Mogoplistes brunneus Serville, 1838

Alexiou, Sotiris, 2017, New distribution records of Orthoptera of Greece, Journal of Orthoptera Research 26 (1), pp. 53-63 : 56-57

Mogoplistes brunneus Serville, 1838

Distribution

Dodecanisa: Rhodos, 8 X 2016, 2 ♂, 1♀. Fig. 12 .

New for Rhodos and the East Aegean islands. This is a mainly west Mediterranean species. Until now its eastern distribution limits were formed by the islands of Kerkira and Thira (Santorini). According to Willemse (1984), especially Thira record needs confirmation. The specimens collected from Rhodos expand the dis tribution of the species considerably to the east. The locality is the well known 'Valley of Butterflies’, a rivulet of a few hundred meters length on the west side of the island, named by the locals ‘Pelecanos’. The area is visited by millions of tourists every summer in order to admire the huge concentration of the moth Euplagia quadripunctaria . It is a humid and shady place dominated by Platanus orientalis and Liquidambar orientalis trees. Mogoplistes brunneus was observed and collected at night from inside the leaf litter, under rocks and on the surface of the rocks that were covered with mosses, where it was common. Syntopic, but less common, we also found Ovaliptila sp. nov. (Gorochov and Alexiou, in press.). The related Pseudomogoplistes squamiger (Fischer, 1853) was reported from nearby Kos and Tilos islands ( Baccetti 1992). Our specimens were identified using Willemse (1986).

Figures

Figure 12. Mogoplistes brunneus, Dodecanisa, Rhodos, ' Valley of the Butterflies', 8 X 2016.