Metacanthus maghrebinus Péricart, 1997

Gil, Francisco, Valkenburg, Thijs & Grosso-Silva, José Manuel, 2022, Metacanthus maghrebinus Péricart, 1977 (Hemiptera: Berytidae), new species for Portugal, Arquivos Entomolóxicos 25, pp. 327-329 : 327-328

Metacanthus maghrebinus Péricart, 1997 ( Hemiptera : Berytidae )

is a stilt-bug described from Algeria and Morocco (holotype and paratype, respectively) by PÉRICART (1977). The known distribution range of the species in Africa remains limited to those two countries, while in Europe the species was recorded from Spain and France, in the latter case with doubts ( PÉRICART, 1984, 2001).

In the Iberian Peninsula, M. maghrebinus has only been recorded from the Spanish provinces of Barcelona and Madrid ( PÉRICART, 1984) and, more recently, Ávila ( COSTAS et al., 2005).

In this note, we present the first records of M. maghrebinus from Portugal, from two districts located in the northern part of the country.

Material examined

Porto district:

— Lousada municipality: x Bosque do Parque de Casais (41.273332, -8.306666; MGRS 29TNF5869; 182 m a.s.l.): 29/07/2022 (1 ♀, F. Gil leg., MHNCUP /ART/41066) .

Guarda district:

— Manteigas municipality: x Carvalheira (40.408015, 7.550144; MGRS 29TPE2374; 1098 m a.s.l.) ( Parque Natural da Serra da Estrela ), 17/08/2000 [1 specimen with undetermined sex (abdominal tip damaged), Grosso-Silva leg. & col.].

— Seia municipality:

x Cagoiças , on the left bank of ribeira da Nave (40.327937, -7.676974; MGRS 29TPE1264; 894 m a.s.l.) ( Parque Natural da Serra da Estrela ), 12/10/2022 (1 ♀ photographed by T. Valkenburg, https://www.biodiversity4all.org/observations/138777418).

x Cagoiças , on the left bank of ribeira da Nave (40.327766, -7.677237; MGRS 29TPE1264; 893 m a.s.l.) ( Parque Natural da Serra da Estrela ), 16/10/2022 (1 ♂, T. Valkenburg leg., MHNCUP/ART/41067; https://www.biodiversity4all.org/observations/139310179) .

Discussion

The records presented in this study greatly expand the known distribution range of M. maghrebinus in the Iberian Peninsula, as shown in Map 1 . The presence of the species in Portugal was already hypothesized by PÉRICART (1984), who considered thAt SEABRA’s (1930) inclusion of Metacanthus meridionalis (A. Costa, 1843) in the synopsis of Portuguese berytids could actually refer to M. maghrebinus . It is worth mentioning that M. meridionalis remains unconfirmed for the country, its only record being that by SEABRA (1926, from São Martinho de Anta, northeastern Portugal).

The ecology of M. maghrebinus is completely unknown, the only available information being the fact that in Ávila it was collected on moss over rocky substrate ( COSTAS et al., 2005, 2009), which was also the case in Seia, where both specimens were collected using a beating tray on a rock wall densely covered with moss and ferns.

Figures

Map 1.- Iberian distribution of Metacanthus maghrebinus Péricart, 1977, with the previously known Spanish provinces in grey, the new Portuguese districts in green, and the new Portuguese MGRS 100 km2 squares in orange.