We report the following seven species (representing five families) of true bugs (Hemiptera: Heteroptera) for the first time from Arkansas: Hesperocorixa minor, Sigara virginiensis (Corixidae); Systelloderes biceps (Enicocephalidae); Hebrus buenoi (Hebridae): Empicoris winnemana, Ploiaria similis (Reduviidae); Microvelia fontinalis (Veliidae). This includes the first report of the family Enicocephalidae (Unique-headed bugs) for Arkansas. All species were collected from flight intercept traps (deployed from April-July 2011) set in Arkansas Oaks Natural Area (Nevada County) located in southwestern Arkansas.

A review of the species of Aradidae or flat bugs found in Iowa is presented. New state records for Aradus aequalis Say, A. crenatus Say, A. implanus, and Mezira lobata (Say) are included.

Six new state records arc presented for the toad bug Gelastocoris oculatus oculatus (Fabricius): Delaware, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Virginia, and Wyoming. The species is now known from 28 states and three Canadian provinces.

A review of the Notonectidae or backswimmers of Iowa is presented. New state records for Buenoa macrotibialis Hungerford, Buenoa scimitra Bare, Notonecta insulata Kirby, Notonecta irrorata Uhler, and Notonecta lunata Hungerford are included.

Spatial hierarchical approaches to classify freshwater systems can add to our understanding of biogeographical patterns and can be used for biodiversity conservation planning. The Strawberry River is located primarily in the Ozark Highlands Central Plateau of north central Arkansas, USA, with a small downstream portion in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain and has been designated an Extraordinary Resource Water, an Ecologically Sensitive Water Body, and a Natural Scenic Waterway. The goals of this study were to document Strawberry River, Arkansas freshwater mussels to aid in conservation planning. Our first objective was to inventory freshwater mussel species in the Strawberry River. Our second objective was to use this stream-wide dataset to classify the freshwater mussel assemblages. We used unpublished survey data of 59 sites distributed from the headwaters to the mouth to inventory species occurrence and abundance, classified mussel assemblages using non-metric multi-dimensional scaling (NMS), and conducted indicator species analysis on resulting assemblages. We observed 39 taxa across the 59 survey sites including two S1, five S2, 16 S3, 11 S4, four S5, and one state non-ranked conservation rank species. Furthermore, our assemblage NMS revealed two distinct freshwater mussel assemblages roughly organized by an upstream (Sites 1–31) to downstream (Sites 32–59) gradient. There were five upstream indicator species and 13 downstream indicator species. This study provides a case study on using existing datasets with NMS and indicator species analyses to classify mussel assemblages and adds to our understanding of freshwater mussel fauna classification at smaller spatial scales. Both NMS and indicator species outcomes can aid in conservation planning for freshwater mussels.

The black bug species Corimelaena harti (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Thyreocoridae) was described over 100 years ago, yet practically no ecological information is known about the species. We newly report Galium concinnum (shining bedstraw) as a confirmed host plant and "mountain mint" as a second possible host plant. Further, we report this black bug species as a new state record for Ohio.

Hemipterans belong to the largest order of hemimetabolous insects. The number of species in the order is about 75,000, with a great diversity of forms, including the largest family, Miridae (plant bugs). It contains major insect pests and predatory groups that can be used as biological control agents. Here, we document three species of Miridae in Oklahoma, for the first time.

Instructors of undergraduate courses in Biology and other Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines face an ongoing challenge to foster higher-order thinking and learning skills while also developing a sound conceptual understanding of both the course concepts and the connections that exist between them in their students. Instructors are further tasked with ensuring that both instruction and assessment align with the published course learning outcomes (CLOs) for the course and support student achievement of those outcomes. This activity was developed in response to these challenges, as well as to the emergence of a number of outcomes-oriented approaches to instruction and recent calls for pedagogical reform of undergraduate STEM instruction in favor of the adoption and creation of student-centered, active learning environments. In this activity, students are tasked with identifying and describing examples of in-class activities, lab exercises, homework assignments, or any other course-related experiences that worked to support their mastery of the course goal(s) and achievement of the posted CLOs. As described, this simple, yet effective syllabus-based activity promotes student awareness of desired outcomes, encourages student reflection on outcome achievement, provides opportunity for higher-order thinking, and serves as a check for instructors on the degree of alignment between the CLOs and student experiences in the course.

Our knowledge of the true bugs (Hemiptera) of Oklahoma has grown over the last decade.Several reports from our lab have provided new records of hemipterans in the state for the first time.Here, we continue our efforts by providing seven new state records for species of hemipterans withinthe families Miridae, Pentatomidae, Reduviidae, and Rhyparochromidae from McCurtain County.

