.0447 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7533-1670 https://orcid.org/0009-0007-9937-8132 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8516-2778 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6038-1867 https://orcid.org/0009-0000-0840-3961 https://orcid.org/0009-0002-7781-3045 https://orcid.org/0009-0008-8799-4568 mailto:oleg1vet@gmail.com https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 448 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (2): 447-463. preliminary parasitological investigation of brown introduction the brown trout salmo trutta linnaeus, 1758 is an important species for fisheries, which has a comparatively wide distribution in armenia, especially in small, fast-flowing rivers and high-mountain springs characterized by clean water, low water temperature, and high oxygen concentration (pipoyan, 2012; domingues et al., 2022). in addition to its presence in the wild, this species is also cultivated in aquaculture, albeit in limited regions due to its specific ecological requirements (krieg et al., 2008; domingues et al., 2022). additionally, s. trutta plays a crucial role as a reservoir and source of parasites for introduced fish species (borgstrøm et al., 2021). despite its wide distribution and a high significance, there is limited information available on diseases and parasites of brown trout in armenia. to date, only two publications on s. trutta parasites in armenia have been reported. namely, ichthyophthirius multifiliis ciliate parasites were found in the skin of fingerling brown trout in hrazdan river, central armenia (hovhannisyan and rukhkyan, 2012), and diplostomum sp. trematode metacercariae were detected in eye lenses of brown trout in river kasakh, central armenia (hovhannisyan and rukhkyan, 2016). it is important to highlight that research on parasites in brown trout is also relatively limited worldwide (barskaya and ieshko, 2004; quilichini et al., 2007; mladineo et al., 2009; rolbiecki et al., 2009; dix, 2010; gopko et al., 2018; laegran, 2022; couso-perez et al., 2023). in light of the above, the objective of this study is to investigate the parasite fauna of brown trout salmo trutta in southern armenia. it should be emphasized that the parasite fauna of fish in southern armenia, especially in the vayots dzor and syunik regions, has not been studied at all. moreover, data on the parasite fauna of brown trout in neighboring countries such as iran, azerbaijan, georgia, and turkey are also very limited (sattari et al., 2005). materials and methods study area: brown trout s. trutta (for consistent tense) natural waters, and artificial fishponds of vayots dzor region. this region was selected due to its rich biodiversity, as well as potential for introduction of parasite species and biological invasions from neighboring regions and countries. the main water body of the region is river arpa (length: 128 km; drainage basin: 2630 km2) that begins from vardenis range (the natural border between the sevan lake and arpa basins), and flows into river araks, the longest river of armenia (basin of caspian sea). additionally, the arpa river is connected to lake sevan via the arpa-sevan tunnel (length: 48 km). the river has several tributaries including the yeghegis, herher, and martiros rivers. most of the rivers in vayots dzor are characterized by swift flow, deep fall, and inclination. there are also numerous small mountain lakes in the region. specimens` collection and processing: twenty brown trout specimens, including both males and females aging one to four years, were captured from the wild (arpa river, 39°45'04.6"n 449 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum shcherbakov et al. 45°36'32.8"e, altitude 1500 m asl), and from fish farms (village gndevaz, vayots dzor region, 39°45'51.1"n 45°36'36.9"e, altitude 1523 m asl), between september and december 2023. ten wild fish, caught by hook, were brought to the research center of veterinary and sanitary expertise at the armenian national agrarian university for parasitological analysis. the remaining ten fish, raised in aquaculture and caught using nets, where examined at the laboratory of molecular parasitology, scientific center of zoology and hydroecology, nas ra. details of the samples are described in table (1). the age of the fish was determined by counting the number of paired opaque and translucent rings on their scales, as well as estimating the development stage of their gonads. the specimens underwent a complete parasitological surveyfollowing the method of (bykhovskaya-pavlovskaya, 1985). all organs and tissues of the fish were examined. skin, fins and gill scrapes were mounted between two large slide glasses and examined under a microscope (10x objectives, 16x eyepieces). gastrointestinal contents were washed multiple times, and the sediments were examined under a binocular microscope (40x) and, for more detailed morphological examination, under a b-100 microscope (4x objective, 16x eyepiece). table (1): number of brown trout salmo trutta samples captured in vayots dzor region. fish sex age of the captured fish, years total 1 2 3 4 w aq w aq w aq w aq w aq total males 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 3 4 7 females 1 1 1 1 3 3 2 1 7 6 13 total 1 2 2 2 4 4 3 2 10 10 20 notes: w – wild fish; aq – fish grown in aquaculture fish parasites were identified using identification manuals based on the morphological features (bauer, 1984; bauer, 1985; bauer, 1987; sitja-bobadilla et al., 2021). indices of rate of infection (prevalence) (a), intensity (b), and abundance index (c), were calculated: a. rate of infection = number of the fish infected with the certain parasite number of the examined fish b. intensity of infection is a quantity of parasite of the certain species detected in one fish/specimen. statistical analysis: to compare the prevalence of the same parasite in each group of fish, e.g. wild and artificially grown, fisher exact probability test criterion was used. abbreviations: aq: fish grown in aquaculture, asl: above sea level, n/a: not applicable, nas ra – national academy of sciences of the republic of armenia, sp: species, w: wild fish. 450 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (2): 447-463. preliminary parasitological investigation of brown results the pattern of parasites registered in salmo trutta in armenia is shown in table (2). table (2): fauna of parasites of brown trout salmo trutta in armenia. n = 20 (10 wild and 10 grown in aquaculture) parasite species rate of infection/prevalence, % infection intensity, parasites per fish w aq total w aq dactylogyrus vastator 20 0 10 2 in one fish, and 3 in another 0 gyrodactylus sp. 0 10 5 0 1 bunodera luciopercae 10 0 5 37 0 proteocephalus longicollis 10 0 5 2 0 khawia armeniaca 10 0 5 1 0 ichthyophthirius multifiliis 0 40* 20 n/a n/a * -p < 0.05 (by fisher exact test) a mixed parasitic infection was recorded in 40% of cases (8 out of 20 examined fish specimens). the rate of parasitic infection was similar in both wild and farmed, with an infection rate of 40% in each group. between one and three parasite species were detected in each infected fish. the following parasite species were identified in the current study: 1. dactylogyrus vastator nybelin, 1924 (monogenea, dactylogyridae). a comparatively large monogenean (pl. 1) (1.25 x 0.25 mm) was detected in the gills of two females trout (10%) aged 2 and 3 years, captured from the wild in the arpa river. the intensity of infection was low, with 2 and 3 specimens per fish, respectively. 0.5 mm 451 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum shcherbakov et al. plate (1): dactylogyrus vastator in salmo trutta gills. 2. gyrodactylus sp. (monogenea, gyrodactylidae). a small monogenean (mean length 0.8 mm) (pl. 2) was found on the skin of a single male trout aged 3 years, grown in aquaculture. the intensity of infection was very low, with only one helminth detected. it should be noted that it was impossible to identify the exact species of gyrodactylus: g. salaris, g. truttae or g. derjavini based solely on morphological features. this finding represents the first recorded case of gyrodactylus in armenia, as no prior data on its presence in the country are available. 3. bunodera luciopercae müller, 1776 (trematoda, allocreadiidae). a small trematode (0.52.3 x 0.2-0.7 mm) with a highly mobile anterior body region (pl. 3) was found in the intestine of a single female trout (5%) aged 3 years, captured in the wild. a total of 37 specimens were collected. this trematode is detected for the first time in armenia. plate (2): gyrodactylus sp. monogenean in skin of s. trutta. 0.5 mm 452 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (2): 447-463. preliminary parasitological investigation of brown plate (3): bunodera luciopercae in the intestine of s. trutta. 4. proteocephalus longicollis zeder, 1800 (cestoda, proteocephalidae). a comparatively long tapeworm (up to 25 cm in length and 2 mm in width) (pl. 4) was isolated from the pyloric caeca of a single female trout (5%) aged 3 years, captured in the wild. this is the first record of this species outside lake sevan basin. plate (4): fragment of proteocephalus longicollis strobila from the pyloric caeca of s. trutta 5. khawia armeniaca cholodkovsky, 1915 (cestoda, lytocestidae). a medium sized tapeworm (65 x 5 mm) (pl. 5) was detected in the intestine of a single female trout (5%) aged 3 years, captured in the wild. one specimen was found. this represents the second record of this tapeworm outside the lake sevan basin, as well as the first record of its presence in brown trout in armenia. 1.0 mm 1.0 mm 453 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum shcherbakov et al. plate (5): rear end of khawia sinensis from the intestine of s. trutta. 6. ichthyophthirius multifiliis fouquet, 1876 (ciliata, ichthyophthiriidae). a large cosmopolitan ciliate (up to 1mm in length) (pl. 6) was identified for the first time parasite in southern part of armenia. only fish grown in aquaculture were infected with i. multifiliis. the difference in infection prevalence between wild and farmed fish was statistically significant (p < 0.05). plate (6): ichthyophthirius multifiliis in the skin of s. trutta. 1.0 mm 0.1 mm 454 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (2): 447-463. preliminary parasitological investigation of brown i. multifiliis infection was characterized by pronounced clinical manifestation, including severe skin and fin lesions (pl. 7). the infection was further complicated by a secondary infestation with saprolegnia spp., a group of oomycetes (pl. 8). plate (7): skin and fin lesions in s. trutta. plate (8): growth of saprolegnia sp. oomycetes in s. trutta skin. 0.1 mm 455 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum shcherbakov et al. pattern of various age groups fish infection is presented in table (3). table (3): rate of infection in different age groups of brown trout (%). index age of the fish, years total 1 2 3 4 rate of infection/prevalence % 33.33 50.0 62.5 0 40.0 discussion based on the results of this research, we conclude that the parasite fauna of brown trout in armenia is comparatively poor, comprising six species. these include two monogeneans, one trematode, two tapeworms, and one ciliate. the absence of roundworms (nematodes) and acanthocephals is a distinctive feature of the parasite fauna of salmo trutta in armenia. dactylogyrus vastator is a native palearctic species that originally was infected cyprinids in both wild and aquaculture environments (abdullah and abdullah, 2013; benovics, 2020). as an invasive species in armenia, d. vastator was as an invasive species in armenia, in cyprinids grown in aquaculture in 1983 (grigoryan and poghosyan, 1983). however, a recent trend of this parasite infecting salmonids in armenia has been observed (naghashyan et al., 2015). gyrodactylus sp. is a native monogenean parasitizing the skin of salmonids in europe (rokicka et al., 2007; hansen et al., 2016). however, it hasn’t been previously detected in fish in armenia. bunodera luciopercae is a typical parasite of perciform fish. however, this trematode is also able to infect salmonids, namely, salmo trutta (wootten, 1973). proteocephalus longicollis is an autochthonous species typical for salmonids (salmo ischchan) and cyprinids (capoeta capoeta sevangi and barbus goktschaicus) in lake sevan. it was first recorded in the lake in 1933 (dinnik, 1933) has been periodically detected later in cyprinids in wild salmonids and cyprinids of sevan lake (platonova, 1963; voropaeva et al., 2011), as well as for wild salmonids worldwide (brabec et al., 2023). this is the first record of this tapeworm outside the lake sevan basin. it is likely that p. longicollis entered the arpa river via the “arpa-sevan” tunnel transported by infected copepods, which serves as intermediate hosts for the helminth. khawia armeniaca is an armenian endemic species primarily associated with fish in lake sevan. it was first recorded in the lake in 1933 (dinnik, 1933) and has since been periodically detected in wild salmonids and cyprinids of the lake, including capoeta capoeta sevangi, salmo ischchan, and coregonus lavaretus (rubenyan, 2008; voropaeva and tolstenkov, 2008). this has also been described in capoeta capoeta in iran (williams et al., 1980). in the current research, this tapeworm was recorded for the second time outside the lake sevan basin and represents the first record of k. armeniaca in brown tout in armenia. probably, this 456 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (2): 447-463. preliminary parasitological investigation of brown tapeworm entered the arpa river via the “arpa-sevan” tunnel, carried by infected tubifex sp. oligochaetes, which are intermediate hosts for the helminth. ichthyophthirius multifiliis is a cosmopolitan ciliate that parasitizes numerous fish species, including brown trout (grigoryan and poghosyan, 1983; sigh and buchmann, 2002; hovhannisyan and rukhkyan, 2012). in the current research, this ciliate was detected on the skin and gills of 4 trout (20%), comprising two males and two females aged 1 to 3 years that were grown in aquaculture. in total, three of the detected parasitesbunodera luciopercae, proteocephalus longicollis, and khawia armeniaca were biohelminthes; three were ectoparasites, and three were endoparasites. our observations indicate that ectoparasites are generally more common in brown trout grown in aquaculture, while endoparasites, especially biohelminthes, are generally typical of wild trout. the rate of parasitic infection was the same in both wild and farmed fish, at 40%. the infection rate in females (50%) was higher than males (30%), however, the difference was not significant (p > 0.05). according to the results of research, the highest infection rate was registered in trout with an of age 3 years (62.5%), followed by trout aged 2 years (50.0%), and the lowest level was observed in fish aged 1 year (33.33%). trout aged 4 years were free of parasites. however, the difference was not statistically significant (p > 0.05). the results obtained, in general, correspond to the concept that the level of parasite infection in fish, specifically rainbow trout, increases with age (couso-perez, 2023). parasite infections were generally characterized by low intensity, except for i. multifiliis infections which were characterized by high intensity, and pronounced clinical manifestation. a similar pattern is generally typical in aquaculture, where various ectoparasites infect fish more intensively than in the wild. this process process is often complicated by infection with saprolegnia sp. and other parasitic oomycetes (cieplinski et al., 2018; kaminskas, 2021; buchmann, 2022). the tight stocking density of fish in ponds, as well as numerous stress factors, promotes the rapid development of secondary infections, especially mycoses (kayis et al., 2018; casa-mulet et al., 2021). none of the detected pathogens are dangerous to human health; however, they can seriously affect the commercial condition, and as well as the sanitary and hygienic status, of the fish (aloo, 2000; tessema, 2020). conclusions according to current research, 40% of the examined fish individuals were infected with parasites. six species of parasites were identified: dactylogyrus vastator nybelin, 1924, gyrodactylus sp., bunodera luciopercae müller, 1776 (trematoda: allocreadiidae), proteocephalus longicollis zeder, 1800, khawia armeniaca cholodkovsky, 1915, and ichthyophthirius multifiliis fouquet, 1876. parasite infections were generally characterized by low intensity, except for ichthyophthirius multifiliis. 457 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum shcherbakov et al. notably, gyrodactylus sp. and bunodera luciopercae helminthes were detected for the first time in armenia. the results indicate that the parasite fauna of fish parasites in the southern regions of armenia is distinctive. this pilot study provides baseline information for further large-scale investigations and offers valuable insights for farmers to better understand the challenges associated with efficient fish production. acknowledgements the authors wish to thank laboratory personnel of both laboratory of parasitology at the research center of veterinary and sanitary expertise (armenian national agrarian university), and laboratory of molecular parasitology (scientific center of zoology and parasitology, nas ra) for their valuable assistance. this study was supported by grant 23lcg-1f006 financed by the higher education and science committee under the ministry of education, science, culture and sport of the republic of armenia. conflict of interest statement the authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this manuscript. literature cited abdullah, y. s. and abdullah, s. m. a. 2013. monogenean infections on fishes from darbandikhan lake in kurdistan region, iraq. basrah journal of agricultural scineces, 26(special issue 1): 117-131. 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[crossref] https://www.cambridge.org/core/search?filters%5bauthorterms%5d=r.%20wootten&eventcode=se-au https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-helminthology https://doi.org/10.1017/s0022149x00027425 462 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (2): 447-463. preliminary parasitological investigation of brown bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2024) 18 (2): 447-463. ا في ةسمكليات طفياولية لدراسة ً السلمون املرقط البني مع األنواع املسجلة حديث أرمينيا **،،شيرباكوف*، جون أ. مكرتشيان*، سارجيس أ. أغايان*أوليج في. هاسميك ش. جيفورجيان*، فاليري في. جريجوريان***، أنوش ر. هاكوبيان*** ليانا هـ. جريجوريان*** و * مختبر علم الطفيليات الجزيئي، املركز العلمي لعلم الحيوان والبيئة املائية، األكاديمية ، يريفان،0014، 7وطنية للعلوم في جمهورية أرمينيا، شارع باروير سيفاك رقم ال أرمينيا. ،1** معهد أبحاث األحياء، جامعة يريفان الحكومية، شارع أليكس مانوجيان رقم ، يريفان، أرمينيا.0025 ع *** مركز أبحاث الخبرة البيطرية والصحية، الجامعة الزراعية الوطنية األرمينية، شار ، يريفان، أرمينيا0009، 9تيريان رقم 20/12/2024، النشر: 18/11/2024القبول: ،12/11/2024، املراجعة: 20/6/2024االستالم: الخالصة عّد سمكة الترويت البنية ُ واحدة من األنواع ذات salmo trutta linnaeus, 1758 ت ة االقتصادية في مجال مصايد األسماك، نظًرا النتشارها الواسع في أرمينيا، حيث األهمي ربى أيًضا في نظم االستزراع املائي. على الرغم من هذه ُ توجد في بيئتها الطبيعية وت األهمية الواسعة واالنتشار الجغرافي امللحوظ، تظل املعلومات املتاحة حول األمراض هذه الدراسة إلى ترويت البني في أرمينيا محدودة. هدفوالطفيليات التي تصيب الت تحليل الفونة الطفيلية لسمكة الترويت البنية في املناطق الجنوبية من أرمينيا. وقد جريت الدراسة في منطقة فايوتس دزور، باإلضافة إلى املركز العلمي لعلم الحيوان ُ أ خضعت األسماك التي تم اذ مينية. والهيدروايكولوجيا، والجامعة الزراعية الوطنية األر اصطيادها لفحص شامل باستخدام منهجية البحث الطفيلي الكاملة، وتم تحليل 463 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum shcherbakov et al. الصفات استناًدا إلى األدلة املعيارية و و تشخيصهاالطفيليات باستخدام املجهر سمكة ترويت بنية، 20، تم اصطياد 2023. خالل الفترة من سبتمبر إلى ديسمبر املظهرية %( بالطفيليات. وتم تحديد ستة أنواع من 40منها ) 8أظهرت النتائج إصابة حيث : الطفيليات هي dactylogyrus vastator nybelin, 1924 (monogenea: dactylogyridae), gyrodactylus sp. (monogenea: gyrodactylidae), bunodera luciopercae müller, 1776 (trematoda: allocreadiidae), proteocephalus longicollis zeder, 1800 (cestoda: proteocephalidae), khawia armeniaca cholodkovsky, 1915 (cestoda: lytocestidae), and ichthyophthirius multifiliis fouquet, 1876 (ciliata: ichthyophthiriidae). ة باستثناء عدوى عموًما، كانت اإلصابات الطفيلية منخفضة الشد ichthyophthirius multifiliis مثل هذه الدراسة االستكشافية ُ التي تميزت بشدة أعلى. ت قاعدة بيانات أولية ملزيد من األبحاث الواسعة النطاق، كما تزود املزارعين بمعرفة أكثر عمًقا بالتحديات املرتبطة بعمليات اإلنتاج الفّعالة. bull 929 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2025) 18 (4): 929-942. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2025.18.4.0929 original article assessment of organic pollution in east al-hammar marsh using palmer's algal index, basrah, southern of iraq ebtehal m. jaffer, adil fadhil abbas and suhad a. al-knaany department of ecology, college of science, university of basrah. basrah, iraq corresponding author: ebtehal.jaffer@uobasrah.edu.iq received: 14 may 2025, revised: 1 nov. 2025, accepted: 3 nov. 2025, published:20 december 2025 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract the study aimed to evaluate the water quality of east al-hammar marsh in basrah, iraq, by utilizing phytoplankton as a biological indicator and applying palmer's algal pollution index phytoplankton samples were collected using a 20 µm mesh size net from three stations (s1 in harir, s2 in al salal, and s3 in al barka) in east al-hammar marsh between 2019 and 2020 during the winter months (december, january, and february) and summer months (june, july, and august). palmer’s index was used to evaluate the water quality of alhammar marsh based on both algae genus and species composition. the overall scores for the s1, s2, and s3 algae genera pollution index in the winter months were 35, 28, and 30 respectively. in summer, the scores for the same stations were 21, 15, and 22, respectively. for the algae species pollution index, winter scores were 16, 20, and 22, and summer scores were 21, 18, and 16, respectively. according to the index, a total score of 15 to 20 indicates an organic pollution, and more than 20 indicates a high organic pollution.the genera with tolerance to pollution were cyanophyta, like oscillatoria vaucher ex gomont,1892 and phormidium kützing ex gomont,1892; bacillariophyta, like cyclotella kützing, 1846 gomphonema c.g. ehrenberg,1832, navicula bory de saint-vincent,1822, nitzschia hassall, 1845, synedra ehrenberg,1830, and chlorophyta, like pandorina bory de saint-vincent, 1824, scenedesmus meyen, 1829, ankistrodesmus corda, 1838, chlamydomonas ehrenberg, 1833, and euglenophyta, like euglena ehrenberg, 1830 and phacus dujardin, 1841. the palmer index was an important instrument for displaying the probability of pollution in surface water. compared to the species index, the palmer index of genera was more useful for the same sampling station, the pollution in the form of the palmer index varies slightly over time from winter to summer or geographically along the water courses. generally speaking, organic contamination affects the al-hammar marsh’s surface water in most of the sampled stations. keywords: algae, al-hammar, bioindicator, palmer's index, phytoplankton. bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799, print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2025.18.4.0929 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2088-2605 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9864-2065 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1546-3329 mailto:ebtehal.jaffer@uobasrah.edu.iq https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 930 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 929-942. assessment of organic pollution introduction iraqi marshes are significant because of their usefulness to economy, society, and biodiversity. they give coastal fisheries a genuinely global dimension by supporting them, and they serve millions of birds traveling among siberia and africa as well as being a stable habitat for numerous rare species of plants, fish, birds, and invertebrates (maulood and hassan, 2021). algal cells have the capacity to accumulate contaminants from their immediate surroundings and retain them within the body's cells (wang and dei, 2001). since algae are the initial food in the food chain, an increase in intracellular organic pollutants affects the number of algae. because of their short lifespan and quick response to changes in the aquatic environment, phytoplankton provide early warning signs of water pollution, such as changes in population dynamics, chlorophyll-a levels, and phytoplankton composition. these variations can indicate changes in the amounts of dissolved oxygen and nutrients, and general water quality, offering vital information about possible contamination incidents (ganai and praveen, 2014; el-kassas and gharib, 2016). a biological indicator is a class or assembly of organisms that exhibit evidence of being impacted by environmental stress brought on by human activity or the breakdown of a biological system. (barbour et al., 1999; bhatt et al., 1999; ganai and praveen, 2014; elkassas and gharib, 2016). the algal groups react quite strongly to even a small change in the water's quality. phytoplankton's number and build are highly influenced by the environmental elements of their habitat, including dioxide (co2), sunshine, and nutrients. the biomass and dispersion of phytoplankton through the body of water are impacted by these factors (dimowo, 2013; shams and ghorbani, 2013), when evaluating the water body's resources and biodiversity, the existence of algae is crucial. due to their extreme sensitivity to shifting environmental conditions, assessing the distribution and existence of phytoplankton helps to clarify environmental features and the effects of water quality changes on algal communities (huang et al., 2022). the phytoplankton in water body reflects the ecological factors and thence can be utilized as water quality biological indicators (nurruhwati et al., 2017; wagh et al., 2022). palmer's algal pollution index is a method that uses algal communities to describe the degree of organic contamination in freshwater bodies (palmer, 1969, alombro et al., 2023). there are no prior iraqi studies on the palmer algal index in al-hammar marsh, and research on phytoplankton biodiversity in this area remains limited (jaffer et al., 2023). al-kanani and al-essa (2018) studied palmer's index to the assessment of shatt alarab and showed high levels of organic pollution. according to the present study, stations 1, 2, and 3 had scores above 20, indicating downstream home usage that degrades water quality. in egypt el-kassas and gharib (2016) and salem et al. (2017) noted that biological evaluation utilizing phytoplankton, exemplified by palmer’s algal index, helps determine pollution levels and variations in water quality within aquatic systems. palmer's algal contamination index was used by alombro et al. (2023) to assess organic contamination in the rivers of cotabato city, philippines, and validated the index's adaptability for water quality monitoring in different parts of the world. 931 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum jaffer et al. the studies on limnology, water quality, water quality index, phytoplankton and primary production in iraqi marshes remains relatively limited. talib (2017) studied the ecological conditions of the al-hammar marsh after a case of flood. al-nagar et al. (2020) studied water quality index (wqi) as an indicator of the east hammar marsh following a significant rise in salinity during the summer of 2018. dhaidan et al. (2021) evaluated the restoration strategy for al-hammar marsh using indicators derived from satellite imagery; maulood and hassan (2021) studied phytoplankton and estimated primary production in various iraqi marshes. this study aimed to use the phytoplankton as a biological indicator to assess the organic pollution of al-hammar marsh by palmer's algal indicator. materials and methods study area: sited in southern iraq, al hammar marsh is one of the largest wetlands in the country. its longitudinal spans 132 km, flowing from the village of al-hammar, west of dhi qar province to the east of basra province, and ends at the garmat ali port, where it empties into the shatt al-arab river. its width varies from 26 to 35 km (al-mansouri, 2008). after deciding on the eastern lagoons of al-hammar, three sampling stations were found, and the gps (global positioning system) of such stations is as follow harir30°36'15.38"n 47°40'42.87"e, al salal30°38'36.80"n 47°39'9.36"e and al barka30°41'6.51"n 47°36'46.41"e (map 1). collecting of samples and examination: phytoplankton samples were collected using a 20 µm mesh size net, which was pulled through the water for 15 minutes at a controlled speed. the samples were then transferred to a polyethylene bottle and preserved with a 4% formalin solution. non-diatom species were examined directly. for diatom species, all organic material and siliceous frustules were oxidized and removed to observe the valve structure for microscopic analysis and species identification. each algal genus with a density greater than 50 cells per 1 ml sample was noted and included in the index (salem et al., 2017). algae were identified according to the classification systems of desikachary (1959), prescott (1982), and guiry and guiry (2019). the study of the algal genera includes the comparison between the winter months (december, january, and february) and the summer months (june-august) from the three different stations; s1 (harir), it reflects the marsh's entry and is distinguished by the appearance of sizable mudflats on the eastern and western banks during the ebbing season, which are said to be an important attraction for numerous water bird groups. fishing is the primary human activity that affects this area, s2 is (al-salal distinguished by the muddy bank when the water level is low (habeeb et al., 2018). numerous human activities, particularly fishing, fodder cutting, and buffalo grazing, are supported in this area. s3 is an open water and looks like vast mudflats during low tide. furthermore, it offers a useful site for various human endeavors, such as the cutting of fodder, fishing, and buffalo grazing, and affects organic pollution in the water. according to palmer (1969), it depends on a list of algae taxa that shows organic pollution, and calculation of organic pollution for the aquatic environment indicates higher organic contamination if scores are ≥ 20 (tab.1). 932 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 929-942. assessment of organic pollution map (1): shows studied stations from east al-hammer marsh, from basrah city. table (1): pollution index measure (palmer, 1969). status of pollution pollution index very light organic pollution < 15 organic pollution 15 – 20 high organic pollution >20 results and discussion a total of 150 species belonging to 70 genera of algae were recorded from three sampling stations, including 16 genera and 16 species that are tolerant of organic pollution. palmer (1969) created a list of genera and species of algae that indicate organic pollution. this list contains 20 genera and 20 species. palmer (1969) and iloba (2020) mentioned that if scores are > 20, the status of pollution was high. there are four groups of algae that are tolerant of pollution recorded after the microscopic examinations in al-hammar marsh. the recorded phytoplankton were grouped under cyanophyceae, chlorophyceae, euglenophyceae, and bacillariophyceae. most of genera and species are registered in tables (2, 3) and plate (1). a score in algal genera pollution index of s1, s2, and s3 in winter months were 35, 28, and 30, respectively, particularly during the winter, when anthropogenic and animal activity probably increases the loads of organic materials and nutrients. the scores for the same stations’ algae genera pollution index in summer months were 21, 15, and 22, respectively (tab.3). an increase in water inflow to the al-hammar marsh (jaffer et al., 2023) may have improved water quality through enhanced flow, dilution, and changes in biological and chemical processes (shahare, 2017), on the other hand, higher temperatures and intense evaporation could explain the fall in water quality during the summer (mohamed et al., 2014; salem et al., 2017). furthermore, the warming effect of climate change, the water exchange cycles brought on by human activity, and the slowing of wind speed can all make phytoplankton more sensitive to nutrients (yang et al., 2005; barinova et al., 2016). while scores from the algae species pollution index in winter months were 16, 20, and 22, respectively, and in summer 933 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum jaffer et al. months were 21, 18, and 16, respectively (tab.3). the algae in station 1, 2 and 3 reached highest point of organic contamination. the domination of genus oscillatoria vaucher ex gomont 1892, euglena ehrenberg, 1830, phacus dujardin, 1841, cyclotella kützing, 1846, navicula bory de saint-vincent, 1822, and nitzschia hassall, 1845, is deemed to be index of organic pollution (diag. 1), and this coincides with al-kanani and al-essa (2018).the genera euglena and oscillatoria are trustworthy markers of eutrophication due to their strong tolerance for pollution and have high grade in palmer's measure, including euglena gracilis klebs, 1883, euglena viridis (o.f. müller) ehrenberg, 1830, oscillatoria chlorine kützing ex gomont, 1892, oscillatoria limosa c. agardh ex gomont, 1892, and oscillatoria tenuis c.agardh ex gomont 1892 (dubey et al., 2024) (diag. 2). the genera ankistrodesmus, navicula, and nitzschia are found in water organically contaminated, and the common algae nitzchia is deemed to be an organic tolerant alga that acts as organic contamination indicator in marine and freshwater environment (xia et al., 2020), and the presence of organic substrates and nutrients regulate the abundance of these diatoms (kim et al., 2019). the capacity of some algae species to withstand changes in water level and desiccation is a key factor in their success in wetland environments (holzinger and karsten, 2013). water levels can vary several times in a little month or stay the same for years. when exposed to a changing moisture system, algae need to adapt in order to withstand the harshness of these conditions (wehr and sheath, 2003 ( . table (2): algae genus recorded at east al-hammer marsh according to palmer (1969). no. species s1-w s1-s s2-w s2-s s3-w s3-s 1 anacystis meneghini, 1837 2 ankistrodesmus corda, 1838 2* 2 * 2* 2* 3 chlamydomonas ehrenberg, 1833 4* 4* 4* 4 chlorella beijerinck, 1890 3* 3* 3* 5 closterium nitzsch,1817 1 6 cyclotella kützing, 1846 1* 1* 1* 1* 1* 1* 7 euglena ehrenberg, 1830 5* 5* 5* 5* 5* 5* 8 gomphonema c.g. ehrenberg,1832 1* 9 lepocinclis perty,1852 1* 10 melosira agardh,1824 11 micractinium fresenius,1858 12 navicula bory de saint-vincent,1822 3* 3* 3* 3* 3* 3* 13 nitzschia hassall, 1845 3* 3* 3* 3* 14 oscillatoria vaucher ex gomont 1892 5* 5* 5* 5* 5* 5* 15 pandorina bory de saint-vincent, 1824 1* 1* 1* 16 phacus dujardin, 1841 2* 2* 2* 17 phormidium kützing ex gomont,1892 1* 18 scenedesmus meyen, 1829 4* 4* 4* 4* 4* 4* 19 stigeoclonium kützing, 1843 20 synedra (=ulnaria) ehrenberg,1830 2* 2* total score 35 24 28 25 30 24 [w=winter, s= summer, *=score number for each genus]. 934 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 929-942. assessment of organic pollution diagram (1): algae genera recorded at east al-hammer marsh according to palmer (1969). table (3): algae species recorded at east al-hammer marsh according to palmer (1969). [w=winter, s= summer, *=score number for each genus]. no. species s1-w s1-s s2-w s2-s s3-w s3-s 1 ankistrodesmus falcatus (corda, 1839) ralfs, 1848 3* 3* 3* 3* 2 arthrospira jenneri forti, 1907 3 chlorella vulgaris beijerinck, 1890 2* 2* 2* 4 cyclotella meneghiniana kützing, 1844 2* 2* 2* 2* 2* 2* 5 euglena gracilis ehrenberg, 1830 1* 1* 1* 6 euglena viridis ehrenberg, 1834 1* 1* 7 gomphonema parvulum (kützing) kützing, 1844 1* 8 melosira varians (ehrenberg) kütz., 1844 9 navicula cryptocephala kützing, 1844 1* 1* 1* 1* 1* 1* 10 nitzschia acicularis (kützing) w.smith, 1853 1* 1* 11 nitzschia palea (kützing) w.smith, 1853 5* 5* 5* 12 oscillatoria chlorina (c. agardh ex gomont) gomont, 1892 1* 13 oscillatoria limosa c.agardh ex gomont, 1892 1* 1* 14 oscillatoria princeps vaucher ex gomont, 1892 1* 1* 1* 1* 15 oscillatoria pulrida lemm., 1889 16 oscillatoria tennis lemmermann, 1900 4* 4* 17 pandorina morum (o.f.müller) bory de saint-vincent, 1824 3* 3* 3* 18 scenedesmus quadricauda (turpin) brébisson, 1838 4* 4* 4* 4* 4* 4* 19 stigeoclonium tenue (hildebrandt) kützing, 1843 20 synedra ulna (=ulnaria danica) (ralfs ex ralfs) compère,1983 3* 3* total score 21 21 15 18 22 16 935 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum jaffer et al. diagram (2): algae species recorded at east al-hammer marsh according to palmer (1969); (a) during winter, (b) during summer. 936 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 929-942. assessment of organic pollution plate (1): algal taxa were recorded at east al-hammer marsh according to palmer index. [a-ankistrodesmus, b-chlamydomonas, cchlorella, dpandorina, e scenedesmus, f-phormidium, g-oscillatoria, heuglena, ilepocinclis, j phacus, kcyclotella, l-gomphonema, mnavicula, n-nitzschia, o synedra. [scale bar 10µm]. conclusions the al-hammar marsh is typically affected by organic pollution, with pollution levels differing somewhat between winter and summer and between stations, according to a study that used phytoplankton as bioindicators, specifically palmer's index. the high level of organic contamination in the majority of studied sites is confirmed by the presence of pollution-tolerant taxa such as oscillatoria, euglena, navicula, and nitzschia. these results highlight the marsh's susceptibility to organic contaminants, which are probably caused by human activities like grazing and fishing. in this wetland ecosystem, the palmer index was a useful tool for identifying organic pollutants and evaluating the quality of the water. the palmer index is favored for evaluating algal contamination at the genus level because algae can be identified more quickly and easily at the genus level than at the species level. this makes it more useful and efficient for use in routine water quality monitoring and to recommend that water quality be checked using biological markers, such as phytoplankton diversity. in addition to algae, other bioindicators, such as fish and macroinvertebrates, should be included for a more comprehensive assessment of ecological health. limiting the quantity 937 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum jaffer et al. of domestic and agricultural waste discharged into wetlands, and regulating human activities such as fishing, buffalo grazing, and fodder cutting in their vicinity especially during the winter months when pollution levels are higher. educate residents and stakeholders on the impact of organic pollutants on maintaining water quality. acknowledgements we are grateful to the department of environmental sciences at the college of science, university of basrah, for assisting us in completing this study. conflict of interest statement "there isn't any conflict of interest for the researchers." litereature cited algaebase. 2025. world-wide electronic publication. national university of ireland, galway. 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(eds.) 2003. freshwater algae of north america, ecology and classification. academic press, san diego, california, 918pp. [click here] xia, l., zhu, y. and zhao, z. 2020. understanding the ecological response of planktonic and benthic epipelic algae to environmental factors in an urban river system. water, 12(5): 1311. [crossref] yang, x. d., dong, x. h., gao, g., pan, h. x. and wu, j. l. 2005. relationship between surface sediment diatoms and summer water quality in shallow lakes of the middle and lower reaches of the yangtze river. journal of integrative plant biology, 47(2): 153164. [crossref] chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https:/botanyjournals.com/assets/archives/2022/vol7issue6/7-5-33-114.pdf https://www.sciencedirect.com/book/edited-volume/9780123858764/freshwater-algae-of-north-america https://doi.org/10.3390/w12051311 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-7909.2005.00035.x 941 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum jaffer et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2025) 18 (4): 929-942. مؤشر البصرة، العراق باستخدامتقييم التلوث العضوي في هور شرق الحمار بمحافظة للطحالب باملر السادة الكنعاني سهاد عبد فاضل عباس و ل، عادابتهال موس ى جعفر العراق البصرة، جامعة البصرة، -العلوم كلية ،البيئةقسم علوم 20/12/2025، النشر: 3/11/2025 القبول ،1/11/2025املراجعة: ،14/5/2025االستالم: الخالصة هدفت الدراسة الحالية إلى تقييم جودة املياه في هور شرق الحمار في البصرة، العراق، من خالل عينات جمع تم للطحالب. باملر مؤشر وتطبيق بيولوجي كمؤشر النباتية الهائمات استخدام ثالث محطات ) النباتية من و في s2 حرير، في s1الهائمات في هور شرق في s3 الصالل البركة( بين عامي الثاني 2020 2019الحمار . وتم أخذ العينات خالل أشهر الشتاء )كانون االول، كانون و تموز، )حزيران، الصيف وأشهر انواع )بآ وشباط( و اجناس بعض على باملر مؤشر يعتمد الطحالب. في أشهر الشتاء s3 و s2 و s1 في املحطات كانت الدرجات العامة ملؤشر تلوث اجناس الطحالب التوالي. على 22و 15و 21في الصيف كانت الدرجات لنفس املحطات وعلى التوالي، 30و 28و 35 الصيف ، و في 22و 20و 16بالنسبة ملؤشر تلوث باملر ألنواع الطحالب، كانت الدرجات في الشتاء من 16و 18و 21 اإلجمالية الدرجة فإن للمؤشر، وفًقا التوالي. تلوث 20إلى 15على إلى تشير من وأكثر الى 20عضوي، وتعود التلوث تتحمل التي األجناس مرتفع. عضوي تلوث إلى تشير مثل:الطحالب الخضر املزرقة، oscillatoria vaucher ex gomont,1892 phormidium kützing ex gomont,1892 :والتي تعود الى الطحالب العصوية مثل cyclotella kützing, 1846 gomphonema c.g. ehrenberg,1832 navicula bory de saint-vincent,1822 nitzschia hassall, 1845 942 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 929-942. assessment of organic pollution synedra ehrenberg,1830 : اما التي تعود الى الطحالب الخضراء مثل pandorina bory de saint-vincent, 1824 scenedesmus meyen, 1829 ankistrodesmus corda, 1838 chlamydomonas ehrenberg, 1833 والطحالب اليوغلينية مثل: euglena ehrenberg, 1830 phacus dujardin, 1841 السطحية املياه في التلوث احتمالية لعرض مهمة أداة باملر مؤشر مؤشر كان مع باملقارنة مؤشر باملر لألجناس أكثر فائدة لنفس محطة أخذ العينات، حيث يتفاوت التلوث كما ان األنواع، املياه. امل في شكل على طول مجاري ً أو جغرافيا الصيف إلى الشتاء من الزمن مر على ً قليال ؤشر أخذ محطات معظم في الحّمار هور في السطح مياه على العضوي التلوث يؤثر عام، وبشكل .العينات bull 701 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2025) 18 (3): 701-719. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2025.18.3.0701 original article identification of some edible mushrooms from salah aldin province, iraq lubna m. alzurgany* and marthad aiham alazzawi** *iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq. ** department of biotechnology, college of science, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq. corresponding author: lubna.m@nhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq received: 21 nov. 2024, revised: 24 may 2025, accepted: 26 may 2025, published:20 june 2025 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract a survey and identification were made of edible mushrooms from salah al din province, central of iraq, were conducted. the species were identified according to macroscopic characteristics, such as the size, shape, color, and surface texture of the cap; the color of the gills and their attachment to the stipe, if any, the number of pores per millimeter; and the color, size , and surface texture of the stipe. other features noted included the presence or absence of the annulus and volva; microscopic characteristics were also examined, including the size of the basidium and the number of its spores; the color, size, and shape of the spores; the size, shape, and type of cystidia, and whether cystidia were present or absent. nine basidiomycetous macrofungal species belonging to seven families were identified as agaricaceae, bolbitiaceae coprinaceae, hymenochaetaceae, lyophyllaceae, psathyrellaceae, polyporaceae, and they were within three orders agaricales, polyporales, hymenochatales, including: coprinellus disseminatus (pers.) j.e.lange, 1938; ganoderma lucidum (curtis) p. karst, 1881; trametes versicolor (l.) lloyd, 1921; leucocoprinus birnbaumii (corda) singer, 1962; hypsizygus tessulatus (bull.)singer, 1947 ; coprinellus micaceus (bull.) vilgalys, hopple & jacq.johnson, 2001; coprinopsis atramentaria (bull.) redhead, vilgalys & moncalvo, 2001; phellinus igniarius (l.) quél, 1886; and panaeolina castaneifolia (murrill) bon, 1979. keywords: basidiomycota, edible mushrooms, fungi, macrofungal, macroscopic characters. introduction out of the estimated 140,000 mushroom species on earth, only about 10% are welldocumented (heleno et al., 2015). wild mushrooms have been extensively consumed and included in the typical human diet, due to their high content of dietary fiber such as chitin, hemicellulose, mannans, and β-glucansand essential minerals. while low in calories and fat, mushrooms are considered a healthy food source . they are defined as a source of both nutritional and biochemical properties. because they are composed of 80–90% water and are rich in proteins proteins, fibers, and vitamins including vitamin d2, riboflavin, thiamine, and bulletin of the iraq natural historymuseum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799, print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2025.18.3.0701 https://orcid.org/0009-0001-5551-6624 https://orcid.org/0009-0005-0708-5160 mailto:lubna.m@nhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 702 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 701-719. identification of some edible mushrooms ascorbic acid. meanwhile, they are low in lipids including monounsaturated fatty acids, phospholipids, free fatty acids, triglycerides, and sterols (waktola and temesgen, 2018; waqas et al., 2019). the strong therapeutic qualities of wild mushrooms from their biological aspects, including antibacterial, antioxidant, antiviral, antithrombotic, anti-inflammatory, and anticancer activities, led to the study of numerous biologically active secondary metabolites they produce. (toledo et al., 2016; gebreyohannes et al., 2019). consequently, antibacterial activity against both grampositive and gramnegative bacteria has been demonstrated in extracts from 316 different mushroom species (arenz and wilson, 2016; su et al., 2016; risan et al., 2017; waqas et al., 2019; shafiq and sahib, 2022). apart from the use of wild mushroom fruiting bodies in biological applications, fungal mycelium has been explored as a possible source of new natural medicines to create bioactive molecules with the aid of functional food or medicine (su et al., 2016; mohamed et al., 2018) mushrooms contain all essential amino acids and possess larger amount of polyunsaturated fatty acids compared to saturated ones. the chemical profiles such as a variety of the bioactive substances with antioxidant, hypoglycemic, hypocholesterolemic, anticancer, antibacterial, and anti-inflammatory qualities. these compounds include polysaccharides, ergothioneine (an amino acid), terpenoids, sterols, physiologically active proteins (such as lectins, enzymes), vitamins (thiamine, riboflavin, ascorbic acid, niacin, and tocopherols), and antioxidants (venturella et al., 2021). according to al qaissi (2014), each mushroom was identified using its morphological features and characteristics, including size, color, texture, shape, and the presence or absence of rings on the cap, as well as the size, color, and base shape of the stem. one of the most popular edible mushrooms consumed worldwide, agaricus bisporus has a well-documented positive impact on human health. the mushroom is a common food item for people. it is frequently referred to as champignon, button mushroom or white mushroom. among other physiologically active substances, a. bisporus is abundant in metabolites, complex carbohydrates, proteins, fatty acids, sterols, statins, indole, phenolic compounds, and simple sugars/saccharides. overall, the fresh fruiting bodies of mushrooms contain an average weight of approximately 30% proteins and 35% carbohydrates (muszy´nska et al., 2017; eswari et al., 2019). the main aim of this study was to determine the species of edible mushrooms found in salah al din province. materials and methods sampling: the specimens were collected from salah al din province from different places including grassland, gardens and deserts areas in the period between december and march, after rainfall when the soil was wet, from different areas such as balad, al ishaqi, aziz balad districts, which are located in the north of baghdad in salah al din as shown in table (1). 703 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum alzurqany and alazzawi the fungal specimens were photographed using a sony zv1 camera, in the natural environment and washed with distilled water for cleaning, and then specimens were preserved in clean and sterile containers for identification. microscopic features : included the size of the basidium and its spore number, spore size, color , shape and the presence or absence of cystidia including their type, shape and size and macroscopic featuresincluded the size of cap, color, surface texture, shape , gill colour, gill attachment to the stipe ( if present) number of pores per millimeter, surface texture and colorwere recorded. the diagnosis was made using the following features: gill color and attachment to the stipe (if present), number of pores per millimeter, stipe size, color, and surface texture, as well as the presence or absence of an annulus and volva (schafer, 2010; alkhesraji et al., 2017, chauhan et al., 2017; hussain et al., 2018; darshan et al., 2024). the distribution of the species mentioned in this study was determined according to the method of al-joboury and zurgany (2024) and al-ashbal et al. (2025). table (1): stations with the coordinates in the study areas. no. coordinate of stations stations 1 34°03'01.0"n 44°01'40.3"e ishaqi 2 34°02'51.5"n 44°01'42.8"e ishaqi 3 34°01'50.5"n 44°10'59.9"e aziz balad 4 34°01'58.1"n 44°10'49.1"e aziz balad 5 34°00'25.0"n 44°09'03.7"e balad 6 34°00'29.5"n 44°08'49.1"e balad 704 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 701-719. identification of some edible mushrooms map (1): the sampling locations (balad district, al ishaqi and aziz balad). results and discussion during the survey, nine species of basidiomycetous macrofungi belonging to nine genera and seven families within three orders were identified. these species are: coprinellus disseminatus (pers.) j. e. lange, 1938; ganoderma lucidum (curtis) p. karst, 1881; trametes versicolor (l.) lloyd, 1921; leucocoprinus birnbaumii (corda) singer,1962; hypsizygus tessulatus (bull.)singer, 1947; coprinellus micaceus (bull.) vilgalys, hopple & jacq. johnson, 2001; coprinopsis atramentaria (bull.) redhead, vilgalys & moncalvo, 2001; phellinus igniarius (l.) quél, 1886; panaeolina castaneifolia (murrill) bon, 1979.the first order is agaricales and contains five families (coprinaceae, lyophyllaceae, psathyrellaceae, agaricaceae, bolbitiaceae), and six species coprinellus disseminates (pers.) j.e. lange,1938; hypsizygus tessulatus (bull.) singer, 1947; leucocoprinus birnbaumii (corda) singer, 1962; coprinopsis atramentaria (bull.) redhead, vilgalys & moncalvo, 2001; panaeolina castaneifolia (murrill) bon, 1979; and coprinullus micaceus (bull.) fr., 2001; the second order is polyporales that contains one family, polyporaceae and two species: ganoderma lucidum (curtis) p. karst, 1881 and trametes versicolor (l.) lloyd, 1921. the third order is 705 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum alzurqany and alazzawi hymenochatales, contains one family hymenochaetaceae and one species: phellinus igniarius (l.) quél., 1886 (tab. 2). table (2): the shape and colour of mushrooms. species order family shape of mushroom color of mushroom coprinellus disseminatus (pers.) j.e.lange, 1938 agaricales coprinaceae oval,, bell-shaped, yellow in color, white till fully grown ganoderma lucidum (curtis) p. karst, 1881 polyporales polyporaceae knobby when young, fanor kidney-shaped brown trametes versicolor (l.) lloyd, 1921 polyporales polyporaceae fan -shaped fruiting bodies from vivid blues and greens to white, brown, and gray leucocoprinus birnbaumii (corda) singer,1962 agaricales agaricacea bell shaped or convex and sometimes flattening canary -yellow color hypsizygus tessulatus (bull.)singer, 1947 agaricales lyophyllaceae dense cluster white to buff or tan coprinellus micaceus (bull.) vilgalys, hopple & jacq. johnson, 2001 agaricales psathyrellaceae egg shape or oval tan to golden brown coprinopsis atramentaria (bull.) redhead, vilgalys & moncalvo, 2001 agaricales psathyrellaceae upturned and dissolved the cap edges is curled a whitish to grey or brown phellinus igniarius (l.) quél, 1886 hymenochaetale hymenochaetaceae resupinate to pileate, annual to perennial, single or imbricate yellowish to rusty brown to grey to black panaeolina castaneifolia (murrill) bon, 1979 agaricales bolbitiaceae delicate and slender appearance with relatively small cap light to medium brown the classification of the studied species was adopted according alexopolus (1996), as follows: (a) order: agaricales 1. family: agaricaceae leucocoprinus birnbaumi corda) singer, 1962 706 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 701-719. identification of some edible mushrooms macroscopic characteristics: l. birnbaumii is bright yellow and has a delicate structure. cap bell-shaped when young and flattens with age, measuring 2–5 cm in diameter, with a powdery surface. gillsare free, crowded, and pale yellow; stem slender, hollow, and yellow, a small ring near the top. produce a white spore print (pl. 1). microscopic characteristics: spores are smooth, elliptical to almond-shaped with a visible germ pore and a dextrinoid reaction in melzer’s reagent (w: 4-7 µm l: 6-11 µm). basidia club-shaped and four-spored. cheilocystidia bottle-shaped. clamp connections present in the hyphae. plate (1): leucocoprinus birnbaumii in natural habitat. 2. family : bolbitiaceae panaeolina castaneifolia (murrill) bon, 1979 macroscopic characteristics: cap shape hemispherical to convex and flattens with age. gap length 1–3 cm. color: chestnut-brown to dark brown. surface: smooth and moist when fresh, pale when dry. gills attachment: adnate to slightly free from the stipe. color: gray at first, becoming blackish as spores mature. dark mottling due to uneven spore development is a key trait of panaeolus species. stipe (stem), length: 5 cm. thickness: 2–4 mm. color: whitish to gray. surface: smooth, sometimes with fine longitudinal fibers. hollow interior (pl. 2 b). spore print black. microscopic characteristics: spores are black, smooth, and elliptical (w: 11–14 × l: 6–8 µm); basidia club-shaped with 4-spored often flask-shaped. gills composed of regular, parallel hyphae. 707 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum alzurqany and alazzawi plate (2): panaeolina castaneifolia; (a) in natural habitat, (b) in laboratory. 3. family coprinaceae coprinellus disseminatus (pers.) j. e. lange , 1938 macroscopic characteristics: cap shape: initially conical or ovate, expanding to an umbrellalike shape with maturity. size: ranges from 0.5 to 2 cm in diameter. color: pale to light brown at the center, fading to white at the edges, often with a translucent, silvery sheen when moist. smooth, glabrous texture surface, sometimes appearing moist or sticky (pl. 3). gills attachment: free from the stem. with white to pale gray in colour when young, becoming black as they mature, undergoing "deliquescence" (self-digestion).spore print black. thin, slender stem slightly swollen at the base 3 to 5 cm long, white to off-white, turning darker near the base as it ages. microscopic characteristics: spores shape ellipsoid to oval. size: (w 8-10 x l: 5-6 µm). color: black, with a smooth surface, dose not reactive to iodine stains (non-amyloid). basidia: clavate (club-shaped). four-spored, bearing basidiospores at the tips. cystidia: present on gills, often thin-walled, and may be fusiform (spindle-shaped) or clavate. function: help in spore dispersal and identification, though they are not always abundant. clamp connection absent. coprinellus disseminatus with a small, saprotrophic species commonly found on decaying wood or plant debris. its ability to undergo deliquescence (self-digestion of the cap) (hussain et al., 2018). 708 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 701-719. identification of some edible mushrooms plate (3): coprinellus disseminatus in natural habitat. 4. family : lyophyllaceae hypsizygus tessulatus (bull.)singer, 1947 general characteristics: one of the primary edible saprophytes in temperate climates from the family lyophyllaceae, hypsizygus tessellatus (agaricales), commonly known as the "has a cap that is tesselated oyster mushroom," convex to flat as it matures. it is commonly found and consumed in east asia, japan, china, korea, and north america. it is a popular industrialized food and medicinal mushroom due to its nutritive, medication, and biological properties (chauhan et al ., 2017). often found on poplars or maples, but also on beech, birch, elm, or fir, hypsizygus tessullatus can occasionally be seen alone or in dense clusters of seven or more individuals. it can also be found in smaller groups on dead stumps or logs, or in large groups high in the crotch of dead trees (stamets, 2011). this mushroom is distinguished by its thick flesh, which gives it a comparatively crisp texture, and its clustered, dense texture. macroscopic characteristics: cap length 3 cmin diameter , with a smooth, light brown surface that becomes more scaly or tessellated with age, which is where it gets its name. cap texture velvety when young, but becomes more rugged and wrinkled as it matures. gills white and closely spaced. stipe (stem): white to light yellowish and cylindrical, 6 cm in length. with slight to moderate thickening at the base. smooth slightly fibrous surface. odor: mild, pleasant odor, somewhat like fresh vegetables or oysters. taste: mild and pleasant, often described as slightly sweet (pl. 4). 709 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum alzurqany and alazzawi microscopic characteristics: smooth, ellipsoid spores, measuring w:6–8 × l: 4–5 µm in size , colorless and non-amyloid. clavate (club-shaped) basidia, 4-spored, and measuring approximately 25 µm in length. hyphal system: monomitic hyphal system consisted of septate hyphae with clamp connections often present. thin-walled smooth surface colorless hypha. cystidia: absent or very rare in hypsizygus tessellatus. spore print: white in colour.. plate (4): hypsizygus tessellatus collected from nature in sterile plastic. 5. family: psathyrellaceae (1)coprinopsis atramentaria (bull.) redhead, vilgalys & moncalvo, 2001 general characteristics: this species is a large, meaty species with a thin, connected veil that can be difficult to discern. it has a ring-shaped stem, a whitish to grey or brown cap that can occasionally be horizontally wrinkled but not plicate (pleated). the point where the bottom of the cap meets with stem is indicated by the ring-shaped line around the stem; cap's thin, flat scales located below it, and the area where the gills were in contact with the stem is delicately grooved above (schafer, 2010). from spring to fall, clusters of mushrooms appear after rain, usually in urban and disturbed environments like lawns and empty lots, as well as grassy places (heleno, et al., 2014).the common habitat of the ink cap mushroom coprinopsis atramentaria includes australia, sydney, new zealand, europe, n. america and asia. 710 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 701-719. identification of some edible mushrooms macroscopic characteristics: gray to brown mushroom with a bell-shaped cap which becomes flat and dissolves into black ink as it matures; cap measures about 3–7 cm in diameter and often grooved or wrinkled; gills initially gray, then turn black and liquefy. white, hollow, and slender stem, 5–15 cm, with a slightly swollen base (pl. 5) microscopic characteristics: smooth, elliptical, and dark brown spores, measuring around w:10–14 × l: 6–8 µm. club-shaped basidia and four-spored. cheilocystidia (located on the gill edges) present and variable in shape. clamp connections present in the hyphae. plate (5): coprinopsis atramentaria in natural habitat. (2) coprinellus micaceus (bull.) vilgalys, hopple & jacq.johnson, 2001 microscopic characteristics: reddish-brown spores and measure w: 3-5 × l: 5-7 µm, an oval, almond, or lentiform shape. germ is located in the middle of spores. macroscopic characteristics: grainy, convex or bell-shaped cap, 2.3 cm long, with a brown core, either light brown or yellowish-brown. packed, sandy gills, linked to the stem, turn dark brown or black as they mature. stalk: white, cylindrical, hollow, hollow granular granulate, length 4 cm (pl. 6). 711 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum alzurqany and alazzawi plate (6): coprinellus micaceus in natural habitat. (b) order: hymenochaetales 1.family: hymenochaetaceae phellinus igniarius (l.) quél. 1886 macroscopic characteristics: unlike many other fungi, this species lacks a traditional cap and instead forms a perennial, hoof-shaped fruiting body, measuring approximately 9 cm in width; upper surface dark and cracked upper surface and a yellowish-brown pore layer containing fine, regular pores (6 pores/mm), woody context tissue and rusty brown in color (pl.7). microscopic characteristics: clavate basidia with four-spored. brown spores, smooth, ellipsoid to subglobose, measuring: measuring approximately 5.2–6.8 µm in width × 3.5–4.5 µm in length. dark brown, pointed setae present in the hymenial layer. clamp connections absent. 712 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 701-719. identification of some edible mushrooms plate (7): phellinus igniarius in natural habitat (c): order: polyporales family: polyporacea 1.ganoderma lucidum (curtis) p. karst, 1881 general characters: ganoderma lucidum is one of the most widely used medicinal mushrooms worldwide, it is known by several names, including mannentake, lingzhi, and reishi. the primary asian countries where this mushroom is popular are china, japan, korea, and others. the large, black mushroom has a glossy skin and a texture similar to wood, it was found in earlier research that this species of mushroom could treat a wide range of illnesses (pattanayak and biswal, 2020). the main habitat for this fungus is on various dead deciduous plants, ganoderma lucidum is a red mushroom cultivated exclusively for its therapeutic properties. the agriculture and food organization (fao) has reported on a global survey of wild edible and medicinal mushrooms (el-wakil and al-gifri, 2020). macroscopic characteristics: reniform to semicircular, varnished cap ranging from 5 to 30 cm in diameter and 1 to 3 cm in thickness; smooth, shiny cap surface and exhibits concentric zones of reddish-brown to dark brown coloration; pore surface, located on the underside of 713 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum alzurqany and alazzawi the cap, is initially white, becoming yellowish to brownish with age, laterally with 4–6 pores per millimeter. stipe tough, woody, and share with cap in the varnished appearance (pl. 8) . microscopic characteristics: brown, double-walled, ellipsoid to almond-shaped basidiospores measuring approximately (w: 9–12 ×l: 6–8 µm), with the inner wall bearing fine echinulate ornamentations. clavate basidia measure (w:20–30 × l:6–10 µm), and typically with fourspored. the species exhibits a trimitic hyphal system, comprising generative hyphae (thinwalled, with clamp connections), skeletal hyphae (thick-walled and unbranched), and binding hyphae (highly branched and thick-walled), contributing to the fruiting body's tough and durable texture. cystidia rare or absent. plate(8): ganoderma lucidium; (a) in natural habitat, (b) in laboratory 2. trametes versicolor (l.) lloyd, 1921 general characteristics: the polypore mushroom trametes versicolor (l.) lloyd is found all over the world. turkey’s tail. it is also known as coriolus versicolor, and is an edible fungus with significant medicinal applications. this macrofungus belongs to the genus trametes, phylum basdiomycota, and class agaricomycetes. it's frequently found in temperate regions of north america, asia, and europe and has a long history of use in traditional medicine (lowenthal et al., 2023).trametes versicolor is identified by variations in color , form , size and growth patterns. while the fruiting bodies of many species are fan-shaped and vary in color from bright blues and greens to white, brown, and gray, some may have more complex and unique shapes on the underside. for example, some species of trametes have pores; while others have a smooth or serrated surface. each mushroom develops a range of patterns as it grows from a primary attachment point. this species is identified by variations in size, form, color, and growth patterns (darshan et al ., 2024). macroscopic characters: thin, flexible, fan-shaped to semicircular fruiting bodies often grow in overlapping clusters. cap measures 2–8 cm across and 0.5–1 cm thick, displaying a velvety surface with conspicuous, multicolored concentric zones ranging from brown, tan, and gray to white, orange. thin, wavy, margin, lighter in color, the pore surface located on the underside, b 714 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 701-719. identification of some edible mushrooms white to pale yellow, bearing small, round to angular pores at a density of 3–8 pores per millimeter, sessile fruiting bodies and attach directly to the substrate without a stipe. mild odor, with a taste that’s mild to slightly bitter (pl.9). microscopice characters cylindrical to ellipsoid smooth, thin-walled, hyaline spores measuring approximately (w: 4.5–7 ×l: 1.5–2.5 µm). clavate four-spored basidia, about (w:15–20 × l:4–5 µm) in size,. cystidia absent or rare, although cystidioles may be present. trimitic hyphal system, composed of generative hyphae (thin-walled, septate with clamp connections), skeletal hyphae (thick-walled, unbranched), and binding hyphae (thick-walled and highly branched), contributing to the fungus's tough, resilient structure. plate (9): trametes versicolor; (a) in natural habitat, (b) in laboratory. conclusions this study successfully identified nine genera of edible fungi from salah al-din governorate, iraq, which are classified into seven families and three orders. these results confirm the region’s rich fungal biodiversity and provide a valuable addition to the limited mycological data available for iraq. the applied methodology proved effective and may serve as a reliable model for future mycological research in similar ecological zones. the researchers conclude that salah al-din is a promising area for further exploration of wild mushrooms, both for scientific study and economic purposes. the study also highlights the need for more comprehensive surveys using both morphological and molecular approaches to deepen our understanding of local fungal biodiversity. it is recommended that future research focuses on the biochemical and medicinal properties of the identified species, especially their potential use as natural antioxidants or antimicrobial agents. additionally, efforts should be made to raise awareness regarding the safe consumption and sustainable use of wild edible fungi among local communities. conflict of interest statement “there isn't any conflict of interest for the authors”. b a a 715 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum alzurqany and alazzawi literature cited al-ashbal, h . n ., al-joboury, k . r . and jalil , s. j. 2025. insects infestation for plants of fabaceae in different areas in iraq. iop conference series: earth and environmental science, 1449(1): 012057. 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[crossref] waktola, g . and temesgen, t . 2018. application of mushroom as food and medicine, advances in biotechnology and microbiology, 11(3): 1-4 . [crossref] waqas, h . m ., akbar, m . and iqbal, m . s . 2019 . antibacterial and antioxidant activities of agaricus bisporus (j.e. lange) imbach from pakistan. bangladesh journal of botany, 48(4): 1075-1081. [crossref] zhang, y., liang, j., tadele, l . r., xiang, c., mannweiler, s., chen, y. and zhang, y. 2024. generation of honeysuckle-like flavor from hop (humulus lupulus l.) fermented with coprinellus micaceus. innovative food science and emerging technologies, 97:103815. [crossref] https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms22020634 http://dx.doi.org/10.19080/aibm.2018.11.555817 https://doi.org/10.3329/bjb.v48i4.49055 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ifset.2024.103815 719 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum alzurqany and alazzawi bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2025) 18 (3): 701-719. العراق الدين، الح محافظة من للكل القابلة العراهين تشخيصبعضأنواع صبري** ايهم مرثد * حميد مجيد لبنى العراق. بغداد, بغداد, جامعة الطبيعي, التاريخ ومتحف بحوث *مركز العراق. بغداد, بغداد, ,جامعة العلوم كلية الحيائية, التقنيات قسم ** 2025/6/20 النشر: ،2025/5/26 القبول: ،2025/5/24 2024/11/21،الراجعة: استالم: اخخلاة الدين/العراق صلح محافظة من جمعت والتي للكل القابلة العراهين انواع بعض شخصت واللون والشكل القبعة حجم تضمنت التي فطر لكل الخارجية الظهرية الصفات أساس على وحجم الثقوب وعدد وجد ان بالساق ارتباطها ومدى الخياشيم ولون للقبعة السطح وقوام حجم شملت التي الجهرية الصفات على علوة واللفافة الحلقة وجود عدم او ووجود الساق حجمها مع السستيديا وجود عدم او ووجود ولونها وشكلها وحجمها السبورات وعدد البازيديوم رتبضمت ثلث الى تنتمي البازيدية الفطريات من أنواع تسعة هناك ان وجد وقد ونوعها وشكلها عائلت: سبع و hymenochatales و polyporales ,agaricales من كل agaricaceae, bolbitiaceae coprinaceae, hymenochaetacea, lyophyllaceae, psathyrellaceae, polyporaceae انواع: تسع و coprinellus disseminatus (pers.) j.e.lange, 1938; ganoderma lucidum (curtis) p. karst, 1881;trametes versicolor (l.) lloyd,1921; leucocoprinus birnbaumii (corda) singer, 1962 hypsizygus tessulatus (bull.)singer, 1947; coprinellus micaceus (bull.) vilgalys, hopple & jacq.johnson, 2001; coprinopsis atramentaria (bull.) redhead, vilgalys & moncalvo, 2001; phellinus igniarius (l.) quél, 1886; panaeolina castaneifolia (murrill) bon, 1979. a survey and identification were made of edibl bull 209 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum kamal et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2024) 18 (1): 209-223. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2024.18.1.0209 original article morphological and molecular study of three species of acrobeloides (cobb, 1924) thorne, 1937 (rhabditida, cephalobidae) as new records in iraq ruia safwan kamal*, hayder badri ali* and jawad b. al-zaidawi** *department of biology, college of science, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq. **ministry of science and technology, directorate of agricultural research, baghdad, iraq. corresponding author: hayder.badri@sc.uobaghdad.edu.iq received: 3 january 2024, revised: 1 march 2024, accepted: 19 march 2024, published:20 june 2024 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract three species of nematodes within acrobeloides (cobb, 1924); thorne, 1937 (rhabditida, cephalobidae) were collected and recorded for the first time in iraq, based on morphometric and molecular data, these species, a. saeedi siddiqi, ley & khan, 1992, a. apiculatus (thorne, 1925), and a. bodenheimeri (steiner, 1936), were molecularly characterized using the partial 28s rrna gene sequences. the phylogenetic tree has been constructed to separate acrobeloides species from closely related species. keywords: acrobeloides, molecular, morphometrics, nematodes, new record. introduction despite having a vast variety of habitats and about 354 genera, the family cephalobidae filipjev (1934) is challenging to recognize and taxonomically describe based solely on morphological characteristics (de ley and blaxter, 2004). the morphology of the lip and stoma can be used to distinguish between different genera and species of cephalobidae (carta et al., 2022). cephalobidae includes acrobeloides (cobb, 1924), which was raised to the rank of genus by thorne (1937). these nematodes feed on bacteria and are found in almost all sand dunes across all land-dwelling environments, excluding steamy rainforests, agricultural land, deserts, and the barren soils of antarctica (timm, 1971; waceke et al., 2005; nadler et al., 2006; rana et al., 2020; bhat et al., 2021; loulou et al., 2022). sequence analysis suggests that the 26 valid species of acrobeloides and the 5 species with uncertain taxonomic status represent at least two phylogenetically distinct groups that interact with species of cephalobus and chiloplacus, among other organisms (smythe and nadler, 2006; nadler et al., 2006; holovachov et al., 2009). acrobeloides and other taxa can be difficult to distinguish morphologically from one another at times because of highly confusing patterns of intraand interspecific variability (janssen et al., 2017). cobb (1924) made the first mention of the acrobeloides taxonomy. bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799, print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2024.18.1.0209 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4842-151x mailto:hayder.badri@sc.uobaghdad.edu.iq https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 210 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (1): 209-223. morphological and molecular study some acrobeloides species have been shown to exhibit insect association behavior when soil nematodes are isolated using the galleria soil baiting method described by bedding and akhurst (1975), and azizoglu et al. (2016). grewal et al. (2003) have noted that in addition to their association with insects, there has been an infestation of some annelids, arthropods, and molluscs. while previously identified by saeed et al. (1988) as cephalobus litoralis (akhtar, 1962). bhat et al. (2021) and rana et al. (2021) confirmed that a. saeedi was discovered by siddiqi et al. (1992) in pakistan. nematodes that feed on soil-dwelling bacteria and fungus, parasitize plants and insects, and even eat other nematodes are among the species in this category that have been researched in great detail. the cephalobidae are the most prevalent among them in fields of agriculture. understanding and communicating each organism's ecological importance requires accurate species-level identification (andrássy, 1967). according to previous observations (bedding and akhurst, 1975; azizoʟglu et al., 2016; rana et al., 2021), numerous acrobeloides species have been found to exhibit the insect association nature when they are isolated from soil samples employing the larvae of galleria. for example, earthworm cocoons are infested by acrobeloides nanus anderson, 1968, (kraglund and ekelund, 2002). it has been earlier reported that they are complicated in the soil nitrogen cycle and soil mineralization. anderson et al. (1981) and hao et al. (2010) report that during these activities, they engage with a range of arthropods and invertebrate species, some of which can be phoretic and necronemic. a. saeedi and other morphologically similar species, like a. bodenheimeri, were to be included in the new genus rafiqius, which khan and hussain (1991) proposed (steiner, 1936; thorne, 1937). based on the morphology of the lip area and the presence of seta-like structures at the labial primary axils, this recently proposed genus was distinguished from acrobeloides. nevertheless, de ley et al. (1999) felt that the genus's creation was not warranted. there is a description of two indian cultures of a. saeedi. this specimen is consistent both morphologically and morphometrically with a. bodenheimeri, a. longiuterus, and a. maximus, as well as other species in the maximus-group, particularly a. longiuterus. but according to bharti et al. (2020), the indian material can be more clearly distinguished from each of these species by molecular analyses using its, 28 s, and 18 s rdna. to the best of our knowledge, no research has documented the morphological and molecular characteristics of the genus acrobeloides in iraq, thus, the aim of the current investigation was to use molecular, morphometric, and morphological data to culture and recognize nematode species that were taken from bitter gourd fields. the 28s ribosomal genebased phylogenetic analysis was used to estimate their evolutionary relationship. the molecular and morphological database of acrobeloides species. materials and methods isolation, cultivation, and processing of nematodes: between january 2022 and april 2023, soil samples were gathered from several locations in the middle of iraq (map 1, pl. 1); sampling was done according to orozco (2014), and their nematode content was examined (tab. 1). it is advisable to allocate a minimum of 2 4 m2 for every sampling site. at least five arbitrary soil samples should be taken in this area, with samples being taken at a 211 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum kamal et al. minimum depth of 15 cm. using galleria mellonella larvae in their last instar as bait, nematode specimens were extracted from five soil samples. the cadavers and afflicted larvae were subsequently moved to a white trap (white, 1927), following a thorough cleaning with distilled water and sterilization, with 1% naoh. after being extracted from cadavers in a white trap, the nematodes were kept in 250 ml tissue culture flasks in an incubator at 8-10°c as described by bhat et al. (2019). map (1): sampling areas. plate (1): soils sampling. 212 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (1): 209-223. morphological and molecular study galleria mellonella (linnaeus, 1758) larvae were inoculated with third-stage juveniles (≥100) for morphometric measurements and observations. after the deceased larvae were moved to a white trap, the adult stage (4-5 days) and third stage juveniles (7-8 days) were removed from the trap. after being killed with hot water, the specimens were placed in taf (a solution of 2 % triethanolamine with 7 % formaldehyde) to be fixed. the fixed nematodes were mounted in pure glycerine on permanent glass slides after being processed to dehydrate glycerine according to seinhorst's 1959 instructions (siddiqi, 1964).the following details were recorded for each soil sample obtained: the location of the gps coordinates, sample collection, the number of samples collected, the name of the strain, the insect host of the several nematode strains isolated, and the nematode species identified. table (1): geographical location of nematode sampling sites. characteristics of morphology: nematodes were studied either alive or cooked to 60°c in ringer's solution for morphological examinations. every nematode employed in this investigation was raised as g. mellonella larvae in the final stage. a temperature-controlled (25±3◦c) petri-dish containing two moist filter sheets was used to expose ten g. mellonella larvae to roughly 1000 ij. to separate the mature females of the first and second generations, the infected larvae were dissected in ringer's solution 4 and 7 days after infection, respectively. following heat-killing, the nematodes were preserved in triethanolamine formalin (taf) fixative before being processed using a gradual evaporation method with anhydrous glycerin for mounting (poinar, 1976; kaya and stock, 1997). a drawing tube and differential interference components were added to an olympus bx41 microscope for use in sampling site gps coordinates number of soil sample nematodes species isolated accession number of design strain name insect host wasit, al suwaira 32°56′25″n 044°38′04″e 10 acrobeloides saeedi or272345 galleria mellonella baghdad, alzafaraniya 33° 15' 2" n 44° 28' 58" e 10 acrobeloides apiculatus or363452 g. mellonella salahuddin / samarra 34°11'32.4" n 43°52'16.1" e 10 acrobeloides bodenheimeri or363692 g. mellonella wasit, alhafriya 32°58'59" n 44°49'60" e 10 none wasit, badra 33°06'60.0" n 45°56'59.99" e 10 none baghdad, alyusufiyah 33° 3' 29" n, 44° 22' 11" e 10 none baghdad, al-mansour 33.3114° n, 44.3497° e 10 none 213 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum kamal et al. morphometric and morphology research. the nematode specimens were photographed using a canon camera (japan) with magnifications of 10x and 40x. male and female measurements were made for the following characters: overall body length, maximum body diameter, anal body diameter, excretory pore position, and distance between the anterior end and position of the nerve ring, pharynx position, tail length, and vulva positions. ratios a, b, c, d, and e (tab. 2), a represent (total body length divided by maximum body diam.); b represents (all body length divided by space from the anterior end to the base of the pharynx); c represents (the entire body length divided by tail length); d represents (the excretory pore position divided by distance from the anterior end to the base of the throat), and e represents (excretory pore position divided by tail length). using the taxonomic standards recommended by stock and kaya (1996), morphological identification was completed. additionally, scanning electron microscopy was used to analyze the morphological characteristics of female representative isolates of each species group. specimens were handled in accordance with nguyen and smart's (1995) methods for this purpose. characterization via morphology and morphometry: an optical microscope fitted with a micrometric eyepiece was used for morphological and morphometric identification. the ijs were taken from the white trap (pl. 2), and the nematodes were handled by nguyen and smart (1996). wax worm larvae were dissected. plate (2): white trap. nematode molecular characterization: using a genomic dna isolation kit from geneiad biotek and according to the manufacturer's instructions, dna was extracted from the four isolated worms. pcr was utilized to amplify distinct sections of the rrna genes and mtco1 using isolated genomic dna. its regions. polymerase chain reaction is used for dna amplification: pcr using primer forward (f2), the isolated dna was utilized as a template for pcr amplification of a fragment 214 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (1): 209-223. morphological and molecular study containing the d2 and d3 regions of the 28s rr a gene. reverse rdna 5'cgatagcgaacaagtaccgagag-3 (r2) 5-(900 bp amplification size) cctgctcaggcatagttcaccatc-3 28s rdna (joyce et al., 1994). pcr cycling conditions used were: a heated lid techne phc-3 thermocycler was used to do amplifications. in the thermocycler, the samples were put in and heated to 95 °c. they were then incubated for 2 minutes at 94 °c, then for 40 cycles at 94 °c for 30 seconds, 50 °c for 1 minute, and 72 °c for 1.5 minutes. to make sure all of the final amplification products were full length, a last step of 5 min at 72 °c was added (yadav et al., 2022). the total amount of the 40 μl pcr reaction consisted of 20 μl of the 2xtaq pcr master mix that was ready to use, 1 μl of each forward and reverse primer (10 pml), 10 μl of genomic dna (10–20 μg/μl), and 8 μl of sterilized water. electrophoresis was used to separate the pcr products in a 1% tae (tris-acetic acidedta) buffered agarose gel, stained with gelred nucleic acid gel dye (biotium), for 45 minutes at 100 v. the macrogene firm received the pcr products for sanger sequencing. sequences were cut and curated by hand. every sequence was uploaded to the ncbi databank (national center for biotechnology information). the phylogenetic trees provide accession numbers. abbreviations: the following terms are shortened in the tables or text: l is the body length, abd is the anal or cloacal body diameter, ep is the excretory pore position, es is the pharynx length, gs is the gul/spl, gul is the gubernaculum length, mbd is the maximum body diameter, nr is the nerve ring position, and the ratios are a = l/mbd, b = l/es, c = l/t, d% is the ep/es ×100, e% is the ep/tl × 100, spl is the spicule length (measured along the curved median line), sw is spl/abd, t is the tail length, and ratio v indicates the distance from head end to vulva/ l x 100. results and discussion three species of the genus acrobeloides were found in soil samples taken from several locations in the center of iraq. isolates exhibit the physical traits of the genus acrobeloides, as reported by thorne (1937) and steiner (1936), according to microscopic investigations. an explanation of the three new records from iraq (a. saeedi, a. apiculatus, and a. bodenheimeri) is given. measurements: (tab. 2). the ventral length of the female is slightly bent. the cuticle annulated; the inner labial papillae are six and four outer cephalic papillae and are present in the lip’s region, which is continuous with the body's contour. in a. saeedi, the body length varied from1050 to 1448 μm, the maximum body width was 75 to 112, and the tail length was 48 to 62 μm, a value of 13.7, b value of 6.7, and c value of 22.2. while in acrobeloides bodenheimeri, the body length was from 635 to 775 μm, the maximum body width was 30 to 40 μm, and the tail length was 35 to 44 μm. a value of 19.8, b value of 5.1, and c value of 17.7, on the other hand, in acrobeloides apiculatus the body length ranged from 445 to 655 215 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum kamal et al. μm, the maximum body width was 12 to 16.6μm, and the tail length was 41 to 51 μm, a value of 36.5, b value of 3.7, and c value of 11.1 (pls. 3, 4, 5). sequencing of 28s and phylogenetic tree: selected specimens were subjected to dna analysis to verify the morphological identification of the isolated nematodes. a large subunit ribosomal rna gene (28s) partial sequence of acrobeloides isolates sequenced revealed 902 bp of unique dna fragments. the sequences were then matched to rdna sequences found in genbank using the blast search algorithm. the results of the phylogenetic analysis revealed that 98% of the sequences had similarity with a bootstrap phylogenetic tree based on 28s sequences from local acrobeloides isolates constructed with morphological structure supported 28s gene identification and was constructed using the neighbor joining (nj) method. table (2): morphometric data for female of acrobeloides spp. included in this study and isolated from galleria culture. [all measurements are in μm (except ratio, and percentage) and in the form: mean ± sd (range)]. characters a. apiculatus a. bodenheimeri a. saeedi body length 502.77 ±72.49 (445-655) 690.13±54.79 (635-775) 1.189.37±140.16 (1055-1448) mid body diameter 13.76 ± 1.47 (12-16.6) 34.9± 4.14 (30-44) 86.46 ±12.48 (75-112) ep 91.28 ±10.56 (83-115) 134.29±13.43 (118-151) 144.27 ±17.04 (125.6-171) es 133.27 ±10.56 (122-155) 133.53± 3.99 (128-140) 170.42 ±10.38 (155.5-185) nr 88.87 ±7.28 (82-104) 113.58±6.66 (107-126) 112.07 ±8.12(105128) t 44.89 ±3.48 (41-51) 39.75± 3.14 (35-44) 53.50 ±4.62 (48.2-62) abd 11.24 ±1.17 (10.5-13.5) 19.49±1.29 (18-22) 27.97±4.24 (22.8-34.0) a =l/mbd 36.50 ±1.61 (34.92-39.46) 19.86± 1.06 (17.61-21.17) 13.78 ±0.38 (13.45-14.28) v= vulva distance/l * 100 37.58 ±2.10 (33.47-39.69) 76.44±5.54 (68.68-83.44) 76.01 ±2.37 (72.77-78.96) b = l/es 3.76 ±0.26 (3.54-4.23) 5.16± 0.27 (4.91-5.54) 6.97±0.48 (6.39-7.83) c= l/t 11.17 ±0.72 (10.70-12.84) 17.37± 0.51 (16.20-18.14) 22.20 ±0.96 (20.61-23.85) d=ep/es *100 68.45 ±3.19 (65.58-74.19) 100.39± 7.25 (92.19-109.16) 84.48 ±5.56 (76.60-92.43) e%= ep/t * 100 203.18 ±8.78 (195.83-225.49) 337.39± 9.57 (320.53-352.25) 269.11 ±11.08 (249.02-283.45) vulva distance 187.98 ±25.66 (176-260) 528.8±67.96 (445-631) 902.17 ±81.73 (833-1045) the tree (diag. 1) shows a strong relationship among acrobeloides saeedi and a. apiculatus isolates collected from different regions in iraq more than a. bodenheimeri and clustered together with high similarity with a. saeedi from india ( mn101167.1, 216 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (1): 209-223. morphological and molecular study mk935147.1), while a. bodenheimeri clustered together with a. bodenheimeri isolates from the usa (af147065.1 and dq145625.1). thakar et al. (2022) showed the same result with the participation of species a. apiculatus and a. bodenheimeri within the same clade. this result was achieved by the 18s small subunit rrna gene partial sequence. according to phylogenetic analyses based on 18s rdna sequences published by rana et al. (2020), isolates of a. saeedi and other unidentified acrobeloides species from iran formed a group that was clearly monophyly. these isolates were likely conspecific isolates within a clade that had 100% support, and they joined forces to form a sister clade with other species of the "maximus" group that were from different geographical regions, including a. maximus and a. bodenheimeri. a comparative phylogenetic framework of the morphological characteristics of acrobeloides was presented by smythe and nadler (2006); however, during their investigation, they were unable to identify a common ancestor (smythe et al., 2006). by using ribosomal small subunit sequence alignment, visually comparable specimens of a. saeedi and a. maximus were shown to be conspecific in another molecular characterization of a. saeedi (rana et al., 2020). phylogenetic analysis can be particularly useful in identifying conspecific or closely related worm species, based on these findings (thakar et al., 2022). diagram (1): phylogenetic tree of acrobeloides species collected from different localities of iraq based on partial 28s rrna gene sequences and other genera and species from genbank. 217 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum kamal et al. plate (3): acrobeloides saeedi; (a) anterior end of female, (b) entire female, (c) female posterior end, (d) vulva of female. plate (4): a. bodenheimeri; (a) anterior end of female, (b) entire female, (c) female posterior end, (d) vulva of female. 218 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (1): 209-223. morphological and molecular study plate (5): a. apiculatus; (a) anterior end of female, (b) entire female, (c) female posterior end, (d) vulva of female. conclusions in the present article, three nematode species from the genus acrobeloides (cobb, 1924); thorne, (1937) are described for the first time in iraqi fauna. this study characterizes the first molecular study of these species in iraq. the phylogenetic relationship is determined by the sequence of the partial 28s rdna gene, and a phylogenetic tree was also constructed. the analysis resulted in recording of the species a. saeedi, a. apiculatus, and a. bodenheimeri for the first time in iraq. conflict of interest statement we would like to point out that the practical research procedures were carried out by the first and second researchers, while the third researcher analyzed the genetic tree and registered it in genbank. the results of this study are part of the requirements of the ph. d. in zoology, department of biology, college of science-university of baghdad for the first author. literature cited anderson, r. v. 1968. variation in taxonomic characters of a species of acrobeloides (cobb, 1924) steiner and buhrer, 1933. canadian journal of zoology, 46: 309-20. 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(nematoda: cephalobidae) from the mojave desert, california. journal of nematode morphology and systematics, 8 (1): 57-67. [click here] white, g. f. 1927. a method for obtaining infective nematode larvae from cultures. science, 66: 302-303. yadav, k., bhat, a., abolafia, j., machado, r., wani, s. m. and kumar, a. 2022. redescription and molecular characterisation of panagrolaimus labiatus (kreis, 1929) andrássy, 1960 (rhabditida, panagrolaimidae) from india and proposal of p. burdwanensis chaturvedi & khera, 1979 as a junior synonym of p. labiatus. nematology, 24: 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1080/10635150601089001 https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-1932532/v1 https://revistaselectronicas.ujaen.es/index.php/jnms/article/view/90 https://revistaselectronicas.ujaen.es/index.php/jnms/article/view/90 223 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum kamal et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2024) 18 (1): 209-223. دراسة مظهرية و جزيئية لثالث انواع من جنس acrobeloides (cobb, 1924) thorne, 1937 (rhabditida, cephalobidae) في العراق كتسجيالت الول مرة الزيداوي ** بلبلجواد حيدر بدري علي * و, *رؤيا صفوان كمال داد, العراق.كلية العلوم, جامعة بغداد, بغ-الحياة علوم * قسم .وزارة العلوم والتكنولوجيا, مديرية البحوث الزراعية** 20/6/2024، النشر: 19/3/2024القبول: ، 1/3/2024املراجعة: ، 3/1/2024االستالم: الخالصة acrobeloides (cobb, 1924)ثالثة أنواع من الديدان الخيطية الجنسُعِزلْت thorne, 1937 (rhabditida, cephalobidae) ألول مرة في العراق. استناًدا إلى ُسجلْت و التالية: األنواع وِصَفْت البيانات املورفومترية والجزيئية, a. saeedi siddiqi, ley & khan, 1992 a. apiculatus (thorne, 1925) a. bodenheimeri (steiner, 1936) نِشأْت والجزئي. s 28باستخدام تسلسل جينات الرنا الرايبوس ي جزيئًيا ُ شجرة النشوء أ .املسجلة عن األنواع ذات الصلة الوثيقة بها acrobeloides جنس لفصل أنواع bull 611 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2025) 18 (3): 611-631. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2025.18.3.0611 original article taxonomic study on paeonia l.,1753 (paeoniaceae) from iraq zeravan abdulkhaliq sadeeq al-doskey * department of forestry, college of agricultural engineering sciences, university of duhok, kurdistan region, iraq. e-mail: zeravan.a.sadeeq@uod.ac received: 16 jan. 2025, revised: 13 april 2025, accepted: 21 april 2025, published:20 june 2025 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract the primary aim of this investigation is to update the taxonomy of the genus paeonia l.,1753 (paeoniaceae) in iraq based on morphological characteristics, anatomical features, ecological notes, and geographic distribution using, geographic information systems (gis). the results showed that the genus in iraq contains only one subspecies, p. mascula subsp. mascula (l.) mill.,1768 a perennial herbs less than 80 cm tall with ascending, cylindrical, glabrous stems, showy flowers, and underground carrot-shaped tuber roots. anatomical analysis reveals anomocytic stomata with an elliptical or rectangular apparatus, a hypostomatic leaf, a stomatal index of 26.2%, and a stomatal density of 51 per mm2. a crosssection of the leaf blade and midrib shows a bifacial leaf, and the internal leaf blade has a single, sizable, crescent-shaped vascular bundle. the cross-sections of the stem are circular, with many regular vascular bundles, and lack unicellular trichomes. anticlinal wall patterns are strong and wavy, and the leaf epidermal cell shapes are irregular. paeonies in iraq inhabit only high-elevation highlands, thriving in rocky, limestone humus soils on the northern slopes of mountains within open oak forests. geographic distribution and gis analysis show the paeony plants grow are found only in two mountainous districts (amadiya and rowandouz). for the first time, this investigation in has iraq documented six more places within the first district and two locations in the latter district. this investigation may lead to a taxonomic key for the wild paeony plants and provide a new perspective on iraqi peony flora. keywords: amadiya district, gis paeonia, gul bizen, paeonia anatomy, wild peony. introduction paeonia l. (1753) is the only genus in the family paeoniaceae, order saxifragales (hong, 2010, 2011, 2021; apg, 2016; dong et al., 2018; folk et al., 2019). peonies, or the genus paeonia l., are mainly found in temperate climates in southern europe, asia, and western north america. there are 52 recognized taxa in this genus, comprising 36 species, 15 subspecies, and one variation, according to the plant list database (2021). paeonia has a complicated scientific categorization, with different sources recognizing different species and bulletin of the iraq natural historymuseum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799, print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2025.18.3.0611 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2347-2927 mailto:zeravan.a.sadeeq@uod.ac https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 612 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 611-631. taxonomic study on paeonia sections. the genus is divided into three primary sections by the majority of references, including stern (1946), stearn and davis (1988), sang et al. (1997), and hong (2010): sect. moutan dc. (east asia), sect. oanepia lindley (mexico and north america), and sect. paeonia dc. (which ranges from spain and north africa to japan and china). finally, hong (2021) made the latest and most widely accepted scientific classification, according to which, the paeonia infra-generic subdivision comprises two subgenera and seven sections, totaling 34 species. the peony society (2023) reports two species of paeonia in pacific north america, 17 in east and middle asia, and 15 in northwestern africa, west asia, and europe. on the other hand, zhou et al. (2021) suggest a new taxonomic scheme for paeonia l. that consists of seven sections and two subgenera. with eleven species in the pan-himalaya and fourteen in the mediterranean, they identify these two regions as the genus's centers of species diversity. the taxonomic position of paeonia l. in iraq is unknown. the existence of paeonia kurdistanica zoh. in rowanduz district is stated before but within the ranunculaceae family, as was mentioned by al-rawi (1946). according to an analysis of the most recent scientific papers available, plants of this genus have never been the subject of taxonomic or other scientific investigations in iraqthe only exception being townsend (1980), in the flora of iraq, which described the species p. mascula only, based on two specimens collected near sersang. he detailed the species' habitat, but didn’t mention any infraspecific classification of this species. p. kurdistanica zoh. was also retained by him as a synonym. a perennial herb, p. mascula (l.) miller (sect. corallinae; subg. paeonia; gen. paeonia; fam. paeoniaceae) has large, dissected, bi-ternate leaves, tomentose carpels and carrot-shaped roots, and is commonly as "wild peony" or "male peony," (hong, 2021). this species includes four accepted subspecies: "p. mascula subsp. russoi (biv:) cdlen et hety., from central spain to western greece; p. mascula subsp. hellenica tzanoudakis, reported from southern greece; p. mascula subsp. triternata (pallas ex dc.), reported from romania, and p. mascula (l.) miller subsp. mascula, reported from southern europe to the caucasus, northern iraq, and iran. " (cullen and heywood, 1964; davis and cullen, 1965; mouterde, 1970; meikle, 1977; stearn and davis, 1984; davis, 1988; özhatay, 2000; passalacqua and bernardo, 2004; maroofi, 2005; hong and wang, 2006; ünlü, 2010; orhan et al., 2010; hong, 2000,2010,20011and 2021; körüklü, 2012; assadi, 2016; mahdavi, 2021; the peony society (2023); fazli et al.2023). in turkey, the term " bear rose" (guluç, gülhorç, ayıgülü, beargulu, and beargull) refers to all the aforementioned subspecies of p. mascula (yıldırımlı, 1994; karaman and kocabaş, 2001; doğan, 2008; fakir et al., 2009; ugulu et al., 2009). several plants have been identified and categorized using anatomical features such as stomatal type, size, distribution, epidermal cell shape, and anticlinal wall pattern (zeng et al., 2017). chauhan and daniel (2011) ranked the anatomical characteristics of leaves as the second most important feature in taxonomic investigations, behind flowers and fruits. according to ünlü (2010), particular anatomical features can group the ten taxa of herbaceous peonies that grow in turkey, but anatomical traits alone cannot distinguish them. also, according to gözcü et al. (2023), "anatomical characteristics can be valuable for the 613 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-doskey, z. a. s. taxonomical classification of paeonia species in turkey." in addition, jia et al. (2022) clarify that "the taxonomic significance of epidermal morphology varies depending on the genus and plant family, with trichomes, anticlinal wall patterns, stomatal shape, and stomatal density potentially playing important roles in the classification of wild tree peonies." this portion of the study focused on the following aspects: a taxonomic study and survey of paeonia taxa in iraq's mountainous regions; a morphological study to identify the collected specimens of this genusincluding roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits, and seeds; and an anatomical study that includes stem, petiole, leaf, and stomata. the researcher will then discuss measurements based on the collected field data and examine the ecological characteristics and geographic distribution of the identified paeonia taxa. materials and methods specimens identification: the plant specimens were recognized based on standard identification keys from literature such as davis and cullen (1965), özhatay (2000), and hong (2010, 2011, 2021). morphological study: data for this study were obtained from twenty-five individual field trips conducted in the mam and mro districts between march and december of 2022–2023. using an olympus dissecting microscope and a pc camera digital microscope, the morphological characteristics (approximately 42 quantitative and qualitative attributes) of all plant partsincluding roots, stems, leaves, petioles, flowers (calyx, corolla, stamens, and pistils), fruits, and seedswere analysed. this analysis was conducted both in the field and in the laboratory of the forestry department. linear measurements were taken using a digital caliper (0 -150 mm). the terminology of this study is based on guest (1966), and lawrence (1951). anatomical study: the researcher collected the required specimens during two field trips conducted during the flowering period (late may/early june) of 2023. ten peony plants were sampled (with two leaves and two stems/plant) from gara mountain and garok within the mam district. cuticular structure: for light microscopy (lm) studies, a 1 cm2 piece was cut from the center of 20 leaflets using a basic scalpel. leaf epidermal layer separation: sections were dehydrated in 90% ethanol for 24 to 36 hours and then stored in 70% ethanol. each section was then randomly selected, rinsed with distilled water, dried, and submerged in equal parts glacial acetic acid and hydrogen peroxide. the portions were then incubated at 60 °c for 24 hours, following methods from ellis (1979) and devesa et al. (1992). staining, mounting, and microscopic examination: safranin-glycerin jelly was used to stain the adaxial and abaxial peels of the softened leaflets. these were mounted on microscopic slides and covered with cover slip. using an optical microscope of the zeiss type operating at e40 with a 10x lens, it was prepared for examination of epidermal cells and stomata. dino-captures 2.0 version 1.4.0.b, a multifunctional digital microscope, was used 614 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 611-631. taxonomic study on paeonia for precise measurements. this work uses terminology from metcalfe and chalk (1950), esau (1965), radford et al. (1974), and rudall (2020). epidermal cells and stomata measurements: several anatomical features of the leaves were measured in this study, comprising average values derived from thirty observations per parameter. recorded measurements included the dimensions of abaxial and adaxial epidermal cells. additionally, the number of epidermal cells per square millimeter (mm2) was used to compute the epidermal cell density. stomatal dimensions were also measured, focusing on the size and type of the stomata, in accordance with prabhakar (2004). stomatal density was resolved as the number of stomata per square millimeter (mm²). stomatal index (%) was calculated using the formula from saadu et al. (2009) as: stomatal index% = {stomatal density / (stomatal density + epidermal cell density)} ×100. preparation of permanent cross sections (leaf blade, petiole, and stem): killing and fixation: fresh parts of leaflets, petioles, and stems, each ranging from from 0.5 to 2 cm length, were stored in 20 ml of faa solution (formalin: glacial acetic acid: ethyl alcohol 5:5:90) and kept at room temperature for 20 to 24 hours, following jay (1991). washing: sample were washed twice with 70% ethanol to remove fixation residues and were preserved at the same concentration. preparation and staining of cross sections: using the modified histopathological technique of bancroft and gamble (2013), i prepared and stained cross-sections of leaflets, petioles, and stems with hematoxylin and eosin (h&e) as follows: paraffin was removed from the sections by immersing them in xylene three times, each for 10 minutes. the slide sections were rehydrated by passed through a series of decreasing ethanol concentrationsabsolute, 90%, 80%, and 70% each step lasting five minutes, ending with a wash in distilled water. they were then immersed in gel's hematoxylin for one to three minutes, after which they were quickly washed with distilled water to remove excess stain. the slides were rinsed under running water until they regained their blue color after treatment with 1% acidic alcohol (1% hydrochloric acid in 70% alcohol) for five minutes. after five minutes of staining in 0.5% eosin, the sections were rinsed in tap water for one to five minutes to remove any remaining stain. the sections were slowly dehydrated in increasing ethanol concentrations (50%, 70%, 80%, 90%, and absolute ethanol) for longer periods (10 minutes per step). they were then perfused in d-limonene twice for 5 minutes per step. the sections were then mounted in dextrin-xylene (d.p.x.) by covering the slides and drying them at room temperature. any remaining stain on the slides were removed using filter paper, and the sections were ready for microscopic examination. ecology and geographical distribution: this study was based on information collected from personal field trips in two mountain districts from march to december of 2022–2023, and each location was visited two to three times. the mam and mro districts of the iraqi kurdistan region were visited on these field trips, along with literature such as flora of iraq (townsend, 1980). a geographic information system (gis) was used to determine the plants' distribution and frequency. the global positioning system (gps) was used to measure the 615 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-doskey, z. a. s. plants' altitudes and latitudes, and a sony digital camera (16 x megapixels, 10x zoom) was used to take pictures of the plants in their environments. results and discussion taxonomy paeonia mascula subsp. mascula (l.) mill., 1768 synonyms: paeonia mas garsault; fig. pl. anim. med, t. 435 a (1764); paeonia corallina retz.; observ. bot. 3: 34 (1783); paeonia integra murray; commentat. soc. regiae sci. gött. 7: 92 (1786); paeonia officinalis subsp. corallina (retz.) fiori; fl. italia 1: 527 (1898); paeonia kavachensis azn.; magyar bot. lap. 16: 7 (1918); paeonia corallina var. orientalis j. thiébaut; in bull. soc. bot. france 81: 114 (1934); paeonia kurdistanica zohary; palestine j. bot. jerusalem ser. 2: 155 (1941); paeonia arietina var. orientalis (j. thiébaut) stern in j. roy. hort. soc. 68: 127 (1943); paeonia mascula subsp. orientalis (j. thiébaut) d.y. hong; acta phytotax. sin. 38(4): 382 (2000). botanical description: perennials, roots are carrot-shaped, orange, with tuberous rootstock 1 – 2.5 cm in diameter near the base of the stem (pl.1a, b), herbaceous plants 25 – 77 cm tall (range 49.8 cm ), with 3.0–5.0 white-purple or purplish scales at the base. one to four aerial stems emerge from the rootstock of each plant. stems ascending, glabrous, mostly green, sometimes with purple spots or partially purple at the base. scales are simple, elongated, surrounding the stem, with parallel venation, 5.5 – 15.0 cm in length, with an average of 10.3 cm, and 1.2–2.8 cm in width, with an average of 1.84 cm, where 5.86 is the ratio of scale length to scale width. the stem's height from base to first leaf ranges between 11 and 42 cm, with an average of 26 cm. its diameter ranges between 0.6 and 1.4 cm, with an average of 0.9 cm. the leaves are alternate and exstipulate. petioles and petiolules are glabrous, and range in length from 3.5 to 5.0 cm, with an average of 8.4 cm. lower leaves biternate with three to five leaflets; leaflets/leaf segments range from 9 –18, with an average of 12; rarely less (9) or more 18). typically, upper leaflets consist of segments: terminal leaflet, glabrous, ovate, obovate or oblong, cuneate at the base, acute at the apex, 7 – 11 cm long, and 3.0–6.5 cm broad. the terminal leaflet length to leaflet width ratio is 1.62. involucrate bracts ranged from one to three, with the majority being lanceolate or ovate to oblong-ovate, glabrous, and leaf-like. they are 3.5 to 9.0 cm long, with an average of 6.7 cm, and 1.2 to 5.5 cm wide, with an average of 3.5 cm. the ratio of bract length to bract width is two (pl.1f). flowers are solitary and terminal, 6.3 – 9.4 cm in diameter with an average of 7.7 cm; the calyx is polysepalous with 3 – 4 sepals, always 4 in decussate arrangement2 large and 2 smallall rounded at the apex, green, purple, or purple at the periphery; glabrous, boat-shaped, 1–3.4 cm long with an average of 2.4 cm, 0.6–2.5 cm wide with an average of 1.6 cm; the sepal length to width ratio is 1.49 (h, pl.1g); the corolla is polypetalous flower with five to nine petals, each limb without a claw, pink, red, and white with a pink tint at the base or rim, oblong, rounded, or toothed at the tip, and measures 4.5 to 5.8 cm in length with an average of 5.1 cm and 2.8 to 4.2 cm in width with an average of 3.4 cm. the ratio of petal length to petal width is 1.49 (pl.1i, j). the anther is yellow, and has two anther-sacs, is dorsifixed, and dehisces longitudinally, 0.5 – 1.0 cm long, with an average of 0.8 cm; the filaments are purple, filiform shaped, and glabrous, and the stamens are arranged in whorls (pl.1j, k) and numbering 616 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 611-631. taxonomic study on paeonia between 285 and 330, with an average of 310 stamens arranged in whorls; gynoecium three to five carpels, usually three, erect, free, and encircled at the base by a depressed fleshy disc, are tomentose; there are no styles, and stigmas are 0.5 to 0.8 cm long with an average of 0.7 cm, purple (pl.1l, m,); superior ovary, ovoid-shaped, with ovules with marginal placentation (biserrate), 0.8 – 2 cm long with an average of 1.4 cm, 0.5 – 1 cm wide, with an average of 0.8 cm. fruits are very hairy upon maturity, dehiscent adaxially, ovoid-columnar or irregular, shaped like a jester's hat (pl.1n), consisting of 2 – 5 follicles, typically 3, 2.8 – 4.1 cm long with an average of 3.4 cm, 0.8 – 2 cm width with an average of 1.5 cm, each follicle holds 11 – 16 seeds, and the average number of seeds per fruit is 39 seeds, however only 8 – 14 of them develop correctly in each fruit, and the percentage of seeds that are rejected varied between 18 and 29 (approximately 67%) (pl.1o, q). a suture allows the fruits to open, releasing seeds. seeds are spherical to ovoid-elongated shape, were red and black when ripe, and measure 0.7 – 1 cm long with an average of 0.8 cm and 0.5 – 0.8 cm wide with an average of 0.6 cm. the ratio of seed length to seed width is 1.4 (pl.1q, r, and s), (appendix 1, 2). paeonies plants in iraq were recognized based on identification keys from standard literature such as davis and cullen (1965), mouterde (1970), meikle (1977), stearn and davis (1984), davis (1988), özhatay (2000), and notably newer ones such as hong (2010, 2011, 2021). additionally, depending on other evidence was considered, such as hong's (2000) study, which identified two herbarium specimens: no. 959, collected by r. wheeler haines at an elevation of 960 m near sarseng on may 14, 1957, and another from turkey, hakkari, but collected from the distance between amadiya and dohuk at an elevation of 1200 m with the number 11678 by k. h. on july 12, 1957. both specimens were identified as p. mascula subsp. orientalis, which was later reclassified as a synonym of p. mascula subsp. mascula. additionally, hong and wang (2006) examined two specimens that were gathered near sarseng (specimen no. 26370 by e. chapman on september 26, 1933, at an altitude of 920, and r. wheeler haines specimen no. 959 on may 14, 1957), which were adopted by townsend (1980) to describe the iraqi paeony as a species (p. mascula). however, there are some discrepancies between some of these references, such as assadi's (2016) study, which indicated that the subspecies in question had two carpels, while this study showed the presence of between two and five carpels. the morphological characteristics of flowers, fruits, leaflets/leaf segments, and lower leaves were of great taxonomic value for isolating and identifying paeony plants that occur in iraq, because most of the morphological results in this study are consistent with the identification keys of previous research mentioned above, especially hong's identification key 2021. accordingly, this morphological investigation indicates that the iraqi peony, described by townsend (1980), is the subspecies p. mascula mascula, and this subspecies has been described in detail. the study also provides a new perspective on the peony flora of iraq. 617 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-doskey, z. a. s. plate (1): morphological characters in p. mascula subsp. mascula; (a) whole plant, (b) roots and vegetative buds, (c) stem and bud scales, (d) leaf, (e) leaflets, (f) bract, (g) floral bud, (h) sepal, (i) petal, (j) flower, (k) anthers, (l) ovary and stigma, (m) carpels, (n, o) unmatured fruit, (p) unripe seeds, (q) dispersal matured fruit, (r, s) ripened seeds. identification key to the subspecies of paeonia mascula in iraq 1. flowers red or pink, leaves mostly glabrous, leaflets/leaf segments of lower leaves (8) 9 ˗ 18 (19), follicles 3 ˗ 4 cm long. ……………………………..