Sphingonotus (Sphingonotus) rubescens (Walker, 1870) occurs from the Atlantic Islands to central and southern Asia, but its ecological preferences and the potential drivers that shaped its currently extensive distribution remain unknown. We review the known occurrence data for S. rubescens and reconstruct its current and palaeoclimatic niche (Last Glacial Maximum and mid-Holocene) using species distribution modelling (SDM). We examine how climatic suitability might have created potential past migratory pathways shaping its current distribution. Moreover, we test the utility of SDM approaches to flag dubious records detected in the assembled dataset. The results reveal new distributional records from four countries. Climatic models indicate high levels of overlap between current and palaeoclimatic models, with stability of large suitable areas through time. Furthermore, we observe that suitability values associated with dubious records are lower than the distribution of suitability values within the known distribution of S. rubescens. Climatic stability of suitable areas through time for S. rubescens might have aided the expansion and maintenance of its current wide distribution. Furthermore, our results support previous studies indicating the usefulness of SDM tools for the detection of doubious occurrences.

The COI gene is widely used as a DNA barcode in animals that can assist in the identification of species. One of the widely used aggregators of DNA barcodes is the Barcode of Life Data System (BOLD Systems), which contains around 2500 sequences of Tetrigidae, an understudied orthopteran family with unresolved taxonomy and species that are difficult to identify. In this paper, we provide a summary of the metadata provided with the COI sequences and present a phylogenetic analysis of photographically vouchered sequences using Maximum Likelihood and Bayesian analysis. We found that (1) the subfamily Tetriginae is disproportionately represented in the dataset, (2) most of the records are not identified beyond the family level, (3) most regions, except for Costa Rica, are undersampled, (4) most of the sequences do not have photographic vouchers, and (5) the taxonomic backbone of BOLD is out of date. The phylogenetic analysis showed that the clusters of COI barcodes mostly correspond to species, but some clusters remain ambiguous. The deeper nodes in the phylogenetic trees are not well-supported, indicating that this gene has a very weak phylogenetic signal beyond the specific level.

Mitochondrial gene order has contributed to the elucidation of evolutionary relationships in several animal groups. It generally has found its application as a phylogenetic marker for deep nodes. Yet, in Orthoptera limited research has been performed on the gene order, although the group represents one of the oldest insect orders. We performed a comprehensive study on mitochondrial genome rearrangements (MTRs) within Orthoptera in the context of mitogenomic sequence‐based phylogeny. We used 280 published mitogenome sequences from 256 species, including three outgroup species, to reconstruct a molecular phylogeny. Using a heuristic approach, we assigned MTR scenarios to the edges of the phylogenetic tree and reconstructed ancestral gene orders to identify possible synapomorphies in Orthoptera. We found all types of MTRs in our dataset: inversions, transpositions, inverse transpositions, and tandem‐duplication/random loss events (TDRL). Most of the suggested MTRs were in single and unrelated species. Out of five MTRs which were unique in subgroups of Orthoptera, we suggest four of them to be synapomorphies; those were in the infraorder Acrididea, in the tribe Holochlorini, in the subfamily Pseudophyllinae, and in the two families Phalangopsidae and Gryllidae or their common ancestor (leading to the relationship ((Phalangopsidae + Gryllidae) + Trigonidiidae)). However, similar MTRs have been found in distant insect lineages. Our findings suggest convergent evolution of specific mitochondrial gene orders in several species, deviant from the evolution of the mitogenome DNA sequence. As most MTRs were detected at terminal nodes, a phylogenetic inference of deeper nodes based on MTRs is not supported. Hence, the marker does not seem to aid resolving the phylogeny of Orthoptera, but adds further evidence for the complex evolution of the whole group, especially at the genetic and genomic levels. The results indicate a high demand for more research on patterns and underlying mechanisms of MTR events in Orthoptera.

For the first time the Asian hornet Vespa velutina has been found in Hamburg (Northern Germany). So far this is the northernmost occurrence of this originally SE-Asian species in Europe and in the world. It remains unclear whether this is a single accidentally translocated specimen or one of a population already reproducing. The find may suggest that the species will possibly spread much faster than previously anticipated and modelled.