© Entomologica Fennica. 6 October 2015 Tiger beetle fauna (Coleoptera: Carabidae, Cicindelinae) of Morocco: distribution, phenology and list of taxa Radomir Jasku³a, Tomasz Rewicz & Kajetan Kwiatkowski Jasku³a, R., Rewicz, T. & Kwiatkowski, K. 2015: Tiger beetle fauna (Coleoptera: Carabidae, Cicindelinae) of Morocco: distribution, phenology and list of taxa. Entomol. Fennica 26: 132155. The diversity and distribution of Cicindelinae in Morocco, including new unpub- lished data, is summarized and discussed. In total 17 species are reported from the country. Cicindela campestris campestris is excluded from the Moroccan fauna while the occurrence of Myriochila mirei is doubtful and should be confirmed by new data. The area adjacent to the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean coast- lines holds the highest species diversity, while mountainous regions are charac- terized by lower diversity but also by high level of species endemism. Grouped on the basis of their chorotypes, Moroccan Cicindelinae fall into six different groups: West Mediterranean (44% of Cicindelinae species), Maghreb endemics (22%), Mediterranean (11%), Saharian (11%), Mediterranean-Westturanian (6%) and Afrotropico-Indo-Mediterranean (6%). According to their phenology, the Moroccan tiger beetles can be divided into three groups: 1) spring active spe- cies, 2) spring-summer active species, and 3) summer active species. R. Jasku³a, Department of Invertebrate Zoology &Hydrobiology, University of £ód, Banacha 12/16, 90-237 £ód, Poland; E-mail: [email protected] T. Rewicz, Department of Invertebrate Zoology &Hydrobiology, University of £ód, Banacha 12/16, 90-237 £ód, Poland; E-mail: [email protected] K. Kwiatkowski, Department of Invertebrate Zoology &Hydrobiology, Univer - sity of £ód, Banacha 12/16, 90-237 £ód, Poland; E-mail: [email protected] Received 11 April 2015, accepted 18 June 2015 1. Introduction (1868), Lallemant (1868), and Bedel (1903). The next taxon discovered and described from the The first data on the tiger beetle species of Mo- area of Morocco was Platydela coquereli theryi rocco come from papers by Fabricius (1787, (Alluaud 1930). Except the above mentioned tax- 1801) who described three new species from this onomical descriptions, only Horn (1924), country: Cicindela lunulata (now known as Alluaud (1925), Antoine (1933), Kocher (1938) Calomera lunulata), C. littoralis (now known as and Paulian & Villiers (1939) provided addi- Calomera littoralis)andCicindela maroccana. tional faunistic data on Moroccan tiger beetles Later, until the beginning of the 20th century, new before World War II. The next three decades ex- taxa of Cicindelinae were described from this panded the knowledge upon distribution of par- country by Dejean (1829, 1831), Faimaire ticular species (Antoine 1940, 1950, 1955, ENTOMOL. FENNICA Vol. 26 Tiger beetle fauna of Morocco 133 Fig. 1. Study area and samp- ling effort during TB–Quest II Expedition. Peyerimhoff 1944, Kocher 1949, 1963, Rivalier 2. Study area 1950, Reymond & Reymond 1953, Pardo Alcaide 1955, Reymond 1955, Iablokoff 1966, The Kingdom of Morocco is located in North Af- Jeanne 1967). All these faunistical data were later rica. The state borders with Algeria on the east summarized by Cassola (1973) in the first com- and with Western Sahara on the south. On the prehensive distributional checklist of Moroccan north and west, the country has natural borders tiger beetles. After that paper only single records formed, respectively, by the Mediterranean Sea of Cicindelinae were provided by Mandl (1981), and the Atlantic Ocean coastlines. It is one of the Gebert (1991, 1996), Wiesner (1992), Maachi most mountainous African countries with some and Radouani (1993), and Werner (1992, 2000b). 75% of its area (more than 450,000 km2)com- Finally, Putchkov and Matalin (2003) listed in the posed of mountainous and upland terrains. The Catalogue of Palaearctic Coleoptera 16 species only narrow range of plains extends along the At- (two with two subspecies) from Morocco; unfor- lantic and Mediterranean coast (Michard et al. tunately they omitted the paper of Chavanon and 2008). These areas are mostly represented by the Richoux (1999), reporting also Neolaphyra tru- tidal wetlands, consisting of several lagoon com- quii from this country. As a result of all these plexes, bays, numerous estuaries and Atlantic or studies, and because Cicindela campestris cam- Mediterranean strip of shores (Dakki 1995). The pestris is excluded from fauna of this country in northeast region (the Rif Mountains) has a cliff the present study, the Moroccan fauna is known coast from the Mediterranean side, while the At- to include 17 species of tiger beetles (one with lantic coast is sandy. The massive chain of the At- two subspecies). las Mountains extends along the entire country The aim