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This paper reviews the research on taxonomy of the Trombidioidea in Iran, with an updated checklist of 32 species (+5 undetermined species) belonging to five families and 22 genera. Among them, 27 species (+1 undetermined species) are reported based on larvae only, three undetermined species based on adults only, and six species based on both larval and post-larval stages. Also, 14 species (+3 undetermined species) and 10 genera belonging to the family Trombidiidae, one undetermined species belonging to the family Podothrombiidae, 13 species (+1 undetermined species) and seven genera belonging to the family Microtrombidiidae, three species, three genera belonging to the family Neothrombiidae and two species and one genus belonging to the family Achaemenothrombiidae. Major contributions to the Iranian fauna of the Trombidioidea were made by Alireza Saboori and his colleagues, and Zhi-Qiang Zhang. There have been some studies on the biology and the application of the Trombidioidea in biological control in Iran.

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This paper reports some species of Ameroseiidae from various habitats in different parts of Iran. Ameroseius bassolase (Vargass, 2001)has been reported from Iran, but it was a misidentification of Sertitympanum aegyptiacus Nasr & Abow-Awad, 1984. Redescription of Ameroseius lidiae Bregetova, 1977 based on female specimens is also presented.  

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While searching for food, predators use herbivore induced plant volatiles (HIPV), host plant volatiles and those related to con/heterospecifics to find their prey. Not only the volatile components vary among plant species, but also the predator perception of these components might differ among species and samples. Here, we compared the olfactory response of two samples (Turkey and University of Tehran) of Phytoseiulus persimilis Athias-Henriot (Acari: Phytoseiidae) when received herbivore induced plant volatiles (HIPV) from Tetranychus urticae Koch (Acari: Tetranychidae) infested cucumber and bean leaves, along with testing the effect of rearing experience of Turkey sample on its olfactory response in our laboratory conditions. Our data showed that P. persimilis of both samples significantly moved towards leaf odors (either cucumber or bean) when they received clean air from the alternative arm. For both samples, the predator did not make a preference between clean bean and cucumber leaves. When the predators were offered a choice between T. urticae infested bean and cucumber leaves, they significantly moved towards bean leaves in both samples. Rearing experience did not affect the predator choice of host plant species and P. persimilis from both samples preferred odors related to clean leaves rather than clean air. The number of experienced predatory mites moved towards T. urticae infested bean leaves was significantly higher than that preferred T. urticae infested cucumber leaves in both samples. We discussed whether their similar olfactory responses would be related to their experience of previous rearing conditions.

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Neoseiulus californicus (McGregor) is a predatory mite that can control spider mites. The effect of seven strawberry cultivars (including: ‘Marak’, ‘Yalova’, ‘Aliso’, ‘Gaviota’, ‘Sequoia’, ‘Camarosa’ and ‘Chandler’) on the growth and development of N. californicus was studied in the laboratory conditions (27 ± 1 °C, 70 ± 5% RH and 16L: 8D photoperiod). There was significant difference in the number of trichomes on the leaves of strawberry cultivars. Life table parameters were analyzed based on age˗ stage, two˗sex life table. Egg incubation and protonymphal duration were significantly different when the predator was reared on different cultivars. There was no significant difference of total longevity among different cultivars. The longest preoviposition period was observed on ‘Aliso’ (1.70 days). The fecundity rate on ‘Gaviota’ and ‘Sequioa’ (6.90 and 8.91 eggs, respectively) was lower than other cultivars tested. The highest intrinsic rate of increase (0.20 day^-1) and fecundity rates (13.29 eggs) were on ‘Chandler’, which might be due to the higher nutritional quality of Tetranychus urticae Koch reared on it or its low density of trichomes. Among the seven strawberry cultivars ‘Sequoia’, ‘Gaviota’ and ‘Yalova’ were recognized unsuitable for development and reproduction of N. californicus.

