Bulletin of the Iraq Natural History Museum

The present paper confirmed the presence of Phrynocephalus maculatus longicaudatus Haas, 1957 in Iraq and recorded the first observations of this taxon in Al-Muthanna province southwestern of Iraq. The existence of the species is yet uncertain in Iraq. The habitat and morphological characteristics of this species were reviewed.

The Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) measures the reflected solar radiation in the ultraviolet and visible part in the spectral range that is between 270 and 500 nm, using two channels with a spectral resolution of about 0.5 nm. Ground-level tropospheric ozone is one of the air pollutants of most concern. In the troposphere, near the Earth's surface, human activities lead to ozone concentrations several times higher than the natural background level. To evaluate the ozone distribution over Iraq, the ozone data from OMI were analyzed using geostatistical techniques. Theoretical spherical models provided the best fit for all monthly experimental variograms. The parameters of these variograms (sill, range and nugget) were evaluated. Finally, predictive ozone maps were derived for all points of the study area, by use of geostatistical algorithms (kriging). High prediction accuracy was obtained in all cases as cross-validation showed.

A total of 228 domestic and wild animals, including sheep, goats, cows, buffaloes, camels, horses, donkeys, dogs, cats, wild hares, Asiatic jackals, and red foxes were examined for ixodid ticks in the central region of Iraq. Nine species of ixodid ticks belong to two genera namely Hyalomma anatolicum Koch, 1844, H. excavatum Koch, 1844, H. turanicum Pomerantsef, 1946, H. scupense Delpy, 1946, H. dromedarii Koch, 1844, H. schulzei Olenev, 1931, Rhipicephalus annulatus (Say, 1821), R. turanicus Pomerantsef & al., 1940 and R. leporis Pomerantsef, 1946 were recovered. Their distribution among hosts and infestation rates were discussed with the pertinent literature.

The study included isolation and diagnosis of fungi that infect Foeniculum vulgare Mill planted in the Department of Drugs and Medicinal Plants, Pharmacy College - University of Baghdad, different symptoms such as wilting and yellowing, stunting on the plants were observed fungi: Alternaria alternata, Rhizoctonia solani, Phoma herbarum and Fusarium oxysporum, The disease incidence ranging between 5-10%. Studied the effect of Foeniculum vulgare plant seeds extract against Alternaria alternata, Rhizoctonia solani, Phoma herbarum and Fusarium oxysporum,where tested the concentrations 0,2.5 and 5% of alcoholic extract of fennel seeds showed effectiveness noticeable trend all fungal isolates and showed significant differences between different levels of concentrations, at P = 0.01 and P = 0.05.

THE CHEMISTRY OF THE LEAVES OF PLANT Eucalyptus camaldulensis AS ENVIRONMENTAL CONTAMINATION INDICATOR OF SELECTED LOCATIONS AT KIRKUK - IRAQ

Twenty-two of the Starling Sturnus vulgaris Linnaeus, 1758 were collected in Baghdad city during the period from January to September, 2014, and examined for endoparasites. Ten (45.45%) were found infected with either the cestode Passerilepis crenata (Goeze, 1782) (31.81%) or the nematode Dispharynx nasuta (Rudolphi, 1819) (13.63 %). Morphometric and meristic features for these worms were expressed. D. nasuta is recorded here for the first time from S. vulgaris for Iraq.

A total of 533 specimens were collected in survey of Brachyceran species from different regions of Iraq during February to November 2014 .This study was reported 16 species belonging to 13 genera and 7 families, the results showed that Dicranosepsis Duda, 1926 (Family; Sepsidae) is recorded the genus for the first time in Iraq.

The research has conducted on shelterbelt of Al-Ashraf Najaf city to explore suitability of four Eucalyptus camaldulensis Dehnh. Forms and two other tree species; Casuarina equisetifolia and Olea europaea to the local dominant sever conditions. Development in growth was studied through the interval of five years. Growth parameters included height, DBH stem diameter, main stem height, crown diameter, and stem girth were investigated. Distance from water supply was inspected, too. Results showed superiority of E. camaldulensis upon other species. Investigations showed weakness in growth of C. equisetifolia where most of trees could not resist because of their position in opposite to sandy wind stream that deposited sand on plants. So survival percentage was lower than that of the two other species. O. europaea trees did not show a rate of growth required for such purpose but it might be beneficial for an economic objectives through olive fruit production. Forms of E. camaldulensis revealed lesser relative differences in growth parameters than observed before five years. Form no. II possessed distinctive tree height and stem diameter, while form III gave smallest growth traits. Other form parameters did not different significantly. The most effective factor was the distance from water source where far trees (300 m) had smaller growth traits than those located at 200 m and 100 m distances, that’s might because inefficiency of the used drip irrigation system.

Two dwarf snakes were discovered, Eirenis thospitis Schmidtler & Lanza from Sereen mountain, north east of Arbil and E. rothii Jan from Saffin mountain North of Arbil city North of Iraqi Kurdistan. Supported by description and important notes on variation. In addition summarized list for 9 species of the genus Eirenis Jan in Iraq is also presented.