Mycetochara ( Ernocharis ) excelsa Reitter, 1884

Mycetochara ( Ernocharis) excelsa Reitter, 1884

( Fig. 4 View FIGURE 4 )

Material. 2♂, 6♀♀ ( PCMN, ZIN, ZMSFU), Russia, Dagestan, Magaramkent Distr., lower reaches of Samur River, “Samur forest” National park, 12–14.v.2008 (M. V. and S.V. Nabozhenko, G.V. Chesnokov) .

Distribution. This species inhabits relict Hyrcanian forests fragmentarily represented in the Eastern Caspian region ( Russia, Southern Dagestan; Azervaijan: Ismailli State Reserve) and Southern Caspian region ( Azerbaijan, Iran: Talysh and North Alborz). Novák (2020a) also recorded this species for Georgia, which requires verification, because Hyrcanian forests are absent in Georgia. The record for the Northwestern Caucasus (Adygea: Azishtau) in Nabozhenko et al. (2010) is erroneous and belongs to the immature specimen of M. zolotareffi .

Note. Novák (2022) excluded M. excelsa from the Russian faunistic list (assuming that it was confused with the species M. strejceki ). However, the south of Russia is an extremely diverse territory and on the Russian Caucasus both subtropical Colchian forests in the western part and fragments of relict Hyrcanian forests in the eastern part are present. Mycetochara strejceki occurs in western Colchian forests, while M. excelsa is one of the numerous and most common species in the Hyrcanian forests of the south of Dagestan ( Russia).

Bionomics. Adults were collected at night on trunks of Quercus pedunculiflora K. Koch in Samur forest , Dagestan .