George Japoshvili
@agruni.edu.ge
Prof.
Agricultural University of Georgia
RESEARCH, TEACHING, or OTHER INTERESTS
Agricultural and Biological Sciences, Insect Science, Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, Environmental Science
Scopus Publications
Scopus Publications
GEORGE JAPOSHVILI and ARNSTEIN STAVERLØKK
Magnolia Press
Two genera of Encyrtidae (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea) are for the first time recorded from Norway: Dusmetia Mercet, 1921 and Prionomastix Mayr, 1876. Six new species records for the country are presented, including two newly described taxa: Aphycus staverlokki Japoshvili sp. n. and Metaphycus sannes Japoshvili sp. n. The total number of known Norwegian species of the family is currently 156.
George Japoshvili, Evangelos Koutsoukos, Grigorios Vamvakas, Dionysios Perdikis, and Jakovos Demetriou
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Paul H. Williams, Jiandong An, Phurpa Dorji, Jiaxing Huang, Saleem Jaffar, George Japoshvili, Jaya Narah, Zongxin Ren, Martin Streinzer, Chawatat Thanoosing,et al.
Museum National D'Histoire Naturelle
The mountain bumblebees of the subgenus Alpigenobombus Skorikov, 1914, are uniquely distinctive because the females have enlarged mandibles with six large, evenly spaced teeth, which they use to bite holes in long-corolla flowers for nectar robbing. Recognition of species in this subgenus has been uncertain, with names used in various combinations. To revise the species, we examined COI-like barcodes for evidence of species’ gene coalescents using MrBayes and PTP and we compare the coalescent groups with morphological variation for integrative assessment. While we seek to include only orthologous barcodes (the ‘good’) and exclude all of the more strongly divergent barcode-like numts (the ‘bad’), for some nominal taxa only low-divergence numts could be obtained (the ‘ugly’). For taxa with no orthologous sequences available, using a minimum number of the lowest divergence numts did yield coalescent candidates for species that were consistent with morphologically diagnosable groups. These results agree in recognising 11 species within this subgenus, supporting: (1) recognising the widespread European Bombus mastrucatus Gerstaecker, 1869 stat. rev. as a species separate from the west Asian B. wurflenii Radoszkowski, 1860 s. str.; (2) the recently recognised B. rainai Williams, 2022, as a species separate from B. kashmirensis Friese, 1909, within the western Himalaya; (3) the recognition once again of B. sikkimi Friese, 1918 stat. rev. and B. validus Friese, 1905 stat. rev. as species separate from B. nobilis Friese, 1905 s. str. within the eastern Himalaya and Hengduan regions; (4) confirming the recognition of B. angustus Chiu, 1948, B. breviceps Smith, 1852 s. lat., B. genalis Friese, 1918, and B. grahami (Frison, 1933) as separate species within the Himalaya, China, and Southeast Asia; (5) recognising the conspecificity of the nominal taxa (not species) channicus Gribodo, 1892 (Southeast Asia) and dentatus Handlirsch, 1888 (Himalaya) as parts of the species B. breviceps s. lat. (southern and eastern China); and (6) recognising the conspecificity of the rare taxon beresovskii (Skorikov, 1933) syn. n. as part of the species B. grahami within China. Nectar robbing by bumblebees is reviewed briefly and prospects for future research discussed.
George Japoshvili, Toshko Ljubomirov, , and
CMV Verlag
GEORGE JAPOSHVILI, HÜSEYİN YERLİKAYA, and MEHMET BORA KAYDAN
Magnolia Press
As a result of surveys conducted in Aydın Province (Turkey), 19 parasitoids belonging to the family Encyrtidae were found on pseudococcids. Four species are newly recorded from Turkey: Anusia tornike Japoshvili, Coccidoxenoides perminutus Girault, Homalotylus quaylei (Timberlake), and Prochiloneurus aegyptiacus (Mercet). One new species, Leptomastix baspinari Japoshvili sp. n., is described and illustrated. This species was recorded parasitizing six different mealybugs on ten different plant species, including weeds, ornamentals, and crops. Based on its host range, this parasitoid may be a very promising biocontrol agent against many mealybug species. 
GEORGE JAPOSHVILI and RUDY SOETHOF
Magnolia Press
As a result of our survey of parasitoid wasps, the number of encyrtid species known from the Netherlands increased from 106 to 123. Microterys nederlandicus Japoshvili sp. n. is described as new for science. Figures for all species identified during our survey are provided.