……….……..subsp. mascula flowers mostly white, leaves always hispid, leaflets/leaf segments of lower leaves 9 ˗ 11 in number, follicles 4 ˗ 7 cm long………………………………………………….……… 2 2. leaves nearly always hispid, scarcely glabrous below ………………………subsp. russoi leaves mostly glabrous, sparsely hispid below ……………………………..…………. 3 618 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 611-631. taxonomic study on paeonia 3. leaflets/leaf segments of lower leaves 7 ˗ 11 in number, terminal leaflets 12 ˗15 × 6 ˗ 9 cm, follicles 4 ˗ 6 cm ……...……………………………………….................... subsp. bodurii leaflets/leaf segments of lower leaves (9 -) 11 ˗ 14 (-21) in number, terminal leaflets 9 ˗ 13 × 4.5 ˗ 7.5 cm, follicles 5 ˗ 7 cm long……………………………….……..subsp. hellenica anatomical descriptions 1. anticlinal wall pattern and cell shape in the leaf epidermis anticlinal wall pattern of the epidermal cells on the adaxial and abaxial surfaces of p. mascula subsp. mascula is of a strong, wavy type, and the epidermal cells on both adaxial and abaxial surfaces had an irregular form. the results showed that the subsp. mascula leaves under study differed in the size of the epidermal cells on the adaxial and abaxial surfaces. in addition, the epidermal cells on the adaxial surfaces were larger than those on the abaxial; their respective sizes are 43.20 × 64.60 μm and 39.37 × 55.72 μm (pl.2 b, c, d). the adaxial surface ranged from 108 to 152 cells / mm2, while the abaxial surface ranged from 112 to 158 cells / mm2. within the taxon under investigation, there was no discernible difference in the number of epidermal cells / mm2 between the two surfaces. 2. anatomy of the leaflet blade and midrib bifacial mesophyll (palisade parenchyma layer on the upper surface and spongy parenchyma layer on the lower surface) was present in the leaves of the subspecies under study. leaf blade thickness varied from 123 to 167 μm. one or two layers was of tightly packed palisade parenchyma cells with many chloroplasts, averaging 56 μmin thickness, formed the mesophyll. this was succeeded by spongy parenchyma, averaging 78 μm in thickness and containing 4-6 layers (sometimes 3) of loosely arranged spongy cells. in most of the leaves studied, there were few air-lacunae between these cells (pl. 2b). blade angle varied from 120 to 140 among the wild peony leaves under study (pl. 2a). a thin cuticle layer, about 1 μm thick, covered both the upper and lower epidermis. the upper and lower epidermis were nearly identical, except that the upper epidermal cells were larger than the lower ones (pl. 2a, b). one layer of cells with square, elongated, or rectangular shapes makes up the basic top epidermis; these cells were thick and varied in size, with the upper epidermis having an average thickness of 15.30 μm. every leaf had a single, sizable, crescent-shaped vascular bundle in the middle of the leaf. the xylem, located on the underside of the leaflet blade, formed part of the midrib vascular bundle, with the phloem situated within the vascular bundle tissue, extending towards the upper surface of the leaflet blade (pl. 2a). these results are consistent with research by ünlü (2010) and gözcü et al. (2023), except for the absence of unicellular trichomes are not especially visible in leaves of p. mascula subsp. mascula. 3. stomata complex according to the results, stomata only appeared on the abaxial epidermis of the wild peony's leaves, which were all hypostomatic (pl. 2 b, c). kidney-shaped guard cells encircled the elliptic stomata (pl.2 c). also, the abaxial surface of the taxon under study bears a single stoma: anomocytic or irregular-celled type. on the adaxial surface, it lacks stomata (pl. 2 b, c, d). within the genus paeonia, the examined taxon's stomata varied in size from about 17 22 619 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-doskey, z. a. s. × 20 27μm. according to saadu et al. (2009), the stomata index is 26.2%, and the stomatal density varies between 32 and 69 stomata per square millimeter. the hypostomatic leaves are with anomocytic stomata (a common form for the ranunculaceae family) and corroborate earlier studies by ünlü (2010), jia et al. (2022), watson and dallwitz (1992), and avita and inamdar (1980). 4. leaf petiole anatomy the petiole's transverse section, semicircular and concave on the leaf's adaxial surface, reveals that the epidermis had a thin layer of cuticle consisted of a single layer of tiny, square to oblong cells measuring 9–13 μm in thickness. beneath the epidermis, two layers of angular chlorenchyma cells supported the leaflet (pl.2 e). in the cross sections of the leaf petiole, the largest vascular bundle, resembling kidneys or beans, was centrally situated, and seven to nine vascular bundles of various sizes were arranged laterally, decreasing in size. the investigation results decrease laterally; this result agrees with ünlü (2010) study on p. mascula subsp. mascula, but the number and shapes of vascular bundles in this study differ from those in the research by gözcü et al. (2023). this discrepancy may be because the latter did not identify the p. mascula subspecies, suggesting it may belong to a different subspecies than the one examined here. 5. stem anatomy a cuticle is the outermost layer, characterized by its thin and striated texture, measuring approximately 1 μm in thickness. below the cuticle lies the epidermis, which consists of tightly packed cells that serve as the primary protective barrier for the stem. directly beneath the epidermis is the cortex, a continuous layer of square to somewhat elongated cells, arranged in several (7–10) rows of chlorenchyma cells, some of which contain starch grains. the vascular cylinder, represented by the phloem and xylem, with the vascular cambium positioned between them, froms a continuous ring. finally, large parenchymal cells comprise the pith, particularly in the center. these cells' thin walls and interstitial spaces expand toward the center. the stems eventually appear semi-hollow (pl. 2 f). most of the results from this study's stem cross-section conflict with previous findings on p. mascula, such as ünlü (2010) and gözcü et al. (2023) which discovered that the stem cross-section comprises seven or nine vascular bundles, along with trichomes, and resembles a bear's head. in contrast, the current study reveals that the stem cross-sections are round, devoid of trichomes, and contain several regularly arranged vascular bundles. the results of this study differed from those of the aforementioned studies for several reasons. one explanation for the disparate findings could be that this study used different methodologies and techniques of examinations. second, the varying ages of the plants may be a factor, as the plant developmental stage influences stem cross-section morphology. third, this study conducted in a unique environment compared to others; external factors like soil composition, climate, and other environmental pressures may have caused differences in plant architecture. a final explanation is that the samples considered in this study may be from a 620 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 611-631. taxonomic study on paeonia new ecotype or subspecies of p. mascula, which would explain the discrepancies by exhibiting unique anatomical characteristics not observed in previous studies. plate (2):anatomy characteristics of p. mascula subsp. mascula under a light microscope (lm); (a) leaflet midrib vein, (b) leaflet blade, (c) lower epidermis of the leaflet, (d) upper epidermis of the leaflet, (e) leaf petiole, (f) stem. ecology and geographical distribution 1. ecology the field survey that the members of the paeonia l. are growing in the northwest of iraq's kurdistan region, between longitudes 43°14'20.80.0 " e to 44° 9'41.82.0 " e and latitudes 36°55'7.71.0 "n to 37°15'23.91.0 "n map 1. researchers also discovered taxonomic ranks of the genus the northern aspects of mountain environments, particularly in the districts of 621 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-doskey, z. a. s. amadiya (mam) and rowandouz (mro), which served as the focal point for the genus's spread in iraq, as depicted in (map 1) and the research specified that paeonia l. species are present only in iraq's highlands, which had a mediterranean-like environment, with high elevations ranging from 1000 and 1700 meters above sea level and an average annual rainfall of 900 to 1100 mm. throughout the field observations, only one subspecies(p. mascula subsp. mascula) of the genus paeonia -was recorded in iraq and called by local people in the kurdistan region as goat rose (gul bizen). this subspecies grows in populations on northern aspects of mountains, slopes, among rocks, shady cliffs, rocky and limestone soils, and in open areas of oak forests, and associated with various tree and shrub species including: quercus aegilops l.,1753, quercus infectoria oliv.,1862, quercus libani oliv.1862, pyrus syriaca boiss.,1846, prunus macrocarpa c. a. mey.,1831, rubus sanctus schre.,1837, rhus coriaria l.,1753, acer monspessulanum l.1753, paliurus spinachristi miller.,1768, crataegus azarolus l.,1753, rosa dumalis subsp. boissier (crepin) nilssoni, 1984, rosa canina var. dumetorum (thuill.) desv, 1815, and some herbaceous plants, such as fritillaria imperials l., 1753 (pl.3). this study confirmed occasional similarities and differences in the preference of plants for different soil types, where rocky and limestone humus soils were found to support the richest number of plants (pl.3). these acidic and low salinity soils characterize the mountainous region's soil, as they are rich in organic matter. the wide variation in environmental conditions within the mountainous areas helps meet the conservation needs of different plants of the genus paeonia. additionally, the high stomatal index observed in the anatomical study suggested that iraqi paeony plants could perform photosynthesis more effectively and were frequently found in environments with sufficient moisture. according to this study, the mountain districts of mam and mro are confirmed habitats for p. mascula subsp. mascula. 2. geographical distribution defining the geographic distribution of the species can distinguish them and taxa below any genus. altitude had a taxonomic role in determining the presence or absence of species, and geographic distribution of the species had a substantial impact on their physical traits. according to the current study, nine previously undocumented areas in iraq were identified as habitats for wild peonies. two of these sites are located on gara mountain: above ashawa village and garok, across from the sarsang sub-district. the second location, which was situated at 1000 meters above sea level at latitudes 37° 1'37.30.0 " n and longitudes 43°20'46.69.0 "e, hosts a small population of only seven plants, while the first location, located between latitudes 37° 0'19.77.0 "n and longitudes 43°19'22.06.0 " e at elevations ranging from 1450 to 1520 m, contains three populations of 10 to 14 plants each. also, in barwari bala, hirore village, there were two populations of nine plants each along the turkish border, found at latitudes 37°15'23.91.0" n and 43°14'20.80.0"e, longitudes at an elevation of 1250m, and a population of roughly twelve plants, at latitudes 36°55'3.23"n and longitudes 43°25'49.40.0"e, at an elevation of 1200m, in kani maze village. also, in shkafta village (kure sher mountain), close to the chemanke sub-district, there was a population of roughly 13 plants in latitudes 36°55'7.71.0 "n and 43°27'55.85.0 "e, with longitudes at an elevation of 622 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 611-631. taxonomic study on paeonia 1100 m. above harika village (heft tabeq mountain), there were 14 plants at latitudes 37° 1'32.88.0" n and 43°40'45.66.0 "e, with longitudes at an elevation of 1000 m. above merge village (matin mountain), there was a population of 21 plants at latitudes 37° 4'21.62.0 " n and 43°41'36.68.0 "e, longitudes at an elevation of 1400m within the mam district and also within the mro district in hasne village near the barzan sub-district, where a population of approximately 17 plants was recorded at latitudes 36°57'15.07.0 "n and 44° 2'24.26.0 "e, longitudes at an elevation of 1250m, and, finally, in lere village near sherwan mazin subdistrict, where a population of 15 plants was recorded at latitudes 36°59'38.85.0 "n and 44° 9'41.82.0 "e, longitudes at an elevation of 1300m, as illustrated in maps 1, 2. for the first time in iraq, all the study's locations were considered new local records within the mam and mro districts, except for the garok (across from the sarsang sub-district) in the mam district, which was previously reported by townsend (1980) in flora of iraq. 3. habitats: the study's habitats included oak forests, bushes on hills and meadows, rocky limestone slopes, northern sides, and elevations between 1000 and 1550 meters. regarding the distribution of wild peonies in iraq's geographical districts, the current study verified that they originate only in two districts (mam and mro), with the first district serving as the best hub for their spread, and the second district was documented for the first time in iraq. furthermore, the second location, gara mountain (above ashawa), had the most plants (42), whereas the first location, garok (opposite sersang), had the fewest plants (7). analysis of environmental data and gis-based occurrence values (map 2) showed that iraqi wild peonies were better suited to higher elevations (over 1400 meters) than lower ones (under 1000 meters) across all study sites. therefore, the previously listed location (garok) is unsuitable for this species' growth and reproduction in iraq. this suggests that lower temperatures and higher humidity are optimal for their growth. the geographic range of wild peonies in iraq is generally restricted several factors, including their unique ecological needs, isolation from other areas, climate change, competition from other species, and possible reproductive constraints. the conservation of these plant communities requires an understanding of and efforts to preserve their special ecosystems. 623 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-doskey, z. a. s. plate (3): some field photographs of the peony plants and their locations. map (1): geographical distribution for p. mascula subsp. mascula in iraq. 624 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 611-631. taxonomic study on paeonia map (2): the value of the occurrence of p. mascula subsp. mascula for each location in iraq. conclusions the above observation concludes that, apart from traditional morphological information recorded in the flora of iraq, no detailed taxonomic study of the genus paeonia exists in in the country. this gap in knowledge prompted us to conduct this study to update the taxonomic status of the genus in iraq. a combination of morphological and anatomical characteristics, environmental information, and geographical distribution played an important role in identifying and isolating taxonomic units. the morphological characteristics of flowers, fruits, and leaflets/lower leaf parts were of great taxonomic value for isolating p. mascula infraspecific, found in iraq. anatomical characteristics confirmed that the leaf was bifacial, hypostomatic, had anomocytic stomata, and the cross-section of the stem was round, without glandular trichomes, and contained many regular vascular bundles. a field survey showed that the plants of the genus gerw in oak forests, meadows, and hills, and on limestone rocky slopes on the north-facing aspects, at altitudes ranging from 1000–1550 m. the species was adapted to low temperatures and high humidity, and is primarily found in the amadiya and rawanduz districts within the mountainous districts. for the first time, gis was used to calculate plant density separately and document the species in several new locations in iraq. also, the study provided a new perspective on the peony flora of iraq. acknowledgments thanks are due to the department of forestry, college of agricultural engineering sciences, university of duhok, for granting the laboratory permission to conduct this investigation. 625 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-doskey, z. a. s. conflict of interest “the authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest”. literature cited al-rawi, a. 1964. wild plants of iraq with their distribution. state board for agricultural & water resources research, national herbarium of iraq, ministry of agriculture & irrigation, baghdad, 220 pp. apg (angiosperm phylogeny group). 2016. an update of the angiosperm phylogeny group classification for the orders and families of flowering plants: apg iv. botanical journal of the linnean society, 181 (1): 1-20. 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[crossref] appendix (1):morphological qualitative characters of p. mascula subsp. mascula characters taxonomic units p. mascula subsp. mascula plant habit perennial herb growth habit ascending root shape tuberous, carrot-shaped terminal leaflet shape ovate to obovate or oblong terminal leaflet apex shape acute terminal leaflet base shape cuneate or rounded-cuneate bract shape lanceolate or ovate to oblong-ovate flower color pink or red sepal shape boat-shaped sepal apex shape rounded sepal color green, purple petal shape obovate petal apex shape rounded or teethed fruit shape jester's hat-shaped seed shape spherical to ovoid, elongated seed color black appendix (2):morphological quantitative characters of p. mascula subsp. mascula. characters taxonomic units p. mascula subsp. mascula plant tall (cm) 25.0 – 77.0 ٭(49.8) number of scales 3.0 – 5.0 (4) bud scales length(cm) 5.5 – 15.0 (10.3) bud scales width(cm) 1.2 – 2.8 (1.8) ratio of scale length/scale width 5.86 stem length(cm) 11.0– 42.0 (26) stem diameter(cm) 0.6 – 1.4 (0.9) lower leaf length(cm) 18.0 – 36.0 (25.6) number of leaflets per lower leaf 3.0 – 5.0 http://delta-intkey.com/ https://doi.org/10.1111/jse.12688 630 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 611-631. taxonomic study on paeonia number of leaflets and segments per lower leaf 9.0 – 18 (12) terminal leaflet length (cm) 6.5 – 11 (8.3) terminal leaflet width (cm) 3.0 – 6.5 (5.2) terminal leaflet length/leaflet with ratio 1.6 petiole length of lower leaf (cm) 3.5 – 15.0 (8.4) number of bracts 1.0 – 3.0 bract length (cm) 3.5 – 9.3 (6.7) bract width (cm) 1.2 – 5.5 (3.5) length/bract width ratio 2.0 flower diameter (cm) 6.3 – 9.4 (7.7) number of sepals per flower 3.0 – 4.0 (3.7) sepal length/sepal width ratio 1.49 sepal length (cm) 1.0 – 3.4 (2.4) sepal width (cm) 0.6 – 2.5 (1.6) number of petals per flower 5.0 – 9.0 (7.8) petal length (cm) 4.5 – 5.8 (5.1) petal width (cm) 2.8 – 4.2 (3.4) petal length/petal width ratio 1.49 number of stamens 285 – 330 (310) another length (cm) 0.5 – 1.0 (0.8) filament length (cm) 0.8 – 1.7 (1.2) number of carpels 2.0 – 5.0 (3) stigma length (cm) 0.5 – 0.8 (0.7) ovary length(cm) 0.8 – 2 (1.4) ovary width (cm) 0.5 – 1.0 (0.8) follicle length (cm) 2.8 – 4.1 (3.4) follicle width (cm) 0.8 – 2 (1.5) number of seeds per fruit 26 – 44 (38) number of seeds per carpal 11 – 16 (13) number of mature seeds per fruit 8 – 14 (10) number of aborted seeds per fruit 18 – 29 (28) seed length (cm) 0.7 – 1.0 (0.8) seed width (cm) 0.5 – 0.8 (0.6) seed length/seed width ratio 1.4 ٭ each value represents an average of 30 reads. 631 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-doskey, z. a. s. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2025) 18 (3): 611-631. العراق من )paeoniaceae )عائلة paeonia l.,1753لنباتجنس تصنيفية دراسة الدوسكي عبدالخالقصديق ڤان زێره العراق. كوردستان، إقليم دهوك، جامعة الزراعية، الهندسة علوم كلية الغابات، قسم * 2025/6/20 النشر: ،2025/4/21 القبول: ،2025/4/13 2025/1/16،الراجعة: اسسالم: اخالصة عائلة من paeonia l. 1753 الفاوانيا جنس تصنيف تحديث إلى الحالية الدراسة هدفت إلى بالضافة والتشريحية، الورفولوجية الخصائص إلى ا استنادد العراق في paeoniaceae .gis الجغرافية العلومات نظم تقنيات باستخدام الجغرافي، والتوزيع البيئية اللحظات بــــــــــ د متثًل ا واحدد ا نويعد تضثن الجنس هذا أن الدراسة نتائج أظهرت 80 من أقل إلى ارتفاعه يصل معثر نبات وهو ، p. mascula subsp. mascula (l.) mill.,1768 إلى بالضافة بارزة، زهور و الشعيرات، من خالية و وأسطوانية، صاعدة بسيقان ويتثيز ا، سنتيثترد الجزر. شكل تأخذ جذور شكل ذات anomocytic الشاذ النوع من ثغور وجود عن التشريحية التحليلت كشفت كثا تصل كًافة مع %26.2 الًغور مؤشر بلغ حيث للورقة، السفلي السطح على أهليليجي أو بيضوي قوية الورقية البشرة خليا جدران أنثاط كانت القابل، في مربع. مليليثتر لكل ثغرة 51 إلى والعروق للوراق العرضية القاطع أظهرت منتظم. غير بشكل أشكالها ظهرت بينثا ومتثوجة، وعائية حزمة على الداخلي الجزء يحتوي حيث الوجه، ثنائية بكونها تتثيز الورقة أن الوسطية عدد على وتحتوي الشكل دائرية فكانت للسيقان، العرضية القاطع أما الهلل. شكل تأخذ كبيرة الخلية. أحادية شعيرات وجود عدم مع النتظثة، الوعائية الحزم من الجيرية الحجرية التربة في تزدهر حيث الجبلية، الناطق في د حصرا العراق في الفاوانيا تنثو التوزيع نتائج أظهرت وقد الفتوحة. البلوط غابات داخل الشثالية النحدرات على بالدبال الغنية مرة، ولول ورواندوز، العثادية مقاطعتي في انتشارها الجغرافية العلومات نظم وتحليل الجغرافي الًانية. القاطعة في وموقعين الولى القاطعة ضثن أخرى أماكن ستة العراق في التحقيق هذا ق ث وث وتقديم البرية، الفاوانيا لنباتات �تخييصي مفتاح إعداد في الدراسة هذه �سهم أن التوقع من العراق. في النباتات هذه حول جديدة رؤية bull 651 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2025) 18 (3): 651-663. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2025.18.3.0651 original article the pseudobranch development in eastern mosquito fish gambusia holbrooki, girard 1859 (cyprinodontiformes, poeciliidae) from jadiriyah lake, baghdad, iraq khloud adnan al-lehaibe*, entekhab hameed abed al-shuwaili ** and ahmed kasim mahdi** ♦ *department of anatomy, faculty of medicine, university of diyala, diyala, iraq. **department of biology, college of education for pure science (ibn al-haitham), university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq. corresponding author: ahmed.k.m@ihcoedu.uobaghdad.edu.iq recived: 23 september 2024, revised: 3 may 2025., accepted: 5 may 2025, published:20 june 2025 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract the aim of the current investigation is to study the embryogenesis of the pseudobranchia (pb) in the eastern mosquito fish gambusia holbrooki, girard, 1859 (cyprinodontiformes, poeciliidae). histological sections from 2-4 mm long embryos revealed the presumable pb as a cell mass surrounded by a row of squamous cells in the operculum, as well as the formation of cartilage and blood vessels, and the beginning of the formation of its lamellae. in 5-7.75 mm long embryos, a prominent rise appeared in the mass of cells and pb lamellae, along with an increase in melanin deposition around the blood vessels. moreover, a row of squamous cells encircled the rise from the front and back. at this stage, the parallel arrangement of the cartilage-attached lamellae correlated with increased melanin concentration around the blood vessels. in newborns, the differentiated cells increased similar to that appearing in the adult’s stages. keywords: embryo, fish, gambusia, histology, pseudobranchia, teleost. introduction the eastern mosquito fish gambusia holbrooki girard, 1859 (cyprinodontiformes, poeciliidae), is an exotic teleost fish that lives in shallow waters, springs, and rivers (coad, 2010). pseudobranchia (pb) are modified gills represented by half a gill arch in most families of bony fishes. they are located inside a closed type of gill cover, where a layer of epithelium covers them to prevent them from functioning like true gills. usually, they develop from the posterior part of the gill cover (stoskopf, 1993). pbs have been described in almost all fish species except those in the genera gymnarchus cuvier, 1829 and cobitis linnaeus, 1758 and some species of anguilliformes, suborder siluroidei (roy et al., 1997). however, they vary in size, shape, and location. many activities of pbs have been documented in previous studies, bulletin of the iraq natural historymuseum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799, print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2025.18.3.0651 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1600-4391 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2889-4838 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5920-2462 mailto:ahmed.k.m@ihcoedu.uobaghdad.edu.iq https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 652 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 651-663. the pseudobranch development including ocular oxygen secretion (waser and heisler, 2004), sensory or chemical receptors (laurent and dunel-erb, 1984), respiration, vision, osmoregulation, and endocrine functions (quinn et al., 2003). moreover, the production of carbonic anhydrase and maintenance of the blood's acid-base balance are both facilitated by pseudo-glial cells (pscs) (wittenberg and haedrich, 1974; rahim et al., 2014; mokhtar et al., 2023). there is a lack of information about pb embryonic development; and therefore, the present paper aims to examine the development of the pseudobranchiat in the exotic eastern mosquito fish g. holbrooki, girard, 1859. materials and methods adult males and females of eastern mosquitofish gambusia holbrooki girard, 1859 were collected from jadiriyah lake (33°16'23"n 44°22'24"e) at the university of baghdad, iraq. the fish were kept under laboratory conditions. pregnant females were placed on a wax plate, and the dorsal part of the back of the head was pierced with a needle to administer anesthesia, and then the fish was dissected (billet and wild, 1975). using an olympus-style microscope, fine thread, and a millimeter ruler, the lengths of the embryos were measured. immediately after measurement, the largest embryo was fixed in smith's fixative. smith's fixative was prepared by mixing solutions a and b and left for 24 hours. solution a consists of 0.5 g of potassium dichromate and 87 ml of distilled water; solution b consists of 2.5 ml of glacial acetic acid and 10 ml of concentrated formalin (rugh, 1968). histological sections (5-7 mm thick) were prepared using a 325-hm rotary microtome then mounted in slides and finally stained with haematoxylin-eosin stains (bancroft and steven, 1982). fish taxonomy following coad (2010). the following abbreviations were used in the current study: af-anal fin, brbrain, bvblood vessels, ca-cartilage, cfcaudal fin, co-connective tissue, dfdorsal fin, eeye, g-gill, ga-gill arch, gfr-gill formation region, ggrf1-first gill arch, grf2-second gill arch, grggill region, ha-hyoid arch, mp melanophores, ooperculum, ol-optic lobes, ov–otic vesicles, p-primordial, pbpseudobranch, pbc pseudobranchial cell pblpseudobranchial lamellae, pfpectoral fin, s-squamous, t-trunk, ucsundifferentiated cells y-yolk. results and discussion the embryonic development of the mosquito fish gambusia holbrooki girard, 1859 was examined until day 9 (total length: 7.3 ± 0.6 mm). we observed the formation of the head, trunk, and tail region, as well as the formation of body segments, eye, and brain, in a 2 mm long embryo (plate1), which is similar to that of a 26–30 hour-old embryo of the nile tilapia fish oreochromis niloticus (linnaeus, 1758) (cichlidae), where the body segments appear at 31 hours. all organs were observed to be developing, including the pb (carol et al., 2001). after the fourth day following fertilization, the pb appears in the zebrafish danio rerio (hamilton, 1822) as a small bud located behind the eye (thiruppathy et al., 2022). plate (1) show that at the base of the eye region, the gill cover begins as a mass of body wall mesodermal cells, and at the top, the presumptive pb forms as a mass of elongated cells 653 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-lehaibe et al. originating from the ectoderm, surrounded by a row of spindle cells. while in cartilaginous fish the pb arises beside the mandible arch, it begins at stage s29 as a thickened epithelial tissue (hirschberger and gillis, 2022). in 2.75–3.25 mm long embryos, the cells grow and merge with those forming the gill cover (pls. 2, 3), and a small bulge may appear. after 100 hours posthatching, the pb of o. niloticus was found on the anterior wall of the gill cavity (carol et al., 2001). in frontal sections, the pb first appears in a 4 mm-long embryo, where the cells from an oval cell mass surrounded by a row of squamous cells, which is partially connected to the first-gill arch and providing a blood vessel. in plate (4), shows the beginning of cartilage growth, the formation of blood vessels, the beginning of pbl development, and the differentiation of its cells. plate (5) displays pb cells from a 5.25 mm long embryos. the frontal section of a 5.5 mm long embryo in plate (6) shows an increase in the number of pbl and their parallel agglutination, interspersed with a growing number of its differentiated cells having a dark-coloured nuclei and light-cytoplasm. this stage marks the initial appearance of melanin's around blood vessels. the beginning of cartilage development in the spiracular cavity and the appearance of pbl extending into the cavity are associated with 31s stage (hirschberger and gillis, 2022). further lamellar differentiation occurs at the 32s stage. a thicker mass with blood vessels (primordial pb) also appears at stage 31s. according to furgała-selezniow et al., (2016), the onset of the pb filament in leuciscus aspius (linnaeus, 1758) can be seen at 4 days posthatch (dph) in the abdominal cavity of the gill cover behind the eye area. the pb filament consists of one filament per side. the frontal section of a 6.25-6.50 mm-long embryo's shows pb buds forming in front of the first-gill arch, along with an increase in mass and cartilage differentiation. in plates 7 and 8, illustrate pb surrounded by a row of squamous cells at the back and another row of squamous cells extending from the first-gill arch at the front. plates (7, 8) show how the concentration of melanocytic cells increases around the blood vessels and the formation of an oval-shaped pb in a 6.25 mm long embryo. this is accompanied by the development of a cell bud on the opposite side of the gill cover. it is seen that the central part of the pb contains undifferentiated cells whereas along its length-parallel to blood vessels-cartilage formation increases. at 169–172 days and 6.3 ± 0.7 inches long, the pb appeared in the oreochromis niloticus consists of several rows of lamellae covered in epithelial tissue, in addition to the appearance of columnar cells between capillaries (carol et al., 2001). pb filaments in zebrafish appear at 17 days post-fertilization and complete development by 90 days postfertilization after hatching (thiruppathy et al., 2022). a 6.75 embryo's transverse section resembles a plant leaf, containing cartilaginous rods and blood vessels distributed throughout it. its shape appears renal in the longitudinal section. the section also shows connections between blood vessels coming from the true gills and those of the pb and inner vessel of the gill cover. these blood vessels are then transmitted to the brain and eye from the opposite side, as seen in plate (9). the dashed line of melanocytes in embryo measuring 6.5-7.75 mm in length develops, signifying the lamellae attached to the cartilage, 654 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 651-663. the pseudobranch development as observed in plates (8-10) illustrate this structure around the blood vessels, as they arrange in parallel like grape leaves, where melanin concentration of melanin is higher. plate (11) presents histological sections of newborns (24 hours -1 day after birth), where adipose tissue surrounds the now-enlarged pb. the differentiation of columnar cells between the capillaries becomes more pronounced, resembling that of the adult. although dentex dentex l. appears in the study's data of santamaría et al. (2004) by two pairs of filaments and the initial formation of secondary lamellae are observed by on the sixth day posthatching, marking the end of the second stage s2, and which marks the start of the pb appearance as a double structure located in the anterior region of the gill cavity. in stage 3, a third filament appears, and in stage 4, the number and length of filaments gradually increase. the lamellae of leuciscus aspius are freely distributed and parallel to the pb filaments by day 9 post hatch (dph) stage. they are connected along their length by a thin connective tissue, and the (pbc) surrounds a network of blood vessels. at 14 dph stage, both pillar and epithelial are also distinguishable, and continue to develop through the end of stages 24-36. the pb of mosquito fish has mucous and chloride cells (furgała-selezniow et al., 2016). plate (1): (a, b, c) a frontal section of 2 mm long embryo showing the beginning of the gill cover, pierced in the upper part by a mass of cells surrounded by a row of squamous cells. 655 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-lehaibe et al. plate (2): (a) embryo of 2.75 mm in length, (b, c) a frontal section showing the beginning of the gill cover, merging with it, and penetrated in the upper part by a mass of cells respectively. plate (3): (a) embryo of 3.25 mm in length, (b) a frontal section showing the beginning of the gill cover, with the fusion of cell mass, h& e. 656 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 651-663. the pseudobranch development plate (4): (a) embryo of 4 mm in length, (b) a cross-section showing a cellular mass representing the pb, 100x, (c, d) a frontal section showing the formation of a cell mass representing the pb. h & e. plate (5): (a) embryo of 5.25 mm in length, (b) a frontal section showing the beginning of the pb with the gill arches and the gill cover, (c, d) a frontal section showing the beginning of the pb. 657 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-lehaibe et al. plate (6): (a) a frontal section of an embryo of 5.5 mm in length, showing the beginning of the pseudobranchia, 100x, (b, c) a frontal section showing the beginning of the pseudobranchia, surrounded by connective tissue from the top on the side of the gill cover it shows blood vessels and specialized cells are clearer with the formation of lamellae lets h &e. plate (7): (a) embryo of 6.25 mm in length, (b) a frontal section showing the pb, surrounded by connective tissue from above on the side of the gill cover. the upper side of the gill cover shows blood vessels surrounded by melanin, an increase in the number of specialized cells, lamellae, and cartilage differentiation, (c, d) a frontal section shows the beginning of the false gills. 658 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 651-663. the pseudobranch development plate (8): (a) a frontal section of an embryo, 6.5 mm in length, showing the beginning of the pb, (b, c, d) a frontal section showing the beginning of the pb, surrounded by connective tissue from the top on the side of the gill cover and the bottom opposite the first-gill arch showing blood vessels and specialized cells clearer with the formation of lamellae, and the differentiation of cartilage. h & e. plate (9): (a) a cross-section of an embryo 6.75 mm in length showing the pb, (b) a cross-section showing the pb, surrounded by connective tissue and an increase in thickness from the bottom opposite the first-gill arch showing blood vessels and specialized cells are clearer with the formation of lamellae, and differentiation of cartilage, (c, d) a frontal section showing the pb, specialized cells more visible with lamellae let formation, and cartilage differentiation. 659 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-lehaibe et al. plate (10): (a) embryo of 7.75 mm in length, (b, c, d) a frontal section showing the beginning of the pb, surrounded by connective tissue from the top on the side of the gill cover and an increase in thickness from the bottom opposite the first gill arch showing part of melanin, specialized cells clearer with the formation of lamellae, and the differentiation of cartilage. 660 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 651-663. the pseudobranch development plate (11): (a) a photograph representing a visual newborn (120x), (b, c) a frontal section of a one-day-old newborn showing the beginning of the pseudobranch, surrounded by connective tissue from the top on the side of the gill cover, and its thickness increasing from the bottom opposite the first gill arch showing part of melanin, specialized cells are more evident with lamellae formation, (d, e) cartilage differentiation. conclusions the pb in the eastern mosquito fish embryo is located in the cranial region on both sides of the head, between the respiratory gills and the eyes. by examining of different histological sections from 2-4 mm embryos, revealed the formation of the primordial pb behind the eyes within the tissue of the operculum in front of the gills region. the cells aggregate to form an oval cell mass, surrounded by a row of squamous cells, along with the formation of cartilage, blood vessels and the early development of its lamellae. in 5.25-8 mm embryos, differentiation of pbc, an increase in the number of its lamellae, pbc, and the initial appearance of melanin around the blood vessels were noted. moreover, the pb was surrounded from both the back and front by rows of squamous cells. at this stage the lamellae attached to the cartilage became arranged in parallel, leading to an increased concentration of melanin around the blood vessels in addition to its concentration in the outer part. in 661 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-lehaibe et al. newborns increased cellular differentiation was observed, resembling that of adult fish. as a result, the current study highlights the histological structure of the pseudobranchia in the embryo of mosquito fish. further functional and molecular investigations are needed to confirm its potential role in the immune system. conflict of internests statement "the authors declare there is no conflict of interests related to this work." literature cited bancroft, j. and steven, s. a. 1982. theory and practice of histological technique, 2nd churchill livingston, london, 662 pp. billet, f. s. and wild, a. e. 1975. practical studies of animal development. springer netherlands, morrison cm,, 252pp. carol, m., morrison, c. m., miyake, t. and wright, j. r. 2001. histological study of the development of the embryo and early larva of oreochromis niloticus (pisces: cichlidae). journal of morphology, 247(2): 172-195. [crossref] furgała– selezniow, g., własow, t., wiśniewska, a. m., kujawa, r., skrzypczak, a., woźnicki, p. and jankun, m. 2016. early development of the asp, leuciscus aspius pseudobranch the histological study. turkish journal of fisheries and aquatic sciences, 16(3): 723-728. [crossref] hirschberger, c. and gillis, j. a. 2022. the pseudobranch of jawed vertebrates is a mandibular arch-derived gill. development, 149(13): dev200184. [crossref] laurent, p. and dunel-erb, s. 1984. the pseudobranch: morphology and function. fish physiology, 10(8): 285-323. [crossref] mokhtar, d. m., sayed, r. k. a., zaccone, g., alesci, a. and hussein, m. m. 2023. the potential role of the pseudobranch of molly fish (poecilia sphenops) in immunity and cell regeneration. scientific reports, 13(1): 8665. [crossref] quinn, m. c., veillette, p. a. and young, g. 2003. pseudobranch and gill na+, k+-atpase activity in juvenile chinook salmon, oncorhynchus tshawytscha: developmental changes and effects of growth hormone, cortisol, and seawater transfer. comparative biochemistry and physiology part a: molecular and integrative, 135(2): 249-262. [crossref] rahim, s., mazlan, a., simon, k., delaunoy, j. and laurent, p. 2014. immunocytochemical localization of carbonic anhydrase in the pseudobranch tissue of the rainbow trout oncorhynchus mykiss. journal of zhejiang university-science b, 15: 194-200. [crossref] https://doi.org/10.1002/1097-4687(200102)247:2%3c172::aid-jmor1011%3e3.0.co;2-h http://dx.doi.org/10.4194/1303-2712-v16_3_26 https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=%22author:gillis+ja%22 https://doi.org/10.1242/dev.200184 https://doi.org/10.1016/s1546-5098(08)60188-0 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-34044-8 https://doi.org/10.1016/s1095-6433(03)00067-9 https://doi.org/10.1631%2fjzus.b1200297 662 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 651-663. the pseudobranch development roy, p. k., ghosh, t. k. and dattamunshi, j. s. 1997. the pseudobranch: their structure and function in freshwater teleosts. in: singh, b. r. (ed.) advances in fish research, narendra publishing house, delhi, 2: 81-96. rugh, r. 1968. experimental embryology. burgess publishing com. minnesota, 501pp. santamaría, c. a., marín de mateo, m., traveset, r., sala, r., grau, a., pastor, e., sarasquete, c. and crespo, s. 2004. larval organogenesis in common dentex, dentex dentex l. (sparidae): histological and histochemical aspects. aquaculture, 237(4): 207–228. [crossref] stoskopf, m. k. 1993. fish medicine. w. b. saunders company, philadelphia, mexico, 882 pp. thiruppathy, m., fabian, p., gillis, j. a. and crump, j. g. 2022. gill developmental program in the teleost mandibular arch. elife, 11: e78170. [crossref] waser, w. and heisler, n. 2004. oxygen delivery to the fish eye: blood flow in the pseudobranchial artery of rainbow trout (oncorhynchus mykiss). fish physiology and biochemistry, 30: 77-85. [crossref] wittenberg, j. b. and haedrich, r. l.1974. the choroid rete mirabile of the fish eye. ii. distribution and relation to the pseudobranch and the swimbladder rete mirabile. biological bulletin, 146(1): 137-156. [crossref] https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aquaculture.2004.03.020 https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.78170 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10695-005-0268-3 https://doi.org/10.2307/1540403 663 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-lehaibe et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2025) 18 (3): 651-663. البعوض سمكة في الكاذبة لغالصم الجنيني التكوين gambusia holbrooki girard, 1859 (cyprinodontiformes, poeciliidae) العراق باداد، الجادرية بحيرة في مهدي** قاسم واحمد الشويلي** عبد انتخابحميد ،* اللهيبي عدنان خلود العراق. ديالى ديالى، جامعة الطب، كلية التشريح، *قسم العراق. بغداد، بغداد، جامعة ، الهيثم( )ابن الصرفة للعلوم التربية كلية الحياة، علوم **قسم 2025/6/20 النشر: ،2025/5/5 القبول: ،2025/5/3 ،الراجعة: 2024/9/23 اسستلم: الالصة أسماك في الكاذبة للغلصم الجنيني التكوين دراسة هو الحالي البحث من الهدف القاطع أوضحت حيث ،)gambusia holbrooki girard, 1859( الشرقي البعوض محاطة بيضوية كتلة بهيئة ظهرت بأنها ملم 2-4 بطول للجنة الكاذبة للغلصم النسيجية الغضاريفوالوعية تكوين إلى بالضافة الغلصمي، الغطاء في الحرشفية الاليا بصفمن 25, 5طولها يبلغ التي الجنة في اما الكاذبة. الغلصمية الصفائح تكوين وبداية الدموية في زيادة عن فضل الكاذبة الغلصمية والصفائح الاليا كتلة في ازدياد ظهر فقد 8ملم، الرتفاع يطوق بأنه الحرشفية صفالاليا ظهر كما الدموية، الوعية حول اليلنين ظهور الرتبطة للصفائح التوازي الترتيب يؤدي كما والالف. المام من الاليا كتلة في الجنة وفي الدموية، الوعية حول اليلنين تركيز زيادة إلى الرحلة هذه في بالغضاريف البالغة. السماك في يظهر ما غرار على التمايزة الاليا تتزايد الولدة حديثة bull 981 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2025) 18 (4): 981-996. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2025.18.4.0981 article review global conservation status of houbara bustard chlamydotis undulata (jacquin, 1784) (aves, otidiformes, otididae): a review study khalida i. hasson*, afkar m. hadi* and farah a. j. alzahawi** *iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq **college of medicine, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq corresponding author: afkar@nhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq received: 22 feb. 2025, revised: 9 aug. 2025, accepted: 10 aug. 2025, published:20 december 2025 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract the current review aims to provide the available updated data for houbara bustards chlamydotis undulata (jacquin, 1784) (aves, otidiformes, otididae) after its being listed on the iucn red list as vu vulnerable, and its population has decreased globally. also, it's being transmitted from the gruiformes to the otidiformes order. the current bibliographical study reviewed the most recent references that deal with houbara bustards: nomenclature, morphology, biological features, habitat, reproduction and breeding, migration patterns, global conservation status, hunting, and species status in iraq, by searching in the previous literature. the current study reviewed the references about the global conservation status of the houbara bustard from the last 30 years (1995-2024). the status of the species in iraq is that they are still living in the wild without any protection or breeding stations. it is also exposed to poaching by falconers and smugglers. a total of 105670 nucleotides of chlamydotis were recorded on the ncbi website in various regions of the world, and the most recent recordings were reviewed in the current article. keywords: aves, gruiformes, houbara bustards, otididae, vulnerable. introduction background: previously, the otididae family belonged to the gruiformes order, but recently, it has become part of the otidiformes order (gbif secretariat, 2025). the otididae family includes large or medium birds living in the wilderness and on flat plains. there are 32 species in asia, europe, australia, and africa, the largest share of which is 23 species, including chlamydotis undulata (jacquin, 1784) (billerman et al., 2020). these birds are characterized by a large head that is slightly flat. the neck is thick and medium in length, and the beak's strong, conical shape is shorter than the head and compressed from the top. the tarsus is thick and medium length, and the lower part of the leg bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799, print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2025.18.4.0981 https://orcid.org/0009-0006-9434-9204 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7928-8702 https://orcid.org/0009-0006-0542-5747 mailto:afkar@nhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 982 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 981-996. global conservation status is bare of feathers, with strong feet with three fingers front only to lose the back finger. these fingers are short and wide, and like claws that resemble nails. its feathers are rough and profuse and may be long in some areas of the head and neck (hammer, 2020). the relatively short tail is much shorter than half the wingspan and consists of 16-20 feathers. and there are under the feathers, especially in the chest area silky soft fluff, males are larger than females, and maybe more beautiful feathers (winkler, 2020). by using genetic analysis recently, scientists have identified two species of houbara bustards based on geographical distribution and morphological and behavioral traits, african and asian houbara. the first african extends from north africa to the nile river. the second is the asian houbara or mcqueen houbara, which is found in the east and across asia (dolman et al., 2021). al-sheikhly and al-azawi (2019) revealed that, birds in the mesopotamian marshes were being negatively impacted by pollution, habitat degradation, and climate change in addition to species persecution. hadi et al. (2021) also pointed out the need to develop a strategy to preserve endangered species of birds in iraq. the current review aims make available the updated data for houbara bustards chlamydotis undulata after its being listed on the iucn red list as vu vulnerable, and its population having decreased globally. also, it's being transmitted from the gruiformes to the otidiformes order. materials and methods the current bibliographical study reviewed the most recent references that deal with houbara bustards: nomenclature, morphology, biological features, habitat, reproduction and breeding, migration patterns, global conservation status, species status in iraq, hunting, and molecular studies by searching different references such as books, journals, and theses in elsevier, springer, nature, web of science, google scholar, research gate, ncbi website, and reviewing the museum collection of the inhm. results and discussion taxonomy updates the current study revealed to change in the classification of chlamydotis undulata (jacquin, 1784) as transmitted from gruiformes to otidiformes order as follows: updated classification of chlamydotis undulata according to gbif secretariat (2025) kingdom, animalia phylum, chordata class, aves order, otidiformes family, otididae genus chlamydotis lesson, 1839 species chlamydotis undulata (jacquin, 1784) synonym: psophia undulata jacquin, 1784 983 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hasson et al. morphology the main feature of the houbara is the presence of long tufts of black and white feathers on both sides of the neck. also, there is hazel color with black trimmings (hammer, 2020). the cheeks are brunette, revealing the upper parts of the hazel-colored light decorated with fine black trims and black spots in the front of the back, epaulets, and wing covers. the lower parts are white with a gray tinge in the throat and black dots in the chest (stone, 2008). the five external servers are white, and the outermost third is black. the female is like the male, but the strands are shorter, as well as the feathers of the canal, while the lower parts have some dark trims; the juvenile resembles the female. the iris is light yellow, the beak is dark brown, and the foot is brown (hammer, 2020). the total length of the body is about 65 cm, the wing 355-380 mm for females and 383-430 mm for males, the tail 185-205 mm, the beak 32-42 mm, tarsus 93-105 mm (hadi, 2022). biological features these birds are called desert birds because they bear the scarcity of water and food (tieleman et al., 2002). they are fed on grains, seeds, fruiting and green plants, as well as insects and some reptiles, and given the goodness of their meat and large size; they are considered one of the best hunting birds, and we must work to protect them from extinction. they are known for their extreme caution and so they keep distance from humans and they fight violently to defend themselves. despite the weight of their bodies, they can run on the ground quickly or fly in the air with the perfection of ease and strength. the bustards live alone or in small groups, but they disperse in pairs in the spawning season and put the nests in pits on the ground among the grasses, wild grasses, and chicks from the nest bars, but they remain under the care of parents for a long time until their growth is complete (bourass, 2012). reproduction and breeding males and females only get together during the breeding season, which takes place from december to march, to select a partner. the female departs the males after mating, and throughout the rest of the breeding season, which runs from february to april, both sexes stay alone. the female deposits two or three brown-spotted eggs to blend in with the sandy shallow hole nest. after hatching and being raised by the mother. the chicks can survive independently for up to three weeks throughout the incubation phase. the male houbara does not participate in the process of incubating or rearing the houbara offspring (campbell, 2023). as they feed alongside their mothers, chicks follow them for protection since they are vulnerable to predators including eagles, hawks, foxes, wolves, reptiles, and snakes (combreau et al., 2002). houbara bustard habitat it is mostly prevalent in the canary islands and north africa. the native habitat of the houbara bustard is large, semi-arid areas with sporadic vegetation cover, such as pebblesandy deserts. the houbara's capacity to get the minimal amount of water it requires from plants allows it to survive in arid environments. the houbara prefers scattered shrub plains 984 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 981-996. global conservation status because they can locate insects, rodents, invertebrates, and small vertebrates to eat. additionally, it can use the pebbly sandy soil as camouflage by squatting below the plants to hide from predators (campbell, 2023). migration patterns understanding population dynamics and the structure of migratory species requires knowledge of migration paths and linkages (tourenq et al., 2004). there is a strong correlation with migration on the distribution scale, with a distinct division between the winter zones and migratory routes of eastern and western migrants. combreau (2011) showed that winter regions had a pattern of segregation. however, the relationship is weak at the local level: during the winter, birds that breed inside the borders of our research areas are frequently located hundreds of kilometers away. among all the birds captured and monitored here, winter has not occurred in the arabian peninsula, despite the fact that the arabian houbara's winter season is thought to start in central asia. decades of unchecked development and significant habitat loss in this region are probably to blame. global conservation status both the asian and african houbaras, chlamydotis macqueenii and chlamydotis undulata, are listed as vulnerable on the iucn red list due to overexploitation throughout their entire ranges (iucn, 2025). since 1992, the houbara bustard has been conserved in protected areas in saudi arabia (seddon et al., 1995). combreau et al. (2011) revealed the arabian peninsula's extreme environmental degradation and uncontrolled off-take. since the widespread release of captive-bred birds may damage natural populations through introgression, it is crucial to conserve these endangered animals (dolman et al., 2021). while roy (2019) revealed that finding sustainable initiatives like managed hunting reserves demonstrate the effectiveness of striking a balance between falconry and houbara preservation. the current study reviewed the references about the houbara bustard's conservation status from the last 30 years (1995-2024), as shown in table (1). table (1): data on houbara bustard's state of conservation worldwide during the last 30 years (19952024). conservation status and breeding references the site global status of the houbara no. the release of captive-bred houbara into protected areas seddon et al. (1995) saudi arabia endangered 1 wildlife monitoring goriup (1997) the world near threatened 2 wildlife monitoring lane and alonso (2001) southern spain endangered 3 captured on their breeding grounds combreau et al. (2001) kazakhstan, china, pakistan, uae, afghanistan, iran at risk 4 compression between wildcaught and captive-reared birds. tieleman et al. (2002) saudi arabia vulnerable 5 reproductive population in morales et al. north-western endangered 6 985 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hasson et al. wildlife (2002) spain breeding ground van heezik et al. (2002) saudi arabia endangered 7 trends of the houbara bustard population alonso et al. (2003) spain, madrid threatened with extinction in the near future 8 migration patterns tourenq et al. (2004) pakistan the number has since been reduced to a few hundred birds. 9 breeding grounds of migrant and resident populations tourenq et al. (2005) china, south kazakhstan, oman may face extinction in the wild in the foreseeable future 10 breeding ground hingrat and saint (2005) eastern morocco endangered 11 breeding ground hingrat et al. (2007) morocco endangered 12 captive-breeding carrascal et al. (2008) canary islands, spain endangered 13 small protected areas (pa) dutta et al. (2011) india endangered 14 migration patterns combreau et al. (2011) central asia habitat degradation 15 captive-breeding schuster et al. (2012) canary islands, spain endangered 16 mixed conservation area hardouin et al. (2015) morocco endangered 17 monitoring mortalities in the wildlife burnside et al. (2015) uzbekistan mortalities are increasingly recognized 18 monitoring nests in the wildlife koshkin et al. (2016) uzbekistan unsustainably hunted 19 population viability analysis (pva) to determine the most significant risks and assess the likelihood of quasi-extinction palacin et al. (2016) spain severe population decline 20 conducted population counts and radio-tracked the wildlife palacin et al. (2017) spain mortality during migration may be an important factor 21 the reintroduced population of the captive-bred azar et al. (2018) uae endangered species 22 strike a balance between houbara preservation and falconry roy (2019) uae vulnerable 23 captive-breeding alonso et al. (2019) canary islands, spain endangered 24 captive-bred dolman et al. (2021) eastern morocco globally threatened 25 hunting limits, restricted prisoner breeding, and a decrease in poaching and trapping dolman et al. (2021) in north africa and the middle east vulnerable 26 captive-breeding carrascal (2022) canary islands, spain endangered 27 captive-breeding horreo et al. (2023) southern morocco endangered 28 wild-born harris et al. morocco endangered 29 986 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 981-996. global conservation status captive-breeding (2023) this study demonstrates the importance of extensive mapping of endangered species for efficient ei planning. palacin et al. (2023) spain endangered species 30 captive-breeding abril-colon et al. (2023) canary islands, spain treated species 31 captive breeding ucero et al. (2023) canary islands, spain significant decline 32 captive-breeding alonso et al. (2024) canary islands, spain on the brink of extinction 33 the current study synthesizes conservation trends of the houbara bustard, which changes from “near threatened” to “vulnerable,” due to overhunting and habitat loss. furthermore, the current study highlights literature gaps, such as limited data on migration or breeding success in certain regions. species status in iraq chlamydotis undulata was listed in the systematic list of the vertebrates of iraq by mahdi and georg, (1969). it is a winter visitor bird, as allouse (1960), moore (1957), al-dabbagh (1998), and porter et al. (2010) have shown. one voucher specimen of houbara bustards was preserved in inhm “iraq natural history research center and museum” collected from the middle of iraq (aziziyah road) (hadi, 2022). chlamydotis undulata is still in the wild in iraq without any protection from heavy hunting. there are no protected areas or breeding stations for them. in addition, there is a dearth of research and surveys about it. all data available in iraq is collected in table (2), map (1), and plate (1, 2). table (2): data on the distribution sites of the houbara bustard in iraq. site province local in iraq reference himreen rabea’a ali-garbi nogratt al-salman anbar nineveh missan muthanna west west south south bachmann and chappell (2011) al-dalmaj marsh, al-diwaniya south mohammad (2014) huwaiza marsh missan south alzubaidi et al. (2017) al-dalmaj marsh al-diwaniya south salim et al. (2020) aziziyah road wasit middle hadi (2022) ba'quba diyala middle specimens in the inhm 987 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hasson et al. map (1): the distribution sites of the houbara bustard in wildlife in iraq. [drawing by the first author]. 988 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 981-996. global conservation status plate (1): the voucher study specimen of the chlamydotis undulata in inhm. [photographed by the second author]. plate (2): the female and male of the chlamydotis undulata in inhm. [fe: female, ma: male. photographed by the second author]. houbara hunting according to the iucn red list, middle eastern falconers' traditional houbara hunting practice has drastically decreased populations based on wintering. this overfishing has been made worse by habitat loss and degradation, and the species may be especially affected by habitat degradation brought on by related tourism and development activities, as well as military activities (dolman et al., 2021). 989 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hasson et al. the international fund for houbara conservation (ifhc) protects houbara bustards from extinction by breeding them to conserve them and increase their numbers (ifhc, 2019). since its inception, the fund has succeeded in producing about 400,000 houbara bustards. the national avian research center has conducted extensive scientific research on the environment and migration paths of these birds in their breeding ranges over the past 25 years. this research provided vital environmental information for the conservation of the houbara (ifhc, 2022). in iraq, like its companions in the surrounding countries, the houbara tops the list of game among hunters and falconers. in addition, the houbara bustard is required in the gulf states district for falcon training purposes. so, smugglers use various ways to remove the birds. holding it at night is one of the most common ways to catch houbara bustards in iraq which is done with a hunting rifle, as well as with falcons, these methods (used in the plains of the eastern tigris) are the most dangerous and effective for controlling the houbara bustard population in these areas (the plains of gathering large numbers of migratory houbara). certainly, as this tragic reality continues, we will soon witness the further decline of the threatened houbara bustard in iraq in the coming decades (haba, 2020). houbara status in iraq needs national conservation strategies as is the case with other threatened birds (hadi et al., 2021). molecular studies of chlamydotis undulata between 2002 and 2024, the ncbi website documented 105,670 nucleotides of chlamydotis worldwide (ncbi, 2024). this huge number of recordings revealed the importance of these birds. the current study reviewed the most recent recordings of them, including genes, linear dna, accession number, and references, in table (3). table (3): chlamydotis undulata data of the most recent recordings on the ncbi website. gene linear dna accession number 1 chd gene 325 bp af372010.1 2 mitochondrial cyt specimen voucher 7265 1143 bp aj511450.1 3 b245 cytochrome 1143 bp ay259915.1 4 hap 56 d-loop 768 bp eu439704.1 5 partial d-loop haplotype b274 854 bp aj544568.1 6 cytochrome b (cytb), partial cds 1,042 bp kf137583.1 7 cytochrome b (cytb), specimen voucher 7065 1,143 bp aj511451.1 conclusions according to the iucn red list, chlamydotis undulata is considered vulnerable. due to wintering, middle eastern falconers' custom of houbara hunting has drastically decreased their numbers. because of this overhunting, habitat was lost and degraded. therefore, it has been protected globally in many areas in the last 30 years. also, there are a huge number of recordings on ncbi websites of nucleotides of chlamydotis worldwide that reveal carrying 990 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 981-996. global conservation status out more importance of these birds. more than that, there is no recording of it from iraq. so, we recommend the molecular studies for houbara and recording it in ncbi. houbara bustard chlamydotis undulata is still in the wild in iraq without any protection from heavy hunting. there are no protected areas or breeding stations for them. iraq witnessed the further decline of the threatened houbara bustard iraq for decades. therefore, we recommend conducting a protective area to conserve these important birds, as in neighboring countries. conflict of interest statement the authors announce no conflict of interest concerning the work in the manuscript. literature cited abril-colón, i., alonso, j., ucero, a. and palacín, c. 2023. aplicación de tecnologías gsm/gprs y acelerometría a la ecología espacial de la avutarda hubara. ecosistemas, 32(2): 20-24. 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(2025) 18 (4): 981-996. حالة الحفظ العاملي لطائر الحبارى chlamydotis undulata (jacquin, 1784) (aves, otidiformes, otididae) دراسة مراجعة **فرح عبد الجليل الزهاوي و * أفكار مسلم هادي*، خالدة أبراهيم حسون العراق ،بغداد ،بغدادجامعة -مركز بحوث و متحف التاريخ الطبيعي* جامعة بغداد، بغداد، العراق / كلية الطب** 20/12/2025، النشر: 10/8/2025القبول: ،2025/ 9/8املراجعة: ،22/2/2025االستالم: الخالصة الحبارى طائر عن املحدثة البيانات توفير إلى الحالية الدراسة chlamydotisهدفت undulata (jacquin,1784) لحفظ الدولي لالتحاد الحمراء القائمة في إدراجه بعد باعتباره معرًضا لالنقراض وانخفاض أعداده عاملًيا. كما تم التحديث في تصنيفه ،الطبيعة رتبة من نقله تم حيث رتبة gruiformesالعلمي الدراسة otidiformesإلى استعرضت . التسمية، حيث: من الحبارى طائر تناولت التي املراجع أحدث الحالية الببليوغرافية الحفظ وحالة الهجرة، وأنماط والتكاثر، واملوائل، البيولوجية، والسمات والشكل، العاملية، والصيد، وحالة األنواع في العراق، من خالل البحث في االدبيات السابقة. خالل الحبارى لطائر العاملية الحفظ حالة حول املراجع الحالية الدراسة استعرضت املاضية ) ال تزال تعيش في وتبين أنها (، وحالة األنواع في العراق 2024-1995الثالثين عاًما الجائر من للصيد أنها معرضة اكثار. فضال عن أو محطات أي حماية البرية دون الحياة chlamydotisنيوكليوتيًدا من 105670ة ين واملهربين. تم تسجيل ما مجموعقبل الصقار ت في بنك ncbiموقع على ً التسجيال العالم، وتمت مراجعة أحدث في مناطق مختلفة من في التحريات الحالية. ncbiالجينات bull 629 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum alsalameen and dakrory bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2023) 17(4): 629-653. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2023.17.4.0629 original article application of benthic foraminifera in pollution assessment at miskan island and al-khiran coastline, kuwait m. a. alsalameen*♦ and a. m. dakrory** *the public authority for applied education and training, college of basic education, science department, kuwait. **minia university, faculty of science, geology department, minia, egypt. ♦corresponding author e-mail: mailto:ma.alsalameen@paaet.edu.kw recived date: 03 march 2023, accepted date: 01 august 2023, published date:20 december 2023 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract the biodiversity of benthic foraminifera around the coral communities and the concentration of heavy elements (e.g., mn, fe, cr, cu, ni, pb, zn, cd, and co) in miskan island and al-khiran coastline of kuwait are used as an ecological indicator for the environmental and anthropogenic stresses occurred from february 2018 to february 2019. the study resulted in identifying 19 families, 6 orders, 29 genera, and 94 species. using rmode cluster analysis results in four assemblages and using q-mode principal component analysis (pca) distinguished three groups depending on the deep. the three main assemblages refer to different depths, group a from 20 cm to 1 m depth; group b from 1.5 to 2 m depth, group c from 6 to 8 m depth. al-khiran coastline is characterized by anoxic conditions, confirmed by the existence of pyrite. additionally, high water turbidity because of anthropogenic effects. the low number of benthic foraminifera on miskan island is due to the dissolution and calcification of foraminifera shells. the island characterized by freshwater runoff from iraq meets saltwater in the gulf, affecting the salinity. the turbidity is caused by sediment runoff and eutrophication. both sites were considered relatively unpolluted compared with the nearest iranian coast. however, the relatively high potentially toxic elements in some locations are due to the semi-restricted geographic characteristic and high anthropogenic activity. there is no clear abnormality in the identified species showing normal aperture, coiling, shape, and size. keywords: benthic foraminifera, biodiversity, environment, heavy metals, kuwait pollution. introduction benthic foraminifera are abundant in the bottom sediments of coastal ecosystems and have a short reproductive cycle (murray, 2006, 2014). thus, they are highly sensitive to environmental changes (koukousioura et al., 2011; el-kahawy et al., 2018). benthic foraminiferal assemblages are considered one of the principal and significant tools to bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799-print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2023.17.4.0629 mailto:ma.alsalameen@paaet.edu.kw https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 630 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum application of benthic foraminifera understand the environmental changes, stressors, and conflicts recorded in marine environments (bouchet et al., 2012, 2018, 2020), and used as indicators of climate change and global variability to monitor environmental changes (charrieau et al., 2017; sreenivasulu et al., 2019). a recent benthic foraminifer and its ecology in the persian gulf and the kuwaiti territories have been extensively studied by many authors (e.g., cherif et al., 1997; al-zamel et al., 1998; al-zamel et al., 2009; al-enezi and frontalini, 2015, arslan et al., 2016; amao et al., 2018a; al-enezi et al., 2019, 2020). additionally, the composition of benthic populations, morphological characteristics, diversity, and distribution of species provide valuable data on water salinity, temperature, substrate characteristics, climate, changes in sea level, oxygen, and nutrient availability. in this regard, this work provides insight into the usefulness of benthic foraminifera for environmental regeneration. benthic foraminifera are useful bioindicators for potentially toxic elements (pte) (e.g., alve, 1995; nigam et al., 2006). in contaminated areas, the benthic foraminifera can exhibit a variety of morphological distortions and changes in population composition and species richness (kurbjeweit et al., 2000; du chatelet et al., 2004). sedimentation rates of bottom sediments in the arabian gulf showed marked regional differences depending on offshore morphology and sediment type. bay bottom sediments vary from natural limestone fragments of biological origin and rock fragments derived from beach rocks and submerged coral reefs to allochthonous terrigenous debris brought to the area mainly by storm dust and river deltas in the remote northern regions and along eastern iran (khalaf et al., 1984). the miskan island and al-khiran coastlines are part of the arabian gulf, which is considered a semi-restricted area and allows the precipitation of pollution in some areas. therefore, the distribution and characteristics of the benthic foraminifera and the heavy metal geochemistry from these localities can be used to trace the environmental and climate changes in this part of the world. the main objectives of this study are to (a) study the distribution of foraminifera assemblages and diversity in two localities (miskan island and al-kiran coastline), (b) identify the benthic foraminiferal assemblage to the species level, (c) distribution of monitor, major and trace (fe, mn, cr, cu, ni, pb, zn, co, and cd) in the study areas, and (d) interpret the environmental factors controlling the distribution and species richness of benthic foraminifera. materials and methods two localities, including 8 stations and 35 samples at miskan island to the north and the al-khiran coastline to the south have been studied (map 1) to achieve the objective of this work. miskan island: miskan is a small-uninhabited island in the persian (arabian) gulf (kuwait territorial waters). it is located south of bubiyan island (map 1). it is about 1.2 km long and 800 meters in width (about 0.75 km² area). the study area is bounded by latitude 29° 29′ 9″ n and longitude 48° 15′ 5″ e, about 3.2 km from failaka island. it contains medium to coarse coastal sand with coral reefs at specific depths of about 7-13 m in some places around the 631 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum alsalameen and dakrory island. the northwestern part of the bay is considered a low salinity zone because most of the river's flow into the bay occurs at the northern end, mainly on the iranian side. the gulf receives freshwater inflows from the euphrates and tigris rivers in iraq as well as numerous small seasonal streams flowing through mount zagros in iran (alsharhan and kendall, 2003). the shatt al-arab plain forms the northwest coast and many rivers along the zagros mountains. many terrigenous sediments greatly influence the sediments of the gulf (alsharhan and kendall 2003). several rivers originating in the zagros mountains flow into the bay and are characterized by frequent flash floods, among them the shatt alarab, which pours mud and fine sand. salinity values gradually increase southward and decrease at shatt al-arab due to dilution from freshwater input (sheppard et al., 2010; riegel et al., 2013). al-khiran coastline: the al-khiran area is in the southern part of kuwait, about 100 km south of kuwait city, on the coast of the persian gulf, which is part of a shallow plateau in western mesopotamia. it is bounded by latitudes 28°32'05" to 28°45'n and longitudes 48°15'00" to 48°26'06" e (map 1). al-khiran has a great ecological significance and potential for environmental monitoring and analysis in highly variable environments. map (1): location map for study stations (*). 632 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum application of benthic foraminifera field work: foraminiferal species at bottom sediments and around some coral reefs were collected during several field trips in february 2018 and 2019 from the miskan island and alkhiran coastlines from the tidal and intertidal zones at depths between 20 cm and 8 m away from turbidity. a grape sampler was used for the sampling of bottom sediments (sand or silt). each sample was divided into two parts, one for the foraminifera analysis and the other for the sediment analysis. samples have been transferred into plastic bags and frozen at -4 ᴼc immediately after the sampling to avoid contamination, ecological variables changing, and chemical volatiles. the number of living foraminifera at each locality was used to calculate the indices of species richness (s), dominance (d), shannon-wiener (h′) and homogeneity (e^h/s) using the past v3.12 software package (hammer et al., 2001). principal component analysis (pca) using single value decomposition and hierarchical clustering (hcpc) using ward's agglomeration and euclidean distance have been applied to the sample station’s data. laboratory analyses : to separate the different foraminiferal taxa, the top 10 cm3 of the first split from the collected sediments were socked in a rose bengal solution (2 g/l ethanol) for 2 days to distinguish live from dead foraminifera, then washed and sieved using a 63-μm mesh. the dry residue was divided by an otto-micro-splitter into fractions of which one part (1/4 or 1/8) was fully counted. sediment samples were placed under normal tap water for one hour for cleaning using a 63-μm sieve. part of the samples was dried at 50˚c in an oven for this group analysis. sand fractions were weighed to assess the foraminifera assemblage. the members of this taxon were separated from the top 2 cm of twenty grams of dry-cleaned sediments using a reflected light microscope with magnifications between 40x and 180x. separated foraminifera taxa were preserved in 70 % rose bengal ethanol solution to prevent the degradation of protoplasm and to facilitate the separation of a live (stained) and dead (unstained) cells. geochemistry of the sediments: bulk sediments (5 g) from the miskan island and alkhiran coastlines were dried under a light bulb at low temperatures to avoid heavy metal evaporation. the samples were pulverized to a size of 64µm and analyzed by the research field project unit (rspu) of the university of kuwait for the potentially toxic elements (ptes) content (23 elements, particularly as, al, fe cd, co, cr, cu, v, ni, hg, pb and zn) by inductive plasma optical emission spectrometry (icp-oes) using a modified us epa 3050 preparation protocol. the distribution of heavy metals in the studied samples was influenced by texture, clay minerals, organic matter, iron oxyhydroxide, manganese, and calcium carbonate (salmons and forshtner, 1984). grain-size analysis: grain-size analysis was performed using dry and wet sieving techniques (poppe et al., 2000). approximately 20 g of each sample was carefully weighed and sieved with 1 liter of distilled water on a 63-μm grid. the filtrate was added to 1-liter decanting tubes, and 20 ml (50 g/l) sodium hexametaphosphate was used as the dispersant for each tube to determine the sludge and clay fractions. the residue was then dried and sieved by different mesh sizes. the filtrate was then analyzed for mud and clay contents using the 633 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum alsalameen and dakrory method of poppe et al. (2000). gradistat software was used to determine the grain size distribution and predominant sediment types (blott and pye, 2001). dried samples were sieved using 63 μm, 100 μm, 125 μm, 150 μm, 200 μm, 225 μm, and 250 μm mesh sieves to separate different sizes. samples were separated into a mud fraction (< 63 μm) and a sand fraction (> 63 μm). statistical studies: three hundred living specimens of foraminifera from 10 cm3 sediments were picked out of the > 125-micron fraction. samples were divided, and counts have been calculated for all samples. for quantitative analysis, the number of benthic foraminifera was calculated per individual (>125 µm) in the dry sediment to determine diversity. diversity was determined using the shannon-wiener information equation (buzas and gibson, 1969). the shannon diversity measures the order (or disorder) observed within a particular system (hayek and buzas, 1997). the first set of analyses determined groups of sample sites based on their similarity to foraminifera assemblages. h (s) = -1 ʃ pi ln pi (1) h(s) represents diversity, s is the number of species observed, and pi is the species ratio. the classification concept in this study is mainly based on abbachar and kuhnt (1994), shannon index rule, h (shannon and weaver, 1949) and fisher’s alpha index (fisher et al., 1943) were used to determine species number (richness). s= ln (1 + n/ ) s= the number of taxa n= total number of individuals = total number of individuals evenness e as eh′/s calculated after buzas and gibson (1969). e= evenness/uniformity index h= index of shannonwiener s= the number of taxa taxon dominance was determined using the dominance index (d). the dominance index was calculated according to the simpson (1949) equation. d= 2 d= dominance index ni= number of individual species i n= total number of individuals all calculations were made and performed using past4 v.1.0.0. (hammer et al., 2001) and statistical package (spss, 22) and repeated twice for accuracy and to minimize bias (hammer et al., 2001). all data were tested for normality using the kolomogorvo-smirnov test. the adopted significance level was 95% (α=0.05). clustering and principal component analyses (pca) are based on the ward methods, and euclidean analysis was used as an exploratory analysis to investigate the relationships between foraminifera groups and to investigate the community of the foraminifera assemblage using multiple variables prior to data analysis. the euclidean method was used to construct the square root transform 634 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum application of benthic foraminifera similarity matrices. this variation underestimates the importance of species being so abundant that similarities depend not only on their values but also on the values of "average" species. based on this similarity matrix, q-mode cluster analysis and histograms were constructed. systematic classification of the foraminifera: to identify and classify the foraminifera, the sand fractions (> 63 μm) were investigated by the microscope to check the presence of foraminifera (hallock et al., 2003). then, each sample was examined under the conventional stereo microscope, and the probe was removed with a fine artist's brush moistened with water. individual specimens were placed on a wildlife cardboard microbiology slide, coated with a thin layer of water-soluble glue. the taxonomic identification of foraminifera was carried out following the monographs of cimerman and langer (1991), hottinger et al. (1993), loeblich and tappan (1988, 1994), cherif et al. (1997), hayward et al. (2004), parker (2009), and amao et al. (2016; 2018 a, b; 2019). results and discussion statistical data analysis ninety-four species of foraminifera belonging to 19 families, 6 orders, and 29 genera were identified from the superficial sediments (upper 2-10 cm) of the miskan island and alkhiran coastline. there is no coastlines clear abnormality in our study species. most of the species show normal aperture, coiling, shape, and size (diags. 1-6). the wall types, with decreasing abundance, are transparent (61%), porcelain (32%), and agglomerate (7%). the most abundant genera are quinqueloculina, (6.2%), adelosina (6 %), spiroloculina (5.8. %), asterorotalia (4.1%), triloculina (3.2 %), elphidium (2.9%), ammonia (2.1%), textularia (1.9%). richness (s) reached a maximum of 97 genera on sw miskan island and a minimum of 71 genera on the al-khiran coastline (tab. 1). evenness ranged from 0.83 at miskan to 0.68 at the alkhiran coastline. miskan stations al-khiran stations s o u th w es t m is k n (s m 1 ) (m ) e at m is k an m is k an l o w t id e (l t -m 3 ) s 4 ak h (s 4 b -k h ) (s 5 ak h ) s 5 b -k h a lk h ir an b ea ch s 6 symbols used in pca b c d e f g h i depth (m) 6 8 1.75 2 1.5 1 0.5 0.2 taxa_s 97 95 87 86 84 77 78 71 individuals 1868 2175 1326 868 763 426 472 318 dominance_d 0.01348 0.01407 0.01424 0.01487 0.01627 0.02116 0.02154 0.02646 simpson_1-d 0.9865 0.9859 0.9858 0.9851 0.9837 0.9788 0.9785 0.9735 shannon_h 4.389 4.345 4.329 4.304 4.249 4.071 4.062 3.888 evenness_e^h /s 0.8307 0.8114 0.8723 0.8605 0.8338 0.7615 0.7445 0.6875 table (1): diversity indices. 635 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum alsalameen and dakrory r-mode clustering analysis of the most abundant species revealed three groups related to depth (diag. 1). principal component analysis (pca) suggested that 85.94% of the total variability among the dataset, 76.5% (axis 1-pc1), and 9.3% (axis 2-pc2) on the variability (diag. 2), indicating a clear separation between the groups (tabs. 2, 3). a high number of foraminifera have been observed in the sandy fractions of the investigated sediments. in contrast, a low number was associated with the silt fractions of the investigated sediments, which is consistent with the observations of barbosa et al. (2009). table (2): pc score showing eigenvalue and variance. table (3): final pc score. pc 1 pc 2 pc 3 pc 4 pc 5 pc 6 pc 7 pc 8 b 0.52554 0.014051 -0.18153 0.20312 -0.74075 0.078751 -0.30552 0.033735 c 0.66561 -0.29537 -0.44665 -0.18886 0.45525 -0.005383 0.16464 -0.012529 d 0.37845 -0.020806 0.60764 0.47361 0.29543 -0.33605 -0.21343 -0.13057 e 0.24031 -0.1435 0.51626 -0.12875 -0.22272 0.35639 0.66286 0.15018 f 0.21896 0.37013 0.30979 -0.68219 0.10139 0.21379 -0.44098 -0.057106 g 0.12343 0.44896 -0.046626 -0.16829 -0.093845 -0.65325 0.26293 0.49802 h 0.11337 0.60556 -0.14713 0.13707 -0.007216 0.045436 0.35648. -0.67143 i 0.061318 0.43159 -0.10956 0.41195 0.29667 0.5285 -0.062773 0.50695 relative abundances of the foraminifera: the absolute number of foraminifera per gram of graded bulk sediments was used in this work. generate multiple statistics for each genus that contribute to >90% similarity within each group or differences between groups. the results included mean abundance, mean similarity and standard deviation similarity ratio, percent contribution, and cumulative percentage contribution of each genus. miliolida and rotaliida are the major recorded orders in the studied localities (tab. 4, diag. 3). the recorded species and lower number of benthic foraminifers (tab. 5), was indicated that the al-khiran coastline is characterized by anoxic conditions. the relative abundance of framboidal pyrite in the miskan island also indicates these low oxygen conditions. the rotalina is the most abundant suborder on the al-khiran coastline, whereas the textulariina has the lowest percentage. the low number of foraminifera in the miskan island is due to the dissolution of shells. freshwater runoff from iraq meets saltwater in the gulf, which causes or affects the salinity and calcite materials of the shells. equitability_j 0.9595 0.9541 0.9694 0.9663 0.959 0.9373 0.9323 0.9121 fisher_alpha 21.72 20.28 20.88 23.71 24.09 27.46 26.62 28.38 pc eigenvalue % variance 1 388.639 76.555 2 47.6935 9.3947 3 30.1968 5.9482 4 13.9465 2.7472 5 10.1134 1.9922 6 6.98167 1.3753 7 5.89753 1.1617 8 4.19359 0.82606 636 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum application of benthic foraminifera diagram (1): hierarchical of r-mode cluster analysis (ward's method, euclidean distances as a similarity index) based on the total abundance of the recorded foraminifera species higher than 5%. a a1 c b a2 b2 b1 d d1 d2 637 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum alsalameen and dakrory diagram (2): pca factor plan, variables component (pc1 vs pc2). table (4): identified benthic foraminifera taxa (order, family, genus, and species) distribution. order family genus species astrohizida rhabdamminidae bathysiphon bathysiphon sp. bathysiphon filiformis sars, 1872 lituolida litiolidae ammobaculites ammobaculites agglutinans (d,orbigny, 1826) miliolida cornuspiridae cornouspira cornuspira planorbis (schultze, 1854) cribrolinoididae adelosina adeloisina echinate (d,orbigny, 1826) a. elegans (williamson, 1858) a. duthiersi (schlumberger, 1886) a. granulocostata (germeraad, 1946) a. intricate (terquem, 1878) a. laevigata (d'orbigny, 1826) a. mediterranensis (le calvez & le calvez, 1958) a. partschi (d,orbigny, 1846) a. pullchella (d,orbigny, 1846) a. bicornis (walker & jacob, 1798) a. cliarensis (heron-allen & earland, 1930) a. sidebottomi (rasheed, 1971) a. crassicarinata (collins, 1958) adelosina sp. 638 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum application of benthic foraminifera cycloforina cycloforina contorta (d,orbigny,1846) parrina parrina bradyi (millett, 1898) pseudotriloculina pseudotriloculina sidebottomi (martinotti, 1921) quinqueloculina quinqueloculina disparilis (d'orbigny, 1826) q. tropicalis (cushman, 1924) q. bosciana (d,orbigny,1846) q. bicarinate (d,orbigny, 1878) q. bubiyanensis (shublank, 1977) q. buchiana (d,orbigny, 1846 ) q. crassicarinata (collins, 1958) q. padana (perconig, 1954) q. patagonica (d'orbigny, 1839) q. peregrina (d'orbigny, 1878) q. poeyana (d,orbigny, 1846) q. berthelotiana (d,orbigny11839) q.parvula schlumberger, 1894 q. seminula (linnaeus, 1758) q. venusta (karrer, 1868) hauerinidae triloculina triloculina affinis d,orbigny, 1852 t. barnardi rasheed, 1977 t. littoralis collins, 1958 t. asymmetrica said, 1949 t. rotundata d'orbigny, 1826 t. marioni shlumerger, 1893 t. schreiberiena d,orbigny, 1839 t. tricarinata d,orbigny, 1826 t. trigonula (lamark, 1804) t. terquemiana (brady, 1884) t. plicata terquem, 1878 triloculina sp. triloculinella selene (karrer, 1868) peneroplidiae peneroplis cosinospira peneroplis planatus (fishtel& moll, 1798) p. pertusus (forskal, 1775) cosinospira hemprichii (ehrenberg, 1839) 639 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum alsalameen and dakrory spiroloculinidae spiroloculina spiroloculina angulosa (cushman, 1917) s. depressa (d'orbigny, 1826) s.hadai (thalmann, 1933) s. ornata (d'orbigny, 1839) s. pulchalla (d,orbigny, 1848) s. nummiformis (said, 1949) s. costigera (terquem, 1882) s. communis )cushman and todd 1944) s. cymbium )d'orbigny, 1839( s. dilitata )d,orbigny, 1846( s. excavat )d,orbigny, 1846( s. krumbachi )wiesner, 1911( s. laevigata )cushman & todd 1944( s. nitida )d'orbigny, 1826( s. rotundata (williamson 1858) spiroloculina sp. nodosariida nodosariidae botuloides botuloides pauciloculus (zheng, 1979) rotaliida alabaminidae oridorsalis oridorsalis umbonatus (reuss, 1851) ammoniidae ammonia ammonia beccarii (linnaeus, 1758) a.tepida (cushman, 1926( a. umbonate (leroy, 1944) ammonia sp. asterorotalia asterorotalia dentata (parker and jones,1865) a. milletti (bill et al.,1980) challengerella challengerella bradyi (billmannm hottingerand oesterle, 1980) bolivinitidae bolivina bolivina compacta (sidebottom, 1905) cassidulinidae globocassiidulina globocassidulina spherica (eade, 1967) cibicididae cibicides cibicides refulgens (montfort 1808) c. dispars (d'orbigny, 1839) cibicidoides cibicidoides subhaidingerii (parr, 1950) discorbidae neoeponides neoeponides schreibersii (d'orbigny, 1846) elphidiidae cribroelphidium cribroelphidium poeyanum (d'orbigny, 1839) elphidium elphidium excavatum (terquem, 1875) e. chipolensis (cushman, 1920) e. margariteceum (cushman, 1930) pavoninidae bifarinella bifarinella robusta (sidebottom, 1918) uvigerinidae siphouvigerina siphouvigerina proboscidea (schwager, 186) textulariida textulariidae sahulia sahulia barkeri (hofker, 1978) textularia textularia foliacea (heron-allen and earland, 1915) t. secasensis (lalicker and mcculloch, 1940) t. oceanica (cushman, 1932) t. gramen (d'orbigny, 1846) 640 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum application of benthic foraminifera table (5): number and percentage of species in each order order astrohizida lituolida miliolida nodosariida rotaliida textularii da total no. of species 2 1 65 1 20 5 94 percentage (%) 2.1 1.06 69.14 1.06 21.27 5.31 100% diagram (3): q-mode cluster analysis of the studied samples. dendrogram using ward linkage rescaled distance cluster combine increased sediment runoff and eutrophication have increased the turbidity of the water in the miskan to the point that benthic primary production has halted in some areas. additionally, eutrophication has enhanced water turbidity in al-khiran coastline because of the anthropogenic effects of human life in this area. the total number of foraminifera around miskan island in the northern part of the arabian gulf is higher than that reported by gischler and lomando (2005) and parker and gischler (2015). this might be due to sampling duration, seawater circulation, coral reef distribution, c b a m2m.east swm1 lowtide3 miskan s4b s4a s6 beach sample kh kh s5b s5a 641 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum alsalameen and dakrory and physiochemical parameters around the island, as well as the transported foraminifera from other environments (e.g., frontailini et al., 2017; al-enezi et al., 2019). miskan foraminifera also showed badly preserved dead fauna, indicating a transportation habitat. diversity indices: relative abundance, species diversity, and the number of individuals has been recorded and shown in table (4) and table (5). 97 and 95 species were recorded on swm1-miskan and east miskan-m2, respectively and 71 species was recorded on the s6 sample in the al-khiran coastline. all the studied localities showed a high shannon-h index and evenness. dominance (d) taxon values were nearly zero in all investigated stations. cluster analysis: to identify genera that tend to coexist (i.e., r-mode analysis), a similarity matrix is constructed based on untransformed row-standardized generic data for all taxa present in greater than 5% of the samples (tab. 3 and appendices). the same percentage procedure examines the contribution of individual genera to group segregation, for the observed clustering pattern, or for the difference between a sample set (clarke and warwick, 2001). the same matrix-based cluster analysis plots were used to identify foraminifera assemblages. multivariate and euclidean-distance analyses were conducted using past programs and spss. 22 packages to explain relationships between genera. the dendrogram obtained from the r-mode hca represents the grouping of samples according to the abundance of benthic foraminifera (diag. 2). distinct and high hierarchical level four major clusters (a, b, c and d) have been recognized using the r-mode clustering analysis (diag. 2). each of these groups was subdivided into two subgroups (i.e., a1, a2, b1, b2, c and d1, d2) that included very similar samples. the dominant species characterizing the four clusters were recognized using the species distribution index of the arabian gulf area and worldwide. cluster a: cluster a includes two subclusters, namely, a1 and a2. assemblage a1 is dominance by cosinospira hemprichii, elphidium margariteceum, e. chipolensis, triloculina sp., t. rotunda, t. tricarinata, t. terqueemiana, t. marioni, t. schreiberiana, t. selene, t. plicata, peneroplis planatus, neoeponides schreibersii, cribroelphidium poeyamum. assemblage a2 is dominated by bolivina compacta, cibicidoides subhreibersii, textularia secasensis, t. oceanica, t. foliacea, t. gramen, botuloides pauciloculus, bathysiphon sp., b. filiformis, bifarinella robusta, pseudotriloculina sidebottomi, ammonia beccarii, a. tepida, ammonia sp., a. umbonate, ammobaculites agglutinaus, sahulia barkeri, parrina bradyi, cribroelphidium sp., cibicidoides sp. and globocassidulina spherica these species were reported to be intolerant of environmental stress, especially bottom oxygen deficiency (van der zwaan, 1983). bolivina species have shallow microhabitats in the fauna and are adapted to live in low oxygen-depleted environments in the bottom and interstitial waters, and with moderate eutrophication (murray, 1991; schmiedl et al., 2003). cluster b: assemblage b1 of this cluster includes spiroloculina nummiformis, s. hadai, s. angulosa, s. pulchalla, s. ornate, s. krumbachi, while assemblage b2 consists of s. cymbium, s. nitida, s dilitata, s. laevigata, s. rotundata, s. costigera, s. excavata, and s. communis. 642 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum application of benthic foraminifera cluster c: the association of this cluster consists of asterorotalia dentata, a. milletti, quinqueloculina parvula, q. berthelotiana, q. seminula, q. peregrina, q. crassicarinata, q. padana, q. poeyana, q. patagonica, q. venusta, q. bosciana, q. disparilis, q. tropicalis, q. buchiana, q. bicarinata, q. bubiyanensis. adelosina echinate, a. elegans, a. duthiersi, a. granulocostat, a. intricate, and spiroloculina depressa. these taxa prefer shallower aquatic microhabitats (murray, 1991). cluster d: the d1 cluster association is dominated by adelosina sp., cycloforina contorta, e. excavatum, e. margariteceum, t. asymmetrica, e. chipolensis. whereas the d2 cluster consists of a. laevigata, a. mediterranensis, a. pullchella, a. partschi, a. bicornis, a. sidebottom, a. cliarensis, a. crassicarinata, t. barnardi, cibicides refulgens, c. dispars, challengerella bradyii, t. littoralis, cibicides sp., t. affinis, and ordiosalis umbonatus. principal component analysis and bivariate correlation: the first two axes of the principal component analysis (pca) explain 85.94% of the total variation in the data set (tab. 6). this percentage is relatively high, and therefore, the foreground will represent the variability of the data. in pca, the first axis (76.5%) is positively related to miskan west b (sw-m1), f (s4b-kh) and negatively related to the low tide pattern from miskan d (low tide-3) (-1) m2 miskan east c (-7.5), e (-3) (s4a-kh). the first axis is positively related to the distribution of quinquloculina disparilis, spiroloculina krumbachi, s. costigera, s. rotundata, s. cornata, s. pulchalla, s. costigera, bathysiphon sp., b. filiforuis, elphidium chipolensis, e. margariteceum, textularia, foliacea, t. secasensis, bifarinella robusta, botuloides pouciloculus, triloculina plicata, q. poeyana, elphidium margariteceum, e. excavatum, textularia foliacea, bifarinella robusta. while it is negatively related to cibicides dispars, c. refulgens, adelosina echinate, a. elegans, astrorotalia milletti, a. dentate, chanllengerella baradyii, quinquloculina berthelotiana, q. seminula, q. tropicalis, spiroloculina sp., eliphidium exacavatum, elph. chipolensis, triloculina barnardi, cyclotorina contorta, cibicidoides subhaidingerii, ammonia beccarii, a. umbonate, and ammonia sp. the second axis explains 9.3 % of the variance, which is positively related to the al-khiran coastline samples (s5b-kh), and s6 and negatively related to s4akh and east miskan samples (m2). this axis is also positively related to spiroloculina dilitata, s. laevigata, s. nitida, s. hadai, s. excavata, coscinospira hemperichii, neoeponides schreibersii, cribroelphidium poeyamum and negatively related to adelosina pullchella, a. crassicarinata, and elphidium excavate (diag. 2). q-mode clustering analysis (diag. 3) confirmed three predominant groups (a, b, and c). the three distinctive facies express the following: group a, s5a, s5b, and s6 represent a shallow sea condition ranging from 20 cm to 1 m depth. group b ranges from 1.5 m to 2 m showed gradient and slightly deeper conditions. group c defined a deeper well-acquainted sample out of 6 in imitation of 10 m. the anoxic conditions and lower number of benthic foraminifers characterize the lowermost part of the al-khiran coastline (diag. 4). 643 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum alsalameen and dakrory diagram (4): order percentage %. heavy metals: heavy elements are introduced into the environment through various pathways such as fusion, fuel combustion, and industrialization. they find their way into the arabian gulf through atmospheric fallout, dumping, accidental leaks, earth system flows, anthropogenic activities, and geological changes (al-yousuf et al., 2000). several studies have been conducted on the concentrations of heavy metals at different locations in the arabian gulf and kuwait territorial water (al-arfaj and alam, 1993; fowler et al., 1993; alabddali et al., 1996; saeed et al., 1999; nigam et al., 2006; al-enezi, 2002, 2015, 2020). table (1) shows the distribution of hg in the studied areas, while table (6) shows the concentration values for ag, al, as, ba, ca, cd, co, cr, cu, and fe. tables in the appendices show the concentration values of k, mg, mn, na, ni, pb, sb, se, ti, v, and zn in the sediments. these tables revealed that hg showed a similar pattern in the investigated areas. high concentrations of hg were recorded in sw-m1 and m-2 from the miskan island (table 1). a high concentration pattern was recorded for arsenic (as) in samples s-6, s-5, b, and constant pattern of < 0.01 in the rest of the samples. high cd, pb, se, v, be, cd, co, cr, cu, fe, zn, ni, mg, k, al, and ba concentrations were reported in sample m-2 (diag. 6). high al, k, mg, mn, and ni contents were recorded in stations m-2 and s-6. low cd, cu, pb, and v concentrations have been reported in stations sw-m1 and the al-khiran coastline (diag. 6). analyzed samples show similar ca contents except sample s-5a which exhibits a relatively low ca concentration (diag. 7). 644 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum application of benthic foraminifera table (6): location, total organic matter, and percentage of size fraction studied sediment samples. locality sediment type tom (%) > 500 500–250 250–125 125– 63 < 63 swm1 muddy sand 1.765 8.23 40 39.49 8.91 2.37 east miskan muddy sand 1.686 7.65 42.97 40.37 5.99 2.89 lt-m-3 muddy sand 1.652 8.11 40.21 39.97 8.42 2.30 s4a-kh sand 0.455 60.38 20.8 10.54 7.10 1.68 s4b-kh sand 0.220 62.99 18.71 12.44 6.71 0.55 s5a-kh sand 0.306 61.19 18.44 12.21 7.11 0.70 s5b-kh sand 0.175 60.10 19.10 11.77 7.81 0.84 al-khiran beach s6 muddy sand 1.512 8.20 42.61 39.11 7.18 2.91 diagram (5): as, be, cd, co, cr, cu, ni, pb, sb, v, and zn profiles in studied stations. all trace elements are shown as ratios to ppm/wt% . stations r at io i n p p m /w t% 645 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum alsalameen and dakrory diagram (6): al, ba, fe, k, mg, mn, na, se, as, be, cd, co, cr, ni, pb, sb, v and zn profiles in studied stations. all trace elements are shown as ratios to ppm/wt%. diagram (7): ca concentrations in ppm. c o n ce n tr at io n ( p p m ) 317133.33 312533.33 323666.67 354533.33 354500 179800 325333.33 237750 0 50000 100000 150000 200000 250000 300000 350000 400000 c o n ce n tr at io n s (p p m ) stations r at io i n p p m /w t % stations 646 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum application of benthic foraminifera grain-size distribution and total organic matter: the grain size analysis showed a predominance of coarse sand, fine sand, silt, and clay. the studied sediments consist of about 70.75% sand in most of the studied area. silt and clay compositions were recorded at average 25.25% and rare shell fragments at average 4%. the coarse sand part increased towards the sea in the al khiran samples; while the fine part (mud and clay) increases around the miskan island samples and decreases in the al khiran station (tab. 6). the total organic matter (tom) is higher in the miskan samples with an average of 1.70 % compared to the al khiran samples (average of 0.54 %). conclusions sediment samples have been collected from the miskan island al-khiran coastline in kuwait to examine the environmental factors controlling benthic foraminifera’s distribution and species richness. based on the quantitative analysis of the benthic foraminiferal assemblages in these sediments, 19 families, 6 orders, 29 genera, and 94 species were recorded. the quantitative distribution of the benthic foraminifera around the coral reefs varied from miskan island to al-khiran coastline suggesting strong environmental changes and productivity. the highest diversity of the benthic foraminiferal assemblages in the miskan island is due to the high nutrient quantity that comes from shatt al-arab through the drainage system and the coral reefs around the island. another indication of a slight increase in oxygen in the miskan island is the increased diversity and presence of benthic taxa such as eponides sp. and laevidentalina sp., which appear to be tolerant of bottom aquifer oxygen depletion and high organic matter flows. the relative abundance of the framboidal pyrite in the miskan island also confirms this. the high foraminifera richness recorded at miskan west may be the result of the presence of high-quality organic matter trapped in the sediments and derived from shatt al-arab. deformities and foraminifera preservation in the miskan island are due to the dilution from the influence of the freshwater of shatt al-arab in the north. q-mode clustering analysis of the studied samples pointed out that the different locations and depth gradients are the main factors that affected the differences in foraminifera assemblages. the data indicates that heavy metals and pte concentrations observed in the studied stations were within the range of normal standard values reported for unpolluted marine areas and with the sediment quality guidelines. in general, the studied stations revealed the high diversity, low turbidity, and good oxidation of the surface bottom sediments, and the pte concentrations in the sediments are within the range of published background values for similarly uncontaminated areas west of the arabian gulf. there is no clear abnormality in the identified species, and most species show normal aperture, coiling, shape, and size. acknowledgments the authors acknowledge and thank the public authority for applied education and training (paaet) for the financial support of this project, grant no. be 12-13. the authors would also like to acknowledge the research sector projects unit (rspu) at kuwait university for the geochemical analysis of the studied 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[crossref] simpson, e. 1949. measurement of diversity. nature, 163:688. [click here] sreenivasulu, g., praseetha, b. s., daud, n. r., varghese, t. i., prakash, t. n., jayaraju, n. 2019. benthic foraminifera as potential ecological proxies for environmental monitoring in coastal regions: a study on the beypore estuary, southwest coast of india. marine pollution bulletin, 138: 341-351. [click here] van der zwaan, g. j. 1983. quantitative analyses and the reconstruction of benthic foraminiferal communities. utrecht micropaleontological bulletin, 30: 49-69. [click here] appendices appendix (1): test results of hg analysis. all the results are given in ppb. sample id hg in ppb sw-m1 0.0200 m-2 0.0217 s-4 a 0.0163 s-4 b 0.0120 s-5 b 0.0142 s-6 0.0119 low tide-3 0.0135 appendix (2): test results of metal analysis. all the results are given in mg/kg (ppm). sample id ag al as ba be ca cd sw-m1 <0.01 467.70 <0.01 8.60 0.37 317133.33 0.10 m-2 <0.01 1237.67 <0.01 22.07 0.50 312533.33 0.60 low tide-3 <0.01 377.70 <0.01 14.20 0.10 323666.67 0.00 s-4 a <0.01 239.40 <0.01 20.80 0.10 354533.33 0.00 s-4 b <0.01 234.20 <0.01 20.60 0.10 354500.00 0.00 s-5 a <0.01 140.10 <0.01 4.23 0.10 179800.00 0.00 s-5 b <0.01 369.20 0.53 8.37 0.13 325333.33 0.10 s-6 <0.01 727.77 1.60 13.77 0.10 237750.00 0.10 appendix (3): test results of metal analysis. all the results are given in mg/kg (ppm). sample id k mg mn na ni pb sb se tl v zn sw-m1 396.67 4796.67 40.00 3190.00 3.03 <0.01 1.53 16.43 <0.01 2.17 6.97 m-2 716.67 12873.33 110. 4183.33 6.87 0.60 1.00 51.83 <0.01 11.73 17.00 low tide3 506.67 1633.33 10.00 3866.67 2.53 <0.01 0.83 4.87 <0.01 2.30 5.40 s-4 a 530.00 4850.00 20.00 4103.33 1.77 <0.01 1.43 3.50 <0.01 1.50 3.90 s-4 b 606.67 4756.67 20.00 4420.00 1.63 <0.01 0.80 3.53 <0.01 1.30 3.63 s-5 a 536.67 3476.67 20.00 3383.33 1.07 <0.01 0.63 4.00 <0.01 1.13 3.53 s-5 b 696.67 6883.33 36.67 4930.00 2.47 <0.01 1.07 9.10 <0.01 2.77 6.03 s-6 756.67 7810.00 56.67 4020.00 4.33 <0.01 1.23 15.77 <0.01 4.13 6.63 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2009.10.017 https://www.nature.com/articles/163688a0 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2781-0463 https://dspace.library.uu.nl/bitstream/1874/205889/1/utrecht+micropaleontological+bulletins-30-meulenkamp.pdf https://dspace.library.uu.nl/bitstream/1874/205889/1/utrecht+micropaleontological+bulletins-30-meulenkamp.pdf 653 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum alsalameen and dakrory bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2023) 17(4): 629-653. تقييم التلوث في جزيرة مسكان وساحل لنيفرا القاعية ملفوراا تطبيقات الكويت ،الخيران **أحمد محمد دكروري و *منى عايش السالمين .الكويت الهيئة العامة للتعليم التطبيقي والتدريب كلية التربية األساسية قسم العلوم،* .يا، جمهورية مصر العربيةجامعة املنيا، كلية العلوم، قسم الجيولوجيا، املن** 20/12/2023، تأريخ النشر: 1/8/2023القبول: ، تأريخ 3/3/2023تأريخ االستالم: الخالصة crو feو mnاستخدم التنوع البيولوجي للفورامنيفرا القاعية وتركيز املعادن الثقيلة مثل زيرة مسكان و ساحل حول الشعاب املرجانية حول ج coو cdو znو pbو niو cuو الخيران في الكويت كمؤشرعلى الجهاد البيئي والذي ينتج من نشاط االنسان في الفترة بين فبراير .انوع 94و اجنس 29رتبة و 6عائلة شملت 19تم التعرف على 2019الى فبراير . 2018 ستخدام ( للفورامنيفرا أربع مجموعات، بينما نتج عن اrنتج عن استخدام التحليل ) ( ثالث مجاميع رئيسية وقد استخد م عمق املاء كعامل للمقارنة. وكانت املجاميع pcaالتحليل ) متر، و مجموعة 1 –سم 20تمثل فورامنيفرا تعيش بعمق يتراوح بين (أ)كالتالي، مجموعة اني متر. يع 8 6-متر . أما مجموعة )ج( تعيش باملياه العميقة من 2 –1.5)ب( تعيش بعمق بين وكسجين بدليل وجود البيريت في الرواسب. وأيضا يعاني األ ساحل الخيران من نقص في تركيز ع سبب قلة عدد أما في جزيرة مسكان فيرج من التخثث بسبب املخلفات البشرية. ط املياه العذبة من ال الفورامينيفرا الى تكلس وتحلل هياكلها. حيث تتميز جزيرة مسكان باخت ه املالحة من الخليج مما يؤثر على ملوحة املياه وأيضا جرف الرواسب وتعكر العراق مع امليا املياه بسبب النشاط البشري. وتعتبر املنطقتين خاليتين من التلوث باملعادن الثقيلة عند مقارنتها مع تركيز هذه املعادن في أقرب شاطئ لها في ايرن. ولكن اأملر ال يخلو من وجود مواد ضافة الى أثر األ في بعض املواقع و يعزي هذا الى أن املنطقة جغرافيا شبة مغلقة بعالية السمية لم تسجل أي تشوهات في الفورامنيفرا التي تم التعرف عليها، أغلبها كان له النشاط البشري. فتحة الفم، و الشكل و الحجم و اتجاه لفة هيكل طبيعي. bull 349 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hassan and hamdy bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2023) 17 (3): 349-373. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2023.17.3.0349 original article comparative study on trichomes types of wild species of solanum l., 1753 (solanales, solanaceae) in egypt and its taxonomic significance rania a. hassan* and rim hamdy **♦ *botany and microbiology department, faculty of science, cairo university, egypt. **department of botany, faculty of science, the herbarium, cairo university, giza, egypt. ♦ corresponding author: rhamdy@sci.cu.edu.eg recived date: 03 november 2022, accepted date 09 january 2023, published date:20 june 2023 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract trichomes are extensions of the epidermis, frequently used as diagnostic traits for determining plant species. solanum l., 1753 is a widespread and taxonomically complex genus. although the genus solanum has been the subject of numerous types of research, little attention has been given to the trichomes of the wild species found in egypt. therefore, the objective of the current study was to examine trichome types in ten wild solanum species and assess their taxonomic importance. using light, scanning electron microscopy and line drawings, indumentum characteristics on the abaxial leaf surface are investigated. the results showed a wide range of variation in trichome density on a 1mm2 area of leaf blade (sparse, moderate, and dense), nature (glandular or non-glandular, simple or stellate), and structure (number of composing cells in simple non-glandular and glandular stalk and head; the number of radiating rays in stellate hairs). sem revealed the existence of unique wax structures, including warty granules in addition to flakes. our observations are consistent with the general characteristics of the subgenus leptostemonum and the subgenus solanum. this work provides strong evidence for the separation and interspecific delimitation of the investigated solanum species using trichome morphology as a significant taxonomic trait. keywords: glandular, non-glandular, scanning electron microscopy, solanum, trichomes introduction almost all plant species possess some kind of hair-like epidermal structures; these structures are commonly referred to as trichomes when found on a plant's aerial parts. trichomes are extensions of the epidermis and are not a part of the plant's vascular system. (wagner et al., 2004). they have a remarkably wide range of shapes, sizes, and densities within each species. as a result, they are frequently used as diagnostic traits to identify different plant species (seithe and sullivan, 1990; van dam et al., 1999; reis et al., 2002; adedeji et al., 2007; kang et al., 2010; nurit-silva and fatima agra, 2011; glas et al., 2012; munien et al., 2015; talebi et al., 2018). bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799-print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2023.17.3.0349 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0253-0972 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7777-693x mailto:rhamdy@sci.cu.edu.eg https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 350 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum comparative study on trichomes types trichomes and epidermal features are the main foliar adaptations in response to specific environments (li et al., 2011). generally, trichomes are classified into glandular and nonglandular (werker, 2000). both types have been well-documented to protect plants from abiotic pressures like uv radiation, dehydration, extreme temperatures, and herbivore damage (li et al., 2018; oksanen, 2018; kaur and kariyat, 2020 a, b; watts and kariyat, 2021), either by the chemical products in their glandular heads or by their sturdy structure (karabourniotis et al., 2019; tang et al., 2020). trichomes can also decrease leaf wettability and keep the epidermis dry for better gas exchange (hess and falk, 1990; brewer and smith, 1997; brewer and nuñez, 2007; huangfu et al., 2009). hayat et al. (2009) and dipa and daniel (2011) revealed how foliar trichomes in acanthaceae and asteraceae have taxonomic importance. celep et al. (2011) revealed the importance of lamium (l., 1753) species' trichome micromorphology. the family solanaceae (juss., 1789) includes 90 genera with about 3000-4000 species distributed in warm and temperate parts of the globe (knapp et al., 2004). it contains a variety of economically significant vegetable species that are also employed as biological model systems. solanum (l., 1753) is the largest and most complex genus in the family, with around 1235 species according to powo (2020), found in tropical and subtropical parts of the americas, africa, and australia (bohs, 2005; eskandari et al., 2019). among the angiosperms, the diversity of solanum is highly displayed by the morphological plasticity of its vegetative organs (roe, 1972; frodin, 2004). this morphological plasticity with the high species number has resulted in a very complex taxonomy of the genus, being a challenge for many taxonomists (weese and bohs, 2007). d'arcy (1972, 1991) divided genus solanum into seven subgenera: archaesolanum, bassovia, brevantherum, leptostemonum, lyciosolanum, solanum and petota, with numerous sections and series. lester et al. (2011) modified d'arcy’s system of classifying species growing in africa and divided solanum into five subgenera: lyciosolanum, solanum, petota, brevantherum and leptostemonum. the previous divisions were mainly based on the morphological characters. the trichomes morphology of solanum species was originally described by luckwill (1943) and revised later by channarayappa et al. (1992) then simmons and gurr (2005). eight different types of trichomes were distinguished based on their length, number of stalk cells and basal cells, and the absence or presence of glands. many studies have used the great diversity of trichomes in solanum as diagnostic characters for the systematics of the genus, and for specific and infrageneric delimitation (peiffer et al., 2009; weinhold and baldwin, 2011; burrows et al., 2013; sampaio et al., 2014; kariyat et al., 2018). according to boulos (2002) solanum species are herbs, shrubs, climbers without tendrils, or small trees. leaves are alternate, often paired, entire or irregularly toothed or divided. calyx is campanulate or rotate, with five segments. corolla is usually rotate, with five lobes. filaments are very short. stamens are five in number. anthers are with apical pore. ovary 2-loculled, with numerous ovules. fruit is spherical variously-colored berry, with numerous compressed seeds. 