Biodiversity Data Journal :
Taxonomic Paper
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Corresponding author: Ruzhdi Kuçi (ruzhdi.a.kuqi@hotmail.com)
Academic editor: Benjamin Price
Received: 10 Sep 2019 | Accepted: 05 Dec 2019 | Published: 13 Dec 2019
© 2019 Halil Ibrahimi, Ruzhdi Kuçi, Astrit Bilalli, Milaim Musliu, Arben Gashi, Naman Sinani, Besnik Emërllahu
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:
Ibrahimi H, Kuçi R, Bilalli A, Musliu M, Gashi A, Sinani N, Emërllahu B (2019) Distribution of two rare taxa of caddisflies (Trichoptera: Rhyacophilidae, Polycentropodidae) from the Republic of Kosovo. Biodiversity Data Journal 7: e46466. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.7.e46466
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The knowledge about distribution, ecology and species composition of caddisflies of the Balkan Peninsula is still not complete. The ongoing investigations of the last years highlight this area as an important hotspot of caddisfly diversity. Polycentropus ierapetra slovenica has been considered a narrow range endemic of Slovenia and surrounding areas. Rhyacophila aurata, a species known from many parts of Europe, according to the current knowledge, is absent from a large part of the Balkan Peninsula.
In this paper, we present records of these two rare taxa of Trichoptera from the Republic of Kosovo with exact distribution data, based on sampling carried out randomly during 2014 and 2017. Polycentropus ierapetra slovenica was found in several streams in Bjeshkët e Nemuna Mountains and Karadak Mountains. Rhyacophila aurata was found during this investigation at a single locality in Bjeshkët e Nemuna Mountains.
The unexpected finding of these two taxa in Kosovo greatly enlarges their known distribution area and makes a contribution towards the better knowledge of distributional patterns of these rare taxa of caddisflies in this part of Europe.
Aquatic insects, rare species, Polycentropus ierapetra slovenica, Rhyacophila aurata, Balkans.
The knowledge about distribution, ecology and species composition of caddisflies in the Balkan Peninsula is still not complete. The recent and ongoing investigations in this area (e.g.
Until recently, there were only few registered records of caddisfly species in Kosovo, but the list has significantly increased during the past decade, with several new species being described (e.g.
The main goal of this study was to contribute to the list of caddisfly taxa in the Republic of Kosovo and improve the knowledge about geographic distribution of rare taxa of caddisflies in the Balkan Peninsula, to assist in proper conservation of freshwater ecosystems.
Sampling was carried out occasionally during 2014 and 2017 at six sampling stations, three of them being located in Bjeshkët e Nemuna and the other three in Karadak Mountains in the Republic of Kosovo (Table
Details of the six sampling stations in Karadak (S1, S2, S3) and Bjeshkët e Nemuna (S4, S5, S6) mountains in Kosovo.
Localities |
Latitude °N |
Longitude °E |
Altitude m |
Dërmjak |
42.17264 |
21.31582 |
620 |
Letnicë |
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625 |
Zhegër |
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|
640 |
Stankaj |
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|
1307 |
Drelaj |
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|
1072 |
Pepaj |
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|
968 |
Slovenia, Italy, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo (
We found that the flight period of this subspecies is from May to September. The subspecies is present at different altitudes, from 620 m up to 1307 m.
The shape of male genitalia and especially of parts which are important for subspecies identification (length, shape and curvature of intermediate appendages, shape and size of dorsal and ventral lobes of inferior appendages and shape of inner basal projections) clearly point to the slovenica subspecies (
Other species associated with Polycentropus ierapetra slovenica in Dërmjak on 12.06.2017 are: Rhyacophila fasciata Hagen, 1859 (4 males), Rhyacophila loxias Schmid, 1970 (11 males, 2 females), Rhyacophila polonica McLachlan, 1879 (7 males and 1 female), (21 males and 2 females), Rhyacophila tristis Pictet, 1834 (2 females), (3 males, 2 females), Glossosoma conformis Neboiss, 1963 (4 males), Synagapetus iridipennis McLachlan, 1879 (1 male); Philopotamus montanus (Donovan, 1813) (2 males, 2 females), Plectrocnemia conspersa (Curtis, 1834) (2 males), Polycentropus excicus Klapálek 1894 (1 male), Polycentropus flavomaculatus (Pictet, 1834) (1 male, 2 females), Psychomyia klapaleki Malicky, 1995 (1 male, 3 females), Psychomyia pusilla (Fabricius, 1781) (5 males, 3 females), Lype reducta (Hagen, 1868) (1 male), Tinodes rostocki McLachlan, 1878 (1 male), Tinodes unicolor (Pictet, 1834) (1 male), Potamophylax luctuosus (Piller & Mitterpacher, 1783) (2 males), Silo graellsii Pictet, 1865 (12 males, 15 females) and Oecismus monedula (Hagen, 1859) (8 males, 3 females).
