Stenopelmatus is a neglected cricket genus that is widely distributed from central Mexico to central and northern South America. Here we examined mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequence data to assess the species boundaries in the genus and to investigate its evolutionary relationships and biogeographic history. Thirty-four species that have a marked geographic phylogenetic structure were consistently delimited. We propose four species-groups in Stenopelmatus, whose geographic distribution and divergence times estimates are congruent with the geological processes that took place in central Mexico since the Neogene.

Sergestidae is a family of shrimp that exhibits a diversity of bioluminescent photophores. We use molecular methods to estimate a phylogeny across the family and investigate this diversity. Depth distributions are plotted alongside our tree, revealing patterns between habitat and photophore type. These findings will improve our understanding of this family and aid future studies investigating photophore type and depth correlations.

Neoentomelas asatoi is a parasitic nematode that infests only a scincid lizard species in the Ryukyu Archipelago, Japan. We clarified the phylogenetic distinctiveness of Neoentomelas in Rhabdiasidae and revealed at least three dispersal events of the major clades within N. asatoi. Our results provide new insight into the evolutionary history of Rhabdiasidae and the diversification factors of parasites.

This paper reports on the taxonomy, phylogeny and evolution of a cryptic and poorly studied spider genus Cyphalonotus of the family Araneidae. We describe a new species from Taiwan and our results support the sister relationship between Cyphalonotus and Poltys. Our study reveals an independent origin of extreme sexual size dimorphism (eSSD) in Poltys, a convergent evolutionary phenomenon that has perplexed researchers for centuries.

Integration of multiple lines of evidence for the study of jellyfish diversity has shown that it is more species-rich than traditionally thought. Using an integrative approach, we identified specimens of Cassiopea medusae from the Philippines and Japan. They belong to two species: one new and one previously recognised as a variety. Our results support the hypothesis that the species richness of jellyfish is underestimated, and this study can serve as a reference to uncover hidden diversity of Cassiopea and other allied taxa.