Wolbachia is one of the most common intracellular bacteria; it infects a wide variety of insects, other arthropods, and some nematodes. Wolbachia is ordinarily transmitted vertically from mother to offspring and can manipulate physiology and reproduction of their hosts in different ways, e.g., induce feminization, male killing, and parthenogenesis. Despite the great interest in Wolbachia, many aspects of its biology remain unclear and its incidence across many insect orders, including Hemiptera, is still poorly understood. In this report, we present data on Wolbachia infection in five jumping plant-lice species (Hemiptera, Psylloidea) of the genus Cacopsylla Ossiannilsson, 1970 with different reproductive strategies and test the hypothesis that Wolbachia mediates parthenogenetic and bisexual patterns observed in some Cacopsylla species. We show that the five species studied are infected with a single Wolbachia strain, belonging to the supergroup B. This strain has also been found in different insect orders (Lepidoptera, Hemiptera, Plecoptera, Orthoptera, Hymenoptera, Diptera) and even in acariform mites (Trombidiformes), suggesting extensive horizontal transmission of Wolbachia between representatives of these taxa. Our survey did not reveal significant differences in infection frequency between parthenogenetic and bisexual populations or between males and females within bisexual populations. However, infection rate varied notably in different Cacopsylla species or within distinct populations of the same species. Overall, we demonstrate that Wolbachia infects a high proportion of Cacopsylla individuals and populations, suggesting the essential role of this bacterium in their biology.

The Proclossiana eunomia (Esper, 1799) complex is currently composed of the several subspecies distributed throughout Palaearсtic region and North America. Despite the fact that some of the taxa have differences in wing pattern and body size, previous assumptions on taxonomy not supported by molecular data. Therefore, the identity of certain populations of this complex has remained unclear and the taxonomic status of several recently described taxa is debated. Here, we provide insights into systematics of some Palaearctic members of this group using molecular approach, based on the analysis of the barcoding fragment of the COI gene taking into account known morphological differences.

In our study we use a 658 bp fragment of the COI gene to analyze a taxon from Afghanistan usually treated in literature as Cossus cossus afghanistanus (Daniel, 1953). The previous conclusions on taxonomy and nomenclature were not supported by molecular data therefore the question of identity of this taxon has remained unverified. Phylogenetic analysis revealed C. c. afghanistanus to be strongly differentiated from nominotypical Cossus cossus (Linnaeus, 1758) (p-distance: 6.7% ± 1.5%). Cossus c. afghanistanus forms a distinct well-supported clade in ML and BI trees. This fact, together with prominent morphological differences (wing color and genitalia structure) shows that C. c. afghanistanus represent a separate species rather than a subspecies of Cossus cossus.

On the basis of the characters of external morphology and analysis of DNA barcodes, an isolated population of the Arctic Apollo, Parnassius arcticus (Eisner, 1968) (Lepidoptera, Papilionidae), from the Momsky Range mountains (northeastern Yakutia, Russia) is described here as a new subspecies, Parnassius arcticus arbugaevi Yakovlev & Shapoval, subsp. nov. The taxonomy, distribution, ecology, and biotopical preferences of the nominotypical P. arcticus and the new subspecies are discussed.

We described a new cossid species, Dyspessa ulgen sp. nov. from the Tarbagatai and Altai Mountains and compared it to other taxa of Dyspessa reported from the region (D. tristis, D. saldaitisi, D. saissanica), as well as to morphologically similar D. ulula. The new species is most closely related to D. ulula but differs from the latter in the characteristics of the male genitalia, wing pattern, and molecular data (a 658 bp fragment of the mitochondrial COI gene).