ACTA ENTOMOLOGICA SLOVENICA LJUBLJANA, JUNIJ 2015 Vol. 23, St. 1: 21-28 CONTRIBUTION TO THE KNOWLEDGE OF GREEN LACEWINGS OF CROATIA (INSECTA: NEUROPTERIDA: CHRYSOPIDAE) Dominique Thierry1, Michel Canard2 '12 rue Martin-Luther-King, F-49000 Angers, France, e-mail: 2 47 chemin Flou-de-Rious, F-31400 Toulouse, France, e-mail: Abstract - We collected green lacewings in western Croatia by sweeping trees and edges, both at sea level and in more or less mountainous districts. Amongst the 11 occurring identified species, four are new to the Croatian fauna: Nineta carinthiaca (Hölzel, 1965) registered near the Lokve Lake, in the county of Gorski Kotar, Pseudomallada ventralis (Curtis, 1834) collected near Jezerce in the Plitvice National Park, Ps. inornatus (Navas, 1901) near Breze in Gorski Kotar and Ps. venustus (Hölzel, 1974) near Pirovac and Vrsine on the Dalmatian coast. Key woRDs: Lacewings, Nineta carinthiaca, Pseudomallada inornatus, Ps ventralis, Ps. venustus, fauna of Croatia. Izvleček - PRISPEVEK K POZNAVANJU TENČIČARIC HRVAŠKE (INSECTA: NEUROPTERIDA: CHRYSOPIDAE). Na območju zahodne Hrvaške smo zbirali tenčičarice z drevja in robov, v obmorskih in gorskih predelih. Določili smo 11 vrst, od katerih so štiri nove za favno Hrvaške: Nineta carinthiaca (Hölzel, 1965) iz okolice jezera Lokve v Gorskem Kotarju, Pseudomallada ventralis (Curtis, 1834) iz bližine Jezerca v Narodnem parku Plitvice, Ps. inornatus (Navas, 1901) iz Breze v Gorskem Kotarju in Ps. venustus (Hölzel, 1974) blizu Pirovca in Vrsine na dalmatinski obali. Ključne besede: tenčičarice, Nineta carinthiaca, Pseudomallada inornatus, Ps ventralis, Ps. venustus, favna Hrvaške. Introduction Samples of green lacewings were collected by the senior author in several places of western Croatia, near the sea shore and in more or less mountainous regions during the summers 1989 and 2008. Eleven species were registered not to mention the constituting species of the Chrysoperla carnea (stephens, 1836) complex, i.e. Ch. carnea sensu stricto, Ch. affinis (stephens, 1836), Ch. pallida Henry et al., 2002, Ch. agilis henry et al., 2003, for want of a neuropterists' consensus in the matter. Four species are new to the fauna of Croatia (see below). It bears so to 24 the number of green lacewings occurring in Croatia as previously mentioned by DEVETAK (1992a,c) and AsPÖCK et al. (2001). Method and sites The insects were caught by hand net sweeping in the a^ernoon, on July 1989 and August 2008. Bushes and the canopy of edges of wooded places were sampled. All collected specimens were kept in alcohol and stored in the collection of D. THIERRY. Ten places were investigated (Table I and Figure 1): - 4 are on the sea shore: Vrsar (# 1) and Pula (# 2) in Istria, Pirovac (# 3) and Vrsine (# 4) on the Dalmatian coast ; - 3 in hilly areas, at an altitude below 400 m asl: Rijeka (# 5), Bosanci (# 6), a more northern place and Slavonski-Brod (# 7) in the north-eastern part of the country, - 3 others in various montane sites: near the Lokve lake (# 8) and Breze (# 9), and in the vicinity of Jezerce (# 10) in the Plitvice National Park. Faunistical results and comments The total sample contains 201 specimens of green lacewings, distributed in the various biotopes as registered in the Table II. It may be noted the lack of Chrysopa spp. and subsequently the prevalence of Chrysoperla carnea s.l. (42 % of the total collection) together with that of Pseudomallada spp., mainly Ps. prasinus (Burmeister, 1839) which is the dominant green lacewing (45 %). Amongst the other Pseudomallada, three species are new to the Croatian fauna. Pseudomallada inornatus (Navas, 1901) is considered by the authors as uncommon, so that the relative observations are rare also. Its distribution was first qualified polycentric. However, taking in account various data, it occurs continuously from West to East in the terminal part of the Iberic Peninsula: at Lugo (MONSERRAT, 1985) up to Ukraine and Crimea, cited by ZAKHARENKO & KRIVOKHATSKY (1993), and from North to South, the German Rhine valley (TRÖGER, 1990) and north-eastern France, in Moselle (CANARD & JACQUEMIN, 2013) up to southern Italy and Sicily (IORI et al., 1995) ; but it never reaches the trans-Mediterranean countries. Pseudomallada inornatus is new to Croatian neuropterological fauna, altough already registered very closely, at Osp (near Koper/Capodistria) in the Fig. 1 - Collection places in Croatia. Slovenian part of the Istrian peninsula (DEVETAK, 1998 and in lit.) but without any more circumstantial details and near the slovenian border, in Podčetrtek (Lower styria) (DEVETAK, 1984). Pseudomallada ventralis (Curtis, 1834) was collected in the mountainous biotopes of Jezerce (# 10) on isolated trees in a moist dale. its occurrence does not show any surprise, excepted the absence of citation up to the present. Pseudomallada ventralis is common everywhere in europe, from the scandinavian region to the iberian Peninsula and eastwards to Romania and Ukraine. it is known in the neighbouring countries: slovenia, Hungary, serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina (aspöck et al., 2001). Pseudomallada venustus (Hölzel, 1974) was captured in the vicinity of Pirovac (# 3) on an isolated plum-tree, and at Vrsine (# 4), near orchards of olive- and fig-trees. This green lacewing is known as a xerothermophilous species, discreet, never abundant in hand nets of neuropterists. initially described from the south-eastern France (alpes-Maritimes), it has a north Mediterranean distribution (TILLIER, 2008) including continental italy: Liguria and Calabria (IoRI et al. 1995), mainland of Greece: Peloponesus, Dytiki Ellas and attiki (CANARD, 2001), island of Crete, Cyprus (canard, 2007), Corsica (LETARDI et al., 2008), Montecristo (HÖLZEL, 1974), Pantelleria in the sicily Canal (PANTALEoNI & lo valvo, 1995) and sicily (NICoLI ALDINI et al., 2012) (Figure 2) . however, it may be more frequent than appearing at now due to a possible confusion with the closely related Ps. venosus (Rambur, 1842). The occurrence of Ps. venustus on the Dalmatian coast is not surprising with respect to its Mediterranean distribution. Table I - Characters of the collection places in Croatia. # Location Latitude Longitude County Biotope Altitude Comments 1 Vrsar 45° 09' N 13° 36' E Istria sea shore on bushes 2 Pula 44° 52' N 13° 50' E Istria oaks and pine trees canopy sea shore . . . 0-20. . . 3 Pirovac 43° 49' N 15° 40' E Šibenik-Knin peri-urban area on an isolated plum tree 4 Vrsine 43° 31' N 31° 16' E Split-Dalmatia orchard olive and fig trees 5 Rijeka 45° 19' N 14° 26' E Primorje-Gorski Kotar dry calcareous table-land 300 canopy hilly area 6 Bosanci 45° 26' N 15° 16' E Karlovačka scattered trees on meadow 190 canopy 7 Slavonski-Brod 45° 16' N 18° 01' E Brod-Posavina sub-urban area 80 canopy 8 Lokve 45° 21' N 14° 45' E Primorje-Gorski Kotar edge of coniferous and deciduous wood 700 canopy montainous 9 Breze 45° 11' N 14° 52' E Primorje-Gorski Kotar edge of coniferous wood 800 canopy area 