Salda littoralis (Linnaeus, 1758)

N. N. Vinokurov, 2010, Species of the Genus Salda F. (Heteroptera, Saldidae) of the Fauna of Russia and Adjacent Territories, Entomological Review 90 (6), pp. 727-740 : 728-733

Salda littoralis (Linnaeus, 1758)

( Figs. 1, 2, 15–17, 30, 40)

Linnaeus, 1758: 442; Reuter, 1895: 35 ( Acanthia ); Oshanin, 1908: 583 ( Acanthia ); Kiritshenko, 1910: 180 ( Acanthia ); Oshanin, 1912: 88; Drake, Hoberlandt, 1950: 6; Kiritshenko, 1951: 94; Cobben, 1960: 222; Kulik, 1965: 410; Vinokurov, 1979: 62; 1988: 749; Matis, 1986: 126; Cobben, 1985: 250; Schuh et al., 1987: 280; Lindskog, 1995: 135; Vinokurov, Kanyukova, 1995a: 8; 1995b: 36; Putshkov, Putshkov, 1996: 12; Kanyukova and Marusik, 2006: 167.

A Holarctic species.

Distribution ( Fig. 40). Judging from the ZIN collection and the literature (Sahlberg, 1878; Lindberg, 1925, 1927; Kiritshenko, 1916, 1960; Samko, 1930; Gerd, 1946; Kerzhner and Sedykh, 1970; Sedykh, 1974; Kerzhner, 1988; Vinokurov, 1979; Vinokurov and Stepanov, 2003; etc.), in the north of Russia the species is distributed everywhere from Murmansk Province and Karelia to the Chukchi Peninsula, southwards of the line: the Barents Seacoast–the Polar Urals–the lower Ob River (Salekhard)–the Taimyr Peninsula (Lake Khantaika)–the Anabarskii Gulf–the lower Lena River—the lower Yana River–Srednekolymsk–the Chukchi Peninsula. In the west of the European part of Russia, this species occurs in Kaliningrad Province (Stichel, 1960; cited after Lukashuk, 1997); in the temperate zone, it was recorded from Kaluga Province (Kiritshenko, 1930a); in the southern part, from the North Caucasus (Kiritshenko, 1918; Hemiptera .., 1984). In Altai, the species was recorded in the Chuiskaya steppe (Kiritshenko, 1910); in the southern part of Eastern Siberia, in Tyva (Tsherepanov and Kiritshenko, 1962) and Cisbaikalia (Kulik, 1965). In the taiga zone of Yakutia, it is omnipresent (Vinokurov, 1979; Vinokurov et al., 2003; Stepanov, 2003). In the Far East, it is known from Magadan Province (Matis, 1986), Kamchatka (Stål, 1858; Lindberg, 1925, 1927; Kiritshenko, 1926; Kerzhner, 1988), Khabarovsk and Primorskii territories (Vinokurov, 1988), Amurskaya Province (Vinokurov, 2005b), Sakhalin Island (Vinokurov, 1981, 1988), and the Kuril Islands (Vinokurov, 1988; Kerzhner and Marusik, 1996; Kanyukova and Marusik, 2006). In the territories adjoining Russia, the species is distributed in Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania (Cobben, 1985; Lukashuk, 1997), Ukraine, (Kiritshenko, 1930b; Putshkov and Putshkov, 1996), Transcaucasia (Kiritshenko, 1918), Central and Eastern Kazakhstan (Asanova, 1962a, 19626, 1986), and Kirghizia and Tajikistan (Kiritshenko, 1911, 1964).—Northern and Central Europe, Turkey, the western part of China, Mongolia, Japan, Alaska, and Canada (Lindskog, 1995).

