Bulletin of the Iraq Natural History Museum

Ten blue swimming crabs Portunus segnis (Forskål, 1775) were collected from the north west of the Arabian Gulf off the Iraqi marine waters from October to November 2017 at 29ᵒ 37′ N to 48ᵒ 47′ E.
The barnacle Octolasmis angulata (Aurivillius, 1894) was found on the gills of the present species of crab, the mean incidence of infestation was 30%, while the mean Intensity of infestation was 12.3. The barnacle have a long and slim shaped calcareous plate with the presence of carina and the absence of tergum, in addition to the elongated shape of carina and scutum. The current study represents the first record of the barnacle O. angulata in the Arabian Gulf.

A total of 54 abu mullet Planiliza abu (Heckel, 1843) were collected from two stations (north and south stations) along the Euphrates River near Samawa City, Al-Muthanna province and were examined during the period from October 2016 till September 2017 for parasites. Six out of 35 examined fishes from the north station (17.1%) and one out of 19 examined fishes (5.3%) from south station were infected with the microcotylid Solostamenides paucitesticulatus Kritsky & Öktener, 2015. The parasite was illustrated and described, and it is considered as a new record for the parasitic fauna of fishes of Iraq. S. iraqensis Al-Nasiri & Balbuena, 2018 is considered a synonym of S. paucitesticulatus.

The stratigraphic sequence of Cenomanian-Early Turonian is composed of Ahmadi, Rumaila, and Mishrif formations in the Rifai, Noor and Halfaya Oil Fields within the Mesopotamian Zone of Iraq, which is bounded at top and bottom by unconformity surfaces. The microfacies analysis of the study wells assisted the recognition of five main environments (open marine, basinal, shallow open marine, Rudist biostrome, and lagoon); these microfacies were indicative of a normal lateral change facies from shallow water facies to deeper water and open marine sediments.
Ahmadi Formation (Early Cenomanian) is characterized by open marine sediments during the transgressive conditions, and would become deep basinal environment upward to deposition the Rumaila Formation. Rumaila Formation (Middle Cenomanian) was deposited in the deeper part of the intrashelf basin; it comprises basinal sediments mainly, and includes an abundant of open marine fauna supportive of Middle Cenomanian age. Rumaila Formation is represented as time equivalent basin to the Mishrif Formation, where they were deposited during highest and system tract (HST). The Cenomanian- Early Turonian sequence can be subdivided into three cycles displaying coarsening upward cycles :Mishrif A, Mishrif B, and Mishrif C; which comprises a highest and system tract dominated by rudistid packstone to grainstone or rudistid biostrome facies separated by transgressive units (CR I and CR II).
Keywords: Cenomanian

The current study aims to assess zooplankton diversity in Bahr Al-Najaf depression using diversity index, specimens were collected from five sites at Bahr Al-Najaf depression, Iraq during April 2017 to March 2018.
Forty- eight taxa of zooplankton were identified including 26 taxa to Copepoda, 17 taxa belonged to Rotifers and 5 taxa to Cladocera: Copepoda was the most dominant group (54.2%); Rotifera comprised (35.4%); Cladocera comprised (10.4%).
Relative abundance index of zooplankton showed Copepodite and nauplii of Harpacticoid, Hexarthra mira, Daphnia sp., Harpacticoid sp., and Copepodite and nauplii of Cyclops were more abundant. According to the constancy index, the Copepodite and nauplii of Harpacticoid, nauplii Cyclops, nauplii stage and Hexarthra mira can be considered as the most frequent; Shanon-Weiner diversity index values of zooplankton recorded less value 0.48 in August 2017 at site (5); while the higher value was recorded in April 2017 at site (2) was 2.42; the higher value of species richness index was recorded in April 2017 at site (2) which was (7.2), the higher value of species uniformity index was recorded in February at site (2) and March at site (1) (0.61).
The present study concluded that Copepoda was the most abundant of zooplankton with variations in zooplankton species (density and from month to another).

In this study, the dung beetles Aphodius (Bodilus) ictericus (Laicharting, 1781) and Aphodius (Planolinellus) vittatus Say, 1825 which belongs to the family of Aphodiidae (Order: Coleoptera) are redscribed here as to being found for the first time in Iraq.
The specimens were collected from different regions in the middle of Iraq; the main diagnostic characters and some morphological features of males were drawn and pictured.

The monogenean Gyrodactylus bychowskianus Bogolepova, 1950 is recorded in the present study for the first time in Iraq from the gills of the cyprinid fish Arabibarbus grypus (Heckel, 1843); which was collected from the Tigris River at Al-Taji Beach north of Baghdad Province during the period from July until November 2018.

Literature reviews of reports concerning the parasitic fauna of fishes of Al-Diwaniyah province, Iraq till the end of December 2018 showed that a total of 43 parasite species are so far known from 13 valid fish species investigated for parasitic infections. The parasitic fauna included one euglenozoan, two myzozoans, six ciliophorans, three myxozoans, three trematodes, nine monogeneans, four cestodes, six nematodes, three acanthocephalans and six crustaceans. The infection with the trematodes, one monogenean, two cestodes and one nematode occurred with larval stages, while the remaining infections were either with trophozoites or adult parasites. Among the inspected fishes, Carasobarbus luteus was infected with the highest number of parasite species (20 parasite species), followed by Planiliza abu (17 species) and Cyprinus carpio (16 species) while two fish species (Ctenopharyngodon idella and Hypophthalmichthys molitrix) were infected with the minimum number of parasite species (three parasite species each). The ciliophoran Trichodina domerguei and the crustacean Lernaea cyprinacea were the commonest parasite species as they were reported from nine fish species each, followed by the monogenean Dactylogyrus extensus and the nematode Contracaecum sp. which were reported from eight and six host species, respectively, while the minimum number of one host species was reported for 22 parasite species.

This work is the first study of the Curculionoidea fauna from Kurdistan region of Iraq, based on the intensive survey in different localities of Kurdistan from March 2016 to November 2017. In total, 41 species belonging to 28 genera, 21 tribes and 3 families were collected and identified, including 25 species newly recorded for the Iraqi fauna.
General distribution, collecting localities and methods, with plant association data for each species are given.

Seven species of semi venomous Opisthoglypha snakes (Reptilia, Ophidia) of Iraq are listed with important characteristics in morphology due to geographical and individual variation of species, as well, the confusion in the scales count of Telescopus tessellatus martini (Schmidt, 1939) of Iraq are discussed.

The survey and checklist of invasive species of the insects in some different localities of Iraq are revised; 24 invasive species were documented until December 2018 during the current investigations. The species distributions, common names and synonyms are given.
The current investigation included all of exotic species in Iraq, which are not collected during this study.