10 Plitvice 44° 50' N 15° 39' E Lika-Senj wet wooded dale 600 canopy Lakes & Karlovac grassy tableland 650 on an isolated lime tree Nineta carinthiaca (Hölzel, 1965) was caught near the Lake of Lokve, in the midst of the Velika Kapela massif, on the slope of a saddle for the road M 12, at more than 500 m up. Collections were done within the tree canopy vegetation on an open glade in a zone covered by both deciduous and coniferous trees. Amongst the seven Nineta Navas, 1912 known in Europe, only N. flava (Scopoli, 1763) was already registered in Croatia. Nineta carinthiaca is thus new to the fauna Table II - Green lacewing species and numbers of specimens collected in Croatia. Sites of capture 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Total Italochrysa italica (Rossi, 1790) 1 1 1 3 Nineta carinthiaca (Hölzel, 1965) 2 2 Pseudomallada flavifrons (Brauer,1850) 3 2 5 Pseudomallada inornatus (Navas, 1901) 1 1 Pseudomallada prasinus (Burmeister, 1839) 19 3 6 8 4 52 92 Pseudomallada zelleri (Schneider, 1851) 1 1 Pseudomallada ventralis (Curtis, 1834) 7 7 Pseudomallada venustus (Hölzel,1974) 1 1 2 Pseudomallada clathratus (Schjneider, 1845) 1 1 Cunctochrysa albolineata (Killington, 1935) 2 2 Chrysoperla lucasina (Lacroix, 1912) 5 7 9 12 3 3 4 3 6 52 Chrysoperla carnea (Stephens, 1836) s.l. 4 11 1 3 5 9 33 Total 5 34 24 15 11 14 13 2 4 79 201 of the country. It is a green lacewing everywhere considered rare because most o^en absent or casual in samples, considered endangered as in slovenia (DEVETAK, 1992b). it is of great size: its forewing measures 20 to 26 mm, the body is about 16-17 mm long. it is associated with Fagus, Quercus and other deciduous trees, on-wings in July and august, its life cycle is univoltine (ZELENY, 1984) overwintering probably as prepupae within the cocoon. it is easily separated from the other european Nineta species by means of the following characters: 1) from vittata: scape bulbous, more or less square, slightly longer than broad (vs cylindrical, narrow, at least twice longer than wide) - axial extension of sternite 9 strongly curved forwards with a large brush (vs upturned or slightly curved, with small brush) 2) from flava, guadarramensis and principiae: anterior margin of the forewing straight or convex (vs concave, sinuous) - cross veins of the costal space and gradates ± black (vs green) 3) from pallida: Pseudomedian vein green (vs black) - thorax green with a yellow axial stripe (vs lateral brown reddish marks) - associated with deciduous trees (vs coniferous) 4) from inpunctata: longitudinal veins green (vs black) - internal gradates' line parallel to Rs (vs converging with) Nineta carinthiaca was first found in Carinthia, south Austria, in 1965. It was collected later successively in Anatolia (HÖLZEL, 1973), in Slovenia (SAURE, 1989), in the north eastern part of Hungary near the Ukrainian and Romanian frontier lines (SZIRAKI, 1990 and in lit.), in the south eastern Switzerland (DUELLI et al., 2006), at in farthest north east of Italy (LETARDI et al., 2010), in the north eastern Czech Republic (Rymarov) by S. KREJCIK (web ref., 2011), and now in Croatia (Fig. 2). The occurrence of Nineta carinthiaca in Croatia is not surprising if we consider its distribution as above mentioned, i.e. mainly in Central Europe and in the Anatolian Fig. 2 - Distribution of Nineta carinthiaca (round black spots) and Pseudomallada venustus (square red spots) in Europe. district closest to europe. 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