of our paper is to summarize the up- and is divided into three parallel strands: the High to-date state of knowledge upon the diversity and Atlas, the Middle Atlas and the Anti-Atlas. In its distribution of Moroccan Cicindelinae, including northwestern part the Middle Atlas passes into a both literature and new unpublished data. We highland, the Moroccan Meseta (Michard et al. also summarize knowledge on the phenological 2008). The southern and south-eastern areas of activity of each taxa occurring in this country. the country, a part of Sahara, are occupied by 134 Jasku³a et al. ENTOMOL. FENNICA Vol. 26 Fig. 2. Distribution of Calomera aulica aulica in Morocco. steppes, semi-deserts and sandy and rocky 3. Materials and methods deserts crossed by the wadi valleys. Rivers, tak- ing their origin in the Atlas Mountains, occur Most of the new tiger beetle material mentioned mainly in the northern and western parts and the in this study was collected during the IInd TB- majority of them have estuaries flowing to the At- Quest Expedition in March and April 2009 (Fig. lantic Ocean. Lower courses of some rivers 1). Adult beetles were sampled using entomolog- formed marshes in the past, but now they are ical hand net in different sandy habitats typical for dried as a result of the excessive exploitation of this group of insects (e. g. sandy marine beaches, these terrains. Around 20 permanent natural sandy river banks, salt marshes). Moreover, in a lakes, bogs and 38 water reservoirs are located single case larvae of Cicindelinae were also col- mainly in the Atlas Mountains (Dakki 1995). The lected; using spades, they were sampled directly territory of Morocco is administratively divided from the tunnels they built in the ground. All this into 14 regions. material is presently deposited in the first authors Morocco belongs to the Mediterranean cli- collection. For each sampling site the GPS coor- mate type of the subtropical zone, characterized dinates, altitude and habitat type were noted. by regional variation. This variation is a result of Additionally, we included material of Cicin- differences in physical geography of this terrain. delinae deposited in the entomological collection Because of existing marine boundaries of the of the Natural History Museum in Vienna north and west areas, the coastal lowlands are (NMV), Austria. characterized by milder climate than those lo- Data on the general distribution of tiger beetle cated to the south and east, where climatic condi- species are provided mainly after Putchkov and tions are more severe. This is a consequence of Matalin (2003) and Werner (2000b), while natural barrier formed by the Atlas Mountains, macrohabitat types are defined after Jasku³a restraining the mitigating influence of ocean cur- (2015). Data on phenology and elevational distri- rents. bution of each species were summarized on the basis of all the available published papers on Mo- roccan Cicindelidae as well as on new unpub- lished records. In the case of the literature data, ENTOMOL. FENNICA Vol. 26 Tiger beetle fauna of Morocco 135 Fig. 3. Distribution of Calomera littoralis littoralis in Morocco. Google Earth software was used to clarify the al- Habitat. No data from Morocco. titude and localization for each record. Phenology. No data from Morocco. 4. List of Moroccan 4.2. Calomera littoralis littoralis tiger beetle species (Fabricius 1787) Below, the specimens collected by the authors are Literature data. Doukkala-Abda: Ain-Rhor denoted by RJ, TR & JH leg. [=Ain el Rhor] (Cassola 1973, Wiesner 1992); Oualidia (Cassola 1973, Wiesner 1992); Gharb- 4.1. Calomera aulica aulica (Dejean, 1831) Chrarda-Béni Hssen: mouth of Oued Sebou (Kenitra) (Cassola 1973); Kenitra (Mandl 1981, Literature data. Distributional map covering At- Wiesner 1992); Merja Bokka (Sidi Yahya-du- lantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea coasts of Rharb) (Cassola 1973, Wiesner 1992); Morocco (Werner 2000b). Marrakesh-Tensift-El Haouz: Mogadir [=Essa- General distribution. Algeria, Arab Emirates, ouira] (Wiesner 1992); Sidi-Moussa (Cassola Bahrain, Chad, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Greece, 1973) Oriental: sandy beach of Bou-Areg (Nador Guinea Bissau, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Leba- region) (Maachi & Radouani 1993); Rabat-Salé- non, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Pakistan, Saudi Zemmour-Zaer: mouth of Oued Yquem (Rabat) Arabia, Senegal, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, (Cassola 1973); Rabat (Cassola 1973, Wiesner Yemen (Werner 2000b, Putchkov & Matalin 1992); Souss-Massa-Drâa: Agadir (Mandl 2003). 1981); Oued Noun (Kocher 1963, Wiesner Distribution in Morocco (Fig. 2). No detailed 1992); Tangier-Tétouan: Tanger (Wiesner 1992); localities are known from Morocco. Taza-Al Hoceima-Taounate: