A collection of exotic birds deposited in the Šariš Museum in Bardejov (SMB), Slovakia, has not been evaluated critically since their deposition. We assessed the accuracy of identification of 465 bird specimens deposited in SMB with native distributions outside of Slovakia. Specimens belonged to 322 species of 82 families and 26 orders. Of the specimen represented, 34 belonged to species considered as ‘near-threatened’ (7.3%), 16 as ‘vulnerable’ (3.4%) and one as ‘endangered’ (0.2%). The SMB collection holds 10 of 28 extant Cuban endemic species and another 11 species endemic to the Caribbean archipelago. Even among birds that are relatively easy to identify, many specimens were identified incorrectly or species identification was missing. Of 465 specimens evaluated, 95 (20.4%) were identified incorrectly or were missing species identification, and another 79 (17%) were identified correctly, but their names have changed over time due to taxonomic shift, thus they required correction.

The study presents results of colour preference of insects (Insecta), mainly from the order Hymenoptera (families Apidae, Formicidae). The research was carried out in the vicinity of the Beniakovce village (near the Košice city) over the years 2010–2012. Trapping by coloured water traps was conducted at ten sites with 50 Moerick′s water traps coloured with five different colours (white, yellow, blue, purple, and red). On the study area there were 12 357 individuals captured, belonging to 17 higher taxa (class, order, suborder) or genus morpho group of families Apidae and Formicidae. The highest abundance was found in Diptera followed by Hymenoptera, Coleoptera and Lepidoptera. Obtained results were in accordance with literature data, which showed that yellow colour was the most preferred by insects. Our results confirmed high degree of diversity of insect’s fauna in the study area. Our study suggested that a modified Moerick′s water traps may be a valuable tool in studies on insect diversity, distribution, seasonal abundance, and foraging behaviour as well.

The hippoboscids play important roles in ecosystem functioning and can serve as indicators of biodiversity and ecosystem health. These bloodsucking ectoparasites are important from a public health perspective, as they can serve as vectors of various endoparasitic pathogens in animals and humans, although our understanding is still limited in this case. The current study provides information on the host species and distribution, which can contribute to the understanding of the ecology and epidemiology of these important arthropods with a potential impact on both animal and human health. We present an ecological parasite-host interaction network of louse flies and deer keds (Diptera: Hippoboscidae) collected from various sites in Slovakia from this time. A total of 123 new samples of eight hippoboscid fly species were captured on 17 species, including 15 birds and two mammals. New host-parasite interactions were recorded for the first time.

In this study we investigated variation in the baculum of the stone marten Martes foina from the Czech part of Silesia (north-eastern Czech Republic). The aim of this study was to assess quantitative characteristics of the baculum size, relationships between measurements and description of the variability in baculum morphology. The study presents the morphological variation in six dimensional traits of the baculum based on an analysis of 15 specimens collected in the vicinity of Opava and deposited at the Šariš Museum Bardejov (Slovakia). The descriptive statistics revealed size variation of the bacula, while the statictic analysis (PCA) showed a strong positive correlation between morphological traits of the body and baculum.