Doratura impudica Horváth, 1897

(Figs 1E; 2C; 4C; 8A–D; 9I; 10M–Q; 11F–I; 12H–I; 19C)

Doratura impudica Horváth, 1897: 629

Doratura ivanovi Kusnezov, 1928a: 47 syn. nov.

Doratura (Doratura) impudica Emeljanov, 1964: 403

Diagnosis. This large species, generally with distinct green or blue tinge in the coloration of its fore wings, is distinguished by proportionally long legs and a strongly protruding ovipositor (Fig. 8). In its male genital morphology, it resembles D. stylata, but never shows spinules on the ventral side of the aedeagus (Fig. 10M). The nymphs display no particular pattern of markings (Fig. 9I), in contrast to both D. exilis and D. stylata .

Distribution (Figs 55A, 56, 57). In Italy we collected the species in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Emilia-Romagna and Basilicata. Servadei records it also from Piedmont and Veneto. Some specimens in his collection were misidentified and belong to D. stylata . The species has never been recorded from Sardinia or Sicily.

D. impudica is widely distributed in Europe and the East Palearctic region to Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan (Nast, 1972).

We studied specimens from Albania, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Turkey, Ukraine.

In addition, there are records for Austria (Holzinger, 2009); Belarus (Borodin, 2004); Bosnia and Herzegovina (Horváth, 1903b); Denmark (Ossiannilsson, 1983); Estonia (Söderman et al., 2009); France (Ribaut, 1952); Finland (Albrecht et al., 2015); Great Britain (Le Quesne, 1969); Kazakhstan (Mitjaev, 1971); Kyrgyzstan (Dubovsky & Turgunov, 1971); Latvia (Vilbaste, 1974); Lithuania (Vilbaste, 1974); Moldova (Nast, 1987); Poland (Dworakowska, 1968); Russia: European part (Emeljanov, 1964); Serbia (Janković, 1966); Sweden (Ossiannilsson, 1983); Turkey: Central part (Horváth, 1903b), Eastern Part (Koçak & Kemal, 2012); Uzbekistan (Dubovsky, 1966). The record supposed by Metcalf (1967) to concern the Netherlands (Reclaire, 1944) actually refers to Germany.

Remarks. Ribaut (1952) writes that the aedeagus of D. impudica, in contrast to D. stylata, is “dépourvu de carènes latérales à la base”, means that it lacks a shield-shaped base. Ossiannilsson (1983) does not mention this character, but gives two figures of the aedeagus in lateral view: one for a specimen from Poland, which apparently has no lateral carina, and another one from Sweden, which is figured also in ventral view, and which displays a carina, even if it is not very distinct. The material we examined from different regions in Europe (but not from France and Fennoscandia), displays generally a distinct basal shield (including specimens from the coast of the Baltic Sea in North Germany). Apparently, this character is rather variable, and possibly the populations from western and northern Europe are different in this character in respect of the populations in southern, southeastern and eastern Europe.

Taxonomic remarks. D. ivanovi Kusnezov, 1928a has been recorded from Central European Russia, Southern European Russia, Ukraine (Nast, 1972). Until now, there were apparently no figures of this species, and the description given by the author gives no information about the genital morphology. In his description of D. lukjanovitshi, Kusnezov (1929) indicates the position of the new taxon near D. ivanovi and D. stylata . This was the only hint to an affinity of D. ivanovi to the D. stylata group. The examination of syntypes of D. ivanovi (Figs 8C, D; 10Q; 11I; 12I) showed no essential differences to D. impudica . Therefore, we establish the synonymy of D. ivanovi with D. impudica .

Ecology. In Italy the species was found on dry meadows, near the sand coast and above all on the ruderal grasses on the gravel of broad riverbeds at low altitude. On the Balkan Peninsula we collected specimens on dry meadows and steppic habitats. Host plants are Calamagrostis epigejos, in northern Italy also Elymus athericus (and perhaps other Elymus species) (Nickel, 2003).

Phenology. We collected the species from the beginning of June until the end of August. Nickel (2003) records the species (as monovoltine) until the end of September.