Ants are eusocial insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order of Hymenoptera. The number of species still remaining to be discovered and described is extraordinarily high. Ant members function at many levels: predators and prey, as re, mutualists, and herbivores (Hölldobler and Wilson, 1990). On the other hand, the known living ants involve 17 subfamilies, 334 genera, 13.226 species and 1.966 subspecies of which are described; in Iraq, there were about 108 species was recorded (Bolton, 2017). The desert ant or Cataglyphis Förster is diagnosed from other genera by many features that include: ocelli present and distinct, anterio-ventral surface of head with long and curved hairs, antennal insertion closed to clypeal suture (Collingwood and Agosti, 1996; Mohamed et al. 2001). This genus distributes in the Sahara desert (Bernard, 1968), southern Russia, southern Spain (Mangan and Webb, 2012); Turkey, the Aral-Caspian area near Tijanchan, Yogoslavia and Hungary (Petrov, 1986). In previous studies, many species were registered in Iraq; and from these: Pisarski (1965) described two new species:
This work includes a detailed description of the Leucostoma nigricorpuris sp. nov. from
Iraq. Locality, host plants and data of collection were given.
Wohlfahrtia longicorpuris sp. nov., from Iraq described, illustrated and distinguished from related species. The adults were reared from larvae collected from ulcer of a human face. Wohlfahrtia Brauer and Bergenstam is one of most important genus,which contains 19 species (Pape, 1998), some of these produce myiasis in mammals (Verves,1985).Taxonomic revision of this genus has been carried out by the following authors: Rohdendrof (1956), Zumpt (1965) and Pape (1996).
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.
In May 20th. 1985 two species of aphids were found on the roots of Vicia faba L. in Hammam region 30 Kilometer south of Mosul. Samples of these aphids were sent to the Commonwealth Institute of Entomology, London. ( No. 17002/9804 Asia ) and identified as being Smynthurodes betas westwood and Dysaphis crataegi (Kaltenbach) (APhididae : Homoptera). The first species was dominant. The latter species was also noticed on the roots of the common bishop's weed (Ammi majus L.) and on the wide carrot (Daucus carrota L.) of the family Umbelliferae (Bodenheimer & Swirski, 1957).
(6)
The current study reports the first record of Ammatomus rufonodis (Radoszkowski, 1877) for insect fauna of Iraq. Although this species shows morphological similarity to A. mesostenus (Handlirsch, 1888), it can be distinguished by the clear large diameter of the gastral punctures, which are similar in size to those on the mesopleuron. Thorough synonyms, diagnostic features, morphological descriptions, and distribution notes are given.
It was found that Pkvtomyza horticola Goureau infested 36 plants belonging to 11 families of
dicotyledons. only two of which belong to Monocotyledons. Most of plants species are from
compositae and Cruciferae families.
A total of 72 specimens of the wild jungle cat Felis chaus furax De Winton, 1898 were
examined for the purpose of this study. The results show that 55.6% of the sample harbored
either single or mixed infections with ecto- and/ or endoparasites. The mode of infection
shows that only four specimens( 5.6% of the total sample) acquire single infections, the
double infections comprise 15.3%, the triple infections comprised 33.3%, while the
quadruplicate infections comprised 1.4%.
The systematic list of the parasites included six ectoparasites: Ctenocephalides felis (insect),
Sarcoptes scabiei (mite), Haemaphysalis adleri, Rhipicephalus leporis, Rhipicephalus
turanicus and Hyalomma anatolicum excavatum (ticks) and seven