Ophiclypeus, a new genus of Cardiochilinae Ashmead (Hymenoptera, Braconidae) from the Oriental region with descriptions of three new species.

A new genus of the braconid subfamily Cardiochilinae, Ophiclypeusgen. nov., is described and illustrated based on three new species: O.chiangmaiensis Kang, sp. nov. type species (type locality: Chiang Mai, Thailand), O.dvaravati Ghafouri Moghaddam, Quicke & Butcher, sp. nov. (type locality: Saraburi, Thailand), and O.junyani Kang, sp. nov. (type locality: Dalin, Taiwan). We provide morphological diagnostic characters to separate the new genus from other cardiochiline genera. A modified key couplet (couplet 5) and a new key couplet (couplet 16) are provided with detailed images for Dangerfield's key to the world cardiochiline genera to facilitate recognition of Ophiclypeusgen. nov.

Revision of the New Zealand species of the Genus Pselaphaulax Reitter (Staphylinidae: Pselaphinae: Pselaphitae: Pselaphini).

In New Zealand, the genus Pselaphaulax Reitter is represented by thirteen species. Six new species are described: Pselaphaulax hornabrooki Owens and Carlton, sp. nov.; Pselaphaulax intermedius Owens and Carlton, sp. nov., Pselaphaulax nunni Owens and Carlton, sp. nov.; Pselaphaulax pelorus Owens and Carlton, sp. nov.; Pselaphaulax ramsayi Owens and Carlton, sp. nov.; and Pselaphaulax tararua Owens and Carlton, sp. nov. Pselaphus trifoveatus Broun, 1914 is synonymized under Pselaphus pilifrons Broun, 1914 syn. nov. and is transferred to Pselaphaulax comb. nov. Two species, Pselaphus pilistriatus Broun, 1880 and Pselaphus fuscopilus Broun, 1886 are synonymized under Pselaphus pauper Sharp syn. nov., which is also transferred to Pselaphaulax comb. nov. Pselaphus meliusculus Broun, 1893 is also transferred to Pselaphaulax comb. nov. Lectotypes and paralectotypes are designated for the Broun and Sharp species. Distributional maps and line drawings of diagnostic characters for each species are provided. A regional checklist and key are provided to species of the genus that occur in New Zealand.

Revision of the New Zealand species of the Genus Pselaphogenius Reitter (Staphylinidae: Pselaphinae: Pselaphitae: Pselaphini).

Species within the genus Pselaphogenius Reitter occurring in New Zealand are revised. Twenty-three species are known from the region and can be divided into two distinct species groups. Fifteen new species are described: Pselaphogenius calantica Owens and Carlton, sp. nov.; Pselaphogenius chandleri Owens and Carlton, sp. nov.; Pselaphogenius cornus Owens and Carlton, sp. nov.; Pselaphogenius dismukesi Owens and Carlton, sp. nov.; Pselaphogenius elephantus Owens and Carlton, sp. nov.; Pselaphogenius fimbria Owens and Carlton, sp. nov.; Pselaphogenius gibbus Owens and Carlton, sp. nov.; Pselaphogenius jiaweii Owens and Carlton, sp. nov.; Pselaphogenius kalleri Owens and Carlton, sp. nov.; Pselaphogenius kangi Owens and Carlton, sp. nov.; Pselaphogenius lescheni Owens and Carlton, sp. nov.; Pselaphogenius moerewae Owens and Carlton, sp. nov.; Pselaphogenius otteai Owens and Carlton, sp. nov.; Pselaphogenius parki Owens and Carlton, sp. nov.; Pselaphogenius stouti Owens and Carlton, sp. nov.. Pselaphogenius citimus (Broun), 1893, Pselaphogenius delicatus (Broun), 1886, and Pselaphogenius ventralis (Broun), 1895 were transferred from the genus Pselaphus Herbst (Jeannel 1951) and are herein redescribed. Additionally, the species Pselaphus caecus Broun, 1886 is transferred to the genus Pselaphogenius comb. nov.. Habitus photographs, distributional maps, and line drawings of diagnostic characters for each species are provided. A regional checklist and key to are provided to species of the genus occurring in New Zealand.

Two New Species of Bibloplectus Reitter (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Pselaphinae) from the Orlando Park Collection, Field Museum of Natural History.

Two new species of Bibloplectus Reitter, 1881 are described from the Orlando Park Collection of Pselaphinae at the FMNH (Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, IL, USA): Bibloplectus silvestris Owens and Carlton, new species (type locality, Urbana, IL, USA) and Bibloplectus wingi Owens and Carlton, new species (type locality, Shades State Park, IN, USA). Types of these new species were part of a series of specimens bearing unpublished Park manuscript names in both the pinned and slide collection at the FMNH. They bring the total number of species in the genus in eastern North America to twenty-three. Resolving these manuscript names adds to previous efforts to uncover elements of the hidden diversity of North American Bibloplectus from museum collections (Owens and Carlton 2016, Owens and Carlton 2017) and highlights the importance of close examination of the Orlando Park pselaphine collection as a valuable historic and taxonomic resource.

