Blow fly succession on carrion was investigated in Lafayette County, Mississippi. Phaenicia caeruleiviridis, Phormia regina and Cochliomyia macellaria were dominant species from April through September and Cynomyopsis cadaverina, P. regina and Calliphora livida dominated during the cooler months (October through March). Although both fish and mammalian carrion were used, and baits were placed in different habitats, no differences between types of bait and types of habitat were observed. The use of P. caeruleiviridis and C. cadaverina as postmortum indicators is discussed.

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Megadiverse insect groups present special difficulties for biogeographers because poor classification, incomplete knowledge of taxonomy, and many undescribed species can introduce a priori sampling bias to any analysis. The historical biogeography of Sericini, a tribe of melolonthine scarabs comprising about 4000 species, was investigated using the most comprehensive and time-calibrated molecular phylogeny available today. Problems arising through nomenclatural confusion were overcome by extensive sampling (665 species) from all major lineages of the tribe. A West Gondwanan origin of Sericini (c. 112 Ma) was reconstructed using maximum parsimony, maximum-likelihood and model-based ancestral area estimation. Vicariance in the tribe's earliest history separated Neotropical and Old World Sericini, whereas subsequent lower Cretaceous biogeography of the tribe was characterized by repeated migrations out of Africa, resulting in the colonization of Eurasia and Madagascar. North America was colonized from Asia during the Cenozoic and a lineage of "Modern Sericini" reinvaded Africa. Diversification dynamics revealed three independent shifts to increased speciation rates: in African ant-adapted Trochalus, Oriental Tetraserica, and Asian and African Sericina. Southern Africa is proposed as both cradle and refuge of Sericini. This area has retained many old lineages that portray the evolution of the African Sericini fauna as a series of taxon pulses.

During the growing seasons of 1983 and 1985, a general survey of insects associated with cultivated marijuana, Cannabis sativa, on the University of Mississippi campus was conducted. Of the species collected that were using the plants for food, the majority (43) were sap feeders, 15 were leaf chewers, nine ate or gathered pollen and one was possibly a root feeder. Only sap feeders appeared to be successfully reproducing on the marijuana. Species collected in greatest abundance were Agallia constricta and Graphocephala versuta (Cicadellidae), Spissistillus festinus (Membracidae), Clastoptera xanthocephala (Ceropidae), Halticus bractatus (Miridae), Systena elongata (Chrysomelidae) and Schizocerella pilicornis (Argidae).

1 Studies on chafer assemblages were conducted on two farmland sites in the Terai lowland of Nepal (200 m above sea level) using light traps. During the course of a 2-year field monitoring program, a total of 4503 specimens was captured and an unexpectedly high number of syntopically co-occurring species was found: 52 from Gunganagar (GN) and 36 from Gaindakot (GK), respectively. Highest species abundances and species numbers were found during April and May. 2 Species occurrence was strongly correlated with air temperature and the maximum soil temperature, at least during the pre-monsoon season. However, assemblage structure from the two sites showed significant qualitative and quantitative changes seasonally, as well as from 1 year to the next. Turnover rates between adjacent months were in the range 26 -62% (GN) and 37 -70% (GK), whereas the turnover from 2004 to 2005 was 25.8% (GN) and 21.4% (GK) respectively. 3 When only dominant and subdominant taxa are considered, the seasonal change in species composition was even more striking. 4 Strong fluctuation in chafer assemblage over time suggests: (i) a possible influence of patchy habitat types and soil working on seasonal assemblage structure and (ii) colonization of suitable habitats (fields) in great part by chance.