Coleoptera, Cerambycidae)
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Title: New data on distribution, biology, and ecology of longhorn beetles from the area of west Tajikistan (Coleoptera, Cerambycidae) Author: Abdysalom Kh. Kadyrov, Lech Karpiński, Wojciech T. Szczepański, Artur Taszakowski, Marcin Walczak Citation style: Kadyrov Abdysalom Kh., Karpiński Lech, Szczepański 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 (Print)" (Vol. 606 (2016), s. 41-64), doi 10.3897/zookeys.606.9190 A peer-reviewed open-access journal ZooKeys 606: 41–64 (2016)New data on distribution, biology, and ecology of longhorn beetles... 41 doi: 10.3897/zookeys.606.9190 RESEARCH ARTICLE http://zookeys.pensoft.net Launched to accelerate biodiversity research New data on distribution, biology, and ecology of longhorn beetles from the area of west Tajikistan (Coleoptera, Cerambycidae) Abdysalom Kh. Kadyrov1, Lech Karpiński2, Wojciech T. Szczepański2, Artur Taszakowski2, Marcin Walczak2 1 Tajik National University, Rudaki 17, 734025 Dushanbe, Tajikistan 2 Department of Zoology, Faculty of Biology and Environmental Protection, University of Silesia, Bankowa 9, 40-007 Katowice, Poland Corresponding author: Wojciech T. Szczepański ([email protected]) Academic editor: F. Vitali | Received 12 May 2016 | Accepted 19 June 2016 | Published 21 July 2016 http://zoobank.org/97DF23C8-2899-4B22-B613-32E19159DB99 Citation: Kadyrov AKh, Karpiński L, Szczepański WT, Taszakowski A, Walczak M (2016) New data on distribution, biology, and ecology of longhorn beetles from the area of west Tajikistan (Coleoptera, Cerambycidae). ZooKeys 606: 41–64. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.606.9190 Abstract New data on distribution, biology, and ecology of some little-known cerambycid species, collected in the western part of Tajikistan, are presented. Arhopalus rusticus (Linnaeus, 1758) is recorded in Tajikistan for the first time. New localities of species considered pests or invasive species such asAeolesthes sarta (Solsky, 1871) and Xylotrechus stebbingi Gahan, 1906 are also given. The list of the taxa collected by the first author during many years of field research in Tajikistan as well as photographs of poorly known species from his collection, including some endemics, are additionally provided. Furthermore, high quality photographs of some extremely rare species that were collected during our expedition, i.e., Turkaromia gromenkoi Da- nilevsky, 2000 and Ropalopus nadari Pic, 1894, with images of their habitats or feeding grounds are also presented for the first time. Keywords Central Asia, endemic species, faunistics, invasive species, new records, zoogeography Copyright Abdysalom Kh. Kadyrov et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. 42 Abdysalom Kh. Kadyrov et al. / ZooKeys 606: 41–64 (2016) Introduction The longhorn beetle family (Cerambycidae) is one of the most species-rich groups of beetles (Coleoptera) with approximately 35,000 described species (Švácha and Law- rence 2014). The cerambycid fauna of Tajikistan is represented by only 58 species; however, many of them are endemic to the Central Asia region, including those that only occur on the territory of this country (Löbl and Smetana 2010, Danilevsky 2016). Tajikistan is located almost entirely within the Pamir-Alay Mountain range al- though forests only cover 2.6% of the area of the country. That places this country on one of the last positions regarding woodiness among the republics of the former Soviet Union. Some relict species such as Juglans regia, Acer turkestanica, and A. reggeli used to occur in Tajikistan in the past but they are totally extinct as a result of intensive cut- ting and burning of forests (Rahmonov et al. 2003). Due to a low level of afforestation, cerambycid fauna of Tajikistan is characteristic for the countries of the Central Asia. Species of the subfamily Prioninae which larvae develop in soil feeding on plant roots, as well as many representatives of the tribes of Agapanthiini and Phytoeciini (Lamiinae), whose development takes place in stems and roots of herbaceous plants, dominate in fauna of Tajikistan. The state of the knowledge of the longhorn fauna of Tajikistan (particularly, of the region of the Pamir Mountains) as well as information about the biology and ecology of some species that are distributed in the region is very poor. Therefore, the present study aims to supplement the knowledge in this field. Study area and methods Tajikistan is a relatively small intra-continental country situated at the boundary of the subtropical and temperate climatic zones. It is located in the mountain desert zone of the