New records of diving beetles and corrections updating the catalogue of Palearctic Dytiscidae (Coleoptera)

Abstract

New data on the distribution of 40 species of Dytiscidae are provided. Most of these records are from the Balkan Peninsula (Bulgaria, Greece, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Romania), northern Africa (Algeria and Libya), the Caucasus Region (Armenia, Azerbaijan and the South European Territory of Russia), Central Asia (Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan) and the Himalaya Region (Bhutan, northern India and Nepal). Two species, Hygrotus rufus (Clark, 1863) and Copelatus bacchusi Wewalka, 1981, known previously only from the Palearctic, are reported for the first time from the Oriental Region. Eight species are reported for the first time from Bhutan. Seven of these species, including three species new for the Palearctic Region, were provided by the insect dealer Jingke Li, but the provenance of the specimens is regarded as questionable. The necessity of publishing new records before accepting them for catalogues, e.g., the Catalogue of Palearctic Dytiscidae, is emphasised. Finally, previously published records of four incorrectly identified species/subspecies are corrected.

Keywords:

• Coleoptera
• Dytiscidae
• new records
• distribution
• Palearctic Region
• Oriental Region

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to all museum curators and other colleagues, who provided material for the present study. We are obliged to Anders Nilsson (Mullsjö, Sweden) for information about the source of records in the first version of the Palaearctic Catalogue, and to Manfred A. Jäch (NHMW) for information about the Bhutan material of Jingke Li and for critical comments on the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The work of J. Hájek was supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic (DKRVO 2019-2023/5.I.b, National Museum, 00023272).