Material. Russia. Murmansk (Ekaterininskii; Iokanga; Aleksandrovsk; Lake Imandra; Vud’’avr River basin; Pechenga; Poyakonda Station, the Biological Research Station of Moscow State University; southern part of Kola Bay) and Arkhangelsk (Solovetsky Islands) provinces, the Komi Republic (Kozhva River; Ust-Tsilma; Pechora River), Leningrad (Lakhta; Lebyazh’e; Ligovo; Log; Yamburg = Kingisepp), Novgorod (Tigoda), Tver (Ostashkovskii Uezd), Kostroma (Ugory), Voronezh (Voronezh, Ternovka), and Volgograd (Sarepta) provinces, Krasnodar Territory (Krasnaya Polyana), Daghestan (“Beryuch’e”), Sverdlovsk Prov. (Lake Itkul), Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Area (Ob River, 80 km downstream of Salekhard; Salekhard, Shaitanka River), Novosibirsk Prov. (Karachi; Kupino; Lake Chany), Gornyi Altai (Kuadra River, Kuraiskii Mt. Range; Kosh-Agach; Lake Kan), Altai Terr. (Severnaya of Slavgorod Distr.), Krasnoyarsk Terr. (Lake B. Khantaika; Dudinka; Turukhansk), Tuva (Sagaity, W of Samagaltai; Lake Amdaigyn- Khol; “Kol-Oozu;” Khandagaity), Irkutsk Prov. (Baisha; Lake Baikal—Kultuk, Pokoiniki Cape, Goloustnaya River mouth; Belaya River, tributary of Angara; Padun Vill. on Angara; Malta Station), Yakutia (Anabarskii Gulf; the lower Lena River—Tit-ary, Beder locality; Mirnyi; Khaptagai near Yakutsk; Oi-Bes near Pavlovskoe Vill.; 2nd Neryukteinskii nasleg [= Village—Transl.]; Yakutsk; Turannakh letnik [= Village—Transl.]; Tyungyulyu; Amginskaya Vill.; Megino-Aldan; the Dulgalakh River, the Yana River system; Kular; Verkhoyansk; the Olchan River, the left tributary of the Indigirka River; the upper Indigirka River, Tomtor Vill.; the upper Moma River, Sasyr Vill.; the mouth of the Ankudina River on Kolyma), Buryatia (Urt-Nor, Borgoiskaya Steppe), the Transbaikal Terr. (Ara-Ilya; Lake Zyrde-zarge, 45 km SE of. Dauriya Station; Chita-Argun; Kharanor), Kamchatka (Uzon Volcano; Karaginskii Island, Bering Island), Magadan Prov. (Olen Stream, basin of Sibit-Tyellakh on Bolshoi Annachag Mt. Range), Primorskii Terr. (Devitsa Station, S of Lake Khanka; Lake Khasan; the Lazovskii Nature Reserve, Proselochnaya Bay), Sakhalin Prov. (Kunashir Island: Sernovodsk Vill.).

Estonia (Khaapsalu, Sillamyae, Khiumaa Island). Latvia (Stalzen at Vindava). Belarus (Vitebsk). Ukraine (Donetskii Estuary, Odessa, Kherson; the Crimea: Kerch, Evpatoria). Georgia (Batumi). Armenia (Lake Gokcha = Sevan). Kazakhstan (Kokshetau Mts. near Tersakkan; near Ber-chochur, Mugodzhary). Kirghizia (Alamedin River; near Ulakol River mouth; western shore of Lake Issyk Kul; Dzhety-oguz, the eastern shore of Lake Issyk Kul; Ak-su Pass; Chom- Chikkan Spring, Karakol River; upper Karakol River, Susamyr; Talas Ala Tau, Lake Beshtagi; the environs of Che-tyrtash, S of Atbashi Mt. Range; Przhevalsk). Tajikistan (Yavan-su River near Porchisai).

A total of 2046 specimens were examined.

Biology. The species inhabits various areas from the sea coasts to the alpine belt (Kiritshenko, 1951). For the area of the upper Kolyma River, Matis (1986) mentions the following biotopes: sphagnum-larch areas, meadows, grass-shrub areas, and laida [a boggy meadow on low coastal plains, flooded during sea inflows and drying at falling tides—Transl.], and for the Kamchatka seaside, coastal landscapes. In the middle-taiga subzone of Yakutia, S. littoralis occurs in wet meadows, bogs, and along silted river banks. It was abundant on the meadows of the lower and middle hydrothermal belts of thermokarstic hollows—alases (Glicerietum triflorae + Puccinellitum tenuiflorae associations), dominating there among herpetobiont zoophagous bugs. In northeastern Yakutia, the species was recorded in a forb-grass-moss tundra at a height of 1040 m a.s.l. and in the damaged technogeneous landscapes of the Olchan River valley (an initially-moss group on the drying up clay bottom of a sewage tank of an industrial gold-mining device), together with S. sahlbergi (the dynamic density was 15 spms. per 100 trap-days).

According to Péricart (1990), in the plain part of West Europe, S. littoralis is a common species for the sea coasts, cold estuaries, and the shores of fresh water bodies on clay or (less frequently) sandy soils; in the alpine and subalpine belts, it occurs in wet meadows along the shores of lake, ponds, and streams. The bugs occur in wet places with more or less high and rather dense grasses, keeping to the plants. The adults and larvae are mainly necrophagous.

In Britain, this species is distributed along the silted shores of rivers and lakes (occasionally stony) at a distance from the water and always in places with plants and silt which are necessary for their oviposition; the species hibernates at the adult and egg stages (Southwood and Leston, 1959).