Author Guidelines

Focus & Scope
African Entomology is a peer-reviewed scientific journal that publishes original research, reviews, collections of articles on a common topic, discussions on topics of broad interest, and short communications on all aspects of entomology (including insects, arachnids, myriapods and nematodes), emphasising the advancement of entomology on the African continent. A broad range of topics are covered including, but not limited to: behaviour, biology, conservation, ecology, evolution, forensics, medical, molecular biology, systematics, pest management, physiology, and taxonomy. Submissions of work from other parts of the world will be considered if it is of strong relevance to entomology in Africa.

Language
Manuscripts should be submitted in concise and clear English using U.K. spelling. Authors for whom English is a second language should have their manuscript professionally edited before submission to improve the English.

Manuscripts
All authors must have seen and approved the manuscript, and the order in which authors are presented, prior to submission and after revision. All co-authors’ e-mail addresses must be supplied. ORCiD iDs are compulsory for the corresponding and/or lead author, but should be provided for all authors who have one.

The manuscript should be compiled in Microsoft Word or a generic equivalent. Authors should follow the style of articles in a recent issue of African Entomology.

A short abstract of no more than 250 words and 5–10 key words (not in title) must be provided.

Tables should be uploaded as separate files. Legends to illustrations should be placed at the end of the manuscript, after the references. Illustrations are to be numbered as figures following their sequence in the text. Clearly annotated digital copies of line drawings and photographs must be submitted with each manuscript. Lettering on graphs and figures must be uniform and Arial/Swiss typefaces are recommended.

The Système International d’Unités (SI) must be used. A decimal point, not a comma, must be used when citing decimal numbers.

At the first mention in a manuscript focusing on a particular taxon the original description must be cited in full.

References
These should be cited in the text by author and date following the style of articles published in African Entomology, and must not be numbered. All references in the text must be reflected at the end of the paper, with the names of authors listed alphabetically, and the author’s initials should follow the surname in all cases. In the text the names of two co-authors are linked by an ampersand (&); for three or more the first author’s name is followed by et al.

Examples in the text are: Williams (1929);
(Williams 1929); Johnson & Smith (1950a,b,c, 1953);
(Johnson & Smith 1950a; Thompson et al. 1963); Thompson et al. (1963) or (Thompson et al. 1963).

Unpublished references are to be cited as: A. Smith (pers. comm.); (A. Smith, pers. comm.); A. Smith (unpubl.); (A. Smith,unpubl.); A. Smith (in prep.); A. Smith (in press): only the last category must appear in the references. The use of these terms must be restricted to an absolute minimum.

In the reference list, titles of periodicals and books must not be abbreviated and all nouns and adjectives of book titles should commence with an upper case letter. The following forms of citation should be followed:
WILSON, D.M. 1966. Insect walking. Annual Review of Entomology 11: 103–122.
WIGGLESWORTH, V.B. 1972. The Principles of Insect Physiology. 7th Edition. Chapman and Hall, London.
TAYLOR, L.R. & PALMER, J.P.M. 1972. Aerial sampling. In: Van Emden, H.F. (Ed.) Aphid Technology. 63–76. Academic Press, London.

Tables
Avoid giving the same information in text tables and figures. Tables should be submitted as a separate file, each with a concise caption above, which is to be fully explanatory and ordinarily without references to text or figures. Avoid elaborate tables; they should be arranged to fit the page horizontally within the dimensions of the printed pages (142 × 202 mm) and the number of columns kept to a minimum.

Illustrations
Images must be uploaded as separate files and must be of high resolution, e.g. TIFF, CDR, EPS, WMF or EMF format, preferably in one of the vector (not bitmap) formats. Corel-DRAW (versions 10 or 12) is ideal for printing purposes. Diagrams prepared in Excel should be placed on separate pages and saved in Microsoft Word or as a Windows metafile or enhanced metafile (.WMF). EPS (encapsulated PostScript files) are also acceptable. Black and white drawings should be supplied at 1200 dpi, scanned as line art, not in RGB colour mode, and zipped. Photographs and colour artwork should be supplied at high resolution (at least 600 dpi) in either TIFF or JPEG format. The figures together with the legend may, when printed, occupy a full page measuring 142 × 202 mm. Allowance must be made to accommodate the legend on the same page after reduction of the figures. Figures will usually not be reproduced singly scattered throughout the text. Lettering and numbering in graphs and legends are not provided by the printer; sizes should be selected for uniformity and easy reading after reduction, and Arial/Swiss typefaces are recommended. Magnifications must be indicated as scale bars on the figures.

