Anoplistes halodendri halodendri (Pallas, 1773)

Karpinski, Lech, Szczepanski, Wojciech T., lewa, Radoslaw, Walczak, Marcin, Hilszczanski, Jacek, Kruszelnicki, Lech, Los, Krzysztof, Jaworski, Tomasz, Marek Bidas, & Tarwacki, Grzegorz, 2018, New data on the distribution, biology and ecology of the longhorn beetles from the area of South and East Kazakhstan (Coleoptera, Cerambycidae), ZooKeys 805, pp. 59-126 : 78

Anoplistes halodendri halodendri (Pallas, 1773) Fig. 3 E–G

Material examined.

East Kazakhstan Region: 15 km W of Tarbagatay [ Тарбагатай] (47°46'N, 81°37'E), 1072 m a.s.l., 15 VI 2017, 1♂, leg. LK; 20 km W of Tarbagatay [ Тарбагатай] (47°47'N, 81°42'E), 1000 m a.s.l., 16 VI 2017, 1♀, leg. MW; Zhantikei [ Жәнтікей] env. (48°04'N, 82°42'E), 455 m a.s.l., 16 VI 2017, 1♂, leg. MW; 10 km S of Bayash Utepov [ Баяш Утепов] (49°35'N, 82°28'E), 508 m a.s.l., 25 VI 2017, 11♂♂, 5♀♀, leg. MW.

Remarks.

Anoplistes halodendri is an east-Palaearctic species that is distributed from the Balkans to the Russian Far East, China, Korea and Japan ( Danilevskaya et al. 2009). Within its range, it was divided into seven subspecies: A. h. balcanicus Sláma, 2010, A. h. ephippium (Steven & Dalman, 1817), A. h. halodendri , A. h. heptapotamicus (Semenov, 1926), A. h. kasatkini Lazarev, 2014, A. h. minutus Hammarström, 1892 and A. h. pirus (Arakawa, 1932). Apart from its nominotypical form, two other subspecies are known to occur in Kazakhstan: A. h. ephippium and A. h. heptapotamicus ( Danilevsky 2018a). According to Cherepanov (1990b), the larvae of this species are ecologically associated with deciduous trees and shrubs (e.g. Acacia , Daphne mezereum , Quercus and Salix ) in steppe and forest-steppe habitats. The adults are active from July.

In the Sibinka River valley, the species was collected numerously in 2002 and as a single specimen in 2005 under the same conditions ( Danilevskaya et al. 2009). According to these authors, this population can be considered typical.

All of the individuals were collected on the pea shrub Caragana spp. (Fig. 11H). Only three rather fresh specimens were found in mid-June in the area of Tarbagatay (Fig. 11G) (each at a different locality and on two different species of Caragana ) despite a long and attentive investigation of several suitable plots with numerous pea shrub bushes, which might suggest the beginning of the appearance of this species. On the other hand, nine days later in the Sibinka River valley (Fig. 15B), about a dozen very damaged specimens were observed gathered on a single pea shrub while no additional specimens were found on the neighbouring shrubs. Since the two pairs were observed in copula, it is probable that the males that still survived were attracted by the last females. This, in turn, clearly indicated the end of appearance; however, it may be related to the difference in the altitude of these localities (Tarbagatay approx. 1000 m and Sibinka 455 m a.s.l.). It is worth noting that neither during the presented expedition, nor in Mongolia (2015), were any imagines or immature stages of this species found on any different host or in any different habitat without Caragana , despite the thorough investigations of many plots and plant species using various methods. A similar observation concerning the occurrence of this species solely on Caragana spp. was made by Danilevsky (2018c) in Kazakhstan and Mongolia. It is possible that all of the records that are connected to other host plants may refer to related taxa, e.g. A. h. ephippium , or that some sibling species exist in this group, similar to the genus Amarysius . Furthermore, regarding the subspecies heptapotamicus , which was described from SE Kazakhstan (Lake Balkhash and Tarbagatay env.) based on several rather strange specimens, no significant morphological differences have been found between the specimens from the Sibinka River valley (Fig. 3E) and the Tarbagatay environs (Fig. 3F). However, some individuals from the area of Lake Balkhash should also be studied.