Xanthochroina auberti ( Abeille de Perrin 1876 )

Rittner, Oz & Nir, Assaf, 2014, First records of Nacerdes melanura (Linnaeus 1758) and Xanthochroina auberti (Abeille de Perrin 1876) (Coleoptera: Oedemeridae) from Israel, Zootaxa 3838 (3), pp. 397-400 : 397-398

Xanthochroina auberti ( Abeille de Perrin 1876)

( Fig. 2 )

On the 8 th of September 2011 the authors placed a light trap (mercury and UV light) at the edge of a small pine tree forest near the settlement of Nirit. A single individual of Xanthochroina auberti was collected. Based on this record, the authors searched through the unidentified material in the insect collection of the national collections of natural history of the Tel-Aviv University (TAUI) and discovered additional specimens from a wide range of habitats in Israel. This species was already known from Croatia, Cyprus, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Lebanon, Spain, Turkey ( Švihla 2011) and Morocco ( Arahou 2008). Colored habitus photos have been published from Spain ( Dieguez Fernandez 2010; Lencina et al. 2008), Hungary ( Merkl et al. 2010) and France ( Ponel 2011). Despite its relatively broad distribution it is seldom collected and its biology is not yet fully understood. Adults can be found in cracks of Pinus halepensis ( Abeille de Perrin 1876; Ponel et al. 2011) under the foliage of Quercus ilex ( Arahou 2008) or netting from Quercus ( Merkl et al. 2010) . Ponel (1993) suggested that it is probably a predator of wood boring beetles. However, the majority of records are from light traps. Since Israel is on the edge of its distributional area and the oldest record from Israel was from 1998 it is not clear if this species is a newly introduced species or a local one that was simply previously unnoticed.

Examined material ( Fig. 3 ): Northern Coastal Plain: ' En ' Afeq , 2.viii.2002, light trap, V. Kravchenko & V. Chikatunov (1 ex.) ; Carmel Ridge: Mt. Carmel, Haifa, 12.vii,2003, V. Kravchenko & V. Chikatunov (2 exx.)., Nahal ' Oren , 21.viii.1998, V. Chikatunov & T. Pavlicek (1 ex.) ; Shomeron: Nahal Qana, ' Allone Shilo , 9.vii. 2007, V. Kravchenko & L. Friedman (1 ex.) ; HaSharon: Nirit , 8.ix.2011, light trap, O. Rittner & A. Nir (1 ex.) . Nirit , 10.viii.2012, light trap, O. Rittner & A. Nir (1 ex.) ; Hod haSharon, 15.vi.2000, A. Traub (1 ex.) ., Tel Aviv, 24.vi.2003, light trap, V. Chikatunov & V. Kravchenko (1 ex.) ., Tel Aviv, 5.viii.2002, light trap, V. Kravchenko & V. Chikatunov (2 exx.) ; Judean Desert: Wadi Qelt , 23.vii.2002, light trap, V. Kravchenko & V. Chikatunov (1 ex.) .

Figures

FIGURE 2. Xanthochroina auberti (Abeille de Perrin 1876).

FIGURE 3. Distribution map of Nacerdes melanura (Linnaeus 1758) (black squares) and Xanthochroina auberti (Abeille de Perrin 1876) (white squares) in Israel.