G. Japoshvili, T. Arabuli, M. Salakaia, Z. Tskaruashvili, G. Kirkitadze, and E. Talamas
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Zoltán László, Tünde-Ilona Kelemen, and George Japoshvili
Acta Zoologica Hungarica
We present an annotated check-list of Pteromalidae (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea) from Sakartvelo (the Republic of Georgia), updating the available information of these parasitoids. We identified 22 species belonging to 17 genera from 9 subfamilies – Asaphinae, Cerocephalinae, Cleonyminae, Miscogastrinae, Pteromalinae and Spalangiinae. One species, Psilocera kartveli László et Kelemen sp. n., is described as a new for science, and the remaining 21 species are new records for the fauna of Georgia, from which 10 species are new for the Caucasus. All the 17 genera are recorded for the first time for the Georgian fauna. For each species, their biology and distribution are presented.
Michael P. D. Garratt, G. Arjen de Groot, Matthias Albrecht, Jordi Bosch, Tom D. Breeze, Michelle T. Fountain, Alexandra M. Klein, Megan McKerchar, Mia Park, Robert J. Paxton,et al.
Wiley
AbstractPollinators face multiple pressures and there is evidence of populations in decline. As demand for insect‐pollinated crops increases, crop production is threatened by shortfalls in pollination services. Understanding the extent of current yield deficits due to pollination and identifying opportunities to protect or improve crop yield and quality through pollination management is therefore of international importance. To explore the extent of “pollination deficits,” where maximum yield is not being achieved due to insufficient pollination, we used an extensive dataset on a globally important crop, apples. We quantified how these deficits vary between orchards and countries and we compared “pollinator dependence” across different apple varieties. We found evidence of pollination deficits and, in some cases, risks of overpollination were even apparent for which fruit quality could be reduced by too much pollination. In almost all regions studied we found some orchards performing significantly better than others in terms of avoiding a pollination deficit and crop yield shortfalls due to suboptimal pollination. This represents an opportunity to improve production through better pollinator and crop management. Our findings also demonstrated that pollinator dependence varies considerably between apple varieties in terms of fruit number and fruit quality. We propose that assessments of pollination service and deficits in crops can be used to quantify supply and demand for pollinators and help to target local management to address deficits although crop variety has a strong influence on the role of pollinators.
EDUARD KHACHIKOV, ELENA ILJINA, NARGIZ GASANOVA, and GEORGE JAPOSHVILI
Magnolia Press
A checklist of rove beetles recorded from the Republic of Dagestan (221 species) is given, with 47 new records from this region. The genus Oedichirus Erichson, 1839 (Oedichirus rubronotatus Pic, 1903) and species Stenus turk Puthz, 1972 are new additions to the fauna of Russia. Two new synonyms are established: Xantholinus dagestanicus Bordoni, 2011 syn. nov. and X. circassicus Bordoni, 2011 syn. nov. (both =Xantholinus variabilis Hochhuth, 1851).
Majid Fallahzadeh, George Japoshvili, and Nazila Saghaei
Informa UK Limited
Shunpei Fujie, George Japoshvili, and Jose Fernandez-Triana
Pensoft Publishers
The world species of the microgastrine genus Paroplitis (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) are revised. Three new species are described, P. horticola Fujie & Fernandez-Triana, sp. nov. and P. japonicus Fujie & Fernandez-Triana, sp. nov. from Japan and P. kakhetiensis Fujie, Japoshvili & Fernandez-Triana, sp. nov. from Georgia. P. vietnamensis van Achterberg & Fernandez-Triana, 2013 is re-described, based on additional specimens. P. wesmaeli Ruthe, 1860 is recorded from Georgia for the first time. A key to the nine known species (eight described and one undescribed) of the genus is provided.