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 Our conceptual system is metaphor based. Children also face this cognitive interaction from the beginning of language acquisition. Accordingly, based on their little knowledge of the environment and vocabularies, they benefit from adult`s   metaphorical system.Nowadays children`s knowledge is different from that of Piaget`s time and even after this era. Mass communication, modern toys like X-boxes and tablets all have developed children`s cognitive world. In this field study, sixty 2- to 5- years-old Persian-speaking boys and girls were examined in order to understand the time of comprehension and use of embodied metaphors regarding the variable of age in them.  A self-mode test was prepared on the basis of Persian metaphoric phrases and Bialka-pkul`s study (2003). Method: The research method was descriptive-survey and the population consisted of 2-5-year-old children of kindergartens in zones 1, 4, and 20 of Tehran. Sixty monolingual normal girls and boys made the sample. The research results are zeitgeist of complete understanding and relative understanding of embodiment metaphorical expressions and perception content due to the age variant in addition. The result of this study with the results of the Bialka- Pikul (2003) was in line. There is a difference that Bialka-pkul research, study on children from age of   3 years, three month but current research says children from the age of two years have a relative understanding of embodiment metaphorical expressions, this study denotes that perception content increasing due to the age variant and cognitive interest. Result: Response of children to tests questions shows children speech in three distinct cultural groups. Persian -language children's speech in no.1 urban area of Tehran city whom they interaction with nature and their metaphorical expressions derived from natural and pristine words, while (the four) children use the environment words frequently, while (the twenty) use metaphorical expressions derived from adult speech and common phrases and words of Persian language. Different use of metaphoric phrases by children indicate different confederacy of receiving physical realm and the realm of subjective perception and cognitive in three different under study cultural groups. Such knowledge is not unique and represents a significant number of children's cognitive differences in the three under study areas .Results: 2-2.5-year-olds gained the least points (0.4 out of 4) in metaphor understanding and had the most and the least difficulties in color and sound metaphors, respectively, but the other groups got higher points (1.5, 1.3, 2.2, 2.1, 3, orderly). The boys had better understanding than girls although the difference wasn't significant (P>0.05).


 

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The decline of biodiversity, specifically of insects is one of the major topics in conservation biology. In several countries of Europe, recent studies have shown a severe decline in species number and biomass of insects. In most countries of much higher diversity, much less is known about the state of the insect fauna. In this study, we focus on the acridid grasshoppers of Iran as an indicator taxon for diversity decline in a high diversity region. We used data of two surveys to suggest a change in species number between 1963 and after 2000. In the surveys before 1963, the species diversity across multiple localities in Iran was much higher compared to more recent faunistic studies. While this data is not statistically analyzable as the sampling is not completely comparable, the trends show a clear pattern of decline, which likely reflects the reality, conforms well to individual observations of less frequent encounters in the field and matches global patterns of insect decline. However, more standardized quantitative surveys are needed to generate statistically analyzable data. Potential reasons for the observed decline are severe draughts as a result of global climate change, habitat pollution, and destruction for construction and mining and especially overgrazing. Management actions need to be urgently put into place to stop the negative trends. Future studies need to document and test if these are taxon-specific trends or universal patterns in the region.
 

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This research explains the morphometric characteristics of Varroa destructor Anderson and Trueman in Tehran Province. 180 adult female mites were collected from three different colonies of Apis mellifera L. in three apiaries during September 2003 to May 2004. These colonies were divided according to three altitudes-less than 1000m, 1000-1500m and more than 1500m above the sea level. The morphological characteristics of mite samples were examined using light microscopy. Measurements of mite specimens in-cluding body lengths, widths, mean size of leg segments and chelicerae were obtained from 180 females. Data were analyzed using the SAS package. The results revealed that: with 95% confidence intervals, body lengths were 1152.6-1218.9 (for less than 1000m alti-tude), 1163.2-1220.7 (for 1000-1500m altitude) and 1167.1-1228.3 (for grater than 1500m altitude). Also, body widths for those apiaries with 95% confidence intervals were: 1709.8-1818.2, 1712.1-1819.5 and 1720.4-1820.6, respectively. Mean body lengths were 1197.2, 1199.2 and 1200.1 and mean body widths were 1775.6, 1781.7 and 1789.9, respec-tively. No significant differences were observed between the size of leg segments and che-licerae among specimens studied. Comparison between measurements of body lengths and widths of specimens which were collected from Firozkoh (above 1500m altitude), Karaj(1000-1500m altitude) and apiaries in Varamin (less than 1000m altitude) in Tehran Province revealed that there was no significant difference between the three colonies. These specimens were also differ from V. jacobsoni. The results showed that our speci-mens were V. destructor not V. jacobsoni. Moreover, the Tehran Province specimens are similar to V. destructor in that they are less spherical than V. jacobsoni.

