Drusus croaticus

Kladarić, Lidija, Popijač, Aleksandar, Hlebec, Dora, Previšić, Ana, Ćuk, Renata, Vučković, Ivan & Kučinić, Mladen, 2021, A surprising finding of Ecclisopteryx asterix Malicky, 1979 (Insecta, Trichoptera) in Croatia with notes to DNA barcoding and new distributional data of the subfamily Drusinae, Ecologica Montenegrina 48, pp. 71-85 : 78

2.1. New data on the distribution of Drusus croaticus in Croatia

Drusus croaticus was recorded from the highest number of localities surveyed in the study, nine (50%) out of 18 ( Table 1 ). It is a species whose type locality is the spring of the Crna Rijeka River and the Plitvica Stream within the Plitvice Lakes National Park . The species was found and described in the early 1970s by biology professor Mara Marinković- Gospodnetić from the University of Sarajevo , Bosnia & Herzegovina (Marinković- Gospodnetić 1971). Later studies recorded this species in about 20 springs in Croatia ( Cerjanec et al. 2020; Kučinić et al. 2008, 2014; Marinković- Gospodnetić 1979; Previšić et al. 2007, 2009; Previšić & Popijač 2010), and with this research the species was found for the first time in the Krasulja River near the settlement of Mirići in Krbavica , where the spring of the Krasulja River is situated, while its sinkhole is in Krbavičko polje ( Figure 4 ). Regarding feeding behaviour, D. croaticus is also a grazer ( Kučinić et al. 2008), and emerges in two peaks, spring and autumn, most likely as two one-year generations. The flight period is quite long: about 7 months ( Kučinić et al. 2017b), as is often the case with species living in springs or crenal sections of mountain and mountain streams. Both sexes and larval stages of this species are well known and described ( Kučinić et al. 2008; Marinković- Gospodnetić 1971).

Figures

Figure 4. Spatial distribution of the Drusinae species in Croatia, literature data supplemented with new records.