We critically examine Peruvian taxa belonging to the genera Drymaeus Albers, 1850 and Mesembrinus Albers, 1850, verify their original reference, and figure type materials, if located in and available from museums. We include additional photographs of non-type material when they are deemed useful to show variation. Original figures from the literature are reproduced for some species where photographs of type material are unavailable. We list precise localities in Peru where each species has been collected and map each species. Where possible, the ecoregions in which each species occurs are indicated. A brief history of research on Drymaeus and Mesembrinus from Peru is included. We recognise 94 valid species of Drymaeus and Mesembrinus. Additionally, we list 10 taxa that have been erroneously or doubtfully reported from Peru, 10 that are nomina inquirandi, and four species that have been transferred to another genus. We believe that our checklist may serve as a baseline document for further research. It can be seen as an intermediate step in the revision of these genera, which will require additional anatomical or molecular study to achieve a stable classification. The following new species are introduced: Drymaeus araujoi Vega-Luz, Breure & Mogollón; Drymaeus nebulosum Breure & Ablett; Mesembrinus marmoratus Breure, Mogollón & Vega-Luz; Mesembrinus purpuralabrum Breure, Mogollón & Vega-Luz. Two species are reported from the Peruvian malacofauna for the first time: Drymaeus fusoides (d’Orbigny, 1835) and Drymaeus tigrinus (S.I. da Costa, 1898). We propose the following new combinations: Drymaeus combinai (Weyrauch, 1958); Mesembrinus acobambensis (Weyrauch, 1967); Mesembrinus anceps (Albers, 1854); Mesembrinus angulobasis (Pilsbry, 1944); Mesembrinus apicepunctata (Preston, 1914); Mesembrinus bequaerti (Weyrauch, 1956); Mesembrinus cactivorus (Broderip, 1832); Mesembrinus chrysomelas (E. von Martens, 1867); Mesembrinus clathratus (L. Pfeiffer, 1858); Mesembrinus coelestini (F. Haas, 1952); Mesembrinus cuzcoensis (Reeve, 1849); Mesembrinus cylindricus (S.I. da Costa, 1901); Mesembrinus eucosmetus (F. Haas, 1955); Mesembrinus farrisi (L. Pfeiffer, 1858); Mesembrinus inconspicuus (F. Haas, 1949); Mesembrinus lamas (Higgins, 1868); Mesembrinus laxostylus (Rolle, 1904); Mesembrinus leucomelas (Albers, 1854); Mesembrinus libertadensis (Pilsbry, 1898); Mesembrinus mexicanus (Lamarck, 1822); Mesembrinus miltochrous (Albers, 1854); Mesembrinus nigroapicatus (L. Pfeiffer, 1857); Mesembrinus paeteli (Albers, 1854); Mesembrinus pergracilis (Rolle, 1904); Mesembrinus phryne (L. Pfeiffer, 1863); Mesembrinus praetextus (Reeve, 1849); Mesembrinus pseudobesus (Breure, 1979); Mesembrinus pulcherrimus (H. Adams, 1867); Mesembrinus rosalbus (Pilsbry, 1932); Mesembrinus sachsei (Albers, 1854); Mesembrinus scitulus (Reeve, 1849); Mesembrinus silvanus (Zilch, 1953); Mesembrinus succinea (Pilsbry, 1901); Mesembrinus trujillensis (Philippi, 1867); Mesembrinus vespertinus (L. Pfeiffer, 1858); Mesembrinus zilchi (F. Haas, 1955); “Mesembrinus” vexillum (W. Wood Sr, 1828). The following junior subjective synonyms are established: Drymaeus aurantiostomus Thompson & Deisler, 1982 = Drymaeus branneri F. Baker, 1914; Drymaeus eusteirus Pilsbry, 1944 = Bulimus chanchamayensis Hidalgo, 1870; Drymaeus (Mormus) expansus flavilabrum Weyrauch, 1967 = Bulimus expansus L. Pfeiffer, 1848; Drymaeus (Orodrymaeus) farrisi quadritaeniatus Weyrauch, 1956 = Bulimus farrisi Pfeiffer, 1858; Drymaeus (Drymaeus) latitesta F. Haas, 1952 = Bulimus icterostomus E. von Martens, 1901; Drymaeus beyerleanus mitchelli Dall 1912 = Bulimus beyerleanus Hupé 1857; Bulimus (Liostracus) fuscobasis E.A. Smith, 1877 = Bulimus rectilinearis L. Pfeiffer, 1855; Bulimus recedens L. Pfeiffer, 1864 = Bulimus serratus L. Pfeiffer, 1855; Gonyostomus subhybridus S.I. da Costa, 1906 = Otostomus pulcherrimus H. Adams, 1867; Mesembrinus (Ornatimormus) henrypilsbryi densestrigatus Weyrauch, 1958 = Mesembrinus (Ornatimormus) henrypilsbryi pichitacalugaënsis Weyrauch 1958 = Mesembrinus (Ornatimormus) henrypilsbryi Weyrauch, 1958 = Bulimulus pergracilis Rolle, 1904; Bulimus canarius L. Pfeiffer, 1867 = Bulimus trujillensis Philippi, 1867; Bulimus serenus Philippi, 1867 = “Mesembrinus” vexillum (Wood, 1828). The generic placements of “Drymaeus” expansus (L. Pfeiffer, 1848) and “Mesembrinus” vexillum (W. Wood Sr, 1828) are provisionally pending future molecular study. The need for additional research is demonstrated by the fact that for 15 species only imprecise localities are known, while for 33 species no records are available within the last 50 years.

