How unique is the tiger beetle fauna (Coleoptera, Cicindelidae) of the Balkan Peninsula?

Abstract

The tiger beetle fauna of the Balkan Peninsula is one of the richest in Europe and includes 19 species or 41% of the European tiger beetle fauna. Assembled by their biogeographical origins, the Balkan tiger beetle species fall into 14 different groups that include, Mediterranean, Middle Oriental, Central Asiatic, Euro-Siberian, South and East European, Pannonian-Sarmatian, West Palaearctic, Turano-European and Afrotropico Indo-Mediterranean species. The Mediterranean Sclerophyl and the Pontian Steppe are the Balkan biogeographical provinces with the highest species richness, while the Balkan Highlands has the lowest Cicindelidae diversity. Most species are restricted to single habitat types in lowland areas of the Balkan Peninsula and only Calomera aulica aulica and Calomera littoralis nemoralis occur in respectively 3 and 4 different types of habitat. About 60% of all Balkan Cicindelidae species are found in habitats potentially endangered by human activity.

The Maghreb – one more important biodiversity hot spot for tiger beetle fauna (Coleoptera, Carabidae, Cicindelinae) in the Mediterranean region

“…The reason is that sandy habitats preferred both by larvae and adult cicindelid beetles are much more diverse at the sea coasts than in the montane areas. This patterns appears to be typical for this beetle group and it is very similar in other regions of the Mediterranean area (Cassola 1970, 1973; Lisa 2002; Jaskuła 2011; Jaskuła and Rewicz 2014) and also in other regions of the world, including western and northern Australia, and the Indian subcontinent (Pearson and Cassola 1992). In contrast, at higher elevations, the percentage of habitat opportunists can be much higher, as was shown by Bhargav et al (2008) in studies on tiger beetles of Shivalik in Himachal Pradesh in north western India.…”

“…Similar observations were made also in other areas of the Mediterranean region, as well as in some other regions of the world. For example, of 19 tiger beetle species and subspecies noted in the Balkans, only two – Calomera littoralis nemoralis and Calomera aulica aulica – were recorded respectively from four and three different habitat types (Jaskuła 2011). In Australia, among 29 studied species only two ( Myriochila mastersi and Myriochila semicincta ) were found as occurring in several habitat types (Freitag 1979).…”

“…All the statistical analyses used in this paper follow my previous work on tiger beetles occurring in the Mediterranean region (Jaskuła 2011) to enable proper comparison. The tiger beetle species richness and distribution of taxa were analyzed based on squares of 1° longitude and latitude.…”

“…Many recent studies from different continents show that most cicindelid taxa have very narrow habitat specialization and can be found only in one or at most in few very similar types of macrohabitats. As a consequence, tiger beetles have become a very important global flagship group for beetle and insect conservation, often used as biological indicators for determining both regional and global patterns of biodiversity (Knisley and Hill 1992; Pearson and Cassola 1992, 2005; Kitching 1996; Carroll and Pearson 1998a, 1998b; Andriamampianina et al 2000; Pearson and Vogler 2001; Arndt et al 2005; Jaskuła 2011). Moreover, as both adults and larvae of cicindelid beetles are predators that prey on different small invertebrates, they can be used for biological control of pests causing important economic destruction (Rodriquez et al 1988).…”

“…The paper is the second part of wider studies concerning biodiversity and zoogeography of tiger beetle fauna of the Mediterranean region (Jaskuła 2011). Its aim is to summarize the knowledge on diversity of tiger beetles in the Maghreb region with particular emphasis on the group diversity, distribution, zoogeographical composition as well as the macrohabitat preferences of cicindelid taxa.…”