Editorial

Abstract

Volume 40 of Systematic Entomology comprises 44 original papers, an editorial, 2 opinion pieces and 3 book reviews. This will be the last year that we will publish Book Reviews, as they will now be published in our Royal Entomological Society sister journal Antenna. We will continue to solicit overviews of the systematics of specific groups when available, opinions on contentious issues, and produce timely virtual issues to reflect publication trends in the field of insect systematics. This year was definitely the year of the beetle, with 15 papers published in Systematic Entomology specifically devoted to Coleoptera phylogeny and systematics. This is a particularly important volume for those interested in the beetle Tree of Life, with papers on the higher phylogeny of Coleoptera (McKenna et al., 2015b), Staphyliniformia and Scarabaeiformia (McKenna et al., 2015a), Cucujoidea (Robertson et al., 2015; McElrath et al. 2015), and various families such as Buprestidae (Evans et al., 2015), Histeridae (Caterino & Tishechkin, 2015; Leivas et al., 2015), Hydroscaphidae (Short et al., 2015), Boganiidae (Escalona et al., 2015) and Coccinellidae (Szawaryn et al., 2015). Similarly, for those interested in the Tree of Life for moths and butterflies, we published important papers on the higher phylogeny of Lepidoptera by Kristensen et al. (2015) and Regier et al. (2015a,b), along with papers on Geometridae (Sihvonen et al., 2015), Lycaenidae (Boyle et al., 2015), Sphingidae (Ponce et al., 2015) and Nymphalidae (Gemmell & Marcus, 2015). The papers by Schutze et al. (2015a,b) are excellent examples of integrative taxonomy yielding results for applied pest diagnostics with tangible international implications for trade and politics. The Oriental fruit fly (Bactrocera dorsalis (Hendel)) is one of the most destructive pests in horticulture, beset by a problematic taxonomic identity associated with phenotypic variation and provincial taxonomic assessments. In their assessment of the taxonomic identity of B. dorsalis among three other associated names, Schutze et al. (2015a,b) provide an a detailed and compelling argument for synonymy and stabilization of the identity of this species with far reaching implications for international trade in horticulture throughout the world. The situation regarding the validity of nomenclatural information when made available in Early View prior to journal issue and page allocation was aired in an Opinion piece at the start of the year (Cranston et al. (2015). The problem arose when the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature amended its rules to permit electronic-only publication, but failed to address explicitly our situation in which electronic content is available as Early View prior to inclusion in a journal issue. Some taxonomists believe Early View articles to be pre-publications, and any nomenclatural actions contained therefore unavailable. The editors and management of this journal disagree: such articles are immutable, include the date of e-publication, have a permanent DOI and therefore are valid for nomenclatural purposes. Between 1 January and mid-October 2015, 95 submissions were received, with an average of 9.5 papers submitted per month. A significant number of manuscripts were rejected either before, or after review, and Systematic Entomology had an acceptance rate in 2015 of 50.6%. As editors of Systematic Entomology, we will continue to be highly selective among submissions as we strive to attract and publish only the finest papers on insect systematics. The geographical breakdown by corresponding author of the 49 original contributions published is as follows: USA (20), Australia (6), P.R. China and Brazil (3 each), Finland, France Poland, United Kingdom (2 each), Germany, Czech Republic, New Zealand, Switzerland, Japan, Canada, Sweden, Belgium and Denmark (1 each). We thank all contributors for the effort they put into their papers, and all reviewers and board members for helping to improve the quality of the journal.