351 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hassan and hamdy in egypt, nine wild solanum species are present (boulos, 2009), belong to two subgenera. subgenus leptostemonum with six species, namely: s. coagulans (forssk., 1775), s. elaeagnifolium (cav., 1795), s. forskalii (dunal, 1813), s. incanum (l.,1753), s. schimperianum (hochst., 1841), and s. virginianum (l., 1753). subgenus solanum with three species, namely: s. nigrum (l., 1753), s. sinaicum (boiss., 1849), s. villosum (mill., 1768). shaheen et al. (2004) has recorded solanum diphyllum (l., 1753) as a new species for the egyptian flora. the later species also belongs to subgenus solanum. despite the many studies interested in the micromorphological features of the genus solanum, little attention was paid to the trichomes of wild species in egypt. therefore, the present study aimed to evaluate different trichome types in wild solanum species and their taxonomic significance. materials and methods collection of plant material: leaf samples for ten studied taxa were chosen from revised authenticated voucher specimens collected from their natural habitats of different localities, or from fresh samples newly collected, preserved and kept in cairo university herbarium (cai). the examined representative species are recorded in table (1), with the collector, date of collection and their distribution according to the phytogeographical territories of egypt proposed by el hadidi (2000). the nomenclature and identification were made according to linnaeus (1753), miller (1768), forsskål (1775), cavanilles (1795), dunal (1813), hochstetter (1841) and boissier (1849). preparation of leaves for light microscopy (lm): the leaf samples were examined with a light microscope model number amscope m150c-i at magnification 40x-1000x. preparation of leaves for scanning electron microscope (sem): the samples were examined with a dissecting microscope under diffuse light and then prepared for scanning electron microscope (sem) studies. the adaxial surfaces of the leaf were fixed using doublesided adhesive tape and then attached to the labelled stubs. each sample was coated with gold/ palladium in a vacuum evaporator and examined by jeol-jsm 5500 lv scanning electron microscopy accelerated by a voltage of 20 kv in the sem unit at the regional center of mycology, and biotechnology, al azhar university, cairo, and jeol jsm 5400 lv scanning electron microscopy accelerated by a voltage of 15 kv at the electron microscopy unit (emu) in assiut university, egypt. morphological examination: the general characteristics of trichomes were investigated and summarized in table (2). the trichome density on a 1 mm2 area of leaf blade was determined as sparse (< 300), moderate (300-600), or dense (> 600). nature (glandular or non-glandular, simple or stellate) and structure (the number of composing cells in simple non-glandular trichomes and glandular stalk and head; the number of radiating rays in stellate hairs) were determined. length of various trichome types was measured depending on the length of spikes from base to apex in non-glandular trichomes; length of trichome from base to head apex in glandular trichomes; length of lateral rays till the center of central ray in stellate trichomes. standard deviation was calculated for all measurements. line drawings were made by the author to clear fine details that are not visible in sem photos. 352 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum comparative study on trichomes types terminology: in this work, the terminology of knapp et al. (2017), and watts and kariyat (2021) for trichomes were adopted. table (1): list of the studied solanum species examined in the present study along with voucher specimens and fresh collecting materials. no. species voucher specimens 1 s. coagulans forsk. r: mersa halaib, 21.1.1929; gunnar täckholm s.n. (cai). 2 s. diphyllum l. nv: giza, research institute of vegetables and aromatic plants, dokki, 20.4.2017; m. mahdy s.n. (cai). 3 s. elaeagnifolium cav. m: el-arish, near garada railway station, 11 km north, 29.41955, l. boulos s.n. (cai). 4 s. forskalii dunal ge: 23-27.1.1929, collected during the excursion of the botanical department of the egyptian university, m. t. hefnawy & g. täckholm s.n. (cai); wadi aak. 27.1.1962, v. täckholm, m. kassas, h. fawzy, f. shalaby, m. samy, m.a. zahran (cai). 5 s. incanum l. nn: kom ombo, near the temple, 21.1.1927, g. täckholm s.n. (cai); ge: 1932, m. drar s.n. (cai). 6 s. nigrum l. nv: tal elruba, 18 km north of senbellawin, 21-24.7.1977; a. elgazzar s.n. (cai); cairo university garden, 14.8.2022; r. hamdy s.n. (cai). 7 s. schimperianum hochst. sudan: ekwit, red sea hills, gebl sila, 6.2.1938, m. drar 371 (cai). 8 s. sinaicum boiss. s: gebel el deir near the monastery of st catherine, 11.5.1956, v. täckholm s.n. (cai). 9 s. villosum mill. nn: silwa bahri, between kom ombo and edfu, 29.6.1967, m.n.el hadidi & s.i.ghabbour s.n. (cai); nv: giza: faculty of pharmacy farm, 4. 2014, m. mahdy s.n. (cai); cairo university garden, 24.10.2022; r. hamdy s.n. (cai). 10 s. virginianum l. sudan: kordofan, melbeis, 1875; j.-h. zarb 404 (cai). results and discussion trichomes play an important role in plant defense against various biotic and abiotic stresses (radcliffe, 1982; radcliffe and ragsdale, 2002; pompon et al., 2010). many studies have represented the trichomes features on epidermal surfaces as being important classification criteria (rollins and shaw, 1973; adedeji et al., 2007), and have long been used in delimiting species, genera, or families (cantino, 1990; benitez and ferrartto, 2009; hayat et al., 2009; shaheen et al., 2009; ajmal and al hemaid, 2011; saheed and illoh, 2010; kemka and nwachukwu, 2011; adedeji, 2012; al sheef et al., 2013; khosroshahi and salmaki, 2019). the trichomes were employed by rao and ramayya (1977) to distinguish the two malvastrum (a. gray, 1849) species in india. similarly, the structure, ontogeny, and taxonomic importance of trichomes in the family cucurbitaceae were described by inamdar et al. (1990). moreover, the species of leucas (r. br., 1810) from asia and africa were divided by mannethody and purayidathkandy (2018) by using the differences in capitate trichomes. 353 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hassan and hamdy the morphology of the trichomes in solanum has taxonomic significance at both the generic and specific levels (seithe, 1962, 1979; roe, 1972; mosaferi et al., 2021; kumar et al., 2017; watts and kariyat, 2021). the different types of trichomes formerly described by luckwill (1943) and revised by channarayappa et al. (1992) aimed mainly to limit the diversity of trichomes to glandular and non-glandular types. although, this fundamental classification is unable to account for the vast differences between subtypes of glandular and non-glandular trichomes (watts and kariyat, 2021). in this work, the trichome morphology on the abaxial surface of ten wild solanum species in egypt has been well characterized using a scanning electron microscope (sem). the micromorphological investigation of the studied species showed a wide range of variations in trichome density, nature, and structure (tab. 2). both non-glandular and glandular trichomes were evidenced in the studied species. the non-glandular trichomes were simple or stellate with a varied number of rays, while the number of cells in the stalk and head of the glandular trichomes varied. the genus solanum and other solanaceae members are characterized by the presence of glandular trichomes except for nicotiana glauca (graham, 1828) and solandra nitida (sw., 1787) as reported by maiti et al. (2002). among the studied species, the non-glandular stellate trichomes were found in s. coagulans (pl. 1a, 1b), s. elaeagnifolium (pl. 1g, 1h), s. forskalii (pl. 1j, 1k), s. incanum (pl. 2a), s. schimperianum (pl. 2j) and s. virginianum (pl. 4d, 4e), while absent in s. diphyllum, s. nigrum, s. sinaicum and s. villosum. these results agree with the general characteristics of subgenus leptostemonum (dunal) bitt. (s. coagulans; s. elaeagnifolium; s. forskalii; s. incanum; s. schimperianum; s. virginianum) which characterizes by the presence of stellate hairs and those of subgenus solanum (l.) seithe (s. diphyllum, s. nigrum, s. sinaicum, and s. villosum) which characterizes by the absence of stellate hairs (edmonds, 1982; seithe and anderson, 1982; bohs, 1994). however, the density, number, and nature of radiating rays exhibit significant variations among these taxa (tab. 2). the stellate trichomes appear dense forming mat-like covering over the leaf surface in s. coagulans (pl. 1b), s. elaeagnifolium (pl. 1g), s. forskalii (pl. 1j) and s. incanum (pl. 2a), moderate in s. virginianum (pl. 4c), while sparse in s. schimperianum (pl. 2j). the dense mat of stellate trichomes acts as a bio-shield against the stresses (wagner et al., 2004). 354 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum comparative study on trichomes types table (2): detailed micromorphological characterization of trichomes on the abaxial leaf surface of the studied solanum species. species trichome types line drawing trichome density (avg. number / cm2)* trichome length (μm) ± st. deviation s. coagulans (pl. 1a-c) 1. non-glandular, porrect-stellate, multiradiate, sessile/ stalked, with 6-8 (9) subulate rays and short central ray. dense 50-205 ± 50.04 2. glandular with unicellular stalk and unicellular globular head. moderate no data 3. glandular with unicellular stalk and bicellular globular head. moderate no data 4. glandular with unicellular stalk and multicellular globular head. moderate no data s. diphyllum (pl. 1d-f) 1. glandular with unicellular stalk and unicellular globular head. sparse no data 2. glandular with unicellular stalk and large multicellular doliform head. sparse 19-68 ± 24.41 3. non-glandular, simple multicellular, with obtuse apex. sparse 75-85 ± 7.07 355 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hassan and hamdy s. elaeagnifolium (pl. 1g-i) 1. non-glandular, porrect-stellate, multiradiate, multiangulate, lepidote, sessile/ stalked, with 1316 subulate rays and short central ray. dense 100-284 ± 58.69 s. forskalii (pl. 1j-l) 1. non-glandular, porrect-stellate, multiradiate, sessile/ stalked, with 4-8 subulate rays and long-very long central ray. dense 175-425 ± 92.52 2. non-glandular, simple unicellular with acute apex. sparse no data 3. glandular with unicellular stalk and multicellular globular head. sparse no data s. incanum (pl. 2a-b) 1. non-glandular, porrect-stellate, multiradiate, multiangulate, sessile/ stalked, with 8 subulate rays and a long central ray. dense 180-400 ± 73.28 s. nigrum (pl. 2c-i) 1. non-glandular, simple unicellular with acute apex. sparse no data 2. non-glandular, simple bicellular, with large basal cell and shrivelled apical one. moderate 113-138 ± 17.68 3. non-glandular, simple multicellular (3-4celled), commonly falcate with acute apex. dense 163-188 ± 17.67 356 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum comparative study on trichomes types 4. non-glandular, simple multicellular (3-4celled) with hooked apex. moderate 88-94 ± 4.24 5. non-glandular, simple multicellular (3-4celled) with obtuse apex. dense 138-150 ± 8.48 6. glandular with unicellular stalk and large unicellular globular striated head. moderate 57-64 ± 5.05 7. glandular with unicellular stalk and large bicellular globular head. moderate 35-39 ± 2.73 8. glandular with unicellular stalk and large multicellular globular head. sparse 55-69 ± 9.89 s. schimperianum (pl. 2j-l, pl. 3a-c) 1. non-glandular, porrect-stellate, multiradiate, sessile with 5-6 subulate rays and short central ray. sparse 100-163 ± 25.92 2. glandular with bicellular stalk and unicellular globular head. moderate 70-75 ± 3.53 3. glandular with bicellular stalk and tetracellular globular head. sparse 77-88 ± 7.78 357 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hassan and hamdy 4. glandular with bicellular stalk and multicellular clavate head. moderate 65-112 ± 33.25 5. glandular with no stalk and unicellular clavate head. sparse 37-44 ± 4.95 s. sinaicum (pl. 3d-g) 1. non-glandular, simple, multicellular (3-5celled), commonly falcate with acute apex. sparse no data 2. glandular with unicellular stalk and multicellular clavate head. sparse no data 3. glandular with multicellular [(3)4-5-celled] stalk and small unicellular clavate head. dense 60-550 ± 190.54 4. glandular with multicellular bifurcated stalk and small unicellular globular head. moderate no data s. villosum (pl. 3h-l, pl. 4a-b) 1. non-glandular simple, with multicellular stalk (3-4-celled) and acute apex. moderate 150-415 ± 90.13 2. non-glandular simple, with multicellular stalk (3-4-celled) and hooked apex. sparse 180-200 ± 14.14 3. non-glandular simple, with multicellular stalk (3-4-celled) and obtuse apex. moderate 165-200 ± 24.74 358 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum comparative study on trichomes types 4. glandular with unicellular stalk and unicellular globular head. sparse no data 5. glandular with unicellular stalk and multicellular clavate head. sparse 40-57 ± 7.59 6. glandular with multicellular (3-6celled) stalk and small unicellular clavate head. moderate 40-315 ± 131.05 s. virginianum (pl. 4c-i) 1. non-glandular, porrect-stellate, multiradiate, multiangulate, sessile/ stalked, with 6-8 subulate rays and short central ray. dense 50-150 ± 33.07 2. glandular with unicellular stalk and unicellular globular head. sparse 38-55 ± 12.37 3. glandular with unicellular stalk and tetracellular globular head. sparse 63-88 ± 17.67 4. glandular with unicellular stalk and multicellular clavate head. sparse 35-40 ± 3.53 * < 300= sparse; 300-600: moderate; > 600: dense; ‘no data’ means difficulty of measuring length. the number of radiating rays ranges from 5 in s. schimperianum up to 16 in s. elaeagnifolium (tab. 2). the shape of radiating rays is subulate in all the previous species, however, they appear slender in s. coagulans (pl. 1a), s. elaeagnifolium (pl. 1g), s. forskalii (pl. 1j), and s. incanum (pl. 2a), and wide in s. schimperianum (pl. 2j) and s. virginianum 359 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hassan and hamdy (pl. 4d, 4e). solanum elaeagnifolium is characterized by the lepidote shape of stellate trichomes (pl. 1h) in which the lateral rays appear fused at the base. this is the same result as knapp et al. (2017). the longest radiating rays are in s. forskalii and s. incanum, while the shortest is in s. virginianum (tab. 2). solanum forskalii and s. incanum are characterized by having long central ray (pl. 1j, 2a) which appears short in the other species. wax orientations patterns are seen on the trichomes in sem, characterized by their irregular, mostly isodiametric, rounded warty granules described as verrucate sculptures on all the studied species (pl. 1c, i, l; pl. 2b, f; pl. 3g; pl. 4b, f), except s. schimperianum which is found to be distinct from the rest of the species by having a striate sculpture of central ray (pl. 2 k). the distribution of these granules varied from moderate in most of the studied species to sparse in s. forskalii, s. sinaicum and s. villosum. these granules were mixed with flakes in s. elaeagnifolium (pl. 1i). the latter was confirmed by burrows et al. (2013). the simple non-glandular unicellular trichomes are traced in s. nigrum, and s. forskalii (tab. 2). however, s. nigrum is distinct by the presence of non-glandular bicellular type (pl. 2i; tab. 2). mohamed and el-gohary (2007) and ewas and ghaly (2019) support our results. the simple non-glandular multicellular trichomes with acute apex and verrucate sculpture are found in s. nigrum (pl. 2e), s. sinaicum, and s. villosum (pl. 3i). these findings agree with mohamed and el-gohary (2007). while the multicellular type with hooked or obtuse apexes is found in s. nigrum (pl. 2c) and s. villosum only (pl. 3j; tab. 2). the study of mohamed and elgohary (2007) have traced hooked trichomes in s. villosum only. rebora et al. (2020) reported the important role of hooked non-glandular trichomes in the entrapment of pests as in phaseolus vulgaris (l. 1753). the glandular trichomes in the studied solanum species are found in s. coagulans (pl. 1a), s. diphyllum (pl. 1d, e), s. forskalii (tab. 2), s. nigrum (pl. 2g, h), s. schimperianum (pl. 2l; pl. 3a, b, c), s. sinaicum (pl. 3e, f), s. villosum (pl. 3l, pl. 4a) and s. virginianum (pl. 4g, h, i). this result agrees with edmonds (1982), adedeji et al. (2007), mohamed and elgohary (2007), hamada et al. (2010), bello et al. (2017) and ogundola et al. (2017). the glandular trichomes are dense in s. sinaicum (pl. 3a), while sparse to moderately distribute in the other species (tab. 2). previous studies reported the function of leaf trichome density as a defensive trait against herbivory among solanaceous species (van dam and hare, 1998). the glandular unicellular type is found in all the above species except s. schimperianum which has either a bicellular stalk or no stalk (tab. 2) as found by mohamed and el-gohary (2007). the glandular multicellular type is found in solanum sinaicum (pl. 3d, e) and s. villosum (pl. 4a). mohamed and el-gohary (2007) support our findings. an additional spot character is the presence of a glandular multicellular bifurcated type in s. sinaicum but absent in all the studied species (tab. 2). the number of cells and shape of the glandular head vary among the studied species. the unicellular globular head with smooth sculpture is found in s. coagulans (pl. 1a), s. 360 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum comparative study on trichomes types diphyllum (pl. 1d), s. schimperianum (pl. 2l), s. villosum (pl. 3k) and s. virginianum (pl. 4g; tab. 2). while the unicellular globular head appears in s. nigrum with striated sculpture (pl. 2g; tab. 2). on the other hand, the unicellular clavate head is found in s. schimperianum (pl. 3c), s. sinaicum (pl. 3f), and s. villosum (pl. 4a). solanum coagulans and s. nigrum are distinguished by the presence of large bicellular globular head which is absent in the other species (tab. 2). adedeji et al. (2007) and mohamed and el-gohary (2007) agree with this result in s. nigrum. additionally, s. schimperianum, and s. virginianum show the presence of a tetracellular globular head (tab. 2), while the multicellular head is traced in all the above species as reported by mohamed and el-gohary (2007). although, it appears globular in s. coagulans, s. forskalii and s. nigrum, clavate in s. schimperianum, s. sinaicum, s. villosum, and s. virginianum, while appears doliform in s. diphyllum (tab. 2). 361 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hassan and hamdy plate (1): scanning electron micrographs showing trichomes on the abaxial leaf surface of the studied solanum species; (a-c) s. coagulans: (a, b) non-glandular porrectstellate multiradiate hairs with 6-8 subulate rays and short central ray, (a) showing small glandular hairs with uni-, bi-, and multicellular heads, (c) magnified part showing verrucate sculpture of central ray; (d-f) s. diphyllum: (d) glandular hair with unicellular stalk and unicellular head, (e) glandular hair with unicellular stalk and large multicellular doliform head, (f) non-glandular multicellular uniseriate hair; (g-i) s. elaeagnifolium: (g) non-glandular porrect-stellate multiradiate lepidote hairs with 13-16 subulate rays and short central ray, (h) lepidote hair with lateral rays fused at the base, (i) magnified part showing verrucate sculpture of central ray; (j-l) s. forskalii: (j, k) non-glandular porrect-stellate multiradiate hairs with 4-7 subulate rays and long central ray, (l) magnified part showing verrucate sculpture of central ray. 362 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum comparative study on trichomes types plate (2): scanning electron micrographs showing trichomes on abaxial leaf surface of the studied solanum species; (a-b) s. incanum: non-glandular porrect-stellate multiradiate hairs with 8 subulate rays and long central ray, (b) magnified part showing verrucate sculpture of central ray; (c-i) s. nigrum: (c) simple multicellular non-glandular hairs with acute, hooked and obtuse apex, (d) simple multicellular non-glandular hairs with normal base cell and shriveled middle cell, (e) simple multicellular non-glandular hairs with acute or obtuse apex, (f) magnified part showing verrucate sculpture, (g) glandular hairs with unicellular stalk and unicellular striated and multicellular smooth globular heads, (h) glandular hairs with unicellular stalk and uni-, biand multicellular smooth head, (i) simple bicellular non-glandular hairs with large normal base cell; (j-l) s. schimperianum: (j) porrect-stellate multiradiate non-glandular hairs with 5-6 subulate rays and short central ray, (k) magnified part showing striate sculpture of central ray, (l) glandular hair with bicellular stalk and unicellular head. 363 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hassan and hamdy plate (3): scanning electron micrographs showing trichomes on abaxial leaf surface of the studied solanum species; (a-c) s. schimperianum: (a) glandular hair with bicellular stalk and tetracellular clavate head, (b) glandular hair with bicellular stalk and multicellular clavate head,(c) glandular hair with no stalk and unicellular clavate head; (d-g) s. sinaicum: (d) unicellular and multicellular glandular hairs, (e) small glandular hairs with unicellular stalk and multicellular heads, (f) multicellular glandular hair with small unicellular clavate head, (g) magnified part showing verrucate sculpture; (h-l) s. villosum: (h) small glandular unicellular and long non-glandular multicellular hairs, (i) simple non-glandular multicellular hair with acute apex, (j) simple non-glandular multicellular hairs with hooked and obtuse apex, (k) small glandular hair with unicellular stalk and unicellular head, (l) small glandular hair with unicellular stalk and multicellular shriveled head. 364 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum comparative study on trichomes types plate (4): scanning electron micrographs showing trichomes on abaxial leaf surface of the studied solanum species; (a-b) s. villosum: (a) multicellular glandular hair with small unicellular clavate head, (b) magnified part showing verrucate sculpture; (ci) s. virginianum: (c-e) porrect-stellate multiradiate non-glandular hairs with 6-8 subulate rays and short central ray along with small glandular hairs, (f) magnified part showing verrucate sculpture of central ray, (g) glandular hair with unicellular stalk and unicellular globular head, (l) glandular hair with unicellular stalk and tetracellular head, (i) glandular hair with unicellular stalk and multicellular head. conclusions despite some overlapping trichomes characters, which reflect the relative closeness of the species in this genus, this work highlights the general characters that specify the studied species and greatly supports the use of trichome morphology as valuable taxonomic features for the separation and interspecific delimitation of the studied solanum species. conflict of interest statement the authors have no conflicts of interest to declare. literature cited adedeji, o. 2012. systematic significance of trichomes and foliar epidermal morphology in the species of stachytarpheta vahl (verbenaceae) from nigeria. thaiszia journal of botany, 22(1): 1-31. 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(2023) 17 (3): 349-373. solanum l., 1773 جنس البرية من في األنواع ألنواع الشعيراتدراسة مقارنة (solanalis, solanaceae في مصر وأهميتها )التصنيفية رانيا حسن* و ريم حمدي** ، كلية العلوم، جامعة القاهرة، مصر.املجهرية* قسم النبات واألحياء ، جامعة القاهرة، الجيزة، مصر.النباتي م النبات، كلية العلوم، املعشب** قس 20/6/2023، تأريخ النشر: 9/1/2023القبول: ، تأريخ 3/11/2022تأريخ االستالم: الخالصة الشعيرات هي امتداد لخاليا البشرة وغالًبا ما تستخدم كخصائص تشخيصية لتحديد األنواع ، الفصيلة الباذنجانية solanaceaeرتبة الباذنجانيات solanum l., 1753 . جنسالنباتية solanoideae هذا على الرغم من أن ؛معقد من الناحية التصنيفية هو جنس واسع االنتشار و كان موضو جنسال ً للعديد من األبحاث ، فقد تم إيالء القليل من االهتمام لترايخومات عا صر. لذلك ، كان الهدف من الدراسة الحالية هو فحص أنواعاألنواع البرية املوجودة في م تقييم أهميتها التصنيفية بإستخدام املجهر و solanumفي عشرة أنواع برية لجنس الشعيرات مسح تم ؛اإللكتروني الخفيف واملسح الضوئي والتحليل اإلحصائي والرسومات الخطية أظهرت النتائج حورية لألنواع املدروسة.الخصائص التعويضية الدقيقة على سطح الورقة امل من نصل األوراق )متناثر ، 2م لم 1مدى واسع من التباين في كثافة الشعر الثالثي على مساحة ، كثيف(، الطبيعة )غدية أو غير غدية، بسيطة أو نجمية( والبنية )عدد الخاليا متوسط رأس الشعيرات الغدية؛ عدد األشعة و فى ساق و -الغدية املكونة في الشعيرات البسيطة وغير عن وجود تراكيب شمعية فريدة من نوعها، بما في sem املشعة في الشعر النجمي(. كشفت ذلك الحبيبات التؤلولية باإلضافة إلى الرقائق. تتوافق مالحظاتنا مع الخصائص العامة لجنيس كل كبير استخدام خصائص هذا العمل بش . يدعمsolanumوجنيس الـ leptostemonum ال .الشعيرات كميزات تصنيفية قّيمة للفصل بين األنواع املدروسة وترسيم حدودها بين األنواع bull 997 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2025) 18 (4): 997-1011. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2025.18.4.0997 article review darkling beetles of the subfamily pimeliinae (coleoptera, tenebrionidae) in iraq: an annotated with updated checklist hanaa h. al saffar, razzaq shalan augul and fatima h. b. muarid iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq corresponding author: dr.hanaa66@nhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq received: 18 may 2025, revised: 4 sep. 2025, accepted: 7 sep. 2025, published:20 december 2025 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract the recent changes in the subfamily pimeliinae (coleoptera, tenebrionidae), including updates at the generic and species levels, are summarized in this study. according to the previous literature and museum collections of the iraq natural history research center and museum, a revised and current list of 18 recognized genera and 44 species, organized into 10 tribes, is provided for the fauna of iraq. the importance of this study is that it is the first updated list for the pimeliinae subfamily for the entomofauna of iraq. keywords: adelostoma, darkling beetles, iraq, pimeliini, tenebrioniformes. introduction among the subfamilies of tenebrionidae, pimeliinae is notable for its ecological adaptation to deserts and its taxonomic complexity, yet it remains understudied in iraq. within the superfamily tenebrionoidea, the most diverse and advanced guild is tenebrionidae, one of the largest families of coleoptera (fattorini, 2000; bouchard et al., 2005). the confirmed and known main groups are lagriiformes, tenebrioniformes, and pimeliiformes (matthews and bouchard, 2005). in particular, many of these beetles live in hot environments and extremely dry arid places, such as deserts. long-term drought will affect the variety of evolved organisms that survive in scorching and humid environments. the tenebrionidae are now regarded as the most prominent, deeply progressing family due to these results compared to other beetles (crowson, 1955). watt (1974) identifies the primary features that set this subfamily apart: the head's edges are not foliated, its outline is not semicircular, antennal pouches are absent, procoxal cavities are closed behind, and the propleuron's postcoxal processes do not meet in the middle behind the intercoxal process. the lateral edges of the prothorax and elytra are often not foliated, whereas the anterior margin of the prothorax is seldom foliated and covers the head. heteromeroid trochanters rarely form nearly hemispherical shapes; if they do, mesocoxae bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799, print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2025.18.4.0997 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3139-487x https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9590-8307 https://orcid.org/0009-0002-0863-5054 mailto:dr.hanaa66@nhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 998 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 997-1011. darkling beetles of the subfamily pimeliinae with exposed trochanters; claws simple, and except for the palearctic tribes including pimeliini and platyopini, abdomen without exposed intersegmental membranes between obvious sternites. numerous data on tenebrionid beetles were reviewed and contributed to increasing the knowledge on the tenebrionidae of iraq in which numerous species were recorded from diverse regions, included gebien (1910), reitter (1916), holdhaus (1919), blair (1923), khalaf (1959), derwesh (1963,1965), hussein (1963), kaddou (1967), el-haidari et al. (1972), swailem et al. (1974), khalaf and al-omar (1974), abdul-rassoul (1976), abdulrassoul et al.(1988), al-ali (1977), carl (1990 a, b, 1991, 1992), ismail and husain (2018), and omar et al. (2018). however, these studies were not comprehensive of all the species spread in iraq; the last study that addressed them in detail was the study presented by augul and al saffar (2023), except for pimeliinae. therefore, the present study aims to fill this gap by compiling an updated checklist of pimeliinae species recorded in iraq; this study aims to complement this work and provide an updated list of this group so far. materials and methods the species of pimeliinae that have been documented previously in iraq were reviewed and listed; the literature currently accessible was used to determine the species' general range. classification and nomenclature followed lillig (2005), bouchard et al. (2021), nabozhenko et al. (2021), gbif secretariat (2023), and lillig and pavlíček (2023). the valid names are presented based on the last taxonomic modification. within the taxa, tribes, genera, and species are provided and presented alphabetically. this study is a revision of this subfamily to update the list of iraq based on the previous studies and the collections available at the iraq natural history research center and museum. results and discussion there were 44 species of the subfamily pimeliinae latreille, 1802, within 18 genera belonging to 10 tribes recorded from iraq. these taxa are as follows: (a) tribe: adelostomini solier, 1834 genus, adelostoma duponchel, 1827 synonyms: adelostomoides carl, 1991 falsaspila koch, 1952 omandelostoma purchart,2017 psaryphulum koch, 1952 zarudnionymus semenov-tjan-shansky& bogatchev, 1947 adelostoma grande haag-rutenberg, 1879 synonyms: adelostomoides grandis carl, 1991 falsaspila perissinottoi canzoneri, 1965 999 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al saffar et al. zarudnionymus persis semenov & bogatchev, 1947 distribution: iraq (gebien, 1910); egypt (alfieri, 1976); iran (lӧbl et al., 2008). adelostoma metatarsale carl, 1991 distribution: iraq (carl, 1991). adelostoma sulcatum duponchel, 1827 distribution: iraq (holdhaus, 1919); algeria, egypt, cyprus, morocco, spain, syria, tunisia (gbif secretariat, 2023). (a) tribe: adesmiini lacordaire, 1859 genus, adesmia fischer de waldheim, 1822 synonyms: adesma percheron, 1835 adesmina reitter, 1916 aesmia fischer, 1839 heteroscelis agassiz, 1846 macropoda solier, 1835 oteroscelis solier, 1835 sarachus gistl, 1848 spongesmia koch, 1944 zambesmia koch, 1944 adesmia anthracina (klug, 1830) synonyms: adesmia ramburi solier, 1835 pimelia anthracina klug, 1830 distribution: iraq (holdhaus, 1919); türkiye, syria (ardoin, 1978); palestine (carl, 1990a). note: gebien (1910) recorded this species for iraq under adesmia ramburi solier, 1835. adesmia antiqua (klug, 1830) synonym: a. antiqua aethiopica allard, 1885 distribution: iraq and egypt (reitter, 1916). adesmia cancellata (klug, 1830) synonym: adesmia abbreviate klug, 1830 adesmia clathrata solier, 1835 pimelia anthracina klug, 1830 distribution: according to shalaby et al. (1967), a. cancellata was reported in iraq under the synonym adesmia abbreviate klug, 1830. bahrain, egypt, iran, kuwait, jordan, oman, pakistan, ksa, uae, syria, and yemen (schawaller, 2010). note: the subspecies a. cancellata cancellata solier, 1835, and adesmia cancellata clathrata solier, 1835 were reported from iraq by lӧbl et al. (2008) and iwan and lӧbl (2020) respectively. moreover, the species adesmia clathrata solier, 1835 was referred to by kaszab (1964) in iraq. 1000 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 997-1011. darkling beetles of the subfamily pimeliinae adesmia carinata solier, 1835 synonym: adesmia elevata koch, 1940 distribution: iraq (lobl et al., 2008) and kuwait (katbeh-bader et al., 2022). note: lӧbl et al. (2008) listed the subspecies adesmia carinata carinata solier, 1835 in iraq. abdul-rassoul et al. (1988) also recorded this species under the name adesmia elevata koch, 1940. adesmia conjungens (koch, 1951) synonym: macradesmia procera ssp. conjungens koch, 1951 distribution: iraq (lobl et al., 2008); southern türkiye, and syria (lillig, 2015). adesmia dilatata klug, 1830 synonym: pimelia dilatata klug, 1830 distribution: iraq (khalaf, 1959); egypt, jordan, syria (ardoin, 1978); sahraa arabia and afrotropical (waitzbauer et al., 2004). adesmia maillei solier, 1835 distribution: iraq (lӧbl et al., 2008) and armenia (nabozhenko et al., 2021). adesmia mesopotamica chevrolat, 1877 distribution: iraq and iran (carl, 1992). adesmia metallica (klug, 1830) synonyms: adesmia faremonti lucas, 1844 a.metallica var. chakouri reitter, 1916 a. syriaca baudi, 1874 distribution: iraq (carl, 1990a); egypt, and jordan (ardoin, 1978). adesmia microgranulosa carl, 1992 synonym: adesmia microgranulata carl, 1990 distribution: iraq and sudan (carl, 1992). adesmia mimica reitter, 1916 synonym: adesmia anthracina mimica carl, 1992 distribution: iraq (reitter, 1916). adesmia montana klug, 1830 distribution: iraq, egypt, saudi arabia, and north africa (carl, 1990a). note: löbl et al. (2008) listed a. montana montana (klug, 1830) in iraq. adesmia procera miller, 1861 distribution: iraq and syria (carl, 1990a). adesmia servillei solier, 1935 1001 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al saffar et al. synonym: adesmia flagergreeni baudi, 1874 distribution: it's reported in iraq under a. flagergreeni baudi, 1874 by khalaf (1959). iran (löbl and smetana, 2008). (c)tribe: akidini billberg (1820) genus, akis herbst, 1799 synonyms: acidia illiger, 1804 acis billberg, 1820 akixa guérin, 1834 stenopsis rafinesque, 1815 akis elevata solier, 1836 distribution: iraq (shalaby et al., 1967); algeria, libya, egypt, sudan, chad, palestine, and ksa (pierre, 1961); jordan (kaszab, 1981). akis latreillei solier, 1836 distribution: iraq (lӧbl et al., 2008) and türkiye (gbif secretariat, 2023). akis subtricostata redtenbacher, 1850 distribution: iraq, iran, and syria (löbl et al., 2008); türkiye (keskin and yağmur, 2008). (d) tribe, boromorphini skopin, 1978 genus, boromorphus wollaston, 1854 boromorphus opaculus reitter, 1887 distribution: iraq (lӧbl et al., 2008); armenia (abdurakhmanov and nabozhenko, 2011). (e) tribe: cnemeplatiini jacquelin du val, 1861 genus, cnemeplatia costa, 1847 synonyms: autocera wollaston, 1857 cnemoplatia wollaston, 1865 cnemeplatia atropos a. costa, 1847 distribution: in iraq, it was reported by lӧbl et al. (2008) under the subspecies c. atropos atropos costa, 1874. italy, france, gambia, greece, türkiye, and spain (gbif secretariat, 2023). (f) tribe: erodiini billberg, 1820 genus, amnodeis miller, 1858 amnodeis confluens miller, 1858 synonym: amnodeis arabicus ritter, 1914 distribution: iraq (gebien, 1910); egypt and jordan (kaszab, 1981). 1002 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 997-1011. darkling beetles of the subfamily pimeliinae amnodeis grandis miller, 1858 distribution: iraq (gebien, 1910); syria, türkiye, and iran (bunalski et al., 2014). genus, apentanodes reitter, 1914 apentanodes mesopotamicus blair, 1923 synonym: sepidium mesopotamicus blair, 1923 distribution: iraq (blair, 1923). apentanodes persicus koch, 1940 distribution: iraq (abdul-rassoul et al., 1988). genus, arthrodosis reitter, 1900 note: arthrodosis sp. listed in iraq by shalaby et al. (1967). (g) tribe: pimeliini latreille, 1802 genus, pimelia fabricius, 1775 synonyms: amblyptera solier 1836 aphanaspis wollaston 1864 camphonota solier 1836 chaetotoma motschoulsky 1860 doderoella schuster 1926 ecphoroma solier 1836 eurypimelia reitter 1915 homalopus solier 1836 pimella brullé 1832 pimidia rafinesque 1815 pimelia arabica (klug 1830) distribution: jordan, ksa, oman, uae, yemen, and iraq (kaszab, 1982). egypt (elshewy et al., 2016). qatar (gbif secretariat, 2023) genus, prionotheca dejean, 1834 prionotheca coronata (olivier, 1795) distribution: north africa (koch, 1934). ksa, iran, and iraq (kaszab, 1982). genus, trachyderma latreille, 1829 synonym: trachydermum gistl, 1848 trachyderma hispida (forskl, 1775) synonym: tenebrio hispida forskl, 1775 distribution: iraq (lӧbl et al., 2008); morocco, jordan, tunisia, egypt, yemen, uae, syria, oman, libya, chad, mauritania, niger, ksa, eritrea, senegal, mali, cameroon, italy, russia, sri lanka, sudan, and algeria (gbif secretariat, 2023). 1003 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al saffar et al. trachyderma philistina reiche & saulcy, 1857 synonyms: ocnera parvicollis baudi, 1875 ocnera habelmanni kraatz, 1865 distribution: türkiye, egypt, cyprus, syria, jordan, iraq, iran, ksa, and india (grimm, 1991). (h) tribe: stenosini schaum, 1859 genus, dichillus jacquelin du val, 1860 synonyms: dichillesthes reitter, 1916 dichillinus reitter, 1916 dichillocerus reitter, 1916 dichillodontus reitter, 1916 dichillomessor reitter, 1916 pushtunillus medvedev, 1995 dichillus crassicornis allard, 1869 distribution: iraq (lӧbl et al., 2008). türkiye and cyprus (gbif secretariat, 2023). dichillus lisae carl, 1990 distribution: iraq (carl, 1990b). dichillus nitidus kraatz, 1862 distribution: iraq (gebien, 1910) dichillus rugatus baudi di selve, 1874 distribution: armenia, iran, iraq (löbl and smetana, 2008). based on this reference, the subspecies dichillus rugatus rugatus baudi di selve, 1874, is registered for these countries. (i)tribe: tentyriini eschscholtz, 1831 genus, dailognatha steven, 1828 dailognatha caraboides solier, 1835 distribution: iraq (holdhaus, 1919); greece, türkiye and uzbekistan (gbif secretariat, 2023). dailognatha carceli solier, 1835 distribution: iraq (abdul-rassoul et al., 1988). türkiye (koçak and kemal, 2009). mesostena eschscholtz, 1831 synonyms: comphosida dejean 1834 mesostenopa kraatz, 1865 platystena koch, 1940 saxistena koch, 1940 1004 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 997-1011. darkling beetles of the subfamily pimeliinae mesostena arabica (gestro 1881) distribution: iraq (kasszab, 1981); kuwait (kateba-bader et al., 2022). mesostena puncticollis solier, 1835 distribution: turkmenistan, iran, iraq, syria, jordan, and ksa (koch, 1940; kaszab, 1981). somalia (koch, 1940), and sudan (ardoin, 1972). genus, micipsa lucas, 1855 micipsa philistina reiche & saulcy, 1857 distribution: jordan, iraq, and syria (kaszab, 1981). genus, prochoma solier, 1835 prochoma audouini solier, 1835 distribution: iraq, iran, syria, and jordan (carl, 1994); egypt (elshewy et al., 2016). genus, tentyrina reitter, 1900 synonyms: tentyriina peyerimhoff, 1907 tentyriina schuster, 1925 tentyrina palmeri crotch, 1872 distribution: egypt, ksa, iraq, and iran (koch, 1940; kaszab, 1981). syria and jordan (schawaller, 1982). (j) tribe, zophosini (solier, 1834) genus, zophosis latreille, 1802 zophosis complanata solier, 1834 distribution: egypt, jordan, ksa, iraq, and iran (penrith, 1984). zophosis farinosa blair, 1914 synonyms: zophosis testudinaria solier, 1834 erodius testudinarius fabricius, 1787 distribution: ksa, jordan, iraq, and iran (penrith, 1984). egypt (elshewy et al., 2016). zophosis punctata brullé, 1832 synonym: zophosis maillei solier, 1834 distribution: ksa (kaszab, 1981); n. africa from morocco to libya. europe: from spain to greece, asia: from türkiye to pakistan; egypt, iraq, and kuwait (penrith, 1983). conclusions based on the current investigation and the previous study conducted by augul and al saffar, 2023, the family tenebrionidae is well represented in iraq with a total of 51 genera 1005 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al saffar et al. and 132 species belonging to six subfamilies known now. omophlus dejean, 1834, and blaps fabricius, 1775 are the largest represented genera, with 14 species for each genus. many areas in iraq haven't been surveyed throughout the previous studies, as with this country's exposure to hard climate changes, we expect that other darkling beetle species remain to be discovered. we expect these checklists (in two papers) will help facilitate interest in this research. the importance of the current study is due to its data, which is a complement to the previous study of the tenebrionidae of iraq. conflict of interest statement the authors announce no conflict of interest concerning the work in the manuscript. declaration of editorial involvement the second author declares that he serves as a member of the editorial board of this journal. the manuscript was processed strictly in accordance with the journal’s standard editorial procedures, including assignment to independent peer reviewers and management by an editor with no conflict of interest. the author had no involvement in the editorial handling or decision-making process. literature cited abdul-rassoul, m. s. 1976. checklist of iraq natural history museum insects collection. iraq natural history research center, publication, 30: 1-41. abdul-rassoul, m. s., dawah, h. a., othman, n. y. and al-gailany, h. b. 1988. records of insect collection, part ii, in iraq natural history museum. bulletin of the iraq natural history museum, 8 (1): 1-10. abdurakhmanov, g. m. and nabozhenko, m. v. 2011. opredelitel’ i katalogzhukovchernotelok (coleoptera: tenebrionidae s. str.) kavkazai yuga evropeyskoy chasti rossii [keys and catalogue to darkling beetles (coleoptera: tenebrionidae s. str.) of the caucasus and southof european part of russia]. moscow: kmk scientific press ltd., 361 pp. [in russian) (cited in: nabozhenko et al., 2021). al-ali, a. s.1977. phytophagous and entomophagous insects and mites of iraq. iraq natural history research center publication, 33: 1-142. alfieri, a. 1976. the coleoptera of egypt. mémoires de la société entomologique d’égypte, 5: 1-287. ardoin, p. 1972. liste des espèces de tenebrionidae (coleoptera) récoltées au soudan par les expé-ditions finlandaises (1962-1964). commentationes biologicae, 49: 1-20. ardoin, p. 1978. contribution ä i'etude des adesmia (coleoptera: tenebrionidae) du sinai, d'lsrael et de jordanie. nouvelle revue d’entomologie, 8 (3): 295-313. 1006 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 997-1011. darkling beetles of the subfamily pimeliinae augul, r. s. and al saffar, h. h. 2023. checklist of darkling beetles (coleoptera, tenebrionidae) in iraq. bulletin of the iraq natural history museum, 17(4):699-724. 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(eds). 2020. catalogue of palaearctic coleoptera. tenebrionoidea. revised and updated second edition. volume 5. brill, leiden and boston, 945pp. [click here] kaddou, i. k. 1967. check-list of some insects fauna of iraq. biological research center publication, 1: 1-44. kaszab, v. z. 1964. österreichische entomologische expeditionen nach persien und afghanistan: beiträge zur coleopterenfauna. teil i: tenebrionidae, meloidae und pedilidae. annalen des naturhistorischen museums in wien, 68:667-670. 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(2025) 18 (4): 997-1011. ،عائلة coleoptera)غمدية األجنحة pimeliinaeالخنافس الداكنة من عويلة tenebrionidaeملحة و قائمة محدثة ق:( من العرا فاطمة حسين بريج مورد و رزاق شعالن عكل، هناء هاني الصفار العراق بغداد، ،بغداد، جامعة الطبيعي ومتحف التاريخمركز بحوث 12/2025/ 20، النشر: 7/9/2025القبول: ،2025/ 4/9املراجعة: ،18/5/2025االستالم: الخالصة ل و التغييرات األخيرة بما في ذلك التحديثات على مستوى األجناس الدراسة الحالية ت ص خ الخنافس) pimeliinae عويلة نافسلخ التابعة األنواع الخنافس coleopteraرتبة عائلة ، . ( tenebrionidaeالداكنة السابقة للدراسات ملركزوفقا الحشرية التاريخبحوث واملجموعة الطبيعي ومتحف نوعا منضوية 44وجنسا 18ومحدثة وضمت العراقي، قدمت هذه الدراسة قائمة منقحة تكمن اهمية هذه القائمة كونها العراقية. لعالم األحياءحاليا واملعترف بهاقبائل 10 حتت العويلة. محدثة لهذهاول قائمة bull 917 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2025) 18 (4): 917-928. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2025.18.4.0917 original article morphological and molecular study of two species of carpomya costa, 1854 (diptera, tephritidae) infesting sidr fruits in baghdad, iraq eyas yaseen al-jbooryand feryal bahjat hermize plant protection department, college of agriculture engineering science, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq corresponding author: eias.ameen2304p@coagri.uobaghdad.edu.iq received: 11 aug. 2025, revised: 12 oct. 2025, accepted: 16 oct. 2025, published: 20 december 2025 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract sidr trees are exposed to infestation by various insects, including the fruit fly species that belongs to the genus carpomya costa, 1854 (diptera, tephritidae), which comprises different species, some specialized in infesting sidr fruits. therefore, this study aimed to diagnose the species of this genus infesting fruits of various species of ziziphus mill., 1754 cultivars. using distinct morphological features and molecular analysis (pcr). the paper also included constructing a phylogenetic tree for the genetically sequenced species using the coi gene and the sequence data were then compared with available data in genbank. the survey was conducted from december 2024 to may 2025, when a total of 25 kg of infested sidr fruits were collected from various locations in baghdad province, central of iraq. this study molecularly recorded two species within this genus, representing the first molecular records for each: carpomya vesuviana costa,1854 which is the first molecular record in iraq, and carpomya incompleta (becker, 1903), which is the first molecular record in baghdad. the sequences were registered in genbank under accession numbers pv809906 and pv810821, respectively. keywords: carpomya, fruit fly, molecular identification, pcr, ziziphus. introduction sidr trees, belonging to the genus ziziphus mill., 1754, are notable for their considerable diversity across various environmental systems, including arid, semi-arid, saline, and desert environments. their distribution is widespread across the globe (muhammad et al., 2022). sidr trees are valued for their high nutritional fruit content, utilization of by-products, medicinal applications, and adaptability to harsh environmental conditions (liu et al., 2020; hasan and zainulabdeen, 2022; mulyono, 2023; al-zaydi and al-jibouri, 2025; jia et al., 2025). sidr trees, like any other plants, are exposed to infestations by insect pests, like in bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799, print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2025.18.4.0917 https://orcid.org/0009-0007-1491-8655 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3951-4194 mailto:eias.ameen2304p@coagri.uobaghdad.edu.iq https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 918 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 917-928. morphological and molecular study india. more than 130 insect pest species have been recorded as infesting sidr trees (haldhar et al., 2016). among these numerous insect pests, the fruit flies, carpomya vesuviana costa, 1854 and carpomya incompleta (becker, 1903), are considered the most significant, causing direct yield losses (garrido-jurado et al., 2022; kavin et al., 2024). these two pests are monophagous, which specialize in sidr fruits trees and cause substantial reductions in the productivity and quality of sidr fruits (kavin et al., 2024). c. incompleta can lead to crop losses ranging from 40-60% in uncontrolled areas (al-masudey and al-yousuf, 2012). c. vesuviana, on the other hand, can cause severe infestations that might result in yield reductions of up to 80% (vadivelu, 2014). in both species, adult females lay their eggs inside the fruits, and the hatched larvae feed internally, creating tunnels that contain feces. this leads to fruit decay, secondary pathogen growth, an undesirable taste, fruit deformation, delayed development, or premature fruit drop (white and elson-harris, 1992; jabbar, 1996). our investigation aims at identifying the main morphological characterization of carpomya species infesting sidr fruits in baghdad province, iraq, by identifying key diagnostic features that facilitate their differentiation. and provide the first molecular record of c. vesuviana in iraq, as no previous molecular records of c. vesuviana have been established in iraq and, building on the previous work by tahir and alyousuf (2023) who were the first to molecularly record c. incompleta in basrah province, this research will provide the first molecular record for c. incompleta specifically in baghdad province, utilizing pcr technology with the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase subunit i (coi) gene and submit the obtained genetic sequences to the global genbank database to establish a reliable genetic reference for the studied species and construct a phylogenetic tree using the submitted genetic sequences and compare the degree of genetic relatedness between the local iraqi samples and those previously recorded in global databases like genbank, or those from neighboring countries, to determine their genetic proximity. materials and methods study area: the specimens of infested sidr fruits were collected from different orchards belonging to both radwaniya and abu ghraib districts in baghdad province in a sampling which was conducted over a six-month period, from december 2024 to may 2025. during this time, approximately 25 kg of infested fruits were gathered from two distinct species of sidr trees: ziziphus mauritiana lam., 1789 and ziziphus spina-christi (l.) desf., 1798 following collection, the infested sidr fruits were transferred to plastic containers. each container was prepared with a 2 cm layer of soil sterilized in an oven at 170°c for 1 hour and each container was covered with a piece of tulle cloth, which was secured with an elastic band. the containers were then kept in the laboratory at a temperature ranging from 25 to 30°c until the emergence of adult insects. sampling, preservation, and photography of specimens: once the adult specimens of two carpomya species emerged, some were preserved, and stored in a freezer at approximately 20°c for a molecular identification study, while others were preserved in test tubes containing 70% ethyl alcohol to be identified morphologically using taxonomic keys (korneyev et al., 919 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-jboory and hermize 2017). to ensure accuracy, some of the specimens were also sent to the iraq natural history research center and museumuniversity of baghdad for identification confirmation. the specimens were examined under a light microscope (olympus) and photographed using sony camera model ilce-7rm4a and an advanced imaging system depending on photo stalking. scale bars were provided for all the captures achieved by placing a calibrated ruler next to the insect specimens to be photographed. after capturing the image with a camera, the photo was processed using the imagej software. within this software, the pixels of the ruler in the digital photo were measured for every 1 mm. after determining the number of pixels per millimeter in the image, a 1 mm scale bar was drawn next to the insect specimen using the imagej software. the image of the ruler was then cropped out using the same software. molecular study of adult carpomya species using pcr technology: molecular identification of the species were conducted through dna analysis using the pcr (polymerase chain reaction). this procedure was carried out at al-musaib bridge co. for scientific and lab. equipment in baghdad. dna extraction and molecular identification: genomic dna was extracted from a single pooled sample containing eight adult individuals of c. incompleta (becker, 1903) and a single pooled sample containing eight adult individuals of c. vesuviana costa, 1854 using the gsync™ dna extraction kit quick protocol (geneaid, south korea), following the manufacturer's instructions. whole insect bodies were utilized for the dna extraction process to ensure a sufficient quantity and quality of genomic dna, as the small body size of these species. amplification and sequencing of coi gene: polymerase chain reaction (pcr) device from bioneer, south korea was used to amplify approximately 710 bp of the target mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase i (coi) gene. using the primer set, lco1490 and hc02198 produced by bioneer, south korea, was utilized for the amplification process depending on (folmer et al., 1994). following pcr amplification, products were visualized by electrophoresis on a 1.5% agarose gel alongside a 100 bp dna ladder (geneaid, south korea) to confirm successful amplification and product size. purified pcr products were subsequently submitted to macrogen (south korea) for sanger sequencing. phylogenetic analysis: raw nucleotide sequences were evaluated and edited for quality control using bioedit and mega12 software. the resulting sequences were then aligned and compared with homologous sequences retrieved from the ncbi genbank database using the blast search alignment tool. subsequently, the sequences for both carpomya species were submitted and registered in the ncbi genbank database. 920 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 917-928. morphological and molecular study a phylogenetic tree was constructed to illustrate the genetic relationships between the carpomya species investigated in this study and homologous carpomya sequences available in the ncbi genbank database. the neighbor-joining (nj) method was employed as implemented in mega12, with 10,000 bootstrap replicates to assess nodal support. the kimura 2-parameter (k2p) model was selected as the best-fit evolutionary model for the dataset, and sequence alignment was performed using clustal w rhagoletis completa cresson, 1929 (mh998953.1) was utilized as a designated outgroup for comparative analysis and tree rooting. results morphological study in this study, the adults emerged from infested sidr fruits. these infested fruits were collected from both sidr tree species, z. mauritiana lam., 1789 and z. spina-christi (l.) desf., 1798. the two emerged species are c. incompleta (becker, 1903) and c. vesuviana costa, 1854. the distinguishing morphological characteristics used to differentiate between them will be described below: carpomya incompleta (becker, 1903): a small-bodied species, length 3.3-3.5 mm body colour uniform, pale reddish-yellow, particularly on the mesonotum from a dorsal view (pl. 1a), but it has two black spots located underneath the scutellum, which are not visible from above (pl. 3a). wing has three faint transverse bands and lacks an apical crossband, costal bristle at the anterior margin of the wing length 0.08-0.09 mm is noticeably shorter (pl. 4a) than that of c. vesuviana. ocellar setae length 0.06-0.07 mm appears shorter when compared to c. vesuviana (pl. 2a). carpomya vesuviana costa, 1854: a small-bodied species, length 4.5-5.5 mm body colour yellow/fulvous. (pl. 1b); scutum with a specific pattern of 13 black spots (eight laterally, four sub-medially, and one medial spot extending to the scutellum) (pl. 3b). wing with four distinct yellow/orange transverse bands and longitudinal bands, costal bristle at the anterior margin of the wing length 0.12-0.125 mm is noticeably longer than that of c. incompleta (pl. 4 b). ocellar setae length 0.12-0.13 mm appears longer when compared to c. incomplete (pl. 2 b). molecular study the results from polymerase chain reaction (pcr) analyzed by agarose gel electrophoresis of the two pooled samples revealed a single successful dna band for each species, approximately 710 base pairs (bp) in size from the adults of c. incompleta and c. vesuviana, which is the expected target band of the coi gene (pl. 5). the raw nucleotide sequences came from macrogen, a korean company, the sequences were evaluated and edited for quality control. the sequences became 620 (bp) for c. incompleta and 679 (bp) for c. vesuviana. those sequences were used to compare with previously identified and registered species in ncbi. the coi gene sequences of c. incompleta showed 100% similarity per identity and a maximum score of 1025 with the c. incompleta specimen isolated from iraq, basrah (accession number on045002.1). this confirmed that the sequences amplified by 921 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-jboory and hermize pcr belong to this species so the sequence of c. incompleta registered in ncbi got (accession number pv810821.1). on the other hand, the coi gene sequences of c. vesuviana showed 100% similarity per identity and a maximum score of 1254 with the c. vesuviana specimen isolate from iran (accession number nc 071721.1) and with the c. vesuviana specimen isolate from china (accession number mt121231.1). this confirmed that the sequences amplified by pcr belong to this species so the sequence of c. vesuviana registered in ncbi got the (accession number pv809906.1). phylogenetic relationships the neighbor-joining (nj) phylogenetic analysis, robustly supported by high bootstrap values, revealed two distinct major clades within the genus carpomya (diag. 1). these clades demonstrated strong statistical support, clearly separating c. vesuviana and c. incompleta. c. vesuviana clade: all c. vesuviana accessions analyzed, including the representative sample from baghdad, iraq (pv809906.1), clustered into a single, homogeneous clade. this clade received strong statistical support with a bootstrap value of 99%. within this robust cluster, the iraqi accession (pv809906.1) exhibited a particularly close genetic relationship with c. vesuviana samples from china (mt121231.1) and iran (nc 071721.1), supported by a high bootstrap value of 95%. this suggests a remarkable genetic similarity among these geographically disparate populations. additionally, it is grouped with c. vesuviana from india (pq198005.1) and iran (jq668127.1), confirming its conspecificity. c. incompleta clade: similarly, all c. incompleta accessions, including the representative sample from baghdad, iraq (pv810821.1), formed another distinct clade, also strongly supported by a 99% bootstrap value. within this clade, the iraqi accession (pv810821.1) showed strong genetic affinity with c. incompleta samples from italy (nc 071720.1) and basrah, iraq (on045002.1), with bootstrap support values of 97% and 99%, respectively. this close association with the basrah sample is expected given their geographical proximity. outgroup: rhagoletis completa cresson, 1929 (mh998953.1) was appropriately positioned as the outgroup, confirming its more distant evolutionary relationship to the carpomya species and accurately rooting the phylogenetic tree. discussion this study reports the presence of two fruit fly species, c. incompleta (becker, 1903) and c. vesuviana costa, 1854, infesting z. mauritiana lam., 1789 and z. spina-christi (l.) desf., 1798 fruits in baghdad province. c. incompleta was first mentioned in iraq by hussain (1963) on sider fruits. its presence was subsequently confirmed by derwesh (1965) and also cited by abdul-rassoul (1976). however, the first documented morphological taxonomic record for this species was established by al-saffar (2011). this fly is characterized by a small body length, a pale-colored body, and faint, incomplete, narrow transverse bands on the wing. similarly, c. vesuviana was first mentioned in iraq by khalaf and al-omar (1974) on z. spina-christi fruits. yet, the first documented morphological taxonomic record for this species was also established by al-saffar (2011). this species is distinguishable by its small body 922 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 917-928. morphological and molecular study length, dark spots on the mesonotum, and transverse bands on the wing. our study focuses on distinguishing the morphological characteristics of both c. incompleta and c. vesuviana, especially since both species infest the fruits of the same host plants, z. mauritiana and z. spina-christi. recent organism identification now relies on both morphological and molecular analyses, with gene barcoding proving particularly valuable. in iraq, molecular identification studies for the genus carpomya are limited. previously, only one such study, by tahir and alyousuf (2023), focused on c. incompleta in basrah. notably, there has been no prior molecular-level study of c. vesuviana anywhere in iraq. while both c. incompleta and c. vesuviana have existing morphological records in iraq, this research fills a critical gap by providing the first molecular identification of c. vesuviana in iraq. this establishes a vital genetic baseline for this species in the region. furthermore, our phylogenetic analysis revealed a notable genetic homogeneity among geographically disparate populations of c. vesuviana, with the iraqi sample clustering closely with accessions from iran and china. these findings suggest that the iraqi c. vesuviana population may share at the same ancestry with these geographical regions, despite the long distance. dispersal could have taken place with the advancement of human means of transportation and through trading and transferring infested fruits between these areas and iraq. consequently, this finding ought to be considered in pest management, especially in the agricultural quarantine, to reduce the odds of other pest dispersal. in the same way, although c. incompleta was previously recorded in basrah at a molecular level, our study marks the first molecular record of c. incompleta in baghdad. this genetic record for the area is important for the study of the species geographical distribution and possible genetic diversity in the country. the genetic similarity between our baghdad sample and the basrah sample is to be expected, given their geographical proximity: baghdad is roughly 549 km north of basrah. however, the similarity between the current sample and the samples from italy, which are thousands of kilometers away, is striking and suggests a different dispersal pathway that is likely human-mediated. our use of dna barcoding, targeting the cytochrome c oxidase subunit i (coi) gene, not only confirmed the morphological identifications but also established a reliable genetic reference for both species. this technique is particularly valuable when morphological identification of insect specimen is challenging. such difficulty can arise during the larval stages and even, sometimes in adult stages, where precise species identification can be problematic, especially if parts of the adult specimen are damaged (wells et al., 2001). submitting these sequences to genbank makes our work publicly accessible and provides a genetic tool for future researchers to use in identifying and tracking these species nationally and regionally. 923 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-jboory and hermize plate (1): lateral view of male; (a) c. incompleta, (b) c. vesuviana. plate (2): dorsal view of head in male; (a) c. incompleta, (b) c. vesuviana. [os: ocellar setae]. 924 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 917-928. morphological and molecular study plate (3): dorsal view of thorax in male; (a) c. incompleta, (b) c. vesuviana. [uts: underneath the scutellum]. plate (5): electrophoresis of pcr amplification products for the coi gene in the studied species. m: leader 1carpomya vesuviana 2carpomya incompleta null: empty plate (4): wing of female; (a) c. incompleta, (b) c. vesuviana. [cb: costal bristle, t+ftb: three faint transverse bands, ac: apical crossband, ftb: four transverse bands]. 925 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-jboory and hermize diagram (1): the phylogenetic tree of c. incompleta and c. vesuviana from baghdadiraq based on coi gene sequence. conclusions species within the genus carpomya that infest sidr fruits possess distinct morphological characteristics, facilitating their relatively straightforward differentiation. molecular identification, particularly through the utilization of coi gene sequences, offers a modern, rapid, and reliable approach that significantly enhances the confirmation of morphological identifications and aids in distinguishing among various carpomya species. acknowledgments the authors wish to express their gratitude to all those who assisted in completing this study. in particular, we mention dr. hanaa h. al-saffar at the iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad, for her great help in diagnosing the study specimens. conflict of interest statement the results of the present study are part of the requirements of ph.d. in insects, department of plant protection, college of agriculture engineering sciences-university of baghdad for the first author. as well, we are the authors of this manuscript, declare and confirm that there is no significant financial or other relationship with any official institution. literature cited abdul-rassoul, m. a. 1976. checklist of iraq natural history museum insects collection. iraq natural history research center, publication, 30:141. 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[crossref] white, i. m. and elson-harris, m. m. 1992. fruit flies of economic importance: their identification and bionomics. cab international, wallingford, xii + 601 pp. [click here] https://doi.org/10.2478/vzoo-2017-0056 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41438-020-00346-5 https://doi.org/10.3390/horticulturae8100867 https://doi.org/10.24996/ijs.2023.64.3.11 https://doi.org/10.37077/25200860.2023.36.1.04 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/261708024_african_journal_of_agricultural_research_biology_and_management_of_ber_fruit_fly_carpomyia_vesuviana_costa_diptera_tephritidae_a_review https://doi.org/10.1520/jfs15105j https://www.amazon.com/fruit-flies-economic-significance-identification/dp/0851987907 https://www.amazon.com/fruit-flies-economic-significance-identification/dp/0851987907 928 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 917-928. morphological and molecular study bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2025) 18 (4): 917-928. carpomya costa, 1854دراسة مظهرية وجزيئية لنوعين من ذباب فاكهة من جنس (diptera, tephritidae) التي تصيب ثمار السدر في بغداد، العراق هرمز فريال بهجت الجبوري وياس ياسين إ جامعة بغداد، بغداد، العراق -قسم وقاية النبات، كلية علوم الهندسة الزراعية 20/12/2025، النشر: 16/10/2025 القبول ،12/10/2025املراجعة: ،11/8/2025االستالم: الخالصة تتعرض أشجار السدر لإلصابة من قبل حشرات مختلفة، بما في ذلك أنواع من ذباب الفاكهة جنس الى تنتمي أنواًعا carpomya costa,1854 (diptera, tephritidae)التي يضم الذي ، تصيب التي االنواع تشخيص إلى الدراسة لذلك، هدفت هذه السدر. ثمار إصابة في متخصصة ، وذلك باالعتماد على الخصائص ziziphus mill., 1754ثمار أصناف مختلفة من أشجار جنس (. كما تضمنت الدراسة إنشاء شجرة وراثية لألنواع التي تم pcrاملظهرية املميزة والتحليل الجزيئي ) ، ومن ثم مقارنة بيانات التسلسل مع البيانات املتوفرة في بنك coiتسلسلها جينًيا باستخدام جين . genbankالجينات جري املسح من شهر كانون األول ُ أيار 2024أ ثمار كغم م 25. تم جمع ما مجموعه 2025إلى ن السدر املصابة من مواقع مختلفة في محافظة بغداد، وسط العراق. سجلت الدراسة نوعين ضمن اول carpomya vesuviana costa,1854ا: النوع مهذا الجنس، ويعد اول تسجيل جزيئي لكل منه اول تسجل جزيئي في carpomya incompleta (becker, 1903)تسجيل جزيئي في العراق، والنوع الجيني بغ التسلسالت تسجيل تم الوصول ةداد. بأرقام الجينات بنك و pv809906في pv810821 .على التوالي ، bull 577 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2025) 18 (3): 577-610. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2025.18.3.0577 original article taxonomic revision of the family casuarinaceae r. br., 1814 (order, fagales) in egypt fatema s. mohamed*, rim hamdy** and essam m. abd-elkhader*** *flora and phyto-taxonomy research department, horticultural research institute, agricultural research center, giza, egypt. **department of botany and microbiology, faculty of science, cairo university, giza, egypt. ***timber trees department, horticultural research institute, agricultural research center, giza, egypt. corresponding author: rhamdy@sci.cu.edu.eg recived: 20 jan. 2025, revised: 11 april 2025., accepted: 13 april 2025, published:20 june 2025 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract the taxonomic features of the casuarinaceae family were carefully examined to determine which characters were most trustworthy for taxonomic delimitation. morphological characteristics that represented habit, leaf teeth, article, phyllichnia, male spike, female cone, samara, and seed were used in our evaluation. fieldwork revealed that seven taxa were present, among which four species belonged to the genus casuarina l., 1759. on the other hand, herbarium studies identified the previous record of three species belonging to the genus allocasuarina l.a.s. johnson, 1982, nevertheless could not be found in the field. casuarina cunninghamiana miq., 1848 and casuarina equisetifolia l., 1759 were represented in egypt by the subspecies cunninghamiana and the subspecies incana (benth.) l.a.s. johnson, 1982 respectively. for each taxon, a thorough description of the family, genus, and species was given, along with images and synonyms. moreover, a constructed identification key to the taxa of casuarinaceae is included. this investigation demonstrated the significance of morphological characteristics for taxonomic assessment among the casuarinaceae taxa surveyed in egypt. the numerical analysis supported the separation of the two genera, allocasuarina and casuarina. keywords: allocasuarina, casuarina, casuarinaceae, numerical analysis, taxonomy. introduction the casuarinaceae family comprises four genera and ninety-one species of shrubs and trees, and native to australia, southeast asia, malesia, papuasia, and the pacific islands. johnson (1980, 1982) separated many of the species that were previously included in the genus casuarina l., 1759 and reclassified them into the new genera gymnostoma (1980 and 1982), allocasuarina (johnson, 1982), and ceuthostoma (johnson, 1988). among the angiosperms, bulletin of the iraq natural historymuseum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799, print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2025.18.3.0577 https://orcid.org/0009-0005-1960-3324 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7777-693x https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2764-5899 mailto:rhamdy@sci.cu.edu.eg https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 578 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 577-610. taxonomic revision of the family casuarinaceae this family is distinct and lacks close relatives. a phylogenetic study of the family later supported the monophyly of these genera (sogo et al., 2001; dorothy et al., 2003). this family was the only one placed in the order verticillatae in the wettstein system. similarly, casuarinaceae was the only family assigned to the order casuarinales in the engler, cronquist, and kubitzki systems (beadle, 1981; turnbull,1990 ; bousquet, 1994). numerous criticisms have been raised regarding the classification of many new allocasuarina species and the division of casuarina into four genera (hwang, 1990, 1991a, b, 1992; crisp, 1991; johnson, 1991). according to johnson and wilson (1989), allocasuarina was the most derived genus, whereas gymnostoma and ceuthostoma were the more primitive genera of the family. four genera have been recognized based on the findings of a study conducted by sogo et al. (2001) on the family's matk and rbcl sequences. extreme morphological reduction and a distinctive combination of morphological characteristics defined the family (e.g., drooping equisetoid twigs, reduced scale-like leaves in whorls forming toothed sheaths at each node, inflorescence with alternating whorls of toothlike bracts and reduced flowers, wind-pollination, woody cone-like inflorescence, winged samaras as fruits (dorothy et al., 2003). the whorls of leaves at the nodes are fused to the stem throughout the length of the internode above, forming the ridges, according to metcalfe and chalk (1979). their lateral margins joined the distal part of the leaves at the next higher node to form the sheath that envelops the next internode's base. the tips of the leaves formed the teeth. actinorhizal woody plants in the casuarinaceae family can fix nitrogen from the atmosphere when associated with the actinomycete frainkia. important tree species in the family have a great chance of being used for afforestation in tropical and subtropical climates, including arid and semiarid regions (el-lakany, 1983 a, b; turnbull, 1990). the scarcity of data on casuarina in egypt may indicate the need for a taxonomic revision. in many regions, including egypt, ecological and botanical surveys may have been insufficient or outdated, leading to gaps in knowledge regarding species distribution, population status, and potential threats. the current study aims to provide a more accurate diagnostic key for the species of casuarina cultivated in egypt. materials and methods plant materials: this work investigated seven species belonging to two genera of casuarinaceae in egypt. the morphological information used in this study was derived from analyses of more than 150 herbarium specimens deposited at the agricultural research centre, flora and phytotaxonomy herbarium, caim, and cairo university herbarium, cai. the acronyms for herbaria follow thiers (2020). additionally, digital photographs of authentic specimens from several online herbaria were examined. in addition, the authors collected fresh specimens of the studied taxa from public or private gardens and avenues in egypt between january 2023 and december 2024. 579 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum mohamed et al. voucher specimens of the taxa under study are kept at cairo university herbarium (cai). identification and updated nomenclature were revised and confirmed using the available literature, including: brenan (1949), dale and greenway (1961), täckholm and drar (1969), white (1962), sykes (1970), badran et al. (1976) woodroffe (1985), wilmot-dear (1985, 1991), wilson and johnson (1989), jones (1991), george et al. (1993), govaerts (1999), fairhurst (2004), iwatsuki et al. (2006), hokche et al. (2008), oppenheimer (2011), girmansyah (2013) muer et al. (2020) and pusalkar et al. (2022). morphological characters: a total of 43 characters16 quantitative and 27 qualitativewere observed. the terms for the traits were taken from the kew plant glossary (beentje, 2016). the remaining characters were scored as multistate, such as leaf arrangement (opposite, spiral, or alternate), while thirty were rated bistate. a stereomicroscope was used to examine and measure the collected specimens: wild heerbrugg, m1b at cai and a stereomicroscope (p 202x 35783) at caim. statistical analysis: statistical analysis of the different morphological features was based on hierarchical cluster analysis. the resulting data revealed certain morphological correlations among the species under study. characters and character states were coded as multistate characters. the interval numbers of morphological characters were used for the studied species (tab. 1). the data were treated using pearson correlation in a data matrix to measure the degree of similarity, using spss version 22 (spss, 2013). the output was plotted as a upgma (unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean) dendrogram (diag.1). average linkage cluster analysis between taxa and the rescaled distance cluster combination served as the foundation for the dendrogram (sneath and sokal, 1973). results and discussion brief descriptions of casuarina l., 1759 have been published for egypt very infrequently (e.g., bircher, 1960; täckholm and drar, 1969; youssef and hamdy, 2013). all available data about the genus in egypt are compiled in table (1). casuarina was introduced to egypt in the 19th century; the oldest documented record is of c. stricta growing in ibrahim pacha's garden on roda island, where it flourished from 1830 to 1850. this species' wood was exported from egypt to exhibits in cologne in 1875 and paris in 1878. the tree was also documented in cairo's ezbekiya garden (delchevalerie, 1875; sickenberger, 1901). concurrently, c. equisetifolia was cultivated in cairo, alexandria (figari, 1865), the khedivial garden in shubra (delchevalerie, 1871), along the canals of ismailia (barbeyboissier and barbey, 1882) and suez (bonaparte, 1904), documented in the works of draper (1898), ascherson and schweinfurth (1887), muschler (1912) and brown (1917). in her gardens of hesperides, bircher (1960) mentioned seven species of casuarina in el saff garden. in 1969, täckholm and drar added eight more species. 580 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 577-610. taxonomic revision of the family casuarinaceae casuarinaceae r. br., voy. terra austral. 2: 571(1814), nom. cons. dioecious or monoecious trees or shrubs. branchlets wiry, slender, and articulate, with several basal articles and one to manyelongated articles. articles have many ridges (phyllichnia) and teeth (reduced leaves), phyllichnia being divided by deep, closed furrows that contain the stomates. there are 4-20 whorls of leaves reduced to teeth at the tip of each article of the assimilatory branchlets. inflorescences consist of alternating whorls of tooth-like bracts; within each bract are two lateral scale-like bracteoles, persistent, occasionally deciduous in male allocasuarina, and a single flower. male inflorescence with a short to long spike. male flowers have one or two tepals, hooded, scale-like, and deciduous at anthesis; one stamen; a two-locular, basifixed anther. female inflorescence forms a globular or ovoid head. female flowers: perianth absent; two-united carpels; two ovules, rarely four; style with two branched, reddish in colour. infructescence with woody cone, the two floral bracteoles enlarged as valves. fruit with a winged nut (samara). seed solitary in each samara; cotyledons large; endosperm absent; often contains more than one embryo. table (1): historical data of the casuarina species recorded in egypt with their currently accepted names. o ld na m e ci te d in lit er at ur e c ur re nt ly ac ce pt ed na m e fi ga ri (1 86 45) d el ch ev al er ie (1 87 1) b ar be y an d b ar be y (1 88 2) d el ch ev al er ie (1 87 5) a sc he rs on an d sc hw ei nf ur th (1 88 7) d el ch ev al er ie (1 89 7) d ra pe r (1 89 8) d el ch ev al er ie (1 89 9) si ck en be rg er (1 90 1) b lo m fie ld (1 90 1) b on ap ar te (1 90 4) m us ch le r (1 91 2) b ro w n (1 91 7) b ir ch er (1 96 0) tä ck ho lm an d d ra r (1 96 9) h am dy et al .( 20 07 ) h am dy (2 01 0) y ou ss ef an d h am dy (2 01 3) c as ua -r in a di st yl av en t. 1. a llo ca su ar in a di st yl a (v en t.) l .a .s .j oh ns on 1 c as ua -r in a fr as er i-a na m iq . 2. a llo ca su -a rin a fr as er ia na (m iq .) l .a .s .j oh ns on 1 1 c as ua -r in a hu eg elia na m iq . 3. a llo ca su -a rin a hu eg el ia na (m iq .) l .a .s .j oh ns on 1 581 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum mohamed et al. c as ua -r in a le pt oc la da m iq . 4. a llo ca su -a rin a lit to ra lis (s al isb .) l .a .s .j oh ns on 1 c as ua -r in a su be ro sa o tt o & a .d ie tr . 1 1 c as ua -r in a lit to ra lis sa lis b. 1 c as ua -r in a na na si eb er ex sp re ng . 5. a llo ca su -a ri na na na (s ie be r ex sp re ng .) l .a .s .j oh ns on 1 c as ua -r in a to ru lo sa a ito n 6. a llo ca su ar in a to ru lo sa (a ito n) l .a .s .j oh ns on 1 1 1 c as ua -r in a bi cu sp id at a b en th . 7. a llo ca su -a rin a tr ic ho do n (m iq .) l .a .s .j oh ns on 1 c as ua -r in a qu ad ri va lv is l ab ill . 8. a llo ca su ar in a ve rti ci lla ta (l am .) l .a .s .j oh ns on 1 1 582 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 577-610. taxonomic revision of the family casuarinaceae c as ua -r in a ve rti ci llat a l am . 1 c as ua -r in a st ric ta a ito n 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 c as ua -r in a le pi do ph lo ia f. m ue ll. 9. c as ua rin -a cr ist at a m iq . 1 c as ua -r in a cu nn in gh am ia na m iq . 10 .c as ua rin a cu nn in gh am ia na m iq . 1 1 1 1 c as ua -r in a eq ui se tifo lia l . 11 .c as ua ri na eq ui se tifo lia l . 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 c as uar in a gl au ca si eb er ex sp re ng . 12 .c as ua ri na gl au ca si eb er ex sp re ng . 1 1 1 583 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum mohamed et al. c as ua -r in a m on ta na l es ch .e x m iq . 13 .c as ua rin a ju ng hu hn ia na m iq . 1 c as ua -r in a ru m ph ia na m iq . 14 .g ym no st om a ru m ph ia nu m (m iq .) l .a .s .j oh ns on 1 c as ua -r in a su m at ra na ju ng h. ex de v ri es e 15 .g ym nos to m a su m at ra nu m (j un gh .e x de v ri es e) l .a .s .j oh ns on 1 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 5 1 2 1 1 1 7 15 3 2 2 key to species of allocasuarina and casuarina cultivated in egypt: mature samaras red-brown to black in colour, shining; cone bracteoles thick; teeth 4-14 per whorl……….…………………………………………………...…..…. i. allocasuarina mature samaras grey or yellow-brown in colour, dull; cone bracteoles thin; teeth 5-20 per whorl ………………………….……………………………..……...…… ii. casuarina i a. teeth 4-5 ………………………..………………………………..…...…... a. torulosa i b. teeth 7-9 cone sessile or subsessile, 20-40 x 15-20 mm, warty……………….…. . a. fraseriana cone pedunculate, 10-30 x 12-20 mm, pubescent ………………..……...... a. littoralis ii a. phyllichnia narrow and angular, teeth 6-9 branchlets and cones densely pubescent, cone 10-24 x 9-13 mm, samara 6-8 mm long………………………………………………………………......….. c. equisetifolia branchlets and cones minutely pubescent, cone 7-14 x 4-6 mm, samara 3-4 mm long………………………………………………………….....…... c. cunninghamiana 584 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 577-610. taxonomic revision of the family casuarinaceae ii b. phyllichnia broad and rounded, teeth 8-20. teeth 12-20, phyllichnia smooth, samara 3.5-5 mm long, cone bracteole 22.5 mm wide peduncle 3-12 mm long ……………..……………………………….…...…... c. glauca teeth 8-13, phyllichnia wrinkled, samara 6-10 mm long, cone bracteole 3.54 mm wide, peduncle 1-4 mm long………..……..…………………………….……...…... c. cristata i. allocasuarina l.a.s. johnson, j. adelaide bot. gard. 6: 73 (1982). description: trees or shrubs, dioecious or monoecious. young, persistent branchlets usually distinguishable from the deciduous branchlets. branchlet articles have deep furrows, concealing the stomates. leaves reduced to teeth in whorls of 4–20. male inflorescence with a simple, short to elongated spike; bracteoles thickly woody, and convex. female inflorescence with a small globose or ovoid head on short lateral branchlets ('peduncles'). cones borne among or below assimilatory branchlets, either pedunculate or sessile; bracts are thin in exposed portion; bracteoles considerably thickened and often divided, so that the dorsal portion forms one or more distinct protuberances. samara body glabrous, red-brown to black, and shining. type species: a. torulosa (aiton) l.a.s. johnson the native range of this genus is australia (powo, 2025). key to the sections of allocasuarina: a. trees, bark fissured and reddish, male spike bracteoles persistent b. teeth 4-5, cone sessile or subsessile, 2-4 x 1.5-2 cm, warty …….. sect.1. allocasuarina bb. teeth 6-8, cone pedunculate, 15-23 mm long, 1-3 x 1.2-2 cm, pubescent……………………………………………………..….... sect. 2. amorphopitys aa. shrubs, bark fissured and greyish, male spike bracteoles deciduous ………………………………………………………………….....…… sect. 3. cylindropitys section 1. allocasuarina trees dioecious or monoecious; penultimate branchlets woody. branchlets not waxy; elongated articles numerous, terete or quadrangular, smooth; teeth not overlapping. male spikes elongate; bracteoles persistent. cone bracts inconspicuous; bracteoles with protuberance 8–20-parted. samaras glabrous, mid-brown to black. type: a. torulosa (aiton) l.a.s.johnson allocasuarina torulosa (salisb.) l.a.s. johnson, j. adelaide bot. gard. 6: 76 (1982). ‘forest oak, rose she-oak' synonyms: = casuarina torulosa aiton in hort. kew. 3: 320 (1789) = casuarina lugubris salisb., prodr. stirp. chap. allerton: 2 (1796) = casuarina tenuissima sieber ex spreng., syst. veg., ed. 16. 3: 804 (1826) = casuarina torulosa f. graciliormiq., j.g.c. lehmann, pl. preiss. 1: 640 (1845) = casuarina ericoides gentil, pl. cult. serres jard. bot. brux.: 48 (1907) 585 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum mohamed et al. description: usually dioecious, a tree growing to 12–16 m in high. bark fissured, reddish, and thin. branchlets thin, filiform, drooping, up to 14 cm long; articles terete, quadrangular on young growth, 5–6 x 0.4–0.5 mm, minutely pubescent in furrows; phyllichnia slightly rounded; teeth number 4 or 5, erect, and short with 0.3–0.5 mm in length. male spikes slender and filiform, 10– 25 mm long, compact, with 7–12 whorls per cm; anther spikes measure 0.5– 0.6 mm long. cones shortly cylindrical or barrel-shaped, warty, occasionally densely pubescent, and pendent or spreading; peduncle with 11–20 mm in length; cone body measures 15–27 x 12–23 mm; bracts inconspicuous; bracteoles acute, with protuberance divided into 8– 12 small tubercles that slightly shorter than or as long as bracteole body. length of samara 7– 10 mm long, mid to dark brown. seed is 1.5-2 mm long, brown, glabrous; wing with 3.5-5 mm in length, pale brown, glabrous, entire, and obtuse. timber reddish, strong, and closegrained (pl. 1). global distribution: indigenous to e. australia (powo, 2025). herbarium specimens examined: el saff, alfred bircher north eastern garden, 15.v.1961, v. tãckholm and ibrahim el sayed s. n. (cai); el saff, alfred bircher eastern garden, 1.vi.1961, v. tãckholm and ibrahim el sayed s. n. (cai); el saff, alfred bircher north eastern garden, 23.vi.1961, v. tãckholm and ibrahim el sayed s.n. (cai); giza, basatin (tree 2 from south at entrance), 25.ix.1961, v. tãckholm and m. drar s. n. (cai); giza, basatin (tree 3 from south at entrance), 25.ix.1961, v. tãckholm and m. drar s. n. (cai); giza, basatin, 19.xii.1961, v. tãckholm s. n. (cai). notes: it was first introduced in 1929 by the ministry of agriculture's horticultural department from the botanic gardens in rome. in 1961, a few magnificent trees were observed flourishing in alfred bircher’s garden at el saff, giza (täckholm and drar, 1969). the tree wasn't recorded by the authors in 2024. 586 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 577-610. taxonomic revision of the family casuarinaceae plate (1): field photograph of allocasuarina torulosa; (a) sheet, (b) branchlet, (c) male inflorescence, (d) female inflorescence (cone), (e) samara. 587 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum mohamed et al. section 2. amorphopitys l.a.s. johnson, fl. australia 3: 191 (1989) dioecious trees; penultimate with branchlets woody. bark scaly or corky. branchlets occasionally waxy; elongate articles and numerous, terete, verruculose, or smooth; teeth not overlapping or marcescent. male spikes are elongate; bracteoles are persistent. cone bracts are somewhat thickened but inconspicuous; bracteoles have a protuberance 4–8 parted. samara glabrous and very darkbrown to black. type: a. fraseriana (miq.) l.a.s.johnson allocasuarina fraseriana (miq.) l.a.s. johnson, j. adelaide bot. gard. 6: 75 (1982). ‘western she-oak’ synonyms: = casuarina fraserianamiq., nieuwe verh. eerste kl. kon. ned. inst. wetensch. amsterdam, ser. 2, 13: 59 (1848). = casuarina stricta var. fraseriana (miq.) miq., flora 48: 20 (1865). = casuarina torulosamiq., j.g.c. lehmann, pl. preiss. 1: 639 (1845), nom. illeg. = casuarina nana schltdl., linnaea 20: 574 (1847), nom. illeg. description: tree 5–12 m high. bark fissured reddish, and thick. branchlets ascending, dark green, slender, striped, up to 30 cm long; articles 5-7 x 0.6–0.9 mm, occasionally strongly waxy; phyllichnia rounded, verruculose or smooth; teeth 6–8, somewhat spreading, 0.7–1.2 mm long. male spikes 3–8 cm long, 5 or 6 whorls per cm; anther 0.7–1.2 mm long. cones coarse, sessile or subsessile, usually cylindrical, warty, pubescent at least when young, peduncle up to 4-6 mm long; cone body 20-25 x 19-22 mm; valves thickened at apex into a large truncate protuberance and placed side by side on the same level; bracteoles broadly acute to obtuse, protuberance slightly shorter than bracteole body and divided into 4–8 bodies, pungent or obtuse. samara with 5-8 mm in length. seed with 2-3 mm length, brown, and warty; wing with 4-6 mm in length, broad, warty, obtuse and whitish. timber reddish, strong, and fairly tough with nice oak grain (pl. 2). global distribution: indigenous to sw. australia (powo, 2025). herbarium specimens examined: kirdasa, 8. xii.1928, simpson 5707 (caim); giza, 4.v.1952, m. drar 017499 (caim); giza, 22. vii.1959, m. drar s.n. (cai); orman garden, v.1961, v. tãckholm s.n. (cai). notes: until 1952, it was cultivated in egypt along a canal in the faculty of agriculture at cairo university in giza. specimens of this plant are housed in the agricultural museum in doqqi. in 1969, several trees were found in alfred bircher's el saff gardens in giza and one tree was present in the orman garden (täckholm and drar, 1969). in 2024, the authors did not record any remaining trees. 588 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 577-610. taxonomic revision of the family casuarinaceae plate (2): field photographs of allocasuarina fraseriana; (a) sheet, (b) branchlet, (c) male inflorescence, (d) female inflorescence (cone), (e) samara. 589 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum mohamed et al. section 3. cylindropitys l.a.s. johnson, fl. australia 3:191(1989) description: dioecious or monoecious shrubs or trees; penultimate branchlets woody. bark smooth or fissured. branchlets occasionally with a waxy bloom; elongate articles numerous, terete, smooth or occasionally verruculose; teeth may be overlapping and marcescent. male spikes elongate, occasionally only shortly so; bracteoles persistent or rarely deciduous individually. cone bracts inconspicuous; bracteoles have a protuberance that is entire or rarely 2or 3-parted. samaras are glabrous, and red-brown to black. type: a. littoralis (salisb.) l.a.s. johnson. allocasuarina littoralis (salisb.) l.a.s. johnson, j. adelaide bot. gard. 6: 76 (1982). ‘black she-oak’ synonyms: = casuarina littoralis salisb., prodr. stirp. chap. allerton: 2 (1796) = casuarina ramuliflora otto & a.dietr., allg. gartenzeitung 9: 163 (1841) = casuarina suberosa otto & a.dietr., allg. gartenzeitung 9: 155 (1841) = casuarina leptocladamiq., nieuwe verh. eerste kl. kon. ned. inst. wetensch. amsterdam, ser. 2, 13: 41 (1848). = casuarina moesta f.muell. ex miq., ned. kruidk. arch. 4: 98 (1856) = casuarina miquelii hook.f. ex miq., a.p.de candolle, prodr. 16(2): 337 (1868) = casuarina elegans gentil, pl. cult. serres jard. bot. brux.: 48 (1907) = casuarina filiformis gentil, pl. cult. serres jard. bot. brux.: 48 (1907) description: tree 7–12 m high. bark fissured, greyish, and thick. branchlets ascending, slender, glabrous, up to 20 cm long; articles 4–10 x 0.4–1 mm, smooth, and pubescent in furrows; phyllichnia angular or rounded with median ridge; teeth 6–8, erect or rarely spreading, not overlapping, 0.3–0.9 mm long, usually not marcescent. male spikes 2–5 cm long, 6–12 whorls per cm; bracteoles persistent anther 0.4–0.8 mm long. cones cylindrical, rarely broader than long, pubescent at least when young; peduncle 8-10 mm long; cone body 10–20 x 8–15 mm; valves prominent, glabrous with a thick scale-like transverse dorsal outgrowth baselly; bracteoles thin, broadly acute to obtuse, thick pyramidal protuberance shorter than bracteole body, occasionally with two lateral bodies. samara 4–8 mm long, dark brown to black. seed pale brown, glabrous, 1.5-2 mm long; wing pale brown, glabrous, entire, and obtuse, with 3-5 mm in length. timber brownish, coarse-grained, hard, and tough (pl. 3). global distribution: indigenous to e. and se. australia (powo, 2025). herbarium specimens examined: dakhalia, aga, 16.vi.1928, e. greiss s.n. (cai); cairo, basatin, 30.vii.1959,m. drar s.n. (cai). notes: from the agriculture and stock department in hobart, tasmania, it was brought to egypt in 1923 by the department of horticulture, ministry of agriculture (täckholm and drar, 1969). in 2024, the tree had not been observed by the authors. 590 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 577-610. taxonomic revision of the family casuarinaceae plate (3): field photographs of allocasuarina littoralis; (a) sheet, (b) branchlet, (c) male inflorescence, (d) female inflorescence (cone), (e) samara. 591 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum mohamed et al. iicasuarina l., amoen. acad. 4:143 (1759) trees dioecious or monoecious. young persistent branchlets differ from deciduous branchlets by having shorter articles and shape or size of leaves (‘teeth’). articles terete and smooth; furrows deep and closed, concealing stomates. leaves in whorls of 5–20. male inflorescences simple elongate spikes; bracteoles persistent. female inflorescences on short lateral branchlets (‘peduncles’) differ in appearance from the vegetative branchlets. cones borne among or below assimilatory branchlets, pedunculate, and pubescent at least when immature; bracts thin in the exposed portion, not vertically expanded; bracteoles protrude from cone surface, never considerably thickened and always lacking a dorsal protuberance. samara body glabrous, pale yellow-brown or greyish, dull. type species: c. equisetifolia l. the native range of this genus is tropical asia to w. pacific (powo, 2025). casuarina equisetifolia l., amoen. acad. 4: 143 (1759) description: tree 6–35 m high. bark scaly, grey-brown, and thick. new shoots have erect teeth. branchlets prominent, drooping, pubescent, up to 30 cm long; articles 5–10 x 0.7–1.0 mm; furrows usually densely pubescent; phyllichnia angular or occasionally flat in older growth, glabrous or pubescent; teeth 6-8, erect, 0.3–0.8 mm long, ciliate at margin, acute, not marcescent. male spikes 20–40 mm long, 7–11 whorls per cm; anther 0.6–0.8 mm long. cones sparsely pubescent to tomentose; peduncle 8–13 mm long; cone body 10–20 x 9–13 mm; bracteoles acute, pubescent. samara 5-8 mm long. seed brown, glabrous, and 1-2 mm; wing acute, pubescent, entire, brown, 3-5 mm long. timber dark, coarse-grained, and hard. in egypt, casuarina equisetifolia tends toward subsp. incana characterized by articles 0.7– 1 mm in diameter; phyllichnia prominently angular to flat in older growth, often on the same branchlet, usually densely pubescent (pl. 4). casuarina equisetifolia l. subsp. incana (benth.) l.a.s. johnson, j. adelaide bot. gard. 6: 79 (1982).’coastal she-oak; horsetail she-oak; ironwood; beach she-oak; beach casuarina; whistling tree’ synonyms: ≡ casuarina equisetifolia var. incana benth., fl. austral. 6: 197 (1873) = casuarina incana a.cunn. ex benth., fl. austral. 6: 197 (1873) global distribution: indigenous to e. australia, vanuatu to new caledonia (powo, 2025). herbarium specimens examined: giza, saqiet mekki, 3.i.1928, simpson 5484 (caim); cairo, spring 1952, s. el-sisi s.n. (cai); faculty of agriculture gardens, ix.1953, n. el hadidi s. n. (cai); cairo, basatin, 30.vii.1959, m. drar s.n. (cai); suez, 31. viii.1959, v. tãckholm and m. drar s.n. (cai); el saff, alfred bircher’s garden, 15. v.1961, v.täckholm and ibrahim el sayed s.n. (cai); behiera, ezbet el sitt , 30.viii.1961, v. täckholm s.n. (cai); giza, horticultural department, 5.ix.1961, v. täckholm s.n. (cai); abou rawash sewage farm, 19.xi.1961, v. täckholm and i. el sayed s. n. (cai); abu simbel, ii.1963, m. abdallah (caim); giza, faculty of pharmacy garden, boulaq el dakrour, 15.x.1963, m. el mahdi s.n. (cai); ras el hekma, 4.v.1966, v. täckholm s.n. (cai); cairo, gezira aquarium garden, 592 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 577-610. taxonomic revision of the family casuarinaceae zamalek, 19.iv.1976, j. chrtek s.n. (cai); alexandria, spring.1976, j. chrtek s.n. (cai); aswan, 12. vii. 2003, h. rofaeel 29400 (caim); the aquarium garden, 6.ix.2023, f. sami 2700 (caim); damietta, central garden, 28.ix.2024, r. hamdy s.n. (cai); cairo, maadi club, 1.x.2024, r. hamdy s.n. (cai). note: before the mid-19th century, it was brought to egypt. it was also reintroduced in 1923 under the name c. muricata from the taj mahal and other government gardens in agra, india. in 1961, specimens were observed growing in many locations, including suez, burg el arab, cairo's ezbekiya garden, the horticultural department in giza, gebl asfar sewage farm, inshas estate, etc. (täckholm and drar,1969). today, it has successfully established and spread throughout egypt. 593 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum mohamed et al. plate (4): field photographs of casuarina equisetifolia; (a) trunk, (b) sheet from egypt, (c) branchlet showing erect, large light grey teeth without a transverse band at the base, (d) male inflorescence, (e) female inflorescence (cone), (f) samara. 594 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 577-610. taxonomic revision of the family casuarinaceae casuarina cunninghamiana miq., nieuwe verh. eerste kl. kon. ned. inst. wetensch. amsterdam, ser. 2, 13: 56 (1848). ‘river oak; river she-oak; creek oak’ in egypt, casuarina cunninghamiana tends toward subsp. cunninghamiana characterized by teeth 8–10, yellow baselly, dark brown towards the apex, marcescent, phyllichnia prominently angular, and cone bracteoles with broadly acute. synonym: = casuarina equisetifolia var. microcarpa f. muell., fragm. 6: 17 (1867) description: tree 15–35 m high. bark scaly, grey-brown, and thick. branchlets ascending, slender, fairly ribbed; articles 4–9 x 0.4–0.7 mm, mostly glabrous; edges of furrows often marked by a slight ridge; phyllichnia angular to flat with a median rib; teeth 8–10, 0.3–0.5 mm long, erect, marcescent. male spikes with 20–40 mm in length, 11–13 whorls per cm; anther 0.4–0.7 mm long. cones are sparsely pubescent; peduncle 2–9 mm long; cone body 7– 12 x 4–6 mm; bracteoles broadly acute, prominent with dorsal keel. samara with 3–4 mm in length. seed pubescent, brown, 0.4–0.5 mm long; wing pubescent, brown, obtuse, entire, 0.8– 1 mm long. timber pale brown, hard, and coarse-grained (pl. 5). global distribution: native to se. new guinea to e. australia (powo, 2025). herbarium specimens examined: el khanka, 26.i.1923, simpson 5484 (caim); kirdasa, 10. xi.1926, g. täckholm s.n. (cai); giza pyramids, 1. i.1927, g. täckholm s.n. (cai); kirdasa, 5. xii.1927, simpson 5602 (caim); dokki field, giza, vi.1951, m. drar 17496 (caim); faculty of agriculture, giza, ix.1953, n. el hadidi s.n. (cai); faculty of agriculture, giza, xii. 1953, n. el hadidi s.n. (cai); minya el qameh, sharkia, 11,x,1957, s. ibrahim s.n. (cai); met yazid, along banha-zagazig road, 11.x.1957, s. ibrahim s.n. (cai); kom aushim, faiyum, 21. i.1959, v. tãckholm s.n. (cai); port tawfik, suez, 31.viii.1959, v. tãckholm and m. drar s.n. (cai); cairo-alexandria desert road near mena house, 7.9.1959., v. tãckholm s.n. (cai); barrage, 7.ix. 1959, v. täckholm s.n. (cai); kirdasa is not far from the pyramids and basatin gardens, 7. ix.1959, v. täckholm s.n. (cai); helwan near the cement factory, 23.x.1959, v. täckholm s.n. (cai); rod el farag school, 11.x.1960, youssef mousaa s.n. (cai); abu rawash sewage farm, 19.x.1961, v. täckholm and ibrahim el sayed s.n. (cai); basatin, 19. xii. 1961, v. täckholm s.n. (cai); aswan, 3.i.1998, h. rofaeel, 29342 (caim); manial palace, 13. viii.2023, f. sami 704 (caim); the aquarium garden, 6.ix.2023, f. sami 712 (caim); dokki, 17.ix.2023, f. sami (caim)720 ; el-saff, giza, 13.xi.2023, f. sami 722 (caim); cairo, horreyah garden, 15.xi.2023, f. sami (caim); belbeis, el-sharkiah, 23.xi.2023, f. sami 722 (caim); damietta, 28.ix.2024, r. hamdy s. n. (cai); el maadi, 4.xii.2024, r. hamdy s.n. (cai); el maadi, 14. i. 2025, r. hamdy s.n. (cai). notes: in 1919 and 1927, the department of horticulture, ministry of agriculture, brought it to egypt from the forest department in cape town, south africa, and the botanic garden in saharanpur, india, respectively (täckholm and drar, 1969). in egypt, it is the most prevalent species of casuarina. 595 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum mohamed et al. plate (5): field photographs of casuarina cunninghamiana; (a) trunk, (b) sheet from egypt, helwan, near the cement factory, 23.x.1959, v. täckholm (cai), (c) branchlet showing erect yellowish-green teeth that have grayish tips with brown transverse band halfway between the tip of teeth and their base, (d) male inflorescence, (e) female inflorescence (cone), (f) samara. 596 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 577-610. taxonomic revision of the family casuarinaceae casuarina glauca sieber ex spreng., syst. veg., ed. 16. 3: 803 (1826). ‘swamp oak’ synonyms: = casuarina obtusamiq. in a.p.de candolle, prodr. 16(2): 334 (1868) = casuarina torulosa miq., nieuwe verh. eerste kl. kon. ned. inst. wetensch. amsterdam, ser. 2, 13: 75 (1848), nom. illeg. description: tree 8–20 m high, frequently producing root suckers. bark scaly, grey-brown, and thick. branchlets thick, erect, glaucous, up to 38 cm long; articles 8–20 x 0.9–1.2 mm, glabrous, occasionally waxy; phyllichnia flat to slightly rounded. teeth on new shoots longrecurved, 12–20, erect, 0.6–0.9 mm long, usually marcescent. male spikes with 1.2–3 cm in lenghth, 7–10 whorls per cm; anther 0.8 mm long. cones ovoid, white-pubescent, becoming glabrous; peduncle 3–12 mm long; cone body 9–18 x 7–9 mm; bracteoles broadly acute, with dorsal keel. samara with 3.5–5.0 mm in length. seed 0.8-1 mm long, pale brown, glabrous; wing 3-5 mm long, glabrous, emarginated, entire. timber brown, close-grained, and very hard (pl. 6). global distribution: indigenous to e. australia (powo, 2025). herbarium specimensexamined: english co. ezba s of giza pyramids, 1. i.1927, g. täckholm s. n. (cai); aga, 16.vi.1928, e. greiss s. n. (cai); northern beni suef, 25.ix.1952, l. boulos s. n. (cai); basatin, 6. vii.1952, m. drar 017500 (caim); faculty of agriculture, giza, x.1952, n. el hadidi s. n. (cai); faculty of agriculture, giza, viii.1953, n. el hadidi s. n. (cai); faculty of agriculture, giza, ix.1953, n. el hadidi s. n. (cai); ras el hekma, 3.iii.1956, m. imam s. n. (cai); giza, 1.iv.1956, s. el sisi s. n. (cai); basatin, cairo, 30.vii.1959, m. drar s. n. (cai); cairo-alexandria desert road near mena house, 7.ix.1959, v. täckholm s. n. (cai); kirdasa, 7.ix.1959, v. täckholm s. n. (cai); kom aushim, faiyum, 21.ix.1959, v. täckholm s. n. (cai); helwan near the cement factory, 23.x.1959, v. täckholm s. n. (cai); barrage medicinal garden, 8.i.1961, v. tãckholm and ibrahim el sayed s. n. (cai); alfred birchers garden, el saff, 23.vi.1961, v. täckholm and ibrahim el sayed s. n. (cai); horticulture dept., giza, 5.ix.1961, v. täckholm s. n. (cai); giza, basatin, 25.ix.1961, m. drar s.n. (cai); giza, basatin, 25.ix.1961, v. täckholm and m. drar s.n. (cai); giza, basatin, 19/12/1961, v. täckholm s. n. (cai); giza, basatin (horticultural department), 9. iii.1966, m. el mahdi s. n. (cai); wadi el natroun, 6.iii.1968, n. el hadidi s. n. (cai); garawla between el alamein and mersa matruh, 22. iii.1974, v. täckholm, n. el hadidi, ayyad and mahdi s. n. (cai); cairo-alexandria road 90 km, 7. iii.1978, m. muller et al. s. n. (cai); cairo, aquarium garden, 6. ix.2023, f. sami 712 (caim); giza, el-saff, 13. xi.2023, f. sami 722 (caim); wadi el natroun, 3. iii.2024, r. hamdy s.n. (cai); damietta, 28.ix.2024, r. hamdy s. n. (cai); el maadi, 4.xii.2024, r. hamdy s.n. (cai). notes: it was introduced in 1922 by the ministry of agriculture's horticultural department, egypt, from the botanic gardens in sydney, australia. it is one of the species that has fared the best among all casuarinas. it grows incredibly well (täckholm and drar, 1969). its cultivation is expanding quickly and is currently found throughout the country. 597 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum mohamed et al. plate (6): field photographs of casuarina glauca; (a) trunk, (b) sheet, (c) branchlet showing erect, large light grey teeth without a transverse band at the base, (d) male inflorescence, (e) female inflorescence (cone), (f) samara. 598 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 577-610. taxonomic revision of the family casuarinaceae casuarina cristatamiq., nieuwe verh. eerste kl. kon. ned. inst. wetensch. amsterdam, ser. 2, 13: 70 (1848). ‘belah’. synonyms: ≡ casuarina quadrivalvis var. cristata (miq.) miq. in flora 48: 18 (1865) = casuarina lepidophloia f.muell. in fragm. 10: 115 (1877) = casuarina cambagei r. t. baker in proc. linn. soc. new south wales 24: 605 (1900) description: tree up to 10–15 m high, producing suckers. bark is scaly, grey-brown, and thick. branchlets are ascending, fairly ribbed, spreading to 25 cm long. articles are usually slightly wrinkled, 8–17 x 0.6–0.9 mm, somewhat waxy; phyllichnia flat or with slight median groove, often masked by wax; teeth 8–12, erect, 0.5–0.7 mm long, marcescent. male spikes with 2–5 cm in length, 6–10 whorls per cm; anther 0.8–1.1 mm long. cones pubescent when young, nearly glabrous at maturity; peduncle 1–4 mm long; cone body 13–18 x 10–16 mm; bracteoles acute. samara with 4-6 mm in length. seed 12 mm in length, pale brown, smooth; wing length 3-4 mm, glabrous, acute, entire, 0.8-1 mm long. timber brown, straight, and tough (pl. 7). global distribution: indigenous to e. australia (powo, 2025). herbarium specimens examined: abu rawash, 19. i.1956, n. el hadidi s.n. (cai); orman garden, giza, 22.vii.1959, m. drar s.n. (cai); barrage, 7.ix.1959, v. täckholm s.n. (cai); kirdasa, 7.ix.1959, v. täckholm s.n. (cai); kom aushim, faiyum, 21.ix.1959, v. täckholm s.n. (cai); alfred birchers garden, el saff, 23.vi.1961, v. täckholm and ibrahim el sayed s.n. (cai); orman garden, giza, vii.1961, v. täckholm s.n. (cai); birket dahshour, 19.ix.1961, v. täckholm and ibrahim el sayed s.n. (cai); giza, basatin, 25.ix.1961, v. täckholm and m. drar s.n. (cai); el saff, alfred bircher’s garden, western garden, 4.i.1962, v. täckholm and ibrahim el sayed s.n. (cai); el maadi club, 4.xii. 2024, r. hamdy s.n. (cai). notes: in 1929, the department of agriculture and stock in brisbane, new south wales, australia, transferred it to the department of horticulture under the ministry of agriculture. only one specimen was observed in 1961, flourishing in the orman garden in giza (täckholm and drar, 1969). at present, we have recorded it once in cairo. 599 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum mohamed et al. plate (7): field photographs of casuarina cristata; (a) trunk, (b) sheet, (c) branchlet showing erect, large light grey teeth without a transverse band at the base, (d) male inflorescence, (e) female inflorescence (cone), (f) samara. 600 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 577-610. taxonomic revision of the family casuarinaceae statistical analysis statistical analysis is significant for documenting and discovering new morphological characters and character states. many studies have been conducted to understand taxonomic relationships in different groups of plants (soladoye et al., 2010; rahman and rahman, 2012). in the present study, two genera and seven species were evaluated using a data matrix generated from 43 characters through numerical analysis. the complete data matrix for the studied taxa, including the characters and character states and their values for each taxon, is listed in table (2). the proximity matrix shows the similarity values among the studied species of casuarina and allocasuarina, as shown in table (3). the numerical taxonomy of the studied taxa was determined based on the phenogram resulting from the upgma clustering. table (2): summary table and data coding of macro-morphological characters of the studied taxa. no. characters a .f ra se ri an a (m iq .) l. a .s . jo hn so n, 19 82 a .l ito ra lis (s al is b. )l .a .s . jo hn so n, 19 82 a .t or ul os a (s al is b. )l .a .s . jo hn so n, 19 82 c .c ri sta ta m iq ., 18 48 c .c un ni ng ha m ia na m iq ., 18 48 c .e qu is et ifo lia l. ,1 75 9 c .g la uc a si eb er .e x sp re ng ., 18 26 1 type: dioecious [1]/ monoecious [2] 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 habit: shrub [1]/ tree [2] 2 1 2 2 2 2 2 3 height: tall (< 30 m) [1]/ short (> 30 m) [2] 2 2 2 2 1 1 2 4 root suckers: present [1]/ absent [2] 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 5 bark thickness: thick [1]/ thin [2] 1 1 2 2 1 1 1 6 bark shape: scaly [1]/ fissured [2] 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 7 bark color: reddish-brown [1]/ greyish or brown [2] 1 2 1 2 2 2 2 8 branchlets length: short (up to 20 cm) [1]/ long (< 20 cm) [2] 2 2 1 1 2 2 2 9 branchlets colour: dark green [1]/ green [2]/ glaucous [3] 1 1 2 2 2 2 3 10 branchlets direction: ascending [1]/ drooping [2]/ erect [3] 1 1 2 1 1 2 3 11 branchlets thickness: slender [1]/ thick [2] 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 12 branchlets shape: stripped [1]/ not so [2] 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 13 branchlets texture: glabrous [1]/ pubescent [2] 1 1 1 1 2 2 1 14 teeth shape: marcescent [1]/ not marcescent [2] 2 2 2 1 1 2 1 15 teeth no.: up to 8 [1]/ 8-12 [2]/ 1220 [3] 1 1 1 2 2 1 3 16 teeth length: short (up to 0.5 mm) 2 2 1 2 1 2 2 601 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum mohamed et al. [1]/ long (0.5-0.9 mm) [2] 17 17teeth direction: erect [1]/ recurved [2] 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 18 article length: very short (up to 9 mm) [1], short (9-13 mm) [2], long (13-20 mm) [3] 3 2 1 3 1 2 3 19 article diameter: thin (up to 0.7 mm) [1], thick (0.7-1.2 mm) [2] 2 2 1 2 1 2 2 20 article texture: glabrous [1], pubescent [2], waxy [3]/ wrinkled [4]. 