Notonecta sp.

Notonecta sp. [material examined]

Notonecta glauca Linnaeus View in CoL : Giglio-Tos (1894: 10), “ Beirut ” (partim); “Cisterna presso Teraya”; “[...] presso Brak-Ain Haur a 1800 m. sul Libano ”. Misidentifications (suspected).

Material examined. Published records: “ Beirut ”, [ 11.VII.1893], [ E. Festa leg.], [ E. Giglio-Tos det.] as Notonecta glauca (Lin.) , F. Cianferoni revid., 2 V, 1 IV instar nymphs, MRSN ; “Teraya”, [1893], [ E. Festa leg.], [ E. Giglio-Tos det.] as Notonecta glauca (Lin.) , F. Cianferoni revid., 1 IV instar nymph, MRSN ; “Brak”, [1893], [ E. Festa leg.], [ E. Giglio-Tos det.] as Notonecta glauca (Lin.) , F. Cianferoni revid., 1 V, 3 IV, 1 III instar nymphs, MRSN.

Survey material: Basin of Aouali: Aouali at jisr (= bridge) Bisri, 30.VII.1979, 1 V instar nymph, MLUB ; Nabaa Aazibi , 10.VI.1979, 1 ≤ IV instar nymph, MLUB ; Nabaa Abou Kharma , 3.VI.1979, 2 IV, 2 V instar nymphs, MLUB ; Nabaa Joun ( Es Saraouniyé), 20.VIII.1979, 1 ≤ III instar nymph, MLUB; idem, 1 IV instar nymph, MLUB ; Nabaa Mourched , 25.VII.1979, 1 V instar nymph, MLUB . Basin of Damour : Nabaa el Safa, 31.V.1980, 1 V instar nymph, MLUB ; idem, 22.VIII.1080, 1 V instar nymph, MLUB . Basin of El Bared : El Bared at mouth, 6.V.1996, 1 V, 1 IV instar nymphs, MLUB . Basin of El Beirut: Beirut below spring Daiychouniyé, 1.VII.2006, 1 ≤ II instar nymph, MLUB . Basin of Litani : Nabaa el Hjaïr, 2.VI.2005, 1 ≤ III, MLUB ; Kab-Elias , 10.X.1991, 1 V instar nymph, MLUB . Basin of Orontes : El Jammâssia at Marjhine, 13.VIII.2002, 1 IV instar nymph, MLUB . Basin of Sayniq : Ouadi El Leimoun at bridge, 15.VI.2008, 1 IV instar nymph, MLUB . Basin of Zahrani : El Tassé, 8.V.2004, 6 ≤ IV, 4 ≤ III instar nymphs, MLUB.

Remarks. The old records by Giglio-Tos (1894) under N. glauca are very likely misidentifications with the previous species (of which two out of three had not yet been described at that time).

The records of N. glauca in the southern regions of Palaearctic should be always verified, since this taxon appears to be less thermophilic than the other congeneric species and its presence on the basis of literature records has often been excluded from Mediterranean areas, often mistaking it for pale forms of N. meridionalis (see Cianferoni et al. 2013; Cianferoni 2019). Its occurrence in Lebanon and neighboring countries has already been questioned (and excluded) by Nieser & Moubayed (1986). In any case, the presence of this taxon especially in mountain areas cannot be totally rejected until the real distribution of N. glauca has yet to be defined. However, it did not emerge from the study of the copious Lebanese material (more than 100 specimens of Notonecta from all the country examined in this study) and therefore appears unlikely. Therefore, the presence of N. glauca Linnaeus, 1758 is here excluded from Lebanon pending future research.

Giglio-Tos’ locality “Cisterna presso [= tank near] Teraya” possibly refers to the village called Teraya (or Taraya) in the Bekaa ( Inland province ; also spelled Beka or Beqa) .

Unfortunately, there are still no detailed and exhaustive studies on immature stages of Notonecta from the Mediterranean area. Therefore, isolated nymphs cannot be reliably identified.