Seven new species of Bibloplectus Reitter (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Pselaphinae) from Eastern United States with notes on distributions of previously described species.

Seven new species in the genus Bibloplectus Reitter, 1881 are described: Bibloplectus ellisi Owens and Carlton, new species; Bibloplectus levis Owens and Carlton, new species; Bibloplectus parki Owens and Carlton, new species; Bibloplectus quadratum Owens and Carlton, new species; Bibloplectus suteri Owens and Carlton, new species; Bibloplectus steevesi Owens and Carlton, new species; and Bibloplectus tishechkini Owens and Carlton, new species. New species are integrated into the previously published key, supported by illustrations of diagnostic characters, and a revised key and checklist to eastern North American species is presented. All new species described in this study were obtained from, and are deposited in, collections of the Field Museum of Natural History (FMNH). Additionally, label data for 1122 Bibloplectus specimens from the FMNH and from 111 specimens from the Louisiana State Arthropod Museum (LSAM) were combined to provide updated distributional information on existing species and note significant range extensions.

Brounea, a new genus (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Pselaphinae) from New Zealand, with descriptions of nine new species.

A new genus and nine new species of New Zealand endemic pselaphine staphylinid beetles belonging to the supertribe Faronitae are described: Brounea Park & Carlton, gen. nov. (type species: Sagola setiventris Broun, 1915); B. yoonhoi Park & Carlton, sp. nov., B. chorui Park & Carlton, sp. nov., B. sungryongi Park & Carlton, sp. nov., B. mijeongae Park & Carlton sp. nov., B. seongmoi Park & Carlton sp. nov., B. daehyuni Park & Carlton sp. nov., B. mangamukaensis Park & Carlton sp. nov., B. sunjaei Park & Carlton sp. nov., and B. seungili Park & Carlton sp. nov. Two species, S. setiventris and S. tenuis Broun, 1886, are transferred to the genus Brounea. A key to species, habitus photographs, and line drawings of diagnostic characters are provided.

Pseudoexeirarthra, a new genus from New Zealand (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae, Pselaphinae), with descriptions of seven new species.

A new endemic genus and seven new species of New Zealand pselaphine staphylinid beetles of the supertribe Faronitae are described as follows: Pseudoexeirarthra Park & Carlton, gen. n. (type species: Sagolaspinifer Broun); Pseudoexeirarthrasungmini Park & Carlton, sp. n.; Pseudoexeirarthrakwangguki Park & Carlton, sp. n.; Pseudoexeirarthrayoungboki Park & Carlton, sp. n.; Pseudoexeirarthraseiwoongi Park & Carlton, sp. n.; Pseudoexeirarthraparkeri Park & Carlton, sp. n.; Pseudoexeirarthrahlavaci Park & Carlton, sp. n.; Pseudoexeirarthranomurai Park & Carlton, sp. n. Three species, Sagolaspinifer Broun, Sagolacolorata Broun, and Sagolapuncticollis Broun, are transferred to the genus Pseudoexeirarthra. Six species are synonymized: Sagoladilucida Broun, Sagolaguinnessi Broun, Sagolalongicollis Broun, Sagolalongula Broun, and Sagolarectipennis Broun under Pseudoexeirarthraspinifer (Broun); Sagolainsueta Broun under Sagolacolorata (Broun). A lectotype is designated for Pseudoexeirarthraspinifer (Broun). A key, habitus photographs, line drawings of diagnostic characters, and distribution maps are provided for each species.

Double perovskites as a family of highly active catalysts for oxygen evolution in alkaline solution.

The electronic structure of transition metal oxides governs the catalysis of many central reactions for energy storage applications such as oxygen electrocatalysis. Here we exploit the versatility of the perovskite structure to search for oxide catalysts that are both active and stable. We report double perovskites (Ln0.5Ba0.5)CoO(3-δ) (Ln=Pr, Sm, Gd and Ho) as a family of highly active catalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction upon water oxidation in alkaline solution. These double perovskites are stable unlike pseudocubic perovskites with comparable activities such as Ba0.5Sr0.5Co0.8Fe0.2O(3-δ) which readily amorphize during the oxygen evolution reaction. The high activity and stability of these double perovskites can be explained by having the O p-band centre neither too close nor too far from the Fermi level, which is computed from ab initio studies.

Surface composition tuning of Au-Pt bimetallic nanoparticles for enhanced carbon monoxide and methanol electro-oxidation.