3 1 1 4 2 2 1 21 phyllichnia shape: rounded [1], angular [2], flat [3] 1 2 1 3 3 3 3 22 phyllichnia texture: glabrous [1], pubescent [2], waxy [3] 1 1 1 3 1 2 1 23 male spike length: very short (up to 3 cm) [1], short (3-5 cm) [2], long (< 5cm) [3] 3 2 1 2 2 2 1 24 male spike (no. of whorls/cm): 5-6 [1], 6-13 [2] 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 25 anther length: short (up to 0.8 mm) [1], long (< 8 mm) [2] 2 1 1 2 1 1 2 26 cone shape: cylindrical [1], ovoid [2] 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 27 cone texture: glabrous [1], pubescent [2] 2 2 2 1 2 2 1 28 peduncle length: very short (up to 4 mm) [1], short (4-13 mm) [2], long (< 13 mm) [3] 1 3 3 1 2 2 2 29 cone length: short (up to 20 mm) [1], long (< 20 mm) [2] 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 30 cone diameter: thin (up to 16 mm) [1], thick (< 16 mm) [2] 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 31 bracteole apex: acute [1], obtuse [2] 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 32 samara length: short (up to 5 mm) [1], long (< 5 mm) [2] 2 2 2 2 1 2 1 33 samara color: dark brown [1], light brown [2] 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 34 seed color: brown [1], pale brown [2] 1 1 1 2 1 1 2 35 seed texture: glabrous [1], warty [2]/ pubescent [3] 2 1 1 1 3 1 1 36 seed length: short (up to 2 mm) [1], long (< 2 mm) [2] 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 37 wing colour: whitish [1], pale brown [2], brown [3] 1 2 2 1 3 3 1 38 wing texture: glabrous [1]/ warty [2]. 2 1 1 1 2 1 1 39 wing apex: acute [1], obtuse [2], emarginate [3] 2 2 2 1 1 1 3 40 wing length: short (up to 3.5 mm) [1], long (< 3.5 mm) [2] 2 2 2 2 1 1 2 42 timber texture: strong [1], tough and rigid [2]. 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 43 timber grain: coarse-grain [1], oakgrain [2], close-grain [3] 2 1 3 2 2 2 3 602 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 577-610. taxonomic revision of the family casuarinaceae table (3): the proximity matrix shows the degrees of similarity among the studied species of casuarinaceae in egypt. this is an absolute similarity matrix. c. cunninghamiana c. equisetifolia a. litoralis a. torulosa a. fraseriana c. cristata c. glauca diagram (1): dendrogram shows the degree of similarity among the studied species of the family casuarinaceae in egypt. species absolute correlation between vectors of values a. fraseriana a. litoralis a. torulosa c. cristata c. cunning. c. equisetifolia c. glauca a. fraseri-ana 1.000 0.422 0.262 0.015 0.073 0.025 0.181 a. litoralis 0.422 1.000 0.466 0.109 0.029 0.123 0.072 a. torulosa 0.262 0.466 1.000 0.264 0.073 0.101 0.022 c. cristata 0.015 0.109 0.264 1.000 0.031 0.147 0.239 c. cunning. 0.073 0.029 0.073 0.031 1.000 0.777 0.018 c. equise-tifolia 0.025 0.123 0.101 0.147 0.777 1.000 0.046 c. glauca 0.181 0.072 0.022 0.239 0.018 0.046 1.000 603 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum mohamed et al. numerical analysis the dendrogram resulting from the examination of the morphological traits of the casuarinaceae species under investigation (tab. 3, fig. 1) showed that the studied species were divided into two groups. group one was further divided into two subgroups. the first subgroup included c. cunninghamiana miq. subsp. cunninghamiana and c. equisetifolia l. subsp. incana, while the second subgroup included a. fraseriana, a. litoralis, and a. torulosa. the second group included c. cristata and c. glauca. c. cunninghamiana miq. subsp. cunninghamiana and c. equisetifolia l. subsp. incana exhibited the highest similarity value (77.7 %), followed by 46.6 % between a. litoralis and a. torulosa and 42.2% between a. litoralis and a. fraseriana. the lowest similarity value was 15 % between c. cristata and a. fraseriana and 18 % between c. cunninghamianamiq. subsp. cunninghamiana and c. glauca. the numerical analysis supported the simultaneous separation of allocasuarina and casuarina, while indicating a significant similarity between them. conclusions this study demonstrated the importance of morphological traits in the taxonomic evaluation among the studied species of casuarinaceae in egypt. qualitative and quantitative traits provided considerable information to distinguish among the species of casuarinaceae. the present study, based on the morphological characters, revealed some similarities among the studied species and confirmed the placement of species in each group. the numerical analysis results supported the separation of casuarina into two genera: allocasuarina and casuarina. fifteen species were introduced into egypt in the 19th century, but this number was reduced to eight (tãckholm and drar, 1969). in 2025, only four taxa have been recorded. conflicts of interest statement there is no conflict of interest for the researchers. literature cited ascherson, p. and schweinfurth, g. 1887. illustration de la flore d’égypte. mémoire institut d’égypte, 2: 23-260. badran, o. a., 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(2025) 18 (3): 577-610. رتبة ، casuarinaceae r. br., الكازورينية1814 للفصيلة تصنيفية مراجعة مصر في fagales البلوطيات القادر*** عبد مصطفي عصام و حمدي** ريم ، * محمد سامي فاطمة الزراعية، البحوث مركز البساتين، بحوث معهد تصنيفالنباتات، و الفلورة بحوث قسم * مصر. الجيزة، مصر. الجيزة، القاهرة، جامعة العلوم، كلية اليكروبيولوجي، و النبات قسم ** الجيزة، الزراعية، البحوث مركز البساتين، بحوث معهد الخشبية، الشجار بحوث قسم *** مصر. 2025/6/20 النشر: ،2025/4/13 القبول: ،2025/4/11 2025/1/20،الراجعة: استالم: الالصة نواع ل اا عدد لتسجيل الكازورينية الفصيلة على التصنيفية الراجعة هذه جريت ل ا الصفات على التقييم هذا استند لها، التصنيفي الوضع ودراسة مصر في حاليا الوجودة نثة، الول السنبلة الذكرة، السنبلة السلمية، الورقة، النبات،مثل جزاء ل ا لجميع الظهرية من الكازورينا. لجنس ينتموا وكلهم فقط نوع ل ا ربع ل ا وجود تسجيل تم حيث البذرة و الثمرة الفلورة بحوث قسم معشبة من بكل الحفوظة العشبية العينات وضحت ل ا خرى ا ا ناحية عن القاهرة -جامعة العلوم كلية ومعشبة الزراعية البحوث بمركز النباتات وتصنيف منها ي ل ا العثورعلى يتم لم ذلك ومع كازوارينا. لو ل اا لجنس تنتمي نواع ل ا لثلث سابق وجود تم حيث نواع، ل ا السبعة من لـــكل تصنيفية مراجعة الدراسة هذه شملت مزروعا. ازال الصفات وتحديد بينهم والتشابه ااختلف وجه ل ا لتحديد بينها التصنيفية العلقات دراسة casuarina و casuararina cunninghamiana نوعي تمثيل تم نوع. لكل الميزة التوالي. على cunninghamiana , incana بتحتنوع equisetifolia فوتوغرافية صور ضافة اا مع نواع ل اا و جناس ل اا و للفصيلة تفصيلي وصف عمل تم نواع ل ا مصمم تعريفي مفتاح تضمين تم ذلك، على علوة نوع. لكــــــــــل الرادفات وكتابة 610 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 577-610. taxonomic revision of the family casuarinaceae حسب الااضي في وجودها السجل نواع ل اا و بمصر حاليا التواجدة الكازورينية العائلة بمصر. ا حاليا وجودها يسجل لم والتي الحفوظة العشبية العينات نواع ل اا بين التصنيفي للتقييم الظهرية الصفات همية ل ا الدراسة هذه نتائج ظهرت ل ا جنسين إلى الكازوارينا جنس تقسيم الظهرية للصفات العددي التحليل يد ل ا وقد الدروسة. الكازوارينا. و كازوارينا لو ل اا i. allocasuarina l.a.s. johnson, j. adelaide bot. ga casuarina equisetifolia l. subsp. incana (benth.) = casuarina incana a.cunn. ex b synonym: = casuarina equisetifolia var. microcarpa synonyms: = casuarina obtusa miq. in a.p.de candol = casuarina torulosa miq., nieuwe verh. eerste kl. synonyms: ≡ casuarina quadrivalvis var. cristata ( = casuarina lepidophloia f.muell. in fragm. 10: 11 = casuarina cambagei r. t. baker in proc. linn. s figari, a. 1865. studii scientifici sull' egitto e bull 955 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2025) 18 (4): 955-970. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2025.18.4.0955 original article dispersal of hard ticks (acari, ixodidae) on sheep ovis aries linnaeus, 1758 in different regions of iraq zainab a. makawi iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq e-mail: zainab@nhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq received: 20 may 2025, revised: 5 dec. 2025, accepted: 7 dec. 2025, published: 20 december 2025 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract a total of 400 hard tick specimens (250 ♂♂, 150 ♀♀) were collected from 160 sheep ovis aries linnaeus, 1758 out of 200 samples examined in the different localities of iraq, representing an infestation rate of 80% of the sheep. the results of the current research identified eight species of hard ticks belonging to two genera, hyalomma c. l. koch, 1844 and rhipicephalus koch,1844 and belonging to the ixodidae family, as follows: hyalomma anatolicum koch, 1844, h. excavatum koch, 1844, h. impeltatum schulze & schlottke, 1930, h. scupense schulze, 1919, rhipicephalus bursa canastrini & fanzago, 1878, r. camicasi morel, mouchet & rodhain, 1976, r. sanguineus latreille, 1806, and r. turanicus pomerantsev, 1936. molecular analysis and gene sequencing were conducted to confirm the species rhipicephalus camicasi, using two genes, 12s ribosomal rnas (pv155242.1, pv155243.1) and cox1 (pv139200.1, pv139201.1). the current study concluded that sheep are a new host for r. camicasi in iraq. keywords: cox1 gene, hard ticks, hyalomma, rhipicephalus,12s gene. introduction ticks are ectoparasites that feed on human and animal blood, endangering both human health and the environment (amills et al., 2017; aldidge et al., 2019). many different kinds of animals, including birds, reptiles, and mammals, were infested by them (jongejan, 2004). as stated by dabaja et al. (2017), ticks are significant vectors that may spread several dangerous diseases to both people and animals. the two well-known families ixodidae and argasidae comprise the bulk of the 877-878 different species of ticks that now exist (hamid and al-obaidi, 2023). however, hard ticks carry a number of infected diseases that can afflict both humans and animals (brites-neto et al., 2015). additionally, ticks have a high degree of environmental and host adaptation (abdigoudarzi et al., 2009). attempts at vaccination have been made; one such attempt used the salivary gland of hyalomma koch, 1844 to immunize sheep (robson and robb, 1967). numerous investigations have been carried out on an array of subjects, including host inclination, infectivity, geographical dispersion, resistance to bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799, print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2025.18.4.0955 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1136-9121 mailto:zainab@nhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 956 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 955-970. dispersal of hard ticks pesticides, molecular identification of diverse species, biodiversity, seasonal fluctuations, categorization, fauna, and biology of hard and soft ticks in the country (aghighi et al., 2007). this study aimed to identify the hard ticks that infested sheep in iraq. additionally, the potential to add new information about tick hosts. material and methods study areas: tick specimens collected from sheep different area include the provinces and districts: baghdad (alyusufiyah), al-anbar (fallujah, al-saqlawiya), karbala (ain altamur), wasit (al muwaffaqiyah, badra, shaihemiyh), maysan (qalaat salih), diyala (baquba, muqdadiya, khanaqin), salahaddin (al-dujail, samarra, tuz khurmatu), babil (musayyib, jiblah); aldiwaniyah (al-daghara, afaq, al-sunniya) and dhi qar (al-rifai) (map 1). hard ticks were gathered and preserved in 70% ethanol; sheep were treated humanely. map (1): dispersal of hard ticks in different regions of iraq. designed according to the program )arc gis on iine, https://www.arcgis.com/index.html). https://www.arcgis.com/index.html 957 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum makawi, z. a. microscopic examination and identification: ticks were removed from the animal's head, thigh, ear, udder, and tail using tweezers and cotton soaked in ethyl alcohol. all of the specimens were brought to the lab at the iraq natural history research center and museum university of baghdad, where they were examined under a dissecting microscope to determine the species of ticks after being cleaned of impurities using the guide to identification of species prepared by walker et al. (2014).the specimens were identified using a dissecting microscope type roma and photographed using a samsung sm-a225f galaxy a22 mobile phone camera, while the terminal of ventral view of the rhipicephalus camicasi was figured using the software adobe illustrator. molecular examination dna extraction: dna was extracted from two r. camicasi specimens obtained and previously kept at -20ºc with a korean dna extraction kit. primers: the pcr amplification primers were created in accordance with beati and keirans (2001), based on 12s rdna (12s ribosomal dna) with primer sequence f (5' aaactaggattagataccct3'), r (5'-aatgagagcgacgggcgatgt 3’) gene at 380 bp and kushimo (2013) on the primer sequence of the cox1 gene (cytochrome oxidase subunit i) f (5' tactctactaatcataaagacattgg-3'), r (5' cctcctcctgaagggtcaaaaaatga3’) at 656 bp. pcr reaction preparation: the master mix (promega/usa) was used to conduct the pcr reaction. the components included distill water (9µl), dna (1.5µl), forward primer (10 picomols/µl (1 µl)), reverse primer (10 picomols/µl (1 µl)), and master mix or gotaq® green master mix (12.5µl). pcr thermocycler conditions: a standard pcr thermocycler system for 12s ribosomal dna was used to carry out the pcr conditions, which included extension-1 at 72 °c for 1 minute with 35 cycles, extension-2 at 72 °c for 5 minutes with 1 cycle, initial denaturation at 95 °c for 5 minutes with 1 cycle, denaturation -2 at 95 °c for 45 seconds, and annealing at 54 °c for 45 seconds. meanwhile, the cox1 gene was processed using the same conventional pcr thermocycler system. initial denaturation at 95 °c for five minutes with one cycle, denaturation-2 at 95 °c for forty-five seconds, annealing at 58 °c for forty-five seconds, extension-1 at 72 °c for one minute with thirty-five cycles, and extension-2 at 72 °c for five minutes with one cycle were all included in this system. sequencing of dna and phylogenetic tree: two specimens were subjected to molecular identification of rhipicephalus camicasi through genetic sequencing. the evolutionary lineage was deduced using the unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean, commonly referred to as upgma.to secure accession numbers and verify identity, the sequencing outcomes were compared to genbank utilizing blast. the korean company macrogen sent the cox1 gene and the 12s ribosomal dna pcr product. following their acquisition, the rhipicephalus camicasi sequences were submitted to ncbi-genbank in order to obtain genbank accession numbers. clustal w alignment analysis and molecular 958 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 955-970. dispersal of hard ticks evolutionary genetics analysis (mega6), were used for multiple sequence alignment in order to carry out the dna sequencing study, particularly the phylogenetic tree analysis. the mentioned bootstrap value is installed on the tree. comparing ncbi-blast known sequences with phylogenetic tree analysis; was made to know rhipicephalus camicasi in current study. statistical analysis: the chi-square (x2) analysis results for hard ticks were (1.812), showing that the infestation rate and gender did not significantly correlate (p=0.970). results out of 200 samples analyzed, 160 sheep-infested samples contained 400 hard ticks (250♂♂, 150♀♀), representing an 80% infestation rate. findings pointed to eight hard tick species. the following two genera, hyalomma and rhipicephalus, the rate of infestation and gender did not significantly correlate (pls. 1-8). plate (1): male of rhipicephalus turanicus; (a) dorsal and (b) ventral view. [1. there is a dip in the cervical fields, 2. the rear grooves are clearly visible, 3. the narrow shape of the adanal plates, 4. the accessory anal plates are big]. 959 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum makawi, z. a. plate (2): male of h. anatolicum; (a) dorsal and (b) ventral view. [1. there is a depression in the cervical fields, 2. paracentral festoons separate anteriorly, 3. adanal plates have a circular termination]. plate (3): male of h. excavatum; (a) dorsal and (b) ventral view. [1. apparently depressed cervical fields, 2. festoons paracentrally connected anteriorly, 3. the square-ended design of adanal plate, 4. distinct subanal plates]. 960 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 955-970. dispersal of hard ticks plate (4): male of hyalomma scupense; (a) dorsal and (b) ventral view. [1. a slight yet noticeable dip in the cervical fields, 2. long lateral grooves, 3. the ends of the adanal plates are square, 4. subanal plates are clear]. plate (5): male of h. impeltatum; (a) dorsal and (b) ventral view. [1. the cervical fields have a depression, 2. pale central festoon, 3. adanal plates have square ends, 4. subanal plates are distinct]. 961 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum makawi, z. a. plate (6): male of rhipicephalus bursa; (a) dorsal and (b) ventral view. [1. there is no obvious depression in the cervical fields, 2. the eyes are clearly convex (as seen for the female), 3. the adanal accessory plates are little, 4. adanal plates have a curved, wide form, 5. in fed males, the caudal appendage lacks information]. plate (7): male of rhipicephalus sanguineus; (a) dorsal and (b) ventral view, [1. there are noticeable deep, broad, wrinkled grooves on the back, 2. the lateral grooves have a smooth texture and a specific kind, 3. there are large adanal auxiliary plates, 4. although the adanal plates have a thin, trapezoid shape, they may look large and curved, 5. there is no information available on fed males' caudal appendage]. 962 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 955-970. dispersal of hard ticks plate (8): male of rhipicephalus camicasi; (a) dorsal view, (b) ventral view, (c) terminal of ventral view. [1. small to medium-sized interstitial punctures are seen in the distribution of interstitial punctations is sparse, 2. adjacent adanal plates are big (but they may also be little), 3. the form of the adanal plates is trapezoid and slender.4. in fed males, the caudal appendage is wide and protrudes as a small protrusion]. table (1) indicated that the prevalence of male hard tick infestation is higher than that of female infestation, without a significant association between them. identified eight species of hard ticks, with percentage ratios including: r. turanicus (31.75%), h. anatolicum (23.25%), h. excavatum (13.75%), h. scupense (10%), h. impeltatum (8.75%), r. bursa (6.25%), r. sanguineus (5.75%) and r. camicasi (0.5%). 963 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum makawi, z. a. table (1): hard tick species and their percentage ratios were identified on the sheep in iraq. molecular findings derived from pcr analysis. two hard ticks, suspected to be r. camicasi, were traditionally analyzed in the laboratory and subsequently subjected to molecular examination. the results indicated a positive identification of r. camicasi using 12sr dna and the cox1 gene (amplicon sizes of 380 bp and 656 bp, respectively) using the traditional pcr method (pls. 9,10). plate (9): the gel electrophoresis image (1% agarose) demonstrates the rhipicephalus camicasi positive. (amplicon size h – 380 bp) by targeting 12s ribosomal rna gene. plate (10): the gel electrophoresis image (1% agarose) demonstrates the rhipicephalus camicasi positive. (amplicon size h – 656 bp) by targeting the cox1 gene. no. species no. of male no. of female total % p-value 1 r. turanicus 80 47 127 31.75 0.970 2 h. anatolicum 58 35 93 23.25 3 h. excavatum 35 20 55 13.75 4 h. scupense 25 15 40 10 5 h. impeltatum 20 15 35 8.75 6 r. bursa 15 10 25 6.25 7 r. sanguineus 15 8 23 5.75 8 r. camicasi 2 0 2 0.5 total 250 150 400 100 964 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 955-970. dispersal of hard ticks sequencing and phylogenetic analysis were conducted utilizing mega x software, and multiple alignments were generated. subsequently, these were sent to ncbi-genbank in order to get sheep r. camicasi genetic codes, diagnosed by targeting12s rdna with accession no (id: pv155242.1, id: pv155243.1), and cox1gene with accession no (id: pv139200.1, id: pv139201.1) respectively (tabs. 2, 3). table (2): the percentage of homology sequence identity (%) as determined by ncbiblast between local r. camicasi isolates from sheep, which were submitted to the 12s ribosomal rna gene bank, and the strains deposited in ncbi-blast. table (3): the percentage of homology sequence identity (%) as determined by ncbiblast between local r. camicasi isolates from sheep, which were submitted to the cox1 gene bank, and strains deposited in ncbi-blast. no. access no. affinity to genbank access no. country affinity % bootstrap values 1 id: pv139200.1 rhipicephalus camicasi id: or573433.1 kenya 99% 99.52 % 2 id: pv139201.1 rhipicephalus camicasi id: or573433.1 kenya 99% 99.76% the iraqi strains of r. camicasi are primarily closely related to one another, according to phylogenetic tree analysis. however, when targeting 12sr dna with bootstrap values (99.19%) and the cox1 with bootstrap values (99.52% and 99.76%) diagnosed r. camicasi similar to kenya (diags.1, 2). no. access no. affinity to genbank access no. country affinity % bootstrap values 1 id: pv155242.1 rhipicephalus camicasi id: oq565142.1 kenya 99% 99.19% 2 id: pv155243.1 rhipicephalus camicasi id: oq565142.1 kenya 99% 99.19% https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nucleotide/or573433.1?report=genbank&log$=nuclalign&blast_rank=1&rid=w18dm2pb013 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nucleotide/or573433.1?report=genbank&log$=nuclalign&blast_rank=1&rid=w18dm2pb013 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nucleotide/oq565142.1?report=genbank&log$=nuclalign&blast_rank=1&rid=w18mnjx5016 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nucleotide/oq565142.1?report=genbank&log$=nuclalign&blast_rank=1&rid=w18mnjx5016 965 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum makawi, z. a. diagram (1): phylogenetic tree analysis for rhipicephalus camicasi by targeting 12s ribosomal rna gene. diagram (2): phylogenetic tree analysis for rhipicephalus camicasi by targeting cox1 gene. discussion the current study recorded eight species of hard ticks on the basis of morphological examination of the hard ticks collected from sheep. these species included rhipicephlus turanicus, r. bursa, r. sanguineus, r. camicasi, hyalomma anatolicum, h. excavatum, h. scupense and h. impeltatum. these findings are consistent with previous studies conducted by mohammad and jassim (2011), which identified seven species of ixodid ticks, including hyalomma anatolicum, h. excavatum, h. detritum, hyalomma sp., rhipicephalus turanicus, and r. sanguineus. furthermore, in the extreme south of iraq, in basra awad and abdulhussein (2006), found that the only infestation found in the sheep were r. turanicus. tahmaz, (2021) recorded r. turanicus and r. sanguineus on sheep in some regions from erbil province. also, eight species of hyalomma have been identified as existing in iraq, according to alzubaidei et al. (2023). the study's main clinical findings were weight loss, mucous membrane 966 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 955-970. dispersal of hard ticks pallor, lymph node enlargement, and a gazing coat (makawi and hadi, 2023). kadir et al. (2012), who revealed that r. turanicus was more prevalent in sheep, and these results were supported by our investigation (59.4%), according to el-seify et al. (2011), infestation rates in sheep were 18.22%, with h. dromedarii (16.67%), and rhipicephalus spp. (45.14%). in contrast, hasson's (2012); reported the identification of h. anatolicum which had the highest tick index (0.54 among all ticks). these variations might be the consequence of animal movement between various places, differences in the quantity of samples, or the presence of suitable climates (makawi and hadi, 2023). according to this study, male hard ticks’ infestation is more common than female. this agrees with the results of ismael and omer (2020), who found that there was a 2:1 gender distribution of ticks, with more ticks in male than in female. distribution of tick species, including hyalomma, and rhipocephalus, was recorded during the present study. relative rates are consistent with the findings of abadi et al. (2010), who discovered that 57% of ticks were male and 34% were female. the demonstrated the co-infestation of two hard tick species in specific regions, this is in line with the results of ahmad et al. (2021), who addressed this important problem. the decreased the number of ticks produced was due to irritability, anemia, and an increase in the morbidity ratio; this agreed with makawi et al. (2023), who noted that a 100% infestation rate of one or two species of hard tick was present on the longeared hedgehog. the current study is similar to muhammad, (1996) who diagnosed r. camicasi in the jackal from baghdad province, the capital of iraq. this is the same in chandra et al. (2019), who found on dogs and dromedary camels from saudi arabia, and also in chandra et al. (2022), who recorded r. camicasi from a camel in riyadh, saudi arabia. due to the opportunistic nature of r. camicasi, they prefer to be infested in cattle, sheep, goats, and camels (walker et al., 2005; hekimoğlu et al., 2016). that the parasite r. camicasi infested sheep as a new host in iraq is attributed to the high proportion of imported sheep, as well as companion animals such as dogs, which are considered carriers of many external parasites. conclusions the result of this study is the registration of rhipicephalus camicasi as a new species on sheep in iraq. the registration was confirmed using molecular and genetic sequencing, specifically the 12s ribosomal nucleotide sequence of the cox1 gene. this indicates a veterinary risk resulting from environmental changes in the country. therefore, based on this study, we recommend conducting a comprehensive survey of hard ticks in the remaining iraqi provinces to establish a database for researchers. acknowledgments the researcher extends his thanks to the staff of the department of vertebrates, iraq natural history research center and museum university of baghdad, especially pro. dr. afkar m. hadi for her assistance in confirming the diagnosis of the specimens, in addition to assistant lecturers mareym m. al-khaiat and yasameen s. hasan for their assistance in photographing and figuring the specimens. 967 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum makawi, z. a. conflict of interest statement the author declares there are no contest interests. literature cited abadi, s. y., telmadarraiy, z., vatandoost, h., chinikar, z., oshaghi, m. a., moradi, m., ardakan, e. m., hekmat, s. and nasiri, a. 2010. hard ticks on domestic ruminants and their seasonal population dynamics in yazd province, iran. iran journal of arthropod borne disease, 4(1): 66-71. 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[click here] tahmaz, z. 2021. investigation of ectoparasites infecting balk sheep in some regions in erbil governorate and study of some biochemical variables on animals infected with ticks and mites. m. sc. thesis in biology, college of education for women, university of tikrit, iraq, 75pp. walker, a. r., bouattour, a., camicas, j. l., estrada-peña, a., horak, i. g., latif, a. a., pegram, r. g. and preston, p. m. 2014. ticks of domestic animals in africa: a guide to identification of species. bioscience reports, edinburgh scotland, uk, 221pp. [click here] walker, j. b., keirans, j. e. and horak, i. g. 2005. the genus rhipicephalus (acardi, ixodidae): a guide to the brown ticks of the world. second edition, cambridge university press, new york, usa, 656 pp. [click here] https://doi.org/10.33899/ijvs.2012.168745 https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1842&context=etd https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2023.17.3.0423 https://ijs.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/eijs/article/view/7686/3993 https://ijs.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/eijs/article/view/7686/3993 https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/article/view/119 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/6069350/ https://www.alanrwalker.com/assets/pdf/tickguide-africa.pdf https://api.pageplace.de/preview/dt0400.9781139382410_a25932707/preview-9781139382410_a25932707.pdf 970 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 955-970. dispersal of hard ticks bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2025) 18 (4): 955-970. ovis aries linnaeus, 1758 الضأن( على acari, ixodidaeانتشار القراد الصلب ) مناطق مختلفة من العراقفي زينب علوان مكاوي ، العراق. بغداد، بغداد، جامعة الطبيعي ومتحف التاريخمركز بحوث 20/12/2025، النشر: 7/12/2025القبول: ،5/12/2025املراجعة: ،20/5/2025االستالم: الخالصة للقراد 400 عت ُجم ـــصلال نموذج )ــــ م 160 نــــم( ♀♀ 150، ♂♂ 250ب الضأن ــــــرأًسا ن ovis aries linnaeus, 1758 أصل فحصها 200من تم من رأس مختلفة مناطق من حددت نتائج البحث الحالي ثمانية الضأن.% من 80، مما ُيمثل نسبة إصابة بلغت العراق هما جنسين، إلى تنتمي الصلب القراد من hyalomma c.l. koch 1844أنواع ، وهي:ixodidaeتعود إلى عائلة rhipicephalus koch, 1844و hyalomma anatolicum koch, 1844, h. excavatum koch, 1844, h. impeltatum schulze & schlottke, 1930, h. scupense schulze, 1919, rhipicephalus. bursa canastrini & fanzago, 1878, r. camicasi morel, mouchet & rodhain, 1976, r. sanguineus latreille, 1806, and r. turanicus pomerantsev, 1936. النوع تشخيص لتأكيد الجيني والتسلسل الجزيئي التحليل جري ُ rhipicephalusأ camicasi 12، باستخدام جينين هماs ribosomal rnas (pv155242.1، pv155243.1 ) عّد cox1 (pv139200.1 ،pv139201.1و ُ ت األغنام أن إلى الحالية الدراسة توصلت اذ .) جديًدا لـ ً في العراق. r. camicasiمضيفا bull 793 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2025) 18 (4):793-800. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2025.18.4.0793 original article embryonic development of cerebrum in pycnonotus leucotis (gould, 1836) (aves, passeriformes, pycnonotidae) asmaa basheer abed, wijdan basheer abid and dalia h. al-hamawandy department of biology, college of education for pure science (ibn alhaitham), university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq corresponding author: asmaa.b.a@ihcoedu.uobaghdad.edu.iq received: 1 may 2025, revised: 22 july 2025, accepted: 23 july 2025, published:20 december 2025 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract the present work aims to study the embryonic development of forebrain (cerebrum) of a white-cheeked bulbul pycnonotus leucotis (gould, 1839) (aves, passeriformes, pycnonotidae). specimens for embryonic development were processed for paraffin embedding and stained with haematoxylin and eosin for histological study. the forebrain incubation consists of three layers, ependymal, mantle and marginal. the thickness of telencephalon was 43 μm while the thickness of diencephalon was 37 μm in an embryo of 48 hours incubation. the telencephalon consisted of two vesicles called cerebral hemispheres. the thickness of the telencephalon wall was 57 μm. the cerebral hemispheres in the embryo at 72 hours of incubation were differentiated, and the average thickness was 97 μm. the cerebral hemispheres contained two lateral ventricles, including right and left ventricles. keywords: birds, brain ventricles, cerebrum, diencephalon, telencephalon. introduction the birds are important animals because they play an important role in biocontrol against insects and rodents that threaten the economy of countries. the pycnonotus leucotis (gould, 1839) (aves, passeriformes, pycnonotidae) is a bird species found in southwest asia, from india to the arabian peninsula, as it has a limited distribution compared to other birds. it can also be seen in valleys and near palm plantations in addition to the fields. it prefers to live in warm with a plentiful lunch (allouse, 1960; dintzis and treuting, 2012). the breeding season of the bulbul bird varies from place to place until is usually synchronized with the availability of fruits such as figs or dates, and takes place in the period between march and june and may continue to the 8th month of the year, when these birds build their nests in tall trees like palms, and the female lays up to 3 eggs decorated with purple. the incubation period lasts up to 15 days to bring the young out of the nest, and up to 20 days of hatching. usually lays 2 to 3 eggs per year (eroschenko, 2008). bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799, print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2025.18.4.0793 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0279-9701 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4099-2019 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2851-1534 mailto:asmaa.b.a@ihcoedu.uobaghdad.edu.iq https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 794 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 793-800. embryonic development of cerebrum the nervous system is formed in vertebrates as a result of the induction of mesoderm and notochord from ectoderm that has spots above it where the ectoderm forms the neural plate that is the beginning of formation of the nervous system (glover, 1991). the central nervous system consists of a primary beginning, the neural tube, which is formed through the process of primary neurolation. the neural tube is wide in its anterior part to differentiate into the brain, and narrow in its posterior part to differentiate into the spinal cord (gilbert, 2000). sadler (2012) described, after the neural folds fuse, the brain is divided into three divisions or vesicles, named as the prosencephalon (forebrain), mesencephalon (midbrain), and rhombencephalon (hindbrain). the aim of study was to document the embryonic development of the forebrain cerebrum of a white cheeked bulbul pycnonotus leucotis. materials and methods six white-cheeked bulbuls were obtained from the agricultural area of salah al-din province to obtain the eggs that would be incubated to obtain embryos for each age stage: 40, 48, and 72 hours. accordingly, the ethical approval obtained from the local committee of ethical approval in the college of education for pure science (ibn al-haitham), university of baghdad (ref. ec-79 in 28.iv.2025). the embryos were placed in 10% neutral buffered formalin solution for fixing them. then they were put in ascending concentrations of ethyl alcohol for removing water from them, and then three embryos for each age stage, 40, 48, and 72 hours of incubation, were cleared in xylene, and then they were infiltrated and embedded in paraffin wax. the samples were cut with a microtome (5 μm thickness) and then stained with haematoxylin and eosin. the slides were examined with a light microscope (olympus), and thereafter the slides were photographed with a digital camera (canon) attached to the compound microscope and laptop (lenovo) (bancroft and stevens, 2010; abed, 2020; abed and abed, 2021). results and discussion in the forebrain, the embryo's, were age of 40 hours of incubation, the layers of its walls were differentiated into the ependymal layer, which was in the form of a layer of cells arranged regularly around the cavity, and then the cells of the mantle layer consisted of several rows of spherical cells, most of which were neuroblasts and appeared gray-colored, their axes out warded within the next layer, which was the marginal layer in which the nerve fibers were located, so this layer appeared white in color. the average thickness of the telencephalon was 43 μm, and the diameter of the telencephalon cavity was 95 μm, and the average of diencephalon wall thickness was 37 μm. 795 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum abed et al. the connection of optic vesicles to the diencephalon was observed through the optic stalk, with a visible evagination at the bottom of the diencephalon known as the infundibulum. in the embryo of age 48hour incubation, the average thickness of the telencephalon wall was 57 μm. the beginning of the appearance of evagination on both sides of telencephalon was noted, representing the beginning of the formation of the two telencephalic vesicles, which represent the future cerebral hemispheres. the average diameter of the telencephalon cavity was 185 μm. the average thickness of the diencephalon wall was 24 μm. it was also noted that the pineal body began to form, and it appeared as an evagination from the roof of the diencephalon. the forebrain wall was composed of a layer of ependyma with pseudostratified columnar epithelial tissue followed by a mantle layer composed of several rows of cells spherical in shape and the marginal layer composed of cells and neurons. in the embryo at the age of 72 hour incubation a differentiation of the cerebral hemispheres, with an average wall thickness of 97 μm, and their cavity was called lateral ventricles, which were the right and left ventricles. the ependymal layer surrounded the prosocoele, while the mantle layer was dark gray in color; most of it was where neuroblasts and their axons were directed outward to be added to the marginal layer. the diameter of the telencephalon cavity was 650 μm. plate (1): white-cheeked bulbul embryo at 40 hours incubation; (a) whole mount embryo, (b) transverse section through embryo. [myelencephalon (my), telecephalon (te), diencephalon (di).]. (h & e stain, 10x). 796 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 793-800. embryonic development of cerebrum plate (2): white-cheeked bulbul embryo at 48 hours incubation; (a) whole mount embryo, (b) transverse section through embryo. [myelencephalon (my), mesencephalon (me), diencephalon (di), telecephalon (te).]. (h & e stain, 10x). plate (3): white-cheeked bulbul embryo at 72 hours incubation; (a) whole mount embryo, (b) transverse section through embryo. [telecephalon (te), procoele (proc), amnion (am)]. (methylene blue, stain, 10x). 797 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum abed et al. the early stages of the embryonic development of the brain are similar in most types of vertebrates, but in the advanced stage of embryonic development, they are differentiated according to the type of animal, as the cells located in the walls of the neural tube would begin to differentiate and migrate to form the layers of brain (goldman-raic, 1987; solimon et al., 1994; hodge, 2010; abed, 2016). the neural tube is formed by the process of primary neurulation through the differentiation of the neural plate and elevation of its edges to form the two neural folds and their house in the neural groove (davidson and keller, 1999; abed, 2016). the neural tube formation proceeds in an antero-posterior direction. the neural plate appears in the brain, while the gastrulation movements are still in full swing. there is a large cell adhesion between neurons in the stage of neural plate formation, so the neural plate appears to be thickened in chicken embryos (bellairs et al., 1978). the thickening of the neural plate that appeared in this study as pseudostratified columnar epithelium tissue, called the neuroepithelial tissue was continuous with the epidermal ectoderm representing the epidermis, and this was in agreement with many researchers (o'rahilly and müller, 2007; abed, 2016). the telencephalon in birds consists of two hemispheres of brain, which are large in size, separated by a deep groove, and connected from the front by small olfactory lobes (kent and carr, 2001). müller and o'rahilly (1988) pointed out that when the neural tube is closed in the brain works to put pressure on the walls of the brain, leading to expansion of the cavity and the formation of hemispheres. the internal and external morphology changes of the forebrain are the results of complex histological changes in the wall of the brain vesicles (hatanak, 1997). alicelebic et al. (2004) indicated that there were morphological changes in the forebrain during embryonic development, where the brain was at the beginning of the formation tubular in shape with thin wall and would descends into a large ventricle and then would turns into a structure with thick walls with a complex ventricular system. birds are among the most abundant vertebrates that have brain size and ecological diversity (sayol et al., 2016). conclusions the study concluded that the forebrain is differentiated into three layers: ependymal, mantle, and marginal in the embryo at 40 hours incubation. two evaginations appear on both sides of the forebrain, which represent the beginning of the formation of cerebral vesicles in an embryo at 48 hours. the two cerebral hemispheres are cleansed in embryos at 72 hours. the study of embryonic development of the cerebrum in pycnonotus leucotis provides valuable insights into the neurodevelopmental processes in avian species. it enhances understanding of brain formation patterns in passerine birds and contributes to comparative anatomy and evolutionary biology. such research also lays a foundation for future studies on avian behavior, neurological function, and developmental abnormalities. additionally, it 798 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 793-800. embryonic development of cerebrum supports conservation efforts by deepening biological knowledge of this widely distributed species. aknowledgments many thanks go to the department of biology at the college of science, and iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad for their invaluable assistance in facilitating the practical sections of this article. conflict of interest statement "the author has no conflicts of interest to declare". literature cited abed, a. b. 2016. embryonic development and histogenesis of brain and spinal cord in quail coturnix conturnix (linnaeus, 1758). ph. d. thesis, college of education for pure science (ibn al-haitham), university of baghdad, 251 pp. abed, w. b. and abed, a. b. 2021. embryonic development of spinal cord in white cheeked bulbul (pycnonotus leucotis). indian journal of forensic medicine and toxicology, 15(3): 1696-1702. 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[crossref] soliman, f. n., rizk, r. e. and brake, j. 1994. relationship between shell porosity, shell thickness, egg weight loss, and embryonic development in japanese quail egg. poultry science, 73(10): 1607-1611. [crossref] https://doi.org/10.1016/s0165-3806(96)00161-7 https://doi.org/10.1007/bf00321132 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7580.2007.00773.x https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms13971 https://doi.org/10.3382/ps.0731607 800 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 793-800. embryonic development of cerebrum bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2025) 18 (4): 793-800. التكوين الجنيني للمخ في البلبل ابيض الخدين pycnonotus leucotis (gould, 1836) (aves, passeriformes, pycnonotidae) و داليا حسن الهموندي عبد بشيروجدان ، عبد بشير أسماء العراق ، بغداد ، بغدادجامعة -تربية للعلوم الصرفة )أبن الهيثم(، كلية ال قسم علوم الحياة 20/12/2025، النشر: 23/7/2025القبول: ،2025/ 22/7املراجعة: ،1/5/2025االستالم: الخالصة الخدين ابيض للبلبل )املخ( االمامي للدماغ الجنيني التكوين الحالية الدراسة تضمنت pycnonotus leucotis (gould, 1836) (aves, passeriformes, pycnonotidae) حضرت . وااليوسين بالهيماتوكسلين ولونت البرافين بشمع الطمر لغرض الجنيني التكوين عينات لغرض الدراسة النسجية. وكان الدماغ االمامي متكون من ثالث طبقات وهي طبقة البطانة الدماغ مقدم سمك وكان الحافية. والطبقة الجبة وطبقة بينما 43العصبية، مايكرون، حضانة ويتكون مقدم من الساعة 48 بعمر مايكرون في جنين 37كان سمك سرير الدماغ الدماغ مقدم جدار سمك وكان املخ كرة نصفي عليهما يطلق حوصلتين من 57الدماغ املخ متمايز ا حضانة كان نصفمن الساعة 72عمر بمايكروميتر. وفي جنين ومعدل انكرة نصفا مايكروميتر. 97سمكها كان املخ و البطين يحتويان كرة هما جانبيين بطينين على االيمن والبطين االيسر. bull 375 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-joboury and aliwy bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2023) 17 (3): 375-407. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2023.17.3.0375 original article survey with revised checklist of compositae in the herbarium of iraq natural history research center and museum khansaa rasheed al-joboury*♦ and sukeyna abass aliwy** * iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq. ** department of biology, college of science, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq. ♦corresponding author: dr.khansaa@nhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq recived date: 17 november 2022, accepted date 12 feberuary 2023, published date:20 june 2023 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract a survey and revised checklist of the species belonging to the family of compositae for the specimens which are collected and deposited previously at the herbarium of the iraq natural history research center and museum, in addition to the current specimens collected for the period 2016-2021. a total of 85 species belonging to 49 genera and 16 tribes are revised with their synonyms, locality, and distributions, flowering and fruiting period. keywords: checklist, compositae, herbarium, museum, natural. introduction compositae (asteraceae) are the largest family for the vascular plants (soares et al., 2022), it comprises four major subfamilies, three of which are represented in iraq, with more than 1600 genera, around 123 of which occur in iraq, and some 25000 species, of which 433 species occur in iraq (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019), which distributed in most countries worldwide and in all habitats (rahman et al., 2008), except for antarctica, species of the family account for about 8% 10% for the angiosperm diversity described worldwide (schaefer and essi, 2017). the late cretaceous palynomorph compositopollenites in india was evidence that proves the family was around there in this early date (stevens, 2017). compositae are monophyletic, yet resolving the phylogenetic relationships in the family has proven very difficult, this makes it difficult to understand its origin and diversity. recent molecular clock dating was suggested the cretaceous origin, but the lack of deep sampling for many genes and representative taxa within the family has obstructed the resolution for migration routes and diversifications which led to the global distribution and tremendous diversity (mandel et al., 2019). also, the analyses of morphological and molecular evolutionary required a very well-resolved phylogeny, the previous studies, and the presence of plastid genes, gave support for the monophyly of asteraceae (zhang et al., 2021). most of species that belong to this family are herbaceous, and the rest are trees or shrubs, which bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799-print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2023.17.3.0375 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8230-3747 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7885-993x mailto:dr.khansaa@nhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq* https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 376 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum survey with revised checklist of compositae contains essential oil, vegetable milk latex, resins, vitamins, foodstuffs and maybe other active chemical ingredients, it may also be rich in phenols and flavonoids (hameed et al., 2021). there are many studies for this plant family in iraq, such as a study of cuticular indumentums of some species from asteraceae family (khaleel and al-dobaissi, 2022), also the study of comparative anatomy of peduncles for plant species of compositae (asteraceae) family, and a survey of genera of family asteraceae on korek mountain in kurdistan region iraq (mousa, 2018). the main objective of this study is to conduct a survey and document the specimens at the herbarium of the iraq natural history research center and museum and identify the genera and species of this family with determining the locality of their spread so that this is a scientific reference for all researchers about this family in iraq, especially since these species of this family found in the herbarium have not been previously published. materials and methods through this study, the author checked all the asteraceae specimens that were collected in flowering (fl.) and fruiting (fr.) period and kept at the herbarium of the iraq natural history research center and museum (bunh), in addition to the current specimens which were collected by the researcher for the period 2016-2021. these specimens were identified or confirmed the previous identification by the author, using the identification keys of the asteraceae in the relevant literature: rahman et al. (2008), zhu et al. (2011), wilson (2015), ghazanfar and edmondson (2019). results and discussion the plants of this family, which are found in bunh, were divided according to the tribes, as mentioned in the flora of iraq (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). a total of 286 specimens for 85 species (6 of them were cultivated species) belonging to 49 genera, 16 tribes are revised in bunh, sphaeranthus strobiliferus boiss. & noë., 1853 is the only endemic species of this family in the herbarium, all species are recorded in the flora of iraq, however, there are number of species in the bunh considered as synonyms for other species. according to the results, it was observed that the genus centaurea l., 1753 has the most number of specimens which was 36 specimens, and has the highest number of species with 10 different species distributed in different physiographic regions of iraq depending on those that are kept in bunh. the results showed, that the widest distributing species is achillea aleppica dc., 1838; this is due to many reasons, including the plant's ability to withstand changing and difficult environmental conditions, so it thrives and continues to survive, it distributes in many physiographic districts (guest, 1966) such as jabal sinjar district (mjs), sulaimaniya district (msu), arbil district (far), ghurfa-adhaim district (dga), central alluvial plain district (lca), southern marsh district (lsm). as well a number of species that stored in bunh 377 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-joboury and aliwy described as very rare in iraq: anthemis cotula l., 1753; carlina lanata l., 1753; filago contracta (boiss.) chrtek & holub, 1963 and filago eriocephala guss., 1826 (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). the asteraceae species found in bunh are much less than what was recorded in the flora of iraq, because of the lack of field trips and the difficult conditions the country went through, which impeded the field trips and led to a lack of collected plants belonging to this family. this study presented for the first time the complete information about the asteraceae family specimens in bunh. most of these species which their details would be presented below, have synonymous names, as well as, common or local names given by the local people, these local names could confuse the researcher because some species shared the same local name or sometimes one species has more than one local name depending on the locations of the specimens collected , following are the details of asteraceae family specimens in bunh: tribe: anthemideae cass. genus, achillea l., 1753 remark: achillea l. is represented in iraq by 10 species: achillea leppica dc., a. arabica kotschy, a. conferta dc., a. filipendulina lam., a. fragrantissima (forssk.) sch. bip., a. millefolium l., a. oligocephala dc., a. talagonica boiss., a. vermicularis trin., a. wilhelmsii c. koch. achillea aleppica d c., 1838 synonyms: achillea trilingulata sch.bip. ex boiss, 1875 material examind: : (2 specimens) : balad, adhaim (near balad); fl. and fr. : may-july. bunh: (13 specimens): jabal sinjar, nr balad sinjar, jarmo (e. of chemchamal), sudur (the canal heads) on r. diyala, bisan valley sulaimaniya, adhaim (near balad), aski kalak (arbil), fallujah, darbandikhan (sulaymaniyah), al-kahla district (maysan), fatha (kirkuk and baiji). distribution: syria, lebanon, palestine, jordan, turkey, iran (ghazanfar and edmondson 2019). remark: this species has 2 subsp. in iraq: a: subsp. aleppica, b: subsp. densa (endemic) (youssef, 2020); local names: culilk, giya mesh. achillea fragrantissima (forssk.) sch.bip., 1855 synonyms: santolina fragrantissima forssk., 1775 bunh: (1 specimen): fallujah; fl. and fr. : march-may. distribution: saudi arabia (mohammed–ibtisam and doka, 2018), syria, lebanon, palestine, jordan, sinai, kuwait, egypt (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). remark: local name: qaisum. achillea arabica kotschy, 1866 synonyms: achillea biebersteinii afan., 1959 a. micrantha willd., 1803 bunh: (2 specimens): hijran in arbil, salah el deen resort in arbil; fl. and fr.: may august in the mountains, apriljune on the plains. 378 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum survey with revised checklist of compositae remark: this species is registered at herbarium of the natural history museum under the name a. micrantha willd. by mohammad in (1977) and the other sample is diagnosed by karan (1979); local names: burzhan, bejank, brinda, brindasi, tureik adduban. achillea wilhelmsii c.koch, 1851 synonyms: achillea santolina auctt., 1753 a. kermanica gand, 1918 a. krascheninnikovii afan., 1953 a. teretifolia, 1845 material examind: (1 specimen): al khalis (diyala); fl. and fr. : marchjune. bunh: (1 specimen): sarsank (dohuk). distribution: iran (dehshiri and jozipoor 2014), syria, lebanon, palestine, jordan, turkey, transcaucasia, afghanistan (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). remark: in gbif secretariat (2020), this species is accepted but in flora of iraq ,the name a. wilhelmsii k.koch for the same species is accepted. achillea talagonica boiss., 1849 synonyms: achillea tenuifolia lam. var. talagonica (boiss.) bornm., 1849 a. oxylepis boiss. & hausskn., 1875 bunh: (1 specimen): sudur (the canal heads) on r. diyala; fl. and fr.: marchaugust. distribution: iran (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). tribe: anthemideae cass. genus, anthemis l., 1753 remark: anthemis l. is represented in iraq by 34 species, 7 of them are endemic: anthemis altissima l., a. arvensis l., a. brevicuspis bornm., a. coelopoda boiss., a. cotula l., a. corymbulosa boiss. & hausskn., a. deserti boiss., a. gillettii iranshahr, a. hamrinensis iranshahr, a. handel-mazzettii eig, a. haussknechtii boiss. & reut., a. homalolepis eig, a. hyalina dc., a. kotschyana boiss., a. leptophylla eig, a. leucanthemoides boiss., a. marismortui eig, a. melanacme boiss. & hausskn., a. melanolepis boiss., a. melampodina delile, a. micrantha boiss. & hausskn., a. microlepis eig, a. odontostephana boiss., a. pauciloba boiss., a. plebeia boiss. & noë a. pseudocotula boiss., a. rascheyana boiss., a. scariosa banks & sol., a. schizostephana boiss. & hausskn., a. susiana nábělek, a. tinctoria l., a. tubicina boiss. & hausskn., a. wettsteiniana hand.-mazz., a. zoharyana eig. anthemis cotula l., 1753 synonyms: anthemis cotula subsp. psorosperma (ten.) arcang., 1882 a. foetida lam., 1778 chamaemelum cotula (l.) all., 1785 c. foetidum (lam.) baumg., 1817 maruta cotula (l.) dc., 1838 remark: this species is rare in iraq. bunh: (2 specimens): adiam, salah al-din road; fl. and fr.: marchmay. 379 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-joboury and aliwy distribution: egypt, italy (bartolucci et al. 2018), iran (dehshiri and jozipoor 2014), bolivia (hind, 2011), spain (jiménez-alfaro et al., 2021), the falkland islands (upson and lewis, 2014), sierra nevada (se spain) (lorite, 2016), asia, europen countries, north africa, america, australia and new zealand (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). anthemis tubicina boiss. & hausskn., 1875 synonyms: anthemis odontostephana boiss.var. tubicina (boiss & hausskn) bornm., 1911 bunh: (3 specimens): shaqlawa (in erbil), jabal sinjar; fl. and fr.: marchjuly. distribution: turkey, syria and iran (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). anthemis wettsteiniana hand.-mazz., 1913 synonyms: anthemis deltawensis eig, 1938 a. deserti-syriaci eig, 1938 bunh: (2 specimens): fallujah, rutba; fl. and fr.: aprilmay. distribution: syria, iran (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). tribe: anthemideae cass. genus, artemisia l., 1753 remark: artemisia l. is represented in iraq by 7 species: artemisia absinthium l., a. campestris l., a. jordanica danin, a. scoparia waldst. & kitam., a. sieberi besser, a. splendens willd., a. vulgaris l. artemisia campestris l., 1753 synonyms: artemisia campestris var. sosnovskyi (krasch.) poljakov, 1961 a. clausonis pomel, 1874 a. dniproica klokov, 1962 oligosporus campestris (l.) cass., 1817 o. caudatus (michx.) poljakov, 1961 material examind: (1 specimen): baqubah; fl. and fr.: apriloctober. bunh: (3 specimens): diyala, the southern desert, west iraq. distribution: china, japan, russia, iran, asia, europe, america (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). remark: an important medicinal plant (naqishbandi, 2014). artemisia scoparia waldst. & kit., 1801 synonyms: artemisia capillaris miq., 1866 a. gracilis l'hér. ex dc., 1838 a. kohatica klatt, 1878 a. piperita pall. ex ledeb., 1833 a. scoparioides grossh., 1929 a. trichophylla wall. ex dc., 1838 bunh: (2 specimens): sudur (the canal heads) on r. diyala; fl. and fr.: marchjuly. distribution: egypt, russia, mongolia, sweden, czechia, ukraine, japan, france, china, india, poland, germany, centeral and southwest asia (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). 380 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum survey with revised checklist of compositae artemisia sieberi besser, 1836 synonyms: artemisia contra l., 1771 a. fragrans eichw., 1835 a. glomerata sieber ex spreng., 1826 a. herba-alba var. laxiflora boiss., 1875 seriphidium incultum (delile) y.r.ling, 1991 bunh: (1 specimen): nukhaib; fl. and fr.: marchjuly. distribution: saudi arabia (mohammed–ibtisam and doka, 2018), sierra nevada (se spain) (lorite, 2016), e mediterranean across sw asia to pakistan and c asia (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). tribe: inuleae cass. genus, asteriscus mill., 1754 remark: asteriscus mill. is represented in iraq by a single species: asteriscus pygmaeus (dc.) coss. & durieu. asteriscus pygmaeus (dc.) coss. & durieu, 1856 synonyms: asteriscus aquaticus (l.) less. var. paygmaeus dc., 1838 odontospermum pygmaeum (coss. & dur.) hoffm., 1955 bunh: (4 specimens): western desert; fl. and fr.: marchjune. distribution: syria, palestine, jordan, kuwait, bahrain, qatar, oman, yemen, iran, kuwait, afghanistan, sinai, pakistan, macaronesia (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). remark: gbif secretariat (2020) listed this species under the name pallenis hierichuntica (michon) greuter 1997, while in flora of iraq (2019) this plant has been diagnosed under the name asteriscus pygmaeus (dc.) coss. & durieu. tribe: cynareae cass. genus, atractylis l., 1753 remark: atractylis l. is represented in iraq by 3 species: atractylis arabica rech.f., a. carduus (forssk.) c. chr., a. cancellata l. atractylis carduus (forssk.) c.chr., 1922 synonyms: atractylis candida cuénod, 1911 a. citrina coss. & kralik, 1857 a. flava desf., 1799 centaurea carduus forssk., 1775 material examind : ( 1 specimen): baquba (diyala); fl. and fr.: apriljune. bunh: (3 specimens): shithatha (50 km. w. karbala), baquba (diyala). distribution: syria, palestine, peninsula, africa, sinai (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). remark: number of varieties of this species were recognized in egypt, but not present in iraq. also the species was previously diagnosed in the herbarium under the name atractylis flava desf. by r. wheeler haines. atractylis cancellata l., 1753 381 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-joboury and aliwy synonyms: acarna caespitosa willd., 1830 a. cancellata (l.) all., 1785 atractylis caespitosa viv., 1824 a. glomerata caball., 1935 carthamus cancellatus (l.) lam., 1779 bunh: (3 specimens): kirkuk, adiam, 50 km. before khalis; fl. & fr.: marchmay. distribution: iran (dehshiri and jozipoor 2014), saudi arabia (osman and abdein, 2019), syria, palestine, peninsula, africa, turkey, europe (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). tribe: astereae cass. genus, bellis l., 1753 remark: bellis l. is represented in iraq by 2 species: bellis annua l. and b. perennis l. bellis perennis l., 1753 synonyms: aster bellis e.h.l.krause, 1905 bellis alpina hegetschw., 1839 b. armena boiss., 1875 b. hortensis mill., 1768 erigeron perennis (l.) sessé & moc., 1894 bunh: (3 specimens): khalis, shaqlawa; fl. and fr.: marchjune. distribution: spain (jiménez-alfaro et al., 2021), sierra nevada (se spain) (lorite, 2016), syria, palestine, iran, turkey, europe, cyprus, transcaucasia, macaronesia, india, australia, new zealand, america ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). remark: local names: ward al-dukmah, zehrat al-rabee' a, zehrat al-lulu, also this species wild in the north of iraq but cultivated in middle and south. tribe: calenduleae cass. genus, calendula l., 1753 remark: calendula l. is represented by 9 widely cultivated species, 3 native species in iraq: calendula arvensis l., c. officinalis l., c. tripterocarpa rupr. calendula arvensis l., 1763 synonyms: calendula alata ech.fil., 1989 c. amplexifolia rchb., 1830 c. bicolor raf., 1810 c. byzantina dc., 1838 c. crista-galli viv., 1824 material examind: (3 specimens): rashidiya (in baghdad), adhaim; fl. and fr.: february – july. bunh: (14 specimens): baghdad, kut, suwaira (in wasit), al-na'maniya (wasit), hawraman (sulaymaniyah), abu al-khaseeb (basra), adhaim, jabal sinjar. distribution: spain (jiménez-alfaro et al., 2021), saudi arabia (mohammed–ibtisam and doka, 2018), syria, palestine, iran, turkey, europe, cyprus, afghanistan, sinai, egypt, 382 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum survey with revised checklist of compositae morocco, algeria, tunisia, libya, caucasia, kuwait, bahrain, qatar, oman, yemen (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). remark: the local names: khuzna, hanwa, kahla; in herbarium of the natural history museum was previously diagnosed under the name c. persica c. a. mey by lawand l. tribe: cynareae cass. genus, carthamus l., 1754 remark: carthamus l. is represented in iraq by 7 species: carthamus dentatus vahl, c. lanatus l., c. glaucus m.bieb., c. tinctorius l., c. oxyacanthus m.bieb., c. persicus desf. ex willd., c. cardicus hanelt. carthamus glaucus m.bieb., 1798 synonyms: carthamus syriacus (boiss.) čelak., 1885 c. glaucus m. bieb. var. alexandrines (boiss. & heldr.) boiss., 1875 c. alexandrinus (boiss & heldr.) bornm., 1898 c. glaucus m.bieb. subsp. alexandrinus (boiss & heldr.) hanelt, 1963 bunh: (3 specimens): kirkuk, jarmo, jabal hamrin; fl. and fr.: junenovember. distribution: crimea, turkey, caucasia, iran (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). carthamus tinctorius l., 1875 synonyms: centaurea carthamus e.h.l.krause, 1906 calcitrapa tinctoria (l.) röhl., 1813 carduus tinctorius ehrh., 1788 carthamus glaber burm.f., 1768 c. tinctorius var. albus alef., 1866 material examind: (2 specimens): abu ghuraib, baghdad; fl. and fr.: march – june. bunh: there are no previously collected herbarium specimens in the herbarium for this species. distribution: new zealand (garnock-jones, 2011), asia, africa (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). remark: cultivated plant; local names: bastard sffron, safflower, zafaran. carthamus oxyacanthus m.bieb., 1808 synonyms: carduus flavescens willd., 1803 carthamus oxyacantha subsp. noeana sostak., 1947 bunh: (3 specimens): n baghdad, abu ghuraib, suwaira; fl. and fr.: may – october. distribution: saudi arabia (el ghazali and al-soqeer, 2013), iran (dehshiri and jozipoor, 2014), asia, afghanistan, pakistan, transcaucasia (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). tribe: cynareae cass. genus, carduus l., 1754 remark: carduus l. is represented in iraq by 3 species: carduus getulus pomel, c. argentatus l., c. pycnocephalus l. carduus pycnocephalus l., 1763 383 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-joboury and aliwy synonyms: c. pycnocephalus subsp. pycnocephalus, 1763 c. tenuiflorus var. pycnocephalus (l.) dc., 1838 c. australis l., 1782 c. albidus m.bieb, 1808 material examind: (3 specimens): baghdad, zafaraniya; fl. and fr.: march – june. bunh: (6 specimens): bab al mu'adham in baghdad, al-fahhama in baghdad, baqubah, shaqlawa. distribution: egypt, new zealand (garnock-jones, 2011), sierra nevada (se spain) (lorite, 2016), spain (jiménez-alfaro et al., 2021), saudi arabia (osman and abdein, 2019), asia, iran, afghanistan, pakistan, transcaucasia (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). remark: this species have 3 subspecies: c. pycnocephalus subsp. albidus (m.bieb.) kazmi 1964, c. pycnocephalus subsp. arabicus (jacq. ex murray) nyman 1879, c. pycnocephalus subsp. breviphyllarius p.h. davis 1975. genus, carlina l., 1754 remark: carlina l. is represented in iraq by 2 species: carlina kurdica meusel & kästner and c. lanata l. carlina lanata l., 1753 synonyms: carlina lanata var. proilfera dc., 1838 carlina pola hacq., 1782 chromatolepis lanata dulac, 1867 bunh: (1 specimen): dohuk; fl. and fr.: july – august. distribution: italy (bartolucci et al., 2018), europe from spain to turkey, s bulgaria, cyprus, n. africa (libya to morocco), pakistan, transcaucasia, iran (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). remark: this species is rare in iraq. tribe: cynareae cass. genus, centaurea l., 1753 remark: centaurea l. is represented in iraq by 44 species: centaurea aggregata fisch. & c. a. mey. ex dc., c. alveicola rech.f., c. amadanensis sch.bip., c. ammocyanus boiss., c. aucheri (dc.) wagenitz, c. behen l., c. bruguierana (dc.) hand.-mazz., c. davisii wagenitz, c. delbesiana arènes, c. elegantissima bornm., c. foveolata blakelock, c. fusiformis blakelock, c. gigantea sch.bip. ex boiss., c. gudrunensis boiss. & hausskn., c. hadacii wagenitz, c. handelii wagenitz, centaurea hyalolepis boiss., c. iberica trevir. ex spreng., c. imperialis hausskn. ex bornm., c. intricata boiss., c. koeieana bornm., c. laxa boiss. & hausskn. ex boiss. & hausskn., c. longipedunculata sch.bip. ex boiss., c. luristanica rech.f., c. mesopotamica bornm., c. microcnicus reese & sam. ex rech.f., c. ochrocephala wagenitz, c. polypodiifolia boiss.c. regia boiss., c. persica boiss., c. postii boiss., c. pseudosinaica czerep., c. rhizantha c.a.mey., c. rigida banks & sol., c. sinaica dc., c. singarensis boiss. & hausskn., c. solstitialis l., c. bruguierana (dc.) hand.-mazz. c. virgata lam. 384 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum survey with revised checklist of compositae centaurea bruguierana (dc.) hand.-mazz., 1913 synonyms: centaurea phyllocephala boiss., 1846 tetramorphaea bruguieriana dc., 1838 bunh: (6 specimens): tuz khurmatu (in saladin governorate), imam ibrahim (babil), baiji; fl. and fr.: june – august. distribution: iran (dehshiri and jozipoor, 2014), turkey, syria, afghanistan, c. asia (turkmenia to kazakhstan), pakistan, transcaucasia (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). remark: this species has 2 subsp.: c. bruguierana subsp. belangeriana (dc.) bornm. 1939, c. bruguierana subsp. bruguierana (dc.) hand.-mazz.1913. centaurea behen l., 1753 synonyms: behen album garsault, 1764 centaurea alata lam., 1785 microlophus behen (l.) takht., 1945 bunh: (4 specimens): sarsank, jabal sinjar, balad sinjar; fl. and fr.: april – august. distribution: turkey, palestine, transcaucasia, iran, lebanon (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). remark: local name: kakhor. centaurea iberica trevir. ex spreng., 1826 synonyms: calcitrapa iberica (trevir. ex spreng.) schur, 1866 c. iberica spreng., 1826 centaurea macracantha heldr. ex boiss., 1875 c. noeana boiss., 1856 leucantha iberica (spreng.) á.löve & d.löve, 1961 material examind: (2 specimens): baghdad, khalis; fl. and fr.: july – august. bunh: (6 specimens): baghdad, sarsank, altun kupri (kirkuk), amara. distribution: se europe (greece to romania and crimea), jordan, palestine, syria, lebanon, turkey, pakistan, transcaucasia, iran, afghanistan, kashmir, c. asia (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). remark: local names: kassub, murrair (bitter-wort), chalba. centaurea mesopotamica bornm., 1906 synonyms: centaurea musili velen., 1912 bunh: (4 specimens): fallujah, baghdad, baiji, haditha (al anbar); fl. and fr.: april – june. distribution: jordan, syria, kuwait, saudi arabia (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019) . remark: the common name: chalba. centaurea hyalolepis boiss., 1846 synonyms: calcitrapa hyalolepis (boiss.) holub, 1974 centaurea pallescens bové ex dc., 1838 c. pallescens var. australis plitmann, 1973 c. pallescens var. hyalolepis (boiss.) boiss., 1875 c. pallescens subsp. hyalolepis (boiss.) holmboe, 1914 385 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-joboury and aliwy bunh: (1 specimen): baghdad; fl. and fr.: april – june. distribution: jordan, syria, cyprus, palestine, lebanon, turkey, iran (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). centaurea solstitialis l., 1753 synonyms: calcitrapa solstitialis (l.) lam., 1778 c. lutea delarbre, 1800 c. solstitialis (l.) lam., 1779 centaurea cyanifolia poir., 1811 c. parvispina láng ex gugler, 1907 bunh: (4 specimens): amadiya (in duhok ). baqubah, jarmo (e. of chemchamal). distribution: iran (dehshiri and jozipoor, 2014), egypt, new zealand (garnock-jones, 2011), spain (jiménez-alfaro et al., 2021), saudi arabia (osman and abdein, 2019), jordan, syria, cyprus, palestine, lebanon, turkey, europe, s russia, caucasus, c asia (turkmenia to tajikistan) (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). remark: only one subsp.: centaurea solstitialis subsp. solstitialis l. for this species occurs in iraq. centaurea calcitrapa l., 1753 synonyms: calcitrapa lanceolata lam., 1779 c. stellaris hill, 1769 c. vulgaris bernh., 1800 centaurea carduifolia salisb., 1769 bunh: (1specimen): taji (north of baghdad); fl. and fr.: april – june. distribution: new zealand (garnock-jones, 2011), spain (jiménez-alfaro et al., 2021); jordan, syria, cyprus, palestine, lebanon, turkey, iran, europe, s russia, caucasus, c. asia (turkmenia to tajikistan) (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). centaurea cyanus l., 1753 synonyms: cyanus segetum hill, 1769 c. arvensis moench, 1794 centaurea hoffmanniana asch., 1899 c. pulchra dc., 1838 c. umbrosa reut., 1856 bunh: (3 specimens): cultivated in baghdad; fl. and fr.: april – june. distribution: new zealand (garnock-jones, 2011), the falkland islands (upson and lewis, 2014), europe, siberia, caucasus, c asia (turkmenia to tajikistan), n america, italy, greece, w turkey (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). remark: local names cornflower, bluebottle. centaurea rigida banks & sol., 1794 synonyms: centaurea myriocephala sch.bip. ex boiss., 1857 c. myriocephala sch.bip.ex boiss., 1875 c. myriocephala var. schizophylla (nábělek) nábělek, 1929 386 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum survey with revised checklist of compositae c. schizophylla nábělek, 1925 c.russelliana buek, 1840 bunh: (2 specimens): arbil, bekhair (dohuk); fl. and fr.: may – august. distribution: palestine, turkey, syria (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). centaurea virgata lam., 1785 synonyms: acosta virgata (lam.) holub, 1972 centaurea virgata subsp. virgate, 1785 bunh: (5 specimens): haji omeran, qara dagh, sarsank; fl. and fr.: may – july. distribution: syria, lebanon, turkey, pakistan, iran, afghanistan, c. asia (turkmenia) (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). remark: there are 2 subsp.: c. virgate subsp. virgate, c. virgata subsp. squarrosa (boiss.) gugler, 1907. tribe: gymnarrheneae cass. genus, chondrilla l., 1753 remark: chondrilla l. is represented in iraq by a single species: chondrilla juncea l. chondrilla juncea l., 1753 synonyms: c. acanthophylla borkh. ex rchb., 1831 c. gaudini hegetschw., 1822 c. hispida desf., 1829 c. rigens rchb., 1831 c. viminea bubani, 1899 bunh: (2 specimens): sarsank; fl. and fr.: julyseptember. distribution: c & s europe (n france to sc russia, mediterranean region from portugal to turkey), syria, lebanon, turkmenia, afghananistan, n africa (morocco, algeria, tunisia) (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). tribe: cynareae cass. genus, chardinia desf., 1817 remark: a monotypic genus has a single species in iraq: chardinia orientalis (l.) kuntze. chardinia orientalis (l.) kuntze, 1887 synonyms: chardinia macrocarpa k.koch, 1851 c. xeranthemoides desf., 1817 xeranthemum annuum var. orientale l., 1753 x.orientale (l.) mill., 1768 bunh: (8 specimens): shaqlawa, jaddala (s. balad sinjar), jabal sinjar; fl. and fr.: march june. distribution: iran (dehshiri and jozipoor, 2014), jordan, syria, palestine, pakistan, turkey, caucasus, afghanistan, c asia (turkmenia to tajikistan) (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). remark: banish iuk, gia gur. 387 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-joboury and aliwy tribe: gymnarrheneae cass. genus, cichorium l., 1753 remark: cichorium l. is represented in iraq by 2 species: cichorium intybus l. and cichorium pumilum jacq. cichorium intybus l., 1753 synonyms: cichorium balearicum porta, 1887 c. callosum pomel, 1874 c. intybus var. sativum bisch., 1851 c. intybus var. glabrum (c.presl) gren. & godr., 1850 c.intybus var. genuina kurz, 1877 c. intybus f. sativum (gaudin) bisch., 1851 bunh: (7 specimens): bisan valley (sulaimaniya), sarsank, salah alddin resort, near khalis, ashewa resort (duhok); fl. and fr.: marchjune. distribution: new zealand (garnock-jones, 2011), spain (jiménez-alfaro et al., 2021), jordan, syria, palestine, pakistan, turkey, iran, caucasus, afghanistan, c asia (turkmenia to tajikistan) (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). remark: local name: banish iuk, gia gur. cichorium pumilum jacq., 1771 synonyms: cichorium ambiguum schult., 1809 c. divaricatum schousb, 1800 c. dichotomum link, 1829 c. minimum port., 1824 c. noeanum boiss., 1875 bunh: (2 specimens): karradah maryam (baghdad); fl. and fr.: may-september. distribution: southern europe from portugal to european turkey, syria, iran, macaronesia, n. africa (libya to morocco), transcaucasia (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). remark: local names: tala shir, chaqchaqa; in herbarium of the natural history museum was previously diagnosed under the name c. glandulosum boiss. & a.huet by r. wheeler hanise. tribe: cynareae cass. genus, cirsium mill., 1754 remark: cirsium mill. is represented in iraq by 13 species: cirsium arvense (l.) scop., c. canum (l.) all., c. ciliatum (murray) moench, c. elodes m.bieb., c. haussknechtii boiss., c. hygrophilum boiss., c. karduchorum petr., c. lappaceum (m.bieb.) fisch., c. libanoticum dc., c. pubigerum (desf.) dc., c. pseudobracteosum davis & parris, c. sorocephalum fisch. & c.a.mey., c. vulgare (savi) ten. cirsium libanoticum dc., 1838 synonyms: cirsium apiculatum dc., 1838 c. kotschyanum boiss., 1846 c. uliginosum heldr. ex boiss., 1849 388 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum survey with revised checklist of compositae c. lycaonicum boiss. & heldr., 1849 bunh: (10 specimens): ashewa resort (duhok), salah alddin resort, sarsank, sudur, haji umran; fl. and fr.: julyseptember. distribution: syria, turkey (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). remark: has 2 subsp.: c. libanoticum subsp. libanoticum (found in syria, lebanon, western iran), c. libanoticum subsp. arachnoideum davis & parris 1975 (found in iraq). tribe: gymnarrheneae cass. genus, crepis l., 1753 remark: crepis l. is represented in iraq by 11 species: crepis alpina l., c. aspera l., c. elbrusensis boiss., c. foetida l., c. kotschyana (boiss.) boiss., c. kurdica rech.f., c. micrantha czerep., c. pulchra l., c. quercifolia bornm. & gauba, c. sahendi boiss. & buhse, c. sancta (l.) babc. crepis foetida l., 1753 synonyms: barkhausia foetida subsp. infr, 1905 b. foetida var. sinuatodentata schur, 1866 crepis foetida subsp. eufoetida domin, 1935 c. foetida subsp. radicata nyman, 1879 c. foetida var. arenaria heuff., 1858 bunh: (7 specimens): gara mountain (duhok), 10 km s baghdad, samarra, arbil, shaqlawa; fl. and fr.: apriljuly. distribution: italy (bartolucci et al. 2018), new zealand (garnock-jones, 2011), iran (dehshiri and jozipoor, 2014), spain (jiménez-alfaro et al., 2021), europe, syria, lebanon, turkmenia, turkey, caucasus, n africa (morocco, algeria,), c asia (turkmenia) (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). remark: 2 subspecies found in iraq: c. foetida subsp. foetida 1753, c. foetida subsp. commutate; the local names: hodhan, kalilk zar, gullikah zar. crepis micrantha czerep., 1964 synonyms: crepis parviflora pers., 1807 c. parviflora desf., 1807 c. breviflora delile, 1840 c. fuliginosa webb & berthel., 1850 c. muricata sm., 1813 bunh: (4 specimens): tarmiyah (n baghdad), shaqlawa, fl. and fr.: apriljune. distribution: greece, syria, crete, crimea, aegean is., turkey, iran, egypt, c asia (turkmenia) (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). remark: local name: marair; in herbarium of the natural history museum was previously diagnosed under the name c. parviflora desf. by lawand l. crepis kotschyana (boiss.) boiss., 1875 synonyms: barkhausia bureniana (boiss.) c.winkl., 1890 b. bureniana (boiss.) krasch., 1937 389 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-joboury and aliwy b. glanduligera c.winkl., 1890 b. kotschyana boiss., 1846 crepis bureniana boiss., 1875 bunh: (1 specimen): khanaqin; fl. and fr.: apriljune. distribution: iran (dehshiri and jozipoor, 2014), afghanistan, pakistan, turkey, c. asia (turkmenia to tajikistan) (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). tribe: cynareae cass. genus, crupina (pers.) dc., 1810 remark: crupina (pers.) dc.is represented in iraq by 3 species: crupina crupinastrum (moris) vis., c. intermedia (mutel) walp., c. vulgaris cass. crupina crupinastrum (moris) vis., 1847 synonyms: centaurea crupina sibth. & sm., 1839 c. crupina var. maculata pers., 1807 c. visianii rouy, 1905 c. crupinastrum f. morisii rouy, 1905 c. crupinastrum f. visianus rouy, 1905 bunh: (5 specimens): jabal sinjar, darbandikhan (sulaimaniyah), salah alddin resort, jabal sinjar; fl. and fr.: apriljuly. distribution: iran (dehshiri and jozipoor, 2014), sierra nevada (se spain) (lorite, 2016), europe, islands from spain to turkey, iran, syria, lebanon, palestine, egypt, transcaucasia, n africa (libya to algeria) (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). tribe: cynareae cass. genus, dipterocome fisch. & c.a.mey., 1835 remark: dipterocome fisch. & c. a. mey. is represented in iraq by a single species: dipterocome pusilla fisch. & c. a. mey. dipterocome pusilla fisch. & c.a.mey., 1836 synonyms: jaubertia koelpiniodes spach, 1850 koelpinia sessilis boiss., 1849 bunh: (1 specimens): fatha; fl. and fr.: marchmay. distribution: iran, syria, palestine, afghanistan (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). tribe: heliantheae cass. genus, eclipta l., 1771 remark: eclipta l. is represented in iraq by a single species: eclipta prostrata l. eclipta prostrata l., 1771 synonyms: anthemis cotula var. hierosolymitana eig, 1938 a. viridis blanco, 1845 bellis racemosa steud., 1821 eclipta alba f. prostrata (l.) hassk., 1848 390 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum survey with revised checklist of compositae e. erecta l., 1771 material examind: (1 specimen): karradah (baghdad); fl. and fr.: april-may. bunh: (9 specimens): al-fahamah (baghdad), baqubah, sudur, aziziya. distribution: bangladesh (rahman et al., 2008), india (adhikari and babu, 2008), brazil (soares et al., 2022), iran, syria, palestine, afghanistan (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). remark: in herbarium of the natural history museum was previously diagnosed under the name eclipta alba f. prostrata (l.) hassk by lawand l., and another one by r. wheeler haires, and the third plant by rassam i., also found herbarium plant samples diagnosed under the name eclipta erecta l. by karam m. tribe: calenduleae cass. genus, filago l. 1753 remark: filago l. is represented in iraq by 7 species: filago anatolica (boiss. & heldr.) chrtek & holub, f. arvensis l., f. contracta (boiss.) chrtek & holub, f. desertorum pomel, f. eriocephala guss., f. palaestina (boiss.) chrtek & holub, f. pyramidata l. filago contracta (boiss.) chrtek & holub, 1963 synonym: evax contracta boiss., 1849 bunh: (1 specimens): al za'franiya; fl. and fr.: june-july. distribution: iran, syria, palestine, afghanistan, crete, aegean is., cyprus, egypt, jordan, lebanon, turkey, n africa (libya, algeria) (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). remark: this species rare in iraq; also in herbarium of the natural history museum was previously diagnosed under the name e. contracta boiss by r. wheeler harins. filago eriocephala guss., 1826 synonyms: filago germanica f. eriocephala (guss.) rouy, 1903 f. germanica subsp. eriocephala (guss.) arcang., 1882 f. germanica var. eriocephala (guss.) p.fourn., 1939 f. germanica var. lanuginosa (duby) dc., 1838 f. lanuginosa req. ex dc., 1838 bunh: (4 specimens): kut, baghdad, basrah, aski kalak (arbil); fl. and fr.: june-july. distribution: italy (iamonico, 2012), iran, syria, palestine; e, s and c mediterranean, cyprus, turkey (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). remark: rare in the mountain region, also in herbarium of the natural history museum was previously diagnosed under the name f. germanica subsp. eriocephala (guss.) arcang. by lawand l. and r. wheeler haines. filago pyramidata l., 1753 synonyms: crepis oporinoides var. prostrata boiss., 1841 filago candolleana parl., 1840 f. decumbens holmboe, 1914 f. gussonei lojac., 1902 bunh: (4 specimens): kut, adhaim, fallujah; fl. and fr.: february-may. 391 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-joboury and aliwy distribution: italy (bartolucci et al., 2018), spain (jiménez-alfaro et al., 2021); s. europe, aegean is., iran, syria, palestine; e,s and c mediterranean, cyprus, turkeym jordan, arabia, caucasia, afghanistan, pakistan, n africa, macaronesia (madeira, canary is., azores (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). remark: the local names: qutaina, qutn, quttain; also in herbarium of the natural history museum was previously diagnosed under the name f. spathulata by r. lawand l., the other herbarium plant by r. wheeler haines. tribe: gymnarrheneae cass. genus, gundelia l., 1754 remark: gundelia l. is represented in iraq by 2 species: gundelia rosea m.hossain & altaey and g. tournefortii l. gundelia tournefortii l., 1753 synonyms: gundelia glabra mill., 1768 g. purpurascens bornm., 1939 g. tenuisecta (boiss.) freyn & sint., 1892 g. tournefortii var. tenuisecta boiss., 1875 g. tournefortii var. glabra (mill.) dc., 1836 bunh: (3 specimens): adhaim, jabal hamrin, baghdad; fl. and fr.: march-july. distribution: egypt, palestine, syria, lebanon, turkey, cyprus, transcaucasia, iran, afghanistan, turkmenia, algeria (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). remark: the local name: kaub, kangar, the fruits of this species used as a sourse of oil. tribe: anthemideae cass. genus, geropogon l., 1763 remark: geropogon l.is represented in iraq by a single species, a monotypic genus: geropogon hybridus (l.) sch.bip. geropogon hybridus (l.) sch.bip., 1850 synonyms: geropogon glabrum l., 1763 g. australis spreng., 1826 tragopogon geropogon rouy, 1908 t. hybridus l., 1753 t. glaber hill., 1768 bunh (1 specimen): baqubah; fl. and fr.: april-may. distribution: s europe from portugal toturkey, egypt, iran, syria, palestine, mediterranean is., cyprus, turkey, n africa (libya to morocco), macaronesia (madeira, canary is.), transcaucasia (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). remark: dhanab al-faras, horse-tail, zabib al-khail, aspink, shaddanak local names, this plant is harmful to sheep and causes death in spring. tribe: cynareae cass. 392 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum survey with revised checklist of compositae genus, gymnarrhena desf., 1818 remark: gymnarrhena desf. is represented in iraq by a single species: gymnarrhena micrantha desf. gymnarrhena micrantha desf., 1818 synonyms: cryptadia euphratensis lindl., 1868 frankia schimperi steud., 1840 gymnarrhena balansae coss. & durieu ex coss. & kralik, 1857 bunh: (1 specimen): rutba; fl. and fr.: march-may. distribution: saudi arabia (osman and abdein, 2019), iran, syria, palestine, n africa, pakistan (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). remark: local name: ain al buqr. tribe: tageteae cass. genus, helianthus l., 1753 remark: helianthus l.is represented in iraq by 3 species: helianthus annuus l., h. laetiflorus pers., h. tuberosus l. helianthus annuus l., 1753 synonyms: helianthus aridus rydb., 1905 h. aridus rydb., 1905 h. indicus l., 1767 h. jaegeri heiser, 1948 h. cultus wenzlaff, 1941 bunh: (4 specimens): culticated in baghdad, al za'franiya; fl. and fr.: april-may. distribution: bangladesh (rahman et al., 2008), bolivia (hind, 2011), iran, syria, palestine, arabia, n africa, pakistan (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). remark: local names: sunflower, ward ash shams, ain ash shams, abad ash shams, shams wa qamar, qunah baqan, gulah barruzhah. tribe: cynareae cass. genus, jurinea cass., 1821 remark: jurinea cass. is represented in iraq by 4 species: jurinea carduiformis (jaub. & spach) boiss., j. inuloides boiss. & hausskn., j. mesopotamica hand.-mazz., j. moschus (habl.) bobrov. jurinea carduiformis (jaub. & spach) boiss., 1846 synonyms: outreya carduiformis jaub. & spach, 1845 bunh: (5 specimens): jarmo, kirkuk; fl. and fr.: mayaugust. distribution: iran, afghanistan, pakistan, tadzhikistan, turkmenistan (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). tribe: cnaphalieae cass. genus, ifloga cass., 1819 remark: ifloga cass. is represented in iraq by a single species: ifloga spicata (forssk.) sch. bip. 393 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-joboury and aliwy ifloga spicata (forssk.) sch.bip., 1845 synonyms: chrysocoma spicata forssk., 1775 gnaphalium aegyptiacum pers., 1807 g. ammophilum wall., 1831 g. chrysocoma poir., 1812 ifloga fontanesii cass., 1822 bunh: (2 specimens): fallujah; fl. and fr.: marchapril. distribution: s europe (se spain), iran, syria, palestine, mediterranean is., cyprus, turkey, n africa (libya, tunisia, algeria, morocco morocco), macaronesia (canary is.), aegean is., transcaucasia, sinia, arabia, kuwait, afghanistan (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). remark: local names: hasaj, hasach. tribe: gymnarrheneae cass. genus, koelpinia pall., 1776 remark: koelpinia pall. is represented in iraq by only one species: koelpinia linearis pall. koelpinia linearis pall., 1776 synonyms: k. latifolia c.winkl., 1890 k. linearis var. latifolia (c.winkl.) abedin & ghafoor, 2017 lapsana koelpinia (pall.) l.fil., 1782 rhagadiolus koelpinia (pall.) f.w.schmidt, 1795 r. koelpinia willd., 1804 bunh: (3 specimens): fallujah, abu al-khaseeb, w karbala; fl. and fr.: marchjune. distribution: saudi arabia (osman and abdein, 2019), iran, syria, palestine, turkey, afghanistan, turkmenia (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). remark: local names: lahya at-tais, carter, dickson, dh iluq carter. tribe: gymnarrheneae cass. genus, lactuca l., 1753 remark: lactuca l. is represented in iraq by 10 species: lactuca aculeata boiss. & kotschy, l. microcephala dc., l. orientalis (boiss.) boiss., l. rechingeriana (tuisl) n.kilian & greuter, l. saligna l., l. sativa l., l. scarioloides boiss., l. serriola l., l. undulata ledeb., l. viminea (l.) j.presl & c.presl. lactuca saligna l., 1753 synonyms: chondrilla crepoides lapeyr., 1813 hieracium salignum (l.) e.h.l.krause, 1906 lactuca adulteriana gren. & godr., 1779 l. caucasica c.koch, 1843 l. caucasica var. major k.koch, 1843 l. cyanea c.koch, 1850 l. vanensis azn., 1918 l. wallrothii spreng., 1813 bunh: (11 specimens): duhok, sarsank, chemchamal, qaradagh, tarmiyah, hilla; fl. and fr.: aprilmay. 394 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum survey with revised checklist of compositae distribution: new zealand (garnock-jones, 2011), spain (jiménez-alfaro et al., 2021), iran, syria, palestine, turkey, europe, arabia, lebanon, caucasia, n. africa (egypt, tunisia, algeria, morocco), america (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). tribe: gymnarrheneae cass. genus, launaea cass., 1822 remark: launaea cass. is represented in iraq by 5 species: launaea angustifolia (desf.) kuntze, l. capitata (spreng.) dandy, l. mucronata (forssk.) muschl, l. nudicaulis (l.) hook.f., l. procumbens (roxb.) ramayya & rajagopal. launaea nudicaulis (l.) hook.f., 1881 synonyms: ammoseris nucicaulis (l.) d.dietr., 1847 chondrilla nudicaulis l., 1771 lactuca nudicaulis (l.) murray, 1780 rhabdotheca divaricata var. subnudicaulis bolle, 1860 zollikoferia nudicaulis (l.) boiss., 1875 bunh: (4 specimens): baghdad, fallujah, badra (wasit), kut; fl. and fr.: april-june. distribution: saudi arabia (el ghazali and al-soqeer, 2013), s spain, iran, syria, palestine, jordan, sinai, arabia (bahrain, kuwait, qatar, yemen), india, eritrea, n. africa (sahara, sudan), macaronesia (canary is.) (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). remark: local names: eves dandelion, huwa, huwa alghazal. launaea mucronata (forssk.) muschl., 1912 synonyms: leontodon mucronatum forssk., 1755 zollikoferia mucronata (forssk.) boiss., 1875 launaea resedifolia (l.) druce sp. mucronata (forssk.)maire, 1937 bunh: (3 specimens): imam ibrahim, fallujah, baghdad; fl. and fr.: march-may. distribution: palestine, jordan, egypt, bahrain, kuwait, saudi arabia, oman, yemen, n. africa (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). remark: has one subsp. mucronata, local names: murara (murrar, murrair). tribe: gnaphalieae cass. genus, lasiopogon cass., 1818 remark: lasiopogon cass. is represented in iraq by only one species: lasiopogon muscoides (desf.) dc. lasiopogon muscoides (desf.) dc., 1838 synonyms: gnaphalium muscoides desf., 1798 lasiopogon lanatum cass., 1818 leysera muscoides (desf.) quézel & santa, 1963 bunh: (2 specimens): fallujah desert; fl. and fr.: march-april. distribution: saudi arabia (osman and abdein, 2019), palestine, jordan, syria, sinai, lebanon, iran, egypt, iran, pakistan, n africa (morocco to egypt), afghanistan, india (punjab), s africa, namibia, botswana. (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). 395 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-joboury and aliwy tribe: gymnarrheneae cass. genus, leontodon l., 1753 remark: leontodon l. is represented in iraq by 3 species: leontodon asperrimus (willd.) endl., l. hispidus l., l. laciniatus (bertol.) widder. leontodon laciniatus (bertol.) widder, 1967 synonyms: oporinia laciniata bertol., 1843 millinia persica boiss., 1843 m. arabica boiss., 1849 leontodon arabicus (boiss.) boiss., 1875 scorzoneroides laciniata bertol., 2006 bunh: (2 specimens): fallujah desert; fl. and fr.: march-june. distribution: saudi arabia (osman and abdein, 2019), palestine, jordan, syria, iran, egypt, iran, caucasus, kuwait (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). remark: local names: ward hodhan, murran, murrar, murair. tribe: anthemideae cass. genus, matricaria l., 1753 remark: matricaria l. is represented in iraq by 2 species: matricaria aurea (loefl.) sch.bip, m. chamomilla l. matricaria chamomilla l., 1753 synonyms: camomilla patens gilib., 1792 chamaemelum chamomilla (l.) e.h.l.krause, 1905 c. suaveolens e.h.l.krause, 1905 courrantia chamomilloides sch.bip., 1845 leucanthemum chamaemelum lam., 1779 matricaria bayeri kanitz, 1862 material examind: (2 specimens): bab al moatham (baghdad), wasit; fl. and fr.: april-june. bunh: (6 specimens): baghdad, alhabbaniyah, mosul, albu hayat (anbar). distribution: italy (bartolucci et al. 2018), europe, palestine, mediterranean area, syria, iran, turkey (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). matricaria aurea (loefl.) sch.bip., 1860 synonyms: anacyclus aureus (loefl.) lam. ex dc., 1805 cenocline aurea (loefl.) c.koch, 1843 chamaemelum aureum (loefl.) e.h.l.krause, 1905 cotula aurea loefl., 1758 lepidotheca aurea (loefl.) kovalevsk., 1962 perideraea aurea (loefl.) willk., 1865 plagius aureus (loefl.) lindl., 1840 bunh: (2 specimens): baghdad, kut; fl. and fr.: march-june. distribution: italy (bartolucci et al. 2018), saudi arabia (osman and abdein, 2019). 396 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum survey with revised checklist of compositae remark: local names: babon, babunnaj, baibub; it is considered a very important medicinal plant (moussa et al., 2015). tribe: gnaphalieae cass. genus, micropus l., 1753 remark: micropus is represented in iraq by only one species: micropus supinus l. micropus supinus l., 1753 synonyms: filago supina (l.) lam., 1779 gnaphalodes dentata moench, 1794 bunh: (1 specimens): shaqlawa; fl. and fr.: march-may. distribution: se portugal, and c&s spain, syria, palestine, turkey, caucasia, iran, n africa (morocco, algeria, libya) (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). tribe: cynareae cass. genus, notobasis cass., 1825 remark: notobasis cass. is represented in iraq by only one species: notobasis syriaca (l.) cass. notobasis syriaca (l.) cass., 1825 synonyms: carduus obvallatus salzm., 1821 c. syriacus l., 1753 cirsium bracteatum link, 1834 c. maculatum moench, 1794 c. syriacum (l.) gaertn., 1791 bunh (5 specimens): sarsank, mosul; fl. and fr.: april-june. distribution: spain, crete, syria, palestine, aegean is., cyprus, iran, azerbaijan (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). tribe: gymnarrheneae cass. genus, picris l., 1753 remark: picris l. is represented in iraq by 5 species: picris babylonica hand.-mazz, p. kotschyi boiss., p. longirostris sch.bip., p. pauciflora willd., p. strigosa m.bieb. picris longirostris sch.bip., 1839 synonyms: p. blancheana boiss., 1875 p. damascena boiss. & gaill, 1875 p. damascena var. diffusa eig, 1939 p. desertorum nábelek, 1925 bunh (2 specimens): adhaim, sudur; fl. and fr.: march-june. distribution: syria, palestine, jordan, sinai, egypt, sw iran (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). remark: local names: hodhan, howithan; in herbarium of the natural history museum was previously diagnosed under the name p. damascena boiss. & gaill. 397 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-joboury and aliwy picris strigosa m. bieb., 1808 synonyms: picris glaucescens dc., 1838 p. glomerata k.koch, 1851 p. persica gand, 1918 p. turcomanica gand, 1918 bunh (2 specimens): sarsank, haji omeran; fl. and fr.: june-august. distribution: syria, turkey, iran, lebanon, caucasia, turkmenia (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). picris babylonica hand.-mazz., 1913 synonyms: picris babylonica var. dimorphocarpa eig, 1939 bunh (3 specimens): fallujah desert, 10 km w of baghdad; fl. and fr.: march-june. distribution: syria, palestine, jordan, sinai, egypt, sw iran (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). remark: local names: umrar, gula zerde, murrair. tribe: cnaphalieae cass. genus, phagnalon cass., 1819 remark: phagnalon cass. is represented in iraq by 2 species: phagnalon kotschyi sch.bip. ex boiss and p. rupestre (l.) dc. phagnalon kotschyi sch.bip. ex boiss., 1875 synonyms: conyza varthemioides nábelek, 1925 bunh: (2 specimens): sarsank, alqosh (northern iraq); fl. and fr.: june-august. distribution: turkey, iran, lebanon (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). phagnalon rupestre (l.) dc., 1836 synonyms: baccharis rupestris (l.) desf., 1804 phagnalon spathulatum cass., 1826 conyza rupestris l., 1767 bunh (2 specimens): alqosh (northern iraq), mosul; fl. and fr.: april-may. distribution: italy (iamonico, 2012), turkey (se anatolia), iran, lebanon, w c mediterranean europe (c s portugal, spain, france, balkans), cyprus, palestine, jordan, egypt, arabia (n yemen) (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). remark: local names: kadha. tribe: inuleae cass. genus, pulicaria gaertn., 1791 remark: pulicaria gaertn. is represented in iraq by 6 species: pulicaria crispa (forssk.) benth. ex oliv., p. dysenterica (l.) bernh., p. gnaphalodes (vent.) boiss., p. guestii rech.f. & rawi, p. vulgaris gaertn. pulicaria crispa (forssk.) benth. ex oliv., 1873 synonyms: pulicaria undulata subsp. undulata (l.) c.a.mey., 1831 398 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum survey with revised checklist of compositae francoeuria crispa (forssk.) cass., 1825 aster crispus forssk., 1775 inula crispa (forssk.) pers., 1807 i. odora forssk., 1775 bunh (3 specimens): rustamiya, al za'franiya; fl. and fr.: april-june. distribution: saudi arabia (el ghazali and al-soqeer, 2013), iran, turkey (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). remark: local name: jifjaf. pulicaria gnaphalodes (vent.) boiss., 1844 synonyms: inula gnaphalodes vent., 1802 pulicaria gnaphalodes var. decipiens bornm., 1839 strabonia gnaphalodes (vent.) dc., 1836 bunh (2 specimens): sudur, khalis; fl. and fr.: may-november. distribution: iran, afghanistan, pakistan, c asia (turkmenia) (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). remark: the local name: jifjaf. pulicaria dysenterica (l.) bernh., 1800 synonyms: inula conyzoea lam., 1779 pulicaria dysenterica (l.) gaertn., 1791 p. dysenterica var. ramosissima lecoq & lamotte, 1847 p. repens fisch. ex trevis., 1819 bunh: (7 specimens): rawanduz, sarsank, khalis, darbandikhan, shaqlawa; fl. and fr.: july-october. distribution: spain (jiménez-alfaro et al., 2021), saudi arabia (mohammed–ibtisam and doka, 2018) mediterranean islands, cyprus, syria, palestine, lebanon, turkey, iran, caucasia, afghanistan, c asia (turkmenia to tajikistan), pakistan, nw. india, w. china, oman, n africa (morocco, algeria), tropical africa (sudan, ethiopia) (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). remark: local name: zerd shire. tribe: gymnarrheneae cass. scorzonera l., 1753 remark: scorzonera l. is represented in iraq by 15 species: scorzonera cana (c.a.mey.) o.hoffm., s. cinerea boiss., s. davisii lipsch., s. lanata hoffm., s. latifolia (fisch. & c.a.mey.) dc., s. mollis m.bieb., s. mucida rech.f., aellen & esfand., s. incisa dc., s. papposa dc., s. phaeopappa (boiss.) boiss., s. ramosissima dc., s. schweinfurthii boiss., s. semicana dc., s. tortuosissima boiss., s. veratrifolia fenzl. scorzonera veratrifolia fenzl, 1843 synonyms: lasiospora candidissima sch.bip., 1845 l. veratrifolia (fenzl) walp., 1847 scorzonera bella lipsch., 1963 bunh: (2 specimens): shaqlawa, bisan valley, halabja; fl. and fr.: june-july. 399 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-joboury and aliwy distribution: e. turkey, w. iran (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). scorzonera papposa dc., 1838 synonym: scorzonera kurdica boiss., 1856 bunh: (1 specimens): jabal hamrin; fl. and fr.: march-may. distribution: saudi arabia (osman and abdein, 2019), turkey, iran, syria, lebanon, palestine, jordan, kuwait, transcaucasia (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). remark: local names: halakok, ruba hela, erbahle. tribe: gymnarrheneae cass. genus, sonchus l., 1753 remark: sonchus l. is represented in iraq by 4 species: sonchus glaucescens jord., s. maritimus l., s. oleraceus l., s. tenerrimus l. sonchus maritimus l., 1759 synonyms: sonchoseris maritima (l.) fourr., 1869 sonchus baburi popov, 1941 s. hieracioides willk., 1865 s. littoralis rchb., 1831 s. otaviensis dinter, 1932 material examind: (4 specimens): baghdad, alzubaydiyah, badra (wasit); fl. and fr.: march-july. bunh: (11 specimens): duhok, sudur, alrashdiya (baghdad), qaradagh, karbala, suwaira. distribution: mediterranean europe (portugal, spain, w & france, italy), cyprus, syria, palestine, jordan, egypt, saudia arabia, iran, afghanistan, pakistan, n africa (lybia to morocco), s africa, australia (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). remark: harfash, sea sow-thistle. sonchus oleraceus l., 1753 synonyms: carduus amplexicaulis noronha, 1790 hieracium oleraceum (l.) scop., 1772 sonchus angustissimus h.lindb., 1932 s. australis hort. ex trev., 1818 s. ciliatus lam., 1779 material examind: (3 specimens): alzubaydiyah, badra (wasit), karada maryam (baghdad); fl. and fr.: march-july. bunh: (11 specimens): duhok, sudur, alrashdiya (baghdad), qaradagh, karbala, suwaira. distribution: india (adhikari and babu, 2008), new zealand (garnock-jones, 2011), saudi arabia (osman and abdein, 2019), europe, aegean is., cyprus, syria, palestine, lebanon, sinai, jordan, egypt, iran, pakistan, nm africa, turkey, caucasia, afghanistan, c asia, siberia, china, japan (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). remark: local names: umm al-halib, harfash, merrer. sonchus tenerrimus l., 1753 400 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum survey with revised checklist of compositae synonyms: sonchus italus spreng., 1826 s. perennis (lange) a.w.hill, 1938 s. tenerrimus var. glandulosus lange, 1861 s. tenerrimus var. laevigatus lange, 1861 s. tenerrimus var. spinulosus lange, 1861 bunh: (2 specimens): basra, hilla; fl. and fr.: march-april. distribution: mediterranean europe (from portugal, spain, italy, sicily and balkans), cyprus, syria, palestine, jordan, egypt, iran, pakistan, macaronesia (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). remark: local names: harfash, clammy sowthistle. tribe: senecioneae cass. genus, senecio l., 1753 remark: senecio l.is represented in iraq by 10 species: senecio arenarius thunb., s. cineraria dc., s. doriaeformis dc., s. eriospermus dc., s. glaucus l., s. leucanthemifolius poir., s. mollis willd., s. pseudoorientalis schischk., s. racemosus (m.bieb.) dc., s. vulgaris l. senecio leucanthemifolius poir., 1789 synonyms: senecio apulus ten., 1827 s. atlanticus boiss. & reut., 1852 s. caroli-malyi horvatić, 1956 s. humilis desf., 1799 bunh: (2 specimens): mandali, geli ali beg center; fl. and fr.: march-june. distribution: native in c e europe, lebanon, turkey, cyprus, syria, palestine, jordan, egypt, iran, pakistan, caucasia (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). remark: local names: halula, gulilka haspi, gulilka zarda. senecio glaucus l., 1753 synonyms: senecio chrysanthemifolius dc., 1838 s. coronopifolius desf., 1768 s. desfontainei druce, 1928 s. joppensis dinsm., 1933 bunh (2 specimens): 25 km from ramadi to rutba, rutba; fl. and fr.: february-june. distribution: italy (bartolucci et al., 2018), iran (lotfi et al., 2010), sw asia from palestine to afghanistan, pakistan, n africa from egypt to morocco, canary is (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). remark: local names: hodhan, ba' aj, word hodhan, rijla al-ghurab, zimlug. senecio vulgaris l. 1753 synonyms: erigeron senecio sch.bip. ex webb & berthel., 1845 bunh (2 specimens): baghdad, miqdadiyah (diyala); fl. and fr.: january-may. distribution: sardinia (bacchetta et al. 2012), bolivia (hind, 2011), spain (jiménez-alfaro et al., 2021), the falkland islands (upson and lewis, 2014), europe, aegean is. to cyprus, 401 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-joboury and aliwy syria, palestine, lebanon, siberia, egypt, iran, n. africa (morocco to libya), arabia, turkey, caucasia, afghanistan, e. asia, w e siberia, n. america (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). remark: local name: shaikh ar-rabi. tribe: cynareae cass. genus, silybum adans., 1763 remark: silybum adans. is represented in iraq by only one species: silybum marianum (l.) gaertn. silybum marianum (l.) gaertn., 1791 synonyms: carduus lactifolius stokes, 1812 c. mariae crantz, 1766 c. marianus l., 1753 c. versicolor salisb., 1796 material examind (4 specimens): karbala, wasite, karada maryam (baghdad), al za'franiya; fl. and fr.: march-october. bunh (6 specimens): baghdad, sudur, duhok. distribution: new zealand (garnock-jones, 2011), the falkland islands (upson and lewis, 2014), native in mediterranean region, sw europe and sw asia, afghanistan, pakistan, australia, s. america, palestine and egypt (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). remark: local name: gulaghan, milk thistle. tribe: inuleae cass. genus, sphaeranthus l., 1753 remark: sphaeranthus l. is represented in iraq by only one species: sphaeranthus strobiliferus boiss. & noë. sphaeranthus strobiliferus boiss. & noë, 1856 synonym: sphaeranthus volgensis tzvelev, 1991 bunh (1specimen): nasiriyah; fl. and fr.: august. remark: endemic plant. tribe: astereae cass. genus, symphyotrichum nees, 1832 remark: symphyotrichum nees is represented in iraq by 2 cultivated species: symphyotrichum novi-belgii (l.) g. l. nesom and s. subulatum (michx.) g. l. nesom. symphyotrichum subulatum (michx.) g.l.nesom, 1995 synonyms: aster subulatus michx., 1803 a. exilis f. subalpinus r.e. fr., 1906 a. flexicaulis raf, 1932 chrysocoma linifolia (bertero ex dc.) steud., 1840 erigeron linifolius bertero ex dc., 1836 material examind (2 specimens): az -zubaidiyah; fl. and fr.: marchjune. 402 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum survey with revised checklist of compositae bunh (16 specimens): baghdad, sulaf resort (dihok), shaikh said (20 km. w mandali), pira magrun (30 k. n.w. sulaimaniya), alsuwaira (in wasit), kakla (erbil), al anbar, mosul. distribution: syria, palestine, iran, turkey, europe, cyprus, transcaucasia, macaronesia, india, australia, new zealand, america (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). tribe: gymnarrheneae cass. genus, reichardia roth, 1785 remark: reichardia roth is represented in iraq by only one species: reichardia tingitana (l.) roth. reichardia tingitana (l.) roth, 1787 synonyms: picridium discolor pomel, 1874 p. hispanicum (jacq.) poir., 1816 p. ligulatum vent., 1804 p. orientale (l.) dc., 1805 p. saharae pomel, 1875 bunh (1specimen): hilla; fl. and fr.: march-april. distribution: mediterranean europe (spain, portugal, balearic is. greece), cyprus, syria, arabia, palestine, jordan, egypt, turkey, afghanistan, iran, macaronesia, n. africa (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). tribe: gymnarrheneae cass. genus, rhagadiolus juss., 1789 remark: rhagadiolus juss. is represented in iraq by only one species: rhagadiolus stellatus (l.) gaertn. rhagadiolus stellatus (l.) gaertn., 1791 synonyms: lapsana lampsanifolia mill., 1768 l. ramosissima crantz, 1766 rhagadiolus lampsanifolius mirb., 1805 r. leiocarpus (dc.) a.w.hill, 1839 bunh (1specimen): shaqlawa; fl. and fr.: april-july. distribution: mediterranean europe, cyprus, syria, lebanon, palestine, jordan, egypt, turkey, caucasia, iran, macaronesia (canary is., madeira), n africa (morocco, algeria, tunisia) (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). tribe: heliantheae cass. genus, tagetes l., 1753 remark: tagetes l. is represented in iraq by only one species: tagetes erecta l. tagetes erecta l., 1753 synonyms: tagetes corymbosa sweet, 1829 t. ernestii h. rob. & nicolson, 1975 403 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-joboury and aliwy t. excelsa soule, 1996 t. heterocarpha rydb., 1915 bunh (1 specimen): baghdad; fl. and fr. : junedecember. distribution: native in of mexico, africa (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). tribe: anthemideae cass. genus, urospermum scop., 1777 remark: urospermum scop.is represented in iraq by only one species: urospermum picroides (l.) scop. ex f.w.schmidt. urospermum picroides (l.) scop. ex f.w.schmidt, 1795 synonyms: arnopogon asper (l.) willd., 1803 a. capensis (jacq.) willd., 1803 a. picroides (l.) willd., 1803 daumailia spinulosa arènes, 1949 tragopogon aculeatus moench, 1794 bunh (1 specimen): badra; fl. and fr.: marchjune. distribution: south europe from portugal to greece, mediterranean is., arabia, palestine, syria, turkey, caucasia, iran, n africa (libya to morocco), macaronesia, (canary is), australia, s. africa (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). tribe: heliantheae cass. genus, xanthium l., 1764 remark: xanthium l. is represented in iraq by 2 species: xanthium spinosum l. and x. strumarium l. xanthium strumarium l., 1753 synonyms: xanthium abyssinicum wallr., 1844 x. strumarium var. revelierei (jord. & fourr.) rouy, 1910 x. strumarium var. albertii rouy, 1910 x. inerme gray, 1821 x. brasilicum velloso, 1829 bunh (1 specimens): rustamiya; fl.and fr.: junfebruary. distribution: india (adhikari and babu, 2008), bolivia (hind, 2011), europe, america, palestine, syria, turkey, africa, jordan (ghazanfar and edmondson, 2019). conclusions we conclude from the current study that the species of the asteraceae family are distributed in various environments and resist difficult environmental conditions. therefore, the bunh contains a good number of specimens of asteraceae species that were collected during different periods of time and preserved in the herbarium to be an important scientific source for all researchers in the field of plant taxonomy in iraq. studying this family is important because it is one of the largest plant families in iraq with a number of medicinal and food source plant species. a total of 286 specimens for 85 species belonging to 49 genera, 404 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum survey with revised checklist of compositae and 16 tribes are revised in bunh, and all these species are recorded in the flora of iraq. however, there are number of species in the bunh which are considered as synonyms for other species. according to the results, it was observed that the genus centaurea l. has the most number of specimens with 36 specimens of 10 different species. also, the widest distributing species was achillea aleppica dc. conflict of interest statement the authors have no conflicts for interest to declare. literature cited adhikari, b.s. and babu, m.m. 2008. floral diversity of baanganga wetland, uttarakhand, india. check list, 4(3): 279-290. 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(2023) 17 (3): 375-407. في معشب مركز بحوث و compositaeعائلة املركبة مسح مع قائمة مراجعة لل متحف التاريخ الطبيعي و سكينة عباس عليوي** *الجبوريخنساء رشيد مركز بحوث و متحف التأريخ الطبيعي/جامعة بغداد، بغداد، العراق.* **قسم علوم الحياة/كلية العلوم/جامعة بغداد، بغداد، العراق. 20/6/2023، تأريخ النشر: 12/2/2023القبول: ، تأريخ 17/11/2022يخ االستالم: تأر الخالصة مسحاجري مع قائمة مراجعة لالنواع التي تعود للعائلة املركبة للعينات التي جمعت ا التي لعينات لاضافة ،وحفظت سابقا في معشب مركز بحوث ومتحف التاريخ الطبيعي نوع 85 الكليواع بلغ عدد االنخالل هذه الدراسة. . 2021-2016جمعت للفترة من ا جنس 49تعود لـ قبيلة تمت مراجعتها مع مرادفاتها، مواقعها، توزيعها، وفترة 16و ا التزهير واإلثمار. bull 507 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hadi and yousif bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2023) 17 (3): 507-517. