This study aims to determine the reasons for the increase in the frequency of sand and dust storms in the Middle East and to identify their sources and mitigate them. A set of climatic data from 60 years (1960–2022) was analyzed. Sand storms in Iraq are a silty sand mature arkose composed of 72.7% sand, 25.1% silt, and 2.19% clay; the clay fraction in dust storms constitutes 70%, with a small amount of silt (20.6%) and sand (9.4%). Dust and sand storms (%) are composed of quartz (49.2, 67.1), feldspar (4.9, 20.9), calcite (38, 5), gypsum (4.8, 0.4), dolomite (0.8, 1.0), and heavy minerals (3.2, 6.6). Increasing temperatures in Iraq, by an average of 2 °C for sixty years, have contributed to an increase in the number of dust storm

In this study, the genus Xylocopa Latreille, 1802 (Hymenoptera: Apidae) was revised. There were 4 species registered in our investigations: X. hottentotta Smith, 1854; X. olivieri Lepeletier, 1841; X. pubescens Spinola, 1838 and X. valga Gerstäcker, 1872, the first species was described as being found for the first time for the insect fauna of Iraq, which were obtained from Solanum melogena L. flowers. Key to the species was constructed and supported by figures of the main diagnostic characters and some morphological features, illustrated and compared with other species, which are recorded in the current survey.

The ground pearls, Porphyrophora tritici (Bod.) is a new insect pest on wheat recorded for
the first time from Mousl Province, North of Iraq.

rhabditid Mesorhabditis franseni Fuchs, 1933 (Family, Mesorhabditidae) and pratylenchid nematode Pratylenchus goodeyi Sher and Allen, 1953 (Family, Pratylenchidae). They were illustrated by molecular aspects. All specimens of both genera were cultured and reproduced for DNA extraction. M. franseni (IRQ.ZAh2 PP528819.1 isolate) was characterized. P. goodeyi (IRQ.ZAh5 PP535537 isolate) was also characterized. Selected specimens of these two species were molecularly characterized using the partial ITS-rRNA gene sequences. The ITS-rRNA sequence of IRQ.ZAh2 PP528819.1 isolate had a range of (98.62%-100%) sequence homology with ITS-rRNA sequence of M. franseni available in NCBI database. While, the ITS-rRNA sequence of IRQ.ZAh5 PP535537 isolate h

One male specimen of the species Metapenaeus stebbingi Nobili, 1904 was first recorded in November 2021 from the Iraqi territorial waters, Northwest of the Arabian Gulf. Therefore, the investigated shrimp species nominally corresponds to the original description of M. stebbing through the main diagnostic features. It must be adopted in the spread and expansion of species, a new record of the area, and a distinctive addition to the species of commercial shrimp within the Iraqi marine waters.

   The aim of this paper is to present the first record of ctenophore species Pleurobrachia pileus (O. F. Müller, 1776) in the coral reef as was recently found in Iraqi marine waters. The specimens were collected from two sites, the first was in Khor Abdullah during May 2015, and the second site was located in the pelagic water of the coral reef area, near the Al-Basrah deep sea crude oil marine loading terminal. Three samples were collected at this site during May 2015, February and March 2018 which showed that P. pileus were present at a densities of 3.0, 2.2 and 0.55 ind./ m³ respectively. The species can affect on the abundance of other zooplankton community through predation.

    A total of 54 abu mullet Planiliza abu (Heckel, 1843) were collected from two stations (north and south stations) along the Euphrates River near Samawa City, Al-Muthanna province and were examined during the period from October 2016 till September 2017 for parasites. Six out of 35 examined fishes from the north station (17.1%) and one out of 19 examined fishes (5.3%) from south station were infected with the microcotylid Solostamenides paucitesticulatus Kritsky & Öktener, 2015. The parasite was illustrated and described, and it is considered as a new record for the parasitic fauna of fishes of Iraq.

The species Spongilla lacustris was identified for the first time in Iraq, it was found during winter 1998 in an irrigation canal within the campus of the University of Baghdad (Jadiriah), water is drawn from Tigris river. The specimens were found in water samples of sizes ranging between 5-50 cm with yellowish color . It was found in two habitats , one as attached on submerged aquatic plant Ceratophyllum sp., and the other on the canal bottom (concret material). Some physico- chemical characters were determined including conductivity ,salinity , pH, total alkalinity, total hardness, Ca ,Mg ,anddissolved oxygen. Water quality was fresh , alkaline, hard and well aerated.