Biodiversity Data Journal :
Taxonomic paper
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Campylomorphus homalisinus (Elateridae): a new species for Lombardy (Italy), with notes on its ecology, distribution and biogeography
Corresponding author:
Academic editor: Lyubomir Penev
Received: 03 Mar 2014 | Accepted: 29 Mar 2014 | Published: 31 Mar 2014
© 2014 Paolo Biella, Riccardo Groppali
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation:
Biella P, Groppali R (2014) Campylomorphus homalisinus (Elateridae): a new species for Lombardy (Italy), with notes on its ecology, distribution and biogeography. Biodiversity Data Journal 2: e1075. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.2.e1075
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Campylomorphus homalisinus has been found on Mt. Lesima (Northern Apennines) and it is the first record for the Lombardy region. C. homalisinus is a rare orophilous species: it has a discontinuous chorology that may have been caused by glaciers dynamics during the Pleistocene era. Little is known about the ecology of the species. This record and the expert-based investigation we performed determined that C. homalisinus inhabits shrublands and grasslands, but may also occur in the forests. This survey includes the only record of C. homalisinus foraging on flowers, a behavior that is not rare in the family Elateridae. We hypothesize that adults integrate their diet with flower resources according to a generalist strategy.
Campylomorphus homalisinus, Coleoptera, Flower visitor, Flower Nectar, Apennines, Pleistocene Glaciations, New record
Coleopterans play an important role in pollination (
As stated by
We have three questions about Campylomorphus homalisinus: 1) Has it ever been collected in the Lombardy region (Italy)? 2) What are its global distribution and altitudinal range? 3) What is currently known about its ecology?
To record flower foraging Elateridae a sampling scheme based on three plots of 2,5×2,5 m was established on Mt. Lesima (Pavia, see Study area). During the summer 2013 they were sampled weekly for 20 minutes, twice a day. In each sampling day the starting plot was chosen at random. Captures were stored in a 70% ethyl alcohol solution and the foraged plant was recorded. The specimens have been identified by a specialist (Dr. G. Platia).
Historic records of C. homalisinus have been verified with Museum collections and published works. Two experts (G. Platia and J.-L. Zapata de la Vega) have been interviewed about the ecology and the records of the species.
With the purpose of assessing a possible sub-regional differentiation in the altitudinal range of the species, the frequency of Italian records of C. homalisinus above 1500 m has been calculated for the portion of its Italian distribution range to the west of Mt. Lesima, and for the portion of the Italian distribution range to the east of the same mountain.
The collection took place in a montane grassland formation with a north-eastern exposure and average altitude of 1650 m [Fig.
Vegetation at lower elevations of Oltrepò Pavese is dominated by forests of Downy Oak (Quercus pubescens) and Manna Ash (Fraxinus ornus) with Carex flacca and Brachypodium rupestre in the grassed stages of the vegetational series. Above the altitude of 800 m vegetational stages of the series Trochiscantho nodiflori – Fago sylvaticae sigmetum are established, which are dominated by extended forests of Beech (Fagus sylvatica) (
Data collected on Mt. Lesima yielded the first record of Campylomorphus homalisinus (Illiger, 1807) inside Lombardy (Italy) [Fig.
Eastern distribution area of Campylomorphus homalisinus. Light green signs Italian administrative regions, yellow is the French one. Blue points sign occurrences of C. homalisinus according to literature, databases and museums collections. The red star shows mt. Lesima record. Administrative province of occurrence are Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (France) and Cuneo, Imperia, Savona, Genova, La Spezia, Pavia, Piacenza, Parma, Reggio nell'Emilia, Modena, Bologna, Lucca, Massa-Carrara, Pistoia, Firenze, Forlì-Cesena, Arezzo, Pesaro-Urbino, Perugia (Italy).
It is not known whether this species has always been present in the area, but it is certain that it has not been detected in many surveys set in Lombardy (
With regards to the biogeography of Campylomorphus homalisinus, it is an orophilous European click beetle that occurs in the Iberian Peninsula (
Western distribution area of Campylomorphus homalisinus. Red colour signs administrative regions of Spain, Portuguese ones are in orange. Blue points sign occurrences of C. homalisinus according to literature, databases and museums collections. Administrative provinces of occurrence are Oviedo, Lugo, A Coruña, Orense, Pontevedra (Spain) and Viana do Castelo, Braga, Vila Real, Lisboa, Guarda, Coimbra, Aveiro (Portugal).
How can this discontinuous distribution be explained? During the Pleistocene era, ice-sheets extended their surface covering Central Europe several times. During glaciers expansions, species migrated towards southern not-iced refugia, namely the Iberian, Italian and Balkan Peninsulas. During Earth's warmer periods the glaciers receded and some species colonized the newly uncovered land. Some of them established continuous areas, like the mammal Erinaceus europeus (
In Italy and France, Campylomorphus homalisinus is orophilous, being present at altitudes between 400 m and 1900 m (CK-map database in
Fauna d’Italia (
Elateridae of Mt. Lesima (Italy, Lombardy, PV) – Notes on ecology from Platia (1994) are marked with "×". "+" denotes data from our observations.
Mt. Lesima Elateridae | Chorology | Orophilous | Forests | Clearings | Shrubs | Grasslands | Flowers |
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Athous (Haplathous) flavipennis (Candèze, 1863) | South Europe | × | × | ||||
Campylomorphus homalisinus (Illiger, 1807) | South Europe, discontinous | × | × | × | + | + | |
Limonius minutus (Linné, 1758) | Eurosibiric | × | × | × | × | × |
In the Ck-map database (
The authors would thank Dr. Giuseppe Platia for identifications of specimens and for friendly communications about C. homalisinus, Josè-Luis Zapata de la Vega for Iberian records and useful information about the studied species, Dr. A. Sanchèz Ruiz for Iberian records, Dr. J. Mertlik for additional records, the staff of Natural History Museum of Milano (Dr. M. Pavesi), of Natural History Museum of Genova (Dr. R. Poggi) and of Natural History Museum of the University of Pavia (Dr. S. Maretti) for historical records. The authors would also thank Dr. Silvia Assini for revision of Mt. Lesima vegetation. We would thank K. Harrold and M. Biddulph (PhD students at University of Northampton, UK) and F. Rinaldi for voluntary revison of the English. We warmly thank Dr. Prof. Maurizio Cornalba.
Biella Paolo and Groppali Riccardo conceived of this paper and drafted the manuscript. Groppali Riccardo planned the field work. Paolo Biella conducted the surveys, led the expert-based rewiev and interpretated the data.