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2023.17.3.0507 original article a comparative-morphological study of skulls in two species of carnivorous and herbivorous mammals hind dyia hadi and noor hussein yousif * iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq. *corresponding author: husseiny620@gmail.com recived date: 18 january 2023, accepted date 08 may 2023, published date:20 june 2023 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract the skull is one of the largest bones in the body. it is classified into flat bones that maintain the important organic structures; which are the brain, eyes, and tongue. the skull is a strong support for preserving these organs but they are various according to the type of animals and the environments in which they live and the nature of their nutrition. there are many differences among living organisms in terms of the bones in the skull, their difference or disappearance and their length in the shape of the head. the samples were taken from the scientific storage in the iraq natural history research center and museum; cape hare lepus capensis (linnaeus, 1758) and red fox vulpes vulpes (linnaeus, 1758) and the study was conducted on them in a comparative morpho-anatomical way; it is noted that it differs from one animal to another. the dentition formula was added because the dental tissue is embedded in the jaw bone. differences were noted in the current study in comparison to other previous studies. however the study of bones needs development in methods and requires an extensive investigations in iraq as a result of the dissimilarities in species and the nature of living; in addition to the species itself, differences are registered. keywords: cape hare, dentition, facial bones, iraq, morphological, red fox, skull. introduction the red fox vulpes vulpes (linnaeus, 1758) is a multi-species carnivore that is widespread in the regions of the arabian peninsula. it is also present in syria, lebanon, palestine, and the sinai region in egypt; in addition to its presence in iraq a large region (harrison, 1968; mohammad et al., 2003; lahony et al., 2013); while the cape hare lepus capensis (linnaeus, 1758) is considered one of the most common mammal species herbivorous distributed in iraq; additionally it is found on cultivated land or is surrounded by short-hedged (al-rammhi et al., 2013). the skull is the main bone by which organisms are classified in phylogenetic studies (hirasawa and kuratani, 2015). the occipital bone in skulls is oftentimes used in judicial and forensic medicine to determine the sex if it is found somewhere over time (rogers, 2005). the skull is divided into ossa crania and the face (or ossa facie). the number of bones is 32, of which 11 are the bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799-print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2023.17.3.0507 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0779-0194 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7562-4200 mailto:husseiny620@gmail.com https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 508 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum a comparative-morphological study of skulls cranial bones, 20 are the frontal bones, and one is divided into the skull bones were occipital and sphenoid ethmoidal, interparietal, parietal, frontal, and temporal (koyabu et al., 2014). mammalia included the cranium, as in the predecessors: premaxillary and maxillary, dentary, palatal, frontal and squamosal, pterygoid, palatine, parietal, nasal and ectotympanic, vomer, exoccipital and basilar, lacrimal, supra-occipital, sphenoid-based, orbitosphenoid, and petrosal depending of development (koyabu et al., 2014). the bones of the jaws are formed by the union of the incisor and the palate, pterygoid, nasal, lacrimal, zygomatic, cornea, vomer, mandible, and hyoid as reported by kumawat et al. (2014) in dog, choudhary and singh (2015) in ruminants, dyce (1996) in the horse. carnivores differ in the destination formula from omnivorous and herbivorous. by examining the teeth in terms of number and type; the buried skulls are identified if they are re-examined and identified as the species. we can find out whether an animal is carnivore or omnivorous and herbivorous by examining the teeth of many mammals. this is known as the examination of the teeth attached to the skull; in addition the eye socket distinguishes the organism in whether it is a predator such as an otters or wolf; where the orbit is prominent to have wider to give three-dimensional vision to determine the location of the predator more accurately. while, the herbivorous have peripheral eyes on both sides of the head to give peripheral vision a warning of attacks (taylor, 1992; prebble and meredith, 2014). in the canine family, the skull is elongated with a conical muzzle that extends to the front of the head and sagittally, connected to the lower jaw with muscles, and this is the same as in predators; its eyes are located at the front of its head, giving it a microscopic view that is delicate and stubborn to predation. as for its teeth, they are adapted to eating habits. they contain pointed and sharp incisors teeth for hunting with canines and premolars and bladeshaped premolars for crushing bones (elbroch, 2006; ge et al., 2012; parsons et al., 2020). the aim of the current study is to understand the difference between predatory and nonpredatory animals and to record the differences between them. materials and methods skull samples were possessed from the pieces stored in the iraqi natural history research center and museum species (one of the stored samples of each species was selected for the skull of the adult animal accession to the museum number of the sample and the data of the collection) cape hare lepus capensis (linnaeus, 1758) 75.23.z8 in 25-4-1973 and red fox vulpes vulpes (linnaeus, 1758) 75.62.z8 in 10-5-1977 (mohammad et al., 2003; lahony et al., 2013; de rycke et al., 2012) and archives and notations for the type and place of collection. comparisons were made according to the morphological and anatomical differences for one sample of each species stored in the museum. results the number of cranium bones in mammals is estimated at 22-23. the bones in animals differ in terms of number, shape and size. they are also divided into brachycephalic, mesaticephalic (red fox and cape hare), and dolichocephalic heads. according to the results 509 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hadi and yousif of the current study, it was found that the skull of identical in the skull in the presence of the nasal bone and the maxillary bone with the frontal bone and the palatine bone temporal bone mandible bone, but it differed in terms of size in relation to the single bone, as well as its alum face was found in the auditory bulla, occipital crest, occipital condyle, and basioccpital. it lacked it and included the rabbit's skull, as well as the red fox's skull to the front of the premaxilla (pl. 1, 2). it was observed that the upper jaw of the rabbit consists of the palatine bone, maxilla and nasal bone and is curved open, while it was connected and fused in the red fox (pl. 1, 2). the eye orbit of the red fox was larger than that of the rabbit with the presence of the zygomatic arch and the orbit crest was more prominent in the rabbit, note that this is due to animal living and more eye rotation for wider vision for predators pl. (1, 2) . as for the upper jaw, in the corner of the jaw connection with the eye, there is a place of soft ossification known as (fascia cribrosa), and this is due to a network of collagen fibers and is considered an assistant in maintaining blood pressure between the eye and the surrounding tissues, considering the animal is exposed to predication and may be exposed to a rise in blood pressure in order to preserve the artery, which may bulge somewhat inside the eyeball, structurally, the eye is denser, and this facies cribrosa is sensitive to changes in blood pressure and its work moves backwards from its place in the event of an increase in pressure to complete the process of equilibrium pl. (3). the lower jaw mandible bone is articulated with the skull by the angled jaw and the jaw condoyle in the two animals pl. (3, 4). the ossification in the cape hare skull suture was so complete that its bones were indistinguishable from that of the red fox, whose skull bones were clearly distinguished. the dental formula for the cape hare included the upper jaw: 2 incisors with the disappearance of the canines with the presence of 3 premolars and 3 molars, while the lower jaw with 1 incisor and the disappearance of the canines with the presence of 3 molars and 2 molars (pl. 3); whereas in the red fox the formula of the dental in the upper jaw: had 3 incisors with 1 canine, 4 premolars, and 2 molars; while the lower jaw included 3 incisors, 1 canines , 4 premolars, and 3 molars (pl. 3,4 ) . upper jaw: incisors, canines, premolars, molars x 2 lower jaw: incisors, canines, premolars, molars 2+0+3+3 1+0+2+3 3+1+4+2 3+1+4+3 it is a hallmark that there is no difference between the skulls of females and males, and there is no distinct difference mentioned for the differentiation of the bones of the skull. the joints between the skulls were almost clear; as the animal was an adult and most of them were rabbit red fox dental formula: 510 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum a comparative-morphological study of skulls ossified, with plane joint and the suture fibrous type is clear in both animals between the skull bones. discussion in the current study with some prior knowledge results, the dental equation is similar to wild hares (riggs et al., 2016). some studies utilizing computed tomography (ct) revealed that the bones of the skull consist of nasal bone, maxilla, palate, sphenoid bone, frontal bone, parietal bone, zygomatic bone, temporal bone with bulla tympanum, occipital bone, and mandible matched the results of the current study with wild rabbits whereas found that there is lake bone connection between the base of the skull and the temporal bone, with clearly differentiated occipital and temporal bone (prebble and meredith, 2014). in the dental formula, they were identical in terms of the number and shape of the teeth of the hare and in the red fox, the bones in the skull were identical in terms of the presence of the jawbone, nose, palatine, temporal, frontal, occipital, and zygomatic prominence with birngruber et al.( 2010). the occipital bone in its location and shape is similar to that of the dog (miller et al., 1964) and cat leopard (sarma et al., 2001, 2002); while in the bull (raghavan, 1964) the occipital bone was formed from the ventral part of the occipital bone, this bone is one of the basic bones that make up the skull. the convexity in the frontal bone (nickel et al., 1973) was less convex in ruminants and cats as in rabbits compared to sloths (kalita et al., 2006) it was more convex while meat-eaters had little convexity (kumawat et al., 2014). the supra-orbital foramen perforates the zygomatic root of the zygote in the tiger (joshi, 2004; shankhapal et al., 2004); in an adult sloth bear (kalita et al., 2006) and a dog (miller et al., 1964) matched the hole in a red fox. the zygomatic bone in the red fox was distinguished by the presence of the zygomatic arch, while it was absent in the rabbit, and this is similar in the horse and bull (getty, 1975). the absence of the zygomatic arch (raghavan, 1964) for the zygomatic bone. the orbit of the eye or lacrimal bone from the articulation of the frontal bone anteriorly and the maxillary bone posteriorly with the posterior palatine bone in the rabbit is identical to the camel (getty, 1975), indian blackbuck (kumawat et al., 2014). the bones of the frontal, maxillary, and palate zygomatic arch (joshi, 2004), in sentences with, and (prebble and meredith, 2014) dog with palatine bones, front, jaws and the zygomatic (miller et al., 1964) equal to the red fox. from previous studies, the presence of the supraorbital foramen matched in the ox (raghavan, 1964), horse (getty, 1975), indian blackbuck (choudhary and singh, 2016). it was absent in tiger (joshi, 2004), dog (miller et al., 1964) and the sloth bear (kalita et al., 2006) and arctic foxes (zuoliang, 2004), and in the current study of the hare and red fox showed that the palatine foramen is located close to the molars, a long, narrow, and double foramen consisting of the hard palate, the palatine bone, the ventral part of the maxilla, and the incisor bone. this foramen is clearly visible, it can be seen and differentiated, and it penetrated the hard part of the rostral palate (salih, 2013). in dogs and camels, the hump and apex match, it is not observed in foxes as the maxilla is not observed hump (choudhary and singh, 2016; shahid and kausar, 2005). 511 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hadi and yousif the mandible bone in rabbits contains a mental foramen; the anterior border of the ramus is a clear hole in bull (raghavan, 1964), dogs and deer (miller et al., 1964) disappeared in red foxes, camels, and horses; the jaw was completely ossified (getty, 1975; prebble and meredith, 2014; choudhary and singh, 2016). the tubercle was well developed in the jaw of yaks (archana et al., 1998); as in the red fox and hares. conclusions from the previous and current studies, it was concluded that the differences there are many dissimilarities due to the difference in species and the identical type as a result of the type of nourishment and the surrounding environment, where we need to know the types of bones in the skull; as well as the differences between the animals studied, where differences were found in terms of protrusion of bone in carnivores and their disappearance in herbivorous furthermore, developed bones were found in red foxes than in rabbits as a result of the fact that the animals belong to a predator or prey and the development of ossification is over the ages. extensive studies are required in iraq regarding skulls in and their bone formation. aknowledgments the author is grateful to the laboratories of the iraq natural history research center and museum for their support in completing the research, obtaining animal skulls, and conducting all macroscopic studies in it. conflict of interest statement "the authors have no conflicts of interest to declare". plate (1): skull mesaticephalic of red fox [1 ( zygomatic arch ),2 (premaxilla), 3 (nasal bone), 4 (frontal bone), 5 (palatine bone), 6(temporal fossa),7 (parietal bone), 8 (occipital bone), 9 (squamosal),10 (auditory bulla),11(occipital crest), 12 (occipital condyle), 13 (basioccpital),14 (palatine plate ), and 15 (maxilla)]. 512 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum a comparative-morphological study of skulls plate (2): skull of cape hare mesaticephalic [1(frontal bone),2 (orbit crest), 3 (palatine bone), 4 (nasal bone), 5 (zygomatic arch), 6 (temporal fossa),7 (maxilla bone), 8 (palatine plate), 9 (squamosal), 10(occipital bone), 11 (occipital crest),12 (auditory bulla),13 (basisphenoid bone)]. plate (3): skull of rabbit [1(occipital crest ), 2 (palatine bone),3 (orbit crest ),4 (orbisphinod bone), 5 (nasal bone ),6 (zygomatic arch temporal fossa),7 (occipital condyle),8 (jaw condyle ),9 (angle of jaw ),10 (mandible bone ), with teeth =i(incisors) +p(premolars) +m (molars)and the red circle (facies cribrosa)]. 513 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hadi and yousif plate (4): skull of red fox [1 (parietal bone), 2 (palatine bone), 3(frontal bone), 4(nasal bone), 5(premaxill), 6(maxillary bone), 7(crest ), 8(jaw condyle), 9(angle of jaw), 10 (mandible bone), with teeth = i(incisors )+c(canines) +p(premolars)+m(molars)]. literature cited al-rammhi, h. m., mohammad, m. k. and mohammad, m. h. 2013. tick infestation of hares (lepus capensis) in al-qasim district-babylon, iraq. euphrates journal of agriculture science, 5 (1):8-14. 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(2023) 17 (3): 507-517. ة اشبة و العحمالل العراقية اللبائن من نوعين لجمجمة تشريحية -مظهرية دراسة هند ضياء هادي و نور حسين يوسف .جامعة بغداد, بغداد, العراق /مركز بحوث ومتحف التاريخ الطبيعي 20/6/2023: ، تأريخ النشر8/5/2023القبول: ، تأريخ 18/1/2023تأريخ االستلم: الخالصة تعتبر عظام الجمجمة من أبرز العظام في الجسم. يصنف إلى عظام مسطحة تحافظ على التركيب العضوي املهم , وهو الدماغ والعينين واللسان. تعتبر الجمجمة دعامة قوية للحفاظ على هذه األعضاء ولكن في الحيوانات املختلفة والبيئات التي تعيش فيها غذيتها. توجد اختالفات كثيرة بين الكائنات الحية من حيث العظام في وطبيعة ت الجمجمة , واختالفها أو اختفائها , وطولها حسب شكل الرأس. تم أخذ العينات من املخزن العلمي في مركز ومتحف بحوث التاريخ الطبيعي في العراق القالع الصحراوي )(linnaeus, 1758 lepus capensiscape hare والثعلب األحمر svulpes vulpe )(linnaeus, 1758 وأجريت الدراسة عليها بطريقة تشريحية مظهرية مقارنة. وجد الجماجم تختلف بحسب الحيوانات منها قصيرة االنوف ومنها طويلة االنوف , تمت إضافة تركيبة األسنان ألن أنسجة األسنان مغروسة في عظم الفك. ات في الدراسة الحالية مع دراسات سابقة من حيث شكل اختالف ان هنالك لوحظ وعدد العظام وجودها واختفائها لذلك شخص احتياج دراسة العظام إلى تطوير في األساليب وتتطلب تحقيقات مستفيضة في العراق نتيجة لالختالفات في األنواع وطبيعة الهدف من هذه الدراسة هو الحياة , باإلضافة إلى االختالفات املسجلة في األنواع نفسها. .معرفة الفرق بين الحيوانات املفترسة وغير املفترسة وتسجيل الفروق بينها bull 357 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al anbagi et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2024) 18 (2): 357-366. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2024.18.2.0357 original article intraspecies genetic and morphological analyses of the new collection of medicinal tinder fomes fomentarius (l.) fr.1849 (agaricomycetes, polyporales, polyporaceae) from iraq rajaa abdulrazzaq al anbagi*, sara q. sulaiman ** and fakhir r. h. alshuwaili*** * department of medical biotechnology, college of biotechnology, al-qasim green university, babil, iraq. **department of biology, collage of science, tikrit university, tikrit, iraq. ***department of applied biotechnology, college of biotechnology, al-qasim green university, babil, iraq. corresponding author e-mail: saraqahtan@tu.edu.iq received: 20 nov. 2023, revised: 18 aug. 2024, accepted:24 aug. 2024, published: 20 december 2024 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract fomes fomentarius (l.) fr., 1849 (agaricomycetes, polyporales, polyporaceae) is a significant fungal species widely used in traditional medicine. however, several studies have noted there is a genetic variation among strains collected from different geographic regions. the current study focused on identifying the genetic lineage of the first record of iraqi strain f. fomentarius which was collected from the dead trunk ficus sycomorus l., 1753 in sulaylmaniyah province. the study also and investigated the intraspecific genetic variability of the polypore. after multiple dna sequence alignment analysis with international sequences, the study confirmed a genetic non-homogeneity of the presented species, and revealed the iraqi strain has a unique 7 pb signature sequence and belonged to the lineage b. the iraqi strain has only 2 base pairs differences from slovak southern european sequence and 4-8 base pairs from china, asia (lineage b) and north american. characterizing the genetic lineage of the current iraqi strain is important to preserve its divers therapeutic prosperities and biotechnological applications of this species. keywords: bioinformatic analyses, intraspecific genetic variability, lineages, polyporus plorans, rare species. introduction the medicinal tinder polypore, fomes fomentarius (l.) fr., 1849 (polyporaceae, polyporales) is widely distributed across africa and asia and throughout north america and europe. it flourishes in nearly all habitat zones in the forests of eurasia and north america (judova et al., 2012). the species is popular in traditional chinese medicine and still extensively used today. extensively and involved globally as a source of bioactivity and metabolite production, medicinal complex materials, and therapeutic adjuvants (chang and bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799-print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2024.18.2.0357 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8873-9448 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7590-7702 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6557-3702 mailto:saraqahtan@tu.edu.iq https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 358 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (2): 357-366. intraspecies genetic and morphological analyses wasser, 2012; dresch et al., 2015). ecologically, this species is diversely active with secondary metabolites making the species one of the major decomposers of deciduous tree debris; consequently, it plays a key role as a co2, co2 emitters in forest ecosystems, and providies nesting cavities and shelter for animals and insects (gilbertson, 1980; judova et al., 2012; mukhin et al., 2021). the tinder polypore is characterized by binding hyphae or branched skeletal hyphae, which confer hardiness to the basidiomata that phylogenetically has been placed in a strongly supported clade (98%) with cryptoporus volvatus, and datronia mollis (hibbett et al., 2014). historically, the species strains also have been questioned their separation from isolates of fomes fasciatus (sw.) cooke, 1885 due to their limited morphological features (gilbertson and ryvarden, 1986). however, with limited molecular and physiological data available, it has been confirmed that f. fasciatus and fomentarius are two distinctive morphological species with some cryptic species within this group of strains (gáper et al., 2016). the its rdna sequence studies of f. fomentarius have shown that the species are genetically heterogenic and previously existed in two lineages (lineages a and b) within european strains (judova et al., 2012) and recently in four sublineages (a1, a2, b1, b2) (mukhin et al., 2018; 2021). therefore, several studies have been concluded that f. fomentarius possibly likely contains cryptic species based on phylogenetic analyses using its or multiple genetic markers (pristaš et al., 2013). therapeutically, f. fomentarius has a long history of therapeutic uses in hungary, china, and india where it is regarded as a producer of several pharmacologically active compounds. both f. fomentarius basidiomata and cultured mycelia have been recognized to be effective antitumor, glycemic, antiviral, and antimicrobial substances (huang et al., 2012; gáper et al., 2016). however, the results suggested that metabolic production and bioactivates are strongly triggered by fungal host or substrates and the geographic locations of isolates (dresch et al., 2015). in iraq, several studies have reported the first records of medical macrofungi to date (suliaman et al., 2022; al anbagi and al-khesraji, 2022; marie et al., 2023). species of the genera populus (poplars) along with salix (willows), both related to the malpighiales, salicaceae, along with other subspecies are widely distributed across different geographic regions and are ecologically and economically important landscape trees in iraq (fao, 2009; mustafa, 2018). consequently, many basidiomyceres species are expected to be associated with these plants or their microhabitats (suliaman et al., 2017; alshuwaili et al., 2021; al anbagi and al-khesraji, 2022). recently, the polypore f. fomentarius was collected from the dead trunk ficus sycomorus in sulaylmaniyah province (marie, 2022). this important species requires genetic characterisation and detection or investigation of its antimicrobial activities. thus, the aim of the present study is to analyse the intraspecific variability and determine the genetic lineage of f. fomentarius for the first time using phylogenetic species analyses based on available its sequences. 359 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al anbagi et al. materials and methodes specimens' information: the basidiocarps were collected from the dead tree trunk ficus sycomorus using a clean knife during a mushroom survey in 2021 in selected parts of sulaymaniyah province, north iraq. the phenotypic characteristics of the fruiting body were described including macro and microscopic characteristics, as documented by al-obaidy (2023). the current scientific name and taxonomic position of species follow the recent edition of authors of fungal names available in the international index fungorum website www.indexfungorum.org. the extracted dna of f. fomentarius was amplified and sequenced using its1 and its4 primers (white et al., 1990) with a thermal cycler (gene amp, pcr system 9700; applied biosystem, the newly generated sequence was later submitted into the genbank database under the genetic code oq109278. phylogenetic and statistical analysis: the submitted sequence was reverified and reanalyzed using the basic local alignment search tool (blast) accessible through the national center for biotechnology information (ncbi) gen bank (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/genbank/). the reiterating of sequence similarity searching was applied to detect the closest sequences to the iraqi strain for subsequent genetic analyses (tab. 1). phylogenetic analyses were achieved using 15 rdna its sequences obtained. these included the iraqi strain of f. fomentarius and selected sequences available in the genbank database (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/genbank/, tab. 2). according to gáper et al. (2016) and mukhin et al., (2018), the selected sequences served as references for sublineages a1, a2, b1and b2. these sequences were added and multiple aligned using mafft algorithm with manual verification of the obtained results. the 7 bp signature sequence tcgtttg. from the aligned sequences was detected to discriminate f. fomentarius genotypes using genoius program (judova et al., 2012). the sequence of f. fasciatus was selected as an outgroup (badalyan et al., 2022). the raxml analyses were performed after determining the best ml model and a tree was constructed using raxml 7.2.8. bootstrap values were calculated using maximum parsimony analyses with 1000 bootstrap replicates. table (1): the blast results of the compared iraqi sequence fomes fomentarius with ncbi isolates. species identification % host tree country genbank code fomes fomentarius 99.69 fagus sylvatica serbia mw327504 f. fomentarius 99.53 acer platanoides asian part of russia mf563981 f. fomentarius 99.53 carpinus sp. armenia ol583673 f. fomentarius 99.53 fagus sp. armenia ol583671 f. fomentarius 99.53 salix alba armenia ol583669 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/genbank/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nucleotide/ol583673.1?report=genbank&log$=nucltop&blast_rank=5&rid=fjzb3nc0016 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nucleotide/ol583671.1?report=genbank&log$=nucltop&blast_rank=6&rid=fjzb3nc0016 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nucleotide/ol583669.1?report=genbank&log$=nucltop&blast_rank=7&rid=fjzb3nc0016 360 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (2): 357-366. intraspecies genetic and morphological analyses table (2): overview of polypore strains with isolates in table (1) used for phylogenetic analyses including genbank accession number, natural substrate (host), and provenance. species host tree country genbank code f. fomentarius salix spp. iran km433840 f. fomentarius populus tremula slovakia gq184600 f. fomentarius fagus sp. armenia ol583667 f. fomentarius picea abies austria km360128 f. fomentarius betula papyrifer usa jx126893 f. fomentarius betula papyrifera usa jx183708 f. fomentarius unspecified china jx290073 f. fomentarius unspecified china eu273503 f. fasciatus platanus occidenttalis usa jx126900 results and discussion the newly submitted sequence was 723 continuous base pairs with 48% of gc content. the molecular identification of the iraqi query sequence confirmed the morphological species affinity and identified it as f. fomentarius. the blast results in ncbi databases showed a sequence similarity, the value of the newly sequence 99.69% and query coverage of 100% with the f. fomentarius strain tmf2 which was isolated from the deciduous forest located on mountain avala, serbia, from a beech fagus sylvatica tree that has accession number mw327504. this newly generated its sequence also showed 99.53% similarity with other isolates highlighted with blue arrows in diagram (1). the its regions in particular are useful for taxonomic reasons due to being highly variables between species and their conserved with intraspecific similarities usually higher than 99% (white et al., 1990). the currently generated its sequence is the first deposited sequences in iraq and the third sequence from asia, the world’s largest continent, submitted to the genbank. according to our current knowledge, the species has been isolated from only a few strains in china and two strains in iran representing the asia isolates sublineage. diagram (1): the heatmap and number of bases/ residues which are not identical of the fomes fomentarius iraq strain (violate color) compared with some international strains in the dna alignment of partial internal transcribed spacer (its) sequences. the iraqi strain was different in a single nitrogen base from the bases found in dna isolates in the column 4 (km433840) to the column 9 (mw327504). 361 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al anbagi et al. the current results from the heatmap differences displayed that sequence divergence between the iraqi strain of f. fomentarius and the outgroup f. fasciatus was 100 base pairs in agreement with the findings of gáper et al. (2016). the sequence of the iraqi strain is highly homologous with only one base difference per sequence due to the insertion of a single adenine (a) base into its sequence in the site 23 compared to the closest international sequences (diag. 1). the number of base differences between the iraqi sequence (oq109278) and the slovak southern european sequence, (gq184600) was 2 base pairs while differences with other sequences from china, asia (lineage b), north american, and northern european (both lineage a) strains were 4-8 and 20-22 base pairs respectively. these results concurred with previous results which revealed there were base sequence between lineages a and b of f. fomentarius nearly 20 times higher (gáper et al., 2016). the sequence genotype of the iraqi strain was classified as genotype b based on the presence of the 7 bp signature sequence tcgtttg in both the its1 region of the isolate (data not shown) and alignment sequences of the investigated strains showed in diagram (2). according to judova et al. (2012), the presence of 7 bp signature sequence in the its1 region is used to distinguish f. fomentarius genotypes in which all strains are classified as genotype b when that sequence presence while strains are classified as genotype a, when strains lacking sequence as being shown in diagram (2). other researchers have confirmed this signature and use it to differentiate isolates in into lineages a and b or a1, a2 and b for strains collected from (gáper et al., 2016; náplavová et al., 2019). this evidence suggests that f. fomentarius may include several sympatric cryptic species and multifaceted genetic structure of f. fomentarius population presenting different host preferences (judova et al., 2012; gáper et al., 2016). diagram (2): the dna alignment of partial internal transcribed spacer (its) sequences of fomes fomentarius iraq strain (pointed in the green arrow) with some international strains. the strains were divided into two variable lineages: lineage a strains (genbank accession nos. starting with jx126893 and ending with ol583667) and lineage b strains (genbank accession nos. starting with eu273503 and ending with mw3275o4) based on judova et al. (2012). lineage specific residue is surrounding by two green lines. unidentical nucleotide residues are colored by different. b a 362 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (2): 357-366. intraspecies genetic and morphological analyses the phylogeny tree of the current results supports the separation of f. fomentarius from iraq and other international species sequences from the sequence of f. fasciatus as distinct phylogenetic species (diag. 3) in agreement with the previous studies (mccormick and grand, 2013; badalyan et al., 2022). the investigated isolates in the presented tree clearly indicate the presence of four clades within f. fomentarius with bootstrap values >70%. the tree separated clades based on the geographic origin and the substrate. both these features are essential factors driving speciation in this genus (dresch et al., 2015). the topology of the tree in the current study aligns with dresch et al. (2015) who inferred four clades of f. fomentarius corresponding to north european, north american and east asian, chinese, and south european clades using the maximum likelihood method. the strains of these distinct lineages grow on different host tree species north european (austria), and chinese isolates and another clade compressing a mixture of isolates from iraq (the current strain), iran, sothern european (slovakia) and asia parts of russia (southern urals). the iraqi sequence clustered with the iranian and southern european strains (sequences) which were sister clade to chinese strains. diagram (3): phylogenetic placement of the f. fomentarius iraqi strain and some international strains from its data inferred by using the maximum likelihood method. unlike the findings of badalyan et al. (2022), the current results separated the iranian and chinese strains from each other into different groups. the presented results support the recent 363 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al anbagi et al. proposal that f. fomentarius is a taxonomically complex species (badalyan et al., 2022). within a single lineage, species strains isolated from distinctive substrates exhibited significant variation in their optimal growth temperatures, secondary metabolites, and bioactivities of fruit body extracts. therefore, understanding the intraspecies genetic relations between strains connecting with other data such as species host, geographic location, and physiological properties along with other related factors provides valuable insights into the medicinal f. fomentarius lineages/sublineages (dresch et al., 2015). conclusions in conclusion, the current results reveal the interspecies genetic variation of fomes fomentarius from the north part of iraq (a new record) in comparison to strains from other parts of the world. further studies are needed to collect isolates of the species from other parts of iraq to detect whether there are other lineages/sublineages and/or even other species related to the genus. species delimitation is a significant issue in medicinal fungi. therefore, detecting intraspecies genetic variability of f. fomentarius strains is essential due to their diverse therapeutic prosperities. that is vital for improving biological features of species strains as enhanced bioactive materials leading to improve the medicinal value or biotechnological applications of this species. conflict of interest statement "the authors declare no conflict of interest to declare". litereature cited al anbagi, r. a. and al-khesraji, t. o. 2022. morchella conica pres., 1818 (peziziales, morchellaceae): a new record from iraq. bulletin of the iraq natural history museum, 17(1): 89-101. 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[crossref] white, t. j., bruns, t. d., lee, s. b. and taylor, j. w. 1990. amplification and direct sequencing of fungal ribosomal rna genes for phylogenetics. in: innis, m. a., gelfand, d. h., sninsky, j. j. and white, t. j.(eds.), pcr protocols: a guide to methods and applications, academic press, new york, p. 315-322. [crossref] https://doi.org/10.21608/eajbsg.2023.285126 https://doi.org/10.3852/12-336 https://doi.org/10.3390/f12091156 https://doi.org/10.1615/intjmedmushrooms.2018026278 https://doi.org/10.58928/ku18.09404 https://doi.org/10.1080/11263504.2019.1701129 https://doi.org/10.2478/s11756-013-0228-9 https://doi.org/10.5897/ajps2017.1543 https://doi.org/10.14704/nq.2022.20.5.nq22550 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-12-372180-8.50042-1 366 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (2): 357-366. intraspecies genetic and morphological analyses bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2024) 18 (2): 357-366. التحاليل الوراثية و املظهرية لداخل النوع للتسجيل الجديد للفطر الطبي fomes fomentarius (l.) fr., 1849 (agaricomycetes, polyporales, polyporaceae) من العراق ***فاخر ر.ح. الشويليو **، سارا قحطان سليمان*رجاء عبدالرزاق العنبكي الطبية، كلية التقانات االحيائية، جامعة القاسم الخضراء، * قسم التقانات األحيائية .بابل، العراق .قسم علوم الحياة، كلية العلوم، جامعة تكريت، تكريت، العراق* * القاسم ة*** قسم التقانات األحيائية التطبيقية، كلية التقانات األحيائية، جامع .الخضراء، بابل، العراق 20/12/2024، النشر: 24/8/2024القبول: ،20/8/2024اجعة: املر ،20/11/2023االستالم: الخالصة رتبة ، agaricomycetes لصنفالعائد fomes fomentarius (l.) fr., 1849 الفطريعد polyporales عائلة وpolyporaceae من االنواع املهمة التي تستخدم على نطاق واسع في أن هناك تباينا وراثيا بين سالالت األنواع التي تم الطب التقليدي. مع ذلك، فقد لوحظ جمعها من مناطق جغرافية مختلفة في العديد من الدراسات. ركزت الدراسة الحالية على التي f. fomentarius للتسجيل األول للساللة العراقية genetic lineage تحديد النسب الجيني في محافظه السليمانية والتحري ficus sycomorus l., 1753 جمعت من الجذع امليت للنوع بعد تحليل محاذاة التسلسل .polypore عن التباين الوراثي داخل النوع لهذا البوليبور الحامض النووي منقوص االوكسجين املتعدد مع التسلسالت الدولية، اكدت الدراسة عدم صمة القواعد النيتروجينية التجانس الجيني للنوع املدروس واظهرت أن الساللة العراقية لها ب اختلفت الساللة العراقية فقط بزوجين قاعديين عن .b وتنتمي إلى الساللة pb 7السبعة وأمريكا (b أزواج قاعدية من الصين وآسيا( الساللة 8-4تسلسل جنوب أوروبا السلوفاكية و ا للحفاظ على الشمالية. يعد توصيف الساللة الوراثية لساللة العراقية الحالية أمرا مهم التنوع العالجي والتطبيقات التكنولوجية الحيوية لهذا النوع. bull 815 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2025) 18 (4): 815-827. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2025.18.4.0815 original article detection of the presence of both species sinanodonta woodiana (lea, 1834) and sinanodonta lauta (martens, 1877) (bivalvia, unionida, unionidae) in the late holocene sediments of southern iraq bushra majeed issa department of geology, college of science, university of basrah, basrah, iraq corresponding author: bushra.issa@uobasrah.edu.iq received: 20 june 2025, revised: 21 aug. 2025, accepted: 24 aug. 2025, published:20 december 2025 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract the new pelecypod sinanodonta lauta (martens, 1877) (bivalvia, unionida, unionidae), represented by specimens collected from seven sites on both banks of the euphrates river (nw of basrah province), was recorded for the first time in southern iraq. the following was the analysis to recognize the sediments at these sites and also of the different species shells in the area. it was found that the mud sediment was the most common compared to silt and sandy mud sediments. two pelecypod species were recognized in the study region, sinanodonta woodiana (lea, 1834) and s. lauta (martens, 1877), and one species of barnacles amphibalanus subalbidus (henry, 1973) (maxillopoda, sessilia, balanidae). the presence of such species indicates that the area has already experienced an environmental change which occurred in the late holocene, when all such species were introduced from the outside the native ecosystem. keywords: barnacle, freshwater, pelecypoda, sinanodonta, southern iraq. introduction the south of iraq is the southern part of mesopotamia, the interfluvial region between the tigris and euphrates rivers (soden et al., 2024). southern mesopotamia is defined by its alluvial plains (plaziat and younis, 2005), mainly formed by the rivers tigris and euphrates, which have been formed through silt deposition from these rivers, lagoons, and marshes that are situated far to the south bordering the arabian gulf (emberling, 2015; soden et al., 2024). during the quaternary, especially in the late pleistocene and holocene, these fluvial systems have been widely subjected to modifications that can be attributed to climatic variations and tectonic movements. these modifications have given rise to diverse depositional environments and were important for the interpretation of the molluscs habitat (plaziat and younis, 2005). these deposits show sedimentation involved with an active sedimentation history with low salinity conditions (sissakian et al., 2018; sissakian and al-ansari, 2019) bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799, print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2025.18.4.0815 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5832-8493 mailto:bushra.issa@uobasrah.edu.iq https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 816 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 815-827. detection of the presence of both species favorable for freshwater mollusc species (petrov et al., 2023). in iraq, the study of molluscs has flourished, ahmed (1975) reported on molluscs of southern iraq; and al-hassan and alhasani (1985) wrote about the different bivalves in iraq. subsequently, ali et al. (2017) supplemented the list of iraqi molluscs with the description of five more marine species. more recently, bogan et al. (2021) and naser et al. (2024) have shown the fresh water mussel sinanodonta woodiana (lea, 1834) in iraq. furthermore, yasser et al. (2023) increased the number of iraqi marine molluscs. last but not least, jihad (2023) there was a comprehensive review of the fresh and marine bivalves which has existed in iraq during history. this investigation aims to detect mollusc species from sediments exposed from the watercourses and to find the cause of the molluscs presence in iraq for the first time, along with discussing the implications. materials and methods study area: the study area is situated between latitudes (3057'40''n-3057'20''n) and longitudes (4715'15''e-4715'45''e), and is the northern part of the al madina district, which is located in the northwest area of the basrah province in the south of iraq. it is adjacent to the euphrates river (map 1). sampling: sixteen specimens were collected from seven sites distributed on the shore banks of the euphrates river in the study area during july 2023, as illustrated in map (1). the selection of depths for collecting specimens from the seven sites was based on the occurrence of pelecypod shells there. the sediments samples and shells specimens were extracted from a depth of between 0.35m and 0.75m using a shovel. the sediment samples were collected from the same depths as the specimens in the sites in order to identify the sediments type in which the shells were found. laboratory procedures: to determine the sediments types, present in the study area, 100 grams of sediments were collected from each sample in site, and a grain size analysis was conducted using wet sieving with a 0.0625 mm sieve. this method allowed for the separation of sand from silt and clay, facilitating the subsequent pipette analysis as outlined by folk (1980). as for the pelecypod shells, they were visible and large in size, ranging from 12 to 17 cm, which makes them identifiable with the naked eye. they were collected from the sediments, cleaned of any sediment residue attached to them, and dried in order to prepare them for classification. the valves of shells were photographed from both the outside and the inside. the identification of the pelecypods species and their identification is based on akiyama and natuhara (2015), zieritz et al. (2018) and lopes-lima et al. (2021). the study area prominently featured the presence of barnacles, which were easily observable on the surfaces of both shells and solid sediments at the various sites examined. the barnacle species is identified according to shahdadi et al. (2014). 817 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum issa, b. m. map (1): the study area and the sites selected for sampling. results sediments the grain size analysis results (folk, 1980) for the samples collected from the investigated sites indicate the existence of three sediment types: silt, sandy mud, and mud, as detailed in table (1). among these, mud emerged as the predominant sediment, accounting for 81% of the total samples analyzed, while silt comprised 13%, and sandy mud represented the smallest fraction at 6%. mud was found in all depths. overall, the sediments types suggest that their deposition occurred in a low-energy sedimentation environment (bhattacharya et al., 2016). pelecypoda species this study provides the first documentation of the sinanodonta lauta (martens, 1877) within iraq. whereas, the species s. woodiana (lea, 1834) had been previously identified in central iraq by bogan et al. (2021), and in its southern region by naser et al. (2024), as shown in plate (1). the shells were observed to be devoid of any organic remnants and were found across all locations, manifesting both as intact shells and as individual valves, as illustrated in table (2). barnacle species barnacle shells were observed throughout all sites within the study area (pl. 2), commonly affixed to the shells of pelecypods as shown in plate (1) and on various hard substrates as they appear in plate (3), forming aggregates. the predominant species identified was amphibalanus subalbidus (henry,1973). plates (2, 3) show the shells assemblages of the 818 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 815-827. detection of the presence of both species species. this species has also been documented in various locations along the banks of shatt al-arab by yasser et al. (2022). table (1): the texture of sediment samples collected from the study area. table (2): pelecypod species and number of shells and valves in the study area sites. number of specimens site sample depth (m) sediment texture 1 1 0.35 sandy mud 2 0.5 mud 3 0.75 mud 4 2 0.40 mud 5 0.65 mud 6 3 0.45 mud 7 0.70 mud 8 4 0.35 silt 9 0.74 mud 10 5 0.36 mud 11 0.75 mud 12 6 0.50 mud 13 0.75 mud 14 7 0.40 silt 15 0.60 mud 16 0.75 mud site sample depth (m) sinanodonta lauta sinanodonta woodiana shell valve shell valve 1 0.35 1 0 3 2 0.5 2 1 2 1 0.75 0 0 4 0 2 0.40 1 1 2 1 0.65 0 1 3 3 3 0.45 2 1 3 0 0.70 0 1 2 1 4 0.35 3 1 1 0 0.74 2 2 2 1 5 0.36 1 2 1 0 0.75 3 2 2 1 6 0.50 1 1 1 0 0.75 3 1 0 1 7 0.40 2 1 0 1 0.60 2 2 0 0 0.75 3 1 0 1 819 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum issa, b. m. plate (1): a-g: sinanodonta woodiana (lea, 1834); (a) right valve(exterior view), (b) left valve (exterior view), (c) dorsal view (umbonal view), (d) right valve (interior view), (e) left valve (interior view); (f) right valve (exterior view), (g) left valve (exterior view), (h-i) sinanodonta lauta (martens, 1877), (h) left valve (exterior view), (i) left valve (interior view). 820 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 815-827. detection of the presence of both species plate (2): amphibalanus subalbidus (henry,1973). plate (3): amphibalanus subalbidus fixed on hard. discussion sinanodonta woodiana and s. lauta (bivalvia, unionida, unionidae) are both freshwater pelecypods species that inhabit a variety of aquatic environments. s. woodiana, also known as the chinese pond mussel, is native to east asia but has been introduced to various regions around the world, including europe and north america (urbanska and andrzejewski, 2019; urbańska et al., 2021). the species has been observed in various sediment types, primarily preferring muddy substrates but also found in sandy environments (urbańska et al., 2021). also, it thrives in various freshwater habitats, including; lentic habitats, such as lakes, ponds, 821 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum issa, b. m. and oxbows and lotic habitats, including slow-flowing rivers, streams, and canals. s. woodiana has been found within various settings such as fishponds, abandoned mining pools, and rice paddy channels in southeast asia (kondakov et al., 2020 a; urbańska et al., 2021; douda et al., 2025). s. woodiana was first collected from freshwater waterbodies of iraq in the hilla river, an eastern tributary of the euphrates river, was collected in the middle area of hilla city (bogan et al., 2021), but its recorded range was only in the upper part of shatt al-arab which is in the southern part of iraq (naser et al., 2024). s lauta is another genus and, like wild species s. woodiana, belongs to the family unionidae and is found in comparable environments (bogan et al., 2021; zieritz et al., 2022). s. lauta (martens, 1877) has also been reported in multiple freshwater bodies beyond its natural range such as big rivers and lakes in european russia and siberia. it cohabits with other species of mussels, which demonstrates its ability to adapt to various environmental conditions (kondakov et al., 2020 b; douda et al., 2025). the holocene was a time of warming following the last remaining ice age. this warming resulted in alterations in the precipitation, temperature and global ecosystem dynamics, influencing freshwater habitats where both sinanodonta woodiana and s. lauta were present; which, in consequence, determined the use of the two species in the environmental change detection. s. woodiana has been used in holocene palaeoenvironmental investigations. its calcareous shells provide an environmental record that can be used for reconstructions of past conditions, and that have been used previously to assess climatic and hydrological fluctuations over time (zieritz et al., 2022). the species are recorded from diverse sedimentary strata and help to interpret past biodiversity and environmental turn-overs of fresh-water ecosystems. in the context of the holocene, s. lauta further provides information about freshwater ecosystems, especially habitat preferences and ecological functions. it has been reported to inhabit the same niches as s. woodiana, which has additional conservation and management implications for freshwater biodiversity (bolotov et al., 2020; urbańska et al., 2021). s. woodiana has proved its adaptability to different environmental conditions, thus it has become a successful colonizer of a variety of freshwater systems including ponds, lakes, and rivers. increased temperatures led, from the holocene onward, to range expansion of s. woodiana in previously glaciated areas, particularly in europe and the north american continent as an invader. the fact that it has the potential to live on very different bottom sediments (from sandy to muddy) provided its colonization of different freshwater ecosystems (kondakov et al., 2020 b). the most likely impact is the warming climate, which increased the habitat suitability for s. woodiana, the species which can survive in warm waters, thus its adaptability in turn promoted its demographic success in local regions (kondakov et al., 2020 b). s. lauta, however, is inferred to occupy a narrower range of environments and could not have similarly experienced greater success in colonizing the changing holocene landscape. although it has some ecological overlap with s. woodiana, its range is narrower and is mostly restricted to its native east asian range. the effects of holocene climate change specifically on s. lauta are not so clear, but the same warming trends that favored s. woodiana could have been 822 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 815-827. detection of the presence of both species detrimental to s. lauta, particularly if it had narrower habitat preferences (alwanzadegan et al., 2023; mehler et al., 2024). the finding of both species in recent sediment of the study locality, therefore, suggests the complex nature of freshwater ecosystems of the area in the present study. the study area is under the influence of the waters of two rivers; karkheh river is discharged into hawizeh marsh southeast of the city of amara, draining into the tigris river north of qurna and the shatt al-arab south of qurna, and karun river is discharged into shatt al-arab south of the city of basrah. therefore, the water in the shatt al-arab is a combination of water derived from the four rivers (that is, the karkheh, karun, tigris, and euphrates), and is exposed to the tidal oscillations, and mixes with sea water in its turn, which influences the water levels in shatt al-arab to rise or fall with it and hence the changes the characteristics of water in shatt al-arab (al-manssory,1996). this sharing of water sources not only affects water quality, but also shapes the composition of the kinds of organisms that are found in such environments. this can be seen in the study area as well as the species s. woodiana which was reported in iraq in hillah city (bogan et al., 2021) and recorded in turkey (ecrn et al., 2013). regarding the species s. lauta, it has been reported from iran (alwanzadegan et al., 2023). the existence of this species in the vicinity of iraq in regions from which they have water, is proof of their having migrated from there. what really validates the influence of the water body in the arrival of the species to the study site is the presence of barnacle shell, which is well known to the saline habitat and it is identified as the amphibalanus subalbidus (henry, 1973) and also identified as an exotic species in the area. this species is recorded for the first time from a locality other than its natural distribution in the western atlantic and it is considered to be well-established in the lower parts of the euphrates, tigris and karun rivers (shahdadi et al., 2014). the occurrence of these species in association with the barnacle shells gives the impression that the species has settled in southern of iraq for a period of time. the large size of the species shells and their presence in most of the study areas also is a similar proof, particularly as the shells in this study area are found completely void of organic tissues. regarding the number of shells and valves of the species, there was a predominance of the species was predominantly s. woodiana, and perhaps the species can adapt to the environmental change at the end of holocene (urbańska et al., 2021). conclusions the present investigation is the first record of the species sinanodonta lauta in southern iraq; in addition to the occurrence of the invasive species, s. woodiana that was previously recorded in iraq. the presence of pelecypod species in the study area (which is a muddy environment) and their migration and tendency to establish elsewhere prompted the assumption of their environmental sensitivity to holocene climatic changes such as warming. the accompanied presence of barnacle shells with pelecypod species demonstrates that the two species have lived in southern iraq for a long time, probably since the late holocene; and given the presence of both s. woodiana (lea, 1834) and s. lauta in the recent sediment of the 823 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum issa, b. m. investigated region, this emphasizes the complex and interesting nature of the freshwater ecosystem as found in the recent studied sites. conflict of interest statement "the author has no conflicts of interest to declare". literature cited ahmed, m. m. 1975. systematic study on mollusca from arabian gulf and shatt al-arab. iraq, 78pp. akiyama, y. b. and natuhara, y. 2015. left-right reversal arrangement of glochidial threads in sinanodonta lauta (bivalvia: unionidae). venus (journal of the malacological society of japan), 73(1-2): 65-70. 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[crossref] doi:10.1134/s1028334x23601657 http://dx.doi.org/10.4267/2042/1453 doi:10.11646/zootaxa.3784.3.1 https://www.researchgate.net/profile/nadhir-al-ansari-2/publication/324680997 https://www.britannica.com/place/mesopotamia-historical-region-asia doi:%2010.12657/folmal.027.022 doi:%2010.1038/s41598-021-96568-1 doi:10.3391/bir.2022.11.4.15 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/370324722_new_records_of_bivalves_from_the_iraqi_coast doi:10.1007/s10750-017-3104-8 826 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 815-827. detection of the presence of both species zieritz, a., sousa, r., aldridge, d. c., douda, k., esteves, e., ferreira‐rodríguez, n., mageroy, j. h., nizzoli, d., osterling, m., reis, j. and riccardi, n. 2022. a global synthesis of ecosystem services provided and disrupted by freshwater bivalve molluscs. biological reviews, 97(5):1967-1998. [researchgate ] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/361638411 827 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum issa, b. m. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2025) 18 (4): 815-827. الكشف عن وجود النوعين sinanodonta woodiana (lea, 1834) وsinanodonta lauta (martens, 1877) bivalvia, unionida, unionidae) ) في رواسب الهولوسين املتأخر من جنوب العراق عيس ى مجيدبشرى العراق البصرة، ،البصرةجامعة -للعلوم، كلية علم االرضقسم 20/12/2025، النشر: 24/8/2025القبول: ،21/8/2025املراجعة: ،20/6/2025االستالم: الخالصة عن الدراسة جديدنو كشفت املحاريات ع sinanodonta lauta (martens, 1877)من العراق توثيقهيتم في جنوب تقع نماذجوذلك من خالل جمع ألول مرة مواقع من سبعة أنواع لتحديد تحليل وأجري البصرة. محافظة غرب شمال الفرات، نهر ضفتي على الرواسب في هذه املواقع، إلى جانب أنواع االصداف املختلفة املوجودة في املنطقة. شملت بينت والتي األخرى، الرواسب أنواع على تغلبت الوحلية الرواسب أن النتائج هما: املحاريات من نوعين تحديد تم الدراسة، منطقة وفي الرملي. والوحل الغرين sinanodonta woodiana (lea, 1834) و(martens, 1877) s. lauta (bivalvia, unionida, unionidae)، بــــــ متمثال البحري البرنقيـــــــــــــــل من نــــــــــــــــــــوع جانب إلى amphibalanus subalbidus (henry, 1973) (maxillopoda, sessilia, balanidae) . فترة نحو حدثت التي البيئية بالتغيرات تأثرت املنطقة أن إلى األنواع هذه وجود يشير النظام خارج من قدمت تحديدها تم التي األنواع جميع أن حيث املتأخرة، الهولوسين البيئي األصلي للمنطقة. bull 1013 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2025) 18 (4): 1013-1028. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2025.18.4.1013 article review endemic plants in two phytogeographic sub-regions: middle saharo-sindian and mesopotamia in iraq ali haloob *, zainab abid aun ali** and russul saad hamshkan* *national herbarium of iraq, directorate of seed testing and certification, ministry of agriculture, baghdad, iraq ** department of biology, college of science for women, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq corresponding author: zainabao_bio@csw.uobaghdad.edu.iq received: 23 july 2025, revised: 1 dec. 2025, accepted: 6 dec. 2025, published:20 december 2025 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract the study aims to update the records of endemic plant species within two phytogeographic sub-regions of iraq, the middle saharo-sindian and mesopotamia regions. the update was conducted through a comprehensive review of scientific name validity, endemic status, and recently described species reported in previous studies, which collectively recorded 89 endemic taxa across these regions. the current results identify only 29 endemic taxa belonging to 22 genera and 15 families. the family asteraceae and the genus anthemis exhibited the highest number of endemic taxa. in terms of distribution, eight taxa were restricted to the middle saharo-sindian region, thirteen to mesopotamia, and eight were shared between both sub-regions. additionally, the study provides an updated account of the distribution of endemic species across iraq's physiographic districts. it discusses possible causes underlying the differences in the number of endemic taxa compared with previous reports. this information will help to provide a framework for research and focus conservation efforts for these endemic taxa. keywords: asteraceae, endemism, irano-turanian, physiographic, phytogeographical. introduction an endemic taxon naturally found in any specific area and nowhere else; this is a relative term in that a taxon can be endemic to a small island, to a country, or a continent (iucn, 2010). wherever an endemic plant is a taxon that shows a limited distribution, or species with a small geographical range as a result of the characteristics of the plant, its seed dispersal, diastrophism, and isolation mechanisms (vaishali and janarthanam, 2004). iraq is a country located in southwestern asia, covers a land area of about 438,320 km² (ararat et al., 2011), and plant species richness is estimated to be ± 3300 species (ghazanfar and mcdanie, 2015). for the endemism status of plant species in iraq, four studies have bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799, print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2025.18.4.1013 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1295-2220 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3096-5295 https://orcid.org/0009-0001-3524-908x mailto:zainabao_bio@csw.uobaghdad.edu.iq https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 1014 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 1013-1028. endemic plants in two phytogeographic discussed the issue, starting with zohary (1950), who identified 190 endemic species, and divided them into three phytogeographic sub-regions: irano-anatolian, consisting of 132 species; mesopotamia, with 49 species; and middle saharo-sindian in iraq, which consisted of 9 species. guest (1966) in flora of iraq noted zohary (1950) when he described the endemic plant species in iraq, but in other volumes of the flora of iraq the status of endemism was mentioned within the distribution information for different plant taxa (townsend and guest, 1966, 1974, 1980 a, b, 1985; townsend et al., 1968; ghazanfar and edmondson, 2013, 2016; ghazanfar et al., 2019). ghazanfar and mcdanie (2015) analyzed the quantities and biogeography of the flora of iraq and mentioned that there are 181 species of endemic plants: 6 species in the desert region, 9 species in the steppe region, 113 in the mountain region, and 53 species in the alpine region, without reporting any lists of these endemic species. youssef (2020) listed 174 endemic taxa to iraq (153 spp. 11 subsp., and 10 var.) without details on their distribution, just mentioning that 14% of the annual endemic species were found in the steppes of the mesopotamian and arid areas in western iraq. moreover, there are 2 new species discovered and described, collected from these two phytogeographic sub-regions: salvia arabica al-musawi & weinert, phelipanche umqasrensis al–mayah & al-asadi, spergularia iraqensis haloob, al-musawi & adeel (almusawi and weinert, 1989; al-mayah and al-asadi, 2016; haloob et al., 2021). there is a long-lasting interest concerning the ecological conditions that provide a template for differentiation and/or persistence of restricted endemic species (durry, 1974). zohary (1950) mentioned that the geographical position is inhabited by a heterogeneous phytogeographical character. the phytogeographical elements of the mediterranean, the irano-turanian, the saharo-sindian, and the eurosiberian-boreoamerican are represented in the flora of iraq. whatever, iraq comprises parts of two phytogeographic regions only: (1) the irano-turanian region represented by the mesopotamian and the iano-anatolian sub-regions, and (2) the saharo-sindian by the middle saharo-sandian sub-region (guest, 1966). mesopotamian sub-region comprising the irano-turanian territories of the syrian desert, almost the whole of the jazira, parts of the southern anatolian plains, and some territory in the iranian plateau. characteristically, the vegetation comprises mainly steppe or sub-desert communities on grey calcareous desert soil, often gravelly or stony; there is no mountain vegetation exesis. the mesopotamian element of the iraqi flora comprises about 145 species, representing 15% of the total irano-turanian flora as then known in iraq, and lists 49 species as endemic in iraq in this sub-region. while the middle saharo-sindian comprises egypt, sinai, parts of lower palestine, the greater part of central and southern jordan, extra-tropical arabia, and lower iraq, precisely the north border of this sub-region in iraq stretches along a line drawn from east to west, mendali through bellad to hit to jabel aneize. the characteristic vegetation has the best advantage in the northerly tracts of sub-desert and the borders of the steppe. the middle saharo-sindian element of the iraqi flora comprised about 118 species, representing 6% of the total flora of iraq, and listed 9 species as endemic to this sub-region (zohary, 1950; guest, 1966). 1015 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum haloob et al. this study aims to update the data on endemic plants in the middle saharo-sindian and mesopotamian phytogeographic sub-regions of iraq. the research also seeks to create a database of these species to be used in conservation efforts to protect them from extinction, especially given their restricted distribution. by checking the previous studies and newly discovered species, this work provides updated information on the endemic taxa, their scientific names, and their distribution. the current study data will contribute to future efforts to monitor the state of plant diversity and vegetation in iraq, which is particularly crucial in light of ongoing climate change and the lack of a red list assessment for the flora of iraq. materials and methods the study involved a comprehensive revision of previous reports documenting endemic plant species in iraq (zohary,1950; townsend and guest, 1966, 1974, 1980 a, b; 1985; townsend et al., 1968; ghazanfar and edmondson, 2013, 2016; ghazanfar and mcdanie, 2015; ghazanfar et al., 2019; youssef, 2020 (. the researcher personally reviewed these references and examined reports of newly described species from these two phytogeographic sub-regions. the scientific names were verified for validity and current acceptance using plants of the world online (https://powo.science.kew.org/) and world flora online (https://www.worldfloraonline.org/). to reassess the endemic status and distribution of taxa, floras of neighboring countries were reviewed, including flora iranica (rechinger, 1963-2015), flora of turkey and the east aegean islands (davis, 1965-1984), flora oriental (boissier, 18671888), flora of saudi arabia (migahid, 1978), flora of syria, palestine, and sinai (post, 1896), checklist of plants of the hashemite kingdom of jordan (http://ww2.odu.edu/~lmusselm/plant/jordan/), flora of saudi arabia checklist (https://plantdiversityofsaudiarabia.info/flora-checklist-2/). herbarium specimens were examined in the national herbarium of iraq (bag) and verified through digital catalogues of kew (https://apps.kew.org/herbcat/navigator.do), edinburgh (http://elmer.rbge.org.uk/bgbase/vherb/bgbasevherb.php), and the virtual herbaria of vienna (http://herbarium.univie.ac.at/database/search.php). the phytogeographic framework followed guest (1966), shown in map (1), who divided iraq to four main physiographic regions: mountain, upper plains and foothills, desert plateau, and lower mesopotamian, each subdivided into several districts (maps 13). according to this classification, the mesopotamian phytogeographic sub-region includes the jabal sinjar district (mjs) within the mountain region; most districts of the upper plains and foothills region except the southern parts of the persian foothills district (fpf); the lower parts of jazira district (dlj), and ghurfa-adhaim district (dga); and the southern half of the western desert district (dwd) within the desert plateau. the middle saharo-sindian sub-region is represented by all districts of the lower mesopotamian region, the southern desert district (dsd) within the desert plateau, and the southern parts of both the western desert district (dwd) and the persian foothills district (fpf). this framework was adopted to ensure accurate phytogeographic placement of endemic taxa within iraq. https://powo.science.kew.org/ https://www.worldfloraonline.org/ http://ww2.odu.edu/~lmusselm/plant/jordan/ https://plantdiversityofsaudiarabia.info/flora-checklist-2/ https://apps.kew.org/herbcat/navigator.do http://elmer.rbge.org.uk/bgbase/vherb/bgbasevherb.php http://herbarium.univie.ac.at/database/search.php 1016 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 1013-1028. endemic plants in two phytogeographic map (1): the phytogeographic sub-regions in iraq. (guest, 1966) map (2): the physiographic regions in iraq; mountain regions: jabal sinjar district (msj), amadiya district (mam), rowanduz district (mro), sulaymaniyah district (msu); upper plains and foothills regions: upper jazira district (fuj), nineveh district (fni), arbil district (far), kirkuk district (fki), persian foothills district (fpf); desert regions: lower jazira district (dlj), ghurfa-adhaim district (dga), western desert district (dwd), southern desert district (dsd); lower mesopotamian: eastern alluvial plain district (lea), central alluvial plain district (lca), southern marsh district (lsm), basra estuarine district (lba). (guest, 1966). 1017 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum haloob et al. map (3): the two phytogeographic sub-regions: middle saharo-sindian and mesopotamia with physiographic districts in iraq. mountain regions: jabal sinjar district (msj), amadiya district (mam), rowanduz district (mro), sulaimaniya district (msu); upper plains and foothills regions: upper jazira district (fuj), nineveh district (fni), arbil district (far), kirkuk district (fki), persian foothills district (fpf); desert regions: lower jazira district (dlj), ghurfa-adhaim district (dga), western desert district (dwd), southern desert district (dsd); lower mesopotamian: eastern alluvial plain district (lea), central alluvial plain district (lca), southern marsh district (lsm), basra estuarine district (lba). (guest, 1966). results the total number of endemic plant taxa described in the previous reports in the mesopotamia and middle saharo-sindian phytogeographic sub-regions in iraq was 89 taxa, belonging to 23 families and 59 genera. zohary (1950) mentioned that there were 58 taxa endemic to these two phytogeographic sub-regions: 9 taxa were found in the middle saharosindian sub-region, and 49 taxa were found in mesopotamia. the flora of iraq noted that 32 taxa were endemic to these two phytogeographic sub-regions: 6 taxa in the middle saharosindian region, and 26 taxa were identified in mesopotamia. 18 taxa from the total number of endemic plant taxa mentioned in the two previous reports were synonyms (tab.1). the study found 29 taxa (26 species, 1 subspecies, and 2 varieties) were endemic to the mesopotamia phytogeographic sub-region and the middle saharo-sindian phytogeographic sub-region in iraq. these 29 endemic taxa belonged to 22 genera and 15 families. the asteraceae recorded 10 taxa, which was the highest number of taxa among the plant families in these regions, and the genus anthemis also recorded 7 endemic taxa, which was the highest among genera. halothamnus iraqensis var. hispidulus botsch. was the most widespread taxon recorded in 7 different districts. additionally, researchers collected 16 endemic taxa from a single district, each with an extremely narrow distribution range (tab. 2). 1018 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 1013-1028. endemic plants in two phytogeographic table (1): endemic plant taxa listed in (zohary, 1950) and flora of iraq (townsend and guest, 1966, 1974, 1980 a, b, 1985; townsend et al., 1968; ghazanfar and edmondson, 2013, 2016; ghazanfar et al., 2019). no. taxa family zohary (1950) flora of iraq middle saharo-sindian sub-region 1 atriplex belangeri (moq.) bioss. (1879) = atriplex thunbergiifolia (boiss. & noë) boiss. (1879) amaranthaceae * 2 climacoptera khalisica botsch. (1982) amaranthaceae * 3 halothamnus iraqensis var. hispidulus botsch. (1981) amaranthaceae * 4 picris babylonica hand.-mazz. (1913) asteraceae * 5 sphaeranthus strobiliferus boiss. & noë (1856) asteraceae * 6 lithospermum babylonicum zohary (1950) boraginaceae * 7 astragalus sieberi dc. (1825) = astragalus zubairensis eig. (1955) fabaceae * 8 bromus haussknechtii boiss. (1884) poaceae * * 9 eragrostis boriana launert (1964) poaceae * 10 calligonum eigii zohary (1950) polygonaceae * 11 pteropyrum naufelum alkhayat (1993) polygonaceae * 12 polygonum corrigioloides jaub. & spach (1845) polygonaceae * 13 haplophyllum tuberculatum (forssk.) a.juss. (1825) = haplophyllum propinquum spach. (1849) rutaceae * 14 eremurus rechingeri wendelbo (1962) xanthorrhoeaceae * mesopotamia sub-region 15 allium chrysantherum boiss. & reut. (1882) amaryllidaceae * 16 allium macrochaetum boiss. & hausskn. (1882) amaryllidaceae * 17 allium olivieri boiss. (1882) amaryllidaceae * 18 allium sindjarense boiss. & hausskn. (1875) amaryllidaceae * 19 allium vinicolor wendelbo (1973) amaryllidaceae * 20 ferula sphenobasis townsend (1966) apiaceae * http://www.theplantlist.org/browse/a/boraginaceae/ http://www.theplantlist.org/browse/a/leguminosae/ http://www.theplantlist.org/browse/a/polygonaceae/ http://www.theplantlist.org/browse/a/polygonaceae/ http://www.theplantlist.org/browse/a/polygonaceae/ 1019 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum haloob et al. 21 ducrosia flabellifolia boiss. (1844) apiaceae * 22 arum hainesii agnew & hadac ex riedl (1981) araceae * 23 alrawia nutans (wendelbo) press. & wendelbo (1979) asparagaceae * 24 bellevalia mosheovii feinbrun (1939) asparagaceae * 25 ornithogalum iraqense feinbrun (1941) asparagaceae * 26 ornithogalum neurostegium subsp. neurostegium boiss. & c.i.blanche = ornithogalum ulophyllum hand.-mazz. (1914) asparagaceae * 27 anthemis corymbulosa boiss. & hausskn. (1875) asteraceae * 28 anthemis wettsteiniana hand.mazz. (913) = anthemis deltawensis eig. (1938) asteraceae * 29 anthemis wettsteiniana hand.mazz. (1913) = anthemis deserti-syriaci eig. (1938) asteraceae * 30 cota brevicuspis (bornm.) holub. (1974) = anthemis feinbruniae eig. (1938) asteraceae * 31 anthemis leptophylla eig. (1938) asteraceae * 32 anthemis handel-mazzettii eig. (1938) asteraceae * * 33 anthemis homalolepis eig. (1938) asteraceae * * 34 anthemis microlepis eig. (1938) asteraceae * 35 anthemis plebeia boiss. & noé (1875) asteraceae * 36 anthemis microlepis eig. (1938) = anthemis singarensis eig. (1938) asteraceae * * 37 anthemis wettsteiniana hand.mazz. (1913) asteraceae * 38 centaurea alveicola rech. f. (1959) asteraceae * 39 centaurea regia boiss. (1846) asteraceae * 40 centaurea singarensis boiss. et hausskn. (1875) asteraceae * 41 cousinia wesheni post (1891) = cousinia chaborasica bornm. & hand.-mazz. (1912) asteraceae * 42 echinops haussknechtii boiss. (1875) = echinops armatus boiss. & hausskn. (1875) asteraceae * 43 echinops descendens hand.mazz. (1913) asteraceae * http://www.theplantlist.org/browse/a/asparagaceae/ 1020 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 1013-1028. endemic plants in two phytogeographic 44 jurinea mesopotamica hand.mazz. (1913) asteraceae * 45 onopordum heteracanthum c.a.mey. (1831) = onopordum canum eig. (1942) asteraceae * 46 scorzonera deserti-syriaci eig. (1938) asteraceae * 47 scorzonera abdulazizii eig. (1950) asteraceae * 48 sphaeranthus strobiliferus boiss. & noë (1856) asteraceae * 49 arnebia deserti-syriaci zohary (1946) boraginaceae * 50 odontarrhena singarensis (boiss. & hausskn.) španiel, al-shehbaz, d.a.german & marhold (2015) = alyssum singarense boiss. & hausskn. ex bioss. (1888) brassicaceae * 51 erysimum oleifolium j.gay (1842) = erysimum strophades boiss. (1849) brassicaceae * * 52 hesperis novakii subsp. mirabilis dvořák (1968) brassicaceae * 53 gypsophila pallida stapf (1886) caryophyllaceae * 54 convolvulus euphraticus bornm. (1906) convolvulaceae * 55 convolvulus sarothrocladus boiss. & hausskn. (1875) convolvulaceae * 56 astragalus caryolobus bunge (1868) fabaceae * 57 astragalus obtusifolius dc. (1825) fabaceae * 58 astragalus sarae eig (1955) fabaceae * 59 chesneya rytidosperma jaub. & spac (1842) = chesneya oliveri jaub. & spach (1842) fabaceae * 60 hedysarum singarense boiss. & hausskn. (1872) fabaceae * 61 lathyrus bijugus boiss. & noe (1856) fabaceae * * 62 onobrychis haussknechtii boiss. (1872) = onobrychis bicolor bornm. (1924) fabaceae * 63 onobrychis ptolemaica (delile) dc. (1825) = onobrychis olivieri boiss. (1872) fabaceae * 64 onobrychis lunata boiss. (1843) fabaceae * 65 vicia singarensis boiss. & hausskn. (1872) fabaceae * http://www.theplantlist.org/browse/a/boraginaceae/ http://www.theplantlist.org/browse/a/brassicaceae/ http://www.theplantlist.org/browse/a/leguminosae/ http://www.theplantlist.org/browse/a/leguminosae/ http://www.theplantlist.org/browse/a/leguminosae/ http://www.theplantlist.org/browse/a/leguminosae/ http://www.theplantlist.org/browse/a/leguminosae/ http://www.theplantlist.org/browse/a/leguminosae/ http://www.theplantlist.org/browse/a/leguminosae/ http://www.theplantlist.org/browse/a/leguminosae/ http://www.theplantlist.org/browse/a/leguminosae/ http://www.theplantlist.org/browse/a/leguminosae/ 1021 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum haloob et al. 66 hypericum olivieri boiss. (1867) hypericaeae * 67 moraea sisyeinchium (l.) ker gawl. (1804) = iris maculata baker (1890) iridaceae * * 68 iris aucheri (baker) sealy (1950) = iris sindjarensis boiss. & hausskn (1882) iridaceae * 69 alcea chrysantha (sam.) zohary (1963) = althaea chrysantha sam. (1953) malvaceae * 70 glossostemon bruguieri desf. (1817) malvaceae * 71 glaucium cuneatum cullen (1968) papaveraceae * 72 glaucium grandiflorum subsp. refractum (nábelek) mory (1879) = glaucium refractum nábelek (1923) papaveraceae * 73 aeluropus lagopoides (l.) thwaites (1864) = aeluropus mesopotamicus nábelek (1929) poaceae * 74 henrardia pubescens (bertol.) boiss. (1964) = lepturus pubescens (bertol.) boiss. (1884) poaceae * 75 parapholis gracilis bor. (1963) poaceae * 76 stipa assyriaca hand.-mazz. (1914) poaceae * 77 calligonum tetrapterum jaub. & spach (1855) polygonaceae * 78 nigella deserti boiss. (1841) = nigella assyriaca boiss. (1867) ranunculaceae * 79 reseda haussknechtii müll.arg. (1868) resedaceae * * 80 plocama olivieri (a.rich. ex dc.) m.backlund & thulin (2007) = neogaillonia olivieri (a.rich. ex dc.) linch. (1973) rubiaceae * 81 haplophyllum tuberculatum (forssk.) a.juss. (1825) = haplophyllum chesneyanum boiss. (1867) rutaceae * 82 haplophyllum tuberculatum (forssk.) a.juss. (1825) = haplophyllum glabrum bornm. (1911) rutaceae * http://www.theplantlist.org/browse/a/iridaceae/ http://www.theplantlist.org/browse/a/iridaceae/ http://www.theplantlist.org/browse/a/papaveraceae/ http://www.theplantlist.org/browse/a/papaveraceae/ http://www.theplantlist.org/browse/a/ranunculaceae/ 1022 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 1013-1028. endemic plants in two phytogeographic table (2): endemic plant taxa restricted either to the middle saharo-sindian or mesopotamia phytogeographic sub-regions or both. (zohary, 1950; rechinger, 1963; guest, 1966; riedl, 1967; townsend et al., 1968; 1974; townsend and guest, 1980a; 1980b; rechinger, 1982; townsend and guest, 1985; ghazanfar and edmondson, 2013, 2016; podlech and iranshahr, 2015; ghazanfar et al., 2019). no. taxa family district middle saharo-sindian sub-region 1 climacoptera khalisica botsch. (1982) amaranthaceae lca 2 sphaeranthus strobiliferus boiss. & noë (1856) asteraceae lca & lsm 3 heliotropium lasianthum riedl (1979) boraginaceae dwd 4 lathyrus bijugus boiss. & noë (1856) fabaceae lca 5 salvia arabica al-musawi & weinert (1989) lamiaceae fpf 6 phelipanche umqasrensis al–mayah & alasadi (2016) orobanchaceae dsd 7 eragrostis boriana launert (1964) poaceae lca & lea 8 eremurus rechingeri wendelbo (1962) xanthorrhoeaceae fpf mesopotamia sub-region 9 anthemis leptophylla eig. (1983) asteraceae fpf, fni & fuj 10 anthemis hamrinensis iranshahr (1981) asteraceae fpf & dga 11 anthemis microlepis eig. (1938) asteraceae fuj & fki 12 centaurea singarensis boiss. et hausskn. (1875) asteraceae fuj & mjs 13 jurinea mesopotamica hand.-mazz. (1913) asteraceae fuj 14 podonosma sindjarensis (riedl) l.cecchi & hilger (2021) boraginaceae mjs 15 hesperis novakii subsp. mirabilis dvorak (1968) brassicaeae mjs 16 spergularia iraqensis a. haloob, al-musawi & h, adeel (2021) caryophyllaceae fpf 17 vicia singarensis boiss. & hausskn. (1872) fabaceae mjs 18 thymus syriacus var. edentatus jalas (1982) lamiaceae far 19 glaucium cuneatum cullen (1968) papaveraceae fki 20 reseda haussknechtii müll.arg. (1868) resedaceae fuj, fpf & mjs http://www.theplantlist.org/browse/a/leguminosae/ http://www.theplantlist.org/browse/a/leguminosae/ http://www.theplantlist.org/browse/a/papaveraceae/ 1023 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum haloob et al. 21 albraunia psilosperma speta (1982) scrophulariaceae fki taxa extent in the middle saharo-sindian and mesopotamia sub-regions 22 halothamnus iraqensis var. hispidulus botsch. (1981) amaranthaceae fpf, dlj, dwd dsd, lca, lea & lsm 23 arum hainesii agnew & hadac ex riedl (1981) araceae fpf & lea 24 anthemis handel-mazzettii eig (1938) asteraceae dwd & dsd 25 anthemis homalolepis eig (1938) asteraceae dga & dwd 26 anthemis plebeia boiss. & noé (1875) asteraceae fpf, dwd & dsd 27 anthemis wettsteiniana hand.-mazz. (1913) asteraceae fpf, dga, dwd & lca 28 centaurea alveicola rech. f. (1959) asteraceae fpf 29 convolvulus euphraticus bornm. (1906) convolvulaceae dwd the endemic taxa are distributed in phytogeographic sub-regions as follows: 8 taxa were restricted to the middle saharo-sindian phytogeographic sub-region; they belonged to 8 genera and 8 families. there were 13 endemic taxa recorded restricted to the mesopotamia phytogeographic sub-region, belonging to 11 genera and 9 families. asteraceae consisted of 5 taxa, which was the highest number of taxa among other families. while there were 8 endemic species recorded in both the middle saharo-sindian phytogeographic and mesopotamia phytogeographic sub-regions in iraq, belonging to 5 genera and 4 families, again, asteraceae consisted of 5 taxa, which was the highest number of taxa among other families distributed in both sub-regions. on another hand, the endemic taxa were distributed in physiographic regions as follows: the highest concentration of endemic taxa was recorded as 17 taxa in the upper plains and foothills physiographic region, followed by 9 taxa in the desert plateau physiographic region, 7 taxa in the lower mesopotamian physiographic region, and the lowest physiographic region recorded 5 taxa in the mountain physiographic region (jabal sinjar). the study had to note that all the districts have recorded endemic plants except basra estuarine district (lba), while the persian foothills district (fpf) was the richest with 11 endemic taxa, and the nineveh district (fni), arbil district (far), lower jazira district (dlj), and southern marsh district (lsm) were the poorest districts, which recorded one endemic taxon (tab. 2). discussion the previous studies that dealt with the endemic plant taxa in the middle saharo-sindian and mesopotamia phytogeographic sub-regions in iraq, the acceptance of the scientific names, and the number of endemic plant taxa needs to be updated, specially the volumes of the flora of iraq that aren’t complete and published yet, so there was a lack that made the flora of iraq 1024 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 1013-1028. endemic plants in two phytogeographic not full information about all endemic plant taxa in these phytogeographic sub-regions. this study aims to update and document the information about the endemic plant taxa in these phytogeographic sub-regions in one study. the study found a difference in the number of endemic plants taxa in the middle saharosindian and mesopotamia phytogeographic sub-regions in iraq compared with the two previous studies; zohary (1950) listed 9 endemic species for the middle saharo-sindian and 49 endemic species for mesopotamia sub-region, flora of iraq described 6 taxa as endemic to the middle saharo-sindian and 26 taxa as endemic to the mesopotamia sub-region (townsend and guest, 1966, 1974, 1980 a, b, 1985; townsend et al., 1968; ghazanfar and edmondson, 2013, 2016; ghazanfar et al., 2019). this study recorded 8 and 13 endemic plant taxa to these sub-regions and 8 endemic taxa distributed between them. the reason for this discrepancy in numbers is that some species are considered synonymous. in addition, some taxa that were indicated as endemic to iraq in previous studies were later recorded in other countries. therefore, this study did not consider them as an endemic plant. the mesopotamia phytogeographic sub-region is a narrow sub-region between two large phytogeographic sub-regions, the middle saharo-sindian and irano-anatolian sub-regions, which makes the mesopotamia phytogeographic sub-region represent a transition phytogeographic sub-region. this phytogeographic interference and transition make this phytogeographic sub-region richer in endemic taxa from the middle saharo-sindian phytogeographic sub-region. in addition, the upper plains and foothills physiographic region is a geographical extension between the mountain physiographic region to the north and the desert plateau physiographic region and lower mesopotamian physiographic region to the west and south, that makes this region represent a transitional region between different habitat and vegetation types. this interesting habitat plays as a refuge for these endemic taxa, all these reasons probably explains why the upper plains and foothills physiographic region have the highest number of taxa, compared to other physiographic regions, as well as the phytogeographic variation that exists in the persian foothills district (fpf) has reflected in richness of this district in endemic plant taxa. however, asteraceae is the largest plant family of vascular plants with 432 taxa in iraq (ghazanfar et al., 2019), and it has the highest number of endemic plant species in iraq with 44 species (youssef, 2020). this is also compatible with the result that indicates the asteraceae has the highest number of endemic taxa in the middle saharo-sindian and irano-anatolian sub-regions in iraq, even anthemis genus, which is the largest genus belonging to the asteraceae in iraq, and it recorded the highest number of endemic taxa compared to other genera in studied phytogeographic sub-regions. the history of the long evolution of asteraceae dates back to ∼83 million years ago (the late cretaceous) and the diversity in growth forms: herbs (annual, biennial, and perennial), shrubs, trees, and vines. in addition to the unique characters of inflorescence, it comprises a dense cluster of many florets surrounded by a compact bract that increases the chances of successful pollination, and the specialized structures (pappus) of the fruits (achenes) help in dispersal, allowing for extensive diversification and adaptation to a different environmental condition (mandel et al., 2019; vijverberg et al., 2021; zhang and elomaa, 2024). 1025 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum haloob et al. the rare plants need more research and field studies. this study depended on herbaria specimens. however, in iraq, there have not been many plant surveys conducted in the last 24 years, which reflects the lack of data on the rare and endemic plants in iraq. until now, there has been no red list assessment for iraqi plants. even in the iucn (2010) red list, there are a few numbers of plant species distributed in iraq that have been assessed, and almost all these species are from the mountain physiographic region, so this study will help to begin the preparation of studies and put assessments on the plant red list in iraq. as well as these endemic plant taxa, we should prioritize establishing national-level conservation strategies to save them from the different threats, and their conservation should be a priority. conclusions updating the taxonomic status of endemic plants in the middle saharo-sindian and mesopotamia phytogeographic sub-regions of iraq revealed 29 taxa, compared to 89 taxa previously reported. this reduction highlights the importance of continuous taxonomic revision and monitoring. endemic plants possess significant ecological value and require protection and further study, particularly as new species may yet be discovered in iraq or recorded from neighboring countries. conflict of interest statement "the authors declare no conflict of interest". literature cited al-mayah, a. a. and al-asadi, w. 2016. a new species of phelipanche (orobanchaceae) from iraq. global journal of biology, agriculture & health sciences. global institute for research and education, 5(3): 107-112. 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(2025) 18 (4): 1013-1028. افيتين ثانويتين: منطقة السنديان-الصحراءالنباتات املتوطنة في منطقتين جغر النهرين في العراق ما بين املتوسطة ومنطقة الزيداوي*، زينب عبد عون علي ** و رسل سعد همشكان* لوباحعلي ، وزارة الزراعة، بغداد، العراق وتصديق البذور * املعشبة الوطنية العراقية، مديرية فحص جامعة بغداد، بغداد، العراق -** قسم علوم الحياة، كلية العلوم للبنات 20/12/2025، النشر: 6/12/2025القبول ،1/12/2025املراجعة: ،23/7/2025االستالم: الخالصة فرعيتين تهدف منطقتين ضمن املتوطنة النباتية األنواع سجالت تحديث الى الدراسة الصحراء جغرافيتين منطقة العراق: في بيومنطقة السنديان-الوسطىنباتيتين ن ما وحالة العلمية األسماء لصحة شاملة مراجعة خالل من التحديث أجري وقد النهرين. مجتمعة سجلت والتي السابقة، الدراسات اوردتها التي ً حديثا املوصوفة واألنواع التوطن في هاتين املنطقتين. اظهرت النتائج الحالية 89 ً متوطنا ً نباتيا ً ينتمي الى 29نوعا ً متوطنا ً نوعا و 22 ً هما anthemis l.,1753جنس و asteraceaeعائلة. كانت العائلة املركبة 15جنسا منطقة في محصورة انواع ثمانية ان تبين التوزيع، حيث من . ً انتشارا -الصحراءاألكثر سنديان ً بين النهرين، بينما اشتركت املنطقتان في في منطقة ما الوسطى، وثالثة عشر نوعا املناطق ضمن املتوطنة األنواع لتوزيع تحديثا الدراسة تقدمت كما انواع متوطنة. ثمانية في عدد األنواع املتوطنة االختالفالجغرافية الفسيولوجية وناقشت األسباب املحتملة وراء بالتقارير والدراسات السابقة. ً مقارنة bull 477 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hadi et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2024) 18 (2): 477-485. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2024.18.2.0477 original article first record of the north african catfish clarias gariepinus (burchell, 1822) (siluriformes, clariidae) in tigris river, iraq hind d. hadi*,, abed h. baraaj**, atheer h. ali*** and maab r. sajet* *iraq natural history research centre and museum, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq **college of science, university of baghdad, iraq. *** department of fisheries and marine resources, college of agriculture, university of basrah, basrah, iraq. corresponding author e-mail: hind.d@nhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq received: 30 aug. 2024, revised: 6 dec. 2024, accepted: 8 dec. 2024, published:20 december 2024 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract the current study aimed to determine the morphometric and meristic characteristics of the north african catfish clarias gariepinus (burchell, 1822). six specimens of c. gariepinus were collected from the tigris river, in central iraq. this study is considered the confirmation first record of this species in iraq, and the second documentation of this exotic fish. the present species is characterized by a very long dorsal fin, a rounded caudal fin and four pairs of barbels. keywords: clariidae, cat fish, exotic fish, morphology, tigris river. introduction the african catfish, clarias gariepinus (burchell, 1822), is one of the most important fish species cultured in many parts of the world. this is mainly due to its high demand, better growth rate, lower susceptibility to disease, and higher survival rate in poor water quality. this fish is highly valued by consumers and represents an important source of animal protein for rural populations. clarias species are originally freshwater catfishes characterized by their ability to utilize atmospheric air and move on land for several hundred meters with the help of their pectoral spines (teugels, 1996; fagbuaro, 2010). they are exposed to many chemical, and physical changes, resulting from human activities, temperature fluctuations, and salinity changes which threaten ecosystems. catfishes are most diverse in tropical regions of south america, asia, and africa (wimberger, 1992). in syria, the presence of african catfish is limited to a small number of warm springs and gradually increases to high levels of production, semi-intensive culture is common in earth ponds, while intensive culture in cages is limited to a small number of farms in large reservoirs (fao, 2024). morphometric and meristic traits in fish species have been commonly used to identify fish populations. these characters remain the simplest and most direct methods of species identification (turan, 2004). according to some works e. g. mamuris et al. (1998), bronte et bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799-print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2024.18.2.0477 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0779-0194 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8842-8519 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2541-968x https://orcid.org/0009-0005-2323-295x mailto:hind.d@nhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 478 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18(2): 477-485. first record of the north african catfish al. (1999), and hockaday et al. (2000), analyzing phenotypic differences in morphometric or meristic characters is the most commonly used method to delineate fish populations. no information is available on the morphometric and meristic characteristics of clariid catfish in natural waters in iraq, except one report from fao (bartley, 2006) regarding the introduction of this species into fisheries and aquaculture, iraq is listed as one of the countries where this catfish has been introduced. unfortunately we could not access this report although the species is mentioned in the distribution area of the north african catfish (see froese and pauly, 2024). hence, the current study is considered the first confirmation record of this exotic c. gariepinus in iraq, providing for the first time, the morphometric and meristic characters. hadi et al. (2023) explained that mohammed (2021) in her unpublished thesis reported catching this catfish from the little zab river northern kirkuk province but only for parasitological purposes. materials and methods study area: al-zubaydia sub-district is one of the sub-districts of the al-suwaira district in wasit province. al-zubaydia is situated in the southeast of baghdad, at coordinates 32°45'46.6"n 45°10'48.7"e, 50 km south of al-suwaira and 85 km north of kut city. sample collection: a total of six fish specimens were collected using gill nets by fishermen, during the period from may to december, 2022. the fishes were transported in a cool box with crushed ice to the laboratory of the iraq natural history research centre and museum, university of baghdad. morphology study: each specimen was measured using a 1-meter measuring board graduated in millimeters (mm) and a digital caliper. the weight of each individual fish was measured immediately using a digital balance. the morphometric features were measured from left side of each fish. the morphometric and meristic characters were assessed following the methods described by hubbs and lagler (1964). the specimens were photographed using a samsung camera of korean origin. results order: siluriformes family: clariidae clarias gariepinus (burchell, 1822) common names: north african catfish. synonyms: silurus gariepinus burchell, 1822 macropteronotus charmuth lacepède, 1803 clarias capensis valenciennes, 1840 the body is elongated, with the head appearing somewhat between rectangular and pointed in dorsal outline. the snout is rounded, and the eyes are relatively small. the body lacks scales and has four pairs of barbels. the pelvic fin positioned closer to the snout than to the caudal fin base or approximately midway. the pectoral fin extends from the https://www.fishbase.se/summary/familysummary.php?id=139 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/getref.asp?id=17293 http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/ichthyology/catalog/getref.asp?id=17293 479 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hadi et al. operculum to below the first dorsal fin ray. pectoral spine is robust and serrated only on its outer surface (pl. 1) and (tab. 1, 2). plate (1): a-lateral view of clarias gariepinus, bfrontal view of the mouth, cfirst gill arch. table (1): the morphological characters of clarias gariepinus. character min-max (mean ±sd) proportional measurements as expressed as percentage of standard length or of head length* weight 469-530 (495.12±26.09) total length (tl) 450-550 (493.75±42.69) standard length (sl) 371-472 (420.25±43.27) maximum body height (mbh) 60-69 (62.62±4.26) 14.02-16.17 (14.96±0.90) minimum body height (mibh) 32-41 (35.75±3.86) 8.28-8.69 (8.51±0.18) caudal peduncle length (cpl) 9-12 (10.375±1.25) 2.12-2.76 (2.48±0.27) dorsal fin length (dfl) 300-350 (320.62±22.94) 63.56-94.34 (77.32±13.49) dorsal fin height (dfh) 32-35 (33.12±1.31) 7.42-8.63 (7.92±0.54) pectoral fin length (pfl) 54-60 (57±2.58) 11.44-15.09 (13.68±1.58) pelvic fin length (vfl) 45-48 (46.37±1.25) 9.75-12.13 (11.11±1.01) pectoral-pelvic distance (pvd) 91-109 (97.37±8.01) 22.07-24.53 (23.22±1.00) predorsal distance (pdd) 145-149 (146.37±1.79) 31.57-39.08 (35.08±3.25) prepelvic fin distance (pvd) 200-220 (210.62±8.75) 46.61-53.91 (50.36±3.09) prepectoral distance (ppd) 86-95 (88.62±4.26) 20.00-23.18 (21.19±1.48) preanal fin distance (pad) 235-267 (250.87±13.75) 56.57-63.34 (59.92±2.89) pelvic-anal fin distance (vad) 41-45 (43.5±1.91) 9.53-11.05 (10.40±0.64) anal fin length (afl) 155-216 (181.5±26.05) 41.78-45.76 (43.06±1.82) anal fin height (afh) 25-31 (27.25±2.62) 5.75-7.28 (6.51±0.62) preanus distance (pasd) 221-255 (240.37±15.33) 54.03-59.57 (57.38±2.39) post back distance (pbd) 75-80 (77.75±2.21) 16.95-20.22 (18.61±1.38) center caudal fin length (ucfl) 52-55 (53.62±1.25) 11.44-14.02 (12.84±1.09) head length (hl) 121-125 (123.5±1.91) head height* (hh) 65-69 (66.75±1.70) 52.80-55.20 (54.05±1.02) snout length* (snl) 32-36 (33.75±1.70) 28.80-29.60 (29.15±0.36) orbit diameter* (od) 6-6.2 (6.05±0.1) 4.80-4.90 (4.90±0.47) eye diameter* (ed) 3-3 (3±0) 2.40-2.48 (2.43±0.03) 480 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18(2): 477-485. first record of the north african catfish post orbit distance* (pod) 79-85 (80.8±27.8) 64.00-68.00 (65.48±1.75) interorbital distance* (iod) 50-53 (51.125±1.31) 64.842.4 (41.39±0.70) mouth width* (mw) 41-56 (49.25±6.39) 32.8044.80 (39.89±5.16) anterior (maxillary) barbles length* (abl) 36-43 (38.12±3.27) 29.60-34.40 (30.86±2.36) posterior (mandibular) barbles length* (pbl) 79-98 (88.5±3.27) 63.20-80.99 (71.65±7.73) table (2): the meristic characters of clarias gariepinus. character min-max (mean ±sd) dorsal fin rays 62-64 (62.75±0.95) pectoral fin spine 1-1 (1±0) pectoral fin rays 9-10 (9.75±0.5) anal fin rays 48-50 (49.5±1) caudal fin rays 19-19 (19±0) unbranched pelvic fin rays (uvfr) 1-1 (1±0) branched pelvic fin rays (bvfr) 6-6 (6±0) gill rakers 35-47(41±8) barbles no. 8-8 (8±0) discussion turn et al. (2005) studied morphometric variation among six populations of clarias gariepinus in turkey and observed that some differences were mainly associated with measurements taken from the fish’s head. in comparison of some of meristic characters obtained from the present study, the mean number of the dorsal fin rays, anal fin rays, pectoral fin rays, and pelvic fin rays were 62.75, 49.5, 9.57, and 6.0 respectively. whereas the mean number reported by fagbuaro et al. (2015) from the ogbese river in nigeria were 66.0 and 64.0; 51.0 and 48.0; 8.0 and 8.0 and 6.0 and 6.0 for cultured and wild populations, respectively. the meristic characters reported by the present study the means number of dorsal fin rays, anal fin rays, pectoral fin rays, pelvic fin rays, and caudal fin rays are 62.75, 49.5, 9.57, 6.0 and 19.0 respectively. whereas the mean numbers reported by solomon et al. (2015) from benue state, nigeria waters are 68.40 and 67.80; 51.70 and 54.07; 8.50 and 7.80; 5.30 and 5.73 and 17.90 and 18.40 for cultured and wild populations respectively. the meristic characters reported in the current study, including the mean numbers of dorsal fin rays, anal fin rays, pectoral fin rays, pelvic fin rays, and caudal fin rays were 62.75, 49.5, 9.57, 6.0 and 19.0 respectively, by comparison, the mean number obtained by solomon et al. (2016) were 72.26 and 72.40; 55.14 and 56.06; 8.12 and 8.36; 5.82 and 6.06; 19.9 and 19.8 from two eco-areas in nigeria respectively. the mean number of dorsal fin rays, anal fin rays, pectoral fin rays, pelvic fin rays, and number of barbels in the present specimens was 62.75, 49.5, 9.57, 6.0 and 8 respectively, whereas the means reported by ola-oladimeji et al. (2016) from ekiti state, nigeria waters are 65.8 and 63.97; 50.50 and 48.17; 7.93 and 6.29; 5.65 and 5.08; 8 and 8 for wild and 481 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum hadi et al. cultured populations respectively. onyekwelu et al. (2021) explored the relationship between some morphometric characters (total length, standard length, head width head length, and snout length) and body weight, confirming a significantly high correlation between body weight and these morphometric parameters. as a comparison of some meristic characters obtained from the current study the mean numbers for the dorsal fin rays, anal fin rays, pectoral fin rays, and pelvic fin rays, caudal fin rays were 62-62, 48-50, 9-10, 7 and 19 respectively. in contrast, singh et al. (2021) for specimens from the ganga river in india (tab. 3). according to bilal (pers. comm.) this catfish has been part of food of the local diets in mosul for more than two years ago; in addition a few specimens have been collected from al-gharraf river (thi qar provine) and northern basrah province (personal data), baghdad (m. i. ghazwan, pers. comm.). as well as very recently the species was also observed in the huwazah marsh (a.m. moejer, pers. comm.). hadi et al. (2023) reported that the number of exotic fish species in iraq has reached 20, spanning seven orders and 12 families, including c. gariepinus. mohammed (2021) captured 93 specimens during her parasitology study between 2020 and 2021. providing strong evidence of a well-established population of this exotic species in the northern part of iraq and its successful invasion of the central and southern part of iraq. based on the present observations, the north african catfish has been recorded in the tigris river (mosul, kirkuk, baghdad, kut, huwazah and northern basrah). it is the most likely that this species entered iraq through the tigris river (turkey) rather than the euphrates river via (syria). table (3): comparison the meristic characters of clarias gariepinus among different historical studies with present study. singh et al. (2021) oladimeji et al. (2016) solomon et al. (2016) solomon et al. (2015) fagbuaro et al. (2015) presen t study meristic characters of clarias gariepinus 70-74 65.8, 63.97 72.26, 72.40 68.40, 67.80 64.0, 66.0 62-64 dorsal fin rays 51-53 50.50, 48.17 55.14 , 56.06 51.70, 54.07 51.0, 48.0 48-50 anal fin rays 6-8 7.93, 6.29 8.12, 8.36 8.50, 7.80 8.0, 6.0 9-10 pectoral fin rays 6-8 5.65, 5.08 5.82, 6.06 5.30, 5.73 6.0 7-7 pelvic fin rays 15-17 19.8, 19.9 17.90, 18.40 19-19 caudal fin rays 88 8-8 barbles no. conclusions in view of the results of the current study and historical studies it can be concluded that both morphometric and meristic characters are affected by changes in environmental factors. 482 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18(2): 477-485. first record of the north african catfish however, their responses vary in certain situations and may differ from species to species. this species is now distributed in the tigris river. acknowledgements we extend our sincere thanks to the fisherman mahdi s. mahmoud for helping me collect samples. thanks to drs samir bilal, university of salah al-din, erbil, m. i. ghazwan, iraq natural history research center and museumuniversity of baghdad, and a.m. moejer, aquaculture unituniversity of basrah for provide us the information on occurrence of c. gariepinus in northern of iraq, baghdad province and huwazah marsh, respectively. conflict of interest statement "the author has no conflicts of interest to declare". litereature cited bartley, d. m. 2006. dias. introduced species in fisheries and aquaculture: information for responsible use and control (cd-rom). rome, fao. 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(2024) 18 (2): 477-485. clarias gariepinus (burchell, 1822)لجري شمال افريقيا اول تسجيل (siluriformes, clariidaeفي نهر دجلة، العراق ) مآب رياض ساجت*عبد حسن براج و *** اثير حسين علي ,**هند ضياء هادي, * العراق., بغداد, بغداد جامعة, الطبيعي التاريخ ومتحف بحوث مركز* , جامعة البصرة , كلية الزراعة,قسم الثروة السمكية والبحرية, **كلية الزراعة .العراق, البصرة بغداد, العراق., جامعة بغداد, قسم علوم الحياة ,*** كلية العلوم 20/12/2024، النشر: 8/12/2024القبول: ،6/12/2024املراجعة: ، 30/8/2024االستالم: الخالصة هدفت الدراسة الحالية إلى تحديد الخصائص املظهرية والعددية لجري شمال من سمك نماذج, حيث تم جمع ستة clarias gariepinus (burchell, 1822)أفريقيا من نهر دجلة, وسط العراق. تعتبر هذه الدراسة بمثابة التسجيل c. gariepinusالجري الول مرة في العراق, والوثيقة الثانية عن هذه األسماك الغريبة. سمكة هذه الاملؤكد ل ويتميز هذا النوع من االسماك بزعنفة ظهرية طويلة , وزعنفة ذنبية مستديرة, و اربعة ازواج من الزوائد اللحمية الفمية. bull 399 bannai et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2021) 16 (4): 399-420 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2021.16.4.0399 molecular characterization of anisakid nematodes hysterothylacium species from japanese threadfin bream nemipterus japonicus (bloch, 1791) (perciformes, nemiperidae) from iraqi marine water fish majid bannai * muna mohammed jori ** and shokoofeh shamsi*** *department of marine vertebrate, marine science centre, university of basrah, iraq, basrah, iraq. **departments of veterinary microbiology and parasitology, college of veterinary medicine, university of basrah, basrah, iraq. ***school of animal and veterinary sciences, charles sturt university, wagga wagga, new south wales 2678, australia. *corresponding author: majidbannai65@gmail.com received date: 08 may 2021, accepted date: 25 july 2021, published date: 20 december 2021 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract the present study provides a new insight into valuable information on the diverse structure of the anisakid population and discusses the limited species richness in the nemipterus japonicus (bloch,1791) (perciformes, nemiperidae). the fishing area consists of various locations in the arabian gulf (29°58 0 33 00 n48°28 0 20 e). a total of 315 marine fish were examined, (n=287) were infected. larval stages (n= 763) encysted within the mesenteries peritoneum and viscera of fish organs were isolated, with a prevalence of 91.11% of infection and, the intensity was 2.65. molecular analysis was carried out on thirty individuals who have examined the morphology and showed some appearance differences, by amplifying internal transcribed spacers its and its-1 of nuclear rdna (rdna) by pcr using the primer sets nc5/nc2 and ss1/nc13r of thirteen dna products. evolutionary analyses were conducted in mega x. based on the identity percentage in the genbank database showed that they belong to anisakid nematodes, in particular, they belong to eleven distinct taxa within the hysterothylacium ward & magath, 1917 (rhabditida, raphidascarididae) and one identified species h. amoyense (hsü, 1933) deardorff & overstreet, 1980. the current study records eleven species that belong to a genus of hysterothylacium; some of the alignment of sequences polymorphisms reveals new different individuals of larvae species that may be adopted as new species if their adult stage is detected, and n. japonicus fish considered as a new host record. the current study provides some insights on the systematic taxonomy of these parasites, in addition, it supports similar studies that have been published elsewhere. keywords: anisakid, arabian gulf, molecular characterization, nemipterus, japonicus. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2021.16.4.0399 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 400 molecular characterization of anisakid nematodes introduction nemipterus japonicus (bloch,1791) (perciformes, nemiperidae) is commonly known as the japanese threadfin bream, it is a marine fish native to the pacific and indian oceans (froese and pauly, 2021). nematodes have a worldwide distribution and may include over 1 million species, they are one of the most speciose taxa, with 256 families, and 40,000 species that are known from freshwater, marine, and terrestrial habitats (anderson, 2000). the richness of the parasitic fauna varies according to the spatial criteria of the presence of the parasite and the host as well as their geographical distribution (poulin and morand, 2004). moreover, the parasite distribution is also impacted by the level of host specificity, which can vary greatly (krasnovydm et al., 2020). in the past 30 years, comprehensive studies on marine fish parasites in iraqi marine waters have been conducted to increase the understanding of the biodiversity of these parasites, based on the morphological structures, which have been limited to the mature stage and are few due to incomplete growth to the adult stage, and because of the abundance of larval stages targeted this group of parasites to show the diversity and genetic variation in the study region. since there is a bias towards certain groups of parasites, especially towards larger species (moravec, 2004; ghadami et al., 2017; bannai, 2018). as for studies on fishes of the arabian gulf, only a few papers have been previously published. from 1977 to 2013 in different regions of the arabian gulf on the coasts of the united arab emirates, qatar, and iran (al-salim et al., 2010). according to froese & pauly (2016) over 200 species of fish are found in iraqi marine waters, many of which are edible; however, our knowledge of their parasites is poor. although there have been some reports on the presence of hysterothylacium in iraqi marine fish, most of these are based on morphology only, providing a limited morphological description that makes specific identification difficult (ali et al., 2014). however, it needs to be updated to know more about the species and the effect of the environmental changes in regards to the increasing temperature and climate change, these conditions are important to the distribution of this type of parasites (moravec, 2004). the recent important advanced studies have been conducted on the same regions, these studies have provided more important and detailed information (dadar et al., 2016); ( nematollahi et al., 2018) iran coastal water; worms (2021) listed 90 accepted species of the genus hysterothylacium. the recoded of these parasite groups are of environmental, medical, and economic importance and therefore agree with the statement which says that this group deserves more research from the perspective of iraqi biodiversity because knowledge of its parasites is still weak and unfocused, and that they have instigated more in-depth studies in nearby areas and that the integration of their study may provide a full understanding of many of the facts about them in terms of life cycles and their proliferation and there hosts (spratt, 1997). the lack of information on the genetic diversity structure of the nematode group, which provides a limited morphology, makes it difficult to identify specifically (ghadami et al., 2017; bannai, 2018). 