Through as much as eight different states, three economic concepts and three wars over the last 137 years, Botanical Garden lost most of its plant collections, documents and records. The plants in collections have been replaced and changed over the years, but what was left of the data preceding the Second World War is yet to be reconstructed. Since the content of the historic collections is still largely unknown, any information about their dynamics is welcome. Until recently, the Garden database established after 1948 was considered to be the comprehensive inventory of plant species. Late in 2025, a misplaced bundle of 673 paper-cardlets was discovered, each carrying a single species name. This brought to light previously unknown allochthonous plants and sources of material grown in collections between the 1950ies and 1990ies. For more of 200 species this was the first record of existence in the Garden collections.

Eocene paralic and incised-valley sediments of eastern Adriatic Rab Island, as a part of western Tethys, comprise 23 horizons of soft- and brittle-sediment deformations interbedded with undeformed shoreface heterolithic sediments and estuarine tidal sandstone bodies. The deformed sediments span in thickness 0.5-8 m, and can be traced for 0.5 km. The soft-sediment deformations include: pseudonodules, flame structures and abiotically homogenized sediments, whereas brittle-sediment deformations consist of sand-injection dykes, small-scale faults and sand wedges The studied succession of Rab Island sandstones documents Eocene paleoseismicity characterized by major seismic events possibly reaching M7 magnitude. Their epicenters were probably located over 100 km from the study area, but some may have been also on Rab Island itself as inferred from synsedimentary kink folds and associated blind thrust faults.

Euscorpius lagostae Di Caporiacco, 1950, a poorly studied endemic species belonging to the Euscorpius hadzii Di Caporiacco, 1950 species complex, is redescribed with the first morphological illustrations and confirmed by molecular phylogenetic analysis based on broader sampling. New distribution records of E. lagostae from the western part of the Pelješac Peninsula, and Hvar Island are presented, and the first ecological insights into this neglected species are provided. This study represents the first step toward resolving the taxonomic status of the genetically closest taxa distributed along the coastal area from the Neretva River mouth to Montenegro, including the southeastern coast of the Pelješac Peninsula, Lokrum and Mljet Islands, and southern Herzegovina. Newly collected samples near Višegrad in the northeastern Dinarides (Bosnia and Herzegovina) and near the Adriatic coast, close to the Neretva River mouth (Croatia), revealed deeply divergent genetic lineages basal to the E. lagostae group.

Croatian bryoflora is still quite underexplored, with new studies gradually filling in the gaps. During multiple field surveys conducted between 2022 and 2025 two new and six rare bryophyte species were found. New for the checklist of Croatian bryophytes are Didymodon umbrosus (Müll. Hal.) R. H. Zander and Bartramia ithyphylla Brid. Species Cinclidotus danubicus Schiffn. & Baumgartner is confirmed for Croatia with three new records. Valuable new records are provided for Fissidens arnoldii R. Ruthe, Drepanocladus lycopodioides (Brid.) Warnst and Physcomitrium sphaericum (C. F. Ludw. ex Schkuhr) Brid., previously known from one or two localities each. Dicranum flagellare Hedw. is confirmed 93 years since the last record, ultimately providing the fourth known locality of this species in Croatia. New information is gained on the distribution of the rare Mediterranean species Scorpiurium sendtneri (Schimp.) M. Fleisch. in Southern Croatia, previously known from six localities, but mostly from the Northern Adriatic.

In this faunistic contribution, we report the first record of the desert locust, Schistocerca gregaria (Forskål, 1775) (Acrididae: Cyrtacanthacridinae), in Croatia after more than 100 years. Specimen of this migratory species was photographed in April 2025 near Dubrovnik, southern Croatia. Reliably known from only two previous records, one reported by Padewieth from Senj in 1900 and another by Langhoffer from Dalmatia in the 1920s, the Dubrovnik finding represents the third known occurrence of this species along the Croatian coast.

The Croatian Natural History Museum is pleased to announce the international congress “180 Years of Dedication to Natural History Heritage – A Museum for the Future”, which will be held in the Croatian Natural History Museum, Zagreb, Croatia, from 7 to 9 December 2026. Organised to mark the 180th anniversary of the Croatian Natural History Museum (1846–2026), the congress celebrates nearly two centuries of scientific excellence, stewardship of natural history collections, and dedication to research, education, and public engagement. The anniversary offers a unique opportunity to reflect on the Museum’s legacy while addressing the challenges and opportunities facing natural history museums in the twenty-first century.

