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Turkish Journal of Zoology Turk J Zool(2017) 41: 178-180© TÜBİTAKdoi:10.3906/zoo-1601-30

Research on Alleculinae (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae: Alleculinae) intugai forests of the Almaty region in Kazakhstan using window traps

Oto NAKLÁDAL1, Vladimír NOVÁK2, Yuliya KOLESNICHENKO1,*1Department of Forest Protection and Entomology, Faculty of Forestry and Wood Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague,

Prague, Czech Republic2Nepasické Náměstí 796, Prague, Czech Republic

* Correspondence: yuliyako86@gmail.com

Kazakhstan is one of the largest countries in the world with an area of 2.725 million km2, but the fauna of Alleculinae is still poorly explored. We know members of only seven genera with 13 species (Novák and Pettersson, 2008; Kozminych, 2015). The tribe Alleculini is represented by two species of the genus Mycetocharina Sedilitz, 1891: Mycetocharina deserticola Semenov, 1893 and Mycetocharina macrophthalma (Gebler, 1859). Tribe Cteniopodini Solier, 1835 is represented by 11 species belonging to six genera. These species are Cnecosochara filia Znojko, 1936; Cteniopinus altaicus altaicus (Gebler, 1829); Cteniopus sulphureus (Linnaeus, 1758); Omophlina arcuata (Gebler, 1829); Omophlina corva (Solsky, 1881); Omophlina hirtipennis (Solsky, 1881); Omophlus deserticola Kirsch, 1869; Omophlus lividipes Mulsant, 1856; Omophlus pilicollis pilicollis (Faldermann, 1832); Steneryx dejeanii (Faldermann, 1836); and Steneryx hauseri Sedlitz, 1896. While Mycetocharina, Cnecosochara, and Steneryx species have evening or night activity (Ogloblin and Znojko, 1950), species of the genera Cteniopus, Omophlina, Omophlus prefer daytime activity.

Species of the genus Mycetochara Berthold, 1827 were not found in Kazakhstan, so Mycetochara flavipes (Fabricius, 1792) is the first record for this genus from Kazakhstan. The species exerts evening activity, lives under bark, in hollow trees, and in wood infested with molds (Novák, 2014).

Tugai forests are intrazonal forest formations, which grow along bottoms of river valleys in arid regions of Central Asia and Kazakhstan. These forests are called intrazonal forests because they are not separate zones (Prochorov, 1982). They belong to a special relic type of vegetation, which preserves archaic features of tertiary flora, and its center of origin is Central Asia (Treshkin, 2011). The total area of Kazakhstan tugai forests is 400,000 km2, but only 150,000 km2 are covered by forests (Baizakov et al., 2007).

The study of alleculines in the tugai forests was conducted in the Almaty region at four localities in 2013 and at three localities in 2014. We set 20 passive window traps (Figure 1) at each locality at breast high of the main tree species of the tugai forests: Fraxinus sogdiana (40 traps), Populus diversifolia (40), P. pruinosa (20), and Elaeagnus angustifolia (40). Beetles were trapped from the beginning of May to the end of August. Vladimir Novák determined that all were Alleculinae beetles. The chi-square test was performed for the analysis of recorded species of tree species preference.

Using 140 window traps, we caught 23 specimens of alleculines from two species. There were 16 specimens of Mycetochara flavipes (Figure 2) and seven specimens of Steneryx dejeani. In the following, faunistic data are presented.

Abstract: We used 140 passive flight interception window traps for survey of alleculines in tugai forests of the Almaty region in Kazakhstan. Traps were set on Fraxinus sogdiana (Bunge, 1854), Populus diversifolia (Schrenk, 1842), P. pruinosa (Schrenk, 1845), and Elaeagnus angustifolia (Linnaeus, 1753), which are the main tree species of tugai forests. Two species of alleculines were captured: Mycetochara flavipes (Fabricius, 1792) and Steneryx dejeani (Faldermann, 1836). Mycetochara flavipes significantly prefers areas of the tugai forests with dominancy of Elaeagnus angustifolia. Faunistic data for both species are given. Mycetochara flavipes was recorded as a new species and genus for the territory of Kazakhstan.