401 bannai et al. the objectives of the present study are to determine the distribution patterns especially the occurrence of parasitic pathogenic infection of humans, as well as their location in the host, provide further information, on the genetic structure, comment on the ascaridoid populations recorded in the current study and compare and discuss the relationship with other closely related taxa in ncbi (2020) databases. materials and methods description of the study area the fishing area consists of various locations in iraqi marine waters, arabian gulf (29° 58 0ʼ 33 00ʼʼ n48°28 ʼ 0 20ʼʼ e). this area is inherently different from the rest of the arabian gulf, with a diverse hydrodynamic and sedimentary nature due to the presence of many hydrological effects such as the impact of shatt al-arab, karon river, shatt al-basrah, wave effects, and tidal processes (albadran, 2004). this area is special, for fish feeding and their breeding. salinity concentrations in the region from 40 to 43 ppt, water temperature from 12.5 to 33.5 °c. specimens collection a total of 315 n. japonicus fish were collected during the period from october 2019 till march 2020, and examined for the prevalence of anisakid nematodes. a variety of methods with various forms of gill nets fishing were used for fish collection. the body cavity and visceral organs were examined, the nematodes were washed extensively in physiological saline (ph 7.4) and stored in 70-95% ethanol at -20 °c for isolation of genomic dna and pcr amplification. fish were identified according to fish base (froese and pauly, 2021). nematodes were identified using morphology (shamsi et al., 2013, 2015, 2016; shamsi, 2016). scanning electron microscope the specimens were fixed in 4 % (v/v) hot formaldehyde solution (60°c), preserved in 70 % (v/v) ethanol, and post-fixed in 1 % osmium tetroxide. the samples were then dehydrated by incubating in a graded series of acetone ethanol concentrations (1:1), (1.5 – 0.5) and absolute acetone, 15 min each (moravec et al., 2012). a critical-point method was used for sputter-coated with gold (moravec and yooyen, 2011). dna extraction and molecular analysis genomic dna was extracted from individual larvae by proteinase k treatment and purified using a mini-column (wizarddna genomic dna purification kit, promega, usa), according to the manufacturer's protocol. the its and its-1 of nuclear rdna (rdna) were amplified by pcr using the primer sets nc5/nc2 (forward nc5 (5'-gta ggt gaa cct gcg gaa gga tca t3’) nc2 revers (5'-tta gtt tct ttt cct ccg ct-3'); and ss1/nc13r its-1, forward ss1 (5gtt tcc gta ggt gaa cct gcg-3), revers nc13r 5(gct gcg ttc ttc atc gat -3) (zhang et al., 2007; shamsi et al., 2008), respectively, under the same conditions as described previously (jabbar et al., 2012). the results of the amplification of pcr products were sent to study the sequence in korea. sequences were aligned over 1407 positions; the evolutionary history was inferred using the 402 molecular characterization of anisakid nematodes neighbour-joining method. the its sequences determined were compared (using the algorithm blastn) with those available in the national center for biotechnology information (ncbi , 2020). phylogenetic relationships between characterization diversity of ascaridoid nematodes of n. japonicus larvae obtained in the present study and another database of ncbi species. the evolutionary history was inferred by using the maximum likelihood method and tamura & nei model. initial tree(s) for the heuristic search were obtained automatically by applying neighbor-join and bionj algorithms to a matrix of pairwise distances estimated using the tamura& nei model, and then selecting the topology with superior log likelihood value. the tree is drawn to scale, with branch lengths measured in the number of substitutions per site (next to the branches). evolutionary analyses were conducted in mega x version 10.7.1. (kumar et al., 2018). results and discussion morphological description a total of 315, n. japonicus (pls.1, 2) with a total length 176215 (195.5) mm, were examined for the detection of nematode parasite: ascaridoidea (superfamily), raphidascarididae (family), raphidascaridinae (subfamily) raphidascaridinea (tribe) and hysterothylacium (genus), from arabian gulf (n=287), were infected. larval stages(n= 763) encysted within the mesenteries peritoneum and viscera of fish organs were isolated, with a prevalence of 91.11% of infection and, the intensity was 2.65. a total of 247 specimens of larval stages were isolated, with a prevalence of 57.69% of infection. the mean intensity of anisakid nematodes of frequency encountered in this survey was 5.48. isolated anisakid larvae appeared in the current study under a light microscope cylindrically in shape and are attenuated at both ends, measuring 8-25 mm in length. the anterior extremity of each larva contained an insightful boring tooth that appears distinct in most examined species and four undeveloped labia, that are distinct in most diagnosed species. the esophagus was characterized by an anterior part with a striated muscle part. a glandular ventriculus is present in most larvae and their measurements varied from one sample examined to another based on the species. the larvae were encysted within the mesenteries peritoneum and viscera of fish organs. based on morphological characters individuals and the scanning electron micrograph of the cephalic extremity all the individuals were identified morphologically as hysterothylacium with different species (pl. 2). 403 bannai et al. scanning electron microscopy (pl. 3) the sem study revealed a different pattern in the external composition of the cuticle structure. there were different formations in the composition of cuticle folds and longitudinal lateral grooves in the large cuticle among larvae (plt. 3, 6). the general, mouth opening was surrounded by four small, cephalic papillae (two were dorsolateral and two were ventrolateral), lips not fully developed, and provided by four papillae. it is noted through the general that they belong to different types of parasites and this supports the results of genetic studies as there is a clear differentiation in the order of nitrogen base for each species as described below in plate (3, 4). also, the external composition of the cuticle layer confirms the layer of the cuticle, and the appearance of some of the composition of folds in the outer cuticle wall varies by species. the composition of the papillae was completely immature because it was in the larval stage and has not yet matured. plate (2): larvae (l3) of h. amoyense viewed under a stereomicroscope; (1) posterior region of the larval stage morphotypes tail (c), (2) cephalic region shows mouth opening and papillae (a), glandular ventriculus viewed (b). plate (1): (1): p: larvae (l3) of hysterothylacium amoyense; c: the mesenteries peritoneum and viscera of fish organs, (2) japanese threadfin bream n. japonicus fresh specimens. 404 molecular characterization of anisakid nematodes plate (3): (1) scanning electron micrograph of the cephalic extremity of the species hysterothylacium sp. 1 larval stage morphotypes, a anterior region of the larva, b a cephalic region of the larva, (c= cuticle of the larva), (bt = boring tooth), (mo = mouth opening). (p= papillae.); (2) scanning electron micrograph of the posterior region of hysterothylacium sp.1 larval stage morphotypes (ta= tail). (an=anus); (3) scanning electron micrograph of the posterior region of the species hysterothylacium sp. 2 larval stage morphotypes (ta= tail). (an=anus); (4) scanning electron micrograph of the cephalic extremity of hysterothylacium sp. 2 larval stage morphotypes, a anterior region of the larva, b a cephalic region of the larva; c cuticle of the larva, (cu = cuticle), (mo = mouth opening); (5) scanning electron micrograph of the cephalic extremity of hysterothylacium sp. 3 larval stage morphotypes, a anterior region of the larva, b a cephalic region of the larva, c cuticle of the larva, ( p: papilla), (bt = boring tooth); (6) scanning electron micrograph of the cephalic extremity of hysterothylacium sp. 4 larval stage morphotypes, a anterior region of the larva, b head region of the larva, c cuticle of the larva, (bt = boring toot). (p: papilla. bt=boring tooth, cu= cuticle, mo=mouth opening, an=anus, ta=tail). 405 bannai et al. molecular identification of anisakid larvae molecular analysis was carried out by amplifying internal transcribed spacers (its and its-1) regions of thirteen individuals. a total of 13 its1-5.8s-its2 of rdna gene sequences of the present anisakid larvae from n. japonicus (perciformes, nemipteridae) from the arabian gulf off iraq. where deposited in the genbank under the accession numbers (mw94896, mw961525, mw961524, mw961517, mw961526, mw961520, mw940915, mw961523, mw961527, mw961518, mw961519, mw961522, and mw961521) respectively. while 12 its-1 sequences of the product were deposited in the genbank under the accession numbers (mw961513, mw940880, mw94881, mw940882, mw94883, mw961511, mw961510, mw961509, mw961512, mw961514, mw961515, and mw961516). detailed information of alignment of the its and its-sequence of ascaridoid nematode species present study with their genetic data including reference source, identical %, plate (4): (1) scanning electron micrograph of the cephalic extremity of hysterothylacium sp. 5 larval stage morphotypes, aanterior region of the larva, b – a cephalic region of the larva, (c = cuticle of the larva), (bt = boring tooth), (cu = cuticle), (mo = mouth opening); (2) scanning electron micrograph of the cephalic extremity of hysterothylacium sp.6 larval stage morphotypes, a anterior region of the larva, b – a cephalic region of the larva, ccuticle of the larva (bt = boring tooth), (cu = cuticle), mo = mouth opening; (3) scanning electron micrograph of the cephalic extremity of hysterothylacium sp.6 larval stage morphotypes. a anterior region of the larva, ba cephalic region of the larva, ccuticle of the larva, (bt = boring tooth); (4) scanning electron micrograph of the posterior region of the species hysterothylacium sp.6 larval stage morphotypes (ta= tail. an=anus). (bt= boring tooth, cu= cuticle, mo=mouth opening, an=anus, ta=tail). 406 molecular characterization of anisakid nematodes genbank (its) reference, and geographical locality. accession numbers are provided by ncbi for the collected larvae (tab. 1). a comparison of the nucleotide sequences of the rdna of these species revealed low blast scores with the genbank (percent identity= 97100 %). alignment of the resulting sequences revealed that there was significant variation in the its regions, which indicated the presence of different types of larvae. characterization of the internal transcribed spacers (its) of 13 dna products, based on percentage identities of nucleotides from genbank, use the online blast tool showed the its sequences obtained from larvae belong to eleven distinct taxa (hysterothylacium spp.) and two specimens of h. amoyense. the amplification has been reamplified to confirm. agarose gels analyses revealed for each its region amplicons were 1000 – 1100bp. detailed information of alignment of the its sequence of ascaridoid nematode species present study with their genetic data including reference source, identical %, genbank (its)reference, and geographical locality. two specimens of h. amoyense (mw940915) and (mw940896); query similarity identities percentage was: 922/923(99%) gaps: 1/923(0% with h. amoyense (mt020134.1 length: 955). eleven species of hysterothylacium are recognized, unfortunately, since no mature stages were recorded, it cannot be determined at the species level. the species referred to as hysterothylacium spp. larvae, because haven't been accurately identified to the species level because it needs to study the mature stage of the parasite, using male and female morphology, and characterization of reproductive organs. detailed information of alignment of the its and its-1sequence of anisakid nematode species present study with their genetic data including reference source, identical %, genbank (its and its-1) reference, and geographical locality. accession numbers provided by ncbi for the collected larvae are shown in table (1). the recording of this species is the first in the arab gulf region and the world where it did not match it in the sequence in the ncbi. sequence polymorphisms at alignment related are one to nine different positions of the its region, and it revealed as different individuals of hysterothylacium spp. larval type obtained in the present study (diags. 1-4). it can be considered the n. japonicus is a new host record in the world. besides the most distinguishing characters among hysterothylacium species based on the differences in length and ratio of digestive tracts of nematodes, viz esophagus length, intestinal caecum, appendage and the ratio of each character to each other, it was noted through the follow-up of the sequence of stillness and the different order of nitrogen bases and electron microscope images that there are clear changes among the species diagnosed in the order of the lips and the installation of folds in the outer wall of the parasite. 407 bannai et al. nematode species genbank (its ) genbank (its-1 ) references identities % genbank (its) references geograph ical locality h. amoyense 17 mw 940896 mw 961513 guo et al. (2020) 922/923(99%), gaps: 1/923(0%) mt020134.1 length: 955 china hysterothylacium sp. 18 mw961525 mw940880 chen et al.( 2018) 925/927(99%), gaps: 2/927(0%) mt269312.1 length: 990 china hysterothylacium sp. 19 mw961524 mw94881 zhang et. al. ( 2018) 882/900(98%), gaps 9/900(1%) mh211527.1 length: 955 china hysterothylacium sp. 20 mw961517 mw940882 zhang et al. (2018) 892/904(99%), gaps: 7/904 (0%) mh211518.1 length: 955 china hysterothylacium sp. 21 mw961526 mw94883 guo et al. (2020) 923/925(99%), gaps: 1/925(0%) mt020134.1 length: 955 china hysterothylacium sp. 23 mw961520 mw 99517 guo et al. (2020) 911/921(99%), gaps: 4/921(0%) mt020134.1 length: 955 china hysterothylacium amoyense 24 mw940915 mw961511 guo et al. (2020) 804/805(99%), gaps: 1/805(0%) mf539813.1 length: 906 china hysterothylacium sp. 25 mw961523 mw 961510 guo et al. (2020) (916/92899%), gaps: 6/928(0%) mt020134.1 length: 955 china hysterothylacium sp. 26 mw96 1527 mw 961509 guo et al. (2020) 919/926(99%), gaps: 4/926(0%) mt020134.1 length: 955 china hysterothylacium sp. 27 mw961518 mw 961512 guo et al. (2020) 903/929(97%), gaps8/929 (0%) mt020134.1 length: 955 china hysterothylacium sp. 28 mw961519 mw 961514 guo et al. (2020) 916/927(99%), gaps: 5/927 (0%) mt020134.1 length: 955 china hysterothylacium sp. 29 mw 961522 mw 961515 guo et al. (2020) 920/930(99%), gaps: 8/930 (0%) mt020134.1 length: 955 china hysterothylacium sp. 30 mw 961521 mw 961516 guo et al. (2020) 921/929(99%), gaps: 5/929(0%) mt020134.1 length: 955 china table (1): detailed information of alignment of the its and its-sequence of ascaridoid nematode species present study with their genetic data including reference source, identical %, genbank (its) reference, and geographical locality. accession numbers are provided by ncbi for the collected larvae. 408 molecular characterization of anisakid nematodes query: a17_nc5 query id: lcl|query_442915 length: 922 sequence id: mt020134.1 length: 955 range 1: 31 to 953 score 1698 bits(919), expect:0.0, identities 922/923(99%), gaps:1/923(0%), strand: plus/plus query 1 tctccgacgtgcatgccttccatgtgcgcgtatacgtgagccgcgcagcaagttgcaca 59 sbjct 31 ......a..................................................... 90 query 900 cccgctgaatttaagcatataac 922 sbjct 931 ....................... 953 query: a18_nc5 query id: lcl|query_64135 length: 927 sequence id: mt269312.1 length: 990 range 1: 46 to 971 score 1700 bits (920), expect: 0.0, identities 925/927(99%), gaps: 2/927(0%), strand: plus/plus query 1 tctccgacgtgcatgccttccatgtgcgcgtatacgtgagccgcgcagcaagttgcaca 59 sbjct 46 ......a..................................................... 105 query 900 acccgctgaatttaagcatataactaa 926 sbjct 945 ........................... 971 query: a19_nc5 query id: lcl|query_46107 length: 927 sequence id: mh211527.1 length: 955, range 1: 31 to 922 , score 1554 bits(841), expect:0.0, identities 882/900(98%), gaps 9/900(1%), strand: plus/plus query 1 tctccgacgtgcatgccttccatgtgcgcgtatacgtgagccgcgcagcaagttgcaca 59 sbjct 31 ......a..................................................... 90 query 780 gttgctctgttggtggtgtggtggtgaaaaagggttttgtttgggatgcatgcttc cacg 839 sbjct 811 ...........................t.t-..-...-....-..........a..g.a 866 query 840 gttagtgattgagagtgatgcgaaggtggctatcgcctctgtttgggacctcagg tcagt 899 sbjct 867 .c......-.............-.............t.-.....t-........c..... 922 query: a20_nc5 query id: lcl|query_12519 length: 904 sequence id: mh211518.1 length: 955 , range 1: 41 to 937, score 1596 bits(864), expect:0.0, identities 892/904(99%), gaps: 7/904(0%), strand: plus/plus query 1 tgcatgccttccatgtgcgcgtatacgtgagccgcgcagcaagttgcacacatgt ggtgg 60 sbjct 41 ............................................................ 100 query 781 tggtggtgtggtggggataatggggttgtgtttgggaatgcatgcatcaaacagt tagtg 840 sbjct 821 ..............t....-...--..-.......--...........g-....c..... 873 query 841 atgagagtgatgcgaggtggctatcgctctgttttgacctcagctcagtcgtgac tactc 900 sbjct 874 ............................t.............................c. 933 query 901 gctg 904 sbjct 934.... 937 query: a21_nc5 query id: lcl|query_21131 length: 926 409 bannai et al. sequence id: mt020134.1 length: 955, range 1: 31 to 955, score 1696 bits (918), expect: 0.0, identities 923/925(99%), gaps: 1/925(0%), strand: plus/plus query 1 tctccgacgtgcatgccttccatgtgcgcgtatacgtgagccgcgcagcaagttgcaca 59 sbjct 31 ......a..................................................... 90 query 780 gttgctctgttggtggcgtggtggtgatatggtttgtttggatgcatgcatcgaca gcta 839 sbjct 811 ................t........................................... 870 query 840 gtgatgagagtgatgcgaggtggctatcgctttgttttgacctcagctcagtcgt gacta 899 sbjct 871 ............................................................ 930 query 900 cccgctgaatttaagcatataacta 924 sbjct 931 ......................... 955 query: a23_nc5 query id: lcl|query_43761 length: 919 sequence id: mt020134.1 length: 955, range 1: 31 to 949, score 1642 bits(889), expect:0.0, identities 911/921(99%), gaps:4/921(0%), strand: plus/plus query 1 tctccgagcgtgcatgccttccatgtgcgcgtatacgtgagccgcgcagcaagtt gcaca 60 sbjct 31 .......a.................................................... 90 sbjct 811 ...........................-.....-.......................... 868 query 841 tagtgatgatagtgatgcgaggtggctatcgctttgtttgacctcagctcagtcgtgac 899 sbjct 869 .........g..........................t....................... 928 query 900 tacttggtga-tttaagaata 919 sbjct 929 ...cc.c...a......c... 949 query: a24_nc5 query id: lcl|query_472435 length: 804 sequence id: mf539813.1 length: 906, range 1: 31 to 835, score 1480 bits(801), expect:0.0, identities 804/805(99%), gaps:1/805(0%), strand: plus/plus query 1 tctccgacgtgcatgccttccatgtgcgcgtatacgtgagccgcgcagcaagttgcaca 59 sbjct 31 ......a..................................................... 90 query 780 gttgctctgttggtggtgtggtggt 804 sbjct 811 ......................... 835 query: a25_nc5 query id: lcl|query_45659 length: 927 sequence id: mt020134.1 length: 955, range 1: 31 to 953, score:1642 bits(889), expect:0.0, identities: (916/92899%), gaps: 6/928(0%), strand: plus/plus diagram (1): details sequence polymorphisms pairwise with dots for identifies similarity at the alignment of the its sequences representing genotype from the present study, and genotype ncbi blast scores: 1h. amoyense (mw94896), 2hysterothylacium sp. (mw961525), 3 hysterothylacium sp. (mw961524), 4hysterothylacium sp. (mw961517), 5hysterothylacium sp. (mw961526). 410 molecular characterization of anisakid nematodes query 1 tctccgacgtgcatgccttccatgtgcgcgtatacgtgagccgcgcagcaagttgcaca 59 sbjct 31 ......a..................................................... 90 query 780 gttgctctgttggtggtgtggtgggaaaaaaggggtttggtttgggatgcatgca tcgac 839 sbjct 811 ........................tg.t.t-..--....-...-................ 865 query 840 ggttagtgatgagagtgatgcgaggtggctatcgctttgttttgacctcagctca gtcgt 899 sbjct 866 a.c......................................................... 925 query 900 gactacccgctgaatttaagcatataac 927 sbjct 926 ............................ 953 query: a26_nc5 query id: lcl|query_15851 length: 925 sequence id: mt020134.1 length: 955, range 1: 31 to 953, score 1668 bits(903), expect:0.0, identities 919/926(99%), gaps: 4/926(0%), strand: plus/plus query 1 tctccgacgtgcatgccttccatgtgcgcgtatacgtgagccgcgcagcaagttgcaca 59 sbjct 31 ......a..................................................... 90 query 780 gttgctctgttggtggtgtggtggtgaaaaagggtttggtttggatgcatgcatc gacgg 839 sbjct 811 ...........................t.t-..-...-....................a. 867 query 840 ctagtgatgagagtgatgcgaggtggctatcgctttgttttgacctcagctcagt cgtga 899 sbjct 868 ............................................................ 927 query 900 ctacccgctgaatttaagcatataac 925 sbjct 928 .......................... 953. query: a27_nc5 query id: lcl|query_53213 length: 927 sequence id: mt020134.1 length: 955, range 1: 31 to 953, score: 1565 bits (847), expect: 0.0, identities 903/929(97%), gaps: 8/929(0%), strand: plus/plus query 1 tctccgacgtgcatgccttccatgtgcgcgtatacgtgagccgcgcagcaagttgcaca 59 sbjct 31 ......a..................................................... 90 query 780 gttgctctgttgtggtgtggggggaaaaagggggtttttttggaatgcaggaaataaaa 838 sbjct 811 ............g........t..tg.t.t..---...g......-....t.c.tcg.c. 866 query 839 ggttattgatgaaaagtgatgcaaggtggttatggctttgttttgacctcagctc agtcg 898 diagram (2): details sequence polymorphisms pairwise with dots for identifies similarity at the alignment of the its sequences representing genotype from the present study, and genotype ncbi blast scores: 1 hysterothylacium sp. (mw961520), 2h. amoyense (mw940915), 3 hysterothylacium sp. (mw961523), 4hysterothylacium sp. (mw961527), 5hysterothylacium sp. (mw961518). 411 bannai et al. sbjct 867 .c.-.g......g-........g......c...c.......................... 924 query 899 tgactacccgctgaatttaagcatataac 927 sbjct 925 ............................. 953 query: a28_nc5 query id: lcl|query_94039 length: 1329 sequence id: mt020134.1 length: 955, range 1: 32 to 954, score 1646 bits (891), expect: 0.0, identities: 916/927(99%), gaps: 5/927(0%), strand: plus/plus query 1 ctccgacgtgcatgccttccatgtgcgcgtatacgtgagccgcgcagcaagttgcacac 59 sbjct 32 .....a...................................................... 91 query 780 ttgctctgttggtggtggtggtggtgaaaatggtttggtttggatgcatgccatcaacag 839 sbjct 812 .................-.........t.-......-.............-....g.... 867 query 840 ctattgatgaaagtgatgcgacgtggctatcgctttgttttgacctcagctcagtc gtga 899 sbjct 868 ...g......g..........g...................................... 927 query 900 ctacccgctgaatttcagcatataact 926 sbjct 928 ...............a........... 954 query: a29_nc5 query id: lcl|query_22587 length: 930 sequence id: mt020134.1 length: 955, range 1: 31 to 955, score 1655 bits(896), expect:0.0, identities 920/930(99%), gaps: 8/930(0%), strand: plus/plus query 1 tctccgacgtgcatgccttccatgtgcgcgtatacgtgagccgcgcagcaagttgcaca 59 sbjct 31 ......a..................................................... 90 query 780 gttgctctgttggtggtgtgg-gtgataagggggtttgttttggaatgcatgcatcaac 837 sbjct 811 .....................t.g.....t..---.......-..-...........g.. 865 query 838 agctagtgatgagagtgatgcgaggtggctatcgctttgttttgacctcagctca gtcgt 897 sbjct 866 ............................................................ 925 query 898 gactacccgctgaatttaagcatataacta 927 sbjct 926 .............................. 955 query: a30_nc5 query id: lcl|query_55461 length: 931 sequence id: mt020134.1 length: 955, range 1: 31 to 955, score 1666 bits (902), expect: 0.0, identities 921/929(99%), gaps: 5/929(0%), strand: plus/plus diagram(3): details sequence polymorphisms pairwise with dots for identifies similarity at the alignment of the its sequences representing genotype from the present study, and genotype ncbi blast scores: 1hysterothylacium sp. ( mw961519), 2h. amoyense (mw940915), 3hysterothylacium sp. (mw961522). 412 molecular characterization of anisakid nematodes query 1 tctccgcgcgtgcatgcctctccatgtgcgcgtatacgtgagccgcgcagcaagt tgcac 60 sbjct 31 ......aa...........-........................................ 89 query 781 tgttgctctgttggtggtgtggtgtgaatatgggtttggtttggatgcatgcatcgaca 839 sbjct 810 ........................g...-.....-...-..................... 866 query 840 gctagtgatgagagtgatgcgaggtggctatcgctttgttttgacctcagctcag tcgtg 899 sbjct 867 ............................................................ 926 query 900 actactcgctgaatttaagcatataacta 928 sbjct 927.....c....................... 955 phylogenetic analysis the evolutionary history was inferred by using the maximum likelihood method and tamura-nei model. the tree with the highest log likelihood (-9072.97) is shown. initial tree(s) for the heuristic search were obtained automatically by applying neighbor-join and bionj algorithms to a matrix of pairwise distances estimated using the tamura-nei model, and then selecting the topology with a superior log likelihood value. the tree is drawn to scale, with branch lengths measured in the number of substitutions per site (next to the branches). the proportion of sites where at least 1 unambiguous base is present in at least 1 sequence for each descendent clade is shown next to each internal node in the tree. this analysis involved 14 nucleotide sequences. there were a total of 1329 positions in the final dataset. our results revealed that the hysterothylacium nematodes selected for the phylogenetic tree of 13 gene sequences species constructed with maximum likelihood (ml), were divided into 6 major clades grouped with strong support in clades one, it represents the largest gene diversity of this type of fish, showed that exhibit a very close relationship. whereas other clades represent another diversity of families of the raphidascarididae (diag. 5). diagram (4): details sequence polymorphisms pairwise with dots for identifies similarity at the alignment of the its genotype from the present study, and genotype ncbi blast scores of hysterothylacium sp. (mw961521 sequences representing). 413 bannai et al. the genus nemipterus swainson, 1839, is the largest in the family nemipteridae, and consider as important as a food source (russell, 1990). by following many studies around the world, it has been found that these fish are endemic to different marine environments. through the review of many scientific sources and studies on food, in addition to the results of the current study, snails, starfish, and shrimps are an important source of fish nutrition, this high food diversity is the source of a wide variety of infections. many studies have been conducted on the detection of internal parasites, including larval stages, from these studies carried out by dadar et al. (2016) who reported “the occurrence of ascaridoid nematodes from n. japonicus in the arabian gulf”. also, nematollahi et al. (2018) examined 649 n. japonicus for helminth parasites in the arabian gulf (also off boushehr, iran). n. japonicus is an important marine food fish in asia. however, knowledge of the occurrence of its nematode parasites is still limited, the species composition and infection rate of ascaridoid nematodes in n. japonicus from the south china sea were studied for the first time by guo et al. (2020), recorded five ascaridoid species, namely anisakis typica (l3), hysterothylacium amoyense (l3), hysterothylacium sp. iv-a (l3), an adult of h. thalassini bruce, 1990 and raphidascaris lophii (wu, 1949) hartwich, 1975. diagram (5): (maximum likelihood (ml) phylogenetic relationships between characterization diversity of ascaridoid nematodes of n. japonicus larvae obtained in the present study and another database of ncbi species. this analysis involved 14 nucleotide sequences. there were a total of 1329 positions in the final dataset. h. persicum was used as an outgroup. 414 molecular characterization of anisakid nematodes the present study matched one of its aspects with that of a recent study in china by recording two types of nematode parasites, h. amoyense (l3), and hysterothylacium sp. (l3). as well as the results of the guo et al., (2020) study consider the species h. amoyense as the most prevalent species were found in the south china sea. this is exactly what corresponds to the results of the current study if it is found that the h. amoyense is prevalent species in n. japonicus off iraq. species of hysterothylacium are common nematode parasites of marine fishes worldwide (guo et al., 2014). marine fishes can act as both the paratenic/intermediate and/or the definitive hosts of hysterothylacium spp. (køie, 1993). various studies demonstrated that internal transcribed spacers (its, its-1, and its’s-2) of the nuclear ribosomal dna (rdna) provide genetic markers for the accurate identification of a range of species of ascaridoids. also, more studies indicated that sibling species can be differentiated based on the its sequences (zhou et al., 2002). in the current study, significant changes were observed, the prevalence of some species of parasites that were related to the genus anisakis in the study area has absent when compared to other previous studies in this region, perhaps due to environmental changes, through high temperatures or salinity concentration values, which are important and specific factors for hatching some species of parasites, the rarity of the final host. the prevalence of infection in intermediate hosts varies greatly, depending on the hosts and age, as well as on the fishing area. this was recorded when compared with studies conducted outside the sampling area in the arabian gulf region or open water from the indian ocean and adjacent seas. higher infections with raphidascarididae were found than that observed by shamsi et al. (2016) in bander abas, hormozan province, off arabian gulf. their study of “600 fish belonging to five popular species of fish. the important studies in arabian gulf regions were carried out by al-salim and ali (2010), ghadami et al. (2017), and zhao et al. (2017) from marine fish in iraqi waters). what they found was that “the hysterothylacium species are perhaps the most abundant and diverse group of marine ascaridoid”. this also corresponds to the results of the current study. the prevalence of h. amoyense in different types of fishes reported by and chen et al. (2018) and guo et al. (2020) that were found in the present study were similar. we also found some distinct morphology and its sequences but due to a lack of adult specimens. unfortunately, we are referred to as hysterothylacium spp. because we haven’t accurately identified the species level due to it needs to study the mature stage of the parasite, using male and female morphology, and characterization of reproductive organs. conclusions although, the specific broad studies of molecular characterization of ascaridoid nematodes and their larval stages in many parts of the world, the arabian gulf nematodes diversity, particularly in iraqi marine waters, have not been completely understood. our study provided some insights into the taxonomy and systematics of these parasites, also support similar studies elsewhere both morphological methods and molecular approaches to accurately 415 bannai et al. identify large numbers and to determine the abundance, diversity, and infection levels of anisakid nematodes off northwest arabian gulf fishery, iraq, in light of these variables, it has become clear that it is necessary to conduct more cooperation study, with scientific teams in the regions referred to above to study the genetic diversity of ascaridoid to identify its most important species. acknowledgment this study was supported by the department of veterinary microbiology and parasitology, college of veterinary medicine, and marine science centre, university of basrah, iraq. conflict of interest statement we are the authors of the submitting manuscript, declare and confirm that no significant financial or other relationship with any providers of commercial services discussed in the manuscript and any financial supporters of the research. literature cited albadran, b. 2004. shatt al-arab delta, southern iraq, sedimentological study marine mesopotamia, 19 (2): 311-322. ali, a. h., mhaisen, f. t. and khamees, n. r. 2014. checklists of nematodes of freshwater and marine fishes of basrah province, 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(2021) 16 (4): 399-420. جنس ضمن anisakid nematodesلنيماتودا ونوا االتوصيف الجزيئي لأ hysterothylacium من سمكة الباسج الياباني nemipterus japanius (bloch, 1791) (perciformes, nemiperidae) أ أمن املياه البحرية العراقية ***شاكوفيش شمس يو ** ، منى محمد جوري *ماجد عبد العزيز بناي .، البصرة، العراقالبحرية ، مركزعلوم البحار، جامعة البصرة الفقريات قسم* فرع األحياء املجهرية البيطرية والطفيليات، كلية الطب البيطري، جامعة البصرة،** .البصرة، العراق العلوم الحيوانية والبيطرية، جامعة تشارلز ستورت، واغا واغا، نيو ساوث ويلز كلية *** .، أستراليا2678 20/12/2021، تأريخ النشر: 25/07/2021، تأريخ القبول: 08/05/2021تأريخ االستالم: الخالصة هذه الدراسة نظرة جديدة على املعلومات القيمة حول البنية املتنوعة قدمت nemipterus النوع أسماكاألسكاريدويد وتناقش ثراء األنواع املحدود في لسكان japonicas (bloch, 1791) رتبة perciformes، عائلةnemiperidae. 33 0 58°29تتكون منطقة الصيد من مواقع مختلفة في الخليج العربي ) 00n48°28 0 20 e)، 315تم فحص ما مجموعه و ( 287سمكة بحريةn= حيث ) ( املنتشرة داخل األحشاء من أعضاءn = 763مراحل اليرقات ) عزلتبالعدوى. أصيبت . 2.65٪ ، وكانت شدة اإلصابة 91.11األسماك ، مع نسبة اصابة 420 molecular characterization of anisakid nematodes جري ُ التحليل الجزيئي على ثالثين فردا من الذين فحصوا مظهريا، التي أظهرت أ ( rdnaالنووية ) rdnaمن its-1و its منطقةبعض االختالفات، عن طريق تضخيم . ss1/nc13rو nc5/nc2باستخدام مجموعات البرايمر التمهيدي pcrبواسطة واستنادا إلى قاعدة التشابة في البنك الجيني في ؛mega xوأجريت تحليالت تطورية في قاعدة بيانات جينبانك أظهرت أنها تنتمي إلى الديدان الخيطية أنيساكيد، على وجه hysterothylacium تميزا من جنسم taxaصنيفا وانها تنتمي إلى أحد عشر ؛الخصوص ward & magath, 1917 رتبةrhabditida، عائلةraphidascarididae و نوع واحد تم ، . (h. amoyense (hsü, 1933) deardorff & overstreet, 1980 تحديده متمثال بالنوع بعض من ،hysterothylacium في الدراسة الحالية أحد عشر نوعا من ُسجل اذاة تسلسل تعدد األشكال، كشفت عن أفراد مختلفين جدد من أنواع اليرقات التي مح هو n. japonicus، وان الكاملةيمكن اعتمادها كنوع جديد، إذا تم الكشف عن االطوار هذه حول تصنيف املفاهيمتقدم الدراسة الحالية بعض ، كمامضيف جديد في العالم أخرى من تدعم دراسات مماثلة تم نشرها في أماكن الطفيليات ، باإلضافة إلى ذلك ، .العالم bull 367 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum abdo et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2024) 18 (2): 367-380. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2024.18.2.0367 original article morphological, palynological, and molecular studies on pseuderucaria clavata (boiss. & reut.) o. e. schulz (1916) (brassicales, brassicaceae) in egypt amany s. abdo*♦, shafik d. ibrahim** and azza b. hamed*** * botany and microbiology department, cairo university, giza, 12613, egypt. **agriculture genetic engineering research institute (ageri), agriculture research center (arc), giza, egypt. ⃰ ⃰ ⃰ botany and microbiology department, cairo university, giza, 12613, egypt. ♦corresponding author e-mail: amanys@sci.cu.edu.eg received: 31 may 2024, revised: 25aug. 2024, accepted : 28 aug. 2024, published: 20 december 2024 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract no detailed morphological, palynological, or molecular studies had previously been conducted on pseuderucaria clavata (boiss. & reut.) o. e. schulz (1916) (brassicales, brassicaceae). this species exhibits two distinct forms with different flower colors: violet and white. a taxonomic revision of these color forms identified two subspecies pseuderucaria clavata (boiss. & reut.) o. e. schulz subsp. clavata (1916), and p. clavata subsp. tourneuxii (cross.) maire (1933). molecular study using the chloroplast barcoding markers rbcl and matk to elucidate the taxonomic relationships approved, and supported that the two color forms represent two different subspecies. the sequences of the two confirmed subspecies have been documented and deposited in the global database under the accession numbers or573855, or573856, or573857, or573858, or573859, or573860, or636847, or636848, or636849, or636850, or636851, and or636852. additionally, the analysis of pollen grains characteristics in both subspecies confirmed the high taxonomic value of pollen features. keywords: barcoding, egypt, pollen, pseuderucaria clavata, subspecies. introduction brassicaceae (cruciferae) or mustard family is one of the largest angiosperm families, comprising 52 tribes, 351 genera, and 3977 species (kiefer et al., 2014), mainly distributed in temperate areas with highest diversity in mediterranean, irano-turanian and west north american regions (tai-yien et al., 1987). this family is one of the ten most economically important plant families (rich, 1991), as it contains a considerable diversity of cultivated food crops. many of these crops are used to produce oils and animal fodder as well (warwick, 2010). there is also a wide range of condiments and ornamental plants. pseuderucaria o.e. schulz (1916) is one of the genera of family brassicaceae in egypt belonging to tribe brassiceae de candolle (1821) (german et al., 2023). genus pseuderucaria o.e. schulz, bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799-print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2024.18.2.0367 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2024.18.2.0367 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8470-8940 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8152-1999 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7971-1048 mailto:amanys@sci.cu.edu.eg https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 368 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (2): 367-380. morphological, palynological, and molecular studies 1916 is represented by two species p. teretifolia (desf.) o.e. schulz which is native to egypt, libya, tunisia, and algeria (dobignard and chatelain, 2011), and pseuderucaria clavata (boiss. and reut.) o.e. schulz. which tolerates high temperature and is found in sandy and stony deserts and plains. it is native to algeria, tunisia, libya, egypt, palestine, and jordan. there are two accepted subspecies representing pseuderucaria clavata which are p. clavata subsp. clavata (boiss. & reut.) o.e. schulz, and pseuderucaria clavata subsp. tourneuxii (coss.) maire (roggero et al., 2002). pseuderucaria clavata subsp. clavata which is native to egypt and palestine (dobignard and chatelain, 2011). pollen morphology of family brassicaceae is more closely related to tamaricaceae where both families have tricolpate pollen with reticulate tectum (perveen et al., 2004). according to the number and position of apertures, the pollen grains belong to the trizonocolpate aperture class and have reticulate or finely reticulate exine ornamentation (erdtman, 1972; moore and webb, 1978; reile, 1992; el ghazali, 1993; abdel khalik et al., 2002). bicolor in flowering plants can be caused by unstable flora gene alleles, infections, or genetically inherited patterns (lokko and josephine, 2010). recently, dna barcoding has gained popularity as a credible method of species identification. it is employed globally to support taxonomy, biodiversity assessment, and genetic resource conservation, as well as to get beyond the limitations of morphology-based taxonomy (ho et al., 2021). rbcl and matk coding genes were used to carry out a phylogenetic analysis of 16 egyptian species of brassicaceae by abdelhady et al. (2021). rbcl and matk, as potential dna barcodes were used to distinguish brassicaceae economic species by sun et al. (2015). the aim of this study is investigate the variation range of the examined p. clavata populations, to identify the taxonomic status of these color forms and document these taxa using dna markers. additionally, the study seeks to clarify the molecular relationships among these color forms, and determine the pollen grain characters of these two color forms using sem. materials and methods plant material: the herbarium specimens housed at cairo university herbarium, along with other authentic specimens housed in virtual herbaria available online (the jstor global plants database) were examined, index herbariorum is followed for acronyms, and authors' names are abbreviated using ipni (brummit and powell, 1992). fieldwork conducted between 2020 and 2023; fresh representative specimens of pseuderucaria clavata belonging to 50 populations were collected from the eastern desert (10 populations from five different localities with coordinates: 29°53'33'' & 31°52'20'', 29°58'14'' & 31°20'04'', 30°01'34'' & 31°38'29'', 30°04'18'' & 31°19'50'', and 30°06'39''& 31°37'15''). 20 individuals / population were investigated to determine the morphological diversity in all localities. different stem, leaf, flower, and fruit morphological criteria were examined. voucher specimens were placed in (cai). 369 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum abdo et al. sample preparation for scanning electron microscope (sem): for the pollen study, wadi digla was selected as the study site, as it represents both colour forms of p. clavata. where the two color forms of p. clavata were represented. fresh anthers were collected from the floral buds of the studied color forms. the investigated anthers were placed through an etoh dehydration series, and dried using the liquid co2 (carbon dioxide)-based cpd drying technique with a denton dcp-1 critical point drying device. using this method, surface tension didn’t influence the removal of liquid from tissues. pollen samples were prepared and scanned at 20 kv using a jeol 1200 ex sem (jeol, japan). size measurements were recorded from 25 randomly selected grains. the pollen terminology followed the guideline of punt et al., (2007). molecular study: the genomic dna was extracted from one gram of juvenile leaves (3 samples/color form) that had been powdered in liquid nitrogen using the ctab (cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide) extraction buffer approach, as described by doyle and doyle (1990) and modified by allen et al. (2006). matk and rbcl barcoding analysis: pcr reactions: pcr amplification reaction mixture for rbcl and matk included 40 ng dna, 1x buffer (promega), 0.2 mm dntps, 15 mm mgcl2, 1μ of taq dna polymerase (gotaq, promega), 20 pmol of each primer, and ultra-pure water to a final volume of 50 μl (wattoo et al., 2016). the primer sequences were as follows: matk-f: 5'cgatctattcattcaatatttc-3' and matk-r: 5'-tctagcacacgaaagtcgaagt3'; with 900bp/each and rbcl-f: 5'-atgtcaccacaaa cagaga ctaaagc-3' and rbcl-r: 5'-tcgcat gtacc tgcagtagc-3'; with 600bp/each. pcr amplification and product detection: the perkin elmer/ geneamp® pcr system 9700 (pe applied biosystems) was used to carry out the pcr amplification, which was designed to complete 40 cycles following the initial denaturation cycle, which would last for 5 min at 94°c. each cycle was made up of three steps: a denaturation step at 94°c for 30 seconds, an annealing step at 50°c for 30 seconds, and an elongation stage at 72°c for one minute. the primer extension phase was prolonged in the last cycle to 7 min at 72°c. by electrophoresis on a 1.5% agarose gel containing ethidium bromide (0.5 μg/ml) in 1x tbe buffer, run at 95 volts, the pcr products were detected and separated (el-sayed, 2022). a 100 bp dna ladder was used as a molecular size standard. uv light was used to view pcr products, and they were photographed using (bio-rad 2000) gel documentation system (abdo et al., 2023). pcr products purification: pcr reaction mixture was transferred to a 1.5 ml microfuge tube, and then three volumes of binding buffer 1 were added. the mixture solution was centrifuged after standing in the ez-10 spin column for 2 minutes at room temperature. the column was then centrifuged for two minutes at 10.000 rpm after adding 750 μl of wash solution. the column was washed again and spun at 10.000 rpm for another minute to eliminate any leftover wash solution. the column was transferred to a clean 1.5 ml microfuge tube, then 50 μl elution buffer was added, and the mixture was kept for 2 minutes at room temperature. pure dna was then stored at -20 °c (elian et al., 2021). 370 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (2): 367-380. morphological, palynological, and molecular studies matk and rbcl sequencing analysis: the pcr product was sequenced in an automated sequencer abi prism 3730xl analyzer using big dye tm terminator cycle sequencing kits and the manufacturer's suggested methods (mohdly et al., 2023). computational analysis: for p. clavata color forms, the obtained sequences were aligned using the blast (basic local alignment search tool), which is available online at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/blast. mega5 was used to create a phylogenetic tree, and determine pairwise distances using the sequences that were deposited on the gene bank with the following accessions or573855, or573856, or573857, or573858, or573859, or573860, or636847, or636848, or636849, or636850, or636851, and or636852. results pseuderucaria clavata (boiss. and reut.) o.e.schulz (1916) pseuderucaria clavata (boiss. and reut.) o.e.schulz, beibl. bot. jahrb. syst. 119: 54 (1916). basionym: moricandia clavata boiss. & reut. p. clavata is an annual, glabrous, glaucous herb; tap root length 8-11 cm; stem terete, ascending, branching from the base, by 10-40 cm; leaves are petiolate, fleshy, 1-9 cm long, pinnatisect, with linear, terete, obtuse lobes; racemes loose, and few flowered; flowers are conspicuous, ebracteate, pedicellate, sepals violet, or violet with green tip. the two outer sepals 7.5-10 × 2.5-5 mm, and the two inner sepals 7-9 × 1-1.5 mm. the length of petals with long clawed, is 1.3-2.3, and limb width 0.5-0.7 cm. filaments of long stamens 7-10 x 0.5-2 mm; anthers yellow, 2-4 x 0.5-1 mm, filaments of short stamens 6 x 0.15 mm; anthers 2.5 x 0.8 mm. ovary, 5.5-9 x 0.9-1 mm; style short, 0.5-1 x 0.2-1 mm, stigma 0.5 x 0.4-1 mm; pedicel 2-8 x 0.5-1mm, accrescent in fruit. fruit linear siliqua, 4-6.5 x 0.1-0.15 cm. seeds are small, brownish, 100-120 per fruit, in 2 rows, ellipsoid, and compressed. p. clavata exhibits two color forms that are identical in all morphological features except the color of petals. the first form has flowers with violet petals, while the flowers of the second form having white to pale violet petals (plate 1). the geographical distribution of the two color forms of pseuderucaria clavata in egypt co-existing along the mediterranean coast, in nile delta, and sinai. the studied populations of pseuderucaria clavata were collected from the sandy and stony deserts, as well as plains in wadi digla, and along the cairo-el qattamia suez road (galala desert). http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/blast http://www.ville-ge.ch/musinfo/bd/cjb/africa/details.php?langue=an&id=185041 371 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum abdo et al. plate (1): phenotypic features of the pseuderucaria clavata subspecies, a & c subsp. tourneuxii; and b & d subsp. clavata. genetic correlation between the two color forms of p. clavata: according to the phylogenetic dendrogram created using matk sequences, two clusters were identified (diag. 1). all accessions of the first form with violet flowers (m1, m2, and m3) generated the first cluster, with very low genetic distance ranging from 0.003 between m2 and m3 to 0.008 between m1 and m3. the second clusters included all accessions of the second form characterized by white to pale violet flowers. the genetic distances between the accessions were also very low ranging from 0.001 between m4 and m5 to 0.016 between m4 and m6. similarly, the phylogenetic dendrogram based on rbcl sequences also split into two main clusters (diag. 2). the first cluster included all accessions of the first form (r1, r2, and r3) with very low genetic distance ranging from 0.001 between r1 and r3 to 0.002 between r2 and r3. the second form accessions (r3, r4, and r5) constructed the second cluster with a genetic distance of 0.001. the molecular data indicated that genetic factors were responsible for the phenotypic variability between the two identified color forms, leading to their classification as two subspecies: p. clavata subsp. clavata represent the first form (violet) and p. clavata subsp. tourneuxii represent the second color form (white). the confirmed sequences of the two subspecies were the first to be added to the global database. our nucleotide sequences of both a b siliqua fruit leave s siliqua fruit leave s c d 372 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (2): 367-380. morphological, palynological, and molecular studies matk and rbcl genes were deposited with the following accession codes or573855, or573856, or573857, or573858, or573859, or573860, or636847, or636848, or636849, or636850, or636851 and or636852. diagram (1): phylogenetic dendrogram based on matk sequences, constructed by upgma based on values of genetic distance between the studied populations of p. clavata subsp. clavata (m1, m2, & m3) and p. clavata subsp. tourneuxii (m4, m5, & m6). 373 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum abdo et al. diagram (2): phylogenetic dendrogram based on rbcl sequences, constructed by upgma based on values of genetic distance between the studied populations of p. clavata subsp. clavata (r1, r2, & r3) and p. clavata subsp. tourneuxii (r4, r5, & r6). pollen features using scanning electron microscope (sem): pollen grains of the two identified pseuderucaria subspecies are isopolar, radially symmetrical, tricolpate, with microreticulate to reticulate exine ornamentation (pl. 2). size: pollen grains are small in the two subspecies; the pollen grains of p. clavata subsp. tourneuxii have a polar axis length of 13.63 µm, and an equatorial diameter of 15.02 µm. the pollen grains of p. clavata subsp. clavata have a polar axis length of 15 µm, and an equatorial diameter of 15.7 µm (tab. 1). shape: based on the p/e ratio (tab. 1), the shape of pollen grains is oblate-spheroidal in both subspecies; p/e ratio is 0.91 in subsp. tourneuxii. while subsp. clavata has p/e ratio of 0.96. apertures: both subspecies have tricolpate pollen grains. the colpi are wider at the equator and gradually narrow as they approach the poles. also, both have different colpi dimensions (tab. 1). subsp. clavata possesses longer 8.28 µm and wider colpi 3.62 µm. while subsp. tourneuxii has colpi with a length of 5.01 µm and a width of 2.77 µm. exine structure and ornamentation: the exine ornamentation in both subspecies is microreticulate (lumina less than 1 µm in diameter) to reticulate (1 µm < lumina diameter < 2 374 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (2): 367-380. morphological, palynological, and molecular studies µm). the variable lumina size and shape (ranging from polygonal to circular or indeterminate shape) makes the exine appear heterobrochate. the luminal diameter is greatest near the equator and gradually shrank towards the poles. in the two subspecies, there are no interluminal tissues, and the reticulum appears open. the muri walls have a warty surface in both subspecies (pl. 2). table (1): pollen morphological characters of the two identified subspecies of p. clavata in egypt. pollen character p. clavata subsp. tourneuxii p. clavata subsp. clavata polar axis (p, µm) 12.78(13.63) -14.48 14.48(15) -15.53 equatorial axis (e, µm) 14.91(15.02) -15.12 15.53(15.7) -15.87 p/e (µm) 0.91 0.96 pollen shape oblate spheroidal oblate spheroidal colpus length (l, µm) 4.69(5.01) -5.33 7.94(8.28) -8.63 colpus width (w, µm) 2.34(2.77) -3.20 3.45(3.62) -3.80 l/w 1.81 2.29 no. of lumina/µm 1.16(1.74) -2.33 1.55(1.94) -2.33 lumina diameter (µm) 0.26(0.73) -1.20 0.34(0.82) -1.29 muri width (µm) 0.17(1.29) -2.41 0.17(1.59) -3.01 muri wall surface warty warty plate (2): pollen grains photomicrographs obtained with scanning electron microscopy (sem) of p. clavata subsp. tourneuxii (a & b), and p. clavata subsp. clavata (c & d) showing pollen shape and exine pattern. a c d 375 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum abdo et al. discussion the current taxonomic investigation on the egyptian pseuderucaria clavata, based on morphological characters, revealed the presence of two petal colour forms (violet and white, pl. 1). the investigation of p. clavata genetic diversity had received little attention for this species in the earlier researches. the study aims to explain how genetic variation affects the phenotypic diversity of egyptian color forms. it is possible to determine the genetic diversity of individuals or populations using morphological and molecular markers, given that morphological traits are constrained by the environment and the stage of plant development (el-domyati et al., 2011). therefore, this work used molecular markers to examine the interspecific similarities between the identified morphological forms of p. clavata. the molecular markers have been applied in the fields of taxonomy, genetics, physiology, and embryology. the created matk dendrogram (diag. 1) clustered all accessions of the first form into a single cluster with very low genetic distance ranging from 0.003 to 0.008. similarly, when rbcl was used, the genetic distance ranges from 0.001 to 0.002 between the first form accessions (diag. 2). the second form accessions gave the second cluster in both matk and rbcl dendrograms with a genetic distance of 0.001 for rbcl and a range of 0.001 to 0.016 for matk. the retrieved molecular results confirmed that barcoding technique using matk and rbcl sequences can differentiate between the two color forms. these findings revealed that the morphological diversity between the two identified forms is genetically controlled consequently, these colour forms were treated as two distinct subspecies. p. clavata subsp. clavata represent the first color form (violet) and this agrees with boulos (1999), who recorded that subsp. clavata is characterized by violet to pink petals, and p. clavata subsp. tourneuxii represent the second color form (white to pale violet). according to maire (1933), the type of subsp. tourneuxii was collected from egypt, in addition this subsp. tourneuxii is distributed in neighboring countries of egypt including libya, tunisia, and algeria (dobignard and chatelain, 2011), as all of these countries are located within the same phytogeographic region known as saharo-sindian region. according to brassibase, pseuderucaria clavata is represented by two subspecies p. clavata subsp. clavata (boiss. & reut.) o.e. schulz and p. clavata subsp. tourneuxii (coss.) maire. the morphological diversity of p. clavata pollen has never been thoroughly investigated using sem. the sem study of pollen grains showed differences in pollen size and apertures (colpus length and width) between the two identified subspecies. the palynological results supported the molecular results achieved by rbcl and matk genes sequencing. our findings highlight the potential of pollen features for taxonomic classification, particularly in describing egyptian subspecies. these findings align with those of amer and abdo's (2014) who demonstrated that pollen characteristics have a high taxonomic significance at the infraspecific level. 376 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (2): 367-380. morphological, palynological, and molecular studies research studies by rollins and banerjee (1979), anchev and deneva (1997), and arora and modi (2011) on pollen grains from brassicaceae confirm our results on pollen morphology. pollen grains of p. clavata were small in the two identified subspecies, with a polar axis 12.78-15.53 μm. erdtman (1969) divided pollen grains into six sizes based on the polar axis: very small grains < 10 μm, small grains 10–25 μm, medium grains 25–50 μm, large grains 50–100 μm, very large grains 100–200 μm, gigantic grains > 200 μm. the pollen grains of the two identified subspecies are you oblate-spheroidal in shape. this agrees with perveen et al., (2004) who recorded that pollen grains in brassicaceae are generally prolate to sub-prolate or prolate–spheroidal , but rarely oblate–spheroidal. in subsp. tourneuxii, the p/e ratio was 0.91, while the p/e ratio in subsp. clavata was 0.96, oblate spheroidal shape having 0.88 ≤ p/e ratio ≤ 0.99, according to erdtman (1986). abdel khalik et al., (2002) confirmed minor differences in the size, shape and apertures in pollen of the brassicaceae, but significant variation in exine ornamentation, which varies among genera within tribes and among species within the same genus. both identified subspecies have tricolpate pollen grains with microreticulate (lumina less than 1 µm in diameter) to reticulate (1 µm < lumina diameter < 2 µm). the tricolpate pollen grains of the brassicaceae were also observed by abdel-khalik et al., (2002), who additionally identified three forms of exine ornamentation (coarsely reticulate, reticulate, and microreticulate) based on lumina size. lahham and el-eisawi (1987) studied the pollen grains of 87 species of brassicaceae and found that the majority were tricolpate. apple and alshehbaz (2002) also reported tricolpate reticulate pollen in the family brassicaceae. rollins and banerjee (1979) also noted that the surface of crucifer pollen is reticulate reporting a strong reticular pattern of the muri. anchev and deneva (1997) indicated two types: the first type is reticulate with lumina equal to or exceeding the size of the muri, this type is found in all tribes; the second type has aperforated reticulate ornamentation with lumina equal in size or smaller than the muri, this type found in erysimum, alyssum, and brassica. conclusions two subspecies of p. clavata (boiss. & reut.) o.e. schulz were identified in egypt as a result of the taxonomic revision of this species which are p. clavata (boiss. & reut.) o.e. schulz subsp. clavata and p. clavata subsp. tourneuxii (cross.) maire, this identification was confirmed and validated through the molecular investigation using the chloroplast barcoding markers matk and rbcl. it was confirmed by examining the characteristics of pollen grains in both subspecies that these features had a high taxonomic value. conflict of interest statement "the authors declare no conflicts of interest". literature cited abdelhady, s. a., sharaf, a. a., abdelsalam, a. z. e., soliman, k. a. and abushady a. m. 2021. phylogeny validation for some egyptian brassicaceae endemic species. arab universities journal of agricultural sciences, 29(1): 387-399. 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(2024) 18 (2): 367-380. نباتلجزيئية بالينولوجية و،ورفولوجية م دراسة pseuderucaria clavata (boiss. & reut.) o.e. schulz في مصر ⃰ ⃰ ⃰ عزة بدر فرحات و ⃰ ⃰ شفيق ابراهيم،⃰ امانى سالم عبده .قسم النبات وامليكروبيولوجى، كلية العلوم، جامعة القاهرة، الجيزة، مصر ⃰ معهد أبحاث الهندسة الوراثية الزراعية، مركز البحوث الزراعية، الجيزة، مصر. ⃰ ⃰ قسم النبات وامليكروبيولوجى، كلية العلوم، جامعة القاهرة، الجيزة، مصر. ⃰ ⃰ ⃰ 20/12/2024، تأريخ النشر: 28/8/2024القبول: ، 25/8/2024راجعة:امل،31/5/2024االستالم: الخالصة جزيئية تفصيلية سابقة لم يتم إجراء أي دراسات مورفولوجية أو بالينولوجية أو شكلين هذا النوع ُيظهر . pseuderucaria clavata (brassicales, brassicaceae)لنبات الدراسة الجزيئية باستخدام واألبيض(. ولقد كانت بألوان زهور مختلفة )البنفسجي rbcl وmatk لتوضيح العالقات التصنيفية مفيدة للغاية، ودعمت أن الشكلين يمثالن .p. clavata subsp، وp. clavata subsp. clavate نوعين فرعيين مختلفين هما com.turneuxii. يداع تسلسالت النوعين الفرعيين في قاعدة البيانات العاملية تم إ ، or573855 ،or573856 ،or573857 ،or573858: بأرقام االنضمام التالية or573859 ،or573860 ،or636847 ،or636848 ،or636849 ،or636850 ، or636851 و or636852 وكذلك أكدت دراسة صفات حبوب اللقاح في كال النوعين لقيمة التصنيفية العالية لخصائص حبوب اللقاح.على ا bull 777 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2025) 18 (4): 777-791. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2025.18.4.0777 original article morphological and molecular description for a new record of nematode acrobeloides varius kim, kim & park, 2017 (rhabditida, cephalobidae) from iraq zahraa yahia kadhim*,** harith saeed al-warid** and jawad b. al-zaidawi*** * research & development directorate, ministry of higher education and scientific research, baghdad, iraq **department of biology, college of science, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq ***authority of scientific research, ministry of higher education and scientific research, baghdad, iraq corresponding author: zahraa.yahia76@gmail.com received: 27 dec. 2024, revised: 20 feb. 2025, accepted: 23 feb. 2025, published:20 december 2025 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract this study aimed to identify and describe one of the bacterial feeder nematode acrobeloides varius kim, kim and park, 2017 (rhabditida, cephalobidae), which was isolated from soil samples that were collected from baghdad, central of iraq, and was classified using both morphological and molecular criteria. all specimens of a. varius were cultured, identified and described using morphometric criteria. selected specimens (zah. irq3 or994579.1 isolate) of this species were characterized by having the body length of the male ranging from (184.94 – 221.72 μm), the body length of the female ranging (507.38 – 521.92 μm) and the body length of the juvenile ranging from (355.53 – 490.35 μm). selected specimens of this species were molecularly characterized using the partial 18s rrna gene sequences. the 18s-rrna sequence of zah. irq3 or994579.1 isolate had a range of (100%) sequence homology with the 18s rrna sequence of a. varius available in the ncbi database. a phylogenetic tree was created to separate this species from closely related genera and species. a. varius zah. irq3 or994579.1 isolate represents the first record of this species in iraq. keywords: bacterial feeders’ nematode, iraq, morphometric, soil, 18s rrna gene. introduction the family cephalobidae includes members of the genus acrobeloides cobb, 1924; thorne, 1937, which are bacterial feeders and among the most prevalent and widespread nematode groups in a variety of terrestrial settings, including sand dunes (wall et al., 2002), hills (boström, 1993), forest (háněl, 1999) and agricultural land (pervez, 2011). previous investigations have identified morphological and morphometric differences in this group, bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799, print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2025.18.4.0777 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8767-5363 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6945-2652 https://orcid.org/0009-0009-1219-845x mailto:zahraa.yahia76@gmail.com https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 778 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 777-791. morphological and molecular description including body size, nerve ring and excretory location, and tail form (anderson, 1965, 1968; de ley et al., 1999; abolafia and peña-santiago, 2003). these morphological variations frequently cause species-level taxonomy to be misguided by impeding species identification and delimitation. only 29 of the 40 nominal species that have been described in this genus thus far may be considered valid (andrássy, 2005), including two species that have been reported in korea (kim et al., 2016, 2017): a. nanus de man, 1880 (anderson, 1968) and a. varius (kim et al., 2017). kamal et al. (2024) isolated three species of nematodes within acrobeloides (cephalobidae) from the middle part of iraq: these species (a. saeedi siddiqi et al., 1992, a. apiculatus (thorne, 1925) thorne, 1937, and a. bodenheimeri (steiner, 1936) thorne, 1937) were the first to be reported in iraq. in the detritus food web, soil nematodes play a key role; examining their taxonomy and feeding habits, allows us to learn a lot about changes in the soil environment (gupta and yeates, 1997; neher, 2001). in soil food webs, microfauna predators such as nematodes and protozoa are essential for connecting primary consumers like bacteria and fungi to higher trophic levels. they contribute to soil nutrient cycling and mineralize elements contained in microbial tissue by preying on micro-organisms (neidig et al., 2010; kadhim and mahmood, 2014; kadhim, 2021, 2022). because nematodes have unique characteristics other soil organisms lack, their community structure can be an important bioindicator in environmental monitoring (bongers and ferris, 1999). in pcr, amplification is performed using nematode dna or the worm itself as a template (seesao et al., 2014). revised nematode classification and identification methods based on 18s rrna sequence similarities have been proposed by a number of researchers, with a renewed emphasis on the pcr approach (dawkins and spencer, 1989). the 18s rrna gene is frequently used to differentiate between unrelated nematode species and has been shown to develop more conservatively than the coi gene (prosser et al., 2013; armenteros et al., 2014). despite its inability to distinguish among closely related nematode species, the 18s rrna gene conserved regions have made it possible to create a number of promising primer sets that may be used to amplify an extensive diversity of worms in a general manner (porazinska et al., 2009; sapkota and nicolaisen, 2015; macheriotou et al., 2019). it has been demonstrated that the 18s small subunit ribosomal gene is a useful marker for nematode barcoding (floyd et al., 2002). as a result, an increasing number of nematode databases are being created for use as model organisms in studies on a wide range of issues related to human health. classification methods vary from those that rely on proteins or dna to those that employ more advanced techniques (faraj et al., 2019; faraj and alamery, 2020; bhat et al., 2022). the study of soil nematodes in iraq has been a topic of interest in recent years. additionally, molecular characterizations of bacterial feeder nematodes in iraq have been conducted through some surveys in different regions. the literature on soil nematodes in iraq highlights the importance of studying the genetic, phylogenetic relationships and distribution of nematodes in iraqi soils. 779 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum kadhim et al. materials and methods collection of soil samples: a total of 54 soil samples were collected from baghdad province, in the middle of iraq, which included three crop fields located in the north of baghdad city, al rashidiya district (33˚25ˈ13.4̎ n 44˚21ˈ45.3̎ e), middle of baghdad, al jadriya (33˚16ˈ35.7̎ n 44˚23ˈ26.3̎ e) and west of baghdad, abo ghareeb (33˚19ˈ15.5̎ n 44˚11ˈ57.1̎ e). the samples were collected within two seasons: spring (april–may 2023) and summer (july 2023). each soil sample was composed of 5-7 subsamples randomly collected around each plant in a square -shaped fashion using a hand spade at a depth of 15-20 cm (adegbite et al., 2006). sub-samples placed in a plastic bag, mixed thoroughly, tightly closed to prevent drying, and then labeled. the samples were kept away from direct sunlight, then stored at 8-10 ◦c in a cooler container until they were sent to the laboratory for extraction and for estimating the presence of nematodes. three samples were taken from different parts of each site. the weight of each soil sample was 1.5-2 kg. three replicates were taken from each homogenized subsample to collect nematodes (coyne et al., 2007). isolation of nematodes: the baermann funnel technique was used to isolate nematodes from 250g of soil (morise et al., 2012). ten ml water suspensions were collected from each replicate and specifically screened by examining 1 ml chosen at random. a dissecting microscope (kruss optronic/ germany) was used to isolate nematodes. cultivation of nematodes and morphological measurements: last-stage larvae of the greater wax moth galleria mellonella (linnaeus, 1758) were used to reproduce the isolated nematodes for permanent slides and dna extraction. g. mellonella were killed with a sterilized lancet placed into a petri dish (9 cm in diameter) with two pieces of filter paper. the isolated nematodes were added to the petri dish, which was held at room temperature (22 ± 2 ºc) for 5-7 days. the reproduced nematodes were collected and transferred to an eppendorf tube (1.5 ml) and kept in a fridge at 8-10 ºc. before killing the nematodes and using the fixative methods, a number of nematodes (males, females or juveniles) were transferred to a microtube (1.5 ml) with sterilized water and kept at refrigerator temperature at 10˚c for molecular purposes. other nematodes were used for fixation based on the methods reported by de grisse (1969). for morphological and morphometric studies, permanent slides of collected nematodes were prepared (al-zaidawi et al., 2019). by randomly selecting 12 individuals (adults and juveniles) from the permanent slides, the morphological identification of preserved specimens was completed using an ocular micrometer (4x, 10x & 40x) with a compound microscope (olympus, japan) in accordance with the standard keys (stock and hunt, 2005; nguyen, 2007) after they were fixed using different fixation methods (alzaidawi et al., 2019). the body parts and other morphological characteristics of the specimens were observed, measured and photographed by a camera (opto-edu image view 2021/ china). the following measurements were considered to describe the isolated nematodes: (l) body length, (a) body length divided by maximum body width, (b) body length divided by oesophageal length, (c) body length divided by tail length, (cʼ) tail length divided by body width at anus, (v%) position of vulva from anterior end as a percentage of 780 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 777-791. morphological and molecular description body length, (ep) distance from anterior end to excretory pore, (nr) distance from anterior end to nerve ring, (es) distance from anterior end to the end of the pharynx, (t) tail length, (abd) anal body diameter, (d%) distance from anterior end to excretory pore as a percentage of the distance from anterior end to the end of pharynx, (e%) distance from anterior end to excretory pore as a percentage of tail length (nguyen, 2007). scanning electron microscopy (sem): morphological features of adults were examined using scanning electron microscopy (fei company, netherland). for examination, the specimens (adults) were rinsed with distilled water three times. then they were mounted on aluminum sem stubs, coated with gold (nanoparticles). a plasma sputtering coater (china) was then used to coat the specimens, which were subsequently examined using an inspect f 50 scanning electron microscope (forst et al., 1997). dna extraction, amplification and electrophoresis: about 50 grams of cultured nematodes was used to extract the total genomic dna. the dna extraction was done using gsync tm total dna extraction kit (geneaid, taiwan) in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions. a thermal cycler was used to amplify segments of the 18s region. the primer set of 26r (5`-cat tct tgg caa atg ctt tcg-3`) and g18s4 (5`-gct tgt ctc aaa gat taa gcc-3`) was used following rana et al. (2020). the pcr profile for all loci included 35 cycles of amplification in an eppendorf thermocycler (analytikjena/ germany). the program consisted of 94 °c for 4 minutes of initial denaturation, followed by 35 cycles of 94 °c for 1 minute, 55 °c for 1 minute, and 72 °c for 2 minutes, with a final extension for 10 minutes at 72 °c. subsequently, the pcr product was electrophoresed on 1% agarose gels for 40 minutes using 10x tbe buffer 5%, and the gel was stained with green-viewer (sybr). ultimately, 3 μl of the pcr product and 2.5 μl of dna ladder were added to each gel well. a 100-bp molecular dna ladder (bioneer, korea) was used to determine the size of the amplified products. dna sequencing and analysis: for sequencing, the pcr products were sent to macrogen co. in korea. next, chromatogram quality was assessed, and consensus sequences were generated using the dna baser assembler (dna sequence assembler v4 (2013), heracle bio soft, www.dnabaser.com). the ncbi blast tool (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/) was utilized to perform homology searches for every sequence. the phylogenetic analyses and nucleotide distance were calculated by using mega.7 program. in addition to this, the evolutionary history was inferred by using the maximum likelihood method based on the tamura 3-parameter model (tamura, 1992). the tree with the highest log likelihood (2490.84) is shown. the percentage of trees in which the associated taxa clustered together is shown next to the branches. initial tree(s) for the heuristic search was obtained automatically by applying neighbor-join and bionj algorithms to a matrix of pairwise distances estimated using the maximum composite likelihood (mcl) approach, and then selecting the topology with the superior log likelihood value. the analysis involved 16 nucleotide sequences in addition to the local isolate, caenorhabditis elegans, which was considered as an outgroup. evolutionary analyses were conducted in mega7 (kumar et al., 2016). 781 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum kadhim et al. results and discussion among the nematode specimens that were gathered from the soil in baghdad, iraq, the suspected acrobeloides varius kim, kim and park, 2017, was cultured and identified based on molecular technique and morphological parameters. morphological examinations of selected individuals (n=12) revealed that all the identified a. varius in the present study possessed the typical features of the species a. varius. the specimens of adult a. varius (pl. 1) had the following characteristic features: body cylindrical, usually ventrally curved after fixation but occasionally irregularly contorted. cuticle annulated. head region continuous with neck. lip region with 6 + 4 papillae. nerve ring position varies from the posterior extremity of the corpus to the posterior region of the isthmus. excretory pore located at isthmus or infrequently at extremity of posterior corpus. vulval lips protruding or not, postvulval sac indistinct, ovary with or without double or fourfold flexure posterior to vulva. tail conical. phasmids located before the middle of the tail. all morphological measurements are illustrated in table (1) and plate (2). male: n=4, body length(l) ranged from (184.94 – 221.72 μm), a = (14.07 – 15.85), b = (2.39 – 2.65), c = (8.5 – 47.82), cʼ = (1.23 – 2.05), the maximum body width ranged from (12.59 – 14.59 μm), ep (129.62 – 225.08), nr = (52.66 – 62.12), es = (74.99 – 86.21), tail length (t) ranged from (3.46 – 18.24 μm), (move it after the anal body diameter) anal body diameter. ranged from (3.02 – 9.24 μm), d% = (167.69 – 269.07), e% = (527.42 – 4695.32). female: n=4, body length (l) ranged from (507.38 – 521.92 μm), a = (16.05 – 18.53), b = (4.28 4.34), c = (10.58 – 41.3), cʼ = (1.25 – 1.89), v% =(54.69 – 66.89), greatest body diam. ranged from (44.36 – 67.88 μm), ep = (772.77 – 1013.17), nr = (128.2 – 147.94), es = (181.47 – 201.67), tail length (t) ranged from (82.43 – 100.75 μm), (move it after the anal body diameter) anal body diameter. ranged from (27.54 – 32.26 μm), d% = (406.17 – 415.75), e% = (958 – 4029.64). juvenile: n=4, body length (l) ranged from (355.53 – 490.35 μm), a = (15.2 – 17.18), b = (3.36 – 3.88), c = (13.13 – 24.63), cʼ = (1.58 – 2.04), greatest body diameter. ranged from (23.38 28.62 μm), ep = (333.28 – 465.5), nr = (84.56 – 101.82), es = (101.57 – 132.01), tail length (t) ranged from (17.9 – 29.18 μm), anal body diameter (abd). ranged from (11.11 -14.53 μm), d% = (313.44 – 369.72), e% = (1213.06 – 2362.74). the lengths and measurements of the a. varius in this study were similar to those described by kim et al. (2017) from south korea. 782 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 777-791. morphological and molecular description table (1): morphometric measurements (mean ± sem) of adults female, male and juvenile of acrobeloides varius isolate (in μm). measurements male (4) female (4) juvenile (4) l 203.33 ± 18.39 (184.94 – 221.72) 514.65 ± 7.27 (507.38 – 521.92) 422.94 ± 67.41 (355.53 – 490.35) a 14.96 ± 0.89 (14.07 – 15.85) 17.29 ± 1.24 (16.05 – 18.53) 16.19 ± 0.99 (15.2 – 17.18) b 2.52 ± 0.13 (2.39 – 2.65) 4.31 ± 0.03 (4.28 4.34) 3.62 ± 0.26 (3.36 – 3.88) c 28.16 +19.66 (8.5 – 47.82) 25.94+ 15.36 (10.58 – 41.3) 18.88 ± 5.75 (13.13 – 24.63) cʼ 1.64 ± 0.41 (1.23 – 2.05) 1.57 ± 0.32 (1.25 – 1.89) 1.81 ± 0.23 (1.58 – 2.04) v 60.79 ± 6.10 (54.69 – 66.89) greatest body diam. 13.59 ± 1 (12.59 – 14.59) 29.9 ± 2.36 (27.54 – 32.26) 26 ± 2.62 (23.38 28.62) ep 177.35 ± 47.73 (129.62 – 225.08) 490.81 ± 6.21 (484.6 – 497.02) 399.39 ± 66.11 (333.28 – 465.5) nr 57.39 ± 4.73 (52.66 – 62.12) 93.82 ± 4.05 (89.77 – 97.87) 93.19 ± 8.63 (84.56 – 101.82) es 80.6 ± 5.61 (74.99 – 86.21) 119.44 ± 1.61 (117.83 – 121.05) 116.79 ± 15.22 (101.57 – 132.01) tail length (t) 10.85 ± 7.39 (3.46 – 18.24) 23.84 ± 9.02 (14.82 – 32.86) 23.54 ± 5.64 (17.9 – 29.18) anal body diam. (abd) 6.13 ± 3.11 (3.02 – 9.24) 14.71 ± 3.45 (11.26 – 18.16) 12.82 ± 1.71 (11.11 -14.53) d% 218.38 ± 50.69 (167.69 – 269.07) 410.96 ± 4.79 (406.17 – 415.75) 341.58 ± 28.14 (313.44 – 369.72) e% 2611.37 ± 2083.95 (527.42 – 4695.32) 2494.06 ± 1535.58 (958 – 4029.64) 1787.90 ± 574.84 (1213.06 – 2362.74) plate (1): scanning electron micrographs (sem) of acrobeloides varius (adult); (a) whole body, (b) anterior region. [scale bars: a= 100 μm, b= 2μm]. 783 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum kadhim et al. a b c d e f g h plate (2): light microphotographs of acrobeloides varius; (a) whole body of the female (10x), (b) anterior region of female nr (40x), (c) female posterior end (40x), (d) vulval region of the female (40x), (e) whole body of the male (40x), (f) anterior region of male (40x), (g) tail region of male (40x), (h) whole body of juvenile (10x). analysis using 18s sequence for acrobloides varius isolate: other selected specimens of a. varius were subjected to molecular technique using dna sequence or using molecular techniques based on dna to verify the morphological identification of the isolated nematodes. the 18s-rrna (898 bp) amplicon from the selected individual yielded single bands on agarose gels. nucleotide sequence data reported from this isolate are available in the genbank database. 18s-rrna nucleotide sequence data is found under the accession number 784 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 777-791. morphological and molecular description or994579.1. the 18s-rrna sequences of this isolate had 100% sequence homology with 18s-rrna sequence of a. varius (accession number mk636581), (accession number mk636580), (accession number kx889085), (accession number mk636579), (accession number ky119884) and (accession number eu543174). the mean inter-specific distance between the a. varius zah.irq3 (accession number or994579.1) isolate and other isolates of acrobeloides was 0.130 % (range 0.00 % – 1.134 %), which has been calculated using the tamura 3-parameter model based on the 18s gene. nucleotide distance between a. varius isolates from iraq and a. buetschlii de man, 1884, dwf1107(accession number eu543174) was 0.001% (tab. 2). the tree (diag.1) shows that a. varius (accession# or994579) from this current investigation was in the same clade together with a. apiculatus (accession# ky119884) and a. buetschlii (accession# eu543174) isolates from previous investigations. this result agreed with the result illustrated by rana et al. (2020). they showed that a. varius had same clade with both a. apiculatus and a. buetschlii. the current finding also agreed with the results reported by kamal et al. (2024), who showed that a. varius was in the same clade with a. buetschlii. in accordance with rana et al. (2020) phylogenetic analyses based on 18s rdna sequences, isolates of acrobeloides species formed a group that was obviously monophyletic. in a clade with 100% support, these isolates were probably conspecific isolates that merged to create a sister clade with "maximus" group species from various geographic locations. diagram (1): phylogenetic relationships of the a. varius isolate with 16 isolates of other species related to acrobeloides genus based on 18s-rrna gene sequences as inferred from neighbor-joining (nj) analysis, c. elegans (nm001047521) was used as an outgroup, support values are presented near the nodes in the form of bootstrap values in ml. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nucleotide/jq237848.1?report=genbank&log$=nucltop&blast_rank=8&rid=d0nga77j016 785 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum kadhim et al. table (2): comparing several acrobloides species and isolates pairwise based on the amount of nucleotide differences with acrobloides varius zah.irq3 based on 18s sequences. no. nematode species differences of distances among species 1 or994579 acrobeloides varius zah irq3 2 mk636581 acrobeloides varius lkc27 0 .0 0 0 3 mk636579 acrobeloides varius lkc52 0 .0 0 0 0 .0 0 0 4 ay284677 chiloplacus propinquus chilpro 0 .0 1 1 0 .0 1 1 0 .0 1 1 5 ay284662 cephalobus persegnis cephper1 0 .0 1 3 0 .0 1 3 0 .0 1 3 0 .0 1 8 6 eu543174 acrobeloides buetschlii dwf1107 0 .0 0 1 0 .0 0 1 0 .0 0 1 0 .0 1 3 0 .0 1 4 7 ky119884 acrobeloides apiculatus l16 0 .0 0 1 0 .0 0 1 0 .0 0 1 0 .0 1 3 0 .0 1 4 0 .0 0 3 8 eu543175 acrobeloides thornei dwf1109 0 .0 0 1 0 .0 0 1 0 .0 0 1 0 .0 1 3 0 .0 1 4 0 .0 0 3 0 .0 0 3 9 on739024 zeldia punctata hn3 0 .0 1 1 0 .0 1 1 0 .0 1 1 0 .0 2 1 0 .0 2 1 0 .0 1 3 0 .0 1 3 0 .0 1 0 10 ky119484 chiloplacus propinquus p07 0 .0 1 3 0 .0 1 3 0 .0 1 3 0 .0 0 1 0 .0 1 9 0 .0 1 4 0 .0 1 4 0 .0 1 4 0 .0 2 1 11 af202159 acrobeloides bodenheimeri ps1158 0 .0 1 3 0 .0 1 3 0 .0 1 3 0 .0 1 9 0 .0 1 3 0 .0 1 4 0 .0 1 4 0 .0 1 4 0 .0 2 1 0 .0 1 8 12 ky119810 ciloplacus propinquus o10 0 .0 1 4 0 .0 1 4 0 .0 1 4 0 .0 0 8 0 .0 2 1 0 .0 1 5 0 .0 1 5 0 .0 1 5 0 .0 2 3 0 .0 0 9 0 .0 2 2 13 mw298529 pseudacrobeles macrocystis 0 .0 1 9 0 .0 1 9 0 .0 1 9 0 .0 2 2 0 .0 1 5 0 .0 2 1 0 .0 2 1 0 .0 2 1 0 .0 2 6 0 .0 2 1 0 .0 2 1 0 .0 2 8 14 nm 001047521 caenorhabditis elegans 1 .1 3 4 1 .1 3 4 1 .1 3 4 1 .1 5 0 1 .1 5 3 1 .1 4 2 1 .1 4 2 1 .1 4 2 1 .1 5 9 1 .1 4 7 1 .1 2 1 1 .1 8 4 1 .1 2 4 786 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 777-791. morphological and molecular description conclusions this study provides the first confirmed record of acrobeloides varius in iraq, based on an integrated identification approach combining detailed morphometric characterization with molecular analysis of the 18s rrna gene. the morphological measurements of males, females, and juveniles were consistent with previously published descriptions of the species, while the partial 18s rrna sequence of the isolate zah. irq3 or994579.1 showed 100% homology with a. varius sequences available in the ncbi database, confirming the accuracy of the identification. the phylogenetic tree further supported the separation of a. varius from closely related genera and species. overall, the findings highlight the importance of this work in documenting the nematode biodiversity in iraqi soils and provide a foundation for future ecological and taxonomic studies on bacterial-feeding nematodes in the region. conflict of interest statement it is worth noting that this work is part of a ph. d. dissertation submitted to the department of biology, college of science, university of baghdad for the first author. literature cited abolafia, j. and peña-santiago, r. 2003. nematodes of the order rhabditida from andalucía oriental, spain. the genus acrobeloides (cobb, 1924) thorne, 1937, with description of a. arenicola sp. n. and a key to species. journal of nematode morphology and systematics, 5(2):107-130. adegbite, a. a., saka, j. o., agbaje, g. o., owolade, o. f., olaifa, g. o., lawal, a. and ojo, s. t. 2006. survey of plant-parasitic nematodes associated with yams in edo, ekiti and oyo states of nigeria. african journal of agricultural research, 1(4): 125-130. al-zaidawi, j. b., karimi, j. and moghadam, e. m. 2019. molecular characterizations of the entomopathogenic nematodes, heterorhabditis bacteriophora and oscheius myriophilus from iraq. egyptian journal of biological pest control, 29(1): 38. 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(2025) 18 (4): 777-791. ,acrobeloides varius kimالخيطية للدودةالوصف املظهري والجزيئي لسجل جديد kim and park, 2017 (cephalobidae, rhabditida) من العراق ** ، حارث سعيد الورد ** و جواد بلبل الزيداوي *** ،*زهراء يحيى كاظم * دائرة البحث والتطوير، وزارة التعليم العالي والبحث العلمي، بغداد، العراق ** قسم علوم الحياة، كلية العلوم، جامعة بغداد، بغداد، العراق *** هيأة البحث العلمي، وزارة التعليم العالي والبحث العلمي، بغداد، العراق 20/12/2025، النشر: 23/2/2025القبول: ،2/2025/ 20املراجعة: ،27/12/2024االستالم: الخالصة acrobloides varius kim, kim andالخيطية ودةالد تشخيصهدفت هذه الدراسة الى park, 2017 من رتبةrhabditida و عائلةcephalobidae تغذى على البكتريا التي ت وفقا والجزيئيةل املظهرية هذلصفات عزلت النوع . بغدادا من جمعت التي التربة عينات ، من تربية جميع تم العراق. بعض و لتشخيصها a. varius نماذج وسط باستخدام وصفها تميزت املظهرية. النوع املختارة النماذجاملعايير ) لهذا ( zah. irq3 or994579.1عزلة ( يتراوح الذي الذكر جسم االنثى 184.94–221.72بطول جسم طول وكان مايكرومتر( (521.92-507.38 ( الصغار جسم طول وكان مايكرومتر(. 355.53-490.35مايكرومتر( العينات تسلسالت وصفت باستخدام ا جزيئي النوع هذا من 18s-rrna جين املختارة نطاق من التماثل ( zah. irq3 or994579.1) لعزلة 18s-rrnaالجزيئية. كان لتسلسل . تم ncbiاملتوفر في قاعدة بيانات a. variusلـ 18s-rrna%( مع تسلسل 100التسلسلي ) عن االجناس واالنواع ذات الصلة الوثيقة. النوع املدروسانشاء الشجرة التطورية لفصل لعراق.ل( أول تسجيل zah. irq3 or994579.1عزلة ) a. variusيمثل bull 655 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum suliaman, s. q. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2023) 17(4): 655-668. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2023.17.4.0655 original article new records of two macrofungi species based on morphological and molecular identification in iraq sara q. suliaman biology department, college of science, tikrit university, tikrit, iraq. *corresponding author e-mail: saraqahtan@tu.edu.iq recived date: 15 may 2023, accepted date 03 august 2023, published date:20 june 2023 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract this study was done in al-alam city, salah al-din province, to determine the diversity of the macrofungi in it. the results of the field study showed two species were recorded in iraq for the first time, inocutis tamaricis (pat) fiasson & niemelä, 1984 (basidiomycota, hymenochaetales) and melanoleuca castaneofusca contu, 1998 (basidiomycota, agaricales). these species were diagnosed based on macroscopic and microscopic, dna sequence analyses and environmental charactes. the study included the adoption of the its gene for molecular diagnosis, the results of which were confirmed for morphological and environmental diagnosis, and the specimens were registered in the ncbi global genbank under the international accession numbers op153814.1 and mz334407.1 for the species i. tamaricis and m. castaneofusca, respectively. keywords: basidiomycota, inocutis tamaricis, iraq, macrofungi, melanoleuca castaneofusca. introduction there has been great interest in mapping the macrofungi of the main geographical regions to obtain their distribution records similar to those of flowering plants (meuller et al., 2007). however, unlike plants, measuring macrofungal diversity depends on the collection of fruiting bodies, which in turn depends to a large extent on the availability of moisture, that is, on seasonal rains, so it abounds in the spring and autumn due to the high humidity and abundance of plants (flora) at these times (sibounnavong et al., 2008). iraq occupies a total area of 437,072 km2 (al-ansari, 2021) and is characterized by its different ecosystems and plant diversity. however, iraqi macrofungi are overlooked and unexplored in many regions, despite their environmental and applied importance. there are very few and scattered studies in this regard, including the study of aziz and toma (2012), toma et al. (2013), alqaissi )2013), al anbagi (2014), suliaman et al. (2017), owaid et al. (2018), alkhesraji et al. (2019, 2020, 2022), al anbagi et al. (2021), alkhesraji et al. (2021), and al anbagi and alkhesraji (2022) reflecting an increase in the macrofungal species recorded with most of the documented species belonging to the phylum bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799-print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2023.17.4.0655 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7590-7702 mailto:saraqahtan@tu.edu.iq https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 656 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum new records of two macrofungi basidiomycota and the remaining species belonging to the phylum ascomycota. that indicates the rich diversity of macrofungi in iraq. during the field trips to the al-alam area, the two species were collected and identified. therefore, the present study is a new addition to the macrofungal record in iraq. material and methods collecting, identification and preserving macrofungi specimens: macrofungi were collected from the orchards of al-alam city (34°38′41″n43°42′0″ /elevation 96 m), salah al-din province, in december-january 2022. information about the habitat, habit, substrate, the host, and the nature of growth was recorded if it was solitary, overlapped, or clustered. other information related to the date and place of collection, the color of the fruiting bodies with macrofungi in different parts, and the names of the plants prevalent in the area have also been documented. the specimens were placed in plastic storage containers and transferred to the laboratory for macroscopic and microscopic examinations. later, species were identified according to ghobad-nejhad and kotiranta (2008), sharma et al. (2013), chinan et al. (2015), kibby (2016), sicoli and mannarino (2017), and antonín et al. (2021). classification, synonyms, and basionyms were provided according to the gbif secretariat (2022). some of the specimens were preserved in a preservation solution, ethanol alcohol 70%, with adhesive paper placed on the box. information of the fungus, date and place of collection was written down, while the rest of the fruiting bodies were cut to small parts and dried on sterile paper by exposing them to indirect sunlight. the fruiting bodies were grinded by electric mill. the powder of the specimens was kept in a plastic storage container with a tight lid until use for genetic analysis. the identified fungi were deposited in the department of biology, college of science, tikrit university, iraq. molecular studies: the dna extraction was conducted using the mg tissue genomic dna extraction sv kit (doctor protein inc, south korea, cat. no. md014). the dna amplification was completed using dr. max dna polymerase (doctor protein, cat. no.: dr00302). the primers for the amplification of the internal transcribed spacer region (its) were its1 (5’-tccgtaggtgaacctgcgg-3’) and its4 (5’tcctccgcttattgatatgc-3’) (white et al., 1990). the pcr conditions were a denaturation at 95o c for 5 min, followed by 35 cycles for a secondary denaturation at 95o c for 30 sec; annealing at 55o c for 30 sec; and an elongation at 72o c for 1 min with a final extension step of 72o c for 10 min. the pcr products were stored at 4o c. later, the pcr products were purified using multiscreen filter plate, merck millipore. the amplified dna was sequenced by applied biosystems abi 3730xl dna analyzer using the bigdye terminator v3.1 cycle sequencing kit, merck millipore macrogen / korea. the sequences were aligned using ncbi’s basic local alignment search tool (blast). the phylogenetic tree analysis was performed using the molecular evolutionary genetics analysis (mega) software version 7 (tamura et al., 2013). 657 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum suliaman, s. q. result and discussion morphological identification in this study, two species belonging to the class agaricomycetes were reported as new records for iraq. macroscopic and microscopic descriptions and photographs were provided. the classification of them is as follow: kingdom: fungi phylum: basidiomycota class: agaricomycetes (1) order: hymenochaetales family: hymenochaetaceae genus: inocutis fiasson & niemelä, 1984 speceis: i. tamaricis (pat.) fiasson & niemelä (1984) (2) order: agaricales family: pluteaceae genus: melanoleuca patouillard, 1897 species: m. castaneofusca contu, 1998 inocutis tamaricis (pat.) fiasson & niemelä, 1984 (pl. 1) basionym: xanthochrous tamaricis pat., 1984 synonyms: inonotus tamaricis (pat.) bondarzew & singer inonotus tamaricis (pat.) maire inonotus tamaricis f. corneus bondartseva polyporus tamaricis (pat.) sacc. & d.sacc. xanthochrous rheades subsp. tamaricis (pat.) bourdot & galzin basidiocarp: sessile, hemispherical, rough texture (woody), 5.5-7.0 cm wide, 3-4 cm thick, creamy to rusty-brown with a lighter at the margin. flesh: woody texture, dark brown at the center, mixed with pale yellowish and white mycelium. hymenial layer: tubular, creamy to pale brown become dark brown at the edges ends with irregular pores. basidia: 4-spored, hyaline in h2o. basidiospores: 5.5-7.5x5.0-6.0µ, oval to elliptical, yellowish to pale brown, thick-walled, smooth. habit and habitat: solitary; fruiting on live and dead trees of tamarix spp. edibility: locally and globally unknown. distribution: greece (piatek, 2001), southern europe, northern africa, southern asia, china (ryvarden, 2005), iran (ghobad-nejhad and kotiranta, 2008), india (sharma et al., 2013), romania (chinan et al., 2015), italy (sicoli and mannarino, 2017; girometta et al., 2020). note: the current results were consistent with the aforementioned sources, which also confirmed that the presence of i. tamaricis on tamarix trees is a distinctive feature in determining its identity. melanoleuca castaneofusca contu, 1998 (pl. 2) basidiocarp: cap: 4.8-10.0 cm broad, smooth, depressed, slightly reflexed towards margin, laccate, dark gray to brown with a silver appearance, and darker spots around the cap margin, and entire cap margin. flesh: white, fragile, the smell is similar to that of mushroom. gills: white, subdeccurent, crowded, smooth. stipe: 3.0-7.0x3.5-4.0 cm, white changed to brown 658 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum new records of two macrofungi after harvest, central, equal, solid, fibrillose, longitudinally striate. volva and ring and absent. basidia: 4-spored, hyaline in h2o, 12.5-15.0 x75.0µ. basidiospore: 6.25-7.5 x 5.0-7.5µ, elliptical with central oil droplets and an ornamented wall. spore print: is white to light yellow. cheilocystidia: 35.0x7.5-10.0µ, lageniform with crystals at the apex. pleurocystidia present and have a similar shape to cheilocystidia. habit and habitat: solitary, collecting from the soil of barley fields. edibility: locally unknown, globally edible (singer, 1986). distribution: it has been collected from several countries such as italy, czech republic, slovakia, france, britain, and sweden (kibby, 2016; antonín et al., 2021). molecular identification and phylogenetic analysis the analyzed portions of its rrna sequencing for both presented species were between 660 and 689 base pairs. the blast search of the sequence similarities was identified the first and second species sequences as m. castaneofusca and i. tamaricis, respactively. the two identified sequences were submitted to the ncbi genbank under the accession numbers op153814.1 and mz334407.1 for species, i.tamaricis and m. castaneofusca, respectively. the pairwise sequence alignment of i. tamaricis appeared transversion and transition in the 152-158 and 282 nucleotide positions, respectively, when being compared with the refrance isolate with accession number gq253453.1 form the mediterranean sea (diag.1). on the other hand, the sequence alignments of m. castaneofusca exhibited transition at the 312 alignment position once the iraqi isolates paired with italyi isolates with the acession number mw491323.1(diag.2) (chinan et al., 2015; zhuo et al., 2016; wu et al., 2019). 659 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum suliaman, s. q. plate (1): i. tamaricis; (a, b, c, d) fruiting bodies on tamarix tree, (e) basidium and basidiospores, (f) basidiospores. (40x). plate (2): m. castaneofusca; (a) fruiting body in lab, (b) gills, (c) long section of fruiting body, (d) basidia and basidiospores, (e) basidiospores, (f) cystidia. (40x). 660 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum new records of two macrofungi diagram (1): the pairwise sequence alignments of its region for both isolates i. tamaricis from iraq (the query) and the mediterranean sea (the subject) with the accession number gq253453.1. the alignment starts at the first base in the query sequence and progresses upwards to base 60 in the first alignment line; however, for the subject sequence, the alignment starts at base 57 and progresses downwards to base 745. 661 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum suliaman, s. q. diagram (2): the pairwise sequence alignments of its region for both isolates m. castaneofusca from iraq (the query) and italy (the subject) with the accession number gq253453.1. the alignment starts at the first base in the query sequence and progresses upwards to base 60 in the first alignment line; also, for the subject sequence, the alignment starts at base 60 and progresses downwards to base 660. the results of the its sequence region showed that the percentage similarities of the isolets i. tamaricis from iraq were 99% with the mediterranean sea, romania, and greece, while they were matched as 98%, 97%, 96%, and 95% with south korea, france, italy, and china, respectively as shown in table (1). table (1): similarity its gene for the iraqi isolate of i. tamaricis with gene bank isolates. no. accession number country source similarity (%) 1 gq253453.1 the mediterranean sea inocutis tamaricis 99 2 kj755854.1 romania i. tamaricis 99 3 kx881614.1 greece i. tamaricis 99 4 ay558604.1 south korea i. tamaricis 98 5 mh855326.1 france i. tamaricis 97 6 gu111920.1 italy i. tamaricis 96 7 hm050416.1 china i. tamaricis 95 8 jn169789.1 china i. subdryophila 89 9 ky907684.1 usa: arizona i. jamaicensis 83 10 mn498104.1 usa: arizona i. dryophila 94 11 mk422156.1 tunisia inonotus levis 79 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nucleotide/kj755854.1?report=genbank&log$=nuclalign&blast_rank=2&rid=89ez9mgz01r https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nucleotide/kx881614.1?report=genbank&log$=nuclalign&blast_rank=3&rid=89ez9mgz01r https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nucleotide/ay558604.1?report=genbank&log$=nuclalign&blast_rank=4&rid=89ez9mgz01r https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nucleotide/mh855326.1?report=genbank&log$=nuclalign&blast_rank=5&rid=89ez9mgz01r https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nucleotide/gu111920.1?report=genbank&log$=nuclalign&blast_rank=6&rid=89ez9mgz01r https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nucleotide/hm050416.1?report=genbank&log$=nuclalign&blast_rank=7&rid=89ez9mgz01r https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nucleotide/jn169789.1?report=genbank&log$=nuclalign&blast_rank=11&rid=89ez9mgz01r https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nucleotide/ky907684.1?report=genbank&log$=nuclalign&blast_rank=13&rid=89ez9mgz01r https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nucleotide/mn498104.1?report=genbank&log$=nuclalign&blast_rank=12&rid=89ez9mgz01r https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nucleotide/mk422156.1?report=genbank&log$=nuclalign&blast_rank=16&rid=89ez9mgz01r 662 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum new records of two macrofungi further, the its sequencing results for iraqi isolate of m. castaneofusca appeared the similarity 99% with italy , czech republic, italy, slovakia, and france , whereas compatible 98% with united kingdom as in table(2). table (2): similarity its gene for the iraqi isolate of m. castaneofusca with genbank isolates. the results of the phylogenetic tree analysis of i. tamaricis showed that the current isolate was close to the romanian isolate (diag. 3). the p-distances between the previous species were 0.0013 and between the isolates from iraq and the mediterranean sea were 0.0020. moreover, variable distances 0.013-7.8 were observed between the iraqi sequence and other genbank sequences. the current results were comparable with other reported mean sequence divergences for fungi of 0.004-0.036 (chinan et al., 2015) and 0.025 (schoch et al., 2012). the iraqi isolate had a high bootstrap value (>79%) compared to other species in the genbank isolates. another study by chinan et al. (2015) examined the phylogenetic evolution of i. tamaricis from romania. the phylogenetic bootstrap value of the investigated species was high >65% compared with other sequences in genbank. the phylogenetic tree analysis was generated for the iraqi collected specimen of m. castaneofusca (diag. 4). the sequences of the iraqi isolate were close to other sequences from italy, france, and slovakia. their p-distances between them were 0.0008. the distances were varied from 0.0008 to 0.0025 between the sequences of the investigated iraqi species and others in genbank. the iraqi isolate had a high bootstrap (>98%) with the isolates in genbank. however, other studies showed two major clades: subgenera melanoleuca (clade a) and subgenera urticocystis (clade b) when phylogenetic analysis was conducted depending on the its region. these clades had high bootstraps of 99 and 98% respectively, (kalmer et al., 2018). another study conducted the phylogenetic analysis for other species of no. accession number country source similarity (%) 1 mw491323.1 italy melanoleuca castaneofusca 99 2 mw491321.1 united kingdom m. castaneofusca 98 3 mw491320.1 m. castaneofusca 99 4 mw491325.1 czech republic m. castaneofusca 99 5 mw491324.1 m. castaneofusca 99 6 mw491322.1 italy m. castaneofusca 99 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nucleotide/mw491323.1?report=genbank&log$=nuclalign&blast_rank=1&rid=es015we6013 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nucleotide/mw491321.1?report=genbank&log$=nuclalign&blast_rank=2&rid=es015we6013 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nucleotide/mw491320.1?report=genbank&log$=nuclalign&blast_rank=3&rid=es015we6013 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nucleotide/mw491325.1?report=genbank&log$=nuclalign&blast_rank=4&rid=es015we6013 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nucleotide/mw491324.1?report=genbank&log$=nuclalign&blast_rank=5&rid=es015we6013 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/nucleotide/mw491322.1?report=genbank&log$=nuclalign&blast_rank=6&rid=es015we6013 663 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum suliaman, s. q. melanoleuca, including m. angelesiana, m. castaneofusca, m. luteolosperma, m. pseudopaedida, and m. robertiana and the bootstrap results was >75% (antonín et al., 2021). diagram (3): maximum likelihood tree depended on its sequence. bootstrap values > 79% based on 1000 replications. (the sequence of i. tamaricis of iraq is pink circle). diagram (4): maximum likelihood tree depended on its sequence. bootstrap values > 98% based on 1000 replications. the sequence of m.castaneofusca of iraq is red triangle. conclusions the present study reported the first i. tamaricis and m. castaneofusca collected from tamarix tree soil, respectively. the study also indicates the possibility of the presence of several macrofungi that were not recorded in iraq. the molecular analysis confirmed the phenotypic analysis. also, the phylogenetic analysis of the iraqi isolates for i. tamaricis and 664 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum new records of two macrofungi m. castaneofusca were appeared close to the isolates in genbank. this shows the evidence of compatibility between phenotypic analysis and phylogenetic analysis. conflict of interest statement the authors whose names are listed immediately below certify that they have no affiliations with or involvement in any organization or entity with any financial interest (such as honoraria; educational grants; participation in speakers’ bureaus; membership, employment, consultancies, stock ownership, or other equity interest; and expert testimony or patentlicensing arrangements), or non-financial interest (such as personal or professional relationships, affiliations, knowledge, or beliefs) in the subject matter or materials discussed in this manuscript. literature cited al-anbagi r. a. 2014. histological study of the discomycetes fungus cheilymina theleboloides. journal of university of babylon, 22(2): 769-77. 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[researchgate] white, t. j., bruns, t., lee, s. j. w. t. and taylor, j. w. 1990. amplification and direct sequencing of fungal ribosomal rna genes for phylogenetics. in: book: pcr protocols: a guide to methods and applications, 18(1): 315-322. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/316170432 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/290227790 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1117018109 https://www.mycosphere.org/pdfs/mc4_4_no16.pdf https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319417832_inocutis_tamaricis_ospite_balneare_nel_comune_di_amantea_cs http://dx.doi.org/10.5897/ajps2017.1543 https://academic.oup.com/ https://www.researchgate.net/publication/261551919 667 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum suliaman, s. q. wu, s. h., chang, c. c., wei, c. l., jiang, g. z. and cui, b. k. 2019. sanghuangporus toxicodendri sp. nov. (hymenochaetales, basidiomycota) from china. mycokeys, 57: 101-11. 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(2023) 17(4): 655-668. استنادا الى macrofungiتسجيل جديد في العراق لنوعين من الفطريات الكبيرة التشخيص املظهري والجزيئي سارا قحطان سليمان ، تكريت، العراققسم علوم الحياة، كلية العلوم، جامعة تكريت 20/12/2023تأريخ النشر: ، 3/8/2023القبول: ، تأريخ 15/5/2023تأريخ االستالم: الخالصة محافظة صالح الدين لتحديد تنوع الفطريات / أجريت هذه الدراسة بمدينة العلم inocutis tamaricisالكبيرة فيها. أظهرت نتائج الدراسة امليدانية تسجيل جديد للنوعين (pat) fiasson & niemelä, 1984(basidiomycota hymenochaetales,) و melanoleuca castaneofusca contu, 1998 (basidiomycota, agaricales) ألول مرة تم تشخيصهما استنادا الى الصفات املظهرية والجزيئية والبيئية. هذا اذ في العراق . والذي جاءت نتائجه مؤكدة لنتائج كل itsالتشخيص الجزيئي اعتماد الجين وتضمن بيئية، فضال عن تسجيل العينات في بنك الجينات العالميمن الفحوصات املظهرية وال ncbi ضمن الرقمين الدوليةop153814.1 وmz334407.1 للنوعينi.tamaricis و m.castaneofusca .على التوالي bull 49 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum abinesh and moinudheen bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2024) 18 (1): 49-63. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2024.18.1.0049 original article ecology of the nilgiri large burrowing spider haploclastus nilgirinus pocock, 1899 (araneae, theraphosidae) of nilgiris, india anbazhagan abinesh* and n. moinudheen ** 155/409* lakshmi nanjan nivas, stanley park, coonoor – the nilgiris, tamilnadu, 643105, india. ** independent biologist, the nilgiris, tamil nadu, india. corresponding author: moinulepido@gmail.com receieved: 3 june 2023, revised: 11 nov. 2023, accepted: 13 nov. 2023, published:20 june 2024 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract the nilgiri large burrowing spider, haploclastus nilgirinus pocock, 1899, an endemic tarantula in the nilgiris region of india, is critical for conservation yet poorly understood in terms of its ecology and habitat. this study addresses this gap by examining the nesting habits, tree-hole dynamics, and prey diversity of the species in coonoor, the nilgiris, specifically within tea plantations and fruit orchards. observations focused on seven pear trees serving as nesting sites, with detailed measurements of nesting holes, including outer and inner circumference, depth, trunk base, ground-based height (gbh), and height from the ground. data were collected over four consecutive months, both morning and evening. insect diversity in the orchard was also assessed through counts and diversity indices, revealing variability among trees. the seventh tree had the highest spider population, with 13 spiders in 10 nests. insect orders such as blattodea, orthoptera, diptera, hemiptera, and lepidoptera were most prevalent around the seventh tree’s nests. across all trees, a total of 25 spiders in 21 nests were documented, with variations in hole size and other tree measurements. this research provides crucial insights into the nesting habits, tree-hole dynamics, and prey diversity of this species, informing conservation efforts for this vulnerable species. as h. nilgirinus faces threats from habitat destruction, climate change, and illegal trade, understanding its ecological needs is vital for developing effective conservation strategies and sustaining ecosystem health. keywords: arachnid, coexistence, conservation, microhylid, western ghats habitat. introduction haploclastus nilgirinus pocock, 1899, belong to the family theraphosidae (order, araneae), which is endemic to india. the genus haploclastus simon, 1892, consists of seven valid species: h. tenebrosus gravely, 1935; h. cervinus simon, 1892; h. validus (pocock, 1899); h. nilgirinus pocock, 1899; h. kayi gravely, 1915; h. satyanus barman, 1978; and h. devamatha prasanth and jose, 2014 (world spider catalogue, 2022). previously, there were eight species within haploclastus, but recently, haploclastus himalayensis tikader, 1977, was transferred to the genus chilobrachys karsch 1892, based on generic characteristics bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799, print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2024.18.1.0049 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0337-7666 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5887-2395 mailto:*srchoudhury.ggu@gmail.com https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/reginald_innes_pocock https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 50 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (1): 49-63. ecology of the nilgiri large burrowing spider (siliwal and raven, 2010). h. nilgirinus is found predominantly in the nilgiris, enclave, under holes in tree trunks. compared to the burrows of other mygalomorph groups, theraphosids are comparatively easy to find since they have open entrances (siliwal et al., 2013).the ecology and habitat of this species have not been extensively studied; there is a need to test the hypotheses about the underlying mechanisms of syntopy and sympatry which may be applicable to tarantulas which is lacking due to the dearth of ecological studies on these populations (lapinski, 2020). spiders can serve as biological markers of natural ecosystems and provide information on how communities respond to environmental disturbances or changes (marc and canard, 1997). south and central american theraphosid spiders, also known as bird-eating spiders, are very common in the pet trade (molur and siliwal, 2004). thrigmopoeus psychedelicus (sanap and mirza, 2014), is the most strikingly colored tarantula species from india, likely to be in high demand as a pet, that may have a negative impact on the wild population (sanap and mirza, 2014). this study is a brief framework on h. nilgirinus ecology that is aided for tarantula conservation. tarantulas are vulnerable groups which may face extinction due to habitat destruction, climate change, and illegal trade. we studied the habitat ecology of h. nilgirinus from coonoor, the nilgiris, as well as the tree burrow characteristics of the species in order to understand the microhabitat characteristics and preference. this study examined the diversity of the spiders and the insects at the sampling sites, as well as the prey choice of the spiders, also provided some notes on the diet, sympatric species, coexistence, and egg sacs of this species. thereby, the study was developed to understand the ecology of the lesser known h. nilgirinus focusing on its future conservation. materials and methods study area and specimens collection: the research was undertaken at coonoor (11°20'52.4"n 76°47'23.6"e), the nilgiris from during the year november 2022 to february 2023. the specimen was identified using moinudheen et al. (2017). the study area consisted of tea plantations and fruits orchards. h. nilgirinus nesting holes were investigated in 7 pear trees. measurements of the nesting holes (tab.1) were taken separately for all the trees, along with the distance between the trees. trees bore at least one hole that was occupied by h. nilgirinus of different age classes; thus, measurements were systematically taken for all the occupied tree holes along with their age class through visual comparison. a total of 21 tree holes were investigated from tree 1 to tree 7. trees 1, 2 and 3 had one hole each. tree 4 had two holes, tree 5 and 6 had three holes each, and tree 7 had ten holes. theraphosids are known to be nocturnal, sit-and-wait predators. males are often observed roving, looking for females at certain times during the morning hours (costa and pérez-miles, 2002). micro and macro habitat data were taken from the orchard. the research was conducted in the morning from 8.30 a.m to 9.30 a.m and in the evening from 8.30 p.m to 9.30 p.m on the same day. the study was conducted over four consecutive months. standard measurement tools were used. photographs were taken using a nikon p900 camera fitted with an 83x 51 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum abinesh and moinudheen optical zoom lens. temperature and rainfall for the four months were taken consecutively. the geo locations of the trees were taken and mapped using qgis software, ver 3.1(qgis development team, 2019). the raster file of the sampling area was extracted from google earth engine and worked in qgis software. the nesting trees were marked in the raster file using the geo coordinates. calculation method: the numbers of spiders were counted, the sizes of the spider holes and the height of the trees were taken, and the statistics were computed using descriptive statistics that summarized the data. the data summary includes the mean, median, mode, standard deviation, maximum value, minimum value, and variance (borkar and seth, 2020).the prediction interval was calculated with an interval in which subsequent observations would fall with a specific probability using the observed sample statistics of mean and standard deviation (penell et al., 2018). number of insect on individual trees and the diversity of insects in and around the trees was calculated. the data were collected to understand the diet of h. nilgirinus and the sympatric association with other species. the study also focused on estimating the species diversity of insects, reptiles, and amphibians in the vicinity of nesting trees. the diversity of insects was high, and therefore various diversity indices like shannon-weiner index (h’), simpson diversity index (d), margalef index (dmg), pielou evenness (j’), and berger-parker dominance index were used for analyses (p < 0.05). map (1): showing the sampling sites. results insect diversity: insects were identified according to order. the quantifications of spider nests included the number of tree holes in individual trees, age class of spider, outer circumference of holes, inner circumference of holes, hole depth, tree trunk base, girth at breast height (gbh), and height from ground. diversity quantifications are tabulated in table (1), and presented visually in diagram (1).there are a total of 25 spiders that inhabit the tree holes. we have classified the spiders as large, medium, small, based on their sizes. in the orchard, there were a total of 25 spiders in 21 nests in 7 trees. 52 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (1): 49-63. ecology of the nilgiri large burrowing spider more spiders and nests were located in the seventh tree. the seventh tree housed 13 spiders under 10 nests, which comprised 4 adults, 5 juveniles, 2 sub adults, and 2 sub juveniles. three nests, each with an adult, a sub adult, and a sub juvenile were located in the sixth tree at a much lower level in comparison with the other six trees. insects from a total of 11 orders were studied: blattodea, coleoptera, dermaptera, diptera, hemiptera, neuroptera, orthoptera, phasmatodea, polydesmida, lepidoptera, and hymenoptera. orthoptera 1.381, diptera order 1.378, hemiptera 1.373 and blattodea 1.364 make up the majority of the insect orders in the garden. the insect order with the least number is phasmatodea, followed by coleoptera (1.305), dermaptera (1.354), neuroptera (1.355), polydesmidae (1.352), lepidoptera (1.355), and hymenoptera (1.376). insects were found to be visible around the nesting trees during the nocturnal hours while surveying for h.nilgirinus. the order blattodea (cokcroaches), orthoptera (grasshoppers, crickets, treehoppers), coleoptera (june beetles, flower chafers), lepidoptera (moths), and hemiptera (bugs) were the most common insects found in the area around the spider nests in the 7th tree. the most frequent orders in the fifth tree were blattodea, diptera, orthoptera, and hemiptera; the most numerous orders in the fourth tree were blattodea, orthoptera, and diptera; and the most frequent insect orders in the third tree were blattodea, orthopera, diptera, and coleoptera. the orders of insects that were prey to h. nilgirinus included: blattodea, orthoptera, and lepidoptera. the location and tree with the most insects and holes was tree number seven. this tree had the greatest number of insects. h. nilgirinus primarily consumes katydids, cockroaches, and grasshoppers. h. nilgirinus has pedipalps, which were used to sense the prey and drag it with its claw (quade et al., 2019). all theraposid spiders have scopulae and claw tufts, which are sticky and used for prey capture and mobility, primarily when climbing (pérez-miles, 2020). table (1): insect diversity from the sampling sites. s. no. order simpso n_1-d shannon _h evenness_e^ h/s margalef bergerparker 1 blattodea 0.7391 1.364 0.9783 0.5066 0.319 2 coleoptera 0.7116 1.305 0.9216 0.5009 0.3534 3 dermaptera 0.7328 1.354 0.9679 0.6635 0.3587 4 diptera 0.746 1.378 0.9918 0.4081 0.2871 5 hemiptera 0.7436 1.373 0.9867 0.4679 0.2906 6 neuroptera 0.734 1.355 0.9694 0.6558 0.3505 7 orthoptera 0.7472 1.381 0.9946 0.4152 0.296 8 phasmatodea 0.6328 1.143 0.7843 1.0820 0.500 9 polydesmida 0.7341 1.352 0.9663 0.6846 0.325 10 lepidoptera 0.7345 1.355 0.9687 0.4485 0.3238 11 hymenoptera 0.7448 1.376 0.9895 0.4657 0.2994 53 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum abinesh and moinudheen diagram (1): histogram of the insect diversity from the sampling sites. tree-hole dynamics: there were a total of 25 individuals under 21 burrows of h. nilgirinus. all the burrows were found only in trees. the outer circumference of the occupied tree holes was a minimum of 2 cm, and a maximum of 90 cm, with an average of 23.5 cm. the inner circumference of the occupied tree holes was a minimum of 1.5 cm, a maximum of 120 cm, and an average of 22.3 cm. the depth of the tree holes was a minimum of 1.5 cm, maximum of 15 cm, and 6 cm, on average. the trunk base size was a minimum of 65cm, a maximum of 210 cm, and an average of 122 cm. the gbh had a minimum value of 60 cm, a maximum of 97 cm, and an average of 73 cm. the tree hole occupancy of individuals was observed to be greater the size more than the number of individuals. in a total of 7 trees, h. nilgirinus was found to range from a minimum of one individual to a maximum of 10 individuals. tree 1, 2, and 3 had only one individual each hole. the average values of tree hole size for the three trees are as follows, outer circumference: 14 cm, inner circumference: 7.1 cm, and depth: 6.8 cm. tree 4 had two holes with three individuals. the first hole occupied two individuals, whereas the second hole occupied one individual. the first hole: outer circumference: 90cm, an inner circumference: 120 cm, and depth: 10 cm whereas the second hole: outer circumference: 5 cm, inner circumference: 3 cm, and a depth: 3 cm. trees 5 and 6 had three holes, each having one individual with an average value of outer circumference: 15.9 cm, inner circumference: 12.9 cm, depth: 7.01 cm. tree 7 had a total of 12 individuals of various sizes that may have represented various age classes under ten tree holes. the tree holes supported a minimum of 1 and a maximum of 3 individuals. the maximum number of individuals was found to be smaller, where the tree hole had a measurement of outer circumference: 80 cm, inner circumference: 110 cm, depth: 4 cm. the 54 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (1): 49-63. ecology of the nilgiri large burrowing spider average value for all the tree holes of tree 7 were, outer circumference: 26.2 cm, inner circumference: 24.7 cm, depth: 5.6 cm. the occupancy of tree holes by more than one individual, as in the case of tree 4 and tree 7 can be attributed to their tree hole size. the average value for individual smaller ones was compared with the multiple ones as aforementioned, which showed a considerable difference as, outer circumference: 18.65 cm vs 90 cm, inner circumference: 13.95 cm, vs 90 cm, depth: 7.02 vs 9.6 cm. the results show that the hole size had a positive relationship with the number of individuals. nevertheless, larger individuals who were suspected to be adults were known to be solitary and were also known to inhabit larger tree holes; outer circumference: 26.6 cm, inner circumference: 24.3 cm, depth: 6.75 cm. the overall analysis of the data indicates that the number of occupied tree holes increases as the trees become larger. the size of the hole showed a negative correlation with the height of the variable (r= -0.025) (diag. 2), thus there was no height preference between the animal sizes. the spiders of different sizes, which are assumed to be of different age classes, might have just filled the niche according to the availability of tree holes and size irrespective of tree height. the highest variance was seen with the height from ground variable, followed by trunk base, inner circumference, outer circumference, gbh, and depth (tab.2). this denotes that the trees were of different sizes, and thus there was more variance with the trunk base too. the least variance was observed in the depth, which shows the preference of spiders (tab.2). although there are many holes found in the tree, the spiders prefer tree-holes according to their age classes. table (2): quantification of tree hole dynamics. value outer (cm) inner (cm) depth (cm) trunk base (cm) gbh height from ground mean 23.54286 22.34286 6.266667 122.381 73.90476 242.1429 median 12 8 5 90 77 210 mode 7 4 4 90 77 300 sd 24.75966 33.59757 3.854002 47.08023 12.26746 131.9615 maximu m 90 120 15 210 97 500 minimum 2 1.5 1.5 65 60 65 range 88 118.5 13.5 145 37 435 variance 613.0406 1128.797 14.85333 2216.548 150.4905 17413.83 55 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum abinesh and moinudheen diagram (2): pearson correlation showing negative correlation between height from ground and outer tree-hole circumference. commensalism: the commensalism of spiders is a significant phenomenon since spiders and amphibians have mostly experienced this trait in various ecosystems. commensalism is an interaction where one species benefits while the other species neither benefits nor receives harm (siliwal and ravichandran, 2008). in this study, we have been examining commensalism between h. nilgirinus and traingular spotted frog uperodon triangularis (günther, 1876) for 4 months. they coexisted in the same nest without interfering with one another (pl. 1). this observation thus accounts for sympatric and syntopic relationships. they were found to co-occur next to each other without any disturbance. both species were found active during the night times sitting on the edge of the tree-hole, while during diurnal hours they spent their time inside the holes. there have been a few species of theraphosid spiders and microhylid frogs that are known to exhibit commensalism (bascoulès et al., 2021). population interactions within a community determine the community structure, variety, and how food webs are shaped. competition, predation and other interactions can be both beneficial and detrimental (steffenson, 2014). the observation is however, novel in terms of the species h. nilgirinus. 56 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (1): 49-63. ecology of the nilgiri large burrowing spider plate (1): h. nilgirinus and uperodon triangularis coexisted in the same nest without interfering with one another. this study was conducted to understand the ecology of the poorly studied h. nilgirinus from an orchard of the nilgiris. in the present study, the tree-hole dynamics of the spider and the diversity of insects at the sampling sites were recorded. there were a total of 18 trees, but the spiders were seen only in the pear trees which included 7 trees in total. the pear trees in the orchard naturally had holes in the tree crevices. the spider which occupied tree-holes were arranged in such a way that sunlight did not enter, but one hole was positioned in a direction where sunlight directly entered through it, but it seemed that the spider had plugged the hole using prey debris and its own exuviae. however, this artificial facade was absent in other trees (pl. 2). spider web dynamics: in this study, we do not discuss reproduction; however, we have already witnessed this spider's courtship rituals. the male spider vibrated his body similarly to the female spider when they were together, close to the third spider web, but the female spider did not possess the same. there was a possibility for seismic signals to be the primary communication route used by burrowing tarantulas, especially during courting, given the benefits of seismic signals and the frequent occurrences of vibration activity in theraphosids (ferretti, 2020). sympatry: we encountered cnemaspis sp. and dravidogecko sp. geckos in the same trees, along with the spiders, during nocturnal hours of the field work. while looking for tiny insects in the fifth tree, an adult h. nilgirinus approached the edge of the hole, and caught the cnemaspis sp., and then entered back into the hole. their primary sources of food were insects, spiders, and worms, but they also consumed a variety of other taxa including fish, mammals, birds, reptiles, and even extremely poisonous poison dart frogs (hénaut and machkour-m’rabet, 2020). the majority of the time, these spiders would hunts at night. usually, a few spiders emerged from the hole and waited for food 10 cm away. in every circumstance, these spiders relied on the hole (pl. 3). it would drag itself inside the nest as soon as it received food. 57 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum abinesh and moinudheen haploclastus nilgirinus egg sac: in our study, we had the opportunity to observe the egg sac of h. nilgirinus (pl.4). remarkably, the size of the egg sac measured an impressive 4.2 cm. this spider's egg sac fell while cutting down a tree. mirza et al. (2011) reported that the eggs of h. validus pocock, 1899 were laid post winter or in the onset of summer. likewise, in the study h. nilgirinus was observed to lay eggs during the winter season. during the breeding period, we made an intriguing observation regarding the behaviour of h. nilgirinus. we found that these fascinating creatures exhibited a unique mating ritual, where they would close their nests tightly with mud. this behaviour serves as an exceptional adaptation, providing a protective enclosure for their eggs and ensuring the safety of their offspring. by including these remarkable findings in our research article, we shed light on the reproductive strategies of h. nilgirinus. plate (2): plugged hole entrance with prey debris and exuviae. plate (3): haploclastus nilgirinus rely on the hole. 58 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (1): 49-63. ecology of the nilgiri large burrowing spider plate (4): egg sac of h. nilgirinus. discussion h. nilgirinus is a nocturnal tarantula that has a complex ecology due to its ambush and secretive lifestyle. the study found that they were arboreal and semi arboreal by nature. the occupied tree-hole dynamics reveal some important key points, such as, the age based preference upon depth variable and the negative correlation between height from ground and outer circumference, which explains filling the niche. the study also found that other than depth, and size of individual there was no variable that is found to influence the nesting ecology of h. nilgirinus. the habitat of h. nilgirinus was found to inhabit pear trees that had also been represented by a variety of insect species of different orders. theraphosidae can feed mostly on insects, including lepidoptera (particularly saturniidae and sphingidae), hymenoptera, ants, beetles, cicadas, grasshoppers, crickets, and termites (baerg, 1958; de wet, 1991; pérez-miles et al., 2004). t. vagans also preys on larger, more energetic prey, such as cockroaches, more frequently than other forms of species (dor and hénaut, 2013). in one study, coleopterans from the genus of eleodes eschscholtz, 1829 are found to be captured less frequently than inoffensive prey like crickets, despite the fact that chemical may be collected and eaten but only make up a very minor fraction of their diet (minch, 1978). the observation of other insects shows their diversity and importance, which thereby appears to influence the foraging ecology of haploclastus nilgirinus. during the study, we found that the nocturnally active species such as dravidogecko sp., h. nilgirinus, and uperodon triangularis in the study area were found to be very sensitive to artificial light at night. along with h. nilgirinus the dravidogecko sp was found to be strictly nocturnal and thus was found to be disturbed under alan (artificial light at night). this study is a base line study initiated to understand the nesting ecology of a lesser known tarantula species from the nilgiris. the species, although poorly studied, it has a potential threat of international pet 59 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum abinesh and moinudheen trading, which adds to the risk prone scenario along with habitat destruction. conservation managers and experts are warranted to find a mitigation regime for their conservation. the ecology of the h. nilgirinus is not well understood, but it is known to inhabit moist evergreen forests, and burrow into the soil. it is also known to feed on insects, and likely plays an important role in controlling insect populations in its habitat. conclusions in conclusion the study identifies some key areas to concentrate that would enhance the conservation of h. nilgirinus, including: protection of habitat, the spider's habitat is threatened by deforestation and habitat fragmentation. protecting and restoring the forests where the spider lives is essential for its survival. avoidance of pesticides: pesticides can harm the spider and its prey, and should be avoided in areas where the spider is known to live. education and awareness: raising awareness among local communities, forest officials, and policymakers about the importance of the spider and its role in the ecosystem can help garner support for conservation efforts. research and monitoring: further research on the ecology and behaviour of the spider is needed to better understand its conservation needs. regular monitoring of populations can also help track changes and inform conservation actions. captive breeding and reintroduction: if wild populations continue to decline, captive breeding and reintroduction programs may be necessary to maintain genetic diversity and ensure the long-term survival of the species. in summary, conservation efforts for the nilgiri large burrowing spider should focus on protecting its habitat, avoiding pesticide use, raising awareness, conducting research and monitoring, and implementing captive breeding and reintroduction programs if necessary. conflict of interest statement "the authors declare no conflict of interest" literature cited penell, a., raub, f. and höfer, h. 2018. estimating biomass from body size of european spiders based on regression models. the journal of arachnology, 46(3): 413-419. 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[click here] steffenson, m. m. 2014. mechanisms affecting predation success in wolf spiders. ph. d. dissertation, faculty of the graduate school, the university of texas at arlington, 86pp. [click here] https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00222930410001671282 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-48644-0_1 http://qgis.osgeo.org/ https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-43192-9 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crvi.2014.06.003 https://zoosprint.zooreach.org/index.php/zp/article/view/2418 https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.46.347 https://agritech.tnau.ac.in/forestry/pdf/arthropods%20and%20their%20conservation%20in%20india%20(insects%20&%20spiders).pdf https://rc.library.uta.edu/uta-ir/bitstream/handle/10106/24753/steffenson_uta_2502d_12758.pdf?sequence=1&isallowed=y 62 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (1): 49-63. ecology of the nilgiri large burrowing spider bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2024) 18 (1): 49-63. haploclastus nilgirinus pocock, 1899عنكبوت نيلجيري الكبير الحفار بيئة (araneae, theraphosidae) في نيلغيري، الهند ن. معين الدين ** أنبازجان أبينش* و نيلجيريس، تاميل نادو، -انجان نيفاس، ستانلي بارك، كونور الكشمي ن 155/409* ، الهند.643105 ل، نيلجيري، تاميل نادو، الهند.** عالم أحياء مستق 20/6/2024، النشر: 13/11/2023القبول: ،11/11/2023املراجعة: ،3/6/2023االستالم: الخالصة ، haploclastus nilgirinus pocock, 1899عنكبووووووج نيلجيوووووري الكبيووووور ا فوووووار لغ أمووووووووو بوووووووووا ذاهوووووووووو عنكبووووووووووج نيلجيوووووووووري مسوووووووووتو ن وووووووووي من قووووووووو نيلجيوووووووووريس وووووووووي الهنووووووووود، وهووووووووو ا مووووووووون حيووووووووو بي توووووووووئ وموا وووووووووئ. ت نووووووووواو هوووووووووذ األهميووووووووو لل فوووووووووج ولكنوووووووووئ هيووووووووور مفهوووووووووو جيووووووووود الدراسووووووووو هووووووووووذ الفجووووووووووود موووووووووون وووووووووو ووووووووو عوووووووووواداج التعشوووووووووو ش، وديناميكيوووووووووواج قوووووووووو ا دا ووووووووول مووووووووو اري األشوووووووووجار، وتنووووووووووي الفووووووووو ايس لونوووووووووواي وووووووووي كونوووووووووور، ونيلجيوووووووووريس، وت ديووووووووود ر كمثووووووووووووور عموووووووووووووول الشووووووووووووواي وةسوووووووووووووواتين الفاكهووووووووووووو . ركوووووووووووووو ج ا ح ووووووووووووواج علوووووووووووووو سوووووووووووووب أشووووووووووووووجا كمواقووووووووووووو عشوووووووووووووو ش، مووووووووووووو قياسوووووووووووووواج تف وووووووووووووي ي لفت وووووووووووووواج التعشووووووووووووو ش، بمووووووووووووووا وووووووووووووي لوووووووووووووو ا وووووووووووووووووووي ا عوووووووووووووووووووارري والووووووووووووووووووودا لي، والعمووووووووووووووووووو ، وقاعووووووووووووووووووودد ا جوووووووووووووووووووذي، واالرتفووووووووووووووووووواي األر ووووووووووووووووووو ي ground-based height (gbh . واالرتفووووووواي عووووووون األر ،) البيانووووووواج علووووووو مووووووود جمعووووووو م تنووووووووووووي ا شووووووووووو اج وووووووووووي أرةعووووووووووو أ،وووووووووووه متتاليووووووووووو ، وووووووووووي ال وووووووووووبا وا سووووووووووواء. كموووووووووووا توووووووووووم تقيوووووووووووي البسوووووووووووتان مووووووووووون ووووووووووو التعوووووووووووداد وم ،ووووووووووو اج التنووووووووووووي، مموووووووووووا يكشووووووووووو عووووووووووون التبووووووووووواين بوووووووووووين وووووووا ووووووووي 13األشوووووووجار. السوووووووج د السوووووووا ع لوووووووود ا أك ووووووور عووووووودد مووووووون العناكوووووووو ، مووووووو 10عنكبوت dipteraو orthopteraو blattodeaأعشوووووووووووووووووووووووووووا . كانووووووووووووووووووووووووووو رتووووووووووووووووووووووووووو ا شووووووووووووووووووووووووووو اج م ووووووووووووووووووووووووووول ا حوووووووووووو أعشوووووووووووا السوووووووووووج د السوووووووووووا ع . lepidopteraو hemipteraو هوووووووووووي األكثووووووووووور ان شوووووووووووار وووووووووا وووووووووي 25 وووووووووي جميووووووووو األشوووووووووجار، توووووووووم تو يووووووووو موووووووووا مجموعوووووووووئ وووووووووا، مووووووووو وجوووووووووود 21عنكبوت عش 63 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum abinesh and moinudheen ا ت وووووووووواج ووووووووووي ألجووووووووووم ا فوووووووووو د وقياسوووووووووواج األشووووووووووجار األ وووووووووو . يقوووووووووود هووووووووووذا الب وووووووووو ر ، ممووووووووا مهموووووووو حووووووووو عوووووووواداج التعشوووووووو ش، وديناميكيوووووووواج قوووووووو األشووووووووجار، وتنوووووووووي ايسوووووووو ا ألن ي ،وووووووووود جهووووووووووود هووووووووووذا النوووووووووووي ا فوووووووووواا علوووووووووو هووووووووووذ األنووووووووووواي ا ع وووووووووو للع وووووووووو . ن وووووووووو يواجوووووووووئ ا ديوووووووووداج ناجمووووووووو عووووووووون تووووووووودمير ا وا ووووووووول و يووووووووور ا نوووووووووا والتجوووووووووارد هيووووووووور ا شووووووووو وع ، وووووووووووووا لت وووووووووووووو اسووووووووووووو راتيجياج ا فووووووووووووواا ا حيو ووووووووووووجن هوووووووووووووم احتياجاتوووووووووووووئ البي يووووووووووووو يعووووووووووووود أمووووووووووووو الفعال وا فاا عل ص الن ا البيئي. bull 943 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2025) 18 (4): 943-953. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2025.18.4.0943 original article diversity and species distribution of hyalomma c. l. koch, 1844 (ixodida, ixodidae) infesting livestock in diyala province, central of iraq noora d. abed and nagham y. albayati dep. of biology, college of education for pure science, university of diyala, diyala, iraq corresponding author: nagham.alfadaam@uodiyala.edu.iq received: 5 july 2025, revised: 5 dec. 2025, accepted: 6 dec. 2025, published: 20 december 2025 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract due to the increase in tick-borne diseases globally, this investigation was proposed to investigate the distribution and intensity of the species belonging to hyalomma c. l. koch, 1844 that have been infesting livestock in diyala province, central of iraq. the total percentage of infestation was 14.955% distributed as 19.600% for cow, 12.254% for sheep, and 29.411% for goat. the infestation varies among the districts of diyala province, and the highest infestation was in females compared with males, and it was distributed in different sites of animal bodies. the study concludes that the genus hyalomma is widespread in all districts of the province and that there are six species belonging to this genus, including: hyalomma anatolicum koch, 1844, h. exacavatum koch, 1844, h. impeltatum schulze & schlottke, 1930, h. marginatum c. l. koch, 1844, h. rufipes c. l. koch,1844, and h. scupense schulze, 1919. keywords: cattle, hyalomma, ixodidae, livestock, ticks. introduction the infestation with ticks is a relevant topic for interested farmers and researchers because it leads to the exposure of dairy livestock to pathogenic microorganisms, causing much damage to these animals and to human economics (madison-antenucci et al., 2020). ticks are ectoparasites that are hematophagous, and as they attach themselves to the legs, neck, lower abdomen, udder areas, or places characterized by abundant blood vessels (evans et al., 2024), they cause direct and indirect damage to both domestic and wild animals in addition to humans (monoldorova et al., 2024). they lead to a loss of blood and cause harm to detrimental skin by puncturing and digging, irritation, as well as they cause weight loss, and reduced meat and dairy production (hatem, 2020; perveen et al., 2021), along with causing allergies of their hosts, so the infestation of ticks is associated with anemia, weakness bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799, print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2025.18.4.0943 https://orcid.org/0009-0000-7075-1633 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5468-897x mailto:nagham.alfadaam@uodiyala.edu.iq https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 944 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 943-953. diversity and species distribution (since the adult female tick causes a loss of 0.5-2 ml of blood per day, resulting in a loss of 1 gram of body weight), and suppression of immunity (barros et al., 2024). age, gender, and breed are factors that also affect susceptibility to infection (mandloi et al., 2024). infection with cattle tick fever (ctf), a viral fever transmitted by ticks, leads to the death of many cattle (barros et al., 2024). crimean-congo hemorrhagic fever (cchf) is one of the deadliest diseases that causes death in animals and humans, which is transmitted by ticks in more than 30 countries in asia, africa, europe, and the middle east. the disease records more than 10,000 cases annually, and the fever causes approximately 500 deaths worldwide, according to world health organization reports (frank et al., 2024). it has been reported that more than 950 species of ticks have been discovered, which belong to different genera and families, but it has been noted that the most common species of tick spreading crimean-congo hemorrhagic fever is the hyalomma species. the genus hyalomma of the family ixodidae is the most common in the majority of the world, including iraq (albayati and al-bayati, 2024; kaya et al., 2024). hyalomma followed by rhipicephalus species are the most common tick in iraq, both genera species are common parasites of sheep, cattle, buffalo, goats, camels, horses, and donkeys (makawi and hadi, 2023; hadi, 2024; kokas and al-hasnawy, 2024). tick infestation among these diseases is a major risk to livestock health and animal productivity in diyala province (hasson, 2016); therefore, the present study was conducted to identify the species of hyalomma ticks in this province, their infestation intensity, and what affects their distribution. materials and methods study area: the diyala province, located in northeast iraq, is specialized in its agricultural sector. it is composed of six districts commonly referred to as baqubah, al-miqdadiyah, alkhalis, khanaqin, balad ruz, and kifri. specimens’ collection: during the study, 500 tick specimens were randomly collected from 896 livestock, distributed between 250 cows, 612 sheep, and 34 goats, during the period from october 2023 to june 2024. specimens were collected from several parts of the animals’ bodies, including the head, tail, udder, legs, abdomen, and genitalia. the specimens were removed from the host manually using forceps and placed in test tubes with hermetically sealed caps containing 97% ethanol. ticks were removed from the host with extreme care to avoid damage to the host's skin and to ensure that the tick's head did not break off inside the host's skin. information about each animal including: age, sex, location of infestation, and name of localities were recorded. ticks’ identification: during the study, 500 tick specimens were randomly collected from the above-mentioned study sites of diyala province. the ticks were diagnosed based on walker (2003) and hassan and al-zubaidi (2014), then the specimens' identification was assured by iraq natural history research center and museumuniversity of baghdad. 945 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum abed and albayati statistical analysis: for statistical analysis a chi-square test was used to compare the infection status (infested versus non-infested) between groups of animals, determining if the observed differences in infestation rate between these groups were statistically significant or simply due to random chance. statistically significant differences were considered when p value <0.05. results in this study, there were six species belonging to the genus hyalomma were recorded, these species are listed below: hyalomma anatolicum koch, 1844, h. exacavatum koch, 1844, h. impeltatum schulze & schlottke, 1930, h. marginatum c. l. koch, 1844, h. rufipes c. l. koch,1844, and h. scupense schulze, 1919 the total percentage of infestation among the 896 examined animals was 14.955%, it was distributed as follows: 19.600% for cow, 12.254% for sheep, and 29.411% for goat with significant differences among animals’ groups (tab. 1). the total intensity of infestation was 3.269 ticks for the animal. in cows, the intensity of infection was 2.693 ticks per animal, while in sheep and goat it was 3 .693 and 2.900 ticks per animal, respectively. diagram (1) shows the numbers of infested animals in comparison with non-infested animals. table (1): types of livestock, intensity of infestation, numbers of ticks, and infestation percentage during the present survey. diagram (1): comparison between numbers of infested and non-infested animals. types of livestock the examined animals livestock infested intensity of infestation number of ticks the percentage % cow 250 49 2.693 132 19.600 sheep 612 75 3.693 277 12.254 goat 34 10 2.900 29 29.411 total 896 134 3.269 438 14.955 chi square value :13.336a asymptotic significance (2-sided):0.001 946 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 943-953. diversity and species distribution as for the distribution of infestation among animals in the different districts of diyala province, the highest infestations were recorded in baqubah district for cows (21.987%), and the lowest in al-khalis district. on the contrary, it was found in sheep. the highest infestations among sheep were in al-khalis district (23.809%) and the lowest in baqubah (8.533%). as for goats, infestations were the highest in balad ruz (42.857%), while the lowest percentage of infestation was in al-miqdadiyah with 20%. it can be noted that no infestations were recorded in the khanaqin district due to the lack of tested samples in this district, statistical analysis was significant for different areas as shown in table (2). table (2): distribution of infestation in some districts of diyala province. types of livestock districts examined livestock livestock infested percentage % cow baqubah 91 20 21.987 al-miqdadiyah 111 22 19.819 al-khalis 15 2 13.333 khanaqin 5 1 20.000 balad ruz 28 4 14.285 sheep baqubah 375 32 8.533 al-miqdadiyah 52 6 11.538 al-khalis 63 15 23.809 khanaqin 31 6 19.354 balad ruz 91 16 17.582 goat baqubah 19 5 26.315 al-miqdadiyah 5 1 20.000 al-khalis 3 1 33.333 khanaqin 0 0 0 balad ruz 7 3 42.857 chi square value: 154.606a asymptotic significance (2-sided):0.000 the numbers and percentages of infestation in female animals were higher than in males [102 (76.119%) for females vs. 32(23.881%) for males] as shown in table (3). cows were the most infested by ticks among the animals studied, with 87.795%, while goats had the lowest infestation rate, 60% among infested females. male goats had the highest infestation rate (40%), while male cows (bulls) had the lowest infestation rate (10.204%). statistical analysis shows that there was significant between males and females it was tend to females. table (3): tick infestation depends on livestock sex. types of livestock livestock infested percentage and sex females % males % cow 49 44 89.796 5 10.204 sheep 75 52 69.333 23 30.667 goat 10 6 60.000 4 40.000 total 134 102 76.119 32 23.881 chi-square value: 8.371a asymptotic significance (2-sided): 0.015 947 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum abed and albayati the most preferred areas for ticks to infest were the tail (41.045%), as shown in table (4), followed by the udder (23.880%), while the limbs were the least preferred areas (5.970%). for cows, the udder was the most infested area (40.816%), while for sheep, the tail was the most infested (58.666%), and for goats, the head was the most infested (40.000%). statistical analysis shows that it was significant according to the location of infestation. table (4): location of infestation on livestock bodies and its percentage. discussion in the present study, six species belonging to the genus hyalomma were identified among farm animals (cows, sheep, and goats). this agrees with previous studies, indicating that the central provinces of iraq are more suitable for ixodida ticks, including this genus (mohammad, 2016; shanan et al., 2017). in diyala province, hyalomma ticks infest farm animals such as cows and sheep, and have been recorded to be the prevalent ticks. in their study, al bayati and al bayati (2024) recorded six species including h. anatolicum, h. exacavatum, h. marginatum, h. scupenes, h. trunicatum, and h. rufipes. this is consistent with the current study with respect to all recorded species except h. trunicatum which was replaced by h. impeltatum. the domestic hosts such as sheep, goats, and camels are present in the region, providing potential hosts for the ticks. camels are greatly infested by hyalomma species (al-salihi et al., 2018). as well as hyalomma ticks are ecologically suited to central iraqi conditions and sustain their broad dispersal. added to that, climatic variation in the area shows a cyclical rise t y p es o f li v es to ck location of infestation g en it al ia % t ai l % li v es to ck li m b s % u d d er % a b d o m en % h ea d % c o w s 4 1 8 .1 6 3 8 1 6 .3 2 6 5 1 0 .2 0 4 2 0 4 0 .8 1 6 6 1 2 .2 4 4 6 1 2 .2 4 4 s h ee p 0 0 4 4 5 8 .6 6 6 3 4 1 1 1 4 .6 6 6 1 0 1 3 .3 3 3 7 9 .3 3 3 g o at s 0 0 3 3 0 .0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 .0 0 0 2 2 0 .0 0 0 4 4 0 .0 0 0 t o ta l 4 2 .9 8 5 5 5 4 1 .0 4 5 8 5 .9 7 0 3 2 2 3 .8 8 0 1 8 1 3 .4 3 2 1 7 1 2 .6 8 6 chi-square value: 83.483a asymptotic significance (2-sided): 0.000 948 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 943-953. diversity and species distribution in activity synchronized with high times of the period, such that they peak between spring and fall, being higher (mohammad et al., 2020; kodama et al., 2025). the total percentage of infestation in the present study was 14.599% (table 1). when compared with previous studies in iraq, this rate is lower than the infestation levels reported in dhi qar and muthanna provinces (59.65%), where hyalomma ticks were predominant (mohammed et al., 2020). weather patterns in these regions create favorable conditions for hard ticks, and research indicates that several genera and species are particularly common in africa and the middle east. the richness and composition of these species are largely influenced by environmental variation and fluctuations in host abundance (makwarela et al., 2024). regarding infestation intensity, the overall intensity of ticks on goats reported in previous studies ranged from 6.8 ticks per goat (estrada-peña, 2008; modammad, 2016) to 4.49 ticks per goat in baghdad (mohammad et al., 2020). tick intensity varies by host species and tick genus. in basrah province, hatem (2020) recorded a mean intensity of rhipicephalus sanguineus latreille, 1806 of 5.82 ticks per infested dog, 6.37 in sheep, 5.71 in goats, 6.29 in cattle, and 2.33 in horses. the current study agrees with hatem (2020) in that sheep were the animals with the highest infestation density. as for the distribution of infestation among animals in the different districts of diyala province, the rates of tick infestation varied between the districts under study, and there was no specific pattern to which this variation could be attributed. this is what was noted in table (2), as the number of animals examined did not play a role in this variation. these regions are characterized by their agricultural nature and similar climates. however, this difference may be due to overcrowding on the farms where the animals were examined, the lack of overcrowding, and the nature of the grass on which the animals graze. adult ticks prefer many mammalian hosts, but they prefer large animals. livestock such as cows, sheep, goats, and camels are among the preferred hosts of ticks, including the genus of hyalomma (valcárcel et al., 2023). the infection rates of these animals may vary from one to another. in the current study, it was found that the infestation among sheep was the highest. this may be since sheep may provide a more suitable environment for tick attachment and feeding as the wool covering the sheep provides protection for ticks from the effect of the animal’s attempt to remove the tick from its body cows and goats cover their bodies with hair, which is less dense than sheep’s wool (marufu et al., 2011). also, the nature of the skin may influence the rate of infestation. hussain et al. (2023) indicated that the lower infestation rate among ruminants could be due to the extra care they take, as they are a major source of milk and meat in pakistan. in addition, the tick infestation rate varies depending on the local climatic and environmental conditions, such as temperature, humidity, and the presence of host animals. tick infestations are higher in female cattle because hormonal changes in lactation and reproduction can suppress the immune response. the nutritional and physiological demand of 949 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum abed and albayati a lactating cow is relatively higher, and so is the chance of getting infested with the tick compared to non-lactating female cattle or male cattle (bilkis et al., 2011). there may be male-female variations in grazing or resting, and females may be more prone to certain host environments with heavier ticks (hatem and abdulkarim, 2023; valcárcel et al., 2023). cattle are larger, providing more substantial blood meals for ticks, which is crucial for their reproduction and survival. this makes them a more attractive host, and the ticks are distributed on different sites on the animal's body. in the current study, the infestation of ticks varied among different sites on animals’ bodies. it was recorded that the most preferred areas for ticks to infect were the tail, as shown in table (4), followed by the udder, while the limbs were the least preferred areas. for cows, the udder was the most infected area, while for sheep, the tail was the most infected, and for goats, the head was the most infected. generally, tick attachment preferences can vary based on host behavior, tick species, and environmental conditions. some of the preferred sites for ticks are with thin skin and rich blood flow since these assure easy access to the needed substances for the tick's feeding. for example, the udder of the cow is one preferred site of amblyomma variegatum, while the anal region is mostly infested by hyalomma rufipes (addo et al., 2024). the behavior of a certain type of animals also determines the distribution of its ticks; camels, being in the open for longer periods, stand a higher chance of being infected with ticks because of exposure. evolutionary adaptations have geared ticks towards the selection of a few enabling sheltered areas from both grooming and environmental stressors in animals, such as the tail in sheep and the head in goats (addo et al., 2024). conclusions this study demonstrates that livestock in diyala province are severely affected by a widespread and diverse infestation of the hyalomma ticks. infestation intensity was especially elevated in sheep and in female animals, emphasizing a disproportionate vulnerability within these groups. such heavy tick loads show a serious threat to animal health and productivity. these results underscore the urgent need to develop and implement targeted, species-specific tick control programs across the province to minimize economic losses and to reduce the potential transmission of zoonotic pathogens to humans, given that this species is known to transmit diseases such as crimean-congo hemorrhagic fever. acknowledgments the authors would like to thank the members of iraq natural history research center and museum-university of baghdad for their help in identifying the specimens. ethical aproval ticks’ specimens were collected in full accordance with the guidelines approved by the research ethics committee of the college of education for pure sciences, university of baghdad, under protocol cepec/029, dated september 1, 2023. conflict of interest statement "the author declares no conflict of interest". 950 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 943-953. diversity and species distribution literature cited addo, s. o., bentil, r. e., mosore, m. t., behene, e., adinkrah, j., tagoe j, yeboah, c., baako, b. o. a., atibila, d., kwarteng, s. a., poku-asante, k., owusu-darbo, e., asoala, v., mingle, d. l., nyarko, e. o., fox, a. t., letizia, a. g., william, j. d., nimo-paintsil, s., harwood, j. f. and dadzie, s. k. 2024. risk factors affecting the feeding site predilection of ticks on cattle in ghana. experimental and applied acarology, 92(4): 835-850. 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[crossref] monoldorova, s., lee, s., yun, s., park, s., jeong, j.-u., kim, j., lee, i.-y., jun, h., park, c.h., byeon, h.-s., han, m., youn, s.-y., cho, y.-s., yun, y.-m., lee, k.-j. and jeon, b.-y. 2024. seasonal dynamics of ticks and tick-borne pathogens in republic of korea. pathogens, 13(12): 1079. [crossref] perveen, n., muzaffar, s. b. and al-deeb, m. a. 2021. ticks and tick-borne diseases of livestock in the middle east and north africa: a review. insects, 12(1): 83. [crossref] shanan, s. m., abbas, s. f. and mohammad, m. k. 2017. ixodid ticks diversity and seasonal dynamic on cattle in north, middle and south of iraq. systematic and applied acarology, 22(10): 1651-1658. [researchgate] valcárcel, f., elhachimi, l., vilà, m., tomassone, l., sánchez, m., selles, s. m. a. and olmeda, a. s. 2023. emerging hyalomma lusitanicum: from identification to vectorial role and integrated control. medical and veterinary entomology, 37(3): 425-459. [crossref] walker, a. r., bouattour, a., camicas, j. l., estrada-pena, a., horak, i. g., latif, a. a., pegram, r. g. and preston, p. m. 2003. ticks of domestic animals in africa: a guide to identification of species. bioscience reports. edinburgh scotland, uk, 221pp. [click here] https://doi.org/10.56825/bufbu.2024.4343819 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ttbdis.2011.07.001 https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/article/view/57/version/46 http://dx.doi.org/10.17582/journal.aavs/2020/8.10.1050.1056 https://doi.org/10.3390/pathogens13121079 https://doi.org/10.3390/insects12010083 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319938159_ixodid_ticks_diversity_and_seasonal_dynamic_on_cattle_in_north_middle_and_south_of_iraq https://doi.org/10.1111/mve.12660 https://www.alanrwalker.com/assets/pdf/tickguide-africa.pdf 953 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum abed and albayati bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2025) 18 (4): 943-953. hyalomma c. l. koch, 1844تنوع وتوزيع انواع جنس (ixodida, ixodidae) التي تصيب املاشية في محافظة ديالى، وسط العراق البياتي نغم ياسين ونورا ضياء الدين عبد جامعة ديالى، ديالى، العراق -كلية التربية للعلوم الصرفةقسم علوم الحياة، 20/12/2025، النشر: 6/12/2025 القبول ،2025/ 5/12املراجعة: ،5/7/2025االستالم: الخالصة أنواع البحث لدراسة توزيع وشدة رح هذا ُ ، ط ً املنقولة بالقراد عامليا لتزايد األمراض ً نظرا جنس من ديالى، hyalomma c. l. koch, 1844القراد محافظة في املاشية صيب ُ ت التي 19.600%التالي: موزعة على النحو %14,955وسط العراق. بلغت النسبة الكلية لإلصابة ولألبقار و 12.254، لألغنام، محافظة %29.411% مناطق بين اإلصابة وتختلف للماعز. مواقع في وتوزعت بالذكور، ً ُمقارنة اإلناث لدى إصابة نسبة أعلى ُسجلت حيث ديالى، ُمختلفة من أجسام الحيوانات. وتوصلت الدراسة إلى أن انواع هذا الجنس منتشر في جميع :وهي الجنسأقضية املحافظة، وأن هناك ستة أنواع تنتمي إلى هذا hyalomma anatolicum koch, 1844, h. exacavatum koch, 1844, h. impeltatum schulze & schlottke, 1930, h. marginatum c. l. koch, 1844, h. rufipes c. l. koch,1844, and h. scupense schulze, 1919. bull 829 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2025) 18 (4): 829-848. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2025.18.4.0829 original article assessing the potential risk of impacts by four nonnative birds species on biodiversity in iraq obaida ali al-dulaimi and hind suhail abdulhay department of biology, college of science, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq corresponding author: obaidaali29@gmail.com received: 10 march 2025, revised: 19 aug. 2025, accepted: 25 aug. 2025, published:20 dec. 2025 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract invasive bird species pose a significant threat to biodiversity and ecosystems worldwide. in iraq, non-native avifaunal species are increasing, leading to various environmental challenges. this study aims to evaluate the risk of invasiveness and potential impacts of four non-native, extant bird species on iraq's biodiversity under both current and predicted climate change conditions. surveys were conducted in november 2023 and 2024 on four non-native bird species present in local animal markets throughout iraq. the study sites included the provinces of baghdad, basra, and erbil, which harbour commercial centres and the largest local animal markets in the country for trading non-native species. in this study, the target species for screening were selected after an extensive literature search and review of nonnative bird species in iraq. using the terrestrial animal species invasiveness screening kit (tas-isk), this study evaluated the potential risk of invasiveness in iraq of four of these nonnative bird species: bank myna acridotheres ginginianus latham, 1790, common myna acridotheres tristis (linnaeus, 1766), namaqua dove oena capensis (linnaeus, 1766), and rose-ringed parakeet psittacula krameri (scopoli, 1769). the findings revealed that for commercial, environmental, and species or population nuisance traits, a. tristis and p. krameri pose a high risk of invasiveness, whereas a. ginginianus and o. capensis pose a medium risk. the present results highlight the need to include these species in decision-making and management programmes to mitigate their impacts on iraq's biodiversity. keywords: biological invasion, non-native, potential impact, risk screening, tas-isk. introduction the deliberate or accidental translocation of species by humans beyond their natural distribution is a well-documented outcome of the new ‘geological era’ (ricciardi, 2007; hulme, 2009) that has resulted in the transportation of live animals across different locations for many years (mori et al., 2017). animals have been introduced for pet trading (lockwood et al., 2019), and the establishment of non-native species in areas where they are able to multiply, disperse, and, eventually, negatively affect native biota is referred to as biological bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799, print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2025.18.4.0829 https://orcid.org/0009-0004-6850-6849 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8515-2235 mailto:obaidaali29@gmail.com https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 830 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 829-848. assessing the potential risk invasion (pearson, 2022). on a global scale, biological invasions represent a significant problem leading to a reduction in the numbers of native species (dove et al., 2011). measures to counteract the impacts resulting from the spread of non-native species are therefore necessary (al-sheikhly, 2023). invasive species are one of the five primary factors leading to global environmental change, alongside the conversion of land and sea, direct overexploitation, climate change, and pollution (ipbes, 2023). while biological invasions are widely acknowledged as a major aspect of contemporary global change, there is substantial disagreement between scientists and stakeholders about the magnitude of the changes caused by non-native species and the degree to which management interventions are justified (richardson and ricciardi, 2013). this debate stems partly from the absence of a widely acceptable framework for assessing impacts and an integrated terminology for describing impacts to enable effective communication (blackburn et al., 2014; jeschke et al., 2014). however, throughout the past years, a rapid advancement has occurred in studies related to invasion impacts (pyšek et al., 2020). these have resulted in an enhanced understanding of the underlying mechanisms of biological invasions and the establishment of a well-grounded theoretical foundation and conceptual framework (jeschke et al., 2014; kumschick et al., 2017). iraq covers a total area of 438,317 square kilometres and is situated between latitudes 29°– 38° n and longitudes 39°–49° e, hence spanning both the northern and eastern hemispheres (southeast corner of the palearctic biogeographical realm). iraq harbours substantial biodiversity because of its unique and diverse geography, which ranges from a mountainous region extending to an altitude of 3607 m in halgurd mountain in the north to desert plains in the west and to marshes in the south (yaseen et al., 2021). iraq's biodiversity is rich and encompasses various ecosystems and species. the country's geographical location and its varied landscapes contribute to its biodiversity (rubec et al., 2009). the river systems of the tigris and euphrates, along with their tributaries, support a diverse variety of flora and fauna (al-zubaidi et al., 2017). in addition, they supply the central marshes with water, forming a broad wetland with freshwater lakes (taher and abdulhay, 2024a). the presence of the historical marshes in southern iraq is important ecologically and climatically for many species (taher and abdulhay, 2024b). the native avifauna of iraq, which comprises about 409 species, is a crucial indicator of the country's biological resources. in this regard, conservation concerns in iraq revolve around several factors, including invasive species significantly impacting native bird populations (alrammahi and mohammad, 2022). the climate of iraq (the risk assessment area of this study) is generally characterized as subtropical semi-arid, with a mediterranean climate in the northern and north-eastern regions and a more arid climate in the southern areas. winter typically shows an average day temperature of about 16 °c, while it reaches up to 43 °c during summer. mean annual rainfall is ≈ 220 mm; however, it varies significantly across the country depending on geography, ranging from approximately 100 mm in the southern regions to up to 1200 mm in the northern 831 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-dulaimi and abdulhay areas (nolan et al., 2022). this risk assessment area has three climatic zones of köppen classification: (i) desert (bwh) in the middle and south, (ii) steppes or transitional (bsh) in the north, and (iii) mediterranean (csa) in the upper northern region (mustafa, 2017). the first step in the non-native species risk analysis process is risk screening (or risk identification), whose aim is to identify those non-native species that are more likely to be or become invasive in a certain risk assessment area (vilizzi et al., 2022a). identifying the risks posed by (potentially) invasive non-native species contributes to the refinement of policies and management protocols to prevent or mitigate the impacts of biological invasion. this first component of the risk analysis process facilitates decision-makers in allocating resources for follow-up risk assessment and management of the species ranked as posing a high risk of invasiveness (copp et al., 2016; vilizzi et al., 2022a). in this regard, the development of electronic decision-support tools has facilitated more effective implementation of risk screening studies (pheloung et al., 1999; copp et al., 2016). recently, this development has led to the creation of the terrestrial animal species invasiveness screening kit (tas-isk) (vilizzi et al., 2022b). in iraq, based on salim et al. (2012), several introduced bird species have become established. these include the bank myna acridotheres ginginianus, the common myna acridotheres tristis, the namaqua dove oena capensis, and the rose-ringed parakeet psittacula krameri. therefore, understanding the impact associated with the introduced invasive birds is important for the implementation of appropriate management measures (alshamlih et al., 2022). the aim of this study is: (i) to conduct a risk screening on selected non-native bird species in iraq to improve knowledge on their potential impacts on the biodiversity and ecosystems of the country, and (ii) to compile a comprehensive list of nonnative bird species introduced to iraq. materials and methods study area and sampling sites: the sampling sites were located in three provinces: baghdad in the central of iraq, basra in the south, and erbil in the north. these provinces harbour the most important commercial centres in the country, consisting of local animal markets (suq) for the trade of non-native species. annually, these local wildlife markets exhibit several wild animals (al-sheikhly, 2011). at the same time, the ecology and biodiversity of these areas have a substantial impact on invasion success, with modification and continuous disruption of habitats by humans favouring the occupation by introduced species (simberloff, 2013). of the three main animal markets surveyed (map 1): 1suq al–gazel is located in khulafa street, baghdad (33°20'17.2" n; 44°23'53.4" e) and is considered the biggest local animal market for selling and buying domestic and wild animals, hence representing a hotspot for several non-native species. 2basra old market is one of the oldest in the basra province (30°29'53.7"n; 47°48'49.3"e) and is popular with fisheries markets and bird stores. 3erbil animal market, named after the namesake city (36°11'13.1"n; 44°01'07.7"e), hosts many different caged wild animal species, including non-native species. 832 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 829-848. assessing the potential risk map (1): iraq map with study sites, including the first study site (baghdad province), the second study site (basra province), and the third study site (erbil province). surveys were conducted at the three animal markets from november 2023 to november 2024. the time at which the surveys started was between 8:00 am and 1:00 pm at all sites and during all seasons. non-native bird species were observed using direct visual observation methods of live birds in captivity (salim et al., 2021; nolan et al., 2022). photo documentation was made using a digital camera nikon d7100 equipped with a 50-500mm f/4-6.3 af zoom lens. data were extracted about recognized introduced non-native bird species by checking published abstracts, scientific articles, reports, books, book chapters, reports, as well as gray literature on non-native species in iraq. furthermore, browsing websites of science and google scholar databases using related keywords (’alien species ‘ , ’invasive species ‘ , ’birds ‘, ’iraq ‘ ) in english without a specific timespan (stănescu et al., 2020). species with a documented history of causing harm to the environment by establishing new ranges outside their native habitat were identified using the global invasive species database (faulkner et al., 2014; gisd, 2024) and the centre for agriculture and biosciences international invasive species compendium (cabi isc). these databases provide 833 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-dulaimi and abdulhay information on invasive species globally, including their native and introduced range and introduction pathways (turbelin et al., 2017). risk screening: the four non-native bird species a. ginginianus, a. tristis, o. capensis, and p. krameri were screened for their potential invasiveness in iraq. these species were selected according to the following characteristics: (i) establishment, i.e., already present and with selfsustainable populations in the risk assessment area (imoe, 2018), and (ii) continuous trading, hence likely to be dispersed further in the risk assessment area in the future. the four screened alien bird species were found within the list of alien invasive species in iraq (imoe, 2018), the common myna acridotheres tristis, the rose-ringed parakeet psittacula krameri, the bank myna acridotheres ginginianus, and the namaqua dove (oena capensis), which is listed within the 100 of the world’s worst invasive alien species (lowe et al., 2000; thaker and haba, 2022). two alien bird species, the rose-ringed parakeet and the common myna, were listed in the gisd, while the other two birds were not included. the tas-isk (vilizzi et al., 2022b) was employed to evaluate the potential risk of invasiveness of the four non-native bird species in iraq. this taxon-generic, multilingual decision-support tool meets the minimum standards for screening alien species under european union regulation no. 1143/2014 on the prevention and management of the introduction and spread of alien invasive species (european union, 2014). the tas-isk consists of 55 questions: the first 49 comprise the basic risk assessment (bra) and address the biogeography/invasion history and biology/ecology of the screened species; the last six comprise the climate change assessment (cca) to predict how future climatic conditions might influence risks of introduction, establishment, dispersal, and impact (vilizzi et al., 2022b). for a valid screening, the assessor must respond to every question and provide a confidence level and a justification based on literature sources (vilizzi et al., 2022a). the bra score ranges from –20 to 68, and the bra+cca score ranges from –32 to 80. a score < 1 suggests a low risk of the species being or becoming invasive in the risk assessment area; a score ≥ 1 indicates a medium or high risk of invasiveness. confidence levels in the responses to questions are ranked using a 1–4 scale (1 = low; 2 = medium; 3 = high; 4 = very high) and a confidence factor (cf), ranging from a minimum of 0.25 to a maximum of 1 is computed for bra+cca, bra, and cca (vilizzi et al., 2022b). an empirical threshold to distinguish between medium and high-risk species was based on the evaluation of the bra and the bra+cca risk scores due to the new utilization of this screening toolkit, which prevents computation of a calibrated threshold (vilizzi et al., 2022b). results and discussion field surveys surveys conducted at suq al–gazel wild animal trading market in baghdad resulted in the observation of a. tristis and p. krameri (pl. 1). these species were previously reported as established invasive species in the 6th national report (imoe, 2018) and are recognized as invasive globally (gisd, 2024). these birds were found in captivity to be sold live as 834 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 829-848. assessing the potential risk songbirds, as both can produce a sound that mimics that of humans. both species were sold individually or in male–female pairs. the growth of international trade routes increases the likelihood of their introduction into new habitats, where these species may subsequently become established (ahmad et al., 2021). salim (1998) mentioned in his first observation of a. tristis in the wild in basra province in southern iraq that a. tristis had established populations, mostly believed to be related to escapes from captivity. similarly, the established populations of p. krameri in iraq also originated from escapes (salim et al., 2012). it is anticipated that increased trading of this non-native species across iraq may eventually lead to an increase in the risks posed to the country’s biodiversity and ecosystems. plate (1): introduced invasive species into the iraqi ecosystem through caged bird trading in suq al–gazel market, resulting in a new population establishment in the wild as soon as it escapes from its cages; (a) common myna acridotheres tristis, (b) rose-ringed parakeet psittacula krameri. besides a. tristis and p. krameri, a pair of a. ginginianus was also observed in erbil animal market (fig. 3). the seller of the pair mentioned that the source of these birds was from india. a. ginginianus is readily distinguished from a. tristis by the key morphological feature, especially by the orange orbital patch and a slate-grey body. this non-native species was also listed in the 6th national report (imoe, 2018). however, a. ginginianus was not listed as an invasive species in the global invasive species database. abed and salim (2019) mentioned a b 835 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-dulaimi and abdulhay that the bank myna has been found in captivity many times from 2001 to 2017 at different animal markets across iraq. also, the species was observed in the wild many times, but the first confirmed record of this non-native species in iraq was in 2017, close to the diwaniya city area. another confirmed record in the wild was in the al-majara dumpsite, 17 km to the southwest of al-nashwa village in the majnoon area, basra province, southern iraq, by albarazengy and al-sheikhly (2019), where two bank myna were foraging and perching repeatedly on a concrete bridge. furthermore, the a. ginginianus has been observed in neighboring countries such as iran, kuwait, and kingdom of saudi arabia, where most, if not all of the birds found in the wild were considered as escaped birds from the cages (porter and aspinall, 2010). plate (2): a pair of non-native bank myna acridotheres ginginianus caged in the erbil animal market. the results of the surveys done in basra’s old market were similar compared with the observation of the other two study sites (baghdad and erbil markets) in finding the same nonnative bird species. the survey was limited to observing caged chicks of the non-native invasive myna species, where it is not possible to identify the exact type whether it is the a. tristis or a. ginginianus. the chicks were 5 in number and in the cage (pl. 3). according to the seller, these chicks were caught from nests in the wild in basra province. 836 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 829-848. assessing the potential risk plate (3): five chicks of the non-native myna species caged in the basra old market. the literature search resulted in a few studies that guided the topic of alien invasive vertebrates and their potential biological impacts on biodiversity in iraq. one of the articles concerning alien invasive species in iraq was restricted to only one area in the al-dalmaj protected area (salim et al., 2021); only single-species first records of alien invasive bird species articles were found. however, in table (1), we gathered all mentioned alien vertebrates in the literature sources found in the wild of iraq and then checked if these species were invasive globally or not by using the gisd (gisd, 2024) and the cabi isc (turbelin et al., 2017). table (1): the common name, scientific name, international union for conservation of nature (iucn) status, and status, with references for each alien species found in the literature in iraq. scientific name common name iucn status status reference acridotheres ginginianus (latham, 1790) bank myna least concern noninvasive al-barazengy and al-sheikhly (2019) acridotheres tristis (linnaeus, 1766) common myna least concern invasive salim (1998), salim and abed (2017) dendrocygna viduata linnaeus, 1766 white-faced whistling duck least concern noninvasive salim et al. (2020) elanus caeruleus desfontaines, 1789 black winged kite least concern noninvasive salim and abed (2017), abed and salim (2018), salim et al. (2021) euodice malabarica linnaeus, 1758 indian silverbill least concern noninvasive imoe (2018) gracupica contra linnaeus, 1758 asian pied starling least concern noninvasive abed and salim (2019) 837 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-dulaimi and abdulhay oena capensis linnaeus, 1766 namaqua dove least concern noninvasive salim (2008), salim et al. (2012), salim and abed (2017), salim et al. (2021) psittacula eupatria (linnaeus, 1766) alexandrian parakeet near threatened invasive abed et al. (2020) psittacula krameri (scopoli, 1769) rose-ringed parakeet least concern invasive salim et al. (2012) spilopelia senegalensis linnaeus, 1766 laughing dove least concern invasive salim et al. (2021)) risk screening acridotheres ginginianus was ranked as carrying a medium risk of invasiveness (tab. 2). lack of evidence for adverse impacts caused by this species in its introduced range likely resulted in its lowest score in the invasive elsewhere section relative to the other three screened species. however, an undesirable trait of a. ginginianus is its harbouring of parasites and consequent potential transmission of diseases to humans, as in the case of the chewing lice menacanthus eurysternus (khan et al., 2009; naz et al., 2016; tariq et al., 2024). based on the köppen-geiger classification system, the climate of the species' native range (india, nepal, pakistan, and bangladesh: al-barazengy and al-sheikhly, 2019) indicates similarity for both the bwh and bsh zones, but less so for the csa zone in the north. under predicted future climate conditions, based on professional judgment of wildlife experts, the species' risks of dispersal within the risk assessment area are likely to increase with consequent higher magnitude of future potential impacts on biodiversity, ecosystem structure and function, as well as ecosystem services and related socio-economic factors. acridotheres tristis achieved the highest bra and bra+cca scores of all screened species and was ranked as high risk (tab. 2). this species is known to be invasive outside its native range. in mauritius, where a. tristis species has been present since 1762 (witt et al., 2021), it exerts adverse impacts on agriculture and the ecosystem, and socio-economic services, including predation on the skink gongylomorphus bojerii fontenayi, which is endemic and endangered (bissessur and vincent florens, 2018). in kingdom of saudi arabia, a. tristis has a high adverse impact on agriculture as a result of its omnivorous feeding on field crops and invertebrates (alshamlih et al., 2022). similar to other invasive species, the aggressive behaviour of a. tristis allows it to outcompete native and migratory birds for resources in urban wetland ecosystems (yam et al., 2015). the occurrence of a. tristis in popular tourist sites has resulted in adverse impacts on biodiversity with broad economic consequences (orabi et al., 2024). acridotheres tristis is a generalist species known for its adaptability and wide distributional range, which enables it to act as a reservoir and transmitter of a variety of diseases that, in turn, can affect both native wildlife and humans (orabi et al., 2024). the species' behaviour and mode of existence reduce habitat quality for native species as a result of its aggressiveness toward nests, eggs, and chicks of native birds, leading to a reduction in their reproductive success (grarock et al., 2012). based on the köppen-geiger classification system, considering the climate of the species' native range 838 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 829-848. assessing the potential risk (india and central–southern asia) (feare and craig, 2010), the bsh zone of the risk assessment area resulted in a medium climate match, while the bwh zone is considered less ideal. on the other hand, the csa zone in northern iraq has seasonal similarities to parts of the species' native range. based on wildlife expert opinion, a. tristis scored the highest of all screened species in the climate change section, indicating a higher likelihood of future potential impacts on biodiversity, ecosystem structure and function, as well as ecosystem services and related socio-economic factors. an increase in the risks of dispersal within the risk assessment area was also predicted. oena capensis achieved the lowest bra and bra+cca scores, and was ranked as medium risk (tab. 2). lack of evidence of impacts in its introduced range resulted in the species' low score in the invasive elsewhere section. oena capensis is naturalized in the middle east following its northward expansion since 1980 (jennings, 2000). this expansion was likely related to the presence of green lands and farms within saudi arabia that provide suitable shelter and food sources and have facilitated the species' movement northward. in the gaza strip (palestine), o. capensis mostly occurs in menageries, pet shops, and live animal markets, and has been reported to reproduce freely in captivity (abd rabou and abd rabou 2019). similar findings were reported from lebanon, where a few individuals of this species were seen in the wild and thought to be possible escapees from cages (ramadan-jaradi and ramadan-jaradi, 2012). however, the namaqua dove, despite the lack of any observation during the field surveys in targeted markets, was evaluated as a problematic invasive species that could potentially affect the ecosystem based on al-rammahi and mohammad (2022). the current study used the köppen-geiger classification system to match the climate of the bird's native range which is the afrotropical region (alshamlih et al., 2022), and the risk assessment area theoretically, results revealed that the namaqua dove's natural range overlaps well with iraq's climate, particularly in the central and southern desert regions (bwh, bsh), making it a suitable habitat. under predicted climate conditions, the likelihood of dispersal by o. capensis within the risk assessment area is likely to increase, whereas the magnitude of future potential impacts on biodiversity, ecosystem structure or function, ecosystem services, and related socio-economic factors would remain unchanged. psittacula krameri achieved the second-highest scores amongst the four screened species and was ranked as high risk (tab. 2). the rose-ringed parakeet scored 16.5 in the biogeography/historical section of the tas-isk questionnaire, whereas in the biology/ecology section, it achieved only 8.0 points. the high score in the invasive elsewhere section is a result of the species' being introduced in 47 countries, where it is widely spread and successful (calzada preston and pruett-jones, 2021). the aggressive behavior of p. krameri for nesting site competition has led to a decline of threatened colonies of the bat nyctalus lasiopterus and of the threatened lesser kestrel falco naumanni (hernández-brito et al., 2022). this species has a high negative impact on different agricultural crops such as fruits and orchids, which is attributed to its feeding habits as a generalist feeder (abd rabou, 2022). psittacula krameri can have adverse socio-economic impacts as in the case of vineyards (butler, 2021), its presence was found to decrease considerably the feeding rates of indigenous birds (peck et al., 2014), and acts as a host to many pathogens, such as chlamydia 839 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-dulaimi and abdulhay psittaci, the avian influenza virus, the newcastle disease virus, and escherichia coli (lópez et al., 2023). its high reproductive flexibility, large clutch size, high survival rate of juveniles and adults, generalist foraging strategy, and popularity as a pet have enabled p. krameri to become the most widely spread parrot in the world (rocha, 2020). given the bird's native range in tropical and subtropical parts of africa and asia (butler, 2005), both the bsh and bwh zones of iraq align with its habitat requirements. when accounting for climate change, a higher magnitude of future potential impacts is expected for this species on biodiversity, ecosystem structure and function, and on ecosystem services, along with an increase in the risks of dispersal within the risk assessment area. table (2): scoring outputs of the non-native bird species evaluated with tas-isk for iraq. section/category a. ginginianus a. tristis o. capensis p. krameri a biogeography/historical 3.0 21.0 3.0 16.5 1.domestication/cultivation 2.0 2.0 0.0 2.0 2.climate, distribution, and introduction risk 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 3. invasive elsewhere 0.0 18.0 2.0 13.5 bbiology/ecology 10.0 16.0 0.0 8.0 4.undesirable (or persistence) traits 7.0 9.0 2.0 8.0 5.resource exploitation 5.0 5.0 0.0 0.0 6. reproduction 2.0 3.0 1.0 2.0 7. dispersal mechanisms −2.0 −2.0 −2.0 −3.0 8.tolerance attributes −2.0 1.0 −1.0 1.0 bra score 13.0 37.0 3.0 24.5 c climate change 9 . climate change 6.0 8.0 2.0 6.0 bra+cca score 19.0 45.0 5.0 30.5 bra 0.89 0.89 0.88 0.90 cca 0.79 0.83 0.79 0.83 bra+cca 0.88 0.88 0.87 0.89 commercial sector 6 18 4 12 environmental sector 8 15 1 9 species or population nuisance traits 9 16 4 13 conclusions the findings of this study underscore the threat posed by some non-native bird species to iraq's biodiversity and ecosystems. this study identified the a. tristis and p. krameri as highrisk species and a. ginginianus and o. capensis as medium-risk. these four bird species, which may further spread throughout the country primarily through wildlife trade, have the potential to spread widely and establish themselves in diverse habitats across iraq, including urban, rural, and wetland environments disrupting native ecosystems, outcompeting indigenous species, and exacerbating socio-economic challenges under future climate conditions. the outcomes of this study highlights the need for immediate and concrete policy interventions. these should include regulating wildlife trade and bird markets, collaborating with the iraqi ministry of environment on monitoring and enforcement mechanisms, and 840 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 829-848. assessing the potential risk launching public awareness campaigns to educate the public on the ecological dangers posed by invasive birds to mitigate the potential impacts of these non-native species and emphasize the importance of incorporating climate change predictions into risk assessment frameworks, allowing for proactive management strategies. additionally, a comprehensive monitoring program is essential to track the distribution and population dynamics of these four species throughout the country . it is also critical to acknowledge the laughing dove spilopelia senegalensis as a non-native invasive species in iraq, given its documented establishment and it should be incorporated into future risk assessments and management strategies. drawing from regional examples, such as saudi arabia's efforts to control the spread of the common myna, can inform the feasibility and design of effective control programs in iraq. acknowledgments we are grateful to iraq's wildlife experts from the iraqi green climate organization (igco) for their assistance and contribution during the study. special thanks should go to lorenzo vilizzi, university of lodz, faculty of biology and environmental protection, department of ecology and vertebrate zoology, poland, for providing critical instructions concerning the risk screening process and thoroughly revising a preliminary draft of this manuscript. we confirm that all the figures in the manuscript are ours. conflict of interest statment "the authors declare no conflict of interest". literature cited abd rabou, a. n. 2022. on the trapping and potential risks of the 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(2025) 18 (4): 829-848. تقييم املخاطر املحتملة لتأثيرات أربعة أنواع من الطيور غير املحلية على التنوع البيولوجي في العراق عبدالحي هند سهيل وعبيده علي الدليمي جامعة بغداد، بغداد، العراق -قسم علوم الحياة، كلية العلوم 20/12/2025، النشر: 25/8/2025القبول: ،19/8/2025املراجعة: ،10/3/2025االستالم: الخالصة في البيئية واألنظمة البيولوجي للتنوع كبيًرا تهديًدا الغازية الغريبة الطيور انواع تشكل بيئية تحديات إلى يؤدي قد مما األنواع، هذه تزايدت العراق، في العالم. أنحاء جميع الطيور ألنواع املحتملة البيولوجية التأثيرات تقييم إلى الدراسة هذه تهدف مختلفة. التأثيرات املستقبلية في ظل تغيرات العراق وتوقع البيولوجي في الغازية على التنوع الغريبة املناخ. ميدانية يتجر ٵ الثاني للمدة مالحظات تشرين الثاني 2023من تشرين اذ 2024إلى ، تركزت على أربعة أنواع من الطيور الغريبة املوجودة في أسواق الحياة البرية في جميع أنحاء مراكز على تحتوي التي والبصرة، وأربيل بغداد محافظات الدراسة موقع شمل العراق. تجارية وأكبر األسواق املحلية لتجارة األنواع الغريبة املختلفة. في هذه الدراسة، تم اختيار في املستقرة الغازية باألنواع املعنية الدراسات في مكثف بحث بعد املستهدفة األنواع العراق. ( األرضية الحيوانية األنواع غزو تقييم أدوات مجموعة قامت (،tas-iskباستخدام الدراسة بتقييم غزو هذه األنواع. باإلضافة إلى ذلك، تم تجميع قائمة شاملة بأنواع الطيور الضفاف مينا تقييم تم مرة، ألول موسعة. أدبية مراجعة خالل من العراق في الغريبة acridotheres ginginianus latham, 1790 الشائعة املينا ،acridotheres linnaeus, 848 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 829-848. assessing the potential risk 1766) )tristis الذنب ، و الببغاء ذو oena capensis (linnaeus, 1766)، اليمام طويل . psittacula krameri (scopoli, 1769)الحلقة الوردية )الّدرة الهندية( ) كشفت النتائج أن املينا الشائعة والببغاء ذو الحلقة الوردية يشكالن تهديًدا كبيًرا للتنوع هذه برز ت متوسطة. تهديدات الذنب طويل واليمام الضفاف مينا عتبر ت بينما البيولوجي، من تأثيرها واالدارة للتخفيفالنتائج الحاجة إلى تضمين هذه األنواع في خطط صنع القرار على التنوع البيولوجي في العراق. bull 689 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2025) 18 (3): 689-700. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2025.18.3.0689 original article morphological and molecular study of chewing lice infesting poultry in basrah province, iraq zahraa s. al-shabibi and alaa n. hatem * department of biology, college of education for pure sciences, university of basrah, basrah, iraq. corresponding author: alaa.hatem@uobasrah.edu.iq received: 22 feb. 2025, revised: 24 may 2025, accepted: 25 may 2025, published:20 june 2025 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract birds are exposed to infection by various ectoparasites, including chewing lice (order: phthiraptera), which affect nearly all avian species. the present study aimed to diagnose the species of lice parasitizing poultry using morphological traits, and molecular analysis (pcr). additionally, the study included the construction of a phylogenetic tree of the among the species sequenced on the basis of genetic sequencing by using 18s rrna. the survey was conducted during the period from november 2023 to october 2024. a total of 300 chickens and pigeons were examined from different locations in basrah province. in the study, four species were recorded, and registered in genbank with the following accession numbers: pq636457 to columbicola columbae (linnaeus,1758), pq636458 to campanulotes bidentatus (scopoli,1763), pq636459 to menacanthus stramineus (nitzsch,1818), and pq636460 tomenopon gallinae (linnaeus,1758). keywords: birds, chewing lice, chicken, molecular characterization, pigeon. introduction birds were among the first animals to be domesticated by humans. they have been used for thousands of years for various purposes, including livestock industry (alemu et al.,2015). birds, like other animals, are exposed to infestations by external parasites, such as lice, ticks, and mites (oliveira et al., 2011). these infections affect bird behavior and physiology due to the activity of the parasites within the tissues or through the secretion of some substances that may be harmful (wall and shearer, 1997). the physiological activities of bird bodies are affected by hosts, leading to reduced their nutritional performance (alemu et al., 2015). parasitic infections can result in stunted growth and decreased egg production (saikia et al., 2017). ectoparasites are also dangerous to birds because can they transmit many pathogens, including bacteria, viruses and fungi, and therefore, transmitting infection to healthy birds (saif et al., 2003). external parasites cause significant health issues in birds and can even lead to death. additionally, they may act as addition to being intermediate hosts for endoparasites (derakhshanar et al., 2006). poultry are infected with many ectoparasites, the most important bulletin of the iraq natural historymuseum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799, print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2025.18.3.0689 https://orcid.org/0009-0008-7506-1234 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0713-9913 mailto:alaa.hatem@uobasrah.edu.iq https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 690 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 689-700. morphological and molecular study of which is chewing lice, which attacks chickens, especially prevalent in open farming systems , such as rural farming and poultry farms (wall, 2007). lice are the most widespread parasites in birds and are found on different parts of the body, such as the head, chest, wings, and abdomen (mccrea et al., 2005). they feed by biting feathers and skin, and it completes its life cycle on the host (wall and shearer, 1997). lice are wingless insects, with a body divided into a head, thorax and abdomen, and have legs modified for clinging to feathers (pickworth and morishita, 2007). they are equipped with claws and have antennae that are visible or hidden in a groove on the head. the eyes are vestigial or absent (lehane, 2005). adult lice typically range in length from 2-3 mm. among their distinguishing characteristics is that they have a broad, triangular head that is wider than the thorax, and their mouthparts are of the chewing type (pape and roza, 2005). recently, all lice species are classified classified under the order phthiraptera, which includes four suborders: ischnocera, amblycera, rhyncophthirinae and anoplura. the old classification included the first three orders (also known as biting lice or chewing lice) were grouped under the order mallophaga (mullen and durden, 2019). this study is important because it fills there is a gap in the molecular identification of lice species in iraq. materials and methods study area: lice samples were collected from 300 birds 142 domestic chickens gallus gallus (linnaeus, 1758), and 158 domestic pigeons columba livia j. f. gmelin, 1789 randomly selected from different rural and urban areas of basrah province. the study was conducted from november 2023 to october 2024. there are differences in environmental and geographical characteristics among these areas of collection. some of which are agricultural, and others are residential. sampling, preservation and photography of specimens: specimens were examined visually throughout the year, focusing specific regions regions of the bird’s body such as the head, neck, wings, and perianal area. lice were collected and preserved in 70% ethyl alcohol. morphological identification was performed using standard identification keys (barriga, 1995; kareem, 2006). identification was confirmed by the iraq natural history research center and museum at the university of baghdad. lice were placed in a 10% sodium hydroxide solution. then washed with distilled water. the specimens were passed through some concentrations of ethyl alcohol, then transferred to xylol. each specimen was placed on a glass slide, stained with canada balsam, and covered with a cover glass. the specimens were examined under a dissecting microscope (leica wild m3) and photographed using an advanced imaging system. molecular study of chewing lice using pcr technology: molecular identification of lice species was conducted through dna analysis using the pcr (polymerase chain reaction). this procedure was carried out at the iraqi association for medical researches and studies in baghdad. dna extraction: lice specimens were redried by leaving them exposed to room temperature for 24 hours, then ground using a ceramic mortar to obtain a homogeneous powder. after that 18s rrna was used for dna amplification; type of primers (forward and reverse) are 691 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-shabibi and hatem showed in table (1). the thermocycler software included steps shown in table (2), and performed an electrical relay of the products of pcr. electrophoresis: electrophoresis of the pcr products was performed after completing the pcr process using a 100bp dna ladder and dna was extracted from 18 samples. the reaction components are as listed in table (3). sequence analysis: samples of pcr products for sequencing the 18s rrna gene of the selected samples of the lice were sent to macrogene company in korea. the studied segments were aligned and filtered using the blast program. the sequence segments of each species were registered in the gene bank. results morphological study in this study, four species of chewing lice were collected from chickens and pigeons. two species were found infesting pigeons: columbicola columbae linnaeus,1758, and campanulotes bidentatus (scopoli,1763). while, the other two species were recorded on chickens: menacanthus stramineus (nitzsch,1818) and,menopon gallinae linnaeus (1758). below is a brief morphological description of the above species: 1columbicola columbae linnaeus,1758: an elongated body, dark gray in colour, found on the wings. the head is rounded anteriorly, and the antennae have five segments. the head has six pairs of hairs laterally, and a pair of hairs ventrally. the mesothorax is partially separated from the back, and has a tuft of hairs laterally, with lower hair density on the metathorax. abdominal rings are elongated and narrow, and at the end of the abdomen, there are a few hairs of various lengths. abdominal segments have three long hairs laterally (pl.1a). 2campanulotes bidentatus (scopoli,1763): a small bodied species, found in various parts of the host’s body. the head is triangular in shape, and rounded anteriorly; the temporal region appears wide. head with long hairs laterally, and no ventral spine in the front of the head. the maxillary palps and jaws are small and dark in color. the antennae are filiform and composed of five segments, with the basal segment being square. the thorax is separated in the middle, while the middle unites with the back. the abdomen is short and oval, with few hairs, and the segments are separate. the end of the abdomen is irregular in shape (pl.1 b). 3menacanthus stramineus (nitzsch,1818): a large-bodied species, dark yellow in color, found all over the host’s body. the head is triangular in shape and rounded ventrally. the antennae are club-shaped and hidden inside a cavity. the mandibles consist of four segments. the prothorax is triangular, and the mesothorax and metathorax are fused and bear dense hairs. the abdomen is oval with long hairs, but there are short hairs laterally. abdominal segments have two rows of short hairs and three rows of transverse hairs dorsally (pl.1c). 4menopon gallinae (linnaeus,1758): a medium sized body, light yellow in color, found on feather blades. the head is triangular dorsally with lateral temporal areas. a small set of hairs 692 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 689-700. morphological and molecular study is present on the top of the head and three hairs laterally. the antennae are capitate, with four segments partially drawn inward. the mandibles are large and dark. the prothorax is separated from the mesothorax and metathorax. thoracic segments have a set of mediumlength hairs. the abdomen consists of seven segments; the fourth is the largest, and has tuft of hairs of varying length dorsally. a pair of long hairs is present laterally, and three rows of fine hairs are at the end (pl.1 d). identification key for chewing lice species of pigeons in the current study: 1. antennae visible and composed of 5 segments; body slender, head longer than wide ………….……………………………………………………………. columbicola columbae antennae not clearly visible; body with oval shape, head equal in length and width …………………………………………………………………..…. campanulotes bidentatus identification key of chewing lice species of chickens in the current study: 1. head with a pair of spines-like ventrally, abdomen densely covered with setae; 12 setae on the dorsal plates of the metathorax and mesothorax………………………. …m. stramineus head without spine-like structures, abdomen not densely covered with setae …………………………………………………………………………..…menopon gallinae molecular study dna extraction and amplification: extracted dna concentrations ranged from 25to35 μg/μl, with a260/a280 purity ratios between 1.6–1.8. the results of electrophoresis on agarose gel showed successful amplification of the 18s rrna gene using specialized primers (pl. 2). nucleotide sequences of pcr-amplified 18s rrna fragments were aligned and compared with genbank reference sequences using blast, revealing identity levels between 95% and 100%. the size of the pcr fragments ranged from 300 to 350 base pairs. all lice species were subjected to similarity analysis using the blast program, and the 18s rrna gene sequences of the selected species were documented in genbank, with an independent accession number assigned to each fragment (tab. 4). phylogenetic tree of the species: the results are shown of the phylogenetic tree of the 18s rrna gene among the lice species in the current study, along with their corresponding species worldwide are presented. columbicola columbae showed the highest similarity to the dohuk specimens (mn588094.1), indicating regional genetic homogeneity. the species campanulotes bidentatus was closely related to the isolate gu569170.1 from japan. the species menacanthus stramineus was similar to the isolate mn588078.1 from duhok, iraq. the species menopon gallinae showed similarity to the isolate gu569169.1 from japan (diag. 1). 693 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-shabibi and hatem discussion the results of the present study witnessed the recorded four species of chewing lice parasitizing local chickens and pigeons in basrah province. the species columbicola columbae was recorded for the first time in iraq by abu al-hab (1975). it is characterized by its elongated body and the length of the head. it is also characterized by the presence of transverse bands on the fifth to seventh ventral segments. the antennae are black-gray or brown in colour, consisting of five pieces (crespo et al., 2012). while campanulotes bidentatus was recorded for the first time in iraq by khalaf (1959). it is characterized by the absence of spine-like appendages at the front of the head, and by filiform antennae consisted of five pieces in both sexes (kareem, 2006). the species menacanthus straminus was first recorded in iraq by al-hubaity (1976). it is characterized by containing thorn-like appendages on the ventral side of the head and by the presence of two rows of transverse hairs on the third to seventh ventral rings and the presence of numerous short hairs on the dorsal side of the mesothorax and metathorax (mani, 1974). the species menopon gallinae was also recorded for the first time in iraq by al-hubaity (1976); it is characterized by the absence of spine-like appendages at the front of the head and on the base of the jaw texture (emerson, 1956). other studies in iraq related to chewing lice parasitizing birds include those by al-mawla and al-saffar (2008), al-iraqi and hamadameen (2012), hatem et al. (2021), and al-neema and al-hayali (2024). the molecular identification of lice remains inconsistent due to a lack of sufficient information about molecular traits. morphological similarity does not represent genetic similarity, as it sometimes places the phenotypic characteristics among different species close to each other due to external similarities, making them appear as one species (brown et al, 2000). dna extraction techniques and their polymerase reaction method have significantly advanced the accurate identification of species (wells et al., 2001). in the current study, specialized primers commensurate with the studied species in order to obtain 18s rrna gene sequences. this contributed to finding congruence in the diagnosis of the studied species. the high matching rates of the genetic sequences of the studied species can indicate their close correlation, as it was shown through the results of alignment of the sequences with the sequences preserved in the gene bank (xu et al., 2024). a phylogenetic tree was constructed for the studied species. the phylogenetic tree of chewing lice is often constructed via a combination of molecular data, such as dna sequences and chromosomal variation, and morphological data features, like body shape, hairs, and mouthparts (xu et al., 2024). smith (2001) was the first to use a phylogenetic approach to investigate lice relationships, as he used efl and 18s rrna nuclear genes to take a molecular approach. this study is consistent with the result of al-badrani and al-muftti (2023) in the kurdistan region, who also used 18s rrna primers in what was the first molecular study of chewing lice in iraq. other iraqi research on the molecular characterization of biting lice on birds, were the study of al-neema and al-hayali (2024). globally, in vietnam, najir et al. (2014) 694 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 689-700. morphological and molecular study conducted molecular identification of seven lice species in ten species of wild birds using the coi gen. in saudi arabia, alajmi et al. (2021) recorded six species of chicken lice using coi gene analysis. table (1): type of primers (forward and reverse). size bptmseq.design primers 2060cf:tgaaaccgcgaaaggctcat r: tacccgttaccaccacggta 18s rrna 2060cf:tgtctcagtgcaagccgaat r:tccgggagtgggtaatttgc 18s rrna table (2): pcr reaction components. components volume (µl) master mix 12.5 primers forward 1 reverse 1 dna sample 6 nuclease-free water 4.5 the total volume of the reaction 25 table (3): the program for selected gene amplifications. steps temperature (°c) time cycles initial denaturation 95 5 min 1 denaturation 95 30 sec 30annealing 57±5 30 sec extension 72 30 sec final extension 72 7 min 1 table (4): percentage of match of the target 18s rrna gene. sequence with the species preserved in the genebank and genbank accession numbers. species accession number of genbank number of species matching in genbank gene name matching ratio columbicola columbae pq636457 mn588094.1 18s rrna 98.43% campanulotes bidentatus pq636458 gu569170.1 18s rrna 100% menacanthus stramineus pq636459 mn588078.1 18s rrna 99% menopon gallinae pq636460 pq636460 18s rrna 95% 695 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum al-shabibi and hatem plate (1): the species of chewing lice that recoded in the study: (a) columbicola columbae, (b) campanulotes bidentatus, (c) mencanthus stramineus, (d) menopon gallinae. plate (2): electrophoresis of pcr amplification products for the 18s rrna gene in the studied species. a b c d 696 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 689-700. morphological and molecular study diagram (1): the phylogenetic tree of the 18s rrna gene among the species of chewing lice in basra southern iraq. conclusions the species of chewing lice found on local chickens differ in morphological characteristics from those found on domestic pigeons. molecular identification of species is a modern and highly reliable method. some lice species showed very close genetic relationships based on the sequence of the gene 18s rrna. acknowledgments the authors wish to express their gratitude to all those who assisted in completing this study. in particular, we mention dr. razzaq shalan augul and dr. hanaa h. al-saffar at the iraq natural history research center and museum, university of baghdad, for their great help in diagnosing the study specimens. also, we thank sadiq mithal's office in baghdad for their assistance in photographing the study specimens. conflict of interest statment “the authors have no conflicts of interest to declare”. literature cited abu-alhab, j. 1975. biting lice of chicken and pigeon in baghdad area. bulletin biological research center publication, 4 (10): 3-16. 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[crossref] wall, r. and shearer, d. 1997. veterinary entomology. arthropod ectoparasites of veterinary importance. springer science+business media dordrecht, 439 pp. wells, j. d., pape, t. and sperling, f. a. h. 2001. dna-based identification and molecular systematics of forensically important sarcophagidae (diptera). journal of forensic sciences,46(5): 1098-1102. [crossref] xu, y., ma, l., liu, s., liang, y., liu, q., he, z., tian , l., duan, y. , cai, w., li, h. and song, f. 2024. chromosome-level genome of the poultry shaft louse menopon gallinae provides insight into the host-switching and adaptive evolution of parasitic lice. gigascience, 13: giae004. [crossref] https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vetpar.2007.05.011 https://doi.org/10.1520/jfs15105j https://doi.org/10.1093/gigascience/giae004 700 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 689-700. morphological and molecular study bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2025) 18 (3): 689-700. البصرة، محافظة في الدواجن على القارضالتطفل للقمل وجزيئية مظهرية دراسة العراق حاتـم نـاظم ــلء و الصاحب ـبد صكبان زهراء العراق. البصرة، البصرة، جامعة الصرفة، للعلوم التربية كلية الحياة، ـلوم قسم 2025/5/25 النشر: ،2025/5/25 القبول: ،2025/5/24 2025/2/22،الراجعة: اسستلم: اخالصة )رتبة القارض القمل ومنها الختلفة الخارجية الطفيليات من بعدد الطيور تصاب هذه هدفت لذا ا. تقريبب الطيور أنواع جميع ـلى يتطفل والذي ،(phthiraptera القمل طريق ـن النزلي والحمام الدجاج ـلى تتطفل التي القمل أنواع تشخيص إلى الدراسة إنشاء البحث تضمن كما .pcr تقانة باستخدام الجزيئي والتحليل الظهرية الصفات مقارنة وتمت .18s rrna باستخدام ا وراثيب تسلسلها تم التي النواع بين تطورية شجرة الجينات. بنك في التوفرة بالبيانات التسلسل بيانات العدد بلغ .2024 الول تشرين 2023إلى الثاني تشرين من الفترة الل الدراسة أجريت أربعة سجلت البصرة. محافظة في مختلفة مواقع من طائر 300 والحمام للدجاج الكلي الضوء تسليط وتم مظهريا، النواع هذه شخصت الدراسة. في القارض القمل من أنواع بواسطة جزيئيا النواع هذه تشخيص تم وكما التشخيصية. الظهرية الصفات أهم ـلى يأتي: وكما محددة انضمام بأرقام genbank في النواع تسجيل وتم .pcr تقانة للنوع pq636458 و ،columbicola columbae (linnaeus,1758( للنوع pq636457 للنوع pq636459و ،capanulotes bidentatus (scopoli,1763( للنوع pq636460و ،menacanthus stramineus (nitzsch,1818( .menapon gallinae (linnaeus,1758( bull 167 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum yaseen et al. bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2024) 18 (1): 167-185. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2024.18.1.0167 original article the impact of marine heat waves and their temporal patterns on the abundance and diversity of fisheries off iraqi marine waters ali taha yaseen*, **,, amjed kadhum resen** and sajid saad hassan** *department of marine vertebrates, marine science centre, university of basrah, basrah, iraq. **department of fisheries and marine resources, college of agriculture, university of basrah, basrah, iraq. corresponding author: ality1973@gmail.com received: 10 january 2024, revised: 22 feb. 2024, accepted: 3 march 2024, published:20 june 2024 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract data from the current study was used to analyse the impact of marine heat waves on the quantity and distribution patterns of iraqi marine fisheries following the recent change in the climate of the northwestern arabian gulf. the average annual water temperature and salinity were 26◦c and 38.6 psu, respectively, higher than the averages recorded during previous decades. the dissolved oxygen average was 8.65 psu, and the ph was 8.23. principal components analysis (pca) showed that temperature and salinity accounted for 66.93% of the effect of the studied factors, while the percentage of dissolved oxygen was 32.81% and the ph was 0.27%. the results showed a decrease in the weight, numbers, and diversity of the fish during the summer compared to the data from previous decades. supplementary variable analysis showed that the number of species, individuals, and weights of commercial marine fisheries' catches were inversely correlated to water temperature and salinity. autocorrelation analysis revealed temporal changes in the effect of temperature and salinity on the decline in the number of fish during the summer. it is extremely important that significant progress be made in understanding marine heat waves and the risks they pose to marine ecosystems in order to predict how these systems and the products they provide will be affected. keywords: biodiversity, climate change, fish populations, marine fisheries, marine heat waves. introduction an essential challenge in ecology is understanding patterns of biodiversity distribution and the drives behind them, especially global climate change and biodiversity loss (weir and schluter, 2007; espino et al., 2015). the ecological stability hypothesis indicates that the diversity increases in places with low environmental fluctuations. the fact that more stable environments favor a higher degree of specialization and leads to increased species richness (sanders, 1968). climatic phenomena shape the structure of biological systems and affect the bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799, print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2024.18.1.0167 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2185-7540 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5698-7789 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6417-2771 mailto:ality1973@gmail.com https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 168 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (1): 167-185. the impact of marine heat waves biogeochemical functions and services they provide to the community (frolicher and laufkotter, 2018). marine heatwaves are defined as abnormally long periods of warm ocean temperatures or very warm temperatures over short periods. (harley et al., 2006). evidence indicates that atmospheric heat waves on the earth's surface are changing due to global warming. this increases the risk of severe and widespread effects, and in some cases, impacts on natural, social, and economic systems are irreversible. in contrast, we know little about how these extreme events change the oceans, especially those related to global warming, and how they will affect marine organisms (ipcc, 2014). this knowledge gap is a source of concern; some recently observed marine heat waves have demonstrated the vulnerability of marine organisms and ecosystems to such extreme weather events (parmesan et al., 2000). marine heatwaves can cause devastating impacts on warm-water ecosystems with severe social and economic repercussions (sun et al., 2023). extreme events can cause sudden, dramatic impacts on marine ecosystems, including mass die-offs, coral bleaching, shifts in the distribution of fish communities, and changes in the structure and functions of regional marine ecosystem organisms (hughes et al., 2017; smale et al., 2019). no previous studies in iraqi marine waters have been carried out to study this topic. hence, the current paper is prepared to examine the impact of marine heat waves resulting from climate change on fisheries in the iraqi territorial’s marine waters. materials and methods description of the study area: our territorial waters are located at the northwestern head of the arabian gulf; they include the lands through which the shatt al-arab flows and extend west to khor abdullah and the kuwaiti borders. their coastline is 60 kilometers long, and tidal currents are the primary source of movement for marine water currents, in addition to the influence of winds (ref?). marine hydrology is influenced by fresh water discharge from the shatt al-arab river. this may reduce the salinity at the mouth to less than 10 psu during the flood season so that it is not comparable to the salinity levels of the rest of the gulf. the region's climate is desert with high humidity: and northwest or north winds during most times of the year (muttashar et al., 2024; sale et al., 2011). map (1) shows a map of the study area, within the coordinates (29°50'46.806"n 48°40'17.465"e; 29°5140.536"n 48°2929.544"e). 169 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum yaseen et al. map (1): study specimens collection sectors. collecting fish specimens: fish specimens were collected from january-december 2022. in the form of monthly sea, trips on a fishing boat 25 meters long and eight meters wide, with 250 horsepower, its fishing speed is 2-3 knots/sec, and it is equipped with bottom trawl nets 25 m long and 2.5 m high. the mesh openings in the wings are 2.5 cm, and the mesh bag is 1.5 cm. the length of the tow rope is between 100 and 150 m. the duration of pulling the net into the water while fishing is three hours, and the sea journey takes seven-nine days. the fish specimens were preserved with ice and placed in refrigerated boxes to preserve the specimens before conducting studies on them when arriving at the laboratory. four environmental factors were measured in the field: water temperature (°c), water salinity (psu), ph, and dissolved oxygen (mg/l) using a german made multi parameter portable meter multiline ® multi 3630 ids. laboratory work: fish were classified based on carpenter et al. (1997), and verified by fricke and eschmeyer (2023). commercial and non-commercial species were identified based on species released at the fish-landing site in the al-faw area. fish specimens were measured by weight (kg) and length (cm). the numbers and weights of individuals for each species were recorded monthly. statistical analysis: the statistical program spss, a package of statistical programs, was used for quantitative and descriptive statistical analysis (spss statistics version 23.0). to analyze the correlation coefficient between environmental factors and the rest of the factors 170 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (1): 167-185. the impact of marine heat waves included in the study, an analysis of variance table was used to show statistically significant differences between the parameters' averages. quantitative data analysis was used using (xlstat 2023), which is a package of a complete set of statistical programs to analyze the data, from which the following programs were chosen: principal component analysis (pca), pca with supplementary variables, agglomerative hierarchical clustering (ahc), and autocorrelation. results environmental factors: diagram (1) shows the statistics of environmental factors measured during the study period. it shows the highest and lowest values for each factor and the average, median, first, and third quartiles of water temperature data, salinity, dissolved oxygen, and ph in iraqi marine waters. the lowest temperature values in january were 15°c, while the highest values were recorded in august at 34°c and an average of 26°c. significant differences were found among the year's seasons for water temperatures (p-values< 0.01, f = 11.78). diagram (1): summary of environmental factor values. the lowest values of salinity in march were 33.5 g/l, while the highest values in august were 46.5 psu, with an average of 38.6 psu. a positive correlation was found between salinity and water temperature (r = 0.76, p < 0.004, r2 = 0.57). the analysis of the variance table revealed that there was a significant difference between the seasonal results for salinity (pvalues< 0.003, f = 11.78); the lowest dissolved oxygen in august was 5.5 mg/l, while the highest values were recorded in january at 12 mg/l, at an average of 8.65 (mg/l). dissolved oxygen was inversely correlated with water temperatures and salinity (r = -0.833, p-values< 0.001, r2 = 0.694; r = -0.623, p-values < 0.030, r2 = 0.388 respectively ( . significant differences existed between the year's seasons during the study (p-values< 0.005, f = 9.648). the results indicated no significant differences between the average ph values for the seasons of the study year (p-values< 0.637, f = 0.593). the minimum and maximum ph values ranged between 8 and 8.5 during april, may, february, and june respectively, at an 171 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum yaseen et al. average of 8.23. diagram (2) shows the principal component analysis of the measured environmental factors (pca). diagram (2): principal components analysis of environmental factors. table (1) includes a summary of the analysis results, showing the eigenvectors and eigenvalues, the percentage of influence of all environmental characteristics under study, and the correlation between environmental characteristics and f-factors. table (1) principal components analysis results. environmental factors f1 f2 a b a b water temperature 0.96 36.93 -0.12 1.44 salinity 0.86 30.00 0.21 4.17 ph -0.08 0.27 0.99 94.35 dissolved oxygen -0.90 32.81 -0.02 0.04 eigenvalue 2.48 1.04 variability % 62.06 26.02 cumulative % 62.06 88.08 (a)= correlations between variables and factors (f) (b)= percentage contribution of variables (f)= the axis that passes through most of the data points of the factors involved in the statistical analysis. diagram (3) shows the cluster analysis of the similarity percentage between the measured environmental factors. it is noted that the similarity between water temperatures and salinity is 78%, and the percentage of similarity between dissolved oxygen and ph was meagre and reached 2%. the cluster analysis separated three groups: the first was between water 172 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (1): 167-185. the impact of marine heat waves temperature and salinity; the second included dissolved oxygen only; and the third was for the ph factor only, as shown in diagram (3). diagram (3): cluster analysis of the percentage of similarity between environmental factors during the study. fish community structure: (1) changes in the structure of commercial and non-commercial fish: anumerical structure: diagram (4) shows the monthly number of individuals for commercial and non-commercial fish structures. the total number of individuals of commercial species reached 5967, equivalent to 76.14% of the total number of fish caught (7,836 individuals). the lowest numbers were recorded in august and reached 115 individuals, while the highest numbers reached 1075 individuals in may, with a monthly average of 497.25 individuals. diagram (4): monthly numbers of individuals for the composition of commercial and noncommercial fish. 173 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum yaseen et al. the number of individuals of non-commercial species constituted 1869 individuals, representing 23.86% of the total number of individuals caught annually; the lowest numbers caught were 32 individuals in august, while the highest numbers recorded in may were 582 individuals, with a monthly average of 155.75 individuals. the statistical analysis results showed an inverse correlation between the numbers of individuals of commercial species, water temperatures, and salinity (r = -0.500, p-values = 0.098, r2 = 0.250; r = -0.573, p-values = 0.051, r2 = 0.328, respectively). the results showed significant seasonal differences between the numbers of individuals of commercial species (sig. = 0.019, f =6.046). it is observed from diagram (4) that the values of the numbers of individuals of commercial and non-commercial species converge and decrease during june and the rest of the hot months, with the direction of the forecast line steepening steeply for commercial species and less steeply for non-commercial species. diagram (5) shows a supplementary variable analysis that shows the nature of the correlation between the number of individuals of commercial and non-commercial species and environmental factors, the loadings and weights of each factor, and the directions of their influence within the study environment. it is observed that the numbers of individuals of commercial species respond inversely to temperatures and salinity, and the opposite responses of non-commercial species to temperature and salinity. diagram (5): supplementary variable analysis for the number of individuals of commercial and non-commercial species. bweight structure: diagram (6) shows the weights of commercial and non-commercial species. data on commercial species, whose total weights reached 665.481 kg, representing 86.69% of the total catch, show that the highest catch values were in february at 108.427 kg. the lowest in august was 9.545kg, with an average monthly weight of 55.456 kg, while the total weight of non-commercial species reached 102.139 kg, equivalent to 13.31% of the total 174 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (1): 167-185. the impact of marine heat waves weight, the lowest weight was 1.236 kg in november, and the highest was 19.481 kg in june, with a monthly average of 8.511 kg. diagram (6) weights of commercial and non-commercial species caught during the study. the statistical analysis results show an inverse correlation between commercial fish weights, water temperatures, and salinity (r=-0.633, p-values= 0.027, r²=0.401; r=-0.606, pvalues= 0.037, r²=0.367, respectively). the results also showed significant seasonal differences between the weight values of commercial species (sig. = 0.001, f = 19.073). it is noted from diagram (6) that the linear prediction trend is strongly sloped for the weights of commercial species, with a slight slope for the weights of non-commercial species. diagram (7) shows the supplementary variables analysis of the effect of environmental factors on the weights of commercial and non-commercial species. it shows the inverse responses to the effects of temperature and salinity on the weights of commercial species. in contrast, these factors' positive effects on non-commercial species' weights are similar to the results of the number of fish individuals. diagram (7): supplementary variable analysis of the effect of environmental factors on the weights of commercial and non-commercial species. 