Misolampus ramburii Breme , 1842

Rosas-Ramos, Natalia, Mas-Peinado, Paloma, Gil-Tapetado, Diego, Recuero, Ernesto, Ruiz, Jose L. & Garcia-Paris, Mario, 2020, Catalogue, distribution, taxonomic notes, and conservation of the Western Palearctic endemic hunchback beetles (Tenebrionidae, Misolampus), ZooKeys 963, pp. 81-129 : 81

Misolampus ramburii Breme, 1842

Misolampus ramburii Brême, 1842: 82. Terra typica: "De l’Espagne meridionale". Some authors wrote the species name with a single final -i ( Rosenhauer 1856; Paulino de Oliveira 1894; Reitter 1917; De la Fuente 1934-1935; Palau 1945; Español 1949).

Studied material.

Spain - Andalucía: Almería: Fondón: 2 exx.; Sierra Bacares: 1900 (Escalera leg.): 3 exx.; Sierra Alhamilla, Almería, 1240 m, 36°59'25"N, 02°20'13"W, 30-XII-2003 (P. Barranco leg.): 1 ex.; Sierra de Gádor, 892 m, 36°55'32.18"N, 2°35'57.07"W, 27-III-2012: 3 exx.; Granada: Jayena, 30-VII-1920: 4 exx.; Puerto de la Mora, 1294 m, 37°15'19.71"N, 3°29'01.80"W, 26-III-2012: 2 exx.; Pista La Alcaicería-El Robledal (encinar), Sierra Tejeda, 1020 m, 36°57'07"N, 4°00'56"W, 5-I-2005: 1 ex.; Málaga: Málaga (Aragoncillo leg.) (Col. del Sr. Pérez Arcas): 1 exx.; Arroyo Güi, Torrox, 155 m, 36°46'36"N, 3°59'29"W, 23-XII-2000: 4 exx.; Lagos, Velez-Málaga, 102 m, 36°45'00"N, 4°00'28"W, 15-IV-2006: 2 exx.; Área El Pinarillo, Nerja, Sierra de Almijara, 485 m, 36°47'53"N, 3°50'55"W, 3-I-2003: 6 exx.; Área El Pinarillo, Nerja, Sierra de Almijara, 471 m, 36°47'52"N, 3°50'58"W, 4-I-2012: 3 exx.; Cerro El Cañuelo, Acantilados de Maro-Cerro Gordo, Nerja, 130 m, 36°44'57"N, 3°47'12"W, 29-XII-2007: 1 ex.; Carril Cuevas de Nerja-El Pinarillo, Sierra de Almijara, 340 m, 36°46'58"N, 3°50'24"W, 30-III-2018: 2 exx.; Alrededores Cuevas de Nerja, Maro, Nerja, 171 m, 36°45'46"N, 3°50'43"W, 2-XI-2018: 1 ex. - Murcia: Sierra Espuña: VIII-1943 (G. Menor leg.): 1 exx.

Diagnosis.

Total length 9-11 mm ( Reitter 1917; Español 1949). Misolampus ramburii is characterised by its shiny appearance and by presenting the anterior angles of prothorax slightly protruding forward. Pronotal punctation deep and dense, not as strong as in M. gibbulus , without granular areas. Elytra with shallow striae formed by series of punctures in longitudinal series, sometimes almost absent (Fig. 7A, B ). Elytral inter-striae smooth. Female genitalia figured by Palmer (1998) and aedeagus by Español (1949). Adults present a marked variability in elytral sculpturing, smoother with elytral striae almost erased in the western populations of Sierra de Almijara and Sierra de Huétor (Fig. 7B ); more marked in the eastern areas (Fig. 7A ) (see taxonomic discussion).

Geographic distribution.

Endemism of southeastern Spain and Mallorca in the Balearic Islands (Fig. 8 ). Records from Portugal, as Serra de Monchique ( Paulino de Oliveira 1894; Reitter 1917; Löbl et al. 2008), are based on misidentifications (see taxonomic discussion). Published records are scarce, but covering most of the known species range, from the provinces of Almería, Granada, Málaga, Murcia, and the island of Mallorca ( Rosenhauer 1856; von Heyden 1884 sub M. scabricollis ; Reitter 1917; De la Fuente 1934-1935; Palau 1945; Cobos 1949; Español 1949, 1954a, 1954b, 1963; Sánchez-Piñero et al. 2013; Valladares et al. 2013). All published records are relatively old, except those from Almería and Granada. According to the current records, M. ramburii is restricted to the Betic Mountain ranges (Montes de Málaga, Sierra Nevada, Sierra de Huétor, Sierras de Tejeda and Almijara, Sierra de Filabres, Sierra de Gádor, Sierra Alhamilla, Sierra Espuña), and in Malllorca to the southwestern foothills of the Sierra de Tramuntana, including Palma Bay (Fig. 8A ). The record of an unidentified Misolampus from Sierra de Contraviesa (Granada) ( Español 1963), found in the company of Coelometopus cobosi Español, 1963, probably corresponds to M. ramburii (see taxonomic discussion).

