Typhaeus typhoeus, (Linnaeus, 1758)

Alekseev, Vitalii I., 2018, Scarabaeoidea (Insecta: Coleoptera) Of The Kaliningrad Region (Russia): The Commented Actual Checklist, Assessment Of Rarity And Notes To Regional Protection, Acta Biologica Universitatis Daugavpiliensis 18 (2), pp. 111-152 : 122

(-) T. typhoeus (Linnaeus, 1758)

Lentz 1879; Bercio & Folwaczny 1979 ( Typhoeus ).

Kaliningrad Region: Gur. (Königsberg).

Comments: The species inhabits pine forests growing on sandy soil, where it feeds on the droppings of rabbits, as well as the feaces of deer, roe deer, sheep, horses and cows (Byk 2011). In Poland (Byk 2011) it has been recorded in dispersed localities, mainly in the western and north-western parts of the country; it is considered quite common in north-eastern Germany ( Rössner 2013). The range of its occurrence strongly coincides with the range of a wild rabbit and with the influence of Atlantic climate (Byk 2011). The general distribution range of T.typhoeus reaches eastwards the Vistula River line (Bunalski et al. 2014) in central and northern Poland. According to Brussaard and Visser (1987), the species use rabbit droppings as a food source for the larvae. The occasional findings of single allochtonous specimens transported by winds and Baltic Sea currents in south-western part of the Region are possible, but the presence of the beetle population in the Kaliningrad Region seems to be improbable since wild rabbit don’t occur in the Region. Old materials from “Königsberg” ( Lentz 1879; later only cited by Bercio & Folwaczny (1979) and other authors including Löbl & Löbl 2016) have been perhaps originated from south-western part of the former Eastern Prussia (now Pomerania in Poland) and erroneously labelled. The species is removed from the regional check-list and from the Russian fauna, where it was included as the inhabiting the Kaliningrad Region only.