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According to Talmy (2000), the basic motion event consists of one object (the ‘Figure’) moving or located with respect to another object (the reference-object or ‘Ground’). Moreover, its semantic structure has another two internal components, i.e. ‘Path’ and ‘Motion’. The ‘Path’ is the track followed or the location occupied by the Figure object with respect to the Ground object, and the ‘Motion’ refers to the presence in the event of motion or location.
The present research focuses on the transitivity of motion verbs in Persian language.  In order to seek the notion, research data have been analyzed based on Talmy's theoretical framework (2000), and the components of motion in these verbs have been investigated.  The research method is descriptive-analytic.  Consequently, seeking the notion of transitivity in motion verbs, the research includes 219 Modern Persian verbs from two sites (Persian Linguistic Database (PLDB) and Hamshahri Online news website). Among those mentioned motion verbs, 126 cases were intransitive and 63 were transitive.  Based on the main goal of the research, the question was raised; “what is the difference between the figure and the ground in transitive and intransitive verbs?” it is necessary to mention, the criterion for determining the transition is following the pattern of "NP1, transitive verb, NP2". 
Persian language express a Motion event using the transitive construction in which the subject denotes the Figure (the moving entity) and the object denotes the Ground (the reference object). In Persian language, in most cases, verbs can express a motion event in the Intransitive Construction. . In Persian, the object usually depicts the referral point or path based on the semantic features of the verb.  In cases of causative verbs, the object is the same as the figure that makes the displacement.  In addition, in the intransitive structures, the subject is the figure and intransitive verbs demonstrate a change or a new position.  In these examples, the path is often shown through a prepositional phrase.

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The iolinid mite Coccalicus clavatus Willmann, 1952 was collected during a survey from the soil of Gilanegharb, Kermanshah, Iran in 2022. This species was first described in the family Alycidae by Willmann in 1952 and then André and Uusitalo transferred it to the family Iolinidae in 2006, accompanied by transferring species from the genus Paratydaeolus to the genus Coccalicus. Some challenges about species characters of this mite are discussed in this paper and the synonymy of C. lukoschusi and C. clavatus is proposed. The genus consists of 12 species with clavate trichobothria, and is related to various habitats like soil, stored products, under barks, on leaves of different plants, and on birds. They have been reported from Europe, Antarctica and North America and this is the first record of the Coccalicus mites from Asia.

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Environmental conditions can cause variation in morphology, behavior, and possibly epigenetic in the numerous species of the Gomphocerinae, especially in mountain habitats. Plasticity and changes in morphology in many of the species in this subfamily is caused by character segregation through the female choice of copulation that has produced various clines, sub-species or species groups. The variation and plasticity, as a result of environmental stress, besides morphology, affect physiology and epigenetics of many insect species. Environmental stress and female assortative mating might be accompanied by hybridization in populations, resulting in character divergence and speciation after a long period of time. Contemporary evolution and/or epigenetic inheritance may be a reason for their variation in acoustic and morphology of Gomphocerinae and the main factor in the present situation of difficulty in their classification. We review possible effects of environmental stress on plasticity, hybridization, and speciation by the appearance of endemic species. About half of the insect pest species have reduced their impacts as pests under global warming. The present insect pest situation in Iran is discussed.

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The meristic data of the following species of terrestrial Parasitengona (Acari: Trombidiformes) from Australia are given: Paratrombium australe Southcott, 1997, P. anemone Southcott, 1997, P. curculionis Southcott, 1997, Eutrombidium trigonum (Walsh, 1866), E. orientale Southcott, 1993, Hexathrombium willisi Southcott, 1993, Verdunella lockleii (Welbourn & Young, 1988), Buandikia anneae Southcott, 1994, Willungella willungae (Hirst, 1931), Workandella virgata Southcott, 1994, Thormicrella janeae Southcott, 1994, Yurebilla gracilis Southcott, 1996, Abrolophus tonsor (Southcott, 1996), Harpagella moxonae Southcott, 1996, Callidosoma tindalei Southcott, 1972, C. rostratum Southcott, 1972, C. tiki Southcott, 1972, C. dasypodiae (Womersley, 1934), and C. susanae Clark, 2014. The type specimens were deposited in the South Australian Museum, Adelaide, Australia (SAM). A key to hermanni species subgroup  is also included.

