Biodiversity Data Journal :
Taxonomy & Inventories
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Corresponding author: Radomir Jaskuła (radomir.jaskula@biol.uni.lodz.pl)
Academic editor: Enrico Ruzzier
Received: 07 Nov 2023 | Accepted: 12 Dec 2023 | Published: 24 Jan 2024
© 2024 Radomir Jaskuła, Denis Ćoso, Vytautas Tamutis, Romas Ferenca
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:
Jaskuła R, Ćoso D, Tamutis V, Ferenca R (2024) Updated distributional checklist of the genus Pytho Latreille, 1796 of the Palearctic realm with the first records of P. abieticola J. R. Sahlberg, 1875 from Lithuania and the family Pythidae (Coleoptera) from Moldova and Serbia. Biodiversity Data Journal 12: e115422. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.12.e115422
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Pytho Latreille, 1796 is a small genus of the dead log bark beetles (Coleoptera, Pythidae). All species are distributed in the Holarctic, being recognised as typically boreal taxa, but knowledge about the geographical ranges of particular taxa is far from complete.
The updated distributional checklist of the genus Pytho of the Palearctic is given, based on literature and new records, including citizen-scientific data. Pytho depressus and the family Pythidae are recorded for the first time from the Republic of Moldova (Municipality of Chișinău) and the Republic of Serbia (Municipality of Voždovac) and P. abieticola is recorded for the first time from Lithuania (Alytus District Municipality, Ignalina District Municipality and Kaišiadorys District Municipality).
Pythidae, Pytho, dead log bark beetles, saproxylic beetles, species list, new records, Lithuania, Moldova, Serbia, citizen science, iNaturalist
The genus Pytho Latreille, 1796 is one of only seven genera classified in the small tenebrionid beetle family Pythidae Solier, 1834, the common name of which is 'dead log bark beetles' (
The aim of the paper is to present the first evidence of the occurrence of P. depressus and, thus, the family Pythidae from the Republic of Moldova and the Republic of Serbia, as well as the first distributional data for P. abieticola from Lithuania. In addition, an updated distributional checklist for genus Pytho from the Palaearctic realm is provided by adding recent literature records as well as data overlooked in both editions of the Catalogue of Palaearctic Coleoptera (
Material of P. depressus from Moldova, used in this study, was recently received by RJ from Dr. Ilya Osipov (USA) and identified, based on the keys provided in
The Catalogue of Palearctic Coleoptera (
Small to medium beetles with moderately flattened bodies; body length 5.6–10.6 mm (9.5 mm in specimen from the Šešuva Reserve, others not measured). Head, pronotum and elytra black, legs and antennae brown-black (Fig.
Palearctic taxon. Similar to other Pytho species, P. abieticola prefers regions with lower annual temperatures; in Central and Western Europe, it is restricted mainly to mountainous areas. Till now, it has been recorded from 12 countries (for details see distributional checklist below), including the first records from Lithuania presented here (Fig.
Numerous data suggest that P. abieticola is exclusively associated with spruce forests (Picea spp.), often restricted to primeval forest areas (
Habitats of Pytho abieticola J. R. Sahlberg, 1875 in Lithuania: a, b Šešuva Reserve (
There are no regular studies focused on feeding preferences or feeding behaviour in P. abieticola. Some literature data suggest that larvae of this species are zoophagous (
Pytho abieticola is listed in category I on the list of primeval forest relict species of Central Europe, which includes taxa restricted to a few remnants of natural forests (
Based on
Relatively small beetles with strongly flattened bodies, body length (measured from anterior margin of clypeus to the end of elytra) of three studied specimens from Moldova (Serbian individuals photographed in the field were not measured): 7.86 mm, 10.64 mm and 12.13 mm. Pronotum widest in the middle, with sides not constricted anteriorly, clypeus 3.2 times wider than long. In examined specimens head, pronotum and elytra were brown-bluish, legs brown-black and antennae brown-yellow, with yellowish pale body.
Palaearctic taxon. Like most members of the genus, P. depressus prefers cold boreal regions and are more sporadic outside such areas. Until now, it has been recorded from 32 countries, including the first records from Moldova (Fig.
Different literature sources (e.g.
Literature data suggest that a variety of food accepted by larvae of this species – from (mainly) rotting phloem and pulp, sawdust from the food of other insect larvae, their excrement and microorganisms living amongst the mentioned materials to (rarely) larvae of other saproxylic beetles (
Based on observations from Russian Karelia,
Pytho depressus, like all members of the genus, is a saproxylic species and its life cycle takes at least two years (
The checklist of the Palaearctic species of Pytho includes only six species that make up 60% of the world fauna (
1) Pytho abieticola J. R. Sahlberg, 1875: Austria, Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Norway, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, Sweden (
2) Pytho depressus Linnaeus, 1767: Austria, Bosnia and Hercegovina, Belarus, Russia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Great Britain, Germany, Georgia, Hungary, Italy, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine (
3) Pytho jezoensis Kono, 1936: Japan (
4) Pytho kolwensis C. R. Sahlberg, 1833: Estonia, Finland, Russia, Poland, Sweden (
5) Pytho nivalis Lewis, 1888: Russia, Japan (
6) Pytho sichuanensis Háva et Zahradník, 2021: China (
Previous studies on the genus Pytho and the new findings presented herein allow the conclusion that, amongst all mentioned Pytho species, one is endemic to Japan (P. jozoensis;
The first author would like to thank to Ilya Osipov (Jamison, Pennsylvania, USA) who made material of Pytho depressus from Moldova available for this study, to Jacek Kalisak (Łódź, Poland) and Vitalii Alekseev (Kaliningrad, Russia) who helped in collecting some literature and to Inez Masiarek (Łódź, Poland) who prepared the maps. Special thanks are given to Darren Pollock (USA) and Gian Luca Nardi (Italy) for their helpful comments that significantly improved the manuscript.