Eurasian continent in the southern part of Central Asia, where ecosystems such as deserts, steppes, savannoides, conifer forests, mixed mountain forests, high- mountain deserts, and glaciers are widely represented. The changeable mountain cli- matic conditions and hard historical natural processes have promoted the formation of a unique biological diversity in Tajikistan, which counts many relict and endemic species (Safarov 2003). The entomological expedition, which consisted of four scientists from the Depart- ment of Zoology, University of Silesia (Poland), took place at the turn of June and July 2014. During the research, several sampling trips were carried out to various locations in the western part of Tajikistan (Map 1). The most extensive studies were conducted within a radius of 60 km from the capital city, Dushanbe, and in the south-western part of the country along the Afghan border. The research were carried out in several research plots in the villages of Arykboshi, Dushanbe, Ganchi, Garavuti, Gharm, Is- kanderkul, Kangurt, Karatag, Kolkhozabad, Kulob, Nurobod, Qurghonteppa, Romit, Sarband, Sarichashma, Shahrinav, Shurroabad, Takob, Tojikobod, and Vose. New data on distribution, biology, and ecology of longhorn beetles... 43 Map 1. Research plots in the western part of Tajikistan: 1 Iskanderkul 2 Tojikobod 3 Takob 4 Garm 5 Karatag 6 Romit 7 Shahrinav 8 Dushanbe 9 Arykboshi 10 Kangurt 11 Sarichashma 12 Garavuti (Open- StreetMap contributors). Tajikistan has a wide variety of habitats that range from gravel deserts in the south through green mountain valleys in the central part of the country to the high moun- tains with glaciers in the north and east. The area studied includes several different nature ecosystems such as alpine meadows, mesophilic shrubs, various shrub steppes, broad-leaf forests, light forests, and tugay as well as agroecosystems such as gardens, orchards, fields, and pastures. The most effective, standard methods for collecting beetles such as attracting to artificial light sources, shaking down into an entomological umbrella, sweep netting, and rearing of inhabited material were used during the field research. The beetles were studied using an Optek SZM7045-J4L microscope at 7-90× magnifications. Photo- graphs of the cerambycids in nature, their host plants and habitats were taken with Canon EOS 550D, Canon EOS 600D, and Olympus XZ-1 cameras. Produced images were stacked, aligned, and combined using ZERENE STACKER software (www.zere- nesystems.com). Geographical coordinates were read off and recorded using Garmin Oregon 550T 3-Inch Handheld GPS Navigator. For each specimen collected, the exact location (including the GPS coordinates), altitude, date, and the names of the collectors are given. Additionally, information on the general distribution and biol- ogy of the species are provided. Some general data that had been collected by the first author during long-term field research were also used. 44 Abdysalom Kh. Kadyrov et al. / ZooKeys 606: 41–64 (2016) The following abbreviations are used in the text: AT Artur Taszakowski, LK Lech Karpiński, MW Marcin Walczak, WTS Wojciech T. Szczepański. The nomenclature was adopted from the Catalogue of Palaearctic Coleoptera (Löbl and Smetana 2010) with further remarks (Danilevsky 2016). The specimens are preserved in the entomological collection of the Department of Natural History of the Upper Silesian Museum in Bytom and in authors’ collections. Results During the one-month expedition, a total number of 12 species (approximately 20% of the Tajik cerambycid fauna) belonging to three subfamilies (Prioninae 1 sp., Cer- ambycinae 10 spp., and Lamiinae 1 sp.) were recorded. The list of recorded taxa along with the new localities, general characteristics, and remarks on the species biology and ecology follow. Prioninae Latreille, 1802 Psilotarsus turkestanicus (Semenov, 1888) Figs 1A, B, 3A Material examined. Khatlon Region, Sarichashma env. [Саричашма], a semi-ruderal plant community (37°45'N, 69°47'E), 1231 m, 25 VI 2014, 4♂♂, 2♀♀, leg. WTS; 2♂♂, leg. AT; 3♂♂, 1♀, leg. LK; 2♂♂, 1♀, leg. MW. Although the species is distributed also in Turkmenistan and Tajikistan, most of the known specimens were collected in the Samarkand region in Uzbekistan. In Tajikistan, it was only observed in the north-western part of the country as far as the southern slope of the Gissar Mountain ridge (Danilevsky 2010). The locality in Sari- chashma, which is presented for the first time, extends the species range approximately 200 km to the south-east and is one of the first in the country. Adults are active from early May to late July. In the hilly area