Over the past few years, several new, geographic records for hemipterans have been documented for Oklahoma (Henry et al. 2010; Chordas and McAllister 2012, 2016; Chordas et al. 2017; McAllister and Robison 2017) as well as description of new taxa (Henry and Sweet 2015). Here, we provide new distributional records for three true bugs of the family Miridae in the state.

Fifty-one species of Reduviidae (Hemiptera: Heteroptera) are recorded from Belize; literature citations are provided where relevant, and specimen data are included for examined material. Thirteen previously-described species are reported from Belize for the first time, ten of which represent new generic records: Eupheno histrionicus Stål, 1862 (Cetherinae); Ghinallelia signoreti (Dohrn, 1860) (Emesinae); Rasahus albomaculatus (Mayr, 1865) (Peiratinae); Leogorrus interruptus Champion, 1899; Microlestria laevis Champion, 1899; Nalata quadrituberculata Champion, 1899; Nalata setulosa Stål, 1862; Pseudozelurus superbus (Champion, 1899); Zelurus spinidorsis (Gray, 1832) (all Reduviinae); Oncerotrachelus conformis Uhler, 1894; Saica fuscipes Stål, 1862 (both Saicinae); Gnathobleda litigiosa Stål, 1862; and Stenopoda wygodzinskyi Giacchi, 1969 (both Stenopodainae). Among the ten subfamilies reported, Belizean records for one subfamily, Saicinae, are reported for the first time. Accompanying the checklist are the descriptions of Castolus omega Swanson sp. nov. (Harpactorinae) and Pygolampis aptena Swanson sp. nov. (Stenopodainae).

(excerpt) Documentation of the true bugs (Hemiptera) of Canada and the United States is an ongoing effort (Henry and Froeschner, 1988; Maw et al., 2000). Maw et al. (2000) listed 12 species of water boatmen belonging to the genus Hesperocorixa for Canada. Ontario has the greatest diversity of this genus with all 12 species listed for the Province. In 2004, we collected Hesperocorixa lobata (Hungerford) (Hemiptera: Corixidae), a new record for Ontario.

During 2009 and 2010, a two year long light-trapping project (targeting moths) was conducted in the Ross Foundation Demonstration Area Forest (Clark County, Arkansas) (Fig. 1A). Hemiptera from those samples were forwarded to SWCIII for identification, photography, and voucher specimen deposition of any species newly discovered in Arkansas. Three Nabidae species, all represented by single specimens, were found in those samples (label data for all three species are given in Fig. 1B).

says 2017, but was distributed in April of 2018, thus it has indeed been 30 years).The 1988 catalog continues to be a valuable resource for true bug records.In addition to species listed in the catalog, more than 150 true bug species have been added as new Arkansas records in various literature.The volume of scattered records, thus, renders it a daunting task to determine if a true bug species is or is not currently reported in the literature for Arkansas.This contribution serves to provide a single, current tabulation of Arkansas true bug literature records.This updated checklist also incorporates species previously reported from Arkansas but not included in the 1988 catalog.Hemiptera are all listed alphabetically by family (bold + (# of species reported)), then by genus (indented), then by species within genus.Superscript after each species indicates a literature record for that species; in-text literature citations follow the checklist.Hemiptera (true bugs) reported for Arkansas Alydidae (3)

We determined the sex-ratio of 1,095 plant bugs (Hemiptera: Miridae) taken from 60 individual UV light-trap samples in Clark County, Arkansas, over a two-year period. We found that of the 21 taxa in which a sex-ratio determination could be made, 61.9% of them (13 of 21) contained a majority (over 50%) of males. Three taxa were exclusively represented by males, while two taxa were exclusively represented by females. Although taxa dependent, our data indicate that male mirids are, in general, more frequently encountered in UV light-traps. However, contrary to the notion that sparked this study (see herein) light-trap content was not represented vastly to exclusively by male individuals as the sex-ratio of the cumulative data was 62.47% males (684) and 37.53% females (411).

Collaria oculata (Reuter, 1871) (Hemiptera: Miridae: Mirinae) is a grass-feeding plant bug (Knight 1941) previously reported from 23 U.S. States and three Provinces of Canada (Fig. 1) (the Alberta literature record was questioned by Maw et al. [2000]; we follow their listing) (Henry and Wheeler 1988; Maw et al. 2000; Chordas et al. 2011). A report of C. oculata from neighboring Arkansas (Chordas et al. 2011) prompted our search for specimens in Oklahoma because the presence of this species was considered probable for the state. Here, we document C. oculata as a new state record.