Ptinella Motschulsky, 1844

Komosiński, Karol & Marczak, Dawid, 2018, Four Species of Ptiliidae (Coleoptera) New to Poland, The Coleopterists Bulletin 72 (1), pp. 151-156 : 154

Ptinella Motschulsky, 1844

To date, 13 species of the genus Ptinella are reported from Europe ( Sörensson 2015). Six of these (or seven if counting Ptinella mekura Kubota, 1945 , which is of an unclear status) are not native: Ptinella cavelli (Broun, 1893) ; Ptinella errabunda Johnson, 1975 ; Ptinella johnsoni Rutanen, 1985 ; Ptinella populicola ( Vorst, 2012) ; Ptinella simsoni (Matthews, 1878) ; and Ptinella taylorae Johnson, 1977 (Sörensson and Johnson 2004; Vorst 2012). Four species ( P. cavelli , P. errabunda , P. simsoni , and P. taylorae ) originated from the Australian region ( Australia and New Zealand), P. populicola is from North America, and P. johnsoni most likely is native to the eastern Palearctic (Sörensson and Johnson 2004; Vorst 2012).

Beetles in the genus Ptinella are among the smallest members of the family (0.5–1.3 mm). Their yellow or brown bodies are elongated and flat with strongly shortened elytra. Nearly all species are represented by two morphological forms: forma alata with a strongly pigmented body and welldeveloped wings and eyes; and forma aptera , which lacks wings, has underdeveloped or no eyes, and shortened elytra ( Besuchet 1971; Vorst 2012). Identification to species in this genus is based on the spermatheca.

Four species are recorded from Poland: Ptinella aptera (Guérin-Méneville, 1839) ; Ptinella denticollis (Fairmaire, 1857) ; Ptinella limbata (Heer, 1841) ; and Ptinella tenella (Erichson, 1845) ( Burakowski et al. 1978) . However, the Catalogue of Palaearctic Coleoptera ( Sörensson 2015) does not list P. tenella from Poland. We report herein two additional species, Ptinella britannica Matthews, 1858 and Ptinella microscopica (Gillmeister, 1845) , for the Polish fauna.