Pollinator foraging behavior plays a key role in breeding and therefore affects the evolution of the orchid reproductive strategy. Food-deceptive orchids usually implement a generalized plant pollination strategy and a relatively diverse group of pollinators visit them.Dactylorhiza majalisis a food-deceptive, early-flowering orchid that relies on insect-mediated pollination. This study’s objectives were to identifyD. majalis’ pollinators and flower visitors and their foraging behaviors onD. majalisinflorescences. We also assessed the bending movement time to determine the relationship between bending time and the duration of pollinators’ visits. To assess pollination efficiency, we measured the spur length ofD. majalisflowers, which is expected to affect the mechanical fit to pollinators/“potential” pollinators. The arthropod fauna were investigated to examine the availability of “potential” pollinators in populations. We identifiedApis melliferaas this orchid’s main pollinator and confirmed that few of the flower visitors belonged to Diptera (12 individuals, 9 taxa), Hymenoptera (3 individuals, 3 taxa), or Coleoptera (2 individuals, 2 taxa) in our dataset, which was collected over a 2-year period and includes 360 h of video. The arthropods were collected by a sweep net inD. majalispopulations and there were fewer Hymenoptera (2.9–23.2%) and Coleoptera (4.4–23.8%) visitors but more Diptera (23.3–58.6%) visitors. We found thatA. melliferaforaged in different ways onD. majalisinflorescences, thereby resulting in cross-pollination and/or geitonogamy; however, the bending time data supported the hypothesis about promoting cross-pollination while decreasing self-pollination, but these data do not exclude the possibility of geitonogamy.

This paper presents data on 23 beetle species recorded for the first time from the Białowieża Forest (Polish part), and among them two species new for the fauna of Poland. All the beetles were collected using multifunnel (Lindgren) traps, placed in the the selected sites of the study area in 2018. Collected species belong to 13 families: Carabidae (1 species), Corylophidae (1), Curculionidae (1), Dermestidae (1), Elateridae (2), Eucnemidae (1), Laemophloeidae (1), Latridiidae (2), Nitidulidae (1), Ptinidae (3), Staphylinidae (7), Throscidae (1) and Trogossitidae (1). Episernus angulicollis C. G. Thomson, 1863 and E. tatarinovae Toskina et Nikitsky, 2003 (Ptinidae) are recorded for the first time from Poland, and Microrhagus pyrenaeus Bonvouloir, 1872 (Elateridae) and Leptusa norvegica Strand, 1941 (Staphylinidae), for the second time. Distribution of all the above species in Poland is briefly discussed and details on the biology of some of them are given. An identification key for the species of the genus Episernus C. G. Thomson, 1863 from Central Europe is presented. Species diversity of beetles in the Polish part of Białowieża Forest is estimated based on published data.

The current knowledge of the geographic distribution of short-winged flower beetles and sap beetles (Kateretidae and Nitidulidae, respectively) from Iran is summarized. In total, 84 species of Nitidulidae (in 22 genera and 5 subfamilies: Epuraeinae, Carpophilinae, Cryptarchinae, Nitidulinae, Meligethinae) and 6 species of Kateretidae (in 4 genera: Brachyleptus Motschulsky, Brachypterolus Grouvelle, Brachypterus Kugelann, Kateretes Herbst) are listed. Brachyleptus discolor Reitter, Brachypterus glaber (Newman) (both Kateretidae), Epuraea distincta (Grimmer), Soronia oblonga (Brisout), Lamiogethes bidens (Brisout), Lamiogethes medvedevi (Kirejtshuk), Sagittogethes devillei (Grouvelle) and Xerogethes rotundicollis (Brisout) (Nitidulidae) are new records for Iran.

Distributional data for 10 species of Peltidae, Lophocateridae, Trogossitidae and Thymalidae recorded from Poland are summarised, and numerous unpublished records are reported. Data on feeding and habitat preferences are analysed. Calitys scabra and Temnoscheila caerulea are probably extinct in Poland. Grynocharis oblonga, Nemozoma elongatum and Tenebroides mauritanicus are relatively common in Poland. Nemozoma caucasicum is currently spreading within Europe and several new records in Poland are reported. Peltis ferruginea, P. grossa, and Thymalus limbatus are restricted to natural forests in Poland, where they are sometimes abundant. We suggest adding Peltis ferruginea and Thymalus limbatus to the Polish Red List of Animals. The opinion that Grynocharis oblonga and Tenebroides mauritanicus are relicts of natural forests does not seem justified.

The genus Meligethinus Grouvelle, 1906 represents a small group of pollen beetles, including some twenty species distributed from southern Palaearctic areas to northern Oriental and Afrotropical regions. All constituent species appear to be strictly associated as larvae and adults to male inflorescences of palms (Monocots: Arecaceae). Two new species of this genus (Meligethinus mondlanei sp. nov. and M. hamerlae sp. nov.) were recently discovered in southern Mozambique, and are described herein. Both are associated as larvae with male inflorescences of the widespread eastern African palm Phoenix reclinata Jacq. The two new species are compared with related taxa from central Africa. Additionally, the presence of additional species of the same genus in southern Mozambique is reported, and the local associations of several Meligethinus species are discussed.

During recent expeditions in North and Southwest Iran, 10 species of Kateretidae and Nitidulidae (Coleoptera) were found. One species of Kateretidae, Brachyleptus bicoloratus Reitter, 1896, and three nitidulid species, Afrogethes schilskyi (Reitter, 1897), Stachygethes khnzoriani (Kirejtshuk, 1979), and S. nigerrimus (Rosenhauer, 1856) are recorded for the first time for the Iranian fauna (the latter is also a new record for Asia). Thymogethes ahriman (Jelínek, 1981) is herein resurrected to species rank, and two species, Thymogethes kassites sp. nov. and T. khorasanicus sp. nov., are described as new. An updated key to the known Near East and Afghan species of the genus Thymogethes Audisio & Cline, 2009 is also provided. Available and recently collected biological and distributional data, as well as short taxonomic comments, are given for the discussed species.