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The Scarabaeoidea of the Maltese Islands (Central Mediterranean) (Coleoptera)

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The Scarabaeoidea of the Maltese Islands (Central Mediterranean) (Coleoptera) BULLETIN OF THE ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF MALTA (2011) Vol. 4 : 85-124 The Scarabaeoidea of the Maltese Islands (Central Mediterranean) (Coleoptera) Igor PIVOTTI1, Rossana AGOGLITTA2, Mario ZUNINO2, Emanuele PIATTELLA3, Marco DELLACASA4, Carla CORALLINI1 & David MIFSUD5 ABSTRACT. The Scarabaeoidea of the families Trogidae, Geotrupidae, Hybosoridae and Scarabaeidae from the Maltese islands are reviewed. A total of 54 species are included of which the following eight species represent new records for this archipelago: Trox fabricii and T. scaber in Trogidae; Aphodius beduinus, A. algiricus, Amphimallon (?) scutellare, Aplidia hirticollis, Protaetia opaca and Lasiotrichius succinctus in Scarabaeidae. Of these, the record of Aplidia hirticollis, previously endemic to southern Italy, extends its distributional range further south and that of Lasiotrichius succinctus is based on intercepted material and its local establishment is not confi rmed. A number of species are based on old records and were not collected again recently pointing out to the possible extinction of these species from Malta. The almost complete absence of grazing animals in Malta may have contributed substantially for the disappearance of species associated with animal dung. Thirteen previously recorded species of Scarabaeoidea from Malta are being excluded from the Maltese fauna. KEY WORDS. Trogidae, Geotrupidae, Hybosoridae, Scarabaeidae, Malta, new records. INTRODUCTION The Scarabaeoidea constitutes a diverse group of beetles distributed throughout the World with more than 30,000 described species. Ecological requirements are very varied. Certain groups dig deep burrows in the soil which they stock with organic material like fungi, rooting vegetation, dung and carrion as food for their larvae; others feed on dried carrion; others are specialised in recycling mammalian dung, especially that of the larger herbivores; other species are root feeders as larvae and pollen/nectar feeders as adults (MARTÍN PIERA & LÓPEZ-COLÓN, 2000; KRAJCIK, 2006). According to LAWRENCE & NEWTON (1995) the Superfamily Scarabaeoidea currently accommodates 13 families. This classifi cation will be the one followed in the present work. Of these, only four families (Trogidae, Geotrupidae, Hybosoridae and Scarabaeidae) are represented in the Maltese islands. 1 Dipartimento di Biologia Cellulare e Ambientale, via Elce di Sotto, 06100 Perugia, Italy. E-mail: [email protected], [email protected] 2 Dipartimento di Scienze Terra, della Vita e dell’ Ambiente, Università degli Studi di Urbino, Italy. E-mail: rossana. [email protected], [email protected] 3 Dipartimento di Biologia e Biotecnologie “Charles Darwin” (Entomologia), Università degli Studi di Roma “Sapienza”, Piazzale Valerio Massimo 6, 00162 Rome, Italy. E-mail: [email protected] 4 Centro Interdipartimentale, Museo di Storia Naturale e del Territorio, Università di Pisa, via Roma 79, 56011 Calci, Pisa, Italy. E-mail: [email protected] 5 Junior College, University of Malta, Department of Biology, Msida MSD 1252, Malta. E-mail: david.a.mifsud@ um.edu.mt 86 I. PIVOTTI et alii Table 1. Species of Scarabaeoidea recorded from Malta in three main works. CAMERON & CATALOGUE OF FAUNA CARUANA GATTO PALAEARCTIC EUROPAEA (1907) COLEOPTERA TROGIDAE Trox hispidus Trox litoralis 1 GEOTRUPIDAE Geotrupes douei Sericotrupes niger Thorectes laevigatus HYBOSORIDAE Hybosorus illigeri SCARABAEIDAE Aphodiinae Aphodius constans Aphodius hydrochaeris Aphodius castaneus Aphodius fi metarius Aphodius ictericus ghardimaouensis 2 Aphodius longispina Aphodius lugens Aphodius granarius Aphodius mayeri Aphodius unicolor Aphodius lineolatus Aphodius quadriguttatus Aphodius tersus Aphodius lividus Aphodius plagiatus Aphodius consputus Aphodius obliteratus Aphodius sturmi Brindalus porcicollis 3 Diastictus vulneratus Euheptaulacus carinatus carinatus Pleurophorus caesus Psammodius asper 4 Rhyssemus plicatus 5 1recorded as Trox hispidus Pont. v. asiaticus Fald. [sic.] 2recorded as Aphodius nitidulus F. 3recorded as Psammodius porcicollis Ill. 4recorded as Psammodius sulcicollis Ill. 5recorded as Rhyssemus arenarius Costa The Scarabaeoidea of the Maltese Islands 87 CAMERON & CATALOGUE OF FAUNA CARUANA GATTO PALAEARCTIC EUROPAEA (1907) COLEOPTERA Scarabaeinae Copris hispanus cavolinii Euoniticellus fulvus Bubas bison Bubas bubalus Cheironitis ungaricus irroratus 6 Onthophagus taurus Onthophagus andalusicus Onthophagus opacicollis Onthophagus vacca Scarabaeus semipunctatus Scarabaeus variolosus Dynastinae Oryctes nasicornis grypus Pentodon bidens punctatus 7 Phyllognathus excavatus