Bitoma siccana (Pascoe, 1863)

Bitoma siccana (Pascoe, 1863) ( Zopheridae )

( Fig. 1A)

France

– Corsica, Bastia, in the harbour, 42.70509°, 9.454747°, 02.X.2023, Lindgren funnel trap baited with a multipheromone blend of cerambycids implemented with plant volatiles, 1 ex., INRAE-URZF leg. ( LNEF-ONF). – Calvados, Blainville-sur-Orne, 18.IV.2024, 4 ex., Iroko log from the Democratic Republic of Congo, FREDON Normandie leg. ( ANSES). There are the third and fourth reports in France and only the second in Corsica, where the species is perhaps naturalized, having been collected in 2023 in the fungus Inonotus dryadeus in a cork grove in Zonza , Sainte- Lucie-de-Porto-Vecchio (Vincent et al., 2023) and having also been found in southern Sardinia under the bark of Eucalyptus camaldulensis (Cillo & Bazzato, 2011) .

Status in France. – Possibly established in Corsica; only intercepted in mainland France.

Geographical distribution. – Native to the tropical areas of the Old World, this species occupies a large part of Asia and the Oriental, Australian and Afrotropical regions. It is also reported from Algeria, Egypt, and Yemen, and has even been introduced to the United States, Central America and some Caribbean islands (Dajoz, 1977; Mifsud et al., 2020; Schuh, 2020). Hence, we can now consider it as a cosmopolitan. In Europe, it was only known from the ports of Venice ( Italy) and La Rochelle ( France), Corsica, Sardinia and Malta, as well as the extreme south of Spain, between Almería and Málaga ( Mifsud et al., 2020; Vincent et al., 2023).

Remarks. – The species is found under the bark of dead trees and in fungi where it would be predatory. It does not present any economic risks but a competition with native saproxylophagous relatives may occur.