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In this research, the influence of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) on the fracture resistance of epoxy-based nanocomposites under out-of-plane shear (mode III) has been investigated experimentally and compared with their effect in the case of tensile (mode I) loading. Due to its wide industrial applications and low viscosity, epoxy LY-5052 has been used to manufacture the nanocomposite specimens. The MWCNT contents considered for nanocomposite samples are 0.1, 0.5 and 1.0 wt.%. Ultrasonic homogenization technique has been utilized for dispersing nano-fillers in the matrix resin. In order to measure the fracture resistance of pure epoxy and nanocomposite specimens under mode I and mode III loading conditions, a loading fixture recently developed for mixed mode I/III fracture tests has been employed. The obtained results show that in both loading conditions, increasing MWCNTs content up to 1.0 wt.% enhances the fracture resistance. However, the maximum values of mode I and mode III fracture toughness have been attained in nanocomposites containing 0.5 wt.% and 1 wt.% of MWCNT, respectively. Eventually, the observed trends in the experimental results have been discussed using the effective micro mechanisms of CNTs inside the polymer matrix.

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The life history and predation rate were determined for all stages of female and male of Phytoseiulus persimilis Athias-Henriot fed on the eggs of Tetranychus urticae Koch ˗ as the preferred prey-stage ˗ on rose (cv ‘blarodje’) leaf discs under laboratory conditions at 25±1°C, 75±5% RH, and 16 L: 8 D hour photoperiod. According to the age-stage, two-sex life table model, the intrinsic rate of increase (r), finite rate of increase (λ), net Reproductive rate (R₀), Gross Reproductive Rate (GRR), and mean generation Time (T) were 0.296 d^-1, 1.345 d^-1, 33.48 offspring, 53.87 offspring and 11.83 d, respectively. Moreover, average number of T. urticae eggs consumed by different stages/sexes of P. persimilis was calculated based on the age-stage, two-sex life table model and indicated that the consumption rates increased from nymph to adult in both sexes. Also, our results showed that females consumed prey eggs 11 times more than males. The net predation rate (C₀) and transformation rate from prey population to predator offspring (Q_p) were 363.54 mite eggs and 10.86, respectively. The results showed that P. persimilis can successfully survive and reproduce on T. urticae eggs on rose.

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Traditional celebrations and recreational activities are considered part of the Iranian historical identity. Ancient and medieval Persian sources have documented various types of these celebrations, suggesting the social commitment to such rituals. Apart from social identity, these tendencies could also bring dynamism and refreshment into the society. With the passage of time, despite many adversities imposed on social foundations, some of these ceremonies were redefined and retrieved as the national heritage. Of course, other forms of joyful ceremonies that were matched with new religious thought were added to the national heritage, as well. On the other hand, Iranian governments and rulers of the time also supported and promoted some of these rituals in accordance with their personal morale as well as political and religious attitudes, thereby contributing to their survival and continuity. In the Safavid era, the Iranian society was not different as a relative political stability and security allowed the continuity of these traditions. The present study intends to introduce the patterns and types of these celebrations. Thus, the main question of this research is: what were the forms of joyful ceremonies during the Safavid? Research data show that despite the fact that the Safavid period, at one time and other, was engaged in some civil or external wars, the social texture had a deep link with promising and recreational approaches and hence; there were various types of celebrations and ceremonies based on social traditions.

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Food security is a critical issue in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region due to its population growth, as well as geographical and climatic conditions. From one point of view, most of the countries in the region benefit from an abundance of natural resources centered on fossil fuels. From another point of view, environmental issues, particularly emissions caused by production activities, and the pressures caused by climate variability, highlight the importance of food security. Hence, the effects of climate change, energy consumption, environmental pollution and other control variables on food security in the MENA region were explored from 1990 to 2019. According to the cross-section dependency, the second-generation panel CS-ARDL (Cross-Sectional Autoregressive Distributed Lag) estimator was employed. The empirical results indicate that energy consumption, crop production land, CO₂ emissions, and precipitation have a significant positive effect on crop production index, as index of food security. Additionally, urbanization and mean temperature have detrimental effects. The findings from Dumitrescu and Hurlin causality tests indicated that crop land and precipitation have a unidirectional causal effect on food security, whereas energy consumption, CO₂ emissions, urbanization, and mean temperature have a bidirectional causal relationship with food security. These findings imply that while maintaining the level of agricultural production and increasing it, the climate effects and environmental aspects of production should not be overlooked.