Other species associated with Polycentropus ierapetra slovenica in Zhegër on 14.07.2017 are: Rhyacophila fasciata Hagen, 1859 (4 males), Rhyacophila tristis Pictet, 1834 (2 males, 2 females), Philopotamus montanus (Donovan, 1813) (1 male), Hydropsyche fulvipes Curtis, 1834 (2 males); Hydropsyche saxonica McLachlan, 1884 (5 males) and Oecismus monedula (Hagen, 1859) (2 males).
Other species associated with Polycentropus ierapetra slovenica in Letnicë on 20.07.2017 are: Rhyacophila fasciata Hagen, 1859 (3 males), Philopotamus montanus (Donovan, 1813) (2 males) and Hydropsyche instabilis (Curtis, 1834) (4 males) (12 males).
Other species associated with Polycentropus ierapetra slovenica in Drelaj on 14.07.2014 are: Plectrocnemia mojkovacensis Malicky, 1982 (1 male), Limnephilus sparsus Curtis, 1834 (1 male) and Micropterna sequax McLachlan, 1875 (1 male).
Other species associated with Polycentropus ierapetra slovenica in Pepa on 17.09.2014 are: Rhyacophila armeniaca Guerin-Meneville, 1843 (3 males, 2 females), Rhyacophila palmeni McLachlan 1879 (2 males) and Ecclisopteryx keroveci Previšić, Graf & Vitecek (1 male, 3 females).
Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Czech Republic, Croatia, France, Germany, Italy, Liechtenstein, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland (
Other species associated with Rhyacophila aurata in Stankaj on 20.07.2014 are: Rhyacophila loxias Schmid, 970 (11 males), Rhyacophila polonica McLachlan, 1879 (1 male, 1 female), Rhyacophila palmeni McLachlan, 1879 (2 males, 1 female), Rhyacophila tristis Pictet, 1834 (7 males, 1 female), Rhyacophila mocsaryi Klapalek, 1898 (1 female), Philopotamus montanus (Donovan, 1813) (1 male) and Micrasema sericeum Klapalek, 1902 (1 female).
One species of the Rhyacophilidae family is reported for the first time and one subspecies of Polycentropodidae is documented for the first time with the exact data from the Republic of Kosovo: Rhyacophila aurata and Polycentropus ierapetra slovenica.
The species Polycentropus ierapetra is endemic to South-eastern Europe and Turkey, with several known subspecies which are narrow endemics of certain areas (
Rhyacophila aurata was found during this investigation in one locality only in Bjeshkët e Nemuna National Park and with only one specimen. This species, although present in many countries in Europe, it is not found frequently in Western Balkans and is absent from neighbouring countries of Kosovo (
The number of Rhyacophila species has now been increased to fifteen and the number of Polycentropodidae species to ten in the Republic of Kosovo.
Finding of several other rare species during this investigation (such as: Rhyacophila loxias, Rhyacophila palmeni, Polycentropus excicus, Plectrocnemia mojkovacensis, Psychomyia klapaleki, amongst others) greatly enlarges their known distribution area. Previously, they have been reported from only few localities in the Balkans. It is only the second time that Psychomyia klapaleki and the third time that Plectrocnemia mojkovacensis have been reported from Kosovo. This investigation shows that both mountainous areas where this investigation was conducted harbour a collection of rare caddisfly taxa, many of which are known only from a limited number of localities in the area, based on current knowledge. Further investigations of this area will most certainly increase the number of known species in Kosovo and improve the knowledge about this order of insects in the Balkans.
We would like to thank Professor Hans Malicky for verifying specimens of Polycentropus ierapetra slovenica from Bjeshkët e Nemuna. We also thank Dr. Wolfram Graf for his comments that greatly improved the initial version of the manuscript and Dr. Peter Neu for providing data on distribution of Rhyacophila aurata.