Methles spinosus Sharp, 1882

Darilmaz, Mustafa C. & Kiyak, Suat, 2009, Checklist of Gyrinidae, Haliplidae, Noteridae and Dytiscidae of Turkey (Coleoptera: Adephaga), Journal of Natural History 43 (25 - 26), pp. 1585-1636 : 1629-1630

Methles spinosus Sharp, 1882

Hydroporus angustatus Sturm, 1835 Hydroporus dobrogeanus Ieni s tea, 1962

In addition, Nilsson (2003a, 2007) listed the species above as having distributions in Turkey. We have not been able to verify the literature records of this species from Turkey.

Comparison with Adephagous water beetle faunas of other zoogeographical areas

The adephagous water beetles in Turkey include 167 species and subspecies of which 17 are endemic to Turkey. Comparisons between the numbers of species of the beetles in Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria, Syria, Israel, Germany, France and Italy are presented in Table 1 and in Figure 1 as a diagram with a species–area plot for these particular regions. Species numbers, even if accurately estimated, are determined by many factors besides area, including latitude, climate, topography (resulting in habitat diversity), aquatic habitats and geological and biological history of the area (including the impact of Pleistocene glaciations and the degree and duration of isolation from other areas).

As a consequence, we will not attempt to explain Figure 1 in detail, but will point out that Turkey’s water beetle fauna is comparable in size, for its land area, to those of a diversity of areas. This is quite striking in view of Turkey’s much longer isolation from other lands (compared with the other areas in Table 1 and Figure 1 ), which perhaps explains the absence of several major lineages from Turkey. The tremendous topographic, climatic and aquatic habitat diversity of Turkey could certainly support wide species diversity. Also the Turkish water beetle fauna has not been thoroughly investigated previously.

Within the Palearctic Region, the Mediterranean countries and Anatolia are to be regarded as biodiversity hotspots, at least for certain families ( Jäch and Balke 2008).

In Turkey, a large country with distinctly different geographical regions and different climates, the number of water beetle species must be expected to be much higher than has been recorded so far. New intensive studies of these insects are suggested.

Figures

Figure 1. Numbers of species of beetles occurring in geographical areas in Table 1 versus approximate land areas.