Key words: Mycetochara flavipes, Tenebrionidae, Alleculinae, Alleculini, new record

Received: 14.01.2016 Accepted/Published Online: 28.05.2016 Final Version: 25.01.2017

Short Communication

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Mycetochara flavipes: Ashen Grove, N43 34.855, E79 19.562, 693 m a.s.l., on Fraxinus sogdiana, 2.–20.v.2013, 1 spec.; Ashen Grove, N43 38.815, E79 22.352, 647 m a.s.l., on Elaeagnus angustifolia, 4.–16.v.2014, 10 spec.; Ashen Grove, N43 38.933, E79 22.463, 637 m a.s.l., on Populus diversifolia, 4.–16.v.2014, 3 spec.; Ashen Grove, N43 40.249, E79 23.240, 619 m a.s.l., on Elaeagnus angustifolia, 4.–16.v.2014, 2 spec.

Known distribution: Austria, Belarus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Romania, Russia, territory of Serbia and Montenegro, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, and Caucasus as well as from Mongolia, Southern Siberia, and Far East (Novák and Pettersson, 2008). New genus and new species record for Kazakhstan fauna.

Steneryx dejeani: Shelek, N43 48.298, E78 15.726, 488 m a.s.l., on Populus pruinosa, 25.v–7.vi 2013, 1 spec.; Bakanas, N45 03.282, E75 17.250, 367 m a.s.l., on Populus diversifolia, 24.v–29.vi 2013, 6 spec.

Known distribution: Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan (Novák and Pettersson, 2008).

Generally, we captured a low number of alleculines in 140 traps. Therefore, our data suggest a low abundance of both recorded species. Mycetochara flavipes was recorded only in the area of the Ashen Grove. These localities represent habitat with larger and more continuous areas of tugai forests with more complex tree species composition. On the other hand, Steneryx dejeani was found only in Bakanas and Shelek with very sparse vegetation at both localities (Figure 1). The landscape consists of many small fragments of forest or single trees. Mycetochara flavipes was strongly related to Elaeagnus angustifolia (Figure 3) in comparison with other examined tree species (Fraxinus

Figure 1. Shelek. Window trap on stem of Populus pruinosa in tugai forest – habitat of Steneryx dejeani occurrence. Photo by Oto Nakládal.

Figure 2. Male of Mycetochara flavipes. Photo by Stanislav Krejčík.

Figure 3. Ashen Grove. Tugai forest with Elaeagnus angustifolia – typical habitat of Mycetochara flavipes occurrence. Photo by Hana Brinkeová.

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sogdiana, Populus diversifolia, and P. pruinosa) (n = 16, χ2 = 16.90, P < 0.0001). Obvious preference for this tree species was also significant when we tested only localities with the proven presence of Mycetochara flavipes (here only in comparison with Fraxinus sogdiana and Populus diversifolia) (n = 16, χ2 = 8.17, P = 0.0043). This issue could be the object of a future investigation. The low number of captured Steneryx dejeani did not satisfy the chi-square test assumption and therefore trees species were not tested.

The genus Mycetochara is widely distributed in Europe, Asia, North Africa, and North America. Borchmann (1910) identified 55 species from the world; Mader (1928) listed 41 species while Novák and Pettersson (2008) mentioned 51 species from the Palearctic region. Most of them belong to the subgenus Ernocharis (C. G. Thomson, 1859). Ten species of the next subgenus, Mycetochara s. str., are distributed in the Palearctic region (Novák and Pettersson, 2008). Mycetochara flavipes is one of the widely distributed species. As a result of our research, 14 species of Alleculinae are known now for the territory of Kazakhstan.

AcknowledgmentsThe authors give special thanks to Kenneth D MacHarg (Carrollton, Georgia, USA) for checking the English language, Stanislav Krejčík (Ruda near Rýmařov, Czech Republic) for the photo of Mycetochara flavipes, and Hana Brinkeová (Nové Strašecí, Czech Republic) for the photo of the locality. We would like to thank the Head of Charyn State National Nature Park (SNNP), Elnur M Akhmetov, for permission to stay in the territory of the Ashen Grove and to conduct field observations. We are grateful to the employees of the Scientific Department of Charyn SNNP, Arsen Nurgaliyev, Maxim Akramov, and Zhiger T Satrbayev, for their great help in conducting the entomological field work and providing cartographic material of survey areas. We would like to thank Galym, the forester of Charyn SNNP, and his family for the possibility of staying at their house and help with the field research. This study was financially supported by the grant IGA No. B03/15 of the Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague, Faculty of Forestry and Wood Sciences, and the Erasmus Mundus Action 2 CASIA Project.

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