Hydraena (Hydraena) pici Sainte-Claire Deville, 1905

Lamine, Smail, Lounaci, Abdelkader & Bennas, Nard, 2019, Biodiversity and chorology of aquatic beetles (Coleoptera: Elmidae and Hydraenidae) in Kabylia (central-north Algeria). New records and updates, Zootaxa 4700 (1), pp. 102-116 : 107

Hydraena (Hydraena) pici Sainte-Claire Deville, 1905

Chorotype. Endemic Maghrebian ( Algeria and Tunisia).

Material examined. IG2 : 18-V-2013 (3 exs.) , A1: 7-V-2013 (3 exs.), A2: 7-V-2013 (10 exs.).

H. pici is a fairly well-known species in the north of Algeria. It is reported in the massifs of Ouarsenis (west of the country), Mouzaïa and the Djurdjura (center of the country), and Edough massif (east of the country) ( Aït Mouloud 1988; Lounaci 1987, 2005; Berthélemy et al. 1991).

In this study, H. pici was captured in only three springs, under stones, gravel and pebbles with semi-submerged mosses. The altitudinal distribution of H. pici is restricted and ranges from 810 m to 920 m in the area under study. However, in Tunisia, the distribution area of H. pici is restricted to lowland streams ( Touaylia et al. 2011). Like H. numidica , H. pici is considered as a threatened species in Tunisia, because of its very restricted distribution (in only a few localities in the north-west of the country) and its low abundance ( Touaylia et al. 2009). One of the three springs, where it occurs, H. pici in Kabylia is impacted by grazing.