Scobicia chevrieri (A. Villa & J.B. Villa, 1835)

Nardi, Gianluca & Mifsud, David, 2015, The Bostrichidae of the Maltese Islands (Coleoptera), ZooKeys 481, pp. 69-108 : 80-82

Taxon classification Animalia Coleoptera Bostrichidae

Scobicia chevrieri (A. Villa & J.B. Villa, 1835)

Xyloperta pustulata F.: Cameron and Caruana Gatto 1907: 398.

Scobicia pustulata Fabr.: Luigioni 1929: 641.

Scobicia pustulata (Fabricius, 1801): Nardi 2004b.

Scobicia chevrieri (A. Villa & J.B. Villa, 1835): Mifsud et al. 2012: 9.

Literature records.

Malta: [Malta,] "Coll. Gatto" ( Cameron and Caruana Gatto 1907); “Mal.” [= Malta] ( Luigioni 1929); “Malta” ( Nardi 2004b); Buskett, adults emerged between 5-25.X.2011 from dead twigs of Ficus carica collected on 8.VII.2011, AF & DM leg., 56 ex ( Mifsud et al. 2012).

Material examined.

Gozo: Marsalforn Valley, 6.VI.1990, DM, 1 ex (CMM). Malta: Baħrija, 5.VIII.1992, LC, 1 ex (CMM); Bingemma, 10.IX.2001, DM, attracted to light, 8 ex (CMM); Buskett, 24.VI.2003, DM, attracted to light, mixed woodland Pinus / Cupressus , 5 ex (CMM); Marsa, Għammieri, 24.III.2002, DM, 1 ex (CMM); "Malta, 9/[= IX.]1901", “Xylopertha”, “pustulata”, "M. Cameron Coll. / B.M. 1936-555", “5777” [= Xylopertha pustulata F. Marsa Scirocco [= Marsaxlokk]/id. EAN [=?; maybe identified by E. A. Newbery (cf. Cameron and Caruana Gatto 1907: 383)]], 10 ex (BMNH); Rabat, 14.VI.2002, PS, 1 ex (CMM); 3.VIII.2002, PS, 3 ex (CMM); Rabat, Dwejra, 21.VI.2002, PS, 1 ex (CMM); Rabat, Ta Koronja, 6.VI.2002, PS, 2 ex (CMM); Wied Badu, 3.VII.2002, DM, 5 ex (CMM); Wied tal-Isqof, 16.VII.2002, DM, 1 ex (CMM); 2.VIII.2002, DM, 2 ex (CMM); Zejtun, 10.XI.1989, DM, 1 ex (CMM); 29.IX.1990, DM, development of larvae took place in dead branches of vines, 2 ex (CMM); 27.V.2002, DM, 1 ex (CMM).

Other material examined.

Italy: Marche region, Ancona prov., Gole di Frasassi, 20.VI.2001, A. B. Biscaccianti leg., ex [larvae from] Corylus avellana , 2 ex (CNI); ditto, Pesaro e Urbino prov., Foce Fiume Metauro, area golenale [= Mouth of Metauro River, floodplain area], 2.VI.1999, A. B. Biscaccianti leg., ex larvae from Salix sp., 4 ex (CNBFVR; CNI). Latium region, Rome prov., Tenuta Presidenziale di Castelporziano, Ponte della Focetta, 10.IX.1997, A. B. Di Giulio leg., hygrophilous wood, light trap 15 W, 1 ex (CNI); ditto, ditto, ditto, Villa di Capocotta, 21.VI.2000, P. Maltzeff leg., mixed light trap 160 W, 2 ex (CNI); ditto, Latina prov., Cisterna di Latina, [33T 319824.15 E 4606546.61 N], 29.IX.1987, GN, night, in a garden, at light, 2 ex (CNI); ditto, ditto, ditto, Fraz. Cerciabella, [33T 319479.96 E 4605030.39 N], 17.VIII.1998, GN, in a garden, at light, 20-21 hours, 2 ex (CNI). Jordan: Dana Reserve, Acacia Area, 17.IV.1995, D.P.I.T., night catch, 1 ex (MZUR); ditto, El-Barrah, 1150 m, NE slope, 36R YU 517 926, 23.IV.-8.V.1995, D.P.I.T., Mediterranean environment, pt, 1 ex (MZUR); ditto, Irano Turanian Area 1, 18.IV.1995, D.P.I.T., 1 ex (MZUR).

Chorotype.

