Litargus (Alitargus) balteatus LeConte, 1856

Litargus (Alitargus) balteatus LeConte, 1856

Materials examined. Constanța County, “Dunele Marine de la Agigea” Nature Reserve , 44.0876°N / 28.6422°E, 13– 23.VIII.2022, malaise trap, Alexandru-Mihai Pintilioaie leg. (1 specimen), AMPC GoogleMaps ; Constanța County, Dumbrăveni (near), 43.9355°N / 27.9952°E, 16.IX.2022, pasture—at light, Cosmin-Ovidiu Manci leg. (1 specimen), COMC GoogleMaps .

Collecting conditions. One specimen was caught in a Malaise trap that was set up in the “Dunele Marine de la Agigea” Nature Reserve in the proximity of Constanța harbor. The trap was close to a line of trees, where fruiting bodies of Laetiporus sulphureus (Bull.) Murrill ( Polyporaceae ) can be found, which is one of the food sources in the wild for this species ( Jäch 1986). The specimen from Dumbrăveni was found at the light, in an area intensively grazed just at the edge of Dumbrăveni forest ( Fig. 1C View FIGURE 1 .)

Distribution. Species of Nearctic origin ( Bousquet 1990), now cosmopolitan and in Europe it is currently recorded from Austria, Armenia, Belgium, Cyprus, Czech Republic, England, France, Germany, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and Ukraine ( Nikitsky 2020; Háva 2022). Romania is a new country record.

Notes. In the Palaearctic region, Mycetophagini Leach, 1815 contains 3 different genera: Eulagius Motschulsky, 1845 (with 3 species present in Europe), Litargops Reitter, 1880 (with no European species) and Litargus Erichson, 1846 (with 4 species present in Europe, of which 2 are also present in Romania: Litargus (A.) balteatus and Litargus (Litargus) connexus Geoffroy, 1785 ( Háva 2022; this paper). Litargus (A.) balteatus can be differentiated immediately from the only Litargus species recorded in Romania, L. (L.) connexus , on the basis of the shape of the antennae: the last antennal segment is approximately twice as wide and truncated apically in L. (A.) balteatus , and the last antennal segment is approximately as long as wide and not truncated apically in L. (L.) connexus ( Jäch 1986) .

Notably, in the World Catalog of Mycetophagidae ( Coleoptera : Tenebrionoidea) ( Háva 2022), one of the synonym names of the species was wrongly spelled, namely, Litargus inflatus LeConte, 1856: 14 . The correct spelling should be Litargus infulatus LeConte, 1856: 14 , as stated in the Catalog of Palaearctic Coleoptera ( Iwan et al. 2020) .

In Europe, it was recorded more than 100 years ago, when 14 specimens, misidentified as Litargus (Litargosomus) coloratus Rosenhauer, 1856 , were collected in 1907 in the UK from an unidentified fungus ( Welch 2009). The most likely way of introduction of this species in Europe and other continents was by transporting commodities from North America to different harbors around the world. This hypothesis is also supported by reports of L. balteatus specimens on a Canadian cargo ship carrying wheat ( Aitken 1975). In Romania, one of the specimens was collected in the proximity of Constanța harbor, suggesting international transport as a possible pathway of introduction in Romania.

Litargus balteatus is a subcortical species that can be found under the bark of deciduous trees ( Bryan & Anderson 2011; Troukens 2018), where it specializes in feeding on different types of fungi that grow on decaying vegetal material ( Denux & Zagatti 2010; Bryan & Anderson 2011). It has also been found on the fruiting bodies of Laetiporus sulphureus ( Jäch 1986; Mifsud & Jelínek 2012), Polyporus squamosus ( Welch 2009) and decaying vegetation ( Zimmerman 1938; Kuschel 1990; Mifsud & Jelínek 2012). There are also reports of the species being found in animal carcasses ( Kuschel 1990; Bryan & Anderson 2011) and bird nests ( Kuschel 1990). It is attracted to artificial light and is likely a nocturnal species ( Zimmerman 1938; Troukens 2018). In North America , the species was reported occasionally from different places used to store and process different kinds of grains, such as mills, warehouses and dwellings ( Bousquet 1990).

The species is occasionally associated with different types of cereals, but it can be found only on grains stored under suboptimal conditions that favor the growth of molds ( Bryan & Anderson 2011).