The present study provides the first comprehensive overview of the butterfly fauna of the Elaphiti Islands. The research includes data from the three inhabited islands of the archipelago – Šipan, Lopud, and Koločep (Kalamota), as well as a smaller number of records from other islands and islets within the archipelago. It was conducted during all seasons, in the period from 2018 to 2024, which was preceded by one visit in 2015. The highest number of field visits was carried out on the island of Lopud, and a total of 58 butterfly species were recorded. Analyzing the islands individually, the largest number of species (55) was recorded on the largest island of Šipan, followed by Lopud with 50 species and Koločep with 42 species. A comparison with other Adriatic islands indicates that Lopud and Šipan are currently among the best-studied islands, featuring significant species and habitat diversity on the archipelago. The first record of Kirinia roxelana on the Adriatic islands is also reported as well as new distribution data for Gegenes pumilio. These findings provide a valuable contribution to the biogeography of butterflies in the Mediterranean region of Croatia.

Long-term sampling and monitoring programs often generate by-catch of non-target taxa, which are rarely analysed despite their potential to reveal previously undocumented biodiversity. In this study, we exploited by-catch from emergence traps, originally deployed for studying emerging aquatic insects, to investigate Collembola diversity of the Plitvice Lakes National Park. Collembola are ubiquitous and abundant soil microarthropods that inhabit numerous terrestrial and semiaquatic habitats. However, aside from a single previous record, they have never been systematically studied in the Plitvice Lakes, and their diversity remains poorly known and largely overlooked in Croatia. Samples from emergence traps were collected monthly from 2007 to 2022 at two karst springs and two tufa barriers, yielding 1,682 Collembola specimens. A total of 41 species from 21 genera and eight families were identified, including one genus newly recorded for Croatia (Vertagopus) and five species (Desoria hiemalis (Schött, 1893), Desoria tigrina (Tullberg, 1871), Entomobrya corticalis (Nicolet, 1842), Vertagopus cinereus (Nicolet, 1842), and Willowsia platani (Nicolet, 1842)). The order Entomobryomorpha dominated across sites. Springs were associated with higher specimen numbers, whereas tufa barriers exhibited greater species richness. Seasonal dynamics were evident, with peak abundances in spring and autumn and lowest numbers during winter. Non-metric multidimensional scaling ordination revealed very similar Collembola composition at two spring sites, reflecting their similar habitat characteristics. Although emergence traps are not specifically designed for Collembola sampling, the dataset provides valuable insights into community composition, diversity and seasonal patterns of this group. Our study demonstrates that non-standardized sampling methods and by-catch analysis can significantly expand knowledge of understudied arthropod groups. This is the first study on Collembola communities in the Plitvice Lakes National Park, which also underscores the need for further targeted surveys and taxonomic research of this understudied group in Croatia.

This paper presents the cecidological collection held in the zoological collection of the Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb. The collection was assembled by Vlasta Mužny as part of her graduate thesis research in 1953. Most of the galls were sampled in the vicinity of the town of Nova Gradiška, in continental Croatia. In total, 56 galls were recorded, induced by insect species belonging to the orders Hymenoptera, Hemiptera and Diptera, and by Acari. Most of them are well preserved, and Contarinia cybelae Gagné, 1972, is new to Croatia. This collection is one of the few publicly available zoocecidia collections in Croatia stressing the importance of preserving natural history collections within university departments. By making this collection accessible, it can support further research in taxonomy, systematics, and conservation.

Opportunistic surveys on odonates were conducted in the different parts of central India between January 2020 and December 2022. The survey revealed occurrence of two Coenagrionidae damselflies Ishnura rufostigma rufostigma Selys, 1876 and Aciagrion approximans krishna Fraser, 1921 for the first time from the central Indian landscape of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, India, based on the photographic evidence. The present findings underscore the immediate need of further intensive surveys in central India, to strengthen the knowledge of diversity and distribution of odonate species of the region.