A catalogue of the dispersed collection of the land snails of the Macaronesian Islands described by and attributed to R. T. Lowe is presented. The provenance of the material which relates primarily to T. V. Wollaston, his wife Edith Shepherd, Col. L. Worthington-Wilmer and H. B. Preston is discussed. Parts of the dispersed collection have been located in fifteen institutions in the United Kingdom, Ireland, The Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Israel and the United States of America. The list (Appendix 1) comprises 216 nominal taxa attributable to Lowe of which 9 are infra-subspecific, introduced as subvarieties. In addition 8 manuscript names have been included. Possible type material of all but 21 have been located, these comprising 17 varieties and 4 subvarieties. A total of 9537 specimens have been located. The verification of the type status is discussed and a ranking of the type resources is attempted. Evidence is lacking to either corroborate or dismiss the syntype status of the majority of the material but past nomenclatural acts have selected lectotypes from many parts. Furthermore many museums consider the co-types distributed by H. B. Preston to be of syntype status. Only the shells stated to be figured in the 1831 and 1860 papers can be considered as figured syntypes, and these are figured in Appendix 2.

The outer layer of the pollen grain, the exine, plays a key role in the survival of terrestrial plant life. However, the exine structure in different groups of plants remains enigmatic. Here, modern and fossil coniferous bisaccate pollen were examined to investigate the detailed three-dimensional structure and properties of the pollen wall. X-ray nanotomography and volume electron microscopy are used to provide high-resolution imagery, revealing a solid nanofoam structure. Atomic force microscopy measurements were used to compare the pollen wall with other natural and synthetic foams and to demonstrate that the mechanical properties of the wall in this type of pollen are retained for millions of years in fossil specimens. The microscopic structure of this robust biological material has potential applications in materials sciences and also contributes to our understanding of the evolutionary success of conifers and other plants over geological time.

The authors describe the early stages, totally unknown of the species of Sphingidae emblematic of New Caledonia. They discuss possible host plants of the species, which all belong to the family Cunoniaceae. Without questioning the validity of the Ambulycini tribe, they question its characterization on the criterion of the pupa put forward by Nakamura (1977). All larval stages, from egg to chrysalis, are illustrated.

A study of 100 papers from five journals that make use of bioacoustic recordings shows that only a minority (21%) deposit any of the recordings in a repository, supplementary materials section or a personal website. This lack of deposition hinders re-use of the raw data by other researchers, prevents the reproduction of a project's analyses and confirmation of its findings and impedes progress within the broader bioacoustics community. We make some recommendations for researchers interested in depositing their data.

All skeletal marine invertebrate phyla appeared during the Cambrian explosion, except for Bryozoa with mineralized skeletons, which first appear in the Early Ordovician. However, the skeletal diversity of Early Ordovician bryozoans suggests a preceding interval of diversification. We report a possible earliest occurrence of palaeostomate bryozoans in limestones of the Cambrian Age 4 Harkless Formation, western United States. Following recent interpretations of the early Cambrian Protomelission as a soft-bodied bryozoan, our findings add to the evidence of early Cambrian roots for the Bryozoa. The Harkless fossils resemble some esthonioporate and cystoporate bryozoans, showing a radiating pattern of densely packed tubes of the same diameter and cross-sectional shape. Further, they show partitioning of new individuals from parent tubes through the formation of a separate wall, a characteristic of interzooecial budding in bryozoans. If confirmed as bryozoans, these fossils would push back the appearance of mineralized skeletons in this phylum by ~30 million years and impact interpretations of their evolution.

Abstract - Bryozoans (also known as ectoprocts or moss animals) are aquatic, dominantly sessile, filter-feeding lophophorates that construct an organic or calcareous modular colonial (clonal) exoskeleton<jats:sup>1–3</jats:sup>. The presence of six major orders of bryozoans with advanced polymorphisms in lower Ordovician rocks strongly suggests a Cambrian origin for the largest and most diverse lophophorate phylum<jats:sup>2,4–8</jats:sup>. However, a lack of convincing bryozoan fossils from the Cambrian period has hampered resolution of the true origins and character assembly of the earliest members of the group. Here we interpret the millimetric, erect, bilaminate, secondarily phosphatized fossil <jats:italic>Protomelission gatehousei</jats:italic><jats:sup>9</jats:sup> from the early Cambrian of Australia and South China as a potential stem-group bryozoan. The monomorphic zooid capsules, modular construction, organic composition and simple linear budding growth geometry represent a mixture of organic Gymnolaemata and biomineralized Stenolaemata character traits, with phylogenetic analyses identifying <jats:italic>P. gatehousei</jats:italic> as a stem-group bryozoan. This aligns the origin of phylum Bryozoa with all other skeletonized phyla in Cambrian Age 3, pushing back its first occurrence by approximately 35 million years. It also reconciles the fossil record with molecular clock estimations of an early Cambrian origination and subsequent Ordovician radiation of Bryozoa following the acquisition of a carbonate skeleton<jats:sup>10–13</jats:sup>.