Aphelocheirus (Aphelocheirus) aestivalis (Fabricius, 1794)

Fent, Meral, Kment, Petr, Çamur-Elipek, Belgin & Kirgiz, Timur, 2011, Annotated catalogue of Enicocephalomorpha, Dipsocoromorpha, Nepomorpha, Gerromorpha, and Leptopodomorpha (Hemiptera: Heteroptera) of Turkey, with new records 2856, Zootaxa 2856 (1), pp. 1-84 : 26-27

Aphelocheirus (Aphelocheirus) aestivalis (Fabricius, 1794)

( Figs. 11–12 )

Asian Turkey. Hoberlandt (1952a, revised!), Nieser & Moubayed (1985), Kanyukova (1995a), Önder et al. (2006), Koçak & Kemal (2010).

Turkey (not distinguished). Stichel (1955), Kıyak & Özsaraç (2001), Kanyukova (2006), Kıyak et al. (2006).

General distribution. Known from most of European countries (except of Iberian Peninsula and southern parts of Balkan Peninsula), Anatolia, and Georgia ( Kanyukova 1995a; Gerend 1993; Rabitsch & Zettel 2000; Coulianos 2005; Živić et al. 2006, 2007).

Horváth (1895) described the species under the name Aphelocheirus breviceps Horváth, 1895 from neighbouring Georgia (Tbilisi); it was synonymized with A. aestivalis by Kanyukova (1974). The earlier records from Iberian Peninsula belong to two endemic species described rather recently— Aphelocheirus murcius Nieser & Millán, 1989 ( Spain) and A. occidentalis Nieser & Millán, 1989 ( Portugal, Spain) ( Nieser & Millán 1989, Carbonell & Millán 2010, Carbonell et al. 2011), The record of A. aestivalis from Morocco published by Gheit (1995) belongs probably to the endemic species A. rotroui Bergevin, 1925 , described from a single macropterous male (cf. Polhemus et al. 1995, Carbonell & Millán 2010, Carbonell et al. 2011).

Comment. Hoberlandt (1952a) recorded this species from the locality ‘Zeylan’ (north of Van lake, eastern Anatolia). The single voucher specimen from Zeylan ( Figs. 11–12 ) ( Hoberlandt 1952a) is a brachypterous female. Its comparison with material from the Czech Republic revealed its general similarity, except for the distinctly shallow incision of the postero-lateral margin of the hemelytron ( Figs. 11–12 ). We consider this difference as an intraspecific variability; however, examination of the male genitalia and/or DNA sequences is desirable for final confirmation of the species from Turkey, considering also the recent evidence of additional cryptic Aphelocheirus species in northern Spain (Carbonell et al. 2011). Nieser & Moubayed (1985) mentioned A. aestivalis also from Mersin (southern Anatolia); but N. Nieser (pers. comm. 2010) was not able to retrace the source of the information, and admits a possible confusion with A. kolenatii .

Identification. Kanyukova (1974, 2006). The life cycle and reproduction were recently treated in detail by Papáček & Soldán (2008).

Figures

FIGURES 11–12. Aphelocheirus (Aphelocheirus) aestivalis (Fabricius, 1794), female (Zeylan; 8.2 mm): 11—detail of micropterous hemelytron, 12—habitus.