Mediterranean (northward upto Austria, French Alps, Hungary and Switzerland), with extension westward upto Portugal, and eastward upto Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran and southern Russia; this species was intercepted in the USA and Canada, but so far it has not established itself (cf. Fisher 1950, as Sinoxylon chevrieri (Villa) [sic!], Vrydagh 1952, as Sinoxylon Chevrieri (Villa) [sic!], Ivie 2002, Borowski 2007, Borowski and Węgrzynowicz 2007, McCaffrey 2011, as Sinoxylon chevrieri Villa & Villa, 1835 [sic!]). It is known also from Romania ( Lesne 1904, Vrydagh 1956, in both cases as Sinoxylon Chevrieri Villa [sic!], Nardi 2004b) and Sinai (cf. Alfieri 1976, as Sinoxylon chevrieri Villa [sic!]), but these two regions were overlooked by Borowski (2007). The above record from Jordan is the first for this country (cf. Sharaf et al. 1983, Borowski 2007).

Ecology.

Polyphagous species, with development taking place in death or debilitated branches of several woody plants. The following are plants known to be infested by this species and are present in Malta (cf. Haslam et al. 1977): Acacia sp., Amygdalus communis , Arundo sp., Bambusa sp., Ceratonia siliqua , Cercis sp., Citrus sp., Eucalyptus sp., Ficus carica , Hibiscus sabdariffa , Laurus nobilis , Morus alba , Olea sp., Pinus halepensis , Pistacia lentiscus , Pistacia vera , Prunus avium , Pistacia dulcis , Punica granatum , Quercus spp., Rhamnus alaternus , Ulmus sp. and Vitis spp. (cf. Lesne 1901b, as Scobicia Chevrieri Villa [sic!], Peyerimhoff 1919, Novak 1952, both as Scobicia Chevrieri (Villa) [sic!], Caillol 1954, Español 1955, as Scobicia chevrieri Vill. [sic!], Bytinski-Salz and Sternlicht 1967, as Scobicia chevrieri Villa [sic!], Compte 1970, as Scobicia chevrieri (Villa [sic!], 1835), Georghiou 1977, as Scobicia chevrieri Villa [sic!], Halperin and Damoiseau 1980, as Scobicia chevrieri (Villa) [sic!], Lundberg et al. 1987, as Scobicia chevrieri Villa [sic!], Nardi and Ratti 1995, Borowski and Mazur 2001, Nardi and Zahradník 2004, Akşit et al. 2005, as Scobicia chevrieri Villa [sic!], Baena and Zuzarte 2013).

In central Italy (Marche region), this species (see above) was reared also from wood of Salix sp. and Corylus avellana , that represent new host-plant records for this Bostrichid (see above listed literature).

This species is often collected at light ( Angelini 1996a, 1998, Chikatunov et al. 2006, Baena and Zuzarte 2013) and by window flight traps. Using these traps, large number of specimens were collected in forests of Quercus calliprinos , Pinus halepensis and Pinus brutia from northern Israel ( Buse et al. 2010), in Quercus suber forests from southern France ( Brin et al. 2005, Brin and Brustel 2006), in an oak-hornbeam forest (Querco-Carpineto boreoitalicum) from northern Italy ( Nardi and Zahradník 2004), in Quercus ilex forests of Sardinia, in a floodplain remnant of northern Italy (Nardi, unpublished data) and in mixed beechwoods of central Italy ( Redolfi De Zan et al. 2014).

This species was also recorded from urban areas ( Nardi 1997, Inglebert 2004).

Notes.

Scobicia pustulata (Fabricius, 1801), a closely related Mediterranean species (cf. Borowski 2007), is here excluded from the Maltese fauna, since the record by Cameron and Caruana Gatto (1907) should refer to Scobicia chevrieri as established by the examination of the above mentioned historical material. This is not a case of misidentification by Cameron and Caruana Gatto (1907), since they ( Cameron and Caruana Gatto 1907: 383) based the nomenclature of this species on Heyden et al. (1891: 467) who listed " Xyloperta pustulata F.Kiesw.", and " Xyloperta pustulata Kiesenw. (non F.)" is Scobicia chevrieri ( Lesne 1938: 57, as Scobicia Chevrieri Villa [sic!], 1835). Only on the basis of this old litterature record, Scobicia pustulata was erroneously listed from Malta by the above subsequent authors ( Luigioni 1929, Nardi 2004b).

Scobicia chevrieri is a good colonizer of Mediterranean islands, since it is recorded also from other islands such as Montecristo (Tuscan Archipelago), Pantelleria, Lampedusa (cf. Nardi and Ratti 1995), Balearic and Columbretes Islands (cf. Lesne 1901b, as Scobicia Chevrieri Villa [sic!], 1835, Español 1955, Vrydagh 1960b, as Scobicia chevrieri Villa [sic!], 1835, Compte 1970, Nardi 2004b).