GEORGE JAPOSHVILI and EDUARD KHACHIKOV
Magnolia Press
The rove beetles (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae) are one of the most diverse families of beetles comprising more than 63650 species worldwide (Irmler et al. 2018). It is the best studied coleopteran family in Georgia (Herman, 2001; Schülke & Smetana, 2015), with more than 750 species recorded (Tarkhnishvili & Chaladze, 2019). The first records of Staphylinidae from Lagodekhi were reported by Zhizhilashvili (1941), who recorded 12 species of rove beetles from the reserve: Anotylus hybridus Eppelsheim, 1878 as Oxytelus; Anotylus gibbulus Eppelsheim, 1878 as Oxytelus; Xantholinus variabilis Hochhuth, 1851; Cordalia obscura Gravenhorst; Philonthus parvicornis Gravenhorst, 1802 as P. agilis Gravenhorst; Stenus circularis Gravenhorst, 1802 as S. clavulus Hochhuth; S. cribratus Kiesenwetter, 1850; Tachyporus hypnorum (Fabricius, 1775); Ocypus nitens (Schrank, 1781) as Staphylinus similis Fabricius; Quedius minor Hochhuth, 1849 as Q. distincticolor Roubal; Aleochara intricata Mannerheim; Olophrum caucasicum Fauvel, 1875. The record of Medon bicolor (Olivier, 1795) (as Sunius) in the same paper is erroneous because the species is absent from Georgia. Coiffait (1969) described Quedius grouziacus as a new species from Lagodekhi, however the species was later synonymized with Q. suramensis Epelsheim, 1880 by Solodovnikov (2002). Ushakov (1988) recorded Gauropterus sanguinipes Reitter, 1889, Gyrohypnus angustatus Stephens,1832 and Atrecus affinis (Paykull, 1789) as Baptolinus affinis caucasius Roubal, 1933. Gusarov and Koval (2002) registered Korgella caucasica (Gusarov & Koval, 2002; Özdikmen, 2005), as Heinzia. Later Shavrin & Khachikov (2019) added Acrolocha amabilis (Heer, 1841) which was new to the staphylinid fauna of Georgia. There have been no other focused studies on the Staphylinidae of Lagodekhi Protected Areas (LPA), though we recognize that there are likely further records in the literature.
Serguei V. Triapitsyn, Chrysalyn Dominguez, John T. Huber, George Japoshvili, and John M. Heraty
Informa UK Limited
ABSTRACT Based on morphological and molecular evidence, the European fairyfly Herulia sundholmi Hedqvist syn. n. (Hymenoptera: Mymaridae) is removed from previous synonymy with the Nearctic Macrocamptoptera metotarsa (Girault), and synonymised with the Palaearctic M. grangeri Soyka, which is newly recorded from Georgia, Slovakia and Spain. Macrocamptoptera bulagarica (Donev) syn. n., known from Bulgaria and Italy, is also synonymised with M. grangeri. An updated key to females of the three currently recognised species of the rarely collected genus Macrocamptoptera Girault is given.
YURI M. MARUSIK, S. OTTO, and G. JAPOSHVILI
Magnolia Press
A new species, Amaurobius caucasicus sp. n., is described based on the holotype male and two male paratypes from Eastern Georgia. A similar species, A. hercegovinensis Kulczyński, 1915, known only from the original description is redescribed. The taxonomic status of Amaurobius species considered as nomina dubia and species described outside the Holarctic are also assessed. Amaurobius koponeni Marusik, Ballarin & Omelko, 2012, syn. n. described from northern India is a junior synonym of A. jugorum L. Koch, 1868 and Amaurobius yanoianus Nakatsudi, 1943, syn. n. described from Micronesia is synonymised with the titanoecid species Pandava laminata (Thorell, 1878) a species known from Eastern Africa to Polynesia. Considerable size variation in A. antipovae Marusik et Kovblyuk, 2004 is briefly discussed.
Paul H. Williams, Dorjsuren Altanchimeg, Alexandr Byvaltsev, Roland De Jonghe, Saleem Jaffar, George Japoshvili, Sih Kahono, Huan Liang, Maurizio Mei, Alireza Monfared,et al.
Museum National D'Histoire Naturelle
Species are often presumed to be apparent in nature, but in practice they may be difficult to recognise, especially when viewed across continents rather than within a single site. Coalescent-based Poisson-tree-process (PTP) models applied to fast-evolving genes promise one quantitative criterion for recognising species, complete with the estimates of uncertainty that are required of a scientific method. Such methods face challenges especially in discerning between widespread polytypic species and complexes of closely related, restricted-range species. In particular, ‘over-sampling’ of many closely related individuals within one species could risk causing groups of less closely-related individuals within other species appearing relatively more distinct and consequently could risk them being interpreted falsely as separate species. Some of the most persistent taxonomic problems among bumblebees (genus Bombus Latreille, 1802) are within the subgenus Melanobombus von Dalla Torre, 1880. For a global revision of Melanobombus species, we use COI barcodes and seek to reduce the risk from localised over-sampling by filtering the data to include only unique haplotypes. Unique haplotypes give more conservative results than unfiltered data, but still increase the number of species in comparison with recent morphological treatments. After integrative assessment of COI coalescents in comparison with morphological groups, the number of accepted species shows a non-linear increase with sample size that plateaus to an increase of 47% (to 25 