Leishmania species are intracellular protozoan parasites that spend a portion of their life cycle in the midgut of sand flies and the remainder in the tissues of mammals. These parasites, which cause a class of human disorders known as leishmaniasis, live mostly in macrophages, where they multiply and survive by employing a variety of defense mechanisms against the oxidative stress and acidity generated by these immune cells. To help control their reaction to heat stress, they also produce heat shock proteins. Furthermore, the promastigote form has a glycocalyx that is necessary for colonizing the gut wall of the sand fly and completing its life cycle. Consequently, a variety of virulence factors contribute to the parasite's pathoge

Sixteen species of Armored Scale insects were recorded from Baghdad city during 2001-2005. Three of these are reported here for the first time Abgrallaspis cyanophylli (Signoret, 1869), Aonidiella citrina (Craw,1870) and Chrysomphalus aonidium (Linnaeus,1758). The other thirteen species were recorded earlier Aonidiella aurantii (Maskell), Aonidiella orientalis (Newstead), Chrysomphalus dictyospermi (Morgan), Diaspidiotus ostreaeformis (Curtis), Diaspidiotu perniciosus (Comctock), Hemiberlesia lataniae (Signoret), Lepidosaphes beckii (Newman), Lepidosaphes conchiformis (Gmelin), Lepidosaphes ulmi (Linnaeus), Mercetaspis halli

    Ziziphora persica Bunge is recorded as a new Study in Iraq. This species has been collected from Jabal Sinjar in Nineveh province in the north western part of Iraq. The morphological characters, habitat and geographical distribution of the species with a key to Ziziphora L. species in Iraq have been provided.

Shiranish formation has been divided into two microfacies units: 1 - Many biowackestone facies and 2 - maly packstone using planktonic foraminifera and other carbonate components in the rock cutting and core slides. Microfacies reflect marin deep shelf margin in the lower part of the formation, the upper part was deeper. The thickness of the formation is determined, depending on addition to the presence of echinoderm framents debris and spines. This is in disagreement with the 195 ft thickness reported by the Oil Exploration Company The age of the formation is estimated depending on the recognized biostratigraphic zone using the index fossils to be Upper - Middle Mastrichtion.

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