Pygopleurus vulpes (Fabricius, 1781)

Bollino, Maurizio, Uliana, Marco & Sabatinelli, Guido, 2019, The Pygopleurus Motschulsky (Coleoptera: Scarabaeoidea: Glaphyridae) of mainland Greece: taxonomy, faunistics and ecological notes, Zootaxa 4674 (2), pp. 151-202 : 194-198

Pygopleurus vulpes (Fabricius, 1781)

( Figs. 117–127 )

Melolontha vulpes Fabricius, 1781: 47 , n. 73.

= Melolontha hirta Fabricius, 1781: 47 , n. 72.

= Scarabaeus alopecias Pallas, 1781: 15 , t.A, f. 15a (♂), f. 15b (♀).

= Amphicoma vulpecula Truqui, 1848: 39 , t. 3, f. 5.

= Amphicoma vulpes var. pyrrothrix Dohrn, 1885: 80 .

= Amphicoma (Pygopleurus) vulpes var. griseovillosa Reitter, 1903: 137 .

Type series: the original description of Melolontha vulpes and of its synonym M. hirta mentions the Banks collection as source of specimens for both species. According to Zimsen (1964: 150), London Museum holds 1 specimen of M. vulpes and 2 of M. hirta , while 3 and 1 specimens, respectively, are preserved in Kiel (confirmed by M. Kuhlmann, personal communication to MU, March 2019).

Type locality: Sibiria.

Material examined. European specimens only: 42 ♂♂, 14 ♀♀, detailed in supplementary materials.

Type specimens examined. None. We rely on examination of one specimen identified by Fabricius by Baraud (1989: 373).

Verified distribution.

Republic of Macedonia. Veles: 5 km NW of Viničani ( Rozner & Rozner, 2009a) . Gradsko: Gradsko. Unknown placement: Gracko (=Gradsko?).

Bulgaria. Burgas: Soata, Grudovsko [= Sredets]; Ropotamos River; Arkutino; Eminska Planina , Banja . Elhovo: Voden . Haskovo: Haskovo; Stojkovo . Plovdiv: Plovdiv; Sadovo . Sofia: Sofia

Greece.

Central Macedonia. Thessaloniki: Thessaloniki.

Eastern Macedonia and Thrace. Evros: near Roussa.

Aegean Islands. Lesbos: Andissa, cross road to Eresos ( Bollino & Ruzzante 2015); Halinados arch. Site ( Bollino & Ruzzante 2015).

Diagnosis. Male with elytra completely covered by peculiar, dense, long light-yellow to orange-red setation. Paramera diagnostic. Female with long, raised setation of elytra completely light-colored and quite uniformly scattered across the whole surface. Both sexes with elytra unicolored, elytral apex rounded, not elongate. Pronotum with punctures in shape of dense oval or polygonal cells, resembling a bee-hive (cf. P. viridisuturatus species-group); vermiculated wrinkles, at most, readily visible only along the medial line, where punctures are absent, producing a shinier integument. Scutellum with dense, well impressed punctures, among them a polygonal microsculpture is recognisable, but transversal or vermiculated wrinkles are missing.

Distribution ( Fig. 127 ). According to the citations found in literature ( Kiesenwetter 1858; Miller 1862; Oertzen 1886; Kühnelt 1941; Mikšić 1953, 1957; Hofmann et al. 1982, within others), the species might seem to be widespread in Greece from the Ionian Islands to the entire Greek mainland. Actually, after a critical analysis of bibliographical sources, it appears that all citations refer to different species (i.e. P. chrysonotus , viridisuturatus , anemoninus , etc.), and, at best of our knowledge, no confirmed reports of Pygopleurus vulpes from mainland Greece exist in the literature, which is in agreement with the scarcity of records emerging from the present study. The only verified data available to us refer to a population sampled by Cosmin Manci near Roussa (Eastern Greece, Evros) on 15 th May 2010, and the photo of a male taken near Thessaloniki by Kostas Zontanos (personal communication to MB). Our results support the chorological hypothesis claimed by Moragues (1991), according to which the species is only present in the North-East of Greece. In the rest of the Balkans it appears to be widespread in southern Bulgaria, and is also present in central Macedonia, for which we have two independent records. We were unable to map with certainty an additional record for “Gracko, Makedonjia”, but we tentatively refer it to Gradsko, a locality from which we have a conspecific sample with similar preparation and collected on the same days (April 1982).

On the whole, the species has a very broad but apparently patchy distribution, reaching central Asia through Anatolia and the South European Territory of Russia.

Eco-ethological notes ( Fig. 127 ). The few available records range from the first half of April (10 th April, Macedonia, Gradsko) and the middle of May (15 th May, Thrace, Roussa). We have no documented altitudinal records for the species in Europe, however, based on known collecting localities, it seems to prefer lowland areas. A male was observed near Thessaloniki on Anemone pavonina . We lack direct field experience for this species in Europe, but we know abundant swarms south of lake Beysehir (Antalya province, Turkey) in different conditions, including a recently abandoned cropland with abundant blossoms of large Papaver flowers (mixed with Pygopleurus foina ), and wet meadows densely populated with Ranunculus (mixed with P. foina and P. ottomanus ).

Taxonomic remarks. The habitus of Pygopleurus vulpes is strongly polymorphic, with particular reference to the length and color of the hair apparatus of male (cf. Figs. 117 , 188, 124, 125). Such variability appears to be population-linked and may therefore underlie an unexplored taxonomic diversification. Preliminary exploration of genitalia morphology (paramera and everted endophallus) did not provide useful elements to support the taxonomic splitting of the different populations.

Figures

FIGURE 127. Pygopleurus vulpes (Fabricius, 1781): geographical, and temporal distribution of records. Red curve showing the expected distribution if the species was uniformly present at all times (see Material and methods).

FIGURES 117–123. Pygopleurus vulpes (Fabricius, 1781), habitus (see also Figs. 124–126) and genitalia. 117, male (Macedonia, Gracko); 118, male (Bulgaria, Bulgarska Polyana); 119, female (Bulgaria, Bulgarska Polyana); 120, female (Turkey, Antalya, Akseki); 121, left paramere in lateral and dorsal view (Bulgaria, Bulgarska Polyana); 122, everted endophallus in left lateral view (Lesbos); 123, left genital sclerites of female (Turkey, Antalya, Akseki).

FIGURES 124–126. Pygopleurus vulpes (Fabricius, 1781), habitus (see also Figs. 117–120). 124, male (Turkey, Antalya, Akseki); 125, male (Lesbos, Halinados); 126, female (Lesbos, Halinados).