In a very dry year, when aquatic habitats were scarce, we observed exceptionally massive corixid oviposition on terrapin shells in Doñana National Park, southwestern Spain. Most terrapins inhabiting a large pond devoid of aquatic vegetation exhibited a dense cover of corixid eggs, while terrapins from vegetated ponds had no egg cover. Corixid oviposition had also been observed on terrapin shells in previous periods of severe drought. Considering that terrapins frequently alternate between aquatic and terrestrial environments, we experimentally assessed the viability of corixid eggs in varying degrees of dry exposure. A significant proportion of corixid eggs did not hatch when they were occasionally dried under sun exposure, but egg mortality was lower when they were dried in the shade. The massive oviposition on terrapin shells was probably a consequence of the limited availability of adequate oviposition sites, and it might increase the odds of egg survival when terrapins migrate to other ponds.

En este estudio se analizan dos fragmentos del gen de la citocromo c oxidasa subunidad I (COX1) del ADN mitocondrial de 61 individuos del género Rhynchophorus colectados en la Región de Murcia a fin de determinar su procedencia. El análisis filogenético del fragmento 1 de las muestras de la Región de Murcia conjuntamente con las secuencias disponibles en GenBank indica que los individuos corresponden a la especie Rhynchophorus ferrugineus.Las secuencias de Murcia se colapsan en un único haplotipo (H8 mediterráneo) que aparece dentro del clado de R. ferrugineus. De los análisis filogeográficos se infiere que el origen de los individuos de Murcia es Egipto. Adicionalmente, se examinó una región contigua del COX1 (fragmento 2) en la que las secuencias se colapsaron en dos haplotipos. In this research two fragments of the cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COX1) gene of the mitochondrial DNA were analyzed in 61 individuals of the genus Rhynchophorus collected in the Region of Murcia with the aim of determining their origin. Phylogenetic analysis of fragment 1 of the samples collected in the Region of Murcia together with the available sequences in GenBank, indicated that these individuals correspond to the species R. ferrugineus. Sequences from Murcia collapsed into the H8 Mediterranean haplotype, which cluster into the R. ferrugineus clade. Phylogeographic analysis shows that the origin of the individuals collected in the Region of Murcia is Egypt. Additionally, a contiguous fragment of COX1 (fragment 2) was analyzed and the sequences collapsed into two haplotypes.