Macrocera nigropicea Lundstroem , 1906

Salmela, Jukka & Kaunisto, Kari M, 2015, Additions to the list of Finnish Bibionomorpha (Diptera, Nematocera), Biodiversity Data Journal 3, pp. 5228-5228 : 5228

Macrocera nigropicea Lundstroem, 1906

Materials

Type status: Other material. Occurrence: catalogNumber: MYCE-NV-2013-0035 ; recordedBy: J. Salmela; individualCount: 6; sex: 4 male, 2 female; Location: country: Finland; stateProvince: Lapponia kemensis pars occidentalis; verbatimLocality: Kittilä, Taljavaaranvuoma; verbatimLatitude: 67.577; verbatimLongitude: 25.362; verbatimCoordinateSystem: decimal degrees; verbatimSRS: WGS84; Identification: identifiedBy: J. Salmela; Event: samplingProtocol: Malaise trap; eventDate: 2007-6-25/7-24; habitat: rich fen; Record Level: institutionCode: JES

Type status: Other material. Occurrence: catalogNumber: MYCE-NV-2013-0054 ; recordedBy: J. Salmela; individualCount: 2; sex: male; Location: country: Finland; stateProvince: Lapponia kemensis pars occidentalis; verbatimLocality: Kittilä, Repsuvuoma; verbatimLatitude: 67.605; verbatimLongitude: 24.964; verbatimCoordinateSystem: decimal degrees; verbatimSRS: WGS84; Identification: identifiedBy: J. Salmela; Event: samplingProtocol: Malaise trap; eventDate: 2007-6-26/7-25; habitat: rich fen; Record Level: institutionCode: JES

Type status: Other material. Occurrence: catalogNumber: MYCE-NV-2013-0057 ; recordedBy: J. Salmela; individualCount: 2; sex: male; Location: country: Finland; stateProvince: Lapponia kemensis pars occidentalis; verbatimLocality: Kittilä, Silmäsvuoma; verbatimLatitude: 67.583; verbatimLongitude: 25.543; verbatimCoordinateSystem: decimal degrees; verbatimSRS: WGS84; Identification: identifiedBy: J. Salmela; Event: samplingProtocol: Malaise trap; eventDate: 2007-6-25/7-25; habitat: rich fen; Record Level: institutionCode: JES

Type status: Other material. Occurrence: catalogNumber: MYCE-NV-2013-0074 ; recordedBy: J. Salmela; individualCount: 1; sex: male; Location: country: Finland; stateProvince: Lapponia kemensis pars occidentalis; verbatimLocality: Kittilä, Nunaravuoma; verbatimLatitude: 67.699; verbatimLongitude: 25.353; verbatimCoordinateSystem: decimal degrees; verbatimSRS: WGS84; Identification: identifiedBy: J. Salmela; Event: samplingProtocol: Malaise trap; eventDate: 2007-6-1/6-27; habitat: poor sedge fen; Record Level: institutionCode: JES

Type status: Other material. Occurrence: catalogNumber: MYCE-NV-2013-0099 ; recordedBy: J. Salmela; individualCount: 1; sex: male; Location: country: Finland; stateProvince: Lapponia kemensis pars occidentalis; verbatimLocality: Kittilä, Kielisenpalo; verbatimLatitude: 68.021; verbatimLongitude: 25.053; verbatimCoordinateSystem: decimal degrees; verbatimSRS: WGS84; Identification: identifiedBy: J. Salmela; Event: samplingProtocol: Malaise trap; eventDate: 2007-6-26/7-27; habitat: rich spring fen; Record Level: institutionCode: JES

Type status: Other material. Occurrence: catalogNumber: DIPT-JS-2014-0332 ; recordedBy: J. Salmela; individualCount: 5; sex: 3 female, 2 male; Location: country: Finland; stateProvince: Lapponia kemensis pars occidentalis; verbatimLocality: Kittilä, Akharamanvuoma; verbatimLatitude: 67.593; verbatimLongitude: 25.308; verbatimCoordinateSystem: decimal degrees; verbatimSRS: WGS84; Identification: identifiedBy: J. Salmela; Event: samplingProtocol: Malaise trap; eventDate: 2007-6-25/8-2; habitat: rich pine fen; Record Level: institutionCode: JES

Type status: Other material. Occurrence: catalogNumber: DIPT-JS-2014-0414 ; recordedBy: J. Salmela; individualCount: 2; sex: male; Location: country: Finland; stateProvince: Lapponia kemensis pars orientalis; verbatimLocality: Savukoski, Törmäoja, Ahot; verbatimLatitude: 67.817; verbatimLongitude: 29.432; verbatimCoordinateSystem: decimal degrees; verbatimSRS: WGS84; Identification: identifiedBy: J. Salmela; Event: samplingProtocol: Malaise trap; eventDate: 2014-7-8/8-7; habitat: dry meadow; Record Level: institutionCode: JES

Type status: Other material. Occurrence: catalogNumber: DIPT-JS-2014-0474 ; recordedBy: J. Salmela; individualCount: 1; sex: male; Location: country: Finland; stateProvince: Lapponia kemensis pars orientalis; verbatimLocality: Savukoski, Törmäoja, Ahot; verbatimLatitude: 67.821; verbatimLongitude: 29.436; verbatimCoordinateSystem: decimal degrees; verbatimSRS: WGS84; Identification: identifiedBy: J. Salmela; Event: samplingProtocol: Malaise trap; eventDate: 2014-7-8/8-7; habitat: margin of pond, surrounded by dry meadow; Record Level: institutionCode: JES

Distribution

European. The species (Fig. 5) was described from Russia, Kola peninsula ( Lundström 1906). Chandler ( Chandler 1990) redescribed the species and reported it from the British Isles. Later Kjaerandsen et al. ( Kjaerandsen et al. 2007a) verified the species from Iceland and discussed the distribution and taxonomy of the species. Although Kjaerandsen et al. had studied material collected from South Finland (Ab, Karislojo [Karjalohja]; Ka, Vehkalahti; N, Esbo [Espoo], Westend, six males in total), Jakovlev ( Jakovlev 2014) deleted the species from the Finnish list, assuming that the species had not been found within post WWII borders of Finland. Here we confirm the occurrence of the species in Finland, and report eight new sites from Finnish Lapland. In Fennoscandia, M. nigropicea is only known from Murmansk oblast and Finland.

Ecology

Immature stages are unknown, but Macrocera larvae are predaceous and mostly associated with soil and dead wood (see e.g. Falk and Chandler 2005, Ševčík and Roháček 2008). Macrocera nigropicea is perhaps associated with peatlands ( Chandler 1990) or woodlands ( Kjaerandsen et al. 2007a). Six out of eight sites reported here are aapamires, that is, minerogenous fens with wet flarks and dry bog-level strings. Two of the sites are open, dry meadows, but not situated far from either forest or peaty pond margins. Based on our observations, M. nigropicea is perhaps not an obligate mire-dwelling species, but may prefer open habitats.