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Simple Summary: In this paper, two new genera with two new species of Dermaptera are described from the Middle Jurassic Jiulongshan Formation of Daohugou, Inner Mongolia, China. The discovery of these two new species enriches the comparatively meagre fossil record of Dermaptera, particularly from the Middle Jurassic. The description of Applanatiforceps angustus is another brick laid in the foundation of protodiplatyid diversity, and the new genus Ekpagloderma gracilentum highlights the diversity of cercal forms among Aglyptodermatinae and the remarkable homogeneity of the general morphology of groups within this clade. Two new genera and species of Dermaptera are described from the Middle Jurassic Jiulongshan Formation of Daohugou, Inner Mongolia, China: Applanatiforceps angustus gen. et sp. nov. in the archidermapteran family Protodiplatyidae, and Ekpagloderma gracilentum gen et sp. nov. in the eodermapteran family Semenoviolidae. Applanatiforceps shares the typical characters of the extinct suborder Archidermaptera (e.g., pentamerous meta tarsi, filiform and multimerous cerci) and externalized ovipositor. The family identity of the Protodiplatyidae can be further distinguished by comparing this new genus with other genera of the Protodiplatyidae. As a result of its large compound eyes, tegmina without venation, body sparsely setose, legs rather short and slender, and shape of the veinless tegmina, Ekpagloderma is classified in the subfamily Aglyptodermatinae. Ekpagloderma not only has the typical features of the Aglyptodermatinae, but also exhibits a more primitive slender segmented cerci, which is different from all other genera of Eodermaptera. In fact, the diversity of Eodermaptera as known today indicates some of the challenges in understanding the suborder and whether or not it is monophyletic as historically construed, or if the separation of Turanodermaptera is justified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improving the ecological efficiency of farmland use (EEFU) has become an important part of ensuring food security and solving environmental pollution problems. At present, the Chinese government is actively promoting large-scale farmland transfer to reduce the level of farmer-/plot-scale farmland fragmentation (FF), so it is crucial to clarify the effect of landscape-scale FF on EEFU. This study applies the non-dynamic panel and threshold models in an empirical study of the municipal administrative regions along the Yangtze River Economic Belt (2000, 2005, 2010, and 2015). The results reveal that there is a single threshold for the effects of area, shape, and distance fragmentation on EEFU with farmland area per capita (FAPC) as the threshold variable. The threshold values are 1.548, 1.373, and 1.542, respectively. The effects of area and distance fragmentation on EEFU are initially promoted and then suppressed; however, shape fragmentation always has an inhibitory effect on EEFU. These findings suggest that ignoring the condition of FAPC of different regions and promoting large-scale farmland transfer blindly will give rise to the decline of EFFU. These results are conducive to the sustainable utilization of farmland and the formulation of related policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Economic agglomeration harms sustainable intensification of cultivated land use. • Pathways that economic agglomeration affects sustainable intensification are complex. • Sustainable intensification verifies "pollution halo" and "pollution haven" theories. • Integrated regional development systems can promote multi-objective synergies. The sustainable intensification (SI) of cultivated land use (CLU) is important for achieving global sustainable development goals (SDGs). However, in the rapid advancement of agglomeration economies, it remains unclear whether economic agglomeration (EA) affects SI. Combined with emergy theory, this study utilized socioeconomic and natural environment data from 31 provincial administrative regions from 1990 to 2017 to evaluate the SI level in China. It further analyzed the impact of EA on SI using a spatial econometric model that includes mediating effects. The results showed that the EA level in China continued to rise, whereas the SI level continued to decline from 1990 to 2017. The mediating effect analysis showed that fiscal support for agriculture and agricultural labor productivity have a suppression effect of |−4.186|% and |−2.002|% in the local region, while cultivated land-use intensity has partial mediation of 6.350% in the local region; and agricultural labor productivity has a suppression effect of |−4.680|% on the surrounding region, while cultivated land-use intensity has stronger partial mediation relative to the local region, even up to 10.402% on surrounding regions. This implies that the impact of EA on SI involves complex paths and spatial differences. This study provides a better understanding of the reasons for the continuous decline in the SI in agglomeration-type economic development and feasible policy proposals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • The three-stage super-efficiency SBM-U model was used to evaluate CLUE of YREB in China. • Heterogeneous agricultural production environment play a vital role in CLUE evaluation. • The OLS and GWR models were used to analyze the driving mechanism of CLUE. • The driving mechanism of CLUE is spatiotemporal non-stationary. • Input-output structure and production factor substitution are main determinants. Improving the cultivated land use ecological efficiency (CLUE) to obtain greater agricultural output at a lower environmental cost, is an important part of effective management of land resources and sustainable intensification (SI). However, when evaluating CLUE, the existing research ignores the heterogeneity of the production environment of different agricultural production units, which leads to a "distortion effect". To address this, this study focuses on the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) in China as the study area and uses a three-stage super-efficiency slacks-based measure-undesirable (three-stage super-efficiency SBM-U) model to evaluate CLUE after excluding the interference of a heterogeneous agricultural production environment. In addition, we constructed ordinary least squares (OLS) and geographically weighted regression (GWR) models to analyze the driving mechanism of CLUE. The results indicate that environmental factors have a significant impact on the evaluation results of CLUE. Ignoring environmental factors leads to an overestimation of CLUE in areas with better environmental conditions, and vice versa. Second, due to the difference in input–output structure and the varied difficulty in production factor substitution, the driving mechanism of CLUE is spatiotemporal non-stationarity. During the study period, gross domestic product per capita, and farmland management scale had a positive effect on CLUE, while industrialization level had a negative effect. The impact of fiscal support for agriculture changed from insignificant to significant, in terms of improving CLUE in the western YREB. The influence direction of the multiple cropping index and agricultural planting structure changes from positive to negative and is concentrated in the east of the YREB. As a result, a series of measures are proposed to promote the improvement of CLUE and realize SI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]