Neoisocerus ferrugineus (Fabricius, 1798)

Neoisocerus ferrugineus (Fabricius, 1798) (= purpurascens Herbst, 1799) ( Tenebrionidae )

( Fig. 3D)

France

– Gironde, Lacanau, Lacanau-Océan, 45.00703°, -1.20114°, 22.VI. 2023, under a piece of wood in coastal dunes, 1 ex., Sylvain Bonifait leg. ( FS). First report of this species in France .

Status in France. – Only intercepted.

Geographical distribution. – Atlantic coastline of Spain and Portugal, from the strait of Gibraltar to Galicia (Español, 1956; Novoa et al., 2009) and Mediterranean coastline of Morocco, between Tangier and Melilla ( Kocher, 1958).

Remarks. – The single individual was found dead under a piece of wood, in coastal dunes managed by protection and cleaning interventions, in a habitat which coincides with that of this strictly psammo-halophilous species. Indeed, it is mainly found on the first dunes and the tops of the beaches, and not behind the dunes ( Leo & Fancello, 2019). One of the authors (FS) also observed it several times, at night, in the coastal dunes with Ammophila arenaria of southern Portugal, moving on the sand in search of plant remnants on which it feeds. The individual observed at Lacanau is either the result of an accidental introduction, e.g. by tourists, of which there are many in this seaside resort, by horticultural or ecological engineering plantations, or a shipwreck coming from Galicia, for example, and transported by sea currents. It would be interesting to check in the future whether this species could not settle locally on a portion of the Gironde coastline.