Legends to figures must be typed on a separate page, and should be clear, unambiguous and concise.

Colour illustrations are encouraged and are presented online at no charge. 

Proofs
Page proofs are provided for the purpose of checking printer’s errors, and not for author’s corrections such as adjustments to language, style and punctuation. Author’s corrections may be charged to authors.

Article Processing Charges
Page charges are levied on all papers. The scale of charges for members and non-members of the Entomological Society of Southern Africa is shown below. The charges shown are per printed page or part thereof.

For first 7 pages
Members – R155
Non-members – R270

For 8th and subsequent pages
Members – R312
Non-members – R390

Page charges for authors outside South Africa will be calculated according to the relevant current exchange rate.

The corresponding author must be a paid-up member of the Entomological Society of Southern Africa to qualify for the member discount.

Taxonomic Papers
Authors must comply with the requirements of the Fourth Edition of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (2000) and with the published opinions of the International Commission. These papers should constitute a comprehensive treatment of a group delimited on taxonomic, geographic, ecological or other biologically meaningful criteria. Papers dealing with miscellaneous species having no such natural association will only be accepted if there are special circumstances. Such circumstances could include a paper that is additive or supplementary to a previously published comprehensive paper or that the description of one, or a small number of unrelated species is important for economic or other sound reasons.

Style of Taxonomic papers
The first mention of a genus should be followed by the unabbreviated name of the author. Species-group names should also be followed by the author of the taxon. The abbreviations gen. n., sp. n., syn. n., comb. n., stat. prom. or stat dem. should be used for distinguishing new genera and species, new synonymies, new combinations or changes of rank, as per ICZN-4. Italicise genus and species names. Telegraphic style must be used in descriptions which should be accompanied by a short summary of the principal diagnostic characters and a comparison of the new taxon with its closest relatives and other taxa with which it may be confused. Descriptions should be subdivided by appropriate subordinate headings.

The ‘discussion’ or ‘remarks’ section should be placed last. The use of figures to illustrate descriptions is encouraged and should permit some reduction in the length of the description of the parts illustrated. Reference to the original description of a taxon should always appear immediately below the heading. References listed under the heading, whether to the accepted name or synonyms, should always include the author, date and page number but not the title of the publication as this is provided in the reference section. This section should only include original references to nomenclatural changes or synonymies and should not be seen as a bibliography to the taxon. If, for a given taxonomic unit, adequate synonymies and references are already accessible in the literature, they should not be repeated, but a reference to the source should be given. Other important references pertaining to the taxon can be provided in the ‘remarks’ section.

The type species, with author and date, should be cited immediately beneath each genus treated (including synonyms). For each species treated, the museum in which the primary type (holo-, lecto- or neotype) is deposited, should be stated and listed in the Material examined section. If a type cannot be traced the reasons for this should be stated. Concise lists of specimens examined should be presented for each species but, except in the case of types, label data should not be cited verbatim but should include the following information: Country, Province, numbers and sexes (symbols) of specimens, locality, latitude and longitude coordinates, altitude, date, collector and depository (in brackets). Map coordinates should be given for all localities and follow the degrees-minutes convention, e.g. 26°13’S 29°41’E. Coordinates can instead be listed in a gazetteer at the end of the paper, especially where there is repetition or many localities. For large numbers of specimens, dates and names of collectors can be arranged at the end of the Material examined section. Localities should be arranged in alphabetical order or some other logical sequence within Countries or Provinces.

Taxonomic Keys
Dichotomous keys giving precise diagnostic characters should be used to distinguish taxa.