A new swell shark, Cephaloscyllium parvum n. sp., is described based on specimens from the South China Sea. It is a dwarf species and can be distinguished easily from large species of the genus by size at maturity. The new species is distinguishable from the other two dwarf species of the genus by possession of a triangular anterior nasal flap, a long preoral snout, fewer vertebrae, narrow mouth, and small head.

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The genus Magadanichthys is established as a replacement name for the zoarcid fish genus Magadania Shinohara, Nazarkin and Chereshnev, 2004, which is preoccupied by an extinct brachiopod genus, Magadania Ganelin, 1977, and an extant lepidopteran genus, Magadania Kirpichnikova and Yamanaka, 2001. Magadanichthys contains only Magadanichthys skopetsi (Shinohara, Nazarkin and Chereshnev, 2004). Two new specimens caught in the sublittoral of the Shantar Islands and Sakhalin represent the southernmost records of the species. A description of the new specimens and new biological data are provided.

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In the present paper three new species of the genus Gomphodella De Deckker, 1981 are described: G. glomerosa sp. nov., G. hirsuta sp. nov., and G. yandii sp. nov. Also, the type species of the genus, G. maia De Deckker, 1981, is redescribed and the generic diagnosis is revised. All the new species are characterized by little sexual dimorphism in the valve shape and by the absence of the posterior seta on the fourth antennular segment, features that clearly separate them from G. maia. All species were collected in Western Australia, the new ones in subterranean waters, and G. maia from a spring.

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The Pacific collections by the MUSORSTOM campaigns of the Museum national d'Histoire naturelle, Prais, over the last 20 years have included a number of Tanaidacea from waters of the New Caledonia region. The species described herein as Mekon solidomala, from 440 and 700m depth, represents a new tanaid genus and species of the subfamily Langitanainae of the family Tanaidae. While displaying the ventrally fused pleonites four and five and the four-segmented antennule characteristic of the subfamily, it is distinct from the two previously known genera in having a non-flagelliform, four-segmented uropod, massive mandibles, and a large, subspherical carapace, the posterodorsal part of which overlaps the first and most of the second pereonite. One tanaid paratype bore a copepod parasite representing a new genus and species of the family Nicothoidae, Arhizorhina mekonicola. This new genus appears most closely related to Rhizorhina in its extreme reduction of body segmentation and tagmosis, and in the total loss of limbs; however, it lacks the branching rootlet system that is diagnostic for Rhizorhina, and the stalk is configured differently

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Two species of the long-legged fly genus Paraclius Loew, 1864 from Taiwan are described as new to science, P. subincisus sp. nov. and P. taiwanensis sp. nov. A key to all the 11 named Taiwanese species of this genus of Dolichopodidae is presented.

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In the present paper the diversity of the Costa Rican water mite fauna is analysed and compared with those of other regions. About 20000 water mites in 74 genera and 21 families were collected at more than 500 sample sites in various regions and different ecotones throughout Costa Rica (Central America). Numerous types of running- and standing-water habitats as well as springs were sampled. The frequency- and dominance-structure of the Costa Rican water mite fauna is discussed. The α- and the γ-diversities of the water mites of different regions, habitats, and elevations are compared. Different scales of diversity are distinguished. Water mite diversity decreased with elevation. The habitats with the highest α-diversity were streams (19 genera) and brooks (18 genera). Similar levels of diversity were found in the northwestern (dry forest), southwestern (rain forest), and northeastern (rain forest) regions of Costa Rica. Greater diversity of water mites was found in pristine forest regions than in open pasture areas, with as many as 19 genera found at a particular sample site. The α- and γ-diversities of the Costa Rican water mite fauna are consequently within the same range as those of other regions of Central America, North America, and Europe. The diversity in terms of total species number is about twice as high in tropical regions as in temperate regions.

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