175 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum yaseen et al. cdiversity structure: diagram (8) shows the number of commercial and non-commercial species and the total number of fish caught. the number of commercial species reached 101, while the number of non-commercial species reached 58, making 159 species. the lowest commercial fish were collected in august (19 species), and the highest number of species were 52 in march, with a monthly average of 40 species. while the lowest non-commercial species reached 10 in august and the highest number of species recorded in june (33 species), with a monthly average of 22 species. the percentage of commercial species represented 63.5% of the total number caught, while the percentage of non-commercial species reached 36.5% (diag., 9). diagram (8): number of total, commercial, and non-commercial species. diagram (9): monthly variation of commercial and non-commercial fish diversity during the study period. commercial species were inversely correlated with water temperatures and salinity (r=0.484, p-values= 0.111, r²=0.234; r=-0.398, p-values= 0.200, r²=0.158 respectively); analysis of variance shows that there are significant differences between the summer, winter, and spring seasons (sig. = 0.033, f =2.999). diagram (10) shows a supplementary variable analysis of the effect of environmental factors on the diversity of commercial and noncommercial species. it shows the inverse correlation of commercial species with water 176 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (1): 167-185. the impact of marine heat waves temperature and salinity and the positive correlation of non-commercial species with water temperature and salinity. diagram (10): supplementary variables analysis of the impact of environmental factors on diversity of commercial and non-commercial species. after conducting a correlation analysis between the numbers of individuals of the 101 commercial species, it was found that 63.5% were inversely correlated with water temperature. commercial fish species (highly consumed food fish), such as the sparidae, the lethrinidae, the psettodidae, the paralichthyidae, soleidae and most members of the epinephelidae, occupied this inverse relationship and the extent of their vulnerability to high summer temperatures. the correlation analysis showed that 68% of commercial species were also inversely correlated with salinity in the summer. dautocorrelation: autocorrelation is distinguished from pearson correlation in that pearson correlation gives the final value for the nature of the correlation between factors. in contrast, autocorrelation analysis gives continuous values for the nature of the correlation over a specific time series. therefore, diagram (11) gives some relationship between a rising water temperature and salinity with the number of individuals of both commercial and noncommercial fish species that may give a clearer picture of the environmental situation. diagram (11) shows the autocorrelation between the number of individuals and commercial species with water temperature and salinity. the diagram shows the effect of changes in water temperature and salinity on the path of biodiversity in the study area and consequently, the decrease in diversity and the number of individuals in the summer starting in july. 177 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum yaseen et al. diagram (11): autocorrelation between the number of individuals, commercial species and some environmental factors. discussion fisheries managers have long confirmed the importance of measuring environmental factors associated with fishing, but it has taken a long time to acknowledge the consequences of ignoring these considerations. environmental factors are often not included in fisheries and management models, but they are likely to impact fish stocks significantly. predation, competition, ecosystem changes, and habitat change have changed community dynamics, stock abundance, and composition (link, 2002). it was observed that temperature increased significantly in the summer of sample collection, especially in july and august, when average water temperatures reached 26◦c in 2022. when making a comparison between the average temperatures of this study with previous studies, it is noticed that it has increased over the years. for example, mohamed and ali (1993) stated that the average water temperature during 1989–1990 reached 22.9°c, while that of mohamed et al. (1998) recorded 23°c between 1995 and 1996. ali et al. (2000b) showed that the average temperature of our regional waters for 1997–1998 was 25°c, which was one centigrade lower than the average temperature of the current study. mohamed et al. (2001) recorded the same temperature average 25°c for 1998–1999. mohamed and ali (1992) mentioned in their study during 1989–1990 that the maximum temperature is recorded in july, while in the present study, the highest temperature is recorded in august. this confirms the prolonged period of high temperatures during the summer months. at the same time, the average water temperature that recorded by mohamed and resen (2010) reached 24.4°c during 2007–2008. the current results show that climate change has a role in the emergence of marine heat waves in our territorial waters during the summer and their peak in august. these waves, repeated over the past few years, hurt marine organisms, the most important of which are fish. the results of the present study showed that the average salinity reached 38.6 psu, while ali et al. (1998) stated that the ranges of salinity were between 27 and 38 psu for the period between 1990 and 1994. mohamed et al. (2002) indicated the ranges of salinity during 1998– 178 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (1): 167-185. the impact of marine heat waves 1999 between 12.8 and 36.6 psu in april and july, respectively, while the peak salinity in the current study was 45.1-46.5 psu during july and august (see table 2). the salinity values in mohamed et al. (2008a) were 22.5 and 41.2 psu during march and august, respectively, between 1999 and 2000. it was noted in a recent study that total and commercial catch amounts were positively correlated with water temperature and salinity. in contrast, in this study, they were inversely correlated to these factors. the salinity was also measured in ali et al. (2000b), with a minimum of 20.4 psu in april and may and a maximum of 38 psu during the summer. mohamed et al. (2005) showed that the salinity reached 25 psu during the spring and 40 psu during the summer. mohamed and mutlak (2006) stated that the lowest reached 22.5 psu in march, and the highest of salinity was recorded in august (41.2 psu), while the ranges of our study reached 33.5-46.5 psu in the same months of the previous study (see diagram 1). the current results indicated that the structure of the commercial fish community in iraqi territorial waters northwest of the arabian gulf differs from that of historical data; in fact the numerical, weight, and abundance of diversity are inversely correlated to water temperatures and salinity, and there are significant differences between the seasons of the study year. diagrams (4, 6, 8) show the decline in fish diversity during the summer months, and supplementary variable analysis shows these relationships in diagrams (5, 7, 9). multivariate (multidimensional) statistical analyses are essential tools to illustrate statistical results in the form of a statistical graph (correlation circle). supplementary variables are displayed on the correlation chart and do not affect the explanation ratio for any dimensions because they are not considered in pca calculations. supplementary variables are not used to calculate the coordinates of the active variables (factors) but help interpret the results, according to faith and norris (1989). our study data were similar to al-shamary and younis (2022) in the period of a decrease in total and commercial catches during their study in 2018–2019 in july, august, and september. qasim (2021) also showed the same effect of the summer season on fish catch quantities in 2017. if we go back to previous years, a radical difference appears in the extent of the abundance, distribution, and diversity of fish during the summer. mohamed et al. (2002) during 1998–1999 found highest catches were recorded during july of 1998–1999. moreover, mohamed et al. (2005) showed that temperature and salinity directly affected by saurida tumbil, commercial fishing, and total catch during 1999-2000. mohamed et al., (2008a) evaluated sultan ibrahim stock (upeneus sulphureus) and showed a positive correlation between temperature and salinity with the catch quantities per unit of effort, and temperature were more affected than the other factors. the monthly fluctuations of catch per unit effort in mohamed et al. (2008b) ranged from 14.8 kg/hour in january to 39.2 kg/hour in august, indicating the high catch during the summer. ali et al. (2000a) dealt with the state of iraqi fisheries in khor al-amaya for the period from 1997 to 1998; the study proved that there was a noticeable seasonal change in fisheries, as the most significant fishing effort was recorded in may to august, while the lowest average was during the winter months of december to 179 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum yaseen et al. february. mohamed and mutlak (2006) showed that the highest catch averages for three species of goatfish were in the summer and fall seasons. mohamed (1993) studied the fish structure from 1989 to 1990, it was noted that there were apparent seasonal changes in the total catch averages, ranging between 60.9 kg/hour during february and 772.9 kg/hour during august. the previous studies above prove a change in the course of fishing from summer to winter-spring, as in our study and the two studies that preceded the current study. this indicates that the biological responses of fish to rising water temperatures have changed since that period, or perhaps in the very recent years (qasim, 2021; al-shamary and younis, 2022). the results of previous studies, when compared to recent studies, can be considered strong evidence of a change in the shifting of fisheries and the impact of temperatures on them due to the climate changes in our region. specifically, marine heat waves can affect the change in the behavior of fish and perhaps other marine organisms in their distribution. fredston et al. (2023) explained that marine heatwaves constantly lead to community reorganization and collapse of fish biomass and have catastrophic consequences for ecosystems and fisheries, with severe declines in biomass sometimes occurring after the progress of marine heatwaves. smith et al. (2023) explained that marine heatwaves are discrete periods of hot water and are becoming more frequent and widespread stressors on marine ecosystems, affecting the health of those systems globally. cheng et al. (2017) showed that the warming trends were represented by an increase in warm days and nights and a decrease in cold nights and days. with maximum night-time temperatures rising at more than twice the average of their corresponding maximum daytime temperatures, the intensity and frequency of hot days increase, and minimum temperature indicators increase. in this context, we understand the impact of the rapid decline in the number of species, the number of individuals, and weight abundance in august 2022. this is due to marine heat waves that continued during the summer, affecting the composition of fish populations in the northwestern arabian gulf. the critical question is: what are the measures and strategies for fish adaptation during marine heat waves? intuitively, they will look for more suitable places; one of the conservation scenarios is their descent to deeper areas less affected by rising temperatures (vertical migration). however, this scenario does not work due to the shallow depths of most our territorial waters, which means that they are affected by rising temperatures in the same way as surface waters. the second scenario is its departure to distant areas (horizontal migration) within the more bottomless open sea; sale et al. (2011) explained that the average depth of the waters of the arabian gulf is 34 m and that the maximum depth reaches 94 m. there are other reasons. some fish species are tolerant of environmental stress. however, they will follow their prey that already left their appropriate environment, which may be difficult to obtain during those conditions, and there may be a break in the food chains of many species of organisms. our results show that commercial fish species, numbers, and weights were inversely correlated with water temperatures and salinity. in contrast, the correlation was positive for 180 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (1): 167-185. the impact of marine heat waves non-commercial species with water temperature and salinity. it appears that non-commercial species are classified as tolerant to a certain extent to these conditions. perhaps their abundance and presence may collapse when temperatures or salinity are higher than recorded during the study. the same applies to commercial species during heat waves in the summer. it is observed from diagram (10) that there was an autocorrelation between the number of individuals, species of commercial fish, and some environmental factors; the direction of the influence of factors on the number of individuals and species seemed to be in a positive direction until may, and then things continued to change in different directions until they reached the opposite direction in november. here, the interaction of living organisms with their ecosystem appears which would affect the abundance, distribution, and spread of aquatic organisms within their tolerance range for those conditions or the zonation of their original environments and according to the limits of their tolerance for changes that occur in the environment. table (2): comparison of some ecological factors in historical and current studies. references water temperature values (°c) salinity concentration values (psu) mohamed and ali (1993) 22.9°c ali et al. (1998) 27 38 mohamed et al. (1998) 23°c ali et al. (2000b) 25°c 20.4 38 mohamed et al. (2001) 25°c mohamed et al. (2002) 12.8 36.6 mohamed et al. (2005) 25 40 mohamed and mutlak (2006) 22.5 – 41.2 mohamed et al. (2008a) 22.5 41.2 mohamed and resen (2010) 24.4°c the current study 26◦c 33.5 46.5 conclusions the results of multivariate statistical analyses confirmed that iraqi territorial waters were affected by marine heat waves during the summer because of climate change. fish biodiversity decreased during the summer, and marine fish composition decreased under the influence of these waves. as a result, marine fisheries have declined under these conditions. most commercial species were sensitive to high temperatures and salinity, and a few species tolerated those conditions. likewise, fish moved away from their biospheres through horizontal migrations towards deeper, lower-temperature waters. there have been changes in fishing seasons and the number of species from summer and fall, as we witnessed in previous decades, to winter and spring because of climate changes, as the winter season has become warmer. 181 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum yaseen et al. aknowledgments the researchers thank the department of fisheries and marine resources at the college of agriculture, as well as the department of marine vertebrates at the marine science centre, university of basrah, for the logistical support provided to the research. conflict of interest statment the authors have no conflicts of interest to declare. also, all ethical guidelines related to fish and care issued by national and international organizations was implemented in this paper. literature cited ali, t. s., mohamed, a. r. m. and hussain, n. a. 1998. the status of iraqi marine fisheries during 1990-1994. marina mesopotamica, 13 (1): 129-147. ali, t. s., mohamed, a. r. m. and hussain, n. a. 2000a. catch per unit of effort of iraqi marine fisheries northwest arabian gulf. marina mesopotamica, 15(2): 285-301. ali, t. s., mohamed, a. r. m. and hussain, n. a. 2000b. growth, mortality and stock assessment of silver pomfret, pampus argenteus in the northwest arabian gulf, iraq. marina mesopotamica, 15 (2): 373-387. al-shamary, a. c. and younis, k. h. 2022. status of commercial fish catch in the iraqi marine waters, arabian gulf. bulletin of the iraq natural history museum, 17(2): 155-167. 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(2024) 18 (1): 167-185. تأثير موجات الحر البحرية وأنماطها الزمنية على وفرة وتنوع الثروة السمكية قبالة املياه البحرية العراقية ساجد سعد حسن**امجد كاظم رسن و **، نعلي طه ياسي**،* .قسم الفقريات البحرية، مركز علوم البحار، جامعة البصرة، البصرة، العراق * .قسم األسماك والثروة البحرية، كلية الزراعة، جامعة البصرة، البصرة، العراق ** 20/6/2024، النشر: 3/3/2024القبول: ،22/2/2024املراجعة: ، 10/1/2024االستالم: الخالصة دراسة لتحليل تأثير موجات الحر البحرية نتيجة التغيرات استخدمت بيانات ال املناخية على أنماط وفرة وانتشار مصايد األسماك البحرية العراقية في شمال غرب على لتر/غم 38.6 م،◦26الخليج العربي، بلغ معدل درجات حرارة املياه وتراكيز امللوحة خالل العقود السابقة، وبلغ معدل األوكسجين املقاسة املعدالت من اعلى وهي التوالي، ( pca. أوضح تحليل املكونات الرئيسية )8.23ملغم/لتر واألس الهيدروجيني 8.65الذائب % من نسبة تأثير العوامل املدروسة، بينما 66.93أن عاملي الحرارة وامللوحة قد شكال %. بينت النتائج 0.27 % واألس الهيدروجيني 32.81بلغت نسبة األوكسجين املذاب انخفاض التركيبة الوزنية والعددية والنوعية خالل فصل الصيف عكس نتائج دراسات العقود السابقة، وأوضح تحليل املتغيرات التكميلي ارتباط الوفرة النوعية والعددية والوزنية ملصايد األسماك البحرية التجارية عكسيا مع درجات حرارة املياه وتراكيز ، كشف تحليل االرتباط التلقائي التغيرات الزمنية في تأثير درجات الحرارة امللوحة وامللوحة على انحدار تواجد األسماك خالل فصل الصيف. ومن املهم للغاية إحراز تقدم كبير في فهم موجات الحرارة البحرية واملخاطر التي تشكلها على النظم البيئية البحرية ظمة والسلع والخدمات التي تقدمها.للتنبؤ بكيفية تأثر هذه األن bull 739 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2025) 18 (3): 739-763. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2025.18.3.0739 original article classifying fluvial landforms using geospatial modeling in al-ashaali watershed, iraqi southern desert bashar f. maaroof *, hashim h. kareem **, jaffar h. al-zubaydi ***, rayan g. thannoun ****, manal sh. al-kubaisi *****, ban alhasani ******, mawada abdellatif ****** and iacopo carnacina ****** *babylon center for civilization and historical studies, university of babylon, hillah, babil, iraq. **department of general sciences, college of basic education, university of misan, misan, iraq. ***department of applied geology, college of science, university of babylon, babil, iraq. ****remote sensing center, university of mosul, mosul, iraq. *****department of geology, college of science, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq. ****** civil engineering and built environment department, faculty of engineering technology, liverpool john moores university, liverpool l3 5ux, uk. corresponding author: basharma@uobabylon.edu.iq received: 13 feb. 2025, revised: 27 may 2025, accepted: 29 may 2025, published:20 june 2025 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract this study examines the al-ashaali drainage basin, a watershed in the southern iraqi desert, which constitutes a hydro-geomorphological system within the lower valleys region according to iraq's geomorphological classification. the study uses a digital elevation model to classify the landforms of the watershed. landform maps from the shuttle radar topography mission (srtm) were combined with topographic maps to understand the formation of landforms. geospatial simulation models were developed to create a simplified geomorphological base map. the data was analyzed utilizing arcgis software, which included color mapping tools, topographic maps, as well as geological and hydrological maps. the study aims to enhance the interpretation and geomorphological analysis of the watershed's landform characteristics. the dutch geosciences institute (itc) geomorphological classification system was used to categorize the landforms. the results indicated that the valleys in the study area are significant terrain due to their desiccation during the quaternary period and their current location in arid regions. they exhibit fluvial erosion and are associated with al-ashaali watershed and abu hadair watershed in its western and southwestern areas. rijlat al-tuwaitha is characterised by "captivity elbow" and "wind gaps", due to the accelerated flow of one river. the erosion plain is affected by erosion factors, including river sedimentation, floodplains, river islands, and braided streams. alluvial fans develop in regions with steep slopes and lowlands, while floodplains are created by sediments carried by valleys and streams from steep highlands. bulletin of the iraq natural historymuseum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799, print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2025.18.3.0739 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0859-1728 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2720-7381 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1754-1818 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1027-4166 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3352-6490 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2189-4018 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2314-3883 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5567-7180 mailto:basharma@uobabylon.edu.iq https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 740 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 739-763. classifying fluvial landforms braided streams undergo multiple cycles of deposition and erosion, and most flora in the region consists of pioneer species. keywords: al-ashaali, landforms, srtm, topography, watershed. introduction landform classification is essential for comprehending terrain surface characteristics and landform development. in in earlier decades, the primary objectives were to categorise the land surface according to various methods developed through discrete or complex geomorphic classifications (ghosh and bera, 2023). during that period, most geomorphologists believed that the primary objective of geomorphological mapping was to highlight the processes that predominantly influence and leave their unique marks on landforms (rong et al., 2022). since 2000, the objectives of the geomorphic mapping methodology have undergone significant transformation, directly influencing the processes for selecting suitable land use planning and enhancing sustainable agricultural practices (martins et al., 2016). the methodological perspective has undergone rapid transformation due to technological advancements, as previous techniques were both time-consuming and costly (lin et al., 2022). scientists recognize contemporary geomorphological mapping and landform classification methods for emphasizing theme-based scientific classification instead of comprehensive scientific mapping (ghosh and bera, 2023). conventional landform classification and mapping primarily relied on field investigations to manually interpret topographic maps and aerial photographs, relying significantly on qualitative and subjective expert judgment (amine et al., 2019). moreover, field investigations and manual recognition inherently entail burdensome tasks that are both timeconsuming and labour-intensive (pereira et al., 2013). recently, scientists have employed geospatial techniques to gather data on landform structures and configurations, judgment by high-precision digitised mapping (mokarrama and hojati, 2018). due to the acquisition of diverse data sources like the digital elevation models (dem), various automated methodsmainly digital landform classification techniqueshave gradually replaced traditional methods in recent years (zhou et al., 2023). the advancement of dem data acquisition has established landform classification via dem as a primary technique and focal point in the field, due to its high accuracy and logical classification framework (burnelli et al., 2023). however, descriptions of fluvial landforms remain consistent, hindering our ability to compare the patterns of these features across river systems, even when employing analogous nomenclature. river landforms have been referred to as channel geomorphic units, habitat units, morphological units, and morphogenetic units; for simplicity, we refer to these features as geomorphic units (guitet et al., 2013). geomorphic maps help us understand and measure the connections between processes and the factors controlling them (mokarram et al., 2015; wheaton et al., 2015; manosso et al., 2021; al-sababhah, 2023). they also help us examine river evolution and adaptive capacity, and illustrate geomorphic change over time. these maps typically condense spatially continuous data (e.g., topography) into a discrete representations of the essential 741 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum maaroof et al. characteristics defining the rivers landscape (carrión-mero et al., 2022). we assert that the fluvial geomorphic community lacks a universally applicable framework for consistently identifying river features, as geomorphic mapping and identifying river building blocks depend on classification (zabaleta et al., 2020). this issue is equally important for both field mapping interpretation and analysing remotely sensed data. all maps are derived from foundational conceptual models and the accessible data used in their creation (mohamed, 2020). when executed effectively, geomorphic maps offer insight into the characteristics, patterns, and arrangement of landforms. (mokarram et al., 2015). this study aims to determine the spatial distribution of different riverine landforms in alashaali catchment. the objectives are to: (a) provide a geomorphological map of the catchment at a scale of 1:50,000 (see main map), (b) establish a time frame to trace the evolution of landforms during the pleistocene era, (c) identify the dominant processes controlling the geomorphological evolution, and (d) provide a detailed map of the al-ashaali catchment surface, and link the spatial distribution of landforms to the geological, climatic, and hydrological setting to so as identify their correlations and interpret the formation of landforms in the study area. materials and methods study area: al-ashaali watershed is located in the eastern part of the southern iraqi desert, within the administrative borders of al-muthanna province (al-jiburi et al., 2015). it is bordered to the north, west, and southwest by abu hadair watershed and to the east and southeast by al-kaseer watershed (map 1). al-ashaali watershed is located between latitudes (30°26′27.343″n–30°56′56.184″n) north and longitudes (45°10′49.107″e– 45°39′31.4″e) east. al-ashaali is one of the seasonal watersheds in the southern iraqi desert, situated within the lower valley region. the watershed area is 1071.19 km2, with a perimeter of 241.474 km, and a total length of 71.417 km. its direction starts from its upper sources near rijilat abu hadair and barbak al-diyud and ends at its mouth near the al-sulaibate depression (al-abadi and shahid, 2016). al-ashaali watershed is characterised by a relatively low-altitude plateau and a gradual slope from the southwest to the northeast. 742 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 739-763. classifying fluvial landforms map (1): location of al-ashaali watershed in iraq. the average gradient is 2.33 m/km, and the watershed is distinguished by variations in elevation across its sections. the maximum elevation located at its upper sources in the southwestern region, attained 180 meters above mean sea level (amsl) (maps 2, 3; diag. 1). the minimum elevation attained is 20 meters amsl in the estuaries region adjacent to the al-sulaibate depression (maaroof, 2022a). al-ashaali exhibits heightened ruggedness in its upper regions, delineating the source area between the 180and 120-meter amsl contour lines (al-jiburi and al-basrawi, 2009). this region exemplifies the youth stage in the davisian cycle of watershed development, characterised by various topographic features, including plateaus, hills, fault edges, and other landforms. the central region of al-ashaali, indicative of the maturity phase of the davisian geomorphological cycle, lies between 120 and 70 meters amsl. all landforms present in the southern iraqi desert are depicted within it. it is less precipitous and rugged than the initial region. the level diminishes progressively until it attains the estuary region, indicative of the old-age phase of the geomorphological cycle, which is situated between contour lines of 70 to 20 meters amsl (ma’ala, 2009). 743 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum maaroof et al. map (2): (a) contour lines, (b) slope levels of al-ashaali watershed. map (3): the hillshade and geomorphological phases of the al-ashaali watershed. 744 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 739-763. classifying fluvial landforms diagram (1): the 3d model of the al-ashaali watershed. the study area comprises geological formations that differ based on their sedimentary environments. some formations were deposited under continental conditions due to marine regression, while others formed under marine conditions due to marine transgression (aljiburi and al-basrawi, 2009). the exposed rock formations in the study area differ based on their depositional environments, with some having deposited under continental conditions due to marine regression (map 4). conversely, others were deposited under marine conditions due to marine advancement. the ages of these formations span from the upper eocene epoch of the tertiary period to the holocene epoch of the quaternary period (sissakian et al., 2013). the instances of marine subsidence and submersion result from land movements experienced by the region throughout its geological history, leading to alterations in sea level and climatic conditions. the study area features multiple geological formations, notably the dammam formation, which is visible in the basin's northern section and overlain by a variable thickness of sand plate deposits (ali et al., 2021). the al-ghar formation, located in the central and western regions of the basin, is partially obscured by aerobic sediments. the al-zahra formation is situated in the southern areas, comprising sandy mudstone and sandstone limestone. (al-jiburi and al-basrawi, 2015). 745 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum maaroof et al. map (4): geological formations of the al-ashaali watershed. al-ashaali watershed is categorised as having an arid climate (maaroof et al., 2023). the data in diagram (2) demonstrate that temperatures commence an ascent in march, attaining 18.2 °c, peaking in july at 36.2 °c, and than decreasing slightly in august to reach 35.3 °c. conversely, temperatures can drop to 11.3 °c during the cold season, which lasts from late november to mid-april, differentiating iraq from a tropical climate according to the koppen classification (maaroof and kareem, 2020). the study area is marked by seasonal precipitation, occurring at intervals as showers that can rapidly escalate into torrents. precipitation occurs from october to may, with an annual total of 96.5 mm. rainfall in the study area exhibits both yearly and monthly variability (al-hasani et al., 2024). the prevailing winds in the study area come from the north and northwest. they are indistinguishable from the winds traversing the central regions of iraq, particularly those over the sedimentary plain, as the winds above dominate these areas as well. the gusts are closely linked to atmospheric pressure distributions beyond the region's boundaries (al-hasani, et al., 2024). the annual average wind speed in the study area is 2.983 m/s, with an increase during the summer months, reaching 3.9, 2.9, and 2.6 m/s in june, july, and august, respectively. the mean wind velocity diminishes during winter (november, december, and january) to attain 2.4, 2.3, and 2.3 m/s, respectively (maaroof et al., 2021). 746 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 739-763. classifying fluvial landforms diagram (2): climatic data, including temperature, precipitation, and wind speed, for the study area from 1990 to 2020, sourced from the al-samawah climatic station. [from: iraq | world meteorological organization (wmo. int)] al-ashaali watershed is segmented into several sub-watersheds, each exhibiting distinct standard characteristics, as detailed below: 1. al-ashaali sub-watershed (1) (asw1): this sub-watershed is situated in the upper regions of the main watershed, encompassing an area of 670.013 km², a perimeter of 202.030 km, and a length of 53.696 km (tab. 1, maps 5, 6). 2. al-ashaali sub-watershed (2) (asw2): this sub-watershed is situated in the southwestern region of the main watershed, encompassing an area of 273.914 km², a perimeter of 108.950 km, and a length of 34.036 km. 3. al-ashaali sub-watershed (3) (asw3): this sub-watershed is situated in the southeastern region of the primary watershed, encompassing an area of 184.918 km², a perimeter of 95.733 km, and a length of 28.719 km. table (1): the area, perimeter, and length of the al-ashaali sub-watersheds. sub-watersheds area (km2) perimeter (km) length (km) al-ashaali sub-watershed (1) (asw1) 670.013 202.030 53.696 al-ashaali sub-watershed (2) (asw2) 273.914 108.950 34.036 al-ashaali sub-watershed (3) (asw3) 184.918 95.733 28.719 https://public.wmo.int/en/members/iraq 747 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum maaroof et al. map (5): al-ashaali stream orders and sub-watersheds. map (6): stream orders of al-ashaali sub-watersheds. 748 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 739-763. classifying fluvial landforms data collection: this paper examines the classification of landforms within al-ashaali catchment through digital elevation model (dem) analysis. choosing a high-resolution dem as input data is imperative to classifying landforms (martins et al., 2016). the dimensions and expanse of landforms exhibit aggregation relative to the spatial resolution characteristic (map 7). digital elevation models (dems) have consistently been utilised to ascertain the spatial resolution of satellite imagery. the landform maps produced by the baseline dem from the shuttle radar topography mission (srtm) were juxtaposed with topographic maps. the terrain data were analysed alongside geological and hydrological data to elucidate the formation of landforms in the study area. geospatial simulation models of the terrain were developed to construct a simplified geomorphological base map encompassing the entire study area and to elucidate the relationships among various features. each dataset was individually processed before being amalgamated as a sub-layer on the foundational terrain. the spatial correlation among multiple features and terrain characteristics was emphasised. the analysis and interpretation of the data primarily relied on direct visualisation and specific statistical characteristics of the features, including area/extent and thickness. the amalgamation of the various datasets was executed using arcgis software. arcgis software encompasses a diverse array of map design components. various color tools and effects, such as transparency, lighting, and shading, were used to create legible maps that effectively conveyed the research content (al-sababhah, 2023; yang et al., 2023). furthermore, 1:100,000 topographic maps from the general authority of survey of iraq and 1:250,000 geological and hydrological maps from the iraqi geological authority were utilised in geosurviraqi. upon inputting the data into the gis via arcgis v.10.8, they were incorporated into a topological model as point layers. alongside the extraction of the river drainage network at all levels, the principal watersheds and sub-watersheds were delineated and extracted as vector layers. supplementary software applications utilized for spatial analysis included google earth pro v.7.1, arc gis earth v.2, surfer v.10, and global mapper v.11. following the creation of an integrated geospatial database for the study area, the interpretation stage and geomorphological analysis of the watershed's landform characteristics were enhanced using a set of geomorphological criteria. the geomorphological factors, processes, and stages were interconnected, and the development of the watershed's landform characteristics was assessed within the context of geomorphological analysis. the cartographic methods highlighted the spatial dimensions of the watershed's geomorphological features (teofilo et al., 2019). 749 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum maaroof et al. diagram (3): flowchart of methodology. results and discussion erosional fluvial landforms valleys: valleys constitute a significant terrain in the study area, as flowing water excavated many of them under specific water drainage conditions during the quaternary period (maaroof, 2022b). these valleys (map 8 – a) have been desiccated due to climatic alterations and their current location within an arid region. these valleys exhibit numerous features indicative of fluvial erosion. nevertheless, they are situated in one of the most arid regions, with the sole water source currently being rainfall during brief intervals in winter and early spring. many of these valleys traverse zones of weakness in the limestone formations, facilitating the activation of subsurface karst processes. these valleys experience ephemeral water flow following precipitation due to the elevated permeability of the rocks. as water traverses these valleys, it erodes fragile rocks, creating deep depressions (maaroof, 2024). escarpments: this type of landform is associated with the central valleys along the river's banks or edges. different geomorphological processes produce large amounts of broken rock debris below these edges, which are easily swept away by water erosion processes that transport rock fragments from one place to another (kothyari et al., 2021). however, if water cannot transport these fragments, they accumulate at the base of the edges, forming a "galasiplane" (morino et al., 2022). the analysis of satellite images indicates that these fragmentscomposed of solid limestone rocks resistant to geomorphological processesaccumulate below the edges of river channel banks, with heights ranging from 2 to 5 meters. 750 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 739-763. classifying fluvial landforms map (8): erosional fluvial landforms in al-ashaali watershed; (a) valleys, (b) escarpments, (c) stream capture, (d) badlands, (e) meanders, (f) cliffs, (g) pediplain. stream capture: river captivity is a prevalent occurrence in the watersheds of the southern iraqi desert. the geomorphological history of al-ashaali watershed reveals this phenomenon in conjunction with adjacent watersheds, particularly abu hadair watershed in its western and southwestern regions. evidence exists that this occurs, particularly in the region known as rijlat al-tuwaitha, where the sources of this basin converge with its two tributaries (alsaka'a and abu khasoufah) and the auxiliary abu hadair watershed. features such as "captivity elbow" and "wind gaps" have been observed. a "captivity elbow" refers to the curved intersection between the captive river and the captured river, whereas "wind gaps" result from the contraction of the captured channel, forming a dry channel (wheaton et al., 2015). in the study area, river captivity occurs due to multiple factors, including the presence of a river with a steeper gradient than others, resulting in an accelerated flow that enhances the deepening of its valley. furthermore, the rocks over which a river traverses exhibit low resistance to erosion, either due to their softness or the presence of structural weaknesses such as cracks, joints, and fractures. consequently, this accelerates the river's vertical erosion process, hastening its retrogression and enabling it to appropriate the sources of another river. river captivity may arise from the expansion and alteration of river bends, resulting in the confluence of one river with the course of another. 751 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum maaroof et al. badlands: this landform is a consequence of a specific type of erosion induced by precipitation and water in arid and semi-arid areas. infrequent but intense rainfall can generate torrents when the terrain is composed of cohesive clay, chalk, or gypsum sediments. the torrents rapidly erode the rocks, transforming the terrain into a complex network of grooves, gorges, and small pools interspersed with cliffs, rendering the area difficult to traverse (mandal and chakrabarty, 2021). this landform is prevalent in the central and southern regions of the study area, with elevations ranging between 2 and 3 meters, and is encircled by debris resulting from the weathering and erosion processes to which this area has been subjected. alongside the sequence of brittle and rugged rocks, exposed rocks exhibit reduced complexity, facilitating their weathering and erosion. the absence of vegetation cover has facilitated the exposure of these areas' surfaces to weathering and erosion, as natural vegetation helps mitigate water erosion during rainfall in the study area. meanders: river courses exhibit curvatures due to the characteristics of the stage the river is traversing through. the curvatures are typically minimal in youth and early mature stages, becoming most pronounced in old age (nagata et al., 2014). the river forms a meander in the study area through lateral erosion driven by geomorphological processes; the erosion resistance of the banks differs (njenga et al., 2012). the development of the meander in the study area is chiefly attributable to a bank comprising a substantial proportion of sand and silt alongside a minor proportion of clay. this bank is highly susceptible to the lateral erosion processes that gradually degrade it. this phenomenon creates the external arch or concavity, characterised by a narrow bank with a steep gradient and significant depth. geomorphological processes at concavities are destructive, whereas on the opposite banks of the meander, where water current velocity diminishes, sediments are deposited, forming a convex bank known as the internal arch (maaroof and kareem, 2022). cliffs: rock cliffs are uniform, steep formations that rise vertically and semi-obliquely, exhibiting a gradient exceeding 40 degrees relative to the horizontal plane of the earth's surface; when the slope attains 90 degrees, it is called a rock wall (flor-blanco et al., 2022). their formation and development are linked to the system of horizontal stratification, the rock composition varying from hard to brittle layers of differing thicknesses, and the impacts of water erosion in all directions (swirad and young, 2022). the study area contains numerous geological features, including rock cliffs. these phenomena are particularly prevalent in areas where rivers meander and the cliff edges are eroded by retrogressive erosion, rockfall, and landslides along the cliffs and the flanks of the primary river valleys. pediplain: these are plains formed at the end of the devonian erosion cycle, and the most important feature is their surface's flatness and lack of ruggedness. their slope is simple, so it is almost insufficient to sustain river channels flowing slowly toward their estuaries (de amorim et al., 2021). the erosion plain is not considered the final picture of how the earth's surface looks after a complete erosion cycle is over. it is always affected by different erosion factors that shape its overall geomorphological appearance. large-scale erosion plains typically split into scattered remnants of a limited area, separated by various river channels (mirzadeh et al., 2023). the remnants of the erosion plain vary in height depending on the 752 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 739-763. classifying fluvial landforms size of the watershed and the river channel's level, which is higher in the source area than at the estuary (mokarram et al., 2015). the northern parts of the basin distribute the erosional plains. these parts are characterised by their severe dissection due to water erosion. these areas are situated at elevations ranging between 20 and 100 meters amsl. they are underlain by limestone and sandstone rocks connect these areas, and are covered by loose sediments derived from these materials. both physical and chemical weathering processes expose the surface sediments, leading to their fragmentation. sometimes, their color may change due to the interactions between their mineral components and raindrops. these plains represent an advanced stage of river erosion. however, fault movements in the region cut it into several faults at the start of their formation. in a later stage, the valleys would developed their drainage networks and gradually leveled the area, resulting in the formation of the erosional plain. depositional fluvial landforms valleys deposits: river load is deposited when conditions are favorablespecifically when the river load surpasses its capacity, and the sediment volume exceeds the efficiency threshold of the river (maaroof and kareem, 2023). sedimentation may transpire progressively along the river course, depending on the gradation of sediment size and the reduction in slope, water discharge, and flow velocity (maaroof, 2025). the substantial materials that form a significant portion of the bed load, are deposited initially. in contrast, finer materials, including the suspended load, remain in movement and may eventually reach the river’s estuary environment. the size of transported particles diminishes as we progress downstream from the basin's upper sources (langbein and schumm, 1958). thornbury (1966) delineated the factors and conditions that contribute to sedimentation, characterised by a reduction in the river's capacity to transport sediments, resulting from a decrease in velocity as it transitions from higher to lower terrain, the formation of folds, or an increase in river meandering. sedimentation occurs due to flood-induced river expansion and a decrease in water volume driven by climatic variations (schumm, 1981). al-ashaali watershed is distinguished by substantial sediment deposits that differ in quantity, size, and thickness across various sections of the basin. rock masses, boulders, and unsorted sandy and calcareous clastic sediments characterises the upper strata's lower sections. in certain regions, the substrates consist of sediment-free rocks due to the steep gradient and surface runoff characteristics. the valley floors in the central areas of the basin are composed of sand, silt, and clay sediments, influenced by the valley's width, the volume of flowing water, and the types of rocks most susceptible to dissolution. 753 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum maaroof et al. map (9): depositional fluvial landforms in al-ashaali watershed; [(a) valleys deposits, (b) alluvial fans, (c) flood plains, (d) natural levees, (e) river islands, (f) braided streams]. alluvial fans: they represent a type of river sedimentation in the study area, reflecting prior climatic conditions and geomorphological processes (tebakari and kita, 2015). this phenomenon is widely regarded as having formed due to the rainy climatic conditions of the pleistocene and has experienced modifications, particularly during significant floods that periodically affect the watershed. alluvial fans develop in regions where steep slopessuch as plateaus and elevated hillsconverge with lowlands, including plains and valley bottoms, characterised by a dry or semi-arid climate (hashemi et al., 2018). the rivers within them are typically ephemeral, transporting substantial sediment while flowing rapidly over steep terrain shaped by diverse weathering processes. the flow velocity of these rivers abruptly diminishes as they approach neighboring lowlands, resulting in the deposition of much of their sediment load in the transitional zone in the transitional zone (singh et al., 2022). coarse sediments are primarily deposited first, particularly in the central part of the river channel, where a barrier forms, causing the river to bifurcate into two additional branches. the bifurcation of rivers escalates, while the volume of water and sediment they transport diminishes as they progress away from the elevated area. consequently, alluvial fans exhibit considerable thickness and coarse sediments in their upper sections adjacent to elevated areas. in contrast, their thickness diminishes, particle size reduces, and width expands as one move further from these highland regions (chen and capart, 2022). 754 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 739-763. classifying fluvial landforms floodplains: floodplains are located to the north of the study area, representing the lowest topographical feature. this plain was created by sediments carried by valleys and streams from steep highlands, which facilitated the acceleration of water currents and enhanced erosion in these regions. as the slope decreases, since valleys and streams cut through high areas with steep slopes and flow into flat areas, the speed of the water flow slows, causing the sediments it carries to settle. floodplains develop due to recurrent surface runoff. the overall gradient of these plains is from southwest to northeast, consistent with the slope of the study area. streams, waterways, and minor valleys occasionally punctuate these plains, and banks intermittently bisect them. natural levees: elevated hills delineate the floodplain from the riverbed. when silt accumulates on either side of a river, it creates dams and results in a gradual water flow (wang et al., 2012). occasionally, these dams fail under the pressure of floodwaters inundating the floodplain. the elevation of these dams in the rivers of the study area is 5 m above the floodplain level on either side of the river. natural dams in the study area are frequently linked to meandering, whereas they have not been observed in braided rivers, which deposit gravel and coarse sand within their channels rather than on their banks (lee et al., 2023). river islands: water encircles these land areas, which are formed entirely due to sedimentation in the riverbed (raslan and salama, 2015). the formation of river islands is associated with the deposition of sedimentary materials such as clay, silt, sand, and gravel in stratified layers, beginning at the riverbed and progressing to the water's surface (sadek, 2013). the study area correlates the formation of river islands with the augmentation of sediments transported by the river. the river's diminishing capacity to transport sediments forces it to deposit its load on the riverbed, obstructing the waterway. over time, these barriers proliferate and enlarge due to ongoing sedimentation, ultimately transforming into islands within the river's course. most river islands in the study area form at bends, where reduced water velocity facilitates sediment deposition and land formation. braided streams: braided streams are distinctive geomorphic formations characterised by wider riverbeds through which water flows in multiple channels amidst sediment. they are characteristic of the middle sections of rivers (xia et al., 2025). the sediment deposition in a midchannel bar redirects water towards the banks, where it exerts increased force, resulting in bank erosion and stream widening. a sediment-laden stream may deposit numerous bars within its channel, widening a continuous stream as additional bars accumulate. a stream generally undergoes multiple cycles of deposition and erosion, mainly when its discharge varies (olsen, 2021). the stream may accumulate sediment in its primary channel, transforming into a braided stream that flows through a network of interconnected rivulets surrounding multiple bars. a braided stream typically possesses a broad, shallow channel. the entire riverbed is generally submerged during floods, rendering smaller branches invisible (coulthard, 2005). a stream typically becomes braided when it is significantly burdened with sediment, especially bed load, and has easily erodible banks. the braided pattern forms in deserts when a sediment-rich stream loses water via evaporation and percolation into the soil. 755 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum maaroof et al. braided streams are morphologically unstable habitats. the majority of the flora in these regions consists of pioneer species (gran and paola, 2001). conclusions valleys in the study area are significant terrain due to their desiccation during the quaternary period and their current location within an arid region. these valleys exhibit numerous features indicative of fluvial erosion, and are located in some of the driest regions, where rainfall is the sole water source. river captivity occurs when one river expands its course at the detriment of another, resulting in profound depressions. this landform is associated with central valleys situated along rivers banks or edges. it is related to al-ashaali watershed and abu hadair watershed in its western and southwestern regions. rijlat altuwaitha is a region where the sources of this basin converge with its two tributaries alsaka'a and abu khasoufah along with the auxiliary abu hadair watershed. the geomorphological history of al-ashaali watershed reveals this phenomenon in conjunction with adjacent watersheds, particularly the abu hadair watershed in their western and southwestern regions. rijlat al-tuwaitha is characterised by features such as "captivity elbow" and "wind gaps," which occur when one river exhibits a steeper gradient than others, resulting in an accelerated flow that enhances the deepening of its valley. the absence of vegetation cover facilitated the exposure of these areas' surfaces to weathering and erosion. the study area contains numerous geological features, including rock cliffs, which are particularly prevalent in areas where rivers meander and the cliff edges are eroded by retrogressive erosion, rock fall, and landslides along the cliffs and flanks of primary river valleys. the erosion plain is affected by different erosion factors that shape its overall geomorphological appearance. river sedimentation occurs when the river load exceeds its capacity and the sediment volume exceeds its efficiency threshold. this process can occur progressively along the river’s course, depending on sediment size gradation, slope reduction, water discharge, and flow velocity. al-ashaali watershed is characterised by substantial sediment deposits in various basin sections, reflecting prior climatic conditions and geomorphological processes. alluvial fans develop in regions where steep slopes converge with lowlands, transporting substantial sediment while flowing rapidly over steep terrain. coarse sediments are primarily deposited first, particularly in the river channel's centre, where a barrier forms, causing the river to bifurcate into two additional branches. as the flows progress from the elevated area, their thickness diminishes, particle size reduces, and width expands. floodplains are located in the north of the study area, representing the lowest topographical feature. these are formed by sediments carried by valleys and streams from steep highlands, facilitating water currents' acceleration and enhanced erosion. river islands form when sedimentation in the riverbed, and diminishing the river’s ability to transport sediments forces it to deposit its load on the riverbed, partially obstructing the water flow. braided streams, another distinctive geomorphic feature, are characterized by wider riverbeds through which water flows in multiple channels amidst sediment. these streams undergo numerous cycles of deposition and erosion, mainly when their discharge levels vary. braided pattern forms in deserts when a 756 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 739-763. classifying fluvial landforms sediment-rich stream loses water through evaporation and percolation into the soil. the majority of the flora in that region consists of pioneer species. acknowledgements the authors thank babylon center for civilization and historical studies at the university of babylon, department of geology at the university of babylon, and department of civil engineering and built environment at liverpool john moores university for the scientific support provided throughout the study. conflict of interest statement "the authors declare no conflict of interest". literature cited al-abadi, a. m. and shahid, s. 2016. spatial mapping of artesian zone at iraqi southern desert using a gis-based random forest machine learning model. modeling earth systems and environment, 2: 96. 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(2025) 18 (3): 739-763. مياه لستجمع الجيومكانية النمذجة بإستخدام النهرية الرضية تصنيفالشكال الجنوبية العراق صحراء في الشعلي الزبيدي***، حسين جعفر كريم**، حنين هاشم معروف*، فؤاد بشار الحسني******، بان اللكبيسي*****، شاكر منال ذنون****، غازي ريان كارناسبنا****** آياكوبو و العاطف****** عكد موده العراق. بابل، بابل، جامعة والتاريخية، الحضارية للدراسات بابل *مركز العراق. مبسان، مبسان، جامعة الساسية، التربية كلية العامة، العلوم قسم ** العراق. ، بابل ، بابل جامعة العلوم، كلية التطكيقية، الجيولوجيا قسم *** العراق. الوصل، الوصل، جامعة التحسسالنائي، ****مركز العراق. بغداد، بغداد، جامعة العلوم، كلية الرض، علوم *****قسم جون ليفربول جامعة الهندسية، التلنولوجيا كلية البنية، وببئة الدنية الهندسة ******قسم التحدة. المللة ليفربول، مورس، 2025/6/20 النشر: ،2025/5/29 القبول: ،2025/5/27 2025/2/13،الراجعة: اسستلم: الالصة العراق صحراء في الياه مستجمعات أحد وهو الشعلي، حوضتصريف الدراسة هذه تناولت التصنيف حسب السفلى الوديان منطقة ضمن ا هيدروجيومورفولوجيي ي نظاما ويشكل الجنوبية، ودقة الكانية الدقة لتحسين الثانوي الكلسل تقنية الدراسة استخدمت للعراق. الجيومورفولوجي الرض أشكال خرائط ودمجت الرض. أشكال لتصنيف الستخدمة الرقمية الرتفاعات نماذج الرضية الشكال نشأة لفهم الطكوغرافية الخرائط مع srtm الرقمي الرتفاع نموذج من الشتقة جرى و الرضية. الشكال خرائط لنشاء جيومكانية محاكاة نماذج تطوير تم الدراسة. منطقة في وخرائط الخرائط تلوين أدوات تضمن والذي ،arcgis برنامج باستخدام الكيانات تحليل وتحليل تفسير تعزيز إلى الدراسة تهدف وهيدرولوجية. جيولوجية وخرائط طكوغرافية التصنيف نظام وفق النهري. التصريف حوض في الرض أشكال خصائص جيومورفولوجيا الدراسة. منطقة الرضفي أشكال فتت نن صص )itc( الرضالهولندي علوم لعهد الجيومورفولوجي 763 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum maaroof et al. الرباعي الزمن خلل تكونت أرضية معالم هي الدراسة منطقة في الوديان أن إلى النتائج أشارت للتآكل الدراسة منطقة في السهول تتعرض القاحلة. الناطق في الحالي موقعها من تأتي وأهميتها سهول وتتميز الغربية. والجنوبية الغربية منطقتيها في الخرى التصريف بأحواض وترتكط النهري وتتأثر مشترك. واحد لنهر التسارع التدفق بسبب الرياح" و"فجوات السر" بـ"مرفق التويثة النهار وجزر الفيضية والسهول النهار ترسب ذلك في بما التآكل، بعوامل التحاتية السهول والرااسي الشديدة النحدرات ذات الناطق في الرسوبية الراوح وتتطور الضفرة. والجداول من والجداول الوديان تحملها التي الرواسب من الفيضية السهول تنشأ ببنما النخفضة، وتتكون والتآكل، الترسبب من متعددة لدورات الضفرة الجداول وتخضع الشديدة. الرتفعات رائدة. أنواع من النطقة في النكاتات معظم bull 665 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2025) 18 (3): 665-687. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2025.18.3.0665 original article investigation of macrofungi in the middle of iraq sarah jamal jalil*♦, anfal izaldeen al kateeb** and hurria hussein al-juboory*** *iraq natural history research centre and museum, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq. **department of science, biology branch, college of basic education, university of wasit, wasit, iraq. ***department of plant protection, college of agricultural engineering sciences, university of baghdad, baghdad, iraq. corresponding author: sarah.g@nhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq received: 17 nov. 2024, revised: 8 may 2025, accepted: 11 may 2025, published:20 june 2025 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract the study aimed to survey mushroom species from fields among herbs, palm trunks, and trees in central iraq and to identify them on the basis of morphological and molecular characteristics. as a molecular identification result with polymerase chain reaction six species were recorded (with eight isolates): agaricus bitorquis (quéllt) saccardo. 1887 (sha14); candolleomyces candolleanus (fr.) d. wächter & melzer, 2020 (sha15); cyclocybe cylindracea (d.c.) vizzini & angelini, 2014 (sha13); leucoagaricus hesperius vellinga, 2010 (sha16); volvariella sp. (sha17), and volvopluteus gloiocephalus (d. c.) vizzini, contu & justo, 2011 (sha10, sha101 and sha12), belonging to four families of basidiomycetes: agaricaceae, pluteaceae, psathyrellaceae, and strophariaceae within the order agaricales. the nuclear sequences of these species have been deposited in genbank under the accession numbers: pp576693, pp578967, pp576221, pp576960, pp580694, pp575891, pp580693, and pp576069, respectively. these species were recorded for the first time in these areas in the middle of iraq. keywords: agaricales, agaricomycetes, basidiomycetes, macrofungi, mushroom. introduction living organisms on earth are incredibly diverse, including fungi, plants, animals, and bacteria (diaz and malhi, 2022; al-joboury and aliwy, 2023). nowadays, researchers are focused on obtaining new sources useful to human food and health, with therapeutic effects on certain infectious diseases (kumar et al., 2021; al kateeb et al., 2022). fungi are considered a very important food source for many animals and humans, representing some of the largest and most varied organisms with diverse environmental functions and abilities (kakon et al., 2012; kumar et al., 2021). mushrooms are a multipurpose food source and are frequently low in calories and sodium while rich in essential amino acids and potassium, making them useful for heart health and suitable for people with high blood pressure (erbiai bulletin of the iraq natural historymuseum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799, print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2025.18.3.0665 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2024.18.1.0245 https://orcid.org/0009-0009-8903-8278 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2915-5044 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9308-5143 mailto:sarah.g@nhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 666 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 665-687. investigation of macrofungi et al., 2021; singh, 2023). environmentally, fungi are decomposers of dead organic materials and recyclers of nutrients in forest ecosystems (bahram and netherway, 2021). agaricomycetes are an important class of fungi, including mushroom forming fungi, reported in various ecosystems and associated with different habitats (owaid et al., 2014; sulaiman et al., 2024). they function in symbiotic relationships with plants, digest organic material, and on rare occasions become pathogens (hibbett, 2014; alshuwaili et al., 2023). fungi belonging to this class show the highest level of multicellular diversity in fruiting bodies (alkhesraji and suliaman, 2019).the order agaricales is considered the largest order in this class and includes 23,000 species distributed globally (ashraf et al., 2016). in agaricales, species identification necessitates analyzing macroscopic and microscopic features; this is because phenotypic features are frequently absent or similar two species may have the same traits because of evolutionary convergence and close relationships (schoch et al., 2012). the family is represented in almost every part of the world, and different botanists may recognize different numbers of genera. the boundaries between genera are frequently hard to establish (al-ashbal et al., 2025). many researchers have estimated the actual biodiversity of fungi around the world. still, only a small fraction of the fungi inhabiting a respective country has been studied, especially from a molecular point of view, to estimate the actual number of species of mushrooms in ecosystems.in iraq, many mushroom-forming members belonging to basidiomycetes have been recorded (owaid et al., 2014; sulaiman et al., 2024). for several reasons, fungi have become a desirable food source and a viable alternative to animal meat. they are highly nutritious, containing 2040% protein by dry weight, depending on the species (kumar et al., 2021). due to the increase in the world’s population and the necessity to provide healthy food, the wild agricultural fungi available in iraq have been of interest because of their high nutritional value (alhusseini et al., 2021). recent investigations on macrofungi in iraq has led to the registration of new strains and detailed descriptions (suliaman, 2023). in the current study, a survey was conducted in some areas of central iraq with the aim of identifying species of macrofungi that had not been previously reported in this region. materials and methods specimens’ collection: in the current study, sixty specimens were collected from various regions in central iraq, including: zawiyat al zaraa village, located 11.5 km western of alaziziyah district; western shadif village, located 14km southern of aziziyah in wasit province; bab al-muadham, located in central baghdad; and almadain district, located 22 km south of baghdad, across six geographical locations (map 1, tab. 1). their fruiting bodies were present on palm trunks and among grasses on the ground and were collected from multiple areas in central iraq between january and march 2024. the valid names and synonyms of the species mentioned in this study were adopted from (gbif secretariat, 2023), and the distribution data for the species mentioned in this study were adopted according to the method of al-joboury and zurgany (2024). the temperatures at the time of specimens collection ranged between 20-22°c. using a brush, dust and dirt were removed from the fruiting bodies, in situ, and the ecological data of the fungi, along with the collection 667 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum jalil et al. date and location, were recorded. photographs of all specimens were taken in their natural habitats (palm trunks, grasses), as well as in the laboratory. map (1): specimens’ collection regions ( marked with the symbol ). table (1): stations with the coordinates in the study areas. no coordinate of stations 1 32°53'01.0"n 45°05'31.1"e 2 32°52'16.4"n 45°09'13.4"e 3 32°51'37.3"n 45°03'10.4"e 4 32°51'31.0"n 45°02'09.7"e 5 33°21'15.0"n 44°23'33.9"e 6 33°06'13.8"n 44°35'07.5"e morphological identification of mushrooms: the species were identified morphologically depending on characteristics such as fruiting body color, stipe length, presence or absence of a ring and volva, cap diameter, the presence or absence of volva, and scales. using illustrated field guidebooks, monographs and photographs in addition and previously published studies, macro-fungi were characterized. as well as databases were consulted (tibuhwa and kivaisi 2010; tibuhwa, 2012; owaid et al., 2014; chelela et al., 2015; muslat et al., 2020), macrofungi have been characterized. each specimen was documented with photographs showing its growth habit, whether solitary, overlapping, or clustered. 668 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 665-687. investigation of macrofungi identification of macro-fungi using polymerase chain reaction (pcr) technology dna extraction and amplification: the dna of all sample species was extracted at jisr almusayyab company using a dna extraction kit (geneaid biotech company with catalog no. gp100 south korea). dna amplification was performed using a primer pair that targets the specific sequence of its: the universal primers its1and its4 (white et al., 1990). all samples were investigated using polymerase chain reaction (pcr). the pcr protocol included an initial denaturation at 95oc for 5 min, followed by 35 cycles consisting of secondary denaturation at 95oc for 30 sec; annealing at 55oc for 30 sec; and elongation at 72oc for 1 min, with a final elongation step at 72oc for 10 min. the pcr products were stored at 4oc (sulaiman, 2023). sequence analysis of amplified dna from the macrofungal species: the pcr products of the mushroom species (sha10, sha101, sha12, sha13, sha14, sha15, sha16, and sha17) were sent to macrogene company in south koreafor sequencing. using mega 11 software, phylogenetic tree was constructed for all of the species volvopluteus gloiocephalus (sha10, sha101, sha12) cyclocybe cylindracea (sha13), agaricus bitorquis (sha14), candolleomyces candolleanus (sha15), leucoagaricus hesperius (sha16), and volvariella sp. (sha17) and compared with reference sequences in the genbank (tab. 2). results the findings presented in the current study of macrofungi were collected from central iraq and recorded eight specimens belonging to agaricomycetes. a total of sixty fungal specimens were were collected in the current study belong to eight isolates and six species, belonged to six genera from four families: agaricaceae, psathyrellaceae, pluteaceae, and strophariaceae within the order agaricales (tab. 3). these species were identified depending on fruiting body morphology. they were observed in different seasons, depending on weather conditions, soil composition, and habitat. the geographical areas from which the samples were collected had a climate with 74-79% humidity and temperatures ranging from 19–32 °c at the time of sample collection. the following details were presented on the classification and characteristics of all species and genera of fungi collected from different areas in the middle of iraq. table (2): the species were reported in the middle of iraq for the first time. sr. no. family species 1 agaricaceae agaricus bitorquis (quéllt) saccardo, 1887 (sha14) leucoagaricus hesperius vellinga, 1990 (sha16) 2 psathyrellaceae candolleomyces candolleanuswächter and melzer, 2020 (sha15) 3 strophariaceae cyclocybe cylindracea vizzini and angelini, 2014 (sha13) 4 pluteaceae volvopluteus gloiocephalus vizzini, contu and justo, 2011 (sha10), (sha101) and (sha12) volvariella sp. (sha17) 669 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum jalil et al. table (3): molecular similarity ratios for the local macrofungi relative to the global reference sequences received into the ncbi sr. no species ncbi registration no. country ncbi registration no. percentage of sequence similarity (%) 1 a. bitorquis (quéllt) saccardo, 1887 (sha14) pp576693 chine oq571893 99.01 2 c. cylindracea vellinga, 1990 (sha13) pp576221 algeria mt553101 99.78 3 c. candolleanus (sha15) pp576696 usa pq111719 95.19 l. hesperius wächter and melzer 2020 (sha16) pp576960 usa gu139790 96.00 4 volvariella sp. schäffer 1898 (sha17) pp580694 italy hm24648 5 98.00 v. gloiocephalus vizzini, contu and justo, 2011 (sha10) pp575891 denmark mt644914 98.95 v. gloiocephalus vizzini, contu and justo 2011 (sha101) pp580693 new zealand mn73863 4 96.36 v. gloiocephalus vizzini, contu and justo, 2011 (sha12) pp576069 denmark mt644914 97.79 morphological identification of mushrooms phylum: basidiomycota class: agaricomycetes order: agaricales 1. family: agaricaceae agaricus bitorquis (quél.) saccardo, 1887 (sha14) habitat: the results showed (pl. 1 a, b) that this mushroom is found among grasses and near tree trunks. cap: it is 3.6-1.20 cm broad, white when young, becoming yellowish; convex, and smooth gills; pink when young, turning dark reddish or brown. stem with 4.2 cm length, volva absent. 670 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 665-687. investigation of macrofungi leucoagaricu hesperius vellinga, 2010 (sha16) this species with a thick litter layer from decomposing tree remains; cap with 7.1-7.3 cm in diameter, round in shape, and becoming convex with age, colors ranges from light brown to beige, covered with fine scales; gills; free and spaced, white initially, then becoming pink with age, stem; 2.5 cm length, cylindrical and somewhat thin, white colored with a thin ring (pl. 1 c, d). plate (1): a. bitorquis (sha14); (a1-a2) fruiting bodies and collection sites near a tree trunk, (b1-b2) fruiting bodies in the laboratory, (c1-c2, d1-d2) fruiting bodies and collection sites of l. hesperius. (sha16) between dry grasses and in the laboratory, respectively. 2. family: psathyrellaceae candolleomyces candolleanuswächter & melzer, 2020 (sha15) the results are shown in plate (2). this mushroom is found among grasses and in woodlands and often grows around stumps and tree roots in lawns and pastures, commonly on decaying wood or nutrient-rich soil. cap with 7.4-7.9 cm in diameter, light brown when young, starts conical in shape and then becomes rounded with reversed margins at maturity. gills free, color varies depending on the age. stipe with 4.8 cm in diameter, cylindrical and similar in color to cap or slightly lighter. psathyrella candolleana was the initial name given to this mushroom. for a long time, it was known within the genus psathyrella. it was first recorded in iraq by al-habib et al. (2014). however, recent recent investigation, especially genetic analysis, showed that this fungus 671 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum jalil et al. doesn’t fully belong to psathyrella genus. it had been transferred to the genus candolleomyces (wächter and melzer, 2020). plate (2): candolleomyces candolleanus (sha15) on decaying wood or rich soil. 3. family: strophariaceae cyclocybe cylindracea vizzini & angelini, 2014 (sha13) habitat: it found on tree trunks, present as clusters; diameter of the cap 6.5 to 6.7 cm across when fully expanded; shape: they are initially hemispherical, becoming broadly convex or planar and undulating marginally in ordinary conditions; pale buff but flushed mid-brown from the center outwards with age, gills; minimal decurrent or adnate; firstly creamy, becoming grey-brown and then mid-brown colored, stipe; 3 cm long, creamy, becoming brown with age, ring present (pl. 3). the genus cyclocybe is a source of dietary fiber, amino acids, minerals, and bioactive substances such as vitamins, antioxidants, and �-glucans (koutrotsios et al., 2018). before molecular studies, cyclocybe was a subgenus of agrocybe. however, according to molecular phylogenetic analysis, agrocybe is polyphyletic, which is why the genus cyclocybe has been revived (e.g., vizzini et al., 2014). plate (3): cyclocybe cylindracea (sha13); (a1-a2) fruiting bodies on palm trunk, (b) in the lab. 672 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 665-687. investigation of macrofungi 4. family: pluteaceae volvopluteus gloiocephalus vizzin, contu and justo, 2011 (sha10, sha101 and sha12) habitat: specimens were collected from among grasses (sha10), woodchip piles (sha101), and near palm trunks/dry grasses, and leaves (sha12) (pl. 4). three species, all belonging to the same genus, differ in phenotypic and genetic traits, resulted in their ncbi registration as shown in (table 1). v. gloiocephalus (sha10), cap; 11.4-11.6 cm broad, smooth no scale, from yellowish to brown, plano-convex in age and is shown to be sticky and shiny when moist and fresh, randomly streaked; gills; pink to pinkishbrown colored, broad, crowded and thick; stem 6 cm long, short and broad, cylindrical shape, the ring is absent, white colored sometimes yellowish, and has membranous volva, cyst-like appearance at the base. the morphological characteristics are similar to the ones described by justo et al. (2011a). v. gloiocephalus (sha101) cap; 10.2-10.3 cm broad, convex hat shape, fleshy, creamy to brown colored, streaking with gray to brown radial lines, gills; crowded and thick, whitish to creamy, stem; white broad-stem 4 cm long, cylindrical decreasing slightly to upper, granulated, presence of the ring, volva; white colored at the base. v. gloiocephalus (sha12) cap; 6.26.4 cm long, conical or oval shape, white to greyish, smooth, stem when moist turning to shiny when dry, gills; broad, whitish, close, stem; 3.7 cm long, 1.7 cm thick, volva; membranous, veil absent. the genus volvopluteus was created to consist of species previously classified as volvariella, characterized by a gelatinous pileipellis and an average basidiospore typically exceeding 11 μm in length (justo et al., 2011b). 673 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum jalil et al. plate (4): volvopluteus gloiocephalus; (a & b) fruiting bodies and collection sites between grasses and in the lab. of v. gloiocephalus sha10, (c) fruiting bodies and collection sites between grasses and leaves near the palm trunk and (d1-d2) in the lab. of v. gloiocephalus sha101, and (e1) fruiting bodies and collection sites between dry grasses and leaves, (e2) in the lab. of v. gloiocephalus sha12. 674 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 665-687. investigation of macrofungi volvariella sp. (sha 17) habitat: present among grasses and leaves. cap; diameter6.4-6.6 cm (not fully spread out), centrally located, densely and finely scaly, creamy to light brown in colour, the surface becomes increasingly loose and finely scaly toward the edge, with a continuous transition from the center of the cap to the edge, gills; broad and thick, creamy to pink colored, stem; 4 cm long, cylinder, has a seen at the base of the stem, volva; universal veil saccate is present at the base and absence of a ring made it difficult to distinguish it from amanita spp. (adewoyinn et al., 2017) (pl. 5). plate (5): volvariella sp. (sha 17) fruiting bodies and collection sites between grasses (a) and in the lab (b). identification of macrofungal species using polymerase chain reaction (pcr) technology the results of the polymerase chain reaction (pcr) showed the amplification of the dna sequence from eight species of (sha10, sha101, sha12, sha17, sha13, sha14, sha16 and sha15) using primers its1 and its4. the electrophoresis of the pcr products was demonstrated using an agarose gel with the appearance of dna fragments. the dna gel electrophoresis of eight species showed a molecular weight of 700-750 base pairs. nucleotide sequence analysis and registration in genbank the nucleotide sequences of the dna bands that were duplicated for the its region of the eight mushroom species were determined and it was found that they belong to the mushroom species a. bitorquis (sha14), candolleomyces candolleanus (sha15), c. cylindracea (sha13), leucoagaricus hesperius (sha16); volvariella sp. (sha17) and volvopluteus gloiocephalus (sha10, sha101, and sha12). the sequences of the eight species were 675 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum jalil et al. deposited on the national center biotechnology information genbank (ncbi) website (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/blast) and belong to many genera in agaricales under the accession numbers pp576693, pp576221, pp575891, pp576960, pp576696, pp580693, pp576069 and pp580694, respectively as shown in table (2). for the registration was for the first time in the middle of iraq. phylogenetic tree the phylogenetic tree of mushroom species was plotted in fixed scales where the lengths of branches were of the same units using evolutionary distances (diag. 1). the maximum composite likelihood method for calculating evolutionary distances was used to calculate the nucleotide sequences of the its region of the respective species (sha10, sha101, sha12, sha12, sha17, sha13, sha14, sha16 and sha15). the sequences generated through the sequencing method were analyzed using mega program, version 11. these sequences were aligned with the sequences of nucleotides information obtained from locally isolated fungi. designed via evolutionary distances, the phylogenetic tree—including the regional fungal species has evolved between selected scales with the lengths of branches set by the same units. the maximum composite likelihood method (mclm) was used to measure the evolutionary distance between species. the process involved base modifications at every position of the target gene sequence. the modified sequenced regions ranged in length from 219 to 674 base pairs. the genera agaricus, candolleomyces, cyclocybe, leucoagaricus, volvariella sp. and volvopluteus could be classified according to the species level based on their sequences. eight species were previously unrecorded in central iraq were identified, and their placement in the phylogenic tree revealed their evolutionary relationships , confirming their identity were considered as distinct species. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/blast 676 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 665-687. investigation of macrofungi diagram (1): phylogenetic tree illustrating the phylogeny of eight genera belonging to agaricales based on the combined sequence dataset of its + its4. the codes (e.g., sha10, sha101) refer to specific collected of the fungi, and the numbers represent genetic distances, sequence similarities. the analysis results show that the evolutionary tree is divided into two main branches. firstly, branch 1 exhibits several distinct clades of closely related fungi. a tight clade formed by species v. gloiocephalus (sha10 and sha101), with accession numbers (pp576069.1 and pp580693.1) in the genbank, indicates a recent common ancestor. their branch length is 0.28, which is relatively short, revealing minimal genetic distance, referring to a recent separation. a bootstrap score of 95%, demonstrates strong support with an elevated level of reliability. further certainty for the inferred relationships is supported by other relatively high bootstrap values of other nodes, such as the node grouping sha10 and sha101, which have a bootstrap value of 85%. l. hesperius (sha16) and c. cylindracea (sha13) show the longest branch measurements in the evolutionary tree they constructed, which indicates that the two species have a wide genetic separation from other species. likewise, the 14.24 measurement shows genetic distance that sha13 and sha16 are indeed distantly related to each other. candolleomyce candolleanus (sha15) is more closely related to volvariellasp. (sha17) than to a. bitorquus (sha14). the branch length between sha15 and sha17 is of intermediate value, indicating a moderate genetic distance between the two. the branch length between the two previous genera is 1.05. as shown in table (4), the species recorded in central iraq exhibit varying matching rates with species recorded from different regions. 677 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum jalil et al. v. gloiocephalus (sha10 and sha12): these species shows a matching rate with v. gloiocephalus dm1042 strain fungus reported in denmark by (leerhoei and lang kjaer, 2020). this genus is found solitary or scattered among grasses. v. gloiocephalus is classified as a sister species to all other members of the volvopluteus genus (kaygusuz et al., 2021). the v. gloiocephalus (sha101) species shows similarities to v. gloiocephalus10832, a strain fungus reported in new zealand by cooper (2019). morphologically, this strain is similar to another strain collected from northern iraq, with minor differences in cap shape, color, and stem length. (sulaiman et al., 2017). the presence of this species has been recorded across an array, including iraqi kurdistan and sable island, off the coast of nova scotia, in europe and north america (suliaman et al., 2017; william and lucas, 2021; he et al., 2019). this species was reported in turkey (atila and kaya, 2008; kaya, 2015) and iran (fadavi and abbasi, 2015). known commonly as the stubble rose gill, this species was reclassified as volvopluteus gloiocephalus by italian mycologists (vizzini et al., 2011), becoming the type species of the newly created genus volvopluteus. volvariella sp. (sha 17); shows similarity to volvariella sp. av140 strain reported in italy by vizzini. the iraqi strain sha17 shares similar morphological features with the italian strain, though with minor differences in shape, color, and stem length (vizzini et al., 2011). c. cylindracea (sha13) shows a matching with c. cylindraceamest42 strain fungus reported in algeria by toumi et al. (2020). further, l. hesperius. (sha16) is similar to the species recorded, california, usa by vellinga (2012), while candolleomyces candolleanus (sha15) shows a matching with candolleomyces candolleanus cafundis fungus strain, reported in the usa by rozanoff et al. (2024). discussion in the current study, eight species of macrofungi were collected from al-zawiya and shadif villages in the al_ aziziyah district, and from bab al_muadham, al_madain district in baghdad, iraq. these species were identified using phenotypic and genetic methods. the presented species are the first to be collected from these locations mentioned above in central iraq. these species belong to six genera across four families: agaricaceae, pluteaceae, psathyrellaceae, and strophariaceae, within the order agaricales. the unrecorded species were found more frequently in agaricus, candolleomyces, cyclocybe, leucoagaricus and volvariella sp. (one species for each genus) and volvopluteus (three species). generally, these fungi were identified in the field based on their specific morphological characteristics. nevertheless, it proved challenging to determine these fungi at the event of species depending only upon the shape of the fruiting bodies. accurate identification requires detailed observation of microscopic features and expertise in fungal taxonomy (jeewon, 2016). polymorphism among fungi complicates identification, by consistently recognizing specific morphological characteristics (thines, 2018), as well as many groups of fungi that appear morphologically similar but are genetically distinct species (gautam et al., 2022). in 678 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 665-687. investigation of macrofungi such instances, the evolutionary study of its sequences in combination with microscopic features may enhance the ability to identify through the species level. generally, the largest order in the fungal kingdom is agaricales, involving nearly 20,000 reported species according to the catalogue of life22 (roskov et al., 2019). the its region is considered a genetic indicator for the classification of fungal species-level across several other dna markers due to a region can be easily amplified and provides sufficient accuracy to differentiate among species; it provides a large amount of information available in an open database (chechan et al., 2020). volvariella sp. is an edible mushroom and a polyphyletic member that can grow terrestrially, adhering to the soil's litter layer or decomposing vegetable matter, or attached directly on wood as mycoparasites. (liu et al., 2024). the phylogenetic tree revealed tight clustering of volvopluteus gloiocephalus samples, which are closely related to each other in an evolutionary sense in terms of the genes used for analysis. previous studies have identified v. gloiocephalus from different regions, including portugal, new zealand, spain, turkey and the usa, using molecular data such as its and lsu sequences. these studies have shown that v. gloiocephalus , confirming its status as a distinct clade within the genus volvopluteus (justo et al., 2011b; kalinina and malysheva, 2023). the presence of multiple volvopluteus gloiocephalus specimens shows intraspecific diversity within this species. v. gloiocephalus (sha12) according to its appearance in a distinct clade; this specimen was related to certain species than others in the phylogeny tree. the phylogenetic tree exhibited that v. gloiocephalus (sha12) is not as closely related to other species of the same species (sha10 and sha101). the genetic variance of v. gloiocephalus strains exhibits an intraspecific variation, which may correspond to genetic diversity or ecological adaptation within populations. more distantly related species include among others a. bitorquis and candolleomyces candolleanus, which all share a common ancestor with the volvoplateus group. branches of the species that are longer represent more distantly related species, which suggests that the species diverged earlier from the common ancestor (asif et al., 2022; karalti et al., 2022). these relationships are supported by bootstrap support value, as higher percentages indicate more reliable groupings. one of the important reasons is genetic diversity (85%) within the same species. genetic variability significantly within species may result from mutations and adaptation to different environments and can display different features as a result of local adaptation and geographic isolation (amend et al., 2012), as seen in v. gloiocephulus (sha12). v. gloiocephulus (sha12) may indicate a genetically separate strain from v. gloiocephulus. additionally, this strain is collected from a different location than (sha10 and sha101), so it may be a significant genetic variation that has occurred gradually due to local adaptation. other reasons that led to the separation of v. gloiocephulus sha12 from other strains, e.g.; might be a hybrid or have undergone introgression with another strain, leading to genetic differences that place it further from other v. gloiocephalus species, and maybe samplecontaminated during sequencing. 679 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum jalil et al. a. bitorquis (sha14) is moderately related to the volvopluteus group , with a branch length of 0.68 and a the bootstrap support of 85%, suggesting a solid location in the tree. depending upon their intermediate length of the branches and bootstrap support (e.g., 85) a. bitorquis (sha14) and candolleomyces candolleanus (sha15) exhibit a slightly moderate relationship. while sharing a common ancestor, they separated earlier than the strains of volvopluteus. the evolutionary relationship is demonstrated through clustering: the fact that these species (v. gloiocephulus sha12, volvariella sp. sha17 and c. cylindracea sha13) cluster together in the phylogenetic tree strengthens the hypothesis that they share a more recent evolutionary history (justo et al., 2011b; frings, 2020). in fungi, the universal veil represents a temporary membrane that completely encases immature fruiting bodies of some mushrooms as a protective layer that covers the developing mushroom before it fully expands, like a volva or patches (varga et al., 2020). agaricus is a saprophytic fungus found globally in forests and grasslands. its young fruiting bodies have white to pink free lamellae that turn dark brown at maturity, a stipe with an annulus, and creates brown spore prints (jaichaliaw et al., 2021). as well as significant size variation is observed in a. bitorquis, distinguishing it from other agaricus species (nagy et al., 2013). this species was collected from wasit province, aziziyah district, had a creamy white and convex cap, becoming more broadly convex with age. a slightly glistening surface is referred to as "white buttons". this species is similar to species previously identified in northern iraq (toma et al., 2018). it grows in parks, near trees, and in city gardens and offers adequate moisture and organic matter derived from the decomposition of plants and tree debris. according to the genbank in ncbi site, a. bitorquis has been recorded under the identifier sha and given the international code pp576693 as a new strain for the first time in from central iraq, with a similarity rate of 99.01 % with those recorded in genbank which had been collected from china. c. cylindracea is a source of dietary fiber, amino acids, minerals, and bioactive substances such as vitamins, antioxidants and �-glucans (koutrotsios et al., 2018). this species (synonym agrocybe cylindracea) or “black poplar” is an edible mushroom that can be cultivated in different agricultural regions due its short life cycle. the fruiting bodies are excellent, high-quality mushrooms with a pleasant aroma and high nutritional value (rezaeian et al., 2022). l. hesperius (sha16) and c. cylindracea (sha13) exhibit an increased evolutionary separation, suggesting an earlier divergence from a shared ancestor. l. hesperius, typically found in tropical and subtropical forests (ge et al., 2015), was collected in this study from a garden. this increased divergence in evolution reflects long-term adaptation to different ecological niches and environments (sun et al., 2019). the development could result in distinct biological and phenotypic features that help them survive in the setting where the species inhabit. the discovery of certain evolutionary processes allows us to comprehend the variety of life or ecological significance found in these fungal species. 680 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (3): 665-687. investigation of macrofungi conclusions the current study recorded five macrofungal species from central iraq. the phylogenetic tree provides valuable insights into the evolutionary relationships among the agaricales strains studied. the phylogenetic tree indicates that while volvopluteus gloiocephalus specimens (sha10 and sha101) are closely related, (sha12) shows significant genetic divergence. this finding suggests intraspecific variation within the species, which more molecular and environmental research could help to investigate. differences among strainspecies variables may influence environmental roles, nutritional characteristics, or potential applications. this result aligns with global phylogenetic tree research that points v. gloiocephalus as a well-significant species within its genus depending on its and lsu sequence information. results demonstrate that agaricus bitorquis and candolleomyces candolleanus separated earlier from a common ancestor species, such as volvopluteus gloiocephalus. their evolutionary structure, branch lengths, and genetic studies across multiple genera support and demonstrate this result. conflict of interest statement the author declares that there are no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this manuscript. literature cited adewoyin, a. g., barooah, m., oloke, j. k. and bora, s. s. 2017. identification and physiological properties of a nigerian strain of volvariella sp. isolated from oil palm waste. world journal of microbiology and biotechnology, 33(7): 1-9. 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(2025) 18 (3): 665687. وسطالعراق الكبيرة الفطريات عن التحري الجبوري شهاب حسين حرية و الخطيب** الدين عز انفال جليل*، جمال ساره العراق بغداد، بغداد، جامعة – الطبيعي التاريخ ومتحف بحوث *مركز العراق واسط، واسط، الساسية-جامعة التربية كلية الحياة، علوم فرع العلوم، **قسم العراق. بغداد، بغداد، جامعة الزراعية، الهندسة علوم كلية النبات، وقاية ***قسم 2025/6/20 النشر: ،2025/5/11 القبول: ،2025/5/8 2024/11/17،الراجعة: اسستلم: اخالصة في والشجار النخيل وجذوع العشاب بين الحقول من الفطر أنواع مسح إلى الدراسة هدفت الجزيئي التشخيص نتائج اظهرت والجزيئية. الورفولوجية صفاتها وتحديد العراق، وسط عزلتشملت: لثمان انواع ست تسجيل تم التسلسل البلمرة تفاعل باستخدام agaricus bitorquis (quéllt) saccardo, 1887 (sha14) candolleomyces candolleanus (fr.) d. wächter &melzer, 2020 (sha15) cyclocybe cylindracea (d.c.) vizzini & angelini, 2014 (sha13) leucoagaricus hesperius vellinga, 2010 (sha16) volvariella sp. (sha17) volvopluteus gloiocephalus (d. c.) vizzini, contu & justo, 2011 (sha10, sha101 and sha12), الغاريقيات البازيدية: الفطريات من عائلت اربع الى تنتمي اجناس ستة الى العزلت هذه تعود الستروفاراسيا و psathyrellaceae الساثيريليسيا ،pluteaceae البلوتيات ،agaricaceae بأرقام الجينات بنك في النيوكلوتيدات تسلسل اودعت . agaricales رتبة ضمن strophariaceae ،pp575891 ،pp580694 ،pp576960 ،pp576221،pp578967 ،pp576693 التالية: الدخول وسط مناطق بعض من مرة لول العزلت هذه جلت ُس التوالي. على pp576069 و pp580693 العراق. bull 849 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. (2025) 18 (4): 849-857. https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2025.18.4.0849 original article first record of snakefly family inocelliidae (order, raphidioptera) from kurdistan region, north of iraq wand k. ali biology department, college of education, salahaddin university, erbil, kurdistan region, iraq e-mail: wand.ali@su.edu.krd received: 25 june 2025, revised: 30 aug. 2025, accepted: 31 aug. 2025, published: 20 december 2025 this work is licensed under a creative commons attribution 4.0 international license abstract the present study reports the first record of the snakefly, family inocelliidae (order raphidioptera) from the kurdistan region of iraq. a specimen identified as parainocellia ressli (aspöck & aspöck, 1965) was collected during field surveys in northern iraq. this record fills a significant distributional gap between populations in anatolia (turkey) and western iran, thereby extending the known range of inocelliidae within the western palearctic. the finding underscores the role of the zagros mountains as a biogeographical corridor linking euro-siberian, pontocaspian-iranian, and syro-mesopotamian faunal elements. given the relictual nature and poor dispersal ability of snakeflies, this discovery highlights the persistence of temperate forest refugia in northern iraq and emphasizes the palearctic affinities of its entomofauna. further targeted surveys are essential to document the diversity and ecological significance of raphidioptera in iraq. keywords: fauna, inocelliidae, kurdistan region , parainocellia ressli , raphidioptera. introduction snakeflies (raphidioptera) were grouped within the order neuroptera due to their net veined wings, elongate prothorax, and other superficial similarities to lacewings and antlions . historically, the raphidioptera was included within the order "planipennia" (handlirsch, 1906; tillyard, 1916), which encompassed all net-winged insects. however, morphological, biological, and molecular research throughout the latter half of the 20th century led to a comprehensive re-evaluation of holometabolous insect phylogeny. notably, the studies by aspöck et al. (1991) and aspöck (2002a, b), in conjunction with cladistic analyses and ribosomal dna sequencing (whiting et al., 1997; kristensen, 1999), provided evidence that raphidioptera constitutes a distinct, monophyletic lineage. these findings contributed to the formal recognition of the superorder neuropterida, which now comprises three separate orders: raphidioptera, megaloptera, and neuroptera. this reclassification is now widely accepted and forms the modern systematic foundation for studies on these groups. raphidioptera are distinguished from neuroptera primarily by their elongate bulletin of the iraq natural history museum iraq natural history research center & museum, university of baghdad https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home copyright © bulletin of the iraq natural history museum online issn: 2311-9799, print issn: 1017-8678 https://doi.org/10.26842/binhm.7.2025.18.4.0849 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1090-7453 mailto:wand.ali@su.edu.krd https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://jnhm.uobaghdad.edu.iq/index.php/binhm/home 850 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 849-857. first record of snakefly prothorax with high head mobility, long ovipositor in females, mobile decticous pupae, terrestrial predatory larvae with prognathous heads, and homonomous narrow wings with a characteristic pterostigma. these unique morphological and developmental features, absent in neuroptera and megaloptera, underpin their recognition as a separate order (kristensen, 1999; aspöck, 2002b). the order raphidioptera has two extant families: raphidiidae and inocelliidae. the highest diversity of snakeflies is centered in the mediterranean basin, anatolia, and adjacent regions of the western palearctic (aspöck et al., 2001; canbulat, 2015; aspöck and aspöck, 2007, 2023). snakeflies are effective predators, with all larval stages and raphidiidae feeding on soft-bodied arthropods, thereby playing an important role in natural pest regulation, larvae of inocelliidae typically develop beneath tree bark. the family currently comprises 7 extant genera and approximately 44 recognized species, along with one fossil genus (aspöck et al., 1991; engel 1995; aspöck et al., 2001). over recent decades, intensive research across their palearctic range has also significantly expanded the number of described species (aspöck, 2002b). the genus parainocellia is distinguished by narrow, elongate forewings, and diagnostic male genital morphology (aspöck et al., 1991; aspöck et al., 2012; shen et al., 2022). inocelliidae are treated in detail in the west-palearctic catalogue, which provides systematic notes, synonyms, and country-level distributions for all species and subspecies (aspöck et al., 2001). a comprehensive checklist of turkish raphidioptera reports that the distribution of the families including 38 species from raphidiidae and 2 species from inocelliidae )canbulat, 2015). unlike the species diversity documented in turkey, only four species of raphidioptera are recorded from iran, two of which are endemic to the alborz mountain forests (aspöck and aspöck, 1970; anderson, 1999). moreover, no published records confirm the presence of inocelliidae or parainocellia ressli in syria, jordan, palestine, highlighting a significant distributional gap across the levant (aspöck et al., 2001; aspöck et al., 2012; aspöck and aspöck, 2023). the raphidiopteran fauna of iraq is very poorly known in comparison to surrounding countries. most of the available information on the region’s fauna comes from older local literature, along with one recently published source, which refers only to the order neuroptera without mentioning any families within raphidioptera (derwesh, 1965; el – haidari et al.,1971; swailem et al., 1974; stary and kaddou, 1975; alali, 1977; khudhur and abraham, 2025). consequently, the two families of the raphidioptera have remained unreported from the country. in this study, we present the first confirmed record of parainocellia ressli (aspöck & aspöck, 1965) (family inocelliidae) for iraq from the kurdistan region. this finding not only expands the known distribution of the species but also fills a significant biogeographical gap in the regional faunal data for raphidioptera. materials and methods study area: the specimen was collected in the mountainous region of sakran village, northern kurdistan erbil province, choman district (36◦36’28’’n, 44◦53’47’’e) at an elevation of approximately (1180m) (map 1). the region is characterized by oak–pine woodlands interspersed with semi-arid steppe. 851 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum ali, w. k. sampling and identification: an adult specimen was collected in early may 2021 by visually inspecting tree trunks. the specimen was preserved in 70% ethanol and subsequently examined under a stereomicroscope. species identification was carried out by sharing photographs online with professor horst aspöck at the medical university of vienna, and further confirmation was obtained using the identification keys and morphological illustrations provided in aspöck et al. (1991) and the annotated catalogue by aspöck et al. (2001). map (1): area and sampling points for the newly recorded snakefly parainocellia ressli in the kurdistan region of iraq. results and discussion family: inocelliidae navás, 1913 navás 1913: neurópteros del r. museo zoológico de nápoles. annuario del regio museo zoologico della r. università di napoli (n.s.), 4(3): 1–11, type genus: inocellia schneider, 1843. it is a small relict group within the order raphidioptera, distinguished primarily by the absence of ocelli, an elongated prothorax, and wings with net-like venation bearing a pterostigma without cross-veins. male terminalia without a hypovalva. adults and larvae are active predators, with larvae typically developing beneath tree bark. 852 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 849-857. first record of snakefly genus: parainocellia aspöck & aspöck, 1968 aspöck, h. & aspöck, u. 1964: entomologisches nachrichtenblatt, wien, no. 15. parainocellia characterized by elongate forewings with distinct pterostigma lacking crossveins, and an elongated prothorax typical of inocelliidae (aspöck et al., 1991). it is distinguished primarily by male terminalia gonocoxite 9 cup-shaped with a short gonostylus 9, and the segment-10 distal complex forming paired, very slender, subparallel digitiform processes with acute apices; gonarcus slender and evenly arched. adults are montane, associated with forested habitats of the palearctic region (aspöck et al., 2012; shen et al., 2022). species: parainocellia ressli (aspöck & aspöck, 1965) (pl. 1) inocellia ressli aspöck & aspöck 1965: z. arbgem. österr. entomol., 21: p. 22. synonym: inocellia ressli. description: head prognathous, strongly sclerotized, ocelli absent; antennae filiform, longer than head and pronotum combined; compound eyes large. prothorax markedly elongate (snake-neck aspect). wings hyaline with distinct pterostigma; venation reticulate. abdomen elongate, cylindrical, slightly flattened dorsoventrally, composed of 10 visible segments, ovipositor elongate, aciculate, projecting beyond abdominal apex (pl. 1). material examined: 1♀, sakran village, 36◦36’28’’n, 44◦53’47’’e, 1180 m, 12.05.2021. distribution in iraq: erbil province, choman district, range: turkey (s and e anatolia), greece (samos) (aspöck et al., 2001). parainocellia ressli distinguished from other related species by the presence of two prominent dorsolateral bristles at the apex of the male surstylus. adults possess narrow, elongate forewings with a well-defined pterostigma lacking cross-veins (aspöck et al., 1991; aspöck et al., 2001) (pl. 1). this species was originally described from anatolia, turkey, and later recorded from the greek island of samos (aspöck et al., 2001; aspöck et al., 2012). the present finding in the kurdistan region of iraq represents the first confirmed record of the family inocelliidae in the country and provides a key distributional link between populations in eastern turkey and western iran. it highlights the zagros mountains as a vital biogeographical corridor and emphasizes the palearctic affinities of northern iraq’s entomofauna, particularly in forested and mountainous regions. this record provides significant zoogeographical insights, as the region lies within the palearctic realm of the holarctic and represents a transitional zone influenced by three major subregions: (1) the euro-siberian, represented by cold-adapted montane fauna in the zagros; (2) the iranoturanian (sometimes referred to as pontocaspian-iranian), affecting the uplands and foreststeppe; and (3) the syro-mesopotamian, which dominates the semi-arid plains (sagheb-talebi et al., 2014). although iraq as a whole is not part of the euro-siberian region, the highlands of the kurdistan region, particularly within the zagros mountains, exhibit clear eurosiberian affinities due to their temperate, forested habitats. this transitional setting supports a distinctive assemblage of palearctic taxa that integrates euro-siberian, irano-turanian, and syro-mesopotamian elements. our specimen was collected in may 2021 from an oak forested 853 bulletin of the iraq natural history museum ali, w. k. mountain near a freshwater stream (pl. 2) subsequent surveys in the same locality in later years yielded no further specimens, potentially due to climate change and prolonged drought conditions affecting the region. snakeflies are relict insects restricted to temperate forested areas and have poor dispersal abilities (aspöck et al., 1991). their occurrence in northern iraq indicates the persistence of suitable habitats in the zagros mountains, which serve as a biogeographical corridor linking anatolia and western iran (aspöck et al., 2001). this record supports recent analyses identifying the mediterranean and anatolian regions as major centers of diversity and dispersal for palearctic snakeflies (aspöck and aspöck, 2023). by filling a critical distributional gap for inocelliidae in the middle east, it emphasizes the kurdistan region as an important palearctic refuge situated at the intersection of european and asian faunal elements. continued, targeted surveys in this underexplored region are likely to yield additional temperate taxa with euro-siberian affinities, thereby improving our understanding of the biodiversity and historical biogeography of the western palearctic region. plate (1): adult female of parainocellia ressli. [scale bar: 5mm]. plate (2): parainocellia ressli collection site, sakran village, choman district, erbil province, northern of kurdistan (36◦36’28’’n, 44◦53’47’’e). conclusions this study reports the first occurrence of the snakefly family inocelliidae in iraq, specifically parainocellia ressli in the kurdistan region. this record closes a significant 854 bull. iraq nat. hist. mus. 18 (4): 849-857. first record of snakefly distributional gap between anatolia and mesopotamia, underlining the faunal continuity of the region. further targeted surveys are needed to clarify the diversity and distribution of raphidioptera in iraq. acknowledgments we would like to express our sincere gratitude to professor horst aspöck from the medical university of vienna, austria, for his invaluable assistance in facilitating the identification of the family inocelliidae and the species reported in this study. his expertise and guidance greatly contributed to the accuracy and reliability of our taxonomic determination. i am also grateful to dr. heman abdulkhaleq ahmed, department of forestry, college of agricultural engineering sciences, whose expertise in gis greatly contributed to the preparation of the research map. conflict of interest statement "there are no disclosed conflicts of interest for the author". literature cited al-ali, a. 1977. phytophagous and entomophagous insects and mites of iraq. iraq natural history museum publication, 33: 1-142. 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( من إقليم raphidioptera )رتبة inocelliidaeالثعباني لعائلة الذبابتسجيل اولي كوردستان، شمال العراق علي خالص وند أربيل، إقليم كردستان، العراق ،جامعة صالح الدين -، كلية التربيةعلوم الحياةقسم 20/12/2025، النشر: 31/8/2025القبول: ،30/8/2025املراجعة: ،25/6/2025االستالم: الخالصة لعائلة وثقت تسجيل أول الدراسة إقليم raphidioptera رتبة من inocelliidaeهذه في العراق. على اذ كردستان ، parainocellia ressli (aspöck & aspöck,1965)للنوع نموذج عثر بين ً مهما ً توزيعيا ً امتدادا التسجيل هذا ل ّ يشك العراق. شمال في الحقلية املسوحات خالل هذه ضمن ةالعائل تجمعات املعروف نطاقها يوّسع وبالتالي إيران، وغرب )تركيا( األناضول في برز هذه النتيجة دور سلسلة جبال زاغروس كممر .املنطقة الغربية من اإلقليم القطبي الشمالي وتُ القزوينية-جغرافي والبحرية السيبيرية، األوروبية الحيوانية العناصر بين يربط اإليرانية، -أحيائي للطبيعة الباقية-والسورية ً ، فإن هذا هذه الحشره وضعف قدرة االنتشار لدى امليزوبوتامية. ونظرا االكتشاف يدّل على استمرارية وجود مالذات بيئية غابية معتدلة في شمال العراق، ويؤكد االنتماء ضرورية اإلضافية امليدانية املسوحات عّد ُ وت الشمالية. القطبية املنطقة إلى لإلقليم الحيواني .واألهمية البيئية لها في العراق raphidioptera لتوثيق تنوع رتبة