species) compared with a previous estimate (of 17) based on morphology alone. For the most widespread and variable species-complexes, our revised species improve the match to the patterns expected of species, both for genetic divergence-with-distance and for sympatry, leading to three main inferences. (1) The particularly widespread polytypic Bombus sichelii Radoszkowski, 1859, is a single species. (2) We detect two candidates for species within previous broad concepts of each of the former B. lapidarius (Linnaeus, 1758), B. miniatus Bingham, 1897, and B. rufofasciatus Smith, 1852. Within B. lapidarius s. lat. we find insufficient evidence to corroborate the candidate species, with no coalescent or morphological support for a recent claim for a separate species, B. bisiculus Lecocq, Biella, Martinet & Rasmont, 2019 described from southern Italy, but rather we find a weak and uncorroborated coalescent for a different and much broader group of samples from across southeastern Europe but excluding Turkey. Within the former broad concepts of B. miniatus s. lat. and B. rufofasciatus s. lat. the coalescent evidence is stronger and subtle evidence from morphology corroborates recognising B. miniatus s. str. and B. eurythorax Wang, 1892 stat. rev. as separate species as well as B. rufofasciatus s. str. and B. prshewalskyi Morawitz, 1880 stat. rev. as separate species. (3) Our coalescent and morphological results ‘split’ more clearly what has long been interpreted as a single polytypic B. keriensis Morawitz, 1887, s. lat., by supporting novel concepts of the restricted-range species: B. alagesianus Reinig, 1930 stat. rev., B. incertoides Vogt, 1911 stat. rev., B. keriensis s. str., B. qilianensis sp. nov., B. separandus Vogt, 1909 stat. rev., and B. tibeticus sp. nov. A lectotype is designated for the name B. keriensis and a neotype is designated for the name B. alagesianus. We estimate the phylogeny of Melanobombus species by including three slower-evolving genes to provide more evidence for deeper relationships, to estimate the time calibration of this phylogeny, and to estimate ancestral distributions, all within a Bayesian framework. We provide the first keys for identifying all of the species of Melanobombus.
George JAPOSHVILI
The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK-ULAKBIM) - DIGITAL COMMONS JOURNALS
The aim of the present study was to investigate species diversity and distribution of Aphelinus species in an elevational gradient in the Lagodekhi Reserve (Sakartvelo - Georgia) throughout a growing season. Two species of Aphelinus Dalman, 1820 (Hymenoptera: Aphelinidae), A. humilis Mercet and A. thomsoni Graham, are recorded for the first time from Georgia and the Caucasus and two species (A. lagodekhiensis sp. nov. and A. sugonjaevi sp. nov.) are described as new to science. To facilitate species identification we have developed a key to the females of all 24 species of Aphelinus currently known from the Middle East and the Caucasus. Both species richness and abundance of Aphelinus increased with increasing elevation, although no statistically significant relationship was found. Maximum diversity and abundance were observed in July, and this was more pronounced at higher elevations.
MAJID FALLAHZADEH, GEORGE JAPOSHVILI, and EMILIO GUERRIERI
Magnolia Press
A correction to an oversight in a recently published checklist of Iranian species of Encyrtidae (Hymenoptera, Chalcidoidea) is presented, along with recommended amendments, resulting in 173 species belonging to 51 genera.
George Japoshvili and Majid Fallahzadeh
Informa UK Limited
The description and illustrations of a new species, Anagyrus planococci sp. n. (Hymenoptera: Chalcidoidea: Encyrtidae), reared from Planococcus ficus (Signoret) (Hemiptera: Pseudococcidae) on Vitis vinifera L. in southern Iran are presented. The species is closely related to Anagyrus luci Noyes & Hayat, 1994 and A. albatus Myartseva, 1982. http://www.zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:7C09C93D-D518-401F-A9B8-6CFC12F0656C
G. Japoshvili, Lerzan Erkılıç, Asime Filiz Çalışkan, and M. Bora Kaydan
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Stefan Otto and George Japoshvili
Arachology
Abstract In the largest systematic spider collection effort in a single location in the Caucasus Ecoregion, across several altitudinal zones and throughout the entire vegetation period of one year, 426 juvenile and 359 adult spiders belonging to 69 species from 48 genera and 19 families were collected in the Lagodekhi Reserve, Georgia, in 2014, using Malaise traps on a transect with seven study plots between 666 and 2559 m a.s.l. in the montane, subalpine, and alpine vegetation zones. Phoroncidia pilula (Karsch, 1879) is recorded in the Western Palaearctic for the first time. Thirty-eight species are recorded in the Lagodekhi Reserve for the first time, raising the number of spider species of this reserve to 202, five additions are first records for the Caucasus Ecoregion and ten species are first records for Georgia. Diagnostic drawings and analyses are provided for 13 species, including Megalepthyphantes pseudocollinus Saaristo, 1997, Phoroncidia paradoxa (Lucas, 1846), P. pilula (Karsch, 1879), and Trochosa cachetiensis Mcheidze, 1997. An updated checklist of the spiders in the Lagodekhi Reserve is provided.