Materials studied by us include specimens from all previously reported areas except Mallorca (not searched for). Records are recent for all localities except for those from the Murcia region (Sierra Espuña). The potential distribution map (Fig. 8B ) shows that highly suitable areas are primarily located in the coasts and mountain ranges of the south of Almería, Granada, and Málaga and the northwest of Mallorca island, coinciding with the recorded presence of the species. The northwestern coast of the Iberian Peninsula and the mountain ranges of Northwestern Africa are also pointed as areas of high suitability.

Notes on natural history.

Misolampus ramburii is a low-medium mountain species, even sub-coastal, with an altitudinal range between 14 and 1673 m a.s.l. (60% of records below 1000 m of altitude); in Mallorca it is also found at low altitude, 14-398 m a.s.l. Lithological substrates of its area of occupancy are very diverse, due to the high geostructural complexity of the Betic Mountain ranges, but are mainly dolomites, limestones, slates, phyllites, mycaschists, and, very locally, plutonic rocks ( Sanz de Galdeano 1997; Vera 2004; Oliveira and Quesada 2019a, 2019b). It inhabits usually the thermo- and meso-Mediterranean bioclimatic levels, and very locally at the supra-Mediterranean, with ombrotypes from semiarid to subhumid ( Rivas-Martínez 1987; Rivas-Martínez et al. 2002; Valle 2003; Valle et al. 2004). According to the known localities and our observations, the species occurs in an extensive variety of habitats, with preference for more or less open forested areas with pines ( Pinus halepensis , P. pinaster , P. nigra , both natural and reforested), oaks ( Quercus ilex , Q. faginea and Q. suber in Sierra de Contraviesa), wild olive trees ( Olea europaea var. sylvestris ), and carob trees ( Ceratonia siliqua L.), but also in shrub-lands of Quercus coccifera L., Genista umbellata ( L’Hér.) Dum. Cours., Rosmarinus officinalis L., Pistacia lentiscus L., Pistacia therebinthus L., Buxus balearica Lam., Maytenus europaeus (Boiss.) Rivas Mart., R. sphaerocarpa , and Cistus and Lavandula L. species, among other typical shrubs ( Rivas-Martínez and Costa 1987; Bolòs 1997; Valle 2003; Costa Tenorio et al. 2005). Sometimes, it has been found in almond tree crops ( Prunus dulcis (Mill.) D.A. Webb) with scattered oaks ( Q. ilex ) (pers. obs.) (Fig. 7C, D ).

Commonly found under bark or inside dead logs and stumps of pines ( P. halepensis , P. pinaster and P. nigra ), and oaks ( Q. ilex ), or under stones in forests and shrub-lands. Occasionally found under the lose bark of standing live isolated Eucalyptus trees. In the island of Mallorca, it has been found in oak forests ( Q. ilex ), under bark or under stones and leaf litter ( Español 1949, 1954a). Adults can be found in autumn, winter, and spring, with no records in the summer months of August and September.

Figures

Figure 7. Live specimens and habitat of Misolampus ramburii A, B adult Misolampus ramburii from Spain (A Sierra de Gador, Almeria B Sierra de Huetor, Granada); the specimens selected represent the diversity of sculptural patterns in elytra and pronotum, smoother in western populations, without elytral striae (B), marked in eastern areas (A) C, D two examples of typical habitat of M. ramburii from C coastal ravines with scattered Pinus halepensis (Maro, Malaga) and D slope of Sierra Nevada with open forests of Q. ilex and almond trees (Almeria). Photographs by MGP.

Figure 8. A Geographic distribution of Misolampus ramburii. Map of the Iberian Peninsula depicting the geographic distribution of Misolampus ramburii (purple spot), an endemic species to Spain. Blue dots correspond to the species records, including both recent and old, as well as previously published data B potential geographic distribution of Misolampus ramburii: Red indicates areas of high suitability, and blue, areas of low suitability. Species distribution model was generated using MaxEnt v 3.4.1 (Elith et al. 2006) and the set of WorldClim v 2.0 (Fick and Hijmans 2017) environmental variables.