Salda henschii (Reuter, 1891)

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 : 736

Salda henschii (Reuter, 1891)

( Figs. 3–5; 24; 35; 39; 41, 4)

Reuter, 1891: 23 ( Acanthia ); Hoberlandt, 1977: 144; Lindskog, 1991: 7; 1995: 135. Saldula sahlbergi (non Reut.): Drake, Hoberlandt, 1950: 10.

Salda sahlbergi (non Reut.): Cobben, 1960: 220 (part.); Wróblewski, 1966: 223; 1968: 223.

A European species—the mountains of Central and East Europe (the eastern Carpathians, Alps) and the south of Scandinavia.

Distribution ( Fig. 41, 4). The northwest of the European part of Russia.

Salda henschii was described from the Vysoké Tatry Mts. Drake and Hoberlandt (1950) reduced this poorly known species to synonyms of the boreal mountain S. sahlbergi , which was supported by their colleagues in the later publications (Cobben, 1960; Wróblewski, 1966, 1968). Later, Hoberlandt (1977) and Lindskog (1991) reinstated S. henschi as a species and determined its range and the northern border of the range, which passes in Scandinavia along 60°N, being simultaneously the southern limit of the range of S. sahlbergi in West Europe. These sibling (according to P. Lindskog) species clearly differ in the character of hairs on the dorsal side of the body and in the structure of the parameres ( Figs. 21, 24) and parandria ( Figs. 33, 35). In addition, a small tooth at the apex of the 2nd gonapophysis of the ovipositor is present in S. henschii and absent in S. sahlbergi ( Figs. 38, 39).

In the Russian fauna, this species was first recorded by Lindskog (1991) from a female collected in Gogland (Sur-Sari) Island of the Gulf of Finland (the specimen is deposited in the Zoological Museum of Helsinki). This is the easternmost record of the species in the northern part of its range.

Biology. In the Alps, the species inhabits the subalpine belt, mainly the heathlands, and was also collected on the clay bank of a small stream in a coniferous forest (Hoberlandt, 1977). According to Lindskog (1991), the habitats of S. henschii are very similar to those of the preceding species; in Sweden, the bugs were collected in a eutrophic bog, in Austria, on a pond shore, among moss and low sedge.