This paper documents what we consider to be expanding distributions in three genera of Platygastroidea: Platyscelio Kieffer (Scelionidae), Aphanomerus Perkins (Platygastridae) and Tetrabaeus Kieffer (Platygastridae). Platyscelio africanus Risbec is the first record of Platyscelio in the Western Hemisphere (French Guiana). Aphanomerus is a new record for the continental Nearctic region (USA, Los Angeles) and Tetrabaeus is a new record for the Palaearctic (Ukraine, Georgia, and South Korea) and Sino-Japanese (Japan) regions. Tetrabaeus also expands its known distribution in the Nearctic (Canada and Mexico). Scanning electron micrographs and brightfield images are provided to enhance knowledge of the morphology of these genera, and to make them more easily recognized in the future. Tetrabaeus americanus (Brues, 1909) and Aphanomerus rufescens Perkins, 1905 are redescribed.

Hierodula tenuidentata is reported for the first time in Romania, from several places, with strong evidence on the existence of stable populations in this country. Preliminary data regarding the ecology of the species and its relations with indigenous fauna are presented, as well as differences between this species and its closest congeners from Romania and Europe.

The extraordinary fossil sites of Vlădiceni (Iaşi, Romania) recently discovered, with lithostratigraphy of Middle Miocene age, have uncovered a rich fauna especially of fishes, molluscs, amphipods and insects. This includes also the first fossil specimen of family Cantharidae from both this geological formation and from Romania: Malthodes (Malthodes) vladiceniensis sp. nov., which is illustrated and described and compared with living and fossil species of the genus.

The checklist of louse flies or keds from the family Hippoboscidae in Romania with 14 species is given. Among them, six species have been newly recorded from Romania, from Natura 2000 site “Dunele Marine de la Agigea” Natural Reserve; namely: Icosta minor (Bigot in Thomson, 1858), Ornithoica turdi (Olivier in Latreille, 1812), Ornithomya chloropus Bergroth, 1901, Ornithomya fringillina Curtis, 1836, Ornithophila gestroi (Rondani, 1878), and Ornithophila metallica (Schiner, 1864). Out of the total, seven species are autochthonous, while the other seven are probably non-native species, either spreading invasively or only occasionally being imported to Romania or migrating to the country along with their hosts. Three new host-parasite associations have been reported for the first time. Specifically, the eastern olivaceous warbler Iduna pallida (Hemprich et Ehrenberg, 1833) represents new host species for I. minor and O. turdi, while the willow warbler Phylloscopus trochilus (Linnaeus, 1758) represents a new host species for O. gestroi.

While some species naturally expand their range by finding suitable climatic and trophic niches in new areas, others have been transported intentionally or unintentionally by humans since their journey from Africa to other continents. This phenomenon has occurred throughout history, being more prevalent at the end of the Middle Ages and at the start of the Industrial Revolution, with its frequency increasing in recent times due to globalization. Hierodula tenuidentata Saussure, 1869 is a mantis species originally distributed from India to Caucasus, that started to become more and more common in many European countries in the last few years, being considered an alien species. However, there is limited information available regarding its distribution range, habitat preference, and other ecological requirements that can help us understand its movements. We used observation data from its range, along with bioclimatic and elevation variables, to build Species Distribution Models in MaxEnt. This allowed us to analyze the species’ spatial ranges and understand and predict its distribution across Europe. Before selecting the best-fitting models, the occurrence data were spatially filtered, and bioclimatic variables tested for multicollinearity. Based on the present species distribution models, with AUC values of 0.967 for the training data and 0.960 for the test data, Hierodula tenuidentata emphasizes a coastal occurrence in the Black Sea and Mediterranean Sea regions, with local observations in southeastern Europe, an area that is likely to be occupied in the next few years through species expansion. Our data show that the expansion of Hierodula tenuidentata in Europe is influenced by the natural movement of the species westward combined with human introduction in some areas. It is now evident that the species’ presence in Europe is not solely based on human-aided dispersion, as was previously believed. The main variables influencing the distribution of Hierodula tenuidentata across Eurasia are temperature and precipitation, both of which have been significantly modified in recent years due to climate change.