Turkaromia gromenkoi Danilevsky, 2000

Kadyrov, Abdysalom Kh., Karpinski, Lech, Szczepanski, Wojciech T., Taszakowski, Artur & Walczak, Marcin, 2016, New data on distribution, biology, and ecology of longhorn beetles from the area of west Tajikistan (Coleoptera, Cerambycidae), ZooKeys 606, pp. 41-64 : 46

Taxon classification Animalia Coleoptera Cerambycidae

Turkaromia gromenkoi Danilevsky, 2000 Fig. 1G

Material examined.

Sughd Region, Iskanderkul [ Искандарkӯл], bushes near a river valley (39°05'N, 68°24'E), 2300 m, 18 VII 2014, 1♀, leg. AT.

The genus Turkaromia Danilevsky, 1993 was quite recently separated by Danilevsky (1993) and includes two species, Turkaromia pruinosa (Reitter, 1903) and Turkaromia gromenkoi , which are distributed in the region of Central Asia. According to Danilevsky (2000), Turkaromia gromenkoi is distributed in the western part of the Gissar Mountain ridge in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. The species was described from four specimens: one male and two females from Kaltakol (Uzbekistan) and one female from Iskanderkul (Tajikistan). All specimens were observed in July. The biology and ecology of species as well as the stages of the larvae and pupae are unknown.

In the environs of the Iskanderkul Lake, we observed one female on a flower ( Apiaceae ) in a biotope near a river valley that had been overgrown by willows ( Salix spp.) and shan birches Betula tianschanica (Fig. 4A). The larvae probably develop in the living wood of willows similar to the related species Turkaromia pruinosa . In the immediate vicinity of the area where the beetle was collected, we found sawdust-like waste on the outside of the trunk of a middle-aged willow (Fig. 4B), which was probably the result of the larval feeding of Turkaromia gromenkoi .

It is noteworthy that only one specimen was found despite a few hours of examining the plot using various methods. The presence of only a single female may indicate the end of the period of the occurrence of this species. It appears that Turkaromia gromenkoi is endemic to the Gissar Mountains.