The ability to direct bimetallic nanoparticles to express desirable surface composition is a crucial step toward effective heterogeneous catalysis, sensing, and bionanotechnology applications. Here we report surface composition tuning of bimetallic Au-Pt electrocatalysts for carbon monoxide and methanol oxidation reactions. We establish a direct correlation between the surface composition of Au-Pt nanoparticles and their catalytic activities. We find that the intrinsic activities of Au-Pt nanoparticles with the same bulk composition of Au0.5Pt0.5 can be enhanced by orders of magnitude by simply controlling the surface composition. We attribute this enhancement to the weakened CO binding on Pt in discrete Pt or Pt-rich clusters surrounded by surface Au atoms. Our finding demonstrates the importance of surface composition control at the nanoscale in harnessing the true electrocatalytic potential of bimetallic nanoparticles and opens up strategies for the development of highly active bimetallic nanoparticles for electrochemical energy conversion.

New microsporidia parasitizing bark lice (Insecta: Psocoptera).

Two species of bark lice, Xanthocaecilius sommermanae Mockford and Polypsocus corruptus Hagen, collected in a canopy Malaise trap placed in Great Smoky Mountains National Park as part of a survey of the park's fauna, were found to be infected with microsporidia. Diagnosis was originally based on light microscopy, and was confirmed by PCR amplification and electron microscopy. This is the first record of microsporidia infection in the insect order Psocoptera. Four morphological spore types corresponded to four original SSUrDNA sequences (Genbank accession no. FJ865221-24), suggesting infection with four microsporidia species. Two of those species were examined by electron microscopy. We describe here one new genus and two new species based on morphological and sequence data: Antonospora psocopterae sp. n. with elongated diplokaryotic spores, 4.4+/-0.05 x 1.9+/-0.03 microm and Mockfordia xanthocaeciliae gen. n. sp. n. with ovocylindrical monokaryotic spores, 2.5+/-0.10 x 1.4+/-0.02 microm. A. psocopterae displayed high sequence (95%) and structural similarity with Antonospora scoticae, fell within a well supported dichotomy with A. scoticae inside the Antonospora-Paranosema clade in phylogenetic analyses by NJ, PS and ML. M. xanthocaeciliae did not exhibit much sequence or structural similarity with any of known microsporidia species, except Encephalitozoon spp. M. xanthocaeciliae fell within one clade with Encephalitozoon spp. in phylogenies and shared with encephalitozoons structural resemblance and about 80% of SSUrDNA sequence identity. The other two species were not described and provisionally were placed to the collective genus Microsporidium as Microsporidium sp. 1 and Microsporidium sp. 4 from bark lice because of insufficient morphological data. The finding that samples fixed and stored for months in propylene glycol ("antifreeze") are good enough for DNA sequence analysis and can be used for morphological analyses (if no better fixation alternatives are available), is promising for future surveys for microsporidia.

Identification of Nosema bombi Fantham and Porter 1914 (Microsporidia) in Bombus impatiens and Bombus sandersoni from Great Smoky Mountains National Park (USA).

Ninety three bumble bees belonging to the genus Bombus, subgenus Pyrobombus (three Bombus vagans, seven Bombus bimaculatus, 17 B. sandersoni and 68 B. impatiens) from Great Smoky Mountains National Park were examined for microsporidia. Light microscopy of calcoflour and trichrome-stained smears, and PCR revealed infection with N. bombi in one specimen each of B. sandersoni and B. impatiens. Sizes and shapes of spores in both N. bombi isolates were similar to those described for European isolates of the microsporidium. A region of the rRNA gene from the B. impatiens isolate (1689bp, accession GQ254295) aligned with homologous sequences from eight European isolates, with only three variable sites. Sequence variability of this region between novel isolates and the European ones was the same as among European isolates.

Anatomy of the extrinsic gut musculature of Gammarus minus (Crustacea: Amphipoda).

Inserting on the buccal and esophageal foregut of Gammarus minus are numerous pairs of serially arranged dorsal dilator muscles, a single pair of lateral muscles, and two pairs of posterior muscles. Muscles of the cardiac stomach include three dorsal sets, a single pair associated with the pterocardiac ossicles, and two pairs inserting on the ventral aspect. A single pair of muscles inserts on the lateral aspect of the pyloric stomach. The extrinsic muscles of the foregut originate from exoskeletal apodemes of the cephalothoracic cuticle, sockets of the mandible, and a maxillary bridge that lies just ventral to the cardiac stomach. The extrinsic musculature of the hindgut is restricted to the rectal region and consists of paired dorsal and ventral series in an X-configuration. A single unpaired muscle inserts on the ventral midline. Extrinsic muscles of the hindgut originate from the integument of the last pleonic segment. The general arrangement of extrinsic gut muscles in G. minus is similar but not identical to that of other amphipods studied. However, the pattern is quite different from that of other malacostracans.