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The species list of Dytiscidae of Iran has been composed using recently studied material and all literature data known to us. We report 139 species of Iranian diving beetles including one Dytiscus species of uncertain taxonomic position. Two species, Agabus amoenus Solsky, 1874 and Copelatus pulchellus (Klug, 1834) are recorded for the first time from Iran. For 57 species, new provincial records are provided. Twenty-two species and one genus have been excluded from the Iranian diving beetle fauna as based on misidentifications. The distributional pattern in Iran and preferred habitat (if available) are summarised for each species and discussed in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New data on the distribution of 40 species of Dytiscidae are provided. Most of these records are from the Balkan Peninsula (Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Romania), northern Africa (Algeria and Libya), the Caucasus Region (Armenia, Azerbaijan and the South European Territory of Russia), Central Asia (Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan) and the Himalaya Region (Bhutan, northern India and Nepal). Two species, Hygrotus rufus (Clark, 1863) and Copelatus bacchusi Wewalka, 1981, known previously only from the Palearctic, are reported for the first time from the Oriental Region. Eight species are reported for the first time from Bhutan. Seven of these species, including three species new for the Palearctic Region, were provided by the insect dealer Jingke Li, but the provenance of the specimens is regarded as questionable. The necessity of publishing new records before accepting them for catalogues, e.g., the Catalogue of Palearctic Dytiscidae, is emphasised. Finally, previously published records of four incorrectly identified species/subspecies are corrected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hydroglyphus sinuspersicus sp. nov. is described from the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Iran. It is very similar to H. major (Sharp, 1882). Hydroglyphus gujaratensis (Vazirani, 1973) known previously only from Gujarat (India) is redescribed, based on recently collected material from Rajasthan (India), Iran and Oman. The first national records are given for Hydroglyphus major from Libya and for H. infirmus (Boheman, 1848) from Oman and Yemen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a molecular phylogeny and taxonomic review of the Pacific island colymbetine diving beetles, focusing on the Fijian and New Caledonian faunas. Four new species are described: Rhantus monteithi and R. poellerbauerae from New Caledonia, and R. kini and R. bula from Fiji. We also describe the 3rd instar larvae of R. monteithi and R. poellerbauerae spp. nov., assigned to adults using mtDNA sequence data and discuss larval characters in the light of phylogeny. The phylogenetic hypotheses derived from both parsimony and Bayesian inference based on 3508 aligned nucleotides from a combination of mitochondrial ( cox1, cob and rrnL-tRNALeu-Nad1) and nuclear genes (18S rRNA and H3) reveal a clade comprising R. novaecaledoniae, R. alutaceus, R. pseudopacificus, R. monteithi sp. nov. and R. poellerbauerae sp. nov., which agrees with the R. pacificus group sensu Balke (1993). Carabdytes upin was included within this clade, possibly indicating paraphyly of the genus Rhantus. Rhantus annectens, R. bacchusi, R. supranubicus, R. suturalis, R. simulans, and the Palearctic R. exsoletus, R. latitans and R. bistriatus formed a clade corresponding to the R. suturalis group sensu Balke (2001). Rhantus vitiensis, previously assigned to the R. pacificus group, was included in the R. suturalis clade. We find some support for a scenario where the Pacific was colonized out of the Northern hemisphere only during the past c. 12 million years, rejecting a Gondwanan origin of the morphologically isolated endemics. The new species are all characterized by mtDNA haplotype clusters, the degree of divergence between sister species pairs ranging from 1.3 to 7%, while R. novaecaledoniae individuals from all over New Caledonia apparently form one morphospecies, with moderate genetic diversity (up to 2.3% mtDNA divergence between populations). The sisters R. pollerbauerae sp. nov. +  R. monteithi sp. nov. occur sympatrically on Mont Panié but appear ecologically segregated, while the sisters R. vitiensis +  R. bula sp. nov. were encountered syntopically on Viti Levu. Comparing genetic and morphological data of Fijian Rhantus and Copelatus diving beetles, we here show that even in island radiations it is not per se possible to know if mitochondrial DNA barcoding would perform well ( Rhantus: YES, Copelatus: NO). At the same time we show that fixed cutoff values, as sometimes used to discriminate between barcodes, thus species, might be meaningless. We underpin the importance of morphology for sustainable exploration of global diversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]