Nova vrsta i novi nalazi roda Harpactea bristowe, 1939 (araneae, dysderidae) sa Balkanskog poluostrva

The present study fills a knowledge gap in the distribution and genetic variation of Morimus populations in the Balkans, by studiyng the representatives of the genus in Bulgaria - M.asperfunereus Mulsant, 1862, M.verecundusbulgaricus Danilevsky, 2016 and M.orientalis Reitter, 1894. Additional information is provided for Albania and northern Greece. The mitochondrial cytochrome C oxidase subunit I (COI) marker and the nuclear internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) were used for the genetic analyses. Three of the previously-defined mitochondrial lineages (Lb/HgA, L2 and L3) were detected in Bulgaria, as well as a new lineage (Str) from the Strandzha Mountains (south-eastern Bulgaria). A total of 24 distinct haplotypes, 20 of them in Bulgaria, were found. Bulgarian populations of Morimus demonstrated relatively high nucleotide diversity. The L3 COI lineage was confirmed as the most diverse and frequent in the Balkans. The L3 lineage is dominant in most of Bulgaria, but was not identified in the easternmost parts near the Black Sea coast, where the L2 and Str lineages were found. New data highlighted two dispersal routes of the L2 mitochondrial lineage on the Balkan Peninsula: 1) northwards along the Black Sea coast and 2) westwards, across the Balkans where only disjunct populations remain. North-western Bulgaria seems to be the eastern limit of the basal lineage Lb/HgA distribution. Our results show high levels of genetic exchange between most of the mitochondrially defined lineages, yet some of the easternmost populations probably remained isolated for comparatively longer periods.

A multivariate analyses of various morphological characters (morphometric, meristic and qualitative) of nose-horned viper (Vipera ammodytes) revealed a complex morphological differentiation of populations from the central and the eastern Balkan Peninsula. Analyses of quantitative data showed no clear morphological discrimination or well-defined taxonomical units. On the contrary, analyses of qualitative traits separated two discrete taxa in the analysed area. One, inhabiting the eastern and the southern part of the Balkans, includes samples from most parts of Bulgaria, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and south-eastern Serbia, whereas the other ranges from north-western Bulgaria through the main part of Serbia (except the south-east) to Montenegro.

Ramonda serbica Panč. (Gesneriaceae) is an endangered endemic species of the Balkan Peninsula which has been the subject of several studies in the past, but has not yet been investigated in terms of its genetic variation. Ramonda serbica is one of only five European representatives of the mainly subtropical family Gesneriaceae categorized as paleoendemics or Tertiary relicts sequestered in southern Europe by Quaternary climate oscillations. Here, an inter simple sequence repeat (ISSR) analysis was performed to determine the genetic diversity of five populations sampled from the geographically eastern fringe of its range in northwestern Bulgaria. We found relatively low levels of genetic diversity and significant genetic differentiation among the investigated populations, typical of a leading edge scenario. From a conservation point of view, the low genetic diversity, together with the presence of only few extant localities stress the need for urgent in situ and ex situ conservation actions to ensure the long‐term survival of R. serbica in Bulgaria.

The paper offers a historical survey of the development of Early Iron Age cultures in Danubian Serbia, its characteristics, relations with contemporary cultures of the Pannonian Plain, the Balkans, Carpathian Romania (Transylvania) and the Romanian Banat. It describes the genesis of individual cultures, their styles, typological features and interrelationships. Danubian Serbia is seen as a contact zone reflecting influences of the Central European Urnenfelder culture on the one hand, and those of the Gornea-Kalakaca and the Bosut-Basarabi complex on the other. The latter?s penetration into the central Balkans south of the Sava and Danube rivers has been registered in the Morava valley, eastern Serbia north-western Bulgaria and as far south as northern Macedonia. The terminal Early Iron Age is marked by the occurrence of Scythian finds in the southern Banat, Backa or around the confluence of the Sava and the Danube (e.g. Ritopek), and by representative finds of the Srem group in Srem and around the confluence of the Tisa and Danube rivers. The powerful penetration of Celtic tribes from Central Europe into the southern Pannonian Plain marked the end of the Early Iron Age.