Cetoniinae Aethiessa fl oralis Cetonia aurata pisana Protaetia angustata Protaetia incerta 8 Protaetia mayeti Tropinota squalida Oxythyrea funesta 9 The literature on Scarabaeoidea of Malta is rather limited with some local publications which are often inaccessible to the international scientifi c community. GULIA (1858) was probably the fi rst to mention some beetles of this group in Malta. However, in general, the works of Gulia contain species lists which, to say the least, are diffi cult to sustain from a scientifi c point of view. For example he mentioned Lucanus cervus (Linnaeus, 1758) and Polyphylla fullo (Linnaeus, 1758), both species which cannot be confused with no other beetles. The former, he cites as one of the rare indigenous insects present in Malta and the latter he quotes as the only Maltese species of this group. On the other hand, Gulia was present on these islands in a period where the natural habitats were still in good condition and it is thus possible that some of the insects which he mentioned may have really existed at that time. However, since most of his records were never sustained by others (e.g. CAMERON & CARUANA GATTO, 1907), they will be excluded from the present work. BAUDI (1891) in his Catalogus Coleopterorum Europae mentioned the following four species for Malta: Aphodius (Agrilinus) constans, Aphodius (Alocoderus) hydrochaeris, Aphodius (Bodilus) lugens 6recorded as Chironitis hungaricus Hbst. [sic.] 7recorded as Phyllognathus silenus F. 8recorded as Potosia metallica v. cuprea Gory 9recorded as Leucocelis funesta Poda 88 I. PIVOTTI et alii and Aphodius (Calamosternus) granarius. CARUANA GATTO (1893) in an account on the common beetles of the Maltese islands also mentioned some species belonging to this group, both those associated with dung and those associated with fl owers. LE COMTE (1906) described from Malta Cetonia mayeti. The fi rst and only comprehensive account of this group of beetles is to be found in CAMERON & CARUANA GATTO (1907) which provided a list of 36 species (Table 1) subdivided as follows: Trogidae - 1; Geotrupidae - 2 and Scarabaeidae - 33. ANDRES (1916) published a list of Lepidoptera, Hemiptera and Coleoptera which he collected from these islands during a period of almost two years spent in Malta as a prisoner of war. In this list, he included 9 species under Scarabaeidae and of these, one species, Aphodius (Bodilopsis) rufus represented a new record for Malta. SCHATZMAYR (1946) mentioned two dung beetles for Malta: Platytomus laevistriatus and P. tibialis, both never previously reported from Malta. SALIBA (1963) in an account on insect pests, included six species of this group for Malta. This work however lacks a taxonomic base for most species mentioned therein and many records are incorrect, being based on information available mainly from continental Europe. BONETT & SCHEMBRI (1976) recorded Anoxia matutinalis as a fi rst record for Malta and three years later, VALLETTA (1979) gave a list of insect pollinators on Cynara cardunculus which he observed in June 1977 in the Wardija (Malta) area and which included three scarab beetles. CILIA (1989) included 15 species of Scarabaeoidea in the Red Data Book for Malta basing most of his records on previously published material. SABATINELLI & SCHEMBRI (1990) provided a comprehensive revision on the fl ower scarab beetles of Malta and included detailed information for nine species, of which one, Cetonia aurata pisana, represented a new record. Table 1 also includes information on Scarabaeoidea included in the Fauna Europaea database (ALONSO- ZARAZAGA, 2004) and in the Catalogue of Palaearctic Coleoptera (LÖBL & SMETANA, 2006) for species reported from Malta. The aim of the present work is to provide a detailed account of the local species of Scarabaeoidea, thus updating the faunistic knowledge of the coleoptera fauna of Malta. MATERIAL AND METHODS Recently collected material of Scarabaeoidea was mainly gathered during the last thirty years, and mostly from the main island of Malta, but additional material was also obtained from the nearby islands of Gozo and Comino. Material was collected by general sweeping, from under bark of trees, by rearing of some larval material, by light traps, by sifting leaf litter and sandy habitats and by pit fall traps were fresh dung was used on a regular basis. Some historical material collected at the beginning of the twentieth century was also available for this study. Most of this material formed the basis of the coleoptera list published by Cameron and Caruana Gatto in 1907. In total, more than 900 specimens were available for the present study. The consideration and examination whenever possible of historical material, often housed in foreign institutions was often crucial for the correct species interpretation and verifi cation of
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